“Yet you befriend him?”
“Befriend? That is not the word. I spend my mother’s money on him for her sake. One saves him at least from public disgrace. But he games away all he gets, and continues to live in the way you know.”
“I do not think you should waste your substance on him. Keep it for yourself, and return to the world.”
“On sufferance, as a declasée? Never!”
“As my wife. I have said so many times. I never change, Olga.”
She held out her hand to him with a noble and grateful gesture.
“You are always faithful. You alone. I thank you. But you must leave me to my fate, dear Ernst. It is not in your power to change it.”
“It would be in my power if you gave me the mandate.”
“But it is that which I cannot do; which I shall never do.”
“Because you still love the man who repudiated and disgraced you!”