CLARA (to herself).
I feel as if I had suddenly grown to be a thousand years old, and time were standing still with me. I can go neither backwards nor forwards! Oh, all this brazen sunshine and cheerfulness round about me!
SECRETARY.
You do not answer me. To be sure, I forgot—you are engaged. Oh, girl! Why did you do that to me? And yet have I any right to complain? She is like all that is dear and good, and all that is dear and good should have made me think of her. And yet to me she was for years as if she no longer existed in the world! For that reason she—If it only were a fellow before whom one had to cast down one's eyes! But this Leonard—
CLARA (suddenly, when she hears the name).
I must go to him. That is just it—I am no longer the sister of a thief!—Oh, God! what shall I do? Leonard will, he must! He needs only not to be a fiend! Everything will be as it used to be [Shudders]—as it used to be!
[To the SECRETARY.]
Do not be offended, Frederick!—Why are my legs so heavy all of a sudden?
SECRETARY.
You will—