LEONARD (reads it with great seriousness).
It is a perfectly sensible letter! How can a man who has public money in trust marry into a family to which [he swallows a word]—to which your brother belongs?
CLARA.
Leonard!
LEONARD.
But perhaps the whole town is mistaken! Your brother is not in prison?
He never was in prison? You are not the sister of a—of your brother?
CLARA.
Leonard, I am my father's daughter! Not as the sister of an accused, innocent man, who has been set free—for my brother is at liberty—not as a girl who trembles before undeserved disgrace, for [in a low voice] I tremble still more before you, only as the daughter of the old man who gave me life, do I stand here!
LEONARD.
And you wish?—