Sidonia desired nothing better than to make common cause with the good, simple Dorothea—but for her own purposes. Therefore she answered, "Ay, truly; this matter of the open gates was a grievous sin and shame. What else were these giddy wantons thinking of but lovers and matrimony? She really blushed to see them yesterday."
Illa.—"True, true; that was just it. All about love and marriage was the talk for ever amongst them. It made her heart die within her to think what the young maidens were nowadays."
Hæc.—"Had she any instances to bring forward; what had they done?"
Illa.—"Alas! instances enough. Why, not long since, a nun had married with a clerk, and this last chaplain, David Grosskopf, had taken another nun to wife himself."
Hæc.—"Oh, she was ready to faint with horror."
Illa (sobbing, weeping, and falling upon Sidonia's neck).—"God be praised that she had found one righteous soul in this Sodom and Gomorrah. Now she would swear friendship to her for life and death! And had she a little drop of wine, just to pour on the haddock's liver? it tasted so much better stewed in wine! but she would go for some of her own. The liver must just get one turn on the fire, and then the butter and spices have to be added. She would teach her how to do it if she did not know, only let the old maid make up the fire."
Hæc.—"What was she talking about? Cooking was child's play to her; she had other things to cook than haddocks' livers."
Illa (weeping).—"Ah! let not her chaste sister be angry; she had meant it all in kindness."
Hæc.—"No doubt—but why did she call the convent a Sodom and Gomorrah? Did the nuns ever admit a lover into their cells?"
Illa (screaming with horror).—"No, no, fie! how could the chaste sister bring her lips to utter such words?"