"There--that's quite enough!" suddenly said a voice behind them, that curdled the blood in Leuthold's veins. "I will teach you a daughter's duty!" And from the doorway of the adjoining room Bertha's stout figure made its appearance boldly advancing.
"Good God, my mother!" shrieked Gretchen, and she recoiled involuntarily.
"Gretel," said the woman, "are you afraid of your mother while you are on your knees to that villain?"
Leuthold stepped between her and his child. "Bertha," said he, "it seems to me my punishment is sufficient. Surely you need not avenge yourself by snatching from me my child's heart,--a heart that you never prized, and will never win to yourself. If there is a particle of maternal tenderness in your breast, spare, not me, but this innocent angel. Do not destroy the most precious possession of a youthful heart,--confidence in her father. Bertha, Bertha, you will harm the daughter more than the parent! Give heed to your maternal heart, which must throb more quickly at sight of this fair flower, and spare me a blow that would annihilate her."
Frau Bertha folded her arms, and looked upon Leuthold with exceeding disdain. "Oho! now it is your turn to beg. I am no longer rude, clumsy, and coarse as a brute, as I was when you drove me off because I was too awkward to help you to steal the inheritance."
"Bertha!" cried Leuthold, pointing to Gretchen, whose imploring eyes were turning from one parent to the other in increasing distress.
"Yes, yes, she shall hear it all! She shall know what a charming papa she has, and that you are not unjustly accused in the papers. Why should you stop at such a crime as that, when you would have beggared Ernestine as a child, persuading old Hartwich to make you his heir? There is nothing that you would not do. I can tell her that,--I, your wife, who lived with you for years. And your child shall curse you, instead of adoring you as a saint. No one can tell what a fine game you might have played, if you had once got off to America with such a pretty girl."
At these words Gretchen uttered a loud shriek.
Bertha pitilessly continued, "And just because I have maternal feeling enough to try to save my child, I will prevent your evil designs. You shall not carry the poor thing away with you to such a life as yours,--not while I live!"
"Bertha," cried Leuthold, forgetting all caution, "hush, or mischief will be done here!"