"Indeed!" cried Stromminger, starting up. "Is that it? Thou won't marry him?"
"No, father, I don't like him."
"Indeed! and did I ask thee if thou liked him?"
"No, I tell it you plainly, unasked."
"And I tell thee too unasked that in four weeks thou'll marry Vincenz whether thou likes him or not. I've given him my word, and Stromminger never takes his word back. Now get thee gone."
"No, father," said the girl, "things can't be settled in that way. I'm no head of cattle to let myself be sold or promised as the master pleases. It seems to me I also have a word to say when it has to do with my marriage."
"No, that thou hasn't, for a child belongs to her father as much as a calf or a heifer, and must do what its father orders."
"Who says that, father?"
"Who says so? It's said in the Bible," and an ominous flush rose on Stromminger's face.
"It says in the Bible that we are to honour and love our parents, but not that we are to marry a man when it goes against us merely because our father orders it. See, father, if it could do you any good for me to marry Vincenz, if it could save you from death or from misery--I'd do it willingly, and even if I were to break my heart over it. But you're a rich man that need ask nothing of anyone; it must be all one to you whom I marry; and you give me to Vincenz out of pure spite, that I may not marry Joseph, whom I love, and who would certainly have loved me if he could have got to know me; and it's cruel of you, father, and it says nowhere in the Bible that a child should put up with that."