SCHWARTZE.
Pastor?
HEFFTERDINGT.
It is true.
SCHWARTZE.
[_Standing up_.] Magdalene is no longer my child.
FRANZISKA.
Ah, just wait. If you listen, you"ll look at it in quite another light.
Such a child you will welcome with open arms.
SCHWARTZE.
Magdalene is no longer my child.
HEFFTERDINGT.
But you may at least hear the circ.u.mstances.
SCHWARTZE.
[_Dazed_.] Yes, I suppose so.
FRANZISKA.
[_At a sign from_ Heffterdingt.] Well, the great dining-hall was crammed. They were almost all strangers. Then I saw his Excellency coming down the room. And on his arm was a lady--
MRS. SCHWARTZE.
On his Excellency"s arm?
FRANZISKA.
With dark hair, and very proud and tall--and around her a crowd of men just like the circle about royalty--and chatting and laughing. And any one to whom she spoke seemed as happy as if it were the Princess. And she wore half a dozen orders, and an orange band with a medal about her neck. I was wondering what royal personage it could be--when she turned half around--and--I knew Magda"s eyes!
SCHWARTZE.
Impossible!
FRANZISKA.
That is what I saw!
HEFFTERDINGT.
My dear Colonel, it is true.
SCHWARTZE.
If she-- [_Clasping his hands_.] At least she has not fallen! She has not fallen! Father in Heaven, Thou hast kept her safely!
MRS. SCHWARTZE.
And what is she, to have such honor--
HEFFTERDINGT.
She has become a great singer, and calls herself, in Italian, Maddalene dall" Orto.
MRS. SCHWARTZE.
Listen, listen, Leopold, the famous singer of whom the papers are so full is our child!
SCHWARTZE.
Magda is no longer my child.
HEFFTERDINGT.
Is that your fixed resolve?
FRANZISKA.
What sort of a heart have you? You ought to imitate me. She offended me as only she could,--the little wretch! That is, then she was a little wretch. But now--well, she did not look at me; but if she had--
MRS. SCHWARTZE.
Leopold, she was on his Excellency"s arm!
SCHWARTZE.
I tell you, and you,--and you, too, Pastor,--that I would rather have seen her lying in rags and tatters at my feet and begging for forgiveness. For then I should have known that she was still, at heart, my child. But why has she come back here? The world was large enough for her triumph. Why should she rob this humble provincial nest of ours? I know why. To show her miserable father how far one can rise in the world by treading filial duty into the dust,--that is her intention. Pride and arrogance speak in her, and nothing else.
HEFFTERDINGT.
My dear Colonel, I might ask, what speaks in you? A father"s love? You could make no pretence to that. Your rights? I think rather it would be your right to rejoice in the good fortune of your child. Offended custom? I don"t know-- Your daughter has done so much through her own strength that even offended custom might at least condone it. It appears to me that pride and arrogance speak in you--and nothing else.
SCHWARTZE.
[_Angrily_.] Pastor!
HEFFTERDINGT.