in vain. And now that you are to be my son-in-law, I will tell you where
the thousand thalers are!

LEONARD (_aside_).

So they are gone then! Well, I shall not have to go out of my way to
please the old werewolf, even if he is my father-in-law!

ANTONY.

Things went hard with me in my early years. I was no more of a bristly
hedgehog than you when I came into the world, but I have gradually grown
to be one. At first all the quills in my case pointed inward, and people
found pleasure in pricking and pinching my soft smooth skin, and were
amused to see me flinch when the points penetrated into my very heart
and bowels. But the thing did not appeal to me; I turned my skin inside
out and then the quills pricked their fingers and I had peace.

LEONARD (_to himself_).

Safe from the very devil, methinks!

ANTONY.

My father, by not allowing himself any rest day or night, worked himself
to death in his thirtieth year, and my mother nourished me as well as
she could with her spinning. I grew up without learning anything. When I
became larger and was still unable to earn any money, I would gladly
have disaccustomed myself to eating; but when now and then at noon I
would pretend to be sick and push back my plate, what did it mean? It