three listeners had strong nerves, but low speech was certainly an
impossibility.

"Let me explain the matter to you," said the forester appeasingly. "I
have told you already that this was an exceptional case."

"Marietta Volkmar is the grandchild of our good old doctor at Waldhofen.
His son died while still in the flower of youth. The young widow
followed her husband the very next year, and the poor little orphan came
to her grandfather. That was ten years ago, just after I had been
assigned to Fürstenstein. Doctor Volkmar became our family physician,
and his grandchild the playfellow of my children. As the school in
Waldhofen was a miserable affair, I begged the doctor to permit his
little one to come here and share the childrens' instruction. Then while
Toni was at boarding-school for two years, Marietta was in the city
pursuing her musical education, and, as a matter of course, their daily
intercourse ceased. Marietta, however, has always visited us regularly
during her vacations, when she came home to her grandfather, and I do
not see why I should forbid her doing so as long as she remains
respectable and honest."

Frau von Eschenhagen had listened to this reasonable explanation without
unbending in the least. She now said spitefully:

"Respectable and honest in a theatre! Every one knows well enough what
goes on in such iniquitous places; but you seem to take it as lightly as
does Dr. Volkmar, who for that matter looks honest and venerable enough
with his open face and long white hair. How he can send a soul
entrusted to his care, his own flesh and blood at that, on to certain
destruction, is beyond my comprehension."