"Regine, I always thought you a most rational woman, but in this matter
you have no sense at all. The theatre and every one connected with it
has always been proscribed by you, and yet you know absolutely nothing
about it. It was no easy matter for the doctor to allow Marietta to go
on the stage. That I know, for we talked it over frequently. It is not
for us who sit in warm nests and can provide lavishly for our children,
to sit in judgment upon other parents who earn their daily food with
labor and bitter care. Volkmar, though seventy years of age, works day
and night, but his practice brings him in little, for this is a poor,
sparsely settled neighborhood, and after his death Marietta will have
nothing."

"Then he should have made a teacher or a companion of her; that is a
decent way to earn one's bread."

"God preserve me from bread so earned. No one knows how the poor thing
would be used and ill treated. If I had a child who was dearer to me
than life, whose fate it was to earn her own living, and I was told that
she would have a brilliant future, and put money in her purse if she
went on the stage, I would say 'go!' you may depend upon it."

This avowal seemed to take the ground from under Regine's feet. She
stood for a moment gazing at him with frightened face. Then she said,
solemnly:

"Moritz--it makes me shudder to hear you."

"Well, if it gives you pleasure to shudder, don't stop on my account.
But when Marietta comes as usual to Fürstenstein, I will not send her