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234 an abandoned woman!" But they merely pursed their lips and did not seem particularly astonished by the fearful allusions into which he clumsily launched. "I suppose you are talking about Jadassohn?" Magda asked finally, with the utmost calm. Diederich started. So they were initiated and were in connivance; all the women probably. Guste Daimchen, too! She had once begun about it. He had to wipe the perspiration from his brow. Magda said: "If you by any chance had serious intentions with Käthchen, you never questioned us." At this Diederich, to keep himself in countenance, banged the table so that they all screamed. He forbade such insinuations, he shouted. He hoped that there were still a few decent girls left. Frau Hessling pleaded, trembling: "You have only to look at your own sisters, my dear son." And Diederich really looked at them and glared. For the first time he thought, not without fear, of what these female creatures, who were his sisters, might have been up to during their lives. &hellip; "Confound it all," he decided, pulling himself up stiffly, "the reins will simply have to be held more tightly over you. When I marry, my wife will know the reason why!" As the girls smiled at one another, he gave a start, for he remembered Guste Daimchen; were they thinking also of Guste when they smiled? He could trust nobody. He could see Guste in front of him, with her blonde white hair and plump, rosy cheeks. Her fleshy lips were parted and she was sticking out her tongue at him. That was what Käthchen Zillich had done a while back, when she shouted, "Good-bye, sheep!" And Guste, who was very similar to her in type, would have looked just like that, if she were half drunk and had her tongue out!

Magda was just saying: "Käthchen is awfully silly, but it is understandable when you have waited so long for a man and none comes." Emma at once interposed. "To whom do you refer, please? If Kathchen had been content with any Kienast she would also not have to wait any more."