Page:Poet Lore, volume 31, 1920.djvu/525

Rh me as if on wings, full of joy, as if in delirium, and would clasp me around the neck and exclaim: "Auntie, my darling auntie, I am going to be married!" ( hangs her head.) It is true then?

Lenka.—Yes.

Mrs. Rettig (Ardently, tenderly).—And this is the way you tell me?

Lenka.—I couldn't, and even now I did not come for that purpose.

Mrs. Rettig.—And why, my child?

Lenka.—Mr. Valenta has returned.

Mrs. Rettig.—I remember; the retainer at the castle, a good, handsome young fellow.

Lenka.—If he should come here, or if, madam, you could tell him—

Mrs. Rettig.—Should you like to speak with him?

Lenka.—I have spoken with him already.

Mrs. Rettig.—Yesterday in the park; I noticed you.

Lenka.—Only a few words, and he thinks that I acted as I did because—

Mrs. Rettig (After going to the door of the adjoining room and glancing in, closes the door again).—They are at work and chatting together. (Takes 's hand.) Come, Lenka, sit down here by me as you used to do, and speak, speak, my darling as if the mother whom you have lost were sitting here. (Sits down on the window seat.)

Lenka (Sits down by her and grasps her hand, which she kisses).—Ah, you are indeed a mother to me! (Lays her head on her bosom.)

Mrs. Rettig.—The retainer thinks that you—

Lenka (Raises her head suddenly).—That I have acted thus only to gain riches.

Mrs. Rettig.—Did anybody force you into it?

Lenka.—No, no one forced me; but I saw how my father and the whole family would be aided by it. And how he did sacrifice himself to us! Any one who saw what heavy cares he had, madam: the long illness of our deceased mother, and with such meager wages to support several children, how besides his office work he looked up some other means of earning more, how he used to write late into the night, how he denied himself everything, absolutely everything, and lived in poverty, only so that we might not suffer privation—and then when he fell ill, when after so long a sickness he lay weak as a fly, and when I thought of what