LAND.
I have no fear on that account: I merely put you in mind. Do you see,
I do not wish to have it again at all. I can guess pretty well how she
knew the ring, and why it was so like her own. It is best in her
hands. I do not want it any more; and I can put them down--the hundred
pistoles which I advanced for it, to the lady's bill. Will not that
do, my pretty maid?

SCENE IV.
Paul Werner, Landlord, Franziska

WER.
There he is!

FRAN.
A hundred pistoles? I thought it was only eighty.

LAND.
True, only ninety, only ninety. I will do so, my pretty maid, I will
do so.

FRAN.
All that will come right, Mr. Landlord.

WER. (coming from behind, and tapping Franziska on the shoulder).
Little woman--Little woman.

FRAN. (frightened).
Oh! dear!

WER.
Don't be alarmed! I see you are pretty, and a stranger, too. And
strangers who are pretty must be warned. Little woman! little woman! I
advise you to beware of that fellow!
(Pointing to the Landlord).

LAND.
Ah! What an unexpected pleasure! Herr Werner! Welcome, welcome! Yes,
you are just the same jovial, joking, honest Werner! So you are to
beware of me, my pretty maid. Ha! ha! ha!

WER.
Keep out of his way everywhere!

LAND.
My way? Am I such a dangerous man? Ha! ha! ha! Hear him, my pretty
maid! A good joke, isn't it?

WER.
People like him always call it a joke, if one tells them the truth.

LAND.
The truth. Ha! ha! ha! Better and better, my pretty maid, isn't it? He
knows how to joke! I dangerous? I? Twenty years ago there might have
been something in it. Yes, yes, my pretty maid, then I was a dangerous
man: many a one knew it; but now!!!!!

WER.
Oh! the old fool!

LAND.
There it is! When we get old, danger is at an end! It will be so with
you too, Herr Werner!

WER.
You utter old fool!--Little woman, you will give me credit for enough
common sense not to speak of danger from him. That one devil has left
him, but seven others have entered into him.

LAND.
Oh! hear him! How cleverly he can turn things about. Joke upon joke,
and always something new! Ah! he is an excellent man, Paul Werner is.
(To Franziska, as if whispering.)
A well-to-do man, and a bachelor still. He has a nice little freehold
three miles from here. He made prize-money in the war, and was a
sergeant to the Major. Yes, he is a real friend of the Major