How will you explain her mother's shame?"

"Ah!" Von Barwig glared at him in silence. "You will shield yourself
behind the mother, eh?" he asked.

"How will you explain her mother's shame?" again asked Stanton.

"I don't explain it! You talked her mother's name away--now talk it
back! You're a clever man with words. You'll find a way out of it,
Ahlmann."

Stanton was now almost beside himself with fear and anger.

"What can you do for the girl after you have disgraced her? Think what
I have done for her," pleaded Stanton. "She is honoured, respected,
cultured, refined, a lady of social distinction. Are you going to drag
her down to Houston Street, to the Bowery, to the Dime Museum?"

Von Barwig felt the force of this argument, and he knew there was no
reply to be made. His anger was gone--he was thoughtful now.

Stanton saw that he was gaining ground. "For her sake, Von Barwig," he
pleaded; "for her sake! Just think!"

Von Barwig interrupted him with a gesture, motioning him to silence.

"Look here, Ahlmann," his voice was strangely quiet now. "I knew! I
knew an hour ago who you were, whose house I was in. As she sat at the
piano near me I could have touched her with my hand. My heart cried
out, 'I am her father; I am her father!' For sixteen years I wait for
that moment and then I get it; I get it! It's mine; but I pass it! I
put it aside; I would not tell her."

"You knew," interrupted Stanton, "and you did not speak!"

"I would have come here, to this house," went on Von Barwig, his voice
quivering with excitement and emotion; "I would have come and gone as a
friend, an old friend, if you had kept silent. But no, two fathers
cannot live so with a child between them. One of them is bound to
speak out and that one is you, you! You spoke. 'Twas you who said to
your servants, 'Take this man and throw him into the streets like a
dog.' 'Twas you who destroyed my letters; 'twas you who destroyed my
child's letters--letters to me. 'Twas you who told my own flesh and
blood to treat me as a dog--a dog! You made me plead and beg; you made
me suffer for sixteen long and weary years. Now I take what is mine,"
screamed Von Barwig. "You hear! I take what is mine!" and he strode
over to the bell and deliberately rang it.

"Don't, don't for heaven's sake!" shouted Stanton, trying to restrain
him. It was too late and Stanton almost fell back into his chair.

"Come, stand up! To your feet, Ah