speak.

"What is it?"

"You ask?"

"Was it a crime, then, to jump out of the window?" He laughed.

Gretchen's face grew sterner. "Were you afraid?"

"For a moment. I have never run afoul the police. I thought perhaps we
were all to be arrested."

"Well, and what then?"

"What then? Uncomfortable quarters in stone rooms. I preferred
discretion to valor."

"Perhaps you did not care to have the police ask you questions?"

"What is all this about?" He pulled her toward him so that he could look
into her eyes.

"What is the matter? Answer!"

"Are you not a spy from Jugendheit?" thinly.

He flung aside her hand. "So! The first doubt that enters your ear finds
harbor there. A spy from Jugendheit; that is a police suggestion, and
you believed it!"

"Do you deny it?" Gretchen was not cowed by his anger, which her own
evenly matched.

"Yes," proudly, snatching his hat from his head and throwing it
violently at her feet; "yes, I deny it. I am not a spy from any country;
I have not sold the right to look any man in the eye."

"I have asked you many questions," she replied, "but you are always
laughing. It is a pleasant way to avoid answering. I have given you my
heart and all its secrets. Have you opened yours as frankly?"

To meet anger with logic and sense is the simplest way to overcome it.
The vintner saw himself at bay. He stooped to recover his hat, not so
much to regain it but to steal time to conjure up some way out.

"Gretchen, here under the Virgin I swear to you that I love you as a man
loves but once in his life. If I were rich, I would gladly fling these
riches to the wind for your sake. If I were a king, I'd barter my crown
for a smile and a kiss. I have done no wrong; I have committed no crime.
But you must have proof; so be it. We will go together to the
police-bureau and settle this doubt once and for all."

"When?" Gretchen's heart was growing warm again.

"Now, to-night, while they are hunting for me."

"Forgive me!" brokenly.

"Come!"

"No, Leopold, this test is not necessary."

"I insist. This thing must be righted publicly."

"And I was thinking that the man I loved was a coward!"

"I am braver than you dream, Gretchen." And in truth he was, for he was
about to set forth for the lion's den, and only amazing cleverness could
extricate him. Man never enters upon the foolhardy unless it be to
dazzle a woman. And the vintner's love for Gretchen was no passing
thing. "Let us hurry