o my house have I allowed to leave me;
to each one I have paid double wages and closed my eyes to all
remissness, in order to buy their silence! And yet--the false,
ungrateful creatures! Oh, my poor children! Only for your sake did I
seek to conceal it!

CLARA.

Do not blame your servants! Surely it is not their fault! Ever since
your neighbor's house burned down, and your wife stood at the open
window laughing and clapping her hands at the fire, yes, and even
puffing out her cheeks and blowing at it, as if she wanted to make it
burn more furiously, people have had to choose between taking her for
the devil himself or for a lunatic. And there were hundreds who saw
that!

WOLFRAM.

That is true. And now, since the whole town knows about my misfortune,
it would be foolish for me to exact a promise of you to keep still about
it! So listen! The theft for which your brother is in prison was
committed by a lunatic!

CLARA.

Your own wife!

WOLFRAM.

That she, who was once the noblest and most sympathetic soul in the
world, has become malicious and mischievous; that she shouts and screams
with joy when an accident happens before her eyes, when a maid breaks a
glass or cuts her finger--I knew that long ago; but that she also takes
things in the house and puts them out of sight, hides money and tears up
papers--that, alas! I found out too late--only this noon! I had laid
myself down on the bed and was just about to fall asleep, when I became
conscious that she had tiptoed noiselessly up beside me, and was
watching me intently to see if I were yet asleep. I closed my eyes
tighter. Then she took the key from the pocket of my vest, which was
hanging over a chair, unlocked my desk, took out a roll of gold pieces,
locked the desk again and put back the key. I was horrified! But I
restrained myself, so as not to disturb her. She went out of the room
and I crept after her on tiptoe. She climbed up to the attic and threw
the gold into an old chest, which has been standing there empty since
the days of my grandfather. Then she glanced timidly around the room,
and, without seeing me, hurried out again. I lighted a taper and
searched the chest; in it I found my youngest daughter's doll, a pair of
the maid's slippers, a ledger, several letters, and, alas! or, God be
praised!--which shall I say?--away down underneath, the jewels!

CLARA.

Oh, my poor mother! It is too terrible!

WOLFRAM.

God knows I would gladly sacrifice