the daughter of the old
man who gave me life, do I stand here!

LEONARD.

And you wish?--

CLARA.

Can you ask? Oh, that I might go away! My father will cut his throat,
unless--Marry me!

LEONARD.

Your father--

CLARA.

He has sworn it! Marry me!

LEONARD.

Hand and neck are near cousins--they never do harm to each other! Don't
be anxious!

CLARA.

He has sworn it! Marry me! And, afterward, kill me! I will thank you
even more for the latter than for the former!

LEONARD.

Do you love me? Did your heart prompt you to come here? Am I the man
without whom you cannot live and die?

CLARA.

Answer that yourself!

LEONARD.

Can you swear that you love me? That you love me as a girl loves a man
to whom she is to bind herself forever?

CLARA.

No, that I cannot swear! But this I can swear Whether I love you or do
not love you, that you shall never know! I will wait on you, I will work
for you, you need give me nothing to eat, I will support myself, I will
do sewing and spinning for other people at night, I will go hungry when
I have nothing to do, I will rather bite a piece out of my own arm than
go to my father and let him suspect anything! When you beat me, because
your dog is not at hand, or because you have kicked him out, I will
rather swallow my own tongue than emit a cry which will betray to the
neighbors what is going on. I cannot promise that my skin will not show
the welts caused by your whip, for that is not in my power. But I will
lie about it, I will say that I fell head foremost against the cupboard,
or that I slipped on the floor because it was too smooth--that I will do
before anybody has time to ask me where the black and blue marks came
from!--Marry me! I shall not live long! And if it lasts too long for
you, if you do not care to meet the expenses of the divorce proceedings
necessary to get rid of me, them buy some poison of the apothecary and
put it somewhere as if it were for your rats. I will take it without
your even nodding to me, and tell the neighbors with my dying breath
that I took it for pulverized sugar!

LEANARD.

A man of whom you expect all this will certainly not surprise you if he
says no!

CLARA.

Then may God not frown too severely on me if I come before he calls me!
If I had myself alone to consider I would endure it patiently. If the
world kicked me in my misery, instead of standing by me, I would bear it
submissively and regard it as just punishment