acco,
but I took it and raised it humbly to my lips.--Here it is now, signed
and sealed!

CLARA.

That comes--

LEONARD.

Unexpectedly, doesn't it? Well, it was not altogether an accident
either. Why didn't I come to see you for two weeks?

CLARA.

How do I know? I think it was because we got angry at each other the
Sunday before!

LEONARD.

Oh, I was cunning enough to bring about that little disagreement on
purpose--so that I could stay away without its astonishing you too much!

CLARA.

I don't understand you!

LEONARD.

I suppose not. I took advantage of the time to pay court to the
burgomaster's little hump-backed niece, whom the old fellow thinks so
much of, and who is his right hand, just as the bailiff is his left.
Understand me correctly! I didn't say anything nice to her about
herself, except perhaps a compliment regarding her hair, which everybody
knows is red--so I just told her some nice things she liked to hear
about you.

CLARA.

About me?

LEONARD.

Why should I keep still about it? I did it with the best of
intentions--as if I had never intended to deal seriously with you, as
if--enough! That lasted until I got this in my hands, and the credulous
little man-crazy fool will find out what I meant when she hears the
banns of our marriage published in the church.

CLARA.

Leonard!

LEONARD.

Child! child! You be as innocent as a dove, and I will be as wise as a
serpent. Then, since a man and his wife are one, we shall entirely
satisfy the demand of the Gospel.

[_Laughs_.]

Neither was it altogether an accident that young Hermann was drunk at
the most important moment of his life. You have surely never heard that
the fellow is given to drinking?

CLARA.

Not a word.

LEONARD.

The fact made the execution of my scheme all the easier. It was done
with three glasses. I had a couple of friends of mine waylay him. "May
one drink to your health?"--"Not now!"--"Oh, that is all arranged, you
know. Your uncle"--"And now, drink, my brother, drink!"--This morning
when I was on my way to you, he stood leaning on the bridge and gazing
dejectedly down at the river. I greeted him sarcastically, and asked him
if he had dropped anything into the water. "Yes," he answered, without
looking up, "and perhaps it would be well for me to jump in after it."

CLARA.

You bad man! Get out of my sight!

LEONARD.

You mean it?

[_Moves, as if to go_.]

CLARA.

Oh, my God, I am chain