was so meek. That was why
his wife was frightened--she had been trying to make him believe that
Apollonius never came into the room. That was why she looked up at him
so pleadingly. The contemptuous gaze with which she had just measured
him had suddenly been torn from her consciously guilty face with the
mask of pretended innocence. Now he knew with certainty: there was no
longer anything to prevent; nothing remained to him but retribution.
Now he could show his brother that he knew him, had always known him.

He pointed to his wife. "She's begging me to go. Why should I? I'll
look out of the window. That will do just as well. I shan't see what
you are doing."

Apollonius did not understand him. Christiane knew that he did not,
without looking at him. She tried to leave the room. She could not
endure to be humiliated in Apollonius' presence till she was nothing
but dirt under his feet. Her husband held her with a savage grip. He
seized her with the swoop of a bird of prey. She would have had to
scream aloud if her mental torture had not deadened her physical pain.

"Don't mind her wanting to go away," gasped Fritz Nettenmair, stifled
with unnatural laughter, and held his brother with his eye as he held
his wife with his hand. "You needn't be afraid. Just as soon as I turn
my back she will be here again. Go on, talk to each other. Go on, tell
him that you can't bear him; I believe it of course; what won't a man
believe if a woman like you tells him so? And you, give her some of
your teachings from Cologne, where you learnt everything, how to drive
your brother out of his house and business so as to--hm--well--Ha, ha!
Why don't you tell her? A woman ought to be willing. Oh, such a
willing woman is--go on, tell her what that kind of a woman is. She
doesn't know it yet, innocent as she is! Ha, ha!"

Apollonius understood nothing of what he heard and saw; but the abuse
of a man's strength on a helpless woman filled him with indignation.
Involuntarily this feeling carried him away. It doubled his strength,
which was far superior to his brother's at all times, when he gripped
him by the arm that held his wife so that it let go its prey and
dropped as if paralyzed. Christiane tried to leave the room, but she
collapsed helplessly. Apollonius caught her and laid her on the sofa,
supported against its back. Then he stood before his brother like a
wrathful angel.

"I have tried to win you by gentleness, but you are not worthy