of it.
I have endured much at your hands and will continue to endure," said
Apollonius; "you are my brother. You blame me for having driven you
into misfortune; God is my witness that I have done everything that I
knew to hold you back. For whom have I done what you reproach me with
doing, if not for you, and for the sake of your honor and to save your
wife and your children? Who compelled me to be hard on you? For whom
do I work? For whom am I doing all that I do? If you knew how it hurts
me to have you force me to tell you what I am doing for you! God
knows, you force me to it; I have never done it yet, not with others,
nor with myself. You know that you are only seeking an excuse to be
unbrotherly toward me. I know it, and will continue to endure you as I
have done till now. But that you should make an excuse of your wife's
dislike of me to torture her too, and to treat her as no good man
treats a good woman, that I will not stand."

Fritz Nettenmair burst into a horrible laugh. His brother had put him
to shame in every way, and now still wanted to play the virtuous hero
to him, the innocently offended, the chivalrous protector of the
innocently offended woman. "A good woman! Such a good woman! Oh yes
indeed! Is she not? You say so--and you are a good man. Ha, ha! Who
should know better whether a woman is good or not than such a good
man? You have not robbed me of everything? You have still to rob me of
my reason so that I shall believe your fairy-tale. She dislikes you?
She can't bear you? Oh, you don't know yet how much she dislikes you.
I need only be away, then she will tell you. Then it will be bad for
you! She will strangle you to make you believe her. When I am present
she won't tell you. A woman won't tell a thing like that when her
husband is there--a good woman, as she is. Why don't you say that you
can't bear her either? Oh, I have no longer any sense! I'll believe
anything that you two tell me!"

Forgetting everything but his passion, Fritz Nettenmair was convinced
that Christiane and Apollonius had invented the fairy-tale of her
dislike.

Apollonius stood shocked. He was obliged to say to himself what he did
not want to believe. His brother read in his face terror at the light
that was breaking in on him, dismay and pain at the misconstruction
put upon his conduct. And everything that he saw was so genuine that
even he was obliged to believe it. He was silenced by the thoughts
that pierced his brain