dead
myself arter all--dat is a fact.
GUSTAVE. Poor old Rip Van Winkle--perhaps you know his daughter?
RIP. His daughter--yes, I tink I--and she is not dead, like her fader?
GUSTAVE. No, thank heaven! and she would have been my wife before
this but for--
RIP. But for what, young man?
_Enter_ LOWENA.
LOWENA. Gustave. [_Moving to him._
GUSTAVE. Ah! dear Lowena!
RIP. Lowena! Ah! dat is my daughter--and I have a son too, a lublicka
boy; but my daughter is a girl, and I always lub my
leetle girl so much, ven she vas only so big--and I must
not hug her now to my poor heart, because she--she has
got another fader--and I am dead--yes, dey all tell me dat
is a fact! I am dead to meinself and--and I am dead to my
leetle girl.
LOWENA. Oh, yes, Gustave, it is indeed a sad misfortune for us both,
that my father should have entered into a contract which
had for its object to coerce me into becoming the wife
of Herman Van Slaus.
RIP. [_Aside._] Yes, dat is a fact. I remember, de burgomaster come
to my house last night mit a paper, and I wrote my name
down on it; but I vas trunk.
GUSTAVE. And having loved you so long, is it now impossible that you
can become my wife?
LOWENA. No, not impossible; but--oh, my poor dear father, if you had
but survived to see this day!
RIP. [_Aside._] I wish what I had--but I am dead, dat is a fact.
_Enter_ HERMAN VAN SLAUS.
LOWENA. Oh, Gustave! see, protect me from that wicked man--I will be
thine, and only thine!
HERMAN. No, Lowena; you will be _mine_, for you will not be suffered
to resign into my hands that fortune of which I covet
the possession, but which would lose half its value to
me if you come not with it.
RIP. [_Aside._] Dat is young Slaus; and he is as big a tam rascal as
vas his resbectable fader.
HERMAN. Hereafter, Lowena, I will cause you to repent that you have
given a rival to the man to whom, from your very
childhood, you have been pledged and bound.
RIP.