Release me from it, Maria, let me once, only once, freely confess--" "Stop, Georg, stop," pleaded the young wife.

"I will not, must not hear you-neither to-day, nor tomorrow, never, never, to all eternity!" "Once, only once, I will, I must say to you, that I love you, that life and happiness, peace and honor--" "Not one word more, Junker von Dornburg.

There is our house.

You are our guest, and if you address a single word like the last ones to your friend's wife--" "Maria, Maria--oh, don't touch the knocker.

How can you so unfeelingly destroy the whole happiness of a human being--" The door had opened, and the burgomaster's wife crossed the threshold.
Georg stood opposite to her, held out his hand as if beseeching aid, and murmured in a hollow tone: "Cast forth to death and despair! Maria, Maria, why do you treat me thus ?" She laid her right hand in his, saying: "That we may remain worthy of each other, Georg." She forcibly withdrew her icy hand and entered the house; but he wandered for hours through the lighted streets like a drunken man, and at last threw himself, with a burning brain, upon his couch.