I would fetch you a chair myself if it was not for this infernal gout of mine." Henrietta accepted the invitation and sat down, otherwise she must have collapsed.
"Now look ye, my dear little girl! if you had to deal with an unmerciful, austere old fellow, a veritable old tiger, in fact, as I have no doubt you fancy I am, he would make no bones about it but pack you straight off to a nunnery and so cut you off from the world for ever." Henrietta sighed.

Such a threat as that sounded to her like a consolation.
"In the second place, an old tyrant, such as I am imagining, would have sent that rip of a brother of yours, who is not ashamed to lend a hand in the seduction of his own sister, would have sent him, I say, to a reformatory.

I may tell you there are several such institutions, celebrated for their rigour, whither it is usual to send precocious and incorrigible young scapegraces.

And richly he would have deserved it, too." "Poor Koloman!" thought the little sister.

They were tenderly devoted to each other.
"In the third place, our old tiger would have prosecuted at law that reckless youth who had a share in this fine suicide project of yours.
For death, my dear, is no plaything and jests with poison are strictly forbidden.