[_After a silence_.] I am confounded. If I could have suspected,--yes, if I could have suspected--I will do everything; I will not shrink from any reparation. But now, I beg you to quiet yourself. They know that I am here. If they saw us so, I should be--[_correcting himself_] you would be lost. MAGDA. Don't be afraid. I won't compromise you. VON KELLER. Oh, I was not speaking for myself, not at all. But just think, if it were to come out, what the town and your father-- MAGDA. Poor old man! His peace is destroyed, at any rate. VON KELLER. And think! the more brilliantly you are placed now, the more certain is your ruin. MAGDA. [_Madly_.] And if I wish for ruin! If I-- VON KELLER. For Heaven's sake, hush! some one's coming. MAGDA. [_Springing up_.] Let them come! Let them all come! I don't care, I don't care! To their faces I'll say what I think of you,--of you and your respectable society. Why should I be worse than you, that I must prolong my existence among you by a lie! Why should this gold upon my body, and the lustre which surrounds my name, only increase my infamy? Have I not worked early and late for ten long years? Have I not woven this dress with sleepless nights? Have I not built up my career step by step, like thousands of my kind? Why should I blush before any one? I am myself, and through myself I have become what I am. VON KELLER. Good! You may stand there proudly, but you might at least consider-- MAGDA. Whom? [_As he is silent_.] Whom? The pillar! Ha, ha! The pillar begins to totter! Be easy, my dear friend. I am not revengeful. But when I look at you in all your cowardly dignity--unwilling to take upon you the slightest consequence of your doings, and contrast you with myself, who sank through your love to be a pariah and an outcast-- Ah, I'm ashamed of you. Pah! VON KELLER. For Heaven's sake! Your father! If he should see you like this! MAGDA. [_In agony_.] My father! [_Escapes through the door of the dining-room, with her handkerchief to her face_.] _Enter_ Schwartze, _happy and excited, through the hall-door_. SCHWARTZE. Ah, my dear Councillor--was that my daughter who just disappeared? VON KELLER. [_In great embarrassment_.] Yes, it was-- SCHWARTZE. Why should she run away from me? Magda! VON KELLER. [_Trying to block his path_.] Had you not better-- The young lady wished to be alone for a little! SCHWARTZE. Now? Why? When one has visitors, one does not-- Why should she--