PAUL. If Ellernhof had gone over into the hands of strangers? You are simply judging from your point of view. Then I should never have seen my childhood home again. HELLA (forcibly). But what are we to do with it. We have it on our hands and can't help but be glad to get rid of it at any price. AUNT CLARA (with growing uneasiness, to PAUL). What is your wife saying? You intend to go away, intend to sell? HELLA. Why, certainly! As soon as possible! What else is there for us to do? AUNT CLARA. You intend to sell the estate that has been in the family over two hundred years? HELLA. That can be of no possible advantage to us. Do you expect us to settle down here? Do you suppose I have the least inclination to degenerate out here in the country? AUNT CLARA. And you, Paul, what have you to say to that? HELLA. Paul fully agrees with me. PAUL (gets up, distressed). Don't torment me with that now, good people, I beg of you. I am really not in the proper mood. There is certainly no hurry about that matter. AUNT CLARA. Don't you realize that you will commit a sin, if you sell the fine estate that your father maintained for you? HELLA. Oh sin! Sin! Do you not, from your point of view, consider the manner in which Paul's father behaved toward us a sin? I am unable to see any difference. There was no compunction about locking the door upon us. I was treated as a nondescript, bringing disgrace to the family! As if my family could not match up with the Warkentins any day! After all, I am the daughter of a university professor, my dear Miss Clara. You possibly fail to appreciate that a bit. Therefore I repeat to you, Paul hasn't the slightest reason to be ashamed of me! And he hasn't been. But Paul's father _was_. He forced us to earn our daily bread! And now that we have been successful, now that we have won a place for ourselves, now they begin to think of us, simply because they need us. Now they are becoming sentimental. No, dearest! You did not concern yourselves about us! Now we shall not concern ourselves about you! Now we shall simply pay it all back! That's the sin that you were talking about. Ellernhof has no claims upon us, (She breathes deeply and leans back on the sofa.) GLYSZINSKI (has hung upon her lips, enthusiastically). Madam, your hand! (He extends his hand.) HELLA (curtly). Oh do let us dispense with that for the present, doctor! PAUL (has been listening from the fireplace and now approaches). That is quite correct, Hella, but there is one thing that you must not forget. I really did provoke my father at the time. I was young and inexperienced. I felt compelled to tell him at the outset, even before I went to the university, that I did not believe that I should be able to endure life in the country later on. HELLA. And the fact that he expected you to marry any woman that suited _him_; you don't seem to think of that at all. PAUL. Yes, yes, you are right ... AUNT CLARA. Tell me, Paul? PAUL. Yes, Auntie.