MR. GABOR--=He has= gone wrong!--I would have given anything to have spared your boundless love this!--A woman came to me this morning distracted, scarcely able to speak, with this letter in her hand--a letter to her fifteen-year-old daughter.[6] She had opened it, she said, from simple curiosity; the child was not at home.--In this letter Melchior explains to the fifteen-year-old girl that his treatment of her leaves him no peace, that he has sinned against her, etc., etc., and will naturally take the responsibility for everything. She is not to worry, even if she should feel consequences. He is already on the way to procure help--his expulsion will make that easier for him. The misstep they have made may yet lead to her happiness--and what more senseless twaddle you please! MRS. GABOR--Impossible! MR. GABOR--The letter is forged. It’s a case of imposture. Someone is trying to turn his notorious expulsion to account. I have not yet spoken with the lad--but just look at the hand! Look at the writing! MRS. GABOR--An unheard-of, shameless piece of knavery! MR. GABOR--[_With double meaning._] I fear so. MRS. GABOR--No! No! Never in the world! MR. GABOR--All the better for us, then.--The woman asked me, wringing her hands, what she ought to do. I told her she ought not to let her fifteen-year-old daughter scramble around haylofts. The letter she fortunately left with me.--Now if we send Melchior to another school where he won’t even be under =parental= supervision, we shall have the same thing happening in three weeks--a new expulsion--his joyous, spring-like heart will get accustomed to them by degrees.--Tell me, Fanny, where =am= I to put the lad? MRS. GABOR--In the House of Correction---- MR. GABOR--In the...? MRS. GABOR-- ... House of Correction! MR. GABOR--He will find there, first of all, what was wrongfully withheld from him at home: iron discipline, fundamental principles, and a moral restraint to which he will have to submit under all circumstances.--And I may add that the House of Correction is not the abode of horror you imagine from the name. Chief weight there is laid upon the development of Christian thought and feeling. The lad will there, at last, learn to aim at what’s =good=, not what’s =interesting=, and in his actions take account not of his natural impulses but of the law.--Half an hour ago I received a telegram from my brother which, I think, confirms what the woman told me. Melchior has confided in him and asked him for two hundred marks with which to fly to England.... MRS. GABOR--[_Covers her face._] Merciful Heaven! CURTAIN SCENE IV.--_The House of Correction. The setting may be the same as for the Faculty Room, without any pictures or furniture._ MELCHIOR _is shown in company with_ DIETHELM, REINHOLD, RUPRECHT, HELMUTH, _and_ GASTON. DIETHELM--Here’s a twenty-pfennig piece. REINHOLD--What’s that for?