SCHÖN--That was the woman I gave her to. She was her best pupil. The mothers used to make her an example to their children. She has the feeling for duty. It is simply and solely your mistake if you have till now neglected to appeal to the best in her. SCHWARZ--[_Sobbing._] O God!---- SCHÖN--[_With emphasis._] No O God! Of the happiness you have enjoyed nothing can be changed. The past is past. You overrate yourself against your better knowledge if you persuade yourself you will lose. You stand to gain. But with “O God” nothing is gained. I have never done you a greater kindness: I speak out plainly and offer you my help. Don’t show yourself unworthy of it! SCHWARZ--[_From now on more and more broken up._] When I first knew her, she told me she had never loved before. SCHÖN--When a widow says =that=---- It does her credit that she chose you for a husband. Make the same claims on yourself and your happiness is without a blot. SCHWARZ--She says he had her wear short dresses. SCHÖN--But he married her! That was her master-stroke. How she brought the man to it is beyond me. But you must know by now. You are enjoying the fruits of her diplomacy. SCHWARZ--Where did Dr. Goll get to know her? How? SCHÖN--Through me! It was after my wife’s death, when I was making the first advances to my present fiancée. She thrust herself between us. She had set her heart on becoming my wife. SCHWARZ--[_As if seized with a horrible suspicion._] And then when her husband died? SCHÖN--You married half a million! SCHWARZ--[_Wailing._] Oh, to have stayed where I was! To have died of hunger! SCHÖN--[_Superior._] Do you think, then, that _I_ make no compromises? Who is there that does not compromise? You have married half a million. You are to-day one of our foremost artists. Such things can’t be done without money. You are not the man to sit in judgment on her. You can’t possibly treat an origin like Mignon’s according to the notions of bourgeois society. SCHWARZ--[_Quite distraught._] Whom are you speaking of? SCHÖN--Of her father! You’re an artist, I say: your ideals are on a different plane from those of a wage-worker. SCHWARZ--I don’t understand a word of all that. SCHÖN--I am speaking of the inhuman conditions out of which, thanks to her good management, the girl has developed into what she is! SCHWARZ--Who? SCHÖN--Who? Your wife. SCHWARZ--=Eve=? SCHÖN--I called her Mignon. SCHWARZ--I thought her name was Nellie? SCHÖN--Dr. Goll called her so. SCHWARZ--I called her Eve---- SCHÖN--What her real name is I don’t know. SCHWARZ--[_Absently._] Perhaps she knows. SCHÖN--With a father like hers, she is, with all her faults, an utter miracle. I don’t understand you---- SCHWARZ--He died in a madhouse---- SCHÖN--He was here just now! SCHWARZ--Who was here? SCHÖN--Her father. SCHWARZ--Here--in my home? SCHÖN--He squeezed by me as I came in. And there are the two glasses still. SCHWARZ--She says he died in the madhouse.