"
"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. He would certainly be condemned to hard labour for five or
six years, which would be a very wholesome lesson for him."
"Grandfather!" screamed the tortured child. This last allusion dissolved
her voice in tears. She fell down on her knees before him and shed
innocent tears enough on his hand to wash out all the old specks and
stains on it.
"I am glad to see those tears, my dear little girl, they show that you
have confidence in me. I am not a tiger who eats little children, what I
have said _might_ happen but I don't say it necessarily _must_. I don't
want to be cruel and vindictive. I don't want to recollect anything of
the insults showered upon me in that scribble of yours, all I ask of you
is that you will not stand in your own way. Get up and don't cry any
more or you will be ill again. Go up into your own room and ponder
deeply what you ought to do! In two hours' time I shall send for you
again, and in the meantime make up your mind about it. You have the
choice between accepting as your husband an honourable gentleman of
becoming rank and at the same time renouncing and forgetting a fellow
who will never be able to raise himself to your level, or of taking the
veil and bidding good-bye to this world.
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