Delphi Collected Works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe \(Illustrated\) pdfdrive com

Lucidor.

“A traitor lurks behind.”

Julia.

“Yes, indeed, there is a traitor in the game.”

---

Lucidor.

“Name him.”

Julia.

“He  is  soon  unmasked.  It  is  yourself!  You  have  the  praiseworthy,  or

blameworthy, habit of talking to yourself, and so I will confess, in the name of

all of us, that we have in turns overheard you.”

---

Lucidor

(jumping  up).  “A  nice  sort  of  hospitality,  to  set  a  trap  for  the  guest  in  this

way!”

Julia.

“Not  at  all.  We  did  not  think  of  listening  to  you  more  than  to  any  other

individual.  You  know  that  your  bed  stands  in  a  recess  in  the  wall,  and  on  the

opposite  side  there  is  another,  which  generally  serves  only  as  a  domestic

repository. There we had, a few days before, forced our old gentleman to sleep,

because we were a good deal concerned about him in his distant hermitage. Now

on the very first evening you entered on the affair with that passionate soliloquy,

the purport of which he most opportunely disclosed to us the next morning.”

Lucidor had no heart to interrupt her. He moved away.

---

Julia

(rising  and  following  him).  “And  of  what  service  this  declaration  was  to  us!

For, I confess, although you were not precisely antipathic to me, still the position

that  awaited  me  was  by  no  means  so  desirable.  To  become  a  ‘Madam  High-

bailiff,’ — what a horrible position! To get a good, honest man, whose duty it is

to declare the law to the people, and who by sheer weight of law can never attain

to justice; who does justice neither by laws above nor below, and, what is worst,

not  even  to  himself.  I  know  what  my  mother  has  suffered  from  the

incorruptibility,  the  inflexibility,  of  my  father.  At  last,  unfortunately  after  her

death,  he  began  to  display  a  certain  tenderness.  He  seemed  to  accommodate

himself  to  the  world;  to  reconcile  himself  to  it,  having  hitherto  vainly  fought

against it.”

---

Lucidor

(highly  displeased  at  the  affair,  and  vexed  at  her  frivolous  treatment  of  it  —

stands  still).  “For  the  diversion  of  one  evening  this  might  pass;  but  to  practise

such a mortifying mystification for days and nights on an unsuspecting guest, is

unpaidonable.”

Julia.

“We  have  all  shared  in  the  guilt,  we  have  all  overheard  you;  but  I  alone

expiate the guilt of listening.”

Lucidor.

“All!  So  much  the  more  unpardonable.  And  how  could  you,  during  the  day,

look,  without  feeling  abashed,  at  one  whom  you  so  disgracefully  and

illegitimately cheated by night? Still, I now see quite clearly in a glance that all

your  arrangements  for  the  day  were  only  calculated  to  make  a  fool  of  me.  A

worthy family indeed! And what becomes of your father’s love of fairness? And

Lucinda — ”

Julia.

“ ‘And Lucinda,’ — what a tone! You would say how deeply it grieves you to

think  evil  of  Lucinda,  to  throw  Lucinda  into  the  same  class  with  all  the  rest  of

us.”