against you, madam! A fine guest he has brought into our honorable house! I know everything!”
The old lady grew suddenly pale: “Enough, enough! Not another word!”
But the janitor proceeded: “She is a fallen woman!”
“Out of here! And not another word!”
“I am only thinking of your honor. . . .”
“Out of here!” and trembling with rage, as he had never seen her before, the old lady fell to the ground.
“It makes no difference to me,” the guardian of the house mumbled angrily at the door. The wizened old servant hurriedly followed after him.
“Those servants,” stormed the old lady. . . . “But, Lucy,” she turned with a gentle voice to Lucy, from whose eyes large tears were trickling, “please don’t. I will have a talk with him. At heart he is a good man. You see for yourself, he means to protect me. He does not know the situa-
