Natalie's delicately-sensitive soul was to experience this rough contact
of reality, and, with an internal shudder, must she bend under the rough
hand of the present.
Pale, breathless, trembling, rushed Marianne into the room where
Natalie, in solitary mourning, was weeping for her lost friend.
"We are ruined, hopelessly ruined!" screamed Marianne. "They will drive
us from our last possession, they will turn us out of our house! All the
misfortunes of the whole world break over and crush us!"
The young maiden looked at her with a calm, clear glance.
"Then let them crush us," she quietly said. "It is better to be crushed
at once than to be slowly and lingeringly wasted!"
"But you hear me not, princess," shrieked Marianne, wringing her hands.
"They will drive us from here, I tell you; they will expel you from your
house!"
"And who will do that?" asked the young maiden, proudly rising with
flashing eyes. "Who dares threaten me in my own house?"
"Without are soldiers and bailiffs and the officers of the Russian
embassy. They have made a forcible entrance, and with force they will
expel you from the house. They are already sealing the doors and seizing
everything in the house.
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