ADELAIDE.

We have seen the last of him!  Conrad, I’m one of the party!

BOLZ.

Hallelujah!  I hear countless angels blowing on their trumpets!  I’ll stay with the Union!

ADELAIDE.

About that I am no longer the one to decide.  For I have still a confession to make to you.  I, too, am not the real owner of the newspaper.

BOLZ.

You are not?  Now, by all the gods, I am at my wit’s end.  I’m beginning not to care who this owner is.  Be he man, will-of-the-wisp, or the devil Beelzebub in person, I bid him defiance.

ADELAIDE.

He is a kind of a will-of-the-wisp, a little something of a devil, and from top to toe a great rogue.  For, Conrad, my friend, beloved of my youth, it is you yourself.

[Hands him the deed.]

BOLZ (stupefied for a moment, reads).

“Ceded to Conrad Bolz”—­correct!  So that would be a sort of gift.  Can’t be accepted, much too little!

[Throws the paper aside.] Prudence be gone!

[Falls on his knees before ADELAIDE.]

Here I kneel, Adelaide!  What I am saying I don’t know in my joy, for the whole room is dancing round with me.  If you will take me for your husband, you will do me the greatest favor in the world.  If you don’t want me, box my ears and send me off!

ADELAIDE (bending down to him).

I do want you! (Kissing him.) This was the cheek!

BOLZ.

And these are the lips.

[Kisses her; they remain in an embrace; short pause.]

Enter COLONEL, IDA, OLDENDORF.

COLONEL (in amazement, at the door).

What is this?

BOLZ.

Colonel, it takes place under editorial sanction.

COLONEL.

Adelaide, what do I see?

ADELAIDE (stretching out her hand to the COLONEL).

Dear friend, I’m betrothed to a journalist!

[As IDA and OLDENDORF from either side hasten to the pair, the curtain falls]

* * * * *

[Footnote 1:  Permission S. Hirzel, Leipzig.]

* * * * *

DOCTOR LUTHER (1859)

By GUSTAV FREYTAG

TRANSLATED BY E.H.  BABBITT, A.B.  Assistant Professor of German, Tufts College.

Some well-meaning men still wish that the defects of their old church had not led to so great a revolt, and even liberal Roman Catholics still fail to see in Luther and Zwingli anything but zealous heretics whose wrath brought about a schism.  May such views vanish from Germany!  All religious denominations have reason to attribute to Luther whatever in their present faith is genuine and sincere, and has a wholesome and sustaining influence.  The heretic of Wittenberg