A footstep from behind caused her to start.  The vintner took her roughly in his arms and kissed her many times.

Her heart shook within her, but she did not surrender her purpose under these caresses.  She freed herself energetically and stood a little away from him, panting and star-eyed.

“Gretchen?”

She did not speak.

“What is it?”

“You ask?”

“Was it a crime, then, to jump out of the window?” He laughed.

Gretchen’s face grew sterner.  “Were you afraid?”

“For a moment.  I have never run afoul the police.  I thought perhaps we were all to be arrested.”

“Well, and what then?”

“What then?  Uncomfortable quarters in stone rooms.  I preferred discretion to valor.”

“Perhaps you did not care to have the police ask you questions?”

“What is all this about?” He pulled her toward him so that he could look into her eyes.

“What is the matter?  Answer!”

“Are you not a spy from Jugendheit?” thinly.

He flung aside her hand.  “So!  The first doubt that enters your ear finds harbor there.  A spy from Jugendheit; that is a police suggestion, and you believed it!”

“Do you deny it?” Gretchen was not cowed by his anger, which her own evenly matched.

“Yes,” proudly, snatching his hat from his head and throwing it violently at her feet; “yes, I deny it.  I am not a spy from any country; I have not sold the right to look any man in the eye.”

“I have asked you many questions,” she replied, “but you are always laughing.  It is a pleasant way to avoid answering.  I have given you my heart and all its secrets.  Have you opened yours as frankly?”

To meet anger with logic and sense is the simplest way to overcome it.  The vintner saw himself at bay.  He stooped to recover his hat, not so much to regain it but to steal time to conjure up some way out.

“Gretchen, here under the Virgin I swear to you that I love you as a man loves but once in his life.  If I were rich, I would gladly fling these riches to the wind for your sake.  If I were a king, I’d barter my crown for a smile and a kiss.  I have done no wrong; I have committed no crime.  But you must have proof; so be it.  We will go together to the police-bureau and settle this doubt once and for all.”

“When?” Gretchen’s heart was growing warm again.

“Now, to-night, while they are hunting for me.”

“Forgive me!” brokenly.

“Come!”

“No, Leopold, this test is not necessary.”

“I insist.  This thing must be righted publicly.”

“And I was thinking that the man I loved was a coward!”

“I am braver than you dream, Gretchen.”  And in truth he was, for he was about to set forth for the lion’s den, and only amazing cleverness could extricate him.  Man never enters upon the foolhardy unless it be to dazzle a woman.  And the vintner’s love for Gretchen was no passing thing.  “Let us hurry; it is growing late.  They will be shutting off the lights before we return.”