'It is at once a dangerous and attractive character.
Immense capacities for good are implanted in her nature,
side by side with equally remarkable capacities for evil.
It rests with circumstances to develop either the one or the other.
Being a person who produces a sensation wherever she goes, this noble
lady is naturally made the subject of all sorts of scandalous reports.
To one of these reports (which falsely and abominably points to the Baron
as her lover instead of her brother) she now refers with just indignation.
She has just expressed her desire to leave Homburg, as the place
in which the vile calumny first took its rise, when the Baron returns,
overhears her last words, and says to her, "Yes, leave Homburg
by all means; provided you leave it in the character of my Lord's
betrothed wife!"
'The Countess is startled and shocked. She protests that she
does not reciprocate my Lord's admiration for her. She even goes
the length of refusing to see him again. The Baron answers,
"I must positively have command of money. Take your choice,
between marrying my Lord's income, in the interest of my grand discovery--
or leave me to sell myself and my title to the first rich woman
of low degree who is ready to buy me.
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