When he perceived that no answer to his appeals was forthcoming, dark despair for a moment overcame him.

Then the fiendishly ingenious idea struck him--might not a woman's screams accomplish what his own lungs were unable to effect?
Turning an inflamed and frowning countenance upon the lady who had intrusted her daughter's happiness to his hands, he addressed her in a deep hissing voice-- "Shcream, shcream, voman! Shcream loudly, or I vill knock you!" But the Countess was made of stern stuff.

Outraged and frightened though she was, she yet retorted huskily-- "I will not scream, Rudolph! I--I demand an explanation first!" Executing a step of the sword-dance within a yard of her, he reiterated "Shcream so zat zey may come back!" She blinked, but held her ground.
"I insist upon knowing what you mean, Rudolph! I insist upon your telling me! What are you doing here in that preposterous kilt ?" The Baron's wits brightened with the acuteness of the emergency.
"Ha!" he cried, "I vill take my kilt off--take him off before your eyes this instant if you do not shcream!" But she merely closed her eyes.
"If you dare! If you dare, Rudolph, I shall inform your Emperor! And I will not look! I cannot see you!" Whether in deference to imperial prejudices, or because a kiltless man would be thrown away upon a lady who refused to look at him, the Baron regretfully desisted from this project.

At his wits' end, he besought her-- "Make zem take you avay, so zat you vill be safe from my rage! I do not trost myself mit you.

I am so violent as a bull! Better zat you should go; far better--do you not see ?" "No, Rudolph, no!" replied the adamant lady.