And you are angry, you storm and rave when a respectable person wants to save the unfortunate child from having her innocence corrupted, save her from withering away profitlessly in the claws of a pack of gross, rowdy, street-lounging, rake-hell young profligates, from living a life of wretchedness and shame, from dying abandoned and accursed, to say nothing of the fire of hell after death.

And you even raise objections, sir! But, of course, I understand, they would be depriving you of a great treasure, of something you can sell at a high price, something that you can calculate upon making a handsome profit out of, eh ?" Meyer gnashed his teeth with rage and horror.
"Let me tell you, sir, if you are still able to follow good advice," continued the judge, in the same pitiless voice, "that if that respectable person, your kinswoman Teresa, is still willing to take charge of your daughter Fanny, surrender her unconditionally, renounce all your rights to her now and for evermore, for if you raise any further objections, if the matter comes before the courts, so help me God! I'll have you locked up myself." "Where ?" asked the terrified Meyer.
This question took the judge somewhat aback at first, but he soon found an answer.
"Where?
Well, in the house of correction, in case the things that are done in your house, sir, are done with your knowledge and consent; and in a madhouse if they are done without your knowledge." Mr.Meyer had got a sufficient answer at last; he took his leave and departed.

He could scarce find the door by which he had entered, and he had to grope his way down to the street.

The loafers there who saw him nudged each other with a grin and said, "That chap has had a good skinful somewhere!" So he had to learn from others that he was not a respectable man; he had to learn from strange lips that people looked down upon him, laughed at, cursed him, sneered at him as the man who made money out of his daughters' love affairs, and whose house was a place where young men were corrupted.
And he had always fancied that he was the best man in the world, whose house was honoured and respected, and whose friendship was sought after! In his confusion of mind he had wandered out of his way as far as the Malomligeti pond.

What a nice pond! he thought.