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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Only a Girl:, by Wilhelmine von Hillern
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Only a Girl:
+       or, A Physician for the Soul.
+
+Author: Wilhelmine von Hillern
+
+Translator: A. L. Wister
+
+Release Date: July 11, 2011 [EBook #36709]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONLY A GIRL: ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://www.archive.org/details/onlyagirlaroman00wistgoog
+
+   2. This was published also in England under the title "Ernestine: A
+      Novel", translated by S. Baring Gould.
+
+   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              ONLY A GIRL:
+
+                                   OR
+
+                       A PHYSICIAN FOR THE SOUL.
+
+
+
+                               A ROMANCE
+
+                            FROM THE GERMAN
+
+                                   OF
+
+                        WILHELMINE VON HILLERN.
+
+
+
+                                   BY
+
+                           MRS. A. L. WISTER.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             PHILADELPHIA:
+                         J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
+                                 1871.
+
+
+
+
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+      Entered, according to act of Congress, In the year 1870, by
+                        J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.,
+    In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
+               for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS.
+
+
+   CHAPTER
+
+      I. "Only a Girl"
+
+     II. The Story of the Ugly Duckling
+
+    III. Atonement
+
+     IV. The Sad Survivors
+
+      V. Undeceived
+
+     VI. Soul-Murder
+
+    VII. Departure
+
+
+                                PART II.
+
+      I. "Only a Woman"
+
+     II. The Swan
+
+    III. The Village School
+
+     IV. The Guardian
+
+      V. Fruitless Pretensions
+
+     VI. Emancipation of the Flesh
+
+    VII. Emancipation of the Spirit
+
+   VIII. "When Women hold the Reins"
+
+     IX. Vox Populi, Vox Dei
+
+      X. Nowhere at Home
+
+     XI. Inharmonious Contrasts
+
+
+                               PART III.
+
+      I. The Strength of Weakness
+
+     II. The Weakness of Strength
+
+    III. Silver-armed Käthchen
+
+     IV. Battle
+
+      V. Science and Faith
+
+     VI. Sentenced
+
+    VII. The Orphan
+
+   VIII. Blossoms on the Border of the Grave
+
+     IX. It is Morning again
+
+      X. Return
+
+     XI. "Give us this Day Our Daily Bread"
+
+    XII. The Third Power
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              ONLY A GIRL;
+
+                                   OR
+
+                       A PHYSICIAN FOR THE SOUL.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                             "ONLY A GIRL."
+
+
+In a level, well-wooded country in Northern Germany, not far from an
+insignificant village, stood a distillery, such as is frequently to be
+found upon the estates of the North German nobility, and in connection
+with it an extensive manufactory,--the estate comprising, besides, a
+kitchen-garden overgrown with weeds, a few fruit-trees overshadowing
+the decaying remains of rustic seats long fallen to ruin, and a
+dwelling-house, well built, indeed, but as neglected and dirty as its
+guardian the lean, hungry mastiff, whose empty plate and dusty jug
+testified to the length of time since the poor creature had had any
+refreshment in the oppressive heat of this July day. No one who looked
+upon this picture could doubt that the interior of the house must
+correspond with its cheerless outside, and that the gentle, beneficent
+hand was wanting there that keeps a house neat and orderly, cares for
+the garden, and attends to the wants of even a dumb brute. Where such a
+hand is wanting, there is neither order nor culture, no love of the
+beautiful, nor sometimes even of the good,--too often, indeed, no joy,
+no happiness. There was no one in the court-yard or garden; nothing was
+stirring but a couple of cheeping chickens that were peeping around the
+corner of the dog's kennel, in hopes of stray crumbs from his last
+meal. They came on cautiously, their little heads turning curiously
+from side to side, in fear lest the dog should make his appearance; but
+he kept in his kennel, his head resting upon his paws, and his
+bloodshot eyes blinking over the distant landscape. The hungry fowls,
+grown bolder, pecked and scratched around his plate, but vainly: there
+was nothing to be found but dry sand.
+
+Beside the well stood a churn, and a bench upon which lay a roll of
+fresh butter, which, neglected and forgotten, was melting beneath the
+sun's hot rays, and dripping down upon the weeds around. Perhaps the
+starving dog was suddenly struck by the thought how grateful this waste
+would be to him were it only within his domain; for he started up and
+ran out as far as he could from his kennel, dragging his rattling chain
+behind him, as if to prove its length, then stood still, and finally
+bethought himself and crept back with drooping head beneath his roof.
+Outside of a window, upon the ground floor, stood a couple of dried
+cactus-plants, and several bottles of distilled herbs; the cork of one
+of them was gone, and its contents filled with flies and beetles.
+Everything, far and near, betrayed neglect and dirt; but the excuse of
+poverty was evidently wanting. The extensive stables and accommodations
+for cattle, the huge out-houses and far-stretching fields of grain
+testified to the wealth of the proprietor of the estate. A comfortable
+rolling-chair standing in the court-yard, its leathern cushions rotting
+in the sun, seemed to indicate the presence of an invalid or a cripple.
+Only the lowest and uppermost stories of the house appeared to be
+inhabited; the windows of the middle floor were all closed, and so
+thickly festooned with cobwebs that they could not have been opened for
+a long time. It seemed as if the swallows wee the only creatures who
+could find comfort in such an inhospitable mansion; their nests were
+everywhere to be seen. The chickens looked enviously up at them, and
+hopped upon the low window-ledges of the lower story, as if to remind
+the inmates of their existence and necessities. Suddenly they fluttered
+down to the ground again, for from one of the open windows there came a
+child's scream, so piteous and shrill that the large dog pricked his
+ears and once more restlessly measured the length of his chain.
+
+In a low room, the atmosphere of which was almost stifling from the
+heat of an ironing-stove and the steam from dampened linen, that two
+robust maid-servants were engaged in ironing, a little girl, about
+twelve years of age, was standing before an old wardrobe. She was half
+undressed, and the garments falling off her shoulders disclosed a
+little body so wasted and delicate that at sight of it a mother's eyes
+would have filled with tears. But there was no mother near, only an old
+housekeeper, whose bony fingers had apparently just been laid violently
+upon the child, who was crying aloud and covering one thin shoulder
+with her hand, while she refused to put on a dress that the woman was
+holding towards her.
+
+"What is the matter now?" an angry voice called from the adjoining
+room. The child started in alarm. The old woman went to the door, and
+replied, "Ernestine is so naughty again that there is no doing anything
+with her. She has torn her best dress, because she says she has
+outgrown it, and it hurts her; but it isn't true: it fits her very
+well."
+
+"How can the miserable creature have outgrown any dress?" rejoined the
+rough voice from within. "Put it on this moment, and go!"
+
+The child leaned against the wardrobe, and looked obstinate and
+defiant.
+
+"She won't do it, sir; she does not want to go to the children's
+party!" said the unfeeling attendant.
+
+"I ordered you to go," cried the father. "When a lady like the Frau
+Staatsräthin does you the honour to invite you, you are to accept her
+invitation gratefully. I will not have it said that I make a Cinderella
+of my daughter!"
+
+Little Ernestine made no reply, but looked at the housekeeper with such
+an expression in her large, sunken eyes, that the woman was transported
+with rage; it seemed scarcely possible that so much contempt and hate
+should find place in the bosom of a child. The housekeeper clasped her
+hands. "No, you bad, naughty child! You ought to see how she is looking
+at me now, Herr von Hartwich!"
+
+With these words she tried again to throw the dress over Ernestine's
+head; but the girl tore it away, threw it on the ground and trampled
+upon it, crying in a transport of rage, interrupted by bursts of tears,
+"I will not put it on, and I will not go among strangers! I will not be
+treated so! You are a bad, wicked woman! I will not mind you!"
+
+"Oh, goodness gracious! was ever such a naughty child seen!" exclaimed
+the housekeeper, looking with a secret sensation of fear at the little
+fury who stood before her with dishevelled hair and heaving chest.
+
+"When are you going to stop that noise out there?" roared the father.
+"Must I, wretched man that I am, hear nothing, all day long, but
+children's and servants' squabbles? Ernestine, come in here to me!"
+
+At this command, the little girl began to tremble violently; she knew
+what was in store for her, and moved slowly towards the door. "Are you
+coming?" called the invalid.
+
+Ernestine entered the room, and stood as far as possible from the bed
+where he was lying. "Now, come here!" he cried, beckoning her towards
+him with his right hand,--his left was crippled,--and continuing, as
+Ernestine hesitated: "You good-for-nothing, obstinate child! you have
+never caused a throb of pleasure to any one since you came into the
+world; not even to your mother, for your birth cost her her life. In
+you God has heaped upon me all the sorrows but none of the joys that a
+son might afford his father; you have the waywardness and self-will of
+a boy, with the frail, puny body of a girl! What is to be done with
+such a wretched creature, that can do nothing but scream and cry?"
+
+At these words the child burst into a fresh flood of tears, and was
+hurrying out, when she was recalled by a thundering "Stop! you have not
+had your punishment yet!"
+
+Ernestine knew then what was coming, and begged hard. "Do not strike
+me, father! Oh, do not strike me again!" But her entreaties were of no
+avail.
+
+With lips tightly compressed, and her little hands convulsively clasped
+together, she approached the bed. The sick man raised his broad hard
+hand, and a heavy blow fell upon the transparent cheek of the child,
+who staggered and fell on the floor. "Now will you obey, or have you
+not had enough yet?" the father asked.
+
+"I will obey," sobbed the little girl, as she rose from the floor.
+
+"But first ask Frau Gedike's pardon!" ordered the angry man.
+
+"No!" cried Ernestine firmly. "That I will not do!"
+
+"How! is your obstinacy not yet conquered? Disobey at your peril!"
+
+"Though you should kill me, I will not do it," answered the child, with
+a strange gleam in her eyes, as her father, endeavouring to raise
+himself in his bed, stretched put his hand towards her.
+
+"Oh, fie! are you crazy?" suddenly said a melodious voice, just behind
+Ernestine. "Is that the way for a man of sense to reason with a naughty
+child,--playing lion-tamer with a sick kitten!"
+
+Then the speaker turned to the little girl and said kindly, "Go, my
+child, and be dressed; you will enjoy yourself with all those pretty
+little girls."
+
+Ernestine's long black eyelashes fell, and she obeyed silently.
+
+The strange intercessor for the tormented child was a tall, slender,
+almost handsome man, with delicate features and a certain air of repose
+which might rather be called impassibility, but which was so refined in
+its expression that it could not but produce a favourable impression.
+His tone of voice was soft, melodious, and grave; his pronunciation
+faultlessly pure. An atmosphere of culture which seemed to surround him
+gave him an air of superiority. His dress was simple, but in good
+taste, his step light, his manner and bearing supple and insinuating.
+It would have struck the common observer as condescending, but the
+closer student of human nature would have found it ironical and
+treacherous.
+
+In moments of passion such human reptiles exercise a soothing influence
+upon heated minds, and check their violent outbreaks, as ice-bandages
+will arrest a flow of blood. Upon his entrance the invalid became
+quiet, almost submissive; the room seemed to him suddenly to become
+cooler; he was, he thought, conscious of a pleasant draught of air as
+the tall figure approached the bed and sank into the arm-chair beside
+his pillow.
+
+"It would be no wonder if I did become crazy!" Herr von Hartwich
+excused himself. "The child exasperates me. When a man suffers tortures
+for months at a time, and is crippled and confined to bed, how can he
+help being irritable? He cannot be as patient as a man in full health,
+who can get out of the way of such provoking scenes whenever he
+pleases!"
+
+"You could easily do that if you chose, by keeping the child in the
+rooms above, which have been empty for years. Then you might be quiet,
+and people would not be able to say that the rich Hartwich's delicate
+child had to sit in the ironing-room in such hot weather,--it is worse
+than unjust; I think it unwise!"
+
+"What!" Hartwich suddenly interrupted him, "shall I leave the child and
+the servants to their own devices above-stairs, whilst I lie here alone
+and neglected? Or shall I hire an expensive nurse, and make every one
+think I am dying, and let the factory-hands suppose themselves without
+a master?"
+
+"That last cannot happen, for they long ago ceased to regard you as
+their master; they know that I am the ruling spirit of the whole
+business. As for your talk about the expense of a nurse, such folly can
+only be explained on the score of your incredibly avarice, which has
+become a mania with you of late. For whom are you hoarding your wealth?
+Not for your child; you will leave her no more than what the law
+compels you to leave her; still less for me, for you have always been a
+genuine step-brother, and have bequeathed me your property only because
+I would not communicate to you the secrets of my discoveries without
+remuneration; and you would rather give away all your wealth at your
+death than any part of it during your lifetime. And I assure you that
+if I am to be your heir, which perhaps may never be, I would far rather
+go without a few thousand thalers than witness such outrageous neglect
+of a child's education!"
+
+The invalid listened earnestly. "You are talking very frankly to me
+to-day, and are, it seems to me, reckoning very confidently upon my not
+altering my last will and testament," he said, in an irritated tone of
+menace.
+
+Without a change of feature, the other continued: "With all your faults
+and eccentricities, you are too upright in character to punish my
+candour in the way at which you hint. You know well that I mean kindly
+by you, and that I am an honest man. I might have required large sums
+of money from you. Upon the strength of the increase of income accruing
+from my exertions, I might have insisted upon your constituting me your
+partner, and much else besides; but I have contented myself with the
+modest position of superintendent, and with the certainty that by your
+will (God grant you length of days!) a brilliant future may be prepared
+for my child when I am no more. These proofs of disinterestedness, I
+think, give me a right to speak frankly to you!"
+
+"What is all this circumlocution to lead to?" asked Hartwich, who had
+grown strikingly languid, while his speech was becoming thick. "Be
+quick, for I am sleepy."
+
+"Simply to this,--that you either remove Ernestine to the upper story,
+or, what would be better still, away from the house."
+
+"Away from the house! Where to?"
+
+"Why, to some institution where she may be so educated that it need be
+no disgrace hereafter to have to own her as a relative. The child will
+be ruined with no society but that of servant-maids, grooms, and
+village children."
+
+"Bah!" growled the invalid, "what does it matter?"
+
+"If you are indifferent as to what becomes of your daughter, I am by no
+means indifferent as to my niece, or as to the influence that, if she
+lives, she may exercise upon my own daughter. As Ernestine now is, the
+thought that in a year or two she may be my child's playmate gives me
+great anxiety. Should she remain here, I must send my little girl from
+home, or she will be ruined also. But, setting all this aside, I wish
+her sent away for your sake. You cannot control yourself towards the
+obstinate, neglected child; and, as long as she is with you, such
+scenes as have just occurred are unavoidable. And I have learned to-day
+that the whole village resounds with your 'cruel treatment' of your own
+child. This throws rather a bad light upon your character, just when
+you wish our new neighbours to think well of you."
+
+"That's all nonsense; if they think the factory worth fifty thousand
+thalers, they'll buy it, whether they think me a rogue or an honest
+man," said Hartwich.
+
+"Think the factory worth--yes, that's just it," the silken-smooth man
+continued; "but that they may think it worth so much, much may be
+necessary,--among other things, some degree of confidence in the
+present proprietor."
+
+"And you have the sale very near at heart, because you would far rather
+put the fifteen thousand thalers profit, that I have insured to you,
+into your pocket than win your bread by honest labour," said the
+invalid with sarcasm. "'Tis a fine gift for me to throw into your lap!"
+
+"A gift?" his brother asked--"an indemnification for the loss of income
+that the sale of the factory will occasion me, and without which
+indemnification I shall certainly prevent any such sale. You are always
+representing our business transactions as generous on your part. I
+require no generosity at your hands. You pay me for my services: I
+serve you because you pay me. Why pretend to a feeling that would be
+unnatural between us?--we are step-brothers; it would be preposterous
+sentimentality to try to love each other."
+
+"Most certainly you take no pains to attach me to you," the invalid
+remarked.
+
+"Why should I?" his brother replied with a smile. "There must be some
+reason for everything in the world--there would be none in that. You
+would not give me a farthing for my amiability; whatever I get from you
+must be earned by services very different from brotherly affection."
+
+"You are a downright fiend, that no man, made of flesh and blood, could
+possibly love! You always were so from a child: how you tormented my
+poor mother! You know nothing of human feeling. In the warmest weather
+your hands are always damp and cold, and your heart, too, is never
+warm. I am cross and irritable, but I am not as utterly heartless as
+you are, God forbid! You are one of those beings at discord with all
+natural laws, who cast no shadow in the sunshine." The sick man closed
+his eyes, exhausted, and large drops of moisture stood upon his brow.
+
+His brother took a handkerchief and carefully wiped them away. "Only
+see how you excite yourself, and all for nothing!" he said in the
+gentlest, kindliest voice. "Because I have no sympathy with fictitious
+sentiment and exaggerated outbursts, you call me unfeeling. Because I
+am quiet by nature, not easily aroused, you picture me in your feverish
+dreams as a vampire. I will leave you now, or I shall excite you. Lay
+to heart what I have said about the child; for if the present course is
+persevered in, it will bring disgrace upon us, and that would be to me
+unendurable!"
+
+Hartwich made no reply; he had turned his face to the wall, and did not
+look around until his brother had noiselessly left the room.
+
+During this conversation little Ernestine had allowed her dress to be
+put on. When this was done, the housekeeper left the room, and the
+child busied herself with lacing upon her feet an old pair of boots
+that were really too small for her.
+
+"That's right, Ernestine," one of the maid-servants whispered. "Frau
+Gedike is a bad woman: none of us can bear her--it is good for her to
+be vexed, and we are glad of it!"
+
+"I do not want to vex her, but I hate her--and my father, too--he is
+cruel to me," said the child, with the bitterness with which a
+defenceless human being, when ill used, seeks to revenge itself.
+
+"Indeed he is a dreadful father," Rieka, the elder of the maids,
+whispered softly to her companion, but Ernestine heard all that she
+said perfectly well. "He always wanted a son, and talked forever of
+what he would do for his boy when he had one. And when the child was
+born, and was not a boy after all, he was quite beside himself, and
+cried furiously, 'Only a girl! only a girl!' and rushed out of the
+house, banging the door after him so that the whole house shook. The
+young mother--she was a delicate lady--fell into convulsions with
+sorrow and fright, and took the fever, and died on the third day. Then
+he was sorry enough, and raved and tore his hair over the corpse, but
+he could not bring her to life again. He has been well punished since
+he had his stroke, and perhaps it was to punish him that Ernestine has
+grown so ugly; but he ought at least to show his repentance for what he
+did, by kindness to the sickly little thing, instead of abusing her. It
+isn't the child's fault that she's not a boy."
+
+Ernestine listened to all this with a beating heart, and now slipped
+out gently that the maid might not know she had overheard her. Outside
+she stopped to stroke the dog, but the poor thirsty brute growled at
+her. She saw that he had no water, and took his can to the well and
+filled it. When she saw the water gushing so sparkling from the pipe,
+she could not resist the temptation to let it run upon her burning
+head.
+
+"Ernestine, what mischief are you about now?" the housekeeper screamed
+from the window; but the water was already dripping down from the
+child's long hair upon her shoulders, breast, and back.
+
+"The sun will dry it before I get to the Frau Staatsräthin's, she
+thought, and carried the dog his drink; but when she attempted to pat
+him, he growled again, because he did not wish to be disturbed while
+drinking.
+
+"Even the dog does not like me," she thought, and crept away. "Only a
+girl! And my father is so cross to me because I am not a boy." And as
+she went on she repeated the phrase to herself, and her step kept time
+to it as to a tune, "Only a girl--only a girl!"
+
+
+From the window of the upper story her uncle and his wife looked after
+her. The wife presented an utter contrast to her husband. She was
+uncommonly stout, and her jolly face was so flushed that if her husband
+had really been a vampire she might have afforded him nourishment for a
+long term of ghostly existence. But he was no such monster, although
+his meagre body seemed to bask in his wife's warm fulness of life as
+some puny, starving wretch does in the heat of a huge stove. Any more
+poetical comparison is impossible in connection with Frau Leuthold;
+for, in spite of her massive beauty, her thick bushy eyebrows, her
+sparkling black eyes, her thick waves of dark hair, the whole
+expression of her large face, with its double chin and pouting mouth,
+was coarsely sensual. Yet there was something in this expression that
+showed that, however great the dissimilarity between the husband and
+wife in mind and body, there was still one thing in which they were
+alike: it was the heart,--in his case ossified, in hers overgrown with
+fat.
+
+There are some persons whose mental organization can be excellently
+well described by the medical term "fat-hearted." They are no longer
+capable of any healthy moral activity, because an indolent sensuality
+has taken possession of them, crippling their energies like fat
+accumulating around the heart. Although the natures of husband and wife
+were radically dissimilar, still in the results of their modes of
+thought there was enough similarity to produce that sort of harmony
+which is maintained between the receiver and the thief. The stout
+brunette was a worthy accomplice of her slender, fair husband; and that
+she possessed the art of sweetening existence for him after a fashion,
+to which no one possessing nerves of taste and smell is altogether
+insensible, a table, upon which were delicious fruits, biscuits, and a
+bowl of iced sherbet, bore ample testimony. Thus the refined thinker
+endured the narrowness and coarseness of his better half for the sake
+of material qualifications, and of the ease with which she entered into
+his projects for selfish aggrandizement. As a cook she possessed his
+entire approbation, and the union between these utterly different
+natures was universally considered a happy one.
+
+"She's an ugly thing, that Ernestine," said the affectionate aunt,
+looking after her pale little niece, who was walking slowly along with
+drooping head. "Kind as I may be to her, she will have nothing to say
+to me. They say dogs and children always know who likes them and who
+does not; so I suppose the child knows I can't abide her."
+
+"Whether you like her or not is not the question," replied her husband.
+"You have not attached her to you, and that is a mistake; for it makes
+us sharers in the common report of Hartwich's cruelty to the child. She
+is considered in the village as the victim of unfeeling treatment. The
+pastor thinks her a martyr, whose cause he is bound to adopt; the
+schoolmaster talks about her clear head; and who can tell that all this
+nonsense may not waken the conscience of my fool of a brother, and
+induce him at the eleventh hour to make, Heaven only knows what changes
+for her advantage! That would be a blow--such people easily fall from
+one extreme into the other. Therefore the child must be separated from
+him. If I cannot succeed in having her sent away, we must manage
+somehow to attach her to us, and so stop people's mouths." An
+involuntary sigh from his wife interrupted him. "I know it is
+troublesome, up-hill work; but, Heaven willing, it cannot last long.
+Hartwich is failing. He may live a year; but, if he should have another
+stroke, he may go off at any moment; then, for all I care, you may
+be rid of the disagreeable duty at once, and send Ernestine to
+boarding-school. Still, appearances must be kept up, my dear. You know
+how much I would sacrifice for the sake of my reputation. I cannot bear
+a shabby dress or to dine off a soiled table-cloth; and just so I
+cannot endure a stain upon my name."
+
+While speaking, he had seated himself at the table and filled a goblet
+of sherbet from the fragrant bowl. As he was sipping it delicately,
+with his lips almost closed, his wife threw herself down upon the sofa
+by his side with such clumsy violence that the springs creaked, and her
+husband was so jolted that he lost his balance, and the contents of his
+glass were spilled upon his immaculate shirt-front. Much annoyed, he
+carefully dried his dripping garment with his napkin. "Now I shall have
+to dress again," he said in a tone of vexation.
+
+"To spill your glass over you just in the midst of such a conversation
+as this means no good," said his superstitious wife.
+
+"It means that you never will learn to conduct yourself like a lady,"
+was the quiet reply.
+
+"Indeed!" she cried with a laugh. "So I must learn aristocratic manners
+that I may do more credit to your brother, who has drunk himself into
+an apoplexy! A fine aristocrat he is!"
+
+"Just because he disgraces his standing I will respect mine; and you
+should assist me to do so, instead of laughing. And when his estate is
+ours, I will show the world that it is not necessary to be born in an
+aristocratic cradle in order to be an aristocrat. The dismissed Marburg
+professor will yet play a part among the _élite_ of the scientific and
+fashionable world that a prince might envy him. Wealth is all-powerful;
+and where there is wealth with brains, men are caught like flies upon a
+limed twig."
+
+"Ah, how fine it will be!" cried his wife, excited by this view of the
+subject; and she hastily filled a glass from the bowl and drank it
+greedily.
+
+"It is indeed such good fortune that a man less self-controlled than
+myself might well-nigh lose his senses at the thought of it!" her
+husband rejoined. And there was a dreamy look in his light-blue eyes.
+
+"Then we can keep a carriage, and I shall drive out shopping, with
+footmen to attend me, and Gretchen shall have a French bonne, and shall
+be always dressed in white and sky-blue. We will live in the capital,
+and you, Leuthold, need never do another day's work,--you can amuse
+yourself in any way that pleases you."
+
+And the wife tossed her head proudly, as though already lolling upon
+the soft cushions of her carriage.
+
+"Do you suppose I could ever be a robber of time?" he asked her with a
+sharp glance. "No, most certainly not. If I had made the ten
+commandments, the seventh should have been, 'Thou shalt not steal a day
+from the Lord.' He who steals a day seems to me the most contemptible
+of all thieves."
+
+Ills wife laughed and displayed a double row of fine white teeth, whose
+strength she was just proving by cracking hazel-nuts.
+
+"Do you suppose," continued Leuthold, "that I should ever be content
+with the reputation of a merely wealthy man? No; I long for other
+honours. As soon as the means are in my power, I will resume my old
+scientific labours, and will soon distance the miserable drudges who
+daily lecture in our schools. I will have such a chemical and
+physiological laboratory as few universities can boast. Ah! when I am
+once free from all the hated servitude, the miserable toil day after
+day, in that detestable factory, I will bathe in the clear, fresh
+stream of science, and make a name for myself that shall rank among the
+first of our time."
+
+"Is that all the happiness you propose to yourself?" asked his wife
+with a sneer.
+
+"There is no greater happiness than to play a great part in the world
+through one's own ability; and if my poverty has hitherto prevented my
+doing so, my wealth, in making me independent, shall help me to my
+goal. Make a man independent, and he has free play for the exercise of
+his talents; while the hard necessity of earning his daily bread has
+crushed many a budding genius before his powers were fully developed.
+It is glorious to be able to work at what we love!--as glorious as it
+is miserable to be forced to work at what we hate." He smoothed with
+his hand his thin, glossy hair, and murmured with a sigh, "No wonder it
+is growing gray; I wonder it is not snow-white, since for ten years
+this miserable fate has been mine. It is enough to destroy the very
+marrow in one's bones, and dry up the blood in the veins."
+
+His wife stared at him with surprise. "Why, Leuthold, think what good
+dinners I have always cooked for you!"
+
+Leuthold looked up as if awakening from a dream, and then, with the
+ironical expression which his unsuspicious fellow-men interpreted as
+pure benevolence, he said, "You are right, Bertha! Your first principle
+is 'eat and drink;' mine is 'think and work.' That yours is much the
+more practical can be mathematically proved!" He glanced with a smile
+at his wife's portly figure.
+
+"Only wait until we are settled in the capital, and see what I will do
+for you. Then you shall have dinners indeed!" said Bertha.
+
+"Your skill will be needed, for we shall have plenty of guests. Men are
+like dogs: they gather where there is a chance of a good dinner, and
+the host is sure of many friends devoted to him through their palates.
+'Tis true, such friends last only as long as the fine dinners last; we
+can have them while we need them, and throw them overboard, like
+useless ballast, when they can no longer serve our turn."
+
+"Yes, you are right; what a knowing fellow you are!" cried Bertha.
+"Heavens!" she added, clapping her hands with childlike naïveté, "if he
+would only die soon!"
+
+Her husband looked at her sternly. "I trust that in case of the event,
+which will be as welcome to me as to you, no human eye will be able to
+discern anything but grief in your countenance. Should you be too
+awkward to simulate sorrow, I must invent some method for making you
+really feel it; for appearances must be preserved at all costs!
+Remember that!"
+
+Bertha clasped her hands in dismay. "Mercy on me! I really believe you
+would do anything to torment me into seeming sorry. It would be just
+like you; for what people say of you,--or 'appearances,' as you call
+it, are dearer to you than wife or child, or anything else in the
+world."
+
+She sprang up, and her breath came quick and angrily. Leuthold
+contemplated her with a kind of satisfaction as she stood before him
+with flashing eyes and curling lip. She displayed some emotion,--only
+the emotion of anger, 'tis true; but as enthusiasm is always
+passionate, so passion will sometimes seem enthusiasm, and lend a kind
+of nimbus to insignificance.
+
+"I like to see you so!" said Leuthold, drawing her down beside him and
+laying his cool hand upon her shoulder.
+
+Just then the cry of a child was heard in the adjoining apartment.
+"Gretchen is awake," cried Bertha, forgetting her anger, and leaving
+the room so quickly that the boards creaked beneath her heavy tread,
+and the sofa upon which her husband was seated shook. She soon
+returned, with a pretty child of three years of age in her arms. After
+tossing it, notwithstanding its size and strength, up and down like an
+india-rubber ball, she threw it with maternal pride into her husband's
+lap. He caressed the little thing tenderly, and a ray shot from his
+eyes like the gleam of a wintry san across a snowy landscape. For,
+though there was no genuine paternal love in his heart, there
+was at least in its place,--what is hardly to be distinguished from
+it,--fatherly pride.
+
+"How strange to think," said the mother, "that that should be your
+child!"
+
+"Why?" asked Leuthold with surprise.
+
+"It is so odd that such a slim, delicate-looking man as you are should
+have such a healthy, chubby little daughter. It is just as if a
+wheat-stalk should bear penny rolls instead of wheat-ears." She laughed
+immoderately at the idea, without perceiving that her husband was far
+from flattered by the comparison. "They say," she continued, "'long
+waited for is good at last,' and we waited long for the little thing,
+and she is good." And she put up the child's plump little hand to her
+mouth as though she would bite it. The little girl shouted with glee,
+and the sound so sweet to maternal ears did not fail to awaken a
+return. Bertha shouted too, until her husband's ears tingled. "If
+Ernestine had only been a boy, she could have married Gretchen, and our
+child would have been all provided for," she said, after a pause.
+
+"Do not talk such nonsense," said Leuthold. "Hartwich would have loved
+a son as thoroughly as he detests his daughter, and would have
+bequeathed to him all his property. We owe our inheritance there to the
+happy chance that made his child a girl. But even supposing that she
+were a boy, with the inheritance still ours, do you think I would mate
+her so unworthily? No! our Gretchen, lovely and rich as she will be,
+can never marry a simple Herr von Hartwich. She will one day make me
+father-in-law to some great statesman, some illustrious scholar, or, at
+least, to some count!"
+
+"And me mother to a countess!" cried his wife with glee.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+                    THE STORY OF THE UGLY DUCKLING.
+
+
+In the mean time Ernestine had pursued her way. She walked slowly on
+through the extensive fields in the glare of the four-o'clock sun,
+whose rays were broken by no friendly tree or shrub. The waist of the
+dress which she had outgrown was so tight that she was frequently
+obliged to stand still and recover her breath. The perspiration rolled
+down her poor worn little face. The sunbeams felt like dagger-points
+upon her weary head; but she could not go back: fear of her father was
+more powerful than the torments she was enduring. Better to be pierced
+by the sun's rays than struck by her father's hard hand. Still, she
+could not help weeping bitterly that every one seemed so unkind to her.
+What had she done, that her father should hate her so? It was not her
+fault that she was so ugly and not a boy. "Ah, why am I a girl?" she
+sobbed, and sat down upon the hard, sun-baked clods of earth among the
+brown, dried potato-plants. She clasped her knees with her arms, and
+pondered why boys were better than girls, wondering whether she could
+not learn to do all that boys could. The schoolmaster had often told
+her that she had more sense and learned her lessons better than the
+boys. What was it that she needed, then? Strength, boldness, courage!
+Yes, that was a good deal, to be sure; but could she not make them hers
+in time? She thought and thought. She would exercise her strength. She
+had once read of a man who carried a calf about in his arms daily, and
+was so accustomed to his burden that he never noticed how the calf
+increased in size and weight, until at last he bore a huge ox in his
+arms. She would do so too; she would accustom herself at first to the
+weight of little burdens, and go on increasing them until at last she
+could carry the very heaviest. And she could be bold too, if she only
+dared, and if her shyness would only wear off. Then, she hoped, her
+father would be quite content with her. She sprang to her feet
+comforted and walked on. Her mind was made up. She would be just like a
+boy.
+
+At the end of an hour Ernestine reached a beautiful and extensive
+grove, through which she passed, and entered a garden, at the end of
+which stood a charming country-house. Upon the wide lawn in front, a
+merry throng of children were running and leaping hither and thither,
+and from the fresh green a sparkling fountain tossed into the air a
+crystal ball. At the open doors of a room leading out into the garden
+sat a company of elegantly-dressed ladies and gentlemen, and servants
+in rich liveries were handing around refreshments upon silver salvers.
+Ernestine stood as if dazzled by all this pomp and splendour. She dared
+not approach. How could she? To whom could she turn? No one came
+towards her; no one spoke to her. Her embarrassment was indescribable,
+when suddenly the beautiful, gaily-dressed children on the lawn broke
+off their play and looked towards her with astonishment. Ernestine saw
+how the little girls nudged each other and pointed at her. She
+distinctly heard some say to the others, "What does she want?" She was
+almost on the point of turning round to run away, when she was observed
+by the group of ladies and gentlemen, and a servant was dispatched to
+ask whom she was looking for. Everything swam before her eyes as the
+tall man with such a distinguished air stepped up to her and asked
+sharply, "What do you want here?"
+
+"Nothing," replied Ernestine; "I would not have come if I had known!"
+
+"Who are you, then?" asked the servant
+
+"I am Ernestine Hartwich."
+
+"Ah, indeed!" he said, with a slight bow; "that's another affair; you
+are invited. Permit me." With these words he conducted the passive
+child to the ladies, and announced, "Fräulein von Hartwich!"
+
+The looks that were now fastened upon Ernestine were more piercing and
+burning, she thought, than the sun's rays. Those people never dreamed
+that the quiet little creature standing before them was possessed of a
+goal so delicate in its organization, so finely strung, that every
+breath of contempt that swept across it created a shrill discord, a
+painful confusion; they only looked with the careless disapproval,
+which would have been all very well with ordinary children, at the
+straight, black, dishevelled hair, the sunken cheeks, the wizened,
+sharp features of the pale face, the deep dark eyes, with their shy,
+uncertain glances, the lips tightly closed in embarrassment, and last,
+the emaciated figure in its faded short dress, and the long, narrow
+feet and hands. In the minds of most, an ugly exterior excites more
+disgust than sympathy; and, to excuse this feeling to one's self, one
+is apt to declare that the child or person in question has an
+"unpleasant expression," thus hinting at moral responsibility in the
+matter of the exterior, as if it were the result of an ugliness of soul
+which would, in a measure, excuse one's disgust. This was the case with
+all who were now looking at this strange child. It seemed as though
+they were drinking in with their eyes the poison that had wasted
+Ernestine's little body,--the poison of hatred which her being had
+imbibed from her father and her unnatural surroundings, and as if this
+poison reacted from them upon herself. The little girl felt this
+instinctively without comprehending it, and as she met, one after
+another, those loveless glances, it was as though a wound in her flesh
+were ruthlessly probed. She could not understand what the ladies
+whispered to each other in French, but their tones intimated
+displeasure and contempt. She suddenly saw herself as in a mirror
+through their eyes, and she saw, what she had never seen before, that
+she was very ugly and awkward,--that she was meanly dressed; and shame
+for her poor innocent self flushed her cheeks crimson. In that single
+minute she ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
+evil,--that fruit which has driven thousands, sooner or later, from the
+Eden of childlike unconsciousness. She had entered upon that stage
+of life where a human being is self-accused for being unloved,
+unsought,--despises herself because others despise her,--finds herself
+ugly because she gives pleasure to none. Hitherto, whatever she had
+suffered, she had been at peace with herself; now she was at enmity
+with herself and the world. She felt suffocated; everything swam before
+her sight, and hot tears gushed from her eyes. Just then a tall,
+stately woman came out of the drawing-room. "Frau Staatsräthin," one of
+the ladies called to her in a tone of contempt, "a new guest has
+arrived!"
+
+"Is that little Ernestine Hartwich?" asked the hostess, evidently
+endeavouring to conceal behind a kindly tone and manner her amazement
+at the child's appearance. She held out her hand: "Good day, my child;
+I am glad you have come. Will you not take some refreshment? You seem
+heated. You have not walked all the way? Yes? Oh, that is too much in
+such hot weather! Such a delicate child!" she said with a look of
+sympathy. She sprinkled sugar over some strawberries and placed
+Ernestine on a seat where she could eat them, but the rest all stared
+at her so she could not move a finger; she could scarcely hold the
+plate. How could she eat while all these people were looking on? She
+trembled so that she could not carry the spoon to her lips.
+
+She choked down the rising tears as well as she could, for she was
+ashamed to cry, and said softly, "I would like to go home!"
+
+"To go home?" cried the Staatsräthin. "Oh, no, my child; you have had
+no time to rest, and you are so tired! Come, my dear little girl, I
+will take you to a cool room, where you can take a little nap before
+you play with the other children." She took Ernestine by the hand and
+led her into the house and through several elegant rooms to a smaller
+apartment, with half-closed shutters and green damask furniture and
+hangings, where it was as quiet, fresh, and cool as in a grove. The air
+was fragrant, too; for there was a basket of magnificent roses upon the
+table.
+
+Ernestine was speechless with admiration at all the beauty around her
+here. She had never seen such a beautiful room in her life, never
+breathed within-doors so pure an atmosphere. The Staatsräthin told her
+to lie down upon a green damask couch, which she hesitated to do, until
+at last she took off her dusty boots, heedless that she thereby exposed
+stockings full of holes, and when the Staatsräthin, with a kindly "Take
+a good nap, my child," left her, and she was alone, a flood of novel
+sensations overpowered her. The pain of the last few moments, gratitude
+for the kindness of the Staatsräthin, the enchantment that wealth and
+splendour cast around, every childish imagination,--all combined to
+confuse her thoughts. But the solitude of the cool room soon had a
+soothing effect upon her. The green twilight was good for her eyes,
+weary with weeping and the glare of the sun; she felt so far away from
+those mocking, prying glances; everything was so calm and quiet here
+that she seemed to hear the flowing of her own blood through her veins.
+She thought of the ironing-room and her father's gloomy chamber at
+home. What a difference there was! Oh, if she could only stay here
+forever! How can people ever be unkind who have such a lovely home! How
+can they laugh at a poor child who has nothing of all this!
+
+But the Frau Staatsräthin, whose room this was, was kind. Ah, how kind!
+Yet so different from every one at home--so--what? So distinguished!
+Yes, every one at home seemed common compared with her, and Ernestine
+herself was common, although the lady had not treated her as if she
+were; she felt it herself; and was ashamed. What if the lady could have
+seen how naughty she had been to-day, how she had torn off her dress
+and stamped upon it, and scolded Frau Gedike?
+
+She blushed at these thoughts, and resolved never again to conduct
+herself so that she should be ashamed to have the Frau Staatsräthin see
+her. A new sense was suddenly awakened in the child; but it fluttered
+hither and thither like a timid bird, terrified by her late
+surroundings, and not yet accustomed to all that was so novel about
+her.
+
+The child never dreamed of the innate refinement that distinguished her
+from thousands of ordinary children; she was only crushed as she
+compared herself with the gentle lady and the gaily-dressed children
+upon the lawn; and this very feeling of shame, this disgust at herself,
+was a proof how foreign to her youthful mind was the absence of beauty
+in her exterior. In the midst of all these new, confusing thoughts,
+sleep overpowered her; she stretched herself out comfortably upon the
+soft couch. The beating of her heart, the painful pressure upon her
+brain, and the singing in her ears, grew fainter and weaker, and
+soothed her to slumber like a cradle-song.
+
+On the lawn, in the mean time, nothing was talked of but the child, and
+her family. It was thought inconceivable that a Freiherr von Hartwich
+should allow his daughter to be so neglected. But then he had never
+been a genuine aristocrat; for his mother was of low extraction, as was
+proved by her return to her own rank of life after the death of her
+husband Von Hartwich. She soon after married the widower Gleissert,
+thus giving her son a master-manufacturer for a father, then purchased
+her husband's heavily encumbered factory, which she had bequeathed to
+her son with the condition that he should continue to keep it up,--a
+condition most distasteful to the heir. Gleissert had a son by his
+first marriage, named Leuthold, who had studied, but had not been much
+of a credit to his brother, with whom he was living at present.
+
+The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of an elderly
+gentleman, who drove up in a very elegant but very dusty carriage. The
+number of orders upon his breast testified to his high position, and
+the haste with which the hostess went forward to receive him, and the
+trembling of the hand which she extended towards him, showed of what
+importance his arrival was to her.
+
+"Vivat!" he cried out to her. "Your Johannes takes the first rank--a
+splendid examination--there has not been such another for ten years!"
+
+"Thank God!" said the Staatsräthin, with a long sigh of relief.
+
+"Yes, yes!" the kindly voice continued. "A superb fellow! I
+congratulate you upon such a son--not a question missed--not one! And
+answered with such ease and confidence, yet without the slightest
+particle of conceit. Deuce take it!--I wish I had married and had such
+a son. Come," he said, turning to a boy of about fourteen years
+of age, who had arrived with him, "perhaps you may one day be such
+another,--keep your eyes steadily upon Johannes. Permit me, dear madam,
+to present to you the son of my late friend, Ferdinand Hilsborn. He
+lost his mother a few months ago, and is now my adopted son."
+
+The Staatsräthin held out her hand to the boy, and said with emotion,
+"Although I never knew your mother, it pains me deeply to know that she
+left this world before she could enjoy such a moment as your adopted
+father has just given me by his tidings."
+
+The gentle boy's eyes filled with tears as she spoke.
+
+"Only think, my dear friends," said the Staatsräthin, turning to the
+company, "Johannes never told me that this was his examination-day,
+that he might surprise me. I only learned it this afternoon from a few
+thoughtless words of my brother's. Our kind Geheimrath Heim has just
+brought me the tidings of his promotion."
+
+The guests, with sympathy and congratulations, crowded around the proud
+mother, whose heart was too full to do anything but reply mechanically
+to their kind speeches.
+
+"But, dear Frau Möllner," a Frau Landräthin remarked maliciously, "was
+it not a little strange that your Johannes should not have told you of
+his examination-day?--certainly a mother has a sacred right to share
+such hours with her son."
+
+"When a mother's claims are held as sacred as are mine by my son,"
+replied the Staatsräthin, with dignified composure, "he may well be
+left to do as seems to him best in such a matter. He wished to spare me
+hours of anxiety; and I thank him."
+
+"The woman is blindly devoted to her son," the Landräthin whispered to
+a friend.
+
+"She is growing perfectly childish with maternal vanity," remarked
+another.
+
+"But how can any one as wealthy as the Staatsräthin allow her son to
+study?" said the Landräthin.
+
+"Yes, yes!" several others joined in, "he certainly need never earn his
+living in such a way. Why did she not buy him a commission? 'Tis too
+bad for such a handsome young man!"
+
+"Yes, yes!" the old Geheimrath called out to the ladies, as if he had
+heard only their last words, "Johannes is a man,--a man, although
+hardly twenty years old! Only such a mother could have such a son!" And
+he laid his hand kindly upon the Staatsräthin's arm.
+
+"I wish every woman, left alone in the world, had such a friend as you
+are," she said, holding out her hand to him gratefully. "You are the
+best legacy left me by my dear husband. But where is Johannes? Why did
+he not come with you?"
+
+"He sent me before to announce his arrival in the evening," replied the
+old gentleman. "He was obliged to make a few visits this afternoon.
+Ah," he sighed, as the Staatsräthin handed him some refreshments, "it
+is a hot journey hither from town,--and a tedious one too,--but it is
+all the cooler and more delightful when you get here." He wiped his
+forehead and looked around the circle with the kindly, penetrating
+glance of a man who sees through the weaknesses of his fellow-men, but
+judges them with the gentleness of a superior nature. "Well, ladies,"
+he asked good-humouredly, "did the old doctor interrupt a most
+interesting conversation? I cannot believe that sitting here so silent
+and serious is your normal condition. What were you talking of when I
+arrived?"
+
+"Of nothing very pleasant, Herr Geheimrath," said the Landräthin
+venomously; "we were only speaking of Herr von Hartwich and of his
+brother, who went wrong some years ago,--we don't know exactly how."
+
+"I can tell you all about it, ladies," said the Geheimrath.
+
+All instantly entreated him, "Oh, tell us; pray tell us!"
+
+The Geheimrath began: "I was professor of medicine at Marburg when that
+strange occurrence took place. It was about ten years ago. Gleissert
+was then Extraordinarius in the university, and a young man of great
+ability. By his diligence and insinuating manners, he had won for
+himself the good-will of every one; and one of my colleagues, Hilsborn,
+the father of the boy whom I brought with me to-day, was his intimate
+friend. Their _spécialité_ was the same, and Hilsborn filled the
+professorial chair which was the object of Gleissert's desire. Both
+were physiologists, but Hilsborn had the chair of special physiology,
+and Gleissert, as Extraordinarius, was occupied only with physiological
+chemistry. One day Hilsborn confided to me that he was upon the track
+of a new discovery. It would be of great importance to science if he
+could only succeed in carrying it out and establishing it upon a firm
+foundation. The difficulty in doing so lay principally in the procuring
+of the necessary material for his experiments,--a species of fish found
+only at Trieste, and which he could not procure alive. Hilsborn, a poor
+widow's son, lamented his want of means to travel thither and prove his
+hypothesis. I promised to obtain for him from my friend the minister,
+by the next vacation, a sufficient sum to meet his expenses, and I did
+so; but there was the same delay in the matter that is usual in such
+cases, and the necessary sum came so late that the journey had to be
+postponed until the following vacation, Hilsborn comforting himself
+with the thought that, although he must wait another six months,
+nothing but time would be lost. Suddenly Herr Gleissert married the
+daughter of a wealthy innkeeper, and begged for leave of absence for
+his wedding-trip. It was granted, and he was absent for four weeks.
+Strangely enough, his friend never heard from him during all that time;
+and, when he returned, we all noticed that he was unwilling to let us
+know where he had been. We thought he had private grounds for such
+unwillingness, and did not question him further. The term was over at
+last, and Hilsborn set off for Trieste. There he worked night and day
+with superhuman diligence. The result of his investigations was
+perfectly satisfactory, and he came back with the materials for a work
+which was sure to establish his fame and fortune. One day--I shall
+never forget it--he was in my room when the publisher sent me several
+new scientific papers. Hilsborn was looking through them carelessly,
+when suddenly he grew ashy pale. Among the pamphlets was one by
+Gleissert, embodying Hilsborn's idea. I was as shocked and astounded as
+he was. It could not be chance which led two men at the same time to so
+novel an idea, especially as Gleissert's course of study could not have
+directed him to such investigations as Hilsborn's. After a long and
+evident struggle with himself, Hilsborn confessed to me that he had
+communicated his ideas to Gleissert, and had frequently from the
+beginning discussed the matter thoroughly with him, without Gleissert's
+ever hinting even that the subject had occurred to him before. On the
+contrary, he was at work upon a paper upon a chemical subject, a paper
+which had never appeared. Difficult as it was for my high-minded friend
+to bring himself to it, the conviction was unavoidable that his friend
+had basely deceived him; for we discovered, upon close inquiry, that
+Gleissert's wedding-trip had been to Trieste, where he had pursued the
+investigations proposed by Hilsborn, and hurried on the printing of
+their results with the greatest haste. All outside proof of his
+contemptible treachery was perfect, and we were all morally convinced
+that he had _stolen_ Hilsborn's idea. As pro-rector, I called him to a
+strict account. His defence was cunning, but not convincing. He did not
+attempt to deny the principal accusation brought forward, namely, the
+suspicious fact that he had induced Hilsborn to promise him not to
+impart his discovery to any one else, 'lest it should be used to his
+disadvantage.' He wished to be the sole depositary of the secret, that
+there might be no witnesses to Hilsborn's proprietorship of the stolen
+idea. I ask this worthy assemblage," the old gentleman here interrupted
+himself with indignation, "if there can be any doubt of the baseness of
+the man in the matter?"
+
+"No, most certainly not, Herr Geheimrath, most certainly not," was the
+unanimous reply.
+
+"Well," the narrator continued, "so we thought. We, one and all,
+determined to avenge poor Hilsborn, thus deprived of all his fair
+hopes. It is true we had no legal weapon at our disposal. Our stupid
+laws punish forgers and counterfeiters, but they cannot recognize the
+theft of the coinage of the brain. There are jails for the hungry
+beggar who steals a loaf; but the rogue who robs a man of his thought,
+the painfully-begotten fruit of his mind after years of labour, goes
+free. We professors undertook to do what the law does not. We published
+the matter far and wide in the scientific periodicals, and all handed
+in our resignations to the government, stating that we held it
+inconsistent with our honour to remain the colleagues of such a man. Of
+course Gleissert was instantly dismissed in disgrace, and an academic
+career closed to him forever. I was called away from Marburg soon
+after; and, since I have lived in the capital as royal physician, I
+have lost sight of my former colleagues. Hilsborn died after some
+years, and his son is now my adopted child. What became of Gleissert I
+do not know."
+
+"I can tell you," said a fine-looking man, whose resemblance to the
+Staatsräthin declared him her brother. "I have informed myself about
+matters here, because I propose to purchase Hartwich's factories for my
+son. According to the schoolmaster, the fellow is playing a double part
+here also. It cannot be denied that under his guidance, and owing to
+his chemical discoveries, the factories have doubled in value since his
+arrival, for Hartwich is a very narrow-minded man, incapable, from his
+wretched avarice, of venturing upon any important speculation; but the
+way in which his brother contrives to be paid for his services is, to
+say the least, striking. For five years he contented himself with the
+salary of an overseer and free lodging--he bided his time. It came at
+last. One day Herr von Hartwich had a paralytic stroke, and the
+physicians declared that he had but few years to live. Gleissert made
+use of this time of helplessness, and threatened to leave the factory
+immediately and dispose of his discoveries elsewhere if Hartwich did
+not appoint him his heir. Hartwich, who of course stood more in need of
+him than ever, accepted his conditions, set aside that poor little girl
+as far as the law would allow it, and made a will in Gleissert's
+favour."
+
+"He's a thorough scoundrel, that Gleissert,--a legacy-hunter, then,
+besides. I should like to know what the fellow holds sacred?"
+
+"Let us ask the child about him," cried one of the ladies.
+
+"Yes, yes," joined in several others. "It would be so interesting.
+Pray, dear Staatsräthin, bring the little girl here."
+
+The Staatsräthin looked at her watch, and, finding that Ernestine had
+slept nearly an hour, went to fetch her. She soon returned with her,
+and again the child had to run the gauntlet of those piercing glances.
+But her rest had refreshed her, and she was not so timid.
+
+She heard the old Geheimrath whisper to his next neighbour, "How did
+that stupid Hartwich ever come to have such a clever child? Look--what
+a remarkable head. Pity the little thing is not a boy! something might
+be made of her!"
+
+His words struck to her very soul. Again she heard the same
+phrase,--this time from a perfect stranger, "Pity she's not a boy!"
+
+She straightened herself, as though she had suddenly grown an inch
+taller, and looked up at the thoughtless speaker as if to say,
+"Something shall be made of me!" Then she glanced wistfully at the
+children who were playing ball; if she were only among them now, she
+would show that she could be like a boy. The Landräthin took her hand
+and said, "Well, my dear child, tell us something of your father. How
+is he now?"
+
+Ernestine seemed surprised at the question.--"I did not ask him."
+
+The ladies looked significantly at each other.
+
+"Have you not seen him to-day?"
+
+"Yes," she answered briefly.
+
+"Do you not love your father very dearly?" the Landräthin asked
+further.
+
+Ernestine paused, and then said quietly and firmly, "No!"
+
+Her interrogator dropped the child's hand as if stung by an insect. "An
+affectionate daughter!" she sneered, while the rest shook their heads.
+"Whom do you love, then?--your uncle?"
+
+"I love no one at home; but I like my uncle better than my father--he
+never strikes me!" Ernestine answered.
+
+"Like likes like, as it seems," one of the ladies observed; the rest
+nodded assent, and all turned away from Ernestine.
+
+"She is an unfortunate child," said the Staatsräthin; and arose to lead
+her to the children. "Angelika, here is Ernestine von Hartwich," she
+cried to her own little daughter, who was about nine years old; "take
+good care of her,--remember you are hostess!"
+
+The children, towards whom the Staatsräthin led her protégé, scattered
+like a flock of birds at the approach of a paper kite. Collecting then
+in single groups, they whispered together, and stared at the stranger.
+Ernestine found herself alone, avoided by all the gay crowd which she
+had just so fervently admired. She played the part of a scarecrow, but
+with the melancholy superiority that she was conscious that she was
+one. She knew that she had scattered the gay circle, that she had
+chased away the children, that they all avoided her; and again she felt
+as if she should sink into the ground, her feeble limbs trembled
+beneath the burden of derision and contempt that she was forced to
+bear. The Staatsräthin cast a stern glance--which Ernestine noticed--at
+little Angelika, and said, "Give your hand to your new friend!"
+
+Two of the larger girls giggled, and Ernestine heard them whisper, "A
+lovely friend!"
+
+Angelika now approached Ernestine, and held out her soft little hand,
+but instantly withdrew it, stood mute before her for a moment, looking
+at the old brown straw hat that Ernestine held in her hand, then
+ventured one look into her eyes, and nestled confused and shy against
+her mother, who spoke seriously but kindly to the pretty child. She
+spoke in French, and Angelika answered in the same language. Ernestine
+was amazed. The little girl understood a strange tongue, and yet she
+was smaller than herself! She, who wanted to be as clever as a boy, did
+not even know as much as the little girl. And she had to endure their
+speaking before her as if she were not present; there she stupidly
+stood, well knowing that they were saying nothing good of her or they
+would have said it in German. She was weighed down by a double
+disgrace, that of her ignorance, and of knowing that they were speaking
+of her as if she were not there.
+
+"Frau Staatsräthin," she said in a quivering voice, "I will not stay
+here; the children do not like me; I am too bad for them!" She turned
+away, and would really have gone, but little Angelika's good heart
+conquered.
+
+She ran after her and held her fast: "No, no, dear Ernestine; you are
+not too bad for us; you are only odd--different from the rest of us.
+Come, we will play with you!"
+
+Then the Staatsräthin took Angelika in her arms, and kissed her,
+saying, "That's right; now you are my little Angelika again, my good
+sweet child."
+
+Ernestine looked on at this caress with amazement, and hot tears rose
+to her eyes. No one had ever been so kind to her. What happiness it
+must be to be so embraced and kissed! But it could never happen to her.
+Why not? Why did no one love her? Angelika, too, was only a girl: why
+was she not blamed for it? But she was so lovely, so beautiful; who
+could help loving her? Then her heart gave a throb as though it had
+been stabbed with a knife. "So beautiful," she repeated: "that is why
+every one pets and fondles her. It is not only that I am a girl; I am
+an ugly girl,--that is why no one loves me."
+
+"Come," said Angelika. "Why do you look so? Come to the others." She
+led her to the fountain, around which the little company had gathered
+meanwhile. The children were amusing themselves with throwing stones at
+the ball of glass which the water tossed up and down. No girl or boy
+could hit it; the ball could only be struck while it was dancing on the
+top of the spray, and always fell before it was reached. The children
+laughed merrily at each other, and even the parents and grown people
+were interested and drew near. Ernestine looked on after her usual
+brooding fashion. She soon divined where the mistake lay. The stone was
+longer in reaching its aim than the ball lingered in the air. She
+quickly concluded that if a stone were aimed at the top of the fountain
+while the ball was still below, the latter in ascending would strike
+the stone. Hilsborn, the boy fourteen years old, had just declared that
+he could not understand why they could not strike it. Ambition took
+possession of her,--if she was ugly, she would show them that she was
+clever,--if she was only a girl, she would show them that she had force
+and skill. Involuntarily she looked across to the old Geheimrath, to
+ascertain if he saw her, and, as this seemed to be the case, she
+stooped down and hastily picked up a larger stone than the others, to
+insure success,--took the attitude which she had often observed in the
+village boys, and, with her feet planted firmly wide apart, swung her
+arm round three times to take sure aim, and hurled the stone with all
+her force towards the point in the air which the fountain reached in
+its leaping. Fate was cruel enough to favour her; the stone met the
+ascending ball, and so exactly that the latter was hurled out of the
+column of water, and, flying over the heads of the nearest by-standers,
+fell upon the head of a child, and the thin glass was shivered in
+pieces. The child screamed, more from fright than pain,--a commotion
+ensued,--the mother of the sufferer rushed towards her darling with
+frantic gestures,--the "wound" was examined, embroidered handkerchiefs
+were dipped in the basin of the fountain and bound around the head,
+while like a dark cloud there hovered over the sympathetic crowd a fear
+lest "some fragment of glass should have penetrated the skull."
+Ernestine stood there like a culprit; she felt convicted of murder,
+and when she heard from all sides, "What unfeminine conduct! How
+savage and rude! How can they bring up the girl to be such a tom-boy?"
+she was utterly confounded. She had been like a boy, and it was all
+wrong,--what should she do to please people and make them like her a
+little? Then the old Geheimrath approached her and unclasped the hands
+which she was silently but convulsively wringing. "Be comforted, you
+pale little girl,--there is no great harm done. In future you must
+leave such exploits to boys." Then he left her and examined the wound,
+and declared laughingly that he needed a microscope to see it. The
+mothers of the party, however, showed all the more sympathy and anxiety
+in the matter that they were chagrined that Ernestine had displayed
+more skill than their own children.
+
+Ernestine's delicate instinct surmised all this. She looked at the
+buzzing throng of her enemies with aversion, as at a swarm of wasps
+that she had disturbed. She listened to the noise that was made about
+the slight accident with infinite bitterness, and thought how at home,
+when her father's blows had bruised her, no one cared anything about
+it. When a few days before she had fallen and cut her forehead, she had
+had to wash it herself at the brook. And even the old gentleman had
+said that she should leave such exploits to boys. Then must she not
+contend even with boys if she could? Why not? Why were they so
+superior? It was unjust! She clenched her little fists. When she grew
+up she would show people how great the injustice was! That she was
+resolved upon.
+
+Then little Angelika came running up, calling the children together
+for a game. "Come, Ernestine," she cried. "You did not mean to do
+it,--come, play blindman's buff with us."
+
+Ernestine did not venture to make any objection; she was so cowed that
+she did just as they told her, and let them make her "blind man," and
+tie the handkerchief over her eyes. She never complained, although when
+they were tying on the bandage they pulled her hair so that she ground
+her teeth with pain. And then they all began to tease her. One pulled
+at one of her long locks; another terrified her by putting beetles and
+caterpillars upon her neck,--the usual tricks of the game, that are
+easily borne when they are understood among little friends, but enough
+to drive a shy child, that does not know how to defend herself, to
+despair. No one would be caught by the ugly stranger, who had only been
+admitted to the game at the express desire of the hostess, and all felt
+themselves justified in playing all manner of tricks upon her.
+Ernestine caught no one, and ran hither and thither in vain. She was
+too conscientious to raise the handkerchief a little that she might see
+where she was,--that would have been acting a falsehood, and she never
+told falsehoods. Suddenly a hand seized her straw hat, and the worn old
+brim gave way, and fell upon her shoulders like a collar, to the great
+delight of the rest. It was a terrible loss for the poor child; for she
+knew that she should get no other hat at home, but would be punished
+for her carelessness. She grasped after her tormentor, and seized her
+by the skirt; but she was one of the larger girls, and tore herself
+away, leaving a piece of her elegant summer dress in Ernestine's hands,
+which had clutched it tightly. She could not see how the girl ran to
+her mother, bewailing the injury to her dress; the bandage over her
+eyes beneficently shielded her from perceiving the angry looks of the
+ladies, and absorbed the tears which she was silently shedding for her
+straw hat. She stood motionless in the middle of the lawn, and did not
+know what to do,--for no children seemed to be near,--the game appeared
+to be interrupted. Suddenly she received a sound box on the ear. The
+younger brother of the aggrieved young lady had stolen up and avenged
+his sister. Then the tormented child was filled with indignation and
+rage that almost deprived her of reason. She seized the boy as he tried
+to pass her, and began to straggle with him. He forced her backwards,
+step by step. She could not free her hands to untie the bandage; she
+did not know where she was; she would not let go her enemy, for her
+sufferings had filled her little heart with hate and fury. There was a
+scream, and at the same instant she stumbled over something and fell;
+she kept her hold of her foe, but she felt that she was up to her knees
+in water,--she had stumbled into the basin of the fountain. The guests
+hurried up. First seizing the boy, who was still in Ernestine's grasp,
+they placed him in safety, and then they helped out the trembling
+child, who stood there with torn, dripping clothes, an object of terror
+and disgust to herself and to everybody else.
+
+What mischief the horrible creature had done! She had almost fractured
+one child's skull, she had torn the expensive dress of another, and had
+tried to drown a third!
+
+"Pray, my dear Staatsräthin, have my carriage ordered," said one of the
+injured mothers; "one's life is not safe here!"
+
+"Supper is ready," replied the Staatsräthin. "Let me entreat you all to
+go into the house. I will answer for the lives of your children as long
+as they are my guests," she added with a slight smile.
+
+The ladies all called their sons and daughters to them, to protect them
+from the little monster, who still stood there, bewildered and crushed,
+upon the lawn, looking on with a bleeding heart, as the children,
+laughing and joking, clung to their parents, whom they kissed and
+caressed with affectionate freedom. Every child there had a mother or a
+father who fondled it. She--she alone was thrust out and forsaken,--no
+one remembered that she was tired and wet through,--no one cared for
+her. The charming little Angelika was everywhere in requisition, and
+could not come to her,--the Staatsräthin was entreating her guests to
+pardon her for inviting a child whom she did not know; how could she
+possibly suppose that Herr von Hartwich had a daughter so neglected?
+Ernestine heard it all. She could no longer stand,--she fell upon her
+knees, and, sobbing violently, hid her face in her hands. The
+Staatsräthin was now free to come to her, and hastily approached.
+
+"Oh, you poor little thing, you are wet through, and no one has thought
+of you," she cried kindly, at sight of Ernestine. "Go into the house
+quickly, and put on a pair of my little girl's shoes and stockings; my
+room is just to the right of the drawing-room. Go immediately,--do you
+hear? I cannot stay away from my guests."
+
+"Forgive me,--it is not my fault!" stammered Ernestine.
+
+"Indeed it is not, my dear child," said the Staatsräthin gravely. "I
+only pity you,--I am not angry with you! But hurry now and take off
+your dress,--I will send you your supper to my room. I know you would
+rather eat it alone."
+
+And she hastened away to her guests just as a vehicle drove up and a
+strikingly handsome young man about twenty years old sprang out and
+hurried up to her. "My dear boy," she cried, "is it you? I did not
+expect you yet!"
+
+The youth kissed her hand and bowed courteously to the rest. The
+Staatsräthin's eyes rested upon him with the pride with which a woman
+during her life regards two men only,--a lover and a darling son. The
+guests surrounded him with congratulations upon the day's success;
+Angelika danced around him, and the other children all wanted a hand or
+a kiss. There was quite a little uproar of delight.
+
+Suddenly the Staatsräthin cried out in a startled tone, "Little
+Ernestine has gone! Heavens, that poor child wet through in the cool
+evening air! I cannot allow it! Johannes, my dear son, run quickly,
+bring her back."
+
+"Who,--what?" he asked in amazement.
+
+"But, my dearest Staatsräthin," said the mother of the boy whom
+Ernestine's shot had wounded, "how can you worry yourself about the
+little witch? she is tougher than our children."
+
+The Staatsräthin glanced at her contemptuously, and, turning to
+Johannes, continued: "She is a pale, meanly-clad little girl, eleven or
+twelve years of age; you cannot miss her if you take the path to
+Hartwich's estate; she is his daughter. Hasten, Johannes, hasten!" He
+obeyed, while she conducted her guests to their sumptuous repast.
+
+Meanwhile Ernestine ran through the grove as quickly as she could, and
+began to breathe freely as she lost sight of the house where she had
+undergone so much. But her strength soon failed her. Her wet shoes and
+stockings clung like heavy lumps of lead to her weary feet and impeded
+her steps; she was conscious of gnawing hunger, and the first care for
+the future that she had yet felt in her short life assailed her,--she
+was afraid that it would be too late for her to get anything to eat
+when she reached home; it was growing dark, and it would be ten
+o'clock; Frau Gedike would be in bed. And that was not the worst that
+she had to look forward to; the straw hat, whose brim was still having
+around her neck,--the heavy, torn straw hat, would certainly bring her
+a severe chastisement. She sat down upon a mound on the borders of the
+grove, and took off the brim to see if she could contrive some way of
+fastening it to the crown, which she carried in her hand. The tree
+above her shook its boughs compassionately and threw down its leaves
+upon her dishevelled locks. She never heeded them,--the conviction lay
+heavy upon her childish heart that she could not possibly mend the hat
+before Frau Gedike would see it. Tear after tear dropped upon the
+fragments, and her large, swimming eyes glimmered in the moonlight from
+out her pale face like glow-worms in a lily-cup. Suddenly she started
+violently, for some one stood before her, and she recognized the young
+man whose arrival had just enabled her to make her escape. He looked at
+her silently for a while, and then said, "Are you the little girl who
+came to us to-day, and then ran away secretly?"
+
+"Yes," stammered Ernestine.
+
+"Why have you done so?" he asked further.
+
+Ernestine made no reply. She was more ashamed before Johannes than
+before all the rest of the company. He was very different from every
+one else there,--so proud and strong,--he would despise her more than
+the others had done, for he was much handsomer and finer than they, and
+worth more than all of them. She did not venture to look up at him; she
+was afraid of meeting another of those glances that had so tortured
+her. Then the young man took her hand and said kindly, "Well, you pale
+little dryad, can you not speak? Will you go with me, or would you
+rather spend the night in your tree?"
+
+"I want to go home!" said Ernestine.
+
+"I cannot let you go home. I must take you to my mother. She is afraid
+you will take cold. Come!"
+
+Ernestine shrunk back. "I cannot go there any more!"
+
+"Why not? What have they done to you?"
+
+"They laughed at me, and jeered me," cried the irritated child; "they
+despised me; and I will not be despised! I will not!"
+
+The young man looked at her thoughtfully.
+
+"Even if I am ugly," she continued, "and poor, and badly taught, and
+awkward, I will not be treated like a dog!" There was a tone of despair
+in her voice, her chest panted within her narrow dress, her teeth
+chattered with cold and excitement.
+
+"Poor child!" said Johannes; "they must have used you ill,--but my
+mother was surely kind to you?"
+
+"Yes, she was kind, but she was vexed with me at last; I heard her
+blaming me to the others. And I do not want to see her again,--not
+until I am grown up and can be as dignified and gentle as she is."
+
+"Are you so certain, then, that you will one day be as gentle and
+dignified?" asked Johannes smiling.
+
+"Yes, the schoolmaster says, and the old gentleman said too, that if I
+were a boy something might be made of me. Oh, something shall be made
+of me,--if I am only a girl. I will not always have boys held up to me;
+when I am grown up, they shall see that a girl is as good as a boy; all
+these bad, unkind people shall respect me; if they do not, I would
+rather die!"
+
+"You queer child!" laughed Johannes, "it would be hard to tame you. But
+see, if you stay any longer here with me in the night air, you will
+take cold, and then you may die before you have carried out all your
+resolutions; think how bad that will be!"
+
+With these words he attempted to lead the child away with him, but she
+snatched her hand from him and clung to the tree beneath which she had
+been sitting. "No, no," she breathlessly entreated, "dear sir, let me
+go--do not take me back again--please, please, not there!"
+
+"Obstinate little thing, you must come," laughed Johannes. "Do you
+suppose I can go back without you, after having been sent to find you
+like a stray lamb? My mother would shut me up for three days upon bread
+and water if I did not bring you back; you would not like that, would
+you?"
+
+"Ah, you are laughing at me. I will not go back with you, I will not,"
+sobbed Ernestine.
+
+"Will not? What is the use of such words from a weak little girl
+who can be easily carried in arms?" With these words Johannes
+good-humouredly lifted Ernestine from the ground and placed her on his
+shoulder to take her back to the castle. But she succeeded in grasping
+an overhanging branch of the oak-tree just above her, and, before
+Johannes could prevent it, she had swung herself up by it, and was
+clambering like a squirrel from bough to bough.
+
+"This is delightful!" cried Johannes, much amused; "you are really,
+then, a dryad in disguise? Such a prize must not escape; to be sure, I
+never dreamed to-day, when I passed my examination, that the new Herr
+Doctor's first feat would be to climb a tree after a wayward little
+girl; but the episode is much more poetic than marching up and down
+stairs, making my best bow to my old examiners." Daring this soliloquy
+be had taken off his coat and climbed into the tree.
+
+But when he tried to seize Ernestine, she retreated to the extremity of
+the bough upon, which she was sitting, and was quite out of his reach;
+he could not follow her, for the slender branch creaked and drooped so,
+even beneath the child's light weight, that he momentarily expected it
+to break. The jest had become earnest indeed: if the little girl fell,
+she would fall a double distance,--the height of the tree and of the
+hill which the tree crowned. Quick as thought the young man swung
+himself down to the ground, and took his station where he might, if
+possible, receive Ernestine in his arms if she fell. For the first time
+he now saw how high she was perched, and a cloud before the moon just
+at the moment prevented his perceiving the exact direction that she
+must take in falling. His anxiety was intense. The responsibility of a
+human life was suddenly thrust upon him. If he did not succeed in
+catching the falling child, she would shortly lie before him, if not a
+corpse, at least with broken limbs. The steep hill, too, made it almost
+impossible for him to maintain a firm footing; wherever he planted his
+feet, they slipped continually. The blood rushed to his face; his heart
+beat audibly; with outstretched arms he gazed up at the child, who sat
+above him, all unconscious of her danger.
+
+"Little one," he cried breathlessly, "the branch where you are sitting
+will not bear you! scramble back again, or you will fall!"
+
+"I will not come down until you promise me not to carry me back! I
+shall not fall," she panted, and snatched at a stronger bough above
+her, but it sprang back from her grasp, leaving only a few twigs in her
+hand.
+
+"I will promise anything that you want," cried Johannes in deadly
+terror, "only go back quickly to the trunk--quickly--quickly!"
+
+The bough cracked, just as the child swung herself towards the trunk,
+and it fell to the ground,--leaving her clinging to the stump where it
+grew from the trunk; and when Johannes climbed up to her and she could
+at last reach his shoulder, she was trembling so with fright that she
+willingly clasped her thin arms around his neck. With difficulty he
+reached the ground again with his burden, his hands scratched and
+bleeding and his shirt-sleeve torn. He put down Ernestine, and,
+stepping back a pace or two, regarded her gravely; then, after wiping
+the moisture from his brow, he began in a serious tone of voice, "Do
+you know what I would do if I were your father?"
+
+Ernestine looked up at him inquiringly.
+
+"I would give you a taste of the rod, that you might learn not to
+frighten people so just for your own wayward whims!"
+
+These words, prompted by the young man's irritation at the anxiety to
+which he had been subjected, had a fearful effect upon the child. She
+gave a piercing cry, and threw herself upon the ground. "Oh, nothing
+but blows, blows--he too, he too! Who will not strike me and abuse me?
+who is there to take pity upon me?" and she sobbed uncontrollably.
+
+"Good heavens," said Johannes, half compassionately and half annoyed,
+"was there ever such a child! First you climb into a tree at peril of
+your life, just that you may gratify your self-will, and then a single
+word of blame crushes you to the earth. I never saw anything like it!"
+Saying this, he lifted her up and held her out before him in the
+moonlight, regarding her as one would some rare animal or natural
+curiosity.
+
+"Here is a thing," he said, more to himself than to Ernestine, "so
+frail and delicate that you could crush it in your grasp, but there is
+such strength of will in the little frame that one is forced to yield
+to it, and such a wildly throbbing heart in the little breast that one
+is carried away by it in spite of one's self. I should like to know
+what odd combinations have produced this strange piece of humanity. Do
+not cry any more, little one; I will not harm you--what eyes the
+creature has! You are a remarkable child, but I would not like to have
+the charge of you--you would puzzle one well, and force and blows would
+have no effect upon you!"
+
+With these words he put her down upon the ground again and picked up
+his coat to put it on. As he did so, he felt something hard in the
+pocket; he looked to see what it was, and drew out a book in a splendid
+binding.
+
+"Ah," he cried gaily, "I had forgotten this. Can you read?"
+
+Ernestine nodded. She was glad that she had not to say no; how ashamed
+she would have been!
+
+"Come, that's right!" said the young man; and Ernestine was very proud
+of those first words of commendation, and determined instantly to be
+doubly diligent, that she might some time hear just such another
+"That's right!"
+
+Johannes put the book into her hand. "There, you shall have that, that
+you may carry something pleasant home with you after such a dreary day.
+The stories are charming. I brought it out for my little sister
+Angelika, but I could not give it to her because I had to run after
+you. Now I am glad that I have it still and can give it to you."
+
+"Yes--but Angelika?" Ernestine asked hesitatingly.
+
+"She shall have another to-morrow. Take it, and read the story of the
+Ugly Duckling; that will comfort you when people are cross to you. Take
+it--why do you hesitate?"
+
+The child took the book as carefully and timidly as if it were in
+reality a fairy book and would vanish at her touch. When she had it in
+her hands and it did not disappear, and she could really believe in her
+happiness in receiving such a present, she uttered a scarcely audible
+"Thank you very much!" but the look that accompanied the words touched
+Johannes.
+
+"You do not often have presents?" he asked.
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Oh! you seem not to be very affectionately treated. Does not your
+mother ever give you anything?"
+
+"I have no mother. She died because I was not a boy."
+
+"A most remarkable cause of death," observed Johannes, half dryly, half
+compassionately.
+
+"Ah, if I had a mother, everything would be different." And the large
+tears rolled down over her cheeks.
+
+"Listen, little one," said Johannes kindly, after a pause. "I have a
+dear mother, and I will share her with you--half a mother's heart is
+better than none at all. Come home with me. You shall be my little
+sister, and you will be gentle enough when you know us better."
+
+Ernestine shook her head decidedly. The thought of returning to the
+castle again filled her with dismay. "No, no, never!" she cried in
+terror. "Your mother would not love me--she could not! You promised me
+a minute ago not to force me to anything, and if you think now that I
+ought to do as you please, because you have given me the book, I would
+rather not have it. There, take it--I will not have it!"
+
+Johannes rejected the offered book with some vexation. "Keep it," he
+said. "I gave it to you unconditionally. I only thought that my
+kindness had made you gentler and more docile, but I was wrong. You are
+not to be moved by kindness either. Sad to see a heart so early
+hardened!"
+
+Ernestine stood motionless, with downcast eyes--she scarcely breathed;
+the emotions that agitated her were so novel, so different from
+anything she had hitherto experienced, that she struggled in vain to
+give utterance to them; her childish lips had no words to express them.
+She was pained, and yet her pain, although deeper than any she had
+already suffered, had no bitterness in it. She did not hate him who had
+caused it--she could have kissed his hand, and, falling at his feet,
+begged him to forgive her--but she did not dare to do so.
+
+"Well," he asked, after a moment's silence, "shall I go home with you?"
+
+Ernestine shook her head.
+
+"Not that, either? Will you go alone?" he asked impatiently.
+
+Ernestine nodded.
+
+"Well, I have promised to do as you pleased, and I shall keep my
+promise, although I do not think it right to leave you to go home alone
+so late at night. Let me at least go with you across the fields? Are
+you grown dumb?"
+
+Ernestine lifted to his her large melancholy eyes so beseechingly that
+he lost his composure. "You are enough to drive one insane, you
+enigmatical little creature! Who taught you that look--the look of an
+angel imprisoned by some evil magician in the body of a kobold? God
+knows what will become of you! You will not let me come, then? No? Are
+you not afraid? Nothing to be got out of you but a shake of the head!
+Well, go! I cannot force you. Good-night, then!" He held out his hand;
+she seized it, pressed it with passionate energy, and then ran across
+the fields as fast as her feet could carry her. Johannes let her run
+for some minutes, and then followed her at a distance; he could not
+allow the helpless child to go home without watching over her safety.
+She ran as if she had wings, without once looking round; but Johannes
+noticed that she kissed the book several times, and pressed it to her
+heart, as if it had been some living thing. When at last he came in
+sight of Ernestine's home, he stopped. "Heaven be merciful to the man
+who will one day take her for a wife!" he thought, and slowly turned
+away.
+
+Ernestine entered the garden of her dreary home with a throbbing heart.
+A grumbling maid-servant opened the door for her. "You are late," she
+scolded. "That is just like you--first you wouldn't go, and then you
+don't want to come home. You always want to do something else than what
+you should."
+
+Ernestine made no reply. "Can I have something to eat?" she asked
+briefly.
+
+"To eat! Likely, indeed! Am I to go to the stable at ten o'clock at
+night and milk a cow for you? for there is nothing else that I can get.
+You know well enough that I have no keys!"
+
+"Is Frau Gedike in bed, then?"
+
+"If you were not so stupid, you might know that!"
+
+"But I am hungry!"
+
+"That serves you right; you should have eaten enough at the party. Of
+course they gave you something to eat?"
+
+Ernestine was silent, and followed the maid into the room, where she
+hastily concealed her torn hat in the wardrobe. "My feet are wet," she
+said, shivering. "Give me some dry stockings."
+
+"Of course you have been dragging through all the puddles, and then
+want dry stockings at this hour of the night! Get into bed as soon as
+you can; you will have no other stockings to-night. Good-night--I am
+going to bed myself." And the servant left the room, taking with her
+the dim tallow candle that she had in her hand, and Ernestine was left
+alone in the apartment, into which the moon shone brightly. Suppressed
+rage at the servant's coarse harshness burrowed and gnawed in the
+child's heart like a hidden mole. Everything that had lately happened
+vanished at this rude contact. Her soul had expanded at the first touch
+of a large, kindly nature, like a bud in the air of spring--the frost
+that now fell upon it was doubly painful. She was again the same
+forsaken, abused child whose vital energies were consumed by impotent
+hate of her tormentors. Had she really lived the last hour! Had any one
+really spoken so kindly to her--one, too, better and handsomer than all
+the others?
+
+She caught up her book as if it were a talisman; it was real; it
+had not vanished; it was all true, then. And yet she had been so
+self-willed and cross to the kind, kind gentleman, and had not even
+told him how grateful she was; how he must despise her! He could not do
+otherwise. She understood now how different she must be before she
+could hope to win the liking of such a man as Johannes. How should she
+do it? She could not tell; but something stirred within her that
+exalted her above herself. She looked up to heaven in childlike
+entreaty, and prayed, "Dear God, make me good!" Then she pressed the
+book to her heart; it was her most precious possession, her first
+friend; and the desire took hold of her to see now what this friend
+would tell her. But she could not read by moonlight, and she dared not
+get a candle, for she slept next to Frau Gedike, who allowed no reading
+at night. She stood hesitating and looked sorrowfully at the beautiful
+binding, with its gay arabesques. Suddenly it occurred to her that
+there was always a night-lamp burning in her father's room; it was a
+happy thought. She drew off her wet boots with difficulty, and crept
+softly into Hartwich's apartment. The invalid was lying upon his back,
+sound asleep. He breathed and snored so loudly that the child was
+almost terrified; but she was determined to proceed, and slipped past
+the bed. She seated herself cautiously, opened the book in a state of
+feverish expectation, and of course turned to the story that Johannes
+had mentioned to her. The book contained the charming, touching tales
+of Hans Andersen. Ernestine, greatly moved, read the story of the Ugly
+Duckling. She read how it was abused and maltreated by all because it
+was so different from the other ducks, and how at last it came to be a
+magnificent swan, far finer and more beautiful than the insignificant
+fowls who had despised it. The impression made upon her by this story
+is not to be described. The poor duckling's woes were hers also, and as
+if upon swan's pinions the promise of a fair future hovered above her
+from the page that she was reading. "Shall I ever be such a swan?" she
+asked again and again. Her heart overflowed with new emotions of joy
+and pain, she covered her eyes with her thin hands and sobbed as if she
+would, as the saying is, "cry her soul out." Then her father awoke, and
+called out, "Who is there?" Ernestine hastened to him and fell on her
+knees at his bedside. She seized his hand and would have kissed it; he
+snatched it angrily away, but the tears that she had shed had melted
+her very heart. "Father, dear father!" she cried, "I have been very
+naughty and self-willed. Forgive, and love me only a little, and I will
+love you dearly!"
+
+Hartwich turned his face to the wall, and growled, "Why did you wake
+me? Where's the use of slipping in here at this hour? Do you think I
+had rather listen to your stupid whining than sleep?"
+
+"Father," cried Ernestine, taking his lame hand that he could not
+withdraw from her. "Father, do not send me away from you. I will be
+good,--help me to be so. I cannot be good if you are always harsh to
+me. I saw to-day how all the children have parents who love them. I
+only am disliked by every one, and yet I have a heart too, and would
+love to see kind looks and hear kind words. I will not cry ever any
+more, if you will not make me cry, and I will try my best to be just
+like a boy, that you may not be sorry any more that I am a girl. Ah,
+father, it seems to-day as if the dear God in heaven had told me what I
+long for. Love, father, love,--ah, give me some, and take pity upon
+your poor ugly child!"
+
+The invalid had turned towards the child again, and was staring at her
+in amazement, with lack-lustre eyes; it seemed as if some unbidden
+feeling were struggling for utterance from the depths of his moral and
+physical degradation; his breath came quick, he tried to speak.
+Ernestine did not venture to look at him; a strong odour of brandy told
+her that her father's face was near her own, but this odour was so
+utterly disgusting to her that she involuntarily recoiled, and thus
+avoided the lips that would perhaps have bestowed upon her the first
+kiss that she had ever in her life received from them. The invalid must
+have known this, for he turned away again, muttering something
+unintelligible. After a long pause, he felt for a tumbler that stood on
+a table beside his bed, but it was empty. "I'm thirsty!" he said
+peevishly. "Shall I bring you some water, father?" asked Ernestine. The
+sick man made a gesture of disgust "No! but you can go up to your uncle
+and tell him to send me that medicine that he spoke of; he will know
+what I want. But ask him only,--do you hear?--him only. And tell no one
+that I sent you, or you shall suffer for it, I promise you. And now go
+quickly: I'm tortured with thirst!"
+
+Ernestine arose from her knees, and looked at her father with the grief
+that we feel when we have lavished our best, our most sacred emotions
+upon an unworthy object. Hitherto she had required nothing of him;
+to-day, for the first time, as she looked around for some one to whose
+love, in her loneliness, she possessed a right, it had occurred to her
+that she had a father. She had turned to him with an overflowing heart,
+and had found a drunkard, who had resigned all claims to respect, both
+as a man and a father. Mute and crushed alike physically and mentally,
+she slipped out and up the stairs to her uncle. She was to bring brandy
+to the sick man, although she remembered that the physician had
+forbidden all heating drinks; but she must fulfil her father's
+commands, or receive the cruellest treatment at his hands. She entered
+her uncle's room, slowly and timidly; she was afraid of his wife. But
+Bertha had gone to bed; there was no one in the room but Leuthold, who
+was standing by the open window, to the frame of which he had screwed a
+long tube.
+
+"Ah, little Ernestine, have you come so late to see your uncle?" he
+said kindly.
+
+"Uncle, what is that?" asked Ernestine, forgetting her errand in her
+wonder at the strange instrument.
+
+"That is a telescope," her uncle informed her.
+
+"What are you doing with it?" she asked further.
+
+"I am looking into the moon, my child."
+
+"Ah! can you do that?" she cried, in the greatest amazement.
+
+"Certainly I can. Would you like to look through it?"
+
+"Ah, yes; if I only might!" whispered Ernestine, enchanted at the
+offer.
+
+Leuthold lifted her upon the window-sill and adjusted the telescope for
+her. She was half frightened when she suddenly found the shining
+sphere, which she had always seen hovering so far above her in the sky,
+brought so near to her eyes. Her breast expanded to receive such an
+inconceivable miracle. She gazed and gazed, looking, breathless with
+the desire of knowledge, at the mountains, valleys, and jagged craters
+that were so magically revealed. The warm night air fanned her burning
+brow. Everything around her faded and was forgotten as the tired heart
+of the child throbbed with fervent longing for the peace of that new,
+distant world.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+                               ATONEMENT.
+
+
+The day began slowly to dawn, for a dim, cloudy sky usurped the throne
+of departing night. Drops of rain fell here and there,--it was a
+cheerless morning. Not a cock crowed--not a bird was stirring. The dog
+remained hidden in his kennel.
+
+Now and then an early labourer, with his spade upon his shoulder,
+would pass along the fence encircling Hartwich's estate, and would look
+over it with surprise at the strange bustle prevailing in house and
+court-yard. Doors were opened and shut; servant-maids, with eyes heavy
+with sleep, were running hither and thither; water was brought from the
+well; no questions or answers were exchanged. It was as if every one
+avoided speaking of what had occurred. A groom brought a saddled horse
+from the stable, mounted, and galloped furiously in the direction of
+the estate of the Staatsräthin. "Is there a fire anywhere?" a couple of
+peasants shouted after him, but he made no reply. Without a word, he
+galloped across field and moor, never drawing rein until he reached the
+garden of the Staatsräthin. He tugged violently at the bell until a
+sleepy servant came to the door and asked him angrily what he wanted.
+
+"Wake up the Geheimrath Heim, he is here on a visit. The village doctor
+sent me,--a human life is at stake!"
+
+The servant opened his eyes wide, and stared inquiringly at the groom.
+
+"Yes, yes; quick, be quick! Hartwich has beaten his child so, we think
+she is dying. The barber says perhaps the Geheimrath can save her."
+
+"Good gracious, that is terrible!" cried the horrified servant, and ran
+to call the old gentleman.
+
+The Geheimrath was up in a moment; without losing time by a single
+word, he dressed himself, mounted the groom's horse, and rushed off to
+the scene of the disaster.
+
+Before the door of the house, awaiting his arrival, stood the village
+barber-surgeon, who received him with the deepest reverence. "Herr
+Geheimrath, I pray you to excuse me,--but, as I knew you were in the
+neighbourhood, I conceived it my duty to entreat your assistance before
+sending for the physician, who lives three leagues off. The case seems
+to me a serious one."
+
+"Never excuse yourself," said Heim, taking off his hat and coat in the
+hall; "it is my duty to aid wherever I can. But, in Heaven's name, how
+did it happen? Where is the child injured?"
+
+"She has a wound in her head, and I fear the skull is fractured,"
+replied the barber, opening the door of the room leading to Hartwich's
+apartment. The Geheimrath heard a loud sobbing as soon as the door was
+opened. He entered, and before him lay the invalid, weeping and wailing
+like a maniac, with the child stretched out stiff and corpse-like upon
+the bed; her eyes were closed and deep-sunk in their large sockets; her
+pale lips were slightly parted,--it was a sorry sight. Hartwich
+supported her bandaged head upon his arm, and, weeping loudly, pressed
+kiss after kiss upon her white brow.
+
+"Ah, Herr Geheimrath!" he shrieked, "come here! I am a wicked,
+miserable father. I have killed my child! I am a man given over to the
+worst of all vices,--drunkenness; it is my only excuse. Accuse me; have
+me sent, crippled as I am, to jail,--I care not; but bring my child to
+life, or the sting of conscience will drive me mad!"
+
+The Geheimrath took the passive hand of the child and felt the pulse.
+"It is greatly to be regretted that your conscience was not as active
+before the deed as it appears to be now that it is committed," he said
+coldly and sternly, as he removed the bandage from the child's head.
+
+"Oh, oh," wailed Hartwich, shutting his eyes, "do not do that here! I
+cannot see the blood; I cannot see the wound; it will kill me!"
+
+"What! you could make the wound and cannot look at it!" said the
+Geheimrath inexorably, beginning to probe the wound. "It is a most
+serious case," he said. "Has the child moved at all?"
+
+"Yes, yes; oh, heavens, yes; until she grew so rigid!" gasped Hartwich,
+seizing Ernestine's hand to kiss it. Then he looked up at the physician
+in mortal terror. "How is it? must she--oh, Christ! must she die?" And
+again he broke out into the loud childish weeping peculiar to persons
+unnerved by sickness or drink.
+
+"Control yourself," ordered the Geheimrath. "I cannot come to any
+decision yet. The injury to the skull is not fatal; what the effect of
+the concussion will be, I cannot tell. But, with the child's delicate
+constitution----" He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Ah, you give me no hope," moaned Hartwich. "Ernestine, wake up! only
+look once at your father, your cruel, wicked father! Ah, Herr
+Geheimrath, I disliked the child because she was so weak and ugly. If
+she had only been a fine, healthy girl, I might perhaps have been
+reconciled to having no son; but I was ashamed of her, and silenced the
+voice of my heart. Oh, these hands, poor little hands, and these pale,
+thin cheeks!--how could I ever strike them! God be merciful to me,
+miserable sinner that I am!" And he beat his breast fiercely.
+
+The Geheimrath looked at him and shook his head. "Do not excite
+yourself so. It does your daughter no good, and only injures yourself."
+
+"My daughter! my daughter!" repeated Hartwich. "Oh, I have never
+treated her as such. She seemed to me a changeling, left in her cradle
+by some spiteful witch in place of the boy I so coveted. Now, when I am
+in danger of losing her, I feel that she is my child indeed."
+
+"The truth is as old as the world, that nature avenges the
+transgression of the least of her laws," replied the physician. "You
+have sinned grievously against the mighty law of paternal affection,
+and now it demands its rights with resistless authority. Let me entreat
+you to testify your repentance by the tenderest care of the sick child,
+and permit me to call some one to put her to bed,--it should have been
+done long ago."
+
+"Ah, must she be separated from me?" moaned Hartwich. "I long to beg
+her forgiveness when she comes to herself."
+
+"You will hardly be able to do that very soon," said the Geheimrath,
+ringing the bell.
+
+Frau Gedike made her appearance, as gentle and submissive as she had
+previously been harsh and overbearing to Ernestine.
+
+"Assist me in carrying this child to her bed," said Heim, carefully
+placing his arm beneath the rigid little body to raise it up.
+
+"Oh, I beg of you, Herr Geheimrath, do not trouble yourself," cried
+Frau Gedike, evidently greatly humbled. "I can carry the poor child
+without help."
+
+Heim glanced at her keenly, and then quietly directed her to show him
+the way.
+
+Frau Gedike ran as quickly as she could across the hall to the door of
+a back room. "Permit me," she said, and tried to slip past the
+Geheimrath into the apartment. "Excuse me for one moment, that I may
+put things a little to rights. Everything is in disorder, I rose so
+early this morning."
+
+But Heim said authoritatively, "Follow me!" and stepped past her into
+the chamber, carrying his silent burden. Here he stood still in
+astonishment. It was a kind of wash-room,--at least there was a huge
+pile of soiled linen in one corner. Broken furniture and household
+utensils were scattered about; there were no curtains to the windows;
+hundreds of flies were buzzing about the dirty panes; the air of the
+close room was stifling. In one corner stood a child's crib, which must
+have dated from Ernestine's fifth or sixth year. It contained an old
+straw bed, a dirty pillow, and a heavy, tawdry coverlet. Frau Gedike
+bustled about, endeavouring to conceal us well as she could the
+miserable condition of the room from the penetrating eye of the
+Geheimrath, but in vain.
+
+"Am I to lay the wounded child in this bed? Is she to be nursed in this
+hole?" he asked in a tone which boded no good to the housekeeper.
+
+"Gracious me!--we have no other room and no other bed. I have often
+pitied the dear child, but Herr Hartwich is so saving--he never buys
+anything new," she declared.
+
+The Geheimrath went towards a half-open door leading into another and
+larger apartment. Here the air was pure, the furniture decent, and
+there was a comfortable bed in the corner.
+
+"Is this your room?" asked the Geheimrath sharply.
+
+"It is, Herr Geheimrath. It is just as my predecessor left it."
+
+"Make up the bed instantly with clean linen."
+
+Frau Gedike stared in surprise.
+
+"Instantly!" repeated the Geheimrath, in a way that admitted of no
+remonstrance, and seated himself, that he might more conveniently hold
+his poor little charge. Frau Gedike brought clean sheets and made up
+the bed.
+
+"Where shall I sleep?" she asked with suppressed rage: "there is no
+other sleeping-room in the whole house!"
+
+"You can try Ernestine's bed, and see what it is to lie cramped up upon
+a rack!" replied the old gentleman dryly. Then he wrinkled his bushy
+brows sternly, and continued: "I doubt whether you will need a bed
+here, for I will do my best to have you leave this house before night."
+
+"Oh, Lord, have mercy on me! Herr Geheimrath, what have I done? What
+fault can you find with me?" whined Frau Gedike as she smoothed the
+pillows.
+
+Heim arose, and, as he laid the lifeless little body carefully upon the
+bed, said quietly, "Look at the room which you have allowed this frail
+child to occupy, the bed in which you have cramped her poor little
+limbs, and then say whether anybody of the least humanity could fail to
+condemn you!" He then left her, and called the barber-surgeon that he
+might take the necessary steps for providing careful attendance for the
+child.
+
+Frau Gedike ran out crying, and the Geheimrath continued to provide for
+his patient's comfort with the quiet decision of an experienced
+physician and the gentleness of a tender-hearted man.
+
+After half an hour, Ernestine began to show signs of life; but she did
+not return to consciousness. She cast a vague, wandering glance around,
+then closed her eyes and muttered broken, unintelligible words. At last
+she sank anew into a state of stupor resembling slumber. The Geheimrath
+left the surgeon with her and went to Hartwich, who, in the mean while,
+had been visited by Leuthold. Leuthold had been wakened at last by the
+unwonted bustle in the house, and had stolen from his bed to see if his
+brother were perhaps dying,--a piece of news which would have been a
+grateful morning greeting to his wife. He was disappointed. The only
+comfort was that all this excitement would inevitably accelerate
+Hartwich's death; Ernestine's fate was a matter of perfect indifference
+to him, but he was greatly disturbed by the intelligence that Heim had
+been called in. He could not bear the man, whose presence brought out
+clear and distinct, as with some chemical preparation, the stains upon
+his name that had apparently faded away. He therefore determined to
+leave home for a few days, in order to avoid a meeting with the witness
+of his disgrace; but he would leave his wife on guard in the lower
+story, under the pretence of helping to nurse Ernestine. Her presence
+would naturally hinder the physician from saying anything to Hartwich
+to his, Leuthold's, detriment. He slipped up-stairs to bid his wife
+arise quickly; but the indolent woman was too long about it for his
+wishes or his plans.
+
+Scarcely had he left Hartwich when Heim entered the room. "What news do
+you bring me?" Hartwich cried out.
+
+"Nothing hopeful as yet. She showed signs of life when we applied
+ice-bandages; but the lethargy into which she fell immediately is
+alarming. I cannot give you any hope before the end of three days."
+
+Hartwich struck his damp forehead in despair. "It will kill me! it will
+kill me!"
+
+The Geheimrath seated himself by his bedside, took a pinch of snuff
+from a golden box adorned with a miniature of the king, and calmly
+regarded the unhappy man. "Now tell me, Herr von Hartwich, how it all
+occurred. I should like to know. Besides the wound on the head, the
+child has bruises on her shoulders and arms that are by no means fresh.
+She seems to have been most cruelly treated!"
+
+The invalid was silent for awhile, and then said, "Yes,--ah, yes, we
+have all abused her; but God knows I never intended this last! I was
+sound asleep yesterday evening when Ernestine came home and crept in to
+me here and waked me with her sobs."
+
+"Poor child! she had cause to weep," the Geheimrath interrupted him.
+
+"Yes, yes,--but I did not understand that yesterday. When I awoke, I
+was thirsty, and sent her up to my brother to bring me a little--a
+little--a few drops----"
+
+"To bring you liquor," the Geheimrath completed the sentence.
+
+"Yes, I confess it," Hartwich continued; "but in her uncle's room there
+was a telescope, and she looked through it and forgot her father's
+errand. I waited and waited, with my throat on fire, but she did not
+come. I grew more and more impatient; and when, at the end of a full
+half-hour, she came down without what I had sent her for, I seized hold
+of her to beat her; she clung to my lame arm so that the pain made me
+wild,--and in my senseless rage I flung her off and hurled her away
+with my healthy arm;--may it be crippled forever! She fell backward,
+and struck the back of her head first against the marble top of my
+wash-stand,--you can see the blood there still,--and then upon the
+floor, where she lay like one dead. Everything grew black before my
+eyes, as it did when I had the stroke. I rang for my people; no one
+came. I could not move,--could not leave my bed to go to the child. I
+saw her blood flow, I heard her gasp as if in the death-agony, and I
+lay here a miserable cripple, thinking that I had killed my child. Oh,
+Herr Geheimrath, at such a time our inmost selves are revealed to as;
+in such agony one learns to pray. At last, after repeated ringing and
+calling, my good-for-nothing servants made their appearance. Herr
+Geheimrath, I cannot tell you how I felt when they laid the child upon
+my bed,--my poor, beaten child. As the little bleeding head lay on my
+arm, it seemed as if my heart opened wide with the gaping wound, and,
+for the first time, real, warm, paternal affection gushed from it.
+Before, when I chastised the child, she was all defiance and
+stubbornness; then I did not care if I hurt her; but now, as she lay
+mute and crushed before me, she spoke to me in a language that recalled
+me to myself. And, Herr Geheimrath, I have not been myself,--I have
+drunk myself down to the level of a brute; and the poor victim of my
+fury has recalled me from my degradation."
+
+The Geheimrath listened to the speaker with growing sympathy. When he
+had finished, he took his hand. "You are right, Herr von Hartwich, to
+be frank with me. Men who are not evil by nature can best excuse their
+evil deeds by frankness, for their intentions are seldom as bad as
+their actions. Compose yourself,--your condition is indeed worthy of
+compassion. If the physician might be allowed to usurp in a measure the
+confessor's chair at such a time as the present, I would say for your
+consolation, in the event of the worst termination to the child's
+illness, that your irresponsible condition, which rendered you
+incapable of appreciating the consequences of your act, and which would
+excuse you before an earthly tribunal, should have some weight with
+your inward judge. Besides, you have certainly acted paternally towards
+the child in one respect," he added with significance. "You have
+accumulated a fine property for her. That will enable her to occupy
+such a position in the world as will make her life, if it is spared, a
+happy one."
+
+Hartwich seized Heim's hand and whispered quickly and anxiously "Ah, my
+dear sir, I have not done this; it now lies heavy on my soul that I
+have not been a father to the child in any way!"
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Heim with apparent surprise. "You have not
+set Ernestine aside in favour of another?"
+
+Hartwich looked anxiously towards the door. The Geheimrath understood
+his look, and opened it,--no listener was near. Hartwich then confessed
+all to the Geheimrath that the latter already knew. Heim shook his
+head. "It is incredible that a father should do so by his own child;
+but, now that your sense of duty is aroused, you will of course atone
+for your injustice?"
+
+"Ah, Herr Geheimrath, if I only could, how gladly would I do so! If my
+poor Ernestine recovers, I would gladly make over to her the whole
+estate during my lifetime. Tell me, how shall I begin to make amends?
+how shall I begin to atone to the child for all the misery I have
+caused her? I will do anything, everything, if I only can. Assist me,
+advise me!"
+
+"I think," began the Geheimrath with quiet decision, "that the case is
+very simple. You can make a new will and declare the other void. If
+Ernestine recovers, it is very doubtful whether she will be anything
+more than a poor, sickly invalid during her entire lifetime. Such an
+unfortunate being needs money,--a great deal of money; for sickness is
+an expensive affair. The child was naturally healthy. She has been
+weakened by neglect and harsh treatment. You left her to a worthless
+housekeeper, who denied her everything that a child should have in
+order to be strong, and in her weakened condition you have dealt her a
+death-blow from which she can hardly recover. You must be conscious
+that, since you have almost destroyed Ernestine's life, you ought at
+least to provide her with the means of making her invalid existence as
+endurable as possible, and indemnify her for a neglected childhood by
+every enjoyment that wealth can procure."
+
+Again Hartwich broke out into loud lamentations. "Yes, yes, you are
+right,--you are a man of honour, Herr Geheimrath. But how can I set
+aside my will without encountering Leuthold's bitterest hate? Ah, you
+do not know what a dangerous enemy he is."
+
+"I know, I know," Heim interrupted him, nodding his head; "he is a bad
+fellow; but tell me, Herr von Hartwich, what do you fear from him? Will
+not the curse of your unfortunate child, if she lives, be harder to
+bear than the hate of such a miserable wretch as your step-brother?"
+
+Hartwich writhed and turned in his bed. "If I had only sold the
+factory! If he should learn that I had disinherited him, he is quite
+capable of preventing the sale out of sheer revenge, ruining the whole
+business for me, and then the poor child would be deprived of half of
+her property!"
+
+The Geheimrath held his snuff-box in one hand, clasped the other over
+it, and looked at Hartwich with a smile.
+
+"If that is why you hesitate, there is no cause for fear. The factory
+is as good as sold; for Herr Neuenstein, the brother of the
+Staatsräthin Möllner, is most anxious to purchase it for his son, who
+is a chemist;--he knows your brother, and would easily see through his
+wiles. Besides, Gleissert need know nothing about it for the present.
+Make the will secretly. I will give you pen and ink when I have written
+a prescription for Ernestine. Send your housekeeper off immediately,
+that we may have no spies about; for I believe her to be capable of any
+treachery, and Ernestine must not be left in her charge. This afternoon
+I shall come again, and you can put the document into my hands, where
+it will be safe. Well--how does the plan please you?"
+
+"Yes, yes," cried Hartwich passionately. "That is right. That I can do.
+Ah, it is all that is left for me to do for my child, and it shall be
+done. Send Gedike away;--get me pen, ink, and paper,--it must not be
+delayed an hour longer than is necessary. I feel I may die at any
+moment. Remove this burden from my soul, and I shall die more
+peacefully!"
+
+Heim went instantly to procure writing-materials, for he knew better
+than the invalid himself that there must be no delay in the matter. The
+servants brought him what he wanted, and he looked in upon Ernestine
+for a moment, while the surgeon went for more ice for the bandages. She
+was lying there moaning and groaning restlessly. He looked at her
+lovingly, and said to himself, "Poor child! There are better days in
+store for you." Then he repaired to Frau Gedike, whom he informed of
+her dismissal, and appointed Rieka, the elder of the maid-servants,--a
+girl whose face pleased him,--Ernestine's attendant.
+
+When he returned to Hartwich, he found him in a state of great
+excitement. His face was purple, the veins greatly swollen.
+
+"Where have you been so long?" he cried out as the Geheimrath entered.
+"I was in agony for fear I should have another stroke. I felt just as I
+did before! There, give me the writing-materials--it would be terrible
+if I were to die now, before I had atoned for my crime. Pray help me
+up, Herr Geheimrath,--but do not touch my lame arm,--oh, this pain!
+There, there,--thank you. Now the pen. I have thought it all over while
+you were away. I will arrange it so that he cannot say I broke my word
+to him, and he cannot harm Ernestine if I should die shortly. Ah,
+air!--Herr Geheimrath,--open a window! After I have written--I shall be
+easier. Then my mind will be relieved."
+
+He spoke in breathless haste, while the perspiration stood in beads
+upon his forehead.
+
+"Be calm, be calm!" said the Geheimrath soothingly. "You are not going
+to die now, but you will make yourself ill with this excitement."
+
+"Ah, you are kind,--you wish to console me;--but I feel that last night
+will be my death--there is no time to lose!"
+
+He dipped the pen in the ink, and looked towards the door. "If only
+Leuthold does not come,--all is lost if he does. Bolt it, I pray, that
+he may not surprise us. Tell me, will it not be best to make him
+Ernestine's heir? Then I shall not be quite false to my promise,--it
+is, alas, alas, more likely that the poor little lamb will die than
+that she will recover; then all will be as it was, and the property
+will be his,--and, if she lives, he must have a good legacy."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the Geheimrath good-humouredly, "give the fellow what
+you think you owe him. But remember that he inherits from Ernestine
+only in case of her dying unmarried; for if it be God's will that she
+lives, marries, and has children, you must not deprive those children
+of the property. That might make her very unhappy."
+
+"Yes, you are right,--I will insert that clause. But the
+guardianship,--what do you think? I must make Leuthold her guardian, or
+he will be terribly angry!"
+
+The Geheimrath shook his head. "I would not do that!"
+
+"Oh, yes, Herr Geheimrath. It would look too ugly, and the child will
+be in no kind of danger. He always liked Ernestine, and stood up for
+her; and he will be afraid, too, not to fill his post of guardian
+conscientiously, for he will be under the supervision of the orphans'
+court."
+
+"Then make her minority as short as possible. For my satisfaction, have
+it expressly stated that she shall be of age at eighteen. Such
+precaution is necessary with men of Gleissert's stamp. According to our
+laws, a father can declare his child of age at eighteen. Her property
+can remain in the orphans' court until then, when it can be placed at
+her own disposal."
+
+"Yes, yes, I agree to all that,--then it is all settled! God be
+thanked!" Hartwich drew a long sigh of relief, and dipped the pen in
+the ink. But scarcely had he attempted the first stroke when he dropped
+the pen in despair and cried out, "Merciful Heaven! I cannot form a
+letter!"
+
+The startled Geheimrath looked at the paper. The letters were entirely
+illegible.
+
+For one moment the old gentleman lost all hope,--while Hartwich sobbed
+and groaned like a child. Was he to fail thus, just when the goal was
+reached? The Geheimrath regarded the invalid thoughtfully, pondering
+how long a delay his condition would permit. Then he made up his mind,
+and said with composure, "I will arrange it all; do not be at all
+anxious. I will drive to the nearest town and procure the services of a
+couple of lawyers, and you shall dictate your will. I will be back
+again in two hours. Tell me when Leuthold is used to be away from home,
+that he may know nothing of our plans."
+
+"At the time of your return he will be at the factory. If you go on
+foot as far as the corner of the wood, he will not see you. Herr
+Geheimrath, you are a true man,--my child's benefactor and mine. How
+shall I ever thank you?"
+
+"There is no need of thanks,--no need at all! I am only doing my duty
+as a man and a Christian." And the prudent old physician concealed the
+writing-materials and hurried out.
+
+Hartwich cast his blood-shot eyes upward and prayed, "Let me live until
+it is complete, O God,--only until then!" These words he repeated again
+and again, while his heart beat more wildly and irregularly, and his
+veins grew blue and swollen. It was the mortal agony of a doomed wretch
+who feels that a short time will bring him to the bar of an inexorable
+judge, and who longs to throw off at least a part of his burden of
+guilt. Of course such anguish would hasten his death.
+
+Frau Bertha came down soon after the Geheimrath's departure, and would
+have stayed in Hartwich's room, but his state terrified her. She saw
+that the end was near, and she had not the courage to look on at the
+death-agony. In her heart she felt herself a murderess, because she had
+so ardently desired his death. Indeed, fate often makes us by our
+silent desires accomplices in its severity, and we are stricken with
+vain remorse when our secret hostility to another suddenly takes form
+and shape in events. Who has not at some time in his life secretly
+nourished a selfish desire, and, after it has been crushed down,
+fervently thanked Heaven for not cursing him with a granted prayer? Or,
+if the evil has been permitted, who has not in his remorse half
+believed that his secret desire helped to work the mischief that has
+been done? Frau Bertha's perceptions were not very delicate. She wished
+for Hartwich's death that she might enjoy his wealth, and thanked
+Heaven that it would shortly be hers; but she was too much of a woman
+not to shudder at the moment of the fulfilment of her evil desires and
+see an avenging demon in Hartwich's dying form. She resolved,
+therefore, to disobey her lord and master, and avoid the death-bed. The
+cogent reasons that Leuthold had for enjoining constant watchfulness
+she could not comprehend; and therefore, as soon as Leuthold left for
+the factory, she betook herself to her apartments again.
+
+Hartwich was now left upon his burning couch, devoured by anxiety. The
+minutes crept slowly on; every quarter of an hour, news of Ernestine
+was brought him; there was no change for an hour, and then Rieka came
+in suddenly and cried, "Ah, sir, Ernestine is awake and wants some
+book; we cannot understand what one, or what she means, she speaks so
+indistinctly, and whatever we get her is wrong. What is to be done?"
+
+"Send a servant into town to buy every child's-book that is to be
+had,--let her want for nothing,--do you hear? for nothing! Has she not
+mentioned me?"
+
+"Oh, no," replied the servant; "she is not herself,--she is continually
+moaning for her book!"
+
+"Then get her what she wants, as quickly as possible,--only be quick!"
+
+The servant left the room, and the sick man was left to his brooding
+thoughts again. It worried and tormented him that Ernestine would have
+to wait several hours for what she wanted. In a few moments he rang
+again for the maid, who reiterated that the child was still asking for
+her book. The invalid grew still more restless, and at last sent for
+the surgeon, who was still with Ernestine.
+
+"Lederer," he called out upon his entrance, "bleed me! Don't you
+remember how much good it did me?"
+
+"Not for worlds, sir!" said Lederer. "I could not do it without a
+physician's orders. There seems no reason at all at present for such an
+extreme remedy!"
+
+"What do you know about it?" cried Hartwich angrily. "I tell you I know
+I need it. There is a perfect hammering going on inside my head. You
+must bleed me, or I shall have another stroke!"
+
+"Ah, sir, believe me, you are needlessly alarmed," said the barber.
+"Have some compassion upon a poor man like myself, who cannot take upon
+himself such a responsibility with a patient of your importance. I
+would gladly do it if I could! Have patience, I pray you, until the
+Geheimrath comes back!"
+
+"You are a miserable coward!" screamed Hartwich, foaming with rage.
+
+"For Heaven's sake compose yourself, sir," the terrified surgeon
+interrupted him; "I will obey you, but I must first go home and fetch
+my bandages. Perhaps by the time I get back the Geheimrath will be
+here!"
+
+"Then go," muttered Hartwich, who already repented his violence, which
+he feared might prove an injury to him. "But first lift me up a little.
+Ah! if I could only put my feet out of bed I should certainly feel
+easier. Try if you cannot lift them out; take out the lame leg
+first--so--that's right--oh, it's hard. 'Tis better to have wooden
+legs--they can be unstrapped and taken off--but to have to drag about
+everywhere a dead, useless limb is horrible! 'tis a dog's life, and I
+care not how soon it is over, but not just yet--I must do my duty
+first. Now go, Lederer, and come back soon."
+
+The barber had helped him so that he was sitting upright in bed, with
+his lame foot upon a cushion. He looked around the room, and noticed
+Ernestine's book upon the table. "What is that?" he asked. Lederer
+handed it to him. He turned over the leaves, and his face suddenly
+brightened. "That must be the book that Ernestine is asking for--some
+one must have given it to her yesterday at the party. Good heavens! now
+I understand why the poor little thing crept in here so late last
+night; she wanted to read by my lamp! Ah, how dearly she paid for her
+innocent pleasure! Go, my good Lederer, and take the book to the child.
+Tell Rieka to come and let me know what she says to it, and then you
+will get the bandages--will you not?"
+
+"Most certainly, sir, as soon as possible!" said Lederer, and hurried
+away with the book.
+
+A clock struck nine. Hartwich sighed profoundly. "Only nine. Heim
+cannot come for an hour yet. The lawyers will need time for
+preparation. O God--Thou wilt not punish that poor, innocent child so
+severely as to let me die before her rights are secured--Thou wilt
+not!" He tried in vain to fold his hands, and at last dropped them
+wearily upon his crippled knees.
+
+Suddenly he imagined that his right hand also was stiffening. His
+incapacity to write could not have resulted merely from want of habit.
+He moved his arm up and down to try it--whether in imagination or
+reality, it certainly felt heavier. It was not the effect of gout, as
+was the case with his left hand; this could only proceed from an
+effusion of blood upon the brain. Cold drops of moisture stood upon his
+forehead; he tried to wipe them away with his right hand; in vain, he
+could not lift it so high. Thus he sat helpless and alone, every limb
+crippled. He thought of his child's thin, white hands; how blest he
+should be if they could now supply the place of his own to him, wipe
+his damp brow and hand him refreshing drink! He thought how forsaken
+and alone he sat there awaiting death, and that it was all his own
+fault; and again he sobbed convulsively. Then Rieka entered.
+
+"Well, was that the right one?" asked Hartwich.
+
+"Oh, yes, sir."
+
+"Thank Heaven! Did she not mention me?"
+
+"No, sir; she said nothing. She only took the book and kissed it, then
+folded it in her arms and went to sleep again."
+
+"If the child does not forgive me before I die, I shall have no rest in
+my grave!" moaned Hartwich. "Rieka, I am losing the use of my right arm
+too. Look at me. Am I not altered?"
+
+"Oh, no, you always look just as purple!" said Rieka consolingly.
+
+"Give me a mirror and let me see myself!"
+
+Rieka handed him a mirror, and he looked at himself long and anxiously.
+"I look fearfully. Can you not hear how indistinct my speech is?"
+
+Rieka put away the mirror. "Oh, your tongue is always heavy when you
+have been drinking. Don't be worried about that."
+
+"I have not drank a drop to-day, you insolent girl!" stammered Hartwich
+irritated. "Go back instantly, and take good care of the child, or----"
+
+"Yes, sir, I shall do my duty without threats, but I can't mend the
+mischief that you have done!" And she slammed the door behind her.
+
+"And I must bear this from an ignorant peasant!" wailed Hartwich. "How
+they will abuse me to my child, if she recovers! Oh, oh, I deserve it
+all; 'tis wretched,--wretched! But I must be calm. I must not be
+excited." Thus he murmured, with trembling lips, exerting all his
+energy to repress his excitement, and to force the breath regularly
+from his laboring breast.
+
+Again the clock struck--ten this time.
+
+"They must soon be here now!" thought Hartwich. "If I can only keep my
+head clear!"
+
+The wretched man in his anguish now exercised his mental faculties in
+every way that he could devise, repeating the formula which he had
+composed for his will a hundred times, that it might be so stamped upon
+his mind as to be forthcoming even in his last moments.
+
+At last steps were heard in the hall.
+
+"It is Lederer with the bandages," he thought, suddenly remembering his
+desire to be bled. But there were several people there. It must be the
+lawyers. The door opened. "Ah, thank God! thank God!" Hartwich
+stammered, and fainted.
+
+"I thought so!" cried the Geheimrath. "If you had only bled him, or at
+least remained with him!" he continued to the terrified barber, who
+entered at the same time. "Be quick now; give me that case; bring me
+some ice from the child's room," he ordered; and, while he spoke the
+lancet had done its work, and the dark blood was flowing from the arm.
+
+"Pray be ready, gentlemen," he said as he was bandaging the arm; "I
+believe the sick man will come to himself in a few moments. You will
+find writing-materials there in the corner."
+
+The gentlemen took their seats, and arranged a table for writing from
+the sick man's dictation. The surgeon brought the ice; it was laid upon
+Hartwich's head, and, as the Geheimrath had prophesied, he soon came to
+himself. He looked around him with astonishment "Am I still living?" he
+feebly asked.
+
+"Certainly, certainly," said the Geheimrath, cheerfully; "it was only a
+slight attack."
+
+"God of mercy," gasped Hartwich, "Thou art all compassion! My memory is
+still perfect. Are the lawyers here?"
+
+One of them arose, and approached the bed.
+
+"We are here, Herr von Hartwich, and await your directions."
+
+"I am still of sound mind,--indeed I am," Hartwich insisted with
+childlike eagerness.
+
+"The intention with which you have summoned us would certainly not
+indicate the contrary," said the lawyer gravely, signing to his
+companion to prepare to write.
+
+"And I declare that this last decision of mine is entirely my own,"
+Hartwich continued.
+
+"I am convinced that it is so. I should far rather suppose that your
+previous will was a forced one," the official rejoined.
+
+"Will it impair the authenticity of this document that I am unable to
+sign it? I cannot, unfortunately, move my hand."
+
+"Not at all," said the lawyer. "These two gentlemen, Herr Geheimrath
+Heim and the surgeon Lederer, will have the kindness to affix their
+signatures as witnesses, and the instrument will be legally correct. If
+you are strong enough to dictate your will, there is nothing now to
+prevent your doing so."
+
+"Oh, yes! oh, yes!" gasped Hartwich, as the Geheimrath supported him;
+"every moment is precious."
+
+The preliminary sentences were written at Hartwich's request. The
+Geheimrath closed the door, and the dying man began to dictate in such
+feverish haste that the lawyer was obliged to entreat him to speak more
+slowly. Some irregularities in the formula were arranged, and the will
+was completed before the glimmering spark of life in the testator was
+extinguished. Little Ernestine was made heir to a property of ninety
+thousand thalers. The document was read aloud to Hartwich, and the
+Geheimrath and Lederer affixed their signatures instead of his own.
+
+"Now I can die!" said the sick man, with the air of a released captive;
+and instantly his mental and physical powers failed him.
+
+"Geheimrath!" he faltered, and a strange smile transfigured
+his countenance, "lay the will upon my child's bed, as
+her--father's--last--farewell--thanks--thanks." And his eyelids closed,
+he muttered unintelligibly, and relapsed into unconsciousness.
+
+The Geheimrath nodded to the lawyers, and said, "It was high time!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                           THE SAD SURVIVORS.
+
+
+The next day, at about the same hour, Frau Bertha was in her kitchen,
+beating whites of eggs for a cake, her round cheeks shaking merrily
+with the exercise. She had sent her maid into the garden with Gretchen,
+and was supplying the maid's place. She turned the bowl upside down, to
+convince herself that the eggs were sufficiently beaten; not a drop
+fell,--they were all right. She set them aside with an air of great
+satisfaction, and turned to a bag beneath the table, whence issued a
+melancholy flapping and cooing. A white dove poked its head out of the
+mouth of the bag, and Bertha thrust it back again, securing the opening
+more tightly. A pot of water on the fire boiled over with a loud
+hissing, and she hastened to roll up her sleeves over her large,
+well-formed arms, and lift the heavy vessel from the glowing coals. She
+was a beautiful sight, as the glare from the fire illuminated her
+massive proportions; as she moved hither and thither, now arranging her
+various cooking-utensils, now opening the door beneath the oven, to
+thrust in huge pieces of wood, hastily picking up and tossing back the
+bits of burning coal that fell out, she might have been Frau Venus, the
+coarse Frau Venus of the popular German imagination, fresh from the
+infernal regions in the Hörselberg, who, clad in a kitchen apron, was
+here in the likeness of a cook-maid to seduce the calm, cold-blooded
+Dr. Gleissert by the magic charms of her cookery. She tossed a net full
+of crabs into a pot of cold water, and looked thoughtlessly on at their
+slow death over the fire. She never dreamed that just at that moment a
+human life was leaving its mortal tenement beneath her roof, and when,
+a few minutes later, she was pounding ingredients in her huge mortar,
+that the noise she was making was the death-knell of a departing soul.
+She did not hear her husband's approach until he stood before her, and
+seizing her by the arm, said breathlessly, "Wife, this is our last day
+of torment!"
+
+Frau Bertha looked at him with surprise, that was only half joy,
+painted upon her heated face. "I have never seen you so delighted
+before, except when you were examining those odd fishes at Trieste;
+what has happened?"
+
+"Can you not guess?" asked Leuthold.
+
+"Is he dead?"
+
+"He is; he has been dying for the last twenty-four hours."
+
+"Thank Heaven!" said Frau Bertha, folding her plump hands.
+
+"And if I believed in Heaven I should say so too," rejoined Leuthold,
+throwing himself upon a kitchen chair. "Only conceive of the joy!
+We are wealthy,--independent,--delivered from our ten years'
+servitude,--delivered--ah!" He fanned himself with the pocket-handkerchief
+that he had just used at the bedside of Hartwich's corpse to dry the
+tears that he did not shed.
+
+In spite of her good fortune, Frau Bertha looked uncomfortable. "I am
+almost sorry he has gone," she said timidly. "It seems to me a sin to
+rejoice so at any one's death,--he might appear to us."
+
+"Don't talk such nonsense; you know I cannot endure it," said Leuthold
+angrily. "You behave as if we had killed him. Wishes are neither poison
+nor steel; and we are not rejoicing at his death, but at our
+inheritance. It is but human."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Bertha, comforted, "you are quite right. If we could
+have had the money while he lived, we should not have wanted him to
+die; he might have lived for a hundred years for all I would have
+cared. It was his own fault that we wished him dead. Why did he keep us
+so pinched?"
+
+Leuthold nodded approvingly. "I see you are willing to listen to
+reason; now have the kindness to come downstairs with me and pay the
+proper respect to the body."
+
+"What must I do that for?" asked Bertha, alarmed.
+
+"Because it is becoming! I have instructed you sufficiently upon this
+point; you know my wishes--come!"
+
+These words, that cut like a knife in their utterance, made opposition
+useless. Bertha took her casseroles from the fire, looked after the
+doves in the bag, and followed her husband down stairs. On the way she
+asked him, "What shall I say when we get there?"
+
+"Not much," said Leuthold dryly. "There is not much to be said in such
+stiff, silent society,--a couple of oh's and ah's will suffice; it is
+very graceful in a woman to fall upon her knees by the bedside; but if
+you should attempt it, pray restrain your usual impetuosity, or the
+repose even of the dead might be disturbed."
+
+"You are a fearful man," whispered Bertha. "I am actually afraid of
+you. Will you make such joking speeches when I die?"
+
+"I shall not outlive you, my good Bertha," said Leuthold, plaintively.
+"If I should, be assured I will mourn for you as the nurseling for his
+nurse!"
+
+Frau Bertha looked doubtfully at her husband. She scarcely knew what to
+make of this tender asseveration, and she said nothing. They had
+reached the door of Hartwich's apartment.
+
+"Where is your handkerchief--your pocket-handkerchief?" Leuthold asked
+softly. Bertha sought it in vain; she had forgotten it. "How
+thoughtless," whispered Leuthold, "to forget your handkerchief under
+such circumstances!"
+
+"Then give me yours," said Bertha.
+
+"You fool! I want it for myself. Take your apron; put that up to your
+eyes--so!" With these words he opened the door and entered slowly,
+pushing Bertha before him. Hartwich lay extended upon the bed, his face
+so changed that Bertha was glad to be able to hide her eyes in her
+apron. Leuthold stood beside her, a picture of dignified manly grief;
+his bearing impressed the bystanders; the surgeon, the men- and
+maid-servants, who were all present, were convinced that Herr Gleissert
+had really loved his step-brother, and that it was rank injustice to
+accuse him of heartlessness. After a few moments, he laid his hand
+gently upon his wife's shoulder, but its stern pressure reminded her
+that she was to fall upon her knees. She sank down as carefully as she
+could, and with her broad back and bending head was a beautiful and
+moving image of woe. After awhile he bent over her and said gently,
+"Come, my child, do not be so agitated; our tears cannot bring him back
+to life--come!" Then he raised her, leaned her head upon his breast to
+conceal her face, and conducted her from the room. The others looked
+after them with amazement.
+
+"I cannot understand it," said the surgeon. "Every one knows that the
+woman never could endure Herr von Hartwich, and yet now she seems
+almost dead with grief!"
+
+"She isn't really sorry," growled a groom; "it's all sham!"
+
+"Yes, yes," Rieka added, "she didn't shed a tear,--not a single tear,
+for all she rubbed her eyes so with her apron!"
+
+"That's true,--she is right," murmured the group; "neither he nor she
+shed a single tear. Well, there's a pair of them. Do they suppose we
+are so stupid as not to see how glad they are that the master is dead?
+'Tis a pity that the money will not fall into better hands."
+
+Then they separated, and went indifferently about their work.
+
+"That was not so bad," said Leuthold, when he had reached his own room
+with Bertha; "but still you certainly have no genius for the stage."
+
+"You ought to be glad that I can never play a part before you," she
+said, shaking herself as if to shake off the disagreeable impression of
+what she had seen like dust from her clothes.
+
+In the mean time the maid had brought the child in from the garden, and
+had laid the table.
+
+"We will have some champagne to-day," said Leuthold, taking down the
+keys of the cellar. "We need something to support us under such
+exciting circumstances. Send Lena for some ice." And he left the room.
+
+Frau Bertha sent the girl for ice, and said to herself with
+complacency, "That ice-house was the best thing I ever planned."
+
+The little girl, who was too fat and chubby to move very steadily, had
+crept under the table, and now, catching hold of the corner of the
+table-cloth, tried to lift herself by it, thereby pulling down a couple
+of plates and knives upon the floor. Bertha caught up the screaming
+child, gave it two or three hard slaps, saying, "Now you know what you
+are crying for," and then carried it to and fro to quiet it, well
+knowing that her strict husband would not endure any noise. Gretchen
+ceased crying just as her father entered with the champagne. Lena
+brought the ice, and the bottles were arranged in it. When the husband
+and wife were seated at table, Bertha had the fragments of the broken
+plates cleared away. "Oh, heavens!" she muttered, "nothing but bad
+signs. If our fortune should be destroyed like that china!"
+
+"You unmitigated fool!" scolded her husband; "if everything that we
+desire were only as secure as our legally devised inheritance,
+Gretchen's future husband would be now tumbling about in a royal
+nursery, and there would be a French cook in our kitchen."
+
+"Oh, then," Bertha interrupted him with irritation, "you are not
+satisfied with my cooking,--you want a Frenchman."
+
+"Only a Frenchman could supply your place," replied her husband, quite
+ready to practise himself in the delicate flattery which he intended to
+make use of in future towards ladies in aristocratic circles. He kissed
+her hand and said, "I would not have these rosy fingers any longer
+degraded by contact with the rude utensils of cookery. Let all that be
+left to the hard, rough hands of some skilful gastronome."
+
+Frau Bertha stared at him in surprise.
+
+"Why, can gastronomes cook?"
+
+"Most certainly,--what else should they do?"
+
+"I thought they looked at the stars through glasses!"
+
+Leuthold clasped his hands in dismay, and cast a look towards heaven.
+"Good heavens! when I think of your making such a speech among our
+future friends, I am so profoundly humiliated that I could almost
+determine to make over my property to some religious institution--some
+monastery--and enroll myself among its members. Woman, woman, must I
+teach you the difference between gastronomy, the science of cookery,
+and astronomy, the science of the stars?"
+
+"Gastronomy or astronomy!" said Bertha pettishly, as she ladled out the
+soup, "it is a great deal better for me to understand cooking than the
+long names you call it. Would you have liked, during all the ten years
+that you were too poor to keep a regular cook, to have a wife who could
+talk Latin with you, but whose dinners a dog could not have eaten?"
+
+"No, no, indeed, my dear Bertha!" said her husband with a shudder; "but
+the two can be united if you try. I do not ask you either to study
+Greek and Latin, or to resign your masterly supervision of our kitchen
+department; but you have hitherto performed many little household
+offices, that could as well have been left to the servant, because you
+had no pleasanter way of occupying your time. This must be otherwise
+now; hitherto you have had the excuse of our straitened circumstances
+that have compelled you sometimes to discharge a servant's duties. Now
+there will be no such excuse; for you will have a suitable household in
+town, and time to cultivate your mind and render yourself a worthy
+member of the society to which I shall introduce you."
+
+Bertha in her impatience let her spoon fall into the soup-plate, and
+then wreaked her irritation upon the soup, which she poured hastily
+back into the tureen.
+
+"If you should do such a thing as that before strangers," said her
+husband angrily, "you would stamp yourself as a person of no
+refinement, and I should be disgraced."
+
+Bertha brought her hand down upon the table so heavily that the glasses
+rang again. "This is really too much! Can I no longer eat as I please?
+As long as you were poor, and I spent my little all in procuring
+delicacies for you, you found me all very well, and had plenty of fine
+words for me; but now, that you are rich and I have nothing left, I am
+not good enough for you, and you take quite another tone with me.
+Heaven help me! There is no more pleasure in store for me. I really
+believe you would send me out of the house if I should not succeed in
+pleasing you. Oh, if I had only known!"
+
+She was silent, because Lena appeared with the roast; but a couple of
+large tears dropped into the soup-plate which she handed to the
+servant.
+
+"What exaggerated nonsense!" said Leuthold at last. "Be good enough to
+carve the meat,--I am hungry. You know I am a respectable man,--slow to
+adopt harsh measures if they can be avoided. I hope you will not force
+me to them by stubborn conduct. You will recognize and fulfil the
+duties which our wealth imposes upon us."
+
+"Duties, duties? I thought that when I was rich I could begin really to
+enjoy life and do as I pleased; but instead of that I must wear a
+double face and worry about everything. It is just as if you gave me a
+new sofa in the place of the old one, but forbade me to lie down upon
+it for fear of injuring the cover. Of course I should long for the old
+one, upon which I could stretch myself in comfort whenever I chose."
+
+Leuthold smiled. "You are not forbidden to lie down upon the new sofa.
+I only ask you to take off your muddy boots when you do so. Do you
+understand?"
+
+Bertha was so far consoled that she applied herself to devouring the
+food upon her plate in silence. Her husband regarded her with a strange
+mixture of humour and discontent.
+
+"You must at least learn to hold your fork in your left hand," he said
+at last.
+
+"Mercy!" exclaimed Bertha again. "What matter is it about such a
+trifle?"
+
+"A great deal of matter, my dear. Such trifles show refinement, just as
+the mercury in the thermometer shows the degree of heat and cold. If
+you lay your knife aside and clutch your fork in your right hand like a
+pitchfork, every one of any culture will say, 'That woman is a person
+of no refinement. She has not been used to good society.' I grant it is
+insignificant in itself and ridiculous to every thinking man; but it
+serves a certain purpose. Such forms are marks of distinction between
+cultivated and uncultivated people. Just because they are so
+insignificant the uninitiated never pay any heed to them. But, although
+clad in purple and fine linen, ignorance of such trifles betrays the
+parvenu. Those who desire, like yourself, to enter circles to which
+they do not belong by birth, must find out all their conventional
+secrets, in order not to be disgraced."
+
+"Oh, what a moral discourse!" sighed Bertha. "I have had enough for
+to-day. You are a thoroughly heartless man, and were kind to me only as
+long as you needed me. I must bear what comes, for I am poor and
+helpless since I broke with my father,--but you have tired me out, I
+assure you."
+
+"And if this fatigue were an overpowering sensation, you would separate
+yourself from me; but since you are fond of the rest that I can provide
+you, there will be an enduring bond between us. I shall magnanimously
+treat you as my wife as long as you give me no legal ground for
+divorce; therefore, be composed; your future lot is a thousand times
+more brilliant than you had any right to expect."
+
+Bertha arose, and was about to reply, but her husband commanded silence
+by so imperious a gesture that she swallowed down her anger and
+hastened from the room, sobbing violently. In the kitchen the maid was
+just taking the cake that she had made from the oven. It was
+successful--it was most beautiful! The servant placed it near the open
+window to cool. Bertha contemplated it mournfully. How much pains she
+had taken! how stiff the eggs had been beaten! how well it had risen!
+and no one cared anything about it! Did her cross husband deserve that
+she should prepare such a delicacy for him? Should he devour this
+masterpiece? Yet there it was,--so round and high, so brown and
+fragrant, that she gradually dried her tears, and was filled with more
+agreeable sensations and a pardonable pride. No one except herself
+possessed the receipt for this cake. No one else could make it. She
+thought with rapture of the delight of those who should in future
+partake of it at her table,--of the consideration that she should enjoy
+on account of it; and, thinking thus, her good humour returned, and she
+determined not to hide her light under a bushel, and punish her husband
+by withholding the cake from him, but to parade it before him; he
+should see what a woman he had treated so unkindly could do. When he
+tasted this cake he would repent his harshness! She took the plate and
+carried it on high into the dining-room, where she placed it before her
+husband with exultation.
+
+"Yes, that is really beautiful," he said approvingly, looking first at
+the round, beautiful cake, and then at the plump, pretty baker; and his
+approbation exalted Bertha to the highest pitch of satisfaction, so
+that she felt morally justified in asking for a glass of champagne. Her
+husband removed the cork without allowing it to snap and disturb the
+decorum of the house of mourning, and then poured out a sparkling
+bumper for her.
+
+"Come," she said, "we will clink glasses, and drink to the welfare of
+the good Hartwich, who has made us rich!"
+
+"Yes, now that he is dead, may he live forever," said Leuthold smiling,
+and gently touching his wife's glass with his own,--"live forever in
+that heaven where I trust he may experience all the delight that his
+wealth will afford us here on earth."
+
+They emptied their glasses, and Bertha ran into the adjoining room,
+where Gretchen was taking her noonday nap. She snatched the sleeping
+child from the bed, shook it, and cried, "Come, wake up, and you shall
+have some cake!"
+
+The little thing, interrupted in its nap, was frightened and began to
+scream, refusing to be quieted until her father filled her mouth with
+the promised delicacy and dandled her in his arms.
+
+"You do not even understand how to take care of your own child,"
+murmured Leuthold. "What will you do when our niece comes to us?"
+
+"What!" cried Bertha, "must I have the care of the disagreeable
+creature?"
+
+"She will come to me--yes."
+
+"But we will send her to boarding-school--you promised me!"
+
+"If Ernestine recovers, as she may do under old Heim's care, she will
+be too weak for months to be sent among strangers without incurring the
+reproach of the world. You will be obliged, therefore, to submit to
+having her with us until such time as we can be rid of her decently. I
+assure you she shall stay no longer than is absolutely necessary. And
+now pray be quiet, and do not embitter this day by complaints."
+
+Frau Bertha looked utterly discomfited. She determined that, at all
+events, Ernestine should never partake of the delicacies which she
+alone knew how to prepare. Coarse natures always seek for a scape-goat
+upon whom to wreak their irritation; and, as she did not dare to make
+her husband serve this purpose, her choice fell upon Ernestine.
+
+Leuthold, who was not used to see his wife lost in a reverie, softly
+touched her shoulder. "Come; it really looks almost as if you were
+thinking of something," he said dryly.
+
+"Yes; I am thinking of something," she replied significantly. "I am
+thinking of the dog's life I shall lead as long as that sickly, ailing
+brat is under our roof, and no one will reward me for my pains."
+
+She stopped, for Gretchen had grown restless, and required all her
+attention, and Leuthold evidently refused to give any heed to her
+complaints, but, as dinner was over, folded his napkin and rose from
+the table. "I must write the notice of his death--it is high time it
+were attended to," he said, while he washed his hands in the adjoining
+room. "Sew a piece of crape around my hat." He re-entered the room, and
+sat down at his writing-table. Bertha placed a candle and a cup of
+_café noir_ upon it. He lighted a cigar, which he smoked as he
+wrote, sipping his coffee comfortably from time to time. The servant
+removed the dinner-table; Gretchen amused herself on the floor with
+some paper, which she tore into a thousand fragments, to make a mimic
+snow-storm; and Bertha tried on before the mirror several articles of
+mourning-apparel, which she had had in readiness for some time. She was
+delighted, for black was very becoming to her.
+
+Peace and comfort reigned in the apartment. Leuthold emptied his cup
+and laid aside his pen. "There--that is most touching and suitable.
+Read it." He handed Bertha what he had, written, and she read:
+
+"It has pleased Almighty God to release our beloved father, brother,
+and brother-in-law, Herr Carl Emil von Hartwich, landholder and
+manufacturer, from his protracted sufferings, and to transport him to a
+better world. He died this day, at twelve M. Those who were acquainted
+with the deceased, and with his active benevolence, will know how
+profound must be our sorrow, and accord us their sympathy.
+
+                                         "The Sad Survivors.
+
+"Unkenbeim, 24 July, 18--."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                              UNDECEIVED.
+
+
+Ernestine was still lying motionless in Frau Gedike's huge bed, and by
+her side sat a little nurse scarcely three feet high, swinging her
+short legs, and thinking how charming it must be to lie in such a great
+big bed, just like a grown person, and what a pity it was that poor
+Ernestine slept so much, that she could not enjoy the pleasure. Now and
+then she turned her fair head round towards the window behind her,
+through the white curtains of which she could see a dark procession
+moving away from the house towards the village. When it had disappeared
+from sight, she gave a little sigh, and swung her feet rather more
+violently than before,--although she sat very upright, with great
+dignity of demeanour, for she was entirely conscious of the weighty
+responsibility of her post. She had been intrusted with the charge of
+watching Ernestine while the servants were attending the funeral
+services performed over Bartwich's corpse. When they were concluded,
+and the funeral procession had left the house, Rieka had begged the
+little child to keep her place until the gentlemen returned from the
+church-yard, in order that the maid might perform certain necessary
+household duties. Angelika--for she it was--undertook the charge with
+delight. She had given her uncle Neuenstein, who had determined to pay
+the last honours to Hartwich's remains, no peace until he consented to
+take her to Ernestine. True, she soon acknowledged to herself that she
+had never, in her whole long life of eight years, seen any place so
+tiresome as this quiet room, where nothing was heard but the buzzing of
+a couple of flies around a spoon in which a drop or two of Ernestine's
+medicine had been left; but she was not discontented; she sat as still
+as a mouse, so that she might not disturb the invalid, and did not even
+venture to look at her, for she had heard that sleepers could be
+awakened by a look. Only now and then she cast a wistful glance at the
+pretty book that was clasped tight in Ernestine's embrace. Suddenly the
+sick child muttered, "I am lying turned round the wrong way in bed."
+Angelika scrambled down in alarm from her high seat, and ran to the
+door and cried, "Rieka, Ernestine is saying something!"
+
+The maid hurried in, and Ernestine moved uneasily, and insisted that
+she was lying with her head towards the foot of the bed. At last Rieka
+remembered that Ernestine's crib had been placed against the opposite
+wall, and suspected that she missed the old position. Rightly judging
+this to be a favourable sign, she quickly and carefully turned the
+child around in the bed; and when Ernestine stretched out her hand and
+encountered the wall, where she had been accustomed to find it, she
+seemed satisfied, and apparently fell asleep again. Then Rieka left the
+room to finish her work; but, after a few moments, Ernestine opened her
+eyes, in which for the first time shone the light of intelligence, and
+looked around. "Angelika!" she said in amazement, and then stared
+around the room. "Why, this is Frau Gedike's room! and what a large,
+soft bed!"
+
+"Yes, indeed," Angelika delightedly replied. "Isn't it comfortable? Ah,
+you poor dear Ernestine, are you beginning to grow a little better? Is
+your head mended again?"
+
+Ernestine put up her hand to her bandaged head. "What is this?"
+
+"You broke your head. Oh, it was terrible, I know from my
+dolls,--although it doesn't hurt them, and you can put on new heads;
+but they couldn't do that for you, and they said you must die; but you
+haven't died!"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Ernestine, recollecting herself; "now I remember; last
+night my father struck me and threw me down. Yes, it hurt very much!"
+
+"It was not last night, it was several days ago; but you slept the
+whole time, and didn't you know that they cut off your hair?" asked
+Angelika, running to the wardrobe and producing a thick bunch of long
+black hair. "Look, here it is,--there is some blood on it still, but,
+if you will only give it to me, I will wash it and make my large
+walking doll a splendid wig of it. Do, do give it to me, you can't make
+it grow on your head again."
+
+"I'll give it to you willingly," said Ernestine; "but first ask Frau
+Gedike whether you may keep it."
+
+"Oh, she is not here any more,--Uncle Heim sent her away!" replied
+Angelika, drawing the dark strands slowly through her fingers.
+
+"Then ask my father."
+
+This answer utterly discomfited Angelika. "I cannot ask your father,"
+she said in a disappointed tone, putting the hair away regretfully. "He
+is dead! They put him in the hearse a little while ago,--I saw them."
+
+"Oh," said Ernestine, startled, "is he dead? Why, why did he die just
+now?"
+
+"I think because he was so angry with you," said Angelika with an air
+of great wisdom. "Don't you know when I am naughty mamma shuts me up in
+a dark room? and, because your father was a great deal naughtier than
+I, God has shut him up in a dark hole in the ground, and he must stay
+there always."
+
+"Ah, for my sake, the dear God should not have done that, for my sake!"
+said Ernestine, bursting into tears. "Now I have no father any more; I
+have nobody; I am all alone in the world! My poor father! it is all my
+fault that he is put into the narrow grave, where the worms will eat
+him and there will be nothing left of him but bones. Oh, how horrible!
+how horrible! I saw a skeleton once in a picture, and my poor, poor
+father will look just like that!" And she wrung her thin hands and
+writhed about in the bed, moaning loudly.
+
+Angelika was in despair at the mischief she had done. She had quite
+forgotten that she had been forbidden, if Ernestine should awake, to
+speak to her of her father. In the greatest distress she walked to and
+fro beside the high bed, and at last brought a tall stool, from which,
+when she had mounted it, she could reach Ernestine. She kissed her, she
+stroked her cheeks, and laid her chubby hand upon her mouth to silence
+her, but in vain. At last she hit upon the idea of showing her the book
+that lay beside her. She opened it at a picture and held it up before
+her, saying, "Look, dear Ernestine, only look at your beautiful book!"
+The sick child instantly brushed the tears from her eyes when she saw
+the picture.
+
+"The swan!" she cried, "the swan! that is the story of the Ugly
+Duckling!" She hastily took the book out of Angelika's hands and turned
+over the leaves. Gradually the fairy figures of the snow-queen, the
+little mermaid, and the rest, obliterated the horrible image of her
+dead father, and his narrow grave faded away to give place to the
+shining garden of Paradise, and the clear, broad sea with the fairy
+palaces beneath its crystal waves. Her sobs grew fainter and fainter,
+and at last a smile played around her lips when she came to the story
+of the dryad "Elder Blossom."
+
+"Now I know what a dryad is," she said. "I am glad, I am very glad!"
+
+"What is it that makes you so glad?"
+
+"That a dryad is nothing bad, for--don't you know?--_he_ called me
+that. I thought it was to mock me, and it hurt me, but it was not so."
+
+"He? who?"
+
+"I don't know his name, your brother, who gave me the book."
+
+"Johannes?" laughed Angelika. "Do you like him?"
+
+"Yes, oh, yes, he is so handsome and good, just like the prince in the
+Little Mermaid." With these words a light shone in the child's dark
+eyes. "I would far rather have turned into foam than done anything to
+hurt him, if I had been the mermaid."
+
+"That is charming! that is splendid!" Angelika declared with delight;
+"we both love him! He is such a dear brother. It is a pity he has gone
+away. If he were at home he would come and play with you; oh, he plays
+so finely!"
+
+"Has he gone away?" asked Ernestine sadly.
+
+"Yes, he has gone to Paris to get me a wax doll; only think!--one that
+can call 'Papa' and 'Mamma.'"
+
+"Oh, there cannot be such dolls!" said Ernestine with a troubled look.
+
+"Indeed there are, and when she comes I will show her to you. Remember
+the doll in 'Ole Luckoie;' she could speak, and had a fine wedding."
+
+"But that isn't a true story," said Ernestine wisely, putting her hand
+to her head, which was beginning to ache badly.
+
+"Only think what a charming thing it is to have a wedding," Angelika
+ran on. "I once went to a real wedding, and it was almost finer than
+the one in the story. Oh, the bride has a lovely time! Why, she sits
+just in the middle of the table, and in front of her is a great, tall
+cake, with a little house on top of it and a little man inside, a
+little bit of a man, with a bow and arrows, but no clothes on at all.
+She has the biggest piece of cake, and they put the dear little man
+upon her plate, and she is helped first to everything. I was really
+vexed with my cousin for eating hardly anything. And only think, last
+of all came ice-cream doves sitting in a nest made of sugar, upon eggs
+of marchpane! They looked so natural that I was too sorry when my
+cousin cut off one of their heads; I could have cried, and I determined
+not to eat any of it, but by the time it came to me, every one could
+see that it was not a real dove, for it was all melting away, and you
+had to eat it with a spoon. And there were quantities of champagne, and
+all the gentlemen made long speeches to the bride, and you had to sit
+perfectly still and not rattle your spoon at all while they were
+talking, but when they had done you could scream as loud as you
+pleased, and clatter your glasses, and the more noise you made the
+better; and all were pleased and kissed one another; only my cousin sat
+there so stupidly and cried. I wouldn't have cried when everything was
+done to please me. And I'll tell you what, when my brother comes back
+he must bring you a boy doll with a hat and waistcoat, and then he
+shall marry my doll. He will come in six months, but that must be a
+long time; for mamma cried when he went away. Perhaps we shall be grown
+up by then, and can make our dolls' clothes ourselves. That would be
+lovely."
+
+"But we shall not be grown up in six months," said Ernestine. "First
+winter must come, and then summer again, and then winter and summer
+again, before we are grown up!"
+
+"That is terribly long," cried Angelika. "I don't see how we can wait
+so long."
+
+"And when we are grown up we cannot play with dolls. Then I shall buy
+myself a telescope like Uncle Leuthold's, and always be looking into
+the moon, for I like it better than anything."
+
+"Into the moon? Have you ever looked into the moon?" asked Angelika in
+amazement.
+
+"Indeed I have."
+
+"How does it look there?"
+
+"Oh, beautiful, most beautiful! It shines and gleams so silvery, and it
+is so calm and quiet, and there are mountains and valleys there just
+like ours, only they are not coloured, they are just pure light!"
+
+"Did you see the man in the moon?"
+
+"No, I didn't see him; Uncle Leuthold said there are no people in the
+moon; but I don't believe him. They are only so far off that we can't
+see them. And they must be much happier and better than we are here;
+I'm sure they never beat children; and who knows whether perhaps the
+dear God himself does not live there? If I could fly, I would fly up
+there!" And she gazed upward with beaming eyes, and a long sigh escaped
+from her little breast.
+
+"No, dear Ernestine, you must not fly away; no one can tell that the
+moon is as lovely near to, as it is so far off. And it is very nice
+here, too, for when you grow up you can be either a mamma or an aunt,
+and then no one can do anything to you. No one ever strikes my aunt or
+my mamma--no one!"
+
+But Ernestine was no longer conscious of the child's prattle; her eyes
+closed, her beloved book dropped from her hands; Ole Luckoie, the
+gentle Northern god of slumber, had arisen from its pages. He had
+poured balm into her painful wound, and extended his canopy, with its
+thousands of gay pictures, over her soul.
+
+Angelika looked at her for awhile, and then asked, "Are you asleep
+again?" and, upon receiving no answer, she was quite content, and got
+softly down from the high stool, and seated herself again upon her
+chair with the grave air of a sentinel. At last Heim, with Herr
+Neuenstein, came home from the funeral, and the two gentlemen entered
+the apartment together.
+
+"She has been talking with me," Angelika announced.
+
+"What! has she come to herself?" asked the Geheimrath in pleased
+surprise.
+
+"Oh, yes,--we talked about a great many things--and then she went to
+sleep again."
+
+The Geheimrath rubbed his hands.--"That's good! Did she seem to be
+perfectly sensible?"
+
+"Oh, yes; she was perfectly sensible," Angelika assured him.
+
+"What a pity that I was not here! Now I hope we shall bring her
+through," said the Geheimrath to Herr Neuenstein; but the latter stood
+looking at the corpse-like figure of the sleeping child, and shook his
+head.
+
+"I see," continued the physician, "that it seems impossible to you, and
+yet I believe she will recover. Who that sees such a faded blossom
+lying there would suspect the wonderful recuperative energy hidden
+within it? And I tell you this child possesses an immense amount of
+vitality, or she would have succumbed to such brutal treatment as she
+has received. She will recover; believe me, she will recover."
+
+"I should rejoice indeed to think that your exertions will not prove in
+vain. And you really wish to take her with you?"
+
+"Yes, if her hypocritical uncle will let her go, I will deliver her
+from his claws, and educate her as is best for her health and becoming
+to her position as an heiress."
+
+"You are a genuine philanthropist, Geheimrath."
+
+"Yes, I am a philanthropist; but there is small merit in that. Some
+people love puppies and kittens, others cultivate flowers with
+enthusiasm,--I love to educate and train human beings. Whenever a pair
+of melancholy eyes stare out at me from a child's face, I want to stick
+the child in my herbarium like a rare flower. Yes, if it only cost as
+little to cultivate children as plants, I should have had a human
+hot-house long ago. But the taste is so confoundedly expensive."
+
+"Yes, we all know that you spend your whole income in such good works.
+You might have been a millionaire long ago, if it had not been for your
+lavish generosity."
+
+"What would you have? One man wastes his money upon one whim, and
+another on another. This happens to be my whim, and I spend just as
+much upon it as I can conscientiously in the interest of my adopted
+son, who stands nearest my heart. But now do me the kindness to leave
+the room, for our talk is disturbing the child's sleep. I will stay
+here for an hour and watch her."
+
+"Come, Angelika," said Neuenstein: "Uncle Heim is very cross
+to-day,--let us go home." He took the child's hand, and nodded
+affectionately to Heim. "Shall I send the carriage for you?"
+
+"No, I thank you; I must return to the capital; the king has commanded
+my attendance this afternoon. But I shall be here again to-morrow."
+
+"Adieu, dear uncle," said little Angelika, standing on tiptoe, and
+holding up her rosy lips to be kissed. "You won't be cross to me, will
+you?" she asked, nestling her fair curls among his gray locks as he
+bent down to her; "I have been so good!" And then she went softly out
+with Herr Neuenstein.
+
+When Heim was alone, he sat down by the bedside, and silently
+contemplated the sleeping child. "I'll wager," he thought, "that she
+will be very beautiful one of these days. Her face is older than her
+years, and that is always ugly in a child, but when her age accords
+with the earnestness of that brow, and her features lose their
+sharpness under more kindly treatment, it will be a magnificent head.
+To think of having such a child and beating it half to death! Such a
+child!"
+
+Something like a tear glistened in the old man's eyes, and he softly
+took a pinch of snuff to compose himself, for these thoughts filled him
+with the pain of an old wound, and well-nigh overcame him. But the
+pinch was of no avail. He gazed upon the treasure before him, which had
+fallen to one utterly unworthy such a gift, who had neglected and
+despised it, and he thought what joy its possession would have given
+him. And he remembered that such joy might have been his, had his heart
+not clung unalterably to one who was not destined for him. Now it was
+too late; and the past, in which he might have sown the harvest of love
+that he longed to reap, was irrevocable. The passion that had so long
+filled his heart was conquered and dead; but the longing for affection,
+that is stronger than passion, still lived on in the old man's breast.
+"When a man's wife dies and leaves him," he thought, "she lives again
+in her children; but he who has neither wife nor child is doubly poor."
+He had watched over many human lives, but not one could he call his
+own; he had preserved the lives of many, he had given life to none. He
+had seen the bitterest woes soothed by affection, and he should die
+without leaving one child behind to mourn his loss. And, lost in such
+thoughts, it seemed to him that he was actually lying upon his
+death-bed, and that he felt a soft arm stealing around his neck, and
+heard a sweet, caressing voice sob out, "Father."
+
+It was Ole Luckoie who had granted him this bitter-sweet dream by
+Ernestine's bedside; it vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and
+left nothing behind but a tear on the old man's furrowed cheek.
+
+Then the latch of the door began to tremble, as though a carriage were
+driving by, and the heavy footsteps that caused the noise approached
+the apartment. Before the Geheimrath could prevent it, the door was
+flung open, and Bertha's colossal figure appeared upon the threshold.
+She was dressed in a new shining black silk, and the stiff cambric
+lining rustled so loudly as she approached the bed that the child
+started up frightened, and the Geheimrath could not suppress an
+exclamation.
+
+"Good-morning, Herr Geheimrath; good-morning, Tina," she said with a
+nod. "So, Tina, you're alive still, I see. There was no need of such a
+great fuss about you, after all."
+
+Ernestine, at this rude greeting, flung herself to the farther side of
+the bed, and cried, "Oh, send my aunt away!--I do not want to see her.
+I will not!"
+
+The Geheimrath politely offered his arm to the intruder and conducted
+her from the room without a word. Bertha, amazed, asked, "Why, what
+have I done? Can't I see my niece?"
+
+"If you yourself do not understand, madam, that this frail life needs
+to be treated with the greatest possible tenderness, I, a physician,
+must tell you that it will be your fault if my care of the child should
+prove of no avail and she should die in spite of it. I must therefore
+entreat you either to discontinue your visits to the child, or to
+address her more gently."
+
+"Why, goodness gracious!" cried Bertha, "I was only in jest. Mercy on
+me! you may wrap her up in cotton-wool, for all I care."
+
+The Geheimrath gave an involuntary sigh. "Poor child," he thought, "to
+be in danger of falling into such hands!"
+
+Suddenly the hall-door was opened, and a face appeared, so ashy pale,
+so livid, that Bertha started in terror. It was Leuthold; but he was
+hardly to be recognized. When he perceived the Geheimrath, he saluted
+him with his usual courtesy, then, extending his hand to Bertha, said
+in a low voice, "My dear Bertha, be kind enough to come up-stairs with
+me."
+
+She followed him in the greatest trepidation, for she had never before
+beheld him thus; and on the joyful day of Hartwich's funeral, too! What
+could have happened? He took her hand and conducted her up the
+staircase, his fingers were as cold and clammy as those of a corpse.
+She almost shuddered as they walked along together in such solemn
+silence.
+
+They reached the door of their own apartment. Leuthold entered, dragged
+his wife in after him, closed the door, and, before she was aware of
+what he was doing, she felt the icy hand around her throat like an iron
+band.
+
+"Shall I strangle you?" he gasped, with eyes like a serpent's when it
+is wound around its victim.
+
+"Merciful Heaven!" shrieked Bertha, falling upon her knees to extricate
+herself. The cold hand grasped her throat still more tightly.
+
+"Utter one sound that the servants can hear, and I will throttle you!"
+hissed Leuthold. "Be quiet! or----" Bertha ceased struggling, and
+almost lost her consciousness. He then released her and pushed her down
+upon the sofa, where she sat utterly astounded.
+
+He put his hand to his head, and then whispered, almost inaudibly, as
+though speaking with the greatest difficulty, "On the day of
+Ernestine's fall, when Heim came to the house, do you remember that I
+strictly enjoined it upon you to observe narrowly whatever occurred in
+the house?"
+
+"Yes," stammered the frightened woman.
+
+"Did you do it?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"You did not do it."
+
+"I was so afraid of Hartwich that I went up-stairs again," Bertha
+confessed with hesitation.
+
+"And so,--" Leuthold's chest heaved, his breath came heavily, and he
+clenched his hands convulsively, "and so it is your fault that Hartwich
+has disinherited us and left all his property to Ernestine." His face
+grew still paler, his slender figure tottered, he grasped at a chair
+for support, and fell fainting upon the ground.
+
+"Good God!" shrieked Bertha, shaking the prostrate man violently, "the
+whole property? tell me, the whole property? Oh, you miserable man,
+what folly to fall into such spasms! Speak, and tell me whether we have
+nothing at all, or what we have!"
+
+Leuthold slowly raised his head. Bertha carried, more than supported,
+him to the sofa. She brought some eau-de-cologne and poured it over his
+head so that it ran into his eyes. He uttered an exclamation of pain,
+and tried to wipe away the burning fluid from his eyes. "Are you trying
+to deprive me of my eyesight?" he groaned, and, when the pain was
+relieved, he sat in a dejected attitude, staring into vacancy.
+
+"For mercy's sake, speak!" cried Bertha. "You can, at least, open your
+mouth. No legacy? Not an annuity?"
+
+Leuthold looked at his unfeeling wife with an expression that, in spite
+of herself, drove the blood to her cheeks. There was something
+indescribable in the look,--a mixture of the pity and contempt with
+which one contemplates the body of a suicide.
+
+"An annuity of six hundred thalers," he murmured, and covered his eyes
+with his hand, as if to shut out everything around him while he
+collected his scattered senses.
+
+"Too much to die upon, and too little to live upon!" moaned Bertha,
+and, bursting into tears, she threw herself upon a chair in the
+farthest corner of the room. Leuthold sat motionless for a long time,
+his face hidden in his hands; he scarcely seemed to breathe. He
+appeared to need all his physical strength to assist him to endure the
+mental agony which was overpowering him,--to have no strength left to
+stir a limb. The man of feeling tries to master his unhappiness by
+raging and lamenting,--he combats his agony by physical exertion,--he
+rushes hither and thither, beats his head against the wall, wrings his
+hands, and lessens his woe in a degree by a certain amount of muscular
+activity. The man of intellect struggles mentally, and stands in need
+of entire physical repose. Such a man as Leuthold could only for a
+moment be excited to violence against the hated cause of his
+misfortune; he soon regained his exterior composure, and his misery
+became an intellectual labour, which might produce loss of reason, and
+was never-ceasing.
+
+He sat lost in a profound reverie. Now and then, like lightning across
+a cloud, some idea of help in his misery flashed across his brain, but
+it vanished as soon as it appeared, leaving each time a blacker night
+in his soul.
+
+"The sacrifice of ten long years gone for nothing!" he said at last in
+stifled accents. "My hair is bleached before its time with the slavery
+to which I have submitted with this goal in view, and now the prize is
+snatched from me just as it seemed within my reach. Again I must bow my
+neck to the yoke, and, with a mind fitted to appropriate to itself the
+most precious treasures of science, toil for my bread! I have wasted
+the best years of my life, that I may now begin all over again--an old
+man. It was indeed a losing game! When my powers began to fail me, I
+comforted myself with hopes of a near release; but now what can sustain
+me when that hope has deserted me? No release in future,--nothing but a
+never-ending struggle for daily sustenance! Oh----!"
+
+With a long-drawn sigh of mortal agony, the tortured roan buried his
+face in the cushion of the sofa, and another long silence ensued,
+broken only by Bertha's loud sobbing.
+
+At last she could endure the silence no longer. "What is to be done
+now?" she asked half sorrowfully, half defiantly.
+
+"Let me alone," said Leuthold. "Leave me--you see how I am suffering
+and struggling!"
+
+"How did you know about the matter?" she insisted.
+
+"That fellow Lederer whispered it to me on returning from the funeral.
+He signed the will as a witness. We were separated in the crowd, and I
+could not even ask him whether I was left guardian or not. If I were
+only guardian----" He ceased, and sunk again into a profound reverie.
+
+There was a slight noise in the adjoining room, and a lovely, smiling
+child's face looked in, and a clear, musical voice cried, "Peep!" At
+the sound Leuthold turned his head and looked with strange emotion
+towards the place where his daughter was standing. The little girl
+planted herself firmly upon her feet, and, after a couple of futile
+attempts, managed, to her own great delight, to cross the high
+threshold. This difficulty surmounted, she tripped gleefully across to
+her mother, who sat nearest the door; but upon receiving a rude repulse
+from her--a repulse that almost threw her down--she determined to
+pursue her journey as far as her father. To insure her swifter
+progress, she betook herself to all fours, and, when she reached her
+goal, climbed up by her father's knees and smiled into his face.
+Leuthold gazed for a few moments into her round, innocent eyes; his own
+grew dim; he took the child in his arms and whispered, as he clasped
+her to his breast, "Poor child!" His breath came quick--he clasped her
+tighter and tighter in his arms, until suddenly a burst of tears
+relieved his overburdened soul. The father's heart was filled for once
+with pure human emotion.
+
+Gretchen tried to wipe his eyes with her little apron, and patted his
+cheeks with her chubby hands.
+
+There is a wonderful power in the touch of a child's soft, pure hand,
+soothing a wildly-beating heart and strengthening a soul sickened by
+hope deferred. It seemed to Leuthold as if the wounds that had
+tormented him were healed by that gentle touch. He kissed the rosy
+little palms again and again. He would labour with all his might for
+this child--she should have a brilliant future at any cost. He arose,
+and, putting her gently down on the carpet, walked slowly to and fro
+with folded arms, revolving in his busy brain a thousand plans for the
+future. His thoughts were rudely disturbed by Bertha, who, for want of
+any other object, wreaked her ill humour upon Gretchen. The child had
+got hold of an embroidered footstool, and was engaged in the delightful
+occupation of picking off the bugles and pearls fastened upon the
+fringe. Bertha snatched it away, and was slapping the little hands
+violently, when suddenly Leuthold seized her arm and held it in a firm
+grasp, while anger flashed in his eyes; and his words, his bearing, his
+whole manner, filled her with terror as he began: "Your nature is so
+coarse that you cannot even appreciate the promptings of maternal
+instinct. Had you possessed one atom of feminine feeling, you would
+have seen what a comfort the child is to me, and would have lavished
+tenderness upon her, instead of maltreating her. But of what
+consequence are my sorrows to you? When I staggered and fell to the
+ground beneath the weight of my misery, you thought only of yourself;
+your gentlest word to me was 'miserable man.' Let me tell you, however,
+that the weakness of an ailing man is not so repulsive as the rude
+strength of a coarse woman. Therefore, be kind enough to moderate the
+exhibition of your strength, at least towards this angel, who shall
+never suffer for an hour as long as I draw breath."
+
+Bertha put Gretchen on the ground, and stood with arms akimbo. "Oh!"
+she began, trembling with rage, "is this the tone you begin to
+take--talking in this way to me just when you ought to be grateful to
+me for consenting to share your wretched lot?"
+
+"My wretched lot?" repeated Leuthold, while his face grew deadly white
+again. "Who has made my lot a wretched one?--who other than yourself?
+Do you dare to increase its misery? Is not your disobedience, your
+folly, the cause of the whole misfortune? If you had obeyed my
+commands, and kept watch upon what was going on in the house, the
+arrival of the lawyers would not have escaped you. You might have
+informed me and I could, even at the last moment, have prevented the
+making of that will. You, and you alone, have ruined my child's and my
+own future; and, instead of falling at my feet and begging for
+forgiveness, you dare to reproach me! It would be ridiculous, if it
+were not so deplorable!"
+
+"Of course." said Bertha, "it is all my fault. I expected that. Why
+didn't you stay at home yourself and watch? Because you suspected
+nothing, no more than I did, and because you wanted to get out of the
+way of Heim, who knew all about your former disgrace. Is it my fault
+that you have conducted yourself so in the past that you have to avoid
+all your old acquaintances?"
+
+Leuthold swelled with indignation. "Silence, wretched woman! Would you
+drive me to extremities?"
+
+"Yes," continued Bertha more angrily than ever,--"yes, I don't care now
+what you do. The only satisfaction I can have now is speaking out the
+truth to you for once. I will be reconciled to my father while there is
+time. Perhaps he will make over the business to me. I understand how to
+conduct it, and can make it pay. I shall have a better chance there, at
+any rate, than in staying here to starve with you. My honest old father
+was right when he warned me against you. Heaven only knows what
+infatuated me so with your hatchet face. I saw from the first what you
+were,--a heap of learning and mind, and a perfect icicle, with whom I
+never could be happy. We had only been married two months, when there
+was all that disgraceful fuss with Hilsborn; my father wanted me to be
+separated from you then; but you stuffed my ears with stories of your
+brother here, who would make you rich; and I believed you, and gave
+up my old father, and came here to this hole to live with you. What did
+I get by it? The little property that I inherited from my mother has
+been frittered away in household expenses, that you might seem
+disinterested to your brother. I gave up every things--concerts,
+theatres, parties,--and willingly; for I depended upon a brilliant
+future. I have waited patiently and obediently until your brother
+should kill himself with the drink of which he was so fond; and, now
+that he is dead, what have I got in exchange for time, youth, money,
+and all? And now I am to make a grateful courtesy, and say, 'My dear
+husband, 'tis true that you have robbed me of everything, you have
+attempted to strangle me; but I will nevertheless take the liberty of
+remaining with you, that you may continue to enjoy the pleasure of
+calling me rough, coarse, and good for nothing, and that you may
+instruct me with which hand I am to put in my mouth the potatoes that
+are all we shall have to live upon.' This is what I am to say, is it
+not? Yes----"
+
+Leuthold had been listening attentively, and, in the course of this
+long speech, had regained his former composure. He now interrupted her
+with, "That is, in other words, that you contemplate adding to my
+misfortunes the withdrawal of your amiable presence, leaving me to bear
+my heavy lot alone. Your intention demands my gratitude; if you wish
+for a divorce, I am entirely agreed to it, only pray furnish the ground
+for it yourself, that my good name may not be compromised. We have
+lived together hitherto in such outward harmony, it might be difficult
+to convince a court of the impossibility of a longer union. There must,
+therefore, be some legal ground for a divorce, and you can arrange all
+that to suit yourself."
+
+"What!" cried Bertha, "am I to conduct myself disgracefully that people
+may despise me and pity you,--wolf in sheep's clothing that you are?
+No, no; I'm not quite so stupid as that. And then my father would not
+receive me, and there would be nothing left for me in this world."
+
+Leuthold walked thoughtfully to and fro. "It was the mistake of my life
+that ten years ago I married you to get money to make that journey to
+Trieste. I thought you more harmless than you are. For ten long years I
+have endured the annoyance of your coarseness and narrow-mindedness.
+Such a wife as you are is a perpetual thorn in the side of such a man
+as myself; my nerves have suffered terribly. And now I find you are not
+even capable of maternal affection,--you cannot treat your child as you
+should. If it were not for Gretchen, I would never see you again,--but
+now----"
+
+Bertha started. "Why, yes,--I never thought of Gretchen."
+
+"You can easily understand that I shall not give up my child," Leuthold
+went on, looking fondly at the lovely little creature, who was sitting
+on the carpet prattling softly and unintelligibly to herself. "She is
+all that is left to me of my shattered existence;--my last hopes in
+life are centred in her--I will never give her up! The law gives her to
+you if I should furnish grounds for a divorce: so, you see, I cannot
+take the initiative. If, however, you consent to a separation, and will
+leave Gretchen to me, you are free to leave my house whenever you
+please. Consider what I say."
+
+Bertha knelt down upon the carpet, and said in a complaining tone,
+"Gretel, shall mamma go far away?"
+
+The child, in whose mind the remembrance of the slaps that had made its
+little hands so red was still very lively, avoided her caress, and
+crept away as fast as it could to its father's feet.
+
+"Its choice is made," said Leuthold, taking it in his arms.
+
+"Of course you are quite capable of setting my own flesh and blood
+against me," whined Bertha. "What shall I do! I cannot leave the child,
+and I will not stay with you. What shall I do!"
+
+She walked heavily up and down the room, wringing her hands. Leuthold
+had carried Gretchen to the window, and was looking down into the
+court-yard, where the broad, stalwart figure of Heim was just leaving
+the house. He shot one glance of deadly hatred at his enemy, but it did
+no harm; and with a profound sigh Leuthold leaned his cold forehead
+against the window-frame and looked on whilst Heim stepped into his
+carriage and took a pinch of snuff with a most cheerful air. The driver
+clambered clumsily upon the box, and gathered up his whip and reins,
+the horses started off, the chickens flew in all directions, their
+old friend the watch-dog came barking out of his kennel, and the
+old-fashioned coach, belonging to the Hartwich establishment, rattled
+away.
+
+As, after seasons of intense emotion, the exhausted mind slavishly
+follows the lead of the ever-active senses, Leuthold, in his misery,
+thus minutely observed every particular of Heim's departure.
+
+"He is happy!" he thought; and then his eyes rested upon the fowls
+devouring the remains of the oats that had been brought for the horses.
+"Happy he to whom has been given the faculty of making himself beloved!
+mankind follow him as those fowls follow in the track of Heim's
+carriage. Is it any merit of his that wins him the hearts of all? Bah,
+nonsense! it is a talent,--and the most profitable one for its
+possessor. These benefactors of mankind, as they are called, thrive
+upon it: who would not do likewise if he only could? But those who have
+not the gift cannot do it. One man comes into the world with qualities
+that make him useful and pleasing to his fellow-men; another with
+propensities that make him an object of fear to his kind. Is the lapdog
+to be commended because his agreeable characteristics qualify him to
+spend his life luxuriously on a silken cushion? And is the fox to be
+blamed because he does not understand how to ingratiate himself with
+mankind, but must eke out his miserable existence by theft? Each
+after his kind, and we human beings have senses in common with the
+brutes,--and why not the peculiarities also of their several species?
+Yes, there are lapdogs among us, and foxes, and wolves, cats, and
+tigers! Struggle against it as we may, with all our babble of free
+will, temperament is everything. How can I help it if I belong among
+the foxes? Only a fool would look for moral causes in all this chaos of
+chances. The activity of nature is shown in eternal creation,
+destruction, and re-creation from destruction,--plants, brutes, and men
+are the blind tools of her secret forces, creative and destructive, or,
+as the moralist calls them, good and evil! But what do we call good?
+What pleases us. What evil? That which harms us. And we are to judge
+the world by this narrow egotistic scale of morals? Oh, what folly!
+Creative and destructive forces--are they not alike necessary agents in
+nature's great workshop? And if they work so steadily in unconscious
+matter, are they dead in mankind, the embodiment of conscious nature?
+Is our poor, patched-up code of morals strong enough to tear asunder
+the chains that keep us bound fast to the order of the universe?
+No,--it is miserable arrogance to maintain such a theory. Nature has
+never created a species without producing another hostile to it; the
+rule holds good in the world of humanity as well as among plants and
+brutes. The parasite that preys upon its supporting plant, the insect
+depositing its eggs in the body of the caterpillar, the falcon pursuing
+the innocent dove, the tiger rending the mild-eyed antelope, and,
+lastly, the man who preserves his own existence by preying upon his
+fellow-men,--all are only the exponents of those hostile forces that
+are indispensable to the economy of nature. Who can venture to talk of
+good and evil? There is only one idea that we owe to our advanced
+culture,--only one varnish that bedaubs and conceals the beast in
+us,--regard for appearances! This is the corner-stone of our ethics,
+the only thoroughly practicable discipline for the human race. Let a
+due regard for appearances be observed, and we are distinguished,
+lauded, and beloved among men,--the only reward of our virtue is the
+recognition of it by our excellent contemporaries; their judgment
+decides the degree of our morality; everything else is the exaggeration
+of fancy."
+
+He was aroused from this reverie by Bertha, who suddenly shook him by
+the shoulder with an impatient "Well?"
+
+Leuthold looked at her like a man awakened from a dream. "What is it?"
+he inquired.
+
+"I want to know what is to be done?" she replied angrily.
+
+Leuthold laid the child, who had fallen asleep upon his shoulder, on
+the sofa.
+
+"Oh, yes, with regard to our separation."
+
+"I suppose you had entirely forgotten it."
+
+"I confess that I was thinking of something else at the moment; but the
+matter is very simple. Go to your father and effect a reconciliation
+with him. Gretchen will stay with me. You are free to go and come as
+you please. If you find that you cannot do without the child, in a few
+weeks you can return, if you choose. It would, at all events, be better
+for you to be away for awhile until I have rearranged my miserable
+affairs. I am going now to hear the will read. If I am appointed
+Ernestine's guardian, my life will be connected for the future with
+that of my ward." He suddenly gazed into vacancy, as if struck by a new
+idea, then started and seized his hat. "Yes, yes, I must go. Perhaps I
+am guardian!" And he turned away.
+
+Bertha called after him, "Then I may get ready to go?"
+
+"Do just as you please," he replied, turning upon the threshold with
+all the old courtesy, and then disappeared. Bertha went to her wardrobe
+and began to collect her possessions. "I am rightly paid for leaving a
+good head-waiter in the lurch for the sake of a fine doctor. If I had
+married Fritz, I should now have been the landlady of a hotel, while,
+the wife of a doctor, I don't know where to lay my head!" She looked
+across the room at the sleeping child. "If I only had not that child, I
+should be easier! But, then, it is his child. She loves him far better
+than me. It will be just like him one day, and a sorrow to me," she
+muttered. Then, as if the last thought were repented of as soon as
+conceived, she hastened up to Gretchen, and, weeping, kissed her pure
+white forehead. "No, no, you cannot help me!" she sobbed, and snatched
+the child to her broad breast.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                              SOUL-MURDER.
+
+
+A fresh autumnal breeze was shaking the heavy boughs of the fruit-trees
+in the Hartwich kitchen-garden. Beneath a spreading apple-tree a new
+bench, painted green, had recently been placed. Some white garments,
+hanging upon a line to dry, fluttered like triumphal pennons in the
+direction from which a number of persons was slowly approaching the
+apple-tree. Rieka was carefully pushing along the rolling-chair, which,
+after so long affording shelter to the cats and chickens, had lately
+been recushioned and repaired. By its side walked good old Heim and
+Leuthold. Ernestine's frail little figure, with head still bandaged and
+hands gently folded, reclined in the chair; and if her large, dark eyes
+had not been riveted with an expression of utter enjoyment upon the
+distant landscape, she might have been thought smiling in death, so
+ashy pale was her emaciated countenance, so bloodless were the lips
+which were slightly open to inhale the pure morning air. The signs of
+returning and departing life are as wonderfully alike as morning and
+evening twilight. The child lying there, silent and motionless, might
+to all appearance be bidding farewell to the world, instead of greeting
+it anew after her dangerous illness. For to-day Ernestine was, as it
+were, celebrating her resurrection to life. It was the first time that
+she had been permitted to breathe the pure, open air of heaven; and her
+delight was so profound that she could only fold her little hands and
+pray silently. She had not the strength even to turn herself upon her
+cushions; but her youthful soul was preening its wings and soaring with
+the birds into the blue autumn skies.
+
+"How are you now, my child?" Leuthold asked in a tone of tender
+sympathy.
+
+"Oh, so well, dear uncle!" the little girl whispered with a long-drawn
+sigh. "I think I could run about, if I might."
+
+"Ah, you could not yet, even if you might," said Heim, looking not
+without anxiety into the child's face, transfigured by an almost
+unearthly expression. And he laid his finger upon her pulse, now
+scarcely perceptible.
+
+"Her spirit, as she recovers, is in advance of her body," he said,
+lingering behind with Leuthold. "Physically such a child is soon
+conquered and destroyed, but the heart is a wonderful thing in its
+power of endurance. I never see an expression of real suffering upon a
+child's face without the deepest sympathy. For when should we be really
+gay and happy in this life, if not while we are children?"
+
+"You are right," said Leuthold. "That melancholy mouth, shaping itself
+now to an unaccustomed smile, those bright eyes, around which the
+traces of tears are scarcely yet obliterated, touch me deeply."
+
+Heim glanced keenly at the speaker expressing himself apparently with
+emotion.
+
+"Oh, what a pretty new bench!" said Ernestine in a weak voice, as they
+reached the apple-tree. "And the boughs droop around it like an
+arbour."
+
+Her gaze roved hither and thither; the fluttering linen on the line
+pleased her; the white butterflies, with spotted wings, hovering about
+the beds, enchanted her; she thought the far stretch of country, with
+its distant border of forest, magnificent,--everything was so new that
+she seemed to see it for the first time, and admired it all with
+intense delight. The long rows of irregular bean-poles opened
+mysterious, attractive paths to her imagination. Even the tall
+asparagus and the heads of cabbage, upon which large beads of morning
+dew were still lying, seemed to her master-pieces of nature.
+
+"Oh, how lovely the world is!" she said to the two gentlemen. "And no
+one to punish me! You are so kind, Herr Geheimrath, and you, Uncle
+Leuthold, and you too, Rieka, are so good to me! I thank you all so
+much!" And she took and kissed the hands of Leuthold and Heim as they
+stood beside her, while tears filled her eyes.
+
+"You strange child, what Snakes you cry now?" asked Leuthold.
+
+"I cannot tell; I am so happy!" sobbed Ernestine. "If I only had a
+father or a mother!"
+
+"But if your father were alive he would beat you again," said Rieka,
+taking a strictly practical view of the matter. "You ought to be glad
+that he is no longer here; it is much happier for you."
+
+Ernestine's head drooped. "Oh, I am not longing for my father who is
+dead; I want a father to love me."
+
+"You have an uncle who loves you fondly, my child," said Leuthold.
+
+"Uncle," the little girl began again after a short pause, "how did the
+first people get here? Every one has a father and mother; but the first
+men could not have had any. Where did they come from?"
+
+Leuthold and Heim exchanged glances of surprise.
+
+"Ah, now you are going to the very root of the matter, prying into the
+deepest mysteries of creation!" said her uncle with a smile.
+
+"There is stuff for a scholar in the child," said Heim; "she must be
+educated."
+
+"Most certainly!" cried Leuthold with unwonted vivacity; "something
+must be made of her. In two years she will read Darwin." And he became
+lost in reverie.
+
+Heim plucked two pansies that were growing among the weeds, and handed
+them to Ernestine. "Don't trouble your little brain with such
+thoughts," he said with an attempt to laugh. "When you are grown up you
+can learn all you wish to know. How few flowers you have here! Not
+enough for a nosegay!"
+
+"No matter for that, Herr Heim," said Ernestine gaily. "Although there
+are so few flowers here, it seems to me as lovely as Paradise."
+
+"The child is imaginative," Heim observed to Leuthold. "She finds
+Paradise in a neglected kitchen-garden; there is poetry there." And he
+pointed to her head and heart.
+
+Leuthold took the child's hand. "If you wish for flowers, my darling,
+you shall have them. You are now"--and a spasmodic smile hovered upon
+his lips--"so rich that you need deny yourself nothing."
+
+"I am rich!" Ernestine repeated, as though she could not grasp the
+idea. "Does the chair in which I am sitting belong to me?"
+
+"Most certainly."
+
+"And this garden, and the fields?"
+
+"Everything that you see."
+
+"Oh, how delightful! But, uncle, have I money enough to buy me a
+telescope like yours?"
+
+Leuthold looked surprised at this question "Is that the end and aim of
+your desires? Well, then, you shall have a far better one than mine.
+You shall have an observatory, whence you can search the heavens far
+and wide, and, if you choose, I will be your teacher. Would you like
+that?"
+
+"Oh, uncle!" sighed Ernestine, "God is so kind to me--how shall I thank
+him for all he is giving me?"
+
+An ugly smile appeared on Leuthold's face; she looked up at him in
+surprise, and so fixedly that he involuntarily turned aside.
+
+It was strange! Why had her uncle smiled at those words. Was what she
+had said so stupid, then? Was he laughing at her, or at--what? Suddenly
+there was an alloy in her happiness, as if she had found an ugly worm
+in a fragrant rose or discovered a flaw in a clear mirror. A pang shot
+through her heart. Yes, little Kay in the story-book must have felt
+just so when a splinter of the evil mirror got into his eye and heart
+and nothing seemed perfect or stainless to him any more. Instinctively
+she looked up into the sky, as if to see the demon flying there with
+the mysterious mirror that cast scorn and contempt upon the works of
+the good God; and when she glanced again at her uncle, who had just
+smiled so disagreeably, he seemed to her to look as she had fancied an
+evil spirit must look, and she shrank from him in a way that she could
+not herself comprehend. She leaned back in her chair exhausted, to rest
+after all these wearisome thoughts that had chased one another through
+her brain, and Heim, observing this, took Leuthold aside; she heard him
+say, "Come, we will leave the child to take a little sleep."
+
+Rieka sat down quietly upon the bench beside her. Ernestine nestled
+comfortably among the yielding cushions, and the fragrant breeze
+stroked her cheek like a gentle, caressing hand. The birds were softly
+twittering in the boughs overhead. All nature breathed in her ear:
+"Sleep, sleep on the tender breast of the youthful day. Rest! you are
+not yet rested, after all that you have suffered!" And she closed her
+eyes and tried to sleep, but she could not. Why had her uncle smiled
+when she spoke of God? This question kept her awake, and scared away
+rest from her trusting, childish soul.
+
+Meanwhile Helm and Leuthold walked on through the garden. "Herr
+Professor," the former began to his companion, who was lost in thought,
+"I must speak with you about the future of our protégé. I have plans
+for her, depending upon you for their fulfilment." Leuthold looked at
+him attentively. "I had a desire," Heim continued, "the first time I
+saw this strange child, to adopt her for my own; and this desire has
+become stronger since chance has brought me into such intimate
+association with her. My request of you now is: Abdicate--not your
+rights, but--your duties as her guardian in my favour, and let me take
+her to the capital with me, and have her educated and trained so that
+full justice may be done to her physical and mental capacities."
+
+Leuthold was silent for a few moments, and then said with some
+hesitation, as he drew a long strip of grass through his slender white
+fingers, "That looks, Herr Geheimrath, as if you did not give me credit
+for the ability or the will to educate my ward suitably."
+
+Heim shrugged his shoulders impatiently. "There shall be no
+wire-drawing between us, Herr Gleissert; we both know what we think of
+each other, and a physician has no time to waste in complimental
+speeches. Be kind enough to signify to me, as briefly and decidedly as
+possible, your acceptance or refusal of my proposal."
+
+"Well, then," Leuthold replied with a keen glance, "I must reply to you
+with a brief and decided 'No!'"
+
+"Indeed!" was all that Heim in his chagrin rejoined.
+
+"Look you, Herr Geheimrath," Leuthold began after some moments of
+reflection; "I will be frank with you. You know the dark stain that
+sullies my past, and the fault of my nature,--ambition. But, for all
+that, Herr Geheimrath, I am not heartless! In my childhood I was
+repelled on all sides, just as Ernestine has been. I was always cast in
+the shade by Hartwich, the son of my wealthy step-mother. You, as a
+student of human nature, well know what power there is in early
+surroundings to mould a man's future,--perhaps this may make you more
+lenient to my faults. Neither affection nor interest was shown me, and
+so kindly feelings faded away within me,--I could not give what I never
+received. Thus, Herr Geheimrath, I grew up an embittered, hardened man.
+The severity and sternness with which I was treated caused me to
+cultivate a sort of plausibility that won me friends, although I had no
+qualities to enable me to retain them. Therefore I was accounted a
+flatterer and a hypocrite. But the worst of all was, I was never taught
+the nice distinction between honours and honour, and thus it was that,
+in my blind grasp after honours, I sacrificed my honour!" He covered
+his eyes with his hand and paused for a moment. Old Heim shook his huge
+head, vexed with himself for the emotion of sympathy that he could not
+suppress.
+
+"My step-mother," Leuthold continued, "was an imperious, masculine
+woman, who tyrannized over her husband and made him as unhappy as her
+son and step-son. You have seen the effect of her training upon
+Hartwich,--he became a drunkard, sinning in the flesh; I, of a less
+sensual nature, sinned in spirit!"
+
+"Forgive me for interrupting you," Heim interposed here; "but I am
+constrained to observe that if you had sinned no further than in
+robbing poor Hilsborn of his discovery, you would indeed have coveted
+only spiritual things, and there might have been some excuse for you;
+but you longed for earthly possessions,--you even grasped after the
+property of the poor child who has been left to your care. Judge for
+yourself whether such a helpless little creature can be confided
+without anxiety to the charge of a guardian who has not scrupled to
+endeavour to possess himself of her inheritance!"
+
+Leuthold stood confronting Heim, without betraying, by a single change
+of feature, the emotions of his mind. "Herr Geheimrath," he said with
+dignity, "I understand perfectly how all that must appear to a stranger
+entirely unacquainted with the circumstances of the case, and I cannot
+wonder that you think your accusation of me well founded. So be it. I
+did endeavour to possess myself of Hartwich's property, for two-thirds
+of it were mine by right. Are you aware, Herr Geheimrath, that when I
+first took my place in the factory here, Hartwich was on the brink of
+bankruptcy? Are you aware that entirely through my exertions the
+business is now free from debt, and that the income which in the course
+of ten years made Hartwich a wealthy man was the result solely of my
+improvements? He contributed nothing but the raw material, which my
+efforts converted into a means of wealth. Had I not a sacred right to
+the fruits of my exertions?"
+
+Again the Geheimrath shrugged his shoulders and did not speak.
+
+"Time is money," Leuthold continued; "and I frankly admit that I do not
+belong to the class of men who give without any hope of a return. I am
+a poor man, compelled to depend upon myself. I receive nothing
+gratuitously; why should I give anything? Hartwich owed me for the time
+I sacrificed to him. I do not claim too much when I aver that, with my
+capacity, I could have earned three thousand thalers yearly as the
+superintendent of any other extensive manufactory, while I received
+from Hartwich the small salary of a mere overseer. And three thousand
+thalers yearly amount in ten years to thirty thousand thalers, without
+counting the interest. There you have one-third of the property that I
+'coveted.'"
+
+Heim assented with an expression of surprise.
+
+Leuthold continued more fluently: "Now for the remaining third. The man
+who is capable of introducing inventions and improvements into the
+establishment, producing in ten years a dear profit of ninety thousand
+thalers, can easily dispose of such inventions for twenty thousand
+thalers; and if I add the accumulated interest of ten years, it amounts
+to exactly thirty thousand thalers again. If my step-brother had paid
+me this sum, he would still have possessed thirty thousand thalers
+clear, which would have belonged of right to his daughter. I might have
+offered my services elsewhere, but it seemed to me more fitting that I
+should serve my brother than a stranger; I might have insisted upon
+payment, but I knew well my brother's avarice, and that it would be
+impossible to extort money from him except at the risk of such
+excitement on his part as might cost him his life. Therefore!
+thought it best, as I foresaw that he could not live long, to suspend
+my claims and allow him to devise to me by will what was really my
+due. How utterly I have been the loser by my--I do not scruple to
+say--magnanimous conduct, you well know; and now pray point out wherein
+I have unjustly claimed a single groschen!"
+
+Heim, his hands crossed behind him and his head sunk upon his breast,
+walked slowly along by the side of Leuthold, whose slender figure had
+recovered all its former elasticity as he easily wound his way among
+the tangled bushes and weeds in the neglected path.
+
+"I cannot tell how a lawyer would designate your conduct," the old man
+said meditatively. "I should not call it magnanimous; but you may be
+able to justify it from your point of view. Still, one never knows what
+to expect of such long-headed, calculating people."
+
+"Yes, Herr Geheimrath, it is the destiny of those who depend upon
+themselves alone for whatever of good life may bring them, to be
+regarded as covetous,--they must grasp after what falls unsought for
+into the lap of others. In this matter I not only did what I could for
+myself, but for the future also. Herr Geheimrath, I am a father!"
+
+"Yes, yes; but you were not a father at the time that you arranged with
+Hartwich his testamentary dispositions," Heim briefly interposed.
+
+"Only two months afterwards my wife gave birth to a dead son. From the
+first moment when I dreamed of one day possessing a child for whom I
+could prepare a future, I cherished a determination to hold fast to
+whatever was mine by right. I think you cannot refuse to bear witness
+that I have endured the destruction of all my hopes with fortitude. My
+wife has left me, refusing to share with me my cheerless future. I
+stand alone with my helpless child. You have heard no word of complaint
+from my lips. Examine yourself, and your upright nature will compel you
+to acknowledge that I do not deserve your distrust. And now, as regards
+the last and weightiest consideration,--my relation to my ward,--ask
+any one whom you may please to interrogate here, whether I have not
+always been Ernestine's advocate and protector. Every servant in the
+house--the child herself--will tell you that it has been so. Upon this
+point my conscience cannot accuse me. For, look you, Herr Geheimrath,
+this child is the only living being in this world, besides my own
+daughter, whom I have to love. There is one spot in my nature, hardened
+as it is by the rough usage of life, that has always remained
+soft,--the memory of my unhappy childhood. In Ernestine I am reminded
+of my own early youth, and there is a tender satisfaction in providing
+her with so much that at her age I was obliged to deny myself. Leave me
+this child, Herr Geheimrath; I am a poor, unhappy, disappointed man. Do
+not take from me the last thing that stirs the better nature within
+me,--it would be too hard!"
+
+Heim stood still for an instant, and seemed about to speak. He
+bethought himself and walked on a few steps, then paused again: "The
+case is not psychologically improbable. You may feel as you say, and
+you may invent it all. What guarantee have I for its truth?"
+
+"I am sorry to say, none, if you do not find it in the honesty of my
+confession. But, Herr Geheimrath, by what right--pardon me--do you
+require such a guarantee from me?"
+
+"My anxiety for the child's welfare, I should suppose, would be allowed
+to give me such a right,--a right that, if you are not dead to human
+feeling, you would respect even although it has no legal grounds."
+
+"Oh, certainly, certainly,--I do respect it, and thank you for your
+interest in the child. But I cannot deny that your persistent distrust
+of me surprises me exceedingly, and prompts me to force you by my
+conduct to a better opinion of me."
+
+"That is, you will let me have the child?" Heim asked quickly.
+
+"That is, I am more determined than ever to undertake the charge of her
+education myself, that I may one day convince you of the injustice that
+you are doing me."
+
+Heim regarded the smiling speaker with a penetrating glance. "You rely
+upon the fact that I can legally urge nothing against you. Well, then,
+I can do no more. I confide the fate of this strange child, who has
+become so dear to me, to a loving Providence, that will watch over her
+and over you, sir, however you may contrive to withdraw yourself and
+your designs from the eye of human scrutiny."
+
+As Heim spoke these words, the two gentlemen reached Ernestine's chair.
+The little girl sat perfectly still, lost in thought. Her uncle laid
+his hand upon her white forehead, and said to himself, "I will keep
+you!"
+
+
+On the evening of the same day, Leuthold sat before his writing-table
+at the open windows. The cool night air made the flame of the lamp
+flicker behind its green shade. From the adjoining room came the low
+sound of the plaintive air with which the nursemaid was soothing little
+Gretchen to sleep. A cricket upon the window-sill chirped continually,
+and a singed moth would now and then fall upon the white, unwritten
+sheet that lay on the table before Leuthold. It was a calm, mild,
+autumn night,--a night when darkness hides the yellow leaves and one
+can dream that it is still summer. And yet the solitary man sat there
+gazing into vacancy, with as little sympathy with nature as though he
+had been banished utterly from her communion. In the corner of the
+window-frame there fluttered a large cobweb, and its proprietor was
+lying in wait for the insects that were attracted by the lamp. But the
+man's brain was weaving still finer webs in the stillness of night, and
+in the midst of them lurked the ugly spider of greed of gold, also
+lying in wait for prey. Ernestine must be ensnared; but she had
+protectors who were upon the watch. No human being must suspect that
+her guardian was her worst enemy.
+
+The will had been opened, and two clauses in it had given Leuthold
+renewed life and hope. He was Ernestine's guardian,--and her heir in
+case of her dying unmarried. By the time that his light began to fade,
+he had laid all his plans, and arose from his seat with the feeling of
+satisfaction experienced by an author who has just thought out
+successfully the plot of a new work. Ernestine was no more to him than
+a character in a novel is to its author,--a character which is
+indispensable to the plot, and which the author treats with care as a
+necessary evil, but never with affection. Thus he had planned with
+great precision the child's future; and, unless he utterly failed in
+his designs, the figure that now hovered before his imagination would
+greatly conduce to the successful conclusion of the romance for his
+child and himself.
+
+The lamp died down. Leuthold slipped out upon tiptoe, and, undressing
+in the next room in the dark, lay down in the bed beside which stood
+Gretchen's crib. Soon after the child awoke, and stretched out her
+hands towards her father. He drew her towards him, and laid her head
+upon his breast, that was chilled as though from the influence of his
+own icy heart. She nestled up to him, and put her little arms around
+his neck. He listened to her quiet breathing as she fell calmly asleep
+again, and gradually his own heart grew warm beside hers, beating there
+so peacefully. He scarcely ventured to breathe himself, for fear of
+wakening her. It was a happy moment for him. Upon the breath of the
+slumbering child an ineffable delight was wafted into his soul. He held
+in his arms the only being whom he loved and who really loved him,--his
+child, his own flesh and blood! Suddenly there was a loud knocking at
+his door, and Rieka's shrill voice cried, "Herr Doctor! Herr Doctor!
+pray get up quickly and come to Ernestine!"
+
+Leuthold started up and gently laid the child in her crib again. Every
+nerve in his body vibrated, his heart beat wildly, and his hands
+trembled as he dressed himself hurriedly. Something extraordinary must
+have occurred: was Ernestine worse?--perhaps dying? Was fate to atone
+so soon for Hartwich's injustice? Were his hopes to be--the thought
+made him giddy, breathless, and, almost tottering, he reached the door
+where Rieka was waiting to light him down the stairs.
+
+"What is the matter?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, Herr Doctor, it is our fault," Rieka began: "Theresa and I were
+sitting by Ernestine's bedside and talking; we thought she was sound
+asleep, we were talking about master who is dead; and we told about the
+dairy-maid's refusing to sleep in the barn-loft any more, because she
+says he walks. And we spoke of his death, how he called for his child,
+and declared that he could not find rest in his grave if Ernestine did
+not forgive him. And we said we were sure that he would appear to her
+some day, for when any one dies with such a burden on his soul, there
+is no rest for him until he has the forgiveness that he craves. Then
+Ernestine suddenly began to cry, and we saw that she had heard
+everything. We tried to quiet her, but she grew worse and worse, and
+nothing would content her but that she must be taken this very night to
+the church-yard, to her father's grave, that she might forgive him. We
+can do nothing with her; she insists upon it; she is almost in
+convulsions with crying and obstinacy!"
+
+They entered Ernestine's room, where Theresa, the other maid, was
+trying to keep the struggling, desperate child in bed. Leuthold went
+softly up to her, and laid his cool, delicate hand upon her burning
+forehead. His touch soothed her; she became quiet, and looked up at her
+uncle with a piteous entreaty in her large eyes.
+
+"Leave me alone with her," he said to the servants, who obeyed with a
+mutter of discontent. He then trimmed the night-lamp so that it burned
+brightly, and seated himself beside Ernestine's couch. "My child," he
+began, in his low, melodious voice, "you are quite clever enough to
+understand what I am going to say to you, but you must promise me that
+you will never repeat it to any human being. Do you promise?"
+
+"Oh, I will promise, uncle," sobbed Ernestine, "if you will only help
+me to let my poor father know that I forgive him,--oh, with all my
+heart!--and that my head is well again, and does not hurt me any more!
+Oh, my poor, poor father,--your little Ernestine wants so to tell you
+that she is not angry with you; but she cannot!"
+
+"You are a good child, Ernestine, but you are only a child!" Leuthold
+continued, while the same strange smile that had so troubled Ernestine
+in the morning again played around his mouth. She looked up in
+surprise. Was what she had said so foolish again?
+
+"You are too clever, young as you are, to be allowed to fall into the
+vulgar belief shared by the maids; and therefore I must tell you what
+it would not be best for them to know,--that the dead do not live in
+any form whatever."
+
+Ernestine started, and gazed at her uncle.--"What?"
+
+"Yes, yes; I tell you truly, whoever is dead is dead; that means, he
+has ceased to be; he neither feels nor thinks; a few bones are all that
+there is of him; and they are good for nothing but to convert into lime
+or manure for the fields."
+
+Ernestine hearkened breathless to his words. "But where then are the
+spirits, uncle?"
+
+"There are no spirits."
+
+"Then shall we never go to heaven?"
+
+"Of course not; those are all fables, invented to induce common people
+to be good. They must believe in rewards and punishments after death,
+to enable them to bear the trials and deprivations of their lot in
+life. They would rebel against all control, and be in perpetual mutiny,
+without the prospect of compensation after death. So there are wise
+philosophers in every country, composing what is called the Christian
+Church, who have invented many beautiful legends,--which you call the
+Bible. Superstition is founded upon the weakness and folly of mankind,
+upon ignorance of the true laws of nature; and the churches of every
+age and clime have used it as the stuff of which they have made
+leading-strings for the people. But the educated man, breathing only a
+pure, intellectual atmosphere, is free from such fetters. Science leads
+him with a loving hand to heights whence she points out to him the
+natural laws of the universe, and, in place of the prop of which she
+deprives him, gives him strength to stand alone."
+
+Ernestine was ashy pale; her lips moved, but no sound issued from them;
+she clenched her hands, and felt as if crushed by some terrible,
+unheard-of mystery. She could hardly bear to listen to what her uncle
+was saying, and yet she caught greedily at every word; she could not
+bear to believe him, and yet she could not but distrust, now, what the
+pastor had taught her. She was ashamed not to be as clever as her uncle
+had called her: the poison that he had instilled into her mind worked
+quickly.
+
+"But, uncle, can what so many people believe be all false? Old people
+and children, kings and emperors, beggars and rich men, all go to
+church:--is there any one except you who does not go?"
+
+Leuthold laughed louder than was his wont. "It is easy enough to answer
+you, dear child. In the first place, there are multitudes of men
+besides myself who belong to no church. In the second place, the number
+of people who profess to believe a creed is no proof of its truth, but
+only of the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of those professing such
+belief. Millions of men have been pantheists, and counted all those who
+did not share their faith criminal. Every religion condemns all others
+as erroneous. Which is right? As long as all were ignorant of the
+causes of the mighty and glorious operations of nature, these were
+ascribed to supernatural agencies and regarded as revelations of the
+divine. Thunder and lightning, light and air, all were governed,
+according to the ancients, as among savages at the present day, by
+their own several deities; every natural event was ascribed to some
+being, half man, half god; and thus heaven and earth were peopled with
+good and evil spirits, friendly or hostile to mankind. This
+superstition fled at the approach of science, or at least it became
+weakened,--etherialized. With increasing knowledge of natural laws, the
+sensual gods of Greece and Rome lost form and substance, and finally
+vanished, to be replaced by a true appreciation of the elements as
+such, and a faith in a central Providence ruling all things wisely and
+well. This is a great improvement; but it is not enough. We still have
+a Trinity,--a Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; we still have angels,
+demons, and saints,--a multitude of good and evil deities, who have
+followed us down from old pagan times, and who, although more
+respectably apparelled, are still prepared to work all kinds of
+miracles. The more fully the laws of matter are laid bare to our
+searching eyes, the dimmer grows our religious belief,--as the shadow,
+which in the darkness we have taken for the substance itself, fades
+before the first ray of sunlight, which reveals the substance
+distinctly. The various gods of all ages and climes were only the
+shadows cast by the operation of natural laws; as soon as the light of
+science fell upon them, they vanished. Thus, religious fancy was driven
+away from this physical world, as the laws ruling it were discovered,
+and obliged to seek a more abstract domain; but even there it is not
+secure; for scientific inquiry, climbing from height to height, and
+gaining in vigour with every fresh advance, long ago began to follow it
+thither; and it must consent to still greater concessions, if it would
+not be driven from its last foothold,--its self-created heaven!"
+
+Leuthold paused. Ernestine's vague look of wonder reminded him that his
+habit of speech had carried him too far for the comprehension of a
+child. Nevertheless, it excited him to hear his own voice speaking thus
+once more, and his gray eyes glittered strangely as he observed the
+effect of his words, only half understood as they were, upon Ernestine.
+
+"Has the pastor told me falsehoods, then?" she asked at last.
+
+"He did not lie intentionally. He is a very narrow-minded man, and
+knows no better. He is not one of the deceivers, but of the deceived."
+
+"But he is the wisest man in the village," Ernestine objected.
+
+"In the village, yes! But do you think him wiser than your uncle?"
+
+"No, certainly not!" she whispered almost inaudibly. It seemed to her a
+crime to think a common man wiser than the pastor.
+
+"Well, then, let me tell you that he is not nearly as clever as you
+are!"
+
+"Uncle!" exclaimed Ernestine alarmed.
+
+"I tell you the truth, my child. You are now very young; but, when you
+are as old as the pastor, you will know much more than he does, and
+take a very different view of things."
+
+"Are you in earnest, uncle?" Ernestine asked eagerly, for this first
+flattery had not failed in its effect. "Do you think I can ever be as
+clever as a man?"
+
+"Most certainly! Unless I greatly err, you will be something
+distinguished, one of these days!"
+
+Ernestine sat bolt upright in bed, looking at her uncle with sparkling
+eyes. Her pale face flushed, her breath came quick. Ambition kindled in
+her childish nature to a burning flame. The fuel had been gathering
+there since her first contact with those who had treated her with
+contempt. Now the spark had fallen, and she was all aglow with the
+insidious fire which gradually consumes the whole being unless some
+terrible misfortune bursts open the floodgates of tears to quench the
+unhallowed flame.
+
+Leuthold gazed, not without secret admiration and delight, at the
+illuminated and inspired countenance of the child. Thus, thus he would
+have her look! He leaned towards her, and held out his hand. She
+grasped it fervently.
+
+"Uncle," she said with childish emphasis, "will you help me to be as
+clever and to learn as much as a man? Will you teach me the sciences
+which you said would make men so strong?"
+
+"Yes," replied Leuthold with seeming enthusiasm, "I will, indeed."
+
+"Promise me, dear uncle."
+
+"I promise you with all my heart that I will teach you as no woman has
+ever been taught before,--that I will guide and direct you until you
+have soared far above the rest of your sex. But you must be diligent,
+and discard all desires but the desire of knowledge."
+
+"Oh, I will, dearest uncle. Why should I not? What else can I wish for?
+I do not want to play with other children,--they laugh at me. I am too
+ugly and grave for them. I will live alone, and learn with you; and one
+day, when I know more than they, I will shame them. Oh, that will be
+fine!"
+
+"But I hope, my child, that you will remember your promise, and not
+tell any one what I have said to you to-night."
+
+"Not any one? not even Herr Heim?"
+
+"Not for the world. If I should find that you cannot hold your tongue,
+I will teach you nothing, and you will be as ignorant as those who
+laugh at you."
+
+"No, uncle, I will never tell anything; I will not, indeed!" Ernestine
+cried, "But tell me one thing,--are there really no angels, then?"
+
+"Angels!" and her uncle smiled. "Of what use has been all that I have
+just said to you, if you can seriously ask such a question?"
+
+"Then I have no guardian angel!" said the child, and her eyes filled
+with tears. "And I loved my guardian angel so dearly!"
+
+"My child," replied Leuthold, "you are your own guardian angel. Your
+own strong mind will shield you from all danger far better than any
+such imaginary creature with wings."
+
+Ernestine was silent. She must take care of herself, then. But she felt
+so weak and broken; how should she be supported unless she could lean
+upon some higher power? No guardian angel, no father, no mother, not
+even their spirits! It seemed to her that she was suddenly standing
+alone, without prop or stay, upon a rocky peak, with a yawning abyss
+just at her feet. The moment would come when she must fall headlong.
+Then there arose before her the last hope of the soul in utter
+misery,--God! He was all in all,--Father and guardian spirit; He was
+love; He would not forsake her. Though all else that she had believed
+in crumbled to dust, He still remained; she would cling to Him with
+redoubled fervour. She looked up at her uncle; should she tell him her
+thoughts? No! She could not speak that sacred name before Leuthold; she
+dreaded the smile she had seen in the morning,--she could not tell why.
+
+Her uncle then spoke, and the last drop of poison fell into her soul.
+"We have in ourselves everything that modern religion has created
+outside of ourselves," he began. "Angels, devils, God--" Ernestine
+started and shrank,--"these are all only personifications of our good
+and evil qualities. It is only the boundless self-conceit of mankind
+that imagines that the grain of reason that distinguishes them from
+the brutes is something entirely beyond the power of nature to
+produce,--something supernatural, immortal, divine,--and that there
+must be, enthroned somewhere above the universe, an omnipotent being,
+who is in direct communication with us and has nothing to do but to
+busy himself with our very important personal affairs! This belief in
+God, with all its apparent humility and submission, is the veriest
+offspring of the vanity and arrogance of mankind, and all worship of
+God, my child, is, in fact, only worship of self. True humility is to
+acknowledge that we are no 'emanation from the Divine Essence,' as
+theosophists phrase it, but only nature's masterpieces, and that we can
+claim no higher destiny than that common to the myriad forms of being
+that bear their part in the universal whole."
+
+Ernestine had sunk back among her pillows,--she felt annihilated; there
+was no longer any God for her!
+
+Her uncle arose, for two o'clock had just been tolled from the belfry
+of the village church. He did not fail to observe the terrible
+impression that his words had made upon Ernestine. He took her hand;
+she withdrew it from his grasp. He smiled. "You are sorry, are you not,
+to give up everything that your childish mind has believed in so
+firmly? I can easily understand it. But, Ernestine, your powers of mind
+are too great to allow you to find consolation for any length of time
+in such delusions. Be sure that sooner or later you would have
+extricated yourself from such bondage, as the expanding flower throws
+off the confining hull. You have been ill, and your physical weakness
+has depressed your mental energy; but, when you are well and strong
+again, you will rejoice proudly in the consciousness that you are a
+free, irresponsible being, not dependent upon the will and the doubtful
+justice of a fancied Jehovah. Study yourself, my child; in yourself
+lies your future. Believe in yourself, and plant your hopes deeply in
+your faith in yourself. I will leave you now to sleep; and I am sure
+that to-morrow I shall find you a little philosopher."
+
+Long after her uncle had left the room and Rieka had retired upon
+tiptoe to bed in the adjoining apartment, fully convinced that her
+charge was sleeping, Ernestine was wide awake. She lay perfectly
+motionless, as if shattered in every limb. She stirred for the first
+time when Rieka had extinguished the light, so that no ray came through
+the open door. Then the child drew a deep breath, and stretched her
+arms out into the darkness as if to clasp the forms of her vanished
+faith; but her arms encountered only the empty air. There was no more
+pitiable creature upon earth than she at that moment. What is left for
+a child without father or mother, who has lost her guardian angel and
+her God? She is a bird fallen from the nest, stripped by cruelty of its
+wings and left living on the ground. The child's foreboding soul,
+precociously matured by misfortune, felt the entire weight of her
+desolation; and she hid her face in the pillow, that Rieka might not
+hear the convulsive sobs wrung from the depths of her misery. The tears
+which she poured forth for her vanished God were all that her uncle had
+left her,--the only prayer that she was capable of. She longed to
+pray--but could not in words. "He does not hear me! He does not live!"
+she cried to herself; and the hot tears burst forth again, and she wept
+in agony. And, as she wept, her heart grew soft and tender, and as the
+Crucified, after he had been laid in the tomb, was present invisibly
+among his disciples, so the God who had just been buried away from her
+mind came to life again in her heart; she did not hear nor see him, but
+she felt his presence, and it gave her strength to pray. She kneeled in
+her bed, folded her hands, and cried inwardly: "Dear God, let me keep
+my belief in Thee--if Thou art and canst hear me--" --that terrible
+"if" intruded. She paused to ponder upon it. And then there was an end
+to her fervent prayer, and God vanished again.
+
+Thus the struggle between faith and doubt continued feverishly, and her
+soul thirsted for love as did her parched lips for water. Where was
+there a kind, gentle hand to offer her a cooling draught, and with it
+the kiss that should refresh her thirsty soul,--such a hand as only a
+mother has? Ernestine gazed out into the darkness. Her breath came in
+gasps, her heart beat audibly, but no more kindly tears came to her
+burning eyes. "O God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" was the last
+moan of her tortured heart; and then she sank into a feverish slumber.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+                               DEPARTURE.
+
+
+The autumnal gales had stripped the leaves from the trees; the tall
+firs in the forest, bordering the spacious brown fields of the Hartwich
+estate, were the only green on the landscape. Over the cheerless desert
+plain wandered a lonely little figure, pale and sad as Heine's Last
+Fairy. Ernestine had so far recovered that she was once more able to
+brave the autumn wind. She extended her arms, and could not help
+imagining that they might become wings, that would bear her far, far
+aloft. She knew it could never really be so; but the thought was so
+delightful! Up, up, far away from the earth,--it was so sad upon the
+earth. She was a stranger here, and she felt that her home must be
+elsewhere. In heaven? Oh, there was no heaven; but in the air--at
+least, in the air. And she ran on--ran as fast as she could--and her
+heart throbbed with excitement as the wind whistled in her ears and
+tossed her clothes about, and her hair.
+
+An insatiable yearning--she knew not for what--had driven her out of
+the house--she knew not whither. There was nothing for her to crave
+for, and yet she could not help it. She thought she should die of
+longing! She wished she could dissolve into foam, like the little
+mermaid, that the daughters of the air might bear her aloft into
+endless space! And she stood still and gazed up into the gray clouds,
+and took a long breath. There was no longer anything there for her to
+aspire to, and she had not yet learned to look within. One vast void
+around and above her, and forth into this immense void she was driven!
+
+At last she reached the woods, and stood beneath the dark firs, in
+whose boughs the wind was wildly roaring. It was the last time that she
+should stand thus among these familiar scenes, for on the following day
+she was to set out with her uncle for the south, that she might escape
+the northern winter. She was sorry, for she clung to her home, bleak as
+it had been. She must have something to cling to! She had looked
+forward with pleasure to the ice and snow; the glittering form of the
+snow-queen in the fairy book--the creature of Andersen's Northern
+fancy--had transfigured winter for her. Like little Kay, she had lost
+all delight in life, and, like him, she was perplexed in spirit at the
+word "eternity." But she could not help loving the winter and the
+solitude of her retired home. She walked on fearlessly, beneath the
+whistling of the wind, deeper and deeper into the forest, until,
+without knowing how, she emerged on the other side, and stood under the
+oak where she had first seen Johannes. The bough, now entirely dead,
+which had broken beneath her when she was trying to escape from him,
+still hung there. There, too, was the spot where he had given her the
+book--the wonderful book--that had peopled her fancy with such lovely
+forms. And yet that interview with Johannes seemed in her memory far
+more like enchantment than any fairy-tale, and she stood still, sunk in
+a reverie, until a furious blast of wind tore at the boughs of the
+majestic tree as if it longed to tear it down and scatter its fragments
+through the forest. With a crash, the broken bough, only attached
+hitherto to the trunk by a slender hold, was hurled to the ground, and
+the wind wailed on through the bare branches in the forest depths.
+Ernestine looked up startled. The boughs rustled and creaked, and the
+scared ravens flew croaking hither and thither. Again the blast swept
+howling across the plain, slowly, but with a mighty swell in its roar,
+towards the wood, and again it stormed and raved in its first fury
+about the isolated oak, which trembled and shook to its centre. But
+Ernestine was startled only for an instant; she was used to the blasts
+of a northern October, and she took delight in this wild might of
+nature. It was almost as if she herself were shaking the tree, and
+splitting its branches with her own hands. The exultation of a Titan in
+the breast of a creature woven as it were out of moonlight and
+lily-leaves! Only a divinely-related spirit could have had such
+thoughts in so delicate a form,--a spirit that fraternized with the
+elements, and, in an intoxication of delight, forgot the frail casket
+in which it was confined.
+
+Singing strange, wild songs, the child, with her wonted agility,
+climbed the tree that had grown so dear to her, and cradled herself
+exultingly amid its tossing branches. She ascended to the topmost
+boughs, and gazed far over forest and plain; and the more the creaking
+branches were tossed to and fro as she clung to them, the wilder grew
+her delight. It was almost flying--to hover, thus hidden, above the
+earth! She kissed the bough by which she held, and as she saw the young
+branches breaking here and there beneath her, and the hurricane raged
+so that it almost took away her breath, she looked up with inspired
+eyes, and whispered involuntarily, "It is the breath of God!" Suddenly
+she distinguished a sound as of human footsteps, and a shout came up
+through the roar of the blast. She thought of the handsome stranger
+youth! Could it be he--come to take her down from the tree? An
+inexplicable mixture of joy and dread took possession of her. Was it
+he? Would he stretch out his arms to her again? But it was not he. A
+chill struck to her heart, and a shade gathered over the landscape. It
+was her uncle! "Ernestine," he called to her, "thoughtless child! How
+you terrify me! Running to the woods and climbing trees in such a
+storm! You might kill yourself! Come down, I entreat you!"
+
+"Let me stay here, uncle; I like it so much!" Ernestine begged.
+
+"I must seriously desire you to come with me. What would people say if
+I allowed you to be out in such weather? Be good enough to do as I tell
+you."
+
+Ernestine cast one more silent glance over her beloved forest, and
+then, with a saddened face, began to descend. When she reached the spot
+where the bough had been broken, and whence Johannes had rescued her,
+she broke off a couple of withered leaves, hid them in her dress, and
+slipped down the trunk lightly as a shadow. She turned to her uncle.
+All her delight had vanished; she was upon the earth once more, and her
+uncle's cold, keen eye disenchanted her utterly. Her look was downcast;
+she felt almost ashamed. If he knew that she had just been thinking of
+God, he would despise her. But why could she believe in God again while
+she was up there, and not when she was down here with her uncle?
+
+She walked on without a word by Leuthold's side, glancing neither to
+the right nor the left, never heeding how the wind was well-nigh
+tearing her dress from her back. She did not want to fly any more,--she
+longed for nothing;--when her uncle was by, she was ashamed of every
+emotion. When she came to the place where the path leading to her home
+diverged from the road to the village, she asked permission of Leuthold
+to go and say farewell at the parsonage. After some hesitation, he
+granted it, and went on alone. Ernestine hurried along the well-known
+road. The village children shouted after her, "Halloo, there goes
+Hartwich's Tina,--proud Tina, with the whey face!" She paid no heed to
+them,--she felt herself above the jeers of such creatures. With a
+beating heart she reached the parsonage; then she suddenly stood still.
+What did she want here? To bid good-by to the pastor and his wife! But
+if the good old man should admonish her to love and fear God, as he was
+so apt to do? Or if he should ask her if she believed in God? What
+should she,--what could she answer him? Could she, doubter, apostate
+that she was, enter the presence of the servant of God without placing
+herself at the bar of judgment, or without lying? She stood like a
+penitent, not daring to enter the door which had been so often flung
+open to her. Twice she put her hand upon the bell-handle and did not
+pull it. She knew that the old man would be grieved if she went away
+without bidding him farewell; but she also knew that he would be still
+more deeply pained could he guess at her present state of mind. Perhaps
+he might despise her then; she could not bear that; and, just as she
+was ashamed of her faith when her uncle was with her, she was now
+ashamed of her doubts. How often had the pastor told her it was a sin
+to doubt! she had committed--nay, was now committing--this sin. No, her
+guilty conscience would not let her meet his eye, or kiss the soft,
+gently folded hands of his wife. She slipped past the house, so that no
+one could see her, and went into the grave-yard, where it was quiet and
+lonely and she could hide her guilty little heart upon her parents'
+graves. She knelt down beside them, and longed for tears to relieve
+her; but no blessing arose from the graves over which no spirits
+hovered, but which covered, as her uncle Leuthold had told her, nothing
+but bones. And yet she so longed to do penance for all her doubts. "If
+I could only have faith again this minute, and pray God to forgive me,
+I could go in and see the pastor," she thought. She looked around her,
+not knowing what to do;--there was the church, and the doors were open.
+She would go into the house of God; perhaps in that sacred place she
+might find again what she had lost. In profound self-abasement the
+child entered, threw herself upon her knees before the altar, and
+closed her eyes. "Now, now I can pray!" she thought; but, just as upon
+that terrible night when she was robbed of her religion and peace of
+mind, devotion seemed near her, but to be eluding her clasp. There lay
+the guiltless little penitent, her soul full of piety, but unable to
+pray,--her heart full of tears, but unable to weep. She sprang up in
+despair. God was not here either. She had thought she heard him in the
+tempest, and that the wind was his breath,--but on the way home her
+uncle had explained to her that it was nothing but a current of air
+occasioned by the change of temperature on the earth's surface, or by
+violent showers of rain, and she was convinced that she had been wrong
+and that her uncle knew very much more than the pastor. But if she
+believed her uncle, she could not believe in God; it was not her fault,
+and yet this doubt weighed upon her as the first crime of her life. Her
+trusting soul was like the iron that glows long after the fire in which
+it was heated is quenched; her faith was extinguished, but the
+influence that her faith had exerted upon her endured and became her
+punishment. It began to grow dark; yet still she stood with head bowed
+and downcast eyes beside the wooden crucifix upon the tomb of her
+parents. The Christ who had been nailed to the cross for the sake of
+what her uncle called an illusion, seemed to regard her so
+reproachfully that she did not dare to look up at him; he had shed his
+precious blood for the faith which she denied; she almost thought he
+would tear away the hand nailed to the cross and extend it in menace
+towards her. An inexplicable shudder ran through her; again she fell
+upon her knees.
+
+"Forgive, forgive!" she cried; and the tears burst forth and relieved
+the icy pressure upon her heart.
+
+Then something grasped her shoulder and raised her from the ground. Was
+it her uncle, or the foul fiend, who was standing beside her?
+
+"You are here, then," he sneered, "in the dark, kneeling and weeping.
+Aha! I came to look for my quiet little philosopher, and I find a
+whimpering child praying to a wooden doll! Can you tell me where
+Ernestine Hartwich is?"
+
+"Uncle," cried Ernestine, driven to defiance in her despair, "why do
+you persecute me so continually to-day? Can I not be alone for one
+hour? and must I give an account of every thought and word? You have
+taken from me everything in which I confided,--you have come between
+myself and God, so that I dare not go to the pastor, but must slip
+round his house as if I were a thief. Do you think all this does not
+pain me, and that I feel no remorse? Whatever you may teach me, I shall
+never be happy again. Why did you tell me there were no spirits, no
+angels, no God? I did not wish to know it. I loved God, and, however
+wretched I was, I could always hope that he would be kind and merciful
+to me; if no human being loved me, I could always think that he did.
+And now I must bear everything that happens to me, hoping nothing and
+loving nothing,--no one,--not even you!"
+
+Leuthold smiled, and stroked Ernestine's curls.
+
+"I see now that I was wrong in treating a girl twelve years old
+like a boy of twenty. Too strong nourishment will not strengthen an
+invalid,--he cannot bear it; I ought to have thought of that, and not
+burdened your girlish brain with so much. I can understand your dislike
+of me as the innocent cause of your mental indigestion, and forgive you
+for it. Pardon me for overestimating your intellect,--it is my only
+injustice towards you."
+
+Ernestine stood gloomily beside him, without a word; he could not guess
+what was passing in her mind.
+
+"I will leave you here, my dear child. Pray on,--you need fear no
+further disturbance. Go, kiss the feet of your Christ,--it will relieve
+your heart. Go, Ernestine; or are you embarrassed by my presence? Shall
+I walk away? Well!"
+
+He turned as if to go; but Ernestine held fast to his arm.
+
+"I will go with you," she said sullenly. "I could not pray now if I
+tried. And I am not so stupid as you think me. I understood everything
+that you have taught me, and I do not believe any longer in--in--the
+other. What else do you require? One can cry without being thought
+silly; and I tell you I shall cry far oftener than I shall laugh. Oh, I
+shall cry all my life long!"
+
+And she covered her face with her hands and sobbed aloud.
+
+"You are nervous, my child. These tears come from mere bodily weakness.
+In a few years you will smile at what causes them now. Do not be
+troubled that you cannot love any one,--not even me. All such childish
+things are left behind in the nursery. Whoever will be truly free must
+begin by standing alone. Every tie that links our heart to others,
+however lovable they may be, is a fetter. Whoever will be strong must
+cease to lean on others. Love knowledge alone,--all living things can
+be taken from you, and your love for them is a source of pain. Science
+is always yours,--an inexhaustible source of delight. Men are unjust.
+They will estimate you not according to your mental powers, but your
+exterior advantages, and these are too trivial to gain their homage.
+Science gives you your deserts,--she measures her gifts according to
+your diligence. Women will envy you; for your intellect will far
+outsoar theirs. Men will slight you; for you are not, and never will
+be, beautiful, and they require beauty beyond all else in a woman. You
+will meet with nothing but disappointment among your kind, if you are
+not resolved to expect nothing from them. If you would avoid every
+grief that they can cause you, learn early not to depend upon them; and
+to this end, science, the culture of the mind, alone can lead you.
+Intellect will indemnify us for all the woes and necessities of
+humanity,--through it we can rise to the true dignity of our nature.
+Therefore, my child, seek out the true nourishment for the intellect,
+and the blind instincts of your heart will soon die in the clear light
+of the mind. You long for peace; trust me, it is to be found only in
+your mind, not in love."
+
+Ernestine walked silently beside her uncle. Her eyes gleamed strangely
+in the twilight as she looked up at him. She did not understand all
+that he said. But there came an icy chill from his words, and it was
+owing to him that her feverish excitement of mind was allayed. Soft and
+gently as falling snow in the night, his words had fallen into her
+mind, and, without her knowledge, hidden the last blossoms of faith
+there under a thick, cold pall. Beneath it her young heart grew torpid;
+and she took this quiet, painless sleep for peace.
+
+When they reached home, they found the Staatsräthin's carriage before
+the door.
+
+"Uncle," said Ernestine alarmed and disturbed, "go in and see if it is
+the Frau Staatsräthin herself,--if it is, I would rather stay outside."
+
+At this moment little Angelika looked out of the window, and called
+Ernestine by name in a tone of delight. There was no help for it.
+Ernestine had to go in and encounter, to her distress, the majestic
+figure of the Staatsräthin. The great lady acknowledged Leuthold's low
+bow by a slight inclination of her head, and held out her hand to
+Ernestine.
+
+"You have avoided me hitherto, my child. Have I, without intending it,
+done anything to pain you?"
+
+Ernestine stood silent in confusion. She could not have told, even had
+she wished to do so, what the kind Staatsräthin had done to her, for
+she did not know herself what it was. She could not understand, in her
+childish inexperience, that it was her sense of shame at her own
+insufficiency that embarrassed her in the Frau Staatsräthin's presence.
+
+The lady's eyes rested kindly upon the shadowy little figure. She
+stroked the child's thick, short curls, and then turned to Leuthold,
+while Angelika, who had a large doll in her arms, drew Ernestine away
+to a deep window-seat.
+
+"My object here to-day, Herr Doctor, is to arrange a pressing matter of
+business with you as speedily as possible."
+
+"Madam," said Leuthold bowing, "I feel much honoured. May I offer you
+one of these clumsy chairs? or will you have the kindness to go up with
+me to my own apartments, where I can receive you in a more fitting
+manner?"
+
+The Staatsräthin glanced towards the children.
+
+"I would like to speak to you alone for a few moments, Herr Doctor."
+
+"Then, madam, let me request you to accompany me." With these words
+Leuthold opened the door.
+
+"Angelika," the Staatsräthin said to the child, "stay with Ernestine
+until I come back."
+
+She went upstairs with Leuthold; and, when seated upon the couch in his
+study, she could not but observe the comfortable, cosy arrangement of
+the room, the delicate cleanliness and order reigning in it; while upon
+the table before her lay several exercise-books labelled "Ernestine von
+Hartwich." Involuntarily she was inspired with a kind of confidence in
+the grave, elegant man who had received her with so much grace. She
+inspected him with the experienced eyes of a woman of the world. His
+bearing was blameless, and his regular features bore an unmistakably
+intellectual stamp. Far-sighted and clever as the Staatsräthin was, she
+was too much of a woman not to be impressed by the good taste in
+Leuthold's appearance and manner, and she was inclined to think Heim's
+estimate of him as somewhat unjust. She did not belong to the class of
+women ready to be imposed upon by a small hand with filbert-shaped,
+carefully-kept nails; but the refinement of Leuthold's person and
+surroundings was very agreeable in her eyes.
+
+"The neatness and order that I see here surprise me, Herr Doctor," she
+began, as Leuthold seated himself opposite her; "for I hear that your
+wife is not with you at present."
+
+"No, madam, I am alone; but I have an acute sense of fitness in
+exterior arrangements, and probably pay more attention to such things
+than is quite becoming in a man."
+
+"Will your wife's absence be of long duration?" asked the Staatsräthin
+with interest.
+
+A shadow passed over Leuthold's countenance. "I fear, yes, madam. My
+wife, unfortunately, had not sufficient affection for our child and
+myself to endure the deprivations to which the disappointment of our
+hopes of an inheritance from my brother subjected us. She returned to
+her father for an indefinite time, and, as she has succeeded in keeping
+away now from her little daughter for two months, I have great doubts
+of her return."
+
+"But that is very sad for you, Herr Doctor," remarked the Staatsräthin.
+
+Leuthold passed his hand across his eyes. "It is sad indeed, madam,
+that I should have made such a choice,--that I should have expended
+years of love and pains in the attempt to cultivate and train a nature
+incapable of culture. Mine is the same pain which is experienced by the
+sculptor who finds a serious flaw in the marble upon which he has spent
+years of labour. He exhausts himself in the endeavour to shape it
+according to his ideal, and, just when he hopes for its completion, a
+dark vein is laid bare by his chisel,--his work is worthless,--he has
+hoped and laboured in vain!"
+
+The Staatsräthin looked at him with interest, "That is rather coldly
+put, and yet poetically conceived, sir."
+
+"An artist would not call it cold, madam, for he would know how great
+the suffering is to which I have ventured to compare my own."
+
+The Staatsräthin assented. Leuthold's manner pleased her more and more.
+Just then Lena entered, leading Gretchen by the hand, and carrying a
+brightly burnished lighted lamp, which she placed upon the table.
+
+"Oh, what a charming child!" exclaimed the Staatsräthin in unfeigned
+surprise.
+
+Her keenly observant eye noticed with pleasure the ray of delight that
+illumined Leuthold's countenance. "Is she not lovely, madam?" he said,
+actually glowing with gratified vanity. "You do indeed delight the
+heart of a father who has seen his child forsaken by her own mother.
+Yes, she is a treasure. She has the personal beauty that once so
+attracted me in her mother, and will, I hope, develop a beauty of soul
+which I failed to find in her mother. She will, in the future, repair
+all that I have lost. While I have this daughter, I ask of life nothing
+beside."
+
+The large-hearted Staatsräthin was completely won by a declaration so
+full of affection. "The man that idolizes his child thus cannot be
+worthless," she thought.
+
+Leuthold motioned to Lena to take Gretchen away again, and as she did
+so the Staatsräthin remarked, as if casually, "There cannot be much
+room in your heart, filled as it is with love for such an angel, for
+poor, pale little Ernestine."
+
+Leuthold looked steadily at her. "Madam, a lady like yourself, whose
+loving heart finds room for so many, can hardly say that in earnest."
+
+"You are right," said the Staatsräthin; "I ought to know how many one
+can love without defrauding any of their due measure of affection. But
+I am a woman, whose vocation it is to love; a man, and a scholar, like
+yourself, is apt to confine his regard to what is nearest to him."
+
+"It is natural; and I do not deny that my daughter is dearer to me than
+my niece: nevertheless, I think I have sufficient affection for the
+latter to satisfy her demands and to enable me to fulfil all my duties
+as guardian. You can have no idea, madam, what anxious care the
+extraordinarily precocious intellect of that child requires, and what a
+weighty responsibility the training of such an uncommon nature
+involves."
+
+"I can easily believe you; and I am convinced that she could not
+possibly be in better hands than your own. But Ernestine's physical
+education must weigh heavily upon you just at this time, when you are
+alone. I should very much like to relieve you somewhat in future of
+your arduous duties. You leave to-morrow for the south, and I cannot
+but rejoice, for the sake of Ernestine's health, that it is so. But I
+hear that you intend returning hither at the end of six mouths, to
+settle in this part of the country. If this be so, let me entreat you
+to intrust your ward to me every year for some weeks or months,--you
+will need some rest,--when you can give your undivided time to your
+daughter. Will you not allow me to take this part in Ernestine's
+education?"
+
+Leuthold bowed. "Madam, you are one of those who scatter blessings
+wherever they appear. Your sympathy does me too much honour; I am
+unworthy of it. Therefore let me thank you, not for myself, but for my
+niece. There is another name, also, in which I must offer you grateful
+acknowledgments,--that of the unfortunate mother of the child. If she
+could speak to you from the other world, she would repay your kindness
+with far better thanks than my weak words can convey."
+
+The Staatsräthin's eyes filled with tears; she thought, what would
+become of her little Angelika without her mother, and, touched to her
+heart, she grew still more reconciled to the strange man whose manner
+contrasted so strongly with all she had heard of him.
+
+"Then you consent to my plan?" she asked.
+
+"I give you my word, madam, that, when I return with Ernestine, she
+shall stay with you as long as you desire."
+
+"I thank you," said the Staatsräthin, surprised at this ready assent.
+She was now firmly convinced that Heim had done this singular man great
+injustice.
+
+"We have agreed so quickly in this matter," the Staatsräthin began
+again, "that I cannot but hope that I shall be equally successful in
+regard to the other affair that brings me here. I have come, in fact,
+for the purpose of learning whether you will dispose of the Hartwich
+estate."
+
+A delicate flush overspread Leuthold's face.
+
+"Indeed, madam, you take me greatly by surprise."
+
+"You are aware that my brother Neuenstein has long been desirous of
+possessing the factory; but serious losses in another direction
+rendered it impossible for him to command the sum required for the
+purchase. When I found how his heart was set upon giving his son a
+position as possessor and head of the factory, I determined, with the
+consent of my son Johannes and his guardians, to furnish him with the
+necessary funds. Johannes' answer to my proposal has just arrived from
+Paris. He entirely approves of my plan, and would willingly even run
+the risk of a loss for his uncle's sake."
+
+"I really cannot tell which to admire most, madam,--your determination
+and energy, or your generous spirit! Happy the man who has such a
+sister!"
+
+"Oh, I pray you do not flatter me," said the Staatsräthin, as a shade
+of embarrassment flitted across her face. "Such things are not worth
+mentioning. I wish to keep my brother and my nephew near me; and I
+could not do so if they were to buy property in another part of the
+country. It is most fortunate that my country-seat is just where it is.
+My motive is purely selfish. As you depart early to-morrow morning, we
+had better arrange matters upon the spot. Then I can lay the deed of
+purchase upon my brother's plate at tea this evening."
+
+"A princely surprise," rejoined Leuthold, hastening to his
+writing-table to make out the necessary agreement. The transaction met
+his desires perfectly, for he wished above all things to be able to
+reside in the south with Ernestine, that he might carry out his plans
+with regard to her education, far from the scrutiny of her present
+friends; and, by the disposal of this property, the last reason for
+ever returning to the scenes of her childhood vanished.
+
+In the mean time, Angelika and Ernestine were sitting in the
+window-seat of what was formerly the laundry, engaged in earnest
+conversation. Angelika had received that very day from her brother the
+crying doll that she had thought he meant to bring her upon his return.
+She was beside herself with delight, and could not imagine how
+Ernestine could be so unmoved by the sight of such a miracle of
+mechanism. She had made it say "papa" and "mamma," and open and shut
+its eyes, repeatedly. Ernestine was entirely composed and cold. She
+declared that the words "papa" and "mamma" were not very distinct, and
+that the eyelids made altogether too much noise in opening and
+shutting.
+
+Angelika was not at all troubled by Ernestine's budding misanthropy,
+for she did not observe it. But that her friend should not care for
+dolls, was a bitter grief to the little girl. "You will never take any
+pleasure in dolls if you do not like this one," she said.
+
+"Why should I take any pleasure in them?" Ernestine said in a tone of
+contempt.
+
+"What? Why, don't you know? I suppose you think the poor things do not
+feel it when you are unkind to them. But mamma says they feel it all,
+and don't like it, although they don't show it."
+
+"Do you believe all that your mother says?" asked Ernestine, shaking
+her head.
+
+"Certainly; of course. Mamma always tells the truth."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+Angelika stared at Ernestine. "How? Why, because I do."
+
+"Yes, but who told you so?"
+
+"No one; I know it myself."
+
+Ernestine looked down and said nothing.
+
+"I know it myself," she repeated thoughtfully, not comprehending why
+the words struck her so oddly. "But suppose she should tell you what
+you could not believe?"
+
+"Oh, a child must always believe what her mother says."
+
+"How if she cannot do it?"
+
+"But she must!" cried Angelika angrily.
+
+"She must? How can we believe anything because we must? It is not
+possible," said Ernestine, and she thought Angelika very silly.
+Suddenly it occurred to her that the pastor was no wiser when he said
+that we must have faith and that it was a sin not to believe. What if
+you could not,--what was the use of that _must_?
+
+"Ernestine, don't stare so at nothing," said Angelika, interrupting her
+reverie. "Just look how straight my doll can sit, all alone, without
+anything to lean against! Oh, just give her one kiss; she is your
+namesake--I christened her Ernestine."
+
+"No, I don't want to,--it is nothing but a lump of leather, it cannot
+feel, and I will not kiss anything that is not alive and does not
+feel!"
+
+"Oh, Ernestine, don't say that. She is not alive now, but perhaps she
+may get alive. Mamma told me once of a man in Greece, called Pygmalion,
+who made a marble doll for himself, and loved it so dearly that it grew
+warm and came to life. And I believe that if I should love my doll
+dearly she might get alive; and I am sure I shall love her very dearly!
+She can say 'papa' and 'mamma' already, which Herr Pygmalion's doll
+could not do at all; and in time I shall perhaps bring her on, just as
+he did his!"
+
+And she clasped the "lump of leather" to her little heart, gazed
+tenderly and hopefully into its blue glass eyes, and was quite content.
+
+Ernestine looked at her with mournful wonder; she understood now that
+"Faith gives peace," and she envied the child her happiness.
+
+"Would you not rather have a puppy or a kitten?" she asked gently. "It
+could eat and drink, and you could feed it, and it would understand
+what was said to it, and run after you, and love you? Would not that be
+nicer?"
+
+A shade of sorrow passed over Angelika's rosy face, like a cloud over
+the sun. "Oh," she sighed, "we have a little dog; but I cannot feed it;
+it does not eat nor drink!"
+
+"Why not? Is it sick?"
+
+"No; it is stuffed."
+
+Ernestine smiled in spite of herself. "Then you have no dog!"
+
+"Oh, yes, we have! he is called Assor. He only died, and mamma had him
+stuffed, so that he lies perfectly quiet near the fire, and never
+stirs. Mamma says he will not come to life again. Oh, Ernestine, it is
+very sad,--when I stroke him, he never licks my hand any more! I call
+him hundreds of times, and he used to turn his pretty black head round
+towards me, but he does not do it now; he cannot see nor hear me, and
+he used to love me so much."
+
+The little girl covered her eyes with her hand and began to cry.
+
+Ernestine tried to soothe her. "Your mother ought to have had the dog
+buried. Then you would have forgotten him and not grieved after him."
+
+"No! oh, no! I could not have borne that. What! have the faithful old
+dog hidden in the ground! It would have been too hard! He was so
+faithful; he never left our side; and when he could hardly walk, he
+used to creep out of his basket to welcome us when we came into the
+room, and when he was dying in my lap, he looked up at me so
+mournfully, as if to say, 'I must leave you now.' And could I hide him
+away and forget him? That would be dreadful. No, no! he shall lie by
+the fire in the drawing-room; it is far more comfortable there than in
+the cold ground, and I will always think how good he was. And I'll tell
+you what,--when mamma dies she shall not be buried either. I will put
+her dressing gown on her and let her lie in her soft bed. Then I will
+pretend she is sick, and I will sit by her every day and talk to her,
+and, even if she does not answer me, I shall know what she would say if
+she could speak. And if she cannot kiss me, I will kiss her all the
+more. That will be a great deal better than to have nothing left of
+her; will it not?"
+
+Ernestine shook her head. "That can't be done, Angelika; you can't keep
+dead bodies; they decay. How can you think of such a thing?"
+
+"Oh, you say, 'That can't be done,'--you say, 'That's nothing,' to
+everything, and spoil all my pleasure; I tell you it is very unkind of
+you!"
+
+Ernestine felt ashamed. She had been treating Angelika as her uncle
+Leuthold treated herself. The child was pained and unhappy when her
+dolls were treated with contempt, and her childish fancies not
+encouraged; and was she, Ernestine, to endure without a moan the utter
+overthrow of the hopes of her entire existence, when her uncle dragged
+down into the dust all that she had held most sacred? She leaned her
+forehead, heavy with the weight of her thoughts, against the
+window-pane, and looked up into the gray, storm-lashed clouds, through
+which there beamed no star, not a ray of moonlight. The children had
+not noticed the gathering darkness in the room, and Rieka almost
+startled them when she entered with a light.
+
+"Is not mamma coming soon?" asked Angelika with a sigh. "Pray tell her
+that I want to go home."
+
+"I will tell her," replied Rieka, and left the room.
+
+"You are tired of being with me," Ernestine whispered sadly. "You
+cannot love me either, can you?"
+
+Angelika was confused, and did not answer. Ernestine looked
+disappointed and bitter. "Very well, then--I need not like you either.
+Uncle Leuthold would only scold me if I did."
+
+"What for?" Angelika asked amazed.
+
+"Because it is silly to love anything except science, and because
+nobody loves me--nobody!"
+
+As she was speaking, a carriage drove up, and old Heim alighted from
+it. Ernestine was startled; she felt as if the pastor, whom she had
+shunned, were coming. The door opened, and he entered the room.
+
+"Well, here you both are!" he cried after his hearty fashion. "I wanted
+to say good-by to you, my little Ernestine, before you leave us for so
+long. But what is the matter? Have you been quarrelling about the doll?
+Why, what a lovely creature she is!" He took the doll, seated himself
+in a chair, and dandled it upon his knee; the machinery of the toy was
+set in motion, and the doll screamed "mamma" and "papa" loudly. "Good
+gracious, how frightened I am!" laughed the old gentleman. "But she is
+very naughty,--you must train her better, Angelika. She ought not to
+scream so at strangers."
+
+Angelika clapped her hands with delight. "Oh, I knew that you would
+like her, Uncle Heim. You will love her just as you do the rest of my
+dolls, won't you?"
+
+"Of course; she is really such a lovely creature, that I must bring her
+some bonbons the next time I come."
+
+"Oh, yes--do, uncle, do!" cried Angelika.
+
+"But be careful not to let her eat too many, or she will have to be put
+to bed like your old Selma, and I shall have to play doll's-doctor
+again."
+
+"Oh, no, uncle; I will eat some with her myself; bring them soon, pray
+do."
+
+Meanwhile Heim had been observing Ernestine, who stood mute at a little
+distance.
+
+"Well, what does our little Ernestine say to this wonderful new child?"
+
+"Oh, uncle," Angelika complained, "she called it a lump of leather."
+
+Heim looked gravely at Ernestine. "So young, and already such a
+skeptic! Only twelve years old, and take no pleasure in dolls? Poor
+child!"
+
+Ernestine was silent. The words "Poor child" fell like molten lead into
+an open wound. Heim gave back the doll to Angelika. "Come here,
+Ernestine." She approached him shyly.
+
+"What have you been doing? you look as if you had a guilty conscience?"
+
+"Well, she has, Uncle Heim," Angelika interposed; "for she said, a
+little while ago, that it was silly to love any one; and that is very
+wrong!"
+
+"Did you say that?" asked Heim astonished.
+
+Ernestine felt as though she should sink into the ground. She
+clasped her hands in entreaty. "Oh, forgive me! I have all kinds of
+thoughts!--I do not know what I say or do! I only know that I am a
+wretched, wretched child!"
+
+Heim shook his head, and drew the trembling child towards him. "My
+darling, tell me about it: is your uncle severe with you? does he treat
+you unkindly?"
+
+"No, oh, no! he is very kind,--he is never cross to me--it is not
+that,--not that."
+
+"I understand. In spite of his kindness, you feel that he is not near
+to you; you have no father nor mother, and you need warmth and
+sunshine, you poor frail little flower. Only be patient! when you get
+to the lovely, sunny south, with its flowers and birds, you will be
+better, and your heart will be lighter. I would have liked to keep you
+with me, I would have brought you up lovingly, and would have tried to
+fill a father's place to you. But it could not be,--God best knows
+why,--and I am sure it is better for you, mind and body, to leave this
+northern climate for a time."
+
+These kind words melted Ernestine's very heart. She pressed Heim's
+hands to her lips. She wanted to confess all to him. "Oh, do not speak
+so to me!" she cried with streaming eyes,--"not so kindly!--I do not
+deserve it."
+
+"My poor innocent child, what can you have done, not to deserve
+kindness? Ernestine, what is it? What disturbs you so?"
+
+"Oh, if you knew--" cried Ernestine, and just then the door opened, and
+Leuthold appeared, just in time to prevent what would have ruined all
+his plans.
+
+"Ah, Herr Geheimrath,--then I was not mistaken. It was your carriage
+that drove up. The Frau Staatsräthin is with me upon business, and
+requests your presence at the signing of a paper."
+
+"I will come immediately," Helm said briefly, and went up-stairs with
+Leuthold.
+
+"Now uncle will drive home with us," cried Angelika delighted. "Isn't
+he kind, Ernestine?"
+
+"Yes, oh, yes," sighed Ernestine, standing motionless beside the chair
+where Heim had been sitting. At last he returned with Leuthold and the
+Staatsräthin.
+
+"Angelika," said the latter, "we must hurry, so that Uncle Neuenstein
+shall not wait for his tea. Good-by, my little Ernestine. Herr
+Gleissert will tell you what we intend to do when you come back. Get
+well and strong, my child, so that you may come back to us a healthy
+little girl."
+
+Angelika kissed Ernestine hastily, and drew her mother towards the
+door.
+
+Ernestine stood still with downcast eyes. Heim went up to her and
+clasped her in his arms. He only said, "God bless you!" but these words
+agitated her greatly, and, as he turned to go, she sank on the floor,
+sobbing aloud.
+
+The visitors had gone,--the carriages had rolled away. Leuthold had
+been amusing himself for some time with Gretchen in his own room. But
+Ernestine was still on her knees in the cheerless room below-stairs,
+weeping over the grave of her childhood.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                PART II.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                            "ONLY A WOMAN."
+
+
+Upon a bright, sunny day, at the house of Professor Möllner in N----
+there were gathered the principal Professors of medicine and philosophy
+in the town. The table provided for the guests was loaded with
+everything that could rejoice the hearts of men who had spent the
+morning in delivering lectures. Lunch was not the only end for which
+this assemblage was gathered together. These learned gentlemen had
+taken this occasion to discuss a very ludicrous matter,--nothing less
+than an application from a lady for permission to attend the lectures
+and to graduate at the University of the place.
+
+Möllner had invited these gentlemen to his house for the purpose of
+this discussion. There sat the physiologist Meibert, the anatomist
+Beck, and the philosophers Herbert and Taun, leaning back in
+comfortable arm-chairs,--their throats very dry,--regarding with
+longing eyes the various bottles that stood as yet uncorked, as if
+awaiting the magic word that should make them yield up their contents.
+Hector, too, Möllner's large dog, was devouring with his eyes, at a
+respectful distance, the delicacies upon the table, quite unable to
+understand how the gentlemen could refrain so long from falling to. He
+would have done very differently had he been a man.
+
+The Staatsräthin entered the room, and with dignified repose and
+kindliness of manner greeted the guests, who rose as she appeared. "I
+have just learned that my son is not here to receive his friends," she
+said. "Allow me to act his part. You must need refreshment after the
+lectures."
+
+"Thanks, thanks! you are most kind," was heard from all sides as the
+Staatsräthin filled the glasses. Herbert, the philosopher, was foremost
+in his acknowledgments; for he was a great favourite in society, and
+aspired to unite the solidity of the scholar with the grace of the man
+of the world. "We are greatly privileged in being allowed to kiss the
+hand whose tasteful care we have already admired in the charming,
+arrangement of this table."
+
+"Professor Herbert's gallantry is well known," said the Staatsräthin
+dryly.
+
+"It is true," he replied, "that I endeavour always to give expression
+to the sentiments of respect and admiration that I entertain for your
+sex, madam, in spite of the failure of my attempts."
+
+"Good-morning, mamma,--good-morning, gentlemen," cried a clear, ringing
+voice, and there came tripping into the room a figure so full of life
+and bloom that its joyousness was instantly reflected upon every face.
+
+"Angelika," said the Staatsräthin, embracing her, "have you come
+without your husband? What is the matter? You were not invited;--it was
+_he_. Is it a mistake?"
+
+"Oh, Frau Staatsräthin, we are entirely satisfied with the exchange,"
+laughed the professors; and, Herbert taking the lead,--they gathered
+about Angelika, enjoying the atmosphere of youth and grace that
+encompassed her everywhere.
+
+"I know perfectly well, mamma, that only Moritz was invited, but I have
+come too. I so wanted to hear judgment passed in this august assembly
+upon my former playmate. I may stay, may I not?"
+
+"If your husband is willing, and these gentlemen do not object," said
+the Staatsräthin.
+
+"No, oh, no,--we certainly do not object," cried all the gentlemen,
+with the exception of Herbert, who remarked softly, with a thoughtful
+air, that he feared that their charming associate might hear some
+observations on this occasion not flattering to her sex.
+
+"Oh, I cannot fear anything of the sort from you, the acknowledged
+champion of dames, the most gallant of men," laughed Angelika,--"and
+the other gentlemen will not be too bard upon us."
+
+Herbert shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Besides," Angelika continued gaily, "I have been a little hardened in
+the matter by my stern lord and master, who has very little
+consideration for our sex."
+
+"Scarcely to be wondered at in a practising physician," Herbert said in
+a low tone to his associates; then, turning with his sweetest
+expression to Angelika, "Could you not have taught him better long
+ago?"
+
+"Oh, no," complained Angelika.
+
+"He considers his wife an exception," interposed the Staatsräthin; "she
+seems to have left no room in his nature for sympathy with the rest of
+womankind. I have never seen a man so exclusive in his regard."
+
+"Such a wife deserves it all," said Herbert, kissing Angelika's hand.
+
+At this moment the door opened, and old Heim, his fine head crowned
+with locks of silvery whiteness, entered. All bowed low to this "Nestor
+of science," as he was called. After the death of his king he had
+accepted a call to N----, and had for eight years occupied the chair of
+pathology in the University there. He was followed by his adopted son,
+for whom he had created a professorship for the cure of diseases of the
+eye,--a fair, handsome young man, slender in figure and gentle in
+demeanour, with hands so small and well shaped that they seemed formed
+for the very purpose of handling such a delicate piece of mechanism as
+the eye. The Staatsräthin and Angelika greeted them both with all their
+old cordiality, and Professor Herbert said aloud, "How fresh and strong
+our revered associate looks! he must teach us how to retain our youth."
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Meibert, "if Bock could see him he would recall his
+cruel assertion that man retains full possession of his mental powers
+only until the age of fifty!"
+
+"He will soon recall that when he has passed fifty himself," said a
+deep, powerful voice. All turned to the new-comer.
+
+"Ah, Möllner, have you been listening?"
+
+"Oh, no; but I could not help hearing, as I came in, that you were
+making pretty speeches to one another,--just as if you had cups of tea
+before you, instead of glasses of good wine. Pray, what has made you so
+sentimental?"
+
+"Your protracted absence, probably," said Angelika, relieving her
+brother of his hat and cane.
+
+The strong, fine-looking man threw an affectionate glance at her.
+"Indeed! let me entreat forgiveness, then. One of my experiments was
+unsuccessful, and I was obliged to repeat it. That is why I am late!"
+
+"I suppose, then, you have been torturing some unfortunate dog or
+rabbit," said Angelika in a tone of distress. "Poor thing!"
+
+"For shame, Angelika!" said her brother. "Those are not words for the
+sister of a physiologist,--a woman who ought to understand the object
+of science."
+
+Angelika made no reply, but observed, well pleased, how tenderly
+Johannes stroked Hector, who came to greet his master.
+
+The door was flung violently open, and in rushed, in a great hurry,
+Angelika's husband, Moritz Kern, Clinical Professor and practising
+physician. His figure was not tall, but muscular,--his eyes were black
+and sparkling, his features sharply cut, and his stiff black hair close
+cropped around his head. "Morning, morning," he cried, quite out of
+breath, but in high good humour, as he threw his hat and gloves upon a
+table and himself into a chair. "Excuse me for my tardiness. Ah, my
+dear,--kiss your hand,--love me? Yes? Not seen you since morning.
+Walter with you? No? Was he good?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Angelika, who stood beside her boisterous husband
+like a rose upon a thorny stem; "but he fell off his rocking-horse and
+has got a great bruise."
+
+"Good, good,--harden him," he replied smiling. He looked for an instant
+into Angelika's blue eyes, and the fire of his glance must have
+penetrated her heart, for her fair brow flushed and her eyelids drooped
+like those of a girl upon the day of her betrothal.
+
+"Come, Moritz, you can make love to your wife another time," cried
+Johannes; "it is late,--we must come to business. What detained you?"
+
+"My dear friend, I couldn't help it. I had a girl at the clinic
+that gave me no end of trouble. Old trouble with the
+heart,--acute inflammation,--stoppage in the arteries of the left
+foot,--mortification,--the leg must come off to-day."
+
+"A splendid case!" said Helm approvingly.
+
+"Heavens! what savages you are, to call that a splendid case!" said
+Angelika horrified.
+
+"My angel, if you choose to assist at a council of rude men, you must
+not start at such innocent technical terminology," said her husband,
+enjoying Angelika's pretty dismay.
+
+"Yes, I too have been scolding her for sympathizing with the victims of
+my experiments," said Möllner.
+
+"You were wrong to blame her. I like to have her compassionate.
+Continue to weep for the poor dogs, my child, and the yet more
+unfortunate frogs. What have you to do with the reasons for torturing
+them? I do not want you to imbibe any flavour of science from your
+husband or brother. I like you just as you are; you suit me precisely.
+I will not have you otherwise."
+
+"For heaven's sake, mamma, carry Angelika away!" cried Johannes
+laughing. "As long as this fellow has his wife by his side, there is
+nothing to be done with him!"
+
+"She shall stay!" said Moritz decidedly. "There is nothing of
+importance to be done. The Hartwich woman asks to attend our lectures;
+why waste any thought upon such a fool? Don't answer her request at
+all, and be done with it!"
+
+"Softly, softly, my young friend," cried old Heim very gravely, while
+Moritz, with Angelika's hand in his, swallowed a glass of wine. "First
+read this paper, which the girl sent to me, and which so enchained
+Möllner's attention when I gave it to him to-day after lecture that--I
+must betray him--it was the cause of his tardiness. The experiments
+were over long before he made his appearance!"
+
+A slight flush overspread Johannes' face as he handed Moritz the paper.
+The latter read the title aloud--"_Reflex Motion in its Relation to
+Free Agency_."
+
+"By Jove! a good idea, if it is her own!"
+
+"It is her own--that I'll vouch for!" cried Heim with warmth.
+
+"That must be both philosophically and physiologically interesting,"
+said the philosopher Taun to Herbert, who coldly shrugged his
+shoulders.
+
+"Let us see whether the article corresponds to the title," muttered
+Moritz, turning over the leaves.
+
+"Read us some of it aloud," said Heim; and Moritz selected, at random,
+and read: "According to my opinion, the want of external self-control
+proceeds from sluggishness of the inhibitory nerves in comparison with
+the activity of the motor nerves, for the effort to control one's self
+is certainly, in a degree, neither more nor less than a struggle for
+mastery between these two sets of nerves. If the irritation acting upon
+the one is stronger than the force of will which should excite the
+other to activity, the reflex motion will take place in spite of what
+is called 'best intentions,' whether the occasion be a start of alarm,
+a desire to yawn, laugh, or weep at unfitting times, a scream, an angry
+gesture, or even a blow bestowed upon the object whence proceeds the
+incitement to wrath."
+
+Moritz paused, and said smiling, "She has forgotten a kiss, which is
+only a reflex motion under certain circumstances,--that is, when one
+does not wish to kiss, ought not to kiss, and yet cannot help it." And
+he drew his wife towards him, and kissed her. Angelika blushed deeply,
+and, rising, greatly embarrassed, joined her mother, who sat quietly at
+work by the window. The gentlemen laughed, and Moritz looked after her
+with eyes full of tenderness.
+
+"It certainly is strange that while the Hartwich has made due mention
+of the reflex motion of terror--a start; of pain--tears; of fatigue--a
+yawn; of anger--a blow, it does not seem to have occurred to her that
+there are reflex motions of tenderness, also," remarked young Hilsborn.
+
+"Probably," said Moritz laughing, "she has had no opportunity for
+observing any such. I suppose that, like all blue-stockings, she is so
+ugly that no one has ever bestowed any tenderness upon her."
+
+"She is certainly not ugly," said Johannes with warmth. "She might have
+admirers enough if she chose."
+
+Moritz turned hastily round to Johannes, who sat almost behind him, and
+stared as if a new idea had suddenly occurred to him. "What the deuce,
+Johannes! do you know her? Oho! indeed! now I understand the interest
+that you take in her. Well, you can teach her to make good her
+omissions."
+
+"I should really like to be present at such an interesting lesson!"
+said Herbert.
+
+"Laugh away," said Johannes calmly. "You may laugh at me as much as you
+please, but have the goodness, Moritz, to spare your jests as far as
+Fräulein Hartwich is concerned; and you too, friend Herbert. Pray heed
+what I say. We have nothing to do here with the personality of this
+girl; it is nothing to us. All we have to do is to pass judgment upon
+her intellectual capacity, and to accede or not to her request. Go on,
+Moritz!"
+
+And Moritz read further: "Even the law, without knowing it, recognizes
+this physiological fact, for it punishes less severely a murder
+committed in the heat of passion than one that is premeditated. And
+what is a murder committed in the heat of passion, in reality, but a
+reflex motion in a broader sense? If this theory be correct, many a
+poor criminal may escape not only a violent death at the hangman's
+hands, but also the flames of the material hell to which bigoted
+moralists have consigned him. Let us endeavour, therefore, to discover
+what relation these facts sustain to Free Agency. All that we can do to
+attain the self-control which is the germ of all the virtues is, from
+earliest childhood, to exercise the inhibitory nerves in the discharge
+of their functions. It is an undoubted fact that, from the beginning of
+life, the mind must learn to use as its tools the various organs of the
+body. We cannot understand the use of a tool to which we are
+unaccustomed as we can one that we have frequently handled. Thus it is
+with the mind and the nerves. Every nerve that is often called into
+activity by the mind is strengthened by exercise. For example: the
+sense of touch grows remarkably keen with blind people, who depend upon
+it as a substitute for eyesight. By continual exercise of the nerves of
+sensation in his finger-tips, the blind man achieves the greatest
+perfection in his sense of touch. 'Practice makes perfect,' we often
+hear said with regard to arts and occupations difficult of mastery. And
+what is this practice but the custom of the mind to exercise this or
+that nerve, bringing into play the required muscular activity,--the
+exercise of certain nerve-fibres? Are the inhibitory nerves alone not
+to be thus controlled? Certainly not! The mind can make them also
+implicitly obedient to its will, if it neglects no opportunity for
+exercising them,--and why should it not apply itself to this task with
+the same zeal that is expended upon the attainment of an art or
+handicraft? I, for example, was in the habit of screaming at the
+unexpected discharge of a pistol. I had a pistol discharged daily in my
+hearing, without warning, and in a short time I was able to suppress
+the scream. It may be urged that I had gradually become accustomed to
+the noise, and was no longer startled. But this was not the case. I was
+as much startled as ever, but I had taught the appropriate inhibitory
+nerve to cut off the reflex motion upon the larynx. I know that a
+subjective experience of this kind proves nothing objectively; but such
+a simple inference, I think, needs no proof. Here we come again to the
+boundary-line separating the physiological from the psychological,
+where free agency results from a material law, just as fragrance comes
+from the chalice of a flower. Only let us be sure that our nerves are
+but a key-board upon which, if we strike the right keys correctly, we
+shall produce the harmonious accord of our whole being, and, if we do
+not learn to do so, we are to be pitied or despised, according to the
+school in which the lesson is needed."
+
+"And so on," said Moritz, turning over the leaves. "The rest can be
+easily imagined. Here is a special treatise upon the motor nerves,--it
+seems pretty fair,--and rather a long essay upon nervous excitement,
+but I think we have done our duty and read enough of the testimony. How
+shall we decide? Shall we carry out the joke, and admit a student in
+petticoats to the lectures and the dissecting-room?"
+
+"Why not?" said Professor Taun with some humour. "We admit so many
+stupid lads, why not one woman?"
+
+"My dear friend," old Heim began, "I do not think we have ever had many
+pupils more gifted than Fräulein Hartwich. And is not a talented woman
+better than a stupid man?"
+
+"That is a question," remarked Herbert, riveting his sharp eyes upon
+Heim's honest face. "I do not believe that the most talented woman can
+accomplish what is possible, with diligence and perseverance, for a man
+of common ability. What aid can a woman lend to us, or to science? The
+aid of her labour only, for no woman possesses creative force. And the
+feminine capacity for labour is so weak, that it is hardly worth while
+to commit an absurdity for the sake of making it ours."
+
+"An absurdity?" asked Heim.
+
+"Yes, I should call it absurd to admit a woman among our students, to
+degrade science to a mere doll to amuse silly girls withal, until,
+finally, there would be an Areopagus erected, before which we should be
+expected to make our most profound bow, in every feminine tea-party.
+There is competition enough already, without increasing it by the
+admission among us of the other sex."
+
+"That sounds strange," said old Heim; "it looks almost as if you were
+afraid of the competition which you so thoroughly despise. Why speak of
+competition in science? Leave that narrow-minded word to trade, which
+is really confined within certain limits. In such a boundless and
+abstract domain as science, there is no place for personal envy and
+arrogance. Can there be any question of competition when we are
+labouring for a cause which is to benefit the world? Whoever asks for
+other rewards than are contained in knowledge itself, is no priest of
+science. The true student exists for science, not science for him,--he
+rejoices in every fresh advance, no matter by whom it is made, for the
+honour of the cause that he serves is his own, and we can say
+truthfully, Each for all, and all for each. If, therefore, we are
+offered the labour of a pair of hands willing to share our pains, let
+us not reject them because they are the delicate hands of a woman, but
+accept them, and offer them a modest place, where they can achieve all
+that lies in their power."
+
+"But," cried Moritz, "let such hands do for us what we cannot do for
+ourselves,--knit stockings, for instance,--instead of trying to assist
+in what we can easily accomplish without them."
+
+"My dear young friend," said Heim smiling, "the temple of science is
+large, very large. I think neither we nor our posterity, however
+numerous they may be, will be able to complete it."
+
+"I think, gentlemen," said the philosopher Taun, in his gentle, refined
+way, "that there are only two points of view from which the matter is
+to be considered. Either we must base our decision upon the
+intellectual capacity of the lady, and, if so, subject the paper before
+us to conscientious criticism; or we must determine, once for all, that
+no woman is to be admitted to our University,--in which case there will
+be no question whatever of capacity or incapacity. Let us, then, come
+to an agreement upon these points."
+
+"That is true,--Taun is right," cried Heim. "I vote for the admission
+of women of genius, like this one."
+
+"And I against it," rejoined Herbert; "for I contend that there are no
+women of genius!"
+
+"For my part," said Taun, "I am not decidedly opposed to the admission
+of a woman among our hearers, and, if I were, the originality of
+Fräulein Hartwich's paper would have shaken my decision. I cannot judge
+of the value of the physiological part of it,--I must leave that to our
+friend Möllner; but the philosophical idea that is its basis I think
+extremely suggestive, and that is more than can be expected from one of
+the laity."
+
+"I oppose the emancipation of women," cried Moritz, "principally
+because I find the existing order of society quite rational, and will
+do nothing to disturb it."
+
+"I vote for Fräulein Hartwich," said young Hilsborn. "It will not
+interfere with our social order to grant her request. She will not be
+followed by crowds of imitators, for the simple reason that her talent
+is extraordinary. I maintain that we have no right to deny any
+opportunity for development to such a talent because it is accidentally
+hidden in a woman's brain. A great mind requires strong nourishment,
+and it is cruel to withhold such from it out of mere envy, and condemn
+it to extinction among the commonplace occupations of women."
+
+"Hilsborn is far from wrong," said Meibert; "but can such a mind quench
+its thirst for knowledge nowhere but in a University? The lady has
+certainly proved in the treatise before us that she has learned
+something outside of the walls of the lecture-room. What does she want
+of a degree? It must be vanity that suggests the want, and we are to
+blame if we lend ourselves to the gratification of such a folly."
+
+"That is my opinion also," added Beck.
+
+But Hilsborn was not silenced. "It seems very natural to me that a
+woman who feels herself possessed of the mental power of a man should
+aspire to manly dignities, and her desire to espouse science, not as an
+amusement, but as the occupation and end of her existence, is a proof
+of her deep conviction of its grave importance. There is certainly
+nothing here of the female vanity which resorts to bodily and mental
+adornment merely for the sake of pleasing."
+
+"You are a brave champion, Hilsborn," said Möllner, holding out his
+hand to the young man.
+
+"Then we are only three against four," said old Heim. "Möllner's vote
+alone is wanting,--and if he gives it in favour of the Hartwich, there
+will be a tie; so I propose that we give him the casting vote,
+especially as he, as a physiologist, is best capable of judging of the
+value of the essay before us."
+
+"I should have thought," cried Moritz, "that any one of us could have
+passed judgment upon such a piece of dilettanteism; it is only the
+modern nonsense about the fibres. There is not much in it!"
+
+All present looked eagerly towards Johannes, who was calmly leaning
+back in his arm-chair. "It is no piece of dilettanteism. I grant that
+it is hasty and one-sided to attempt to ascribe all self-control to the
+impediments of reflex motion; nevertheless, Fräulein Hartwich's essay
+evinces a comprehension of the physiology of the nervous system far
+beyond what is usual, and I cannot deny that such a self-dependent
+realization of scholarship is a proof of the most decided creative
+faculty." Here he looked at Herbert.
+
+"Indeed?" said the latter pointedly.
+
+"Yes!" said Möllner with warmth; "but, nevertheless, I give my vote
+against her admission; and of course that decides the matter,--we are
+now five to three!" The gentlemen looked at one another, some with
+surprise, some with annoyance.
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Heim. "You were thoroughly delighted to-day
+with the girl's talent."
+
+"We relied upon you," said Hilsborn reproachfully.
+
+"This is the first injustice of which I have ever convicted my friend
+Möllner," said Taun, shaking his head.
+
+Johannes looked at his dismayed associates with quiet amusement, and
+did not observe that Herbert extended his hand to him to thank him for
+his assistance.
+
+"God be thanked," he muttered, "that you have given the fool her
+discharge!" And he swallowed the contents of his glass with evident
+satisfaction.
+
+"Johannes! Johannes!" Hilsborn began again, "why have you treated the
+girl and ourselves in this manner?"
+
+"Why?" asked Johannes,--and there was a glow in his face that quite
+transfigured it,--"because she is far more to me than to any of you."
+
+"You have chosen a very odd method to show that it is so," Hilsborn
+remonstrated.
+
+"Do you think so, short-sighted man?" asked Möllner gravely.
+
+"What harm can it do you to make the Hartwich happy?" grumbled
+Hilsborn.
+
+Möllner looked at him with a smile.--"When we take away from a child a
+knife with which it is playing, we do so, not because we are afraid it
+will harm us, but itself. True, the child will regard us as an enemy,
+but we act for its own sake."
+
+"Well, is the Hartwich the child that you feel so bound to protect?"
+
+"Yes, Hilsborn! Woman, of whatever age, is intrusted to the
+guardianship of man. It is ours to decide her future, to protect her;
+and we are responsible for her development. Which of you, my dear
+friends Heim, Taun, and Hilsborn, when I put it to your consciences,
+can deny that the Hartwich is treading a mistaken path,--that she is
+trespassing beyond the bounds that form the natural division-line
+between the sexes? I have nothing to urge in opposition to the mental
+activity of woman, provided it be exercised within the limits of her
+proper sphere; and these limits I set far beyond the place assigned her
+by our friend Herbert and my brother-in-law Moritz. But I have such a
+reverence for true womanhood that I will lend my aid to no project
+which can be carried out only at its expense."
+
+"I think," said Moritz, "that the Hartwich must have already entirely
+renounced the womanhood of which you speak, or she never would have
+entertained such projects. There can't be much there to spoil."
+
+"You judge hastily, Moritz, as you always do," said Johannes. "If you
+knew under what influences this girl has grown up, you would understand
+that it is not a want of delicacy, but lofty courage,--a passionate,
+sacred enthusiasm,--that prevents her from shuddering at the horrors of
+the study of physiology and enables her to look beyond the individual
+to the universe. A dazzling light, flaming before our eyes, blinds us
+to what lies nearest us. Thus was it with this gifted girl when the
+light of science arose for her, enveloping with its glory the world of
+reality around her."
+
+Moritz's face, usually so gay in expression, suddenly grew grave: he
+looked at Möllner with manifest anxiety.--"Johannes, you talk as if you
+had a personal interest in this preposterous creature!"
+
+"Why should I deny it?--Yes, I have!"
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Moritz, "you are not going to stand in friend
+Hilsborn's way? He seems to have serious intentions with regard to
+her."
+
+"Oh, you are wrong there, Moritz," said Hilsborn. "Her perilous
+struggle for emancipation inspires me with sympathy, it is true, but
+with no desire for a closer knowledge of her. I may surely like to have
+her for a pupil without wanting to marry her."
+
+"And there, Hilsborn," said Johannes gaily, "lies the difference
+between us; for I should wish to have her not for a pupil, but for a
+wife!"
+
+An exclamation of dismay burst from the lips of all present. "How did
+you come to know her?" "Where did he know her?" the gentlemen, with the
+exception of Heim and Hilsborn, inquired.
+
+"How the idea of my danger seems to startle you!" said Johannes
+good-humouredly. "Is the girl an evil spirit,--a witch? No, she is only
+a woman. How can you be afraid of a woman? What makes her terrible to
+you makes her interesting to me; and where is the danger for me, even
+if I should try to lead her out of her crooked path? Yes, even if she
+should become my wife----"
+
+"Heaven save you from such a wife!" the Staatsräthin interposed.
+
+"Matters have not yet gone quite so far, mother; there is nothing in
+the affair yet but pure human sympathy. But suppose it were to go
+further,--what then? The husband who is made unhappy by his wife has
+only himself to blame; for woman is just what we make her."
+
+"Oh, presumptuous man!" exclaimed the Staatsräthin, "there are women
+who would prove your error to you after a terrible fashion! This
+Hartwich girl was to me a most disagreeable child,--what must she be
+now?"
+
+"A woman who seems strayed from another world,--an apparition once seen
+never forgotten!"
+
+"Heavens!" said the Staatsräthin, really alarmed, "where and when have
+you met her? She vanished almost ten years ago; and if her
+rationalistic books had not appeared last winter, every one would have
+forgotten her."
+
+"Did you know her before, then?" several gentlemen asked curiously.
+
+"We were playmates for some time," said Angelika, "but in the end I
+could not endure her, she was so old-fashioned and despised my dolls."
+
+The gentlemen laughed.
+
+"She was the most strangely interesting child I ever saw in my life!"
+said old Heim.
+
+"Indeed she was," said Möllner; "but there was something repellant
+about her, for she had been embittered by cruel treatment, which had
+developed her mind precociously, while it had stunted her body. Such
+incongruity is always disagreeable, and therefore every one shunned
+her, as she shunned every one. We soon forgot her, for she left our
+part of the country when she was twelve years old, and we heard nothing
+more either of her or of her guardian, who accompanied her. A year or
+more ago, however, a couple of brochures from her pen appeared, that
+excited a tempest of criticism, at least among women, on account of
+their rationalistic tendency. I did not think it worth while to read
+them, as the pale little Hartwich girl had almost faded from my memory.
+No one knew anything about her, and we took no pains to know, for my
+mother and sister had been deeply shocked by the child's atheism, and
+had given her up. A short time since I went to see my friend Hilsborn,
+and met him just as he was getting into his carriage to drive to the
+village of Hochstetten, two miles off. He had been sent for to see the
+village schoolmaster. Hilsborn asked me to go with him, and, as the day
+was fine, I consented. When we arrived at the small castle that lies in
+the outskirts of the village, we alighted. Hilsborn went to find the
+schoolmaster,--I remained behind, to await his return, and walked
+slowly past the large, neglected garden, that surrounds the castle. A
+fresh breeze stirred the waving wheat-fields, and the setting sun shone
+through the quivering air upon the distant landscape. Suddenly, painted
+upon the flaming horizon, like the picture of a saint of the Middle
+Ages upon a golden background, appeared the figure of a woman dressed
+in black,--a woman so beautiful and sad that she might have been
+Night's messenger commanding the sun to set. She stood with folded
+arms, motionless, upon a little eminence in the garden, looking full at
+the descending orb of light, while the breeze stirred the heavy folds
+of her dress. The evening-red cast a glow upon her grave face, white as
+marble, and the light in her large eyes seemed not to proceed from the
+sun which they mirrored, but from within. I stared like a boy at the
+beautiful, silent apparition, and forgot that my gaze might annoy her
+should she become aware of it. And so it proved. As she took up some
+coloured glasses lying beside her, I saw with surprise that she was
+trying some optical experiment, and just then her glance fell upon me.
+A shade of vexation passed over her face, now turned from the light,
+and lent it a cold, stern expression. Without honouring me with a
+second glance, she gathered together her optical instruments and walked
+quietly down the little hill. Just then the sun disappeared below the
+horizon, as if at her command, and gloomy twilight gathered above the
+silent garden, in whose paths she disappeared. I could not picture to
+myself a happy face among those rank, thick bushes behind that high
+wall. I could not imagine a happy heart in the breast of that lonely,
+gloomy figure. Night fell while I was still vainly looking after her. I
+hurried on to the schoolmaster's, upon the pretence of finding
+Hilsborn, and learned from him that my unknown was Ernestine Hartwich.
+She had, a short time before, rented the Haunted Castle, as it was
+called, and, as they were not very enlightened in the village, the
+beautiful girl was regarded with a sort of supernatural terror,--for
+certainly something must be wrong with one who lived so entirely cut
+off from intercourse with human beings, and who, worse than all, never
+went to church. There was some excuse to be found for her, to be sure,
+in the evil influence of a step-uncle and guardian, who had had charge
+of her since the early death of her parents, and who possessed entire
+authority over her. He is that famous, or rather infamous, Doctor
+Gleissert, of whom you have all heard."
+
+"Oho! he!" murmured the gentlemen in a contemptuous tone, and old Heim
+bestowed upon him a hearty "Scoundrel!"
+
+"Well," Johannes continued, "I am sure you will not imagine me such a
+fool as to have fallen in love at the first sight of a beautiful face,
+but the apparition that I have just described presented a combination
+of what is most attractive to a man,--'beauty, intellect, and virtue.'"
+
+"Virtue!" Herbert repeated; "are you so sure of that?"
+
+"Yes. If Fräulein Hartwich were not virtuous, she would not live
+in such strict retirement. Those who have tasted the cup of
+self-indulgence are too apt to return to it; the truly pure alone can
+find contentment in seclusion and loneliness, inspired only by a grand
+idea! I go still further, and, as a physiologist, upon the ground of
+the preservation of force, maintain that a woman engaged in such
+unusual and profound studies needs all her vital energy for her work,
+and is dead to all the pleasures of sense. Hence we so often find
+entire lack of sensibility in women accustomed to great mental
+activity,--because their supply of vital force is not sufficient for
+the double occupation of thinking and feeling. And therefore my only
+fear is that there is no warm heart throbbing within that exquisite
+form."
+
+The professors looked significantly at one another, and the
+Staatsräthin exchanged anxious whispers with Angelika.
+
+"Well," said Herbert, as he arose from his chair, "I propose that we
+leave our respected associate to his dreams, and wish for his sake that
+his pupil may not be as accomplished upon the subject of the nerves of
+sensation as upon the inhibitory nerves."
+
+The gentlemen all arose.
+
+Johannes looked fixedly at Herbert and said, "I am no dreamer, Doctor
+Herbert, although I believe in the virtue that requires no certificate
+of character. And, I repeat, I believe so firmly in this virtue, that I
+denounce as a slanderer the man who dares to assail it by a single
+word!"
+
+"Sir!" cried Herbert with irritation, "your remark is insulting!"
+
+"Only to him to whom it may apply!" said Johannes calmly.
+
+Angelika ran to her brother and threw her arms around him. "Johannes!
+Johannes! consider who it is that you are defending. You do not even
+know her."
+
+"Yes, yes, she is right!" added several of the gentlemen.
+
+Johannes held up Ernestine's paper, and said with earnest gravity, "I
+do know her."
+
+Herbert took his hat, and, with a silent bow, was about to leave the
+room, when the beadle of the University rushed in and handed Johannes a
+letter. "Herr Professor! Herr Professor! this comes in haste from his
+Honor, and concerns all the gentlemen."
+
+Johannes opened the letter, and Herbert stood listening upon the
+threshold. After reading it, Johannes looked around the circle with a
+smile. "Gentlemen, we have been most strangely mystified. The prize
+essay upon the '_Capacity of the Eye for Stereoscopic Vision_,' which
+we all attributed to Hilsborn, is by--Fräulein Hartwich!"
+
+An exclamation of surprise greeted this announcement. All present
+crowded around Johannes to read the letter; even Herbert entered the
+room again, to make sure that what he had heard was true. There was no
+doubt of it,--the fact was indisputable that these gentlemen had
+accorded the prize offered for the best essay upon the '_Capacity of
+the Eye for Stereoscopic Vision_' to Ernestine, to whom they had just
+denied admission to the University because she was a woman. It was a
+fact not exactly pleasant to contemplate, and the professors exchanged
+glances of chagrin.
+
+"What is to be done?" asked some.
+
+"This alters the case entirely," said Beck.
+
+"Möllner," cried Meibert, "this is embarrassing enough. I think we
+shall have to reconsider our decision."
+
+"We can scarcely withhold a diploma from a woman to whom we have
+awarded this prize," said Taun.
+
+Heim nodded in high good humour, and growled, "Ah, yes, you sing a
+different tune now!"
+
+"Gentlemen," said Johannes with emphasis, "I pray you do not mistake
+the point at issue. If the question had been of the capacity of the
+applicant, the essay that we have already read would have influenced
+our decision; but there is a social principle concerned, which we must
+not violate for the sake of an individual. Must I remind you of what
+you know so well?"
+
+"Our colleague is still victorious," said Taun, offering his hand with
+kindly dignity to Johannes. "We cannot think you in the wrong."
+
+"The prize awarded to a woman!" muttered Herbert, as he left the room.
+"It is enough to kill one with vexation!"
+
+"It is a pity," said the others, when he had departed, "that our
+pleasant morning should have been so spoiled by Herbert."
+
+"Do not be disturbed by it, dear friends," laughed Johannes; "it did me
+good to tell him the truth for once. He is one of those who sustain
+their mental existence by continual conflict. 'Destroy, that you may
+exist,' is their motto,--and of course they are the sworn enemies of
+all rising talent. They must be so, because they are not conscious of
+any power in themselves to soar above it; they need all the strength of
+their nature to enable them to avoid being extinguished by the wealth
+of vital force that is expended all around them. Those whose lot is
+cast beyond the sphere of such individuals can afford to pity them, but
+those who are within reach of their poisonous fangs must fear them as
+the arch-enemies of all creation and growth. Although I could not
+accede to Fräulein Hartwich's request, the envious malice with which he
+criticised her pained me excessively."
+
+"That is very true," said the philosopher Taun. "It is sad enough when
+such embodied negations interfere with the free, joyous activity of
+art,--doubly so when they meddle with science!"
+
+"Who would have thought it," cried Angelika, "of the gallant Professor
+Herbert, who is sure to propose 'the ladies' at every supper-party! I
+am amazed!"
+
+"One who pays court to 'the ladies,' my fair colleague, may very
+possibly be no advocate for woman, since, according to my brother
+Schopenhauer, what constitutes the modern lady is not the strength, but
+the weakness, of her sex," replied Taun.
+
+"True enough," said Johannes. "Such a man might show consideration for
+weakness,--he can only contend with strength."
+
+"Only wait awhile, Herr Professor Herbert!" cried Angelika, shaking her
+plump little forefinger towards the door of the room. "I shall not
+forget you,--only wait--I will strip the sheep's clothing from the
+wolf's back, in full conclave of his lady friends! And you too,
+Moritz,--I have a word to say to you, but not until we are alone."
+
+The gentlemen laughed, and took their hats.
+
+"Come, we must not deprive our friend Kern for one moment longer of
+such a charming curtain-lecture," said Taun.
+
+All took their leave, except Heim, Hilsborn, and Moritz.
+
+"And so," began Angelika with a pout, "you miserable, detestable man,
+we are to do nothing but knit stockings?"
+
+"One thing beside," said Moritz, seizing both her hands,--"you may
+kiss--that is a charming vocation."
+
+"Nonsense! any stupid fool can do that,--the clever ones must do
+something better."
+
+"No woman with so pretty a mouth can do anything better! Only those who
+are ugly or old shall knit stockings."
+
+"There is no getting a serious word from you, Moritz, but I am sorry
+for poor Ernestine, and it grieves me that you were so hard upon her."
+
+One single stern glance from Moritz's black eyes encountered his
+wife's; it was enough--it silenced her instantly.
+
+"You know," he said kindly, but gravely, as if to a child, "that I do
+not like to have you undertake to decide upon matters of which you
+understand nothing."
+
+Angelika looked down, and a tear trembled upon her long eyelashes.
+
+"What is it?" asked Moritz soothingly, and drew her towards
+him,--"tears? And why not? Nothing more than a dewdrop in the bosom of
+a rose,--nothing more." He brushed away her tears, and she smiled at
+him again.
+
+"It is well for you, my son," said the Staatsräthin gently, but
+gravely, "that your wife's heart is so warm that the frost made in it
+by unkind words melts to tears and does no further injury."
+
+Moritz looked at his mother-in-law, and then at his wife.--"Angelika,
+was I unkind?"
+
+Angelika shook her fair curls and said, in a tone which told all the
+sweetness of her childlike disposition, "No, Moritz, you were right."
+
+"There, mamma, that is a true woman as she comes from the hand of her
+Creator to be a blessing to the man to whom she belongs," cried Moritz,
+with a fond look at his wife.
+
+The Staatsräthin stood beside them, her eyes resting with unspeakable
+affection upon her child, but there was a strange mixture of delight
+and anxiety in her heart.
+
+"This youthful devotion is very beautiful, but, when its first fervour
+has passed, nothing remains of the bridegroom but the lord and master
+of the wife, who is oftentimes as unhappy a slave as she is now a happy
+one." Such thoughts passed through the mother's mind, and she sighed.
+
+Meanwhile, Johannes had been talking in a low voice with Heim and
+Hilsborn about the contents of a letter which Heim had handed him to
+read. "Then, Father Heim, that is settled," he said.
+
+The Staatsräthin turned to them, and asked, "What have you there?"
+
+"A letter from Fräulein Hartwich to Uncle Heim, mother."
+
+Johannes handed her the letter, and the Staatsräthin read:
+
+
+"Herr Geheimrath:
+
+"I do not know whether you remember a little girl called Ernestine
+Hartwich, whose life you once saved, but I do know that, even if you do
+not remember her, you will not refuse aid to any one who appeals to
+you. I have sent an application to the University here to be allowed to
+attend the lectures. I did this without my guardian's knowledge, for he
+disapproved of the plan. I therefore wish to keep the matter a secret
+from him until results shall reconcile him to my mode of proceeding."
+
+
+"Very considerate," interposed the Staatsräthin ironically; "but let us
+proceed."
+
+
+"My request to you is, my dear sir, that you will arrange matters so
+that the reply of the faculty to my application shall reach me without
+my uncle's knowledge, and, indeed, that you will convey it to me
+yourself. I also need your medical advice, for I am far from well, and
+my uncle has never permitted me to see a physician. I obeyed his wishes
+until I learnt that you reside in my neighbourhood. Now I turn to you
+with all my old confidence. If any one can help me, you can. I must
+entreat you, if you would spare me a painful scene, to come to me on a
+day when Doctor Gleissert is not at home. He goes to town on business
+every Wednesday and Saturday. I pray you to come to me on one of these
+days.
+
+                             "With great respect,
+
+                                   "Ernestine Hartwich."
+
+
+"Well, that is certainly more brief and to the point than might be
+expected from a blue-stocking," said Moritz.
+
+The Staatsräthin looked troubled. "It is dry and cold,--scarcely
+courteous,--certainly not cordial, as she might have been to her former
+benefactor."
+
+"Remember, my dear friend, that nearly ten years have passed since that
+time,--a very long period for so young a girl," said Heim.
+
+"Ah, Uncle Heim," cried Angelika, "you dandle my boy on your knee now,
+just as you did my doll then. These years have passed like a dream for
+me."
+
+"Your nature is very different from Ernestine's, my child," replied
+Heim.
+
+"Yes, thank God!" ejaculated Moritz.
+
+The Staatsräthin folded up the letter. "I cannot help pronouncing this
+letter heartless,--there is no other word for it. And mingled cowardice
+and defiance in regard to her uncle breathe from every line of it."
+
+"Proving how her strong nature has been cowed by that scoundrel," cried
+Johannes with warmth.
+
+His mother looked at him anxiously. "How could she, if she is such a
+strong, noble woman, submit to be cowed by such a man?"
+
+"Why not, dearest mother?" replied Johannes. "However noble and strong
+she may be, she is only a woman, after all."
+
+At this moment a carriage thundered past the house. They all looked out
+of the windows.
+
+"The Worronska!"
+
+"The fast countess!" cried Moritz. "What a model of an Amazon! How
+beautiful she is, managing those four horses and looking up here! That
+look is for you, Johannes. See! she is smiling at you."
+
+"I shall not interfere with Herbert," laughed Johannes. "I hear he is
+devoted to her."
+
+"What! Herbert!--to the Worronska?" cried Moritz. "How did that
+happen?"
+
+"Why, he was tutor for some years to a friend of the count's in St.
+Petersburg. He knew her there," replied Johannes.
+
+"Now, that would be a charming daughter-in-law for you, my dear
+Staatsräthin," said Helm. "Why, she would be even worse than the
+Hartwich."
+
+"Bah!" said Johannes. "She too is only a woman. If she fell, she owed
+her ruin to a man,--and a man might have been her saviour."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+                               THE SWAN.
+
+
+A dark, gloomy pile overlooked the village of Hochstetten, that lay
+about two miles from the city, in the midst of a charming country. It
+had once been called Hochstetten Castle; but since the direct line of
+the noble family in which it had passed for a century from father to
+son had died out, and only a castellan had dwelt there, to hold it in
+possession for a distant branch of its ancient house, it had gone by
+the name of the "Haunted Castle" among the people; for of course in
+such an old house, where so many men had died, there must be ghosts,
+and popular superstition declared that the spirits of the departed
+still hovered about the spot where their earthly forms had been wont to
+wander.
+
+But in this last year it happened that the castle was really inhabited
+by a spirit whose appearance inspired the vulgar, who suspect the
+devil's agency in whatever they do not comprehend, with quite as much
+horror as they had felt at the ghosts of their former lords,--although
+this latter spirit still inhabited a young and very beautiful body.
+Ernestine Hartwich had rented the castle, and, with her uncle, was
+living her strange life there. Since her arrival the house and the
+overgrown grounds within the high walls were certainly under a spell,
+and were avoided by all who were not obliged to go that way. There lay
+the old castle, in the midst of lovely hills and mountain-chains,
+embosomed in green trees, bathed in the sunlight of a dewy summer
+morning, and yet its gray, ancient walls looked abroad over the fresh
+life of wood and plain as gloomily as if they hid within them only
+death and decay.
+
+Two strangers, driving past in a light vehicle, gazed gravely and
+silently at the place. The road grew somewhat steep, and they descended
+and walked beside the horse. A young peasant passed by, with scythe and
+reaping-hook, and, seeing the pleasant faces of the strangers; nodded
+kindly to them. The elder of the two stopped, as if prompted by a
+sudden impulse, and asked, "What castle is that?"
+
+"That?" was the reply. "That is the Haunted Castle."
+
+"Who lives there?"
+
+"The Hartwich lives there."
+
+"Who is the Hartwich?"
+
+"Why, the witch who has rented it."
+
+"Why do you call her a witch?"
+
+"Because there's something wrong about her."
+
+"Walk on with us a little way, if you have time, and tell us something
+of the lady," said the stranger.
+
+"Oh, yes, I have time enough," replied the peasant, flattered by the
+interest that his remarks had excited. "But, good gracious! I do not
+know where to begin to tell about her. There is no beginning and no end
+to it."
+
+"How does she look?" asked the younger gentleman. "Is she pretty?"
+
+"No, indeed! She is pale and thin, and has big, coal-black eyes. And
+she looks so gloomy that you can tell as soon as you see her that she
+has an evil conscience."
+
+"It is characteristic of the degree of culture to which the common
+people have attained," said the elder in an undertone to his companion,
+"that they have no admiration for beautiful outlines, but only for
+flesh and colour. They think a classic profile ugly if there is not a
+plump cheek on either side of it. This rude taste for the raw material
+is natural and excusable in peasants and common labourers, whose work
+is principally with raw material. Where should they learn anything
+better? But it is sad to think how many of the educated classes there
+are whose taste is just as uncultivated, and who admire only the
+beautiful embodiment, not the embodied beauty."
+
+"Yes," added the other, "it is just so in spiritual matters. An
+expression of thoughtfulness is always strange and gloomy in the eyes
+of the common people; they are attracted only by thoughtless gaiety.
+The stamp of mind upon a serious brow is in their eyes the sign-manual
+of the evil one. But how many among ourselves are scarcely better than
+the people in this respect! We do not share their prejudices,--eh,
+Johannes?"
+
+"No, Hilsborn, God knows we do not. This superficial idea of beauty
+explains the fact that Fräulein Hartwich was called ugly as a child,
+although she had a beautiful brow, a fine profile, and such eyes as I
+never saw before or since in my life,--eyes, Hilsborn,"--and he laid
+his hand upon his friend's arm,--"in which lay a world of slumbering
+feeling, and the promise of bliss unspeakable for him who should awaken
+it to life. I had forgotten the little girl whom I saw only once, but
+when lately I encountered a glance from the eyes of that strange,
+lovely woman, I recognized the child again,--the poor, forsaken child.
+There was the old shy melancholy in those eyes, and they pierced my
+heart with a foreboding pain. I could have taken her in my arms and
+borne her away from the hill where she stood, as formerly from the
+breaking bough to which she had fled from me!"
+
+"God grant she be worthy of such a man as you!" said Hilsborn.
+
+"Do not speak so, Hilsborn; you know I will not listen to such words.
+Let us ask this fellow more about her."
+
+He turned to the young peasant, who was walking whistling on the other
+side of the road.
+
+"Is she not at least kind to the poor?" he asked.
+
+"God preserve any one to whom she is kind! No one wants anything from
+her. Her uncle distributes some money every week, but only the very
+poorest people take it, and they always cross themselves over it."
+
+Johannes and Hilsborn looked at each other with a smile. "Then her evil
+influence extends even to her charities?"
+
+"Yes, that's what I mean,--wherever she goes she carries misfortune.
+She pretends to know more than any one, and wants to introduce all
+sorts of new-fangled ways. She wouldn't have people sick with a fever
+covered up in good, thick feather beds, or give them a single glass of
+good liquor. All that was wrong, she said. A poor widow in the village
+had a sick child, which she nursed as well as she could. The Hartwich
+went to see her, and overpersuaded the woman, so that she let her watch
+with it one night. Scarcely had she seated herself by the cradle when
+the child grew worse, and fell into convulsions. The Hartwich sent the
+mother to the castle to send off a man on horseback for the doctor, and
+was left all alone with the child. When the woman got back from the
+castle the witch had the child on her lap, and the poor little thing
+was dying. The woman, frantic with terror, tore the little body out of
+her arms; but it was dead! and the Hartwich left her, as she would not
+hear a word from her. When the doctor came, he talked all sorts of
+stuff, and wanted to have the child dissected, as they call it; but of
+course no Christian mother would allow such a thing, and no one knew
+what the Hartwich had done to the poor little creature."
+
+"But, you foolish people," began Johannes indignantly, "you do not
+suppose----"
+
+Hilsborn signed to him to be silent. "Hush!" he said in a whisper;
+"will you attempt what the gods try vainly--to contend with stupidity?"
+
+"You are right," replied Johannes. "This people needs the teaching of
+centuries."
+
+"Well, my good fellow," he said, again addressing the peasant, "what
+happened then?"
+
+"Why, that very night, after the doctor was gone, the Hartwich came to
+the woman and offered her money,--I suppose to induce her to hold her
+tongue,--but the poor thing showed her the door, and told her what she
+thought of her."
+
+"That was her thanks!" murmured Johannes.
+
+"Since then she goes to see no one, and we are quit of her."
+
+"Was this unfortunate instance the only one?" asked Johannes, "or has
+she done any further mischief?"
+
+"Oh, yes, quantities! Once she persuaded a man to go to the city and
+have his leg taken off,--he had injured it ten years before. The man
+died in the city, and left a wife and children. If that witch had not
+sent him there, he would have been living still. He had managed to live
+with the injury ten years, and he might have borne it ten more. The
+poor widow heaped her with curses!"
+
+Johannes exchanged glances with Hilsborn.
+
+"Do you, too, believe that she is a witch?" he asked the peasant.
+
+"Well, if I don't exactly believe that, I know well enough that no
+blessing can attend her, for she does not love God."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"Oh, there are a great many signs of it. She does not like to hear him
+mentioned,--she never goes to church, and doesn't pray at home."
+
+"You cannot be sure of that," said Johannes.
+
+"Oho! yes, I can, for Harcher's Kunigunda is a maid at the castle, and
+she tells us all about it. For one thing, there used to be a bell-tower
+up there, and the bell was always rung for prayers, morning and
+evening, in old times. It was right and good to hear the bell ringing
+with the one in the village church, and we were used to it, and liked
+it. Even when the last of the family up there died, the village
+congregation gave the castellan two bags of potatoes every year that he
+might allow the ringing to continue. But when the Hartwich came, what
+did she do? Why, she tore down the bell-tower and made it into an
+observatory, as she calls it, where she sits for nights long and counts
+the stars."
+
+"Well, if she looks up into heaven so much, she must surely think of
+God and his works there," rejoined Johannes smiling, "and those who
+love to pray do not need to be reminded of it by the ringing of bells."
+
+"No, no! that is not so," the peasant obstinately maintained. "She does
+not wish to be reminded of prayer, or she would have loved the clear
+sound of the bell, as we did, and would have left it hanging where it
+had rung out comfort and religion for a hundred years. She might have
+built her star-chamber upon the old tower all the same, if she had
+wanted to,--but she did not want to,--and so we hated her from the
+first."
+
+Johannes and Hilsborn looked grave.
+
+"Books she has in plenty; she brought whole chestsfull with her, but
+never a hymn-book or prayer-book, Kunigunda, who dusts them, says, and,
+search as she may, she has never seen a Bible there yet. And the
+Hartwich never mentions the name of God; and if any one does it before
+her, she talks of something else instantly. But the worst of all is
+that she has a room there that no one, except her uncle and herself, is
+allowed to enter, and she always locks the door when she is there with
+her uncle. What they do there no living soul knows, but Kunigunda tells
+all sorts of strange stories about it, for she has often listened at
+the door, and sometimes got a peep inside when the Fräulein was going
+in or coming out. She says there are all kinds of strange things in
+there, such as no honest man knows anything about,--black tablets, with
+eyes and ears painted on them, and burning flames, and bellows, and
+Heaven only knows what beside! And she has heard dreadful noises, that
+were not of this world,--sometimes sounds as sweet as the organ plays
+in the church, and then a rustle and roar as of a mighty wind, although
+not a breeze is stirring outside, or blasts of a trumpet like the
+trumpet of Jericho, so that she ran away in deadly fright."
+
+"Those were experiments in sound," said Johannes, greatly amused, to
+Hilsborn.
+
+"And Kunigunda says that it is often so light in that room that the
+rays through the keyhole dazzle her just like sunlight, although the
+sun has long been set outside. Kunigunda declares that it is not common
+light,--it burns quite blue, and she had to shut her eye quickly not to
+be blinded by it. Now, what sort of light is that? What business has
+she with fire and flames? And Kunigunda says she is almost always up
+until morning, and scarcely sleeps at all. Oh, she leads a godless
+life,--for, if God had not intended men to wake in the daytime and
+sleep at night, He would not have made night dark and day light; and if
+she were doing any good, why should she shun the daylight when she does
+it? Kunigunda says, too, that she tortures poor dumb animals just for
+pleasure, for she has often seen how she and her uncle carry rabbits
+and such creatures into their secret chamber, and they never bring them
+out again. Now, what do they do with the poor things? They cannot eat
+the rabbits. And Kunigunda will swear that there are a couple of skulls
+in the book-room, tumbling about among the old books. Now, I ask, what
+Christian would take the head away from a dead man and spoil his rest
+in the grave? Is it not just dishonouring a corpse out of devilish
+wantonness?"
+
+"There certainly is a whole mountain of charges towering between
+Fräulein Hartwich and her neighbours," whispered Johannes to his
+friend, "and I see clearly that the curse of singularity has pursued
+her even hither, and that this rare creature is repulsed and isolated
+here as she was as a child. It is high time that some strong arm should
+bear her hence into the purer atmosphere of a warm, healthy existence,
+from which her eccentricity has hitherto excluded her."
+
+"Do you see that green balcony there?" said the peasant, when they were
+quite near the house. "There she has hanging a kind of cittern that
+plays of itself. I would not believe Kunigunda, when she told me of it,
+at first; but then I hid myself here once, and heard it with my own
+ears, the music softer and sweeter than any that human hands can make.
+I could feel it beginning to bewitch me."
+
+"Indeed! and how did it feel?"
+
+"Oh, my heart grew so soft, so different from usual,--just--just as if
+I had been drinking linden-blossom tea. I could not help thinking of
+the girl I loved, who is dead, and I could have listened forever.
+Suddenly I bethought me that there was a spell weaving around me, and I
+ran away as fast as I could."
+
+"That was an Æolian harp, my good friend," Johannes explained; "its
+strings were stirred by no spirit hand, but by the wind. The spell that
+you perceived was only the effect of the beautiful tones upon your ear
+and heart; and if you had examined yourself, you would have found that,
+when you were thinking of your dead sweet-heart, you were better than
+when you are sitting in the village inn abusing the Hartwich. Consider
+for a moment whether an evil spirit could inspire such good, tender
+sensations. And listen as often as you can to the Æolian harp; it will
+not bewitch you,--it will only do good to you."
+
+The fellow looked in amazement at the kindly speaker.
+
+"I don't exactly understand you, sir, but you seem to mean well."
+
+"What makes you think so?" asked Johannes,--"you do not know me."
+
+"Oh, why, you look honest and good, sir," said the peasant, looking
+frankly into Johannes's face.
+
+"Then believe what I say, when I tell you that you do Fräulein Hartwich
+great wrong. I have known her from childhood, and I know that she is
+good and kind!"
+
+Johannes sent an earnest glance towards the castle, which they were
+passing. An elderly woman was just opening a window in an upper story.
+
+"Look!" cried the peasant, "that is her housekeeper, Frau Willmers. The
+Fräulein is just getting up--it is nine o'clock."
+
+"God bless your awakening!" Johannes breathed softly to himself.
+
+And, borne on the breeze of morning and the fragrance of flowers, the
+blessing was wafted up to the girl, who, weary with her night-watch,
+was reposing by the open window. She laid her head upon the sill, and
+the fragrant summer air fanned her brow. Johannes's words floated
+around her in a sea of light and warmth, and she felt them without
+hearing them. At last she opened her burning eyelids, and looked
+abroad, seeing everything at first through the gray, misty veil which
+weariness spread before her eyes,--but gradually was revealed in its
+full splendour the sunny picture, above which arched the clear,
+cloudless firmament. She arose and leaned out with a deep sigh of pain.
+She knew no happiness but that of gratified ambition,--she could
+imagine no other, and therefore desired no other, for we cannot desire
+that of which we have no conception,--and yet, in the sunlight laughing
+around her, in the gloom of night, in the beauty of the valley and the
+grandeur of the mountains, a promise of a far different happiness
+beckoned to her, and she pined in longing for it without recognising
+it. Yes, from every voice of nature, from the song of birds, the murmur
+of the brook, the roaring of the tempest, and the muttering of the
+thunder, a call was ringing in her ears, she knew not whence or
+whither, but she would willingly have plunged into the ocean to follow
+it.
+
+"There is no surer means of preventing all aimless desires than study,
+nothing better to prevent all abstract dreaming than absorption in some
+specialty," her uncle had told her when he suspected her of moods like
+that we have just described. "If you long to grasp the whole, first
+grasp a part,--if you thirst to fly to heaven, remember that the
+observatory is the only way thither,--if you desire to feel the warm
+throb of life, you can find it nowhere so satisfactorily as at the
+dissecting-table."
+
+And she had turned away silently, uncomplainingly, from her flight to
+distant realms, to the telescope, and with a warm, swelling heart that
+would have embraced a world, had busied herself with analyzing
+microscopic organizations. Thus, in the course of long years, she had
+grown used to suppress emotions such as she experienced to-day, and
+they seldom came to the surface, just as the bells of the sunken city
+are only heard above the sea on Sunday. To-day was not Sunday, but it
+was an anniversary. Ten years ago to-day she had been sent to her first
+and only party,--her father had almost killed her,--and the whole
+current of her life had been changed. She knew the date perfectly, for
+the next day was the anniversary of her father's death. The familiar
+forms of those days hovered around her; they were the only ones that
+had ever approached her nearly, for since that time she had had no
+intimate relations with any one. She had studied mankind, but human
+beings were strangers to her. And as she thought and pondered, she
+wished herself again the child that ran races with the wind and cradled
+herself among the storm-tossed boughs. Oh for one breath of hopeful
+childhood, one throb of that love-thirsty heart, one tear of that
+wrestling faith! All dead and silent now, every blossom of childhood
+and youth faded: a woman, old at two-and-twenty, looking down from the
+heights of passionless contemplation upon a life, lying behind her,
+that she has never enjoyed, upon a time, now past, that she has never
+lived. Sighing, she turned away from the sunny landscape. "Our life
+lasts seventy--perhaps eighty--years," she said to herself, "and the
+delight of it is labour and trouble." This reading, by a great modern
+philosopher, of the golden words of the ancient writings, she had
+adopted as her motto, and it still possessed its old charm for her.
+What more could she desire of life than labour and trouble? What could
+youth or age bring her beyond these? She turned away from the window,
+and quickly arranged in thick braids around her head her loosened hair
+which had fallen down like a black veil. Her glance, as she did so,
+fell only passingly and indifferently upon the mirror. She never saw
+the face that gazed at her from its depths,--a face as faultlessly
+beautiful as an artist's fancy pictures those dark, melancholy female
+forms with which the ancients peopled the night. She dressed herself in
+simple white, and then her arms dropped wearied at her side. The
+expression of strength that the word labour had called into her face
+gave way to a profound melancholy, almost despair, and she sank
+exhausted upon a couch. She sat still for one moment, her head sunk
+upon her breast, and then the large tears rolled down her cheeks.
+
+"Labour is a delight, when one has strength for it--but I have none!"
+she said, clasping her knees with her small, transparent hands, while
+she gazed despairingly towards the distant horizon.
+
+The housekeeper, Frau Willmers, entered. "A gentleman is waiting below,
+Fräulein Hartwich, who sends his card and says he comes from the
+gentleman whose name is written upon it."
+
+Ernestine read the name "Professor Heim," and below, in Heim's
+handwriting, "earnestly recommends the bearer of this card."
+
+"The gentleman is welcome!" she cried with awakened animation. "Show
+him into the library."
+
+"Will the Fräulein receive him without the knowledge of----" the woman
+asked with hesitation and surprise.
+
+"I will!" replied Ernestine firmly.
+
+"Now, Heaven be praised!" muttered the old woman, "that you are to see
+some one at last, and the gentleman is well worth a look. But you will
+bear the blame with your uncle, so that I may have no responsibility in
+the matter?"
+
+"The responsibility is mine."
+
+Frau Willmers hurried out and conducted the stranger into Ernestine's
+library.
+
+A pleasant bluish twilight reigned in the room as he entered it, caused
+by the heavy blue damask curtains that draped the high bow-windows. It
+was a spacious octagon apartment, in the style of the tower chambers of
+the Middle Ages, opening on to a balcony, which was likewise separated
+from the room by blue damask curtains. The Æolian harp, of which the
+peasant had spoken, hung in the balcony, and some loosened tendrils of
+a wild grapevine, growing outside, stirred by the breeze, touched the
+strings and called forth from them broken stray notes, which a stronger
+breeze would blend in harmony, as the fingers of a child, guided by its
+teacher, plays vaguely upon an instrument until the practised hand of
+its master produces a full, clear chord. In the dark boughs that
+overshadowed the balcony, birds were singing, and now and then hopping
+confidingly upon the rose-bushes with which it was decorated.
+
+"She loves beauty," thought the stranger with a pleased glance around
+the cool, quiet apartment, which breathed only contentment and peace.
+And it must be true peace of mind that the inhabitant of this room
+possessed,--wherever the eyes were turned, they fell upon the immortal
+works of the great thinkers of modern times,--a costly library was
+ranged upon shelves, in richly-carved oaken bookcases.
+
+The stranger began to read the titles of the books, but the more he
+read the more thoughtful he became. If the contents of these books
+were, or were to be, crammed into one woman's brain, there could dwell
+there not peace, but only torturing unrest, strife. At last his eye
+rested upon a writing-table of dark oak, richly carved, as was all the
+rest of the furniture of the room. Around the edge of the table, cut in
+raised letters, he read the sentence, "Our life lasts seventy--perhaps
+eighty--years, and the delight of it is labour and trouble!" He gazed
+long and thoughtfully at this motto, so strangely grave for so young a
+girl. A shade of melancholy passed over his handsome face as he turned
+away and noticed the scores of sheets of paper scattered here and there
+on the table, all containing either a few figures or written sentences,
+evidently hurried beginnings of scientific labour of all kinds, tossed
+aside, as it appeared, hastily and impatiently. Partly on the table,
+partly on a desk, and partly on the floor, were piles of open books,
+their margins filled with annotations, pamphlets, &c. Names like
+Helmholtz, du Bois, Ludwig, Darwin, &c. showed what massive material
+this bold aspiring mind was calling to its aid, over what mountains of
+labour it was pursuing the path to its ambitious aims. "So much vital
+force wasted in fruitless energy--so much noble zeal expended upon a
+blunder. What a pity!" said the stranger with an involuntary sigh. Then
+he noticed just in front of the writing-table a small open drawer, in
+which Ernestine apparently kept her most precious and valuable books.
+One of them was Möllner's latest work on Physiology; another, du Bois'
+Eulogy upon Johannes Müller; and the third, _Andersen's Fairy Tales_.
+
+The grave man's features showed signs of deep emotion at this sight.
+Only a strong, true nature could so preserve the memories of its
+childhood. He could not help taking the book in his hand to examine it
+more closely. As he did so, he noticed a little marker of paper
+yellowed with age. It was placed in the last pages of the story of the
+Ugly Duckling, just where the children stand by the pond and cry,
+"Look! there comes a new swan!" Was it this, then, that had made the
+story so precious to her--the prophecy that the duckling would one day
+be a swan, and not the memory of what had been dear to her childhood?
+He put the book back in its place with a look that showed that the
+question he had put to himself grieved him. Then he became so lost in
+thought that he was almost startled when a door behind him opened, and
+Ernestine approached him. As he saw the tall form, with its air of
+royal dignity, standing there calm and silent in the noble
+consciousness of mental superiority, he repeated involuntarily in
+thought the words, "Here is a new swan!" Yes,--the ugly duckling had
+unfolded its wings! For one moment his heart throbbed violently. It
+cost him an effort to preserve his composure.
+
+"I crave forgiveness, Fräulein Hartwich," he began, "for venturing to
+offer my medical skill in place of his for whom you sent."
+
+"If you come from Dr. Heim, you are welcome. Is he ill, that he sends
+me a substitute, or is he angry with me?" And Ernestine looked gravely
+and fixedly at the stranger.
+
+"Neither the one nor the other, Fräulein Hartwich," was the reply. "He
+has merely permitted me to use his name as the talisman to unlock this
+enchanted castle."
+
+"And why so?" asked Ernestine, regarding him still more attentively.
+
+"Because I am convinced that I understand the treatment of your case
+better than Dr. Heim."
+
+Ernestine started, and turned away from the arrogant speaker. Her face
+darkened with momentary displeasure,--but not long. She raised her
+large eyes to him again and said frankly, "No, you are not in earnest.
+Heim would not have sent me a physician as vain and conceited as these
+words make you appear!"
+
+Johannes offered her his hand with a smile. "Boldly spoken, Fräulein
+Hartwich,--I thank you! Nevertheless, I must rest under the charge of
+vanity and arrogance until you declare me innocent, for I only uttered
+Dr. Heim's honest conviction and my own. You shake your head, and do
+not comprehend me. I hope you will do so soon. How could I have had the
+courage to challenge your displeasure by so bold an assertion, had I
+not been sure that time would justify my pretensions?"
+
+Ernestine motioned to him to be seated. "May I be permitted, sir, to
+request your name before speaking further with you?"
+
+Johannes cast at her a glance of kindly entreaty. "I pray you allow me
+to suppress it for the present. I should so like to inspire you with
+confidence in me for my own sake, without the aid of a name perhaps not
+unknown to you. Such confidence would be so precious to me. Call it a
+whim, if you will, but I beg you to indulge me!"
+
+"As you please, sir," said Ernestine with some constraint, looking
+keenly at him as she spoke. She seemed to be searching in his handsome
+face for something,--she scarce knew what,--it seemed to suggest some
+dim recollection to her mind. Then she dropped her glance, as if
+comparing what she saw with some image in her memory, yet without
+arriving at any satisfactory conclusion.
+
+Johannes watched every expression of her countenance. No shade of
+thought passing across that broad white brow escaped him. He gazed at
+her and almost forgot to speak, she was so wondrously beautiful, this
+shy, grave girl, pale and suffering from her devotion to the studies to
+which she was sacrificing herself with such religious zeal. The saddest
+error would be touching in such a form,--yes, we must bow before it,
+instead of laughing at it. So thought Johannes as he sat silent before
+her, and something of what was passing in his mind must have been
+mirrored in his features, for Ernestine turned away with a shade of
+embarrassment, and asked suddenly, "Well, sir, and what news do you
+bring me of Father Heim? Is he still vigorous in mind and body?"
+
+The indifference of her tone rather nettled Johannes. "Yes, Fräulein
+Hartwich, he is indeed. Beloved and revered by his associates, as well
+as by his patients, the evening of his days is calm and cheerful."
+
+"I am very glad to hear it. I am bound to him by ties of gratitude, he
+has done much for me, at one time he saved my life. Therefore I hoped
+for benefit now from his prescriptions. He is a great practitioner,
+although he has not quite kept pace in his old age with the march of
+modern science."
+
+"He certainly is. But he can do nothing for your gravest malady, and
+therefore he has sent me in his place."
+
+"You are, then, famous for some _spécialité_. But how can Dr. Heim know
+that I need such a physician?"
+
+"He does know it, for you were attacked as a child by the malady of
+which I speak, and Dr. Heim was powerless to effect a cure. Now that he
+is convinced that my method of cure is efficacious, he has adopted me
+as his assistant. Therefore I ask you frankly and openly, Will you have
+me for your physician? Yes or no!"
+
+For a moment Ernestine made no answer, and then said firmly, "Yes, if
+Dr. Heim believes that you can restore me to health, it is sufficient,
+and I will follow your prescriptions implicitly."
+
+"I thank you," said Johannes; "but I warn you beforehand, I am a strict
+physician, and my medicines are bitter!"
+
+"Scarcely as bitter as disease?" said Ernestine inquiringly.
+
+"Who can say? To speak with perfect sincerity, Fräulein Hartwich, the
+malady from which I come to relieve you, the disease that poisons your
+past and your future, is your uncle's influence!"
+
+Ernestine stood up. "Sir!"
+
+"Hear me before you condemn me! I assert nothing that I cannot prove."
+
+"No, sir, I will not hear you. You do my uncle gross injustice;
+whatever proofs you may adduce. A life of self-sacrifice and devotion
+far outweighs the accusation of a stranger. What do I not owe to him?
+What has he not done for me? I owe to him my scientific culture. He has
+made me what I am."
+
+"And may I be so bold as to ask if you are so very sure that you are
+what you should be?"
+
+A pause ensued. Ernestine retreated a step, and, offended and confused,
+cast down her eyes.
+
+Johannes continued. "What if I were come to prove that you are not?"
+
+Ernestine looked sullenly at him. "I certainly cannot answer you here;
+but your depreciation of me forces me to ask whether you have read
+anything that I have written, and so have come to form so poor an
+opinion of my abilities?"
+
+"On the contrary, Fräulein Hartwich, your essay upon Reflex Motion is
+full of talent, and your article upon the Capacity of the Eye for
+Stereoscopic Vision has won the prize."
+
+Ernestina started. Her face flushed, her eyes sparkled. "Why have you
+waited until now to tell me? My essay won the prize! Do I wake, or am I
+dreaming? Oh, how can I thank you for this intelligence? I have no
+words. But let your reward be the consciousness that you have given me
+the greatest happiness my life has ever known! And do not attempt to
+malign to me the man to whose disinterested care for my education I owe
+it."
+
+"Poor girl, if this is your greatest happiness! You are betrayed
+indeed, if you owe no other enjoyment to your uncle!"
+
+"Oh, sir, what can there be beyond fame and honour?"
+
+Johannes looked gravely at her. "Something of which your uncle has
+never told you."
+
+In the flush of her gratified ambition, Ernestine did not hear him. She
+walked a few steps to and fro, then seated herself again, and said with
+a beating heart, "Perhaps you also bring the answer to my application
+for admission to the lectures at the University."
+
+"I do, but it has been rejected decidedly, Fräulein Hartwich."
+
+Ernestine's arms dropped at her sides. "Rejected! Was it known, when
+they rejected it, that the prize essay was mine?"
+
+"It was."
+
+Ernestine stood for one moment as if stunned. At last she began slowly
+and dejectedly, "Ah, I understand it all! the gentlemen took the author
+of that treatise for a man, and awarded it the prize, but my
+application was refused because I am so unfortunate as to be a woman.
+It is only natural, why should a woman be permitted to vie with the
+lords of creation?"
+
+"Your disappointment makes you unjust," said Johannes. "Your essay
+received the prize because it accomplished what it aimed at. The
+application of the woman was rejected because in the University no
+woman can accomplish what should be her aim."
+
+"How can you prove that?" asked Ernestine with bitterness.
+
+"Because she has deserted the sphere which nature has assigned her, and
+cannot fulfil the requirements of the one that she has selected for
+herself."
+
+"You, then, are one of my opponents?"
+
+"I am, Fräulein Hartwich."
+
+"Oh, I am sorry!"
+
+"Why? Of what consequence can the opinion of a stranger be to you?"
+
+Ernestine looked down. "The impression that you make upon me, sir, is
+such that it pains me to find that you are one of those narrow-minded
+persons who deny to women the possession of any but the humblest
+ability."
+
+"You are mistaken, I think them, and especially your self, possessed of
+very great ability."
+
+Ernestine looked at him with surprise. "But how can this ability avail
+us, if we are not allowed to enlarge the bounds of the sphere within
+which we are so unkindly confined at present?"
+
+"That sphere does not seem to me contracted. I think it so noble, so
+elevated, that the loftiest talent may well content itself within it,
+if it be rightly understood."
+
+"But if a woman, if I--forgive my presumption,--am especially endowed
+beyond other women, should I not, with the power, possess also the
+privilege of transcending the usual bounds?"
+
+"You would then possess the privilege of ennobling your sex, of showing
+it what it could accomplish within its own sphere,--you would possess
+the power to be first among women, but not to become a man."
+
+Ernestine looked down sadly. "Have you read my essay?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you think it deserved the prize?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And yet you would deny me the right to accomplish tasks usually
+assigned to men."
+
+"You have accomplished one such. How far your kind uncle may have
+assisted you in your labor we will not ask."
+
+Again Ernestine's eyes drooped.
+
+Johannes continued: "Probably you yourself are not aware of the answer
+to such a question,--at all events, the victory over the other
+competitors for the prize was slight, and by no means difficult. But do
+you imagine, Fräulein Hartwich, because the instinct of your genius has
+answered this one question, that you can lord it over the boundless
+domain of science? Have you the least suspicion of the magnitude of
+what you propose?"
+
+"I believe I have learned enough to know what there is for me to
+learn."
+
+"Do not deceive yourself with regard to your aim. You wish to learn
+that you may teach,--not as every schoolmaster teaches, to tell what
+has been told you before,--you wish to educe new truths from what you
+learn,--in other words, you wish to produce, to create!"
+
+"And you deny me the requisite ability?"
+
+"Not at all," replied Johannes; "but I grant only one domain for the
+creative faculty of woman,--the domain of art,--because, in works of
+art, the heart shares in the labour of the understanding; because, in
+the creation of beauty, a profound inner consciousness and soaring
+fancy can replace masculine acuteness of thought--and these belong
+especially to the gifted woman. But science presents tasks for the
+thinking power. I deny to woman not the ability to grasp the grand
+results of science, but the mental endurance, the technical facility,
+to arrive at them unassisted."
+
+Ernestine clasped her hands in entreaty. "Do not destroy the hope and
+aim of my life!"
+
+Johannes bent towards her and said gently, "My dear Fräulein Hartwich,
+may your life have other aims than this that you can never attain!"
+
+"Never attain!" cried Ernestine, sitting proudly erect "I can see
+nothing to justify those words. If I were only well and strong, if my
+body were only a more, obedient tool of my mind, I would show what a
+woman can do! I would show that we are not merely domestic animals,
+endowed with some degree of reason, as a certain class of men designate
+us, but free, independent, equal beings! If you only knew how my whole
+soul revolts at our social oppression, our intellectual slavery! Oh,
+believe, believe, sir, that I am not actuated by vain ambition, but I
+am wrung with anguish for those wretched souls who, like myself, have
+chafed so painfully in the fetters of commonplace conventionalities,
+or, like those born blind, have dreamed in their darkness of the
+light that floods the world with joy and freedom, but from which they
+are excluded! I long to break the yoke under which my whole sex
+languishes, to avenge their wrongs. For this I will give my money
+and my blood!--for this I resign all claims to the happiness of
+woman!--yes, for this I would sacrifice life itself!"
+
+Johannes sat listening to her with his arms folded. He now began
+quietly: "I understand and admire you,--but you exaggerate. The social
+position of woman is determined by her capacity and her desires. Women
+like yourself are rare exceptions; your sex, as a general rule, is at
+so low a stage of development that they neither can claim nor desire
+any higher position."
+
+"And whose fault is this?" Ernestine interrupted him eagerly.
+"Yours,--you masters of the world. If we are intellectually your
+inferiors, why not educate us more thoroughly? Why not elevate us to a
+higher degree of intelligence? It is for your strong hands to form us
+as you will. And nowhere in Christian lands is the position of woman
+more depressing than in this country. Look at Russia, the land that so
+long retained serfdom and the knout,--even there the number of learned
+women is perceptibly increasing, and the Russian high schools do not
+reject female pupils. Look at France, at England,--women are everywhere
+employed and the sphere of their capabilities enlarged, and the sex is
+held in higher estimation. Unfortunately, I cannot deny that the mass
+of German women are either mere household drudges, with never a thought
+beyond the material interests of the kitchen and nursery, or glittering
+dolls, with no idea of anything but the adornment of their persons.
+They understand little or nothing of politics, of the interests of
+their native land, of science, or of poetry; they go to art for
+amusement, not for instruction and refreshment. Such mothers can never
+implant the seeds of patriotism in the breasts of their sons, or
+educate the minds of their daughters; such wives can never share the
+thoughts and aims of their husbands. Who is to blame? Those men alone
+who would exclude woman from their world, and, denying her all claim to
+intellectual ability, banish her to the kitchen, or force her to
+indemnify herself for exclusion from their spiritual life by rendering
+herself necessary to their material existence!"
+
+Johannes made no reply. It was enjoyment enough for him to look at her
+and hear her. He wished her, before attempting to reply to her, to
+finish all that she had to say.
+
+Ernestine continued: "All this constitutes the ignominy of my sex,--an
+ignominy that must be overcome, or its revenge will be terrible; for
+luxury and self-indulgence have been the ruin of those nations who
+rendered no homage to the spiritual nature of woman. We must force this
+reverence from you, at any risk, before it is too late. Smile, if you
+will, at my presumption in arrogating the place of a feminine Arnold
+von Winkelried, breaking a path for our spiritual freedom through the
+lances of contempt and prejudice. I know what lies before me. No
+commonplace woman feels any pride in her sex; when one of her sisters
+achieves distinction, she is only all the more galled by the
+consciousness of her own inferiority, and takes her revenge, if
+she knows no better, with the wretched weapons of conventional
+prejudices,--casting the odium of indelicacy upon the woman who dares
+to be free; and men contemptuously close their doors upon her. My lot
+must be to struggle and suffer. Still, I do not hesitate. If I can
+effect nothing here, I will seek other lands, where woman striving
+after better things is treated with humanity and true chivalry."
+
+"Where humanity and chivalry assist woman to lay aside the very crown
+of her being,--her womanhood!" Johannes now interrupted her; "for how
+can you preserve it, if in anatomical studies you harden yourself to
+everything that shocks a compassionate woman, if you are forced into
+contact with things at which all maidenly delicacy must revolt? I have
+not interrupted you hitherto, because I wished thoroughly to understand
+you, and because your sacred zeal touched and delighted me. With much
+that is crude and exaggerated, there is truth, and beauty, in what you
+have just said. But, believe me, the physical frame of a woman is as
+little suited as her intellect to certain scientific pursuits. I
+directed you to the broad domain of the beautiful,--of art,--but you
+would not listen to me--there you would have to share your fame among
+too many. Your ambition craves something entirely new and unheard-of.
+But, Fräulein Hartwich, this ambition will be your ruin! If you long to
+create, create forms for your ideas that will speak for themselves,
+clothe them in poetic language, or give them local habitation and a
+name in art--you can complete such work, and your soul can find rest in
+it from its labours. A poetical idea can be fully embodied in a work of
+art; but a scientific hypothesis is inexhaustible, because, however
+clearly proved and demonstrated, it brings new problems in its train.
+Only a man's rude strength can endure such a restless pursuit that
+knows no pause; the woman's delicate nature must succumb even because
+her mind is so alive that she labours with all the ardent desire, the
+breathless interest, of the devotee of science. And if she succeeds, at
+the sacrifice of her life, in contributing some addition to the
+universal stock of knowledge, she has done only what would have
+cost a man far less pains. The result of her work is wrung from her
+death-agony, and the world, with a shrug of its shoulders, says, 'It is
+about all that a woman could do!' Is praise thus qualified not
+purchased too dearly at the cost of health and life?"
+
+Ernestine had listened with intense eagerness. Her dark eyes were
+riveted upon the speaker. As he ceased, she folded her hands in her lap
+and said, "What injustice you do me if you think that desire for the
+world's applause is the moving spring of my actions! Yes, I do long for
+recognition; that I have confessed to you. But I might have obtained it
+more easily if I had chosen other branches of science, and my uncle
+allowed me to choose. I selected, from inclination, natural philosophy,
+and, in especial, physiology. I cared little for history, because I
+care little for mankind. Moral philosophy seems to me too dogmatical,
+so does religion. Nature alone is always filled with new, genuine life.
+'There I know,' as Johannes Müller says, 'whom I serve and what I
+have.' Physiology has opened a new world for me,--or, better still, has
+re-created the old world, for I truly see only when I understand what I
+am looking at;--every sunbeam glancing in a dewdrop, every wave of
+sound borne to my ear from afar, awakens new and vivid images in my
+mind. What enjoyment is comparable to that which science offers us! She
+makes the real a miracle,--and shows us the miraculous as reality. And
+shall I resign this ennobling possession because I am a woman? And can
+this inspiring search for life bring me death? Oh, no! I cannot, I will
+not believe it!"
+
+Johannes held out his hand to her. "You are a rarely-gifted woman, and
+comprehend the nature of science. But, supposing that you possessed the
+rare power--both of body and mind--to accomplish the task which you
+propose to yourself, you must do it at the cost of your vocation as a
+woman. For no woman can fulfil both these offices. As a scholar, you
+must live exclusively for your studies; the duties of wife and mother
+would distract you too much to admit of your accomplishing your
+purposes, for they require an entire lifetime. Now you have the courage
+to endure the want of love and happiness growing out of your
+determination, but will your courage last? When age and illness assail
+you,--when you become weak and helpless and need faithful, devoted
+hands about you and true loving hearts upon which you can rest from
+weariness and pain, and there is no one belonging to you,--because you
+have chosen to belong to no one,--how will it be then? Have you no
+presentiment of such misery? Is there no desire for consolation, no
+longing for love, in your inmost soul?"
+
+Ernestine's gaze was fixed darkly on the ground. "I know nothing of
+love. How can I long for what I know nothing of?"
+
+"Good heavens! how can that be? Have you had no parents,
+relatives,--friends who were dear to you?"
+
+"No! my mother died at my birth, and my father--who treated me very
+harshly, and did not care for me--died when I was twelve years old. My
+guardian became my teacher and guide, and initiated me into the pursuit
+of science. At no time of my life have I had any intercourse with my
+equals. I did not wish for it. My uncle sent his own little daughter to
+a boarding-school and lived for me alone, but the tie that bound me to
+him was only my interest in science and his readiness to gratify it. He
+is cold by nature,--as I am also. I have never felt anything for him
+but gratitude. I have always lived alone, and have never loved a human
+being."
+
+Johannes was deeply moved. "Poor girl!" he said. "Had you cast yourself
+on the ground at my feet, bathed in tears, bewailing the death of
+father, mother, or husband, you could not have inspired me with such
+pity as those words, 'I have never loved,' awaken within me. You look
+amazed! The time will come when you will understand me,--when by the
+depth of your anguish you will learn the heights of bliss from which
+you have been banished; then he, whom you now regard as your enemy,
+will be beside you,--to soothe your grief for your lost life,--perhaps
+to lead you to one nobler and better!"
+
+Ernestine turned away, greatly agitated. She would not have Johannes
+observe her emotion, and therefore only breathed a gentle "Farewell,"
+and would have left the room.
+
+"Are you going? Have I offended you? May I not come again?" he asked.
+
+Ernestine stood still, and did not speak.
+
+"May I not?" he repeated,--and there was such urgent entreaty in his
+voice that it stirred the very depths of Ernestine's soul.
+
+There was one moment of hesitation; then she returned to him, held out
+her hand and said, with eyes swimming in tears,--eyes that pierced his
+heart to the core:
+
+"Yes; come again."
+
+"God bless you!" he said, with a long sigh of relief, and then, kissing
+her hand respectfully, he left the room. She stood still where he had
+left her, lost in thought.
+
+The tones of the Æolian harp floated out upon the air, the roses
+exhaled fresh fragrance, the birds twittered, and the sunlight shone in
+soft rays through the blue curtains. She heeded none of these things,
+she stood there absorbed in the pursuit of some dim, half-remembered
+image in the distant past--even in the days of her childhood.
+
+Why was it that the oak boughs, whither she had fled from the handsome
+lad, seemed to rustle around her again? Why was the little Angelika so
+distinct in her memory,--the little girl rocking in her arms the doll
+that her brother had sent her, in the sure hope that her tenderness
+would inspire it with life?
+
+And as she stood there, dreaming in the midst of Æolian tones,
+fragrance, and light, she herself was like Pygmalion's statue, when
+beneath the breath of love the first glow of life informed its marble
+breast, and the cold lips opened for its first sigh!
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+                          THE VILLAGE SCHOOL.
+
+
+When Johannes left Ernestine, he turned his steps towards the village.
+He was as if inspired by the consciousness that his was a part to play
+that falls to the lot of few men in this world,--to promote his own
+happiness in watching over and caring for the happiness of another. He
+walked on with the firm, elastic tread that belongs to a strong man in
+the bloom of youth, and wherever his glance fell it scattered seeds of
+the kindliness which was reflected in the smile that greeted him upon
+every face that he met. He took his way towards a little vine-clad
+cottage in which dwelt the patriarch of the place,--the village
+schoolmaster. Before the door stood Hilsborn's vehicle, while a fat old
+mastiff was barking incessantly at the horse, who pawed impatiently,
+and never seemed to perceive that the dog was evidently only fulfilling
+an irksome duty, and was not actuated by the slightest feeling of
+hostility. Johannes stroked, in passing, his broad, bristling back, a
+caress not unkindly received, and then entered the house, whose
+hospitable roof was so low that he was obliged to stoop as he crossed
+the threshold, lest he should brush his forehead against the bunches of
+unripe grapes that hung down over the lintel. He passed through the
+little, dark hall, and entered the dwelling-room. There he found
+Hilsborn sitting with the schoolmaster upon one of the low, broad
+window-seats, while the schoolmaster's old wife, Brigitta, sat knitting
+upon the other. The schoolmaster was a spare, elderly man, with long
+gray hair, and eyes in whose uncertain depths that ominous white spot
+could be perceived that is the arch-enemy of light.
+
+"Aha! the Herr Professor," said the old man, rising to greet Johannes.
+"We thought you had been enchanted in the Haunted Castle, and would
+never come back to us again."
+
+"You may not have been so very far wrong," said Johannes, shaking the
+offered hand.
+
+"Yes, you have kept us waiting well!" observed Hilsborn.
+
+"Brigitta, dear, will you make ready for us? These gentlemen will
+perhaps do us the pleasure of sharing with us our mid-day meal,--it
+will be about the time for their luncheon," said the schoolmaster to
+his wife, who had arisen when Johannes entered, and was awaiting this
+hint to withdraw. Johannes and Hilsborn declined the proffered
+hospitality, but Frau Brigitta had already left the room. As the door
+closed behind her, the old man grew very grave. "Herr Professor," he
+began, and his voice was a little hoarse, and his hands trembled
+slightly, "now we are alone,--now I pray you tell me the truth. I would
+not ask you while my wife was here,--for I would spare her unhappiness
+as long as possible. But I must and will know, for the future of my son
+is at stake. Is it not true, Herr Professor, that you have no hope of
+saving my eyes?"
+
+Hilsborn made no reply. His compassionate heart withheld him from so
+utterly destroying the old man's hopes in life. In his indecision, he
+exchanged a glance with Johannes, which the old man observed.
+
+"Oh, my dear sir, that look, which I could see in spite of my
+increasing blindness, speaks to me as plainly as your silence. I have
+long had no hope myself. A year ago, when my eyes were so inflamed, I
+expected the catastrophe would occur from which your skill has so long
+saved me. The question now is--can my eyes be operated upon?"
+
+Hilsborn hesitated again. He could not in honour delude the worthy man
+with false hopes only to have them so bitterly crushed in the future,
+and yet--who with a heart in his breast could tell the sad truth to
+that face of anxious inquiry? "I cannot give you a decided answer at
+present," he said at last with some effort.
+
+The patient man clasped his hands entreatingly, and his dim eyes strove
+to read Hilsborn's countenance. "Do not believe, Herr Professor, that
+it would be kind to deceive me. If I now know that I am incurable, I
+can do instantly what would be difficult later,--take my son
+immediately from the University and train him to be my successor here.
+You can understand that if I am disabled I can no longer provide for
+the continuance of his academic course, and that it is best that the
+young man should learn as soon as possible the destruction of his
+hopes, that he may reconcile himself to resigning the lecture-room for
+the school-room. I know how hard it will be, for I was just entering
+upon a scientific career when I was excluded from it by my father's
+early death. And let me tell you that if my son bears this blow well, I
+have nothing more to fear." His voice faltered as he uttered these last
+words. He was conscious of it, and was silent,--unwilling to betray his
+emotion.
+
+Johannes and Hilsborn stood for one moment, not knowing what to reply.
+They could not console the unhappy father by the assurance that he
+would need no substitute. They well knew how important it was that what
+the conscientious old man proposed should be done. At last Hilsborn
+said, with characteristic gentleness, "If you wish to make sure of a
+substitute in case of the worst, it is best that you should do so as
+soon as possible, as in the event of undergoing an operation you would
+be unable to work for a long time, and, besides, I cannot answer for
+the result."
+
+"Thank you, kind sir. You have told me the truth, and now I know
+enough," said the schoolmaster, wiping his eyes with a coarse,
+gaily-printed cotton handkerchief.
+
+"Have I not often told you," said Hilsborn, "that you never ought to
+touch your eyes except with linen cambric?"
+
+"True! true!" said the pale, troubled man, forcing a smile, "but where
+am I to procure such a luxury?"
+
+"Why, your lady at the castle should give it to you," said Hilsborn.
+
+"She would do so willingly, I am sure, but I could not make up my mind
+to so bold a request; for, since the other villagers have treated her
+so badly, she has avoided us also; and I fear she has visited us with
+some of the indignation that she must feel at the shameful insults she
+has received."
+
+"Well, then, I will ask for you," cried Johannes. "I will go back to
+the castle, and you shall have what you require in a few moments."
+
+As he spoke, Frau Brigitta entered, with a bottle of wine and the soup.
+Her good old face beamed with delight at the opportunity of offering
+her hospitality to such honoured guests. Her husband seized the
+gentlemen's hands, while she was busied with laying the table, and
+whispered, "Promise me, I beg you, that you will not mention what you
+have told me to any one, that my poor wife may be allowed to enjoy all
+the hope that she can for the future."
+
+"We promise you," was the grave reply.
+
+"May I be permitted to offer the gentlemen some slight refreshment?"
+asked Brigitta with old-fashioned formality; for etiquette in the
+country is like the fashion of dress, which follows at a long distance
+the fashion of the city,--so that a form of polite expression is used
+in the country long after it has ceased to be _bon genre_ in town. And
+yet there is something touching in all those old-time phrases and
+customs that we remember as used by our grandparents and great-aunts
+and uncles. They suggest so vividly the images of the departed, and
+bring back the memories of childhood. Who has not in early childhood
+seen some old aunt or grandmother, upon refusing a fifth cup of coffee,
+turn the cup upside down in the saucer and lay the spoon carefully upon
+it? And when, twenty or thirty years after, we see some country
+pastor's or schoolmaster's wife go through the same ceremony, does not
+the dear old form, long ago laid at rest in the grave, rise before us
+to check the smile upon our lips? Who cannot remember as a child the
+friendly sympathy that greeted a satisfactory sneeze? And when, a
+quarter of a century later, some kindly country soul hails such an
+occurrence with a cordial "God bless you!" does it not seem as if we
+must reply as formerly, "Thanks, dear grandmamma," and are we not
+homesick for a moment for our good old grandmother? Such was the
+impression made upon the young men by the kindly formality, the
+officious hospitality, of the schoolmaster's good old wife.
+
+"I pray you honour us by tasting our poor meal," she said, as she put a
+coarse thick napkin of her own spinning upon each plate.
+
+After the conversation that they had just had with the unfortunate
+husband, the two young men had little appetite for eating or drinking;
+but they would not refuse the old woman's kindly hospitality, and
+therefore seated themselves at the clumsy table. For one moment there
+was a silence so profound that the tick of the death-watch in the bench
+by the stove could be plainly heard. Then the schoolmaster poured out
+the wine. His hand trembled slightly, and he was obliged to take care
+lest any of it should be spilled; for he could not see well when the
+glasses were full. Then, holding up his own glass, he said cheerily,
+"Long life to you, gentlemen, and to our noble German science! I drink
+to you."
+
+They clinked their glasses; but it cut Hilsborn to the very soul to
+think that the science which their good old host was so lauding should
+have been so cruel a prophet to him a few minutes before. Johannes,
+too, looked down at the wineglass in his hand, and the drops that he
+tasted from it were bitter to swallow.
+
+"Come, good wife, clink your glass with mine," said the old man to Frau
+Brigitta. "My wife is very fond of a little drop of wine," he said to
+his guests; "but we never indulge in it except when we have such
+honoured guests as sit around our table to-day."
+
+"And why not?" asked Hilsborn.
+
+"Because it tastes so much better when there are others here to enjoy
+it with us," was the simple, smiling answer.
+
+"But you ought to take more of it," said Johannes. "This good old wine
+is excellent for you; it is a tonic."
+
+The old man looked sadly at the few drops which he had poured out for
+himself, and with which he had only moistened his lips. "You forget
+that I have been for a long time forbidden to take wine, on account of
+my eyes."
+
+"My poor husband!" said his wife, sadly stroking his hollow cheeks. "He
+has to deny himself so much."
+
+Johannes and Hilsborn exchanged glances, and then the latter said, "I
+reverse that prohibition, Herr Leonhardt. Take a good glass of wine
+whenever you feel inclined. It cannot harm your eyes as much as it will
+improve your general health."
+
+"Thank God!" cried his wife rejoiced. "That proves how much better you
+are."
+
+"Or how much worse," Leonhardt said in Latin to Hilsborn, with a grave
+look. Then, turning tenderly to his wife, he slowly emptied his glass,
+whispering to her, "Long live our Walter!"
+
+The old woman nodded delightedly. "Our good boy! if he only had his
+degree!"
+
+Leonhardt clasped his hands with a deep sigh. "That is all that I ask
+of God."
+
+"Are you speaking of your son?" cried the gentlemen. "Then let us join
+you. May he live to be the delight and prop of your old age!"
+
+"He is a very talented young man," added Johannes. "His essay was
+declared the best after Fräulein von Hartwich's."
+
+"Indeed!" said the schoolmaster. "I am glad to hear it. Ah, the
+Fräulein is fortunate. She has everything necessary for her
+studies,--books and apparatus. There is hardly such another private
+laboratory and library in the country."
+
+Johannes looked surprised. "Indeed! how do you know that?"
+
+"My son has, during his studies, also perfected himself as a mechanic,
+for he says it is a great advantage for a naturalist, and Fräulein von
+Hartwich, hearing of it accidentally, intrusted him with some repairs
+of her furniture, and then he saw what treasures she possessed."
+
+Johannes looked thoughtful. "Hm! as far as I know, Fräulein von
+Hartwich's income is by no means so large as to allow of such
+extravagant expenditure. Her uncle may have permitted his ward to
+encroach upon her capital; it would only be a fresh proof of his want
+of principle."
+
+After a short pause, he turned to the schoolmaster.--"Herr Leonhardt,
+answer me one question. If a man wishes to rid a country of a dangerous
+wild animal, is it best to track him to his den by cunning, that he may
+be safely overcome there, or to startle him with loud noise and
+frighten him off, so that he either escapes or has time to prepare to
+defend himself?"
+
+The schoolmaster looked puzzled. "Why, a prudent man would surely
+pursue the first course."
+
+"I think so too. Well, Herr Leonhardt, I mean to track Doctor Leuthold
+Gleissert to his hiding-place. I am persuaded that this man is a
+thorough scoundrel, but I can bring no proof that I judge him
+correctly. Until I have collected such proof, which can only be done
+quietly and with caution, I cannot proceed against him openly. I need
+your assistance, Herr Leonhardt, for you know more than all of us
+concerning this man and his proceedings. Give me, if you can, some
+tangible cause for accusing him, that I may succeed in delivering that
+rare creature, his niece, from his clutches."
+
+"I will do my best," said Leonhardt. "But he lives so retired that I
+shall hardly be able to procure any important information for you. The
+only thing that I can observe is the names of his correspondents; for,
+as there is no post-office in the village, I have a post-drawer in my
+house, which the post-boy empties in my room. So that I can easily
+learn to whom all Doctor Gleissert's letters are addressed. Perhaps
+that may be of use to you."
+
+"Do so," replied Johannes, "you will greatly oblige me." He emptied his
+glass and arose. "And now let me have pen and ink, and I will write a
+couple of lines to the lady at the castle."
+
+The schoolmaster opened a little, old-fashioned desk, and produced the
+necessary articles. Johannes wrote:
+
+
+"My dear Fräulein Hartwich:--Will it offend you if I offer you the
+opportunity of exerting yourself within the sphere which I believe is
+assigned to woman?--I, who provoked your displeasure this morning by
+remonstrating against any exertion outside of that sphere. A tragedy is
+about to be enacted in the peaceful cottage of the schoolmaster
+Leonhardt, and the physical and spiritual aid of a woman like yourself
+will be most welcome there. Come see these people for yourself; they
+are the worthiest of your kindness of any in the village, and you have
+seen the least of them. Say nothing to Frau Leonhardt of the hint I
+have given you above. The poor man needs linen-cambric rags for his
+eyes, and would not trouble you by asking you for them. This will
+furnish you a pretext for establishing relations with these people--if
+you will; and I am sure you will. I know that I shall hear of your
+kindness when I return; and I shall return again and again.
+
+                 "Your friend of a few hours, but for life."
+
+
+Johannes sealed the letter, and gave it to the schoolmaster. "Here,
+Herr Leonhardt, is the request for the linen-cambric. Send it to
+Fräulein Hartwich; and if she should happen to visit you herself, I
+pray you and your wife not to mention my name. I desire the Fräulein to
+remain in ignorance of it for a short time. Promise me."
+
+The worthy old couple gave the required promise, and, bidding a kindly
+farewell, the gentlemen entered the carriage. Johannes took the reins,
+and the impatient horse bore them swiftly back to town.
+
+The schoolmaster and his wife returned to the house and finished their
+dinner, for it was nearly twelve o'clock, at which hour the afternoon
+school in the village reassembled. They dispatched the note to
+Ernestine, and then the schoolmaster betook himself to the school-room
+to wait for his pupils. At the stroke of twelve there was a trampling
+of little feet in the hall, and finger after finger rapped at the door,
+and awaited the gentle "Come in!" without which no entrance was
+allowed, for the schoolmaster was a great stickler for order and
+decorum, and knew well how to retain the respect of his scholars. Most
+of the children were better in school than anywhere else. It was
+strange. Herr Leonhardt never struck a blow; he was rarely angry; he
+only reproved gently; and yet the most unruly boy, the most sullen
+girl, was controlled by his glance. The wise old man believed that love
+for the teacher was a better spur to improvement than fear, which could
+only call forth hatred and malice towards its object. And thus he
+smoothed away many a foolish, rude, and cruel trait from the peasant
+youth of his village, bringing out the good in the minds of those
+intrusted to his care, and suppressing the evil, so that, during the
+thirty-five years of his gentle sway in the school-room, the
+Hochstetten boys and girls were more in request for servants than any
+others in all the country round.
+
+"Good-afternoon, Herr Leonhardt!" cried the entering throng, scattering
+themselves among the long benches with a sound like gravel poured out
+upon a path.
+
+"St--St!" was heard from the master, and instantly all was quiet in the
+room, except for the rustling of the opening copy-books, and the lesson
+began.
+
+Suddenly there was a soft, low knock at the door,--such a knock as
+comes only from a guilty conscience,--and a little, cleanly-dressed
+girl, about six years old, stood upon the threshold with downcast eyes.
+She held out before her, as if trying to hide behind it, a satchel so
+large that it really seemed difficult to decide whether the child had
+brought it, or it had brought the child; and the pearly drops upon her
+brow showed how fast she had been running.
+
+"Why, Käthchen!" cried Herr Leonhardt, "why do you come so late? Come
+here to me, little culprit. It is the first time in the whole long year
+since you first came to school that you have been late. Something very
+unusual must have happened?"
+
+Little Käthchen slowly approached him, while her chubby face grew
+scarlet. "I--I had to pick berries," she faltered, biting her
+berry-stained lips.
+
+"Oh, Käthchen," said Herr Leonhardt, raising his forefinger, "that is
+very strange. _You had to!_ Who told you to?"
+
+Käthchen still looked down, and her face grew, if possible, redder
+still.
+
+"Look me in the face, my child," said the master gravely. "Are you
+telling the truth?"
+
+Käthchen tried to raise her brown, roguish eyes to his face, but, ah,
+the consciousness of guilt weighed down her eyelids like lead. She
+could not look at her teacher; she only shook her curly head.
+
+"Käthchen," said the master kindly, "you were not sent to pick berries,
+for I know how desirous your father and mother are to send you to
+school--you ran into the wood to pick and eat them yourself. Perhaps
+this is your first falsehood, as it is the first time you have been
+late at school. Pray God that it maybe your last."
+
+"Oh," the little culprit broke forth, "the neighbour's Fritz took me
+with him, and the berries tasted so good that I stayed too long."
+
+The other children laughed; but a motion of the master's hand restored
+silence, and he continued to Käthchen: "Now, my child, for your
+tardiness you will have a black mark; and go down one in your class;
+but, Käthchen, for the falsehood you will lose your place in my heart,
+and I cannot love you so much. But I will forgive you if you will go
+stand in the corner of your own accord. Which will you do?--lose your
+place in my heart, or go stand in the corner for a quarter of an hour?"
+
+The child burst into a flood of tears, and, sobbing out, "I'd rather, a
+great deal rather, go stand in the comer!" walked there instantly, and
+turned her dear little face to the wall.
+
+The schoolmaster looked after her pityingly; but nevertheless he was
+firm, for he always imposed the severest penalty for a falsehood. The
+lessons were continued, and in about ten minutes he called the still
+sobbing Käthchen from her corner. The child came running to him, and he
+held out his hand to her, saying, "Will you promise me, Käthchen, never
+again to say what is not true?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I will never, never do it again," was the contrite answer.
+
+Then the old man took up the rosy little thing and set her on his knee.
+"Then, my dear child, I will love you dearly as long as you are honest
+and industrious. And if you are ever tempted to tell what is not true,
+think how it would grieve your old teacher if he knew it, and tell the
+truth for his sake."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried the child, her little heart overflowing with
+repentance, and, throwing her arms around the master's neck, she hugged
+him with all her might.
+
+The other children had watched the ceremony of reconciliation with
+intense sympathy, for they were all fond of brown-eyed, rosy-cheeked
+Käthchen, and were rejoiced that her troubles were over.
+
+"Now," said the teacher, when Käthchen was at last seated in her place,
+"now let us see whether you have done your task well."
+
+Käthchen pulled out her books from the dark depths of her huge satchel;
+but, alas! the light of day revealed upon them many a stain from the
+berries which had been put into the bag. The child's dismay and her
+companions' amusement were infinite. Even the schoolmaster could not
+refrain from smiling as he looked at her terrified little face. "Never
+mind," he said, "you have suffered enough. Let us see how they look
+inside." He opened the copy-book, and was evidently pleased with the
+neat copy. But the sums were in dire confusion.
+
+"Käthchen," cried Herr Leonhardt, "if a horse has four legs, how many
+legs have two horses?"
+
+"Six!" was the confident answer.
+
+"Käthchen, how many are twice two?"
+
+"Eight!"
+
+Herr Leonhardt cast to heaven that resigned glance peculiar only to
+such patient martyrs. "Käthchen, how many fingers, not counting the
+thumb, are there on your left hand?"
+
+Käthchen counted with her right hand the fingers of her left, and
+triumphantly declared, "Four."
+
+"And how many on your right hand?"
+
+Again the same process was repeated with the right hand, and the same
+answer ensued.
+
+"That's right! Now, how many are there together?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"How many fingers have you on both hands?"
+
+"Ten!"
+
+"Without the thumbs, child,--without either of the thumbs."
+
+Käthchen began her arduous task anew.
+
+Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
+
+"Another child late?" said Herr Leonhardt, and cried, "Come in."
+
+But, instead of the rosy face of a child, a pale countenance, with
+large, dark eyes, appeared, and gazed almost shyly around the circle.
+This apparition produced a perfect panic. "Oh, heavens! the Hartwich!
+Mercy! mercy! the woman of the castle!" and similar exclamations of
+alarm, were heard from all sides. The children started up,--those who
+were nearest the door crowded away from it, the larger ones dragged the
+little ones close to their sides, the Catholics even crossed
+themselves. An actual uproar began, which even the teacher's voice
+failed at first to control.
+
+Ernestine observed it all without any change in her regular features.
+Leonhardt approached her respectfully, and would have asked her pardon
+for the children's folly, but she interrupted him.
+
+"On the contrary," she said softly, "it is I who should ask pardon for
+interrupting your school by my dreaded appearance. I meant to go to
+your dwelling-room, to take you the linen-cambric handkerchiefs that
+you need, but not knowing where it was, I knocked here by mistake. Have
+the kindness, Herr Leonhardt, to relieve me of this parcel, and I will
+relieve your pupils from their alarm."
+
+The old man held out his hand to her, but she did not take it. "Never
+mind that; such a civility shown to me might deprive you of the
+children's respect."
+
+"Oh, my dear Fräulein Hartwich," Leonhardt warmly entreated, "do not
+ascribe this folly to me, to whom it gives, of course, much more pain
+than it can to you, whose position is too exalted to allow you to heed
+such trifles; but to me it brings the bitter conviction that the labor
+of a lifetime has been in vain!" He ceased, and cast a sad, weary
+glance at the little flock crowded so closely together.
+
+At his words the cold look in Ernestine's eyes vanished, and, for the
+first time, she regarded attentively the old man, who stood so
+respectfully, and yet so dignified, before her. His inflamed eyes
+revealed to her instantly the nature of the tragedy alluded to by her
+unknown friend, and she was filled with sympathy.
+
+"We will talk together by-and-by, Herr Leonhardt," she whispered, so
+that the children should not hear what she said. "Now let me go."
+
+"Will you have the great kindness, Fräulein Hartwich, to go and see my
+wife for awhile?" said Leonhardt "It would give her such pleasure,--she
+is in the opposite room."
+
+"Most certainly I will. I will wait for you there."
+
+She turned to go; but Leonhardt, seeing that the children were now more
+quiet, and hoping to show her that their folly was not as great as it
+had seemed, cried to the foremost ones of the throng, "You have behaved
+foolishly and naughtily before Fräulein Hartwich. Come, show her that
+you can be better, and bid her good-by, like good children."
+
+The children stood motionless. The old man, distressed at their
+conduct, looked around the room, and said, "Will none of you shake
+hands with her for my sake?"
+
+"I will," said Käthchen's clear, childish voice; and the fearless
+little girl, who had only followed the example of the others, walked up
+to Fräulein von Hartwich, and offered her chubby little hand to be
+shaken, and her berry-stained lips to be kissed. Ernestine stooped and
+kissed the little, pouting lips, and looked kindly into the pretty
+child's frank, sparkling eyes.
+
+"Now see, all you larger children," said the schoolmaster, "a little
+child, only six years old, shames you all! What are you afraid of? You
+see Fräulein von Hartwich every day!"
+
+"Yes, but not in a room--out in the road; we can run away then," one of
+the older ones shrewdly declared.
+
+Ernestine smiled sadly, and left the school-room without another word.
+
+The schoolmaster looked around upon his pupils with an indignant
+glance. "You have to-day disgraced yourselves and me, and I see plainly
+that everything that I have said to you and to your parents upon this
+point has been of no avail. I will give up trying to contend with your
+superstition and hate,--I am too old and weak for such a contest. Only
+let me say to you once more, 'Judge not, that you be not judged.' And
+tell your parents that if the time ever comes when I shall have to
+leave you, what has occurred to-day will go far to prevent me from
+regretting my departure."
+
+The children sat dismayed and silent, for they had never known their
+teacher to be so much displeased. They bowed their heads low over their
+books and slates, and hardly ventured to breathe, still less to utter a
+word of excuse. The lessons were gone through with even more quiet than
+usual, and when two o'clock struck, the children left the house and
+crept away as sad and depressed as if they were following a funeral.
+But scarcely were they escaped from the neighbourhood of the
+school-house than they recovered themselves, and fell upon poor
+Käthchen. "Fie! Käthchen, you let the Hartwich kiss you! Nobody cares
+for you now!"
+
+"Yes, yes, Käthchen's mouth is black, because the Hartwich kissed it."
+
+"Oho, Käthchen, no one will ever give you a kiss again!"
+
+"Only wait, and see how the Hartwich has bewitched you! To-morrow you
+will know!"
+
+Poor little Käthchen was overwhelmed with speeches and reproaches of
+this kind. But they troubled her very little, for her teacher was
+pleased with her, and that was better than all else besides; and she
+was proud that she had dared to go forward when all the rest were
+afraid.
+
+"If you are so unkind, I will not give you any of my berries," she
+said, swinging her huge satchel carelessly to and fro. This trump-card
+did not fail of its effect, for the berries were not bewitched,--at all
+events, the Hartwich had not touched them; so the little girl soon had
+the satisfaction of seeing the children all gather around her once
+more.
+
+When Leonhardt went to his wife, he found her deep in friendly talk
+with Ernestine.
+
+"My dear, kind Fräulein Hartwich," he began, "how it grieves me that
+you, who came to do me a kindness, should have been so insulted in my
+house! To be sure, they are only children, and they could not really
+insult you, but----"
+
+"'As the parents are, so must the children be,' is what you would say,"
+Ernestine interposed, "or what, at least, you think. Do not be
+distressed, Herr Leonhardt. I am used to insult and ridicule, and I
+have grown callous to them. But it is strange that a similar occurrence
+took place ten years ago to-day, at the first and only children's party
+which I ever attended. My misanthropy dates from that day; and the
+fresh proof that I have just had convinces me that I am not fitted to
+mix with the world,--least of all, with what passes for such in this
+country. Tell me, Herr Leonhardt, is it entirely impossible for you to
+enlighten these people in some small degree?"
+
+"To speak frankly, I believe I could have done so had not my influence
+always been counteracted by their priests and pastors. As a teacher,
+subordinate always to a priest or pastor, I could effect nothing
+against the superstition, the religious intolerance, instilled into the
+peasants by their spiritual guides; for with peasants the authority is
+always the greatest that does not attempt to combat their errors. A
+quack who makes use only of old women's remedies will always inspire
+them with more confidence than a regular physician whose prescriptions
+gainsay all their medical and dietetic prejudices. A pastor who from a
+religious point of view justifies and encourages their superstition and
+ignorance will be regarded by them as a far worthier and more
+trustworthy guide than one who teaches only the pure truth of God. So,
+you see, I have always contended with unequal weapons, and have
+frequently been in danger of falling a victim to their malice and thus
+losing my place. In quiet times, when nothing occurred to show plainly
+the difference between us, all went pretty well; but since your
+arrival, Fräulein von Hartwich, the old quarrel has been renewed, and I
+see again how powerless I am."
+
+"Then I am come only to sow discord in this peaceful spot," Ernestine
+said in a thoughtful tone. "Yes, yes,--misfortune attends me wherever I
+go."
+
+"Oh, do not say that!" cried Frau Brigitta, seizing Ernestine's hand,
+"but it seems to me--forgive a simple old woman for speaking so plainly
+to you--it seems to me that a lady so beautiful and richly endowed as
+you are, ought not to live here so lonely and secluded. My husband and
+I often say, 'What a pity it is that such a splendid creature should
+bury herself alive!' It certainly is unnatural; and what is natural is
+sure to be best!"
+
+Ernestine was silent, and sat with eyes cast down.
+
+"I too must say," said Leonhardt timidly, "that you are not in your
+right place here. Did you ever see the statue of a renowned philosopher
+or artist set up in the midst of a village? Certainly not; for the
+village boys would pelt it with mud,--no one would understand its
+value,--it would be merely a doll, at which every one would laugh, and
+to deface which would be considered a very good joke. And will you,
+Fräulein Hartwich, in the bloom of life, with all your refinement of
+mind, voluntarily expose yourself to the same fate that would await
+such a statue were it erected here, for the purpose of inspiring this
+rude people with ennobling ideas? Surely you cannot answer to yourself
+for such a course of life!"
+
+Ernestine gazed attentively at the old man's faded but still noble
+countenance. His address was so different from what she had expected
+from a simple village schoolmaster, that she was greatly astonished at
+it. It stimulated her to reply to him.
+
+"I understand your comparison, Herr Leonhardt, and am greatly
+honoured by it, but,--forgive me for saying so,--it does not seem to me
+quite correct. I know of no village where statues either of Christ or
+the Madonna are not erected, and the rudest peasant pays them
+reverence,--because he appreciates the idea that they embody. Could we
+only breathe a sympathy with other than religious ideas into the minds
+of this neglected class, the representatives of such ideas would also
+receive the same reverence."
+
+Frau Leonhardt was a little troubled by the turn the conversation had
+taken; for, as a faithful servant will listen to no slighting remarks
+concerning those whom he serves, she, as a true servant of her Lord and
+Saviour, disapproved of Fräulein von Hartwich's mode of speaking of
+Him, and thought it scarcely becoming in a good Christian to listen to
+such talk. But her husband, with modest tact, put an end to her
+anxiety. "I have myself," said he, "thought of what you say, but it
+seems to me to be an entirely different matter. The people honour in
+these statues not ideas, but persons,--and the holiest and highest
+persons that they can conceive of,--the persons of their God and his
+saints. As we take delight in the pictures of distant relatives, whom
+we may never have seen, perhaps, but whom we honour and cherish for the
+sake of what we know of them, so, a thousand times more so, do the
+people honour what speaks to them of the eternally invisible Father of
+all! This sentiment, Fräulein von Hartwich, seems to me widely
+different from the admiration that a comprehension of the great ideas
+of to-day might awaken in the minds of the people. We are not yet far
+enough advanced to say how it may be,--and who knows whether we ever
+shall advance so far as to be able to elevate those classes who labour
+for us that we may think for them, and who desire nothing at present
+for their happiness but their plough and their God? What they really
+need now, in my opinion, is that their God should not be represented to
+them as an angry, avenging Jehovah, but as the loving, redeeming God of
+Christianity! To return to my simile,--with regard to yourself,
+Fräulein von Hartwich, let me repeat that you can only be in your true
+place where your efforts and ideas are understood and you can grace a
+pedestal that becomes you. Then you will be truly happy, and far more
+easily brought into communion with your Creator than while you are
+embittered by the religious error and intolerance prevailing around you
+here. The people are hostile to you, because they believe you hostile
+to what they hold most sacred,--their religion. Whoever, in their
+eyes, stands aloof from Christian fellowship, stands aloof from
+mankind,--ceases to be a creature of flesh and blood. And if they do
+not see condign punishment quickly overtake such a one, whom they
+regard as the chief of sinners, they believe that she must be under the
+protection not of God, but of the other power in their theology,--the
+devil! Forgive my frankness. I say nothing of their childish
+misconception of God's tender long-suffering. I only feel it my duty to
+show you the impassable gulf that lies between you and your
+surroundings. You are such a thorn in the side not only of the Catholic
+priest, but also of the evangelical pastor of our diocese, that he
+attempted to procure from the Protestant consistory a decree of
+banishment against you on account of your writings, and, failing in
+this, he has determined to drive you from this place, at all costs, by
+unceasing persecution. His Catholic associate seconds him, as you
+yourself know, most zealously, and I wish to save you, by timely
+warning, from all that, unfortunately, still threatens you here."
+
+He paused, and endeavoured to observe with his dim eyes the effect of
+his words upon Ernestine's impassive features. Her look was still
+riveted on the ground, and she said nothing, so he respectfully took
+her hand, saying, "Dear Fräulein von Hartwich, forgive me if I am too
+bold and have wounded you. I am a plain man, ignorant of the forms of
+polite society, grown old among peasants, and accustomed to speak out
+my thoughts openly. I hold truth to be my first duty, but it would pain
+me to think that, in fulfilling this duty, I had unintentionally
+wounded you!"
+
+"Dear, dear!--yes!--oh, yes!" ejaculated his kindly old wife, really
+distressed by the inscrutable expression upon Ernestine's face.
+
+Suddenly the latter started up, shook the old people by the hand, and
+said gravely but cordially,--
+
+"Thank you, thank you, Herr Leonhardt. You are a good man!"
+
+"Oh, my dear, good Fräulein von Hartwich!" cried Frau Brigitta with
+emotion.
+
+"I must go home now," said Ernestine, covering her black braids with
+her hat, "but I will see you soon again. Farewell!"
+
+When the old couple had accompanied her to the door, and followed her
+with their eyes as she walked away apparently lost in thought, they
+both remembered for the first time that she had not alluded in any way
+to Johannes.
+
+"How strange!" said the schoolmaster, as he went for his garden-shears
+to trim the luxuriant hedge before his house.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                             THE GUARDIAN.
+
+
+When, on the evening of the same day, Leuthold returned from town, he
+heard that Ernestine could not see him,--she was not well, and had
+retired to her room. Slowly and cautiously he sought her study, and
+there attempted to find what and how much his ward had accomplished
+during the day. To his astonishment, he found nothing. He slipped into
+the laboratory, and there lay everything just as it had been left the
+day before. Nothing had been touched. What did it mean? It was the
+first day for years that had been passed by Ernestine in idleness.
+Then, creeping along the corridors with the stealthy step of a cat, he
+sought Frau Willmers. She, too, was just about going to bed, and looked
+very sleepy when Leuthold, fixing a searching glance upon her, asked,
+"What has Fräulein von Hartwich been doing to-day?"
+
+Frau Willmers yawned: she needed an instant for reflection. "Fräulein
+von Hartwich has been quite unwell to-day," she replied.
+
+"Indeed! what was the matter with her?"
+
+"Why, just what is always the matter, more or less. Heart-beat,
+faintness, headache. Is it any wonder, considering the way she is
+always at work? She could hardly hold up her head to-day----"
+
+"Has any one been here?"
+
+"Not a soul: who could----"
+
+"No letters?"
+
+"Two for you, Herr Professor, and one for Fräulein von Hartwich from
+the schoolmaster."
+
+"What did he want?"
+
+"He asked for some linen-cambric rags for his weak eyes. She took him
+some."
+
+"She herself? Why?"
+
+"She was tired because she could not study, and she wanted to see Herr
+Leonhardt's eyes. She thought she might learn something from them."
+
+"Very well,--that will do. Good-night, Frau Willmers."
+
+"Good-night, Herr Professor," said the cunning housekeeper, hastening
+to tell Ernestine how slyly she had managed matters and contrived to
+pay due honour to truth by mixing up some of it with her falsehoods.
+
+Ernestine sat in an easy-chair, her eyes fixed upon the flame of the
+lamp. A book lay open in her lap,--"Andersen's Fairy Tales."
+
+She could not smile at what Frau Willmers told her. There was something
+in it that filled her with uneasiness. For the first time since she had
+lived with her uncle, she felt that she was a prisoner, watched and
+guarded as such. She was obliged to conceal, as if it were a crime, the
+fact that she had become acquainted with a true, noble human being. She
+had to account on the plea of interest in science for visiting a poor
+suffering man. The lie disgraced her, and the necessity that had
+prompted it was a galling chain! All this she felt to-day for the first
+time. One day had aroused within her the longing for independence!--the
+greatest misfortune that could have befallen her unsuspecting uncle,
+but not the only one that this day was to bring him.
+
+When he went to his room, he found there the letters of which Frau
+Willmers had told him. The first that he took up he opened instantly.
+It was from his daughter Gretchen, and ran thus:
+
+
+"My dearest Father:
+
+"In a week I shall be fifteen years old, and next month my course here
+will be finished, and I shall be fitted to take my place in the school
+as a teacher. Once more I turn to you and entreat you, dear father, let
+me come home to you! I will not be any burden to you. My teachers will
+tell you that I know enough to enable a young girl to earn her own
+living. I thank and bless you a thousand times, dearest father, for
+having me educated to be a useful member of society. I will be my
+cousin's maid, and work for her for my support, if I may only be near
+you! Oh, I pray you yield to my entreaties! You have always answered my
+request by telling me that her bad example--her irreligion and hardness
+of heart--would have a ruinous effect upon me. But indeed, dear father,
+this could not be. Thanks to my good, kind teachers, I am so firm in my
+faith, I have been so well trained, that this one bad example could not
+have any effect upon me, especially when I should daily see how my poor
+father suffers in discharging his guardianship of so stubborn a
+creature. Why did my dead uncle Hartwich bequeath to you such a
+thankless office? Indeed, dearest father, it would be easier if you
+would let me help you. I would leave nothing untried to soften her
+heart and turn it to good, and, however angry she might be with me, I
+would disarm her by patience and submission; and, even although I could
+have no effect upon her, I could be something to you, dear father. Oh,
+how heavenly it would be to sit alone together in your room after the
+day's work was finished! I could sit at your feet and show you my
+sketches and drawings, drinking draughts from the rich treasures of
+your mind and cheering you with my ever-ready nonsense. And sometimes I
+could lean my head upon your heart, that no one understands as well as
+the child to whom you have shown all its depths of tenderness, and
+sleep as peacefully as in those dear childish days when you cradled me
+in your arms with all a mother's care! Oh, father, you are everything
+in the world to me! My mother, who forsook me when I was so young--who
+left you for another so immeasurably your inferior, I do not know--I
+can form no image of her, unlovely as she must be, in my mind. You are
+mother, father, everything, to me! My cradle stood by your bedside;
+your eyes smiled upon me when I awoke. You never spoke a harsh word to
+me, you never looked unkindly at me. You treated the wayward child, who
+must so often have vexed you, with unvarying gentleness and patience;
+and at last you sent me from you, that I might be thoroughly trained
+and educated, since it is our fate to earn our daily bread. You sent me
+from you, but I saw plainly, when we parted, that this was the greatest
+sacrifice of all,--that I carried away your whole heart with me. You
+did it for me,--out of affection for me. You have given me up now for
+almost seven years, and I have worked and studied as hard as I could,
+so that I might soon be with you again; and now, when I have learned
+enough to be able to repay you a very little for all that you have done
+and suffered for me, you refuse to let me fly to your dear arms, for
+fear of the miserable influence of your ward. Father, you will--you
+must--hear and heed me. The tears that blotted your last letter to me
+fell hot into my very soul. They were tears of longing--do not deny
+it--for your child, and I will never rest until you give heed to your
+own heart! Ah, father dear, you will be pleased when you see me! I am
+taller and stronger than our governess! Every one says I am very tall
+for my age--I might be taken for eighteen years old! When we go to walk
+together, you will have to give me your arm! Ah, what a delight that
+will be! I shall be too proud to touch the ground! and, depend upon it,
+I shall be able to do something with Ernestine! She never used to be
+cross to me as a child; I cannot think how she can have altered so. How
+could she become so changed with such a guardian? In spirit I kiss his
+dear, kind hands! Happy girl!--to have my father for a teacher! Shall I
+not grudge her a happiness of which she has proved herself so unworthy?
+Yes; I do grudge it her! I do not envy her for her talents or her
+wealth, but I do envy her for my father!--I must envy her for that! You
+give her your time--your care; you devote yourself to her, and let your
+own child grow up far away from you, among strangers,--your own
+child,--who would give all that she possesses for one look from her
+father's eyes!"
+
+Leuthold could read no further. He writhed like a worm on the ground
+beneath the weight of reproach with which this artless creature thus
+heaped him. The thunderbolt of a god could have inflicted no such
+punishment upon him as the pure, sweet, angelic love of his child.
+
+He sunk upon his knees, and kissed the letter again and again. "My
+child! my child!" he cried aloud, racked almost to madness by intense
+feverish longing. At this moment of weakness he was overwhelmed with
+remorse. He had banished from his side his dearest possession,--his
+Gretchen. And why? Because he loved her too dearly to expose her to
+contact with the ideas that he sought to impress upon the mind of his
+ward,--because he would not allow his child to breathe the poisoned
+atmosphere of falsehood in which he chose that Ernestine should dwell.
+And why had he thus chosen? Because, he loved Gretchen too much to have
+her always poor and dependent, because he determined to win back the
+inheritance that he had once thought his own, but which had been so
+unexpectedly lost to him, and because there was only one way, in his
+mind, in which this could be done,--by making the possessor of this
+inheritance so utterly unfit for the world that nothing might wrest her
+person or her property from his grasp.
+
+But, when he received such a letter as the above, overflowing with the
+devoted love, the pain at separation, of his exiled child, something
+stirred in his breast that would not be quieted, demanding whether he
+might not have expressed his paternal love in another way, whether it
+were not a desecration of this angel to attempt to make her future
+happy by a crime? Whether the joy of educating such a child himself
+would not have outweighed the wealth of the world? And then he began to
+reckon and compare,--and the account was never balanced,--for the years
+of separation from his daughter there was no equivalent. These were
+rare hours when, like a criminal before his judge, he was arraigned in
+spirit before the pure eyes of his child; but they cost him months of
+life.
+
+His hair had grown grey,--his powers of mind were enfeebled by all
+these years of self-control and hypocrisy,--of crime and dread of
+discovery. He had nothing to hope for for himself--but for Gretchen?
+And what if he had failed in his reckoning? What if a mischievous
+chance should again deprive him at the last moment of the fruit of all
+this sacrifice? The path of sin had separated him from his daughter
+hitherto. Was it possible that it could ever lead him to her?
+
+His high, narrow forehead was covered with a cold dew as he passed his
+hand over it. He was indeed to be pitied,--a man who had not the
+courage to be wholly good nor wholly bad!
+
+The night breeze blew fresh through the open window, and the miserable
+man was thoroughly chilled. He arose, wrapped himself in his shawl,
+closed the window, and went to the table where lay the other letter. It
+was directed in the handwriting of the overseer of the Unkenheim
+Factory. Leuthold put it down--he had not the courage to read it "What
+can he have to tell me?" he moaned, utterly dispirited.
+
+At last he roused himself. "What must be, must!"
+
+He unfolded the coarse paper and read--while his face grew ashy pale.
+
+
+                                        "Umkenheim, July 30, 18--.
+
+"Honoured Sir:
+
+"You should have believed me when I told you that there was nothing to
+be done with bringing the water from that miserable spring. Twenty
+years ago you placed me at the head of this factory, and I think I have
+shown that I understand my business. It is a ruinous thing to conduct
+such a huge undertaking from a distance. I told you so when you got
+back the factory again, but you never believe what I say. If the
+business had been allowed to proceed as usual, we should have made a
+sure, although small, profit from it. But you were in such a devil of a
+hurry to make the capital yield a hundred per cent., because you were
+always afraid lest your ward should smell a rat and require her own
+again,--or lest she should marry, and you would have to render an
+account to some suspicious husband, who would be less forbearing even
+than Fräulein Ernestine. Therefore these giant speculations were set on
+foot, and everything was to be accomplished in the twinkling of an eye.
+I told you we had not sufficient sewerage for such an enormous
+enlargement. Then you never rested until that expensive drain was dug,
+and we very soon found that it had too little incline and the refuse
+all stuck fast in it. Then you thought we could carry it off by a
+stream of water turned into the drain. More money was spent, and again
+spent in vain. The dry summer had exhausted the spring,--it was always
+small, and now it has entirely disappeared. The large supply of raw
+material, not yet paid for, cannot be worked up, for the villagers are
+beginning to talk again of 'poisoning the springs,' and the drain has
+begun to leak. If the necessary amount of water cannot be procured, I
+shall be prosecuted, and then nothing will shield either you or me from
+discovery. The people already think it strange that the Italian
+gentleman, who pretended to buy the factory by your advice, has
+disappeared. It is whispered about that he is not the real owner, and
+Heaven only knows what it all means. We have, therefore, more need of
+caution than ever!
+
+"There is nothing for it but to face the worst and continue the
+aqueduct to the forest,--then we shall be safe. Digging ditches and
+hunting for springs is of no use,--more money is frittered away so than
+in large undertakings. I do not know what cash you have on hand; if you
+have not enough to lengthen the aqueduct, in a few weeks you will be
+bankrupt. It will not be my fault!
+
+"I have no more money for the workmen's wages,--and it would be well,
+now that work must be suspended for a time, to pay them up. It might
+keep them in good humour. I know that you will vent all your anger upon
+me again, but I tell you I will put up with nothing more. I was an
+honest man until you tempted me and made me your accomplice. Still, I
+have not played the rogue to you, my principal, although I have, more's
+the pity, made myself amenable to the law. You have gone on just like
+Herr Neuenstein, who became bankrupt too, because he would not listen
+to me; but he was an honourable man, and paid up every penny that he
+owed, so that he was not afraid to look any one in the face. If you
+fail, you drag down your ward, whose money you have been using, with
+you,--and me too,--poor devil that I am! There is truth in the proverb
+'Ill-gotten gains never prosper.' God help me!
+
+                                   "Yours, etc.,
+
+                                         "Clemens Prücker,
+
+                                                      "_Overseer_."
+
+
+It was too much. "My child! my child! I have sinned, forged, embezzled,
+for your sake, in vain! Can you be sufficiently proud of such a
+father?" he moaned,--his head fell back in his chair, and he lost
+consciousness.
+
+The day had dawned when he opened his eyes; the atmosphere was full of
+the disagreeable odour of the dying candles, his limbs were stiff and
+numb from his uneasy posture, and he was shivering with cold. When he
+tried to walk, his hands and feet were asleep, and he staggered like a
+drunken man. At last his eyes lighted upon the letters. He picked them
+up and went to his writing-table. There he put them away in a secret
+drawer, then drew forth a safe and investigated its contents. It
+contained certificates of stock and some rolls of ready money.
+
+The sun shone brightly into the room, and still the pale man sat there
+counting and calculating. At last he put all the contents of the safe
+into a leather travelling-bag. Then he rang the bell and ordered the
+servant, who appeared, to have the carriage brought round and to pack
+up for him sufficient clothes to last during a journey of several days.
+
+When he heard that his niece had arisen, he went to her. "Good-morning,
+Ernestine," said he. "How are you to-day?"
+
+"I should put that question to you, uncle," she replied. "You look as
+if you had just arisen from the grave!"
+
+"Oh, there is nothing the matter with me. I did not sleep much. The
+overseer at Unkenheim writes to me on the part of my Italian friend,
+begging me to come as soon as possible to the factory, where everything
+is going wrong. I think it my duty to do what I can in the matter, as I
+know all about the business, and unfortunately advised my friend to
+make the purchase."
+
+"Are you going, then?" asked Ernestine, with a feeling of secret
+delight that she could not explain to herself.
+
+"Yes, I must leave you for a few days, hard as it is for me. But
+promise me before I go that you will have that treatise that you are at
+work upon completed by my return. Let nothing prevent you from
+finishing it. If you feel unwell,--you know that is of no real
+consequence,--you can readily overcome all your ailments by resolutely
+willing to do so. Take quinine, if you must. Now may I rely upon
+finding the essay complete when I see you again?"
+
+"Yes, uncle, I promise; and if I do not keep my word, it will be for
+the first time in my life."
+
+"Farewell, then, my child,--I must hurry to catch the train. Let
+nothing interrupt you,--do you hear?--nothing!"
+
+He hurried out, and sought the housekeeper. "Frau Willmers," he said,
+"I rely on you to prevent Fräulein von Hartwich from receiving any
+visitors, be they who they may. If I find, upon my return, that you
+have permitted the least infringement of my orders, you may consider
+yourself dismissed. I cannot tell you when I shall return. Conduct
+yourself so that you need not fear my arrival, for it may take place at
+any moment."
+
+"Rely upon me entirely, Herr Professor," replied Frau Willmers; and
+Leuthold got hastily into his vehicle.
+
+"Now, that sly master of mine thinks all is secure, and that he has the
+heart of a girl of two-and-twenty under lock and key. How stupid these
+clever folks often are!" After this fashion Frau Willmers soliloquized,
+as her master drove off.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                         FRUITLESS PRETENSIONS.
+
+
+"Your new dress-coat has come from the tailor's," was Frau Herbert's
+greeting to her husband, upon his entrance.
+
+"Indeed! where is it?" he asked gruffly.
+
+"In the next room, on the bed."
+
+"On the bed!" her husband snapped out. "So that it may be covered with
+lint? How careless!"
+
+Frau Herbert looked down, and was silent. Herbert hurried into the next
+room to rescue his slighted property.
+
+Professor Herbert's dwelling-room was rather small and low, but there
+appeared, at a cursory glance, an air of elegance about it. The chairs
+and lounges were covered with fine woollen stuff, the curtains were
+richly embroidered, and an elegant cabinet, with mirrored doors,
+closely locked, apparently contained silver plate. Upon a closer
+inspection, however, the furniture was found to be stuffed with straw,
+the curtains were shabby, with the holes in them not even darned, and
+the cabinet contained only broken household-utensils, with the remains
+of the previous meal, locked up there to be safe from the hungry
+servant-maid. Even the arm-chair by the window, occupied by Frau
+Herbert, evidently an invalid, was as hard as a stone. The only thing
+in the room of real and decided value was a collection of old English
+copper-plates that decorated the walls of the apartment, representing
+scenes from Shakspeare's plays and Roman history. These old pictures
+were one of Professor Herbert's fancies; and he belonged to that class
+of men with whom the necessities of a wife and of the household are
+never considered in comparison with the gratification of their fancies.
+
+Frau Herbert was one of those unfortunate women who, in the
+consciousness that they are burdens to their husbands, believe
+themselves called to endure everything, even the grossest injustice,
+with meekness, and who hold it their duty to entreat forgiveness of
+their lords and masters for continuing to exist at all. The sight of
+that quiet woman, with her sad face, upon which pain had ploughed deep
+furrows, sitting at the window mending the straw-coloured gloves in
+which her husband was, in the evening, to play the part of an æsthetic
+exquisite, while she lay suffering at home, would instantly suggest the
+complete picture of an unhappy wife tied to the side of a cold-blooded
+egotist.
+
+"Poor Professor Herbert!" people were wont to say, "what a misfortune
+it is for a man to have such an invalid wife!"
+
+But a closer observer of the pair would have said, "What a misfortune
+for an invalid wife to have such a husband!"
+
+The miserable woman, however, had no such thought; she would gladly
+have died,--not only to be free from suffering, but that her husband
+might be rid of her presence. In her inmost heart she despised his
+selfishness and want of feeling. She knew that a worthier man would
+have had consideration for her and patience with her, as her burden was
+surely the heavier; but she was too much afraid of her husband to put
+such thoughts in words, even to her own mind. Suffering that is
+incessant, and that undermines the physical frame, must gradually
+weaken the mind; and thus the only strength of the hapless wife
+consisted in hopeless endurance.
+
+Professor Herbert entered in his new coat, and surveyed himself
+attentively in the large mirror.
+
+"It fits well,--does it not?" he asked.
+
+"Very well! but it is very expensive."
+
+"Did the bill come with it?"
+
+"Here it is."
+
+"Oh, that is not so bad. Hecht is certainly the best tailor in the
+city."
+
+A shade of bitter feeling passed across his wife's face and she could
+not refrain from saying, "When I recollect that you lately refused to
+let me have the shawl I so needed, that did not cost half so much,
+and----"
+
+"The money for your dress all goes to the apothecary, my dear," Herbert
+replied, with a sneer.
+
+"My dress!" his wife repeated,--"you would be ashamed to walk in the
+street with me,--my clothes are so shabby."
+
+"No one expects much elegance from an invalid whose illness costs her
+husband so much money."
+
+Frau Herbert cast a glance at her husband, but she said not a word
+more. For one moment she leaned her weary head against the back of her
+chair, but the position was too uncomfortable, and she resumed her
+work, thinking with pain how the physician had imperatively recommended
+her to procure a more comfortable chair, in which she could sleep
+sitting up,--but now this small luxury, as well as all the rest, had
+been denied her!
+
+Suddenly the door opened, and in rustled and fluttered a creature half
+child, half old maid,--half butterfly, half bat. Around her head
+floated a mass of very light curls. A _nez retroussé_ gave to her face
+a naïve air of youthfulness, which, however, the crafty, eager
+expression of her small eyes contradicted. Just so her teeth, short and
+wide apart, resembled those of a young child who has shed his first
+set, while the wrinkles about her thin, open lips indicated an age of
+thirty years at least. The figure, crowned by this strange head
+with its huge mane of curls, was delicate and slender as that of a
+half-grown girl. Her hands were small, but wrinkled like those of an
+old woman. She was dressed in thin, flowing garments,--her round straw
+hat was adorned by long, light-brown ribbons. Her gait, bearing, and
+address were light, airy, sylph-like. It was evident at the first
+glance that she was a creature who believed herself highly poetic,
+richly gifted, breathing a charmed atmosphere, and that although she
+might in reality be thirty years old she had in imagination never
+passed sweet sixteen. Such a creature is only conceivable with a sheet
+of music or a sketch-book in her hand; and, in obedience to a
+mysterious law of nature, this too was not wanting in the present
+instance. "Brother, darling!" she cried, skipping up to Herbert, "how
+charming you are in your new coat! Aha, are you going to the Möllner's
+reception this evening? Yes!" Trilling a little air, she laid aside her
+book, hat, and gloves. "Tra-la-la-la--oh, I am so happy to-day I cannot
+talk, I can only sing." And she hummed the refrain of the charming song
+by Taubert, "I know not why, but sing I must!" Then she remembered that
+she had not yet spoken to her brother's wife. "Oh, dear Ulrika, forgive
+me for not asking how you are. No better yet? Ah! your little Elsa is
+so agitated to-day! I feel--I can't tell how--my bosom heaves and
+thrills as with the breath of May! I must go to my work. To-day I feel
+sure, in my present frame of mind, I must create something!"
+
+And she was about to hover away to the blissful retirement of her own
+room, when Herbert, who had meanwhile exchanged his new coat for a
+light summer sacque, cried after her, "Stay here a moment, and speak at
+least one sensible word before you go."
+
+She paused.
+
+"What are you going to attempt now? I am really afraid to trust you by
+yourself."
+
+She skipped up to her brother again and roguishly laid her finger on
+his lips, looking archly in his eyes. "Dearest brother, I shall
+surprise you! I have an idea!"
+
+"Pray cease your folly for the present. You do not want to flirt with
+your brother, I hope? Tell me, what is your idea? If it is good for
+anything, it will be the first of its kind that you have ever had in
+your head."
+
+"Oh, you discourteous brother!" pouted the fair indignant, "to grieve
+your sister so! But, since you bid me, I will obey you, and give you a
+glimpse into the transparent depths of an artist's soul. Every maiden
+must practise the sweet duty of obedience, that she may one day gladden
+a husband's heart by her submission."
+
+"Well, well, to the point!" cried Herbert impatiently.
+
+Elsa bashfully cast down her eyes, and, stammering with the charming
+embarrassment of an artistic nature, said, "When, a few days ago, I
+asked Professor Möllner what lady author was his favourite, he answered
+me in jest, 'She who has written the best cookery book!' I am going to
+show the mocking man that I can do that too. Oh, how amazed he will be
+when he finds that the wealth of fancy in my soul can beautify and
+transfigure what is so prosaic! This it is that he deems the charm of
+womanhood,--the power to seize and mould to beauty the commonplace and
+sordid. I am going to publish a cookery book in verse, with
+illustrations, and entitle it 'The German Wife at the Hearth of Home.'
+Only think what splendid initial letters and arabesques I can have! I
+will show that a bunch of parsley can be as gracefully arranged as
+roses or violets. Such lovely green borders to the pages must always be
+beautiful, whether composed of parsley, lettuce, or sorrel; and, if a
+warmer colour is desirable, I will paint a couple of blushing radishes
+peeping, half hidden, from among the leaves, and there you have as
+perfect a picture as any of our famous artistes have produced of
+Spring. Is not the meanest kitchen-stuff the work of the Creator, and
+as beautiful as any other of his creations? And there can be such
+variety in the volume. For example, the chapter of receipts for cooking
+fish can have a title-page of its own, after the style of the
+engravings in Schleiden's 'Wonders of the Deep.' Beneath a placid
+crystal lake may be seen sporting together all the fish alluded to in
+the ensuing chapter. Branches of coral are wreathed in and out, and,
+illuminated by the rosy light of the setting sun, water-lilies float
+upon the calm surface of the water. Every chapter will have a suitable
+title-page, displaying in its native element the animal to be
+cooked,--game in the forest, fleeing from the pursuing huntsman and
+hounds,--the dove hovering above the ark, with the olive-branch in her
+beak,--domestic fowls, in the Dutch style, cooped in their accustomed
+poultry yard. Fruit and vegetables can be treated as still-life, in
+arabesques, and decorating the margins of single recipes. At the end of
+the book a picture representing a family seated at dinner. Over their
+heads, in gothic letters, the line, 'Lord Jesus, come and be our
+guest.' And, in pursuance of this invitation, he must be seated at the
+head of the table, in the midst of a brilliant halo of glory. On either
+side of the table sit the children, and at the foot the happy husband
+and wife, each offering food to the other. Angels are in attendance
+upon the able,--the angels of harmony, peace, and content. The wife
+sits with her face turned from the spectator, but the husband--and this
+is the grand point--the husband will be a portrait!"
+
+She paused, carried away by her poetic dreams, and by the thought of
+the immense success that the book must command.
+
+"Well, and whom is the portrait to represent?--me, perhaps?" asked
+Herbert with a sneer.
+
+"You? Oh, no. Ah, rogue! can you not guess? Heavens! do not look at me
+so,--you know whom I mean!"
+
+"Möllner?" asked her brother.
+
+"Yes,--you have guessed it. Oh, when I think of the smile that will
+play around that proud mouth as he beholds his portrait drawn by my
+hand, as he sees how his image is present with me everywhere in all
+that I think and do! Oh, it will, it must touch him!"
+
+"Yes, it will touch him uncommonly," remarked Herbert; "and there will
+be a charming scene when he presents his inamorata, the Hartwich, with
+the work, that she may learn cookery from it. Do not forget to add a
+receipt for broiling frogs' legs, by which she can dress the frogs that
+they use together for their physiological experiments."
+
+"Oh, Edmund!" exclaimed Elsa, startled and a little vexed, "your words
+are full of wormwood to-day. Go,--your caustic wit destroys all my
+flowers of fancy. This is why I always avoid you when I am about to
+begin a work. What pleasure can it give you to thrust me from my
+paradise? Is it right? Let the soul that can find no home on this rude
+earth seek it in brighter realms."
+
+And she raised her eyes to the ceiling, and laid her wrinkled little
+hand upon her breast. "Mine is a modest, shrinking soul,--its childlike
+trust and hope are all that I possess. Dear brother, do not you rob me
+of them, as long as no other hand snatches them from me."
+
+"But you must find out at last that your hopes are vain, and therefore
+I wish to warn you, that you may not make yourself ridiculous by an
+untimely parade of your feelings. I know, from the most trustworthy
+sources, that Möllner has been to Hochstetten to see the Hartwich, and
+that he spent two hours with her. Rhyme that with his enthusiasm for
+her at the meeting the other day, and complete the verse yourself."
+
+Elsa looked down and thought for a minute or two, then she sighed and
+shook her flowing mane, saying, "No, it cannot, cannot be! That
+man-woman may excite his curiosity, she cannot win his heart! No, no,
+Elsa has no fear that Lohengrün will be misled by Ortrude! And now to
+work, that the day may soon come when he will ask, 'Elsa, whose is the
+face of the wife who sits at table by my side?' Then I shall avert my
+face and reply, 'That you know best.' Oh, darling brother! dearest
+sister! he will turn my blushing countenance to him then, and say,
+'This is her face!' Oh, I must go: the breath of spring is wafted
+towards me from my studio. Yes, yes, I feel that the Muses await me
+there." With these words she rustled and fluttered away to her room.
+
+Frau Herbert looked after her with a sad, almost a compassionate,
+glance. "Tell me, Edmund," she said to her husband, "did you ever for
+one moment believe that such a man as Möllner would marry that girl?"
+
+"Why not? There are many more unequal matches made every day: the only
+thing is to man[oe]uvre the matter skilfully. If poor Elsa had as
+managing a mother as you were blessed with, the affair would certainly
+not be beyond the bounds of possibility. But the poor thing has no one
+to help her but myself, and we men are clumsier at match-making than
+the most stupid of women."
+
+Frau Herbert looked pained and crushed by this attack upon her mother
+and herself. She thought it, however, beneath her dignity to reply to
+it. She only said very quietly, "I am glad, Edmund, that there is one
+creature in the world for whom you have some regard, or even blind
+affection. Well, she is your sister. I, too, love the poor thing, but I
+cannot believe that she will ever succeed in kindling one spark of
+interest in Möllner's breast."
+
+"You have always regarded her with jaundiced eyes," Herbert went on to
+say. "You talk as though she were a monster. She is no longer young,
+but there is still something youthful about her. She is not, it is
+true, a genius, but her nature is really artistic. She is not pretty,
+but an enthusiast like Möllner is more observant of inner graces than
+physical beauty, and he cannot fail to be impressed by her beauty of
+soul. It certainly is true that he always distinguishes her in society.
+Does he not always take her to supper when she is unprovided with an
+escort, as is usually the case? When all the others avoid her, is not
+Möllner sure to sit and talk with her? Such a conscientious prig as
+Möllner would not do that unless he had some object in view; and if she
+has no other charm for him, her undisguised admiration of him would
+attract him to her, for he has a due amount of vanity, and every one
+must take pleasure in being so fanatically adored. If it were not for
+that confounded Hartwich, who knows how far he might be brought! But I
+will be revenged upon her, she may rely upon that!"
+
+"Why visit your anger upon the innocent? How can it be this stranger's
+fault that Möllner is more interested by her genius than by our Elsa's
+sentimental dilettanteism, her perpetual attempts and failures? His
+courtesy to her in society always seemed to me prompted by his
+humanity. She certainly makes herself very ridiculous,--you must see
+that; and a man of Möllner's kindly, chivalric character cannot permit
+an innocent, harmless girl to be made sport of, and, accordingly, he
+constitutes himself her protector, and tries generously to indemnify
+her for the neglect of others. He does not dream that Elsa's vanity
+builds all kinds of schemes upon his conduct, or he would never forgive
+himself----"
+
+"Enough, enough!" Herbert interrupted her angrily. "I cannot see how,
+with the pain in your face, you manage to talk so much. I can
+understand that Elsa is disagreeable to you because I have educated
+her, but I cannot understand how, tied to your invalid chair as you
+are, you have contrived to fall in love with this Möllner. Indeed, if I
+had not had hopes of marrying him to my sister, I should have broken
+with the arrogant pedant long ago, for I hate him as much as you women,
+old and young, adore him."
+
+Frau Herbert looked with a quiet, thoughtful expression at the speaker,
+who had worked himself into a violent rage, and then she silently
+resumed her work, suppressing the words that rose to her lips,--for she
+possessed the rare talent of knowing when to be silent.
+
+Herbert waited for some minutes for a reply which might afford him
+further opportunity for venting his spleen, but, receiving none, he
+turned away, and was about to seek his study.
+
+Just then there was a knock at the door, and the postman entered, with
+a thick square parcel in his hand. Herbert grew pale at sight of it,
+and his wife too looked sad and sorry.
+
+"Your manuscript?" she asked.
+
+"My manuscript," he said, writing his name in the mail-book with an
+unsteady hand.
+
+"There's a gulden and twenty-four kreutzers to pay," said the
+messenger.
+
+"So much?" growled Herbert, counting out the money carefully by
+groschen and kreutzers. When the man had left the room, Herbert hastily
+tore open the envelope, and a letter appeared, which he hurriedly
+looked through and handed to his wife with a look of despair. The
+letter was from the manager of the royal court theatre at X----, and
+ran thus:
+
+
+"To Herr Professor Herbert, of N----:
+
+"I am greatly concerned, sir, to be obliged to return you your tragedy
+of 'Penthesilea,' as it presents insurmountable difficulties for scenic
+representation. The secrecy enjoined upon me shall be inviolably
+preserved.
+
+                                   "With great respect, etc.,
+
+                                                          "W----."
+
+
+Frau Herbert looked up with a sigh at her husband, who stood pale and
+trembling beside her.
+
+"There goes my last hope," he said, tearing up the letter. "I forgave
+all the other managers and directors for sending back the manuscript,
+for they are incapable of appreciating the value of such a work. But no
+one can accuse a man like W---- of not appreciating genuine art, and if
+he refuses to bring it out he must be actuated by envy. However that
+may be, in these lines he has written his own death-warrant." He raised
+his hand containing the crushed letter with something like solemnity,
+and continued: "I now declare war upon the German stage and its
+supporters. If I have nothing to hope, I have nothing to fear. I have
+written six tragedies for the waste-paper basket. I will not write
+another. Having nothing to fear, I may allow myself the delight of
+revenge. Criticism is an all-embracing friend, affording a sure refuge
+for every one who is misunderstood and depreciated. I will throw myself
+into its arms from this moment. Our public is degenerate. I give up
+composing for a people who crowd to a farce, shout applause at the
+commonplace jests of the hero of a modern comedy, and dissolve in tears
+at a sensation drama from a woman's pen. Shakspeare's, Schiller's, and
+Goethe's works would be rejected to-day as 'pulpit eloquence,' if past
+ages had not stamped them as classic. This degraded generation must be
+educated anew by criticism. They sneer and jeer, and jingle the money
+in their pockets, these traders of the drama, who demoralise the
+public; but I will so scourge them that I shall be called the Attila of
+the German stage."
+
+He paused, for breath failed him to continue his philippic, and he
+began to read over his manuscript, murmuring to himself, "This is for
+the future."
+
+Frau Herbert, as was her wont, suffered him to rage on without
+interruption; but at last she was compelled, out of regard for truth,
+to attempt to check the outpourings of the angry man. "It is a mournful
+office," she began, "that of literary executioner, and one I should be
+sorry to undertake. There is no good done to anybody by it. Many a
+blossoming genius is destroyed in the bud, and the critic brings upon
+himself the curses of those who have been striving and labouring
+honestly, night and day, only to see the offspring of all their pains
+ruthlessly murdered by the cold steel of his criticism. And the public
+do not thank you for degrading in its eyes what it had taken pleasure
+in, and thus robbing it of much enjoyment. Schiller and Goethe never
+practised criticism after this fashion. They knew how to live and let
+live, for they were too great to wish to aggrandize themselves at the
+expense of their contemporaries, and too good to destroy the results of
+the painful labours of others. Oh, Edmund, how small the man must be
+who can seek to exalt himself by depreciating others!"
+
+"You are preaching again without sense or reason," Herbert said angrily
+to his wife. "It was very easy for Schiller and Goethe to play at
+magnanimity, for they were never misunderstood,--the wiser generation
+of their day did not refuse them the crowns that belonged to them of
+right. A king by election would be a fool to make war upon the vassals
+of his realm. But the nation refuses me my right, and therefore I shall
+make war upon it."
+
+"Are you so sure of this right?" Frau Herbert asked in a low tone. "Are
+you so sure that your works are of equal value with Schiller's and
+Goethe's, and deserve the same applause?"
+
+Herbert stood as if petrified at the presumption of such a speech. "I
+really think the pain must have gone from your face to your brain. We
+had better discontinue this conversation."
+
+Frau Herbert went on with her work. A slight flush tinged her bloodless
+cheek, but she was too used to such attacks to reply to them. She had
+already said too much of what she thought, and when she looked at
+Herbert's anxious face she was seized with compassion. Poorly as he
+bore it, he had met with misfortune, and she would not add to his
+pain. "Pray, Edmund," she said, after a pause, occupied by Herbert in
+seeking and finding consolation in the beauties of his manuscript,
+"make up your mind now to read the piece to your friends. There are so
+many intellectual people here who will give you their opinion
+honestly,--then you can see what impression your work makes as a whole,
+and perhaps their criticism may enable you to improve it here and
+there."
+
+"I desire no one's opinion. I know perfectly well myself what the
+tragedy is worth. Shall I give occasion to have it said that I needed
+the assistance of others to enable me to complete my work? And then to
+have it reported that I composed dramas that were always rejected! No,
+I will not acknowledge a work that has met with no applause; neither my
+brother professors nor my students must hear of it."
+
+The handle of the door was turned, and through the opening smiled
+another opening,--Elsa's large mouth. When she saw the gloom
+overspreading her brother's countenance, her snub-nose, too, made its
+appearance, and, finally, her entire lovely person. She wore a white
+apron with a bib, calico over-sleeves, and had one pencil in her hand
+and another behind her right ear.
+
+"Your voices disturbed me at my work. Why contend thus? You know that
+my exquisite fancies are scared away, like timid birds, by the
+slightest noise."
+
+"It is a fine time to consider your nonsense, when such a work as my
+'Penthesilea' has been returned to its author as 'unserviceable!'"
+thundered her brother.
+
+"Heavens!" cried Elsa in dismay. "Penthesilea rejected by W----! Oh,
+who would have thought it! I so revered that man! My poor brother, this
+is hard! But, brother, dear Edmund, do not be too much depressed! Oh, I
+feel with you entirely. Any one who knows as well as I do what it is to
+have works rejected, can understand your pain. And what says my poor
+Ulrika? She looks so disappointed."
+
+"Oh, you need not pity her!" observed Herbert bitterly. "Her husband's
+incapacity alone, not his misfortune, troubles her."
+
+Frau Herbert turned her face towards the window, as if she had not
+heard him.
+
+"Oh, you must forgive her, brother dear--she has never done anything
+but translate. She cannot know a poet's finer feeling."
+
+At this disparaging remark, Frau Herbert looked calmly and gravely at
+Elsa. "And yet my unpretending translations for the periodicals supply
+us with the only means upon which we can rely, apart from Edmund's
+salary and the small interest of my property. That is because I never
+attempt what lies beyond my reach. No undertaking, however humble, that
+keeps pace with one's ability, can fail to produce some fruit, small
+though it may be."
+
+Elsa turned away, rather taken aback by this turn of the conversation,
+and her brother muttered, "Of course this is the sequel to the fine
+talk about attempting and failing."
+
+Elsa threw herself down upon a cushion at his feet, in Clärchen's
+attitude before Egmont, patted his smoothly shaven cheeks, and
+taking the thick manuscript out of his hand, pressed it to her bosom,
+saying, "Take comfort, my poet. Your 'Penthesilea' must always live!
+Here,--here,--and in the hearts of all. Print it, and publish it as a
+dramatic poem. It will find readers among the most intellectual people
+of the country."
+
+"You are a good sister," said Herbert, flattered. "But you know that I
+have never yet been able to find a publisher enlightened enough to
+bring out my tragedies. And my own means are not sufficient to enable
+me to print the work."
+
+"Oh, brother dear, I cannot believe that 'Penthesilea' would not find a
+publisher. It is the greatest thing you have ever written. The coarsest
+of men must be touched by such elevation of thought. There may perhaps
+be some difficulty in representing fitly upon the stage the conflict
+between Trojans, Greeks, and Amazons in the presence of the gigantic
+horse. But I cannot think that any one would refuse to print such a
+gem,--no--never! Yet, even in case of such incredible obtuseness, do
+not despair. My cookery-book will bring me in such a large sum that I
+shall be able to help you. Oh, what a strange freak of destiny, should
+I be permitted by means of a cookery-book to afford the German nation
+the knowledge of this immortal work! The ways of genius are
+inscrutable, and perhaps 'Penthesilea' may one day be born from the
+steam of a soup-tureen, as Aphrodite was from the foam of the sea.
+There, now, you are smiling once more. May not your sister contribute
+somewhat to her brother's success?"
+
+"You are a dear poetical child. Although I do not share your
+anticipations, your appreciation of my efforts does me good. Thank
+you!" And darling Edmund laid his hand upon his sister's curly head as
+it lay tenderly upon his breast.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                       EMANCIPATION OF THE FLESH.
+
+
+On the evening of this eventful day, Professor Herbert, before going to
+the Möllners', entered a splendid boudoir in a retired villa on the
+outskirts of the city. The entire room formed a tent of crimson damask
+shot with gold and gathered in huge folds to a rosette in the centre of
+the ceiling. Around the walls were ranged low Turkish divans of the
+same material. The floor was covered with crimson-plush rugs as thick
+and soft as mossy turf. Turkish pipes and costly weapons of all
+kinds,--shields, swords, pistols, and daggers,--adorned the walls. In
+the background of the apartment slender columns supported a canopy
+above a lounge, before which was spread a lion's skin, with the head
+carefully preserved. Upon the floor beside it stood an elegant
+apparatus for smoking opium. A riding-whip, the handle set with
+diamonds, lay upon a table of bronze and malachite. A Chinese salver,
+heaped with cigars, was upon a low stand beside the lounge. Upon a
+polished marble pedestal in the centre of the room stood a bronze of
+the Farnese bull, and to the right and left of the lounge were placed
+bronzes of the horse-tamers of the Monte Cavallo at Rome. The rich
+hangings of the walls were draped over candelabra holding lamps of
+ground glass.
+
+The smoke of a cigar was circling in blue rings around the room, that
+was far more fit for a Turkish pasha than for a lady. And yet it was
+the abode of a lady, and it was the smoke from her cigar that encircled
+Herbert upon his entrance.
+
+At first he only saw, resting on the lion's skin, two beautiful little
+feet in Russian slippers embroidered with pearls. The drapery of the
+canopy above the lounge concealed the rest of the figure. He advanced a
+few steps, and there, stretched comfortably upon the swelling cushions,
+reclined a woman beside whom all other works of nature were but
+journey-work,--such a woman as appears in the world now and then to
+cast utterly into the shade all that men have hitherto deemed
+beautiful. Herbert stood dazzled and blinded by the apparition before
+him. He was dressed in his new coat, and had an elegant cane in his
+hand, that was covered by a glove, upon which his wife had that morning
+employed her skill. But what was he, in all his elegance, by the side
+of this woman! He stood there dumb "in the consciousness of his
+nothingness." What could he be to her, or what could he give her? She
+was the woman of her race! She must mate with the man of her race, as
+the last giantess in the Nibelungen Lied could love only the last
+giant. Was he in his fine new coat this man of men,--the Siegfried to
+conquer this Brunhilda? Ah, he was but too conscious that he was
+nothing but a poor weakling, whose only strength lay in his passionate
+admiration of her!
+
+"Aha, here comes our little Philister," said the fair Brunhilda in
+broken German with a yawn, holding out her soft hand to him and drawing
+him down upon the lounge beside her like a child. Herbert sank into the
+luxurious cushions, that almost met, like waves, above him. The
+position did not at all suit his stiff, erect bearing, which was
+entirely wanting in the graceful suppleness of the born aristocrat who
+lolls with ease upon silken cushions. Such a seat would become a man in
+loose flowing costume, with an opium-pipe between his lips, and ready
+when wearied to fall asleep with his head pillowed upon the lady's lap.
+Poor Herbert was not one of these favourites of Fortune. He sat there
+stiff and wooden as a broken-jointed doll,--his pointed knees emerging
+from his downy nest, and his tight-fitting clothes stretched almost to
+their destruction by his unusual posture. He timidly placed his hat
+upon the stand beside him, and envied it its loftier position.
+
+"How now, my learned gentleman?" the lady began again. "What! dumb?
+What is the matter now?--what ails you?--domestic misery? Pardon! I
+mean conjugal bliss."
+
+"That is my constant trouble, dearest countess," Herbert replied,
+"although its dust never cleaves to my wings when I am with you. It is
+not that that worries me to-day. My Penthesilea----"
+
+The countess laughed loudly, and puffed out a cloud of smoke to the
+ceiling. "Here it comes! It is either his wife or his Penthesilea that
+teases him! I hope both may rest in eternal peace before long, for an
+unhappy husband and a tragedy are as much out of place in this boudoir
+as the fragrance of eau de Cologne or chamomile-tea--those horrid
+accompaniments of a sick-room!"
+
+"And yet it was you, fairest countess, that inspired me to embalm in
+classic verse that bold Amazon of antiquity."
+
+"That may be, and yet, my good fellow, believe me, Penthesilea herself
+would have considered it a terrible bore to have to read of her glory
+in a German tragedy. Come; don't be offended Have a cigar. Do you want
+fire to light it? Here; I will give you more than you need." And, with
+a laugh, she leaned towards him and lighted his cigar by her own.
+
+"You know you can do whatever you please with me," said Herbert, making
+a feeble attempt to twist his legs into a more comfortable position.
+"But take care not to go too far!"
+
+"Oho! my Herr Professor would fain mount his high horse?"
+
+"No, only take a higher seat," said Herbert involuntarily.
+
+"Well, then, sit on this ottoman, you wooden German with no sense of
+Oriental ease. There! will that do? When you really wish to mount a
+high horse, I pray you take mine. How often I have placed my Ali at
+your disposal! Do let me enjoy the delight of once seeing you on
+horseback! Will you not? Oh, it would be delightful!"
+
+"Thanks! thanks! I would do all that you desire,--even go to the death
+for you,--but it is rather too much to ask me to make a laughing-stock
+of myself."
+
+"Well, then, just take one walk with me, arm-in-arm. Oh, what a face of
+alarm my honourable gentleman puts on! He will go to the death for me,
+but not across the street. Ah, what a glorious hero for a tragedy he
+looks now! Hush! I know just what you would say,--wife, sister,
+cousins, aunts, good name, reputation as professor,--'great dread,' as
+Holy Writ hath it, would 'fall on all!' Every coffee-cup and tea-cup in
+the city of N---- would rattle abroad the startling news that Professor
+Herbert had been seen escorting the wild countess across the street.
+But it is all _en règle_ to slip around here in the twilight, and kiss
+my hands and feet, and then, at your evening party afterwards, shrug
+your shoulders at the mention of my name. For shame, Herbert! you are a
+cowardly fellow, fit for nothing but to be a _messager d'amour_ between
+myself and Möllner."
+
+"Countess," said Herbert menacingly, "do not goad me too far, or you
+will repent it! You know my passion for you--know that I would dare all
+for a single kiss from your lips; but you leave me thirsty at the
+fountain's brink,--hungry beside a spread table,--and you heap me with
+scorn. No living man could endure such treatment!"
+
+"Well, then, _point d'argent, point de Suisse_," cried the countess.
+"For every piece of good news of Möllner that you bring me, you shall
+have a kiss. For the sake of that man I would hold an asp to my breast!
+Why should I refuse a kiss to a German Philister like yourself? But you
+must first taste all the torment of rejected love, that you may make
+all the more haste to put an end to mine."
+
+"This is a poor prospect for me, countess; for I hardly think I shall
+ever be able to bring you good news. All that I can do is to bring you
+news of him; and if you refuse to reward the bad, as well as the good,
+my lips shall be sealed--you must seek another confidant."
+
+He rose, as if to go; but she took his hand, and looked beseechingly at
+him with her large, lustrous eyes.
+
+"Herbert!"
+
+The poor professor could not withstand that look, nor the tone in which
+she uttered that one word. He sank upon the lion-skin at her feet, and
+pressed his lips upon the pearls and silk of her embroidered slipper.
+
+"See, now, you are not as unkind as you would have me believe you," she
+said, looking down upon him with a contemptuous smile, that he,
+fortunately, did not perceive.
+
+"Oh, have some compassion upon me," he moaned. "I am most miserable! My
+home is a scene of ceaseless complaint. A wife disfigured and crippled
+by disease, so that she fills my soul with aversion, and, whenever I
+need rest from the thousand annoyances of my profession, only adds to
+their number. Then I am overwhelmed by vexations of every kind,--my
+talents are slighted,--whatever I attempt fails. And then this contrast
+when I come to you! Before me here lies all that is fairest and
+loveliest that earth has to offer; but the delight that I feel in
+beholding it is an insidious poison, eating into my very life,--for
+nothing--nothing of all this splendour is mine. I stand like a boy
+before the Christmas-tree that has been decked for another,--I am here
+only to light the lights upon the tree, that another may behold his
+bliss; and when I have induced that other to appreciate and take
+possession of his wealth, then--then I must turn and go empty away! Oh,
+it is dreadful!" He buried his face in the lion's mane, and, by the
+motion of his shoulders, he was plainly weeping.
+
+The countess looked down upon him with the compassion that one feels
+for a singed moth. Had it been possible, she would have crushed him
+beneath her foot for very pity,--just as we put an end to the insect's
+sufferings; but, as it was not possible, and as, moreover, she had need
+of the man, she raised him graciously, and again seated him upon the
+cushions beside her. "You shall not go away empty-handed, my good
+fellow. I told you before I will make you a rich man. If you only bring
+Möllner to my side, my banker shall give you, as long as I live----"
+
+"Countess!" he exclaimed, "do not carry your scorn of me too far. I am
+sunk low enough, it is true, since I thus chaffer and bargain with you
+to sell you my assistance for a single kiss. For this single caress I
+would resign my life! The thought of you is the madness that robs me of
+sleep at night, makes me hesitate and stammer when I stand before my
+pupils in the lecture-room, and prevents me from enjoying the food that
+I eat. A single kiss from you is more bliss than such a wretched man as
+I should hope to enjoy. But I am not yet sunk so low as to hire myself
+out for money, and although you may hold me in contempt, you shall at
+least pay some respect to the position of German professor, which I
+have the honour to hold!"
+
+The countess was silent for awhile, struck by his words. But such
+embarrassment could last but a moment with a woman conscious of the
+power to atone by a smile for the grossest insult. "Come here! Forgive
+me! I have erred, but I repent."
+
+"Oh, light of my life!" cried Herbert, seizing her offered hand, and
+pressing it to his breast. "Forgive--forgive you? With what unnumbered
+pains would I not purchase the joy of such a request! The only thing I
+cannot forgive you is that such a woman as you should love this
+Möllner."
+
+"Indeed!--and why?"
+
+"Because he is not worthy of you. Look you,--were you to give yourself
+to an emperor or a king, I could bear it without a murmur. Crowned
+heads are entitled to the costliest of earth's treasures,--how could I
+covet what kings alone could win? But that one of my own class should
+call you his,--one with no special claim of birth, culture, or
+intellect,--with nothing that I too do not myself possess, except a
+physique that is his in common with any prize-fighter,--the thought is
+madness!"
+
+A dark flush coloured the beautiful woman's brow. "I have not even
+acknowledged to myself why I love this Möllner. I never hold myself
+responsible for my impulses--every passion bears its divine credentials
+in itself. But you have just revealed to me what so enraptures me in
+this Möllner. Yes! it is nothing else than what we admire as the
+highest attribute of humanity--a noble, genuine manhood. I think I have
+read in some poet, 'Take him for all in all, he was a man!' But this
+man is more; he is what I have never in my life seen before,--a
+virtuous man. This, my good little professor, is his charm, his
+advantage over monarchs even,--enabling him to buy what is his now and
+forever,--my heart! Oh, there can be no more exquisite flower in the
+garden of Paradise than this which I hope to pluck--the devotion of
+this virtuous man. It is the bliss of Eve when she breathed the first
+kiss upon the lips of the first man and marked his first blush!"
+
+The beautiful woman, speaking more to herself than to the miserable man
+by her side, leaned back upon her lounge and exclaimed with a heavy
+sigh, "Oh, what a divine office for a woman--to teach a man like this
+to love!"
+
+Herbert reflected for a moment. He had been playing the traitor here,
+and, in the hope of winning Johannes for his sister, had never said
+anything to him in favour of this woman. He had deceived her with
+falsehoods, that he might be retained as her confidant as long as
+possible, and perhaps profit by her waning interest in his colleague.
+But now all his hopes and plans were ruined. Möllner loved the
+Hartwich, and was lost for Elsa,--who might, at all events, be avenged
+of her hated rival by means of the countess. The all-conquering charms
+of the Worronska should subdue Möllner, and he, Herbert, would
+receive--all that was left for him in the general shipwreck--the
+gratitude at least of the countess.
+
+He began at last, after a severe inward conflict. "I have a
+communication for you, but it will make you angry. I cannot, however,
+feel justified as your friend in withholding it from you."
+
+"Well?" inquired the Amazon, lighting a fresh cigar.
+
+"I have discovered that Möllner is in love."
+
+The countess started, and looked at Herbert as if in a dream. The smoke
+from the freshly-lighted cigar issued in a cloud from her half-opened
+lips, and she looked like a beautiful fiend breathing fire.
+
+"Whom does he love?" she asked, her eyes flaming as if she would force
+the name from Herbert before his lips could find time to utter it.
+
+"Have you ever heard of a learned woman called Hartwich?"
+
+"Yes, yes! she too is emancipated."
+
+"True, but not at all after your fashion, countess," Herbert corrected
+her, maliciously enjoying the torture to which the haughty woman was
+put. "You are emancipated for the sake of pleasure--she is emancipated
+for the sake of principle. She is a rare person, and fills Möllner with
+admiration of her genius!"
+
+"Well, and it is she?" she cried, stamping her little foot upon the
+soft carpet.
+
+"He is in love with her!"
+
+For the first time, the countess sprang up from her lounge, and stood
+before Herbert in all the majesty of her person. Her gold-embroidered
+Turkish robe hung in heavy folds around her. Her dark hair fell in
+loosened masses upon her shoulders. The glitter of her long diamond
+ear-rings betrayed the tremor that agitated her whole frame. Her low,
+classic brow, with its bold, strongly-marked eyebrows,--her mouth,
+shaped like a bow, with lips parted,--her firm, massive throat,--the
+whole figure, so powerfully and yet so perfectly formed,--all suggested
+the Niobe, only the passion that swayed her was rage, not suffering.
+"Is this true? Is it really true? I must hear all."
+
+Herbert told her all that he had seen and heard.
+
+The countess was silent for one moment, as if paralyzed by
+astonishment. Then she muttered, as if to herself, a few broken words
+that Herbert could not understand, but at last her rage overflowed her
+lips and reached his ears.
+
+"There is a first time for everything. This is the first time that a
+man honoured by my notice has loved another." She strode up and down
+the room so hurriedly that the flame of the lamps flickered as she
+passed them. She threw her cigar into the fireplace. "Must I endure it?
+I? Oh, cursed be the day when the count came here for his health! For
+this I have spent my months of widowhood since his death, in this hole,
+away from all the enchantments of the world, even timidly waiting and
+hoping like a bride,--no society about me but my horses, dogs,
+and--you! For this, for this,--that I might learn that there lives a
+man who can withstand me. The lesson, it is true, was well worth the
+trouble!"
+
+She struck her forehead. "Oh that I had never gone to that lecture!
+then I might never, perhaps, have seen him. Why did I not stay away?
+What do I care about physiology, anatomy, or whatever the trash is
+called? I heard this Möllner was distinguished among his fellows, and
+curiosity impelled me to go. Fool that I was, to imagine that he saw me
+there and admired me as I did him!" She stood still, and involuntarily
+lost herself in thought "Ye gods! how glorious the man was that
+evening! The brow, the hair, the eyes, were all of Jove himself. I felt
+myself blush like a girl of sixteen, when I met his eye. And such
+grace, such dignity! His voice, too,--melodious as a deep-toned bell. I
+did not understand what he said; but there was no need, his voice was
+such harmony that no words were wanting to the charm. It was a
+symphony,--no, finer still, for that we only hear, and in him the
+delight of sight was added. The movements of those lips--how
+inimitable! And then his smile!" She paused,--her cheeks glowed, her
+eyes sparkled. It was a delight to her to lay bare her heart for once,
+careless as to what were the feelings of her auditor.
+
+"And if that voice is so enchanting when it discourses upon dry,
+unmeaning topics, what must it be when it comes overflowing from his
+heart!" She leaned against the pedestal of one of the bronzes, and
+covered her eyes with her hand.
+
+Herbert sat as if upon the rack,--he could not speak,--his voice denied
+him utterance.
+
+"No man has seemed to me worthy of a glance since I saw him first.
+Bound by no vow, no duty, no right, I have still been true to him.
+Since loving him, I have first known a sense of what the moralist would
+call decorous reserve. For a woman who for the first time truly loves
+is in the first bloom of youth, whether she be sixteen or thirty. I was
+a wife before I was a woman, and the spring, that I had never known
+before, began to breathe around me beneath the magic influence of that
+man,--the maiden blossom of my life, crushed in the germ, budded anew.
+Oh, what would I not have been to him! I, with the experience of
+ripened womanhood and the first love of a girl! And scorned! I, for
+whose smile monarchs have contended, scorned by a simple German
+philosopher! Oh, it stings, it stings!"
+
+And she hid her face again.
+
+Herbert timidly approached her and touched her shoulder lightly with a
+trembling hand. "Would that I could console you!"
+
+She shrank from his touch as if a reptile had stung her.
+
+"What consolation can you give me, except the relief that I have in
+pouring out my soul before you?"
+
+She moved away, and again strode restlessly to and fro like a caged
+lioness. "Fool, fool that I was! How could I suppose that the interest
+he took in my husband's case was due to my attractions? It was inspired
+by a hateful disease,--for this he came hither, and I thought he came
+for my sake! Oh, fie, fie! I stayed for love of him by that terrible
+sick-bed, and he had eyes only for the sick man,--he never even saw me
+standing beside him. Is he man, or devil?"
+
+"Oh, no," Herbert interrupted her, with malice, "he is only--a German
+philosopher."
+
+"And once, when I sank fainting in that room, what an arm supported me,
+strong as iron, and yet tender as the arm of a mother! He carried me
+like a child from the apartment. I held my breath, that nothing might
+arouse me from that enchanting dream. He laid me on a couch, saying,
+with icy composure, 'Allow me, madam, to call your maid. I must return
+to the patient.' My cheeks burned with mortification; for one moment I
+hated him, but when the door had closed behind him I revered him as a
+saint. I could have knelt at his feet, and, clasping his knees, bedewed
+his hands with penitential tears. But I restrained myself. I suddenly
+knew that this pure spirit could love nothing that he did not
+respect,--that I must first win that before I could hope for his love.
+I determined to begin a new life, to break with all the past. For no
+sacrifice would be too great to win the love of this man, and I sowed
+renunciation that I might reap delight. Fool that I was! I reap nothing
+but the reward of virtue!"
+
+She laughed bitterly, and a violent burst of tears quenched the fire in
+her brain. She threw herself down upon the lion's skin, unconsciously
+representing the Ariadne.
+
+"Loveliest of women!" murmured Herbert, intoxicated by the sight. "Is
+it not monstrous that such a woman should mourn over an unrequited
+love? Does he who could withstand such charms deserve the name of man?
+No, most certainly not. He is an overstrained pedant, the type of a
+German Philister, and if blind nature had not endowed him with the head
+of a Jove and the form of an athlete, the Countess Worronska would
+never have wasted a tear upon him!"
+
+"Herbert, you shall not revile him! You cannot know how great he seems
+to me in thus coldly despising my beauty, as though he might choose
+amongst goddesses,--as though Olympus were around him, instead of this
+insignificant town filled with ugly, gossiping women. What a lofty
+ideal must have filled his fancy,--an ideal with which I could not
+compete! When he saw me first, he did not know this Hartwich. I
+remember how cold his eye was when he first saw me. He looked at me
+with the cool gaze of an anatomist. And it was always so. Whenever he
+visited my husband, he always treated me with the strictest formality.
+Always the same gentle, inviolable repose,--the same calm scrutiny that
+one accords to a fine picture, but not to a lovely woman. Oh, there is
+something overpowering, in all this, for a woman used to seeing all men
+at her feet!" She sank into a gloomy reverie. At last she seized
+Herbert's hand. "Herbert, who is she who has power to enchant this man?
+Is all contest with her useless? Must I resign all hope?"
+
+Herbert, as if electrified by her touch, whispered scarcely audibly,
+"Will you grant me that kiss if I show you how to annihilate the
+Hartwich in Möllner's eyes?"
+
+A pause ensued.
+
+"It is my only price. Without it I am dumb."
+
+"Well, take it, then!" cried the countess, driven to extremity; and she
+held up to him her lovely lips.
+
+But, as Herbert approached her, with the expression of a jackal
+thirsting for his prey, disgust overpowered the haughty woman, and she
+thrust the slender man from her so violently that he fell to the
+ground. She was terrified,--perhaps her impetuosity had ruined
+everything. She went to him and held out her hand. "Stand up and
+forgive me."
+
+Herbert stood up, pale as a ghost, with sunken, haggard eyes, and
+readjusted his dress, disordered by his fall. He wiped the cold drops
+from his brow with his handkerchief, and, without a word, took up his
+hat.
+
+The countess regarded his proceedings with alarm. "Herbert," she said
+with a forced smile, "are you angry with me for being so rude?"
+
+"Oh, no," he answered, in a hoarse, hollow tone.
+
+She held out her hand, but he did not take it.
+
+"Do not bear malice against me. I--I am too deeply wounded. I do not
+know what I am doing."
+
+Herbert was silent. He shivered, as if with cold. His look--the
+expression of his eyes--alarmed the countess more and more.
+
+"Now you will revenge yourself by not telling me how I can annihilate
+the Hartwich?"
+
+"Why should I not tell you?" stammered Herbert, with blue lips. "I keep
+my promises." He fixed his eyes upon the countess. "Make the Hartwich
+your friend, and you will make her an object of aversion in Möllner's
+eyes."
+
+The countess started; her terrible glance encountered Herbert's look of
+hate. They stood now opposed to each other,--enemies to the death,--the
+effeminate man and the masculine woman. She had offended him mortally,
+but Herbert's last thrust had gone home; and softly, lightly as an
+incorporeal shade, he passed from the room.
+
+When the countess was alone, she fell upon her knees, as though utterly
+crushed.
+
+"Thus outraged Virtue revenges herself! Artful hypocrite that she is!
+When I left her, she gave me no warning,--I sinned unpunished,--and
+now, when I would return to her repentant, she thrusts me from her with
+a remorseless 'Too late!' Too late!--my ships are burned behind me, and
+there is nothing left for me but to advance, or to repent,--Repent?"
+She writhed in despair. "No! O Heaven, take pity on me,--I am still too
+young and too fair for that!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+                      EMANCIPATION OF THE SPIRIT.
+
+
+High up upon the platform of her observatory, fanned by the pure
+night-breeze and bathed in starry radiance, stood Ernestine, waiting
+for the moon to rise. On her serious brow and in her maidenly soul
+there was self-consecration, and peace. The heated vapour of passion
+that was gathering like a thunder-cloud about her name in the world
+beneath her, the poisonous slander of lips that mentioned her only to
+defame her, could not ascend hither. Unconscious, assailed by no sordid
+temptations, she stood there in vestal purity,--elevated physically but
+a few feet from the earth, but soaring in mind worlds above it.
+
+Slowly and solemnly the moon's disc arose from the horizon and mounted
+upwards, lonely and quiet, in soft splendour. Thousands of little moons
+were reflected in the telescopes of astronomers in thousandfold
+diversity of aspect; but they were all images of the one orb slowly
+sailing through the air. Ernestine was not busied with her telescope,
+for no mortal quest could aid her in what she was seeking to-night. It
+was to be found only in her own breast. It was not the material, but
+the immaterial, that she was now longing to grasp; no single sense
+could be of any avail. She needed all the powers of her being
+harmoniously co-operating. And, as she gazed there, full of dreamy
+inspiration, it was as if the moon had paused in its course to mirror
+itself in those eyes. Oh that we could die when and as we choose! that
+we could breathe out our souls in a single sigh! No human being could
+pass away more calmly and blissfully than Ernestine could have done at
+that moment, as she gazed at that serene moon and breathed forth a
+yearning sigh after the Unfathomable.
+
+Happiness, pure and unspeakable, descended into her soul from the
+sparkling canopy of night This was her holiday, her hour of
+enfranchisement from the fetters of toil and study. She was alone
+beneath the starry sky,--a lone watcher, while all around were
+sleeping,--thinking while others were unconscious. She seemed to
+herself appointed to keep guard over the dignity of humanity, while all
+beside were sunk in slumber. She could rest only when others were
+roused to consciousness. The fever of night, that brings remorse to so
+many tossing upon restless couches, never assailed her. All earthly
+phantoms recede from the heart bathed in starlight, for in that light
+there is peace. In view of immensity, eternity is revealed to us, and
+every earthly pain vanishes like a shadow before it. But when star
+after star faded, and the moon had paled, the first rosy streak of dawn
+kissed a brow pale as snow, and a weariness as of death assailed her.
+The sacred fire of her soul had devoured her bodily strength and was
+extinguished with it. Then she sank to rest silently and
+uncomplainingly, like the lamps of night at the approach of day. So it
+was at this hour. As the darkness vanished, she descended to her
+apartments, and sought in brief repose the strength that would suffice
+for a day of constant labour.
+
+"The more time I spend in sleep, the less of life do I enjoy," she said
+in answer to the remonstrances of her anxious attendant. "Everything in
+the world is so beautiful that we should not lose one moment of it,--so
+short a time is ours to enjoy it."
+
+"Enjoy! Good heavens! What do you enjoy? you do nothing but work."
+
+"That is my enjoyment, my good Willmers. For my work is nothing less
+than the constant study and discovery of the beauties of the world. An
+immortality would not suffice to enjoy it all,--and what can we
+accomplish in our brief span of existence? Shall we curtail it by
+sleep? Has not nature, who gives us eighty years of life, robbed us of
+almost half of it by imposing upon us the necessity of spending from
+seven to nine hours out of the twenty-four in a state of
+unconsciousness? I will defy her as long as I can, and maintain my
+right to enjoy her gift as I please, and not as she please."
+
+Frau Willmers looked with intense anxiety at the pale cheeks of the
+speaker. As she lay in her bed, white as the snowy draperies around
+her, her thin hands fallen wearied upon the coverlet, her breath coming
+short and quick, the faithful servant's heart misgave her; for she saw
+that nature had already begun to revenge herself for the disobedience
+of her laws. She covered her up carefully in the soft coverlet. "Do not
+talk any more, my dear Fräulein von Hartwich,--you are worn out."
+
+"And you are wearied too, my good Willmers. Why do you rise whenever
+you hear me going to bed?"
+
+"Because I always hope that I may force you, out of consideration for
+me, to do what you will not do for yourself,--retire earlier and grant
+yourself the repose which is needful even for the strongest man,--how
+much more so for such a delicate creature as you are!"
+
+Ernestine languidly held out her hand. "You are kind and unselfish, my
+dear Willmers, but you cannot understand me. And, if you will insist
+upon sacrificing your night's rest to me, I must give you a room at a
+distance from mine, where you cannot hear what I am doing. Thank you
+for your care. Good-night."
+
+"Good-night," replied the housekeeper sadly, delaying her departure for
+a moment to draw the curtains closely around Ernestine's bed, that they
+might exclude the first golden rays of sunlight.
+
+
+That same night the countess spent tossing, like one scourged by the
+furies, upon her restless couch. She could hardly wait for the day that
+should take her to see her rival, and the same rising sun that filled
+Ernestine's sleep with friendly dreams,--for even in slumber the eye is
+conscious of light, and communicates it to the soul,--the same rising
+sun drove the tortured woman from her silken bed. She knew no
+weariness. Her healthy physical frame, hardened by exercise, withstood
+every attack of weakness. She owned no restraint, physically, morally,
+or mentally. She was talented, but she refused to think. Thought was in
+her view a fetter upon self-indulgence. Knowledge had limits which
+those who knew nothing were unconscious of. She would be free as the
+air, and therefore avoided everything that could disturb her
+superficial security. And she had sufficient intellect to feel that
+thought might lead to conclusions most dangerous to her theory of life.
+
+"Man's destiny is labour, woman's enjoyment" This was her motto, and
+she lived up to it. She dazzled the world with the rare spectacle of
+beautiful power and powerful beauty carrying away like the hurricane in
+its mad career whatever lies in its path, stripping the leaves from
+every flower, uprooting every young tree, and bearing them on perhaps
+for one moment before casting them aside, crushed and dying. A glorious
+spectacle for exultant Valkyrias, but one at which the common herd
+cross themselves. Every destructive force of nature--and such was this
+woman--possesses a shuddering poetic attraction for the on-looker who
+is himself secure. He admires what he fears, he revels in the sight of
+what he knows to be destructive. This was the position held by the
+inhabitants of the little town of N---- towards the beautiful Russian
+since she had arrived there with her sick husband. With her wild manner
+of life, she was a wonderful apparition in their eyes, a constant
+source of interest, yet always provoking sternest disapproval. When the
+magnificent woman galloped through the streets upon her fiery Arabian,
+or held the reins behind her pair of horses with a skilful hand, like
+Victory in her triumphal car, no one could refrain from rushing to the
+window to enjoy a sight not to be forgotten. Strength, health, and
+beauty seemed to be her monopoly and the firm foundation of her joyous
+existence.
+
+"The woman who desires to be emancipated," she was wont to say, "must
+have the true stuff in her. And as there are so few who possess it,
+there are but a few who are emancipated. If you cannot compete with a
+man, do not try to rival him. But she who has been baptized, as I have,
+in the ice-cold Neva, can afford to laugh at the whole tribe with their
+masculine arrogance."
+
+In Russia, where she had played her part in a community far less
+strict, she had had an excellent field for displaying her grace and
+agility in all knightly exercises at the tilting-school which had been
+instituted by the Russian nobility. There she made her appearance
+usually in a steel helmet and closely-fitting coat of mail of woven
+silver that shone in the brilliant sunlight, enveloping her as it were
+in splendour. When she rode into the lists thus arrayed, a crooked
+scimitar by her side, pistols in her belt, and mounted upon her Arabian
+steed, nothing could restrain the loud applause of all present. She
+rivalled the most distinguished sons of the Russian nobility in the
+grace and skill with which she managed her horse, the precision of her
+aim in shooting, and the boldness of her leaps. She knew no fear and no
+fatigue.
+
+She had the strength and vigour of a Northern divinity, with the
+glowing temperament of an Oriental. What wonder that, from Emperor to
+serf, all were her admiring slaves?
+
+Her father, Alexei Fedorowitsch, was a poor and uneducated noble, who
+had distinguished himself by his bravery in the war with Napoleon, and,
+invalided at its close, retired to his small estate in the country,
+where he lived upon his pension. His wife, a sickly aristocrat, who had
+condescended to marry him for want of a more desirable _parti_, was the
+torment of his life. In despair at the trouble and annoyance caused by
+his wife's delicate health, sensibility, and affectation, he made a
+vow, when she bore him a daughter, to educate his child to be an utter
+contrast to her mother. Better that the child should die than live to
+be such an invalid as his wife. And he began by causing his little
+daughter to be baptized, like the children of the poorest Russians in
+that part of the country, in the icy waters of the Neva. The little
+Feodorowna outlived her icy bath, and her entire education corresponded
+with this beginning. Her mother died a few days after this cruel
+baptism; anxiety for her child put the finishing stroke to her invalid
+existence. And so her rude, uncultured father was her only guide and
+instructor. He loved her after his fashion, and made her his companion
+in all his amusements, riding, training horses, and the chase.
+
+She was scarcely sixteen when he married her to a wealthy landed
+proprietor in the neighbourhood, ruder and more illiterate even than
+himself, and to the girl an object of aversion. As his wife, she lived
+on his lonely estate like a serf. Her husband was cruel and suspicious,
+and made her married life perfect torture. She was compelled to resign
+her free habits of life, which she loved better than all else in the
+world. Every extravagance, even the most harmless, was forbidden by her
+husband. The joyous girl who had been used to fly upon the back of her
+spirited steed over steppe and heath was not allowed to mount a horse,
+but was made to sit with her maid-servants and spin by the dim light of
+a train-oil lamp until her husband came home to compel, perhaps by the
+_kantschu_, her reluctant attention to his wishes. She bore this
+martyrdom for one year in silence. At last she made a confidant of a
+neighbouring nobleman, and implored his aid in her great need; but she
+found no sympathy,--no assistance. He called her a fool, who did not
+appreciate her good fortune,--told her that to think of a divorce was a
+crime, and that her husband was perfectly right. In her utter
+loneliness, longing for love, if it were only the love of her old
+father, a desire for freedom and hatred of her tormentor gained the
+victory, and she fled, without taking anything with her but the few
+clothes that she had possessed at her marriage. She travelled the
+greater part of the way on foot, and arrived at her father's in such a
+wretched condition that he was touched by compassion, received her
+kindly, and took her part against her husband. Her suit for divorce
+left her wholly without means, but free, and when shortly afterwards
+she came to know the old diplomat Count Worronska, and he laid his rank
+and his millions at her feet, offering a field for her beauty at court
+at St. Petersburg, she could not withstand the temptation. She became
+his wife, and was transplanted from the midst of half-savage serfs to
+one of the most magnificent courts in the world,--from the Russian
+forests and steppes to apartments gorgeous with every luxury of life.
+At first dazzled and confused, she won all hearts, even those of the
+women, by her innocent beauty and graceful diffidence. At last her
+unbridled nature broke forth all the more impetuously for the long
+restraint under which it had lain, and, with no guidance but that of
+her imbecile husband, who adored her, she rapidly degenerated in every
+way. Society always looks more leniently upon those errors that are
+gradually developed before its eyes and under its protection than upon
+those that it observes outside of its sphere, because it is cognizant
+of the excuse for the faults of those within it, and it was all the
+more willing to pardon the delinquent in this instance for the sake of
+the high rank of her husband. It therefore ignored escapades that the
+distinguished position held by the old count forbade it to punish, and
+the beautiful and enormously wealthy Countess Worronska, in spite of
+her dissipation, was and continued to be the centre of the most
+brilliant, if not the best, circle of society in St. Petersburg. All
+this she had resigned for the last six months, and she had lived like
+an outlaw, avoided by prudent "German Philisters," in the town of
+N----, for the sake of the only man whom she truly loved, and
+who--despised her.
+
+Before the death of her husband she had always been surrounded by a
+brilliant crowd of gentlemen who had sought her society from the
+neighbouring famous baths,--acquaintances from St. Petersburg,
+distinguished Englishmen, Italians, Poles,--in short, the gay, wealthy
+idlers of every nation that invariably flock around a beautiful woman
+upon her travels. With these she smoked, rode, and drove,--proceedings
+that had excited no outcry in the gay world at St. Petersburg, but that
+called forth shrieks of horror from the women in the little German
+University-town and greatly excited the students, who were never weary
+of caricaturing her,--harnessing four horses, and, disguised as women,
+driving them wildly through the streets, mimicking her foreign
+admirers, making her bearded servants drunk, and playing many other
+madcap pranks in ridicule of her.
+
+The universal horror culminated, however, when she did not dress in
+black after the count's death. People said with a shudder that she had
+declared that "it seemed to her despicable to play such a farce, and
+simulate a grief that she did not feel." How could any one so scorn
+conventionalities, and lay bare the secrets of the heart to the public
+gaze? Yes, it was even suggested that she had never been married, and
+they called her the "wild countess,"--much as we speak of wild fruit to
+distinguish them from those that are genuine. Although injustice was
+done her in this respect, she deserved the epithet "wild" in every
+other, and the name clave to her. Even Möllner, who was always ready to
+find some magnanimous excuse for feminine failings, thought that she
+ought to show more respect for her septuagenarian husband, and
+pronounced her conduct heartless ostentation. From that moment she lost
+all interest, if she had ever possessed any, in his eyes. He never
+noticed that for months no gentleman had been allowed to enter her
+doors, for he did not think it worth while to observe her actions.
+Whoever did observe it ascribed it to chance. The report of her
+improvement was drowned in the billows of scandal that had been lashed
+up by her previous conduct. No one believed in her reformation, least
+of all he for whom she made such sacrifices.
+
+And now the moment had arrived when, for the first time, she found
+herself helpless, opposed to a higher power,--and the effect of this
+first collision with invisible barriers upon the untrained heart of the
+countess was terrible. Hitherto she had recognized only the laws of
+decorum, and had transgressed them with impunity whenever they had
+oppressed her. Decorum is almost always subject to the will of
+individuals and to fashion. But the higher law that hovers over the
+universe, subject to no human will, to no change,--unchangeable, as is
+all that is divine,--is the law of _morality_. It was this against
+which the countess was now struggling, of the existence of which she
+seemed now first to become aware.
+
+But such a woman could not give up the battle. It was a law of her
+nature to resist. She could not yield. How could she?--she had never
+learned submission. She would battle for her desires. As a girl, she
+had endured hunger and cold for days in the pursuit of the chase, while
+food and warmth waited for her at home. From her earliest childhood,
+her will had been trained to iron persistence, and now, when she had
+again left the comforts and delights of home in pursuit of a far nobler
+prey, should she desist from the chase because the game belonged to
+another? Such a course was impossible for such a woman, and, as
+strength could not avail her here, she resorted to the commonest weapon
+of the merest flirt,--cunning.
+
+Herbert's malice contained a seed that swiftly ripened and bore fruit
+in the fertile brain of the countess, for she knew only too well how
+much truth there was in the charge that her friendship was a dishonour
+to a young girl. It was a terrible thought for her that there was no
+means left for her whereby she could crush a rival except by so
+poisoning her with her own infection that she might become an object of
+disgust to her lover. But, if she could gain nothing by such a course,
+she could at least revenge herself. She turned over the leaves of
+Ernestine's publications. They were too learned for her. She understood
+nothing from their pages, except that they contended for the
+emancipation of women,--that was enough for her. She too was
+"emancipated." It was enough to establish an understanding between
+them. Perhaps a meeting with Möllner might grow out of a visit to
+Ernestine. She was determined to make use of Herbert's malicious hint,
+his last bequest to her; for she had mortally offended him, and he no
+longer came near her. She hastily studied a few papers upon the
+emancipation of women, that she might comprehend what Herbert had said
+of "principle" in connection with the subject, and this was the day
+upon which she was resolved to see her victim. She selected Wednesday
+for her expedition, because Herbert had told her that Möllner had been
+with Ernestine on the previous Wednesday. Perhaps his visit might be
+repeated on the same day of the week.
+
+As soon as she rose, she blew a shrill whistle upon a little silver
+call. There instantly appeared--not a dog--a maid with a large bucket
+of spring-water, which was dashed over her beautiful mistress in a
+little bathing-tent.
+
+The maid then silently withdrew, and brought coffee and the newspapers.
+The countess, wrapped in a rich brocade dressing-gown, lighted a cigar,
+and, while drinking her coffee, looked carelessly through the papers.
+
+Afterwards she went to her dressing-room, and called to the
+dressing-maid in attendance there, "Riding-habit!" and, after a short
+delay, the maid brought her all she required. "Ali!" said the countess,
+which meant, "Go tell the groom to saddle Ali for me."
+
+The brief order was understood and obeyed with rapidity. Like a shadow
+the attendant glided from the room, appearing again like a shadow in
+the presence of her dreaded mistress. The servants of this woman must
+have neither mind, soul, nor heart,--only ears to hear, and hands and
+feet to obey. The poor dressing-maid did her best to fulfil all that
+was required of her,--she was all ear, hands, and feet. She scarcely
+breathed. It really seemed as if the powerful lungs of her mistress
+inhaled all the air of the apartment, leaving none for any other
+inmate.
+
+She took her place behind the countess, who sat before the mirror,
+smoking, and began, as carefully as possible, to comb out her long
+hair. The lovely woman examined her own features critically to-day. One
+peculiarity of her face, otherwise faultless,--a peculiarity that
+reminded her of the Russian type,--irritated her excessively; she
+thought her cheek-bones somewhat too high.
+
+Just as she was contemplating this imaginary defect, the maid slightly
+pulled her hair. It was too much for her patience.
+
+"Maschinka!" she cried, starting up and snatching the comb from the
+poor girl's hand. A flash--a blow--and Maschinka stooped silently to
+pick up the pieces of the broken comb. The print of its teeth was
+left upon her pale cheek, but no word, no cry of pain, escaped her
+lips,--her eyes alone looked tearful.
+
+"Get another!" ordered her mistress, as if nothing had happened, and
+she sat down again.
+
+Maschinka obeyed, and finished the coiffure, and the rest of the
+toilette, without further disaster. Then she brought riding-whip, hat,
+and gloves, and the countess descended the richly-carpeted stairs.
+Suddenly she stood still, and called, "Maschinka!"
+
+"Madame!"
+
+"Does your cheek hurt you?"
+
+"Oh, no!" whispered the girl.
+
+"What? Don't lie! Well, then, rub it with cold cream, from the silver
+box on my dressing-table; and keep the box,--I give it to you."
+
+Without listening to the girl's thanks, she passed on. Her magnificent
+Arabian was led, snorting and foaming, around the court-yard. She
+beckoned to the stout, bearded Russian, who could scarcely restrain it,
+and he led it towards her. Another servant, in a rich livery, brought
+sugar upon a silver plate. She fed the noble animal, who was instantly
+soothed, kissed its smooth forehead, patted its neck, and mounted
+lightly to her place upon its back.
+
+"What o'clock?" she asked, as the servant handed her the whip, and she
+rose in the stirrup to arrange the folds of her dress.
+
+"Past five o'clock, madame," was the answer.
+
+"I shall return at eight. The carriage must be ready by twelve. Tell
+Maschinka to have my dress prepared."
+
+"As madame pleases," replied the servant.
+
+"Open!" cried the countess, and a third groom, who had been waiting for
+this order, threw open the double gates of the court-yard, letting in a
+flood of morning sun-light. All reared beneath his lovely burden, as if
+he would soar with her into the clouds, but a quick cut from her whip
+somewhat cooled his Pegasus ardour, and he sprang forward, almost
+running over a servant, who had not moved aside quite quickly enough,
+and gained the street. Here, however, his mistress reined him in.
+
+"The dogs!" she called.
+
+The servants all hurried into the court-yard, and a frightful noise was
+heard. The barking, howling pack came rushing from their kennels, and
+leaped around their mistress with all the signs of delight that their
+mad gambols can evince. And now a wild race began. Away tore the
+Arabian, tossing the foam from his mouth. As he flew rather than
+galloped along, he tossed back his head, pointed his ears, and
+distended his nostrils, striving to outstrip the yelling pack at his
+heels. The beautiful hounds followed hard behind, in long leaps. The
+servants stood grouped about the gateway, looking after their mistress.
+
+"Aha," muttered the chief among them to himself, "she is turning into
+the Bergstrasse. The dogs must waken Professor Möllner again, and bring
+him to the window."
+
+But the bearded old Russian observed sadly, "She'll break her neck some
+day."
+
+Peaceful, and buried in slumber, lay the quiet little town. The
+windows,--eyes of the houses,--were closed, as were those of their
+inmates; but, as the countess dashed by in her mad career, one after
+another was opened, a curtain drawn aside here and there, and a sleepy,
+curious face appeared.
+
+The countess laughed at the crop of night-capped heads which her ride
+past their windows suddenly caused to appear. The warm-blooded Arabian
+shivered beneath her in the fresh, dewy morning air, and she felt its
+bracing breath colour her cheek. "What a miserable race is this, that
+spends such hours in bed! They rise only when the smoke from the
+chimneys and the weary sighs of labourers have thickened the air. That
+is the atmosphere for their delicate lungs! They are afraid of the cold
+breeze of dawn!"
+
+She passed by Herbert's dwelling, and, with a vigorous stroke of her
+whip, excited her dogs to a more furious barking. How should she know
+that his invalid wife, in that upper chamber, had just fallen into a
+refreshing slumber after a wakeful night of pain, a slumber from which
+the noise aroused her to a day of suffering?
+
+Here, too, a curtain was drawn aside, and Elsa's dream-encircled head
+peeped out.
+
+"That is his monkey-faced sister," thought the countess, and nodded in
+very wantonness. The face vanished in alarm. Herbert did not appear.
+And she galloped on through the silent streets. It was wearisome riding
+thus upon stony pavements, with a sleeping public all around, her only
+spectators the servants and peasants carrying milk and bread, and
+staring open-mouthed at the haughty horsewoman. Now and then a student
+in his shirt-sleeves, brush or sponge in hand, would appear at a
+window, and one poured out the contents of his washbasin upon her dogs,
+who had fallen fiercely upon an innocent little cur that was just
+taking his morning stroll. It was the only incident that varied the
+monotony of her ride, and she passed swiftly on towards the
+Bergstrasse, as the servant had prophesied.
+
+At last she reached it, and the glorious view of the distant mountains
+lay before her. The rough pavement came to an end, for here the
+pleasure-grounds of the town were laid out, and the roads were strewn
+with fine gravel. She now gave her steed the rein, and the fiery beast
+flew along, _ventre à terre_, with the pack after him in full cry. The
+houses were all surrounded by charming gardens. There was one which for
+a long time riveted the attention of the countess. Look! there was an
+open window, and at it stood Möllner, gazing out upon the far-off
+mountains.
+
+Just as the countess passed, he observed her, and answered her gesture
+of recognition by a respectful bow.
+
+He looked after her, well pleased as he marked the finely-knit figure,
+with a seat in the saddle so light and graceful that she seemed part of
+her horse. She turned her head and saw him looking after her, and in
+her pleasure at the sight she reined in Ali until he reared erect in
+the air and curveted proudly. Then on she galloped, and was soon lost
+to sight. She had reached the foot of the mountains, and, allowing her
+panting steed to ascend a little hill more slowly, she paused to rest
+him on the summit.
+
+Before her lay a golden, sunny world. It was an enchanting morning.
+Thin, vapoury smoke was beginning to rise from the chimneys, and the
+heavens were so cloudless that it ascended straight into the blue arch
+without being pressed down to the earth again.
+
+Over the tops of the pine-trees that crowned the brows of the
+mountains, little white feathery clouds were still hovering. It seemed
+as if those mighty heads would fain shake them off, for they soared
+aloft and then settled again, then shifted from place to place, hiding
+sometimes in the forest, until at last they vanished before the
+increasing power of the sun's rays, and the dark, jagged outline of the
+mountains stood out clear and free against the blue sky. Who, with a
+heart in his breast, beholding and enjoying all this beauty and glory,
+does not involuntarily look above in gratitude to the unseen Giver and
+mourn over his own unworthiness of such bounty? And how many eyes look
+on it all without understanding it or rejoicing in it! Does it not seem
+that on such a morning the most degraded soul would gladly purify
+itself, as the bird dresses his feathers at sunrise before he lifts his
+wings to soar aloft into the glorious ether?
+
+And yet the gloomy fire of the previous night still smouldered on in
+the countess's breast, and no cool breeze, no pearly dew, availed to
+quench its unhallowed glow. Her heart was desecrated,--the abode of the
+demons of low desire and hate. It could no longer soar to higher
+spheres. The beautiful woman gazed upon the landscape without one
+feeling of its beauty. She was far more interested in compelling the
+obedience of her impatient steed than in the grand prospect before her.
+In the gilded saloons of St. Petersburg she had lost all comprehension
+and love of nature, and she was so accustomed to consider herself a
+divinity that she was no longer conscious of the humility of the
+creature before its Creator. Although she might not deny Him, she was
+indifferent to Him, and if she sometimes visited His temple, she did it
+only as one pays a formal visit to an equal.
+
+Thus she stood there upon the hill, inhaling the fresh, fragrant air
+with a certain satisfaction, but with no more interest in the lovely
+scene than was felt by her dogs, who judged of the beauty of the
+landscape chiefly by their sense of smell, as, lying on the ground
+around their mistress, they too snuffed the morning breeze. Now and
+then one was led astray by the scent of game in the thicket; but a call
+from the silver whistle of his mistress reminded him of his duty, and
+he returned to his companions,--only casting longing looks in the
+direction in which his prey had escaped him. Had his haughty mistress
+ever in her life practised such self-denial? Could she have seriously
+answered this question, she might have blushed before the unreasoning
+brute.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+It was ten o'clock when Ernestine stepped out upon her balcony.
+Gaily-dressed peasants were passing, pipe in mouth, along the road
+outside her garden-wall, for to-day was the Ascension of the Blessed
+Virgin,--a glorious opportunity for drinking to her honour and glory.
+The people were in their gayest humour, their morning libations had
+already had some effect. The peasant seems to know no better way of
+giving God glory than by enjoying His gifts; he believes that he thus
+affords Him the same pleasure that a good host feels in seeing the
+guests at his table enjoy what is placed before them.
+
+Ernestine smiled at the thought of this profane belief, which
+nevertheless springs from honest, childlike traits of human nature.
+
+Leuthold had not yet returned from his journey, and these days of
+solitude had been,--she never asked herself why,--the pleasantest that
+she had known for a long time. She did in his absence only what she was
+used to do when he was with her; but her thoughts were very different.
+The man had so thoroughly imbued with his teaching her every thought
+and action, that when he was by she could not even think what he might
+disapprove. Since his departure she had, if we may use the expression,
+let herself alone. She allowed her thoughts to stray as they pleased.
+She was not ashamed to spring up from her work and feed the birds, or
+to spend an hour in the garden, or at the window in dreamy reverie. And
+she made various scientific experiments, that she might surprise her
+uncle upon his return with their successful results.
+
+And this was not the only advantage of his absence. She could go to the
+school-house to see the good old people there; she could--receive a
+visit!--a visit of which her uncle knew nothing. Was that right? Oh,
+yes, it was right,--it was too sacred a thing to be exposed to his cool
+contempt. Why was he so dry and cold and stern, that she must conceal
+every emotion from him? To have told him of this visit would have been
+like voluntarily exposing her roses to be frozen by ice and snow. She
+still remembered and felt the pain that he had made her suffer when she
+spoke to him of God. Then he had taken her God from her, and now he
+would take from her her friend,--the first, the only one she had ever
+known. It was the pure, sacred secret of her heart,--as pure and sacred
+as the communion she held with the starry heavens at night upon her
+observatory.
+
+Meanwhile the door had opened without her notice, and the Æolian harp
+sounded in the draught that swept across its strings. The birds, that
+had hopped close around her for their accustomed food, flew twittering
+away as a stranger appeared, and a deep, mellow voice asked, "Well, and
+how are you?"
+
+Ernestine started as at a lightning-flash. She turned and looked at the
+intruder with a deep blush, but with undisguised delight.
+
+"Why should you be startled?" he asked.
+
+"I do not know,--you appeared so suddenly. I did not see you coming
+down the road."
+
+"No, I took a cross-cut that was shadier; I came on foot."
+
+"Oh, then you must be tired!" said Ernestine, entering the room with
+him. "Sit down."
+
+"My dear Fräulein Hartwich, first shake hands with me,--there! And now
+tell me that you have quite forgiven me,--you do not think ill of me."
+
+"No, sir,--doctor!--Can I call you doctor? We give names to everything,
+why should you be the exception?" And she smiled.
+
+It was the first time that he had seen her smile, and it enchanted him.
+
+"If, then, it is so hard not to call me by name, christen me yourself.
+There are kindly titles invented by friendship or good will. Am I not
+worthy, in your stern sight, of any of these?"
+
+"Oh, none that I could find would be worthy of you, you are so kind,
+so--oh, yes! I have a title for you!"
+
+"Well? I am curious."
+
+"Kind sir!--will you allow that?"
+
+"Ah, my dear Fräulein Hartwich, it is you who are too kind."
+
+Ernestine smiled again. A fleeting blush tinged her cheek.
+
+Johannes looked at her. "Do you know that you seem much more cheerful
+than when I saw you last?"
+
+"Thanks to your skill, kind sir."
+
+"Indeed?--spite of my bitter physic?"
+
+"Yes, it did taste bitter, but good followed it."
+
+"Then you felt the truth of what I said?"
+
+She grew grave. "No, not that,--but I recognized a true, large heart,
+and admiration for that conquered my ailment,--delight in its sympathy
+overcame the pain of being misunderstood by it."
+
+"That is more than I ventured to hope, after so short an acquaintance.
+Were you less magnanimous than you are, you would hate me, for I deeply
+wounded your vanity, and, to be frank, I propose to do so still
+further."
+
+"Not a pleasant prospect, but I will be steadfast. If you deny me the
+strength of a man, you shall at least not find me subject to women's
+weaknesses,--among which I hold vanity to be the most despicable."
+
+Johannes smiled. "And yet you are not free from this weakness. You
+endure my assaults upon your pride because it gratifies your vanity to
+prove that you are not vain."
+
+Ernestine cast down her eyes. "You are clever at diagnosis," she said
+with slight bitterness.
+
+"I am only honest. Do you not see that I know, since you have received
+me so kindly to-day, that it would be quite possible to win your
+further confidence and esteem if I would only have a little
+consideration for your weaknesses? Let me confess frankly that a
+confidence so purchased would not content me. Trifling and jesting may
+have deceit for their foundation, for one will last no longer than the
+other, but the regard that I cherish for you, and that I would awaken
+in you for me, must--can--be founded only in the truth,--must grow out
+of the inmost core of our natures; and if our natures do not harmonize,
+any intimate relation between us is impossible, and an artificial tie
+between us would be, for us, a sin. If, then, my ruthless hand searches
+the hidden depths of your soul,--if I outrage your vanity, so that even
+the vanity of being magnanimously self-forgetting will not help you to
+endure it,--I only fulfil a sacred duty that truth requires of me, both
+to you and to myself,--a duty whose postponement might be heavily
+avenged in the future."
+
+Ernestine looked at him inquiringly. She did not understand him.
+
+"You are puzzled, and do not know how to interpret my words," he
+continued. "You cannot dream how far beyond reality my fancy soars. But
+you must feel that I am not a man to play the _bel-esprit_ for my
+amusement,--to find any satisfaction in measuring my wits to advantage
+with a woman's,--to take delight in hearing the sound of my own voice.
+Before I seriously approach a woman, I must be clear in my own mind as
+to what I can be to her and she to me. You, Fräulein von Hartwich,
+cannot be to me much or little,--you can be to me everything or
+nothing. Our natures are both too real to admit of our passing each
+other by pleasantly, politely, but without enthusiasm, like ephemeral
+acquaintances in society. We have already, in defiance of conventional
+rules, formed an intimacy in which character is revealed, and the aim
+of our intercourse must be a higher one than that of mere amusement.
+Otherwise I were a boor and you are greatly to blame for enduring me.
+Only a deep personal interest in you could warrant my relentless
+treatment of you. I acknowledge that I feel this deep personal
+interest. More I will not say now, for all else depends upon the
+development of our relations towards each other, in the increase or
+decrease of accord in our views of life and its purposes."
+
+Ernestine was silent. She began to have some suspicion of what she
+might be to this strong, upright character, and what he might be to
+her. But it was not that tender emotion that the first approach of love
+awakens in the heart of every woman, even the coldest; she was troubled
+and anxious. The decision with which he spoke convinced her at once
+that he never could be converted to her views,--that she must mould
+herself according to his,--that a transformation must take place in one
+or the other of them, if she would not lose what was already of such
+value to her. She was not accustomed to self-sacrifice, for her cunning
+uncle had so educated her, so trained her inclinations to accord with
+his wishes, that she always supposed she was having her own way, when
+in reality she was following his. She felt that this hour was a crisis
+in her life, that she was brought into contact with a will which would
+require of her great self-sacrifice, and of which she was almost in
+dread, because it was backed by superior strength.
+
+Johannes waited for an answer, but none came. He saw what was going on
+in Ernestine's mind, and that his words had chilled her, kindly as they
+were meant. He took her hand and looked into her eyes. "Ah, you will
+not call me 'kind sir' any more?"
+
+Ernestine was conscious of the true kindliness of his look, she felt
+the gentle clasp of his hand, and involuntarily she held out to him her
+disengaged hand also, and said almost in a tone of entreaty, "No, you
+will not be cruel, you will not hurt me."
+
+He stood silent for an instant, looking into her clear, confiding eyes,
+holding both her hands in his, and was for the moment unspeakably
+happy.
+
+"I promise you I will not give you more pain than I shall suffer
+myself," he said gently. "But we must buy dearly the happiness that is
+to content us. We are not of those who innocently and artlessly take
+upon trust whatever the present throws into their laps. Constituted as
+we are, we must needs make conditions with Heaven, and accept its gifts
+only when we have proved them. For we cannot be satisfied with what
+many would call happiness,--we can take no delight in what would charm
+thousands of others. It is the curse of natures like ours that they
+erect a standard of happiness far above what if usual,--and how many
+are there upon whom Providence bestows unusual happiness!"
+
+Ernestine smiled bitterly at Johannes's last words. "Providence!" she
+murmured, "we are our own providence. We shape our own destiny, create
+our joy or our misery,--the conditions of either are in ourselves!"
+
+"And because we are so mysteriously gifted beyond other creatures,
+because we are mentally freer and more conscious of ourselves than
+other beings, our responsibility as regards ourselves and those whom we
+see around us is all the greater. There are natures that are eternally
+wretched, because they demand more of life than it can possibly afford
+them, and undervalue all that it offers them, although it makes their
+lot enviable in the eyes of all. Then we say, 'Their unhappiness is
+their own fault, they have everything to make them happy, no one
+injures them; why are they so exorbitant in their longings?' But this
+is wrong. They are not insatiate, they would perhaps be contented with
+a far more moderate lot. What fault is it of theirs that the demands of
+their innermost nature are such that they require just what fate has
+not bestowed upon them? Of what use is a glittering gem to the
+traveller in the desert languishing for a drop of water? How willingly
+would he exchange the bauble for what he longs for! Who would say to
+him, 'You have a precious treasure, why are you not content?' Who would
+reproach him with being a human creature that cannot live without
+drinking? The most one can say to him is, 'Since you know that you
+cannot live without water, why go into the desert?' There is the point
+where we are responsible. If we know what are the conditions of our
+existence, we must see to it that what we choose in life accords with
+those conditions, always provided that Providence gives us the right of
+free choice. If this right is ours and we choose falsely, it is our
+fault if we are wretched. I call it an unusual boon, therefore, when
+Providence permits us to choose a lot that harmonizes with our nature.
+If this is denied us, the man of the greatest freedom of thought is not
+responsible for his fate,--he is under the ban of a higher power."
+
+Ernestine listened to him with undisguised interest. He saw it, and
+continued:
+
+"We, Fräulein Hartwich, are free to choose, and are therefore
+responsible to each other, and it is incumbent upon us to be on the
+watch. A kindly Providence, you too must admit this, has brought us
+together, and left the decision as to what we will be to each other in
+our own hands. Let us show ourselves worthy of the trust; let us try
+ourselves. I am sure you feel with me that the moment must be a
+glorious one in which two human beings recognize each other as their
+embodied destiny. But it must be celebrated not by gushes of
+sentimentality nor by would-be transcendentalism, but in perfect peace
+of mind!"
+
+He took her hand and gazed into her eyes. She stood quietly before him,
+and gathered calmness from his look. And again that significant silence
+ensued so dear to those whose hearts are full of what they cannot or
+dare not speak. Suddenly Frau Willmers softly opened the door.
+
+"There is a lady without, who wishes to speak with you, Fräulein
+Hartwich."
+
+"With me!" asked Ernestine in displeased surprise. "Who is she?"
+
+"She refuses to give her name, and will not be denied. She says if
+Fräulein von Hartwich is not at leisure now, she will wait any length
+of time."
+
+"Did you tell her I was engaged with a visitor?"
+
+"No, there is no knowing whether the lady"--here she cast an
+embarrassed glance at Johannes--"might not tell your uncle!"
+
+Ernestine looked down confused. "That is true--if it should
+chance--What is to be done? How very annoying!"
+
+"I thought perhaps the gentleman would allow me to take him through the
+laboratory and down the other staircase?" said Frau Willmers in a tone
+of anxious entreaty.
+
+"Shall I?" asked Johannes, not without evident vexation.
+
+Ernestine looked at Frau Willmers. "Pray do," she begged, "out of pity
+for poor Frau Willmers, who will have to bear the whole burden of my
+uncle's displeasure if he should learn that she had connived at our
+meeting."
+
+"I must comply with your wishes, but only for this once," he said,
+quietly offering her his hand. "When may I come again?"
+
+"Next Saturday, will you not?"
+
+Johannes knew perfectly well why she appointed that day, but he said
+nothing, and followed Frau Willmers. At the door he turned and looked
+at Ernestine. She saw something like displeasure in his face, and
+hastened after him.
+
+"Pray do not be angry with me, kind sir."
+
+Johannes was touched by the gentle entreaty from one usually so stern
+and cold. He pressed his lips upon her hand and whispered softly, "I
+shall never, never be angry with you. God bless you!"
+
+The door closed behind him, and Ernestine, still agitated by the
+interview, half awake and half dreaming, went into the antechamber to
+receive the stranger waiting there.
+
+The Worronska, in all her grandeur, stood before her.
+
+Ernestine had never in her life seen so extraordinary a vision. She was
+actually dazzled.
+
+The brown, Juno-like eyes were regarding her with strange curiosity,
+the black eyebrows were gloomily contracted; there was something so
+hard and haughty in her air and bearing that Ernestine took offence at
+it before a word had been uttered.
+
+The way in which the lady measured her with her glance from head to
+foot recalled to her memory the pain that she had once suffered beneath
+the gaze of the Staatsräthin's guests. For one second she felt in
+danger of the same overwhelming sensation of embarrassment. She seemed
+to grow pale and wither in the presence of this dazzling and haughty
+person. But she was no longer a child, sensible only of her defects,
+and the next moment the pride of conscious power came to her relief.
+She knew that she stood in the presence of an enemy, but she felt
+herself the equal of her opponent. Who was this woman who thus
+assumed the right to look down upon her? Whence did she derive this
+right?--from beauty, wealth, or rank? Did she know as much as
+Ernestine? Had she written a prize essay? And, more than all, did she
+possess such a friend as now belonged to Ernestine? No, no, assuredly
+not. Ernestine was her equal, whoever she might be.
+
+"Will you walk in?" said Ernestine with icy repose of manner and with a
+dignity that evidently impressed the countess greatly. Ernestine stood
+aside to allow her to pass, and motioned her towards a small sofa
+filling a recess of the room, while she herself took a seat opposite.
+Her lips were closed; no conventional grimace, usual upon the reception
+of a visitor, distorted the pure beauty of her grave countenance. She
+awaited in silence the stranger's communication; she was too unfamiliar
+with the forms of society to excuse herself for having kept her waiting
+in the antechamber. The countess at last understood that she must be
+the first to speak. She felt, too, in the presence of such a woman as
+Ernestine that her coming hither was a mistake, and it made her falter.
+For the first time in her life she was confused. The tables were
+turned. Ernestine was already the victor in this silent encounter. Hers
+was the victory of true self-respect over the frivolous conceit of a
+jealous coquette.
+
+The Worronska had failed in her part even before she began to play it.
+She had heard Möllner's voice and his step as he left the room. The
+affair, then, had gone farther than she had thought. Anger had put her
+off her guard, and given her a hostile air when she had come to allure
+and perhaps lead astray. Her error must be rectified at all hazards.
+She held out her hand to Ernestine and said, in her melodious
+Russian-German, "I am the Countess Worronska."
+
+Ernestine slightly inclined her head, and the expression of her face
+grew colder and more forbidding than before. "And what is your pleasure
+with me, Countess Worronska?"
+
+"What? Oh, that is soon told. I seek from you amusement, instruction,
+excitement,--everything that so talented a companion as you are, and
+one so entirely of my way of thinking, can bestow."
+
+Ernestine recoiled almost perceptibly. "Of your way of thinking?" she
+asked.
+
+"Most certainly! We are both advocates of the emancipation of women,
+each in her own way, but our object is the same. We are both adherents
+of the great champion of women's rights, Louisa A----, who is my
+intimate friend. How charming it would be to enlist you also! We could
+then labour in concert,--I in action, Louisa through the daily press,
+you by your books."
+
+Ernestine listened with the same unmoved countenance to what the
+countess said. When she had finished, Ernestine was silent for a
+moment, as if seeking some fitting form of speech for what she wished
+to say. The countess watched her eagerly. At last Ernestine replied,
+"Countess Worronska, I must decline your proposal,--I am resolved to
+pursue my path alone."
+
+The Worronska bit her lips. "Indeed? You are afraid of sharing your
+laurels?"
+
+"Not so," rejoined Ernestine calmly. "I am afraid of sharing the
+laurels of a Louisa A----."
+
+"Oh! would you think that a disgrace?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A pause ensued. The countess cast a fierce glance at Ernestine, who
+bore it coldly and unflinchingly. Again rage seethed in the bosom of
+the Worronska, but she controlled herself, for she was determined to
+compass her ends, and knew that she must be upon her guard with this
+girl.
+
+"You are certainly frank," she began. "But I like that,--it is
+original."
+
+"It is unfortunate that truth should be so rare among your associates,
+Countess Worronska, that you call it original!"
+
+"You are severe, Fräulein Hartwich. You should know my friends, and
+then you would be more lenient to their weaknesses. Why is it
+unfortunate? Refinement of taste brings that in its train. We cushion
+the chairs on which we sit, we plane and polish the rough wood of our
+furniture, we clothe the bare walls of our rooms with tapestry, we do
+not devour our meat raw like the Cossacks, but delicately cooked to
+please our palates. Why then should we surround ourselves morally with
+spikes and thorns, which rend and tear those around us? Why should we
+partake of our intellectual food so raw and undressed that it disgusts
+us? Thank Heaven, we have put off such barbarisms with our more
+advanced culture."
+
+"You are perfectly right. Countess Worronska, looking upon the matter
+from a worldly point of view. I am only surprised to hear you defend
+the forms of society while you despise its proprieties."
+
+A crimson flush rose to the brow of her visitor. But her rage only
+strengthened her determination to subdue her foe, superior as she could
+not but acknowledge her to be. "Yes, what you say is true: I love
+forms, because they are pleasant and useful. I hate propriety, because
+it would be our master, and by propriety you mean decorum--I understand
+you perfectly. Yes, then, yes: I love the forms of society, that give
+an æsthetic charm to existence, and make it smooth and easy, but I hate
+what people call decorum. When, in despair at the tyranny of my first
+husband, and utterly loathing his rude vulgarity, I left him by
+stealth, and fled, at peril of my life, across the half-frozen Neva to
+my father, to share his solitude and poverty, I acted honourably, but
+every one condemned me, the runaway wife was an object of scorn,--she
+had sinned against the laws of decorum. But when, after my divorce, I
+married the old Count Worronska, simply because I coveted rank and
+wealth, I acted dishonourably, but I had done nothing indecorous. Every
+one bowed low before me, and I found myself an object of respect to
+others when I was so deeply sunk in my own esteem. And can I do homage
+to decorum, the idol to which we are sacrificed, the empty scarecrow
+that the selfishness of men sets up to keep us within our prison-walls?
+In the folds of its garment lie hidden tyranny, hate and revenge,
+jealousy and envy, malice and uncharitableness, ready to crawl out like
+poisonous serpents and attack its victims. What free spirit will not
+curse it if it has ever been aware of even the shadow of its rod? I
+began by cursing it, but I have ended by despising it. I have sworn
+hostility to it, and, trust me, there is a rare delight in stripping
+it of its mask. Louisa A---- contends against it with far nobler
+weapons-than it deserves. It is not worth the going out to meet it with
+such solemn pathos. A hundred years hence, the world will laugh to
+think that it should have had power to annoy such a woman as Louisa."
+
+She ceased, and looked into Ernestine's face to see the effect of her
+words. But there was no change of feature there.
+
+"I cannot vie with you in your style of speaking, Countess Worronska. I
+am used to plain thoughts. I am not practised in metaphor, and cannot
+adorn what I say with such wealth of imagery. I can only reply plainly
+and frankly to what you say, that what you designate as our foe I
+consider our protection, and that it is a far different foe that I
+contend with. Therefore we should never agree, and it is a useless
+waste of time to attempt any closer intercourse."
+
+The countess started, and the colour left her lips, so tightly were
+they compressed. Yet she would make one more attempt. She regarded
+Ernestine with a look of profound compassion, and possessed herself of
+her reluctant hand. "Poor child! does even your bold spirit languish in
+the fetters of prejudice? What a pity! How inconceivable! And will you
+tell me what foe it is that you wish to subdue?"
+
+"The mean opinion that men entertain of our sex."
+
+"And you would combat this with your pen?"
+
+"I hope to do so."
+
+"Do not mistake; we have mightier weapons for the contest than the
+pen!"
+
+"There are none more effectual than the cultivation of our powers, for
+it will prove to them that we do not deserve their contempt,--that we
+can perform tasks that they consider emphatically their own."
+
+"They will never acknowledge it. All intellectual power is
+relative,--there is nothing absolute but physical force. If we can
+knock a man down, he must believe that we are as strong as he. But he
+will never concede our intellectual equality, because there is no
+compelling him to be just. As long as there is no third authority in
+the world to act as umpire in the contest between the sexes, which can
+only be if God himself should descend from the skies, so long must we
+be victims to the egotism of men!"
+
+Ernestine looked down thoughtfully. "You may be right, but we must
+comfort ourselves with the reflection that by the contest itself we
+have done good. To do good is the object of all, and the individual
+must be content with the peace of this consciousness as his reward."
+
+"What cold comfort! Why, every flower in your path will perish in such
+an icy atmosphere! I pity you! Come, confide in me. In spite of your
+bluntness, I feel drawn towards you. I will introduce you to a new
+existence, where you may learn how to revenge yourself upon men. You
+bear the stamp upon your brow of one gifted by God to be their scourge.
+Learn to understand yourself, and you will see how perverted your views
+are! Your power lies not in the bulky volumes that you write. Our
+charms are the weapons by which we conquer! As long as men have eyes
+and we have beauty, they must be our slaves; and you would imprison
+yourself within four walls, and toil and strive, while you have only to
+face those who shrug their shoulders at your writings, to have them
+prostrate at your feet? Would not this be an easier conquest?"
+
+Ernestine was silent. The countess saw with delight that she was
+evidently agitated, and continued more confidently.
+
+"You are beautiful,--how beautiful you yourself do not probably know,
+or you would not deprive the world of a sight that would enchant it, or
+yourself of the satisfaction of observing its admiration. Believe
+me,--there is no greater delight than the triumph of our charms. To
+know yourself an object of worship,--to be able to bless with a
+smile!--ah, what rapture! It is a divine privilege, that thousands
+would envy you. In comparison with it, what is the feeble pleasure that
+your studies can afford you? What can it matter to you if it is
+reported for a few miles around that you are a great scholar? Is such a
+report a flower, refreshing you by its fragrance?--a flame, that can
+warm you, or a ray of light, that can dazzle you? Can it give pleasure
+to any one besides yourself? It is invisible, incomprehensible,--a mere
+idea, a phantom, a nothing. Its only value for you is the value that it
+gives you in the eyes of others, for in ourselves we are nothing. We
+are only what we may become through our relation to others. Go to the
+hunters of Siberia, or to the Laplanders, and ascertain whether you
+find it any satisfaction that you rank among the scholars of Germany.
+You are striving for one end, that you may secure some value in the
+eyes of men and revenge yourself for the contempt heaped upon you as a
+woman. You seek the means to this end in your inkstand,--seek it in
+your dark lustrous eyes,--in your long silken hair. You will find it
+there, like the girl in the fairy-tale. You can comb pearls and
+diamonds out of those locks. Let me be the fairy to hand you the magic
+comb."
+
+"Cease, I pray you, Countess Worronska!" cried Ernestine, blushing
+deeply. "I cannot listen to such words."
+
+"If you fear my words, it proves the effect that they have upon you,
+and I have half conquered already," cried the temptress exultingly.
+
+"If you think so," said Ernestine haughtily, "continue, I pray you.
+When you have finished, I will tell you what I would rather not have
+been compelled to say."
+
+"You will think more kindly of me when you have heard me to the end,"
+said the countess. "You think my views immoral; but what is immorality?
+What corresponds closely with the laws of nature? What morality do the
+brutes possess? None! and they are, therefore, irresponsible. They obey
+those laws which you, as a student of nature, esteem the first and
+highest. Ascetics say morality is necessary to preserve that order
+without which chaos would come again. But I ask you, Does chaos reign
+in the brute creation? Does not the strictest order in the preservation
+of species prevail there? Does not each possess and preserve its
+individual peculiarities? Does the lion mate with the hyena? Are there
+not inviolable laws prevailing there? And it would be just so with
+mankind. Noble natures would attract only noble natures, and the common
+and vile herd with the vile. Love would direct the whole, and the
+indecorum of conventionality, of force, of falsehood and hypocrisy,
+would vanish. Would not the world be fairer, and, believe me, better?
+Conscious that no legal claim could exist between husband and wife,
+each would endeavour to retain the heart of the other by redoubled
+tenderness and self-sacrifice. Mankind would grow more amiable, more
+self-denying, and the mind would be fed on the freedom of the body. As
+long as we have no freedom of choice, our spirits must be enslaved.
+Have not men arrogated to themselves the right of free choice? Are
+they bound by laws? Where is the man who does not transgress them in
+public or private? But for us there is no appeal,--we are property
+possessed,--we have no right of ownership. We must be far above the
+necessity for change, inherent in every human being,--far above the
+demands of taste, of passion,--above everything except man. We must
+achieve the victory over nature, so impossible for him, but be utterly
+subject to his will. Is this a just order of the world? No! Even those
+who have never felt the pressure of its injustice cannot defend it! Has
+not advancing culture abolished serfdom in Russia? And is the saddest
+of all serfdom--the serfdom of woman--to continue? No! If you do not
+choose to contend for its own sake for that right of free choice, of
+personal freedom for which such women as Louisa A---- are doing battle,
+do it for the thousands of poor weak creatures languishing beneath such
+a perversion of morality!"
+
+Ernestine cast upon her an annihilating glance. After a short pause she
+said, "And if I were to do so, I should be striving for the ruin of
+humanity. I will not argue with you in justification of a morality
+which you do not understand, but I will attempt to remind you of its
+necessity, which has not, it seems, occurred to you. It can be done in
+a few words. Morality is moderation. Where it is wanting, all force
+exhausts itself in immensity; for moderation is the conservative force
+in nature, as in life. You look amazed. You do not understand me. I
+cannot lead you in a single hour along the dark, thorny path by which I
+have attained this conviction, and I know, besides, that I speak to
+deaf ears. But you have challenged my opinion. You shall have it,
+then." Ernestine's cheeks began to flush with noble indignation. "All
+partisans labour for their cause, which may excuse you for attempting
+to disturb the peace of a quiet mind, to instil poison into an innocent
+heart. May you never be more successful than with me! I will believe
+that you have been impelled by the fanaticism of your error, not by the
+demoniac desire to drag me, who have done nothing to harm you, down to
+your abyss. But, Countess Worronska, what wretched error is this upon
+which you are squandering your power, your glorious gifts? I know it.
+Do not think that what you say is new to me. It is the old threadbare
+philosophy of the voluptuary. It is the proclamation of all that
+mankind should conceal, if not for the sake of morality, then for the
+sake of immortal beauty, because it is monstrous if you will not call
+it immoral. It is what has branded the words 'emancipation of woman'
+with eternal disgrace. Enough! Spare me a nearer approach to so
+disgusting a theme. I know sufficient of it to condemn it; for it was
+my right and my duty, as a champion of our rights, to examine and prove
+all that had been done by any of my sex for the amelioration of its
+condition. And I have found with the deepest sorrow how widely
+different these women's paths are from mine, how little they understand
+their own dignity. What they call emancipation is degradation,--what
+should make them free makes them bold. Their frankness becomes
+shamelessness. What they call casting off ignoble fetters is
+licentiousness. What do they do? What do they achieve to show
+themselves worthy of the rights that they demand? Are such feats as
+smoking cigars and shooting pistols the evidences of our greatness? And
+what about these very rights that they demand? What does this Louisa
+A---- want? What do all these women want, who strut like stage-heroines
+about the world, filling it with shrill clamour about their
+misunderstood hearts? Fie upon them! They train themselves to be slaves
+by their struggles for emancipation,--slaves to their desires and to
+men; for all their bombastic phrases about freedom signify freedom of
+intercourse with the other sex."
+
+The countess sprang up.
+
+"Hear me to the end," said Ernestine, more and more animated by a noble
+ardour. "My words cannot do you the harm that yours might have done me.
+I deeply regret that my efforts could have been for one moment
+confounded with yours, and therefore I will clear myself to your better
+self, without an instant's delay, from the suspicion of abetting you in
+any way. Let me tell you that my purpose is solely to vindicate the
+intellectual honour of my sex,--to enlarge the bounds of our ability,
+not of our will. Emancipation of the spirit is the goal for which I
+strive. Or, to speak more plainly, you work for the emancipation of the
+flesh,--I for emancipation from the flesh. You see our efforts are as
+wide asunder as the poles; and, I tell you frankly, I fear the shadow
+that intercourse with you would cast upon my pure cause."
+
+The countess drew around her her mantle of black lace, that had slipped
+from her shoulders, and shrouded herself in it as in a cloud, then
+stepped up to Ernestine, who had also risen from her seat, raised her
+hand, and said in a tone of menace, "You will repent this."
+
+Ernestine calmly returned her gaze. "I scarcely think so, Countess
+Worronska. Thanks to my occupations, I stand entirely outside of the
+sphere where you could harm me."
+
+"I could kill you!" hissed the countess, gasping for breath, while the
+blood rushed to her head and the room grew dark before her eyes.
+
+"Oh, no, you neither could nor would," said Ernestine with cutting
+contempt. "You would not afford the world the spectacle of so bold a
+champion of our freedom ending her days in penal confinement."
+
+"You are right,--it would be folly to commit a crime when easier means
+would gain the same end. I will deal you a death-blow, and your life
+shall bleed slowly away, and none of our excellent laws can touch me. I
+will wrest from you the man whom you love. I will,--and, trust me, what
+I will I can."
+
+Ernestine said not a word. She was benumbed, as if by a blow. She did
+not see the countess leave the room,--she saw only, by the glare of the
+burning torch that the wretched woman had hurled into her breast, her
+own heart.
+
+Was she, then, in love? And with whom?
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                      "WHEN WOMEN HOLD THE REINS."
+
+
+Breathless with rage, the Worronska descended the stairs and left the
+house. A groom was driving a splendid carriage-and-four up and down
+before the house. She beckoned to him; he drove up and sprang down to
+assist his mistress, who, mounted upon the box, took the reins and
+whip, and, relieved by being able to vent her wrath upon some living
+thing, cut viciously at her impatient horses. The groom sprang nimbly
+into his place behind her, and away like the wind went the modern
+Victory in her triumphal chariot, as if rushing to breathe vengeance
+and hate into hosts fighting upon the battle-plain.
+
+"Is it possible that that hectic, ill-tempered girl can rival me with
+such a man as Möllner?" she said to herself. "But shame on me!" she
+instantly added, "let me not, in my anger, prove a slanderer! She is
+beautiful, and a thousand times wiser than I,--but, curse her! I could
+strangle her with this hand!"
+
+The passionate woman felt hot tears coursing down her cheeks. She
+struggled for composure; her chest heaved with the effort to breathe
+freely. She encouraged her horses to still greater speed, so that her
+carriage fairly rocked from side to side. She was glorious to behold in
+her wrath, as she both urged and restrained the spirited animals,--fit
+emblems of her own wild passions.
+
+"But I will show her who she is and who I am," she murmured. "That I
+should be insulted by this German prude!" And she gave the near horse a
+cut with her whip, making him rear wildly and then drag on the others
+in his headlong career. In a few minutes the village was passed
+through, and the village curs desisted from barking at the horses'
+heels, and retired growling to their homes. The steep descent of the
+hill upon which the village was built was close at hand.
+
+"Madame," said the groom to her in Russian, "look there!" He pointed to
+a sign-post by the wayside, warning travellers of the steep road. But
+it was too late; the countess needed both hands and all her strength to
+hold in her steeds, and could not reach the handle of the brake.
+
+"We shall get down safely," she cried, holding the heads of the four
+noble animals well in rein. But as the road made a slight turn she
+recognized in the foot-path before her a well-known form. Her face
+flushed crimson,--it was Möllner. She no longer saw the steep
+descent,--she did not see that she must pass the church, where service
+was held at the time and all vehicles were required by law to pass at a
+walk; she only saw Johannes, whom she would overtake at all hazards.
+She gave the horses the rein, and they rushed on as if for their lives.
+Then Johannes turned his head towards her and made signs to her, but
+she did not understand them. He stood still. She thundered past the
+church, and two or three peasants, disturbed in their devotions, came
+running out and looked menacingly after her. Johannes made signs to her
+again, more earnestly than before, and now she saw that he meant she
+should look where she was going,--in the road just before her there was
+a group of children playing. She tried to turn aside--tried to hold in
+her horses, but in vain. Neither horses nor carriage could be guided or
+restrained in the impetus that they had gained from the steep descent,
+and they tore madly on directly towards the children. Johannes, in the
+greatest alarm, jumped over the hedge dividing the foot-path from the
+road. The children scattered in terror.
+
+There was a shriek. The countess looked around,--no child was near.
+Whence came that cry? It came from under her wheels. At that moment
+Johannes reached the carriage, seized the leaders by their bridles and
+brought them to a stand-still. Then he stooped down and drew forth from
+beneath the carriage a lovely little girl, quite senseless. With a
+wrathful glance at the countess, he took the child in his arms, and
+murmured, "I thought so!"
+
+"Is she dead?" asked the countess, pale with fright, and restraining
+with difficulty her excited steeds, while the groom put large stones in
+front of the wheels.
+
+"Not dead," replied Möllner, "but no doubt severely injured."
+
+"Oh, what an unfortunate accident!" cried the countess, quite beside
+herself.
+
+"It was no accident!" Johannes rejoined severely, "but the inevitable
+consequence of your furious driving, Countess Worronska."
+
+He leaned against the hedge, and began, without a word more, to look
+into the extent of the child's injuries. "This is what comes of it," he
+muttered with suppressed indignation, "'when women hold the reins.'"
+
+"Möllner, do not reproach me," the countess entreated. He paid her no
+attention,--he was engrossed with the poor little victim upon his knee.
+
+"Whose child is it?" he asked of her playmates, who came flocking
+around him.
+
+"It is Keller's Käthchen!" cried the children. "Ah, our dear little
+Käthchen!"
+
+Some crowded about Johannes, others ran to the church to call the
+parents. Johannes tenderly bound up the child's bleeding forehead with
+his pocket-handkerchief, and carefully drew off its thick jacket to
+examine the shoulder-joint, that seemed to be broken.
+
+The Worronska devoured the scene with envious eyes. She saw him
+only,--the grace of his motions, the tender care that he lavished upon
+the child,--and, like molten lava, the words burst from her lips, "Oh
+that I were that child!"
+
+Johannes did not even hear her.
+
+"The arm must go," he said sadly. "The best that you can do. Countess
+Worronska, is to drive to town as quickly as you can and send out
+Professor Kern or some other skilful surgeon."
+
+"Möllner," she implored, "I cannot go until you have forgiven me!"
+
+"I pray you make haste, madame. Your first duty is to do what you can
+for the child; and I am afraid you will suffer from any delay, for
+there come the enraged peasants."
+
+Like bees disturbed in their hive, a menacing, murmuring throng came
+flocking out of the church, and in a minute surrounded the strangers.
+
+"What has happened?"
+
+"Who is hurt?"
+
+"A child run over!"
+
+These words ran from mouth to mouth, and every one pressed forward
+to know whether it was his child. But alarm soon gave way to
+indignation,--for Käthchen, pretty little roguish Käthchen Keller, was
+the pet of the village. All loved her, and were shocked and grieved to
+see the blooming flower so ruthlessly cut down. The child had never
+harmed a living thing. Every one had been gladdened by her bright smile
+and taken delight in her chubby innocent face. And that this dear,
+artless little creature should be sacrificed to the mad humour of an
+arrogant stranger! What business had this crazy woman in their quiet
+village, disturbing the repose of their holiday and destroying the poor
+peasants' most precious possessions?
+
+Maledictions were the answers to all these questions, that arose
+instantly in the minds of the villagers, already heated by wine, and
+their next thought was of revenge.
+
+"Curses upon the vile woman," began one aloud, "to drive so madly!"
+
+"Where were your eyes?" asked another. "Such a child is not a dog, to
+be driven over! Could you not turn aside?"
+
+"She thought a peasant's child was of no consequence," said a third.
+
+"Who ever saw four horses harnessed together!" exclaimed several.
+
+"There is no end to the insolent pranks of these city folk."
+
+"Thunder and lightning!" cried a sturdy, broad-shouldered peasant.
+"Stop talking, and let us have her before the magistrate."
+
+"Yes, yes! to the burgomaster's!" shouted the crowd.
+
+Johannes was in a most trying position. He still had the child in his
+arms, no one had taken her from him. He could not carry her away,--he
+dared not leave the defenceless woman to the insults of the mob. He
+tried to speak to the people, but in vain; they paid no attention to
+him. They had heard and seen the countess rattle past the church a few
+minutes before, and all their fury was concentrated upon her.
+
+Johannes made a sign to the countess, who stood up in her carriage,
+regarding the people with contempt, to drive on instantly; but she
+cried, "_Croyez-vous que je craigne la canaille? Je ne quitterai pas
+cette place sans que vous veniez avec moi!_"
+
+Then a voice shrieked, in the midst of the tumult, "Holy Mother! my
+child, my poor child!" and a woman rushed up, tore the little girl out
+of Johannes's arms, and covered her with tears and kisses.
+
+A handsome young peasant followed her, and gazed, wringing his hands,
+and stupefied with horror, at his senseless child. "God in heaven! what
+have we done, that we should be visited so heavily?" he murmured, and
+would have fallen, had not two of his friends supported him.
+
+"Her eyes should be torn out!" shrieked the mother, metamorphosed to a
+fury, while she pressed her child to her breast, as if to guard her
+darling from the danger to which she had fallen a victim. "To jail with
+her, abandoned, God-accursed wretch that she is!" And she kissed the
+child and bathed it in tears.
+
+"Do not curse," said her husband gloomily,--"it's sinful on a holiday.
+God will one day," and he pointed to Käthchen, "demand this life at her
+hands. She will not escape punishment."
+
+"May it soon overtake her!" sobbed the woman.
+
+The priest now approached from the church, with all the consolation
+that the occasion required of him, and the schoolmaster humbly
+followed.
+
+"See, see, reverend father, what they have done to my child," the
+mother cried, when she saw them. "And Herr Leonhardt too,--ah, she was
+his pet. What is to be done?"
+
+"What a piteous sight!" said Herr Leonhardt, stooping over his little
+favourite, while the tears dropped from his poor eyes, and all the
+women wailed in chorus. But the priest felt called to utter a few
+solemn words of consolation in season.
+
+"Give thanks, my dear Frau Keller," he said, raising his hands,--"give
+thanks for the abundant grace of our blessed mother Mary, in that she
+has so distinguished you above others as to call your dear child to be
+a holy angel in a better world, upon the very day of her own most
+blessed Assumption."
+
+"Reverend father," said Johannes, "this gratitude is not necessary,
+thank God, as yet, for the child lives, and will live,--I will answer
+for it."
+
+"Ah!" wailed the mother in despair, "you do not know what it is to
+bring such a child into the world, to love it and work for it night and
+day until it grows big, to go without many a bit yourself that it may
+have enough, and, when it has got to be a joy and pleasure to you, to
+pick it up here all crushed and broken! God punish her! God punish
+her!" With these words the woman hurried away, her husband supporting
+her trembling arms, that were scarcely able to sustain the child's
+weight, and yet would not resign it. The pastor and the schoolmaster
+went with her.
+
+"Here," called the Worronska after the retreating parents, "take this
+for the present. You shall have more by-and-by." She held out a heavy,
+well-filled purse.
+
+"Keep your money, we do not want it," said the husband with sullen
+rage, and went on without turning his eyes from his child.
+
+The countess looked down, pale and agitated.
+
+"He is right, we do not want money, but justice," shouted the mob, and
+pressed so close around the carriage that Johannes reached it with
+difficulty. He hastily kicked away the stones from beneath the wheels,
+and cried out to the Worronska,
+
+"Drive on, in Heaven's name! Would you expose yourself to useless
+insults?"
+
+"Don't let her go," was the cry. "Take out the horses! Go for the
+burgomaster!"
+
+"If one of us drives over a cat, he is carried off to the lock-up,--let
+the great folks fare the same."
+
+Some even began to unharness the horses,--but Johannes interposed with
+iron determination, snatched the whip from the countess, who never took
+her eyes from him, gave the noble animals the lash, and away they went
+through the living wall that was closing around them. A shout of rage
+arose, the carriage was pursued for a short distance, but it was out of
+sight in a few minutes, leaving behind only the unfortunate groom,
+cowering terrified in the middle of the road.
+
+Then the universal indignation was turned upon Johannes, who stood
+quietly there with the whip in his hand. He had delivered the stranger
+from just punishment, and had assisted her to escape,--he was in league
+with her.
+
+"You are one of her friends. You shall answer for her to us!"
+
+"I certainly will, good people," said Johannes calmly and kindly.
+"First let me do all that I can for the poor child, and then I will go
+with you to the burgomaster's or wherever else you choose." This simple
+answer entirely disarmed the rage of the crowd.
+
+"The gentleman is right, I know him," cried a newly-arrived peasant. It
+was the same man with whom Johannes had spoken upon his first visit to
+the castle.
+
+"Why did you help that bad woman to escape?" asked some.
+
+"Because she should be dealt with in an orderly manner. I promise you
+satisfaction, and much greater satisfaction than you would have in
+maltreating a woman."
+
+"He is a just gentleman, a brave man!" said the people one to another.
+
+"He takes it all upon himself,--that is honest!"
+
+"Come, then, good people, and show me where the Kellers
+live,--afterwards we will have a word together."
+
+The peasants assented, well content. "Yes, yes! that's all right!"
+
+They had not far to go to the wretched straw-thatched hut of the
+day-labourer Keller.
+
+A wooden flight of steps upon the outside of the hut led to the upper
+story,--the space beneath was used as a stable, and the one room above
+it, that served for sleeping room and dwelling-room, contained a large
+bed, an earthenware stove, two wooden chairs, and a table. Over the bed
+hung a carved crucifix, with a skull, and a vessel for holy water, and
+in the bed little Käthchen lay quiet and patient, almost smothered
+beneath the heavy coverlet, gazing at the by-standers with bewildered
+eyes. Her mother knelt by the bedside, weeping. Several women were
+trying to comfort her, telling her how quickly and well the broken limb
+would heal if she would only have a model of it in wax hung before the
+picture of the Holy Mother of God in the church. The waxen limbs of all
+kinds that already hung like a wreath around the sacred picture bore
+witness to the efficacy of this pious custom. Frau Keller must lose no
+time in presenting her offering,--for it was especially efficacious
+upon Assumption day.
+
+Frau Keller shook her head. She was obstinate in her grief, and did not
+believe in this kind of cure.
+
+"Kaspar," she said, "hung up a leg before the Holy Mother, and paid a
+gulden for it. And what good did it do? Did he not die of the trouble
+in his leg after he went to town?"
+
+The priest stood at the foot of the bed, listening to the conversation
+and shaking his head. "Columbane, Columbane," he now began, "you
+blaspheme! Do you not remember the cause of Kaspar's death? Do not
+accuse the Blessed Virgin,--how could she help the man when he would
+not wait for her aid, but listened to the evil counsel of the Hartwich
+and had his leg cut off? He did not die of disease, but because he made
+friends with an enemy of the Holy Mother."
+
+"Well, then," said one of the women, "perhaps the Holy Mother of God
+drew him to her again by that very leg."
+
+"What? Then perhaps she might draw my little Käthchen to her in the
+same way," cried Frau Keller defiantly. "No, no! let me keep my child,
+crippled though she be, if she only lives. I am strong, and can work
+for her. No, Käthi dear, you do not want to go to heaven. You will stay
+with father and mother, even if they have only a crust for you."
+
+"Yes, mother dear, I will stay with you," said the child in her sweet
+voice, leaning her head wearily upon her mother, who, sobbing, stroked
+the pale little cheeks. "Mother dear," she said, and there came the
+sweetest expression into her eyes, "do not cry so,--it does not hurt me
+much."
+
+A dull cry of anguish broke from the mother's breast, and she hid her
+face among the bedclothes. "My child! my child! complain,--only be
+naughty and fret,--your patience breaks my heart,--you seem already on
+the way to be a blessed angel."
+
+Upon the other side of the bed, that stood with its head to the wall,
+were two silent figures, the father and the schoolmaster. The latter
+gazed down upon the child with hands clasped as if in prayer, while the
+father leaned against the wall, his face hidden in his hands. He looked
+up now, and said with emotion but with resignation, "Be quiet, wife,
+and let us bear it as well as we can. If we must lose the child, she is
+too good for us,--I almost believe so now."
+
+"Father dear," said Käthchen, "if you talk so, I must cry, and then you
+will cry more."
+
+Herr Leonhardt plucked the man by the sleeve, and whispered, "The child
+ought to be kept perfectly quiet. Rouse yourself, and send these women
+away."
+
+"So I say," said Johannes, who had stood for a few minutes unobserved
+upon the threshold of the door. "I pray you, good women, leave us to
+ourselves. So many people in this small room worry the child. Your
+friendly interest is very grateful; show it now by withdrawing."
+
+The kindly neighbours willingly departed, he was such a handsome,
+pleasant gentleman who requested them to do so. The priest also look
+his leave; the schoolmaster only, at a sign from Johannes, remained.
+
+Outside, there was no end to the questions and answers, as to how all
+was going on within, and how Käthchen, usually so nimble, could have
+got under the carriage-wheels. She was indeed a good little child, for
+it was at last ascertained that she had escaped herself and was
+perfectly safe, when she turned back to rescue a smaller child, a
+neighbour's little boy, who was standing still in the middle of the
+road. The boy escaped, but his poor little preserver was thrown down by
+the horses, and so severely injured.
+
+"She is a dear pet--Käthchen," the men declared; and the women cried,
+"Oh, if you could see her now lying there in bed, you would believe
+that she was half in heaven already."
+
+She was indeed in heaven, as is every true, pure child; for there is a
+heaven so close to the earth that only little children can walk beneath
+its canopy. We have grown up away from it; its glories are veiled from
+our eyes; it lies below us, like golden clouds around a mountain upon
+whose summit we are standing.
+
+"Well, Käthchen, how are you now?" asked Johannes, stepping up to the
+bedside.
+
+"Very well, thank you," said Käthchen dutifully, as she had been taught
+to reply.
+
+There was something exquisitely touching in the half-unconscious
+self-control of the child. Johannes was moved by it. He stooped down
+and kissed the pretty lips.
+
+"One more!" she entreated, putting her unhurt arm around his neck.
+
+"Our Käthchen," said Herr Leonhardt, "is a good little girl. Do you
+know, Herr Professor, that the other day she was the only one in the
+whole school who would give Fräulein von Hartwich a kiss?"
+
+At mention of that name a slight flush passed over Johannes's face. He
+sat down upon the edge of the bed and looked tenderly at the child.
+"Indeed! Did you do that, you angel?" he whispered, and again he kissed
+the lips, that seemed dearer to him after what the schoolmaster had
+told him. Profound silence reigned in the room. The parents looked on
+without a word. Herr Leonhardt alone saw Johannes's emotion. The little
+chest rose and fell more regularly. Johannes pillowed the head upon his
+warm, soft hand, and the child dropped asleep beneath the gentle gaze
+of her protector. He looked at the clock. The surgeon, whom the
+countess was to send, could not arrive for a long while yet.
+Nevertheless, he determined to wait for him.
+
+"Husband," whispered Frau Keller, "I have a strange thought. When the
+schoolmaster said just now that Käthi had kissed the Hartwich, I
+suddenly remembered how the child came home and told me all about it,
+and complained that the other children had jeered her, and told her
+that something would certainly happen to her,--that the Hartwich would
+bewitch her! 'Sh!--be still!--don't let the schoolmaster hear; he would
+be angry; but, for the life of me, I can't help thinking it very
+strange!"
+
+The man looked thoughtfully at his wife, and scratched his head. After
+a little he whispered, "It is not worth while to say anything about it;
+but you are right,--it is very strange. Deuce take the Hartwich! What
+business had she to kiss our child? There's something wrong about her."
+
+"Speak to the priest about it, and see what he thinks, but don't let
+the schoolmaster know that you do so. Go. Say you want some beer. The
+child is asleep now."
+
+The man slipped out as softly as he could upon his hob-nailed shoes, to
+consult the priest upon so grave a matter.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+                          VOX POPULI, VOX DEI.
+
+
+When Keller, on his way to the priest, reached the village inn, he went
+in to refresh himself with a mug of beer, and found the priest whom he
+was seeking in the inn parlour, surrounded by a circle of auditors from
+the village and neighbouring farms. The Protestant pastor was also
+present, for the occurrence of the morning was a subject for universal
+discussion. The host was busy supplying the company with beer-mugs and
+bottles, secretly congratulating himself upon the accident that had
+brought him so much custom.
+
+"Ah, here is the poor father! Well, what news? How is she now?" were
+the words that greeted Keller's entrance.
+
+"Bad," he replied. "The child will be a cripple."
+
+A murmur of compassion was heard.
+
+Keller turned to the priest and asked to be permitted a word with him
+in private. His request was willingly granted.
+
+"Your reverence," began the peasant, "Columbane thinks the Hartwich has
+been the cause of all this."
+
+The priest clasped his hands. "What do I hear? Why does she think so?"
+
+Keller told him what had happened.
+
+The priest shook his head, and said in a loud voice to his Protestant
+brother, "Does it not seem, respected brother, as if we were forbidden
+by the visible finger of the Lord from holding any communication with
+this unholy woman, who has crept in among us like a poisonous serpent?"
+He then repeated, so that all could hear, what Keller had just told
+him.
+
+The Protestant divine, who was always in harmony with his colleague
+when there was a common enemy to do battle with, also considered the
+matter a very serious one. "It would of course be superstition to
+believe that the Hartwich had bewitched the child, but it stands
+written, 'Cursed are the ungodly,' and the curse must cleave to all who
+come in contact with any such."
+
+There was instantly a great commotion among the peasants drinking in
+the room.
+
+"This much is certain," cried the pastor with great emphasis, "that
+every misfortune comes, directly or indirectly, from the Hartwich!"
+
+"Yes, yes," resounded from all parts of the room. "Whom has she benefited
+in any way?"
+
+"No one, no one!"
+
+"Has she not tried to sow among you the seeds of her sinful doctrines?
+has she not, like the serpent of Eden, hissed into the ear of the
+sufferers to whose bedside she was admitted dreadful doubts, instead of
+pouring into them the balm of divine consolation?"
+
+"Yes, yes,--she always spoke disrespectfully of our pastors and their
+office."
+
+The clerical gentlemen looked mournfully at each other.
+
+"She has tried to stir up rebellion against the Church!" cried the
+priest. "She even turned me ignominiously from the doors when I went,
+in all the dignity of my office, to administer extreme unction to her
+servant Kunigunda, and she pretended in excuse that the maid was not
+going to die, and the ceremony would excite her and make her worse. She
+could not bear the sight of the Crucified beneath her roof. She is an
+outcast from God and His Church. Centuries ago, such as she were burnt
+alive; there was good reason for it. But we all suffer, and must
+continue to suffer, from their presence among us. The devil has put on
+the cloak of philanthropy, beneath which he hides all such sinners, so
+that we cannot touch them."
+
+"She is a poisonous sore in our flesh," added the Protestant pastor,
+"and it stands written, 'If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out;' but
+we dare not cut out this sore that offends us."
+
+"Why not?--what is to hinder us?" shouted the excited peasants.
+
+"Then you really believe that she has done this mischief to our poor
+child?" said Keller with horror.
+
+"Well, if we cannot exactly believe that," replied the Protestant
+pastor, "we must confess that we see in the accident a sign from
+Providence that we should avoid her. This much is certain, that the
+stranger who drove over the child had been visiting the Hartwich, so
+that, if she had not dwelt among us, the accident would most assuredly
+never have occurred, for that furious woman would never have come
+here."
+
+"The Hartwich is to blame for it all!" growled the drunken throng.
+
+"She is, in one way or another," continued the expositor of Christian
+love. "I repeat, with my respected brother, every misfortune among us
+is her work."
+
+"Yes, every misfortune is the work of the Hartwich!" yelled the chorus.
+
+"Gracious heavens! See! look there!" cried one, pointing to the
+windows.
+
+All looked out.
+
+"'Tis the Hartwich herself!"
+
+"Does she dare to come down here?"
+
+"She wants to see the misery she has caused!"
+
+"Holy Mother!" cried Keller, "she is going to my house!" And he rushed
+out.
+
+Like fermenting wine from a cask when the stopper is removed, the whole
+drunken throng rushed after him into the street.
+
+Priest and pastor remained behind, looking at one another. "What shall
+we do?" asked one. "Ought we not to follow them, to prevent mischief?"
+
+"Let the people rage, my worthy friend," replied the other. "It is not
+for us to interfere in such matters. She is not worthy of our
+protection, and the just indignation of the people will find vent in
+words, that will not harm her, but that it will be well for her to
+hear. _Vox populi, vox Dei!_"
+
+"True, true," assented the other. "We should not interfere with the
+public sense of right in such a case. She would not listen to us. Let
+her hear the truth from the mouths of the peasants; perhaps it will
+have more effect upon her coming from them than from men of culture
+like ourselves!"
+
+"Let us hope so," said the Catholic father devoutly, as he seated
+himself by his Protestant colleague at an empty table, and filled his
+glass from the bottle of old wine that the host placed before him.
+
+
+"What is that?" asked Johannes softly, as a distant hum of approaching
+voices was heard. He sat with his hand still patiently supporting
+Käthchen's head, and would not draw it away, lest he should awaken the
+child.
+
+The schoolmaster went on tiptoe to the window and looked out. "I cannot
+tell what is the matter," he said. "An excited crowd is rushing to and
+fro in the street, but I cannot see who they are or what it is all
+about."
+
+"The people have not recovered from the event of this morning," said
+Johannes.
+
+Meanwhile the noise drew near. Various abusive words were heard, and it
+seemed as if stones were thrown and fell upon the pavement. Shrill
+female voices cried quite distinctly, "Not in here!" "Go away!" "Put
+her out!" Boys shouted and whistled through it all.
+
+"Good heavens!" cried the schoolmaster, "they are persecuting a lady!
+Oh, yes! Herr Professor, look! she is trying to escape into the houses!
+The women thrust her out and shut their doors upon her----"
+
+"Brutes!" exclaimed Johannes, beside himself with rage, for one glance
+from the window had shown him how matters stood.
+
+"Holy Maria! they are throwing stones and apples at her!" cried Frau
+Keller.
+
+Johannes had rushed from the room as the schoolmaster turned towards
+him with the words, "It is Fräulein von Hartwich!"
+
+But, just as Johannes reached the stairs, Keller burst in, pale and
+agitated, and locked the door after him.
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Johannes. "Do you wish to shut me in here?"
+
+"Ah, sir!" implored Keller, blocking up the passage, "do not open
+it,--the Hartwich wants to come in----"
+
+"Well, then, let her in instantly! why do you delay?"
+
+"For God's sake, keep her out!" said Keller.
+
+"Are you mad," cried Johannes, "that you would close your doors upon a
+fellow-being imploring protection? Open the door, or I will force the
+lock."
+
+"Sir, sir, my house is my own, if I am only a poor peasant!" cried
+Keller still blocking the entrance. "This is the abode of honest
+labour, and no accursed foot shall cross its threshold."
+
+The uproar without seemed stationary before the house. A shower of
+stones against the door showed that the persecuted woman had fled
+hither. Johannes was no longer master of himself. His blood boiled in
+his veins, his heart throbbed to bursting. With the strength of a giant
+he seized the burly peasant by his broad shoulders and hurled him
+aside--almost into the arms of the schoolmaster, who was coming to the
+rescue also. Then he tore open the door, and Ernestine fell half
+fainting at his feet. He caught her in his arms, and, as he stood thus
+shielding her, cried, in a tone that left no doubt in the minds of his
+hearers as to the truth of his words, "I'll knock down the first man
+who dares to come near this lady."
+
+A dull murmur arose. "Let him try to stop us," cried several, and
+clenched fists were shaken at him.
+
+"Yes, I will try it,--but the man who dares me to try it will repent
+the trial!" threatened Johannes. And so commanding were his words and
+bearing that no one ventured further than to throw a stone or two,
+accompanying them with abusive epithets. Johannes drew Ernestine more
+closely to his side. "Shame on you, cowards that you are!" He turned to
+Keller. "Will you still refuse a shelter to this lady?--you see that
+she can scarcely stand."
+
+Keller looked at his wife, who had run out to them. "Do not let her
+in!" she cried. "For God's sake, keep her out! has she not done us harm
+enough?"
+
+Keller looked at Johannes and shrugged his shoulders. "You see my wife
+will not allow it."
+
+Johannes stamped his foot in despair.
+
+"Are you human?"
+
+"We hope so, sir," said Keller, insolently thrusting his hands in his
+pockets.
+
+"And far better than the friends of that woman there," shouted the mob,
+and a small stone flew close past Johannes.
+
+"If I were as crazy as you are," cried he, "I should throw down upon
+you the stones that you have thrown at me here, and my aim would be
+better than yours. But I will not contend with drunken men or do battle
+with people who are not responsible for their actions; all I ask of you
+is to give way and allow me to take this lady to her home."
+
+The crowd maintained its place in a compact mass, and only replied by
+unintelligible words, from which, however, Johannes gathered that
+Ernestine's punishment was not yet considered sufficient, and that she
+was not to be allowed to escape so easily.
+
+"I will pay you whatever you ask, if you will only afford Fräulein von
+Hartwich shelter until I have quieted this tumult," said Johannes to
+Keller.
+
+"You'll get nothing out of me, sir! Neither money nor fine words will
+get her across my threshold."
+
+"Mother, let her come in," suddenly cried a voice that had a wonderful
+effect upon the mob. Käthchen had slipped from her bed unperceived, and
+in her distress had run out to her mother. She threw her uninjured arm
+around Ernestine's knees, and looked up at her weeping. "They shall not
+hurt you; I love you so dearly!"
+
+"Jesus Maria!" shrieked Frau Keller. "My child! my child!" She tore the
+little girl away from Ernestine, and, followed by her husband, carried
+her into the house.
+
+"Do you want to kill yourself?" cried the father in despair.
+
+"No! I want the lady, I want the lady," the child was still heard
+wailing from the room.
+
+A commotion now began, which threatened to be serious indeed. "There,
+now, you see it with your own eyes,--the sick child even crawls out of
+bed to her. Don't you see now that she is bewitched? The Hartwich must
+leave the place this very day, or we'll hunt her out of the village."
+
+"Men! men! for God's sake, what are you doing?" said a gentle voice
+behind Johannes.
+
+"Oho, the schoolmaster!" was now the cry. "Let him come down,--we've
+had our eyes upon him for a long time. Come down, schoolmaster, you
+shall be ducked for your friendship for the witch." And again the human
+flood overflowed the lower step of the stairs at the head of which
+Johannes was standing.
+
+"Back!" commanded Johannes, resigning Ernestine to the schoolmaster,
+"back! now you see my arms are free."
+
+Involuntarily the foremost recoiled at sight of his menacing attitude.
+
+"Deluded people," cried Johannes, beside himself with indignation, "is
+there nothing sacred from your frantic rage,--neither a defenceless
+girl nor the gray head of your teacher? What has he done, except spend
+his life in the thankless endeavour to make reasonable human beings of
+you?"
+
+"He is friends with the Hartwich,--it is his fault that she kissed the
+child. His house ought to be burned over his head!"
+
+"Yes, yes!" roared the mob, "their holes should be burned out and
+destroyed--his and hers. Blasphemers! Unbelievers! They shall yet learn
+to believe in God."
+
+"This is too much!" thundered Johannes. "Would you prove your religion
+by becoming incendiaries? Woe upon you if you lay a finger upon what
+belongs to either of these people! Do you know the penalty for arson?
+And, depend upon it, I will see to it that you do not escape."
+
+A shout of rage arose at these words.
+
+"Herr Professor," said Leonhardt imploringly, "do not aggravate these
+people further,--we cannot convince them. Children," he called down to
+them, and his voice trembled with pain, not with fear,--"children, I
+have grown old among you; I know you better than you know yourselves.
+You are too wise to do anything that would subject you to the penalty
+of the law, and too kind to commit an outrage upon people who have
+never harmed you. You do not believe that I am an unbeliever. Have I
+not educated your children to be useful, God-fearing men and women?
+Have I not stood your friend in every time of trouble? The little
+house, that you in your blind fury would destroy, has afforded many of
+you a peaceful shelter,--it is a sacred spot to your children, and
+could you lay a finger upon it? Go to the church-yard and see if there
+is a single grave there of your loved ones that has not been adorned by
+flowers from my garden, and would you bury it beneath the ruins of my
+dwelling? No, do not try to seem worse than you are." He placed
+Ernestine gently down upon the landing and stood in front of her. "You
+know that your old master loves all God's creatures, and would you
+condemn him for taking compassion upon the unhappy maiden whom no one
+pities, whom all hate? Do you call me godless because I hoped to lead
+this erring but noble nature to find her God again? Yes, take up your
+stones,--look! I will take off my cap and expose my white head to your
+aim. Where is the hand that will lift itself against it?"
+
+The old man stood with uncovered head, holding his cap in his clasped
+hands. The evening breeze played amid his silver locks, and the stones
+that had been picked up were gently dropped again.
+
+Then his arm was drawn down by his side and a kiss was imprinted upon
+his withered hand. It was Ernestine. Johannes saw the act, and his eyes
+were moist She could be grateful. He exchanged a happy glance with the
+old man to whom she had just paid such a tribute.
+
+"He is only a weak old man," muttered the people,--"let him alone. He
+means well."
+
+"I will go and bring their pastors," said Leonhardt softly to Johannes,
+and he descended the steps. He walked quietly through the midst of the
+crowd, that opened before him, but closed up again when he had passed
+through.
+
+"Come," said Johannes, raising Ernestine from the ground, "let us try
+to put an end to this wretched scene." He carried rather than led her
+down the steps. "Make way there!" he called in a commanding tone.
+
+The foremost in the mob gave way. Just then Frau Keller appeared at the
+door. She held the cup of holy water, which usually hung above the bed,
+and she sprinkled with its contents the spot where Ernestine had been
+standing. Her pious act was greeted with a shout of applause. Ernestine
+saw her, and trembled and turned pale, while large tears gathered in
+her eyes; she grew dizzy, and would have fallen had not Johannes
+supported her.
+
+"Courage, courage," he whispered,--"do not let such folly distress
+you."
+
+"Look, look! she cannot bear the holy water. She didn't mind the
+stones,--but a few drops of water are too much for her." Thus shouted
+the mob, and the uproar began again.
+
+"Is this possible?" cried Johannes, casting prudence to the winds. "Is
+it possible that in the nineteenth century, and in a civilized country,
+such utter barbarian stupidity should exist? Do you really believe, if
+Fräulein Hartwich were in league with the devil, that she would have
+borne your abuse, that she would not have thrown her spells over you
+long ago, and escaped your brutality? Do you think that she listens to
+you from choice, and likes to have stones thrown at her? Why, the very
+patience and resignation with which she has endured your outrageous
+insults might prove to you that she has no supernatural power at her
+command,--that she has not even the protection of a bold nature, like
+the other lady, with whom you were justly indignant. But let me tell
+you that I am neither feeble nor weak, and that my patience is
+exhausted, and my power, although not supernatural is quite sufficient
+to punish such excesses as this, and to conjure up among you a host of
+evil spirits in the shape of a detachment of gens-d'armes. Therefore be
+quiet, and let us pass on our way. Every moment of delay increases the
+weight of the charges that I shall bring against you before the
+magistrate."
+
+So saying, he put one arm about Ernestine, and with the other cleared a
+path for himself through the throng, who were somewhat quelled by his
+last words, and gave place grumbling.
+
+And now the clergymen, followed by the schoolmaster, appeared, with
+every sign of hurry and amazement.
+
+"You come too late, gentlemen, to prevent what must cover those under
+your charge with shame," said Johannes with severity. "I supposed such
+scenes impossible in our day. You, gentlemen, have taken care that I
+should be better informed, and have prepared a rich page in the history
+of our civilization. I am well aware from what source the insults
+heaped by these misguided people upon Fräulein Hartwich draw their
+inspiration, and I consider you, gentlemen, responsible for the
+restoration of order and the safety of this lady." He drew Ernestine's
+arm more firmly within his own, and walked on without waiting for a
+reply from the reverend gentlemen, who stood there speechless with
+alarm and embarrassment, looking after him with a degree of respect
+that they could not control.
+
+In silence the pair reached the castle and entered the garden.
+Ernestine passively allowed herself to be led through the shady walks.
+Involuntarily Johannes turned towards the little eminence where he had
+seen her for the first time. He had resolved not to leave Ernestine
+here, but to place her that very evening beneath his mother's
+protection. How should he persuade her to such a step? This was the
+question that he propounded to himself, breathlessly searching for the
+answer.
+
+Ernestine was for the time incapable of speech. She could not raise her
+eyes to her protector. Mortification, profound mortification,
+overpowered her. How thoroughly she had recognized his position as a
+man, and her own as a woman! She admired him,--she was ashamed of
+herself. What a feeling it was!--yes, it was the same self-humiliation
+that she had felt once before, beneath the oak tree where, when flying
+as to-day from insults and sneers, she had met the handsome lad who had
+given her the prophetic book. But when would the prophecy in the
+fairy-tale be fulfilled? When should she cease to be laughed at,
+despised, and insulted? When should the lonely, persecuted, weary swan
+unfold its plumage upon calm waters in sunshine and peace? And in an
+access of pain she covered her face with her hands and burst into
+tears. She sank down upon the mound and sobbed like a child. Johannes
+stood silent before her. His mind was filled with the same thoughts,
+the same memories, and, like an answer to her mute soliloquy, there
+came from his lips, in tones of melting tenderness, the words, "Poor
+swan!" Ernestine's hands dropped from her face, she stared at him with
+wide-open eyes,--then sprang up, and, while her pale cheeks flushed,
+and her whole frame trembled, gazed at him still, as if she would look
+him through, her agitation increasing every moment. "There--there is
+only one person on earth who knows that," she faltered.
+
+"What?" asked Johannes with a beating heart.
+
+"What I was thinking of--about the swan!" she articulated with
+difficulty, for her voice failed her.
+
+Johannes, who stood somewhat below Ernestine, looked up at her
+expectantly. "And who is that person?" he asked gently.
+
+Ernestine could not reply,--a strange thrill passed through her, and
+she awaited the issue of the miracle of the moment.
+
+"Ernestine, do you remember the lad who once rescued a wild, timid girl
+from mortal peril?"
+
+She bowed her head in assent. "Ernestine, did you ever then for one
+moment in your childish heart think of him with love?"
+
+She raised her eyes to the twilight skies, and was silent for a moment;
+then she breathed a scarcely audible "Yes."
+
+A light, feathery cloud hovered above her head. Was it the little
+mermaid, dead for her beloved's sake, and, dissolved in foam, borne
+away by the daughters of the air to eternal bliss? Could it return
+again,--that fair, half-forgotten love-dream of her childhood,--the
+only one she had ever dreamed?
+
+And she looked after the floating cloud as it grew thinner and thinner,
+until it was gradually dissolved in air, and the gentle radiance of the
+evening star appeared where it faded.
+
+"Ernestine, do you know me now?" said Johannes. "See, this is the
+second time that God has placed me by your side to rescue you from a
+self-sought peril, and, as when I then brought you down from the broken
+bough, so now I open wide my arms to you, and pray you, 'Seek refuge
+and safety here!' Oh, little dryad, you are the same as then, for all
+that you have grown so tall and beautiful! There are the same
+mysterious dark eyes, the same strange, lonely spirit imprisoned in the
+delicate frame, bewailing its Titan descent. I knew then that there was
+only one such creature in the world,--and I should have recognized you
+among thousands as I recognized you when you stood alone upon this
+hill. Wondrous and fairy-like creature that you are, if you do not
+dissolve in air at the touch of a mortal, come to this heart; if an
+earth-born being may approach you with earthly love, take mine and
+learn to love a mortal. Yes, pure, aspiring spirit, for whom this earth
+has never been a home, I am only a man,--and yet a faithful, true, and
+loving man. Can you love me again?"
+
+Ernestine stood immovable. She had raised her hands to her forehead, as
+one is apt to do at hearing the mysterious, the incomprehensible.
+
+"You do not speak; have you no words for me? Look, Ernestine, do you
+not remember the boy about whose neck you once clasped your trembling
+arms so willingly?"
+
+At last she stretched out both hands to the earnest speaker, with a
+look of unrestrained delight. "Johannes," she cried, as tear after tear
+coursed down her cheek, "Johannes Möllner,--my childhood's friend,--I
+know you now."
+
+He hastened to her side, and opened his arms to clasp her to his heart,
+but she recoiled with such a burning blush, with such childlike alarm
+painted upon her face, that Johannes controlled himself, and only
+pressed her delicate hands to his lips. Her maidenly reserve was sacred
+to him.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+                            NOWHERE AT HOME.
+
+
+On this very evening there was a social meeting of the Professors at
+the Staatsräthin's. Johannes had entirely forgotten it. As the
+afternoon passed and evening approached without bringing him, the
+Staatsräthin grew really anxious about him, apart from the
+embarrassment which his absence caused with regard to her guests, to
+whom she knew not what excuse to make. She was walking to and fro in
+her garden behind the house, where her guests were to assemble and
+enjoy the lovely twilight in the open air.
+
+Suddenly Angelika joined her in breathless haste. "Mother, mother, I
+have found out where Johannes has been all day long!" she cried,
+taking her hat off to cool her forehead, and throwing herself into a
+garden-chair. "Moritz has just got back from Hochstetten, whither he
+was called this afternoon, and he tells a wonderful tale. The whole
+village is in commotion,--the behaviour of the Hartwich has actually
+excited a tumult. There was an outbreak, and Johannes,--our
+Johannes,--publicly declared himself her champion!"
+
+The Staatsräthin clasped her hands and gazed incredulously at Angelika.
+"Is this true?"
+
+"Oh, this is not all!" Angelika went on to say. "Moritz did not even
+see Johannes, for he was all the time--now, be composed, mother--in the
+castle with the Hartwich!"
+
+"Good heavens!" cried her mother, seating herself upon a bench. "Has it
+gone so far already?" A long pause ensued. At last the anxious mother
+folded her hands in her lap and said softly to herself, "My son, my
+son, what are you doing?"
+
+Angelika said nothing, but turned away. The same evening star that had
+beamed so gently upon Ernestine and Johannes glittered in the tears
+which filled the sister's eyes as she looked up at it.
+
+"Angelika," said her mother mournfully, "you should not have told me
+this without some preparation. You forget that I am grown old, and my
+many trials of late years have robbed me of the power of endurance
+that I once possessed. How much I have gone through since your
+uncle Neuenstein's bankruptcy! All our misfortunes have come from
+Unkenheim,--your uncle's unlucky scheme in the purchase of the Hartwich
+factory, the loss of three-fourths of our property in the affair, and
+the consequent necessity of our leaving our home that Johannes might
+practise his profession for his livelihood here. And nothing of all
+this would have happened if we had never seen Unkenheim! And this
+wretched Hartwich girl comes too from that place! You will see that she
+is going to bring us additional misfortune! Shall we never draw a free
+breath again? Why should this creature disturb our dearly-purchased
+peace of mind?"
+
+"Mother dear," Angelika entreated, kneeling down beside the
+Staatsräthin, "mother dear, do not cry now when we expect guests. Be
+comforted,--things will not go as wrong as you fear. Come, be again the
+calm, prudent mother who never seemed so great to me as in misfortune.
+I trust in God, and our Johannes----"
+
+She did not finish her sentence, but arose hastily, for several of
+their friends appeared at the garden-gate. The Staatsräthin, accustomed
+to control herself, had regained her self-possession, and received her
+guests with her usual graceful cordiality.
+
+"Where is your son?"
+
+"Is your son not at home?"
+
+To this question, asked at least twenty times, she replied always with
+unwearied patience, "He was suddenly called away, but I hope he will
+soon be here."
+
+When old Heim appeared, he listened with a queer smile to the terrible
+tale that Angelika whispered into his ear.
+
+"What a fellow he is,--this Johannes!" he said with kindly humour.
+"With her! with her at the castle! That's going rather too fast,--eh?"
+
+"Oh, uncle!" cried Angelika, "is that all the sympathy you have for us
+in so grave a matter?"
+
+"Why, you see, my child, the matter does not seem so grave to me as to
+you. Johannes is a man, and knows what he is about. You act as if he
+were a beardless boy, whose nurse ought to follow him about. If this
+clever girl pleases him, it is a proof of his taste. Whatever you do, I
+will not league with you for all the beseeching glances of those
+forget-me-not eyes of yours." And the old gentleman seated himself
+deliberately upon Angelika's straw hat, that she had forgotten to take
+from the chair where she had thrown it. "God bless me! what kind of a
+cushion have you put in my chair?" he cried, producing, amid universal
+laughter, a flattened mass of straw and violets that bore not the
+faintest resemblance to a hat.
+
+"That comes of leaving one's things about. Who would have supposed that
+I should go about in my old age sitting upon straw hats? Well, well,
+child, to-day is a day of misfortunes!"
+
+The company quickly assembled. The ladies seated themselves at the
+large round tea-table, the gentlemen stood about in groups, and, as
+smoking was allowed, puffed forth blue clouds of smoke into the clear
+evening air.
+
+The moon began to cast a pale light through the crimson evening glow.
+Night-moths fluttered hither and thither, and now and then a big
+booming beetle would fly around the heads of the startled ladies. The
+tired birds flew in among the bushes to seek their nests, arousing the
+alarm of the younger girls who were in great terror of bats.
+
+Suddenly a wiry voice without was heard chirping Rückert's song:
+
+
+           "Yes, a household dear and blest
+              Mine shall always be.
+            I'll invite there as my guest
+              Him who pleases me."
+
+
+And Elsa, leaning on her brother's arm, appeared at the door. The
+Staatsräthin arose.
+
+"Ah, my dearest, motherly friend," cried Elsa from afar, gliding
+towards her, "I am late, am I not? Could my thoughts have borne me
+hither, I should have been with you long ago; but imagine--our droschky
+lost a wheel--and we had to walk all the way."
+
+"I am very sorry," said the Staatsräthin kindly. "You must have had
+quite a fright."
+
+"Yes, it was a most unfortunate intermezzo, disturbing our
+anticipations of the pleasant evening," said Herbert politely.
+
+"Oh, it did not spoil my enjoyment," laughed Elsa with pretty
+assurance, and she piped out the last couplet of her song:
+
+
+           "Thrown from the carriage should I be,
+            A flowery grave awaiteth me."
+
+
+"The only thing to lament was our tardiness in reaching you, and I ran
+myself quite out of breath."
+
+"Not quite!" replied the Staatsräthin with a smile. "You were trilling
+very gaily as you came along the Bergstrasse."
+
+"Really, did you hear me?" asked Elsa in charming confusion. "My voice,
+then, was more fortunate than I,--it reached you sooner!"
+
+"How is your wife?" the Staatsräthin inquired of Herbert.
+
+"Thank you,--she is always the same. The constant spectacle of her
+sufferings, without the power to alleviate them, is almost too much for
+me."
+
+The Staatsräthin looked compassionately at Herbert's sunken cheeks.
+"Poor Frau Herbert! and you too are greatly to be pitied!"
+
+"I thank you for your sympathy,--it helps to lighten the burden of my
+anxiety on her account."
+
+Elsa had not listened to this grave conversation; she had already
+joined the company, and the Staatsräthin followed with Herbert.
+
+"A bat! a bat!" cried one of the younger gentlemen as Elsa approached,
+and he pointed to a bird just whirring past.
+
+"You are severe," one of his brethren said to him in a low voice.
+
+"Only look," whispered a third, "Herbert is as fine as usual in a dress
+coat. It is not fair to appear in full dress when he knows that by the
+rules of these meetings we are all to come in morning costume."
+
+"It is his way,--no one could expect anything else of Herbert!" said
+Taun.
+
+"He's a fool," said Meibert,--"the charm of ease in an undress coat is
+one of the chief attractions of these meetings. At least I find it so."
+
+"So do I, so do I," cried one and another of the party. Meanwhile Elsa
+was nodding and bowing in every direction. She exulted in the
+consciousness of giving so much pleasure by her presence. She loved
+every one, and every one loved her. Earth was a paradise, full of
+faith, hope, and charity,--through it she fluttered like a kindly fairy
+at her own sweet will. She was a little alarmed at not seeing Möllner,
+and her gaiety received a severer check than when she had nearly found
+her "flowery grave." But she comforted herself,--he would come,--he
+could not stay away from the place where Elsa was. And she determined
+not to visit his absence upon the company,--they were not to blame for
+it,--she would join in the conversation. There was something touching
+in her good-humoured vanity. She would use the advantages which she was
+conscious of possessing over others only for their benefit. She took
+pleasure in her imaginary gift of conversation only because she could
+thereby amuse her dear friends by means of it. How should she know that
+she was ridiculed and laughed at? She saw that mirth abounded wherever
+she was. How could it be caused by anything but delight in her
+presence? Her confidence in the esteem and love of her fellows was
+impregnable, for it was rooted in her unbounded confidence in her own
+excellence. Who would not love a creature so good, so talented, and
+withal so modest that she was kind and gentle to all? Why, no one could
+help it. This conviction inspired her in society with a self-possession
+that carried her untouched through all the contempt and sneers that she
+everywhere provoked, and kept her quiet self-sufficiency unruffled.
+Most happily for her, she felt all the blessing without an idea of the
+curse of mediocrity that attached to her in the presence of others.
+
+She was quite idyllic to-day, for Elsa in the midst of nature was a
+very different person, although scarcely less lovely, from Elsa in her
+study. She had encircled with leaves her large straw hat,--the wide
+brim of which kept flapping up and down as she tripped about,--and a
+nosegay of wild flowers was stuck in her bosom. She loved wild flowers
+far more than garden flowers. Everybody admired garden flowers,--she
+pitied the wild flowers, and would atone by her love to the poor
+neglected blossoms of the field. Her delicate sense perceived beauty in
+the humblest thing that grew. She did not need grace of form and
+vividness of colour to impress her with the wisdom of the Creator.
+Every dandelion, every blade of grass, was lovely in her eyes. How
+wondrous was its structure! How its modest withdrawal from superficial
+eyes accorded with her own retiring nature! And then it was the
+prerogative of a poetic temperament to see what was hidden to all the
+world beside. It was a severe blow, therefore, to her tender heart when
+the professor of botany asked, "But, Fräulein Elsa, why have you
+brought a bunch of hay to a house noted for its capital suppers?"
+
+"Oh, you naughty man," she pouted, "you cannot tease me out of my love
+for these darlings."
+
+"Do you take all these weeds under your protection?" asked the
+implacable professor. "Then you must have enough to do when the cattle
+are driven out to pasture."
+
+All laughed, and Elsa laughed too. She could take a jest.
+
+"But," she replied, "to fall a sacrifice to the stronger is a fate from
+which even Flora herself cannot shield her children. Thank God, they
+all grow again! I do not wish to save them from the animals whom they
+serve for food. It is an enviable lot to sustain life in others by
+one's own death. I wish to shield them from the contempt of men. Is it
+not a sacred duty to espouse the cause of the despised? And those who
+do not discharge it conscientiously in small matters will neglect it in
+more important things. So let me put my poor thirsty flowers in water,
+that they may lift up their little heads again."
+
+They handed her a glass of water, into which the botanist recommended
+that a lump of sugar should be thrown, because, as he said,
+sugar-and-water was so much more nutritious.
+
+"Go, go, naughty man," said Elsa, arranging her bouquet. "Look! is not
+that lovely?"
+
+"My good Fräulein Elsa," cried the professor, "do not ask me to be
+enthusiastic over the beauty of a flower. I have long lost the sense of
+delight that people feel at sight of a flower. The most beautiful
+flowers for me are those that furnish most matter for scientific
+investigation."
+
+"What a prosaic point of view!" cried Elsa. "Tell me, ladies, can there
+be anything more monstrous than a botanist who does not love flowers?
+It is as unnatural as for a musician to take no pleasure in music. It
+is treason to the _scientia amabilis_."
+
+"You say so," replied the professor with some asperity, "only because
+you do not know what is at the present day called 'the lovely science.'
+I assure you, modern botany has, as De Bury remarks, no more right to
+this title than any other science. It is only the knowledge of a couple
+of thousands of names of flowers and the manifold conditions of their
+existence,--the examination into their manner of life,--in other words,
+the physiology of plants. The flower is not the end, but the means to
+an end, the end of physics, physiology, and every other science: the
+discovery of the whole by a knowledge of a part Let this part be plant,
+man, or beast, we are all searching for the same laws, and it is just
+as unnecessary that a botanist should be fond of flowers as that a
+physiologist should be a philanthropist."
+
+Elsa blushed rosy red at these words. "Möllner loves mankind,--I know
+he does," she whispered.
+
+"So much the better for him if he does," said the professor smiling.
+"That is a private satisfaction of his own, and we will not disturb it.
+But, seen in the light of his profession, men are no more to him than
+plants,--to me plants are no less than men. Both are to us only
+subjects for untiring investigation."
+
+"I cannot think that of Möllner," said Elsa softly to herself.
+
+The botanist shrugged his shoulders compassionately and left her. When
+he rejoined his brethren, they accosted him with, "It is easy to see
+that you have not been here long, or you would not try to preach reason
+into Elsa Herbert. Who could make a woman understand such things?" And
+there was a burst of laughter, in which Hilsborn was the only one who
+did not join. He was never disposed to sneer. Although he himself could
+not overcome his dislike for Elsa, he was too amiable to put it into
+words.
+
+"But, really, for one's own sake it is best to make an attempt at least
+to enlighten the ignorant," the botanist replied, when thus attacked.
+"It is impossible to listen in silence to such nonsense."
+
+"Then, Fräulein Elsa, you consider it a blessed lot to be devoured by
+cows," said a young private tutor, who had but just thrown off his
+student's gown.
+
+Elsa was quite happy. She had not received so much attention for a long
+time. It was the consequence of her originality. How excellent, too,
+her spirits were to-day! What a pity that Möllner was not present to
+witness her triumph!
+
+"Yes," she said gaily, "whatever is as perishable as a flower cannot
+die a more charming death than----"
+
+"In a cow's mouth," laughed the skeptic. "It is unfortunate that
+Fechner had not conceived this poetic idea before he wrote his
+'Nanna.'"
+
+"Oh, you may ridicule anything in that way, if you choose to do so,"
+said Elsa.
+
+"Do not vex our kind Elsa," Angelika here interrupted the discussion,
+throwing her fair round arm around the other's thin shoulders. "Elsa
+dear, give me your nosegay."
+
+"There, put it on your brother's writing-table," Elsa whispered in her
+ear.
+
+Angelika looked at her with compassion. "I will do what you ask, Elsa,
+but you know he does not care much for plucked flowers."
+
+"But perhaps he will value them when he knows that they were plucked by
+the faithful hand of such a friend as I."
+
+Angelika took the bouquet, and said hesitatingly, "I hope he will
+not be vexed,--he does not like to have anything placed upon his
+writing-table,--but I will try."
+
+Hastily, as usual, Moritz came running through the garden just as
+Angelika was bending over Elsa. She turned, and found her husband's
+sparkling black eyes resting upon her.
+
+"Moritz," she cried in delight, "have you come at last?"
+
+"Yes, my darling. I had another patient to see; but now I am free to
+stay with you until to-morrow at eight,--twelve whole hours. Is not
+that fine?"
+
+"Fine indeed!" repeated Angelika, and poor Elsa listened to these
+loving speeches, longing for the time when such happiness should be
+hers.
+
+"Come," said old Heim, plucking Moritz by the sleeve, "we cannot live
+upon your pretty speeches to your wife, and they may spoil our
+appetites. Your mamma begs you to play the part of host at supper."
+
+"Come, Angelika," said Moritz, drawing Angelika's arm through his own.
+He never took any other woman than his wife to supper.
+
+This was a trying moment for Elsa, for it was her usual fate to be left
+sitting still when supper was ready or a dance was in prospect. She
+must either join herself to some other unfortunate, similarly
+neglected, or perhaps be offered a left arm by some good-natured man
+already provided with a lady upon his right. Ah, her knight, her
+Lohengrün, was not there, he who would one day rescue her forever from
+this solitude. Where was he? Why did he not come? And in her distress
+she turned to one of the gentlemen who had just finished smoking and
+was approaching the circle of ladies. "Do you not know where Professor
+Möllner is?"
+
+The gentleman was a young assistant surgeon, whom Moritz had taken to
+the village with him that afternoon. The latter, as he passed,
+whispered in his ear, "Do not tell."
+
+The young man looked confused, and just then Herbert approached and
+said maliciously, "You were in Hochstetten this afternoon, where
+Professor Möllner played his usual part of good Samaritan? I heard you
+telling Hilsborn about it,--pray favour us too with the interesting
+story."
+
+He laid his hand, as if unconsciously, upon his sister's shoulder, but
+its heavy pressure, told her that it was not done either unconsciously
+or kindly.
+
+"We all know very well that Möllner never allows an insult to pass
+unpunished," said Hilsborn, "and you should know it, Herr Herbert,
+better than any of us."
+
+"True, I have had occasion to be convinced of the interest that Möllner
+takes in Fräulein von Hartwich, although it is by no means so dangerous
+to correct an erring professor as an enraged mob."
+
+"What? what is it?" ran from mouth to mouth, and the company drew
+together in a large group.
+
+"Permit me," said Moritz in a loud voice to Herbert, "to be the
+interpreter of my brother-in-law's conduct, as I certainly understand
+it better than a stranger. The truth is, the Hartwich was insulted by a
+Hochstetten mob, and my brother-in-law interfered to prevent her from
+receiving personal injury."
+
+"Ah," said Herbert, as if he were comprehending it all for the first
+time, "this, then, was the generous motive that took your brother two
+miles from town to that retired village?"
+
+"I myself have never yet presumed to cross-examine my brother-in-law as
+to his motives,--I leave the bold undertaking to you," replied Moritz,
+challenging Herbert with his keen glance.
+
+"What can have happened there?"
+
+"What did the Hartwich do? A whole village certainly does not rise
+against a private individual without some cause."
+
+"This Hartwich must be a dreadful person!" Such were the remarks made
+by one and another.
+
+"Gentlemen, let me pray you to come to supper," said the Staatsräthin,
+who was evidently embarrassed.
+
+But her invitation was unheeded. All the ladies and several gentlemen
+had, like hungry wolves, had a taste of the interesting subject, and
+they were not to be tempted by the promise of other food. There was no
+end to their amazement and conjectures. To be sure, it was impossible
+to express before Möllner's relatives all that was thought, but they
+could gain some information by their questions.
+
+They could not understand how Professor Möllner could befriend such a
+person. It was no wonder that public opinion was so opposed to her.
+
+"Yes," said Elsa, "Christian love should be shown to every sinner, but
+this woman puts our sex in such a light that really one blushes at
+being a woman. I can say, with Gretchen, that humanity is dear to me,
+but this Hartwich displays such shamelessness, such vulgarity of mind,
+that it becomes the duty of those possessed of any sensibility to
+suppress all compassion and to regard her with abhorrence."
+
+"Tell me, then, Fräulein Elsa," Hilsborn here interrupted her, "what
+becomes of your former assertion that the cause of the despised and
+neglected should always be espoused by the true Christian, as in the
+case of your field-flowers?"
+
+Elsa blushed, and stroked back her curls.
+
+"But, my dear friend," remarked the botanist, "the Hartwich is not a
+field-flower."
+
+"Certainly not one that cows can eat, for she is poisonous," said
+Herbert.
+
+"Oh, there are reptiles that feed on hemlock," said old Heim with
+irritation. "But, whether she be hemlock or belladonna, we all know
+that both are medicinal, and she might perhaps be useful as an antidote
+to the affectation and hypocrisy that infect the feminine world of
+to-day, producing bigotry, malice, and all sorts of moral diseases."
+
+"That was going almost too far," Moritz whispered to the old man, who
+passed him grumbling thus, with his hands clasped behind him. "I cannot
+abuse her any more, for Johannes's sake, but I do wish the devil had
+her rather than Johannes should have her!"
+
+Heim looked at him and contracted his white, bushy eyebrows. "To that
+nonsense all I say is, we will talk about it at some future time."
+
+The Staatsräthin approached. "Uncle Heim, you are blinded by
+your partiality. Convince us that this person is anything else
+than a brazen-faced claimant for notoriety, and God knows what
+besides,--convince us of this, And we will beg her pardon,--but, until
+then, we must be allowed to consider any intercourse with her, on my
+son's part, as a misfortune. Now give me your arm; we must go to
+supper."
+
+"Yes, let us go. I am tired, and shall be glad of something to eat,"
+said the old gentleman, conducting the Staatsräthin into the house,
+where the table was laid.
+
+The others followed, and Elsa fluttered after them like the last
+swallow of autumn. They all entered the house by the large door opening
+upon the garden. Directly opposite was the door leading into the
+street. They began, laughing and talking, to ascend the stairs to the
+dining-room, when a carriage drove up. The Staatsräthin, who led the
+way, stopped and listened intently. It might be Johannes.
+
+The door was at that instant thrown open, and he appeared,--but not
+alone. There was a lady leaning on his arm.
+
+A murmur of surprise was heard.
+
+Johannes was quite as much astonished at unexpectedly encountering such
+an assemblage as the guests were at his entrance with a veiled lady,
+who was evidently embarrassed and desirous to withdraw when she saw so
+many people. But Johannes detained her. "I pray you, remain," he said
+to her, "you have no cause for alarm."
+
+The Staatsräthin leaned heavily upon Heim's arm, her knees trembled
+under her.
+
+"Compose yourself," the old man whispered in her ear. "Submit to the
+inevitable,--remember that your son is master of the house."
+
+"I shall not forget it," she replied softly, yet with bitterness.
+
+In the mean time, Johannes had reached the staircase with the evidently
+reluctant Ernestine. "My dear mother," he said, looking up at her with
+a face radiant with pleasure, "I bring you another guest."
+
+The Staatsräthin descended a couple of stairs with the air of one
+compelled to receive a guest whose visit she regards as anything but
+welcome.
+
+"Fräulein von Hartwich," said Johannes, presenting her at once to his
+mother and his assembled friends, "has been persuaded by me to seek an
+asylum for this night beneath our roof, as her uncle is absent from
+home, leaving her alone and defenceless, the object of a low, and
+brutal conspiracy."
+
+"You are welcome, Fräulein von Hartwich," said the Staatsräthin with
+cold courtesy, without offering Ernestine her hand, or relieving her
+embarrassment in any way. "Let me entreat you to share our simple meal.
+Unfortunately, we can postpone it no longer, as we have already been
+obliged to wait some time for my son."
+
+And, without another word to Ernestine, she led the way with Heim to
+the dining-room.
+
+Ernestine's heart throbbed. What a reception was this! To what a
+humiliation had she exposed herself! Was not running the gauntlet here
+a thousand times worse than being stoned in the village by rude
+peasants? "Let me go," she said, taking her hand from Johannes's arm.
+"I feel that I am unwelcome to your mother."
+
+"Ernestine," said Johannes, "you are my guest, and I will not let you
+go. Forgive my mother's cold reception. It is not meant for you, but
+for the distorted character of you that she has heard. Remain, and
+convince her that you are not what she thinks, and you will be treated
+by her like a daughter."
+
+"Oh, my only friend, I obey you, but I do it with a heavy heart. It
+would have been better for you to let me go to old Leonhardt for a
+couple of days."
+
+"How could you have gone to old Leonhardt?" Johannes interrupted her
+impatiently. "It would have been visited upon him if he had received
+you. And it was equally impossible for you to pass this night alone in
+the castle without your uncle. You must be content to remain under my
+protection. Is that so hard?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Ernestine, with a grateful look,--"but the others!"
+
+"I am sorry that we arrived just in the midst of this crowd. Everything
+would have gone well if we had not encountered them just upon the
+stairs. I would have taken you to my study, where no one goes,--you
+could have rested there until these people were gone and my mother had
+prepared your room for you. But, since they have seen you, you must not
+hide yourself like a criminal. There are some here who already wish you
+well, and many others whose regard you will soon win."
+
+"I am far more afraid of these people than of the angry peasants," said
+Ernestine sorrowfully. "I am so tired."
+
+"Poor child!" said Johannes kindly. "I know you are, but do it for my
+sake. Will you not? I shall be so glad to have you by my side, and so
+proud to show them all that you accept me as your friend."
+
+"Well, then, I will do as you say," said Ernestine submissively, and
+she ascended the stairs with Johannes.
+
+At the door of the supper-room she laid aside her hat and shawl, and he
+looked admiringly at her lovely pale face, with the noble intellectual
+brow and the large melancholy eyes, and at her tall slender figure. Who
+that saw her could withstand her? He was so proud of her!
+
+As they entered, the guests stood around the table, awaiting him. The
+impression that she produced was an extraordinary one. It was as if one
+of those pale ethereal female figures in Kaulbach's "Battle of the
+Huns" had stepped out of the frame. No one had ever seen before such
+ideal and melancholy beauty in real life. In an instant all were
+silent, and gazed earnestly at the rare spectacle.
+
+"By Jove! she's a dangerous woman," whispered Moritz to the
+Staatsräthin.
+
+"Indeed she is!" she replied, scarcely able to take her eyes away from
+her. "My poor Johannes!"
+
+"You don't see such a woman every day!" growled old Heim with pride.
+"Didn't I always say she would turn out a beauty?"
+
+"The fact is, she is divine, and I shall love her dearly! Now say what
+you please," whispered Angelika. And, without waiting for a reply from
+either husband or mother, she flew across the room to Ernestine, who
+was standing overwhelmed with confusion, and cried, "Fräulein
+Ernestine, do you not remember me?"
+
+Ernestine looked at her for a few seconds. "This must be little
+Angelika."
+
+"Rightly guessed," said the young wife, and, standing on tiptoe, she
+pressed her rosy lips to Ernestine's delicate mouth.
+
+Then Moritz approached, and said in his blunt, half-jesting way,
+"And I am the husband of this wife. My name is Kern, and I am besides,
+one of the monsters who had the courage to close the doors of our
+lecture-rooms in the face of a most beautiful woman."
+
+Ernestine opened her eyes wide at this address, but, appreciating his
+humour, smiled gently.
+
+"And indeed," he continued, "I do not repent in the least that I did
+so, now that I see you,--for not a student would ever have learned
+anything with such a comrade beside him."
+
+Ernestine cast down her eyes, and, confused and ashamed, said not a
+word.
+
+Moritz turned from her, and, with a paternal tap upon Johannes's
+shoulder, said to him, "Upon my word, you're not to blame for admiring
+her."
+
+"Men are all alike," said the Staatsräthin in a whisper to Frau
+Professor Meibert. "My son-in-law, who never has a word to say to any
+woman but his wife, is already bewitched by her pretty face."
+
+"Yes, and there is my husband making his way towards her," was the
+reply. "It must be admitted that she is quiet and modest."
+
+"Still waters run deep!" said the Staatsräthin.
+
+"Yes, that's true!" said the other with a nod.
+
+"What do you think, Herr Professor," said Taun's wife to Herbert with
+an admiring glance at Ernestine, "of our having _tableaux vivants_ next
+winter? Would it not be beautiful to have her with Angelika for the two
+Leonoras?"
+
+"Better try Hercules and Omphale. Let the Hartwich be Omphale, and set
+Professor Möllner at the spinning-wheel. That would make a charming
+picture!" remarked Herbert.
+
+"I hear you do not like her," said Frau Taun, "but now that I see her I
+cannot believe all the terrible things that are told of her. And
+Möllner, too, is not the man to seat himself at the spinning-wheel,
+even though she were Omphale,--your characters do not fit."
+
+Herbert shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Now, my dear friend," Möllner's clear voice was heard saying, "allow
+me to make you more intimately acquainted with your friends and foes.
+Here is an old friend of yours, Professor Hilsborn. Do you not remember
+him?"
+
+"We met once at a children's party," Hilsborn explained, "and you, with
+the rest of us, threw stones at a glass ball tossed up by a fountain.
+You came off from the contest victorious, and were the object of envy
+and hostility in consequence."
+
+Ernestine blushed. "Oh, yes, now I know. You were that gentle, amiable
+boy,--the adopted son of Dr. Heim; but--where--where is Dr. Heim?"
+
+"Here he is," said the old gentleman, fixing his penetrating eyes upon
+her. Ernestine held out her hand, but she could not endure his glance,
+and her own sought the ground.
+
+"Oh, Father Heim,--may I still call you so?"
+
+"That's right," cried the old man. "Then you have not forgotten?" And
+he laid his hand kindly upon her head.
+
+"How could I forget you, when you saved my life?"
+
+"Aha," said Heim to her so softly that no one else could hear what he
+was saying, "don't be afraid child,--I shall stand up for you before
+all these people, but to you yourself I must say that my heart bleeds
+for you, and that if I did not hope that all the stupid stuff with
+which your little head is crammed would one day give place to something
+infinitely better, I should almost repent patching it up in days
+gone by. Don't be vexed, my child, you don't like to hear this from
+me,--perhaps you may be better pleased to hear it from some one else.
+And now God bless your coming to this house!"
+
+Ernestine made no reply, but his words produced a deep impression upon
+her. A tear trembled upon her eyelashes as she stood silently before
+him. Möllner then gave her his arm, and they all took their seats at
+table. Heim sat upon her right hand, and Taun and Hilsborn were
+opposite her. Then came Moritz with Angelika, and Herbert with Frau
+Taun, while the Staatsräthin sat upon Heim's right.
+
+"Permit me to present my friend Professor Taun," said Möllner after
+they were seated.
+
+"A friend!" added the latter to Möllner's words.
+
+"He is one of those who voted in your favour," Möllner explained.
+
+"I thank you," said Ernestine, "in the name of my sex."
+
+"I cannot appropriate all your thanks to myself. They are due first to
+my dear friends Heim and Hilsborn, for they fought for you more bravely
+than I, to whom you were personally a stranger."
+
+"Really, Father Heim, did you vote for me?" asked Ernestine in
+surprise.
+
+"Well, yes," grumbled Heim, vexed that Taun had told of it. "The thing
+that you sent in was not bad, and I would have liked to open a wider
+field for your restless spirit, where you might find something better
+to do,"--here he sunk his bass voice to a whisper,--"than abuse God
+Almighty as a dog bays the moon, and make all honest folk your enemies
+with your atheistical stuff."
+
+Ernestine started with a sudden shock. Was this, then, urged against
+her? She was amazed. Were there really people in these enlightened
+circles who could be shocked at her skepticism? Had Leuthold spoken
+falsely when he assured her that true culture was synonymous with
+emancipation from all religious prejudices? And who were the cultivated
+class, if these professors and their wives were not?
+
+"Are you wounded by our friend's rough manner?" asked Taun, sorry for
+Ernestine's confusion. "You must know of old what a noble kernel is
+concealed within that rough shell."
+
+"Who is talking about me?" Moritz cried out to them. "I am sure I heard
+'noble Kern,' and that must be meant for me."
+
+"Let those three alone, you vain fellow!" laughed Johannes, signing to
+him not to disturb their grave discourse.
+
+Ernestine looked sadly at Helm. "Father Helm used to be kinder to me.
+He was never so harsh to me before."
+
+"Of course not," said Helm in a low voice. "Then you were a thing made
+of blotting-paper, that a breath might have destroyed. We were content
+only to keep you alive, and, as is apt to be the case with delicate
+children, we forgot, in our anxiety about your physical health, to take
+due care of your mind."
+
+"Well, well, never mind that now," said Taun. "I am not at all afraid
+that you will long fail of finding the right. Your writings give
+evidence of such uncommon talent that I should not wonder if you became
+the most learned woman of the age."
+
+Ernestine's eyes flashed. She raised her head like a thirsty flower in
+a summer rain. "The most learned woman of the age!" The words touched
+her weak point, and penetrated the inner sanctuary of her ambition.
+Heim's harshness was forgotten. "How can you say this to me, in a
+century that has produced a Caroline Herschel and a Dorothea Rodde?"
+
+Herbert, who from a distance had been hastening to the conversation,
+turned to Moritz and asked him in a low voice, "Who is Dorothea Rodde?
+Of course I have heard of Herschel's sister,--just because she was
+Herchel's sister,--but I know nothing of the other."
+
+"Don't ask me," laughed Moritz. "I have too much to do to busy myself
+about the wonders worked by all the blue-stockings immortalized in the
+pages of trashy annuals."
+
+Ernestine shot an angry glance at him. She had heard what was said, and
+she was indignant.
+
+It was the drop too much when Angelika asked across the table,
+"Johannes, pray tell us--the gentlemen want to know--who Dorothea Rodde
+is."
+
+Johannes shrugged his shoulders. "I do not know."
+
+"What, you! Do you not know?" said Ernestine. "Is it possible! Does no
+one know that woman--the famous daughter of that great man Schläger?
+She only died in eighteen hundred and twenty-four, and is she forgotten
+already?"
+
+"She cannot have materially advanced the cause of science," said
+Johannes, "or she would not have been forgotten."
+
+"Such a rarely-endowed individual as this woman must, I should suppose,
+always be an object of scientific interest, even if she did not
+directly advance the cause of science itself. It must surely be
+interesting to physiologists, as well as to psychologists, that a woman
+has lived capable of learning all that Dorothea Rodde learned, even
+although she taught nothing. All cannot create. Many men have been held
+in high esteem for diligence alone. Besides, Dorothea would have
+achieved greatness if she had not committed the folly of marrying, thus
+arresting her scientific development in the bud and retiring entirely
+from public view. She buried herself alive, and the world is always
+ready to strew ashes upon a woman's coffin. Had she been a man, every
+one would have known that, when a boy of seventeen, he could speak all
+the dead and living languages, was thoroughly versed in chemistry,
+medicine, anatomy, and mineralogy, and in his eighteenth year, after a
+brilliant examination, received the degree of doctor of philosophy from
+the University of Göttingen! But it was only a girl who achieved all
+this thus early; and if the less envious time in which she studied
+acknowledged her superiority, the more prudent present ignores it all
+the more utterly."
+
+A painful silence ensued. Every one was busied with his or her own
+thoughts. Every one felt confused. This beautiful, placid Ernestine had
+suddenly showed her claws!
+
+The Staatsräthin silently laid down her knife and fork,--she had lost
+all desire to eat.
+
+Johannes looked sadly at Ernestine, and gently shook his head. Herbert
+alone grew more cheerful as the rest seemed disturbed, and looked down
+the table at Elsa, who sat at the other end, lost in melancholy reverie
+as she drew several flowers and grasses out of the large vase on the
+table, intending, like Ophelia, to deck herself with them; but, alas,
+Hamlet had no eyes for her sweet madness!
+
+"May I request you to present me to the lady?" Herbert asked Johannes.
+
+"Herr Professor Herbert," said the latter, and added with emphasis,
+"your bitterest opponent!"
+
+Ernestine bowed slightly and looked coldly at Herbert.
+
+"Permit me," he began sneeringly, "to beg you to inform me, Fräulein
+von Hartwich,--I ask solely for instruction in the matter,--what
+possible scientific interest the fact that a woman spoke several
+languages--she could hardly have spoken _all_, as you declared--could
+possess."
+
+"Yes, I too am curious upon that point!" cried Moritz.
+
+Ernestine looked gravely from one to the other. "I am quite ready to
+explain it to you. I should not, indeed, have ventured to do so if you
+had not asked me, for it would have seemed to me insulting to suppose
+that you could need any such explanation."
+
+"That shot told," Moritz remarked comically.
+
+"We are foes, gentlemen, and I am bent upon victory," said Ernestine.
+"I think the facility of acquisition shown by Dorothea Rodde is
+certainly as significant a fact in natural history as any example of
+extraordinary instinct in animals, for which zoologists search so
+untiringly. Or is the natural history of women less interesting than
+that of the ape?"
+
+"We are not used to compare or to speak of women thus," Möllner
+interposed.
+
+"Then, if you really accord us an equality with men in the scale of
+creation, Dorothea's eminent talent must certainly be of scientific
+interest, because it must assist in the investigation of the relative
+weight of the masculine and feminine brain,--a point not yet solved,
+the social importance of which is not recognized, or it would not be
+treated with such frivolous indifference. I, gentlemen, am convinced
+that the great contest for the emancipation of woman can be settled
+only through physiology, since that alone can prove whether the
+material conditions of the thinking mechanism are equal in men and
+women; and, if they are, who would deny a woman the right to assert her
+independence of man, even in the world of the intellect?"
+
+"But we have not yet reached this point," said Johannes. "This equality
+has not yet been proved."
+
+"Nor has the contrary," said Ernestine. "Therefore it seems to me that
+it would be well worth while for physiology to come to the aid of
+history, and test the material brain of famous women."
+
+"And what end would that serve?"
+
+"Can you ask that question seriously? Would not the result of such
+investigations, if it were favourable to women, strike a blow at our
+present social arrangements in the relations of the sexes? And would
+not the rendering such an aid to true social harmony be a triumph for
+physiology, of which it might well be proud?"
+
+"It would be all very well," said Moritz, "if the whole question were
+worth the trouble."
+
+"Of course it is not worth it for you, but it is for us. What do men
+care about the position of woman,--her capacity or her incapacity? If
+your wives fill their position,--that is, if they are your obedient
+servants, have sufficient capacity for cooking, and can bring up your
+children,--all is as it should be, as far as you are concerned, and the
+most important problem of mankind, in the social system, is solved to
+your satisfaction."
+
+A unanimous murmur arose at this accusation, but Ernestine was now
+greatly excited, and she continued, "It was the pain I felt at this
+narrow-minded indifference that led me to devote myself to natural
+science. I will do what I can to induce scientific men to turn their
+attention in this direction. Do not smile: even if I can do nothing for
+this cause myself, I would cheerfully dedicate my existence to arousing
+the interest of others in the subject. If I can prevail upon some less
+scrupulous university to afford me an opportunity for pursuing the
+requisite anatomical and physiological studies, these physical and
+psychical investigations shall be the sole occupation of my life."
+
+"But, Fräulein von Hartwich," said Johannes seriously, "what would you
+discover that could further your desires? We have proved conclusively
+that the feminine brain absolutely weighs less than the masculine,
+and----"
+
+"Have you proved that superiority depends only upon weight?"
+
+"Not precisely, but it certainly does in most instances."
+
+"In most instances? but if it is not proved to do so in all, the
+question is far from settled. It is true that Byron, Cuvier, and others
+had remarkably weighty brains, but, on the other hand, the brains of
+certain philosophers, as, for example, Hermann and Hausmann, weighed
+less than the ordinary feminine brain. We are then led to suspect that
+superiority depends upon the relation of the brain to the rest of the
+body,--perhaps upon the relation of different portions of the brain to
+each other, or the quantity of the gray matter. The only sure
+acquisition that physiology may be able to boast in this matter is that
+the relative weight of the feminine is not lighter than that of the
+masculine brain." Her eyes glowed with enthusiasm. "Oh, how gladly
+would I die if I could only succeed in casting a ray of light upon this
+chaos!"
+
+"But, Fräulein von Hartwich," Herbert began with an ex cathedrâ air,
+"as woman is in all respects weaker and more delicate than man, is it
+not natural that her brain also should be smaller and lighter,
+rendering her incapable of as great intellectual exertion?"
+
+"But, Herr Professor," replied Ernestine with a slight smile, "I have
+just said that superiority depended upon the relative, not the
+absolute, weight. Were it otherwise, the largest and strongest man
+would be the wisest, and you, sir, would have less ability than any one
+present, for you are the smallest man here."
+
+Again there was an embarrassed silence. Many could scarcely suppress
+their laughter as they saw the angry look of the little man. Others
+found the scene painful to witness. Such conduct on the part of a lady
+was unprecedented in the annals of professorial gatherings, and,
+although those who were acquainted with Ernestine found her behaviour
+perfectly natural from her standpoint, strangers to her were
+inexpressibly shocked,--none more so than the Staatsräthin, to whom the
+girl's every word was like acid to an open wound.
+
+It was the old story over again. She was unlike the others, and,
+without meaning it, frightened them all away. Wherever she went,
+the curse of eccentricity attached to her. No one shared her
+interests,--she had nothing in common with any one,--she was, and must
+continue to be, alone! Even Johannes grew thoughtful and silent. She
+timidly sought his eye, but he did not look at her.
+
+Elsa, although she had no public, was still playing Ophelia, and was
+pondering upon the sweetness of the service she could render if it were
+only asked of her. Ah, no one wanted to see how charmingly she could
+obey. And she softly hummed to herself, in English, Ophelia's words,
+
+
+           "Larded all with sweet flowers,
+            Which bewept to the grave did go
+            With true-love showers."
+
+
+Frau Taun looked gravely across at Ernestine. She ceased to anticipate
+_tableaux vivants_,--nothing could be done with such material. And then
+the conversation at table! She really could not expose her young guests
+to listen to anatomical treatises.
+
+Herbert noticed the breach that had been made in Frau Taun's good
+opinion, and hastened to throw a bombshell into it. "She has not the
+slightest sense of refinement."
+
+The ladies in the vicinity nodded assent.
+
+Heaven be thanked! this combination of beauty and learning was wanting
+in what they possessed in fullest measure, and she had already
+succeeded in making herself disagreeable to the gentlemen who had been
+so impressed by her appearance.
+
+One lady plucked the sleeve of her neighbour. "See her sit with her
+elbows upon the table!"
+
+"How coarse!"
+
+"There now, see how quickly you have made enemies of all these people,"
+whispered old Heim. "You are not wrong from your point of view,--but
+where is the use of battering so at the door of a house where you have
+been received as a guest? If you wish to associate with mankind, you
+must not go about treading upon their toes."
+
+"I do not wish to associate with these people," said Ernestine.
+
+"Oh, yes, you do! You must wish it. Do you suppose that you need no
+help, no support,--that you can get along entirely alone in the world?
+How unpractical! how terribly exaggerated!"
+
+"I do not understand you, Father Heim."
+
+"I don't suppose you do----"
+
+Angelika here interrupted the conversation, saying, as she handed
+Ernestine a plate of apricot crême, which was greatly lauded, "You must
+eat some of this, Fräulein Ernestine. I made it myself, and I am very
+proud of it."
+
+"You have just heard how Fräulein von Hartwich despises the noble art
+of cookery. Don't pride yourself upon it before her," sneered Moritz.
+
+Angelika compassionated Ernestine's mortification at these words, and,
+while the other ladies were deep in a discussion regarding the
+preparation of the delicious crême, she said kindly, "You are quite
+right in lamenting that we women attach so much importance to such
+things, but they are part of our daily life, and we cannot entirely
+ignore them. Why did God give us organs of taste, if we are not to
+enjoy the flavour of our food? It is so natural to try to make the life
+of those whom we love pleasant, even by the most trivial means, amongst
+which are justly ranked eating and drinking."
+
+"Forgive me for asking the question," said Ernestine, "but could not
+their enjoyment be equally well secured by the hands of a cook while
+you were employing your time with something better?"
+
+"Yes," cried Angelika, amid general amusement, "if we had the money to
+pay eighty gulden for an excellent cook. But, as we have not, one must
+either superintend matters one's self, or put up with bad cooking. And
+you would not have a poor man, coming hungry and tired from his day's
+work, do that. No, I assure you, when I see Moritz enjoying something
+that I have prepared for him myself, it gives me almost as much
+pleasure as it does to feed a child."
+
+Ernestine looked at her blankly. This was entirely beyond her horizon.
+
+Angelika continued: "But indeed it does not make us servants. A service
+rendered for love cannot degrade,--voluntary obedience is not slavery.
+We must be guided by some one in life,--why not by a husband who
+protects and labours for us?" And she held out her hand to Moritz.
+
+"But," said Ernestine, "if we learn to labour for ourselves we need be
+beholden to no one,--dependent upon no one."
+
+"Oh," said Angelika, with a charming smile and a roguish glance at
+Moritz out of her large innocent eyes, "we cannot do without them,
+these stern lords of creation,--at least I could not live without
+Moritz, if I were ever so rich and wise."
+
+Loud applause greeted this frank declaration; it seemed as if a sudden
+breath of fresh air were admitted into a sultry, closed apartment,--all
+breathed more freely. Angelika's genuine sunny nature was a relief to
+every one, after the distorted, gloomy views that Ernestine had
+broached.
+
+"And you expect to bring that fool to reason?" whispered Moritz to
+Johannes.
+
+"Yes," replied the latter curtly.
+
+"Well, I wish you all success. I would not win a wife at such a price."
+
+Supper was ended. The Staatsräthin rose from table, and the company
+adjourned to the adjoining room, where punch was served.
+
+Johannes silently conducted Ernestine thither. His duties as host then
+compelled him to leave her. She stood alone in the middle of the room,
+looking around for some one to whom she might turn. No one came near
+her. The ladies whispered together, casting occasional glances in her
+direction, and the gentlemen stood about in groups, either turning
+their backs upon Ernestine or eyeing her through their glasses. She
+stood alone, as upon the stage before an audience. She did not know
+what to do. It seemed cowardly and undignified to flee for refuge to a
+corner, and yet this cross-fire of keen eyes was as hard to endure as
+it had been years before at the Staatsräthin's. What did her intellect
+or learning avail her now? She was as much shunned, despised, and
+misunderstood among people of refinement and culture as by the
+peasants. What fatality was it that thus attended her? Who would solve
+the riddle for her?
+
+An unexpected end was put to her torment. Elsa glided up to her upon
+Möllner's arm.
+
+"Fräulein Herbert wishes to be presented to you," he said.
+
+Ernestine gazed in amazement at the strange flower-crowned elderly
+child, and took with some hesitation the damp, withered little hand
+held out to her.
+
+"I begged my--our friend--" she looked round, but Möllner had again
+joined the other guests--"to make us acquainted with each other,
+because I feel myself so strangely drawn towards you. Your observations
+upon the brain impressed me greatly,--for I too am wild about natural
+science, and am myself half scientific. I dote on phrenology. I am a
+disciple of Schewe's, whose striking diagnosis of my characteristics
+converted me to Gall's theory. Heavens! what a delight it would be to
+discuss this subject with you, who have studied the brain so
+thoroughly! I am sure we should understand one another. You must let me
+examine your head--so remarkable a head for a woman. What a treat it
+will be for me! Come,--pray sit down."
+
+Ernestine made an impatient gesture of refusal.
+
+"What! you do not wish it? Oh, don't be afraid that I shall prove an
+_enfant terrible_ and tell what I discover. I never tell tales."
+
+"I am not afraid of that," replied Ernestine bluntly. "If you could
+discover my character from the shape of my skull, there would be no
+need of your silence. I have nothing to conceal. But I take no interest
+in such nonsense."
+
+"Nonsense do you call it?" cried Elsa, clasping her withered hands.
+"Then you do not believe in Gall's doctrine?"
+
+"What do you mean by believe?" said Ernestine. "I do not believe in
+anything that has not been proved, and when anything has been proved I
+do not believe it,--I know it. Gall's theory is like Lavater's
+physiognomy, an hypothesis based upon coincidences, fit only to amuse
+idlers, but not worthy the attention of an earnest labourer in the
+cause of science."
+
+"Oh, you cut me to the heart," sighed Elsa, who saw the scientific
+nimbus with which she had crowned her brows thus falling off like a
+theatrical halo of gold-paper. She was greatly offended. She had meant
+so well,--for Möllner's sake she had conquered herself and attempted
+to make a friend of Ernestine. He should see how her wounded but
+self-renouncing heart would open to her rival. She had been so glad not
+to come quite empty-handed to this learned woman; for, as far as she
+had understood the anatomical conversation at table, it coincided
+wonderfully with Gall's theory, which she had lately mastered that she
+might have the pleasure of subjecting Möllner's head to an examination.
+And now, just as she had hoped to recommend herself to him whom she
+loved by her one little bit of scientific acquirement, even this
+unselfish pleasure was denied her, and the attempt had failed entirely.
+Oh, Ernestine was a hard--a terrible woman!
+
+While Elsa had been talking to Ernestine, the gentlemen had cast
+significant glances towards them, and said among themselves, "There is
+a wonderful combination,--the Hartwich and Fräulein Elsa! It must be
+worth studying."
+
+And so they gradually drew near the two women. At last, Moritz, who,
+like a child with its doll, always had his wife hanging on his arm,
+could not refrain from joining in the conversation, for he pursued a
+jest like a boy after a butterfly. "Tell me, then, Fräulein Elsa, what
+did Schewe say to your head?" he asked.
+
+"What?" and Elsa smiled diffidently. What an attraction she possessed
+for the other sex! Here were all the gentlemen gathered around her
+again. "What? oh, modesty forbids me to tell you."
+
+"Then he was very complimental?"
+
+"He was indeed."
+
+"That was the reason, then, you found his diagnosis so striking,"
+laughed Moritz.
+
+Elsa became embarrassed.
+
+"That is just what makes that man so successful," said Moritz. "He
+flatters every one, and therefore every one believes him."
+
+"Oh, you do him great injustice!" Elsa remonstrated. "He is so in
+earnest about his science. He can be quite rude. He would certainly be
+rude to you, Professor Kern."
+
+The gentlemen all laughed. "Fräulein Elsa is severe."
+
+
+             "Dove-feather'd raven! wolfish-ravening lamb!"
+
+
+quoted the youthful tutor.
+
+"Oh, I admire the man so much," said the offended lady, "he is an adept
+in the sense of touch,--really he not only feels, he thinks and sees,
+with the tips of his fingers. After he had examined my head, and was
+standing aside with closed eyes, as if to recapitulate mentally what he
+had discovered, it seemed to me that he was actually holding my soul in
+his closed hand, like a bird just taken from the nest."
+
+"It is to be hoped he did not keep it."
+
+"Oh, no! he gave it back to me; he presented me with it anew in
+teaching me to understand it."
+
+"Well, if he has initiated you into the mystery of his art, Fräulein
+Elsa, oblige us with some of it now. There ought to be all sorts of
+fledgelings to take out of these nests, and we really would like to
+have a glimpse of our souls."
+
+"I asked Fräulein von Hartwich just now to let me examine her head, but
+she would not allow it."
+
+"But we are all ready for it," cried Moritz, bowing his head, as did
+several of the other gentlemen.
+
+"Pray don't," Angelika entreated her husband.
+
+"Dear Angelika," said Elsa, determined to be interesting to-day at all
+risks, "I am not at all afraid of the trial, for I am confident of
+success. But it must be seriously undertaken. The gentlemen must be
+disguised so that I cannot recognize them."
+
+"Yes, yes, that's right! It will be delightful!" cried the gentlemen,
+to whose gaiety the punch perhaps had lent some assistance.
+
+"Fräulein Elsa must leave the room while we disguise ourselves."
+
+"I will wait for a while in the garden, where it is far more charming
+to see the elves sipping the dew than you, gentlemen, drinking your
+punch. Call me when you are ready, and I will come, and, like a bee
+among the flower-cups, dip into your heads and find out whether they
+contain honey or gall."
+
+With this arch threat she was hurrying away, when Ernestine took her
+hand compassionately and whispered in her ear, "Do not do it, you will
+only be laughed at."
+
+Greatly offended, Elsa withdrew her hand. "By you, perhaps, but only by
+you. My friends here understand me and love me!" The tears rushed to
+her little eyes, and she hastened out, without hearing Herbert call
+after her, "You will disgrace yourself."
+
+She hurried down into the garden, to confide her griefs to the elves
+and fairies. She would endure smilingly, no one should know what she
+had dared to dream,--to hope. But could her faithful heart at once
+resign all hope? Patient waiting had before now been crowned with
+success. She went to the spot where Angelika had left the flowers that
+she had given her for Johannes. The glass was overturned, the water
+spilled and the flowers were scattered about withered. How sorry she
+was! It was a bad omen. She picked up her favourites and pressed them
+to her heart. "Thus will it perhaps be one day with me. I shall fade
+away," she thought, "forgotten and neglected like you, and the only
+proof of affection that can then be mine will be that some tender soul
+may lay upon my coffin a wreath of you, sweet flowers of the field!"
+
+She seated herself upon the grass and sung softly, while her tears
+dropped upon the flowers,
+
+
+           "Ah, tears will not bring back your beauty like rain.
+            Or love that is dead, to bloom over again."
+
+
+"Fräulein Elsa, are you weeping?"
+
+She started and sprang up, Möllner was approaching her across the lawn.
+
+"Oh, no, these are not tears, only the dews of evening," she lisped,
+drying her eyes.
+
+Möllner looked at her with pity. "Poor creature," he thought, "it is
+not your fault that nature has proved such a step-mother to you, and
+that your brother's distorted views of education have made you
+ridiculous, and even deprived you of the sympathy that you deserve."
+
+He offered her his arm. "Come, my dear Fräulein Elsa!" he said kindly,
+"I am sent to bring you in. Thanks to Fräulein von Hartwich, you are
+spared the mystification that was contemplated for you."
+
+"How so?" asked Elsa, who, upon Möllner's arm, felt like a vine nailed
+against the wall.
+
+"Fräulein Ernestine was requested to exchange dresses with Frau Taun,
+whose hair is also black, and both were to wear masks, in order to
+deceive you. The younger portion of the company so insisted upon it
+that I could not prevent it. But Fräulein von Hartwich, convinced that
+you were not so secure in your art as to be impregnable to deceit,
+refused so obstinately to do what was asked of her that the assemblage
+fairly broke up in disappointment."
+
+Elsa was silent from shame. She knew that she could not have come off
+victorious from such a trial. She had depended upon easily
+distinguishing individuals by their hair, and it had not occurred to
+her that Frau Taun's hair was of the same colour as Ernestine's. And
+yet, glad as she was to be thus relieved, she was humiliated at having
+afforded her enemy an opportunity for such a display of magnanimity in
+her behalf.
+
+"You will make a trial of your skill some time when we are more alone,
+will you not?" asked Möllner in the tone one uses to comfort a child.
+
+"Yes, if you desire it, and if you would allow me to subject your own
+magnificent head----"
+
+Her voice trembled with emotion as she preferred this bold request.
+
+"Why not?" interposed Möllner, "if you think my hard head would prove a
+profitable subject."
+
+"Your hard head! oh, how can you speak so? I should tremble to touch
+that head, lest Minerva should spring from it to punish me for my
+temerity."
+
+Johannes smiled compassionately. "I cannot persuade you not to
+embarrass me with your exaggerated compliments. You know I am a blunt
+man, and cannot repay you in kind."
+
+"How should you repay me? I only ask you to permit me to reverence you.
+What can the brook require from the mighty tree whose roots drink of
+its waters? Let my admiration flow on at your feet, and let your
+vigorous nature draw thence as much as it needs. There will always be
+enough for you,--the brook is inexhaustible."
+
+Johannes was most disagreeably affected by this outburst. What could he
+reply, without either inspiring the unfortunate creature with false
+hopes or deeply offending her?
+
+Her brother's voice relieved his embarrassment. They reached the house.
+
+"Here they come!" Herbert cried to the others, who seemed to be waiting
+for them and were just taking their departure. They ascended the
+stairs, and Elsa put on her hat and shawl.
+
+"Where have you been so long?" Herbert asked in a tone intentionally
+loud.
+
+"Heavens! we fairly flew through the garden!" cried Elsa.
+
+"Have you wings, then, Fräulein Elsa?" asked the young tutor.
+
+"Yes," she replied, with an enraptured glance at Johannes. "They have
+lately budded anew."
+
+"Pray, then," urged her indefatigable tormentor, "soar aloft, that we
+may see you,--it would be a charming sight!" And he lighted a cigar at
+the lamp in the hall.
+
+"All human beings are born with wings," said Elsa with pathos,--"only
+we forget how to use them."
+
+"Come, Elsa dear, there is no use in our arguing with these men,"
+Angelika said kindly. "Take leave of my mother, and we will walk along
+together, as we are going in the same direction."
+
+Elsa did as she was told. In the doorway, behind the Staatsräthin,
+stood Ernestine, utterly dejected. Elsa went up to her and whispered,
+"May you rest well, if indeed shy Morpheus dare approach your armed
+spirit."
+
+Herbert dragged Elsa away, whispering fiercely, "No pretty speeches to
+her! I will crush her! The 'little' man will prove great enough to
+terrify her!"
+
+"Good-night, sweet mother. Good-night, poor Ernestine!" said Angelika,
+and then had hardly time to kiss them both before her impatient husband
+fairly picked her up and carried her down-stairs.
+
+"Good-night, Professor Möllner," whispered Elsa. "The brook ripples
+onward to the ocean of oblivion."
+
+"Good-night, good-night," resounded, in all variations of tone, from
+all sides, and Father Heim hummed in his strong bass voice an old
+student song, in which the other gentlemen gaily joined, for, with the
+exception of the disturbance caused by "that crazy Hartwich," the
+evening had been a pleasant one, and Möllner's Havanas were delicious
+on the way home. If only the Hartwich had not spoiled their fun with
+Fräulein Elsa, it would have been too good. Elsa was by far the better
+of the two. If she was a fool, they could at least laugh at her, which
+was impossible with the Hartwich, she was so deuced clever at repartee.
+Thus talking, laughing, and singing, the throng sought their several
+homes through the silent, starry night.
+
+The Staatsräthin had entered the room with Ernestine, Johannes, having
+locked the street-door after his guests, came and took a chair by
+Ernestine's side. "Come, mother dear, sit down by us, and learn to know
+our guest a little before we separate for the night."
+
+But the Staatsräthin took up her basket of keys. "I am very sorry, but
+I must see to the arrangement of Fräulein von Hartwich's bedroom. The
+servants are all very busy just now."
+
+"Mother, let Regina attend to all that, and do you stay with us,"
+Johannes entreated, with something of reproach in his tone. "Other
+things can be left until to-morrow."
+
+"The silver at least must be attended to. And Fräulein von Hartwich is
+in great need of repose."
+
+"I am so sorry to give you so much trouble," said Ernestine, really
+grieved.
+
+"Oh, I assure you it is a pleasure!" With these brief words the
+Staatsräthin left the room.
+
+Ernestine sat there pale and exhausted. Johannes took her hand.
+"Patience, patience, Ernestine. She will soon--you will soon learn to
+know each other."
+
+Ernestine silently shook her head. Her brow was clouded. "There is no
+home for me here!"
+
+"Not yet, but it will become one!"
+
+"No, never!"
+
+Johannes compressed his lips. "Ernestine, you do not dream how you pain
+me!"
+
+"Pain you, my friend? The only one who is kind to me! Oh, no, I will
+not,--I cannot!" And she leaned towards him with strong, almost
+childlike, emotion, and laid her hand upon his.
+
+"When I see you thus," said Johannes, with a look of ardent love,
+"I ask myself whether you can be the same Ernestine who seeks to
+sacrifice the unfathomed treasure of her rich, overflowing heart to a
+phantom,--to a struggle that can never yield a thousandth part of the
+pleasure that she might create for herself and others. Oh God!" and he
+pressed his lips to Ernestine's hand, "every word that you said to-day
+stabbed me like a dagger. How was it possible for you to think and talk
+so, after that hour that we passed together? Oh, lovely white rose that
+you are, you incline yourself towards me, but, when I would pluck and
+wear you, your thorns wound my hand!"
+
+Ernestine laid her other hand upon his bowed head. "Dear--unspeakably
+dear--friend, have patience with me. If you could only put yourself in
+my place! In early childhood, when others are borne in the arms of love
+and petted and caressed, I was abused, scorned, neglected,--because--I
+was--a girl. Every cry of my soul, every thought of my mind, every
+feeling of my young heart, asked, 'Why am I so bitterly punished for
+not being a boy?' And in every wound that I received were planted the
+seeds of revenge,--revenge for myself and for my sex,--and of burning
+ambition to rival those placed so far above me in the scale of
+creation. These feelings matured quickly in the glow of the indignation
+which I felt when I saw my sex oppressed and repulsed whenever it
+strove to rise above its misery. They grew with my growth, strengthened
+with my physical and mental strength, and they filled my whole being,
+just as my veins and nerves run through my body. How can I live if you
+tear them thence?"
+
+Johannes held her hand clasped in his, and listened attentively.
+
+"It is," continued Ernestine, "as if my heart had frozen to ice just at
+the moment when the agonized cry, 'Why am I worth less than a boy?'
+burst from me, and as if that question were congealed within it,--so
+that I can think and struggle only for the answer to that 'why?' Why
+are we subject to man? Why do we depend solely upon his magnanimity,
+and succumb miserably when he withholds it? The times when physical
+force ruled are past. Everything now depends upon whether the progress
+of woman is to be retarded by world-old prejudices, or by positive
+mental inferiority on her part; and I shall never rest until science
+satisfies me upon this point."
+
+"And do you not believe, Ernestine, that there is a third power
+subjecting the more delicate sex to the stronger--a higher power than
+the right of the strongest--more effective than the power of the
+intellect,--the power of love?"
+
+Ernestine looked at him with calm surprise. "I do not believe love can
+accomplish what reason fails to prove."
+
+"Is that really so?" Johannes was silent for a moment, then walked to
+and fro with folded arms, and finally stopped before her. "You speak of
+a sentiment that you have no knowledge of. But of all my hopes that you
+have destroyed to-day in the bud, one there is that you cannot take
+from me. You will learn to know it!"
+
+The Staatsräthin entered. "Fräulein von Hartwich, your room is ready
+for you. Will you allow me to conduct you thither?"
+
+"Mother," cried Johannes, "do not be so cold and formal to Ernestine.
+You cannot keep at such a distance one so near to me."
+
+"I really cannot see wherein I have failed of my duty towards Fräulein
+von Hartwich,--we are as yet entire strangers to each other."
+
+"You are right, Frau Staatsräthin," said Ernestine. "I am not so
+presuming as to expect more from you than you would accord to the
+merest stranger. I am very sorry to be obliged to accept even so much
+from you. I will go to my room, that I may not any longer keep you from
+your rest; but be assured I shall trespass upon your hospitality for a
+single night only."
+
+She turned to Johannes, and, with a grateful look, offered him her
+hand.
+
+"Good-night, kind sir."
+
+"God guard your first slumbers beneath this roof!" said Johannes
+fervently, and it seemed as if the wish took the airy shape of her lost
+guardian angel, and hovered before her up the stairs to the cosy little
+room whither the Staatsräthin conducted her, and then, placing itself
+by the side of her snowy couch, fanned her burning brow with cooling
+wings.
+
+"Mother," said Johannes gravely, when the Staatsräthin rejoined him,
+"to-day, for the first time in my life, you have been no mother to me!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+                        INHARMONIOUS CONTRASTS.
+
+
+The morning sun streamed brightly through the white muslin curtains of
+Ernestine's windows, yet she still slept in peaceful and childlike
+slumber. For the first time for many years, she was not cheated of her
+repose by haste to go to her work. The guardian angel, that Johannes
+had invoked to her side, forbade even her uncle's ghost to knock at her
+door, and still kept faithful watch beside her bed. It seemed as if the
+whole house were aware of its sacred presence, for a quiet as of a
+church reigned among its inmates. They were all up, but, at the command
+of their head, every door was softly opened and shut, every footfall
+noiseless. Johannes knew how much need Ernestine had of repose, and he
+would not have her disturbed. He even controlled the throbbing of his
+own heart, that longed to bid her good-morning.
+
+The sleeper drew calmly in with every breath the repose that surrounded
+her,--and what a blessing it was for the poor, wearied child!
+
+The Staatsräthin had superintended the arrangement of the
+breakfast-table, and was seated with her work at the window. But her
+hands were dropped idly in her lap, and her eyes, red with weeping,
+were fixed sadly upon the flame of the spirit-lamp that had been
+burning for an hour beneath the coffee-urn.
+
+"Do you not think I had better have fresh coffee prepared? this has
+been waiting so long," she said to her son as he entered the room.
+
+"Just as you please, mother dear," said Johannes. "You know I
+understand nothing of such things."
+
+The Staatsräthin rang for the servant. "Regina, take this coffee away
+and bring back the urn. I will boil some more."
+
+The maid did as she was directed, with a sullen face. "'Tis a shame to
+waste such good coffee!" she muttered as she went out.
+
+"It is very disagreeable, mother," observed Johannes, "to have Regina
+criticising all our arrangements. I do not like to have servants of
+that sort about me. If you cannot break her of it, pray send her away."
+
+"She does her work well, and is thoroughly honest," replied the
+Staatsräthin.
+
+"That may be, but there certainly are servants to be had who would do
+their duty more respectfully and good-humouredly. I do not like to have
+my comfort destroyed by sullen faces around me. I like to have people
+who render their service cheerfully."
+
+"It is not very easy to find them."
+
+"They must be sought until they are found," said Johannes, cutting
+short the conversation by opening and beginning to read his newspaper.
+
+The Staatsräthin sighed, but said not a word.
+
+Regina re-entered with the urn, and asked crossly, "Is the Fräulein not
+to be wakened yet?"
+
+"No!" was Johannes's curt reply.
+
+"Then the urn might as well be washed, if the coffee is not to be made
+until noon," she grumbled again, and left the room, closing the door
+with something of a slam.
+
+"Now, mother, this really is too much. I cannot undertake the direction
+of the servant-maids, but I will not tolerate them when they are so
+insolent. Regina must conduct herself differently, or she goes!"
+
+"You have suddenly grown very impatient with the girl," said his mother
+bitterly. "I hope you may always be as implicitly obeyed as you
+desire."
+
+"I understand what you mean, mother, but it does not touch me. I desire
+only what is right,--obedience from the servants whom I hire, love from
+a wife who is my equal."
+
+"Love alone will not answer."
+
+"Yes, true, faithful love will."
+
+"There must be submission and self-sacrifice."
+
+"True love embraces all these,--submission, self-sacrifice, the entire
+self."
+
+"It is not every one who can love truly; so be upon your guard that you
+are not intentionally or unintentionally deceived."
+
+"Reassure yourself, mother, and spare me your misgivings," said
+Johannes with unusual sternness, again turning to his newspaper, while
+he listened to every rustle outside the door of the room.
+
+The Staatsräthin brought from a cupboard a delicate little coffee-mill
+and began to grind some fresh coffee. The clock struck half-past eight.
+
+"It is easy to see that the young lady has not been used to a regular
+household," the Staatsräthin could not forbear observing.
+
+"I only see that she is worn out after the fatigue of yesterday."
+
+"No one who is accustomed to early rising ever sleeps so late in the
+morning."
+
+"It is impossible to rise early when one works all night long."
+
+"It is a bad custom for the head of a household!"
+
+"Mother," said Johannes, starting up, "I should be downright unhappy if
+I did not know how kind-hearted you really are."
+
+"Indeed?" The Staatsräthin shook up the coffee, but her hands trembled
+visibly. "This girl changes everything. Since she came into the house,
+all things are wrong: to-day, I make you unhappy,--yesterday, I was no
+mother to you! And yet, my son, since the painful day when I gave you
+birth, I have never been more a mother to you than now in my anxiety
+for your true happiness!" She could say no more; her emotion choked her
+utterance.
+
+"Mother dearest," cried Johannes, embracing her tenderly, "you must not
+shed a tear because of a hasty word of mine. Come forgive me,--I am
+really so happy to-day. My dear, good mother, scold your boy well, I
+beg."
+
+The Staatsräthin smiled again, and stroked her darling's shining curls.
+
+"God bless you, my dear son. It is because I love you so that I cannot
+give you to any but the noblest and best of women. I tremble lest you,
+who are without an equal in my eyes, should throw yourself away upon a
+wife who is unworthy of you."
+
+"Trust me, mother, I understand and thank you, but, if you want me to
+be happy, love me a little less and Ernestine more! This is all I ask
+of you,--will you not do it?"
+
+"The first I cannot do, but I will try to do the last, because you
+desire it, my son!"
+
+"That's my own dear mother!" cried Johannes, kissing her still
+beautiful hands. "And now you may go and waken our guest, for I must
+see her before I go to the University."
+
+"Here she is!" said the Staatsräthin, going forward to greet Ernestine.
+"Good-morning, my dear. How did you sleep?" And she kissed her brow.
+
+Ernestine looked at her, surprised and grateful. "Oh, I slept as if
+rocked by angels,--I have not felt so rested and refreshed for a long
+time!" Then, holding out a bunch of lovely white roses to Johannes, she
+asked, "Did you have these beautiful roses laid outside my door?"
+
+Johannes blushed slightly, and gazed enraptured at the beautiful
+creature. "Yes, I put them there myself."
+
+"I thank you!" said Ernestine. "You are kinder to me than any one ever
+was before. I have many flowers in my garden, but none, I think, so
+lovely as these. They are the first flowers I ever had given to me. I
+know now how pleasant it is."
+
+"Did your uncle never give you a bouquet upon your birthday?" asked the
+Staatsräthin.
+
+"Oh, no! And I do not think it would have delighted me so from him!"
+said Ernestine, with artless ease.
+
+Johannes's face beamed at these words. "When is your birthday,
+Ernestine?" he asked, while the Staatsräthin led her to the
+breakfast-table.
+
+Ernestine set down the cup that she was just about putting to her lips,
+and looked at him in amazement "I do not know!"
+
+"You do not know!" cried Johannes.
+
+"I will ask my uncle,--he told me once, but I have forgotten."
+
+The Staatsräthin clasped her hands. "Forgotten your own birthday? Is it
+possible? Was it never celebrated?"
+
+"Celebrated?" repeated Ernestine in surprise. "No, why should it have
+been celebrated?"
+
+"What! do you know nothing of this affectionate custom?"
+
+Ernestine shook her head almost mournfully. "I know of no loving
+customs."
+
+The Staatsräthin looked at her with compassion. "Then you hardly know
+how old you are?"
+
+"Not exactly; but my father died when I was twelve years old,--shortly
+before his death he reproached me for being so little and weak for
+twelve years old,--and since then ten summers have passed away."
+
+"Poor child!" said the Staatsräthin. "I begin to understand!"
+
+"I thought you would, mother," said Johannes from the other side of the
+table.
+
+"Your uncle has deprived you of many of the pleasures of life,"
+continued the Staatsräthin.
+
+"Such pleasures, perhaps. But I must not be ungrateful,--he has given
+me others no less fair and great!"
+
+"And what were they?"
+
+"He has taught me to think and to study. There can be no greater or
+purer pleasures than these."
+
+Again the Staatsräthin's brow was overcast.
+
+Johannes saw it, and broke off the conversation. "Ernestine, it is not
+good for you to drink your coffee black. It excites your nerves."
+
+"On the contrary, my uncle bids me always take it so, to stimulate
+me,--without it, I often could not begin my day's work."
+
+"That accords entirely with your uncle's system of education. First he
+utterly prostrates you by wakefulness and study at night, and then
+stimulates you by artificial means. Why, you yourself can understand
+that such a life of alternate prostration and over-excitement must wear
+you out. I really do not know what to think of your uncle in this
+respect."
+
+Ernestine looked down, evidently impressed by the truth of Johannes's
+words.
+
+"But tell me, Johannes," said the Staatsräthin, "why do you address
+Fräulein Ernestine by her first name, when she does not authorize you
+to do so by returning the familiarity?"
+
+"She asks me to do so."
+
+"Oh, yes, I begged your son to call me Ernestine,--it makes me feel
+like a child again, and as if I could begin my life anew!"
+
+"But you should address him by his first name, and not have the
+intimacy all upon one side."
+
+Ernestine blushed. "I cannot do so now,--by-and-by, perhaps."
+
+"Leave it to time and Ernestine's own feelings, mother dear. I shall
+not ask for it until it comes naturally. Some time when she wishes to
+give me a special pleasure she will do it. And now good-by, Ernestine.
+I must go. I lecture at nine, but as soon as I get through I will
+return."
+
+Ernestine looked up at him with glistening eyes, and breathed, scarcely
+audibly, "Farewell, my friend."
+
+Johannes pressed her hand, and then, turning to his mother, said, "Dear
+mother, I leave Ernestine to you for an hour, and hope with all my
+heart that you will understand each other. But, at all events, remember
+what you promised me."
+
+"Most certainly I will, my son." He went as far as the door, then
+lingered, and, calling his mother to him, whispered imploringly, "Be
+kind to her,--all that you do for her you do for me."
+
+And, with one more look of longing love at Ernestine, he was gone. It
+was very hard to go. It seemed to him that he must stay,--that
+Ernestine would escape him if he did not guard her well. He would have
+turned back again if his duty had not been so imperative. "If I only
+find her here when I return!" he said to himself one moment, and the
+next he blamed himself for his childish weakness. He loved her too
+well. The one hour of lecture seemed to him an eternity. He longed to
+see her again almost before he had crossed the threshold that separated
+him from her.
+
+How beautiful she was to-day after her refreshing sleep,--how maidenly!
+If, when he returned, she looked at him with those glistening eyes, he
+could not control himself,--he would throw himself at her feet and
+implore her to be his. The decisive word must be spoken,--he must have
+certainty. The state of doubt into which he was plunged by the strange
+contrast between Ernestine's cold, stubbornly expressed opinions and
+her tender personal behaviour towards himself was not to be borne any
+longer. Only one hour separated him from the goal for which he longed
+with every pulse of his strong, manly nature. Oh, were it only over!
+
+
+"Do you like beans?" the Staatsräthin asked Ernestine.
+
+"Why do you ask me?"
+
+"Only because you are to have them at dinner to-day."
+
+"Thank you, but I cannot dine with you."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"My uncle might return unexpectedly from his journey, and be angry if
+he did not find me at home."
+
+"Strange! How comes it that you, who contend so earnestly for freedom,
+are under such strict control? Is it not somewhat of a contradiction?"
+
+Ernestine started.
+
+The Staatsräthin continued: "You are battling for the independence of
+woman, you brand as slavery a wife's obedience to her protector, and
+yet a man who, as I understand the case, is far more dependent upon you
+than you are upon him, has such complete dominion over you that you do
+not dare to stay from home a day without his permission."
+
+Ernestine was again startled and surprised. "You are right. But I have
+grown up under his control. It has become a habit with me, so that I am
+hardly conscious of it, and it has never yet been so opposed to my
+wishes as to induce me to shake it off."
+
+"Now, let me ask you, my dear, whether you regard this dull,
+half-unconscious habit of submission as nobler and loftier than the
+loving, voluntary obedience that a wife yields to a husband?"
+
+Ernestine was silent for a moment, and then said with her own generous
+frankness, "No, it is not. But I have brought it upon myself, and
+cannot escape from it as long as my uncle possesses the legal right of
+my guardian."
+
+"But this legal right does not in any way affect your personal freedom
+as long as you do not desire to do anything contrary to law."
+
+"He always told me that the guardian was the master of the ward. And if
+this tyrannical regulation had not applied equally to the male and
+female sex, I should long ago have attacked it in my publications."
+
+"That would not have done much good, I fear," said the Staatsräthin
+dryly.
+
+Ernestine shrugged her shoulders. "None of my writings effect much
+good. But they are not meant to be anything more than a few of the many
+drops of water that must one day wear away the stone that dams the
+course of the pure waters of reason."
+
+"We will not discuss such abstract subjects," said the Staatsräthin
+evasively. "I would rather persuade you to stay with us to-day."
+
+"If I only thought that I should not be a burden to you!"
+
+"You certainly will not be to me, and you will give my son a pleasure
+far greater than the annoyance to which your absence may subject your
+guardian. But you are the best judge of what you ought to do."
+
+Ernestine laid her hand upon the Staatsräthin's. "I will stay!"
+
+"There,--that's right! Johannes would never have forgiven me if I had
+failed to persuade you to stay." She rang the bell. Regina appeared,
+and carried away the coffee-tray.
+
+"You may bring me the beans, I will prepare them," said the
+Staatsräthin. Regina brought in the beans in a dish, with a bowl for
+the stalks.
+
+"I'm sure you will excuse me," said the Staatsräthin to Ernestine, and
+she seated herself by the window, knife in hand, ready to begin her
+task.
+
+Ernestine looked on in astonishment. "Do you do that yourself?"
+
+"Why not? The cook has a great deal to do to-day, and I am glad to
+assist her."
+
+"I would help you if I knew how," said Ernestine.
+
+"Try it,--perhaps it will amuse you. It does not require much skill."
+The old lady, quite delighted at Ernestine's interest in domestic
+affairs, handed her another knife and a bean, saying, "Look! you first
+strip off the stem and those tough fibres,--so. The people in this part
+of the country are apt to pay no attention to the fibres, but if you do
+not strip them off they are very tough. And now cut the bean
+lengthwise. Stop!--not so thick,--a little finer. Now, don't put the
+stems back in the dish, but here in this bowl! See! everything in the
+world can be learned, and, if you should not be compelled to do it, it
+is at least well to know how."
+
+A gentle sigh escaped her as she remembered that her own circumstances
+had once, before she had lost her property by her brother's failure,
+been such as to make these homely offices entirely unnecessary.
+
+Ernestine contemplated with smiling surprise the Staatsräthin's
+enthusiasm in encouraging her to undertake this new rôle. She asked
+herself seriously if it were possible that this was really an
+intellectual woman. But one glance at the broad, thoughtful brow and
+the clear, expressive eyes of the speaker convinced her of the truth.
+
+Lost in these reflections, Ernestine continued her novel taskwork, but
+the Staatsräthin suddenly discovered, to her horror, that she was
+throwing the stems in with the beans, and the beans into the bowl of
+stems and strings.
+
+"My dear," she cried, "see what you are doing! now I shall have to pick
+over the whole dishful!"
+
+Ernestine threw down the knife and leaned back in her chair. "I never
+was made for such work! Forgive me, but I cannot think it worth while
+to learn it. I shall never be so situated as to need such knowledge."
+
+"As you please," said the Staatsräthin coldly.
+
+"Are you displeased with me? Is it possible that you are displeased
+with me because I cannot cut beans?" She seized the old lady's busy
+hand. "Frau Staatsräthin, make some allowance for me. You must not ask
+one to do what she is not fit for. Would you ask the fish to fly, or
+the bird to swim? Of course not. Do not, then, expect a person who is
+at home only in a different world to take an interest in the every-day
+concerns of this."
+
+
+           "This strife about the beans you make,
+            When really crowns are now at stake,
+
+
+we might say," remarked the Staatsräthin. "And certainly in our case
+these matters are not so widely different. What is most important
+cannot be entirely divided here from what is unimportant. Such little
+household occupations, slight, even insignificant, as they may appear,
+belong to the responsibilities of a woman's position. They are stitches
+in the web of her life. If a single one is dropped, the whole is
+gradually frayed!"
+
+Ernestine shrugged her shoulders. "You are perfectly right from your
+point of view, Frau Staatsräthin, but your point of view is not mine.
+To me a woman's mission is something higher. A noble mind cannot
+condescend to occupy itself with such cares, which are--forgive me the
+expression--always more or less sordid."
+
+The Staatsräthin frowned slightly, but she did not interrupt Ernestine,
+who continued: "It is hard enough that so much of the brute cleaves to
+us that we must eat and drink to keep our physical mechanism in order;
+thus, in the process of development, we never attain any higher degree
+of perfection. We ought to take pride in developing ourselves as fully
+as possible, in contending against every animal appetite instead of
+making a formal study how best to pamper it. We ought to blush for our
+frail, indigent physical nature, instead of making an idol of it and
+regarding her who sacrifices to it most freely as the loftiest
+illustration of feminine virtue."
+
+"That all sounds very fine," said the Staatsräthin, "but it is,
+nevertheless, a deplorable mistake. With the capacity for pleasure the
+Creator has bestowed upon us the right to enjoy. We ought only to see
+to it that our pleasures are true and noble. It is false shame that
+would repudiate what we cannot live without, and it sounds strangely
+contradictory from the lips of a natural philosopher like yourself.
+Before whom would you blush? Before your fellow-beings? Certainly not,
+for they all share your mortal infirmities. And, since you do not
+believe in a God, where does there exist for you any supernatural
+ideal, any bodiless spirit, subject to do change nor desire of change,
+before whom you can be ashamed of being a mortal?"
+
+"In myself,--in my own imagination."
+
+"Yes, yes, this is the usual jargon. Because you deny your God, and
+still feel the need of Him, you exalt yourself into a divinity, and are
+humiliated at the idea of your imprisonment within a mortal frame!"
+
+"Oh, no, I am not so vain and arrogant. There is, if I may thus express
+it, a refinement of mind that is shocked by the coarse demands of
+material nature. And I should be afraid of degrading myself in my own
+eyes if, in satisfying these demands, I used the time and ability that
+might be employed for higher purposes."
+
+"You speak as if by the responsibilities of a woman I meant devotion
+solely to creature comforts. I understand by these something more than
+eating and drinking. Order and cleanliness, for example, are among the
+necessities of our life, especially for fine natures, for they belong
+to the domain of the beautiful, and must be the special concern of the
+female head of a household, whatever may be the number of her servants.
+To be sure, there are women who are so busy with brooms and dusters
+that we might almost think them neat from their love of dirt. But I am
+not speaking of such extreme cases. The superintendence of servants, if
+you have them, the distribution of labour, the purchase of clothing,
+with its hundred various branches, and, finally, the direction and care
+of children, are all necessities of existence, duties to which no
+woman, even the wealthiest, can refuse to attend. Least of all should
+they be left to the husband. I consider it one of our most sacred
+duties to relieve him from all material cares, that he may be free to
+work for the benefit of mankind. Thus we assist him, modestly though it
+be, in the great work, by enabling him to keep himself free and fit for
+his labours."
+
+"I frankly acknowledge that I am incapable of such modesty. I cannot be
+satisfied with an excellence that I must share with every housekeeper.
+I am conscious of the ability to assist directly in the cause of human
+progress. Why should I waste it in labour wholly possible to
+mediocrity?"
+
+"You depreciate this labour because you do not know it. Rightly
+conceived and executed, it may prove of the greatest significance. For
+the more cultivated and intellectual a woman is, the more capable is
+she of appreciating the importance of the task assigned to man, and the
+necessity of lightening it as much as she can by due care of his
+physical and mental welfare. And with this thought ever in her mind,
+the meanest employment, the most menial occupation, becomes a labour of
+love. And even the most careful housewife can find time, if she is so
+disposed, to educate herself still further, and so to form and exercise
+her talents as to make them the delight of her husband's hours of
+leisure. That is what I understand, my dear, to be a wife in the truest
+sense." She suddenly took Ernestine's hand and drew her towards her.
+"And thus,--why should I not speak frankly?--thus I would have the
+woman to whom I am to be a mother."
+
+Ernestine looked at her in amazement. "Will you--are you to be a mother
+to me, then?"
+
+The Staatsräthin hesitated for a moment, and then said, "I should like
+to be. You are an orphan, and I pity you. If you would only be what a
+woman should be,--if you would only conform to our social and Christian
+views, I could give you all a mother's love."
+
+Ernestine withdrew her hand. "I thank you for your kind intentions,
+but, if these are the only conditions upon which you can bestow your
+affection upon me, I fear I shall never deserve it."
+
+The Staatsräthin shook her head in rising displeasure. "You do not
+understand me."
+
+"I understand you far better than I am understood by you."
+
+"You probably think my homely wisdom very easy of comprehension--while
+yours is too deep for my powers of mind." The Staatsräthin laid down
+her knife, and pushed away the dish of beans. "But the time may come
+when you will think of what I have been saying, and will be sorry that
+you have repulsed me."
+
+"Frau Staatsräthin, I have not repulsed you. I am only too honest to
+accept a regard bestowed upon me on conditions that I cannot fulfil. To
+gain your approval I should be obliged to equivocate,--and I have
+always been true. It is robbery to accept an affection springing from a
+false idea of one's character. What would it profit me to throw myself
+on your breast and silently return your tenderness, when I know that
+you would love me not for what I am, but for what I might pretend to
+be? Sooner or later you would discover your error, and despise me for
+deceiving you. No, I am not unworthy of the love of good people just as
+I am, but if I cannot win it by frankness and conscientiousness, I will
+never try to steal it."
+
+"You speak proudly. Such self-assertion does not become a young girl
+towards an old woman, least of all towards the mother of her best
+friend and benefactor."
+
+"Frau Staatsräthin," cried Ernestine, "I shall always be grateful to
+your son for his kindness to me, but surely I ought not to testify my
+gratitude by hypocrisy and slavish servility."
+
+"My dear," said the Staatsräthin, controlling herself, "you agitate
+yourself causelessly. I am a simple, practical woman, who does not
+speak your language, and cannot follow you in your flights. I have no
+desire to drag you down to us. I simply wish to show you the world in
+its actual shape, that you may know what awaits you when you come to
+make your home in it; and I would gladly receive you in my motherly
+arms, lest you should receive too severe a shock from your first
+contact with reality."
+
+"Oh, Frau Staatsräthin, if the world is what you describe it to me, I
+would rather remain above it, in a colder but purer sphere."
+
+"I should have thought the sphere in which you were not safe from the
+assaults of angry peasants hardly a desirable one. I, at least, should
+prefer the modest discharge of domestic duties in the circle of home.
+But tastes differ."
+
+Ernestine shrank from these words. "Truth is born in heaven, but stoned
+upon the earth. Those who wish to bring it into the world must have the
+courage of martyrs. These are such old commonplaces that one can hardly
+give utterance to them without their seeming trite. Those who recognize
+truth must speak it, and the happiness of possessing it outweighs with
+me the misery that I may incur in speaking it."
+
+"Forgive me, but these are phrases that utterly fail to cast any halo
+around such a disgraceful occurrence as that of yesterday."
+
+"Frau Staatsräthin!" cried Ernestine, flushing up.
+
+"Be calm, my dear child, I am speaking like a mother to you. What can
+you gain by casting discredit by your conduct, beforehand, upon the
+truths that you wish to assert? Who will place any confidence in the
+understanding and learning of a woman who does not understand how to
+guard herself from ridicule? Pray listen to me calmly, for I speak as
+he would who would give his life for you every hour of the day. I would
+empty my heart to you, that no shadow may exist between us. The world
+is thus pitiless towards everything in the conduct of a woman that
+provokes remark, because our ideas of propriety have assigned her a
+modest retirement in the home circle, and it sees, in the bold attempt
+to emancipate herself from such universally received ideas, a want of
+womanly modesty and sense of honour, which, it thinks, cannot be too
+severely punished. Publicity is a thorny path. At every step aside from
+her vocation, although never so carefully taken, a woman meets with
+briers and nettles that wound her unprotected feet but are carelessly
+trodden down by a man. And even although she succeeds in weaving for
+herself a crown in this unlovely domain, it is, as one of our poets
+justly says, 'a crown of thorns.'"
+
+Ernestine was looking fixedly upon the ground. The Staatsräthin could
+not guess her thoughts. Suddenly she raised her head proudly. "And if
+it be a crown of thorns, I will press it upon my brow. It is dearer to
+me than the fleeting roses of commonplace happiness, or the pinched
+head-gear of a German housewife!"
+
+The Staatsräthin looked up to heaven, as though praying for patience.
+Then she replied with an evident effort at self-control, "I grant you
+that the lot of woman might be, and should be, better than it is. But
+we cannot improve it by struggling against it, but by enduring it with
+the dignity which will win us esteem, while our struggles can only
+expose us to the ridicule that always attends unsuccessful effort."
+
+"Frau Staatsräthin, I hope to turn ridicule into fear."
+
+"And if you should succeed, what will it avail you? Which is the
+happier, to have people shun you in fear, or to be surrounded by a
+loving circle for whom you have suffered?"
+
+"I do not live for myself,--I live for the cause of millions of women
+for whom it is my mission to struggle and contend. Even if I could be
+ever so happy, I should despise myself were I able in my own good
+fortune to forget the misery of others. But I confess frankly that I
+could not be happy with such a lot as you prescribe for woman. Whoever
+has once floated upon the ocean of thought that embraces the world,
+would die of homesickness if confined within the narrow limits of the
+domestic circle."
+
+The Staatsräthin dropped her hands in her lap,--her patience was
+exhausted. "It is of no use,--you cannot comprehend the words of
+reason!"
+
+"Do you call that reason? I assure you, my ideas of reason are very
+different."
+
+"Of course, of course. You are thinking of the definitions of Kant and
+Hegel. You are talking of what is called 'pure reason,' that repudiates
+everything hitherto dear and sacred in men's eyes, and would have
+created a far better world if God Almighty had not so bungled the work
+beforehand. But scatter abroad your doctrines far and wide,--they
+cannot do much harm, for they only serve to show upon how flimsy an
+argument the enemies of God base their denial of Him. But such a person
+can never be cordially received into a family circle. She can never
+inspire confidence, and that grieves me for my Johannes's sake!"
+
+Ernestine was silent for awhile, and then looked sadly at the
+Staatsräthin. "I have not asked you to receive me into your family,
+Frau Staatsräthin. I know that my opinions make me an object of dislike
+wherever I go. Any one who sees through the defects and abuses of
+society will never be a welcome guest, but will be shunned as an
+embodied reproach. Strong-minded women, as they are called, think me
+narrow-minded,--the narrow-minded call me strong-minded. I belong to no
+party, I am opposed to all. It is a terrible fate, and nothing can help
+me to endure it, save a good conscience."
+
+"Or excessive self-conceit," the Staatsräthin interposed half aloud.
+
+Ernestine blushed deeply. Scarcely restraining her anger, she replied,
+"Frau Staatsräthin, people, accustomed all their lives long to the
+modesty of stupidity that characterizes the women of your circle, will
+find it very easy to stigmatize as self-conceit the courage of a woman
+daring to have an opinion of her own."
+
+"It is not necessarily stupidity that prevents one from trumpeting
+forth one's opinions as indisputable truth."
+
+"Frau Staatsräthin," said Ernestine, trembling from head to foot, "if
+you possessed for me one drop of the motherly kindness of which you
+spoke a little while ago, you would judge me less harshly. A mother
+makes allowance for her child. How could you wish to be my mother, when
+you are not disposed to make any allowance for me?"
+
+"I really cannot tell how I fell into such an error,--and yet I was
+sincere, perfectly sincere. God knows I meant kindly by you. If you
+knew the part that you are playing in the eyes of the world, you would
+be more humble and grateful for the sacrifice,--yes, listen to the
+truth, you who pride yourself upon your frankness,--for the sacrifice,
+I say, that a mother makes when she opens her house and heart to such a
+person for her son's sake."
+
+Ernestine sat pale and mute, her hands folded in her lap; she could not
+stir. The Staatsräthin continued, greatly irritated: "But I did it; I
+conquered myself, and tried to forget your skepticism, your
+unwomanliness, your reputation. I hoped--hoped for my son's sake--that
+you would change, and I would gladly have been a help to you. But you
+repulse my first approach in a manner that makes me tremble at the
+thought that my Johannes has given his loving heart to such a hardened
+nature,--that he should have by his fireside a woman who despises a
+wife's duties, and who will be the ruin of himself and his home."
+
+Ernestine sprang up. She gasped for breath, and her words broke forth
+from her with painful effort. "Frau Staatsräthin, I can assure you
+there has never been a word or hint at any nearer relation between your
+son and myself. I never would have crossed your threshold had I known
+how I was slandered. I promise you, you shall have no cause for alarm.
+I shall never disgrace you by forcing you to receive me as your son's
+wife. If he should ever offer me his hand, I should refuse it. As I do
+not pretend to believe in a God, I cannot offer to appeal to him, but I
+swear to you by my honour, which is dearer to me than life----"
+
+"Stop, stop!" the Staatsräthin interrupted her in mortal terror. "Oh,
+my Johannes, what am I doing! Ernestine, do not make matters worse than
+they are. Do not drive them to extremities. I want you to reject, not
+my son, but your own faults and errors. Promise me to give up these,
+and you shall be the beloved daughter of my heart!"
+
+"I cannot promise you that. I do not wish to do so. Do you think I
+would beg and fawn for the doubtful happiness of reigning at a fireside
+where every occasion would be improved to remind me of the sacrifice
+that was made in enduring me?--where the only commendation that I could
+earn would be for the skilful management of sauce-pans and dish-cloths,
+and where a badly-cooked dinner would brand me as a useless member of
+society? No, you know less of me than I thought, if you imagine that
+the chasm that you have opened between us can ever be bridged over.
+Spare me the humiliation of further explanations. I thank you for your
+hospitality. I leave you, as I did years ago, when I stood trembling
+and wet through before you, and you had nothing for me but cold words
+of reproof, that made me feel myself a little culprit, although I was
+as unconscious of wrong as I am to-day. Then I would sooner have died
+than have returned to you, although your son, blessings upon him! would
+have treated me like a sister. Ten years afterwards he has brought me
+again to you and overcome my old childish timidity; but the first
+moment that I stepped across your threshold and encountered your cold
+greeting, I knew that there was no home for me here!" She covered her
+face with her hands, and leaned exhausted against the door through
+which she was about to leave the room.
+
+The Staatsräthin, like all impulsive but really fine-tempered people,
+was easily appeased and touched. She hastened to her and threw her arms
+around her. "My dear child! Can you not forgive the hasty words of an
+anxious mother? Indeed I was unjust. You are more sinned against than
+sinning. I thought only of my son, and--"
+
+"There was no need to stab me to the heart for his sake. I never
+dreamed of becoming the wife of your son,--he is far too hostile to my
+views, much as I esteem him. I wished for nothing but the happiness of
+calling one human being in the world friend. But I can go without that
+too. I will prove it to you. Farewell!"
+
+And she hurried out, followed by the Staatsräthin, who could not
+prevent her from gathering together the few things she had brought with
+her and leaving the house.
+
+The mother looked after her with anxious forebodings. "What will
+Johannes say? How he will blame his mother!" she lamented,--but she
+soon collected herself, and said calmly and firmly, "In God's name,
+then, I will bear it. It is better thus!"
+
+
+
+
+
+                               PART III.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                       THE STRENGTH OF WEAKNESS.
+
+
+On the morning of the day that drove Ernestine from her peaceful but
+brief refuge, Herr Leonhardt slept unusually late. His wife, who did
+not wish to waken him, looked anxiously at the old cuckoo clock, that
+pointed to half past six. It was very natural that the old man should
+be tired, after the trying occurrences of the previous day. Frau
+Brigitta had never seen him so agitated. He had shed bitter tears upon
+his return home,--tears from those poor eyes! Every drop had fallen
+scalding hot upon his faithful wife's heart. Those amongst whom he had
+lived for half a century as a steadfast, self-sacrificing friend and
+teacher, had taken up stones to stone him,--had forgotten all that they
+owed him,--it broke the heart of the weary old man.
+
+Frau Leonhardt sat upon the bench by the stove. She folded her kind,
+fat hands, and wondered how any one could grieve the man who was to her
+the very ideal of honour and worth! The door in the clock opened, and
+out hopped the cuckoo, flapped his wings, called "cuckoo" seven times,
+and then disappeared, slamming the door behind him as if he were
+greatly irritated at finding nothing astir as yet. Frau Leonhardt
+arose,--the old man must be called now, for the children came to school
+at eight.
+
+She ascended the ladder-like staircase to their upper story, which was
+under the roof of the cottage, and softly entered the bedroom. Herr
+Leonhardt lay with his face turned to the wall.
+
+"Are you asleep?" asked Frau Leonhardt.
+
+"What is it? what is the matter?" cried her husband alarmed. "Is it
+really on fire?"
+
+"Why, you are dreaming,--it is time to get up,--the children will be
+here!"
+
+"But, my dear wife, it is still night. What are you doing up so early?"
+
+"Night?" and Frau Leonhardt smiled. "Why, how sleepy you are!--it is
+broad daylight--seven o'clock."
+
+"Broad daylight!" cried the old man in a strange tone of voice. He sat
+up in bed, rubbed his eyes, then rubbed them again and stared at the
+bright sunbeams, but not an eyelash quivered. He was very pale.
+
+"How are you, dear husband?" asked his wife anxiously.
+
+"Well, well, mother dear, only a little tired still," he said in an
+uncertain voice. "Go down now and get the coffee ready. I will come
+soon!"
+
+"Can I not help you? you are trembling so; you must have fever!" cried
+Frau Brigitta.
+
+"Oh, no, I am quite well,--go down now, I pray you."
+
+She obeyed, hard as it was for her, and below-stairs she could not help
+weeping, she knew not why. She prepared the coffee, and listened with a
+beating heart for Bernhard's step upon the stairs. Then, after twenty
+minutes, that seemed to her an eternity, she heard him coming with a
+slow, uncertain tread. Some great misfortune seemed upon its way to
+her. How strange!--he felt for the door before opening it. He must be
+very sick. She ran towards him, but his look reassured her. He was pale
+indeed, but his expression was as calm and gentle as ever. He laid his
+hand upon her arm. "Well, dear wife, now let us breakfast. I have kept
+you waiting for me!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I waited," said Frau Brigitta, leading him to the table.
+"Have you any appetite? Do you feel any better?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but pour out the coffee for me, my dear. I am still somewhat
+fatigued."
+
+"That I will." And the old woman poured the coffee into his cup. "Here
+is the milk." And she placed the pitcher near his hand.
+
+Herr Leonhardt took it carefully, and touched the edge of his cup with
+his hand, that he might not pour in too much; but, in spite of his
+care, he spilt the hot milk upon his fingers. He said nothing, but
+secretly wiped it off and slowly put his cup to his lips. His wife laid
+a piece of bread upon his plate, and this also he ate slowly.
+
+"Is it not good?" asked Brigitta.
+
+"Certainly it is," he replied, "but pray eat your own breakfast." And
+he listened to be sure that she did so. Then, when he had drank his
+coffee, he felt for the table before he put down his cup.
+
+His wife looked at him with anxiety. "Bernhard, I think your eyes are
+worse again to-day."
+
+"I think they are," he replied quietly. "Have you breakfasted?"
+
+"Yes, I have finished."
+
+"Well, come then and sit here beside me. I want to tell you something.
+Give me your hand, my dear wife, and listen quietly to what I have to
+say."
+
+Frau Brigitta looked at him wonderingly, and her heart beat so
+quickly--she knew not why--that it almost took away her breath.
+
+Herr Leonhardt stroked her hand, and spoke with the tenderness with
+which one speaks to a child. "During all these eighteen years that I
+have been such a care to you, and in all the thirty years of our
+marriage, you have never caused me an hour of suffering, and I have
+done what I could to aid and support you. You have borne bravely all
+our common misfortunes, followed our first children to the grave with
+me, and comforted me when I was overcome by despair. Do not let your
+courage fail you now, for I must give you pain. I cannot help it. Try,
+as you always have done, to spare me the pang of seeing you sink under
+it. Promise me this!"
+
+"For Heaven's sake, my husband, speak! I will promise you everything!"
+
+"What we have so long feared, dear wife, has at last come upon us!" He
+drew her nearer to him. "This morning when I awoke there was no
+daylight for me!"
+
+A dull, half-suppressed moan was heard at these words; then silence
+ensued. The old woman's hands slipped from her husband's,--he put his
+own out towards her, but she was not at his side. She had sunk down
+from her seat and buried her face in her arms, that he might not hear
+her sob.
+
+"Mother, where are you?" he asked after a little while.
+
+She embraced his knees and hid her streaming eyes in his lap. "Oh, my
+poor, kind husband,--blind! Oh God! Those dear, dear eyes!" And then
+her grief would not be controlled, and she lay at his feet, sobbing
+loudly.
+
+Herr Leonhardt gently raised her until her head rested upon his
+shoulder, and then waited until the first outbreak should be past. He
+too had had moments this morning that none but his God might witness.
+He could not ask his wife to do what had been impossible for himself.
+At last he said softly and tenderly, "Brigitta, you have been
+everything to me that a wife can be to her husband. I have always
+thought there was nothing left for you to do, and yet in your old age
+our loving Father has filled up the measure of your self-sacrifice and
+laid upon you a heavier burden than any you have yet had to bear. He
+has taken from me the power to support you, and calls upon you, a
+weary, aged pilgrim, to be your husband's staff upon his path to the
+grave. It seems very hard,--but, dear Brigitta, when God calls, what
+should we answer?"
+
+"Lord, here am I!" said his wife, and the resignation and cheerful
+submission in her voice were truly wonderful. She embraced her aged
+husband, and her tears flowed more gently as she said, "I will guide
+and support you, and never be weary."
+
+"Thanks, dear heart. And now be calm, for my sake! Think how much worse
+it would have been if you had found me this morning dead in my bed!"
+
+"Oh, a thousand times worse!"
+
+"Then do not let us rebel because God has taken from me one of the five
+senses, with which He endows us that we may enjoy the glory of His
+universe, he has still left me four. If I can no longer see your dear
+face, I can still hear your gentle voice of comfort and feel you by my
+side; and although I cannot see the sun, I can still warm myself in its
+beams,--I can inhale the fragrance of the flowers that it calls into
+life,--enjoy the fruits that it ripens. I can hear the songs of the
+birds, and with them praise my Creator from the depths of my soul. How
+much he has left me! We will not be like thankless beggars, showing our
+gratitude for benefits by complaining that they are not great enough. I
+have seen the sunlight for sixty-eight years. Shall I complain because,
+just before my entrance into eternal light, God darkens my eyes, as we
+do a child's when we lead it up to a brilliant Christmas-tree? I will
+bear the bandage patiently, and try to prepare my soul for the glories
+awaiting it. Let us but remember all this, dear wife, and we shall not
+be sad any longer."
+
+The old man ceased. His darkened eyes were radiant with light from
+within, the reflection of those heavenly beams of which in spirit he
+had a foresight.
+
+His wife had listened to him with folded hands, and her simple nature
+was elevated and refined by thus witnessing his lofty resignation. The
+peaceful silence that reigned in the room was too sacred to be broken
+by any sounds of earthly sorrow. Her eyes were tearless as she gazed
+upon the noble face of the man who was all in all to her, and she
+waited humbly for further words from him. At last the only words
+escaped her lips that she could utter in her present frame of mind.
+"And our son?" she asked softly.
+
+An expression of pain flitted across his features. "That is the hardest
+to bear,--our poor son! God give him strength, as He once gave me
+strength when I was forced to leave the University and become a
+schoolmaster. I told him a short time ago what the physicians said. I
+did not tell you, for I wanted to spare you as long as I could. He sent
+me a reply by return of mail, which you shall hear, now that I have
+nothing to conceal from you. You shall read it, and be glad that you
+have such a son."
+
+"My good boy!"
+
+"He will give up his studies and take my place here, so that we need
+never come to want."
+
+"But will that be allowed?"
+
+"Yes,--I have already obtained permission from the proper authorities."
+
+"Oh, how thoughtful you have been!" cried his wife with emotion. "With
+all that burden to bear so silently, and now you console me instead of
+my comforting you! How did such a poor creature as I ever come to have
+such a husband?"
+
+She pressed a kiss upon his withered hand. The footsteps of the
+school-children were heard in the hall. Herr Leonhardt arose and went
+to the door.
+
+"Wait I let me lead you," said Brigitta.
+
+"Oh, you need not," he said smiling. "I have been preparing myself for
+blindness for a long time, and I have practised walking about with
+closed eyes, that I might not be so helpless when the time came. And so
+now I can find my way very well." He had reached the door, and went
+out. "Good-morning, children!" he cried, and felt his way along the
+wall to the school-room, followed by his anxious wife. He stumbled a
+little upon the threshold. "Never mind," he said to Brigitta, who would
+have supported him. "I need more practice, but it will be better soon."
+He found his desk, seated himself there, and waited until the children
+had all taken their places.
+
+"Are you all here?"
+
+"Yes," was the reply.
+
+"Well, then, sit down,--we cannot have any school to-day. My dear
+children, I must take leave of you. I cannot teach you any more. God
+has taken from me my eyesight. I cannot see you nor your lessons, and
+therefore I can no longer be your schoolmaster. Your parents will
+consider my blindness a punishment from God for my conduct, but I tell
+you, if the trials God sends us are rightly borne they are not
+punishments, but benefits. Remember this all your lives long. There
+will come dark hours in every one of your lives, if you live to grow
+up, when you will understand what your old master meant. And now come
+and give me your hands, one after the other. So,--I thank you for your
+childlike tenderness and affection, and I forgive from the bottom of my
+heart those few who have ever given me any trouble. My son will soon be
+here in my place; promise me to obey him, and to make his duty easier
+for him by diligence and obedience. Farewell, my dear children. God
+bless and prosper you!"
+
+He held out his hands, and the children, sobbing and crying, thronged
+around him to clasp and kiss them.
+
+"Who is this?" the old man asked of each one, and then, as the names
+were told him, he shook the little hands.
+
+"Do not cry, dear children, we are not bidding farewell for life. You
+will often pass by the school-house on Sunday and shake hands with your
+old master as he sits on his bench before the door. And then I can
+guess by the voice who it is, and can feel how much you have grown, and
+you can tell me what you have been learning during the week. And those
+who have studied the best shall have some nuts, or one of my loveliest
+flowers, or some other little gift. Won't that be delightful?"
+
+The children were consoled by this prospect, and hastened home to tell
+the important news to their parents.
+
+The old man stood alone with his wife in the deserted school-room.
+"Come, dear wife, we will send a message to Walter." He laid his hands
+once more upon his desk, and tears fell from his eyes. "It is strange,"
+he said, "how much it costs us to leave a spot where we have laboured
+so long, even although our work has been hard and ill rewarded. Our
+home is wherever we have been used to the consciousness of duties
+fulfilled, and when we must leave it, it is as if we were going among
+strangers!"
+
+He put his arm in Brigitta's, and, with heard bent, crossed the
+threshold which separated him from the humble scene of the daily labour
+of his life. For the first time, he looked, to his wife's anxious eyes,
+like a broken-down old man.
+
+"I must leave you alone for an hour," she said, when she had seated him
+in the dwelling-room on the bench by the stove. "I must prepare the
+dinner."
+
+"Do so, mother; man must eat, whether he be merry or sorrowful, eh? And
+we are not really sorrowful, are we?" And he forced a smile and patted
+her shoulder.
+
+"No, dear Bernhard, we are not!" said his wife, struggling to repress a
+fresh burst of tears.
+
+"Send a messenger to town to Walter as soon as possible," said Herr
+Leonhardt.
+
+"Indeed I will. I cannot rest until my boy is with us. And I will send
+for the doctor, too!"
+
+"Do not send for the doctor; he can do nothing more for me."
+
+"But it will be a comfort to me to see him,--do let me send," said
+Brigitta. And she left the room.
+
+The old man sat there, calm and still. "And now I must begin my new
+daily task,--the laborious task of idleness!" he thought, as he folded
+his hands and gazed into the night that had closed around him for this
+life.
+
+He sat thus for some time, when the cuckoo began to announce the hour
+of nine, but the last "cuckoo" stuck in the bird's throat, and he stood
+still at his open door. The clock had run down. For the first time in
+many years, Herr Leonhardt had neglected to wind it up. He arose,
+groped his way towards it, felt for the weights, and carefully drew
+them up. The cuckoo took breath again, finished his song, and slammed
+to his door. "I will not forget you again, little comrade," said he,
+"you, who have chirped on through such merry and sorry times. How often
+now shall I long for you to tell me when the long, weary hours end!"
+
+Thus said the old man to himself, and again slipped back to his place.
+"There is something done," he said as he sat down. Then minute after
+minute passed by, his head sank upon his breast, the darkness made him
+sleepy, and for awhile even his thoughts faded and were at rest.
+
+His wife looked in upon him several times, but withdrew softly, that
+his sleep might not be disturbed.
+
+It was almost twelve o'clock.
+
+Then something rustled into the room; the old man felt the air stirred
+by an approaching form, and he raised his head. The figure threw itself
+at his feet. He put out his hand and touched waves of silky hair.
+
+"Father Leonhardt!"
+
+"Oh, this is Fräulein Ernestine."
+
+Ernestine looked at him, and observed with dismay that the pupils of
+his eyes did not contract with the light.
+
+"Herr Leonhardt, what is the matter with your eyes?"
+
+He smiled. "Their work is done."
+
+"Good heavens! already? I thought they would last months at least."
+
+"What matters a few months more or less?" said the old man quietly.
+
+Ernestine looked amazed. Involuntarily she clasped her hands. "Is this
+possible? I tremble from head to foot at the mere sight of such a
+calamity, and you--you upon whom it has fallen--are so perfectly calm
+and composed. Tell me, oh, tell me, what gives you such superhuman
+strength?"
+
+The old man turned to her his darkened eyes. "My faith, Fräulein
+Ernestine."
+
+Ernestine's gaze fell. "It is well for you."
+
+"Yes, it is well for me," repeated Herr Leonhardt.
+
+A long pause ensued. At last the old man asked kindly, "How are you
+after that terrible yesterday?"
+
+"Oh, Father Leonhardt, do not ask me how I am! Until this moment I
+thought myself very miserable, but your calamity teaches me to despise
+my own pain. In comparison with that, what is all the imaginary
+unhappiness that comes from being misunderstood? What matters it if
+people despise me for differing from them? What can their esteem give
+me or their contempt deprive me of? They cannot bestow upon me or take
+from me one ray of sunlight, one glimmer of the stars. The golden day
+shines upon my path, and I am young and able to labour. I see the
+beauty of the world, the universe is painted upon my organs of sight,
+my soul is bathed in light, and how can I give room to mortified pride
+or offended vanity, when I see a great enlightened soul peacefully
+resigned to endless night? No, Father Leonhardt, holy martyr that you
+are, I discard all my petty personal trials, and am grieved only for
+you." She bowed her head upon his hands, and sobbed passionately.
+
+"My daughter," said the old man, much moved, "you are not telling me
+the truth. The pain that you have suffered must be great indeed, for
+only a heart that knows what suffering is can feel so for others' woes.
+Your heart must have been filled before to overflowing with these tears
+that you are now shedding for me."
+
+"Oh, Father Leonhardt, blind though you are, you see clearly. I came to
+seek advice and comfort from your paternal heart, and you have
+comforted me even before I could tell you of my grief. Yes, there was a
+moment when I forgot myself, but it is past. Your noble example has
+made me strong again. Let it go. I can think and talk now only of
+yourself. I pray you take me for your daughter. You have treated me
+with a father's tenderness,--let me repay you as a child should.
+Yesterday you perilled that venerable head to save me from the angry
+mob,--now let me shield you from the menacing phantoms of night and
+loneliness. Come, live in my house with your wife. I will be with you
+as much as I can. I will talk to you and read to you. I am so lonely,
+and,--I cannot tell why,--I begin to thirst so for love."
+
+Herr Leonhardt clasped his hands. "Oh, what comfort and delight Heaven
+still sends me! Yes, although my eyes are blind, I can see the hidden
+beauty of the heart that you reveal to me. God bless you, my dear
+daughter, and grant you the light of His countenance, that you may one
+day recognize Him as your best friend and benefactor!" He paused, and
+then added almost timidly, "Forgive me,--I am falling into a tone
+that you do not accord with. Remember that in my youth I studied
+theology,--a little of the pulpit still sticks to me. Do not think that
+I arrogate the right or ability to instruct you. I, old and broken down
+as I am, am not the one to train that proud spirit. I will accept the
+crumbs of love that fall for me from your large heart, and gratefully
+pray for your happiness."
+
+"Father Leonhardt, do not undervalue yourself. You must know how far
+above me you are. When I saw you in your simple greatness confront
+those rude men yesterday, I was filled, for the first time since my
+childhood, with a sentiment of adoration. You understand me, you make
+allowance for me, while every one else misunderstands and condemns me.
+You stood by me in the hour of danger, and yet you never boast of your
+kindness. Oh, you are noble and true! Come to me,--let me find peace
+upon your paternal heart, let me give you a home and provide for your
+son's future."
+
+"Thanks, thanks for all your offers, my dear child, but I cannot take
+advantage of your generosity, and, thank God, I do not stand in need of
+it. My son has already determined to give up the study of medicine and
+take my place here as schoolmaster. Thus, our future is provided for,
+we shall not have to leave the dear old school-house, and I can die
+where my whole life has been passed."
+
+"Does that thought comfort you?" asked Ernestine, shaking her head.
+
+"Oh, yes, it is all that I desire. Those who, like yourself, my child,
+pass through life with all sails set, have no idea of the restraint
+which those in our class must gradually learn to put upon themselves in
+order not to despair. Yet in this very restraint, in this perpetual
+narrow round of duties that life assigns us, there is happiness, a
+content that routine always brings. You may say that routine blunts the
+faculties,--but, for the most part, it only seems to do so. A nature
+strong from within will thrust its roots deep into the soil of its
+abiding-place with the same force that enables it to grasp the
+universe, and if you should attempt to tear it thence in its old age,
+you would almost tear its life away also. I love the little spot of
+ground and the little house that have been the world to me. I believe I
+should die if I had to leave them."
+
+Ernestine listened thoughtfully. "Well, then, if I may not offer you a
+support, I can at least offer your son the means of pursuing his
+studies. My library, my apparatus, are at his disposal. I hope he will
+not refuse to make use of them in his leisure hours."
+
+"That indeed is a favor that I accept most gladly, although I can never
+hope to repay it! I thank you in my son's name. You will know the
+happiness of having restored to a human being what he most prizes,--his
+hopes for the future."
+
+"You amaze me more and more," cried Ernestine with warmth, "as you
+afford me an insight into the depth and cultivation of your mind. What
+self mastery it must have cost you to live here among these savages!"
+
+The old man smiled. "Living among them, one gradually grows like them
+in some things, and is no longer shocked. At first, to be sure, I
+thought myself too good for them. But my faith soon taught me that no
+one is too good for the post God has assigned him. When I was a student
+I delighted in the theatres, and visited them frequently. Once, as I
+was leaving the manager's room, I heard him lamenting the obstinacy of
+one of his corps. 'He utterly refuses to take a subordinate part. Good
+heavens! they cannot all play principal parts!' The man never dreamed
+of the serious lesson he had taught me. 'All cannot play principal
+parts,' I said to myself whenever the demon of arrogance assailed me,
+and I gave myself, heart and soul, to the subordinate role that had
+fallen to me on the stage of life. I soon desired no better lot than to
+hear some day my Master's 'Well done, good and faithful servant!'"
+
+"All cannot play first parts," murmured Ernestine. "I too, Father
+Leonhardt, will ponder these words." She sat silent for awhile, then
+passed her hand across her brow. "No! to be nothing but a subordinate,
+a figure that appears only to vanish again, occupying attention for one
+moment, but just as well away,--no, that I could not endure!" She
+sprang up, and walked to and fro.
+
+"My dear Fräulein----"
+
+"Father, call me Ernestine,--it is so pleasant to hear one's first name
+from those whom one values."
+
+"Certainly, if you desire it. Then, my dear Ernestine, I was going to
+answer you by saying that no one who fulfils the duties of life
+conscientiously is 'as well away.' As far as the world is concerned, it
+may be so; but we must not seek to have the world for our public, or to
+find the sole delight of life in its applause. It is not modest to
+imagine one's self an extraordinary person, destined to enchain the
+attention of nations upon the stage of the world."
+
+Ernestine blushed deeply.
+
+Leonhardt continued: "Every one finds associates amongst whom to play a
+principal part, and in whose applause satisfaction is to be found. For
+these few he is no subordinate, for them he does not 'appear only to
+vanish again.' Is not a wife, or a husband, to whom one may be
+everything, worth living for?"
+
+"Only for persons, Father Leonhardt, who have never so soared above
+their surroundings as to find the centre of their being in the life of
+the mind and what pertains to it. Those who have so far forgotten
+themselves as to make the interests of the world their own, can only
+live with and for the world, and it is as impossible for them to be
+content in a narrow round of private satisfactions as for the plant to
+retreat into the seed whence it sprung."
+
+"Indeed, Ernestine?" cried a familiar voice behind her.
+
+She turned, startled. Johannes had been listening on the threshold to
+the conversation. He was evidently in a state of feverish agitation.
+His chest heaved passionately as he approached. "Would you escape me
+thus--thus?" He took her hand, and his eyes sought hers, as if to dive
+into the depths of her soul in search of the pearl of love deeply
+hidden there. There was a fervent appeal in his glance,--he clasped her
+hand, and every breath was an entreaty, every throb of his heart a
+remonstrance. Pain, anxiety, and the haste of pursuit so shook him that
+he trembled. Ernestine saw, heard, felt it all, but she stood mute and
+motionless,--she could not open her lips or utter a sound,--she was as
+if stunned. "Ernestine!" Johannes cried again, "Ernestine!" The tone
+went to her very soul,--a low moan escaped her lips,--she inclined her
+head towards his breast, and would have fallen into his arms,--but a
+shadow, the shadow of his mother, stepped in between them and darkened
+Ernestine's eyes so that she no longer saw the noble figure before her,
+or the tears of tenderness in his eyes. All around her was cold and
+dim, as when clouds veil the sun,--his mother's shadow scared her from
+his heart.
+
+She raised her head, and slowly withdrew her hand from his.
+
+His arms dropped hopelessly. A moment of utter exhaustion followed his
+previous emotion. He put his handkerchief to his forehead, that seemed
+moist with blood. His veins throbbed,--there was a loud singing in his
+ears,--he could hardly stand. He exerted all his self-control, and went
+towards Leonhardt.
+
+"God strengthen you, Herr Leonhardt!" he said in broken sentences. "I
+know it all from your messenger to your son, whom I met on the road. I
+need not offer to console you,--you are a man, and will endure like a
+man."
+
+"I am a Christian, my dear Herr Professor, and that stands to feeble
+age in the stead of manhood!"
+
+"True, true!" said Johannes with a troubled glance at Ernestine. She
+approached, and said in a trembling voice,
+
+"Father Leonhardt, I must say farewell to you now and go home. When
+your son comes, send him to me." She offered Möllner her hand. "Forgive
+me, I could not help it!"
+
+Johannes mastered his emotion, and said, with apparent composure, "I
+shall write to you."
+
+Ernestine silently assented, and went. The old man listened. He heard
+her retreating footsteps and Johannes' labouring breath, and again he
+saw for all his blind eyes.
+
+"Oh, Herr Professor, do not let her go. Follow her quickly, and let all
+be explained. Believe me, she is an angel. Grudge her no words. There
+is no use in writing,--her uncle can intercept all her letters. Spoken
+words are safest and best. Quick, quick, or you may both be wretched!"
+
+"Thanks, old friend, you are right!" cried Johannes, all aglow again;
+and, before the words were well uttered, he was gone.
+
+Frau Brigitta entered with the soup, and looked after him in surprise.
+"The gentleman seems in a hurry!" said she.
+
+"Let him go, mother dear. These young people are struggling, amid a
+thousand fears and anxious hopes, for a goal that we old people have
+long gazed back upon contentedly. God guide them!"
+
+Johannes called to his coachman to await his return before the
+school-house, and followed Ernestine, who was slowly pursuing the
+foot-path directly before him. All was quiet and lonely around, for it
+was noon, and the peasants were at dinner.
+
+She looked round upon hearing Johannes' step behind her, and stood
+still. He soon overtook her.
+
+"Ernestine," he said resolutely, "I must have a final, decisive word
+with you, and Leonhardt is right,--it should go from heart to heart.
+Will you listen to me?"
+
+He drew her arm through his, and as they talked they slowly approached
+the eminence upon which stood the castle.
+
+"Ernestine, dear Ernestine, I would give all that I have that the scene
+between you and my mother, this morning, had never been. You have been
+mortally offended, and that, too, while you were my guest in a house
+whither you had fled for refuge, and that should have been a home to
+you. But it happened in my absence,--it was not my fault. Will you make
+me suffer for it?"
+
+"No, my friend, certainly not."
+
+"Well, then, be magnanimous and forgive my mother, although she never
+can forgive herself!"
+
+"I have nothing to forgive."
+
+"You are implacable in your righteous anger. Let me hope that the time
+may come when my mother may atone for what she said to you to-day.
+Dearest Ernestine, she startled back your young heart, just awakening
+to its truest instincts; it was a poor preparation for what I wished to
+say to you to-day, and yet,--and yet I must speak,--I can be silent no
+longer. Yes, Ernestine, I wished to-day to ask you to be my wife. I
+wished to entreat of you the sacrifice that marriage demands of every
+woman, and of you more especially; and I firmly believe that if you
+could have listened first to my views of the duties and the lot of a
+wife, they would not have seemed to you as terrible as from the lips of
+my practical mother. I hope to be able to shield you from the hard
+materialism of life that so alarms you, and to which my mother attaches
+too much importance. My white rose shall not be planted in a
+kitchen-garden. You shall be the pride and ornament of my life. I ask
+nothing from you but love for my heart, sympathy in my scientific
+pursuits, and allowance for my faults." He took her hand in his, and
+stood still. "Ernestine, will you not give me these?"
+
+With bated breath he waited for her reply. In vain his glance sought
+her eyes beneath their drooping lids.
+
+Ernestine stood motionless in marble-like repose, and no human being
+could divine what was passing in the depths of her soul. At last her
+pale lips breathed scarcely audibly: "I cannot,--your mother,--I
+cannot----"
+
+"Oh, if you cannot love me, do not make her bear the blame, do not
+overwhelm her with the curse of having robbed her son of the joy of his
+life,--that were too severe a punishment! And, if you do love me,
+conquer your pride nobly by showing her how she has mistaken you. Show
+her all the woman in you, and prove to her that you are capable of
+self-sacrifice, and revenge could not desire for her more profound
+humiliation."
+
+"I cannot make the sacrifice that she demands; and if I could I would
+not, because she _demands_ it and makes it a condition. A soul that is
+free will not barter away its convictions and its aims, even though the
+happiness of a lifetime is at stake. When your mother asks me to resign
+my plan of achieving an academic career, and to bury the immature
+fruits of all my labours, she is excusable, for she does not dream what
+she asks; but when you propose such conditions, you can, not only never
+be my husband,--you can no longer be my friend, for you do not
+understand me."
+
+"Good God, Ernestine! what do I ask of you more than what every man
+asks of the woman whom he wishes to marry,--that she shall live for him
+alone? And how can you do this if you do not relinquish your ambition
+and be content with a private life? You need not relinquish science,
+you shall be my confidante, my aid in all my labours, my friend,
+sharing all my plans and hopes. Only do not any longer seek publicity,
+do not try to obtain a degree or deliver lectures. No opprobrium or
+contempt must dare attach itself to the pure name of my wife."
+
+Ernestine started as if struck by an arrow. "Those are your mother's
+very words. What? Do you, who assume such superiority to woman,
+condescend to repeat phrases taught you by your mother?"
+
+"Ernestine, you are unjust. You have long known my views concerning the
+position of woman, and you cannot expect that I should be false to my
+most sacred convictions at what is the most important moment of my
+life."
+
+"And yet you require this of me?"
+
+"A woman's convictions, Ernestine, are always dependent upon her
+feelings in such matters. And where feeling is concerned, the stronger
+must always conquer the weaker. Hitherto you have been moved only by
+the wrongs of your sex,--they are all that you have known anything of.
+When you love, you will learn to know its joys, and be all the more
+ready to resign your vain championship for your husband's sake."
+
+"Do you think so?" asked Ernestine with unaccustomed irony.
+
+"I hope so. It is our only chance for happiness. I am true to you, and
+tell you beforehand what I look for from you. I will not influence your
+decision by flattery or false acquiescence. It must be formed in full
+view of the duties it imposes upon you, or it will be worthless. You
+may think this a rude fashion to be wooed in, and perhaps you are
+right. But I will not win my wife by those arts which woman's vanity
+has made such powerful aids to the lover. I will not owe my wife to a
+weakness,--and vanity certainly is a weakness. Your love for me must be
+all strength. I would have you great indeed when you give yourself to
+me,--and when is a woman greater than when she conquers her pride and
+herself for love's sake? In her self-conquest she accomplishes what
+heroes, who have subdued nations, have found too hard a task, for it
+requires the greatest human effort. It is true, the world will not
+shout applause,--deeds truly great often shun the eyes of the
+multitude: in the renunciation of all acknowledgment there is a joy
+known only to a few. Within quiet convent walls, past which the stream
+of human life flows heedlessly, many a victory over self has been
+attained that was never rewarded by a single earthly laurel. What
+awaits the end of the painful contest? The grave! But I ask of you,
+Ernestine, far less of sacrifice, and surely there is a reward to reap
+in bestowing perfect happiness upon one who loves you. Do you hesitate?
+Is the struggle not ended? Can your royal soul not cast aside the
+self-imposed chains of false ambition? Oh, Ernestine, do not let me
+implore you further; say only one word,--to whom will you belong,--to
+your uncle, or to me?"
+
+"To myself, for no human being can belong to any other!" And her look
+at Johannes was almost one of aversion. "Yes, now I see that you are
+your mother's' son. I see her stern features, I hear her voice of
+remonstrance, and I see myself between you,--a creature without
+will,--no longer capable of independent thought or feeling, still less
+of rendering any service to the world. Am I to cast aside like a
+garment what has been the guiding hope of my life,--my dream by night
+and day,--and go to your mother begging for forgiveness and indulgence,
+excusing myself like a child, and promising future improvement, that I
+may humbly receive from her cold lips the kiss of condescending pardon?
+Again and again, No! What right has your mother to regard me as a
+criminal, and to attempt to improve me? Whom have I injured? What law
+of propriety have I infringed, that she should treat me like some
+noxious thing in the world? I have lived in calm retirement, asking for
+no happiness but that of labour. Why should she insist upon thrusting
+another kind of happiness upon me, and blame me for not considering it
+as such? Did I seek her out? Was it not against my will, and only in
+accordance with your earnest entreaties, that I accompanied you to her
+house? Why should she drive me from it like an intruder, and impose
+upon me conditions of a return that I did not desire? Oh, if you, noble
+and true as I once thought you, had loved me, not as you thought I
+ought to be, but as I am, with all my faults and eccentricities, I
+would have striven for your sake to become the most perfect woman in
+the world. And if you had said to me, 'Be my companion,--I will help
+you to vindicate the honour of your sex, whatever is sacred to you
+shall be so to me also,'--if you had thus acknowledged my
+individuality, and had intrusted your happiness, your honour, to my
+keeping, without other warranty than the dictates of your own heart, I
+would have bowed in reverence to a love so powerful,--I would gladly
+have sacrificed my freedom to you,--to please you, I would have
+performed the hardest task of all--humiliated myself before your
+haughty mother! But when you come to me thus,--only her echo,--when you
+make it the foundation of our happiness that I should be what she
+chooses, and try to assure yourself at the outset that I will submit to
+all your requirements, that you may run no risk from such a self-willed
+creature,--all this shows me that she has separated us utterly. I have
+lost you, and all that you have given me is the knowledge that I have
+no place in this world, and that I am miserable!"
+
+Johannes stood pale and mute before her, but his pure conscience shone
+in his steady eyes. Ernestine did not venture to look at him. With
+trembling hands she plucked to pieces a twig that she had just broken
+from a bush at her side.
+
+"After this we can be nothing more to each other," he began; and it
+seemed as if every word fell from his lips into her heart like molten
+lead. He took breath, as if after some violent physical exertion, and
+then continued: "I do not answer the accusations with which you have
+overwhelmed my mother and myself. They grieve me for your sake. They
+are unworthy of your nobler self. I have treated you as I was compelled
+to do by my sense of honour. I have told you what was, according to my
+profoundest convictions, indispensable to the happiness of marriage.
+That you refuse,--that you can refuse me the sacrifice I ask of
+you,--proves to me that you do not love me. This is what separates us.
+And I pray you to remember that, as I sacredly believe, it is the duty
+of a man to convince himself that the woman whom he seeks to marry is
+fitted to be the mother of his children; and your heart is not yet open
+to the wide, self-forgetting affection that can alone suffice to enable
+a woman to undertake the hard duties of a wife and mother. Will it ever
+be thus open? Who can tell? Another may one day reap in joy what I have
+sown in pain. I do not reproach you,--how could I?" He laid his hand
+upon her head, his eyes were for one moment suffused. As he looked at
+her, grief had the mastery, and he was silent. She was crushed beneath
+his gaze, her artificial composure forsook her, a cry escaped her lips.
+She now first began to perceive what she had done, and her heart shrunk
+from the burden that she had laid upon it, although she did not as yet
+dream of its weight.
+
+Johannes gently smoothed her hair from her brow. Her agitation restored
+his self-control.
+
+"You are kind, Ernestine,--you see how you have hurt me, and you are
+sorry for me. It is the way with women. This little weakness does you
+honour in my eyes. I pray you be composed. I am quite calm again." He
+would have withdrawn his hand, but she held it fast and looked up at
+him with those eyes of sad entreaty that had worked such magic upon him
+when she was a child.
+
+"Do not utterly forsake me!" she whispered in half-stifled accents.
+
+"No, as truly as I trust my God will not forsake me, I will not forsake
+you. I will not shun you like a coward, who, to make renunciation easy
+and to learn forgetfulness, turns his back upon the good he cannot
+attain. You need a friend who can protect you, placed as you are with
+regard to your uncle and the world. This friend I will be to you, until
+you find a worthier. Do not fear that you will hear another word of
+love, or of regret. I will conquer my grief alone. My one care shall be
+for your happiness. Farewell, and when you have need of me send for
+me." He pressed her hands once more, and turned away without another
+word.
+
+Ernestine looked after him as he receded from her gaze. She looked and
+looked until he turned a corner and vanished. Then she sank on her
+knees and cried in an outburst of anguish, "Have I really had the
+strength to do this?"
+
+She must have remained thus some time beneath the shade of the trees,
+when the sound of carriage-wheels approaching startled her to
+consciousness. It was her uncle. He stopped the vehicle and descended
+from it.
+
+"You can take out the horses," he said to the coachman. "I shall not
+drive to town." The man turned and drove home again.
+
+Leuthold stood mute before Ernestine, piercing her soul with his
+penetrating glance. He had learned from Frau Willmers everything that
+had occurred the day before, but nothing of the intercourse that had
+previously taken place between Ernestine and Johannes. Scarcely a week
+had passed, and had his ward already escaped him--fled with an utter
+stranger? The thing was impossible. Ernestine was no coward,--a crowd
+of drunken peasants could never have driven the shy girl into the arms
+of the first stranger whom she met. She must have previously known her
+magnanimous champion. He interrogated the other servants, but they one
+and all hated him and were devoted to Frau Willmers. They all declared
+their entire ignorance,--"the Fräulein must have met the gentleman at
+the school-house,--he was often there."
+
+This was enough to prove to Leuthold that the ground was unsteady
+beneath his feet, and for a moment he succumbed under the weight of
+this new anxiety. Was it possible to guard a woman more strictly, to
+seclude her more utterly, than he had guarded and secluded Ernestine?
+And yet--yet in this heart, that he thought long since dead, impulses
+were strong that would seek and find expression in spite of every
+precaution that he might take. And all this at a moment when he was
+battling for life and death with a peril which required younger and
+more unbroken energies than his own!
+
+It was too much; a presentiment seized him that fate had decreed his
+ruin. But he collected himself once more, and took counsel with
+himself, as was his custom in all emergencies. As we turn to Heaven
+when all around us seems dark, so he turned in his direst need to his
+own understanding and will, that had hitherto sufficed him.
+
+Allowing himself but brief refreshment after all his anxiety and alarm,
+he ordered the carriage and set out for town to bring home his ward.
+But, to his great surprise and delight, he found her thus near home,
+evidently weary and disconsolate.
+
+"Aha, like the mermaid in your beloved fable, you have been trying your
+fortunes among mankind, away from your cool, clear, native element," he
+said to himself with a smile. "They liked you well, I doubt not, at
+first sight, but you have not gained much, for they soon discovered
+that you were half fish and not fit to live with them!"
+
+As he approached her, he put on an expression of distress, and when the
+coachman had gone he began in a tone of great anxiety, "Merciful
+heavens, do I find you thus? Weeping by the roadside like a homeless
+beggar!"
+
+"True, true indeed,--like a homeless beggar," Ernestine repeated.
+
+"But, my dear child, is this becoming,--such a scene in this open
+spot,--writhing on the ground here like a worm?"
+
+She looked at him. He had on a broad-brimmed, light-gray felt hat. As
+ever, his costume was faultless. Standing before her with a lowering
+glance, his tall, supple figure now bending down to her, his eyes
+riveted upon her, he it was that seemed to her like a worm, and a most
+poisonous one, and with unmistakable aversion she sprang up and
+recoiled from him.
+
+He stepped back and looked at her with amazement. "What! is this
+Ernestine von Hartwich, whom I have educated--whose philosophical
+composure nothing could disturb? or is this wayward child a changeling,
+brought hither by some evil sprite?"
+
+"Spare me your sneers, uncle," said Ernestine imperiously. "They
+disgust me!"
+
+Leuthold's amazement increased still further. "What--what words are
+these? Is this what is taught at Frau Staatsräthin Möllner's? Upon my
+word, Ernestine, I believe you are ill."
+
+"Yes, yes, I am, and I pray you to leave me. You cannot restore me to
+health."
+
+"What an amount of mischief has been done in these few days when you
+were without my advice and protection! It is true, I cannot tell what
+has happened, but something serious must have occurred. I forbear to
+reproach you for making acquaintances without my knowledge, and for
+leaving the house without my permission, and thus causing me great
+anxiety, for I see you are sufficiently punished already, but, I beg of
+you, do not do so again. You see now what comes of it."
+
+"And I beg of you, uncle, not to treat me thus, like a child, who must
+say, after she has been chastised, 'I will not do so again!' If I
+wished to return to the world, of which I had my first experience
+yesterday, you could not forbid me to do so, for"--involuntarily she
+repeated what the Staatsräthin had said--"you cannot forbid my doing
+what does not infringe the law. But I do not, and never shall, wish to
+return,--never! I am out of place among other people. I do not
+understand their ways, nor they mine." She looked at Leuthold with
+suspicion. "I do not know whether you have been right in bringing me up
+as a perfect recluse,--in making me so unfit for life in the world. Who
+can tell that it would not have been better to leave me my simplicity
+of heart, and not to have led me into paths whence there is no return?
+I will struggle on in my lonely way as never woman struggled before,
+until the day comes when I can convince and shame the most incredulous.
+But let me tell you, uncle, that if the day never comes when my fame
+atones to me for all the happiness I have resigned,--then, uncle, I
+shall curse you!"
+
+She spoke the last words with an expression that alarmed even the
+cold-blooded Leuthold. In an instant he grasped the whole situation. He
+saw that she had made some sacrifice to her ambition that was almost
+too great for her strength. His ready wit soon divined what had
+occurred. It was a blow, of the significance of which he was perfectly
+aware. He felt that he had reached a crisis that demanded all his
+caution and forethought, and he did not venture to speak until he had
+pondered well what course to adopt. Thus they arrived at the gate of
+the castle-garden in silence. He opened it for Ernestine to pass in. As
+they walked past the spot where she had stood with Johannes on the
+previous evening, Ernestine burst into tears. Leuthold looked at her in
+surprise, and she controlled herself and walked hastily on. As always,
+he had the effect of cold water upon her. Her wound did not bleed in
+his presence.
+
+"I was greatly irritated when I learned, upon my arrival this morning,
+what had happened," he began at last "Our very lives are not secure in
+the midst of this mob of ignorant peasants. We must seriously think of
+removing elsewhere,--we cannot possibly remain here."
+
+Ernestine made a gesture of dissent.
+
+"What, you do not wish to go? What can induce you to stay here, where
+all are so hostile to you?"
+
+Ernestine did not reply. After a pause she said curtly, "Very well. You
+have proposed our departure,--that is enough for the present I will
+think of it."
+
+They entered the house.
+
+"Ernestine, I have brought you the sphygmometer I promised you,--would
+you like to see it?"
+
+"No, I will go to my room and rest."
+
+Leuthold knew not what to do. He did not wish to leave her to herself,
+but would have made use of her agitation to extort her secret from her.
+She had reached the door when he cried after her, "Apropos, Ernestine!
+I congratulate you!"
+
+"Upon what?"
+
+"I committed an indiscretion this morning, and found upon your table
+the essay that you have withheld from me for so long. I assure you,
+Ernestine, I was actually astounded! It is far beyond anything you have
+ever done before,--it will be a perfect bomb-shell in the scientific
+world!"
+
+Ernestine dropped the handle of the door and looked sadly at him. "Do
+you think so?" She shook her head. "They will not pay it any
+attention."
+
+"Oh, you are mistaken. It must make its mark. Be easy upon that point.
+How did such a magnificent thought occur to you?"
+
+"As such thoughts always occur,--if it can only be verified!"
+
+"Oh, most certainly it can be verified. I'll warrant its correctness.
+Girl, there is a great future in store for you. I thought I knew you,
+but you continually surprise me by your genius."
+
+"Oh, uncle, I scarcely dare to hope. I know now how men despise the
+attainments of learned women. There is no use in talking or writing
+unless I can adduce proofs, irrefragable proofs, that are accessible to
+all. The science of to-day demands facts, and, if I cannot procure
+them, I can never convince these prejudiced minds."
+
+"Be assured that every one who reads that paper of yours will be
+spurred on to make experiments in the matter. Leave it to those
+practised in technicalities to work out the demonstration. The merit of
+the idea will always be yours."
+
+"And even if they find it worth the trouble to investigate the matter,
+and then do it so carelessly that they do not arrive at the desired
+result, it will always be thought a mere hypothesis, and I a learned
+fool. Madame du Châtelet was laughed at for publishing her novel idea
+that the different colours of the spectrum gave out different degrees
+of heat. What did it profit her that Rochon, forty years afterwards,
+hit on the experiments that yielded the proof of her hypothesis?[1] She
+had long been mouldering in the grave, and not a laurel had ever been
+laid upon it. Oh, this is a miserable existence! How long must we toil
+on thus, step by step?"
+
+Involuntarily she left the door of her room, and approached her uncle.
+
+He took her clasped hands, and felt that she was again within his
+power. "Until there is a woman with sufficient force to withstand a
+man. They are all Brunhildas,--these mighty heroines. They fall victims
+to the Siegfrieds who master them. You, Ernestine, are perhaps the only
+woman capable of accomplishing the task calmly and with a clear mind.
+You succumb to no inferior passion, but keep your eyes fixed steadily
+on the mark. You will shatter the prejudices of the world, and no human
+being will dream who aided you in your work, I have long forgotten how
+to think and act for my own advantage. You are my pride, something more
+than my child,--the child of my mind. Your education is my work, your
+honour is my honour. Come then, I have been thinking of it, and believe
+I have hit upon an experiment that will demonstrate your idea."
+
+"Uncle, what is it?" cried Ernestine, flushing up.
+
+"Come into the laboratory now. We will see, upon the spot, what can be
+done."
+
+"Uncle," said Ernestine, overflowing with gratitude, "you give me new
+life! Forgive me for doubting you and doing you injustice for a
+moment!"
+
+"Never mind, my dear child, it is all forgotten. I can easily imagine
+how others have assailed me to you, and that you gave heed to them.
+Have we not all our hours of weakness?"
+
+"Yes, oh, yes, uncle, it was an hour of weakness!" And in deep
+humiliation she covered her face with her hands.
+
+"I can guess," said Leuthold calmly, with his melodious insinuating
+voice. "They burdened your heart,--you have been spoken to of
+love,--you have been sought for a wife. Is it not so?"
+
+Ernestine made no reply.
+
+"They knew you for the feminine Samson that you are, and would have
+shorn your hair, that they might call out, 'The Philistines are upon
+you!'"
+
+Ernestine interrupted him. "Hush, uncle! not one word, in that tone, of
+a man who is sacred to me!"
+
+"God forbid that I should offend you! I am not speaking of him, but of
+his lady-mother, who has him fast by her apron-string." And he gave her
+a quick, keen glance.
+
+"And never mention his mother to me! I hate her!" cried Ernestine
+angrily, ascending with him the stairs to the laboratory.
+
+Leuthold now knew enough. "I can readily understand that these people
+should have tried to turn you against me,--for he who seeks to win you
+must first remove me from his path. This they well know, and their
+attempt is natural. But you, with your calm power of reasoning, can
+soon convince yourself that they require of you no less a sacrifice
+than your entire self, and that unbounded, although perhaps
+unconscious, selfishness is the mainspring of their proceedings, while
+I, as long as you have known me, have treated you with thorough
+disinterestedness. They humiliated you in your own esteem that you
+might be bought at a more reasonable price. I can see by your depressed
+condition how they discouraged you. I will restore your confidence in
+yourself, and let this act of mine prove to you that I desire nothing
+of you but that you remain true to yourself. This is all the
+satisfaction I ask. And now all is right again, is it not?"
+
+"Yes, uncle," said Ernestine, collecting her energies afresh. "And now
+come, let us try the experiment you spoke of."
+
+Leuthold's light eyes sparkled with triumph as he heard these words,
+and together they entered the apartment containing her costly
+scientific apparatus.
+
+But, exert herself as she might, her labour was all in vain. Her hands
+trembled, everything grew dim before her eyes. Her interest in the
+matter flagged; other thoughts intruded upon her mind. With superhuman
+resolution, she made further efforts, and the hectic spot, so alarming
+to a physician, appeared on either cheek. Leuthold did not notice them.
+He was so absorbed in his work that he started, as if from a dream,
+when she fainted away by his side.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+                       THE WEAKNESS OF STRENGTH.
+
+
+The Bergstrasse was quiet and lonely when Johannes returned from
+Hochstetten. The inmates of the houses there were all within-doors,
+shielding themselves from the heat of the midday sun, reflected with
+oppressive intensity from the white houses. Johannes leaned back
+motionless in the carriage, his eyes covered with his hand. He never
+looked up when some dogs came barking around the wheels,--indeed, he
+did not hear them. The exterior world was dead for him.
+
+"_Halte-là!_" cried a voice from a carriage drawn up before his own
+door. "_Parbleu! il dort_."
+
+Johannes raised his head. The Worronska was awaiting him.
+
+His carriage stopped. He got out, and the Worronska beckoned him to
+her. Contrary to her custom, she was not holding the reins to-day, and
+was not seated upon the box.
+
+"I am glad you are come. I came myself to see you, Professor Möllner,
+as I received no answer to my note,--and I was just driving away."
+
+Johannes was confused. He had received the note she had alluded to, but
+had not opened it.
+
+"Pray lend me your arm. Have you one moment for me?"
+
+"I am at your service," said Johannes gravely, and he helped her out of
+her carriage.
+
+"Will you grant me a short audience in your house,--or am I unworthy to
+enter this temple of science?"
+
+Johannes opened the door for her. "My simple dwelling is but poorly
+adapted for the reception of such distinguished guests. I can scarcely
+hope that you can be comfortable here, even for a few minutes."
+
+"How pleasant this is!" she cried, as he led the way to his office.
+"Believe me, I like this much better than my marble halls, where there
+is no breath of true feeling."
+
+"I should have thought that one like yourself could always collect
+warm-hearted friends about her," said Johannes absently, only for the
+sake of saying something.
+
+The countess looked at him for an instant suspiciously. She knew in
+what repute she was held, and the compliment was perhaps ambiguous. But
+the cloud upon his brow convinced her that his thoughts were busy
+elsewhere. She looked in his eyes, but his gaze fell before hers, as we
+look away from what offends our delicacy. The countess interpreted it
+otherwise,---his embarrassment flattered her.
+
+"Do you call the crowd of coarse flatterers, who once surrounded me,
+warm-hearted people?" she asked in a tone of disdain.
+
+"If you found none such amongst them, I must lament that they kept all
+such from your side. For no man of sincere and warm heart could
+approach you as long as you were surrounded by such a throng."
+
+The countess rose from the sofa, upon which she had thrown herself. "I
+sent them from me long ago: there is nothing to prevent the approach of
+any man of noble character,--but none such attempt it,--I must go
+half-way to seek them."
+
+Johannes was silent. The conversation was an infinite weariness to him:
+he had need of all his chivalry to enable him to endure it with
+becoming patience.
+
+"You are out of spirits, Dr. Möllner. Am I the cause of it?"
+
+"What a question, countess! Could I say yes, even if you were? I must
+have been guilty of great rudeness towards you, if you can suspect me
+of such _gaucherie_."
+
+"I certainly cannot boast of any exaggerated courtesy from you."
+
+"I never force upon others what can have no possible value for them,"
+said Johannes coldly.
+
+The countess bit her lip. "Is that meant for me?"
+
+"I do not see how. I said nothing that could in any way apply to you."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"It surprises me to have to assure you of it," replied Johannes, who
+began to divine that he had touched a sensitive spot in the countess's
+mind.
+
+"Then I believe you. Now let me force upon you what can indeed have no
+value for you, but what people usually prize greatly,--money."
+
+She opened a pocket-book, and counted out a number of bank-notes. "See,
+I have come to give you what I can for the little girl who was injured.
+Here are ten thousand roubles. I have no more ready money just at
+present. Do you think I may offer this to the people now?"
+
+"You are very generous, countess, but it would be a greater kindness to
+these simple people not to put the whole sum into their hands at once.
+If I may advise you, just settle upon the little girl a small annuity
+for life,--that will preserve her from want,--since she must lose her
+arm, she will hardly be able to support herself. These people will not
+know what to do with so large a sum all at once."
+
+"Do you invest it for them, then, in the way you think best. An annuity
+is out of the question: I might die, and then there would be
+difficulties thrown in the way of its payment. No. I have written to my
+agent in St. Petersburg for forty thousand roubles more. Then the child
+will be in possession of fifty thousand roubles, and can live upon this
+sum in Germany quite comfortably."
+
+"Countess," cried Johannes, looking at her with unfeigned admiration,
+"do you know what you are doing? It is the gift of a monarch! I cannot,
+of course, judge of the proportion that this sum bears to your wealth,
+but it is my duty to warn you that it is far beyond what these people
+can possibly expect!"
+
+"Heavens, what a talk about a trifle!" cried the countess impatiently.
+"I need only a little prudence for a couple of years, and the
+expenditure will be entirely covered. Even if I should have to deny
+myself now and then, what is it in comparison with the injury that my
+heedlessness has inflicted upon the poor child? I would give her more
+if I had not so many poor relatives whom I must not defraud."
+
+"Such wealth in such hands, Countess Worronska, is a blessing to the
+poor. I see, for the first time, that this hand can do more than hold
+the reins and wield the whip, that it can open wide, and scatter with
+princely liberality what others would amass and hoard. Let me imprint
+upon it a kiss of fervent gratitude,--I have done you injustice."
+
+"Oh, Möllner," cried the beautiful woman, flushed with delight, "I
+would give all that I possess, and all that I am, for one such grateful
+glance from your eyes! I know what the injustice is of which you speak.
+You have hitherto despised me, and now you see that there is something
+in me worthy of admiration. Yes, I have lived wildly,--I have not
+heeded the restraints imposed upon woman by man, because I did not
+respect mankind. Now, now I acknowledge them, because at last I have
+found a human being whom I respect from the depths of my soul, and to
+whom I would gratefully commit the guidance of my life. I can give what
+is better than a few thousand roubles. I am capable of the sacrifice of
+myself! If I thought it would win me your esteem, I would throw away
+whip and rein. My hand should know only the needle. I would never mount
+horse again,--never rush from place to place, sipping the froth of this
+world's delights. I would never stir from this spot, but lie here,
+clasping your knees, a penitential Magdalene. My wealth I would cast at
+your feet, and lay aside all splendour that might charm other eyes than
+yours. All that I have to give, so ardently desired by others, should
+be yours. I should think it an act of mercy if you deigned to accept my
+gift. I know how I transgress all law and custom when I, a woman, thus
+offer myself to him whom I love,--but what would be a departure from
+womanly delicacy and reserve in others, is for me a return thither. It
+is not for me to wait proudly for such a man as you to bring me his
+heart. I am sunk so low that in remorseful humiliation I must sue for
+esteem and love, try to deserve them by the penitence of a lifetime,
+and not murmur if they are withheld from me. I feel the disgrace of
+this; but, oh, if I can only through this disgrace recover my lost
+honour,--if I can only, by thus transgressing law, cease to be lawless!
+Believe me, it is no fleeting emotion that speaks through my lips,--it
+is the despairing effort of a stray soul to grasp the redeeming power
+of a true love!"
+
+She could scarcely conclude; overcome by passion, she fell upon her
+knees, stretched out her arms to him as if drowning, and burst into a
+storm of sobs.
+
+Johannes sought in vain to raise her. He was stunned, as it were, by
+this volcanic outburst. Suddenly, into the gaping wounds made by
+Ernestine's coldness, poured the hot lava-stream of a passion of which,
+in the temperate zone of his German intellectual existence, he had
+never dreamed. He stood as if before some startling natural phenomenon,
+amazed, overwhelmed, unable to collect himself. One thought filled his
+mind. Where he longed for love he could not find it, and where he
+neither desired nor hoped for it he found it in fullest measure. The
+contrast was too vivid; as if dazzled, he covered his eyes with his
+hand, and a profound sigh escaped him.
+
+She drew his hand away from his face, and asked, "Möllner, is that sigh
+for me?"
+
+"For both of us."
+
+"Möllner!" she said, and her voice was deep and rich, and her soft,
+gentle touch sought his hand, while her dark, glowing eyes were fixed
+upon him in an agony of suspense. Thus the beautiful majestic woman
+knelt there, expiating in the torment of that moment her sin in not
+keeping herself pure for this long-delayed love, looking up to him as
+to a redeemer, ready to sacrifice for his sake herself and a life of
+worldly enjoyment,--for him, the simple student, unadorned by any of
+the studied graces that distinguished the men that had hitherto crowded
+around her, and unconscious of having ever sought her love. Could this
+woman, used only to ask and to have, love him thus, and she, the only
+one who could ever be to him what his whole soul thirsted for,--she for
+whom he would only too willingly have sacrificed his life, resign him
+for an illusion, a chimera, that could never give her one moment's joy?
+He grew giddy,--he drew his hands from the countess's grasp, and sprang
+up. She bowed her head upon the lounge that he had just left, and hid
+her face in her arms, as if awaiting the death-stroke from the sword of
+the executioner. Now, when she knelt thus in the abandonment of her
+grief, for the first time he perceived her wonderful loveliness,--but
+only for one moment,--the next, he turned from her and threw open a
+shutter, admitting the broad day to chase away the bewildering twilight
+that filled the room. A cool breeze had arisen,--he inhaled it
+thirstily, and, when he turned again to the countess, he was calm.
+Reflection, so native to him, had conquered his agitation, and by his
+sufferings for Ernestine's sake he knew how to pity this woman who
+loved so hopelessly. It was the purest compassion that beamed in his
+eyes as he raised her head, but again his glance had upon her the
+effect of magic.
+
+"Oh, not that look, Möllner! Do not look thus while you sentence me! it
+makes my doom doubly hard to bear. If you cannot tell me that you love
+me, turn those eyes away,--their glance would wake the dead!"
+
+"Good heavens! Countess Worronska, how can I find the right words in
+which to tell you what I must, if you so increase the labour of the
+task? I pray you, dear friend, listen to me calmly, and think what you
+impose upon me,--either I must play the hypocrite, or give the worst
+offence that can befall a woman."
+
+The countess sprang up, and measured him with a look in which pain and
+anger strove for the mastery. He took her hands and gently forced her
+to sit down upon the sofa,--she yielded to him mechanically.
+
+"Dear Countess Worronska, for both our sakes let me preserve the
+temperate self-possession not easy to so ardent and impulsive a
+temperament as yours, but all the more incumbent upon the man to whose
+hands you so confidingly entrust your future destiny. It would be of
+little avail to tell you that you promise more than you can ever
+perform. You would not believe me, for the woman who loves thinks no
+sacrifice too great. But even true affection is subject to natural
+change. For a time much may be resigned without a murmur, for
+unaccustomed joy will compensate for unaccustomed privations, but, dear
+countess, one grows used even to the joy of love, and, though it may
+not grow cold, it gradually ceases to be an exceptional bliss, and
+becomes a natural condition, in which the requirements of our nature,
+the habits of our birth and education, reassert themselves. And if we
+are unable to meet these, in spite of our affection we become conscious
+of a want that may in the end deprive us even of the knowledge of our
+happiness. This fate is unavoidable in a marriage where upon either
+side a disproportionate sacrifice is made. Formed as you are, you could
+never content yourself with the trivial domestic affairs of a German
+scholar; you would soon pine in such captivity, and, without losing
+your love for me, in the sincerity of which I believe, you would long
+for your previous mode of living. Those who have never all their lives
+long recognized the restraints of homely duty can scarcely reconcile
+themselves to them, however honest their intentions may be. As soon as
+you felt that your duties to me imposed a restraint upon you,--and you
+would feel this sooner or later,--you would be wretched!"
+
+"It is enough, Professor Möllner," cried the countess. "Give yourself
+no further trouble in persuading me to doubt myself. If you loved me,
+you could not consider so prudently my advantage in the matter. If you
+felt for me as I do for you, you would not ask how long we might be
+happy,--you would enjoy the moment and be willing for it to resign an
+eternity. Oh, proud and great as you are, you bear the brand of a petty
+existence upon your brow, although you know it not. In truth, Möllner,
+your cool repulse does not shame me, for I feel that in the past hour I
+have been the nobler of the two!"
+
+"You are right, my friend. A woman as beautiful, as high in rank, and
+as richly endowed as yourself has no cause to blush for having vainly
+offered to one what thousands covet so greedily. Believe me, if one of
+us is shamed, it is I, to whom favour has been shown so undeserved, so
+unhoped-for,--such favour as only the bountiful gods bestow,--a favour
+which I can never deserve or repay!" Deeply moved, he took her hand;
+again her eyes sought his.
+
+"Oh, Möllner, your heart relents,--I see it does. You do not know what
+love is. Who was there here to teach you? The poor vapid sentiment that
+they call by its name, suffices, it is true, for domestic use,--little
+is given, little required,--how were you to differ from the rest? A
+genuine passion would have caused infinite commotion in your
+commonplace, every-day circles. Only intense feeling can beget intense
+feeling, and whoever has known none such has never lived. Such a man as
+you must not close his ears like a coward when passion calls. Do not
+withdraw your hand. This moment must decide whether I remain here or
+return to Russia. My estates are going to ruin. I must either sell them
+or return to them myself. Give me the smallest hope of winning your
+affection, and I will sell all my Russian possessions and live here
+beneath your dear eyes, in conventual retirement and repose, year after
+year, until at last you take me to your heart and say, 'I believe in
+you!' Then--then I will surround you with such a heaven as these cold,
+timid natures about you do not dream of. One word, Möllner,--no
+promise, only a hope,--and I am your creature!"
+
+Johannes regarded the passionate woman in her demonic beauty with a
+strange mixture of admiration and horror, sympathy and aversion. At
+last he adopted a resolution, for he felt that an end must be put to
+this interview. "Madame," he said,--not without effort, for it was hard
+for his magnanimous nature to give offence to a woman,--"madame, I see
+that I must tell you all the truth. Hope nothing. It would certainly
+inflict a deeper wound were I to tell you I _cannot_ love you,--it
+would be casting doubt upon your personal charms. What man of flesh and
+blood could swear that he _could_ not love you--a woman all perfection
+from head to foot? Such an oath I could not presume to take, for my
+senses are as keen as other men's. But, countess, I _will_ not love
+you, and I can swear to what I will, and what I will not do!"
+
+He arose, and the countess arose also, and stood opposite to him, a
+picture of despair. "And must I content myself with this declaration?
+Am I not worth the being told why?"
+
+"Let it suffice you to know that I consider myself bound."
+
+"Aha! to the Hartwich!"
+
+Johannes stretched out his hand with a deprecatory gesture. "Do not
+utter her name, madame. I will not hear it from your lips."
+
+"It is true, then! That proud, frigid wraith--that phantom, in whose
+veins there flows not one drop of warm blood--has robbed me of you!
+Curse her!"
+
+"Hush! curse her not, madame; it destroys my new-born pity for you!"
+cried Johannes. "It is not she that comes between you and me. I could
+never, never have given you my heart or hand, even had I been entirely
+free. Do not force me to say to you what no man should say to any
+woman."
+
+"What is it? Let me drain the last drop in the cup. I will not leave
+you until I know all."
+
+"Well, since you will have it, listen, and may it prove your cure in a
+twofold sense. You could bestow upon me, madame, all that the world
+holds precious, but there is one thing that is no longer yours to
+give,--your honour! And were a goddess to descend from the skies for my
+sake, wanting this jewel, she could be nothing to me. I should send her
+back to her glories, and choose rather to abide here below, a poor
+solitary man."
+
+A low cry followed these words, and then silence ensued. The Worronska
+stood like a statue, with eyes, for the first time in her life perhaps,
+seeking the ground. Johannes approached her and said quietly, "You can
+never forgive what I have said. I do not ask you to do it; it is best
+thus. You will hate me for awhile, and then forget me. I shall, all my
+life, have a melancholy remembrance of you, for you wished to be kind
+to me and I was obliged to wound you in return. Pour out your hatred
+upon me; I deserve it at your hands."
+
+"Möllner," said the beautiful woman, drawing her breath with effort,
+"at this moment I am expiating all the sins I have ever committed.
+Farewell, and if you hear that I have fallen back into my old manner of
+life, sign the cross above my memory, and tell her whom you love, 'I
+might have saved that soul, but I would not.'"
+
+Johannes looked at her sadly. "Madame, if the agony of this moment does
+not make the thought of your former life hateful to you, my love never
+could have saved you. I disclaim the terrible responsibility you would
+thrust upon me. I have done what I could. I have told you the truth,
+and I cannot believe it will be without effect."
+
+"I thank you," said the despairing woman with bitter irony. Then, with
+one last tender look at Johannes, which he, standing calmly before her,
+did not return, she turned to go, with the bearing of a queen. He
+offered to conduct her to her carriage, but she refused his aid. Her
+face was ashy pale, and not another word passed her compressed lips.
+
+He looked after her as she entered her carriage and buried her face in
+her hands. He saw how her whole frame was shaken with emotion. The
+carriage whirled away, the dust rose in clouds. Johannes re-entered his
+lonely room. "Ernestine!" he exclaimed, as if she could hear him,
+"Ernestine!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+                         SILVER-ARMED KÄTHCHEN.
+
+
+That was wonderful news for the village of Hochstetten! The oldest
+people there could remember nothing to match it! The Kellers' terrible
+accident had turned out the greatest good fortune. The Kellers--poor
+despised day-labourers that they had always been--had come to be rich
+people, and were to be richer still. Käthchen might well do without her
+arm, and, since that was all the harm that had been done her, it really
+was hardly worth so much money. Many a one had suffered greater
+injuries, and not a mouse had stirred in their behalf,--not even when
+everything had been pawned in the long idleness that followed. And this
+lucky child got immense wealth in exchange for her useless little arm!
+Where was the justice of that, pray? It would have been some comfort to
+think that it was devil's money, and could bring the Kellers no good,
+and that it would be better to starve than to use it. At first, indeed,
+the Kellers thought of refusing it, but the Reverend Father had been
+too much for the devil. He had advised the Kellers to erect a crucifix
+by the side of the road where the accident had occurred, and to give
+the church three hundred gulden for masses for their benefactress's
+soul. Thus the gift was consecrated, and they could accept it with a
+clear conscience.
+
+Scarcely four weeks had passed, and the cross was already standing by
+the roadside just, where Käthchen had been run over. It was finer than
+any other in all the country round; and the Kellers, husband and wife,
+tossed their heads, as they passed it, as proudly as if they had placed
+the Lord Jesus Christ himself there in person. The cross was ten feet
+high, and stood upon a pedestal five feet high, upon which were
+inscribed the words, "Erected to the glory of God by Pankratius Keller
+and Columbane his wife, Anno Domini 18--. 'Let little children come
+unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven!'"
+And directly beneath was a beautiful painted tablet, whereon all might
+read, "Wanderer, pause, and mark how wondrously the promise has been
+kept to our child!" The painting that was to illustrate these words
+represented Käthchen with one arm; the other lay upon the ground, and a
+broad stream of blood was gushing from the maimed shoulder. A carriage
+was driving furiously away. Above Käthchen's head the heavens were
+opened, and the infant Christ was seen in the arms of the Madonna,
+handing down a silver arm.
+
+This most magnificent and ingenious allegory of the silver blessing
+that had followed Käthchen's misfortune had cost the poet of the
+village, the highly-gifted Reverend Father, many an anxious thought;
+and, in consequence of it, the little girl went universally by the name
+of "Silver-armed Käthchen," although she persistently refused to verify
+her nickname by making use of an artificial limb. Her father and mother
+were the objects of great ridicule and envy, but they did not mind
+it at all, they could laugh in their turn,--they had plenty of
+money,--and, what was more, they had, by means of it, gained more
+favour with the Lord than all those who jeered at them. The host of the
+"Stag" and the burgomaster were the richest people in the village, but
+neither of them could boast that he had given three hundred gulden to
+the Church, and the burgomaster had put up a very mean cross over in
+the meadow, and, for economy's sake, had had only the head and hands
+and feet of Christ painted upon it, leaving all the rest of the figure
+to the imagination.
+
+So they could enjoy their wealth without any misgivings. They knew how
+high in favour they stood with the Lord; and, besides, Frau Keller had
+sprinkled the package of notes that Möllner had given her with holy
+water. She had done this entirely of her own mind. It was impossible to
+be too prudent in such a case. So now that everything had been done to
+keep off the Evil One, a blessing would be sure to follow. Little
+Käthchen, however, thought and felt very differently. She was very
+unhappy to find that the children stood aloof, staring at her as at
+some strange animal when she went to sit in the sunshine before the
+door, and that the big boys called her Silver-arm, and plucked her by
+the empty sleeve that dangled from her shoulder.
+
+But it was worse than all one day when a cripple came crawling
+past,--there were many cripples in the country round about, as there
+always are where human beings are fighting for the mastery with the
+rude forces of nature. This man stopped before her and muttered, "Oh,
+yes, you are treated like a princess! Such a poor fellow as myself is
+worse off than a dog, for when a dog breaks its leg it is shot, but I
+must hobble about and starve for the sake of Christian charity! Such
+pious people as you are can always make friends with the Almighty, and
+therefore a grand coach is sent to drive over you, while only a huge
+stone in the quarry crushed my hip, and there was no fuss made about
+it. The grand folks, whose house the stone helped to build, never
+troubled themselves about the human blood that had sprinkled it. Well,
+well,--to every one his own!"
+
+And the man went hobbling off upon his crutches, and Käthchen covered
+her eyes with the one poor hand that was left, and sobbed bitterly.
+
+"Is that my merry little Käthchen that I hear crying?" suddenly asked a
+familiar voice; and, when the child looked up, she saw Herr Leonhardt
+approaching, supported by his son.
+
+Young Herr Leonhardt was tall and slender, with a gentle, frank
+expression of countenance,--such a face and form as one might imagine
+belonged to the favourite son of the patriarch Jacob. There was a
+certain poetic grace in the devotion with which he guided the uncertain
+steps of his blind father. His eyes were bent upon the ground, that
+every obstruction might be removed against which his father's feet
+might stumble.
+
+He swung his light straw hat hither and thither in his hand, and his
+fair hair encircled his broad brow with masses of curls.
+
+Käthchen stopped crying as soon as she saw him. His graceful figure
+stood alone among the coarse peasant youths, and, truly as she loved
+and honoured his father, the son was dearer to her childish heart, for
+he was young, hardly twelve years older than she herself, and youth
+clings to youth. She arose and walked feebly towards the pair.
+
+"Why, Käthi, brave little girl, that never cried when they cut off her
+arm, what has happened to you?"
+
+"They tease me," sobbed Käthchen, "because I have such an easy time and
+was run over by a grand coach. They envy me my good luck, and no one
+loves me any more. But it shall not be so,--I will not have anything
+more than the other poor cripples,--I will give them all some of my
+money. Seppel needs it far more than I do, and he got nothing for the
+big stone that fell upon him, although he is a grown-up man. I am only
+a stupid little child, who never earned anything, and yet I get so
+much, because I have to sit still. But I will not keep it, and my
+father and mother must not keep it all to themselves,--they are well
+and strong. I will share it with those who have suffered as I have."
+
+"But, my dear little Käthchen," said Herr Leonhardt, much moved, "you
+are too generous to the people who tease you so. If you try to share
+with all the cripples and maimed people in the village, you will have
+very little left for yourself. If Heaven has decreed that you are to be
+rich while they remain poor, you may resign yourself gratefully to its
+inscrutable designs without any qualms of conscience. You can help the
+needy by giving them work upon your farm that you are to buy with the
+money that is coming to you. Until then, it would be much better to
+give them a little money weekly, than to bestow upon such rough men a
+large sum, that might tempt them to be idle and drink and gamble."
+
+"Yes, it would be better; but mother will not let me have anything. She
+does not like to have me give away a single kreutzer."
+
+"But what does your father say?" asked Walter, who had been regarding
+the child with silent admiration.
+
+"Oh, he works all day long in our new field, and does not care for
+anything. Mother keeps the money, and when she says, 'So it must be,'
+he does not say a word."
+
+"But how does that agree with your parents' great liberality to the
+Church?"
+
+"Yes, I told mother she had better give some of the money to these poor
+people than to the Reverend Father and the stone-mason for the masses
+and the cross; but then she told me I was too silly,--that she had
+given the money to the Lord,--and it was far wiser and more profitable
+to give it to Him than only to men, for He was more powerful than any
+of them, and could give a great deal better reward for what was done
+for Him."
+
+Herr Leonhardt turned to his son, and, with a gentle smile, said, "Does
+not that one sentence show the evil of this false piety? These people
+turn to the Highest only for the sake of the reward that they expect.
+For them the Lord is a venal human being, whose protection they can
+procure by bribery, and they now think themselves absolved from all
+humane and Christian duty. Oh, holy,--no, not holy,--unhallowed
+simplicity!"
+
+"Dear father," said Walter, "it is the same old story of indulgences,
+only in another shape. Tetzel, to be sure, is here no longer, but there
+are still Tetzels in plenty to be found, and always will be while there
+are men in the world who prize money beyond all else on earth and think
+it no way beneath the dignity of the Almighty actually to drive a
+bargain with them. The noble thought of the antique sacrifice is at the
+bottom of it all. Polykrates threw the ring into the sea to appease the
+gods,--the Christian pays his money to erect a crucifix. But the Greek
+trembled when the gods rejected his offering and the fish brought back
+his ring. The conceit of our age regards its offering as an investment
+of capital, and hopes for large interest upon it."
+
+The young man passed his hand through his blonde curls with a light
+laugh. His father bowed his gray head thoughtfully, and pondered upon
+what his son had said, and how far mankind still were from a knowledge
+of the truth. Käthchen looked at both, surprise in her eyes, as if they
+were speaking some strange tongue. All was quiet around, for the little
+girl's parents were away in the fields. A couple of doves were picking
+up the crumbs from Käthchen's supper, and the ducks were diving and
+whisking their tails in the little brook near the house.
+
+Quick, firm footsteps were heard approaching.
+
+"Here comes our friend Möllner," said the old man, listening. "I know
+his step from all others."
+
+"Yes, Father Leonhardt, it is I," said Möllner's clear voice. "How are
+you all?" He drew near the quiet little group. Before him ran three or
+four geese, greatly terrified and in great anxiety,--but yielding not
+one jot of their dignity, for they never thought of turning aside; they
+were left in the middle of the road, when Johannes reached his friends.
+
+"Look, Herr Professor," remarked young Leonhardt gaily, "those stupid
+birds are priding themselves upon having maintained their place. See
+with what haughty disdain they are regarding you. They evidently think
+that they have compelled you to turn aside for them! It is always the
+way. Wisdom vacates the path shared with stupidity, and the latter
+swells with the pride of an imagined victory."
+
+Johannes smiled. "What puts these little moral sentiments into your
+head, my dear Walter? Are you about to compose a new primer for your
+school?"
+
+"It really would not be a bad idea among such people as these!" said
+Walter, as he shook hands with Möllner.
+
+Möllner sat down upon the bench before the house and took Käthchen upon
+his knee. "Would not you like, Käthchen, to have Herr Walter make you a
+new primer?"
+
+"It might be a capital undertaking, Walter," remarked Herr Leonhardt.
+"We must not despise small opportunities, since larger ones are denied
+us."
+
+"Yes, father," laughed the light-hearted young fellow, "but, if my
+primer is to succeed here, I must have for the letter H,
+
+
+          "'H stands for Hartwich, good Christians must know,
+            She's a terrible witch, who will work them all woe.'"
+
+
+Herr Leonhardt made a sign to the thoughtless speaker, who looked in
+alarm at Möllner, who preserved a gloomy silence.
+
+"You must not laugh at the lady at the castle," said Käthchen, leaning
+her pale little face against Johannes' throbbing heart. "My mother
+complained to-day that I had grown as pale and ugly as the Fräulein,
+and she prayed the Lord to break the spell that the Fräulein had laid
+upon me. It made me so sorry, for she cannot help my being so pale. She
+is so good and kind,--how could she bewitch me?"
+
+Johannes silently drew the child closer to him.
+
+"To be sure, she is good and kind, and would not harm any one," said
+Herr Leonhardt;--but his son interposed, with youthful exaggeration,
+"She is a saint,--far too holy for these ignorant people to be
+permitted to kiss her footprints as she passes!"
+
+Johannes pressed his bearded lips upon the child's head, but did not
+speak.
+
+"Herr Professor, where are your thoughts?" asked Leonhardt anxiously,
+laying his hand gently upon Johannes' shoulder.
+
+"With the subject of your conversation, dear friend. It gives me no
+rest. It is now four weeks since I have seen her. I would not seek her
+again until I had collected all the material that was necessary to
+convict her uncle, for I must be prepared for the most determined
+opposition on his part to my visits. To-day, through my kind old friend
+Heim, I have discovered a clue to Gleissert's rascalities, and when I
+compare the intelligence that I have received with the fact of which
+you informed me, that all his letters are addressed to Unkenheim, I
+think I have a terrible weapon against him in my possession. And
+yet,--yet I do not know whether I ought to warn Ernestine by letter or
+to go to her myself. Will not,--must not the sight of me be painful to
+her?"
+
+"As well as I remember, you told me that she begged you not to forsake
+her," said Herr Leonhardt.
+
+"So she did, old friend. But how do I know how she thinks and feels
+now, since she never visits you without such anxious inquiries
+beforehand as to whether I am with you, and never, too, unless
+accompanied by Gleissert?"
+
+"That is all her uncle's doings," said Walter. "You cannot think, Herr
+Professor, how he watches and guards her. Since I have been allowed to
+study in her laboratory, I have never for one moment been alone with
+her,--that devil is always present. And it was with difficulty that she
+obtained permission for me to come to the castle. Willmers says that
+there was a three-days fight about it, but Fräulein Ernestine had made
+up her mind, and he was at last obliged to give way. It is high time
+that something were done for the unfortunate lady, for since the
+completion of her last treatise she has been utterly exhausted, and if
+she goes on thus much longer she will kill herself."
+
+"I have known that for a long time," said Johannes with a profound
+sigh, "but what is to be done? I can make no impression either upon her
+head or heart. My solitary hope now lies in separating her from that
+villain."
+
+"I think it would be much the best for you to see her yourself," said
+Walter. "She is really wasting away from day to day."
+
+"Yes, I know that it is so by her hands," added his father; "they grow
+so thin and small, and are as cold and damp as if she were dying. Ah,
+Herr Professor, their touch pierces me to the heart! I actually think I
+can see her suffer, for hands feel so only when they are often wrung in
+physical or mental anguish."
+
+Johannes put the child from off his knee, and turned away his head, but
+he could not conceal his emotion from the blind eyes of the
+schoolmaster.
+
+"Why attempt to suppress a pain that is so natural, dear friend? Go to
+her quickly. It will do her good."
+
+"Well, then, I will write her a line," said Johannes. "I will ask her
+whether the sight of me would pain or console her. Good God! I desire
+nothing but her happiness! You, Walter, will, I know, contrive to let
+her have my note without her uncle's knowledge. She will, I hope,
+answer it in the same way."
+
+"Then let us go directly home," said Herr Leonhardt, "that you may
+write immediately."
+
+The gentlemen started to go.
+
+Käthchen plucked Johannes by his coat. "But, Herr Professor, if you go
+to see the Fräulein to-morrow, you will not find her."
+
+"How so, Käthchen?" asked Johannes, who had not thought that the child
+had been listening to the conversation.
+
+"Oh, yes; I know it is true. Frau Willmers from the castle went by here
+to-day, and whispered to me to tell the gentlemen secretly, if they
+came to see me to-day, that the Fräulein was going away to-night
+forever, but I must not let any one know that she had told me, or she
+should lose her place. And if the Herr Professor did not come, I must
+tell it to the master, that he might send a messenger to town to the
+Herr Professor. Frau Willmers cried a great deal, and said she dared
+not go to the school-house, because,--because the Evil One, who watches
+the Fräulein so closely, would know it."
+
+"Käthchen!" cried Johannes, "you little angel, how much you have done
+for me! The Fräulein would have gone to-night, and I should never have
+known whither, if it had not been for you! Is this all that you know?"
+
+"Yes, this is all,--you may trust me. I listened to all she said."
+
+Johannes took the child in his arms and kissed her. "Child, tell me how
+I can reward you. Speak. What would you like? Whatever it is, you shall
+have it."
+
+"Ah, dear Herr Professor, if you would only persuade my father and
+mother to let me have some money for the poor people. Oh, do, do beg
+them. And then they will not laugh at me and call me Silver-arm any
+more. I will make them happy, too, or else I shall be just like the
+Fräulein, and no one will like me at all,--and I would not have it so
+for all the money in the world."
+
+"I know what you mean, you good little thing, and I promise you that
+when the rest of your property is sent to me I will invest it so that
+your parents shall have no right to any of it, but that you may do with
+it just what Herr Leonhardt advises."
+
+"Ah, that will be splendid!" cried Käthchen, as she kissed the sleeve
+of Johannes' coat. "Herr Walter!" she called out, "then you will find
+out all the poor people for me, and tell me how much to give them?"
+
+"Yes, Käthi dear, indeed we will!" Walter gladly replied.
+
+Johannes gave the child some pieces of silver. "There, my darling, give
+those to the next beggar you see, if you want to do so. Farewell, all
+of you. I will not delay a moment, for it is time to proceed to
+extremities." He pressed Leonhardt's hand, and walked quickly away in
+the direction of the castle.
+
+"What can have passed up there between the uncle and niece?" said
+Leonhardt, shaking his head.
+
+"Father Leonhardt," said Käthchen, "don't you tell, but I know
+something."
+
+"What is it, my child?"
+
+"That guardian up there is a very bad man."
+
+"That is an old story, Käthi," said Walter.
+
+"Yes, but you don't know what he does; he empties the letter-box at the
+school-house when it is dark."
+
+"Is that true?"
+
+"Yes, father saw him do it, but he told me he would shut me up for
+three days if I told any one."
+
+"How did your father happen to see such a thing?" asked Herr Leonhardt,
+amazed.
+
+"Oh, he told mother all about it, and I ought not to have heard it, but
+I did hear. Last week, one night when he was biding to try and catch
+the thief who steals our grapes, he heard some one going softly towards
+the school-house, and he hid close, thinking it was the thief. And then
+he saw it was Herr Gleissert, who busied himself about the place where
+the letters are slipped into the box. And father crept nearer, and saw
+plainly how he poked something long and thin into the slit and drew out
+the letters, and then lighted a match and held his hat before it that
+no one might see it. Then by the light of the match he read all the
+writing on the letters, and put them back again into the box,--all but
+one, which he kept. And then he went home to the castle again. Father
+said he wanted to seize him and hold him, but he did not know what
+weapons he might have about him, and that there was no use of accusing
+him, for father would be sure to get the worst of it."
+
+"What mischief can the scoundrel be brewing?" said Herr Leonhardt,
+anxiously.
+
+Walter laughed. "Ah, father, we are paid now for always reading the
+addresses of the letters he sent from the castle."
+
+"That is an entirely different case," said Leonhardt "But our friend
+ought to know this before he reaches the castle. Run, Walter, you are
+young and strong; try to overtake him, and tell him."
+
+"Yes, father, I can do it easily. Sit down here, I will soon return,"
+said the young man, hurrying away, fleet-footed as a deer.
+
+Herr Leonhardt felt for Käthchen. "My child, are you there?"
+
+"Yes, Father Leonhardt."
+
+"Käthchen, you have repaid me to-day for all the love I have ever given
+you." He passed his hands over the little, thin face. "I cannot see
+you; they tell me you are changed,--and I think you must be. But in my
+mind's eye you will always have the same roguish black eyes and chubby
+rosy cheeks, with the little berry-stained mouth,--you have never since
+told what is not true, eh, Käthi?"
+
+"No, Father Leonhardt, on my word and honour, never, and I never will
+again. I am now the richest child in all the country round, mother
+says, and I will try to be the best, and thank the kind God, as you say
+I should, by kindness to others. And, now that I cannot fold my hands
+any more when I say my prayers, I must pray very hard indeed,--harder
+than before,--for then I always felt as if I had the dear God between
+my hands and could keep Him and make Him listen to me, but now that I
+cannot do that I must call Him oftener, and beg Him to listen to my
+prayers."
+
+"My dear little child, God is always near you,--he loves to dwell in a
+pure, childlike heart. Käthchen, you are a flower in the blind man's
+path. Do you know what that means?"
+
+Käthchen laid her head upon Leonhardt's knee. "I think it means that
+you love me."
+
+"Yes, my child, and that there are few joys in my life like what you
+are to me."
+
+"But, father, you have Walter, he is more to you than I can be."
+
+"God bless him! he is my staff and prop in the darkness. He is the best
+that I have on this earth."
+
+"Father Leonhardt, when I grow up I will marry Walter, and then we will
+all live together."
+
+"My child, what put that into your little head?"
+
+"Why, my mother says that now I am so rich that I can choose any
+husband that I please,--and I will choose Walter and no one else--no
+one."
+
+"But suppose he will not have you?" asked Herr Leonhardt with a smile.
+
+"Oh, but he will have me,--I know he will," said the child confidently.
+
+"Oh, holy, holy simplicity!" whispered the old man, and laid his hand
+in blessing upon the little girl's head.
+
+And as he sat there, gazing into the night that had closed around him,
+suddenly to his inner vision all grew light about him. From the
+vanishing darkness arose the columns of a church, and through the high
+arched windows the sunlight fell full upon the heads of a youthful pair
+kneeling at the altar. Around stood a throng of glad relatives and
+friends, amongst them a hoary blind father, and by his side an old
+mother, with tears of joy standing in her eyes. The young couple were
+fair to look upon,--the bridegroom blonde, bearded, manly, the bride
+blushing in girlish timidity. Her large, frank eyes were swimming in
+tears of devotion and emotion, but her charming little mouth was
+slightly stained as if from eating berries.
+
+"What! what!" said the people around her, "picking blackberries upon
+her wedding-day?"
+
+Then the organ began a well-known hymn, and all present joined in
+singing it The bride gave her lover her hand,--only her left, to be
+sure,--but its clasp was as strong as if there were two to give,--for
+it was for a lifetime. And then the ceremony was ended, and they all
+went out into the clear Spring sunshine. A crowd of familiar faces
+pressed around,--poor, deformed, and maimed figures, that still seemed
+not unhappy, for they were all well clad and fed,--and they waved their
+caps in the air, with "Long life to the bridal pair! Since you have
+made this place your home, there will be no starving or freezing poor
+here. Long life to our Doctor Walter Leonhardt and to Silver-armed
+Käthchen!"
+
+Oh, sunny, peaceful picture! how it cheered the blind man's soul! A
+lovely dream of the future, born of the prattle of a child, hovering
+around an old man upon the verge of the grave!
+
+"Father Leonhardt, what are you smiling at?" asked the child.
+
+"At something beautiful that I have just seen."
+
+"I thought you could not see any more?"
+
+"I can see, my child, not things that are, but perhaps all the more
+plainly things that are to be."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                                BATTLE.
+
+
+Ernestine was sitting at her writing-table, arranging books and papers
+to be packed up. Her uncle was assisting her with trembling haste. From
+time to time she leaned her head wearily upon her hand.
+
+"It will be impossible for us to leave to-day if you do not make more
+haste," said Leuthold urgently.
+
+"I am doing all that I can, but I am so weak that I do not know whether
+I shall be able to travel to-night."
+
+"I cannot imagine how you can give way so. You never used to do it.
+When I think of the self-control that you were wont to exercise,--your
+determination would have done honour to a man,--and now! Oh, it is
+deplorable!"
+
+"You torture me, uncle!" cried Ernestine, as she threw several books
+into a chest at her side. "You will not believe that I am really much
+weaker than I have ever been before. It is of my own free will that I
+am going away--why should I not hasten as much as I can?"
+
+Her uncle looked askance at her with a smile. "You are mistaken, my
+child. It is not your will that is acting,--it is only a whim that thus
+urges you on. And a whim is the child of circumstances, and can be
+controlled by them."
+
+"I do not know what circumstances could control this 'whim,' as you are
+pleased to call it. Nothing can happen to-day or to-morrow to change my
+determination. What delay can you apprehend? No one knows of my
+departure, so that it cannot be impeded by remonstrances from any
+quarter. I have not even told good old Leonhardt that I am going, and
+Willmers heard it only this morning. Could I do more to prove to you
+that I am in earnest?"
+
+Leuthold looked at her again with his sarcastic smile. He knew well
+that Ernestine had preserved this strict silence concerning her
+departure only because she did not feel strong enough to withstand any
+friendly remonstrances. Therefore he trembled lest some unforeseen
+accident might yet divulge her plans. His very existence depended upon
+her staying or going. During the four weeks that had elapsed since
+Ernestine's return from town, Leuthold's entire influence had been
+exerted to remove Ernestine from this part of the country, and, if
+possible, from Germany. She must never again see the man who had
+evidently made such an impression upon her. Now less than ever could
+she be allowed to form any attachment, for, if she were now to marry,
+and require her property at his hands, he was lost! He had cautiously
+managed to secure an appointment, through an American agent, in a large
+chemical manufactory in New York. To Ernestine he had opened the
+brilliant prospect of delivering a course of scientific lectures there.
+The fact that she had received the prize from a German university for
+one of her papers would surely suffice to make her reputation in
+America,--and Leuthold had honestly done his best to have her fame as
+an intellectual phenomenon noised abroad. In his present embarrassed
+circumstances, it was of the greatest importance to him that she should
+be placed in a position to support herself, that she might not be a
+burden to him. If the lectures did not succeed, she would have to earn
+her living as a "female physician." But upon this point he prudently
+forbore to enlighten her. He fired her imagination with the enormous
+advantages, pecuniary and other, that must accrue from her lectures.
+The means that he employed to win her to his purpose were to an
+ambitious woman irresistible. She saw before her a future such as no
+woman had hitherto enjoyed. She saw herself in one of the vast halls of
+New York, lecturing to a crowd of men who were all listening
+attentively to--a girl! She saw herself regarded as the miracle of her
+sex. The most secret dreams of her pride were to be realized,--the
+seeds of her quiet diligence were to spring up and bud forth in the
+sight of all,---the world should ring with the fame of what a woman
+could do. And yet it was hard to decide; it was weeks before she could
+bring herself to sign the simple letters of her name to the acceptance
+of these proposals; no labour of her life--nothing whereon she had
+expended days and nights of study--ever cost her as much as this single
+signature.
+
+Möllner's grave, earnest face had scared her back from clutching these
+new honours, as Banquo's ghost frightened the usurper from the royal
+chair. It seemed to her that she was guilty of a crime towards
+him,--and at last, in a torment of doubt, she secretly wrote to him.
+She told him everything, and begged for his counsel and advice. She did
+not conceal from him that she could not take so decisive a step without
+his blessing. Why this letter never reached Möllner, no one knew
+besides Leuthold, except Käthchen and her parents.
+
+Day after day passed, and of course Ernestine waited in vain for an
+answer. She waited as if for a decree of life or death. Sleep refused
+to visit her burning eyelids. She took barely sufficient nourishment to
+support life. She pined with desire for only one word--one single
+word--from Möllner,--and it did not come. She was no longer worth a
+stroke of his pen. Since her refusal of his suit, he would none of her.
+He had conquered himself,--had given her up,--and in how short a time!
+
+And the more she had longed for a letter or a visit from him, the
+greater was her bitterness of mind,--the offence to her pride,--when
+she received neither. As often as she approached her writing-table, her
+eyes were greeted by the large capitals of the flattering proposal she
+had received, with all its alluring promises. What was there now to
+wait for? Why should she hesitate now? And so she signed her
+acceptance.
+
+And now nothing should cause her to waver in her pride of purpose. She
+would have the revenge of being irrevocably lost to him, she would
+vanish without one word of farewell, that from a distant quarter of the
+globe the fame of her greatness might reach his ears.
+
+She did not even confide in Willmers, for she dreaded her garrulity.
+Only on the very last day the housekeeper received orders to dispose of
+Ernestine's movables as quickly as possible, and then to follow her,
+for Leuthold wished, before sailing, to take leave of Gretchen, whom he
+purposed to leave in Germany for the present. But Ernestine was to
+accompany him. He would not,--he dared not now,--lose sight of her for
+a moment.
+
+She wrote a fervent, heartfelt farewell letter to Leonhardt, and begged
+him to keep her books and apparatus until she should claim them again.
+As she did not know yet where her future home would be, she could not
+make use of them herself. Walter might find them useful. Thus
+delicately she bestowed upon Walter the costly gift of the instruments
+for the further pursuit of his studies.
+
+After their departure, her uncle was to be informed of her disposal of
+the physiological works and apparatus, which he had ordered Willmers to
+sell. He would never have consented to it, for Ernestine had often, to
+her surprise, noticed how desirous he was of ready money.
+
+She bound Willmers by a solemn promise not to deliver the letter to
+Herr Leonhardt until the writer had departed, and thus everything was
+provided for,--everything was thought of,--everything except
+Ernestine's physical condition. The inflexible girl had been accustomed
+to take so little care of her health that she had given no heed to her
+increasing exhaustion,--the natural consequence of the superhuman
+efforts of the last few weeks. But to-day she could hardly stand, and
+the thought of undertaking so long a journey began to alarm her.
+
+She sat there before her uncle the picture of weariness. He regarded
+her dubiously. Could he succeed in getting her on board of the steamer?
+Then, if she were taken ill, it would of course be ascribed to
+seasickness, which scarcely any one escapes. And if she died? Then all
+would be well with her. He would bury her under the billows of the
+ocean, and all his hatred, his alarm, and his crimes would sink with
+her beneath the waves, which, as they swathed her dead body, would wash
+away from him all disgrace and guilt. This thought was as boundless in
+comfort as the ocean that was beginning to open upon his horizon.
+
+"Uncle, do not gaze so strangely at nothing," said Ernestine. "You look
+as if you were devising no good."
+
+Leuthold smiled. "You are nervous indeed, my child. Since when has my
+face looked strange to you?"
+
+Ernestine did not reply. She went on wrapping a book in paper, to pack
+it in the chest.
+
+"Is that old fairy-book to go too?" asked Leuthold ironically.
+
+"Yes," was the curt, decided reply.
+
+"Well! well! Have you not a doll somewhere that I can pack with it?"
+
+Ernestine started up. "Uncle, I told you once before that I will not
+endure that tone!"
+
+"Beg pardon, but such folly provokes a jest. Or perhaps the book has a
+deeper value for you? You need not blush,--I can guess. It is a
+remembrance of the knight of the oak,--Möllner! Ah, then indeed we must
+certainly take it with us."
+
+"Uncle," cried Ernestine, taking the book from him as he was about to
+put it in with some others, "you know how to depreciate with your
+sneering speeches everything that I have held dear. Let the book alone;
+I will give it to little Käthchen."
+
+"And when Professor Möllner visits her, and finds it there, it will
+touch his heart, that the friend whom he has forsaken has guarded his
+memory so faithfully until now. If he turns over its leaves, he will
+doubtless find the oak leaf that you have pressed among them. Perhaps
+he will think it a mute farewell, and bestow upon you a tear of
+compassion. How gratifying it will be!"
+
+"Uncle, if I thought that, I would rather burn the book!"
+
+"And that would, at all events, be the best thing to do with it. That
+self-conceited fellow is not worth the remembrance that you cherish of
+him. I would efface it, as I would every impression that is unworthy of
+you. Indeed, I have long been indignant, although I never spoke of it
+to you, at his so easily forgetting you. Such a woman as you are is not
+to be resigned like an article of merchandise about which buyer and
+seller cannot agree. He never loved you, or he would never have dreamed
+of making conditions in his proposal to you, as if you were to deem it
+a great honour that he should condescend to you. Trust me, I know the
+world and mankind thoroughly. He was in the greatest embarrassment, for
+he felt himself morally obliged to offer you his hand."
+
+Ernestine started.
+
+Leuthold continued, "I do not know how you conducted yourself towards
+him, but, with your inexperience and the preference that you entertain
+for him,--do not deny it,--it is reasonable to suppose that you must
+have made advances."
+
+Ernestine bit her lip, and looked down.
+
+"The one fact that you accompanied him to his house alone, without any
+intimate acquaintance with him,--without an invitation from his
+mother,--must have led him to fancy that you were desperately in love
+with him, and he was conscientious enough to wish to efface the stain
+that you had thus unwittingly cast upon your honour, by asking you to
+be his wife. I do not question for a moment that his intentions towards
+you from the very beginning were honourable and kind, but his feelings
+seem to me to have been those of simple friendship, until your advances
+forced him, as it were, to a declaration. Probably he is now
+congratulating himself in silence upon his fortunate escape. But you
+sigh and languish like a love-sick girl over his memory, and would
+carry the only gift that you have ever received from him, bestowed upon
+you out of sheer compassion when you were a fright of a child, across
+the ocean with you as a relic! Ernestine, what is the matter with you?
+For Heaven's sake, control yourself! What nonsense! You have actually
+contracted a habit of fainting!"
+
+He supported her drooping head and fanned her pale face.
+
+She looked up at him wearily, then thrust him from her with evident
+aversion, and stood up. Leuthold said nothing more. For the first time
+she had allowed him to speak of Möllner, and he had seized the
+opportunity to pour into her soul the surest poison that ever destroyed
+love,--he was content now to let it work.
+
+Ernestine walked several times to and fro: her step, her bearing, was
+queenly,--she seemed suddenly to have grown taller. Her uncle might be
+right,--she hated him for it, but still he might be right. What must
+Johannes--what must his mother think of her for so throwing herself at
+him? This was why his mother had treated her so,--this was the cause of
+the cool conditions proposed to her by the son! She repeated to herself
+every one of Johannes's words,--they were almost all words either of
+grave warning or stern reproof. Even when he had been kind to her, it
+had been the kindness of a father or a judge. Never, not even when
+suing for her hand, had he laid aside the proud, measured bearing that
+was native to him. His pity had been that of a superior being for a
+soul astray, not of a lover for his beloved. And she! She recalled
+every cordial word, every kindly glance, that she had bestowed upon
+Johannes, and she persuaded herself that she had been too fond, that
+her behaviour, in contrast with her usual cold demeanour, had verged
+upon impropriety, and must have been construed by him into an advance.
+Yes, possibly he despised her for it,--and she had even gone so far as
+to write to him! All the little merit of not consenting under the
+proposed conditions to become his wife was annulled by this last act,
+which must have been regarded by him as a fresh advance, and, as such,
+silently repulsed. She could have fled from him to the ends of the
+earth,--the mere thought of him was enough to drive the hot blood to
+her cheeks. Away, away, across the ocean!--this suddenly became the one
+desire of her heart. She stood still as she passed the fireplace, and
+said to Leuthold, "Burn the book!" They were the first words that
+passed her lips.
+
+The instant the words were spoken, Leuthold threw the volume into the
+midst of the flames. Ernestine stood by and watched them curling around
+the covers, which bent and rolled up in the heat. They were soon
+destroyed, and with invisible, soft-crackling fingers the fiery draught
+toyed with the burning book, and, as page after page opened to the
+glow, the flame--greedy reader--devoured them. Ernestine watched it
+all. She saw the names which had been so dear to her, flash out and
+vanish. The cold, glittering snow queen,--the little mermaid in her
+watery home,--all perished in the red heat!
+
+Now the oak leaf, that she had once snatched from the dear old tree,
+fell away to ashes,--the whole book dropped apart and blazed up
+afresh,--the loosened leaves were tossed up and down in the wreathing
+flames. There,--there was one more name,--the swan. The leaf flew
+aloft, and the swan, the beautiful swan, was burned to ashes. Never
+again would it spread its plumage for her,--never arise, a second
+phoenix, from its funeral pyre. The little fairy world had vanished,
+and only a few sparks remained, shooting hither and thither, as if in
+search of the transformed shapes of the creatures of fairy lore.
+
+Ernestine turned away. The fire seemed to have scorched the pinions of
+her soul. She hung her head, like the god with the inverted torch, and
+wept!
+
+Leuthold did not disturb her; he felt that he must spare her now.
+
+Suddenly the door opened, and Frau Willmers said in a tone of great
+trepidation, "Herr Professor Möllner!"
+
+Leuthold started as if struck by an arrow. Ernestine leaned against the
+chimney-piece, or she would have fallen.
+
+"How dare you admit any one just at this moment?--how dare you?" he
+said, transported with rage and terror.
+
+"I cannot help it, Herr Doctor. I could not do otherwise,--the
+gentleman declared positively that he would not stir from the spot
+until I had announced him."
+
+"Tell the gentleman that we cannot receive visitors."
+
+Frau Willmers looked hesitatingly at Ernestine, who stood as pale and
+immovable as ever.
+
+"Well, what are you waiting for?" asked Leuthold, and there was a
+threat conveyed in his tone and manner.
+
+"I am going,--I will go instantly," replied the woman, and hurried from
+the room.
+
+Ernestine took one step forward, as if she would have followed her. But
+she controlled herself. She was a prey to a storm of emotions that
+almost deprived her of consciousness. He had come, then,--he had not
+utterly given her up. It almost broke her benumbed heart to send him
+away. But no,--she rebuked her own weakness,--he had waited long before
+coming, and perhaps had come at last only because he felt it his duty
+to obey her summons. She would--she could yield to no further weakness.
+
+Leuthold stood by the door, and held his breath while he listened to
+hear Johannes depart; but, to his immense discomfiture, Frau Willmers
+reappeared.
+
+"The gentleman will not go," she said with secret exultation. "He says
+he came to see the Fräulein, and will take no dismissal from her uncle,
+for, as the Fräulein has been of age for several years, it is for her
+to say whom she does or does not wish to see."
+
+Ernestine listened eagerly. "What--what does that mean?" She turned
+with a look of inquiry to her uncle, and was shocked at the great and
+evident alarm expressed in his countenance. "Uncle," she asked again,
+"what does this mean? Answer me!"
+
+"Do not heed such stupid gossip. The fellow is a liar--or----"
+
+"Tell him so yourself, if you have the courage," Ernestine interrupted
+him in rising wrath. "Ask the gentleman to walk in," she said
+authoritatively.
+
+Willmers hurried out.
+
+"Ernestine!" cried Leuthold in despair,--"this to me?"
+
+"I will understand what this means about my being of age," cried the
+girl, with a glance at Leuthold before which his eyes sought the
+ground.
+
+Möllner entered. He regarded Leuthold with entire composure and
+profound contempt, then bowed to Ernestine without looking at her. He
+wished to spare her, to give her time to collect herself. She
+misunderstood him. She thought he was cold, and met him with coldness.
+
+A long pause ensued.
+
+Leuthold, wishing to appear quite at his ease, broke the silence.
+"Allow me to ask, sir, what, after all that has passed between my niece
+and yourself, procures us the honour of a visit from you."
+
+"I am about to inform Fräulein von Hartwich upon that head, and you
+will greatly oblige me by remaining present at this interview."
+
+"Be pleased, then, to be seated," said Leuthold, motioning Johannes to
+a chair, "and let me request you to be brief, since we are just on the
+eve of departure."
+
+"You will not go, Doctor Gleissert."
+
+"Sir! Are you better instructed than ourselves concerning our plans?"
+
+Johannes waited until Ernestine was seated, and then, taking a chair,
+replied with decision, "Not concerning your plans, but their
+fulfilment,--which I shall, in case of necessity, prevent by your
+arrest."
+
+Leuthold was stunned for one moment, but, recovering himself, smiled at
+Ernestine, who looked astounded, and said, "Ah, here we have the
+genuine knight of the oak! It is a pity that we do not live in feudal
+times, when an honest man could be seized upon the highway and flung
+into a dungeon."
+
+"Oh, no. Doctor Gleissert. A quiet scholar like myself has no taste for
+such adventures. I prefer safer and legal means. I shall simply, in
+case you attempt to depart from this place, have you detained by the
+gens-d'armes stationed here, until your business relations with
+Fräulein von Hartwich are satisfactorily explained. Then you will be
+perfectly free to go whithersoever you may please. My interest in you
+will be at an end."
+
+"Herr Professor," cried Leuthold, "I can only suppose that some one has
+shamefully calumniated me to you. Let me beg you to come with me to my
+study, that we may not distress my niece by these representations. She
+needs the utmost consideration at present."
+
+"If Fräulein von Hartwich is strong enough to undertake the voyage to
+New York, of which Frau Willmers tells me, she can certainly support
+this conversation. But, first of all, let me ask you, Ernestine,
+whether you are leaving your home of your own free will."
+
+"Yes," she breathed scarcely audibly.
+
+"Of course you are your own mistress. But, before you carry out your
+intentions, you must know what you are doing. This you do not know at
+present, and I am here to inform you. If you depart with Herr
+Gleissert, you link your destiny to a villain's!"
+
+Ernestine and Leuthold started up. Johannes arose at the same time,
+and, leaning one hand upon the table, regarded them steadily without a
+word.
+
+Leuthold found it impossible to speak. Ernestine was lost in gazing at
+the noble form of his adversary.
+
+Johannes continued, "You will require the proofs of such an accusation.
+I have had them in my possession only since early this morning,--here
+they are." He took several papers from his breast-pocket, and unfolded
+one of them. Leuthold glanced at it, staggered back, and sank upon a
+seat.
+
+"Did you write that?" asked Johannes, handing the sheet to Ernestine.
+"Pray read it."
+
+"No!" she said in evident surprise, as she ran over its contents.
+
+"Or did you affix your name to a deed, ignorant of its contents, in
+presence of a notary?"
+
+"Never!" was the decided reply.
+
+ Möllner breathed freely. "This, then, is the proof that could send
+your uncle to jail, if I made use of it, for it is a forgery!"
+
+Ernestine made a gesture of dissent, as if she could and would hear no
+more. But Johannes was not to be deterred. "From your first letter to
+Helm, and from your conversation with my mother, it is evident,
+Ernestine, that you consider yourself still a minor. It is true that
+you are so by the laws of your country, which make the period of
+minority terminate at the age of twenty-four,--and you are only
+twenty-two years old. But through Dr. Heim, who was present at the
+drawing up of your father's will, I know that you are by it declared
+legally of age at eighteen. This your uncle has concealed from you. We
+will speak by-and-by of his reasons for this concealment."
+
+"Then I have been my own mistress now for four years?" cried Ernestine
+in inconceivable amazement,--"and you, uncle, have treated me as if I
+were a child?"
+
+"More than that,--he has withheld your property from you. Here is a
+copy of your father's will. You will see that it accords you the right,
+at eighteen years of age, to take possession of the estate, put in
+trust for you in the guardians' court, and dispose of it as you please.
+Of course you could not avail yourself of this right, as you were kept
+in utter ignorance of it, as well as of the fact that you had attained
+your majority. But your uncle has availed himself of it in your
+stead. He has contrived--Heaven only knows how--to imitate your
+handwriting--and forge the signature to the document by which the
+guardians' court delivered over to you--that is, to your uncle--the
+property in its charge for you. There was no doubt cast upon the
+authenticity of the document, for it was drawn up in due form by an
+Italian notary and accredited by two witnesses to your personal
+identity. When I suspected that your uncle had purposely kept you in
+ignorance of your affairs, I acquainted the court with my suspicions,
+and they delivered to me this copy of the document which I have just
+handed you for identification. You have declared it a forgery. Whether
+I now spare or destroy this man will depend upon the result of what we
+have to say to each other. That I allow him one word of explanation is
+due to my regard, not for him, but for your sense of delicacy,
+Ernestine, which would suffer deeply in your uncle's disgrace."
+
+Having thus spoken, while Ernestine had listened in mute amazement,
+Johannes turned to Leuthold. "I ask you, Doctor Gleissert, what you
+have done with the money that you have hitherto withheld from your
+niece."
+
+"Before I answer you, sir," replied Leuthold, who had regained his
+composure, "allow me to ask you when you exchanged the pursuit of
+physiology, wherein you have rendered such important service to
+science, for the study of the law, in which, I fear, you will hardly
+prove so great a proficient."
+
+"I did so," said Johannes calmly, "when I felt it my duty to protect
+with the shield of law a young creature most grossly defrauded. And I
+think, sir, that I am already sufficiently versed in my newly-espoused
+science thoroughly to expose your frauds. But let me ask you again to
+account, without further circumlocution, for the property we have
+spoken of."
+
+"And I demand of you, Herr Professor, what legal right you possess to
+subject me to such an inquiry."
+
+Johannes looked at him composedly. "So be it. If you prefer to answer
+my question to a court of justice, I will withdraw my request for an
+explanation between ourselves. Take time to consider which you prefer
+in this matter."
+
+"I should, at all events, have less to fear from a legal investigation
+than from a madman, who, in defiance of custom and decorum, and
+regardless of domestic privacy, invades a home, and, with a knife at
+the throats of its inmates, demands 'your money or your life,' like any
+highway robber."
+
+"Uncle," interposed Ernestine, "I forbid you, in my presence, to insult
+my friend. If you can clear yourself of the terrible suspicion that he
+has cast upon you, do so with dignity. Useless insults cannot convince
+us."
+
+"And you, Ernestine,--do you take part against me?" cried Leuthold
+pathetically.
+
+"I take part with no one; on the contrary, I tremble to think that the
+man who has brought me up may be a criminal. But I will not and cannot
+shield you from the discovery of the troth. You yourself have taught
+me to subject every duty, every impulse of the heart, to cool
+investigation,--to search everything to the foundation,--even at the
+price of the most sacred illusions. Now, cruel preceptor, reap what you
+have sown!"
+
+"Well, then, I am ready to answer you, since you desire it. There is
+one point upon which I owe you an explanation.--the minority in which I
+have kept you in spite of your father's weak will. My course in this
+respect I think entirely justifiable, for every right-minded person who
+knows you must agree with me that it would have been unprincipled in
+the extreme to leave you to yourself at eighteen, inexperienced and
+immature as you were. It was an arbitrary measure on my part, but it
+was well meant, and was the result of an exaggerated affection and
+anxiety for you. The thought that you were to live without me, and I
+without you, was unendurable to me. This is my crime,--this is all that
+I can say. To this gentleman's charges I answer nothing. My life is
+open to the scrutiny of all, it has been passed in unpretending
+repose,--in the calm pursuit of science, and in the delight--now, alas!
+disturbed indeed--of educating you. I regard all your machinations,
+sir, with indifference. Your heated fancy would fail to see the truth
+in my defence of my actions. Only a legal investigation can satisfy you
+of my innocence. Why should I waste further words upon you?"
+
+Johannes smiled. "I reserve my answer to the first part of your
+remarks, but with regard to the last I cannot refrain from asking you
+how you can venture to speak of innocence after your niece has denied,
+in my presence, the signature of this document to be hers, thus proving
+that it is a forgery?"
+
+"Yes, sir, it is certainly a forgery,--no one can deny that. But does
+it follow that I executed it? I had a friend in Italy to whom
+unfortunately I intrusted every fact in relation to our family affairs,
+placing in him a confidence that prudence could not warrant, and, in
+view of this present revelation, I cannot but fear that he has played
+the traitor, and, assisted by some unprincipled notary----" He shrugged
+his shoulders, as if unwilling to complete so grave a charge.
+
+Johannes smiled again, almost compassionately. "Will you attempt to
+support your defence upon such a foundation? and do you venture to meet
+me upon this plea alone?"
+
+"I do, sir; for the law will, I trust, shortly discover the witnesses
+of the crime who can testify as to whether I or my false friend
+committed the forgery."
+
+Johannes bethought himself for an instant, and then said, looking
+Leuthold directly in the eye, "Is this same false friend the purchaser
+of the factory at Unkenheim? Or did you find in Italy what you
+certainly failed to find here,--such wealth of friends?"
+
+Leuthold's cheek blanched again, and Johannes saw that he had thrust
+his probe into a deep wound. He instantly availed himself of his
+advantage. "I suppose that the superintendent at Unkenheim, acquainted
+as he is with your Italian friends, will shortly be able to produce the
+witnesses required for the vindication of your innocence, and I will do
+all that I can to bring about this desirable termination of the
+affair." Then, with a glance at Leuthold, who could scarcely hold up
+his head, "Now, Herr Gleissert, I will give you twenty-four hours in
+which to decide whether you prefer an explanation with me or in a court
+of justice. If by to-morrow evening you are not ready to explain
+matters thoroughly with regard to Fräulein von Hartwich's property, and
+either to produce the same or, if it is invested in the Unkenheim
+factory, to give sufficient security for it, your fate is sealed. From
+this hour your house will be watched day and night. You are now my
+prisoner. At the slightest attempt to escape, you will be handed over
+to the custody of the law, even although I should be forced to deliver
+you up with my own hands. You see I am resolved to proceed to
+extremities. You have nothing to hope for, either from my weakness or
+your cunning, even if a miracle could be worked in your favour, and the
+costly expedient succeed of bribing some Italian rogue to personate
+'the false friend,' to declare your crime his own and endure the
+punishment of it,--even although the notary, who could establish your
+identity and the drawing up of the deed, were dead,---even then you
+could never hope to escape the punishment for mail-robbery!"
+
+Leuthold started as if stung.
+
+"You can hardly accuse of falsehood the sharp eyes of a peasant of this
+place, who can testify that, in default of other amusement, you
+selected for your perusal the contents of the village letter-box,
+retaining in your own possession whatever especially interested you."
+Johannes turned to Ernestine. "I do not know, Fräulein Ernestine,
+whether you have done me the honour to write to me lately, but, if you
+have, your uncle probably knows the contents of your letter much better
+than I, who have never received it. At all events, this little
+occurrence, for which I can produce witnesses, is a significant
+illustration of your uncle's character. And you, Herr Gleissert, can
+now understand that there is no escape for you unless you fulfil the
+conditions upon which alone I will spare Fräulein von Hartwich the
+disgrace of having so near a relative occupy a criminal's cell. You are
+beset on all sides,--entangled in your own crimes. There is no hope for
+you!"
+
+He ceased. Leuthold sat still, pale and mute. Ernestine looked down at
+him with compassion. Then she glanced at Johannes with admiration
+bordering on awe. "You are, as I have always known you, upright, but
+severe!"
+
+"Severe? No, by Heaven! The punishment too severe for this unprincipled
+man is yet to be devised. My imagination is not cruel enough for the
+task!" He regarded Ernestine mournfully. "You are worn out,--you need
+repose." Then he awaited a reply, but none came. The setting sun threw
+its crimson rays across the room. Ernestine stood silent, her hands
+hanging clasped before her, exerting all her self-control. Leuthold had
+propped his head upon his hand, and did not stir. Johannes took his
+hat. "Farewell, Ernestine. Permit me to return to-morrow to learn your
+uncle's final decision." He stepped up to her side. "I will not weary
+you. Let me watch over your destiny. I ask it as the right of
+friendship,--nothing more,--I assure you,--nothing more!"
+
+"Nothing more!" It echoed harshly in Ernestine's heart, and, without a
+word or a look, with only a cold inclination of the head, she dismissed
+him. "He does not love me," she said to herself, and her heart grew
+like ice. He watched over her as a man of honour, not as a lover. He
+knew that she cared for him,--she had not concealed it from him; he had
+thrust the obstacle to their union between them in the shape of his
+narrow-minded conditions--he knew that these were all that separated
+them, and he preferred to relinquish her rather than his own stubborn
+will! He demanded of her every concession, without making any, even the
+smallest, himself! No, her uncle was right, he had never loved her. How
+could she make advances now without proof that she was the object of
+his love? How could she humble herself to make the required sacrifice,
+possessed by the terrible doubt that he had required it in the full
+conviction that it would not be made? The least advance on his side,
+the faintest sign that he would yield one jot of the prejudice that
+separated them, would have given her new life and made her happy. But
+from this day their union was impossible,--it was not to be thought of.
+
+Leuthold interrupted her reverie. He had left the room, and now
+returned with a letter. With the air of a man resolved upon death, he
+held it out to his niece. "Read that, and then show me how truly great
+you are!"
+
+Ernestine, in surprise, unfolded the letter. It was from the
+superintendent, received the day previous. It contained the
+announcement in a few words that the establishment was bankrupt and
+Leuthold ruined. If he did not escape by instant flight, he would be
+overtaken by the punishment of his crime. Ernestine read and re-read
+the letter; she seemed unable to understand it "What does it mean?" she
+asked at last.
+
+"It means that Möllner is right when he calls me forger and thief."
+
+"Uncle!" cried Ernestine in the greatest alarm.
+
+"The money that is lost in the Unkenheim factory was yours----"
+Leuthold faltered.
+
+"You have, then, deprived me of my fortune?" she asked in a low tone.
+
+Leuthold stood before her apparently annihilated. "Yes!"
+
+There was silence. Ernestine uttered a low cry and recoiled from him.
+He breathed with difficulty, and continued, "I could and would confess
+nothing to that man. There is only one soul on earth magnanimous enough
+to forgive me, and to it alone I will reveal all my weakness.
+Ernestine, I have shown you before, in my love and care for you, the
+reasons that induced me to conceal from you the termination of your
+minority. Did you believe me?"
+
+"I will believe it."
+
+"I never dreamed into what fearful temptation I was thereby led. The
+consequences of what I did were these:--I was obliged, in order to
+conceal the fact of your majority from you, to appropriate in your name
+the amount that was yours when you reached the age of eighteen, and
+this without your knowledge. I did it with the firm intention of doing
+what was best for you. I executed the forgery, never dreaming of the
+punishment that it would entail upon me. For months I kept your money
+in my possession, guarding it like the apple of my eye. Hitherto I had
+been an honest man, even although, with the best intentions, I
+had transgressed the letter of the law. Now, Ernestine, came the
+turning-point of my life, and I implore you to lend a lenient ear to
+this terrible confession. The brother of the Staatsräthin Möllner was
+just bankrupt, and the Unkenheim factory was advertised for sale upon
+the most favourable conditions. To this temptation I succumbed. Can you
+not divine how a man is fascinated by the one pursuit to which he has
+given the best years of his life, that is in a certain sense the work
+of his mind and hands? It had been a bitter pain to me to relinquish
+the flourishing business to which I had so long devoted my best
+energies, and now it was again in the market. Want of knowledge and
+capacity had ruined it. I, who knew every part of it most thoroughly,
+could easily build it up again if I had the means to buy it. I resisted
+a long time,--the advertisement of its sale appeared a second and a
+third time. I consulted a merchant in Naples who was, I heard, on the
+point of visiting Germany. He offered to make the purchase for me in my
+name,--he persuaded me to allow him to do it. The opportunity was so
+favourable,--the money lay idle in my hands,--I was so certain of
+doubling it, and thus securing my own and my poor child's future,--I
+knew as surely that when you should come to know it, you would never
+reproach me for thus investing your money. Ten times I stood upon your
+threshold, determined to tell you everything and entreat your
+permission to dispose of your property thus. I knew you would not
+withhold it from me. But the insane dread of losing you as soon as you
+knew you were of age always deterred me. I took the money, firmly
+resolved to restore it to the uttermost farthing. This is the story of
+my crime. Now for the tale of my misfortunes. I failed in what I
+undertook. I enlarged the factory at considerable expense, and suddenly
+unforeseen obstacles, in the nature of the soil, presented themselves,
+material that I had purchased at a high price sunk in value before it
+could be manufactured, and I lost fifty per cent, in the sale of the
+finished goods. Such disasters as these followed each other in rapid
+succession. There was a curse upon everything that I undertook,--the
+curse, I admit it, of an overestimate of my own powers,--for I should
+have known that a clever scholar is not necessarily a merchant, and
+that the technical knowledge as a chemist which had stood me in such
+stead in a comparatively small establishment was not business capacity
+for an immense undertaking. But what now avails my remorse, my late
+confession? Your fortune, Ernestine, has been the price of the terrible
+lesson. I can give you no more of it than will pay for your passage to
+New York,--can offer you no indemnification for it but the revenge
+which this frank confession will afford you the means of gratifying.
+Decide; do with me what you will,--I will accept my fate from your
+hand, but from no other."
+
+The hypocrite sank at her feet, as though utterly crushed, and pressed
+the tips of her cold fingers to his lips.
+
+"Uncle," began Ernestine, and her voice trembled, "stand up! I cannot
+endure the sight of a man before whom I have been used to stand in awe,
+grovelling at my feet like a crushed serpent, whose writhings excite
+aversion rather than compassion. Stand up! I pray you stand up!" She
+turned from him, that she might no longer see him.
+
+"Ernestine," cried Leuthold terrified, "you are marble!"
+
+"I am what you have made me."
+
+He had expected a different result from his confession, and he watched
+Ernestine with the greatest anxiety. She read the letter once more, and
+then sank on the sofa and buried her face in the cushions.
+
+"Ernestine, be composed!" he cried, with a degree of his native
+insolence which could not all be concealed behind the mask that he had
+assumed. "Punish my crime, take what revenge you will, but spare me the
+sight of your humiliating despair at the loss of wealth."
+
+"Do you imagine, man of no conscience, that I mourn for my lost
+wealth?" said Ernestine wrathfully, but with dignity. "If you had asked
+me honourably for the money and then lost it through some misfortune, I
+would have died sooner than have reproached you by a word or a tear.
+But I must despise the only human being in the world upon whom I have
+any claim. All that I have is lost through crime, and this passes my
+endurance. You know well what depends upon the shining bits of metal of
+which you have robbed me--freedom of thought and action,--the noblest
+possessions that life can give. For the sake of these you have robbed
+me, for you are no thief to steal money only for the sake of money. You
+know, too, what a loss it is for a woman,--that it entails upon her
+dependence perhaps servitude,--yes, servitude, to become a mere
+machine, obeying unquestioningly another's will,--and this for a soul
+that would have bowed to no power on earth or in heaven, but that
+rejoiced in its pride in being the centre of its own self-created
+world! And you, knowing how in this thought I die a thousand deaths,
+dare to reproach me with despair at the loss of mere wealth! Look you,
+I do not forget, even in this terrible moment, what you have done for
+me since my childhood,--what an inexhaustible mine of intellectual
+wealth you have revealed to me in exchange for the earthly treasure you
+have taken from me,--and, remembering this, I renounce the revenge that
+you offer me. Save yourself if you can, but do not require of me
+sufficient 'greatness of soul' to forgive you!"
+
+Leuthold breathed freely once more. This was all he wished to
+hear,--that she would not deliver him up to justice. The worst was
+over. If she thus in the first outburst of her anger rejected the idea
+of bringing punishment upon him, she might, when more composed, be
+brought to connive at and share his flight.
+
+"Ernestine," he said, after a moment of reflection, "every one of your
+words is like a coal of fire upon my guilty head. Even in your
+righteous indignation you are noble and gentle. You tell me I may save
+myself, but do you imagine that I can go away without you? Could I
+endure the thought of you struggling with poverty, without me to labour
+for you and to shield you? Have I tended you for all these years with a
+mother's solicitude, to leave you to your fate now, when you need me
+more than ever? Girl, if you think thus of me, you do me grievous
+wrong!" Ernestine looked at him in surprise.
+
+"Either you fly with me, or I remain and brave the worst!" said
+Leuthold with heroic resolution.
+
+Ernestine recoiled. "I go with you! No, I cannot descend so low,--our
+paths in life lie, from this moment, far, far apart."
+
+Leuthold saw her aversion. He was lost if she persisted in her refusal.
+For even although he might succeed in escaping Möllner's vigilance for
+the time, it would soon be known abroad that he had embezzled
+Ernestine's fortune and left her impoverished, and his foe would only
+pursue him all the more obstinately. Ernestine would be required by the
+law to speak, and, truthful as she was, there was no doubt that she
+would expose all his villainy. Only by keeping her with him could she
+be rendered harmless; concealment without her was impossible.
+
+"You hate me, and it is natural for you to do so," said he. "I will not
+recall to you all the time and trouble that I have expended upon you
+since your childhood,--the patience with which I have endured your
+caprices, nor the love with which, when Heim gave you up, I watched
+over and preserved your life. All this you know, and you believe it
+fully repaid by your magnanimous resolve not to deliver up your uncle
+to a jail. You best know your duty in this matter. But, Ernestine, you
+should not hate me more than you do your father, whom you have long
+since forgiven, and upon whom you now bestow so much sympathy, for I
+can truly affirm that I have dealt more kindly by you than he. He was a
+drunkard,--a man degraded to the level of a brute. He did not bring you
+up; I have done it. He scarcely clothed and fed you. I have surrounded
+you with everything that your heart could desire. He always hated you,
+I have loved you from a child. You must remember well how often I
+protected you from his ill treatment, and that once, when I was not by,
+he almost killed you. He never would have provided for you as a father
+should, had he not been driven to it by remorse for his conduct towards
+you. Two-thirds of the property, Ernestine, that he bequeathed to you
+were mine by right. I had earned it in his service. He bequeathed it to
+you, and I acquiesced silently. I resigned it without even hinting to
+you my just claims. I separated myself from my child that she might be
+educated as became her moderate expectations, a sure proof that I had
+no designs upon your wealth. For all this self-sacrifice I asked only
+the delight, the great delight, of training to full perfection a young
+mind,--such a mind as no woman was ever before possessed of. You can
+bear me witness that I have taught you nothing evil,--that I have
+opened your eyes to the good and the beautiful, helping you to decipher
+the book of nature, where only what can elevate the mind is to be
+found. You can comprehend, by the aversion with which you now regard
+your fallen teacher, how pure his teachings have preserved your heart.
+I ask you to reflect, Ernestine, whether all this does not give me at
+least the same claim upon your sympathy as that which you now yield to
+your father."
+
+Ernestine listened with increasing emotion and sympathy. She buried
+her face in the cushions of the sofa, and burst into tears.
+
+Leuthold regarded her with satisfaction. He knew that the woman who
+weeps yields. He continued, "You have convinced me that I have nothing
+to fear from your hatred. You have told me that you renounce your
+revenge, and a nature like yours performs what it promises. But,
+Ernestine, this does not content me. My tortured conscience cannot rest
+until you permit me to take charge of your future. Let me at least try
+to atone for my crime. Grant me this alleviation of the burden that
+weighs me to the earth. Pity me, and allow me the only expiation that
+is possible for me!"
+
+"What shall I do, then?" asked Ernestine in broken accents.
+
+"Go with me, my child, that I may share with you the bread that I
+earn,--that I may open such a future to you as you could never enjoy in
+Germany. You have just signed a brilliant engagement; you cannot break
+it now, just when you need a means of support. It would be madness to
+reject what offers you a position commensurate with your ability. But
+you can never occupy it satisfactorily without my aid. You well know
+how indispensable I am to you in every new undertaking. You must pursue
+fresh studies. Not for the world must you allow a flaw to be found in
+your acquirements on the other side of the water. Hate me, despise me,
+if you will, but consent to avail yourself of my protection on the long
+voyage to New York. Trust me, I detest sentimentality, as you know, but
+it is hard to bury one of your kin before he is dead. You will find it
+harder than you think. One cannot tear one's self loose in a moment
+from the memory of hours, days, and years spent together striving for a
+common aim, and the buried companion will knock upon his coffin-lid
+when such memories arise." He paused. Ernestine's short, quick
+breathing showed what a struggle was going on within her. At last she
+shook her head, sprang up, and walked undecidedly to and fro.
+
+Leuthold continued, "You cannot help it,--you must go with me,--what
+else can you do? Reflect, what course can you adopt if you remain
+here?"
+
+"I do not know," she murmured gloomily in a low tone.
+
+"There are none here to whom you could turn, except the Möllners----"
+
+Ernestine added, "And old Dr. Helm."
+
+"Yes, Heim and the Möllners are like one family. Naturally, they would
+all do what they could for you. Heim would exult greatly in the
+fulfilment of his prophecies."
+
+Ernestine bit her lip.
+
+"To be sure, after what has occurred, you may safely look to them for
+the means of support. Perhaps they may find you a place as a governess,
+if they should become tired of you. But the question is whether that
+would not be a deeper humiliation than going abroad with me. Good
+heavens! in this world you must call many a one comrade whose
+conscience is far from clear, and whom you must not ask for a
+certificate of character. Let your uncle be to you one of these. I will
+not intrude upon you,--will not enter your presence, if you do not
+desire it."
+
+He waited for an answer. Ernestine's eyes were fixed broodingly upon
+the ground.
+
+"Or possibly you would rather reconsider your determination, and go to
+the Frau Staatsräthin and beg to be forgiven. I fear,--I greatly
+fear,--the prudent mother would say, 'Aha, she was haughty enough as
+long as she had plenty of money, but, now that it has all gone, she
+grows humble and is quite willing to ask for shelter and countenance.
+She asks for bread now that she is hungry. The most savage brutes are
+tamed by hunger,--when its pangs are keen the heart is weak.'"
+
+"Hush, uncle! oh, hush!" cried Ernestine with a shudder.
+
+But Leuthold was not to be silenced. He was in his element again. "That
+is what the supercilious mother would say, for these intellectual
+aristocrats are filled with the pride of independence, and exact it
+from others. And the Herr Professor? Naturally, he would feel it doubly
+his duty to marry you and cherish the starving woman. But when the
+first enthusiasm of sympathy was past, what, think you, Ernestine,
+would be his reflections in cooler moments?"
+
+"He would say, 'Necessity made her my wife,--not love.'"
+
+"'And why should I give love in return?'" Leuthold completed the
+thought.
+
+"Or even esteem," Ernestine added with a spasmodic shiver. "No, no! it
+shall not come to that. I will not sink so low. Noble and true as he
+is, he shall not accuse me of such selfishness. His proud, suspicious
+mother shall not find me a beggar at her door,--rather a grave in
+mid-ocean!" She drew near to Leuthold. Her breath came in gasps, her
+pulses throbbed. "Uncle, you have destroyed my happiness in life, help
+me to preserve all that is left for me,--my self-respect!"
+
+"Then come with me. Not until the ocean rolls between you and this man
+can you be secure from your own weakness."
+
+Ernestine sank down exhausted. "So be it! You have conquered!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                           SCIENCE AND FAITH.
+
+
+The dawning day strove in vain to lift the misty veil that a rainy
+night had spread over hill and dale. It was one of those mornings when
+the waning summer--like a belle whose charms are of the past in her
+morning dishabille--showed plainly that its glories were fading. The
+rising sun crept behind the cold, misty clouds, and the bushes were
+dripping with tears of regret. The faithful watcher, who had stood on
+guard all night near the castle, shook the wet from his cloak and
+shivered as he looked in the direction of the school-house, whence
+relief was to arrive.
+
+He did not wait long. The powerful figure of a young man appeared
+briskly advancing through the mist. Slowly and sleepily the clock in
+the tower of the village church tolled half-past four.
+
+"To a moment!" cried the watcher to the new arrival. "This is
+punctuality indeed!"
+
+"Good-morning!" said Walter. "Brr! the air is cold. You must be almost
+frozen."
+
+"Not more so than the huntsman on the watch," replied Johannes. "Ardour
+for the chase makes him warm. I burn and long to clutch that beast of
+prey up there. Oh, Walter, I am not easily roused,--my nature is a
+quiet one,--but if that man had tried to slip away in the night, and
+had fallen into my hands, I could not have answered for the
+consequences."
+
+"I do not wonder at you," laughed Walter. "Nothing would gratify me
+more than a chance at the fellow. How did you spend the night? Could
+you not sit down?"
+
+"No, I was not calm enough to do anything but pace to and fro, and now
+it is beginning to tell upon my wearied limbs."
+
+"Make haste, then, and get dry and warm. My father is impatiently
+expecting you. He is up and dressed, and my mother has a good cup of
+coffee waiting for you."
+
+"How kind you all are!" said Johannes. "But I am very anxious, Walter.
+Gleissert was with Ernestine until midnight. From the hill yonder I
+could see their heads through the window. They appeared to be in eager
+conversation, and moved about, as if they were packing. Oh, if she can
+possibly intend----"
+
+"Do not be in the least alarmed,--she cannot, after what you have told
+her."
+
+"But how, after what I have told her, can she endure that man about her
+for hours? How can she breathe the air of the room where he is, for
+even ten minutes?"
+
+"Hm--it does seem incredible. But, whatever happens, we have nothing to
+do but to watch and be ready. I will do my duty in this respect. Go,
+now, and rest for a couple of hours, that you may relieve me at
+school-time. Had you only allowed me to watch in your place, he would
+have found me as difficult as you to deal with."
+
+"You help me enough by assisting me during the day. Good-by, then. I
+shall be back at eight o'clock." And Johannes walked slowly and wearily
+towards the school-house. When he entered the low, dimly-lighted room,
+he found the steaming coffee-pot already upon the table. Frau Leonhardt
+had seen him coming, and all was in readiness for him.
+
+Herr Leonhardt sat in his place by the stove, and held out his hand
+with a kind but anxious "Good-morning! How are you after your unwonted
+duty through the night?"
+
+"Tolerably, old friend," replied Johannes, "but I cannot deny that my
+respect has considerably increased since yesterday for the honourable
+guild of watchmen.--No, thank you, Frau Leonhardt, I cannot eat
+anything."
+
+"Oh, do not drink your coffee without a morsel of something solid.
+Well, if you do not wish it--but, you see, here it is!"
+
+"Yes, my dear Frau Leonhardt, I see it," Johannes assured her, with a
+smiling glance at the great basketful of biscuits.
+
+"You must know that my Brigitta was up half the night to prepare her
+most tempting biscuits for your breakfast,--it is all she could do for
+you. Yes, Brigitta, the Herr Professor can appreciate your good will."
+
+"Indeed I can," said Johannes. "Such womanly kindness is dear to me
+wherever I meet with it. Your labour shall not be in vain." And he
+forced himself to eat.
+
+"Oh," said Brigitta, "if the Fräulein had known that you were walking
+up and down beneath her windows in the cold night, she would have been
+grieved enough, and filled with pity!"
+
+"The Fräulein knows no pity, my dear Frau Leonhardt," said Johannes
+bitterly.
+
+The old man laid his hand kindly upon Johannes' shoulder. "You do not
+mean what you say. You cannot think so meanly of her--your impatience
+speaks now, not you. If you could only understand her noble nature as I
+do, who am not blinded by passion!"
+
+"But, Father Leonhardt, I do not deny Ernestine's noble nature. Should
+I devote myself to her as I am now doing after her rejection of me, if
+I did not know her to be more than worthy of all that I can do? But if
+you could have seen her rigid, marble face yesterday, you would have
+questioned, as I did, whether that young girl really possessed a
+heart."
+
+"Indeed, indeed she does possess one," affirmed the old man. "But
+remember, Herr Professor, her heart has hitherto been fed solely
+through her understanding. She has had nothing to love but ideas. Human
+beings she has known nothing of. What wonder, then, if she imagines
+that she should love only where her intellect can say Amen? That Amen
+cannot be said in your case, for you have opposed all that has hitherto
+had the warrant of her intellect, which must needs be in arms against
+you, and the oppressed young heart must mutely acquiesce. Ernestine's
+intellect is that of a full-grown man, while her sensibilities are as
+undeveloped as those of a girl of fifteen. The consequence is that
+incessant contradictions appear in her conduct. Give these undeveloped
+sensibilities time, do not stunt them by coldness, and you will see
+them assert their rights in opposition to the intellect. She might
+almost be called a kind of Caspar Hauser in the world of sentiment. She
+is not at home there. She needs a patient teacher, and such a one she
+will find in you, I am sure. Do all that you can to prevent her from
+going to America; if she goes, she is as good as dead for us."
+
+"Rely upon me, faithful and wise old friend," cried Johannes, and fresh
+resolution was depicted on his face. "I will do all that I can for
+her,--not for my own sake, but for hers."
+
+"If you have finished your breakfast, you must take some rest," said
+Leonhardt. "My wife has arranged a bed for you."
+
+"I accept your kindness gratefully," replied Johannes, "for I am
+exhausted, and have a fatiguing day before me."
+
+"Then let me show you to your room. That service even a blind man can
+render you," said the old man with a smile.
+
+And the two ascended to the upper story, where Herr Leonhardt opened a
+door and showed his guest into a scrupulously neat little apartment,
+containing a most inviting bed. Then he groped about, assuring himself
+that all was as it should be, and returned to the room below, saying,
+as he closed the door, "Take a good sleep,--you may need the strength
+it will give you."
+
+"Thanks, a thousand thanks, Father Leonhardt!" Johannes cried after
+him, and he listened to the careful tread of his kind host upon the
+narrow stairway. Then his eyes closed. Frau Brigitta's words sounded in
+his ears, "If the Fräulein had known that you were walking up and down
+beneath her windows in the cold night----"
+
+She must have known it. He had told her plainly enough that he should
+do so, and she had not even opened a window or looked out at him. But
+stay,--stay! She would come out to him herself. See! see! The gate
+opened softly. Was her uncle with her? No! She was alone,--quite alone!
+"Come," she whispered, "you are cold. Come in." And she took his hands
+and breathed upon them and rubbed them. "Will you not come into the
+house?" she asked. "There you can watch for my uncle and be out of the
+rain, and I will stay with you and never, never leave you."
+
+"Ernestine," cried Johannes, stretching out his arms to embrace her.
+The sudden motion awoke him, and he found himself alone. He could not
+have slept more than a quarter of an hour, and yet he could not go to
+sleep again. He lay quietly resting for a time, and then arose,
+prepared to go through with the decisive day that awaited him.
+
+
+Evening had come. As on the previous day, Ernestine was sitting at her
+writing-table, but it was empty now. Its contents were packed up in the
+chests which were standing in the room, locked and ready for the
+voyage. Ernestine sat idly, with her hands in her lap, listening to her
+uncle's directions to the weeping housekeeper in reference to the price
+at which she was to dispose of the furniture of the house.
+
+"The scientific works and the apparatus I shall leave to Walter
+Leonhardt," she said.
+
+"What!" cried Leuthold. "Are you going to give away at least a thousand
+thalers?" He paused, with a glance at Frau Willmers, who had the tact
+to leave the room. "Why throw money out of the window, now that we are
+beggared?"
+
+"The thousand thalers that the things would bring would not keep me
+from starving, while they will secure the young man's future. He has
+talents that must not run to waste, and which I can foster by giving
+him the means of pursuing his studies."
+
+"Is it possible? You think it your duty, then, to foster all neglected
+genius?"
+
+"Uncle," said Ernestine with cold severity, "I pray you spare me your
+opinion of my conduct. The habit of submission, it appears, is more
+easily discarded than that of ruling. I have cast aside the former,
+since yesterday, like a garment. It would be well for you to do the
+same with the latter."
+
+"But I thought I might at least be suffered to advise," observed
+Leuthold.
+
+"I will ask your advice when I think it necessary. In this matter it is
+enough that I choose to do as I have said."
+
+Leuthold regarded her immovable features with a mixture of fear and
+hatred, and thought to himself, "Once let me get you on the other side
+of the water, and in my power, and you shall atone bitterly for all the
+trouble that you give me now."
+
+And his restless fancy painted vividly before his mind's eye the
+revenge that awaited him in that new world, and an ugly smile was upon
+his lips as he thought of all that his niece's proud nature would have
+to endure.
+
+Ernestine arose. "There are only a few hours left before our
+departure," she said. "I must be sure that my intentions will be
+carried out."
+
+She went into her laboratory, and packed up, as well as she could, the
+apparatus that she designed for Walter. Then she reopened the letter
+that she was to leave with Willmers for Leonhardt, and added these
+words, "Come what may, I pray you preserve these books and instruments
+for me as relics. Say they are yours, or they will be snatched from you
+and from me."
+
+Thus she made her gift secure from the clutches of the law. She knew
+Leuthold well enough to feel sure that he would not seek to prevent its
+removal from the house if he could not keep it for his niece. Then she
+sent off the chests from the laboratory, and went into the library to
+select the books that Walter was to have. Leuthold hurried in, and said
+to her, "Möllner is coming! Now, Ernestine, summon up all your
+resolution!" His teeth fairly chattered with agitation. "Be strong,
+Ernestine. A human life is at stake! If you do not save me from
+Möllner's revenge and from the law, I am a dead man! By the life of my
+child,--dearer to me than aught else on earth,--I swear to you that I
+will commit suicide sooner than put on a convict's jacket! Now act
+accordingly."
+
+Ernestine gazed at him with horror. At last he was speaking the truth!
+Sheer, blank despair was painted on his features.
+
+"Uncle," she cried, "be calm! I will not drive you to suicide! My
+resolve is firm. Will you not be present?"
+
+"No, that would make mischief. I will get everything ready for our
+departure, that nothing may detain us. Do not forget. We are
+reconciled,--do you hear? Will you tell him so?"
+
+"I promise you."
+
+"I will go. I will not meet him. Bless you for every kind word, and
+curses upon you if you should betray me."
+
+He hurried away, and Ernestine looked after him with a shudder. A human
+life hung upon her lips! A curse awaited every thoughtless word that
+she might utter! She stood alone and helpless, burdened thus heavily, a
+young, inexperienced creature, scarcely able to bear the responsibility
+of her own actions. She spurred on her fainting energies to accomplish
+the almost superhuman task allotted to her.
+
+Her dreaded visitor entered.
+
+"Forgive me, Ernestine," he said, "for thus intruding unannounced. Your
+housekeeper directed me hither. This is no time for empty formalities.
+It is time for action, and, if need be, for a life-and-death struggle.
+I have just seen the chests sent off to Herr Leonhardt. I learn from
+Frau Willmers that you are going,--really going,--with your uncle.
+Ernestine, I have no words for the anguish that I am now enduring! I
+could submit to your rejection of my suit, for I might still love you,
+but to find you unworthy of my love, Ernestine, would be more than I
+can bear."
+
+"And what could so degrade me in your eyes?" asked Ernestine with
+offended pride.
+
+"Your not fleeing from such a villain, as from the Evil One
+himself,--your harbouring the intention of going forth into the world
+with one abhorred alike of God and man, not feeling sufficient
+detestation of the crime to induce you to avoid the criminal who must
+be shunned by every honest man. Oh, Ernestine, I cannot believe it now!
+I would rather die than believe it!"
+
+"He has excused himself in my eyes," said Ernestine, deeply wounded.
+"He has convinced me that no human being should condemn another
+unheard. I am not conscious of such perfection and infallibility in
+myself as would permit me to dare to judge and denounce. That must be
+left for those better and stronger than I. The tie that bound me to him
+is, it is true, broken, but I must tread the same path that he treads.
+I cannot refuse to share his wanderings."
+
+"Do you not fear the disgrace that will attach to you by thus joining
+your lot with that of a criminal, amenable to the law?"
+
+"The law has no power over him. He has satisfied me with regard to my
+property, and, if I am content, it is enough."
+
+"Good heavens! What security has he offered you? You are so
+inexperienced in such matters, he will deceive you again. Tell me, at
+least, what he has told you."
+
+Ernestine stood more erect. Agitation almost choked her utterance, and,
+to conceal it, she put on a colder, sterner manner than usual. "When I
+tell you I am satisfied, it seems to me that should content you."
+
+"Ernestine," cried Johannes, "why do you adopt this tone with me? I am
+acting and thinking only for you and your interest, and you treat me
+like a foe."
+
+"For all that you have done and are doing for me, I am grateful to you,
+as also for your kind intentions. But now, I pray you, leave to me all
+care for my future fate. I feel fully competent to direct it."
+
+"I tell you, Ernestine, that, whether you will it or not, I must snatch
+you from the abyss upon whose brink you are tottering. And first I will
+make sure of your companion. He has not given me the securities for
+your property that I required, the respite that I allowed him is past,
+the twenty-four hours for reflection have gone." He turned towards the
+door.
+
+"Dr. Möllner, what are you about to do?" cried Ernestine.
+
+"Give him up to justice."
+
+Ernestine placed herself in his way. "You must not do that!"
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"You will not attempt to avenge what I have forgiven. You will not so
+intrude into my life as to make it impossible for me to decide whether
+I will punish or forgive a crime that affects me alone. You are about
+to publish abroad my affairs, and I demand for myself the right to
+regulate my own private affairs as it may seem to me best. I cannot
+allow a stranger--yes, I say, a stranger--to meddle thus with the
+concerns of two human beings, as if he were an emissary of the Holy
+Vehm!"
+
+"Ernestine!" gasped Johannes.
+
+"I repeat it," she continued, "I am grateful for your kind intentions.
+But the best intentions result in unwelcome violence when they would
+rob a human being, of the right of free choice. I insist upon this most
+sacred of all rights, and forbid you any further interference with my
+fate, and, as my uncle's lot is so closely allied to mine that in
+striking him you would harm me, I hope you are sufficiently chivalric
+to desist from further persecution of him." Almost fainting, she leaned
+against the door.
+
+"Fräulein von Hartwich," replied Johannes, controlling himself with
+difficulty, "you propose a hard trial for my patience. But I can
+forgive you, for you are a true woman." Ernestine started at these
+words, but he entreated silence by a gesture. "You are a woman, and, as
+such, easily aroused, easily deceived. Your uncle has taken advantage
+of this fact. You do not dream what you are doing in following the
+fortunes of this bad man. I thought I had opened your eyes yesterday,
+but I was mistaken. You saw, but I did not teach you to understand what
+you saw. I will retrieve my error. I will explain to you the motives
+for your uncle's course of action."
+
+"I have already told you," replied Ernestine, "that I know them. I need
+no further explanation. He has sinned, grievously sinned,--who can deny
+it? Not he himself. But his life has been dedicated to me with a
+devotion rare enough in our selfish world. He has lived for me ever
+since I was a child, and all his errors sprang from the dread of losing
+me. This is, perhaps, incredible to you, because from your point of
+view it is inconceivable that a man should entirely give himself up to
+the training of a woman's mind. To you a life spent solely in
+intellectual association with a woman seems impossible, and of course
+you would accuse of falsehood a man who professes to prefer such a life
+to all others. Therefore I know beforehand all you would say, and would
+be spared the listening to it now."
+
+"Ernestine," cried Johannes, fairly roused, "you must hear me, or, by
+Heaven, I do not know you!"
+
+He paused for one moment. Ernestine looked down, and apparently awaited
+what he had to say.
+
+"Yes, then, yes,--you are perfectly right. It does seem to me an
+impossibility that a man should make it the sole aim of his existence
+to develop the intellect of a woman. I can love as deeply as man can
+love. You know that I love you, and, were you mine, I would adore you,
+and you only, with my whole heart and soul, truly and unchangeably,
+until death separated us. But, in my love for you, to forego all other
+interests and duties in life, to idle away in delicious intercourse
+with you all opportunities for true manly exertion,--that I could
+not do, truly and warmly as I love you. It would be the part of a
+woman,--not of a man, who has public as well as private duties to
+fulfil. I have no confidence in a man who pretends to lead such a life
+out of simple affection for a relative. He must have some other purpose
+in view, and I believe that your uncle's purpose in this matter was a
+detestable one, leading him to sin against you in a way that God alone
+can justly punish. He would sacrifice everything for money--he would
+murder alike body and soul. Stay--be calm for a few moments. I will
+justify these terrible accusations. The theft of your fortune has been
+the purpose that he has kept steadily in view ever since he was your
+guardian. The possession of this property seems to have been the fixed
+idea of his life, for he induced your father at one time to bequeath it
+to him, leaving you, notwithstanding his boasted affection for you,
+only what the law accords to you. Heim prevailed upon your father to
+destroy this will and to reinstate you in your rights. But he was not
+sufficiently prudent, for the will that your father then dictated left
+too much margin for your uncle's administration. He longed to recover
+what he had lost, and circumstances favoured his desire. Your father,
+in his will, as you can see from this copy of it, stated that in case
+of your dying unmarried your entire fortune should go to Gleissert or
+his children. When your father died, matters looked propitious for
+Leuthold, for little Ernestine was such a frail, sickly child that he
+cherished a hope almost amounting to a certainty that the delicate cord
+of life that kept him from his inheritance would soon break, and give
+him all that he coveted. But the pale, quiet child confounded his plans
+by recovering her health Und strength. Hers was a rare nature, and
+recuperated quickly, both physically and mentally. The hope that she
+would die grew fainter and fainter, but he could not so easily
+relinquish the prospect of possessing her fortune. If he might not
+secure the inheritance, he could at least secure the person of the
+heir, and contrive to keep you, Ernestine, from marrying, since the
+money could be his only in the event of your dying single. To this end,
+you must be secluded from the world, and, that you might not miss
+its amusements, your restless spirit must be introduced to a new
+realm,--the realm of the intellect. Therefore he studiously concealed
+from you your coming of age, lest it should occur to you to break the
+bonds of the strict control to which you were subjected, and mingle
+with your kind. This was the plan of your education, this the reason of
+your uncle's tender solicitude for you. The time and trouble expended
+upon you were all in the way of business, a fair exchange for the
+ninety thousand thalers and the contingent advantages that he trusted
+to obtain thereby. He could never have attained such a competency as a
+German professor. This is criminal legacy-hunting. And now for my
+accusation of murder. I do not mean by it a murder with poison or
+dagger,--he is too cowardly and too prudent for that,--but he made use
+of a poison which, if it were not as quick in its effects as arsenic,
+at least possessed this advantage over it--no chemist could detect it,
+and no law punish its use. The body was to be destroyed through the
+mind. He knew how to foster in your passionate heart an ambition that
+dreaded no labour, that, in its burning desire to attain its ends,
+pursued them with a feverish haste that never heeded whether the
+physical frame were equal or not to such unceasing exertion. Oh, the
+plan was ingenious, but there were eyes, thank God! that saw through
+it. It is true he did not stand at your back with a rod, like a severe
+schoolmaster, to urge you on,---he did not compel you to work all night
+long, denying yourself the only refreshment that could strengthen your
+shattered nerves,--sleep,--but he contrived that you should do all this
+voluntarily. He saw you droop, and took no notice of it. He would not
+kill you with his own hand, but he put into yours the poison with which
+you should do it yourself, and, when the natural love of life in you
+spoke out and entreated aid, he forbade you to summon a physician, lest
+he should save you by an antidote! Thus, consciously and voluntarily,
+he has let you sicken and languish, and now he would carry you to
+America to bury you there. So much for the grounds of my accusation of
+physical murder. And now as to his murder of your soul. I said before
+that your uncle had secluded you from the world to make sure of your
+never marrying. How could he do this? By making you an object of
+aversion to society at large--by hardening your heart, so that you
+might never feel the desire for loving intercourse and companionship
+stirring within you. He accomplished these ends by making you a
+skeptic. And were this the only crime that he is guilty of towards you,
+it would justify any punishment, however severe,--any contempt, however
+profound."
+
+"If this is all that you have to say, I can only reply that you talk
+like a theologian, not like a physiologist," said Ernestine, vainly
+endeavouring to conceal her horror. "It is possible that there is some
+foundation for your other accusations of Doctor Gleissert,--I will not
+decide upon them at present,--but for this last there is none, or, at
+least, none in the degree that you mean. Yes, he did take from me my
+faith, but in its place he gave me that philosophy which is the
+resting-place of all thought, and wherein alone the doubting spirit can
+find peace."
+
+"Oh, what a miserable mistake!" cried Johannes. "Do you suppose that
+anything can take the place of faith in the world? Can a soul as lofty
+as your own be content with the mere knowledge of the laws that rule
+the universe, without raising reverential eyes to the Power whom those
+laws represent? Forgive me if I talk like a theologian. Let me be clear
+with you upon this point too, before we part. I would at least restore
+to you one possession of which your uncle has robbed you, and that
+belongs to women in an eminent degree, far more than to men,--the power
+of seeing heaven open when the earth does not suffice us!"
+
+Ernestine gazed at him in utter amazement: "Do you speak thus, you, a
+man of exact science,--a science that teaches how everything in
+existence is developed from itself! What is left for us to reverence in
+the God whom you would seem to declare, after we have learned that
+nature of itself alone creates and achieves everything?"
+
+Johannes shook his head. "Oh, Ernestine, can we believe in Him only by
+believing that his Spirit hovered over the face of the waters and
+created the heavens and the earth in six days? I think we have learned
+to separate this gross material representation from the actual being of
+God! Thus only can faith and knowledge join hands, and I am one of
+those in whose minds they have thus formed an alliance, although
+perhaps not without a struggle. I can give my belief no concrete shape,
+I have not the simplicity that is satisfied with a Deity compounded of
+human attributes and powers, but the fervent aspiration that looks up
+and holds fast to my formless God,--this aspiration is my rock of
+safety."
+
+"That is only a subjective emotion. What does it prove?"
+
+"Nothing!" said Johannes. "For the existence of a God can be as little
+proved as disproved. I might say He is to the world what the soul is to
+the body, and we cannot give form to the soul in our minds. The organs
+of the body work in obedience to unchangeable laws, but, although they
+thus work, they are under the control of the soul, and, although we can
+explain never so exactly the mechanism that the soul puts in motion at
+its good pleasure, we cannot explain how it thinks and desires. Are we
+therefore to deny that it does think and desire? But I know what little
+value will attach to such comparisons in your eyes, for you will demand
+logical proof of the truth of my parallel, and this I cannot give you."
+
+Ernestine was lost in thought. "I never should have conceived it
+possible that such a man as you are could believe in the existence of a
+God!"
+
+"If you will listen, I will tell you how faith first entered into my
+heart. I was a wayward lad, just emancipated from the ignorant
+illusions of childhood, with a living desire for the Infinite in my
+heart,--longing to prove scientifically the existence of the God in
+whom I no longer believed. In my ignorance of myself, I naturally fell
+into the way of that spurious philosophy which the science of to-day
+looks back upon with contempt, and--to use Du Bois' words--racked my
+brain for awhile over the riddle of Being, human and divine. My
+affections were warm,--I loved those belonging to me, and especially my
+little sister Angelika. One day the child was taken dangerously ill,
+and, as she was more devoted to me than to any other member of the
+family, I watched with her through long nights with fraternal
+tenderness. The child suffered greatly, and one night in particular her
+cries fairly broke my heart. My mother at last took her little hands in
+her own, clasped them, and said, 'Pray, my darling,--pray to God. He
+may grant your prayer!' And the child, suppressing her sobs, cried,
+'Ah, dear God, take away my pain!' And I--I flung myself upon my knees
+and prayed fervently, I knew not what,--I knew not to whom,--no
+matter! I prayed. I heard my mother's voice say Amen, and I repeated
+Amen,--almost unconsciously. The child was soothed, grew calm, looked
+up to heaven with childlike trust, then smiled upon us and went to
+sleep with her head upon my breast,--her first sound sleep after a week
+of suffering. I listened to her breathing, it was soft and regular. I
+was filled then with an emotion such as I had never before
+experienced,--tears came to my eyes. I could have embraced the world in
+my delight,--no, a world would not suffice me, I needed a God beside.
+What shall I say,--how explain it in words? Like the girl born blind,
+in the poem, that believed she _saw_ when she _loved_, I loved the God
+to whom I had prayed, and because I loved Him I saw Him with my heart!"
+
+He paused, and looked at Ernestine, who had listened with sympathy.
+
+"That is the very essence of faith," he continued. "No reason can give
+it to you or take it from you. One single agonized moment taught me
+what science and philosophy had failed to teach. I found by the bedside
+of a child the God for whom my intellect had vainly searched earth and
+skies. From this time I learned to keep myself open to conviction. I
+now first became an exact physiologist. I no longer set fantastic
+bounds to science, I no longer adulterated my pure contemplation of
+nature with metaphysical notions, but confined myself strictly to the
+actual, and it never conflicted with my feelings, for Science itself
+pauses before the first cause of all Being, and says, 'Thus far, and no
+farther,' and here, where my knowledge ceases, my faith begins!"
+
+"You speak well, but you do not convince me," said Ernestine sadly.
+
+"I see. I know that the remedy for your disease does not lie in the
+words or the example of others, but in your own experience. I prophesy,
+if you are ever overwhelmed by a moment of despair, that you will waken
+to the need of that God whom you now ignore. Even were it not to be so,
+I could only pity you, for a woman who cannot pray is a bird with
+broken wings. I maintain that there is no woman who does not
+believe,--for there is none who does not _fear_, and fear looks in
+reverence to God, whether as avenging justice or protecting love, to
+which to flee when all other aid fails. Can you be the sole exception
+to this rule?"
+
+"I hope so," said Ernestine proudly. "I am not one of those weaklings
+who dread danger in the dark. I look every phantom of terror boldly in
+the face, and can recognize its natural origin. I fear nothing, and
+have no need of a God."
+
+"You fear nothing?" asked Johannes, and then, struck by a sudden
+thought, added, "Not even death?"
+
+"Not even death! I know that I am but a part of universal matter, and
+must return to it again. What is there to fear? The dissolution of a
+personal existence in the great sum of things,--the transformation of
+one substance into another? Since I learned to think, I have constantly
+pondered this great law of nature, and have accustomed myself to
+consider my insignificant existence only as part and parcel of the
+wondrous transmutation of matter perpetually taking place in the
+universe. Only when we have attained this conviction can we smilingly
+renounce our vain claim to individual immortality, and see in death the
+due tribute that we pay to nature for our life."
+
+"Indeed? And you imagine that this consolation will stand you in stead
+when the time really comes for you to descend into that dark abyss
+which is illuminated for you by no ray of faith or hope?"
+
+"I am sure of it."
+
+"And if you were plunged into it before the appointed time?"
+
+"I should not quarrel with the measure of existence that nature
+accorded me."
+
+"You would not, however, curtail that existence intentionally?"
+
+Ernestine looked at him in surprise. "No, assuredly not."
+
+"Are you not afraid of doing so by going to America?"
+
+"Why should I fear it?--on account of the dangers of the sea, perhaps?
+Oh, no. It has borne millions of lives in safety upon its waves,--why
+not mine also? It will be more merciful than my kind, I think."
+
+"Then you are still determined to go, after all that I have told you of
+your uncle?"
+
+"With him or without him, I shall go," said Ernestine.
+
+"Well, then, God is my witness that I have tried my best! Now,--you
+will think me cruel, but I cannot help it,--one remedy still is left
+me,--a terrible one, but your proud courage gives me strength to use
+it. Ernestine, if you persist in your determination to undertake this
+voyage, I fear the time is close at hand when the genuineness of your
+philosophical consolation will be tried indeed. You will hardly live to
+reach New York."
+
+Ernestine grew, if possible, paler than before at these words. "What
+reason have you to say so?" she faltered.
+
+"I will tell you, for there is no time left for concealment." He looked
+at the clock. "I cannot understand how, with your understanding and
+the knowledge that you possess, you should fail to see that you are
+ill,--not only nervous and prostrated, but seriously ill."
+
+Ernestine looked at him in alarm.
+
+"I am firmly convinced that you are lost if you continue your present
+mode of life, as you will and must in America. Notwithstanding all your
+uncle may have told you, I know that, once in New York, you will have
+no chance of recovering from him one thaler of your fortune, even
+supposing that, in accordance with your wishes, I allow him to leave
+this country. You will be forced to earn your daily support, and, I
+tell you truly, your life, under such conditions, will not last one
+year. You will die in your bloom in an American hospital, and be buried
+in a nameless grave!"
+
+Ernestine turned away.
+
+"Are you still determined to go?" Johannes asked after a pause.
+
+Ernestine pondered for one moment of bitter agony. She knew only too
+well that he was right. But what should she do? He had no idea that her
+fortune was actually lost,--that she would be forced to earn her bread
+if she stayed as surely as if she went,--that she must labour
+incessantly, if she would not be a dependent beggar. Think and reflect
+as she might, she saw nothing before her but death in a hospital! And
+she would far rather perish in a foreign land than here, where all knew
+her, and where all would triumph over her downfall, that they had
+prophesied so often. No! she must fly! Like the dying bird in winter,
+hiding himself in his death-agony from every eye, she would conceal, in
+a distant quarter of the globe, her poverty, her degradation and
+disgrace, from the arrogant man of whom she had been so haughtily
+independent in the day of her prosperity.
+
+At last she raised her head, and, with a great effort, said, "There is
+no choice left me. I must fulfil my contract,--I _must_ go to America!"
+
+Johannes had awaited her decision with breathless eagerness. He lost
+almost entirely his hardly-won self-control. "Ernestine," he exclaimed,
+seizing both her hands, "Ernestine, I plead for life and death. Do you
+not hear?--I tell you there is no hope for you but in absolute repose.
+Will you voluntarily hurry into the grave yawning at your feet? I have
+watched you with the eyes of a physician and a lover, and I swear to
+you, by my honour, that I have been continually discovering fresh cause
+for anxiety. You look as if you were in a decline at this moment. You
+have the feeble, capricious pulse and the cold hands of a victim of
+disease of the heart. Yesterday I heard from Frau Willmers of symptoms
+that filled me with alarm for you,--I grasp at the hope that they may
+be only the effects of your unnaturally forced manner of life. But
+these effects may become causes, in your present exhausted condition,
+causes of mortal disease, if you do not spare yourself I cannot, in
+duty or conscience, let you go without, hard as it is, enlightening you
+with regard to your physical condition. I would have spared you the
+cruel truth, but your determined obstinacy extorts it from me. Have
+some compassion upon me, and do not go before you have seen Heim. He is
+a man of experience, let him judge whether I am right or not. I entreat
+you to see him. Do, Ernestine, do, for my sake, if you would not leave
+me plunged in the depths of despair."
+
+Still he held her hands firmly clasped in his. His chest heaved, his
+cheeks were flushed with emotion. All the strength of his passionate
+affection for her seethed and glowed in his imperious and imploring
+entreaties.
+
+Ernestine stood pale and calm before him. No human eye could divine her
+thoughts.
+
+Whilst they stood thus silently gazing into each other's eyes, there
+was a sound as of a carriage driving from the door below. Johannes, in
+his agitation, never heard it. Ernestine thought it was possibly her
+uncle, but she did not care. She had suddenly grown strangely
+indifferent to everything in the world.
+
+"Ernestine, have you no answer for me?" asked Johannes.
+
+"I will--reflect--until to-morrow."
+
+"Thank God!" burst from the depths of Johannes' heart. As he dropped
+Ernestine's hands, he fairly staggered with exhaustion.
+
+Again a few moments passed in gloomy silence.
+
+"Ernestine," he then said, "you have in this last hour punished an
+innocent man for all the sins of his sex. Let it suffice you--indeed
+you are avenged."
+
+Ernestine did not speak.
+
+Johannes continued. "I will intrude no longer. May I come with Heim
+to-morrow?"
+
+"You shall learn my decision to-morrow."
+
+"Your hand upon it. No? Then farewell!"
+
+Ernestine was alone. She stood motionless for awhile, never thinking of
+Johannes, nor of her uncle, who, strangely enough, did not appear, but
+with one sentence ringing in her ears,--"Your pulse is that of a victim
+to disease of the heart." Those words had stung like a scorpion. There
+was no doubt, then, that Johannes considered her past all hope of
+recovering,--he had plainly intimated as much, although he had
+refrained from bluntly telling her so. But was Dr. Möllner capable of
+forming a correct judgment in her case? Yes, certainly, both as
+physiologist and physician, he was thoroughly able to form a just
+diagnosis. She did not understand how she could so long have ignored
+the signs in herself of physical decline. He was right,--her uncle was
+her murderer. She shuddered at the thought. How near death seemed to
+her now! She thought, and thought called to mind every peculiar
+sensation that she had lately been conscious of, weighed the evidence,
+and drew conclusions.
+
+It was remarkable how everything betokened trouble with her heart.
+Johannes wished to consult Heim. He would not have done that, had he
+not thought her dangerously ill. What could he or Heim tell her that
+she did not know herself? Had he any means of obtaining knowledge that
+were not hers also? Had she not a pathological library, filled with all
+that a physician needed,--the same that she had destined for Walter,
+but had not yet sent to him? She would consult it and know the truth
+that very day.
+
+Night had fallen--the rain was dripping outside--the room lay in dreary
+shadow. She rang for lights. Frau Willmers brought a study-lamp with a
+green shade, and left her alone again.
+
+Ernestine placed a small library-ladder against one of the tall,
+heavily-carved bookcases, and mounted it, with the lamp in her hand.
+She took out one book after another, without finding the one for which
+she was searching. Impatiently she rummaged among the dusty folios,
+that had not been touched for months. At last, by the dim light of her
+lamp, she saw the title that she was looking for, but it was beneath a
+pile of books hastily heaped above it. She dragged it out with feverish
+impatience. The volumes tumbled about, some hard, heavy object, lying
+among them, fell upon her head, almost stunning her, and then shattered
+the lamp in her hand, falling afterwards upon the floor with a dull
+noise amidst the broken glass that accompanied it. Ernestine, her book
+under her arm, got down from the ladder with trembling knees, to see,
+by the expiring flame of the wick of the lamp, what it was that had
+caused the mischief. As she stooped to pick it up, a fleshless,
+grinning face stared into her own. She started back with a cry. It was
+one of the skulls that she had put away in the library and long
+forgotten. The dim light of the lamp died out, but through the darkness
+the white jaws still grinned horribly. Almost insane with horror, she
+called again for lights. To her overwrought nerves, the trifling
+accident was in strange harmony with the thoughts that were tormenting
+her. It was as if nature thus gave her ominous warning of her fate.
+
+When lights were brought, she forced herself to look the hateful thing
+in the face again. She picked up the head by its empty eye-sockets.
+"Thus shall I shortly look,--no fairer than this horror!" And she went
+up to a mirror, and, in a kind of bravado, compared her own head with
+the fleshless thing. "You must learn to recognize the family likeness,"
+she said to her own reflection, and in feverish fancy she began to
+analyze her own fair, noble features and imagine all the changes that
+they must pass through before their resemblance to their mute, bleached
+companion should be complete. Disgust and dread mastered her again, and
+she feared her own reflection in the mirror as much as the skull. She
+threw it from her, and then started at the noise it made as it fell
+into the corner of the room. The blood rushed to her head, and she was
+deafened by the whirr and singing in her ears, although, through it
+all, she seemed to hear something, she knew not what, that she could
+not comprehend, and that increased her terror. The death's-head in the
+corner would not--so it seemed to her--keep quiet; it was rolling about
+there. She could not stay in the room,--there was something evil in the
+air. She took the book that she had found, and the candle, and fled
+like a hunted deer to her own apartment, never looking around her in
+the desolate rooms, in fear lest the formless thing that so filled her
+with dread should take visible shape and stare at her from some dim
+recess. But it followed at her heels, dogging her footsteps,
+surrounding her like an atmosphere, and with its hundred arms so
+oppressing her chest and throat, even in the quiet of her own room,
+that it scarcely left space for her heart to beat. How strangely it did
+beat,--so irregularly! now faint, now strong, as only a diseased heart
+can beat! And she opened the book and read her doom,--read the pages
+devoted to diseases of the heart, hastily, feverishly, with little
+comprehension of their meaning, for by this time thought was merged in
+fear, and of course she gave the words a meaning they did not possess,
+in dread of finding what she wanted to know and yet greedily searching
+for it. Yes, it was just as she feared. Not a symptom here described
+that she had not felt. Now it was beyond all doubt, she was lost,--no
+cure was possible,--only delay, and even that, in her present state of
+weakness, was hardly to be hoped. She tossed the book aside, and went
+to the window for air. Damp with rain and close as it was, still it was
+air,--freer and purer than any that she would have in her coffin. Then,
+to be sure, she would need it no more, but it was still delightful to
+breathe, and the thought of lying beneath that close coffin-lid was
+suffocation!
+
+And she was to die soon! Johannes had not been mistaken. It was true.
+And her strength had been failing for a long time. What was she afraid
+of? What was there to fear? The pain that she might suffer? Thousands
+had suffered the same agony, and the hour of her release was perhaps
+closer at hand than she thought. Then she would be strong,--this hope
+should sustain her. She would not falsify, even to herself, the
+declaration that she had made to Johannes scarcely an hour before.
+Fear? What? Annihilation,--to cease to be,--it was not cheering, and
+certainly not sad,--it was simply nothing! It was not annihilation that
+she feared, but a continuation of existence that might be worse than
+death,--the uncertainty whether the soul perished with the body.
+"True," she said to herself, "if our eyes are blinded they are not
+conscious of light, our closed ears cannot hear. Let this physical
+mechanism, that is our means of communication with the exterior world,
+pause in its working, and communication ceases. But suppose thought
+should be independent of this mechanism? Oh! horrible, horrible! why is
+there no proof that it cannot be so? What if memory lives on and there
+are no eyes for seeing, and of course no light,--no ears for hearing,
+and no sound, no body sensitive to touch, no time or space,--nothing
+but eternal night, eternal silence, only informed by the memory of what
+we have seen and heard, and the longing for light, sound, and feeling?"
+
+This was the worst of all,--more dreadful than personal annihilation;
+this was what she feared. Eternal night, eternal silence, and eternal
+solitude! Whose blood would not curdle at the thought, except theirs,
+perhaps, who were weary and worn with existence, or who, looking back
+upon life's long labour well performed, needed not shun an eternity of
+remembrance? But she? She was not weary of the world, she had not yet
+began to enjoy it,--she was not old, she was just beginning to live.
+She had done nothing towards fulfilling her high purposes, nothing that
+she could look back upon with satisfaction. It was too soon,--if she
+must go now, she had nothing to look forward to but an eternity of
+remorse! And how long must she endure this dread before the horrible
+certainty came upon her? "Oh, cruel death!" she moaned, "to assail me
+thus insidiously in his most horrid shape,--of slow, languishing
+disease! If he would only attack me like an assassin, that I might do
+battle with him,--meet me in the shape of some falling fragment of rock
+that I might try to avoid, or in engulfing waves that I could breast
+and strive against,--it would be kinder than to steal upon me thus,
+invisible, impalpable, inevitable! Let me flee across the ocean to the
+farthest ends of the earth, I cannot escape him, I take him with me!
+Let me mount the swiftest steed and be borne wildly over hill and
+valley, I cannot escape him, he will ride with me! Let me climb the
+loftiest Alps,--in vain! in vain! He nestles within me." She fell upon
+her knees. "Oh, omnipotent nature, cruel mother who refusest me
+your bounteous nourishment, have compassion upon me, and save your
+child,--do not give my thought, my life, to annihilation, and its
+garment to decay! Millions breathe and prosper who are not worthy of
+your blessings,--will you thrust out me, your priestess, from your
+grace?" And she lay prostrate, wringing her hands, as if awaiting an
+answer to her entreaty. All around her was silent. There was no pity
+for her. She bethought herself, "Oh, nature is implacable, why should I
+pray to her? she does not hear, she does not think or feel, but sweeps
+me from her path in the blind despotism of her eternal mechanism. Is
+there no hand to aid? no judge of the worth of an existence, to say,
+'Thou art worthy to live, therefore live?' There is, there is! By the
+agony of this hour, I know there must be a higher justice, a Divinity
+other than nature. The spirit that now in dread of death wrestles with
+nature must have another refuge, a loftier destiny than the life of
+this world!" She clasped her hands upon her breast. "Oh, Faith! Faith!
+and if it be so,--if there be a God, what claim can I have upon His
+pity? Could my vain pride sustain me before such a judge? What have I
+done to make me worthy of His compassion? Have I been of any use in the
+world,--conferred happiness upon a single human being, formed one tie
+pleasant to contemplate? Have I not all my life long denied His
+existence, and now, like a coward, do I fly to Him for succour? Can I
+expect aid, and dare to raise my eyes to heaven and seek there what the
+earth denies me? No! I will not deceive myself; there is no pity for
+me,--none in nature, none in mankind, none in God!"
+
+And Faith overwhelmed her with its terrors, for only to the loving
+heart is Faith revealed as Love. To those who have shunned and denied
+it, it comes like an avenging blast. It bore her poor diseased mind
+away upon its wings like a withered leaf from the tree of knowledge,
+and tossed it down into the night of despair.
+
+A cry, "Johannes, come! save me!" burst from Ernestine's lips, and, in
+a vain effort to reach the door, she fell senseless upon the ground.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                               SENTENCED.
+
+
+Leuthold had listened to the conversation between Johannes and
+Ernestine until it reached the point where he saw that Johannes would
+prevail. Several times he wondered whether it might not be best to
+break in upon them and try to give their interview another colour, but
+he reflected that the attempt would be useless with a man of Möllner's
+determination, and that he should only be forced to listen to fresh
+accusations. Then he devised another plan, and determined to make use
+of the opportunity to effect his own escape. Convinced now that his
+game was lost, he gathered together the contents of his strong
+box, and wrote a few lines to Ernestine that might be found upon his
+writing-table when his absence was discovered. They ran thus:
+
+
+"I have listened to your conversation, and have heard the unfortunate
+turn for me that it has taken. I can no longer cherish any hope, and
+all that I can do is to outwit this fellow and escape while he is with
+you. I take with me whatever of money there is in the house, to defray
+the expenses of my journey. I cannot wait until Möllner has gone to ask
+you for it, for he would stand guard at the door again, and I should
+never escape from his clutches. My life, and my child's future
+existence, are at stake. I cannot delay. If you should still decide to
+leave with me to-day, you will find me at the railroad-station. There
+are still two hours before the departure of the train. If you remain, I
+will send you the money for the journey as soon as I can. Farewell,
+and, I hope, _au revoir_."
+
+
+Having written these lines, he slipped out to the stables, had the
+horses put into the carriage, and drove to the station. In two hours
+his fate would be decided! Once off in the train, and he was safe!
+
+The time spent by Ernestine in mortal struggle with her doubts and
+reawakening faith was no less a time of torture to him who was the
+cause of all her woe. Any one who has waited a couple of hours for the
+arrival of a railroad-train at some insignificant station knows the
+meaning of the word "patience." To stand about upon a desolate
+platform, stamping your feet to keep them warm, now peering forward to
+look along the endless level road, in hopes of discovering the red
+spark in the distance, then walking up and down the narrow space again,
+and interrogating the sleepy superintendent as often as you think his
+patience will permit, as to whether the train will not soon arrive, and
+always hearing the same answer, "It will soon be here now,"--an
+assertion which the official himself does not believe,--then, for a
+change, to wander into the dreary refreshment-room, with its eternal
+leathery sandwiches and its faded waiter-girls, who reward you with
+such an offensive want of interest because you are not sufficiently
+exhausted by a long journey to be brought down to the point of
+purchasing any of their stale provisions,--to look at the clock every
+ten minutes, under the full conviction that at least half an hour must
+have elapsed since you looked last,--and finally, when, stupefied with
+fatigue and dully resigned to waiting, you have sunk upon a seat, to be
+roused with a start by the shrill whistle of the locomotive, causing
+you hastily to collect your seven bundles and rush out, only to be
+stopped by the station-porter, because this is not the train you want,
+but one that passes before your train,--all these are the miseries of
+human life at a railroad-station that every one is familiar with. But
+for him who is waiting for the iron steed to save him from pursuit and
+death, they become the most terrible tortures that malicious demons can
+devise.
+
+Leuthold experienced them to the utmost, with the added anxiety of
+watching in two different directions,--in that whence the train was to
+approach, and in that whence he himself had come, and where the avenger
+might now be upon his track. Thus he passed two hours upon a mental
+rack--and when at last the glittering point appeared upon the horizon,
+and, coming nearer and nearer, the train swept up before the station,
+he thought he should fall senseless at the sound of the whistle that
+rung in his ears. With all the strength that he was master of, he
+mounted the high steps of the car, and the black, red-eyed, guardian
+angel of thieves and murderers spread abroad its smoky pinions and
+steamed away with him into the night.
+
+Safety seemed assured. Upon the iron path, along which he was carried
+with such fiery speed, no pursuit could overtake him, except through
+the electric spark,--that might outstrip him and cause his arrest at
+some other station. But this fear did not trouble him greatly, for no
+one knew whither he had fled. To baffle pursuit, he had purchased a
+ticket for a distant town on the left bank of the Rhine while he
+intended going directly to Hamburg, first stopping at Hanover to take
+his daughter from her boarding-school.
+
+It was a cold, disagreeable night. Overpowered by fatigue, he fell
+asleep once or twice. He dreamed he was in the cabin of a vessel upon
+the ocean,--once more he breathed freely--his fears were at an end. And
+as we are apt to say, when some danger is past, "Now we are on dry land
+again," he, on the contrary, exulted in being on the water. But
+suddenly the cruel guard shouted in at the door his monotonous "Five
+minutes for refreshment!" and recalled him to the consciousness that he
+was still on the land, on the land where for him there was no real
+safety. Thus the night passed between waking and sleeping. The other
+travellers looked compassionately, by the flickering light of the
+car-lamp, at the pale, beardless man leaning back so wearily in the
+corner, and thought he must be very ill.
+
+At last the dawn flushed the horizon, and revealed the uninteresting
+level landscape. The usual beverage was offered at all the
+stopping-places, and drank for coffee by the chilly travellers, who,
+reduced to a state of physical and mental weakness, made no complaints,
+only murmured, "At least it is something warm!"
+
+An old lady, who had got into the car during the night, and, seated by
+Leuthold, fairly drank herself through the whole journey, was greatly
+troubled by the presence of the pale man who appeared impervious to
+earthly needs and sat perfectly motionless in his corner. What kind of
+a man could this be, who never stirred, never took any refreshment,
+never smoked, never spoke, not even to answer the usual question,
+"Where are we now?" which is almost sure to open a conversation?
+Nothing makes friends more speedily than common discomfort in
+travelling at night. All the other travellers in the car had grown
+confidential,--had stretched themselves, and told whether and how they
+had slept. Leuthold alone was as if deaf and dumb. Of course the others
+leagued against him. They watched him curiously, and made whispered
+remarks upon his appearance. At last he grew very uncomfortable. The
+restlessness of the old lady by his side tormented him, she was
+perpetually burying him beneath her huge fur cloak, which, she informed
+him, she had brought into the car with her because it would not go into
+her trunk, and now it had turned out quite useful--who would have
+thought a September night would be so cool? Still, she must take it
+off, lest she should take cold, and she disentangled herself from the
+voluminous garment, almost smothering Leuthold in the process. The
+other gentlemen smilingly assisted her, and Leuthold extricated himself
+impatiently. The cloak was at last, with considerable pains, secured in
+the place made for portmanteaus on one side of the car, during which
+process the towers of the capital, looming in the light of morning,
+were approached unperceived. The pains had been fruitless, for the
+guard opened the door with the words that would release Leuthold,
+"Tickets for Hanover, gentlemen!"
+
+"Oh, good gracious I are we there already?" cried the old lady,
+rummaging her pockets for her ticket, which Leuthold fortunately picked
+up from the floor and handed to her.
+
+Appeased by his courtesy, she asked him if he too was going to get out
+at Hanover, and, upon his answering by a brief "Yes," she informed him,
+to his horror, that she was going to take her youngest daughter from
+the boarding-school there, to establish her as companion with a lady in
+Copenhagen. She had a hard journey before her, for she should continue
+it that very night.
+
+Therefore he determined not to take the night train for Hamburg, as he
+had at first intended, since then he would have to travel the long road
+thither from Hanover in company with this officious old gossip and her
+daughter. He could not avoid them, as the daughter was in the same
+boarding-school with Gretchen, and probably one of her friends. It was
+incumbent upon him to have no companions to whom he might become known
+and who could thus afford intelligence to the authorities concerning
+his route. Great as was the danger in delay, this peril was still
+greater. He must choose the lesser evil, and lose a day.
+
+The train stopped. The old lady emerged from the car, like a mole from
+the earth, and was greeted with a joyful exclamation from her daughter,
+who was waiting for her at the station.
+
+Leuthold threw himself into a droschky, and drove to a hotel, whence he
+dispatched a few lines to his daughter, requesting her to come to him.
+
+A long half-hour ensued. What would the daughter be whom he had not
+seen for seven years? Was she what she seemed in her letters? If she
+were, how should he meet her and gaze into her innocent eyes?
+
+There was a gentle knock at the door. "Come in," he cried eagerly, and
+there entered a creature so lovely in her budding maidenhood that
+Leuthold could only open his arms to her in mute delight.
+
+The girl stood for one moment timidly upon the threshold, and then
+threw herself upon her father's breast with a cry of joy,--a cry in
+which all the home-sickness of years was dissolved in the rapture of
+reunion. Closer and closer each clasped the other,--neither could utter
+a word. The child wept tears of joy in her father's arms, and bitter
+drops fell from Leuthold's eyes upon the head that he pressed to his
+breast as if this happiness were to be his only for a few minutes.
+
+"Father, let me look at you," Gretchen said at last, extricating
+herself from his embrace. And she put her hands upon either side of his
+head, and gazed into his eyes with the clear, frank glance of
+innocence. He bore her look as he would have borne to look at the sun:
+it seemed to him that it must blind him, and that he should never be
+able to raise his eyelids again.
+
+"Father dear, I can see how you have laboured and suffered," said
+Gretchen sadly. "It was high time for you to allow yourself a little
+relaxation. Ah, how good it is of you to come to me,--to me!" And her
+emotion found vent in kisses. "But the surprise!" she cried with a long
+breath, "the surprise! I could hardly believe my eyes when your note
+was handed to me. 'My father's hand,' I thought, 'and from here?' I
+opened the note and read,--and read,--in distinct letters, that my
+father was really here. I gave such a cry of delight that every one
+came running to know what was the matter. I was just out of bed, and
+would gladly have run to you in my dressing-gown! Oh, heavens! I could
+scarcely dress myself--everything went wrong. I should never have got
+through if the Fräulein had not helped me,--I was in such a hurry!" And
+she laughed, and cried, and threw her arms around her father again, as
+if she feared he might vanish from her sight. "Ah, father, what shall I
+call you? My own darling father, is this really you? Are you going to
+stay with me now for a while? Are you half as glad to see me as I am to
+see you?"
+
+Thus the innocent, joyous creature overwhelmed him with love and
+caresses, and he, lost as he was, heard his condemnation in every one
+of her tender words.
+
+Could this angel ever descend from her upper sphere to a knowledge of
+her father's crime? Could her pure soul ever be stained with thoughts
+of sin, of which as yet she had no idea, and learn to despise, as a
+criminal, him whom she now held dearest in the world?
+
+But this was not all that he feared. What if his disgrace were to be
+visited upon his child? What if this young bud should be buried beneath
+the ruins of his shattered existence? Who would have anything to do
+with the daughter of a criminal?
+
+"Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and
+fourth generation!" These words, hitherto only empty sounds to him,
+haunted his memory in terrible distinctness. They perfectly expressed
+the dread that possessed him.
+
+"Father, how silent you are!" said Gretchen timidly.
+
+"Oh, my child,--my life! I can do nothing but look at you and delight
+in you! Your loveliness is like a revelation to me from on high! I have
+become a new man since I know myself the father of such a child! I
+cannot jest and laugh,--my joy is too deep! So let me be silent, and,
+believe me, the graver I am, the more I love you."
+
+Gretchen instantly understood and sympathized with her father's mood.
+"You are right,--we do not jest and laugh in church, and yet I am so
+filled there with gratitude for God's kindness to me! How I thank Him
+now for this moment! I have prayed Him for so many years to send you to
+me, and now my prayer is answered,--you are here. His way is always the
+best. He has not sent you before, because I was not old enough to
+appreciate this happiness." Leuthold had seated himself by this time,
+and she stood beside him and pillowed his head upon her breast. "You
+are worn out, father dear. You look so sad. But now you are mine, and I
+will tend you and cherish you until you forget all your care and
+anxiety. Oh that Ernestine,--I will not wish her ill, but would she
+only give back to me every smile that she has stolen from you,--to me,
+who have nothing but your smile in this world!" She imprinted upon his
+forehead a kiss that burned there like a coal of fire.
+
+"We will not speak of Ernestine now, my child," said Leuthold. "Let her
+be what she is. We will talk of her by-and-by. Lately she has not been
+so hard to control, and has often spoken of you affectionately. I think
+she will shortly marry, and then she will be gentler, for love always
+ennobles. She has not quite decided as to her future course yet, but I
+think she will marry. At all events, she will take care of you if
+anything should happen to me. Yes, she will,--I am sure of it."
+
+"Father," cried Gretchen in alarm, "how can you talk so? What could
+happen to you?"
+
+"Why, my child, I might die suddenly. We must be prepared for
+everything, the future is in God's hand."
+
+Gretchen knelt down beside him, and pressed her rosy lips upon his
+slender hand. "Father dear, why cast a shadow upon this happy hour?
+Just as I have found you, must I think of losing you? Oh, my Heavenly
+Father cannot be so cruel! You are in His hand, and He who has brought
+you to me will let me keep you."
+
+She laid her head upon his knee with childlike tenderness, and was
+silent.
+
+"Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children" rang again in the
+ears of the happy and yet miserable father. Thus several hours passed,
+amid the girl's loving talk and laughing jests, until at last, at noon,
+she sprang up and declared she must go home to dinner. Leuthold would
+not let her go. He said they would not expect her at the school,--they
+would know she would stay with her father. And so they dined together,
+for the first time after so many years. But to Leuthold the meal was
+like the last before his execution.
+
+After dinner he went to see the governess of the Institute, and asked
+her to allow Gretchen to take a pleasure-trip of a few weeks with
+him,--a request that was readily granted, although madame declared that
+she could not tell how she should do without Gretchen so long. "For I
+assure you," said she, "that Gretchen has richly rewarded us for our
+trouble. When she really leaves me, she will carry a large piece of my
+heart with her."
+
+"Oh, how can I thank you?" cried Gretchen, throwing herself into her
+kind friend's arms.
+
+Leuthold was deeply troubled. Should he snatch this child from the soil
+into which she had struck root so securely, and where she had blossomed
+so fairly in the sunshine of peace and good will? And yet could he
+leave her here to lose her forever? If justice should pursue him to
+America, he never could send for his daughter without betraying his
+place of refuge. She was his child. He had a sacred claim upon her,
+and, since he had seen her again, was less able than ever to do without
+her. She should share his fate.
+
+While he was in the parlour of the Institute, the old lady who had been
+his travelling companion, and who had passed the whole day with her
+daughter, entered, and was charmed to meet him again, only regretting
+that they were not to continue their journey together that evening.
+
+Madame invited him to return to tea,--an invitation that he could not
+refuse,--and he left the house for awhile for a walk with Gretchen. The
+girl's delight knew no bounds when she found herself promenading the
+streets upon her father's arm. She had on her prettiest bonnet and her
+best dress,--she wished to be a credit to her father and to please him,
+and she entirely succeeded. She was charming. Leuthold regarded her
+with increasing admiration, and his busy mind began to weave fresh
+plans for the future out of her brown hair and long eyelashes. The
+world stood open for this angel, might she not pass scathless through
+it with a father who had been proscribed? Who could withstand those
+half-laughing, half-pensive gazelle-eyes, and those pouting lips;
+pleading for a father?
+
+As she walked beside him thus, her elastic form lightly supported upon
+his arm, prattling on with all the grace of a nature full of sense and
+sensibility, he too began to smile and to revive. He might be most
+wretched as a man, but he was greatly to be envied as a father.
+
+Gretchen interrupted his reverie. "Father," she said in a low voice,
+"when I was a little child, you never liked to have me speak of my
+mother. But I want very much to know what became of her after she
+married that head-waiter. Will you tell me to-day?"
+
+"I can tell you nothing,--I know nothing of her since she left Marburg,
+after her father's death. At the time of the divorce she sent me the
+sum that she was to contribute to the expenses of your education, and
+her coarse husband permitted no further correspondence between us. He
+sent back to me unopened every letter in which I tried to arrange
+matters more methodically. I learned through a third person that she
+had left Marburg. I do not know where she is living now."
+
+Gretchen shook her head and said nothing.
+
+"I look like you, father, do I not?" she asked anxiously. She did not
+want to resemble her faithless mother in anything.
+
+"You inherit her beauty, refined and ennobled, and my way of thinking
+and feeling."
+
+Gretchen nestled close to his side. "I would like to grow more like you
+every day."
+
+"God forbid!" Leuthold thought to himself, in the full consciousness of
+what he was, as he turned to go back to the Institute. If he could only
+have thus retraced his steps in the path of life!
+
+The evening passed more slowly than if he had been alone with Gretchen,
+although he was delighted by fresh proofs of her ability and progress.
+He was especially surprised by her artistic talent,--her drawings and
+sketches in colour. She had not exaggerated when she wrote to him that
+she was as entirely fitted as a girl could be to earn her own
+livelihood. He was perfectly satisfied upon that point. And as he lay
+down to rest at night, a sense of relief filled his mind greater than
+any he had felt for a long time, and it soothed him to repose.
+
+The next morning Gretchen heard, to her surprise, that her kind father
+desired to give her a glimpse of the ocean. He would wait until they
+were on board of the steamer, he thought, before he told her of his
+real plans. They took the early train for Hamburg, and arrived there
+towards evening. Leuthold thought it advisable to go directly to a
+large hotel, where an individual would not excite as much observation
+as in a smaller house. He selected one of the most splendid hotels in
+the gayest street in Hamburg.
+
+Gretchen was enchanted with the sight of this northern Venice. The
+extensive basin of the Alster lay before them, framed in hundreds of
+bright lights, on its bank the brilliantly illuminated Alster Pavilion,
+while the rippling waves reflected the moon's rays in a long path of
+shining silver. Like pictures in a magic lantern, the gondolas glided
+hither and thither, and the fresh sea-breeze wafted the notes of gay
+music from the other side. The waves of the sea of light and of sound
+burst in harmony upon Gretchen's eyes and ears, and made her fairly
+giddy with delight. She could almost believe that the Nixies, scared
+away to their depths during the day by the passing to and fro upon the
+waters of so much life and vivacity, were now beginning to sport there
+in the moonlight, playing around the skiff's and singing their enticing
+strains. And when she turned her eyes to the shore, bordered by palaces
+and crowded with restless throngs of pedestrians and gay equipages,
+presenting a scene of reality to counteract the dreamy impression
+produced by the expanse of water, the world seemed to the child a
+garden of enchantment, and her father the mighty magician reigning over
+it, who had brought her hither to enjoy its splendours. She threw her
+arms around him and kissed his hands, and could not thank him enough
+for giving her such new delight.
+
+The carriage stopped at the entrance of the magnificent hotel, and the
+attendants came running to offer their services. The head-waiter stood
+in the doorway, ready to receive the new arrivals. Leuthold helped out
+Gretchen and handed over the baggage to a servant. As he ascended the
+steps, he glanced for the first time at the dignified and trim deputy
+of the host. He started, and the man too was evidently startled. Each
+seemed familiar to the other; one moment of reflection, and the
+recognition was mutual. Leuthold held fast by Gretchen, or he would
+have staggered. There stood the headwaiter of his father-in-law's
+inn,--Bertha's husband.
+
+They exchanged a hostile glance of recognition. Then the man cried with
+a perfectly unconcerned air, "Louis, show Dr. Gleissert and his
+daughter to Nos. 42 and 43."
+
+It seemed to Leuthold that the servant smiled at the mention of his
+name, and that he exchanged a significant glance with his chief. But
+this was probably only an illusion of his excited fancy. He hesitated
+whether it would not be better to go to another hotel. But that would
+look like flight,--he had been recognized, and, if the man chose to
+pursue him, he could follow him to any inn in Hamburg.
+
+His enemy stood aside with a contemptuous obeisance, and Leuthold
+followed his guide up to the fourth story. "Have you no room in a lower
+story?" he asked.
+
+"Very sorry, sir," replied the servant with a smile, "they are all
+occupied--you have a very good view here of the river."
+
+Leuthold was silent. He seemed to have fallen into a trap. How had he
+come to choose in all this wide city the very house where dwelt his
+worst enemy? How did the fellow come here?
+
+The servant Louis opened a charming room, looking out upon the water,
+and Gretchen could not suppress an exclamation of delight as she looked
+down from such a height upon all the beauty below them. It seemed like
+heaven to her. Louis lighted the candles, and awaited further orders.
+
+"How long has Herr Meyer been head-waiter here?" Leuthold asked as if
+incidentally.
+
+"For about a year," Louis replied, arranging his napkin upon his arm.
+"He is a relative of the proprietor of this house, who, when his only
+son died, sent for Herr Meyer, that the business might not pass into
+strange hands."
+
+"Indeed--then will Herr Meyer succeed him?"
+
+"I believe so,--yes, sir."
+
+Leuthold walked to and fro upon the soft carpet.
+
+"Will you have supper, sir?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you go down to the dining-hall, sir?"
+
+"No, I had rather not mount those four flights of stairs again. Bring
+our supper here, if you please."
+
+"Very well, sir, I will get you the bill of fare instantly."
+
+"Here--stop a moment----"
+
+"What do you wish, sir?"
+
+"Bring me up a couple of newspapers at the same time."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+As the door closed behind the man, Gretchen turned round from the
+window, where she had been standing with clasped hands. "Father," said
+she, "I am fairly dazzled with all that I see. I never was so happy in
+my life before. But, in the midst of it all, I never forget whom I have
+to thank for all this pleasure." And she knelt upon the carpet and laid
+her head upon the lap of her father, who had flung himself exhausted
+into a chair. "Do not you too, father, feel easy and free up here in
+the pure, clear air, with this lovely view of the shining water?"
+
+"Oh, yes, dear child," said Leuthold, his breast filled the while with
+deadly forebodings.
+
+Gretchen sprang up again, and took two or three deep breaths. "Oh," she
+cried, running to the window again, "it seems to me that I have been
+thirsty all my life, and am now drinking deep refreshing draughts in
+looking at those rolling waves." She leaned her fair forehead against
+the window-frame, and eagerly inhaled the fresh breeze that blew into
+the room from the Alster. "How happy those are who are at home upon two
+elements," she continued, "land and water! We, poor land-rats, must
+cling to the soil. Think of inhabiting all four of the elements, now
+working and walking upon the earth, then soaring aloft into the air,
+now floating dreamily upon the waves, or dancing in the ardent glow of
+fire,--would not that be glorious?"
+
+"Then you would be man, fish, bird, and salamander all at once," said
+Leuthold, smiling in surprise at the girl's earnest tone. "Well, well,
+it might be all very delightful at sixteen, but a man as aged as your
+old father is thankful if he can live respectably upon the earth only."
+
+"My old father!" laughed Gretchen, hastening to his side again--"you
+darling papa, how can you call yourself aged? Come with me to the
+window, the prospect there will make you twenty years younger." She
+drew him towards it. "It is very strange, I think, but certainly a new
+revelation of beauty should make the old younger, and the young older.
+It is a new experience for the young, and experience always makes us
+mature. It is a memory for the old, for they are sure to have seen
+something of the kind in previous years, and it carries them back to
+the earlier and youthful sensations that it first awakened in them.
+Such a memory should lighten the soul of ten years at least."
+
+Leuthold looked at his daughter with unfeigned surprise. "Child, where
+did you learn all that?"
+
+"Why, out of some book that I have read, I suppose," said Gretchen
+modestly. "One always remembers something, you know."
+
+"Blessed be the day that gave you to me,--you are all that I have."
+
+There was a knock at the door, and the servant entered with the bill of
+fare and the newspapers.
+
+"Excuse me, sir, for keeping you waiting. I had to go to Madame for
+to-day's paper."
+
+"No matter," said Leuthold, almost gaily. His talk with his daughter
+had done him good.
+
+He ordered a little supper, and, when the man left the room, seated
+himself on a sofa and began to read.
+
+Gretchen took her work,--she was just at the age when affection finds
+instant pleasure in embroidering or crocheting some article for the
+beloved object. So she sat and sewed diligently upon a letter-case that
+she was embroidering for her father while he read. Now and then she
+turned and looked out of the window, to be sure that all the splendour
+there had not vanished.
+
+Suddenly she was startled by a profound sigh from her father, and,
+looking up, she saw him sitting pale as ashes, staring at the paper
+that had fallen from his hands. In an instant he sprang to his feet and
+walked up and down the room in mute despair.
+
+"What is the matter, dear, dear father? what is it?" she asked in
+alarm, but, receiving no reply, she picked up the newspaper, to see if
+she could discover from it what had caused his agitation. She read
+unobserved by him--he was leaning out of the window for air--read what
+seemed to her a strange tongue, to be deciphered only in her heart's
+blood. It was a telegraphic order from the magistrate of W----. "Dr.
+Leuthold Gleissert, former Professor in Pr--, is charged with having
+appropriated, by means of forgery, and expended upon his own account,
+the property, amounting to upwards of ninety thousand thalers, of his
+ward Ernestine von Hartwich, of Hochstetten, and also of having robbed
+the mail. You are desired to arrest and detain him." A personal
+description of him followed, but Gretchen had read enough. "Father!"
+she screamed, "father! father!" And, as if in these three words she had
+summed up all there was to say, she fell forward with her face upon the
+floor, as though never to raise it again.
+
+There stood the guilty man, forced to behold his child crushed
+beneath the ruins of his shattered existence. He did not venture to
+touch the sacred form extended before him in anguish. He looked down
+upon her like one almost bereft of reason. God had visited his sin
+upon him, probing the only place in his heart sensitive to human
+feeling--his punishment lay in the sight of his child's agony without
+the power to relieve it.
+
+Suddenly Gretchen raised her head and looked at him with those clear,
+conscious eyes whose gaze he had always endured with difficulty, and
+before which his own eyes now drooped instantly. "It is not true--it
+cannot be! Father, you are innocent--you cannot have done this thing!"
+
+"For God's sake, Gretchen, do not speak so loud," Leuthold entreated.
+
+"You tremble--you will not look at me. Father, if you have thus
+burdened your soul, I cannot be your judge--I will be your conscience.
+I will not let you enjoy a single hour of rest or sleep until you have
+restored what does not belong to you. I will die of hunger before your
+eyes, rather than taste a morsel that is not honestly earned. But what
+am I saying? I am beside myself! It is not possible!--not possible!
+Relieve me from my misery by one word. My soul is in darkness, cast one
+ray of light into it." She clasped his knees imploringly. "Father,
+swear to me that you are innocent----"
+
+"My child----"
+
+She interrupted him. "No, no oath, no asseveration--there is no need
+between us of any such--only a simple yes or no, and I will believe
+you! Look at me, father,--oh, look at me! Do not speak, do not even say
+yes or no,--let me but look into your eyes, and my doubts will
+disappear."
+
+"Gretchen," whispered Leuthold, trying to extricate himself from her
+clasping arms, "listen to me!"
+
+"No, father, no, I will not let you go. I want no explanation, no
+argument. If you have committed this crime, nothing can extenuate it. I
+will hear nothing, know nothing, but whether you have committed it or
+not." She sought, in childlike eagerness, to meet his eye--she
+unclasped her arms from his knees to seize his hands and cover them
+with kisses, while a flood of tears relieved her heart. "Forgive me,
+forgive me for daring to speak thus to you, a child to a father. Oh,
+God! how unworthy I am of your affection! The false accusation invented
+by evil men could lead me astray, and I dare to ask if you are
+innocent! Forgive me, my kind, patient father--see, I will not ask you
+again, I will not even look inquiringly into your eyes. The touch of
+your hand, this dear, faithful hand, suffices to reassure me and lead
+me back to the knowledge of a daughter's duty." And she laid her face,
+wet with tears, upon his hands, with a touching humility that cut him
+more deeply than any accusations could have done.
+
+"There--that's quite enough!" suddenly said a voice behind them, that
+curdled the blood in Leuthold's veins. "I will teach you a daughter's
+duty!" And from the doorway of the adjoining room Bertha's stout figure
+made its appearance boldly advancing.
+
+"Good God, my mother!" shrieked Gretchen, and she recoiled
+involuntarily.
+
+"Gretel," said the woman, "are you afraid of your mother while you are
+on your knees to that villain?"
+
+Leuthold stepped between her and his child. "Bertha," said he, "it
+seems to me my punishment is sufficient. Surely you need not avenge
+yourself by snatching from me my child's heart,--a heart that you never
+prized, and will never win to yourself. If there is a particle of
+maternal tenderness in your breast, spare, not me, but this innocent
+angel. Do not destroy the most precious possession of a youthful
+heart,--confidence in her father. Bertha, Bertha, you will harm the
+daughter more than the parent! Give heed to your maternal heart, which
+must throb more quickly at sight of this fair flower, and spare me a
+blow that would annihilate her."
+
+Frau Bertha folded her arms, and looked upon Leuthold with exceeding
+disdain. "Oho! now it is your turn to beg. I am no longer rude, clumsy,
+and coarse as a brute, as I was when you drove me off because I was too
+awkward to help you to steal the inheritance."
+
+"Bertha!" cried Leuthold, pointing to Gretchen, whose imploring eyes
+were turning from one parent to the other in increasing distress.
+
+"Yes, yes, she shall hear it all! She shall know what a charming papa
+she has, and that you are not unjustly accused in the papers. Why
+should you stop at such a crime as that, when you would have beggared
+Ernestine as a child, persuading old Hartwich to make you his heir?
+There is nothing that you would not do. I can tell her that,--I, your
+wife, who lived with you for years. And your child shall curse you,
+instead of adoring you as a saint. No one can tell what a fine game you
+might have played, if you had once got off to America with such a
+pretty girl."
+
+At these words Gretchen uttered a loud shriek.
+
+Bertha pitilessly continued, "And just because I have maternal feeling
+enough to try to save my child, I will prevent your evil designs.
+You shall not carry the poor thing away with you to such a life as
+yours,--not while I live!"
+
+"Bertha," cried Leuthold, forgetting all caution, "hush, or mischief
+will be done here!"
+
+"What mischief? Will you try to throttle me, as you did when Hartwich
+made Ernestine his heir instead of you? Only lay a finger on me! There
+is a police-officer outside in the passage, whom my husband placed
+there lest Louis should not be able to serve my fine gentleman with
+sufficient elegance."
+
+"Great God!" gasped Gretchen, staggering as if mortally wounded.
+
+"Is it really so? Could your mean desire for revenge degrade you thus?"
+asked Leuthold, still incredulous.
+
+"It was not I, but my husband, who owes you a grudge because I played
+him false and married you. A gentleman came here this morning with the
+chief of police to search this house, as well as all the other hotels
+in the city, and left orders that if you arrived here he was to be
+informed of it. My husband sent for him, and, for greater security's
+sake, for a police-officer too,--I only wanted to speak to poor Gretel
+beforehand, and take her under my protection when her father was
+arrested." She approached the girl, who fled like some frightened
+animal to the farthest corner of the room.
+
+"Go!" she cried, trembling in every limb. "Do not touch me! You can do
+nothing for me now but kill me, and put an end to the agony you have
+brought upon me."
+
+She burst into a piteous fit of sobbing. No one observed that the door
+had been gently opened, and that a young man was standing upon the
+threshold, regarding the unfortunate girl with the deepest compassion.
+
+"My child," said Leuthold, going timidly up to her, "my child, will you
+not listen to one word from your unworthy father?"
+
+"Do not speak, father. What good can it do? I cannot believe you any
+more,--cannot save you,--cannot, although I would so gladly do
+it,--wash away your guilt, even with my heart's blood. I can only weep
+for you."
+
+"Forgive one entirely unknown to you for intruding upon such grief,"
+the stranger now said, in a voice trembling with pity. "I am compelled
+by cruel circumstances to appear as an enemy, when I would gladly act
+the part of a friend and comforter." He turned to Bertha. "May I
+entreat you to leave us a few minutes alone?"
+
+She went out grumbling.
+
+"Herr Gleissert," he continued, "my name is Hilsborn. Do not start. I
+am not come to avenge my dead father. His sainted spirit would disdain
+revenge. He forgave you freely while he lived. I come in place of my
+friend Möllner, who is detained by the dangerous illness of your niece,
+to vindicate the rights of Fräulein Ernestine. We learned from Frau
+Willmers that you had sent your effects to Hamburg _poste-restante_
+several days ago, and that you would of course be obliged to come
+hither to reclaim them. Möllner requested me to pursue you without
+delay, and, without one thought of personal revenge, I consented to
+assist my friend in reinstating your unfortunate ward in her rights. I
+little knew what my acceptance of this duty would cost me, for the few
+minutes that I lingered on that threshold taught me that my task is not
+alone to hand you over to justice, but to deprive a daughter of her
+father."
+
+"You shame me, sir, by such kindness at a moment when a less
+magnanimous man would have believed himself justified in heaping me
+with insult. I am the more grateful to you since you, of all others,
+have most reason to hate me. Your humanity, under these sad
+circumstances, relieves me with regard to the fate of my unfortunate
+child, for it emboldens me to hope that you will extend your chivalrous
+kindness to her also."
+
+"Rely upon it, I will do so," Hilsborn assured him.
+
+"And let me hope, my child, that you will not reject the noble
+protection thus offered you. Herr Hilsborn, remember, has done your
+father no wrong,--he has only, in his natural desire for justice, lent
+his aid to the hand that is pursuing me. I presume," continued he,
+turning to Hilsborn, "that you have provided for my immediate arrest?"
+
+"Yes, Herr Gleissert," said Hilsborn gently, "the superintendent of the
+hotel has assisted me to do so."
+
+"Then I will place no unnecessary obstacles in your way. I shall submit
+to the investigation with a good conscience."
+
+Hilsborn laid his hand lightly upon Leuthold's arm. "Herr Gleissert, do
+not reject advice that is well meant." He spoke in a whisper, that
+Gretchen, who was listening with feverish eagerness, might not hear
+what he said.
+
+"Well?" asked Leuthold.
+
+"Do not attempt denial, you will only weaken your case. The proofs of
+your crime are most decisive."
+
+"How so?" asked Leuthold quietly, believing that he had destroyed every
+scrap of paper that could criminate him.
+
+"On the evening of your flight, a letter was received from a former
+maid of Fräulein Hartwich's, who travelled in Italy with you, demanding
+immediate payment of her yearly stipend, for which she had written
+several times in vain. She reminds you, Herr Gleissert, of what she has
+done for you,--how she worked sometimes all night long, trying to
+imitate Fräulein von Hartwich's signature, that she might be able to
+counterfeit her successfully before the notary. In short, the letter
+proves beyond a doubt that you deceived the notary by substituting the
+person as well as the signature of the maid for your ward's, that the
+deed might be complete by which the Orphans' Court was induced to
+resign the estate in its charge."
+
+Leuthold stood before the young man pale and mute. Hilsborn saw the
+terrible agony of his soul.
+
+"I do not tell you this to humiliate you or to increase your pain, but
+only to warn you," he continued, "that you may not lose any time by a
+false plan of defence, and perhaps thereby deprive yourself of the
+sympathy sure to await a man of your culture who makes frank and
+remorseful confession of his guilt."
+
+Leuthold's lips quivered at these well-meant words. "Have steps been
+taken to secure the person of the maid?" he inquired, in the tone in
+which he would have asked, "How long have I to live?"
+
+"Professor Möllner telegraphed immediately to O----, the girl's present
+place of abode, and just before I left him he received intelligence
+that she had been placed under arrest. The notary also has been
+summoned. Be assured that, as your arrest has been conducted with the
+greatest foresight, no measures will be neglected to insure your
+conviction. The only course left for you is to endeavour to secure the
+sympathies of the jury."
+
+"I thank you!" said Leuthold.
+
+Gretchen had been standing leaning against the window-frame, and had
+understood more than Hilsborn had intended that she should. The waters
+of the Alster were still rolling below her, the lights were sparkling,
+and, in the terrible silence that now ensued, the music of the waltzes
+in the pavilion could be plainly heard. Was it possible that there was
+no change outside, while she felt as if the world were crumbling in
+pieces around her?
+
+Again the door opened, and several figures appeared. Everything swam
+before Gretchen's eyes, her heart beat as though every throb were its
+last. An official entered, "Excuse me, sir," he said to Hilsborn, "I
+cannot wait any longer."
+
+Leuthold looked towards the door. Two police-officers were standing
+outside, and Bertha with her husband. And who were those? Other figures
+were constantly appearing in the brilliantly lighted hall, inmates of
+the house, eager to witness the arrest. And was he to be led through
+all that gaping, staring crowd? He, who, with all his crimes, had
+always preserved appearances,--was he at last to be as it were held up
+to public contempt, dragged through the lighted passages and down the
+staircases by policemen, like a common thief? Of course there would be
+an eager crowd below, and another upon his arrival at N--. His only
+road now lay through long rows of curious faces, dragged from
+examination to examination, from disgrace to disgrace,--he, a man who
+had always preserved an outward respectability,--until he should end
+either in a convict's coat or the strait-jacket of a madman! The time
+for reflection was over. He turned a little, only a very little, aside,
+and drew a folded paper from his pocket,--it did not take a moment, no
+one observed the motion. And what else? it was so easy to put his hand
+to his lips and swallow the powder that the paper contained, far easier
+than to pass through that brilliant hall, through that murmuring,
+staring mob, to the courtroom, and thence to a jail! Only an
+instant,--it was done. It tasted bitter, and he drank a glass of water
+to destroy the taste upon his tongue. Then he stepped up to Gretchen,
+who was upon her knees, her face buried in her hands. "Gretchen," he
+said almost inaudibly, "forgive your unhappy father!"
+
+"Father? Almighty God, I have no father!" burst from the lips of his
+tortured child.
+
+Leuthold looked at her with dim eyes. "I am condemned!" was all he
+could say.
+
+Then he turned to the officials. "Gentlemen, at such a moment as this,
+it is surely natural for a father to provide for the future of those
+whom he may leave behind him. I am ill, and may die at any moment. In
+case of my demise, therefore, I appoint, before all these witnesses,
+Herr Professor Hilsborn my daughter's guardian, as I hold her mother,
+who survives me, entirely unfit in every respect to be her guide and
+protector. The fact of her having forsaken her daughter at a tender
+age, and never troubling herself to inquire concerning her afterwards,
+will prove the justice of what I say. I pray you, gentlemen, to attest
+the validity of this my last will, when the hour for doing so arrives.
+Observe that I am at present in full possession of my mental
+faculties."
+
+The by-standers looked at him in amazement. Bertha would have spoken,
+but her husband restrained her.
+
+The officer said, coldly but politely, "Your directions shall, if
+necessary, receive due attention. Rely upon it."
+
+"You have no objections to make?" Leuthold asked Hilsborn.
+
+"Your wish shall be sacred to me," the young man assured him.
+
+"And now, sir, I beg for one great favour," Leuthold whispered to the
+officer. "Grant me one half-hour's delay."
+
+"I am sorry, but I have waited too long already."
+
+"Only one-half hour, sir, for the love of Heaven,--a quarter of an
+hour!" Leuthold pleaded. The poison was beginning to work. His knees
+trembled, his gray eyes were glassy in their sockets, his features grew
+rigid.
+
+"Not a minute longer!" the official replied impatiently, and beckoned
+to the police-officers.
+
+"Have some pity!" the tortured man gasped out to Hilsborn. "I have
+taken poison. For humanity's sake, induce him to let me die here with
+my child."
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed Hilsborn. "Let instant aid----"
+
+Leuthold clutched his arm, and with a ghastly smile whispered, "It will
+be of no use, my friend!"
+
+Hilsborn was horror-struck. "Sir," he said, "I unite my entreaties to
+those of Herr Gleissert. Allow him to remain here only until I have
+spoken with your chief."
+
+"If the arrest is an unjust one, it will soon be at an end. I have
+nothing to do with that. I must obey orders."
+
+Hilsborn whispered a few words in his ear, but he shrugged his
+shoulders. "Any man could say that. We will stop at a physician's as we
+drive past. That is not contrary to orders. We must go!" The policemen
+entered.
+
+Hilsborn whispered to Leuthold, "I will bring you an antidote. I hope,
+for your child's sake, that you will take it. God have mercy on you!"
+
+Leuthold would have replied, but a spasm prevented him from uttering a
+word.
+
+Hilsborn saw that the poison had already infected the blood, and that
+all aid would come too late. Nevertheless, he would do what he could.
+In passing, he lightly touched Gretchen's shoulder. "Fräulein
+Gleissert, your father is going. Say one word to him."
+
+Gretchen started, as if from a swoon, looked around her, and saw
+Leuthold between the officers. "Father!" she shrieked, and rushed
+towards him. She clasped him in her arms, and pressed kiss after kiss
+upon his blue lips. Her cries wrung the souls of the by-standers, and
+Bertha hurried away, that she might not hear them.
+
+"I take back what I said," Gretchen moaned. "How could I say I had no
+father? Now that I am going to lose you, I feel that I can never
+forsake you!"
+
+Leuthold writhed in agony in her embrace, but he managed to speak once
+more. "My child," he gasped thickly, "if there is a God, may He bless
+you! and when you hear that your father took his own life, remember
+that estate, freedom, honour, were gone past recall, but that by his
+own act he at least avoided a public exposure."
+
+Gretchen gazed at him speechless. She tried to reply, but her lips
+refused her utterance. She only knew that her father was taken from
+her, and that stranger hands loosened her frantic clutch of his
+garments. She heard footsteps retreating, a door closed, and there was
+silence. For a few moments she lost consciousness. But other noises
+roused her from the fainting-fit that had brought her repose from
+grief, and recalled her to herself. Were the footsteps approaching
+again? Yes, they came on to the door of her room. What a strange murmur
+mingled with them! She raised her weary head with a mixture of fear and
+hope.
+
+The door was thrown open as wide as it could go. Four men entered,
+bearing a well-nigh senseless burden. Her father had returned to
+her,--but how? They laid him upon the bed. Gretchen would have thrown
+herself into his arms, but he thrust her from him convulsively, for her
+clasping arms, her loving kiss, were tortures too great to be borne. He
+tried to speak, but in vain. Amidst frightful spasms, alternating with
+utter exhaustion, he breathed his last sigh, and his spirit bore its
+burden of guilt to new, unknown spheres of existence.
+
+He had avoided all "public exposure."
+
+But the only judge that he had acknowledged upon earth,--his
+child,--lay crushed at his feet expiating the crimes of the condemned.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+                              THE ORPHAN.
+
+
+Day was again mirrored brightly in the waters of the Alster, and again
+the streets swarmed with life. The prattle and laughter of children on
+their way to school, the monotonous cries of the street-hawkers, the
+rattle of passing vehicles, were all borne aloft into the quiet room
+where Leuthold had died, and where Gretchen still knelt beside the bed,
+and, by her constantly recurring bursts of grief, showed that the long
+night had not sufficed to exhaust the fountains of her tears. Her head
+lay upon the edge of the bed, and her arms were stretched across the
+empty mattress,--for the host had insisted upon the immediate removal
+from his house of the body of the suicide. But Gretchen could not yet
+be induced to leave the desolate room, the vacant couch. Since she was
+not allowed to follow her father's corpse, she would at least pillow
+her head where he had lain. She repulsed all her mother's advances.
+When everything had been done that the law requires in such terrible
+cases, and the officials had vacated the apartment, she shot the bolt
+of the door behind them, and thanked God that she was alone with her
+misery, alone by her father's death-bed.
+
+What human eye can pierce the depths of a young heart lacerated by such
+anguish? All that goes on in the soul at such moments, when the
+creature wrestles with its Creator, must remain a profound mystery,--a
+mystery known to almost every human being, but never to be revealed, no
+mortal language can declare God's revelations to us in our direst need.
+Experience alone can enlighten us, and those who have lived through
+such a time can only clasp the hand of a fellow-sufferer, and say, "I
+know what it is," and henceforth there is a bond between them that is
+none the less close because it can never be explained.
+
+Thus was it with Gretchen and Hilsborn when the latter's low knock at
+the door aroused the girl from her grief, and she arose from her knees
+and admitted him. She put her hand in the one he held out to her, and
+looked confidingly into his serious blue eyes.
+
+"You never went to bed, dear Fräulein Gleissert," said he. "I can see
+that."
+
+"How could I rest?" she replied. "They would not even let me watch by
+his body. All that I could do was to wake and pray for him here where
+he drew his last breath. How hard it is to have to leave what one has
+loved so dearly, and not to be allowed to cling to it at least until it
+is consigned to the earth! Suppose he were not quite dead. If he should
+stir, no one will be near to fan the spark of life into a flame. If he
+should open his eyes once more and find himself alone, and then die in
+helpless despair----Oh, the thought is madness!"
+
+"I can assure you, Fräulein Gleissert," said Hilsborn quietly, "that
+your father sleeps peacefully. I did what you were not permitted to
+do,--I spent the night by his body."
+
+"Could you do this for the man for whom you could have had no regard?"
+cried Gretchen.
+
+"I did it for you. I could imagine all you felt, and I knew it would be
+some comfort to you this morning to know that I had done it."
+
+"Oh, how can I thank you, sir? I am too childish and insignificant
+to thank you as I ought. My heart is filled with gratitude that will
+not clothe itself in words! You watched by my father from pure
+humanity,--compelled by no duty, no obligation,--only that you might
+soothe the grief of a poor orphan. I cannot express what I feel. You
+must know----" She could go no further. Tears gushed from her eyes. She
+took his hand, and, before he knew what she was doing, had imprinted
+upon it a fervent kiss.
+
+"Fräulein Gleissert!" cried Hilsborn, in great embarrassment. And a
+deep blush overspread his cheeks.
+
+Gretchen never dreamed that she had committed any impropriety,--how
+could she, at such a moment? And Hilsborn knew this, and would not
+shame her by hastily withdrawing his hand. She was still but a child,
+in spite of her blooming maidenhood, and the kiss was prompted by the
+purest impulse of her heart.
+
+"You reward me far more richly than I deserve," he said softly.
+"Although it is long since I suffered the same sorrow, I know what it
+is. Grief for the death of my father never deserts me. Sorrow easily
+unites with sorrow, and you are more to me in your affliction than any
+of the gay, laughter-loving girls of my acquaintance. Let me do what I
+can for you,--it will be done with my whole heart,--and, for your own
+sake, do not give way to grief. Remember,--it is a melancholy
+consolation, nevertheless it is a consolation,--that it is far better
+for him to die before his crime brought its dreadful consequences. His
+home could never again have been among honourable men. What, then,
+would have become of you? Believe me, it is better as it is!"
+
+"Do you think, then, my father does not deserve these tears? I know how
+great his offences were, and that every one is justified in condemning
+him,--every one but his child,--I cannot blame him. Do you think I
+ought not to grieve for him as I should for an honourable father? Ah,
+sir, is it less sad to lose a father thus, just as I was reunited to
+him, to find that he whom I so revered was a criminal, and to have him
+vanish in his sin before I could even breathe a prayer to God for mercy
+upon him? Whatever he may have done, I must mourn for him all the more,
+for he was and always will be my father. And there never was a kinder
+father. Let others curse his memory, I can only mourn for him. If the
+holy words are true, 'With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured
+to you again,' I must give him nothing but love, for he never meted to
+me anything else. Do not despise me. I do not feel his guilt the less,
+although I cannot love him less."
+
+Hilsborn looked down at her with admiration. "How can you suppose that
+I could despise this sacred filial affection? I respect you all the
+more for it. It reveals in you treasures of womanly tenderness! Most
+certainly he who had such a daughter, and knew how unworthy he was of
+her, is doubly to be pitied. I will not try to console you. You have in
+yourself a richer consolation than any that mortal words can give. What
+can such a stranger as I say to you or be to you? I can only stand
+ready to protect and advise you, should you need advice or protection."
+
+"If you will be so kind as to direct my first steps in life, it lies
+all so untried before me, my poor father will bless you from beyond the
+grave."
+
+She paused, startled, for the door opened hastily, and Bertha entered.
+She regarded her daughter with a satisfaction that equalled the
+aversion that she excited in her child. Bertha's beauty had been of a
+kind that endures only for a season and then gradually becomes a
+caricature of its former self. Her fresh colour had turned to purple.
+Her mouth had grown full and sensual, with a drooping under-lip. Her
+sparkling black eyes had receded behind her fat cheeks, and had an
+expression of low cunning. An immense double chin and a round, waddling
+figure added to the coarseness of her appearance. This was the woman
+who stood ready to claim affection from a daughter whose whole
+education had tended to create disgust at her mother's chief
+characteristic--coarseness. What was this woman to her? She had heard
+that she was her mother, but she had never felt it. She had not seen
+her since she was scarcely five years old. She could feel no stirring
+of affection for. She could hardly connect her with the image in her
+mind of her father's faithless wife. While she was thus regarding
+Bertha with aversion, the man entered the room whom she was
+henceforward to consider in the light of a father,--her mother's second
+husband.
+
+Involuntarily Gretchen retreated a step nearer to Hilsborn, as if
+seeking in him a refuge from the pair.
+
+"Well," began Bertha, "if Fräulein Gretel is at home to young
+gentlemen, surely her father and mother----"
+
+"Forgive me," said Gretchen gently but with decision, "my father is
+just dead, and I lost my mother when I was very young. I pray you to
+respect my grief and not mention names so sacred to me."
+
+"Just hear the girl!" exclaimed Bertha. "Instead of thanking God that
+she still has parents to take care of her and not feel her a disgrace,
+she pretends to have no other father than the thief, the----"
+
+"You must not speak thus in Fräulein Gleissert's presence," cried
+Hilsborn indignantly. "Can you not see how you wring her heart?"
+
+"Oh, sir, I thank you," said Gretchen with dignity. She turned to
+Bertha. "Whatever your unfortunate first husband may have been, he was
+my father in the truest sense of the word, and no one can have a second
+father. Just so a mother who has once ceased to be such can never be a
+mother again. Call me false and heartless if you will,--God, who sees
+my heart, knows how it can love."
+
+"This is all one gets for kindness," grumbled Bertha. "Here have I been
+beating my brains half the night to think what I could do for the girl,
+how I could take care of her, and this is all the thanks I get! Well,
+it's no wonder. 'What's bred in the bone will never come out of the
+flesh.'"
+
+"Mammy! mammy! they want you to get out some clean sheets," a
+bullet-headed lad called aloud at the door.
+
+"Come here, Fritz," cried Bertha. "There, look at your sister." And she
+drew the boy towards her, evidently expecting the sight of him to
+produce a deep impression upon Gretchen. "Look, Gretel, this is your
+brother,--doesn't this touch you? We have three more of them. But that
+makes no difference, you shall be the fifth; I want some one to take
+care of the little ones. Only think how fine it is for you to find
+parents and brothers and sisters all at once. They'll take care of
+you." And suddenly a tear rolled down her fat cheek. "For you are my
+child, after all!"
+
+And she took Gretchen's face between her hands and pressed upon it a
+smacking kiss. The girl patiently endured the caress, but when her
+mother released her she stood erect again, like a fair flower upon
+which dust has been cast without robbing it of its fragrance or soiling
+its purity. As the flower differs from the soil whence it springs, this
+child differed from her mother. And as surely as the flower turns from
+the ground to the sun, the girl's pure spirit turned from her mother to
+the light that her education and training had revealed to her.
+
+"Mammy," the boy persisted, plucking Bertha by the skirts, "come,
+hurry!"
+
+"You'll tear my dress, you bad boy!" cried his mother, slapping his
+hand.
+
+The boy screamed. "You're so slow when any one is in a hurry, I had to
+call you."
+
+"Hold your tongue!" his father now interposed. "Leave the room. What
+will your new sister think of you?"
+
+"I don't mind her," said the boy insolently, as he left the room.
+
+Gretchen and Hilsborn exchanged one long look. It was as if they were
+old acquaintances and could understand each other without a word.
+Gretchen shuddered at the thought of living in this family, and,
+besides, she had during the night formed a resolution that she was
+determined to carry out although it should cost her her life.
+
+Her step-father broke the silence. "We shall never come to any
+conclusion in this way. Where's the good in talking? You must be taken
+care of, whether you like us or not. You might at least show some
+gratitude to us for taking any trouble about you." He stroked his
+smooth, oily head as he spoke, and his artistic fingers gave a fresh
+curl to the lock just above his ear. "The case is simply this: My wife
+thinks it her duty to support you. As you may suppose, it comes rather
+heavy upon us with our four children, and it stands to reason that you
+should do a little something for yourself. We will not ask anything
+unsuitable of you, for I can see plainly that you are a young lady of
+education. But, if we are to fulfil the duty of parents towards you, it
+is only fair that we should claim some filial duty from you in return."
+
+He concluded his speech with the bow that he always made in presenting
+travellers with their little account.
+
+"Oh, is that all?" said Gretchen, greatly relieved. "Then do not have
+any anxiety on my account. I renounce all claim to a support, and, in
+the presence of this witness, to any parental duties from you. I ask
+nothing of you, and shall never ask anything of you, but that you will
+allow me to depart without hindrance."
+
+The man looked significantly at Bertha, who clasped her hands in
+amazement. "Do you want to go, then? Why, what will such a child as you
+do without money or friends?"
+
+Here Hilsborn interposed. "You forget that your deceased husband
+appointed me his daughter's guardian, and I assure you solemnly, I have
+never valued my life as I do now that this duty is mine,--a duty that I
+am determined not to give up."
+
+Gretchen looked confidingly at Hilsborn. "You see, I am not without
+friends. I will go with this gentleman. There is but one path for me in
+this world, and that leads me to Ernestine's feet. There is but one
+duty for me,--atonement for my father's sin. I cannot restore to
+Ernestine what has been taken from her,--that I learned from the papers
+yesterday. I can offer her nothing but two strong young arms to work
+for her. The Bible says, 'The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon
+the children,' but I will not wait until they are visited upon me. I
+will blot them out, as far as I may, and make the curse powerless, that
+rests upon my unhappy father's grave. I will do what he had no time to
+do here,--make atonement for his crime." She raised her hands to Bertha
+in entreaty. "Oh, if you are my mother, open your heart to the first
+and last request of your child, and do not take from me the hope of
+obtaining pardon for my father by my labour and suffering!"
+
+And she fell upon her knees before Bertha, who sobbed aloud.
+
+"Ah, Gretel, my child, you are a dear, good girl. How could I ever
+forsake such a true, brave child? I see now how wrong and foolish I
+was. But I will do better. You shall learn to love me again. Only give
+up this silly idea of doing penance for your father. Why should you,
+innocent creature, suffer for his fault? you are not responsible for
+his actions."
+
+"I am his flesh and blood, a part of him,--his honour is mine. The
+curse that strikes him strikes me too. Whatever burdened his conscience
+weighs upon mine. How could I find rest, living or dying, if I did not
+do all that I could to make good what he did that was wrong? If he took
+what was not his, ought I to keep it? Is it not my duty to restore it?
+And, if I cannot do this, should I not try to pay the debt, although I
+can do so in no other way than by constant labour?"
+
+"But tell me what you want to do. Your cousin has nothing more. What
+will you both live upon?" asked Bertha.
+
+"I do not know yet I only know that, thanks to my poor father, I have
+been taught everything to enable me to support myself, and even another
+besides. I only know that I will dedicate my whole future life to
+Ernestine. I long to go to her,--she has suffered most from my father's
+fault."
+
+The head-waiter drew Bertha aside, and whispered to her, "Let her go,
+be thankful that we have not a fifth child to support."
+
+"But, oh, I love the girl so much!" said Bertha.
+
+"That's all very well,--but are we in a condition to take such a charge
+upon ourselves, just for a whim? And do you suppose that, if we force
+her to stay, this spoiled princess will be of the least use to us? She
+would cry from morning until night, instead of working. Let her go wherever
+she chooses. You have done without her long enough not to make such a fuss
+now about having her with you. I should think four children were enough
+for you."
+
+"Yes, but----"
+
+"Hush, now, or we will leave the room," her husband whispered
+emphatically. "I will not burden myself with Dr. Gleissert's daughter
+against her will. Let her go with her new champion, and let us hear no
+more of her!"
+
+"As you choose, then. It is my fault, and I must bear the
+consequences," said Bertha, for the first time with real sorrow.
+
+"Fräulein Gleissert," the man said, turning to Gretchen, who had
+meanwhile been talking in a low tone with Hilsborn, "if you will not
+make any claim upon us hereafter, we are ready now, hard as it is, to
+relinquish our rights in favour of this gentleman, who was appointed
+your guardian by your father."
+
+"I will promise never to do so, sir," replied Gretchen with a long sigh
+of relief. "I am ready to give you all the security I can."
+
+"There is no need of that," replied Herr Meyer politely, with great
+satisfaction. "You know that the giving up of our claims depends upon
+your keeping your promise."
+
+"Yes, I know that."
+
+"Well, then, we will not trouble you further. Probably you would prefer
+settling the account for this room. It is not much,--you have eaten
+nothing."
+
+"Come, that is too mean of you!" Bertha here interposed. "Is my own
+child to pay for the shelter of this roof for one night? No, I will not
+have it. Gretel, do not listen to him,--you shall have something to
+eat, too, before you go. I am not quite such an unnatural mother. And
+now come, Meyer, you ought to be ashamed of playing such a disgraceful
+part."
+
+And half angrily, half good-naturedly, she drew her smart husband from
+the room.
+
+"O God, I thank thee!" cried Gretchen from the depths of her soul.
+Suddenly she paused, and reflected with evident hesitation and
+embarrassment. Hilsborn took her hand.
+
+"Well, my dear little ward, will you not tell me what is troubling
+you?"
+
+Gretchen blushed and still hesitated. At last she conquered herself,
+and confided this grief also to her faithful friend.
+
+"It has just occurred to me that I am not sure that I have money enough
+to pay my travelling expenses. I have something with me that I can
+sell, but if it should not be enough!"
+
+Hilsborn smiled. "Is that all? Oh, never mind that, I have enough for
+both of us."
+
+Gretchen looked mortified. "But I cannot take it from you, certainly
+not."
+
+"What, Gretchen, will you not take it from your guardian? Why, this is
+a guardian's duty. And I will not give it to you, I will only lend it,
+and you can repay me when you are able."
+
+"You will have to wait a long time,--I have so little that I can call
+my own. It will embarrass me very much to be in your debt."
+
+"Gretchen," said the young man earnestly, "do not let us speak of such
+trifles. I transport you to N----, you transport me to heaven. Which
+owes most to the other--you or I?"
+
+Gretchen could not reply. These new, strange words bewildered her. The
+sunlight streaming from them penetrated her heart, crushed by the
+tempest of grief that had swept over it. The blossom opened,--she was
+no longer a child!
+
+She looked down in confusion. Hilsborn too was embarrassed. Neither
+could immediately recover from a certain constraint.
+
+"Will you do me a great favour?" the girl asked at last
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Take me to where my father is lying, and let me bid him farewell once
+more."
+
+"My dear Fräulein Gleissert, I would do so with all my heart, but it
+would take us half an hour to reach the house where he lies, and the
+train starts in three-quarters of an hour. If you will remain here
+another day, I will do what you ask."
+
+"No, oh, no!" cried Gretchen in alarm. "I would not for the world
+trespass any longer upon Herr Meyer's hospitality, or wound my mother's
+new-found affection any further. It is better to go as quickly as
+possible. If my poor father still sees and hears me, he must know that
+I feel the pain of parting from him thus quite as much as if I were
+allowed to weep beside his lifeless body."
+
+"That is right. Better dwell in thought upon the spirit that was all
+affection for you, than linger beside the senseless clay that it
+informed----" He ceased, for Frau Bertha entered with breakfast. She
+had a black dress hanging upon her arm.
+
+"There, Gretel, my dear, is something to eat. I will not let you go
+until you have taken something. And, if the gentleman will be kind
+enough to step out one minute, we will try on this dress. You must have
+some mourning, and where else can you get it, poor child?"
+
+She spread the table hastily, and Hilsborn left the room.
+
+"Now come here, and let us see how this fits. It is the very dress that
+I bought ten years ago, when your step-uncle Hartwich died. But it is
+as good as new. I have worn it but little, and, if you put the skirt on
+over the pointed waist, it has quite a modern air. Just look! It is not
+much too large. I was smaller then than I am now, and I have taken it
+in wherever I could. I was afraid it would be too big for you. Look at
+that little spot,--that is where you threw your cake into my lap when
+you were a little thing. I hid it so,--in a fold. Dear, dear! I had
+this very dress on when I left you. I never thought then that you would
+one day put it on and leave me, as I was leaving you!"
+
+There was something touching in these simple words, and, for the first
+time, Gretchen threw herself into her mother's arms and burst into
+tears. "Gretel," said Bertha, crying bitterly, "you must one day feel
+that you are my child, just as I feel that I am your mother. I hope you
+will not then repent leaving me."
+
+"Ah, mother," sobbed Gretchen, "how could you be so cruel to my poor
+father? How could you so wring my heart when I first saw you again that
+I turned away from you? I might have learned to love you. A child must
+try to honour its parents. I would never have reproached you for
+forsaking me, but the abyss into which you plunged my father lies
+between us, and can never be bridged over."
+
+"But, Gretchen, Gretchen," cried Bertha, "I have done no worse than the
+young gentleman whom you think so much of. Why do you not blame him?"
+
+"He only did his duty by a friend, and performed it in the kindest way
+possible. My father saw that, and reposed the greatest confidence in
+him in intrusting me to his care. But you, mother, permitted Herr Meyer
+to bring the stranger here who came to hand over my father to
+punishment, and to whom my father was only the enemy of his friend. It
+was not his duty to spare my father. But, mother, he had once been your
+husband, he was the father of your child, and yet, when, hunted and
+pursued, he sought the shelter of your roof, you had the heart to
+betray him and deliver him up to death and disgrace. I will not judge
+you, but ask yourself, mother, did he deserve such treatment at your
+hands?"
+
+"Ah, merciful Heaven! you may be right, but it really seemed that it
+was to be so. I had forgotten everything but the wrong he did me. He
+has had his punishment, and I must have mine, for, indeed, to love you
+and lose you so is a heavy trial."
+
+Hilsborn knocked at the door. "Frau Meyer, it is almost time to go."
+
+"Yes, yes. Come in," cried Bertha. "Gretchen is dressed."
+
+Hilsborn entered. He regarded compassionately the touching figure in
+the black dress,--the lovely childlike face, with those sad, large
+eyes, reminding him of a wounded doe's. His heart overflowed with pity,
+and he held out his hand, with, "Come, we must be upon our way."
+
+"I am ready," Gretchen murmured.
+
+"Stop," cried Bertha. "You must take something first." And she poured
+out a cup of chocolate, and followed Gretchen, who was collecting her
+various trifles for her travelling-bag, about the room, until she
+persuaded her to take some of it. "And you must eat some of this cake.
+You used to be so fond of it, and your lamented,--well, yes,--your
+lamented father too. Ah, I used to be well treated when I put that
+cake on the table! Will you not taste it? Well, then, take some with
+you." And she crammed as much of it as she could into the girl's
+travelling-bag.
+
+One minute more, and Gretchen was ready to leave the room. "Good-by,
+mother," she said, throwing herself once more into the arms of her
+mother, whose hot tears fell upon her child's neck. "I will never
+forget your kindness to me to-day, and if you ever need me you will
+find me a daughter to you."
+
+"My child, my good child!" sobbed Bertha. "Try to think as well of me
+as you can."
+
+"Yes, yes, dear mother. God bless you and yours!"
+
+Hilsborn hurried the girl away. She gently extricated herself from her
+mother's arms, and, in anguish of soul, descended the stairs that her
+father had on the previous day ascended for the first and last time.
+
+"Write to me now and then," Bertha called after her.
+
+"Indeed I will, I promise you."
+
+When they reached the hall, they found there a crowd of curious
+idlers, all eager to see the suicide's daughter. Gretchen paused,
+overcome with dismay. She could hardly trust her limbs to bear her
+through the throng. A soft, warm hand clasped hers,--it was Hilsborn's.
+He drew the little hand under his arm, and led her through the gaping
+loiterers to the carriage. Gretchen was scarcely conscious, she only
+felt that, supported by this arm, she could raise her head once more,
+and she was filled with gratitude towards the man who did not shrink
+from thus espousing the cause of the child of a criminal.
+
+Herr Meyer made them a formal bow as they entered the carriage, and it
+rolled away past the gay, sparkling waters of the Alster, now swarming
+with boats.
+
+Gretchen looked out of the carriage window. Yesterday all this had been
+the world to her,--to-day her world was within, and all this was mere
+outward show.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                  BLOSSOMS ON THE BORDER OF THE GRAVE.
+
+
+"Come quick, Johannes, Hilsborn has arrived," the Staatsräthin
+whispered from the door of the apartment. Johannes was seated by
+Ernestine's bedside, her head leaning upon his hand, while the poor
+girl moved restlessly from side to side, muttering unintelligibly. He
+motioned to Willmers to take his place, and went softly out.
+
+"Thank God, you are back again. Have you brought him with you?"
+
+"He has escaped."
+
+"Hilsborn, that is terrible!"
+
+"He is gone whither he cannot be pursued, and whence he can work no
+more mischief."
+
+"Is he dead?"
+
+"He is dead, and he died in fearful agony.
+
+"God have mercy on his soul! Did he take poison?" asked the
+Staatsräthin.
+
+"Yes, just after his arrest I arranged matters as well as I could, but
+he had only a little over two thousand gulden in his possession. He had
+put all the property in the Unkenheim factory."
+
+"And that is bankrupt, so we shall not be able to save anything for
+Ernestine," said Johannes.
+
+"I am very sorry for that."
+
+"But Hilsborn, faithful friend, I am quite forgetting to thank you. How
+shall I repay you for taking this journey for me?" said Johannes
+warmly.
+
+"I am already paid."
+
+"Indeed? What possible pleasure could result from such a mission?"
+inquired the Staatsräthin.
+
+Hilsborn smiled. "Such pleasure as I never dreamed of. Gleissert
+bequeathed me a treasure whose possession no one, God willing, shall
+dispute with me. May I show it to you? I would like to intrust it to
+your keeping, dear friends, for awhile."
+
+Johannes and his mother exchanged looks of surprise. Was Hilsborn quite
+right in his mind?
+
+"I will tell you nothing more," he said. "See for yourselves." He left
+the room, and appeared again in a few moments with Gretchen upon his
+arm. The poor child ventured only one timid, beseeching look at the
+strangers, but the touching expression of her eyes won their hearts
+immediately.
+
+"Good God! his child?" asked the Staatsräthin.
+
+"His child," Hilsborn replied with grave emphasis.
+
+The old lady went up instantly to the lovely, shrinking girl and
+embraced her, saying significantly to Hilsborn, "Now I understand you!"
+
+"Dear Fräulein Gleissert," said Johannes, "you are most welcome, and
+you must allow us to offer you a home until you find a better."
+
+"You are too kind," stammered Gretchen. "I know how bold I am, but my
+guardian----"
+
+"What! Hilsborn, are you her guardian?"
+
+"Her dying father wished it to be so, and therefore I brought her here
+to place her under your protection, although she wished to see no one
+except Ernestine."
+
+"She can hardly see her for sometime yet," said Möllner. "Ernestine's
+fever may be infectious."
+
+"Oh, is that all?" Gretchen ventured to remonstrate. "Then pray let me
+go to her. Nothing can harm me when I am doing my duty. Better to die
+than live on without being permitted to do as I know I ought. Oh, dear
+Herr Hilsborn, you know what I mean, speak for me!"
+
+"Do not refuse her, Johannes. She will not be content until she is with
+Ernestine. I make a fearful sacrifice in exposing her to this danger,
+when I would guard her like the apple of my eye, but I know how she is
+longing for Ernestine."
+
+"Then, Fräulein Gleissert, you shall share with my mother the care of
+the invalid."
+
+"Thank you all a thousand times! May I go now?"
+
+"Take her to Ernestine's room, mother dear, while I speak with
+Hilsborn," said Johannes.
+
+"Come, then, my child." The Staatsräthin opened the door of the
+darkened apartment, and the girl entered.
+
+Gretchen stood as if rooted to the spot. There lay the dreaded, mute
+accuser of her father, the unfortunate victim of his crimes, pale and
+beautiful as an ideal embodiment of death,--a glorious lily,
+prostrated, perhaps never again to stand erect, by the same hand that a
+few days before had been laid in blessing upon Gretchen's head. The
+poor child, crushed by the sight, sank upon her knees, and, extending
+her arms, cried in a suppressed voice of agony, "Forgive, forgive!"
+
+Ernestine did not reply, for she did not hear. Reason was dethroned
+behind that pale, broad brow, and confused dreams were running riot
+there in the wildest anarchy.
+
+Only when Gretchen perceived that Ernestine was wholly unconscious, did
+she dare to approach close to her. Gazing at her with admiring pity,
+she murmured to herself, "No, my father did not understand, or he
+maligned you. You are not bad, you cannot be bad!" And, kneeling, she
+breathed a gentle kiss upon the small hand.
+
+Did the invalid feel that something loving was near? She put out her
+hand towards the kneeling girl, and, detaining her by the dress, leaned
+her head upon her shoulder.
+
+"She will let me stay by her," whispered Gretchen with a face of
+delight.
+
+The Staatsräthin could not help stroking the brow of the charming
+child, and Frau Willmers felt as if this stranger were an angel, come
+to lead Ernestine into a better world.
+
+"Such a sick-room I like to see," suddenly said a suppressed bass voice
+that made Gretchen start. "This is a pretty sight," it continued, and
+old Heim looked searchingly at Gretchen from beneath his bushy white
+eyebrows.
+
+The girl would have arisen, but Ernestine would not release her, and
+Heim motioned to her to be quiet. "You have one hand free, my child,
+give it to me. I am your guardian's foster-father, and I know what a
+good child you are. The fellow was right to bring you here,--I would
+have brought you myself. God bless you!"
+
+He seated himself by the bedside, and a deep expectant silence reigned
+in the room as he felt Ernestine's pulse. Besides Gretchen's, two other
+anxious eyes were riveted upon his face. Möllner had just entered
+noiselessly. "Well, what do you think?" he asked eagerly.
+
+Heim shrugged his shoulders. "I do not think it is typhus.
+Nevertheless----"
+
+Scarcely had the invalid heard Johannes' voice when she released
+Gretchen and turned her face towards the spot where Möllner was
+standing. He approached the bed and leaned over her. She put out her
+arms to him, but instantly dropped them again, as if, even in her
+delirium, she would not confess herself conquered. And then she talked
+wildly on, at times declaring that she could not get rid of the
+skull,--it would follow her everywhere, and then pleading piteously
+that she was not yet dead, and they must not put her down into the
+narrow grave.
+
+"This is the result of a woman's giving herself up to anatomical
+studies," said Möllner.
+
+"There has been dreadful work with the nerves here, and with the brain
+too," muttered Heim. "The fever has increased since I have been sitting
+here. If we could only disabuse her mind of these delirious fancies!"
+
+"I have tried that, but contradiction only excites her."
+
+"Let this child try, then. It is impossible to say what effect she
+might produce," said Heim. "Have you the courage, my child, to watch
+with your cousin tonight?"
+
+"Oh, sir, I think I can never touch my bed until Ernestine has left
+hers."
+
+"There's a brave girl! upon my word, I've seen nothing so charming for
+a long while. She will soon rival Ernestine in my heart!"
+
+Johannes laid a cloth dipped in ice-water upon Ernestine's forehead,
+who continued to moan bitterly that she was not dead and they must not
+treat her thus.
+
+"Ernestine," said Gretchen in her clear, bell-like voice, "no one shall
+harm you. Be quiet, dear."
+
+"Do you not see," wailed the sick girl, "that they are trying to weigh
+my brain? and it hurts! oh, how it hurts!"
+
+"Ernestine, you are dreaming," said Gretchen. "This is only a damp
+cloth. Feel it yourself."
+
+"Remember that, although I am dead, my soul is living. Oh, if I could
+only stop thinking! Dying is nothing! living is the worst of all!"
+
+Johannes turned away, and wrung his hands. "Ah, Johannes!" she
+exclaimed, "my uncle's knife is sharp, I cannot get away. Why did they
+bind me here, if they thought me dead?" And in an instant she thrust
+Gretchen aside, and would have leaped from the bed, had not Johannes
+gently but firmly thrown his strong arm around her and forced her back
+among the pillows.
+
+"Let me go! let go!" she moaned. "Who ever heard of dissection before
+death?"
+
+"Ernestine," Johannes cried in despair, "it is I,--Johannes. No one
+shall harm you!"
+
+But she either did not hear or did not understand him, and she
+struggled so that Johannes could scarcely hold her.
+
+"This is dreadful!" said the Staatsräthin, supporting Gretchen's
+tottering form. "Do you still think, Father Heim, after this, that
+physiology is the study for a woman's nerves? Can a woman's nature take
+a more terrible revenge than this?"
+
+Heim shook his head, and grumbled, "Frail stuff, indeed, but yet I
+thought she could stand it. Well, well, one is never too old to learn."
+
+And still Ernestine raved on, ceaselessly haunted by the same grim
+phantoms created by the fearful struggle that she had lately passed
+through.
+
+At last exhaustion supervened, and she lay perfectly silent and
+motionless. Heim took his hat and cane. "I think she will have a
+quieter night. You should take some rest, Johannes. You cannot stand
+such uninterrupted watching."
+
+"I have done all that I could to persuade him to lie down," said his
+mother. "I can easily watch one night, especially now since I have such
+a dear little assistant. And Willmers too will wear herself out. She is
+as obstinate as Johannes."
+
+"There is nothing to be done with him," said Heim. "It is a good thing
+that it is vacation, or this would soon come to an end. Well, I must
+go. It is quite a drive to town."
+
+"It would have been better if we could have taken her home with us,"
+said the Staatsräthin. "But the illness was so sudden and violent that
+she could not be moved, and we had to come out here to nurse her."
+
+"You are good people!" And Heim held out his hand to them. "God will
+reward you for your kindness to the poor child."
+
+"All that I do, dear friend, is done for my son's sake. I am sure he
+will thank me."
+
+"Indeed he will, mother," Johannes declared with emphasis.
+
+When Heim entered the next room, he found Hilsborn there, standing at
+the window, lost in dreamy reverie.
+
+"Well, my boy, will you have a seat in my carriage?"
+
+"Why, father, I should like to stay here to-day and assist Möllner,"
+said Hilsborn, slightly confused.
+
+"Assist Möllner? Hm----" Heim paused, and riveted his piercing eyes
+with infinite humour upon Hilsborn's blushing face. "Well, well, my
+boy, since you wish it, pray assist Möllner. You have my free consent
+to do so."
+
+The young man clasped his foster-father's hand with an emotion of
+gratitude that he hardly understood himself.
+
+"Hm," said Heim again. "We understand! we understand! All right!
+Anything else would be unnatural. There's no need to be ashamed of your
+choice. Good night, and"--a good-humoured smile played about his
+mouth--"do assist Möllner diligently. Do you hear?"
+
+And the genial old man went chuckling out of the room.
+
+Hilsborn bethought himself awhile, then looked cautiously into the
+sick-room and beckoned to Gretchen. She instantly came to him.
+
+"Only a moment," he begged, and gently drew her away with him. "You
+must have a little fresh air. All the others think only of Ernestine. I
+am here to take care of you, and to see that you do not overtask your
+strength. Come, take a few turns with me in the garden."
+
+"As you please," said the girl meekly.
+
+"Not as I please, Gretchen. You must not talk in that way. I do not
+like it." He threw a shawl over her shoulders, and gave her his arm.
+Together they went down into the garden.
+
+"This garden," said Gretchen, "reminds me of ours at the pension."
+
+"Were you happy there?" asked her companion.
+
+"Oh, very! I had so many kind teachers and companions!"
+
+"It must be very hard for you to leave such a home."
+
+"My home now is with Ernestine. I am content only by her bedside. I
+wish for nothing else. I do not choose to wish for anything else."
+
+Hilsborn broke off a fading acacia-sprig from the tree.
+
+"Give it to me?" said Gretchen. "I will try whether Ernestine will
+recover or not." And she pulled off the leaves, one after another.
+"Yes,--no,--yes,--no. Yes, she will get well!"
+
+"Do you know Faust?"
+
+"No. We were never allowed to read Goethe."
+
+"Your namesake in Faust plucks off the leaves of a daisy, to answer a
+question that she puts it, but the question is a different one."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"She asks whether she is beloved."
+
+Gretchen looked down.
+
+"Did you never put that question?"
+
+"How could I? I was sure that my father, my teachers and friends loved
+me, and I knew no one else."
+
+"And yet you must often have consulted your flower oracle?"
+
+"Oh, yes. There was plenty to ask,--whether I was to take the first,
+second, or third rank in the examination,--whether I was to have a
+letter from my father that day,--and ever so many things besides. But
+that is all over. There are few flowers or questions for me now."
+
+"You must not indulge such gloomy, autumnal fancies. The flowers will
+bloom again, and with them many a youthful hope in your heart. You
+will, perhaps, one day want to know whether one whom you love loves
+you."
+
+Gretchen looked seriously and kindly at him from out her brown eyes.
+
+"If Ernestine only loves me, and----"
+
+"Well, and----?"
+
+"And you, I will ask nothing more."
+
+"Gretchen, do you not believe that I love you?"
+
+"Yes, I think you do," the girl replied frankly.
+
+"By the good God, who sees all hearts, I think so too," cried Hilsborn,
+clasping the little hand that lay upon his arm more closely to his
+heart.
+
+They stood still for one moment together in the gathering twilight, and
+then walked slowly on. It was an unusually mild autumn evening. The
+crescent of the new moon glimmered, like a gleaming diamond upon dark
+locks, just above the tall firs that crowned the hill that had been
+Ernestine's favourite spot. As she looked up, Gretchen's eyes were
+moist.
+
+"The moon is the sun of the unhappy," she said suddenly. "Hers is the
+only light that weeping eyes can endure. They must close in the garish
+rays of the sun, but they can look up to her through their tears. When
+she reigns in the sky, repose comes to the weary after the day's dull
+pain. And you, my kind guardian, seem to me like the moon,--you are so
+calm and still. I shrink from the others, it seems to me they must
+despise me, but with you I can weep freely, and rest from all my pain."
+
+"I thank you, Gretchen, for these words," said Hilsborn.
+
+And the girl, in the self-abandonment of her grief, leaned her head
+upon Hilsborn's shoulder and wept silently.
+
+Thus they walked slowly on for a time, without a word. The moon began
+to disappear behind the firs, and only gleamed through them when the
+night breeze stirred their boughs. A low whisper,--a soft suggestion of
+the resurrection,--trembled among the withered leaves and leafless
+branches. The little silver skiff glided quietly down the horizon, and
+misty vapours floated about the youthful pair like a bridal veil. Their
+innocent hearts mourned over scarcely-closed graves in the midst of
+nature, enlivened by no young blossoms, no nightingale's song, and yet
+a future spring was gently stirring around and within them, amid tears
+and autumn desolation.
+
+"We must return," said Gretchen, suddenly rousing herself from her sad
+thoughts. "They will miss us." And she hastened on in advance of her
+friend. At the door of the sick-room he detained her for one moment.
+"Gretchen, you have done more than I can tell for me in this last
+half-hour, but yet not enough. You will give me just such another every
+evening, will you not?"
+
+"With all my heart!"
+
+"And, Gretchen, I shall pass this night watching here in this room.
+Come to the door now and then, and give me one look."
+
+"Why?" she asked, with a blush.
+
+"Because your face is the dearest sight in the world to me."
+
+"Oh, I am glad of that!" she faltered.
+
+"Remember sometimes to give me a smile,--will you not? I shall wait for
+it from minute to minute and from hour to hour."
+
+"You shall not wait in vain. How could I refuse to gratify a wish of
+yours?"
+
+And with these words, that were more to the young man than she herself
+dreamed of, she left him, and entered the sick-room with her heart
+filled with mingled joy and pain.
+
+Johannes was kneeling by the bed, his forehead leaning upon Ernestine's
+arm, that was hanging down outside the coverlet. His mother gave
+Gretchen a kindly nod. No one ventured to speak. Ernestine seemed
+asleep.
+
+Gretchen sat down beside the Staatsräthin and gratefully pressed her
+offered hand.
+
+Thus they sat for an hour, motionless, and then Ernestine had a fresh
+access of delirium. Her whole illness seemed to be only a vain effort
+of nature to banish the evil, unnatural ideas nestling in her brain
+like destructive parasites. At last Johannes induced his mother and
+Willmers to take a little rest while he and Gretchen watched. He
+suffered so much at the sight of Ernestine's sufferings that it was a
+relief to him to know that his mother was not in the room,--his mother,
+in whose presence his affection forced him to exercise such difficult
+self-control.
+
+Gretchen was a faithful assistant, although the poor child's heart was
+well-nigh broken at the constant reference to her father that filled
+Ernestine's ravings. Fragments of the past were brought to light,
+detached scenes rehearsed incoherently, but running through all the
+unfortunate daughter could perceive the dark crimson thread of her
+father's guilt.
+
+The hot tears coursed down her cheeks. Johannes never noticed them. He
+had eyes and ears only for Ernestine. The poor orphaned child felt
+alone indeed. But no! How could she entertain such a thought? Had she
+not a friend and protector near? And had she not promised to bestow a
+kindly glance now and then upon the faithful sentinel? How could she
+forget him for one moment? While Johannes stood by Ernestine, she
+softly opened the door and looked out. There he sat, his eyes full of
+expectation, and a bright smile broke over his face at the sight of
+Gretchen. He started up and tore a leaf, upon which he had been
+writing, out of his note-book.
+
+"Gretchen," he whispered, "here is something for you. Take it, as it is
+meant,--kindly. You are having a hard night. I can imagine all you are
+suffering. Do not forget that there is one sitting here thinking of and
+for you."
+
+Gretchen held out her hand, and he put the paper into it.
+
+"I thank you, even before I know what it contains," she whispered in
+reply. "It must be something kind, since it comes from you." And she
+re-entered the sickroom and seated herself by the table upon which the
+night-lamp stood. She shivered, for Ernestine's words were all full of
+horror. But she held a talisman in her hand, and Hilsborn's handwriting
+banished all haunting sorrow. She unfolded the paper and read:
+
+
+           "Weep, poor heart, and yet again
+            Breathe those gentle songs of sadness,
+            Not for thee are notes of gladness,
+            Softly fall thy tears like rain.
+            Look to heaven when woes thus move thee,
+            From the eternal stars above thee
+            Comfort seek in earthly pain.
+
+           "Weep, poor heart, when all in vain
+            Thou hast hoped for rest from sadness,
+            When the stars rain down no gladness.
+            Yet despair not! once again
+            Lift thine eyes when sorrow moves thee,
+            In the eyes of one who loves thee,
+            Comfort seek in earthly pain."
+
+
+Gretchen sat with hands folded, looking at these words, that arched a
+new heaven above her and revealed a new earth around her. Large as her
+young heart was, it seemed all too narrow for the flood of tenderness
+that filled it now. She arose once more, and glided from the room. To
+Johannes, who gazed after her absently, it seemed as if her airy figure
+actually diffused a light around it.
+
+In the next room she approached Hilsborn, silently, her eyes suffused
+with tears, and held out her hand. He looked up at her with imploring
+entreaty, saw how she was agitated, and that her heart was beating
+almost to suffocation. He gently drew her nearer and nearer to him,
+until, like ripened wheat awaiting the reaper's scythe, she sank into
+his arms, and burst into tears. But her tears were like the glittering
+drops that the breeze shakes from the trees after a summer rain.
+
+
+           "In the eyes of one who loves thee,
+            Comfort seek in earthly pain,"
+
+
+echoed in the hearts of the lovers.
+
+Then Ernestine's voice came ringing through the open door. "What is the
+end? Eternal night, eternal silence, and eternal solitude!"
+
+"Oh, not eternal bliss!" Gretchen breathed softly to herself.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+                          IT IS MORNING AGAIN.
+
+
+A call from Möllner to Gretchen separated the young people before they
+found words to express what they felt. Ernestine grew so much worse in
+the course of the night that Gretchen did not leave her again. When at
+last the rays of the rising sun shone through the heavy curtains of the
+room, the Staatsräthin released the poor child from her painful watch,
+and she was free to hasten to her lover. He drew her with him to
+Ernestine's study. Everything was just as it had been left on the day
+when Ernestine was taken ill,--nothing had been touched here. The ashes
+of the burnt fairy-book were still lying on the hearth, the Æolian harp
+breathed forth sad melody to the rude autumn wind, the roses were fled,
+and only the thorn-covered bushes remained. The chests were still
+standing about, all packed for the voyage,--speaking plainly of what
+had been the plans of the proud spirit now so prostrated by disease. A
+forgotten pen lay upon the desk, and dust was everywhere. No one had
+thought of arranging this room,--care for Ernestine had given abundant
+occupation to the entire household. The pause in the life of the
+invalid was mirrored in this apartment, where everything seemed
+awaiting the moment when a busy hand should sweep, dust, and put all in
+order, and the glad news be heard--"Ernestine is better!" But this
+moment was still in the dim future. Hither the young couple came,
+ignorant of the struggles these walls had witnessed, the pain and
+anguish that had been suffered here.
+
+"Our life lasts seventy--perhaps eighty--years, and the delight of it
+is labour and trouble." These words, carved on the table, were the
+first visible sign to these youthful hearts of the struggles,
+sufferings, and sacrifices of the woman by whose feverish bed they had
+truly found each other. And Gretchen stayed her steps by the table, and
+read the words thoughtfully. "She is right," she said to herself. "And
+if she chose to impose upon herself this severe law, can I choose any
+other motto--I? What right have I to desire any other delight in life
+but labour and trouble and penance? Ah, Ernestine, now first I see how
+noble you are, and what wrong my father did you."
+
+"Gretchen," asked Hilsborn, "what are you thinking?"
+
+"It seems to me as if an invisible hand here inscribed, 'Hold!' for my
+eyes alone. How could I for one moment resign myself to the thought of
+a happiness that could turn me aside from my first and most sacred
+duty?"
+
+"Gretchen, how am I to understand you?"
+
+She clasped her hands, and, with eyes fixed reverentially upon the
+carved motto, said, "All my hopes and dreams must be sacrificed for her
+whose motto this is. Until she is happy, how can I wish to be so?"
+
+"I see what you have resolved, my dearest. You intend to obtain
+forgiveness for your father, to blot out his sin by your devotion. But
+you think only of her against whom your father sinned most heavily?
+There is another to whom you owe some reparation on his account, and
+that is myself!"
+
+"What?"
+
+He drew her towards him, and went on with all a lover's sophistry.
+"Yes, dearest, your father wronged mine. He robbed him of a valuable
+scientific discovery."
+
+"Heaven help me! is this so?" cried the girl, greatly distressed.
+
+"And do you not see that it will be no infringement of the duty that
+you impose upon yourself, if you grant me the reparation that I ask of
+you, even although I should ask for nothing less than yourself,--your
+entire life, Gretchen,--would you think me too bold? would you think
+the compensation for what your father deprived me of too great?"
+
+"No, oh, no! much too small," whispered Gretchen, with glistening eyes.
+
+"Not too small. I know it is too great. But love, Gretchen, will not
+weigh deserts. Everything is in your hands, dearest. Your father
+injured my father, but he gives me his child."
+
+The girl put her hands to her throbbing brow. "Can this be so?--can so
+great a blessing spring from a curse? I do not deserve such joy. Can it
+be no wrong, but a duty, to love you, whom I would have renounced for
+duty's sake? I longed to labour and suffer for my father's crime, and
+is this my penance--to give myself to him whom I love? It is too
+much,--I cannot believe it. But what shall I do? How shall I reconcile
+my duty to Ernestine and to you? Help me, advise me, that I may not
+neglect one duty for the sake of the other,--there can be no true
+happiness without a clear conscience. Help me, then, to be really
+happy."
+
+"My darling," said Hilsborn, "I understand you now, just as I have
+always understood you, and I will help you to satisfy your conscience.
+If I could, I would shower every precious gift upon you,--how then
+could I deprive you of that priceless possession--peace of mind? True
+love brings true peace in its train, and this peace shall be yours.
+Therefore do for Ernestine all that your heart dictates, as long as you
+can be of service to her. I shall be near you, and we can at least
+exchange a word now and then. True love is easily content, it prizes
+even the smallest token. I will not claim one moment that you think
+belongs to Ernestine,--that would trouble you. We will tell no one as
+yet of our betrothal but my faithful foster-father Heim, without whose
+blessing I can take no step in life. The knowledge of our happiness
+might grate upon poor Möllner, who has so much to endure. But when,
+Gretchen, Ernestine has entirely recovered, it will be ours to enjoy
+our bliss without a pang. And if,--which I can scarcely believe,--she
+should still refuse to share Möllner's lot, then, I swear to you, I
+will aid you truly in all that you do for her. She shall live with us
+and be to me as a sister. Is not this all that you desire, my dearest
+one?"
+
+"Yes, yes, you read my very soul, for I could never consent to be
+your--wife, until I knew that Ernestine was well and content. And I
+have hardly thought myself grown up--I am hardly fit to be a wife. How
+can I accustom myself to the thought?"
+
+"I will do all I can to teach you, dear little wife,--the lesson will
+not, I hope, be hard to learn," said Hilsborn gaily.
+
+"Perhaps not," Gretchen replied, and for the first time there was an
+arch sparkle in the melancholy brown eyes.
+
+Thus these two hearts were united, speedily, in childlike faith, after
+the manner of youth, and without a struggle. But above in the sick-room
+two hearts were wrestling in mortal pain. Love, for poor Ernestine,
+must attain the light only through the dark night of error and illusion
+that was around her,--that light in which Gretchen and Hilsborn
+innocently basked, driven from their Eden by no angel with the flaming
+sword. Such strong natures as Möllner's and Ernestine's could not unite
+without a struggle. Each had framed a world for itself, and one of
+these worlds must be shattered before they could become one world. The
+farther apart they were, the more powerful the attraction between them,
+the more certainly would the weaker crumble to pieces in contact with
+the stronger. It is the mysterious condition under which gifted natures
+receive their talents from God, that they must strive and labour for a
+happiness that often falls unsought into the lap of weaker natures.
+Thus Eternal Wisdom maintains the balance of its gifts,--the weak and
+the simple receive without asking what the strong must earn. And these
+two gifted creatures were earning hardly their portion of life's joy,
+that they might fulfil the law prescribed by God for creatures so
+constituted. His laws are inscribed not upon the heavens, but in the
+human heart, and all our striving for perfection is, in fact, only an
+endeavour to read these laws correctly. And how often do we read them
+falsely, in spite of all our honest pains!
+
+How much more was this the case with one like Ernestine, who had never
+been taught to heed the still small voice in her heart as the voice of
+God! All her errors and sufferings were the result, as are those of
+most men, of a misconception of the Divine will. If she had known that
+she was destined to purchase happiness by self-sacrifice, she would
+have paid for it voluntarily, and would not have wrestled with her
+destiny to the last, until she almost succumbed in the conflict. Her
+life had well-nigh been ruined by the want of true Christian culture;
+she was ready to make every sacrifice, except that which is alone well
+pleasing in God's sight--the sacrifice of self.
+
+And Johannes, true and without guile as he was, endured a terrible
+trial in Ernestine's sufferings. From hour to hour he became more
+thoroughly convinced that he had been the means of prostrating
+Ernestine upon a sick-bed,--that he had burdened her beyond her
+strength by his reckless description of the danger that threatened
+her,--and he was a prey to remorse. He reproached himself bitterly, and
+tormented himself with devising a thousand ways in which he could have
+managed matters more wisely. "It is presumptuous to attempt to play the
+part of Providence to another, for the best intentions are no warrant
+for the consequences," he said to his mother, just when Gretchen and
+Hilsborn were weaving their rosy future.
+
+"Results are always in God's hand," replied Frau Möllner.
+
+"Amen!" said Johannes solemnly, from the depths of his tortured heart.
+
+Thus the pilot, seeing looming before him the dangerous rock, past
+which his skill has not availed to guide the vessel intrusted to his
+care, says, "I have done what I could, now Providence takes the helm."
+And here too Providence was guiding the vessel, but slowly,--so slowly
+that the lookers-on were agonized.
+
+Day after day and week after week passed, without any visible
+improvement. Ernestine's consciousness did not return. Heim shook his
+head. He said to Johannes one morning, "I wish your brother-in-law were
+at home, Johannes. I should very much like to hear his opinion of the
+case."
+
+And he made no other reply to Johannes' inquiries.
+
+Moritz Kern and his wife had been employing the vacation in a
+pleasure-trip, and were shortly to return home.
+
+It looked as if Heim were coming to a conclusion, and did not wish to
+pronounce an opinion without consulting a third authority.
+
+Johannes was consumed by anxiety. For four weeks he never left
+Ernestine's bedside, only sleeping when she was quiet, and then with
+his weary head supported against the back of his chair. He would have
+no help, except from his mother and Gretchen. Even Willmers was not
+allowed to do all that she wished to do. Only one stranger was now and
+then admitted to the sick-room,--a venerable, aged form, that sat there
+motionless, disturbing no one. It was old Leonhardt. Every third day
+his son conducted him to the castle, and no one had the heart to refuse
+to allow him to take his place at the foot of Ernestine's bed, where he
+listened to her gloomy ravings and Möllner's deep-drawn sighs, and only
+now and then sadly shook his gray head.
+
+"If she would only come to herself sufficiently," he said one day, "to
+let us relieve her mind of this anxiety about dying, that seems at the
+root of her delirium, she would soon be better."
+
+"True, Father Leonhardt, true," replied Johannes. "But she has not one
+sane instant. It drives me to despair!"
+
+"Courage, courage, dear friend," said Leonhardt, "and, remember, you
+only did your duty. That thought must comfort you."
+
+"I am afraid it will not comfort me long," was Johannes' gloomy reply.
+
+While they were speaking, Heim's carriage drove op. This time he was
+not alone,--Moritz was with him. Leonhardt retired to the library,
+where Walter always awaited him, and Helm and Moritz entered the
+antechamber. Gretchen and Hilsborn were standing whispering together by
+the window. The former hastily left the room, embarrassed by the
+entrance of the stranger with Heim.
+
+"Who the deuce is your pretty companion?" asked Moritz in surprise.
+
+"It is my ward, Gleissert's unfortunate daughter," Hilsborn explained
+with some reserve. "I brought her hither from Hamburg."
+
+"Oh, I know, I know,--heard all about it. Guardian, then, are you? Very
+delightful position, with such a charming ward," laughed Moritz.
+"Here's a fellow! looks as if he couldn't say 'boh' to a goose, and
+brings home such a pretty girl the first journey he takes! Yes,
+yes,--'still waters!'"
+
+"Do not jest," Hilsborn begged. "It is too serious a matter for
+jesting."
+
+"Nay, never mind what I say," said Moritz. "I must pay some respect to
+your new dignity. Hardly out of leading-strings yourself, and appointed
+guardian to young unprotected females! Ha! ha!"
+
+"Be quiet, Johannes will hear you," grumbled Heim. "Reserve your jests
+for more congenial society."
+
+"But, my good friend, you cannot expect me to hang my head for the sake
+of that fool of a woman, whom I have always wished at the deuce. Who
+could see, without getting angry, that fellow Johannes wasting his best
+powers upon such an ungrateful creature? If we were compelled to stand
+by and look on while some one spent time and trouble in trying to make
+a common brier produce tea-roses, should we not long to root out the
+senseless weed, rather than witness such a foolish undertaking?"
+
+"Your comparison does not hold good, my friend. The Hartwich has her
+thorns, but with care and patience she will blossom into a beautiful
+flower."
+
+"Are you never coming in?" asked Johannes, opening the door of the
+sick-room and looking out impatiently. "What keeps you so long?"
+
+"Yes, we are coming," said Heim, "but, Johannes, I would rather see
+Ernestine alone with Moritz."
+
+"As you please, but pray make haste," said Johannes, coming fully into
+the room. "Good-day, Moritz. How are you? Did you not bring Angelika
+with you?"
+
+"She wanted to come with me, but I would not let her."
+
+"And why not?" asked Johannes in a tone of disappointment.
+
+"Because women are always in the way at such times."
+
+"But had you any right to refuse to allow your wife to see her mother
+and brother after a separation of four weeks?"
+
+"I have the right, as her husband, to allow and forbid whatever I
+choose. If you wished it otherwise, you should have had it so said in
+the marriage contract," Moritz replied sharply. "Angelika never wishes
+for anything that I do not choose she should have, and whoever does not
+train his wife in the same way is a fool, my dear brother-in-law. Come,
+don't be vexed--you know what a prickly fellow I am."
+
+"I am not in the mood to mind your insinuations," said Johannes
+wearily. "You war with an unarmed foe. Go in, and bring me some good
+news if you can."
+
+Moritz repented his hasty words when he saw how troubled Johannes
+really was, and immediately entered the sick-room with Heim.
+
+Johannes sank into the chair by the window and leaned his heavy head
+against the panes. Such terrible thoughts and fears had lately assailed
+him! He would not heed them. But if the two physicians should share
+them also? His heart beat louder and louder with every moment's delay.
+He could hardly breathe. Hilsborn stood beside him, and, without
+speaking, pressed his hand. They heard Moritz speak to Ernestine, and
+her wild, confused replies. Then the murmur of Heim's and Moritz's
+voices was alone audible.
+
+At last the door opened. Even Moritz looked very grave.
+
+"Well?" asked Johannes.
+
+"Yes," said Moritz with a shrug, "I agree with Heim, the fever is a
+secondary consideration now. It is subdued--there is something worse
+than death to be dreaded."
+
+"Ah! I feared it!" Johannes said with a low suppressed cry. "Be
+brief,--I am upon the rack--you fear--good God I you fear for her
+mind?"
+
+He could say no more.
+
+Moritz and Heim exchanged glances. "Be calm, Johannes. Remember, this
+is only conjecture. We are mortal, and cannot be certain. Only it
+cannot be denied that it looks now more like an affection of the brain
+than anything else."
+
+"It is a well-known fact," Helm continued, "that patients affected in
+this manner are often slightly deranged in mind for some time after
+the fever is subdued, but such cases are most frequent among the aged,
+and the derangement is not of as long duration as with Ernestine.
+Her continual harping upon the same idea troubled me from the
+beginning,--it was like monomania,--always her death and a terrible
+eternity ensuing upon it. She must have pondered upon it far too much
+lately,--it has grown to be a fixed idea. If there are not shortly
+signs of returning reason, I am afraid she will be----"
+
+"Insane!" Johannes completed the sentence--"oh!--insane!" He buried his
+face in his hands, in an agony that convulsed his whole frame.
+
+Moritz laid his hand upon his shoulder. "Johannes," he said, "be
+strong. For years we have looked to you, in joy and sorrow, as the very
+ideal of manly self-control and firm determination. Your example has
+shown as the true dignity of manhood,--and shall pain upon a woman's
+account have power to move you thus? No indeed! she is not worth it.
+Ten of these fools are not worth one throb of agony in such a man!"
+
+"Do not speak to me. Leave me, I pray you, to myself," cried Johannes.
+
+"We had better go," said Heim. "He will soon come to himself."
+
+"Good-by, Johannes," Moritz said, pressing his hand. "And listen--open
+the shutters in Ernestine's room. Speak to her, call to her. It is not
+good for her to be in that gloomy twilight. It is a case where you must
+try to awaken reason--not let it smoulder away with too much care and
+nursing. Some convalescents would never leave their beds if they were
+not driven from them, because they are too weak to exert themselves.
+And it is just so with a diseased brain. The mind must be helped upon
+its feet, especially with women, who are only too ready to let
+themselves go."
+
+"Moritz is right," said Heim. "I agree with him. Today is the ninth
+that she has been without fever. We may risk something. Farewell,
+Johannes. I will come again this evening."
+
+The gentlemen motioned to Hilsborn to accompany them, and left the
+room.
+
+Johannes clasped his hands, and there burst from his heart such a
+prayer as comes from the soul only in moments of deepest anguish. "O
+God, who knowest my heart and its thoughts and desires, canst Thou
+enter into judgment with me so heavily? Must I be the ruin of her whom
+I would have saved? Shall I be the cause of worse than death to her
+whom I would have rescued from death? Can I bear this and still retain
+my own reason? Have I destroyed the treasure, the hope of my existence?
+Have I shattered the glorious image to whose perfection I would have
+lent an aiding hand? And yet I meant to fulfil my duty. O God, if I
+have erred, mine be the punishment, mine,--not hers through me. No
+burden can be laid upon me that I will not gladly bear, save this
+alone!"
+
+He entered the sick-room, and stood looking at Ernestine, who was lying
+as if half asleep, muttering disconnected, unintelligible words. Should
+he arouse her from this apparent repose? No, he had not the heart to do
+it. He drew aside the curtain, and the broad light of day fell full
+upon the ghost-like face. She moved, as if the light pained her, and
+turned aside. Willmers, who sat by the bedside, knitting, motioned him
+away. Johannes let the curtain fall again.
+
+Suddenly the door was flung open, and Gretchen rushed in, her chest
+heaving, her eyes full of horror and despair. Hilsborn followed,
+attempting in vain to restrain her.
+
+"Do not keep me!" the girl wailed out. "There is no comfort, no hope
+for me in this world! It is my father's work--and I have sworn to
+repair the injury done by him. How can I repair this wrong? How recall
+the glorious mind that he has destroyed?" And, almost frantic, she
+threw herself upon the bed beside Ernestine, and, seizing her hands,
+"Ernestine, wake up!--you must not lose your reason! Ernestine,
+listen--hear--Ernestine, Ernestine!" she cried, in the tone in which
+she had bidden her father farewell.
+
+And Ernestine trembled at the call. She started up, and stared with a
+wild expression at the strange figure clad in black. She closed her
+eyes, then opened them again, only to close them wearily once more, as
+if she had not had sufficient sleep. Then she asked, "Who is this?"
+
+Johannes and Hilsborn stood in breathless expectation. They pressed
+each other's hands with a look that said more than any words could have
+done, and Johannes made a sign to Willmers.
+
+"It is your young nurse, Fräulein Ernestine," Willmers replied.
+
+"Oh, indeed!" said Ernestine slowly. Again she closed her eyes, but
+remained sitting upright. Hilsborn went to the window, and admitted a
+little more light.
+
+Then she rubbed her eyes and looked around. Gretchen had sunk upon her
+knees, and did not venture to stir. Johannes stood concealed by the
+head of the bed.
+
+"What o'clock is it?" asked Ernestine.
+
+"Half-past eleven," said Willmers.
+
+Again there was silence for awhile. Hilsborn drew the curtains still
+more aside. Just then the Staatsräthin in the other room, ignorant of
+what was going on, approached the half-open door. Fortunately, Johannes
+saw her, and motioned her away: she withdrew instantly, but the door
+creaked a little.
+
+"Who was coming in?" asked Ernestine.
+
+"The maid," Willmers replied, with ready presence of mind.
+
+Then there was a long pause, during which the throbbing of the three
+hearts, agitated by alternate fear and hope, was almost audible.
+
+"Willmers," said Ernestine.
+
+"Fräulein?"
+
+"Have I been dreaming--or did I really burn the book?"
+
+"What book, dear Fräulein Ernestine?"
+
+"The fairy-book,--the old fairy-book. Ah, I burned it. How sorry I am!"
+
+"Another can easily be procured. Do not fret about that, dear," said
+Willmers, suddenly remembering that there had been a fire in
+Ernestine's library on the day when she was taken ill.
+
+"Oh, no, it will not be the same,--not the same," said Ernestine sadly,
+and was silent again for some time.
+
+"Willmers!"
+
+"Fräulein?"
+
+"I thought I was wakened by a terrible shriek. I was so frightened I
+trembled all over. See how vivid our dreams can be!"
+
+"No one shrieked," said Willmers.
+
+"Where is my uncle?"
+
+"Gone to America."
+
+"Gone!--and left me here?"
+
+"You were ill."
+
+"How long have I been in bed, then?"
+
+"Oh, a couple of weeks."
+
+"Ah! Who has been attending me?"
+
+"Herr Geheimrath Heim and Herr Professor Möllner."
+
+"Indeed!----Möllner!"
+
+She was silent, and then passed into a quiet half slumber, but she
+smiled in her sleep.
+
+Hilsborn and Johannes went out of the room on tiptoe. Without, they
+clasped each other's hands in mutual congratulations.
+
+"What do you think now?" asked Johannes.
+
+"I think she is safe," said Hilsborn.
+
+Gretchen slipped out and joined them. "Oh, you should see her lying
+there now, so calm and quiet--she does not even murmur in her sleep as
+she did."
+
+"Gretchen," said Johannes, "it is your doing. God bless you for it!"
+
+Gretchen looked up at Hilsborn, who could not resist the temptation to
+put his arm around her and draw her towards him. Johannes smiled, for
+the first time for weeks, and said, "I saw it coming. Would that such
+happiness were mine!"
+
+"But," said Gretchen timidly, "remember, it is a great deal harder to
+win such a creature as Ernestine than such a poor little thing as I.
+And only think what she will be when won!"
+
+The Staatsräthin interrupted the conversation. She saw with delight the
+hope in her son's eyes, and thanked God.
+
+They sat together in the antechamber for half an hour, until they heard
+Ernestine waken.
+
+Johannes then beckoned to Willmers, and said to her, "Prepare Ernestine
+as cautiously as you can for seeing us."
+
+"Willmers!" called Ernestine.
+
+"Here I am, Fräulein Ernestine."
+
+"I feel so well now,--so rested! I must have been very ill, for my head
+is still confused, and it is hard to think. Tell me, my dear Willmers,
+am I not very poor?"
+
+"No one is very poor, Fräulein, who is as rich in mind and heart as you
+are."
+
+"Do not evade my question. I begin to remember it exactly. My uncle
+deceived me. And Möllner,--yes, that was the evening when he told me
+I must die--and the skull fell down and struck my poor head just
+here,"--and she put up her hand to the scar that had remained since her
+childhood from her terrible fall,--"just here. It was very painful, but
+I hardly felt it, in my hurry to read all that there was in the book
+about diseases of the heart. And then those terrible thoughts of
+eternal night and eternal silence--and then--then--I remember nothing
+more. Oh, Willmers, pray draw aside the curtains, and let me enjoy the
+light as long as I may."
+
+Willmers opened the curtains of both the windows. The bright rays of
+the autumn sun streamed into the room. Ernestine stretched out her arms
+towards them, and said, "Oh, glorious light! How long shall I look upon
+you? How soon will your warm rays kiss the flowers upon my grave? Shall
+the blest look upon the face of God? This beautiful smiling world is
+His face, and blessed indeed are they who may still look upon it and
+recognize God. Ah, Willmers, life is such a gift! It is truly valued by
+those who stand looking down into their open graves, as I do, and I
+think I was never so worthy to live as now when it is too late."
+
+She clasped her hands over her eyes and burst into tears. "If I could
+only hope to go to eternal peace upon a Father's loving, forgiving
+heart, I would gladly die, I long for His love. All feel His presence,
+and look to Him. But I dare not approach Him. I should be thrust out."
+
+"Dear Fräulein Ernestine," said Willmers, "you are still ill, and that
+is the cause of these gloomy thoughts. If you would only talk with
+Professor Möllner, he would know better how to answer you than such a
+simple old woman as I."
+
+"When is Dr. Möllner coming again?"
+
+"He is here with his mother. They came here to stay, that they might
+take care of you, and the Frau Staatsräthin has done all that she could
+to help her son. Oh, how anxious and unhappy they have been about you!
+The Herr Professor would not stir from your bedside, and he looks quite
+ill with constant watching."
+
+Ernestine cast down her eyes with emotion.
+
+"May I not ask him to come in now?" asked Willmers.
+
+"Pray do so."
+
+Willmers did not have to go far to call him. He was already at the
+door.
+
+"Ernestine, how are you?" he said, doing his best to appear composed.
+
+"Well, dear friend." And she smiled, and held out her hand to him.
+"What have you not done for me! How can a dying woman thank you for
+such self-sacrifice?"
+
+"Ernestine," cried Johannes, pressing her hand to his lips, "you are in
+error. I myself led you into it, and severely has God punished me for
+my imprudence. Everything that I told you of your physical condition
+was founded upon mistaken suppositions. What I thought a symptom of
+chronic disease was nothing but the approach of an acute attack of
+illness. Two physicians, Heim and Moritz Kern, pronounce your heart
+sound, and you are now out of danger. Oh, Ernestine, you cannot dream
+what my sufferings have been! I saw you writhing in mortal agony. All
+your fancies betrayed the terror into which I had plunged you. I would
+have rescued you from it, but you could not hear nor understand me. I
+offered you the truth that would save you from destruction, and you
+could not open your lips to receive it. It was too much, too much!"
+
+"Then I need not die?" asked Ernestine with a long breath, as if
+awaking from an oppressive dream.
+
+"On my honour, Ernestine, you are quite out of danger."
+
+She could not speak. She could only look fondly and gratefully at the
+blue heavens outside the window. Then she silently pressed Möllner's
+hand to her breast, and the large tears gathered in her eyes.
+
+The Staatsräthin then entered. "May I come in?" she asked. "May I say
+good-morning to the invalid?"
+
+Ernestine drew the old lady towards her, put her arm around her, and
+whispered, "You have so much to forgive, but you granted me your
+forgiveness before I could ask you for it. I feel so humiliated in
+comparison with you, I will not conceal the shame this confession
+causes me. It is your only reward for all that you have done for me."
+
+"How she has been purified in the terrible furnace that she has passed
+through!" the Staatsräthin said to Johannes, who was looking down
+enraptured upon the pale, beautiful features, once more informed by the
+clear light of reason.
+
+"I thank you all, and you, too, dear Willmers. Every breath that I draw
+of this new gift of life shall be full of gratitude to you and"--she
+looked timidly upwards--"to God. In that dark, dark night of horror, I
+felt that His hand prostrated me, and now His hand lifts me up again.
+Oh, yes, He is a merciful God!"
+
+"Then, Ernestine," said Johannes, "a blessing has come even from the
+terror that I caused you,--the blessing of faith."
+
+"Yes, dear friend, you were right when you said, 'To some God comes in
+fear.' You were right in everything, and I am only a woman!" Her head
+drooped. She was exhausted.
+
+Johannes and his mother looked significantly at each other, joy in
+their eyes. It seemed to them that Ernestine was born again.
+
+The blessed relief that followed this brief conversation kept the
+invalid sunk in profound sleep all the rest of the day.
+
+When Heim came, towards evening, he would not even see her, lest he
+should disturb the repose which was, he said, the best medicine for a
+convalescent.
+
+At nightfall she opened her eyes and saw Johannes sitting beside her.
+
+"Are you still with me?" she asked.
+
+"I am always with you, Ernestine. I shall never leave you," he said
+with fervour.
+
+Her eyelids closed, and she was silent, but her breath came quickly. He
+saw that his words had excited her, and he resolved carefully to avoid
+in future every syllable that could possibly disturb the perfect repose
+of her mind.
+
+He left the room, that she might become composed. Willmers persuaded
+her to take some nourishment, and she fell asleep again without a word.
+
+She was so much refreshed the next morning that Johannes breakfasted
+with his mother for the first time for many days, and assured her that
+he confidently hoped now for Ernestine's speedy recovery.
+
+"Thank God!" ejaculated the Staatsräthin fervently. "Since yesterday I
+have seen how dear she may become to me. I acknowledge now that you, my
+son, understood this rare creature better than I did. But where are
+Gretchen and Hilsborn? Why do they not come to breakfast?"
+
+"They are taking a turn together in the garden. How happy they are!"
+
+"God willing, we shall soon have a double wedding in N----."
+
+"Ah, mother, yours are bold dreams!" cried Johannes.
+
+"But why not? Be sure, my son, she will soon be well again. Her
+constitution, both mental and physical, is strong. In two weeks your
+holidays will be at an end, and then we will carry her back to town
+with us, and when her trousseau, that I shall provide, is complete,
+where will there be any need of delay?"
+
+"Why, mother, you yourself have just said that her mind is vigorous as
+well as her body. I shall never believe she can be mine until she is
+actually my affianced bride."
+
+"Ah, Moritz and Angelika!" cried the Staatsräthin, rising to meet them
+as they entered.
+
+Angelika kissed her mother and brother. She was, if possible, plumper
+and rosier than ever.
+
+"Aha!" laughed Moritz, "we frightened you for nothing yesterday. I
+know--I know all about it from Heim. Your coy damsel has come to her
+senses--congratulate you! If she can be cured of the rest of her
+brain-sickness, why, Heaven speed the wooing! There'll be no getting
+any good out of you until you are married."
+
+Angelika put her plump, dimpled little hand over his mouth. "Can you
+not let poor Johannes have some peace?"
+
+Moritz kissed the soft, warm fetter placed upon his lips and freed
+himself from it.
+
+"'Poor' Johannes! Why poor? He's sure of her now. She hasn't a
+groschen. Let her thank Heaven that there is a comfortable home ready
+for her, and she will,--no one can accuse her of stupidity," said
+Moritz.
+
+Johannes and his mother looked grave, but did not speak, and he went
+on. "I can't conceive how she withstood you so long. You're the very
+hero for a novel,--too sentimental for my taste, but that's just what
+women like, and if I were a woman I'd have you on the spot."
+
+"Thank you kindly, Moritz," said Johannes gaily, "but make your mind
+easy,--I certainly would not have you."
+
+"Oh, do stop! you do nothing but quarrel and fight when you are
+together," said Angelika merrily. "You are both good and true, each
+after his own fashion, and I love you both dearly. What more do you
+want?"
+
+"All right," said Moritz, contemplating the fair little figure with
+immense satisfaction. "If you love us, I am entirely content. It is
+only your discontented brother who is not satisfied."
+
+"Angelika knows well enough," said Johannes, "what she is to me!"
+
+Here Willmers appeared. "Herr Professor, Fräulein Ernestine is awake,
+and is asking for her 'pretty young nurse,' as she calls her. Shall I
+go for Fräulein Gretchen?"
+
+"Yes," said Johannes, "but I must tell her who Gretchen is,--you will
+excuse me?"
+
+"Yes, yes, go, for Heaven's sake! don't wait an instant!" Moritz called
+after him.
+
+"Ernestine," said Johannes, after he had exchanged morning greetings
+with the invalid, whose improvement was evidently steady and
+sure,--"Ernestine, you wish to see the young girl who was here
+yesterday, and I must first tell you who she is. Do you still cherish
+any affection for your uncle?"
+
+Ernestine shook her head. "He is dead to me."
+
+"I have something to tell you of him that may agitate you, and I
+scarcely dare to do it."
+
+"What can agitate me, after all the terrors that my own fancy has
+conjured up?" Ernestine asked composedly.
+
+"Well, then, the girl who has helped to nurse you with touching
+fidelity for the last four weeks is Leuthold's daughter, and--an
+orphan!"
+
+"Good God!" she exclaimed. "Poor child! Is Leuthold dead?"
+
+"Yes, he inflicted upon himself the punishment of his crimes. This
+world is past for him."
+
+Ernestine looked up gravely. "I cannot mourn him. He was my evil
+genius, and shamefully abused my confidence. But I will not visit it
+upon his daughter,--poor, innocent child. I pray you bring her to
+me,--she is the only creature in this world who is linked to me by the
+tie of kindred!"
+
+Johannes went to the window and beckoned to Gretchen, who was
+approaching the house with Hilsborn.
+
+She came instantly, and a minute later was upon her knees at
+Ernestine's bedside. Ernestine would have drawn her towards her, but
+she sobbed, "Let me kneel at your feet,--only so should the daughter of
+one who greatly wronged you dare to approach you."
+
+"Gretchen, poor, innocent orphan," cried Ernestine, "come to my heart!"
+Then, regarding her with emotion, she declared, "Indeed, if anything
+could lighten his errors, it would be his affection for such a child.
+For the sake of that pure human love, I forgive him. If I were rich, I
+would share all with you as with a sister. If I had anything to give, I
+would give it to you. But I have nothing for you, except sympathy and
+affection."
+
+And the two girls were clasped in each other's arms.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+                                RETURN.
+
+
+With reawakening strength, entirely novel feelings of affection and
+interest penetrated Ernestine's nature,--genuine human sympathies, such
+as her life hitherto had afforded no room for. In a few days the
+closest intimacy was established between herself and Gretchen. There
+was a simplicity about Ernestine that no one had believed her to
+possess. It was as if she now began to live for the first time, as if
+during the long period of her unconsciousness she had forgotten her
+former experience of the outward world, and she was as delighted as a
+child with all that unfolded itself before her eyes. She was as charmed
+as if she had never seen it before with the sight of the clear autumn
+sky. She would gaze long and thoughtfully upon the flowers that were
+laid upon her bed. She eagerly turned over, with Gretchen, the books of
+rare prints that Johannes brought for her amusement. Hitherto she had
+known Art only by name, and had not had an idea of its significance.
+Her uncle had never supplied food for her imagination, lest she should
+be turned aside from the pursuit of her graver studies. Her weary soul
+now bathed in the waters of fancy which Johannes unlocked for her
+refreshment. He brought her photographs of pictures and statues by
+famous masters, and ideas of the beautiful were awakened within her,
+filling her with glad inspiration. And Gretchen met her with ready
+sympathy,--she was in advance of her, indeed, and could point out to
+her many beauties that else might have escaped her unpractised eyes. At
+such times Ernestine would regard Gretchen with admiration and
+surprise. It was a pleasure to see the two girls throwing their whole
+souls into these new enjoyments together. Even Hilsborn, who since
+Ernestine's convalescence had naturally been defrauded of many a
+delightful moment, could not grudge them so pure and true a happiness.
+Sometimes from morning until night the two lovely heads would be
+bent together over books and prints, and sometimes they had a
+companion,--Father Leonhardt, who would come "on purpose," as he
+expressed it, "to see the new books." But his delight was in listening
+to Ernestine while she described the pictures minutely, oftentimes with
+so much truth and spirit that the old man would clasp his hands and
+cry, "How beautiful that must be!"
+
+"Do you see it, Father Leonhardt?" she would ask in her zeal, and the
+old man would reply delightedly, "Yes, I see it!"
+
+And when anything pleased him particularly, he would ask, "Show me that
+picture again!" and Ernestine was unwearied in her descriptions and
+explanations.
+
+Johannes and his mother were enchanted with this rejuvenation, as it
+might be called.
+
+She avoided with secret dislike any return to her former world of
+thought,--it was too harsh a contrast to her present delight,--she
+seemed actually disgusted with the anatomical pursuits which had led
+her to dissect so curiously what now gave her so much pleasure. She
+would not again descend into those gloomy depths whence she had drawn
+nothing but despair, and all that she now looked upon was as novel and
+strange as if she had spent the last ten years immured in a tower, from
+which she had only looked out upon God's fair world from a far-off
+height.
+
+Her recovery advanced so rapidly that eight days after her first
+awaking to consciousness she was able to be carried by Johannes and
+Gretchen into the library, once more restored to order and comfort by
+the faithful care of Willmers. She was placed in an arm-chair, and, as
+the Staatsräthin covered her with a warm, soft coverlet, she said in a
+weak voice, "Now let us begin where we left off ten years ago!"
+
+The Staatsräthin stooped, and, kissing her brow, whispered softly, "It
+is a pity so much time has been lost!"
+
+"Oh, no,--not a pity," replied Ernestine,--"no time spent in searching
+for truth is lost; but the measure of my strength is exhausted. I must
+give up."
+
+And, with a melancholy smile, she leaned back her head and was silent
+
+The days passed on, and the time approached very nearly when Möllner
+must return to his duties in town. Ernestine grew more silent and
+thoughtful. No one could understand the change in her mood, for her
+physical condition improved daily, while she fell into a state of
+depression such as had not befallen her since she began to recover. At
+last Heim decreed that she must have fresh air, and one warm noon she
+drove out for the first time. She had begged that Gretchen alone might
+accompany her, and the Möllners had, although unwillingly, acceded to
+her request, Johannes carefully lifting her into the carriage.
+
+"Gretchen," said Ernestine, as they drove along, "Dr. Möllner has twice
+alluded to the fact that in two or three days he, with his mother, must
+move back to town, as his lectures at the University will begin again.
+You heard how they took it for granted that we should accompany them. I
+made only evasive answers, but now I must resolve what to do. Gretchen,
+you have often told me that your peace of mind depended upon your
+helping to support me as long as I needed you." She looked searchingly
+at the girl. "What if I were to take you at your word?"
+
+"I should keep it, for I gave it not only to you, but to God Almighty,"
+said Gretchen. "Tell me, Ernestine, what I can do for you."
+
+"Everything!" cried Ernestine. "You can save me from living upon
+charity."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Can you not imagine, Gretchen, what it must be to me to accept further
+benefits from people whom I long to repay in kind, whom I would like to
+reward a thousandfold for all that they have done for me? I do not know
+whether you understand me when I tell you that I would far rather earn
+my living by the work of my hands than depend upon the kindness of
+those whom I once treated so arrogantly, and who have already heaped
+more coals of fire upon my head than I can bear. You shake your head.
+Your father, Gretchen, would have understood me,--his words upon this
+subject, the evening before he left me, are ineffaceably impressed upon
+my mind."
+
+"Forgive me, Ernestine, it does not become me to depreciate my father
+still further in your eyes, but I cannot be silent! I have arrived at
+the melancholy conviction that my father never advised you well. He was
+wrong here too. He did not know Dr. Möllner,--he could not conceive of
+the depth and truth of his affection for you. Will you reward the man
+who has done so much for you by making him wretched? You certainly will
+do so if you refuse to go with him. No, Ernestine, I do not understand
+how you can break a man's heart just for the sake of your pride!"
+
+Ernestine did not speak for a few moments, and then she said,
+"Gretchen, you are a child,--I cannot explain to you that there is a
+principle of honour to which one must sacrifice the happiness of a
+life, should circumstances demand it. You know, perhaps, that when I
+was wealthy and independent, Möllner offered me his hand, and that I
+refused it, because I could not fulfil the conditions that he proposed.
+Since that time his conduct has failed to assure me that he still loves
+me, for a nature as noble as his, is perfectly capable of sacrificing
+all that he has for me, from pure sympathy and mere compassion. And,
+even if he still loved me, could he value a heart open to the suspicion
+of surrendering itself to him under the pressure of necessity, not from
+free choice? No, Gretchen, there can be no firm structure of happiness
+erected upon such a foundation. This is not the time when I could
+withdraw my refusal to be his wife! No, no! such a course at this point
+would fix the blush of shame upon my forehead forever. Perhaps I may
+still succeed in obtaining an independence by my own exertions,--an
+independence that will again make me his equal. Then it would be
+different,--then he would know that I gave myself to him from free
+choice, not upon compulsion. If he should woo me then,--oh, Gretchen,
+it would be happiness that I scarcely dare to think of!"
+
+Gretchen kissed a tear from Ernestine's pale cheek, and said gently,
+"You are not like any one else, but always true and noble. I have no
+right to judge you. If you say, 'Thus shall it be,' I will submit. My
+only desire is to obey you."
+
+"You shall not obey me, Gretchen, but you shall be my guide in a world
+where I am a stranger,--you shall lend me your arm to support me until
+I can stand alone. Will you not?"
+
+"Yes," was the low reply. The girl was thinking of Hilsborn and his
+sorrow at the postponement of his hopes and of her own hopes also, and
+she tried to take heart and tell her cousin that she loved and was
+loved in return, and that she would be able to offer her an asylum. But
+Gretchen paused, and bethought herself. Ernestine would never accept
+from Hilsborn what she refused to receive from Möllner. She could not
+make such an offer without offending Ernestine, and, if Ernestine
+learned how matters stood with Gretchen, she would assuredly refuse all
+assistance or service from her that could delay her happiness with
+Hilsborn. For Ernestine's proud nature never could endure the thought
+of being a burden to any one Gretchen had felt all this from the first,
+and therefore had insisted that her betrothal should be kept secret
+from Ernestine. And could she tell her of it now? She controlled
+herself, and was silent.
+
+"I will tell you my plan," Ernestine began. "Of course I have given up
+the idea of going to America. I could never do what would be required
+of me there, without assistance, and, even if I could, I would not
+leave home and all that I love for the sake of mere fame. I will try to
+find a position as a teacher of natural science in some institution,
+or, failing that, I will go out as a private governess. But I know how
+ignorant I am of everything that is looked for from a woman in such a
+position. I know nothing of feminine occupations myself, and, of
+course, am quite unfit to have the entire charge of children. I
+understand no art,--I am deficient in all practical knowledge,--the
+knowledge that I possess is seldom needed in life. This I have learned
+since I have seen something of the world. You, Gretchen, are my only
+hope. You will teach me everything,--you are a proficient in all that a
+woman should know. I must leave this place. I must get away from this
+part of the country. Until I am out of Möllner's reach, there will be
+no peace either for him or for me. He would always be thinking that he
+ought to take me from my position, and there would be endless
+struggles. So I think it would be best that we two should retire to
+some small town, as far off as my means will permit, and then, if you
+would sacrifice to me a few months of your young, hopeful life, until I
+should be sufficiently far advanced to procure a situation."----She got
+so far with difficulty, and then, breaking off, asked humbly, "Is this
+asking too much of you? The world is open to you, Gretchen. Every one
+would welcome you back from your seclusion. Möllner's house will always
+be a home for you, where you may be tenderly cared for. Will you
+sacrifice all this to me, for a little while?"
+
+"With all my heart," said Gretchen. "But, dearest Ernestine, have we
+the means to carry out this plan? All that I possess is three gold
+pieces that I found in the pocket of the dress that my mother gave me.
+Look, here they are--I always carry them about me. My mother had
+written upon the paper in which they were wrapped, 'To be used in case
+of necessity.' I meant to spend them for you, for you are all the
+'necessity' that I have. Take them,--they are all that I have, but I am
+afraid they will not go far."
+
+"Thank you, you dear faithful little sister!" cried Ernestine. "We are
+not so poor as you think. Dr. Möllner has succeeded in saving all my
+furniture from your father's creditors. The sale of it will bring us in
+a sum sufficient to support us until I shall find a situation."
+
+"The question is, then, how long that will be," said Gretchen,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Only a few months at the longest, I should suppose."
+
+Gretchen was startled, but she only said gently, "Then we had better
+select a place where I too can earn something, that there may be no
+danger of our suffering from want."
+
+"That shall be as you think best," replied Ernestine. "I put myself
+entirely in your hands,--only take me away secretly, so that no one may
+seek to detain us."
+
+"Must no one know anything of it? Must I tell nobody?"
+
+"Do you suppose we should be allowed to go, Gretchen, if our intention
+was suspected? If you are afraid that you cannot keep our departure
+secret, tell me so frankly, and I will go alone, without your
+knowledge."
+
+"Oh, no, Ernestine, I will not let you go out into the world alone.
+What are all my resolutions and protestations worth, if I fail you at
+the outset? But there is one person, Ernestine, to whom I owe a certain
+obedience, my guardian! I am not of age, as you are. I cannot do just
+as I please. I must ask him whether I may go with you--but I will
+answer for his secrecy. He shall promise me, before I confide in him,
+that he will not betray my confidence,--and he always keeps his
+promises."
+
+Ernestine considered for a moment. "Yes, I see this cannot be avoided.
+I rely upon you. Johannes and his mother are going to drive into town
+together in a few days to prepare a room for us in their house. When
+they return in the evening, they must not find us here."
+
+"I cannot help feeling," said Gretchen, "as if I were guilty of
+treachery towards all these kind people. I never deceived any one in my
+life before; I feel like a criminal."
+
+"We will not deceive them, only spare them a parting scene that would
+be painful to us all,--we will not impose upon them the necessity of
+preventing what in their hearts they may think best for us. When we are
+once away, I will write and explain to them what we have done, and they
+will understand me."
+
+"Ernestine, I will pray God to give you more love and less pride. My
+only hope is that you will not long be able to live without the
+faithful friend who loves you so devotedly."
+
+Ernestine looked out of the carriage-window without a word. The fields
+were bare and deserted, but the spiders' webs, that lay like nets upon
+the stubble, glistened in the sunlight. Here and there the peasants
+were burning underbrush, and the red flames darted with a merry crackle
+through the thick white smoke that the autumn breeze kept lying low
+upon the ground. The cattle were gleaning a scanty meal from the shorn
+pastures,--they raised their heads to look after the carriage as it
+passed, or to rub their necks against some dried old stump of a tree.
+In the distance, a sportsman was making his toilsome way through the
+deep furrows of a ploughed field, while his dog busied himself among
+the hedges until he started a covey of birds, and the fatal crack of
+the gun was heard. A wagon, laden high with full wine-casks, passed
+along the road,--the boy that was driving had a bunch of withered
+asters in his hat, and cracked his whip gaily at sight of Gretchen's
+lovely face, while the little dog perched on the top of the load barked
+angrily. "Every one is making ready for winter," said Gretchen. "How
+much labour meat and drink cost!"
+
+The carriage turned towards the village, and Ernestine called to the
+coachman to stop at the school-house,--"I must see the Leonhardts once
+more." As they reached the low-roofed house, one of the windows was
+opened, and Frau Brigitta looked out. "Good-morning, Frau Leonhardt,"
+cried Ernestine from the carriage.
+
+"My dear Fräulein Ernestine, I can hardly trust my eyes!" And out she
+came to the carriage-door. "Come in, come in, both of you,--I will
+bring Bernhard--he is with Käthchen in the garden. But Walter is in the
+house. He is so happy with the things you have sent him! He studies
+night and day!" Thus the old woman ran on, as she assisted her guests
+to alight.
+
+"I think," said Ernestine, "that I should like to go into the garden to
+Father Leonhardt."
+
+"Just as you please. He is sitting round the corner, in the sun."
+
+"Go into the house, then, Gretchen," said Ernestine. "I will come in
+one moment."
+
+And she went round the house as quickly as her strength would permit,
+and approached the old man, who was teaching Käthchen her lesson. The
+child would have run to meet her, but Ernestine motioned to her not to
+speak, and knelt silently down by Leonhardt.
+
+"Who is this?" he asked.
+
+Ernestine made no reply, but imprinted a kiss upon his hand. He smiled.
+"Oh, it is my daughter Ernestine!"
+
+"Yes, father, it is I," she said. "I come to you the first time that I
+have driven out. There is much within me that is still dark. I come to
+you for light."
+
+"You bring me light, and do you ask me to give you light? But I know
+what you mean, and I will give you all that I have. Heaven may make me,
+poor blind old man, its instrument in comforting and assisting you.
+Tell me, then, Ernestine, why does the sunshine that now floods your
+life fail to penetrate your heart?"
+
+"Send the child away, father."
+
+"Go, Käthi dear," Leonhardt said.
+
+"To Walter?" the little girl asked, delighted.
+
+"Yes, if he is not busy,--see that you do not trouble him."
+
+Käthchen still lingered, with a look of inquiry at Ernestine, who
+perceived it, and held out her hand. "My good little Käthchen, do you
+remember me? I would like to give you a kiss, but you might fear my
+touch would harm you again."
+
+"Oh, no. That cannot be," said Käthchen. "I am not at all afraid of
+you."
+
+"Then come here, my sweet child." And she took her upon her lap, and
+kissed her kindly. It was the first time that she had ever had a child
+in her arms, and the pleasure that it gave her was new and strange.
+
+"Oh, Father Leonhardt," she said, "how many different kinds of love
+there are! Strange that they all seem so new and delightful to me!"
+
+"You are like the man with the heart of stone, in Hauff's story. Your
+uncle put a marble heart in your breast, and Möllner has given you a
+warm, living heart instead."
+
+Ernestine blushed at these words. She was glad that Leonhardt could not
+see her, yet he did see her.
+
+"He brings a blessing wherever he comes," the old man continued. "He
+has done everything for this child. Did he tell you? The Countess
+Worronska sent the forty thousand roubles, as she promised, and Dr.
+Möllner succeeded at last in persuading the Kellers to send Käthchen to
+a good school. She will leave now in about a week."
+
+"I knew nothing of it," said Ernestine.
+
+"It is not his custom to speak of the good he does," said Leonhardt,
+"but indeed he is a benefactor to all."
+
+"A benefactor to all," Ernestine repeated thoughtfully. "All the less
+should any one individual boast of his kindness,--a kindness shown to
+all, without respect of persons."
+
+Leonhardt involuntarily turned his darkened eyes towards her as she
+spoke thus. "Go, Käthchen," he said, "Fräulein Ernestine will come
+by-and-by."
+
+Käthchen went into the house, and, not finding Walter in the
+sitting-room, mounted to his study, in the upper story, just under the
+roof. She nestled up to his side and said, with an air of great
+mystery, "Only think! the lady of the castle has kissed me again!"
+
+"Not possible!" laughed Walter. "And do you feel nothing queer?"
+
+"Of course not," Käthchen cried in some confusion. "She can't bewitch
+me."
+
+"I wouldn't like to try her," said Walter with an involuntary sigh. "I
+think, if I had been in your place, I should have felt the enchantment
+instantly."
+
+"Why, you told me yourself there was no such thing," said Käthchen.
+
+"Well, Käthi," said the young man, "it would be as well, perhaps, for
+the sake of precaution, that I should kiss off her kisses. Where was
+it?--here?"
+
+"Yes, and here on my forehead, and on my shoulder."
+
+"There, we will put an end to all that," cried Walter, as he kissed the
+child. "And now go down-stairs. I must work."
+
+"Oh, you always have to work," Käthchen complained.
+
+"Yes, you school-children have the best time, with nothing to do but
+laugh and play, while I have all the studying. Go now, and when the
+Fräulein comes in from the garden, come and call me."
+
+"Yes, I'll call you. Good-by. But promise me that you won't tell that
+the Fräulein kissed me. They would all scold and laugh at me."
+
+"Oh, no,--not for the world. Where's the use of telling everything? But
+you mustn't love the Fräulein better than you do me, or I must tell
+your mother."
+
+"Oh, no. I love you best of all the world!" cried Käthchen, shutting
+the door behind her with emphasis. She had been but a few moments with
+Gretchen and Frau Brigitta when Ernestine entered with Leonhardt. Both
+looked agitated, and Ernestine's eyes showed traces of tears.
+
+Käthchen would have gone to call Walter, as she had been told to do.
+
+"Stay, Käthchen," said Ernestine, "I will go up to Herr Leonhardt
+myself and see what he is doing."
+
+And she took Father Leonhardt's arm, and with him ascended the narrow
+staircase.
+
+Walter sprang up, with flushed cheeks, when Ernestine and his father
+entered his room.
+
+"Have you come all the way up here?" he exclaimed, "you, before whom I
+stand humbly as a mere pupil,--revering you almost as the very
+personification of Science?"
+
+"Do not speak thus, Walter,--you do not know what you are saying. I
+have, through much pain, obtained the victory over self, and will
+content myself with my lot as a woman, but I am weak, and such speeches
+might easily arouse again within me the demon of ambition. Yon mean it
+kindly, but, now that I stand on the borders of the realm I have
+forsaken, I must not listen to any voice recalling me to that dear old
+home. I have come to take leave of you. Your father will tell you
+wherefore and whither I am going."
+
+"Oh, Fräulein Ernestine, are you going away? and are you going to give
+up your studies too?"
+
+"I must resign them, Walter, or at least all scientific pursuits. My
+knowledge must be to me now a means of support, and in these days it
+can serve me only in the position of a governess. I must content myself
+with teaching in a girls' school. Men do not want women for professors,
+and no man wants a professor for a wife. The world is not what I
+dreamed,--there is no place in it for a woman's efforts, and I am too
+weak to create one for myself."
+
+"What a shame it is," said Walter, "that such a woman should need to
+create a place for herself! she should be placed upon a pedestal and
+worshipped, if only for the sake of such a mind in such a body."
+
+Leonhardt laid his hand in warning upon the boy's arm.
+
+"Father, I must speak," he went on. "I must give some relief to the
+indignation that fills me at the idea of such a nature's being
+condemned to contend in the world for the bare means of subsistence."
+
+Ernestine hid her face in her hands, and sighed heavily.
+
+Leonhardt shook his head disapprovingly at his son. "It is not kind,
+Walter, to make the sacrifice harder than it need be. Ernestine is and
+always must be noble, and never was she nobler than in her present
+resolution. We cannot change the world, Walter, and Ernestine is a
+woman,--she must submit."
+
+"Yes, submit!" she repeated, and there was a keener pain in her
+accents.
+
+"Fräulein Ernestine," Walter implored her, "forgive me if I have
+revived buried griefs. I meant well,--I cannot tell you what pain it
+gives me to see you giving up what is so dear to you, and for me your
+going is like the departure of his muse to the poet,--the vanishing of
+his saint to the rapt devotee."
+
+"Walter," Ernestine said gravely, "your words tempt me sorely, but, I
+hope, for the last time. I will resist them, and when you are older you
+will know why I do so. You are very young, Walter. It is not long,
+scarcely six weeks, since I was so too. In this short time I have grown
+older by six years, and the world and mankind are changed in my
+eyes,--I must struggle now for the simple means of subsistence."
+
+She went to the bookshelves, on which the bright rays of the sun were
+just falling. "Yes, dear old Darwin, your famous name still shines
+brightly upon me. I now begin to understand you and to appreciate the
+sublime import of your teachings."
+
+She held out her hand to Walter, with tears in her eyes. "Thank you for
+the opportunity of trying my strength for one moment. It has been a
+melancholy satisfaction. A bright future is before you; if I have
+contributed in a degree to the realization of your hopes in life, I
+will descend cheerfully from the heights I dreamed of,--I have not
+lived in vain. I must go."
+
+She looked around the room. Wherever her glance fell, it rested upon
+some of her books or instruments. "Keep all these things for me,
+Walter,--perhaps I may reclaim them at some future day." Again tears
+filled her eyes. She knew she was never again to possess, what had been
+so long the sole joy of her life, the companions of her labours. "No,
+let them go. I release from my service the spirits prisoned in these
+instruments that have brought the stars near to me and revealed the
+hidden mysteries of the earth to my asking eyes. They can serve me
+no longer,--I must return to the every-day world,--the spell is
+broken,--knowledge and sight are mine no longer."
+
+She left the room noiselessly, and her old friend followed her.
+
+A quarter of an hour later, the carriage rolled away from the
+school-house towards the castle, and the Leonhardts, father and son,
+stood on the threshold, the one gazing after the distant carriage, the
+other listening intently to the last sound of its wheels.
+
+Ernestine, sunk in thought, was leaning back in the vehicle, when she
+suddenly called to the coachman to stop. They were just passing the
+church.
+
+"Stay here and wait for me," she said to Gretchen. "I must go in here
+for a moment."
+
+She got out, and went to the door, which stood ajar. Her hand lingered
+on the latch. What impelled her thus irresistibly to enter this poor
+little village church?--Memory! Like a painted curtain, all the events,
+thoughts, experiences, of the last ten years were hung around the low
+portal. Again she stood before the church-door of her northern home, a
+trembling, longing, doubting, despairing child. "Enter, and learn to
+kneel," the same voice within that spoke then was speaking now. And she
+entered, softly and timidly. It was empty and quiet,--the people were
+all at their work. The floor between the benches was strewn with green
+box twigs from the last holiday, and the atmosphere was filled
+with the odour of incense. Through the painted window the sun threw
+many-coloured rays upon a picture of the Virgin. A swallow, scared from
+his summer's nest in the dome, flew circling above Ernestine's head,
+like the dove of the Holy Spirit. Ernestine slowly passed the quiet
+confessionals, where so many sorrow-laden hearts had unburdened
+themselves of their weight of woe and received forgiveness in the name
+of the Lord. She thought with compassion of the cumbrous formalities
+that separated these wandering souls from their hope and trust.
+"Straight to Him," breathed the voice within, and she passed with
+quickened steps over the soft, leaf-strewn floor, directly to the
+altar. Was it the same at which she had knelt and wept ten years
+before? Whether it were or not. He was the same Divine One whose image
+looked down from the cross, touching her heart now as it had touched it
+then. She knew now that she had but completed a circle, and had come
+back to the point at which she had been ten years before.
+
+And she extended her arms and fell upon her knees. "Father," she cried,
+"I have come back,--receive me! ah, receive me!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+                  "GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD."
+
+
+"What a hard winter we are having!" said Ernestine to herself, looking
+thoughtfully out through the dim panes of the little window by which
+she was sitting, upon the roofs of the houses that bounded her
+prospect. They were covered with snow, that lay thick also on the
+outside window-sill. She sat with her hands wrapped in her cotton
+apron. "Well, I wanted to know everything,--why not poverty, and
+hunger, and cold,--the mighty foes with which humanity is always
+contending? I could philosophize excellently well upon abstinence in a
+warm room, by a well-spread table, and am I to shrink now? No, no! no
+living soul shall ever hear me ask for help."
+
+She stood up, and walked firmly to and fro.
+
+The room was a gloomy garret, a kind of kitchen,--at all events, there
+was a cooking-stove in it, and a cupboard containing articles of
+crockery. The floor was paved with stone.
+
+Ernestine's feet were bitter cold. "I wonder what o'clock it is," she
+thought. "The postman ought to be here soon. It is terrible to have
+nothing to mark the time."
+
+She listened to catch the striking of a church-clock--going to the
+window and letting her eyes wander over the white roofs in search of a
+distant tower. There was no sun visible through the snowy air. It was a
+genuine winter's day.
+
+At a window just opposite, a little boy breathed upon the frosty pane
+and made two round peep-holes, through which a pair of blue eyes beamed
+at her. She nodded to them--she knew the pretty child well. The little
+head behind the peep-holes nodded in its turn. She thought of Little
+Kay and her northern winter. Then the snow before the window rose like
+white clouds hiding the prospect, and, gradually taking a human shape
+clothed in wide flowing robes, that began to sparkle and glitter as if
+strewn with diamonds, and a veil of frozen gossamer fluttered in the
+air. And beneath the veil there looked at her through the window a
+white face, with fixed transparent eyes like crystal, and upon the
+beautiful brow was a diadem of icicles made of the tears of all who had
+perished in the ice and snow since the world was made, and of all who
+starve and freeze in winter-time,--a diadem richer in pearls than that
+of any earthly monarch. The mighty form had on one arm a shield,--but
+it was a plate of the ice upon which had been wrecked the ships that
+sought to penetrate the inhospitable kingdom of the Snow-queen around
+the north pole. With the other hand she was leading away the little boy
+from over the way,--she longed for some coral to adorn her colourless
+robes, for a few drops of warm human blood. It was the Snow-queen of
+the fairy-dreams of Ernestine's childhood. But she was more majestic
+and gloomy than formerly, and she spoke other words to her now:
+
+"I know you,--you never feared me as you do now that you have no warm
+roof, no firm walls, to protect you from my icy breath. But I will not
+harm you,--you belong to those who believe in the future of my
+dominion, who know that in thousands and thousands of years it must
+spread over the whole world, when all this swarming life will have
+passed to other spheres. Then my time will come,--there will be quiet,
+eternal icy quiet, here below,--and I will laugh at the old
+extinguished sun, glimmering like a burnt-out coal and envying me my
+diamond palace which he can no longer melt away."
+
+Thus spoke the Snow-queen to the dreaming woman of science, and there
+was a cold pain at her heart,--sorrow for the end of Being here below,
+sorrow at "the judgment-day of an eternal glacial period," as Du Bois
+has it.
+
+The Snow-queen had vanished, and Little Kay with her,--a thick
+snow-storm hid from view the path that she had taken.
+
+Slowly and weakly, as if the clock were frozen and could thaw only by
+degrees, twelve o'clock struck from the church-tower.
+
+Ernestine did not hear it. She sat with her head leaning against the
+window. The voice of the Snow-queen sounded in her ears, "Open your
+eyes, and see!"
+
+And she opened her eyes, and saw across billions of years. The sun, its
+fires only dimly burning, hung, a bloody disk in the skies, heavy
+brooding clouds were tinged with dull red, and twilight rested over the
+cold earth. Upon its hardened surface only a few wretched imbruted
+creatures crawled, seeking to sustain life upon the scanty remains of a
+decaying vegetation.
+
+Sadly Ernestine closed her eyes upon the painful picture.
+
+But she was again commanded to look abroad. Centuries swept on, and all
+grew darker and colder. The red disk faded, and all colour with it.
+Ernestine marked it all vanish in a dull gray. Weary with fruitless
+struggle, the last remains of organic life lay down in eternal rest.
+
+It was night at last. Still the earthly sphere performed its appointed
+circuit around the charred mass that was once its sun. But the mighty
+firmament was clear and cloudless,--the lifeless earth exhaled no mists
+to obscure the light of the distant stars, which revealed to Ernestine
+immeasurable depths and immense heights of frozen seas and oceans amid
+eternal repose,--the world was only a gigantic memorial of things that
+were.
+
+"But where, and in what guise, are the transformed forces of this spent
+world now lingering?" asked Ernestine. "Nothing in the great Universe
+is lost."
+
+"Ah! good heavens I here you are sitting dreaming in this cold
+kitchen!" suddenly said a clear, bright voice. "No fire on the
+hearth,--no dinner made; or, let me see,--yes,--but how? Burnt to a
+cinder. My dear Ernestine, what have you been doing?"
+
+Ernestine had sprang up, and was staring at the speaker as if she had
+come from another world.
+
+Gretchen, for she it was, laid aside a couple of schoolbooks that she
+had under her arm, threw off her cloak and hood, and busied herself
+with the neglected soup. "I understand,--first you kindled a huge fire,
+and then never thought of it again. The soup is not skimmed, and the
+beef is burned, and yet half raw. Yon cannot have looked at it for at
+least an hour."
+
+"It is such a pity that we had to sell my watch," Ernestine excused
+herself. "I never know now how the time goes."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Gretchen, "you can surely tell without a watch whether
+the soup boils and the fire burns or not. Only try, and all will go
+right. You have often proved that you can really cook quite well if you
+will only take pains. But I cannot trust you with soup and beef
+again,--you forget everything when once you begin to dream."
+
+"Gretchen, don't be angry," pleaded Ernestine.
+
+"But here is all the food spoiled that was so hardly earned, and we
+have not a single groschen in the house, and shall not have, until my
+money is paid me to-morrow." And tears of vexation came into Gretchen's
+eyes. "I care more about you than about myself. I am strong, and do not
+need meat; but you,--indeed you ought to think of yourself, if not of
+me!"
+
+Ernestine, in her confusion, looked from the saucepan to Gretchen,
+and from Gretchen to the saucepan, in dismay. "You are right," she
+said,--"it is unpardonable not to take care that you, poor child,
+should have something hot and good when you come home wearied from your
+work. Indeed I am a useless creature!"
+
+Gretchen was instantly appeased. She laughed, and threw her arms around
+Ernestine. "Ah! my beautiful, grand, intellectual sister, it is too bad
+to scold you! Just hear my queenly Ernestine sue for pardon, like some
+poor Cinderella, and all for a piece of burnt meat! Don't mind it,
+dear. You can't think how touching your humility is. Why, I could kneel
+at your feet, if you would let me." She kissed her sister's lips. "Oh,
+what a poor distressed face! Don't you know, dearest Ernestine, that
+the sight of that face is more to me than all the dinners in the
+world?" And she laughed as merrily as a child.
+
+Ernestine returned her embrace. "There, you forgive me," she said
+tenderly.
+
+"Oh, no, I beg your pardon," said Gretchen, "I will educate you. But
+enough of this. We must proceed to business at once. I must go back to
+school at two o'clock, and we cannot starve. We must give up the meat
+for to-day. There is no help for it. We must indulge ourselves in the
+luxury of an omelet."
+
+"Let me make it," Ernestine begged. "Sit down and rest yourself, you
+are tired."
+
+"What! let you make it?" asked Gretchen. "That would be wise indeed.
+Suppose you spoiled it, what should we do then?" And she took out a
+basket containing eggs. "We have just eggs enough for one omelet, and
+no more.
+
+
+           'Entränn' er jetzo kraftlos meinen Händen,
+            Ich habe keinen zweiten zu versenden,'
+
+
+as Schiller makes Tell say when he had no second string to his bow."
+
+"Indeed, Gretchen," pleaded Ernestine, "I will not spoil it. I should
+be so glad to recover your good opinion,--only let me try."
+
+"Dearest, darling Ernestine," said Gretchen, "trust me, we cannot
+indulge in experiments any longer. While we had a little money, it did
+not make much difference if we had a spoiled dish now and then, but now
+we must save every groschen.--there is no help for it." And she began
+to beat the eggs, while Ernestine put more wood in the stove.
+
+"Never mind that!" cried Gretchen. "If you want to do something, dress
+the salad. But make haste, the omelet will be ready in an instant."
+
+Ernestine made all the haste she could,--she was so anxious to do
+something.
+
+Suddenly Gretchen, who was busy at the fire, heard a low exclamation,
+and, turning, she saw Ernestine standing with a face of despair before,
+the salad-bowl, with the oil-bottle in her hand. "What have you done?"
+cried Gretchen, hastening to her side. "Not got hold of the wrong
+bottle, I hope?" But one sniff at the salad was enough. "Bless me!
+she has put petroleum into it! Now we must sit in the dark this
+evening,--our week's supply is exhausted. Such nice salad and such good
+petroleum, each so valuable by itself and so worthless mixed! Now, dear
+Ernestine, you cannot ask me to permit you to stay in the kitchen a
+moment longer. This is one of your unlucky days." And, with a comical
+air of pathos, she untied and took off her sister's apron. "Herewith I
+solemnly depose you from your responsible office. You have to-day shown
+yourself entirely unworthy to wear this ornament. Now go into the next
+room, and wait quietly until I bring the omelet in to you." And she
+opened the door and led Ernestine from the room.
+
+When she went to her, shortly afterwards, she found her sitting sewing,
+her eyes red with weeping. "Darling," she said to her, "I do believe
+you are crying about that trifle! I must be a little strict with you,
+you see, or you will never learn to economize and take care of things.
+Ernestine dear, you are not vexed with me for scolding you? I was only
+in jest."
+
+"How could I be vexed with you? I am crying because I am of no earthly
+use in the world! If it were not for you, you angel, what would become
+of me? There is no child eight years old more clumsy and awkward than
+I. Who would bear with me as you do? Do you think I am not humiliated
+by these thoughts? For these last two months, ever since my money was
+exhausted, you have supported me by your hard work at that school, and
+I could do nothing for you but prepare our frugal noonday meal while
+you are away, and now I cannot even do that! It is shameful! Have I
+made the most complicated chemical combinations, and yet can I not make
+decent soup? Have I overcome the greatest difficulties, and yet are
+these simple tasks beyond me? This cannot go on. I promise you I will
+take myself in hand, and you shall not have to fast again when you come
+from school."
+
+"My dear Ernestine, I do not believe you can ever learn these things.
+They are too far beneath you."
+
+"My superiority is truly deplorable," replied Ernestine. "It does not
+help me to discharge the smallest duty. Difficulties always incite me,
+and, now that I see how difficult these trifles are, I am determined to
+master them."
+
+Gretchen handed her a piece of the omelet. "Now put away your work, or
+your dinner will be quite cold."
+
+Ernestine laid aside the skirt upon which she was working. "I shall
+never get it together again. I wish I had not ripped it apart!"
+
+"Why, you could never have worn it, with the front breadth so scorched.
+But I will help you this evening. It is my fault that you scorched
+it,--I should not have let you make the fire,--so it is no more than
+reasonable that I should help you to repair the injury. But, Ernestine
+dear, you do not eat."
+
+"I have had enough. If you would have allowed me, I could have made two
+omelets out of those eggs."
+
+Gretchen laughed merrily. "Hear her say how much better she could have
+made it! Well, only wait, day after to-morrow is Sunday, and I shall be
+at home, and then you may cook as much as you please, under my
+direction. That will be a real holiday for you."
+
+"Ah, Gretchen, how often I think of the Staatsräthin, when she wanted
+to teach me to prepare the beans for cooking, and I felt it an
+occupation so far beneath my dignity! I did not understand her then,
+but I have learned to do so now." She sat lost in sad reflections.
+
+Gretchen looked at Ernestine's plate, and shook her head. "What shall I
+get for you that you can eat? If you would only let me accept something
+now and then from my guardian. He would be so glad to assist us."
+
+"Gretchen, I have nothing to do with what he gives you," said Ernestine
+gravely, "but no morsel that he might send us should pass my lips, any
+more than I would accept one of the two dresses he sent to you. I know
+I am severe, for I force you to starve with me, but, God willing,"--and
+she uttered the name of God with more reverence than is usually shown
+by those who have it constantly on their lips,--"it will not last much
+longer. I must surely obtain a situation soon, and then you, you dear,
+faithful child, will be free to return to the Möllners, or
+whithersoever you choose, and begin to enjoy your young life. I will
+confess to you, Gretchen, that I wrote again, the day before yesterday,
+to the agent in Frankfort, begging him to do all that he could for me.
+There must be a place for me somewhere in this wide world."
+
+She threaded her needle with difficulty, and began to sew again. Two
+large tears fell upon her work, but she brushed them hastily away, that
+Gretchen might not see them.
+
+"Dear Ernestine," Gretchen said, when she had carried away the plates,
+"I must go now, for half-past one has struck. Do not sew too long, and
+pray forget your sad thoughts. Some place for you is sure to offer. It
+would, to be sure, have been better if we could have lived in
+Frankfort, instead of coming out here to Rothelheim. Then you would
+have been able to see the people yourself. But the living there was
+really too expensive, and I was certain of employment here. Oh, if
+people only knew you, they would seize upon you instantly. If I could
+only induce my good directress to see you, she never could withstand
+you! Now good-by, dearest and best,--all good spirits protect you in
+the dark,--you know we have no light this evening!"
+
+"Never mind that, Gretchen. I will think of father Leonhardt, who is
+always in the dark, while for us the sun will surely rise again."
+
+"Yes indeed, Ernestine, always remember that,--'The sun will surely
+rise for us,' Gretchen called back into the room from the doorway.
+
+"In that sense? Who can tell?" Ernestine thought sadly.
+
+She looked for a moment irresolutely at the little spider-legged table
+that served as dining- and writing-table. She would so like to write to
+Walter. It was now over a week since she had heard from him, and her
+scientific correspondence with this young friend was her sole
+self-indulgence,--the only tie that still connected her with her former
+pursuits. In all his letters he told her of his progress, asked her
+opinion upon many points, and glowed with enthusiasm for her genius.
+She could scarcely withstand the temptation to devote the time while it
+was yet light to writing. Her heart was still full of the wonderful
+dreams of the morning.
+
+But she looked down at the skirt upon which she was working, and which
+she really stood in need of, and thought, "No, I was thoughtless this
+morning, and dreamed away the time, instead of cooking. I will be
+conscientious this afternoon, and work."
+
+She seated herself, sighing heavily, at the window, and sewed on
+diligently. "Practice makes perfect," she had said in the essay that
+was to procure her admission to the lecture-room of the University. She
+never dreamed then how she was one day to prove the truth of the
+proverb. If she only had that essay now, she thought! She had forgotten
+to ask Dr. Möllner for it, and he had it still. What had he done with
+it? Should she reclaim it? No, assuredly not! He had written to her but
+once since her flight from Hochstetten, and had afterwards sent her the
+proceeds of the sale of her furniture, without one friendly word,--only
+transacting her business for her as formally as for a stranger. And
+what a letter that was after her flight! She took it out to read it
+once more, although she had read it already again and again:
+
+"I understand you, Ernestine. I expected this. It would have been
+unjust to our future to put force upon your feelings. God will one day
+guide me out of this dilemma. Until then, live in peace, and gratify a
+pride that I am now convinced nothing can break. Perhaps in time it may
+consume itself, and perhaps love may overcome it. I will endure, as I
+have learned to do since I first knew you. There is a strength in you
+such as I never believed a woman could possess, and with which I know
+not how to contend. I do not grudge you the triumph that this
+confession affords you. It is a poor delight in comparison with that
+which love would yield you, if you did not scorn it. Ah, Ernestine,
+could I have snatched you from your poverty to my heart and home, my
+joy would have been beyond that of mortals. A grateful smile from you
+would have been more than worlds to me. But you do not choose, since
+you would sacrifice nothing for me, to accept any sacrifice from me.
+You choose to be your husband's equal in all respects,--to owe nothing
+to any human being. I forgive you your pride in this respect, for it
+presupposes an exaggerated self-depreciation. As you think so lightly
+of yourself,--as you do not dream of your wealth of charms, of the
+power that you possess to bless and enrich,--you cannot believe that
+you can bestow a treasure to the worth of which the wealth of the world
+is nothing. Perhaps this is partly my fault. In my desire to deal
+truthfully with you, I have neglected to impress this fact upon you.
+But, Ernestine, it seems to me a true woman does not ask, 'How much do
+I receive, and what can I give in return?' She accepts in love what is
+offered in love, and is glad to owe everything to him to whom she is
+everything. She gives him all that she can, and never stints him of the
+dearest delight that he can have,--that of labouring and toiling for
+one so dear to him. She willingly wears the fetters of dependence,
+regarding them only as ties binding her more closely to the loved one.
+You cannot feel so, Ernestine. It would be unjust to require it of you,
+and you were wrong if you feared I should seek to detain you by force.
+I only used force to preserve you from a menacing peril. Now you are
+safe. The world into which you are going will be only a school for you,
+and you have need of this school. Therefore, choose your own path, and
+prove the independence, your right to which you insist upon asserting.
+I would not exact what would be a blessing only as a free gift. There
+was no need of your leaving us as you did, without even a farewell to
+my mother, who had grown so fond of you and nursed you so tenderly. It
+pained her that you should do so.
+
+"I will not speak of what I suffered upon finding you gone upon my
+return from town, leaving only those few lines of farewell. You are
+bent upon maintaining the dignity of your sex, and, in such an
+important undertaking, it is scarcely worth while to consider the
+wrecked happiness of one human life.
+
+"Farewell, and, if I can serve you in anything, command me.
+                                                Johannes."
+
+
+When she first received this letter, she had sunk fainting into
+Gretchen's arms. Since then Möllner's name had never passed her lips,
+and almost five months had gone by. She had not allowed a thought of
+him to enter her mind, except when, as now, some other subject had
+brought him vividly before her, and then she punished herself by
+quickly thinking of other things. Whence came the tears that now
+trickled down her cheeks? Her cold, benumbed hands trembled as she
+wiped them away. She bravely choked them down, and thought--poor
+child!--that she was not crying, when she swallowed down the bitter
+drops that welled up from her heart. Such weeping is the bitterest of
+all.
+
+The shades of night fell fast, and she could no longer see to sew.
+There was an end of a candle on the shelf, and she lighted it, but it
+scarcely burned half an hour before it died out and she was left in
+darkness. She began to arrange and open the narrow beds that stood
+against the wall of the room, and, as she did so, thought of her good
+Willmers. How kind it was of the Frau Staatsräthin to take the faithful
+soul into her service! Fie! thinking of him again! What weakness! The
+little room grew darker and darker. The panes began to be covered with
+frost, and the light from the neighbour's room opposite glittered in
+prismatic colours upon the ice-flowers and trees. They were wealthier
+over there than Ernestine, for they could afford a light. They had not
+poured their petroleum on the salad, to be sure, but then they had not
+been visited by the Snow-queen! Ernestine sat down wearily by her bed,
+and rested her head on the pillow. She felt better when her body was in
+entire repose, she thought.
+
+How wearily she had lain upon her soft bed six months ago in
+Hochstetten! And how anxious she had been to live! Would it have been
+so terrible to lose such a life as this? Then it seemed as if a strong,
+tender hand clasped hers, and she felt a quick, anxious breath upon her
+brow. She knew it well, and the gentle questioning that was sure to
+follow,--knew that firm, quiet pressure upon her heart to count its
+pulsations. And if she had only clasped it fast,--that strong, tender
+hand,--she would not now be sitting here alone in the dark! "Oh,
+Johannes!" she gasped, and extended her arms. Then there was a noise of
+some one stumbling upstairs,--that could not be Gretchen. There was a
+knock at the door. "Who is there?" cried Ernestine, frightened.
+
+"Postman," a rough voice answered from without.
+
+"Oh, a letter from the agent," thought Ernestine, opening the door.
+
+"Four kreutzers," said the man, handing her a letter.
+
+Ernestine stood aghast. "Is it not prepaid? I--I have not a single
+kreutzer in the world--we shall have no money until to-morrow."
+
+"No kreutzers, and no light? Hm--hm! Such a beautiful lady, with no
+money in her pocket? Well, well, you can pay me to-morrow. I'll trust
+you until then."
+
+"Thank you, you are very kind," Ernestine stammered, greatly ashamed.
+She was obliged to run in debt to the postman.
+
+"Have you no light, to show me the way down-stairs? I shall break my
+legs or my neck upon these steep, narrow steps."
+
+"I will lead you down. I know the way, and I must go down to read my
+letter by a street-lamp."
+
+"Good God! what poverty! Go down to the people on the lower floor--they
+will give you a candle-end."
+
+"No, I will not. They are not respectable people, and I will have
+nothing to do with them. The poorer one is, the prouder one must be--so
+as not to sink too low. You are a good man, Herr Bittner. Tell no one
+how poor we are."
+
+"No, if you say so, but something ought to be done for you. I have seen
+what a hard time you have had of it ever since you came here. It's none
+of my business. I can only hope that there may be something good in the
+letter that I brought you,--and I do hope so, with all my heart.
+Good-evening."
+
+"God grant it!" said Ernestine, going into the street to read her
+letter by the gas-lamp there. A fine snow was falling again, and the
+passers-by looked at her in amazement. The colour mounted to her
+forehead, but she could not wait until morning to read this letter,
+which she felt sure contained her fate. It was from the Frankfort agent
+who was to procure a situation for her, and was short and to the point:
+
+
+"Fräulein von Hartwich:
+
+"You wish me to tell you frankly how it is that I have as yet procured
+no situation for you. I will do so,--for I see from your note that you
+accuse me in your thoughts of a negligence that I should be sorry to be
+guilty of towards any one,--least of all towards yourself.
+
+"You yourself, unfortunately, Fräulein von Hartwich, furnish the reason
+why I have hitherto been unable to procure a situation for you. No
+agent in the world would be able to find a position as governess in a
+respectable family for a lady bearing such a reputation as yours. For
+their children's sake, people are unwilling to receive into their
+houses a person who has written as you have done against religion and
+in favour of the emancipation of woman. You assure me, I know, that you
+have altered your opinions, and that you yourself now condemn these
+writings. But no one will believe in such a forced conversion. Besides,
+in your advertisement in the papers you referred to the Prorector of
+the University at N----, without giving any name. I can only conclude
+that you must have been mistaken in the person of the Prorector, for
+the present holder of the office is a Professor Herbert, who gives the
+strongest possible testimony against you, and has already destroyed
+your prospects in three separate instances, by referring people to your
+books,--after reading which, no one would listen to a word in your
+behalf."
+
+
+Ernestine's arms dropped by her sides. From delicacy, she had
+suppressed Möllner's name in the papers, entirely forgetting that at
+this time the office of Prorector was held but for a year by one
+person. She remembered how she had mortally offended Herbert on the
+only occasion when she had met him, and she knew that this man's
+mortified vanity had made him her implacable foe. But that was a
+secondary matter. The blameless need fear no foe. It was her own fault
+that Herbert had the power to destroy her prospects. He had not
+maligned her, he had simply referred to the books which she had
+written. She had herself whetted the knife that he had used against
+her. She had only herself to blame.
+
+Never had the phantom of the past loomed so monstrously before her as
+now. There she stood,--she, who had thought herself able to defy the
+world,--starving and freezing in the cold, reading by the light of a
+street-lamp the anathema that society hurls at the woman who offends
+it. The iron wheels of conventionality, in the path of which she had so
+boldly thrown herself, had passed over her prostrate form. She was only
+a helpless, desolate woman.
+
+She was scarcely capable of reading any further. She held the sheet in
+her trembling hands, caring not to decipher the few words of condolence
+with which the agent closed his communication. The snow-flakes wetted
+the paper, so that the letters ran together, and in the wintry wind it
+fluttered to and fro in her hand.
+
+Her feet were stiff with cold as she turned into the house again and
+groped her way up the dark staircase. Gretchen's return was unusually
+delayed, and Ernestine longed so for her sympathy and advice.
+
+What should she do? She could not permit her sister to sacrifice the
+best years of her life to her support. She could no longer be dependent
+upon the kindness of such a child. What should she attempt? Must she
+beg from door to door? How could she earn her own living, when she had
+been taught none of the arts by which to earn it? In these last few
+months Gretchen had taught her something of what was indispensable in
+such great need. She had never dreamed how difficult the things were
+that she had accounted so unimportant. She had come to the point where
+self-respect is imperilled in the struggle for mere subsistence. She
+wrung her hands, and called out into the darkness, "O God, take pity on
+me, and guide me through this valley of the shadow of death!"
+
+And the bitter doubt whether He would listen to her cry would arise
+within her heart. She reviewed in her mind the miserable superficial
+essays that she had written denying Him, and felt that she was justly
+punished. How little had she thought, when exulting in the attention
+that they had excited, that she should ever feel herself disgraced by
+their authorship! As yet, she had uttered no reproach against her
+uncle. He had expiated by his death his theft of her property, but his
+crime against her mind and soul he could never expiate,--this it was
+that now branded him with infamy in her memory. What a happy woman she
+might now have been, if he had not misdirected her ambition! What
+friends might have been hers, had he not made a misanthrope of her! and
+now, when starvation stared her in the face, the demon of his teaching
+snatched from her lips the bread that she might have earned.
+
+When Gretchen at last returned, she found Ernestine crouching upon the
+hearth, gazing into the fire that she had kindled to warm her wet feet
+and to cook the evening meal.
+
+"What are you doing, Ernestine dear?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"I am praying for daily bread," she replied in a monotone.
+
+Poor Gretchen listened sorrowfully to all that Ernestine had to tell
+her. She knew that for such a nature as Ernestine's this state of
+dependence and inactivity was worse than death, and that no love or
+devotion on her part could reconcile her proud sister to such a lot.
+She could advise nothing. The only thing that Ernestine could do for
+her own support was, perhaps, copying. But who in the little town would
+have anything to copy? And they could hardly live unless Ernestine was
+able to earn something. Gretchen's modest salary would hardly suffice
+to keep them from starvation. She did not mind any amount of
+deprivation for herself,--but could she see Ernestine pine and sicken
+for want of nourishing food? And she had promised solemnly to accept no
+help from Möllner or Hilsborn. What was to be done?
+
+After a long, sleepless night, she arose at dawn, and, while Ernestine
+was still sleeping, sat down and wrote to Hilsborn. She wrote
+hurriedly, and the long letter was wet with tears that Ernestine would
+have been grieved to see. She finished it before Ernestine awoke, and
+her eyes began to sparkle again, as if they trusted that this letter
+would change the whole aspect of affairs.
+
+"Gretchen," said Ernestine, as Gretchen leaned over her to give her a
+morning kiss, "how gay you look! Do you not feel the heavy burden that
+I have laid upon your shoulders?"
+
+"Oh, Ernestine," her sister replied, "as long as I have you I will be
+thankful for you, however dark matters may look outside."
+
+Ernestine looked at her thoughtfully. "Gretchen, there is a greatness
+in your fidelity and self-sacrifice that I never before conceived of.
+Now first I know what Dr. Möllner meant by true womanliness. This
+womanliness your father took from me,--you, his child, have restored it
+to me. It is the greatest gift you have given me, and it atones for his
+depriving me of it."
+
+Gretchen breathed a sigh of relief. "When you say so, I seem to hear
+the angels tell me that mercy will be shown to my poor father. Indeed,
+dear Ernestine, you are in alliance with beings of a better world, or
+you could not know how to console and inspire me thus. Indeed, when you
+look at me so tenderly I must believe there is redemption for the soul
+of my father. What can I do to repay you for such consolation?"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+                            THE THIRD POWER.
+
+
+"'What the law of force fails to accomplish, the intellect will
+effect,--where the intellect fails, love succeeds!' That was what he
+said," said Ernestine. Again her thoughts were involuntarily occupied
+with Johannes. "I wish I could write the sermons for his reverence,
+instead of copying them,--that would be such an excellent text." Thus
+she broke forth one day while seated with Gretchen at the table, where
+the latter was busy finishing the new dress that Hilsborn had sent her.
+
+"Have you proposed it to Herr Pastor?" asked Gretchen with a smile.
+
+"If he were not so conceited, I certainly would do so. But I suppose he
+would be offended."
+
+"I rather suppose so too," laughed Gretchen.
+
+"There is a Nemesis in it," said Ernestine, as she sat making a pen.
+"Here am I, who have hardly ever listened to a sermon in my life,
+obliged to copy sermons for my bread. Well," she added gravely, "it is
+just."
+
+And again her pen flew quickly over the paper. After some time she sat
+up, with a long breath. "I have learnt to deny myself and to pray, but
+I have yet to learn the hardest task of all,--patience."
+
+"It must be a terrible drudgery to such a mind as yours merely to write
+down the thoughts of another," said Gretchen.
+
+"If there only were thoughts here, but these are nothing but empty
+words. And I must not even correct them,--it is mental death!" She
+wrote on for awhile, then suddenly raised her head and broke out, "At
+least they might let women have something to do with religion, if they
+deny our right to meddle with science or politics. Religion is so much
+a matter of feeling, and feeling is a woman's prerogative. Humility,
+self-sacrifice, and submission are native to woman, and a woman's lips
+could discourse far more eloquently than a man's of these Christian
+qualities. Why should a woman not be found worthy to declare the word
+of God? Why?" She suppressed a sigh. "Ah, the old indignation is
+getting possession of me! I will not yield to it,--such independence of
+thought does not become a mere copyist." She tried to go on with her
+writing, but her cheeks were flushed, and the tears stood in her eyes.
+"Oh, Gretchen, I shall never live it down,--this pity for our poor sex.
+It will always be the same,--any allusion to our wrongs cuts me to the
+very quick."
+
+Gretchen laid her hand upon her shoulder. "Dear Ernestine, we will
+speak of this some other time. Now remember that you have promised that
+your copy shall be ready by four o'clock."
+
+"You are right I will finish it instantly," said Ernestine, dipping the
+pen in the ink. "No, I cannot let such nonsense stand as it is!" she
+exclaimed after a pause. "The man is going to have the sermons
+printed,--he will thank me for correcting the worst faults."
+
+"Ernestine, take care,--he may be offended," said Gretchen.
+
+"Oh, no, surely I may change a couple of words. Whatever goes through
+my hands shall be as free from errors as possible."
+
+Gretchen shook her head.
+
+Ernestine completed her copy in about half an hour, and prepared to
+carry it to the pastor.
+
+The days were beginning to grow longer. Although it was past four
+o'clock, the winter sun was looking brightly into the room, and upon
+the roofs below their windows the snow was melting into little rills.
+
+"Shall you be back soon?" Gretchen called after Ernestine as she went
+out.
+
+"In a very little while," was the answer, as the speaker left the room
+with her bundle of papers under her arm.
+
+Gretchen was left alone in the room.
+
+Another half-hour passed. A firm step was heard ascending the stairs.
+Gretchen listened intently. Her heart beat fast with joyous expectancy.
+Who was it that was intruding upon their seclusion?
+
+She had not long to wait, there was a loud knock at the door.
+Gretchen's "Come in" was instantly followed by a "Thank God, 'tis he!"
+for Möllner stood upon the threshold.
+
+"I knew you would come,--I was sure my letter to Herr Hilsborn would
+bring you,--I am delighted!" cried the girl, drawing him into the room.
+He said nothing in reply to her welcome, but let her take his hat and
+coat, and then, with a glance around the wretched apartment, exclaimed,
+in a tone of horror-stricken compassion, "Good God!"
+
+Gretchen understood him, and gave him time to recover himself.
+
+At last he asked, "Where is she?"
+
+"She has gone to carry home some copying that the pastor gave her to
+do. She will be here very soon. Do not be startled at seeing her look
+so badly. We have lived wretchedly of late."
+
+Johannes took her hand. "Gretchen, can't you hide me somewhere? I am
+not sufficiently composed to see her at present,--I must collect
+myself."
+
+"Yes, come into our kitchen. I had better prepare Ernestine, too, for
+seeing you,--she is weak, and must be treated with great caution."
+
+She conducted him into the little, cold, dark room that she called a
+kitchen. "Look! the poor girl has cooked our wretched dinners in this
+place for the last five months, and shed many a tear when she spoiled
+anything. Oh, if you could have seen, as I have, our proud Ernestine
+work and struggle and starve, you would not have refrained so long from
+putting an end to our misery."
+
+"It is well that I could not see it. I should have been unnerved, and
+spoiled all by precipitation."
+
+"Forgive me, but indeed you are hard. Hilsborn would not have left me
+here one instant longer than he could have helped."
+
+"And he would have been right, Gretchen. But Ernestine and you are very
+different characters. She needed, and would have, this struggle for
+life,--even now I tremble lest she should refuse to let me put an end
+to it."
+
+"Oh, no! when you see Ernestine, you will acknowledge that it was high
+time to hasten to her. Since all her efforts to obtain a situation have
+failed, her spirit seems well-nigh broken. I think in a little while
+she would have been hopelessly embittered, and her health would have
+given way entirely."
+
+Johannes threw himself into the wooden chair by the window, where, in
+the midst of the hard prose of her life, Ernestine had been visited by
+such wondrous dreams. "Here is a letter to you, my dear Gretchen, from
+Hilsborn. He would have been only too glad to come with me, but every
+moment of his time is in demand."
+
+"He is good and true," said Gretchen, "and I know how he trusts in me,
+but I cannot leave Ernestine until her future is assured."
+
+"You are a noble child, Gretchen! If Ernestine had the least suspicion
+of what you are renouncing for her sake, she would never permit----" He
+paused, a flush mounted to his brow, his lips trembled, as he
+whispered, "There she is! I hear her coming! For God's sake, Gretchen,
+give me time to collect myself."
+
+"I will go and meet her, that she may not come in here," said Gretchen.
+
+Johannes handed her a book. "Here, lay this upon her table. It is a
+copy of the same edition of Andersen's Fairy Tales that I once gave
+her, and that was burnt. It may prepare her for seeing me."
+
+"Yes, yes!" Gretchen hurried into the next room, and laid the book in
+Ernestine's work-basket. She started at the haggard appearance of
+Ernestine who entered with eyes flashing, and an expression of sullen
+indignation upon every feature.
+
+"What is the matter, Ernestine?" she asked.
+
+Ernestine threw off her hat and cloak, wrung her hands, and walked
+hurriedly to and fro. "That has gone too!"
+
+"What, Ernestine?--what?"
+
+"The pastor has refused to give me any more sermons to copy, because I
+ventured to correct his errors."
+
+"Oh, is that all?" cried Gretchen, very much relieved.
+
+"Is that all?" Ernestine repeated bitterly. "You say that, because,
+faithful and true as you are, you see no hardship in the prospect of
+supporting me again, without any help on my part, by your own unwearied
+exertions. You can say, 'Is that all?' but I, who fancied myself the
+first and proudest of my sex, am a beggar, dependent upon charity, fit
+for nothing but the duties of a common maid-servant, and not able to
+perform even these decently. I have lost all confidence, all hope, in
+myself. That is all!"
+
+Gretchen caressed her lovingly, and smiled,--how could she smile at
+this moment? "Ah, Ernestine, how could you reject Dr. Möllner when he
+first wooed you? I should have thought you would have given your heart
+to him upon the spot. I only hope you may never know what you threw
+away."
+
+"Gretchen," said Ernestine gravely, "it is long since I have learned
+what I then rejected. The pride with which I turned away from him,
+refusing to sacrifice my foolish ambition to make myself a name, has
+been severely punished. As in our dreams we are sometimes borne aloft
+as upon wings into immeasurable space, until our balance is lost and we
+fall headlong, awaking with the shock, so my ambition carried me to
+heights where I could not sustain myself. I fell, but strong and tender
+arms were held out to receive me, and I awoke to find myself embraced
+by them instead of prostrate in a frightful abyss. Then, in the
+confusion of my wakening, I thought those sustaining arms were fetters.
+I thrust them from me, and now I lie crushed and broken on the ground."
+She crossed her arms upon the table, and bowed her head on them.
+
+Gently Gretchen took the book from the basket, and, opening it where
+she saw that Johannes had put a mark, she silently pushed it towards
+Ernestine, who raised her head at the touch, and at first looked
+absently at the pages before her, then gazed and gazed as if utterly
+unable to comprehend what she saw. It was her dear old book,--there was
+the swan that she had burned. "Heavens!" she cried, between laughter
+and tears, "can this be real? My swan! My swan! Who brought me this?
+Oh, dreams of my childhood, who has restored you to me?"
+
+And she knelt beside the table, and laid her cheek upon the book.
+Before her closed eyes it was night again. Before her upon the table
+burned the dim night-lamp, and her father lay asleep close at hand. She
+read the story of the Ugly Duckling, and above her softly rustled the
+snowy plumage of the swan, and among her curls trembled the leaves of
+the oak whence the handsome boy had snatched her from mortal peril. And
+then her father awoke, and sent her up to her uncle. There stood the
+telescope, through which she was again gazing, thirsting for a peace
+which her young heart presaged without the power to grasp,--filled with
+longing to be borne up--up to those starry worlds gliding so silently
+through space. She knew now what she had so desired,--Love! But she
+searched for it among those worlds in vain. Suddenly she was standing
+upon the hill in the garden of her castle, and above her hovered the
+faithful little mermaid, in the shape of a sunset cloud, while a deep,
+tender voice whispered, "Poor swan!" Here, here was what she sought.
+
+"Poor swan!" The words sounded distinctly now in her ears, not in her
+dreaming fancy only. She opened her eyes, and started up with a
+low cry, and would have fled,--fled to the uttermost ends of the
+earth,--but she could not stir from the spot. She tottered and would
+have fallen, but two strong arms upheld her, and for a moment she lost
+all consciousness. This was rest indeed.
+
+"Shall I get some water?" asked Gretchen.
+
+"Oh, no. Do not grudge me one moment," said Johannes, clasping the
+lifeless form to his heart "She will recoil from me as soon as she
+comes to herself."
+
+"You should not have spoken to her so suddenly," said Gretchen.
+
+Ernestine opened her eyes, looked up and around for a moment in
+bewilderment, and then extricated herself instantly from the arms in
+which she had found such rest.
+
+"Did I not know her well?" Johannes said, by a glance, to Gretchen.
+
+"You came so unexpectedly,--I was weak. I am ashamed of myself," she
+said, struggling for composure.
+
+"You might be ashamed, if you could be what you call strong at this
+moment," he replied. At a sign from him, Gretchen withdrew.
+
+Johannes gazed for a moment with intense devotion into Ernestine's
+eyes. "Dear heart, let me speak one fervent, last word to you. I know
+that I just now held another Ernestine in my arms than she who fled
+from me almost half a year ago. I felt it in the throbbing of your
+heart. But fear nothing, I am not come to take advantage of your
+helpless condition,--to wring from you a decision which might be
+stigmatized, in your present circumstances, as extorted from you by
+necessity. I understand you now. Yours is a nature never to yield to
+pressure from without,--it must take form and direction from within. It
+would be as useless to attempt controlling such a nature by force as to
+endeavour to make a rose bloom by tearing open the bud. We might
+destroy, but we could not unfold it. I have done all that I could to
+restore to you what is as necessary to you as light and air,--your
+independence. You once accused me of selfishness and interested
+motives. You shall be convinced that you did me injustice in this
+respect." He drew a paper from his breast-pocket. "I have succeeded
+through my friend Brenter, in St. Petersburg, in procuring you the
+offer of a position as Teacher of Natural Science in the famous Normal
+School established there. The place is a capital one, and has hitherto
+been occupied by men only. You will be entire mistress of your time,
+with the exception of the few hours daily spent in instruction. You can
+easily pursue your studies, and I can procure you admission to the
+scientific society of St. Petersburg. Your life there will be what your
+former ambition craved. You can earn your livelihood honourably, and
+sooner or later you will have an opportunity of attaining the goal of
+your desires,--a degree, for the Russian universities are not so strict
+as the German in the matter of admitting women to a share in their
+honours. Here is Brenter's letter. You see it makes you independent of
+all aid, even of mine. And now I venture again to ask you to make a
+sacrifice for me,--a great sacrifice. You cannot fear, if you now grant
+my suit, that any suspicion can be cast upon the freedom of your
+choice, or that you can be accused of being driven by necessity into my
+arms. If you yield now, you renounce brilliant prospects for my sake. I
+will urge nothing in my own behalf. Leave me, and there is a great
+future before you. Be mine, and my heart and home stand wide open to
+receive you. I will only say, 'Choose, Ernestine.'"
+
+"And have you done this,--this for me?" said Ernestine, trembling with
+emotion. "How truly have you understood and respected my pride! How
+firm and yet how tender you are with me! How can I thank you, how repay
+you?"
+
+"How, Ernestine? Let your own heart answer."
+
+"I cannot listen to my heart alone. I must do whatever will make me
+worthiest of such devoted love. What shall,--what should I decide?"
+
+"Let me tell you, if you do not know, for the last time, that true
+pride will teach you that you can give me nothing half so precious as
+yourself. The value of this gift no worldly wealth or honours could
+enhance. True humility will teach you to yield your fate
+unquestioningly to the man who gives you his very life. Go from me, and
+you may be great, but you cannot be womanly, and what is such
+greatness, attained at the cost of a heart? Give up the false pride
+that would seek fame beyond the bounds of a woman's sphere, and confess
+that you can do nothing greater than to enrich and bless, as you will
+when you are what God intended you should be--a true, loving woman." He
+broke off. "But, I repeat, the choice is yours."
+
+"The choice? Is there any choice left for me?" cried Ernestine with
+sparkling eyes. "Shall I dissemble now, and try to conceal what I have
+scarcely been able for a long time to control! What are learning and
+fame, what the pride of position that you have offered me, compared
+with the happiness of this moment? Away with them all, and with my
+false pride! My choice is made, Johannes." And she sank upon his
+breast.
+
+He clasped her as in a dream. Their lips met in a first long kiss, in
+which the lover breathed forth his long-pent-up tenderness.
+
+She trembled like a scarce-opened flower in the first wind of summer,
+and yet all was as well with her as when she had, as a child, measured
+herself against the Titanic force of the elements in commotion around
+her. She knew now that love was no weakness, but a mighty power, and
+that it was divine to put forth this power. She raised her head at
+last, and looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Johannes,--dearest,
+best,--forgive--forgive my faults and failings--I repented them so long
+ago!"
+
+He leaned over her, and whispered, "Ernestine, only love, do you now
+confess the third power of which I once told you?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I confess and bow before it." She folded her hands, and her
+face seemed for a moment transfigured. "Oh, Spirit of Love, dwell in my
+heart, and teach me to be worthy of him who is so dear to me."
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+There was a double wedding such as the town of N---- had never seen
+before! Möllner and Ernestine, Hilsborn and Gretchen, were married on
+the same day. There was a great crowd before the quiet house where
+Professor Möllner lived, to witness the arrival of the numerous guests
+who were to escort the bridal parties to church.
+
+"That is one of the bridesmaids, but an old one," was whispered among
+the people as Elsa and her brother alighted from their carriage.
+
+"And that is another, but a very little one," was added, as a stalwart
+young man lifted a charming brown-eyed child out of the carriage. She
+was dressed in white with pink ribbons, and had a huge bouquet in her
+hand.
+
+"But, oh, she has only one arm!" was uttered in a tone of compassion as
+she passed into the house, accompanied by her companion bridesmaid, and
+disappeared beneath the garlands and among the flowering shrubs with
+which the hall was decorated.
+
+Within, the large drawing-room was crowded with the science and
+respectability of N----. There had been great astonishment among the
+inhabitants of the place when Johannes' actual engagement to the
+Hartwich was announced, but all agreed that Professor Möllner always
+knew what he was about; and those who were invited to the wedding
+declared themselves delighted with the match.
+
+Even Elsa was appeased by Möllner's request that she would act as
+bridesmaid. "I am glad to be his bridesmaid," she said to her
+sister-in-law in the morning. "It will break my heart, but I will not
+repine! I shall fade away like a blossom that zephyrs waft from the
+tree before it can become fruit. Oh, no, I do not repine,--I only share
+the fate of thousands of my sisters. The blossom dying the death of
+innocence in its virgin purity is not to be pitied--no, let pity be for
+him who could crush it beneath his trend in his onward path without
+ever dreaming of the delight that it might have given him." She did not
+foresee that the poetic death that she anticipated would be very long
+delayed, and that she would be a welcome guest in Möllner's house in
+future years, as "Aunt Elsa" to a throng of attentive little listeners
+whom she would delight with many a tale about the elves, gnomes, and
+wild flowers of her youth. She was dressed in character on the present
+occasion, in sea-green, with a wreath of cherry-blossoms in her hair; a
+long narrow scarf of white satin fluttered about her slender figure.
+"Many might be more richly clad," she thought, "but none so
+romantically and poetically."
+
+Her brother was in a sad state of mind as he this morning put on the
+dress-coat in which he had made his first appearance a year before in
+the Countess Worronska's boudoir. He had just heard that the beautiful
+countess had been killed in a race at St. Petersburg, and his grief at
+the death of the woman whom he still loved was increased by the
+necessity of concealing it.
+
+In spite of the number of guests, there was a solemn silence reigning
+in the large apartment. For all were awaiting the entrance of the two
+brides.
+
+Who has not been conscious of a slight shudder at the first appearance
+of a bride, a young girl, about to take the most important step of her
+life? All eyes were turned towards the door of the antechamber.
+
+Johannes, with his mother, and Hilsborn, with Heim, placed themselves
+opposite it, the guests withdrew from around them, and a space through
+the centre of the room was left free.
+
+Slowly, and enveloped in her floating veil as in a white cloud, her
+head bowed beneath the myrtle-wreath, Ernestine entered the room. Her
+dark eyelashes were drooping, and upon her broad brow true womanhood
+was enthroned. She paused, bewildered and confused by the presence of
+so many people, among whom the whisper ran, "How lovely the bride
+looks!" In defiance of all rule, Johannes hastened to her, and clasped
+her hands in his.
+
+"My swan," he whispered, "now you have unfolded your plumage!"
+
+Ernestine bent her head lower still, and a tear fell on his hand.
+
+"Johannes," she said softly, "let me confess,--I have loved you ever
+since you made known to me, eleven years ago, the promise of the swan,
+but I could not know that it was only through you that the promise was
+to be fulfilled!"
+
+"You loved me then, and could reject and torment me! Oh, Ernestine,
+what penalty is there for such cruelty?"
+
+"Only one, dearest, but a severe one,--grief for time wasted."
+
+"Amen, my daughter," said the Staatsräthin gravely.
+
+The second bride, Gretchen, now entered, with blushing cheeks and a
+radiant smile. Hilsborn, with his foster-father, went to her, and Heim
+gave her his paternal benediction. Then came Angelika, and the faithful
+Willmers, who had discharged the office of dressing-maid to the pair.
+
+From a corner of the room, Johannes led forward a bowed, aged form, the
+friend whom Ernestine had chosen to give her away,--old Leonhardt.
+
+"Father," she said, gently taking his hand in one of hers, while she
+held out the other to the Staatsräthin,--"father, mother in spirit and
+in truth, I thank you both."
+
+"Ernestine," said Leonhardt, "only one day in my life,--the day of my
+own marriage,--equals this in happiness. God bless you!" The old man
+was happy indeed, for the day before Walter had handed him a parchment
+roll with the announcement "It is my diploma."
+
+"Are we never going to start?" suddenly exclaimed Moritz. "These lovers
+are not in any hurry, apparently. They have had sufficient time to make
+up their minds,--pray Heaven they are not regretting their decision. To
+church, then, in God's name."
+
+"In God's' name," Ernestine whispered, and the words were spoken with
+her whole soul.
+
+
+
+
+                             A YEAR LATER.
+
+
+"Who would have thought that Ernestine would ever have turned out such
+a woman?" said Moritz Kern in a suppressed tone to his wife.
+
+The pair were walking to and fro in Möllner's study, which was
+furnished precisely like Ernestine's former library, and they were
+evidently awaiting some event with anxiety.
+
+Half hidden by the heavy folds of the blue curtains, Hilsborn and
+Gretchen were standing at the window. They did not speak, their hearts
+were too full. Gretchen's hands were folded, as though she were
+breathing a silent prayer, and Hilsborn stood grave and anxious beside
+her. Even Moritz stopped now and then and looked towards the door of
+the adjoining room, as if expecting it to open, but he evidently wished
+to conceal all emotion, and talked on gaily. "Yes, who would have
+thought it? Johannes must have been puzzled indeed to know how to train
+that scatterbrain."
+
+"I always told you that Johannes could do whatever he chose, and
+Ernestine was always sweet and good in reality, only she had been so
+warped by her education," said Angelika. "I liked her from the first
+moment that I saw her after she was grown up, and you know I always
+defended her from your attacks. And now all is just as I said it would
+be."
+
+"Oh, of course! I really should like to hear of anything that you women
+did not know all about beforehand," laughed Moritz. "You are always so
+much sharper than we. If Ernestine had made her husband as unhappy as
+she makes him happy, we should hear the same thing,--'Oh, I told you
+so, I saw how it would be from the first, I never liked her.' I know
+you well!"
+
+"Are you not ashamed," pouted Angelika, "to go on with your silly jests
+when we are all so anxious? If Johannes should lose his wife, what
+would become of him?"
+
+"Ah, bah! he is not going to lose her. Don't be foolish," said Moritz.
+
+Hilsborn came towards them. "Don't make yourself out worse than you
+are, Moritz," said he. "I never saw you look more troubled than you do
+just at this moment. You know well enough what Ernestine is to us all."
+
+"Deuce take it, of course I know it!" cried Moritz,--"she's as much to
+me as to any of you,--but I hate to hear people cry before they are
+hurt. God keep her, she's a jewel of a woman!"
+
+"Yes," said Gretchen, joining in the conversation, "such women are rare
+indeed. How she fulfils every duty, even those that she once considered
+so dull and commonplace!"
+
+"Yes, yes," chimed in Angelika, "my mother is never weary of sounding
+her praises."
+
+"This is the most wonderful thing she has accomplished yet," said
+Moritz. "Only hear these two notable housewives, Hilsborn, joining in a
+chorus of praise of a third! Did you ever hear anything like it? I
+never did."
+
+"She deserves it all," answered Hilsborn. "And then she is invaluable
+to Johannes as a scientific companion and assistant. He could as ill
+spare her at his desk or in his laboratory as at the head of his
+household--or----"
+
+"Hush!" interrupted Angelika, "did you not hear some one at the door?"
+And silence reigned in the room again for awhile.
+
+"I hope it will be a boy,--Ernestine longs for a boy," sighed Angelika.
+
+"Past two o'clock," said Hilsborn. "I wish they would send us some one
+to say how she is."
+
+Suddenly the door was flung open, and old Heim's deep voice cried, "It
+is over."
+
+"Thank God!" they all exclaimed as with one breath.
+
+"Is it a boy?" asked Angelika.
+
+"No, a girl!"
+
+"A girl!" said Moritz. "Well, ''tis not pretty, but sin is uglier,' as
+the Suabian said."
+
+"Do be quiet! What would Ernestine say if she heard you, you mocker?"
+said Angelika. "May we not go to her, Uncle Heim?"
+
+"No, stay where you are," said the old man, closing the door.
+
+Within Ernestine's apartment all was quiet and repose. Johannes was
+standing, mute with happiness, by Ernestine's side, supporting her
+head, when he was called to look at his little daughter, a bundle of
+snowy wrappings in her grandmother's arms.
+
+He took the little creature from her and laid it by his wife's side.
+"Mother," was all he said, leaning over her enraptured for awhile,
+gazing into the pure delight mirrored in her eyes. At last he raised
+his head, and said, laughingly, "But, Ernestine, 'it is only a girl.'"
+
+"Be it so. I do not question what God has sent me. I am a mother. I
+envy no man now, and our daughter shall never do so. We will cherish
+and train our child to be what a true woman should be, and some day she
+may say to one whom she loves, as I do to you, my dearest, 'Thank God
+that I am a woman, and that I am yours.'"
+
+"Ernestine," said Johannes, "those are the dearest words you could
+utter. Happy the daughter of such a mother! Father Heim, mother dear,
+did you hear Ernestine's confession? She is reconciled at last to the
+destiny of her sex."
+
+Ernestine gazed at the atom of being by her side, as if it were a
+miracle. She quite agreed with the Staatsräthin that it was a
+wonderfully pretty child for a new-born baby, and, as she laid her hand
+upon its little heart and felt its regular beating, she smiled amid her
+tears, and would gladly have clasped it in her arms, only it seemed so
+frail and slight she was afraid of breaking it.
+
+"Uncle Heim," she said, "I once thought that it would have been better
+if you had left me to die when my father gave me that almost fatal
+blow, but since then I have been often grateful to you for preserving
+my life, although never so grateful as at this moment."
+
+"Ah, bah!" said the old man, "I was only the physician of your body.
+Reserve your gratitude for this fellow," he laid his hand upon
+Johannes' shoulder,--"he was the physician for your soul, and so
+judicious was his treatment, that now you can have some comfort of your
+life."
+
+Ernestine looked up gratefully at her husband. "Yes, faithful physician
+of my soul,--your medicines were very bitter, but they were my
+salvation."
+
+
+
+                               FOOTNOTE:
+
+[Footnote 1: See Du Bois Reymond: _Voltaire, in Relation to Natural
+Sciences_. Berlin, 1868.]
+
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Only a Girl:, by Wilhelmine von Hillern
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+<title>Only a girl: or A Physician for the Soul.</title>
+<meta name="Author" content="Wilhelmine von Hillern">
+<meta name="Publisher" content="J. B. Lippincott &amp; Co.">
+<meta name="Date" content="1871">
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Only a Girl:, by Wilhelmine von Hillern
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Only a Girl:
+       or, A Physician for the Soul.
+
+Author: Wilhelmine von Hillern
+
+Translator: A. L. Wister
+
+Release Date: July 11, 2011 [EBook #36709]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONLY A GIRL: ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Note:<br>
+
+<br>
+1. Page scan source:<br>
+http://www.archive.org/details/onlyagirlaroman00wistgoog<br>
+<br>
+2. This was published also in England under the title &quot;Ernestine: A
+Novel&quot;, translated by S. Baring Gould.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<div style="line-height:200%">
+<h1>ONLY A GIRL:</h1>
+
+<h4>OR</h4>
+
+<h3>A PHYSICIAN FOR THE SOUL.</h3>
+</div>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<div style="line-height:150%">
+<h3>A ROMANCE</h3>
+
+<h4>FROM THE GERMAN</h4>
+
+<h5>OF</h5>
+
+<h3>WILHELMINE VON HILLERN.</h3>
+</div>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>BY</h5>
+
+<h3>MRS. A. L. WISTER.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h5>PHILADELPHIA:</h5>
+<h4>J. B. LIPPINCOTT &amp; CO.</h4>
+<h4>1871.</h4>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr class="W50">
+
+<p class="center" style="margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt">Entered, according to act of Congress, In the year 1870, by<br>
+J. B. LIPPINCOTT &amp; CO.,<br>
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States<br>
+for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.</p>
+
+<hr class="W50">
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+<br>
+<table cellpadding="10" style="width:90%; margin-left:5%">
+<colgroup><col style="width:10%; text-align:right; vertical-align:top">
+<col style="width:90%; vertical-align:top"></colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="sc2">CHAPTER</span></td>
+<td></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>I.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_1.1" href="#div1_1.1"><span class="sc">&quot;Only a Girl&quot;</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>II.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_1.2" href="#div1_1.2"><span class="sc">The Story of the Ugly Duckling</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>III.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_1.3" href="#div1_1.3"><span class="sc">Atonement</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>IV.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_1.4" href="#div1_1.4"><span class="sc">The Sad Survivors</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>V.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_1.5" href="#div1_1.5"><span class="sc">Undeceived</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>VI.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_1.6" href="#div1_1.6"><span class="sc">Soul-Murder</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>VII.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_1.7" href="#div1_1.7"><span class="sc">Departure</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td colspan="2"><h3><a name="div1Ref_2.0" href="#div1_2.0">PART II.</a></h3></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>I.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_2.1" href="#div1_2.1"><span class="sc">&quot;Only a Woman&quot;</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>II.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_2.2" href="#div1_2.2"><span class="sc">The Swan</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>III.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_2.3" href="#div1_2.3"><span class="sc">The Village School</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>IV.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_2.4" href="#div1_2.4"><span class="sc">The Guardian</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>V.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_2.5" href="#div1_2.5"><span class="sc">Fruitless Pretensions</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>VI.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_2.6" href="#div1_2.6"><span class="sc">Emancipation of the Flesh</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>VII.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_2.7" href="#div1_2.7"><span class="sc">Emancipation of the Spirit</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>VIII.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_2.8" href="#div1_2.8"><span class="sc">&quot;When Women hold the Reins&quot;</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>IX.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_2.9" href="#div1_2.9"><span class="sc">Vox Populi, Vox Dei</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>X.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_2.10" href="#div1_2.10"><span class="sc">Nowhere at Home</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>XI.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_2.11" href="#div1_2.11"><span class="sc">Inharmonious Contrasts</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td colspan="2"><h3><a name="div1Ref_3.0" href="#div1_3.0">PART III.</a></h3></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>I.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_3.1" href="#div1_3.1"><span class="sc">The Strength of Weakness</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>II.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_3.2" href="#div1_3.2"><span class="sc">The Weakness of Strength</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>III.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_3.3" href="#div1_3.3"><span class="sc">Silver-armed Käthchen</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>IV.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_3.4" href="#div1_3.4"><span class="sc">Battle</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>V.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_3.5" href="#div1_3.5"><span class="sc">Science and Faith</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>VI.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_3.6" href="#div1_3.6"><span class="sc">Sentenced</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>VII.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_3.7" href="#div1_3.7"><span class="sc">The Orphan</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>VIII.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_3.8" href="#div1_3.8"><span class="sc">Blossoms on the Border of the Grave</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>IX.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_3.9" href="#div1_3.9"><span class="sc">It is Morning again</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>X.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_3.10" href="#div1_3.10"><span class="sc">Return</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>XI.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_3.11" href="#div1_3.11"><span class="sc">&quot;Give us this Day Our Daily Bread&quot;</span></a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td>XII.</td>
+<td><a name="div1Ref_3.12" href="#div1_3.12"><span class="sc">The Third Power</span></a></td>
+</tr></table>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h1>ONLY A GIRL;</h1>
+
+<h5>OR</h5>
+
+<h2>A PHYSICIAN FOR THE SOUL.</h2>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_1.1" href="#div1Ref_1.1">CHAPTER I.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>&quot;ONLY A GIRL.&quot;</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">In a level, well-wooded country in Northern Germany, not far from an
+insignificant village, stood a distillery, such as is frequently to be
+found upon the estates of the North German nobility, and in connection
+with it an extensive manufactory,--the estate comprising, besides, a
+kitchen-garden overgrown with weeds, a few fruit-trees overshadowing
+the decaying remains of rustic seats long fallen to ruin, and a
+dwelling-house, well built, indeed, but as neglected and dirty as its
+guardian the lean, hungry mastiff, whose empty plate and dusty jug
+testified to the length of time since the poor creature had had any
+refreshment in the oppressive heat of this July day. No one who looked
+upon this picture could doubt that the interior of the house must
+correspond with its cheerless outside, and that the gentle, beneficent
+hand was wanting there that keeps a house neat and orderly, cares for
+the garden, and attends to the wants of even a dumb brute. Where such a
+hand is wanting, there is neither order nor culture, no love of the
+beautiful, nor sometimes even of the good,--too often, indeed, no joy,
+no happiness. There was no one in the court-yard or garden; nothing was
+stirring but a couple of cheeping chickens that were peeping around the
+corner of the dog's kennel, in hopes of stray crumbs from his last
+meal. They came on cautiously, their little heads turning curiously
+from side to side, in fear lest the dog should make his appearance; but
+he kept in his kennel, his head resting upon his paws, and his
+bloodshot eyes blinking over the distant landscape. The hungry fowls,
+grown bolder, pecked and scratched around his plate, but vainly: there
+was nothing to be found but dry sand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Beside the well stood a churn, and a bench upon which lay a roll of
+fresh butter, which, neglected and forgotten, was melting beneath the
+sun's hot rays, and dripping down upon the weeds around. Perhaps the
+starving dog was suddenly struck by the thought how grateful this waste
+would be to him were it only within his domain; for he started up and
+ran out as far as he could from his kennel, dragging his rattling chain
+behind him, as if to prove its length, then stood still, and finally
+bethought himself and crept back with drooping head beneath his roof.
+Outside of a window, upon the ground floor, stood a couple of dried
+cactus-plants, and several bottles of distilled herbs; the cork of one
+of them was gone, and its contents filled with flies and beetles.
+Everything, far and near, betrayed neglect and dirt; but the excuse of
+poverty was evidently wanting. The extensive stables and accommodations
+for cattle, the huge out-houses and far-stretching fields of grain
+testified to the wealth of the proprietor of the estate. A comfortable
+rolling-chair standing in the court-yard, its leathern cushions rotting
+in the sun, seemed to indicate the presence of an invalid or a cripple.
+Only the lowest and uppermost stories of the house appeared to be
+inhabited; the windows of the middle floor were all closed, and so
+thickly festooned with cobwebs that they could not have been opened for
+a long time. It seemed as if the swallows wee the only creatures who
+could find comfort in such an inhospitable mansion; their nests were
+everywhere to be seen. The chickens looked enviously up at them, and
+hopped upon the low window-ledges of the lower story, as if to remind
+the inmates of their existence and necessities. Suddenly they fluttered
+down to the ground again, for from one of the open windows there came a
+child's scream, so piteous and shrill that the large dog pricked his
+ears and once more restlessly measured the length of his chain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In a low room, the atmosphere of which was almost stifling from the
+heat of an ironing-stove and the steam from dampened linen, that two
+robust maid-servants were engaged in ironing, a little girl, about
+twelve years of age, was standing before an old wardrobe. She was half
+undressed, and the garments falling off her shoulders disclosed a
+little body so wasted and delicate that at sight of it a mother's eyes
+would have filled with tears. But there was no mother near, only an old
+housekeeper, whose bony fingers had apparently just been laid violently
+upon the child, who was crying aloud and covering one thin shoulder
+with her hand, while she refused to put on a dress that the woman was
+holding towards her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is the matter now?&quot; an angry voice called from the adjoining
+room. The child started in alarm. The old woman went to the door, and
+replied, &quot;Ernestine is so naughty again that there is no doing anything
+with her. She has torn her best dress, because she says she has
+outgrown it, and it hurts her; but it isn't true: it fits her very
+well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How can the miserable creature have outgrown any dress?&quot; rejoined the
+rough voice from within. &quot;Put it on this moment, and go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The child leaned against the wardrobe, and looked obstinate and
+defiant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She won't do it, sir; she does not want to go to the children's
+party!&quot; said the unfeeling attendant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I ordered you to go,&quot; cried the father. &quot;When a lady like the Frau
+Staatsräthin does you the honour to invite you, you are to accept her
+invitation gratefully. I will not have it said that I make a Cinderella
+of my daughter!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Little Ernestine made no reply, but looked at the housekeeper with such
+an expression in her large, sunken eyes, that the woman was transported
+with rage; it seemed scarcely possible that so much contempt and hate
+should find place in the bosom of a child. The housekeeper clasped her
+hands. &quot;No, you bad, naughty child! You ought to see how she is looking
+at me now, Herr von Hartwich!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With these words she tried again to throw the dress over Ernestine's
+head; but the girl tore it away, threw it on the ground and trampled
+upon it, crying in a transport of rage, interrupted by bursts of tears,
+&quot;I will not put it on, and I will not go among strangers! I will not be
+treated so! You are a bad, wicked woman! I will not mind you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, goodness gracious! was ever such a naughty child seen!&quot; exclaimed
+the housekeeper, looking with a secret sensation of fear at the little
+fury who stood before her with dishevelled hair and heaving chest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;When are you going to stop that noise out there?&quot; roared the father.
+&quot;Must I, wretched man that I am, hear nothing, all day long, but
+children's and servants' squabbles? Ernestine, come in here to me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this command, the little girl began to tremble violently; she knew
+what was in store for her, and moved slowly towards the door. &quot;Are you
+coming?&quot; called the invalid.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine entered the room, and stood as far as possible from the bed
+where he was lying. &quot;Now, come here!&quot; he cried, beckoning her towards
+him with his right hand,--his left was crippled,--and continuing, as
+Ernestine hesitated: &quot;You good-for-nothing, obstinate child! you have
+never caused a throb of pleasure to any one since you came into the
+world; not even to your mother, for your birth cost her her life. In
+you God has heaped upon me all the sorrows but none of the joys that a
+son might afford his father; you have the waywardness and self-will of
+a boy, with the frail, puny body of a girl! What is to be done with
+such a wretched creature, that can do nothing but scream and cry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At these words the child burst into a fresh flood of tears, and was
+hurrying out, when she was recalled by a thundering &quot;Stop! you have not
+had your punishment yet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine knew then what was coming, and begged hard. &quot;Do not strike
+me, father! Oh, do not strike me again!&quot; But her entreaties were of no
+avail.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With lips tightly compressed, and her little hands convulsively clasped
+together, she approached the bed. The sick man raised his broad hard
+hand, and a heavy blow fell upon the transparent cheek of the child,
+who staggered and fell on the floor. &quot;Now will you obey, or have you
+not had enough yet?&quot; the father asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will obey,&quot; sobbed the little girl, as she rose from the floor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But first ask Frau Gedike's pardon!&quot; ordered the angry man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No!&quot; cried Ernestine firmly. &quot;That I will not do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How! is your obstinacy not yet conquered? Disobey at your peril!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Though you should kill me, I will not do it,&quot; answered the child, with
+a strange gleam in her eyes, as her father, endeavouring to raise
+himself in his bed, stretched put his hand towards her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, fie! are you crazy?&quot; suddenly said a melodious voice, just behind
+Ernestine. &quot;Is that the way for a man of sense to reason with a naughty
+child,--playing lion-tamer with a sick kitten!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then the speaker turned to the little girl and said kindly, &quot;Go, my
+child, and be dressed; you will enjoy yourself with all those pretty
+little girls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine's long black eyelashes fell, and she obeyed silently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The strange intercessor for the tormented child was a tall, slender,
+almost handsome man, with delicate features and a certain air of repose
+which might rather be called impassibility, but which was so refined in
+its expression that it could not but produce a favourable impression.
+His tone of voice was soft, melodious, and grave; his pronunciation
+faultlessly pure. An atmosphere of culture which seemed to surround him
+gave him an air of superiority. His dress was simple, but in good
+taste, his step light, his manner and bearing supple and insinuating.
+It would have struck the common observer as condescending, but the
+closer student of human nature would have found it ironical and
+treacherous.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In moments of passion such human reptiles exercise a soothing influence
+upon heated minds, and check their violent outbreaks, as ice-bandages
+will arrest a flow of blood. Upon his entrance the invalid became
+quiet, almost submissive; the room seemed to him suddenly to become
+cooler; he was, he thought, conscious of a pleasant draught of air as
+the tall figure approached the bed and sank into the arm-chair beside
+his pillow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It would be no wonder if I did become crazy!&quot; Herr von Hartwich
+excused himself. &quot;The child exasperates me. When a man suffers tortures
+for months at a time, and is crippled and confined to bed, how can he
+help being irritable? He cannot be as patient as a man in full health,
+who can get out of the way of such provoking scenes whenever he
+pleases!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You could easily do that if you chose, by keeping the child in the
+rooms above, which have been empty for years. Then you might be quiet,
+and people would not be able to say that the rich Hartwich's delicate
+child had to sit in the ironing-room in such hot weather,--it is worse
+than unjust; I think it unwise!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What!&quot; Hartwich suddenly interrupted him, &quot;shall I leave the child and
+the servants to their own devices above-stairs, whilst I lie here alone
+and neglected? Or shall I hire an expensive nurse, and make every one
+think I am dying, and let the factory-hands suppose themselves without
+a master?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That last cannot happen, for they long ago ceased to regard you as
+their master; they know that I am the ruling spirit of the whole
+business. As for your talk about the expense of a nurse, such folly can
+only be explained on the score of your incredibly avarice, which has
+become a mania with you of late. For whom are you hoarding your wealth?
+Not for your child; you will leave her no more than what the law
+compels you to leave her; still less for me, for you have always been a
+genuine step-brother, and have bequeathed me your property only because
+I would not communicate to you the secrets of my discoveries without
+remuneration; and you would rather give away all your wealth at your
+death than any part of it during your lifetime. And I assure you that
+if I am to be your heir, which perhaps may never be, I would far rather
+go without a few thousand thalers than witness such outrageous neglect
+of a child's education!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The invalid listened earnestly. &quot;You are talking very frankly to me
+to-day, and are, it seems to me, reckoning very confidently upon my not
+altering my last will and testament,&quot; he said, in an irritated tone of
+menace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Without a change of feature, the other continued: &quot;With all your faults
+and eccentricities, you are too upright in character to punish my
+candour in the way at which you hint. You know well that I mean kindly
+by you, and that I am an honest man. I might have required large sums
+of money from you. Upon the strength of the increase of income accruing
+from my exertions, I might have insisted upon your constituting me your
+partner, and much else besides; but I have contented myself with the
+modest position of superintendent, and with the certainty that by your
+will (God grant you length of days!) a brilliant future may be prepared
+for my child when I am no more. These proofs of disinterestedness, I
+think, give me a right to speak frankly to you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is all this circumlocution to lead to?&quot; asked Hartwich, who had
+grown strikingly languid, while his speech was becoming thick. &quot;Be
+quick, for I am sleepy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Simply to this,--that you either remove Ernestine to the upper story,
+or, what would be better still, away from the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Away from the house! Where to?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, to some institution where she may be so educated that it need be
+no disgrace hereafter to have to own her as a relative. The child will
+be ruined with no society but that of servant-maids, grooms, and
+village children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bah!&quot; growled the invalid, &quot;what does it matter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you are indifferent as to what becomes of your daughter, I am by no
+means indifferent as to my niece, or as to the influence that, if she
+lives, she may exercise upon my own daughter. As Ernestine now is, the
+thought that in a year or two she may be my child's playmate gives me
+great anxiety. Should she remain here, I must send my little girl from
+home, or she will be ruined also. But, setting all this aside, I wish
+her sent away for your sake. You cannot control yourself towards the
+obstinate, neglected child; and, as long as she is with you, such
+scenes as have just occurred are unavoidable. And I have learned to-day
+that the whole village resounds with your 'cruel treatment' of your own
+child. This throws rather a bad light upon your character, just when
+you wish our new neighbours to think well of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's all nonsense; if they think the factory worth fifty thousand
+thalers, they'll buy it, whether they think me a rogue or an honest
+man,&quot; said Hartwich.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Think the factory worth--yes, that's just it,&quot; the silken-smooth man
+continued; &quot;but that they may think it worth so much, much may be
+necessary,--among other things, some degree of confidence in the
+present proprietor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you have the sale very near at heart, because you would far rather
+put the fifteen thousand thalers profit, that I have insured to you,
+into your pocket than win your bread by honest labour,&quot; said the
+invalid with sarcasm. &quot;'Tis a fine gift for me to throw into your lap!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A gift?&quot; his brother asked--&quot;an indemnification for the loss of income
+that the sale of the factory will occasion me, and without which
+indemnification I shall certainly prevent any such sale. You are always
+representing our business transactions as generous on your part. I
+require no generosity at your hands. You pay me for my services: I
+serve you because you pay me. Why pretend to a feeling that would be
+unnatural between us?--we are step-brothers; it would be preposterous
+sentimentality to try to love each other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most certainly you take no pains to attach me to you,&quot; the invalid
+remarked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why should I?&quot; his brother replied with a smile. &quot;There must be some
+reason for everything in the world--there would be none in that. You
+would not give me a farthing for my amiability; whatever I get from you
+must be earned by services very different from brotherly affection.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a downright fiend, that no man, made of flesh and blood, could
+possibly love! You always were so from a child: how you tormented my
+poor mother! You know nothing of human feeling. In the warmest weather
+your hands are always damp and cold, and your heart, too, is never
+warm. I am cross and irritable, but I am not as utterly heartless as
+you are, God forbid! You are one of those beings at discord with all
+natural laws, who cast no shadow in the sunshine.&quot; The sick man closed
+his eyes, exhausted, and large drops of moisture stood upon his brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His brother took a handkerchief and carefully wiped them away. &quot;Only
+see how you excite yourself, and all for nothing!&quot; he said in the
+gentlest, kindliest voice. &quot;Because I have no sympathy with fictitious
+sentiment and exaggerated outbursts, you call me unfeeling. Because I
+am quiet by nature, not easily aroused, you picture me in your feverish
+dreams as a vampire. I will leave you now, or I shall excite you. Lay
+to heart what I have said about the child; for if the present course is
+persevered in, it will bring disgrace upon us, and that would be to me
+unendurable!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartwich made no reply; he had turned his face to the wall, and did not
+look around until his brother had noiselessly left the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">During this conversation little Ernestine had allowed her dress to be
+put on. When this was done, the housekeeper left the room, and the
+child busied herself with lacing upon her feet an old pair of boots
+that were really too small for her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's right, Ernestine,&quot; one of the maid-servants whispered. &quot;Frau
+Gedike is a bad woman: none of us can bear her--it is good for her to
+be vexed, and we are glad of it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not want to vex her, but I hate her--and my father, too--he is
+cruel to me,&quot; said the child, with the bitterness with which a
+defenceless human being, when ill used, seeks to revenge itself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed he is a dreadful father,&quot; Rieka, the elder of the maids,
+whispered softly to her companion, but Ernestine heard all that she
+said perfectly well. &quot;He always wanted a son, and talked forever of
+what he would do for his boy when he had one. And when the child was
+born, and was not a boy after all, he was quite beside himself, and
+cried furiously, 'Only a girl! only a girl!' and rushed out of the
+house, banging the door after him so that the whole house shook. The
+young mother--she was a delicate lady--fell into convulsions with
+sorrow and fright, and took the fever, and died on the third day. Then
+he was sorry enough, and raved and tore his hair over the corpse, but
+he could not bring her to life again. He has been well punished since
+he had his stroke, and perhaps it was to punish him that Ernestine has
+grown so ugly; but he ought at least to show his repentance for what he
+did, by kindness to the sickly little thing, instead of abusing her. It
+isn't the child's fault that she's not a boy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine listened to all this with a beating heart, and now slipped
+out gently that the maid might not know she had overheard her. Outside
+she stopped to stroke the dog, but the poor thirsty brute growled at
+her. She saw that he had no water, and took his can to the well and
+filled it. When she saw the water gushing so sparkling from the pipe,
+she could not resist the temptation to let it run upon her burning
+head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, what mischief are you about now?&quot; the housekeeper screamed
+from the window; but the water was already dripping down from the
+child's long hair upon her shoulders, breast, and back.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The sun will dry it before I get to the Frau Staatsräthin's, she
+thought, and carried the dog his drink; but when she attempted to pat
+him, he growled again, because he did not wish to be disturbed while
+drinking.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Even the dog does not like me,&quot; she thought, and crept away. &quot;Only a
+girl! And my father is so cross to me because I am not a boy.&quot; And as
+she went on she repeated the phrase to herself, and her step kept time
+to it as to a tune, &quot;Only a girl--only a girl!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">From the window of the upper story her uncle and his wife looked after
+her. The wife presented an utter contrast to her husband. She was
+uncommonly stout, and her jolly face was so flushed that if her husband
+had really been a vampire she might have afforded him nourishment for a
+long term of ghostly existence. But he was no such monster, although
+his meagre body seemed to bask in his wife's warm fulness of life as
+some puny, starving wretch does in the heat of a huge stove. Any more
+poetical comparison is impossible in connection with Frau Leuthold;
+for, in spite of her massive beauty, her thick bushy eyebrows, her
+sparkling black eyes, her thick waves of dark hair, the whole
+expression of her large face, with its double chin and pouting mouth,
+was coarsely sensual. Yet there was something in this expression that
+showed that, however great the dissimilarity between the husband and
+wife in mind and body, there was still one thing in which they were
+alike: it was the heart,--in his case ossified, in hers overgrown with
+fat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There are some persons whose mental organization can be excellently
+well described by the medical term &quot;fat-hearted.&quot; They are no longer
+capable of any healthy moral activity, because an indolent sensuality
+has taken possession of them, crippling their energies like fat
+accumulating around the heart. Although the natures of husband and wife
+were radically dissimilar, still in the results of their modes of
+thought there was enough similarity to produce that sort of harmony
+which is maintained between the receiver and the thief. The stout
+brunette was a worthy accomplice of her slender, fair husband; and that
+she possessed the art of sweetening existence for him after a fashion,
+to which no one possessing nerves of taste and smell is altogether
+insensible, a table, upon which were delicious fruits, biscuits, and a
+bowl of iced sherbet, bore ample testimony. Thus the refined thinker
+endured the narrowness and coarseness of his better half for the sake
+of material qualifications, and of the ease with which she entered into
+his projects for selfish aggrandizement. As a cook she possessed his
+entire approbation, and the union between these utterly different
+natures was universally considered a happy one.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She's an ugly thing, that Ernestine,&quot; said the affectionate aunt,
+looking after her pale little niece, who was walking slowly along with
+drooping head. &quot;Kind as I may be to her, she will have nothing to say
+to me. They say dogs and children always know who likes them and who
+does not; so I suppose the child knows I can't abide her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whether you like her or not is not the question,&quot; replied her husband.
+&quot;You have not attached her to you, and that is a mistake; for it makes
+us sharers in the common report of Hartwich's cruelty to the child. She
+is considered in the village as the victim of unfeeling treatment. The
+pastor thinks her a martyr, whose cause he is bound to adopt; the
+schoolmaster talks about her clear head; and who can tell that all this
+nonsense may not waken the conscience of my fool of a brother, and
+induce him at the eleventh hour to make, Heaven only knows what changes
+for her advantage! That would be a blow--such people easily fall from
+one extreme into the other. Therefore the child must be separated from
+him. If I cannot succeed in having her sent away, we must manage
+somehow to attach her to us, and so stop people's mouths.&quot; An
+involuntary sigh from his wife interrupted him. &quot;I know it is
+troublesome, up-hill work; but, Heaven willing, it cannot last long.
+Hartwich is failing. He may live a year; but, if he should have another
+stroke, he may go off at any moment; then, for all I care, you may
+be rid of the disagreeable duty at once, and send Ernestine to
+boarding-school. Still, appearances must be kept up, my dear. You know
+how much I would sacrifice for the sake of my reputation. I cannot bear
+a shabby dress or to dine off a soiled table-cloth; and just so I
+cannot endure a stain upon my name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While speaking, he had seated himself at the table and filled a goblet
+of sherbet from the fragrant bowl. As he was sipping it delicately,
+with his lips almost closed, his wife threw herself down upon the sofa
+by his side with such clumsy violence that the springs creaked, and her
+husband was so jolted that he lost his balance, and the contents of his
+glass were spilled upon his immaculate shirt-front. Much annoyed, he
+carefully dried his dripping garment with his napkin. &quot;Now I shall have
+to dress again,&quot; he said in a tone of vexation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To spill your glass over you just in the midst of such a conversation
+as this means no good,&quot; said his superstitious wife.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It means that you never will learn to conduct yourself like a lady,&quot;
+was the quiet reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed!&quot; she cried with a laugh. &quot;So I must learn aristocratic manners
+that I may do more credit to your brother, who has drunk himself into
+an apoplexy! A fine aristocrat he is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just because he disgraces his standing I will respect mine; and you
+should assist me to do so, instead of laughing. And when his estate is
+ours, I will show the world that it is not necessary to be born in an
+aristocratic cradle in order to be an aristocrat. The dismissed Marburg
+professor will yet play a part among the <i>élite</i> of the scientific and
+fashionable world that a prince might envy him. Wealth is all-powerful;
+and where there is wealth with brains, men are caught like flies upon a
+limed twig.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, how fine it will be!&quot; cried his wife, excited by this view of the
+subject; and she hastily filled a glass from the bowl and drank it
+greedily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is indeed such good fortune that a man less self-controlled than
+myself might well-nigh lose his senses at the thought of it!&quot; her
+husband rejoined. And there was a dreamy look in his light-blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then we can keep a carriage, and I shall drive out shopping, with
+footmen to attend me, and Gretchen shall have a French bonne, and shall
+be always dressed in white and sky-blue. We will live in the capital,
+and you, Leuthold, need never do another day's work,--you can amuse
+yourself in any way that pleases you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And the wife tossed her head proudly, as though already lolling upon
+the soft cushions of her carriage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you suppose I could ever be a robber of time?&quot; he asked her with a
+sharp glance. &quot;No, most certainly not. If I had made the ten
+commandments, the seventh should have been, 'Thou shalt not steal a day
+from the Lord.' He who steals a day seems to me the most contemptible
+of all thieves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ills wife laughed and displayed a double row of fine white teeth, whose
+strength she was just proving by cracking hazel-nuts.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you suppose,&quot; continued Leuthold, &quot;that I should ever be content
+with the reputation of a merely wealthy man? No; I long for other
+honours. As soon as the means are in my power, I will resume my old
+scientific labours, and will soon distance the miserable drudges who
+daily lecture in our schools. I will have such a chemical and
+physiological laboratory as few universities can boast. Ah! when I am
+once free from all the hated servitude, the miserable toil day after
+day, in that detestable factory, I will bathe in the clear, fresh
+stream of science, and make a name for myself that shall rank among the
+first of our time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is that all the happiness you propose to yourself?&quot; asked his wife
+with a sneer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is no greater happiness than to play a great part in the world
+through one's own ability; and if my poverty has hitherto prevented my
+doing so, my wealth, in making me independent, shall help me to my
+goal. Make a man independent, and he has free play for the exercise of
+his talents; while the hard necessity of earning his daily bread has
+crushed many a budding genius before his powers were fully developed.
+It is glorious to be able to work at what we love!--as glorious as it
+is miserable to be forced to work at what we hate.&quot; He smoothed with
+his hand his thin, glossy hair, and murmured with a sigh, &quot;No wonder it
+is growing gray; I wonder it is not snow-white, since for ten years
+this miserable fate has been mine. It is enough to destroy the very
+marrow in one's bones, and dry up the blood in the veins.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His wife stared at him with surprise. &quot;Why, Leuthold, think what good
+dinners I have always cooked for you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold looked up as if awakening from a dream, and then, with the
+ironical expression which his unsuspicious fellow-men interpreted as
+pure benevolence, he said, &quot;You are right, Bertha! Your first principle
+is 'eat and drink;' mine is 'think and work.' That yours is much the
+more practical can be mathematically proved!&quot; He glanced with a smile
+at his wife's portly figure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only wait until we are settled in the capital, and see what I will do
+for you. Then you shall have dinners indeed!&quot; said Bertha.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your skill will be needed, for we shall have plenty of guests. Men are
+like dogs: they gather where there is a chance of a good dinner, and
+the host is sure of many friends devoted to him through their palates.
+'Tis true, such friends last only as long as the fine dinners last; we
+can have them while we need them, and throw them overboard, like
+useless ballast, when they can no longer serve our turn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, you are right; what a knowing fellow you are!&quot; cried Bertha.
+&quot;Heavens!&quot; she added, clapping her hands with childlike naïveté, &quot;if he
+would only die soon!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her husband looked at her sternly. &quot;I trust that in case of the event,
+which will be as welcome to me as to you, no human eye will be able to
+discern anything but grief in your countenance. Should you be too
+awkward to simulate sorrow, I must invent some method for making you
+really feel it; for appearances must be preserved at all costs!
+Remember that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bertha clasped her hands in dismay. &quot;Mercy on me! I really believe you
+would do anything to torment me into seeming sorry. It would be just
+like you; for what people say of you,--or 'appearances,' as you call
+it, are dearer to you than wife or child, or anything else in the
+world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She sprang up, and her breath came quick and angrily. Leuthold
+contemplated her with a kind of satisfaction as she stood before him
+with flashing eyes and curling lip. She displayed some emotion,--only
+the emotion of anger, 'tis true; but as enthusiasm is always
+passionate, so passion will sometimes seem enthusiasm, and lend a kind
+of nimbus to insignificance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I like to see you so!&quot; said Leuthold, drawing her down beside him and
+laying his cool hand upon her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Just then the cry of a child was heard in the adjoining apartment.
+&quot;Gretchen is awake,&quot; cried Bertha, forgetting her anger, and leaving
+the room so quickly that the boards creaked beneath her heavy tread,
+and the sofa upon which her husband was seated shook. She soon
+returned, with a pretty child of three years of age in her arms. After
+tossing it, notwithstanding its size and strength, up and down like an
+india-rubber ball, she threw it with maternal pride into her husband's
+lap. He caressed the little thing tenderly, and a ray shot from his
+eyes like the gleam of a wintry san across a snowy landscape. For,
+though there was no genuine paternal love in his heart, there
+was at least in its place,--what is hardly to be distinguished from
+it,--fatherly pride.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How strange to think,&quot; said the mother, &quot;that that should be your
+child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why?&quot; asked Leuthold with surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is so odd that such a slim, delicate-looking man as you are should
+have such a healthy, chubby little daughter. It is just as if a
+wheat-stalk should bear penny rolls instead of wheat-ears.&quot; She laughed
+immoderately at the idea, without perceiving that her husband was far
+from flattered by the comparison. &quot;They say,&quot; she continued, &quot;'long
+waited for is good at last,' and we waited long for the little thing,
+and she is good.&quot; And she put up the child's plump little hand to her
+mouth as though she would bite it. The little girl shouted with glee,
+and the sound so sweet to maternal ears did not fail to awaken a
+return. Bertha shouted too, until her husband's ears tingled. &quot;If
+Ernestine had only been a boy, she could have married Gretchen, and our
+child would have been all provided for,&quot; she said, after a pause.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not talk such nonsense,&quot; said Leuthold. &quot;Hartwich would have loved
+a son as thoroughly as he detests his daughter, and would have
+bequeathed to him all his property. We owe our inheritance there to the
+happy chance that made his child a girl. But even supposing that she
+were a boy, with the inheritance still ours, do you think I would mate
+her so unworthily? No! our Gretchen, lovely and rich as she will be,
+can never marry a simple Herr von Hartwich. She will one day make me
+father-in-law to some great statesman, some illustrious scholar, or, at
+least, to some count!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And me mother to a countess!&quot; cried his wife with glee.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_1.2" href="#div1Ref_1.2">CHAPTER II.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE STORY OF THE UGLY DUCKLING.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">In the mean time Ernestine had pursued her way. She walked slowly on
+through the extensive fields in the glare of the four-o'clock sun,
+whose rays were broken by no friendly tree or shrub. The waist of the
+dress which she had outgrown was so tight that she was frequently
+obliged to stand still and recover her breath. The perspiration rolled
+down her poor worn little face. The sunbeams felt like dagger-points
+upon her weary head; but she could not go back: fear of her father was
+more powerful than the torments she was enduring. Better to be pierced
+by the sun's rays than struck by her father's hard hand. Still, she
+could not help weeping bitterly that every one seemed so unkind to her.
+What had she done, that her father should hate her so? It was not her
+fault that she was so ugly and not a boy. &quot;Ah, why am I a girl?&quot; she
+sobbed, and sat down upon the hard, sun-baked clods of earth among the
+brown, dried potato-plants. She clasped her knees with her arms, and
+pondered why boys were better than girls, wondering whether she could
+not learn to do all that boys could. The schoolmaster had often told
+her that she had more sense and learned her lessons better than the
+boys. What was it that she needed, then? Strength, boldness, courage!
+Yes, that was a good deal, to be sure; but could she not make them hers
+in time? She thought and thought. She would exercise her strength. She
+had once read of a man who carried a calf about in his arms daily, and
+was so accustomed to his burden that he never noticed how the calf
+increased in size and weight, until at last he bore a huge ox in his
+arms. She would do so too; she would accustom herself at first to the
+weight of little burdens, and go on increasing them until at last she
+could carry the very heaviest. And she could be bold too, if she only
+dared, and if her shyness would only wear off. Then, she hoped, her
+father would be quite content with her. She sprang to her feet
+comforted and walked on. Her mind was made up. She would be just like a
+boy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the end of an hour Ernestine reached a beautiful and extensive
+grove, through which she passed, and entered a garden, at the end of
+which stood a charming country-house. Upon the wide lawn in front, a
+merry throng of children were running and leaping hither and thither,
+and from the fresh green a sparkling fountain tossed into the air a
+crystal ball. At the open doors of a room leading out into the garden
+sat a company of elegantly-dressed ladies and gentlemen, and servants
+in rich liveries were handing around refreshments upon silver salvers.
+Ernestine stood as if dazzled by all this pomp and splendour. She dared
+not approach. How could she? To whom could she turn? No one came
+towards her; no one spoke to her. Her embarrassment was indescribable,
+when suddenly the beautiful, gaily-dressed children on the lawn broke
+off their play and looked towards her with astonishment. Ernestine saw
+how the little girls nudged each other and pointed at her. She
+distinctly heard some say to the others, &quot;What does she want?&quot; She was
+almost on the point of turning round to run away, when she was observed
+by the group of ladies and gentlemen, and a servant was dispatched to
+ask whom she was looking for. Everything swam before her eyes as the
+tall man with such a distinguished air stepped up to her and asked
+sharply, &quot;What do you want here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing,&quot; replied Ernestine; &quot;I would not have come if I had known!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who are you, then?&quot; asked the servant</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am Ernestine Hartwich.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, indeed!&quot; he said, with a slight bow; &quot;that's another affair; you
+are invited. Permit me.&quot; With these words he conducted the passive
+child to the ladies, and announced, &quot;Fräulein von Hartwich!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The looks that were now fastened upon Ernestine were more piercing and
+burning, she thought, than the sun's rays. Those people never dreamed
+that the quiet little creature standing before them was possessed of a
+goal so delicate in its organization, so finely strung, that every
+breath of contempt that swept across it created a shrill discord, a
+painful confusion; they only looked with the careless disapproval,
+which would have been all very well with ordinary children, at the
+straight, black, dishevelled hair, the sunken cheeks, the wizened,
+sharp features of the pale face, the deep dark eyes, with their shy,
+uncertain glances, the lips tightly closed in embarrassment, and last,
+the emaciated figure in its faded short dress, and the long, narrow
+feet and hands. In the minds of most, an ugly exterior excites more
+disgust than sympathy; and, to excuse this feeling to one's self, one
+is apt to declare that the child or person in question has an
+&quot;unpleasant expression,&quot; thus hinting at moral responsibility in the
+matter of the exterior, as if it were the result of an ugliness of soul
+which would, in a measure, excuse one's disgust. This was the case with
+all who were now looking at this strange child. It seemed as though
+they were drinking in with their eyes the poison that had wasted
+Ernestine's little body,--the poison of hatred which her being had
+imbibed from her father and her unnatural surroundings, and as if this
+poison reacted from them upon herself. The little girl felt this
+instinctively without comprehending it, and as she met, one after
+another, those loveless glances, it was as though a wound in her flesh
+were ruthlessly probed. She could not understand what the ladies
+whispered to each other in French, but their tones intimated
+displeasure and contempt. She suddenly saw herself as in a mirror
+through their eyes, and she saw, what she had never seen before, that
+she was very ugly and awkward,--that she was meanly dressed; and shame
+for her poor innocent self flushed her cheeks crimson. In that single
+minute she ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
+evil,--that fruit which has driven thousands, sooner or later, from the
+Eden of childlike unconsciousness. She had entered upon that stage
+of life where a human being is self-accused for being unloved,
+unsought,--despises herself because others despise her,--finds herself
+ugly because she gives pleasure to none. Hitherto, whatever she had
+suffered, she had been at peace with herself; now she was at enmity
+with herself and the world. She felt suffocated; everything swam before
+her sight, and hot tears gushed from her eyes. Just then a tall,
+stately woman came out of the drawing-room. &quot;Frau Staatsräthin,&quot; one of
+the ladies called to her in a tone of contempt, &quot;a new guest has
+arrived!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is that little Ernestine Hartwich?&quot; asked the hostess, evidently
+endeavouring to conceal behind a kindly tone and manner her amazement
+at the child's appearance. She held out her hand: &quot;Good day, my child;
+I am glad you have come. Will you not take some refreshment? You seem
+heated. You have not walked all the way? Yes? Oh, that is too much in
+such hot weather! Such a delicate child!&quot; she said with a look of
+sympathy. She sprinkled sugar over some strawberries and placed
+Ernestine on a seat where she could eat them, but the rest all stared
+at her so she could not move a finger; she could scarcely hold the
+plate. How could she eat while all these people were looking on? She
+trembled so that she could not carry the spoon to her lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She choked down the rising tears as well as she could, for she was
+ashamed to cry, and said softly, &quot;I would like to go home!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To go home?&quot; cried the Staatsräthin. &quot;Oh, no, my child; you have had
+no time to rest, and you are so tired! Come, my dear little girl, I
+will take you to a cool room, where you can take a little nap before
+you play with the other children.&quot; She took Ernestine by the hand and
+led her into the house and through several elegant rooms to a smaller
+apartment, with half-closed shutters and green damask furniture and
+hangings, where it was as quiet, fresh, and cool as in a grove. The air
+was fragrant, too; for there was a basket of magnificent roses upon the
+table.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was speechless with admiration at all the beauty around her
+here. She had never seen such a beautiful room in her life, never
+breathed within-doors so pure an atmosphere. The Staatsräthin told her
+to lie down upon a green damask couch, which she hesitated to do, until
+at last she took off her dusty boots, heedless that she thereby exposed
+stockings full of holes, and when the Staatsräthin, with a kindly &quot;Take
+a good nap, my child,&quot; left her, and she was alone, a flood of novel
+sensations overpowered her. The pain of the last few moments, gratitude
+for the kindness of the Staatsräthin, the enchantment that wealth and
+splendour cast around, every childish imagination,--all combined to
+confuse her thoughts. But the solitude of the cool room soon had a
+soothing effect upon her. The green twilight was good for her eyes,
+weary with weeping and the glare of the sun; she felt so far away from
+those mocking, prying glances; everything was so calm and quiet here
+that she seemed to hear the flowing of her own blood through her veins.
+She thought of the ironing-room and her father's gloomy chamber at
+home. What a difference there was! Oh, if she could only stay here
+forever! How can people ever be unkind who have such a lovely home! How
+can they laugh at a poor child who has nothing of all this!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the Frau Staatsräthin, whose room this was, was kind. Ah, how kind!
+Yet so different from every one at home--so--what? So distinguished!
+Yes, every one at home seemed common compared with her, and Ernestine
+herself was common, although the lady had not treated her as if she
+were; she felt it herself; and was ashamed. What if the lady could have
+seen how naughty she had been to-day, how she had torn off her dress
+and stamped upon it, and scolded Frau Gedike?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She blushed at these thoughts, and resolved never again to conduct
+herself so that she should be ashamed to have the Frau Staatsräthin see
+her. A new sense was suddenly awakened in the child; but it fluttered
+hither and thither like a timid bird, terrified by her late
+surroundings, and not yet accustomed to all that was so novel about
+her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The child never dreamed of the innate refinement that distinguished her
+from thousands of ordinary children; she was only crushed as she
+compared herself with the gentle lady and the gaily-dressed children
+upon the lawn; and this very feeling of shame, this disgust at herself,
+was a proof how foreign to her youthful mind was the absence of beauty
+in her exterior. In the midst of all these new, confusing thoughts,
+sleep overpowered her; she stretched herself out comfortably upon the
+soft couch. The beating of her heart, the painful pressure upon her
+brain, and the singing in her ears, grew fainter and weaker, and
+soothed her to slumber like a cradle-song.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">On the lawn, in the mean time, nothing was talked of but the child, and
+her family. It was thought inconceivable that a Freiherr von Hartwich
+should allow his daughter to be so neglected. But then he had never
+been a genuine aristocrat; for his mother was of low extraction, as was
+proved by her return to her own rank of life after the death of her
+husband Von Hartwich. She soon after married the widower Gleissert,
+thus giving her son a master-manufacturer for a father, then purchased
+her husband's heavily encumbered factory, which she had bequeathed to
+her son with the condition that he should continue to keep it up,--a
+condition most distasteful to the heir. Gleissert had a son by his
+first marriage, named Leuthold, who had studied, but had not been much
+of a credit to his brother, with whom he was living at present.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of an elderly
+gentleman, who drove up in a very elegant but very dusty carriage. The
+number of orders upon his breast testified to his high position, and
+the haste with which the hostess went forward to receive him, and the
+trembling of the hand which she extended towards him, showed of what
+importance his arrival was to her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Vivat!&quot; he cried out to her. &quot;Your Johannes takes the first rank--a
+splendid examination--there has not been such another for ten years!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank God!&quot; said the Staatsräthin, with a long sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes!&quot; the kindly voice continued. &quot;A superb fellow! I
+congratulate you upon such a son--not a question missed--not one! And
+answered with such ease and confidence, yet without the slightest
+particle of conceit. Deuce take it!--I wish I had married and had such
+a son. Come,&quot; he said, turning to a boy of about fourteen years
+of age, who had arrived with him, &quot;perhaps you may one day be such
+another,--keep your eyes steadily upon Johannes. Permit me, dear madam,
+to present to you the son of my late friend, Ferdinand Hilsborn. He
+lost his mother a few months ago, and is now my adopted son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin held out her hand to the boy, and said with emotion,
+&quot;Although I never knew your mother, it pains me deeply to know that she
+left this world before she could enjoy such a moment as your adopted
+father has just given me by his tidings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentle boy's eyes filled with tears as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only think, my dear friends,&quot; said the Staatsräthin, turning to the
+company, &quot;Johannes never told me that this was his examination-day,
+that he might surprise me. I only learned it this afternoon from a few
+thoughtless words of my brother's. Our kind Geheimrath Heim has just
+brought me the tidings of his promotion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The guests, with sympathy and congratulations, crowded around the proud
+mother, whose heart was too full to do anything but reply mechanically
+to their kind speeches.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, dear Frau Möllner,&quot; a Frau Landräthin remarked maliciously, &quot;was
+it not a little strange that your Johannes should not have told you of
+his examination-day?--certainly a mother has a sacred right to share
+such hours with her son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;When a mother's claims are held as sacred as are mine by my son,&quot;
+replied the Staatsräthin, with dignified composure, &quot;he may well be
+left to do as seems to him best in such a matter. He wished to spare me
+hours of anxiety; and I thank him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The woman is blindly devoted to her son,&quot; the Landräthin whispered to
+a friend.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is growing perfectly childish with maternal vanity,&quot; remarked
+another.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But how can any one as wealthy as the Staatsräthin allow her son to
+study?&quot; said the Landräthin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes!&quot; several others joined in, &quot;he certainly need never earn his
+living in such a way. Why did she not buy him a commission? 'Tis too
+bad for such a handsome young man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes!&quot; the old Geheimrath called out to the ladies, as if he had
+heard only their last words, &quot;Johannes is a man,--a man, although
+hardly twenty years old! Only such a mother could have such a son!&quot; And
+he laid his hand kindly upon the Staatsräthin's arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wish every woman, left alone in the world, had such a friend as you
+are,&quot; she said, holding out her hand to him gratefully. &quot;You are the
+best legacy left me by my dear husband. But where is Johannes? Why did
+he not come with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He sent me before to announce his arrival in the evening,&quot; replied the
+old gentleman. &quot;He was obliged to make a few visits this afternoon.
+Ah,&quot; he sighed, as the Staatsräthin handed him some refreshments, &quot;it
+is a hot journey hither from town,--and a tedious one too,--but it is
+all the cooler and more delightful when you get here.&quot; He wiped his
+forehead and looked around the circle with the kindly, penetrating
+glance of a man who sees through the weaknesses of his fellow-men, but
+judges them with the gentleness of a superior nature. &quot;Well, ladies,&quot;
+he asked good-humouredly, &quot;did the old doctor interrupt a most
+interesting conversation? I cannot believe that sitting here so silent
+and serious is your normal condition. What were you talking of when I
+arrived?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of nothing very pleasant, Herr Geheimrath,&quot; said the Landräthin
+venomously; &quot;we were only speaking of Herr von Hartwich and of his
+brother, who went wrong some years ago,--we don't know exactly how.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can tell you all about it, ladies,&quot; said the Geheimrath.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All instantly entreated him, &quot;Oh, tell us; pray tell us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath began: &quot;I was professor of medicine at Marburg when that
+strange occurrence took place. It was about ten years ago. Gleissert
+was then Extraordinarius in the university, and a young man of great
+ability. By his diligence and insinuating manners, he had won for
+himself the good-will of every one; and one of my colleagues, Hilsborn,
+the father of the boy whom I brought with me to-day, was his intimate
+friend. Their <i>spécialité</i> was the same, and Hilsborn filled the
+professorial chair which was the object of Gleissert's desire. Both
+were physiologists, but Hilsborn had the chair of special physiology,
+and Gleissert, as Extraordinarius, was occupied only with physiological
+chemistry. One day Hilsborn confided to me that he was upon the track
+of a new discovery. It would be of great importance to science if he
+could only succeed in carrying it out and establishing it upon a firm
+foundation. The difficulty in doing so lay principally in the procuring
+of the necessary material for his experiments,--a species of fish found
+only at Trieste, and which he could not procure alive. Hilsborn, a poor
+widow's son, lamented his want of means to travel thither and prove his
+hypothesis. I promised to obtain for him from my friend the minister,
+by the next vacation, a sufficient sum to meet his expenses, and I did
+so; but there was the same delay in the matter that is usual in such
+cases, and the necessary sum came so late that the journey had to be
+postponed until the following vacation, Hilsborn comforting himself
+with the thought that, although he must wait another six months,
+nothing but time would be lost. Suddenly Herr Gleissert married the
+daughter of a wealthy innkeeper, and begged for leave of absence for
+his wedding-trip. It was granted, and he was absent for four weeks.
+Strangely enough, his friend never heard from him during all that time;
+and, when he returned, we all noticed that he was unwilling to let us
+know where he had been. We thought he had private grounds for such
+unwillingness, and did not question him further. The term was over at
+last, and Hilsborn set off for Trieste. There he worked night and day
+with superhuman diligence. The result of his investigations was
+perfectly satisfactory, and he came back with the materials for a work
+which was sure to establish his fame and fortune. One day--I shall
+never forget it--he was in my room when the publisher sent me several
+new scientific papers. Hilsborn was looking through them carelessly,
+when suddenly he grew ashy pale. Among the pamphlets was one by
+Gleissert, embodying Hilsborn's idea. I was as shocked and astounded as
+he was. It could not be chance which led two men at the same time to so
+novel an idea, especially as Gleissert's course of study could not have
+directed him to such investigations as Hilsborn's. After a long and
+evident struggle with himself, Hilsborn confessed to me that he had
+communicated his ideas to Gleissert, and had frequently from the
+beginning discussed the matter thoroughly with him, without Gleissert's
+ever hinting even that the subject had occurred to him before. On the
+contrary, he was at work upon a paper upon a chemical subject, a paper
+which had never appeared. Difficult as it was for my high-minded friend
+to bring himself to it, the conviction was unavoidable that his friend
+had basely deceived him; for we discovered, upon close inquiry, that
+Gleissert's wedding-trip had been to Trieste, where he had pursued the
+investigations proposed by Hilsborn, and hurried on the printing of
+their results with the greatest haste. All outside proof of his
+contemptible treachery was perfect, and we were all morally convinced
+that he had <i>stolen</i> Hilsborn's idea. As pro-rector, I called him to a
+strict account. His defence was cunning, but not convincing. He did not
+attempt to deny the principal accusation brought forward, namely, the
+suspicious fact that he had induced Hilsborn to promise him not to
+impart his discovery to any one else, 'lest it should be used to his
+disadvantage.' He wished to be the sole depositary of the secret, that
+there might be no witnesses to Hilsborn's proprietorship of the stolen
+idea. I ask this worthy assemblage,&quot; the old gentleman here interrupted
+himself with indignation, &quot;if there can be any doubt of the baseness of
+the man in the matter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, most certainly not, Herr Geheimrath, most certainly not,&quot; was the
+unanimous reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; the narrator continued, &quot;so we thought. We, one and all,
+determined to avenge poor Hilsborn, thus deprived of all his fair
+hopes. It is true we had no legal weapon at our disposal. Our stupid
+laws punish forgers and counterfeiters, but they cannot recognize the
+theft of the coinage of the brain. There are jails for the hungry
+beggar who steals a loaf; but the rogue who robs a man of his thought,
+the painfully-begotten fruit of his mind after years of labour, goes
+free. We professors undertook to do what the law does not. We published
+the matter far and wide in the scientific periodicals, and all handed
+in our resignations to the government, stating that we held it
+inconsistent with our honour to remain the colleagues of such a man. Of
+course Gleissert was instantly dismissed in disgrace, and an academic
+career closed to him forever. I was called away from Marburg soon
+after; and, since I have lived in the capital as royal physician, I
+have lost sight of my former colleagues. Hilsborn died after some
+years, and his son is now my adopted child. What became of Gleissert I
+do not know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can tell you,&quot; said a fine-looking man, whose resemblance to the
+Staatsräthin declared him her brother. &quot;I have informed myself about
+matters here, because I propose to purchase Hartwich's factories for my
+son. According to the schoolmaster, the fellow is playing a double part
+here also. It cannot be denied that under his guidance, and owing to
+his chemical discoveries, the factories have doubled in value since his
+arrival, for Hartwich is a very narrow-minded man, incapable, from his
+wretched avarice, of venturing upon any important speculation; but the
+way in which his brother contrives to be paid for his services is, to
+say the least, striking. For five years he contented himself with the
+salary of an overseer and free lodging--he bided his time. It came at
+last. One day Herr von Hartwich had a paralytic stroke, and the
+physicians declared that he had but few years to live. Gleissert made
+use of this time of helplessness, and threatened to leave the factory
+immediately and dispose of his discoveries elsewhere if Hartwich did
+not appoint him his heir. Hartwich, who of course stood more in need of
+him than ever, accepted his conditions, set aside that poor little girl
+as far as the law would allow it, and made a will in Gleissert's
+favour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He's a thorough scoundrel, that Gleissert,--a legacy-hunter, then,
+besides. I should like to know what the fellow holds sacred?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let us ask the child about him,&quot; cried one of the ladies.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; joined in several others. &quot;It would be so interesting.
+Pray, dear Staatsräthin, bring the little girl here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin looked at her watch, and, finding that Ernestine had
+slept nearly an hour, went to fetch her. She soon returned with her,
+and again the child had to run the gauntlet of those piercing glances.
+But her rest had refreshed her, and she was not so timid.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She heard the old Geheimrath whisper to his next neighbour, &quot;How did
+that stupid Hartwich ever come to have such a clever child? Look--what
+a remarkable head. Pity the little thing is not a boy! something might
+be made of her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His words struck to her very soul. Again she heard the same
+phrase,--this time from a perfect stranger, &quot;Pity she's not a boy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She straightened herself, as though she had suddenly grown an inch
+taller, and looked up at the thoughtless speaker as if to say,
+&quot;Something shall be made of me!&quot; Then she glanced wistfully at the
+children who were playing ball; if she were only among them now, she
+would show that she could be like a boy. The Landräthin took her hand
+and said, &quot;Well, my dear child, tell us something of your father. How
+is he now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine seemed surprised at the question.--&quot;I did not ask him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The ladies looked significantly at each other.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you not seen him to-day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; she answered briefly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you not love your father very dearly?&quot; the Landräthin asked
+further.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine paused, and then said quietly and firmly, &quot;No!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her interrogator dropped the child's hand as if stung by an insect. &quot;An
+affectionate daughter!&quot; she sneered, while the rest shook their heads.
+&quot;Whom do you love, then?--your uncle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I love no one at home; but I like my uncle better than my father--he
+never strikes me!&quot; Ernestine answered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Like likes like, as it seems,&quot; one of the ladies observed; the rest
+nodded assent, and all turned away from Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is an unfortunate child,&quot; said the Staatsräthin; and arose to lead
+her to the children. &quot;Angelika, here is Ernestine von Hartwich,&quot; she
+cried to her own little daughter, who was about nine years old; &quot;take
+good care of her,--remember you are hostess!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The children, towards whom the Staatsräthin led her protégé, scattered
+like a flock of birds at the approach of a paper kite. Collecting then
+in single groups, they whispered together, and stared at the stranger.
+Ernestine found herself alone, avoided by all the gay crowd which she
+had just so fervently admired. She played the part of a scarecrow, but
+with the melancholy superiority that she was conscious that she was
+one. She knew that she had scattered the gay circle, that she had
+chased away the children, that they all avoided her; and again she felt
+as if she should sink into the ground, her feeble limbs trembled
+beneath the burden of derision and contempt that she was forced to
+bear. The Staatsräthin cast a stern glance--which Ernestine noticed--at
+little Angelika, and said, &quot;Give your hand to your new friend!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Two of the larger girls giggled, and Ernestine heard them whisper, &quot;A
+lovely friend!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika now approached Ernestine, and held out her soft little hand,
+but instantly withdrew it, stood mute before her for a moment, looking
+at the old brown straw hat that Ernestine held in her hand, then
+ventured one look into her eyes, and nestled confused and shy against
+her mother, who spoke seriously but kindly to the pretty child. She
+spoke in French, and Angelika answered in the same language. Ernestine
+was amazed. The little girl understood a strange tongue, and yet she
+was smaller than herself! She, who wanted to be as clever as a boy, did
+not even know as much as the little girl. And she had to endure their
+speaking before her as if she were not present; there she stupidly
+stood, well knowing that they were saying nothing good of her or they
+would have said it in German. She was weighed down by a double
+disgrace, that of her ignorance, and of knowing that they were speaking
+of her as if she were not there.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frau Staatsräthin,&quot; she said in a quivering voice, &quot;I will not stay
+here; the children do not like me; I am too bad for them!&quot; She turned
+away, and would really have gone, but little Angelika's good heart
+conquered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She ran after her and held her fast: &quot;No, no, dear Ernestine; you are
+not too bad for us; you are only odd--different from the rest of us.
+Come, we will play with you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then the Staatsräthin took Angelika in her arms, and kissed her,
+saying, &quot;That's right; now you are my little Angelika again, my good
+sweet child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked on at this caress with amazement, and hot tears rose
+to her eyes. No one had ever been so kind to her. What happiness it
+must be to be so embraced and kissed! But it could never happen to her.
+Why not? Why did no one love her? Angelika, too, was only a girl: why
+was she not blamed for it? But she was so lovely, so beautiful; who
+could help loving her? Then her heart gave a throb as though it had
+been stabbed with a knife. &quot;So beautiful,&quot; she repeated: &quot;that is why
+every one pets and fondles her. It is not only that I am a girl; I am
+an ugly girl,--that is why no one loves me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come,&quot; said Angelika. &quot;Why do you look so? Come to the others.&quot; She
+led her to the fountain, around which the little company had gathered
+meanwhile. The children were amusing themselves with throwing stones at
+the ball of glass which the water tossed up and down. No girl or boy
+could hit it; the ball could only be struck while it was dancing on the
+top of the spray, and always fell before it was reached. The children
+laughed merrily at each other, and even the parents and grown people
+were interested and drew near. Ernestine looked on after her usual
+brooding fashion. She soon divined where the mistake lay. The stone was
+longer in reaching its aim than the ball lingered in the air. She
+quickly concluded that if a stone were aimed at the top of the fountain
+while the ball was still below, the latter in ascending would strike
+the stone. Hilsborn, the boy fourteen years old, had just declared that
+he could not understand why they could not strike it. Ambition took
+possession of her,--if she was ugly, she would show them that she was
+clever,--if she was only a girl, she would show them that she had force
+and skill. Involuntarily she looked across to the old Geheimrath, to
+ascertain if he saw her, and, as this seemed to be the case, she
+stooped down and hastily picked up a larger stone than the others, to
+insure success,--took the attitude which she had often observed in the
+village boys, and, with her feet planted firmly wide apart, swung her
+arm round three times to take sure aim, and hurled the stone with all
+her force towards the point in the air which the fountain reached in
+its leaping. Fate was cruel enough to favour her; the stone met the
+ascending ball, and so exactly that the latter was hurled out of the
+column of water, and, flying over the heads of the nearest by-standers,
+fell upon the head of a child, and the thin glass was shivered in
+pieces. The child screamed, more from fright than pain,--a commotion
+ensued,--the mother of the sufferer rushed towards her darling with
+frantic gestures,--the &quot;wound&quot; was examined, embroidered handkerchiefs
+were dipped in the basin of the fountain and bound around the head,
+while like a dark cloud there hovered over the sympathetic crowd a fear
+lest &quot;some fragment of glass should have penetrated the skull.&quot;
+Ernestine stood there like a culprit; she felt convicted of murder,
+and when she heard from all sides, &quot;What unfeminine conduct! How
+savage and rude! How can they bring up the girl to be such a tom-boy?&quot;
+she was utterly confounded. She had been like a boy, and it was all
+wrong,--what should she do to please people and make them like her a
+little? Then the old Geheimrath approached her and unclasped the hands
+which she was silently but convulsively wringing. &quot;Be comforted, you
+pale little girl,--there is no great harm done. In future you must
+leave such exploits to boys.&quot; Then he left her and examined the wound,
+and declared laughingly that he needed a microscope to see it. The
+mothers of the party, however, showed all the more sympathy and anxiety
+in the matter that they were chagrined that Ernestine had displayed
+more skill than their own children.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine's delicate instinct surmised all this. She looked at the
+buzzing throng of her enemies with aversion, as at a swarm of wasps
+that she had disturbed. She listened to the noise that was made about
+the slight accident with infinite bitterness, and thought how at home,
+when her father's blows had bruised her, no one cared anything about
+it. When a few days before she had fallen and cut her forehead, she had
+had to wash it herself at the brook. And even the old gentleman had
+said that she should leave such exploits to boys. Then must she not
+contend even with boys if she could? Why not? Why were they so
+superior? It was unjust! She clenched her little fists. When she grew
+up she would show people how great the injustice was! That she was
+resolved upon.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then little Angelika came running up, calling the children together
+for a game. &quot;Come, Ernestine,&quot; she cried. &quot;You did not mean to do
+it,--come, play blindman's buff with us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine did not venture to make any objection; she was so cowed that
+she did just as they told her, and let them make her &quot;blind man,&quot; and
+tie the handkerchief over her eyes. She never complained, although when
+they were tying on the bandage they pulled her hair so that she ground
+her teeth with pain. And then they all began to tease her. One pulled
+at one of her long locks; another terrified her by putting beetles and
+caterpillars upon her neck,--the usual tricks of the game, that are
+easily borne when they are understood among little friends, but enough
+to drive a shy child, that does not know how to defend herself, to
+despair. No one would be caught by the ugly stranger, who had only been
+admitted to the game at the express desire of the hostess, and all felt
+themselves justified in playing all manner of tricks upon her.
+Ernestine caught no one, and ran hither and thither in vain. She was
+too conscientious to raise the handkerchief a little that she might see
+where she was,--that would have been acting a falsehood, and she never
+told falsehoods. Suddenly a hand seized her straw hat, and the worn old
+brim gave way, and fell upon her shoulders like a collar, to the great
+delight of the rest. It was a terrible loss for the poor child; for she
+knew that she should get no other hat at home, but would be punished
+for her carelessness. She grasped after her tormentor, and seized her
+by the skirt; but she was one of the larger girls, and tore herself
+away, leaving a piece of her elegant summer dress in Ernestine's hands,
+which had clutched it tightly. She could not see how the girl ran to
+her mother, bewailing the injury to her dress; the bandage over her
+eyes beneficently shielded her from perceiving the angry looks of the
+ladies, and absorbed the tears which she was silently shedding for her
+straw hat. She stood motionless in the middle of the lawn, and did not
+know what to do,--for no children seemed to be near,--the game appeared
+to be interrupted. Suddenly she received a sound box on the ear. The
+younger brother of the aggrieved young lady had stolen up and avenged
+his sister. Then the tormented child was filled with indignation and
+rage that almost deprived her of reason. She seized the boy as he tried
+to pass her, and began to straggle with him. He forced her backwards,
+step by step. She could not free her hands to untie the bandage; she
+did not know where she was; she would not let go her enemy, for her
+sufferings had filled her little heart with hate and fury. There was a
+scream, and at the same instant she stumbled over something and fell;
+she kept her hold of her foe, but she felt that she was up to her knees
+in water,--she had stumbled into the basin of the fountain. The guests
+hurried up. First seizing the boy, who was still in Ernestine's grasp,
+they placed him in safety, and then they helped out the trembling
+child, who stood there with torn, dripping clothes, an object of terror
+and disgust to herself and to everybody else.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What mischief the horrible creature had done! She had almost fractured
+one child's skull, she had torn the expensive dress of another, and had
+tried to drown a third!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray, my dear Staatsräthin, have my carriage ordered,&quot; said one of the
+injured mothers; &quot;one's life is not safe here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Supper is ready,&quot; replied the Staatsräthin. &quot;Let me entreat you all to
+go into the house. I will answer for the lives of your children as long
+as they are my guests,&quot; she added with a slight smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The ladies all called their sons and daughters to them, to protect them
+from the little monster, who still stood there, bewildered and crushed,
+upon the lawn, looking on with a bleeding heart, as the children,
+laughing and joking, clung to their parents, whom they kissed and
+caressed with affectionate freedom. Every child there had a mother or a
+father who fondled it. She--she alone was thrust out and forsaken,--no
+one remembered that she was tired and wet through,--no one cared for
+her. The charming little Angelika was everywhere in requisition, and
+could not come to her,--the Staatsräthin was entreating her guests to
+pardon her for inviting a child whom she did not know; how could she
+possibly suppose that Herr von Hartwich had a daughter so neglected?
+Ernestine heard it all. She could no longer stand,--she fell upon her
+knees, and, sobbing violently, hid her face in her hands. The
+Staatsräthin was now free to come to her, and hastily approached.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you poor little thing, you are wet through, and no one has thought
+of you,&quot; she cried kindly, at sight of Ernestine. &quot;Go into the house
+quickly, and put on a pair of my little girl's shoes and stockings; my
+room is just to the right of the drawing-room. Go immediately,--do you
+hear? I cannot stay away from my guests.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive me,--it is not my fault!&quot; stammered Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed it is not, my dear child,&quot; said the Staatsräthin gravely. &quot;I
+only pity you,--I am not angry with you! But hurry now and take off
+your dress,--I will send you your supper to my room. I know you would
+rather eat it alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she hastened away to her guests just as a vehicle drove up and a
+strikingly handsome young man about twenty years old sprang out and
+hurried up to her. &quot;My dear boy,&quot; she cried, &quot;is it you? I did not
+expect you yet!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The youth kissed her hand and bowed courteously to the rest. The
+Staatsräthin's eyes rested upon him with the pride with which a woman
+during her life regards two men only,--a lover and a darling son. The
+guests surrounded him with congratulations upon the day's success;
+Angelika danced around him, and the other children all wanted a hand or
+a kiss. There was quite a little uproar of delight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly the Staatsräthin cried out in a startled tone, &quot;Little
+Ernestine has gone! Heavens, that poor child wet through in the cool
+evening air! I cannot allow it! Johannes, my dear son, run quickly,
+bring her back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who,--what?&quot; he asked in amazement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, my dearest Staatsräthin,&quot; said the mother of the boy whom
+Ernestine's shot had wounded, &quot;how can you worry yourself about the
+little witch? she is tougher than our children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin glanced at her contemptuously, and, turning to
+Johannes, continued: &quot;She is a pale, meanly-clad little girl, eleven or
+twelve years of age; you cannot miss her if you take the path to
+Hartwich's estate; she is his daughter. Hasten, Johannes, hasten!&quot; He
+obeyed, while she conducted her guests to their sumptuous repast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile Ernestine ran through the grove as quickly as she could, and
+began to breathe freely as she lost sight of the house where she had
+undergone so much. But her strength soon failed her. Her wet shoes and
+stockings clung like heavy lumps of lead to her weary feet and impeded
+her steps; she was conscious of gnawing hunger, and the first care for
+the future that she had yet felt in her short life assailed her,--she
+was afraid that it would be too late for her to get anything to eat
+when she reached home; it was growing dark, and it would be ten
+o'clock; Frau Gedike would be in bed. And that was not the worst that
+she had to look forward to; the straw hat, whose brim was still having
+around her neck,--the heavy, torn straw hat, would certainly bring her
+a severe chastisement. She sat down upon a mound on the borders of the
+grove, and took off the brim to see if she could contrive some way of
+fastening it to the crown, which she carried in her hand. The tree
+above her shook its boughs compassionately and threw down its leaves
+upon her dishevelled locks. She never heeded them,--the conviction lay
+heavy upon her childish heart that she could not possibly mend the hat
+before Frau Gedike would see it. Tear after tear dropped upon the
+fragments, and her large, swimming eyes glimmered in the moonlight from
+out her pale face like glow-worms in a lily-cup. Suddenly she started
+violently, for some one stood before her, and she recognized the young
+man whose arrival had just enabled her to make her escape. He looked at
+her silently for a while, and then said, &quot;Are you the little girl who
+came to us to-day, and then ran away secretly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; stammered Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why have you done so?&quot; he asked further.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine made no reply. She was more ashamed before Johannes than
+before all the rest of the company. He was very different from every
+one else there,--so proud and strong,--he would despise her more than
+the others had done, for he was much handsomer and finer than they, and
+worth more than all of them. She did not venture to look up at him; she
+was afraid of meeting another of those glances that had so tortured
+her. Then the young man took her hand and said kindly, &quot;Well, you pale
+little dryad, can you not speak? Will you go with me, or would you
+rather spend the night in your tree?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I want to go home!&quot; said Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot let you go home. I must take you to my mother. She is afraid
+you will take cold. Come!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine shrunk back. &quot;I cannot go there any more!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why not? What have they done to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They laughed at me, and jeered me,&quot; cried the irritated child; &quot;they
+despised me; and I will not be despised! I will not!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man looked at her thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Even if I am ugly,&quot; she continued, &quot;and poor, and badly taught, and
+awkward, I will not be treated like a dog!&quot; There was a tone of despair
+in her voice, her chest panted within her narrow dress, her teeth
+chattered with cold and excitement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor child!&quot; said Johannes; &quot;they must have used you ill,--but my
+mother was surely kind to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, she was kind, but she was vexed with me at last; I heard her
+blaming me to the others. And I do not want to see her again,--not
+until I am grown up and can be as dignified and gentle as she is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you so certain, then, that you will one day be as gentle and
+dignified?&quot; asked Johannes smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, the schoolmaster says, and the old gentleman said too, that if I
+were a boy something might be made of me. Oh, something shall be made
+of me,--if I am only a girl. I will not always have boys held up to me;
+when I am grown up, they shall see that a girl is as good as a boy; all
+these bad, unkind people shall respect me; if they do not, I would
+rather die!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You queer child!&quot; laughed Johannes, &quot;it would be hard to tame you. But
+see, if you stay any longer here with me in the night air, you will
+take cold, and then you may die before you have carried out all your
+resolutions; think how bad that will be!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With these words he attempted to lead the child away with him, but she
+snatched her hand from him and clung to the tree beneath which she had
+been sitting. &quot;No, no,&quot; she breathlessly entreated, &quot;dear sir, let me
+go--do not take me back again--please, please, not there!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Obstinate little thing, you must come,&quot; laughed Johannes. &quot;Do you
+suppose I can go back without you, after having been sent to find you
+like a stray lamb? My mother would shut me up for three days upon bread
+and water if I did not bring you back; you would not like that, would
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, you are laughing at me. I will not go back with you, I will not,&quot;
+sobbed Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will not? What is the use of such words from a weak little girl
+who can be easily carried in arms?&quot; With these words Johannes
+good-humouredly lifted Ernestine from the ground and placed her on his
+shoulder to take her back to the castle. But she succeeded in grasping
+an overhanging branch of the oak-tree just above her, and, before
+Johannes could prevent it, she had swung herself up by it, and was
+clambering like a squirrel from bough to bough.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is delightful!&quot; cried Johannes, much amused; &quot;you are really,
+then, a dryad in disguise? Such a prize must not escape; to be sure, I
+never dreamed to-day, when I passed my examination, that the new Herr
+Doctor's first feat would be to climb a tree after a wayward little
+girl; but the episode is much more poetic than marching up and down
+stairs, making my best bow to my old examiners.&quot; Daring this soliloquy
+be had taken off his coat and climbed into the tree.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But when he tried to seize Ernestine, she retreated to the extremity of
+the bough upon, which she was sitting, and was quite out of his reach;
+he could not follow her, for the slender branch creaked and drooped so,
+even beneath the child's light weight, that he momentarily expected it
+to break. The jest had become earnest indeed: if the little girl fell,
+she would fall a double distance,--the height of the tree and of the
+hill which the tree crowned. Quick as thought the young man swung
+himself down to the ground, and took his station where he might, if
+possible, receive Ernestine in his arms if she fell. For the first time
+he now saw how high she was perched, and a cloud before the moon just
+at the moment prevented his perceiving the exact direction that she
+must take in falling. His anxiety was intense. The responsibility of a
+human life was suddenly thrust upon him. If he did not succeed in
+catching the falling child, she would shortly lie before him, if not a
+corpse, at least with broken limbs. The steep hill, too, made it almost
+impossible for him to maintain a firm footing; wherever he planted his
+feet, they slipped continually. The blood rushed to his face; his heart
+beat audibly; with outstretched arms he gazed up at the child, who sat
+above him, all unconscious of her danger.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Little one,&quot; he cried breathlessly, &quot;the branch where you are sitting
+will not bear you! scramble back again, or you will fall!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will not come down until you promise me not to carry me back! I
+shall not fall,&quot; she panted, and snatched at a stronger bough above
+her, but it sprang back from her grasp, leaving only a few twigs in her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will promise anything that you want,&quot; cried Johannes in deadly
+terror, &quot;only go back quickly to the trunk--quickly--quickly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The bough cracked, just as the child swung herself towards the trunk,
+and it fell to the ground,--leaving her clinging to the stump where it
+grew from the trunk; and when Johannes climbed up to her and she could
+at last reach his shoulder, she was trembling so with fright that she
+willingly clasped her thin arms around his neck. With difficulty he
+reached the ground again with his burden, his hands scratched and
+bleeding and his shirt-sleeve torn. He put down Ernestine, and,
+stepping back a pace or two, regarded her gravely; then, after wiping
+the moisture from his brow, he began in a serious tone of voice, &quot;Do
+you know what I would do if I were your father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked up at him inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I would give you a taste of the rod, that you might learn not to
+frighten people so just for your own wayward whims!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">These words, prompted by the young man's irritation at the anxiety to
+which he had been subjected, had a fearful effect upon the child. She
+gave a piercing cry, and threw herself upon the ground. &quot;Oh, nothing
+but blows, blows--he too, he too! Who will not strike me and abuse me?
+who is there to take pity upon me?&quot; and she sobbed uncontrollably.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good heavens,&quot; said Johannes, half compassionately and half annoyed,
+&quot;was there ever such a child! First you climb into a tree at peril of
+your life, just that you may gratify your self-will, and then a single
+word of blame crushes you to the earth. I never saw anything like it!&quot;
+Saying this, he lifted her up and held her out before him in the
+moonlight, regarding her as one would some rare animal or natural
+curiosity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here is a thing,&quot; he said, more to himself than to Ernestine, &quot;so
+frail and delicate that you could crush it in your grasp, but there is
+such strength of will in the little frame that one is forced to yield
+to it, and such a wildly throbbing heart in the little breast that one
+is carried away by it in spite of one's self. I should like to know
+what odd combinations have produced this strange piece of humanity. Do
+not cry any more, little one; I will not harm you--what eyes the
+creature has! You are a remarkable child, but I would not like to have
+the charge of you--you would puzzle one well, and force and blows would
+have no effect upon you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With these words he put her down upon the ground again and picked up
+his coat to put it on. As he did so, he felt something hard in the
+pocket; he looked to see what it was, and drew out a book in a splendid
+binding.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah,&quot; he cried gaily, &quot;I had forgotten this. Can you read?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine nodded. She was glad that she had not to say no; how ashamed
+she would have been!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, that's right!&quot; said the young man; and Ernestine was very proud
+of those first words of commendation, and determined instantly to be
+doubly diligent, that she might some time hear just such another
+&quot;That's right!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes put the book into her hand. &quot;There, you shall have that, that
+you may carry something pleasant home with you after such a dreary day.
+The stories are charming. I brought it out for my little sister
+Angelika, but I could not give it to her because I had to run after
+you. Now I am glad that I have it still and can give it to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes--but Angelika?&quot; Ernestine asked hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She shall have another to-morrow. Take it, and read the story of the
+Ugly Duckling; that will comfort you when people are cross to you. Take
+it--why do you hesitate?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The child took the book as carefully and timidly as if it were in
+reality a fairy book and would vanish at her touch. When she had it in
+her hands and it did not disappear, and she could really believe in her
+happiness in receiving such a present, she uttered a scarcely audible
+&quot;Thank you very much!&quot; but the look that accompanied the words touched
+Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do not often have presents?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! you seem not to be very affectionately treated. Does not your
+mother ever give you anything?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have no mother. She died because I was not a boy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A most remarkable cause of death,&quot; observed Johannes, half dryly, half
+compassionately.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, if I had a mother, everything would be different.&quot; And the large
+tears rolled down over her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Listen, little one,&quot; said Johannes kindly, after a pause. &quot;I have a
+dear mother, and I will share her with you--half a mother's heart is
+better than none at all. Come home with me. You shall be my little
+sister, and you will be gentle enough when you know us better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine shook her head decidedly. The thought of returning to the
+castle again filled her with dismay. &quot;No, no, never!&quot; she cried in
+terror. &quot;Your mother would not love me--she could not! You promised me
+a minute ago not to force me to anything, and if you think now that I
+ought to do as you please, because you have given me the book, I would
+rather not have it. There, take it--I will not have it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes rejected the offered book with some vexation. &quot;Keep it,&quot; he
+said. &quot;I gave it to you unconditionally. I only thought that my
+kindness had made you gentler and more docile, but I was wrong. You are
+not to be moved by kindness either. Sad to see a heart so early
+hardened!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine stood motionless, with downcast eyes--she scarcely breathed;
+the emotions that agitated her were so novel, so different from
+anything she had hitherto experienced, that she struggled in vain to
+give utterance to them; her childish lips had no words to express them.
+She was pained, and yet her pain, although deeper than any she had
+already suffered, had no bitterness in it. She did not hate him who had
+caused it--she could have kissed his hand, and, falling at his feet,
+begged him to forgive her--but she did not dare to do so.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; he asked, after a moment's silence, &quot;shall I go home with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine shook her head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not that, either? Will you go alone?&quot; he asked impatiently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine nodded.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I have promised to do as you pleased, and I shall keep my
+promise, although I do not think it right to leave you to go home alone
+so late at night. Let me at least go with you across the fields? Are
+you grown dumb?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine lifted to his her large melancholy eyes so beseechingly that
+he lost his composure. &quot;You are enough to drive one insane, you
+enigmatical little creature! Who taught you that look--the look of an
+angel imprisoned by some evil magician in the body of a kobold? God
+knows what will become of you! You will not let me come, then? No? Are
+you not afraid? Nothing to be got out of you but a shake of the head!
+Well, go! I cannot force you. Good-night, then!&quot; He held out his hand;
+she seized it, pressed it with passionate energy, and then ran across
+the fields as fast as her feet could carry her. Johannes let her run
+for some minutes, and then followed her at a distance; he could not
+allow the helpless child to go home without watching over her safety.
+She ran as if she had wings, without once looking round; but Johannes
+noticed that she kissed the book several times, and pressed it to her
+heart, as if it had been some living thing. When at last he came in
+sight of Ernestine's home, he stopped. &quot;Heaven be merciful to the man
+who will one day take her for a wife!&quot; he thought, and slowly turned
+away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine entered the garden of her dreary home with a throbbing heart.
+A grumbling maid-servant opened the door for her. &quot;You are late,&quot; she
+scolded. &quot;That is just like you--first you wouldn't go, and then you
+don't want to come home. You always want to do something else than what
+you should.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine made no reply. &quot;Can I have something to eat?&quot; she asked
+briefly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To eat! Likely, indeed! Am I to go to the stable at ten o'clock at
+night and milk a cow for you? for there is nothing else that I can get.
+You know well enough that I have no keys!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is Frau Gedike in bed, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you were not so stupid, you might know that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I am hungry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That serves you right; you should have eaten enough at the party. Of
+course they gave you something to eat?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was silent, and followed the maid into the room, where she
+hastily concealed her torn hat in the wardrobe. &quot;My feet are wet,&quot; she
+said, shivering. &quot;Give me some dry stockings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course you have been dragging through all the puddles, and then
+want dry stockings at this hour of the night! Get into bed as soon as
+you can; you will have no other stockings to-night. Good-night--I am
+going to bed myself.&quot; And the servant left the room, taking with her
+the dim tallow candle that she had in her hand, and Ernestine was left
+alone in the apartment, into which the moon shone brightly. Suppressed
+rage at the servant's coarse harshness burrowed and gnawed in the
+child's heart like a hidden mole. Everything that had lately happened
+vanished at this rude contact. Her soul had expanded at the first touch
+of a large, kindly nature, like a bud in the air of spring--the frost
+that now fell upon it was doubly painful. She was again the same
+forsaken, abused child whose vital energies were consumed by impotent
+hate of her tormentors. Had she really lived the last hour! Had any one
+really spoken so kindly to her--one, too, better and handsomer than all
+the others?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She caught up her book as if it were a talisman; it was real; it
+had not vanished; it was all true, then. And yet she had been so
+self-willed and cross to the kind, kind gentleman, and had not even
+told him how grateful she was; how he must despise her! He could not do
+otherwise. She understood now how different she must be before she
+could hope to win the liking of such a man as Johannes. How should she
+do it? She could not tell; but something stirred within her that
+exalted her above herself. She looked up to heaven in childlike
+entreaty, and prayed, &quot;Dear God, make me good!&quot; Then she pressed the
+book to her heart; it was her most precious possession, her first
+friend; and the desire took hold of her to see now what this friend
+would tell her. But she could not read by moonlight, and she dared not
+get a candle, for she slept next to Frau Gedike, who allowed no reading
+at night. She stood hesitating and looked sorrowfully at the beautiful
+binding, with its gay arabesques. Suddenly it occurred to her that
+there was always a night-lamp burning in her father's room; it was a
+happy thought. She drew off her wet boots with difficulty, and crept
+softly into Hartwich's apartment. The invalid was lying upon his back,
+sound asleep. He breathed and snored so loudly that the child was
+almost terrified; but she was determined to proceed, and slipped past
+the bed. She seated herself cautiously, opened the book in a state of
+feverish expectation, and of course turned to the story that Johannes
+had mentioned to her. The book contained the charming, touching tales
+of Hans Andersen. Ernestine, greatly moved, read the story of the Ugly
+Duckling. She read how it was abused and maltreated by all because it
+was so different from the other ducks, and how at last it came to be a
+magnificent swan, far finer and more beautiful than the insignificant
+fowls who had despised it. The impression made upon her by this story
+is not to be described. The poor duckling's woes were hers also, and as
+if upon swan's pinions the promise of a fair future hovered above her
+from the page that she was reading. &quot;Shall I ever be such a swan?&quot; she
+asked again and again. Her heart overflowed with new emotions of joy
+and pain, she covered her eyes with her thin hands and sobbed as if she
+would, as the saying is, &quot;cry her soul out.&quot; Then her father awoke, and
+called out, &quot;Who is there?&quot; Ernestine hastened to him and fell on her
+knees at his bedside. She seized his hand and would have kissed it; he
+snatched it angrily away, but the tears that she had shed had melted
+her very heart. &quot;Father, dear father!&quot; she cried, &quot;I have been very
+naughty and self-willed. Forgive, and love me only a little, and I will
+love you dearly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartwich turned his face to the wall, and growled, &quot;Why did you wake
+me? Where's the use of slipping in here at this hour? Do you think I
+had rather listen to your stupid whining than sleep?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father,&quot; cried Ernestine, taking his lame hand that he could not
+withdraw from her. &quot;Father, do not send me away from you. I will be
+good,--help me to be so. I cannot be good if you are always harsh to
+me. I saw to-day how all the children have parents who love them. I
+only am disliked by every one, and yet I have a heart too, and would
+love to see kind looks and hear kind words. I will not cry ever any
+more, if you will not make me cry, and I will try my best to be just
+like a boy, that you may not be sorry any more that I am a girl. Ah,
+father, it seems to-day as if the dear God in heaven had told me what I
+long for. Love, father, love,--ah, give me some, and take pity upon
+your poor ugly child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The invalid had turned towards the child again, and was staring at her
+in amazement, with lack-lustre eyes; it seemed as if some unbidden
+feeling were struggling for utterance from the depths of his moral and
+physical degradation; his breath came quick, he tried to speak.
+Ernestine did not venture to look at him; a strong odour of brandy told
+her that her father's face was near her own, but this odour was so
+utterly disgusting to her that she involuntarily recoiled, and thus
+avoided the lips that would perhaps have bestowed upon her the first
+kiss that she had ever in her life received from them. The invalid must
+have known this, for he turned away again, muttering something
+unintelligible. After a long pause, he felt for a tumbler that stood on
+a table beside his bed, but it was empty. &quot;I'm thirsty!&quot; he said
+peevishly. &quot;Shall I bring you some water, father?&quot; asked Ernestine. The
+sick man made a gesture of disgust &quot;No! but you can go up to your uncle
+and tell him to send me that medicine that he spoke of; he will know
+what I want. But ask him only,--do you hear?--him only. And tell no one
+that I sent you, or you shall suffer for it, I promise you. And now go
+quickly: I'm tortured with thirst!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine arose from her knees, and looked at her father with the grief
+that we feel when we have lavished our best, our most sacred emotions
+upon an unworthy object. Hitherto she had required nothing of him;
+to-day, for the first time, as she looked around for some one to whose
+love, in her loneliness, she possessed a right, it had occurred to her
+that she had a father. She had turned to him with an overflowing heart,
+and had found a drunkard, who had resigned all claims to respect, both
+as a man and a father. Mute and crushed alike physically and mentally,
+she slipped out and up the stairs to her uncle. She was to bring brandy
+to the sick man, although she remembered that the physician had
+forbidden all heating drinks; but she must fulfil her father's
+commands, or receive the cruellest treatment at his hands. She entered
+her uncle's room, slowly and timidly; she was afraid of his wife. But
+Bertha had gone to bed; there was no one in the room but Leuthold, who
+was standing by the open window, to the frame of which he had screwed a
+long tube.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, little Ernestine, have you come so late to see your uncle?&quot; he
+said kindly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle, what is that?&quot; asked Ernestine, forgetting her errand in her
+wonder at the strange instrument.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is a telescope,&quot; her uncle informed her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What are you doing with it?&quot; she asked further.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am looking into the moon, my child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah! can you do that?&quot; she cried, in the greatest amazement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly I can. Would you like to look through it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, yes; if I only might!&quot; whispered Ernestine, enchanted at the
+offer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold lifted her upon the window-sill and adjusted the telescope for
+her. She was half frightened when she suddenly found the shining
+sphere, which she had always seen hovering so far above her in the sky,
+brought so near to her eyes. Her breast expanded to receive such an
+inconceivable miracle. She gazed and gazed, looking, breathless with
+the desire of knowledge, at the mountains, valleys, and jagged craters
+that were so magically revealed. The warm night air fanned her burning
+brow. Everything around her faded and was forgotten as the tired heart
+of the child throbbed with fervent longing for the peace of that new,
+distant world.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_1.3" href="#div1Ref_1.3">CHAPTER III.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>ATONEMENT.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">The day began slowly to dawn, for a dim, cloudy sky usurped the throne
+of departing night. Drops of rain fell here and there,--it was a
+cheerless morning. Not a cock crowed--not a bird was stirring. The dog
+remained hidden in his kennel.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now and then an early labourer, with his spade upon his shoulder,
+would pass along the fence encircling Hartwich's estate, and would look
+over it with surprise at the strange bustle prevailing in house and
+court-yard. Doors were opened and shut; servant-maids, with eyes heavy
+with sleep, were running hither and thither; water was brought from the
+well; no questions or answers were exchanged. It was as if every one
+avoided speaking of what had occurred. A groom brought a saddled horse
+from the stable, mounted, and galloped furiously in the direction of
+the estate of the Staatsräthin. &quot;Is there a fire anywhere?&quot; a couple of
+peasants shouted after him, but he made no reply. Without a word, he
+galloped across field and moor, never drawing rein until he reached the
+garden of the Staatsräthin. He tugged violently at the bell until a
+sleepy servant came to the door and asked him angrily what he wanted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Wake up the Geheimrath Heim, he is here on a visit. The village doctor
+sent me,--a human life is at stake!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The servant opened his eyes wide, and stared inquiringly at the groom.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes; quick, be quick! Hartwich has beaten his child so, we think
+she is dying. The barber says perhaps the Geheimrath can save her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good gracious, that is terrible!&quot; cried the horrified servant, and ran
+to call the old gentleman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath was up in a moment; without losing time by a single
+word, he dressed himself, mounted the groom's horse, and rushed off to
+the scene of the disaster.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Before the door of the house, awaiting his arrival, stood the village
+barber-surgeon, who received him with the deepest reverence. &quot;Herr
+Geheimrath, I pray you to excuse me,--but, as I knew you were in the
+neighbourhood, I conceived it my duty to entreat your assistance before
+sending for the physician, who lives three leagues off. The case seems
+to me a serious one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never excuse yourself,&quot; said Heim, taking off his hat and coat in the
+hall; &quot;it is my duty to aid wherever I can. But, in Heaven's name, how
+did it happen? Where is the child injured?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She has a wound in her head, and I fear the skull is fractured,&quot;
+replied the barber, opening the door of the room leading to Hartwich's
+apartment. The Geheimrath heard a loud sobbing as soon as the door was
+opened. He entered, and before him lay the invalid, weeping and wailing
+like a maniac, with the child stretched out stiff and corpse-like upon
+the bed; her eyes were closed and deep-sunk in their large sockets; her
+pale lips were slightly parted,--it was a sorry sight. Hartwich
+supported her bandaged head upon his arm, and, weeping loudly, pressed
+kiss after kiss upon her white brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, Herr Geheimrath!&quot; he shrieked, &quot;come here! I am a wicked,
+miserable father. I have killed my child! I am a man given over to the
+worst of all vices,--drunkenness; it is my only excuse. Accuse me; have
+me sent, crippled as I am, to jail,--I care not; but bring my child to
+life, or the sting of conscience will drive me mad!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath took the passive hand of the child and felt the pulse.
+&quot;It is greatly to be regretted that your conscience was not as active
+before the deed as it appears to be now that it is committed,&quot; he said
+coldly and sternly, as he removed the bandage from the child's head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, oh,&quot; wailed Hartwich, shutting his eyes, &quot;do not do that here! I
+cannot see the blood; I cannot see the wound; it will kill me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! you could make the wound and cannot look at it!&quot; said the
+Geheimrath inexorably, beginning to probe the wound. &quot;It is a most
+serious case,&quot; he said. &quot;Has the child moved at all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes; oh, heavens, yes; until she grew so rigid!&quot; gasped Hartwich,
+seizing Ernestine's hand to kiss it. Then he looked up at the physician
+in mortal terror. &quot;How is it? must she--oh, Christ! must she die?&quot; And
+again he broke out into the loud childish weeping peculiar to persons
+unnerved by sickness or drink.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Control yourself,&quot; ordered the Geheimrath. &quot;I cannot come to any
+decision yet. The injury to the skull is not fatal; what the effect of
+the concussion will be, I cannot tell. But, with the child's delicate
+constitution----&quot; He shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, you give me no hope,&quot; moaned Hartwich. &quot;Ernestine, wake up! only
+look once at your father, your cruel, wicked father! Ah, Herr
+Geheimrath, I disliked the child because she was so weak and ugly. If
+she had only been a fine, healthy girl, I might perhaps have been
+reconciled to having no son; but I was ashamed of her, and silenced the
+voice of my heart. Oh, these hands, poor little hands, and these pale,
+thin cheeks!--how could I ever strike them! God be merciful to me,
+miserable sinner that I am!&quot; And he beat his breast fiercely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath looked at him and shook his head. &quot;Do not excite
+yourself so. It does your daughter no good, and only injures yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My daughter! my daughter!&quot; repeated Hartwich. &quot;Oh, I have never
+treated her as such. She seemed to me a changeling, left in her cradle
+by some spiteful witch in place of the boy I so coveted. Now, when I am
+in danger of losing her, I feel that she is my child indeed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The truth is as old as the world, that nature avenges the
+transgression of the least of her laws,&quot; replied the physician. &quot;You
+have sinned grievously against the mighty law of paternal affection,
+and now it demands its rights with resistless authority. Let me entreat
+you to testify your repentance by the tenderest care of the sick child,
+and permit me to call some one to put her to bed,--it should have been
+done long ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, must she be separated from me?&quot; moaned Hartwich. &quot;I long to beg
+her forgiveness when she comes to herself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will hardly be able to do that very soon,&quot; said the Geheimrath,
+ringing the bell.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Gedike made her appearance, as gentle and submissive as she had
+previously been harsh and overbearing to Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Assist me in carrying this child to her bed,&quot; said Heim, carefully
+placing his arm beneath the rigid little body to raise it up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I beg of you, Herr Geheimrath, do not trouble yourself,&quot; cried
+Frau Gedike, evidently greatly humbled. &quot;I can carry the poor child
+without help.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim glanced at her keenly, and then quietly directed her to show him
+the way.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Gedike ran as quickly as she could across the hall to the door of
+a back room. &quot;Permit me,&quot; she said, and tried to slip past the
+Geheimrath into the apartment. &quot;Excuse me for one moment, that I may
+put things a little to rights. Everything is in disorder, I rose so
+early this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Heim said authoritatively, &quot;Follow me!&quot; and stepped past her into
+the chamber, carrying his silent burden. Here he stood still in
+astonishment. It was a kind of wash-room,--at least there was a huge
+pile of soiled linen in one corner. Broken furniture and household
+utensils were scattered about; there were no curtains to the windows;
+hundreds of flies were buzzing about the dirty panes; the air of the
+close room was stifling. In one corner stood a child's crib, which must
+have dated from Ernestine's fifth or sixth year. It contained an old
+straw bed, a dirty pillow, and a heavy, tawdry coverlet. Frau Gedike
+bustled about, endeavouring to conceal us well as she could the
+miserable condition of the room from the penetrating eye of the
+Geheimrath, but in vain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Am I to lay the wounded child in this bed? Is she to be nursed in this
+hole?&quot; he asked in a tone which boded no good to the housekeeper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gracious me!--we have no other room and no other bed. I have often
+pitied the dear child, but Herr Hartwich is so saving--he never buys
+anything new,&quot; she declared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath went towards a half-open door leading into another and
+larger apartment. Here the air was pure, the furniture decent, and
+there was a comfortable bed in the corner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is this your room?&quot; asked the Geheimrath sharply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is, Herr Geheimrath. It is just as my predecessor left it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Make up the bed instantly with clean linen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Gedike stared in surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Instantly!&quot; repeated the Geheimrath, in a way that admitted of no
+remonstrance, and seated himself, that he might more conveniently hold
+his poor little charge. Frau Gedike brought clean sheets and made up
+the bed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where shall I sleep?&quot; she asked with suppressed rage: &quot;there is no
+other sleeping-room in the whole house!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You can try Ernestine's bed, and see what it is to lie cramped up upon
+a rack!&quot; replied the old gentleman dryly. Then he wrinkled his bushy
+brows sternly, and continued: &quot;I doubt whether you will need a bed
+here, for I will do my best to have you leave this house before night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Lord, have mercy on me! Herr Geheimrath, what have I done? What
+fault can you find with me?&quot; whined Frau Gedike as she smoothed the
+pillows.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim arose, and, as he laid the lifeless little body carefully upon the
+bed, said quietly, &quot;Look at the room which you have allowed this frail
+child to occupy, the bed in which you have cramped her poor little
+limbs, and then say whether anybody of the least humanity could fail to
+condemn you!&quot; He then left her, and called the barber-surgeon that he
+might take the necessary steps for providing careful attendance for the
+child.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Gedike ran out crying, and the Geheimrath continued to provide for
+his patient's comfort with the quiet decision of an experienced
+physician and the gentleness of a tender-hearted man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After half an hour, Ernestine began to show signs of life; but she did
+not return to consciousness. She cast a vague, wandering glance around,
+then closed her eyes and muttered broken, unintelligible words. At last
+she sank anew into a state of stupor resembling slumber. The Geheimrath
+left the surgeon with her and went to Hartwich, who, in the mean while,
+had been visited by Leuthold. Leuthold had been wakened at last by the
+unwonted bustle in the house, and had stolen from his bed to see if his
+brother were perhaps dying,--a piece of news which would have been a
+grateful morning greeting to his wife. He was disappointed. The only
+comfort was that all this excitement would inevitably accelerate
+Hartwich's death; Ernestine's fate was a matter of perfect indifference
+to him, but he was greatly disturbed by the intelligence that Heim had
+been called in. He could not bear the man, whose presence brought out
+clear and distinct, as with some chemical preparation, the stains upon
+his name that had apparently faded away. He therefore determined to
+leave home for a few days, in order to avoid a meeting with the witness
+of his disgrace; but he would leave his wife on guard in the lower
+story, under the pretence of helping to nurse Ernestine. Her presence
+would naturally hinder the physician from saying anything to Hartwich
+to his, Leuthold's, detriment. He slipped up-stairs to bid his wife
+arise quickly; but the indolent woman was too long about it for his
+wishes or his plans.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Scarcely had he left Hartwich when Heim entered the room. &quot;What news do
+you bring me?&quot; Hartwich cried out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing hopeful as yet. She showed signs of life when we applied
+ice-bandages; but the lethargy into which she fell immediately is
+alarming. I cannot give you any hope before the end of three days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartwich struck his damp forehead in despair. &quot;It will kill me! it will
+kill me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath seated himself by his bedside, took a pinch of snuff
+from a golden box adorned with a miniature of the king, and calmly
+regarded the unhappy man. &quot;Now tell me, Herr von Hartwich, how it all
+occurred. I should like to know. Besides the wound on the head, the
+child has bruises on her shoulders and arms that are by no means fresh.
+She seems to have been most cruelly treated!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The invalid was silent for awhile, and then said, &quot;Yes,--ah, yes, we
+have all abused her; but God knows I never intended this last! I was
+sound asleep yesterday evening when Ernestine came home and crept in to
+me here and waked me with her sobs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor child! she had cause to weep,&quot; the Geheimrath interrupted him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,--but I did not understand that yesterday. When I awoke, I
+was thirsty, and sent her up to my brother to bring me a little--a
+little--a few drops----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To bring you liquor,&quot; the Geheimrath completed the sentence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I confess it,&quot; Hartwich continued; &quot;but in her uncle's room there
+was a telescope, and she looked through it and forgot her father's
+errand. I waited and waited, with my throat on fire, but she did not
+come. I grew more and more impatient; and when, at the end of a full
+half-hour, she came down without what I had sent her for, I seized hold
+of her to beat her; she clung to my lame arm so that the pain made me
+wild,--and in my senseless rage I flung her off and hurled her away
+with my healthy arm;--may it be crippled forever! She fell backward,
+and struck the back of her head first against the marble top of my
+wash-stand,--you can see the blood there still,--and then upon the
+floor, where she lay like one dead. Everything grew black before my
+eyes, as it did when I had the stroke. I rang for my people; no one
+came. I could not move,--could not leave my bed to go to the child. I
+saw her blood flow, I heard her gasp as if in the death-agony, and I
+lay here a miserable cripple, thinking that I had killed my child. Oh,
+Herr Geheimrath, at such a time our inmost selves are revealed to as;
+in such agony one learns to pray. At last, after repeated ringing and
+calling, my good-for-nothing servants made their appearance. Herr
+Geheimrath, I cannot tell you how I felt when they laid the child upon
+my bed,--my poor, beaten child. As the little bleeding head lay on my
+arm, it seemed as if my heart opened wide with the gaping wound, and,
+for the first time, real, warm, paternal affection gushed from it.
+Before, when I chastised the child, she was all defiance and
+stubbornness; then I did not care if I hurt her; but now, as she lay
+mute and crushed before me, she spoke to me in a language that recalled
+me to myself. And, Herr Geheimrath, I have not been myself,--I have
+drunk myself down to the level of a brute; and the poor victim of my
+fury has recalled me from my degradation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath listened to the speaker with growing sympathy. When he
+had finished, he took his hand. &quot;You are right, Herr von Hartwich, to
+be frank with me. Men who are not evil by nature can best excuse their
+evil deeds by frankness, for their intentions are seldom as bad as
+their actions. Compose yourself,--your condition is indeed worthy of
+compassion. If the physician might be allowed to usurp in a measure the
+confessor's chair at such a time as the present, I would say for your
+consolation, in the event of the worst termination to the child's
+illness, that your irresponsible condition, which rendered you
+incapable of appreciating the consequences of your act, and which would
+excuse you before an earthly tribunal, should have some weight with
+your inward judge. Besides, you have certainly acted paternally towards
+the child in one respect,&quot; he added with significance. &quot;You have
+accumulated a fine property for her. That will enable her to occupy
+such a position in the world as will make her life, if it is spared, a
+happy one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartwich seized Heim's hand and whispered quickly and anxiously &quot;Ah, my
+dear sir, I have not done this; it now lies heavy on my soul that I
+have not been a father to the child in any way!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you mean?&quot; cried Heim with apparent surprise. &quot;You have not
+set Ernestine aside in favour of another?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartwich looked anxiously towards the door. The Geheimrath understood
+his look, and opened it,--no listener was near. Hartwich then confessed
+all to the Geheimrath that the latter already knew. Heim shook his
+head. &quot;It is incredible that a father should do so by his own child;
+but, now that your sense of duty is aroused, you will of course atone
+for your injustice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, Herr Geheimrath, if I only could, how gladly would I do so! If my
+poor Ernestine recovers, I would gladly make over to her the whole
+estate during my lifetime. Tell me, how shall I begin to make amends?
+how shall I begin to atone to the child for all the misery I have
+caused her? I will do anything, everything, if I only can. Assist me,
+advise me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think,&quot; began the Geheimrath with quiet decision, &quot;that the case is
+very simple. You can make a new will and declare the other void. If
+Ernestine recovers, it is very doubtful whether she will be anything
+more than a poor, sickly invalid during her entire lifetime. Such an
+unfortunate being needs money,--a great deal of money; for sickness is
+an expensive affair. The child was naturally healthy. She has been
+weakened by neglect and harsh treatment. You left her to a worthless
+housekeeper, who denied her everything that a child should have in
+order to be strong, and in her weakened condition you have dealt her a
+death-blow from which she can hardly recover. You must be conscious
+that, since you have almost destroyed Ernestine's life, you ought at
+least to provide her with the means of making her invalid existence as
+endurable as possible, and indemnify her for a neglected childhood by
+every enjoyment that wealth can procure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again Hartwich broke out into loud lamentations. &quot;Yes, yes, you are
+right,--you are a man of honour, Herr Geheimrath. But how can I set
+aside my will without encountering Leuthold's bitterest hate? Ah, you
+do not know what a dangerous enemy he is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know, I know,&quot; Heim interrupted him, nodding his head; &quot;he is a bad
+fellow; but tell me, Herr von Hartwich, what do you fear from him? Will
+not the curse of your unfortunate child, if she lives, be harder to
+bear than the hate of such a miserable wretch as your step-brother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartwich writhed and turned in his bed. &quot;If I had only sold the
+factory! If he should learn that I had disinherited him, he is quite
+capable of preventing the sale out of sheer revenge, ruining the whole
+business for me, and then the poor child would be deprived of half of
+her property!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath held his snuff-box in one hand, clasped the other over
+it, and looked at Hartwich with a smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If that is why you hesitate, there is no cause for fear. The factory
+is as good as sold; for Herr Neuenstein, the brother of the
+Staatsräthin Möllner, is most anxious to purchase it for his son, who
+is a chemist;--he knows your brother, and would easily see through his
+wiles. Besides, Gleissert need know nothing about it for the present.
+Make the will secretly. I will give you pen and ink when I have written
+a prescription for Ernestine. Send your housekeeper off immediately,
+that we may have no spies about; for I believe her to be capable of any
+treachery, and Ernestine must not be left in her charge. This afternoon
+I shall come again, and you can put the document into my hands, where
+it will be safe. Well--how does the plan please you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; cried Hartwich passionately. &quot;That is right. That I can do.
+Ah, it is all that is left for me to do for my child, and it shall be
+done. Send Gedike away;--get me pen, ink, and paper,--it must not be
+delayed an hour longer than is necessary. I feel I may die at any
+moment. Remove this burden from my soul, and I shall die more
+peacefully!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim went instantly to procure writing-materials, for he knew better
+than the invalid himself that there must be no delay in the matter. The
+servants brought him what he wanted, and he looked in upon Ernestine
+for a moment, while the surgeon went for more ice for the bandages. She
+was lying there moaning and groaning restlessly. He looked at her
+lovingly, and said to himself, &quot;Poor child! There are better days in
+store for you.&quot; Then he repaired to Frau Gedike, whom he informed of
+her dismissal, and appointed Rieka, the elder of the maid-servants,--a
+girl whose face pleased him,--Ernestine's attendant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When he returned to Hartwich, he found him in a state of great
+excitement. His face was purple, the veins greatly swollen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where have you been so long?&quot; he cried out as the Geheimrath entered.
+&quot;I was in agony for fear I should have another stroke. I felt just as I
+did before! There, give me the writing-materials--it would be terrible
+if I were to die now, before I had atoned for my crime. Pray help me
+up, Herr Geheimrath,--but do not touch my lame arm,--oh, this pain!
+There, there,--thank you. Now the pen. I have thought it all over while
+you were away. I will arrange it so that he cannot say I broke my word
+to him, and he cannot harm Ernestine if I should die shortly. Ah,
+air!--Herr Geheimrath,--open a window! After I have written--I shall be
+easier. Then my mind will be relieved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He spoke in breathless haste, while the perspiration stood in beads
+upon his forehead.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Be calm, be calm!&quot; said the Geheimrath soothingly. &quot;You are not going
+to die now, but you will make yourself ill with this excitement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, you are kind,--you wish to console me;--but I feel that last night
+will be my death--there is no time to lose!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He dipped the pen in the ink, and looked towards the door. &quot;If only
+Leuthold does not come,--all is lost if he does. Bolt it, I pray, that
+he may not surprise us. Tell me, will it not be best to make him
+Ernestine's heir? Then I shall not be quite false to my promise,--it
+is, alas, alas, more likely that the poor little lamb will die than
+that she will recover; then all will be as it was, and the property
+will be his,--and, if she lives, he must have a good legacy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; said the Geheimrath good-humouredly, &quot;give the fellow what
+you think you owe him. But remember that he inherits from Ernestine
+only in case of her dying unmarried; for if it be God's will that she
+lives, marries, and has children, you must not deprive those children
+of the property. That might make her very unhappy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, you are right,--I will insert that clause. But the
+guardianship,--what do you think? I must make Leuthold her guardian, or
+he will be terribly angry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath shook his head. &quot;I would not do that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, Herr Geheimrath. It would look too ugly, and the child will
+be in no kind of danger. He always liked Ernestine, and stood up for
+her; and he will be afraid, too, not to fill his post of guardian
+conscientiously, for he will be under the supervision of the orphans'
+court.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then make her minority as short as possible. For my satisfaction, have
+it expressly stated that she shall be of age at eighteen. Such
+precaution is necessary with men of Gleissert's stamp. According to our
+laws, a father can declare his child of age at eighteen. Her property
+can remain in the orphans' court until then, when it can be placed at
+her own disposal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, I agree to all that,--then it is all settled! God be
+thanked!&quot; Hartwich drew a long sigh of relief, and dipped the pen in
+the ink. But scarcely had he attempted the first stroke when he dropped
+the pen in despair and cried out, &quot;Merciful Heaven! I cannot form a
+letter!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The startled Geheimrath looked at the paper. The letters were entirely
+illegible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For one moment the old gentleman lost all hope,--while Hartwich sobbed
+and groaned like a child. Was he to fail thus, just when the goal was
+reached? The Geheimrath regarded the invalid thoughtfully, pondering
+how long a delay his condition would permit. Then he made up his mind,
+and said with composure, &quot;I will arrange it all; do not be at all
+anxious. I will drive to the nearest town and procure the services of a
+couple of lawyers, and you shall dictate your will. I will be back
+again in two hours. Tell me when Leuthold is used to be away from home,
+that he may know nothing of our plans.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At the time of your return he will be at the factory. If you go on
+foot as far as the corner of the wood, he will not see you. Herr
+Geheimrath, you are a true man,--my child's benefactor and mine. How
+shall I ever thank you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is no need of thanks,--no need at all! I am only doing my duty
+as a man and a Christian.&quot; And the prudent old physician concealed the
+writing-materials and hurried out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartwich cast his blood-shot eyes upward and prayed, &quot;Let me live until
+it is complete, O God,--only until then!&quot; These words he repeated again
+and again, while his heart beat more wildly and irregularly, and his
+veins grew blue and swollen. It was the mortal agony of a doomed wretch
+who feels that a short time will bring him to the bar of an inexorable
+judge, and who longs to throw off at least a part of his burden of
+guilt. Of course such anguish would hasten his death.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Bertha came down soon after the Geheimrath's departure, and would
+have stayed in Hartwich's room, but his state terrified her. She saw
+that the end was near, and she had not the courage to look on at the
+death-agony. In her heart she felt herself a murderess, because she had
+so ardently desired his death. Indeed, fate often makes us by our
+silent desires accomplices in its severity, and we are stricken with
+vain remorse when our secret hostility to another suddenly takes form
+and shape in events. Who has not at some time in his life secretly
+nourished a selfish desire, and, after it has been crushed down,
+fervently thanked Heaven for not cursing him with a granted prayer? Or,
+if the evil has been permitted, who has not in his remorse half
+believed that his secret desire helped to work the mischief that has
+been done? Frau Bertha's perceptions were not very delicate. She wished
+for Hartwich's death that she might enjoy his wealth, and thanked
+Heaven that it would shortly be hers; but she was too much of a woman
+not to shudder at the moment of the fulfilment of her evil desires and
+see an avenging demon in Hartwich's dying form. She resolved,
+therefore, to disobey her lord and master, and avoid the death-bed. The
+cogent reasons that Leuthold had for enjoining constant watchfulness
+she could not comprehend; and therefore, as soon as Leuthold left for
+the factory, she betook herself to her apartments again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hartwich was now left upon his burning couch, devoured by anxiety. The
+minutes crept slowly on; every quarter of an hour, news of Ernestine
+was brought him; there was no change for an hour, and then Rieka came
+in suddenly and cried, &quot;Ah, sir, Ernestine is awake and wants some
+book; we cannot understand what one, or what she means, she speaks so
+indistinctly, and whatever we get her is wrong. What is to be done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Send a servant into town to buy every child's-book that is to be
+had,--let her want for nothing,--do you hear? for nothing! Has she not
+mentioned me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no,&quot; replied the servant; &quot;she is not herself,--she is continually
+moaning for her book!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then get her what she wants, as quickly as possible,--only be quick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The servant left the room, and the sick man was left to his brooding
+thoughts again. It worried and tormented him that Ernestine would have
+to wait several hours for what she wanted. In a few moments he rang
+again for the maid, who reiterated that the child was still asking for
+her book. The invalid grew still more restless, and at last sent for
+the surgeon, who was still with Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Lederer,&quot; he called out upon his entrance, &quot;bleed me! Don't you
+remember how much good it did me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not for worlds, sir!&quot; said Lederer. &quot;I could not do it without a
+physician's orders. There seems no reason at all at present for such an
+extreme remedy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you know about it?&quot; cried Hartwich angrily. &quot;I tell you I know
+I need it. There is a perfect hammering going on inside my head. You
+must bleed me, or I shall have another stroke!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, sir, believe me, you are needlessly alarmed,&quot; said the barber.
+&quot;Have some compassion upon a poor man like myself, who cannot take upon
+himself such a responsibility with a patient of your importance. I
+would gladly do it if I could! Have patience, I pray you, until the
+Geheimrath comes back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a miserable coward!&quot; screamed Hartwich, foaming with rage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For Heaven's sake compose yourself, sir,&quot; the terrified surgeon
+interrupted him; &quot;I will obey you, but I must first go home and fetch
+my bandages. Perhaps by the time I get back the Geheimrath will be
+here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then go,&quot; muttered Hartwich, who already repented his violence, which
+he feared might prove an injury to him. &quot;But first lift me up a little.
+Ah! if I could only put my feet out of bed I should certainly feel
+easier. Try if you cannot lift them out; take out the lame leg
+first--so--that's right--oh, it's hard. 'Tis better to have wooden
+legs--they can be unstrapped and taken off--but to have to drag about
+everywhere a dead, useless limb is horrible! 'tis a dog's life, and I
+care not how soon it is over, but not just yet--I must do my duty
+first. Now go, Lederer, and come back soon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The barber had helped him so that he was sitting upright in bed, with
+his lame foot upon a cushion. He looked around the room, and noticed
+Ernestine's book upon the table. &quot;What is that?&quot; he asked. Lederer
+handed it to him. He turned over the leaves, and his face suddenly
+brightened. &quot;That must be the book that Ernestine is asking for--some
+one must have given it to her yesterday at the party. Good heavens! now
+I understand why the poor little thing crept in here so late last
+night; she wanted to read by my lamp! Ah, how dearly she paid for her
+innocent pleasure! Go, my good Lederer, and take the book to the child.
+Tell Rieka to come and let me know what she says to it, and then you
+will get the bandages--will you not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most certainly, sir, as soon as possible!&quot; said Lederer, and hurried
+away with the book.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A clock struck nine. Hartwich sighed profoundly. &quot;Only nine. Heim
+cannot come for an hour yet. The lawyers will need time for
+preparation. O God--Thou wilt not punish that poor, innocent child so
+severely as to let me die before her rights are secured--Thou wilt
+not!&quot; He tried in vain to fold his hands, and at last dropped them
+wearily upon his crippled knees.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly he imagined that his right hand also was stiffening. His
+incapacity to write could not have resulted merely from want of habit.
+He moved his arm up and down to try it--whether in imagination or
+reality, it certainly felt heavier. It was not the effect of gout, as
+was the case with his left hand; this could only proceed from an
+effusion of blood upon the brain. Cold drops of moisture stood upon his
+forehead; he tried to wipe them away with his right hand; in vain, he
+could not lift it so high. Thus he sat helpless and alone, every limb
+crippled. He thought of his child's thin, white hands; how blest he
+should be if they could now supply the place of his own to him, wipe
+his damp brow and hand him refreshing drink! He thought how forsaken
+and alone he sat there awaiting death, and that it was all his own
+fault; and again he sobbed convulsively. Then Rieka entered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, was that the right one?&quot; asked Hartwich.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank Heaven! Did she not mention me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, sir; she said nothing. She only took the book and kissed it, then
+folded it in her arms and went to sleep again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If the child does not forgive me before I die, I shall have no rest in
+my grave!&quot; moaned Hartwich. &quot;Rieka, I am losing the use of my right arm
+too. Look at me. Am I not altered?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no, you always look just as purple!&quot; said Rieka consolingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Give me a mirror and let me see myself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rieka handed him a mirror, and he looked at himself long and anxiously.
+&quot;I look fearfully. Can you not hear how indistinct my speech is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rieka put away the mirror. &quot;Oh, your tongue is always heavy when you
+have been drinking. Don't be worried about that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have not drank a drop to-day, you insolent girl!&quot; stammered Hartwich
+irritated. &quot;Go back instantly, and take good care of the child, or----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, sir, I shall do my duty without threats, but I can't mend the
+mischief that you have done!&quot; And she slammed the door behind her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I must bear this from an ignorant peasant!&quot; wailed Hartwich. &quot;How
+they will abuse me to my child, if she recovers! Oh, oh, I deserve it
+all; 'tis wretched,--wretched! But I must be calm. I must not be
+excited.&quot; Thus he murmured, with trembling lips, exerting all his
+energy to repress his excitement, and to force the breath regularly
+from his laboring breast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again the clock struck--ten this time.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They must soon be here now!&quot; thought Hartwich. &quot;If I can only keep my
+head clear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The wretched man in his anguish now exercised his mental faculties in
+every way that he could devise, repeating the formula which he had
+composed for his will a hundred times, that it might be so stamped upon
+his mind as to be forthcoming even in his last moments.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last steps were heard in the hall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is Lederer with the bandages,&quot; he thought, suddenly remembering his
+desire to be bled. But there were several people there. It must be the
+lawyers. The door opened. &quot;Ah, thank God! thank God!&quot; Hartwich
+stammered, and fainted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought so!&quot; cried the Geheimrath. &quot;If you had only bled him, or at
+least remained with him!&quot; he continued to the terrified barber, who
+entered at the same time. &quot;Be quick now; give me that case; bring me
+some ice from the child's room,&quot; he ordered; and, while he spoke the
+lancet had done its work, and the dark blood was flowing from the arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray be ready, gentlemen,&quot; he said as he was bandaging the arm; &quot;I
+believe the sick man will come to himself in a few moments. You will
+find writing-materials there in the corner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentlemen took their seats, and arranged a table for writing from
+the sick man's dictation. The surgeon brought the ice; it was laid upon
+Hartwich's head, and, as the Geheimrath had prophesied, he soon came to
+himself. He looked around him with astonishment &quot;Am I still living?&quot; he
+feebly asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly, certainly,&quot; said the Geheimrath, cheerfully; &quot;it was only a
+slight attack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God of mercy,&quot; gasped Hartwich, &quot;Thou art all compassion! My memory is
+still perfect. Are the lawyers here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One of them arose, and approached the bed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We are here, Herr von Hartwich, and await your directions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am still of sound mind,--indeed I am,&quot; Hartwich insisted with
+childlike eagerness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The intention with which you have summoned us would certainly not
+indicate the contrary,&quot; said the lawyer gravely, signing to his
+companion to prepare to write.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I declare that this last decision of mine is entirely my own,&quot;
+Hartwich continued.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am convinced that it is so. I should far rather suppose that your
+previous will was a forced one,&quot; the official rejoined.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will it impair the authenticity of this document that I am unable to
+sign it? I cannot, unfortunately, move my hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not at all,&quot; said the lawyer. &quot;These two gentlemen, Herr Geheimrath
+Heim and the surgeon Lederer, will have the kindness to affix their
+signatures as witnesses, and the instrument will be legally correct. If
+you are strong enough to dictate your will, there is nothing now to
+prevent your doing so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes! oh, yes!&quot; gasped Hartwich, as the Geheimrath supported him;
+&quot;every moment is precious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The preliminary sentences were written at Hartwich's request. The
+Geheimrath closed the door, and the dying man began to dictate in such
+feverish haste that the lawyer was obliged to entreat him to speak more
+slowly. Some irregularities in the formula were arranged, and the will
+was completed before the glimmering spark of life in the testator was
+extinguished. Little Ernestine was made heir to a property of ninety
+thousand thalers. The document was read aloud to Hartwich, and the
+Geheimrath and Lederer affixed their signatures instead of his own.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now I can die!&quot; said the sick man, with the air of a released captive;
+and instantly his mental and physical powers failed him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Geheimrath!&quot; he faltered, and a strange smile transfigured
+his countenance, &quot;lay the will upon my child's bed, as
+her--father's--last--farewell--thanks--thanks.&quot; And his eyelids closed,
+he muttered unintelligibly, and relapsed into unconsciousness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath nodded to the lawyers, and said, &quot;It was high time!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_1.4" href="#div1Ref_1.4">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE SAD SURVIVORS.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">The next day, at about the same hour, Frau Bertha was in her kitchen,
+beating whites of eggs for a cake, her round cheeks shaking merrily
+with the exercise. She had sent her maid into the garden with Gretchen,
+and was supplying the maid's place. She turned the bowl upside down, to
+convince herself that the eggs were sufficiently beaten; not a drop
+fell,--they were all right. She set them aside with an air of great
+satisfaction, and turned to a bag beneath the table, whence issued a
+melancholy flapping and cooing. A white dove poked its head out of the
+mouth of the bag, and Bertha thrust it back again, securing the opening
+more tightly. A pot of water on the fire boiled over with a loud
+hissing, and she hastened to roll up her sleeves over her large,
+well-formed arms, and lift the heavy vessel from the glowing coals. She
+was a beautiful sight, as the glare from the fire illuminated her
+massive proportions; as she moved hither and thither, now arranging her
+various cooking-utensils, now opening the door beneath the oven, to
+thrust in huge pieces of wood, hastily picking up and tossing back the
+bits of burning coal that fell out, she might have been Frau Venus, the
+coarse Frau Venus of the popular German imagination, fresh from the
+infernal regions in the Hörselberg, who, clad in a kitchen apron, was
+here in the likeness of a cook-maid to seduce the calm, cold-blooded
+Dr. Gleissert by the magic charms of her cookery. She tossed a net full
+of crabs into a pot of cold water, and looked thoughtlessly on at their
+slow death over the fire. She never dreamed that just at that moment a
+human life was leaving its mortal tenement beneath her roof, and when,
+a few minutes later, she was pounding ingredients in her huge mortar,
+that the noise she was making was the death-knell of a departing soul.
+She did not hear her husband's approach until he stood before her, and
+seizing her by the arm, said breathlessly, &quot;Wife, this is our last day
+of torment!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Bertha looked at him with surprise, that was only half joy,
+painted upon her heated face. &quot;I have never seen you so delighted
+before, except when you were examining those odd fishes at Trieste;
+what has happened?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can you not guess?&quot; asked Leuthold.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is he dead?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is; he has been dying for the last twenty-four hours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank Heaven!&quot; said Frau Bertha, folding her plump hands.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And if I believed in Heaven I should say so too,&quot; rejoined Leuthold,
+throwing himself upon a kitchen chair. &quot;Only conceive of the joy!
+We are wealthy,--independent,--delivered from our ten years'
+servitude,--delivered--ah!&quot; He fanned himself with the pocket-handkerchief
+that he had just used at the bedside of Hartwich's corpse to dry the
+tears that he did not shed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In spite of her good fortune, Frau Bertha looked uncomfortable. &quot;I am
+almost sorry he has gone,&quot; she said timidly. &quot;It seems to me a sin to
+rejoice so at any one's death,--he might appear to us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't talk such nonsense; you know I cannot endure it,&quot; said Leuthold
+angrily. &quot;You behave as if we had killed him. Wishes are neither poison
+nor steel; and we are not rejoicing at his death, but at our
+inheritance. It is but human.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; said Bertha, comforted, &quot;you are quite right. If we could
+have had the money while he lived, we should not have wanted him to
+die; he might have lived for a hundred years for all I would have
+cared. It was his own fault that we wished him dead. Why did he keep us
+so pinched?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold nodded approvingly. &quot;I see you are willing to listen to
+reason; now have the kindness to come downstairs with me and pay the
+proper respect to the body.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What must I do that for?&quot; asked Bertha, alarmed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because it is becoming! I have instructed you sufficiently upon this
+point; you know my wishes--come!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">These words, that cut like a knife in their utterance, made opposition
+useless. Bertha took her casseroles from the fire, looked after the
+doves in the bag, and followed her husband down stairs. On the way she
+asked him, &quot;What shall I say when we get there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not much,&quot; said Leuthold dryly. &quot;There is not much to be said in such
+stiff, silent society,--a couple of oh's and ah's will suffice; it is
+very graceful in a woman to fall upon her knees by the bedside; but if
+you should attempt it, pray restrain your usual impetuosity, or the
+repose even of the dead might be disturbed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a fearful man,&quot; whispered Bertha. &quot;I am actually afraid of
+you. Will you make such joking speeches when I die?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall not outlive you, my good Bertha,&quot; said Leuthold, plaintively.
+&quot;If I should, be assured I will mourn for you as the nurseling for his
+nurse!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Bertha looked doubtfully at her husband. She scarcely knew what to
+make of this tender asseveration, and she said nothing. They had
+reached the door of Hartwich's apartment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where is your handkerchief--your pocket-handkerchief?&quot; Leuthold asked
+softly. Bertha sought it in vain; she had forgotten it. &quot;How
+thoughtless,&quot; whispered Leuthold, &quot;to forget your handkerchief under
+such circumstances!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then give me yours,&quot; said Bertha.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You fool! I want it for myself. Take your apron; put that up to your
+eyes--so!&quot; With these words he opened the door and entered slowly,
+pushing Bertha before him. Hartwich lay extended upon the bed, his face
+so changed that Bertha was glad to be able to hide her eyes in her
+apron. Leuthold stood beside her, a picture of dignified manly grief;
+his bearing impressed the bystanders; the surgeon, the men- and
+maid-servants, who were all present, were convinced that Herr Gleissert
+had really loved his step-brother, and that it was rank injustice to
+accuse him of heartlessness. After a few moments, he laid his hand
+gently upon his wife's shoulder, but its stern pressure reminded her
+that she was to fall upon her knees. She sank down as carefully as she
+could, and with her broad back and bending head was a beautiful and
+moving image of woe. After awhile he bent over her and said gently,
+&quot;Come, my child, do not be so agitated; our tears cannot bring him back
+to life--come!&quot; Then he raised her, leaned her head upon his breast to
+conceal her face, and conducted her from the room. The others looked
+after them with amazement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot understand it,&quot; said the surgeon. &quot;Every one knows that the
+woman never could endure Herr von Hartwich, and yet now she seems
+almost dead with grief!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She isn't really sorry,&quot; growled a groom; &quot;it's all sham!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; Rieka added, &quot;she didn't shed a tear,--not a single tear,
+for all she rubbed her eyes so with her apron!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's true,--she is right,&quot; murmured the group; &quot;neither he nor she
+shed a single tear. Well, there's a pair of them. Do they suppose we
+are so stupid as not to see how glad they are that the master is dead?
+'Tis a pity that the money will not fall into better hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then they separated, and went indifferently about their work.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was not so bad,&quot; said Leuthold, when he had reached his own room
+with Bertha; &quot;but still you certainly have no genius for the stage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You ought to be glad that I can never play a part before you,&quot; she
+said, shaking herself as if to shake off the disagreeable impression of
+what she had seen like dust from her clothes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the mean time the maid had brought the child in from the garden, and
+had laid the table.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We will have some champagne to-day,&quot; said Leuthold, taking down the
+keys of the cellar. &quot;We need something to support us under such
+exciting circumstances. Send Lena for some ice.&quot; And he left the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Bertha sent the girl for ice, and said to herself with
+complacency, &quot;That ice-house was the best thing I ever planned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The little girl, who was too fat and chubby to move very steadily, had
+crept under the table, and now, catching hold of the corner of the
+table-cloth, tried to lift herself by it, thereby pulling down a couple
+of plates and knives upon the floor. Bertha caught up the screaming
+child, gave it two or three hard slaps, saying, &quot;Now you know what you
+are crying for,&quot; and then carried it to and fro to quiet it, well
+knowing that her strict husband would not endure any noise. Gretchen
+ceased crying just as her father entered with the champagne. Lena
+brought the ice, and the bottles were arranged in it. When the husband
+and wife were seated at table, Bertha had the fragments of the broken
+plates cleared away. &quot;Oh, heavens!&quot; she muttered, &quot;nothing but bad
+signs. If our fortune should be destroyed like that china!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You unmitigated fool!&quot; scolded her husband; &quot;if everything that we
+desire were only as secure as our legally devised inheritance,
+Gretchen's future husband would be now tumbling about in a royal
+nursery, and there would be a French cook in our kitchen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, then,&quot; Bertha interrupted him with irritation, &quot;you are not
+satisfied with my cooking,--you want a Frenchman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only a Frenchman could supply your place,&quot; replied her husband, quite
+ready to practise himself in the delicate flattery which he intended to
+make use of in future towards ladies in aristocratic circles. He kissed
+her hand and said, &quot;I would not have these rosy fingers any longer
+degraded by contact with the rude utensils of cookery. Let all that be
+left to the hard, rough hands of some skilful gastronome.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Bertha stared at him in surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, can gastronomes cook?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most certainly,--what else should they do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought they looked at the stars through glasses!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold clasped his hands in dismay, and cast a look towards heaven.
+&quot;Good heavens! when I think of your making such a speech among our
+future friends, I am so profoundly humiliated that I could almost
+determine to make over my property to some religious institution--some
+monastery--and enroll myself among its members. Woman, woman, must I
+teach you the difference between gastronomy, the science of cookery,
+and astronomy, the science of the stars?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gastronomy or astronomy!&quot; said Bertha pettishly, as she ladled out the
+soup, &quot;it is a great deal better for me to understand cooking than the
+long names you call it. Would you have liked, during all the ten years
+that you were too poor to keep a regular cook, to have a wife who could
+talk Latin with you, but whose dinners a dog could not have eaten?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no, indeed, my dear Bertha!&quot; said her husband with a shudder; &quot;but
+the two can be united if you try. I do not ask you either to study
+Greek and Latin, or to resign your masterly supervision of our kitchen
+department; but you have hitherto performed many little household
+offices, that could as well have been left to the servant, because you
+had no pleasanter way of occupying your time. This must be otherwise
+now; hitherto you have had the excuse of our straitened circumstances
+that have compelled you sometimes to discharge a servant's duties. Now
+there will be no such excuse; for you will have a suitable household in
+town, and time to cultivate your mind and render yourself a worthy
+member of the society to which I shall introduce you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bertha in her impatience let her spoon fall into the soup-plate, and
+then wreaked her irritation upon the soup, which she poured hastily
+back into the tureen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you should do such a thing as that before strangers,&quot; said her
+husband angrily, &quot;you would stamp yourself as a person of no
+refinement, and I should be disgraced.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bertha brought her hand down upon the table so heavily that the glasses
+rang again. &quot;This is really too much! Can I no longer eat as I please?
+As long as you were poor, and I spent my little all in procuring
+delicacies for you, you found me all very well, and had plenty of fine
+words for me; but now, that you are rich and I have nothing left, I am
+not good enough for you, and you take quite another tone with me.
+Heaven help me! There is no more pleasure in store for me. I really
+believe you would send me out of the house if I should not succeed in
+pleasing you. Oh, if I had only known!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was silent, because Lena appeared with the roast; but a couple of
+large tears dropped into the soup-plate which she handed to the
+servant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What exaggerated nonsense!&quot; said Leuthold at last. &quot;Be good enough to
+carve the meat,--I am hungry. You know I am a respectable man,--slow to
+adopt harsh measures if they can be avoided. I hope you will not force
+me to them by stubborn conduct. You will recognize and fulfil the
+duties which our wealth imposes upon us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Duties, duties? I thought that when I was rich I could begin really to
+enjoy life and do as I pleased; but instead of that I must wear a
+double face and worry about everything. It is just as if you gave me a
+new sofa in the place of the old one, but forbade me to lie down upon
+it for fear of injuring the cover. Of course I should long for the old
+one, upon which I could stretch myself in comfort whenever I chose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold smiled. &quot;You are not forbidden to lie down upon the new sofa.
+I only ask you to take off your muddy boots when you do so. Do you
+understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bertha was so far consoled that she applied herself to devouring the
+food upon her plate in silence. Her husband regarded her with a strange
+mixture of humour and discontent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must at least learn to hold your fork in your left hand,&quot; he said
+at last.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mercy!&quot; exclaimed Bertha again. &quot;What matter is it about such a
+trifle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A great deal of matter, my dear. Such trifles show refinement, just as
+the mercury in the thermometer shows the degree of heat and cold. If
+you lay your knife aside and clutch your fork in your right hand like a
+pitchfork, every one of any culture will say, 'That woman is a person
+of no refinement. She has not been used to good society.' I grant it is
+insignificant in itself and ridiculous to every thinking man; but it
+serves a certain purpose. Such forms are marks of distinction between
+cultivated and uncultivated people. Just because they are so
+insignificant the uninitiated never pay any heed to them. But, although
+clad in purple and fine linen, ignorance of such trifles betrays the
+parvenu. Those who desire, like yourself, to enter circles to which
+they do not belong by birth, must find out all their conventional
+secrets, in order not to be disgraced.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, what a moral discourse!&quot; sighed Bertha. &quot;I have had enough for
+to-day. You are a thoroughly heartless man, and were kind to me only as
+long as you needed me. I must bear what comes, for I am poor and
+helpless since I broke with my father,--but you have tired me out, I
+assure you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And if this fatigue were an overpowering sensation, you would separate
+yourself from me; but since you are fond of the rest that I can provide
+you, there will be an enduring bond between us. I shall magnanimously
+treat you as my wife as long as you give me no legal ground for
+divorce; therefore, be composed; your future lot is a thousand times
+more brilliant than you had any right to expect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bertha arose, and was about to reply, but her husband commanded silence
+by so imperious a gesture that she swallowed down her anger and
+hastened from the room, sobbing violently. In the kitchen the maid was
+just taking the cake that she had made from the oven. It was
+successful--it was most beautiful! The servant placed it near the open
+window to cool. Bertha contemplated it mournfully. How much pains she
+had taken! how stiff the eggs had been beaten! how well it had risen!
+and no one cared anything about it! Did her cross husband deserve that
+she should prepare such a delicacy for him? Should he devour this
+masterpiece? Yet there it was,--so round and high, so brown and
+fragrant, that she gradually dried her tears, and was filled with more
+agreeable sensations and a pardonable pride. No one except herself
+possessed the receipt for this cake. No one else could make it. She
+thought with rapture of the delight of those who should in future
+partake of it at her table,--of the consideration that she should enjoy
+on account of it; and, thinking thus, her good humour returned, and she
+determined not to hide her light under a bushel, and punish her husband
+by withholding the cake from him, but to parade it before him; he
+should see what a woman he had treated so unkindly could do. When he
+tasted this cake he would repent his harshness! She took the plate and
+carried it on high into the dining-room, where she placed it before her
+husband with exultation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, that is really beautiful,&quot; he said approvingly, looking first at
+the round, beautiful cake, and then at the plump, pretty baker; and his
+approbation exalted Bertha to the highest pitch of satisfaction, so
+that she felt morally justified in asking for a glass of champagne. Her
+husband removed the cork without allowing it to snap and disturb the
+decorum of the house of mourning, and then poured out a sparkling
+bumper for her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come,&quot; she said, &quot;we will clink glasses, and drink to the welfare of
+the good Hartwich, who has made us rich!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, now that he is dead, may he live forever,&quot; said Leuthold smiling,
+and gently touching his wife's glass with his own,--&quot;live forever in
+that heaven where I trust he may experience all the delight that his
+wealth will afford us here on earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They emptied their glasses, and Bertha ran into the adjoining room,
+where Gretchen was taking her noonday nap. She snatched the sleeping
+child from the bed, shook it, and cried, &quot;Come, wake up, and you shall
+have some cake!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The little thing, interrupted in its nap, was frightened and began to
+scream, refusing to be quieted until her father filled her mouth with
+the promised delicacy and dandled her in his arms.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do not even understand how to take care of your own child,&quot;
+murmured Leuthold. &quot;What will you do when our niece comes to us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What!&quot; cried Bertha, &quot;must I have the care of the disagreeable
+creature?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She will come to me--yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But we will send her to boarding-school--you promised me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If Ernestine recovers, as she may do under old Heim's care, she will
+be too weak for months to be sent among strangers without incurring the
+reproach of the world. You will be obliged, therefore, to submit to
+having her with us until such time as we can be rid of her decently. I
+assure you she shall stay no longer than is absolutely necessary. And
+now pray be quiet, and do not embitter this day by complaints.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Bertha looked utterly discomfited. She determined that, at all
+events, Ernestine should never partake of the delicacies which she
+alone knew how to prepare. Coarse natures always seek for a scape-goat
+upon whom to wreak their irritation; and, as she did not dare to make
+her husband serve this purpose, her choice fell upon Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold, who was not used to see his wife lost in a reverie, softly
+touched her shoulder. &quot;Come; it really looks almost as if you were
+thinking of something,&quot; he said dryly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes; I am thinking of something,&quot; she replied significantly. &quot;I am
+thinking of the dog's life I shall lead as long as that sickly, ailing
+brat is under our roof, and no one will reward me for my pains.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She stopped, for Gretchen had grown restless, and required all her
+attention, and Leuthold evidently refused to give any heed to her
+complaints, but, as dinner was over, folded his napkin and rose from
+the table. &quot;I must write the notice of his death--it is high time it
+were attended to,&quot; he said, while he washed his hands in the adjoining
+room. &quot;Sew a piece of crape around my hat.&quot; He re-entered the room, and
+sat down at his writing-table. Bertha placed a candle and a cup of
+<i>café noir</i> upon it. He lighted a cigar, which he smoked as he
+wrote, sipping his coffee comfortably from time to time. The servant
+removed the dinner-table; Gretchen amused herself on the floor with
+some paper, which she tore into a thousand fragments, to make a mimic
+snow-storm; and Bertha tried on before the mirror several articles of
+mourning-apparel, which she had had in readiness for some time. She was
+delighted, for black was very becoming to her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Peace and comfort reigned in the apartment. Leuthold emptied his cup
+and laid aside his pen. &quot;There--that is most touching and suitable.
+Read it.&quot; He handed Bertha what he had, written, and she read:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It has pleased Almighty God to release our beloved father, brother,
+and brother-in-law, Herr Carl Emil von Hartwich, landholder and
+manufacturer, from his protracted sufferings, and to transport him to a
+better world. He died this day, at twelve M. Those who were acquainted
+with the deceased, and with his active benevolence, will know how
+profound must be our sorrow, and accord us their sympathy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Sad Survivors.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Unkenbeim, 24 July, 18--.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_1.5" href="#div1Ref_1.5">CHAPTER V.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>UNDECEIVED.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was still lying motionless in Frau Gedike's huge bed, and by
+her side sat a little nurse scarcely three feet high, swinging her
+short legs, and thinking how charming it must be to lie in such a great
+big bed, just like a grown person, and what a pity it was that poor
+Ernestine slept so much, that she could not enjoy the pleasure. Now and
+then she turned her fair head round towards the window behind her,
+through the white curtains of which she could see a dark procession
+moving away from the house towards the village. When it had disappeared
+from sight, she gave a little sigh, and swung her feet rather more
+violently than before,--although she sat very upright, with great
+dignity of demeanour, for she was entirely conscious of the weighty
+responsibility of her post. She had been intrusted with the charge of
+watching Ernestine while the servants were attending the funeral
+services performed over Bartwich's corpse. When they were concluded,
+and the funeral procession had left the house, Rieka had begged the
+little child to keep her place until the gentlemen returned from the
+church-yard, in order that the maid might perform certain necessary
+household duties. Angelika--for she it was--undertook the charge with
+delight. She had given her uncle Neuenstein, who had determined to pay
+the last honours to Hartwich's remains, no peace until he consented to
+take her to Ernestine. True, she soon acknowledged to herself that she
+had never, in her whole long life of eight years, seen any place so
+tiresome as this quiet room, where nothing was heard but the buzzing of
+a couple of flies around a spoon in which a drop or two of Ernestine's
+medicine had been left; but she was not discontented; she sat as still
+as a mouse, so that she might not disturb the invalid, and did not even
+venture to look at her, for she had heard that sleepers could be
+awakened by a look. Only now and then she cast a wistful glance at the
+pretty book that was clasped tight in Ernestine's embrace. Suddenly the
+sick child muttered, &quot;I am lying turned round the wrong way in bed.&quot;
+Angelika scrambled down in alarm from her high seat, and ran to the
+door and cried, &quot;Rieka, Ernestine is saying something!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The maid hurried in, and Ernestine moved uneasily, and insisted that
+she was lying with her head towards the foot of the bed. At last Rieka
+remembered that Ernestine's crib had been placed against the opposite
+wall, and suspected that she missed the old position. Rightly judging
+this to be a favourable sign, she quickly and carefully turned the
+child around in the bed; and when Ernestine stretched out her hand and
+encountered the wall, where she had been accustomed to find it, she
+seemed satisfied, and apparently fell asleep again. Then Rieka left the
+room to finish her work; but, after a few moments, Ernestine opened her
+eyes, in which for the first time shone the light of intelligence, and
+looked around. &quot;Angelika!&quot; she said in amazement, and then stared
+around the room. &quot;Why, this is Frau Gedike's room! and what a large,
+soft bed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, indeed,&quot; Angelika delightedly replied. &quot;Isn't it comfortable? Ah,
+you poor dear Ernestine, are you beginning to grow a little better? Is
+your head mended again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine put up her hand to her bandaged head. &quot;What is this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You broke your head. Oh, it was terrible, I know from my
+dolls,--although it doesn't hurt them, and you can put on new heads;
+but they couldn't do that for you, and they said you must die; but you
+haven't died!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes,&quot; said Ernestine, recollecting herself; &quot;now I remember; last
+night my father struck me and threw me down. Yes, it hurt very much!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was not last night, it was several days ago; but you slept the
+whole time, and didn't you know that they cut off your hair?&quot; asked
+Angelika, running to the wardrobe and producing a thick bunch of long
+black hair. &quot;Look, here it is,--there is some blood on it still, but,
+if you will only give it to me, I will wash it and make my large
+walking doll a splendid wig of it. Do, do give it to me, you can't make
+it grow on your head again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'll give it to you willingly,&quot; said Ernestine; &quot;but first ask Frau
+Gedike whether you may keep it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, she is not here any more,--Uncle Heim sent her away!&quot; replied
+Angelika, drawing the dark strands slowly through her fingers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then ask my father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This answer utterly discomfited Angelika. &quot;I cannot ask your father,&quot;
+she said in a disappointed tone, putting the hair away regretfully. &quot;He
+is dead! They put him in the hearse a little while ago,--I saw them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh,&quot; said Ernestine, startled, &quot;is he dead? Why, why did he die just
+now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think because he was so angry with you,&quot; said Angelika with an air
+of great wisdom. &quot;Don't you know when I am naughty mamma shuts me up in
+a dark room? and, because your father was a great deal naughtier than
+I, God has shut him up in a dark hole in the ground, and he must stay
+there always.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, for my sake, the dear God should not have done that, for my sake!&quot;
+said Ernestine, bursting into tears. &quot;Now I have no father any more; I
+have nobody; I am all alone in the world! My poor father! it is all my
+fault that he is put into the narrow grave, where the worms will eat
+him and there will be nothing left of him but bones. Oh, how horrible!
+how horrible! I saw a skeleton once in a picture, and my poor, poor
+father will look just like that!&quot; And she wrung her thin hands and
+writhed about in the bed, moaning loudly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika was in despair at the mischief she had done. She had quite
+forgotten that she had been forbidden, if Ernestine should awake, to
+speak to her of her father. In the greatest distress she walked to and
+fro beside the high bed, and at last brought a tall stool, from which,
+when she had mounted it, she could reach Ernestine. She kissed her, she
+stroked her cheeks, and laid her chubby hand upon her mouth to silence
+her, but in vain. At last she hit upon the idea of showing her the book
+that lay beside her. She opened it at a picture and held it up before
+her, saying, &quot;Look, dear Ernestine, only look at your beautiful book!&quot;
+The sick child instantly brushed the tears from her eyes when she saw
+the picture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The swan!&quot; she cried, &quot;the swan! that is the story of the Ugly
+Duckling!&quot; She hastily took the book out of Angelika's hands and turned
+over the leaves. Gradually the fairy figures of the snow-queen, the
+little mermaid, and the rest, obliterated the horrible image of her
+dead father, and his narrow grave faded away to give place to the
+shining garden of Paradise, and the clear, broad sea with the fairy
+palaces beneath its crystal waves. Her sobs grew fainter and fainter,
+and at last a smile played around her lips when she came to the story
+of the dryad &quot;Elder Blossom.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now I know what a dryad is,&quot; she said. &quot;I am glad, I am very glad!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is it that makes you so glad?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That a dryad is nothing bad, for--don't you know?--<i>he</i> called me
+that. I thought it was to mock me, and it hurt me, but it was not so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He? who?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't know his name, your brother, who gave me the book.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Johannes?&quot; laughed Angelika. &quot;Do you like him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, oh, yes, he is so handsome and good, just like the prince in the
+Little Mermaid.&quot; With these words a light shone in the child's dark
+eyes. &quot;I would far rather have turned into foam than done anything to
+hurt him, if I had been the mermaid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is charming! that is splendid!&quot; Angelika declared with delight;
+&quot;we both love him! He is such a dear brother. It is a pity he has gone
+away. If he were at home he would come and play with you; oh, he plays
+so finely!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Has he gone away?&quot; asked Ernestine sadly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, he has gone to Paris to get me a wax doll; only think!--one that
+can call 'Papa' and 'Mamma.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, there cannot be such dolls!&quot; said Ernestine with a troubled look.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed there are, and when she comes I will show her to you. Remember
+the doll in 'Ole Luckoie;' she could speak, and had a fine wedding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But that isn't a true story,&quot; said Ernestine wisely, putting her hand
+to her head, which was beginning to ache badly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only think what a charming thing it is to have a wedding,&quot; Angelika
+ran on. &quot;I once went to a real wedding, and it was almost finer than
+the one in the story. Oh, the bride has a lovely time! Why, she sits
+just in the middle of the table, and in front of her is a great, tall
+cake, with a little house on top of it and a little man inside, a
+little bit of a man, with a bow and arrows, but no clothes on at all.
+She has the biggest piece of cake, and they put the dear little man
+upon her plate, and she is helped first to everything. I was really
+vexed with my cousin for eating hardly anything. And only think, last
+of all came ice-cream doves sitting in a nest made of sugar, upon eggs
+of marchpane! They looked so natural that I was too sorry when my
+cousin cut off one of their heads; I could have cried, and I determined
+not to eat any of it, but by the time it came to me, every one could
+see that it was not a real dove, for it was all melting away, and you
+had to eat it with a spoon. And there were quantities of champagne, and
+all the gentlemen made long speeches to the bride, and you had to sit
+perfectly still and not rattle your spoon at all while they were
+talking, but when they had done you could scream as loud as you
+pleased, and clatter your glasses, and the more noise you made the
+better; and all were pleased and kissed one another; only my cousin sat
+there so stupidly and cried. I wouldn't have cried when everything was
+done to please me. And I'll tell you what, when my brother comes back
+he must bring you a boy doll with a hat and waistcoat, and then he
+shall marry my doll. He will come in six months, but that must be a
+long time; for mamma cried when he went away. Perhaps we shall be grown
+up by then, and can make our dolls' clothes ourselves. That would be
+lovely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But we shall not be grown up in six months,&quot; said Ernestine. &quot;First
+winter must come, and then summer again, and then winter and summer
+again, before we are grown up!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is terribly long,&quot; cried Angelika. &quot;I don't see how we can wait
+so long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And when we are grown up we cannot play with dolls. Then I shall buy
+myself a telescope like Uncle Leuthold's, and always be looking into
+the moon, for I like it better than anything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Into the moon? Have you ever looked into the moon?&quot; asked Angelika in
+amazement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed I have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How does it look there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, beautiful, most beautiful! It shines and gleams so silvery, and it
+is so calm and quiet, and there are mountains and valleys there just
+like ours, only they are not coloured, they are just pure light!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you see the man in the moon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I didn't see him; Uncle Leuthold said there are no people in the
+moon; but I don't believe him. They are only so far off that we can't
+see them. And they must be much happier and better than we are here;
+I'm sure they never beat children; and who knows whether perhaps the
+dear God himself does not live there? If I could fly, I would fly up
+there!&quot; And she gazed upward with beaming eyes, and a long sigh escaped
+from her little breast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, dear Ernestine, you must not fly away; no one can tell that the
+moon is as lovely near to, as it is so far off. And it is very nice
+here, too, for when you grow up you can be either a mamma or an aunt,
+and then no one can do anything to you. No one ever strikes my aunt or
+my mamma--no one!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Ernestine was no longer conscious of the child's prattle; her eyes
+closed, her beloved book dropped from her hands; Ole Luckoie, the
+gentle Northern god of slumber, had arisen from its pages. He had
+poured balm into her painful wound, and extended his canopy, with its
+thousands of gay pictures, over her soul.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika looked at her for awhile, and then asked, &quot;Are you asleep
+again?&quot; and, upon receiving no answer, she was quite content, and got
+softly down from the high stool, and seated herself again upon her
+chair with the grave air of a sentinel. At last Heim, with Herr
+Neuenstein, came home from the funeral, and the two gentlemen entered
+the apartment together.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She has been talking with me,&quot; Angelika announced.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! has she come to herself?&quot; asked the Geheimrath in pleased
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes,--we talked about a great many things--and then she went to
+sleep again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath rubbed his hands.--&quot;That's good! Did she seem to be
+perfectly sensible?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes; she was perfectly sensible,&quot; Angelika assured him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a pity that I was not here! Now I hope we shall bring her
+through,&quot; said the Geheimrath to Herr Neuenstein; but the latter stood
+looking at the corpse-like figure of the sleeping child, and shook his
+head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I see,&quot; continued the physician, &quot;that it seems impossible to you, and
+yet I believe she will recover. Who that sees such a faded blossom
+lying there would suspect the wonderful recuperative energy hidden
+within it? And I tell you this child possesses an immense amount of
+vitality, or she would have succumbed to such brutal treatment as she
+has received. She will recover; believe me, she will recover.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should rejoice indeed to think that your exertions will not prove in
+vain. And you really wish to take her with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, if her hypocritical uncle will let her go, I will deliver her
+from his claws, and educate her as is best for her health and becoming
+to her position as an heiress.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a genuine philanthropist, Geheimrath.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I am a philanthropist; but there is small merit in that. Some
+people love puppies and kittens, others cultivate flowers with
+enthusiasm,--I love to educate and train human beings. Whenever a pair
+of melancholy eyes stare out at me from a child's face, I want to stick
+the child in my herbarium like a rare flower. Yes, if it only cost as
+little to cultivate children as plants, I should have had a human
+hot-house long ago. But the taste is so confoundedly expensive.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, we all know that you spend your whole income in such good works.
+You might have been a millionaire long ago, if it had not been for your
+lavish generosity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What would you have? One man wastes his money upon one whim, and
+another on another. This happens to be my whim, and I spend just as
+much upon it as I can conscientiously in the interest of my adopted
+son, who stands nearest my heart. But now do me the kindness to leave
+the room, for our talk is disturbing the child's sleep. I will stay
+here for an hour and watch her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, Angelika,&quot; said Neuenstein: &quot;Uncle Heim is very cross
+to-day,--let us go home.&quot; He took the child's hand, and nodded
+affectionately to Heim. &quot;Shall I send the carriage for you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I thank you; I must return to the capital; the king has commanded
+my attendance this afternoon. But I shall be here again to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Adieu, dear uncle,&quot; said little Angelika, standing on tiptoe, and
+holding up her rosy lips to be kissed. &quot;You won't be cross to me, will
+you?&quot; she asked, nestling her fair curls among his gray locks as he
+bent down to her; &quot;I have been so good!&quot; And then she went softly out
+with Herr Neuenstein.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When Heim was alone, he sat down by the bedside, and silently
+contemplated the sleeping child. &quot;I'll wager,&quot; he thought, &quot;that she
+will be very beautiful one of these days. Her face is older than her
+years, and that is always ugly in a child, but when her age accords
+with the earnestness of that brow, and her features lose their
+sharpness under more kindly treatment, it will be a magnificent head.
+To think of having such a child and beating it half to death! Such a
+child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Something like a tear glistened in the old man's eyes, and he softly
+took a pinch of snuff to compose himself, for these thoughts filled him
+with the pain of an old wound, and well-nigh overcame him. But the
+pinch was of no avail. He gazed upon the treasure before him, which had
+fallen to one utterly unworthy such a gift, who had neglected and
+despised it, and he thought what joy its possession would have given
+him. And he remembered that such joy might have been his, had his heart
+not clung unalterably to one who was not destined for him. Now it was
+too late; and the past, in which he might have sown the harvest of love
+that he longed to reap, was irrevocable. The passion that had so long
+filled his heart was conquered and dead; but the longing for affection,
+that is stronger than passion, still lived on in the old man's breast.
+&quot;When a man's wife dies and leaves him,&quot; he thought, &quot;she lives again
+in her children; but he who has neither wife nor child is doubly poor.&quot;
+He had watched over many human lives, but not one could he call his
+own; he had preserved the lives of many, he had given life to none. He
+had seen the bitterest woes soothed by affection, and he should die
+without leaving one child behind to mourn his loss. And, lost in such
+thoughts, it seemed to him that he was actually lying upon his
+death-bed, and that he felt a soft arm stealing around his neck, and
+heard a sweet, caressing voice sob out, &quot;Father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was Ole Luckoie who had granted him this bitter-sweet dream by
+Ernestine's bedside; it vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and
+left nothing behind but a tear on the old man's furrowed cheek.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then the latch of the door began to tremble, as though a carriage were
+driving by, and the heavy footsteps that caused the noise approached
+the apartment. Before the Geheimrath could prevent it, the door was
+flung open, and Bertha's colossal figure appeared upon the threshold.
+She was dressed in a new shining black silk, and the stiff cambric
+lining rustled so loudly as she approached the bed that the child
+started up frightened, and the Geheimrath could not suppress an
+exclamation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-morning, Herr Geheimrath; good-morning, Tina,&quot; she said with a
+nod. &quot;So, Tina, you're alive still, I see. There was no need of such a
+great fuss about you, after all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine, at this rude greeting, flung herself to the farther side of
+the bed, and cried, &quot;Oh, send my aunt away!--I do not want to see her.
+I will not!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath politely offered his arm to the intruder and conducted
+her from the room without a word. Bertha, amazed, asked, &quot;Why, what
+have I done? Can't I see my niece?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you yourself do not understand, madam, that this frail life needs
+to be treated with the greatest possible tenderness, I, a physician,
+must tell you that it will be your fault if my care of the child should
+prove of no avail and she should die in spite of it. I must therefore
+entreat you either to discontinue your visits to the child, or to
+address her more gently.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, goodness gracious!&quot; cried Bertha, &quot;I was only in jest. Mercy on
+me! you may wrap her up in cotton-wool, for all I care.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Geheimrath gave an involuntary sigh. &quot;Poor child,&quot; he thought, &quot;to
+be in danger of falling into such hands!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly the hall-door was opened, and a face appeared, so ashy pale,
+so livid, that Bertha started in terror. It was Leuthold; but he was
+hardly to be recognized. When he perceived the Geheimrath, he saluted
+him with his usual courtesy, then, extending his hand to Bertha, said
+in a low voice, &quot;My dear Bertha, be kind enough to come up-stairs with
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She followed him in the greatest trepidation, for she had never before
+beheld him thus; and on the joyful day of Hartwich's funeral, too! What
+could have happened? He took her hand and conducted her up the
+staircase, his fingers were as cold and clammy as those of a corpse.
+She almost shuddered as they walked along together in such solemn
+silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They reached the door of their own apartment. Leuthold entered, dragged
+his wife in after him, closed the door, and, before she was aware of
+what he was doing, she felt the icy hand around her throat like an iron
+band.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Shall I strangle you?&quot; he gasped, with eyes like a serpent's when it
+is wound around its victim.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Merciful Heaven!&quot; shrieked Bertha, falling upon her knees to extricate
+herself. The cold hand grasped her throat still more tightly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Utter one sound that the servants can hear, and I will throttle you!&quot;
+hissed Leuthold. &quot;Be quiet! or----&quot; Bertha ceased struggling, and
+almost lost her consciousness. He then released her and pushed her down
+upon the sofa, where she sat utterly astounded.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He put his hand to his head, and then whispered, almost inaudibly, as
+though speaking with the greatest difficulty, &quot;On the day of
+Ernestine's fall, when Heim came to the house, do you remember that I
+strictly enjoined it upon you to observe narrowly whatever occurred in
+the house?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; stammered the frightened woman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you do it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You did not do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I was so afraid of Hartwich that I went up-stairs again,&quot; Bertha
+confessed with hesitation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And so,--&quot; Leuthold's chest heaved, his breath came heavily, and he
+clenched his hands convulsively, &quot;and so it is your fault that Hartwich
+has disinherited us and left all his property to Ernestine.&quot; His face
+grew still paler, his slender figure tottered, he grasped at a chair
+for support, and fell fainting upon the ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good God!&quot; shrieked Bertha, shaking the prostrate man violently, &quot;the
+whole property? tell me, the whole property? Oh, you miserable man,
+what folly to fall into such spasms! Speak, and tell me whether we have
+nothing at all, or what we have!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold slowly raised his head. Bertha carried, more than supported,
+him to the sofa. She brought some eau-de-cologne and poured it over his
+head so that it ran into his eyes. He uttered an exclamation of pain,
+and tried to wipe away the burning fluid from his eyes. &quot;Are you trying
+to deprive me of my eyesight?&quot; he groaned, and, when the pain was
+relieved, he sat in a dejected attitude, staring into vacancy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For mercy's sake, speak!&quot; cried Bertha. &quot;You can, at least, open your
+mouth. No legacy? Not an annuity?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold looked at his unfeeling wife with an expression that, in spite
+of herself, drove the blood to her cheeks. There was something
+indescribable in the look,--a mixture of the pity and contempt with
+which one contemplates the body of a suicide.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An annuity of six hundred thalers,&quot; he murmured, and covered his eyes
+with his hand, as if to shut out everything around him while he
+collected his scattered senses.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Too much to die upon, and too little to live upon!&quot; moaned Bertha,
+and, bursting into tears, she threw herself upon a chair in the
+farthest corner of the room. Leuthold sat motionless for a long time,
+his face hidden in his hands; he scarcely seemed to breathe. He
+appeared to need all his physical strength to assist him to endure the
+mental agony which was overpowering him,--to have no strength left to
+stir a limb. The man of feeling tries to master his unhappiness by
+raging and lamenting,--he combats his agony by physical exertion,--he
+rushes hither and thither, beats his head against the wall, wrings his
+hands, and lessens his woe in a degree by a certain amount of muscular
+activity. The man of intellect struggles mentally, and stands in need
+of entire physical repose. Such a man as Leuthold could only for a
+moment be excited to violence against the hated cause of his
+misfortune; he soon regained his exterior composure, and his misery
+became an intellectual labour, which might produce loss of reason, and
+was never-ceasing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He sat lost in a profound reverie. Now and then, like lightning across
+a cloud, some idea of help in his misery flashed across his brain, but
+it vanished as soon as it appeared, leaving each time a blacker night
+in his soul.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The sacrifice of ten long years gone for nothing!&quot; he said at last in
+stifled accents. &quot;My hair is bleached before its time with the slavery
+to which I have submitted with this goal in view, and now the prize is
+snatched from me just as it seemed within my reach. Again I must bow my
+neck to the yoke, and, with a mind fitted to appropriate to itself the
+most precious treasures of science, toil for my bread! I have wasted
+the best years of my life, that I may now begin all over again--an old
+man. It was indeed a losing game! When my powers began to fail me, I
+comforted myself with hopes of a near release; but now what can sustain
+me when that hope has deserted me? No release in future,--nothing but a
+never-ending struggle for daily sustenance! Oh----!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With a long-drawn sigh of mortal agony, the tortured roan buried his
+face in the cushion of the sofa, and another long silence ensued,
+broken only by Bertha's loud sobbing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last she could endure the silence no longer. &quot;What is to be done
+now?&quot; she asked half sorrowfully, half defiantly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let me alone,&quot; said Leuthold. &quot;Leave me--you see how I am suffering
+and struggling!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How did you know about the matter?&quot; she insisted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That fellow Lederer whispered it to me on returning from the funeral.
+He signed the will as a witness. We were separated in the crowd, and I
+could not even ask him whether I was left guardian or not. If I were
+only guardian----&quot; He ceased, and sunk again into a profound reverie.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a slight noise in the adjoining room, and a lovely, smiling
+child's face looked in, and a clear, musical voice cried, &quot;Peep!&quot; At
+the sound Leuthold turned his head and looked with strange emotion
+towards the place where his daughter was standing. The little girl
+planted herself firmly upon her feet, and, after a couple of futile
+attempts, managed, to her own great delight, to cross the high
+threshold. This difficulty surmounted, she tripped gleefully across to
+her mother, who sat nearest the door; but upon receiving a rude repulse
+from her--a repulse that almost threw her down--she determined to
+pursue her journey as far as her father. To insure her swifter
+progress, she betook herself to all fours, and, when she reached her
+goal, climbed up by her father's knees and smiled into his face.
+Leuthold gazed for a few moments into her round, innocent eyes; his own
+grew dim; he took the child in his arms and whispered, as he clasped
+her to his breast, &quot;Poor child!&quot; His breath came quick--he clasped her
+tighter and tighter in his arms, until suddenly a burst of tears
+relieved his overburdened soul. The father's heart was filled for once
+with pure human emotion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen tried to wipe his eyes with her little apron, and patted his
+cheeks with her chubby hands.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There is a wonderful power in the touch of a child's soft, pure hand,
+soothing a wildly-beating heart and strengthening a soul sickened by
+hope deferred. It seemed to Leuthold as if the wounds that had
+tormented him were healed by that gentle touch. He kissed the rosy
+little palms again and again. He would labour with all his might for
+this child--she should have a brilliant future at any cost. He arose,
+and, putting her gently down on the carpet, walked slowly to and fro
+with folded arms, revolving in his busy brain a thousand plans for the
+future. His thoughts were rudely disturbed by Bertha, who, for want of
+any other object, wreaked her ill humour upon Gretchen. The child had
+got hold of an embroidered footstool, and was engaged in the delightful
+occupation of picking off the bugles and pearls fastened upon the
+fringe. Bertha snatched it away, and was slapping the little hands
+violently, when suddenly Leuthold seized her arm and held it in a firm
+grasp, while anger flashed in his eyes; and his words, his bearing, his
+whole manner, filled her with terror as he began: &quot;Your nature is so
+coarse that you cannot even appreciate the promptings of maternal
+instinct. Had you possessed one atom of feminine feeling, you would
+have seen what a comfort the child is to me, and would have lavished
+tenderness upon her, instead of maltreating her. But of what
+consequence are my sorrows to you? When I staggered and fell to the
+ground beneath the weight of my misery, you thought only of yourself;
+your gentlest word to me was 'miserable man.' Let me tell you, however,
+that the weakness of an ailing man is not so repulsive as the rude
+strength of a coarse woman. Therefore, be kind enough to moderate the
+exhibition of your strength, at least towards this angel, who shall
+never suffer for an hour as long as I draw breath.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bertha put Gretchen on the ground, and stood with arms akimbo. &quot;Oh!&quot;
+she began, trembling with rage, &quot;is this the tone you begin to
+take--talking in this way to me just when you ought to be grateful to
+me for consenting to share your wretched lot?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My wretched lot?&quot; repeated Leuthold, while his face grew deadly white
+again. &quot;Who has made my lot a wretched one?--who other than yourself?
+Do you dare to increase its misery? Is not your disobedience, your
+folly, the cause of the whole misfortune? If you had obeyed my
+commands, and kept watch upon what was going on in the house, the
+arrival of the lawyers would not have escaped you. You might have
+informed me and I could, even at the last moment, have prevented the
+making of that will. You, and you alone, have ruined my child's and my
+own future; and, instead of falling at my feet and begging for
+forgiveness, you dare to reproach me! It would be ridiculous, if it
+were not so deplorable!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course.&quot; said Bertha, &quot;it is all my fault. I expected that. Why
+didn't you stay at home yourself and watch? Because you suspected
+nothing, no more than I did, and because you wanted to get out of the
+way of Heim, who knew all about your former disgrace. Is it my fault
+that you have conducted yourself so in the past that you have to avoid
+all your old acquaintances?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold swelled with indignation. &quot;Silence, wretched woman! Would you
+drive me to extremities?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; continued Bertha more angrily than ever,--&quot;yes, I don't care now
+what you do. The only satisfaction I can have now is speaking out the
+truth to you for once. I will be reconciled to my father while there is
+time. Perhaps he will make over the business to me. I understand how to
+conduct it, and can make it pay. I shall have a better chance there, at
+any rate, than in staying here to starve with you. My honest old father
+was right when he warned me against you. Heaven only knows what
+infatuated me so with your hatchet face. I saw from the first what you
+were,--a heap of learning and mind, and a perfect icicle, with whom I
+never could be happy. We had only been married two months, when there
+was all that disgraceful fuss with Hilsborn; my father wanted me to be
+separated from you then; but you stuffed my ears with stories of your
+brother here, who would make you rich; and I believed you, and gave
+up my old father, and came here to this hole to live with you. What did
+I get by it? The little property that I inherited from my mother has
+been frittered away in household expenses, that you might seem
+disinterested to your brother. I gave up every things--concerts,
+theatres, parties,--and willingly; for I depended upon a brilliant
+future. I have waited patiently and obediently until your brother
+should kill himself with the drink of which he was so fond; and, now
+that he is dead, what have I got in exchange for time, youth, money,
+and all? And now I am to make a grateful courtesy, and say, 'My dear
+husband, 'tis true that you have robbed me of everything, you have
+attempted to strangle me; but I will nevertheless take the liberty of
+remaining with you, that you may continue to enjoy the pleasure of
+calling me rough, coarse, and good for nothing, and that you may
+instruct me with which hand I am to put in my mouth the potatoes that
+are all we shall have to live upon.' This is what I am to say, is it
+not? Yes----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold had been listening attentively, and, in the course of this
+long speech, had regained his former composure. He now interrupted her
+with, &quot;That is, in other words, that you contemplate adding to my
+misfortunes the withdrawal of your amiable presence, leaving me to bear
+my heavy lot alone. Your intention demands my gratitude; if you wish
+for a divorce, I am entirely agreed to it, only pray furnish the ground
+for it yourself, that my good name may not be compromised. We have
+lived together hitherto in such outward harmony, it might be difficult
+to convince a court of the impossibility of a longer union. There must,
+therefore, be some legal ground for a divorce, and you can arrange all
+that to suit yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What!&quot; cried Bertha, &quot;am I to conduct myself disgracefully that people
+may despise me and pity you,--wolf in sheep's clothing that you are?
+No, no; I'm not quite so stupid as that. And then my father would not
+receive me, and there would be nothing left for me in this world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold walked thoughtfully to and fro. &quot;It was the mistake of my life
+that ten years ago I married you to get money to make that journey to
+Trieste. I thought you more harmless than you are. For ten long years I
+have endured the annoyance of your coarseness and narrow-mindedness.
+Such a wife as you are is a perpetual thorn in the side of such a man
+as myself; my nerves have suffered terribly. And now I find you are not
+even capable of maternal affection,--you cannot treat your child as you
+should. If it were not for Gretchen, I would never see you again,--but
+now----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bertha started. &quot;Why, yes,--I never thought of Gretchen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You can easily understand that I shall not give up my child,&quot; Leuthold
+went on, looking fondly at the lovely little creature, who was sitting
+on the carpet prattling softly and unintelligibly to herself. &quot;She is
+all that is left to me of my shattered existence;--my last hopes in
+life are centred in her--I will never give her up! The law gives her to
+you if I should furnish grounds for a divorce: so, you see, I cannot
+take the initiative. If, however, you consent to a separation, and will
+leave Gretchen to me, you are free to leave my house whenever you
+please. Consider what I say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bertha knelt down upon the carpet, and said in a complaining tone,
+&quot;Gretel, shall mamma go far away?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The child, in whose mind the remembrance of the slaps that had made its
+little hands so red was still very lively, avoided her caress, and
+crept away as fast as it could to its father's feet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Its choice is made,&quot; said Leuthold, taking it in his arms.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course you are quite capable of setting my own flesh and blood
+against me,&quot; whined Bertha. &quot;What shall I do! I cannot leave the child,
+and I will not stay with you. What shall I do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She walked heavily up and down the room, wringing her hands. Leuthold
+had carried Gretchen to the window, and was looking down into the
+court-yard, where the broad, stalwart figure of Heim was just leaving
+the house. He shot one glance of deadly hatred at his enemy, but it did
+no harm; and with a profound sigh Leuthold leaned his cold forehead
+against the window-frame and looked on whilst Heim stepped into his
+carriage and took a pinch of snuff with a most cheerful air. The driver
+clambered clumsily upon the box, and gathered up his whip and reins,
+the horses started off, the chickens flew in all directions, their
+old friend the watch-dog came barking out of his kennel, and the
+old-fashioned coach, belonging to the Hartwich establishment, rattled
+away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As, after seasons of intense emotion, the exhausted mind slavishly
+follows the lead of the ever-active senses, Leuthold, in his misery,
+thus minutely observed every particular of Heim's departure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is happy!&quot; he thought; and then his eyes rested upon the fowls
+devouring the remains of the oats that had been brought for the horses.
+&quot;Happy he to whom has been given the faculty of making himself beloved!
+mankind follow him as those fowls follow in the track of Heim's
+carriage. Is it any merit of his that wins him the hearts of all? Bah,
+nonsense! it is a talent,--and the most profitable one for its
+possessor. These benefactors of mankind, as they are called, thrive
+upon it: who would not do likewise if he only could? But those who have
+not the gift cannot do it. One man comes into the world with qualities
+that make him useful and pleasing to his fellow-men; another with
+propensities that make him an object of fear to his kind. Is the lapdog
+to be commended because his agreeable characteristics qualify him to
+spend his life luxuriously on a silken cushion? And is the fox to be
+blamed because he does not understand how to ingratiate himself with
+mankind, but must eke out his miserable existence by theft? Each
+after his kind, and we human beings have senses in common with the
+brutes,--and why not the peculiarities also of their several species?
+Yes, there are lapdogs among us, and foxes, and wolves, cats, and
+tigers! Struggle against it as we may, with all our babble of free
+will, temperament is everything. How can I help it if I belong among
+the foxes? Only a fool would look for moral causes in all this chaos of
+chances. The activity of nature is shown in eternal creation,
+destruction, and re-creation from destruction,--plants, brutes, and men
+are the blind tools of her secret forces, creative and destructive, or,
+as the moralist calls them, good and evil! But what do we call good?
+What pleases us. What evil? That which harms us. And we are to judge
+the world by this narrow egotistic scale of morals? Oh, what folly!
+Creative and destructive forces--are they not alike necessary agents in
+nature's great workshop? And if they work so steadily in unconscious
+matter, are they dead in mankind, the embodiment of conscious nature?
+Is our poor, patched-up code of morals strong enough to tear asunder
+the chains that keep us bound fast to the order of the universe?
+No,--it is miserable arrogance to maintain such a theory. Nature has
+never created a species without producing another hostile to it; the
+rule holds good in the world of humanity as well as among plants and
+brutes. The parasite that preys upon its supporting plant, the insect
+depositing its eggs in the body of the caterpillar, the falcon pursuing
+the innocent dove, the tiger rending the mild-eyed antelope, and,
+lastly, the man who preserves his own existence by preying upon his
+fellow-men,--all are only the exponents of those hostile forces that
+are indispensable to the economy of nature. Who can venture to talk of
+good and evil? There is only one idea that we owe to our advanced
+culture,--only one varnish that bedaubs and conceals the beast in
+us,--regard for appearances! This is the corner-stone of our ethics,
+the only thoroughly practicable discipline for the human race. Let a
+due regard for appearances be observed, and we are distinguished,
+lauded, and beloved among men,--the only reward of our virtue is the
+recognition of it by our excellent contemporaries; their judgment
+decides the degree of our morality; everything else is the exaggeration
+of fancy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He was aroused from this reverie by Bertha, who suddenly shook him by
+the shoulder with an impatient &quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold looked at her like a man awakened from a dream. &quot;What is it?&quot;
+he inquired.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I want to know what is to be done?&quot; she replied angrily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold laid the child, who had fallen asleep upon his shoulder, on
+the sofa.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, with regard to our separation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I suppose you had entirely forgotten it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I confess that I was thinking of something else at the moment; but the
+matter is very simple. Go to your father and effect a reconciliation
+with him. Gretchen will stay with me. You are free to go and come as
+you please. If you find that you cannot do without the child, in a few
+weeks you can return, if you choose. It would, at all events, be better
+for you to be away for awhile until I have rearranged my miserable
+affairs. I am going now to hear the will read. If I am appointed
+Ernestine's guardian, my life will be connected for the future with
+that of my ward.&quot; He suddenly gazed into vacancy, as if struck by a new
+idea, then started and seized his hat. &quot;Yes, yes, I must go. Perhaps I
+am guardian!&quot; And he turned away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bertha called after him, &quot;Then I may get ready to go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do just as you please,&quot; he replied, turning upon the threshold with
+all the old courtesy, and then disappeared. Bertha went to her wardrobe
+and began to collect her possessions. &quot;I am rightly paid for leaving a
+good head-waiter in the lurch for the sake of a fine doctor. If I had
+married Fritz, I should now have been the landlady of a hotel, while,
+the wife of a doctor, I don't know where to lay my head!&quot; She looked
+across the room at the sleeping child. &quot;If I only had not that child, I
+should be easier! But, then, it is his child. She loves him far better
+than me. It will be just like him one day, and a sorrow to me,&quot; she
+muttered. Then, as if the last thought were repented of as soon as
+conceived, she hastened up to Gretchen, and, weeping, kissed her pure
+white forehead. &quot;No, no, you cannot help me!&quot; she sobbed, and snatched
+the child to her broad breast.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_1.6" href="#div1Ref_1.6">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>SOUL-MURDER.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">A fresh autumnal breeze was shaking the heavy boughs of the fruit-trees
+in the Hartwich kitchen-garden. Beneath a spreading apple-tree a new
+bench, painted green, had recently been placed. Some white garments,
+hanging upon a line to dry, fluttered like triumphal pennons in the
+direction from which a number of persons was slowly approaching the
+apple-tree. Rieka was carefully pushing along the rolling-chair, which,
+after so long affording shelter to the cats and chickens, had lately
+been recushioned and repaired. By its side walked good old Heim and
+Leuthold. Ernestine's frail little figure, with head still bandaged and
+hands gently folded, reclined in the chair; and if her large, dark eyes
+had not been riveted with an expression of utter enjoyment upon the
+distant landscape, she might have been thought smiling in death, so
+ashy pale was her emaciated countenance, so bloodless were the lips
+which were slightly open to inhale the pure morning air. The signs of
+returning and departing life are as wonderfully alike as morning and
+evening twilight. The child lying there, silent and motionless, might
+to all appearance be bidding farewell to the world, instead of greeting
+it anew after her dangerous illness. For to-day Ernestine was, as it
+were, celebrating her resurrection to life. It was the first time that
+she had been permitted to breathe the pure, open air of heaven; and her
+delight was so profound that she could only fold her little hands and
+pray silently. She had not the strength even to turn herself upon her
+cushions; but her youthful soul was preening its wings and soaring with
+the birds into the blue autumn skies.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How are you now, my child?&quot; Leuthold asked in a tone of tender
+sympathy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, so well, dear uncle!&quot; the little girl whispered with a long-drawn
+sigh. &quot;I think I could run about, if I might.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, you could not yet, even if you might,&quot; said Heim, looking not
+without anxiety into the child's face, transfigured by an almost
+unearthly expression. And he laid his finger upon her pulse, now
+scarcely perceptible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Her spirit, as she recovers, is in advance of her body,&quot; he said,
+lingering behind with Leuthold. &quot;Physically such a child is soon
+conquered and destroyed, but the heart is a wonderful thing in its
+power of endurance. I never see an expression of real suffering upon a
+child's face without the deepest sympathy. For when should we be really
+gay and happy in this life, if not while we are children?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right,&quot; said Leuthold. &quot;That melancholy mouth, shaping itself
+now to an unaccustomed smile, those bright eyes, around which the
+traces of tears are scarcely yet obliterated, touch me deeply.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim glanced keenly at the speaker expressing himself apparently with
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, what a pretty new bench!&quot; said Ernestine in a weak voice, as they
+reached the apple-tree. &quot;And the boughs droop around it like an
+arbour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her gaze roved hither and thither; the fluttering linen on the line
+pleased her; the white butterflies, with spotted wings, hovering about
+the beds, enchanted her; she thought the far stretch of country, with
+its distant border of forest, magnificent,--everything was so new that
+she seemed to see it for the first time, and admired it all with
+intense delight. The long rows of irregular bean-poles opened
+mysterious, attractive paths to her imagination. Even the tall
+asparagus and the heads of cabbage, upon which large beads of morning
+dew were still lying, seemed to her master-pieces of nature.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, how lovely the world is!&quot; she said to the two gentlemen. &quot;And no
+one to punish me! You are so kind, Herr Geheimrath, and you, Uncle
+Leuthold, and you too, Rieka, are so good to me! I thank you all so
+much!&quot; And she took and kissed the hands of Leuthold and Heim as they
+stood beside her, while tears filled her eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You strange child, what Snakes you cry now?&quot; asked Leuthold.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot tell; I am so happy!&quot; sobbed Ernestine. &quot;If I only had a
+father or a mother!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But if your father were alive he would beat you again,&quot; said Rieka,
+taking a strictly practical view of the matter. &quot;You ought to be glad
+that he is no longer here; it is much happier for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine's head drooped. &quot;Oh, I am not longing for my father who is
+dead; I want a father to love me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have an uncle who loves you fondly, my child,&quot; said Leuthold.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle,&quot; the little girl began again after a short pause, &quot;how did the
+first people get here? Every one has a father and mother; but the first
+men could not have had any. Where did they come from?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold and Heim exchanged glances of surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, now you are going to the very root of the matter, prying into the
+deepest mysteries of creation!&quot; said her uncle with a smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is stuff for a scholar in the child,&quot; said Heim; &quot;she must be
+educated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most certainly!&quot; cried Leuthold with unwonted vivacity; &quot;something
+must be made of her. In two years she will read Darwin.&quot; And he became
+lost in reverie.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim plucked two pansies that were growing among the weeds, and handed
+them to Ernestine. &quot;Don't trouble your little brain with such
+thoughts,&quot; he said with an attempt to laugh. &quot;When you are grown up you
+can learn all you wish to know. How few flowers you have here! Not
+enough for a nosegay!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No matter for that, Herr Heim,&quot; said Ernestine gaily. &quot;Although there
+are so few flowers here, it seems to me as lovely as Paradise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The child is imaginative,&quot; Heim observed to Leuthold. &quot;She finds
+Paradise in a neglected kitchen-garden; there is poetry there.&quot; And he
+pointed to her head and heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold took the child's hand. &quot;If you wish for flowers, my darling,
+you shall have them. You are now&quot;--and a spasmodic smile hovered upon
+his lips--&quot;so rich that you need deny yourself nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am rich!&quot; Ernestine repeated, as though she could not grasp the
+idea. &quot;Does the chair in which I am sitting belong to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most certainly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And this garden, and the fields?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Everything that you see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, how delightful! But, uncle, have I money enough to buy me a
+telescope like yours?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold looked surprised at this question &quot;Is that the end and aim of
+your desires? Well, then, you shall have a far better one than mine.
+You shall have an observatory, whence you can search the heavens far
+and wide, and, if you choose, I will be your teacher. Would you like
+that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, uncle!&quot; sighed Ernestine, &quot;God is so kind to me--how shall I thank
+him for all he is giving me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An ugly smile appeared on Leuthold's face; she looked up at him in
+surprise, and so fixedly that he involuntarily turned aside.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was strange! Why had her uncle smiled at those words. Was what she
+had said so stupid, then? Was he laughing at her, or at--what? Suddenly
+there was an alloy in her happiness, as if she had found an ugly worm
+in a fragrant rose or discovered a flaw in a clear mirror. A pang shot
+through her heart. Yes, little Kay in the story-book must have felt
+just so when a splinter of the evil mirror got into his eye and heart
+and nothing seemed perfect or stainless to him any more. Instinctively
+she looked up into the sky, as if to see the demon flying there with
+the mysterious mirror that cast scorn and contempt upon the works of
+the good God; and when she glanced again at her uncle, who had just
+smiled so disagreeably, he seemed to her to look as she had fancied an
+evil spirit must look, and she shrank from him in a way that she could
+not herself comprehend. She leaned back in her chair exhausted, to rest
+after all these wearisome thoughts that had chased one another through
+her brain, and Heim, observing this, took Leuthold aside; she heard him
+say, &quot;Come, we will leave the child to take a little sleep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Rieka sat down quietly upon the bench beside her. Ernestine nestled
+comfortably among the yielding cushions, and the fragrant breeze
+stroked her cheek like a gentle, caressing hand. The birds were softly
+twittering in the boughs overhead. All nature breathed in her ear:
+&quot;Sleep, sleep on the tender breast of the youthful day. Rest! you are
+not yet rested, after all that you have suffered!&quot; And she closed her
+eyes and tried to sleep, but she could not. Why had her uncle smiled
+when she spoke of God? This question kept her awake, and scared away
+rest from her trusting, childish soul.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile Helm and Leuthold walked on through the garden. &quot;Herr
+Professor,&quot; the former began to his companion, who was lost in thought,
+&quot;I must speak with you about the future of our protégé. I have plans
+for her, depending upon you for their fulfilment.&quot; Leuthold looked at
+him attentively. &quot;I had a desire,&quot; Heim continued, &quot;the first time I
+saw this strange child, to adopt her for my own; and this desire has
+become stronger since chance has brought me into such intimate
+association with her. My request of you now is: Abdicate--not your
+rights, but--your duties as her guardian in my favour, and let me take
+her to the capital with me, and have her educated and trained so that
+full justice may be done to her physical and mental capacities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold was silent for a few moments, and then said with some
+hesitation, as he drew a long strip of grass through his slender white
+fingers, &quot;That looks, Herr Geheimrath, as if you did not give me credit
+for the ability or the will to educate my ward suitably.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim shrugged his shoulders impatiently. &quot;There shall be no
+wire-drawing between us, Herr Gleissert; we both know what we think of
+each other, and a physician has no time to waste in complimental
+speeches. Be kind enough to signify to me, as briefly and decidedly as
+possible, your acceptance or refusal of my proposal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then,&quot; Leuthold replied with a keen glance, &quot;I must reply to you
+with a brief and decided 'No!'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed!&quot; was all that Heim in his chagrin rejoined.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Look you, Herr Geheimrath,&quot; Leuthold began after some moments of
+reflection; &quot;I will be frank with you. You know the dark stain that
+sullies my past, and the fault of my nature,--ambition. But, for all
+that, Herr Geheimrath, I am not heartless! In my childhood I was
+repelled on all sides, just as Ernestine has been. I was always cast in
+the shade by Hartwich, the son of my wealthy step-mother. You, as a
+student of human nature, well know what power there is in early
+surroundings to mould a man's future,--perhaps this may make you more
+lenient to my faults. Neither affection nor interest was shown me, and
+so kindly feelings faded away within me,--I could not give what I never
+received. Thus, Herr Geheimrath, I grew up an embittered, hardened man.
+The severity and sternness with which I was treated caused me to
+cultivate a sort of plausibility that won me friends, although I had no
+qualities to enable me to retain them. Therefore I was accounted a
+flatterer and a hypocrite. But the worst of all was, I was never taught
+the nice distinction between honours and honour, and thus it was that,
+in my blind grasp after honours, I sacrificed my honour!&quot; He covered
+his eyes with his hand and paused for a moment. Old Heim shook his huge
+head, vexed with himself for the emotion of sympathy that he could not
+suppress.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My step-mother,&quot; Leuthold continued, &quot;was an imperious, masculine
+woman, who tyrannized over her husband and made him as unhappy as her
+son and step-son. You have seen the effect of her training upon
+Hartwich,--he became a drunkard, sinning in the flesh; I, of a less
+sensual nature, sinned in spirit!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive me for interrupting you,&quot; Heim interposed here; &quot;but I am
+constrained to observe that if you had sinned no further than in
+robbing poor Hilsborn of his discovery, you would indeed have coveted
+only spiritual things, and there might have been some excuse for you;
+but you longed for earthly possessions,--you even grasped after the
+property of the poor child who has been left to your care. Judge for
+yourself whether such a helpless little creature can be confided
+without anxiety to the charge of a guardian who has not scrupled to
+endeavour to possess himself of her inheritance!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold stood confronting Heim, without betraying, by a single change
+of feature, the emotions of his mind. &quot;Herr Geheimrath,&quot; he said with
+dignity, &quot;I understand perfectly how all that must appear to a stranger
+entirely unacquainted with the circumstances of the case, and I cannot
+wonder that you think your accusation of me well founded. So be it. I
+did endeavour to possess myself of Hartwich's property, for two-thirds
+of it were mine by right. Are you aware, Herr Geheimrath, that when I
+first took my place in the factory here, Hartwich was on the brink of
+bankruptcy? Are you aware that entirely through my exertions the
+business is now free from debt, and that the income which in the course
+of ten years made Hartwich a wealthy man was the result solely of my
+improvements? He contributed nothing but the raw material, which my
+efforts converted into a means of wealth. Had I not a sacred right to
+the fruits of my exertions?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again the Geheimrath shrugged his shoulders and did not speak.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Time is money,&quot; Leuthold continued; &quot;and I frankly admit that I do not
+belong to the class of men who give without any hope of a return. I am
+a poor man, compelled to depend upon myself. I receive nothing
+gratuitously; why should I give anything? Hartwich owed me for the time
+I sacrificed to him. I do not claim too much when I aver that, with my
+capacity, I could have earned three thousand thalers yearly as the
+superintendent of any other extensive manufactory, while I received
+from Hartwich the small salary of a mere overseer. And three thousand
+thalers yearly amount in ten years to thirty thousand thalers, without
+counting the interest. There you have one-third of the property that I
+'coveted.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim assented with an expression of surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold continued more fluently: &quot;Now for the remaining third. The man
+who is capable of introducing inventions and improvements into the
+establishment, producing in ten years a dear profit of ninety thousand
+thalers, can easily dispose of such inventions for twenty thousand
+thalers; and if I add the accumulated interest of ten years, it amounts
+to exactly thirty thousand thalers again. If my step-brother had paid
+me this sum, he would still have possessed thirty thousand thalers
+clear, which would have belonged of right to his daughter. I might have
+offered my services elsewhere, but it seemed to me more fitting that I
+should serve my brother than a stranger; I might have insisted upon
+payment, but I knew well my brother's avarice, and that it would be
+impossible to extort money from him except at the risk of such
+excitement on his part as might cost him his life. Therefore!
+thought it best, as I foresaw that he could not live long, to suspend
+my claims and allow him to devise to me by will what was really my
+due. How utterly I have been the loser by my--I do not scruple to
+say--magnanimous conduct, you well know; and now pray point out wherein
+I have unjustly claimed a single groschen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim, his hands crossed behind him and his head sunk upon his breast,
+walked slowly along by the side of Leuthold, whose slender figure had
+recovered all its former elasticity as he easily wound his way among
+the tangled bushes and weeds in the neglected path.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot tell how a lawyer would designate your conduct,&quot; the old man
+said meditatively. &quot;I should not call it magnanimous; but you may be
+able to justify it from your point of view. Still, one never knows what
+to expect of such long-headed, calculating people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Herr Geheimrath, it is the destiny of those who depend upon
+themselves alone for whatever of good life may bring them, to be
+regarded as covetous,--they must grasp after what falls unsought for
+into the lap of others. In this matter I not only did what I could for
+myself, but for the future also. Herr Geheimrath, I am a father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes; but you were not a father at the time that you arranged with
+Hartwich his testamentary dispositions,&quot; Heim briefly interposed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only two months afterwards my wife gave birth to a dead son. From the
+first moment when I dreamed of one day possessing a child for whom I
+could prepare a future, I cherished a determination to hold fast to
+whatever was mine by right. I think you cannot refuse to bear witness
+that I have endured the destruction of all my hopes with fortitude. My
+wife has left me, refusing to share with me my cheerless future. I
+stand alone with my helpless child. You have heard no word of complaint
+from my lips. Examine yourself, and your upright nature will compel you
+to acknowledge that I do not deserve your distrust. And now, as regards
+the last and weightiest consideration,--my relation to my ward,--ask
+any one whom you may please to interrogate here, whether I have not
+always been Ernestine's advocate and protector. Every servant in the
+house--the child herself--will tell you that it has been so. Upon this
+point my conscience cannot accuse me. For, look you, Herr Geheimrath,
+this child is the only living being in this world, besides my own
+daughter, whom I have to love. There is one spot in my nature, hardened
+as it is by the rough usage of life, that has always remained
+soft,--the memory of my unhappy childhood. In Ernestine I am reminded
+of my own early youth, and there is a tender satisfaction in providing
+her with so much that at her age I was obliged to deny myself. Leave me
+this child, Herr Geheimrath; I am a poor, unhappy, disappointed man. Do
+not take from me the last thing that stirs the better nature within
+me,--it would be too hard!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim stood still for an instant, and seemed about to speak. He
+bethought himself and walked on a few steps, then paused again: &quot;The
+case is not psychologically improbable. You may feel as you say, and
+you may invent it all. What guarantee have I for its truth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sorry to say, none, if you do not find it in the honesty of my
+confession. But, Herr Geheimrath, by what right--pardon me--do you
+require such a guarantee from me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My anxiety for the child's welfare, I should suppose, would be allowed
+to give me such a right,--a right that, if you are not dead to human
+feeling, you would respect even although it has no legal grounds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, certainly, certainly,--I do respect it, and thank you for your
+interest in the child. But I cannot deny that your persistent distrust
+of me surprises me exceedingly, and prompts me to force you by my
+conduct to a better opinion of me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is, you will let me have the child?&quot; Heim asked quickly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is, I am more determined than ever to undertake the charge of her
+education myself, that I may one day convince you of the injustice that
+you are doing me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim regarded the smiling speaker with a penetrating glance. &quot;You rely
+upon the fact that I can legally urge nothing against you. Well, then,
+I can do no more. I confide the fate of this strange child, who has
+become so dear to me, to a loving Providence, that will watch over her
+and over you, sir, however you may contrive to withdraw yourself and
+your designs from the eye of human scrutiny.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As Heim spoke these words, the two gentlemen reached Ernestine's chair.
+The little girl sat perfectly still, lost in thought. Her uncle laid
+his hand upon her white forehead, and said to himself, &quot;I will keep
+you!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">On the evening of the same day, Leuthold sat before his writing-table
+at the open windows. The cool night air made the flame of the lamp
+flicker behind its green shade. From the adjoining room came the low
+sound of the plaintive air with which the nursemaid was soothing little
+Gretchen to sleep. A cricket upon the window-sill chirped continually,
+and a singed moth would now and then fall upon the white, unwritten
+sheet that lay on the table before Leuthold. It was a calm, mild,
+autumn night,--a night when darkness hides the yellow leaves and one
+can dream that it is still summer. And yet the solitary man sat there
+gazing into vacancy, with as little sympathy with nature as though he
+had been banished utterly from her communion. In the corner of the
+window-frame there fluttered a large cobweb, and its proprietor was
+lying in wait for the insects that were attracted by the lamp. But the
+man's brain was weaving still finer webs in the stillness of night, and
+in the midst of them lurked the ugly spider of greed of gold, also
+lying in wait for prey. Ernestine must be ensnared; but she had
+protectors who were upon the watch. No human being must suspect that
+her guardian was her worst enemy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The will had been opened, and two clauses in it had given Leuthold
+renewed life and hope. He was Ernestine's guardian,--and her heir in
+case of her dying unmarried. By the time that his light began to fade,
+he had laid all his plans, and arose from his seat with the feeling of
+satisfaction experienced by an author who has just thought out
+successfully the plot of a new work. Ernestine was no more to him than
+a character in a novel is to its author,--a character which is
+indispensable to the plot, and which the author treats with care as a
+necessary evil, but never with affection. Thus he had planned with
+great precision the child's future; and, unless he utterly failed in
+his designs, the figure that now hovered before his imagination would
+greatly conduce to the successful conclusion of the romance for his
+child and himself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The lamp died down. Leuthold slipped out upon tiptoe, and, undressing
+in the next room in the dark, lay down in the bed beside which stood
+Gretchen's crib. Soon after the child awoke, and stretched out her
+hands towards her father. He drew her towards him, and laid her head
+upon his breast, that was chilled as though from the influence of his
+own icy heart. She nestled up to him, and put her little arms around
+his neck. He listened to her quiet breathing as she fell calmly asleep
+again, and gradually his own heart grew warm beside hers, beating there
+so peacefully. He scarcely ventured to breathe himself, for fear of
+wakening her. It was a happy moment for him. Upon the breath of the
+slumbering child an ineffable delight was wafted into his soul. He held
+in his arms the only being whom he loved and who really loved him,--his
+child, his own flesh and blood! Suddenly there was a loud knocking at
+his door, and Rieka's shrill voice cried, &quot;Herr Doctor! Herr Doctor!
+pray get up quickly and come to Ernestine!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold started up and gently laid the child in her crib again. Every
+nerve in his body vibrated, his heart beat wildly, and his hands
+trembled as he dressed himself hurriedly. Something extraordinary must
+have occurred: was Ernestine worse?--perhaps dying? Was fate to atone
+so soon for Hartwich's injustice? Were his hopes to be--the thought
+made him giddy, breathless, and, almost tottering, he reached the door
+where Rieka was waiting to light him down the stairs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is the matter?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Herr Doctor, it is our fault,&quot; Rieka began: &quot;Theresa and I were
+sitting by Ernestine's bedside and talking; we thought she was sound
+asleep, we were talking about master who is dead; and we told about the
+dairy-maid's refusing to sleep in the barn-loft any more, because she
+says he walks. And we spoke of his death, how he called for his child,
+and declared that he could not find rest in his grave if Ernestine did
+not forgive him. And we said we were sure that he would appear to her
+some day, for when any one dies with such a burden on his soul, there
+is no rest for him until he has the forgiveness that he craves. Then
+Ernestine suddenly began to cry, and we saw that she had heard
+everything. We tried to quiet her, but she grew worse and worse, and
+nothing would content her but that she must be taken this very night to
+the church-yard, to her father's grave, that she might forgive him. We
+can do nothing with her; she insists upon it; she is almost in
+convulsions with crying and obstinacy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They entered Ernestine's room, where Theresa, the other maid, was
+trying to keep the struggling, desperate child in bed. Leuthold went
+softly up to her, and laid his cool, delicate hand upon her burning
+forehead. His touch soothed her; she became quiet, and looked up at her
+uncle with a piteous entreaty in her large eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Leave me alone with her,&quot; he said to the servants, who obeyed with a
+mutter of discontent. He then trimmed the night-lamp so that it burned
+brightly, and seated himself beside Ernestine's couch. &quot;My child,&quot; he
+began, in his low, melodious voice, &quot;you are quite clever enough to
+understand what I am going to say to you, but you must promise me that
+you will never repeat it to any human being. Do you promise?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I will promise, uncle,&quot; sobbed Ernestine, &quot;if you will only help
+me to let my poor father know that I forgive him,--oh, with all my
+heart!--and that my head is well again, and does not hurt me any more!
+Oh, my poor, poor father,--your little Ernestine wants so to tell you
+that she is not angry with you; but she cannot!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a good child, Ernestine, but you are only a child!&quot; Leuthold
+continued, while the same strange smile that had so troubled Ernestine
+in the morning again played around his mouth. She looked up in
+surprise. Was what she had said so foolish again?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are too clever, young as you are, to be allowed to fall into the
+vulgar belief shared by the maids; and therefore I must tell you what
+it would not be best for them to know,--that the dead do not live in
+any form whatever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine started, and gazed at her uncle.--&quot;What?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes; I tell you truly, whoever is dead is dead; that means, he
+has ceased to be; he neither feels nor thinks; a few bones are all that
+there is of him; and they are good for nothing but to convert into lime
+or manure for the fields.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine hearkened breathless to his words. &quot;But where then are the
+spirits, uncle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There are no spirits.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then shall we never go to heaven?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course not; those are all fables, invented to induce common people
+to be good. They must believe in rewards and punishments after death,
+to enable them to bear the trials and deprivations of their lot in
+life. They would rebel against all control, and be in perpetual mutiny,
+without the prospect of compensation after death. So there are wise
+philosophers in every country, composing what is called the Christian
+Church, who have invented many beautiful legends,--which you call the
+Bible. Superstition is founded upon the weakness and folly of mankind,
+upon ignorance of the true laws of nature; and the churches of every
+age and clime have used it as the stuff of which they have made
+leading-strings for the people. But the educated man, breathing only a
+pure, intellectual atmosphere, is free from such fetters. Science leads
+him with a loving hand to heights whence she points out to him the
+natural laws of the universe, and, in place of the prop of which she
+deprives him, gives him strength to stand alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was ashy pale; her lips moved, but no sound issued from them;
+she clenched her hands, and felt as if crushed by some terrible,
+unheard-of mystery. She could hardly bear to listen to what her uncle
+was saying, and yet she caught greedily at every word; she could not
+bear to believe him, and yet she could not but distrust, now, what the
+pastor had taught her. She was ashamed not to be as clever as her uncle
+had called her: the poison that he had instilled into her mind worked
+quickly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, uncle, can what so many people believe be all false? Old people
+and children, kings and emperors, beggars and rich men, all go to
+church:--is there any one except you who does not go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold laughed louder than was his wont. &quot;It is easy enough to answer
+you, dear child. In the first place, there are multitudes of men
+besides myself who belong to no church. In the second place, the number
+of people who profess to believe a creed is no proof of its truth, but
+only of the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of those professing such
+belief. Millions of men have been pantheists, and counted all those who
+did not share their faith criminal. Every religion condemns all others
+as erroneous. Which is right? As long as all were ignorant of the
+causes of the mighty and glorious operations of nature, these were
+ascribed to supernatural agencies and regarded as revelations of the
+divine. Thunder and lightning, light and air, all were governed,
+according to the ancients, as among savages at the present day, by
+their own several deities; every natural event was ascribed to some
+being, half man, half god; and thus heaven and earth were peopled with
+good and evil spirits, friendly or hostile to mankind. This
+superstition fled at the approach of science, or at least it became
+weakened,--etherialized. With increasing knowledge of natural laws, the
+sensual gods of Greece and Rome lost form and substance, and finally
+vanished, to be replaced by a true appreciation of the elements as
+such, and a faith in a central Providence ruling all things wisely and
+well. This is a great improvement; but it is not enough. We still have
+a Trinity,--a Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; we still have angels,
+demons, and saints,--a multitude of good and evil deities, who have
+followed us down from old pagan times, and who, although more
+respectably apparelled, are still prepared to work all kinds of
+miracles. The more fully the laws of matter are laid bare to our
+searching eyes, the dimmer grows our religious belief,--as the shadow,
+which in the darkness we have taken for the substance itself, fades
+before the first ray of sunlight, which reveals the substance
+distinctly. The various gods of all ages and climes were only the
+shadows cast by the operation of natural laws; as soon as the light of
+science fell upon them, they vanished. Thus, religious fancy was driven
+away from this physical world, as the laws ruling it were discovered,
+and obliged to seek a more abstract domain; but even there it is not
+secure; for scientific inquiry, climbing from height to height, and
+gaining in vigour with every fresh advance, long ago began to follow it
+thither; and it must consent to still greater concessions, if it would
+not be driven from its last foothold,--its self-created heaven!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold paused. Ernestine's vague look of wonder reminded him that his
+habit of speech had carried him too far for the comprehension of a
+child. Nevertheless, it excited him to hear his own voice speaking thus
+once more, and his gray eyes glittered strangely as he observed the
+effect of his words, only half understood as they were, upon Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Has the pastor told me falsehoods, then?&quot; she asked at last.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He did not lie intentionally. He is a very narrow-minded man, and
+knows no better. He is not one of the deceivers, but of the deceived.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But he is the wisest man in the village,&quot; Ernestine objected.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In the village, yes! But do you think him wiser than your uncle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, certainly not!&quot; she whispered almost inaudibly. It seemed to her a
+crime to think a common man wiser than the pastor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, let me tell you that he is not nearly as clever as you
+are!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle!&quot; exclaimed Ernestine alarmed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I tell you the truth, my child. You are now very young; but, when you
+are as old as the pastor, you will know much more than he does, and
+take a very different view of things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you in earnest, uncle?&quot; Ernestine asked eagerly, for this first
+flattery had not failed in its effect. &quot;Do you think I can ever be as
+clever as a man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most certainly! Unless I greatly err, you will be something
+distinguished, one of these days!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine sat bolt upright in bed, looking at her uncle with sparkling
+eyes. Her pale face flushed, her breath came quick. Ambition kindled in
+her childish nature to a burning flame. The fuel had been gathering
+there since her first contact with those who had treated her with
+contempt. Now the spark had fallen, and she was all aglow with the
+insidious fire which gradually consumes the whole being unless some
+terrible misfortune bursts open the floodgates of tears to quench the
+unhallowed flame.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold gazed, not without secret admiration and delight, at the
+illuminated and inspired countenance of the child. Thus, thus he would
+have her look! He leaned towards her, and held out his hand. She
+grasped it fervently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle,&quot; she said with childish emphasis, &quot;will you help me to be as
+clever and to learn as much as a man? Will you teach me the sciences
+which you said would make men so strong?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; replied Leuthold with seeming enthusiasm, &quot;I will, indeed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Promise me, dear uncle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I promise you with all my heart that I will teach you as no woman has
+ever been taught before,--that I will guide and direct you until you
+have soared far above the rest of your sex. But you must be diligent,
+and discard all desires but the desire of knowledge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I will, dearest uncle. Why should I not? What else can I wish for?
+I do not want to play with other children,--they laugh at me. I am too
+ugly and grave for them. I will live alone, and learn with you; and one
+day, when I know more than they, I will shame them. Oh, that will be
+fine!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I hope, my child, that you will remember your promise, and not
+tell any one what I have said to you to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not any one? not even Herr Heim?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not for the world. If I should find that you cannot hold your tongue,
+I will teach you nothing, and you will be as ignorant as those who
+laugh at you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, uncle, I will never tell anything; I will not, indeed!&quot; Ernestine
+cried, &quot;But tell me one thing,--are there really no angels, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Angels!&quot; and her uncle smiled. &quot;Of what use has been all that I have
+just said to you, if you can seriously ask such a question?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I have no guardian angel!&quot; said the child, and her eyes filled
+with tears. &quot;And I loved my guardian angel so dearly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My child,&quot; replied Leuthold, &quot;you are your own guardian angel. Your
+own strong mind will shield you from all danger far better than any
+such imaginary creature with wings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was silent. She must take care of herself, then. But she felt
+so weak and broken; how should she be supported unless she could lean
+upon some higher power? No guardian angel, no father, no mother, not
+even their spirits! It seemed to her that she was suddenly standing
+alone, without prop or stay, upon a rocky peak, with a yawning abyss
+just at her feet. The moment would come when she must fall headlong.
+Then there arose before her the last hope of the soul in utter
+misery,--God! He was all in all,--Father and guardian spirit; He was
+love; He would not forsake her. Though all else that she had believed
+in crumbled to dust, He still remained; she would cling to Him with
+redoubled fervour. She looked up at her uncle; should she tell him her
+thoughts? No! She could not speak that sacred name before Leuthold; she
+dreaded the smile she had seen in the morning,--she could not tell why.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her uncle then spoke, and the last drop of poison fell into her soul.
+&quot;We have in ourselves everything that modern religion has created
+outside of ourselves,&quot; he began. &quot;Angels, devils, God--&quot; Ernestine
+started and shrank,--&quot;these are all only personifications of our good
+and evil qualities. It is only the boundless self-conceit of mankind
+that imagines that the grain of reason that distinguishes them from
+the brutes is something entirely beyond the power of nature to
+produce,--something supernatural, immortal, divine,--and that there
+must be, enthroned somewhere above the universe, an omnipotent being,
+who is in direct communication with us and has nothing to do but to
+busy himself with our very important personal affairs! This belief in
+God, with all its apparent humility and submission, is the veriest
+offspring of the vanity and arrogance of mankind, and all worship of
+God, my child, is, in fact, only worship of self. True humility is to
+acknowledge that we are no 'emanation from the Divine Essence,' as
+theosophists phrase it, but only nature's masterpieces, and that we can
+claim no higher destiny than that common to the myriad forms of being
+that bear their part in the universal whole.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine had sunk back among her pillows,--she felt annihilated; there
+was no longer any God for her!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her uncle arose, for two o'clock had just been tolled from the belfry
+of the village church. He did not fail to observe the terrible
+impression that his words had made upon Ernestine. He took her hand;
+she withdrew it from his grasp. He smiled. &quot;You are sorry, are you not,
+to give up everything that your childish mind has believed in so
+firmly? I can easily understand it. But, Ernestine, your powers of mind
+are too great to allow you to find consolation for any length of time
+in such delusions. Be sure that sooner or later you would have
+extricated yourself from such bondage, as the expanding flower throws
+off the confining hull. You have been ill, and your physical weakness
+has depressed your mental energy; but, when you are well and strong
+again, you will rejoice proudly in the consciousness that you are a
+free, irresponsible being, not dependent upon the will and the doubtful
+justice of a fancied Jehovah. Study yourself, my child; in yourself
+lies your future. Believe in yourself, and plant your hopes deeply in
+your faith in yourself. I will leave you now to sleep; and I am sure
+that to-morrow I shall find you a little philosopher.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Long after her uncle had left the room and Rieka had retired upon
+tiptoe to bed in the adjoining apartment, fully convinced that her
+charge was sleeping, Ernestine was wide awake. She lay perfectly
+motionless, as if shattered in every limb. She stirred for the first
+time when Rieka had extinguished the light, so that no ray came through
+the open door. Then the child drew a deep breath, and stretched her
+arms out into the darkness as if to clasp the forms of her vanished
+faith; but her arms encountered only the empty air. There was no more
+pitiable creature upon earth than she at that moment. What is left for
+a child without father or mother, who has lost her guardian angel and
+her God? She is a bird fallen from the nest, stripped by cruelty of its
+wings and left living on the ground. The child's foreboding soul,
+precociously matured by misfortune, felt the entire weight of her
+desolation; and she hid her face in the pillow, that Rieka might not
+hear the convulsive sobs wrung from the depths of her misery. The tears
+which she poured forth for her vanished God were all that her uncle had
+left her,--the only prayer that she was capable of. She longed to
+pray--but could not in words. &quot;He does not hear me! He does not live!&quot;
+she cried to herself; and the hot tears burst forth again, and she wept
+in agony. And, as she wept, her heart grew soft and tender, and as the
+Crucified, after he had been laid in the tomb, was present invisibly
+among his disciples, so the God who had just been buried away from her
+mind came to life again in her heart; she did not hear nor see him, but
+she felt his presence, and it gave her strength to pray. She kneeled in
+her bed, folded her hands, and cried inwardly: &quot;Dear God, let me keep
+my belief in Thee--if Thou art and canst hear me--&quot; --that terrible
+&quot;if&quot; intruded. She paused to ponder upon it. And then there was an end
+to her fervent prayer, and God vanished again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus the struggle between faith and doubt continued feverishly, and her
+soul thirsted for love as did her parched lips for water. Where was
+there a kind, gentle hand to offer her a cooling draught, and with it
+the kiss that should refresh her thirsty soul,--such a hand as only a
+mother has? Ernestine gazed out into the darkness. Her breath came in
+gasps, her heart beat audibly, but no more kindly tears came to her
+burning eyes. &quot;O God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?&quot; was the last
+moan of her tortured heart; and then she sank into a feverish slumber.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_1.7" href="#div1Ref_1.7">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>DEPARTURE.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">The autumnal gales had stripped the leaves from the trees; the tall
+firs in the forest, bordering the spacious brown fields of the Hartwich
+estate, were the only green on the landscape. Over the cheerless desert
+plain wandered a lonely little figure, pale and sad as Heine's Last
+Fairy. Ernestine had so far recovered that she was once more able to
+brave the autumn wind. She extended her arms, and could not help
+imagining that they might become wings, that would bear her far, far
+aloft. She knew it could never really be so; but the thought was so
+delightful! Up, up, far away from the earth,--it was so sad upon the
+earth. She was a stranger here, and she felt that her home must be
+elsewhere. In heaven? Oh, there was no heaven; but in the air--at
+least, in the air. And she ran on--ran as fast as she could--and her
+heart throbbed with excitement as the wind whistled in her ears and
+tossed her clothes about, and her hair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An insatiable yearning--she knew not for what--had driven her out of
+the house--she knew not whither. There was nothing for her to crave
+for, and yet she could not help it. She thought she should die of
+longing! She wished she could dissolve into foam, like the little
+mermaid, that the daughters of the air might bear her aloft into
+endless space! And she stood still and gazed up into the gray clouds,
+and took a long breath. There was no longer anything there for her to
+aspire to, and she had not yet learned to look within. One vast void
+around and above her, and forth into this immense void she was driven!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last she reached the woods, and stood beneath the dark firs, in
+whose boughs the wind was wildly roaring. It was the last time that she
+should stand thus among these familiar scenes, for on the following day
+she was to set out with her uncle for the south, that she might escape
+the northern winter. She was sorry, for she clung to her home, bleak as
+it had been. She must have something to cling to! She had looked
+forward with pleasure to the ice and snow; the glittering form of the
+snow-queen in the fairy book--the creature of Andersen's Northern
+fancy--had transfigured winter for her. Like little Kay, she had lost
+all delight in life, and, like him, she was perplexed in spirit at the
+word &quot;eternity.&quot; But she could not help loving the winter and the
+solitude of her retired home. She walked on fearlessly, beneath the
+whistling of the wind, deeper and deeper into the forest, until,
+without knowing how, she emerged on the other side, and stood under the
+oak where she had first seen Johannes. The bough, now entirely dead,
+which had broken beneath her when she was trying to escape from him,
+still hung there. There, too, was the spot where he had given her the
+book--the wonderful book--that had peopled her fancy with such lovely
+forms. And yet that interview with Johannes seemed in her memory far
+more like enchantment than any fairy-tale, and she stood still, sunk in
+a reverie, until a furious blast of wind tore at the boughs of the
+majestic tree as if it longed to tear it down and scatter its fragments
+through the forest. With a crash, the broken bough, only attached
+hitherto to the trunk by a slender hold, was hurled to the ground, and
+the wind wailed on through the bare branches in the forest depths.
+Ernestine looked up startled. The boughs rustled and creaked, and the
+scared ravens flew croaking hither and thither. Again the blast swept
+howling across the plain, slowly, but with a mighty swell in its roar,
+towards the wood, and again it stormed and raved in its first fury
+about the isolated oak, which trembled and shook to its centre. But
+Ernestine was startled only for an instant; she was used to the blasts
+of a northern October, and she took delight in this wild might of
+nature. It was almost as if she herself were shaking the tree, and
+splitting its branches with her own hands. The exultation of a Titan in
+the breast of a creature woven as it were out of moonlight and
+lily-leaves! Only a divinely-related spirit could have had such
+thoughts in so delicate a form,--a spirit that fraternized with the
+elements, and, in an intoxication of delight, forgot the frail casket
+in which it was confined.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Singing strange, wild songs, the child, with her wonted agility,
+climbed the tree that had grown so dear to her, and cradled herself
+exultingly amid its tossing branches. She ascended to the topmost
+boughs, and gazed far over forest and plain; and the more the creaking
+branches were tossed to and fro as she clung to them, the wilder grew
+her delight. It was almost flying--to hover, thus hidden, above the
+earth! She kissed the bough by which she held, and as she saw the young
+branches breaking here and there beneath her, and the hurricane raged
+so that it almost took away her breath, she looked up with inspired
+eyes, and whispered involuntarily, &quot;It is the breath of God!&quot; Suddenly
+she distinguished a sound as of human footsteps, and a shout came up
+through the roar of the blast. She thought of the handsome stranger
+youth! Could it be he--come to take her down from the tree? An
+inexplicable mixture of joy and dread took possession of her. Was it
+he? Would he stretch out his arms to her again? But it was not he. A
+chill struck to her heart, and a shade gathered over the landscape. It
+was her uncle! &quot;Ernestine,&quot; he called to her, &quot;thoughtless child! How
+you terrify me! Running to the woods and climbing trees in such a
+storm! You might kill yourself! Come down, I entreat you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let me stay here, uncle; I like it so much!&quot; Ernestine begged.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must seriously desire you to come with me. What would people say if
+I allowed you to be out in such weather? Be good enough to do as I tell
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine cast one more silent glance over her beloved forest, and
+then, with a saddened face, began to descend. When she reached the spot
+where the bough had been broken, and whence Johannes had rescued her,
+she broke off a couple of withered leaves, hid them in her dress, and
+slipped down the trunk lightly as a shadow. She turned to her uncle.
+All her delight had vanished; she was upon the earth once more, and her
+uncle's cold, keen eye disenchanted her utterly. Her look was downcast;
+she felt almost ashamed. If he knew that she had just been thinking of
+God, he would despise her. But why could she believe in God again while
+she was up there, and not when she was down here with her uncle?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She walked on without a word by Leuthold's side, glancing neither to
+the right nor the left, never heeding how the wind was well-nigh
+tearing her dress from her back. She did not want to fly any more,--she
+longed for nothing;--when her uncle was by, she was ashamed of every
+emotion. When she came to the place where the path leading to her home
+diverged from the road to the village, she asked permission of Leuthold
+to go and say farewell at the parsonage. After some hesitation, he
+granted it, and went on alone. Ernestine hurried along the well-known
+road. The village children shouted after her, &quot;Halloo, there goes
+Hartwich's Tina,--proud Tina, with the whey face!&quot; She paid no heed to
+them,--she felt herself above the jeers of such creatures. With a
+beating heart she reached the parsonage; then she suddenly stood still.
+What did she want here? To bid good-by to the pastor and his wife! But
+if the good old man should admonish her to love and fear God, as he was
+so apt to do? Or if he should ask her if she believed in God? What
+should she,--what could she answer him? Could she, doubter, apostate
+that she was, enter the presence of the servant of God without placing
+herself at the bar of judgment, or without lying? She stood like a
+penitent, not daring to enter the door which had been so often flung
+open to her. Twice she put her hand upon the bell-handle and did not
+pull it. She knew that the old man would be grieved if she went away
+without bidding him farewell; but she also knew that he would be still
+more deeply pained could he guess at her present state of mind. Perhaps
+he might despise her then; she could not bear that; and, just as she
+was ashamed of her faith when her uncle was with her, she was now
+ashamed of her doubts. How often had the pastor told her it was a sin
+to doubt! she had committed--nay, was now committing--this sin. No, her
+guilty conscience would not let her meet his eye, or kiss the soft,
+gently folded hands of his wife. She slipped past the house, so that no
+one could see her, and went into the grave-yard, where it was quiet and
+lonely and she could hide her guilty little heart upon her parents'
+graves. She knelt down beside them, and longed for tears to relieve
+her; but no blessing arose from the graves over which no spirits
+hovered, but which covered, as her uncle Leuthold had told her, nothing
+but bones. And yet she so longed to do penance for all her doubts. &quot;If
+I could only have faith again this minute, and pray God to forgive me,
+I could go in and see the pastor,&quot; she thought. She looked around her,
+not knowing what to do;--there was the church, and the doors were open.
+She would go into the house of God; perhaps in that sacred place she
+might find again what she had lost. In profound self-abasement the
+child entered, threw herself upon her knees before the altar, and
+closed her eyes. &quot;Now, now I can pray!&quot; she thought; but, just as upon
+that terrible night when she was robbed of her religion and peace of
+mind, devotion seemed near her, but to be eluding her clasp. There lay
+the guiltless little penitent, her soul full of piety, but unable to
+pray,--her heart full of tears, but unable to weep. She sprang up in
+despair. God was not here either. She had thought she heard him in the
+tempest, and that the wind was his breath,--but on the way home her
+uncle had explained to her that it was nothing but a current of air
+occasioned by the change of temperature on the earth's surface, or by
+violent showers of rain, and she was convinced that she had been wrong
+and that her uncle knew very much more than the pastor. But if she
+believed her uncle, she could not believe in God; it was not her fault,
+and yet this doubt weighed upon her as the first crime of her life. Her
+trusting soul was like the iron that glows long after the fire in which
+it was heated is quenched; her faith was extinguished, but the
+influence that her faith had exerted upon her endured and became her
+punishment. It began to grow dark; yet still she stood with head bowed
+and downcast eyes beside the wooden crucifix upon the tomb of her
+parents. The Christ who had been nailed to the cross for the sake of
+what her uncle called an illusion, seemed to regard her so
+reproachfully that she did not dare to look up at him; he had shed his
+precious blood for the faith which she denied; she almost thought he
+would tear away the hand nailed to the cross and extend it in menace
+towards her. An inexplicable shudder ran through her; again she fell
+upon her knees.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive, forgive!&quot; she cried; and the tears burst forth and relieved
+the icy pressure upon her heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then something grasped her shoulder and raised her from the ground. Was
+it her uncle, or the foul fiend, who was standing beside her?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are here, then,&quot; he sneered, &quot;in the dark, kneeling and weeping.
+Aha! I came to look for my quiet little philosopher, and I find a
+whimpering child praying to a wooden doll! Can you tell me where
+Ernestine Hartwich is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle,&quot; cried Ernestine, driven to defiance in her despair, &quot;why do
+you persecute me so continually to-day? Can I not be alone for one
+hour? and must I give an account of every thought and word? You have
+taken from me everything in which I confided,--you have come between
+myself and God, so that I dare not go to the pastor, but must slip
+round his house as if I were a thief. Do you think all this does not
+pain me, and that I feel no remorse? Whatever you may teach me, I shall
+never be happy again. Why did you tell me there were no spirits, no
+angels, no God? I did not wish to know it. I loved God, and, however
+wretched I was, I could always hope that he would be kind and merciful
+to me; if no human being loved me, I could always think that he did.
+And now I must bear everything that happens to me, hoping nothing and
+loving nothing,--no one,--not even you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold smiled, and stroked Ernestine's curls.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I see now that I was wrong in treating a girl twelve years old
+like a boy of twenty. Too strong nourishment will not strengthen an
+invalid,--he cannot bear it; I ought to have thought of that, and not
+burdened your girlish brain with so much. I can understand your dislike
+of me as the innocent cause of your mental indigestion, and forgive you
+for it. Pardon me for overestimating your intellect,--it is my only
+injustice towards you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine stood gloomily beside him, without a word; he could not guess
+what was passing in her mind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will leave you here, my dear child. Pray on,--you need fear no
+further disturbance. Go, kiss the feet of your Christ,--it will relieve
+your heart. Go, Ernestine; or are you embarrassed by my presence? Shall
+I walk away? Well!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He turned as if to go; but Ernestine held fast to his arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will go with you,&quot; she said sullenly. &quot;I could not pray now if I
+tried. And I am not so stupid as you think me. I understood everything
+that you have taught me, and I do not believe any longer in--in--the
+other. What else do you require? One can cry without being thought
+silly; and I tell you I shall cry far oftener than I shall laugh. Oh, I
+shall cry all my life long!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she covered her face with her hands and sobbed aloud.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are nervous, my child. These tears come from mere bodily weakness.
+In a few years you will smile at what causes them now. Do not be
+troubled that you cannot love any one,--not even me. All such childish
+things are left behind in the nursery. Whoever will be truly free must
+begin by standing alone. Every tie that links our heart to others,
+however lovable they may be, is a fetter. Whoever will be strong must
+cease to lean on others. Love knowledge alone,--all living things can
+be taken from you, and your love for them is a source of pain. Science
+is always yours,--an inexhaustible source of delight. Men are unjust.
+They will estimate you not according to your mental powers, but your
+exterior advantages, and these are too trivial to gain their homage.
+Science gives you your deserts,--she measures her gifts according to
+your diligence. Women will envy you; for your intellect will far
+outsoar theirs. Men will slight you; for you are not, and never will
+be, beautiful, and they require beauty beyond all else in a woman. You
+will meet with nothing but disappointment among your kind, if you are
+not resolved to expect nothing from them. If you would avoid every
+grief that they can cause you, learn early not to depend upon them; and
+to this end, science, the culture of the mind, alone can lead you.
+Intellect will indemnify us for all the woes and necessities of
+humanity,--through it we can rise to the true dignity of our nature.
+Therefore, my child, seek out the true nourishment for the intellect,
+and the blind instincts of your heart will soon die in the clear light
+of the mind. You long for peace; trust me, it is to be found only in
+your mind, not in love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine walked silently beside her uncle. Her eyes gleamed strangely
+in the twilight as she looked up at him. She did not understand all
+that he said. But there came an icy chill from his words, and it was
+owing to him that her feverish excitement of mind was allayed. Soft and
+gently as falling snow in the night, his words had fallen into her
+mind, and, without her knowledge, hidden the last blossoms of faith
+there under a thick, cold pall. Beneath it her young heart grew torpid;
+and she took this quiet, painless sleep for peace.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When they reached home, they found the Staatsräthin's carriage before
+the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle,&quot; said Ernestine alarmed and disturbed, &quot;go in and see if it is
+the Frau Staatsräthin herself,--if it is, I would rather stay outside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this moment little Angelika looked out of the window, and called
+Ernestine by name in a tone of delight. There was no help for it.
+Ernestine had to go in and encounter, to her distress, the majestic
+figure of the Staatsräthin. The great lady acknowledged Leuthold's low
+bow by a slight inclination of her head, and held out her hand to
+Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have avoided me hitherto, my child. Have I, without intending it,
+done anything to pain you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine stood silent in confusion. She could not have told, even had
+she wished to do so, what the kind Staatsräthin had done to her, for
+she did not know herself what it was. She could not understand, in her
+childish inexperience, that it was her sense of shame at her own
+insufficiency that embarrassed her in the Frau Staatsräthin's presence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The lady's eyes rested kindly upon the shadowy little figure. She
+stroked the child's thick, short curls, and then turned to Leuthold,
+while Angelika, who had a large doll in her arms, drew Ernestine away
+to a deep window-seat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My object here to-day, Herr Doctor, is to arrange a pressing matter of
+business with you as speedily as possible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madam,&quot; said Leuthold bowing, &quot;I feel much honoured. May I offer you
+one of these clumsy chairs? or will you have the kindness to go up with
+me to my own apartments, where I can receive you in a more fitting
+manner?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin glanced towards the children.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I would like to speak to you alone for a few moments, Herr Doctor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, madam, let me request you to accompany me.&quot; With these words
+Leuthold opened the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Angelika,&quot; the Staatsräthin said to the child, &quot;stay with Ernestine
+until I come back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She went upstairs with Leuthold; and, when seated upon the couch in his
+study, she could not but observe the comfortable, cosy arrangement of
+the room, the delicate cleanliness and order reigning in it; while upon
+the table before her lay several exercise-books labelled &quot;Ernestine von
+Hartwich.&quot; Involuntarily she was inspired with a kind of confidence in
+the grave, elegant man who had received her with so much grace. She
+inspected him with the experienced eyes of a woman of the world. His
+bearing was blameless, and his regular features bore an unmistakably
+intellectual stamp. Far-sighted and clever as the Staatsräthin was, she
+was too much of a woman not to be impressed by the good taste in
+Leuthold's appearance and manner, and she was inclined to think Heim's
+estimate of him as somewhat unjust. She did not belong to the class of
+women ready to be imposed upon by a small hand with filbert-shaped,
+carefully-kept nails; but the refinement of Leuthold's person and
+surroundings was very agreeable in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The neatness and order that I see here surprise me, Herr Doctor,&quot; she
+began, as Leuthold seated himself opposite her; &quot;for I hear that your
+wife is not with you at present.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, madam, I am alone; but I have an acute sense of fitness in
+exterior arrangements, and probably pay more attention to such things
+than is quite becoming in a man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will your wife's absence be of long duration?&quot; asked the Staatsräthin
+with interest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A shadow passed over Leuthold's countenance. &quot;I fear, yes, madam. My
+wife, unfortunately, had not sufficient affection for our child and
+myself to endure the deprivations to which the disappointment of our
+hopes of an inheritance from my brother subjected us. She returned to
+her father for an indefinite time, and, as she has succeeded in keeping
+away now from her little daughter for two months, I have great doubts
+of her return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But that is very sad for you, Herr Doctor,&quot; remarked the Staatsräthin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold passed his hand across his eyes. &quot;It is sad indeed, madam,
+that I should have made such a choice,--that I should have expended
+years of love and pains in the attempt to cultivate and train a nature
+incapable of culture. Mine is the same pain which is experienced by the
+sculptor who finds a serious flaw in the marble upon which he has spent
+years of labour. He exhausts himself in the endeavour to shape it
+according to his ideal, and, just when he hopes for its completion, a
+dark vein is laid bare by his chisel,--his work is worthless,--he has
+hoped and laboured in vain!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin looked at him with interest, &quot;That is rather coldly
+put, and yet poetically conceived, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An artist would not call it cold, madam, for he would know how great
+the suffering is to which I have ventured to compare my own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin assented. Leuthold's manner pleased her more and more.
+Just then Lena entered, leading Gretchen by the hand, and carrying a
+brightly burnished lighted lamp, which she placed upon the table.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, what a charming child!&quot; exclaimed the Staatsräthin in unfeigned
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her keenly observant eye noticed with pleasure the ray of delight that
+illumined Leuthold's countenance. &quot;Is she not lovely, madam?&quot; he said,
+actually glowing with gratified vanity. &quot;You do indeed delight the
+heart of a father who has seen his child forsaken by her own mother.
+Yes, she is a treasure. She has the personal beauty that once so
+attracted me in her mother, and will, I hope, develop a beauty of soul
+which I failed to find in her mother. She will, in the future, repair
+all that I have lost. While I have this daughter, I ask of life nothing
+beside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The large-hearted Staatsräthin was completely won by a declaration so
+full of affection. &quot;The man that idolizes his child thus cannot be
+worthless,&quot; she thought.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold motioned to Lena to take Gretchen away again, and as she did
+so the Staatsräthin remarked, as if casually, &quot;There cannot be much
+room in your heart, filled as it is with love for such an angel, for
+poor, pale little Ernestine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold looked steadily at her. &quot;Madam, a lady like yourself, whose
+loving heart finds room for so many, can hardly say that in earnest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right,&quot; said the Staatsräthin; &quot;I ought to know how many one
+can love without defrauding any of their due measure of affection. But
+I am a woman, whose vocation it is to love; a man, and a scholar, like
+yourself, is apt to confine his regard to what is nearest to him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is natural; and I do not deny that my daughter is dearer to me than
+my niece: nevertheless, I think I have sufficient affection for the
+latter to satisfy her demands and to enable me to fulfil all my duties
+as guardian. You can have no idea, madam, what anxious care the
+extraordinarily precocious intellect of that child requires, and what a
+weighty responsibility the training of such an uncommon nature
+involves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can easily believe you; and I am convinced that she could not
+possibly be in better hands than your own. But Ernestine's physical
+education must weigh heavily upon you just at this time, when you are
+alone. I should very much like to relieve you somewhat in future of
+your arduous duties. You leave to-morrow for the south, and I cannot
+but rejoice, for the sake of Ernestine's health, that it is so. But I
+hear that you intend returning hither at the end of six mouths, to
+settle in this part of the country. If this be so, let me entreat you
+to intrust your ward to me every year for some weeks or months,--you
+will need some rest,--when you can give your undivided time to your
+daughter. Will you not allow me to take this part in Ernestine's
+education?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold bowed. &quot;Madam, you are one of those who scatter blessings
+wherever they appear. Your sympathy does me too much honour; I am
+unworthy of it. Therefore let me thank you, not for myself, but for my
+niece. There is another name, also, in which I must offer you grateful
+acknowledgments,--that of the unfortunate mother of the child. If she
+could speak to you from the other world, she would repay your kindness
+with far better thanks than my weak words can convey.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin's eyes filled with tears; she thought, what would
+become of her little Angelika without her mother, and, touched to her
+heart, she grew still more reconciled to the strange man whose manner
+contrasted so strongly with all she had heard of him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you consent to my plan?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I give you my word, madam, that, when I return with Ernestine, she
+shall stay with you as long as you desire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you,&quot; said the Staatsräthin, surprised at this ready assent.
+She was now firmly convinced that Heim had done this singular man great
+injustice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We have agreed so quickly in this matter,&quot; the Staatsräthin began
+again, &quot;that I cannot but hope that I shall be equally successful in
+regard to the other affair that brings me here. I have come, in fact,
+for the purpose of learning whether you will dispose of the Hartwich
+estate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A delicate flush overspread Leuthold's face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed, madam, you take me greatly by surprise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are aware that my brother Neuenstein has long been desirous of
+possessing the factory; but serious losses in another direction
+rendered it impossible for him to command the sum required for the
+purchase. When I found how his heart was set upon giving his son a
+position as possessor and head of the factory, I determined, with the
+consent of my son Johannes and his guardians, to furnish him with the
+necessary funds. Johannes' answer to my proposal has just arrived from
+Paris. He entirely approves of my plan, and would willingly even run
+the risk of a loss for his uncle's sake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I really cannot tell which to admire most, madam,--your determination
+and energy, or your generous spirit! Happy the man who has such a
+sister!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I pray you do not flatter me,&quot; said the Staatsräthin, as a shade
+of embarrassment flitted across her face. &quot;Such things are not worth
+mentioning. I wish to keep my brother and my nephew near me; and I
+could not do so if they were to buy property in another part of the
+country. It is most fortunate that my country-seat is just where it is.
+My motive is purely selfish. As you depart early to-morrow morning, we
+had better arrange matters upon the spot. Then I can lay the deed of
+purchase upon my brother's plate at tea this evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A princely surprise,&quot; rejoined Leuthold, hastening to his
+writing-table to make out the necessary agreement. The transaction met
+his desires perfectly, for he wished above all things to be able to
+reside in the south with Ernestine, that he might carry out his plans
+with regard to her education, far from the scrutiny of her present
+friends; and, by the disposal of this property, the last reason for
+ever returning to the scenes of her childhood vanished.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the mean time, Angelika and Ernestine were sitting in the
+window-seat of what was formerly the laundry, engaged in earnest
+conversation. Angelika had received that very day from her brother the
+crying doll that she had thought he meant to bring her upon his return.
+She was beside herself with delight, and could not imagine how
+Ernestine could be so unmoved by the sight of such a miracle of
+mechanism. She had made it say &quot;papa&quot; and &quot;mamma,&quot; and open and shut
+its eyes, repeatedly. Ernestine was entirely composed and cold. She
+declared that the words &quot;papa&quot; and &quot;mamma&quot; were not very distinct, and
+that the eyelids made altogether too much noise in opening and
+shutting.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika was not at all troubled by Ernestine's budding misanthropy,
+for she did not observe it. But that her friend should not care for
+dolls, was a bitter grief to the little girl. &quot;You will never take any
+pleasure in dolls if you do not like this one,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why should I take any pleasure in them?&quot; Ernestine said in a tone of
+contempt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What? Why, don't you know? I suppose you think the poor things do not
+feel it when you are unkind to them. But mamma says they feel it all,
+and don't like it, although they don't show it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you believe all that your mother says?&quot; asked Ernestine, shaking
+her head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly; of course. Mamma always tells the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How do you know that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika stared at Ernestine. &quot;How? Why, because I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, but who told you so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No one; I know it myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked down and said nothing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know it myself,&quot; she repeated thoughtfully, not comprehending why
+the words struck her so oddly. &quot;But suppose she should tell you what
+you could not believe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, a child must always believe what her mother says.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How if she cannot do it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But she must!&quot; cried Angelika angrily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She must? How can we believe anything because we must? It is not
+possible,&quot; said Ernestine, and she thought Angelika very silly.
+Suddenly it occurred to her that the pastor was no wiser when he said
+that we must have faith and that it was a sin not to believe. What if
+you could not,--what was the use of that <i>must</i>?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, don't stare so at nothing,&quot; said Angelika, interrupting her
+reverie. &quot;Just look how straight my doll can sit, all alone, without
+anything to lean against! Oh, just give her one kiss; she is your
+namesake--I christened her Ernestine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I don't want to,--it is nothing but a lump of leather, it cannot
+feel, and I will not kiss anything that is not alive and does not
+feel!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Ernestine, don't say that. She is not alive now, but perhaps she
+may get alive. Mamma told me once of a man in Greece, called Pygmalion,
+who made a marble doll for himself, and loved it so dearly that it grew
+warm and came to life. And I believe that if I should love my doll
+dearly she might get alive; and I am sure I shall love her very dearly!
+She can say 'papa' and 'mamma' already, which Herr Pygmalion's doll
+could not do at all; and in time I shall perhaps bring her on, just as
+he did his!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she clasped the &quot;lump of leather&quot; to her little heart, gazed
+tenderly and hopefully into its blue glass eyes, and was quite content.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at her with mournful wonder; she understood now that
+&quot;Faith gives peace,&quot; and she envied the child her happiness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Would you not rather have a puppy or a kitten?&quot; she asked gently. &quot;It
+could eat and drink, and you could feed it, and it would understand
+what was said to it, and run after you, and love you? Would not that be
+nicer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A shade of sorrow passed over Angelika's rosy face, like a cloud over
+the sun. &quot;Oh,&quot; she sighed, &quot;we have a little dog; but I cannot feed it;
+it does not eat nor drink!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why not? Is it sick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No; it is stuffed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine smiled in spite of herself. &quot;Then you have no dog!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, we have! he is called Assor. He only died, and mamma had him
+stuffed, so that he lies perfectly quiet near the fire, and never
+stirs. Mamma says he will not come to life again. Oh, Ernestine, it is
+very sad,--when I stroke him, he never licks my hand any more! I call
+him hundreds of times, and he used to turn his pretty black head round
+towards me, but he does not do it now; he cannot see nor hear me, and
+he used to love me so much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The little girl covered her eyes with her hand and began to cry.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine tried to soothe her. &quot;Your mother ought to have had the dog
+buried. Then you would have forgotten him and not grieved after him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No! oh, no! I could not have borne that. What! have the faithful old
+dog hidden in the ground! It would have been too hard! He was so
+faithful; he never left our side; and when he could hardly walk, he
+used to creep out of his basket to welcome us when we came into the
+room, and when he was dying in my lap, he looked up at me so
+mournfully, as if to say, 'I must leave you now.' And could I hide him
+away and forget him? That would be dreadful. No, no! he shall lie by
+the fire in the drawing-room; it is far more comfortable there than in
+the cold ground, and I will always think how good he was. And I'll tell
+you what,--when mamma dies she shall not be buried either. I will put
+her dressing gown on her and let her lie in her soft bed. Then I will
+pretend she is sick, and I will sit by her every day and talk to her,
+and, even if she does not answer me, I shall know what she would say if
+she could speak. And if she cannot kiss me, I will kiss her all the
+more. That will be a great deal better than to have nothing left of
+her; will it not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine shook her head. &quot;That can't be done, Angelika; you can't keep
+dead bodies; they decay. How can you think of such a thing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you say, 'That can't be done,'--you say, 'That's nothing,' to
+everything, and spoil all my pleasure; I tell you it is very unkind of
+you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine felt ashamed. She had been treating Angelika as her uncle
+Leuthold treated herself. The child was pained and unhappy when her
+dolls were treated with contempt, and her childish fancies not
+encouraged; and was she, Ernestine, to endure without a moan the utter
+overthrow of the hopes of her entire existence, when her uncle dragged
+down into the dust all that she had held most sacred? She leaned her
+forehead, heavy with the weight of her thoughts, against the
+window-pane, and looked up into the gray, storm-lashed clouds, through
+which there beamed no star, not a ray of moonlight. The children had
+not noticed the gathering darkness in the room, and Rieka almost
+startled them when she entered with a light.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is not mamma coming soon?&quot; asked Angelika with a sigh. &quot;Pray tell her
+that I want to go home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will tell her,&quot; replied Rieka, and left the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are tired of being with me,&quot; Ernestine whispered sadly. &quot;You
+cannot love me either, can you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika was confused, and did not answer. Ernestine looked
+disappointed and bitter. &quot;Very well, then--I need not like you either.
+Uncle Leuthold would only scold me if I did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What for?&quot; Angelika asked amazed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because it is silly to love anything except science, and because
+nobody loves me--nobody!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As she was speaking, a carriage drove up, and old Heim alighted from
+it. Ernestine was startled; she felt as if the pastor, whom she had
+shunned, were coming. The door opened, and he entered the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, here you both are!&quot; he cried after his hearty fashion. &quot;I wanted
+to say good-by to you, my little Ernestine, before you leave us for so
+long. But what is the matter? Have you been quarrelling about the doll?
+Why, what a lovely creature she is!&quot; He took the doll, seated himself
+in a chair, and dandled it upon his knee; the machinery of the toy was
+set in motion, and the doll screamed &quot;mamma&quot; and &quot;papa&quot; loudly. &quot;Good
+gracious, how frightened I am!&quot; laughed the old gentleman. &quot;But she is
+very naughty,--you must train her better, Angelika. She ought not to
+scream so at strangers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika clapped her hands with delight. &quot;Oh, I knew that you would
+like her, Uncle Heim. You will love her just as you do the rest of my
+dolls, won't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course; she is really such a lovely creature, that I must bring her
+some bonbons the next time I come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes--do, uncle, do!&quot; cried Angelika.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But be careful not to let her eat too many, or she will have to be put
+to bed like your old Selma, and I shall have to play doll's-doctor
+again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no, uncle; I will eat some with her myself; bring them soon, pray
+do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile Heim had been observing Ernestine, who stood mute at a little
+distance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, what does our little Ernestine say to this wonderful new child?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, uncle,&quot; Angelika complained, &quot;she called it a lump of leather.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim looked gravely at Ernestine. &quot;So young, and already such a
+skeptic! Only twelve years old, and take no pleasure in dolls? Poor
+child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was silent. The words &quot;Poor child&quot; fell like molten lead into
+an open wound. Heim gave back the doll to Angelika. &quot;Come here,
+Ernestine.&quot; She approached him shyly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What have you been doing? you look as if you had a guilty conscience?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, she has, Uncle Heim,&quot; Angelika interposed; &quot;for she said, a
+little while ago, that it was silly to love any one; and that is very
+wrong!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you say that?&quot; asked Heim astonished.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine felt as though she should sink into the ground. She
+clasped her hands in entreaty. &quot;Oh, forgive me! I have all kinds of
+thoughts!--I do not know what I say or do! I only know that I am a
+wretched, wretched child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim shook his head, and drew the trembling child towards him. &quot;My
+darling, tell me about it: is your uncle severe with you? does he treat
+you unkindly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, oh, no! he is very kind,--he is never cross to me--it is not
+that,--not that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I understand. In spite of his kindness, you feel that he is not near
+to you; you have no father nor mother, and you need warmth and
+sunshine, you poor frail little flower. Only be patient! when you get
+to the lovely, sunny south, with its flowers and birds, you will be
+better, and your heart will be lighter. I would have liked to keep you
+with me, I would have brought you up lovingly, and would have tried to
+fill a father's place to you. But it could not be,--God best knows
+why,--and I am sure it is better for you, mind and body, to leave this
+northern climate for a time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">These kind words melted Ernestine's very heart. She pressed Heim's
+hands to her lips. She wanted to confess all to him. &quot;Oh, do not speak
+so to me!&quot; she cried with streaming eyes,--&quot;not so kindly!--I do not
+deserve it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My poor innocent child, what can you have done, not to deserve
+kindness? Ernestine, what is it? What disturbs you so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, if you knew--&quot; cried Ernestine, and just then the door opened, and
+Leuthold appeared, just in time to prevent what would have ruined all
+his plans.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, Herr Geheimrath,--then I was not mistaken. It was your carriage
+that drove up. The Frau Staatsräthin is with me upon business, and
+requests your presence at the signing of a paper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will come immediately,&quot; Helm said briefly, and went up-stairs with
+Leuthold.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now uncle will drive home with us,&quot; cried Angelika delighted. &quot;Isn't
+he kind, Ernestine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, oh, yes,&quot; sighed Ernestine, standing motionless beside the chair
+where Heim had been sitting. At last he returned with Leuthold and the
+Staatsräthin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Angelika,&quot; said the latter, &quot;we must hurry, so that Uncle Neuenstein
+shall not wait for his tea. Good-by, my little Ernestine. Herr
+Gleissert will tell you what we intend to do when you come back. Get
+well and strong, my child, so that you may come back to us a healthy
+little girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika kissed Ernestine hastily, and drew her mother towards the
+door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine stood still with downcast eyes. Heim went up to her and
+clasped her in his arms. He only said, &quot;God bless you!&quot; but these words
+agitated her greatly, and, as he turned to go, she sank on the floor,
+sobbing aloud.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The visitors had gone,--the carriages had rolled away. Leuthold had
+been amusing himself for some time with Gretchen in his own room. But
+Ernestine was still on her knees in the cheerless room below-stairs,
+weeping over the grave of her childhood.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_2.0" href="#div1Ref_2.0">PART II.</a></h2>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_2.1" href="#div1Ref_2.1">CHAPTER I.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>&quot;ONLY A WOMAN.&quot;</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">Upon a bright, sunny day, at the house of Professor Möllner in N----
+there were gathered the principal Professors of medicine and philosophy
+in the town. The table provided for the guests was loaded with
+everything that could rejoice the hearts of men who had spent the
+morning in delivering lectures. Lunch was not the only end for which
+this assemblage was gathered together. These learned gentlemen had
+taken this occasion to discuss a very ludicrous matter,--nothing less
+than an application from a lady for permission to attend the lectures
+and to graduate at the University of the place.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Möllner had invited these gentlemen to his house for the purpose of
+this discussion. There sat the physiologist Meibert, the anatomist
+Beck, and the philosophers Herbert and Taun, leaning back in
+comfortable arm-chairs,--their throats very dry,--regarding with
+longing eyes the various bottles that stood as yet uncorked, as if
+awaiting the magic word that should make them yield up their contents.
+Hector, too, Möllner's large dog, was devouring with his eyes, at a
+respectful distance, the delicacies upon the table, quite unable to
+understand how the gentlemen could refrain so long from falling to. He
+would have done very differently had he been a man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin entered the room, and with dignified repose and
+kindliness of manner greeted the guests, who rose as she appeared. &quot;I
+have just learned that my son is not here to receive his friends,&quot; she
+said. &quot;Allow me to act his part. You must need refreshment after the
+lectures.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thanks, thanks! you are most kind,&quot; was heard from all sides as the
+Staatsräthin filled the glasses. Herbert, the philosopher, was foremost
+in his acknowledgments; for he was a great favourite in society, and
+aspired to unite the solidity of the scholar with the grace of the man
+of the world. &quot;We are greatly privileged in being allowed to kiss the
+hand whose tasteful care we have already admired in the charming,
+arrangement of this table.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Professor Herbert's gallantry is well known,&quot; said the Staatsräthin
+dryly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is true,&quot; he replied, &quot;that I endeavour always to give expression
+to the sentiments of respect and admiration that I entertain for your
+sex, madam, in spite of the failure of my attempts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-morning, mamma,--good-morning, gentlemen,&quot; cried a clear, ringing
+voice, and there came tripping into the room a figure so full of life
+and bloom that its joyousness was instantly reflected upon every face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Angelika,&quot; said the Staatsräthin, embracing her, &quot;have you come
+without your husband? What is the matter? You were not invited;--it was
+<i>he</i>. Is it a mistake?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Frau Staatsräthin, we are entirely satisfied with the exchange,&quot;
+laughed the professors; and, Herbert taking the lead,--they gathered
+about Angelika, enjoying the atmosphere of youth and grace that
+encompassed her everywhere.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know perfectly well, mamma, that only Moritz was invited, but I have
+come too. I so wanted to hear judgment passed in this august assembly
+upon my former playmate. I may stay, may I not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If your husband is willing, and these gentlemen do not object,&quot; said
+the Staatsräthin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, oh, no,--we certainly do not object,&quot; cried all the gentlemen,
+with the exception of Herbert, who remarked softly, with a thoughtful
+air, that he feared that their charming associate might hear some
+observations on this occasion not flattering to her sex.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I cannot fear anything of the sort from you, the acknowledged
+champion of dames, the most gallant of men,&quot; laughed Angelika,--&quot;and
+the other gentlemen will not be too bard upon us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Besides,&quot; Angelika continued gaily, &quot;I have been a little hardened in
+the matter by my stern lord and master, who has very little
+consideration for our sex.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Scarcely to be wondered at in a practising physician,&quot; Herbert said in
+a low tone to his associates; then, turning with his sweetest
+expression to Angelika, &quot;Could you not have taught him better long
+ago?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no,&quot; complained Angelika.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He considers his wife an exception,&quot; interposed the Staatsräthin; &quot;she
+seems to have left no room in his nature for sympathy with the rest of
+womankind. I have never seen a man so exclusive in his regard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Such a wife deserves it all,&quot; said Herbert, kissing Angelika's hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this moment the door opened, and old Heim, his fine head crowned
+with locks of silvery whiteness, entered. All bowed low to this &quot;Nestor
+of science,&quot; as he was called. After the death of his king he had
+accepted a call to N----, and had for eight years occupied the chair of
+pathology in the University there. He was followed by his adopted son,
+for whom he had created a professorship for the cure of diseases of the
+eye,--a fair, handsome young man, slender in figure and gentle in
+demeanour, with hands so small and well shaped that they seemed formed
+for the very purpose of handling such a delicate piece of mechanism as
+the eye. The Staatsräthin and Angelika greeted them both with all their
+old cordiality, and Professor Herbert said aloud, &quot;How fresh and strong
+our revered associate looks! he must teach us how to retain our youth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, indeed,&quot; said Meibert, &quot;if Bock could see him he would recall his
+cruel assertion that man retains full possession of his mental powers
+only until the age of fifty!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He will soon recall that when he has passed fifty himself,&quot; said a
+deep, powerful voice. All turned to the new-comer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, Möllner, have you been listening?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no; but I could not help hearing, as I came in, that you were
+making pretty speeches to one another,--just as if you had cups of tea
+before you, instead of glasses of good wine. Pray, what has made you so
+sentimental?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your protracted absence, probably,&quot; said Angelika, relieving her
+brother of his hat and cane.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The strong, fine-looking man threw an affectionate glance at her.
+&quot;Indeed! let me entreat forgiveness, then. One of my experiments was
+unsuccessful, and I was obliged to repeat it. That is why I am late!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I suppose, then, you have been torturing some unfortunate dog or
+rabbit,&quot; said Angelika in a tone of distress. &quot;Poor thing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For shame, Angelika!&quot; said her brother. &quot;Those are not words for the
+sister of a physiologist,--a woman who ought to understand the object
+of science.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika made no reply, but observed, well pleased, how tenderly
+Johannes stroked Hector, who came to greet his master.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The door was flung violently open, and in rushed, in a great hurry,
+Angelika's husband, Moritz Kern, Clinical Professor and practising
+physician. His figure was not tall, but muscular,--his eyes were black
+and sparkling, his features sharply cut, and his stiff black hair close
+cropped around his head. &quot;Morning, morning,&quot; he cried, quite out of
+breath, but in high good humour, as he threw his hat and gloves upon a
+table and himself into a chair. &quot;Excuse me for my tardiness. Ah, my
+dear,--kiss your hand,--love me? Yes? Not seen you since morning.
+Walter with you? No? Was he good?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, indeed,&quot; said Angelika, who stood beside her boisterous husband
+like a rose upon a thorny stem; &quot;but he fell off his rocking-horse and
+has got a great bruise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good, good,--harden him,&quot; he replied smiling. He looked for an instant
+into Angelika's blue eyes, and the fire of his glance must have
+penetrated her heart, for her fair brow flushed and her eyelids drooped
+like those of a girl upon the day of her betrothal.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, Moritz, you can make love to your wife another time,&quot; cried
+Johannes; &quot;it is late,--we must come to business. What detained you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear friend, I couldn't help it. I had a girl at the clinic
+that gave me no end of trouble. Old trouble with the
+heart,--acute inflammation,--stoppage in the arteries of the left
+foot,--mortification,--the leg must come off to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A splendid case!&quot; said Helm approvingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heavens! what savages you are, to call that a splendid case!&quot; said
+Angelika horrified.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My angel, if you choose to assist at a council of rude men, you must
+not start at such innocent technical terminology,&quot; said her husband,
+enjoying Angelika's pretty dismay.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I too have been scolding her for sympathizing with the victims of
+my experiments,&quot; said Möllner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You were wrong to blame her. I like to have her compassionate.
+Continue to weep for the poor dogs, my child, and the yet more
+unfortunate frogs. What have you to do with the reasons for torturing
+them? I do not want you to imbibe any flavour of science from your
+husband or brother. I like you just as you are; you suit me precisely.
+I will not have you otherwise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For heaven's sake, mamma, carry Angelika away!&quot; cried Johannes
+laughing. &quot;As long as this fellow has his wife by his side, there is
+nothing to be done with him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She shall stay!&quot; said Moritz decidedly. &quot;There is nothing of
+importance to be done. The Hartwich woman asks to attend our lectures;
+why waste any thought upon such a fool? Don't answer her request at
+all, and be done with it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Softly, softly, my young friend,&quot; cried old Heim very gravely, while
+Moritz, with Angelika's hand in his, swallowed a glass of wine. &quot;First
+read this paper, which the girl sent to me, and which so enchained
+Möllner's attention when I gave it to him to-day after lecture that--I
+must betray him--it was the cause of his tardiness. The experiments
+were over long before he made his appearance!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A slight flush overspread Johannes' face as he handed Moritz the paper.
+The latter read the title aloud--&quot;<i>Reflex Motion in its Relation to
+Free Agency</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;By Jove! a good idea, if it is her own!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is her own--that I'll vouch for!&quot; cried Heim with warmth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That must be both philosophically and physiologically interesting,&quot;
+said the philosopher Taun to Herbert, who coldly shrugged his
+shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let us see whether the article corresponds to the title,&quot; muttered
+Moritz, turning over the leaves.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Read us some of it aloud,&quot; said Heim; and Moritz selected, at random,
+and read: &quot;According to my opinion, the want of external self-control
+proceeds from sluggishness of the inhibitory nerves in comparison with
+the activity of the motor nerves, for the effort to control one's self
+is certainly, in a degree, neither more nor less than a struggle for
+mastery between these two sets of nerves. If the irritation acting upon
+the one is stronger than the force of will which should excite the
+other to activity, the reflex motion will take place in spite of what
+is called 'best intentions,' whether the occasion be a start of alarm,
+a desire to yawn, laugh, or weep at unfitting times, a scream, an angry
+gesture, or even a blow bestowed upon the object whence proceeds the
+incitement to wrath.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Moritz paused, and said smiling, &quot;She has forgotten a kiss, which is
+only a reflex motion under certain circumstances,--that is, when one
+does not wish to kiss, ought not to kiss, and yet cannot help it.&quot; And
+he drew his wife towards him, and kissed her. Angelika blushed deeply,
+and, rising, greatly embarrassed, joined her mother, who sat quietly at
+work by the window. The gentlemen laughed, and Moritz looked after her
+with eyes full of tenderness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It certainly is strange that while the Hartwich has made due mention
+of the reflex motion of terror--a start; of pain--tears; of fatigue--a
+yawn; of anger--a blow, it does not seem to have occurred to her that
+there are reflex motions of tenderness, also,&quot; remarked young Hilsborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Probably,&quot; said Moritz laughing, &quot;she has had no opportunity for
+observing any such. I suppose that, like all blue-stockings, she is so
+ugly that no one has ever bestowed any tenderness upon her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is certainly not ugly,&quot; said Johannes with warmth. &quot;She might have
+admirers enough if she chose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Moritz turned hastily round to Johannes, who sat almost behind him, and
+stared as if a new idea had suddenly occurred to him. &quot;What the deuce,
+Johannes! do you know her? Oho! indeed! now I understand the interest
+that you take in her. Well, you can teach her to make good her
+omissions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should really like to be present at such an interesting lesson!&quot;
+said Herbert.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Laugh away,&quot; said Johannes calmly. &quot;You may laugh at me as much as you
+please, but have the goodness, Moritz, to spare your jests as far as
+Fräulein Hartwich is concerned; and you too, friend Herbert. Pray heed
+what I say. We have nothing to do here with the personality of this
+girl; it is nothing to us. All we have to do is to pass judgment upon
+her intellectual capacity, and to accede or not to her request. Go on,
+Moritz!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And Moritz read further: &quot;Even the law, without knowing it, recognizes
+this physiological fact, for it punishes less severely a murder
+committed in the heat of passion than one that is premeditated. And
+what is a murder committed in the heat of passion, in reality, but a
+reflex motion in a broader sense? If this theory be correct, many a
+poor criminal may escape not only a violent death at the hangman's
+hands, but also the flames of the material hell to which bigoted
+moralists have consigned him. Let us endeavour, therefore, to discover
+what relation these facts sustain to Free Agency. All that we can do to
+attain the self-control which is the germ of all the virtues is, from
+earliest childhood, to exercise the inhibitory nerves in the discharge
+of their functions. It is an undoubted fact that, from the beginning of
+life, the mind must learn to use as its tools the various organs of the
+body. We cannot understand the use of a tool to which we are
+unaccustomed as we can one that we have frequently handled. Thus it is
+with the mind and the nerves. Every nerve that is often called into
+activity by the mind is strengthened by exercise. For example: the
+sense of touch grows remarkably keen with blind people, who depend upon
+it as a substitute for eyesight. By continual exercise of the nerves of
+sensation in his finger-tips, the blind man achieves the greatest
+perfection in his sense of touch. 'Practice makes perfect,' we often
+hear said with regard to arts and occupations difficult of mastery. And
+what is this practice but the custom of the mind to exercise this or
+that nerve, bringing into play the required muscular activity,--the
+exercise of certain nerve-fibres? Are the inhibitory nerves alone not
+to be thus controlled? Certainly not! The mind can make them also
+implicitly obedient to its will, if it neglects no opportunity for
+exercising them,--and why should it not apply itself to this task with
+the same zeal that is expended upon the attainment of an art or
+handicraft? I, for example, was in the habit of screaming at the
+unexpected discharge of a pistol. I had a pistol discharged daily in my
+hearing, without warning, and in a short time I was able to suppress
+the scream. It may be urged that I had gradually become accustomed to
+the noise, and was no longer startled. But this was not the case. I was
+as much startled as ever, but I had taught the appropriate inhibitory
+nerve to cut off the reflex motion upon the larynx. I know that a
+subjective experience of this kind proves nothing objectively; but such
+a simple inference, I think, needs no proof. Here we come again to the
+boundary-line separating the physiological from the psychological,
+where free agency results from a material law, just as fragrance comes
+from the chalice of a flower. Only let us be sure that our nerves are
+but a key-board upon which, if we strike the right keys correctly, we
+shall produce the harmonious accord of our whole being, and, if we do
+not learn to do so, we are to be pitied or despised, according to the
+school in which the lesson is needed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And so on,&quot; said Moritz, turning over the leaves. &quot;The rest can be
+easily imagined. Here is a special treatise upon the motor nerves,--it
+seems pretty fair,--and rather a long essay upon nervous excitement,
+but I think we have done our duty and read enough of the testimony. How
+shall we decide? Shall we carry out the joke, and admit a student in
+petticoats to the lectures and the dissecting-room?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why not?&quot; said Professor Taun with some humour. &quot;We admit so many
+stupid lads, why not one woman?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear friend,&quot; old Heim began, &quot;I do not think we have ever had many
+pupils more gifted than Fräulein Hartwich. And is not a talented woman
+better than a stupid man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is a question,&quot; remarked Herbert, riveting his sharp eyes upon
+Heim's honest face. &quot;I do not believe that the most talented woman can
+accomplish what is possible, with diligence and perseverance, for a man
+of common ability. What aid can a woman lend to us, or to science? The
+aid of her labour only, for no woman possesses creative force. And the
+feminine capacity for labour is so weak, that it is hardly worth while
+to commit an absurdity for the sake of making it ours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;An absurdity?&quot; asked Heim.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I should call it absurd to admit a woman among our students, to
+degrade science to a mere doll to amuse silly girls withal, until,
+finally, there would be an Areopagus erected, before which we should be
+expected to make our most profound bow, in every feminine tea-party.
+There is competition enough already, without increasing it by the
+admission among us of the other sex.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That sounds strange,&quot; said old Heim; &quot;it looks almost as if you were
+afraid of the competition which you so thoroughly despise. Why speak of
+competition in science? Leave that narrow-minded word to trade, which
+is really confined within certain limits. In such a boundless and
+abstract domain as science, there is no place for personal envy and
+arrogance. Can there be any question of competition when we are
+labouring for a cause which is to benefit the world? Whoever asks for
+other rewards than are contained in knowledge itself, is no priest of
+science. The true student exists for science, not science for him,--he
+rejoices in every fresh advance, no matter by whom it is made, for the
+honour of the cause that he serves is his own, and we can say
+truthfully, Each for all, and all for each. If, therefore, we are
+offered the labour of a pair of hands willing to share our pains, let
+us not reject them because they are the delicate hands of a woman, but
+accept them, and offer them a modest place, where they can achieve all
+that lies in their power.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But,&quot; cried Moritz, &quot;let such hands do for us what we cannot do for
+ourselves,--knit stockings, for instance,--instead of trying to assist
+in what we can easily accomplish without them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear young friend,&quot; said Heim smiling, &quot;the temple of science is
+large, very large. I think neither we nor our posterity, however
+numerous they may be, will be able to complete it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think, gentlemen,&quot; said the philosopher Taun, in his gentle, refined
+way, &quot;that there are only two points of view from which the matter is
+to be considered. Either we must base our decision upon the
+intellectual capacity of the lady, and, if so, subject the paper before
+us to conscientious criticism; or we must determine, once for all, that
+no woman is to be admitted to our University,--in which case there will
+be no question whatever of capacity or incapacity. Let us, then, come
+to an agreement upon these points.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is true,--Taun is right,&quot; cried Heim. &quot;I vote for the admission
+of women of genius, like this one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I against it,&quot; rejoined Herbert; &quot;for I contend that there are no
+women of genius!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For my part,&quot; said Taun, &quot;I am not decidedly opposed to the admission
+of a woman among our hearers, and, if I were, the originality of
+Fräulein Hartwich's paper would have shaken my decision. I cannot judge
+of the value of the physiological part of it,--I must leave that to our
+friend Möllner; but the philosophical idea that is its basis I think
+extremely suggestive, and that is more than can be expected from one of
+the laity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I oppose the emancipation of women,&quot; cried Moritz, &quot;principally
+because I find the existing order of society quite rational, and will
+do nothing to disturb it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I vote for Fräulein Hartwich,&quot; said young Hilsborn. &quot;It will not
+interfere with our social order to grant her request. She will not be
+followed by crowds of imitators, for the simple reason that her talent
+is extraordinary. I maintain that we have no right to deny any
+opportunity for development to such a talent because it is accidentally
+hidden in a woman's brain. A great mind requires strong nourishment,
+and it is cruel to withhold such from it out of mere envy, and condemn
+it to extinction among the commonplace occupations of women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hilsborn is far from wrong,&quot; said Meibert; &quot;but can such a mind quench
+its thirst for knowledge nowhere but in a University? The lady has
+certainly proved in the treatise before us that she has learned
+something outside of the walls of the lecture-room. What does she want
+of a degree? It must be vanity that suggests the want, and we are to
+blame if we lend ourselves to the gratification of such a folly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is my opinion also,&quot; added Beck.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Hilsborn was not silenced. &quot;It seems very natural to me that a
+woman who feels herself possessed of the mental power of a man should
+aspire to manly dignities, and her desire to espouse science, not as an
+amusement, but as the occupation and end of her existence, is a proof
+of her deep conviction of its grave importance. There is certainly
+nothing here of the female vanity which resorts to bodily and mental
+adornment merely for the sake of pleasing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a brave champion, Hilsborn,&quot; said Möllner, holding out his
+hand to the young man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then we are only three against four,&quot; said old Heim. &quot;Möllner's vote
+alone is wanting,--and if he gives it in favour of the Hartwich, there
+will be a tie; so I propose that we give him the casting vote,
+especially as he, as a physiologist, is best capable of judging of the
+value of the essay before us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should have thought,&quot; cried Moritz, &quot;that any one of us could have
+passed judgment upon such a piece of dilettanteism; it is only the
+modern nonsense about the fibres. There is not much in it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All present looked eagerly towards Johannes, who was calmly leaning
+back in his arm-chair. &quot;It is no piece of dilettanteism. I grant that
+it is hasty and one-sided to attempt to ascribe all self-control to the
+impediments of reflex motion; nevertheless, Fräulein Hartwich's essay
+evinces a comprehension of the physiology of the nervous system far
+beyond what is usual, and I cannot deny that such a self-dependent
+realization of scholarship is a proof of the most decided creative
+faculty.&quot; Here he looked at Herbert.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed?&quot; said the latter pointedly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes!&quot; said Möllner with warmth; &quot;but, nevertheless, I give my vote
+against her admission; and of course that decides the matter,--we are
+now five to three!&quot; The gentlemen looked at one another, some with
+surprise, some with annoyance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you mean?&quot; cried Heim. &quot;You were thoroughly delighted to-day
+with the girl's talent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We relied upon you,&quot; said Hilsborn reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is the first injustice of which I have ever convicted my friend
+Möllner,&quot; said Taun, shaking his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes looked at his dismayed associates with quiet amusement, and
+did not observe that Herbert extended his hand to him to thank him for
+his assistance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God be thanked,&quot; he muttered, &quot;that you have given the fool her
+discharge!&quot; And he swallowed the contents of his glass with evident
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Johannes! Johannes!&quot; Hilsborn began again, &quot;why have you treated the
+girl and ourselves in this manner?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why?&quot; asked Johannes,--and there was a glow in his face that quite
+transfigured it,--&quot;because she is far more to me than to any of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have chosen a very odd method to show that it is so,&quot; Hilsborn
+remonstrated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think so, short-sighted man?&quot; asked Möllner gravely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What harm can it do you to make the Hartwich happy?&quot; grumbled
+Hilsborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Möllner looked at him with a smile.--&quot;When we take away from a child a
+knife with which it is playing, we do so, not because we are afraid it
+will harm us, but itself. True, the child will regard us as an enemy,
+but we act for its own sake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, is the Hartwich the child that you feel so bound to protect?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Hilsborn! Woman, of whatever age, is intrusted to the
+guardianship of man. It is ours to decide her future, to protect her;
+and we are responsible for her development. Which of you, my dear
+friends Heim, Taun, and Hilsborn, when I put it to your consciences,
+can deny that the Hartwich is treading a mistaken path,--that she is
+trespassing beyond the bounds that form the natural division-line
+between the sexes? I have nothing to urge in opposition to the mental
+activity of woman, provided it be exercised within the limits of her
+proper sphere; and these limits I set far beyond the place assigned her
+by our friend Herbert and my brother-in-law Moritz. But I have such a
+reverence for true womanhood that I will lend my aid to no project
+which can be carried out only at its expense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think,&quot; said Moritz, &quot;that the Hartwich must have already entirely
+renounced the womanhood of which you speak, or she never would have
+entertained such projects. There can't be much there to spoil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You judge hastily, Moritz, as you always do,&quot; said Johannes. &quot;If you
+knew under what influences this girl has grown up, you would understand
+that it is not a want of delicacy, but lofty courage,--a passionate,
+sacred enthusiasm,--that prevents her from shuddering at the horrors of
+the study of physiology and enables her to look beyond the individual
+to the universe. A dazzling light, flaming before our eyes, blinds us
+to what lies nearest us. Thus was it with this gifted girl when the
+light of science arose for her, enveloping with its glory the world of
+reality around her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Moritz's face, usually so gay in expression, suddenly grew grave: he
+looked at Möllner with manifest anxiety.--&quot;Johannes, you talk as if you
+had a personal interest in this preposterous creature!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why should I deny it?--Yes, I have!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good heavens!&quot; cried Moritz, &quot;you are not going to stand in friend
+Hilsborn's way? He seems to have serious intentions with regard to
+her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you are wrong there, Moritz,&quot; said Hilsborn. &quot;Her perilous
+struggle for emancipation inspires me with sympathy, it is true, but
+with no desire for a closer knowledge of her. I may surely like to have
+her for a pupil without wanting to marry her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And there, Hilsborn,&quot; said Johannes gaily, &quot;lies the difference
+between us; for I should wish to have her not for a pupil, but for a
+wife!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An exclamation of dismay burst from the lips of all present. &quot;How did
+you come to know her?&quot; &quot;Where did he know her?&quot; the gentlemen, with the
+exception of Heim and Hilsborn, inquired.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How the idea of my danger seems to startle you!&quot; said Johannes
+good-humouredly. &quot;Is the girl an evil spirit,--a witch? No, she is only
+a woman. How can you be afraid of a woman? What makes her terrible to
+you makes her interesting to me; and where is the danger for me, even
+if I should try to lead her out of her crooked path? Yes, even if she
+should become my wife----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heaven save you from such a wife!&quot; the Staatsräthin interposed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Matters have not yet gone quite so far, mother; there is nothing in
+the affair yet but pure human sympathy. But suppose it were to go
+further,--what then? The husband who is made unhappy by his wife has
+only himself to blame; for woman is just what we make her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, presumptuous man!&quot; exclaimed the Staatsräthin, &quot;there are women
+who would prove your error to you after a terrible fashion! This
+Hartwich girl was to me a most disagreeable child,--what must she be
+now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A woman who seems strayed from another world,--an apparition once seen
+never forgotten!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heavens!&quot; said the Staatsräthin, really alarmed, &quot;where and when have
+you met her? She vanished almost ten years ago; and if her
+rationalistic books had not appeared last winter, every one would have
+forgotten her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you know her before, then?&quot; several gentlemen asked curiously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We were playmates for some time,&quot; said Angelika, &quot;but in the end I
+could not endure her, she was so old-fashioned and despised my dolls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentlemen laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She was the most strangely interesting child I ever saw in my life!&quot;
+said old Heim.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed she was,&quot; said Möllner; &quot;but there was something repellant
+about her, for she had been embittered by cruel treatment, which had
+developed her mind precociously, while it had stunted her body. Such
+incongruity is always disagreeable, and therefore every one shunned
+her, as she shunned every one. We soon forgot her, for she left our
+part of the country when she was twelve years old, and we heard nothing
+more either of her or of her guardian, who accompanied her. A year or
+more ago, however, a couple of brochures from her pen appeared, that
+excited a tempest of criticism, at least among women, on account of
+their rationalistic tendency. I did not think it worth while to read
+them, as the pale little Hartwich girl had almost faded from my memory.
+No one knew anything about her, and we took no pains to know, for my
+mother and sister had been deeply shocked by the child's atheism, and
+had given her up. A short time since I went to see my friend Hilsborn,
+and met him just as he was getting into his carriage to drive to the
+village of Hochstetten, two miles off. He had been sent for to see the
+village schoolmaster. Hilsborn asked me to go with him, and, as the day
+was fine, I consented. When we arrived at the small castle that lies in
+the outskirts of the village, we alighted. Hilsborn went to find the
+schoolmaster,--I remained behind, to await his return, and walked
+slowly past the large, neglected garden, that surrounds the castle. A
+fresh breeze stirred the waving wheat-fields, and the setting sun shone
+through the quivering air upon the distant landscape. Suddenly, painted
+upon the flaming horizon, like the picture of a saint of the Middle
+Ages upon a golden background, appeared the figure of a woman dressed
+in black,--a woman so beautiful and sad that she might have been
+Night's messenger commanding the sun to set. She stood with folded
+arms, motionless, upon a little eminence in the garden, looking full at
+the descending orb of light, while the breeze stirred the heavy folds
+of her dress. The evening-red cast a glow upon her grave face, white as
+marble, and the light in her large eyes seemed not to proceed from the
+sun which they mirrored, but from within. I stared like a boy at the
+beautiful, silent apparition, and forgot that my gaze might annoy her
+should she become aware of it. And so it proved. As she took up some
+coloured glasses lying beside her, I saw with surprise that she was
+trying some optical experiment, and just then her glance fell upon me.
+A shade of vexation passed over her face, now turned from the light,
+and lent it a cold, stern expression. Without honouring me with a
+second glance, she gathered together her optical instruments and walked
+quietly down the little hill. Just then the sun disappeared below the
+horizon, as if at her command, and gloomy twilight gathered above the
+silent garden, in whose paths she disappeared. I could not picture to
+myself a happy face among those rank, thick bushes behind that high
+wall. I could not imagine a happy heart in the breast of that lonely,
+gloomy figure. Night fell while I was still vainly looking after her. I
+hurried on to the schoolmaster's, upon the pretence of finding
+Hilsborn, and learned from him that my unknown was Ernestine Hartwich.
+She had, a short time before, rented the Haunted Castle, as it was
+called, and, as they were not very enlightened in the village, the
+beautiful girl was regarded with a sort of supernatural terror,--for
+certainly something must be wrong with one who lived so entirely cut
+off from intercourse with human beings, and who, worse than all, never
+went to church. There was some excuse to be found for her, to be sure,
+in the evil influence of a step-uncle and guardian, who had had charge
+of her since the early death of her parents, and who possessed entire
+authority over her. He is that famous, or rather infamous, Doctor
+Gleissert, of whom you have all heard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oho! he!&quot; murmured the gentlemen in a contemptuous tone, and old Heim
+bestowed upon him a hearty &quot;Scoundrel!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; Johannes continued, &quot;I am sure you will not imagine me such a
+fool as to have fallen in love at the first sight of a beautiful face,
+but the apparition that I have just described presented a combination
+of what is most attractive to a man,--'beauty, intellect, and virtue.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Virtue!&quot; Herbert repeated; &quot;are you so sure of that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes. If Fräulein Hartwich were not virtuous, she would not live
+in such strict retirement. Those who have tasted the cup of
+self-indulgence are too apt to return to it; the truly pure alone can
+find contentment in seclusion and loneliness, inspired only by a grand
+idea! I go still further, and, as a physiologist, upon the ground of
+the preservation of force, maintain that a woman engaged in such
+unusual and profound studies needs all her vital energy for her work,
+and is dead to all the pleasures of sense. Hence we so often find
+entire lack of sensibility in women accustomed to great mental
+activity,--because their supply of vital force is not sufficient for
+the double occupation of thinking and feeling. And therefore my only
+fear is that there is no warm heart throbbing within that exquisite
+form.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The professors looked significantly at one another, and the
+Staatsräthin exchanged anxious whispers with Angelika.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; said Herbert, as he arose from his chair, &quot;I propose that we
+leave our respected associate to his dreams, and wish for his sake that
+his pupil may not be as accomplished upon the subject of the nerves of
+sensation as upon the inhibitory nerves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentlemen all arose.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes looked fixedly at Herbert and said, &quot;I am no dreamer, Doctor
+Herbert, although I believe in the virtue that requires no certificate
+of character. And, I repeat, I believe so firmly in this virtue, that I
+denounce as a slanderer the man who dares to assail it by a single
+word!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir!&quot; cried Herbert with irritation, &quot;your remark is insulting!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only to him to whom it may apply!&quot; said Johannes calmly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika ran to her brother and threw her arms around him. &quot;Johannes!
+Johannes! consider who it is that you are defending. You do not even
+know her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, she is right!&quot; added several of the gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes held up Ernestine's paper, and said with earnest gravity, &quot;I
+do know her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert took his hat, and, with a silent bow, was about to leave the
+room, when the beadle of the University rushed in and handed Johannes a
+letter. &quot;Herr Professor! Herr Professor! this comes in haste from his
+Honor, and concerns all the gentlemen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes opened the letter, and Herbert stood listening upon the
+threshold. After reading it, Johannes looked around the circle with a
+smile. &quot;Gentlemen, we have been most strangely mystified. The prize
+essay upon the '<i>Capacity of the Eye for Stereoscopic Vision</i>,' which
+we all attributed to Hilsborn, is by--Fräulein Hartwich!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An exclamation of surprise greeted this announcement. All present
+crowded around Johannes to read the letter; even Herbert entered the
+room again, to make sure that what he had heard was true. There was no
+doubt of it,--the fact was indisputable that these gentlemen had
+accorded the prize offered for the best essay upon the '<i>Capacity of
+the Eye for Stereoscopic Vision</i>' to Ernestine, to whom they had just
+denied admission to the University because she was a woman. It was a
+fact not exactly pleasant to contemplate, and the professors exchanged
+glances of chagrin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is to be done?&quot; asked some.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This alters the case entirely,&quot; said Beck.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Möllner,&quot; cried Meibert, &quot;this is embarrassing enough. I think we
+shall have to reconsider our decision.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We can scarcely withhold a diploma from a woman to whom we have
+awarded this prize,&quot; said Taun.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim nodded in high good humour, and growled, &quot;Ah, yes, you sing a
+different tune now!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gentlemen,&quot; said Johannes with emphasis, &quot;I pray you do not mistake
+the point at issue. If the question had been of the capacity of the
+applicant, the essay that we have already read would have influenced
+our decision; but there is a social principle concerned, which we must
+not violate for the sake of an individual. Must I remind you of what
+you know so well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Our colleague is still victorious,&quot; said Taun, offering his hand with
+kindly dignity to Johannes. &quot;We cannot think you in the wrong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The prize awarded to a woman!&quot; muttered Herbert, as he left the room.
+&quot;It is enough to kill one with vexation!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is a pity,&quot; said the others, when he had departed, &quot;that our
+pleasant morning should have been so spoiled by Herbert.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not be disturbed by it, dear friends,&quot; laughed Johannes; &quot;it did me
+good to tell him the truth for once. He is one of those who sustain
+their mental existence by continual conflict. 'Destroy, that you may
+exist,' is their motto,--and of course they are the sworn enemies of
+all rising talent. They must be so, because they are not conscious of
+any power in themselves to soar above it; they need all the strength of
+their nature to enable them to avoid being extinguished by the wealth
+of vital force that is expended all around them. Those whose lot is
+cast beyond the sphere of such individuals can afford to pity them, but
+those who are within reach of their poisonous fangs must fear them as
+the arch-enemies of all creation and growth. Although I could not
+accede to Fräulein Hartwich's request, the envious malice with which he
+criticised her pained me excessively.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is very true,&quot; said the philosopher Taun. &quot;It is sad enough when
+such embodied negations interfere with the free, joyous activity of
+art,--doubly so when they meddle with science!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who would have thought it,&quot; cried Angelika, &quot;of the gallant Professor
+Herbert, who is sure to propose 'the ladies' at every supper-party! I
+am amazed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One who pays court to 'the ladies,' my fair colleague, may very
+possibly be no advocate for woman, since, according to my brother
+Schopenhauer, what constitutes the modern lady is not the strength, but
+the weakness, of her sex,&quot; replied Taun.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True enough,&quot; said Johannes. &quot;Such a man might show consideration for
+weakness,--he can only contend with strength.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only wait awhile, Herr Professor Herbert!&quot; cried Angelika, shaking her
+plump little forefinger towards the door of the room. &quot;I shall not
+forget you,--only wait--I will strip the sheep's clothing from the
+wolf's back, in full conclave of his lady friends! And you too,
+Moritz,--I have a word to say to you, but not until we are alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentlemen laughed, and took their hats.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, we must not deprive our friend Kern for one moment longer of
+such a charming curtain-lecture,&quot; said Taun.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All took their leave, except Heim, Hilsborn, and Moritz.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And so,&quot; began Angelika with a pout, &quot;you miserable, detestable man,
+we are to do nothing but knit stockings?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One thing beside,&quot; said Moritz, seizing both her hands,--&quot;you may
+kiss--that is a charming vocation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nonsense! any stupid fool can do that,--the clever ones must do
+something better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No woman with so pretty a mouth can do anything better! Only those who
+are ugly or old shall knit stockings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is no getting a serious word from you, Moritz, but I am sorry
+for poor Ernestine, and it grieves me that you were so hard upon her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One single stern glance from Moritz's black eyes encountered his
+wife's; it was enough--it silenced her instantly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know,&quot; he said kindly, but gravely, as if to a child, &quot;that I do
+not like to have you undertake to decide upon matters of which you
+understand nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika looked down, and a tear trembled upon her long eyelashes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is it?&quot; asked Moritz soothingly, and drew her towards
+him,--&quot;tears? And why not? Nothing more than a dewdrop in the bosom of
+a rose,--nothing more.&quot; He brushed away her tears, and she smiled at
+him again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is well for you, my son,&quot; said the Staatsräthin gently, but
+gravely, &quot;that your wife's heart is so warm that the frost made in it
+by unkind words melts to tears and does no further injury.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Moritz looked at his mother-in-law, and then at his wife.--&quot;Angelika,
+was I unkind?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika shook her fair curls and said, in a tone which told all the
+sweetness of her childlike disposition, &quot;No, Moritz, you were right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There, mamma, that is a true woman as she comes from the hand of her
+Creator to be a blessing to the man to whom she belongs,&quot; cried Moritz,
+with a fond look at his wife.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin stood beside them, her eyes resting with unspeakable
+affection upon her child, but there was a strange mixture of delight
+and anxiety in her heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This youthful devotion is very beautiful, but, when its first fervour
+has passed, nothing remains of the bridegroom but the lord and master
+of the wife, who is oftentimes as unhappy a slave as she is now a happy
+one.&quot; Such thoughts passed through the mother's mind, and she sighed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile, Johannes had been talking in a low voice with Heim and
+Hilsborn about the contents of a letter which Heim had handed him to
+read. &quot;Then, Father Heim, that is settled,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin turned to them, and asked, &quot;What have you there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A letter from Fräulein Hartwich to Uncle Heim, mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes handed her the letter, and the Staatsräthin read:</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">&quot;<span class="sc">Herr Geheimrath</span>:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know whether you remember a little girl called Ernestine
+Hartwich, whose life you once saved, but I do know that, even if you do
+not remember her, you will not refuse aid to any one who appeals to
+you. I have sent an application to the University here to be allowed to
+attend the lectures. I did this without my guardian's knowledge, for he
+disapproved of the plan. I therefore wish to keep the matter a secret
+from him until results shall reconcile him to my mode of proceeding.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very considerate,&quot; interposed the Staatsräthin ironically; &quot;but let us
+proceed.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My request to you is, my dear sir, that you will arrange matters so
+that the reply of the faculty to my application shall reach me without
+my uncle's knowledge, and, indeed, that you will convey it to me
+yourself. I also need your medical advice, for I am far from well, and
+my uncle has never permitted me to see a physician. I obeyed his wishes
+until I learnt that you reside in my neighbourhood. Now I turn to you
+with all my old confidence. If any one can help me, you can. I must
+entreat you, if you would spare me a painful scene, to come to me on a
+day when Doctor Gleissert is not at home. He goes to town on business
+every Wednesday and Saturday. I pray you to come to me on one of these
+days.</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent:50%">&quot;With great respect,</p>
+
+<p class="right">&quot;Ernestine Hartwich.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, that is certainly more brief and to the point than might be
+expected from a blue-stocking,&quot; said Moritz.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin looked troubled. &quot;It is dry and cold,--scarcely
+courteous,--certainly not cordial, as she might have been to her former
+benefactor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Remember, my dear friend, that nearly ten years have passed since that
+time,--a very long period for so young a girl,&quot; said Heim.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, Uncle Heim,&quot; cried Angelika, &quot;you dandle my boy on your knee now,
+just as you did my doll then. These years have passed like a dream for
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your nature is very different from Ernestine's, my child,&quot; replied
+Heim.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, thank God!&quot; ejaculated Moritz.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin folded up the letter. &quot;I cannot help pronouncing this
+letter heartless,--there is no other word for it. And mingled cowardice
+and defiance in regard to her uncle breathe from every line of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Proving how her strong nature has been cowed by that scoundrel,&quot; cried
+Johannes with warmth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His mother looked at him anxiously. &quot;How could she, if she is such a
+strong, noble woman, submit to be cowed by such a man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why not, dearest mother?&quot; replied Johannes. &quot;However noble and strong
+she may be, she is only a woman, after all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this moment a carriage thundered past the house. They all looked out
+of the windows.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Worronska!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The fast countess!&quot; cried Moritz. &quot;What a model of an Amazon! How
+beautiful she is, managing those four horses and looking up here! That
+look is for you, Johannes. See! she is smiling at you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall not interfere with Herbert,&quot; laughed Johannes. &quot;I hear he is
+devoted to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! Herbert!--to the Worronska?&quot; cried Moritz. &quot;How did that
+happen?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, he was tutor for some years to a friend of the count's in St.
+Petersburg. He knew her there,&quot; replied Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now, that would be a charming daughter-in-law for you, my dear
+Staatsräthin,&quot; said Helm. &quot;Why, she would be even worse than the
+Hartwich.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bah!&quot; said Johannes. &quot;She too is only a woman. If she fell, she owed
+her ruin to a man,--and a man might have been her saviour.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_2.2" href="#div1Ref_2.2">CHAPTER II.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE SWAN.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">A dark, gloomy pile overlooked the village of Hochstetten, that lay
+about two miles from the city, in the midst of a charming country. It
+had once been called Hochstetten Castle; but since the direct line of
+the noble family in which it had passed for a century from father to
+son had died out, and only a castellan had dwelt there, to hold it in
+possession for a distant branch of its ancient house, it had gone by
+the name of the &quot;Haunted Castle&quot; among the people; for of course in
+such an old house, where so many men had died, there must be ghosts,
+and popular superstition declared that the spirits of the departed
+still hovered about the spot where their earthly forms had been wont to
+wander.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But in this last year it happened that the castle was really inhabited
+by a spirit whose appearance inspired the vulgar, who suspect the
+devil's agency in whatever they do not comprehend, with quite as much
+horror as they had felt at the ghosts of their former lords,--although
+this latter spirit still inhabited a young and very beautiful body.
+Ernestine Hartwich had rented the castle, and, with her uncle, was
+living her strange life there. Since her arrival the house and the
+overgrown grounds within the high walls were certainly under a spell,
+and were avoided by all who were not obliged to go that way. There lay
+the old castle, in the midst of lovely hills and mountain-chains,
+embosomed in green trees, bathed in the sunlight of a dewy summer
+morning, and yet its gray, ancient walls looked abroad over the fresh
+life of wood and plain as gloomily as if they hid within them only
+death and decay.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Two strangers, driving past in a light vehicle, gazed gravely and
+silently at the place. The road grew somewhat steep, and they descended
+and walked beside the horse. A young peasant passed by, with scythe and
+reaping-hook, and, seeing the pleasant faces of the strangers; nodded
+kindly to them. The elder of the two stopped, as if prompted by a
+sudden impulse, and asked, &quot;What castle is that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That?&quot; was the reply. &quot;That is the Haunted Castle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who lives there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Hartwich lives there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is the Hartwich?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, the witch who has rented it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why do you call her a witch?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because there's something wrong about her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Walk on with us a little way, if you have time, and tell us something
+of the lady,&quot; said the stranger.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, I have time enough,&quot; replied the peasant, flattered by the
+interest that his remarks had excited. &quot;But, good gracious! I do not
+know where to begin to tell about her. There is no beginning and no end
+to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How does she look?&quot; asked the younger gentleman. &quot;Is she pretty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, indeed! She is pale and thin, and has big, coal-black eyes. And
+she looks so gloomy that you can tell as soon as you see her that she
+has an evil conscience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is characteristic of the degree of culture to which the common
+people have attained,&quot; said the elder in an undertone to his companion,
+&quot;that they have no admiration for beautiful outlines, but only for
+flesh and colour. They think a classic profile ugly if there is not a
+plump cheek on either side of it. This rude taste for the raw material
+is natural and excusable in peasants and common labourers, whose work
+is principally with raw material. Where should they learn anything
+better? But it is sad to think how many of the educated classes there
+are whose taste is just as uncultivated, and who admire only the
+beautiful embodiment, not the embodied beauty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; added the other, &quot;it is just so in spiritual matters. An
+expression of thoughtfulness is always strange and gloomy in the eyes
+of the common people; they are attracted only by thoughtless gaiety.
+The stamp of mind upon a serious brow is in their eyes the sign-manual
+of the evil one. But how many among ourselves are scarcely better than
+the people in this respect! We do not share their prejudices,--eh,
+Johannes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, Hilsborn, God knows we do not. This superficial idea of beauty
+explains the fact that Fräulein Hartwich was called ugly as a child,
+although she had a beautiful brow, a fine profile, and such eyes as I
+never saw before or since in my life,--eyes, Hilsborn,&quot;--and he laid
+his hand upon his friend's arm,--&quot;in which lay a world of slumbering
+feeling, and the promise of bliss unspeakable for him who should awaken
+it to life. I had forgotten the little girl whom I saw only once, but
+when lately I encountered a glance from the eyes of that strange,
+lovely woman, I recognized the child again,--the poor, forsaken child.
+There was the old shy melancholy in those eyes, and they pierced my
+heart with a foreboding pain. I could have taken her in my arms and
+borne her away from the hill where she stood, as formerly from the
+breaking bough to which she had fled from me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God grant she be worthy of such a man as you!&quot; said Hilsborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not speak so, Hilsborn; you know I will not listen to such words.
+Let us ask this fellow more about her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He turned to the young peasant, who was walking whistling on the other
+side of the road.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is she not at least kind to the poor?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God preserve any one to whom she is kind! No one wants anything from
+her. Her uncle distributes some money every week, but only the very
+poorest people take it, and they always cross themselves over it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes and Hilsborn looked at each other with a smile. &quot;Then her evil
+influence extends even to her charities?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, that's what I mean,--wherever she goes she carries misfortune.
+She pretends to know more than any one, and wants to introduce all
+sorts of new-fangled ways. She wouldn't have people sick with a fever
+covered up in good, thick feather beds, or give them a single glass of
+good liquor. All that was wrong, she said. A poor widow in the village
+had a sick child, which she nursed as well as she could. The Hartwich
+went to see her, and overpersuaded the woman, so that she let her watch
+with it one night. Scarcely had she seated herself by the cradle when
+the child grew worse, and fell into convulsions. The Hartwich sent the
+mother to the castle to send off a man on horseback for the doctor, and
+was left all alone with the child. When the woman got back from the
+castle the witch had the child on her lap, and the poor little thing
+was dying. The woman, frantic with terror, tore the little body out of
+her arms; but it was dead! and the Hartwich left her, as she would not
+hear a word from her. When the doctor came, he talked all sorts of
+stuff, and wanted to have the child dissected, as they call it; but of
+course no Christian mother would allow such a thing, and no one knew
+what the Hartwich had done to the poor little creature.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, you foolish people,&quot; began Johannes indignantly, &quot;you do not
+suppose----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn signed to him to be silent. &quot;Hush!&quot; he said in a whisper;
+&quot;will you attempt what the gods try vainly--to contend with stupidity?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right,&quot; replied Johannes. &quot;This people needs the teaching of
+centuries.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, my good fellow,&quot; he said, again addressing the peasant, &quot;what
+happened then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, that very night, after the doctor was gone, the Hartwich came to
+the woman and offered her money,--I suppose to induce her to hold her
+tongue,--but the poor thing showed her the door, and told her what she
+thought of her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was her thanks!&quot; murmured Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Since then she goes to see no one, and we are quit of her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Was this unfortunate instance the only one?&quot; asked Johannes, &quot;or has
+she done any further mischief?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, quantities! Once she persuaded a man to go to the city and
+have his leg taken off,--he had injured it ten years before. The man
+died in the city, and left a wife and children. If that witch had not
+sent him there, he would have been living still. He had managed to live
+with the injury ten years, and he might have borne it ten more. The
+poor widow heaped her with curses!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes exchanged glances with Hilsborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you, too, believe that she is a witch?&quot; he asked the peasant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, if I don't exactly believe that, I know well enough that no
+blessing can attend her, for she does not love God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How do you know that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, there are a great many signs of it. She does not like to hear him
+mentioned,--she never goes to church, and doesn't pray at home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You cannot be sure of that,&quot; said Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oho! yes, I can, for Harcher's Kunigunda is a maid at the castle, and
+she tells us all about it. For one thing, there used to be a bell-tower
+up there, and the bell was always rung for prayers, morning and
+evening, in old times. It was right and good to hear the bell ringing
+with the one in the village church, and we were used to it, and liked
+it. Even when the last of the family up there died, the village
+congregation gave the castellan two bags of potatoes every year that he
+might allow the ringing to continue. But when the Hartwich came, what
+did she do? Why, she tore down the bell-tower and made it into an
+observatory, as she calls it, where she sits for nights long and counts
+the stars.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, if she looks up into heaven so much, she must surely think of
+God and his works there,&quot; rejoined Johannes smiling, &quot;and those who
+love to pray do not need to be reminded of it by the ringing of bells.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, no! that is not so,&quot; the peasant obstinately maintained. &quot;She does
+not wish to be reminded of prayer, or she would have loved the clear
+sound of the bell, as we did, and would have left it hanging where it
+had rung out comfort and religion for a hundred years. She might have
+built her star-chamber upon the old tower all the same, if she had
+wanted to,--but she did not want to,--and so we hated her from the
+first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes and Hilsborn looked grave.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Books she has in plenty; she brought whole chestsfull with her, but
+never a hymn-book or prayer-book, Kunigunda, who dusts them, says, and,
+search as she may, she has never seen a Bible there yet. And the
+Hartwich never mentions the name of God; and if any one does it before
+her, she talks of something else instantly. But the worst of all is
+that she has a room there that no one, except her uncle and herself, is
+allowed to enter, and she always locks the door when she is there with
+her uncle. What they do there no living soul knows, but Kunigunda tells
+all sorts of strange stories about it, for she has often listened at
+the door, and sometimes got a peep inside when the Fräulein was going
+in or coming out. She says there are all kinds of strange things in
+there, such as no honest man knows anything about,--black tablets, with
+eyes and ears painted on them, and burning flames, and bellows, and
+Heaven only knows what beside! And she has heard dreadful noises, that
+were not of this world,--sometimes sounds as sweet as the organ plays
+in the church, and then a rustle and roar as of a mighty wind, although
+not a breeze is stirring outside, or blasts of a trumpet like the
+trumpet of Jericho, so that she ran away in deadly fright.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Those were experiments in sound,&quot; said Johannes, greatly amused, to
+Hilsborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And Kunigunda says that it is often so light in that room that the
+rays through the keyhole dazzle her just like sunlight, although the
+sun has long been set outside. Kunigunda declares that it is not common
+light,--it burns quite blue, and she had to shut her eye quickly not to
+be blinded by it. Now, what sort of light is that? What business has
+she with fire and flames? And Kunigunda says she is almost always up
+until morning, and scarcely sleeps at all. Oh, she leads a godless
+life,--for, if God had not intended men to wake in the daytime and
+sleep at night, He would not have made night dark and day light; and if
+she were doing any good, why should she shun the daylight when she does
+it? Kunigunda says, too, that she tortures poor dumb animals just for
+pleasure, for she has often seen how she and her uncle carry rabbits
+and such creatures into their secret chamber, and they never bring them
+out again. Now, what do they do with the poor things? They cannot eat
+the rabbits. And Kunigunda will swear that there are a couple of skulls
+in the book-room, tumbling about among the old books. Now, I ask, what
+Christian would take the head away from a dead man and spoil his rest
+in the grave? Is it not just dishonouring a corpse out of devilish
+wantonness?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There certainly is a whole mountain of charges towering between
+Fräulein Hartwich and her neighbours,&quot; whispered Johannes to his
+friend, &quot;and I see clearly that the curse of singularity has pursued
+her even hither, and that this rare creature is repulsed and isolated
+here as she was as a child. It is high time that some strong arm should
+bear her hence into the purer atmosphere of a warm, healthy existence,
+from which her eccentricity has hitherto excluded her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you see that green balcony there?&quot; said the peasant, when they were
+quite near the house. &quot;There she has hanging a kind of cittern that
+plays of itself. I would not believe Kunigunda, when she told me of it,
+at first; but then I hid myself here once, and heard it with my own
+ears, the music softer and sweeter than any that human hands can make.
+I could feel it beginning to bewitch me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed! and how did it feel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, my heart grew so soft, so different from usual,--just--just as if
+I had been drinking linden-blossom tea. I could not help thinking of
+the girl I loved, who is dead, and I could have listened forever.
+Suddenly I bethought me that there was a spell weaving around me, and I
+ran away as fast as I could.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was an Æolian harp, my good friend,&quot; Johannes explained; &quot;its
+strings were stirred by no spirit hand, but by the wind. The spell that
+you perceived was only the effect of the beautiful tones upon your ear
+and heart; and if you had examined yourself, you would have found that,
+when you were thinking of your dead sweet-heart, you were better than
+when you are sitting in the village inn abusing the Hartwich. Consider
+for a moment whether an evil spirit could inspire such good, tender
+sensations. And listen as often as you can to the Æolian harp; it will
+not bewitch you,--it will only do good to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The fellow looked in amazement at the kindly speaker.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't exactly understand you, sir, but you seem to mean well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What makes you think so?&quot; asked Johannes,--&quot;you do not know me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, why, you look honest and good, sir,&quot; said the peasant, looking
+frankly into Johannes's face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then believe what I say, when I tell you that you do Fräulein Hartwich
+great wrong. I have known her from childhood, and I know that she is
+good and kind!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes sent an earnest glance towards the castle, which they were
+passing. An elderly woman was just opening a window in an upper story.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Look!&quot; cried the peasant, &quot;that is her housekeeper, Frau Willmers. The
+Fräulein is just getting up--it is nine o'clock.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God bless your awakening!&quot; Johannes breathed softly to himself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And, borne on the breeze of morning and the fragrance of flowers, the
+blessing was wafted up to the girl, who, weary with her night-watch,
+was reposing by the open window. She laid her head upon the sill, and
+the fragrant summer air fanned her brow. Johannes's words floated
+around her in a sea of light and warmth, and she felt them without
+hearing them. At last she opened her burning eyelids, and looked
+abroad, seeing everything at first through the gray, misty veil which
+weariness spread before her eyes,--but gradually was revealed in its
+full splendour the sunny picture, above which arched the clear,
+cloudless firmament. She arose and leaned out with a deep sigh of pain.
+She knew no happiness but that of gratified ambition,--she could
+imagine no other, and therefore desired no other, for we cannot desire
+that of which we have no conception,--and yet, in the sunlight laughing
+around her, in the gloom of night, in the beauty of the valley and the
+grandeur of the mountains, a promise of a far different happiness
+beckoned to her, and she pined in longing for it without recognising
+it. Yes, from every voice of nature, from the song of birds, the murmur
+of the brook, the roaring of the tempest, and the muttering of the
+thunder, a call was ringing in her ears, she knew not whence or
+whither, but she would willingly have plunged into the ocean to follow
+it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is no surer means of preventing all aimless desires than study,
+nothing better to prevent all abstract dreaming than absorption in some
+specialty,&quot; her uncle had told her when he suspected her of moods like
+that we have just described. &quot;If you long to grasp the whole, first
+grasp a part,--if you thirst to fly to heaven, remember that the
+observatory is the only way thither,--if you desire to feel the warm
+throb of life, you can find it nowhere so satisfactorily as at the
+dissecting-table.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she had turned away silently, uncomplainingly, from her flight to
+distant realms, to the telescope, and with a warm, swelling heart that
+would have embraced a world, had busied herself with analyzing
+microscopic organizations. Thus, in the course of long years, she had
+grown used to suppress emotions such as she experienced to-day, and
+they seldom came to the surface, just as the bells of the sunken city
+are only heard above the sea on Sunday. To-day was not Sunday, but it
+was an anniversary. Ten years ago to-day she had been sent to her first
+and only party,--her father had almost killed her,--and the whole
+current of her life had been changed. She knew the date perfectly, for
+the next day was the anniversary of her father's death. The familiar
+forms of those days hovered around her; they were the only ones that
+had ever approached her nearly, for since that time she had had no
+intimate relations with any one. She had studied mankind, but human
+beings were strangers to her. And as she thought and pondered, she
+wished herself again the child that ran races with the wind and cradled
+herself among the storm-tossed boughs. Oh for one breath of hopeful
+childhood, one throb of that love-thirsty heart, one tear of that
+wrestling faith! All dead and silent now, every blossom of childhood
+and youth faded: a woman, old at two-and-twenty, looking down from the
+heights of passionless contemplation upon a life, lying behind her,
+that she has never enjoyed, upon a time, now past, that she has never
+lived. Sighing, she turned away from the sunny landscape. &quot;Our life
+lasts seventy--perhaps eighty--years,&quot; she said to herself, &quot;and the
+delight of it is labour and trouble.&quot; This reading, by a great modern
+philosopher, of the golden words of the ancient writings, she had
+adopted as her motto, and it still possessed its old charm for her.
+What more could she desire of life than labour and trouble? What could
+youth or age bring her beyond these? She turned away from the window,
+and quickly arranged in thick braids around her head her loosened hair
+which had fallen down like a black veil. Her glance, as she did so,
+fell only passingly and indifferently upon the mirror. She never saw
+the face that gazed at her from its depths,--a face as faultlessly
+beautiful as an artist's fancy pictures those dark, melancholy female
+forms with which the ancients peopled the night. She dressed herself in
+simple white, and then her arms dropped wearied at her side. The
+expression of strength that the word labour had called into her face
+gave way to a profound melancholy, almost despair, and she sank
+exhausted upon a couch. She sat still for one moment, her head sunk
+upon her breast, and then the large tears rolled down her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Labour is a delight, when one has strength for it--but I have none!&quot;
+she said, clasping her knees with her small, transparent hands, while
+she gazed despairingly towards the distant horizon.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The housekeeper, Frau Willmers, entered. &quot;A gentleman is waiting below,
+Fräulein Hartwich, who sends his card and says he comes from the
+gentleman whose name is written upon it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine read the name &quot;Professor Heim,&quot; and below, in Heim's
+handwriting, &quot;earnestly recommends the bearer of this card.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The gentleman is welcome!&quot; she cried with awakened animation. &quot;Show
+him into the library.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will the Fräulein receive him without the knowledge of----&quot; the woman
+asked with hesitation and surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will!&quot; replied Ernestine firmly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now, Heaven be praised!&quot; muttered the old woman, &quot;that you are to see
+some one at last, and the gentleman is well worth a look. But you will
+bear the blame with your uncle, so that I may have no responsibility in
+the matter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The responsibility is mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Willmers hurried out and conducted the stranger into Ernestine's
+library.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A pleasant bluish twilight reigned in the room as he entered it, caused
+by the heavy blue damask curtains that draped the high bow-windows. It
+was a spacious octagon apartment, in the style of the tower chambers of
+the Middle Ages, opening on to a balcony, which was likewise separated
+from the room by blue damask curtains. The Æolian harp, of which the
+peasant had spoken, hung in the balcony, and some loosened tendrils of
+a wild grapevine, growing outside, stirred by the breeze, touched the
+strings and called forth from them broken stray notes, which a stronger
+breeze would blend in harmony, as the fingers of a child, guided by its
+teacher, plays vaguely upon an instrument until the practised hand of
+its master produces a full, clear chord. In the dark boughs that
+overshadowed the balcony, birds were singing, and now and then hopping
+confidingly upon the rose-bushes with which it was decorated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She loves beauty,&quot; thought the stranger with a pleased glance around
+the cool, quiet apartment, which breathed only contentment and peace.
+And it must be true peace of mind that the inhabitant of this room
+possessed,--wherever the eyes were turned, they fell upon the immortal
+works of the great thinkers of modern times,--a costly library was
+ranged upon shelves, in richly-carved oaken bookcases.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The stranger began to read the titles of the books, but the more he
+read the more thoughtful he became. If the contents of these books
+were, or were to be, crammed into one woman's brain, there could dwell
+there not peace, but only torturing unrest, strife. At last his eye
+rested upon a writing-table of dark oak, richly carved, as was all the
+rest of the furniture of the room. Around the edge of the table, cut in
+raised letters, he read the sentence, &quot;Our life lasts seventy--perhaps
+eighty--years, and the delight of it is labour and trouble!&quot; He gazed
+long and thoughtfully at this motto, so strangely grave for so young a
+girl. A shade of melancholy passed over his handsome face as he turned
+away and noticed the scores of sheets of paper scattered here and there
+on the table, all containing either a few figures or written sentences,
+evidently hurried beginnings of scientific labour of all kinds, tossed
+aside, as it appeared, hastily and impatiently. Partly on the table,
+partly on a desk, and partly on the floor, were piles of open books,
+their margins filled with annotations, pamphlets, &amp;c. Names like
+Helmholtz, du Bois, Ludwig, Darwin, &amp;c. showed what massive material
+this bold aspiring mind was calling to its aid, over what mountains of
+labour it was pursuing the path to its ambitious aims. &quot;So much vital
+force wasted in fruitless energy--so much noble zeal expended upon a
+blunder. What a pity!&quot; said the stranger with an involuntary sigh. Then
+he noticed just in front of the writing-table a small open drawer, in
+which Ernestine apparently kept her most precious and valuable books.
+One of them was Möllner's latest work on Physiology; another, du Bois'
+Eulogy upon Johannes Müller; and the third, <i>Andersen's Fairy Tales</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The grave man's features showed signs of deep emotion at this sight.
+Only a strong, true nature could so preserve the memories of its
+childhood. He could not help taking the book in his hand to examine it
+more closely. As he did so, he noticed a little marker of paper
+yellowed with age. It was placed in the last pages of the story of the
+Ugly Duckling, just where the children stand by the pond and cry,
+&quot;Look! there comes a new swan!&quot; Was it this, then, that had made the
+story so precious to her--the prophecy that the duckling would one day
+be a swan, and not the memory of what had been dear to her childhood?
+He put the book back in its place with a look that showed that the
+question he had put to himself grieved him. Then he became so lost in
+thought that he was almost startled when a door behind him opened, and
+Ernestine approached him. As he saw the tall form, with its air of
+royal dignity, standing there calm and silent in the noble
+consciousness of mental superiority, he repeated involuntarily in
+thought the words, &quot;Here is a new swan!&quot; Yes,--the ugly duckling had
+unfolded its wings! For one moment his heart throbbed violently. It
+cost him an effort to preserve his composure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I crave forgiveness, Fräulein Hartwich,&quot; he began, &quot;for venturing to
+offer my medical skill in place of his for whom you sent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you come from Dr. Heim, you are welcome. Is he ill, that he sends
+me a substitute, or is he angry with me?&quot; And Ernestine looked gravely
+and fixedly at the stranger.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Neither the one nor the other, Fräulein Hartwich,&quot; was the reply. &quot;He
+has merely permitted me to use his name as the talisman to unlock this
+enchanted castle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And why so?&quot; asked Ernestine, regarding him still more attentively.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because I am convinced that I understand the treatment of your case
+better than Dr. Heim.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine started, and turned away from the arrogant speaker. Her face
+darkened with momentary displeasure,--but not long. She raised her
+large eyes to him again and said frankly, &quot;No, you are not in earnest.
+Heim would not have sent me a physician as vain and conceited as these
+words make you appear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes offered her his hand with a smile. &quot;Boldly spoken, Fräulein
+Hartwich,--I thank you! Nevertheless, I must rest under the charge of
+vanity and arrogance until you declare me innocent, for I only uttered
+Dr. Heim's honest conviction and my own. You shake your head, and do
+not comprehend me. I hope you will do so soon. How could I have had the
+courage to challenge your displeasure by so bold an assertion, had I
+not been sure that time would justify my pretensions?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine motioned to him to be seated. &quot;May I be permitted, sir, to
+request your name before speaking further with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes cast at her a glance of kindly entreaty. &quot;I pray you allow me
+to suppress it for the present. I should so like to inspire you with
+confidence in me for my own sake, without the aid of a name perhaps not
+unknown to you. Such confidence would be so precious to me. Call it a
+whim, if you will, but I beg you to indulge me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As you please, sir,&quot; said Ernestine with some constraint, looking
+keenly at him as she spoke. She seemed to be searching in his handsome
+face for something,--she scarce knew what,--it seemed to suggest some
+dim recollection to her mind. Then she dropped her glance, as if
+comparing what she saw with some image in her memory, yet without
+arriving at any satisfactory conclusion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes watched every expression of her countenance. No shade of
+thought passing across that broad white brow escaped him. He gazed at
+her and almost forgot to speak, she was so wondrously beautiful, this
+shy, grave girl, pale and suffering from her devotion to the studies to
+which she was sacrificing herself with such religious zeal. The saddest
+error would be touching in such a form,--yes, we must bow before it,
+instead of laughing at it. So thought Johannes as he sat silent before
+her, and something of what was passing in his mind must have been
+mirrored in his features, for Ernestine turned away with a shade of
+embarrassment, and asked suddenly, &quot;Well, sir, and what news do you
+bring me of Father Heim? Is he still vigorous in mind and body?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The indifference of her tone rather nettled Johannes. &quot;Yes, Fräulein
+Hartwich, he is indeed. Beloved and revered by his associates, as well
+as by his patients, the evening of his days is calm and cheerful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am very glad to hear it. I am bound to him by ties of gratitude, he
+has done much for me, at one time he saved my life. Therefore I hoped
+for benefit now from his prescriptions. He is a great practitioner,
+although he has not quite kept pace in his old age with the march of
+modern science.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He certainly is. But he can do nothing for your gravest malady, and
+therefore he has sent me in his place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are, then, famous for some <i>spécialité</i>. But how can Dr. Heim know
+that I need such a physician?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He does know it, for you were attacked as a child by the malady of
+which I speak, and Dr. Heim was powerless to effect a cure. Now that he
+is convinced that my method of cure is efficacious, he has adopted me
+as his assistant. Therefore I ask you frankly and openly, Will you have
+me for your physician? Yes or no!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For a moment Ernestine made no answer, and then said firmly, &quot;Yes, if
+Dr. Heim believes that you can restore me to health, it is sufficient,
+and I will follow your prescriptions implicitly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you,&quot; said Johannes; &quot;but I warn you beforehand, I am a strict
+physician, and my medicines are bitter!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Scarcely as bitter as disease?&quot; said Ernestine inquiringly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who can say? To speak with perfect sincerity, Fräulein Hartwich, the
+malady from which I come to relieve you, the disease that poisons your
+past and your future, is your uncle's influence!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine stood up. &quot;Sir!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hear me before you condemn me! I assert nothing that I cannot prove.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, sir, I will not hear you. You do my uncle gross injustice;
+whatever proofs you may adduce. A life of self-sacrifice and devotion
+far outweighs the accusation of a stranger. What do I not owe to him?
+What has he not done for me? I owe to him my scientific culture. He has
+made me what I am.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And may I be so bold as to ask if you are so very sure that you are
+what you should be?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A pause ensued. Ernestine retreated a step, and, offended and confused,
+cast down her eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes continued. &quot;What if I were come to prove that you are not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked sullenly at him. &quot;I certainly cannot answer you here;
+but your depreciation of me forces me to ask whether you have read
+anything that I have written, and so have come to form so poor an
+opinion of my abilities?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On the contrary, Fräulein Hartwich, your essay upon Reflex Motion is
+full of talent, and your article upon the Capacity of the Eye for
+Stereoscopic Vision has won the prize.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestina started. Her face flushed, her eyes sparkled. &quot;Why have you
+waited until now to tell me? My essay won the prize! Do I wake, or am I
+dreaming? Oh, how can I thank you for this intelligence? I have no
+words. But let your reward be the consciousness that you have given me
+the greatest happiness my life has ever known! And do not attempt to
+malign to me the man to whose disinterested care for my education I owe
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor girl, if this is your greatest happiness! You are betrayed
+indeed, if you owe no other enjoyment to your uncle!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, sir, what can there be beyond fame and honour?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes looked gravely at her. &quot;Something of which your uncle has
+never told you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the flush of her gratified ambition, Ernestine did not hear him. She
+walked a few steps to and fro, then seated herself again, and said with
+a beating heart, &quot;Perhaps you also bring the answer to my application
+for admission to the lectures at the University.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do, but it has been rejected decidedly, Fräulein Hartwich.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine's arms dropped at her sides. &quot;Rejected! Was it known, when
+they rejected it, that the prize essay was mine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine stood for one moment as if stunned. At last she began slowly
+and dejectedly, &quot;Ah, I understand it all! the gentlemen took the author
+of that treatise for a man, and awarded it the prize, but my
+application was refused because I am so unfortunate as to be a woman.
+It is only natural, why should a woman be permitted to vie with the
+lords of creation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your disappointment makes you unjust,&quot; said Johannes. &quot;Your essay
+received the prize because it accomplished what it aimed at. The
+application of the woman was rejected because in the University no
+woman can accomplish what should be her aim.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How can you prove that?&quot; asked Ernestine with bitterness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because she has deserted the sphere which nature has assigned her, and
+cannot fulfil the requirements of the one that she has selected for
+herself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You, then, are one of my opponents?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am, Fräulein Hartwich.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I am sorry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why? Of what consequence can the opinion of a stranger be to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked down. &quot;The impression that you make upon me, sir, is
+such that it pains me to find that you are one of those narrow-minded
+persons who deny to women the possession of any but the humblest
+ability.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are mistaken, I think them, and especially your self, possessed of
+very great ability.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at him with surprise. &quot;But how can this ability avail
+us, if we are not allowed to enlarge the bounds of the sphere within
+which we are so unkindly confined at present?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That sphere does not seem to me contracted. I think it so noble, so
+elevated, that the loftiest talent may well content itself within it,
+if it be rightly understood.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But if a woman, if I--forgive my presumption,--am especially endowed
+beyond other women, should I not, with the power, possess also the
+privilege of transcending the usual bounds?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You would then possess the privilege of ennobling your sex, of showing
+it what it could accomplish within its own sphere,--you would possess
+the power to be first among women, but not to become a man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked down sadly. &quot;Have you read my essay?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think it deserved the prize?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And yet you would deny me the right to accomplish tasks usually
+assigned to men.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have accomplished one such. How far your kind uncle may have
+assisted you in your labor we will not ask.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again Ernestine's eyes drooped.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes continued: &quot;Probably you yourself are not aware of the answer
+to such a question,--at all events, the victory over the other
+competitors for the prize was slight, and by no means difficult. But do
+you imagine, Fräulein Hartwich, because the instinct of your genius has
+answered this one question, that you can lord it over the boundless
+domain of science? Have you the least suspicion of the magnitude of
+what you propose?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe I have learned enough to know what there is for me to
+learn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not deceive yourself with regard to your aim. You wish to learn
+that you may teach,--not as every schoolmaster teaches, to tell what
+has been told you before,--you wish to educe new truths from what you
+learn,--in other words, you wish to produce, to create!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you deny me the requisite ability?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not at all,&quot; replied Johannes; &quot;but I grant only one domain for the
+creative faculty of woman,--the domain of art,--because, in works of
+art, the heart shares in the labour of the understanding; because, in
+the creation of beauty, a profound inner consciousness and soaring
+fancy can replace masculine acuteness of thought--and these belong
+especially to the gifted woman. But science presents tasks for the
+thinking power. I deny to woman not the ability to grasp the grand
+results of science, but the mental endurance, the technical facility,
+to arrive at them unassisted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine clasped her hands in entreaty. &quot;Do not destroy the hope and
+aim of my life!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes bent towards her and said gently, &quot;My dear Fräulein Hartwich,
+may your life have other aims than this that you can never attain!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never attain!&quot; cried Ernestine, sitting proudly erect &quot;I can see
+nothing to justify those words. If I were only well and strong, if my
+body were only a more, obedient tool of my mind, I would show what a
+woman can do! I would show that we are not merely domestic animals,
+endowed with some degree of reason, as a certain class of men designate
+us, but free, independent, equal beings! If you only knew how my whole
+soul revolts at our social oppression, our intellectual slavery! Oh,
+believe, believe, sir, that I am not actuated by vain ambition, but I
+am wrung with anguish for those wretched souls who, like myself, have
+chafed so painfully in the fetters of commonplace conventionalities,
+or, like those born blind, have dreamed in their darkness of the
+light that floods the world with joy and freedom, but from which they
+are excluded! I long to break the yoke under which my whole sex
+languishes, to avenge their wrongs. For this I will give my money
+and my blood!--for this I resign all claims to the happiness of
+woman!--yes, for this I would sacrifice life itself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes sat listening to her with his arms folded. He now began
+quietly: &quot;I understand and admire you,--but you exaggerate. The social
+position of woman is determined by her capacity and her desires. Women
+like yourself are rare exceptions; your sex, as a general rule, is at
+so low a stage of development that they neither can claim nor desire
+any higher position.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And whose fault is this?&quot; Ernestine interrupted him eagerly.
+&quot;Yours,--you masters of the world. If we are intellectually your
+inferiors, why not educate us more thoroughly? Why not elevate us to a
+higher degree of intelligence? It is for your strong hands to form us
+as you will. And nowhere in Christian lands is the position of woman
+more depressing than in this country. Look at Russia, the land that so
+long retained serfdom and the knout,--even there the number of learned
+women is perceptibly increasing, and the Russian high schools do not
+reject female pupils. Look at France, at England,--women are everywhere
+employed and the sphere of their capabilities enlarged, and the sex is
+held in higher estimation. Unfortunately, I cannot deny that the mass
+of German women are either mere household drudges, with never a thought
+beyond the material interests of the kitchen and nursery, or glittering
+dolls, with no idea of anything but the adornment of their persons.
+They understand little or nothing of politics, of the interests of
+their native land, of science, or of poetry; they go to art for
+amusement, not for instruction and refreshment. Such mothers can never
+implant the seeds of patriotism in the breasts of their sons, or
+educate the minds of their daughters; such wives can never share the
+thoughts and aims of their husbands. Who is to blame? Those men alone
+who would exclude woman from their world, and, denying her all claim to
+intellectual ability, banish her to the kitchen, or force her to
+indemnify herself for exclusion from their spiritual life by rendering
+herself necessary to their material existence!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes made no reply. It was enjoyment enough for him to look at her
+and hear her. He wished her, before attempting to reply to her, to
+finish all that she had to say.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine continued: &quot;All this constitutes the ignominy of my sex,--an
+ignominy that must be overcome, or its revenge will be terrible; for
+luxury and self-indulgence have been the ruin of those nations who
+rendered no homage to the spiritual nature of woman. We must force this
+reverence from you, at any risk, before it is too late. Smile, if you
+will, at my presumption in arrogating the place of a feminine Arnold
+von Winkelried, breaking a path for our spiritual freedom through the
+lances of contempt and prejudice. I know what lies before me. No
+commonplace woman feels any pride in her sex; when one of her sisters
+achieves distinction, she is only all the more galled by the
+consciousness of her own inferiority, and takes her revenge, if
+she knows no better, with the wretched weapons of conventional
+prejudices,--casting the odium of indelicacy upon the woman who dares
+to be free; and men contemptuously close their doors upon her. My lot
+must be to struggle and suffer. Still, I do not hesitate. If I can
+effect nothing here, I will seek other lands, where woman striving
+after better things is treated with humanity and true chivalry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where humanity and chivalry assist woman to lay aside the very crown
+of her being,--her womanhood!&quot; Johannes now interrupted her; &quot;for how
+can you preserve it, if in anatomical studies you harden yourself to
+everything that shocks a compassionate woman, if you are forced into
+contact with things at which all maidenly delicacy must revolt? I have
+not interrupted you hitherto, because I wished thoroughly to understand
+you, and because your sacred zeal touched and delighted me. With much
+that is crude and exaggerated, there is truth, and beauty, in what you
+have just said. But, believe me, the physical frame of a woman is as
+little suited as her intellect to certain scientific pursuits. I
+directed you to the broad domain of the beautiful,--of art,--but you
+would not listen to me--there you would have to share your fame among
+too many. Your ambition craves something entirely new and unheard-of.
+But, Fräulein Hartwich, this ambition will be your ruin! If you long to
+create, create forms for your ideas that will speak for themselves,
+clothe them in poetic language, or give them local habitation and a
+name in art--you can complete such work, and your soul can find rest in
+it from its labours. A poetical idea can be fully embodied in a work of
+art; but a scientific hypothesis is inexhaustible, because, however
+clearly proved and demonstrated, it brings new problems in its train.
+Only a man's rude strength can endure such a restless pursuit that
+knows no pause; the woman's delicate nature must succumb even because
+her mind is so alive that she labours with all the ardent desire, the
+breathless interest, of the devotee of science. And if she succeeds, at
+the sacrifice of her life, in contributing some addition to the
+universal stock of knowledge, she has done only what would have
+cost a man far less pains. The result of her work is wrung from her
+death-agony, and the world, with a shrug of its shoulders, says, 'It is
+about all that a woman could do!' Is praise thus qualified not
+purchased too dearly at the cost of health and life?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine had listened with intense eagerness. Her dark eyes were
+riveted upon the speaker. As he ceased, she folded her hands in her lap
+and said, &quot;What injustice you do me if you think that desire for the
+world's applause is the moving spring of my actions! Yes, I do long for
+recognition; that I have confessed to you. But I might have obtained it
+more easily if I had chosen other branches of science, and my uncle
+allowed me to choose. I selected, from inclination, natural philosophy,
+and, in especial, physiology. I cared little for history, because I
+care little for mankind. Moral philosophy seems to me too dogmatical,
+so does religion. Nature alone is always filled with new, genuine life.
+'There I know,' as Johannes Müller says, 'whom I serve and what I
+have.' Physiology has opened a new world for me,--or, better still, has
+re-created the old world, for I truly see only when I understand what I
+am looking at;--every sunbeam glancing in a dewdrop, every wave of
+sound borne to my ear from afar, awakens new and vivid images in my
+mind. What enjoyment is comparable to that which science offers us! She
+makes the real a miracle,--and shows us the miraculous as reality. And
+shall I resign this ennobling possession because I am a woman? And can
+this inspiring search for life bring me death? Oh, no! I cannot, I will
+not believe it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes held out his hand to her. &quot;You are a rarely-gifted woman, and
+comprehend the nature of science. But, supposing that you possessed the
+rare power--both of body and mind--to accomplish the task which you
+propose to yourself, you must do it at the cost of your vocation as a
+woman. For no woman can fulfil both these offices. As a scholar, you
+must live exclusively for your studies; the duties of wife and mother
+would distract you too much to admit of your accomplishing your
+purposes, for they require an entire lifetime. Now you have the courage
+to endure the want of love and happiness growing out of your
+determination, but will your courage last? When age and illness assail
+you,--when you become weak and helpless and need faithful, devoted
+hands about you and true loving hearts upon which you can rest from
+weariness and pain, and there is no one belonging to you,--because you
+have chosen to belong to no one,--how will it be then? Have you no
+presentiment of such misery? Is there no desire for consolation, no
+longing for love, in your inmost soul?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine's gaze was fixed darkly on the ground. &quot;I know nothing of
+love. How can I long for what I know nothing of?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good heavens! how can that be? Have you had no parents,
+relatives,--friends who were dear to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No! my mother died at my birth, and my father--who treated me very
+harshly, and did not care for me--died when I was twelve years old. My
+guardian became my teacher and guide, and initiated me into the pursuit
+of science. At no time of my life have I had any intercourse with my
+equals. I did not wish for it. My uncle sent his own little daughter to
+a boarding-school and lived for me alone, but the tie that bound me to
+him was only my interest in science and his readiness to gratify it. He
+is cold by nature,--as I am also. I have never felt anything for him
+but gratitude. I have always lived alone, and have never loved a human
+being.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes was deeply moved. &quot;Poor girl!&quot; he said. &quot;Had you cast yourself
+on the ground at my feet, bathed in tears, bewailing the death of
+father, mother, or husband, you could not have inspired me with such
+pity as those words, 'I have never loved,' awaken within me. You look
+amazed! The time will come when you will understand me,--when by the
+depth of your anguish you will learn the heights of bliss from which
+you have been banished; then he, whom you now regard as your enemy,
+will be beside you,--to soothe your grief for your lost life,--perhaps
+to lead you to one nobler and better!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine turned away, greatly agitated. She would not have Johannes
+observe her emotion, and therefore only breathed a gentle &quot;Farewell,&quot;
+and would have left the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you going? Have I offended you? May I not come again?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine stood still, and did not speak.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May I not?&quot; he repeated,--and there was such urgent entreaty in his
+voice that it stirred the very depths of Ernestine's soul.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was one moment of hesitation; then she returned to him, held out
+her hand and said, with eyes swimming in tears,--eyes that pierced his
+heart to the core:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes; come again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God bless you!&quot; he said, with a long sigh of relief, and then, kissing
+her hand respectfully, he left the room. She stood still where he had
+left her, lost in thought.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The tones of the Æolian harp floated out upon the air, the roses
+exhaled fresh fragrance, the birds twittered, and the sunlight shone in
+soft rays through the blue curtains. She heeded none of these things,
+she stood there absorbed in the pursuit of some dim, half-remembered
+image in the distant past--even in the days of her childhood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Why was it that the oak boughs, whither she had fled from the handsome
+lad, seemed to rustle around her again? Why was the little Angelika so
+distinct in her memory,--the little girl rocking in her arms the doll
+that her brother had sent her, in the sure hope that her tenderness
+would inspire it with life?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And as she stood there, dreaming in the midst of Æolian tones,
+fragrance, and light, she herself was like Pygmalion's statue, when
+beneath the breath of love the first glow of life informed its marble
+breast, and the cold lips opened for its first sigh!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_2.3" href="#div1Ref_2.3">CHAPTER III.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE VILLAGE SCHOOL.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">When Johannes left Ernestine, he turned his steps towards the village.
+He was as if inspired by the consciousness that his was a part to play
+that falls to the lot of few men in this world,--to promote his own
+happiness in watching over and caring for the happiness of another. He
+walked on with the firm, elastic tread that belongs to a strong man in
+the bloom of youth, and wherever his glance fell it scattered seeds of
+the kindliness which was reflected in the smile that greeted him upon
+every face that he met. He took his way towards a little vine-clad
+cottage in which dwelt the patriarch of the place,--the village
+schoolmaster. Before the door stood Hilsborn's vehicle, while a fat old
+mastiff was barking incessantly at the horse, who pawed impatiently,
+and never seemed to perceive that the dog was evidently only fulfilling
+an irksome duty, and was not actuated by the slightest feeling of
+hostility. Johannes stroked, in passing, his broad, bristling back, a
+caress not unkindly received, and then entered the house, whose
+hospitable roof was so low that he was obliged to stoop as he crossed
+the threshold, lest he should brush his forehead against the bunches of
+unripe grapes that hung down over the lintel. He passed through the
+little, dark hall, and entered the dwelling-room. There he found
+Hilsborn sitting with the schoolmaster upon one of the low, broad
+window-seats, while the schoolmaster's old wife, Brigitta, sat knitting
+upon the other. The schoolmaster was a spare, elderly man, with long
+gray hair, and eyes in whose uncertain depths that ominous white spot
+could be perceived that is the arch-enemy of light.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Aha! the Herr Professor,&quot; said the old man, rising to greet Johannes.
+&quot;We thought you had been enchanted in the Haunted Castle, and would
+never come back to us again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You may not have been so very far wrong,&quot; said Johannes, shaking the
+offered hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, you have kept us waiting well!&quot; observed Hilsborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Brigitta, dear, will you make ready for us? These gentlemen will
+perhaps do us the pleasure of sharing with us our mid-day meal,--it
+will be about the time for their luncheon,&quot; said the schoolmaster to
+his wife, who had arisen when Johannes entered, and was awaiting this
+hint to withdraw. Johannes and Hilsborn declined the proffered
+hospitality, but Frau Brigitta had already left the room. As the door
+closed behind her, the old man grew very grave. &quot;Herr Professor,&quot; he
+began, and his voice was a little hoarse, and his hands trembled
+slightly, &quot;now we are alone,--now I pray you tell me the truth. I would
+not ask you while my wife was here,--for I would spare her unhappiness
+as long as possible. But I must and will know, for the future of my son
+is at stake. Is it not true, Herr Professor, that you have no hope of
+saving my eyes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn made no reply. His compassionate heart withheld him from so
+utterly destroying the old man's hopes in life. In his indecision, he
+exchanged a glance with Johannes, which the old man observed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, my dear sir, that look, which I could see in spite of my
+increasing blindness, speaks to me as plainly as your silence. I have
+long had no hope myself. A year ago, when my eyes were so inflamed, I
+expected the catastrophe would occur from which your skill has so long
+saved me. The question now is--can my eyes be operated upon?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn hesitated again. He could not in honour delude the worthy man
+with false hopes only to have them so bitterly crushed in the future,
+and yet--who with a heart in his breast could tell the sad truth to
+that face of anxious inquiry? &quot;I cannot give you a decided answer at
+present,&quot; he said at last with some effort.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The patient man clasped his hands entreatingly, and his dim eyes strove
+to read Hilsborn's countenance. &quot;Do not believe, Herr Professor, that
+it would be kind to deceive me. If I now know that I am incurable, I
+can do instantly what would be difficult later,--take my son
+immediately from the University and train him to be my successor here.
+You can understand that if I am disabled I can no longer provide for
+the continuance of his academic course, and that it is best that the
+young man should learn as soon as possible the destruction of his
+hopes, that he may reconcile himself to resigning the lecture-room for
+the school-room. I know how hard it will be, for I was just entering
+upon a scientific career when I was excluded from it by my father's
+early death. And let me tell you that if my son bears this blow well, I
+have nothing more to fear.&quot; His voice faltered as he uttered these last
+words. He was conscious of it, and was silent,--unwilling to betray his
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes and Hilsborn stood for one moment, not knowing what to reply.
+They could not console the unhappy father by the assurance that he
+would need no substitute. They well knew how important it was that what
+the conscientious old man proposed should be done. At last Hilsborn
+said, with characteristic gentleness, &quot;If you wish to make sure of a
+substitute in case of the worst, it is best that you should do so as
+soon as possible, as in the event of undergoing an operation you would
+be unable to work for a long time, and, besides, I cannot answer for
+the result.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, kind sir. You have told me the truth, and now I know
+enough,&quot; said the schoolmaster, wiping his eyes with a coarse,
+gaily-printed cotton handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have I not often told you,&quot; said Hilsborn, &quot;that you never ought to
+touch your eyes except with linen cambric?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True! true!&quot; said the pale, troubled man, forcing a smile, &quot;but where
+am I to procure such a luxury?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, your lady at the castle should give it to you,&quot; said Hilsborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She would do so willingly, I am sure, but I could not make up my mind
+to so bold a request; for, since the other villagers have treated her
+so badly, she has avoided us also; and I fear she has visited us with
+some of the indignation that she must feel at the shameful insults she
+has received.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, I will ask for you,&quot; cried Johannes. &quot;I will go back to
+the castle, and you shall have what you require in a few moments.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As he spoke, Frau Brigitta entered, with a bottle of wine and the soup.
+Her good old face beamed with delight at the opportunity of offering
+her hospitality to such honoured guests. Her husband seized the
+gentlemen's hands, while she was busied with laying the table, and
+whispered, &quot;Promise me, I beg you, that you will not mention what you
+have told me to any one, that my poor wife may be allowed to enjoy all
+the hope that she can for the future.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We promise you,&quot; was the grave reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May I be permitted to offer the gentlemen some slight refreshment?&quot;
+asked Brigitta with old-fashioned formality; for etiquette in the
+country is like the fashion of dress, which follows at a long distance
+the fashion of the city,--so that a form of polite expression is used
+in the country long after it has ceased to be <i>bon genre</i> in town. And
+yet there is something touching in all those old-time phrases and
+customs that we remember as used by our grandparents and great-aunts
+and uncles. They suggest so vividly the images of the departed, and
+bring back the memories of childhood. Who has not in early childhood
+seen some old aunt or grandmother, upon refusing a fifth cup of coffee,
+turn the cup upside down in the saucer and lay the spoon carefully upon
+it? And when, twenty or thirty years after, we see some country
+pastor's or schoolmaster's wife go through the same ceremony, does not
+the dear old form, long ago laid at rest in the grave, rise before us
+to check the smile upon our lips? Who cannot remember as a child the
+friendly sympathy that greeted a satisfactory sneeze? And when, a
+quarter of a century later, some kindly country soul hails such an
+occurrence with a cordial &quot;God bless you!&quot; does it not seem as if we
+must reply as formerly, &quot;Thanks, dear grandmamma,&quot; and are we not
+homesick for a moment for our good old grandmother? Such was the
+impression made upon the young men by the kindly formality, the
+officious hospitality, of the schoolmaster's good old wife.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I pray you honour us by tasting our poor meal,&quot; she said, as she put a
+coarse thick napkin of her own spinning upon each plate.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After the conversation that they had just had with the unfortunate
+husband, the two young men had little appetite for eating or drinking;
+but they would not refuse the old woman's kindly hospitality, and
+therefore seated themselves at the clumsy table. For one moment there
+was a silence so profound that the tick of the death-watch in the bench
+by the stove could be plainly heard. Then the schoolmaster poured out
+the wine. His hand trembled slightly, and he was obliged to take care
+lest any of it should be spilled; for he could not see well when the
+glasses were full. Then, holding up his own glass, he said cheerily,
+&quot;Long life to you, gentlemen, and to our noble German science! I drink
+to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They clinked their glasses; but it cut Hilsborn to the very soul to
+think that the science which their good old host was so lauding should
+have been so cruel a prophet to him a few minutes before. Johannes,
+too, looked down at the wineglass in his hand, and the drops that he
+tasted from it were bitter to swallow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, good wife, clink your glass with mine,&quot; said the old man to Frau
+Brigitta. &quot;My wife is very fond of a little drop of wine,&quot; he said to
+his guests; &quot;but we never indulge in it except when we have such
+honoured guests as sit around our table to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And why not?&quot; asked Hilsborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because it tastes so much better when there are others here to enjoy
+it with us,&quot; was the simple, smiling answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you ought to take more of it,&quot; said Johannes. &quot;This good old wine
+is excellent for you; it is a tonic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man looked sadly at the few drops which he had poured out for
+himself, and with which he had only moistened his lips. &quot;You forget
+that I have been for a long time forbidden to take wine, on account of
+my eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My poor husband!&quot; said his wife, sadly stroking his hollow cheeks. &quot;He
+has to deny himself so much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes and Hilsborn exchanged glances, and then the latter said, &quot;I
+reverse that prohibition, Herr Leonhardt. Take a good glass of wine
+whenever you feel inclined. It cannot harm your eyes as much as it will
+improve your general health.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank God!&quot; cried his wife rejoiced. &quot;That proves how much better you
+are.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Or how much worse,&quot; Leonhardt said in Latin to Hilsborn, with a grave
+look. Then, turning tenderly to his wife, he slowly emptied his glass,
+whispering to her, &quot;Long live our Walter!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old woman nodded delightedly. &quot;Our good boy! if he only had his
+degree!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leonhardt clasped his hands with a deep sigh. &quot;That is all that I ask
+of God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you speaking of your son?&quot; cried the gentlemen. &quot;Then let us join
+you. May he live to be the delight and prop of your old age!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is a very talented young man,&quot; added Johannes. &quot;His essay was
+declared the best after Fräulein von Hartwich's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed!&quot; said the schoolmaster. &quot;I am glad to hear it. Ah, the
+Fräulein is fortunate. She has everything necessary for her
+studies,--books and apparatus. There is hardly such another private
+laboratory and library in the country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes looked surprised. &quot;Indeed! how do you know that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My son has, during his studies, also perfected himself as a mechanic,
+for he says it is a great advantage for a naturalist, and Fräulein von
+Hartwich, hearing of it accidentally, intrusted him with some repairs
+of her furniture, and then he saw what treasures she possessed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes looked thoughtful. &quot;Hm! as far as I know, Fräulein von
+Hartwich's income is by no means so large as to allow of such
+extravagant expenditure. Her uncle may have permitted his ward to
+encroach upon her capital; it would only be a fresh proof of his want
+of principle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After a short pause, he turned to the schoolmaster.--&quot;Herr Leonhardt,
+answer me one question. If a man wishes to rid a country of a dangerous
+wild animal, is it best to track him to his den by cunning, that he may
+be safely overcome there, or to startle him with loud noise and
+frighten him off, so that he either escapes or has time to prepare to
+defend himself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The schoolmaster looked puzzled. &quot;Why, a prudent man would surely
+pursue the first course.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think so too. Well, Herr Leonhardt, I mean to track Doctor Leuthold
+Gleissert to his hiding-place. I am persuaded that this man is a
+thorough scoundrel, but I can bring no proof that I judge him
+correctly. Until I have collected such proof, which can only be done
+quietly and with caution, I cannot proceed against him openly. I need
+your assistance, Herr Leonhardt, for you know more than all of us
+concerning this man and his proceedings. Give me, if you can, some
+tangible cause for accusing him, that I may succeed in delivering that
+rare creature, his niece, from his clutches.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will do my best,&quot; said Leonhardt. &quot;But he lives so retired that I
+shall hardly be able to procure any important information for you. The
+only thing that I can observe is the names of his correspondents; for,
+as there is no post-office in the village, I have a post-drawer in my
+house, which the post-boy empties in my room. So that I can easily
+learn to whom all Doctor Gleissert's letters are addressed. Perhaps
+that may be of use to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do so,&quot; replied Johannes, &quot;you will greatly oblige me.&quot; He emptied his
+glass and arose. &quot;And now let me have pen and ink, and I will write a
+couple of lines to the lady at the castle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The schoolmaster opened a little, old-fashioned desk, and produced the
+necessary articles. Johannes wrote:</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<span class="sc">My dear Fräulein Hartwich</span>:--Will it offend you if I offer you the
+opportunity of exerting yourself within the sphere which I believe is
+assigned to woman?--I, who provoked your displeasure this morning by
+remonstrating against any exertion outside of that sphere. A tragedy is
+about to be enacted in the peaceful cottage of the schoolmaster
+Leonhardt, and the physical and spiritual aid of a woman like yourself
+will be most welcome there. Come see these people for yourself; they
+are the worthiest of your kindness of any in the village, and you have
+seen the least of them. Say nothing to Frau Leonhardt of the hint I
+have given you above. The poor man needs linen-cambric rags for his
+eyes, and would not trouble you by asking you for them. This will
+furnish you a pretext for establishing relations with these people--if
+you will; and I am sure you will. I know that I shall hear of your
+kindness when I return; and I shall return again and again.</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent:20%">&quot;Your friend of a few hours, but for life.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes sealed the letter, and gave it to the schoolmaster. &quot;Here,
+Herr Leonhardt, is the request for the linen-cambric. Send it to
+Fräulein Hartwich; and if she should happen to visit you herself, I
+pray you and your wife not to mention my name. I desire the Fräulein to
+remain in ignorance of it for a short time. Promise me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The worthy old couple gave the required promise, and, bidding a kindly
+farewell, the gentlemen entered the carriage. Johannes took the reins,
+and the impatient horse bore them swiftly back to town.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The schoolmaster and his wife returned to the house and finished their
+dinner, for it was nearly twelve o'clock, at which hour the afternoon
+school in the village reassembled. They dispatched the note to
+Ernestine, and then the schoolmaster betook himself to the school-room
+to wait for his pupils. At the stroke of twelve there was a trampling
+of little feet in the hall, and finger after finger rapped at the door,
+and awaited the gentle &quot;Come in!&quot; without which no entrance was
+allowed, for the schoolmaster was a great stickler for order and
+decorum, and knew well how to retain the respect of his scholars. Most
+of the children were better in school than anywhere else. It was
+strange. Herr Leonhardt never struck a blow; he was rarely angry; he
+only reproved gently; and yet the most unruly boy, the most sullen
+girl, was controlled by his glance. The wise old man believed that love
+for the teacher was a better spur to improvement than fear, which could
+only call forth hatred and malice towards its object. And thus he
+smoothed away many a foolish, rude, and cruel trait from the peasant
+youth of his village, bringing out the good in the minds of those
+intrusted to his care, and suppressing the evil, so that, during the
+thirty-five years of his gentle sway in the school-room, the
+Hochstetten boys and girls were more in request for servants than any
+others in all the country round.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-afternoon, Herr Leonhardt!&quot; cried the entering throng, scattering
+themselves among the long benches with a sound like gravel poured out
+upon a path.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;St--St!&quot; was heard from the master, and instantly all was quiet in the
+room, except for the rustling of the opening copy-books, and the lesson
+began.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly there was a soft, low knock at the door,--such a knock as
+comes only from a guilty conscience,--and a little, cleanly-dressed
+girl, about six years old, stood upon the threshold with downcast eyes.
+She held out before her, as if trying to hide behind it, a satchel so
+large that it really seemed difficult to decide whether the child had
+brought it, or it had brought the child; and the pearly drops upon her
+brow showed how fast she had been running.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, Käthchen!&quot; cried Herr Leonhardt, &quot;why do you come so late? Come
+here to me, little culprit. It is the first time in the whole long year
+since you first came to school that you have been late. Something very
+unusual must have happened?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Little Käthchen slowly approached him, while her chubby face grew
+scarlet. &quot;I--I had to pick berries,&quot; she faltered, biting her
+berry-stained lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Käthchen,&quot; said Herr Leonhardt, raising his forefinger, &quot;that is
+very strange. <i>You had to!</i> Who told you to?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Käthchen still looked down, and her face grew, if possible, redder
+still.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Look me in the face, my child,&quot; said the master gravely. &quot;Are you
+telling the truth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Käthchen tried to raise her brown, roguish eyes to his face, but, ah,
+the consciousness of guilt weighed down her eyelids like lead. She
+could not look at her teacher; she only shook her curly head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Käthchen,&quot; said the master kindly, &quot;you were not sent to pick berries,
+for I know how desirous your father and mother are to send you to
+school--you ran into the wood to pick and eat them yourself. Perhaps
+this is your first falsehood, as it is the first time you have been
+late at school. Pray God that it maybe your last.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh,&quot; the little culprit broke forth, &quot;the neighbour's Fritz took me
+with him, and the berries tasted so good that I stayed too long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The other children laughed; but a motion of the master's hand restored
+silence, and he continued to Käthchen: &quot;Now, my child, for your
+tardiness you will have a black mark; and go down one in your class;
+but, Käthchen, for the falsehood you will lose your place in my heart,
+and I cannot love you so much. But I will forgive you if you will go
+stand in the corner of your own accord. Which will you do?--lose your
+place in my heart, or go stand in the corner for a quarter of an hour?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The child burst into a flood of tears, and, sobbing out, &quot;I'd rather, a
+great deal rather, go stand in the comer!&quot; walked there instantly, and
+turned her dear little face to the wall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The schoolmaster looked after her pityingly; but nevertheless he was
+firm, for he always imposed the severest penalty for a falsehood. The
+lessons were continued, and in about ten minutes he called the still
+sobbing Käthchen from her corner. The child came running to him, and he
+held out his hand to her, saying, &quot;Will you promise me, Käthchen, never
+again to say what is not true?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, I will never, never do it again,&quot; was the contrite answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then the old man took up the rosy little thing and set her on his knee.
+&quot;Then, my dear child, I will love you dearly as long as you are honest
+and industrious. And if you are ever tempted to tell what is not true,
+think how it would grieve your old teacher if he knew it, and tell the
+truth for his sake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; cried the child, her little heart overflowing with
+repentance, and, throwing her arms around the master's neck, she hugged
+him with all her might.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The other children had watched the ceremony of reconciliation with
+intense sympathy, for they were all fond of brown-eyed, rosy-cheeked
+Käthchen, and were rejoiced that her troubles were over.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now,&quot; said the teacher, when Käthchen was at last seated in her place,
+&quot;now let us see whether you have done your task well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Käthchen pulled out her books from the dark depths of her huge satchel;
+but, alas! the light of day revealed upon them many a stain from the
+berries which had been put into the bag. The child's dismay and her
+companions' amusement were infinite. Even the schoolmaster could not
+refrain from smiling as he looked at her terrified little face. &quot;Never
+mind,&quot; he said, &quot;you have suffered enough. Let us see how they look
+inside.&quot; He opened the copy-book, and was evidently pleased with the
+neat copy. But the sums were in dire confusion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Käthchen,&quot; cried Herr Leonhardt, &quot;if a horse has four legs, how many
+legs have two horses?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Six!&quot; was the confident answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Käthchen, how many are twice two?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Eight!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr Leonhardt cast to heaven that resigned glance peculiar only to
+such patient martyrs. &quot;Käthchen, how many fingers, not counting the
+thumb, are there on your left hand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Käthchen counted with her right hand the fingers of her left, and
+triumphantly declared, &quot;Four.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And how many on your right hand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again the same process was repeated with the right hand, and the same
+answer ensued.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's right! Now, how many are there together?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">No answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How many fingers have you on both hands?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ten!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Without the thumbs, child,--without either of the thumbs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Käthchen began her arduous task anew.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly there was a knock at the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Another child late?&quot; said Herr Leonhardt, and cried, &quot;Come in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But, instead of the rosy face of a child, a pale countenance, with
+large, dark eyes, appeared, and gazed almost shyly around the circle.
+This apparition produced a perfect panic. &quot;Oh, heavens! the Hartwich!
+Mercy! mercy! the woman of the castle!&quot; and similar exclamations of
+alarm, were heard from all sides. The children started up,--those who
+were nearest the door crowded away from it, the larger ones dragged the
+little ones close to their sides, the Catholics even crossed
+themselves. An actual uproar began, which even the teacher's voice
+failed at first to control.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine observed it all without any change in her regular features.
+Leonhardt approached her respectfully, and would have asked her pardon
+for the children's folly, but she interrupted him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On the contrary,&quot; she said softly, &quot;it is I who should ask pardon for
+interrupting your school by my dreaded appearance. I meant to go to
+your dwelling-room, to take you the linen-cambric handkerchiefs that
+you need, but not knowing where it was, I knocked here by mistake. Have
+the kindness, Herr Leonhardt, to relieve me of this parcel, and I will
+relieve your pupils from their alarm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man held out his hand to her, but she did not take it. &quot;Never
+mind that; such a civility shown to me might deprive you of the
+children's respect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, my dear Fräulein Hartwich,&quot; Leonhardt warmly entreated, &quot;do not
+ascribe this folly to me, to whom it gives, of course, much more pain
+than it can to you, whose position is too exalted to allow you to heed
+such trifles; but to me it brings the bitter conviction that the labor
+of a lifetime has been in vain!&quot; He ceased, and cast a sad, weary
+glance at the little flock crowded so closely together.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At his words the cold look in Ernestine's eyes vanished, and, for the
+first time, she regarded attentively the old man, who stood so
+respectfully, and yet so dignified, before her. His inflamed eyes
+revealed to her instantly the nature of the tragedy alluded to by her
+unknown friend, and she was filled with sympathy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We will talk together by-and-by, Herr Leonhardt,&quot; she whispered, so
+that the children should not hear what she said. &quot;Now let me go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will you have the great kindness, Fräulein Hartwich, to go and see my
+wife for awhile?&quot; said Leonhardt &quot;It would give her such pleasure,--she
+is in the opposite room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most certainly I will. I will wait for you there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She turned to go; but Leonhardt, seeing that the children were now more
+quiet, and hoping to show her that their folly was not as great as it
+had seemed, cried to the foremost ones of the throng, &quot;You have behaved
+foolishly and naughtily before Fräulein Hartwich. Come, show her that
+you can be better, and bid her good-by, like good children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The children stood motionless. The old man, distressed at their
+conduct, looked around the room, and said, &quot;Will none of you shake
+hands with her for my sake?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will,&quot; said Käthchen's clear, childish voice; and the fearless
+little girl, who had only followed the example of the others, walked up
+to Fräulein von Hartwich, and offered her chubby little hand to be
+shaken, and her berry-stained lips to be kissed. Ernestine stooped and
+kissed the little, pouting lips, and looked kindly into the pretty
+child's frank, sparkling eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now see, all you larger children,&quot; said the schoolmaster, &quot;a little
+child, only six years old, shames you all! What are you afraid of? You
+see Fräulein von Hartwich every day!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, but not in a room--out in the road; we can run away then,&quot; one of
+the older ones shrewdly declared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine smiled sadly, and left the school-room without another word.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The schoolmaster looked around upon his pupils with an indignant
+glance. &quot;You have to-day disgraced yourselves and me, and I see plainly
+that everything that I have said to you and to your parents upon this
+point has been of no avail. I will give up trying to contend with your
+superstition and hate,--I am too old and weak for such a contest. Only
+let me say to you once more, 'Judge not, that you be not judged.' And
+tell your parents that if the time ever comes when I shall have to
+leave you, what has occurred to-day will go far to prevent me from
+regretting my departure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The children sat dismayed and silent, for they had never known their
+teacher to be so much displeased. They bowed their heads low over their
+books and slates, and hardly ventured to breathe, still less to utter a
+word of excuse. The lessons were gone through with even more quiet than
+usual, and when two o'clock struck, the children left the house and
+crept away as sad and depressed as if they were following a funeral.
+But scarcely were they escaped from the neighbourhood of the
+school-house than they recovered themselves, and fell upon poor
+Käthchen. &quot;Fie! Käthchen, you let the Hartwich kiss you! Nobody cares
+for you now!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, Käthchen's mouth is black, because the Hartwich kissed it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oho, Käthchen, no one will ever give you a kiss again!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only wait, and see how the Hartwich has bewitched you! To-morrow you
+will know!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Poor little Käthchen was overwhelmed with speeches and reproaches of
+this kind. But they troubled her very little, for her teacher was
+pleased with her, and that was better than all else besides; and she
+was proud that she had dared to go forward when all the rest were
+afraid.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you are so unkind, I will not give you any of my berries,&quot; she
+said, swinging her huge satchel carelessly to and fro. This trump-card
+did not fail of its effect, for the berries were not bewitched,--at all
+events, the Hartwich had not touched them; so the little girl soon had
+the satisfaction of seeing the children all gather around her once
+more.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When Leonhardt went to his wife, he found her deep in friendly talk
+with Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear, kind Fräulein Hartwich,&quot; he began, &quot;how it grieves me that
+you, who came to do me a kindness, should have been so insulted in my
+house! To be sure, they are only children, and they could not really
+insult you, but----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;'As the parents are, so must the children be,' is what you would say,&quot;
+Ernestine interposed, &quot;or what, at least, you think. Do not be
+distressed, Herr Leonhardt. I am used to insult and ridicule, and I
+have grown callous to them. But it is strange that a similar occurrence
+took place ten years ago to-day, at the first and only children's party
+which I ever attended. My misanthropy dates from that day; and the
+fresh proof that I have just had convinces me that I am not fitted to
+mix with the world,--least of all, with what passes for such in this
+country. Tell me, Herr Leonhardt, is it entirely impossible for you to
+enlighten these people in some small degree?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To speak frankly, I believe I could have done so had not my influence
+always been counteracted by their priests and pastors. As a teacher,
+subordinate always to a priest or pastor, I could effect nothing
+against the superstition, the religious intolerance, instilled into the
+peasants by their spiritual guides; for with peasants the authority is
+always the greatest that does not attempt to combat their errors. A
+quack who makes use only of old women's remedies will always inspire
+them with more confidence than a regular physician whose prescriptions
+gainsay all their medical and dietetic prejudices. A pastor who from a
+religious point of view justifies and encourages their superstition and
+ignorance will be regarded by them as a far worthier and more
+trustworthy guide than one who teaches only the pure truth of God. So,
+you see, I have always contended with unequal weapons, and have
+frequently been in danger of falling a victim to their malice and thus
+losing my place. In quiet times, when nothing occurred to show plainly
+the difference between us, all went pretty well; but since your
+arrival, Fräulein von Hartwich, the old quarrel has been renewed, and I
+see again how powerless I am.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I am come only to sow discord in this peaceful spot,&quot; Ernestine
+said in a thoughtful tone. &quot;Yes, yes,--misfortune attends me wherever I
+go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, do not say that!&quot; cried Frau Brigitta, seizing Ernestine's hand,
+&quot;but it seems to me--forgive a simple old woman for speaking so plainly
+to you--it seems to me that a lady so beautiful and richly endowed as
+you are, ought not to live here so lonely and secluded. My husband and
+I often say, 'What a pity it is that such a splendid creature should
+bury herself alive!' It certainly is unnatural; and what is natural is
+sure to be best!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was silent, and sat with eyes cast down.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I too must say,&quot; said Leonhardt timidly, &quot;that you are not in your
+right place here. Did you ever see the statue of a renowned philosopher
+or artist set up in the midst of a village? Certainly not; for the
+village boys would pelt it with mud,--no one would understand its
+value,--it would be merely a doll, at which every one would laugh, and
+to deface which would be considered a very good joke. And will you,
+Fräulein Hartwich, in the bloom of life, with all your refinement of
+mind, voluntarily expose yourself to the same fate that would await
+such a statue were it erected here, for the purpose of inspiring this
+rude people with ennobling ideas? Surely you cannot answer to yourself
+for such a course of life!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine gazed attentively at the old man's faded but still noble
+countenance. His address was so different from what she had expected
+from a simple village schoolmaster, that she was greatly astonished at
+it. It stimulated her to reply to him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I understand your comparison, Herr Leonhardt, and am greatly
+honoured by it, but,--forgive me for saying so,--it does not seem to me
+quite correct. I know of no village where statues either of Christ or
+the Madonna are not erected, and the rudest peasant pays them
+reverence,--because he appreciates the idea that they embody. Could we
+only breathe a sympathy with other than religious ideas into the minds
+of this neglected class, the representatives of such ideas would also
+receive the same reverence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Leonhardt was a little troubled by the turn the conversation had
+taken; for, as a faithful servant will listen to no slighting remarks
+concerning those whom he serves, she, as a true servant of her Lord and
+Saviour, disapproved of Fräulein von Hartwich's mode of speaking of
+Him, and thought it scarcely becoming in a good Christian to listen to
+such talk. But her husband, with modest tact, put an end to her
+anxiety. &quot;I have myself,&quot; said he, &quot;thought of what you say, but it
+seems to me to be an entirely different matter. The people honour in
+these statues not ideas, but persons,--and the holiest and highest
+persons that they can conceive of,--the persons of their God and his
+saints. As we take delight in the pictures of distant relatives, whom
+we may never have seen, perhaps, but whom we honour and cherish for the
+sake of what we know of them, so, a thousand times more so, do the
+people honour what speaks to them of the eternally invisible Father of
+all! This sentiment, Fräulein von Hartwich, seems to me widely
+different from the admiration that a comprehension of the great ideas
+of to-day might awaken in the minds of the people. We are not yet far
+enough advanced to say how it may be,--and who knows whether we ever
+shall advance so far as to be able to elevate those classes who labour
+for us that we may think for them, and who desire nothing at present
+for their happiness but their plough and their God? What they really
+need now, in my opinion, is that their God should not be represented to
+them as an angry, avenging Jehovah, but as the loving, redeeming God of
+Christianity! To return to my simile,--with regard to yourself,
+Fräulein von Hartwich, let me repeat that you can only be in your true
+place where your efforts and ideas are understood and you can grace a
+pedestal that becomes you. Then you will be truly happy, and far more
+easily brought into communion with your Creator than while you are
+embittered by the religious error and intolerance prevailing around you
+here. The people are hostile to you, because they believe you hostile
+to what they hold most sacred,--their religion. Whoever, in their
+eyes, stands aloof from Christian fellowship, stands aloof from
+mankind,--ceases to be a creature of flesh and blood. And if they do
+not see condign punishment quickly overtake such a one, whom they
+regard as the chief of sinners, they believe that she must be under the
+protection not of God, but of the other power in their theology,--the
+devil! Forgive my frankness. I say nothing of their childish
+misconception of God's tender long-suffering. I only feel it my duty to
+show you the impassable gulf that lies between you and your
+surroundings. You are such a thorn in the side not only of the Catholic
+priest, but also of the evangelical pastor of our diocese, that he
+attempted to procure from the Protestant consistory a decree of
+banishment against you on account of your writings, and, failing in
+this, he has determined to drive you from this place, at all costs, by
+unceasing persecution. His Catholic associate seconds him, as you
+yourself know, most zealously, and I wish to save you, by timely
+warning, from all that, unfortunately, still threatens you here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused, and endeavoured to observe with his dim eyes the effect of
+his words upon Ernestine's impassive features. Her look was still
+riveted on the ground, and she said nothing, so he respectfully took
+her hand, saying, &quot;Dear Fräulein von Hartwich, forgive me if I am too
+bold and have wounded you. I am a plain man, ignorant of the forms of
+polite society, grown old among peasants, and accustomed to speak out
+my thoughts openly. I hold truth to be my first duty, but it would pain
+me to think that, in fulfilling this duty, I had unintentionally
+wounded you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear, dear!--yes!--oh, yes!&quot; ejaculated his kindly old wife, really
+distressed by the inscrutable expression upon Ernestine's face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly the latter started up, shook the old people by the hand, and
+said gravely but cordially,--</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, thank you, Herr Leonhardt. You are a good man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, my dear, good Fräulein von Hartwich!&quot; cried Frau Brigitta with
+emotion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must go home now,&quot; said Ernestine, covering her black braids with
+her hat, &quot;but I will see you soon again. Farewell!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When the old couple had accompanied her to the door, and followed her
+with their eyes as she walked away apparently lost in thought, they
+both remembered for the first time that she had not alluded in any way
+to Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How strange!&quot; said the schoolmaster, as he went for his garden-shears
+to trim the luxuriant hedge before his house.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_2.4" href="#div1Ref_2.4">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE GUARDIAN.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">When, on the evening of the same day, Leuthold returned from town, he
+heard that Ernestine could not see him,--she was not well, and had
+retired to her room. Slowly and cautiously he sought her study, and
+there attempted to find what and how much his ward had accomplished
+during the day. To his astonishment, he found nothing. He slipped into
+the laboratory, and there lay everything just as it had been left the
+day before. Nothing had been touched. What did it mean? It was the
+first day for years that had been passed by Ernestine in idleness.
+Then, creeping along the corridors with the stealthy step of a cat, he
+sought Frau Willmers. She, too, was just about going to bed, and looked
+very sleepy when Leuthold, fixing a searching glance upon her, asked,
+&quot;What has Fräulein von Hartwich been doing to-day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Willmers yawned: she needed an instant for reflection. &quot;Fräulein
+von Hartwich has been quite unwell to-day,&quot; she replied.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed! what was the matter with her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, just what is always the matter, more or less. Heart-beat,
+faintness, headache. Is it any wonder, considering the way she is
+always at work? She could hardly hold up her head to-day----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Has any one been here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not a soul: who could----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No letters?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Two for you, Herr Professor, and one for Fräulein von Hartwich from
+the schoolmaster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What did he want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He asked for some linen-cambric rags for his weak eyes. She took him
+some.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She herself? Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She was tired because she could not study, and she wanted to see Herr
+Leonhardt's eyes. She thought she might learn something from them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well,--that will do. Good-night, Frau Willmers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-night, Herr Professor,&quot; said the cunning housekeeper, hastening
+to tell Ernestine how slyly she had managed matters and contrived to
+pay due honour to truth by mixing up some of it with her falsehoods.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine sat in an easy-chair, her eyes fixed upon the flame of the
+lamp. A book lay open in her lap,--&quot;Andersen's Fairy Tales.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She could not smile at what Frau Willmers told her. There was something
+in it that filled her with uneasiness. For the first time since she had
+lived with her uncle, she felt that she was a prisoner, watched and
+guarded as such. She was obliged to conceal, as if it were a crime, the
+fact that she had become acquainted with a true, noble human being. She
+had to account on the plea of interest in science for visiting a poor
+suffering man. The lie disgraced her, and the necessity that had
+prompted it was a galling chain! All this she felt to-day for the first
+time. One day had aroused within her the longing for independence!--the
+greatest misfortune that could have befallen her unsuspecting uncle,
+but not the only one that this day was to bring him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When he went to his room, he found there the letters of which Frau
+Willmers had told him. The first that he took up he opened instantly.
+It was from his daughter Gretchen, and ran thus:</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">&quot;<span class="sc">My dearest Father</span>:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In a week I shall be fifteen years old, and next month my course here
+will be finished, and I shall be fitted to take my place in the school
+as a teacher. Once more I turn to you and entreat you, dear father, let
+me come home to you! I will not be any burden to you. My teachers will
+tell you that I know enough to enable a young girl to earn her own
+living. I thank and bless you a thousand times, dearest father, for
+having me educated to be a useful member of society. I will be my
+cousin's maid, and work for her for my support, if I may only be near
+you! Oh, I pray you yield to my entreaties! You have always answered my
+request by telling me that her bad example--her irreligion and hardness
+of heart--would have a ruinous effect upon me. But indeed, dear father,
+this could not be. Thanks to my good, kind teachers, I am so firm in my
+faith, I have been so well trained, that this one bad example could not
+have any effect upon me, especially when I should daily see how my poor
+father suffers in discharging his guardianship of so stubborn a
+creature. Why did my dead uncle Hartwich bequeath to you such a
+thankless office? Indeed, dearest father, it would be easier if you
+would let me help you. I would leave nothing untried to soften her
+heart and turn it to good, and, however angry she might be with me, I
+would disarm her by patience and submission; and, even although I could
+have no effect upon her, I could be something to you, dear father. Oh,
+how heavenly it would be to sit alone together in your room after the
+day's work was finished! I could sit at your feet and show you my
+sketches and drawings, drinking draughts from the rich treasures of
+your mind and cheering you with my ever-ready nonsense. And sometimes I
+could lean my head upon your heart, that no one understands as well as
+the child to whom you have shown all its depths of tenderness, and
+sleep as peacefully as in those dear childish days when you cradled me
+in your arms with all a mother's care! Oh, father, you are everything
+in the world to me! My mother, who forsook me when I was so young--who
+left you for another so immeasurably your inferior, I do not know--I
+can form no image of her, unlovely as she must be, in my mind. You are
+mother, father, everything, to me! My cradle stood by your bedside;
+your eyes smiled upon me when I awoke. You never spoke a harsh word to
+me, you never looked unkindly at me. You treated the wayward child, who
+must so often have vexed you, with unvarying gentleness and patience;
+and at last you sent me from you, that I might be thoroughly trained
+and educated, since it is our fate to earn our daily bread. You sent me
+from you, but I saw plainly, when we parted, that this was the greatest
+sacrifice of all,--that I carried away your whole heart with me. You
+did it for me,--out of affection for me. You have given me up now for
+almost seven years, and I have worked and studied as hard as I could,
+so that I might soon be with you again; and now, when I have learned
+enough to be able to repay you a very little for all that you have done
+and suffered for me, you refuse to let me fly to your dear arms, for
+fear of the miserable influence of your ward. Father, you will--you
+must--hear and heed me. The tears that blotted your last letter to me
+fell hot into my very soul. They were tears of longing--do not deny
+it--for your child, and I will never rest until you give heed to your
+own heart! Ah, father dear, you will be pleased when you see me! I am
+taller and stronger than our governess! Every one says I am very tall
+for my age--I might be taken for eighteen years old! When we go to walk
+together, you will have to give me your arm! Ah, what a delight that
+will be! I shall be too proud to touch the ground! and, depend upon it,
+I shall be able to do something with Ernestine! She never used to be
+cross to me as a child; I cannot think how she can have altered so. How
+could she become so changed with such a guardian? In spirit I kiss his
+dear, kind hands! Happy girl!--to have my father for a teacher! Shall I
+not grudge her a happiness of which she has proved herself so unworthy?
+Yes; I do grudge it her! I do not envy her for her talents or her
+wealth, but I do envy her for my father!--I must envy her for that! You
+give her your time--your care; you devote yourself to her, and let your
+own child grow up far away from you, among strangers,--your own
+child,--who would give all that she possesses for one look from her
+father's eyes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold could read no further. He writhed like a worm on the ground
+beneath the weight of reproach with which this artless creature thus
+heaped him. The thunderbolt of a god could have inflicted no such
+punishment upon him as the pure, sweet, angelic love of his child.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He sunk upon his knees, and kissed the letter again and again. &quot;My
+child! my child!&quot; he cried aloud, racked almost to madness by intense
+feverish longing. At this moment of weakness he was overwhelmed with
+remorse. He had banished from his side his dearest possession,--his
+Gretchen. And why? Because he loved her too dearly to expose her to
+contact with the ideas that he sought to impress upon the mind of his
+ward,--because he would not allow his child to breathe the poisoned
+atmosphere of falsehood in which he chose that Ernestine should dwell.
+And why had he thus chosen? Because, he loved Gretchen too much to have
+her always poor and dependent, because he determined to win back the
+inheritance that he had once thought his own, but which had been so
+unexpectedly lost to him, and because there was only one way, in his
+mind, in which this could be done,--by making the possessor of this
+inheritance so utterly unfit for the world that nothing might wrest her
+person or her property from his grasp.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But, when he received such a letter as the above, overflowing with the
+devoted love, the pain at separation, of his exiled child, something
+stirred in his breast that would not be quieted, demanding whether he
+might not have expressed his paternal love in another way, whether it
+were not a desecration of this angel to attempt to make her future
+happy by a crime? Whether the joy of educating such a child himself
+would not have outweighed the wealth of the world? And then he began to
+reckon and compare,--and the account was never balanced,--for the years
+of separation from his daughter there was no equivalent. These were
+rare hours when, like a criminal before his judge, he was arraigned in
+spirit before the pure eyes of his child; but they cost him months of
+life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His hair had grown grey,--his powers of mind were enfeebled by all
+these years of self-control and hypocrisy,--of crime and dread of
+discovery. He had nothing to hope for for himself--but for Gretchen?
+And what if he had failed in his reckoning? What if a mischievous
+chance should again deprive him at the last moment of the fruit of all
+this sacrifice? The path of sin had separated him from his daughter
+hitherto. Was it possible that it could ever lead him to her?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His high, narrow forehead was covered with a cold dew as he passed his
+hand over it. He was indeed to be pitied,--a man who had not the
+courage to be wholly good nor wholly bad!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The night breeze blew fresh through the open window, and the miserable
+man was thoroughly chilled. He arose, wrapped himself in his shawl,
+closed the window, and went to the table where lay the other letter. It
+was directed in the handwriting of the overseer of the Unkenheim
+Factory. Leuthold put it down--he had not the courage to read it &quot;What
+can he have to tell me?&quot; he moaned, utterly dispirited.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last he roused himself. &quot;What must be, must!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He unfolded the coarse paper and read--while his face grew ashy pale.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="right">&quot;<span class="sc2">Umkenheim</span>, July 30, 18--.</p>
+
+<p class="continue">&quot;<span class="sc">Honoured Sir</span>:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You should have believed me when I told you that there was nothing to
+be done with bringing the water from that miserable spring. Twenty
+years ago you placed me at the head of this factory, and I think I have
+shown that I understand my business. It is a ruinous thing to conduct
+such a huge undertaking from a distance. I told you so when you got
+back the factory again, but you never believe what I say. If the
+business had been allowed to proceed as usual, we should have made a
+sure, although small, profit from it. But you were in such a devil of a
+hurry to make the capital yield a hundred per cent., because you were
+always afraid lest your ward should smell a rat and require her own
+again,--or lest she should marry, and you would have to render an
+account to some suspicious husband, who would be less forbearing even
+than Fräulein Ernestine. Therefore these giant speculations were set on
+foot, and everything was to be accomplished in the twinkling of an eye.
+I told you we had not sufficient sewerage for such an enormous
+enlargement. Then you never rested until that expensive drain was dug,
+and we very soon found that it had too little incline and the refuse
+all stuck fast in it. Then you thought we could carry it off by a
+stream of water turned into the drain. More money was spent, and again
+spent in vain. The dry summer had exhausted the spring,--it was always
+small, and now it has entirely disappeared. The large supply of raw
+material, not yet paid for, cannot be worked up, for the villagers are
+beginning to talk again of 'poisoning the springs,' and the drain has
+begun to leak. If the necessary amount of water cannot be procured, I
+shall be prosecuted, and then nothing will shield either you or me from
+discovery. The people already think it strange that the Italian
+gentleman, who pretended to buy the factory by your advice, has
+disappeared. It is whispered about that he is not the real owner, and
+Heaven only knows what it all means. We have, therefore, more need of
+caution than ever!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is nothing for it but to face the worst and continue the
+aqueduct to the forest,--then we shall be safe. Digging ditches and
+hunting for springs is of no use,--more money is frittered away so than
+in large undertakings. I do not know what cash you have on hand; if you
+have not enough to lengthen the aqueduct, in a few weeks you will be
+bankrupt. It will not be my fault!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have no more money for the workmen's wages,--and it would be well,
+now that work must be suspended for a time, to pay them up. It might
+keep them in good humour. I know that you will vent all your anger upon
+me again, but I tell you I will put up with nothing more. I was an
+honest man until you tempted me and made me your accomplice. Still, I
+have not played the rogue to you, my principal, although I have, more's
+the pity, made myself amenable to the law. You have gone on just like
+Herr Neuenstein, who became bankrupt too, because he would not listen
+to me; but he was an honourable man, and paid up every penny that he
+owed, so that he was not afraid to look any one in the face. If you
+fail, you drag down your ward, whose money you have been using, with
+you,--and me too,--poor devil that I am! There is truth in the proverb
+'Ill-gotten gains never prosper.' God help me!</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent:50%">&quot;Yours, etc.,</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent:60%">&quot;Clemens Prücker,</p>
+
+<p class="right">&quot;<i>Overseer</i>.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">It was too much. &quot;My child! my child! I have sinned, forged, embezzled,
+for your sake, in vain! Can you be sufficiently proud of such a
+father?&quot; he moaned,--his head fell back in his chair, and he lost
+consciousness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The day had dawned when he opened his eyes; the atmosphere was full of
+the disagreeable odour of the dying candles, his limbs were stiff and
+numb from his uneasy posture, and he was shivering with cold. When he
+tried to walk, his hands and feet were asleep, and he staggered like a
+drunken man. At last his eyes lighted upon the letters. He picked them
+up and went to his writing-table. There he put them away in a secret
+drawer, then drew forth a safe and investigated its contents. It
+contained certificates of stock and some rolls of ready money.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The sun shone brightly into the room, and still the pale man sat there
+counting and calculating. At last he put all the contents of the safe
+into a leather travelling-bag. Then he rang the bell and ordered the
+servant, who appeared, to have the carriage brought round and to pack
+up for him sufficient clothes to last during a journey of several days.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When he heard that his niece had arisen, he went to her. &quot;Good-morning,
+Ernestine,&quot; said he. &quot;How are you to-day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should put that question to you, uncle,&quot; she replied. &quot;You look as
+if you had just arisen from the grave!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, there is nothing the matter with me. I did not sleep much. The
+overseer at Unkenheim writes to me on the part of my Italian friend,
+begging me to come as soon as possible to the factory, where everything
+is going wrong. I think it my duty to do what I can in the matter, as I
+know all about the business, and unfortunately advised my friend to
+make the purchase.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you going, then?&quot; asked Ernestine, with a feeling of secret
+delight that she could not explain to herself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I must leave you for a few days, hard as it is for me. But
+promise me before I go that you will have that treatise that you are at
+work upon completed by my return. Let nothing prevent you from
+finishing it. If you feel unwell,--you know that is of no real
+consequence,--you can readily overcome all your ailments by resolutely
+willing to do so. Take quinine, if you must. Now may I rely upon
+finding the essay complete when I see you again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, uncle, I promise; and if I do not keep my word, it will be for
+the first time in my life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Farewell, then, my child,--I must hurry to catch the train. Let
+nothing interrupt you,--do you hear?--nothing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He hurried out, and sought the housekeeper. &quot;Frau Willmers,&quot; he said,
+&quot;I rely on you to prevent Fräulein von Hartwich from receiving any
+visitors, be they who they may. If I find, upon my return, that you
+have permitted the least infringement of my orders, you may consider
+yourself dismissed. I cannot tell you when I shall return. Conduct
+yourself so that you need not fear my arrival, for it may take place at
+any moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rely upon me entirely, Herr Professor,&quot; replied Frau Willmers; and
+Leuthold got hastily into his vehicle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now, that sly master of mine thinks all is secure, and that he has the
+heart of a girl of two-and-twenty under lock and key. How stupid these
+clever folks often are!&quot; After this fashion Frau Willmers soliloquized,
+as her master drove off.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_2.5" href="#div1Ref_2.5">CHAPTER V.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>FRUITLESS PRETENSIONS.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your new dress-coat has come from the tailor's,&quot; was Frau Herbert's
+greeting to her husband, upon his entrance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed! where is it?&quot; he asked gruffly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In the next room, on the bed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On the bed!&quot; her husband snapped out. &quot;So that it may be covered with
+lint? How careless!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Herbert looked down, and was silent. Herbert hurried into the next
+room to rescue his slighted property.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Professor Herbert's dwelling-room was rather small and low, but there
+appeared, at a cursory glance, an air of elegance about it. The chairs
+and lounges were covered with fine woollen stuff, the curtains were
+richly embroidered, and an elegant cabinet, with mirrored doors,
+closely locked, apparently contained silver plate. Upon a closer
+inspection, however, the furniture was found to be stuffed with straw,
+the curtains were shabby, with the holes in them not even darned, and
+the cabinet contained only broken household-utensils, with the remains
+of the previous meal, locked up there to be safe from the hungry
+servant-maid. Even the arm-chair by the window, occupied by Frau
+Herbert, evidently an invalid, was as hard as a stone. The only thing
+in the room of real and decided value was a collection of old English
+copper-plates that decorated the walls of the apartment, representing
+scenes from Shakspeare's plays and Roman history. These old pictures
+were one of Professor Herbert's fancies; and he belonged to that class
+of men with whom the necessities of a wife and of the household are
+never considered in comparison with the gratification of their fancies.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Herbert was one of those unfortunate women who, in the
+consciousness that they are burdens to their husbands, believe
+themselves called to endure everything, even the grossest injustice,
+with meekness, and who hold it their duty to entreat forgiveness of
+their lords and masters for continuing to exist at all. The sight of
+that quiet woman, with her sad face, upon which pain had ploughed deep
+furrows, sitting at the window mending the straw-coloured gloves in
+which her husband was, in the evening, to play the part of an æsthetic
+exquisite, while she lay suffering at home, would instantly suggest the
+complete picture of an unhappy wife tied to the side of a cold-blooded
+egotist.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor Professor Herbert!&quot; people were wont to say, &quot;what a misfortune
+it is for a man to have such an invalid wife!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But a closer observer of the pair would have said, &quot;What a misfortune
+for an invalid wife to have such a husband!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The miserable woman, however, had no such thought; she would gladly
+have died,--not only to be free from suffering, but that her husband
+might be rid of her presence. In her inmost heart she despised his
+selfishness and want of feeling. She knew that a worthier man would
+have had consideration for her and patience with her, as her burden was
+surely the heavier; but she was too much afraid of her husband to put
+such thoughts in words, even to her own mind. Suffering that is
+incessant, and that undermines the physical frame, must gradually
+weaken the mind; and thus the only strength of the hapless wife
+consisted in hopeless endurance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Professor Herbert entered in his new coat, and surveyed himself
+attentively in the large mirror.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It fits well,--does it not?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well! but it is very expensive.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did the bill come with it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, that is not so bad. Hecht is certainly the best tailor in the
+city.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A shade of bitter feeling passed across his wife's face and she could
+not refrain from saying, &quot;When I recollect that you lately refused to
+let me have the shawl I so needed, that did not cost half so much,
+and----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The money for your dress all goes to the apothecary, my dear,&quot; Herbert
+replied, with a sneer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dress!&quot; his wife repeated,--&quot;you would be ashamed to walk in the
+street with me,--my clothes are so shabby.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No one expects much elegance from an invalid whose illness costs her
+husband so much money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Herbert cast a glance at her husband, but she said not a word
+more. For one moment she leaned her weary head against the back of her
+chair, but the position was too uncomfortable, and she resumed her
+work, thinking with pain how the physician had imperatively recommended
+her to procure a more comfortable chair, in which she could sleep
+sitting up,--but now this small luxury, as well as all the rest, had
+been denied her!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly the door opened, and in rustled and fluttered a creature half
+child, half old maid,--half butterfly, half bat. Around her head
+floated a mass of very light curls. A <i>nez retroussé</i> gave to her face
+a naïve air of youthfulness, which, however, the crafty, eager
+expression of her small eyes contradicted. Just so her teeth, short and
+wide apart, resembled those of a young child who has shed his first
+set, while the wrinkles about her thin, open lips indicated an age of
+thirty years at least. The figure, crowned by this strange head
+with its huge mane of curls, was delicate and slender as that of a
+half-grown girl. Her hands were small, but wrinkled like those of an
+old woman. She was dressed in thin, flowing garments,--her round straw
+hat was adorned by long, light-brown ribbons. Her gait, bearing, and
+address were light, airy, sylph-like. It was evident at the first
+glance that she was a creature who believed herself highly poetic,
+richly gifted, breathing a charmed atmosphere, and that although she
+might in reality be thirty years old she had in imagination never
+passed sweet sixteen. Such a creature is only conceivable with a sheet
+of music or a sketch-book in her hand; and, in obedience to a
+mysterious law of nature, this too was not wanting in the present
+instance. &quot;Brother, darling!&quot; she cried, skipping up to Herbert, &quot;how
+charming you are in your new coat! Aha, are you going to the Möllner's
+reception this evening? Yes!&quot; Trilling a little air, she laid aside her
+book, hat, and gloves. &quot;Tra-la-la-la--oh, I am so happy to-day I cannot
+talk, I can only sing.&quot; And she hummed the refrain of the charming song
+by Taubert, &quot;I know not why, but sing I must!&quot; Then she remembered that
+she had not yet spoken to her brother's wife. &quot;Oh, dear Ulrika, forgive
+me for not asking how you are. No better yet? Ah! your little Elsa is
+so agitated to-day! I feel--I can't tell how--my bosom heaves and
+thrills as with the breath of May! I must go to my work. To-day I feel
+sure, in my present frame of mind, I must create something!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she was about to hover away to the blissful retirement of her own
+room, when Herbert, who had meanwhile exchanged his new coat for a
+light summer sacque, cried after her, &quot;Stay here a moment, and speak at
+least one sensible word before you go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She paused.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What are you going to attempt now? I am really afraid to trust you by
+yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She skipped up to her brother again and roguishly laid her finger on
+his lips, looking archly in his eyes. &quot;Dearest brother, I shall
+surprise you! I have an idea!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray cease your folly for the present. You do not want to flirt with
+your brother, I hope? Tell me, what is your idea? If it is good for
+anything, it will be the first of its kind that you have ever had in
+your head.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you discourteous brother!&quot; pouted the fair indignant, &quot;to grieve
+your sister so! But, since you bid me, I will obey you, and give you a
+glimpse into the transparent depths of an artist's soul. Every maiden
+must practise the sweet duty of obedience, that she may one day gladden
+a husband's heart by her submission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, well, to the point!&quot; cried Herbert impatiently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Elsa bashfully cast down her eyes, and, stammering with the charming
+embarrassment of an artistic nature, said, &quot;When, a few days ago, I
+asked Professor Möllner what lady author was his favourite, he answered
+me in jest, 'She who has written the best cookery book!' I am going to
+show the mocking man that I can do that too. Oh, how amazed he will be
+when he finds that the wealth of fancy in my soul can beautify and
+transfigure what is so prosaic! This it is that he deems the charm of
+womanhood,--the power to seize and mould to beauty the commonplace and
+sordid. I am going to publish a cookery book in verse, with
+illustrations, and entitle it 'The German Wife at the Hearth of Home.'
+Only think what splendid initial letters and arabesques I can have! I
+will show that a bunch of parsley can be as gracefully arranged as
+roses or violets. Such lovely green borders to the pages must always be
+beautiful, whether composed of parsley, lettuce, or sorrel; and, if a
+warmer colour is desirable, I will paint a couple of blushing radishes
+peeping, half hidden, from among the leaves, and there you have as
+perfect a picture as any of our famous artistes have produced of
+Spring. Is not the meanest kitchen-stuff the work of the Creator, and
+as beautiful as any other of his creations? And there can be such
+variety in the volume. For example, the chapter of receipts for cooking
+fish can have a title-page of its own, after the style of the
+engravings in Schleiden's 'Wonders of the Deep.' Beneath a placid
+crystal lake may be seen sporting together all the fish alluded to in
+the ensuing chapter. Branches of coral are wreathed in and out, and,
+illuminated by the rosy light of the setting sun, water-lilies float
+upon the calm surface of the water. Every chapter will have a suitable
+title-page, displaying in its native element the animal to be
+cooked,--game in the forest, fleeing from the pursuing huntsman and
+hounds,--the dove hovering above the ark, with the olive-branch in her
+beak,--domestic fowls, in the Dutch style, cooped in their accustomed
+poultry yard. Fruit and vegetables can be treated as still-life, in
+arabesques, and decorating the margins of single recipes. At the end of
+the book a picture representing a family seated at dinner. Over their
+heads, in gothic letters, the line, 'Lord Jesus, come and be our
+guest.' And, in pursuance of this invitation, he must be seated at the
+head of the table, in the midst of a brilliant halo of glory. On either
+side of the table sit the children, and at the foot the happy husband
+and wife, each offering food to the other. Angels are in attendance
+upon the able,--the angels of harmony, peace, and content. The wife
+sits with her face turned from the spectator, but the husband--and this
+is the grand point--the husband will be a portrait!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She paused, carried away by her poetic dreams, and by the thought of
+the immense success that the book must command.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, and whom is the portrait to represent?--me, perhaps?&quot; asked
+Herbert with a sneer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You? Oh, no. Ah, rogue! can you not guess? Heavens! do not look at me
+so,--you know whom I mean!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Möllner?&quot; asked her brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,--you have guessed it. Oh, when I think of the smile that will
+play around that proud mouth as he beholds his portrait drawn by my
+hand, as he sees how his image is present with me everywhere in all
+that I think and do! Oh, it will, it must touch him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, it will touch him uncommonly,&quot; remarked Herbert; &quot;and there will
+be a charming scene when he presents his inamorata, the Hartwich, with
+the work, that she may learn cookery from it. Do not forget to add a
+receipt for broiling frogs' legs, by which she can dress the frogs that
+they use together for their physiological experiments.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Edmund!&quot; exclaimed Elsa, startled and a little vexed, &quot;your words
+are full of wormwood to-day. Go,--your caustic wit destroys all my
+flowers of fancy. This is why I always avoid you when I am about to
+begin a work. What pleasure can it give you to thrust me from my
+paradise? Is it right? Let the soul that can find no home on this rude
+earth seek it in brighter realms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she raised her eyes to the ceiling, and laid her wrinkled little
+hand upon her breast. &quot;Mine is a modest, shrinking soul,--its childlike
+trust and hope are all that I possess. Dear brother, do not you rob me
+of them, as long as no other hand snatches them from me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you must find out at last that your hopes are vain, and therefore
+I wish to warn you, that you may not make yourself ridiculous by an
+untimely parade of your feelings. I know, from the most trustworthy
+sources, that Möllner has been to Hochstetten to see the Hartwich, and
+that he spent two hours with her. Rhyme that with his enthusiasm for
+her at the meeting the other day, and complete the verse yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Elsa looked down and thought for a minute or two, then she sighed and
+shook her flowing mane, saying, &quot;No, it cannot, cannot be! That
+man-woman may excite his curiosity, she cannot win his heart! No, no,
+Elsa has no fear that Lohengrün will be misled by Ortrude! And now to
+work, that the day may soon come when he will ask, 'Elsa, whose is the
+face of the wife who sits at table by my side?' Then I shall avert my
+face and reply, 'That you know best.' Oh, darling brother! dearest
+sister! he will turn my blushing countenance to him then, and say,
+'This is her face!' Oh, I must go: the breath of spring is wafted
+towards me from my studio. Yes, yes, I feel that the Muses await me
+there.&quot; With these words she rustled and fluttered away to her room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Herbert looked after her with a sad, almost a compassionate,
+glance. &quot;Tell me, Edmund,&quot; she said to her husband, &quot;did you ever for
+one moment believe that such a man as Möllner would marry that girl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why not? There are many more unequal matches made every day: the only
+thing is to man&#339;uvre the matter skilfully. If poor Elsa had as
+managing a mother as you were blessed with, the affair would certainly
+not be beyond the bounds of possibility. But the poor thing has no one
+to help her but myself, and we men are clumsier at match-making than
+the most stupid of women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Herbert looked pained and crushed by this attack upon her mother
+and herself. She thought it, however, beneath her dignity to reply to
+it. She only said very quietly, &quot;I am glad, Edmund, that there is one
+creature in the world for whom you have some regard, or even blind
+affection. Well, she is your sister. I, too, love the poor thing, but I
+cannot believe that she will ever succeed in kindling one spark of
+interest in Möllner's breast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have always regarded her with jaundiced eyes,&quot; Herbert went on to
+say. &quot;You talk as though she were a monster. She is no longer young,
+but there is still something youthful about her. She is not, it is
+true, a genius, but her nature is really artistic. She is not pretty,
+but an enthusiast like Möllner is more observant of inner graces than
+physical beauty, and he cannot fail to be impressed by her beauty of
+soul. It certainly is true that he always distinguishes her in society.
+Does he not always take her to supper when she is unprovided with an
+escort, as is usually the case? When all the others avoid her, is not
+Möllner sure to sit and talk with her? Such a conscientious prig as
+Möllner would not do that unless he had some object in view; and if she
+has no other charm for him, her undisguised admiration of him would
+attract him to her, for he has a due amount of vanity, and every one
+must take pleasure in being so fanatically adored. If it were not for
+that confounded Hartwich, who knows how far he might be brought! But I
+will be revenged upon her, she may rely upon that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why visit your anger upon the innocent? How can it be this stranger's
+fault that Möllner is more interested by her genius than by our Elsa's
+sentimental dilettanteism, her perpetual attempts and failures? His
+courtesy to her in society always seemed to me prompted by his
+humanity. She certainly makes herself very ridiculous,--you must see
+that; and a man of Möllner's kindly, chivalric character cannot permit
+an innocent, harmless girl to be made sport of, and, accordingly, he
+constitutes himself her protector, and tries generously to indemnify
+her for the neglect of others. He does not dream that Elsa's vanity
+builds all kinds of schemes upon his conduct, or he would never forgive
+himself----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Enough, enough!&quot; Herbert interrupted her angrily. &quot;I cannot see how,
+with the pain in your face, you manage to talk so much. I can
+understand that Elsa is disagreeable to you because I have educated
+her, but I cannot understand how, tied to your invalid chair as you
+are, you have contrived to fall in love with this Möllner. Indeed, if I
+had not had hopes of marrying him to my sister, I should have broken
+with the arrogant pedant long ago, for I hate him as much as you women,
+old and young, adore him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Herbert looked with a quiet, thoughtful expression at the speaker,
+who had worked himself into a violent rage, and then she silently
+resumed her work, suppressing the words that rose to her lips,--for she
+possessed the rare talent of knowing when to be silent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert waited for some minutes for a reply which might afford him
+further opportunity for venting his spleen, but, receiving none, he
+turned away, and was about to seek his study.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Just then there was a knock at the door, and the postman entered, with
+a thick square parcel in his hand. Herbert grew pale at sight of it,
+and his wife too looked sad and sorry.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your manuscript?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My manuscript,&quot; he said, writing his name in the mail-book with an
+unsteady hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There's a gulden and twenty-four kreutzers to pay,&quot; said the
+messenger.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So much?&quot; growled Herbert, counting out the money carefully by
+groschen and kreutzers. When the man had left the room, Herbert hastily
+tore open the envelope, and a letter appeared, which he hurriedly
+looked through and handed to his wife with a look of despair. The
+letter was from the manager of the royal court theatre at X----, and
+ran thus:</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">&quot;To <span class="sc">Herr Professor Herbert</span>, of N----:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am greatly concerned, sir, to be obliged to return you your tragedy
+of 'Penthesilea,' as it presents insurmountable difficulties for scenic
+representation. The secrecy enjoined upon me shall be inviolably
+preserved.</p>
+
+<p style="text-indent:50%">&quot;With great respect, etc.,</p>
+
+<p class="right">&quot;W----.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Herbert looked up with a sigh at her husband, who stood pale and
+trembling beside her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There goes my last hope,&quot; he said, tearing up the letter. &quot;I forgave
+all the other managers and directors for sending back the manuscript,
+for they are incapable of appreciating the value of such a work. But no
+one can accuse a man like W---- of not appreciating genuine art, and if
+he refuses to bring it out he must be actuated by envy. However that
+may be, in these lines he has written his own death-warrant.&quot; He raised
+his hand containing the crushed letter with something like solemnity,
+and continued: &quot;I now declare war upon the German stage and its
+supporters. If I have nothing to hope, I have nothing to fear. I have
+written six tragedies for the waste-paper basket. I will not write
+another. Having nothing to fear, I may allow myself the delight of
+revenge. Criticism is an all-embracing friend, affording a sure refuge
+for every one who is misunderstood and depreciated. I will throw myself
+into its arms from this moment. Our public is degenerate. I give up
+composing for a people who crowd to a farce, shout applause at the
+commonplace jests of the hero of a modern comedy, and dissolve in tears
+at a sensation drama from a woman's pen. Shakspeare's, Schiller's, and
+Goethe's works would be rejected to-day as 'pulpit eloquence,' if past
+ages had not stamped them as classic. This degraded generation must be
+educated anew by criticism. They sneer and jeer, and jingle the money
+in their pockets, these traders of the drama, who demoralise the
+public; but I will so scourge them that I shall be called the Attila of
+the German stage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused, for breath failed him to continue his philippic, and he
+began to read over his manuscript, murmuring to himself, &quot;This is for
+the future.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Herbert, as was her wont, suffered him to rage on without
+interruption; but at last she was compelled, out of regard for truth,
+to attempt to check the outpourings of the angry man. &quot;It is a mournful
+office,&quot; she began, &quot;that of literary executioner, and one I should be
+sorry to undertake. There is no good done to anybody by it. Many a
+blossoming genius is destroyed in the bud, and the critic brings upon
+himself the curses of those who have been striving and labouring
+honestly, night and day, only to see the offspring of all their pains
+ruthlessly murdered by the cold steel of his criticism. And the public
+do not thank you for degrading in its eyes what it had taken pleasure
+in, and thus robbing it of much enjoyment. Schiller and Goethe never
+practised criticism after this fashion. They knew how to live and let
+live, for they were too great to wish to aggrandize themselves at the
+expense of their contemporaries, and too good to destroy the results of
+the painful labours of others. Oh, Edmund, how small the man must be
+who can seek to exalt himself by depreciating others!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are preaching again without sense or reason,&quot; Herbert said angrily
+to his wife. &quot;It was very easy for Schiller and Goethe to play at
+magnanimity, for they were never misunderstood,--the wiser generation
+of their day did not refuse them the crowns that belonged to them of
+right. A king by election would be a fool to make war upon the vassals
+of his realm. But the nation refuses me my right, and therefore I shall
+make war upon it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you so sure of this right?&quot; Frau Herbert asked in a low tone. &quot;Are
+you so sure that your works are of equal value with Schiller's and
+Goethe's, and deserve the same applause?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert stood as if petrified at the presumption of such a speech. &quot;I
+really think the pain must have gone from your face to your brain. We
+had better discontinue this conversation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Herbert went on with her work. A slight flush tinged her bloodless
+cheek, but she was too used to such attacks to reply to them. She had
+already said too much of what she thought, and when she looked at
+Herbert's anxious face she was seized with compassion. Poorly as he
+bore it, he had met with misfortune, and she would not add to his
+pain. &quot;Pray, Edmund,&quot; she said, after a pause, occupied by Herbert in
+seeking and finding consolation in the beauties of his manuscript,
+&quot;make up your mind now to read the piece to your friends. There are so
+many intellectual people here who will give you their opinion
+honestly,--then you can see what impression your work makes as a whole,
+and perhaps their criticism may enable you to improve it here and
+there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I desire no one's opinion. I know perfectly well myself what the
+tragedy is worth. Shall I give occasion to have it said that I needed
+the assistance of others to enable me to complete my work? And then to
+have it reported that I composed dramas that were always rejected! No,
+I will not acknowledge a work that has met with no applause; neither my
+brother professors nor my students must hear of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The handle of the door was turned, and through the opening smiled
+another opening,--Elsa's large mouth. When she saw the gloom
+overspreading her brother's countenance, her snub-nose, too, made its
+appearance, and, finally, her entire lovely person. She wore a white
+apron with a bib, calico over-sleeves, and had one pencil in her hand
+and another behind her right ear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your voices disturbed me at my work. Why contend thus? You know that
+my exquisite fancies are scared away, like timid birds, by the
+slightest noise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is a fine time to consider your nonsense, when such a work as my
+'Penthesilea' has been returned to its author as 'unserviceable!'&quot;
+thundered her brother.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heavens!&quot; cried Elsa in dismay. &quot;Penthesilea rejected by W----! Oh,
+who would have thought it! I so revered that man! My poor brother, this
+is hard! But, brother, dear Edmund, do not be too much depressed! Oh, I
+feel with you entirely. Any one who knows as well as I do what it is to
+have works rejected, can understand your pain. And what says my poor
+Ulrika? She looks so disappointed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you need not pity her!&quot; observed Herbert bitterly. &quot;Her husband's
+incapacity alone, not his misfortune, troubles her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Herbert turned her face towards the window, as if she had not
+heard him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you must forgive her, brother dear--she has never done anything
+but translate. She cannot know a poet's finer feeling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At this disparaging remark, Frau Herbert looked calmly and gravely at
+Elsa. &quot;And yet my unpretending translations for the periodicals supply
+us with the only means upon which we can rely, apart from Edmund's
+salary and the small interest of my property. That is because I never
+attempt what lies beyond my reach. No undertaking, however humble, that
+keeps pace with one's ability, can fail to produce some fruit, small
+though it may be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Elsa turned away, rather taken aback by this turn of the conversation,
+and her brother muttered, &quot;Of course this is the sequel to the fine
+talk about attempting and failing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Elsa threw herself down upon a cushion at his feet, in Clärchen's
+attitude before Egmont, patted his smoothly shaven cheeks, and
+taking the thick manuscript out of his hand, pressed it to her bosom,
+saying, &quot;Take comfort, my poet. Your 'Penthesilea' must always live!
+Here,--here,--and in the hearts of all. Print it, and publish it as a
+dramatic poem. It will find readers among the most intellectual people
+of the country.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a good sister,&quot; said Herbert, flattered. &quot;But you know that I
+have never yet been able to find a publisher enlightened enough to
+bring out my tragedies. And my own means are not sufficient to enable
+me to print the work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, brother dear, I cannot believe that 'Penthesilea' would not find a
+publisher. It is the greatest thing you have ever written. The coarsest
+of men must be touched by such elevation of thought. There may perhaps
+be some difficulty in representing fitly upon the stage the conflict
+between Trojans, Greeks, and Amazons in the presence of the gigantic
+horse. But I cannot think that any one would refuse to print such a
+gem,--no--never! Yet, even in case of such incredible obtuseness, do
+not despair. My cookery-book will bring me in such a large sum that I
+shall be able to help you. Oh, what a strange freak of destiny, should
+I be permitted by means of a cookery-book to afford the German nation
+the knowledge of this immortal work! The ways of genius are
+inscrutable, and perhaps 'Penthesilea' may one day be born from the
+steam of a soup-tureen, as Aphrodite was from the foam of the sea.
+There, now, you are smiling once more. May not your sister contribute
+somewhat to her brother's success?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a dear poetical child. Although I do not share your
+anticipations, your appreciation of my efforts does me good. Thank
+you!&quot; And darling Edmund laid his hand upon his sister's curly head as
+it lay tenderly upon his breast.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_2.6" href="#div1Ref_2.6">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>EMANCIPATION OF THE FLESH.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">On the evening of this eventful day, Professor Herbert, before going to
+the Möllners', entered a splendid boudoir in a retired villa on the
+outskirts of the city. The entire room formed a tent of crimson damask
+shot with gold and gathered in huge folds to a rosette in the centre of
+the ceiling. Around the walls were ranged low Turkish divans of the
+same material. The floor was covered with crimson-plush rugs as thick
+and soft as mossy turf. Turkish pipes and costly weapons of all
+kinds,--shields, swords, pistols, and daggers,--adorned the walls. In
+the background of the apartment slender columns supported a canopy
+above a lounge, before which was spread a lion's skin, with the head
+carefully preserved. Upon the floor beside it stood an elegant
+apparatus for smoking opium. A riding-whip, the handle set with
+diamonds, lay upon a table of bronze and malachite. A Chinese salver,
+heaped with cigars, was upon a low stand beside the lounge. Upon a
+polished marble pedestal in the centre of the room stood a bronze of
+the Farnese bull, and to the right and left of the lounge were placed
+bronzes of the horse-tamers of the Monte Cavallo at Rome. The rich
+hangings of the walls were draped over candelabra holding lamps of
+ground glass.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The smoke of a cigar was circling in blue rings around the room, that
+was far more fit for a Turkish pasha than for a lady. And yet it was
+the abode of a lady, and it was the smoke from her cigar that encircled
+Herbert upon his entrance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At first he only saw, resting on the lion's skin, two beautiful little
+feet in Russian slippers embroidered with pearls. The drapery of the
+canopy above the lounge concealed the rest of the figure. He advanced a
+few steps, and there, stretched comfortably upon the swelling cushions,
+reclined a woman beside whom all other works of nature were but
+journey-work,--such a woman as appears in the world now and then to
+cast utterly into the shade all that men have hitherto deemed
+beautiful. Herbert stood dazzled and blinded by the apparition before
+him. He was dressed in his new coat, and had an elegant cane in his
+hand, that was covered by a glove, upon which his wife had that morning
+employed her skill. But what was he, in all his elegance, by the side
+of this woman! He stood there dumb &quot;in the consciousness of his
+nothingness.&quot; What could he be to her, or what could he give her? She
+was the woman of her race! She must mate with the man of her race, as
+the last giantess in the Nibelungen Lied could love only the last
+giant. Was he in his fine new coat this man of men,--the Siegfried to
+conquer this Brunhilda? Ah, he was but too conscious that he was
+nothing but a poor weakling, whose only strength lay in his passionate
+admiration of her!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Aha, here comes our little Philister,&quot; said the fair Brunhilda in
+broken German with a yawn, holding out her soft hand to him and drawing
+him down upon the lounge beside her like a child. Herbert sank into the
+luxurious cushions, that almost met, like waves, above him. The
+position did not at all suit his stiff, erect bearing, which was
+entirely wanting in the graceful suppleness of the born aristocrat who
+lolls with ease upon silken cushions. Such a seat would become a man in
+loose flowing costume, with an opium-pipe between his lips, and ready
+when wearied to fall asleep with his head pillowed upon the lady's lap.
+Poor Herbert was not one of these favourites of Fortune. He sat there
+stiff and wooden as a broken-jointed doll,--his pointed knees emerging
+from his downy nest, and his tight-fitting clothes stretched almost to
+their destruction by his unusual posture. He timidly placed his hat
+upon the stand beside him, and envied it its loftier position.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How now, my learned gentleman?&quot; the lady began again. &quot;What! dumb?
+What is the matter now?--what ails you?--domestic misery? Pardon! I
+mean conjugal bliss.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is my constant trouble, dearest countess,&quot; Herbert replied,
+&quot;although its dust never cleaves to my wings when I am with you. It is
+not that that worries me to-day. My Penthesilea----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess laughed loudly, and puffed out a cloud of smoke to the
+ceiling. &quot;Here it comes! It is either his wife or his Penthesilea that
+teases him! I hope both may rest in eternal peace before long, for an
+unhappy husband and a tragedy are as much out of place in this boudoir
+as the fragrance of eau de Cologne or chamomile-tea--those horrid
+accompaniments of a sick-room!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And yet it was you, fairest countess, that inspired me to embalm in
+classic verse that bold Amazon of antiquity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That may be, and yet, my good fellow, believe me, Penthesilea herself
+would have considered it a terrible bore to have to read of her glory
+in a German tragedy. Come; don't be offended Have a cigar. Do you want
+fire to light it? Here; I will give you more than you need.&quot; And, with
+a laugh, she leaned towards him and lighted his cigar by her own.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You know you can do whatever you please with me,&quot; said Herbert, making
+a feeble attempt to twist his legs into a more comfortable position.
+&quot;But take care not to go too far!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oho! my Herr Professor would fain mount his high horse?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, only take a higher seat,&quot; said Herbert involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, sit on this ottoman, you wooden German with no sense of
+Oriental ease. There! will that do? When you really wish to mount a
+high horse, I pray you take mine. How often I have placed my Ali at
+your disposal! Do let me enjoy the delight of once seeing you on
+horseback! Will you not? Oh, it would be delightful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thanks! thanks! I would do all that you desire,--even go to the death
+for you,--but it is rather too much to ask me to make a laughing-stock
+of myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, just take one walk with me, arm-in-arm. Oh, what a face of
+alarm my honourable gentleman puts on! He will go to the death for me,
+but not across the street. Ah, what a glorious hero for a tragedy he
+looks now! Hush! I know just what you would say,--wife, sister,
+cousins, aunts, good name, reputation as professor,--'great dread,' as
+Holy Writ hath it, would 'fall on all!' Every coffee-cup and tea-cup in
+the city of N---- would rattle abroad the startling news that Professor
+Herbert had been seen escorting the wild countess across the street.
+But it is all <i>en règle</i> to slip around here in the twilight, and kiss
+my hands and feet, and then, at your evening party afterwards, shrug
+your shoulders at the mention of my name. For shame, Herbert! you are a
+cowardly fellow, fit for nothing but to be a <i>messager d'amour</i> between
+myself and Möllner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Countess,&quot; said Herbert menacingly, &quot;do not goad me too far, or you
+will repent it! You know my passion for you--know that I would dare all
+for a single kiss from your lips; but you leave me thirsty at the
+fountain's brink,--hungry beside a spread table,--and you heap me with
+scorn. No living man could endure such treatment!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, <i>point d'argent, point de Suisse</i>,&quot; cried the countess.
+&quot;For every piece of good news of Möllner that you bring me, you shall
+have a kiss. For the sake of that man I would hold an asp to my breast!
+Why should I refuse a kiss to a German Philister like yourself? But you
+must first taste all the torment of rejected love, that you may make
+all the more haste to put an end to mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is a poor prospect for me, countess; for I hardly think I shall
+ever be able to bring you good news. All that I can do is to bring you
+news of him; and if you refuse to reward the bad, as well as the good,
+my lips shall be sealed--you must seek another confidant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He rose, as if to go; but she took his hand, and looked beseechingly at
+him with her large, lustrous eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herbert!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The poor professor could not withstand that look, nor the tone in which
+she uttered that one word. He sank upon the lion-skin at her feet, and
+pressed his lips upon the pearls and silk of her embroidered slipper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;See, now, you are not as unkind as you would have me believe you,&quot; she
+said, looking down upon him with a contemptuous smile, that he,
+fortunately, did not perceive.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, have some compassion upon me,&quot; he moaned. &quot;I am most miserable! My
+home is a scene of ceaseless complaint. A wife disfigured and crippled
+by disease, so that she fills my soul with aversion, and, whenever I
+need rest from the thousand annoyances of my profession, only adds to
+their number. Then I am overwhelmed by vexations of every kind,--my
+talents are slighted,--whatever I attempt fails. And then this contrast
+when I come to you! Before me here lies all that is fairest and
+loveliest that earth has to offer; but the delight that I feel in
+beholding it is an insidious poison, eating into my very life,--for
+nothing--nothing of all this splendour is mine. I stand like a boy
+before the Christmas-tree that has been decked for another,--I am here
+only to light the lights upon the tree, that another may behold his
+bliss; and when I have induced that other to appreciate and take
+possession of his wealth, then--then I must turn and go empty away! Oh,
+it is dreadful!&quot; He buried his face in the lion's mane, and, by the
+motion of his shoulders, he was plainly weeping.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess looked down upon him with the compassion that one feels
+for a singed moth. Had it been possible, she would have crushed him
+beneath her foot for very pity,--just as we put an end to the insect's
+sufferings; but, as it was not possible, and as, moreover, she had need
+of the man, she raised him graciously, and again seated him upon the
+cushions beside her. &quot;You shall not go away empty-handed, my good
+fellow. I told you before I will make you a rich man. If you only bring
+Möllner to my side, my banker shall give you, as long as I live----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Countess!&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;do not carry your scorn of me too far. I am
+sunk low enough, it is true, since I thus chaffer and bargain with you
+to sell you my assistance for a single kiss. For this single caress I
+would resign my life! The thought of you is the madness that robs me of
+sleep at night, makes me hesitate and stammer when I stand before my
+pupils in the lecture-room, and prevents me from enjoying the food that
+I eat. A single kiss from you is more bliss than such a wretched man as
+I should hope to enjoy. But I am not yet sunk so low as to hire myself
+out for money, and although you may hold me in contempt, you shall at
+least pay some respect to the position of German professor, which I
+have the honour to hold!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess was silent for awhile, struck by his words. But such
+embarrassment could last but a moment with a woman conscious of the
+power to atone by a smile for the grossest insult. &quot;Come here! Forgive
+me! I have erred, but I repent.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, light of my life!&quot; cried Herbert, seizing her offered hand, and
+pressing it to his breast. &quot;Forgive--forgive you? With what unnumbered
+pains would I not purchase the joy of such a request! The only thing I
+cannot forgive you is that such a woman as you should love this
+Möllner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed!--and why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because he is not worthy of you. Look you,--were you to give yourself
+to an emperor or a king, I could bear it without a murmur. Crowned
+heads are entitled to the costliest of earth's treasures,--how could I
+covet what kings alone could win? But that one of my own class should
+call you his,--one with no special claim of birth, culture, or
+intellect,--with nothing that I too do not myself possess, except a
+physique that is his in common with any prize-fighter,--the thought is
+madness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A dark flush coloured the beautiful woman's brow. &quot;I have not even
+acknowledged to myself why I love this Möllner. I never hold myself
+responsible for my impulses--every passion bears its divine credentials
+in itself. But you have just revealed to me what so enraptures me in
+this Möllner. Yes! it is nothing else than what we admire as the
+highest attribute of humanity--a noble, genuine manhood. I think I have
+read in some poet, 'Take him for all in all, he was a man!' But this
+man is more; he is what I have never in my life seen before,--a
+virtuous man. This, my good little professor, is his charm, his
+advantage over monarchs even,--enabling him to buy what is his now and
+forever,--my heart! Oh, there can be no more exquisite flower in the
+garden of Paradise than this which I hope to pluck--the devotion of
+this virtuous man. It is the bliss of Eve when she breathed the first
+kiss upon the lips of the first man and marked his first blush!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The beautiful woman, speaking more to herself than to the miserable man
+by her side, leaned back upon her lounge and exclaimed with a heavy
+sigh, &quot;Oh, what a divine office for a woman--to teach a man like this
+to love!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert reflected for a moment. He had been playing the traitor here,
+and, in the hope of winning Johannes for his sister, had never said
+anything to him in favour of this woman. He had deceived her with
+falsehoods, that he might be retained as her confidant as long as
+possible, and perhaps profit by her waning interest in his colleague.
+But now all his hopes and plans were ruined. Möllner loved the
+Hartwich, and was lost for Elsa,--who might, at all events, be avenged
+of her hated rival by means of the countess. The all-conquering charms
+of the Worronska should subdue Möllner, and he, Herbert, would
+receive--all that was left for him in the general shipwreck--the
+gratitude at least of the countess.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He began at last, after a severe inward conflict. &quot;I have a
+communication for you, but it will make you angry. I cannot, however,
+feel justified as your friend in withholding it from you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well?&quot; inquired the Amazon, lighting a fresh cigar.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have discovered that Möllner is in love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess started, and looked at Herbert as if in a dream. The smoke
+from the freshly-lighted cigar issued in a cloud from her half-opened
+lips, and she looked like a beautiful fiend breathing fire.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whom does he love?&quot; she asked, her eyes flaming as if she would force
+the name from Herbert before his lips could find time to utter it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you ever heard of a learned woman called Hartwich?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes! she too is emancipated.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True, but not at all after your fashion, countess,&quot; Herbert corrected
+her, maliciously enjoying the torture to which the haughty woman was
+put. &quot;You are emancipated for the sake of pleasure--she is emancipated
+for the sake of principle. She is a rare person, and fills Möllner with
+admiration of her genius!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, and it is she?&quot; she cried, stamping her little foot upon the
+soft carpet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is in love with her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">For the first time, the countess sprang up from her lounge, and stood
+before Herbert in all the majesty of her person. Her gold-embroidered
+Turkish robe hung in heavy folds around her. Her dark hair fell in
+loosened masses upon her shoulders. The glitter of her long diamond
+ear-rings betrayed the tremor that agitated her whole frame. Her low,
+classic brow, with its bold, strongly-marked eyebrows,--her mouth,
+shaped like a bow, with lips parted,--her firm, massive throat,--the
+whole figure, so powerfully and yet so perfectly formed,--all suggested
+the Niobe, only the passion that swayed her was rage, not suffering.
+&quot;Is this true? Is it really true? I must hear all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert told her all that he had seen and heard.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess was silent for one moment, as if paralyzed by
+astonishment. Then she muttered, as if to herself, a few broken words
+that Herbert could not understand, but at last her rage overflowed her
+lips and reached his ears.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is a first time for everything. This is the first time that a
+man honoured by my notice has loved another.&quot; She strode up and down
+the room so hurriedly that the flame of the lamps flickered as she
+passed them. She threw her cigar into the fireplace. &quot;Must I endure it?
+I? Oh, cursed be the day when the count came here for his health! For
+this I have spent my months of widowhood since his death, in this hole,
+away from all the enchantments of the world, even timidly waiting and
+hoping like a bride,--no society about me but my horses, dogs,
+and--you! For this, for this,--that I might learn that there lives a
+man who can withstand me. The lesson, it is true, was well worth the
+trouble!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She struck her forehead. &quot;Oh that I had never gone to that lecture!
+then I might never, perhaps, have seen him. Why did I not stay away?
+What do I care about physiology, anatomy, or whatever the trash is
+called? I heard this Möllner was distinguished among his fellows, and
+curiosity impelled me to go. Fool that I was, to imagine that he saw me
+there and admired me as I did him!&quot; She stood still, and involuntarily
+lost herself in thought &quot;Ye gods! how glorious the man was that
+evening! The brow, the hair, the eyes, were all of Jove himself. I felt
+myself blush like a girl of sixteen, when I met his eye. And such
+grace, such dignity! His voice, too,--melodious as a deep-toned bell. I
+did not understand what he said; but there was no need, his voice was
+such harmony that no words were wanting to the charm. It was a
+symphony,--no, finer still, for that we only hear, and in him the
+delight of sight was added. The movements of those lips--how
+inimitable! And then his smile!&quot; She paused,--her cheeks glowed, her
+eyes sparkled. It was a delight to her to lay bare her heart for once,
+careless as to what were the feelings of her auditor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And if that voice is so enchanting when it discourses upon dry,
+unmeaning topics, what must it be when it comes overflowing from his
+heart!&quot; She leaned against the pedestal of one of the bronzes, and
+covered her eyes with her hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert sat as if upon the rack,--he could not speak,--his voice denied
+him utterance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No man has seemed to me worthy of a glance since I saw him first.
+Bound by no vow, no duty, no right, I have still been true to him.
+Since loving him, I have first known a sense of what the moralist would
+call decorous reserve. For a woman who for the first time truly loves
+is in the first bloom of youth, whether she be sixteen or thirty. I was
+a wife before I was a woman, and the spring, that I had never known
+before, began to breathe around me beneath the magic influence of that
+man,--the maiden blossom of my life, crushed in the germ, budded anew.
+Oh, what would I not have been to him! I, with the experience of
+ripened womanhood and the first love of a girl! And scorned! I, for
+whose smile monarchs have contended, scorned by a simple German
+philosopher! Oh, it stings, it stings!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she hid her face again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert timidly approached her and touched her shoulder lightly with a
+trembling hand. &quot;Would that I could console you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She shrank from his touch as if a reptile had stung her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What consolation can you give me, except the relief that I have in
+pouring out my soul before you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She moved away, and again strode restlessly to and fro like a caged
+lioness. &quot;Fool, fool that I was! How could I suppose that the interest
+he took in my husband's case was due to my attractions? It was inspired
+by a hateful disease,--for this he came hither, and I thought he came
+for my sake! Oh, fie, fie! I stayed for love of him by that terrible
+sick-bed, and he had eyes only for the sick man,--he never even saw me
+standing beside him. Is he man, or devil?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no,&quot; Herbert interrupted her, with malice, &quot;he is only--a German
+philosopher.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And once, when I sank fainting in that room, what an arm supported me,
+strong as iron, and yet tender as the arm of a mother! He carried me
+like a child from the apartment. I held my breath, that nothing might
+arouse me from that enchanting dream. He laid me on a couch, saying,
+with icy composure, 'Allow me, madam, to call your maid. I must return
+to the patient.' My cheeks burned with mortification; for one moment I
+hated him, but when the door had closed behind him I revered him as a
+saint. I could have knelt at his feet, and, clasping his knees, bedewed
+his hands with penitential tears. But I restrained myself. I suddenly
+knew that this pure spirit could love nothing that he did not
+respect,--that I must first win that before I could hope for his love.
+I determined to begin a new life, to break with all the past. For no
+sacrifice would be too great to win the love of this man, and I sowed
+renunciation that I might reap delight. Fool that I was! I reap nothing
+but the reward of virtue!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She laughed bitterly, and a violent burst of tears quenched the fire in
+her brain. She threw herself down upon the lion's skin, unconsciously
+representing the Ariadne.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Loveliest of women!&quot; murmured Herbert, intoxicated by the sight. &quot;Is
+it not monstrous that such a woman should mourn over an unrequited
+love? Does he who could withstand such charms deserve the name of man?
+No, most certainly not. He is an overstrained pedant, the type of a
+German Philister, and if blind nature had not endowed him with the head
+of a Jove and the form of an athlete, the Countess Worronska would
+never have wasted a tear upon him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herbert, you shall not revile him! You cannot know how great he seems
+to me in thus coldly despising my beauty, as though he might choose
+amongst goddesses,--as though Olympus were around him, instead of this
+insignificant town filled with ugly, gossiping women. What a lofty
+ideal must have filled his fancy,--an ideal with which I could not
+compete! When he saw me first, he did not know this Hartwich. I
+remember how cold his eye was when he first saw me. He looked at me
+with the cool gaze of an anatomist. And it was always so. Whenever he
+visited my husband, he always treated me with the strictest formality.
+Always the same gentle, inviolable repose,--the same calm scrutiny that
+one accords to a fine picture, but not to a lovely woman. Oh, there is
+something overpowering, in all this, for a woman used to seeing all men
+at her feet!&quot; She sank into a gloomy reverie. At last she seized
+Herbert's hand. &quot;Herbert, who is she who has power to enchant this man?
+Is all contest with her useless? Must I resign all hope?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert, as if electrified by her touch, whispered scarcely audibly,
+&quot;Will you grant me that kiss if I show you how to annihilate the
+Hartwich in Möllner's eyes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A pause ensued.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is my only price. Without it I am dumb.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, take it, then!&quot; cried the countess, driven to extremity; and she
+held up to him her lovely lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But, as Herbert approached her, with the expression of a jackal
+thirsting for his prey, disgust overpowered the haughty woman, and she
+thrust the slender man from her so violently that he fell to the
+ground. She was terrified,--perhaps her impetuosity had ruined
+everything. She went to him and held out her hand. &quot;Stand up and
+forgive me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert stood up, pale as a ghost, with sunken, haggard eyes, and
+readjusted his dress, disordered by his fall. He wiped the cold drops
+from his brow with his handkerchief, and, without a word, took up his
+hat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess regarded his proceedings with alarm. &quot;Herbert,&quot; she said
+with a forced smile, &quot;are you angry with me for being so rude?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no,&quot; he answered, in a hoarse, hollow tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She held out her hand, but he did not take it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not bear malice against me. I--I am too deeply wounded. I do not
+know what I am doing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert was silent. He shivered, as if with cold. His look--the
+expression of his eyes--alarmed the countess more and more.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now you will revenge yourself by not telling me how I can annihilate
+the Hartwich?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why should I not tell you?&quot; stammered Herbert, with blue lips. &quot;I keep
+my promises.&quot; He fixed his eyes upon the countess. &quot;Make the Hartwich
+your friend, and you will make her an object of aversion in Möllner's
+eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess started; her terrible glance encountered Herbert's look of
+hate. They stood now opposed to each other,--enemies to the death,--the
+effeminate man and the masculine woman. She had offended him mortally,
+but Herbert's last thrust had gone home; and softly, lightly as an
+incorporeal shade, he passed from the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When the countess was alone, she fell upon her knees, as though utterly
+crushed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thus outraged Virtue revenges herself! Artful hypocrite that she is!
+When I left her, she gave me no warning,--I sinned unpunished,--and
+now, when I would return to her repentant, she thrusts me from her with
+a remorseless 'Too late!' Too late!--my ships are burned behind me, and
+there is nothing left for me but to advance, or to repent,--Repent?&quot;
+She writhed in despair. &quot;No! O Heaven, take pity on me,--I am still too
+young and too fair for that!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_2.7" href="#div1Ref_2.7">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>EMANCIPATION OF THE SPIRIT.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">High up upon the platform of her observatory, fanned by the pure
+night-breeze and bathed in starry radiance, stood Ernestine, waiting
+for the moon to rise. On her serious brow and in her maidenly soul
+there was self-consecration, and peace. The heated vapour of passion
+that was gathering like a thunder-cloud about her name in the world
+beneath her, the poisonous slander of lips that mentioned her only to
+defame her, could not ascend hither. Unconscious, assailed by no sordid
+temptations, she stood there in vestal purity,--elevated physically but
+a few feet from the earth, but soaring in mind worlds above it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Slowly and solemnly the moon's disc arose from the horizon and mounted
+upwards, lonely and quiet, in soft splendour. Thousands of little moons
+were reflected in the telescopes of astronomers in thousandfold
+diversity of aspect; but they were all images of the one orb slowly
+sailing through the air. Ernestine was not busied with her telescope,
+for no mortal quest could aid her in what she was seeking to-night. It
+was to be found only in her own breast. It was not the material, but
+the immaterial, that she was now longing to grasp; no single sense
+could be of any avail. She needed all the powers of her being
+harmoniously co-operating. And, as she gazed there, full of dreamy
+inspiration, it was as if the moon had paused in its course to mirror
+itself in those eyes. Oh that we could die when and as we choose! that
+we could breathe out our souls in a single sigh! No human being could
+pass away more calmly and blissfully than Ernestine could have done at
+that moment, as she gazed at that serene moon and breathed forth a
+yearning sigh after the Unfathomable.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Happiness, pure and unspeakable, descended into her soul from the
+sparkling canopy of night This was her holiday, her hour of
+enfranchisement from the fetters of toil and study. She was alone
+beneath the starry sky,--a lone watcher, while all around were
+sleeping,--thinking while others were unconscious. She seemed to
+herself appointed to keep guard over the dignity of humanity, while all
+beside were sunk in slumber. She could rest only when others were
+roused to consciousness. The fever of night, that brings remorse to so
+many tossing upon restless couches, never assailed her. All earthly
+phantoms recede from the heart bathed in starlight, for in that light
+there is peace. In view of immensity, eternity is revealed to us, and
+every earthly pain vanishes like a shadow before it. But when star
+after star faded, and the moon had paled, the first rosy streak of dawn
+kissed a brow pale as snow, and a weariness as of death assailed her.
+The sacred fire of her soul had devoured her bodily strength and was
+extinguished with it. Then she sank to rest silently and
+uncomplainingly, like the lamps of night at the approach of day. So it
+was at this hour. As the darkness vanished, she descended to her
+apartments, and sought in brief repose the strength that would suffice
+for a day of constant labour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The more time I spend in sleep, the less of life do I enjoy,&quot; she said
+in answer to the remonstrances of her anxious attendant. &quot;Everything in
+the world is so beautiful that we should not lose one moment of it,--so
+short a time is ours to enjoy it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Enjoy! Good heavens! What do you enjoy? you do nothing but work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is my enjoyment, my good Willmers. For my work is nothing less
+than the constant study and discovery of the beauties of the world. An
+immortality would not suffice to enjoy it all,--and what can we
+accomplish in our brief span of existence? Shall we curtail it by
+sleep? Has not nature, who gives us eighty years of life, robbed us of
+almost half of it by imposing upon us the necessity of spending from
+seven to nine hours out of the twenty-four in a state of
+unconsciousness? I will defy her as long as I can, and maintain my
+right to enjoy her gift as I please, and not as she please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Willmers looked with intense anxiety at the pale cheeks of the
+speaker. As she lay in her bed, white as the snowy draperies around
+her, her thin hands fallen wearied upon the coverlet, her breath coming
+short and quick, the faithful servant's heart misgave her; for she saw
+that nature had already begun to revenge herself for the disobedience
+of her laws. She covered her up carefully in the soft coverlet. &quot;Do not
+talk any more, my dear Fräulein von Hartwich,--you are worn out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you are wearied too, my good Willmers. Why do you rise whenever
+you hear me going to bed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because I always hope that I may force you, out of consideration for
+me, to do what you will not do for yourself,--retire earlier and grant
+yourself the repose which is needful even for the strongest man,--how
+much more so for such a delicate creature as you are!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine languidly held out her hand. &quot;You are kind and unselfish, my
+dear Willmers, but you cannot understand me. And, if you will insist
+upon sacrificing your night's rest to me, I must give you a room at a
+distance from mine, where you cannot hear what I am doing. Thank you
+for your care. Good-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-night,&quot; replied the housekeeper sadly, delaying her departure for
+a moment to draw the curtains closely around Ernestine's bed, that they
+might exclude the first golden rays of sunlight.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">That same night the countess spent tossing, like one scourged by the
+furies, upon her restless couch. She could hardly wait for the day that
+should take her to see her rival, and the same rising sun that filled
+Ernestine's sleep with friendly dreams,--for even in slumber the eye is
+conscious of light, and communicates it to the soul,--the same rising
+sun drove the tortured woman from her silken bed. She knew no
+weariness. Her healthy physical frame, hardened by exercise, withstood
+every attack of weakness. She owned no restraint, physically, morally,
+or mentally. She was talented, but she refused to think. Thought was in
+her view a fetter upon self-indulgence. Knowledge had limits which
+those who knew nothing were unconscious of. She would be free as the
+air, and therefore avoided everything that could disturb her
+superficial security. And she had sufficient intellect to feel that
+thought might lead to conclusions most dangerous to her theory of life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Man's destiny is labour, woman's enjoyment&quot; This was her motto, and
+she lived up to it. She dazzled the world with the rare spectacle of
+beautiful power and powerful beauty carrying away like the hurricane in
+its mad career whatever lies in its path, stripping the leaves from
+every flower, uprooting every young tree, and bearing them on perhaps
+for one moment before casting them aside, crushed and dying. A glorious
+spectacle for exultant Valkyrias, but one at which the common herd
+cross themselves. Every destructive force of nature--and such was this
+woman--possesses a shuddering poetic attraction for the on-looker who
+is himself secure. He admires what he fears, he revels in the sight of
+what he knows to be destructive. This was the position held by the
+inhabitants of the little town of N---- towards the beautiful Russian
+since she had arrived there with her sick husband. With her wild manner
+of life, she was a wonderful apparition in their eyes, a constant
+source of interest, yet always provoking sternest disapproval. When the
+magnificent woman galloped through the streets upon her fiery Arabian,
+or held the reins behind her pair of horses with a skilful hand, like
+Victory in her triumphal car, no one could refrain from rushing to the
+window to enjoy a sight not to be forgotten. Strength, health, and
+beauty seemed to be her monopoly and the firm foundation of her joyous
+existence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The woman who desires to be emancipated,&quot; she was wont to say, &quot;must
+have the true stuff in her. And as there are so few who possess it,
+there are but a few who are emancipated. If you cannot compete with a
+man, do not try to rival him. But she who has been baptized, as I have,
+in the ice-cold Neva, can afford to laugh at the whole tribe with their
+masculine arrogance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In Russia, where she had played her part in a community far less
+strict, she had had an excellent field for displaying her grace and
+agility in all knightly exercises at the tilting-school which had been
+instituted by the Russian nobility. There she made her appearance
+usually in a steel helmet and closely-fitting coat of mail of woven
+silver that shone in the brilliant sunlight, enveloping her as it were
+in splendour. When she rode into the lists thus arrayed, a crooked
+scimitar by her side, pistols in her belt, and mounted upon her Arabian
+steed, nothing could restrain the loud applause of all present. She
+rivalled the most distinguished sons of the Russian nobility in the
+grace and skill with which she managed her horse, the precision of her
+aim in shooting, and the boldness of her leaps. She knew no fear and no
+fatigue.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had the strength and vigour of a Northern divinity, with the
+glowing temperament of an Oriental. What wonder that, from Emperor to
+serf, all were her admiring slaves?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her father, Alexei Fedorowitsch, was a poor and uneducated noble, who
+had distinguished himself by his bravery in the war with Napoleon, and,
+invalided at its close, retired to his small estate in the country,
+where he lived upon his pension. His wife, a sickly aristocrat, who had
+condescended to marry him for want of a more desirable <i>parti</i>, was the
+torment of his life. In despair at the trouble and annoyance caused by
+his wife's delicate health, sensibility, and affectation, he made a
+vow, when she bore him a daughter, to educate his child to be an utter
+contrast to her mother. Better that the child should die than live to
+be such an invalid as his wife. And he began by causing his little
+daughter to be baptized, like the children of the poorest Russians in
+that part of the country, in the icy waters of the Neva. The little
+Feodorowna outlived her icy bath, and her entire education corresponded
+with this beginning. Her mother died a few days after this cruel
+baptism; anxiety for her child put the finishing stroke to her invalid
+existence. And so her rude, uncultured father was her only guide and
+instructor. He loved her after his fashion, and made her his companion
+in all his amusements, riding, training horses, and the chase.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was scarcely sixteen when he married her to a wealthy landed
+proprietor in the neighbourhood, ruder and more illiterate even than
+himself, and to the girl an object of aversion. As his wife, she lived
+on his lonely estate like a serf. Her husband was cruel and suspicious,
+and made her married life perfect torture. She was compelled to resign
+her free habits of life, which she loved better than all else in the
+world. Every extravagance, even the most harmless, was forbidden by her
+husband. The joyous girl who had been used to fly upon the back of her
+spirited steed over steppe and heath was not allowed to mount a horse,
+but was made to sit with her maid-servants and spin by the dim light of
+a train-oil lamp until her husband came home to compel, perhaps by the
+<i>kantschu</i>, her reluctant attention to his wishes. She bore this
+martyrdom for one year in silence. At last she made a confidant of a
+neighbouring nobleman, and implored his aid in her great need; but she
+found no sympathy,--no assistance. He called her a fool, who did not
+appreciate her good fortune,--told her that to think of a divorce was a
+crime, and that her husband was perfectly right. In her utter
+loneliness, longing for love, if it were only the love of her old
+father, a desire for freedom and hatred of her tormentor gained the
+victory, and she fled, without taking anything with her but the few
+clothes that she had possessed at her marriage. She travelled the
+greater part of the way on foot, and arrived at her father's in such a
+wretched condition that he was touched by compassion, received her
+kindly, and took her part against her husband. Her suit for divorce
+left her wholly without means, but free, and when shortly afterwards
+she came to know the old diplomat Count Worronska, and he laid his rank
+and his millions at her feet, offering a field for her beauty at court
+at St. Petersburg, she could not withstand the temptation. She became
+his wife, and was transplanted from the midst of half-savage serfs to
+one of the most magnificent courts in the world,--from the Russian
+forests and steppes to apartments gorgeous with every luxury of life.
+At first dazzled and confused, she won all hearts, even those of the
+women, by her innocent beauty and graceful diffidence. At last her
+unbridled nature broke forth all the more impetuously for the long
+restraint under which it had lain, and, with no guidance but that of
+her imbecile husband, who adored her, she rapidly degenerated in every
+way. Society always looks more leniently upon those errors that are
+gradually developed before its eyes and under its protection than upon
+those that it observes outside of its sphere, because it is cognizant
+of the excuse for the faults of those within it, and it was all the
+more willing to pardon the delinquent in this instance for the sake of
+the high rank of her husband. It therefore ignored escapades that the
+distinguished position held by the old count forbade it to punish, and
+the beautiful and enormously wealthy Countess Worronska, in spite of
+her dissipation, was and continued to be the centre of the most
+brilliant, if not the best, circle of society in St. Petersburg. All
+this she had resigned for the last six months, and she had lived like
+an outlaw, avoided by prudent &quot;German Philisters,&quot; in the town of
+N----, for the sake of the only man whom she truly loved, and
+who--despised her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Before the death of her husband she had always been surrounded by a
+brilliant crowd of gentlemen who had sought her society from the
+neighbouring famous baths,--acquaintances from St. Petersburg,
+distinguished Englishmen, Italians, Poles,--in short, the gay, wealthy
+idlers of every nation that invariably flock around a beautiful woman
+upon her travels. With these she smoked, rode, and drove,--proceedings
+that had excited no outcry in the gay world at St. Petersburg, but that
+called forth shrieks of horror from the women in the little German
+University-town and greatly excited the students, who were never weary
+of caricaturing her,--harnessing four horses, and, disguised as women,
+driving them wildly through the streets, mimicking her foreign
+admirers, making her bearded servants drunk, and playing many other
+madcap pranks in ridicule of her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The universal horror culminated, however, when she did not dress in
+black after the count's death. People said with a shudder that she had
+declared that &quot;it seemed to her despicable to play such a farce, and
+simulate a grief that she did not feel.&quot; How could any one so scorn
+conventionalities, and lay bare the secrets of the heart to the public
+gaze? Yes, it was even suggested that she had never been married, and
+they called her the &quot;wild countess,&quot;--much as we speak of wild fruit to
+distinguish them from those that are genuine. Although injustice was
+done her in this respect, she deserved the epithet &quot;wild&quot; in every
+other, and the name clave to her. Even Möllner, who was always ready to
+find some magnanimous excuse for feminine failings, thought that she
+ought to show more respect for her septuagenarian husband, and
+pronounced her conduct heartless ostentation. From that moment she lost
+all interest, if she had ever possessed any, in his eyes. He never
+noticed that for months no gentleman had been allowed to enter her
+doors, for he did not think it worth while to observe her actions.
+Whoever did observe it ascribed it to chance. The report of her
+improvement was drowned in the billows of scandal that had been lashed
+up by her previous conduct. No one believed in her reformation, least
+of all he for whom she made such sacrifices.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And now the moment had arrived when, for the first time, she found
+herself helpless, opposed to a higher power,--and the effect of this
+first collision with invisible barriers upon the untrained heart of the
+countess was terrible. Hitherto she had recognized only the laws of
+decorum, and had transgressed them with impunity whenever they had
+oppressed her. Decorum is almost always subject to the will of
+individuals and to fashion. But the higher law that hovers over the
+universe, subject to no human will, to no change,--unchangeable, as is
+all that is divine,--is the law of <i>morality</i>. It was this against
+which the countess was now struggling, of the existence of which she
+seemed now first to become aware.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But such a woman could not give up the battle. It was a law of her
+nature to resist. She could not yield. How could she?--she had never
+learned submission. She would battle for her desires. As a girl, she
+had endured hunger and cold for days in the pursuit of the chase, while
+food and warmth waited for her at home. From her earliest childhood,
+her will had been trained to iron persistence, and now, when she had
+again left the comforts and delights of home in pursuit of a far nobler
+prey, should she desist from the chase because the game belonged to
+another? Such a course was impossible for such a woman, and, as
+strength could not avail her here, she resorted to the commonest weapon
+of the merest flirt,--cunning.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert's malice contained a seed that swiftly ripened and bore fruit
+in the fertile brain of the countess, for she knew only too well how
+much truth there was in the charge that her friendship was a dishonour
+to a young girl. It was a terrible thought for her that there was no
+means left for her whereby she could crush a rival except by so
+poisoning her with her own infection that she might become an object of
+disgust to her lover. But, if she could gain nothing by such a course,
+she could at least revenge herself. She turned over the leaves of
+Ernestine's publications. They were too learned for her. She understood
+nothing from their pages, except that they contended for the
+emancipation of women,--that was enough for her. She too was
+&quot;emancipated.&quot; It was enough to establish an understanding between
+them. Perhaps a meeting with Möllner might grow out of a visit to
+Ernestine. She was determined to make use of Herbert's malicious hint,
+his last bequest to her; for she had mortally offended him, and he no
+longer came near her. She hastily studied a few papers upon the
+emancipation of women, that she might comprehend what Herbert had said
+of &quot;principle&quot; in connection with the subject, and this was the day
+upon which she was resolved to see her victim. She selected Wednesday
+for her expedition, because Herbert had told her that Möllner had been
+with Ernestine on the previous Wednesday. Perhaps his visit might be
+repeated on the same day of the week.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As soon as she rose, she blew a shrill whistle upon a little silver
+call. There instantly appeared--not a dog--a maid with a large bucket
+of spring-water, which was dashed over her beautiful mistress in a
+little bathing-tent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The maid then silently withdrew, and brought coffee and the newspapers.
+The countess, wrapped in a rich brocade dressing-gown, lighted a cigar,
+and, while drinking her coffee, looked carelessly through the papers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Afterwards she went to her dressing-room, and called to the
+dressing-maid in attendance there, &quot;Riding-habit!&quot; and, after a short
+delay, the maid brought her all she required. &quot;Ali!&quot; said the countess,
+which meant, &quot;Go tell the groom to saddle Ali for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The brief order was understood and obeyed with rapidity. Like a shadow
+the attendant glided from the room, appearing again like a shadow in
+the presence of her dreaded mistress. The servants of this woman must
+have neither mind, soul, nor heart,--only ears to hear, and hands and
+feet to obey. The poor dressing-maid did her best to fulfil all that
+was required of her,--she was all ear, hands, and feet. She scarcely
+breathed. It really seemed as if the powerful lungs of her mistress
+inhaled all the air of the apartment, leaving none for any other
+inmate.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She took her place behind the countess, who sat before the mirror,
+smoking, and began, as carefully as possible, to comb out her long
+hair. The lovely woman examined her own features critically to-day. One
+peculiarity of her face, otherwise faultless,--a peculiarity that
+reminded her of the Russian type,--irritated her excessively; she
+thought her cheek-bones somewhat too high.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Just as she was contemplating this imaginary defect, the maid slightly
+pulled her hair. It was too much for her patience.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Maschinka!&quot; she cried, starting up and snatching the comb from the
+poor girl's hand. A flash--a blow--and Maschinka stooped silently to
+pick up the pieces of the broken comb. The print of its teeth was
+left upon her pale cheek, but no word, no cry of pain, escaped her
+lips,--her eyes alone looked tearful.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Get another!&quot; ordered her mistress, as if nothing had happened, and
+she sat down again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Maschinka obeyed, and finished the coiffure, and the rest of the
+toilette, without further disaster. Then she brought riding-whip, hat,
+and gloves, and the countess descended the richly-carpeted stairs.
+Suddenly she stood still, and called, &quot;Maschinka!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Does your cheek hurt you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no!&quot; whispered the girl.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What? Don't lie! Well, then, rub it with cold cream, from the silver
+box on my dressing-table; and keep the box,--I give it to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Without listening to the girl's thanks, she passed on. Her magnificent
+Arabian was led, snorting and foaming, around the court-yard. She
+beckoned to the stout, bearded Russian, who could scarcely restrain it,
+and he led it towards her. Another servant, in a rich livery, brought
+sugar upon a silver plate. She fed the noble animal, who was instantly
+soothed, kissed its smooth forehead, patted its neck, and mounted
+lightly to her place upon its back.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What o'clock?&quot; she asked, as the servant handed her the whip, and she
+rose in the stirrup to arrange the folds of her dress.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Past five o'clock, madame,&quot; was the answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall return at eight. The carriage must be ready by twelve. Tell
+Maschinka to have my dress prepared.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As madame pleases,&quot; replied the servant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Open!&quot; cried the countess, and a third groom, who had been waiting for
+this order, threw open the double gates of the court-yard, letting in a
+flood of morning sun-light. All reared beneath his lovely burden, as if
+he would soar with her into the clouds, but a quick cut from her whip
+somewhat cooled his Pegasus ardour, and he sprang forward, almost
+running over a servant, who had not moved aside quite quickly enough,
+and gained the street. Here, however, his mistress reined him in.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The dogs!&quot; she called.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The servants all hurried into the court-yard, and a frightful noise was
+heard. The barking, howling pack came rushing from their kennels, and
+leaped around their mistress with all the signs of delight that their
+mad gambols can evince. And now a wild race began. Away tore the
+Arabian, tossing the foam from his mouth. As he flew rather than
+galloped along, he tossed back his head, pointed his ears, and
+distended his nostrils, striving to outstrip the yelling pack at his
+heels. The beautiful hounds followed hard behind, in long leaps. The
+servants stood grouped about the gateway, looking after their mistress.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Aha,&quot; muttered the chief among them to himself, &quot;she is turning into
+the Bergstrasse. The dogs must waken Professor Möllner again, and bring
+him to the window.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the bearded old Russian observed sadly, &quot;She'll break her neck some
+day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Peaceful, and buried in slumber, lay the quiet little town. The
+windows,--eyes of the houses,--were closed, as were those of their
+inmates; but, as the countess dashed by in her mad career, one after
+another was opened, a curtain drawn aside here and there, and a sleepy,
+curious face appeared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess laughed at the crop of night-capped heads which her ride
+past their windows suddenly caused to appear. The warm-blooded Arabian
+shivered beneath her in the fresh, dewy morning air, and she felt its
+bracing breath colour her cheek. &quot;What a miserable race is this, that
+spends such hours in bed! They rise only when the smoke from the
+chimneys and the weary sighs of labourers have thickened the air. That
+is the atmosphere for their delicate lungs! They are afraid of the cold
+breeze of dawn!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She passed by Herbert's dwelling, and, with a vigorous stroke of her
+whip, excited her dogs to a more furious barking. How should she know
+that his invalid wife, in that upper chamber, had just fallen into a
+refreshing slumber after a wakeful night of pain, a slumber from which
+the noise aroused her to a day of suffering?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Here, too, a curtain was drawn aside, and Elsa's dream-encircled head
+peeped out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is his monkey-faced sister,&quot; thought the countess, and nodded in
+very wantonness. The face vanished in alarm. Herbert did not appear.
+And she galloped on through the silent streets. It was wearisome riding
+thus upon stony pavements, with a sleeping public all around, her only
+spectators the servants and peasants carrying milk and bread, and
+staring open-mouthed at the haughty horsewoman. Now and then a student
+in his shirt-sleeves, brush or sponge in hand, would appear at a
+window, and one poured out the contents of his washbasin upon her dogs,
+who had fallen fiercely upon an innocent little cur that was just
+taking his morning stroll. It was the only incident that varied the
+monotony of her ride, and she passed swiftly on towards the
+Bergstrasse, as the servant had prophesied.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last she reached it, and the glorious view of the distant mountains
+lay before her. The rough pavement came to an end, for here the
+pleasure-grounds of the town were laid out, and the roads were strewn
+with fine gravel. She now gave her steed the rein, and the fiery beast
+flew along, <i>ventre à terre</i>, with the pack after him in full cry. The
+houses were all surrounded by charming gardens. There was one which for
+a long time riveted the attention of the countess. Look! there was an
+open window, and at it stood Möllner, gazing out upon the far-off
+mountains.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Just as the countess passed, he observed her, and answered her gesture
+of recognition by a respectful bow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He looked after her, well pleased as he marked the finely-knit figure,
+with a seat in the saddle so light and graceful that she seemed part of
+her horse. She turned her head and saw him looking after her, and in
+her pleasure at the sight she reined in Ali until he reared erect in
+the air and curveted proudly. Then on she galloped, and was soon lost
+to sight. She had reached the foot of the mountains, and, allowing her
+panting steed to ascend a little hill more slowly, she paused to rest
+him on the summit.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Before her lay a golden, sunny world. It was an enchanting morning.
+Thin, vapoury smoke was beginning to rise from the chimneys, and the
+heavens were so cloudless that it ascended straight into the blue arch
+without being pressed down to the earth again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Over the tops of the pine-trees that crowned the brows of the
+mountains, little white feathery clouds were still hovering. It seemed
+as if those mighty heads would fain shake them off, for they soared
+aloft and then settled again, then shifted from place to place, hiding
+sometimes in the forest, until at last they vanished before the
+increasing power of the sun's rays, and the dark, jagged outline of the
+mountains stood out clear and free against the blue sky. Who, with a
+heart in his breast, beholding and enjoying all this beauty and glory,
+does not involuntarily look above in gratitude to the unseen Giver and
+mourn over his own unworthiness of such bounty? And how many eyes look
+on it all without understanding it or rejoicing in it! Does it not seem
+that on such a morning the most degraded soul would gladly purify
+itself, as the bird dresses his feathers at sunrise before he lifts his
+wings to soar aloft into the glorious ether?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And yet the gloomy fire of the previous night still smouldered on in
+the countess's breast, and no cool breeze, no pearly dew, availed to
+quench its unhallowed glow. Her heart was desecrated,--the abode of the
+demons of low desire and hate. It could no longer soar to higher
+spheres. The beautiful woman gazed upon the landscape without one
+feeling of its beauty. She was far more interested in compelling the
+obedience of her impatient steed than in the grand prospect before her.
+In the gilded saloons of St. Petersburg she had lost all comprehension
+and love of nature, and she was so accustomed to consider herself a
+divinity that she was no longer conscious of the humility of the
+creature before its Creator. Although she might not deny Him, she was
+indifferent to Him, and if she sometimes visited His temple, she did it
+only as one pays a formal visit to an equal.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus she stood there upon the hill, inhaling the fresh, fragrant air
+with a certain satisfaction, but with no more interest in the lovely
+scene than was felt by her dogs, who judged of the beauty of the
+landscape chiefly by their sense of smell, as, lying on the ground
+around their mistress, they too snuffed the morning breeze. Now and
+then one was led astray by the scent of game in the thicket; but a call
+from the silver whistle of his mistress reminded him of his duty, and
+he returned to his companions,--only casting longing looks in the
+direction in which his prey had escaped him. Had his haughty mistress
+ever in her life practised such self-denial? Could she have seriously
+answered this question, she might have blushed before the unreasoning
+brute.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was ten o'clock when Ernestine stepped out upon her balcony.
+Gaily-dressed peasants were passing, pipe in mouth, along the road
+outside her garden-wall, for to-day was the Ascension of the Blessed
+Virgin,--a glorious opportunity for drinking to her honour and glory.
+The people were in their gayest humour, their morning libations had
+already had some effect. The peasant seems to know no better way of
+giving God glory than by enjoying His gifts; he believes that he thus
+affords Him the same pleasure that a good host feels in seeing the
+guests at his table enjoy what is placed before them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine smiled at the thought of this profane belief, which
+nevertheless springs from honest, childlike traits of human nature.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold had not yet returned from his journey, and these days of
+solitude had been,--she never asked herself why,--the pleasantest that
+she had known for a long time. She did in his absence only what she was
+used to do when he was with her; but her thoughts were very different.
+The man had so thoroughly imbued with his teaching her every thought
+and action, that when he was by she could not even think what he might
+disapprove. Since his departure she had, if we may use the expression,
+let herself alone. She allowed her thoughts to stray as they pleased.
+She was not ashamed to spring up from her work and feed the birds, or
+to spend an hour in the garden, or at the window in dreamy reverie. And
+she made various scientific experiments, that she might surprise her
+uncle upon his return with their successful results.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And this was not the only advantage of his absence. She could go to the
+school-house to see the good old people there; she could--receive a
+visit!--a visit of which her uncle knew nothing. Was that right? Oh,
+yes, it was right,--it was too sacred a thing to be exposed to his cool
+contempt. Why was he so dry and cold and stern, that she must conceal
+every emotion from him? To have told him of this visit would have been
+like voluntarily exposing her roses to be frozen by ice and snow. She
+still remembered and felt the pain that he had made her suffer when she
+spoke to him of God. Then he had taken her God from her, and now he
+would take from her her friend,--the first, the only one she had ever
+known. It was the pure, sacred secret of her heart,--as pure and sacred
+as the communion she held with the starry heavens at night upon her
+observatory.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile the door had opened without her notice, and the Æolian harp
+sounded in the draught that swept across its strings. The birds, that
+had hopped close around her for their accustomed food, flew twittering
+away as a stranger appeared, and a deep, mellow voice asked, &quot;Well, and
+how are you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine started as at a lightning-flash. She turned and looked at the
+intruder with a deep blush, but with undisguised delight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why should you be startled?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know,--you appeared so suddenly. I did not see you coming
+down the road.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I took a cross-cut that was shadier; I came on foot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, then you must be tired!&quot; said Ernestine, entering the room with
+him. &quot;Sit down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear Fräulein Hartwich, first shake hands with me,--there! And now
+tell me that you have quite forgiven me,--you do not think ill of me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, sir,--doctor!--Can I call you doctor? We give names to everything,
+why should you be the exception?&quot; And she smiled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the first time that he had seen her smile, and it enchanted him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If, then, it is so hard not to call me by name, christen me yourself.
+There are kindly titles invented by friendship or good will. Am I not
+worthy, in your stern sight, of any of these?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, none that I could find would be worthy of you, you are so kind,
+so--oh, yes! I have a title for you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well? I am curious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Kind sir!--will you allow that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, my dear Fräulein Hartwich, it is you who are too kind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine smiled again. A fleeting blush tinged her cheek.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes looked at her. &quot;Do you know that you seem much more cheerful
+than when I saw you last?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thanks to your skill, kind sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed?--spite of my bitter physic?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, it did taste bitter, but good followed it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you felt the truth of what I said?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She grew grave. &quot;No, not that,--but I recognized a true, large heart,
+and admiration for that conquered my ailment,--delight in its sympathy
+overcame the pain of being misunderstood by it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is more than I ventured to hope, after so short an acquaintance.
+Were you less magnanimous than you are, you would hate me, for I deeply
+wounded your vanity, and, to be frank, I propose to do so still
+further.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not a pleasant prospect, but I will be steadfast. If you deny me the
+strength of a man, you shall at least not find me subject to women's
+weaknesses,--among which I hold vanity to be the most despicable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes smiled. &quot;And yet you are not free from this weakness. You
+endure my assaults upon your pride because it gratifies your vanity to
+prove that you are not vain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine cast down her eyes. &quot;You are clever at diagnosis,&quot; she said
+with slight bitterness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am only honest. Do you not see that I know, since you have received
+me so kindly to-day, that it would be quite possible to win your
+further confidence and esteem if I would only have a little
+consideration for your weaknesses? Let me confess frankly that a
+confidence so purchased would not content me. Trifling and jesting may
+have deceit for their foundation, for one will last no longer than the
+other, but the regard that I cherish for you, and that I would awaken
+in you for me, must--can--be founded only in the truth,--must grow out
+of the inmost core of our natures; and if our natures do not harmonize,
+any intimate relation between us is impossible, and an artificial tie
+between us would be, for us, a sin. If, then, my ruthless hand searches
+the hidden depths of your soul,--if I outrage your vanity, so that even
+the vanity of being magnanimously self-forgetting will not help you to
+endure it,--I only fulfil a sacred duty that truth requires of me, both
+to you and to myself,--a duty whose postponement might be heavily
+avenged in the future.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at him inquiringly. She did not understand him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are puzzled, and do not know how to interpret my words,&quot; he
+continued. &quot;You cannot dream how far beyond reality my fancy soars. But
+you must feel that I am not a man to play the <i>bel-esprit</i> for my
+amusement,--to find any satisfaction in measuring my wits to advantage
+with a woman's,--to take delight in hearing the sound of my own voice.
+Before I seriously approach a woman, I must be clear in my own mind as
+to what I can be to her and she to me. You, Fräulein von Hartwich,
+cannot be to me much or little,--you can be to me everything or
+nothing. Our natures are both too real to admit of our passing each
+other by pleasantly, politely, but without enthusiasm, like ephemeral
+acquaintances in society. We have already, in defiance of conventional
+rules, formed an intimacy in which character is revealed, and the aim
+of our intercourse must be a higher one than that of mere amusement.
+Otherwise I were a boor and you are greatly to blame for enduring me.
+Only a deep personal interest in you could warrant my relentless
+treatment of you. I acknowledge that I feel this deep personal
+interest. More I will not say now, for all else depends upon the
+development of our relations towards each other, in the increase or
+decrease of accord in our views of life and its purposes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was silent. She began to have some suspicion of what she
+might be to this strong, upright character, and what he might be to
+her. But it was not that tender emotion that the first approach of love
+awakens in the heart of every woman, even the coldest; she was troubled
+and anxious. The decision with which he spoke convinced her at once
+that he never could be converted to her views,--that she must mould
+herself according to his,--that a transformation must take place in one
+or the other of them, if she would not lose what was already of such
+value to her. She was not accustomed to self-sacrifice, for her cunning
+uncle had so educated her, so trained her inclinations to accord with
+his wishes, that she always supposed she was having her own way, when
+in reality she was following his. She felt that this hour was a crisis
+in her life, that she was brought into contact with a will which would
+require of her great self-sacrifice, and of which she was almost in
+dread, because it was backed by superior strength.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes waited for an answer, but none came. He saw what was going on
+in Ernestine's mind, and that his words had chilled her, kindly as they
+were meant. He took her hand and looked into her eyes. &quot;Ah, you will
+not call me 'kind sir' any more?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was conscious of the true kindliness of his look, she felt
+the gentle clasp of his hand, and involuntarily she held out to him her
+disengaged hand also, and said almost in a tone of entreaty, &quot;No, you
+will not be cruel, you will not hurt me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stood silent for an instant, looking into her clear, confiding eyes,
+holding both her hands in his, and was for the moment unspeakably
+happy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I promise you I will not give you more pain than I shall suffer
+myself,&quot; he said gently. &quot;But we must buy dearly the happiness that is
+to content us. We are not of those who innocently and artlessly take
+upon trust whatever the present throws into their laps. Constituted as
+we are, we must needs make conditions with Heaven, and accept its gifts
+only when we have proved them. For we cannot be satisfied with what
+many would call happiness,--we can take no delight in what would charm
+thousands of others. It is the curse of natures like ours that they
+erect a standard of happiness far above what if usual,--and how many
+are there upon whom Providence bestows unusual happiness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine smiled bitterly at Johannes's last words. &quot;Providence!&quot; she
+murmured, &quot;we are our own providence. We shape our own destiny, create
+our joy or our misery,--the conditions of either are in ourselves!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And because we are so mysteriously gifted beyond other creatures,
+because we are mentally freer and more conscious of ourselves than
+other beings, our responsibility as regards ourselves and those whom we
+see around us is all the greater. There are natures that are eternally
+wretched, because they demand more of life than it can possibly afford
+them, and undervalue all that it offers them, although it makes their
+lot enviable in the eyes of all. Then we say, 'Their unhappiness is
+their own fault, they have everything to make them happy, no one
+injures them; why are they so exorbitant in their longings?' But this
+is wrong. They are not insatiate, they would perhaps be contented with
+a far more moderate lot. What fault is it of theirs that the demands of
+their innermost nature are such that they require just what fate has
+not bestowed upon them? Of what use is a glittering gem to the
+traveller in the desert languishing for a drop of water? How willingly
+would he exchange the bauble for what he longs for! Who would say to
+him, 'You have a precious treasure, why are you not content?' Who would
+reproach him with being a human creature that cannot live without
+drinking? The most one can say to him is, 'Since you know that you
+cannot live without water, why go into the desert?' There is the point
+where we are responsible. If we know what are the conditions of our
+existence, we must see to it that what we choose in life accords with
+those conditions, always provided that Providence gives us the right of
+free choice. If this right is ours and we choose falsely, it is our
+fault if we are wretched. I call it an unusual boon, therefore, when
+Providence permits us to choose a lot that harmonizes with our nature.
+If this is denied us, the man of the greatest freedom of thought is not
+responsible for his fate,--he is under the ban of a higher power.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine listened to him with undisguised interest. He saw it, and
+continued:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We, Fräulein Hartwich, are free to choose, and are therefore
+responsible to each other, and it is incumbent upon us to be on the
+watch. A kindly Providence, you too must admit this, has brought us
+together, and left the decision as to what we will be to each other in
+our own hands. Let us show ourselves worthy of the trust; let us try
+ourselves. I am sure you feel with me that the moment must be a
+glorious one in which two human beings recognize each other as their
+embodied destiny. But it must be celebrated not by gushes of
+sentimentality nor by would-be transcendentalism, but in perfect peace
+of mind!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He took her hand and gazed into her eyes. She stood quietly before him,
+and gathered calmness from his look. And again that significant silence
+ensued so dear to those whose hearts are full of what they cannot or
+dare not speak. Suddenly Frau Willmers softly opened the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is a lady without, who wishes to speak with you, Fräulein
+Hartwich.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With me!&quot; asked Ernestine in displeased surprise. &quot;Who is she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She refuses to give her name, and will not be denied. She says if
+Fräulein von Hartwich is not at leisure now, she will wait any length
+of time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you tell her I was engaged with a visitor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, there is no knowing whether the lady&quot;--here she cast an
+embarrassed glance at Johannes--&quot;might not tell your uncle!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked down confused. &quot;That is true--if it should
+chance--What is to be done? How very annoying!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought perhaps the gentleman would allow me to take him through the
+laboratory and down the other staircase?&quot; said Frau Willmers in a tone
+of anxious entreaty.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Shall I?&quot; asked Johannes, not without evident vexation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at Frau Willmers. &quot;Pray do,&quot; she begged, &quot;out of pity
+for poor Frau Willmers, who will have to bear the whole burden of my
+uncle's displeasure if he should learn that she had connived at our
+meeting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must comply with your wishes, but only for this once,&quot; he said,
+quietly offering her his hand. &quot;When may I come again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Next Saturday, will you not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes knew perfectly well why she appointed that day, but he said
+nothing, and followed Frau Willmers. At the door he turned and looked
+at Ernestine. She saw something like displeasure in his face, and
+hastened after him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray do not be angry with me, kind sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes was touched by the gentle entreaty from one usually so stern
+and cold. He pressed his lips upon her hand and whispered softly, &quot;I
+shall never, never be angry with you. God bless you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The door closed behind him, and Ernestine, still agitated by the
+interview, half awake and half dreaming, went into the antechamber to
+receive the stranger waiting there.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Worronska, in all her grandeur, stood before her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine had never in her life seen so extraordinary a vision. She was
+actually dazzled.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The brown, Juno-like eyes were regarding her with strange curiosity,
+the black eyebrows were gloomily contracted; there was something so
+hard and haughty in her air and bearing that Ernestine took offence at
+it before a word had been uttered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The way in which the lady measured her with her glance from head to
+foot recalled to her memory the pain that she had once suffered beneath
+the gaze of the Staatsräthin's guests. For one second she felt in
+danger of the same overwhelming sensation of embarrassment. She seemed
+to grow pale and wither in the presence of this dazzling and haughty
+person. But she was no longer a child, sensible only of her defects,
+and the next moment the pride of conscious power came to her relief.
+She knew that she stood in the presence of an enemy, but she felt
+herself the equal of her opponent. Who was this woman who thus
+assumed the right to look down upon her? Whence did she derive this
+right?--from beauty, wealth, or rank? Did she know as much as
+Ernestine? Had she written a prize essay? And, more than all, did she
+possess such a friend as now belonged to Ernestine? No, no, assuredly
+not. Ernestine was her equal, whoever she might be.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will you walk in?&quot; said Ernestine with icy repose of manner and with a
+dignity that evidently impressed the countess greatly. Ernestine stood
+aside to allow her to pass, and motioned her towards a small sofa
+filling a recess of the room, while she herself took a seat opposite.
+Her lips were closed; no conventional grimace, usual upon the reception
+of a visitor, distorted the pure beauty of her grave countenance. She
+awaited in silence the stranger's communication; she was too unfamiliar
+with the forms of society to excuse herself for having kept her waiting
+in the antechamber. The countess at last understood that she must be
+the first to speak. She felt, too, in the presence of such a woman as
+Ernestine that her coming hither was a mistake, and it made her falter.
+For the first time in her life she was confused. The tables were
+turned. Ernestine was already the victor in this silent encounter. Hers
+was the victory of true self-respect over the frivolous conceit of a
+jealous coquette.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Worronska had failed in her part even before she began to play it.
+She had heard Möllner's voice and his step as he left the room. The
+affair, then, had gone farther than she had thought. Anger had put her
+off her guard, and given her a hostile air when she had come to allure
+and perhaps lead astray. Her error must be rectified at all hazards.
+She held out her hand to Ernestine and said, in her melodious
+Russian-German, &quot;I am the Countess Worronska.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine slightly inclined her head, and the expression of her face
+grew colder and more forbidding than before. &quot;And what is your pleasure
+with me, Countess Worronska?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What? Oh, that is soon told. I seek from you amusement, instruction,
+excitement,--everything that so talented a companion as you are, and
+one so entirely of my way of thinking, can bestow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine recoiled almost perceptibly. &quot;Of your way of thinking?&quot; she
+asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most certainly! We are both advocates of the emancipation of women,
+each in her own way, but our object is the same. We are both adherents
+of the great champion of women's rights, Louisa A----, who is my
+intimate friend. How charming it would be to enlist you also! We could
+then labour in concert,--I in action, Louisa through the daily press,
+you by your books.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine listened with the same unmoved countenance to what the
+countess said. When she had finished, Ernestine was silent for a
+moment, as if seeking some fitting form of speech for what she wished
+to say. The countess watched her eagerly. At last Ernestine replied,
+&quot;Countess Worronska, I must decline your proposal,--I am resolved to
+pursue my path alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Worronska bit her lips. &quot;Indeed? You are afraid of sharing your
+laurels?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not so,&quot; rejoined Ernestine calmly. &quot;I am afraid of sharing the
+laurels of a Louisa A----.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh! would you think that a disgrace?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A pause ensued. The countess cast a fierce glance at Ernestine, who
+bore it coldly and unflinchingly. Again rage seethed in the bosom of
+the Worronska, but she controlled herself, for she was determined to
+compass her ends, and knew that she must be upon her guard with this
+girl.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are certainly frank,&quot; she began. &quot;But I like that,--it is
+original.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is unfortunate that truth should be so rare among your associates,
+Countess Worronska, that you call it original!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are severe, Fräulein Hartwich. You should know my friends, and
+then you would be more lenient to their weaknesses. Why is it
+unfortunate? Refinement of taste brings that in its train. We cushion
+the chairs on which we sit, we plane and polish the rough wood of our
+furniture, we clothe the bare walls of our rooms with tapestry, we do
+not devour our meat raw like the Cossacks, but delicately cooked to
+please our palates. Why then should we surround ourselves morally with
+spikes and thorns, which rend and tear those around us? Why should we
+partake of our intellectual food so raw and undressed that it disgusts
+us? Thank Heaven, we have put off such barbarisms with our more
+advanced culture.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are perfectly right. Countess Worronska, looking upon the matter
+from a worldly point of view. I am only surprised to hear you defend
+the forms of society while you despise its proprieties.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A crimson flush rose to the brow of her visitor. But her rage only
+strengthened her determination to subdue her foe, superior as she could
+not but acknowledge her to be. &quot;Yes, what you say is true: I love
+forms, because they are pleasant and useful. I hate propriety, because
+it would be our master, and by propriety you mean decorum--I understand
+you perfectly. Yes, then, yes: I love the forms of society, that give
+an æsthetic charm to existence, and make it smooth and easy, but I hate
+what people call decorum. When, in despair at the tyranny of my first
+husband, and utterly loathing his rude vulgarity, I left him by
+stealth, and fled, at peril of my life, across the half-frozen Neva to
+my father, to share his solitude and poverty, I acted honourably, but
+every one condemned me, the runaway wife was an object of scorn,--she
+had sinned against the laws of decorum. But when, after my divorce, I
+married the old Count Worronska, simply because I coveted rank and
+wealth, I acted dishonourably, but I had done nothing indecorous. Every
+one bowed low before me, and I found myself an object of respect to
+others when I was so deeply sunk in my own esteem. And can I do homage
+to decorum, the idol to which we are sacrificed, the empty scarecrow
+that the selfishness of men sets up to keep us within our prison-walls?
+In the folds of its garment lie hidden tyranny, hate and revenge,
+jealousy and envy, malice and uncharitableness, ready to crawl out like
+poisonous serpents and attack its victims. What free spirit will not
+curse it if it has ever been aware of even the shadow of its rod? I
+began by cursing it, but I have ended by despising it. I have sworn
+hostility to it, and, trust me, there is a rare delight in stripping
+it of its mask. Louisa A---- contends against it with far nobler
+weapons-than it deserves. It is not worth the going out to meet it with
+such solemn pathos. A hundred years hence, the world will laugh to
+think that it should have had power to annoy such a woman as Louisa.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She ceased, and looked into Ernestine's face to see the effect of her
+words. But there was no change of feature there.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot vie with you in your style of speaking, Countess Worronska. I
+am used to plain thoughts. I am not practised in metaphor, and cannot
+adorn what I say with such wealth of imagery. I can only reply plainly
+and frankly to what you say, that what you designate as our foe I
+consider our protection, and that it is a far different foe that I
+contend with. Therefore we should never agree, and it is a useless
+waste of time to attempt any closer intercourse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess started, and the colour left her lips, so tightly were
+they compressed. Yet she would make one more attempt. She regarded
+Ernestine with a look of profound compassion, and possessed herself of
+her reluctant hand. &quot;Poor child! does even your bold spirit languish in
+the fetters of prejudice? What a pity! How inconceivable! And will you
+tell me what foe it is that you wish to subdue?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The mean opinion that men entertain of our sex.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you would combat this with your pen?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope to do so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not mistake; we have mightier weapons for the contest than the
+pen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There are none more effectual than the cultivation of our powers, for
+it will prove to them that we do not deserve their contempt,--that we
+can perform tasks that they consider emphatically their own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They will never acknowledge it. All intellectual power is
+relative,--there is nothing absolute but physical force. If we can
+knock a man down, he must believe that we are as strong as he. But he
+will never concede our intellectual equality, because there is no
+compelling him to be just. As long as there is no third authority in
+the world to act as umpire in the contest between the sexes, which can
+only be if God himself should descend from the skies, so long must we
+be victims to the egotism of men!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked down thoughtfully. &quot;You may be right, but we must
+comfort ourselves with the reflection that by the contest itself we
+have done good. To do good is the object of all, and the individual
+must be content with the peace of this consciousness as his reward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What cold comfort! Why, every flower in your path will perish in such
+an icy atmosphere! I pity you! Come, confide in me. In spite of your
+bluntness, I feel drawn towards you. I will introduce you to a new
+existence, where you may learn how to revenge yourself upon men. You
+bear the stamp upon your brow of one gifted by God to be their scourge.
+Learn to understand yourself, and you will see how perverted your views
+are! Your power lies not in the bulky volumes that you write. Our
+charms are the weapons by which we conquer! As long as men have eyes
+and we have beauty, they must be our slaves; and you would imprison
+yourself within four walls, and toil and strive, while you have only to
+face those who shrug their shoulders at your writings, to have them
+prostrate at your feet? Would not this be an easier conquest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was silent. The countess saw with delight that she was
+evidently agitated, and continued more confidently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are beautiful,--how beautiful you yourself do not probably know,
+or you would not deprive the world of a sight that would enchant it, or
+yourself of the satisfaction of observing its admiration. Believe
+me,--there is no greater delight than the triumph of our charms. To
+know yourself an object of worship,--to be able to bless with a
+smile!--ah, what rapture! It is a divine privilege, that thousands
+would envy you. In comparison with it, what is the feeble pleasure that
+your studies can afford you? What can it matter to you if it is
+reported for a few miles around that you are a great scholar? Is such a
+report a flower, refreshing you by its fragrance?--a flame, that can
+warm you, or a ray of light, that can dazzle you? Can it give pleasure
+to any one besides yourself? It is invisible, incomprehensible,--a mere
+idea, a phantom, a nothing. Its only value for you is the value that it
+gives you in the eyes of others, for in ourselves we are nothing. We
+are only what we may become through our relation to others. Go to the
+hunters of Siberia, or to the Laplanders, and ascertain whether you
+find it any satisfaction that you rank among the scholars of Germany.
+You are striving for one end, that you may secure some value in the
+eyes of men and revenge yourself for the contempt heaped upon you as a
+woman. You seek the means to this end in your inkstand,--seek it in
+your dark lustrous eyes,--in your long silken hair. You will find it
+there, like the girl in the fairy-tale. You can comb pearls and
+diamonds out of those locks. Let me be the fairy to hand you the magic
+comb.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Cease, I pray you, Countess Worronska!&quot; cried Ernestine, blushing
+deeply. &quot;I cannot listen to such words.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you fear my words, it proves the effect that they have upon you,
+and I have half conquered already,&quot; cried the temptress exultingly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you think so,&quot; said Ernestine haughtily, &quot;continue, I pray you.
+When you have finished, I will tell you what I would rather not have
+been compelled to say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will think more kindly of me when you have heard me to the end,&quot;
+said the countess. &quot;You think my views immoral; but what is immorality?
+What corresponds closely with the laws of nature? What morality do the
+brutes possess? None! and they are, therefore, irresponsible. They obey
+those laws which you, as a student of nature, esteem the first and
+highest. Ascetics say morality is necessary to preserve that order
+without which chaos would come again. But I ask you, Does chaos reign
+in the brute creation? Does not the strictest order in the preservation
+of species prevail there? Does not each possess and preserve its
+individual peculiarities? Does the lion mate with the hyena? Are there
+not inviolable laws prevailing there? And it would be just so with
+mankind. Noble natures would attract only noble natures, and the common
+and vile herd with the vile. Love would direct the whole, and the
+indecorum of conventionality, of force, of falsehood and hypocrisy,
+would vanish. Would not the world be fairer, and, believe me, better?
+Conscious that no legal claim could exist between husband and wife,
+each would endeavour to retain the heart of the other by redoubled
+tenderness and self-sacrifice. Mankind would grow more amiable, more
+self-denying, and the mind would be fed on the freedom of the body. As
+long as we have no freedom of choice, our spirits must be enslaved.
+Have not men arrogated to themselves the right of free choice? Are
+they bound by laws? Where is the man who does not transgress them in
+public or private? But for us there is no appeal,--we are property
+possessed,--we have no right of ownership. We must be far above the
+necessity for change, inherent in every human being,--far above the
+demands of taste, of passion,--above everything except man. We must
+achieve the victory over nature, so impossible for him, but be utterly
+subject to his will. Is this a just order of the world? No! Even those
+who have never felt the pressure of its injustice cannot defend it! Has
+not advancing culture abolished serfdom in Russia? And is the saddest
+of all serfdom--the serfdom of woman--to continue? No! If you do not
+choose to contend for its own sake for that right of free choice, of
+personal freedom for which such women as Louisa A---- are doing battle,
+do it for the thousands of poor weak creatures languishing beneath such
+a perversion of morality!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine cast upon her an annihilating glance. After a short pause she
+said, &quot;And if I were to do so, I should be striving for the ruin of
+humanity. I will not argue with you in justification of a morality
+which you do not understand, but I will attempt to remind you of its
+necessity, which has not, it seems, occurred to you. It can be done in
+a few words. Morality is moderation. Where it is wanting, all force
+exhausts itself in immensity; for moderation is the conservative force
+in nature, as in life. You look amazed. You do not understand me. I
+cannot lead you in a single hour along the dark, thorny path by which I
+have attained this conviction, and I know, besides, that I speak to
+deaf ears. But you have challenged my opinion. You shall have it,
+then.&quot; Ernestine's cheeks began to flush with noble indignation. &quot;All
+partisans labour for their cause, which may excuse you for attempting
+to disturb the peace of a quiet mind, to instil poison into an innocent
+heart. May you never be more successful than with me! I will believe
+that you have been impelled by the fanaticism of your error, not by the
+demoniac desire to drag me, who have done nothing to harm you, down to
+your abyss. But, Countess Worronska, what wretched error is this upon
+which you are squandering your power, your glorious gifts? I know it.
+Do not think that what you say is new to me. It is the old threadbare
+philosophy of the voluptuary. It is the proclamation of all that
+mankind should conceal, if not for the sake of morality, then for the
+sake of immortal beauty, because it is monstrous if you will not call
+it immoral. It is what has branded the words 'emancipation of woman'
+with eternal disgrace. Enough! Spare me a nearer approach to so
+disgusting a theme. I know sufficient of it to condemn it; for it was
+my right and my duty, as a champion of our rights, to examine and prove
+all that had been done by any of my sex for the amelioration of its
+condition. And I have found with the deepest sorrow how widely
+different these women's paths are from mine, how little they understand
+their own dignity. What they call emancipation is degradation,--what
+should make them free makes them bold. Their frankness becomes
+shamelessness. What they call casting off ignoble fetters is
+licentiousness. What do they do? What do they achieve to show
+themselves worthy of the rights that they demand? Are such feats as
+smoking cigars and shooting pistols the evidences of our greatness? And
+what about these very rights that they demand? What does this Louisa
+A---- want? What do all these women want, who strut like stage-heroines
+about the world, filling it with shrill clamour about their
+misunderstood hearts? Fie upon them! They train themselves to be slaves
+by their struggles for emancipation,--slaves to their desires and to
+men; for all their bombastic phrases about freedom signify freedom of
+intercourse with the other sex.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess sprang up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hear me to the end,&quot; said Ernestine, more and more animated by a noble
+ardour. &quot;My words cannot do you the harm that yours might have done me.
+I deeply regret that my efforts could have been for one moment
+confounded with yours, and therefore I will clear myself to your better
+self, without an instant's delay, from the suspicion of abetting you in
+any way. Let me tell you that my purpose is solely to vindicate the
+intellectual honour of my sex,--to enlarge the bounds of our ability,
+not of our will. Emancipation of the spirit is the goal for which I
+strive. Or, to speak more plainly, you work for the emancipation of the
+flesh,--I for emancipation from the flesh. You see our efforts are as
+wide asunder as the poles; and, I tell you frankly, I fear the shadow
+that intercourse with you would cast upon my pure cause.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess drew around her her mantle of black lace, that had slipped
+from her shoulders, and shrouded herself in it as in a cloud, then
+stepped up to Ernestine, who had also risen from her seat, raised her
+hand, and said in a tone of menace, &quot;You will repent this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine calmly returned her gaze. &quot;I scarcely think so, Countess
+Worronska. Thanks to my occupations, I stand entirely outside of the
+sphere where you could harm me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I could kill you!&quot; hissed the countess, gasping for breath, while the
+blood rushed to her head and the room grew dark before her eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no, you neither could nor would,&quot; said Ernestine with cutting
+contempt. &quot;You would not afford the world the spectacle of so bold a
+champion of our freedom ending her days in penal confinement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right,--it would be folly to commit a crime when easier means
+would gain the same end. I will deal you a death-blow, and your life
+shall bleed slowly away, and none of our excellent laws can touch me. I
+will wrest from you the man whom you love. I will,--and, trust me, what
+I will I can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine said not a word. She was benumbed, as if by a blow. She did
+not see the countess leave the room,--she saw only, by the glare of the
+burning torch that the wretched woman had hurled into her breast, her
+own heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Was she, then, in love? And with whom?</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_2.8" href="#div1Ref_2.8">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>&quot;WHEN WOMEN HOLD THE REINS.&quot;</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">Breathless with rage, the Worronska descended the stairs and left the
+house. A groom was driving a splendid carriage-and-four up and down
+before the house. She beckoned to him; he drove up and sprang down to
+assist his mistress, who, mounted upon the box, took the reins and
+whip, and, relieved by being able to vent her wrath upon some living
+thing, cut viciously at her impatient horses. The groom sprang nimbly
+into his place behind her, and away like the wind went the modern
+Victory in her triumphal chariot, as if rushing to breathe vengeance
+and hate into hosts fighting upon the battle-plain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it possible that that hectic, ill-tempered girl can rival me with
+such a man as Möllner?&quot; she said to herself. &quot;But shame on me!&quot; she
+instantly added, &quot;let me not, in my anger, prove a slanderer! She is
+beautiful, and a thousand times wiser than I,--but, curse her! I could
+strangle her with this hand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The passionate woman felt hot tears coursing down her cheeks. She
+struggled for composure; her chest heaved with the effort to breathe
+freely. She encouraged her horses to still greater speed, so that her
+carriage fairly rocked from side to side. She was glorious to behold in
+her wrath, as she both urged and restrained the spirited animals,--fit
+emblems of her own wild passions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I will show her who she is and who I am,&quot; she murmured. &quot;That I
+should be insulted by this German prude!&quot; And she gave the near horse a
+cut with her whip, making him rear wildly and then drag on the others
+in his headlong career. In a few minutes the village was passed
+through, and the village curs desisted from barking at the horses'
+heels, and retired growling to their homes. The steep descent of the
+hill upon which the village was built was close at hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Madame,&quot; said the groom to her in Russian, &quot;look there!&quot; He pointed to
+a sign-post by the wayside, warning travellers of the steep road. But
+it was too late; the countess needed both hands and all her strength to
+hold in her steeds, and could not reach the handle of the brake.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We shall get down safely,&quot; she cried, holding the heads of the four
+noble animals well in rein. But as the road made a slight turn she
+recognized in the foot-path before her a well-known form. Her face
+flushed crimson,--it was Möllner. She no longer saw the steep
+descent,--she did not see that she must pass the church, where service
+was held at the time and all vehicles were required by law to pass at a
+walk; she only saw Johannes, whom she would overtake at all hazards.
+She gave the horses the rein, and they rushed on as if for their lives.
+Then Johannes turned his head towards her and made signs to her, but
+she did not understand them. He stood still. She thundered past the
+church, and two or three peasants, disturbed in their devotions, came
+running out and looked menacingly after her. Johannes made signs to her
+again, more earnestly than before, and now she saw that he meant she
+should look where she was going,--in the road just before her there was
+a group of children playing. She tried to turn aside--tried to hold in
+her horses, but in vain. Neither horses nor carriage could be guided or
+restrained in the impetus that they had gained from the steep descent,
+and they tore madly on directly towards the children. Johannes, in the
+greatest alarm, jumped over the hedge dividing the foot-path from the
+road. The children scattered in terror.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a shriek. The countess looked around,--no child was near.
+Whence came that cry? It came from under her wheels. At that moment
+Johannes reached the carriage, seized the leaders by their bridles and
+brought them to a stand-still. Then he stooped down and drew forth from
+beneath the carriage a lovely little girl, quite senseless. With a
+wrathful glance at the countess, he took the child in his arms, and
+murmured, &quot;I thought so!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is she dead?&quot; asked the countess, pale with fright, and restraining
+with difficulty her excited steeds, while the groom put large stones in
+front of the wheels.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not dead,&quot; replied Möllner, &quot;but no doubt severely injured.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, what an unfortunate accident!&quot; cried the countess, quite beside
+herself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was no accident!&quot; Johannes rejoined severely, &quot;but the inevitable
+consequence of your furious driving, Countess Worronska.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He leaned against the hedge, and began, without a word more, to look
+into the extent of the child's injuries. &quot;This is what comes of it,&quot; he
+muttered with suppressed indignation, &quot;'when women hold the reins.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Möllner, do not reproach me,&quot; the countess entreated. He paid her no
+attention,--he was engrossed with the poor little victim upon his knee.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Whose child is it?&quot; he asked of her playmates, who came flocking
+around him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is Keller's Käthchen!&quot; cried the children. &quot;Ah, our dear little
+Käthchen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Some crowded about Johannes, others ran to the church to call the
+parents. Johannes tenderly bound up the child's bleeding forehead with
+his pocket-handkerchief, and carefully drew off its thick jacket to
+examine the shoulder-joint, that seemed to be broken.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Worronska devoured the scene with envious eyes. She saw him
+only,--the grace of his motions, the tender care that he lavished upon
+the child,--and, like molten lava, the words burst from her lips, &quot;Oh
+that I were that child!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes did not even hear her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The arm must go,&quot; he said sadly. &quot;The best that you can do. Countess
+Worronska, is to drive to town as quickly as you can and send out
+Professor Kern or some other skilful surgeon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Möllner,&quot; she implored, &quot;I cannot go until you have forgiven me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I pray you make haste, madame. Your first duty is to do what you can
+for the child; and I am afraid you will suffer from any delay, for
+there come the enraged peasants.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Like bees disturbed in their hive, a menacing, murmuring throng came
+flocking out of the church, and in a minute surrounded the strangers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What has happened?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is hurt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A child run over!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">These words ran from mouth to mouth, and every one pressed forward
+to know whether it was his child. But alarm soon gave way to
+indignation,--for Käthchen, pretty little roguish Käthchen Keller, was
+the pet of the village. All loved her, and were shocked and grieved to
+see the blooming flower so ruthlessly cut down. The child had never
+harmed a living thing. Every one had been gladdened by her bright smile
+and taken delight in her chubby innocent face. And that this dear,
+artless little creature should be sacrificed to the mad humour of an
+arrogant stranger! What business had this crazy woman in their quiet
+village, disturbing the repose of their holiday and destroying the poor
+peasants' most precious possessions?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Maledictions were the answers to all these questions, that arose
+instantly in the minds of the villagers, already heated by wine, and
+their next thought was of revenge.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Curses upon the vile woman,&quot; began one aloud, &quot;to drive so madly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where were your eyes?&quot; asked another. &quot;Such a child is not a dog, to
+be driven over! Could you not turn aside?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She thought a peasant's child was of no consequence,&quot; said a third.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who ever saw four horses harnessed together!&quot; exclaimed several.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is no end to the insolent pranks of these city folk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thunder and lightning!&quot; cried a sturdy, broad-shouldered peasant.
+&quot;Stop talking, and let us have her before the magistrate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes! to the burgomaster's!&quot; shouted the crowd.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes was in a most trying position. He still had the child in his
+arms, no one had taken her from him. He could not carry her away,--he
+dared not leave the defenceless woman to the insults of the mob. He
+tried to speak to the people, but in vain; they paid no attention to
+him. They had heard and seen the countess rattle past the church a few
+minutes before, and all their fury was concentrated upon her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes made a sign to the countess, who stood up in her carriage,
+regarding the people with contempt, to drive on instantly; but she
+cried, &quot;<i>Croyez-vous que je craigne la canaille? Je ne quitterai pas
+cette place sans que vous veniez avec moi!</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then a voice shrieked, in the midst of the tumult, &quot;Holy Mother! my
+child, my poor child!&quot; and a woman rushed up, tore the little girl out
+of Johannes's arms, and covered her with tears and kisses.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A handsome young peasant followed her, and gazed, wringing his hands,
+and stupefied with horror, at his senseless child. &quot;God in heaven! what
+have we done, that we should be visited so heavily?&quot; he murmured, and
+would have fallen, had not two of his friends supported him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Her eyes should be torn out!&quot; shrieked the mother, metamorphosed to a
+fury, while she pressed her child to her breast, as if to guard her
+darling from the danger to which she had fallen a victim. &quot;To jail with
+her, abandoned, God-accursed wretch that she is!&quot; And she kissed the
+child and bathed it in tears.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not curse,&quot; said her husband gloomily,--&quot;it's sinful on a holiday.
+God will one day,&quot; and he pointed to Käthchen, &quot;demand this life at her
+hands. She will not escape punishment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May it soon overtake her!&quot; sobbed the woman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The priest now approached from the church, with all the consolation
+that the occasion required of him, and the schoolmaster humbly
+followed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;See, see, reverend father, what they have done to my child,&quot; the
+mother cried, when she saw them. &quot;And Herr Leonhardt too,--ah, she was
+his pet. What is to be done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a piteous sight!&quot; said Herr Leonhardt, stooping over his little
+favourite, while the tears dropped from his poor eyes, and all the
+women wailed in chorus. But the priest felt called to utter a few
+solemn words of consolation in season.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Give thanks, my dear Frau Keller,&quot; he said, raising his hands,--&quot;give
+thanks for the abundant grace of our blessed mother Mary, in that she
+has so distinguished you above others as to call your dear child to be
+a holy angel in a better world, upon the very day of her own most
+blessed Assumption.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Reverend father,&quot; said Johannes, &quot;this gratitude is not necessary,
+thank God, as yet, for the child lives, and will live,--I will answer
+for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah!&quot; wailed the mother in despair, &quot;you do not know what it is to
+bring such a child into the world, to love it and work for it night and
+day until it grows big, to go without many a bit yourself that it may
+have enough, and, when it has got to be a joy and pleasure to you, to
+pick it up here all crushed and broken! God punish her! God punish
+her!&quot; With these words the woman hurried away, her husband supporting
+her trembling arms, that were scarcely able to sustain the child's
+weight, and yet would not resign it. The pastor and the schoolmaster
+went with her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here,&quot; called the Worronska after the retreating parents, &quot;take this
+for the present. You shall have more by-and-by.&quot; She held out a heavy,
+well-filled purse.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Keep your money, we do not want it,&quot; said the husband with sullen
+rage, and went on without turning his eyes from his child.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess looked down, pale and agitated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is right, we do not want money, but justice,&quot; shouted the mob, and
+pressed so close around the carriage that Johannes reached it with
+difficulty. He hastily kicked away the stones from beneath the wheels,
+and cried out to the Worronska,</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Drive on, in Heaven's name! Would you expose yourself to useless
+insults?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't let her go,&quot; was the cry. &quot;Take out the horses! Go for the
+burgomaster!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If one of us drives over a cat, he is carried off to the lock-up,--let
+the great folks fare the same.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Some even began to unharness the horses,--but Johannes interposed with
+iron determination, snatched the whip from the countess, who never took
+her eyes from him, gave the noble animals the lash, and away they went
+through the living wall that was closing around them. A shout of rage
+arose, the carriage was pursued for a short distance, but it was out of
+sight in a few minutes, leaving behind only the unfortunate groom,
+cowering terrified in the middle of the road.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then the universal indignation was turned upon Johannes, who stood
+quietly there with the whip in his hand. He had delivered the stranger
+from just punishment, and had assisted her to escape,--he was in league
+with her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are one of her friends. You shall answer for her to us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I certainly will, good people,&quot; said Johannes calmly and kindly.
+&quot;First let me do all that I can for the poor child, and then I will go
+with you to the burgomaster's or wherever else you choose.&quot; This simple
+answer entirely disarmed the rage of the crowd.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The gentleman is right, I know him,&quot; cried a newly-arrived peasant. It
+was the same man with whom Johannes had spoken upon his first visit to
+the castle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why did you help that bad woman to escape?&quot; asked some.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because she should be dealt with in an orderly manner. I promise you
+satisfaction, and much greater satisfaction than you would have in
+maltreating a woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is a just gentleman, a brave man!&quot; said the people one to another.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He takes it all upon himself,--that is honest!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, then, good people, and show me where the Kellers
+live,--afterwards we will have a word together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The peasants assented, well content. &quot;Yes, yes! that's all right!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They had not far to go to the wretched straw-thatched hut of the
+day-labourer Keller.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A wooden flight of steps upon the outside of the hut led to the upper
+story,--the space beneath was used as a stable, and the one room above
+it, that served for sleeping room and dwelling-room, contained a large
+bed, an earthenware stove, two wooden chairs, and a table. Over the bed
+hung a carved crucifix, with a skull, and a vessel for holy water, and
+in the bed little Käthchen lay quiet and patient, almost smothered
+beneath the heavy coverlet, gazing at the by-standers with bewildered
+eyes. Her mother knelt by the bedside, weeping. Several women were
+trying to comfort her, telling her how quickly and well the broken limb
+would heal if she would only have a model of it in wax hung before the
+picture of the Holy Mother of God in the church. The waxen limbs of all
+kinds that already hung like a wreath around the sacred picture bore
+witness to the efficacy of this pious custom. Frau Keller must lose no
+time in presenting her offering,--for it was especially efficacious
+upon Assumption day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Keller shook her head. She was obstinate in her grief, and did not
+believe in this kind of cure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Kaspar,&quot; she said, &quot;hung up a leg before the Holy Mother, and paid a
+gulden for it. And what good did it do? Did he not die of the trouble
+in his leg after he went to town?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The priest stood at the foot of the bed, listening to the conversation
+and shaking his head. &quot;Columbane, Columbane,&quot; he now began, &quot;you
+blaspheme! Do you not remember the cause of Kaspar's death? Do not
+accuse the Blessed Virgin,--how could she help the man when he would
+not wait for her aid, but listened to the evil counsel of the Hartwich
+and had his leg cut off? He did not die of disease, but because he made
+friends with an enemy of the Holy Mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then,&quot; said one of the women, &quot;perhaps the Holy Mother of God
+drew him to her again by that very leg.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What? Then perhaps she might draw my little Käthchen to her in the
+same way,&quot; cried Frau Keller defiantly. &quot;No, no! let me keep my child,
+crippled though she be, if she only lives. I am strong, and can work
+for her. No, Käthi dear, you do not want to go to heaven. You will stay
+with father and mother, even if they have only a crust for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, mother dear, I will stay with you,&quot; said the child in her sweet
+voice, leaning her head wearily upon her mother, who, sobbing, stroked
+the pale little cheeks. &quot;Mother dear,&quot; she said, and there came the
+sweetest expression into her eyes, &quot;do not cry so,--it does not hurt me
+much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A dull cry of anguish broke from the mother's breast, and she hid her
+face among the bedclothes. &quot;My child! my child! complain,--only be
+naughty and fret,--your patience breaks my heart,--you seem already on
+the way to be a blessed angel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Upon the other side of the bed, that stood with its head to the wall,
+were two silent figures, the father and the schoolmaster. The latter
+gazed down upon the child with hands clasped as if in prayer, while the
+father leaned against the wall, his face hidden in his hands. He looked
+up now, and said with emotion but with resignation, &quot;Be quiet, wife,
+and let us bear it as well as we can. If we must lose the child, she is
+too good for us,--I almost believe so now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father dear,&quot; said Käthchen, &quot;if you talk so, I must cry, and then you
+will cry more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr Leonhardt plucked the man by the sleeve, and whispered, &quot;The child
+ought to be kept perfectly quiet. Rouse yourself, and send these women
+away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So I say,&quot; said Johannes, who had stood for a few minutes unobserved
+upon the threshold of the door. &quot;I pray you, good women, leave us to
+ourselves. So many people in this small room worry the child. Your
+friendly interest is very grateful; show it now by withdrawing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The kindly neighbours willingly departed, he was such a handsome,
+pleasant gentleman who requested them to do so. The priest also look
+his leave; the schoolmaster only, at a sign from Johannes, remained.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Outside, there was no end to the questions and answers, as to how all
+was going on within, and how Käthchen, usually so nimble, could have
+got under the carriage-wheels. She was indeed a good little child, for
+it was at last ascertained that she had escaped herself and was
+perfectly safe, when she turned back to rescue a smaller child, a
+neighbour's little boy, who was standing still in the middle of the
+road. The boy escaped, but his poor little preserver was thrown down by
+the horses, and so severely injured.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is a dear pet--Käthchen,&quot; the men declared; and the women cried,
+&quot;Oh, if you could see her now lying there in bed, you would believe
+that she was half in heaven already.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was indeed in heaven, as is every true, pure child; for there is a
+heaven so close to the earth that only little children can walk beneath
+its canopy. We have grown up away from it; its glories are veiled from
+our eyes; it lies below us, like golden clouds around a mountain upon
+whose summit we are standing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Käthchen, how are you now?&quot; asked Johannes, stepping up to the
+bedside.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well, thank you,&quot; said Käthchen dutifully, as she had been taught
+to reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was something exquisitely touching in the half-unconscious
+self-control of the child. Johannes was moved by it. He stooped down
+and kissed the pretty lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;One more!&quot; she entreated, putting her unhurt arm around his neck.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Our Käthchen,&quot; said Herr Leonhardt, &quot;is a good little girl. Do you
+know, Herr Professor, that the other day she was the only one in the
+whole school who would give Fräulein von Hartwich a kiss?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At mention of that name a slight flush passed over Johannes's face. He
+sat down upon the edge of the bed and looked tenderly at the child.
+&quot;Indeed! Did you do that, you angel?&quot; he whispered, and again he kissed
+the lips, that seemed dearer to him after what the schoolmaster had
+told him. Profound silence reigned in the room. The parents looked on
+without a word. Herr Leonhardt alone saw Johannes's emotion. The little
+chest rose and fell more regularly. Johannes pillowed the head upon his
+warm, soft hand, and the child dropped asleep beneath the gentle gaze
+of her protector. He looked at the clock. The surgeon, whom the
+countess was to send, could not arrive for a long while yet.
+Nevertheless, he determined to wait for him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Husband,&quot; whispered Frau Keller, &quot;I have a strange thought. When the
+schoolmaster said just now that Käthi had kissed the Hartwich, I
+suddenly remembered how the child came home and told me all about it,
+and complained that the other children had jeered her, and told her
+that something would certainly happen to her,--that the Hartwich would
+bewitch her! 'Sh!--be still!--don't let the schoolmaster hear; he would
+be angry; but, for the life of me, I can't help thinking it very
+strange!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man looked thoughtfully at his wife, and scratched his head. After
+a little he whispered, &quot;It is not worth while to say anything about it;
+but you are right,--it is very strange. Deuce take the Hartwich! What
+business had she to kiss our child? There's something wrong about her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Speak to the priest about it, and see what he thinks, but don't let
+the schoolmaster know that you do so. Go. Say you want some beer. The
+child is asleep now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man slipped out as softly as he could upon his hob-nailed shoes, to
+consult the priest upon so grave a matter.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_2.9" href="#div1Ref_2.9">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>VOX POPULI, VOX DEI.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">When Keller, on his way to the priest, reached the village inn, he went
+in to refresh himself with a mug of beer, and found the priest whom he
+was seeking in the inn parlour, surrounded by a circle of auditors from
+the village and neighbouring farms. The Protestant pastor was also
+present, for the occurrence of the morning was a subject for universal
+discussion. The host was busy supplying the company with beer-mugs and
+bottles, secretly congratulating himself upon the accident that had
+brought him so much custom.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, here is the poor father! Well, what news? How is she now?&quot; were
+the words that greeted Keller's entrance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bad,&quot; he replied. &quot;The child will be a cripple.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A murmur of compassion was heard.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Keller turned to the priest and asked to be permitted a word with him
+in private. His request was willingly granted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your reverence,&quot; began the peasant, &quot;Columbane thinks the Hartwich has
+been the cause of all this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The priest clasped his hands. &quot;What do I hear? Why does she think so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Keller told him what had happened.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The priest shook his head, and said in a loud voice to his Protestant
+brother, &quot;Does it not seem, respected brother, as if we were forbidden
+by the visible finger of the Lord from holding any communication with
+this unholy woman, who has crept in among us like a poisonous serpent?&quot;
+He then repeated, so that all could hear, what Keller had just told
+him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Protestant divine, who was always in harmony with his colleague
+when there was a common enemy to do battle with, also considered the
+matter a very serious one. &quot;It would of course be superstition to
+believe that the Hartwich had bewitched the child, but it stands
+written, 'Cursed are the ungodly,' and the curse must cleave to all who
+come in contact with any such.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was instantly a great commotion among the peasants drinking in
+the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This much is certain,&quot; cried the pastor with great emphasis, &quot;that
+every misfortune comes, directly or indirectly, from the Hartwich!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; resounded from all parts of the room. &quot;Whom has she benefited
+in any way?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No one, no one!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Has she not tried to sow among you the seeds of her sinful doctrines?
+has she not, like the serpent of Eden, hissed into the ear of the
+sufferers to whose bedside she was admitted dreadful doubts, instead of
+pouring into them the balm of divine consolation?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,--she always spoke disrespectfully of our pastors and their
+office.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The clerical gentlemen looked mournfully at each other.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She has tried to stir up rebellion against the Church!&quot; cried the
+priest. &quot;She even turned me ignominiously from the doors when I went,
+in all the dignity of my office, to administer extreme unction to her
+servant Kunigunda, and she pretended in excuse that the maid was not
+going to die, and the ceremony would excite her and make her worse. She
+could not bear the sight of the Crucified beneath her roof. She is an
+outcast from God and His Church. Centuries ago, such as she were burnt
+alive; there was good reason for it. But we all suffer, and must
+continue to suffer, from their presence among us. The devil has put on
+the cloak of philanthropy, beneath which he hides all such sinners, so
+that we cannot touch them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is a poisonous sore in our flesh,&quot; added the Protestant pastor,
+&quot;and it stands written, 'If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out;' but
+we dare not cut out this sore that offends us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why not?--what is to hinder us?&quot; shouted the excited peasants.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you really believe that she has done this mischief to our poor
+child?&quot; said Keller with horror.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, if we cannot exactly believe that,&quot; replied the Protestant
+pastor, &quot;we must confess that we see in the accident a sign from
+Providence that we should avoid her. This much is certain, that the
+stranger who drove over the child had been visiting the Hartwich, so
+that, if she had not dwelt among us, the accident would most assuredly
+never have occurred, for that furious woman would never have come
+here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Hartwich is to blame for it all!&quot; growled the drunken throng.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She is, in one way or another,&quot; continued the expositor of Christian
+love. &quot;I repeat, with my respected brother, every misfortune among us
+is her work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, every misfortune is the work of the Hartwich!&quot; yelled the chorus.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gracious heavens! See! look there!&quot; cried one, pointing to the
+windows.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All looked out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;'Tis the Hartwich herself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Does she dare to come down here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She wants to see the misery she has caused!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Holy Mother!&quot; cried Keller, &quot;she is going to my house!&quot; And he rushed
+out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Like fermenting wine from a cask when the stopper is removed, the whole
+drunken throng rushed after him into the street.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Priest and pastor remained behind, looking at one another. &quot;What shall
+we do?&quot; asked one. &quot;Ought we not to follow them, to prevent mischief?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let the people rage, my worthy friend,&quot; replied the other. &quot;It is not
+for us to interfere in such matters. She is not worthy of our
+protection, and the just indignation of the people will find vent in
+words, that will not harm her, but that it will be well for her to
+hear. <i>Vox populi, vox Dei!</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True, true,&quot; assented the other. &quot;We should not interfere with the
+public sense of right in such a case. She would not listen to us. Let
+her hear the truth from the mouths of the peasants; perhaps it will
+have more effect upon her coming from them than from men of culture
+like ourselves!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let us hope so,&quot; said the Catholic father devoutly, as he seated
+himself by his Protestant colleague at an empty table, and filled his
+glass from the bottle of old wine that the host placed before him.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is that?&quot; asked Johannes softly, as a distant hum of approaching
+voices was heard. He sat with his hand still patiently supporting
+Käthchen's head, and would not draw it away, lest he should awaken the
+child.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The schoolmaster went on tiptoe to the window and looked out. &quot;I cannot
+tell what is the matter,&quot; he said. &quot;An excited crowd is rushing to and
+fro in the street, but I cannot see who they are or what it is all
+about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The people have not recovered from the event of this morning,&quot; said
+Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Meanwhile the noise drew near. Various abusive words were heard, and it
+seemed as if stones were thrown and fell upon the pavement. Shrill
+female voices cried quite distinctly, &quot;Not in here!&quot; &quot;Go away!&quot; &quot;Put
+her out!&quot; Boys shouted and whistled through it all.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good heavens!&quot; cried the schoolmaster, &quot;they are persecuting a lady!
+Oh, yes! Herr Professor, look! she is trying to escape into the houses!
+The women thrust her out and shut their doors upon her----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Brutes!&quot; exclaimed Johannes, beside himself with rage, for one glance
+from the window had shown him how matters stood.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Holy Maria! they are throwing stones and apples at her!&quot; cried Frau
+Keller.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes had rushed from the room as the schoolmaster turned towards
+him with the words, &quot;It is Fräulein von Hartwich!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But, just as Johannes reached the stairs, Keller burst in, pale and
+agitated, and locked the door after him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you mean?&quot; cried Johannes. &quot;Do you wish to shut me in here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, sir!&quot; implored Keller, blocking up the passage, &quot;do not open
+it,--the Hartwich wants to come in----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, let her in instantly! why do you delay?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For God's sake, keep her out!&quot; said Keller.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you mad,&quot; cried Johannes, &quot;that you would close your doors upon a
+fellow-being imploring protection? Open the door, or I will force the
+lock.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir, sir, my house is my own, if I am only a poor peasant!&quot; cried
+Keller still blocking the entrance. &quot;This is the abode of honest
+labour, and no accursed foot shall cross its threshold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The uproar without seemed stationary before the house. A shower of
+stones against the door showed that the persecuted woman had fled
+hither. Johannes was no longer master of himself. His blood boiled in
+his veins, his heart throbbed to bursting. With the strength of a giant
+he seized the burly peasant by his broad shoulders and hurled him
+aside--almost into the arms of the schoolmaster, who was coming to the
+rescue also. Then he tore open the door, and Ernestine fell half
+fainting at his feet. He caught her in his arms, and, as he stood thus
+shielding her, cried, in a tone that left no doubt in the minds of his
+hearers as to the truth of his words, &quot;I'll knock down the first man
+who dares to come near this lady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A dull murmur arose. &quot;Let him try to stop us,&quot; cried several, and
+clenched fists were shaken at him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I will try it,--but the man who dares me to try it will repent
+the trial!&quot; threatened Johannes. And so commanding were his words and
+bearing that no one ventured further than to throw a stone or two,
+accompanying them with abusive epithets. Johannes drew Ernestine more
+closely to his side. &quot;Shame on you, cowards that you are!&quot; He turned to
+Keller. &quot;Will you still refuse a shelter to this lady?--you see that
+she can scarcely stand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Keller looked at his wife, who had run out to them. &quot;Do not let her
+in!&quot; she cried. &quot;For God's sake, keep her out! has she not done us harm
+enough?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Keller looked at Johannes and shrugged his shoulders. &quot;You see my wife
+will not allow it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes stamped his foot in despair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you human?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We hope so, sir,&quot; said Keller, insolently thrusting his hands in his
+pockets.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And far better than the friends of that woman there,&quot; shouted the mob,
+and a small stone flew close past Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If I were as crazy as you are,&quot; cried he, &quot;I should throw down upon
+you the stones that you have thrown at me here, and my aim would be
+better than yours. But I will not contend with drunken men or do battle
+with people who are not responsible for their actions; all I ask of you
+is to give way and allow me to take this lady to her home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The crowd maintained its place in a compact mass, and only replied by
+unintelligible words, from which, however, Johannes gathered that
+Ernestine's punishment was not yet considered sufficient, and that she
+was not to be allowed to escape so easily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will pay you whatever you ask, if you will only afford Fräulein von
+Hartwich shelter until I have quieted this tumult,&quot; said Johannes to
+Keller.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You'll get nothing out of me, sir! Neither money nor fine words will
+get her across my threshold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mother, let her come in,&quot; suddenly cried a voice that had a wonderful
+effect upon the mob. Käthchen had slipped from her bed unperceived, and
+in her distress had run out to her mother. She threw her uninjured arm
+around Ernestine's knees, and looked up at her weeping. &quot;They shall not
+hurt you; I love you so dearly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Jesus Maria!&quot; shrieked Frau Keller. &quot;My child! my child!&quot; She tore the
+little girl away from Ernestine, and, followed by her husband, carried
+her into the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you want to kill yourself?&quot; cried the father in despair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No! I want the lady, I want the lady,&quot; the child was still heard
+wailing from the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A commotion now began, which threatened to be serious indeed. &quot;There,
+now, you see it with your own eyes,--the sick child even crawls out of
+bed to her. Don't you see now that she is bewitched? The Hartwich must
+leave the place this very day, or we'll hunt her out of the village.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Men! men! for God's sake, what are you doing?&quot; said a gentle voice
+behind Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oho, the schoolmaster!&quot; was now the cry. &quot;Let him come down,--we've
+had our eyes upon him for a long time. Come down, schoolmaster, you
+shall be ducked for your friendship for the witch.&quot; And again the human
+flood overflowed the lower step of the stairs at the head of which
+Johannes was standing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Back!&quot; commanded Johannes, resigning Ernestine to the schoolmaster,
+&quot;back! now you see my arms are free.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Involuntarily the foremost recoiled at sight of his menacing attitude.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Deluded people,&quot; cried Johannes, beside himself with indignation, &quot;is
+there nothing sacred from your frantic rage,--neither a defenceless
+girl nor the gray head of your teacher? What has he done, except spend
+his life in the thankless endeavour to make reasonable human beings of
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is friends with the Hartwich,--it is his fault that she kissed the
+child. His house ought to be burned over his head!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes!&quot; roared the mob, &quot;their holes should be burned out and
+destroyed--his and hers. Blasphemers! Unbelievers! They shall yet learn
+to believe in God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is too much!&quot; thundered Johannes. &quot;Would you prove your religion
+by becoming incendiaries? Woe upon you if you lay a finger upon what
+belongs to either of these people! Do you know the penalty for arson?
+And, depend upon it, I will see to it that you do not escape.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A shout of rage arose at these words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr Professor,&quot; said Leonhardt imploringly, &quot;do not aggravate these
+people further,--we cannot convince them. Children,&quot; he called down to
+them, and his voice trembled with pain, not with fear,--&quot;children, I
+have grown old among you; I know you better than you know yourselves.
+You are too wise to do anything that would subject you to the penalty
+of the law, and too kind to commit an outrage upon people who have
+never harmed you. You do not believe that I am an unbeliever. Have I
+not educated your children to be useful, God-fearing men and women?
+Have I not stood your friend in every time of trouble? The little
+house, that you in your blind fury would destroy, has afforded many of
+you a peaceful shelter,--it is a sacred spot to your children, and
+could you lay a finger upon it? Go to the church-yard and see if there
+is a single grave there of your loved ones that has not been adorned by
+flowers from my garden, and would you bury it beneath the ruins of my
+dwelling? No, do not try to seem worse than you are.&quot; He placed
+Ernestine gently down upon the landing and stood in front of her. &quot;You
+know that your old master loves all God's creatures, and would you
+condemn him for taking compassion upon the unhappy maiden whom no one
+pities, whom all hate? Do you call me godless because I hoped to lead
+this erring but noble nature to find her God again? Yes, take up your
+stones,--look! I will take off my cap and expose my white head to your
+aim. Where is the hand that will lift itself against it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man stood with uncovered head, holding his cap in his clasped
+hands. The evening breeze played amid his silver locks, and the stones
+that had been picked up were gently dropped again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then his arm was drawn down by his side and a kiss was imprinted upon
+his withered hand. It was Ernestine. Johannes saw the act, and his eyes
+were moist She could be grateful. He exchanged a happy glance with the
+old man to whom she had just paid such a tribute.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is only a weak old man,&quot; muttered the people,--&quot;let him alone. He
+means well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will go and bring their pastors,&quot; said Leonhardt softly to Johannes,
+and he descended the steps. He walked quietly through the midst of the
+crowd, that opened before him, but closed up again when he had passed
+through.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come,&quot; said Johannes, raising Ernestine from the ground, &quot;let us try
+to put an end to this wretched scene.&quot; He carried rather than led her
+down the steps. &quot;Make way there!&quot; he called in a commanding tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The foremost in the mob gave way. Just then Frau Keller appeared at the
+door. She held the cup of holy water, which usually hung above the bed,
+and she sprinkled with its contents the spot where Ernestine had been
+standing. Her pious act was greeted with a shout of applause. Ernestine
+saw her, and trembled and turned pale, while large tears gathered in
+her eyes; she grew dizzy, and would have fallen had not Johannes
+supported her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Courage, courage,&quot; he whispered,--&quot;do not let such folly distress
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Look, look! she cannot bear the holy water. She didn't mind the
+stones,--but a few drops of water are too much for her.&quot; Thus shouted
+the mob, and the uproar began again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is this possible?&quot; cried Johannes, casting prudence to the winds. &quot;Is
+it possible that in the nineteenth century, and in a civilized country,
+such utter barbarian stupidity should exist? Do you really believe, if
+Fräulein Hartwich were in league with the devil, that she would have
+borne your abuse, that she would not have thrown her spells over you
+long ago, and escaped your brutality? Do you think that she listens to
+you from choice, and likes to have stones thrown at her? Why, the very
+patience and resignation with which she has endured your outrageous
+insults might prove to you that she has no supernatural power at her
+command,--that she has not even the protection of a bold nature, like
+the other lady, with whom you were justly indignant. But let me tell
+you that I am neither feeble nor weak, and that my patience is
+exhausted, and my power, although not supernatural is quite sufficient
+to punish such excesses as this, and to conjure up among you a host of
+evil spirits in the shape of a detachment of gens-d'armes. Therefore be
+quiet, and let us pass on our way. Every moment of delay increases the
+weight of the charges that I shall bring against you before the
+magistrate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So saying, he put one arm about Ernestine, and with the other cleared a
+path for himself through the throng, who were somewhat quelled by his
+last words, and gave place grumbling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And now the clergymen, followed by the schoolmaster, appeared, with
+every sign of hurry and amazement.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You come too late, gentlemen, to prevent what must cover those under
+your charge with shame,&quot; said Johannes with severity. &quot;I supposed such
+scenes impossible in our day. You, gentlemen, have taken care that I
+should be better informed, and have prepared a rich page in the history
+of our civilization. I am well aware from what source the insults
+heaped by these misguided people upon Fräulein Hartwich draw their
+inspiration, and I consider you, gentlemen, responsible for the
+restoration of order and the safety of this lady.&quot; He drew Ernestine's
+arm more firmly within his own, and walked on without waiting for a
+reply from the reverend gentlemen, who stood there speechless with
+alarm and embarrassment, looking after him with a degree of respect
+that they could not control.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In silence the pair reached the castle and entered the garden.
+Ernestine passively allowed herself to be led through the shady walks.
+Involuntarily Johannes turned towards the little eminence where he had
+seen her for the first time. He had resolved not to leave Ernestine
+here, but to place her that very evening beneath his mother's
+protection. How should he persuade her to such a step? This was the
+question that he propounded to himself, breathlessly searching for the
+answer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was for the time incapable of speech. She could not raise her
+eyes to her protector. Mortification, profound mortification,
+overpowered her. How thoroughly she had recognized his position as a
+man, and her own as a woman! She admired him,--she was ashamed of
+herself. What a feeling it was!--yes, it was the same self-humiliation
+that she had felt once before, beneath the oak tree where, when flying
+as to-day from insults and sneers, she had met the handsome lad who had
+given her the prophetic book. But when would the prophecy in the
+fairy-tale be fulfilled? When should she cease to be laughed at,
+despised, and insulted? When should the lonely, persecuted, weary swan
+unfold its plumage upon calm waters in sunshine and peace? And in an
+access of pain she covered her face with her hands and burst into
+tears. She sank down upon the mound and sobbed like a child. Johannes
+stood silent before her. His mind was filled with the same thoughts,
+the same memories, and, like an answer to her mute soliloquy, there
+came from his lips, in tones of melting tenderness, the words, &quot;Poor
+swan!&quot; Ernestine's hands dropped from her face, she stared at him with
+wide-open eyes,--then sprang up, and, while her pale cheeks flushed,
+and her whole frame trembled, gazed at him still, as if she would look
+him through, her agitation increasing every moment. &quot;There--there is
+only one person on earth who knows that,&quot; she faltered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What?&quot; asked Johannes with a beating heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What I was thinking of--about the swan!&quot; she articulated with
+difficulty, for her voice failed her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes, who stood somewhat below Ernestine, looked up at her
+expectantly. &quot;And who is that person?&quot; he asked gently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine could not reply,--a strange thrill passed through her, and
+she awaited the issue of the miracle of the moment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, do you remember the lad who once rescued a wild, timid girl
+from mortal peril?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She bowed her head in assent. &quot;Ernestine, did you ever then for one
+moment in your childish heart think of him with love?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She raised her eyes to the twilight skies, and was silent for a moment;
+then she breathed a scarcely audible &quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A light, feathery cloud hovered above her head. Was it the little
+mermaid, dead for her beloved's sake, and, dissolved in foam, borne
+away by the daughters of the air to eternal bliss? Could it return
+again,--that fair, half-forgotten love-dream of her childhood,--the
+only one she had ever dreamed?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she looked after the floating cloud as it grew thinner and thinner,
+until it was gradually dissolved in air, and the gentle radiance of the
+evening star appeared where it faded.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, do you know me now?&quot; said Johannes. &quot;See, this is the
+second time that God has placed me by your side to rescue you from a
+self-sought peril, and, as when I then brought you down from the broken
+bough, so now I open wide my arms to you, and pray you, 'Seek refuge
+and safety here!' Oh, little dryad, you are the same as then, for all
+that you have grown so tall and beautiful! There are the same
+mysterious dark eyes, the same strange, lonely spirit imprisoned in the
+delicate frame, bewailing its Titan descent. I knew then that there was
+only one such creature in the world,--and I should have recognized you
+among thousands as I recognized you when you stood alone upon this
+hill. Wondrous and fairy-like creature that you are, if you do not
+dissolve in air at the touch of a mortal, come to this heart; if an
+earth-born being may approach you with earthly love, take mine and
+learn to love a mortal. Yes, pure, aspiring spirit, for whom this earth
+has never been a home, I am only a man,--and yet a faithful, true, and
+loving man. Can you love me again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine stood immovable. She had raised her hands to her forehead, as
+one is apt to do at hearing the mysterious, the incomprehensible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do not speak; have you no words for me? Look, Ernestine, do you
+not remember the boy about whose neck you once clasped your trembling
+arms so willingly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last she stretched out both hands to the earnest speaker, with a
+look of unrestrained delight. &quot;Johannes,&quot; she cried, as tear after tear
+coursed down her cheek, &quot;Johannes Möllner,--my childhood's friend,--I
+know you now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He hastened to her side, and opened his arms to clasp her to his heart,
+but she recoiled with such a burning blush, with such childlike alarm
+painted upon her face, that Johannes controlled himself, and only
+pressed her delicate hands to his lips. Her maidenly reserve was sacred
+to him.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_2.10" href="#div1Ref_2.10">CHAPTER X.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>NOWHERE AT HOME.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">On this very evening there was a social meeting of the Professors at
+the Staatsräthin's. Johannes had entirely forgotten it. As the
+afternoon passed and evening approached without bringing him, the
+Staatsräthin grew really anxious about him, apart from the
+embarrassment which his absence caused with regard to her guests, to
+whom she knew not what excuse to make. She was walking to and fro in
+her garden behind the house, where her guests were to assemble and
+enjoy the lovely twilight in the open air.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly Angelika joined her in breathless haste. &quot;Mother, mother, I
+have found out where Johannes has been all day long!&quot; she cried,
+taking her hat off to cool her forehead, and throwing herself into a
+garden-chair. &quot;Moritz has just got back from Hochstetten, whither he
+was called this afternoon, and he tells a wonderful tale. The whole
+village is in commotion,--the behaviour of the Hartwich has actually
+excited a tumult. There was an outbreak, and Johannes,--our
+Johannes,--publicly declared himself her champion!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin clasped her hands and gazed incredulously at Angelika.
+&quot;Is this true?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, this is not all!&quot; Angelika went on to say. &quot;Moritz did not even
+see Johannes, for he was all the time--now, be composed, mother--in the
+castle with the Hartwich!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good heavens!&quot; cried her mother, seating herself upon a bench. &quot;Has it
+gone so far already?&quot; A long pause ensued. At last the anxious mother
+folded her hands in her lap and said softly to herself, &quot;My son, my
+son, what are you doing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika said nothing, but turned away. The same evening star that had
+beamed so gently upon Ernestine and Johannes glittered in the tears
+which filled the sister's eyes as she looked up at it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Angelika,&quot; said her mother mournfully, &quot;you should not have told me
+this without some preparation. You forget that I am grown old, and my
+many trials of late years have robbed me of the power of endurance
+that I once possessed. How much I have gone through since your
+uncle Neuenstein's bankruptcy! All our misfortunes have come from
+Unkenheim,--your uncle's unlucky scheme in the purchase of the Hartwich
+factory, the loss of three-fourths of our property in the affair, and
+the consequent necessity of our leaving our home that Johannes might
+practise his profession for his livelihood here. And nothing of all
+this would have happened if we had never seen Unkenheim! And this
+wretched Hartwich girl comes too from that place! You will see that she
+is going to bring us additional misfortune! Shall we never draw a free
+breath again? Why should this creature disturb our dearly-purchased
+peace of mind?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mother dear,&quot; Angelika entreated, kneeling down beside the
+Staatsräthin, &quot;mother dear, do not cry now when we expect guests. Be
+comforted,--things will not go as wrong as you fear. Come, be again the
+calm, prudent mother who never seemed so great to me as in misfortune.
+I trust in God, and our Johannes----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She did not finish her sentence, but arose hastily, for several of
+their friends appeared at the garden-gate. The Staatsräthin, accustomed
+to control herself, had regained her self-possession, and received her
+guests with her usual graceful cordiality.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where is your son?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is your son not at home?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">To this question, asked at least twenty times, she replied always with
+unwearied patience, &quot;He was suddenly called away, but I hope he will
+soon be here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When old Heim appeared, he listened with a queer smile to the terrible
+tale that Angelika whispered into his ear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a fellow he is,--this Johannes!&quot; he said with kindly humour.
+&quot;With her! with her at the castle! That's going rather too fast,--eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, uncle!&quot; cried Angelika, &quot;is that all the sympathy you have for us
+in so grave a matter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, you see, my child, the matter does not seem so grave to me as to
+you. Johannes is a man, and knows what he is about. You act as if he
+were a beardless boy, whose nurse ought to follow him about. If this
+clever girl pleases him, it is a proof of his taste. Whatever you do, I
+will not league with you for all the beseeching glances of those
+forget-me-not eyes of yours.&quot; And the old gentleman seated himself
+deliberately upon Angelika's straw hat, that she had forgotten to take
+from the chair where she had thrown it. &quot;God bless me! what kind of a
+cushion have you put in my chair?&quot; he cried, producing, amid universal
+laughter, a flattened mass of straw and violets that bore not the
+faintest resemblance to a hat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That comes of leaving one's things about. Who would have supposed that
+I should go about in my old age sitting upon straw hats? Well, well,
+child, to-day is a day of misfortunes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The company quickly assembled. The ladies seated themselves at the
+large round tea-table, the gentlemen stood about in groups, and, as
+smoking was allowed, puffed forth blue clouds of smoke into the clear
+evening air.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The moon began to cast a pale light through the crimson evening glow.
+Night-moths fluttered hither and thither, and now and then a big
+booming beetle would fly around the heads of the startled ladies. The
+tired birds flew in among the bushes to seek their nests, arousing the
+alarm of the younger girls who were in great terror of bats.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly a wiry voice without was heard chirping Rückert's song:</p>
+
+<div class="poem3">
+<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-8px">&quot;Yes, a household dear and blest</p>
+<p class="t1">Mine shall always be.</p>
+<p class="t0">I'll invite there as my guest</p>
+<p class="t1">Him who pleases me.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="continue">And Elsa, leaning on her brother's arm, appeared at the door. The
+Staatsräthin arose.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, my dearest, motherly friend,&quot; cried Elsa from afar, gliding
+towards her, &quot;I am late, am I not? Could my thoughts have borne me
+hither, I should have been with you long ago; but imagine--our droschky
+lost a wheel--and we had to walk all the way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am very sorry,&quot; said the Staatsräthin kindly. &quot;You must have had
+quite a fright.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, it was a most unfortunate intermezzo, disturbing our
+anticipations of the pleasant evening,&quot; said Herbert politely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, it did not spoil my enjoyment,&quot; laughed Elsa with pretty
+assurance, and she piped out the last couplet of her song:</p>
+
+<div class="poem3">
+<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-8px">&quot;Thrown from the carriage should I be,<br>
+A flowery grave awaiteth me.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The only thing to lament was our tardiness in reaching you, and I ran
+myself quite out of breath.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not quite!&quot; replied the Staatsräthin with a smile. &quot;You were trilling
+very gaily as you came along the Bergstrasse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Really, did you hear me?&quot; asked Elsa in charming confusion. &quot;My voice,
+then, was more fortunate than I,--it reached you sooner!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How is your wife?&quot; the Staatsräthin inquired of Herbert.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you,--she is always the same. The constant spectacle of her
+sufferings, without the power to alleviate them, is almost too much for
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin looked compassionately at Herbert's sunken cheeks.
+&quot;Poor Frau Herbert! and you too are greatly to be pitied!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you for your sympathy,--it helps to lighten the burden of my
+anxiety on her account.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Elsa had not listened to this grave conversation; she had already
+joined the company, and the Staatsräthin followed with Herbert.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A bat! a bat!&quot; cried one of the younger gentlemen as Elsa approached,
+and he pointed to a bird just whirring past.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are severe,&quot; one of his brethren said to him in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only look,&quot; whispered a third, &quot;Herbert is as fine as usual in a dress
+coat. It is not fair to appear in full dress when he knows that by the
+rules of these meetings we are all to come in morning costume.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is his way,--no one could expect anything else of Herbert!&quot; said
+Taun.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He's a fool,&quot; said Meibert,--&quot;the charm of ease in an undress coat is
+one of the chief attractions of these meetings. At least I find it so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So do I, so do I,&quot; cried one and another of the party. Meanwhile Elsa
+was nodding and bowing in every direction. She exulted in the
+consciousness of giving so much pleasure by her presence. She loved
+every one, and every one loved her. Earth was a paradise, full of
+faith, hope, and charity,--through it she fluttered like a kindly fairy
+at her own sweet will. She was a little alarmed at not seeing Möllner,
+and her gaiety received a severer check than when she had nearly found
+her &quot;flowery grave.&quot; But she comforted herself,--he would come,--he
+could not stay away from the place where Elsa was. And she determined
+not to visit his absence upon the company,--they were not to blame for
+it,--she would join in the conversation. There was something touching
+in her good-humoured vanity. She would use the advantages which she was
+conscious of possessing over others only for their benefit. She took
+pleasure in her imaginary gift of conversation only because she could
+thereby amuse her dear friends by means of it. How should she know that
+she was ridiculed and laughed at? She saw that mirth abounded wherever
+she was. How could it be caused by anything but delight in her
+presence? Her confidence in the esteem and love of her fellows was
+impregnable, for it was rooted in her unbounded confidence in her own
+excellence. Who would not love a creature so good, so talented, and
+withal so modest that she was kind and gentle to all? Why, no one could
+help it. This conviction inspired her in society with a self-possession
+that carried her untouched through all the contempt and sneers that she
+everywhere provoked, and kept her quiet self-sufficiency unruffled.
+Most happily for her, she felt all the blessing without an idea of the
+curse of mediocrity that attached to her in the presence of others.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was quite idyllic to-day, for Elsa in the midst of nature was a
+very different person, although scarcely less lovely, from Elsa in her
+study. She had encircled with leaves her large straw hat,--the wide
+brim of which kept flapping up and down as she tripped about,--and a
+nosegay of wild flowers was stuck in her bosom. She loved wild flowers
+far more than garden flowers. Everybody admired garden flowers,--she
+pitied the wild flowers, and would atone by her love to the poor
+neglected blossoms of the field. Her delicate sense perceived beauty in
+the humblest thing that grew. She did not need grace of form and
+vividness of colour to impress her with the wisdom of the Creator.
+Every dandelion, every blade of grass, was lovely in her eyes. How
+wondrous was its structure! How its modest withdrawal from superficial
+eyes accorded with her own retiring nature! And then it was the
+prerogative of a poetic temperament to see what was hidden to all the
+world beside. It was a severe blow, therefore, to her tender heart when
+the professor of botany asked, &quot;But, Fräulein Elsa, why have you
+brought a bunch of hay to a house noted for its capital suppers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you naughty man,&quot; she pouted, &quot;you cannot tease me out of my love
+for these darlings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you take all these weeds under your protection?&quot; asked the
+implacable professor. &quot;Then you must have enough to do when the cattle
+are driven out to pasture.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">All laughed, and Elsa laughed too. She could take a jest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But,&quot; she replied, &quot;to fall a sacrifice to the stronger is a fate from
+which even Flora herself cannot shield her children. Thank God, they
+all grow again! I do not wish to save them from the animals whom they
+serve for food. It is an enviable lot to sustain life in others by
+one's own death. I wish to shield them from the contempt of men. Is it
+not a sacred duty to espouse the cause of the despised? And those who
+do not discharge it conscientiously in small matters will neglect it in
+more important things. So let me put my poor thirsty flowers in water,
+that they may lift up their little heads again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They handed her a glass of water, into which the botanist recommended
+that a lump of sugar should be thrown, because, as he said,
+sugar-and-water was so much more nutritious.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go, go, naughty man,&quot; said Elsa, arranging her bouquet. &quot;Look! is not
+that lovely?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My good Fräulein Elsa,&quot; cried the professor, &quot;do not ask me to be
+enthusiastic over the beauty of a flower. I have long lost the sense of
+delight that people feel at sight of a flower. The most beautiful
+flowers for me are those that furnish most matter for scientific
+investigation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a prosaic point of view!&quot; cried Elsa. &quot;Tell me, ladies, can there
+be anything more monstrous than a botanist who does not love flowers?
+It is as unnatural as for a musician to take no pleasure in music. It
+is treason to the <i>scientia amabilis</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You say so,&quot; replied the professor with some asperity, &quot;only because
+you do not know what is at the present day called 'the lovely science.'
+I assure you, modern botany has, as De Bury remarks, no more right to
+this title than any other science. It is only the knowledge of a couple
+of thousands of names of flowers and the manifold conditions of their
+existence,--the examination into their manner of life,--in other words,
+the physiology of plants. The flower is not the end, but the means to
+an end, the end of physics, physiology, and every other science: the
+discovery of the whole by a knowledge of a part Let this part be plant,
+man, or beast, we are all searching for the same laws, and it is just
+as unnecessary that a botanist should be fond of flowers as that a
+physiologist should be a philanthropist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Elsa blushed rosy red at these words. &quot;Möllner loves mankind,--I know
+he does,&quot; she whispered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So much the better for him if he does,&quot; said the professor smiling.
+&quot;That is a private satisfaction of his own, and we will not disturb it.
+But, seen in the light of his profession, men are no more to him than
+plants,--to me plants are no less than men. Both are to us only
+subjects for untiring investigation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot think that of Möllner,&quot; said Elsa softly to herself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The botanist shrugged his shoulders compassionately and left her. When
+he rejoined his brethren, they accosted him with, &quot;It is easy to see
+that you have not been here long, or you would not try to preach reason
+into Elsa Herbert. Who could make a woman understand such things?&quot; And
+there was a burst of laughter, in which Hilsborn was the only one who
+did not join. He was never disposed to sneer. Although he himself could
+not overcome his dislike for Elsa, he was too amiable to put it into
+words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, really, for one's own sake it is best to make an attempt at least
+to enlighten the ignorant,&quot; the botanist replied, when thus attacked.
+&quot;It is impossible to listen in silence to such nonsense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, Fräulein Elsa, you consider it a blessed lot to be devoured by
+cows,&quot; said a young private tutor, who had but just thrown off his
+student's gown.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Elsa was quite happy. She had not received so much attention for a long
+time. It was the consequence of her originality. How excellent, too,
+her spirits were to-day! What a pity that Möllner was not present to
+witness her triumph!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; she said gaily, &quot;whatever is as perishable as a flower cannot
+die a more charming death than----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In a cow's mouth,&quot; laughed the skeptic. &quot;It is unfortunate that
+Fechner had not conceived this poetic idea before he wrote his
+'Nanna.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you may ridicule anything in that way, if you choose to do so,&quot;
+said Elsa.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not vex our kind Elsa,&quot; Angelika here interrupted the discussion,
+throwing her fair round arm around the other's thin shoulders. &quot;Elsa
+dear, give me your nosegay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There, put it on your brother's writing-table,&quot; Elsa whispered in her
+ear.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika looked at her with compassion. &quot;I will do what you ask, Elsa,
+but you know he does not care much for plucked flowers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But perhaps he will value them when he knows that they were plucked by
+the faithful hand of such a friend as I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika took the bouquet, and said hesitatingly, &quot;I hope he will
+not be vexed,--he does not like to have anything placed upon his
+writing-table,--but I will try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hastily, as usual, Moritz came running through the garden just as
+Angelika was bending over Elsa. She turned, and found her husband's
+sparkling black eyes resting upon her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Moritz,&quot; she cried in delight, &quot;have you come at last?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, my darling. I had another patient to see; but now I am free to
+stay with you until to-morrow at eight,--twelve whole hours. Is not
+that fine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fine indeed!&quot; repeated Angelika, and poor Elsa listened to these
+loving speeches, longing for the time when such happiness should be
+hers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come,&quot; said old Heim, plucking Moritz by the sleeve, &quot;we cannot live
+upon your pretty speeches to your wife, and they may spoil our
+appetites. Your mamma begs you to play the part of host at supper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, Angelika,&quot; said Moritz, drawing Angelika's arm through his own.
+He never took any other woman than his wife to supper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was a trying moment for Elsa, for it was her usual fate to be left
+sitting still when supper was ready or a dance was in prospect. She
+must either join herself to some other unfortunate, similarly
+neglected, or perhaps be offered a left arm by some good-natured man
+already provided with a lady upon his right. Ah, her knight, her
+Lohengrün, was not there, he who would one day rescue her forever from
+this solitude. Where was he? Why did he not come? And in her distress
+she turned to one of the gentlemen who had just finished smoking and
+was approaching the circle of ladies. &quot;Do you not know where Professor
+Möllner is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentleman was a young assistant surgeon, whom Moritz had taken to
+the village with him that afternoon. The latter, as he passed,
+whispered in his ear, &quot;Do not tell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man looked confused, and just then Herbert approached and
+said maliciously, &quot;You were in Hochstetten this afternoon, where
+Professor Möllner played his usual part of good Samaritan? I heard you
+telling Hilsborn about it,--pray favour us too with the interesting
+story.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He laid his hand, as if unconsciously, upon his sister's shoulder, but
+its heavy pressure, told her that it was not done either unconsciously
+or kindly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We all know very well that Möllner never allows an insult to pass
+unpunished,&quot; said Hilsborn, &quot;and you should know it, Herr Herbert,
+better than any of us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True, I have had occasion to be convinced of the interest that Möllner
+takes in Fräulein von Hartwich, although it is by no means so dangerous
+to correct an erring professor as an enraged mob.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What? what is it?&quot; ran from mouth to mouth, and the company drew
+together in a large group.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Permit me,&quot; said Moritz in a loud voice to Herbert, &quot;to be the
+interpreter of my brother-in-law's conduct, as I certainly understand
+it better than a stranger. The truth is, the Hartwich was insulted by a
+Hochstetten mob, and my brother-in-law interfered to prevent her from
+receiving personal injury.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah,&quot; said Herbert, as if he were comprehending it all for the first
+time, &quot;this, then, was the generous motive that took your brother two
+miles from town to that retired village?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I myself have never yet presumed to cross-examine my brother-in-law as
+to his motives,--I leave the bold undertaking to you,&quot; replied Moritz,
+challenging Herbert with his keen glance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What can have happened there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What did the Hartwich do? A whole village certainly does not rise
+against a private individual without some cause.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This Hartwich must be a dreadful person!&quot; Such were the remarks made
+by one and another.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gentlemen, let me pray you to come to supper,&quot; said the Staatsräthin,
+who was evidently embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But her invitation was unheeded. All the ladies and several gentlemen
+had, like hungry wolves, had a taste of the interesting subject, and
+they were not to be tempted by the promise of other food. There was no
+end to their amazement and conjectures. To be sure, it was impossible
+to express before Möllner's relatives all that was thought, but they
+could gain some information by their questions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They could not understand how Professor Möllner could befriend such a
+person. It was no wonder that public opinion was so opposed to her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Elsa, &quot;Christian love should be shown to every sinner, but
+this woman puts our sex in such a light that really one blushes at
+being a woman. I can say, with Gretchen, that humanity is dear to me,
+but this Hartwich displays such shamelessness, such vulgarity of mind,
+that it becomes the duty of those possessed of any sensibility to
+suppress all compassion and to regard her with abhorrence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Tell me, then, Fräulein Elsa,&quot; Hilsborn here interrupted her, &quot;what
+becomes of your former assertion that the cause of the despised and
+neglected should always be espoused by the true Christian, as in the
+case of your field-flowers?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Elsa blushed, and stroked back her curls.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, my dear friend,&quot; remarked the botanist, &quot;the Hartwich is not a
+field-flower.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly not one that cows can eat, for she is poisonous,&quot; said
+Herbert.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, there are reptiles that feed on hemlock,&quot; said old Heim with
+irritation. &quot;But, whether she be hemlock or belladonna, we all know
+that both are medicinal, and she might perhaps be useful as an antidote
+to the affectation and hypocrisy that infect the feminine world of
+to-day, producing bigotry, malice, and all sorts of moral diseases.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was going almost too far,&quot; Moritz whispered to the old man, who
+passed him grumbling thus, with his hands clasped behind him. &quot;I cannot
+abuse her any more, for Johannes's sake, but I do wish the devil had
+her rather than Johannes should have her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim looked at him and contracted his white, bushy eyebrows. &quot;To that
+nonsense all I say is, we will talk about it at some future time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin approached. &quot;Uncle Heim, you are blinded by
+your partiality. Convince us that this person is anything else
+than a brazen-faced claimant for notoriety, and God knows what
+besides,--convince us of this, And we will beg her pardon,--but, until
+then, we must be allowed to consider any intercourse with her, on my
+son's part, as a misfortune. Now give me your arm; we must go to
+supper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, let us go. I am tired, and shall be glad of something to eat,&quot;
+said the old gentleman, conducting the Staatsräthin into the house,
+where the table was laid.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The others followed, and Elsa fluttered after them like the last
+swallow of autumn. They all entered the house by the large door opening
+upon the garden. Directly opposite was the door leading into the
+street. They began, laughing and talking, to ascend the stairs to the
+dining-room, when a carriage drove up. The Staatsräthin, who led the
+way, stopped and listened intently. It might be Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The door was at that instant thrown open, and he appeared,--but not
+alone. There was a lady leaning on his arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A murmur of surprise was heard.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes was quite as much astonished at unexpectedly encountering such
+an assemblage as the guests were at his entrance with a veiled lady,
+who was evidently embarrassed and desirous to withdraw when she saw so
+many people. But Johannes detained her. &quot;I pray you, remain,&quot; he said
+to her, &quot;you have no cause for alarm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin leaned heavily upon Heim's arm, her knees trembled
+under her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Compose yourself,&quot; the old man whispered in her ear. &quot;Submit to the
+inevitable,--remember that your son is master of the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I shall not forget it,&quot; she replied softly, yet with bitterness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the mean time, Johannes had reached the staircase with the evidently
+reluctant Ernestine. &quot;My dear mother,&quot; he said, looking up at her with
+a face radiant with pleasure, &quot;I bring you another guest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin descended a couple of stairs with the air of one
+compelled to receive a guest whose visit she regards as anything but
+welcome.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein von Hartwich,&quot; said Johannes, presenting her at once to his
+mother and his assembled friends, &quot;has been persuaded by me to seek an
+asylum for this night beneath our roof, as her uncle is absent from
+home, leaving her alone and defenceless, the object of a low, and
+brutal conspiracy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are welcome, Fräulein von Hartwich,&quot; said the Staatsräthin with
+cold courtesy, without offering Ernestine her hand, or relieving her
+embarrassment in any way. &quot;Let me entreat you to share our simple meal.
+Unfortunately, we can postpone it no longer, as we have already been
+obliged to wait some time for my son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And, without another word to Ernestine, she led the way with Heim to
+the dining-room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine's heart throbbed. What a reception was this! To what a
+humiliation had she exposed herself! Was not running the gauntlet here
+a thousand times worse than being stoned in the village by rude
+peasants? &quot;Let me go,&quot; she said, taking her hand from Johannes's arm.
+&quot;I feel that I am unwelcome to your mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; said Johannes, &quot;you are my guest, and I will not let you
+go. Forgive my mother's cold reception. It is not meant for you, but
+for the distorted character of you that she has heard. Remain, and
+convince her that you are not what she thinks, and you will be treated
+by her like a daughter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, my only friend, I obey you, but I do it with a heavy heart. It
+would have been better for you to let me go to old Leonhardt for a
+couple of days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How could you have gone to old Leonhardt?&quot; Johannes interrupted her
+impatiently. &quot;It would have been visited upon him if he had received
+you. And it was equally impossible for you to pass this night alone in
+the castle without your uncle. You must be content to remain under my
+protection. Is that so hard?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no,&quot; said Ernestine, with a grateful look,--&quot;but the others!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sorry that we arrived just in the midst of this crowd. Everything
+would have gone well if we had not encountered them just upon the
+stairs. I would have taken you to my study, where no one goes,--you
+could have rested there until these people were gone and my mother had
+prepared your room for you. But, since they have seen you, you must not
+hide yourself like a criminal. There are some here who already wish you
+well, and many others whose regard you will soon win.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am far more afraid of these people than of the angry peasants,&quot; said
+Ernestine sorrowfully. &quot;I am so tired.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor child!&quot; said Johannes kindly. &quot;I know you are, but do it for my
+sake. Will you not? I shall be so glad to have you by my side, and so
+proud to show them all that you accept me as your friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, I will do as you say,&quot; said Ernestine submissively, and
+she ascended the stairs with Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At the door of the supper-room she laid aside her hat and shawl, and he
+looked admiringly at her lovely pale face, with the noble intellectual
+brow and the large melancholy eyes, and at her tall slender figure. Who
+that saw her could withstand her? He was so proud of her!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As they entered, the guests stood around the table, awaiting him. The
+impression that she produced was an extraordinary one. It was as if one
+of those pale ethereal female figures in Kaulbach's &quot;Battle of the
+Huns&quot; had stepped out of the frame. No one had ever seen before such
+ideal and melancholy beauty in real life. In an instant all were
+silent, and gazed earnestly at the rare spectacle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;By Jove! she's a dangerous woman,&quot; whispered Moritz to the
+Staatsräthin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed she is!&quot; she replied, scarcely able to take her eyes away from
+her. &quot;My poor Johannes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You don't see such a woman every day!&quot; growled old Heim with pride.
+&quot;Didn't I always say she would turn out a beauty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The fact is, she is divine, and I shall love her dearly! Now say what
+you please,&quot; whispered Angelika. And, without waiting for a reply from
+either husband or mother, she flew across the room to Ernestine, who
+was standing overwhelmed with confusion, and cried, &quot;Fräulein
+Ernestine, do you not remember me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at her for a few seconds. &quot;This must be little
+Angelika.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rightly guessed,&quot; said the young wife, and, standing on tiptoe, she
+pressed her rosy lips to Ernestine's delicate mouth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then Moritz approached, and said in his blunt, half-jesting way,
+&quot;And I am the husband of this wife. My name is Kern, and I am besides,
+one of the monsters who had the courage to close the doors of our
+lecture-rooms in the face of a most beautiful woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine opened her eyes wide at this address, but, appreciating his
+humour, smiled gently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And indeed,&quot; he continued, &quot;I do not repent in the least that I did
+so, now that I see you,--for not a student would ever have learned
+anything with such a comrade beside him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine cast down her eyes, and, confused and ashamed, said not a
+word.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Moritz turned from her, and, with a paternal tap upon Johannes's
+shoulder, said to him, &quot;Upon my word, you're not to blame for admiring
+her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Men are all alike,&quot; said the Staatsräthin in a whisper to Frau
+Professor Meibert. &quot;My son-in-law, who never has a word to say to any
+woman but his wife, is already bewitched by her pretty face.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, and there is my husband making his way towards her,&quot; was the
+reply. &quot;It must be admitted that she is quiet and modest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Still waters run deep!&quot; said the Staatsräthin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, that's true!&quot; said the other with a nod.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you think, Herr Professor,&quot; said Taun's wife to Herbert with
+an admiring glance at Ernestine, &quot;of our having <i>tableaux vivants</i> next
+winter? Would it not be beautiful to have her with Angelika for the two
+Leonoras?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Better try Hercules and Omphale. Let the Hartwich be Omphale, and set
+Professor Möllner at the spinning-wheel. That would make a charming
+picture!&quot; remarked Herbert.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hear you do not like her,&quot; said Frau Taun, &quot;but now that I see her I
+cannot believe all the terrible things that are told of her. And
+Möllner, too, is not the man to seat himself at the spinning-wheel,
+even though she were Omphale,--your characters do not fit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now, my dear friend,&quot; Möllner's clear voice was heard saying, &quot;allow
+me to make you more intimately acquainted with your friends and foes.
+Here is an old friend of yours, Professor Hilsborn. Do you not remember
+him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We met once at a children's party,&quot; Hilsborn explained, &quot;and you, with
+the rest of us, threw stones at a glass ball tossed up by a fountain.
+You came off from the contest victorious, and were the object of envy
+and hostility in consequence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine blushed. &quot;Oh, yes, now I know. You were that gentle, amiable
+boy,--the adopted son of Dr. Heim; but--where--where is Dr. Heim?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here he is,&quot; said the old gentleman, fixing his penetrating eyes upon
+her. Ernestine held out her hand, but she could not endure his glance,
+and her own sought the ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Father Heim,--may I still call you so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's right,&quot; cried the old man. &quot;Then you have not forgotten?&quot; And
+he laid his hand kindly upon her head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How could I forget you, when you saved my life?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Aha,&quot; said Heim to her so softly that no one else could hear what he
+was saying, &quot;don't be afraid child,--I shall stand up for you before
+all these people, but to you yourself I must say that my heart bleeds
+for you, and that if I did not hope that all the stupid stuff with
+which your little head is crammed would one day give place to something
+infinitely better, I should almost repent patching it up in days
+gone by. Don't be vexed, my child, you don't like to hear this from
+me,--perhaps you may be better pleased to hear it from some one else.
+And now God bless your coming to this house!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine made no reply, but his words produced a deep impression upon
+her. A tear trembled upon her eyelashes as she stood silently before
+him. Möllner then gave her his arm, and they all took their seats at
+table. Heim sat upon her right hand, and Taun and Hilsborn were
+opposite her. Then came Moritz with Angelika, and Herbert with Frau
+Taun, while the Staatsräthin sat upon Heim's right.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Permit me to present my friend Professor Taun,&quot; said Möllner after
+they were seated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A friend!&quot; added the latter to Möllner's words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is one of those who voted in your favour,&quot; Möllner explained.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you,&quot; said Ernestine, &quot;in the name of my sex.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot appropriate all your thanks to myself. They are due first to
+my dear friends Heim and Hilsborn, for they fought for you more bravely
+than I, to whom you were personally a stranger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Really, Father Heim, did you vote for me?&quot; asked Ernestine in
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, yes,&quot; grumbled Heim, vexed that Taun had told of it. &quot;The thing
+that you sent in was not bad, and I would have liked to open a wider
+field for your restless spirit, where you might find something better
+to do,&quot;--here he sunk his bass voice to a whisper,--&quot;than abuse God
+Almighty as a dog bays the moon, and make all honest folk your enemies
+with your atheistical stuff.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine started with a sudden shock. Was this, then, urged against
+her? She was amazed. Were there really people in these enlightened
+circles who could be shocked at her skepticism? Had Leuthold spoken
+falsely when he assured her that true culture was synonymous with
+emancipation from all religious prejudices? And who were the cultivated
+class, if these professors and their wives were not?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you wounded by our friend's rough manner?&quot; asked Taun, sorry for
+Ernestine's confusion. &quot;You must know of old what a noble kernel is
+concealed within that rough shell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is talking about me?&quot; Moritz cried out to them. &quot;I am sure I heard
+'noble Kern,' and that must be meant for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let those three alone, you vain fellow!&quot; laughed Johannes, signing to
+him not to disturb their grave discourse.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked sadly at Helm. &quot;Father Helm used to be kinder to me.
+He was never so harsh to me before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course not,&quot; said Helm in a low voice. &quot;Then you were a thing made
+of blotting-paper, that a breath might have destroyed. We were content
+only to keep you alive, and, as is apt to be the case with delicate
+children, we forgot, in our anxiety about your physical health, to take
+due care of your mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, well, never mind that now,&quot; said Taun. &quot;I am not at all afraid
+that you will long fail of finding the right. Your writings give
+evidence of such uncommon talent that I should not wonder if you became
+the most learned woman of the age.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine's eyes flashed. She raised her head like a thirsty flower in
+a summer rain. &quot;The most learned woman of the age!&quot; The words touched
+her weak point, and penetrated the inner sanctuary of her ambition.
+Heim's harshness was forgotten. &quot;How can you say this to me, in a
+century that has produced a Caroline Herschel and a Dorothea Rodde?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert, who from a distance had been hastening to the conversation,
+turned to Moritz and asked him in a low voice, &quot;Who is Dorothea Rodde?
+Of course I have heard of Herschel's sister,--just because she was
+Herchel's sister,--but I know nothing of the other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Don't ask me,&quot; laughed Moritz. &quot;I have too much to do to busy myself
+about the wonders worked by all the blue-stockings immortalized in the
+pages of trashy annuals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine shot an angry glance at him. She had heard what was said, and
+she was indignant.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the drop too much when Angelika asked across the table,
+&quot;Johannes, pray tell us--the gentlemen want to know--who Dorothea Rodde
+is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes shrugged his shoulders. &quot;I do not know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, you! Do you not know?&quot; said Ernestine. &quot;Is it possible! Does no
+one know that woman--the famous daughter of that great man Schläger?
+She only died in eighteen hundred and twenty-four, and is she forgotten
+already?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She cannot have materially advanced the cause of science,&quot; said
+Johannes, &quot;or she would not have been forgotten.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Such a rarely-endowed individual as this woman must, I should suppose,
+always be an object of scientific interest, even if she did not
+directly advance the cause of science itself. It must surely be
+interesting to physiologists, as well as to psychologists, that a woman
+has lived capable of learning all that Dorothea Rodde learned, even
+although she taught nothing. All cannot create. Many men have been held
+in high esteem for diligence alone. Besides, Dorothea would have
+achieved greatness if she had not committed the folly of marrying, thus
+arresting her scientific development in the bud and retiring entirely
+from public view. She buried herself alive, and the world is always
+ready to strew ashes upon a woman's coffin. Had she been a man, every
+one would have known that, when a boy of seventeen, he could speak all
+the dead and living languages, was thoroughly versed in chemistry,
+medicine, anatomy, and mineralogy, and in his eighteenth year, after a
+brilliant examination, received the degree of doctor of philosophy from
+the University of Göttingen! But it was only a girl who achieved all
+this thus early; and if the less envious time in which she studied
+acknowledged her superiority, the more prudent present ignores it all
+the more utterly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A painful silence ensued. Every one was busied with his or her own
+thoughts. Every one felt confused. This beautiful, placid Ernestine had
+suddenly showed her claws!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin silently laid down her knife and fork,--she had lost
+all desire to eat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes looked sadly at Ernestine, and gently shook his head. Herbert
+alone grew more cheerful as the rest seemed disturbed, and looked down
+the table at Elsa, who sat at the other end, lost in melancholy reverie
+as she drew several flowers and grasses out of the large vase on the
+table, intending, like Ophelia, to deck herself with them; but, alas,
+Hamlet had no eyes for her sweet madness!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May I request you to present me to the lady?&quot; Herbert asked Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr Professor Herbert,&quot; said the latter, and added with emphasis,
+&quot;your bitterest opponent!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine bowed slightly and looked coldly at Herbert.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Permit me,&quot; he began sneeringly, &quot;to beg you to inform me, Fräulein
+von Hartwich,--I ask solely for instruction in the matter,--what
+possible scientific interest the fact that a woman spoke several
+languages--she could hardly have spoken <i>all</i>, as you declared--could
+possess.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I too am curious upon that point!&quot; cried Moritz.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked gravely from one to the other. &quot;I am quite ready to
+explain it to you. I should not, indeed, have ventured to do so if you
+had not asked me, for it would have seemed to me insulting to suppose
+that you could need any such explanation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That shot told,&quot; Moritz remarked comically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We are foes, gentlemen, and I am bent upon victory,&quot; said Ernestine.
+&quot;I think the facility of acquisition shown by Dorothea Rodde is
+certainly as significant a fact in natural history as any example of
+extraordinary instinct in animals, for which zoologists search so
+untiringly. Or is the natural history of women less interesting than
+that of the ape?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We are not used to compare or to speak of women thus,&quot; Möllner
+interposed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, if you really accord us an equality with men in the scale of
+creation, Dorothea's eminent talent must certainly be of scientific
+interest, because it must assist in the investigation of the relative
+weight of the masculine and feminine brain,--a point not yet solved,
+the social importance of which is not recognized, or it would not be
+treated with such frivolous indifference. I, gentlemen, am convinced
+that the great contest for the emancipation of woman can be settled
+only through physiology, since that alone can prove whether the
+material conditions of the thinking mechanism are equal in men and
+women; and, if they are, who would deny a woman the right to assert her
+independence of man, even in the world of the intellect?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But we have not yet reached this point,&quot; said Johannes. &quot;This equality
+has not yet been proved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nor has the contrary,&quot; said Ernestine. &quot;Therefore it seems to me that
+it would be well worth while for physiology to come to the aid of
+history, and test the material brain of famous women.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what end would that serve?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can you ask that question seriously? Would not the result of such
+investigations, if it were favourable to women, strike a blow at our
+present social arrangements in the relations of the sexes? And would
+not the rendering such an aid to true social harmony be a triumph for
+physiology, of which it might well be proud?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It would be all very well,&quot; said Moritz, &quot;if the whole question were
+worth the trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course it is not worth it for you, but it is for us. What do men
+care about the position of woman,--her capacity or her incapacity? If
+your wives fill their position,--that is, if they are your obedient
+servants, have sufficient capacity for cooking, and can bring up your
+children,--all is as it should be, as far as you are concerned, and the
+most important problem of mankind, in the social system, is solved to
+your satisfaction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A unanimous murmur arose at this accusation, but Ernestine was now
+greatly excited, and she continued, &quot;It was the pain I felt at this
+narrow-minded indifference that led me to devote myself to natural
+science. I will do what I can to induce scientific men to turn their
+attention in this direction. Do not smile: even if I can do nothing for
+this cause myself, I would cheerfully dedicate my existence to arousing
+the interest of others in the subject. If I can prevail upon some less
+scrupulous university to afford me an opportunity for pursuing the
+requisite anatomical and physiological studies, these physical and
+psychical investigations shall be the sole occupation of my life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Fräulein von Hartwich,&quot; said Johannes seriously, &quot;what would you
+discover that could further your desires? We have proved conclusively
+that the feminine brain absolutely weighs less than the masculine,
+and----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you proved that superiority depends only upon weight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not precisely, but it certainly does in most instances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In most instances? but if it is not proved to do so in all, the
+question is far from settled. It is true that Byron, Cuvier, and others
+had remarkably weighty brains, but, on the other hand, the brains of
+certain philosophers, as, for example, Hermann and Hausmann, weighed
+less than the ordinary feminine brain. We are then led to suspect that
+superiority depends upon the relation of the brain to the rest of the
+body,--perhaps upon the relation of different portions of the brain to
+each other, or the quantity of the gray matter. The only sure
+acquisition that physiology may be able to boast in this matter is that
+the relative weight of the feminine is not lighter than that of the
+masculine brain.&quot; Her eyes glowed with enthusiasm. &quot;Oh, how gladly
+would I die if I could only succeed in casting a ray of light upon this
+chaos!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Fräulein von Hartwich,&quot; Herbert began with an ex cathedrâ air,
+&quot;as woman is in all respects weaker and more delicate than man, is it
+not natural that her brain also should be smaller and lighter,
+rendering her incapable of as great intellectual exertion?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Herr Professor,&quot; replied Ernestine with a slight smile, &quot;I have
+just said that superiority depended upon the relative, not the
+absolute, weight. Were it otherwise, the largest and strongest man
+would be the wisest, and you, sir, would have less ability than any one
+present, for you are the smallest man here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again there was an embarrassed silence. Many could scarcely suppress
+their laughter as they saw the angry look of the little man. Others
+found the scene painful to witness. Such conduct on the part of a lady
+was unprecedented in the annals of professorial gatherings, and,
+although those who were acquainted with Ernestine found her behaviour
+perfectly natural from her standpoint, strangers to her were
+inexpressibly shocked,--none more so than the Staatsräthin, to whom the
+girl's every word was like acid to an open wound.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was the old story over again. She was unlike the others, and,
+without meaning it, frightened them all away. Wherever she went,
+the curse of eccentricity attached to her. No one shared her
+interests,--she had nothing in common with any one,--she was, and must
+continue to be, alone! Even Johannes grew thoughtful and silent. She
+timidly sought his eye, but he did not look at her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Elsa, although she had no public, was still playing Ophelia, and was
+pondering upon the sweetness of the service she could render if it were
+only asked of her. Ah, no one wanted to see how charmingly she could
+obey. And she softly hummed to herself, in English, Ophelia's words,</p>
+
+<div class="poem3">
+<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-8px">&quot;Larded all with sweet flowers,<br>
+Which bewept to the grave did go</p>
+<p class="t1">With true-love showers.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Taun looked gravely across at Ernestine. She ceased to anticipate
+<i>tableaux vivants</i>,--nothing could be done with such material. And then
+the conversation at table! She really could not expose her young guests
+to listen to anatomical treatises.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert noticed the breach that had been made in Frau Taun's good
+opinion, and hastened to throw a bombshell into it. &quot;She has not the
+slightest sense of refinement.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The ladies in the vicinity nodded assent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heaven be thanked! this combination of beauty and learning was wanting
+in what they possessed in fullest measure, and she had already
+succeeded in making herself disagreeable to the gentlemen who had been
+so impressed by her appearance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One lady plucked the sleeve of her neighbour. &quot;See her sit with her
+elbows upon the table!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How coarse!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There now, see how quickly you have made enemies of all these people,&quot;
+whispered old Heim. &quot;You are not wrong from your point of view,--but
+where is the use of battering so at the door of a house where you have
+been received as a guest? If you wish to associate with mankind, you
+must not go about treading upon their toes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not wish to associate with these people,&quot; said Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, you do! You must wish it. Do you suppose that you need no
+help, no support,--that you can get along entirely alone in the world?
+How unpractical! how terribly exaggerated!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not understand you, Father Heim.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't suppose you do----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika here interrupted the conversation, saying, as she handed
+Ernestine a plate of apricot crême, which was greatly lauded, &quot;You must
+eat some of this, Fräulein Ernestine. I made it myself, and I am very
+proud of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have just heard how Fräulein von Hartwich despises the noble art
+of cookery. Don't pride yourself upon it before her,&quot; sneered Moritz.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika compassionated Ernestine's mortification at these words, and,
+while the other ladies were deep in a discussion regarding the
+preparation of the delicious crême, she said kindly, &quot;You are quite
+right in lamenting that we women attach so much importance to such
+things, but they are part of our daily life, and we cannot entirely
+ignore them. Why did God give us organs of taste, if we are not to
+enjoy the flavour of our food? It is so natural to try to make the life
+of those whom we love pleasant, even by the most trivial means, amongst
+which are justly ranked eating and drinking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive me for asking the question,&quot; said Ernestine, &quot;but could not
+their enjoyment be equally well secured by the hands of a cook while
+you were employing your time with something better?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; cried Angelika, amid general amusement, &quot;if we had the money to
+pay eighty gulden for an excellent cook. But, as we have not, one must
+either superintend matters one's self, or put up with bad cooking. And
+you would not have a poor man, coming hungry and tired from his day's
+work, do that. No, I assure you, when I see Moritz enjoying something
+that I have prepared for him myself, it gives me almost as much
+pleasure as it does to feed a child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at her blankly. This was entirely beyond her horizon.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika continued: &quot;But indeed it does not make us servants. A service
+rendered for love cannot degrade,--voluntary obedience is not slavery.
+We must be guided by some one in life,--why not by a husband who
+protects and labours for us?&quot; And she held out her hand to Moritz.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But,&quot; said Ernestine, &quot;if we learn to labour for ourselves we need be
+beholden to no one,--dependent upon no one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh,&quot; said Angelika, with a charming smile and a roguish glance at
+Moritz out of her large innocent eyes, &quot;we cannot do without them,
+these stern lords of creation,--at least I could not live without
+Moritz, if I were ever so rich and wise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Loud applause greeted this frank declaration; it seemed as if a sudden
+breath of fresh air were admitted into a sultry, closed apartment,--all
+breathed more freely. Angelika's genuine sunny nature was a relief to
+every one, after the distorted, gloomy views that Ernestine had
+broached.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you expect to bring that fool to reason?&quot; whispered Moritz to
+Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; replied the latter curtly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, I wish you all success. I would not win a wife at such a price.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Supper was ended. The Staatsräthin rose from table, and the company
+adjourned to the adjoining room, where punch was served.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes silently conducted Ernestine thither. His duties as host then
+compelled him to leave her. She stood alone in the middle of the room,
+looking around for some one to whom she might turn. No one came near
+her. The ladies whispered together, casting occasional glances in her
+direction, and the gentlemen stood about in groups, either turning
+their backs upon Ernestine or eyeing her through their glasses. She
+stood alone, as upon the stage before an audience. She did not know
+what to do. It seemed cowardly and undignified to flee for refuge to a
+corner, and yet this cross-fire of keen eyes was as hard to endure as
+it had been years before at the Staatsräthin's. What did her intellect
+or learning avail her now? She was as much shunned, despised, and
+misunderstood among people of refinement and culture as by the
+peasants. What fatality was it that thus attended her? Who would solve
+the riddle for her?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An unexpected end was put to her torment. Elsa glided up to her upon
+Möllner's arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein Herbert wishes to be presented to you,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine gazed in amazement at the strange flower-crowned elderly
+child, and took with some hesitation the damp, withered little hand
+held out to her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I begged my--our friend--&quot; she looked round, but Möllner had again
+joined the other guests--&quot;to make us acquainted with each other,
+because I feel myself so strangely drawn towards you. Your observations
+upon the brain impressed me greatly,--for I too am wild about natural
+science, and am myself half scientific. I dote on phrenology. I am a
+disciple of Schewe's, whose striking diagnosis of my characteristics
+converted me to Gall's theory. Heavens! what a delight it would be to
+discuss this subject with you, who have studied the brain so
+thoroughly! I am sure we should understand one another. You must let me
+examine your head--so remarkable a head for a woman. What a treat it
+will be for me! Come,--pray sit down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine made an impatient gesture of refusal.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! you do not wish it? Oh, don't be afraid that I shall prove an
+<i>enfant terrible</i> and tell what I discover. I never tell tales.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am not afraid of that,&quot; replied Ernestine bluntly. &quot;If you could
+discover my character from the shape of my skull, there would be no
+need of your silence. I have nothing to conceal. But I take no interest
+in such nonsense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nonsense do you call it?&quot; cried Elsa, clasping her withered hands.
+&quot;Then you do not believe in Gall's doctrine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you mean by believe?&quot; said Ernestine. &quot;I do not believe in
+anything that has not been proved, and when anything has been proved I
+do not believe it,--I know it. Gall's theory is like Lavater's
+physiognomy, an hypothesis based upon coincidences, fit only to amuse
+idlers, but not worthy the attention of an earnest labourer in the
+cause of science.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you cut me to the heart,&quot; sighed Elsa, who saw the scientific
+nimbus with which she had crowned her brows thus falling off like a
+theatrical halo of gold-paper. She was greatly offended. She had meant
+so well,--for Möllner's sake she had conquered herself and attempted
+to make a friend of Ernestine. He should see how her wounded but
+self-renouncing heart would open to her rival. She had been so glad not
+to come quite empty-handed to this learned woman; for, as far as she
+had understood the anatomical conversation at table, it coincided
+wonderfully with Gall's theory, which she had lately mastered that she
+might have the pleasure of subjecting Möllner's head to an examination.
+And now, just as she had hoped to recommend herself to him whom she
+loved by her one little bit of scientific acquirement, even this
+unselfish pleasure was denied her, and the attempt had failed entirely.
+Oh, Ernestine was a hard--a terrible woman!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While Elsa had been talking to Ernestine, the gentlemen had cast
+significant glances towards them, and said among themselves, &quot;There is
+a wonderful combination,--the Hartwich and Fräulein Elsa! It must be
+worth studying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And so they gradually drew near the two women. At last, Moritz, who,
+like a child with its doll, always had his wife hanging on his arm,
+could not refrain from joining in the conversation, for he pursued a
+jest like a boy after a butterfly. &quot;Tell me, then, Fräulein Elsa, what
+did Schewe say to your head?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What?&quot; and Elsa smiled diffidently. What an attraction she possessed
+for the other sex! Here were all the gentlemen gathered around her
+again. &quot;What? oh, modesty forbids me to tell you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then he was very complimental?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He was indeed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That was the reason, then, you found his diagnosis so striking,&quot;
+laughed Moritz.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Elsa became embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is just what makes that man so successful,&quot; said Moritz. &quot;He
+flatters every one, and therefore every one believes him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you do him great injustice!&quot; Elsa remonstrated. &quot;He is so in
+earnest about his science. He can be quite rude. He would certainly be
+rude to you, Professor Kern.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentlemen all laughed. &quot;Fräulein Elsa is severe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="font-size:90%">
+&quot;Dove-feather'd raven! wolfish-ravening lamb!&quot;</p>
+
+
+<p class="continue">quoted the youthful tutor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I admire the man so much,&quot; said the offended lady, &quot;he is an adept
+in the sense of touch,--really he not only feels, he thinks and sees,
+with the tips of his fingers. After he had examined my head, and was
+standing aside with closed eyes, as if to recapitulate mentally what he
+had discovered, it seemed to me that he was actually holding my soul in
+his closed hand, like a bird just taken from the nest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is to be hoped he did not keep it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no! he gave it back to me; he presented me with it anew in
+teaching me to understand it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, if he has initiated you into the mystery of his art, Fräulein
+Elsa, oblige us with some of it now. There ought to be all sorts of
+fledgelings to take out of these nests, and we really would like to
+have a glimpse of our souls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I asked Fräulein von Hartwich just now to let me examine her head, but
+she would not allow it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But we are all ready for it,&quot; cried Moritz, bowing his head, as did
+several of the other gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray don't,&quot; Angelika entreated her husband.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear Angelika,&quot; said Elsa, determined to be interesting to-day at all
+risks, &quot;I am not at all afraid of the trial, for I am confident of
+success. But it must be seriously undertaken. The gentlemen must be
+disguised so that I cannot recognize them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, that's right! It will be delightful!&quot; cried the gentlemen,
+to whose gaiety the punch perhaps had lent some assistance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein Elsa must leave the room while we disguise ourselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will wait for a while in the garden, where it is far more charming
+to see the elves sipping the dew than you, gentlemen, drinking your
+punch. Call me when you are ready, and I will come, and, like a bee
+among the flower-cups, dip into your heads and find out whether they
+contain honey or gall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With this arch threat she was hurrying away, when Ernestine took her
+hand compassionately and whispered in her ear, &quot;Do not do it, you will
+only be laughed at.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Greatly offended, Elsa withdrew her hand. &quot;By you, perhaps, but only by
+you. My friends here understand me and love me!&quot; The tears rushed to
+her little eyes, and she hastened out, without hearing Herbert call
+after her, &quot;You will disgrace yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She hurried down into the garden, to confide her griefs to the elves
+and fairies. She would endure smilingly, no one should know what she
+had dared to dream,--to hope. But could her faithful heart at once
+resign all hope? Patient waiting had before now been crowned with
+success. She went to the spot where Angelika had left the flowers that
+she had given her for Johannes. The glass was overturned, the water
+spilled and the flowers were scattered about withered. How sorry she
+was! It was a bad omen. She picked up her favourites and pressed them
+to her heart. &quot;Thus will it perhaps be one day with me. I shall fade
+away,&quot; she thought, &quot;forgotten and neglected like you, and the only
+proof of affection that can then be mine will be that some tender soul
+may lay upon my coffin a wreath of you, sweet flowers of the field!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She seated herself upon the grass and sung softly, while her tears
+dropped upon the flowers,</p>
+
+<div class="poem2">
+<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-8px">&quot;Ah, tears will not bring back your beauty like rain.<br>
+Or love that is dead, to bloom over again.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein Elsa, are you weeping?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She started and sprang up, Möllner was approaching her across the lawn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no, these are not tears, only the dews of evening,&quot; she lisped,
+drying her eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Möllner looked at her with pity. &quot;Poor creature,&quot; he thought, &quot;it is
+not your fault that nature has proved such a step-mother to you, and
+that your brother's distorted views of education have made you
+ridiculous, and even deprived you of the sympathy that you deserve.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He offered her his arm. &quot;Come, my dear Fräulein Elsa!&quot; he said kindly,
+&quot;I am sent to bring you in. Thanks to Fräulein von Hartwich, you are
+spared the mystification that was contemplated for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How so?&quot; asked Elsa, who, upon Möllner's arm, felt like a vine nailed
+against the wall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein Ernestine was requested to exchange dresses with Frau Taun,
+whose hair is also black, and both were to wear masks, in order to
+deceive you. The younger portion of the company so insisted upon it
+that I could not prevent it. But Fräulein von Hartwich, convinced that
+you were not so secure in your art as to be impregnable to deceit,
+refused so obstinately to do what was asked of her that the assemblage
+fairly broke up in disappointment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Elsa was silent from shame. She knew that she could not have come off
+victorious from such a trial. She had depended upon easily
+distinguishing individuals by their hair, and it had not occurred to
+her that Frau Taun's hair was of the same colour as Ernestine's. And
+yet, glad as she was to be thus relieved, she was humiliated at having
+afforded her enemy an opportunity for such a display of magnanimity in
+her behalf.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will make a trial of your skill some time when we are more alone,
+will you not?&quot; asked Möllner in the tone one uses to comfort a child.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, if you desire it, and if you would allow me to subject your own
+magnificent head----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her voice trembled with emotion as she preferred this bold request.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why not?&quot; interposed Möllner, &quot;if you think my hard head would prove a
+profitable subject.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your hard head! oh, how can you speak so? I should tremble to touch
+that head, lest Minerva should spring from it to punish me for my
+temerity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes smiled compassionately. &quot;I cannot persuade you not to
+embarrass me with your exaggerated compliments. You know I am a blunt
+man, and cannot repay you in kind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How should you repay me? I only ask you to permit me to reverence you.
+What can the brook require from the mighty tree whose roots drink of
+its waters? Let my admiration flow on at your feet, and let your
+vigorous nature draw thence as much as it needs. There will always be
+enough for you,--the brook is inexhaustible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes was most disagreeably affected by this outburst. What could he
+reply, without either inspiring the unfortunate creature with false
+hopes or deeply offending her?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her brother's voice relieved his embarrassment. They reached the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here they come!&quot; Herbert cried to the others, who seemed to be waiting
+for them and were just taking their departure. They ascended the
+stairs, and Elsa put on her hat and shawl.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where have you been so long?&quot; Herbert asked in a tone intentionally
+loud.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heavens! we fairly flew through the garden!&quot; cried Elsa.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you wings, then, Fräulein Elsa?&quot; asked the young tutor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; she replied, with an enraptured glance at Johannes. &quot;They have
+lately budded anew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray, then,&quot; urged her indefatigable tormentor, &quot;soar aloft, that we
+may see you,--it would be a charming sight!&quot; And he lighted a cigar at
+the lamp in the hall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All human beings are born with wings,&quot; said Elsa with pathos,--&quot;only
+we forget how to use them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, Elsa dear, there is no use in our arguing with these men,&quot;
+Angelika said kindly. &quot;Take leave of my mother, and we will walk along
+together, as we are going in the same direction.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Elsa did as she was told. In the doorway, behind the Staatsräthin,
+stood Ernestine, utterly dejected. Elsa went up to her and whispered,
+&quot;May you rest well, if indeed shy Morpheus dare approach your armed
+spirit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herbert dragged Elsa away, whispering fiercely, &quot;No pretty speeches to
+her! I will crush her! The 'little' man will prove great enough to
+terrify her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-night, sweet mother. Good-night, poor Ernestine!&quot; said Angelika,
+and then had hardly time to kiss them both before her impatient husband
+fairly picked her up and carried her down-stairs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-night, Professor Möllner,&quot; whispered Elsa. &quot;The brook ripples
+onward to the ocean of oblivion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-night, good-night,&quot; resounded, in all variations of tone, from
+all sides, and Father Heim hummed in his strong bass voice an old
+student song, in which the other gentlemen gaily joined, for, with the
+exception of the disturbance caused by &quot;that crazy Hartwich,&quot; the
+evening had been a pleasant one, and Möllner's Havanas were delicious
+on the way home. If only the Hartwich had not spoiled their fun with
+Fräulein Elsa, it would have been too good. Elsa was by far the better
+of the two. If she was a fool, they could at least laugh at her, which
+was impossible with the Hartwich, she was so deuced clever at repartee.
+Thus talking, laughing, and singing, the throng sought their several
+homes through the silent, starry night.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin had entered the room with Ernestine, Johannes, having
+locked the street-door after his guests, came and took a chair by
+Ernestine's side. &quot;Come, mother dear, sit down by us, and learn to know
+our guest a little before we separate for the night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the Staatsräthin took up her basket of keys. &quot;I am very sorry, but
+I must see to the arrangement of Fräulein von Hartwich's bedroom. The
+servants are all very busy just now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mother, let Regina attend to all that, and do you stay with us,&quot;
+Johannes entreated, with something of reproach in his tone. &quot;Other
+things can be left until to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The silver at least must be attended to. And Fräulein von Hartwich is
+in great need of repose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am so sorry to give you so much trouble,&quot; said Ernestine, really
+grieved.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I assure you it is a pleasure!&quot; With these brief words the
+Staatsräthin left the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine sat there pale and exhausted. Johannes took her hand.
+&quot;Patience, patience, Ernestine. She will soon--you will soon learn to
+know each other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine silently shook her head. Her brow was clouded. &quot;There is no
+home for me here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not yet, but it will become one!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, never!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes compressed his lips. &quot;Ernestine, you do not dream how you pain
+me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pain you, my friend? The only one who is kind to me! Oh, no, I will
+not,--I cannot!&quot; And she leaned towards him with strong, almost
+childlike, emotion, and laid her hand upon his.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;When I see you thus,&quot; said Johannes, with a look of ardent love,
+&quot;I ask myself whether you can be the same Ernestine who seeks to
+sacrifice the unfathomed treasure of her rich, overflowing heart to a
+phantom,--to a struggle that can never yield a thousandth part of the
+pleasure that she might create for herself and others. Oh God!&quot; and he
+pressed his lips to Ernestine's hand, &quot;every word that you said to-day
+stabbed me like a dagger. How was it possible for you to think and talk
+so, after that hour that we passed together? Oh, lovely white rose that
+you are, you incline yourself towards me, but, when I would pluck and
+wear you, your thorns wound my hand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine laid her other hand upon his bowed head. &quot;Dear--unspeakably
+dear--friend, have patience with me. If you could only put yourself in
+my place! In early childhood, when others are borne in the arms of love
+and petted and caressed, I was abused, scorned, neglected,--because--I
+was--a girl. Every cry of my soul, every thought of my mind, every
+feeling of my young heart, asked, 'Why am I so bitterly punished for
+not being a boy?' And in every wound that I received were planted the
+seeds of revenge,--revenge for myself and for my sex,--and of burning
+ambition to rival those placed so far above me in the scale of
+creation. These feelings matured quickly in the glow of the indignation
+which I felt when I saw my sex oppressed and repulsed whenever it
+strove to rise above its misery. They grew with my growth, strengthened
+with my physical and mental strength, and they filled my whole being,
+just as my veins and nerves run through my body. How can I live if you
+tear them thence?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes held her hand clasped in his, and listened attentively.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is,&quot; continued Ernestine, &quot;as if my heart had frozen to ice just at
+the moment when the agonized cry, 'Why am I worth less than a boy?'
+burst from me, and as if that question were congealed within it,--so
+that I can think and struggle only for the answer to that 'why?' Why
+are we subject to man? Why do we depend solely upon his magnanimity,
+and succumb miserably when he withholds it? The times when physical
+force ruled are past. Everything now depends upon whether the progress
+of woman is to be retarded by world-old prejudices, or by positive
+mental inferiority on her part; and I shall never rest until science
+satisfies me upon this point.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And do you not believe, Ernestine, that there is a third power
+subjecting the more delicate sex to the stronger--a higher power than
+the right of the strongest--more effective than the power of the
+intellect,--the power of love?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at him with calm surprise. &quot;I do not believe love can
+accomplish what reason fails to prove.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is that really so?&quot; Johannes was silent for a moment, then walked to
+and fro with folded arms, and finally stopped before her. &quot;You speak of
+a sentiment that you have no knowledge of. But of all my hopes that you
+have destroyed to-day in the bud, one there is that you cannot take
+from me. You will learn to know it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin entered. &quot;Fräulein von Hartwich, your room is ready
+for you. Will you allow me to conduct you thither?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mother,&quot; cried Johannes, &quot;do not be so cold and formal to Ernestine.
+You cannot keep at such a distance one so near to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I really cannot see wherein I have failed of my duty towards Fräulein
+von Hartwich,--we are as yet entire strangers to each other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right, Frau Staatsräthin,&quot; said Ernestine. &quot;I am not so
+presuming as to expect more from you than you would accord to the
+merest stranger. I am very sorry to be obliged to accept even so much
+from you. I will go to my room, that I may not any longer keep you from
+your rest; but be assured I shall trespass upon your hospitality for a
+single night only.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She turned to Johannes, and, with a grateful look, offered him her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-night, kind sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God guard your first slumbers beneath this roof!&quot; said Johannes
+fervently, and it seemed as if the wish took the airy shape of her lost
+guardian angel, and hovered before her up the stairs to the cosy little
+room whither the Staatsräthin conducted her, and then, placing itself
+by the side of her snowy couch, fanned her burning brow with cooling
+wings.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mother,&quot; said Johannes gravely, when the Staatsräthin rejoined him,
+&quot;to-day, for the first time in my life, you have been no mother to me!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_2.11" href="#div1Ref_2.11">CHAPTER XI.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>INHARMONIOUS CONTRASTS.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">The morning sun streamed brightly through the white muslin curtains of
+Ernestine's windows, yet she still slept in peaceful and childlike
+slumber. For the first time for many years, she was not cheated of her
+repose by haste to go to her work. The guardian angel, that Johannes
+had invoked to her side, forbade even her uncle's ghost to knock at her
+door, and still kept faithful watch beside her bed. It seemed as if the
+whole house were aware of its sacred presence, for a quiet as of a
+church reigned among its inmates. They were all up, but, at the command
+of their head, every door was softly opened and shut, every footfall
+noiseless. Johannes knew how much need Ernestine had of repose, and he
+would not have her disturbed. He even controlled the throbbing of his
+own heart, that longed to bid her good-morning.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The sleeper drew calmly in with every breath the repose that surrounded
+her,--and what a blessing it was for the poor, wearied child!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin had superintended the arrangement of the
+breakfast-table, and was seated with her work at the window. But her
+hands were dropped idly in her lap, and her eyes, red with weeping,
+were fixed sadly upon the flame of the spirit-lamp that had been
+burning for an hour beneath the coffee-urn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you not think I had better have fresh coffee prepared? this has
+been waiting so long,&quot; she said to her son as he entered the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just as you please, mother dear,&quot; said Johannes. &quot;You know I
+understand nothing of such things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin rang for the servant. &quot;Regina, take this coffee away
+and bring back the urn. I will boil some more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The maid did as she was directed, with a sullen face. &quot;'Tis a shame to
+waste such good coffee!&quot; she muttered as she went out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is very disagreeable, mother,&quot; observed Johannes, &quot;to have Regina
+criticising all our arrangements. I do not like to have servants of
+that sort about me. If you cannot break her of it, pray send her away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She does her work well, and is thoroughly honest,&quot; replied the
+Staatsräthin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That may be, but there certainly are servants to be had who would do
+their duty more respectfully and good-humouredly. I do not like to have
+my comfort destroyed by sullen faces around me. I like to have people
+who render their service cheerfully.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is not very easy to find them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They must be sought until they are found,&quot; said Johannes, cutting
+short the conversation by opening and beginning to read his newspaper.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin sighed, but said not a word.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Regina re-entered with the urn, and asked crossly, &quot;Is the Fräulein not
+to be wakened yet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No!&quot; was Johannes's curt reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then the urn might as well be washed, if the coffee is not to be made
+until noon,&quot; she grumbled again, and left the room, closing the door
+with something of a slam.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now, mother, this really is too much. I cannot undertake the direction
+of the servant-maids, but I will not tolerate them when they are so
+insolent. Regina must conduct herself differently, or she goes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have suddenly grown very impatient with the girl,&quot; said his mother
+bitterly. &quot;I hope you may always be as implicitly obeyed as you
+desire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I understand what you mean, mother, but it does not touch me. I desire
+only what is right,--obedience from the servants whom I hire, love from
+a wife who is my equal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Love alone will not answer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, true, faithful love will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There must be submission and self-sacrifice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True love embraces all these,--submission, self-sacrifice, the entire
+self.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is not every one who can love truly; so be upon your guard that you
+are not intentionally or unintentionally deceived.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Reassure yourself, mother, and spare me your misgivings,&quot; said
+Johannes with unusual sternness, again turning to his newspaper, while
+he listened to every rustle outside the door of the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin brought from a cupboard a delicate little coffee-mill
+and began to grind some fresh coffee. The clock struck half-past eight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is easy to see that the young lady has not been used to a regular
+household,&quot; the Staatsräthin could not forbear observing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I only see that she is worn out after the fatigue of yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No one who is accustomed to early rising ever sleeps so late in the
+morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is impossible to rise early when one works all night long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is a bad custom for the head of a household!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mother,&quot; said Johannes, starting up, &quot;I should be downright unhappy if
+I did not know how kind-hearted you really are.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed?&quot; The Staatsräthin shook up the coffee, but her hands trembled
+visibly. &quot;This girl changes everything. Since she came into the house,
+all things are wrong: to-day, I make you unhappy,--yesterday, I was no
+mother to you! And yet, my son, since the painful day when I gave you
+birth, I have never been more a mother to you than now in my anxiety
+for your true happiness!&quot; She could say no more; her emotion choked her
+utterance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mother dearest,&quot; cried Johannes, embracing her tenderly, &quot;you must not
+shed a tear because of a hasty word of mine. Come forgive me,--I am
+really so happy to-day. My dear, good mother, scold your boy well, I
+beg.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin smiled again, and stroked her darling's shining curls.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God bless you, my dear son. It is because I love you so that I cannot
+give you to any but the noblest and best of women. I tremble lest you,
+who are without an equal in my eyes, should throw yourself away upon a
+wife who is unworthy of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Trust me, mother, I understand and thank you, but, if you want me to
+be happy, love me a little less and Ernestine more! This is all I ask
+of you,--will you not do it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The first I cannot do, but I will try to do the last, because you
+desire it, my son!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's my own dear mother!&quot; cried Johannes, kissing her still
+beautiful hands. &quot;And now you may go and waken our guest, for I must
+see her before I go to the University.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here she is!&quot; said the Staatsräthin, going forward to greet Ernestine.
+&quot;Good-morning, my dear. How did you sleep?&quot; And she kissed her brow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at her, surprised and grateful. &quot;Oh, I slept as if
+rocked by angels,--I have not felt so rested and refreshed for a long
+time!&quot; Then, holding out a bunch of lovely white roses to Johannes, she
+asked, &quot;Did you have these beautiful roses laid outside my door?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes blushed slightly, and gazed enraptured at the beautiful
+creature. &quot;Yes, I put them there myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you!&quot; said Ernestine. &quot;You are kinder to me than any one ever
+was before. I have many flowers in my garden, but none, I think, so
+lovely as these. They are the first flowers I ever had given to me. I
+know now how pleasant it is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did your uncle never give you a bouquet upon your birthday?&quot; asked the
+Staatsräthin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no! And I do not think it would have delighted me so from him!&quot;
+said Ernestine, with artless ease.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes's face beamed at these words. &quot;When is your birthday,
+Ernestine?&quot; he asked, while the Staatsräthin led her to the
+breakfast-table.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine set down the cup that she was just about putting to her lips,
+and looked at him in amazement &quot;I do not know!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You do not know!&quot; cried Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will ask my uncle,--he told me once, but I have forgotten.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin clasped her hands. &quot;Forgotten your own birthday? Is it
+possible? Was it never celebrated?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Celebrated?&quot; repeated Ernestine in surprise. &quot;No, why should it have
+been celebrated?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! do you know nothing of this affectionate custom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine shook her head almost mournfully. &quot;I know of no loving
+customs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin looked at her with compassion. &quot;Then you hardly know
+how old you are?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not exactly; but my father died when I was twelve years old,--shortly
+before his death he reproached me for being so little and weak for
+twelve years old,--and since then ten summers have passed away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor child!&quot; said the Staatsräthin. &quot;I begin to understand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought you would, mother,&quot; said Johannes from the other side of the
+table.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your uncle has deprived you of many of the pleasures of life,&quot;
+continued the Staatsräthin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Such pleasures, perhaps. But I must not be ungrateful,--he has given
+me others no less fair and great!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what were they?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has taught me to think and to study. There can be no greater or
+purer pleasures than these.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again the Staatsräthin's brow was overcast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes saw it, and broke off the conversation. &quot;Ernestine, it is not
+good for you to drink your coffee black. It excites your nerves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On the contrary, my uncle bids me always take it so, to stimulate
+me,--without it, I often could not begin my day's work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That accords entirely with your uncle's system of education. First he
+utterly prostrates you by wakefulness and study at night, and then
+stimulates you by artificial means. Why, you yourself can understand
+that such a life of alternate prostration and over-excitement must wear
+you out. I really do not know what to think of your uncle in this
+respect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked down, evidently impressed by the truth of Johannes's
+words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But tell me, Johannes,&quot; said the Staatsräthin, &quot;why do you address
+Fräulein Ernestine by her first name, when she does not authorize you
+to do so by returning the familiarity?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She asks me to do so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, I begged your son to call me Ernestine,--it makes me feel
+like a child again, and as if I could begin my life anew!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But you should address him by his first name, and not have the
+intimacy all upon one side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine blushed. &quot;I cannot do so now,--by-and-by, perhaps.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Leave it to time and Ernestine's own feelings, mother dear. I shall
+not ask for it until it comes naturally. Some time when she wishes to
+give me a special pleasure she will do it. And now good-by, Ernestine.
+I must go. I lecture at nine, but as soon as I get through I will
+return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked up at him with glistening eyes, and breathed, scarcely
+audibly, &quot;Farewell, my friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes pressed her hand, and then, turning to his mother, said, &quot;Dear
+mother, I leave Ernestine to you for an hour, and hope with all my
+heart that you will understand each other. But, at all events, remember
+what you promised me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Most certainly I will, my son.&quot; He went as far as the door, then
+lingered, and, calling his mother to him, whispered imploringly, &quot;Be
+kind to her,--all that you do for her you do for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And, with one more look of longing love at Ernestine, he was gone. It
+was very hard to go. It seemed to him that he must stay,--that
+Ernestine would escape him if he did not guard her well. He would have
+turned back again if his duty had not been so imperative. &quot;If I only
+find her here when I return!&quot; he said to himself one moment, and the
+next he blamed himself for his childish weakness. He loved her too
+well. The one hour of lecture seemed to him an eternity. He longed to
+see her again almost before he had crossed the threshold that separated
+him from her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">How beautiful she was to-day after her refreshing sleep,--how maidenly!
+If, when he returned, she looked at him with those glistening eyes, he
+could not control himself,--he would throw himself at her feet and
+implore her to be his. The decisive word must be spoken,--he must have
+certainty. The state of doubt into which he was plunged by the strange
+contrast between Ernestine's cold, stubbornly expressed opinions and
+her tender personal behaviour towards himself was not to be borne any
+longer. Only one hour separated him from the goal for which he longed
+with every pulse of his strong, manly nature. Oh, were it only over!</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you like beans?&quot; the Staatsräthin asked Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why do you ask me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only because you are to have them at dinner to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, but I cannot dine with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My uncle might return unexpectedly from his journey, and be angry if
+he did not find me at home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Strange! How comes it that you, who contend so earnestly for freedom,
+are under such strict control? Is it not somewhat of a contradiction?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine started.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin continued: &quot;You are battling for the independence of
+woman, you brand as slavery a wife's obedience to her protector, and
+yet a man who, as I understand the case, is far more dependent upon you
+than you are upon him, has such complete dominion over you that you do
+not dare to stay from home a day without his permission.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was again startled and surprised. &quot;You are right. But I have
+grown up under his control. It has become a habit with me, so that I am
+hardly conscious of it, and it has never yet been so opposed to my
+wishes as to induce me to shake it off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now, let me ask you, my dear, whether you regard this dull,
+half-unconscious habit of submission as nobler and loftier than the
+loving, voluntary obedience that a wife yields to a husband?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was silent for a moment, and then said with her own generous
+frankness, &quot;No, it is not. But I have brought it upon myself, and
+cannot escape from it as long as my uncle possesses the legal right of
+my guardian.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But this legal right does not in any way affect your personal freedom
+as long as you do not desire to do anything contrary to law.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He always told me that the guardian was the master of the ward. And if
+this tyrannical regulation had not applied equally to the male and
+female sex, I should long ago have attacked it in my publications.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That would not have done much good, I fear,&quot; said the Staatsräthin
+dryly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine shrugged her shoulders. &quot;None of my writings effect much
+good. But they are not meant to be anything more than a few of the many
+drops of water that must one day wear away the stone that dams the
+course of the pure waters of reason.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We will not discuss such abstract subjects,&quot; said the Staatsräthin
+evasively. &quot;I would rather persuade you to stay with us to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If I only thought that I should not be a burden to you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You certainly will not be to me, and you will give my son a pleasure
+far greater than the annoyance to which your absence may subject your
+guardian. But you are the best judge of what you ought to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine laid her hand upon the Staatsräthin's. &quot;I will stay!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There,--that's right! Johannes would never have forgiven me if I had
+failed to persuade you to stay.&quot; She rang the bell. Regina appeared,
+and carried away the coffee-tray.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You may bring me the beans, I will prepare them,&quot; said the
+Staatsräthin. Regina brought in the beans in a dish, with a bowl for
+the stalks.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I'm sure you will excuse me,&quot; said the Staatsräthin to Ernestine, and
+she seated herself by the window, knife in hand, ready to begin her
+task.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked on in astonishment. &quot;Do you do that yourself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why not? The cook has a great deal to do to-day, and I am glad to
+assist her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I would help you if I knew how,&quot; said Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Try it,--perhaps it will amuse you. It does not require much skill.&quot;
+The old lady, quite delighted at Ernestine's interest in domestic
+affairs, handed her another knife and a bean, saying, &quot;Look! you first
+strip off the stem and those tough fibres,--so. The people in this part
+of the country are apt to pay no attention to the fibres, but if you do
+not strip them off they are very tough. And now cut the bean
+lengthwise. Stop!--not so thick,--a little finer. Now, don't put the
+stems back in the dish, but here in this bowl! See! everything in the
+world can be learned, and, if you should not be compelled to do it, it
+is at least well to know how.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A gentle sigh escaped her as she remembered that her own circumstances
+had once, before she had lost her property by her brother's failure,
+been such as to make these homely offices entirely unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine contemplated with smiling surprise the Staatsräthin's
+enthusiasm in encouraging her to undertake this new rôle. She asked
+herself seriously if it were possible that this was really an
+intellectual woman. But one glance at the broad, thoughtful brow and
+the clear, expressive eyes of the speaker convinced her of the truth.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Lost in these reflections, Ernestine continued her novel taskwork, but
+the Staatsräthin suddenly discovered, to her horror, that she was
+throwing the stems in with the beans, and the beans into the bowl of
+stems and strings.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear,&quot; she cried, &quot;see what you are doing! now I shall have to pick
+over the whole dishful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine threw down the knife and leaned back in her chair. &quot;I never
+was made for such work! Forgive me, but I cannot think it worth while
+to learn it. I shall never be so situated as to need such knowledge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As you please,&quot; said the Staatsräthin coldly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you displeased with me? Is it possible that you are displeased
+with me because I cannot cut beans?&quot; She seized the old lady's busy
+hand. &quot;Frau Staatsräthin, make some allowance for me. You must not ask
+one to do what she is not fit for. Would you ask the fish to fly, or
+the bird to swim? Of course not. Do not, then, expect a person who is
+at home only in a different world to take an interest in the every-day
+concerns of this.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="poem2">
+<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-8px">&quot;This strife about the beans you make,<br>
+When really crowns are now at stake,</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="continue">we might say,&quot; remarked the Staatsräthin. &quot;And certainly in our case
+these matters are not so widely different. What is most important
+cannot be entirely divided here from what is unimportant. Such little
+household occupations, slight, even insignificant, as they may appear,
+belong to the responsibilities of a woman's position. They are stitches
+in the web of her life. If a single one is dropped, the whole is
+gradually frayed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine shrugged her shoulders. &quot;You are perfectly right from your
+point of view, Frau Staatsräthin, but your point of view is not mine.
+To me a woman's mission is something higher. A noble mind cannot
+condescend to occupy itself with such cares, which are--forgive me the
+expression--always more or less sordid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin frowned slightly, but she did not interrupt Ernestine,
+who continued: &quot;It is hard enough that so much of the brute cleaves to
+us that we must eat and drink to keep our physical mechanism in order;
+thus, in the process of development, we never attain any higher degree
+of perfection. We ought to take pride in developing ourselves as fully
+as possible, in contending against every animal appetite instead of
+making a formal study how best to pamper it. We ought to blush for our
+frail, indigent physical nature, instead of making an idol of it and
+regarding her who sacrifices to it most freely as the loftiest
+illustration of feminine virtue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That all sounds very fine,&quot; said the Staatsräthin, &quot;but it is,
+nevertheless, a deplorable mistake. With the capacity for pleasure the
+Creator has bestowed upon us the right to enjoy. We ought only to see
+to it that our pleasures are true and noble. It is false shame that
+would repudiate what we cannot live without, and it sounds strangely
+contradictory from the lips of a natural philosopher like yourself.
+Before whom would you blush? Before your fellow-beings? Certainly not,
+for they all share your mortal infirmities. And, since you do not
+believe in a God, where does there exist for you any supernatural
+ideal, any bodiless spirit, subject to do change nor desire of change,
+before whom you can be ashamed of being a mortal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In myself,--in my own imagination.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, this is the usual jargon. Because you deny your God, and
+still feel the need of Him, you exalt yourself into a divinity, and are
+humiliated at the idea of your imprisonment within a mortal frame!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no, I am not so vain and arrogant. There is, if I may thus express
+it, a refinement of mind that is shocked by the coarse demands of
+material nature. And I should be afraid of degrading myself in my own
+eyes if, in satisfying these demands, I used the time and ability that
+might be employed for higher purposes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You speak as if by the responsibilities of a woman I meant devotion
+solely to creature comforts. I understand by these something more than
+eating and drinking. Order and cleanliness, for example, are among the
+necessities of our life, especially for fine natures, for they belong
+to the domain of the beautiful, and must be the special concern of the
+female head of a household, whatever may be the number of her servants.
+To be sure, there are women who are so busy with brooms and dusters
+that we might almost think them neat from their love of dirt. But I am
+not speaking of such extreme cases. The superintendence of servants, if
+you have them, the distribution of labour, the purchase of clothing,
+with its hundred various branches, and, finally, the direction and care
+of children, are all necessities of existence, duties to which no
+woman, even the wealthiest, can refuse to attend. Least of all should
+they be left to the husband. I consider it one of our most sacred
+duties to relieve him from all material cares, that he may be free to
+work for the benefit of mankind. Thus we assist him, modestly though it
+be, in the great work, by enabling him to keep himself free and fit for
+his labours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I frankly acknowledge that I am incapable of such modesty. I cannot be
+satisfied with an excellence that I must share with every housekeeper.
+I am conscious of the ability to assist directly in the cause of human
+progress. Why should I waste it in labour wholly possible to
+mediocrity?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You depreciate this labour because you do not know it. Rightly
+conceived and executed, it may prove of the greatest significance. For
+the more cultivated and intellectual a woman is, the more capable is
+she of appreciating the importance of the task assigned to man, and the
+necessity of lightening it as much as she can by due care of his
+physical and mental welfare. And with this thought ever in her mind,
+the meanest employment, the most menial occupation, becomes a labour of
+love. And even the most careful housewife can find time, if she is so
+disposed, to educate herself still further, and so to form and exercise
+her talents as to make them the delight of her husband's hours of
+leisure. That is what I understand, my dear, to be a wife in the truest
+sense.&quot; She suddenly took Ernestine's hand and drew her towards her.
+&quot;And thus,--why should I not speak frankly?--thus I would have the
+woman to whom I am to be a mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at her in amazement. &quot;Will you--are you to be a mother
+to me, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin hesitated for a moment, and then said, &quot;I should like
+to be. You are an orphan, and I pity you. If you would only be what a
+woman should be,--if you would only conform to our social and Christian
+views, I could give you all a mother's love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine withdrew her hand. &quot;I thank you for your kind intentions,
+but, if these are the only conditions upon which you can bestow your
+affection upon me, I fear I shall never deserve it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin shook her head in rising displeasure. &quot;You do not
+understand me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I understand you far better than I am understood by you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You probably think my homely wisdom very easy of comprehension--while
+yours is too deep for my powers of mind.&quot; The Staatsräthin laid down
+her knife, and pushed away the dish of beans. &quot;But the time may come
+when you will think of what I have been saying, and will be sorry that
+you have repulsed me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frau Staatsräthin, I have not repulsed you. I am only too honest to
+accept a regard bestowed upon me on conditions that I cannot fulfil. To
+gain your approval I should be obliged to equivocate,--and I have
+always been true. It is robbery to accept an affection springing from a
+false idea of one's character. What would it profit me to throw myself
+on your breast and silently return your tenderness, when I know that
+you would love me not for what I am, but for what I might pretend to
+be? Sooner or later you would discover your error, and despise me for
+deceiving you. No, I am not unworthy of the love of good people just as
+I am, but if I cannot win it by frankness and conscientiousness, I will
+never try to steal it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You speak proudly. Such self-assertion does not become a young girl
+towards an old woman, least of all towards the mother of her best
+friend and benefactor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frau Staatsräthin,&quot; cried Ernestine, &quot;I shall always be grateful to
+your son for his kindness to me, but surely I ought not to testify my
+gratitude by hypocrisy and slavish servility.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear,&quot; said the Staatsräthin, controlling herself, &quot;you agitate
+yourself causelessly. I am a simple, practical woman, who does not
+speak your language, and cannot follow you in your flights. I have no
+desire to drag you down to us. I simply wish to show you the world in
+its actual shape, that you may know what awaits you when you come to
+make your home in it; and I would gladly receive you in my motherly
+arms, lest you should receive too severe a shock from your first
+contact with reality.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Frau Staatsräthin, if the world is what you describe it to me, I
+would rather remain above it, in a colder but purer sphere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should have thought the sphere in which you were not safe from the
+assaults of angry peasants hardly a desirable one. I, at least, should
+prefer the modest discharge of domestic duties in the circle of home.
+But tastes differ.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine shrank from these words. &quot;Truth is born in heaven, but stoned
+upon the earth. Those who wish to bring it into the world must have the
+courage of martyrs. These are such old commonplaces that one can hardly
+give utterance to them without their seeming trite. Those who recognize
+truth must speak it, and the happiness of possessing it outweighs with
+me the misery that I may incur in speaking it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive me, but these are phrases that utterly fail to cast any halo
+around such a disgraceful occurrence as that of yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frau Staatsräthin!&quot; cried Ernestine, flushing up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Be calm, my dear child, I am speaking like a mother to you. What can
+you gain by casting discredit by your conduct, beforehand, upon the
+truths that you wish to assert? Who will place any confidence in the
+understanding and learning of a woman who does not understand how to
+guard herself from ridicule? Pray listen to me calmly, for I speak as
+he would who would give his life for you every hour of the day. I would
+empty my heart to you, that no shadow may exist between us. The world
+is thus pitiless towards everything in the conduct of a woman that
+provokes remark, because our ideas of propriety have assigned her a
+modest retirement in the home circle, and it sees, in the bold attempt
+to emancipate herself from such universally received ideas, a want of
+womanly modesty and sense of honour, which, it thinks, cannot be too
+severely punished. Publicity is a thorny path. At every step aside from
+her vocation, although never so carefully taken, a woman meets with
+briers and nettles that wound her unprotected feet but are carelessly
+trodden down by a man. And even although she succeeds in weaving for
+herself a crown in this unlovely domain, it is, as one of our poets
+justly says, 'a crown of thorns.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was looking fixedly upon the ground. The Staatsräthin could
+not guess her thoughts. Suddenly she raised her head proudly. &quot;And if
+it be a crown of thorns, I will press it upon my brow. It is dearer to
+me than the fleeting roses of commonplace happiness, or the pinched
+head-gear of a German housewife!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin looked up to heaven, as though praying for patience.
+Then she replied with an evident effort at self-control, &quot;I grant you
+that the lot of woman might be, and should be, better than it is. But
+we cannot improve it by struggling against it, but by enduring it with
+the dignity which will win us esteem, while our struggles can only
+expose us to the ridicule that always attends unsuccessful effort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frau Staatsräthin, I hope to turn ridicule into fear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And if you should succeed, what will it avail you? Which is the
+happier, to have people shun you in fear, or to be surrounded by a
+loving circle for whom you have suffered?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not live for myself,--I live for the cause of millions of women
+for whom it is my mission to struggle and contend. Even if I could be
+ever so happy, I should despise myself were I able in my own good
+fortune to forget the misery of others. But I confess frankly that I
+could not be happy with such a lot as you prescribe for woman. Whoever
+has once floated upon the ocean of thought that embraces the world,
+would die of homesickness if confined within the narrow limits of the
+domestic circle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin dropped her hands in her lap,--her patience was
+exhausted. &quot;It is of no use,--you cannot comprehend the words of
+reason!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you call that reason? I assure you, my ideas of reason are very
+different.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course, of course. You are thinking of the definitions of Kant and
+Hegel. You are talking of what is called 'pure reason,' that repudiates
+everything hitherto dear and sacred in men's eyes, and would have
+created a far better world if God Almighty had not so bungled the work
+beforehand. But scatter abroad your doctrines far and wide,--they
+cannot do much harm, for they only serve to show upon how flimsy an
+argument the enemies of God base their denial of Him. But such a person
+can never be cordially received into a family circle. She can never
+inspire confidence, and that grieves me for my Johannes's sake!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was silent for awhile, and then looked sadly at the
+Staatsräthin. &quot;I have not asked you to receive me into your family,
+Frau Staatsräthin. I know that my opinions make me an object of dislike
+wherever I go. Any one who sees through the defects and abuses of
+society will never be a welcome guest, but will be shunned as an
+embodied reproach. Strong-minded women, as they are called, think me
+narrow-minded,--the narrow-minded call me strong-minded. I belong to no
+party, I am opposed to all. It is a terrible fate, and nothing can help
+me to endure it, save a good conscience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Or excessive self-conceit,&quot; the Staatsräthin interposed half aloud.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine blushed deeply. Scarcely restraining her anger, she replied,
+&quot;Frau Staatsräthin, people, accustomed all their lives long to the
+modesty of stupidity that characterizes the women of your circle, will
+find it very easy to stigmatize as self-conceit the courage of a woman
+daring to have an opinion of her own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is not necessarily stupidity that prevents one from trumpeting
+forth one's opinions as indisputable truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Frau Staatsräthin,&quot; said Ernestine, trembling from head to foot, &quot;if
+you possessed for me one drop of the motherly kindness of which you
+spoke a little while ago, you would judge me less harshly. A mother
+makes allowance for her child. How could you wish to be my mother, when
+you are not disposed to make any allowance for me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I really cannot tell how I fell into such an error,--and yet I was
+sincere, perfectly sincere. God knows I meant kindly by you. If you
+knew the part that you are playing in the eyes of the world, you would
+be more humble and grateful for the sacrifice,--yes, listen to the
+truth, you who pride yourself upon your frankness,--for the sacrifice,
+I say, that a mother makes when she opens her house and heart to such a
+person for her son's sake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine sat pale and mute, her hands folded in her lap; she could not
+stir. The Staatsräthin continued, greatly irritated: &quot;But I did it; I
+conquered myself, and tried to forget your skepticism, your
+unwomanliness, your reputation. I hoped--hoped for my son's sake--that
+you would change, and I would gladly have been a help to you. But you
+repulse my first approach in a manner that makes me tremble at the
+thought that my Johannes has given his loving heart to such a hardened
+nature,--that he should have by his fireside a woman who despises a
+wife's duties, and who will be the ruin of himself and his home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine sprang up. She gasped for breath, and her words broke forth
+from her with painful effort. &quot;Frau Staatsräthin, I can assure you
+there has never been a word or hint at any nearer relation between your
+son and myself. I never would have crossed your threshold had I known
+how I was slandered. I promise you, you shall have no cause for alarm.
+I shall never disgrace you by forcing you to receive me as your son's
+wife. If he should ever offer me his hand, I should refuse it. As I do
+not pretend to believe in a God, I cannot offer to appeal to him, but I
+swear to you by my honour, which is dearer to me than life----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stop, stop!&quot; the Staatsräthin interrupted her in mortal terror. &quot;Oh,
+my Johannes, what am I doing! Ernestine, do not make matters worse than
+they are. Do not drive them to extremities. I want you to reject, not
+my son, but your own faults and errors. Promise me to give up these,
+and you shall be the beloved daughter of my heart!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot promise you that. I do not wish to do so. Do you think I
+would beg and fawn for the doubtful happiness of reigning at a fireside
+where every occasion would be improved to remind me of the sacrifice
+that was made in enduring me?--where the only commendation that I could
+earn would be for the skilful management of sauce-pans and dish-cloths,
+and where a badly-cooked dinner would brand me as a useless member of
+society? No, you know less of me than I thought, if you imagine that
+the chasm that you have opened between us can ever be bridged over.
+Spare me the humiliation of further explanations. I thank you for your
+hospitality. I leave you, as I did years ago, when I stood trembling
+and wet through before you, and you had nothing for me but cold words
+of reproof, that made me feel myself a little culprit, although I was
+as unconscious of wrong as I am to-day. Then I would sooner have died
+than have returned to you, although your son, blessings upon him! would
+have treated me like a sister. Ten years afterwards he has brought me
+again to you and overcome my old childish timidity; but the first
+moment that I stepped across your threshold and encountered your cold
+greeting, I knew that there was no home for me here!&quot; She covered her
+face with her hands, and leaned exhausted against the door through
+which she was about to leave the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin, like all impulsive but really fine-tempered people,
+was easily appeased and touched. She hastened to her and threw her arms
+around her. &quot;My dear child! Can you not forgive the hasty words of an
+anxious mother? Indeed I was unjust. You are more sinned against than
+sinning. I thought only of my son, and--&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There was no need to stab me to the heart for his sake. I never
+dreamed of becoming the wife of your son,--he is far too hostile to my
+views, much as I esteem him. I wished for nothing but the happiness of
+calling one human being in the world friend. But I can go without that
+too. I will prove it to you. Farewell!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she hurried out, followed by the Staatsräthin, who could not
+prevent her from gathering together the few things she had brought with
+her and leaving the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The mother looked after her with anxious forebodings. &quot;What will
+Johannes say? How he will blame his mother!&quot; she lamented,--but she
+soon collected herself, and said calmly and firmly, &quot;In God's name,
+then, I will bear it. It is better thus!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.0" href="#div1Ref_3.0">PART III.</a></h2>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.1" href="#div1Ref_3.1">CHAPTER I.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE STRENGTH OF WEAKNESS.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">On the morning of the day that drove Ernestine from her peaceful but
+brief refuge, Herr Leonhardt slept unusually late. His wife, who did
+not wish to waken him, looked anxiously at the old cuckoo clock, that
+pointed to half past six. It was very natural that the old man should
+be tired, after the trying occurrences of the previous day. Frau
+Brigitta had never seen him so agitated. He had shed bitter tears upon
+his return home,--tears from those poor eyes! Every drop had fallen
+scalding hot upon his faithful wife's heart. Those amongst whom he had
+lived for half a century as a steadfast, self-sacrificing friend and
+teacher, had taken up stones to stone him,--had forgotten all that they
+owed him,--it broke the heart of the weary old man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Leonhardt sat upon the bench by the stove. She folded her kind,
+fat hands, and wondered how any one could grieve the man who was to her
+the very ideal of honour and worth! The door in the clock opened, and
+out hopped the cuckoo, flapped his wings, called &quot;cuckoo&quot; seven times,
+and then disappeared, slamming the door behind him as if he were
+greatly irritated at finding nothing astir as yet. Frau Leonhardt
+arose,--the old man must be called now, for the children came to school
+at eight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She ascended the ladder-like staircase to their upper story, which was
+under the roof of the cottage, and softly entered the bedroom. Herr
+Leonhardt lay with his face turned to the wall.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you asleep?&quot; asked Frau Leonhardt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is it? what is the matter?&quot; cried her husband alarmed. &quot;Is it
+really on fire?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, you are dreaming,--it is time to get up,--the children will be
+here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, my dear wife, it is still night. What are you doing up so early?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Night?&quot; and Frau Leonhardt smiled. &quot;Why, how sleepy you are!--it is
+broad daylight--seven o'clock.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Broad daylight!&quot; cried the old man in a strange tone of voice. He sat
+up in bed, rubbed his eyes, then rubbed them again and stared at the
+bright sunbeams, but not an eyelash quivered. He was very pale.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How are you, dear husband?&quot; asked his wife anxiously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, well, mother dear, only a little tired still,&quot; he said in an
+uncertain voice. &quot;Go down now and get the coffee ready. I will come
+soon!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can I not help you? you are trembling so; you must have fever!&quot; cried
+Frau Brigitta.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no, I am quite well,--go down now, I pray you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She obeyed, hard as it was for her, and below-stairs she could not help
+weeping, she knew not why. She prepared the coffee, and listened with a
+beating heart for Bernhard's step upon the stairs. Then, after twenty
+minutes, that seemed to her an eternity, she heard him coming with a
+slow, uncertain tread. Some great misfortune seemed upon its way to
+her. How strange!--he felt for the door before opening it. He must be
+very sick. She ran towards him, but his look reassured her. He was pale
+indeed, but his expression was as calm and gentle as ever. He laid his
+hand upon her arm. &quot;Well, dear wife, now let us breakfast. I have kept
+you waiting for me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, I waited,&quot; said Frau Brigitta, leading him to the table.
+&quot;Have you any appetite? Do you feel any better?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, but pour out the coffee for me, my dear. I am still somewhat
+fatigued.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That I will.&quot; And the old woman poured the coffee into his cup. &quot;Here
+is the milk.&quot; And she placed the pitcher near his hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr Leonhardt took it carefully, and touched the edge of his cup with
+his hand, that he might not pour in too much; but, in spite of his
+care, he spilt the hot milk upon his fingers. He said nothing, but
+secretly wiped it off and slowly put his cup to his lips. His wife laid
+a piece of bread upon his plate, and this also he ate slowly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it not good?&quot; asked Brigitta.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly it is,&quot; he replied, &quot;but pray eat your own breakfast.&quot; And
+he listened to be sure that she did so. Then, when he had drank his
+coffee, he felt for the table before he put down his cup.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His wife looked at him with anxiety. &quot;Bernhard, I think your eyes are
+worse again to-day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think they are,&quot; he replied quietly. &quot;Have you breakfasted?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I have finished.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, come then and sit here beside me. I want to tell you something.
+Give me your hand, my dear wife, and listen quietly to what I have to
+say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Brigitta looked at him wonderingly, and her heart beat so
+quickly--she knew not why--that it almost took away her breath.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr Leonhardt stroked her hand, and spoke with the tenderness with
+which one speaks to a child. &quot;During all these eighteen years that I
+have been such a care to you, and in all the thirty years of our
+marriage, you have never caused me an hour of suffering, and I have
+done what I could to aid and support you. You have borne bravely all
+our common misfortunes, followed our first children to the grave with
+me, and comforted me when I was overcome by despair. Do not let your
+courage fail you now, for I must give you pain. I cannot help it. Try,
+as you always have done, to spare me the pang of seeing you sink under
+it. Promise me this!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For Heaven's sake, my husband, speak! I will promise you everything!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What we have so long feared, dear wife, has at last come upon us!&quot; He
+drew her nearer to him. &quot;This morning when I awoke there was no
+daylight for me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A dull, half-suppressed moan was heard at these words; then silence
+ensued. The old woman's hands slipped from her husband's,--he put his
+own out towards her, but she was not at his side. She had sunk down
+from her seat and buried her face in her arms, that he might not hear
+her sob.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mother, where are you?&quot; he asked after a little while.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She embraced his knees and hid her streaming eyes in his lap. &quot;Oh, my
+poor, kind husband,--blind! Oh God! Those dear, dear eyes!&quot; And then
+her grief would not be controlled, and she lay at his feet, sobbing
+loudly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr Leonhardt gently raised her until her head rested upon his
+shoulder, and then waited until the first outbreak should be past. He
+too had had moments this morning that none but his God might witness.
+He could not ask his wife to do what had been impossible for himself.
+At last he said softly and tenderly, &quot;Brigitta, you have been
+everything to me that a wife can be to her husband. I have always
+thought there was nothing left for you to do, and yet in your old age
+our loving Father has filled up the measure of your self-sacrifice and
+laid upon you a heavier burden than any you have yet had to bear. He
+has taken from me the power to support you, and calls upon you, a
+weary, aged pilgrim, to be your husband's staff upon his path to the
+grave. It seems very hard,--but, dear Brigitta, when God calls, what
+should we answer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Lord, here am I!&quot; said his wife, and the resignation and cheerful
+submission in her voice were truly wonderful. She embraced her aged
+husband, and her tears flowed more gently as she said, &quot;I will guide
+and support you, and never be weary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thanks, dear heart. And now be calm, for my sake! Think how much worse
+it would have been if you had found me this morning dead in my bed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, a thousand times worse!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then do not let us rebel because God has taken from me one of the five
+senses, with which He endows us that we may enjoy the glory of His
+universe, he has still left me four. If I can no longer see your dear
+face, I can still hear your gentle voice of comfort and feel you by my
+side; and although I cannot see the sun, I can still warm myself in its
+beams,--I can inhale the fragrance of the flowers that it calls into
+life,--enjoy the fruits that it ripens. I can hear the songs of the
+birds, and with them praise my Creator from the depths of my soul. How
+much he has left me! We will not be like thankless beggars, showing our
+gratitude for benefits by complaining that they are not great enough. I
+have seen the sunlight for sixty-eight years. Shall I complain because,
+just before my entrance into eternal light, God darkens my eyes, as we
+do a child's when we lead it up to a brilliant Christmas-tree? I will
+bear the bandage patiently, and try to prepare my soul for the glories
+awaiting it. Let us but remember all this, dear wife, and we shall not
+be sad any longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man ceased. His darkened eyes were radiant with light from
+within, the reflection of those heavenly beams of which in spirit he
+had a foresight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His wife had listened to him with folded hands, and her simple nature
+was elevated and refined by thus witnessing his lofty resignation. The
+peaceful silence that reigned in the room was too sacred to be broken
+by any sounds of earthly sorrow. Her eyes were tearless as she gazed
+upon the noble face of the man who was all in all to her, and she
+waited humbly for further words from him. At last the only words
+escaped her lips that she could utter in her present frame of mind.
+&quot;And our son?&quot; she asked softly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An expression of pain flitted across his features. &quot;That is the hardest
+to bear,--our poor son! God give him strength, as He once gave me
+strength when I was forced to leave the University and become a
+schoolmaster. I told him a short time ago what the physicians said. I
+did not tell you, for I wanted to spare you as long as I could. He sent
+me a reply by return of mail, which you shall hear, now that I have
+nothing to conceal from you. You shall read it, and be glad that you
+have such a son.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My good boy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He will give up his studies and take my place here, so that we need
+never come to want.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But will that be allowed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,--I have already obtained permission from the proper authorities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, how thoughtful you have been!&quot; cried his wife with emotion. &quot;With
+all that burden to bear so silently, and now you console me instead of
+my comforting you! How did such a poor creature as I ever come to have
+such a husband?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She pressed a kiss upon his withered hand. The footsteps of the
+school-children were heard in the hall. Herr Leonhardt arose and went
+to the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Wait I let me lead you,&quot; said Brigitta.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you need not,&quot; he said smiling. &quot;I have been preparing myself for
+blindness for a long time, and I have practised walking about with
+closed eyes, that I might not be so helpless when the time came. And so
+now I can find my way very well.&quot; He had reached the door, and went
+out. &quot;Good-morning, children!&quot; he cried, and felt his way along the
+wall to the school-room, followed by his anxious wife. He stumbled a
+little upon the threshold. &quot;Never mind,&quot; he said to Brigitta, who would
+have supported him. &quot;I need more practice, but it will be better soon.&quot;
+He found his desk, seated himself there, and waited until the children
+had all taken their places.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you all here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; was the reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, sit down,--we cannot have any school to-day. My dear
+children, I must take leave of you. I cannot teach you any more. God
+has taken from me my eyesight. I cannot see you nor your lessons, and
+therefore I can no longer be your schoolmaster. Your parents will
+consider my blindness a punishment from God for my conduct, but I tell
+you, if the trials God sends us are rightly borne they are not
+punishments, but benefits. Remember this all your lives long. There
+will come dark hours in every one of your lives, if you live to grow
+up, when you will understand what your old master meant. And now come
+and give me your hands, one after the other. So,--I thank you for your
+childlike tenderness and affection, and I forgive from the bottom of my
+heart those few who have ever given me any trouble. My son will soon be
+here in my place; promise me to obey him, and to make his duty easier
+for him by diligence and obedience. Farewell, my dear children. God
+bless and prosper you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He held out his hands, and the children, sobbing and crying, thronged
+around him to clasp and kiss them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is this?&quot; the old man asked of each one, and then, as the names
+were told him, he shook the little hands.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not cry, dear children, we are not bidding farewell for life. You
+will often pass by the school-house on Sunday and shake hands with your
+old master as he sits on his bench before the door. And then I can
+guess by the voice who it is, and can feel how much you have grown, and
+you can tell me what you have been learning during the week. And those
+who have studied the best shall have some nuts, or one of my loveliest
+flowers, or some other little gift. Won't that be delightful?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The children were consoled by this prospect, and hastened home to tell
+the important news to their parents.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man stood alone with his wife in the deserted school-room.
+&quot;Come, dear wife, we will send a message to Walter.&quot; He laid his hands
+once more upon his desk, and tears fell from his eyes. &quot;It is strange,&quot;
+he said, &quot;how much it costs us to leave a spot where we have laboured
+so long, even although our work has been hard and ill rewarded. Our
+home is wherever we have been used to the consciousness of duties
+fulfilled, and when we must leave it, it is as if we were going among
+strangers!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He put his arm in Brigitta's, and, with heard bent, crossed the
+threshold which separated him from the humble scene of the daily labour
+of his life. For the first time, he looked, to his wife's anxious eyes,
+like a broken-down old man.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must leave you alone for an hour,&quot; she said, when she had seated him
+in the dwelling-room on the bench by the stove. &quot;I must prepare the
+dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do so, mother; man must eat, whether he be merry or sorrowful, eh? And
+we are not really sorrowful, are we?&quot; And he forced a smile and patted
+her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, dear Bernhard, we are not!&quot; said his wife, struggling to repress a
+fresh burst of tears.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Send a messenger to town to Walter as soon as possible,&quot; said Herr
+Leonhardt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed I will. I cannot rest until my boy is with us. And I will send
+for the doctor, too!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not send for the doctor; he can do nothing more for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But it will be a comfort to me to see him,--do let me send,&quot; said
+Brigitta. And she left the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man sat there, calm and still. &quot;And now I must begin my new
+daily task,--the laborious task of idleness!&quot; he thought, as he folded
+his hands and gazed into the night that had closed around him for this
+life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He sat thus for some time, when the cuckoo began to announce the hour
+of nine, but the last &quot;cuckoo&quot; stuck in the bird's throat, and he stood
+still at his open door. The clock had run down. For the first time in
+many years, Herr Leonhardt had neglected to wind it up. He arose,
+groped his way towards it, felt for the weights, and carefully drew
+them up. The cuckoo took breath again, finished his song, and slammed
+to his door. &quot;I will not forget you again, little comrade,&quot; said he,
+&quot;you, who have chirped on through such merry and sorry times. How often
+now shall I long for you to tell me when the long, weary hours end!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus said the old man to himself, and again slipped back to his place.
+&quot;There is something done,&quot; he said as he sat down. Then minute after
+minute passed by, his head sank upon his breast, the darkness made him
+sleepy, and for awhile even his thoughts faded and were at rest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His wife looked in upon him several times, but withdrew softly, that
+his sleep might not be disturbed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was almost twelve o'clock.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then something rustled into the room; the old man felt the air stirred
+by an approaching form, and he raised his head. The figure threw itself
+at his feet. He put out his hand and touched waves of silky hair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father Leonhardt!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, this is Fräulein Ernestine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at him, and observed with dismay that the pupils of
+his eyes did not contract with the light.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr Leonhardt, what is the matter with your eyes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He smiled. &quot;Their work is done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good heavens! already? I thought they would last months at least.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What matters a few months more or less?&quot; said the old man quietly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked amazed. Involuntarily she clasped her hands. &quot;Is this
+possible? I tremble from head to foot at the mere sight of such a
+calamity, and you--you upon whom it has fallen--are so perfectly calm
+and composed. Tell me, oh, tell me, what gives you such superhuman
+strength?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man turned to her his darkened eyes. &quot;My faith, Fräulein
+Ernestine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine's gaze fell. &quot;It is well for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, it is well for me,&quot; repeated Herr Leonhardt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A long pause ensued. At last the old man asked kindly, &quot;How are you
+after that terrible yesterday?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Father Leonhardt, do not ask me how I am! Until this moment I
+thought myself very miserable, but your calamity teaches me to despise
+my own pain. In comparison with that, what is all the imaginary
+unhappiness that comes from being misunderstood? What matters it if
+people despise me for differing from them? What can their esteem give
+me or their contempt deprive me of? They cannot bestow upon me or take
+from me one ray of sunlight, one glimmer of the stars. The golden day
+shines upon my path, and I am young and able to labour. I see the
+beauty of the world, the universe is painted upon my organs of sight,
+my soul is bathed in light, and how can I give room to mortified pride
+or offended vanity, when I see a great enlightened soul peacefully
+resigned to endless night? No, Father Leonhardt, holy martyr that you
+are, I discard all my petty personal trials, and am grieved only for
+you.&quot; She bowed her head upon his hands, and sobbed passionately.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My daughter,&quot; said the old man, much moved, &quot;you are not telling me
+the truth. The pain that you have suffered must be great indeed, for
+only a heart that knows what suffering is can feel so for others' woes.
+Your heart must have been filled before to overflowing with these tears
+that you are now shedding for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Father Leonhardt, blind though you are, you see clearly. I came to
+seek advice and comfort from your paternal heart, and you have
+comforted me even before I could tell you of my grief. Yes, there was a
+moment when I forgot myself, but it is past. Your noble example has
+made me strong again. Let it go. I can think and talk now only of
+yourself. I pray you take me for your daughter. You have treated me
+with a father's tenderness,--let me repay you as a child should.
+Yesterday you perilled that venerable head to save me from the angry
+mob,--now let me shield you from the menacing phantoms of night and
+loneliness. Come, live in my house with your wife. I will be with you
+as much as I can. I will talk to you and read to you. I am so lonely,
+and,--I cannot tell why,--I begin to thirst so for love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr Leonhardt clasped his hands. &quot;Oh, what comfort and delight Heaven
+still sends me! Yes, although my eyes are blind, I can see the hidden
+beauty of the heart that you reveal to me. God bless you, my dear
+daughter, and grant you the light of His countenance, that you may one
+day recognize Him as your best friend and benefactor!&quot; He paused, and
+then added almost timidly, &quot;Forgive me,--I am falling into a tone
+that you do not accord with. Remember that in my youth I studied
+theology,--a little of the pulpit still sticks to me. Do not think that
+I arrogate the right or ability to instruct you. I, old and broken down
+as I am, am not the one to train that proud spirit. I will accept the
+crumbs of love that fall for me from your large heart, and gratefully
+pray for your happiness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father Leonhardt, do not undervalue yourself. You must know how far
+above me you are. When I saw you in your simple greatness confront
+those rude men yesterday, I was filled, for the first time since my
+childhood, with a sentiment of adoration. You understand me, you make
+allowance for me, while every one else misunderstands and condemns me.
+You stood by me in the hour of danger, and yet you never boast of your
+kindness. Oh, you are noble and true! Come to me,--let me find peace
+upon your paternal heart, let me give you a home and provide for your
+son's future.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thanks, thanks for all your offers, my dear child, but I cannot take
+advantage of your generosity, and, thank God, I do not stand in need of
+it. My son has already determined to give up the study of medicine and
+take my place here as schoolmaster. Thus, our future is provided for,
+we shall not have to leave the dear old school-house, and I can die
+where my whole life has been passed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Does that thought comfort you?&quot; asked Ernestine, shaking her head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, it is all that I desire. Those who, like yourself, my child,
+pass through life with all sails set, have no idea of the restraint
+which those in our class must gradually learn to put upon themselves in
+order not to despair. Yet in this very restraint, in this perpetual
+narrow round of duties that life assigns us, there is happiness, a
+content that routine always brings. You may say that routine blunts the
+faculties,--but, for the most part, it only seems to do so. A nature
+strong from within will thrust its roots deep into the soil of its
+abiding-place with the same force that enables it to grasp the
+universe, and if you should attempt to tear it thence in its old age,
+you would almost tear its life away also. I love the little spot of
+ground and the little house that have been the world to me. I believe I
+should die if I had to leave them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine listened thoughtfully. &quot;Well, then, if I may not offer you a
+support, I can at least offer your son the means of pursuing his
+studies. My library, my apparatus, are at his disposal. I hope he will
+not refuse to make use of them in his leisure hours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That indeed is a favor that I accept most gladly, although I can never
+hope to repay it! I thank you in my son's name. You will know the
+happiness of having restored to a human being what he most prizes,--his
+hopes for the future.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You amaze me more and more,&quot; cried Ernestine with warmth, &quot;as you
+afford me an insight into the depth and cultivation of your mind. What
+self mastery it must have cost you to live here among these savages!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man smiled. &quot;Living among them, one gradually grows like them
+in some things, and is no longer shocked. At first, to be sure, I
+thought myself too good for them. But my faith soon taught me that no
+one is too good for the post God has assigned him. When I was a student
+I delighted in the theatres, and visited them frequently. Once, as I
+was leaving the manager's room, I heard him lamenting the obstinacy of
+one of his corps. 'He utterly refuses to take a subordinate part. Good
+heavens! they cannot all play principal parts!' The man never dreamed
+of the serious lesson he had taught me. 'All cannot play principal
+parts,' I said to myself whenever the demon of arrogance assailed me,
+and I gave myself, heart and soul, to the subordinate role that had
+fallen to me on the stage of life. I soon desired no better lot than to
+hear some day my Master's 'Well done, good and faithful servant!'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All cannot play first parts,&quot; murmured Ernestine. &quot;I too, Father
+Leonhardt, will ponder these words.&quot; She sat silent for awhile, then
+passed her hand across her brow. &quot;No! to be nothing but a subordinate,
+a figure that appears only to vanish again, occupying attention for one
+moment, but just as well away,--no, that I could not endure!&quot; She
+sprang up, and walked to and fro.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear Fräulein----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, call me Ernestine,--it is so pleasant to hear one's first name
+from those whom one values.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Certainly, if you desire it. Then, my dear Ernestine, I was going to
+answer you by saying that no one who fulfils the duties of life
+conscientiously is 'as well away.' As far as the world is concerned, it
+may be so; but we must not seek to have the world for our public, or to
+find the sole delight of life in its applause. It is not modest to
+imagine one's self an extraordinary person, destined to enchain the
+attention of nations upon the stage of the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine blushed deeply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leonhardt continued: &quot;Every one finds associates amongst whom to play a
+principal part, and in whose applause satisfaction is to be found. For
+these few he is no subordinate, for them he does not 'appear only to
+vanish again.' Is not a wife, or a husband, to whom one may be
+everything, worth living for?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only for persons, Father Leonhardt, who have never so soared above
+their surroundings as to find the centre of their being in the life of
+the mind and what pertains to it. Those who have so far forgotten
+themselves as to make the interests of the world their own, can only
+live with and for the world, and it is as impossible for them to be
+content in a narrow round of private satisfactions as for the plant to
+retreat into the seed whence it sprung.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed, Ernestine?&quot; cried a familiar voice behind her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She turned, startled. Johannes had been listening on the threshold to
+the conversation. He was evidently in a state of feverish agitation.
+His chest heaved passionately as he approached. &quot;Would you escape me
+thus--thus?&quot; He took her hand, and his eyes sought hers, as if to dive
+into the depths of her soul in search of the pearl of love deeply
+hidden there. There was a fervent appeal in his glance,--he clasped her
+hand, and every breath was an entreaty, every throb of his heart a
+remonstrance. Pain, anxiety, and the haste of pursuit so shook him that
+he trembled. Ernestine saw, heard, felt it all, but she stood mute and
+motionless,--she could not open her lips or utter a sound,--she was as
+if stunned. &quot;Ernestine!&quot; Johannes cried again, &quot;Ernestine!&quot; The tone
+went to her very soul,--a low moan escaped her lips,--she inclined her
+head towards his breast, and would have fallen into his arms,--but a
+shadow, the shadow of his mother, stepped in between them and darkened
+Ernestine's eyes so that she no longer saw the noble figure before her,
+or the tears of tenderness in his eyes. All around her was cold and
+dim, as when clouds veil the sun,--his mother's shadow scared her from
+his heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She raised her head, and slowly withdrew her hand from his.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His arms dropped hopelessly. A moment of utter exhaustion followed his
+previous emotion. He put his handkerchief to his forehead, that seemed
+moist with blood. His veins throbbed,--there was a loud singing in his
+ears,--he could hardly stand. He exerted all his self-control, and went
+towards Leonhardt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God strengthen you, Herr Leonhardt!&quot; he said in broken sentences. &quot;I
+know it all from your messenger to your son, whom I met on the road. I
+need not offer to console you,--you are a man, and will endure like a
+man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am a Christian, my dear Herr Professor, and that stands to feeble
+age in the stead of manhood!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True, true!&quot; said Johannes with a troubled glance at Ernestine. She
+approached, and said in a trembling voice,</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father Leonhardt, I must say farewell to you now and go home. When
+your son comes, send him to me.&quot; She offered Möllner her hand. &quot;Forgive
+me, I could not help it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes mastered his emotion, and said, with apparent composure, &quot;I
+shall write to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine silently assented, and went. The old man listened. He heard
+her retreating footsteps and Johannes' labouring breath, and again he
+saw for all his blind eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Herr Professor, do not let her go. Follow her quickly, and let all
+be explained. Believe me, she is an angel. Grudge her no words. There
+is no use in writing,--her uncle can intercept all her letters. Spoken
+words are safest and best. Quick, quick, or you may both be wretched!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thanks, old friend, you are right!&quot; cried Johannes, all aglow again;
+and, before the words were well uttered, he was gone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Brigitta entered with the soup, and looked after him in surprise.
+&quot;The gentleman seems in a hurry!&quot; said she.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let him go, mother dear. These young people are struggling, amid a
+thousand fears and anxious hopes, for a goal that we old people have
+long gazed back upon contentedly. God guide them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes called to his coachman to await his return before the
+school-house, and followed Ernestine, who was slowly pursuing the
+foot-path directly before him. All was quiet and lonely around, for it
+was noon, and the peasants were at dinner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She looked round upon hearing Johannes' step behind her, and stood
+still. He soon overtook her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; he said resolutely, &quot;I must have a final, decisive word
+with you, and Leonhardt is right,--it should go from heart to heart.
+Will you listen to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He drew her arm through his, and as they talked they slowly approached
+the eminence upon which stood the castle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, dear Ernestine, I would give all that I have that the scene
+between you and my mother, this morning, had never been. You have been
+mortally offended, and that, too, while you were my guest in a house
+whither you had fled for refuge, and that should have been a home to
+you. But it happened in my absence,--it was not my fault. Will you make
+me suffer for it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, my friend, certainly not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, be magnanimous and forgive my mother, although she never
+can forgive herself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have nothing to forgive.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are implacable in your righteous anger. Let me hope that the time
+may come when my mother may atone for what she said to you to-day.
+Dearest Ernestine, she startled back your young heart, just awakening
+to its truest instincts; it was a poor preparation for what I wished to
+say to you to-day, and yet,--and yet I must speak,--I can be silent no
+longer. Yes, Ernestine, I wished to-day to ask you to be my wife. I
+wished to entreat of you the sacrifice that marriage demands of every
+woman, and of you more especially; and I firmly believe that if you
+could have listened first to my views of the duties and the lot of a
+wife, they would not have seemed to you as terrible as from the lips of
+my practical mother. I hope to be able to shield you from the hard
+materialism of life that so alarms you, and to which my mother attaches
+too much importance. My white rose shall not be planted in a
+kitchen-garden. You shall be the pride and ornament of my life. I ask
+nothing from you but love for my heart, sympathy in my scientific
+pursuits, and allowance for my faults.&quot; He took her hand in his, and
+stood still. &quot;Ernestine, will you not give me these?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">With bated breath he waited for her reply. In vain his glance sought
+her eyes beneath their drooping lids.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine stood motionless in marble-like repose, and no human being
+could divine what was passing in the depths of her soul. At last her
+pale lips breathed scarcely audibly: &quot;I cannot,--your mother,--I
+cannot----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, if you cannot love me, do not make her bear the blame, do not
+overwhelm her with the curse of having robbed her son of the joy of his
+life,--that were too severe a punishment! And, if you do love me,
+conquer your pride nobly by showing her how she has mistaken you. Show
+her all the woman in you, and prove to her that you are capable of
+self-sacrifice, and revenge could not desire for her more profound
+humiliation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot make the sacrifice that she demands; and if I could I would
+not, because she <i>demands</i> it and makes it a condition. A soul that is
+free will not barter away its convictions and its aims, even though the
+happiness of a lifetime is at stake. When your mother asks me to resign
+my plan of achieving an academic career, and to bury the immature
+fruits of all my labours, she is excusable, for she does not dream what
+she asks; but when you propose such conditions, you can, not only never
+be my husband,--you can no longer be my friend, for you do not
+understand me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good God, Ernestine! what do I ask of you more than what every man
+asks of the woman whom he wishes to marry,--that she shall live for him
+alone? And how can you do this if you do not relinquish your ambition
+and be content with a private life? You need not relinquish science,
+you shall be my confidante, my aid in all my labours, my friend,
+sharing all my plans and hopes. Only do not any longer seek publicity,
+do not try to obtain a degree or deliver lectures. No opprobrium or
+contempt must dare attach itself to the pure name of my wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine started as if struck by an arrow. &quot;Those are your mother's
+very words. What? Do you, who assume such superiority to woman,
+condescend to repeat phrases taught you by your mother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, you are unjust. You have long known my views concerning the
+position of woman, and you cannot expect that I should be false to my
+most sacred convictions at what is the most important moment of my
+life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And yet you require this of me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A woman's convictions, Ernestine, are always dependent upon her
+feelings in such matters. And where feeling is concerned, the stronger
+must always conquer the weaker. Hitherto you have been moved only by
+the wrongs of your sex,--they are all that you have known anything of.
+When you love, you will learn to know its joys, and be all the more
+ready to resign your vain championship for your husband's sake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think so?&quot; asked Ernestine with unaccustomed irony.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope so. It is our only chance for happiness. I am true to you, and
+tell you beforehand what I look for from you. I will not influence your
+decision by flattery or false acquiescence. It must be formed in full
+view of the duties it imposes upon you, or it will be worthless. You
+may think this a rude fashion to be wooed in, and perhaps you are
+right. But I will not win my wife by those arts which woman's vanity
+has made such powerful aids to the lover. I will not owe my wife to a
+weakness,--and vanity certainly is a weakness. Your love for me must be
+all strength. I would have you great indeed when you give yourself to
+me,--and when is a woman greater than when she conquers her pride and
+herself for love's sake? In her self-conquest she accomplishes what
+heroes, who have subdued nations, have found too hard a task, for it
+requires the greatest human effort. It is true, the world will not
+shout applause,--deeds truly great often shun the eyes of the
+multitude: in the renunciation of all acknowledgment there is a joy
+known only to a few. Within quiet convent walls, past which the stream
+of human life flows heedlessly, many a victory over self has been
+attained that was never rewarded by a single earthly laurel. What
+awaits the end of the painful contest? The grave! But I ask of you,
+Ernestine, far less of sacrifice, and surely there is a reward to reap
+in bestowing perfect happiness upon one who loves you. Do you hesitate?
+Is the struggle not ended? Can your royal soul not cast aside the
+self-imposed chains of false ambition? Oh, Ernestine, do not let me
+implore you further; say only one word,--to whom will you belong,--to
+your uncle, or to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To myself, for no human being can belong to any other!&quot; And her look
+at Johannes was almost one of aversion. &quot;Yes, now I see that you are
+your mother's' son. I see her stern features, I hear her voice of
+remonstrance, and I see myself between you,--a creature without
+will,--no longer capable of independent thought or feeling, still less
+of rendering any service to the world. Am I to cast aside like a
+garment what has been the guiding hope of my life,--my dream by night
+and day,--and go to your mother begging for forgiveness and indulgence,
+excusing myself like a child, and promising future improvement, that I
+may humbly receive from her cold lips the kiss of condescending pardon?
+Again and again, No! What right has your mother to regard me as a
+criminal, and to attempt to improve me? Whom have I injured? What law
+of propriety have I infringed, that she should treat me like some
+noxious thing in the world? I have lived in calm retirement, asking for
+no happiness but that of labour. Why should she insist upon thrusting
+another kind of happiness upon me, and blame me for not considering it
+as such? Did I seek her out? Was it not against my will, and only in
+accordance with your earnest entreaties, that I accompanied you to her
+house? Why should she drive me from it like an intruder, and impose
+upon me conditions of a return that I did not desire? Oh, if you, noble
+and true as I once thought you, had loved me, not as you thought I
+ought to be, but as I am, with all my faults and eccentricities, I
+would have striven for your sake to become the most perfect woman in
+the world. And if you had said to me, 'Be my companion,--I will help
+you to vindicate the honour of your sex, whatever is sacred to you
+shall be so to me also,'--if you had thus acknowledged my
+individuality, and had intrusted your happiness, your honour, to my
+keeping, without other warranty than the dictates of your own heart, I
+would have bowed in reverence to a love so powerful,--I would gladly
+have sacrificed my freedom to you,--to please you, I would have
+performed the hardest task of all--humiliated myself before your
+haughty mother! But when you come to me thus,--only her echo,--when you
+make it the foundation of our happiness that I should be what she
+chooses, and try to assure yourself at the outset that I will submit to
+all your requirements, that you may run no risk from such a self-willed
+creature,--all this shows me that she has separated us utterly. I have
+lost you, and all that you have given me is the knowledge that I have
+no place in this world, and that I am miserable!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes stood pale and mute before her, but his pure conscience shone
+in his steady eyes. Ernestine did not venture to look at him. With
+trembling hands she plucked to pieces a twig that she had just broken
+from a bush at her side.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;After this we can be nothing more to each other,&quot; he began; and it
+seemed as if every word fell from his lips into her heart like molten
+lead. He took breath, as if after some violent physical exertion, and
+then continued: &quot;I do not answer the accusations with which you have
+overwhelmed my mother and myself. They grieve me for your sake. They
+are unworthy of your nobler self. I have treated you as I was compelled
+to do by my sense of honour. I have told you what was, according to my
+profoundest convictions, indispensable to the happiness of marriage.
+That you refuse,--that you can refuse me the sacrifice I ask of
+you,--proves to me that you do not love me. This is what separates us.
+And I pray you to remember that, as I sacredly believe, it is the duty
+of a man to convince himself that the woman whom he seeks to marry is
+fitted to be the mother of his children; and your heart is not yet open
+to the wide, self-forgetting affection that can alone suffice to enable
+a woman to undertake the hard duties of a wife and mother. Will it ever
+be thus open? Who can tell? Another may one day reap in joy what I have
+sown in pain. I do not reproach you,--how could I?&quot; He laid his hand
+upon her head, his eyes were for one moment suffused. As he looked at
+her, grief had the mastery, and he was silent. She was crushed beneath
+his gaze, her artificial composure forsook her, a cry escaped her lips.
+She now first began to perceive what she had done, and her heart shrunk
+from the burden that she had laid upon it, although she did not as yet
+dream of its weight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes gently smoothed her hair from her brow. Her agitation restored
+his self-control.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are kind, Ernestine,--you see how you have hurt me, and you are
+sorry for me. It is the way with women. This little weakness does you
+honour in my eyes. I pray you be composed. I am quite calm again.&quot; He
+would have withdrawn his hand, but she held it fast and looked up at
+him with those eyes of sad entreaty that had worked such magic upon him
+when she was a child.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not utterly forsake me!&quot; she whispered in half-stifled accents.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, as truly as I trust my God will not forsake me, I will not forsake
+you. I will not shun you like a coward, who, to make renunciation easy
+and to learn forgetfulness, turns his back upon the good he cannot
+attain. You need a friend who can protect you, placed as you are with
+regard to your uncle and the world. This friend I will be to you, until
+you find a worthier. Do not fear that you will hear another word of
+love, or of regret. I will conquer my grief alone. My one care shall be
+for your happiness. Farewell, and when you have need of me send for
+me.&quot; He pressed her hands once more, and turned away without another
+word.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked after him as he receded from her gaze. She looked and
+looked until he turned a corner and vanished. Then she sank on her
+knees and cried in an outburst of anguish, &quot;Have I really had the
+strength to do this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She must have remained thus some time beneath the shade of the trees,
+when the sound of carriage-wheels approaching startled her to
+consciousness. It was her uncle. He stopped the vehicle and descended
+from it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You can take out the horses,&quot; he said to the coachman. &quot;I shall not
+drive to town.&quot; The man turned and drove home again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold stood mute before Ernestine, piercing her soul with his
+penetrating glance. He had learned from Frau Willmers everything that
+had occurred the day before, but nothing of the intercourse that had
+previously taken place between Ernestine and Johannes. Scarcely a week
+had passed, and had his ward already escaped him--fled with an utter
+stranger? The thing was impossible. Ernestine was no coward,--a crowd
+of drunken peasants could never have driven the shy girl into the arms
+of the first stranger whom she met. She must have previously known her
+magnanimous champion. He interrogated the other servants, but they one
+and all hated him and were devoted to Frau Willmers. They all declared
+their entire ignorance,--&quot;the Fräulein must have met the gentleman at
+the school-house,--he was often there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was enough to prove to Leuthold that the ground was unsteady
+beneath his feet, and for a moment he succumbed under the weight of
+this new anxiety. Was it possible to guard a woman more strictly, to
+seclude her more utterly, than he had guarded and secluded Ernestine?
+And yet--yet in this heart, that he thought long since dead, impulses
+were strong that would seek and find expression in spite of every
+precaution that he might take. And all this at a moment when he was
+battling for life and death with a peril which required younger and
+more unbroken energies than his own!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was too much; a presentiment seized him that fate had decreed his
+ruin. But he collected himself once more, and took counsel with
+himself, as was his custom in all emergencies. As we turn to Heaven
+when all around us seems dark, so he turned in his direst need to his
+own understanding and will, that had hitherto sufficed him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Allowing himself but brief refreshment after all his anxiety and alarm,
+he ordered the carriage and set out for town to bring home his ward.
+But, to his great surprise and delight, he found her thus near home,
+evidently weary and disconsolate.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Aha, like the mermaid in your beloved fable, you have been trying your
+fortunes among mankind, away from your cool, clear, native element,&quot; he
+said to himself with a smile. &quot;They liked you well, I doubt not, at
+first sight, but you have not gained much, for they soon discovered
+that you were half fish and not fit to live with them!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As he approached her, he put on an expression of distress, and when the
+coachman had gone he began in a tone of great anxiety, &quot;Merciful
+heavens, do I find you thus? Weeping by the roadside like a homeless
+beggar!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True, true indeed,--like a homeless beggar,&quot; Ernestine repeated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, my dear child, is this becoming,--such a scene in this open
+spot,--writhing on the ground here like a worm?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She looked at him. He had on a broad-brimmed, light-gray felt hat. As
+ever, his costume was faultless. Standing before her with a lowering
+glance, his tall, supple figure now bending down to her, his eyes
+riveted upon her, he it was that seemed to her like a worm, and a most
+poisonous one, and with unmistakable aversion she sprang up and
+recoiled from him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He stepped back and looked at her with amazement. &quot;What! is this
+Ernestine von Hartwich, whom I have educated--whose philosophical
+composure nothing could disturb? or is this wayward child a changeling,
+brought hither by some evil sprite?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Spare me your sneers, uncle,&quot; said Ernestine imperiously. &quot;They
+disgust me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold's amazement increased still further. &quot;What--what words are
+these? Is this what is taught at Frau Staatsräthin Möllner's? Upon my
+word, Ernestine, I believe you are ill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, I am, and I pray you to leave me. You cannot restore me to
+health.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What an amount of mischief has been done in these few days when you
+were without my advice and protection! It is true, I cannot tell what
+has happened, but something serious must have occurred. I forbear to
+reproach you for making acquaintances without my knowledge, and for
+leaving the house without my permission, and thus causing me great
+anxiety, for I see you are sufficiently punished already, but, I beg of
+you, do not do so again. You see now what comes of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I beg of you, uncle, not to treat me thus, like a child, who must
+say, after she has been chastised, 'I will not do so again!' If I
+wished to return to the world, of which I had my first experience
+yesterday, you could not forbid me to do so, for&quot;--involuntarily she
+repeated what the Staatsräthin had said--&quot;you cannot forbid my doing
+what does not infringe the law. But I do not, and never shall, wish to
+return,--never! I am out of place among other people. I do not
+understand their ways, nor they mine.&quot; She looked at Leuthold with
+suspicion. &quot;I do not know whether you have been right in bringing me up
+as a perfect recluse,--in making me so unfit for life in the world. Who
+can tell that it would not have been better to leave me my simplicity
+of heart, and not to have led me into paths whence there is no return?
+I will struggle on in my lonely way as never woman struggled before,
+until the day comes when I can convince and shame the most incredulous.
+But let me tell you, uncle, that if the day never comes when my fame
+atones to me for all the happiness I have resigned,--then, uncle, I
+shall curse you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She spoke the last words with an expression that alarmed even the
+cold-blooded Leuthold. In an instant he grasped the whole situation. He
+saw that she had made some sacrifice to her ambition that was almost
+too great for her strength. His ready wit soon divined what had
+occurred. It was a blow, of the significance of which he was perfectly
+aware. He felt that he had reached a crisis that demanded all his
+caution and forethought, and he did not venture to speak until he had
+pondered well what course to adopt. Thus they arrived at the gate of
+the castle-garden in silence. He opened it for Ernestine to pass in. As
+they walked past the spot where she had stood with Johannes on the
+previous evening, Ernestine burst into tears. Leuthold looked at her in
+surprise, and she controlled herself and walked hastily on. As always,
+he had the effect of cold water upon her. Her wound did not bleed in
+his presence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I was greatly irritated when I learned, upon my arrival this morning,
+what had happened,&quot; he began at last &quot;Our very lives are not secure in
+the midst of this mob of ignorant peasants. We must seriously think of
+removing elsewhere,--we cannot possibly remain here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine made a gesture of dissent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, you do not wish to go? What can induce you to stay here, where
+all are so hostile to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine did not reply. After a pause she said curtly, &quot;Very well. You
+have proposed our departure,--that is enough for the present I will
+think of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They entered the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, I have brought you the sphygmometer I promised you,--would
+you like to see it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I will go to my room and rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold knew not what to do. He did not wish to leave her to herself,
+but would have made use of her agitation to extort her secret from her.
+She had reached the door when he cried after her, &quot;Apropos, Ernestine!
+I congratulate you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Upon what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I committed an indiscretion this morning, and found upon your table
+the essay that you have withheld from me for so long. I assure you,
+Ernestine, I was actually astounded! It is far beyond anything you have
+ever done before,--it will be a perfect bomb-shell in the scientific
+world!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine dropped the handle of the door and looked sadly at him. &quot;Do
+you think so?&quot; She shook her head. &quot;They will not pay it any
+attention.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you are mistaken. It must make its mark. Be easy upon that point.
+How did such a magnificent thought occur to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As such thoughts always occur,--if it can only be verified!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, most certainly it can be verified. I'll warrant its correctness.
+Girl, there is a great future in store for you. I thought I knew you,
+but you continually surprise me by your genius.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, uncle, I scarcely dare to hope. I know now how men despise the
+attainments of learned women. There is no use in talking or writing
+unless I can adduce proofs, irrefragable proofs, that are accessible to
+all. The science of to-day demands facts, and, if I cannot procure
+them, I can never convince these prejudiced minds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Be assured that every one who reads that paper of yours will be
+spurred on to make experiments in the matter. Leave it to those
+practised in technicalities to work out the demonstration. The merit of
+the idea will always be yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And even if they find it worth the trouble to investigate the matter,
+and then do it so carelessly that they do not arrive at the desired
+result, it will always be thought a mere hypothesis, and I a learned
+fool. Madame du Châtelet was laughed at for publishing her novel idea
+that the different colours of the spectrum gave out different degrees
+of heat. What did it profit her that Rochon, forty years afterwards,
+hit on the experiments that yielded the proof of her hypothesis?<a name="div2Ref_01" href="#div2_01"><sup>[1]</sup></a> She
+had long been mouldering in the grave, and not a laurel had ever been
+laid upon it. Oh, this is a miserable existence! How long must we toil
+on thus, step by step?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Involuntarily she left the door of her room, and approached her uncle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He took her clasped hands, and felt that she was again within his
+power. &quot;Until there is a woman with sufficient force to withstand a
+man. They are all Brunhildas,--these mighty heroines. They fall victims
+to the Siegfrieds who master them. You, Ernestine, are perhaps the only
+woman capable of accomplishing the task calmly and with a clear mind.
+You succumb to no inferior passion, but keep your eyes fixed steadily
+on the mark. You will shatter the prejudices of the world, and no human
+being will dream who aided you in your work, I have long forgotten how
+to think and act for my own advantage. You are my pride, something more
+than my child,--the child of my mind. Your education is my work, your
+honour is my honour. Come then, I have been thinking of it, and believe
+I have hit upon an experiment that will demonstrate your idea.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle, what is it?&quot; cried Ernestine, flushing up.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come into the laboratory now. We will see, upon the spot, what can be
+done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle,&quot; said Ernestine, overflowing with gratitude, &quot;you give me new
+life! Forgive me for doubting you and doing you injustice for a
+moment!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never mind, my dear child, it is all forgotten. I can easily imagine
+how others have assailed me to you, and that you gave heed to them.
+Have we not all our hours of weakness?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, oh, yes, uncle, it was an hour of weakness!&quot; And in deep
+humiliation she covered her face with her hands.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can guess,&quot; said Leuthold calmly, with his melodious insinuating
+voice. &quot;They burdened your heart,--you have been spoken to of
+love,--you have been sought for a wife. Is it not so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine made no reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They knew you for the feminine Samson that you are, and would have
+shorn your hair, that they might call out, 'The Philistines are upon
+you!'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine interrupted him. &quot;Hush, uncle! not one word, in that tone, of
+a man who is sacred to me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God forbid that I should offend you! I am not speaking of him, but of
+his lady-mother, who has him fast by her apron-string.&quot; And he gave her
+a quick, keen glance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And never mention his mother to me! I hate her!&quot; cried Ernestine
+angrily, ascending with him the stairs to the laboratory.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold now knew enough. &quot;I can readily understand that these people
+should have tried to turn you against me,--for he who seeks to win you
+must first remove me from his path. This they well know, and their
+attempt is natural. But you, with your calm power of reasoning, can
+soon convince yourself that they require of you no less a sacrifice
+than your entire self, and that unbounded, although perhaps
+unconscious, selfishness is the mainspring of their proceedings, while
+I, as long as you have known me, have treated you with thorough
+disinterestedness. They humiliated you in your own esteem that you
+might be bought at a more reasonable price. I can see by your depressed
+condition how they discouraged you. I will restore your confidence in
+yourself, and let this act of mine prove to you that I desire nothing
+of you but that you remain true to yourself. This is all the
+satisfaction I ask. And now all is right again, is it not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, uncle,&quot; said Ernestine, collecting her energies afresh. &quot;And now
+come, let us try the experiment you spoke of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold's light eyes sparkled with triumph as he heard these words,
+and together they entered the apartment containing her costly
+scientific apparatus.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But, exert herself as she might, her labour was all in vain. Her hands
+trembled, everything grew dim before her eyes. Her interest in the
+matter flagged; other thoughts intruded upon her mind. With superhuman
+resolution, she made further efforts, and the hectic spot, so alarming
+to a physician, appeared on either cheek. Leuthold did not notice them.
+He was so absorbed in his work that he started, as if from a dream,
+when she fainted away by his side.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.2" href="#div1Ref_3.2">CHAPTER II.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE WEAKNESS OF STRENGTH.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">The Bergstrasse was quiet and lonely when Johannes returned from
+Hochstetten. The inmates of the houses there were all within-doors,
+shielding themselves from the heat of the midday sun, reflected with
+oppressive intensity from the white houses. Johannes leaned back
+motionless in the carriage, his eyes covered with his hand. He never
+looked up when some dogs came barking around the wheels,--indeed, he
+did not hear them. The exterior world was dead for him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;<i>Halte-là!</i>&quot; cried a voice from a carriage drawn up before his own
+door. &quot;<i>Parbleu! il dort</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes raised his head. The Worronska was awaiting him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His carriage stopped. He got out, and the Worronska beckoned him to
+her. Contrary to her custom, she was not holding the reins to-day, and
+was not seated upon the box.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am glad you are come. I came myself to see you, Professor Möllner,
+as I received no answer to my note,--and I was just driving away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes was confused. He had received the note she had alluded to, but
+had not opened it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray lend me your arm. Have you one moment for me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am at your service,&quot; said Johannes gravely, and he helped her out of
+her carriage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will you grant me a short audience in your house,--or am I unworthy to
+enter this temple of science?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes opened the door for her. &quot;My simple dwelling is but poorly
+adapted for the reception of such distinguished guests. I can scarcely
+hope that you can be comfortable here, even for a few minutes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How pleasant this is!&quot; she cried, as he led the way to his office.
+&quot;Believe me, I like this much better than my marble halls, where there
+is no breath of true feeling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should have thought that one like yourself could always collect
+warm-hearted friends about her,&quot; said Johannes absently, only for the
+sake of saying something.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess looked at him for an instant suspiciously. She knew in
+what repute she was held, and the compliment was perhaps ambiguous. But
+the cloud upon his brow convinced her that his thoughts were busy
+elsewhere. She looked in his eyes, but his gaze fell before hers, as we
+look away from what offends our delicacy. The countess interpreted it
+otherwise,---his embarrassment flattered her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you call the crowd of coarse flatterers, who once surrounded me,
+warm-hearted people?&quot; she asked in a tone of disdain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you found none such amongst them, I must lament that they kept all
+such from your side. For no man of sincere and warm heart could
+approach you as long as you were surrounded by such a throng.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess rose from the sofa, upon which she had thrown herself. &quot;I
+sent them from me long ago: there is nothing to prevent the approach of
+any man of noble character,--but none such attempt it,--I must go
+half-way to seek them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes was silent. The conversation was an infinite weariness to him:
+he had need of all his chivalry to enable him to endure it with
+becoming patience.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are out of spirits, Dr. Möllner. Am I the cause of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a question, countess! Could I say yes, even if you were? I must
+have been guilty of great rudeness towards you, if you can suspect me
+of such <i>gaucherie</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I certainly cannot boast of any exaggerated courtesy from you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I never force upon others what can have no possible value for them,&quot;
+said Johannes coldly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess bit her lip. &quot;Is that meant for me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not see how. I said nothing that could in any way apply to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It surprises me to have to assure you of it,&quot; replied Johannes, who
+began to divine that he had touched a sensitive spot in the countess's
+mind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I believe you. Now let me force upon you what can indeed have no
+value for you, but what people usually prize greatly,--money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She opened a pocket-book, and counted out a number of bank-notes. &quot;See,
+I have come to give you what I can for the little girl who was injured.
+Here are ten thousand roubles. I have no more ready money just at
+present. Do you think I may offer this to the people now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are very generous, countess, but it would be a greater kindness to
+these simple people not to put the whole sum into their hands at once.
+If I may advise you, just settle upon the little girl a small annuity
+for life,--that will preserve her from want,--since she must lose her
+arm, she will hardly be able to support herself. These people will not
+know what to do with so large a sum all at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you invest it for them, then, in the way you think best. An annuity
+is out of the question: I might die, and then there would be
+difficulties thrown in the way of its payment. No. I have written to my
+agent in St. Petersburg for forty thousand roubles more. Then the child
+will be in possession of fifty thousand roubles, and can live upon this
+sum in Germany quite comfortably.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Countess,&quot; cried Johannes, looking at her with unfeigned admiration,
+&quot;do you know what you are doing? It is the gift of a monarch! I cannot,
+of course, judge of the proportion that this sum bears to your wealth,
+but it is my duty to warn you that it is far beyond what these people
+can possibly expect!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heavens, what a talk about a trifle!&quot; cried the countess impatiently.
+&quot;I need only a little prudence for a couple of years, and the
+expenditure will be entirely covered. Even if I should have to deny
+myself now and then, what is it in comparison with the injury that my
+heedlessness has inflicted upon the poor child? I would give her more
+if I had not so many poor relatives whom I must not defraud.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Such wealth in such hands, Countess Worronska, is a blessing to the
+poor. I see, for the first time, that this hand can do more than hold
+the reins and wield the whip, that it can open wide, and scatter with
+princely liberality what others would amass and hoard. Let me imprint
+upon it a kiss of fervent gratitude,--I have done you injustice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Möllner,&quot; cried the beautiful woman, flushed with delight, &quot;I
+would give all that I possess, and all that I am, for one such grateful
+glance from your eyes! I know what the injustice is of which you speak.
+You have hitherto despised me, and now you see that there is something
+in me worthy of admiration. Yes, I have lived wildly,--I have not
+heeded the restraints imposed upon woman by man, because I did not
+respect mankind. Now, now I acknowledge them, because at last I have
+found a human being whom I respect from the depths of my soul, and to
+whom I would gratefully commit the guidance of my life. I can give what
+is better than a few thousand roubles. I am capable of the sacrifice of
+myself! If I thought it would win me your esteem, I would throw away
+whip and rein. My hand should know only the needle. I would never mount
+horse again,--never rush from place to place, sipping the froth of this
+world's delights. I would never stir from this spot, but lie here,
+clasping your knees, a penitential Magdalene. My wealth I would cast at
+your feet, and lay aside all splendour that might charm other eyes than
+yours. All that I have to give, so ardently desired by others, should
+be yours. I should think it an act of mercy if you deigned to accept my
+gift. I know how I transgress all law and custom when I, a woman, thus
+offer myself to him whom I love,--but what would be a departure from
+womanly delicacy and reserve in others, is for me a return thither. It
+is not for me to wait proudly for such a man as you to bring me his
+heart. I am sunk so low that in remorseful humiliation I must sue for
+esteem and love, try to deserve them by the penitence of a lifetime,
+and not murmur if they are withheld from me. I feel the disgrace of
+this; but, oh, if I can only through this disgrace recover my lost
+honour,--if I can only, by thus transgressing law, cease to be lawless!
+Believe me, it is no fleeting emotion that speaks through my lips,--it
+is the despairing effort of a stray soul to grasp the redeeming power
+of a true love!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She could scarcely conclude; overcome by passion, she fell upon her
+knees, stretched out her arms to him as if drowning, and burst into a
+storm of sobs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes sought in vain to raise her. He was stunned, as it were, by
+this volcanic outburst. Suddenly, into the gaping wounds made by
+Ernestine's coldness, poured the hot lava-stream of a passion of which,
+in the temperate zone of his German intellectual existence, he had
+never dreamed. He stood as if before some startling natural phenomenon,
+amazed, overwhelmed, unable to collect himself. One thought filled his
+mind. Where he longed for love he could not find it, and where he
+neither desired nor hoped for it he found it in fullest measure. The
+contrast was too vivid; as if dazzled, he covered his eyes with his
+hand, and a profound sigh escaped him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She drew his hand away from his face, and asked, &quot;Möllner, is that sigh
+for me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For both of us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Möllner!&quot; she said, and her voice was deep and rich, and her soft,
+gentle touch sought his hand, while her dark, glowing eyes were fixed
+upon him in an agony of suspense. Thus the beautiful majestic woman
+knelt there, expiating in the torment of that moment her sin in not
+keeping herself pure for this long-delayed love, looking up to him as
+to a redeemer, ready to sacrifice for his sake herself and a life of
+worldly enjoyment,--for him, the simple student, unadorned by any of
+the studied graces that distinguished the men that had hitherto crowded
+around her, and unconscious of having ever sought her love. Could this
+woman, used only to ask and to have, love him thus, and she, the only
+one who could ever be to him what his whole soul thirsted for,--she for
+whom he would only too willingly have sacrificed his life, resign him
+for an illusion, a chimera, that could never give her one moment's joy?
+He grew giddy,--he drew his hands from the countess's grasp, and sprang
+up. She bowed her head upon the lounge that he had just left, and hid
+her face in her arms, as if awaiting the death-stroke from the sword of
+the executioner. Now, when she knelt thus in the abandonment of her
+grief, for the first time he perceived her wonderful loveliness,--but
+only for one moment,--the next, he turned from her and threw open a
+shutter, admitting the broad day to chase away the bewildering twilight
+that filled the room. A cool breeze had arisen,--he inhaled it
+thirstily, and, when he turned again to the countess, he was calm.
+Reflection, so native to him, had conquered his agitation, and by his
+sufferings for Ernestine's sake he knew how to pity this woman who
+loved so hopelessly. It was the purest compassion that beamed in his
+eyes as he raised her head, but again his glance had upon her the
+effect of magic.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, not that look, Möllner! Do not look thus while you sentence me! it
+makes my doom doubly hard to bear. If you cannot tell me that you love
+me, turn those eyes away,--their glance would wake the dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good heavens! Countess Worronska, how can I find the right words in
+which to tell you what I must, if you so increase the labour of the
+task? I pray you, dear friend, listen to me calmly, and think what you
+impose upon me,--either I must play the hypocrite, or give the worst
+offence that can befall a woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The countess sprang up, and measured him with a look in which pain and
+anger strove for the mastery. He took her hands and gently forced her
+to sit down upon the sofa,--she yielded to him mechanically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear Countess Worronska, for both our sakes let me preserve the
+temperate self-possession not easy to so ardent and impulsive a
+temperament as yours, but all the more incumbent upon the man to whose
+hands you so confidingly entrust your future destiny. It would be of
+little avail to tell you that you promise more than you can ever
+perform. You would not believe me, for the woman who loves thinks no
+sacrifice too great. But even true affection is subject to natural
+change. For a time much may be resigned without a murmur, for
+unaccustomed joy will compensate for unaccustomed privations, but, dear
+countess, one grows used even to the joy of love, and, though it may
+not grow cold, it gradually ceases to be an exceptional bliss, and
+becomes a natural condition, in which the requirements of our nature,
+the habits of our birth and education, reassert themselves. And if we
+are unable to meet these, in spite of our affection we become conscious
+of a want that may in the end deprive us even of the knowledge of our
+happiness. This fate is unavoidable in a marriage where upon either
+side a disproportionate sacrifice is made. Formed as you are, you could
+never content yourself with the trivial domestic affairs of a German
+scholar; you would soon pine in such captivity, and, without losing
+your love for me, in the sincerity of which I believe, you would long
+for your previous mode of living. Those who have never all their lives
+long recognized the restraints of homely duty can scarcely reconcile
+themselves to them, however honest their intentions may be. As soon as
+you felt that your duties to me imposed a restraint upon you,--and you
+would feel this sooner or later,--you would be wretched!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is enough, Professor Möllner,&quot; cried the countess. &quot;Give yourself
+no further trouble in persuading me to doubt myself. If you loved me,
+you could not consider so prudently my advantage in the matter. If you
+felt for me as I do for you, you would not ask how long we might be
+happy,--you would enjoy the moment and be willing for it to resign an
+eternity. Oh, proud and great as you are, you bear the brand of a petty
+existence upon your brow, although you know it not. In truth, Möllner,
+your cool repulse does not shame me, for I feel that in the past hour I
+have been the nobler of the two!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right, my friend. A woman as beautiful, as high in rank, and
+as richly endowed as yourself has no cause to blush for having vainly
+offered to one what thousands covet so greedily. Believe me, if one of
+us is shamed, it is I, to whom favour has been shown so undeserved, so
+unhoped-for,--such favour as only the bountiful gods bestow,--a favour
+which I can never deserve or repay!&quot; Deeply moved, he took her hand;
+again her eyes sought his.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Möllner, your heart relents,--I see it does. You do not know what
+love is. Who was there here to teach you? The poor vapid sentiment that
+they call by its name, suffices, it is true, for domestic use,--little
+is given, little required,--how were you to differ from the rest? A
+genuine passion would have caused infinite commotion in your
+commonplace, every-day circles. Only intense feeling can beget intense
+feeling, and whoever has known none such has never lived. Such a man as
+you must not close his ears like a coward when passion calls. Do not
+withdraw your hand. This moment must decide whether I remain here or
+return to Russia. My estates are going to ruin. I must either sell them
+or return to them myself. Give me the smallest hope of winning your
+affection, and I will sell all my Russian possessions and live here
+beneath your dear eyes, in conventual retirement and repose, year after
+year, until at last you take me to your heart and say, 'I believe in
+you!' Then--then I will surround you with such a heaven as these cold,
+timid natures about you do not dream of. One word, Möllner,--no
+promise, only a hope,--and I am your creature!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes regarded the passionate woman in her demonic beauty with a
+strange mixture of admiration and horror, sympathy and aversion. At
+last he adopted a resolution, for he felt that an end must be put to
+this interview. &quot;Madame,&quot; he said,--not without effort, for it was hard
+for his magnanimous nature to give offence to a woman,--&quot;madame, I see
+that I must tell you all the truth. Hope nothing. It would certainly
+inflict a deeper wound were I to tell you I <i>cannot</i> love you,--it
+would be casting doubt upon your personal charms. What man of flesh and
+blood could swear that he <i>could</i> not love you--a woman all perfection
+from head to foot? Such an oath I could not presume to take, for my
+senses are as keen as other men's. But, countess, I <i>will</i> not love
+you, and I can swear to what I will, and what I will not do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He arose, and the countess arose also, and stood opposite to him, a
+picture of despair. &quot;And must I content myself with this declaration?
+Am I not worth the being told why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let it suffice you to know that I consider myself bound.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Aha! to the Hartwich!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes stretched out his hand with a deprecatory gesture. &quot;Do not
+utter her name, madame. I will not hear it from your lips.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is true, then! That proud, frigid wraith--that phantom, in whose
+veins there flows not one drop of warm blood--has robbed me of you!
+Curse her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush! curse her not, madame; it destroys my new-born pity for you!&quot;
+cried Johannes. &quot;It is not she that comes between you and me. I could
+never, never have given you my heart or hand, even had I been entirely
+free. Do not force me to say to you what no man should say to any
+woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is it? Let me drain the last drop in the cup. I will not leave
+you until I know all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, since you will have it, listen, and may it prove your cure in a
+twofold sense. You could bestow upon me, madame, all that the world
+holds precious, but there is one thing that is no longer yours to
+give,--your honour! And were a goddess to descend from the skies for my
+sake, wanting this jewel, she could be nothing to me. I should send her
+back to her glories, and choose rather to abide here below, a poor
+solitary man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A low cry followed these words, and then silence ensued. The Worronska
+stood like a statue, with eyes, for the first time in her life perhaps,
+seeking the ground. Johannes approached her and said quietly, &quot;You can
+never forgive what I have said. I do not ask you to do it; it is best
+thus. You will hate me for awhile, and then forget me. I shall, all my
+life, have a melancholy remembrance of you, for you wished to be kind
+to me and I was obliged to wound you in return. Pour out your hatred
+upon me; I deserve it at your hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Möllner,&quot; said the beautiful woman, drawing her breath with effort,
+&quot;at this moment I am expiating all the sins I have ever committed.
+Farewell, and if you hear that I have fallen back into my old manner of
+life, sign the cross above my memory, and tell her whom you love, 'I
+might have saved that soul, but I would not.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes looked at her sadly. &quot;Madame, if the agony of this moment does
+not make the thought of your former life hateful to you, my love never
+could have saved you. I disclaim the terrible responsibility you would
+thrust upon me. I have done what I could. I have told you the truth,
+and I cannot believe it will be without effect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you,&quot; said the despairing woman with bitter irony. Then, with
+one last tender look at Johannes, which he, standing calmly before her,
+did not return, she turned to go, with the bearing of a queen. He
+offered to conduct her to her carriage, but she refused his aid. Her
+face was ashy pale, and not another word passed her compressed lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He looked after her as she entered her carriage and buried her face in
+her hands. He saw how her whole frame was shaken with emotion. The
+carriage whirled away, the dust rose in clouds. Johannes re-entered his
+lonely room. &quot;Ernestine!&quot; he exclaimed, as if she could hear him,
+&quot;Ernestine!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.3" href="#div1Ref_3.3">CHAPTER III.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>SILVER-ARMED KÄTHCHEN.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">That was wonderful news for the village of Hochstetten! The oldest
+people there could remember nothing to match it! The Kellers' terrible
+accident had turned out the greatest good fortune. The Kellers--poor
+despised day-labourers that they had always been--had come to be rich
+people, and were to be richer still. Käthchen might well do without her
+arm, and, since that was all the harm that had been done her, it really
+was hardly worth so much money. Many a one had suffered greater
+injuries, and not a mouse had stirred in their behalf,--not even when
+everything had been pawned in the long idleness that followed. And this
+lucky child got immense wealth in exchange for her useless little arm!
+Where was the justice of that, pray? It would have been some comfort to
+think that it was devil's money, and could bring the Kellers no good,
+and that it would be better to starve than to use it. At first, indeed,
+the Kellers thought of refusing it, but the Reverend Father had been
+too much for the devil. He had advised the Kellers to erect a crucifix
+by the side of the road where the accident had occurred, and to give
+the church three hundred gulden for masses for their benefactress's
+soul. Thus the gift was consecrated, and they could accept it with a
+clear conscience.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Scarcely four weeks had passed, and the cross was already standing by
+the roadside just, where Käthchen had been run over. It was finer than
+any other in all the country round; and the Kellers, husband and wife,
+tossed their heads, as they passed it, as proudly as if they had placed
+the Lord Jesus Christ himself there in person. The cross was ten feet
+high, and stood upon a pedestal five feet high, upon which were
+inscribed the words, &quot;Erected to the glory of God by Pankratius Keller
+and Columbane his wife, Anno Domini 18--. 'Let little children come
+unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven!'&quot;
+And directly beneath was a beautiful painted tablet, whereon all might
+read, &quot;Wanderer, pause, and mark how wondrously the promise has been
+kept to our child!&quot; The painting that was to illustrate these words
+represented Käthchen with one arm; the other lay upon the ground, and a
+broad stream of blood was gushing from the maimed shoulder. A carriage
+was driving furiously away. Above Käthchen's head the heavens were
+opened, and the infant Christ was seen in the arms of the Madonna,
+handing down a silver arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This most magnificent and ingenious allegory of the silver blessing
+that had followed Käthchen's misfortune had cost the poet of the
+village, the highly-gifted Reverend Father, many an anxious thought;
+and, in consequence of it, the little girl went universally by the name
+of &quot;Silver-armed Käthchen,&quot; although she persistently refused to verify
+her nickname by making use of an artificial limb. Her father and mother
+were the objects of great ridicule and envy, but they did not mind
+it at all, they could laugh in their turn,--they had plenty of
+money,--and, what was more, they had, by means of it, gained more
+favour with the Lord than all those who jeered at them. The host of the
+&quot;Stag&quot; and the burgomaster were the richest people in the village, but
+neither of them could boast that he had given three hundred gulden to
+the Church, and the burgomaster had put up a very mean cross over in
+the meadow, and, for economy's sake, had had only the head and hands
+and feet of Christ painted upon it, leaving all the rest of the figure
+to the imagination.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">So they could enjoy their wealth without any misgivings. They knew how
+high in favour they stood with the Lord; and, besides, Frau Keller had
+sprinkled the package of notes that Möllner had given her with holy
+water. She had done this entirely of her own mind. It was impossible to
+be too prudent in such a case. So now that everything had been done to
+keep off the Evil One, a blessing would be sure to follow. Little
+Käthchen, however, thought and felt very differently. She was very
+unhappy to find that the children stood aloof, staring at her as at
+some strange animal when she went to sit in the sunshine before the
+door, and that the big boys called her Silver-arm, and plucked her by
+the empty sleeve that dangled from her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But it was worse than all one day when a cripple came crawling
+past,--there were many cripples in the country round about, as there
+always are where human beings are fighting for the mastery with the
+rude forces of nature. This man stopped before her and muttered, &quot;Oh,
+yes, you are treated like a princess! Such a poor fellow as myself is
+worse off than a dog, for when a dog breaks its leg it is shot, but I
+must hobble about and starve for the sake of Christian charity! Such
+pious people as you are can always make friends with the Almighty, and
+therefore a grand coach is sent to drive over you, while only a huge
+stone in the quarry crushed my hip, and there was no fuss made about
+it. The grand folks, whose house the stone helped to build, never
+troubled themselves about the human blood that had sprinkled it. Well,
+well,--to every one his own!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And the man went hobbling off upon his crutches, and Käthchen covered
+her eyes with the one poor hand that was left, and sobbed bitterly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is that my merry little Käthchen that I hear crying?&quot; suddenly asked a
+familiar voice; and, when the child looked up, she saw Herr Leonhardt
+approaching, supported by his son.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Young Herr Leonhardt was tall and slender, with a gentle, frank
+expression of countenance,--such a face and form as one might imagine
+belonged to the favourite son of the patriarch Jacob. There was a
+certain poetic grace in the devotion with which he guided the uncertain
+steps of his blind father. His eyes were bent upon the ground, that
+every obstruction might be removed against which his father's feet
+might stumble.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He swung his light straw hat hither and thither in his hand, and his
+fair hair encircled his broad brow with masses of curls.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Käthchen stopped crying as soon as she saw him. His graceful figure
+stood alone among the coarse peasant youths, and, truly as she loved
+and honoured his father, the son was dearer to her childish heart, for
+he was young, hardly twelve years older than she herself, and youth
+clings to youth. She arose and walked feebly towards the pair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, Käthi, brave little girl, that never cried when they cut off her
+arm, what has happened to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They tease me,&quot; sobbed Käthchen, &quot;because I have such an easy time and
+was run over by a grand coach. They envy me my good luck, and no one
+loves me any more. But it shall not be so,--I will not have anything
+more than the other poor cripples,--I will give them all some of my
+money. Seppel needs it far more than I do, and he got nothing for the
+big stone that fell upon him, although he is a grown-up man. I am only
+a stupid little child, who never earned anything, and yet I get so
+much, because I have to sit still. But I will not keep it, and my
+father and mother must not keep it all to themselves,--they are well
+and strong. I will share it with those who have suffered as I have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, my dear little Käthchen,&quot; said Herr Leonhardt, much moved, &quot;you
+are too generous to the people who tease you so. If you try to share
+with all the cripples and maimed people in the village, you will have
+very little left for yourself. If Heaven has decreed that you are to be
+rich while they remain poor, you may resign yourself gratefully to its
+inscrutable designs without any qualms of conscience. You can help the
+needy by giving them work upon your farm that you are to buy with the
+money that is coming to you. Until then, it would be much better to
+give them a little money weekly, than to bestow upon such rough men a
+large sum, that might tempt them to be idle and drink and gamble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, it would be better; but mother will not let me have anything. She
+does not like to have me give away a single kreutzer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But what does your father say?&quot; asked Walter, who had been regarding
+the child with silent admiration.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, he works all day long in our new field, and does not care for
+anything. Mother keeps the money, and when she says, 'So it must be,'
+he does not say a word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But how does that agree with your parents' great liberality to the
+Church?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I told mother she had better give some of the money to these poor
+people than to the Reverend Father and the stone-mason for the masses
+and the cross; but then she told me I was too silly,--that she had
+given the money to the Lord,--and it was far wiser and more profitable
+to give it to Him than only to men, for He was more powerful than any
+of them, and could give a great deal better reward for what was done
+for Him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr Leonhardt turned to his son, and, with a gentle smile, said, &quot;Does
+not that one sentence show the evil of this false piety? These people
+turn to the Highest only for the sake of the reward that they expect.
+For them the Lord is a venal human being, whose protection they can
+procure by bribery, and they now think themselves absolved from all
+humane and Christian duty. Oh, holy,--no, not holy,--unhallowed
+simplicity!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear father,&quot; said Walter, &quot;it is the same old story of indulgences,
+only in another shape. Tetzel, to be sure, is here no longer, but there
+are still Tetzels in plenty to be found, and always will be while there
+are men in the world who prize money beyond all else on earth and think
+it no way beneath the dignity of the Almighty actually to drive a
+bargain with them. The noble thought of the antique sacrifice is at the
+bottom of it all. Polykrates threw the ring into the sea to appease the
+gods,--the Christian pays his money to erect a crucifix. But the Greek
+trembled when the gods rejected his offering and the fish brought back
+his ring. The conceit of our age regards its offering as an investment
+of capital, and hopes for large interest upon it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man passed his hand through his blonde curls with a light
+laugh. His father bowed his gray head thoughtfully, and pondered upon
+what his son had said, and how far mankind still were from a knowledge
+of the truth. Käthchen looked at both, surprise in her eyes, as if they
+were speaking some strange tongue. All was quiet around, for the little
+girl's parents were away in the fields. A couple of doves were picking
+up the crumbs from Käthchen's supper, and the ducks were diving and
+whisking their tails in the little brook near the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Quick, firm footsteps were heard approaching.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here comes our friend Möllner,&quot; said the old man, listening. &quot;I know
+his step from all others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Father Leonhardt, it is I,&quot; said Möllner's clear voice. &quot;How are
+you all?&quot; He drew near the quiet little group. Before him ran three or
+four geese, greatly terrified and in great anxiety,--but yielding not
+one jot of their dignity, for they never thought of turning aside; they
+were left in the middle of the road, when Johannes reached his friends.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Look, Herr Professor,&quot; remarked young Leonhardt gaily, &quot;those stupid
+birds are priding themselves upon having maintained their place. See
+with what haughty disdain they are regarding you. They evidently think
+that they have compelled you to turn aside for them! It is always the
+way. Wisdom vacates the path shared with stupidity, and the latter
+swells with the pride of an imagined victory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes smiled. &quot;What puts these little moral sentiments into your
+head, my dear Walter? Are you about to compose a new primer for your
+school?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It really would not be a bad idea among such people as these!&quot; said
+Walter, as he shook hands with Möllner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Möllner sat down upon the bench before the house and took Käthchen upon
+his knee. &quot;Would not you like, Käthchen, to have Herr Walter make you a
+new primer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It might be a capital undertaking, Walter,&quot; remarked Herr Leonhardt.
+&quot;We must not despise small opportunities, since larger ones are denied
+us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, father,&quot; laughed the light-hearted young fellow, &quot;but, if my
+primer is to succeed here, I must have for the letter H,</p>
+
+<div class="poem2">
+<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-8px">&quot;'H stands for Hartwich, good Christians must know,<br>
+She's a terrible witch, who will work them all woe.'&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr Leonhardt made a sign to the thoughtless speaker, who looked in
+alarm at Möllner, who preserved a gloomy silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must not laugh at the lady at the castle,&quot; said Käthchen, leaning
+her pale little face against Johannes' throbbing heart. &quot;My mother
+complained to-day that I had grown as pale and ugly as the Fräulein,
+and she prayed the Lord to break the spell that the Fräulein had laid
+upon me. It made me so sorry, for she cannot help my being so pale. She
+is so good and kind,--how could she bewitch me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes silently drew the child closer to him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure, she is good and kind, and would not harm any one,&quot; said
+Herr Leonhardt;--but his son interposed, with youthful exaggeration,
+&quot;She is a saint,--far too holy for these ignorant people to be
+permitted to kiss her footprints as she passes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes pressed his bearded lips upon the child's head, but did not
+speak.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr Professor, where are your thoughts?&quot; asked Leonhardt anxiously,
+laying his hand gently upon Johannes' shoulder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With the subject of your conversation, dear friend. It gives me no
+rest. It is now four weeks since I have seen her. I would not seek her
+again until I had collected all the material that was necessary to
+convict her uncle, for I must be prepared for the most determined
+opposition on his part to my visits. To-day, through my kind old friend
+Heim, I have discovered a clue to Gleissert's rascalities, and when I
+compare the intelligence that I have received with the fact of which
+you informed me, that all his letters are addressed to Unkenheim, I
+think I have a terrible weapon against him in my possession. And
+yet,--yet I do not know whether I ought to warn Ernestine by letter or
+to go to her myself. Will not,--must not the sight of me be painful to
+her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As well as I remember, you told me that she begged you not to forsake
+her,&quot; said Herr Leonhardt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;So she did, old friend. But how do I know how she thinks and feels
+now, since she never visits you without such anxious inquiries
+beforehand as to whether I am with you, and never, too, unless
+accompanied by Gleissert?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is all her uncle's doings,&quot; said Walter. &quot;You cannot think, Herr
+Professor, how he watches and guards her. Since I have been allowed to
+study in her laboratory, I have never for one moment been alone with
+her,--that devil is always present. And it was with difficulty that she
+obtained permission for me to come to the castle. Willmers says that
+there was a three-days fight about it, but Fräulein Ernestine had made
+up her mind, and he was at last obliged to give way. It is high time
+that something were done for the unfortunate lady, for since the
+completion of her last treatise she has been utterly exhausted, and if
+she goes on thus much longer she will kill herself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have known that for a long time,&quot; said Johannes with a profound
+sigh, &quot;but what is to be done? I can make no impression either upon her
+head or heart. My solitary hope now lies in separating her from that
+villain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think it would be much the best for you to see her yourself,&quot; said
+Walter. &quot;She is really wasting away from day to day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I know that it is so by her hands,&quot; added his father; &quot;they grow
+so thin and small, and are as cold and damp as if she were dying. Ah,
+Herr Professor, their touch pierces me to the heart! I actually think I
+can see her suffer, for hands feel so only when they are often wrung in
+physical or mental anguish.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes put the child from off his knee, and turned away his head, but
+he could not conceal his emotion from the blind eyes of the
+schoolmaster.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why attempt to suppress a pain that is so natural, dear friend? Go to
+her quickly. It will do her good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, I will write her a line,&quot; said Johannes. &quot;I will ask her
+whether the sight of me would pain or console her. Good God! I desire
+nothing but her happiness! You, Walter, will, I know, contrive to let
+her have my note without her uncle's knowledge. She will, I hope,
+answer it in the same way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then let us go directly home,&quot; said Herr Leonhardt, &quot;that you may
+write immediately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentlemen started to go.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Käthchen plucked Johannes by his coat. &quot;But, Herr Professor, if you go
+to see the Fräulein to-morrow, you will not find her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How so, Käthchen?&quot; asked Johannes, who had not thought that the child
+had been listening to the conversation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes; I know it is true. Frau Willmers from the castle went by here
+to-day, and whispered to me to tell the gentlemen secretly, if they
+came to see me to-day, that the Fräulein was going away to-night
+forever, but I must not let any one know that she had told me, or she
+should lose her place. And if the Herr Professor did not come, I must
+tell it to the master, that he might send a messenger to town to the
+Herr Professor. Frau Willmers cried a great deal, and said she dared
+not go to the school-house, because,--because the Evil One, who watches
+the Fräulein so closely, would know it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Käthchen!&quot; cried Johannes, &quot;you little angel, how much you have done
+for me! The Fräulein would have gone to-night, and I should never have
+known whither, if it had not been for you! Is this all that you know?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, this is all,--you may trust me. I listened to all she said.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes took the child in his arms and kissed her. &quot;Child, tell me how
+I can reward you. Speak. What would you like? Whatever it is, you shall
+have it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, dear Herr Professor, if you would only persuade my father and
+mother to let me have some money for the poor people. Oh, do, do beg
+them. And then they will not laugh at me and call me Silver-arm any
+more. I will make them happy, too, or else I shall be just like the
+Fräulein, and no one will like me at all,--and I would not have it so
+for all the money in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know what you mean, you good little thing, and I promise you that
+when the rest of your property is sent to me I will invest it so that
+your parents shall have no right to any of it, but that you may do with
+it just what Herr Leonhardt advises.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, that will be splendid!&quot; cried Käthchen, as she kissed the sleeve
+of Johannes' coat. &quot;Herr Walter!&quot; she called out, &quot;then you will find
+out all the poor people for me, and tell me how much to give them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Käthi dear, indeed we will!&quot; Walter gladly replied.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes gave the child some pieces of silver. &quot;There, my darling, give
+those to the next beggar you see, if you want to do so. Farewell, all
+of you. I will not delay a moment, for it is time to proceed to
+extremities.&quot; He pressed Leonhardt's hand, and walked quickly away in
+the direction of the castle.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What can have passed up there between the uncle and niece?&quot; said
+Leonhardt, shaking his head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father Leonhardt,&quot; said Käthchen, &quot;don't you tell, but I know
+something.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is it, my child?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That guardian up there is a very bad man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is an old story, Käthi,&quot; said Walter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, but you don't know what he does; he empties the letter-box at the
+school-house when it is dark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is that true?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, father saw him do it, but he told me he would shut me up for
+three days if I told any one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How did your father happen to see such a thing?&quot; asked Herr Leonhardt,
+amazed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, he told mother all about it, and I ought not to have heard it, but
+I did hear. Last week, one night when he was biding to try and catch
+the thief who steals our grapes, he heard some one going softly towards
+the school-house, and he hid close, thinking it was the thief. And then
+he saw it was Herr Gleissert, who busied himself about the place where
+the letters are slipped into the box. And father crept nearer, and saw
+plainly how he poked something long and thin into the slit and drew out
+the letters, and then lighted a match and held his hat before it that
+no one might see it. Then by the light of the match he read all the
+writing on the letters, and put them back again into the box,--all but
+one, which he kept. And then he went home to the castle again. Father
+said he wanted to seize him and hold him, but he did not know what
+weapons he might have about him, and that there was no use of accusing
+him, for father would be sure to get the worst of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What mischief can the scoundrel be brewing?&quot; said Herr Leonhardt,
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Walter laughed. &quot;Ah, father, we are paid now for always reading the
+addresses of the letters he sent from the castle.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is an entirely different case,&quot; said Leonhardt &quot;But our friend
+ought to know this before he reaches the castle. Run, Walter, you are
+young and strong; try to overtake him, and tell him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, father, I can do it easily. Sit down here, I will soon return,&quot;
+said the young man, hurrying away, fleet-footed as a deer.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr Leonhardt felt for Käthchen. &quot;My child, are you there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Father Leonhardt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Käthchen, you have repaid me to-day for all the love I have ever given
+you.&quot; He passed his hands over the little, thin face. &quot;I cannot see
+you; they tell me you are changed,--and I think you must be. But in my
+mind's eye you will always have the same roguish black eyes and chubby
+rosy cheeks, with the little berry-stained mouth,--you have never since
+told what is not true, eh, Käthi?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, Father Leonhardt, on my word and honour, never, and I never will
+again. I am now the richest child in all the country round, mother
+says, and I will try to be the best, and thank the kind God, as you say
+I should, by kindness to others. And, now that I cannot fold my hands
+any more when I say my prayers, I must pray very hard indeed,--harder
+than before,--for then I always felt as if I had the dear God between
+my hands and could keep Him and make Him listen to me, but now that I
+cannot do that I must call Him oftener, and beg Him to listen to my
+prayers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear little child, God is always near you,--he loves to dwell in a
+pure, childlike heart. Käthchen, you are a flower in the blind man's
+path. Do you know what that means?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Käthchen laid her head upon Leonhardt's knee. &quot;I think it means that
+you love me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, my child, and that there are few joys in my life like what you
+are to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, father, you have Walter, he is more to you than I can be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God bless him! he is my staff and prop in the darkness. He is the best
+that I have on this earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father Leonhardt, when I grow up I will marry Walter, and then we will
+all live together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My child, what put that into your little head?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, my mother says that now I am so rich that I can choose any
+husband that I please,--and I will choose Walter and no one else--no
+one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But suppose he will not have you?&quot; asked Herr Leonhardt with a smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, but he will have me,--I know he will,&quot; said the child confidently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, holy, holy simplicity!&quot; whispered the old man, and laid his hand
+in blessing upon the little girl's head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And as he sat there, gazing into the night that had closed around him,
+suddenly to his inner vision all grew light about him. From the
+vanishing darkness arose the columns of a church, and through the high
+arched windows the sunlight fell full upon the heads of a youthful pair
+kneeling at the altar. Around stood a throng of glad relatives and
+friends, amongst them a hoary blind father, and by his side an old
+mother, with tears of joy standing in her eyes. The young couple were
+fair to look upon,--the bridegroom blonde, bearded, manly, the bride
+blushing in girlish timidity. Her large, frank eyes were swimming in
+tears of devotion and emotion, but her charming little mouth was
+slightly stained as if from eating berries.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! what!&quot; said the people around her, &quot;picking blackberries upon
+her wedding-day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then the organ began a well-known hymn, and all present joined in
+singing it The bride gave her lover her hand,--only her left, to be
+sure,--but its clasp was as strong as if there were two to give,--for
+it was for a lifetime. And then the ceremony was ended, and they all
+went out into the clear Spring sunshine. A crowd of familiar faces
+pressed around,--poor, deformed, and maimed figures, that still seemed
+not unhappy, for they were all well clad and fed,--and they waved their
+caps in the air, with &quot;Long life to the bridal pair! Since you have
+made this place your home, there will be no starving or freezing poor
+here. Long life to our Doctor Walter Leonhardt and to Silver-armed
+Käthchen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Oh, sunny, peaceful picture! how it cheered the blind man's soul! A
+lovely dream of the future, born of the prattle of a child, hovering
+around an old man upon the verge of the grave!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father Leonhardt, what are you smiling at?&quot; asked the child.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;At something beautiful that I have just seen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought you could not see any more?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can see, my child, not things that are, but perhaps all the more
+plainly things that are to be.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.4" href="#div1Ref_3.4">CHAPTER IV.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>BATTLE.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was sitting at her writing-table, arranging books and papers
+to be packed up. Her uncle was assisting her with trembling haste. From
+time to time she leaned her head wearily upon her hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It will be impossible for us to leave to-day if you do not make more
+haste,&quot; said Leuthold urgently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am doing all that I can, but I am so weak that I do not know whether
+I shall be able to travel to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot imagine how you can give way so. You never used to do it.
+When I think of the self-control that you were wont to exercise,--your
+determination would have done honour to a man,--and now! Oh, it is
+deplorable!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You torture me, uncle!&quot; cried Ernestine, as she threw several books
+into a chest at her side. &quot;You will not believe that I am really much
+weaker than I have ever been before. It is of my own free will that I
+am going away--why should I not hasten as much as I can?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her uncle looked askance at her with a smile. &quot;You are mistaken, my
+child. It is not your will that is acting,--it is only a whim that thus
+urges you on. And a whim is the child of circumstances, and can be
+controlled by them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know what circumstances could control this 'whim,' as you are
+pleased to call it. Nothing can happen to-day or to-morrow to change my
+determination. What delay can you apprehend? No one knows of my
+departure, so that it cannot be impeded by remonstrances from any
+quarter. I have not even told good old Leonhardt that I am going, and
+Willmers heard it only this morning. Could I do more to prove to you
+that I am in earnest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold looked at her again with his sarcastic smile. He knew well
+that Ernestine had preserved this strict silence concerning her
+departure only because she did not feel strong enough to withstand any
+friendly remonstrances. Therefore he trembled lest some unforeseen
+accident might yet divulge her plans. His very existence depended upon
+her staying or going. During the four weeks that had elapsed since
+Ernestine's return from town, Leuthold's entire influence had been
+exerted to remove Ernestine from this part of the country, and, if
+possible, from Germany. She must never again see the man who had
+evidently made such an impression upon her. Now less than ever could
+she be allowed to form any attachment, for, if she were now to marry,
+and require her property at his hands, he was lost! He had cautiously
+managed to secure an appointment, through an American agent, in a large
+chemical manufactory in New York. To Ernestine he had opened the
+brilliant prospect of delivering a course of scientific lectures there.
+The fact that she had received the prize from a German university for
+one of her papers would surely suffice to make her reputation in
+America,--and Leuthold had honestly done his best to have her fame as
+an intellectual phenomenon noised abroad. In his present embarrassed
+circumstances, it was of the greatest importance to him that she should
+be placed in a position to support herself, that she might not be a
+burden to him. If the lectures did not succeed, she would have to earn
+her living as a &quot;female physician.&quot; But upon this point he prudently
+forbore to enlighten her. He fired her imagination with the enormous
+advantages, pecuniary and other, that must accrue from her lectures.
+The means that he employed to win her to his purpose were to an
+ambitious woman irresistible. She saw before her a future such as no
+woman had hitherto enjoyed. She saw herself in one of the vast halls of
+New York, lecturing to a crowd of men who were all listening
+attentively to--a girl! She saw herself regarded as the miracle of her
+sex. The most secret dreams of her pride were to be realized,--the
+seeds of her quiet diligence were to spring up and bud forth in the
+sight of all,---the world should ring with the fame of what a woman
+could do. And yet it was hard to decide; it was weeks before she could
+bring herself to sign the simple letters of her name to the acceptance
+of these proposals; no labour of her life--nothing whereon she had
+expended days and nights of study--ever cost her as much as this single
+signature.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Möllner's grave, earnest face had scared her back from clutching these
+new honours, as Banquo's ghost frightened the usurper from the royal
+chair. It seemed to her that she was guilty of a crime towards
+him,--and at last, in a torment of doubt, she secretly wrote to him.
+She told him everything, and begged for his counsel and advice. She did
+not conceal from him that she could not take so decisive a step without
+his blessing. Why this letter never reached Möllner, no one knew
+besides Leuthold, except Käthchen and her parents.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Day after day passed, and of course Ernestine waited in vain for an
+answer. She waited as if for a decree of life or death. Sleep refused
+to visit her burning eyelids. She took barely sufficient nourishment to
+support life. She pined with desire for only one word--one single
+word--from Möllner,--and it did not come. She was no longer worth a
+stroke of his pen. Since her refusal of his suit, he would none of her.
+He had conquered himself,--had given her up,--and in how short a time!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And the more she had longed for a letter or a visit from him, the
+greater was her bitterness of mind,--the offence to her pride,--when
+she received neither. As often as she approached her writing-table, her
+eyes were greeted by the large capitals of the flattering proposal she
+had received, with all its alluring promises. What was there now to
+wait for? Why should she hesitate now? And so she signed her
+acceptance.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And now nothing should cause her to waver in her pride of purpose. She
+would have the revenge of being irrevocably lost to him, she would
+vanish without one word of farewell, that from a distant quarter of the
+globe the fame of her greatness might reach his ears.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She did not even confide in Willmers, for she dreaded her garrulity.
+Only on the very last day the housekeeper received orders to dispose of
+Ernestine's movables as quickly as possible, and then to follow her,
+for Leuthold wished, before sailing, to take leave of Gretchen, whom he
+purposed to leave in Germany for the present. But Ernestine was to
+accompany him. He would not,--he dared not now,--lose sight of her for
+a moment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She wrote a fervent, heartfelt farewell letter to Leonhardt, and begged
+him to keep her books and apparatus until she should claim them again.
+As she did not know yet where her future home would be, she could not
+make use of them herself. Walter might find them useful. Thus
+delicately she bestowed upon Walter the costly gift of the instruments
+for the further pursuit of his studies.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After their departure, her uncle was to be informed of her disposal of
+the physiological works and apparatus, which he had ordered Willmers to
+sell. He would never have consented to it, for Ernestine had often, to
+her surprise, noticed how desirous he was of ready money.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She bound Willmers by a solemn promise not to deliver the letter to
+Herr Leonhardt until the writer had departed, and thus everything was
+provided for,--everything was thought of,--everything except
+Ernestine's physical condition. The inflexible girl had been accustomed
+to take so little care of her health that she had given no heed to her
+increasing exhaustion,--the natural consequence of the superhuman
+efforts of the last few weeks. But to-day she could hardly stand, and
+the thought of undertaking so long a journey began to alarm her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She sat there before her uncle the picture of weariness. He regarded
+her dubiously. Could he succeed in getting her on board of the steamer?
+Then, if she were taken ill, it would of course be ascribed to
+seasickness, which scarcely any one escapes. And if she died? Then all
+would be well with her. He would bury her under the billows of the
+ocean, and all his hatred, his alarm, and his crimes would sink with
+her beneath the waves, which, as they swathed her dead body, would wash
+away from him all disgrace and guilt. This thought was as boundless in
+comfort as the ocean that was beginning to open upon his horizon.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle, do not gaze so strangely at nothing,&quot; said Ernestine. &quot;You look
+as if you were devising no good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold smiled. &quot;You are nervous indeed, my child. Since when has my
+face looked strange to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine did not reply. She went on wrapping a book in paper, to pack
+it in the chest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is that old fairy-book to go too?&quot; asked Leuthold ironically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; was the curt, decided reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well! well! Have you not a doll somewhere that I can pack with it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine started up. &quot;Uncle, I told you once before that I will not
+endure that tone!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Beg pardon, but such folly provokes a jest. Or perhaps the book has a
+deeper value for you? You need not blush,--I can guess. It is a
+remembrance of the knight of the oak,--Möllner! Ah, then indeed we must
+certainly take it with us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle,&quot; cried Ernestine, taking the book from him as he was about to
+put it in with some others, &quot;you know how to depreciate with your
+sneering speeches everything that I have held dear. Let the book alone;
+I will give it to little Käthchen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And when Professor Möllner visits her, and finds it there, it will
+touch his heart, that the friend whom he has forsaken has guarded his
+memory so faithfully until now. If he turns over its leaves, he will
+doubtless find the oak leaf that you have pressed among them. Perhaps
+he will think it a mute farewell, and bestow upon you a tear of
+compassion. How gratifying it will be!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle, if I thought that, I would rather burn the book!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And that would, at all events, be the best thing to do with it. That
+self-conceited fellow is not worth the remembrance that you cherish of
+him. I would efface it, as I would every impression that is unworthy of
+you. Indeed, I have long been indignant, although I never spoke of it
+to you, at his so easily forgetting you. Such a woman as you are is not
+to be resigned like an article of merchandise about which buyer and
+seller cannot agree. He never loved you, or he would never have dreamed
+of making conditions in his proposal to you, as if you were to deem it
+a great honour that he should condescend to you. Trust me, I know the
+world and mankind thoroughly. He was in the greatest embarrassment, for
+he felt himself morally obliged to offer you his hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine started.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold continued, &quot;I do not know how you conducted yourself towards
+him, but, with your inexperience and the preference that you entertain
+for him,--do not deny it,--it is reasonable to suppose that you must
+have made advances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine bit her lip, and looked down.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The one fact that you accompanied him to his house alone, without any
+intimate acquaintance with him,--without an invitation from his
+mother,--must have led him to fancy that you were desperately in love
+with him, and he was conscientious enough to wish to efface the stain
+that you had thus unwittingly cast upon your honour, by asking you to
+be his wife. I do not question for a moment that his intentions towards
+you from the very beginning were honourable and kind, but his feelings
+seem to me to have been those of simple friendship, until your advances
+forced him, as it were, to a declaration. Probably he is now
+congratulating himself in silence upon his fortunate escape. But you
+sigh and languish like a love-sick girl over his memory, and would
+carry the only gift that you have ever received from him, bestowed upon
+you out of sheer compassion when you were a fright of a child, across
+the ocean with you as a relic! Ernestine, what is the matter with you?
+For Heaven's sake, control yourself! What nonsense! You have actually
+contracted a habit of fainting!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He supported her drooping head and fanned her pale face.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She looked up at him wearily, then thrust him from her with evident
+aversion, and stood up. Leuthold said nothing more. For the first time
+she had allowed him to speak of Möllner, and he had seized the
+opportunity to pour into her soul the surest poison that ever destroyed
+love,--he was content now to let it work.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine walked several times to and fro: her step, her bearing, was
+queenly,--she seemed suddenly to have grown taller. Her uncle might be
+right,--she hated him for it, but still he might be right. What must
+Johannes--what must his mother think of her for so throwing herself at
+him? This was why his mother had treated her so,--this was the cause of
+the cool conditions proposed to her by the son! She repeated to herself
+every one of Johannes's words,--they were almost all words either of
+grave warning or stern reproof. Even when he had been kind to her, it
+had been the kindness of a father or a judge. Never, not even when
+suing for her hand, had he laid aside the proud, measured bearing that
+was native to him. His pity had been that of a superior being for a
+soul astray, not of a lover for his beloved. And she! She recalled
+every cordial word, every kindly glance, that she had bestowed upon
+Johannes, and she persuaded herself that she had been too fond, that
+her behaviour, in contrast with her usual cold demeanour, had verged
+upon impropriety, and must have been construed by him into an advance.
+Yes, possibly he despised her for it,--and she had even gone so far as
+to write to him! All the little merit of not consenting under the
+proposed conditions to become his wife was annulled by this last act,
+which must have been regarded by him as a fresh advance, and, as such,
+silently repulsed. She could have fled from him to the ends of the
+earth,--the mere thought of him was enough to drive the hot blood to
+her cheeks. Away, away, across the ocean!--this suddenly became the one
+desire of her heart. She stood still as she passed the fireplace, and
+said to Leuthold, &quot;Burn the book!&quot; They were the first words that
+passed her lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The instant the words were spoken, Leuthold threw the volume into the
+midst of the flames. Ernestine stood by and watched them curling around
+the covers, which bent and rolled up in the heat. They were soon
+destroyed, and with invisible, soft-crackling fingers the fiery draught
+toyed with the burning book, and, as page after page opened to the
+glow, the flame--greedy reader--devoured them. Ernestine watched it
+all. She saw the names which had been so dear to her, flash out and
+vanish. The cold, glittering snow queen,--the little mermaid in her
+watery home,--all perished in the red heat!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Now the oak leaf, that she had once snatched from the dear old tree,
+fell away to ashes,--the whole book dropped apart and blazed up
+afresh,--the loosened leaves were tossed up and down in the wreathing
+flames. There,--there was one more name,--the swan. The leaf flew
+aloft, and the swan, the beautiful swan, was burned to ashes. Never
+again would it spread its plumage for her,--never arise, a second
+phoenix, from its funeral pyre. The little fairy world had vanished,
+and only a few sparks remained, shooting hither and thither, as if in
+search of the transformed shapes of the creatures of fairy lore.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine turned away. The fire seemed to have scorched the pinions of
+her soul. She hung her head, like the god with the inverted torch, and
+wept!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold did not disturb her; he felt that he must spare her now.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly the door opened, and Frau Willmers said in a tone of great
+trepidation, &quot;Herr Professor Möllner!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold started as if struck by an arrow. Ernestine leaned against the
+chimney-piece, or she would have fallen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How dare you admit any one just at this moment?--how dare you?&quot; he
+said, transported with rage and terror.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot help it, Herr Doctor. I could not do otherwise,--the
+gentleman declared positively that he would not stir from the spot
+until I had announced him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Tell the gentleman that we cannot receive visitors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Willmers looked hesitatingly at Ernestine, who stood as pale and
+immovable as ever.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, what are you waiting for?&quot; asked Leuthold, and there was a
+threat conveyed in his tone and manner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am going,--I will go instantly,&quot; replied the woman, and hurried from
+the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine took one step forward, as if she would have followed her. But
+she controlled herself. She was a prey to a storm of emotions that
+almost deprived her of consciousness. He had come, then,--he had not
+utterly given her up. It almost broke her benumbed heart to send him
+away. But no,--she rebuked her own weakness,--he had waited long before
+coming, and perhaps had come at last only because he felt it his duty
+to obey her summons. She would--she could yield to no further weakness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold stood by the door, and held his breath while he listened to
+hear Johannes depart; but, to his immense discomfiture, Frau Willmers
+reappeared.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The gentleman will not go,&quot; she said with secret exultation. &quot;He says
+he came to see the Fräulein, and will take no dismissal from her uncle,
+for, as the Fräulein has been of age for several years, it is for her
+to say whom she does or does not wish to see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine listened eagerly. &quot;What--what does that mean?&quot; She turned
+with a look of inquiry to her uncle, and was shocked at the great and
+evident alarm expressed in his countenance. &quot;Uncle,&quot; she asked again,
+&quot;what does this mean? Answer me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not heed such stupid gossip. The fellow is a liar--or----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Tell him so yourself, if you have the courage,&quot; Ernestine interrupted
+him in rising wrath. &quot;Ask the gentleman to walk in,&quot; she said
+authoritatively.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willmers hurried out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine!&quot; cried Leuthold in despair,--&quot;this to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will understand what this means about my being of age,&quot; cried the
+girl, with a glance at Leuthold before which his eyes sought the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Möllner entered. He regarded Leuthold with entire composure and
+profound contempt, then bowed to Ernestine without looking at her. He
+wished to spare her, to give her time to collect herself. She
+misunderstood him. She thought he was cold, and met him with coldness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A long pause ensued.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold, wishing to appear quite at his ease, broke the silence.
+&quot;Allow me to ask, sir, what, after all that has passed between my niece
+and yourself, procures us the honour of a visit from you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am about to inform Fräulein von Hartwich upon that head, and you
+will greatly oblige me by remaining present at this interview.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Be pleased, then, to be seated,&quot; said Leuthold, motioning Johannes to
+a chair, &quot;and let me request you to be brief, since we are just on the
+eve of departure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will not go, Doctor Gleissert.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Sir! Are you better instructed than ourselves concerning our plans?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes waited until Ernestine was seated, and then, taking a chair,
+replied with decision, &quot;Not concerning your plans, but their
+fulfilment,--which I shall, in case of necessity, prevent by your
+arrest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold was stunned for one moment, but, recovering himself, smiled at
+Ernestine, who looked astounded, and said, &quot;Ah, here we have the
+genuine knight of the oak! It is a pity that we do not live in feudal
+times, when an honest man could be seized upon the highway and flung
+into a dungeon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no. Doctor Gleissert. A quiet scholar like myself has no taste for
+such adventures. I prefer safer and legal means. I shall simply, in
+case you attempt to depart from this place, have you detained by the
+gens-d'armes stationed here, until your business relations with
+Fräulein von Hartwich are satisfactorily explained. Then you will be
+perfectly free to go whithersoever you may please. My interest in you
+will be at an end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr Professor,&quot; cried Leuthold, &quot;I can only suppose that some one has
+shamefully calumniated me to you. Let me beg you to come with me to my
+study, that we may not distress my niece by these representations. She
+needs the utmost consideration at present.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If Fräulein von Hartwich is strong enough to undertake the voyage to
+New York, of which Frau Willmers tells me, she can certainly support
+this conversation. But, first of all, let me ask you, Ernestine,
+whether you are leaving your home of your own free will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; she breathed scarcely audibly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course you are your own mistress. But, before you carry out your
+intentions, you must know what you are doing. This you do not know at
+present, and I am here to inform you. If you depart with Herr
+Gleissert, you link your destiny to a villain's!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine and Leuthold started up. Johannes arose at the same time,
+and, leaning one hand upon the table, regarded them steadily without a
+word.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold found it impossible to speak. Ernestine was lost in gazing at
+the noble form of his adversary.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes continued, &quot;You will require the proofs of such an accusation.
+I have had them in my possession only since early this morning,--here
+they are.&quot; He took several papers from his breast-pocket, and unfolded
+one of them. Leuthold glanced at it, staggered back, and sank upon a
+seat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you write that?&quot; asked Johannes, handing the sheet to Ernestine.
+&quot;Pray read it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No!&quot; she said in evident surprise, as she ran over its contents.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Or did you affix your name to a deed, ignorant of its contents, in
+presence of a notary?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never!&quot; was the decided reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Möllner breathed freely. &quot;This, then, is the proof that could send
+your uncle to jail, if I made use of it, for it is a forgery!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine made a gesture of dissent, as if she could and would hear no
+more. But Johannes was not to be deterred. &quot;From your first letter to
+Helm, and from your conversation with my mother, it is evident,
+Ernestine, that you consider yourself still a minor. It is true that
+you are so by the laws of your country, which make the period of
+minority terminate at the age of twenty-four,--and you are only
+twenty-two years old. But through Dr. Heim, who was present at the
+drawing up of your father's will, I know that you are by it declared
+legally of age at eighteen. This your uncle has concealed from you. We
+will speak by-and-by of his reasons for this concealment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I have been my own mistress now for four years?&quot; cried Ernestine
+in inconceivable amazement,--&quot;and you, uncle, have treated me as if I
+were a child?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;More than that,--he has withheld your property from you. Here is a
+copy of your father's will. You will see that it accords you the right,
+at eighteen years of age, to take possession of the estate, put in
+trust for you in the guardians' court, and dispose of it as you please.
+Of course you could not avail yourself of this right, as you were kept
+in utter ignorance of it, as well as of the fact that you had attained
+your majority. But your uncle has availed himself of it in your
+stead. He has contrived--Heaven only knows how--to imitate your
+handwriting--and forge the signature to the document by which the
+guardians' court delivered over to you--that is, to your uncle--the
+property in its charge for you. There was no doubt cast upon the
+authenticity of the document, for it was drawn up in due form by an
+Italian notary and accredited by two witnesses to your personal
+identity. When I suspected that your uncle had purposely kept you in
+ignorance of your affairs, I acquainted the court with my suspicions,
+and they delivered to me this copy of the document which I have just
+handed you for identification. You have declared it a forgery. Whether
+I now spare or destroy this man will depend upon the result of what we
+have to say to each other. That I allow him one word of explanation is
+due to my regard, not for him, but for your sense of delicacy,
+Ernestine, which would suffer deeply in your uncle's disgrace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Having thus spoken, while Ernestine had listened in mute amazement,
+Johannes turned to Leuthold. &quot;I ask you, Doctor Gleissert, what you
+have done with the money that you have hitherto withheld from your
+niece.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Before I answer you, sir,&quot; replied Leuthold, who had regained his
+composure, &quot;allow me to ask you when you exchanged the pursuit of
+physiology, wherein you have rendered such important service to
+science, for the study of the law, in which, I fear, you will hardly
+prove so great a proficient.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I did so,&quot; said Johannes calmly, &quot;when I felt it my duty to protect
+with the shield of law a young creature most grossly defrauded. And I
+think, sir, that I am already sufficiently versed in my newly-espoused
+science thoroughly to expose your frauds. But let me ask you again to
+account, without further circumlocution, for the property we have
+spoken of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And I demand of you, Herr Professor, what legal right you possess to
+subject me to such an inquiry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes looked at him composedly. &quot;So be it. If you prefer to answer
+my question to a court of justice, I will withdraw my request for an
+explanation between ourselves. Take time to consider which you prefer
+in this matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should, at all events, have less to fear from a legal investigation
+than from a madman, who, in defiance of custom and decorum, and
+regardless of domestic privacy, invades a home, and, with a knife at
+the throats of its inmates, demands 'your money or your life,' like any
+highway robber.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle,&quot; interposed Ernestine, &quot;I forbid you, in my presence, to insult
+my friend. If you can clear yourself of the terrible suspicion that he
+has cast upon you, do so with dignity. Useless insults cannot convince
+us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you, Ernestine,--do you take part against me?&quot; cried Leuthold
+pathetically.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I take part with no one; on the contrary, I tremble to think that the
+man who has brought me up may be a criminal. But I will not and cannot
+shield you from the discovery of the troth. You yourself have taught
+me to subject every duty, every impulse of the heart, to cool
+investigation,--to search everything to the foundation,--even at the
+price of the most sacred illusions. Now, cruel preceptor, reap what you
+have sown!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, I am ready to answer you, since you desire it. There is
+one point upon which I owe you an explanation.--the minority in which I
+have kept you in spite of your father's weak will. My course in this
+respect I think entirely justifiable, for every right-minded person who
+knows you must agree with me that it would have been unprincipled in
+the extreme to leave you to yourself at eighteen, inexperienced and
+immature as you were. It was an arbitrary measure on my part, but it
+was well meant, and was the result of an exaggerated affection and
+anxiety for you. The thought that you were to live without me, and I
+without you, was unendurable to me. This is my crime,--this is all that
+I can say. To this gentleman's charges I answer nothing. My life is
+open to the scrutiny of all, it has been passed in unpretending
+repose,--in the calm pursuit of science, and in the delight--now, alas!
+disturbed indeed--of educating you. I regard all your machinations,
+sir, with indifference. Your heated fancy would fail to see the truth
+in my defence of my actions. Only a legal investigation can satisfy you
+of my innocence. Why should I waste further words upon you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes smiled. &quot;I reserve my answer to the first part of your
+remarks, but with regard to the last I cannot refrain from asking you
+how you can venture to speak of innocence after your niece has denied,
+in my presence, the signature of this document to be hers, thus proving
+that it is a forgery?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, sir, it is certainly a forgery,--no one can deny that. But does
+it follow that I executed it? I had a friend in Italy to whom
+unfortunately I intrusted every fact in relation to our family affairs,
+placing in him a confidence that prudence could not warrant, and, in
+view of this present revelation, I cannot but fear that he has played
+the traitor, and, assisted by some unprincipled notary----&quot; He shrugged
+his shoulders, as if unwilling to complete so grave a charge.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes smiled again, almost compassionately. &quot;Will you attempt to
+support your defence upon such a foundation? and do you venture to meet
+me upon this plea alone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do, sir; for the law will, I trust, shortly discover the witnesses
+of the crime who can testify as to whether I or my false friend
+committed the forgery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes bethought himself for an instant, and then said, looking
+Leuthold directly in the eye, &quot;Is this same false friend the purchaser
+of the factory at Unkenheim? Or did you find in Italy what you
+certainly failed to find here,--such wealth of friends?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold's cheek blanched again, and Johannes saw that he had thrust
+his probe into a deep wound. He instantly availed himself of his
+advantage. &quot;I suppose that the superintendent at Unkenheim, acquainted
+as he is with your Italian friends, will shortly be able to produce the
+witnesses required for the vindication of your innocence, and I will do
+all that I can to bring about this desirable termination of the
+affair.&quot; Then, with a glance at Leuthold, who could scarcely hold up
+his head, &quot;Now, Herr Gleissert, I will give you twenty-four hours in
+which to decide whether you prefer an explanation with me or in a court
+of justice. If by to-morrow evening you are not ready to explain
+matters thoroughly with regard to Fräulein von Hartwich's property, and
+either to produce the same or, if it is invested in the Unkenheim
+factory, to give sufficient security for it, your fate is sealed. From
+this hour your house will be watched day and night. You are now my
+prisoner. At the slightest attempt to escape, you will be handed over
+to the custody of the law, even although I should be forced to deliver
+you up with my own hands. You see I am resolved to proceed to
+extremities. You have nothing to hope for, either from my weakness or
+your cunning, even if a miracle could be worked in your favour, and the
+costly expedient succeed of bribing some Italian rogue to personate
+'the false friend,' to declare your crime his own and endure the
+punishment of it,--even although the notary, who could establish your
+identity and the drawing up of the deed, were dead,---even then you
+could never hope to escape the punishment for mail-robbery!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold started as if stung.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You can hardly accuse of falsehood the sharp eyes of a peasant of this
+place, who can testify that, in default of other amusement, you
+selected for your perusal the contents of the village letter-box,
+retaining in your own possession whatever especially interested you.&quot;
+Johannes turned to Ernestine. &quot;I do not know, Fräulein Ernestine,
+whether you have done me the honour to write to me lately, but, if you
+have, your uncle probably knows the contents of your letter much better
+than I, who have never received it. At all events, this little
+occurrence, for which I can produce witnesses, is a significant
+illustration of your uncle's character. And you, Herr Gleissert, can
+now understand that there is no escape for you unless you fulfil the
+conditions upon which alone I will spare Fräulein von Hartwich the
+disgrace of having so near a relative occupy a criminal's cell. You are
+beset on all sides,--entangled in your own crimes. There is no hope for
+you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He ceased. Leuthold sat still, pale and mute. Ernestine looked down at
+him with compassion. Then she glanced at Johannes with admiration
+bordering on awe. &quot;You are, as I have always known you, upright, but
+severe!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Severe? No, by Heaven! The punishment too severe for this unprincipled
+man is yet to be devised. My imagination is not cruel enough for the
+task!&quot; He regarded Ernestine mournfully. &quot;You are worn out,--you need
+repose.&quot; Then he awaited a reply, but none came. The setting sun threw
+its crimson rays across the room. Ernestine stood silent, her hands
+hanging clasped before her, exerting all her self-control. Leuthold had
+propped his head upon his hand, and did not stir. Johannes took his
+hat. &quot;Farewell, Ernestine. Permit me to return to-morrow to learn your
+uncle's final decision.&quot; He stepped up to her side. &quot;I will not weary
+you. Let me watch over your destiny. I ask it as the right of
+friendship,--nothing more,--I assure you,--nothing more!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing more!&quot; It echoed harshly in Ernestine's heart, and, without a
+word or a look, with only a cold inclination of the head, she dismissed
+him. &quot;He does not love me,&quot; she said to herself, and her heart grew
+like ice. He watched over her as a man of honour, not as a lover. He
+knew that she cared for him,--she had not concealed it from him; he had
+thrust the obstacle to their union between them in the shape of his
+narrow-minded conditions--he knew that these were all that separated
+them, and he preferred to relinquish her rather than his own stubborn
+will! He demanded of her every concession, without making any, even the
+smallest, himself! No, her uncle was right, he had never loved her. How
+could she make advances now without proof that she was the object of
+his love? How could she humble herself to make the required sacrifice,
+possessed by the terrible doubt that he had required it in the full
+conviction that it would not be made? The least advance on his side,
+the faintest sign that he would yield one jot of the prejudice that
+separated them, would have given her new life and made her happy. But
+from this day their union was impossible,--it was not to be thought of.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold interrupted her reverie. He had left the room, and now
+returned with a letter. With the air of a man resolved upon death, he
+held it out to his niece. &quot;Read that, and then show me how truly great
+you are!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine, in surprise, unfolded the letter. It was from the
+superintendent, received the day previous. It contained the
+announcement in a few words that the establishment was bankrupt and
+Leuthold ruined. If he did not escape by instant flight, he would be
+overtaken by the punishment of his crime. Ernestine read and re-read
+the letter; she seemed unable to understand it &quot;What does it mean?&quot; she
+asked at last.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It means that Möllner is right when he calls me forger and thief.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle!&quot; cried Ernestine in the greatest alarm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The money that is lost in the Unkenheim factory was yours----&quot;
+Leuthold faltered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have, then, deprived me of my fortune?&quot; she asked in a low tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold stood before her apparently annihilated. &quot;Yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was silence. Ernestine uttered a low cry and recoiled from him.
+He breathed with difficulty, and continued, &quot;I could and would confess
+nothing to that man. There is only one soul on earth magnanimous enough
+to forgive me, and to it alone I will reveal all my weakness.
+Ernestine, I have shown you before, in my love and care for you, the
+reasons that induced me to conceal from you the termination of your
+minority. Did you believe me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will believe it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I never dreamed into what fearful temptation I was thereby led. The
+consequences of what I did were these:--I was obliged, in order to
+conceal the fact of your majority from you, to appropriate in your name
+the amount that was yours when you reached the age of eighteen, and
+this without your knowledge. I did it with the firm intention of doing
+what was best for you. I executed the forgery, never dreaming of the
+punishment that it would entail upon me. For months I kept your money
+in my possession, guarding it like the apple of my eye. Hitherto I had
+been an honest man, even although, with the best intentions, I
+had transgressed the letter of the law. Now, Ernestine, came the
+turning-point of my life, and I implore you to lend a lenient ear to
+this terrible confession. The brother of the Staatsräthin Möllner was
+just bankrupt, and the Unkenheim factory was advertised for sale upon
+the most favourable conditions. To this temptation I succumbed. Can you
+not divine how a man is fascinated by the one pursuit to which he has
+given the best years of his life, that is in a certain sense the work
+of his mind and hands? It had been a bitter pain to me to relinquish
+the flourishing business to which I had so long devoted my best
+energies, and now it was again in the market. Want of knowledge and
+capacity had ruined it. I, who knew every part of it most thoroughly,
+could easily build it up again if I had the means to buy it. I resisted
+a long time,--the advertisement of its sale appeared a second and a
+third time. I consulted a merchant in Naples who was, I heard, on the
+point of visiting Germany. He offered to make the purchase for me in my
+name,--he persuaded me to allow him to do it. The opportunity was so
+favourable,--the money lay idle in my hands,--I was so certain of
+doubling it, and thus securing my own and my poor child's future,--I
+knew as surely that when you should come to know it, you would never
+reproach me for thus investing your money. Ten times I stood upon your
+threshold, determined to tell you everything and entreat your
+permission to dispose of your property thus. I knew you would not
+withhold it from me. But the insane dread of losing you as soon as you
+knew you were of age always deterred me. I took the money, firmly
+resolved to restore it to the uttermost farthing. This is the story of
+my crime. Now for the tale of my misfortunes. I failed in what I
+undertook. I enlarged the factory at considerable expense, and suddenly
+unforeseen obstacles, in the nature of the soil, presented themselves,
+material that I had purchased at a high price sunk in value before it
+could be manufactured, and I lost fifty per cent, in the sale of the
+finished goods. Such disasters as these followed each other in rapid
+succession. There was a curse upon everything that I undertook,--the
+curse, I admit it, of an overestimate of my own powers,--for I should
+have known that a clever scholar is not necessarily a merchant, and
+that the technical knowledge as a chemist which had stood me in such
+stead in a comparatively small establishment was not business capacity
+for an immense undertaking. But what now avails my remorse, my late
+confession? Your fortune, Ernestine, has been the price of the terrible
+lesson. I can give you no more of it than will pay for your passage to
+New York,--can offer you no indemnification for it but the revenge
+which this frank confession will afford you the means of gratifying.
+Decide; do with me what you will,--I will accept my fate from your
+hand, but from no other.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The hypocrite sank at her feet, as though utterly crushed, and pressed
+the tips of her cold fingers to his lips.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle,&quot; began Ernestine, and her voice trembled, &quot;stand up! I cannot
+endure the sight of a man before whom I have been used to stand in awe,
+grovelling at my feet like a crushed serpent, whose writhings excite
+aversion rather than compassion. Stand up! I pray you stand up!&quot; She
+turned from him, that she might no longer see him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; cried Leuthold terrified, &quot;you are marble!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am what you have made me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had expected a different result from his confession, and he watched
+Ernestine with the greatest anxiety. She read the letter once more, and
+then sank on the sofa and buried her face in the cushions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, be composed!&quot; he cried, with a degree of his native
+insolence which could not all be concealed behind the mask that he had
+assumed. &quot;Punish my crime, take what revenge you will, but spare me the
+sight of your humiliating despair at the loss of wealth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you imagine, man of no conscience, that I mourn for my lost
+wealth?&quot; said Ernestine wrathfully, but with dignity. &quot;If you had asked
+me honourably for the money and then lost it through some misfortune, I
+would have died sooner than have reproached you by a word or a tear.
+But I must despise the only human being in the world upon whom I have
+any claim. All that I have is lost through crime, and this passes my
+endurance. You know well what depends upon the shining bits of metal of
+which you have robbed me--freedom of thought and action,--the noblest
+possessions that life can give. For the sake of these you have robbed
+me, for you are no thief to steal money only for the sake of money. You
+know, too, what a loss it is for a woman,--that it entails upon her
+dependence perhaps servitude,--yes, servitude, to become a mere
+machine, obeying unquestioningly another's will,--and this for a soul
+that would have bowed to no power on earth or in heaven, but that
+rejoiced in its pride in being the centre of its own self-created
+world! And you, knowing how in this thought I die a thousand deaths,
+dare to reproach me with despair at the loss of mere wealth! Look you,
+I do not forget, even in this terrible moment, what you have done for
+me since my childhood,--what an inexhaustible mine of intellectual
+wealth you have revealed to me in exchange for the earthly treasure you
+have taken from me,--and, remembering this, I renounce the revenge that
+you offer me. Save yourself if you can, but do not require of me
+sufficient 'greatness of soul' to forgive you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold breathed freely once more. This was all he wished to
+hear,--that she would not deliver him up to justice. The worst was
+over. If she thus in the first outburst of her anger rejected the idea
+of bringing punishment upon him, she might, when more composed, be
+brought to connive at and share his flight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; he said, after a moment of reflection, &quot;every one of your
+words is like a coal of fire upon my guilty head. Even in your
+righteous indignation you are noble and gentle. You tell me I may save
+myself, but do you imagine that I can go away without you? Could I
+endure the thought of you struggling with poverty, without me to labour
+for you and to shield you? Have I tended you for all these years with a
+mother's solicitude, to leave you to your fate now, when you need me
+more than ever? Girl, if you think thus of me, you do me grievous
+wrong!&quot; Ernestine looked at him in surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Either you fly with me, or I remain and brave the worst!&quot; said
+Leuthold with heroic resolution.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine recoiled. &quot;I go with you! No, I cannot descend so low,--our
+paths in life lie, from this moment, far, far apart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold saw her aversion. He was lost if she persisted in her refusal.
+For even although he might succeed in escaping Möllner's vigilance for
+the time, it would soon be known abroad that he had embezzled
+Ernestine's fortune and left her impoverished, and his foe would only
+pursue him all the more obstinately. Ernestine would be required by the
+law to speak, and, truthful as she was, there was no doubt that she
+would expose all his villainy. Only by keeping her with him could she
+be rendered harmless; concealment without her was impossible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You hate me, and it is natural for you to do so,&quot; said he. &quot;I will not
+recall to you all the time and trouble that I have expended upon you
+since your childhood,--the patience with which I have endured your
+caprices, nor the love with which, when Heim gave you up, I watched
+over and preserved your life. All this you know, and you believe it
+fully repaid by your magnanimous resolve not to deliver up your uncle
+to a jail. You best know your duty in this matter. But, Ernestine, you
+should not hate me more than you do your father, whom you have long
+since forgiven, and upon whom you now bestow so much sympathy, for I
+can truly affirm that I have dealt more kindly by you than he. He was a
+drunkard,--a man degraded to the level of a brute. He did not bring you
+up; I have done it. He scarcely clothed and fed you. I have surrounded
+you with everything that your heart could desire. He always hated you,
+I have loved you from a child. You must remember well how often I
+protected you from his ill treatment, and that once, when I was not by,
+he almost killed you. He never would have provided for you as a father
+should, had he not been driven to it by remorse for his conduct towards
+you. Two-thirds of the property, Ernestine, that he bequeathed to you
+were mine by right. I had earned it in his service. He bequeathed it to
+you, and I acquiesced silently. I resigned it without even hinting to
+you my just claims. I separated myself from my child that she might be
+educated as became her moderate expectations, a sure proof that I had
+no designs upon your wealth. For all this self-sacrifice I asked only
+the delight, the great delight, of training to full perfection a young
+mind,--such a mind as no woman was ever before possessed of. You can
+bear me witness that I have taught you nothing evil,--that I have
+opened your eyes to the good and the beautiful, helping you to decipher
+the book of nature, where only what can elevate the mind is to be
+found. You can comprehend, by the aversion with which you now regard
+your fallen teacher, how pure his teachings have preserved your heart.
+I ask you to reflect, Ernestine, whether all this does not give me at
+least the same claim upon your sympathy as that which you now yield to
+your father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine listened with increasing emotion and sympathy. She buried
+her face in the cushions of the sofa, and burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold regarded her with satisfaction. He knew that the woman who
+weeps yields. He continued, &quot;You have convinced me that I have nothing
+to fear from your hatred. You have told me that you renounce your
+revenge, and a nature like yours performs what it promises. But,
+Ernestine, this does not content me. My tortured conscience cannot rest
+until you permit me to take charge of your future. Let me at least try
+to atone for my crime. Grant me this alleviation of the burden that
+weighs me to the earth. Pity me, and allow me the only expiation that
+is possible for me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What shall I do, then?&quot; asked Ernestine in broken accents.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go with me, my child, that I may share with you the bread that I
+earn,--that I may open such a future to you as you could never enjoy in
+Germany. You have just signed a brilliant engagement; you cannot break
+it now, just when you need a means of support. It would be madness to
+reject what offers you a position commensurate with your ability. But
+you can never occupy it satisfactorily without my aid. You well know
+how indispensable I am to you in every new undertaking. You must pursue
+fresh studies. Not for the world must you allow a flaw to be found in
+your acquirements on the other side of the water. Hate me, despise me,
+if you will, but consent to avail yourself of my protection on the long
+voyage to New York. Trust me, I detest sentimentality, as you know, but
+it is hard to bury one of your kin before he is dead. You will find it
+harder than you think. One cannot tear one's self loose in a moment
+from the memory of hours, days, and years spent together striving for a
+common aim, and the buried companion will knock upon his coffin-lid
+when such memories arise.&quot; He paused. Ernestine's short, quick
+breathing showed what a struggle was going on within her. At last she
+shook her head, sprang up, and walked undecidedly to and fro.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold continued, &quot;You cannot help it,--you must go with me,--what
+else can you do? Reflect, what course can you adopt if you remain
+here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know,&quot; she murmured gloomily in a low tone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There are none here to whom you could turn, except the Möllners----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine added, &quot;And old Dr. Helm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Heim and the Möllners are like one family. Naturally, they would
+all do what they could for you. Heim would exult greatly in the
+fulfilment of his prophecies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine bit her lip.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To be sure, after what has occurred, you may safely look to them for
+the means of support. Perhaps they may find you a place as a governess,
+if they should become tired of you. But the question is whether that
+would not be a deeper humiliation than going abroad with me. Good
+heavens! in this world you must call many a one comrade whose
+conscience is far from clear, and whom you must not ask for a
+certificate of character. Let your uncle be to you one of these. I will
+not intrude upon you,--will not enter your presence, if you do not
+desire it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He waited for an answer. Ernestine's eyes were fixed broodingly upon
+the ground.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Or possibly you would rather reconsider your determination, and go to
+the Frau Staatsräthin and beg to be forgiven. I fear,--I greatly
+fear,--the prudent mother would say, 'Aha, she was haughty enough as
+long as she had plenty of money, but, now that it has all gone, she
+grows humble and is quite willing to ask for shelter and countenance.
+She asks for bread now that she is hungry. The most savage brutes are
+tamed by hunger,--when its pangs are keen the heart is weak.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush, uncle! oh, hush!&quot; cried Ernestine with a shudder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But Leuthold was not to be silenced. He was in his element again. &quot;That
+is what the supercilious mother would say, for these intellectual
+aristocrats are filled with the pride of independence, and exact it
+from others. And the Herr Professor? Naturally, he would feel it doubly
+his duty to marry you and cherish the starving woman. But when the
+first enthusiasm of sympathy was past, what, think you, Ernestine,
+would be his reflections in cooler moments?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He would say, 'Necessity made her my wife,--not love.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;'And why should I give love in return?'&quot; Leuthold completed the
+thought.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Or even esteem,&quot; Ernestine added with a spasmodic shiver. &quot;No, no! it
+shall not come to that. I will not sink so low. Noble and true as he
+is, he shall not accuse me of such selfishness. His proud, suspicious
+mother shall not find me a beggar at her door,--rather a grave in
+mid-ocean!&quot; She drew near to Leuthold. Her breath came in gasps, her
+pulses throbbed. &quot;Uncle, you have destroyed my happiness in life, help
+me to preserve all that is left for me,--my self-respect!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then come with me. Not until the ocean rolls between you and this man
+can you be secure from your own weakness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine sank down exhausted. &quot;So be it! You have conquered!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.5" href="#div1Ref_3.5">CHAPTER V.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>SCIENCE AND FAITH.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">The dawning day strove in vain to lift the misty veil that a rainy
+night had spread over hill and dale. It was one of those mornings when
+the waning summer--like a belle whose charms are of the past in her
+morning dishabille--showed plainly that its glories were fading. The
+rising sun crept behind the cold, misty clouds, and the bushes were
+dripping with tears of regret. The faithful watcher, who had stood on
+guard all night near the castle, shook the wet from his cloak and
+shivered as he looked in the direction of the school-house, whence
+relief was to arrive.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He did not wait long. The powerful figure of a young man appeared
+briskly advancing through the mist. Slowly and sleepily the clock in
+the tower of the village church tolled half-past four.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To a moment!&quot; cried the watcher to the new arrival. &quot;This is
+punctuality indeed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-morning!&quot; said Walter. &quot;Brr! the air is cold. You must be almost
+frozen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not more so than the huntsman on the watch,&quot; replied Johannes. &quot;Ardour
+for the chase makes him warm. I burn and long to clutch that beast of
+prey up there. Oh, Walter, I am not easily roused,--my nature is a
+quiet one,--but if that man had tried to slip away in the night, and
+had fallen into my hands, I could not have answered for the
+consequences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not wonder at you,&quot; laughed Walter. &quot;Nothing would gratify me
+more than a chance at the fellow. How did you spend the night? Could
+you not sit down?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I was not calm enough to do anything but pace to and fro, and now
+it is beginning to tell upon my wearied limbs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Make haste, then, and get dry and warm. My father is impatiently
+expecting you. He is up and dressed, and my mother has a good cup of
+coffee waiting for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How kind you all are!&quot; said Johannes. &quot;But I am very anxious, Walter.
+Gleissert was with Ernestine until midnight. From the hill yonder I
+could see their heads through the window. They appeared to be in eager
+conversation, and moved about, as if they were packing. Oh, if she can
+possibly intend----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not be in the least alarmed,--she cannot, after what you have told
+her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But how, after what I have told her, can she endure that man about her
+for hours? How can she breathe the air of the room where he is, for
+even ten minutes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hm--it does seem incredible. But, whatever happens, we have nothing to
+do but to watch and be ready. I will do my duty in this respect. Go,
+now, and rest for a couple of hours, that you may relieve me at
+school-time. Had you only allowed me to watch in your place, he would
+have found me as difficult as you to deal with.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You help me enough by assisting me during the day. Good-by, then. I
+shall be back at eight o'clock.&quot; And Johannes walked slowly and wearily
+towards the school-house. When he entered the low, dimly-lighted room,
+he found the steaming coffee-pot already upon the table. Frau Leonhardt
+had seen him coming, and all was in readiness for him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr Leonhardt sat in his place by the stove, and held out his hand
+with a kind but anxious &quot;Good-morning! How are you after your unwonted
+duty through the night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Tolerably, old friend,&quot; replied Johannes, &quot;but I cannot deny that my
+respect has considerably increased since yesterday for the honourable
+guild of watchmen.--No, thank you, Frau Leonhardt, I cannot eat
+anything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, do not drink your coffee without a morsel of something solid.
+Well, if you do not wish it--but, you see, here it is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, my dear Frau Leonhardt, I see it,&quot; Johannes assured her, with a
+smiling glance at the great basketful of biscuits.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must know that my Brigitta was up half the night to prepare her
+most tempting biscuits for your breakfast,--it is all she could do for
+you. Yes, Brigitta, the Herr Professor can appreciate your good will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed I can,&quot; said Johannes. &quot;Such womanly kindness is dear to me
+wherever I meet with it. Your labour shall not be in vain.&quot; And he
+forced himself to eat.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh,&quot; said Brigitta, &quot;if the Fräulein had known that you were walking
+up and down beneath her windows in the cold night, she would have been
+grieved enough, and filled with pity!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The Fräulein knows no pity, my dear Frau Leonhardt,&quot; said Johannes
+bitterly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old man laid his hand kindly upon Johannes' shoulder. &quot;You do not
+mean what you say. You cannot think so meanly of her--your impatience
+speaks now, not you. If you could only understand her noble nature as I
+do, who am not blinded by passion!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Father Leonhardt, I do not deny Ernestine's noble nature. Should
+I devote myself to her as I am now doing after her rejection of me, if
+I did not know her to be more than worthy of all that I can do? But if
+you could have seen her rigid, marble face yesterday, you would have
+questioned, as I did, whether that young girl really possessed a
+heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed, indeed she does possess one,&quot; affirmed the old man. &quot;But
+remember, Herr Professor, her heart has hitherto been fed solely
+through her understanding. She has had nothing to love but ideas. Human
+beings she has known nothing of. What wonder, then, if she imagines
+that she should love only where her intellect can say Amen? That Amen
+cannot be said in your case, for you have opposed all that has hitherto
+had the warrant of her intellect, which must needs be in arms against
+you, and the oppressed young heart must mutely acquiesce. Ernestine's
+intellect is that of a full-grown man, while her sensibilities are as
+undeveloped as those of a girl of fifteen. The consequence is that
+incessant contradictions appear in her conduct. Give these undeveloped
+sensibilities time, do not stunt them by coldness, and you will see
+them assert their rights in opposition to the intellect. She might
+almost be called a kind of Caspar Hauser in the world of sentiment. She
+is not at home there. She needs a patient teacher, and such a one she
+will find in you, I am sure. Do all that you can to prevent her from
+going to America; if she goes, she is as good as dead for us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rely upon me, faithful and wise old friend,&quot; cried Johannes, and fresh
+resolution was depicted on his face. &quot;I will do all that I can for
+her,--not for my own sake, but for hers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you have finished your breakfast, you must take some rest,&quot; said
+Leonhardt. &quot;My wife has arranged a bed for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I accept your kindness gratefully,&quot; replied Johannes, &quot;for I am
+exhausted, and have a fatiguing day before me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then let me show you to your room. That service even a blind man can
+render you,&quot; said the old man with a smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And the two ascended to the upper story, where Herr Leonhardt opened a
+door and showed his guest into a scrupulously neat little apartment,
+containing a most inviting bed. Then he groped about, assuring himself
+that all was as it should be, and returned to the room below, saying,
+as he closed the door, &quot;Take a good sleep,--you may need the strength
+it will give you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thanks, a thousand thanks, Father Leonhardt!&quot; Johannes cried after
+him, and he listened to the careful tread of his kind host upon the
+narrow stairway. Then his eyes closed. Frau Brigitta's words sounded in
+his ears, &quot;If the Fräulein had known that you were walking up and down
+beneath her windows in the cold night----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She must have known it. He had told her plainly enough that he should
+do so, and she had not even opened a window or looked out at him. But
+stay,--stay! She would come out to him herself. See! see! The gate
+opened softly. Was her uncle with her? No! She was alone,--quite alone!
+&quot;Come,&quot; she whispered, &quot;you are cold. Come in.&quot; And she took his hands
+and breathed upon them and rubbed them. &quot;Will you not come into the
+house?&quot; she asked. &quot;There you can watch for my uncle and be out of the
+rain, and I will stay with you and never, never leave you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; cried Johannes, stretching out his arms to embrace her.
+The sudden motion awoke him, and he found himself alone. He could not
+have slept more than a quarter of an hour, and yet he could not go to
+sleep again. He lay quietly resting for a time, and then arose,
+prepared to go through with the decisive day that awaited him.</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Evening had come. As on the previous day, Ernestine was sitting at her
+writing-table, but it was empty now. Its contents were packed up in the
+chests which were standing in the room, locked and ready for the
+voyage. Ernestine sat idly, with her hands in her lap, listening to her
+uncle's directions to the weeping housekeeper in reference to the price
+at which she was to dispose of the furniture of the house.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The scientific works and the apparatus I shall leave to Walter
+Leonhardt,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What!&quot; cried Leuthold. &quot;Are you going to give away at least a thousand
+thalers?&quot; He paused, with a glance at Frau Willmers, who had the tact
+to leave the room. &quot;Why throw money out of the window, now that we are
+beggared?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The thousand thalers that the things would bring would not keep me
+from starving, while they will secure the young man's future. He has
+talents that must not run to waste, and which I can foster by giving
+him the means of pursuing his studies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it possible? You think it your duty, then, to foster all neglected
+genius?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle,&quot; said Ernestine with cold severity, &quot;I pray you spare me your
+opinion of my conduct. The habit of submission, it appears, is more
+easily discarded than that of ruling. I have cast aside the former,
+since yesterday, like a garment. It would be well for you to do the
+same with the latter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But I thought I might at least be suffered to advise,&quot; observed
+Leuthold.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will ask your advice when I think it necessary. In this matter it is
+enough that I choose to do as I have said.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold regarded her immovable features with a mixture of fear and
+hatred, and thought to himself, &quot;Once let me get you on the other side
+of the water, and in my power, and you shall atone bitterly for all the
+trouble that you give me now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And his restless fancy painted vividly before his mind's eye the
+revenge that awaited him in that new world, and an ugly smile was upon
+his lips as he thought of all that his niece's proud nature would have
+to endure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine arose. &quot;There are only a few hours left before our
+departure,&quot; she said. &quot;I must be sure that my intentions will be
+carried out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She went into her laboratory, and packed up, as well as she could, the
+apparatus that she designed for Walter. Then she reopened the letter
+that she was to leave with Willmers for Leonhardt, and added these
+words, &quot;Come what may, I pray you preserve these books and instruments
+for me as relics. Say they are yours, or they will be snatched from you
+and from me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus she made her gift secure from the clutches of the law. She knew
+Leuthold well enough to feel sure that he would not seek to prevent its
+removal from the house if he could not keep it for his niece. Then she
+sent off the chests from the laboratory, and went into the library to
+select the books that Walter was to have. Leuthold hurried in, and said
+to her, &quot;Möllner is coming! Now, Ernestine, summon up all your
+resolution!&quot; His teeth fairly chattered with agitation. &quot;Be strong,
+Ernestine. A human life is at stake! If you do not save me from
+Möllner's revenge and from the law, I am a dead man! By the life of my
+child,--dearer to me than aught else on earth,--I swear to you that I
+will commit suicide sooner than put on a convict's jacket! Now act
+accordingly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine gazed at him with horror. At last he was speaking the truth!
+Sheer, blank despair was painted on his features.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle,&quot; she cried, &quot;be calm! I will not drive you to suicide! My
+resolve is firm. Will you not be present?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, that would make mischief. I will get everything ready for our
+departure, that nothing may detain us. Do not forget. We are
+reconciled,--do you hear? Will you tell him so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I promise you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will go. I will not meet him. Bless you for every kind word, and
+curses upon you if you should betray me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He hurried away, and Ernestine looked after him with a shudder. A human
+life hung upon her lips! A curse awaited every thoughtless word that
+she might utter! She stood alone and helpless, burdened thus heavily, a
+young, inexperienced creature, scarcely able to bear the responsibility
+of her own actions. She spurred on her fainting energies to accomplish
+the almost superhuman task allotted to her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her dreaded visitor entered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive me, Ernestine,&quot; he said, &quot;for thus intruding unannounced. Your
+housekeeper directed me hither. This is no time for empty formalities.
+It is time for action, and, if need be, for a life-and-death struggle.
+I have just seen the chests sent off to Herr Leonhardt. I learn from
+Frau Willmers that you are going,--really going,--with your uncle.
+Ernestine, I have no words for the anguish that I am now enduring! I
+could submit to your rejection of my suit, for I might still love you,
+but to find you unworthy of my love, Ernestine, would be more than I
+can bear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And what could so degrade me in your eyes?&quot; asked Ernestine with
+offended pride.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your not fleeing from such a villain, as from the Evil One
+himself,--your harbouring the intention of going forth into the world
+with one abhorred alike of God and man, not feeling sufficient
+detestation of the crime to induce you to avoid the criminal who must
+be shunned by every honest man. Oh, Ernestine, I cannot believe it now!
+I would rather die than believe it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has excused himself in my eyes,&quot; said Ernestine, deeply wounded.
+&quot;He has convinced me that no human being should condemn another
+unheard. I am not conscious of such perfection and infallibility in
+myself as would permit me to dare to judge and denounce. That must be
+left for those better and stronger than I. The tie that bound me to him
+is, it is true, broken, but I must tread the same path that he treads.
+I cannot refuse to share his wanderings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you not fear the disgrace that will attach to you by thus joining
+your lot with that of a criminal, amenable to the law?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The law has no power over him. He has satisfied me with regard to my
+property, and, if I am content, it is enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good heavens! What security has he offered you? You are so
+inexperienced in such matters, he will deceive you again. Tell me, at
+least, what he has told you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine stood more erect. Agitation almost choked her utterance, and,
+to conceal it, she put on a colder, sterner manner than usual. &quot;When I
+tell you I am satisfied, it seems to me that should content you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; cried Johannes, &quot;why do you adopt this tone with me? I am
+acting and thinking only for you and your interest, and you treat me
+like a foe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For all that you have done and are doing for me, I am grateful to you,
+as also for your kind intentions. But now, I pray you, leave to me all
+care for my future fate. I feel fully competent to direct it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I tell you, Ernestine, that, whether you will it or not, I must snatch
+you from the abyss upon whose brink you are tottering. And first I will
+make sure of your companion. He has not given me the securities for
+your property that I required, the respite that I allowed him is past,
+the twenty-four hours for reflection have gone.&quot; He turned towards the
+door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dr. Möllner, what are you about to do?&quot; cried Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Give him up to justice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine placed herself in his way. &quot;You must not do that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And why not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will not attempt to avenge what I have forgiven. You will not so
+intrude into my life as to make it impossible for me to decide whether
+I will punish or forgive a crime that affects me alone. You are about
+to publish abroad my affairs, and I demand for myself the right to
+regulate my own private affairs as it may seem to me best. I cannot
+allow a stranger--yes, I say, a stranger--to meddle thus with the
+concerns of two human beings, as if he were an emissary of the Holy
+Vehm!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine!&quot; gasped Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I repeat it,&quot; she continued, &quot;I am grateful for your kind intentions.
+But the best intentions result in unwelcome violence when they would
+rob a human being, of the right of free choice. I insist upon this most
+sacred of all rights, and forbid you any further interference with my
+fate, and, as my uncle's lot is so closely allied to mine that in
+striking him you would harm me, I hope you are sufficiently chivalric
+to desist from further persecution of him.&quot; Almost fainting, she leaned
+against the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein von Hartwich,&quot; replied Johannes, controlling himself with
+difficulty, &quot;you propose a hard trial for my patience. But I can
+forgive you, for you are a true woman.&quot; Ernestine started at these
+words, but he entreated silence by a gesture. &quot;You are a woman, and, as
+such, easily aroused, easily deceived. Your uncle has taken advantage
+of this fact. You do not dream what you are doing in following the
+fortunes of this bad man. I thought I had opened your eyes yesterday,
+but I was mistaken. You saw, but I did not teach you to understand what
+you saw. I will retrieve my error. I will explain to you the motives
+for your uncle's course of action.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have already told you,&quot; replied Ernestine, &quot;that I know them. I need
+no further explanation. He has sinned, grievously sinned,--who can deny
+it? Not he himself. But his life has been dedicated to me with a
+devotion rare enough in our selfish world. He has lived for me ever
+since I was a child, and all his errors sprang from the dread of losing
+me. This is, perhaps, incredible to you, because from your point of
+view it is inconceivable that a man should entirely give himself up to
+the training of a woman's mind. To you a life spent solely in
+intellectual association with a woman seems impossible, and of course
+you would accuse of falsehood a man who professes to prefer such a life
+to all others. Therefore I know beforehand all you would say, and would
+be spared the listening to it now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; cried Johannes, fairly roused, &quot;you must hear me, or, by
+Heaven, I do not know you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused for one moment. Ernestine looked down, and apparently awaited
+what he had to say.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, then, yes,--you are perfectly right. It does seem to me an
+impossibility that a man should make it the sole aim of his existence
+to develop the intellect of a woman. I can love as deeply as man can
+love. You know that I love you, and, were you mine, I would adore you,
+and you only, with my whole heart and soul, truly and unchangeably,
+until death separated us. But, in my love for you, to forego all other
+interests and duties in life, to idle away in delicious intercourse
+with you all opportunities for true manly exertion,--that I could
+not do, truly and warmly as I love you. It would be the part of a
+woman,--not of a man, who has public as well as private duties to
+fulfil. I have no confidence in a man who pretends to lead such a life
+out of simple affection for a relative. He must have some other purpose
+in view, and I believe that your uncle's purpose in this matter was a
+detestable one, leading him to sin against you in a way that God alone
+can justly punish. He would sacrifice everything for money--he would
+murder alike body and soul. Stay--be calm for a few moments. I will
+justify these terrible accusations. The theft of your fortune has been
+the purpose that he has kept steadily in view ever since he was your
+guardian. The possession of this property seems to have been the fixed
+idea of his life, for he induced your father at one time to bequeath it
+to him, leaving you, notwithstanding his boasted affection for you,
+only what the law accords to you. Heim prevailed upon your father to
+destroy this will and to reinstate you in your rights. But he was not
+sufficiently prudent, for the will that your father then dictated left
+too much margin for your uncle's administration. He longed to recover
+what he had lost, and circumstances favoured his desire. Your father,
+in his will, as you can see from this copy of it, stated that in case
+of your dying unmarried your entire fortune should go to Gleissert or
+his children. When your father died, matters looked propitious for
+Leuthold, for little Ernestine was such a frail, sickly child that he
+cherished a hope almost amounting to a certainty that the delicate cord
+of life that kept him from his inheritance would soon break, and give
+him all that he coveted. But the pale, quiet child confounded his plans
+by recovering her health Und strength. Hers was a rare nature, and
+recuperated quickly, both physically and mentally. The hope that she
+would die grew fainter and fainter, but he could not so easily
+relinquish the prospect of possessing her fortune. If he might not
+secure the inheritance, he could at least secure the person of the
+heir, and contrive to keep you, Ernestine, from marrying, since the
+money could be his only in the event of your dying single. To this end,
+you must be secluded from the world, and, that you might not miss
+its amusements, your restless spirit must be introduced to a new
+realm,--the realm of the intellect. Therefore he studiously concealed
+from you your coming of age, lest it should occur to you to break the
+bonds of the strict control to which you were subjected, and mingle
+with your kind. This was the plan of your education, this the reason of
+your uncle's tender solicitude for you. The time and trouble expended
+upon you were all in the way of business, a fair exchange for the
+ninety thousand thalers and the contingent advantages that he trusted
+to obtain thereby. He could never have attained such a competency as a
+German professor. This is criminal legacy-hunting. And now for my
+accusation of murder. I do not mean by it a murder with poison or
+dagger,--he is too cowardly and too prudent for that,--but he made use
+of a poison which, if it were not as quick in its effects as arsenic,
+at least possessed this advantage over it--no chemist could detect it,
+and no law punish its use. The body was to be destroyed through the
+mind. He knew how to foster in your passionate heart an ambition that
+dreaded no labour, that, in its burning desire to attain its ends,
+pursued them with a feverish haste that never heeded whether the
+physical frame were equal or not to such unceasing exertion. Oh, the
+plan was ingenious, but there were eyes, thank God! that saw through
+it. It is true he did not stand at your back with a rod, like a severe
+schoolmaster, to urge you on,---he did not compel you to work all night
+long, denying yourself the only refreshment that could strengthen your
+shattered nerves,--sleep,--but he contrived that you should do all this
+voluntarily. He saw you droop, and took no notice of it. He would not
+kill you with his own hand, but he put into yours the poison with which
+you should do it yourself, and, when the natural love of life in you
+spoke out and entreated aid, he forbade you to summon a physician, lest
+he should save you by an antidote! Thus, consciously and voluntarily,
+he has let you sicken and languish, and now he would carry you to
+America to bury you there. So much for the grounds of my accusation of
+physical murder. And now as to his murder of your soul. I said before
+that your uncle had secluded you from the world to make sure of your
+never marrying. How could he do this? By making you an object of
+aversion to society at large--by hardening your heart, so that you
+might never feel the desire for loving intercourse and companionship
+stirring within you. He accomplished these ends by making you a
+skeptic. And were this the only crime that he is guilty of towards you,
+it would justify any punishment, however severe,--any contempt, however
+profound.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If this is all that you have to say, I can only reply that you talk
+like a theologian, not like a physiologist,&quot; said Ernestine, vainly
+endeavouring to conceal her horror. &quot;It is possible that there is some
+foundation for your other accusations of Doctor Gleissert,--I will not
+decide upon them at present,--but for this last there is none, or, at
+least, none in the degree that you mean. Yes, he did take from me my
+faith, but in its place he gave me that philosophy which is the
+resting-place of all thought, and wherein alone the doubting spirit can
+find peace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, what a miserable mistake!&quot; cried Johannes. &quot;Do you suppose that
+anything can take the place of faith in the world? Can a soul as lofty
+as your own be content with the mere knowledge of the laws that rule
+the universe, without raising reverential eyes to the Power whom those
+laws represent? Forgive me if I talk like a theologian. Let me be clear
+with you upon this point too, before we part. I would at least restore
+to you one possession of which your uncle has robbed you, and that
+belongs to women in an eminent degree, far more than to men,--the power
+of seeing heaven open when the earth does not suffice us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine gazed at him in utter amazement: &quot;Do you speak thus, you, a
+man of exact science,--a science that teaches how everything in
+existence is developed from itself! What is left for us to reverence in
+the God whom you would seem to declare, after we have learned that
+nature of itself alone creates and achieves everything?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes shook his head. &quot;Oh, Ernestine, can we believe in Him only by
+believing that his Spirit hovered over the face of the waters and
+created the heavens and the earth in six days? I think we have learned
+to separate this gross material representation from the actual being of
+God! Thus only can faith and knowledge join hands, and I am one of
+those in whose minds they have thus formed an alliance, although
+perhaps not without a struggle. I can give my belief no concrete shape,
+I have not the simplicity that is satisfied with a Deity compounded of
+human attributes and powers, but the fervent aspiration that looks up
+and holds fast to my formless God,--this aspiration is my rock of
+safety.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is only a subjective emotion. What does it prove?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nothing!&quot; said Johannes. &quot;For the existence of a God can be as little
+proved as disproved. I might say He is to the world what the soul is to
+the body, and we cannot give form to the soul in our minds. The organs
+of the body work in obedience to unchangeable laws, but, although they
+thus work, they are under the control of the soul, and, although we can
+explain never so exactly the mechanism that the soul puts in motion at
+its good pleasure, we cannot explain how it thinks and desires. Are we
+therefore to deny that it does think and desire? But I know what little
+value will attach to such comparisons in your eyes, for you will demand
+logical proof of the truth of my parallel, and this I cannot give you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was lost in thought. &quot;I never should have conceived it
+possible that such a man as you are could believe in the existence of a
+God!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you will listen, I will tell you how faith first entered into my
+heart. I was a wayward lad, just emancipated from the ignorant
+illusions of childhood, with a living desire for the Infinite in my
+heart,--longing to prove scientifically the existence of the God in
+whom I no longer believed. In my ignorance of myself, I naturally fell
+into the way of that spurious philosophy which the science of to-day
+looks back upon with contempt, and--to use Du Bois' words--racked my
+brain for awhile over the riddle of Being, human and divine. My
+affections were warm,--I loved those belonging to me, and especially my
+little sister Angelika. One day the child was taken dangerously ill,
+and, as she was more devoted to me than to any other member of the
+family, I watched with her through long nights with fraternal
+tenderness. The child suffered greatly, and one night in particular her
+cries fairly broke my heart. My mother at last took her little hands in
+her own, clasped them, and said, 'Pray, my darling,--pray to God. He
+may grant your prayer!' And the child, suppressing her sobs, cried,
+'Ah, dear God, take away my pain!' And I--I flung myself upon my knees
+and prayed fervently, I knew not what,--I knew not to whom,--no
+matter! I prayed. I heard my mother's voice say Amen, and I repeated
+Amen,--almost unconsciously. The child was soothed, grew calm, looked
+up to heaven with childlike trust, then smiled upon us and went to
+sleep with her head upon my breast,--her first sound sleep after a week
+of suffering. I listened to her breathing, it was soft and regular. I
+was filled then with an emotion such as I had never before
+experienced,--tears came to my eyes. I could have embraced the world in
+my delight,--no, a world would not suffice me, I needed a God beside.
+What shall I say,--how explain it in words? Like the girl born blind,
+in the poem, that believed she <i>saw</i> when she <i>loved</i>, I loved the God
+to whom I had prayed, and because I loved Him I saw Him with my heart!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He paused, and looked at Ernestine, who had listened with sympathy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is the very essence of faith,&quot; he continued. &quot;No reason can give
+it to you or take it from you. One single agonized moment taught me
+what science and philosophy had failed to teach. I found by the bedside
+of a child the God for whom my intellect had vainly searched earth and
+skies. From this time I learned to keep myself open to conviction. I
+now first became an exact physiologist. I no longer set fantastic
+bounds to science, I no longer adulterated my pure contemplation of
+nature with metaphysical notions, but confined myself strictly to the
+actual, and it never conflicted with my feelings, for Science itself
+pauses before the first cause of all Being, and says, 'Thus far, and no
+farther,' and here, where my knowledge ceases, my faith begins!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You speak well, but you do not convince me,&quot; said Ernestine sadly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I see. I know that the remedy for your disease does not lie in the
+words or the example of others, but in your own experience. I prophesy,
+if you are ever overwhelmed by a moment of despair, that you will waken
+to the need of that God whom you now ignore. Even were it not to be so,
+I could only pity you, for a woman who cannot pray is a bird with
+broken wings. I maintain that there is no woman who does not
+believe,--for there is none who does not <i>fear</i>, and fear looks in
+reverence to God, whether as avenging justice or protecting love, to
+which to flee when all other aid fails. Can you be the sole exception
+to this rule?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope so,&quot; said Ernestine proudly. &quot;I am not one of those weaklings
+who dread danger in the dark. I look every phantom of terror boldly in
+the face, and can recognize its natural origin. I fear nothing, and
+have no need of a God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You fear nothing?&quot; asked Johannes, and then, struck by a sudden
+thought, added, &quot;Not even death?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not even death! I know that I am but a part of universal matter, and
+must return to it again. What is there to fear? The dissolution of a
+personal existence in the great sum of things,--the transformation of
+one substance into another? Since I learned to think, I have constantly
+pondered this great law of nature, and have accustomed myself to
+consider my insignificant existence only as part and parcel of the
+wondrous transmutation of matter perpetually taking place in the
+universe. Only when we have attained this conviction can we smilingly
+renounce our vain claim to individual immortality, and see in death the
+due tribute that we pay to nature for our life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed? And you imagine that this consolation will stand you in stead
+when the time really comes for you to descend into that dark abyss
+which is illuminated for you by no ray of faith or hope?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sure of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And if you were plunged into it before the appointed time?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should not quarrel with the measure of existence that nature
+accorded me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You would not, however, curtail that existence intentionally?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at him in surprise. &quot;No, assuredly not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you not afraid of doing so by going to America?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why should I fear it?--on account of the dangers of the sea, perhaps?
+Oh, no. It has borne millions of lives in safety upon its waves,--why
+not mine also? It will be more merciful than my kind, I think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you are still determined to go, after all that I have told you of
+your uncle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With him or without him, I shall go,&quot; said Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, God is my witness that I have tried my best! Now,--you
+will think me cruel, but I cannot help it,--one remedy still is left
+me,--a terrible one, but your proud courage gives me strength to use
+it. Ernestine, if you persist in your determination to undertake this
+voyage, I fear the time is close at hand when the genuineness of your
+philosophical consolation will be tried indeed. You will hardly live to
+reach New York.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine grew, if possible, paler than before at these words. &quot;What
+reason have you to say so?&quot; she faltered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will tell you, for there is no time left for concealment.&quot; He looked
+at the clock. &quot;I cannot understand how, with your understanding and
+the knowledge that you possess, you should fail to see that you are
+ill,--not only nervous and prostrated, but seriously ill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at him in alarm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am firmly convinced that you are lost if you continue your present
+mode of life, as you will and must in America. Notwithstanding all your
+uncle may have told you, I know that, once in New York, you will have
+no chance of recovering from him one thaler of your fortune, even
+supposing that, in accordance with your wishes, I allow him to leave
+this country. You will be forced to earn your daily support, and, I
+tell you truly, your life, under such conditions, will not last one
+year. You will die in your bloom in an American hospital, and be buried
+in a nameless grave!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine turned away.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you still determined to go?&quot; Johannes asked after a pause.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine pondered for one moment of bitter agony. She knew only too
+well that he was right. But what should she do? He had no idea that her
+fortune was actually lost,--that she would be forced to earn her bread
+if she stayed as surely as if she went,--that she must labour
+incessantly, if she would not be a dependent beggar. Think and reflect
+as she might, she saw nothing before her but death in a hospital! And
+she would far rather perish in a foreign land than here, where all knew
+her, and where all would triumph over her downfall, that they had
+prophesied so often. No! she must fly! Like the dying bird in winter,
+hiding himself in his death-agony from every eye, she would conceal, in
+a distant quarter of the globe, her poverty, her degradation and
+disgrace, from the arrogant man of whom she had been so haughtily
+independent in the day of her prosperity.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last she raised her head, and, with a great effort, said, &quot;There is
+no choice left me. I must fulfil my contract,--I <i>must</i> go to America!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes had awaited her decision with breathless eagerness. He lost
+almost entirely his hardly-won self-control. &quot;Ernestine,&quot; he exclaimed,
+seizing both her hands, &quot;Ernestine, I plead for life and death. Do you
+not hear?--I tell you there is no hope for you but in absolute repose.
+Will you voluntarily hurry into the grave yawning at your feet? I have
+watched you with the eyes of a physician and a lover, and I swear to
+you, by my honour, that I have been continually discovering fresh cause
+for anxiety. You look as if you were in a decline at this moment. You
+have the feeble, capricious pulse and the cold hands of a victim of
+disease of the heart. Yesterday I heard from Frau Willmers of symptoms
+that filled me with alarm for you,--I grasp at the hope that they may
+be only the effects of your unnaturally forced manner of life. But
+these effects may become causes, in your present exhausted condition,
+causes of mortal disease, if you do not spare yourself I cannot, in
+duty or conscience, let you go without, hard as it is, enlightening you
+with regard to your physical condition. I would have spared you the
+cruel truth, but your determined obstinacy extorts it from me. Have
+some compassion upon me, and do not go before you have seen Heim. He is
+a man of experience, let him judge whether I am right or not. I entreat
+you to see him. Do, Ernestine, do, for my sake, if you would not leave
+me plunged in the depths of despair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Still he held her hands firmly clasped in his. His chest heaved, his
+cheeks were flushed with emotion. All the strength of his passionate
+affection for her seethed and glowed in his imperious and imploring
+entreaties.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine stood pale and calm before him. No human eye could divine her
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Whilst they stood thus silently gazing into each other's eyes, there
+was a sound as of a carriage driving from the door below. Johannes, in
+his agitation, never heard it. Ernestine thought it was possibly her
+uncle, but she did not care. She had suddenly grown strangely
+indifferent to everything in the world.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, have you no answer for me?&quot; asked Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will--reflect--until to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank God!&quot; burst from the depths of Johannes' heart. As he dropped
+Ernestine's hands, he fairly staggered with exhaustion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again a few moments passed in gloomy silence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; he then said, &quot;you have in this last hour punished an
+innocent man for all the sins of his sex. Let it suffice you--indeed
+you are avenged.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine did not speak.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes continued. &quot;I will intrude no longer. May I come with Heim
+to-morrow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You shall learn my decision to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your hand upon it. No? Then farewell!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine was alone. She stood motionless for awhile, never thinking of
+Johannes, nor of her uncle, who, strangely enough, did not appear, but
+with one sentence ringing in her ears,--&quot;Your pulse is that of a victim
+to disease of the heart.&quot; Those words had stung like a scorpion. There
+was no doubt, then, that Johannes considered her past all hope of
+recovering,--he had plainly intimated as much, although he had
+refrained from bluntly telling her so. But was Dr. Möllner capable of
+forming a correct judgment in her case? Yes, certainly, both as
+physiologist and physician, he was thoroughly able to form a just
+diagnosis. She did not understand how she could so long have ignored
+the signs in herself of physical decline. He was right,--her uncle was
+her murderer. She shuddered at the thought. How near death seemed to
+her now! She thought, and thought called to mind every peculiar
+sensation that she had lately been conscious of, weighed the evidence,
+and drew conclusions.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was remarkable how everything betokened trouble with her heart.
+Johannes wished to consult Heim. He would not have done that, had he
+not thought her dangerously ill. What could he or Heim tell her that
+she did not know herself? Had he any means of obtaining knowledge that
+were not hers also? Had she not a pathological library, filled with all
+that a physician needed,--the same that she had destined for Walter,
+but had not yet sent to him? She would consult it and know the truth
+that very day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Night had fallen--the rain was dripping outside--the room lay in dreary
+shadow. She rang for lights. Frau Willmers brought a study-lamp with a
+green shade, and left her alone again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine placed a small library-ladder against one of the tall,
+heavily-carved bookcases, and mounted it, with the lamp in her hand.
+She took out one book after another, without finding the one for which
+she was searching. Impatiently she rummaged among the dusty folios,
+that had not been touched for months. At last, by the dim light of her
+lamp, she saw the title that she was looking for, but it was beneath a
+pile of books hastily heaped above it. She dragged it out with feverish
+impatience. The volumes tumbled about, some hard, heavy object, lying
+among them, fell upon her head, almost stunning her, and then shattered
+the lamp in her hand, falling afterwards upon the floor with a dull
+noise amidst the broken glass that accompanied it. Ernestine, her book
+under her arm, got down from the ladder with trembling knees, to see,
+by the expiring flame of the wick of the lamp, what it was that had
+caused the mischief. As she stooped to pick it up, a fleshless,
+grinning face stared into her own. She started back with a cry. It was
+one of the skulls that she had put away in the library and long
+forgotten. The dim light of the lamp died out, but through the darkness
+the white jaws still grinned horribly. Almost insane with horror, she
+called again for lights. To her overwrought nerves, the trifling
+accident was in strange harmony with the thoughts that were tormenting
+her. It was as if nature thus gave her ominous warning of her fate.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When lights were brought, she forced herself to look the hateful thing
+in the face again. She picked up the head by its empty eye-sockets.
+&quot;Thus shall I shortly look,--no fairer than this horror!&quot; And she went
+up to a mirror, and, in a kind of bravado, compared her own head with
+the fleshless thing. &quot;You must learn to recognize the family likeness,&quot;
+she said to her own reflection, and in feverish fancy she began to
+analyze her own fair, noble features and imagine all the changes that
+they must pass through before their resemblance to their mute, bleached
+companion should be complete. Disgust and dread mastered her again, and
+she feared her own reflection in the mirror as much as the skull. She
+threw it from her, and then started at the noise it made as it fell
+into the corner of the room. The blood rushed to her head, and she was
+deafened by the whirr and singing in her ears, although, through it
+all, she seemed to hear something, she knew not what, that she could
+not comprehend, and that increased her terror. The death's-head in the
+corner would not--so it seemed to her--keep quiet; it was rolling about
+there. She could not stay in the room,--there was something evil in the
+air. She took the book that she had found, and the candle, and fled
+like a hunted deer to her own apartment, never looking around her in
+the desolate rooms, in fear lest the formless thing that so filled her
+with dread should take visible shape and stare at her from some dim
+recess. But it followed at her heels, dogging her footsteps,
+surrounding her like an atmosphere, and with its hundred arms so
+oppressing her chest and throat, even in the quiet of her own room,
+that it scarcely left space for her heart to beat. How strangely it did
+beat,--so irregularly! now faint, now strong, as only a diseased heart
+can beat! And she opened the book and read her doom,--read the pages
+devoted to diseases of the heart, hastily, feverishly, with little
+comprehension of their meaning, for by this time thought was merged in
+fear, and of course she gave the words a meaning they did not possess,
+in dread of finding what she wanted to know and yet greedily searching
+for it. Yes, it was just as she feared. Not a symptom here described
+that she had not felt. Now it was beyond all doubt, she was lost,--no
+cure was possible,--only delay, and even that, in her present state of
+weakness, was hardly to be hoped. She tossed the book aside, and went
+to the window for air. Damp with rain and close as it was, still it was
+air,--freer and purer than any that she would have in her coffin. Then,
+to be sure, she would need it no more, but it was still delightful to
+breathe, and the thought of lying beneath that close coffin-lid was
+suffocation!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she was to die soon! Johannes had not been mistaken. It was true.
+And her strength had been failing for a long time. What was she afraid
+of? What was there to fear? The pain that she might suffer? Thousands
+had suffered the same agony, and the hour of her release was perhaps
+closer at hand than she thought. Then she would be strong,--this hope
+should sustain her. She would not falsify, even to herself, the
+declaration that she had made to Johannes scarcely an hour before.
+Fear? What? Annihilation,--to cease to be,--it was not cheering, and
+certainly not sad,--it was simply nothing! It was not annihilation that
+she feared, but a continuation of existence that might be worse than
+death,--the uncertainty whether the soul perished with the body.
+&quot;True,&quot; she said to herself, &quot;if our eyes are blinded they are not
+conscious of light, our closed ears cannot hear. Let this physical
+mechanism, that is our means of communication with the exterior world,
+pause in its working, and communication ceases. But suppose thought
+should be independent of this mechanism? Oh! horrible, horrible! why is
+there no proof that it cannot be so? What if memory lives on and there
+are no eyes for seeing, and of course no light,--no ears for hearing,
+and no sound, no body sensitive to touch, no time or space,--nothing
+but eternal night, eternal silence, only informed by the memory of what
+we have seen and heard, and the longing for light, sound, and feeling?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">This was the worst of all,--more dreadful than personal annihilation;
+this was what she feared. Eternal night, eternal silence, and eternal
+solitude! Whose blood would not curdle at the thought, except theirs,
+perhaps, who were weary and worn with existence, or who, looking back
+upon life's long labour well performed, needed not shun an eternity of
+remembrance? But she? She was not weary of the world, she had not yet
+began to enjoy it,--she was not old, she was just beginning to live.
+She had done nothing towards fulfilling her high purposes, nothing that
+she could look back upon with satisfaction. It was too soon,--if she
+must go now, she had nothing to look forward to but an eternity of
+remorse! And how long must she endure this dread before the horrible
+certainty came upon her? &quot;Oh, cruel death!&quot; she moaned, &quot;to assail me
+thus insidiously in his most horrid shape,--of slow, languishing
+disease! If he would only attack me like an assassin, that I might do
+battle with him,--meet me in the shape of some falling fragment of rock
+that I might try to avoid, or in engulfing waves that I could breast
+and strive against,--it would be kinder than to steal upon me thus,
+invisible, impalpable, inevitable! Let me flee across the ocean to the
+farthest ends of the earth, I cannot escape him, I take him with me!
+Let me mount the swiftest steed and be borne wildly over hill and
+valley, I cannot escape him, he will ride with me! Let me climb the
+loftiest Alps,--in vain! in vain! He nestles within me.&quot; She fell upon
+her knees. &quot;Oh, omnipotent nature, cruel mother who refusest me
+your bounteous nourishment, have compassion upon me, and save your
+child,--do not give my thought, my life, to annihilation, and its
+garment to decay! Millions breathe and prosper who are not worthy of
+your blessings,--will you thrust out me, your priestess, from your
+grace?&quot; And she lay prostrate, wringing her hands, as if awaiting an
+answer to her entreaty. All around her was silent. There was no pity
+for her. She bethought herself, &quot;Oh, nature is implacable, why should I
+pray to her? she does not hear, she does not think or feel, but sweeps
+me from her path in the blind despotism of her eternal mechanism. Is
+there no hand to aid? no judge of the worth of an existence, to say,
+'Thou art worthy to live, therefore live?' There is, there is! By the
+agony of this hour, I know there must be a higher justice, a Divinity
+other than nature. The spirit that now in dread of death wrestles with
+nature must have another refuge, a loftier destiny than the life of
+this world!&quot; She clasped her hands upon her breast. &quot;Oh, Faith! Faith!
+and if it be so,--if there be a God, what claim can I have upon His
+pity? Could my vain pride sustain me before such a judge? What have I
+done to make me worthy of His compassion? Have I been of any use in the
+world,--conferred happiness upon a single human being, formed one tie
+pleasant to contemplate? Have I not all my life long denied His
+existence, and now, like a coward, do I fly to Him for succour? Can I
+expect aid, and dare to raise my eyes to heaven and seek there what the
+earth denies me? No! I will not deceive myself; there is no pity for
+me,--none in nature, none in mankind, none in God!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And Faith overwhelmed her with its terrors, for only to the loving
+heart is Faith revealed as Love. To those who have shunned and denied
+it, it comes like an avenging blast. It bore her poor diseased mind
+away upon its wings like a withered leaf from the tree of knowledge,
+and tossed it down into the night of despair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A cry, &quot;Johannes, come! save me!&quot; burst from Ernestine's lips, and, in
+a vain effort to reach the door, she fell senseless upon the ground.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.6" href="#div1Ref_3.6">CHAPTER VI.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>SENTENCED.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold had listened to the conversation between Johannes and
+Ernestine until it reached the point where he saw that Johannes would
+prevail. Several times he wondered whether it might not be best to
+break in upon them and try to give their interview another colour, but
+he reflected that the attempt would be useless with a man of Möllner's
+determination, and that he should only be forced to listen to fresh
+accusations. Then he devised another plan, and determined to make use
+of the opportunity to effect his own escape. Convinced now that his
+game was lost, he gathered together the contents of his strong
+box, and wrote a few lines to Ernestine that might be found upon his
+writing-table when his absence was discovered. They ran thus:</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have listened to your conversation, and have heard the unfortunate
+turn for me that it has taken. I can no longer cherish any hope, and
+all that I can do is to outwit this fellow and escape while he is with
+you. I take with me whatever of money there is in the house, to defray
+the expenses of my journey. I cannot wait until Möllner has gone to ask
+you for it, for he would stand guard at the door again, and I should
+never escape from his clutches. My life, and my child's future
+existence, are at stake. I cannot delay. If you should still decide to
+leave with me to-day, you will find me at the railroad-station. There
+are still two hours before the departure of the train. If you remain, I
+will send you the money for the journey as soon as I can. Farewell,
+and, I hope, <i>au revoir</i>.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Having written these lines, he slipped out to the stables, had the
+horses put into the carriage, and drove to the station. In two hours
+his fate would be decided! Once off in the train, and he was safe!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The time spent by Ernestine in mortal struggle with her doubts and
+reawakening faith was no less a time of torture to him who was the
+cause of all her woe. Any one who has waited a couple of hours for the
+arrival of a railroad-train at some insignificant station knows the
+meaning of the word &quot;patience.&quot; To stand about upon a desolate
+platform, stamping your feet to keep them warm, now peering forward to
+look along the endless level road, in hopes of discovering the red
+spark in the distance, then walking up and down the narrow space again,
+and interrogating the sleepy superintendent as often as you think his
+patience will permit, as to whether the train will not soon arrive, and
+always hearing the same answer, &quot;It will soon be here now,&quot;--an
+assertion which the official himself does not believe,--then, for a
+change, to wander into the dreary refreshment-room, with its eternal
+leathery sandwiches and its faded waiter-girls, who reward you with
+such an offensive want of interest because you are not sufficiently
+exhausted by a long journey to be brought down to the point of
+purchasing any of their stale provisions,--to look at the clock every
+ten minutes, under the full conviction that at least half an hour must
+have elapsed since you looked last,--and finally, when, stupefied with
+fatigue and dully resigned to waiting, you have sunk upon a seat, to be
+roused with a start by the shrill whistle of the locomotive, causing
+you hastily to collect your seven bundles and rush out, only to be
+stopped by the station-porter, because this is not the train you want,
+but one that passes before your train,--all these are the miseries of
+human life at a railroad-station that every one is familiar with. But
+for him who is waiting for the iron steed to save him from pursuit and
+death, they become the most terrible tortures that malicious demons can
+devise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold experienced them to the utmost, with the added anxiety of
+watching in two different directions,--in that whence the train was to
+approach, and in that whence he himself had come, and where the avenger
+might now be upon his track. Thus he passed two hours upon a mental
+rack--and when at last the glittering point appeared upon the horizon,
+and, coming nearer and nearer, the train swept up before the station,
+he thought he should fall senseless at the sound of the whistle that
+rung in his ears. With all the strength that he was master of, he
+mounted the high steps of the car, and the black, red-eyed, guardian
+angel of thieves and murderers spread abroad its smoky pinions and
+steamed away with him into the night.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Safety seemed assured. Upon the iron path, along which he was carried
+with such fiery speed, no pursuit could overtake him, except through
+the electric spark,--that might outstrip him and cause his arrest at
+some other station. But this fear did not trouble him greatly, for no
+one knew whither he had fled. To baffle pursuit, he had purchased a
+ticket for a distant town on the left bank of the Rhine while he
+intended going directly to Hamburg, first stopping at Hanover to take
+his daughter from her boarding-school.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was a cold, disagreeable night. Overpowered by fatigue, he fell
+asleep once or twice. He dreamed he was in the cabin of a vessel upon
+the ocean,--once more he breathed freely--his fears were at an end. And
+as we are apt to say, when some danger is past, &quot;Now we are on dry land
+again,&quot; he, on the contrary, exulted in being on the water. But
+suddenly the cruel guard shouted in at the door his monotonous &quot;Five
+minutes for refreshment!&quot; and recalled him to the consciousness that he
+was still on the land, on the land where for him there was no real
+safety. Thus the night passed between waking and sleeping. The other
+travellers looked compassionately, by the flickering light of the
+car-lamp, at the pale, beardless man leaning back so wearily in the
+corner, and thought he must be very ill.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last the dawn flushed the horizon, and revealed the uninteresting
+level landscape. The usual beverage was offered at all the
+stopping-places, and drank for coffee by the chilly travellers, who,
+reduced to a state of physical and mental weakness, made no complaints,
+only murmured, &quot;At least it is something warm!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">An old lady, who had got into the car during the night, and, seated by
+Leuthold, fairly drank herself through the whole journey, was greatly
+troubled by the presence of the pale man who appeared impervious to
+earthly needs and sat perfectly motionless in his corner. What kind of
+a man could this be, who never stirred, never took any refreshment,
+never smoked, never spoke, not even to answer the usual question,
+&quot;Where are we now?&quot; which is almost sure to open a conversation?
+Nothing makes friends more speedily than common discomfort in
+travelling at night. All the other travellers in the car had grown
+confidential,--had stretched themselves, and told whether and how they
+had slept. Leuthold alone was as if deaf and dumb. Of course the others
+leagued against him. They watched him curiously, and made whispered
+remarks upon his appearance. At last he grew very uncomfortable. The
+restlessness of the old lady by his side tormented him, she was
+perpetually burying him beneath her huge fur cloak, which, she informed
+him, she had brought into the car with her because it would not go into
+her trunk, and now it had turned out quite useful--who would have
+thought a September night would be so cool? Still, she must take it
+off, lest she should take cold, and she disentangled herself from the
+voluminous garment, almost smothering Leuthold in the process. The
+other gentlemen smilingly assisted her, and Leuthold extricated himself
+impatiently. The cloak was at last, with considerable pains, secured in
+the place made for portmanteaus on one side of the car, during which
+process the towers of the capital, looming in the light of morning,
+were approached unperceived. The pains had been fruitless, for the
+guard opened the door with the words that would release Leuthold,
+&quot;Tickets for Hanover, gentlemen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, good gracious I are we there already?&quot; cried the old lady,
+rummaging her pockets for her ticket, which Leuthold fortunately picked
+up from the floor and handed to her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Appeased by his courtesy, she asked him if he too was going to get out
+at Hanover, and, upon his answering by a brief &quot;Yes,&quot; she informed him,
+to his horror, that she was going to take her youngest daughter from
+the boarding-school there, to establish her as companion with a lady in
+Copenhagen. She had a hard journey before her, for she should continue
+it that very night.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Therefore he determined not to take the night train for Hamburg, as he
+had at first intended, since then he would have to travel the long road
+thither from Hanover in company with this officious old gossip and her
+daughter. He could not avoid them, as the daughter was in the same
+boarding-school with Gretchen, and probably one of her friends. It was
+incumbent upon him to have no companions to whom he might become known
+and who could thus afford intelligence to the authorities concerning
+his route. Great as was the danger in delay, this peril was still
+greater. He must choose the lesser evil, and lose a day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The train stopped. The old lady emerged from the car, like a mole from
+the earth, and was greeted with a joyful exclamation from her daughter,
+who was waiting for her at the station.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold threw himself into a droschky, and drove to a hotel, whence he
+dispatched a few lines to his daughter, requesting her to come to him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A long half-hour ensued. What would the daughter be whom he had not
+seen for seven years? Was she what she seemed in her letters? If she
+were, how should he meet her and gaze into her innocent eyes?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a gentle knock at the door. &quot;Come in,&quot; he cried eagerly, and
+there entered a creature so lovely in her budding maidenhood that
+Leuthold could only open his arms to her in mute delight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The girl stood for one moment timidly upon the threshold, and then
+threw herself upon her father's breast with a cry of joy,--a cry in
+which all the home-sickness of years was dissolved in the rapture of
+reunion. Closer and closer each clasped the other,--neither could utter
+a word. The child wept tears of joy in her father's arms, and bitter
+drops fell from Leuthold's eyes upon the head that he pressed to his
+breast as if this happiness were to be his only for a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, let me look at you,&quot; Gretchen said at last, extricating
+herself from his embrace. And she put her hands upon either side of his
+head, and gazed into his eyes with the clear, frank glance of
+innocence. He bore her look as he would have borne to look at the sun:
+it seemed to him that it must blind him, and that he should never be
+able to raise his eyelids again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father dear, I can see how you have laboured and suffered,&quot; said
+Gretchen sadly. &quot;It was high time for you to allow yourself a little
+relaxation. Ah, how good it is of you to come to me,--to me!&quot; And her
+emotion found vent in kisses. &quot;But the surprise!&quot; she cried with a long
+breath, &quot;the surprise! I could hardly believe my eyes when your note
+was handed to me. 'My father's hand,' I thought, 'and from here?' I
+opened the note and read,--and read,--in distinct letters, that my
+father was really here. I gave such a cry of delight that every one
+came running to know what was the matter. I was just out of bed, and
+would gladly have run to you in my dressing-gown! Oh, heavens! I could
+scarcely dress myself--everything went wrong. I should never have got
+through if the Fräulein had not helped me,--I was in such a hurry!&quot; And
+she laughed, and cried, and threw her arms around her father again, as
+if she feared he might vanish from her sight. &quot;Ah, father, what shall I
+call you? My own darling father, is this really you? Are you going to
+stay with me now for a while? Are you half as glad to see me as I am to
+see you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus the innocent, joyous creature overwhelmed him with love and
+caresses, and he, lost as he was, heard his condemnation in every one
+of her tender words.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Could this angel ever descend from her upper sphere to a knowledge of
+her father's crime? Could her pure soul ever be stained with thoughts
+of sin, of which as yet she had no idea, and learn to despise, as a
+criminal, him whom she now held dearest in the world?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But this was not all that he feared. What if his disgrace were to be
+visited upon his child? What if this young bud should be buried beneath
+the ruins of his shattered existence? Who would have anything to do
+with the daughter of a criminal?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and
+fourth generation!&quot; These words, hitherto only empty sounds to him,
+haunted his memory in terrible distinctness. They perfectly expressed
+the dread that possessed him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, how silent you are!&quot; said Gretchen timidly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, my child,--my life! I can do nothing but look at you and delight
+in you! Your loveliness is like a revelation to me from on high! I have
+become a new man since I know myself the father of such a child! I
+cannot jest and laugh,--my joy is too deep! So let me be silent, and,
+believe me, the graver I am, the more I love you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen instantly understood and sympathized with her father's mood.
+&quot;You are right,--we do not jest and laugh in church, and yet I am so
+filled there with gratitude for God's kindness to me! How I thank Him
+now for this moment! I have prayed Him for so many years to send you to
+me, and now my prayer is answered,--you are here. His way is always the
+best. He has not sent you before, because I was not old enough to
+appreciate this happiness.&quot; Leuthold had seated himself by this time,
+and she stood beside him and pillowed his head upon her breast. &quot;You
+are worn out, father dear. You look so sad. But now you are mine, and I
+will tend you and cherish you until you forget all your care and
+anxiety. Oh that Ernestine,--I will not wish her ill, but would she
+only give back to me every smile that she has stolen from you,--to me,
+who have nothing but your smile in this world!&quot; She imprinted upon his
+forehead a kiss that burned there like a coal of fire.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We will not speak of Ernestine now, my child,&quot; said Leuthold. &quot;Let her
+be what she is. We will talk of her by-and-by. Lately she has not been
+so hard to control, and has often spoken of you affectionately. I think
+she will shortly marry, and then she will be gentler, for love always
+ennobles. She has not quite decided as to her future course yet, but I
+think she will marry. At all events, she will take care of you if
+anything should happen to me. Yes, she will,--I am sure of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father,&quot; cried Gretchen in alarm, &quot;how can you talk so? What could
+happen to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, my child, I might die suddenly. We must be prepared for
+everything, the future is in God's hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen knelt down beside him, and pressed her rosy lips upon his
+slender hand. &quot;Father dear, why cast a shadow upon this happy hour?
+Just as I have found you, must I think of losing you? Oh, my Heavenly
+Father cannot be so cruel! You are in His hand, and He who has brought
+you to me will let me keep you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She laid her head upon his knee with childlike tenderness, and was
+silent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children&quot; rang again in the
+ears of the happy and yet miserable father. Thus several hours passed,
+amid the girl's loving talk and laughing jests, until at last, at noon,
+she sprang up and declared she must go home to dinner. Leuthold would
+not let her go. He said they would not expect her at the school,--they
+would know she would stay with her father. And so they dined together,
+for the first time after so many years. But to Leuthold the meal was
+like the last before his execution.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After dinner he went to see the governess of the Institute, and asked
+her to allow Gretchen to take a pleasure-trip of a few weeks with
+him,--a request that was readily granted, although madame declared that
+she could not tell how she should do without Gretchen so long. &quot;For I
+assure you,&quot; said she, &quot;that Gretchen has richly rewarded us for our
+trouble. When she really leaves me, she will carry a large piece of my
+heart with her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, how can I thank you?&quot; cried Gretchen, throwing herself into her
+kind friend's arms.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold was deeply troubled. Should he snatch this child from the soil
+into which she had struck root so securely, and where she had blossomed
+so fairly in the sunshine of peace and good will? And yet could he
+leave her here to lose her forever? If justice should pursue him to
+America, he never could send for his daughter without betraying his
+place of refuge. She was his child. He had a sacred claim upon her,
+and, since he had seen her again, was less able than ever to do without
+her. She should share his fate.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While he was in the parlour of the Institute, the old lady who had been
+his travelling companion, and who had passed the whole day with her
+daughter, entered, and was charmed to meet him again, only regretting
+that they were not to continue their journey together that evening.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Madame invited him to return to tea,--an invitation that he could not
+refuse,--and he left the house for awhile for a walk with Gretchen. The
+girl's delight knew no bounds when she found herself promenading the
+streets upon her father's arm. She had on her prettiest bonnet and her
+best dress,--she wished to be a credit to her father and to please him,
+and she entirely succeeded. She was charming. Leuthold regarded her
+with increasing admiration, and his busy mind began to weave fresh
+plans for the future out of her brown hair and long eyelashes. The
+world stood open for this angel, might she not pass scathless through
+it with a father who had been proscribed? Who could withstand those
+half-laughing, half-pensive gazelle-eyes, and those pouting lips;
+pleading for a father?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As she walked beside him thus, her elastic form lightly supported upon
+his arm, prattling on with all the grace of a nature full of sense and
+sensibility, he too began to smile and to revive. He might be most
+wretched as a man, but he was greatly to be envied as a father.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen interrupted his reverie. &quot;Father,&quot; she said in a low voice,
+&quot;when I was a little child, you never liked to have me speak of my
+mother. But I want very much to know what became of her after she
+married that head-waiter. Will you tell me to-day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can tell you nothing,--I know nothing of her since she left Marburg,
+after her father's death. At the time of the divorce she sent me the
+sum that she was to contribute to the expenses of your education, and
+her coarse husband permitted no further correspondence between us. He
+sent back to me unopened every letter in which I tried to arrange
+matters more methodically. I learned through a third person that she
+had left Marburg. I do not know where she is living now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen shook her head and said nothing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I look like you, father, do I not?&quot; she asked anxiously. She did not
+want to resemble her faithless mother in anything.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You inherit her beauty, refined and ennobled, and my way of thinking
+and feeling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen nestled close to his side. &quot;I would like to grow more like you
+every day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God forbid!&quot; Leuthold thought to himself, in the full consciousness of
+what he was, as he turned to go back to the Institute. If he could only
+have thus retraced his steps in the path of life!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The evening passed more slowly than if he had been alone with Gretchen,
+although he was delighted by fresh proofs of her ability and progress.
+He was especially surprised by her artistic talent,--her drawings and
+sketches in colour. She had not exaggerated when she wrote to him that
+she was as entirely fitted as a girl could be to earn her own
+livelihood. He was perfectly satisfied upon that point. And as he lay
+down to rest at night, a sense of relief filled his mind greater than
+any he had felt for a long time, and it soothed him to repose.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The next morning Gretchen heard, to her surprise, that her kind father
+desired to give her a glimpse of the ocean. He would wait until they
+were on board of the steamer, he thought, before he told her of his
+real plans. They took the early train for Hamburg, and arrived there
+towards evening. Leuthold thought it advisable to go directly to a
+large hotel, where an individual would not excite as much observation
+as in a smaller house. He selected one of the most splendid hotels in
+the gayest street in Hamburg.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen was enchanted with the sight of this northern Venice. The
+extensive basin of the Alster lay before them, framed in hundreds of
+bright lights, on its bank the brilliantly illuminated Alster Pavilion,
+while the rippling waves reflected the moon's rays in a long path of
+shining silver. Like pictures in a magic lantern, the gondolas glided
+hither and thither, and the fresh sea-breeze wafted the notes of gay
+music from the other side. The waves of the sea of light and of sound
+burst in harmony upon Gretchen's eyes and ears, and made her fairly
+giddy with delight. She could almost believe that the Nixies, scared
+away to their depths during the day by the passing to and fro upon the
+waters of so much life and vivacity, were now beginning to sport there
+in the moonlight, playing around the skiff's and singing their enticing
+strains. And when she turned her eyes to the shore, bordered by palaces
+and crowded with restless throngs of pedestrians and gay equipages,
+presenting a scene of reality to counteract the dreamy impression
+produced by the expanse of water, the world seemed to the child a
+garden of enchantment, and her father the mighty magician reigning over
+it, who had brought her hither to enjoy its splendours. She threw her
+arms around him and kissed his hands, and could not thank him enough
+for giving her such new delight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The carriage stopped at the entrance of the magnificent hotel, and the
+attendants came running to offer their services. The head-waiter stood
+in the doorway, ready to receive the new arrivals. Leuthold helped out
+Gretchen and handed over the baggage to a servant. As he ascended the
+steps, he glanced for the first time at the dignified and trim deputy
+of the host. He started, and the man too was evidently startled. Each
+seemed familiar to the other; one moment of reflection, and the
+recognition was mutual. Leuthold held fast by Gretchen, or he would
+have staggered. There stood the headwaiter of his father-in-law's
+inn,--Bertha's husband.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They exchanged a hostile glance of recognition. Then the man cried with
+a perfectly unconcerned air, &quot;Louis, show Dr. Gleissert and his
+daughter to Nos. 42 and 43.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It seemed to Leuthold that the servant smiled at the mention of his
+name, and that he exchanged a significant glance with his chief. But
+this was probably only an illusion of his excited fancy. He hesitated
+whether it would not be better to go to another hotel. But that would
+look like flight,--he had been recognized, and, if the man chose to
+pursue him, he could follow him to any inn in Hamburg.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">His enemy stood aside with a contemptuous obeisance, and Leuthold
+followed his guide up to the fourth story. &quot;Have you no room in a lower
+story?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very sorry, sir,&quot; replied the servant with a smile, &quot;they are all
+occupied--you have a very good view here of the river.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold was silent. He seemed to have fallen into a trap. How had he
+come to choose in all this wide city the very house where dwelt his
+worst enemy? How did the fellow come here?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The servant Louis opened a charming room, looking out upon the water,
+and Gretchen could not suppress an exclamation of delight as she looked
+down from such a height upon all the beauty below them. It seemed like
+heaven to her. Louis lighted the candles, and awaited further orders.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How long has Herr Meyer been head-waiter here?&quot; Leuthold asked as if
+incidentally.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For about a year,&quot; Louis replied, arranging his napkin upon his arm.
+&quot;He is a relative of the proprietor of this house, who, when his only
+son died, sent for Herr Meyer, that the business might not pass into
+strange hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed--then will Herr Meyer succeed him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I believe so,--yes, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold walked to and fro upon the soft carpet.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will you have supper, sir?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will you go down to the dining-hall, sir?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I had rather not mount those four flights of stairs again. Bring
+our supper here, if you please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well, sir, I will get you the bill of fare instantly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here--stop a moment----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you wish, sir?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bring me up a couple of newspapers at the same time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Very well, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">As the door closed behind the man, Gretchen turned round from the
+window, where she had been standing with clasped hands. &quot;Father,&quot; said
+she, &quot;I am fairly dazzled with all that I see. I never was so happy in
+my life before. But, in the midst of it all, I never forget whom I have
+to thank for all this pleasure.&quot; And she knelt upon the carpet and laid
+her head upon the lap of her father, who had flung himself exhausted
+into a chair. &quot;Do not you too, father, feel easy and free up here in
+the pure, clear air, with this lovely view of the shining water?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes, dear child,&quot; said Leuthold, his breast filled the while with
+deadly forebodings.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen sprang up again, and took two or three deep breaths. &quot;Oh,&quot; she
+cried, running to the window again, &quot;it seems to me that I have been
+thirsty all my life, and am now drinking deep refreshing draughts in
+looking at those rolling waves.&quot; She leaned her fair forehead against
+the window-frame, and eagerly inhaled the fresh breeze that blew into
+the room from the Alster. &quot;How happy those are who are at home upon two
+elements,&quot; she continued, &quot;land and water! We, poor land-rats, must
+cling to the soil. Think of inhabiting all four of the elements, now
+working and walking upon the earth, then soaring aloft into the air,
+now floating dreamily upon the waves, or dancing in the ardent glow of
+fire,--would not that be glorious?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then you would be man, fish, bird, and salamander all at once,&quot; said
+Leuthold, smiling in surprise at the girl's earnest tone. &quot;Well, well,
+it might be all very delightful at sixteen, but a man as aged as your
+old father is thankful if he can live respectably upon the earth only.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My old father!&quot; laughed Gretchen, hastening to his side again--&quot;you
+darling papa, how can you call yourself aged? Come with me to the
+window, the prospect there will make you twenty years younger.&quot; She
+drew him towards it. &quot;It is very strange, I think, but certainly a new
+revelation of beauty should make the old younger, and the young older.
+It is a new experience for the young, and experience always makes us
+mature. It is a memory for the old, for they are sure to have seen
+something of the kind in previous years, and it carries them back to
+the earlier and youthful sensations that it first awakened in them.
+Such a memory should lighten the soul of ten years at least.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold looked at his daughter with unfeigned surprise. &quot;Child, where
+did you learn all that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, out of some book that I have read, I suppose,&quot; said Gretchen
+modestly. &quot;One always remembers something, you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Blessed be the day that gave you to me,--you are all that I have.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a knock at the door, and the servant entered with the bill of
+fare and the newspapers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Excuse me, sir, for keeping you waiting. I had to go to Madame for
+to-day's paper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No matter,&quot; said Leuthold, almost gaily. His talk with his daughter
+had done him good.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He ordered a little supper, and, when the man left the room, seated
+himself on a sofa and began to read.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen took her work,--she was just at the age when affection finds
+instant pleasure in embroidering or crocheting some article for the
+beloved object. So she sat and sewed diligently upon a letter-case that
+she was embroidering for her father while he read. Now and then she
+turned and looked out of the window, to be sure that all the splendour
+there had not vanished.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly she was startled by a profound sigh from her father, and,
+looking up, she saw him sitting pale as ashes, staring at the paper
+that had fallen from his hands. In an instant he sprang to his feet and
+walked up and down the room in mute despair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is the matter, dear, dear father? what is it?&quot; she asked in
+alarm, but, receiving no reply, she picked up the newspaper, to see if
+she could discover from it what had caused his agitation. She read
+unobserved by him--he was leaning out of the window for air--read what
+seemed to her a strange tongue, to be deciphered only in her heart's
+blood. It was a telegraphic order from the magistrate of W----. &quot;Dr.
+Leuthold Gleissert, former Professor in Pr--, is charged with having
+appropriated, by means of forgery, and expended upon his own account,
+the property, amounting to upwards of ninety thousand thalers, of his
+ward Ernestine von Hartwich, of Hochstetten, and also of having robbed
+the mail. You are desired to arrest and detain him.&quot; A personal
+description of him followed, but Gretchen had read enough. &quot;Father!&quot;
+she screamed, &quot;father! father!&quot; And, as if in these three words she had
+summed up all there was to say, she fell forward with her face upon the
+floor, as though never to raise it again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There stood the guilty man, forced to behold his child crushed
+beneath the ruins of his shattered existence. He did not venture to
+touch the sacred form extended before him in anguish. He looked down
+upon her like one almost bereft of reason. God had visited his sin
+upon him, probing the only place in his heart sensitive to human
+feeling--his punishment lay in the sight of his child's agony without
+the power to relieve it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly Gretchen raised her head and looked at him with those clear,
+conscious eyes whose gaze he had always endured with difficulty, and
+before which his own eyes now drooped instantly. &quot;It is not true--it
+cannot be! Father, you are innocent--you cannot have done this thing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;For God's sake, Gretchen, do not speak so loud,&quot; Leuthold entreated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You tremble--you will not look at me. Father, if you have thus
+burdened your soul, I cannot be your judge--I will be your conscience.
+I will not let you enjoy a single hour of rest or sleep until you have
+restored what does not belong to you. I will die of hunger before your
+eyes, rather than taste a morsel that is not honestly earned. But what
+am I saying? I am beside myself! It is not possible!--not possible!
+Relieve me from my misery by one word. My soul is in darkness, cast one
+ray of light into it.&quot; She clasped his knees imploringly. &quot;Father,
+swear to me that you are innocent----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My child----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She interrupted him. &quot;No, no oath, no asseveration--there is no need
+between us of any such--only a simple yes or no, and I will believe
+you! Look at me, father,--oh, look at me! Do not speak, do not even say
+yes or no,--let me but look into your eyes, and my doubts will
+disappear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen,&quot; whispered Leuthold, trying to extricate himself from her
+clasping arms, &quot;listen to me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, father, no, I will not let you go. I want no explanation, no
+argument. If you have committed this crime, nothing can extenuate it. I
+will hear nothing, know nothing, but whether you have committed it or
+not.&quot; She sought, in childlike eagerness, to meet his eye--she
+unclasped her arms from his knees to seize his hands and cover them
+with kisses, while a flood of tears relieved her heart. &quot;Forgive me,
+forgive me for daring to speak thus to you, a child to a father. Oh,
+God! how unworthy I am of your affection! The false accusation invented
+by evil men could lead me astray, and I dare to ask if you are
+innocent! Forgive me, my kind, patient father--see, I will not ask you
+again, I will not even look inquiringly into your eyes. The touch of
+your hand, this dear, faithful hand, suffices to reassure me and lead
+me back to the knowledge of a daughter's duty.&quot; And she laid her face,
+wet with tears, upon his hands, with a touching humility that cut him
+more deeply than any accusations could have done.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There--that's quite enough!&quot; suddenly said a voice behind them, that
+curdled the blood in Leuthold's veins. &quot;I will teach you a daughter's
+duty!&quot; And from the doorway of the adjoining room Bertha's stout figure
+made its appearance boldly advancing.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good God, my mother!&quot; shrieked Gretchen, and she recoiled
+involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretel,&quot; said the woman, &quot;are you afraid of your mother while you are
+on your knees to that villain?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold stepped between her and his child. &quot;Bertha,&quot; said he, &quot;it
+seems to me my punishment is sufficient. Surely you need not avenge
+yourself by snatching from me my child's heart,--a heart that you never
+prized, and will never win to yourself. If there is a particle of
+maternal tenderness in your breast, spare, not me, but this innocent
+angel. Do not destroy the most precious possession of a youthful
+heart,--confidence in her father. Bertha, Bertha, you will harm the
+daughter more than the parent! Give heed to your maternal heart, which
+must throb more quickly at sight of this fair flower, and spare me a
+blow that would annihilate her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Frau Bertha folded her arms, and looked upon Leuthold with exceeding
+disdain. &quot;Oho! now it is your turn to beg. I am no longer rude, clumsy,
+and coarse as a brute, as I was when you drove me off because I was too
+awkward to help you to steal the inheritance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bertha!&quot; cried Leuthold, pointing to Gretchen, whose imploring eyes
+were turning from one parent to the other in increasing distress.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, she shall hear it all! She shall know what a charming papa
+she has, and that you are not unjustly accused in the papers. Why
+should you stop at such a crime as that, when you would have beggared
+Ernestine as a child, persuading old Hartwich to make you his heir?
+There is nothing that you would not do. I can tell her that,--I, your
+wife, who lived with you for years. And your child shall curse you,
+instead of adoring you as a saint. No one can tell what a fine game you
+might have played, if you had once got off to America with such a
+pretty girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At these words Gretchen uttered a loud shriek.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Bertha pitilessly continued, &quot;And just because I have maternal feeling
+enough to try to save my child, I will prevent your evil designs.
+You shall not carry the poor thing away with you to such a life as
+yours,--not while I live!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Bertha,&quot; cried Leuthold, forgetting all caution, &quot;hush, or mischief
+will be done here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What mischief? Will you try to throttle me, as you did when Hartwich
+made Ernestine his heir instead of you? Only lay a finger on me! There
+is a police-officer outside in the passage, whom my husband placed
+there lest Louis should not be able to serve my fine gentleman with
+sufficient elegance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Great God!&quot; gasped Gretchen, staggering as if mortally wounded.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it really so? Could your mean desire for revenge degrade you thus?&quot;
+asked Leuthold, still incredulous.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It was not I, but my husband, who owes you a grudge because I played
+him false and married you. A gentleman came here this morning with the
+chief of police to search this house, as well as all the other hotels
+in the city, and left orders that if you arrived here he was to be
+informed of it. My husband sent for him, and, for greater security's
+sake, for a police-officer too,--I only wanted to speak to poor Gretel
+beforehand, and take her under my protection when her father was
+arrested.&quot; She approached the girl, who fled like some frightened
+animal to the farthest corner of the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go!&quot; she cried, trembling in every limb. &quot;Do not touch me! You can do
+nothing for me now but kill me, and put an end to the agony you have
+brought upon me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She burst into a piteous fit of sobbing. No one observed that the door
+had been gently opened, and that a young man was standing upon the
+threshold, regarding the unfortunate girl with the deepest compassion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My child,&quot; said Leuthold, going timidly up to her, &quot;my child, will you
+not listen to one word from your unworthy father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not speak, father. What good can it do? I cannot believe you any
+more,--cannot save you,--cannot, although I would so gladly do
+it,--wash away your guilt, even with my heart's blood. I can only weep
+for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive one entirely unknown to you for intruding upon such grief,&quot;
+the stranger now said, in a voice trembling with pity. &quot;I am compelled
+by cruel circumstances to appear as an enemy, when I would gladly act
+the part of a friend and comforter.&quot; He turned to Bertha. &quot;May I
+entreat you to leave us a few minutes alone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She went out grumbling.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr Gleissert,&quot; he continued, &quot;my name is Hilsborn. Do not start. I
+am not come to avenge my dead father. His sainted spirit would disdain
+revenge. He forgave you freely while he lived. I come in place of my
+friend Möllner, who is detained by the dangerous illness of your niece,
+to vindicate the rights of Fräulein Ernestine. We learned from Frau
+Willmers that you had sent your effects to Hamburg <i>poste-restante</i>
+several days ago, and that you would of course be obliged to come
+hither to reclaim them. Möllner requested me to pursue you without
+delay, and, without one thought of personal revenge, I consented to
+assist my friend in reinstating your unfortunate ward in her rights. I
+little knew what my acceptance of this duty would cost me, for the few
+minutes that I lingered on that threshold taught me that my task is not
+alone to hand you over to justice, but to deprive a daughter of her
+father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You shame me, sir, by such kindness at a moment when a less
+magnanimous man would have believed himself justified in heaping me
+with insult. I am the more grateful to you since you, of all others,
+have most reason to hate me. Your humanity, under these sad
+circumstances, relieves me with regard to the fate of my unfortunate
+child, for it emboldens me to hope that you will extend your chivalrous
+kindness to her also.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Rely upon it, I will do so,&quot; Hilsborn assured him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And let me hope, my child, that you will not reject the noble
+protection thus offered you. Herr Hilsborn, remember, has done your
+father no wrong,--he has only, in his natural desire for justice, lent
+his aid to the hand that is pursuing me. I presume,&quot; continued he,
+turning to Hilsborn, &quot;that you have provided for my immediate arrest?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, Herr Gleissert,&quot; said Hilsborn gently, &quot;the superintendent of the
+hotel has assisted me to do so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I will place no unnecessary obstacles in your way. I shall submit
+to the investigation with a good conscience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn laid his hand lightly upon Leuthold's arm. &quot;Herr Gleissert, do
+not reject advice that is well meant.&quot; He spoke in a whisper, that
+Gretchen, who was listening with feverish eagerness, might not hear
+what he said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well?&quot; asked Leuthold.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not attempt denial, you will only weaken your case. The proofs of
+your crime are most decisive.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How so?&quot; asked Leuthold quietly, believing that he had destroyed every
+scrap of paper that could criminate him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On the evening of your flight, a letter was received from a former
+maid of Fräulein Hartwich's, who travelled in Italy with you, demanding
+immediate payment of her yearly stipend, for which she had written
+several times in vain. She reminds you, Herr Gleissert, of what she has
+done for you,--how she worked sometimes all night long, trying to
+imitate Fräulein von Hartwich's signature, that she might be able to
+counterfeit her successfully before the notary. In short, the letter
+proves beyond a doubt that you deceived the notary by substituting the
+person as well as the signature of the maid for your ward's, that the
+deed might be complete by which the Orphans' Court was induced to
+resign the estate in its charge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold stood before the young man pale and mute. Hilsborn saw the
+terrible agony of his soul.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not tell you this to humiliate you or to increase your pain, but
+only to warn you,&quot; he continued, &quot;that you may not lose any time by a
+false plan of defence, and perhaps thereby deprive yourself of the
+sympathy sure to await a man of your culture who makes frank and
+remorseful confession of his guilt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold's lips quivered at these well-meant words. &quot;Have steps been
+taken to secure the person of the maid?&quot; he inquired, in the tone in
+which he would have asked, &quot;How long have I to live?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Professor Möllner telegraphed immediately to O----, the girl's present
+place of abode, and just before I left him he received intelligence
+that she had been placed under arrest. The notary also has been
+summoned. Be assured that, as your arrest has been conducted with the
+greatest foresight, no measures will be neglected to insure your
+conviction. The only course left for you is to endeavour to secure the
+sympathies of the jury.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you!&quot; said Leuthold.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen had been standing leaning against the window-frame, and had
+understood more than Hilsborn had intended that she should. The waters
+of the Alster were still rolling below her, the lights were sparkling,
+and, in the terrible silence that now ensued, the music of the waltzes
+in the pavilion could be plainly heard. Was it possible that there was
+no change outside, while she felt as if the world were crumbling in
+pieces around her?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again the door opened, and several figures appeared. Everything swam
+before Gretchen's eyes, her heart beat as though every throb were its
+last. An official entered, &quot;Excuse me, sir,&quot; he said to Hilsborn, &quot;I
+cannot wait any longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold looked towards the door. Two police-officers were standing
+outside, and Bertha with her husband. And who were those? Other figures
+were constantly appearing in the brilliantly lighted hall, inmates of
+the house, eager to witness the arrest. And was he to be led through
+all that gaping, staring crowd? He, who, with all his crimes, had
+always preserved appearances,--was he at last to be as it were held up
+to public contempt, dragged through the lighted passages and down the
+staircases by policemen, like a common thief? Of course there would be
+an eager crowd below, and another upon his arrival at N--. His only
+road now lay through long rows of curious faces, dragged from
+examination to examination, from disgrace to disgrace,--he, a man who
+had always preserved an outward respectability,--until he should end
+either in a convict's coat or the strait-jacket of a madman! The time
+for reflection was over. He turned a little, only a very little, aside,
+and drew a folded paper from his pocket,--it did not take a moment, no
+one observed the motion. And what else? it was so easy to put his hand
+to his lips and swallow the powder that the paper contained, far easier
+than to pass through that brilliant hall, through that murmuring,
+staring mob, to the courtroom, and thence to a jail! Only an
+instant,--it was done. It tasted bitter, and he drank a glass of water
+to destroy the taste upon his tongue. Then he stepped up to Gretchen,
+who was upon her knees, her face buried in her hands. &quot;Gretchen,&quot; he
+said almost inaudibly, &quot;forgive your unhappy father!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father? Almighty God, I have no father!&quot; burst from the lips of his
+tortured child.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold looked at her with dim eyes. &quot;I am condemned!&quot; was all he
+could say.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then he turned to the officials. &quot;Gentlemen, at such a moment as this,
+it is surely natural for a father to provide for the future of those
+whom he may leave behind him. I am ill, and may die at any moment. In
+case of my demise, therefore, I appoint, before all these witnesses,
+Herr Professor Hilsborn my daughter's guardian, as I hold her mother,
+who survives me, entirely unfit in every respect to be her guide and
+protector. The fact of her having forsaken her daughter at a tender
+age, and never troubling herself to inquire concerning her afterwards,
+will prove the justice of what I say. I pray you, gentlemen, to attest
+the validity of this my last will, when the hour for doing so arrives.
+Observe that I am at present in full possession of my mental
+faculties.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The by-standers looked at him in amazement. Bertha would have spoken,
+but her husband restrained her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The officer said, coldly but politely, &quot;Your directions shall, if
+necessary, receive due attention. Rely upon it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You have no objections to make?&quot; Leuthold asked Hilsborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your wish shall be sacred to me,&quot; the young man assured him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And now, sir, I beg for one great favour,&quot; Leuthold whispered to the
+officer. &quot;Grant me one half-hour's delay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am sorry, but I have waited too long already.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only one-half hour, sir, for the love of Heaven,--a quarter of an
+hour!&quot; Leuthold pleaded. The poison was beginning to work. His knees
+trembled, his gray eyes were glassy in their sockets, his features grew
+rigid.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not a minute longer!&quot; the official replied impatiently, and beckoned
+to the police-officers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have some pity!&quot; the tortured man gasped out to Hilsborn. &quot;I have
+taken poison. For humanity's sake, induce him to let me die here with
+my child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good God!&quot; exclaimed Hilsborn. &quot;Let instant aid----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold clutched his arm, and with a ghastly smile whispered, &quot;It will
+be of no use, my friend!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn was horror-struck. &quot;Sir,&quot; he said, &quot;I unite my entreaties to
+those of Herr Gleissert. Allow him to remain here only until I have
+spoken with your chief.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If the arrest is an unjust one, it will soon be at an end. I have
+nothing to do with that. I must obey orders.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn whispered a few words in his ear, but he shrugged his
+shoulders. &quot;Any man could say that. We will stop at a physician's as we
+drive past. That is not contrary to orders. We must go!&quot; The policemen
+entered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn whispered to Leuthold, &quot;I will bring you an antidote. I hope,
+for your child's sake, that you will take it. God have mercy on you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold would have replied, but a spasm prevented him from uttering a
+word.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn saw that the poison had already infected the blood, and that
+all aid would come too late. Nevertheless, he would do what he could.
+In passing, he lightly touched Gretchen's shoulder. &quot;Fräulein
+Gleissert, your father is going. Say one word to him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen started, as if from a swoon, looked around her, and saw
+Leuthold between the officers. &quot;Father!&quot; she shrieked, and rushed
+towards him. She clasped him in her arms, and pressed kiss after kiss
+upon his blue lips. Her cries wrung the souls of the by-standers, and
+Bertha hurried away, that she might not hear them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I take back what I said,&quot; Gretchen moaned. &quot;How could I say I had no
+father? Now that I am going to lose you, I feel that I can never
+forsake you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leuthold writhed in agony in her embrace, but he managed to speak once
+more. &quot;My child,&quot; he gasped thickly, &quot;if there is a God, may He bless
+you! and when you hear that your father took his own life, remember
+that estate, freedom, honour, were gone past recall, but that by his
+own act he at least avoided a public exposure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen gazed at him speechless. She tried to reply, but her lips
+refused her utterance. She only knew that her father was taken from
+her, and that stranger hands loosened her frantic clutch of his
+garments. She heard footsteps retreating, a door closed, and there was
+silence. For a few moments she lost consciousness. But other noises
+roused her from the fainting-fit that had brought her repose from
+grief, and recalled her to herself. Were the footsteps approaching
+again? Yes, they came on to the door of her room. What a strange murmur
+mingled with them! She raised her weary head with a mixture of fear and
+hope.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The door was thrown open as wide as it could go. Four men entered,
+bearing a well-nigh senseless burden. Her father had returned to
+her,--but how? They laid him upon the bed. Gretchen would have thrown
+herself into his arms, but he thrust her from him convulsively, for her
+clasping arms, her loving kiss, were tortures too great to be borne. He
+tried to speak, but in vain. Amidst frightful spasms, alternating with
+utter exhaustion, he breathed his last sigh, and his spirit bore its
+burden of guilt to new, unknown spheres of existence.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He had avoided all &quot;public exposure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But the only judge that he had acknowledged upon earth,--his
+child,--lay crushed at his feet expiating the crimes of the condemned.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.7" href="#div1Ref_3.7">CHAPTER VII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE ORPHAN.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">Day was again mirrored brightly in the waters of the Alster, and again
+the streets swarmed with life. The prattle and laughter of children on
+their way to school, the monotonous cries of the street-hawkers, the
+rattle of passing vehicles, were all borne aloft into the quiet room
+where Leuthold had died, and where Gretchen still knelt beside the bed,
+and, by her constantly recurring bursts of grief, showed that the long
+night had not sufficed to exhaust the fountains of her tears. Her head
+lay upon the edge of the bed, and her arms were stretched across the
+empty mattress,--for the host had insisted upon the immediate removal
+from his house of the body of the suicide. But Gretchen could not yet
+be induced to leave the desolate room, the vacant couch. Since she was
+not allowed to follow her father's corpse, she would at least pillow
+her head where he had lain. She repulsed all her mother's advances.
+When everything had been done that the law requires in such terrible
+cases, and the officials had vacated the apartment, she shot the bolt
+of the door behind them, and thanked God that she was alone with her
+misery, alone by her father's death-bed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What human eye can pierce the depths of a young heart lacerated by such
+anguish? All that goes on in the soul at such moments, when the
+creature wrestles with its Creator, must remain a profound mystery,--a
+mystery known to almost every human being, but never to be revealed, no
+mortal language can declare God's revelations to us in our direst need.
+Experience alone can enlighten us, and those who have lived through
+such a time can only clasp the hand of a fellow-sufferer, and say, &quot;I
+know what it is,&quot; and henceforth there is a bond between them that is
+none the less close because it can never be explained.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus was it with Gretchen and Hilsborn when the latter's low knock at
+the door aroused the girl from her grief, and she arose from her knees
+and admitted him. She put her hand in the one he held out to her, and
+looked confidingly into his serious blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You never went to bed, dear Fräulein Gleissert,&quot; said he. &quot;I can see
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How could I rest?&quot; she replied. &quot;They would not even let me watch by
+his body. All that I could do was to wake and pray for him here where
+he drew his last breath. How hard it is to have to leave what one has
+loved so dearly, and not to be allowed to cling to it at least until it
+is consigned to the earth! Suppose he were not quite dead. If he should
+stir, no one will be near to fan the spark of life into a flame. If he
+should open his eyes once more and find himself alone, and then die in
+helpless despair----Oh, the thought is madness!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I can assure you, Fräulein Gleissert,&quot; said Hilsborn quietly, &quot;that
+your father sleeps peacefully. I did what you were not permitted to
+do,--I spent the night by his body.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Could you do this for the man for whom you could have had no regard?&quot;
+cried Gretchen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I did it for you. I could imagine all you felt, and I knew it would be
+some comfort to you this morning to know that I had done it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, how can I thank you, sir? I am too childish and insignificant
+to thank you as I ought. My heart is filled with gratitude that will
+not clothe itself in words! You watched by my father from pure
+humanity,--compelled by no duty, no obligation,--only that you might
+soothe the grief of a poor orphan. I cannot express what I feel. You
+must know----&quot; She could go no further. Tears gushed from her eyes. She
+took his hand, and, before he knew what she was doing, had imprinted
+upon it a fervent kiss.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein Gleissert!&quot; cried Hilsborn, in great embarrassment. And a
+deep blush overspread his cheeks.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen never dreamed that she had committed any impropriety,--how
+could she, at such a moment? And Hilsborn knew this, and would not
+shame her by hastily withdrawing his hand. She was still but a child,
+in spite of her blooming maidenhood, and the kiss was prompted by the
+purest impulse of her heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You reward me far more richly than I deserve,&quot; he said softly.
+&quot;Although it is long since I suffered the same sorrow, I know what it
+is. Grief for the death of my father never deserts me. Sorrow easily
+unites with sorrow, and you are more to me in your affliction than any
+of the gay, laughter-loving girls of my acquaintance. Let me do what I
+can for you,--it will be done with my whole heart,--and, for your own
+sake, do not give way to grief. Remember,--it is a melancholy
+consolation, nevertheless it is a consolation,--that it is far better
+for him to die before his crime brought its dreadful consequences. His
+home could never again have been among honourable men. What, then,
+would have become of you? Believe me, it is better as it is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you think, then, my father does not deserve these tears? I know how
+great his offences were, and that every one is justified in condemning
+him,--every one but his child,--I cannot blame him. Do you think I
+ought not to grieve for him as I should for an honourable father? Ah,
+sir, is it less sad to lose a father thus, just as I was reunited to
+him, to find that he whom I so revered was a criminal, and to have him
+vanish in his sin before I could even breathe a prayer to God for mercy
+upon him? Whatever he may have done, I must mourn for him all the more,
+for he was and always will be my father. And there never was a kinder
+father. Let others curse his memory, I can only mourn for him. If the
+holy words are true, 'With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured
+to you again,' I must give him nothing but love, for he never meted to
+me anything else. Do not despise me. I do not feel his guilt the less,
+although I cannot love him less.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn looked down at her with admiration. &quot;How can you suppose that
+I could despise this sacred filial affection? I respect you all the
+more for it. It reveals in you treasures of womanly tenderness! Most
+certainly he who had such a daughter, and knew how unworthy he was of
+her, is doubly to be pitied. I will not try to console you. You have in
+yourself a richer consolation than any that mortal words can give. What
+can such a stranger as I say to you or be to you? I can only stand
+ready to protect and advise you, should you need advice or protection.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If you will be so kind as to direct my first steps in life, it lies
+all so untried before me, my poor father will bless you from beyond the
+grave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She paused, startled, for the door opened hastily, and Bertha entered.
+She regarded her daughter with a satisfaction that equalled the
+aversion that she excited in her child. Bertha's beauty had been of a
+kind that endures only for a season and then gradually becomes a
+caricature of its former self. Her fresh colour had turned to purple.
+Her mouth had grown full and sensual, with a drooping under-lip. Her
+sparkling black eyes had receded behind her fat cheeks, and had an
+expression of low cunning. An immense double chin and a round, waddling
+figure added to the coarseness of her appearance. This was the woman
+who stood ready to claim affection from a daughter whose whole
+education had tended to create disgust at her mother's chief
+characteristic--coarseness. What was this woman to her? She had heard
+that she was her mother, but she had never felt it. She had not seen
+her since she was scarcely five years old. She could feel no stirring
+of affection for. She could hardly connect her with the image in her
+mind of her father's faithless wife. While she was thus regarding
+Bertha with aversion, the man entered the room whom she was
+henceforward to consider in the light of a father,--her mother's second
+husband.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Involuntarily Gretchen retreated a step nearer to Hilsborn, as if
+seeking in him a refuge from the pair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well,&quot; began Bertha, &quot;if Fräulein Gretel is at home to young
+gentlemen, surely her father and mother----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive me,&quot; said Gretchen gently but with decision, &quot;my father is
+just dead, and I lost my mother when I was very young. I pray you to
+respect my grief and not mention names so sacred to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just hear the girl!&quot; exclaimed Bertha. &quot;Instead of thanking God that
+she still has parents to take care of her and not feel her a disgrace,
+she pretends to have no other father than the thief, the----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must not speak thus in Fräulein Gleissert's presence,&quot; cried
+Hilsborn indignantly. &quot;Can you not see how you wring her heart?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, sir, I thank you,&quot; said Gretchen with dignity. She turned to
+Bertha. &quot;Whatever your unfortunate first husband may have been, he was
+my father in the truest sense of the word, and no one can have a second
+father. Just so a mother who has once ceased to be such can never be a
+mother again. Call me false and heartless if you will,--God, who sees
+my heart, knows how it can love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is all one gets for kindness,&quot; grumbled Bertha. &quot;Here have I been
+beating my brains half the night to think what I could do for the girl,
+how I could take care of her, and this is all the thanks I get! Well,
+it's no wonder. 'What's bred in the bone will never come out of the
+flesh.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mammy! mammy! they want you to get out some clean sheets,&quot; a
+bullet-headed lad called aloud at the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come here, Fritz,&quot; cried Bertha. &quot;There, look at your sister.&quot; And she
+drew the boy towards her, evidently expecting the sight of him to
+produce a deep impression upon Gretchen. &quot;Look, Gretel, this is your
+brother,--doesn't this touch you? We have three more of them. But that
+makes no difference, you shall be the fifth; I want some one to take
+care of the little ones. Only think how fine it is for you to find
+parents and brothers and sisters all at once. They'll take care of
+you.&quot; And suddenly a tear rolled down her fat cheek. &quot;For you are my
+child, after all!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she took Gretchen's face between her hands and pressed upon it a
+smacking kiss. The girl patiently endured the caress, but when her
+mother released her she stood erect again, like a fair flower upon
+which dust has been cast without robbing it of its fragrance or soiling
+its purity. As the flower differs from the soil whence it springs, this
+child differed from her mother. And as surely as the flower turns from
+the ground to the sun, the girl's pure spirit turned from her mother to
+the light that her education and training had revealed to her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Mammy,&quot; the boy persisted, plucking Bertha by the skirts, &quot;come,
+hurry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You'll tear my dress, you bad boy!&quot; cried his mother, slapping his
+hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The boy screamed. &quot;You're so slow when any one is in a hurry, I had to
+call you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hold your tongue!&quot; his father now interposed. &quot;Leave the room. What
+will your new sister think of you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I don't mind her,&quot; said the boy insolently, as he left the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen and Hilsborn exchanged one long look. It was as if they were
+old acquaintances and could understand each other without a word.
+Gretchen shuddered at the thought of living in this family, and,
+besides, she had during the night formed a resolution that she was
+determined to carry out although it should cost her her life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her step-father broke the silence. &quot;We shall never come to any
+conclusion in this way. Where's the good in talking? You must be taken
+care of, whether you like us or not. You might at least show some
+gratitude to us for taking any trouble about you.&quot; He stroked his
+smooth, oily head as he spoke, and his artistic fingers gave a fresh
+curl to the lock just above his ear. &quot;The case is simply this: My wife
+thinks it her duty to support you. As you may suppose, it comes rather
+heavy upon us with our four children, and it stands to reason that you
+should do a little something for yourself. We will not ask anything
+unsuitable of you, for I can see plainly that you are a young lady of
+education. But, if we are to fulfil the duty of parents towards you, it
+is only fair that we should claim some filial duty from you in return.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He concluded his speech with the bow that he always made in presenting
+travellers with their little account.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, is that all?&quot; said Gretchen, greatly relieved. &quot;Then do not have
+any anxiety on my account. I renounce all claim to a support, and, in
+the presence of this witness, to any parental duties from you. I ask
+nothing of you, and shall never ask anything of you, but that you will
+allow me to depart without hindrance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The man looked significantly at Bertha, who clasped her hands in
+amazement. &quot;Do you want to go, then? Why, what will such a child as you
+do without money or friends?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Here Hilsborn interposed. &quot;You forget that your deceased husband
+appointed me his daughter's guardian, and I assure you solemnly, I have
+never valued my life as I do now that this duty is mine,--a duty that I
+am determined not to give up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen looked confidingly at Hilsborn. &quot;You see, I am not without
+friends. I will go with this gentleman. There is but one path for me in
+this world, and that leads me to Ernestine's feet. There is but one
+duty for me,--atonement for my father's sin. I cannot restore to
+Ernestine what has been taken from her,--that I learned from the papers
+yesterday. I can offer her nothing but two strong young arms to work
+for her. The Bible says, 'The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon
+the children,' but I will not wait until they are visited upon me. I
+will blot them out, as far as I may, and make the curse powerless, that
+rests upon my unhappy father's grave. I will do what he had no time to
+do here,--make atonement for his crime.&quot; She raised her hands to Bertha
+in entreaty. &quot;Oh, if you are my mother, open your heart to the first
+and last request of your child, and do not take from me the hope of
+obtaining pardon for my father by my labour and suffering!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she fell upon her knees before Bertha, who sobbed aloud.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, Gretel, my child, you are a dear, good girl. How could I ever
+forsake such a true, brave child? I see now how wrong and foolish I
+was. But I will do better. You shall learn to love me again. Only give
+up this silly idea of doing penance for your father. Why should you,
+innocent creature, suffer for his fault? you are not responsible for
+his actions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am his flesh and blood, a part of him,--his honour is mine. The
+curse that strikes him strikes me too. Whatever burdened his conscience
+weighs upon mine. How could I find rest, living or dying, if I did not
+do all that I could to make good what he did that was wrong? If he took
+what was not his, ought I to keep it? Is it not my duty to restore it?
+And, if I cannot do this, should I not try to pay the debt, although I
+can do so in no other way than by constant labour?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But tell me what you want to do. Your cousin has nothing more. What
+will you both live upon?&quot; asked Bertha.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I do not know yet I only know that, thanks to my poor father, I have
+been taught everything to enable me to support myself, and even another
+besides. I only know that I will dedicate my whole future life to
+Ernestine. I long to go to her,--she has suffered most from my father's
+fault.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The head-waiter drew Bertha aside, and whispered to her, &quot;Let her go,
+be thankful that we have not a fifth child to support.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, oh, I love the girl so much!&quot; said Bertha.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That's all very well,--but are we in a condition to take such a charge
+upon ourselves, just for a whim? And do you suppose that, if we force
+her to stay, this spoiled princess will be of the least use to us? She
+would cry from morning until night, instead of working. Let her go wherever
+she chooses. You have done without her long enough not to make such a fuss
+now about having her with you. I should think four children were enough
+for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, but----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush, now, or we will leave the room,&quot; her husband whispered
+emphatically. &quot;I will not burden myself with Dr. Gleissert's daughter
+against her will. Let her go with her new champion, and let us hear no
+more of her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As you choose, then. It is my fault, and I must bear the
+consequences,&quot; said Bertha, for the first time with real sorrow.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein Gleissert,&quot; the man said, turning to Gretchen, who had
+meanwhile been talking in a low tone with Hilsborn, &quot;if you will not
+make any claim upon us hereafter, we are ready now, hard as it is, to
+relinquish our rights in favour of this gentleman, who was appointed
+your guardian by your father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will promise never to do so, sir,&quot; replied Gretchen with a long sigh
+of relief. &quot;I am ready to give you all the security I can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is no need of that,&quot; replied Herr Meyer politely, with great
+satisfaction. &quot;You know that the giving up of our claims depends upon
+your keeping your promise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I know that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, we will not trouble you further. Probably you would prefer
+settling the account for this room. It is not much,--you have eaten
+nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, that is too mean of you!&quot; Bertha here interposed. &quot;Is my own
+child to pay for the shelter of this roof for one night? No, I will not
+have it. Gretel, do not listen to him,--you shall have something to
+eat, too, before you go. I am not quite such an unnatural mother. And
+now come, Meyer, you ought to be ashamed of playing such a disgraceful
+part.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And half angrily, half good-naturedly, she drew her smart husband from
+the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;O God, I thank thee!&quot; cried Gretchen from the depths of her soul.
+Suddenly she paused, and reflected with evident hesitation and
+embarrassment. Hilsborn took her hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, my dear little ward, will you not tell me what is troubling
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen blushed and still hesitated. At last she conquered herself,
+and confided this grief also to her faithful friend.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It has just occurred to me that I am not sure that I have money enough
+to pay my travelling expenses. I have something with me that I can
+sell, but if it should not be enough!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn smiled. &quot;Is that all? Oh, never mind that, I have enough for
+both of us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen looked mortified. &quot;But I cannot take it from you, certainly
+not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, Gretchen, will you not take it from your guardian? Why, this is
+a guardian's duty. And I will not give it to you, I will only lend it,
+and you can repay me when you are able.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You will have to wait a long time,--I have so little that I can call
+my own. It will embarrass me very much to be in your debt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen,&quot; said the young man earnestly, &quot;do not let us speak of such
+trifles. I transport you to N----, you transport me to heaven. Which
+owes most to the other--you or I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen could not reply. These new, strange words bewildered her. The
+sunlight streaming from them penetrated her heart, crushed by the
+tempest of grief that had swept over it. The blossom opened,--she was
+no longer a child!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She looked down in confusion. Hilsborn too was embarrassed. Neither
+could immediately recover from a certain constraint.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Will you do me a great favour?&quot; the girl asked at last</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Take me to where my father is lying, and let me bid him farewell once
+more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear Fräulein Gleissert, I would do so with all my heart, but it
+would take us half an hour to reach the house where he lies, and the
+train starts in three-quarters of an hour. If you will remain here
+another day, I will do what you ask.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, oh, no!&quot; cried Gretchen in alarm. &quot;I would not for the world
+trespass any longer upon Herr Meyer's hospitality, or wound my mother's
+new-found affection any further. It is better to go as quickly as
+possible. If my poor father still sees and hears me, he must know that
+I feel the pain of parting from him thus quite as much as if I were
+allowed to weep beside his lifeless body.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is right. Better dwell in thought upon the spirit that was all
+affection for you, than linger beside the senseless clay that it
+informed----&quot; He ceased, for Frau Bertha entered with breakfast. She
+had a black dress hanging upon her arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There, Gretel, my dear, is something to eat. I will not let you go
+until you have taken something. And, if the gentleman will be kind
+enough to step out one minute, we will try on this dress. You must have
+some mourning, and where else can you get it, poor child?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She spread the table hastily, and Hilsborn left the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Now come here, and let us see how this fits. It is the very dress that
+I bought ten years ago, when your step-uncle Hartwich died. But it is
+as good as new. I have worn it but little, and, if you put the skirt on
+over the pointed waist, it has quite a modern air. Just look! It is not
+much too large. I was smaller then than I am now, and I have taken it
+in wherever I could. I was afraid it would be too big for you. Look at
+that little spot,--that is where you threw your cake into my lap when
+you were a little thing. I hid it so,--in a fold. Dear, dear! I had
+this very dress on when I left you. I never thought then that you would
+one day put it on and leave me, as I was leaving you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was something touching in these simple words, and, for the first
+time, Gretchen threw herself into her mother's arms and burst into
+tears. &quot;Gretel,&quot; said Bertha, crying bitterly, &quot;you must one day feel
+that you are my child, just as I feel that I am your mother. I hope you
+will not then repent leaving me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, mother,&quot; sobbed Gretchen, &quot;how could you be so cruel to my poor
+father? How could you so wring my heart when I first saw you again that
+I turned away from you? I might have learned to love you. A child must
+try to honour its parents. I would never have reproached you for
+forsaking me, but the abyss into which you plunged my father lies
+between us, and can never be bridged over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, Gretchen, Gretchen,&quot; cried Bertha, &quot;I have done no worse than the
+young gentleman whom you think so much of. Why do you not blame him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He only did his duty by a friend, and performed it in the kindest way
+possible. My father saw that, and reposed the greatest confidence in
+him in intrusting me to his care. But you, mother, permitted Herr Meyer
+to bring the stranger here who came to hand over my father to
+punishment, and to whom my father was only the enemy of his friend. It
+was not his duty to spare my father. But, mother, he had once been your
+husband, he was the father of your child, and yet, when, hunted and
+pursued, he sought the shelter of your roof, you had the heart to
+betray him and deliver him up to death and disgrace. I will not judge
+you, but ask yourself, mother, did he deserve such treatment at your
+hands?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, merciful Heaven! you may be right, but it really seemed that it
+was to be so. I had forgotten everything but the wrong he did me. He
+has had his punishment, and I must have mine, for, indeed, to love you
+and lose you so is a heavy trial.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn knocked at the door. &quot;Frau Meyer, it is almost time to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes. Come in,&quot; cried Bertha. &quot;Gretchen is dressed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn entered. He regarded compassionately the touching figure in
+the black dress,--the lovely childlike face, with those sad, large
+eyes, reminding him of a wounded doe's. His heart overflowed with pity,
+and he held out his hand, with, &quot;Come, we must be upon our way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am ready,&quot; Gretchen murmured.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stop,&quot; cried Bertha. &quot;You must take something first.&quot; And she poured
+out a cup of chocolate, and followed Gretchen, who was collecting her
+various trifles for her travelling-bag, about the room, until she
+persuaded her to take some of it. &quot;And you must eat some of this cake.
+You used to be so fond of it, and your lamented,--well, yes,--your
+lamented father too. Ah, I used to be well treated when I put that
+cake on the table! Will you not taste it? Well, then, take some with
+you.&quot; And she crammed as much of it as she could into the girl's
+travelling-bag.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">One minute more, and Gretchen was ready to leave the room. &quot;Good-by,
+mother,&quot; she said, throwing herself once more into the arms of her
+mother, whose hot tears fell upon her child's neck. &quot;I will never
+forget your kindness to me to-day, and if you ever need me you will
+find me a daughter to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My child, my good child!&quot; sobbed Bertha. &quot;Try to think as well of me
+as you can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, dear mother. God bless you and yours!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn hurried the girl away. She gently extricated herself from her
+mother's arms, and, in anguish of soul, descended the stairs that her
+father had on the previous day ascended for the first and last time.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Write to me now and then,&quot; Bertha called after her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed I will, I promise you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When they reached the hall, they found there a crowd of curious
+idlers, all eager to see the suicide's daughter. Gretchen paused,
+overcome with dismay. She could hardly trust her limbs to bear her
+through the throng. A soft, warm hand clasped hers,--it was Hilsborn's.
+He drew the little hand under his arm, and led her through the gaping
+loiterers to the carriage. Gretchen was scarcely conscious, she only
+felt that, supported by this arm, she could raise her head once more,
+and she was filled with gratitude towards the man who did not shrink
+from thus espousing the cause of the child of a criminal.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Herr Meyer made them a formal bow as they entered the carriage, and it
+rolled away past the gay, sparkling waters of the Alster, now swarming
+with boats.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen looked out of the carriage window. Yesterday all this had been
+the world to her,--to-day her world was within, and all this was mere
+outward show.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.8" href="#div1Ref_3.8">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>BLOSSOMS ON THE BORDER OF THE GRAVE.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come quick, Johannes, Hilsborn has arrived,&quot; the Staatsräthin
+whispered from the door of the apartment. Johannes was seated by
+Ernestine's bedside, her head leaning upon his hand, while the poor
+girl moved restlessly from side to side, muttering unintelligibly. He
+motioned to Willmers to take his place, and went softly out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank God, you are back again. Have you brought him with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He has escaped.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hilsborn, that is terrible!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is gone whither he cannot be pursued, and whence he can work no
+more mischief.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is he dead?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is dead, and he died in fearful agony.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God have mercy on his soul! Did he take poison?&quot; asked the
+Staatsräthin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, just after his arrest I arranged matters as well as I could, but
+he had only a little over two thousand gulden in his possession. He had
+put all the property in the Unkenheim factory.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And that is bankrupt, so we shall not be able to save anything for
+Ernestine,&quot; said Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am very sorry for that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But Hilsborn, faithful friend, I am quite forgetting to thank you. How
+shall I repay you for taking this journey for me?&quot; said Johannes
+warmly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am already paid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed? What possible pleasure could result from such a mission?&quot;
+inquired the Staatsräthin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn smiled. &quot;Such pleasure as I never dreamed of. Gleissert
+bequeathed me a treasure whose possession no one, God willing, shall
+dispute with me. May I show it to you? I would like to intrust it to
+your keeping, dear friends, for awhile.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes and his mother exchanged looks of surprise. Was Hilsborn quite
+right in his mind?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will tell you nothing more,&quot; he said. &quot;See for yourselves.&quot; He left
+the room, and appeared again in a few moments with Gretchen upon his
+arm. The poor child ventured only one timid, beseeching look at the
+strangers, but the touching expression of her eyes won their hearts
+immediately.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good God! his child?&quot; asked the Staatsräthin.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;His child,&quot; Hilsborn replied with grave emphasis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The old lady went up instantly to the lovely, shrinking girl and
+embraced her, saying significantly to Hilsborn, &quot;Now I understand you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear Fräulein Gleissert,&quot; said Johannes, &quot;you are most welcome, and
+you must allow us to offer you a home until you find a better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are too kind,&quot; stammered Gretchen. &quot;I know how bold I am, but my
+guardian----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! Hilsborn, are you her guardian?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Her dying father wished it to be so, and therefore I brought her here
+to place her under your protection, although she wished to see no one
+except Ernestine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She can hardly see her for sometime yet,&quot; said Möllner. &quot;Ernestine's
+fever may be infectious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, is that all?&quot; Gretchen ventured to remonstrate. &quot;Then pray let me
+go to her. Nothing can harm me when I am doing my duty. Better to die
+than live on without being permitted to do as I know I ought. Oh, dear
+Herr Hilsborn, you know what I mean, speak for me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not refuse her, Johannes. She will not be content until she is with
+Ernestine. I make a fearful sacrifice in exposing her to this danger,
+when I would guard her like the apple of my eye, but I know how she is
+longing for Ernestine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, Fräulein Gleissert, you shall share with my mother the care of
+the invalid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you all a thousand times! May I go now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Take her to Ernestine's room, mother dear, while I speak with
+Hilsborn,&quot; said Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Come, then, my child.&quot; The Staatsräthin opened the door of the
+darkened apartment, and the girl entered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen stood as if rooted to the spot. There lay the dreaded, mute
+accuser of her father, the unfortunate victim of his crimes, pale and
+beautiful as an ideal embodiment of death,--a glorious lily,
+prostrated, perhaps never again to stand erect, by the same hand that a
+few days before had been laid in blessing upon Gretchen's head. The
+poor child, crushed by the sight, sank upon her knees, and, extending
+her arms, cried in a suppressed voice of agony, &quot;Forgive, forgive!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine did not reply, for she did not hear. Reason was dethroned
+behind that pale, broad brow, and confused dreams were running riot
+there in the wildest anarchy.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Only when Gretchen perceived that Ernestine was wholly unconscious, did
+she dare to approach close to her. Gazing at her with admiring pity,
+she murmured to herself, &quot;No, my father did not understand, or he
+maligned you. You are not bad, you cannot be bad!&quot; And, kneeling, she
+breathed a gentle kiss upon the small hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Did the invalid feel that something loving was near? She put out her
+hand towards the kneeling girl, and, detaining her by the dress, leaned
+her head upon her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She will let me stay by her,&quot; whispered Gretchen with a face of
+delight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin could not help stroking the brow of the charming
+child, and Frau Willmers felt as if this stranger were an angel, come
+to lead Ernestine into a better world.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Such a sick-room I like to see,&quot; suddenly said a suppressed bass voice
+that made Gretchen start. &quot;This is a pretty sight,&quot; it continued, and
+old Heim looked searchingly at Gretchen from beneath his bushy white
+eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The girl would have arisen, but Ernestine would not release her, and
+Heim motioned to her to be quiet. &quot;You have one hand free, my child,
+give it to me. I am your guardian's foster-father, and I know what a
+good child you are. The fellow was right to bring you here,--I would
+have brought you myself. God bless you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He seated himself by the bedside, and a deep expectant silence reigned
+in the room as he felt Ernestine's pulse. Besides Gretchen's, two other
+anxious eyes were riveted upon his face. Möllner had just entered
+noiselessly. &quot;Well, what do you think?&quot; he asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim shrugged his shoulders. &quot;I do not think it is typhus.
+Nevertheless----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Scarcely had the invalid heard Johannes' voice when she released
+Gretchen and turned her face towards the spot where Möllner was
+standing. He approached the bed and leaned over her. She put out her
+arms to him, but instantly dropped them again, as if, even in her
+delirium, she would not confess herself conquered. And then she talked
+wildly on, at times declaring that she could not get rid of the
+skull,--it would follow her everywhere, and then pleading piteously
+that she was not yet dead, and they must not put her down into the
+narrow grave.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is the result of a woman's giving herself up to anatomical
+studies,&quot; said Möllner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There has been dreadful work with the nerves here, and with the brain
+too,&quot; muttered Heim. &quot;The fever has increased since I have been sitting
+here. If we could only disabuse her mind of these delirious fancies!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have tried that, but contradiction only excites her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let this child try, then. It is impossible to say what effect she
+might produce,&quot; said Heim. &quot;Have you the courage, my child, to watch
+with your cousin tonight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, sir, I think I can never touch my bed until Ernestine has left
+hers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There's a brave girl! upon my word, I've seen nothing so charming for
+a long while. She will soon rival Ernestine in my heart!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes laid a cloth dipped in ice-water upon Ernestine's forehead,
+who continued to moan bitterly that she was not dead and they must not
+treat her thus.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; said Gretchen in her clear, bell-like voice, &quot;no one shall
+harm you. Be quiet, dear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you not see,&quot; wailed the sick girl, &quot;that they are trying to weigh
+my brain? and it hurts! oh, how it hurts!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, you are dreaming,&quot; said Gretchen. &quot;This is only a damp
+cloth. Feel it yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Remember that, although I am dead, my soul is living. Oh, if I could
+only stop thinking! Dying is nothing! living is the worst of all!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes turned away, and wrung his hands. &quot;Ah, Johannes!&quot; she
+exclaimed, &quot;my uncle's knife is sharp, I cannot get away. Why did they
+bind me here, if they thought me dead?&quot; And in an instant she thrust
+Gretchen aside, and would have leaped from the bed, had not Johannes
+gently but firmly thrown his strong arm around her and forced her back
+among the pillows.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let me go! let go!&quot; she moaned. &quot;Who ever heard of dissection before
+death?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; Johannes cried in despair, &quot;it is I,--Johannes. No one
+shall harm you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But she either did not hear or did not understand him, and she
+struggled so that Johannes could scarcely hold her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is dreadful!&quot; said the Staatsräthin, supporting Gretchen's
+tottering form. &quot;Do you still think, Father Heim, after this, that
+physiology is the study for a woman's nerves? Can a woman's nature take
+a more terrible revenge than this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Heim shook his head, and grumbled, &quot;Frail stuff, indeed, but yet I
+thought she could stand it. Well, well, one is never too old to learn.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And still Ernestine raved on, ceaselessly haunted by the same grim
+phantoms created by the fearful struggle that she had lately passed
+through.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last exhaustion supervened, and she lay perfectly silent and
+motionless. Heim took his hat and cane. &quot;I think she will have a
+quieter night. You should take some rest, Johannes. You cannot stand
+such uninterrupted watching.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have done all that I could to persuade him to lie down,&quot; said his
+mother. &quot;I can easily watch one night, especially now since I have such
+a dear little assistant. And Willmers too will wear herself out. She is
+as obstinate as Johannes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is nothing to be done with him,&quot; said Heim. &quot;It is a good thing
+that it is vacation, or this would soon come to an end. Well, I must
+go. It is quite a drive to town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It would have been better if we could have taken her home with us,&quot;
+said the Staatsräthin. &quot;But the illness was so sudden and violent that
+she could not be moved, and we had to come out here to nurse her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are good people!&quot; And Heim held out his hand to them. &quot;God will
+reward you for your kindness to the poor child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All that I do, dear friend, is done for my son's sake. I am sure he
+will thank me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed he will, mother,&quot; Johannes declared with emphasis.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When Heim entered the next room, he found Hilsborn there, standing at
+the window, lost in dreamy reverie.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, my boy, will you have a seat in my carriage?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, father, I should like to stay here to-day and assist Möllner,&quot;
+said Hilsborn, slightly confused.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Assist Möllner? Hm----&quot; Heim paused, and riveted his piercing eyes
+with infinite humour upon Hilsborn's blushing face. &quot;Well, well, my
+boy, since you wish it, pray assist Möllner. You have my free consent
+to do so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The young man clasped his foster-father's hand with an emotion of
+gratitude that he hardly understood himself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hm,&quot; said Heim again. &quot;We understand! we understand! All right!
+Anything else would be unnatural. There's no need to be ashamed of your
+choice. Good night, and&quot;--a good-humoured smile played about his
+mouth--&quot;do assist Möllner diligently. Do you hear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And the genial old man went chuckling out of the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn bethought himself awhile, then looked cautiously into the
+sick-room and beckoned to Gretchen. She instantly came to him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only a moment,&quot; he begged, and gently drew her away with him. &quot;You
+must have a little fresh air. All the others think only of Ernestine. I
+am here to take care of you, and to see that you do not overtask your
+strength. Come, take a few turns with me in the garden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As you please,&quot; said the girl meekly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not as I please, Gretchen. You must not talk in that way. I do not
+like it.&quot; He threw a shawl over her shoulders, and gave her his arm.
+Together they went down into the garden.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This garden,&quot; said Gretchen, &quot;reminds me of ours at the pension.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Were you happy there?&quot; asked her companion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, very! I had so many kind teachers and companions!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It must be very hard for you to leave such a home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My home now is with Ernestine. I am content only by her bedside. I
+wish for nothing else. I do not choose to wish for anything else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn broke off a fading acacia-sprig from the tree.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Give it to me?&quot; said Gretchen. &quot;I will try whether Ernestine will
+recover or not.&quot; And she pulled off the leaves, one after another.
+&quot;Yes,--no,--yes,--no. Yes, she will get well!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you know Faust?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No. We were never allowed to read Goethe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your namesake in Faust plucks off the leaves of a daisy, to answer a
+question that she puts it, but the question is a different one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She asks whether she is beloved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen looked down.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did you never put that question?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How could I? I was sure that my father, my teachers and friends loved
+me, and I knew no one else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And yet you must often have consulted your flower oracle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, yes. There was plenty to ask,--whether I was to take the first,
+second, or third rank in the examination,--whether I was to have a
+letter from my father that day,--and ever so many things besides. But
+that is all over. There are few flowers or questions for me now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You must not indulge such gloomy, autumnal fancies. The flowers will
+bloom again, and with them many a youthful hope in your heart. You
+will, perhaps, one day want to know whether one whom you love loves
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen looked seriously and kindly at him from out her brown eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If Ernestine only loves me, and----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, and----?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And you, I will ask nothing more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen, do you not believe that I love you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I think you do,&quot; the girl replied frankly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;By the good God, who sees all hearts, I think so too,&quot; cried Hilsborn,
+clasping the little hand that lay upon his arm more closely to his
+heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They stood still for one moment together in the gathering twilight, and
+then walked slowly on. It was an unusually mild autumn evening. The
+crescent of the new moon glimmered, like a gleaming diamond upon dark
+locks, just above the tall firs that crowned the hill that had been
+Ernestine's favourite spot. As she looked up, Gretchen's eyes were
+moist.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The moon is the sun of the unhappy,&quot; she said suddenly. &quot;Hers is the
+only light that weeping eyes can endure. They must close in the garish
+rays of the sun, but they can look up to her through their tears. When
+she reigns in the sky, repose comes to the weary after the day's dull
+pain. And you, my kind guardian, seem to me like the moon,--you are so
+calm and still. I shrink from the others, it seems to me they must
+despise me, but with you I can weep freely, and rest from all my pain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you, Gretchen, for these words,&quot; said Hilsborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And the girl, in the self-abandonment of her grief, leaned her head
+upon Hilsborn's shoulder and wept silently.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus they walked slowly on for a time, without a word. The moon began
+to disappear behind the firs, and only gleamed through them when the
+night breeze stirred their boughs. A low whisper,--a soft suggestion of
+the resurrection,--trembled among the withered leaves and leafless
+branches. The little silver skiff glided quietly down the horizon, and
+misty vapours floated about the youthful pair like a bridal veil. Their
+innocent hearts mourned over scarcely-closed graves in the midst of
+nature, enlivened by no young blossoms, no nightingale's song, and yet
+a future spring was gently stirring around and within them, amid tears
+and autumn desolation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We must return,&quot; said Gretchen, suddenly rousing herself from her sad
+thoughts. &quot;They will miss us.&quot; And she hastened on in advance of her
+friend. At the door of the sick-room he detained her for one moment.
+&quot;Gretchen, you have done more than I can tell for me in this last
+half-hour, but yet not enough. You will give me just such another every
+evening, will you not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With all my heart!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And, Gretchen, I shall pass this night watching here in this room.
+Come to the door now and then, and give me one look.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why?&quot; she asked, with a blush.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because your face is the dearest sight in the world to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I am glad of that!&quot; she faltered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Remember sometimes to give me a smile,--will you not? I shall wait for
+it from minute to minute and from hour to hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You shall not wait in vain. How could I refuse to gratify a wish of
+yours?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And with these words, that were more to the young man than she herself
+dreamed of, she left him, and entered the sick-room with her heart
+filled with mingled joy and pain.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes was kneeling by the bed, his forehead leaning upon Ernestine's
+arm, that was hanging down outside the coverlet. His mother gave
+Gretchen a kindly nod. No one ventured to speak. Ernestine seemed
+asleep.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen sat down beside the Staatsräthin and gratefully pressed her
+offered hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus they sat for an hour, motionless, and then Ernestine had a fresh
+access of delirium. Her whole illness seemed to be only a vain effort
+of nature to banish the evil, unnatural ideas nestling in her brain
+like destructive parasites. At last Johannes induced his mother and
+Willmers to take a little rest while he and Gretchen watched. He
+suffered so much at the sight of Ernestine's sufferings that it was a
+relief to him to know that his mother was not in the room,--his mother,
+in whose presence his affection forced him to exercise such difficult
+self-control.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen was a faithful assistant, although the poor child's heart was
+well-nigh broken at the constant reference to her father that filled
+Ernestine's ravings. Fragments of the past were brought to light,
+detached scenes rehearsed incoherently, but running through all the
+unfortunate daughter could perceive the dark crimson thread of her
+father's guilt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The hot tears coursed down her cheeks. Johannes never noticed them. He
+had eyes and ears only for Ernestine. The poor orphaned child felt
+alone indeed. But no! How could she entertain such a thought? Had she
+not a friend and protector near? And had she not promised to bestow a
+kindly glance now and then upon the faithful sentinel? How could she
+forget him for one moment? While Johannes stood by Ernestine, she
+softly opened the door and looked out. There he sat, his eyes full of
+expectation, and a bright smile broke over his face at the sight of
+Gretchen. He started up and tore a leaf, upon which he had been
+writing, out of his note-book.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen,&quot; he whispered, &quot;here is something for you. Take it, as it is
+meant,--kindly. You are having a hard night. I can imagine all you are
+suffering. Do not forget that there is one sitting here thinking of and
+for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen held out her hand, and he put the paper into it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you, even before I know what it contains,&quot; she whispered in
+reply. &quot;It must be something kind, since it comes from you.&quot; And she
+re-entered the sickroom and seated herself by the table upon which the
+night-lamp stood. She shivered, for Ernestine's words were all full of
+horror. But she held a talisman in her hand, and Hilsborn's handwriting
+banished all haunting sorrow. She unfolded the paper and read:</p>
+
+<div class="poem2">
+<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-8px">&quot;Weep, poor heart, and yet again<br>
+Breathe those gentle songs of sadness,<br>
+Not for thee are notes of gladness,<br>
+Softly fall thy tears like rain.<br>
+Look to heaven when woes thus move thee,<br>
+From the eternal stars above thee<br>
+Comfort seek in earthly pain.</p>
+
+<p class="t0">&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-8px">&quot;Weep, poor heart, when all in vain<br>
+Thou hast hoped for rest from sadness,<br>
+When the stars rain down no gladness.<br>
+Yet despair not! once again<br>
+Lift thine eyes when sorrow moves thee,<br>
+In the eyes of one who loves thee,<br>
+Comfort seek in earthly pain.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen sat with hands folded, looking at these words, that arched a
+new heaven above her and revealed a new earth around her. Large as her
+young heart was, it seemed all too narrow for the flood of tenderness
+that filled it now. She arose once more, and glided from the room. To
+Johannes, who gazed after her absently, it seemed as if her airy figure
+actually diffused a light around it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In the next room she approached Hilsborn, silently, her eyes suffused
+with tears, and held out her hand. He looked up at her with imploring
+entreaty, saw how she was agitated, and that her heart was beating
+almost to suffocation. He gently drew her nearer and nearer to him,
+until, like ripened wheat awaiting the reaper's scythe, she sank into
+his arms, and burst into tears. But her tears were like the glittering
+drops that the breeze shakes from the trees after a summer rain.</p>
+
+<div class="poem2">
+<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-8px">&quot;In the eyes of one who loves thee,<br>
+Comfort seek in earthly pain,&quot;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="continue">echoed in the hearts of the lovers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then Ernestine's voice came ringing through the open door. &quot;What is the
+end? Eternal night, eternal silence, and eternal solitude!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, not eternal bliss!&quot; Gretchen breathed softly to herself.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.9" href="#div1Ref_3.9">CHAPTER IX.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>IT IS MORNING AGAIN.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">A call from Möllner to Gretchen separated the young people before they
+found words to express what they felt. Ernestine grew so much worse in
+the course of the night that Gretchen did not leave her again. When at
+last the rays of the rising sun shone through the heavy curtains of the
+room, the Staatsräthin released the poor child from her painful watch,
+and she was free to hasten to her lover. He drew her with him to
+Ernestine's study. Everything was just as it had been left on the day
+when Ernestine was taken ill,--nothing had been touched here. The ashes
+of the burnt fairy-book were still lying on the hearth, the Æolian harp
+breathed forth sad melody to the rude autumn wind, the roses were fled,
+and only the thorn-covered bushes remained. The chests were still
+standing about, all packed for the voyage,--speaking plainly of what
+had been the plans of the proud spirit now so prostrated by disease. A
+forgotten pen lay upon the desk, and dust was everywhere. No one had
+thought of arranging this room,--care for Ernestine had given abundant
+occupation to the entire household. The pause in the life of the
+invalid was mirrored in this apartment, where everything seemed
+awaiting the moment when a busy hand should sweep, dust, and put all in
+order, and the glad news be heard--&quot;Ernestine is better!&quot; But this
+moment was still in the dim future. Hither the young couple came,
+ignorant of the struggles these walls had witnessed, the pain and
+anguish that had been suffered here.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Our life lasts seventy--perhaps eighty--years, and the delight of it
+is labour and trouble.&quot; These words, carved on the table, were the
+first visible sign to these youthful hearts of the struggles,
+sufferings, and sacrifices of the woman by whose feverish bed they had
+truly found each other. And Gretchen stayed her steps by the table, and
+read the words thoughtfully. &quot;She is right,&quot; she said to herself. &quot;And
+if she chose to impose upon herself this severe law, can I choose any
+other motto--I? What right have I to desire any other delight in life
+but labour and trouble and penance? Ah, Ernestine, now first I see how
+noble you are, and what wrong my father did you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen,&quot; asked Hilsborn, &quot;what are you thinking?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It seems to me as if an invisible hand here inscribed, 'Hold!' for my
+eyes alone. How could I for one moment resign myself to the thought of
+a happiness that could turn me aside from my first and most sacred
+duty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen, how am I to understand you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She clasped her hands, and, with eyes fixed reverentially upon the
+carved motto, said, &quot;All my hopes and dreams must be sacrificed for her
+whose motto this is. Until she is happy, how can I wish to be so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I see what you have resolved, my dearest. You intend to obtain
+forgiveness for your father, to blot out his sin by your devotion. But
+you think only of her against whom your father sinned most heavily?
+There is another to whom you owe some reparation on his account, and
+that is myself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He drew her towards him, and went on with all a lover's sophistry.
+&quot;Yes, dearest, your father wronged mine. He robbed him of a valuable
+scientific discovery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Heaven help me! is this so?&quot; cried the girl, greatly distressed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And do you not see that it will be no infringement of the duty that
+you impose upon yourself, if you grant me the reparation that I ask of
+you, even although I should ask for nothing less than yourself,--your
+entire life, Gretchen,--would you think me too bold? would you think
+the compensation for what your father deprived me of too great?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, oh, no! much too small,&quot; whispered Gretchen, with glistening eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not too small. I know it is too great. But love, Gretchen, will not
+weigh deserts. Everything is in your hands, dearest. Your father
+injured my father, but he gives me his child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The girl put her hands to her throbbing brow. &quot;Can this be so?--can so
+great a blessing spring from a curse? I do not deserve such joy. Can it
+be no wrong, but a duty, to love you, whom I would have renounced for
+duty's sake? I longed to labour and suffer for my father's crime, and
+is this my penance--to give myself to him whom I love? It is too
+much,--I cannot believe it. But what shall I do? How shall I reconcile
+my duty to Ernestine and to you? Help me, advise me, that I may not
+neglect one duty for the sake of the other,--there can be no true
+happiness without a clear conscience. Help me, then, to be really
+happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My darling,&quot; said Hilsborn, &quot;I understand you now, just as I have
+always understood you, and I will help you to satisfy your conscience.
+If I could, I would shower every precious gift upon you,--how then
+could I deprive you of that priceless possession--peace of mind? True
+love brings true peace in its train, and this peace shall be yours.
+Therefore do for Ernestine all that your heart dictates, as long as you
+can be of service to her. I shall be near you, and we can at least
+exchange a word now and then. True love is easily content, it prizes
+even the smallest token. I will not claim one moment that you think
+belongs to Ernestine,--that would trouble you. We will tell no one as
+yet of our betrothal but my faithful foster-father Heim, without whose
+blessing I can take no step in life. The knowledge of our happiness
+might grate upon poor Möllner, who has so much to endure. But when,
+Gretchen, Ernestine has entirely recovered, it will be ours to enjoy
+our bliss without a pang. And if,--which I can scarcely believe,--she
+should still refuse to share Möllner's lot, then, I swear to you, I
+will aid you truly in all that you do for her. She shall live with us
+and be to me as a sister. Is not this all that you desire, my dearest
+one?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, you read my very soul, for I could never consent to be
+your--wife, until I knew that Ernestine was well and content. And I
+have hardly thought myself grown up--I am hardly fit to be a wife. How
+can I accustom myself to the thought?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will do all I can to teach you, dear little wife,--the lesson will
+not, I hope, be hard to learn,&quot; said Hilsborn gaily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Perhaps not,&quot; Gretchen replied, and for the first time there was an
+arch sparkle in the melancholy brown eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus these two hearts were united, speedily, in childlike faith, after
+the manner of youth, and without a struggle. But above in the sick-room
+two hearts were wrestling in mortal pain. Love, for poor Ernestine,
+must attain the light only through the dark night of error and illusion
+that was around her,--that light in which Gretchen and Hilsborn
+innocently basked, driven from their Eden by no angel with the flaming
+sword. Such strong natures as Möllner's and Ernestine's could not unite
+without a struggle. Each had framed a world for itself, and one of
+these worlds must be shattered before they could become one world. The
+farther apart they were, the more powerful the attraction between them,
+the more certainly would the weaker crumble to pieces in contact with
+the stronger. It is the mysterious condition under which gifted natures
+receive their talents from God, that they must strive and labour for a
+happiness that often falls unsought into the lap of weaker natures.
+Thus Eternal Wisdom maintains the balance of its gifts,--the weak and
+the simple receive without asking what the strong must earn. And these
+two gifted creatures were earning hardly their portion of life's joy,
+that they might fulfil the law prescribed by God for creatures so
+constituted. His laws are inscribed not upon the heavens, but in the
+human heart, and all our striving for perfection is, in fact, only an
+endeavour to read these laws correctly. And how often do we read them
+falsely, in spite of all our honest pains!</p>
+
+<p class="normal">How much more was this the case with one like Ernestine, who had never
+been taught to heed the still small voice in her heart as the voice of
+God! All her errors and sufferings were the result, as are those of
+most men, of a misconception of the Divine will. If she had known that
+she was destined to purchase happiness by self-sacrifice, she would
+have paid for it voluntarily, and would not have wrestled with her
+destiny to the last, until she almost succumbed in the conflict. Her
+life had well-nigh been ruined by the want of true Christian culture;
+she was ready to make every sacrifice, except that which is alone well
+pleasing in God's sight--the sacrifice of self.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And Johannes, true and without guile as he was, endured a terrible
+trial in Ernestine's sufferings. From hour to hour he became more
+thoroughly convinced that he had been the means of prostrating
+Ernestine upon a sick-bed,--that he had burdened her beyond her
+strength by his reckless description of the danger that threatened
+her,--and he was a prey to remorse. He reproached himself bitterly, and
+tormented himself with devising a thousand ways in which he could have
+managed matters more wisely. &quot;It is presumptuous to attempt to play the
+part of Providence to another, for the best intentions are no warrant
+for the consequences,&quot; he said to his mother, just when Gretchen and
+Hilsborn were weaving their rosy future.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Results are always in God's hand,&quot; replied Frau Möllner.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Amen!&quot; said Johannes solemnly, from the depths of his tortured heart.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus the pilot, seeing looming before him the dangerous rock, past
+which his skill has not availed to guide the vessel intrusted to his
+care, says, &quot;I have done what I could, now Providence takes the helm.&quot;
+And here too Providence was guiding the vessel, but slowly,--so slowly
+that the lookers-on were agonized.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Day after day and week after week passed, without any visible
+improvement. Ernestine's consciousness did not return. Heim shook his
+head. He said to Johannes one morning, &quot;I wish your brother-in-law were
+at home, Johannes. I should very much like to hear his opinion of the
+case.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And he made no other reply to Johannes' inquiries.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Moritz Kern and his wife had been employing the vacation in a
+pleasure-trip, and were shortly to return home.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It looked as if Heim were coming to a conclusion, and did not wish to
+pronounce an opinion without consulting a third authority.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes was consumed by anxiety. For four weeks he never left
+Ernestine's bedside, only sleeping when she was quiet, and then with
+his weary head supported against the back of his chair. He would have
+no help, except from his mother and Gretchen. Even Willmers was not
+allowed to do all that she wished to do. Only one stranger was now and
+then admitted to the sick-room,--a venerable, aged form, that sat there
+motionless, disturbing no one. It was old Leonhardt. Every third day
+his son conducted him to the castle, and no one had the heart to refuse
+to allow him to take his place at the foot of Ernestine's bed, where he
+listened to her gloomy ravings and Möllner's deep-drawn sighs, and only
+now and then sadly shook his gray head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If she would only come to herself sufficiently,&quot; he said one day, &quot;to
+let us relieve her mind of this anxiety about dying, that seems at the
+root of her delirium, she would soon be better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;True, Father Leonhardt, true,&quot; replied Johannes. &quot;But she has not one
+sane instant. It drives me to despair!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Courage, courage, dear friend,&quot; said Leonhardt, &quot;and, remember, you
+only did your duty. That thought must comfort you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am afraid it will not comfort me long,&quot; was Johannes' gloomy reply.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">While they were speaking, Heim's carriage drove op. This time he was
+not alone,--Moritz was with him. Leonhardt retired to the library,
+where Walter always awaited him, and Helm and Moritz entered the
+antechamber. Gretchen and Hilsborn were standing whispering together by
+the window. The former hastily left the room, embarrassed by the
+entrance of the stranger with Heim.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who the deuce is your pretty companion?&quot; asked Moritz in surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is my ward, Gleissert's unfortunate daughter,&quot; Hilsborn explained
+with some reserve. &quot;I brought her hither from Hamburg.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, I know, I know,--heard all about it. Guardian, then, are you? Very
+delightful position, with such a charming ward,&quot; laughed Moritz.
+&quot;Here's a fellow! looks as if he couldn't say 'boh' to a goose, and
+brings home such a pretty girl the first journey he takes! Yes,
+yes,--'still waters!'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not jest,&quot; Hilsborn begged. &quot;It is too serious a matter for
+jesting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nay, never mind what I say,&quot; said Moritz. &quot;I must pay some respect to
+your new dignity. Hardly out of leading-strings yourself, and appointed
+guardian to young unprotected females! Ha! ha!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Be quiet, Johannes will hear you,&quot; grumbled Heim. &quot;Reserve your jests
+for more congenial society.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, my good friend, you cannot expect me to hang my head for the sake
+of that fool of a woman, whom I have always wished at the deuce. Who
+could see, without getting angry, that fellow Johannes wasting his best
+powers upon such an ungrateful creature? If we were compelled to stand
+by and look on while some one spent time and trouble in trying to make
+a common brier produce tea-roses, should we not long to root out the
+senseless weed, rather than witness such a foolish undertaking?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Your comparison does not hold good, my friend. The Hartwich has her
+thorns, but with care and patience she will blossom into a beautiful
+flower.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you never coming in?&quot; asked Johannes, opening the door of the
+sick-room and looking out impatiently. &quot;What keeps you so long?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, we are coming,&quot; said Heim, &quot;but, Johannes, I would rather see
+Ernestine alone with Moritz.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;As you please, but pray make haste,&quot; said Johannes, coming fully into
+the room. &quot;Good-day, Moritz. How are you? Did you not bring Angelika
+with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She wanted to come with me, but I would not let her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And why not?&quot; asked Johannes in a tone of disappointment.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Because women are always in the way at such times.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But had you any right to refuse to allow your wife to see her mother
+and brother after a separation of four weeks?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have the right, as her husband, to allow and forbid whatever I
+choose. If you wished it otherwise, you should have had it so said in
+the marriage contract,&quot; Moritz replied sharply. &quot;Angelika never wishes
+for anything that I do not choose she should have, and whoever does not
+train his wife in the same way is a fool, my dear brother-in-law. Come,
+don't be vexed--you know what a prickly fellow I am.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am not in the mood to mind your insinuations,&quot; said Johannes
+wearily. &quot;You war with an unarmed foe. Go in, and bring me some good
+news if you can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Moritz repented his hasty words when he saw how troubled Johannes
+really was, and immediately entered the sick-room with Heim.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes sank into the chair by the window and leaned his heavy head
+against the panes. Such terrible thoughts and fears had lately assailed
+him! He would not heed them. But if the two physicians should share
+them also? His heart beat louder and louder with every moment's delay.
+He could hardly breathe. Hilsborn stood beside him, and, without
+speaking, pressed his hand. They heard Moritz speak to Ernestine, and
+her wild, confused replies. Then the murmur of Heim's and Moritz's
+voices was alone audible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last the door opened. Even Moritz looked very grave.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well?&quot; asked Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Moritz with a shrug, &quot;I agree with Heim, the fever is a
+secondary consideration now. It is subdued--there is something worse
+than death to be dreaded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah! I feared it!&quot; Johannes said with a low suppressed cry. &quot;Be
+brief,--I am upon the rack--you fear--good God I you fear for her
+mind?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He could say no more.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Moritz and Heim exchanged glances. &quot;Be calm, Johannes. Remember, this
+is only conjecture. We are mortal, and cannot be certain. Only it
+cannot be denied that it looks now more like an affection of the brain
+than anything else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is a well-known fact,&quot; Helm continued, &quot;that patients affected in
+this manner are often slightly deranged in mind for some time after
+the fever is subdued, but such cases are most frequent among the aged,
+and the derangement is not of as long duration as with Ernestine.
+Her continual harping upon the same idea troubled me from the
+beginning,--it was like monomania,--always her death and a terrible
+eternity ensuing upon it. She must have pondered upon it far too much
+lately,--it has grown to be a fixed idea. If there are not shortly
+signs of returning reason, I am afraid she will be----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Insane!&quot; Johannes completed the sentence--&quot;oh!--insane!&quot; He buried his
+face in his hands, in an agony that convulsed his whole frame.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Moritz laid his hand upon his shoulder. &quot;Johannes,&quot; he said, &quot;be
+strong. For years we have looked to you, in joy and sorrow, as the very
+ideal of manly self-control and firm determination. Your example has
+shown as the true dignity of manhood,--and shall pain upon a woman's
+account have power to move you thus? No indeed! she is not worth it.
+Ten of these fools are not worth one throb of agony in such a man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not speak to me. Leave me, I pray you, to myself,&quot; cried Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We had better go,&quot; said Heim. &quot;He will soon come to himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good-by, Johannes,&quot; Moritz said, pressing his hand. &quot;And listen--open
+the shutters in Ernestine's room. Speak to her, call to her. It is not
+good for her to be in that gloomy twilight. It is a case where you must
+try to awaken reason--not let it smoulder away with too much care and
+nursing. Some convalescents would never leave their beds if they were
+not driven from them, because they are too weak to exert themselves.
+And it is just so with a diseased brain. The mind must be helped upon
+its feet, especially with women, who are only too ready to let
+themselves go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Moritz is right,&quot; said Heim. &quot;I agree with him. Today is the ninth
+that she has been without fever. We may risk something. Farewell,
+Johannes. I will come again this evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The gentlemen motioned to Hilsborn to accompany them, and left the
+room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes clasped his hands, and there burst from his heart such a
+prayer as comes from the soul only in moments of deepest anguish. &quot;O
+God, who knowest my heart and its thoughts and desires, canst Thou
+enter into judgment with me so heavily? Must I be the ruin of her whom
+I would have saved? Shall I be the cause of worse than death to her
+whom I would have rescued from death? Can I bear this and still retain
+my own reason? Have I destroyed the treasure, the hope of my existence?
+Have I shattered the glorious image to whose perfection I would have
+lent an aiding hand? And yet I meant to fulfil my duty. O God, if I
+have erred, mine be the punishment, mine,--not hers through me. No
+burden can be laid upon me that I will not gladly bear, save this
+alone!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He entered the sick-room, and stood looking at Ernestine, who was lying
+as if half asleep, muttering disconnected, unintelligible words. Should
+he arouse her from this apparent repose? No, he had not the heart to do
+it. He drew aside the curtain, and the broad light of day fell full
+upon the ghost-like face. She moved, as if the light pained her, and
+turned aside. Willmers, who sat by the bedside, knitting, motioned him
+away. Johannes let the curtain fall again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly the door was flung open, and Gretchen rushed in, her chest
+heaving, her eyes full of horror and despair. Hilsborn followed,
+attempting in vain to restrain her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not keep me!&quot; the girl wailed out. &quot;There is no comfort, no hope
+for me in this world! It is my father's work--and I have sworn to
+repair the injury done by him. How can I repair this wrong? How recall
+the glorious mind that he has destroyed?&quot; And, almost frantic, she
+threw herself upon the bed beside Ernestine, and, seizing her hands,
+&quot;Ernestine, wake up!--you must not lose your reason! Ernestine,
+listen--hear--Ernestine, Ernestine!&quot; she cried, in the tone in which
+she had bidden her father farewell.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And Ernestine trembled at the call. She started up, and stared with a
+wild expression at the strange figure clad in black. She closed her
+eyes, then opened them again, only to close them wearily once more, as
+if she had not had sufficient sleep. Then she asked, &quot;Who is this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes and Hilsborn stood in breathless expectation. They pressed
+each other's hands with a look that said more than any words could have
+done, and Johannes made a sign to Willmers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is your young nurse, Fräulein Ernestine,&quot; Willmers replied.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, indeed!&quot; said Ernestine slowly. Again she closed her eyes, but
+remained sitting upright. Hilsborn went to the window, and admitted a
+little more light.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then she rubbed her eyes and looked around. Gretchen had sunk upon her
+knees, and did not venture to stir. Johannes stood concealed by the
+head of the bed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What o'clock is it?&quot; asked Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Half-past eleven,&quot; said Willmers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Again there was silence for awhile. Hilsborn drew the curtains still
+more aside. Just then the Staatsräthin in the other room, ignorant of
+what was going on, approached the half-open door. Fortunately, Johannes
+saw her, and motioned her away: she withdrew instantly, but the door
+creaked a little.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who was coming in?&quot; asked Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The maid,&quot; Willmers replied, with ready presence of mind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Then there was a long pause, during which the throbbing of the three
+hearts, agitated by alternate fear and hope, was almost audible.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Willmers,&quot; said Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have I been dreaming--or did I really burn the book?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What book, dear Fräulein Ernestine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The fairy-book,--the old fairy-book. Ah, I burned it. How sorry I am!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Another can easily be procured. Do not fret about that, dear,&quot; said
+Willmers, suddenly remembering that there had been a fire in
+Ernestine's library on the day when she was taken ill.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no, it will not be the same,--not the same,&quot; said Ernestine sadly,
+and was silent again for some time.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Willmers!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thought I was wakened by a terrible shriek. I was so frightened I
+trembled all over. See how vivid our dreams can be!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No one shrieked,&quot; said Willmers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Where is my uncle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gone to America.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gone!--and left me here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You were ill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How long have I been in bed, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, a couple of weeks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah! Who has been attending me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Herr Geheimrath Heim and Herr Professor Möllner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed!----Möllner!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was silent, and then passed into a quiet half slumber, but she
+smiled in her sleep.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn and Johannes went out of the room on tiptoe. Without, they
+clasped each other's hands in mutual congratulations.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What do you think now?&quot; asked Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think she is safe,&quot; said Hilsborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen slipped out and joined them. &quot;Oh, you should see her lying
+there now, so calm and quiet--she does not even murmur in her sleep as
+she did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen,&quot; said Johannes, &quot;it is your doing. God bless you for it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen looked up at Hilsborn, who could not resist the temptation to
+put his arm around her and draw her towards him. Johannes smiled, for
+the first time for weeks, and said, &quot;I saw it coming. Would that such
+happiness were mine!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But,&quot; said Gretchen timidly, &quot;remember, it is a great deal harder to
+win such a creature as Ernestine than such a poor little thing as I.
+And only think what she will be when won!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin interrupted the conversation. She saw with delight the
+hope in her son's eyes, and thanked God.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">They sat together in the antechamber for half an hour, until they heard
+Ernestine waken.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes then beckoned to Willmers, and said to her, &quot;Prepare Ernestine
+as cautiously as you can for seeing us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Willmers!&quot; called Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Here I am, Fräulein Ernestine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I feel so well now,--so rested! I must have been very ill, for my head
+is still confused, and it is hard to think. Tell me, my dear Willmers,
+am I not very poor?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No one is very poor, Fräulein, who is as rich in mind and heart as you
+are.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not evade my question. I begin to remember it exactly. My uncle
+deceived me. And Möllner,--yes, that was the evening when he told me
+I must die--and the skull fell down and struck my poor head just
+here,&quot;--and she put up her hand to the scar that had remained since her
+childhood from her terrible fall,--&quot;just here. It was very painful, but
+I hardly felt it, in my hurry to read all that there was in the book
+about diseases of the heart. And then those terrible thoughts of
+eternal night and eternal silence--and then--then--I remember nothing
+more. Oh, Willmers, pray draw aside the curtains, and let me enjoy the
+light as long as I may.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willmers opened the curtains of both the windows. The bright rays of
+the autumn sun streamed into the room. Ernestine stretched out her arms
+towards them, and said, &quot;Oh, glorious light! How long shall I look upon
+you? How soon will your warm rays kiss the flowers upon my grave? Shall
+the blest look upon the face of God? This beautiful smiling world is
+His face, and blessed indeed are they who may still look upon it and
+recognize God. Ah, Willmers, life is such a gift! It is truly valued by
+those who stand looking down into their open graves, as I do, and I
+think I was never so worthy to live as now when it is too late.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She clasped her hands over her eyes and burst into tears. &quot;If I could
+only hope to go to eternal peace upon a Father's loving, forgiving
+heart, I would gladly die, I long for His love. All feel His presence,
+and look to Him. But I dare not approach Him. I should be thrust out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear Fräulein Ernestine,&quot; said Willmers, &quot;you are still ill, and that
+is the cause of these gloomy thoughts. If you would only talk with
+Professor Möllner, he would know better how to answer you than such a
+simple old woman as I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;When is Dr. Möllner coming again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is here with his mother. They came here to stay, that they might
+take care of you, and the Frau Staatsräthin has done all that she could
+to help her son. Oh, how anxious and unhappy they have been about you!
+The Herr Professor would not stir from your bedside, and he looks quite
+ill with constant watching.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine cast down her eyes with emotion.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;May I not ask him to come in now?&quot; asked Willmers.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Pray do so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Willmers did not have to go far to call him. He was already at the
+door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, how are you?&quot; he said, doing his best to appear composed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, dear friend.&quot; And she smiled, and held out her hand to him.
+&quot;What have you not done for me! How can a dying woman thank you for
+such self-sacrifice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; cried Johannes, pressing her hand to his lips, &quot;you are in
+error. I myself led you into it, and severely has God punished me for
+my imprudence. Everything that I told you of your physical condition
+was founded upon mistaken suppositions. What I thought a symptom of
+chronic disease was nothing but the approach of an acute attack of
+illness. Two physicians, Heim and Moritz Kern, pronounce your heart
+sound, and you are now out of danger. Oh, Ernestine, you cannot dream
+what my sufferings have been! I saw you writhing in mortal agony. All
+your fancies betrayed the terror into which I had plunged you. I would
+have rescued you from it, but you could not hear nor understand me. I
+offered you the truth that would save you from destruction, and you
+could not open your lips to receive it. It was too much, too much!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then I need not die?&quot; asked Ernestine with a long breath, as if
+awaking from an oppressive dream.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;On my honour, Ernestine, you are quite out of danger.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She could not speak. She could only look fondly and gratefully at the
+blue heavens outside the window. Then she silently pressed Möllner's
+hand to her breast, and the large tears gathered in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin then entered. &quot;May I come in?&quot; she asked. &quot;May I say
+good-morning to the invalid?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine drew the old lady towards her, put her arm around her, and
+whispered, &quot;You have so much to forgive, but you granted me your
+forgiveness before I could ask you for it. I feel so humiliated in
+comparison with you, I will not conceal the shame this confession
+causes me. It is your only reward for all that you have done for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How she has been purified in the terrible furnace that she has passed
+through!&quot; the Staatsräthin said to Johannes, who was looking down
+enraptured upon the pale, beautiful features, once more informed by the
+clear light of reason.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I thank you all, and you, too, dear Willmers. Every breath that I draw
+of this new gift of life shall be full of gratitude to you and&quot;--she
+looked timidly upwards--&quot;to God. In that dark, dark night of horror, I
+felt that His hand prostrated me, and now His hand lifts me up again.
+Oh, yes, He is a merciful God!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then, Ernestine,&quot; said Johannes, &quot;a blessing has come even from the
+terror that I caused you,--the blessing of faith.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, dear friend, you were right when you said, 'To some God comes in
+fear.' You were right in everything, and I am only a woman!&quot; Her head
+drooped. She was exhausted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes and his mother looked significantly at each other, joy in
+their eyes. It seemed to them that Ernestine was born again.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The blessed relief that followed this brief conversation kept the
+invalid sunk in profound sleep all the rest of the day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When Heim came, towards evening, he would not even see her, lest he
+should disturb the repose which was, he said, the best medicine for a
+convalescent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At nightfall she opened her eyes and saw Johannes sitting beside her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you still with me?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am always with you, Ernestine. I shall never leave you,&quot; he said
+with fervour.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her eyelids closed, and she was silent, but her breath came quickly. He
+saw that his words had excited her, and he resolved carefully to avoid
+in future every syllable that could possibly disturb the perfect repose
+of her mind.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He left the room, that she might become composed. Willmers persuaded
+her to take some nourishment, and she fell asleep again without a word.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was so much refreshed the next morning that Johannes breakfasted
+with his mother for the first time for many days, and assured her that
+he confidently hoped now for Ernestine's speedy recovery.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank God!&quot; ejaculated the Staatsräthin fervently. &quot;Since yesterday I
+have seen how dear she may become to me. I acknowledge now that you, my
+son, understood this rare creature better than I did. But where are
+Gretchen and Hilsborn? Why do they not come to breakfast?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;They are taking a turn together in the garden. How happy they are!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God willing, we shall soon have a double wedding in N----.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, mother, yours are bold dreams!&quot; cried Johannes.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But why not? Be sure, my son, she will soon be well again. Her
+constitution, both mental and physical, is strong. In two weeks your
+holidays will be at an end, and then we will carry her back to town
+with us, and when her trousseau, that I shall provide, is complete,
+where will there be any need of delay?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, mother, you yourself have just said that her mind is vigorous as
+well as her body. I shall never believe she can be mine until she is
+actually my affianced bride.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, Moritz and Angelika!&quot; cried the Staatsräthin, rising to meet them
+as they entered.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika kissed her mother and brother. She was, if possible, plumper
+and rosier than ever.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Aha!&quot; laughed Moritz, &quot;we frightened you for nothing yesterday. I
+know--I know all about it from Heim. Your coy damsel has come to her
+senses--congratulate you! If she can be cured of the rest of her
+brain-sickness, why, Heaven speed the wooing! There'll be no getting
+any good out of you until you are married.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Angelika put her plump, dimpled little hand over his mouth. &quot;Can you
+not let poor Johannes have some peace?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Moritz kissed the soft, warm fetter placed upon his lips and freed
+himself from it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;'Poor' Johannes! Why poor? He's sure of her now. She hasn't a
+groschen. Let her thank Heaven that there is a comfortable home ready
+for her, and she will,--no one can accuse her of stupidity,&quot; said
+Moritz.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes and his mother looked grave, but did not speak, and he went
+on. &quot;I can't conceive how she withstood you so long. You're the very
+hero for a novel,--too sentimental for my taste, but that's just what
+women like, and if I were a woman I'd have you on the spot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you kindly, Moritz,&quot; said Johannes gaily, &quot;but make your mind
+easy,--I certainly would not have you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, do stop! you do nothing but quarrel and fight when you are
+together,&quot; said Angelika merrily. &quot;You are both good and true, each
+after his own fashion, and I love you both dearly. What more do you
+want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;All right,&quot; said Moritz, contemplating the fair little figure with
+immense satisfaction. &quot;If you love us, I am entirely content. It is
+only your discontented brother who is not satisfied.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Angelika knows well enough,&quot; said Johannes, &quot;what she is to me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Here Willmers appeared. &quot;Herr Professor, Fräulein Ernestine is awake,
+and is asking for her 'pretty young nurse,' as she calls her. Shall I
+go for Fräulein Gretchen?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Johannes, &quot;but I must tell her who Gretchen is,--you will
+excuse me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, go, for Heaven's sake! don't wait an instant!&quot; Moritz called
+after him.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; said Johannes, after he had exchanged morning greetings
+with the invalid, whose improvement was evidently steady and
+sure,--&quot;Ernestine, you wish to see the young girl who was here
+yesterday, and I must first tell you who she is. Do you still cherish
+any affection for your uncle?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine shook her head. &quot;He is dead to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have something to tell you of him that may agitate you, and I
+scarcely dare to do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What can agitate me, after all the terrors that my own fancy has
+conjured up?&quot; Ernestine asked composedly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, then, the girl who has helped to nurse you with touching
+fidelity for the last four weeks is Leuthold's daughter, and--an
+orphan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good God!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;Poor child! Is Leuthold dead?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, he inflicted upon himself the punishment of his crimes. This
+world is past for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked up gravely. &quot;I cannot mourn him. He was my evil
+genius, and shamefully abused my confidence. But I will not visit it
+upon his daughter,--poor, innocent child. I pray you bring her to
+me,--she is the only creature in this world who is linked to me by the
+tie of kindred!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes went to the window and beckoned to Gretchen, who was
+approaching the house with Hilsborn.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She came instantly, and a minute later was upon her knees at
+Ernestine's bedside. Ernestine would have drawn her towards her, but
+she sobbed, &quot;Let me kneel at your feet,--only so should the daughter of
+one who greatly wronged you dare to approach you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen, poor, innocent orphan,&quot; cried Ernestine, &quot;come to my heart!&quot;
+Then, regarding her with emotion, she declared, &quot;Indeed, if anything
+could lighten his errors, it would be his affection for such a child.
+For the sake of that pure human love, I forgive him. If I were rich, I
+would share all with you as with a sister. If I had anything to give, I
+would give it to you. But I have nothing for you, except sympathy and
+affection.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And the two girls were clasped in each other's arms.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.10" href="#div1Ref_3.10">CHAPTER X.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>RETURN.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">With reawakening strength, entirely novel feelings of affection and
+interest penetrated Ernestine's nature,--genuine human sympathies, such
+as her life hitherto had afforded no room for. In a few days the
+closest intimacy was established between herself and Gretchen. There
+was a simplicity about Ernestine that no one had believed her to
+possess. It was as if she now began to live for the first time, as if
+during the long period of her unconsciousness she had forgotten her
+former experience of the outward world, and she was as delighted as a
+child with all that unfolded itself before her eyes. She was as charmed
+as if she had never seen it before with the sight of the clear autumn
+sky. She would gaze long and thoughtfully upon the flowers that were
+laid upon her bed. She eagerly turned over, with Gretchen, the books of
+rare prints that Johannes brought for her amusement. Hitherto she had
+known Art only by name, and had not had an idea of its significance.
+Her uncle had never supplied food for her imagination, lest she should
+be turned aside from the pursuit of her graver studies. Her weary soul
+now bathed in the waters of fancy which Johannes unlocked for her
+refreshment. He brought her photographs of pictures and statues by
+famous masters, and ideas of the beautiful were awakened within her,
+filling her with glad inspiration. And Gretchen met her with ready
+sympathy,--she was in advance of her, indeed, and could point out to
+her many beauties that else might have escaped her unpractised eyes. At
+such times Ernestine would regard Gretchen with admiration and
+surprise. It was a pleasure to see the two girls throwing their whole
+souls into these new enjoyments together. Even Hilsborn, who since
+Ernestine's convalescence had naturally been defrauded of many a
+delightful moment, could not grudge them so pure and true a happiness.
+Sometimes from morning until night the two lovely heads would be
+bent together over books and prints, and sometimes they had a
+companion,--Father Leonhardt, who would come &quot;on purpose,&quot; as he
+expressed it, &quot;to see the new books.&quot; But his delight was in listening
+to Ernestine while she described the pictures minutely, oftentimes with
+so much truth and spirit that the old man would clasp his hands and
+cry, &quot;How beautiful that must be!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you see it, Father Leonhardt?&quot; she would ask in her zeal, and the
+old man would reply delightedly, &quot;Yes, I see it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And when anything pleased him particularly, he would ask, &quot;Show me that
+picture again!&quot; and Ernestine was unwearied in her descriptions and
+explanations.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes and his mother were enchanted with this rejuvenation, as it
+might be called.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She avoided with secret dislike any return to her former world of
+thought,--it was too harsh a contrast to her present delight,--she
+seemed actually disgusted with the anatomical pursuits which had led
+her to dissect so curiously what now gave her so much pleasure. She
+would not again descend into those gloomy depths whence she had drawn
+nothing but despair, and all that she now looked upon was as novel and
+strange as if she had spent the last ten years immured in a tower, from
+which she had only looked out upon God's fair world from a far-off
+height.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her recovery advanced so rapidly that eight days after her first
+awaking to consciousness she was able to be carried by Johannes and
+Gretchen into the library, once more restored to order and comfort by
+the faithful care of Willmers. She was placed in an arm-chair, and, as
+the Staatsräthin covered her with a warm, soft coverlet, she said in a
+weak voice, &quot;Now let us begin where we left off ten years ago!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Staatsräthin stooped, and, kissing her brow, whispered softly, &quot;It
+is a pity so much time has been lost!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no,--not a pity,&quot; replied Ernestine,--&quot;no time spent in searching
+for truth is lost; but the measure of my strength is exhausted. I must
+give up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And, with a melancholy smile, she leaned back her head and was silent</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The days passed on, and the time approached very nearly when Möllner
+must return to his duties in town. Ernestine grew more silent and
+thoughtful. No one could understand the change in her mood, for her
+physical condition improved daily, while she fell into a state of
+depression such as had not befallen her since she began to recover. At
+last Heim decreed that she must have fresh air, and one warm noon she
+drove out for the first time. She had begged that Gretchen alone might
+accompany her, and the Möllners had, although unwillingly, acceded to
+her request, Johannes carefully lifting her into the carriage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen,&quot; said Ernestine, as they drove along, &quot;Dr. Möllner has twice
+alluded to the fact that in two or three days he, with his mother, must
+move back to town, as his lectures at the University will begin again.
+You heard how they took it for granted that we should accompany them. I
+made only evasive answers, but now I must resolve what to do. Gretchen,
+you have often told me that your peace of mind depended upon your
+helping to support me as long as I needed you.&quot; She looked searchingly
+at the girl. &quot;What if I were to take you at your word?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I should keep it, for I gave it not only to you, but to God Almighty,&quot;
+said Gretchen. &quot;Tell me, Ernestine, what I can do for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Everything!&quot; cried Ernestine. &quot;You can save me from living upon
+charity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Can you not imagine, Gretchen, what it must be to me to accept further
+benefits from people whom I long to repay in kind, whom I would like to
+reward a thousandfold for all that they have done for me? I do not know
+whether you understand me when I tell you that I would far rather earn
+my living by the work of my hands than depend upon the kindness of
+those whom I once treated so arrogantly, and who have already heaped
+more coals of fire upon my head than I can bear. You shake your head.
+Your father, Gretchen, would have understood me,--his words upon this
+subject, the evening before he left me, are ineffaceably impressed upon
+my mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive me, Ernestine, it does not become me to depreciate my father
+still further in your eyes, but I cannot be silent! I have arrived at
+the melancholy conviction that my father never advised you well. He was
+wrong here too. He did not know Dr. Möllner,--he could not conceive of
+the depth and truth of his affection for you. Will you reward the man
+who has done so much for you by making him wretched? You certainly will
+do so if you refuse to go with him. No, Ernestine, I do not understand
+how you can break a man's heart just for the sake of your pride!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine did not speak for a few moments, and then she said,
+&quot;Gretchen, you are a child,--I cannot explain to you that there is a
+principle of honour to which one must sacrifice the happiness of a
+life, should circumstances demand it. You know, perhaps, that when I
+was wealthy and independent, Möllner offered me his hand, and that I
+refused it, because I could not fulfil the conditions that he proposed.
+Since that time his conduct has failed to assure me that he still loves
+me, for a nature as noble as his, is perfectly capable of sacrificing
+all that he has for me, from pure sympathy and mere compassion. And,
+even if he still loved me, could he value a heart open to the suspicion
+of surrendering itself to him under the pressure of necessity, not from
+free choice? No, Gretchen, there can be no firm structure of happiness
+erected upon such a foundation. This is not the time when I could
+withdraw my refusal to be his wife! No, no! such a course at this point
+would fix the blush of shame upon my forehead forever. Perhaps I may
+still succeed in obtaining an independence by my own exertions,--an
+independence that will again make me his equal. Then it would be
+different,--then he would know that I gave myself to him from free
+choice, not upon compulsion. If he should woo me then,--oh, Gretchen,
+it would be happiness that I scarcely dare to think of!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen kissed a tear from Ernestine's pale cheek, and said gently,
+&quot;You are not like any one else, but always true and noble. I have no
+right to judge you. If you say, 'Thus shall it be,' I will submit. My
+only desire is to obey you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You shall not obey me, Gretchen, but you shall be my guide in a world
+where I am a stranger,--you shall lend me your arm to support me until
+I can stand alone. Will you not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; was the low reply. The girl was thinking of Hilsborn and his
+sorrow at the postponement of his hopes and of her own hopes also, and
+she tried to take heart and tell her cousin that she loved and was
+loved in return, and that she would be able to offer her an asylum. But
+Gretchen paused, and bethought herself. Ernestine would never accept
+from Hilsborn what she refused to receive from Möllner. She could not
+make such an offer without offending Ernestine, and, if Ernestine
+learned how matters stood with Gretchen, she would assuredly refuse all
+assistance or service from her that could delay her happiness with
+Hilsborn. For Ernestine's proud nature never could endure the thought
+of being a burden to any one Gretchen had felt all this from the first,
+and therefore had insisted that her betrothal should be kept secret
+from Ernestine. And could she tell her of it now? She controlled
+herself, and was silent.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will tell you my plan,&quot; Ernestine began. &quot;Of course I have given up
+the idea of going to America. I could never do what would be required
+of me there, without assistance, and, even if I could, I would not
+leave home and all that I love for the sake of mere fame. I will try to
+find a position as a teacher of natural science in some institution,
+or, failing that, I will go out as a private governess. But I know how
+ignorant I am of everything that is looked for from a woman in such a
+position. I know nothing of feminine occupations myself, and, of
+course, am quite unfit to have the entire charge of children. I
+understand no art,--I am deficient in all practical knowledge,--the
+knowledge that I possess is seldom needed in life. This I have learned
+since I have seen something of the world. You, Gretchen, are my only
+hope. You will teach me everything,--you are a proficient in all that a
+woman should know. I must leave this place. I must get away from this
+part of the country. Until I am out of Möllner's reach, there will be
+no peace either for him or for me. He would always be thinking that he
+ought to take me from my position, and there would be endless
+struggles. So I think it would be best that we two should retire to
+some small town, as far off as my means will permit, and then, if you
+would sacrifice to me a few months of your young, hopeful life, until I
+should be sufficiently far advanced to procure a situation.&quot;----She got
+so far with difficulty, and then, breaking off, asked humbly, &quot;Is this
+asking too much of you? The world is open to you, Gretchen. Every one
+would welcome you back from your seclusion. Möllner's house will always
+be a home for you, where you may be tenderly cared for. Will you
+sacrifice all this to me, for a little while?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;With all my heart,&quot; said Gretchen. &quot;But, dearest Ernestine, have we
+the means to carry out this plan? All that I possess is three gold
+pieces that I found in the pocket of the dress that my mother gave me.
+Look, here they are--I always carry them about me. My mother had
+written upon the paper in which they were wrapped, 'To be used in case
+of necessity.' I meant to spend them for you, for you are all the
+'necessity' that I have. Take them,--they are all that I have, but I am
+afraid they will not go far.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, you dear faithful little sister!&quot; cried Ernestine. &quot;We are
+not so poor as you think. Dr. Möllner has succeeded in saving all my
+furniture from your father's creditors. The sale of it will bring us in
+a sum sufficient to support us until I shall find a situation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The question is, then, how long that will be,&quot; said Gretchen,
+thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only a few months at the longest, I should suppose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen was startled, but she only said gently, &quot;Then we had better
+select a place where I too can earn something, that there may be no
+danger of our suffering from want.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That shall be as you think best,&quot; replied Ernestine. &quot;I put myself
+entirely in your hands,--only take me away secretly, so that no one may
+seek to detain us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Must no one know anything of it? Must I tell nobody?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do you suppose we should be allowed to go, Gretchen, if our intention
+was suspected? If you are afraid that you cannot keep our departure
+secret, tell me so frankly, and I will go alone, without your
+knowledge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no, Ernestine, I will not let you go out into the world alone.
+What are all my resolutions and protestations worth, if I fail you at
+the outset? But there is one person, Ernestine, to whom I owe a certain
+obedience, my guardian! I am not of age, as you are. I cannot do just
+as I please. I must ask him whether I may go with you--but I will
+answer for his secrecy. He shall promise me, before I confide in him,
+that he will not betray my confidence,--and he always keeps his
+promises.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine considered for a moment. &quot;Yes, I see this cannot be avoided.
+I rely upon you. Johannes and his mother are going to drive into town
+together in a few days to prepare a room for us in their house. When
+they return in the evening, they must not find us here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot help feeling,&quot; said Gretchen, &quot;as if I were guilty of
+treachery towards all these kind people. I never deceived any one in my
+life before; I feel like a criminal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;We will not deceive them, only spare them a parting scene that would
+be painful to us all,--we will not impose upon them the necessity of
+preventing what in their hearts they may think best for us. When we are
+once away, I will write and explain to them what we have done, and they
+will understand me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, I will pray God to give you more love and less pride. My
+only hope is that you will not long be able to live without the
+faithful friend who loves you so devotedly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked out of the carriage-window without a word. The fields
+were bare and deserted, but the spiders' webs, that lay like nets upon
+the stubble, glistened in the sunlight. Here and there the peasants
+were burning underbrush, and the red flames darted with a merry crackle
+through the thick white smoke that the autumn breeze kept lying low
+upon the ground. The cattle were gleaning a scanty meal from the shorn
+pastures,--they raised their heads to look after the carriage as it
+passed, or to rub their necks against some dried old stump of a tree.
+In the distance, a sportsman was making his toilsome way through the
+deep furrows of a ploughed field, while his dog busied himself among
+the hedges until he started a covey of birds, and the fatal crack of
+the gun was heard. A wagon, laden high with full wine-casks, passed
+along the road,--the boy that was driving had a bunch of withered
+asters in his hat, and cracked his whip gaily at sight of Gretchen's
+lovely face, while the little dog perched on the top of the load barked
+angrily. &quot;Every one is making ready for winter,&quot; said Gretchen. &quot;How
+much labour meat and drink cost!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The carriage turned towards the village, and Ernestine called to the
+coachman to stop at the school-house,--&quot;I must see the Leonhardts once
+more.&quot; As they reached the low-roofed house, one of the windows was
+opened, and Frau Brigitta looked out. &quot;Good-morning, Frau Leonhardt,&quot;
+cried Ernestine from the carriage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear Fräulein Ernestine, I can hardly trust my eyes!&quot; And out she
+came to the carriage-door. &quot;Come in, come in, both of you,--I will
+bring Bernhard--he is with Käthchen in the garden. But Walter is in the
+house. He is so happy with the things you have sent him! He studies
+night and day!&quot; Thus the old woman ran on, as she assisted her guests
+to alight.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I think,&quot; said Ernestine, &quot;that I should like to go into the garden to
+Father Leonhardt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Just as you please. He is sitting round the corner, in the sun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go into the house, then, Gretchen,&quot; said Ernestine. &quot;I will come in
+one moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she went round the house as quickly as her strength would permit,
+and approached the old man, who was teaching Käthchen her lesson. The
+child would have run to meet her, but Ernestine motioned to her not to
+speak, and knelt silently down by Leonhardt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who is this?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine made no reply, but imprinted a kiss upon his hand. He smiled.
+&quot;Oh, it is my daughter Ernestine!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, father, it is I,&quot; she said. &quot;I come to you the first time that I
+have driven out. There is much within me that is still dark. I come to
+you for light.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You bring me light, and do you ask me to give you light? But I know
+what you mean, and I will give you all that I have. Heaven may make me,
+poor blind old man, its instrument in comforting and assisting you.
+Tell me, then, Ernestine, why does the sunshine that now floods your
+life fail to penetrate your heart?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Send the child away, father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Go, Käthi dear,&quot; Leonhardt said.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;To Walter?&quot; the little girl asked, delighted.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, if he is not busy,--see that you do not trouble him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Käthchen still lingered, with a look of inquiry at Ernestine, who
+perceived it, and held out her hand. &quot;My good little Käthchen, do you
+remember me? I would like to give you a kiss, but you might fear my
+touch would harm you again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no. That cannot be,&quot; said Käthchen. &quot;I am not at all afraid of
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Then come here, my sweet child.&quot; And she took her upon her lap, and
+kissed her kindly. It was the first time that she had ever had a child
+in her arms, and the pleasure that it gave her was new and strange.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Father Leonhardt,&quot; she said, &quot;how many different kinds of love
+there are! Strange that they all seem so new and delightful to me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are like the man with the heart of stone, in Hauff's story. Your
+uncle put a marble heart in your breast, and Möllner has given you a
+warm, living heart instead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine blushed at these words. She was glad that Leonhardt could not
+see her, yet he did see her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He brings a blessing wherever he comes,&quot; the old man continued. &quot;He
+has done everything for this child. Did he tell you? The Countess
+Worronska sent the forty thousand roubles, as she promised, and Dr.
+Möllner succeeded at last in persuading the Kellers to send Käthchen to
+a good school. She will leave now in about a week.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I knew nothing of it,&quot; said Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is not his custom to speak of the good he does,&quot; said Leonhardt,
+&quot;but indeed he is a benefactor to all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A benefactor to all,&quot; Ernestine repeated thoughtfully. &quot;All the less
+should any one individual boast of his kindness,--a kindness shown to
+all, without respect of persons.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leonhardt involuntarily turned his darkened eyes towards her as she
+spoke thus. &quot;Go, Käthchen,&quot; he said, &quot;Fräulein Ernestine will come
+by-and-by.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Käthchen went into the house, and, not finding Walter in the
+sitting-room, mounted to his study, in the upper story, just under the
+roof. She nestled up to his side and said, with an air of great
+mystery, &quot;Only think! the lady of the castle has kissed me again!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Not possible!&quot; laughed Walter. &quot;And do you feel nothing queer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Of course not,&quot; Käthchen cried in some confusion. &quot;She can't bewitch
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I wouldn't like to try her,&quot; said Walter with an involuntary sigh. &quot;I
+think, if I had been in your place, I should have felt the enchantment
+instantly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, you told me yourself there was no such thing,&quot; said Käthchen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Well, Käthi,&quot; said the young man, &quot;it would be as well, perhaps, for
+the sake of precaution, that I should kiss off her kisses. Where was
+it?--here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, and here on my forehead, and on my shoulder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There, we will put an end to all that,&quot; cried Walter, as he kissed the
+child. &quot;And now go down-stairs. I must work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, you always have to work,&quot; Käthchen complained.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, you school-children have the best time, with nothing to do but
+laugh and play, while I have all the studying. Go now, and when the
+Fräulein comes in from the garden, come and call me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, I'll call you. Good-by. But promise me that you won't tell that
+the Fräulein kissed me. They would all scold and laugh at me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no,--not for the world. Where's the use of telling everything? But
+you mustn't love the Fräulein better than you do me, or I must tell
+your mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no. I love you best of all the world!&quot; cried Käthchen, shutting
+the door behind her with emphasis. She had been but a few moments with
+Gretchen and Frau Brigitta when Ernestine entered with Leonhardt. Both
+looked agitated, and Ernestine's eyes showed traces of tears.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Käthchen would have gone to call Walter, as she had been told to do.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay, Käthchen,&quot; said Ernestine, &quot;I will go up to Herr Leonhardt
+myself and see what he is doing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she took Father Leonhardt's arm, and with him ascended the narrow
+staircase.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Walter sprang up, with flushed cheeks, when Ernestine and his father
+entered his room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you come all the way up here?&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;you, before whom I
+stand humbly as a mere pupil,--revering you almost as the very
+personification of Science?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do not speak thus, Walter,--you do not know what you are saying. I
+have, through much pain, obtained the victory over self, and will
+content myself with my lot as a woman, but I am weak, and such speeches
+might easily arouse again within me the demon of ambition. Yon mean it
+kindly, but, now that I stand on the borders of the realm I have
+forsaken, I must not listen to any voice recalling me to that dear old
+home. I have come to take leave of you. Your father will tell you
+wherefore and whither I am going.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Fräulein Ernestine, are you going away? and are you going to give
+up your studies too?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I must resign them, Walter, or at least all scientific pursuits. My
+knowledge must be to me now a means of support, and in these days it
+can serve me only in the position of a governess. I must content myself
+with teaching in a girls' school. Men do not want women for professors,
+and no man wants a professor for a wife. The world is not what I
+dreamed,--there is no place in it for a woman's efforts, and I am too
+weak to create one for myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a shame it is,&quot; said Walter, &quot;that such a woman should need to
+create a place for herself! she should be placed upon a pedestal and
+worshipped, if only for the sake of such a mind in such a body.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leonhardt laid his hand in warning upon the boy's arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father, I must speak,&quot; he went on. &quot;I must give some relief to the
+indignation that fills me at the idea of such a nature's being
+condemned to contend in the world for the bare means of subsistence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine hid her face in her hands, and sighed heavily.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Leonhardt shook his head disapprovingly at his son. &quot;It is not kind,
+Walter, to make the sacrifice harder than it need be. Ernestine is and
+always must be noble, and never was she nobler than in her present
+resolution. We cannot change the world, Walter, and Ernestine is a
+woman,--she must submit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, submit!&quot; she repeated, and there was a keener pain in her
+accents.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Fräulein Ernestine,&quot; Walter implored her, &quot;forgive me if I have
+revived buried griefs. I meant well,--I cannot tell you what pain it
+gives me to see you giving up what is so dear to you, and for me your
+going is like the departure of his muse to the poet,--the vanishing of
+his saint to the rapt devotee.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Walter,&quot; Ernestine said gravely, &quot;your words tempt me sorely, but, I
+hope, for the last time. I will resist them, and when you are older you
+will know why I do so. You are very young, Walter. It is not long,
+scarcely six weeks, since I was so too. In this short time I have grown
+older by six years, and the world and mankind are changed in my
+eyes,--I must struggle now for the simple means of subsistence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She went to the bookshelves, on which the bright rays of the sun were
+just falling. &quot;Yes, dear old Darwin, your famous name still shines
+brightly upon me. I now begin to understand you and to appreciate the
+sublime import of your teachings.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She held out her hand to Walter, with tears in her eyes. &quot;Thank you for
+the opportunity of trying my strength for one moment. It has been a
+melancholy satisfaction. A bright future is before you; if I have
+contributed in a degree to the realization of your hopes in life, I
+will descend cheerfully from the heights I dreamed of,--I have not
+lived in vain. I must go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She looked around the room. Wherever her glance fell, it rested upon
+some of her books or instruments. &quot;Keep all these things for me,
+Walter,--perhaps I may reclaim them at some future day.&quot; Again tears
+filled her eyes. She knew she was never again to possess, what had been
+so long the sole joy of her life, the companions of her labours. &quot;No,
+let them go. I release from my service the spirits prisoned in these
+instruments that have brought the stars near to me and revealed the
+hidden mysteries of the earth to my asking eyes. They can serve me
+no longer,--I must return to the every-day world,--the spell is
+broken,--knowledge and sight are mine no longer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She left the room noiselessly, and her old friend followed her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">A quarter of an hour later, the carriage rolled away from the
+school-house towards the castle, and the Leonhardts, father and son,
+stood on the threshold, the one gazing after the distant carriage, the
+other listening intently to the last sound of its wheels.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine, sunk in thought, was leaning back in the vehicle, when she
+suddenly called to the coachman to stop. They were just passing the
+church.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Stay here and wait for me,&quot; she said to Gretchen. &quot;I must go in here
+for a moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She got out, and went to the door, which stood ajar. Her hand lingered
+on the latch. What impelled her thus irresistibly to enter this poor
+little village church?--Memory! Like a painted curtain, all the events,
+thoughts, experiences, of the last ten years were hung around the low
+portal. Again she stood before the church-door of her northern home, a
+trembling, longing, doubting, despairing child. &quot;Enter, and learn to
+kneel,&quot; the same voice within that spoke then was speaking now. And she
+entered, softly and timidly. It was empty and quiet,--the people were
+all at their work. The floor between the benches was strewn with green
+box twigs from the last holiday, and the atmosphere was filled
+with the odour of incense. Through the painted window the sun threw
+many-coloured rays upon a picture of the Virgin. A swallow, scared from
+his summer's nest in the dome, flew circling above Ernestine's head,
+like the dove of the Holy Spirit. Ernestine slowly passed the quiet
+confessionals, where so many sorrow-laden hearts had unburdened
+themselves of their weight of woe and received forgiveness in the name
+of the Lord. She thought with compassion of the cumbrous formalities
+that separated these wandering souls from their hope and trust.
+&quot;Straight to Him,&quot; breathed the voice within, and she passed with
+quickened steps over the soft, leaf-strewn floor, directly to the
+altar. Was it the same at which she had knelt and wept ten years
+before? Whether it were or not. He was the same Divine One whose image
+looked down from the cross, touching her heart now as it had touched it
+then. She knew now that she had but completed a circle, and had come
+back to the point at which she had been ten years before.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she extended her arms and fell upon her knees. &quot;Father,&quot; she cried,
+&quot;I have come back,--receive me! ah, receive me!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.11" href="#div1Ref_3.11">CHAPTER XI.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>&quot;GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD.&quot;</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What a hard winter we are having!&quot; said Ernestine to herself, looking
+thoughtfully out through the dim panes of the little window by which
+she was sitting, upon the roofs of the houses that bounded her
+prospect. They were covered with snow, that lay thick also on the
+outside window-sill. She sat with her hands wrapped in her cotton
+apron. &quot;Well, I wanted to know everything,--why not poverty, and
+hunger, and cold,--the mighty foes with which humanity is always
+contending? I could philosophize excellently well upon abstinence in a
+warm room, by a well-spread table, and am I to shrink now? No, no! no
+living soul shall ever hear me ask for help.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She stood up, and walked firmly to and fro.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The room was a gloomy garret, a kind of kitchen,--at all events, there
+was a cooking-stove in it, and a cupboard containing articles of
+crockery. The floor was paved with stone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine's feet were bitter cold. &quot;I wonder what o'clock it is,&quot; she
+thought. &quot;The postman ought to be here soon. It is terrible to have
+nothing to mark the time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She listened to catch the striking of a church-clock--going to the
+window and letting her eyes wander over the white roofs in search of a
+distant tower. There was no sun visible through the snowy air. It was a
+genuine winter's day.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At a window just opposite, a little boy breathed upon the frosty pane
+and made two round peep-holes, through which a pair of blue eyes beamed
+at her. She nodded to them--she knew the pretty child well. The little
+head behind the peep-holes nodded in its turn. She thought of Little
+Kay and her northern winter. Then the snow before the window rose like
+white clouds hiding the prospect, and, gradually taking a human shape
+clothed in wide flowing robes, that began to sparkle and glitter as if
+strewn with diamonds, and a veil of frozen gossamer fluttered in the
+air. And beneath the veil there looked at her through the window a
+white face, with fixed transparent eyes like crystal, and upon the
+beautiful brow was a diadem of icicles made of the tears of all who had
+perished in the ice and snow since the world was made, and of all who
+starve and freeze in winter-time,--a diadem richer in pearls than that
+of any earthly monarch. The mighty form had on one arm a shield,--but
+it was a plate of the ice upon which had been wrecked the ships that
+sought to penetrate the inhospitable kingdom of the Snow-queen around
+the north pole. With the other hand she was leading away the little boy
+from over the way,--she longed for some coral to adorn her colourless
+robes, for a few drops of warm human blood. It was the Snow-queen of
+the fairy-dreams of Ernestine's childhood. But she was more majestic
+and gloomy than formerly, and she spoke other words to her now:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I know you,--you never feared me as you do now that you have no warm
+roof, no firm walls, to protect you from my icy breath. But I will not
+harm you,--you belong to those who believe in the future of my
+dominion, who know that in thousands and thousands of years it must
+spread over the whole world, when all this swarming life will have
+passed to other spheres. Then my time will come,--there will be quiet,
+eternal icy quiet, here below,--and I will laugh at the old
+extinguished sun, glimmering like a burnt-out coal and envying me my
+diamond palace which he can no longer melt away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Thus spoke the Snow-queen to the dreaming woman of science, and there
+was a cold pain at her heart,--sorrow for the end of Being here below,
+sorrow at &quot;the judgment-day of an eternal glacial period,&quot; as Du Bois
+has it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The Snow-queen had vanished, and Little Kay with her,--a thick
+snow-storm hid from view the path that she had taken.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Slowly and weakly, as if the clock were frozen and could thaw only by
+degrees, twelve o'clock struck from the church-tower.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine did not hear it. She sat with her head leaning against the
+window. The voice of the Snow-queen sounded in her ears, &quot;Open your
+eyes, and see!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she opened her eyes, and saw across billions of years. The sun, its
+fires only dimly burning, hung, a bloody disk in the skies, heavy
+brooding clouds were tinged with dull red, and twilight rested over the
+cold earth. Upon its hardened surface only a few wretched imbruted
+creatures crawled, seeking to sustain life upon the scanty remains of a
+decaying vegetation.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Sadly Ernestine closed her eyes upon the painful picture.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But she was again commanded to look abroad. Centuries swept on, and all
+grew darker and colder. The red disk faded, and all colour with it.
+Ernestine marked it all vanish in a dull gray. Weary with fruitless
+struggle, the last remains of organic life lay down in eternal rest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">It was night at last. Still the earthly sphere performed its appointed
+circuit around the charred mass that was once its sun. But the mighty
+firmament was clear and cloudless,--the lifeless earth exhaled no mists
+to obscure the light of the distant stars, which revealed to Ernestine
+immeasurable depths and immense heights of frozen seas and oceans amid
+eternal repose,--the world was only a gigantic memorial of things that
+were.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But where, and in what guise, are the transformed forces of this spent
+world now lingering?&quot; asked Ernestine. &quot;Nothing in the great Universe
+is lost.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah! good heavens I here you are sitting dreaming in this cold
+kitchen!&quot; suddenly said a clear, bright voice. &quot;No fire on the
+hearth,--no dinner made; or, let me see,--yes,--but how? Burnt to a
+cinder. My dear Ernestine, what have you been doing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine had sprang up, and was staring at the speaker as if she had
+come from another world.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen, for she it was, laid aside a couple of schoolbooks that she
+had under her arm, threw off her cloak and hood, and busied herself
+with the neglected soup. &quot;I understand,--first you kindled a huge fire,
+and then never thought of it again. The soup is not skimmed, and the
+beef is burned, and yet half raw. Yon cannot have looked at it for at
+least an hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is such a pity that we had to sell my watch,&quot; Ernestine excused
+herself. &quot;I never know now how the time goes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Nonsense!&quot; said Gretchen, &quot;you can surely tell without a watch whether
+the soup boils and the fire burns or not. Only try, and all will go
+right. You have often proved that you can really cook quite well if you
+will only take pains. But I cannot trust you with soup and beef
+again,--you forget everything when once you begin to dream.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen, don't be angry,&quot; pleaded Ernestine.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But here is all the food spoiled that was so hardly earned, and we
+have not a single groschen in the house, and shall not have, until my
+money is paid me to-morrow.&quot; And tears of vexation came into Gretchen's
+eyes. &quot;I care more about you than about myself. I am strong, and do not
+need meat; but you,--indeed you ought to think of yourself, if not of
+me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine, in her confusion, looked from the saucepan to Gretchen,
+and from Gretchen to the saucepan, in dismay. &quot;You are right,&quot; she
+said,--&quot;it is unpardonable not to take care that you, poor child,
+should have something hot and good when you come home wearied from your
+work. Indeed I am a useless creature!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen was instantly appeased. She laughed, and threw her arms around
+Ernestine. &quot;Ah! my beautiful, grand, intellectual sister, it is too bad
+to scold you! Just hear my queenly Ernestine sue for pardon, like some
+poor Cinderella, and all for a piece of burnt meat! Don't mind it,
+dear. You can't think how touching your humility is. Why, I could kneel
+at your feet, if you would let me.&quot; She kissed her sister's lips. &quot;Oh,
+what a poor distressed face! Don't you know, dearest Ernestine, that
+the sight of that face is more to me than all the dinners in the
+world?&quot; And she laughed as merrily as a child.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine returned her embrace. &quot;There, you forgive me,&quot; she said
+tenderly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no, I beg your pardon,&quot; said Gretchen, &quot;I will educate you. But
+enough of this. We must proceed to business at once. I must go back to
+school at two o'clock, and we cannot starve. We must give up the meat
+for to-day. There is no help for it. We must indulge ourselves in the
+luxury of an omelet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let me make it,&quot; Ernestine begged. &quot;Sit down and rest yourself, you
+are tired.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What! let you make it?&quot; asked Gretchen. &quot;That would be wise indeed.
+Suppose you spoiled it, what should we do then?&quot; And she took out a
+basket containing eggs. &quot;We have just eggs enough for one omelet, and
+no more.</p>
+
+<div class="poem2">
+<p class="t0" style="text-indent:-8px">'Entränn' er jetzo kraftlos meinen Händen,<br>
+Ich habe keinen zweiten zu versenden,'</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="continue">as Schiller makes Tell say when he had no second string to his bow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Indeed, Gretchen,&quot; pleaded Ernestine, &quot;I will not spoil it. I should
+be so glad to recover your good opinion,--only let me try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dearest, darling Ernestine,&quot; said Gretchen, &quot;trust me, we cannot
+indulge in experiments any longer. While we had a little money, it did
+not make much difference if we had a spoiled dish now and then, but now
+we must save every groschen.--there is no help for it.&quot; And she began
+to beat the eggs, while Ernestine put more wood in the stove.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never mind that!&quot; cried Gretchen. &quot;If you want to do something, dress
+the salad. But make haste, the omelet will be ready in an instant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine made all the haste she could,--she was so anxious to do
+something.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly Gretchen, who was busy at the fire, heard a low exclamation,
+and, turning, she saw Ernestine standing with a face of despair before,
+the salad-bowl, with the oil-bottle in her hand. &quot;What have you done?&quot;
+cried Gretchen, hastening to her side. &quot;Not got hold of the wrong
+bottle, I hope?&quot; But one sniff at the salad was enough. &quot;Bless me!
+she has put petroleum into it! Now we must sit in the dark this
+evening,--our week's supply is exhausted. Such nice salad and such good
+petroleum, each so valuable by itself and so worthless mixed! Now, dear
+Ernestine, you cannot ask me to permit you to stay in the kitchen a
+moment longer. This is one of your unlucky days.&quot; And, with a comical
+air of pathos, she untied and took off her sister's apron. &quot;Herewith I
+solemnly depose you from your responsible office. You have to-day shown
+yourself entirely unworthy to wear this ornament. Now go into the next
+room, and wait quietly until I bring the omelet in to you.&quot; And she
+opened the door and led Ernestine from the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When she went to her, shortly afterwards, she found her sitting sewing,
+her eyes red with weeping. &quot;Darling,&quot; she said to her, &quot;I do believe
+you are crying about that trifle! I must be a little strict with you,
+you see, or you will never learn to economize and take care of things.
+Ernestine dear, you are not vexed with me for scolding you? I was only
+in jest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How could I be vexed with you? I am crying because I am of no earthly
+use in the world! If it were not for you, you angel, what would become
+of me? There is no child eight years old more clumsy and awkward than
+I. Who would bear with me as you do? Do you think I am not humiliated
+by these thoughts? For these last two months, ever since my money was
+exhausted, you have supported me by your hard work at that school, and
+I could do nothing for you but prepare our frugal noonday meal while
+you are away, and now I cannot even do that! It is shameful! Have I
+made the most complicated chemical combinations, and yet can I not make
+decent soup? Have I overcome the greatest difficulties, and yet are
+these simple tasks beyond me? This cannot go on. I promise you I will
+take myself in hand, and you shall not have to fast again when you come
+from school.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My dear Ernestine, I do not believe you can ever learn these things.
+They are too far beneath you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My superiority is truly deplorable,&quot; replied Ernestine. &quot;It does not
+help me to discharge the smallest duty. Difficulties always incite me,
+and, now that I see how difficult these trifles are, I am determined to
+master them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen handed her a piece of the omelet. &quot;Now put away your work, or
+your dinner will be quite cold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine laid aside the skirt upon which she was working. &quot;I shall
+never get it together again. I wish I had not ripped it apart!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Why, you could never have worn it, with the front breadth so scorched.
+But I will help you this evening. It is my fault that you scorched
+it,--I should not have let you make the fire,--so it is no more than
+reasonable that I should help you to repair the injury. But, Ernestine
+dear, you do not eat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I have had enough. If you would have allowed me, I could have made two
+omelets out of those eggs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen laughed merrily. &quot;Hear her say how much better she could have
+made it! Well, only wait, day after to-morrow is Sunday, and I shall be
+at home, and then you may cook as much as you please, under my
+direction. That will be a real holiday for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, Gretchen, how often I think of the Staatsräthin, when she wanted
+to teach me to prepare the beans for cooking, and I felt it an
+occupation so far beneath my dignity! I did not understand her then,
+but I have learned to do so now.&quot; She sat lost in sad reflections.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen looked at Ernestine's plate, and shook her head. &quot;What shall I
+get for you that you can eat? If you would only let me accept something
+now and then from my guardian. He would be so glad to assist us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen, I have nothing to do with what he gives you,&quot; said Ernestine
+gravely, &quot;but no morsel that he might send us should pass my lips, any
+more than I would accept one of the two dresses he sent to you. I know
+I am severe, for I force you to starve with me, but, God willing,&quot;--and
+she uttered the name of God with more reverence than is usually shown
+by those who have it constantly on their lips,--&quot;it will not last much
+longer. I must surely obtain a situation soon, and then you, you dear,
+faithful child, will be free to return to the Möllners, or
+whithersoever you choose, and begin to enjoy your young life. I will
+confess to you, Gretchen, that I wrote again, the day before yesterday,
+to the agent in Frankfort, begging him to do all that he could for me.
+There must be a place for me somewhere in this wide world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She threaded her needle with difficulty, and began to sew again. Two
+large tears fell upon her work, but she brushed them hastily away, that
+Gretchen might not see them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Dear Ernestine,&quot; Gretchen said, when she had carried away the plates,
+&quot;I must go now, for half-past one has struck. Do not sew too long, and
+pray forget your sad thoughts. Some place for you is sure to offer. It
+would, to be sure, have been better if we could have lived in
+Frankfort, instead of coming out here to Rothelheim. Then you would
+have been able to see the people yourself. But the living there was
+really too expensive, and I was certain of employment here. Oh, if
+people only knew you, they would seize upon you instantly. If I could
+only induce my good directress to see you, she never could withstand
+you! Now good-by, dearest and best,--all good spirits protect you in
+the dark,--you know we have no light this evening!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Never mind that, Gretchen. I will think of father Leonhardt, who is
+always in the dark, while for us the sun will surely rise again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes indeed, Ernestine, always remember that,--'The sun will surely
+rise for us,' Gretchen called back into the room from the doorway.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In that sense? Who can tell?&quot; Ernestine thought sadly.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She looked for a moment irresolutely at the little spider-legged table
+that served as dining- and writing-table. She would so like to write to
+Walter. It was now over a week since she had heard from him, and her
+scientific correspondence with this young friend was her sole
+self-indulgence,--the only tie that still connected her with her former
+pursuits. In all his letters he told her of his progress, asked her
+opinion upon many points, and glowed with enthusiasm for her genius.
+She could scarcely withstand the temptation to devote the time while it
+was yet light to writing. Her heart was still full of the wonderful
+dreams of the morning.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">But she looked down at the skirt upon which she was working, and which
+she really stood in need of, and thought, &quot;No, I was thoughtless this
+morning, and dreamed away the time, instead of cooking. I will be
+conscientious this afternoon, and work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She seated herself, sighing heavily, at the window, and sewed on
+diligently. &quot;Practice makes perfect,&quot; she had said in the essay that
+was to procure her admission to the lecture-room of the University. She
+never dreamed then how she was one day to prove the truth of the
+proverb. If she only had that essay now, she thought! She had forgotten
+to ask Dr. Möllner for it, and he had it still. What had he done with
+it? Should she reclaim it? No, assuredly not! He had written to her but
+once since her flight from Hochstetten, and had afterwards sent her the
+proceeds of the sale of her furniture, without one friendly word,--only
+transacting her business for her as formally as for a stranger. And
+what a letter that was after her flight! She took it out to read it
+once more, although she had read it already again and again:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I understand you, Ernestine. I expected this. It would have been
+unjust to our future to put force upon your feelings. God will one day
+guide me out of this dilemma. Until then, live in peace, and gratify a
+pride that I am now convinced nothing can break. Perhaps in time it may
+consume itself, and perhaps love may overcome it. I will endure, as I
+have learned to do since I first knew you. There is a strength in you
+such as I never believed a woman could possess, and with which I know
+not how to contend. I do not grudge you the triumph that this
+confession affords you. It is a poor delight in comparison with that
+which love would yield you, if you did not scorn it. Ah, Ernestine,
+could I have snatched you from your poverty to my heart and home, my
+joy would have been beyond that of mortals. A grateful smile from you
+would have been more than worlds to me. But you do not choose, since
+you would sacrifice nothing for me, to accept any sacrifice from me.
+You choose to be your husband's equal in all respects,--to owe nothing
+to any human being. I forgive you your pride in this respect, for it
+presupposes an exaggerated self-depreciation. As you think so lightly
+of yourself,--as you do not dream of your wealth of charms, of the
+power that you possess to bless and enrich,--you cannot believe that
+you can bestow a treasure to the worth of which the wealth of the world
+is nothing. Perhaps this is partly my fault. In my desire to deal
+truthfully with you, I have neglected to impress this fact upon you.
+But, Ernestine, it seems to me a true woman does not ask, 'How much do
+I receive, and what can I give in return?' She accepts in love what is
+offered in love, and is glad to owe everything to him to whom she is
+everything. She gives him all that she can, and never stints him of the
+dearest delight that he can have,--that of labouring and toiling for
+one so dear to him. She willingly wears the fetters of dependence,
+regarding them only as ties binding her more closely to the loved one.
+You cannot feel so, Ernestine. It would be unjust to require it of you,
+and you were wrong if you feared I should seek to detain you by force.
+I only used force to preserve you from a menacing peril. Now you are
+safe. The world into which you are going will be only a school for you,
+and you have need of this school. Therefore, choose your own path, and
+prove the independence, your right to which you insist upon asserting.
+I would not exact what would be a blessing only as a free gift. There
+was no need of your leaving us as you did, without even a farewell to
+my mother, who had grown so fond of you and nursed you so tenderly. It
+pained her that you should do so.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will not speak of what I suffered upon finding you gone upon my
+return from town, leaving only those few lines of farewell. You are
+bent upon maintaining the dignity of your sex, and, in such an
+important undertaking, it is scarcely worth while to consider the
+wrecked happiness of one human life.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Farewell, and, if I can serve you in anything, command me.</p>
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Johannes</span>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When she first received this letter, she had sunk fainting into
+Gretchen's arms. Since then Möllner's name had never passed her lips,
+and almost five months had gone by. She had not allowed a thought of
+him to enter her mind, except when, as now, some other subject had
+brought him vividly before her, and then she punished herself by
+quickly thinking of other things. Whence came the tears that now
+trickled down her cheeks? Her cold, benumbed hands trembled as she
+wiped them away. She bravely choked them down, and thought--poor
+child!--that she was not crying, when she swallowed down the bitter
+drops that welled up from her heart. Such weeping is the bitterest of
+all.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The shades of night fell fast, and she could no longer see to sew.
+There was an end of a candle on the shelf, and she lighted it, but it
+scarcely burned half an hour before it died out and she was left in
+darkness. She began to arrange and open the narrow beds that stood
+against the wall of the room, and, as she did so, thought of her good
+Willmers. How kind it was of the Frau Staatsräthin to take the faithful
+soul into her service! Fie! thinking of him again! What weakness! The
+little room grew darker and darker. The panes began to be covered with
+frost, and the light from the neighbour's room opposite glittered in
+prismatic colours upon the ice-flowers and trees. They were wealthier
+over there than Ernestine, for they could afford a light. They had not
+poured their petroleum on the salad, to be sure, but then they had not
+been visited by the Snow-queen! Ernestine sat down wearily by her bed,
+and rested her head on the pillow. She felt better when her body was in
+entire repose, she thought.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">How wearily she had lain upon her soft bed six months ago in
+Hochstetten! And how anxious she had been to live! Would it have been
+so terrible to lose such a life as this? Then it seemed as if a strong,
+tender hand clasped hers, and she felt a quick, anxious breath upon her
+brow. She knew it well, and the gentle questioning that was sure to
+follow,--knew that firm, quiet pressure upon her heart to count its
+pulsations. And if she had only clasped it fast,--that strong, tender
+hand,--she would not now be sitting here alone in the dark! &quot;Oh,
+Johannes!&quot; she gasped, and extended her arms. Then there was a noise of
+some one stumbling upstairs,--that could not be Gretchen. There was a
+knock at the door. &quot;Who is there?&quot; cried Ernestine, frightened.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Postman,&quot; a rough voice answered from without.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, a letter from the agent,&quot; thought Ernestine, opening the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Four kreutzers,&quot; said the man, handing her a letter.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine stood aghast. &quot;Is it not prepaid? I--I have not a single
+kreutzer in the world--we shall have no money until to-morrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No kreutzers, and no light? Hm--hm! Such a beautiful lady, with no
+money in her pocket? Well, well, you can pay me to-morrow. I'll trust
+you until then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank you, you are very kind,&quot; Ernestine stammered, greatly ashamed.
+She was obliged to run in debt to the postman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you no light, to show me the way down-stairs? I shall break my
+legs or my neck upon these steep, narrow steps.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will lead you down. I know the way, and I must go down to read my
+letter by a street-lamp.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Good God! what poverty! Go down to the people on the lower floor--they
+will give you a candle-end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, I will not. They are not respectable people, and I will have
+nothing to do with them. The poorer one is, the prouder one must be--so
+as not to sink too low. You are a good man, Herr Bittner. Tell no one
+how poor we are.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, if you say so, but something ought to be done for you. I have seen
+what a hard time you have had of it ever since you came here. It's none
+of my business. I can only hope that there may be something good in the
+letter that I brought you,--and I do hope so, with all my heart.
+Good-evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;God grant it!&quot; said Ernestine, going into the street to read her
+letter by the gas-lamp there. A fine snow was falling again, and the
+passers-by looked at her in amazement. The colour mounted to her
+forehead, but she could not wait until morning to read this letter,
+which she felt sure contained her fate. It was from the Frankfort agent
+who was to procure a situation for her, and was short and to the point:</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="continue">&quot;<span class="sc">Fräulein von Hartwich</span>:</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You wish me to tell you frankly how it is that I have as yet procured
+no situation for you. I will do so,--for I see from your note that you
+accuse me in your thoughts of a negligence that I should be sorry to be
+guilty of towards any one,--least of all towards yourself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You yourself, unfortunately, Fräulein von Hartwich, furnish the reason
+why I have hitherto been unable to procure a situation for you. No
+agent in the world would be able to find a position as governess in a
+respectable family for a lady bearing such a reputation as yours. For
+their children's sake, people are unwilling to receive into their
+houses a person who has written as you have done against religion and
+in favour of the emancipation of woman. You assure me, I know, that you
+have altered your opinions, and that you yourself now condemn these
+writings. But no one will believe in such a forced conversion. Besides,
+in your advertisement in the papers you referred to the Prorector of
+the University at N----, without giving any name. I can only conclude
+that you must have been mistaken in the person of the Prorector, for
+the present holder of the office is a Professor Herbert, who gives the
+strongest possible testimony against you, and has already destroyed
+your prospects in three separate instances, by referring people to your
+books,--after reading which, no one would listen to a word in your
+behalf.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine's arms dropped by her sides. From delicacy, she had
+suppressed Möllner's name in the papers, entirely forgetting that at
+this time the office of Prorector was held but for a year by one
+person. She remembered how she had mortally offended Herbert on the
+only occasion when she had met him, and she knew that this man's
+mortified vanity had made him her implacable foe. But that was a
+secondary matter. The blameless need fear no foe. It was her own fault
+that Herbert had the power to destroy her prospects. He had not
+maligned her, he had simply referred to the books which she had
+written. She had herself whetted the knife that he had used against
+her. She had only herself to blame.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Never had the phantom of the past loomed so monstrously before her as
+now. There she stood,--she, who had thought herself able to defy the
+world,--starving and freezing in the cold, reading by the light of a
+street-lamp the anathema that society hurls at the woman who offends
+it. The iron wheels of conventionality, in the path of which she had so
+boldly thrown herself, had passed over her prostrate form. She was only
+a helpless, desolate woman.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She was scarcely capable of reading any further. She held the sheet in
+her trembling hands, caring not to decipher the few words of condolence
+with which the agent closed his communication. The snow-flakes wetted
+the paper, so that the letters ran together, and in the wintry wind it
+fluttered to and fro in her hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her feet were stiff with cold as she turned into the house again and
+groped her way up the dark staircase. Gretchen's return was unusually
+delayed, and Ernestine longed so for her sympathy and advice.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">What should she do? She could not permit her sister to sacrifice the
+best years of her life to her support. She could no longer be dependent
+upon the kindness of such a child. What should she attempt? Must she
+beg from door to door? How could she earn her own living, when she had
+been taught none of the arts by which to earn it? In these last few
+months Gretchen had taught her something of what was indispensable in
+such great need. She had never dreamed how difficult the things were
+that she had accounted so unimportant. She had come to the point where
+self-respect is imperilled in the struggle for mere subsistence. She
+wrung her hands, and called out into the darkness, &quot;O God, take pity on
+me, and guide me through this valley of the shadow of death!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And the bitter doubt whether He would listen to her cry would arise
+within her heart. She reviewed in her mind the miserable superficial
+essays that she had written denying Him, and felt that she was justly
+punished. How little had she thought, when exulting in the attention
+that they had excited, that she should ever feel herself disgraced by
+their authorship! As yet, she had uttered no reproach against her
+uncle. He had expiated by his death his theft of her property, but his
+crime against her mind and soul he could never expiate,--this it was
+that now branded him with infamy in her memory. What a happy woman she
+might now have been, if he had not misdirected her ambition! What
+friends might have been hers, had he not made a misanthrope of her! and
+now, when starvation stared her in the face, the demon of his teaching
+snatched from her lips the bread that she might have earned.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">When Gretchen at last returned, she found Ernestine crouching upon the
+hearth, gazing into the fire that she had kindled to warm her wet feet
+and to cook the evening meal.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What are you doing, Ernestine dear?&quot; she asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I am praying for daily bread,&quot; she replied in a monotone.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Poor Gretchen listened sorrowfully to all that Ernestine had to tell
+her. She knew that for such a nature as Ernestine's this state of
+dependence and inactivity was worse than death, and that no love or
+devotion on her part could reconcile her proud sister to such a lot.
+She could advise nothing. The only thing that Ernestine could do for
+her own support was, perhaps, copying. But who in the little town would
+have anything to copy? And they could hardly live unless Ernestine was
+able to earn something. Gretchen's modest salary would hardly suffice
+to keep them from starvation. She did not mind any amount of
+deprivation for herself,--but could she see Ernestine pine and sicken
+for want of nourishing food? And she had promised solemnly to accept no
+help from Möllner or Hilsborn. What was to be done?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">After a long, sleepless night, she arose at dawn, and, while Ernestine
+was still sleeping, sat down and wrote to Hilsborn. She wrote
+hurriedly, and the long letter was wet with tears that Ernestine would
+have been grieved to see. She finished it before Ernestine awoke, and
+her eyes began to sparkle again, as if they trusted that this letter
+would change the whole aspect of affairs.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen,&quot; said Ernestine, as Gretchen leaned over her to give her a
+morning kiss, &quot;how gay you look! Do you not feel the heavy burden that
+I have laid upon your shoulders?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, Ernestine,&quot; her sister replied, &quot;as long as I have you I will be
+thankful for you, however dark matters may look outside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked at her thoughtfully. &quot;Gretchen, there is a greatness
+in your fidelity and self-sacrifice that I never before conceived of.
+Now first I know what Dr. Möllner meant by true womanliness. This
+womanliness your father took from me,--you, his child, have restored it
+to me. It is the greatest gift you have given me, and it atones for his
+depriving me of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen breathed a sigh of relief. &quot;When you say so, I seem to hear
+the angels tell me that mercy will be shown to my poor father. Indeed,
+dear Ernestine, you are in alliance with beings of a better world, or
+you could not know how to console and inspire me thus. Indeed, when you
+look at me so tenderly I must believe there is redemption for the soul
+of my father. What can I do to repay you for such consolation?&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="div1_3.12" href="#div1Ref_3.12">CHAPTER XII.</a></h2>
+
+<h3>THE THIRD POWER.</h3>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;'What the law of force fails to accomplish, the intellect will
+effect,--where the intellect fails, love succeeds!' That was what he
+said,&quot; said Ernestine. Again her thoughts were involuntarily occupied
+with Johannes. &quot;I wish I could write the sermons for his reverence,
+instead of copying them,--that would be such an excellent text.&quot; Thus
+she broke forth one day while seated with Gretchen at the table, where
+the latter was busy finishing the new dress that Hilsborn had sent her.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Have you proposed it to Herr Pastor?&quot; asked Gretchen with a smile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If he were not so conceited, I certainly would do so. But I suppose he
+would be offended.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I rather suppose so too,&quot; laughed Gretchen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;There is a Nemesis in it,&quot; said Ernestine, as she sat making a pen.
+&quot;Here am I, who have hardly ever listened to a sermon in my life,
+obliged to copy sermons for my bread. Well,&quot; she added gravely, &quot;it is
+just.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And again her pen flew quickly over the paper. After some time she sat
+up, with a long breath. &quot;I have learnt to deny myself and to pray, but
+I have yet to learn the hardest task of all,--patience.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It must be a terrible drudgery to such a mind as yours merely to write
+down the thoughts of another,&quot; said Gretchen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;If there only were thoughts here, but these are nothing but empty
+words. And I must not even correct them,--it is mental death!&quot; She
+wrote on for awhile, then suddenly raised her head and broke out, &quot;At
+least they might let women have something to do with religion, if they
+deny our right to meddle with science or politics. Religion is so much
+a matter of feeling, and feeling is a woman's prerogative. Humility,
+self-sacrifice, and submission are native to woman, and a woman's lips
+could discourse far more eloquently than a man's of these Christian
+qualities. Why should a woman not be found worthy to declare the word
+of God? Why?&quot; She suppressed a sigh. &quot;Ah, the old indignation is
+getting possession of me! I will not yield to it,--such independence of
+thought does not become a mere copyist.&quot; She tried to go on with her
+writing, but her cheeks were flushed, and the tears stood in her eyes.
+&quot;Oh, Gretchen, I shall never live it down,--this pity for our poor sex.
+It will always be the same,--any allusion to our wrongs cuts me to the
+very quick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen laid her hand upon her shoulder. &quot;Dear Ernestine, we will
+speak of this some other time. Now remember that you have promised that
+your copy shall be ready by four o'clock.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are right I will finish it instantly,&quot; said Ernestine, dipping the
+pen in the ink. &quot;No, I cannot let such nonsense stand as it is!&quot; she
+exclaimed after a pause. &quot;The man is going to have the sermons
+printed,--he will thank me for correcting the worst faults.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine, take care,--he may be offended,&quot; said Gretchen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no, surely I may change a couple of words. Whatever goes through
+my hands shall be as free from errors as possible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen shook her head.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine completed her copy in about half an hour, and prepared to
+carry it to the pastor.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The days were beginning to grow longer. Although it was past four
+o'clock, the winter sun was looking brightly into the room, and upon
+the roofs below their windows the snow was melting into little rills.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Shall you be back soon?&quot; Gretchen called after Ernestine as she went
+out.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In a very little while,&quot; was the answer, as the speaker left the room
+with her bundle of papers under her arm.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen was left alone in the room.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Another half-hour passed. A firm step was heard ascending the stairs.
+Gretchen listened intently. Her heart beat fast with joyous expectancy.
+Who was it that was intruding upon their seclusion?</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She had not long to wait, there was a loud knock at the door.
+Gretchen's &quot;Come in&quot; was instantly followed by a &quot;Thank God, 'tis he!&quot;
+for Möllner stood upon the threshold.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I knew you would come,--I was sure my letter to Herr Hilsborn would
+bring you,--I am delighted!&quot; cried the girl, drawing him into the room.
+He said nothing in reply to her welcome, but let her take his hat and
+coat, and then, with a glance around the wretched apartment, exclaimed,
+in a tone of horror-stricken compassion, &quot;Good God!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen understood him, and gave him time to recover himself.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">At last he asked, &quot;Where is she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She has gone to carry home some copying that the pastor gave her to
+do. She will be here very soon. Do not be startled at seeing her look
+so badly. We have lived wretchedly of late.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes took her hand. &quot;Gretchen, can't you hide me somewhere? I am
+not sufficiently composed to see her at present,--I must collect
+myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, come into our kitchen. I had better prepare Ernestine, too, for
+seeing you,--she is weak, and must be treated with great caution.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She conducted him into the little, cold, dark room that she called a
+kitchen. &quot;Look! the poor girl has cooked our wretched dinners in this
+place for the last five months, and shed many a tear when she spoiled
+anything. Oh, if you could have seen, as I have, our proud Ernestine
+work and struggle and starve, you would not have refrained so long from
+putting an end to our misery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;It is well that I could not see it. I should have been unnerved, and
+spoiled all by precipitation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Forgive me, but indeed you are hard. Hilsborn would not have left me
+here one instant longer than he could have helped.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And he would have been right, Gretchen. But Ernestine and you are very
+different characters. She needed, and would have, this struggle for
+life,--even now I tremble lest she should refuse to let me put an end
+to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no! when you see Ernestine, you will acknowledge that it was high
+time to hasten to her. Since all her efforts to obtain a situation have
+failed, her spirit seems well-nigh broken. I think in a little while
+she would have been hopelessly embittered, and her health would have
+given way entirely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes threw himself into the wooden chair by the window, where, in
+the midst of the hard prose of her life, Ernestine had been visited by
+such wondrous dreams. &quot;Here is a letter to you, my dear Gretchen, from
+Hilsborn. He would have been only too glad to come with me, but every
+moment of his time is in demand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;He is good and true,&quot; said Gretchen, &quot;and I know how he trusts in me,
+but I cannot leave Ernestine until her future is assured.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You are a noble child, Gretchen! If Ernestine had the least suspicion
+of what you are renouncing for her sake, she would never permit----&quot; He
+paused, a flush mounted to his brow, his lips trembled, as he
+whispered, &quot;There she is! I hear her coming! For God's sake, Gretchen,
+give me time to collect myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I will go and meet her, that she may not come in here,&quot; said Gretchen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes handed her a book. &quot;Here, lay this upon her table. It is a
+copy of the same edition of Andersen's Fairy Tales that I once gave
+her, and that was burnt. It may prepare her for seeing me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes!&quot; Gretchen hurried into the next room, and laid the book in
+Ernestine's work-basket. She started at the haggard appearance of
+Ernestine who entered with eyes flashing, and an expression of sullen
+indignation upon every feature.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What is the matter, Ernestine?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine threw off her hat and cloak, wrung her hands, and walked
+hurriedly to and fro. &quot;That has gone too!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;What, Ernestine?--what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The pastor has refused to give me any more sermons to copy, because I
+ventured to correct his errors.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, is that all?&quot; cried Gretchen, very much relieved.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is that all?&quot; Ernestine repeated bitterly. &quot;You say that, because,
+faithful and true as you are, you see no hardship in the prospect of
+supporting me again, without any help on my part, by your own unwearied
+exertions. You can say, 'Is that all?' but I, who fancied myself the
+first and proudest of my sex, am a beggar, dependent upon charity, fit
+for nothing but the duties of a common maid-servant, and not able to
+perform even these decently. I have lost all confidence, all hope, in
+myself. That is all!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gretchen caressed her lovingly, and smiled,--how could she smile at
+this moment? &quot;Ah, Ernestine, how could you reject Dr. Möllner when he
+first wooed you? I should have thought you would have given your heart
+to him upon the spot. I only hope you may never know what you threw
+away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Gretchen,&quot; said Ernestine gravely, &quot;it is long since I have learned
+what I then rejected. The pride with which I turned away from him,
+refusing to sacrifice my foolish ambition to make myself a name, has
+been severely punished. As in our dreams we are sometimes borne aloft
+as upon wings into immeasurable space, until our balance is lost and we
+fall headlong, awaking with the shock, so my ambition carried me to
+heights where I could not sustain myself. I fell, but strong and tender
+arms were held out to receive me, and I awoke to find myself embraced
+by them instead of prostrate in a frightful abyss. Then, in the
+confusion of my wakening, I thought those sustaining arms were fetters.
+I thrust them from me, and now I lie crushed and broken on the ground.&quot;
+She crossed her arms upon the table, and bowed her head on them.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Gently Gretchen took the book from the basket, and, opening it where
+she saw that Johannes had put a mark, she silently pushed it towards
+Ernestine, who raised her head at the touch, and at first looked
+absently at the pages before her, then gazed and gazed as if utterly
+unable to comprehend what she saw. It was her dear old book,--there was
+the swan that she had burned. &quot;Heavens!&quot; she cried, between laughter
+and tears, &quot;can this be real? My swan! My swan! Who brought me this?
+Oh, dreams of my childhood, who has restored you to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">And she knelt beside the table, and laid her cheek upon the book.
+Before her closed eyes it was night again. Before her upon the table
+burned the dim night-lamp, and her father lay asleep close at hand. She
+read the story of the Ugly Duckling, and above her softly rustled the
+snowy plumage of the swan, and among her curls trembled the leaves of
+the oak whence the handsome boy had snatched her from mortal peril. And
+then her father awoke, and sent her up to her uncle. There stood the
+telescope, through which she was again gazing, thirsting for a peace
+which her young heart presaged without the power to grasp,--filled with
+longing to be borne up--up to those starry worlds gliding so silently
+through space. She knew now what she had so desired,--Love! But she
+searched for it among those worlds in vain. Suddenly she was standing
+upon the hill in the garden of her castle, and above her hovered the
+faithful little mermaid, in the shape of a sunset cloud, while a deep,
+tender voice whispered, &quot;Poor swan!&quot; Here, here was what she sought.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Poor swan!&quot; The words sounded distinctly now in her ears, not in her
+dreaming fancy only. She opened her eyes, and started up with a
+low cry, and would have fled,--fled to the uttermost ends of the
+earth,--but she could not stir from the spot. She tottered and would
+have fallen, but two strong arms upheld her, and for a moment she lost
+all consciousness. This was rest indeed.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Shall I get some water?&quot; asked Gretchen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, no. Do not grudge me one moment,&quot; said Johannes, clasping the
+lifeless form to his heart &quot;She will recoil from me as soon as she
+comes to herself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You should not have spoken to her so suddenly,&quot; said Gretchen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine opened her eyes, looked up and around for a moment in
+bewilderment, and then extricated herself instantly from the arms in
+which she had found such rest.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Did I not know her well?&quot; Johannes said, by a glance, to Gretchen.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You came so unexpectedly,--I was weak. I am ashamed of myself,&quot; she
+said, struggling for composure.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You might be ashamed, if you could be what you call strong at this
+moment,&quot; he replied. At a sign from him, Gretchen withdrew.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes gazed for a moment with intense devotion into Ernestine's
+eyes. &quot;Dear heart, let me speak one fervent, last word to you. I know
+that I just now held another Ernestine in my arms than she who fled
+from me almost half a year ago. I felt it in the throbbing of your
+heart. But fear nothing, I am not come to take advantage of your
+helpless condition,--to wring from you a decision which might be
+stigmatized, in your present circumstances, as extorted from you by
+necessity. I understand you now. Yours is a nature never to yield to
+pressure from without,--it must take form and direction from within. It
+would be as useless to attempt controlling such a nature by force as to
+endeavour to make a rose bloom by tearing open the bud. We might
+destroy, but we could not unfold it. I have done all that I could to
+restore to you what is as necessary to you as light and air,--your
+independence. You once accused me of selfishness and interested
+motives. You shall be convinced that you did me injustice in this
+respect.&quot; He drew a paper from his breast-pocket. &quot;I have succeeded
+through my friend Brenter, in St. Petersburg, in procuring you the
+offer of a position as Teacher of Natural Science in the famous Normal
+School established there. The place is a capital one, and has hitherto
+been occupied by men only. You will be entire mistress of your time,
+with the exception of the few hours daily spent in instruction. You can
+easily pursue your studies, and I can procure you admission to the
+scientific society of St. Petersburg. Your life there will be what your
+former ambition craved. You can earn your livelihood honourably, and
+sooner or later you will have an opportunity of attaining the goal of
+your desires,--a degree, for the Russian universities are not so strict
+as the German in the matter of admitting women to a share in their
+honours. Here is Brenter's letter. You see it makes you independent of
+all aid, even of mine. And now I venture again to ask you to make a
+sacrifice for me,--a great sacrifice. You cannot fear, if you now grant
+my suit, that any suspicion can be cast upon the freedom of your
+choice, or that you can be accused of being driven by necessity into my
+arms. If you yield now, you renounce brilliant prospects for my sake. I
+will urge nothing in my own behalf. Leave me, and there is a great
+future before you. Be mine, and my heart and home stand wide open to
+receive you. I will only say, 'Choose, Ernestine.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And have you done this,--this for me?&quot; said Ernestine, trembling with
+emotion. &quot;How truly have you understood and respected my pride! How
+firm and yet how tender you are with me! How can I thank you, how repay
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;How, Ernestine? Let your own heart answer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I cannot listen to my heart alone. I must do whatever will make me
+worthiest of such devoted love. What shall,--what should I decide?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Let me tell you, if you do not know, for the last time, that true
+pride will teach you that you can give me nothing half so precious as
+yourself. The value of this gift no worldly wealth or honours could
+enhance. True humility will teach you to yield your fate
+unquestioningly to the man who gives you his very life. Go from me, and
+you may be great, but you cannot be womanly, and what is such
+greatness, attained at the cost of a heart? Give up the false pride
+that would seek fame beyond the bounds of a woman's sphere, and confess
+that you can do nothing greater than to enrich and bless, as you will
+when you are what God intended you should be--a true, loving woman.&quot; He
+broke off. &quot;But, I repeat, the choice is yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;The choice? Is there any choice left for me?&quot; cried Ernestine with
+sparkling eyes. &quot;Shall I dissemble now, and try to conceal what I have
+scarcely been able for a long time to control! What are learning and
+fame, what the pride of position that you have offered me, compared
+with the happiness of this moment? Away with them all, and with my
+false pride! My choice is made, Johannes.&quot; And she sank upon his
+breast.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He clasped her as in a dream. Their lips met in a first long kiss, in
+which the lover breathed forth his long-pent-up tenderness.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">She trembled like a scarce-opened flower in the first wind of summer,
+and yet all was as well with her as when she had, as a child, measured
+herself against the Titanic force of the elements in commotion around
+her. She knew now that love was no weakness, but a mighty power, and
+that it was divine to put forth this power. She raised her head at
+last, and looked at him with tears in her eyes. &quot;Johannes,--dearest,
+best,--forgive--forgive my faults and failings--I repented them so long
+ago!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He leaned over her, and whispered, &quot;Ernestine, only love, do you now
+confess the third power of which I once told you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes, I confess and bow before it.&quot; She folded her hands, and her
+face seemed for a moment transfigured. &quot;Oh, Spirit of Love, dwell in my
+heart, and teach me to be worthy of him who is so dear to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p style="text-align:center; letter-spacing:20px">* * * * * *</p>
+
+<p class="normal">There was a double wedding such as the town of N---- had never seen
+before! Möllner and Ernestine, Hilsborn and Gretchen, were married on
+the same day. There was a great crowd before the quiet house where
+Professor Möllner lived, to witness the arrival of the numerous guests
+who were to escort the bridal parties to church.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;That is one of the bridesmaids, but an old one,&quot; was whispered among
+the people as Elsa and her brother alighted from their carriage.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;And that is another, but a very little one,&quot; was added, as a stalwart
+young man lifted a charming brown-eyed child out of the carriage. She
+was dressed in white with pink ribbons, and had a huge bouquet in her
+hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;But, oh, she has only one arm!&quot; was uttered in a tone of compassion as
+she passed into the house, accompanied by her companion bridesmaid, and
+disappeared beneath the garlands and among the flowering shrubs with
+which the hall was decorated.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Within, the large drawing-room was crowded with the science and
+respectability of N----. There had been great astonishment among the
+inhabitants of the place when Johannes' actual engagement to the
+Hartwich was announced, but all agreed that Professor Möllner always
+knew what he was about; and those who were invited to the wedding
+declared themselves delighted with the match.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Even Elsa was appeased by Möllner's request that she would act as
+bridesmaid. &quot;I am glad to be his bridesmaid,&quot; she said to her
+sister-in-law in the morning. &quot;It will break my heart, but I will not
+repine! I shall fade away like a blossom that zephyrs waft from the
+tree before it can become fruit. Oh, no, I do not repine,--I only share
+the fate of thousands of my sisters. The blossom dying the death of
+innocence in its virgin purity is not to be pitied--no, let pity be for
+him who could crush it beneath his trend in his onward path without
+ever dreaming of the delight that it might have given him.&quot; She did not
+foresee that the poetic death that she anticipated would be very long
+delayed, and that she would be a welcome guest in Möllner's house in
+future years, as &quot;Aunt Elsa&quot; to a throng of attentive little listeners
+whom she would delight with many a tale about the elves, gnomes, and
+wild flowers of her youth. She was dressed in character on the present
+occasion, in sea-green, with a wreath of cherry-blossoms in her hair; a
+long narrow scarf of white satin fluttered about her slender figure.
+&quot;Many might be more richly clad,&quot; she thought, &quot;but none so
+romantically and poetically.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Her brother was in a sad state of mind as he this morning put on the
+dress-coat in which he had made his first appearance a year before in
+the Countess Worronska's boudoir. He had just heard that the beautiful
+countess had been killed in a race at St. Petersburg, and his grief at
+the death of the woman whom he still loved was increased by the
+necessity of concealing it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">In spite of the number of guests, there was a solemn silence reigning
+in the large apartment. For all were awaiting the entrance of the two
+brides.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Who has not been conscious of a slight shudder at the first appearance
+of a bride, a young girl, about to take the most important step of her
+life? All eyes were turned towards the door of the antechamber.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Johannes, with his mother, and Hilsborn, with Heim, placed themselves
+opposite it, the guests withdrew from around them, and a space through
+the centre of the room was left free.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Slowly, and enveloped in her floating veil as in a white cloud, her
+head bowed beneath the myrtle-wreath, Ernestine entered the room. Her
+dark eyelashes were drooping, and upon her broad brow true womanhood
+was enthroned. She paused, bewildered and confused by the presence of
+so many people, among whom the whisper ran, &quot;How lovely the bride
+looks!&quot; In defiance of all rule, Johannes hastened to her, and clasped
+her hands in his.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;My swan,&quot; he whispered, &quot;now you have unfolded your plumage!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine bent her head lower still, and a tear fell on his hand.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Johannes,&quot; she said softly, &quot;let me confess,--I have loved you ever
+since you made known to me, eleven years ago, the promise of the swan,
+but I could not know that it was only through you that the promise was
+to be fulfilled!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;You loved me then, and could reject and torment me! Oh, Ernestine,
+what penalty is there for such cruelty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Only one, dearest, but a severe one,--grief for time wasted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Amen, my daughter,&quot; said the Staatsräthin gravely.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The second bride, Gretchen, now entered, with blushing cheeks and a
+radiant smile. Hilsborn, with his foster-father, went to her, and Heim
+gave her his paternal benediction. Then came Angelika, and the faithful
+Willmers, who had discharged the office of dressing-maid to the pair.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">From a corner of the room, Johannes led forward a bowed, aged form, the
+friend whom Ernestine had chosen to give her away,--old Leonhardt.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Father,&quot; she said, gently taking his hand in one of hers, while she
+held out the other to the Staatsräthin,--&quot;father, mother in spirit and
+in truth, I thank you both.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; said Leonhardt, &quot;only one day in my life,--the day of my
+own marriage,--equals this in happiness. God bless you!&quot; The old man
+was happy indeed, for the day before Walter had handed him a parchment
+roll with the announcement &quot;It is my diploma.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are we never going to start?&quot; suddenly exclaimed Moritz. &quot;These lovers
+are not in any hurry, apparently. They have had sufficient time to make
+up their minds,--pray Heaven they are not regretting their decision. To
+church, then, in God's name.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;In God's' name,&quot; Ernestine whispered, and the words were spoken with
+her whole soul.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>A YEAR LATER.</h2>
+
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Who would have thought that Ernestine would ever have turned out such
+a woman?&quot; said Moritz Kern in a suppressed tone to his wife.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">The pair were walking to and fro in Möllner's study, which was
+furnished precisely like Ernestine's former library, and they were
+evidently awaiting some event with anxiety.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Half hidden by the heavy folds of the blue curtains, Hilsborn and
+Gretchen were standing at the window. They did not speak, their hearts
+were too full. Gretchen's hands were folded, as though she were
+breathing a silent prayer, and Hilsborn stood grave and anxious beside
+her. Even Moritz stopped now and then and looked towards the door of
+the adjoining room, as if expecting it to open, but he evidently wished
+to conceal all emotion, and talked on gaily. &quot;Yes, who would have
+thought it? Johannes must have been puzzled indeed to know how to train
+that scatterbrain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I always told you that Johannes could do whatever he chose, and
+Ernestine was always sweet and good in reality, only she had been so
+warped by her education,&quot; said Angelika. &quot;I liked her from the first
+moment that I saw her after she was grown up, and you know I always
+defended her from your attacks. And now all is just as I said it would
+be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Oh, of course! I really should like to hear of anything that you women
+did not know all about beforehand,&quot; laughed Moritz. &quot;You are always so
+much sharper than we. If Ernestine had made her husband as unhappy as
+she makes him happy, we should hear the same thing,--'Oh, I told you
+so, I saw how it would be from the first, I never liked her.' I know
+you well!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Are you not ashamed,&quot; pouted Angelika, &quot;to go on with your silly jests
+when we are all so anxious? If Johannes should lose his wife, what
+would become of him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, bah! he is not going to lose her. Don't be foolish,&quot; said Moritz.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Hilsborn came towards them. &quot;Don't make yourself out worse than you
+are, Moritz,&quot; said he. &quot;I never saw you look more troubled than you do
+just at this moment. You know well enough what Ernestine is to us all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Deuce take it, of course I know it!&quot; cried Moritz,--&quot;she's as much to
+me as to any of you,--but I hate to hear people cry before they are
+hurt. God keep her, she's a jewel of a woman!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Gretchen, joining in the conversation, &quot;such women are rare
+indeed. How she fulfils every duty, even those that she once considered
+so dull and commonplace!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; chimed in Angelika, &quot;my mother is never weary of sounding
+her praises.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;This is the most wonderful thing she has accomplished yet,&quot; said
+Moritz. &quot;Only hear these two notable housewives, Hilsborn, joining in a
+chorus of praise of a third! Did you ever hear anything like it? I
+never did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;She deserves it all,&quot; answered Hilsborn. &quot;And then she is invaluable
+to Johannes as a scientific companion and assistant. He could as ill
+spare her at his desk or in his laboratory as at the head of his
+household--or----&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Hush!&quot; interrupted Angelika, &quot;did you not hear some one at the door?&quot;
+And silence reigned in the room again for awhile.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;I hope it will be a boy,--Ernestine longs for a boy,&quot; sighed Angelika.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Past two o'clock,&quot; said Hilsborn. &quot;I wish they would send us some one
+to say how she is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Suddenly the door was flung open, and old Heim's deep voice cried, &quot;It
+is over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Thank God!&quot; they all exclaimed as with one breath.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Is it a boy?&quot; asked Angelika.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, a girl!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;A girl!&quot; said Moritz. &quot;Well, ''tis not pretty, but sin is uglier,' as
+the Suabian said.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Do be quiet! What would Ernestine say if she heard you, you mocker?&quot;
+said Angelika. &quot;May we not go to her, Uncle Heim?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;No, stay where you are,&quot; said the old man, closing the door.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Within Ernestine's apartment all was quiet and repose. Johannes was
+standing, mute with happiness, by Ernestine's side, supporting her
+head, when he was called to look at his little daughter, a bundle of
+snowy wrappings in her grandmother's arms.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">He took the little creature from her and laid it by his wife's side.
+&quot;Mother,&quot; was all he said, leaning over her enraptured for awhile,
+gazing into the pure delight mirrored in her eyes. At last he raised
+his head, and said, laughingly, &quot;But, Ernestine, 'it is only a girl.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Be it so. I do not question what God has sent me. I am a mother. I
+envy no man now, and our daughter shall never do so. We will cherish
+and train our child to be what a true woman should be, and some day she
+may say to one whom she loves, as I do to you, my dearest, 'Thank God
+that I am a woman, and that I am yours.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ernestine,&quot; said Johannes, &quot;those are the dearest words you could
+utter. Happy the daughter of such a mother! Father Heim, mother dear,
+did you hear Ernestine's confession? She is reconciled at last to the
+destiny of her sex.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine gazed at the atom of being by her side, as if it were a
+miracle. She quite agreed with the Staatsräthin that it was a
+wonderfully pretty child for a new-born baby, and, as she laid her hand
+upon its little heart and felt its regular beating, she smiled amid her
+tears, and would gladly have clasped it in her arms, only it seemed so
+frail and slight she was afraid of breaking it.</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Uncle Heim,&quot; she said, &quot;I once thought that it would have been better
+if you had left me to die when my father gave me that almost fatal
+blow, but since then I have been often grateful to you for preserving
+my life, although never so grateful as at this moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">&quot;Ah, bah!&quot; said the old man, &quot;I was only the physician of your body.
+Reserve your gratitude for this fellow,&quot; he laid his hand upon
+Johannes' shoulder,--&quot;he was the physician for your soul, and so
+judicious was his treatment, that now you can have some comfort of your
+life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="normal">Ernestine looked up gratefully at her husband. &quot;Yes, faithful physician
+of my soul,--your medicines were very bitter, but they were my
+salvation.&quot;</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+<br>
+<p class="hang1"><a name="div2_01" href="#div2Ref_01">Footnote 1</a>: See Du Bois Reymond: <i>Voltaire, in Relation to Natural
+Sciences</i>. Berlin, 1868.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>THE END</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Only a Girl:, by Wilhelmine von Hillern
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Only a Girl:, by Wilhelmine von Hillern
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Only a Girl:
+       or, A Physician for the Soul.
+
+Author: Wilhelmine von Hillern
+
+Translator: A. L. Wister
+
+Release Date: July 11, 2011 [EBook #36709]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONLY A GIRL: ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source:
+      http://www.archive.org/details/onlyagirlaroman00wistgoog
+
+   2. This was published also in England under the title "Ernestine: A
+      Novel", translated by S. Baring Gould.
+
+   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              ONLY A GIRL:
+
+                                   OR
+
+                       A PHYSICIAN FOR THE SOUL.
+
+
+
+                               A ROMANCE
+
+                            FROM THE GERMAN
+
+                                   OF
+
+                        WILHELMINE VON HILLERN.
+
+
+
+                                   BY
+
+                           MRS. A. L. WISTER.
+
+
+
+
+
+                             PHILADELPHIA:
+                         J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
+                                 1871.
+
+
+
+
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+      Entered, according to act of Congress, In the year 1870, by
+                        J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.,
+    In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
+               for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS.
+
+
+   CHAPTER
+
+      I. "Only a Girl"
+
+     II. The Story of the Ugly Duckling
+
+    III. Atonement
+
+     IV. The Sad Survivors
+
+      V. Undeceived
+
+     VI. Soul-Murder
+
+    VII. Departure
+
+
+                                PART II.
+
+      I. "Only a Woman"
+
+     II. The Swan
+
+    III. The Village School
+
+     IV. The Guardian
+
+      V. Fruitless Pretensions
+
+     VI. Emancipation of the Flesh
+
+    VII. Emancipation of the Spirit
+
+   VIII. "When Women hold the Reins"
+
+     IX. Vox Populi, Vox Dei
+
+      X. Nowhere at Home
+
+     XI. Inharmonious Contrasts
+
+
+                               PART III.
+
+      I. The Strength of Weakness
+
+     II. The Weakness of Strength
+
+    III. Silver-armed Kaethchen
+
+     IV. Battle
+
+      V. Science and Faith
+
+     VI. Sentenced
+
+    VII. The Orphan
+
+   VIII. Blossoms on the Border of the Grave
+
+     IX. It is Morning again
+
+      X. Return
+
+     XI. "Give us this Day Our Daily Bread"
+
+    XII. The Third Power
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              ONLY A GIRL;
+
+                                   OR
+
+                       A PHYSICIAN FOR THE SOUL.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                             "ONLY A GIRL."
+
+
+In a level, well-wooded country in Northern Germany, not far from an
+insignificant village, stood a distillery, such as is frequently to be
+found upon the estates of the North German nobility, and in connection
+with it an extensive manufactory,--the estate comprising, besides, a
+kitchen-garden overgrown with weeds, a few fruit-trees overshadowing
+the decaying remains of rustic seats long fallen to ruin, and a
+dwelling-house, well built, indeed, but as neglected and dirty as its
+guardian the lean, hungry mastiff, whose empty plate and dusty jug
+testified to the length of time since the poor creature had had any
+refreshment in the oppressive heat of this July day. No one who looked
+upon this picture could doubt that the interior of the house must
+correspond with its cheerless outside, and that the gentle, beneficent
+hand was wanting there that keeps a house neat and orderly, cares for
+the garden, and attends to the wants of even a dumb brute. Where such a
+hand is wanting, there is neither order nor culture, no love of the
+beautiful, nor sometimes even of the good,--too often, indeed, no joy,
+no happiness. There was no one in the court-yard or garden; nothing was
+stirring but a couple of cheeping chickens that were peeping around the
+corner of the dog's kennel, in hopes of stray crumbs from his last
+meal. They came on cautiously, their little heads turning curiously
+from side to side, in fear lest the dog should make his appearance; but
+he kept in his kennel, his head resting upon his paws, and his
+bloodshot eyes blinking over the distant landscape. The hungry fowls,
+grown bolder, pecked and scratched around his plate, but vainly: there
+was nothing to be found but dry sand.
+
+Beside the well stood a churn, and a bench upon which lay a roll of
+fresh butter, which, neglected and forgotten, was melting beneath the
+sun's hot rays, and dripping down upon the weeds around. Perhaps the
+starving dog was suddenly struck by the thought how grateful this waste
+would be to him were it only within his domain; for he started up and
+ran out as far as he could from his kennel, dragging his rattling chain
+behind him, as if to prove its length, then stood still, and finally
+bethought himself and crept back with drooping head beneath his roof.
+Outside of a window, upon the ground floor, stood a couple of dried
+cactus-plants, and several bottles of distilled herbs; the cork of one
+of them was gone, and its contents filled with flies and beetles.
+Everything, far and near, betrayed neglect and dirt; but the excuse of
+poverty was evidently wanting. The extensive stables and accommodations
+for cattle, the huge out-houses and far-stretching fields of grain
+testified to the wealth of the proprietor of the estate. A comfortable
+rolling-chair standing in the court-yard, its leathern cushions rotting
+in the sun, seemed to indicate the presence of an invalid or a cripple.
+Only the lowest and uppermost stories of the house appeared to be
+inhabited; the windows of the middle floor were all closed, and so
+thickly festooned with cobwebs that they could not have been opened for
+a long time. It seemed as if the swallows wee the only creatures who
+could find comfort in such an inhospitable mansion; their nests were
+everywhere to be seen. The chickens looked enviously up at them, and
+hopped upon the low window-ledges of the lower story, as if to remind
+the inmates of their existence and necessities. Suddenly they fluttered
+down to the ground again, for from one of the open windows there came a
+child's scream, so piteous and shrill that the large dog pricked his
+ears and once more restlessly measured the length of his chain.
+
+In a low room, the atmosphere of which was almost stifling from the
+heat of an ironing-stove and the steam from dampened linen, that two
+robust maid-servants were engaged in ironing, a little girl, about
+twelve years of age, was standing before an old wardrobe. She was half
+undressed, and the garments falling off her shoulders disclosed a
+little body so wasted and delicate that at sight of it a mother's eyes
+would have filled with tears. But there was no mother near, only an old
+housekeeper, whose bony fingers had apparently just been laid violently
+upon the child, who was crying aloud and covering one thin shoulder
+with her hand, while she refused to put on a dress that the woman was
+holding towards her.
+
+"What is the matter now?" an angry voice called from the adjoining
+room. The child started in alarm. The old woman went to the door, and
+replied, "Ernestine is so naughty again that there is no doing anything
+with her. She has torn her best dress, because she says she has
+outgrown it, and it hurts her; but it isn't true: it fits her very
+well."
+
+"How can the miserable creature have outgrown any dress?" rejoined the
+rough voice from within. "Put it on this moment, and go!"
+
+The child leaned against the wardrobe, and looked obstinate and
+defiant.
+
+"She won't do it, sir; she does not want to go to the children's
+party!" said the unfeeling attendant.
+
+"I ordered you to go," cried the father. "When a lady like the Frau
+Staatsraethin does you the honour to invite you, you are to accept her
+invitation gratefully. I will not have it said that I make a Cinderella
+of my daughter!"
+
+Little Ernestine made no reply, but looked at the housekeeper with such
+an expression in her large, sunken eyes, that the woman was transported
+with rage; it seemed scarcely possible that so much contempt and hate
+should find place in the bosom of a child. The housekeeper clasped her
+hands. "No, you bad, naughty child! You ought to see how she is looking
+at me now, Herr von Hartwich!"
+
+With these words she tried again to throw the dress over Ernestine's
+head; but the girl tore it away, threw it on the ground and trampled
+upon it, crying in a transport of rage, interrupted by bursts of tears,
+"I will not put it on, and I will not go among strangers! I will not be
+treated so! You are a bad, wicked woman! I will not mind you!"
+
+"Oh, goodness gracious! was ever such a naughty child seen!" exclaimed
+the housekeeper, looking with a secret sensation of fear at the little
+fury who stood before her with dishevelled hair and heaving chest.
+
+"When are you going to stop that noise out there?" roared the father.
+"Must I, wretched man that I am, hear nothing, all day long, but
+children's and servants' squabbles? Ernestine, come in here to me!"
+
+At this command, the little girl began to tremble violently; she knew
+what was in store for her, and moved slowly towards the door. "Are you
+coming?" called the invalid.
+
+Ernestine entered the room, and stood as far as possible from the bed
+where he was lying. "Now, come here!" he cried, beckoning her towards
+him with his right hand,--his left was crippled,--and continuing, as
+Ernestine hesitated: "You good-for-nothing, obstinate child! you have
+never caused a throb of pleasure to any one since you came into the
+world; not even to your mother, for your birth cost her her life. In
+you God has heaped upon me all the sorrows but none of the joys that a
+son might afford his father; you have the waywardness and self-will of
+a boy, with the frail, puny body of a girl! What is to be done with
+such a wretched creature, that can do nothing but scream and cry?"
+
+At these words the child burst into a fresh flood of tears, and was
+hurrying out, when she was recalled by a thundering "Stop! you have not
+had your punishment yet!"
+
+Ernestine knew then what was coming, and begged hard. "Do not strike
+me, father! Oh, do not strike me again!" But her entreaties were of no
+avail.
+
+With lips tightly compressed, and her little hands convulsively clasped
+together, she approached the bed. The sick man raised his broad hard
+hand, and a heavy blow fell upon the transparent cheek of the child,
+who staggered and fell on the floor. "Now will you obey, or have you
+not had enough yet?" the father asked.
+
+"I will obey," sobbed the little girl, as she rose from the floor.
+
+"But first ask Frau Gedike's pardon!" ordered the angry man.
+
+"No!" cried Ernestine firmly. "That I will not do!"
+
+"How! is your obstinacy not yet conquered? Disobey at your peril!"
+
+"Though you should kill me, I will not do it," answered the child, with
+a strange gleam in her eyes, as her father, endeavouring to raise
+himself in his bed, stretched put his hand towards her.
+
+"Oh, fie! are you crazy?" suddenly said a melodious voice, just behind
+Ernestine. "Is that the way for a man of sense to reason with a naughty
+child,--playing lion-tamer with a sick kitten!"
+
+Then the speaker turned to the little girl and said kindly, "Go, my
+child, and be dressed; you will enjoy yourself with all those pretty
+little girls."
+
+Ernestine's long black eyelashes fell, and she obeyed silently.
+
+The strange intercessor for the tormented child was a tall, slender,
+almost handsome man, with delicate features and a certain air of repose
+which might rather be called impassibility, but which was so refined in
+its expression that it could not but produce a favourable impression.
+His tone of voice was soft, melodious, and grave; his pronunciation
+faultlessly pure. An atmosphere of culture which seemed to surround him
+gave him an air of superiority. His dress was simple, but in good
+taste, his step light, his manner and bearing supple and insinuating.
+It would have struck the common observer as condescending, but the
+closer student of human nature would have found it ironical and
+treacherous.
+
+In moments of passion such human reptiles exercise a soothing influence
+upon heated minds, and check their violent outbreaks, as ice-bandages
+will arrest a flow of blood. Upon his entrance the invalid became
+quiet, almost submissive; the room seemed to him suddenly to become
+cooler; he was, he thought, conscious of a pleasant draught of air as
+the tall figure approached the bed and sank into the arm-chair beside
+his pillow.
+
+"It would be no wonder if I did become crazy!" Herr von Hartwich
+excused himself. "The child exasperates me. When a man suffers tortures
+for months at a time, and is crippled and confined to bed, how can he
+help being irritable? He cannot be as patient as a man in full health,
+who can get out of the way of such provoking scenes whenever he
+pleases!"
+
+"You could easily do that if you chose, by keeping the child in the
+rooms above, which have been empty for years. Then you might be quiet,
+and people would not be able to say that the rich Hartwich's delicate
+child had to sit in the ironing-room in such hot weather,--it is worse
+than unjust; I think it unwise!"
+
+"What!" Hartwich suddenly interrupted him, "shall I leave the child and
+the servants to their own devices above-stairs, whilst I lie here alone
+and neglected? Or shall I hire an expensive nurse, and make every one
+think I am dying, and let the factory-hands suppose themselves without
+a master?"
+
+"That last cannot happen, for they long ago ceased to regard you as
+their master; they know that I am the ruling spirit of the whole
+business. As for your talk about the expense of a nurse, such folly can
+only be explained on the score of your incredibly avarice, which has
+become a mania with you of late. For whom are you hoarding your wealth?
+Not for your child; you will leave her no more than what the law
+compels you to leave her; still less for me, for you have always been a
+genuine step-brother, and have bequeathed me your property only because
+I would not communicate to you the secrets of my discoveries without
+remuneration; and you would rather give away all your wealth at your
+death than any part of it during your lifetime. And I assure you that
+if I am to be your heir, which perhaps may never be, I would far rather
+go without a few thousand thalers than witness such outrageous neglect
+of a child's education!"
+
+The invalid listened earnestly. "You are talking very frankly to me
+to-day, and are, it seems to me, reckoning very confidently upon my not
+altering my last will and testament," he said, in an irritated tone of
+menace.
+
+Without a change of feature, the other continued: "With all your faults
+and eccentricities, you are too upright in character to punish my
+candour in the way at which you hint. You know well that I mean kindly
+by you, and that I am an honest man. I might have required large sums
+of money from you. Upon the strength of the increase of income accruing
+from my exertions, I might have insisted upon your constituting me your
+partner, and much else besides; but I have contented myself with the
+modest position of superintendent, and with the certainty that by your
+will (God grant you length of days!) a brilliant future may be prepared
+for my child when I am no more. These proofs of disinterestedness, I
+think, give me a right to speak frankly to you!"
+
+"What is all this circumlocution to lead to?" asked Hartwich, who had
+grown strikingly languid, while his speech was becoming thick. "Be
+quick, for I am sleepy."
+
+"Simply to this,--that you either remove Ernestine to the upper story,
+or, what would be better still, away from the house."
+
+"Away from the house! Where to?"
+
+"Why, to some institution where she may be so educated that it need be
+no disgrace hereafter to have to own her as a relative. The child will
+be ruined with no society but that of servant-maids, grooms, and
+village children."
+
+"Bah!" growled the invalid, "what does it matter?"
+
+"If you are indifferent as to what becomes of your daughter, I am by no
+means indifferent as to my niece, or as to the influence that, if she
+lives, she may exercise upon my own daughter. As Ernestine now is, the
+thought that in a year or two she may be my child's playmate gives me
+great anxiety. Should she remain here, I must send my little girl from
+home, or she will be ruined also. But, setting all this aside, I wish
+her sent away for your sake. You cannot control yourself towards the
+obstinate, neglected child; and, as long as she is with you, such
+scenes as have just occurred are unavoidable. And I have learned to-day
+that the whole village resounds with your 'cruel treatment' of your own
+child. This throws rather a bad light upon your character, just when
+you wish our new neighbours to think well of you."
+
+"That's all nonsense; if they think the factory worth fifty thousand
+thalers, they'll buy it, whether they think me a rogue or an honest
+man," said Hartwich.
+
+"Think the factory worth--yes, that's just it," the silken-smooth man
+continued; "but that they may think it worth so much, much may be
+necessary,--among other things, some degree of confidence in the
+present proprietor."
+
+"And you have the sale very near at heart, because you would far rather
+put the fifteen thousand thalers profit, that I have insured to you,
+into your pocket than win your bread by honest labour," said the
+invalid with sarcasm. "'Tis a fine gift for me to throw into your lap!"
+
+"A gift?" his brother asked--"an indemnification for the loss of income
+that the sale of the factory will occasion me, and without which
+indemnification I shall certainly prevent any such sale. You are always
+representing our business transactions as generous on your part. I
+require no generosity at your hands. You pay me for my services: I
+serve you because you pay me. Why pretend to a feeling that would be
+unnatural between us?--we are step-brothers; it would be preposterous
+sentimentality to try to love each other."
+
+"Most certainly you take no pains to attach me to you," the invalid
+remarked.
+
+"Why should I?" his brother replied with a smile. "There must be some
+reason for everything in the world--there would be none in that. You
+would not give me a farthing for my amiability; whatever I get from you
+must be earned by services very different from brotherly affection."
+
+"You are a downright fiend, that no man, made of flesh and blood, could
+possibly love! You always were so from a child: how you tormented my
+poor mother! You know nothing of human feeling. In the warmest weather
+your hands are always damp and cold, and your heart, too, is never
+warm. I am cross and irritable, but I am not as utterly heartless as
+you are, God forbid! You are one of those beings at discord with all
+natural laws, who cast no shadow in the sunshine." The sick man closed
+his eyes, exhausted, and large drops of moisture stood upon his brow.
+
+His brother took a handkerchief and carefully wiped them away. "Only
+see how you excite yourself, and all for nothing!" he said in the
+gentlest, kindliest voice. "Because I have no sympathy with fictitious
+sentiment and exaggerated outbursts, you call me unfeeling. Because I
+am quiet by nature, not easily aroused, you picture me in your feverish
+dreams as a vampire. I will leave you now, or I shall excite you. Lay
+to heart what I have said about the child; for if the present course is
+persevered in, it will bring disgrace upon us, and that would be to me
+unendurable!"
+
+Hartwich made no reply; he had turned his face to the wall, and did not
+look around until his brother had noiselessly left the room.
+
+During this conversation little Ernestine had allowed her dress to be
+put on. When this was done, the housekeeper left the room, and the
+child busied herself with lacing upon her feet an old pair of boots
+that were really too small for her.
+
+"That's right, Ernestine," one of the maid-servants whispered. "Frau
+Gedike is a bad woman: none of us can bear her--it is good for her to
+be vexed, and we are glad of it!"
+
+"I do not want to vex her, but I hate her--and my father, too--he is
+cruel to me," said the child, with the bitterness with which a
+defenceless human being, when ill used, seeks to revenge itself.
+
+"Indeed he is a dreadful father," Rieka, the elder of the maids,
+whispered softly to her companion, but Ernestine heard all that she
+said perfectly well. "He always wanted a son, and talked forever of
+what he would do for his boy when he had one. And when the child was
+born, and was not a boy after all, he was quite beside himself, and
+cried furiously, 'Only a girl! only a girl!' and rushed out of the
+house, banging the door after him so that the whole house shook. The
+young mother--she was a delicate lady--fell into convulsions with
+sorrow and fright, and took the fever, and died on the third day. Then
+he was sorry enough, and raved and tore his hair over the corpse, but
+he could not bring her to life again. He has been well punished since
+he had his stroke, and perhaps it was to punish him that Ernestine has
+grown so ugly; but he ought at least to show his repentance for what he
+did, by kindness to the sickly little thing, instead of abusing her. It
+isn't the child's fault that she's not a boy."
+
+Ernestine listened to all this with a beating heart, and now slipped
+out gently that the maid might not know she had overheard her. Outside
+she stopped to stroke the dog, but the poor thirsty brute growled at
+her. She saw that he had no water, and took his can to the well and
+filled it. When she saw the water gushing so sparkling from the pipe,
+she could not resist the temptation to let it run upon her burning
+head.
+
+"Ernestine, what mischief are you about now?" the housekeeper screamed
+from the window; but the water was already dripping down from the
+child's long hair upon her shoulders, breast, and back.
+
+"The sun will dry it before I get to the Frau Staatsraethin's, she
+thought, and carried the dog his drink; but when she attempted to pat
+him, he growled again, because he did not wish to be disturbed while
+drinking.
+
+"Even the dog does not like me," she thought, and crept away. "Only a
+girl! And my father is so cross to me because I am not a boy." And as
+she went on she repeated the phrase to herself, and her step kept time
+to it as to a tune, "Only a girl--only a girl!"
+
+
+From the window of the upper story her uncle and his wife looked after
+her. The wife presented an utter contrast to her husband. She was
+uncommonly stout, and her jolly face was so flushed that if her husband
+had really been a vampire she might have afforded him nourishment for a
+long term of ghostly existence. But he was no such monster, although
+his meagre body seemed to bask in his wife's warm fulness of life as
+some puny, starving wretch does in the heat of a huge stove. Any more
+poetical comparison is impossible in connection with Frau Leuthold;
+for, in spite of her massive beauty, her thick bushy eyebrows, her
+sparkling black eyes, her thick waves of dark hair, the whole
+expression of her large face, with its double chin and pouting mouth,
+was coarsely sensual. Yet there was something in this expression that
+showed that, however great the dissimilarity between the husband and
+wife in mind and body, there was still one thing in which they were
+alike: it was the heart,--in his case ossified, in hers overgrown with
+fat.
+
+There are some persons whose mental organization can be excellently
+well described by the medical term "fat-hearted." They are no longer
+capable of any healthy moral activity, because an indolent sensuality
+has taken possession of them, crippling their energies like fat
+accumulating around the heart. Although the natures of husband and wife
+were radically dissimilar, still in the results of their modes of
+thought there was enough similarity to produce that sort of harmony
+which is maintained between the receiver and the thief. The stout
+brunette was a worthy accomplice of her slender, fair husband; and that
+she possessed the art of sweetening existence for him after a fashion,
+to which no one possessing nerves of taste and smell is altogether
+insensible, a table, upon which were delicious fruits, biscuits, and a
+bowl of iced sherbet, bore ample testimony. Thus the refined thinker
+endured the narrowness and coarseness of his better half for the sake
+of material qualifications, and of the ease with which she entered into
+his projects for selfish aggrandizement. As a cook she possessed his
+entire approbation, and the union between these utterly different
+natures was universally considered a happy one.
+
+"She's an ugly thing, that Ernestine," said the affectionate aunt,
+looking after her pale little niece, who was walking slowly along with
+drooping head. "Kind as I may be to her, she will have nothing to say
+to me. They say dogs and children always know who likes them and who
+does not; so I suppose the child knows I can't abide her."
+
+"Whether you like her or not is not the question," replied her husband.
+"You have not attached her to you, and that is a mistake; for it makes
+us sharers in the common report of Hartwich's cruelty to the child. She
+is considered in the village as the victim of unfeeling treatment. The
+pastor thinks her a martyr, whose cause he is bound to adopt; the
+schoolmaster talks about her clear head; and who can tell that all this
+nonsense may not waken the conscience of my fool of a brother, and
+induce him at the eleventh hour to make, Heaven only knows what changes
+for her advantage! That would be a blow--such people easily fall from
+one extreme into the other. Therefore the child must be separated from
+him. If I cannot succeed in having her sent away, we must manage
+somehow to attach her to us, and so stop people's mouths." An
+involuntary sigh from his wife interrupted him. "I know it is
+troublesome, up-hill work; but, Heaven willing, it cannot last long.
+Hartwich is failing. He may live a year; but, if he should have another
+stroke, he may go off at any moment; then, for all I care, you may
+be rid of the disagreeable duty at once, and send Ernestine to
+boarding-school. Still, appearances must be kept up, my dear. You know
+how much I would sacrifice for the sake of my reputation. I cannot bear
+a shabby dress or to dine off a soiled table-cloth; and just so I
+cannot endure a stain upon my name."
+
+While speaking, he had seated himself at the table and filled a goblet
+of sherbet from the fragrant bowl. As he was sipping it delicately,
+with his lips almost closed, his wife threw herself down upon the sofa
+by his side with such clumsy violence that the springs creaked, and her
+husband was so jolted that he lost his balance, and the contents of his
+glass were spilled upon his immaculate shirt-front. Much annoyed, he
+carefully dried his dripping garment with his napkin. "Now I shall have
+to dress again," he said in a tone of vexation.
+
+"To spill your glass over you just in the midst of such a conversation
+as this means no good," said his superstitious wife.
+
+"It means that you never will learn to conduct yourself like a lady,"
+was the quiet reply.
+
+"Indeed!" she cried with a laugh. "So I must learn aristocratic manners
+that I may do more credit to your brother, who has drunk himself into
+an apoplexy! A fine aristocrat he is!"
+
+"Just because he disgraces his standing I will respect mine; and you
+should assist me to do so, instead of laughing. And when his estate is
+ours, I will show the world that it is not necessary to be born in an
+aristocratic cradle in order to be an aristocrat. The dismissed Marburg
+professor will yet play a part among the _elite_ of the scientific and
+fashionable world that a prince might envy him. Wealth is all-powerful;
+and where there is wealth with brains, men are caught like flies upon a
+limed twig."
+
+"Ah, how fine it will be!" cried his wife, excited by this view of the
+subject; and she hastily filled a glass from the bowl and drank it
+greedily.
+
+"It is indeed such good fortune that a man less self-controlled than
+myself might well-nigh lose his senses at the thought of it!" her
+husband rejoined. And there was a dreamy look in his light-blue eyes.
+
+"Then we can keep a carriage, and I shall drive out shopping, with
+footmen to attend me, and Gretchen shall have a French bonne, and shall
+be always dressed in white and sky-blue. We will live in the capital,
+and you, Leuthold, need never do another day's work,--you can amuse
+yourself in any way that pleases you."
+
+And the wife tossed her head proudly, as though already lolling upon
+the soft cushions of her carriage.
+
+"Do you suppose I could ever be a robber of time?" he asked her with a
+sharp glance. "No, most certainly not. If I had made the ten
+commandments, the seventh should have been, 'Thou shalt not steal a day
+from the Lord.' He who steals a day seems to me the most contemptible
+of all thieves."
+
+Ills wife laughed and displayed a double row of fine white teeth, whose
+strength she was just proving by cracking hazel-nuts.
+
+"Do you suppose," continued Leuthold, "that I should ever be content
+with the reputation of a merely wealthy man? No; I long for other
+honours. As soon as the means are in my power, I will resume my old
+scientific labours, and will soon distance the miserable drudges who
+daily lecture in our schools. I will have such a chemical and
+physiological laboratory as few universities can boast. Ah! when I am
+once free from all the hated servitude, the miserable toil day after
+day, in that detestable factory, I will bathe in the clear, fresh
+stream of science, and make a name for myself that shall rank among the
+first of our time."
+
+"Is that all the happiness you propose to yourself?" asked his wife
+with a sneer.
+
+"There is no greater happiness than to play a great part in the world
+through one's own ability; and if my poverty has hitherto prevented my
+doing so, my wealth, in making me independent, shall help me to my
+goal. Make a man independent, and he has free play for the exercise of
+his talents; while the hard necessity of earning his daily bread has
+crushed many a budding genius before his powers were fully developed.
+It is glorious to be able to work at what we love!--as glorious as it
+is miserable to be forced to work at what we hate." He smoothed with
+his hand his thin, glossy hair, and murmured with a sigh, "No wonder it
+is growing gray; I wonder it is not snow-white, since for ten years
+this miserable fate has been mine. It is enough to destroy the very
+marrow in one's bones, and dry up the blood in the veins."
+
+His wife stared at him with surprise. "Why, Leuthold, think what good
+dinners I have always cooked for you!"
+
+Leuthold looked up as if awakening from a dream, and then, with the
+ironical expression which his unsuspicious fellow-men interpreted as
+pure benevolence, he said, "You are right, Bertha! Your first principle
+is 'eat and drink;' mine is 'think and work.' That yours is much the
+more practical can be mathematically proved!" He glanced with a smile
+at his wife's portly figure.
+
+"Only wait until we are settled in the capital, and see what I will do
+for you. Then you shall have dinners indeed!" said Bertha.
+
+"Your skill will be needed, for we shall have plenty of guests. Men are
+like dogs: they gather where there is a chance of a good dinner, and
+the host is sure of many friends devoted to him through their palates.
+'Tis true, such friends last only as long as the fine dinners last; we
+can have them while we need them, and throw them overboard, like
+useless ballast, when they can no longer serve our turn."
+
+"Yes, you are right; what a knowing fellow you are!" cried Bertha.
+"Heavens!" she added, clapping her hands with childlike naivete, "if he
+would only die soon!"
+
+Her husband looked at her sternly. "I trust that in case of the event,
+which will be as welcome to me as to you, no human eye will be able to
+discern anything but grief in your countenance. Should you be too
+awkward to simulate sorrow, I must invent some method for making you
+really feel it; for appearances must be preserved at all costs!
+Remember that!"
+
+Bertha clasped her hands in dismay. "Mercy on me! I really believe you
+would do anything to torment me into seeming sorry. It would be just
+like you; for what people say of you,--or 'appearances,' as you call
+it, are dearer to you than wife or child, or anything else in the
+world."
+
+She sprang up, and her breath came quick and angrily. Leuthold
+contemplated her with a kind of satisfaction as she stood before him
+with flashing eyes and curling lip. She displayed some emotion,--only
+the emotion of anger, 'tis true; but as enthusiasm is always
+passionate, so passion will sometimes seem enthusiasm, and lend a kind
+of nimbus to insignificance.
+
+"I like to see you so!" said Leuthold, drawing her down beside him and
+laying his cool hand upon her shoulder.
+
+Just then the cry of a child was heard in the adjoining apartment.
+"Gretchen is awake," cried Bertha, forgetting her anger, and leaving
+the room so quickly that the boards creaked beneath her heavy tread,
+and the sofa upon which her husband was seated shook. She soon
+returned, with a pretty child of three years of age in her arms. After
+tossing it, notwithstanding its size and strength, up and down like an
+india-rubber ball, she threw it with maternal pride into her husband's
+lap. He caressed the little thing tenderly, and a ray shot from his
+eyes like the gleam of a wintry san across a snowy landscape. For,
+though there was no genuine paternal love in his heart, there
+was at least in its place,--what is hardly to be distinguished from
+it,--fatherly pride.
+
+"How strange to think," said the mother, "that that should be your
+child!"
+
+"Why?" asked Leuthold with surprise.
+
+"It is so odd that such a slim, delicate-looking man as you are should
+have such a healthy, chubby little daughter. It is just as if a
+wheat-stalk should bear penny rolls instead of wheat-ears." She laughed
+immoderately at the idea, without perceiving that her husband was far
+from flattered by the comparison. "They say," she continued, "'long
+waited for is good at last,' and we waited long for the little thing,
+and she is good." And she put up the child's plump little hand to her
+mouth as though she would bite it. The little girl shouted with glee,
+and the sound so sweet to maternal ears did not fail to awaken a
+return. Bertha shouted too, until her husband's ears tingled. "If
+Ernestine had only been a boy, she could have married Gretchen, and our
+child would have been all provided for," she said, after a pause.
+
+"Do not talk such nonsense," said Leuthold. "Hartwich would have loved
+a son as thoroughly as he detests his daughter, and would have
+bequeathed to him all his property. We owe our inheritance there to the
+happy chance that made his child a girl. But even supposing that she
+were a boy, with the inheritance still ours, do you think I would mate
+her so unworthily? No! our Gretchen, lovely and rich as she will be,
+can never marry a simple Herr von Hartwich. She will one day make me
+father-in-law to some great statesman, some illustrious scholar, or, at
+least, to some count!"
+
+"And me mother to a countess!" cried his wife with glee.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+                    THE STORY OF THE UGLY DUCKLING.
+
+
+In the mean time Ernestine had pursued her way. She walked slowly on
+through the extensive fields in the glare of the four-o'clock sun,
+whose rays were broken by no friendly tree or shrub. The waist of the
+dress which she had outgrown was so tight that she was frequently
+obliged to stand still and recover her breath. The perspiration rolled
+down her poor worn little face. The sunbeams felt like dagger-points
+upon her weary head; but she could not go back: fear of her father was
+more powerful than the torments she was enduring. Better to be pierced
+by the sun's rays than struck by her father's hard hand. Still, she
+could not help weeping bitterly that every one seemed so unkind to her.
+What had she done, that her father should hate her so? It was not her
+fault that she was so ugly and not a boy. "Ah, why am I a girl?" she
+sobbed, and sat down upon the hard, sun-baked clods of earth among the
+brown, dried potato-plants. She clasped her knees with her arms, and
+pondered why boys were better than girls, wondering whether she could
+not learn to do all that boys could. The schoolmaster had often told
+her that she had more sense and learned her lessons better than the
+boys. What was it that she needed, then? Strength, boldness, courage!
+Yes, that was a good deal, to be sure; but could she not make them hers
+in time? She thought and thought. She would exercise her strength. She
+had once read of a man who carried a calf about in his arms daily, and
+was so accustomed to his burden that he never noticed how the calf
+increased in size and weight, until at last he bore a huge ox in his
+arms. She would do so too; she would accustom herself at first to the
+weight of little burdens, and go on increasing them until at last she
+could carry the very heaviest. And she could be bold too, if she only
+dared, and if her shyness would only wear off. Then, she hoped, her
+father would be quite content with her. She sprang to her feet
+comforted and walked on. Her mind was made up. She would be just like a
+boy.
+
+At the end of an hour Ernestine reached a beautiful and extensive
+grove, through which she passed, and entered a garden, at the end of
+which stood a charming country-house. Upon the wide lawn in front, a
+merry throng of children were running and leaping hither and thither,
+and from the fresh green a sparkling fountain tossed into the air a
+crystal ball. At the open doors of a room leading out into the garden
+sat a company of elegantly-dressed ladies and gentlemen, and servants
+in rich liveries were handing around refreshments upon silver salvers.
+Ernestine stood as if dazzled by all this pomp and splendour. She dared
+not approach. How could she? To whom could she turn? No one came
+towards her; no one spoke to her. Her embarrassment was indescribable,
+when suddenly the beautiful, gaily-dressed children on the lawn broke
+off their play and looked towards her with astonishment. Ernestine saw
+how the little girls nudged each other and pointed at her. She
+distinctly heard some say to the others, "What does she want?" She was
+almost on the point of turning round to run away, when she was observed
+by the group of ladies and gentlemen, and a servant was dispatched to
+ask whom she was looking for. Everything swam before her eyes as the
+tall man with such a distinguished air stepped up to her and asked
+sharply, "What do you want here?"
+
+"Nothing," replied Ernestine; "I would not have come if I had known!"
+
+"Who are you, then?" asked the servant
+
+"I am Ernestine Hartwich."
+
+"Ah, indeed!" he said, with a slight bow; "that's another affair; you
+are invited. Permit me." With these words he conducted the passive
+child to the ladies, and announced, "Fraeulein von Hartwich!"
+
+The looks that were now fastened upon Ernestine were more piercing and
+burning, she thought, than the sun's rays. Those people never dreamed
+that the quiet little creature standing before them was possessed of a
+goal so delicate in its organization, so finely strung, that every
+breath of contempt that swept across it created a shrill discord, a
+painful confusion; they only looked with the careless disapproval,
+which would have been all very well with ordinary children, at the
+straight, black, dishevelled hair, the sunken cheeks, the wizened,
+sharp features of the pale face, the deep dark eyes, with their shy,
+uncertain glances, the lips tightly closed in embarrassment, and last,
+the emaciated figure in its faded short dress, and the long, narrow
+feet and hands. In the minds of most, an ugly exterior excites more
+disgust than sympathy; and, to excuse this feeling to one's self, one
+is apt to declare that the child or person in question has an
+"unpleasant expression," thus hinting at moral responsibility in the
+matter of the exterior, as if it were the result of an ugliness of soul
+which would, in a measure, excuse one's disgust. This was the case with
+all who were now looking at this strange child. It seemed as though
+they were drinking in with their eyes the poison that had wasted
+Ernestine's little body,--the poison of hatred which her being had
+imbibed from her father and her unnatural surroundings, and as if this
+poison reacted from them upon herself. The little girl felt this
+instinctively without comprehending it, and as she met, one after
+another, those loveless glances, it was as though a wound in her flesh
+were ruthlessly probed. She could not understand what the ladies
+whispered to each other in French, but their tones intimated
+displeasure and contempt. She suddenly saw herself as in a mirror
+through their eyes, and she saw, what she had never seen before, that
+she was very ugly and awkward,--that she was meanly dressed; and shame
+for her poor innocent self flushed her cheeks crimson. In that single
+minute she ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and
+evil,--that fruit which has driven thousands, sooner or later, from the
+Eden of childlike unconsciousness. She had entered upon that stage
+of life where a human being is self-accused for being unloved,
+unsought,--despises herself because others despise her,--finds herself
+ugly because she gives pleasure to none. Hitherto, whatever she had
+suffered, she had been at peace with herself; now she was at enmity
+with herself and the world. She felt suffocated; everything swam before
+her sight, and hot tears gushed from her eyes. Just then a tall,
+stately woman came out of the drawing-room. "Frau Staatsraethin," one of
+the ladies called to her in a tone of contempt, "a new guest has
+arrived!"
+
+"Is that little Ernestine Hartwich?" asked the hostess, evidently
+endeavouring to conceal behind a kindly tone and manner her amazement
+at the child's appearance. She held out her hand: "Good day, my child;
+I am glad you have come. Will you not take some refreshment? You seem
+heated. You have not walked all the way? Yes? Oh, that is too much in
+such hot weather! Such a delicate child!" she said with a look of
+sympathy. She sprinkled sugar over some strawberries and placed
+Ernestine on a seat where she could eat them, but the rest all stared
+at her so she could not move a finger; she could scarcely hold the
+plate. How could she eat while all these people were looking on? She
+trembled so that she could not carry the spoon to her lips.
+
+She choked down the rising tears as well as she could, for she was
+ashamed to cry, and said softly, "I would like to go home!"
+
+"To go home?" cried the Staatsraethin. "Oh, no, my child; you have had
+no time to rest, and you are so tired! Come, my dear little girl, I
+will take you to a cool room, where you can take a little nap before
+you play with the other children." She took Ernestine by the hand and
+led her into the house and through several elegant rooms to a smaller
+apartment, with half-closed shutters and green damask furniture and
+hangings, where it was as quiet, fresh, and cool as in a grove. The air
+was fragrant, too; for there was a basket of magnificent roses upon the
+table.
+
+Ernestine was speechless with admiration at all the beauty around her
+here. She had never seen such a beautiful room in her life, never
+breathed within-doors so pure an atmosphere. The Staatsraethin told her
+to lie down upon a green damask couch, which she hesitated to do, until
+at last she took off her dusty boots, heedless that she thereby exposed
+stockings full of holes, and when the Staatsraethin, with a kindly "Take
+a good nap, my child," left her, and she was alone, a flood of novel
+sensations overpowered her. The pain of the last few moments, gratitude
+for the kindness of the Staatsraethin, the enchantment that wealth and
+splendour cast around, every childish imagination,--all combined to
+confuse her thoughts. But the solitude of the cool room soon had a
+soothing effect upon her. The green twilight was good for her eyes,
+weary with weeping and the glare of the sun; she felt so far away from
+those mocking, prying glances; everything was so calm and quiet here
+that she seemed to hear the flowing of her own blood through her veins.
+She thought of the ironing-room and her father's gloomy chamber at
+home. What a difference there was! Oh, if she could only stay here
+forever! How can people ever be unkind who have such a lovely home! How
+can they laugh at a poor child who has nothing of all this!
+
+But the Frau Staatsraethin, whose room this was, was kind. Ah, how kind!
+Yet so different from every one at home--so--what? So distinguished!
+Yes, every one at home seemed common compared with her, and Ernestine
+herself was common, although the lady had not treated her as if she
+were; she felt it herself; and was ashamed. What if the lady could have
+seen how naughty she had been to-day, how she had torn off her dress
+and stamped upon it, and scolded Frau Gedike?
+
+She blushed at these thoughts, and resolved never again to conduct
+herself so that she should be ashamed to have the Frau Staatsraethin see
+her. A new sense was suddenly awakened in the child; but it fluttered
+hither and thither like a timid bird, terrified by her late
+surroundings, and not yet accustomed to all that was so novel about
+her.
+
+The child never dreamed of the innate refinement that distinguished her
+from thousands of ordinary children; she was only crushed as she
+compared herself with the gentle lady and the gaily-dressed children
+upon the lawn; and this very feeling of shame, this disgust at herself,
+was a proof how foreign to her youthful mind was the absence of beauty
+in her exterior. In the midst of all these new, confusing thoughts,
+sleep overpowered her; she stretched herself out comfortably upon the
+soft couch. The beating of her heart, the painful pressure upon her
+brain, and the singing in her ears, grew fainter and weaker, and
+soothed her to slumber like a cradle-song.
+
+On the lawn, in the mean time, nothing was talked of but the child, and
+her family. It was thought inconceivable that a Freiherr von Hartwich
+should allow his daughter to be so neglected. But then he had never
+been a genuine aristocrat; for his mother was of low extraction, as was
+proved by her return to her own rank of life after the death of her
+husband Von Hartwich. She soon after married the widower Gleissert,
+thus giving her son a master-manufacturer for a father, then purchased
+her husband's heavily encumbered factory, which she had bequeathed to
+her son with the condition that he should continue to keep it up,--a
+condition most distasteful to the heir. Gleissert had a son by his
+first marriage, named Leuthold, who had studied, but had not been much
+of a credit to his brother, with whom he was living at present.
+
+The conversation was interrupted by the arrival of an elderly
+gentleman, who drove up in a very elegant but very dusty carriage. The
+number of orders upon his breast testified to his high position, and
+the haste with which the hostess went forward to receive him, and the
+trembling of the hand which she extended towards him, showed of what
+importance his arrival was to her.
+
+"Vivat!" he cried out to her. "Your Johannes takes the first rank--a
+splendid examination--there has not been such another for ten years!"
+
+"Thank God!" said the Staatsraethin, with a long sigh of relief.
+
+"Yes, yes!" the kindly voice continued. "A superb fellow! I
+congratulate you upon such a son--not a question missed--not one! And
+answered with such ease and confidence, yet without the slightest
+particle of conceit. Deuce take it!--I wish I had married and had such
+a son. Come," he said, turning to a boy of about fourteen years
+of age, who had arrived with him, "perhaps you may one day be such
+another,--keep your eyes steadily upon Johannes. Permit me, dear madam,
+to present to you the son of my late friend, Ferdinand Hilsborn. He
+lost his mother a few months ago, and is now my adopted son."
+
+The Staatsraethin held out her hand to the boy, and said with emotion,
+"Although I never knew your mother, it pains me deeply to know that she
+left this world before she could enjoy such a moment as your adopted
+father has just given me by his tidings."
+
+The gentle boy's eyes filled with tears as she spoke.
+
+"Only think, my dear friends," said the Staatsraethin, turning to the
+company, "Johannes never told me that this was his examination-day,
+that he might surprise me. I only learned it this afternoon from a few
+thoughtless words of my brother's. Our kind Geheimrath Heim has just
+brought me the tidings of his promotion."
+
+The guests, with sympathy and congratulations, crowded around the proud
+mother, whose heart was too full to do anything but reply mechanically
+to their kind speeches.
+
+"But, dear Frau Moellner," a Frau Landraethin remarked maliciously, "was
+it not a little strange that your Johannes should not have told you of
+his examination-day?--certainly a mother has a sacred right to share
+such hours with her son."
+
+"When a mother's claims are held as sacred as are mine by my son,"
+replied the Staatsraethin, with dignified composure, "he may well be
+left to do as seems to him best in such a matter. He wished to spare me
+hours of anxiety; and I thank him."
+
+"The woman is blindly devoted to her son," the Landraethin whispered to
+a friend.
+
+"She is growing perfectly childish with maternal vanity," remarked
+another.
+
+"But how can any one as wealthy as the Staatsraethin allow her son to
+study?" said the Landraethin.
+
+"Yes, yes!" several others joined in, "he certainly need never earn his
+living in such a way. Why did she not buy him a commission? 'Tis too
+bad for such a handsome young man!"
+
+"Yes, yes!" the old Geheimrath called out to the ladies, as if he had
+heard only their last words, "Johannes is a man,--a man, although
+hardly twenty years old! Only such a mother could have such a son!" And
+he laid his hand kindly upon the Staatsraethin's arm.
+
+"I wish every woman, left alone in the world, had such a friend as you
+are," she said, holding out her hand to him gratefully. "You are the
+best legacy left me by my dear husband. But where is Johannes? Why did
+he not come with you?"
+
+"He sent me before to announce his arrival in the evening," replied the
+old gentleman. "He was obliged to make a few visits this afternoon.
+Ah," he sighed, as the Staatsraethin handed him some refreshments, "it
+is a hot journey hither from town,--and a tedious one too,--but it is
+all the cooler and more delightful when you get here." He wiped his
+forehead and looked around the circle with the kindly, penetrating
+glance of a man who sees through the weaknesses of his fellow-men, but
+judges them with the gentleness of a superior nature. "Well, ladies,"
+he asked good-humouredly, "did the old doctor interrupt a most
+interesting conversation? I cannot believe that sitting here so silent
+and serious is your normal condition. What were you talking of when I
+arrived?"
+
+"Of nothing very pleasant, Herr Geheimrath," said the Landraethin
+venomously; "we were only speaking of Herr von Hartwich and of his
+brother, who went wrong some years ago,--we don't know exactly how."
+
+"I can tell you all about it, ladies," said the Geheimrath.
+
+All instantly entreated him, "Oh, tell us; pray tell us!"
+
+The Geheimrath began: "I was professor of medicine at Marburg when that
+strange occurrence took place. It was about ten years ago. Gleissert
+was then Extraordinarius in the university, and a young man of great
+ability. By his diligence and insinuating manners, he had won for
+himself the good-will of every one; and one of my colleagues, Hilsborn,
+the father of the boy whom I brought with me to-day, was his intimate
+friend. Their _specialite_ was the same, and Hilsborn filled the
+professorial chair which was the object of Gleissert's desire. Both
+were physiologists, but Hilsborn had the chair of special physiology,
+and Gleissert, as Extraordinarius, was occupied only with physiological
+chemistry. One day Hilsborn confided to me that he was upon the track
+of a new discovery. It would be of great importance to science if he
+could only succeed in carrying it out and establishing it upon a firm
+foundation. The difficulty in doing so lay principally in the procuring
+of the necessary material for his experiments,--a species of fish found
+only at Trieste, and which he could not procure alive. Hilsborn, a poor
+widow's son, lamented his want of means to travel thither and prove his
+hypothesis. I promised to obtain for him from my friend the minister,
+by the next vacation, a sufficient sum to meet his expenses, and I did
+so; but there was the same delay in the matter that is usual in such
+cases, and the necessary sum came so late that the journey had to be
+postponed until the following vacation, Hilsborn comforting himself
+with the thought that, although he must wait another six months,
+nothing but time would be lost. Suddenly Herr Gleissert married the
+daughter of a wealthy innkeeper, and begged for leave of absence for
+his wedding-trip. It was granted, and he was absent for four weeks.
+Strangely enough, his friend never heard from him during all that time;
+and, when he returned, we all noticed that he was unwilling to let us
+know where he had been. We thought he had private grounds for such
+unwillingness, and did not question him further. The term was over at
+last, and Hilsborn set off for Trieste. There he worked night and day
+with superhuman diligence. The result of his investigations was
+perfectly satisfactory, and he came back with the materials for a work
+which was sure to establish his fame and fortune. One day--I shall
+never forget it--he was in my room when the publisher sent me several
+new scientific papers. Hilsborn was looking through them carelessly,
+when suddenly he grew ashy pale. Among the pamphlets was one by
+Gleissert, embodying Hilsborn's idea. I was as shocked and astounded as
+he was. It could not be chance which led two men at the same time to so
+novel an idea, especially as Gleissert's course of study could not have
+directed him to such investigations as Hilsborn's. After a long and
+evident struggle with himself, Hilsborn confessed to me that he had
+communicated his ideas to Gleissert, and had frequently from the
+beginning discussed the matter thoroughly with him, without Gleissert's
+ever hinting even that the subject had occurred to him before. On the
+contrary, he was at work upon a paper upon a chemical subject, a paper
+which had never appeared. Difficult as it was for my high-minded friend
+to bring himself to it, the conviction was unavoidable that his friend
+had basely deceived him; for we discovered, upon close inquiry, that
+Gleissert's wedding-trip had been to Trieste, where he had pursued the
+investigations proposed by Hilsborn, and hurried on the printing of
+their results with the greatest haste. All outside proof of his
+contemptible treachery was perfect, and we were all morally convinced
+that he had _stolen_ Hilsborn's idea. As pro-rector, I called him to a
+strict account. His defence was cunning, but not convincing. He did not
+attempt to deny the principal accusation brought forward, namely, the
+suspicious fact that he had induced Hilsborn to promise him not to
+impart his discovery to any one else, 'lest it should be used to his
+disadvantage.' He wished to be the sole depositary of the secret, that
+there might be no witnesses to Hilsborn's proprietorship of the stolen
+idea. I ask this worthy assemblage," the old gentleman here interrupted
+himself with indignation, "if there can be any doubt of the baseness of
+the man in the matter?"
+
+"No, most certainly not, Herr Geheimrath, most certainly not," was the
+unanimous reply.
+
+"Well," the narrator continued, "so we thought. We, one and all,
+determined to avenge poor Hilsborn, thus deprived of all his fair
+hopes. It is true we had no legal weapon at our disposal. Our stupid
+laws punish forgers and counterfeiters, but they cannot recognize the
+theft of the coinage of the brain. There are jails for the hungry
+beggar who steals a loaf; but the rogue who robs a man of his thought,
+the painfully-begotten fruit of his mind after years of labour, goes
+free. We professors undertook to do what the law does not. We published
+the matter far and wide in the scientific periodicals, and all handed
+in our resignations to the government, stating that we held it
+inconsistent with our honour to remain the colleagues of such a man. Of
+course Gleissert was instantly dismissed in disgrace, and an academic
+career closed to him forever. I was called away from Marburg soon
+after; and, since I have lived in the capital as royal physician, I
+have lost sight of my former colleagues. Hilsborn died after some
+years, and his son is now my adopted child. What became of Gleissert I
+do not know."
+
+"I can tell you," said a fine-looking man, whose resemblance to the
+Staatsraethin declared him her brother. "I have informed myself about
+matters here, because I propose to purchase Hartwich's factories for my
+son. According to the schoolmaster, the fellow is playing a double part
+here also. It cannot be denied that under his guidance, and owing to
+his chemical discoveries, the factories have doubled in value since his
+arrival, for Hartwich is a very narrow-minded man, incapable, from his
+wretched avarice, of venturing upon any important speculation; but the
+way in which his brother contrives to be paid for his services is, to
+say the least, striking. For five years he contented himself with the
+salary of an overseer and free lodging--he bided his time. It came at
+last. One day Herr von Hartwich had a paralytic stroke, and the
+physicians declared that he had but few years to live. Gleissert made
+use of this time of helplessness, and threatened to leave the factory
+immediately and dispose of his discoveries elsewhere if Hartwich did
+not appoint him his heir. Hartwich, who of course stood more in need of
+him than ever, accepted his conditions, set aside that poor little girl
+as far as the law would allow it, and made a will in Gleissert's
+favour."
+
+"He's a thorough scoundrel, that Gleissert,--a legacy-hunter, then,
+besides. I should like to know what the fellow holds sacred?"
+
+"Let us ask the child about him," cried one of the ladies.
+
+"Yes, yes," joined in several others. "It would be so interesting.
+Pray, dear Staatsraethin, bring the little girl here."
+
+The Staatsraethin looked at her watch, and, finding that Ernestine had
+slept nearly an hour, went to fetch her. She soon returned with her,
+and again the child had to run the gauntlet of those piercing glances.
+But her rest had refreshed her, and she was not so timid.
+
+She heard the old Geheimrath whisper to his next neighbour, "How did
+that stupid Hartwich ever come to have such a clever child? Look--what
+a remarkable head. Pity the little thing is not a boy! something might
+be made of her!"
+
+His words struck to her very soul. Again she heard the same
+phrase,--this time from a perfect stranger, "Pity she's not a boy!"
+
+She straightened herself, as though she had suddenly grown an inch
+taller, and looked up at the thoughtless speaker as if to say,
+"Something shall be made of me!" Then she glanced wistfully at the
+children who were playing ball; if she were only among them now, she
+would show that she could be like a boy. The Landraethin took her hand
+and said, "Well, my dear child, tell us something of your father. How
+is he now?"
+
+Ernestine seemed surprised at the question.--"I did not ask him."
+
+The ladies looked significantly at each other.
+
+"Have you not seen him to-day?"
+
+"Yes," she answered briefly.
+
+"Do you not love your father very dearly?" the Landraethin asked
+further.
+
+Ernestine paused, and then said quietly and firmly, "No!"
+
+Her interrogator dropped the child's hand as if stung by an insect. "An
+affectionate daughter!" she sneered, while the rest shook their heads.
+"Whom do you love, then?--your uncle?"
+
+"I love no one at home; but I like my uncle better than my father--he
+never strikes me!" Ernestine answered.
+
+"Like likes like, as it seems," one of the ladies observed; the rest
+nodded assent, and all turned away from Ernestine.
+
+"She is an unfortunate child," said the Staatsraethin; and arose to lead
+her to the children. "Angelika, here is Ernestine von Hartwich," she
+cried to her own little daughter, who was about nine years old; "take
+good care of her,--remember you are hostess!"
+
+The children, towards whom the Staatsraethin led her protege, scattered
+like a flock of birds at the approach of a paper kite. Collecting then
+in single groups, they whispered together, and stared at the stranger.
+Ernestine found herself alone, avoided by all the gay crowd which she
+had just so fervently admired. She played the part of a scarecrow, but
+with the melancholy superiority that she was conscious that she was
+one. She knew that she had scattered the gay circle, that she had
+chased away the children, that they all avoided her; and again she felt
+as if she should sink into the ground, her feeble limbs trembled
+beneath the burden of derision and contempt that she was forced to
+bear. The Staatsraethin cast a stern glance--which Ernestine noticed--at
+little Angelika, and said, "Give your hand to your new friend!"
+
+Two of the larger girls giggled, and Ernestine heard them whisper, "A
+lovely friend!"
+
+Angelika now approached Ernestine, and held out her soft little hand,
+but instantly withdrew it, stood mute before her for a moment, looking
+at the old brown straw hat that Ernestine held in her hand, then
+ventured one look into her eyes, and nestled confused and shy against
+her mother, who spoke seriously but kindly to the pretty child. She
+spoke in French, and Angelika answered in the same language. Ernestine
+was amazed. The little girl understood a strange tongue, and yet she
+was smaller than herself! She, who wanted to be as clever as a boy, did
+not even know as much as the little girl. And she had to endure their
+speaking before her as if she were not present; there she stupidly
+stood, well knowing that they were saying nothing good of her or they
+would have said it in German. She was weighed down by a double
+disgrace, that of her ignorance, and of knowing that they were speaking
+of her as if she were not there.
+
+"Frau Staatsraethin," she said in a quivering voice, "I will not stay
+here; the children do not like me; I am too bad for them!" She turned
+away, and would really have gone, but little Angelika's good heart
+conquered.
+
+She ran after her and held her fast: "No, no, dear Ernestine; you are
+not too bad for us; you are only odd--different from the rest of us.
+Come, we will play with you!"
+
+Then the Staatsraethin took Angelika in her arms, and kissed her,
+saying, "That's right; now you are my little Angelika again, my good
+sweet child."
+
+Ernestine looked on at this caress with amazement, and hot tears rose
+to her eyes. No one had ever been so kind to her. What happiness it
+must be to be so embraced and kissed! But it could never happen to her.
+Why not? Why did no one love her? Angelika, too, was only a girl: why
+was she not blamed for it? But she was so lovely, so beautiful; who
+could help loving her? Then her heart gave a throb as though it had
+been stabbed with a knife. "So beautiful," she repeated: "that is why
+every one pets and fondles her. It is not only that I am a girl; I am
+an ugly girl,--that is why no one loves me."
+
+"Come," said Angelika. "Why do you look so? Come to the others." She
+led her to the fountain, around which the little company had gathered
+meanwhile. The children were amusing themselves with throwing stones at
+the ball of glass which the water tossed up and down. No girl or boy
+could hit it; the ball could only be struck while it was dancing on the
+top of the spray, and always fell before it was reached. The children
+laughed merrily at each other, and even the parents and grown people
+were interested and drew near. Ernestine looked on after her usual
+brooding fashion. She soon divined where the mistake lay. The stone was
+longer in reaching its aim than the ball lingered in the air. She
+quickly concluded that if a stone were aimed at the top of the fountain
+while the ball was still below, the latter in ascending would strike
+the stone. Hilsborn, the boy fourteen years old, had just declared that
+he could not understand why they could not strike it. Ambition took
+possession of her,--if she was ugly, she would show them that she was
+clever,--if she was only a girl, she would show them that she had force
+and skill. Involuntarily she looked across to the old Geheimrath, to
+ascertain if he saw her, and, as this seemed to be the case, she
+stooped down and hastily picked up a larger stone than the others, to
+insure success,--took the attitude which she had often observed in the
+village boys, and, with her feet planted firmly wide apart, swung her
+arm round three times to take sure aim, and hurled the stone with all
+her force towards the point in the air which the fountain reached in
+its leaping. Fate was cruel enough to favour her; the stone met the
+ascending ball, and so exactly that the latter was hurled out of the
+column of water, and, flying over the heads of the nearest by-standers,
+fell upon the head of a child, and the thin glass was shivered in
+pieces. The child screamed, more from fright than pain,--a commotion
+ensued,--the mother of the sufferer rushed towards her darling with
+frantic gestures,--the "wound" was examined, embroidered handkerchiefs
+were dipped in the basin of the fountain and bound around the head,
+while like a dark cloud there hovered over the sympathetic crowd a fear
+lest "some fragment of glass should have penetrated the skull."
+Ernestine stood there like a culprit; she felt convicted of murder,
+and when she heard from all sides, "What unfeminine conduct! How
+savage and rude! How can they bring up the girl to be such a tom-boy?"
+she was utterly confounded. She had been like a boy, and it was all
+wrong,--what should she do to please people and make them like her a
+little? Then the old Geheimrath approached her and unclasped the hands
+which she was silently but convulsively wringing. "Be comforted, you
+pale little girl,--there is no great harm done. In future you must
+leave such exploits to boys." Then he left her and examined the wound,
+and declared laughingly that he needed a microscope to see it. The
+mothers of the party, however, showed all the more sympathy and anxiety
+in the matter that they were chagrined that Ernestine had displayed
+more skill than their own children.
+
+Ernestine's delicate instinct surmised all this. She looked at the
+buzzing throng of her enemies with aversion, as at a swarm of wasps
+that she had disturbed. She listened to the noise that was made about
+the slight accident with infinite bitterness, and thought how at home,
+when her father's blows had bruised her, no one cared anything about
+it. When a few days before she had fallen and cut her forehead, she had
+had to wash it herself at the brook. And even the old gentleman had
+said that she should leave such exploits to boys. Then must she not
+contend even with boys if she could? Why not? Why were they so
+superior? It was unjust! She clenched her little fists. When she grew
+up she would show people how great the injustice was! That she was
+resolved upon.
+
+Then little Angelika came running up, calling the children together
+for a game. "Come, Ernestine," she cried. "You did not mean to do
+it,--come, play blindman's buff with us."
+
+Ernestine did not venture to make any objection; she was so cowed that
+she did just as they told her, and let them make her "blind man," and
+tie the handkerchief over her eyes. She never complained, although when
+they were tying on the bandage they pulled her hair so that she ground
+her teeth with pain. And then they all began to tease her. One pulled
+at one of her long locks; another terrified her by putting beetles and
+caterpillars upon her neck,--the usual tricks of the game, that are
+easily borne when they are understood among little friends, but enough
+to drive a shy child, that does not know how to defend herself, to
+despair. No one would be caught by the ugly stranger, who had only been
+admitted to the game at the express desire of the hostess, and all felt
+themselves justified in playing all manner of tricks upon her.
+Ernestine caught no one, and ran hither and thither in vain. She was
+too conscientious to raise the handkerchief a little that she might see
+where she was,--that would have been acting a falsehood, and she never
+told falsehoods. Suddenly a hand seized her straw hat, and the worn old
+brim gave way, and fell upon her shoulders like a collar, to the great
+delight of the rest. It was a terrible loss for the poor child; for she
+knew that she should get no other hat at home, but would be punished
+for her carelessness. She grasped after her tormentor, and seized her
+by the skirt; but she was one of the larger girls, and tore herself
+away, leaving a piece of her elegant summer dress in Ernestine's hands,
+which had clutched it tightly. She could not see how the girl ran to
+her mother, bewailing the injury to her dress; the bandage over her
+eyes beneficently shielded her from perceiving the angry looks of the
+ladies, and absorbed the tears which she was silently shedding for her
+straw hat. She stood motionless in the middle of the lawn, and did not
+know what to do,--for no children seemed to be near,--the game appeared
+to be interrupted. Suddenly she received a sound box on the ear. The
+younger brother of the aggrieved young lady had stolen up and avenged
+his sister. Then the tormented child was filled with indignation and
+rage that almost deprived her of reason. She seized the boy as he tried
+to pass her, and began to straggle with him. He forced her backwards,
+step by step. She could not free her hands to untie the bandage; she
+did not know where she was; she would not let go her enemy, for her
+sufferings had filled her little heart with hate and fury. There was a
+scream, and at the same instant she stumbled over something and fell;
+she kept her hold of her foe, but she felt that she was up to her knees
+in water,--she had stumbled into the basin of the fountain. The guests
+hurried up. First seizing the boy, who was still in Ernestine's grasp,
+they placed him in safety, and then they helped out the trembling
+child, who stood there with torn, dripping clothes, an object of terror
+and disgust to herself and to everybody else.
+
+What mischief the horrible creature had done! She had almost fractured
+one child's skull, she had torn the expensive dress of another, and had
+tried to drown a third!
+
+"Pray, my dear Staatsraethin, have my carriage ordered," said one of the
+injured mothers; "one's life is not safe here!"
+
+"Supper is ready," replied the Staatsraethin. "Let me entreat you all to
+go into the house. I will answer for the lives of your children as long
+as they are my guests," she added with a slight smile.
+
+The ladies all called their sons and daughters to them, to protect them
+from the little monster, who still stood there, bewildered and crushed,
+upon the lawn, looking on with a bleeding heart, as the children,
+laughing and joking, clung to their parents, whom they kissed and
+caressed with affectionate freedom. Every child there had a mother or a
+father who fondled it. She--she alone was thrust out and forsaken,--no
+one remembered that she was tired and wet through,--no one cared for
+her. The charming little Angelika was everywhere in requisition, and
+could not come to her,--the Staatsraethin was entreating her guests to
+pardon her for inviting a child whom she did not know; how could she
+possibly suppose that Herr von Hartwich had a daughter so neglected?
+Ernestine heard it all. She could no longer stand,--she fell upon her
+knees, and, sobbing violently, hid her face in her hands. The
+Staatsraethin was now free to come to her, and hastily approached.
+
+"Oh, you poor little thing, you are wet through, and no one has thought
+of you," she cried kindly, at sight of Ernestine. "Go into the house
+quickly, and put on a pair of my little girl's shoes and stockings; my
+room is just to the right of the drawing-room. Go immediately,--do you
+hear? I cannot stay away from my guests."
+
+"Forgive me,--it is not my fault!" stammered Ernestine.
+
+"Indeed it is not, my dear child," said the Staatsraethin gravely. "I
+only pity you,--I am not angry with you! But hurry now and take off
+your dress,--I will send you your supper to my room. I know you would
+rather eat it alone."
+
+And she hastened away to her guests just as a vehicle drove up and a
+strikingly handsome young man about twenty years old sprang out and
+hurried up to her. "My dear boy," she cried, "is it you? I did not
+expect you yet!"
+
+The youth kissed her hand and bowed courteously to the rest. The
+Staatsraethin's eyes rested upon him with the pride with which a woman
+during her life regards two men only,--a lover and a darling son. The
+guests surrounded him with congratulations upon the day's success;
+Angelika danced around him, and the other children all wanted a hand or
+a kiss. There was quite a little uproar of delight.
+
+Suddenly the Staatsraethin cried out in a startled tone, "Little
+Ernestine has gone! Heavens, that poor child wet through in the cool
+evening air! I cannot allow it! Johannes, my dear son, run quickly,
+bring her back."
+
+"Who,--what?" he asked in amazement.
+
+"But, my dearest Staatsraethin," said the mother of the boy whom
+Ernestine's shot had wounded, "how can you worry yourself about the
+little witch? she is tougher than our children."
+
+The Staatsraethin glanced at her contemptuously, and, turning to
+Johannes, continued: "She is a pale, meanly-clad little girl, eleven or
+twelve years of age; you cannot miss her if you take the path to
+Hartwich's estate; she is his daughter. Hasten, Johannes, hasten!" He
+obeyed, while she conducted her guests to their sumptuous repast.
+
+Meanwhile Ernestine ran through the grove as quickly as she could, and
+began to breathe freely as she lost sight of the house where she had
+undergone so much. But her strength soon failed her. Her wet shoes and
+stockings clung like heavy lumps of lead to her weary feet and impeded
+her steps; she was conscious of gnawing hunger, and the first care for
+the future that she had yet felt in her short life assailed her,--she
+was afraid that it would be too late for her to get anything to eat
+when she reached home; it was growing dark, and it would be ten
+o'clock; Frau Gedike would be in bed. And that was not the worst that
+she had to look forward to; the straw hat, whose brim was still having
+around her neck,--the heavy, torn straw hat, would certainly bring her
+a severe chastisement. She sat down upon a mound on the borders of the
+grove, and took off the brim to see if she could contrive some way of
+fastening it to the crown, which she carried in her hand. The tree
+above her shook its boughs compassionately and threw down its leaves
+upon her dishevelled locks. She never heeded them,--the conviction lay
+heavy upon her childish heart that she could not possibly mend the hat
+before Frau Gedike would see it. Tear after tear dropped upon the
+fragments, and her large, swimming eyes glimmered in the moonlight from
+out her pale face like glow-worms in a lily-cup. Suddenly she started
+violently, for some one stood before her, and she recognized the young
+man whose arrival had just enabled her to make her escape. He looked at
+her silently for a while, and then said, "Are you the little girl who
+came to us to-day, and then ran away secretly?"
+
+"Yes," stammered Ernestine.
+
+"Why have you done so?" he asked further.
+
+Ernestine made no reply. She was more ashamed before Johannes than
+before all the rest of the company. He was very different from every
+one else there,--so proud and strong,--he would despise her more than
+the others had done, for he was much handsomer and finer than they, and
+worth more than all of them. She did not venture to look up at him; she
+was afraid of meeting another of those glances that had so tortured
+her. Then the young man took her hand and said kindly, "Well, you pale
+little dryad, can you not speak? Will you go with me, or would you
+rather spend the night in your tree?"
+
+"I want to go home!" said Ernestine.
+
+"I cannot let you go home. I must take you to my mother. She is afraid
+you will take cold. Come!"
+
+Ernestine shrunk back. "I cannot go there any more!"
+
+"Why not? What have they done to you?"
+
+"They laughed at me, and jeered me," cried the irritated child; "they
+despised me; and I will not be despised! I will not!"
+
+The young man looked at her thoughtfully.
+
+"Even if I am ugly," she continued, "and poor, and badly taught, and
+awkward, I will not be treated like a dog!" There was a tone of despair
+in her voice, her chest panted within her narrow dress, her teeth
+chattered with cold and excitement.
+
+"Poor child!" said Johannes; "they must have used you ill,--but my
+mother was surely kind to you?"
+
+"Yes, she was kind, but she was vexed with me at last; I heard her
+blaming me to the others. And I do not want to see her again,--not
+until I am grown up and can be as dignified and gentle as she is."
+
+"Are you so certain, then, that you will one day be as gentle and
+dignified?" asked Johannes smiling.
+
+"Yes, the schoolmaster says, and the old gentleman said too, that if I
+were a boy something might be made of me. Oh, something shall be made
+of me,--if I am only a girl. I will not always have boys held up to me;
+when I am grown up, they shall see that a girl is as good as a boy; all
+these bad, unkind people shall respect me; if they do not, I would
+rather die!"
+
+"You queer child!" laughed Johannes, "it would be hard to tame you. But
+see, if you stay any longer here with me in the night air, you will
+take cold, and then you may die before you have carried out all your
+resolutions; think how bad that will be!"
+
+With these words he attempted to lead the child away with him, but she
+snatched her hand from him and clung to the tree beneath which she had
+been sitting. "No, no," she breathlessly entreated, "dear sir, let me
+go--do not take me back again--please, please, not there!"
+
+"Obstinate little thing, you must come," laughed Johannes. "Do you
+suppose I can go back without you, after having been sent to find you
+like a stray lamb? My mother would shut me up for three days upon bread
+and water if I did not bring you back; you would not like that, would
+you?"
+
+"Ah, you are laughing at me. I will not go back with you, I will not,"
+sobbed Ernestine.
+
+"Will not? What is the use of such words from a weak little girl
+who can be easily carried in arms?" With these words Johannes
+good-humouredly lifted Ernestine from the ground and placed her on his
+shoulder to take her back to the castle. But she succeeded in grasping
+an overhanging branch of the oak-tree just above her, and, before
+Johannes could prevent it, she had swung herself up by it, and was
+clambering like a squirrel from bough to bough.
+
+"This is delightful!" cried Johannes, much amused; "you are really,
+then, a dryad in disguise? Such a prize must not escape; to be sure, I
+never dreamed to-day, when I passed my examination, that the new Herr
+Doctor's first feat would be to climb a tree after a wayward little
+girl; but the episode is much more poetic than marching up and down
+stairs, making my best bow to my old examiners." Daring this soliloquy
+be had taken off his coat and climbed into the tree.
+
+But when he tried to seize Ernestine, she retreated to the extremity of
+the bough upon, which she was sitting, and was quite out of his reach;
+he could not follow her, for the slender branch creaked and drooped so,
+even beneath the child's light weight, that he momentarily expected it
+to break. The jest had become earnest indeed: if the little girl fell,
+she would fall a double distance,--the height of the tree and of the
+hill which the tree crowned. Quick as thought the young man swung
+himself down to the ground, and took his station where he might, if
+possible, receive Ernestine in his arms if she fell. For the first time
+he now saw how high she was perched, and a cloud before the moon just
+at the moment prevented his perceiving the exact direction that she
+must take in falling. His anxiety was intense. The responsibility of a
+human life was suddenly thrust upon him. If he did not succeed in
+catching the falling child, she would shortly lie before him, if not a
+corpse, at least with broken limbs. The steep hill, too, made it almost
+impossible for him to maintain a firm footing; wherever he planted his
+feet, they slipped continually. The blood rushed to his face; his heart
+beat audibly; with outstretched arms he gazed up at the child, who sat
+above him, all unconscious of her danger.
+
+"Little one," he cried breathlessly, "the branch where you are sitting
+will not bear you! scramble back again, or you will fall!"
+
+"I will not come down until you promise me not to carry me back! I
+shall not fall," she panted, and snatched at a stronger bough above
+her, but it sprang back from her grasp, leaving only a few twigs in her
+hand.
+
+"I will promise anything that you want," cried Johannes in deadly
+terror, "only go back quickly to the trunk--quickly--quickly!"
+
+The bough cracked, just as the child swung herself towards the trunk,
+and it fell to the ground,--leaving her clinging to the stump where it
+grew from the trunk; and when Johannes climbed up to her and she could
+at last reach his shoulder, she was trembling so with fright that she
+willingly clasped her thin arms around his neck. With difficulty he
+reached the ground again with his burden, his hands scratched and
+bleeding and his shirt-sleeve torn. He put down Ernestine, and,
+stepping back a pace or two, regarded her gravely; then, after wiping
+the moisture from his brow, he began in a serious tone of voice, "Do
+you know what I would do if I were your father?"
+
+Ernestine looked up at him inquiringly.
+
+"I would give you a taste of the rod, that you might learn not to
+frighten people so just for your own wayward whims!"
+
+These words, prompted by the young man's irritation at the anxiety to
+which he had been subjected, had a fearful effect upon the child. She
+gave a piercing cry, and threw herself upon the ground. "Oh, nothing
+but blows, blows--he too, he too! Who will not strike me and abuse me?
+who is there to take pity upon me?" and she sobbed uncontrollably.
+
+"Good heavens," said Johannes, half compassionately and half annoyed,
+"was there ever such a child! First you climb into a tree at peril of
+your life, just that you may gratify your self-will, and then a single
+word of blame crushes you to the earth. I never saw anything like it!"
+Saying this, he lifted her up and held her out before him in the
+moonlight, regarding her as one would some rare animal or natural
+curiosity.
+
+"Here is a thing," he said, more to himself than to Ernestine, "so
+frail and delicate that you could crush it in your grasp, but there is
+such strength of will in the little frame that one is forced to yield
+to it, and such a wildly throbbing heart in the little breast that one
+is carried away by it in spite of one's self. I should like to know
+what odd combinations have produced this strange piece of humanity. Do
+not cry any more, little one; I will not harm you--what eyes the
+creature has! You are a remarkable child, but I would not like to have
+the charge of you--you would puzzle one well, and force and blows would
+have no effect upon you!"
+
+With these words he put her down upon the ground again and picked up
+his coat to put it on. As he did so, he felt something hard in the
+pocket; he looked to see what it was, and drew out a book in a splendid
+binding.
+
+"Ah," he cried gaily, "I had forgotten this. Can you read?"
+
+Ernestine nodded. She was glad that she had not to say no; how ashamed
+she would have been!
+
+"Come, that's right!" said the young man; and Ernestine was very proud
+of those first words of commendation, and determined instantly to be
+doubly diligent, that she might some time hear just such another
+"That's right!"
+
+Johannes put the book into her hand. "There, you shall have that, that
+you may carry something pleasant home with you after such a dreary day.
+The stories are charming. I brought it out for my little sister
+Angelika, but I could not give it to her because I had to run after
+you. Now I am glad that I have it still and can give it to you."
+
+"Yes--but Angelika?" Ernestine asked hesitatingly.
+
+"She shall have another to-morrow. Take it, and read the story of the
+Ugly Duckling; that will comfort you when people are cross to you. Take
+it--why do you hesitate?"
+
+The child took the book as carefully and timidly as if it were in
+reality a fairy book and would vanish at her touch. When she had it in
+her hands and it did not disappear, and she could really believe in her
+happiness in receiving such a present, she uttered a scarcely audible
+"Thank you very much!" but the look that accompanied the words touched
+Johannes.
+
+"You do not often have presents?" he asked.
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Oh! you seem not to be very affectionately treated. Does not your
+mother ever give you anything?"
+
+"I have no mother. She died because I was not a boy."
+
+"A most remarkable cause of death," observed Johannes, half dryly, half
+compassionately.
+
+"Ah, if I had a mother, everything would be different." And the large
+tears rolled down over her cheeks.
+
+"Listen, little one," said Johannes kindly, after a pause. "I have a
+dear mother, and I will share her with you--half a mother's heart is
+better than none at all. Come home with me. You shall be my little
+sister, and you will be gentle enough when you know us better."
+
+Ernestine shook her head decidedly. The thought of returning to the
+castle again filled her with dismay. "No, no, never!" she cried in
+terror. "Your mother would not love me--she could not! You promised me
+a minute ago not to force me to anything, and if you think now that I
+ought to do as you please, because you have given me the book, I would
+rather not have it. There, take it--I will not have it!"
+
+Johannes rejected the offered book with some vexation. "Keep it," he
+said. "I gave it to you unconditionally. I only thought that my
+kindness had made you gentler and more docile, but I was wrong. You are
+not to be moved by kindness either. Sad to see a heart so early
+hardened!"
+
+Ernestine stood motionless, with downcast eyes--she scarcely breathed;
+the emotions that agitated her were so novel, so different from
+anything she had hitherto experienced, that she struggled in vain to
+give utterance to them; her childish lips had no words to express them.
+She was pained, and yet her pain, although deeper than any she had
+already suffered, had no bitterness in it. She did not hate him who had
+caused it--she could have kissed his hand, and, falling at his feet,
+begged him to forgive her--but she did not dare to do so.
+
+"Well," he asked, after a moment's silence, "shall I go home with you?"
+
+Ernestine shook her head.
+
+"Not that, either? Will you go alone?" he asked impatiently.
+
+Ernestine nodded.
+
+"Well, I have promised to do as you pleased, and I shall keep my
+promise, although I do not think it right to leave you to go home alone
+so late at night. Let me at least go with you across the fields? Are
+you grown dumb?"
+
+Ernestine lifted to his her large melancholy eyes so beseechingly that
+he lost his composure. "You are enough to drive one insane, you
+enigmatical little creature! Who taught you that look--the look of an
+angel imprisoned by some evil magician in the body of a kobold? God
+knows what will become of you! You will not let me come, then? No? Are
+you not afraid? Nothing to be got out of you but a shake of the head!
+Well, go! I cannot force you. Good-night, then!" He held out his hand;
+she seized it, pressed it with passionate energy, and then ran across
+the fields as fast as her feet could carry her. Johannes let her run
+for some minutes, and then followed her at a distance; he could not
+allow the helpless child to go home without watching over her safety.
+She ran as if she had wings, without once looking round; but Johannes
+noticed that she kissed the book several times, and pressed it to her
+heart, as if it had been some living thing. When at last he came in
+sight of Ernestine's home, he stopped. "Heaven be merciful to the man
+who will one day take her for a wife!" he thought, and slowly turned
+away.
+
+Ernestine entered the garden of her dreary home with a throbbing heart.
+A grumbling maid-servant opened the door for her. "You are late," she
+scolded. "That is just like you--first you wouldn't go, and then you
+don't want to come home. You always want to do something else than what
+you should."
+
+Ernestine made no reply. "Can I have something to eat?" she asked
+briefly.
+
+"To eat! Likely, indeed! Am I to go to the stable at ten o'clock at
+night and milk a cow for you? for there is nothing else that I can get.
+You know well enough that I have no keys!"
+
+"Is Frau Gedike in bed, then?"
+
+"If you were not so stupid, you might know that!"
+
+"But I am hungry!"
+
+"That serves you right; you should have eaten enough at the party. Of
+course they gave you something to eat?"
+
+Ernestine was silent, and followed the maid into the room, where she
+hastily concealed her torn hat in the wardrobe. "My feet are wet," she
+said, shivering. "Give me some dry stockings."
+
+"Of course you have been dragging through all the puddles, and then
+want dry stockings at this hour of the night! Get into bed as soon as
+you can; you will have no other stockings to-night. Good-night--I am
+going to bed myself." And the servant left the room, taking with her
+the dim tallow candle that she had in her hand, and Ernestine was left
+alone in the apartment, into which the moon shone brightly. Suppressed
+rage at the servant's coarse harshness burrowed and gnawed in the
+child's heart like a hidden mole. Everything that had lately happened
+vanished at this rude contact. Her soul had expanded at the first touch
+of a large, kindly nature, like a bud in the air of spring--the frost
+that now fell upon it was doubly painful. She was again the same
+forsaken, abused child whose vital energies were consumed by impotent
+hate of her tormentors. Had she really lived the last hour! Had any one
+really spoken so kindly to her--one, too, better and handsomer than all
+the others?
+
+She caught up her book as if it were a talisman; it was real; it
+had not vanished; it was all true, then. And yet she had been so
+self-willed and cross to the kind, kind gentleman, and had not even
+told him how grateful she was; how he must despise her! He could not do
+otherwise. She understood now how different she must be before she
+could hope to win the liking of such a man as Johannes. How should she
+do it? She could not tell; but something stirred within her that
+exalted her above herself. She looked up to heaven in childlike
+entreaty, and prayed, "Dear God, make me good!" Then she pressed the
+book to her heart; it was her most precious possession, her first
+friend; and the desire took hold of her to see now what this friend
+would tell her. But she could not read by moonlight, and she dared not
+get a candle, for she slept next to Frau Gedike, who allowed no reading
+at night. She stood hesitating and looked sorrowfully at the beautiful
+binding, with its gay arabesques. Suddenly it occurred to her that
+there was always a night-lamp burning in her father's room; it was a
+happy thought. She drew off her wet boots with difficulty, and crept
+softly into Hartwich's apartment. The invalid was lying upon his back,
+sound asleep. He breathed and snored so loudly that the child was
+almost terrified; but she was determined to proceed, and slipped past
+the bed. She seated herself cautiously, opened the book in a state of
+feverish expectation, and of course turned to the story that Johannes
+had mentioned to her. The book contained the charming, touching tales
+of Hans Andersen. Ernestine, greatly moved, read the story of the Ugly
+Duckling. She read how it was abused and maltreated by all because it
+was so different from the other ducks, and how at last it came to be a
+magnificent swan, far finer and more beautiful than the insignificant
+fowls who had despised it. The impression made upon her by this story
+is not to be described. The poor duckling's woes were hers also, and as
+if upon swan's pinions the promise of a fair future hovered above her
+from the page that she was reading. "Shall I ever be such a swan?" she
+asked again and again. Her heart overflowed with new emotions of joy
+and pain, she covered her eyes with her thin hands and sobbed as if she
+would, as the saying is, "cry her soul out." Then her father awoke, and
+called out, "Who is there?" Ernestine hastened to him and fell on her
+knees at his bedside. She seized his hand and would have kissed it; he
+snatched it angrily away, but the tears that she had shed had melted
+her very heart. "Father, dear father!" she cried, "I have been very
+naughty and self-willed. Forgive, and love me only a little, and I will
+love you dearly!"
+
+Hartwich turned his face to the wall, and growled, "Why did you wake
+me? Where's the use of slipping in here at this hour? Do you think I
+had rather listen to your stupid whining than sleep?"
+
+"Father," cried Ernestine, taking his lame hand that he could not
+withdraw from her. "Father, do not send me away from you. I will be
+good,--help me to be so. I cannot be good if you are always harsh to
+me. I saw to-day how all the children have parents who love them. I
+only am disliked by every one, and yet I have a heart too, and would
+love to see kind looks and hear kind words. I will not cry ever any
+more, if you will not make me cry, and I will try my best to be just
+like a boy, that you may not be sorry any more that I am a girl. Ah,
+father, it seems to-day as if the dear God in heaven had told me what I
+long for. Love, father, love,--ah, give me some, and take pity upon
+your poor ugly child!"
+
+The invalid had turned towards the child again, and was staring at her
+in amazement, with lack-lustre eyes; it seemed as if some unbidden
+feeling were struggling for utterance from the depths of his moral and
+physical degradation; his breath came quick, he tried to speak.
+Ernestine did not venture to look at him; a strong odour of brandy told
+her that her father's face was near her own, but this odour was so
+utterly disgusting to her that she involuntarily recoiled, and thus
+avoided the lips that would perhaps have bestowed upon her the first
+kiss that she had ever in her life received from them. The invalid must
+have known this, for he turned away again, muttering something
+unintelligible. After a long pause, he felt for a tumbler that stood on
+a table beside his bed, but it was empty. "I'm thirsty!" he said
+peevishly. "Shall I bring you some water, father?" asked Ernestine. The
+sick man made a gesture of disgust "No! but you can go up to your uncle
+and tell him to send me that medicine that he spoke of; he will know
+what I want. But ask him only,--do you hear?--him only. And tell no one
+that I sent you, or you shall suffer for it, I promise you. And now go
+quickly: I'm tortured with thirst!"
+
+Ernestine arose from her knees, and looked at her father with the grief
+that we feel when we have lavished our best, our most sacred emotions
+upon an unworthy object. Hitherto she had required nothing of him;
+to-day, for the first time, as she looked around for some one to whose
+love, in her loneliness, she possessed a right, it had occurred to her
+that she had a father. She had turned to him with an overflowing heart,
+and had found a drunkard, who had resigned all claims to respect, both
+as a man and a father. Mute and crushed alike physically and mentally,
+she slipped out and up the stairs to her uncle. She was to bring brandy
+to the sick man, although she remembered that the physician had
+forbidden all heating drinks; but she must fulfil her father's
+commands, or receive the cruellest treatment at his hands. She entered
+her uncle's room, slowly and timidly; she was afraid of his wife. But
+Bertha had gone to bed; there was no one in the room but Leuthold, who
+was standing by the open window, to the frame of which he had screwed a
+long tube.
+
+"Ah, little Ernestine, have you come so late to see your uncle?" he
+said kindly.
+
+"Uncle, what is that?" asked Ernestine, forgetting her errand in her
+wonder at the strange instrument.
+
+"That is a telescope," her uncle informed her.
+
+"What are you doing with it?" she asked further.
+
+"I am looking into the moon, my child."
+
+"Ah! can you do that?" she cried, in the greatest amazement.
+
+"Certainly I can. Would you like to look through it?"
+
+"Ah, yes; if I only might!" whispered Ernestine, enchanted at the
+offer.
+
+Leuthold lifted her upon the window-sill and adjusted the telescope for
+her. She was half frightened when she suddenly found the shining
+sphere, which she had always seen hovering so far above her in the sky,
+brought so near to her eyes. Her breast expanded to receive such an
+inconceivable miracle. She gazed and gazed, looking, breathless with
+the desire of knowledge, at the mountains, valleys, and jagged craters
+that were so magically revealed. The warm night air fanned her burning
+brow. Everything around her faded and was forgotten as the tired heart
+of the child throbbed with fervent longing for the peace of that new,
+distant world.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+                               ATONEMENT.
+
+
+The day began slowly to dawn, for a dim, cloudy sky usurped the throne
+of departing night. Drops of rain fell here and there,--it was a
+cheerless morning. Not a cock crowed--not a bird was stirring. The dog
+remained hidden in his kennel.
+
+Now and then an early labourer, with his spade upon his shoulder,
+would pass along the fence encircling Hartwich's estate, and would look
+over it with surprise at the strange bustle prevailing in house and
+court-yard. Doors were opened and shut; servant-maids, with eyes heavy
+with sleep, were running hither and thither; water was brought from the
+well; no questions or answers were exchanged. It was as if every one
+avoided speaking of what had occurred. A groom brought a saddled horse
+from the stable, mounted, and galloped furiously in the direction of
+the estate of the Staatsraethin. "Is there a fire anywhere?" a couple of
+peasants shouted after him, but he made no reply. Without a word, he
+galloped across field and moor, never drawing rein until he reached the
+garden of the Staatsraethin. He tugged violently at the bell until a
+sleepy servant came to the door and asked him angrily what he wanted.
+
+"Wake up the Geheimrath Heim, he is here on a visit. The village doctor
+sent me,--a human life is at stake!"
+
+The servant opened his eyes wide, and stared inquiringly at the groom.
+
+"Yes, yes; quick, be quick! Hartwich has beaten his child so, we think
+she is dying. The barber says perhaps the Geheimrath can save her."
+
+"Good gracious, that is terrible!" cried the horrified servant, and ran
+to call the old gentleman.
+
+The Geheimrath was up in a moment; without losing time by a single
+word, he dressed himself, mounted the groom's horse, and rushed off to
+the scene of the disaster.
+
+Before the door of the house, awaiting his arrival, stood the village
+barber-surgeon, who received him with the deepest reverence. "Herr
+Geheimrath, I pray you to excuse me,--but, as I knew you were in the
+neighbourhood, I conceived it my duty to entreat your assistance before
+sending for the physician, who lives three leagues off. The case seems
+to me a serious one."
+
+"Never excuse yourself," said Heim, taking off his hat and coat in the
+hall; "it is my duty to aid wherever I can. But, in Heaven's name, how
+did it happen? Where is the child injured?"
+
+"She has a wound in her head, and I fear the skull is fractured,"
+replied the barber, opening the door of the room leading to Hartwich's
+apartment. The Geheimrath heard a loud sobbing as soon as the door was
+opened. He entered, and before him lay the invalid, weeping and wailing
+like a maniac, with the child stretched out stiff and corpse-like upon
+the bed; her eyes were closed and deep-sunk in their large sockets; her
+pale lips were slightly parted,--it was a sorry sight. Hartwich
+supported her bandaged head upon his arm, and, weeping loudly, pressed
+kiss after kiss upon her white brow.
+
+"Ah, Herr Geheimrath!" he shrieked, "come here! I am a wicked,
+miserable father. I have killed my child! I am a man given over to the
+worst of all vices,--drunkenness; it is my only excuse. Accuse me; have
+me sent, crippled as I am, to jail,--I care not; but bring my child to
+life, or the sting of conscience will drive me mad!"
+
+The Geheimrath took the passive hand of the child and felt the pulse.
+"It is greatly to be regretted that your conscience was not as active
+before the deed as it appears to be now that it is committed," he said
+coldly and sternly, as he removed the bandage from the child's head.
+
+"Oh, oh," wailed Hartwich, shutting his eyes, "do not do that here! I
+cannot see the blood; I cannot see the wound; it will kill me!"
+
+"What! you could make the wound and cannot look at it!" said the
+Geheimrath inexorably, beginning to probe the wound. "It is a most
+serious case," he said. "Has the child moved at all?"
+
+"Yes, yes; oh, heavens, yes; until she grew so rigid!" gasped Hartwich,
+seizing Ernestine's hand to kiss it. Then he looked up at the physician
+in mortal terror. "How is it? must she--oh, Christ! must she die?" And
+again he broke out into the loud childish weeping peculiar to persons
+unnerved by sickness or drink.
+
+"Control yourself," ordered the Geheimrath. "I cannot come to any
+decision yet. The injury to the skull is not fatal; what the effect of
+the concussion will be, I cannot tell. But, with the child's delicate
+constitution----" He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Ah, you give me no hope," moaned Hartwich. "Ernestine, wake up! only
+look once at your father, your cruel, wicked father! Ah, Herr
+Geheimrath, I disliked the child because she was so weak and ugly. If
+she had only been a fine, healthy girl, I might perhaps have been
+reconciled to having no son; but I was ashamed of her, and silenced the
+voice of my heart. Oh, these hands, poor little hands, and these pale,
+thin cheeks!--how could I ever strike them! God be merciful to me,
+miserable sinner that I am!" And he beat his breast fiercely.
+
+The Geheimrath looked at him and shook his head. "Do not excite
+yourself so. It does your daughter no good, and only injures yourself."
+
+"My daughter! my daughter!" repeated Hartwich. "Oh, I have never
+treated her as such. She seemed to me a changeling, left in her cradle
+by some spiteful witch in place of the boy I so coveted. Now, when I am
+in danger of losing her, I feel that she is my child indeed."
+
+"The truth is as old as the world, that nature avenges the
+transgression of the least of her laws," replied the physician. "You
+have sinned grievously against the mighty law of paternal affection,
+and now it demands its rights with resistless authority. Let me entreat
+you to testify your repentance by the tenderest care of the sick child,
+and permit me to call some one to put her to bed,--it should have been
+done long ago."
+
+"Ah, must she be separated from me?" moaned Hartwich. "I long to beg
+her forgiveness when she comes to herself."
+
+"You will hardly be able to do that very soon," said the Geheimrath,
+ringing the bell.
+
+Frau Gedike made her appearance, as gentle and submissive as she had
+previously been harsh and overbearing to Ernestine.
+
+"Assist me in carrying this child to her bed," said Heim, carefully
+placing his arm beneath the rigid little body to raise it up.
+
+"Oh, I beg of you, Herr Geheimrath, do not trouble yourself," cried
+Frau Gedike, evidently greatly humbled. "I can carry the poor child
+without help."
+
+Heim glanced at her keenly, and then quietly directed her to show him
+the way.
+
+Frau Gedike ran as quickly as she could across the hall to the door of
+a back room. "Permit me," she said, and tried to slip past the
+Geheimrath into the apartment. "Excuse me for one moment, that I may
+put things a little to rights. Everything is in disorder, I rose so
+early this morning."
+
+But Heim said authoritatively, "Follow me!" and stepped past her into
+the chamber, carrying his silent burden. Here he stood still in
+astonishment. It was a kind of wash-room,--at least there was a huge
+pile of soiled linen in one corner. Broken furniture and household
+utensils were scattered about; there were no curtains to the windows;
+hundreds of flies were buzzing about the dirty panes; the air of the
+close room was stifling. In one corner stood a child's crib, which must
+have dated from Ernestine's fifth or sixth year. It contained an old
+straw bed, a dirty pillow, and a heavy, tawdry coverlet. Frau Gedike
+bustled about, endeavouring to conceal us well as she could the
+miserable condition of the room from the penetrating eye of the
+Geheimrath, but in vain.
+
+"Am I to lay the wounded child in this bed? Is she to be nursed in this
+hole?" he asked in a tone which boded no good to the housekeeper.
+
+"Gracious me!--we have no other room and no other bed. I have often
+pitied the dear child, but Herr Hartwich is so saving--he never buys
+anything new," she declared.
+
+The Geheimrath went towards a half-open door leading into another and
+larger apartment. Here the air was pure, the furniture decent, and
+there was a comfortable bed in the corner.
+
+"Is this your room?" asked the Geheimrath sharply.
+
+"It is, Herr Geheimrath. It is just as my predecessor left it."
+
+"Make up the bed instantly with clean linen."
+
+Frau Gedike stared in surprise.
+
+"Instantly!" repeated the Geheimrath, in a way that admitted of no
+remonstrance, and seated himself, that he might more conveniently hold
+his poor little charge. Frau Gedike brought clean sheets and made up
+the bed.
+
+"Where shall I sleep?" she asked with suppressed rage: "there is no
+other sleeping-room in the whole house!"
+
+"You can try Ernestine's bed, and see what it is to lie cramped up upon
+a rack!" replied the old gentleman dryly. Then he wrinkled his bushy
+brows sternly, and continued: "I doubt whether you will need a bed
+here, for I will do my best to have you leave this house before night."
+
+"Oh, Lord, have mercy on me! Herr Geheimrath, what have I done? What
+fault can you find with me?" whined Frau Gedike as she smoothed the
+pillows.
+
+Heim arose, and, as he laid the lifeless little body carefully upon the
+bed, said quietly, "Look at the room which you have allowed this frail
+child to occupy, the bed in which you have cramped her poor little
+limbs, and then say whether anybody of the least humanity could fail to
+condemn you!" He then left her, and called the barber-surgeon that he
+might take the necessary steps for providing careful attendance for the
+child.
+
+Frau Gedike ran out crying, and the Geheimrath continued to provide for
+his patient's comfort with the quiet decision of an experienced
+physician and the gentleness of a tender-hearted man.
+
+After half an hour, Ernestine began to show signs of life; but she did
+not return to consciousness. She cast a vague, wandering glance around,
+then closed her eyes and muttered broken, unintelligible words. At last
+she sank anew into a state of stupor resembling slumber. The Geheimrath
+left the surgeon with her and went to Hartwich, who, in the mean while,
+had been visited by Leuthold. Leuthold had been wakened at last by the
+unwonted bustle in the house, and had stolen from his bed to see if his
+brother were perhaps dying,--a piece of news which would have been a
+grateful morning greeting to his wife. He was disappointed. The only
+comfort was that all this excitement would inevitably accelerate
+Hartwich's death; Ernestine's fate was a matter of perfect indifference
+to him, but he was greatly disturbed by the intelligence that Heim had
+been called in. He could not bear the man, whose presence brought out
+clear and distinct, as with some chemical preparation, the stains upon
+his name that had apparently faded away. He therefore determined to
+leave home for a few days, in order to avoid a meeting with the witness
+of his disgrace; but he would leave his wife on guard in the lower
+story, under the pretence of helping to nurse Ernestine. Her presence
+would naturally hinder the physician from saying anything to Hartwich
+to his, Leuthold's, detriment. He slipped up-stairs to bid his wife
+arise quickly; but the indolent woman was too long about it for his
+wishes or his plans.
+
+Scarcely had he left Hartwich when Heim entered the room. "What news do
+you bring me?" Hartwich cried out.
+
+"Nothing hopeful as yet. She showed signs of life when we applied
+ice-bandages; but the lethargy into which she fell immediately is
+alarming. I cannot give you any hope before the end of three days."
+
+Hartwich struck his damp forehead in despair. "It will kill me! it will
+kill me!"
+
+The Geheimrath seated himself by his bedside, took a pinch of snuff
+from a golden box adorned with a miniature of the king, and calmly
+regarded the unhappy man. "Now tell me, Herr von Hartwich, how it all
+occurred. I should like to know. Besides the wound on the head, the
+child has bruises on her shoulders and arms that are by no means fresh.
+She seems to have been most cruelly treated!"
+
+The invalid was silent for awhile, and then said, "Yes,--ah, yes, we
+have all abused her; but God knows I never intended this last! I was
+sound asleep yesterday evening when Ernestine came home and crept in to
+me here and waked me with her sobs."
+
+"Poor child! she had cause to weep," the Geheimrath interrupted him.
+
+"Yes, yes,--but I did not understand that yesterday. When I awoke, I
+was thirsty, and sent her up to my brother to bring me a little--a
+little--a few drops----"
+
+"To bring you liquor," the Geheimrath completed the sentence.
+
+"Yes, I confess it," Hartwich continued; "but in her uncle's room there
+was a telescope, and she looked through it and forgot her father's
+errand. I waited and waited, with my throat on fire, but she did not
+come. I grew more and more impatient; and when, at the end of a full
+half-hour, she came down without what I had sent her for, I seized hold
+of her to beat her; she clung to my lame arm so that the pain made me
+wild,--and in my senseless rage I flung her off and hurled her away
+with my healthy arm;--may it be crippled forever! She fell backward,
+and struck the back of her head first against the marble top of my
+wash-stand,--you can see the blood there still,--and then upon the
+floor, where she lay like one dead. Everything grew black before my
+eyes, as it did when I had the stroke. I rang for my people; no one
+came. I could not move,--could not leave my bed to go to the child. I
+saw her blood flow, I heard her gasp as if in the death-agony, and I
+lay here a miserable cripple, thinking that I had killed my child. Oh,
+Herr Geheimrath, at such a time our inmost selves are revealed to as;
+in such agony one learns to pray. At last, after repeated ringing and
+calling, my good-for-nothing servants made their appearance. Herr
+Geheimrath, I cannot tell you how I felt when they laid the child upon
+my bed,--my poor, beaten child. As the little bleeding head lay on my
+arm, it seemed as if my heart opened wide with the gaping wound, and,
+for the first time, real, warm, paternal affection gushed from it.
+Before, when I chastised the child, she was all defiance and
+stubbornness; then I did not care if I hurt her; but now, as she lay
+mute and crushed before me, she spoke to me in a language that recalled
+me to myself. And, Herr Geheimrath, I have not been myself,--I have
+drunk myself down to the level of a brute; and the poor victim of my
+fury has recalled me from my degradation."
+
+The Geheimrath listened to the speaker with growing sympathy. When he
+had finished, he took his hand. "You are right, Herr von Hartwich, to
+be frank with me. Men who are not evil by nature can best excuse their
+evil deeds by frankness, for their intentions are seldom as bad as
+their actions. Compose yourself,--your condition is indeed worthy of
+compassion. If the physician might be allowed to usurp in a measure the
+confessor's chair at such a time as the present, I would say for your
+consolation, in the event of the worst termination to the child's
+illness, that your irresponsible condition, which rendered you
+incapable of appreciating the consequences of your act, and which would
+excuse you before an earthly tribunal, should have some weight with
+your inward judge. Besides, you have certainly acted paternally towards
+the child in one respect," he added with significance. "You have
+accumulated a fine property for her. That will enable her to occupy
+such a position in the world as will make her life, if it is spared, a
+happy one."
+
+Hartwich seized Heim's hand and whispered quickly and anxiously "Ah, my
+dear sir, I have not done this; it now lies heavy on my soul that I
+have not been a father to the child in any way!"
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Heim with apparent surprise. "You have not
+set Ernestine aside in favour of another?"
+
+Hartwich looked anxiously towards the door. The Geheimrath understood
+his look, and opened it,--no listener was near. Hartwich then confessed
+all to the Geheimrath that the latter already knew. Heim shook his
+head. "It is incredible that a father should do so by his own child;
+but, now that your sense of duty is aroused, you will of course atone
+for your injustice?"
+
+"Ah, Herr Geheimrath, if I only could, how gladly would I do so! If my
+poor Ernestine recovers, I would gladly make over to her the whole
+estate during my lifetime. Tell me, how shall I begin to make amends?
+how shall I begin to atone to the child for all the misery I have
+caused her? I will do anything, everything, if I only can. Assist me,
+advise me!"
+
+"I think," began the Geheimrath with quiet decision, "that the case is
+very simple. You can make a new will and declare the other void. If
+Ernestine recovers, it is very doubtful whether she will be anything
+more than a poor, sickly invalid during her entire lifetime. Such an
+unfortunate being needs money,--a great deal of money; for sickness is
+an expensive affair. The child was naturally healthy. She has been
+weakened by neglect and harsh treatment. You left her to a worthless
+housekeeper, who denied her everything that a child should have in
+order to be strong, and in her weakened condition you have dealt her a
+death-blow from which she can hardly recover. You must be conscious
+that, since you have almost destroyed Ernestine's life, you ought at
+least to provide her with the means of making her invalid existence as
+endurable as possible, and indemnify her for a neglected childhood by
+every enjoyment that wealth can procure."
+
+Again Hartwich broke out into loud lamentations. "Yes, yes, you are
+right,--you are a man of honour, Herr Geheimrath. But how can I set
+aside my will without encountering Leuthold's bitterest hate? Ah, you
+do not know what a dangerous enemy he is."
+
+"I know, I know," Heim interrupted him, nodding his head; "he is a bad
+fellow; but tell me, Herr von Hartwich, what do you fear from him? Will
+not the curse of your unfortunate child, if she lives, be harder to
+bear than the hate of such a miserable wretch as your step-brother?"
+
+Hartwich writhed and turned in his bed. "If I had only sold the
+factory! If he should learn that I had disinherited him, he is quite
+capable of preventing the sale out of sheer revenge, ruining the whole
+business for me, and then the poor child would be deprived of half of
+her property!"
+
+The Geheimrath held his snuff-box in one hand, clasped the other over
+it, and looked at Hartwich with a smile.
+
+"If that is why you hesitate, there is no cause for fear. The factory
+is as good as sold; for Herr Neuenstein, the brother of the
+Staatsraethin Moellner, is most anxious to purchase it for his son, who
+is a chemist;--he knows your brother, and would easily see through his
+wiles. Besides, Gleissert need know nothing about it for the present.
+Make the will secretly. I will give you pen and ink when I have written
+a prescription for Ernestine. Send your housekeeper off immediately,
+that we may have no spies about; for I believe her to be capable of any
+treachery, and Ernestine must not be left in her charge. This afternoon
+I shall come again, and you can put the document into my hands, where
+it will be safe. Well--how does the plan please you?"
+
+"Yes, yes," cried Hartwich passionately. "That is right. That I can do.
+Ah, it is all that is left for me to do for my child, and it shall be
+done. Send Gedike away;--get me pen, ink, and paper,--it must not be
+delayed an hour longer than is necessary. I feel I may die at any
+moment. Remove this burden from my soul, and I shall die more
+peacefully!"
+
+Heim went instantly to procure writing-materials, for he knew better
+than the invalid himself that there must be no delay in the matter. The
+servants brought him what he wanted, and he looked in upon Ernestine
+for a moment, while the surgeon went for more ice for the bandages. She
+was lying there moaning and groaning restlessly. He looked at her
+lovingly, and said to himself, "Poor child! There are better days in
+store for you." Then he repaired to Frau Gedike, whom he informed of
+her dismissal, and appointed Rieka, the elder of the maid-servants,--a
+girl whose face pleased him,--Ernestine's attendant.
+
+When he returned to Hartwich, he found him in a state of great
+excitement. His face was purple, the veins greatly swollen.
+
+"Where have you been so long?" he cried out as the Geheimrath entered.
+"I was in agony for fear I should have another stroke. I felt just as I
+did before! There, give me the writing-materials--it would be terrible
+if I were to die now, before I had atoned for my crime. Pray help me
+up, Herr Geheimrath,--but do not touch my lame arm,--oh, this pain!
+There, there,--thank you. Now the pen. I have thought it all over while
+you were away. I will arrange it so that he cannot say I broke my word
+to him, and he cannot harm Ernestine if I should die shortly. Ah,
+air!--Herr Geheimrath,--open a window! After I have written--I shall be
+easier. Then my mind will be relieved."
+
+He spoke in breathless haste, while the perspiration stood in beads
+upon his forehead.
+
+"Be calm, be calm!" said the Geheimrath soothingly. "You are not going
+to die now, but you will make yourself ill with this excitement."
+
+"Ah, you are kind,--you wish to console me;--but I feel that last night
+will be my death--there is no time to lose!"
+
+He dipped the pen in the ink, and looked towards the door. "If only
+Leuthold does not come,--all is lost if he does. Bolt it, I pray, that
+he may not surprise us. Tell me, will it not be best to make him
+Ernestine's heir? Then I shall not be quite false to my promise,--it
+is, alas, alas, more likely that the poor little lamb will die than
+that she will recover; then all will be as it was, and the property
+will be his,--and, if she lives, he must have a good legacy."
+
+"Yes, yes," said the Geheimrath good-humouredly, "give the fellow what
+you think you owe him. But remember that he inherits from Ernestine
+only in case of her dying unmarried; for if it be God's will that she
+lives, marries, and has children, you must not deprive those children
+of the property. That might make her very unhappy."
+
+"Yes, you are right,--I will insert that clause. But the
+guardianship,--what do you think? I must make Leuthold her guardian, or
+he will be terribly angry!"
+
+The Geheimrath shook his head. "I would not do that!"
+
+"Oh, yes, Herr Geheimrath. It would look too ugly, and the child will
+be in no kind of danger. He always liked Ernestine, and stood up for
+her; and he will be afraid, too, not to fill his post of guardian
+conscientiously, for he will be under the supervision of the orphans'
+court."
+
+"Then make her minority as short as possible. For my satisfaction, have
+it expressly stated that she shall be of age at eighteen. Such
+precaution is necessary with men of Gleissert's stamp. According to our
+laws, a father can declare his child of age at eighteen. Her property
+can remain in the orphans' court until then, when it can be placed at
+her own disposal."
+
+"Yes, yes, I agree to all that,--then it is all settled! God be
+thanked!" Hartwich drew a long sigh of relief, and dipped the pen in
+the ink. But scarcely had he attempted the first stroke when he dropped
+the pen in despair and cried out, "Merciful Heaven! I cannot form a
+letter!"
+
+The startled Geheimrath looked at the paper. The letters were entirely
+illegible.
+
+For one moment the old gentleman lost all hope,--while Hartwich sobbed
+and groaned like a child. Was he to fail thus, just when the goal was
+reached? The Geheimrath regarded the invalid thoughtfully, pondering
+how long a delay his condition would permit. Then he made up his mind,
+and said with composure, "I will arrange it all; do not be at all
+anxious. I will drive to the nearest town and procure the services of a
+couple of lawyers, and you shall dictate your will. I will be back
+again in two hours. Tell me when Leuthold is used to be away from home,
+that he may know nothing of our plans."
+
+"At the time of your return he will be at the factory. If you go on
+foot as far as the corner of the wood, he will not see you. Herr
+Geheimrath, you are a true man,--my child's benefactor and mine. How
+shall I ever thank you?"
+
+"There is no need of thanks,--no need at all! I am only doing my duty
+as a man and a Christian." And the prudent old physician concealed the
+writing-materials and hurried out.
+
+Hartwich cast his blood-shot eyes upward and prayed, "Let me live until
+it is complete, O God,--only until then!" These words he repeated again
+and again, while his heart beat more wildly and irregularly, and his
+veins grew blue and swollen. It was the mortal agony of a doomed wretch
+who feels that a short time will bring him to the bar of an inexorable
+judge, and who longs to throw off at least a part of his burden of
+guilt. Of course such anguish would hasten his death.
+
+Frau Bertha came down soon after the Geheimrath's departure, and would
+have stayed in Hartwich's room, but his state terrified her. She saw
+that the end was near, and she had not the courage to look on at the
+death-agony. In her heart she felt herself a murderess, because she had
+so ardently desired his death. Indeed, fate often makes us by our
+silent desires accomplices in its severity, and we are stricken with
+vain remorse when our secret hostility to another suddenly takes form
+and shape in events. Who has not at some time in his life secretly
+nourished a selfish desire, and, after it has been crushed down,
+fervently thanked Heaven for not cursing him with a granted prayer? Or,
+if the evil has been permitted, who has not in his remorse half
+believed that his secret desire helped to work the mischief that has
+been done? Frau Bertha's perceptions were not very delicate. She wished
+for Hartwich's death that she might enjoy his wealth, and thanked
+Heaven that it would shortly be hers; but she was too much of a woman
+not to shudder at the moment of the fulfilment of her evil desires and
+see an avenging demon in Hartwich's dying form. She resolved,
+therefore, to disobey her lord and master, and avoid the death-bed. The
+cogent reasons that Leuthold had for enjoining constant watchfulness
+she could not comprehend; and therefore, as soon as Leuthold left for
+the factory, she betook herself to her apartments again.
+
+Hartwich was now left upon his burning couch, devoured by anxiety. The
+minutes crept slowly on; every quarter of an hour, news of Ernestine
+was brought him; there was no change for an hour, and then Rieka came
+in suddenly and cried, "Ah, sir, Ernestine is awake and wants some
+book; we cannot understand what one, or what she means, she speaks so
+indistinctly, and whatever we get her is wrong. What is to be done?"
+
+"Send a servant into town to buy every child's-book that is to be
+had,--let her want for nothing,--do you hear? for nothing! Has she not
+mentioned me?"
+
+"Oh, no," replied the servant; "she is not herself,--she is continually
+moaning for her book!"
+
+"Then get her what she wants, as quickly as possible,--only be quick!"
+
+The servant left the room, and the sick man was left to his brooding
+thoughts again. It worried and tormented him that Ernestine would have
+to wait several hours for what she wanted. In a few moments he rang
+again for the maid, who reiterated that the child was still asking for
+her book. The invalid grew still more restless, and at last sent for
+the surgeon, who was still with Ernestine.
+
+"Lederer," he called out upon his entrance, "bleed me! Don't you
+remember how much good it did me?"
+
+"Not for worlds, sir!" said Lederer. "I could not do it without a
+physician's orders. There seems no reason at all at present for such an
+extreme remedy!"
+
+"What do you know about it?" cried Hartwich angrily. "I tell you I know
+I need it. There is a perfect hammering going on inside my head. You
+must bleed me, or I shall have another stroke!"
+
+"Ah, sir, believe me, you are needlessly alarmed," said the barber.
+"Have some compassion upon a poor man like myself, who cannot take upon
+himself such a responsibility with a patient of your importance. I
+would gladly do it if I could! Have patience, I pray you, until the
+Geheimrath comes back!"
+
+"You are a miserable coward!" screamed Hartwich, foaming with rage.
+
+"For Heaven's sake compose yourself, sir," the terrified surgeon
+interrupted him; "I will obey you, but I must first go home and fetch
+my bandages. Perhaps by the time I get back the Geheimrath will be
+here!"
+
+"Then go," muttered Hartwich, who already repented his violence, which
+he feared might prove an injury to him. "But first lift me up a little.
+Ah! if I could only put my feet out of bed I should certainly feel
+easier. Try if you cannot lift them out; take out the lame leg
+first--so--that's right--oh, it's hard. 'Tis better to have wooden
+legs--they can be unstrapped and taken off--but to have to drag about
+everywhere a dead, useless limb is horrible! 'tis a dog's life, and I
+care not how soon it is over, but not just yet--I must do my duty
+first. Now go, Lederer, and come back soon."
+
+The barber had helped him so that he was sitting upright in bed, with
+his lame foot upon a cushion. He looked around the room, and noticed
+Ernestine's book upon the table. "What is that?" he asked. Lederer
+handed it to him. He turned over the leaves, and his face suddenly
+brightened. "That must be the book that Ernestine is asking for--some
+one must have given it to her yesterday at the party. Good heavens! now
+I understand why the poor little thing crept in here so late last
+night; she wanted to read by my lamp! Ah, how dearly she paid for her
+innocent pleasure! Go, my good Lederer, and take the book to the child.
+Tell Rieka to come and let me know what she says to it, and then you
+will get the bandages--will you not?"
+
+"Most certainly, sir, as soon as possible!" said Lederer, and hurried
+away with the book.
+
+A clock struck nine. Hartwich sighed profoundly. "Only nine. Heim
+cannot come for an hour yet. The lawyers will need time for
+preparation. O God--Thou wilt not punish that poor, innocent child so
+severely as to let me die before her rights are secured--Thou wilt
+not!" He tried in vain to fold his hands, and at last dropped them
+wearily upon his crippled knees.
+
+Suddenly he imagined that his right hand also was stiffening. His
+incapacity to write could not have resulted merely from want of habit.
+He moved his arm up and down to try it--whether in imagination or
+reality, it certainly felt heavier. It was not the effect of gout, as
+was the case with his left hand; this could only proceed from an
+effusion of blood upon the brain. Cold drops of moisture stood upon his
+forehead; he tried to wipe them away with his right hand; in vain, he
+could not lift it so high. Thus he sat helpless and alone, every limb
+crippled. He thought of his child's thin, white hands; how blest he
+should be if they could now supply the place of his own to him, wipe
+his damp brow and hand him refreshing drink! He thought how forsaken
+and alone he sat there awaiting death, and that it was all his own
+fault; and again he sobbed convulsively. Then Rieka entered.
+
+"Well, was that the right one?" asked Hartwich.
+
+"Oh, yes, sir."
+
+"Thank Heaven! Did she not mention me?"
+
+"No, sir; she said nothing. She only took the book and kissed it, then
+folded it in her arms and went to sleep again."
+
+"If the child does not forgive me before I die, I shall have no rest in
+my grave!" moaned Hartwich. "Rieka, I am losing the use of my right arm
+too. Look at me. Am I not altered?"
+
+"Oh, no, you always look just as purple!" said Rieka consolingly.
+
+"Give me a mirror and let me see myself!"
+
+Rieka handed him a mirror, and he looked at himself long and anxiously.
+"I look fearfully. Can you not hear how indistinct my speech is?"
+
+Rieka put away the mirror. "Oh, your tongue is always heavy when you
+have been drinking. Don't be worried about that."
+
+"I have not drank a drop to-day, you insolent girl!" stammered Hartwich
+irritated. "Go back instantly, and take good care of the child, or----"
+
+"Yes, sir, I shall do my duty without threats, but I can't mend the
+mischief that you have done!" And she slammed the door behind her.
+
+"And I must bear this from an ignorant peasant!" wailed Hartwich. "How
+they will abuse me to my child, if she recovers! Oh, oh, I deserve it
+all; 'tis wretched,--wretched! But I must be calm. I must not be
+excited." Thus he murmured, with trembling lips, exerting all his
+energy to repress his excitement, and to force the breath regularly
+from his laboring breast.
+
+Again the clock struck--ten this time.
+
+"They must soon be here now!" thought Hartwich. "If I can only keep my
+head clear!"
+
+The wretched man in his anguish now exercised his mental faculties in
+every way that he could devise, repeating the formula which he had
+composed for his will a hundred times, that it might be so stamped upon
+his mind as to be forthcoming even in his last moments.
+
+At last steps were heard in the hall.
+
+"It is Lederer with the bandages," he thought, suddenly remembering his
+desire to be bled. But there were several people there. It must be the
+lawyers. The door opened. "Ah, thank God! thank God!" Hartwich
+stammered, and fainted.
+
+"I thought so!" cried the Geheimrath. "If you had only bled him, or at
+least remained with him!" he continued to the terrified barber, who
+entered at the same time. "Be quick now; give me that case; bring me
+some ice from the child's room," he ordered; and, while he spoke the
+lancet had done its work, and the dark blood was flowing from the arm.
+
+"Pray be ready, gentlemen," he said as he was bandaging the arm; "I
+believe the sick man will come to himself in a few moments. You will
+find writing-materials there in the corner."
+
+The gentlemen took their seats, and arranged a table for writing from
+the sick man's dictation. The surgeon brought the ice; it was laid upon
+Hartwich's head, and, as the Geheimrath had prophesied, he soon came to
+himself. He looked around him with astonishment "Am I still living?" he
+feebly asked.
+
+"Certainly, certainly," said the Geheimrath, cheerfully; "it was only a
+slight attack."
+
+"God of mercy," gasped Hartwich, "Thou art all compassion! My memory is
+still perfect. Are the lawyers here?"
+
+One of them arose, and approached the bed.
+
+"We are here, Herr von Hartwich, and await your directions."
+
+"I am still of sound mind,--indeed I am," Hartwich insisted with
+childlike eagerness.
+
+"The intention with which you have summoned us would certainly not
+indicate the contrary," said the lawyer gravely, signing to his
+companion to prepare to write.
+
+"And I declare that this last decision of mine is entirely my own,"
+Hartwich continued.
+
+"I am convinced that it is so. I should far rather suppose that your
+previous will was a forced one," the official rejoined.
+
+"Will it impair the authenticity of this document that I am unable to
+sign it? I cannot, unfortunately, move my hand."
+
+"Not at all," said the lawyer. "These two gentlemen, Herr Geheimrath
+Heim and the surgeon Lederer, will have the kindness to affix their
+signatures as witnesses, and the instrument will be legally correct. If
+you are strong enough to dictate your will, there is nothing now to
+prevent your doing so."
+
+"Oh, yes! oh, yes!" gasped Hartwich, as the Geheimrath supported him;
+"every moment is precious."
+
+The preliminary sentences were written at Hartwich's request. The
+Geheimrath closed the door, and the dying man began to dictate in such
+feverish haste that the lawyer was obliged to entreat him to speak more
+slowly. Some irregularities in the formula were arranged, and the will
+was completed before the glimmering spark of life in the testator was
+extinguished. Little Ernestine was made heir to a property of ninety
+thousand thalers. The document was read aloud to Hartwich, and the
+Geheimrath and Lederer affixed their signatures instead of his own.
+
+"Now I can die!" said the sick man, with the air of a released captive;
+and instantly his mental and physical powers failed him.
+
+"Geheimrath!" he faltered, and a strange smile transfigured
+his countenance, "lay the will upon my child's bed, as
+her--father's--last--farewell--thanks--thanks." And his eyelids closed,
+he muttered unintelligibly, and relapsed into unconsciousness.
+
+The Geheimrath nodded to the lawyers, and said, "It was high time!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                           THE SAD SURVIVORS.
+
+
+The next day, at about the same hour, Frau Bertha was in her kitchen,
+beating whites of eggs for a cake, her round cheeks shaking merrily
+with the exercise. She had sent her maid into the garden with Gretchen,
+and was supplying the maid's place. She turned the bowl upside down, to
+convince herself that the eggs were sufficiently beaten; not a drop
+fell,--they were all right. She set them aside with an air of great
+satisfaction, and turned to a bag beneath the table, whence issued a
+melancholy flapping and cooing. A white dove poked its head out of the
+mouth of the bag, and Bertha thrust it back again, securing the opening
+more tightly. A pot of water on the fire boiled over with a loud
+hissing, and she hastened to roll up her sleeves over her large,
+well-formed arms, and lift the heavy vessel from the glowing coals. She
+was a beautiful sight, as the glare from the fire illuminated her
+massive proportions; as she moved hither and thither, now arranging her
+various cooking-utensils, now opening the door beneath the oven, to
+thrust in huge pieces of wood, hastily picking up and tossing back the
+bits of burning coal that fell out, she might have been Frau Venus, the
+coarse Frau Venus of the popular German imagination, fresh from the
+infernal regions in the Hoerselberg, who, clad in a kitchen apron, was
+here in the likeness of a cook-maid to seduce the calm, cold-blooded
+Dr. Gleissert by the magic charms of her cookery. She tossed a net full
+of crabs into a pot of cold water, and looked thoughtlessly on at their
+slow death over the fire. She never dreamed that just at that moment a
+human life was leaving its mortal tenement beneath her roof, and when,
+a few minutes later, she was pounding ingredients in her huge mortar,
+that the noise she was making was the death-knell of a departing soul.
+She did not hear her husband's approach until he stood before her, and
+seizing her by the arm, said breathlessly, "Wife, this is our last day
+of torment!"
+
+Frau Bertha looked at him with surprise, that was only half joy,
+painted upon her heated face. "I have never seen you so delighted
+before, except when you were examining those odd fishes at Trieste;
+what has happened?"
+
+"Can you not guess?" asked Leuthold.
+
+"Is he dead?"
+
+"He is; he has been dying for the last twenty-four hours."
+
+"Thank Heaven!" said Frau Bertha, folding her plump hands.
+
+"And if I believed in Heaven I should say so too," rejoined Leuthold,
+throwing himself upon a kitchen chair. "Only conceive of the joy!
+We are wealthy,--independent,--delivered from our ten years'
+servitude,--delivered--ah!" He fanned himself with the pocket-handkerchief
+that he had just used at the bedside of Hartwich's corpse to dry the
+tears that he did not shed.
+
+In spite of her good fortune, Frau Bertha looked uncomfortable. "I am
+almost sorry he has gone," she said timidly. "It seems to me a sin to
+rejoice so at any one's death,--he might appear to us."
+
+"Don't talk such nonsense; you know I cannot endure it," said Leuthold
+angrily. "You behave as if we had killed him. Wishes are neither poison
+nor steel; and we are not rejoicing at his death, but at our
+inheritance. It is but human."
+
+"Yes, yes," said Bertha, comforted, "you are quite right. If we could
+have had the money while he lived, we should not have wanted him to
+die; he might have lived for a hundred years for all I would have
+cared. It was his own fault that we wished him dead. Why did he keep us
+so pinched?"
+
+Leuthold nodded approvingly. "I see you are willing to listen to
+reason; now have the kindness to come downstairs with me and pay the
+proper respect to the body."
+
+"What must I do that for?" asked Bertha, alarmed.
+
+"Because it is becoming! I have instructed you sufficiently upon this
+point; you know my wishes--come!"
+
+These words, that cut like a knife in their utterance, made opposition
+useless. Bertha took her casseroles from the fire, looked after the
+doves in the bag, and followed her husband down stairs. On the way she
+asked him, "What shall I say when we get there?"
+
+"Not much," said Leuthold dryly. "There is not much to be said in such
+stiff, silent society,--a couple of oh's and ah's will suffice; it is
+very graceful in a woman to fall upon her knees by the bedside; but if
+you should attempt it, pray restrain your usual impetuosity, or the
+repose even of the dead might be disturbed."
+
+"You are a fearful man," whispered Bertha. "I am actually afraid of
+you. Will you make such joking speeches when I die?"
+
+"I shall not outlive you, my good Bertha," said Leuthold, plaintively.
+"If I should, be assured I will mourn for you as the nurseling for his
+nurse!"
+
+Frau Bertha looked doubtfully at her husband. She scarcely knew what to
+make of this tender asseveration, and she said nothing. They had
+reached the door of Hartwich's apartment.
+
+"Where is your handkerchief--your pocket-handkerchief?" Leuthold asked
+softly. Bertha sought it in vain; she had forgotten it. "How
+thoughtless," whispered Leuthold, "to forget your handkerchief under
+such circumstances!"
+
+"Then give me yours," said Bertha.
+
+"You fool! I want it for myself. Take your apron; put that up to your
+eyes--so!" With these words he opened the door and entered slowly,
+pushing Bertha before him. Hartwich lay extended upon the bed, his face
+so changed that Bertha was glad to be able to hide her eyes in her
+apron. Leuthold stood beside her, a picture of dignified manly grief;
+his bearing impressed the bystanders; the surgeon, the men- and
+maid-servants, who were all present, were convinced that Herr Gleissert
+had really loved his step-brother, and that it was rank injustice to
+accuse him of heartlessness. After a few moments, he laid his hand
+gently upon his wife's shoulder, but its stern pressure reminded her
+that she was to fall upon her knees. She sank down as carefully as she
+could, and with her broad back and bending head was a beautiful and
+moving image of woe. After awhile he bent over her and said gently,
+"Come, my child, do not be so agitated; our tears cannot bring him back
+to life--come!" Then he raised her, leaned her head upon his breast to
+conceal her face, and conducted her from the room. The others looked
+after them with amazement.
+
+"I cannot understand it," said the surgeon. "Every one knows that the
+woman never could endure Herr von Hartwich, and yet now she seems
+almost dead with grief!"
+
+"She isn't really sorry," growled a groom; "it's all sham!"
+
+"Yes, yes," Rieka added, "she didn't shed a tear,--not a single tear,
+for all she rubbed her eyes so with her apron!"
+
+"That's true,--she is right," murmured the group; "neither he nor she
+shed a single tear. Well, there's a pair of them. Do they suppose we
+are so stupid as not to see how glad they are that the master is dead?
+'Tis a pity that the money will not fall into better hands."
+
+Then they separated, and went indifferently about their work.
+
+"That was not so bad," said Leuthold, when he had reached his own room
+with Bertha; "but still you certainly have no genius for the stage."
+
+"You ought to be glad that I can never play a part before you," she
+said, shaking herself as if to shake off the disagreeable impression of
+what she had seen like dust from her clothes.
+
+In the mean time the maid had brought the child in from the garden, and
+had laid the table.
+
+"We will have some champagne to-day," said Leuthold, taking down the
+keys of the cellar. "We need something to support us under such
+exciting circumstances. Send Lena for some ice." And he left the room.
+
+Frau Bertha sent the girl for ice, and said to herself with
+complacency, "That ice-house was the best thing I ever planned."
+
+The little girl, who was too fat and chubby to move very steadily, had
+crept under the table, and now, catching hold of the corner of the
+table-cloth, tried to lift herself by it, thereby pulling down a couple
+of plates and knives upon the floor. Bertha caught up the screaming
+child, gave it two or three hard slaps, saying, "Now you know what you
+are crying for," and then carried it to and fro to quiet it, well
+knowing that her strict husband would not endure any noise. Gretchen
+ceased crying just as her father entered with the champagne. Lena
+brought the ice, and the bottles were arranged in it. When the husband
+and wife were seated at table, Bertha had the fragments of the broken
+plates cleared away. "Oh, heavens!" she muttered, "nothing but bad
+signs. If our fortune should be destroyed like that china!"
+
+"You unmitigated fool!" scolded her husband; "if everything that we
+desire were only as secure as our legally devised inheritance,
+Gretchen's future husband would be now tumbling about in a royal
+nursery, and there would be a French cook in our kitchen."
+
+"Oh, then," Bertha interrupted him with irritation, "you are not
+satisfied with my cooking,--you want a Frenchman."
+
+"Only a Frenchman could supply your place," replied her husband, quite
+ready to practise himself in the delicate flattery which he intended to
+make use of in future towards ladies in aristocratic circles. He kissed
+her hand and said, "I would not have these rosy fingers any longer
+degraded by contact with the rude utensils of cookery. Let all that be
+left to the hard, rough hands of some skilful gastronome."
+
+Frau Bertha stared at him in surprise.
+
+"Why, can gastronomes cook?"
+
+"Most certainly,--what else should they do?"
+
+"I thought they looked at the stars through glasses!"
+
+Leuthold clasped his hands in dismay, and cast a look towards heaven.
+"Good heavens! when I think of your making such a speech among our
+future friends, I am so profoundly humiliated that I could almost
+determine to make over my property to some religious institution--some
+monastery--and enroll myself among its members. Woman, woman, must I
+teach you the difference between gastronomy, the science of cookery,
+and astronomy, the science of the stars?"
+
+"Gastronomy or astronomy!" said Bertha pettishly, as she ladled out the
+soup, "it is a great deal better for me to understand cooking than the
+long names you call it. Would you have liked, during all the ten years
+that you were too poor to keep a regular cook, to have a wife who could
+talk Latin with you, but whose dinners a dog could not have eaten?"
+
+"No, no, indeed, my dear Bertha!" said her husband with a shudder; "but
+the two can be united if you try. I do not ask you either to study
+Greek and Latin, or to resign your masterly supervision of our kitchen
+department; but you have hitherto performed many little household
+offices, that could as well have been left to the servant, because you
+had no pleasanter way of occupying your time. This must be otherwise
+now; hitherto you have had the excuse of our straitened circumstances
+that have compelled you sometimes to discharge a servant's duties. Now
+there will be no such excuse; for you will have a suitable household in
+town, and time to cultivate your mind and render yourself a worthy
+member of the society to which I shall introduce you."
+
+Bertha in her impatience let her spoon fall into the soup-plate, and
+then wreaked her irritation upon the soup, which she poured hastily
+back into the tureen.
+
+"If you should do such a thing as that before strangers," said her
+husband angrily, "you would stamp yourself as a person of no
+refinement, and I should be disgraced."
+
+Bertha brought her hand down upon the table so heavily that the glasses
+rang again. "This is really too much! Can I no longer eat as I please?
+As long as you were poor, and I spent my little all in procuring
+delicacies for you, you found me all very well, and had plenty of fine
+words for me; but now, that you are rich and I have nothing left, I am
+not good enough for you, and you take quite another tone with me.
+Heaven help me! There is no more pleasure in store for me. I really
+believe you would send me out of the house if I should not succeed in
+pleasing you. Oh, if I had only known!"
+
+She was silent, because Lena appeared with the roast; but a couple of
+large tears dropped into the soup-plate which she handed to the
+servant.
+
+"What exaggerated nonsense!" said Leuthold at last. "Be good enough to
+carve the meat,--I am hungry. You know I am a respectable man,--slow to
+adopt harsh measures if they can be avoided. I hope you will not force
+me to them by stubborn conduct. You will recognize and fulfil the
+duties which our wealth imposes upon us."
+
+"Duties, duties? I thought that when I was rich I could begin really to
+enjoy life and do as I pleased; but instead of that I must wear a
+double face and worry about everything. It is just as if you gave me a
+new sofa in the place of the old one, but forbade me to lie down upon
+it for fear of injuring the cover. Of course I should long for the old
+one, upon which I could stretch myself in comfort whenever I chose."
+
+Leuthold smiled. "You are not forbidden to lie down upon the new sofa.
+I only ask you to take off your muddy boots when you do so. Do you
+understand?"
+
+Bertha was so far consoled that she applied herself to devouring the
+food upon her plate in silence. Her husband regarded her with a strange
+mixture of humour and discontent.
+
+"You must at least learn to hold your fork in your left hand," he said
+at last.
+
+"Mercy!" exclaimed Bertha again. "What matter is it about such a
+trifle?"
+
+"A great deal of matter, my dear. Such trifles show refinement, just as
+the mercury in the thermometer shows the degree of heat and cold. If
+you lay your knife aside and clutch your fork in your right hand like a
+pitchfork, every one of any culture will say, 'That woman is a person
+of no refinement. She has not been used to good society.' I grant it is
+insignificant in itself and ridiculous to every thinking man; but it
+serves a certain purpose. Such forms are marks of distinction between
+cultivated and uncultivated people. Just because they are so
+insignificant the uninitiated never pay any heed to them. But, although
+clad in purple and fine linen, ignorance of such trifles betrays the
+parvenu. Those who desire, like yourself, to enter circles to which
+they do not belong by birth, must find out all their conventional
+secrets, in order not to be disgraced."
+
+"Oh, what a moral discourse!" sighed Bertha. "I have had enough for
+to-day. You are a thoroughly heartless man, and were kind to me only as
+long as you needed me. I must bear what comes, for I am poor and
+helpless since I broke with my father,--but you have tired me out, I
+assure you."
+
+"And if this fatigue were an overpowering sensation, you would separate
+yourself from me; but since you are fond of the rest that I can provide
+you, there will be an enduring bond between us. I shall magnanimously
+treat you as my wife as long as you give me no legal ground for
+divorce; therefore, be composed; your future lot is a thousand times
+more brilliant than you had any right to expect."
+
+Bertha arose, and was about to reply, but her husband commanded silence
+by so imperious a gesture that she swallowed down her anger and
+hastened from the room, sobbing violently. In the kitchen the maid was
+just taking the cake that she had made from the oven. It was
+successful--it was most beautiful! The servant placed it near the open
+window to cool. Bertha contemplated it mournfully. How much pains she
+had taken! how stiff the eggs had been beaten! how well it had risen!
+and no one cared anything about it! Did her cross husband deserve that
+she should prepare such a delicacy for him? Should he devour this
+masterpiece? Yet there it was,--so round and high, so brown and
+fragrant, that she gradually dried her tears, and was filled with more
+agreeable sensations and a pardonable pride. No one except herself
+possessed the receipt for this cake. No one else could make it. She
+thought with rapture of the delight of those who should in future
+partake of it at her table,--of the consideration that she should enjoy
+on account of it; and, thinking thus, her good humour returned, and she
+determined not to hide her light under a bushel, and punish her husband
+by withholding the cake from him, but to parade it before him; he
+should see what a woman he had treated so unkindly could do. When he
+tasted this cake he would repent his harshness! She took the plate and
+carried it on high into the dining-room, where she placed it before her
+husband with exultation.
+
+"Yes, that is really beautiful," he said approvingly, looking first at
+the round, beautiful cake, and then at the plump, pretty baker; and his
+approbation exalted Bertha to the highest pitch of satisfaction, so
+that she felt morally justified in asking for a glass of champagne. Her
+husband removed the cork without allowing it to snap and disturb the
+decorum of the house of mourning, and then poured out a sparkling
+bumper for her.
+
+"Come," she said, "we will clink glasses, and drink to the welfare of
+the good Hartwich, who has made us rich!"
+
+"Yes, now that he is dead, may he live forever," said Leuthold smiling,
+and gently touching his wife's glass with his own,--"live forever in
+that heaven where I trust he may experience all the delight that his
+wealth will afford us here on earth."
+
+They emptied their glasses, and Bertha ran into the adjoining room,
+where Gretchen was taking her noonday nap. She snatched the sleeping
+child from the bed, shook it, and cried, "Come, wake up, and you shall
+have some cake!"
+
+The little thing, interrupted in its nap, was frightened and began to
+scream, refusing to be quieted until her father filled her mouth with
+the promised delicacy and dandled her in his arms.
+
+"You do not even understand how to take care of your own child,"
+murmured Leuthold. "What will you do when our niece comes to us?"
+
+"What!" cried Bertha, "must I have the care of the disagreeable
+creature?"
+
+"She will come to me--yes."
+
+"But we will send her to boarding-school--you promised me!"
+
+"If Ernestine recovers, as she may do under old Heim's care, she will
+be too weak for months to be sent among strangers without incurring the
+reproach of the world. You will be obliged, therefore, to submit to
+having her with us until such time as we can be rid of her decently. I
+assure you she shall stay no longer than is absolutely necessary. And
+now pray be quiet, and do not embitter this day by complaints."
+
+Frau Bertha looked utterly discomfited. She determined that, at all
+events, Ernestine should never partake of the delicacies which she
+alone knew how to prepare. Coarse natures always seek for a scape-goat
+upon whom to wreak their irritation; and, as she did not dare to make
+her husband serve this purpose, her choice fell upon Ernestine.
+
+Leuthold, who was not used to see his wife lost in a reverie, softly
+touched her shoulder. "Come; it really looks almost as if you were
+thinking of something," he said dryly.
+
+"Yes; I am thinking of something," she replied significantly. "I am
+thinking of the dog's life I shall lead as long as that sickly, ailing
+brat is under our roof, and no one will reward me for my pains."
+
+She stopped, for Gretchen had grown restless, and required all her
+attention, and Leuthold evidently refused to give any heed to her
+complaints, but, as dinner was over, folded his napkin and rose from
+the table. "I must write the notice of his death--it is high time it
+were attended to," he said, while he washed his hands in the adjoining
+room. "Sew a piece of crape around my hat." He re-entered the room, and
+sat down at his writing-table. Bertha placed a candle and a cup of
+_cafe noir_ upon it. He lighted a cigar, which he smoked as he
+wrote, sipping his coffee comfortably from time to time. The servant
+removed the dinner-table; Gretchen amused herself on the floor with
+some paper, which she tore into a thousand fragments, to make a mimic
+snow-storm; and Bertha tried on before the mirror several articles of
+mourning-apparel, which she had had in readiness for some time. She was
+delighted, for black was very becoming to her.
+
+Peace and comfort reigned in the apartment. Leuthold emptied his cup
+and laid aside his pen. "There--that is most touching and suitable.
+Read it." He handed Bertha what he had, written, and she read:
+
+"It has pleased Almighty God to release our beloved father, brother,
+and brother-in-law, Herr Carl Emil von Hartwich, landholder and
+manufacturer, from his protracted sufferings, and to transport him to a
+better world. He died this day, at twelve M. Those who were acquainted
+with the deceased, and with his active benevolence, will know how
+profound must be our sorrow, and accord us their sympathy.
+
+                                         "The Sad Survivors.
+
+"Unkenbeim, 24 July, 18--."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                              UNDECEIVED.
+
+
+Ernestine was still lying motionless in Frau Gedike's huge bed, and by
+her side sat a little nurse scarcely three feet high, swinging her
+short legs, and thinking how charming it must be to lie in such a great
+big bed, just like a grown person, and what a pity it was that poor
+Ernestine slept so much, that she could not enjoy the pleasure. Now and
+then she turned her fair head round towards the window behind her,
+through the white curtains of which she could see a dark procession
+moving away from the house towards the village. When it had disappeared
+from sight, she gave a little sigh, and swung her feet rather more
+violently than before,--although she sat very upright, with great
+dignity of demeanour, for she was entirely conscious of the weighty
+responsibility of her post. She had been intrusted with the charge of
+watching Ernestine while the servants were attending the funeral
+services performed over Bartwich's corpse. When they were concluded,
+and the funeral procession had left the house, Rieka had begged the
+little child to keep her place until the gentlemen returned from the
+church-yard, in order that the maid might perform certain necessary
+household duties. Angelika--for she it was--undertook the charge with
+delight. She had given her uncle Neuenstein, who had determined to pay
+the last honours to Hartwich's remains, no peace until he consented to
+take her to Ernestine. True, she soon acknowledged to herself that she
+had never, in her whole long life of eight years, seen any place so
+tiresome as this quiet room, where nothing was heard but the buzzing of
+a couple of flies around a spoon in which a drop or two of Ernestine's
+medicine had been left; but she was not discontented; she sat as still
+as a mouse, so that she might not disturb the invalid, and did not even
+venture to look at her, for she had heard that sleepers could be
+awakened by a look. Only now and then she cast a wistful glance at the
+pretty book that was clasped tight in Ernestine's embrace. Suddenly the
+sick child muttered, "I am lying turned round the wrong way in bed."
+Angelika scrambled down in alarm from her high seat, and ran to the
+door and cried, "Rieka, Ernestine is saying something!"
+
+The maid hurried in, and Ernestine moved uneasily, and insisted that
+she was lying with her head towards the foot of the bed. At last Rieka
+remembered that Ernestine's crib had been placed against the opposite
+wall, and suspected that she missed the old position. Rightly judging
+this to be a favourable sign, she quickly and carefully turned the
+child around in the bed; and when Ernestine stretched out her hand and
+encountered the wall, where she had been accustomed to find it, she
+seemed satisfied, and apparently fell asleep again. Then Rieka left the
+room to finish her work; but, after a few moments, Ernestine opened her
+eyes, in which for the first time shone the light of intelligence, and
+looked around. "Angelika!" she said in amazement, and then stared
+around the room. "Why, this is Frau Gedike's room! and what a large,
+soft bed!"
+
+"Yes, indeed," Angelika delightedly replied. "Isn't it comfortable? Ah,
+you poor dear Ernestine, are you beginning to grow a little better? Is
+your head mended again?"
+
+Ernestine put up her hand to her bandaged head. "What is this?"
+
+"You broke your head. Oh, it was terrible, I know from my
+dolls,--although it doesn't hurt them, and you can put on new heads;
+but they couldn't do that for you, and they said you must die; but you
+haven't died!"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Ernestine, recollecting herself; "now I remember; last
+night my father struck me and threw me down. Yes, it hurt very much!"
+
+"It was not last night, it was several days ago; but you slept the
+whole time, and didn't you know that they cut off your hair?" asked
+Angelika, running to the wardrobe and producing a thick bunch of long
+black hair. "Look, here it is,--there is some blood on it still, but,
+if you will only give it to me, I will wash it and make my large
+walking doll a splendid wig of it. Do, do give it to me, you can't make
+it grow on your head again."
+
+"I'll give it to you willingly," said Ernestine; "but first ask Frau
+Gedike whether you may keep it."
+
+"Oh, she is not here any more,--Uncle Heim sent her away!" replied
+Angelika, drawing the dark strands slowly through her fingers.
+
+"Then ask my father."
+
+This answer utterly discomfited Angelika. "I cannot ask your father,"
+she said in a disappointed tone, putting the hair away regretfully. "He
+is dead! They put him in the hearse a little while ago,--I saw them."
+
+"Oh," said Ernestine, startled, "is he dead? Why, why did he die just
+now?"
+
+"I think because he was so angry with you," said Angelika with an air
+of great wisdom. "Don't you know when I am naughty mamma shuts me up in
+a dark room? and, because your father was a great deal naughtier than
+I, God has shut him up in a dark hole in the ground, and he must stay
+there always."
+
+"Ah, for my sake, the dear God should not have done that, for my sake!"
+said Ernestine, bursting into tears. "Now I have no father any more; I
+have nobody; I am all alone in the world! My poor father! it is all my
+fault that he is put into the narrow grave, where the worms will eat
+him and there will be nothing left of him but bones. Oh, how horrible!
+how horrible! I saw a skeleton once in a picture, and my poor, poor
+father will look just like that!" And she wrung her thin hands and
+writhed about in the bed, moaning loudly.
+
+Angelika was in despair at the mischief she had done. She had quite
+forgotten that she had been forbidden, if Ernestine should awake, to
+speak to her of her father. In the greatest distress she walked to and
+fro beside the high bed, and at last brought a tall stool, from which,
+when she had mounted it, she could reach Ernestine. She kissed her, she
+stroked her cheeks, and laid her chubby hand upon her mouth to silence
+her, but in vain. At last she hit upon the idea of showing her the book
+that lay beside her. She opened it at a picture and held it up before
+her, saying, "Look, dear Ernestine, only look at your beautiful book!"
+The sick child instantly brushed the tears from her eyes when she saw
+the picture.
+
+"The swan!" she cried, "the swan! that is the story of the Ugly
+Duckling!" She hastily took the book out of Angelika's hands and turned
+over the leaves. Gradually the fairy figures of the snow-queen, the
+little mermaid, and the rest, obliterated the horrible image of her
+dead father, and his narrow grave faded away to give place to the
+shining garden of Paradise, and the clear, broad sea with the fairy
+palaces beneath its crystal waves. Her sobs grew fainter and fainter,
+and at last a smile played around her lips when she came to the story
+of the dryad "Elder Blossom."
+
+"Now I know what a dryad is," she said. "I am glad, I am very glad!"
+
+"What is it that makes you so glad?"
+
+"That a dryad is nothing bad, for--don't you know?--_he_ called me
+that. I thought it was to mock me, and it hurt me, but it was not so."
+
+"He? who?"
+
+"I don't know his name, your brother, who gave me the book."
+
+"Johannes?" laughed Angelika. "Do you like him?"
+
+"Yes, oh, yes, he is so handsome and good, just like the prince in the
+Little Mermaid." With these words a light shone in the child's dark
+eyes. "I would far rather have turned into foam than done anything to
+hurt him, if I had been the mermaid."
+
+"That is charming! that is splendid!" Angelika declared with delight;
+"we both love him! He is such a dear brother. It is a pity he has gone
+away. If he were at home he would come and play with you; oh, he plays
+so finely!"
+
+"Has he gone away?" asked Ernestine sadly.
+
+"Yes, he has gone to Paris to get me a wax doll; only think!--one that
+can call 'Papa' and 'Mamma.'"
+
+"Oh, there cannot be such dolls!" said Ernestine with a troubled look.
+
+"Indeed there are, and when she comes I will show her to you. Remember
+the doll in 'Ole Luckoie;' she could speak, and had a fine wedding."
+
+"But that isn't a true story," said Ernestine wisely, putting her hand
+to her head, which was beginning to ache badly.
+
+"Only think what a charming thing it is to have a wedding," Angelika
+ran on. "I once went to a real wedding, and it was almost finer than
+the one in the story. Oh, the bride has a lovely time! Why, she sits
+just in the middle of the table, and in front of her is a great, tall
+cake, with a little house on top of it and a little man inside, a
+little bit of a man, with a bow and arrows, but no clothes on at all.
+She has the biggest piece of cake, and they put the dear little man
+upon her plate, and she is helped first to everything. I was really
+vexed with my cousin for eating hardly anything. And only think, last
+of all came ice-cream doves sitting in a nest made of sugar, upon eggs
+of marchpane! They looked so natural that I was too sorry when my
+cousin cut off one of their heads; I could have cried, and I determined
+not to eat any of it, but by the time it came to me, every one could
+see that it was not a real dove, for it was all melting away, and you
+had to eat it with a spoon. And there were quantities of champagne, and
+all the gentlemen made long speeches to the bride, and you had to sit
+perfectly still and not rattle your spoon at all while they were
+talking, but when they had done you could scream as loud as you
+pleased, and clatter your glasses, and the more noise you made the
+better; and all were pleased and kissed one another; only my cousin sat
+there so stupidly and cried. I wouldn't have cried when everything was
+done to please me. And I'll tell you what, when my brother comes back
+he must bring you a boy doll with a hat and waistcoat, and then he
+shall marry my doll. He will come in six months, but that must be a
+long time; for mamma cried when he went away. Perhaps we shall be grown
+up by then, and can make our dolls' clothes ourselves. That would be
+lovely."
+
+"But we shall not be grown up in six months," said Ernestine. "First
+winter must come, and then summer again, and then winter and summer
+again, before we are grown up!"
+
+"That is terribly long," cried Angelika. "I don't see how we can wait
+so long."
+
+"And when we are grown up we cannot play with dolls. Then I shall buy
+myself a telescope like Uncle Leuthold's, and always be looking into
+the moon, for I like it better than anything."
+
+"Into the moon? Have you ever looked into the moon?" asked Angelika in
+amazement.
+
+"Indeed I have."
+
+"How does it look there?"
+
+"Oh, beautiful, most beautiful! It shines and gleams so silvery, and it
+is so calm and quiet, and there are mountains and valleys there just
+like ours, only they are not coloured, they are just pure light!"
+
+"Did you see the man in the moon?"
+
+"No, I didn't see him; Uncle Leuthold said there are no people in the
+moon; but I don't believe him. They are only so far off that we can't
+see them. And they must be much happier and better than we are here;
+I'm sure they never beat children; and who knows whether perhaps the
+dear God himself does not live there? If I could fly, I would fly up
+there!" And she gazed upward with beaming eyes, and a long sigh escaped
+from her little breast.
+
+"No, dear Ernestine, you must not fly away; no one can tell that the
+moon is as lovely near to, as it is so far off. And it is very nice
+here, too, for when you grow up you can be either a mamma or an aunt,
+and then no one can do anything to you. No one ever strikes my aunt or
+my mamma--no one!"
+
+But Ernestine was no longer conscious of the child's prattle; her eyes
+closed, her beloved book dropped from her hands; Ole Luckoie, the
+gentle Northern god of slumber, had arisen from its pages. He had
+poured balm into her painful wound, and extended his canopy, with its
+thousands of gay pictures, over her soul.
+
+Angelika looked at her for awhile, and then asked, "Are you asleep
+again?" and, upon receiving no answer, she was quite content, and got
+softly down from the high stool, and seated herself again upon her
+chair with the grave air of a sentinel. At last Heim, with Herr
+Neuenstein, came home from the funeral, and the two gentlemen entered
+the apartment together.
+
+"She has been talking with me," Angelika announced.
+
+"What! has she come to herself?" asked the Geheimrath in pleased
+surprise.
+
+"Oh, yes,--we talked about a great many things--and then she went to
+sleep again."
+
+The Geheimrath rubbed his hands.--"That's good! Did she seem to be
+perfectly sensible?"
+
+"Oh, yes; she was perfectly sensible," Angelika assured him.
+
+"What a pity that I was not here! Now I hope we shall bring her
+through," said the Geheimrath to Herr Neuenstein; but the latter stood
+looking at the corpse-like figure of the sleeping child, and shook his
+head.
+
+"I see," continued the physician, "that it seems impossible to you, and
+yet I believe she will recover. Who that sees such a faded blossom
+lying there would suspect the wonderful recuperative energy hidden
+within it? And I tell you this child possesses an immense amount of
+vitality, or she would have succumbed to such brutal treatment as she
+has received. She will recover; believe me, she will recover."
+
+"I should rejoice indeed to think that your exertions will not prove in
+vain. And you really wish to take her with you?"
+
+"Yes, if her hypocritical uncle will let her go, I will deliver her
+from his claws, and educate her as is best for her health and becoming
+to her position as an heiress."
+
+"You are a genuine philanthropist, Geheimrath."
+
+"Yes, I am a philanthropist; but there is small merit in that. Some
+people love puppies and kittens, others cultivate flowers with
+enthusiasm,--I love to educate and train human beings. Whenever a pair
+of melancholy eyes stare out at me from a child's face, I want to stick
+the child in my herbarium like a rare flower. Yes, if it only cost as
+little to cultivate children as plants, I should have had a human
+hot-house long ago. But the taste is so confoundedly expensive."
+
+"Yes, we all know that you spend your whole income in such good works.
+You might have been a millionaire long ago, if it had not been for your
+lavish generosity."
+
+"What would you have? One man wastes his money upon one whim, and
+another on another. This happens to be my whim, and I spend just as
+much upon it as I can conscientiously in the interest of my adopted
+son, who stands nearest my heart. But now do me the kindness to leave
+the room, for our talk is disturbing the child's sleep. I will stay
+here for an hour and watch her."
+
+"Come, Angelika," said Neuenstein: "Uncle Heim is very cross
+to-day,--let us go home." He took the child's hand, and nodded
+affectionately to Heim. "Shall I send the carriage for you?"
+
+"No, I thank you; I must return to the capital; the king has commanded
+my attendance this afternoon. But I shall be here again to-morrow."
+
+"Adieu, dear uncle," said little Angelika, standing on tiptoe, and
+holding up her rosy lips to be kissed. "You won't be cross to me, will
+you?" she asked, nestling her fair curls among his gray locks as he
+bent down to her; "I have been so good!" And then she went softly out
+with Herr Neuenstein.
+
+When Heim was alone, he sat down by the bedside, and silently
+contemplated the sleeping child. "I'll wager," he thought, "that she
+will be very beautiful one of these days. Her face is older than her
+years, and that is always ugly in a child, but when her age accords
+with the earnestness of that brow, and her features lose their
+sharpness under more kindly treatment, it will be a magnificent head.
+To think of having such a child and beating it half to death! Such a
+child!"
+
+Something like a tear glistened in the old man's eyes, and he softly
+took a pinch of snuff to compose himself, for these thoughts filled him
+with the pain of an old wound, and well-nigh overcame him. But the
+pinch was of no avail. He gazed upon the treasure before him, which had
+fallen to one utterly unworthy such a gift, who had neglected and
+despised it, and he thought what joy its possession would have given
+him. And he remembered that such joy might have been his, had his heart
+not clung unalterably to one who was not destined for him. Now it was
+too late; and the past, in which he might have sown the harvest of love
+that he longed to reap, was irrevocable. The passion that had so long
+filled his heart was conquered and dead; but the longing for affection,
+that is stronger than passion, still lived on in the old man's breast.
+"When a man's wife dies and leaves him," he thought, "she lives again
+in her children; but he who has neither wife nor child is doubly poor."
+He had watched over many human lives, but not one could he call his
+own; he had preserved the lives of many, he had given life to none. He
+had seen the bitterest woes soothed by affection, and he should die
+without leaving one child behind to mourn his loss. And, lost in such
+thoughts, it seemed to him that he was actually lying upon his
+death-bed, and that he felt a soft arm stealing around his neck, and
+heard a sweet, caressing voice sob out, "Father."
+
+It was Ole Luckoie who had granted him this bitter-sweet dream by
+Ernestine's bedside; it vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and
+left nothing behind but a tear on the old man's furrowed cheek.
+
+Then the latch of the door began to tremble, as though a carriage were
+driving by, and the heavy footsteps that caused the noise approached
+the apartment. Before the Geheimrath could prevent it, the door was
+flung open, and Bertha's colossal figure appeared upon the threshold.
+She was dressed in a new shining black silk, and the stiff cambric
+lining rustled so loudly as she approached the bed that the child
+started up frightened, and the Geheimrath could not suppress an
+exclamation.
+
+"Good-morning, Herr Geheimrath; good-morning, Tina," she said with a
+nod. "So, Tina, you're alive still, I see. There was no need of such a
+great fuss about you, after all."
+
+Ernestine, at this rude greeting, flung herself to the farther side of
+the bed, and cried, "Oh, send my aunt away!--I do not want to see her.
+I will not!"
+
+The Geheimrath politely offered his arm to the intruder and conducted
+her from the room without a word. Bertha, amazed, asked, "Why, what
+have I done? Can't I see my niece?"
+
+"If you yourself do not understand, madam, that this frail life needs
+to be treated with the greatest possible tenderness, I, a physician,
+must tell you that it will be your fault if my care of the child should
+prove of no avail and she should die in spite of it. I must therefore
+entreat you either to discontinue your visits to the child, or to
+address her more gently."
+
+"Why, goodness gracious!" cried Bertha, "I was only in jest. Mercy on
+me! you may wrap her up in cotton-wool, for all I care."
+
+The Geheimrath gave an involuntary sigh. "Poor child," he thought, "to
+be in danger of falling into such hands!"
+
+Suddenly the hall-door was opened, and a face appeared, so ashy pale,
+so livid, that Bertha started in terror. It was Leuthold; but he was
+hardly to be recognized. When he perceived the Geheimrath, he saluted
+him with his usual courtesy, then, extending his hand to Bertha, said
+in a low voice, "My dear Bertha, be kind enough to come up-stairs with
+me."
+
+She followed him in the greatest trepidation, for she had never before
+beheld him thus; and on the joyful day of Hartwich's funeral, too! What
+could have happened? He took her hand and conducted her up the
+staircase, his fingers were as cold and clammy as those of a corpse.
+She almost shuddered as they walked along together in such solemn
+silence.
+
+They reached the door of their own apartment. Leuthold entered, dragged
+his wife in after him, closed the door, and, before she was aware of
+what he was doing, she felt the icy hand around her throat like an iron
+band.
+
+"Shall I strangle you?" he gasped, with eyes like a serpent's when it
+is wound around its victim.
+
+"Merciful Heaven!" shrieked Bertha, falling upon her knees to extricate
+herself. The cold hand grasped her throat still more tightly.
+
+"Utter one sound that the servants can hear, and I will throttle you!"
+hissed Leuthold. "Be quiet! or----" Bertha ceased struggling, and
+almost lost her consciousness. He then released her and pushed her down
+upon the sofa, where she sat utterly astounded.
+
+He put his hand to his head, and then whispered, almost inaudibly, as
+though speaking with the greatest difficulty, "On the day of
+Ernestine's fall, when Heim came to the house, do you remember that I
+strictly enjoined it upon you to observe narrowly whatever occurred in
+the house?"
+
+"Yes," stammered the frightened woman.
+
+"Did you do it?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"You did not do it."
+
+"I was so afraid of Hartwich that I went up-stairs again," Bertha
+confessed with hesitation.
+
+"And so,--" Leuthold's chest heaved, his breath came heavily, and he
+clenched his hands convulsively, "and so it is your fault that Hartwich
+has disinherited us and left all his property to Ernestine." His face
+grew still paler, his slender figure tottered, he grasped at a chair
+for support, and fell fainting upon the ground.
+
+"Good God!" shrieked Bertha, shaking the prostrate man violently, "the
+whole property? tell me, the whole property? Oh, you miserable man,
+what folly to fall into such spasms! Speak, and tell me whether we have
+nothing at all, or what we have!"
+
+Leuthold slowly raised his head. Bertha carried, more than supported,
+him to the sofa. She brought some eau-de-cologne and poured it over his
+head so that it ran into his eyes. He uttered an exclamation of pain,
+and tried to wipe away the burning fluid from his eyes. "Are you trying
+to deprive me of my eyesight?" he groaned, and, when the pain was
+relieved, he sat in a dejected attitude, staring into vacancy.
+
+"For mercy's sake, speak!" cried Bertha. "You can, at least, open your
+mouth. No legacy? Not an annuity?"
+
+Leuthold looked at his unfeeling wife with an expression that, in spite
+of herself, drove the blood to her cheeks. There was something
+indescribable in the look,--a mixture of the pity and contempt with
+which one contemplates the body of a suicide.
+
+"An annuity of six hundred thalers," he murmured, and covered his eyes
+with his hand, as if to shut out everything around him while he
+collected his scattered senses.
+
+"Too much to die upon, and too little to live upon!" moaned Bertha,
+and, bursting into tears, she threw herself upon a chair in the
+farthest corner of the room. Leuthold sat motionless for a long time,
+his face hidden in his hands; he scarcely seemed to breathe. He
+appeared to need all his physical strength to assist him to endure the
+mental agony which was overpowering him,--to have no strength left to
+stir a limb. The man of feeling tries to master his unhappiness by
+raging and lamenting,--he combats his agony by physical exertion,--he
+rushes hither and thither, beats his head against the wall, wrings his
+hands, and lessens his woe in a degree by a certain amount of muscular
+activity. The man of intellect struggles mentally, and stands in need
+of entire physical repose. Such a man as Leuthold could only for a
+moment be excited to violence against the hated cause of his
+misfortune; he soon regained his exterior composure, and his misery
+became an intellectual labour, which might produce loss of reason, and
+was never-ceasing.
+
+He sat lost in a profound reverie. Now and then, like lightning across
+a cloud, some idea of help in his misery flashed across his brain, but
+it vanished as soon as it appeared, leaving each time a blacker night
+in his soul.
+
+"The sacrifice of ten long years gone for nothing!" he said at last in
+stifled accents. "My hair is bleached before its time with the slavery
+to which I have submitted with this goal in view, and now the prize is
+snatched from me just as it seemed within my reach. Again I must bow my
+neck to the yoke, and, with a mind fitted to appropriate to itself the
+most precious treasures of science, toil for my bread! I have wasted
+the best years of my life, that I may now begin all over again--an old
+man. It was indeed a losing game! When my powers began to fail me, I
+comforted myself with hopes of a near release; but now what can sustain
+me when that hope has deserted me? No release in future,--nothing but a
+never-ending struggle for daily sustenance! Oh----!"
+
+With a long-drawn sigh of mortal agony, the tortured roan buried his
+face in the cushion of the sofa, and another long silence ensued,
+broken only by Bertha's loud sobbing.
+
+At last she could endure the silence no longer. "What is to be done
+now?" she asked half sorrowfully, half defiantly.
+
+"Let me alone," said Leuthold. "Leave me--you see how I am suffering
+and struggling!"
+
+"How did you know about the matter?" she insisted.
+
+"That fellow Lederer whispered it to me on returning from the funeral.
+He signed the will as a witness. We were separated in the crowd, and I
+could not even ask him whether I was left guardian or not. If I were
+only guardian----" He ceased, and sunk again into a profound reverie.
+
+There was a slight noise in the adjoining room, and a lovely, smiling
+child's face looked in, and a clear, musical voice cried, "Peep!" At
+the sound Leuthold turned his head and looked with strange emotion
+towards the place where his daughter was standing. The little girl
+planted herself firmly upon her feet, and, after a couple of futile
+attempts, managed, to her own great delight, to cross the high
+threshold. This difficulty surmounted, she tripped gleefully across to
+her mother, who sat nearest the door; but upon receiving a rude repulse
+from her--a repulse that almost threw her down--she determined to
+pursue her journey as far as her father. To insure her swifter
+progress, she betook herself to all fours, and, when she reached her
+goal, climbed up by her father's knees and smiled into his face.
+Leuthold gazed for a few moments into her round, innocent eyes; his own
+grew dim; he took the child in his arms and whispered, as he clasped
+her to his breast, "Poor child!" His breath came quick--he clasped her
+tighter and tighter in his arms, until suddenly a burst of tears
+relieved his overburdened soul. The father's heart was filled for once
+with pure human emotion.
+
+Gretchen tried to wipe his eyes with her little apron, and patted his
+cheeks with her chubby hands.
+
+There is a wonderful power in the touch of a child's soft, pure hand,
+soothing a wildly-beating heart and strengthening a soul sickened by
+hope deferred. It seemed to Leuthold as if the wounds that had
+tormented him were healed by that gentle touch. He kissed the rosy
+little palms again and again. He would labour with all his might for
+this child--she should have a brilliant future at any cost. He arose,
+and, putting her gently down on the carpet, walked slowly to and fro
+with folded arms, revolving in his busy brain a thousand plans for the
+future. His thoughts were rudely disturbed by Bertha, who, for want of
+any other object, wreaked her ill humour upon Gretchen. The child had
+got hold of an embroidered footstool, and was engaged in the delightful
+occupation of picking off the bugles and pearls fastened upon the
+fringe. Bertha snatched it away, and was slapping the little hands
+violently, when suddenly Leuthold seized her arm and held it in a firm
+grasp, while anger flashed in his eyes; and his words, his bearing, his
+whole manner, filled her with terror as he began: "Your nature is so
+coarse that you cannot even appreciate the promptings of maternal
+instinct. Had you possessed one atom of feminine feeling, you would
+have seen what a comfort the child is to me, and would have lavished
+tenderness upon her, instead of maltreating her. But of what
+consequence are my sorrows to you? When I staggered and fell to the
+ground beneath the weight of my misery, you thought only of yourself;
+your gentlest word to me was 'miserable man.' Let me tell you, however,
+that the weakness of an ailing man is not so repulsive as the rude
+strength of a coarse woman. Therefore, be kind enough to moderate the
+exhibition of your strength, at least towards this angel, who shall
+never suffer for an hour as long as I draw breath."
+
+Bertha put Gretchen on the ground, and stood with arms akimbo. "Oh!"
+she began, trembling with rage, "is this the tone you begin to
+take--talking in this way to me just when you ought to be grateful to
+me for consenting to share your wretched lot?"
+
+"My wretched lot?" repeated Leuthold, while his face grew deadly white
+again. "Who has made my lot a wretched one?--who other than yourself?
+Do you dare to increase its misery? Is not your disobedience, your
+folly, the cause of the whole misfortune? If you had obeyed my
+commands, and kept watch upon what was going on in the house, the
+arrival of the lawyers would not have escaped you. You might have
+informed me and I could, even at the last moment, have prevented the
+making of that will. You, and you alone, have ruined my child's and my
+own future; and, instead of falling at my feet and begging for
+forgiveness, you dare to reproach me! It would be ridiculous, if it
+were not so deplorable!"
+
+"Of course." said Bertha, "it is all my fault. I expected that. Why
+didn't you stay at home yourself and watch? Because you suspected
+nothing, no more than I did, and because you wanted to get out of the
+way of Heim, who knew all about your former disgrace. Is it my fault
+that you have conducted yourself so in the past that you have to avoid
+all your old acquaintances?"
+
+Leuthold swelled with indignation. "Silence, wretched woman! Would you
+drive me to extremities?"
+
+"Yes," continued Bertha more angrily than ever,--"yes, I don't care now
+what you do. The only satisfaction I can have now is speaking out the
+truth to you for once. I will be reconciled to my father while there is
+time. Perhaps he will make over the business to me. I understand how to
+conduct it, and can make it pay. I shall have a better chance there, at
+any rate, than in staying here to starve with you. My honest old father
+was right when he warned me against you. Heaven only knows what
+infatuated me so with your hatchet face. I saw from the first what you
+were,--a heap of learning and mind, and a perfect icicle, with whom I
+never could be happy. We had only been married two months, when there
+was all that disgraceful fuss with Hilsborn; my father wanted me to be
+separated from you then; but you stuffed my ears with stories of your
+brother here, who would make you rich; and I believed you, and gave
+up my old father, and came here to this hole to live with you. What did
+I get by it? The little property that I inherited from my mother has
+been frittered away in household expenses, that you might seem
+disinterested to your brother. I gave up every things--concerts,
+theatres, parties,--and willingly; for I depended upon a brilliant
+future. I have waited patiently and obediently until your brother
+should kill himself with the drink of which he was so fond; and, now
+that he is dead, what have I got in exchange for time, youth, money,
+and all? And now I am to make a grateful courtesy, and say, 'My dear
+husband, 'tis true that you have robbed me of everything, you have
+attempted to strangle me; but I will nevertheless take the liberty of
+remaining with you, that you may continue to enjoy the pleasure of
+calling me rough, coarse, and good for nothing, and that you may
+instruct me with which hand I am to put in my mouth the potatoes that
+are all we shall have to live upon.' This is what I am to say, is it
+not? Yes----"
+
+Leuthold had been listening attentively, and, in the course of this
+long speech, had regained his former composure. He now interrupted her
+with, "That is, in other words, that you contemplate adding to my
+misfortunes the withdrawal of your amiable presence, leaving me to bear
+my heavy lot alone. Your intention demands my gratitude; if you wish
+for a divorce, I am entirely agreed to it, only pray furnish the ground
+for it yourself, that my good name may not be compromised. We have
+lived together hitherto in such outward harmony, it might be difficult
+to convince a court of the impossibility of a longer union. There must,
+therefore, be some legal ground for a divorce, and you can arrange all
+that to suit yourself."
+
+"What!" cried Bertha, "am I to conduct myself disgracefully that people
+may despise me and pity you,--wolf in sheep's clothing that you are?
+No, no; I'm not quite so stupid as that. And then my father would not
+receive me, and there would be nothing left for me in this world."
+
+Leuthold walked thoughtfully to and fro. "It was the mistake of my life
+that ten years ago I married you to get money to make that journey to
+Trieste. I thought you more harmless than you are. For ten long years I
+have endured the annoyance of your coarseness and narrow-mindedness.
+Such a wife as you are is a perpetual thorn in the side of such a man
+as myself; my nerves have suffered terribly. And now I find you are not
+even capable of maternal affection,--you cannot treat your child as you
+should. If it were not for Gretchen, I would never see you again,--but
+now----"
+
+Bertha started. "Why, yes,--I never thought of Gretchen."
+
+"You can easily understand that I shall not give up my child," Leuthold
+went on, looking fondly at the lovely little creature, who was sitting
+on the carpet prattling softly and unintelligibly to herself. "She is
+all that is left to me of my shattered existence;--my last hopes in
+life are centred in her--I will never give her up! The law gives her to
+you if I should furnish grounds for a divorce: so, you see, I cannot
+take the initiative. If, however, you consent to a separation, and will
+leave Gretchen to me, you are free to leave my house whenever you
+please. Consider what I say."
+
+Bertha knelt down upon the carpet, and said in a complaining tone,
+"Gretel, shall mamma go far away?"
+
+The child, in whose mind the remembrance of the slaps that had made its
+little hands so red was still very lively, avoided her caress, and
+crept away as fast as it could to its father's feet.
+
+"Its choice is made," said Leuthold, taking it in his arms.
+
+"Of course you are quite capable of setting my own flesh and blood
+against me," whined Bertha. "What shall I do! I cannot leave the child,
+and I will not stay with you. What shall I do!"
+
+She walked heavily up and down the room, wringing her hands. Leuthold
+had carried Gretchen to the window, and was looking down into the
+court-yard, where the broad, stalwart figure of Heim was just leaving
+the house. He shot one glance of deadly hatred at his enemy, but it did
+no harm; and with a profound sigh Leuthold leaned his cold forehead
+against the window-frame and looked on whilst Heim stepped into his
+carriage and took a pinch of snuff with a most cheerful air. The driver
+clambered clumsily upon the box, and gathered up his whip and reins,
+the horses started off, the chickens flew in all directions, their
+old friend the watch-dog came barking out of his kennel, and the
+old-fashioned coach, belonging to the Hartwich establishment, rattled
+away.
+
+As, after seasons of intense emotion, the exhausted mind slavishly
+follows the lead of the ever-active senses, Leuthold, in his misery,
+thus minutely observed every particular of Heim's departure.
+
+"He is happy!" he thought; and then his eyes rested upon the fowls
+devouring the remains of the oats that had been brought for the horses.
+"Happy he to whom has been given the faculty of making himself beloved!
+mankind follow him as those fowls follow in the track of Heim's
+carriage. Is it any merit of his that wins him the hearts of all? Bah,
+nonsense! it is a talent,--and the most profitable one for its
+possessor. These benefactors of mankind, as they are called, thrive
+upon it: who would not do likewise if he only could? But those who have
+not the gift cannot do it. One man comes into the world with qualities
+that make him useful and pleasing to his fellow-men; another with
+propensities that make him an object of fear to his kind. Is the lapdog
+to be commended because his agreeable characteristics qualify him to
+spend his life luxuriously on a silken cushion? And is the fox to be
+blamed because he does not understand how to ingratiate himself with
+mankind, but must eke out his miserable existence by theft? Each
+after his kind, and we human beings have senses in common with the
+brutes,--and why not the peculiarities also of their several species?
+Yes, there are lapdogs among us, and foxes, and wolves, cats, and
+tigers! Struggle against it as we may, with all our babble of free
+will, temperament is everything. How can I help it if I belong among
+the foxes? Only a fool would look for moral causes in all this chaos of
+chances. The activity of nature is shown in eternal creation,
+destruction, and re-creation from destruction,--plants, brutes, and men
+are the blind tools of her secret forces, creative and destructive, or,
+as the moralist calls them, good and evil! But what do we call good?
+What pleases us. What evil? That which harms us. And we are to judge
+the world by this narrow egotistic scale of morals? Oh, what folly!
+Creative and destructive forces--are they not alike necessary agents in
+nature's great workshop? And if they work so steadily in unconscious
+matter, are they dead in mankind, the embodiment of conscious nature?
+Is our poor, patched-up code of morals strong enough to tear asunder
+the chains that keep us bound fast to the order of the universe?
+No,--it is miserable arrogance to maintain such a theory. Nature has
+never created a species without producing another hostile to it; the
+rule holds good in the world of humanity as well as among plants and
+brutes. The parasite that preys upon its supporting plant, the insect
+depositing its eggs in the body of the caterpillar, the falcon pursuing
+the innocent dove, the tiger rending the mild-eyed antelope, and,
+lastly, the man who preserves his own existence by preying upon his
+fellow-men,--all are only the exponents of those hostile forces that
+are indispensable to the economy of nature. Who can venture to talk of
+good and evil? There is only one idea that we owe to our advanced
+culture,--only one varnish that bedaubs and conceals the beast in
+us,--regard for appearances! This is the corner-stone of our ethics,
+the only thoroughly practicable discipline for the human race. Let a
+due regard for appearances be observed, and we are distinguished,
+lauded, and beloved among men,--the only reward of our virtue is the
+recognition of it by our excellent contemporaries; their judgment
+decides the degree of our morality; everything else is the exaggeration
+of fancy."
+
+He was aroused from this reverie by Bertha, who suddenly shook him by
+the shoulder with an impatient "Well?"
+
+Leuthold looked at her like a man awakened from a dream. "What is it?"
+he inquired.
+
+"I want to know what is to be done?" she replied angrily.
+
+Leuthold laid the child, who had fallen asleep upon his shoulder, on
+the sofa.
+
+"Oh, yes, with regard to our separation."
+
+"I suppose you had entirely forgotten it."
+
+"I confess that I was thinking of something else at the moment; but the
+matter is very simple. Go to your father and effect a reconciliation
+with him. Gretchen will stay with me. You are free to go and come as
+you please. If you find that you cannot do without the child, in a few
+weeks you can return, if you choose. It would, at all events, be better
+for you to be away for awhile until I have rearranged my miserable
+affairs. I am going now to hear the will read. If I am appointed
+Ernestine's guardian, my life will be connected for the future with
+that of my ward." He suddenly gazed into vacancy, as if struck by a new
+idea, then started and seized his hat. "Yes, yes, I must go. Perhaps I
+am guardian!" And he turned away.
+
+Bertha called after him, "Then I may get ready to go?"
+
+"Do just as you please," he replied, turning upon the threshold with
+all the old courtesy, and then disappeared. Bertha went to her wardrobe
+and began to collect her possessions. "I am rightly paid for leaving a
+good head-waiter in the lurch for the sake of a fine doctor. If I had
+married Fritz, I should now have been the landlady of a hotel, while,
+the wife of a doctor, I don't know where to lay my head!" She looked
+across the room at the sleeping child. "If I only had not that child, I
+should be easier! But, then, it is his child. She loves him far better
+than me. It will be just like him one day, and a sorrow to me," she
+muttered. Then, as if the last thought were repented of as soon as
+conceived, she hastened up to Gretchen, and, weeping, kissed her pure
+white forehead. "No, no, you cannot help me!" she sobbed, and snatched
+the child to her broad breast.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                              SOUL-MURDER.
+
+
+A fresh autumnal breeze was shaking the heavy boughs of the fruit-trees
+in the Hartwich kitchen-garden. Beneath a spreading apple-tree a new
+bench, painted green, had recently been placed. Some white garments,
+hanging upon a line to dry, fluttered like triumphal pennons in the
+direction from which a number of persons was slowly approaching the
+apple-tree. Rieka was carefully pushing along the rolling-chair, which,
+after so long affording shelter to the cats and chickens, had lately
+been recushioned and repaired. By its side walked good old Heim and
+Leuthold. Ernestine's frail little figure, with head still bandaged and
+hands gently folded, reclined in the chair; and if her large, dark eyes
+had not been riveted with an expression of utter enjoyment upon the
+distant landscape, she might have been thought smiling in death, so
+ashy pale was her emaciated countenance, so bloodless were the lips
+which were slightly open to inhale the pure morning air. The signs of
+returning and departing life are as wonderfully alike as morning and
+evening twilight. The child lying there, silent and motionless, might
+to all appearance be bidding farewell to the world, instead of greeting
+it anew after her dangerous illness. For to-day Ernestine was, as it
+were, celebrating her resurrection to life. It was the first time that
+she had been permitted to breathe the pure, open air of heaven; and her
+delight was so profound that she could only fold her little hands and
+pray silently. She had not the strength even to turn herself upon her
+cushions; but her youthful soul was preening its wings and soaring with
+the birds into the blue autumn skies.
+
+"How are you now, my child?" Leuthold asked in a tone of tender
+sympathy.
+
+"Oh, so well, dear uncle!" the little girl whispered with a long-drawn
+sigh. "I think I could run about, if I might."
+
+"Ah, you could not yet, even if you might," said Heim, looking not
+without anxiety into the child's face, transfigured by an almost
+unearthly expression. And he laid his finger upon her pulse, now
+scarcely perceptible.
+
+"Her spirit, as she recovers, is in advance of her body," he said,
+lingering behind with Leuthold. "Physically such a child is soon
+conquered and destroyed, but the heart is a wonderful thing in its
+power of endurance. I never see an expression of real suffering upon a
+child's face without the deepest sympathy. For when should we be really
+gay and happy in this life, if not while we are children?"
+
+"You are right," said Leuthold. "That melancholy mouth, shaping itself
+now to an unaccustomed smile, those bright eyes, around which the
+traces of tears are scarcely yet obliterated, touch me deeply."
+
+Heim glanced keenly at the speaker expressing himself apparently with
+emotion.
+
+"Oh, what a pretty new bench!" said Ernestine in a weak voice, as they
+reached the apple-tree. "And the boughs droop around it like an
+arbour."
+
+Her gaze roved hither and thither; the fluttering linen on the line
+pleased her; the white butterflies, with spotted wings, hovering about
+the beds, enchanted her; she thought the far stretch of country, with
+its distant border of forest, magnificent,--everything was so new that
+she seemed to see it for the first time, and admired it all with
+intense delight. The long rows of irregular bean-poles opened
+mysterious, attractive paths to her imagination. Even the tall
+asparagus and the heads of cabbage, upon which large beads of morning
+dew were still lying, seemed to her master-pieces of nature.
+
+"Oh, how lovely the world is!" she said to the two gentlemen. "And no
+one to punish me! You are so kind, Herr Geheimrath, and you, Uncle
+Leuthold, and you too, Rieka, are so good to me! I thank you all so
+much!" And she took and kissed the hands of Leuthold and Heim as they
+stood beside her, while tears filled her eyes.
+
+"You strange child, what Snakes you cry now?" asked Leuthold.
+
+"I cannot tell; I am so happy!" sobbed Ernestine. "If I only had a
+father or a mother!"
+
+"But if your father were alive he would beat you again," said Rieka,
+taking a strictly practical view of the matter. "You ought to be glad
+that he is no longer here; it is much happier for you."
+
+Ernestine's head drooped. "Oh, I am not longing for my father who is
+dead; I want a father to love me."
+
+"You have an uncle who loves you fondly, my child," said Leuthold.
+
+"Uncle," the little girl began again after a short pause, "how did the
+first people get here? Every one has a father and mother; but the first
+men could not have had any. Where did they come from?"
+
+Leuthold and Heim exchanged glances of surprise.
+
+"Ah, now you are going to the very root of the matter, prying into the
+deepest mysteries of creation!" said her uncle with a smile.
+
+"There is stuff for a scholar in the child," said Heim; "she must be
+educated."
+
+"Most certainly!" cried Leuthold with unwonted vivacity; "something
+must be made of her. In two years she will read Darwin." And he became
+lost in reverie.
+
+Heim plucked two pansies that were growing among the weeds, and handed
+them to Ernestine. "Don't trouble your little brain with such
+thoughts," he said with an attempt to laugh. "When you are grown up you
+can learn all you wish to know. How few flowers you have here! Not
+enough for a nosegay!"
+
+"No matter for that, Herr Heim," said Ernestine gaily. "Although there
+are so few flowers here, it seems to me as lovely as Paradise."
+
+"The child is imaginative," Heim observed to Leuthold. "She finds
+Paradise in a neglected kitchen-garden; there is poetry there." And he
+pointed to her head and heart.
+
+Leuthold took the child's hand. "If you wish for flowers, my darling,
+you shall have them. You are now"--and a spasmodic smile hovered upon
+his lips--"so rich that you need deny yourself nothing."
+
+"I am rich!" Ernestine repeated, as though she could not grasp the
+idea. "Does the chair in which I am sitting belong to me?"
+
+"Most certainly."
+
+"And this garden, and the fields?"
+
+"Everything that you see."
+
+"Oh, how delightful! But, uncle, have I money enough to buy me a
+telescope like yours?"
+
+Leuthold looked surprised at this question "Is that the end and aim of
+your desires? Well, then, you shall have a far better one than mine.
+You shall have an observatory, whence you can search the heavens far
+and wide, and, if you choose, I will be your teacher. Would you like
+that?"
+
+"Oh, uncle!" sighed Ernestine, "God is so kind to me--how shall I thank
+him for all he is giving me?"
+
+An ugly smile appeared on Leuthold's face; she looked up at him in
+surprise, and so fixedly that he involuntarily turned aside.
+
+It was strange! Why had her uncle smiled at those words. Was what she
+had said so stupid, then? Was he laughing at her, or at--what? Suddenly
+there was an alloy in her happiness, as if she had found an ugly worm
+in a fragrant rose or discovered a flaw in a clear mirror. A pang shot
+through her heart. Yes, little Kay in the story-book must have felt
+just so when a splinter of the evil mirror got into his eye and heart
+and nothing seemed perfect or stainless to him any more. Instinctively
+she looked up into the sky, as if to see the demon flying there with
+the mysterious mirror that cast scorn and contempt upon the works of
+the good God; and when she glanced again at her uncle, who had just
+smiled so disagreeably, he seemed to her to look as she had fancied an
+evil spirit must look, and she shrank from him in a way that she could
+not herself comprehend. She leaned back in her chair exhausted, to rest
+after all these wearisome thoughts that had chased one another through
+her brain, and Heim, observing this, took Leuthold aside; she heard him
+say, "Come, we will leave the child to take a little sleep."
+
+Rieka sat down quietly upon the bench beside her. Ernestine nestled
+comfortably among the yielding cushions, and the fragrant breeze
+stroked her cheek like a gentle, caressing hand. The birds were softly
+twittering in the boughs overhead. All nature breathed in her ear:
+"Sleep, sleep on the tender breast of the youthful day. Rest! you are
+not yet rested, after all that you have suffered!" And she closed her
+eyes and tried to sleep, but she could not. Why had her uncle smiled
+when she spoke of God? This question kept her awake, and scared away
+rest from her trusting, childish soul.
+
+Meanwhile Helm and Leuthold walked on through the garden. "Herr
+Professor," the former began to his companion, who was lost in thought,
+"I must speak with you about the future of our protege. I have plans
+for her, depending upon you for their fulfilment." Leuthold looked at
+him attentively. "I had a desire," Heim continued, "the first time I
+saw this strange child, to adopt her for my own; and this desire has
+become stronger since chance has brought me into such intimate
+association with her. My request of you now is: Abdicate--not your
+rights, but--your duties as her guardian in my favour, and let me take
+her to the capital with me, and have her educated and trained so that
+full justice may be done to her physical and mental capacities."
+
+Leuthold was silent for a few moments, and then said with some
+hesitation, as he drew a long strip of grass through his slender white
+fingers, "That looks, Herr Geheimrath, as if you did not give me credit
+for the ability or the will to educate my ward suitably."
+
+Heim shrugged his shoulders impatiently. "There shall be no
+wire-drawing between us, Herr Gleissert; we both know what we think of
+each other, and a physician has no time to waste in complimental
+speeches. Be kind enough to signify to me, as briefly and decidedly as
+possible, your acceptance or refusal of my proposal."
+
+"Well, then," Leuthold replied with a keen glance, "I must reply to you
+with a brief and decided 'No!'"
+
+"Indeed!" was all that Heim in his chagrin rejoined.
+
+"Look you, Herr Geheimrath," Leuthold began after some moments of
+reflection; "I will be frank with you. You know the dark stain that
+sullies my past, and the fault of my nature,--ambition. But, for all
+that, Herr Geheimrath, I am not heartless! In my childhood I was
+repelled on all sides, just as Ernestine has been. I was always cast in
+the shade by Hartwich, the son of my wealthy step-mother. You, as a
+student of human nature, well know what power there is in early
+surroundings to mould a man's future,--perhaps this may make you more
+lenient to my faults. Neither affection nor interest was shown me, and
+so kindly feelings faded away within me,--I could not give what I never
+received. Thus, Herr Geheimrath, I grew up an embittered, hardened man.
+The severity and sternness with which I was treated caused me to
+cultivate a sort of plausibility that won me friends, although I had no
+qualities to enable me to retain them. Therefore I was accounted a
+flatterer and a hypocrite. But the worst of all was, I was never taught
+the nice distinction between honours and honour, and thus it was that,
+in my blind grasp after honours, I sacrificed my honour!" He covered
+his eyes with his hand and paused for a moment. Old Heim shook his huge
+head, vexed with himself for the emotion of sympathy that he could not
+suppress.
+
+"My step-mother," Leuthold continued, "was an imperious, masculine
+woman, who tyrannized over her husband and made him as unhappy as her
+son and step-son. You have seen the effect of her training upon
+Hartwich,--he became a drunkard, sinning in the flesh; I, of a less
+sensual nature, sinned in spirit!"
+
+"Forgive me for interrupting you," Heim interposed here; "but I am
+constrained to observe that if you had sinned no further than in
+robbing poor Hilsborn of his discovery, you would indeed have coveted
+only spiritual things, and there might have been some excuse for you;
+but you longed for earthly possessions,--you even grasped after the
+property of the poor child who has been left to your care. Judge for
+yourself whether such a helpless little creature can be confided
+without anxiety to the charge of a guardian who has not scrupled to
+endeavour to possess himself of her inheritance!"
+
+Leuthold stood confronting Heim, without betraying, by a single change
+of feature, the emotions of his mind. "Herr Geheimrath," he said with
+dignity, "I understand perfectly how all that must appear to a stranger
+entirely unacquainted with the circumstances of the case, and I cannot
+wonder that you think your accusation of me well founded. So be it. I
+did endeavour to possess myself of Hartwich's property, for two-thirds
+of it were mine by right. Are you aware, Herr Geheimrath, that when I
+first took my place in the factory here, Hartwich was on the brink of
+bankruptcy? Are you aware that entirely through my exertions the
+business is now free from debt, and that the income which in the course
+of ten years made Hartwich a wealthy man was the result solely of my
+improvements? He contributed nothing but the raw material, which my
+efforts converted into a means of wealth. Had I not a sacred right to
+the fruits of my exertions?"
+
+Again the Geheimrath shrugged his shoulders and did not speak.
+
+"Time is money," Leuthold continued; "and I frankly admit that I do not
+belong to the class of men who give without any hope of a return. I am
+a poor man, compelled to depend upon myself. I receive nothing
+gratuitously; why should I give anything? Hartwich owed me for the time
+I sacrificed to him. I do not claim too much when I aver that, with my
+capacity, I could have earned three thousand thalers yearly as the
+superintendent of any other extensive manufactory, while I received
+from Hartwich the small salary of a mere overseer. And three thousand
+thalers yearly amount in ten years to thirty thousand thalers, without
+counting the interest. There you have one-third of the property that I
+'coveted.'"
+
+Heim assented with an expression of surprise.
+
+Leuthold continued more fluently: "Now for the remaining third. The man
+who is capable of introducing inventions and improvements into the
+establishment, producing in ten years a dear profit of ninety thousand
+thalers, can easily dispose of such inventions for twenty thousand
+thalers; and if I add the accumulated interest of ten years, it amounts
+to exactly thirty thousand thalers again. If my step-brother had paid
+me this sum, he would still have possessed thirty thousand thalers
+clear, which would have belonged of right to his daughter. I might have
+offered my services elsewhere, but it seemed to me more fitting that I
+should serve my brother than a stranger; I might have insisted upon
+payment, but I knew well my brother's avarice, and that it would be
+impossible to extort money from him except at the risk of such
+excitement on his part as might cost him his life. Therefore!
+thought it best, as I foresaw that he could not live long, to suspend
+my claims and allow him to devise to me by will what was really my
+due. How utterly I have been the loser by my--I do not scruple to
+say--magnanimous conduct, you well know; and now pray point out wherein
+I have unjustly claimed a single groschen!"
+
+Heim, his hands crossed behind him and his head sunk upon his breast,
+walked slowly along by the side of Leuthold, whose slender figure had
+recovered all its former elasticity as he easily wound his way among
+the tangled bushes and weeds in the neglected path.
+
+"I cannot tell how a lawyer would designate your conduct," the old man
+said meditatively. "I should not call it magnanimous; but you may be
+able to justify it from your point of view. Still, one never knows what
+to expect of such long-headed, calculating people."
+
+"Yes, Herr Geheimrath, it is the destiny of those who depend upon
+themselves alone for whatever of good life may bring them, to be
+regarded as covetous,--they must grasp after what falls unsought for
+into the lap of others. In this matter I not only did what I could for
+myself, but for the future also. Herr Geheimrath, I am a father!"
+
+"Yes, yes; but you were not a father at the time that you arranged with
+Hartwich his testamentary dispositions," Heim briefly interposed.
+
+"Only two months afterwards my wife gave birth to a dead son. From the
+first moment when I dreamed of one day possessing a child for whom I
+could prepare a future, I cherished a determination to hold fast to
+whatever was mine by right. I think you cannot refuse to bear witness
+that I have endured the destruction of all my hopes with fortitude. My
+wife has left me, refusing to share with me my cheerless future. I
+stand alone with my helpless child. You have heard no word of complaint
+from my lips. Examine yourself, and your upright nature will compel you
+to acknowledge that I do not deserve your distrust. And now, as regards
+the last and weightiest consideration,--my relation to my ward,--ask
+any one whom you may please to interrogate here, whether I have not
+always been Ernestine's advocate and protector. Every servant in the
+house--the child herself--will tell you that it has been so. Upon this
+point my conscience cannot accuse me. For, look you, Herr Geheimrath,
+this child is the only living being in this world, besides my own
+daughter, whom I have to love. There is one spot in my nature, hardened
+as it is by the rough usage of life, that has always remained
+soft,--the memory of my unhappy childhood. In Ernestine I am reminded
+of my own early youth, and there is a tender satisfaction in providing
+her with so much that at her age I was obliged to deny myself. Leave me
+this child, Herr Geheimrath; I am a poor, unhappy, disappointed man. Do
+not take from me the last thing that stirs the better nature within
+me,--it would be too hard!"
+
+Heim stood still for an instant, and seemed about to speak. He
+bethought himself and walked on a few steps, then paused again: "The
+case is not psychologically improbable. You may feel as you say, and
+you may invent it all. What guarantee have I for its truth?"
+
+"I am sorry to say, none, if you do not find it in the honesty of my
+confession. But, Herr Geheimrath, by what right--pardon me--do you
+require such a guarantee from me?"
+
+"My anxiety for the child's welfare, I should suppose, would be allowed
+to give me such a right,--a right that, if you are not dead to human
+feeling, you would respect even although it has no legal grounds."
+
+"Oh, certainly, certainly,--I do respect it, and thank you for your
+interest in the child. But I cannot deny that your persistent distrust
+of me surprises me exceedingly, and prompts me to force you by my
+conduct to a better opinion of me."
+
+"That is, you will let me have the child?" Heim asked quickly.
+
+"That is, I am more determined than ever to undertake the charge of her
+education myself, that I may one day convince you of the injustice that
+you are doing me."
+
+Heim regarded the smiling speaker with a penetrating glance. "You rely
+upon the fact that I can legally urge nothing against you. Well, then,
+I can do no more. I confide the fate of this strange child, who has
+become so dear to me, to a loving Providence, that will watch over her
+and over you, sir, however you may contrive to withdraw yourself and
+your designs from the eye of human scrutiny."
+
+As Heim spoke these words, the two gentlemen reached Ernestine's chair.
+The little girl sat perfectly still, lost in thought. Her uncle laid
+his hand upon her white forehead, and said to himself, "I will keep
+you!"
+
+
+On the evening of the same day, Leuthold sat before his writing-table
+at the open windows. The cool night air made the flame of the lamp
+flicker behind its green shade. From the adjoining room came the low
+sound of the plaintive air with which the nursemaid was soothing little
+Gretchen to sleep. A cricket upon the window-sill chirped continually,
+and a singed moth would now and then fall upon the white, unwritten
+sheet that lay on the table before Leuthold. It was a calm, mild,
+autumn night,--a night when darkness hides the yellow leaves and one
+can dream that it is still summer. And yet the solitary man sat there
+gazing into vacancy, with as little sympathy with nature as though he
+had been banished utterly from her communion. In the corner of the
+window-frame there fluttered a large cobweb, and its proprietor was
+lying in wait for the insects that were attracted by the lamp. But the
+man's brain was weaving still finer webs in the stillness of night, and
+in the midst of them lurked the ugly spider of greed of gold, also
+lying in wait for prey. Ernestine must be ensnared; but she had
+protectors who were upon the watch. No human being must suspect that
+her guardian was her worst enemy.
+
+The will had been opened, and two clauses in it had given Leuthold
+renewed life and hope. He was Ernestine's guardian,--and her heir in
+case of her dying unmarried. By the time that his light began to fade,
+he had laid all his plans, and arose from his seat with the feeling of
+satisfaction experienced by an author who has just thought out
+successfully the plot of a new work. Ernestine was no more to him than
+a character in a novel is to its author,--a character which is
+indispensable to the plot, and which the author treats with care as a
+necessary evil, but never with affection. Thus he had planned with
+great precision the child's future; and, unless he utterly failed in
+his designs, the figure that now hovered before his imagination would
+greatly conduce to the successful conclusion of the romance for his
+child and himself.
+
+The lamp died down. Leuthold slipped out upon tiptoe, and, undressing
+in the next room in the dark, lay down in the bed beside which stood
+Gretchen's crib. Soon after the child awoke, and stretched out her
+hands towards her father. He drew her towards him, and laid her head
+upon his breast, that was chilled as though from the influence of his
+own icy heart. She nestled up to him, and put her little arms around
+his neck. He listened to her quiet breathing as she fell calmly asleep
+again, and gradually his own heart grew warm beside hers, beating there
+so peacefully. He scarcely ventured to breathe himself, for fear of
+wakening her. It was a happy moment for him. Upon the breath of the
+slumbering child an ineffable delight was wafted into his soul. He held
+in his arms the only being whom he loved and who really loved him,--his
+child, his own flesh and blood! Suddenly there was a loud knocking at
+his door, and Rieka's shrill voice cried, "Herr Doctor! Herr Doctor!
+pray get up quickly and come to Ernestine!"
+
+Leuthold started up and gently laid the child in her crib again. Every
+nerve in his body vibrated, his heart beat wildly, and his hands
+trembled as he dressed himself hurriedly. Something extraordinary must
+have occurred: was Ernestine worse?--perhaps dying? Was fate to atone
+so soon for Hartwich's injustice? Were his hopes to be--the thought
+made him giddy, breathless, and, almost tottering, he reached the door
+where Rieka was waiting to light him down the stairs.
+
+"What is the matter?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, Herr Doctor, it is our fault," Rieka began: "Theresa and I were
+sitting by Ernestine's bedside and talking; we thought she was sound
+asleep, we were talking about master who is dead; and we told about the
+dairy-maid's refusing to sleep in the barn-loft any more, because she
+says he walks. And we spoke of his death, how he called for his child,
+and declared that he could not find rest in his grave if Ernestine did
+not forgive him. And we said we were sure that he would appear to her
+some day, for when any one dies with such a burden on his soul, there
+is no rest for him until he has the forgiveness that he craves. Then
+Ernestine suddenly began to cry, and we saw that she had heard
+everything. We tried to quiet her, but she grew worse and worse, and
+nothing would content her but that she must be taken this very night to
+the church-yard, to her father's grave, that she might forgive him. We
+can do nothing with her; she insists upon it; she is almost in
+convulsions with crying and obstinacy!"
+
+They entered Ernestine's room, where Theresa, the other maid, was
+trying to keep the struggling, desperate child in bed. Leuthold went
+softly up to her, and laid his cool, delicate hand upon her burning
+forehead. His touch soothed her; she became quiet, and looked up at her
+uncle with a piteous entreaty in her large eyes.
+
+"Leave me alone with her," he said to the servants, who obeyed with a
+mutter of discontent. He then trimmed the night-lamp so that it burned
+brightly, and seated himself beside Ernestine's couch. "My child," he
+began, in his low, melodious voice, "you are quite clever enough to
+understand what I am going to say to you, but you must promise me that
+you will never repeat it to any human being. Do you promise?"
+
+"Oh, I will promise, uncle," sobbed Ernestine, "if you will only help
+me to let my poor father know that I forgive him,--oh, with all my
+heart!--and that my head is well again, and does not hurt me any more!
+Oh, my poor, poor father,--your little Ernestine wants so to tell you
+that she is not angry with you; but she cannot!"
+
+"You are a good child, Ernestine, but you are only a child!" Leuthold
+continued, while the same strange smile that had so troubled Ernestine
+in the morning again played around his mouth. She looked up in
+surprise. Was what she had said so foolish again?
+
+"You are too clever, young as you are, to be allowed to fall into the
+vulgar belief shared by the maids; and therefore I must tell you what
+it would not be best for them to know,--that the dead do not live in
+any form whatever."
+
+Ernestine started, and gazed at her uncle.--"What?"
+
+"Yes, yes; I tell you truly, whoever is dead is dead; that means, he
+has ceased to be; he neither feels nor thinks; a few bones are all that
+there is of him; and they are good for nothing but to convert into lime
+or manure for the fields."
+
+Ernestine hearkened breathless to his words. "But where then are the
+spirits, uncle?"
+
+"There are no spirits."
+
+"Then shall we never go to heaven?"
+
+"Of course not; those are all fables, invented to induce common people
+to be good. They must believe in rewards and punishments after death,
+to enable them to bear the trials and deprivations of their lot in
+life. They would rebel against all control, and be in perpetual mutiny,
+without the prospect of compensation after death. So there are wise
+philosophers in every country, composing what is called the Christian
+Church, who have invented many beautiful legends,--which you call the
+Bible. Superstition is founded upon the weakness and folly of mankind,
+upon ignorance of the true laws of nature; and the churches of every
+age and clime have used it as the stuff of which they have made
+leading-strings for the people. But the educated man, breathing only a
+pure, intellectual atmosphere, is free from such fetters. Science leads
+him with a loving hand to heights whence she points out to him the
+natural laws of the universe, and, in place of the prop of which she
+deprives him, gives him strength to stand alone."
+
+Ernestine was ashy pale; her lips moved, but no sound issued from them;
+she clenched her hands, and felt as if crushed by some terrible,
+unheard-of mystery. She could hardly bear to listen to what her uncle
+was saying, and yet she caught greedily at every word; she could not
+bear to believe him, and yet she could not but distrust, now, what the
+pastor had taught her. She was ashamed not to be as clever as her uncle
+had called her: the poison that he had instilled into her mind worked
+quickly.
+
+"But, uncle, can what so many people believe be all false? Old people
+and children, kings and emperors, beggars and rich men, all go to
+church:--is there any one except you who does not go?"
+
+Leuthold laughed louder than was his wont. "It is easy enough to answer
+you, dear child. In the first place, there are multitudes of men
+besides myself who belong to no church. In the second place, the number
+of people who profess to believe a creed is no proof of its truth, but
+only of the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of those professing such
+belief. Millions of men have been pantheists, and counted all those who
+did not share their faith criminal. Every religion condemns all others
+as erroneous. Which is right? As long as all were ignorant of the
+causes of the mighty and glorious operations of nature, these were
+ascribed to supernatural agencies and regarded as revelations of the
+divine. Thunder and lightning, light and air, all were governed,
+according to the ancients, as among savages at the present day, by
+their own several deities; every natural event was ascribed to some
+being, half man, half god; and thus heaven and earth were peopled with
+good and evil spirits, friendly or hostile to mankind. This
+superstition fled at the approach of science, or at least it became
+weakened,--etherialized. With increasing knowledge of natural laws, the
+sensual gods of Greece and Rome lost form and substance, and finally
+vanished, to be replaced by a true appreciation of the elements as
+such, and a faith in a central Providence ruling all things wisely and
+well. This is a great improvement; but it is not enough. We still have
+a Trinity,--a Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; we still have angels,
+demons, and saints,--a multitude of good and evil deities, who have
+followed us down from old pagan times, and who, although more
+respectably apparelled, are still prepared to work all kinds of
+miracles. The more fully the laws of matter are laid bare to our
+searching eyes, the dimmer grows our religious belief,--as the shadow,
+which in the darkness we have taken for the substance itself, fades
+before the first ray of sunlight, which reveals the substance
+distinctly. The various gods of all ages and climes were only the
+shadows cast by the operation of natural laws; as soon as the light of
+science fell upon them, they vanished. Thus, religious fancy was driven
+away from this physical world, as the laws ruling it were discovered,
+and obliged to seek a more abstract domain; but even there it is not
+secure; for scientific inquiry, climbing from height to height, and
+gaining in vigour with every fresh advance, long ago began to follow it
+thither; and it must consent to still greater concessions, if it would
+not be driven from its last foothold,--its self-created heaven!"
+
+Leuthold paused. Ernestine's vague look of wonder reminded him that his
+habit of speech had carried him too far for the comprehension of a
+child. Nevertheless, it excited him to hear his own voice speaking thus
+once more, and his gray eyes glittered strangely as he observed the
+effect of his words, only half understood as they were, upon Ernestine.
+
+"Has the pastor told me falsehoods, then?" she asked at last.
+
+"He did not lie intentionally. He is a very narrow-minded man, and
+knows no better. He is not one of the deceivers, but of the deceived."
+
+"But he is the wisest man in the village," Ernestine objected.
+
+"In the village, yes! But do you think him wiser than your uncle?"
+
+"No, certainly not!" she whispered almost inaudibly. It seemed to her a
+crime to think a common man wiser than the pastor.
+
+"Well, then, let me tell you that he is not nearly as clever as you
+are!"
+
+"Uncle!" exclaimed Ernestine alarmed.
+
+"I tell you the truth, my child. You are now very young; but, when you
+are as old as the pastor, you will know much more than he does, and
+take a very different view of things."
+
+"Are you in earnest, uncle?" Ernestine asked eagerly, for this first
+flattery had not failed in its effect. "Do you think I can ever be as
+clever as a man?"
+
+"Most certainly! Unless I greatly err, you will be something
+distinguished, one of these days!"
+
+Ernestine sat bolt upright in bed, looking at her uncle with sparkling
+eyes. Her pale face flushed, her breath came quick. Ambition kindled in
+her childish nature to a burning flame. The fuel had been gathering
+there since her first contact with those who had treated her with
+contempt. Now the spark had fallen, and she was all aglow with the
+insidious fire which gradually consumes the whole being unless some
+terrible misfortune bursts open the floodgates of tears to quench the
+unhallowed flame.
+
+Leuthold gazed, not without secret admiration and delight, at the
+illuminated and inspired countenance of the child. Thus, thus he would
+have her look! He leaned towards her, and held out his hand. She
+grasped it fervently.
+
+"Uncle," she said with childish emphasis, "will you help me to be as
+clever and to learn as much as a man? Will you teach me the sciences
+which you said would make men so strong?"
+
+"Yes," replied Leuthold with seeming enthusiasm, "I will, indeed."
+
+"Promise me, dear uncle."
+
+"I promise you with all my heart that I will teach you as no woman has
+ever been taught before,--that I will guide and direct you until you
+have soared far above the rest of your sex. But you must be diligent,
+and discard all desires but the desire of knowledge."
+
+"Oh, I will, dearest uncle. Why should I not? What else can I wish for?
+I do not want to play with other children,--they laugh at me. I am too
+ugly and grave for them. I will live alone, and learn with you; and one
+day, when I know more than they, I will shame them. Oh, that will be
+fine!"
+
+"But I hope, my child, that you will remember your promise, and not
+tell any one what I have said to you to-night."
+
+"Not any one? not even Herr Heim?"
+
+"Not for the world. If I should find that you cannot hold your tongue,
+I will teach you nothing, and you will be as ignorant as those who
+laugh at you."
+
+"No, uncle, I will never tell anything; I will not, indeed!" Ernestine
+cried, "But tell me one thing,--are there really no angels, then?"
+
+"Angels!" and her uncle smiled. "Of what use has been all that I have
+just said to you, if you can seriously ask such a question?"
+
+"Then I have no guardian angel!" said the child, and her eyes filled
+with tears. "And I loved my guardian angel so dearly!"
+
+"My child," replied Leuthold, "you are your own guardian angel. Your
+own strong mind will shield you from all danger far better than any
+such imaginary creature with wings."
+
+Ernestine was silent. She must take care of herself, then. But she felt
+so weak and broken; how should she be supported unless she could lean
+upon some higher power? No guardian angel, no father, no mother, not
+even their spirits! It seemed to her that she was suddenly standing
+alone, without prop or stay, upon a rocky peak, with a yawning abyss
+just at her feet. The moment would come when she must fall headlong.
+Then there arose before her the last hope of the soul in utter
+misery,--God! He was all in all,--Father and guardian spirit; He was
+love; He would not forsake her. Though all else that she had believed
+in crumbled to dust, He still remained; she would cling to Him with
+redoubled fervour. She looked up at her uncle; should she tell him her
+thoughts? No! She could not speak that sacred name before Leuthold; she
+dreaded the smile she had seen in the morning,--she could not tell why.
+
+Her uncle then spoke, and the last drop of poison fell into her soul.
+"We have in ourselves everything that modern religion has created
+outside of ourselves," he began. "Angels, devils, God--" Ernestine
+started and shrank,--"these are all only personifications of our good
+and evil qualities. It is only the boundless self-conceit of mankind
+that imagines that the grain of reason that distinguishes them from
+the brutes is something entirely beyond the power of nature to
+produce,--something supernatural, immortal, divine,--and that there
+must be, enthroned somewhere above the universe, an omnipotent being,
+who is in direct communication with us and has nothing to do but to
+busy himself with our very important personal affairs! This belief in
+God, with all its apparent humility and submission, is the veriest
+offspring of the vanity and arrogance of mankind, and all worship of
+God, my child, is, in fact, only worship of self. True humility is to
+acknowledge that we are no 'emanation from the Divine Essence,' as
+theosophists phrase it, but only nature's masterpieces, and that we can
+claim no higher destiny than that common to the myriad forms of being
+that bear their part in the universal whole."
+
+Ernestine had sunk back among her pillows,--she felt annihilated; there
+was no longer any God for her!
+
+Her uncle arose, for two o'clock had just been tolled from the belfry
+of the village church. He did not fail to observe the terrible
+impression that his words had made upon Ernestine. He took her hand;
+she withdrew it from his grasp. He smiled. "You are sorry, are you not,
+to give up everything that your childish mind has believed in so
+firmly? I can easily understand it. But, Ernestine, your powers of mind
+are too great to allow you to find consolation for any length of time
+in such delusions. Be sure that sooner or later you would have
+extricated yourself from such bondage, as the expanding flower throws
+off the confining hull. You have been ill, and your physical weakness
+has depressed your mental energy; but, when you are well and strong
+again, you will rejoice proudly in the consciousness that you are a
+free, irresponsible being, not dependent upon the will and the doubtful
+justice of a fancied Jehovah. Study yourself, my child; in yourself
+lies your future. Believe in yourself, and plant your hopes deeply in
+your faith in yourself. I will leave you now to sleep; and I am sure
+that to-morrow I shall find you a little philosopher."
+
+Long after her uncle had left the room and Rieka had retired upon
+tiptoe to bed in the adjoining apartment, fully convinced that her
+charge was sleeping, Ernestine was wide awake. She lay perfectly
+motionless, as if shattered in every limb. She stirred for the first
+time when Rieka had extinguished the light, so that no ray came through
+the open door. Then the child drew a deep breath, and stretched her
+arms out into the darkness as if to clasp the forms of her vanished
+faith; but her arms encountered only the empty air. There was no more
+pitiable creature upon earth than she at that moment. What is left for
+a child without father or mother, who has lost her guardian angel and
+her God? She is a bird fallen from the nest, stripped by cruelty of its
+wings and left living on the ground. The child's foreboding soul,
+precociously matured by misfortune, felt the entire weight of her
+desolation; and she hid her face in the pillow, that Rieka might not
+hear the convulsive sobs wrung from the depths of her misery. The tears
+which she poured forth for her vanished God were all that her uncle had
+left her,--the only prayer that she was capable of. She longed to
+pray--but could not in words. "He does not hear me! He does not live!"
+she cried to herself; and the hot tears burst forth again, and she wept
+in agony. And, as she wept, her heart grew soft and tender, and as the
+Crucified, after he had been laid in the tomb, was present invisibly
+among his disciples, so the God who had just been buried away from her
+mind came to life again in her heart; she did not hear nor see him, but
+she felt his presence, and it gave her strength to pray. She kneeled in
+her bed, folded her hands, and cried inwardly: "Dear God, let me keep
+my belief in Thee--if Thou art and canst hear me--" --that terrible
+"if" intruded. She paused to ponder upon it. And then there was an end
+to her fervent prayer, and God vanished again.
+
+Thus the struggle between faith and doubt continued feverishly, and her
+soul thirsted for love as did her parched lips for water. Where was
+there a kind, gentle hand to offer her a cooling draught, and with it
+the kiss that should refresh her thirsty soul,--such a hand as only a
+mother has? Ernestine gazed out into the darkness. Her breath came in
+gasps, her heart beat audibly, but no more kindly tears came to her
+burning eyes. "O God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" was the last
+moan of her tortured heart; and then she sank into a feverish slumber.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+                               DEPARTURE.
+
+
+The autumnal gales had stripped the leaves from the trees; the tall
+firs in the forest, bordering the spacious brown fields of the Hartwich
+estate, were the only green on the landscape. Over the cheerless desert
+plain wandered a lonely little figure, pale and sad as Heine's Last
+Fairy. Ernestine had so far recovered that she was once more able to
+brave the autumn wind. She extended her arms, and could not help
+imagining that they might become wings, that would bear her far, far
+aloft. She knew it could never really be so; but the thought was so
+delightful! Up, up, far away from the earth,--it was so sad upon the
+earth. She was a stranger here, and she felt that her home must be
+elsewhere. In heaven? Oh, there was no heaven; but in the air--at
+least, in the air. And she ran on--ran as fast as she could--and her
+heart throbbed with excitement as the wind whistled in her ears and
+tossed her clothes about, and her hair.
+
+An insatiable yearning--she knew not for what--had driven her out of
+the house--she knew not whither. There was nothing for her to crave
+for, and yet she could not help it. She thought she should die of
+longing! She wished she could dissolve into foam, like the little
+mermaid, that the daughters of the air might bear her aloft into
+endless space! And she stood still and gazed up into the gray clouds,
+and took a long breath. There was no longer anything there for her to
+aspire to, and she had not yet learned to look within. One vast void
+around and above her, and forth into this immense void she was driven!
+
+At last she reached the woods, and stood beneath the dark firs, in
+whose boughs the wind was wildly roaring. It was the last time that she
+should stand thus among these familiar scenes, for on the following day
+she was to set out with her uncle for the south, that she might escape
+the northern winter. She was sorry, for she clung to her home, bleak as
+it had been. She must have something to cling to! She had looked
+forward with pleasure to the ice and snow; the glittering form of the
+snow-queen in the fairy book--the creature of Andersen's Northern
+fancy--had transfigured winter for her. Like little Kay, she had lost
+all delight in life, and, like him, she was perplexed in spirit at the
+word "eternity." But she could not help loving the winter and the
+solitude of her retired home. She walked on fearlessly, beneath the
+whistling of the wind, deeper and deeper into the forest, until,
+without knowing how, she emerged on the other side, and stood under the
+oak where she had first seen Johannes. The bough, now entirely dead,
+which had broken beneath her when she was trying to escape from him,
+still hung there. There, too, was the spot where he had given her the
+book--the wonderful book--that had peopled her fancy with such lovely
+forms. And yet that interview with Johannes seemed in her memory far
+more like enchantment than any fairy-tale, and she stood still, sunk in
+a reverie, until a furious blast of wind tore at the boughs of the
+majestic tree as if it longed to tear it down and scatter its fragments
+through the forest. With a crash, the broken bough, only attached
+hitherto to the trunk by a slender hold, was hurled to the ground, and
+the wind wailed on through the bare branches in the forest depths.
+Ernestine looked up startled. The boughs rustled and creaked, and the
+scared ravens flew croaking hither and thither. Again the blast swept
+howling across the plain, slowly, but with a mighty swell in its roar,
+towards the wood, and again it stormed and raved in its first fury
+about the isolated oak, which trembled and shook to its centre. But
+Ernestine was startled only for an instant; she was used to the blasts
+of a northern October, and she took delight in this wild might of
+nature. It was almost as if she herself were shaking the tree, and
+splitting its branches with her own hands. The exultation of a Titan in
+the breast of a creature woven as it were out of moonlight and
+lily-leaves! Only a divinely-related spirit could have had such
+thoughts in so delicate a form,--a spirit that fraternized with the
+elements, and, in an intoxication of delight, forgot the frail casket
+in which it was confined.
+
+Singing strange, wild songs, the child, with her wonted agility,
+climbed the tree that had grown so dear to her, and cradled herself
+exultingly amid its tossing branches. She ascended to the topmost
+boughs, and gazed far over forest and plain; and the more the creaking
+branches were tossed to and fro as she clung to them, the wilder grew
+her delight. It was almost flying--to hover, thus hidden, above the
+earth! She kissed the bough by which she held, and as she saw the young
+branches breaking here and there beneath her, and the hurricane raged
+so that it almost took away her breath, she looked up with inspired
+eyes, and whispered involuntarily, "It is the breath of God!" Suddenly
+she distinguished a sound as of human footsteps, and a shout came up
+through the roar of the blast. She thought of the handsome stranger
+youth! Could it be he--come to take her down from the tree? An
+inexplicable mixture of joy and dread took possession of her. Was it
+he? Would he stretch out his arms to her again? But it was not he. A
+chill struck to her heart, and a shade gathered over the landscape. It
+was her uncle! "Ernestine," he called to her, "thoughtless child! How
+you terrify me! Running to the woods and climbing trees in such a
+storm! You might kill yourself! Come down, I entreat you!"
+
+"Let me stay here, uncle; I like it so much!" Ernestine begged.
+
+"I must seriously desire you to come with me. What would people say if
+I allowed you to be out in such weather? Be good enough to do as I tell
+you."
+
+Ernestine cast one more silent glance over her beloved forest, and
+then, with a saddened face, began to descend. When she reached the spot
+where the bough had been broken, and whence Johannes had rescued her,
+she broke off a couple of withered leaves, hid them in her dress, and
+slipped down the trunk lightly as a shadow. She turned to her uncle.
+All her delight had vanished; she was upon the earth once more, and her
+uncle's cold, keen eye disenchanted her utterly. Her look was downcast;
+she felt almost ashamed. If he knew that she had just been thinking of
+God, he would despise her. But why could she believe in God again while
+she was up there, and not when she was down here with her uncle?
+
+She walked on without a word by Leuthold's side, glancing neither to
+the right nor the left, never heeding how the wind was well-nigh
+tearing her dress from her back. She did not want to fly any more,--she
+longed for nothing;--when her uncle was by, she was ashamed of every
+emotion. When she came to the place where the path leading to her home
+diverged from the road to the village, she asked permission of Leuthold
+to go and say farewell at the parsonage. After some hesitation, he
+granted it, and went on alone. Ernestine hurried along the well-known
+road. The village children shouted after her, "Halloo, there goes
+Hartwich's Tina,--proud Tina, with the whey face!" She paid no heed to
+them,--she felt herself above the jeers of such creatures. With a
+beating heart she reached the parsonage; then she suddenly stood still.
+What did she want here? To bid good-by to the pastor and his wife! But
+if the good old man should admonish her to love and fear God, as he was
+so apt to do? Or if he should ask her if she believed in God? What
+should she,--what could she answer him? Could she, doubter, apostate
+that she was, enter the presence of the servant of God without placing
+herself at the bar of judgment, or without lying? She stood like a
+penitent, not daring to enter the door which had been so often flung
+open to her. Twice she put her hand upon the bell-handle and did not
+pull it. She knew that the old man would be grieved if she went away
+without bidding him farewell; but she also knew that he would be still
+more deeply pained could he guess at her present state of mind. Perhaps
+he might despise her then; she could not bear that; and, just as she
+was ashamed of her faith when her uncle was with her, she was now
+ashamed of her doubts. How often had the pastor told her it was a sin
+to doubt! she had committed--nay, was now committing--this sin. No, her
+guilty conscience would not let her meet his eye, or kiss the soft,
+gently folded hands of his wife. She slipped past the house, so that no
+one could see her, and went into the grave-yard, where it was quiet and
+lonely and she could hide her guilty little heart upon her parents'
+graves. She knelt down beside them, and longed for tears to relieve
+her; but no blessing arose from the graves over which no spirits
+hovered, but which covered, as her uncle Leuthold had told her, nothing
+but bones. And yet she so longed to do penance for all her doubts. "If
+I could only have faith again this minute, and pray God to forgive me,
+I could go in and see the pastor," she thought. She looked around her,
+not knowing what to do;--there was the church, and the doors were open.
+She would go into the house of God; perhaps in that sacred place she
+might find again what she had lost. In profound self-abasement the
+child entered, threw herself upon her knees before the altar, and
+closed her eyes. "Now, now I can pray!" she thought; but, just as upon
+that terrible night when she was robbed of her religion and peace of
+mind, devotion seemed near her, but to be eluding her clasp. There lay
+the guiltless little penitent, her soul full of piety, but unable to
+pray,--her heart full of tears, but unable to weep. She sprang up in
+despair. God was not here either. She had thought she heard him in the
+tempest, and that the wind was his breath,--but on the way home her
+uncle had explained to her that it was nothing but a current of air
+occasioned by the change of temperature on the earth's surface, or by
+violent showers of rain, and she was convinced that she had been wrong
+and that her uncle knew very much more than the pastor. But if she
+believed her uncle, she could not believe in God; it was not her fault,
+and yet this doubt weighed upon her as the first crime of her life. Her
+trusting soul was like the iron that glows long after the fire in which
+it was heated is quenched; her faith was extinguished, but the
+influence that her faith had exerted upon her endured and became her
+punishment. It began to grow dark; yet still she stood with head bowed
+and downcast eyes beside the wooden crucifix upon the tomb of her
+parents. The Christ who had been nailed to the cross for the sake of
+what her uncle called an illusion, seemed to regard her so
+reproachfully that she did not dare to look up at him; he had shed his
+precious blood for the faith which she denied; she almost thought he
+would tear away the hand nailed to the cross and extend it in menace
+towards her. An inexplicable shudder ran through her; again she fell
+upon her knees.
+
+"Forgive, forgive!" she cried; and the tears burst forth and relieved
+the icy pressure upon her heart.
+
+Then something grasped her shoulder and raised her from the ground. Was
+it her uncle, or the foul fiend, who was standing beside her?
+
+"You are here, then," he sneered, "in the dark, kneeling and weeping.
+Aha! I came to look for my quiet little philosopher, and I find a
+whimpering child praying to a wooden doll! Can you tell me where
+Ernestine Hartwich is?"
+
+"Uncle," cried Ernestine, driven to defiance in her despair, "why do
+you persecute me so continually to-day? Can I not be alone for one
+hour? and must I give an account of every thought and word? You have
+taken from me everything in which I confided,--you have come between
+myself and God, so that I dare not go to the pastor, but must slip
+round his house as if I were a thief. Do you think all this does not
+pain me, and that I feel no remorse? Whatever you may teach me, I shall
+never be happy again. Why did you tell me there were no spirits, no
+angels, no God? I did not wish to know it. I loved God, and, however
+wretched I was, I could always hope that he would be kind and merciful
+to me; if no human being loved me, I could always think that he did.
+And now I must bear everything that happens to me, hoping nothing and
+loving nothing,--no one,--not even you!"
+
+Leuthold smiled, and stroked Ernestine's curls.
+
+"I see now that I was wrong in treating a girl twelve years old
+like a boy of twenty. Too strong nourishment will not strengthen an
+invalid,--he cannot bear it; I ought to have thought of that, and not
+burdened your girlish brain with so much. I can understand your dislike
+of me as the innocent cause of your mental indigestion, and forgive you
+for it. Pardon me for overestimating your intellect,--it is my only
+injustice towards you."
+
+Ernestine stood gloomily beside him, without a word; he could not guess
+what was passing in her mind.
+
+"I will leave you here, my dear child. Pray on,--you need fear no
+further disturbance. Go, kiss the feet of your Christ,--it will relieve
+your heart. Go, Ernestine; or are you embarrassed by my presence? Shall
+I walk away? Well!"
+
+He turned as if to go; but Ernestine held fast to his arm.
+
+"I will go with you," she said sullenly. "I could not pray now if I
+tried. And I am not so stupid as you think me. I understood everything
+that you have taught me, and I do not believe any longer in--in--the
+other. What else do you require? One can cry without being thought
+silly; and I tell you I shall cry far oftener than I shall laugh. Oh, I
+shall cry all my life long!"
+
+And she covered her face with her hands and sobbed aloud.
+
+"You are nervous, my child. These tears come from mere bodily weakness.
+In a few years you will smile at what causes them now. Do not be
+troubled that you cannot love any one,--not even me. All such childish
+things are left behind in the nursery. Whoever will be truly free must
+begin by standing alone. Every tie that links our heart to others,
+however lovable they may be, is a fetter. Whoever will be strong must
+cease to lean on others. Love knowledge alone,--all living things can
+be taken from you, and your love for them is a source of pain. Science
+is always yours,--an inexhaustible source of delight. Men are unjust.
+They will estimate you not according to your mental powers, but your
+exterior advantages, and these are too trivial to gain their homage.
+Science gives you your deserts,--she measures her gifts according to
+your diligence. Women will envy you; for your intellect will far
+outsoar theirs. Men will slight you; for you are not, and never will
+be, beautiful, and they require beauty beyond all else in a woman. You
+will meet with nothing but disappointment among your kind, if you are
+not resolved to expect nothing from them. If you would avoid every
+grief that they can cause you, learn early not to depend upon them; and
+to this end, science, the culture of the mind, alone can lead you.
+Intellect will indemnify us for all the woes and necessities of
+humanity,--through it we can rise to the true dignity of our nature.
+Therefore, my child, seek out the true nourishment for the intellect,
+and the blind instincts of your heart will soon die in the clear light
+of the mind. You long for peace; trust me, it is to be found only in
+your mind, not in love."
+
+Ernestine walked silently beside her uncle. Her eyes gleamed strangely
+in the twilight as she looked up at him. She did not understand all
+that he said. But there came an icy chill from his words, and it was
+owing to him that her feverish excitement of mind was allayed. Soft and
+gently as falling snow in the night, his words had fallen into her
+mind, and, without her knowledge, hidden the last blossoms of faith
+there under a thick, cold pall. Beneath it her young heart grew torpid;
+and she took this quiet, painless sleep for peace.
+
+When they reached home, they found the Staatsraethin's carriage before
+the door.
+
+"Uncle," said Ernestine alarmed and disturbed, "go in and see if it is
+the Frau Staatsraethin herself,--if it is, I would rather stay outside."
+
+At this moment little Angelika looked out of the window, and called
+Ernestine by name in a tone of delight. There was no help for it.
+Ernestine had to go in and encounter, to her distress, the majestic
+figure of the Staatsraethin. The great lady acknowledged Leuthold's low
+bow by a slight inclination of her head, and held out her hand to
+Ernestine.
+
+"You have avoided me hitherto, my child. Have I, without intending it,
+done anything to pain you?"
+
+Ernestine stood silent in confusion. She could not have told, even had
+she wished to do so, what the kind Staatsraethin had done to her, for
+she did not know herself what it was. She could not understand, in her
+childish inexperience, that it was her sense of shame at her own
+insufficiency that embarrassed her in the Frau Staatsraethin's presence.
+
+The lady's eyes rested kindly upon the shadowy little figure. She
+stroked the child's thick, short curls, and then turned to Leuthold,
+while Angelika, who had a large doll in her arms, drew Ernestine away
+to a deep window-seat.
+
+"My object here to-day, Herr Doctor, is to arrange a pressing matter of
+business with you as speedily as possible."
+
+"Madam," said Leuthold bowing, "I feel much honoured. May I offer you
+one of these clumsy chairs? or will you have the kindness to go up with
+me to my own apartments, where I can receive you in a more fitting
+manner?"
+
+The Staatsraethin glanced towards the children.
+
+"I would like to speak to you alone for a few moments, Herr Doctor."
+
+"Then, madam, let me request you to accompany me." With these words
+Leuthold opened the door.
+
+"Angelika," the Staatsraethin said to the child, "stay with Ernestine
+until I come back."
+
+She went upstairs with Leuthold; and, when seated upon the couch in his
+study, she could not but observe the comfortable, cosy arrangement of
+the room, the delicate cleanliness and order reigning in it; while upon
+the table before her lay several exercise-books labelled "Ernestine von
+Hartwich." Involuntarily she was inspired with a kind of confidence in
+the grave, elegant man who had received her with so much grace. She
+inspected him with the experienced eyes of a woman of the world. His
+bearing was blameless, and his regular features bore an unmistakably
+intellectual stamp. Far-sighted and clever as the Staatsraethin was, she
+was too much of a woman not to be impressed by the good taste in
+Leuthold's appearance and manner, and she was inclined to think Heim's
+estimate of him as somewhat unjust. She did not belong to the class of
+women ready to be imposed upon by a small hand with filbert-shaped,
+carefully-kept nails; but the refinement of Leuthold's person and
+surroundings was very agreeable in her eyes.
+
+"The neatness and order that I see here surprise me, Herr Doctor," she
+began, as Leuthold seated himself opposite her; "for I hear that your
+wife is not with you at present."
+
+"No, madam, I am alone; but I have an acute sense of fitness in
+exterior arrangements, and probably pay more attention to such things
+than is quite becoming in a man."
+
+"Will your wife's absence be of long duration?" asked the Staatsraethin
+with interest.
+
+A shadow passed over Leuthold's countenance. "I fear, yes, madam. My
+wife, unfortunately, had not sufficient affection for our child and
+myself to endure the deprivations to which the disappointment of our
+hopes of an inheritance from my brother subjected us. She returned to
+her father for an indefinite time, and, as she has succeeded in keeping
+away now from her little daughter for two months, I have great doubts
+of her return."
+
+"But that is very sad for you, Herr Doctor," remarked the Staatsraethin.
+
+Leuthold passed his hand across his eyes. "It is sad indeed, madam,
+that I should have made such a choice,--that I should have expended
+years of love and pains in the attempt to cultivate and train a nature
+incapable of culture. Mine is the same pain which is experienced by the
+sculptor who finds a serious flaw in the marble upon which he has spent
+years of labour. He exhausts himself in the endeavour to shape it
+according to his ideal, and, just when he hopes for its completion, a
+dark vein is laid bare by his chisel,--his work is worthless,--he has
+hoped and laboured in vain!"
+
+The Staatsraethin looked at him with interest, "That is rather coldly
+put, and yet poetically conceived, sir."
+
+"An artist would not call it cold, madam, for he would know how great
+the suffering is to which I have ventured to compare my own."
+
+The Staatsraethin assented. Leuthold's manner pleased her more and more.
+Just then Lena entered, leading Gretchen by the hand, and carrying a
+brightly burnished lighted lamp, which she placed upon the table.
+
+"Oh, what a charming child!" exclaimed the Staatsraethin in unfeigned
+surprise.
+
+Her keenly observant eye noticed with pleasure the ray of delight that
+illumined Leuthold's countenance. "Is she not lovely, madam?" he said,
+actually glowing with gratified vanity. "You do indeed delight the
+heart of a father who has seen his child forsaken by her own mother.
+Yes, she is a treasure. She has the personal beauty that once so
+attracted me in her mother, and will, I hope, develop a beauty of soul
+which I failed to find in her mother. She will, in the future, repair
+all that I have lost. While I have this daughter, I ask of life nothing
+beside."
+
+The large-hearted Staatsraethin was completely won by a declaration so
+full of affection. "The man that idolizes his child thus cannot be
+worthless," she thought.
+
+Leuthold motioned to Lena to take Gretchen away again, and as she did
+so the Staatsraethin remarked, as if casually, "There cannot be much
+room in your heart, filled as it is with love for such an angel, for
+poor, pale little Ernestine."
+
+Leuthold looked steadily at her. "Madam, a lady like yourself, whose
+loving heart finds room for so many, can hardly say that in earnest."
+
+"You are right," said the Staatsraethin; "I ought to know how many one
+can love without defrauding any of their due measure of affection. But
+I am a woman, whose vocation it is to love; a man, and a scholar, like
+yourself, is apt to confine his regard to what is nearest to him."
+
+"It is natural; and I do not deny that my daughter is dearer to me than
+my niece: nevertheless, I think I have sufficient affection for the
+latter to satisfy her demands and to enable me to fulfil all my duties
+as guardian. You can have no idea, madam, what anxious care the
+extraordinarily precocious intellect of that child requires, and what a
+weighty responsibility the training of such an uncommon nature
+involves."
+
+"I can easily believe you; and I am convinced that she could not
+possibly be in better hands than your own. But Ernestine's physical
+education must weigh heavily upon you just at this time, when you are
+alone. I should very much like to relieve you somewhat in future of
+your arduous duties. You leave to-morrow for the south, and I cannot
+but rejoice, for the sake of Ernestine's health, that it is so. But I
+hear that you intend returning hither at the end of six mouths, to
+settle in this part of the country. If this be so, let me entreat you
+to intrust your ward to me every year for some weeks or months,--you
+will need some rest,--when you can give your undivided time to your
+daughter. Will you not allow me to take this part in Ernestine's
+education?"
+
+Leuthold bowed. "Madam, you are one of those who scatter blessings
+wherever they appear. Your sympathy does me too much honour; I am
+unworthy of it. Therefore let me thank you, not for myself, but for my
+niece. There is another name, also, in which I must offer you grateful
+acknowledgments,--that of the unfortunate mother of the child. If she
+could speak to you from the other world, she would repay your kindness
+with far better thanks than my weak words can convey."
+
+The Staatsraethin's eyes filled with tears; she thought, what would
+become of her little Angelika without her mother, and, touched to her
+heart, she grew still more reconciled to the strange man whose manner
+contrasted so strongly with all she had heard of him.
+
+"Then you consent to my plan?" she asked.
+
+"I give you my word, madam, that, when I return with Ernestine, she
+shall stay with you as long as you desire."
+
+"I thank you," said the Staatsraethin, surprised at this ready assent.
+She was now firmly convinced that Heim had done this singular man great
+injustice.
+
+"We have agreed so quickly in this matter," the Staatsraethin began
+again, "that I cannot but hope that I shall be equally successful in
+regard to the other affair that brings me here. I have come, in fact,
+for the purpose of learning whether you will dispose of the Hartwich
+estate."
+
+A delicate flush overspread Leuthold's face.
+
+"Indeed, madam, you take me greatly by surprise."
+
+"You are aware that my brother Neuenstein has long been desirous of
+possessing the factory; but serious losses in another direction
+rendered it impossible for him to command the sum required for the
+purchase. When I found how his heart was set upon giving his son a
+position as possessor and head of the factory, I determined, with the
+consent of my son Johannes and his guardians, to furnish him with the
+necessary funds. Johannes' answer to my proposal has just arrived from
+Paris. He entirely approves of my plan, and would willingly even run
+the risk of a loss for his uncle's sake."
+
+"I really cannot tell which to admire most, madam,--your determination
+and energy, or your generous spirit! Happy the man who has such a
+sister!"
+
+"Oh, I pray you do not flatter me," said the Staatsraethin, as a shade
+of embarrassment flitted across her face. "Such things are not worth
+mentioning. I wish to keep my brother and my nephew near me; and I
+could not do so if they were to buy property in another part of the
+country. It is most fortunate that my country-seat is just where it is.
+My motive is purely selfish. As you depart early to-morrow morning, we
+had better arrange matters upon the spot. Then I can lay the deed of
+purchase upon my brother's plate at tea this evening."
+
+"A princely surprise," rejoined Leuthold, hastening to his
+writing-table to make out the necessary agreement. The transaction met
+his desires perfectly, for he wished above all things to be able to
+reside in the south with Ernestine, that he might carry out his plans
+with regard to her education, far from the scrutiny of her present
+friends; and, by the disposal of this property, the last reason for
+ever returning to the scenes of her childhood vanished.
+
+In the mean time, Angelika and Ernestine were sitting in the
+window-seat of what was formerly the laundry, engaged in earnest
+conversation. Angelika had received that very day from her brother the
+crying doll that she had thought he meant to bring her upon his return.
+She was beside herself with delight, and could not imagine how
+Ernestine could be so unmoved by the sight of such a miracle of
+mechanism. She had made it say "papa" and "mamma," and open and shut
+its eyes, repeatedly. Ernestine was entirely composed and cold. She
+declared that the words "papa" and "mamma" were not very distinct, and
+that the eyelids made altogether too much noise in opening and
+shutting.
+
+Angelika was not at all troubled by Ernestine's budding misanthropy,
+for she did not observe it. But that her friend should not care for
+dolls, was a bitter grief to the little girl. "You will never take any
+pleasure in dolls if you do not like this one," she said.
+
+"Why should I take any pleasure in them?" Ernestine said in a tone of
+contempt.
+
+"What? Why, don't you know? I suppose you think the poor things do not
+feel it when you are unkind to them. But mamma says they feel it all,
+and don't like it, although they don't show it."
+
+"Do you believe all that your mother says?" asked Ernestine, shaking
+her head.
+
+"Certainly; of course. Mamma always tells the truth."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+Angelika stared at Ernestine. "How? Why, because I do."
+
+"Yes, but who told you so?"
+
+"No one; I know it myself."
+
+Ernestine looked down and said nothing.
+
+"I know it myself," she repeated thoughtfully, not comprehending why
+the words struck her so oddly. "But suppose she should tell you what
+you could not believe?"
+
+"Oh, a child must always believe what her mother says."
+
+"How if she cannot do it?"
+
+"But she must!" cried Angelika angrily.
+
+"She must? How can we believe anything because we must? It is not
+possible," said Ernestine, and she thought Angelika very silly.
+Suddenly it occurred to her that the pastor was no wiser when he said
+that we must have faith and that it was a sin not to believe. What if
+you could not,--what was the use of that _must_?
+
+"Ernestine, don't stare so at nothing," said Angelika, interrupting her
+reverie. "Just look how straight my doll can sit, all alone, without
+anything to lean against! Oh, just give her one kiss; she is your
+namesake--I christened her Ernestine."
+
+"No, I don't want to,--it is nothing but a lump of leather, it cannot
+feel, and I will not kiss anything that is not alive and does not
+feel!"
+
+"Oh, Ernestine, don't say that. She is not alive now, but perhaps she
+may get alive. Mamma told me once of a man in Greece, called Pygmalion,
+who made a marble doll for himself, and loved it so dearly that it grew
+warm and came to life. And I believe that if I should love my doll
+dearly she might get alive; and I am sure I shall love her very dearly!
+She can say 'papa' and 'mamma' already, which Herr Pygmalion's doll
+could not do at all; and in time I shall perhaps bring her on, just as
+he did his!"
+
+And she clasped the "lump of leather" to her little heart, gazed
+tenderly and hopefully into its blue glass eyes, and was quite content.
+
+Ernestine looked at her with mournful wonder; she understood now that
+"Faith gives peace," and she envied the child her happiness.
+
+"Would you not rather have a puppy or a kitten?" she asked gently. "It
+could eat and drink, and you could feed it, and it would understand
+what was said to it, and run after you, and love you? Would not that be
+nicer?"
+
+A shade of sorrow passed over Angelika's rosy face, like a cloud over
+the sun. "Oh," she sighed, "we have a little dog; but I cannot feed it;
+it does not eat nor drink!"
+
+"Why not? Is it sick?"
+
+"No; it is stuffed."
+
+Ernestine smiled in spite of herself. "Then you have no dog!"
+
+"Oh, yes, we have! he is called Assor. He only died, and mamma had him
+stuffed, so that he lies perfectly quiet near the fire, and never
+stirs. Mamma says he will not come to life again. Oh, Ernestine, it is
+very sad,--when I stroke him, he never licks my hand any more! I call
+him hundreds of times, and he used to turn his pretty black head round
+towards me, but he does not do it now; he cannot see nor hear me, and
+he used to love me so much."
+
+The little girl covered her eyes with her hand and began to cry.
+
+Ernestine tried to soothe her. "Your mother ought to have had the dog
+buried. Then you would have forgotten him and not grieved after him."
+
+"No! oh, no! I could not have borne that. What! have the faithful old
+dog hidden in the ground! It would have been too hard! He was so
+faithful; he never left our side; and when he could hardly walk, he
+used to creep out of his basket to welcome us when we came into the
+room, and when he was dying in my lap, he looked up at me so
+mournfully, as if to say, 'I must leave you now.' And could I hide him
+away and forget him? That would be dreadful. No, no! he shall lie by
+the fire in the drawing-room; it is far more comfortable there than in
+the cold ground, and I will always think how good he was. And I'll tell
+you what,--when mamma dies she shall not be buried either. I will put
+her dressing gown on her and let her lie in her soft bed. Then I will
+pretend she is sick, and I will sit by her every day and talk to her,
+and, even if she does not answer me, I shall know what she would say if
+she could speak. And if she cannot kiss me, I will kiss her all the
+more. That will be a great deal better than to have nothing left of
+her; will it not?"
+
+Ernestine shook her head. "That can't be done, Angelika; you can't keep
+dead bodies; they decay. How can you think of such a thing?"
+
+"Oh, you say, 'That can't be done,'--you say, 'That's nothing,' to
+everything, and spoil all my pleasure; I tell you it is very unkind of
+you!"
+
+Ernestine felt ashamed. She had been treating Angelika as her uncle
+Leuthold treated herself. The child was pained and unhappy when her
+dolls were treated with contempt, and her childish fancies not
+encouraged; and was she, Ernestine, to endure without a moan the utter
+overthrow of the hopes of her entire existence, when her uncle dragged
+down into the dust all that she had held most sacred? She leaned her
+forehead, heavy with the weight of her thoughts, against the
+window-pane, and looked up into the gray, storm-lashed clouds, through
+which there beamed no star, not a ray of moonlight. The children had
+not noticed the gathering darkness in the room, and Rieka almost
+startled them when she entered with a light.
+
+"Is not mamma coming soon?" asked Angelika with a sigh. "Pray tell her
+that I want to go home."
+
+"I will tell her," replied Rieka, and left the room.
+
+"You are tired of being with me," Ernestine whispered sadly. "You
+cannot love me either, can you?"
+
+Angelika was confused, and did not answer. Ernestine looked
+disappointed and bitter. "Very well, then--I need not like you either.
+Uncle Leuthold would only scold me if I did."
+
+"What for?" Angelika asked amazed.
+
+"Because it is silly to love anything except science, and because
+nobody loves me--nobody!"
+
+As she was speaking, a carriage drove up, and old Heim alighted from
+it. Ernestine was startled; she felt as if the pastor, whom she had
+shunned, were coming. The door opened, and he entered the room.
+
+"Well, here you both are!" he cried after his hearty fashion. "I wanted
+to say good-by to you, my little Ernestine, before you leave us for so
+long. But what is the matter? Have you been quarrelling about the doll?
+Why, what a lovely creature she is!" He took the doll, seated himself
+in a chair, and dandled it upon his knee; the machinery of the toy was
+set in motion, and the doll screamed "mamma" and "papa" loudly. "Good
+gracious, how frightened I am!" laughed the old gentleman. "But she is
+very naughty,--you must train her better, Angelika. She ought not to
+scream so at strangers."
+
+Angelika clapped her hands with delight. "Oh, I knew that you would
+like her, Uncle Heim. You will love her just as you do the rest of my
+dolls, won't you?"
+
+"Of course; she is really such a lovely creature, that I must bring her
+some bonbons the next time I come."
+
+"Oh, yes--do, uncle, do!" cried Angelika.
+
+"But be careful not to let her eat too many, or she will have to be put
+to bed like your old Selma, and I shall have to play doll's-doctor
+again."
+
+"Oh, no, uncle; I will eat some with her myself; bring them soon, pray
+do."
+
+Meanwhile Heim had been observing Ernestine, who stood mute at a little
+distance.
+
+"Well, what does our little Ernestine say to this wonderful new child?"
+
+"Oh, uncle," Angelika complained, "she called it a lump of leather."
+
+Heim looked gravely at Ernestine. "So young, and already such a
+skeptic! Only twelve years old, and take no pleasure in dolls? Poor
+child!"
+
+Ernestine was silent. The words "Poor child" fell like molten lead into
+an open wound. Heim gave back the doll to Angelika. "Come here,
+Ernestine." She approached him shyly.
+
+"What have you been doing? you look as if you had a guilty conscience?"
+
+"Well, she has, Uncle Heim," Angelika interposed; "for she said, a
+little while ago, that it was silly to love any one; and that is very
+wrong!"
+
+"Did you say that?" asked Heim astonished.
+
+Ernestine felt as though she should sink into the ground. She
+clasped her hands in entreaty. "Oh, forgive me! I have all kinds of
+thoughts!--I do not know what I say or do! I only know that I am a
+wretched, wretched child!"
+
+Heim shook his head, and drew the trembling child towards him. "My
+darling, tell me about it: is your uncle severe with you? does he treat
+you unkindly?"
+
+"No, oh, no! he is very kind,--he is never cross to me--it is not
+that,--not that."
+
+"I understand. In spite of his kindness, you feel that he is not near
+to you; you have no father nor mother, and you need warmth and
+sunshine, you poor frail little flower. Only be patient! when you get
+to the lovely, sunny south, with its flowers and birds, you will be
+better, and your heart will be lighter. I would have liked to keep you
+with me, I would have brought you up lovingly, and would have tried to
+fill a father's place to you. But it could not be,--God best knows
+why,--and I am sure it is better for you, mind and body, to leave this
+northern climate for a time."
+
+These kind words melted Ernestine's very heart. She pressed Heim's
+hands to her lips. She wanted to confess all to him. "Oh, do not speak
+so to me!" she cried with streaming eyes,--"not so kindly!--I do not
+deserve it."
+
+"My poor innocent child, what can you have done, not to deserve
+kindness? Ernestine, what is it? What disturbs you so?"
+
+"Oh, if you knew--" cried Ernestine, and just then the door opened, and
+Leuthold appeared, just in time to prevent what would have ruined all
+his plans.
+
+"Ah, Herr Geheimrath,--then I was not mistaken. It was your carriage
+that drove up. The Frau Staatsraethin is with me upon business, and
+requests your presence at the signing of a paper."
+
+"I will come immediately," Helm said briefly, and went up-stairs with
+Leuthold.
+
+"Now uncle will drive home with us," cried Angelika delighted. "Isn't
+he kind, Ernestine?"
+
+"Yes, oh, yes," sighed Ernestine, standing motionless beside the chair
+where Heim had been sitting. At last he returned with Leuthold and the
+Staatsraethin.
+
+"Angelika," said the latter, "we must hurry, so that Uncle Neuenstein
+shall not wait for his tea. Good-by, my little Ernestine. Herr
+Gleissert will tell you what we intend to do when you come back. Get
+well and strong, my child, so that you may come back to us a healthy
+little girl."
+
+Angelika kissed Ernestine hastily, and drew her mother towards the
+door.
+
+Ernestine stood still with downcast eyes. Heim went up to her and
+clasped her in his arms. He only said, "God bless you!" but these words
+agitated her greatly, and, as he turned to go, she sank on the floor,
+sobbing aloud.
+
+The visitors had gone,--the carriages had rolled away. Leuthold had
+been amusing himself for some time with Gretchen in his own room. But
+Ernestine was still on her knees in the cheerless room below-stairs,
+weeping over the grave of her childhood.
+
+
+
+
+
+                                PART II.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                            "ONLY A WOMAN."
+
+
+Upon a bright, sunny day, at the house of Professor Moellner in N----
+there were gathered the principal Professors of medicine and philosophy
+in the town. The table provided for the guests was loaded with
+everything that could rejoice the hearts of men who had spent the
+morning in delivering lectures. Lunch was not the only end for which
+this assemblage was gathered together. These learned gentlemen had
+taken this occasion to discuss a very ludicrous matter,--nothing less
+than an application from a lady for permission to attend the lectures
+and to graduate at the University of the place.
+
+Moellner had invited these gentlemen to his house for the purpose of
+this discussion. There sat the physiologist Meibert, the anatomist
+Beck, and the philosophers Herbert and Taun, leaning back in
+comfortable arm-chairs,--their throats very dry,--regarding with
+longing eyes the various bottles that stood as yet uncorked, as if
+awaiting the magic word that should make them yield up their contents.
+Hector, too, Moellner's large dog, was devouring with his eyes, at a
+respectful distance, the delicacies upon the table, quite unable to
+understand how the gentlemen could refrain so long from falling to. He
+would have done very differently had he been a man.
+
+The Staatsraethin entered the room, and with dignified repose and
+kindliness of manner greeted the guests, who rose as she appeared. "I
+have just learned that my son is not here to receive his friends," she
+said. "Allow me to act his part. You must need refreshment after the
+lectures."
+
+"Thanks, thanks! you are most kind," was heard from all sides as the
+Staatsraethin filled the glasses. Herbert, the philosopher, was foremost
+in his acknowledgments; for he was a great favourite in society, and
+aspired to unite the solidity of the scholar with the grace of the man
+of the world. "We are greatly privileged in being allowed to kiss the
+hand whose tasteful care we have already admired in the charming,
+arrangement of this table."
+
+"Professor Herbert's gallantry is well known," said the Staatsraethin
+dryly.
+
+"It is true," he replied, "that I endeavour always to give expression
+to the sentiments of respect and admiration that I entertain for your
+sex, madam, in spite of the failure of my attempts."
+
+"Good-morning, mamma,--good-morning, gentlemen," cried a clear, ringing
+voice, and there came tripping into the room a figure so full of life
+and bloom that its joyousness was instantly reflected upon every face.
+
+"Angelika," said the Staatsraethin, embracing her, "have you come
+without your husband? What is the matter? You were not invited;--it was
+_he_. Is it a mistake?"
+
+"Oh, Frau Staatsraethin, we are entirely satisfied with the exchange,"
+laughed the professors; and, Herbert taking the lead,--they gathered
+about Angelika, enjoying the atmosphere of youth and grace that
+encompassed her everywhere.
+
+"I know perfectly well, mamma, that only Moritz was invited, but I have
+come too. I so wanted to hear judgment passed in this august assembly
+upon my former playmate. I may stay, may I not?"
+
+"If your husband is willing, and these gentlemen do not object," said
+the Staatsraethin.
+
+"No, oh, no,--we certainly do not object," cried all the gentlemen,
+with the exception of Herbert, who remarked softly, with a thoughtful
+air, that he feared that their charming associate might hear some
+observations on this occasion not flattering to her sex.
+
+"Oh, I cannot fear anything of the sort from you, the acknowledged
+champion of dames, the most gallant of men," laughed Angelika,--"and
+the other gentlemen will not be too bard upon us."
+
+Herbert shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Besides," Angelika continued gaily, "I have been a little hardened in
+the matter by my stern lord and master, who has very little
+consideration for our sex."
+
+"Scarcely to be wondered at in a practising physician," Herbert said in
+a low tone to his associates; then, turning with his sweetest
+expression to Angelika, "Could you not have taught him better long
+ago?"
+
+"Oh, no," complained Angelika.
+
+"He considers his wife an exception," interposed the Staatsraethin; "she
+seems to have left no room in his nature for sympathy with the rest of
+womankind. I have never seen a man so exclusive in his regard."
+
+"Such a wife deserves it all," said Herbert, kissing Angelika's hand.
+
+At this moment the door opened, and old Heim, his fine head crowned
+with locks of silvery whiteness, entered. All bowed low to this "Nestor
+of science," as he was called. After the death of his king he had
+accepted a call to N----, and had for eight years occupied the chair of
+pathology in the University there. He was followed by his adopted son,
+for whom he had created a professorship for the cure of diseases of the
+eye,--a fair, handsome young man, slender in figure and gentle in
+demeanour, with hands so small and well shaped that they seemed formed
+for the very purpose of handling such a delicate piece of mechanism as
+the eye. The Staatsraethin and Angelika greeted them both with all their
+old cordiality, and Professor Herbert said aloud, "How fresh and strong
+our revered associate looks! he must teach us how to retain our youth."
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Meibert, "if Bock could see him he would recall his
+cruel assertion that man retains full possession of his mental powers
+only until the age of fifty!"
+
+"He will soon recall that when he has passed fifty himself," said a
+deep, powerful voice. All turned to the new-comer.
+
+"Ah, Moellner, have you been listening?"
+
+"Oh, no; but I could not help hearing, as I came in, that you were
+making pretty speeches to one another,--just as if you had cups of tea
+before you, instead of glasses of good wine. Pray, what has made you so
+sentimental?"
+
+"Your protracted absence, probably," said Angelika, relieving her
+brother of his hat and cane.
+
+The strong, fine-looking man threw an affectionate glance at her.
+"Indeed! let me entreat forgiveness, then. One of my experiments was
+unsuccessful, and I was obliged to repeat it. That is why I am late!"
+
+"I suppose, then, you have been torturing some unfortunate dog or
+rabbit," said Angelika in a tone of distress. "Poor thing!"
+
+"For shame, Angelika!" said her brother. "Those are not words for the
+sister of a physiologist,--a woman who ought to understand the object
+of science."
+
+Angelika made no reply, but observed, well pleased, how tenderly
+Johannes stroked Hector, who came to greet his master.
+
+The door was flung violently open, and in rushed, in a great hurry,
+Angelika's husband, Moritz Kern, Clinical Professor and practising
+physician. His figure was not tall, but muscular,--his eyes were black
+and sparkling, his features sharply cut, and his stiff black hair close
+cropped around his head. "Morning, morning," he cried, quite out of
+breath, but in high good humour, as he threw his hat and gloves upon a
+table and himself into a chair. "Excuse me for my tardiness. Ah, my
+dear,--kiss your hand,--love me? Yes? Not seen you since morning.
+Walter with you? No? Was he good?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Angelika, who stood beside her boisterous husband
+like a rose upon a thorny stem; "but he fell off his rocking-horse and
+has got a great bruise."
+
+"Good, good,--harden him," he replied smiling. He looked for an instant
+into Angelika's blue eyes, and the fire of his glance must have
+penetrated her heart, for her fair brow flushed and her eyelids drooped
+like those of a girl upon the day of her betrothal.
+
+"Come, Moritz, you can make love to your wife another time," cried
+Johannes; "it is late,--we must come to business. What detained you?"
+
+"My dear friend, I couldn't help it. I had a girl at the clinic
+that gave me no end of trouble. Old trouble with the
+heart,--acute inflammation,--stoppage in the arteries of the left
+foot,--mortification,--the leg must come off to-day."
+
+"A splendid case!" said Helm approvingly.
+
+"Heavens! what savages you are, to call that a splendid case!" said
+Angelika horrified.
+
+"My angel, if you choose to assist at a council of rude men, you must
+not start at such innocent technical terminology," said her husband,
+enjoying Angelika's pretty dismay.
+
+"Yes, I too have been scolding her for sympathizing with the victims of
+my experiments," said Moellner.
+
+"You were wrong to blame her. I like to have her compassionate.
+Continue to weep for the poor dogs, my child, and the yet more
+unfortunate frogs. What have you to do with the reasons for torturing
+them? I do not want you to imbibe any flavour of science from your
+husband or brother. I like you just as you are; you suit me precisely.
+I will not have you otherwise."
+
+"For heaven's sake, mamma, carry Angelika away!" cried Johannes
+laughing. "As long as this fellow has his wife by his side, there is
+nothing to be done with him!"
+
+"She shall stay!" said Moritz decidedly. "There is nothing of
+importance to be done. The Hartwich woman asks to attend our lectures;
+why waste any thought upon such a fool? Don't answer her request at
+all, and be done with it!"
+
+"Softly, softly, my young friend," cried old Heim very gravely, while
+Moritz, with Angelika's hand in his, swallowed a glass of wine. "First
+read this paper, which the girl sent to me, and which so enchained
+Moellner's attention when I gave it to him to-day after lecture that--I
+must betray him--it was the cause of his tardiness. The experiments
+were over long before he made his appearance!"
+
+A slight flush overspread Johannes' face as he handed Moritz the paper.
+The latter read the title aloud--"_Reflex Motion in its Relation to
+Free Agency_."
+
+"By Jove! a good idea, if it is her own!"
+
+"It is her own--that I'll vouch for!" cried Heim with warmth.
+
+"That must be both philosophically and physiologically interesting,"
+said the philosopher Taun to Herbert, who coldly shrugged his
+shoulders.
+
+"Let us see whether the article corresponds to the title," muttered
+Moritz, turning over the leaves.
+
+"Read us some of it aloud," said Heim; and Moritz selected, at random,
+and read: "According to my opinion, the want of external self-control
+proceeds from sluggishness of the inhibitory nerves in comparison with
+the activity of the motor nerves, for the effort to control one's self
+is certainly, in a degree, neither more nor less than a struggle for
+mastery between these two sets of nerves. If the irritation acting upon
+the one is stronger than the force of will which should excite the
+other to activity, the reflex motion will take place in spite of what
+is called 'best intentions,' whether the occasion be a start of alarm,
+a desire to yawn, laugh, or weep at unfitting times, a scream, an angry
+gesture, or even a blow bestowed upon the object whence proceeds the
+incitement to wrath."
+
+Moritz paused, and said smiling, "She has forgotten a kiss, which is
+only a reflex motion under certain circumstances,--that is, when one
+does not wish to kiss, ought not to kiss, and yet cannot help it." And
+he drew his wife towards him, and kissed her. Angelika blushed deeply,
+and, rising, greatly embarrassed, joined her mother, who sat quietly at
+work by the window. The gentlemen laughed, and Moritz looked after her
+with eyes full of tenderness.
+
+"It certainly is strange that while the Hartwich has made due mention
+of the reflex motion of terror--a start; of pain--tears; of fatigue--a
+yawn; of anger--a blow, it does not seem to have occurred to her that
+there are reflex motions of tenderness, also," remarked young Hilsborn.
+
+"Probably," said Moritz laughing, "she has had no opportunity for
+observing any such. I suppose that, like all blue-stockings, she is so
+ugly that no one has ever bestowed any tenderness upon her."
+
+"She is certainly not ugly," said Johannes with warmth. "She might have
+admirers enough if she chose."
+
+Moritz turned hastily round to Johannes, who sat almost behind him, and
+stared as if a new idea had suddenly occurred to him. "What the deuce,
+Johannes! do you know her? Oho! indeed! now I understand the interest
+that you take in her. Well, you can teach her to make good her
+omissions."
+
+"I should really like to be present at such an interesting lesson!"
+said Herbert.
+
+"Laugh away," said Johannes calmly. "You may laugh at me as much as you
+please, but have the goodness, Moritz, to spare your jests as far as
+Fraeulein Hartwich is concerned; and you too, friend Herbert. Pray heed
+what I say. We have nothing to do here with the personality of this
+girl; it is nothing to us. All we have to do is to pass judgment upon
+her intellectual capacity, and to accede or not to her request. Go on,
+Moritz!"
+
+And Moritz read further: "Even the law, without knowing it, recognizes
+this physiological fact, for it punishes less severely a murder
+committed in the heat of passion than one that is premeditated. And
+what is a murder committed in the heat of passion, in reality, but a
+reflex motion in a broader sense? If this theory be correct, many a
+poor criminal may escape not only a violent death at the hangman's
+hands, but also the flames of the material hell to which bigoted
+moralists have consigned him. Let us endeavour, therefore, to discover
+what relation these facts sustain to Free Agency. All that we can do to
+attain the self-control which is the germ of all the virtues is, from
+earliest childhood, to exercise the inhibitory nerves in the discharge
+of their functions. It is an undoubted fact that, from the beginning of
+life, the mind must learn to use as its tools the various organs of the
+body. We cannot understand the use of a tool to which we are
+unaccustomed as we can one that we have frequently handled. Thus it is
+with the mind and the nerves. Every nerve that is often called into
+activity by the mind is strengthened by exercise. For example: the
+sense of touch grows remarkably keen with blind people, who depend upon
+it as a substitute for eyesight. By continual exercise of the nerves of
+sensation in his finger-tips, the blind man achieves the greatest
+perfection in his sense of touch. 'Practice makes perfect,' we often
+hear said with regard to arts and occupations difficult of mastery. And
+what is this practice but the custom of the mind to exercise this or
+that nerve, bringing into play the required muscular activity,--the
+exercise of certain nerve-fibres? Are the inhibitory nerves alone not
+to be thus controlled? Certainly not! The mind can make them also
+implicitly obedient to its will, if it neglects no opportunity for
+exercising them,--and why should it not apply itself to this task with
+the same zeal that is expended upon the attainment of an art or
+handicraft? I, for example, was in the habit of screaming at the
+unexpected discharge of a pistol. I had a pistol discharged daily in my
+hearing, without warning, and in a short time I was able to suppress
+the scream. It may be urged that I had gradually become accustomed to
+the noise, and was no longer startled. But this was not the case. I was
+as much startled as ever, but I had taught the appropriate inhibitory
+nerve to cut off the reflex motion upon the larynx. I know that a
+subjective experience of this kind proves nothing objectively; but such
+a simple inference, I think, needs no proof. Here we come again to the
+boundary-line separating the physiological from the psychological,
+where free agency results from a material law, just as fragrance comes
+from the chalice of a flower. Only let us be sure that our nerves are
+but a key-board upon which, if we strike the right keys correctly, we
+shall produce the harmonious accord of our whole being, and, if we do
+not learn to do so, we are to be pitied or despised, according to the
+school in which the lesson is needed."
+
+"And so on," said Moritz, turning over the leaves. "The rest can be
+easily imagined. Here is a special treatise upon the motor nerves,--it
+seems pretty fair,--and rather a long essay upon nervous excitement,
+but I think we have done our duty and read enough of the testimony. How
+shall we decide? Shall we carry out the joke, and admit a student in
+petticoats to the lectures and the dissecting-room?"
+
+"Why not?" said Professor Taun with some humour. "We admit so many
+stupid lads, why not one woman?"
+
+"My dear friend," old Heim began, "I do not think we have ever had many
+pupils more gifted than Fraeulein Hartwich. And is not a talented woman
+better than a stupid man?"
+
+"That is a question," remarked Herbert, riveting his sharp eyes upon
+Heim's honest face. "I do not believe that the most talented woman can
+accomplish what is possible, with diligence and perseverance, for a man
+of common ability. What aid can a woman lend to us, or to science? The
+aid of her labour only, for no woman possesses creative force. And the
+feminine capacity for labour is so weak, that it is hardly worth while
+to commit an absurdity for the sake of making it ours."
+
+"An absurdity?" asked Heim.
+
+"Yes, I should call it absurd to admit a woman among our students, to
+degrade science to a mere doll to amuse silly girls withal, until,
+finally, there would be an Areopagus erected, before which we should be
+expected to make our most profound bow, in every feminine tea-party.
+There is competition enough already, without increasing it by the
+admission among us of the other sex."
+
+"That sounds strange," said old Heim; "it looks almost as if you were
+afraid of the competition which you so thoroughly despise. Why speak of
+competition in science? Leave that narrow-minded word to trade, which
+is really confined within certain limits. In such a boundless and
+abstract domain as science, there is no place for personal envy and
+arrogance. Can there be any question of competition when we are
+labouring for a cause which is to benefit the world? Whoever asks for
+other rewards than are contained in knowledge itself, is no priest of
+science. The true student exists for science, not science for him,--he
+rejoices in every fresh advance, no matter by whom it is made, for the
+honour of the cause that he serves is his own, and we can say
+truthfully, Each for all, and all for each. If, therefore, we are
+offered the labour of a pair of hands willing to share our pains, let
+us not reject them because they are the delicate hands of a woman, but
+accept them, and offer them a modest place, where they can achieve all
+that lies in their power."
+
+"But," cried Moritz, "let such hands do for us what we cannot do for
+ourselves,--knit stockings, for instance,--instead of trying to assist
+in what we can easily accomplish without them."
+
+"My dear young friend," said Heim smiling, "the temple of science is
+large, very large. I think neither we nor our posterity, however
+numerous they may be, will be able to complete it."
+
+"I think, gentlemen," said the philosopher Taun, in his gentle, refined
+way, "that there are only two points of view from which the matter is
+to be considered. Either we must base our decision upon the
+intellectual capacity of the lady, and, if so, subject the paper before
+us to conscientious criticism; or we must determine, once for all, that
+no woman is to be admitted to our University,--in which case there will
+be no question whatever of capacity or incapacity. Let us, then, come
+to an agreement upon these points."
+
+"That is true,--Taun is right," cried Heim. "I vote for the admission
+of women of genius, like this one."
+
+"And I against it," rejoined Herbert; "for I contend that there are no
+women of genius!"
+
+"For my part," said Taun, "I am not decidedly opposed to the admission
+of a woman among our hearers, and, if I were, the originality of
+Fraeulein Hartwich's paper would have shaken my decision. I cannot judge
+of the value of the physiological part of it,--I must leave that to our
+friend Moellner; but the philosophical idea that is its basis I think
+extremely suggestive, and that is more than can be expected from one of
+the laity."
+
+"I oppose the emancipation of women," cried Moritz, "principally
+because I find the existing order of society quite rational, and will
+do nothing to disturb it."
+
+"I vote for Fraeulein Hartwich," said young Hilsborn. "It will not
+interfere with our social order to grant her request. She will not be
+followed by crowds of imitators, for the simple reason that her talent
+is extraordinary. I maintain that we have no right to deny any
+opportunity for development to such a talent because it is accidentally
+hidden in a woman's brain. A great mind requires strong nourishment,
+and it is cruel to withhold such from it out of mere envy, and condemn
+it to extinction among the commonplace occupations of women."
+
+"Hilsborn is far from wrong," said Meibert; "but can such a mind quench
+its thirst for knowledge nowhere but in a University? The lady has
+certainly proved in the treatise before us that she has learned
+something outside of the walls of the lecture-room. What does she want
+of a degree? It must be vanity that suggests the want, and we are to
+blame if we lend ourselves to the gratification of such a folly."
+
+"That is my opinion also," added Beck.
+
+But Hilsborn was not silenced. "It seems very natural to me that a
+woman who feels herself possessed of the mental power of a man should
+aspire to manly dignities, and her desire to espouse science, not as an
+amusement, but as the occupation and end of her existence, is a proof
+of her deep conviction of its grave importance. There is certainly
+nothing here of the female vanity which resorts to bodily and mental
+adornment merely for the sake of pleasing."
+
+"You are a brave champion, Hilsborn," said Moellner, holding out his
+hand to the young man.
+
+"Then we are only three against four," said old Heim. "Moellner's vote
+alone is wanting,--and if he gives it in favour of the Hartwich, there
+will be a tie; so I propose that we give him the casting vote,
+especially as he, as a physiologist, is best capable of judging of the
+value of the essay before us."
+
+"I should have thought," cried Moritz, "that any one of us could have
+passed judgment upon such a piece of dilettanteism; it is only the
+modern nonsense about the fibres. There is not much in it!"
+
+All present looked eagerly towards Johannes, who was calmly leaning
+back in his arm-chair. "It is no piece of dilettanteism. I grant that
+it is hasty and one-sided to attempt to ascribe all self-control to the
+impediments of reflex motion; nevertheless, Fraeulein Hartwich's essay
+evinces a comprehension of the physiology of the nervous system far
+beyond what is usual, and I cannot deny that such a self-dependent
+realization of scholarship is a proof of the most decided creative
+faculty." Here he looked at Herbert.
+
+"Indeed?" said the latter pointedly.
+
+"Yes!" said Moellner with warmth; "but, nevertheless, I give my vote
+against her admission; and of course that decides the matter,--we are
+now five to three!" The gentlemen looked at one another, some with
+surprise, some with annoyance.
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Heim. "You were thoroughly delighted to-day
+with the girl's talent."
+
+"We relied upon you," said Hilsborn reproachfully.
+
+"This is the first injustice of which I have ever convicted my friend
+Moellner," said Taun, shaking his head.
+
+Johannes looked at his dismayed associates with quiet amusement, and
+did not observe that Herbert extended his hand to him to thank him for
+his assistance.
+
+"God be thanked," he muttered, "that you have given the fool her
+discharge!" And he swallowed the contents of his glass with evident
+satisfaction.
+
+"Johannes! Johannes!" Hilsborn began again, "why have you treated the
+girl and ourselves in this manner?"
+
+"Why?" asked Johannes,--and there was a glow in his face that quite
+transfigured it,--"because she is far more to me than to any of you."
+
+"You have chosen a very odd method to show that it is so," Hilsborn
+remonstrated.
+
+"Do you think so, short-sighted man?" asked Moellner gravely.
+
+"What harm can it do you to make the Hartwich happy?" grumbled
+Hilsborn.
+
+Moellner looked at him with a smile.--"When we take away from a child a
+knife with which it is playing, we do so, not because we are afraid it
+will harm us, but itself. True, the child will regard us as an enemy,
+but we act for its own sake."
+
+"Well, is the Hartwich the child that you feel so bound to protect?"
+
+"Yes, Hilsborn! Woman, of whatever age, is intrusted to the
+guardianship of man. It is ours to decide her future, to protect her;
+and we are responsible for her development. Which of you, my dear
+friends Heim, Taun, and Hilsborn, when I put it to your consciences,
+can deny that the Hartwich is treading a mistaken path,--that she is
+trespassing beyond the bounds that form the natural division-line
+between the sexes? I have nothing to urge in opposition to the mental
+activity of woman, provided it be exercised within the limits of her
+proper sphere; and these limits I set far beyond the place assigned her
+by our friend Herbert and my brother-in-law Moritz. But I have such a
+reverence for true womanhood that I will lend my aid to no project
+which can be carried out only at its expense."
+
+"I think," said Moritz, "that the Hartwich must have already entirely
+renounced the womanhood of which you speak, or she never would have
+entertained such projects. There can't be much there to spoil."
+
+"You judge hastily, Moritz, as you always do," said Johannes. "If you
+knew under what influences this girl has grown up, you would understand
+that it is not a want of delicacy, but lofty courage,--a passionate,
+sacred enthusiasm,--that prevents her from shuddering at the horrors of
+the study of physiology and enables her to look beyond the individual
+to the universe. A dazzling light, flaming before our eyes, blinds us
+to what lies nearest us. Thus was it with this gifted girl when the
+light of science arose for her, enveloping with its glory the world of
+reality around her."
+
+Moritz's face, usually so gay in expression, suddenly grew grave: he
+looked at Moellner with manifest anxiety.--"Johannes, you talk as if you
+had a personal interest in this preposterous creature!"
+
+"Why should I deny it?--Yes, I have!"
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Moritz, "you are not going to stand in friend
+Hilsborn's way? He seems to have serious intentions with regard to
+her."
+
+"Oh, you are wrong there, Moritz," said Hilsborn. "Her perilous
+struggle for emancipation inspires me with sympathy, it is true, but
+with no desire for a closer knowledge of her. I may surely like to have
+her for a pupil without wanting to marry her."
+
+"And there, Hilsborn," said Johannes gaily, "lies the difference
+between us; for I should wish to have her not for a pupil, but for a
+wife!"
+
+An exclamation of dismay burst from the lips of all present. "How did
+you come to know her?" "Where did he know her?" the gentlemen, with the
+exception of Heim and Hilsborn, inquired.
+
+"How the idea of my danger seems to startle you!" said Johannes
+good-humouredly. "Is the girl an evil spirit,--a witch? No, she is only
+a woman. How can you be afraid of a woman? What makes her terrible to
+you makes her interesting to me; and where is the danger for me, even
+if I should try to lead her out of her crooked path? Yes, even if she
+should become my wife----"
+
+"Heaven save you from such a wife!" the Staatsraethin interposed.
+
+"Matters have not yet gone quite so far, mother; there is nothing in
+the affair yet but pure human sympathy. But suppose it were to go
+further,--what then? The husband who is made unhappy by his wife has
+only himself to blame; for woman is just what we make her."
+
+"Oh, presumptuous man!" exclaimed the Staatsraethin, "there are women
+who would prove your error to you after a terrible fashion! This
+Hartwich girl was to me a most disagreeable child,--what must she be
+now?"
+
+"A woman who seems strayed from another world,--an apparition once seen
+never forgotten!"
+
+"Heavens!" said the Staatsraethin, really alarmed, "where and when have
+you met her? She vanished almost ten years ago; and if her
+rationalistic books had not appeared last winter, every one would have
+forgotten her."
+
+"Did you know her before, then?" several gentlemen asked curiously.
+
+"We were playmates for some time," said Angelika, "but in the end I
+could not endure her, she was so old-fashioned and despised my dolls."
+
+The gentlemen laughed.
+
+"She was the most strangely interesting child I ever saw in my life!"
+said old Heim.
+
+"Indeed she was," said Moellner; "but there was something repellant
+about her, for she had been embittered by cruel treatment, which had
+developed her mind precociously, while it had stunted her body. Such
+incongruity is always disagreeable, and therefore every one shunned
+her, as she shunned every one. We soon forgot her, for she left our
+part of the country when she was twelve years old, and we heard nothing
+more either of her or of her guardian, who accompanied her. A year or
+more ago, however, a couple of brochures from her pen appeared, that
+excited a tempest of criticism, at least among women, on account of
+their rationalistic tendency. I did not think it worth while to read
+them, as the pale little Hartwich girl had almost faded from my memory.
+No one knew anything about her, and we took no pains to know, for my
+mother and sister had been deeply shocked by the child's atheism, and
+had given her up. A short time since I went to see my friend Hilsborn,
+and met him just as he was getting into his carriage to drive to the
+village of Hochstetten, two miles off. He had been sent for to see the
+village schoolmaster. Hilsborn asked me to go with him, and, as the day
+was fine, I consented. When we arrived at the small castle that lies in
+the outskirts of the village, we alighted. Hilsborn went to find the
+schoolmaster,--I remained behind, to await his return, and walked
+slowly past the large, neglected garden, that surrounds the castle. A
+fresh breeze stirred the waving wheat-fields, and the setting sun shone
+through the quivering air upon the distant landscape. Suddenly, painted
+upon the flaming horizon, like the picture of a saint of the Middle
+Ages upon a golden background, appeared the figure of a woman dressed
+in black,--a woman so beautiful and sad that she might have been
+Night's messenger commanding the sun to set. She stood with folded
+arms, motionless, upon a little eminence in the garden, looking full at
+the descending orb of light, while the breeze stirred the heavy folds
+of her dress. The evening-red cast a glow upon her grave face, white as
+marble, and the light in her large eyes seemed not to proceed from the
+sun which they mirrored, but from within. I stared like a boy at the
+beautiful, silent apparition, and forgot that my gaze might annoy her
+should she become aware of it. And so it proved. As she took up some
+coloured glasses lying beside her, I saw with surprise that she was
+trying some optical experiment, and just then her glance fell upon me.
+A shade of vexation passed over her face, now turned from the light,
+and lent it a cold, stern expression. Without honouring me with a
+second glance, she gathered together her optical instruments and walked
+quietly down the little hill. Just then the sun disappeared below the
+horizon, as if at her command, and gloomy twilight gathered above the
+silent garden, in whose paths she disappeared. I could not picture to
+myself a happy face among those rank, thick bushes behind that high
+wall. I could not imagine a happy heart in the breast of that lonely,
+gloomy figure. Night fell while I was still vainly looking after her. I
+hurried on to the schoolmaster's, upon the pretence of finding
+Hilsborn, and learned from him that my unknown was Ernestine Hartwich.
+She had, a short time before, rented the Haunted Castle, as it was
+called, and, as they were not very enlightened in the village, the
+beautiful girl was regarded with a sort of supernatural terror,--for
+certainly something must be wrong with one who lived so entirely cut
+off from intercourse with human beings, and who, worse than all, never
+went to church. There was some excuse to be found for her, to be sure,
+in the evil influence of a step-uncle and guardian, who had had charge
+of her since the early death of her parents, and who possessed entire
+authority over her. He is that famous, or rather infamous, Doctor
+Gleissert, of whom you have all heard."
+
+"Oho! he!" murmured the gentlemen in a contemptuous tone, and old Heim
+bestowed upon him a hearty "Scoundrel!"
+
+"Well," Johannes continued, "I am sure you will not imagine me such a
+fool as to have fallen in love at the first sight of a beautiful face,
+but the apparition that I have just described presented a combination
+of what is most attractive to a man,--'beauty, intellect, and virtue.'"
+
+"Virtue!" Herbert repeated; "are you so sure of that?"
+
+"Yes. If Fraeulein Hartwich were not virtuous, she would not live
+in such strict retirement. Those who have tasted the cup of
+self-indulgence are too apt to return to it; the truly pure alone can
+find contentment in seclusion and loneliness, inspired only by a grand
+idea! I go still further, and, as a physiologist, upon the ground of
+the preservation of force, maintain that a woman engaged in such
+unusual and profound studies needs all her vital energy for her work,
+and is dead to all the pleasures of sense. Hence we so often find
+entire lack of sensibility in women accustomed to great mental
+activity,--because their supply of vital force is not sufficient for
+the double occupation of thinking and feeling. And therefore my only
+fear is that there is no warm heart throbbing within that exquisite
+form."
+
+The professors looked significantly at one another, and the
+Staatsraethin exchanged anxious whispers with Angelika.
+
+"Well," said Herbert, as he arose from his chair, "I propose that we
+leave our respected associate to his dreams, and wish for his sake that
+his pupil may not be as accomplished upon the subject of the nerves of
+sensation as upon the inhibitory nerves."
+
+The gentlemen all arose.
+
+Johannes looked fixedly at Herbert and said, "I am no dreamer, Doctor
+Herbert, although I believe in the virtue that requires no certificate
+of character. And, I repeat, I believe so firmly in this virtue, that I
+denounce as a slanderer the man who dares to assail it by a single
+word!"
+
+"Sir!" cried Herbert with irritation, "your remark is insulting!"
+
+"Only to him to whom it may apply!" said Johannes calmly.
+
+Angelika ran to her brother and threw her arms around him. "Johannes!
+Johannes! consider who it is that you are defending. You do not even
+know her."
+
+"Yes, yes, she is right!" added several of the gentlemen.
+
+Johannes held up Ernestine's paper, and said with earnest gravity, "I
+do know her."
+
+Herbert took his hat, and, with a silent bow, was about to leave the
+room, when the beadle of the University rushed in and handed Johannes a
+letter. "Herr Professor! Herr Professor! this comes in haste from his
+Honor, and concerns all the gentlemen."
+
+Johannes opened the letter, and Herbert stood listening upon the
+threshold. After reading it, Johannes looked around the circle with a
+smile. "Gentlemen, we have been most strangely mystified. The prize
+essay upon the '_Capacity of the Eye for Stereoscopic Vision_,' which
+we all attributed to Hilsborn, is by--Fraeulein Hartwich!"
+
+An exclamation of surprise greeted this announcement. All present
+crowded around Johannes to read the letter; even Herbert entered the
+room again, to make sure that what he had heard was true. There was no
+doubt of it,--the fact was indisputable that these gentlemen had
+accorded the prize offered for the best essay upon the '_Capacity of
+the Eye for Stereoscopic Vision_' to Ernestine, to whom they had just
+denied admission to the University because she was a woman. It was a
+fact not exactly pleasant to contemplate, and the professors exchanged
+glances of chagrin.
+
+"What is to be done?" asked some.
+
+"This alters the case entirely," said Beck.
+
+"Moellner," cried Meibert, "this is embarrassing enough. I think we
+shall have to reconsider our decision."
+
+"We can scarcely withhold a diploma from a woman to whom we have
+awarded this prize," said Taun.
+
+Heim nodded in high good humour, and growled, "Ah, yes, you sing a
+different tune now!"
+
+"Gentlemen," said Johannes with emphasis, "I pray you do not mistake
+the point at issue. If the question had been of the capacity of the
+applicant, the essay that we have already read would have influenced
+our decision; but there is a social principle concerned, which we must
+not violate for the sake of an individual. Must I remind you of what
+you know so well?"
+
+"Our colleague is still victorious," said Taun, offering his hand with
+kindly dignity to Johannes. "We cannot think you in the wrong."
+
+"The prize awarded to a woman!" muttered Herbert, as he left the room.
+"It is enough to kill one with vexation!"
+
+"It is a pity," said the others, when he had departed, "that our
+pleasant morning should have been so spoiled by Herbert."
+
+"Do not be disturbed by it, dear friends," laughed Johannes; "it did me
+good to tell him the truth for once. He is one of those who sustain
+their mental existence by continual conflict. 'Destroy, that you may
+exist,' is their motto,--and of course they are the sworn enemies of
+all rising talent. They must be so, because they are not conscious of
+any power in themselves to soar above it; they need all the strength of
+their nature to enable them to avoid being extinguished by the wealth
+of vital force that is expended all around them. Those whose lot is
+cast beyond the sphere of such individuals can afford to pity them, but
+those who are within reach of their poisonous fangs must fear them as
+the arch-enemies of all creation and growth. Although I could not
+accede to Fraeulein Hartwich's request, the envious malice with which he
+criticised her pained me excessively."
+
+"That is very true," said the philosopher Taun. "It is sad enough when
+such embodied negations interfere with the free, joyous activity of
+art,--doubly so when they meddle with science!"
+
+"Who would have thought it," cried Angelika, "of the gallant Professor
+Herbert, who is sure to propose 'the ladies' at every supper-party! I
+am amazed!"
+
+"One who pays court to 'the ladies,' my fair colleague, may very
+possibly be no advocate for woman, since, according to my brother
+Schopenhauer, what constitutes the modern lady is not the strength, but
+the weakness, of her sex," replied Taun.
+
+"True enough," said Johannes. "Such a man might show consideration for
+weakness,--he can only contend with strength."
+
+"Only wait awhile, Herr Professor Herbert!" cried Angelika, shaking her
+plump little forefinger towards the door of the room. "I shall not
+forget you,--only wait--I will strip the sheep's clothing from the
+wolf's back, in full conclave of his lady friends! And you too,
+Moritz,--I have a word to say to you, but not until we are alone."
+
+The gentlemen laughed, and took their hats.
+
+"Come, we must not deprive our friend Kern for one moment longer of
+such a charming curtain-lecture," said Taun.
+
+All took their leave, except Heim, Hilsborn, and Moritz.
+
+"And so," began Angelika with a pout, "you miserable, detestable man,
+we are to do nothing but knit stockings?"
+
+"One thing beside," said Moritz, seizing both her hands,--"you may
+kiss--that is a charming vocation."
+
+"Nonsense! any stupid fool can do that,--the clever ones must do
+something better."
+
+"No woman with so pretty a mouth can do anything better! Only those who
+are ugly or old shall knit stockings."
+
+"There is no getting a serious word from you, Moritz, but I am sorry
+for poor Ernestine, and it grieves me that you were so hard upon her."
+
+One single stern glance from Moritz's black eyes encountered his
+wife's; it was enough--it silenced her instantly.
+
+"You know," he said kindly, but gravely, as if to a child, "that I do
+not like to have you undertake to decide upon matters of which you
+understand nothing."
+
+Angelika looked down, and a tear trembled upon her long eyelashes.
+
+"What is it?" asked Moritz soothingly, and drew her towards
+him,--"tears? And why not? Nothing more than a dewdrop in the bosom of
+a rose,--nothing more." He brushed away her tears, and she smiled at
+him again.
+
+"It is well for you, my son," said the Staatsraethin gently, but
+gravely, "that your wife's heart is so warm that the frost made in it
+by unkind words melts to tears and does no further injury."
+
+Moritz looked at his mother-in-law, and then at his wife.--"Angelika,
+was I unkind?"
+
+Angelika shook her fair curls and said, in a tone which told all the
+sweetness of her childlike disposition, "No, Moritz, you were right."
+
+"There, mamma, that is a true woman as she comes from the hand of her
+Creator to be a blessing to the man to whom she belongs," cried Moritz,
+with a fond look at his wife.
+
+The Staatsraethin stood beside them, her eyes resting with unspeakable
+affection upon her child, but there was a strange mixture of delight
+and anxiety in her heart.
+
+"This youthful devotion is very beautiful, but, when its first fervour
+has passed, nothing remains of the bridegroom but the lord and master
+of the wife, who is oftentimes as unhappy a slave as she is now a happy
+one." Such thoughts passed through the mother's mind, and she sighed.
+
+Meanwhile, Johannes had been talking in a low voice with Heim and
+Hilsborn about the contents of a letter which Heim had handed him to
+read. "Then, Father Heim, that is settled," he said.
+
+The Staatsraethin turned to them, and asked, "What have you there?"
+
+"A letter from Fraeulein Hartwich to Uncle Heim, mother."
+
+Johannes handed her the letter, and the Staatsraethin read:
+
+
+"Herr Geheimrath:
+
+"I do not know whether you remember a little girl called Ernestine
+Hartwich, whose life you once saved, but I do know that, even if you do
+not remember her, you will not refuse aid to any one who appeals to
+you. I have sent an application to the University here to be allowed to
+attend the lectures. I did this without my guardian's knowledge, for he
+disapproved of the plan. I therefore wish to keep the matter a secret
+from him until results shall reconcile him to my mode of proceeding."
+
+
+"Very considerate," interposed the Staatsraethin ironically; "but let us
+proceed."
+
+
+"My request to you is, my dear sir, that you will arrange matters so
+that the reply of the faculty to my application shall reach me without
+my uncle's knowledge, and, indeed, that you will convey it to me
+yourself. I also need your medical advice, for I am far from well, and
+my uncle has never permitted me to see a physician. I obeyed his wishes
+until I learnt that you reside in my neighbourhood. Now I turn to you
+with all my old confidence. If any one can help me, you can. I must
+entreat you, if you would spare me a painful scene, to come to me on a
+day when Doctor Gleissert is not at home. He goes to town on business
+every Wednesday and Saturday. I pray you to come to me on one of these
+days.
+
+                             "With great respect,
+
+                                   "Ernestine Hartwich."
+
+
+"Well, that is certainly more brief and to the point than might be
+expected from a blue-stocking," said Moritz.
+
+The Staatsraethin looked troubled. "It is dry and cold,--scarcely
+courteous,--certainly not cordial, as she might have been to her former
+benefactor."
+
+"Remember, my dear friend, that nearly ten years have passed since that
+time,--a very long period for so young a girl," said Heim.
+
+"Ah, Uncle Heim," cried Angelika, "you dandle my boy on your knee now,
+just as you did my doll then. These years have passed like a dream for
+me."
+
+"Your nature is very different from Ernestine's, my child," replied
+Heim.
+
+"Yes, thank God!" ejaculated Moritz.
+
+The Staatsraethin folded up the letter. "I cannot help pronouncing this
+letter heartless,--there is no other word for it. And mingled cowardice
+and defiance in regard to her uncle breathe from every line of it."
+
+"Proving how her strong nature has been cowed by that scoundrel," cried
+Johannes with warmth.
+
+His mother looked at him anxiously. "How could she, if she is such a
+strong, noble woman, submit to be cowed by such a man?"
+
+"Why not, dearest mother?" replied Johannes. "However noble and strong
+she may be, she is only a woman, after all."
+
+At this moment a carriage thundered past the house. They all looked out
+of the windows.
+
+"The Worronska!"
+
+"The fast countess!" cried Moritz. "What a model of an Amazon! How
+beautiful she is, managing those four horses and looking up here! That
+look is for you, Johannes. See! she is smiling at you."
+
+"I shall not interfere with Herbert," laughed Johannes. "I hear he is
+devoted to her."
+
+"What! Herbert!--to the Worronska?" cried Moritz. "How did that
+happen?"
+
+"Why, he was tutor for some years to a friend of the count's in St.
+Petersburg. He knew her there," replied Johannes.
+
+"Now, that would be a charming daughter-in-law for you, my dear
+Staatsraethin," said Helm. "Why, she would be even worse than the
+Hartwich."
+
+"Bah!" said Johannes. "She too is only a woman. If she fell, she owed
+her ruin to a man,--and a man might have been her saviour."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+                               THE SWAN.
+
+
+A dark, gloomy pile overlooked the village of Hochstetten, that lay
+about two miles from the city, in the midst of a charming country. It
+had once been called Hochstetten Castle; but since the direct line of
+the noble family in which it had passed for a century from father to
+son had died out, and only a castellan had dwelt there, to hold it in
+possession for a distant branch of its ancient house, it had gone by
+the name of the "Haunted Castle" among the people; for of course in
+such an old house, where so many men had died, there must be ghosts,
+and popular superstition declared that the spirits of the departed
+still hovered about the spot where their earthly forms had been wont to
+wander.
+
+But in this last year it happened that the castle was really inhabited
+by a spirit whose appearance inspired the vulgar, who suspect the
+devil's agency in whatever they do not comprehend, with quite as much
+horror as they had felt at the ghosts of their former lords,--although
+this latter spirit still inhabited a young and very beautiful body.
+Ernestine Hartwich had rented the castle, and, with her uncle, was
+living her strange life there. Since her arrival the house and the
+overgrown grounds within the high walls were certainly under a spell,
+and were avoided by all who were not obliged to go that way. There lay
+the old castle, in the midst of lovely hills and mountain-chains,
+embosomed in green trees, bathed in the sunlight of a dewy summer
+morning, and yet its gray, ancient walls looked abroad over the fresh
+life of wood and plain as gloomily as if they hid within them only
+death and decay.
+
+Two strangers, driving past in a light vehicle, gazed gravely and
+silently at the place. The road grew somewhat steep, and they descended
+and walked beside the horse. A young peasant passed by, with scythe and
+reaping-hook, and, seeing the pleasant faces of the strangers; nodded
+kindly to them. The elder of the two stopped, as if prompted by a
+sudden impulse, and asked, "What castle is that?"
+
+"That?" was the reply. "That is the Haunted Castle."
+
+"Who lives there?"
+
+"The Hartwich lives there."
+
+"Who is the Hartwich?"
+
+"Why, the witch who has rented it."
+
+"Why do you call her a witch?"
+
+"Because there's something wrong about her."
+
+"Walk on with us a little way, if you have time, and tell us something
+of the lady," said the stranger.
+
+"Oh, yes, I have time enough," replied the peasant, flattered by the
+interest that his remarks had excited. "But, good gracious! I do not
+know where to begin to tell about her. There is no beginning and no end
+to it."
+
+"How does she look?" asked the younger gentleman. "Is she pretty?"
+
+"No, indeed! She is pale and thin, and has big, coal-black eyes. And
+she looks so gloomy that you can tell as soon as you see her that she
+has an evil conscience."
+
+"It is characteristic of the degree of culture to which the common
+people have attained," said the elder in an undertone to his companion,
+"that they have no admiration for beautiful outlines, but only for
+flesh and colour. They think a classic profile ugly if there is not a
+plump cheek on either side of it. This rude taste for the raw material
+is natural and excusable in peasants and common labourers, whose work
+is principally with raw material. Where should they learn anything
+better? But it is sad to think how many of the educated classes there
+are whose taste is just as uncultivated, and who admire only the
+beautiful embodiment, not the embodied beauty."
+
+"Yes," added the other, "it is just so in spiritual matters. An
+expression of thoughtfulness is always strange and gloomy in the eyes
+of the common people; they are attracted only by thoughtless gaiety.
+The stamp of mind upon a serious brow is in their eyes the sign-manual
+of the evil one. But how many among ourselves are scarcely better than
+the people in this respect! We do not share their prejudices,--eh,
+Johannes?"
+
+"No, Hilsborn, God knows we do not. This superficial idea of beauty
+explains the fact that Fraeulein Hartwich was called ugly as a child,
+although she had a beautiful brow, a fine profile, and such eyes as I
+never saw before or since in my life,--eyes, Hilsborn,"--and he laid
+his hand upon his friend's arm,--"in which lay a world of slumbering
+feeling, and the promise of bliss unspeakable for him who should awaken
+it to life. I had forgotten the little girl whom I saw only once, but
+when lately I encountered a glance from the eyes of that strange,
+lovely woman, I recognized the child again,--the poor, forsaken child.
+There was the old shy melancholy in those eyes, and they pierced my
+heart with a foreboding pain. I could have taken her in my arms and
+borne her away from the hill where she stood, as formerly from the
+breaking bough to which she had fled from me!"
+
+"God grant she be worthy of such a man as you!" said Hilsborn.
+
+"Do not speak so, Hilsborn; you know I will not listen to such words.
+Let us ask this fellow more about her."
+
+He turned to the young peasant, who was walking whistling on the other
+side of the road.
+
+"Is she not at least kind to the poor?" he asked.
+
+"God preserve any one to whom she is kind! No one wants anything from
+her. Her uncle distributes some money every week, but only the very
+poorest people take it, and they always cross themselves over it."
+
+Johannes and Hilsborn looked at each other with a smile. "Then her evil
+influence extends even to her charities?"
+
+"Yes, that's what I mean,--wherever she goes she carries misfortune.
+She pretends to know more than any one, and wants to introduce all
+sorts of new-fangled ways. She wouldn't have people sick with a fever
+covered up in good, thick feather beds, or give them a single glass of
+good liquor. All that was wrong, she said. A poor widow in the village
+had a sick child, which she nursed as well as she could. The Hartwich
+went to see her, and overpersuaded the woman, so that she let her watch
+with it one night. Scarcely had she seated herself by the cradle when
+the child grew worse, and fell into convulsions. The Hartwich sent the
+mother to the castle to send off a man on horseback for the doctor, and
+was left all alone with the child. When the woman got back from the
+castle the witch had the child on her lap, and the poor little thing
+was dying. The woman, frantic with terror, tore the little body out of
+her arms; but it was dead! and the Hartwich left her, as she would not
+hear a word from her. When the doctor came, he talked all sorts of
+stuff, and wanted to have the child dissected, as they call it; but of
+course no Christian mother would allow such a thing, and no one knew
+what the Hartwich had done to the poor little creature."
+
+"But, you foolish people," began Johannes indignantly, "you do not
+suppose----"
+
+Hilsborn signed to him to be silent. "Hush!" he said in a whisper;
+"will you attempt what the gods try vainly--to contend with stupidity?"
+
+"You are right," replied Johannes. "This people needs the teaching of
+centuries."
+
+"Well, my good fellow," he said, again addressing the peasant, "what
+happened then?"
+
+"Why, that very night, after the doctor was gone, the Hartwich came to
+the woman and offered her money,--I suppose to induce her to hold her
+tongue,--but the poor thing showed her the door, and told her what she
+thought of her."
+
+"That was her thanks!" murmured Johannes.
+
+"Since then she goes to see no one, and we are quit of her."
+
+"Was this unfortunate instance the only one?" asked Johannes, "or has
+she done any further mischief?"
+
+"Oh, yes, quantities! Once she persuaded a man to go to the city and
+have his leg taken off,--he had injured it ten years before. The man
+died in the city, and left a wife and children. If that witch had not
+sent him there, he would have been living still. He had managed to live
+with the injury ten years, and he might have borne it ten more. The
+poor widow heaped her with curses!"
+
+Johannes exchanged glances with Hilsborn.
+
+"Do you, too, believe that she is a witch?" he asked the peasant.
+
+"Well, if I don't exactly believe that, I know well enough that no
+blessing can attend her, for she does not love God."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"Oh, there are a great many signs of it. She does not like to hear him
+mentioned,--she never goes to church, and doesn't pray at home."
+
+"You cannot be sure of that," said Johannes.
+
+"Oho! yes, I can, for Harcher's Kunigunda is a maid at the castle, and
+she tells us all about it. For one thing, there used to be a bell-tower
+up there, and the bell was always rung for prayers, morning and
+evening, in old times. It was right and good to hear the bell ringing
+with the one in the village church, and we were used to it, and liked
+it. Even when the last of the family up there died, the village
+congregation gave the castellan two bags of potatoes every year that he
+might allow the ringing to continue. But when the Hartwich came, what
+did she do? Why, she tore down the bell-tower and made it into an
+observatory, as she calls it, where she sits for nights long and counts
+the stars."
+
+"Well, if she looks up into heaven so much, she must surely think of
+God and his works there," rejoined Johannes smiling, "and those who
+love to pray do not need to be reminded of it by the ringing of bells."
+
+"No, no! that is not so," the peasant obstinately maintained. "She does
+not wish to be reminded of prayer, or she would have loved the clear
+sound of the bell, as we did, and would have left it hanging where it
+had rung out comfort and religion for a hundred years. She might have
+built her star-chamber upon the old tower all the same, if she had
+wanted to,--but she did not want to,--and so we hated her from the
+first."
+
+Johannes and Hilsborn looked grave.
+
+"Books she has in plenty; she brought whole chestsfull with her, but
+never a hymn-book or prayer-book, Kunigunda, who dusts them, says, and,
+search as she may, she has never seen a Bible there yet. And the
+Hartwich never mentions the name of God; and if any one does it before
+her, she talks of something else instantly. But the worst of all is
+that she has a room there that no one, except her uncle and herself, is
+allowed to enter, and she always locks the door when she is there with
+her uncle. What they do there no living soul knows, but Kunigunda tells
+all sorts of strange stories about it, for she has often listened at
+the door, and sometimes got a peep inside when the Fraeulein was going
+in or coming out. She says there are all kinds of strange things in
+there, such as no honest man knows anything about,--black tablets, with
+eyes and ears painted on them, and burning flames, and bellows, and
+Heaven only knows what beside! And she has heard dreadful noises, that
+were not of this world,--sometimes sounds as sweet as the organ plays
+in the church, and then a rustle and roar as of a mighty wind, although
+not a breeze is stirring outside, or blasts of a trumpet like the
+trumpet of Jericho, so that she ran away in deadly fright."
+
+"Those were experiments in sound," said Johannes, greatly amused, to
+Hilsborn.
+
+"And Kunigunda says that it is often so light in that room that the
+rays through the keyhole dazzle her just like sunlight, although the
+sun has long been set outside. Kunigunda declares that it is not common
+light,--it burns quite blue, and she had to shut her eye quickly not to
+be blinded by it. Now, what sort of light is that? What business has
+she with fire and flames? And Kunigunda says she is almost always up
+until morning, and scarcely sleeps at all. Oh, she leads a godless
+life,--for, if God had not intended men to wake in the daytime and
+sleep at night, He would not have made night dark and day light; and if
+she were doing any good, why should she shun the daylight when she does
+it? Kunigunda says, too, that she tortures poor dumb animals just for
+pleasure, for she has often seen how she and her uncle carry rabbits
+and such creatures into their secret chamber, and they never bring them
+out again. Now, what do they do with the poor things? They cannot eat
+the rabbits. And Kunigunda will swear that there are a couple of skulls
+in the book-room, tumbling about among the old books. Now, I ask, what
+Christian would take the head away from a dead man and spoil his rest
+in the grave? Is it not just dishonouring a corpse out of devilish
+wantonness?"
+
+"There certainly is a whole mountain of charges towering between
+Fraeulein Hartwich and her neighbours," whispered Johannes to his
+friend, "and I see clearly that the curse of singularity has pursued
+her even hither, and that this rare creature is repulsed and isolated
+here as she was as a child. It is high time that some strong arm should
+bear her hence into the purer atmosphere of a warm, healthy existence,
+from which her eccentricity has hitherto excluded her."
+
+"Do you see that green balcony there?" said the peasant, when they were
+quite near the house. "There she has hanging a kind of cittern that
+plays of itself. I would not believe Kunigunda, when she told me of it,
+at first; but then I hid myself here once, and heard it with my own
+ears, the music softer and sweeter than any that human hands can make.
+I could feel it beginning to bewitch me."
+
+"Indeed! and how did it feel?"
+
+"Oh, my heart grew so soft, so different from usual,--just--just as if
+I had been drinking linden-blossom tea. I could not help thinking of
+the girl I loved, who is dead, and I could have listened forever.
+Suddenly I bethought me that there was a spell weaving around me, and I
+ran away as fast as I could."
+
+"That was an AEolian harp, my good friend," Johannes explained; "its
+strings were stirred by no spirit hand, but by the wind. The spell that
+you perceived was only the effect of the beautiful tones upon your ear
+and heart; and if you had examined yourself, you would have found that,
+when you were thinking of your dead sweet-heart, you were better than
+when you are sitting in the village inn abusing the Hartwich. Consider
+for a moment whether an evil spirit could inspire such good, tender
+sensations. And listen as often as you can to the AEolian harp; it will
+not bewitch you,--it will only do good to you."
+
+The fellow looked in amazement at the kindly speaker.
+
+"I don't exactly understand you, sir, but you seem to mean well."
+
+"What makes you think so?" asked Johannes,--"you do not know me."
+
+"Oh, why, you look honest and good, sir," said the peasant, looking
+frankly into Johannes's face.
+
+"Then believe what I say, when I tell you that you do Fraeulein Hartwich
+great wrong. I have known her from childhood, and I know that she is
+good and kind!"
+
+Johannes sent an earnest glance towards the castle, which they were
+passing. An elderly woman was just opening a window in an upper story.
+
+"Look!" cried the peasant, "that is her housekeeper, Frau Willmers. The
+Fraeulein is just getting up--it is nine o'clock."
+
+"God bless your awakening!" Johannes breathed softly to himself.
+
+And, borne on the breeze of morning and the fragrance of flowers, the
+blessing was wafted up to the girl, who, weary with her night-watch,
+was reposing by the open window. She laid her head upon the sill, and
+the fragrant summer air fanned her brow. Johannes's words floated
+around her in a sea of light and warmth, and she felt them without
+hearing them. At last she opened her burning eyelids, and looked
+abroad, seeing everything at first through the gray, misty veil which
+weariness spread before her eyes,--but gradually was revealed in its
+full splendour the sunny picture, above which arched the clear,
+cloudless firmament. She arose and leaned out with a deep sigh of pain.
+She knew no happiness but that of gratified ambition,--she could
+imagine no other, and therefore desired no other, for we cannot desire
+that of which we have no conception,--and yet, in the sunlight laughing
+around her, in the gloom of night, in the beauty of the valley and the
+grandeur of the mountains, a promise of a far different happiness
+beckoned to her, and she pined in longing for it without recognising
+it. Yes, from every voice of nature, from the song of birds, the murmur
+of the brook, the roaring of the tempest, and the muttering of the
+thunder, a call was ringing in her ears, she knew not whence or
+whither, but she would willingly have plunged into the ocean to follow
+it.
+
+"There is no surer means of preventing all aimless desires than study,
+nothing better to prevent all abstract dreaming than absorption in some
+specialty," her uncle had told her when he suspected her of moods like
+that we have just described. "If you long to grasp the whole, first
+grasp a part,--if you thirst to fly to heaven, remember that the
+observatory is the only way thither,--if you desire to feel the warm
+throb of life, you can find it nowhere so satisfactorily as at the
+dissecting-table."
+
+And she had turned away silently, uncomplainingly, from her flight to
+distant realms, to the telescope, and with a warm, swelling heart that
+would have embraced a world, had busied herself with analyzing
+microscopic organizations. Thus, in the course of long years, she had
+grown used to suppress emotions such as she experienced to-day, and
+they seldom came to the surface, just as the bells of the sunken city
+are only heard above the sea on Sunday. To-day was not Sunday, but it
+was an anniversary. Ten years ago to-day she had been sent to her first
+and only party,--her father had almost killed her,--and the whole
+current of her life had been changed. She knew the date perfectly, for
+the next day was the anniversary of her father's death. The familiar
+forms of those days hovered around her; they were the only ones that
+had ever approached her nearly, for since that time she had had no
+intimate relations with any one. She had studied mankind, but human
+beings were strangers to her. And as she thought and pondered, she
+wished herself again the child that ran races with the wind and cradled
+herself among the storm-tossed boughs. Oh for one breath of hopeful
+childhood, one throb of that love-thirsty heart, one tear of that
+wrestling faith! All dead and silent now, every blossom of childhood
+and youth faded: a woman, old at two-and-twenty, looking down from the
+heights of passionless contemplation upon a life, lying behind her,
+that she has never enjoyed, upon a time, now past, that she has never
+lived. Sighing, she turned away from the sunny landscape. "Our life
+lasts seventy--perhaps eighty--years," she said to herself, "and the
+delight of it is labour and trouble." This reading, by a great modern
+philosopher, of the golden words of the ancient writings, she had
+adopted as her motto, and it still possessed its old charm for her.
+What more could she desire of life than labour and trouble? What could
+youth or age bring her beyond these? She turned away from the window,
+and quickly arranged in thick braids around her head her loosened hair
+which had fallen down like a black veil. Her glance, as she did so,
+fell only passingly and indifferently upon the mirror. She never saw
+the face that gazed at her from its depths,--a face as faultlessly
+beautiful as an artist's fancy pictures those dark, melancholy female
+forms with which the ancients peopled the night. She dressed herself in
+simple white, and then her arms dropped wearied at her side. The
+expression of strength that the word labour had called into her face
+gave way to a profound melancholy, almost despair, and she sank
+exhausted upon a couch. She sat still for one moment, her head sunk
+upon her breast, and then the large tears rolled down her cheeks.
+
+"Labour is a delight, when one has strength for it--but I have none!"
+she said, clasping her knees with her small, transparent hands, while
+she gazed despairingly towards the distant horizon.
+
+The housekeeper, Frau Willmers, entered. "A gentleman is waiting below,
+Fraeulein Hartwich, who sends his card and says he comes from the
+gentleman whose name is written upon it."
+
+Ernestine read the name "Professor Heim," and below, in Heim's
+handwriting, "earnestly recommends the bearer of this card."
+
+"The gentleman is welcome!" she cried with awakened animation. "Show
+him into the library."
+
+"Will the Fraeulein receive him without the knowledge of----" the woman
+asked with hesitation and surprise.
+
+"I will!" replied Ernestine firmly.
+
+"Now, Heaven be praised!" muttered the old woman, "that you are to see
+some one at last, and the gentleman is well worth a look. But you will
+bear the blame with your uncle, so that I may have no responsibility in
+the matter?"
+
+"The responsibility is mine."
+
+Frau Willmers hurried out and conducted the stranger into Ernestine's
+library.
+
+A pleasant bluish twilight reigned in the room as he entered it, caused
+by the heavy blue damask curtains that draped the high bow-windows. It
+was a spacious octagon apartment, in the style of the tower chambers of
+the Middle Ages, opening on to a balcony, which was likewise separated
+from the room by blue damask curtains. The AEolian harp, of which the
+peasant had spoken, hung in the balcony, and some loosened tendrils of
+a wild grapevine, growing outside, stirred by the breeze, touched the
+strings and called forth from them broken stray notes, which a stronger
+breeze would blend in harmony, as the fingers of a child, guided by its
+teacher, plays vaguely upon an instrument until the practised hand of
+its master produces a full, clear chord. In the dark boughs that
+overshadowed the balcony, birds were singing, and now and then hopping
+confidingly upon the rose-bushes with which it was decorated.
+
+"She loves beauty," thought the stranger with a pleased glance around
+the cool, quiet apartment, which breathed only contentment and peace.
+And it must be true peace of mind that the inhabitant of this room
+possessed,--wherever the eyes were turned, they fell upon the immortal
+works of the great thinkers of modern times,--a costly library was
+ranged upon shelves, in richly-carved oaken bookcases.
+
+The stranger began to read the titles of the books, but the more he
+read the more thoughtful he became. If the contents of these books
+were, or were to be, crammed into one woman's brain, there could dwell
+there not peace, but only torturing unrest, strife. At last his eye
+rested upon a writing-table of dark oak, richly carved, as was all the
+rest of the furniture of the room. Around the edge of the table, cut in
+raised letters, he read the sentence, "Our life lasts seventy--perhaps
+eighty--years, and the delight of it is labour and trouble!" He gazed
+long and thoughtfully at this motto, so strangely grave for so young a
+girl. A shade of melancholy passed over his handsome face as he turned
+away and noticed the scores of sheets of paper scattered here and there
+on the table, all containing either a few figures or written sentences,
+evidently hurried beginnings of scientific labour of all kinds, tossed
+aside, as it appeared, hastily and impatiently. Partly on the table,
+partly on a desk, and partly on the floor, were piles of open books,
+their margins filled with annotations, pamphlets, &c. Names like
+Helmholtz, du Bois, Ludwig, Darwin, &c. showed what massive material
+this bold aspiring mind was calling to its aid, over what mountains of
+labour it was pursuing the path to its ambitious aims. "So much vital
+force wasted in fruitless energy--so much noble zeal expended upon a
+blunder. What a pity!" said the stranger with an involuntary sigh. Then
+he noticed just in front of the writing-table a small open drawer, in
+which Ernestine apparently kept her most precious and valuable books.
+One of them was Moellner's latest work on Physiology; another, du Bois'
+Eulogy upon Johannes Mueller; and the third, _Andersen's Fairy Tales_.
+
+The grave man's features showed signs of deep emotion at this sight.
+Only a strong, true nature could so preserve the memories of its
+childhood. He could not help taking the book in his hand to examine it
+more closely. As he did so, he noticed a little marker of paper
+yellowed with age. It was placed in the last pages of the story of the
+Ugly Duckling, just where the children stand by the pond and cry,
+"Look! there comes a new swan!" Was it this, then, that had made the
+story so precious to her--the prophecy that the duckling would one day
+be a swan, and not the memory of what had been dear to her childhood?
+He put the book back in its place with a look that showed that the
+question he had put to himself grieved him. Then he became so lost in
+thought that he was almost startled when a door behind him opened, and
+Ernestine approached him. As he saw the tall form, with its air of
+royal dignity, standing there calm and silent in the noble
+consciousness of mental superiority, he repeated involuntarily in
+thought the words, "Here is a new swan!" Yes,--the ugly duckling had
+unfolded its wings! For one moment his heart throbbed violently. It
+cost him an effort to preserve his composure.
+
+"I crave forgiveness, Fraeulein Hartwich," he began, "for venturing to
+offer my medical skill in place of his for whom you sent."
+
+"If you come from Dr. Heim, you are welcome. Is he ill, that he sends
+me a substitute, or is he angry with me?" And Ernestine looked gravely
+and fixedly at the stranger.
+
+"Neither the one nor the other, Fraeulein Hartwich," was the reply. "He
+has merely permitted me to use his name as the talisman to unlock this
+enchanted castle."
+
+"And why so?" asked Ernestine, regarding him still more attentively.
+
+"Because I am convinced that I understand the treatment of your case
+better than Dr. Heim."
+
+Ernestine started, and turned away from the arrogant speaker. Her face
+darkened with momentary displeasure,--but not long. She raised her
+large eyes to him again and said frankly, "No, you are not in earnest.
+Heim would not have sent me a physician as vain and conceited as these
+words make you appear!"
+
+Johannes offered her his hand with a smile. "Boldly spoken, Fraeulein
+Hartwich,--I thank you! Nevertheless, I must rest under the charge of
+vanity and arrogance until you declare me innocent, for I only uttered
+Dr. Heim's honest conviction and my own. You shake your head, and do
+not comprehend me. I hope you will do so soon. How could I have had the
+courage to challenge your displeasure by so bold an assertion, had I
+not been sure that time would justify my pretensions?"
+
+Ernestine motioned to him to be seated. "May I be permitted, sir, to
+request your name before speaking further with you?"
+
+Johannes cast at her a glance of kindly entreaty. "I pray you allow me
+to suppress it for the present. I should so like to inspire you with
+confidence in me for my own sake, without the aid of a name perhaps not
+unknown to you. Such confidence would be so precious to me. Call it a
+whim, if you will, but I beg you to indulge me!"
+
+"As you please, sir," said Ernestine with some constraint, looking
+keenly at him as she spoke. She seemed to be searching in his handsome
+face for something,--she scarce knew what,--it seemed to suggest some
+dim recollection to her mind. Then she dropped her glance, as if
+comparing what she saw with some image in her memory, yet without
+arriving at any satisfactory conclusion.
+
+Johannes watched every expression of her countenance. No shade of
+thought passing across that broad white brow escaped him. He gazed at
+her and almost forgot to speak, she was so wondrously beautiful, this
+shy, grave girl, pale and suffering from her devotion to the studies to
+which she was sacrificing herself with such religious zeal. The saddest
+error would be touching in such a form,--yes, we must bow before it,
+instead of laughing at it. So thought Johannes as he sat silent before
+her, and something of what was passing in his mind must have been
+mirrored in his features, for Ernestine turned away with a shade of
+embarrassment, and asked suddenly, "Well, sir, and what news do you
+bring me of Father Heim? Is he still vigorous in mind and body?"
+
+The indifference of her tone rather nettled Johannes. "Yes, Fraeulein
+Hartwich, he is indeed. Beloved and revered by his associates, as well
+as by his patients, the evening of his days is calm and cheerful."
+
+"I am very glad to hear it. I am bound to him by ties of gratitude, he
+has done much for me, at one time he saved my life. Therefore I hoped
+for benefit now from his prescriptions. He is a great practitioner,
+although he has not quite kept pace in his old age with the march of
+modern science."
+
+"He certainly is. But he can do nothing for your gravest malady, and
+therefore he has sent me in his place."
+
+"You are, then, famous for some _specialite_. But how can Dr. Heim know
+that I need such a physician?"
+
+"He does know it, for you were attacked as a child by the malady of
+which I speak, and Dr. Heim was powerless to effect a cure. Now that he
+is convinced that my method of cure is efficacious, he has adopted me
+as his assistant. Therefore I ask you frankly and openly, Will you have
+me for your physician? Yes or no!"
+
+For a moment Ernestine made no answer, and then said firmly, "Yes, if
+Dr. Heim believes that you can restore me to health, it is sufficient,
+and I will follow your prescriptions implicitly."
+
+"I thank you," said Johannes; "but I warn you beforehand, I am a strict
+physician, and my medicines are bitter!"
+
+"Scarcely as bitter as disease?" said Ernestine inquiringly.
+
+"Who can say? To speak with perfect sincerity, Fraeulein Hartwich, the
+malady from which I come to relieve you, the disease that poisons your
+past and your future, is your uncle's influence!"
+
+Ernestine stood up. "Sir!"
+
+"Hear me before you condemn me! I assert nothing that I cannot prove."
+
+"No, sir, I will not hear you. You do my uncle gross injustice;
+whatever proofs you may adduce. A life of self-sacrifice and devotion
+far outweighs the accusation of a stranger. What do I not owe to him?
+What has he not done for me? I owe to him my scientific culture. He has
+made me what I am."
+
+"And may I be so bold as to ask if you are so very sure that you are
+what you should be?"
+
+A pause ensued. Ernestine retreated a step, and, offended and confused,
+cast down her eyes.
+
+Johannes continued. "What if I were come to prove that you are not?"
+
+Ernestine looked sullenly at him. "I certainly cannot answer you here;
+but your depreciation of me forces me to ask whether you have read
+anything that I have written, and so have come to form so poor an
+opinion of my abilities?"
+
+"On the contrary, Fraeulein Hartwich, your essay upon Reflex Motion is
+full of talent, and your article upon the Capacity of the Eye for
+Stereoscopic Vision has won the prize."
+
+Ernestina started. Her face flushed, her eyes sparkled. "Why have you
+waited until now to tell me? My essay won the prize! Do I wake, or am I
+dreaming? Oh, how can I thank you for this intelligence? I have no
+words. But let your reward be the consciousness that you have given me
+the greatest happiness my life has ever known! And do not attempt to
+malign to me the man to whose disinterested care for my education I owe
+it."
+
+"Poor girl, if this is your greatest happiness! You are betrayed
+indeed, if you owe no other enjoyment to your uncle!"
+
+"Oh, sir, what can there be beyond fame and honour?"
+
+Johannes looked gravely at her. "Something of which your uncle has
+never told you."
+
+In the flush of her gratified ambition, Ernestine did not hear him. She
+walked a few steps to and fro, then seated herself again, and said with
+a beating heart, "Perhaps you also bring the answer to my application
+for admission to the lectures at the University."
+
+"I do, but it has been rejected decidedly, Fraeulein Hartwich."
+
+Ernestine's arms dropped at her sides. "Rejected! Was it known, when
+they rejected it, that the prize essay was mine?"
+
+"It was."
+
+Ernestine stood for one moment as if stunned. At last she began slowly
+and dejectedly, "Ah, I understand it all! the gentlemen took the author
+of that treatise for a man, and awarded it the prize, but my
+application was refused because I am so unfortunate as to be a woman.
+It is only natural, why should a woman be permitted to vie with the
+lords of creation?"
+
+"Your disappointment makes you unjust," said Johannes. "Your essay
+received the prize because it accomplished what it aimed at. The
+application of the woman was rejected because in the University no
+woman can accomplish what should be her aim."
+
+"How can you prove that?" asked Ernestine with bitterness.
+
+"Because she has deserted the sphere which nature has assigned her, and
+cannot fulfil the requirements of the one that she has selected for
+herself."
+
+"You, then, are one of my opponents?"
+
+"I am, Fraeulein Hartwich."
+
+"Oh, I am sorry!"
+
+"Why? Of what consequence can the opinion of a stranger be to you?"
+
+Ernestine looked down. "The impression that you make upon me, sir, is
+such that it pains me to find that you are one of those narrow-minded
+persons who deny to women the possession of any but the humblest
+ability."
+
+"You are mistaken, I think them, and especially your self, possessed of
+very great ability."
+
+Ernestine looked at him with surprise. "But how can this ability avail
+us, if we are not allowed to enlarge the bounds of the sphere within
+which we are so unkindly confined at present?"
+
+"That sphere does not seem to me contracted. I think it so noble, so
+elevated, that the loftiest talent may well content itself within it,
+if it be rightly understood."
+
+"But if a woman, if I--forgive my presumption,--am especially endowed
+beyond other women, should I not, with the power, possess also the
+privilege of transcending the usual bounds?"
+
+"You would then possess the privilege of ennobling your sex, of showing
+it what it could accomplish within its own sphere,--you would possess
+the power to be first among women, but not to become a man."
+
+Ernestine looked down sadly. "Have you read my essay?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Do you think it deserved the prize?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And yet you would deny me the right to accomplish tasks usually
+assigned to men."
+
+"You have accomplished one such. How far your kind uncle may have
+assisted you in your labor we will not ask."
+
+Again Ernestine's eyes drooped.
+
+Johannes continued: "Probably you yourself are not aware of the answer
+to such a question,--at all events, the victory over the other
+competitors for the prize was slight, and by no means difficult. But do
+you imagine, Fraeulein Hartwich, because the instinct of your genius has
+answered this one question, that you can lord it over the boundless
+domain of science? Have you the least suspicion of the magnitude of
+what you propose?"
+
+"I believe I have learned enough to know what there is for me to
+learn."
+
+"Do not deceive yourself with regard to your aim. You wish to learn
+that you may teach,--not as every schoolmaster teaches, to tell what
+has been told you before,--you wish to educe new truths from what you
+learn,--in other words, you wish to produce, to create!"
+
+"And you deny me the requisite ability?"
+
+"Not at all," replied Johannes; "but I grant only one domain for the
+creative faculty of woman,--the domain of art,--because, in works of
+art, the heart shares in the labour of the understanding; because, in
+the creation of beauty, a profound inner consciousness and soaring
+fancy can replace masculine acuteness of thought--and these belong
+especially to the gifted woman. But science presents tasks for the
+thinking power. I deny to woman not the ability to grasp the grand
+results of science, but the mental endurance, the technical facility,
+to arrive at them unassisted."
+
+Ernestine clasped her hands in entreaty. "Do not destroy the hope and
+aim of my life!"
+
+Johannes bent towards her and said gently, "My dear Fraeulein Hartwich,
+may your life have other aims than this that you can never attain!"
+
+"Never attain!" cried Ernestine, sitting proudly erect "I can see
+nothing to justify those words. If I were only well and strong, if my
+body were only a more, obedient tool of my mind, I would show what a
+woman can do! I would show that we are not merely domestic animals,
+endowed with some degree of reason, as a certain class of men designate
+us, but free, independent, equal beings! If you only knew how my whole
+soul revolts at our social oppression, our intellectual slavery! Oh,
+believe, believe, sir, that I am not actuated by vain ambition, but I
+am wrung with anguish for those wretched souls who, like myself, have
+chafed so painfully in the fetters of commonplace conventionalities,
+or, like those born blind, have dreamed in their darkness of the
+light that floods the world with joy and freedom, but from which they
+are excluded! I long to break the yoke under which my whole sex
+languishes, to avenge their wrongs. For this I will give my money
+and my blood!--for this I resign all claims to the happiness of
+woman!--yes, for this I would sacrifice life itself!"
+
+Johannes sat listening to her with his arms folded. He now began
+quietly: "I understand and admire you,--but you exaggerate. The social
+position of woman is determined by her capacity and her desires. Women
+like yourself are rare exceptions; your sex, as a general rule, is at
+so low a stage of development that they neither can claim nor desire
+any higher position."
+
+"And whose fault is this?" Ernestine interrupted him eagerly.
+"Yours,--you masters of the world. If we are intellectually your
+inferiors, why not educate us more thoroughly? Why not elevate us to a
+higher degree of intelligence? It is for your strong hands to form us
+as you will. And nowhere in Christian lands is the position of woman
+more depressing than in this country. Look at Russia, the land that so
+long retained serfdom and the knout,--even there the number of learned
+women is perceptibly increasing, and the Russian high schools do not
+reject female pupils. Look at France, at England,--women are everywhere
+employed and the sphere of their capabilities enlarged, and the sex is
+held in higher estimation. Unfortunately, I cannot deny that the mass
+of German women are either mere household drudges, with never a thought
+beyond the material interests of the kitchen and nursery, or glittering
+dolls, with no idea of anything but the adornment of their persons.
+They understand little or nothing of politics, of the interests of
+their native land, of science, or of poetry; they go to art for
+amusement, not for instruction and refreshment. Such mothers can never
+implant the seeds of patriotism in the breasts of their sons, or
+educate the minds of their daughters; such wives can never share the
+thoughts and aims of their husbands. Who is to blame? Those men alone
+who would exclude woman from their world, and, denying her all claim to
+intellectual ability, banish her to the kitchen, or force her to
+indemnify herself for exclusion from their spiritual life by rendering
+herself necessary to their material existence!"
+
+Johannes made no reply. It was enjoyment enough for him to look at her
+and hear her. He wished her, before attempting to reply to her, to
+finish all that she had to say.
+
+Ernestine continued: "All this constitutes the ignominy of my sex,--an
+ignominy that must be overcome, or its revenge will be terrible; for
+luxury and self-indulgence have been the ruin of those nations who
+rendered no homage to the spiritual nature of woman. We must force this
+reverence from you, at any risk, before it is too late. Smile, if you
+will, at my presumption in arrogating the place of a feminine Arnold
+von Winkelried, breaking a path for our spiritual freedom through the
+lances of contempt and prejudice. I know what lies before me. No
+commonplace woman feels any pride in her sex; when one of her sisters
+achieves distinction, she is only all the more galled by the
+consciousness of her own inferiority, and takes her revenge, if
+she knows no better, with the wretched weapons of conventional
+prejudices,--casting the odium of indelicacy upon the woman who dares
+to be free; and men contemptuously close their doors upon her. My lot
+must be to struggle and suffer. Still, I do not hesitate. If I can
+effect nothing here, I will seek other lands, where woman striving
+after better things is treated with humanity and true chivalry."
+
+"Where humanity and chivalry assist woman to lay aside the very crown
+of her being,--her womanhood!" Johannes now interrupted her; "for how
+can you preserve it, if in anatomical studies you harden yourself to
+everything that shocks a compassionate woman, if you are forced into
+contact with things at which all maidenly delicacy must revolt? I have
+not interrupted you hitherto, because I wished thoroughly to understand
+you, and because your sacred zeal touched and delighted me. With much
+that is crude and exaggerated, there is truth, and beauty, in what you
+have just said. But, believe me, the physical frame of a woman is as
+little suited as her intellect to certain scientific pursuits. I
+directed you to the broad domain of the beautiful,--of art,--but you
+would not listen to me--there you would have to share your fame among
+too many. Your ambition craves something entirely new and unheard-of.
+But, Fraeulein Hartwich, this ambition will be your ruin! If you long to
+create, create forms for your ideas that will speak for themselves,
+clothe them in poetic language, or give them local habitation and a
+name in art--you can complete such work, and your soul can find rest in
+it from its labours. A poetical idea can be fully embodied in a work of
+art; but a scientific hypothesis is inexhaustible, because, however
+clearly proved and demonstrated, it brings new problems in its train.
+Only a man's rude strength can endure such a restless pursuit that
+knows no pause; the woman's delicate nature must succumb even because
+her mind is so alive that she labours with all the ardent desire, the
+breathless interest, of the devotee of science. And if she succeeds, at
+the sacrifice of her life, in contributing some addition to the
+universal stock of knowledge, she has done only what would have
+cost a man far less pains. The result of her work is wrung from her
+death-agony, and the world, with a shrug of its shoulders, says, 'It is
+about all that a woman could do!' Is praise thus qualified not
+purchased too dearly at the cost of health and life?"
+
+Ernestine had listened with intense eagerness. Her dark eyes were
+riveted upon the speaker. As he ceased, she folded her hands in her lap
+and said, "What injustice you do me if you think that desire for the
+world's applause is the moving spring of my actions! Yes, I do long for
+recognition; that I have confessed to you. But I might have obtained it
+more easily if I had chosen other branches of science, and my uncle
+allowed me to choose. I selected, from inclination, natural philosophy,
+and, in especial, physiology. I cared little for history, because I
+care little for mankind. Moral philosophy seems to me too dogmatical,
+so does religion. Nature alone is always filled with new, genuine life.
+'There I know,' as Johannes Mueller says, 'whom I serve and what I
+have.' Physiology has opened a new world for me,--or, better still, has
+re-created the old world, for I truly see only when I understand what I
+am looking at;--every sunbeam glancing in a dewdrop, every wave of
+sound borne to my ear from afar, awakens new and vivid images in my
+mind. What enjoyment is comparable to that which science offers us! She
+makes the real a miracle,--and shows us the miraculous as reality. And
+shall I resign this ennobling possession because I am a woman? And can
+this inspiring search for life bring me death? Oh, no! I cannot, I will
+not believe it!"
+
+Johannes held out his hand to her. "You are a rarely-gifted woman, and
+comprehend the nature of science. But, supposing that you possessed the
+rare power--both of body and mind--to accomplish the task which you
+propose to yourself, you must do it at the cost of your vocation as a
+woman. For no woman can fulfil both these offices. As a scholar, you
+must live exclusively for your studies; the duties of wife and mother
+would distract you too much to admit of your accomplishing your
+purposes, for they require an entire lifetime. Now you have the courage
+to endure the want of love and happiness growing out of your
+determination, but will your courage last? When age and illness assail
+you,--when you become weak and helpless and need faithful, devoted
+hands about you and true loving hearts upon which you can rest from
+weariness and pain, and there is no one belonging to you,--because you
+have chosen to belong to no one,--how will it be then? Have you no
+presentiment of such misery? Is there no desire for consolation, no
+longing for love, in your inmost soul?"
+
+Ernestine's gaze was fixed darkly on the ground. "I know nothing of
+love. How can I long for what I know nothing of?"
+
+"Good heavens! how can that be? Have you had no parents,
+relatives,--friends who were dear to you?"
+
+"No! my mother died at my birth, and my father--who treated me very
+harshly, and did not care for me--died when I was twelve years old. My
+guardian became my teacher and guide, and initiated me into the pursuit
+of science. At no time of my life have I had any intercourse with my
+equals. I did not wish for it. My uncle sent his own little daughter to
+a boarding-school and lived for me alone, but the tie that bound me to
+him was only my interest in science and his readiness to gratify it. He
+is cold by nature,--as I am also. I have never felt anything for him
+but gratitude. I have always lived alone, and have never loved a human
+being."
+
+Johannes was deeply moved. "Poor girl!" he said. "Had you cast yourself
+on the ground at my feet, bathed in tears, bewailing the death of
+father, mother, or husband, you could not have inspired me with such
+pity as those words, 'I have never loved,' awaken within me. You look
+amazed! The time will come when you will understand me,--when by the
+depth of your anguish you will learn the heights of bliss from which
+you have been banished; then he, whom you now regard as your enemy,
+will be beside you,--to soothe your grief for your lost life,--perhaps
+to lead you to one nobler and better!"
+
+Ernestine turned away, greatly agitated. She would not have Johannes
+observe her emotion, and therefore only breathed a gentle "Farewell,"
+and would have left the room.
+
+"Are you going? Have I offended you? May I not come again?" he asked.
+
+Ernestine stood still, and did not speak.
+
+"May I not?" he repeated,--and there was such urgent entreaty in his
+voice that it stirred the very depths of Ernestine's soul.
+
+There was one moment of hesitation; then she returned to him, held out
+her hand and said, with eyes swimming in tears,--eyes that pierced his
+heart to the core:
+
+"Yes; come again."
+
+"God bless you!" he said, with a long sigh of relief, and then, kissing
+her hand respectfully, he left the room. She stood still where he had
+left her, lost in thought.
+
+The tones of the AEolian harp floated out upon the air, the roses
+exhaled fresh fragrance, the birds twittered, and the sunlight shone in
+soft rays through the blue curtains. She heeded none of these things,
+she stood there absorbed in the pursuit of some dim, half-remembered
+image in the distant past--even in the days of her childhood.
+
+Why was it that the oak boughs, whither she had fled from the handsome
+lad, seemed to rustle around her again? Why was the little Angelika so
+distinct in her memory,--the little girl rocking in her arms the doll
+that her brother had sent her, in the sure hope that her tenderness
+would inspire it with life?
+
+And as she stood there, dreaming in the midst of AEolian tones,
+fragrance, and light, she herself was like Pygmalion's statue, when
+beneath the breath of love the first glow of life informed its marble
+breast, and the cold lips opened for its first sigh!
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+                          THE VILLAGE SCHOOL.
+
+
+When Johannes left Ernestine, he turned his steps towards the village.
+He was as if inspired by the consciousness that his was a part to play
+that falls to the lot of few men in this world,--to promote his own
+happiness in watching over and caring for the happiness of another. He
+walked on with the firm, elastic tread that belongs to a strong man in
+the bloom of youth, and wherever his glance fell it scattered seeds of
+the kindliness which was reflected in the smile that greeted him upon
+every face that he met. He took his way towards a little vine-clad
+cottage in which dwelt the patriarch of the place,--the village
+schoolmaster. Before the door stood Hilsborn's vehicle, while a fat old
+mastiff was barking incessantly at the horse, who pawed impatiently,
+and never seemed to perceive that the dog was evidently only fulfilling
+an irksome duty, and was not actuated by the slightest feeling of
+hostility. Johannes stroked, in passing, his broad, bristling back, a
+caress not unkindly received, and then entered the house, whose
+hospitable roof was so low that he was obliged to stoop as he crossed
+the threshold, lest he should brush his forehead against the bunches of
+unripe grapes that hung down over the lintel. He passed through the
+little, dark hall, and entered the dwelling-room. There he found
+Hilsborn sitting with the schoolmaster upon one of the low, broad
+window-seats, while the schoolmaster's old wife, Brigitta, sat knitting
+upon the other. The schoolmaster was a spare, elderly man, with long
+gray hair, and eyes in whose uncertain depths that ominous white spot
+could be perceived that is the arch-enemy of light.
+
+"Aha! the Herr Professor," said the old man, rising to greet Johannes.
+"We thought you had been enchanted in the Haunted Castle, and would
+never come back to us again."
+
+"You may not have been so very far wrong," said Johannes, shaking the
+offered hand.
+
+"Yes, you have kept us waiting well!" observed Hilsborn.
+
+"Brigitta, dear, will you make ready for us? These gentlemen will
+perhaps do us the pleasure of sharing with us our mid-day meal,--it
+will be about the time for their luncheon," said the schoolmaster to
+his wife, who had arisen when Johannes entered, and was awaiting this
+hint to withdraw. Johannes and Hilsborn declined the proffered
+hospitality, but Frau Brigitta had already left the room. As the door
+closed behind her, the old man grew very grave. "Herr Professor," he
+began, and his voice was a little hoarse, and his hands trembled
+slightly, "now we are alone,--now I pray you tell me the truth. I would
+not ask you while my wife was here,--for I would spare her unhappiness
+as long as possible. But I must and will know, for the future of my son
+is at stake. Is it not true, Herr Professor, that you have no hope of
+saving my eyes?"
+
+Hilsborn made no reply. His compassionate heart withheld him from so
+utterly destroying the old man's hopes in life. In his indecision, he
+exchanged a glance with Johannes, which the old man observed.
+
+"Oh, my dear sir, that look, which I could see in spite of my
+increasing blindness, speaks to me as plainly as your silence. I have
+long had no hope myself. A year ago, when my eyes were so inflamed, I
+expected the catastrophe would occur from which your skill has so long
+saved me. The question now is--can my eyes be operated upon?"
+
+Hilsborn hesitated again. He could not in honour delude the worthy man
+with false hopes only to have them so bitterly crushed in the future,
+and yet--who with a heart in his breast could tell the sad truth to
+that face of anxious inquiry? "I cannot give you a decided answer at
+present," he said at last with some effort.
+
+The patient man clasped his hands entreatingly, and his dim eyes strove
+to read Hilsborn's countenance. "Do not believe, Herr Professor, that
+it would be kind to deceive me. If I now know that I am incurable, I
+can do instantly what would be difficult later,--take my son
+immediately from the University and train him to be my successor here.
+You can understand that if I am disabled I can no longer provide for
+the continuance of his academic course, and that it is best that the
+young man should learn as soon as possible the destruction of his
+hopes, that he may reconcile himself to resigning the lecture-room for
+the school-room. I know how hard it will be, for I was just entering
+upon a scientific career when I was excluded from it by my father's
+early death. And let me tell you that if my son bears this blow well, I
+have nothing more to fear." His voice faltered as he uttered these last
+words. He was conscious of it, and was silent,--unwilling to betray his
+emotion.
+
+Johannes and Hilsborn stood for one moment, not knowing what to reply.
+They could not console the unhappy father by the assurance that he
+would need no substitute. They well knew how important it was that what
+the conscientious old man proposed should be done. At last Hilsborn
+said, with characteristic gentleness, "If you wish to make sure of a
+substitute in case of the worst, it is best that you should do so as
+soon as possible, as in the event of undergoing an operation you would
+be unable to work for a long time, and, besides, I cannot answer for
+the result."
+
+"Thank you, kind sir. You have told me the truth, and now I know
+enough," said the schoolmaster, wiping his eyes with a coarse,
+gaily-printed cotton handkerchief.
+
+"Have I not often told you," said Hilsborn, "that you never ought to
+touch your eyes except with linen cambric?"
+
+"True! true!" said the pale, troubled man, forcing a smile, "but where
+am I to procure such a luxury?"
+
+"Why, your lady at the castle should give it to you," said Hilsborn.
+
+"She would do so willingly, I am sure, but I could not make up my mind
+to so bold a request; for, since the other villagers have treated her
+so badly, she has avoided us also; and I fear she has visited us with
+some of the indignation that she must feel at the shameful insults she
+has received."
+
+"Well, then, I will ask for you," cried Johannes. "I will go back to
+the castle, and you shall have what you require in a few moments."
+
+As he spoke, Frau Brigitta entered, with a bottle of wine and the soup.
+Her good old face beamed with delight at the opportunity of offering
+her hospitality to such honoured guests. Her husband seized the
+gentlemen's hands, while she was busied with laying the table, and
+whispered, "Promise me, I beg you, that you will not mention what you
+have told me to any one, that my poor wife may be allowed to enjoy all
+the hope that she can for the future."
+
+"We promise you," was the grave reply.
+
+"May I be permitted to offer the gentlemen some slight refreshment?"
+asked Brigitta with old-fashioned formality; for etiquette in the
+country is like the fashion of dress, which follows at a long distance
+the fashion of the city,--so that a form of polite expression is used
+in the country long after it has ceased to be _bon genre_ in town. And
+yet there is something touching in all those old-time phrases and
+customs that we remember as used by our grandparents and great-aunts
+and uncles. They suggest so vividly the images of the departed, and
+bring back the memories of childhood. Who has not in early childhood
+seen some old aunt or grandmother, upon refusing a fifth cup of coffee,
+turn the cup upside down in the saucer and lay the spoon carefully upon
+it? And when, twenty or thirty years after, we see some country
+pastor's or schoolmaster's wife go through the same ceremony, does not
+the dear old form, long ago laid at rest in the grave, rise before us
+to check the smile upon our lips? Who cannot remember as a child the
+friendly sympathy that greeted a satisfactory sneeze? And when, a
+quarter of a century later, some kindly country soul hails such an
+occurrence with a cordial "God bless you!" does it not seem as if we
+must reply as formerly, "Thanks, dear grandmamma," and are we not
+homesick for a moment for our good old grandmother? Such was the
+impression made upon the young men by the kindly formality, the
+officious hospitality, of the schoolmaster's good old wife.
+
+"I pray you honour us by tasting our poor meal," she said, as she put a
+coarse thick napkin of her own spinning upon each plate.
+
+After the conversation that they had just had with the unfortunate
+husband, the two young men had little appetite for eating or drinking;
+but they would not refuse the old woman's kindly hospitality, and
+therefore seated themselves at the clumsy table. For one moment there
+was a silence so profound that the tick of the death-watch in the bench
+by the stove could be plainly heard. Then the schoolmaster poured out
+the wine. His hand trembled slightly, and he was obliged to take care
+lest any of it should be spilled; for he could not see well when the
+glasses were full. Then, holding up his own glass, he said cheerily,
+"Long life to you, gentlemen, and to our noble German science! I drink
+to you."
+
+They clinked their glasses; but it cut Hilsborn to the very soul to
+think that the science which their good old host was so lauding should
+have been so cruel a prophet to him a few minutes before. Johannes,
+too, looked down at the wineglass in his hand, and the drops that he
+tasted from it were bitter to swallow.
+
+"Come, good wife, clink your glass with mine," said the old man to Frau
+Brigitta. "My wife is very fond of a little drop of wine," he said to
+his guests; "but we never indulge in it except when we have such
+honoured guests as sit around our table to-day."
+
+"And why not?" asked Hilsborn.
+
+"Because it tastes so much better when there are others here to enjoy
+it with us," was the simple, smiling answer.
+
+"But you ought to take more of it," said Johannes. "This good old wine
+is excellent for you; it is a tonic."
+
+The old man looked sadly at the few drops which he had poured out for
+himself, and with which he had only moistened his lips. "You forget
+that I have been for a long time forbidden to take wine, on account of
+my eyes."
+
+"My poor husband!" said his wife, sadly stroking his hollow cheeks. "He
+has to deny himself so much."
+
+Johannes and Hilsborn exchanged glances, and then the latter said, "I
+reverse that prohibition, Herr Leonhardt. Take a good glass of wine
+whenever you feel inclined. It cannot harm your eyes as much as it will
+improve your general health."
+
+"Thank God!" cried his wife rejoiced. "That proves how much better you
+are."
+
+"Or how much worse," Leonhardt said in Latin to Hilsborn, with a grave
+look. Then, turning tenderly to his wife, he slowly emptied his glass,
+whispering to her, "Long live our Walter!"
+
+The old woman nodded delightedly. "Our good boy! if he only had his
+degree!"
+
+Leonhardt clasped his hands with a deep sigh. "That is all that I ask
+of God."
+
+"Are you speaking of your son?" cried the gentlemen. "Then let us join
+you. May he live to be the delight and prop of your old age!"
+
+"He is a very talented young man," added Johannes. "His essay was
+declared the best after Fraeulein von Hartwich's."
+
+"Indeed!" said the schoolmaster. "I am glad to hear it. Ah, the
+Fraeulein is fortunate. She has everything necessary for her
+studies,--books and apparatus. There is hardly such another private
+laboratory and library in the country."
+
+Johannes looked surprised. "Indeed! how do you know that?"
+
+"My son has, during his studies, also perfected himself as a mechanic,
+for he says it is a great advantage for a naturalist, and Fraeulein von
+Hartwich, hearing of it accidentally, intrusted him with some repairs
+of her furniture, and then he saw what treasures she possessed."
+
+Johannes looked thoughtful. "Hm! as far as I know, Fraeulein von
+Hartwich's income is by no means so large as to allow of such
+extravagant expenditure. Her uncle may have permitted his ward to
+encroach upon her capital; it would only be a fresh proof of his want
+of principle."
+
+After a short pause, he turned to the schoolmaster.--"Herr Leonhardt,
+answer me one question. If a man wishes to rid a country of a dangerous
+wild animal, is it best to track him to his den by cunning, that he may
+be safely overcome there, or to startle him with loud noise and
+frighten him off, so that he either escapes or has time to prepare to
+defend himself?"
+
+The schoolmaster looked puzzled. "Why, a prudent man would surely
+pursue the first course."
+
+"I think so too. Well, Herr Leonhardt, I mean to track Doctor Leuthold
+Gleissert to his hiding-place. I am persuaded that this man is a
+thorough scoundrel, but I can bring no proof that I judge him
+correctly. Until I have collected such proof, which can only be done
+quietly and with caution, I cannot proceed against him openly. I need
+your assistance, Herr Leonhardt, for you know more than all of us
+concerning this man and his proceedings. Give me, if you can, some
+tangible cause for accusing him, that I may succeed in delivering that
+rare creature, his niece, from his clutches."
+
+"I will do my best," said Leonhardt. "But he lives so retired that I
+shall hardly be able to procure any important information for you. The
+only thing that I can observe is the names of his correspondents; for,
+as there is no post-office in the village, I have a post-drawer in my
+house, which the post-boy empties in my room. So that I can easily
+learn to whom all Doctor Gleissert's letters are addressed. Perhaps
+that may be of use to you."
+
+"Do so," replied Johannes, "you will greatly oblige me." He emptied his
+glass and arose. "And now let me have pen and ink, and I will write a
+couple of lines to the lady at the castle."
+
+The schoolmaster opened a little, old-fashioned desk, and produced the
+necessary articles. Johannes wrote:
+
+
+"My dear Fraeulein Hartwich:--Will it offend you if I offer you the
+opportunity of exerting yourself within the sphere which I believe is
+assigned to woman?--I, who provoked your displeasure this morning by
+remonstrating against any exertion outside of that sphere. A tragedy is
+about to be enacted in the peaceful cottage of the schoolmaster
+Leonhardt, and the physical and spiritual aid of a woman like yourself
+will be most welcome there. Come see these people for yourself; they
+are the worthiest of your kindness of any in the village, and you have
+seen the least of them. Say nothing to Frau Leonhardt of the hint I
+have given you above. The poor man needs linen-cambric rags for his
+eyes, and would not trouble you by asking you for them. This will
+furnish you a pretext for establishing relations with these people--if
+you will; and I am sure you will. I know that I shall hear of your
+kindness when I return; and I shall return again and again.
+
+                 "Your friend of a few hours, but for life."
+
+
+Johannes sealed the letter, and gave it to the schoolmaster. "Here,
+Herr Leonhardt, is the request for the linen-cambric. Send it to
+Fraeulein Hartwich; and if she should happen to visit you herself, I
+pray you and your wife not to mention my name. I desire the Fraeulein to
+remain in ignorance of it for a short time. Promise me."
+
+The worthy old couple gave the required promise, and, bidding a kindly
+farewell, the gentlemen entered the carriage. Johannes took the reins,
+and the impatient horse bore them swiftly back to town.
+
+The schoolmaster and his wife returned to the house and finished their
+dinner, for it was nearly twelve o'clock, at which hour the afternoon
+school in the village reassembled. They dispatched the note to
+Ernestine, and then the schoolmaster betook himself to the school-room
+to wait for his pupils. At the stroke of twelve there was a trampling
+of little feet in the hall, and finger after finger rapped at the door,
+and awaited the gentle "Come in!" without which no entrance was
+allowed, for the schoolmaster was a great stickler for order and
+decorum, and knew well how to retain the respect of his scholars. Most
+of the children were better in school than anywhere else. It was
+strange. Herr Leonhardt never struck a blow; he was rarely angry; he
+only reproved gently; and yet the most unruly boy, the most sullen
+girl, was controlled by his glance. The wise old man believed that love
+for the teacher was a better spur to improvement than fear, which could
+only call forth hatred and malice towards its object. And thus he
+smoothed away many a foolish, rude, and cruel trait from the peasant
+youth of his village, bringing out the good in the minds of those
+intrusted to his care, and suppressing the evil, so that, during the
+thirty-five years of his gentle sway in the school-room, the
+Hochstetten boys and girls were more in request for servants than any
+others in all the country round.
+
+"Good-afternoon, Herr Leonhardt!" cried the entering throng, scattering
+themselves among the long benches with a sound like gravel poured out
+upon a path.
+
+"St--St!" was heard from the master, and instantly all was quiet in the
+room, except for the rustling of the opening copy-books, and the lesson
+began.
+
+Suddenly there was a soft, low knock at the door,--such a knock as
+comes only from a guilty conscience,--and a little, cleanly-dressed
+girl, about six years old, stood upon the threshold with downcast eyes.
+She held out before her, as if trying to hide behind it, a satchel so
+large that it really seemed difficult to decide whether the child had
+brought it, or it had brought the child; and the pearly drops upon her
+brow showed how fast she had been running.
+
+"Why, Kaethchen!" cried Herr Leonhardt, "why do you come so late? Come
+here to me, little culprit. It is the first time in the whole long year
+since you first came to school that you have been late. Something very
+unusual must have happened?"
+
+Little Kaethchen slowly approached him, while her chubby face grew
+scarlet. "I--I had to pick berries," she faltered, biting her
+berry-stained lips.
+
+"Oh, Kaethchen," said Herr Leonhardt, raising his forefinger, "that is
+very strange. _You had to!_ Who told you to?"
+
+Kaethchen still looked down, and her face grew, if possible, redder
+still.
+
+"Look me in the face, my child," said the master gravely. "Are you
+telling the truth?"
+
+Kaethchen tried to raise her brown, roguish eyes to his face, but, ah,
+the consciousness of guilt weighed down her eyelids like lead. She
+could not look at her teacher; she only shook her curly head.
+
+"Kaethchen," said the master kindly, "you were not sent to pick berries,
+for I know how desirous your father and mother are to send you to
+school--you ran into the wood to pick and eat them yourself. Perhaps
+this is your first falsehood, as it is the first time you have been
+late at school. Pray God that it maybe your last."
+
+"Oh," the little culprit broke forth, "the neighbour's Fritz took me
+with him, and the berries tasted so good that I stayed too long."
+
+The other children laughed; but a motion of the master's hand restored
+silence, and he continued to Kaethchen: "Now, my child, for your
+tardiness you will have a black mark; and go down one in your class;
+but, Kaethchen, for the falsehood you will lose your place in my heart,
+and I cannot love you so much. But I will forgive you if you will go
+stand in the corner of your own accord. Which will you do?--lose your
+place in my heart, or go stand in the corner for a quarter of an hour?"
+
+The child burst into a flood of tears, and, sobbing out, "I'd rather, a
+great deal rather, go stand in the comer!" walked there instantly, and
+turned her dear little face to the wall.
+
+The schoolmaster looked after her pityingly; but nevertheless he was
+firm, for he always imposed the severest penalty for a falsehood. The
+lessons were continued, and in about ten minutes he called the still
+sobbing Kaethchen from her corner. The child came running to him, and he
+held out his hand to her, saying, "Will you promise me, Kaethchen, never
+again to say what is not true?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I will never, never do it again," was the contrite answer.
+
+Then the old man took up the rosy little thing and set her on his knee.
+"Then, my dear child, I will love you dearly as long as you are honest
+and industrious. And if you are ever tempted to tell what is not true,
+think how it would grieve your old teacher if he knew it, and tell the
+truth for his sake."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried the child, her little heart overflowing with
+repentance, and, throwing her arms around the master's neck, she hugged
+him with all her might.
+
+The other children had watched the ceremony of reconciliation with
+intense sympathy, for they were all fond of brown-eyed, rosy-cheeked
+Kaethchen, and were rejoiced that her troubles were over.
+
+"Now," said the teacher, when Kaethchen was at last seated in her place,
+"now let us see whether you have done your task well."
+
+Kaethchen pulled out her books from the dark depths of her huge satchel;
+but, alas! the light of day revealed upon them many a stain from the
+berries which had been put into the bag. The child's dismay and her
+companions' amusement were infinite. Even the schoolmaster could not
+refrain from smiling as he looked at her terrified little face. "Never
+mind," he said, "you have suffered enough. Let us see how they look
+inside." He opened the copy-book, and was evidently pleased with the
+neat copy. But the sums were in dire confusion.
+
+"Kaethchen," cried Herr Leonhardt, "if a horse has four legs, how many
+legs have two horses?"
+
+"Six!" was the confident answer.
+
+"Kaethchen, how many are twice two?"
+
+"Eight!"
+
+Herr Leonhardt cast to heaven that resigned glance peculiar only to
+such patient martyrs. "Kaethchen, how many fingers, not counting the
+thumb, are there on your left hand?"
+
+Kaethchen counted with her right hand the fingers of her left, and
+triumphantly declared, "Four."
+
+"And how many on your right hand?"
+
+Again the same process was repeated with the right hand, and the same
+answer ensued.
+
+"That's right! Now, how many are there together?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"How many fingers have you on both hands?"
+
+"Ten!"
+
+"Without the thumbs, child,--without either of the thumbs."
+
+Kaethchen began her arduous task anew.
+
+Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
+
+"Another child late?" said Herr Leonhardt, and cried, "Come in."
+
+But, instead of the rosy face of a child, a pale countenance, with
+large, dark eyes, appeared, and gazed almost shyly around the circle.
+This apparition produced a perfect panic. "Oh, heavens! the Hartwich!
+Mercy! mercy! the woman of the castle!" and similar exclamations of
+alarm, were heard from all sides. The children started up,--those who
+were nearest the door crowded away from it, the larger ones dragged the
+little ones close to their sides, the Catholics even crossed
+themselves. An actual uproar began, which even the teacher's voice
+failed at first to control.
+
+Ernestine observed it all without any change in her regular features.
+Leonhardt approached her respectfully, and would have asked her pardon
+for the children's folly, but she interrupted him.
+
+"On the contrary," she said softly, "it is I who should ask pardon for
+interrupting your school by my dreaded appearance. I meant to go to
+your dwelling-room, to take you the linen-cambric handkerchiefs that
+you need, but not knowing where it was, I knocked here by mistake. Have
+the kindness, Herr Leonhardt, to relieve me of this parcel, and I will
+relieve your pupils from their alarm."
+
+The old man held out his hand to her, but she did not take it. "Never
+mind that; such a civility shown to me might deprive you of the
+children's respect."
+
+"Oh, my dear Fraeulein Hartwich," Leonhardt warmly entreated, "do not
+ascribe this folly to me, to whom it gives, of course, much more pain
+than it can to you, whose position is too exalted to allow you to heed
+such trifles; but to me it brings the bitter conviction that the labor
+of a lifetime has been in vain!" He ceased, and cast a sad, weary
+glance at the little flock crowded so closely together.
+
+At his words the cold look in Ernestine's eyes vanished, and, for the
+first time, she regarded attentively the old man, who stood so
+respectfully, and yet so dignified, before her. His inflamed eyes
+revealed to her instantly the nature of the tragedy alluded to by her
+unknown friend, and she was filled with sympathy.
+
+"We will talk together by-and-by, Herr Leonhardt," she whispered, so
+that the children should not hear what she said. "Now let me go."
+
+"Will you have the great kindness, Fraeulein Hartwich, to go and see my
+wife for awhile?" said Leonhardt "It would give her such pleasure,--she
+is in the opposite room."
+
+"Most certainly I will. I will wait for you there."
+
+She turned to go; but Leonhardt, seeing that the children were now more
+quiet, and hoping to show her that their folly was not as great as it
+had seemed, cried to the foremost ones of the throng, "You have behaved
+foolishly and naughtily before Fraeulein Hartwich. Come, show her that
+you can be better, and bid her good-by, like good children."
+
+The children stood motionless. The old man, distressed at their
+conduct, looked around the room, and said, "Will none of you shake
+hands with her for my sake?"
+
+"I will," said Kaethchen's clear, childish voice; and the fearless
+little girl, who had only followed the example of the others, walked up
+to Fraeulein von Hartwich, and offered her chubby little hand to be
+shaken, and her berry-stained lips to be kissed. Ernestine stooped and
+kissed the little, pouting lips, and looked kindly into the pretty
+child's frank, sparkling eyes.
+
+"Now see, all you larger children," said the schoolmaster, "a little
+child, only six years old, shames you all! What are you afraid of? You
+see Fraeulein von Hartwich every day!"
+
+"Yes, but not in a room--out in the road; we can run away then," one of
+the older ones shrewdly declared.
+
+Ernestine smiled sadly, and left the school-room without another word.
+
+The schoolmaster looked around upon his pupils with an indignant
+glance. "You have to-day disgraced yourselves and me, and I see plainly
+that everything that I have said to you and to your parents upon this
+point has been of no avail. I will give up trying to contend with your
+superstition and hate,--I am too old and weak for such a contest. Only
+let me say to you once more, 'Judge not, that you be not judged.' And
+tell your parents that if the time ever comes when I shall have to
+leave you, what has occurred to-day will go far to prevent me from
+regretting my departure."
+
+The children sat dismayed and silent, for they had never known their
+teacher to be so much displeased. They bowed their heads low over their
+books and slates, and hardly ventured to breathe, still less to utter a
+word of excuse. The lessons were gone through with even more quiet than
+usual, and when two o'clock struck, the children left the house and
+crept away as sad and depressed as if they were following a funeral.
+But scarcely were they escaped from the neighbourhood of the
+school-house than they recovered themselves, and fell upon poor
+Kaethchen. "Fie! Kaethchen, you let the Hartwich kiss you! Nobody cares
+for you now!"
+
+"Yes, yes, Kaethchen's mouth is black, because the Hartwich kissed it."
+
+"Oho, Kaethchen, no one will ever give you a kiss again!"
+
+"Only wait, and see how the Hartwich has bewitched you! To-morrow you
+will know!"
+
+Poor little Kaethchen was overwhelmed with speeches and reproaches of
+this kind. But they troubled her very little, for her teacher was
+pleased with her, and that was better than all else besides; and she
+was proud that she had dared to go forward when all the rest were
+afraid.
+
+"If you are so unkind, I will not give you any of my berries," she
+said, swinging her huge satchel carelessly to and fro. This trump-card
+did not fail of its effect, for the berries were not bewitched,--at all
+events, the Hartwich had not touched them; so the little girl soon had
+the satisfaction of seeing the children all gather around her once
+more.
+
+When Leonhardt went to his wife, he found her deep in friendly talk
+with Ernestine.
+
+"My dear, kind Fraeulein Hartwich," he began, "how it grieves me that
+you, who came to do me a kindness, should have been so insulted in my
+house! To be sure, they are only children, and they could not really
+insult you, but----"
+
+"'As the parents are, so must the children be,' is what you would say,"
+Ernestine interposed, "or what, at least, you think. Do not be
+distressed, Herr Leonhardt. I am used to insult and ridicule, and I
+have grown callous to them. But it is strange that a similar occurrence
+took place ten years ago to-day, at the first and only children's party
+which I ever attended. My misanthropy dates from that day; and the
+fresh proof that I have just had convinces me that I am not fitted to
+mix with the world,--least of all, with what passes for such in this
+country. Tell me, Herr Leonhardt, is it entirely impossible for you to
+enlighten these people in some small degree?"
+
+"To speak frankly, I believe I could have done so had not my influence
+always been counteracted by their priests and pastors. As a teacher,
+subordinate always to a priest or pastor, I could effect nothing
+against the superstition, the religious intolerance, instilled into the
+peasants by their spiritual guides; for with peasants the authority is
+always the greatest that does not attempt to combat their errors. A
+quack who makes use only of old women's remedies will always inspire
+them with more confidence than a regular physician whose prescriptions
+gainsay all their medical and dietetic prejudices. A pastor who from a
+religious point of view justifies and encourages their superstition and
+ignorance will be regarded by them as a far worthier and more
+trustworthy guide than one who teaches only the pure truth of God. So,
+you see, I have always contended with unequal weapons, and have
+frequently been in danger of falling a victim to their malice and thus
+losing my place. In quiet times, when nothing occurred to show plainly
+the difference between us, all went pretty well; but since your
+arrival, Fraeulein von Hartwich, the old quarrel has been renewed, and I
+see again how powerless I am."
+
+"Then I am come only to sow discord in this peaceful spot," Ernestine
+said in a thoughtful tone. "Yes, yes,--misfortune attends me wherever I
+go."
+
+"Oh, do not say that!" cried Frau Brigitta, seizing Ernestine's hand,
+"but it seems to me--forgive a simple old woman for speaking so plainly
+to you--it seems to me that a lady so beautiful and richly endowed as
+you are, ought not to live here so lonely and secluded. My husband and
+I often say, 'What a pity it is that such a splendid creature should
+bury herself alive!' It certainly is unnatural; and what is natural is
+sure to be best!"
+
+Ernestine was silent, and sat with eyes cast down.
+
+"I too must say," said Leonhardt timidly, "that you are not in your
+right place here. Did you ever see the statue of a renowned philosopher
+or artist set up in the midst of a village? Certainly not; for the
+village boys would pelt it with mud,--no one would understand its
+value,--it would be merely a doll, at which every one would laugh, and
+to deface which would be considered a very good joke. And will you,
+Fraeulein Hartwich, in the bloom of life, with all your refinement of
+mind, voluntarily expose yourself to the same fate that would await
+such a statue were it erected here, for the purpose of inspiring this
+rude people with ennobling ideas? Surely you cannot answer to yourself
+for such a course of life!"
+
+Ernestine gazed attentively at the old man's faded but still noble
+countenance. His address was so different from what she had expected
+from a simple village schoolmaster, that she was greatly astonished at
+it. It stimulated her to reply to him.
+
+"I understand your comparison, Herr Leonhardt, and am greatly
+honoured by it, but,--forgive me for saying so,--it does not seem to me
+quite correct. I know of no village where statues either of Christ or
+the Madonna are not erected, and the rudest peasant pays them
+reverence,--because he appreciates the idea that they embody. Could we
+only breathe a sympathy with other than religious ideas into the minds
+of this neglected class, the representatives of such ideas would also
+receive the same reverence."
+
+Frau Leonhardt was a little troubled by the turn the conversation had
+taken; for, as a faithful servant will listen to no slighting remarks
+concerning those whom he serves, she, as a true servant of her Lord and
+Saviour, disapproved of Fraeulein von Hartwich's mode of speaking of
+Him, and thought it scarcely becoming in a good Christian to listen to
+such talk. But her husband, with modest tact, put an end to her
+anxiety. "I have myself," said he, "thought of what you say, but it
+seems to me to be an entirely different matter. The people honour in
+these statues not ideas, but persons,--and the holiest and highest
+persons that they can conceive of,--the persons of their God and his
+saints. As we take delight in the pictures of distant relatives, whom
+we may never have seen, perhaps, but whom we honour and cherish for the
+sake of what we know of them, so, a thousand times more so, do the
+people honour what speaks to them of the eternally invisible Father of
+all! This sentiment, Fraeulein von Hartwich, seems to me widely
+different from the admiration that a comprehension of the great ideas
+of to-day might awaken in the minds of the people. We are not yet far
+enough advanced to say how it may be,--and who knows whether we ever
+shall advance so far as to be able to elevate those classes who labour
+for us that we may think for them, and who desire nothing at present
+for their happiness but their plough and their God? What they really
+need now, in my opinion, is that their God should not be represented to
+them as an angry, avenging Jehovah, but as the loving, redeeming God of
+Christianity! To return to my simile,--with regard to yourself,
+Fraeulein von Hartwich, let me repeat that you can only be in your true
+place where your efforts and ideas are understood and you can grace a
+pedestal that becomes you. Then you will be truly happy, and far more
+easily brought into communion with your Creator than while you are
+embittered by the religious error and intolerance prevailing around you
+here. The people are hostile to you, because they believe you hostile
+to what they hold most sacred,--their religion. Whoever, in their
+eyes, stands aloof from Christian fellowship, stands aloof from
+mankind,--ceases to be a creature of flesh and blood. And if they do
+not see condign punishment quickly overtake such a one, whom they
+regard as the chief of sinners, they believe that she must be under the
+protection not of God, but of the other power in their theology,--the
+devil! Forgive my frankness. I say nothing of their childish
+misconception of God's tender long-suffering. I only feel it my duty to
+show you the impassable gulf that lies between you and your
+surroundings. You are such a thorn in the side not only of the Catholic
+priest, but also of the evangelical pastor of our diocese, that he
+attempted to procure from the Protestant consistory a decree of
+banishment against you on account of your writings, and, failing in
+this, he has determined to drive you from this place, at all costs, by
+unceasing persecution. His Catholic associate seconds him, as you
+yourself know, most zealously, and I wish to save you, by timely
+warning, from all that, unfortunately, still threatens you here."
+
+He paused, and endeavoured to observe with his dim eyes the effect of
+his words upon Ernestine's impassive features. Her look was still
+riveted on the ground, and she said nothing, so he respectfully took
+her hand, saying, "Dear Fraeulein von Hartwich, forgive me if I am too
+bold and have wounded you. I am a plain man, ignorant of the forms of
+polite society, grown old among peasants, and accustomed to speak out
+my thoughts openly. I hold truth to be my first duty, but it would pain
+me to think that, in fulfilling this duty, I had unintentionally
+wounded you!"
+
+"Dear, dear!--yes!--oh, yes!" ejaculated his kindly old wife, really
+distressed by the inscrutable expression upon Ernestine's face.
+
+Suddenly the latter started up, shook the old people by the hand, and
+said gravely but cordially,--
+
+"Thank you, thank you, Herr Leonhardt. You are a good man!"
+
+"Oh, my dear, good Fraeulein von Hartwich!" cried Frau Brigitta with
+emotion.
+
+"I must go home now," said Ernestine, covering her black braids with
+her hat, "but I will see you soon again. Farewell!"
+
+When the old couple had accompanied her to the door, and followed her
+with their eyes as she walked away apparently lost in thought, they
+both remembered for the first time that she had not alluded in any way
+to Johannes.
+
+"How strange!" said the schoolmaster, as he went for his garden-shears
+to trim the luxuriant hedge before his house.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                             THE GUARDIAN.
+
+
+When, on the evening of the same day, Leuthold returned from town, he
+heard that Ernestine could not see him,--she was not well, and had
+retired to her room. Slowly and cautiously he sought her study, and
+there attempted to find what and how much his ward had accomplished
+during the day. To his astonishment, he found nothing. He slipped into
+the laboratory, and there lay everything just as it had been left the
+day before. Nothing had been touched. What did it mean? It was the
+first day for years that had been passed by Ernestine in idleness.
+Then, creeping along the corridors with the stealthy step of a cat, he
+sought Frau Willmers. She, too, was just about going to bed, and looked
+very sleepy when Leuthold, fixing a searching glance upon her, asked,
+"What has Fraeulein von Hartwich been doing to-day?"
+
+Frau Willmers yawned: she needed an instant for reflection. "Fraeulein
+von Hartwich has been quite unwell to-day," she replied.
+
+"Indeed! what was the matter with her?"
+
+"Why, just what is always the matter, more or less. Heart-beat,
+faintness, headache. Is it any wonder, considering the way she is
+always at work? She could hardly hold up her head to-day----"
+
+"Has any one been here?"
+
+"Not a soul: who could----"
+
+"No letters?"
+
+"Two for you, Herr Professor, and one for Fraeulein von Hartwich from
+the schoolmaster."
+
+"What did he want?"
+
+"He asked for some linen-cambric rags for his weak eyes. She took him
+some."
+
+"She herself? Why?"
+
+"She was tired because she could not study, and she wanted to see Herr
+Leonhardt's eyes. She thought she might learn something from them."
+
+"Very well,--that will do. Good-night, Frau Willmers."
+
+"Good-night, Herr Professor," said the cunning housekeeper, hastening
+to tell Ernestine how slyly she had managed matters and contrived to
+pay due honour to truth by mixing up some of it with her falsehoods.
+
+Ernestine sat in an easy-chair, her eyes fixed upon the flame of the
+lamp. A book lay open in her lap,--"Andersen's Fairy Tales."
+
+She could not smile at what Frau Willmers told her. There was something
+in it that filled her with uneasiness. For the first time since she had
+lived with her uncle, she felt that she was a prisoner, watched and
+guarded as such. She was obliged to conceal, as if it were a crime, the
+fact that she had become acquainted with a true, noble human being. She
+had to account on the plea of interest in science for visiting a poor
+suffering man. The lie disgraced her, and the necessity that had
+prompted it was a galling chain! All this she felt to-day for the first
+time. One day had aroused within her the longing for independence!--the
+greatest misfortune that could have befallen her unsuspecting uncle,
+but not the only one that this day was to bring him.
+
+When he went to his room, he found there the letters of which Frau
+Willmers had told him. The first that he took up he opened instantly.
+It was from his daughter Gretchen, and ran thus:
+
+
+"My dearest Father:
+
+"In a week I shall be fifteen years old, and next month my course here
+will be finished, and I shall be fitted to take my place in the school
+as a teacher. Once more I turn to you and entreat you, dear father, let
+me come home to you! I will not be any burden to you. My teachers will
+tell you that I know enough to enable a young girl to earn her own
+living. I thank and bless you a thousand times, dearest father, for
+having me educated to be a useful member of society. I will be my
+cousin's maid, and work for her for my support, if I may only be near
+you! Oh, I pray you yield to my entreaties! You have always answered my
+request by telling me that her bad example--her irreligion and hardness
+of heart--would have a ruinous effect upon me. But indeed, dear father,
+this could not be. Thanks to my good, kind teachers, I am so firm in my
+faith, I have been so well trained, that this one bad example could not
+have any effect upon me, especially when I should daily see how my poor
+father suffers in discharging his guardianship of so stubborn a
+creature. Why did my dead uncle Hartwich bequeath to you such a
+thankless office? Indeed, dearest father, it would be easier if you
+would let me help you. I would leave nothing untried to soften her
+heart and turn it to good, and, however angry she might be with me, I
+would disarm her by patience and submission; and, even although I could
+have no effect upon her, I could be something to you, dear father. Oh,
+how heavenly it would be to sit alone together in your room after the
+day's work was finished! I could sit at your feet and show you my
+sketches and drawings, drinking draughts from the rich treasures of
+your mind and cheering you with my ever-ready nonsense. And sometimes I
+could lean my head upon your heart, that no one understands as well as
+the child to whom you have shown all its depths of tenderness, and
+sleep as peacefully as in those dear childish days when you cradled me
+in your arms with all a mother's care! Oh, father, you are everything
+in the world to me! My mother, who forsook me when I was so young--who
+left you for another so immeasurably your inferior, I do not know--I
+can form no image of her, unlovely as she must be, in my mind. You are
+mother, father, everything, to me! My cradle stood by your bedside;
+your eyes smiled upon me when I awoke. You never spoke a harsh word to
+me, you never looked unkindly at me. You treated the wayward child, who
+must so often have vexed you, with unvarying gentleness and patience;
+and at last you sent me from you, that I might be thoroughly trained
+and educated, since it is our fate to earn our daily bread. You sent me
+from you, but I saw plainly, when we parted, that this was the greatest
+sacrifice of all,--that I carried away your whole heart with me. You
+did it for me,--out of affection for me. You have given me up now for
+almost seven years, and I have worked and studied as hard as I could,
+so that I might soon be with you again; and now, when I have learned
+enough to be able to repay you a very little for all that you have done
+and suffered for me, you refuse to let me fly to your dear arms, for
+fear of the miserable influence of your ward. Father, you will--you
+must--hear and heed me. The tears that blotted your last letter to me
+fell hot into my very soul. They were tears of longing--do not deny
+it--for your child, and I will never rest until you give heed to your
+own heart! Ah, father dear, you will be pleased when you see me! I am
+taller and stronger than our governess! Every one says I am very tall
+for my age--I might be taken for eighteen years old! When we go to walk
+together, you will have to give me your arm! Ah, what a delight that
+will be! I shall be too proud to touch the ground! and, depend upon it,
+I shall be able to do something with Ernestine! She never used to be
+cross to me as a child; I cannot think how she can have altered so. How
+could she become so changed with such a guardian? In spirit I kiss his
+dear, kind hands! Happy girl!--to have my father for a teacher! Shall I
+not grudge her a happiness of which she has proved herself so unworthy?
+Yes; I do grudge it her! I do not envy her for her talents or her
+wealth, but I do envy her for my father!--I must envy her for that! You
+give her your time--your care; you devote yourself to her, and let your
+own child grow up far away from you, among strangers,--your own
+child,--who would give all that she possesses for one look from her
+father's eyes!"
+
+Leuthold could read no further. He writhed like a worm on the ground
+beneath the weight of reproach with which this artless creature thus
+heaped him. The thunderbolt of a god could have inflicted no such
+punishment upon him as the pure, sweet, angelic love of his child.
+
+He sunk upon his knees, and kissed the letter again and again. "My
+child! my child!" he cried aloud, racked almost to madness by intense
+feverish longing. At this moment of weakness he was overwhelmed with
+remorse. He had banished from his side his dearest possession,--his
+Gretchen. And why? Because he loved her too dearly to expose her to
+contact with the ideas that he sought to impress upon the mind of his
+ward,--because he would not allow his child to breathe the poisoned
+atmosphere of falsehood in which he chose that Ernestine should dwell.
+And why had he thus chosen? Because, he loved Gretchen too much to have
+her always poor and dependent, because he determined to win back the
+inheritance that he had once thought his own, but which had been so
+unexpectedly lost to him, and because there was only one way, in his
+mind, in which this could be done,--by making the possessor of this
+inheritance so utterly unfit for the world that nothing might wrest her
+person or her property from his grasp.
+
+But, when he received such a letter as the above, overflowing with the
+devoted love, the pain at separation, of his exiled child, something
+stirred in his breast that would not be quieted, demanding whether he
+might not have expressed his paternal love in another way, whether it
+were not a desecration of this angel to attempt to make her future
+happy by a crime? Whether the joy of educating such a child himself
+would not have outweighed the wealth of the world? And then he began to
+reckon and compare,--and the account was never balanced,--for the years
+of separation from his daughter there was no equivalent. These were
+rare hours when, like a criminal before his judge, he was arraigned in
+spirit before the pure eyes of his child; but they cost him months of
+life.
+
+His hair had grown grey,--his powers of mind were enfeebled by all
+these years of self-control and hypocrisy,--of crime and dread of
+discovery. He had nothing to hope for for himself--but for Gretchen?
+And what if he had failed in his reckoning? What if a mischievous
+chance should again deprive him at the last moment of the fruit of all
+this sacrifice? The path of sin had separated him from his daughter
+hitherto. Was it possible that it could ever lead him to her?
+
+His high, narrow forehead was covered with a cold dew as he passed his
+hand over it. He was indeed to be pitied,--a man who had not the
+courage to be wholly good nor wholly bad!
+
+The night breeze blew fresh through the open window, and the miserable
+man was thoroughly chilled. He arose, wrapped himself in his shawl,
+closed the window, and went to the table where lay the other letter. It
+was directed in the handwriting of the overseer of the Unkenheim
+Factory. Leuthold put it down--he had not the courage to read it "What
+can he have to tell me?" he moaned, utterly dispirited.
+
+At last he roused himself. "What must be, must!"
+
+He unfolded the coarse paper and read--while his face grew ashy pale.
+
+
+                                        "Umkenheim, July 30, 18--.
+
+"Honoured Sir:
+
+"You should have believed me when I told you that there was nothing to
+be done with bringing the water from that miserable spring. Twenty
+years ago you placed me at the head of this factory, and I think I have
+shown that I understand my business. It is a ruinous thing to conduct
+such a huge undertaking from a distance. I told you so when you got
+back the factory again, but you never believe what I say. If the
+business had been allowed to proceed as usual, we should have made a
+sure, although small, profit from it. But you were in such a devil of a
+hurry to make the capital yield a hundred per cent., because you were
+always afraid lest your ward should smell a rat and require her own
+again,--or lest she should marry, and you would have to render an
+account to some suspicious husband, who would be less forbearing even
+than Fraeulein Ernestine. Therefore these giant speculations were set on
+foot, and everything was to be accomplished in the twinkling of an eye.
+I told you we had not sufficient sewerage for such an enormous
+enlargement. Then you never rested until that expensive drain was dug,
+and we very soon found that it had too little incline and the refuse
+all stuck fast in it. Then you thought we could carry it off by a
+stream of water turned into the drain. More money was spent, and again
+spent in vain. The dry summer had exhausted the spring,--it was always
+small, and now it has entirely disappeared. The large supply of raw
+material, not yet paid for, cannot be worked up, for the villagers are
+beginning to talk again of 'poisoning the springs,' and the drain has
+begun to leak. If the necessary amount of water cannot be procured, I
+shall be prosecuted, and then nothing will shield either you or me from
+discovery. The people already think it strange that the Italian
+gentleman, who pretended to buy the factory by your advice, has
+disappeared. It is whispered about that he is not the real owner, and
+Heaven only knows what it all means. We have, therefore, more need of
+caution than ever!
+
+"There is nothing for it but to face the worst and continue the
+aqueduct to the forest,--then we shall be safe. Digging ditches and
+hunting for springs is of no use,--more money is frittered away so than
+in large undertakings. I do not know what cash you have on hand; if you
+have not enough to lengthen the aqueduct, in a few weeks you will be
+bankrupt. It will not be my fault!
+
+"I have no more money for the workmen's wages,--and it would be well,
+now that work must be suspended for a time, to pay them up. It might
+keep them in good humour. I know that you will vent all your anger upon
+me again, but I tell you I will put up with nothing more. I was an
+honest man until you tempted me and made me your accomplice. Still, I
+have not played the rogue to you, my principal, although I have, more's
+the pity, made myself amenable to the law. You have gone on just like
+Herr Neuenstein, who became bankrupt too, because he would not listen
+to me; but he was an honourable man, and paid up every penny that he
+owed, so that he was not afraid to look any one in the face. If you
+fail, you drag down your ward, whose money you have been using, with
+you,--and me too,--poor devil that I am! There is truth in the proverb
+'Ill-gotten gains never prosper.' God help me!
+
+                                   "Yours, etc.,
+
+                                         "Clemens Pruecker,
+
+                                                      "_Overseer_."
+
+
+It was too much. "My child! my child! I have sinned, forged, embezzled,
+for your sake, in vain! Can you be sufficiently proud of such a
+father?" he moaned,--his head fell back in his chair, and he lost
+consciousness.
+
+The day had dawned when he opened his eyes; the atmosphere was full of
+the disagreeable odour of the dying candles, his limbs were stiff and
+numb from his uneasy posture, and he was shivering with cold. When he
+tried to walk, his hands and feet were asleep, and he staggered like a
+drunken man. At last his eyes lighted upon the letters. He picked them
+up and went to his writing-table. There he put them away in a secret
+drawer, then drew forth a safe and investigated its contents. It
+contained certificates of stock and some rolls of ready money.
+
+The sun shone brightly into the room, and still the pale man sat there
+counting and calculating. At last he put all the contents of the safe
+into a leather travelling-bag. Then he rang the bell and ordered the
+servant, who appeared, to have the carriage brought round and to pack
+up for him sufficient clothes to last during a journey of several days.
+
+When he heard that his niece had arisen, he went to her. "Good-morning,
+Ernestine," said he. "How are you to-day?"
+
+"I should put that question to you, uncle," she replied. "You look as
+if you had just arisen from the grave!"
+
+"Oh, there is nothing the matter with me. I did not sleep much. The
+overseer at Unkenheim writes to me on the part of my Italian friend,
+begging me to come as soon as possible to the factory, where everything
+is going wrong. I think it my duty to do what I can in the matter, as I
+know all about the business, and unfortunately advised my friend to
+make the purchase."
+
+"Are you going, then?" asked Ernestine, with a feeling of secret
+delight that she could not explain to herself.
+
+"Yes, I must leave you for a few days, hard as it is for me. But
+promise me before I go that you will have that treatise that you are at
+work upon completed by my return. Let nothing prevent you from
+finishing it. If you feel unwell,--you know that is of no real
+consequence,--you can readily overcome all your ailments by resolutely
+willing to do so. Take quinine, if you must. Now may I rely upon
+finding the essay complete when I see you again?"
+
+"Yes, uncle, I promise; and if I do not keep my word, it will be for
+the first time in my life."
+
+"Farewell, then, my child,--I must hurry to catch the train. Let
+nothing interrupt you,--do you hear?--nothing!"
+
+He hurried out, and sought the housekeeper. "Frau Willmers," he said,
+"I rely on you to prevent Fraeulein von Hartwich from receiving any
+visitors, be they who they may. If I find, upon my return, that you
+have permitted the least infringement of my orders, you may consider
+yourself dismissed. I cannot tell you when I shall return. Conduct
+yourself so that you need not fear my arrival, for it may take place at
+any moment."
+
+"Rely upon me entirely, Herr Professor," replied Frau Willmers; and
+Leuthold got hastily into his vehicle.
+
+"Now, that sly master of mine thinks all is secure, and that he has the
+heart of a girl of two-and-twenty under lock and key. How stupid these
+clever folks often are!" After this fashion Frau Willmers soliloquized,
+as her master drove off.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                         FRUITLESS PRETENSIONS.
+
+
+"Your new dress-coat has come from the tailor's," was Frau Herbert's
+greeting to her husband, upon his entrance.
+
+"Indeed! where is it?" he asked gruffly.
+
+"In the next room, on the bed."
+
+"On the bed!" her husband snapped out. "So that it may be covered with
+lint? How careless!"
+
+Frau Herbert looked down, and was silent. Herbert hurried into the next
+room to rescue his slighted property.
+
+Professor Herbert's dwelling-room was rather small and low, but there
+appeared, at a cursory glance, an air of elegance about it. The chairs
+and lounges were covered with fine woollen stuff, the curtains were
+richly embroidered, and an elegant cabinet, with mirrored doors,
+closely locked, apparently contained silver plate. Upon a closer
+inspection, however, the furniture was found to be stuffed with straw,
+the curtains were shabby, with the holes in them not even darned, and
+the cabinet contained only broken household-utensils, with the remains
+of the previous meal, locked up there to be safe from the hungry
+servant-maid. Even the arm-chair by the window, occupied by Frau
+Herbert, evidently an invalid, was as hard as a stone. The only thing
+in the room of real and decided value was a collection of old English
+copper-plates that decorated the walls of the apartment, representing
+scenes from Shakspeare's plays and Roman history. These old pictures
+were one of Professor Herbert's fancies; and he belonged to that class
+of men with whom the necessities of a wife and of the household are
+never considered in comparison with the gratification of their fancies.
+
+Frau Herbert was one of those unfortunate women who, in the
+consciousness that they are burdens to their husbands, believe
+themselves called to endure everything, even the grossest injustice,
+with meekness, and who hold it their duty to entreat forgiveness of
+their lords and masters for continuing to exist at all. The sight of
+that quiet woman, with her sad face, upon which pain had ploughed deep
+furrows, sitting at the window mending the straw-coloured gloves in
+which her husband was, in the evening, to play the part of an aesthetic
+exquisite, while she lay suffering at home, would instantly suggest the
+complete picture of an unhappy wife tied to the side of a cold-blooded
+egotist.
+
+"Poor Professor Herbert!" people were wont to say, "what a misfortune
+it is for a man to have such an invalid wife!"
+
+But a closer observer of the pair would have said, "What a misfortune
+for an invalid wife to have such a husband!"
+
+The miserable woman, however, had no such thought; she would gladly
+have died,--not only to be free from suffering, but that her husband
+might be rid of her presence. In her inmost heart she despised his
+selfishness and want of feeling. She knew that a worthier man would
+have had consideration for her and patience with her, as her burden was
+surely the heavier; but she was too much afraid of her husband to put
+such thoughts in words, even to her own mind. Suffering that is
+incessant, and that undermines the physical frame, must gradually
+weaken the mind; and thus the only strength of the hapless wife
+consisted in hopeless endurance.
+
+Professor Herbert entered in his new coat, and surveyed himself
+attentively in the large mirror.
+
+"It fits well,--does it not?" he asked.
+
+"Very well! but it is very expensive."
+
+"Did the bill come with it?"
+
+"Here it is."
+
+"Oh, that is not so bad. Hecht is certainly the best tailor in the
+city."
+
+A shade of bitter feeling passed across his wife's face and she could
+not refrain from saying, "When I recollect that you lately refused to
+let me have the shawl I so needed, that did not cost half so much,
+and----"
+
+"The money for your dress all goes to the apothecary, my dear," Herbert
+replied, with a sneer.
+
+"My dress!" his wife repeated,--"you would be ashamed to walk in the
+street with me,--my clothes are so shabby."
+
+"No one expects much elegance from an invalid whose illness costs her
+husband so much money."
+
+Frau Herbert cast a glance at her husband, but she said not a word
+more. For one moment she leaned her weary head against the back of her
+chair, but the position was too uncomfortable, and she resumed her
+work, thinking with pain how the physician had imperatively recommended
+her to procure a more comfortable chair, in which she could sleep
+sitting up,--but now this small luxury, as well as all the rest, had
+been denied her!
+
+Suddenly the door opened, and in rustled and fluttered a creature half
+child, half old maid,--half butterfly, half bat. Around her head
+floated a mass of very light curls. A _nez retrousse_ gave to her face
+a naive air of youthfulness, which, however, the crafty, eager
+expression of her small eyes contradicted. Just so her teeth, short and
+wide apart, resembled those of a young child who has shed his first
+set, while the wrinkles about her thin, open lips indicated an age of
+thirty years at least. The figure, crowned by this strange head
+with its huge mane of curls, was delicate and slender as that of a
+half-grown girl. Her hands were small, but wrinkled like those of an
+old woman. She was dressed in thin, flowing garments,--her round straw
+hat was adorned by long, light-brown ribbons. Her gait, bearing, and
+address were light, airy, sylph-like. It was evident at the first
+glance that she was a creature who believed herself highly poetic,
+richly gifted, breathing a charmed atmosphere, and that although she
+might in reality be thirty years old she had in imagination never
+passed sweet sixteen. Such a creature is only conceivable with a sheet
+of music or a sketch-book in her hand; and, in obedience to a
+mysterious law of nature, this too was not wanting in the present
+instance. "Brother, darling!" she cried, skipping up to Herbert, "how
+charming you are in your new coat! Aha, are you going to the Moellner's
+reception this evening? Yes!" Trilling a little air, she laid aside her
+book, hat, and gloves. "Tra-la-la-la--oh, I am so happy to-day I cannot
+talk, I can only sing." And she hummed the refrain of the charming song
+by Taubert, "I know not why, but sing I must!" Then she remembered that
+she had not yet spoken to her brother's wife. "Oh, dear Ulrika, forgive
+me for not asking how you are. No better yet? Ah! your little Elsa is
+so agitated to-day! I feel--I can't tell how--my bosom heaves and
+thrills as with the breath of May! I must go to my work. To-day I feel
+sure, in my present frame of mind, I must create something!"
+
+And she was about to hover away to the blissful retirement of her own
+room, when Herbert, who had meanwhile exchanged his new coat for a
+light summer sacque, cried after her, "Stay here a moment, and speak at
+least one sensible word before you go."
+
+She paused.
+
+"What are you going to attempt now? I am really afraid to trust you by
+yourself."
+
+She skipped up to her brother again and roguishly laid her finger on
+his lips, looking archly in his eyes. "Dearest brother, I shall
+surprise you! I have an idea!"
+
+"Pray cease your folly for the present. You do not want to flirt with
+your brother, I hope? Tell me, what is your idea? If it is good for
+anything, it will be the first of its kind that you have ever had in
+your head."
+
+"Oh, you discourteous brother!" pouted the fair indignant, "to grieve
+your sister so! But, since you bid me, I will obey you, and give you a
+glimpse into the transparent depths of an artist's soul. Every maiden
+must practise the sweet duty of obedience, that she may one day gladden
+a husband's heart by her submission."
+
+"Well, well, to the point!" cried Herbert impatiently.
+
+Elsa bashfully cast down her eyes, and, stammering with the charming
+embarrassment of an artistic nature, said, "When, a few days ago, I
+asked Professor Moellner what lady author was his favourite, he answered
+me in jest, 'She who has written the best cookery book!' I am going to
+show the mocking man that I can do that too. Oh, how amazed he will be
+when he finds that the wealth of fancy in my soul can beautify and
+transfigure what is so prosaic! This it is that he deems the charm of
+womanhood,--the power to seize and mould to beauty the commonplace and
+sordid. I am going to publish a cookery book in verse, with
+illustrations, and entitle it 'The German Wife at the Hearth of Home.'
+Only think what splendid initial letters and arabesques I can have! I
+will show that a bunch of parsley can be as gracefully arranged as
+roses or violets. Such lovely green borders to the pages must always be
+beautiful, whether composed of parsley, lettuce, or sorrel; and, if a
+warmer colour is desirable, I will paint a couple of blushing radishes
+peeping, half hidden, from among the leaves, and there you have as
+perfect a picture as any of our famous artistes have produced of
+Spring. Is not the meanest kitchen-stuff the work of the Creator, and
+as beautiful as any other of his creations? And there can be such
+variety in the volume. For example, the chapter of receipts for cooking
+fish can have a title-page of its own, after the style of the
+engravings in Schleiden's 'Wonders of the Deep.' Beneath a placid
+crystal lake may be seen sporting together all the fish alluded to in
+the ensuing chapter. Branches of coral are wreathed in and out, and,
+illuminated by the rosy light of the setting sun, water-lilies float
+upon the calm surface of the water. Every chapter will have a suitable
+title-page, displaying in its native element the animal to be
+cooked,--game in the forest, fleeing from the pursuing huntsman and
+hounds,--the dove hovering above the ark, with the olive-branch in her
+beak,--domestic fowls, in the Dutch style, cooped in their accustomed
+poultry yard. Fruit and vegetables can be treated as still-life, in
+arabesques, and decorating the margins of single recipes. At the end of
+the book a picture representing a family seated at dinner. Over their
+heads, in gothic letters, the line, 'Lord Jesus, come and be our
+guest.' And, in pursuance of this invitation, he must be seated at the
+head of the table, in the midst of a brilliant halo of glory. On either
+side of the table sit the children, and at the foot the happy husband
+and wife, each offering food to the other. Angels are in attendance
+upon the able,--the angels of harmony, peace, and content. The wife
+sits with her face turned from the spectator, but the husband--and this
+is the grand point--the husband will be a portrait!"
+
+She paused, carried away by her poetic dreams, and by the thought of
+the immense success that the book must command.
+
+"Well, and whom is the portrait to represent?--me, perhaps?" asked
+Herbert with a sneer.
+
+"You? Oh, no. Ah, rogue! can you not guess? Heavens! do not look at me
+so,--you know whom I mean!"
+
+"Moellner?" asked her brother.
+
+"Yes,--you have guessed it. Oh, when I think of the smile that will
+play around that proud mouth as he beholds his portrait drawn by my
+hand, as he sees how his image is present with me everywhere in all
+that I think and do! Oh, it will, it must touch him!"
+
+"Yes, it will touch him uncommonly," remarked Herbert; "and there will
+be a charming scene when he presents his inamorata, the Hartwich, with
+the work, that she may learn cookery from it. Do not forget to add a
+receipt for broiling frogs' legs, by which she can dress the frogs that
+they use together for their physiological experiments."
+
+"Oh, Edmund!" exclaimed Elsa, startled and a little vexed, "your words
+are full of wormwood to-day. Go,--your caustic wit destroys all my
+flowers of fancy. This is why I always avoid you when I am about to
+begin a work. What pleasure can it give you to thrust me from my
+paradise? Is it right? Let the soul that can find no home on this rude
+earth seek it in brighter realms."
+
+And she raised her eyes to the ceiling, and laid her wrinkled little
+hand upon her breast. "Mine is a modest, shrinking soul,--its childlike
+trust and hope are all that I possess. Dear brother, do not you rob me
+of them, as long as no other hand snatches them from me."
+
+"But you must find out at last that your hopes are vain, and therefore
+I wish to warn you, that you may not make yourself ridiculous by an
+untimely parade of your feelings. I know, from the most trustworthy
+sources, that Moellner has been to Hochstetten to see the Hartwich, and
+that he spent two hours with her. Rhyme that with his enthusiasm for
+her at the meeting the other day, and complete the verse yourself."
+
+Elsa looked down and thought for a minute or two, then she sighed and
+shook her flowing mane, saying, "No, it cannot, cannot be! That
+man-woman may excite his curiosity, she cannot win his heart! No, no,
+Elsa has no fear that Lohengruen will be misled by Ortrude! And now to
+work, that the day may soon come when he will ask, 'Elsa, whose is the
+face of the wife who sits at table by my side?' Then I shall avert my
+face and reply, 'That you know best.' Oh, darling brother! dearest
+sister! he will turn my blushing countenance to him then, and say,
+'This is her face!' Oh, I must go: the breath of spring is wafted
+towards me from my studio. Yes, yes, I feel that the Muses await me
+there." With these words she rustled and fluttered away to her room.
+
+Frau Herbert looked after her with a sad, almost a compassionate,
+glance. "Tell me, Edmund," she said to her husband, "did you ever for
+one moment believe that such a man as Moellner would marry that girl?"
+
+"Why not? There are many more unequal matches made every day: the only
+thing is to man[oe]uvre the matter skilfully. If poor Elsa had as
+managing a mother as you were blessed with, the affair would certainly
+not be beyond the bounds of possibility. But the poor thing has no one
+to help her but myself, and we men are clumsier at match-making than
+the most stupid of women."
+
+Frau Herbert looked pained and crushed by this attack upon her mother
+and herself. She thought it, however, beneath her dignity to reply to
+it. She only said very quietly, "I am glad, Edmund, that there is one
+creature in the world for whom you have some regard, or even blind
+affection. Well, she is your sister. I, too, love the poor thing, but I
+cannot believe that she will ever succeed in kindling one spark of
+interest in Moellner's breast."
+
+"You have always regarded her with jaundiced eyes," Herbert went on to
+say. "You talk as though she were a monster. She is no longer young,
+but there is still something youthful about her. She is not, it is
+true, a genius, but her nature is really artistic. She is not pretty,
+but an enthusiast like Moellner is more observant of inner graces than
+physical beauty, and he cannot fail to be impressed by her beauty of
+soul. It certainly is true that he always distinguishes her in society.
+Does he not always take her to supper when she is unprovided with an
+escort, as is usually the case? When all the others avoid her, is not
+Moellner sure to sit and talk with her? Such a conscientious prig as
+Moellner would not do that unless he had some object in view; and if she
+has no other charm for him, her undisguised admiration of him would
+attract him to her, for he has a due amount of vanity, and every one
+must take pleasure in being so fanatically adored. If it were not for
+that confounded Hartwich, who knows how far he might be brought! But I
+will be revenged upon her, she may rely upon that!"
+
+"Why visit your anger upon the innocent? How can it be this stranger's
+fault that Moellner is more interested by her genius than by our Elsa's
+sentimental dilettanteism, her perpetual attempts and failures? His
+courtesy to her in society always seemed to me prompted by his
+humanity. She certainly makes herself very ridiculous,--you must see
+that; and a man of Moellner's kindly, chivalric character cannot permit
+an innocent, harmless girl to be made sport of, and, accordingly, he
+constitutes himself her protector, and tries generously to indemnify
+her for the neglect of others. He does not dream that Elsa's vanity
+builds all kinds of schemes upon his conduct, or he would never forgive
+himself----"
+
+"Enough, enough!" Herbert interrupted her angrily. "I cannot see how,
+with the pain in your face, you manage to talk so much. I can
+understand that Elsa is disagreeable to you because I have educated
+her, but I cannot understand how, tied to your invalid chair as you
+are, you have contrived to fall in love with this Moellner. Indeed, if I
+had not had hopes of marrying him to my sister, I should have broken
+with the arrogant pedant long ago, for I hate him as much as you women,
+old and young, adore him."
+
+Frau Herbert looked with a quiet, thoughtful expression at the speaker,
+who had worked himself into a violent rage, and then she silently
+resumed her work, suppressing the words that rose to her lips,--for she
+possessed the rare talent of knowing when to be silent.
+
+Herbert waited for some minutes for a reply which might afford him
+further opportunity for venting his spleen, but, receiving none, he
+turned away, and was about to seek his study.
+
+Just then there was a knock at the door, and the postman entered, with
+a thick square parcel in his hand. Herbert grew pale at sight of it,
+and his wife too looked sad and sorry.
+
+"Your manuscript?" she asked.
+
+"My manuscript," he said, writing his name in the mail-book with an
+unsteady hand.
+
+"There's a gulden and twenty-four kreutzers to pay," said the
+messenger.
+
+"So much?" growled Herbert, counting out the money carefully by
+groschen and kreutzers. When the man had left the room, Herbert hastily
+tore open the envelope, and a letter appeared, which he hurriedly
+looked through and handed to his wife with a look of despair. The
+letter was from the manager of the royal court theatre at X----, and
+ran thus:
+
+
+"To Herr Professor Herbert, of N----:
+
+"I am greatly concerned, sir, to be obliged to return you your tragedy
+of 'Penthesilea,' as it presents insurmountable difficulties for scenic
+representation. The secrecy enjoined upon me shall be inviolably
+preserved.
+
+                                   "With great respect, etc.,
+
+                                                          "W----."
+
+
+Frau Herbert looked up with a sigh at her husband, who stood pale and
+trembling beside her.
+
+"There goes my last hope," he said, tearing up the letter. "I forgave
+all the other managers and directors for sending back the manuscript,
+for they are incapable of appreciating the value of such a work. But no
+one can accuse a man like W---- of not appreciating genuine art, and if
+he refuses to bring it out he must be actuated by envy. However that
+may be, in these lines he has written his own death-warrant." He raised
+his hand containing the crushed letter with something like solemnity,
+and continued: "I now declare war upon the German stage and its
+supporters. If I have nothing to hope, I have nothing to fear. I have
+written six tragedies for the waste-paper basket. I will not write
+another. Having nothing to fear, I may allow myself the delight of
+revenge. Criticism is an all-embracing friend, affording a sure refuge
+for every one who is misunderstood and depreciated. I will throw myself
+into its arms from this moment. Our public is degenerate. I give up
+composing for a people who crowd to a farce, shout applause at the
+commonplace jests of the hero of a modern comedy, and dissolve in tears
+at a sensation drama from a woman's pen. Shakspeare's, Schiller's, and
+Goethe's works would be rejected to-day as 'pulpit eloquence,' if past
+ages had not stamped them as classic. This degraded generation must be
+educated anew by criticism. They sneer and jeer, and jingle the money
+in their pockets, these traders of the drama, who demoralise the
+public; but I will so scourge them that I shall be called the Attila of
+the German stage."
+
+He paused, for breath failed him to continue his philippic, and he
+began to read over his manuscript, murmuring to himself, "This is for
+the future."
+
+Frau Herbert, as was her wont, suffered him to rage on without
+interruption; but at last she was compelled, out of regard for truth,
+to attempt to check the outpourings of the angry man. "It is a mournful
+office," she began, "that of literary executioner, and one I should be
+sorry to undertake. There is no good done to anybody by it. Many a
+blossoming genius is destroyed in the bud, and the critic brings upon
+himself the curses of those who have been striving and labouring
+honestly, night and day, only to see the offspring of all their pains
+ruthlessly murdered by the cold steel of his criticism. And the public
+do not thank you for degrading in its eyes what it had taken pleasure
+in, and thus robbing it of much enjoyment. Schiller and Goethe never
+practised criticism after this fashion. They knew how to live and let
+live, for they were too great to wish to aggrandize themselves at the
+expense of their contemporaries, and too good to destroy the results of
+the painful labours of others. Oh, Edmund, how small the man must be
+who can seek to exalt himself by depreciating others!"
+
+"You are preaching again without sense or reason," Herbert said angrily
+to his wife. "It was very easy for Schiller and Goethe to play at
+magnanimity, for they were never misunderstood,--the wiser generation
+of their day did not refuse them the crowns that belonged to them of
+right. A king by election would be a fool to make war upon the vassals
+of his realm. But the nation refuses me my right, and therefore I shall
+make war upon it."
+
+"Are you so sure of this right?" Frau Herbert asked in a low tone. "Are
+you so sure that your works are of equal value with Schiller's and
+Goethe's, and deserve the same applause?"
+
+Herbert stood as if petrified at the presumption of such a speech. "I
+really think the pain must have gone from your face to your brain. We
+had better discontinue this conversation."
+
+Frau Herbert went on with her work. A slight flush tinged her bloodless
+cheek, but she was too used to such attacks to reply to them. She had
+already said too much of what she thought, and when she looked at
+Herbert's anxious face she was seized with compassion. Poorly as he
+bore it, he had met with misfortune, and she would not add to his
+pain. "Pray, Edmund," she said, after a pause, occupied by Herbert in
+seeking and finding consolation in the beauties of his manuscript,
+"make up your mind now to read the piece to your friends. There are so
+many intellectual people here who will give you their opinion
+honestly,--then you can see what impression your work makes as a whole,
+and perhaps their criticism may enable you to improve it here and
+there."
+
+"I desire no one's opinion. I know perfectly well myself what the
+tragedy is worth. Shall I give occasion to have it said that I needed
+the assistance of others to enable me to complete my work? And then to
+have it reported that I composed dramas that were always rejected! No,
+I will not acknowledge a work that has met with no applause; neither my
+brother professors nor my students must hear of it."
+
+The handle of the door was turned, and through the opening smiled
+another opening,--Elsa's large mouth. When she saw the gloom
+overspreading her brother's countenance, her snub-nose, too, made its
+appearance, and, finally, her entire lovely person. She wore a white
+apron with a bib, calico over-sleeves, and had one pencil in her hand
+and another behind her right ear.
+
+"Your voices disturbed me at my work. Why contend thus? You know that
+my exquisite fancies are scared away, like timid birds, by the
+slightest noise."
+
+"It is a fine time to consider your nonsense, when such a work as my
+'Penthesilea' has been returned to its author as 'unserviceable!'"
+thundered her brother.
+
+"Heavens!" cried Elsa in dismay. "Penthesilea rejected by W----! Oh,
+who would have thought it! I so revered that man! My poor brother, this
+is hard! But, brother, dear Edmund, do not be too much depressed! Oh, I
+feel with you entirely. Any one who knows as well as I do what it is to
+have works rejected, can understand your pain. And what says my poor
+Ulrika? She looks so disappointed."
+
+"Oh, you need not pity her!" observed Herbert bitterly. "Her husband's
+incapacity alone, not his misfortune, troubles her."
+
+Frau Herbert turned her face towards the window, as if she had not
+heard him.
+
+"Oh, you must forgive her, brother dear--she has never done anything
+but translate. She cannot know a poet's finer feeling."
+
+At this disparaging remark, Frau Herbert looked calmly and gravely at
+Elsa. "And yet my unpretending translations for the periodicals supply
+us with the only means upon which we can rely, apart from Edmund's
+salary and the small interest of my property. That is because I never
+attempt what lies beyond my reach. No undertaking, however humble, that
+keeps pace with one's ability, can fail to produce some fruit, small
+though it may be."
+
+Elsa turned away, rather taken aback by this turn of the conversation,
+and her brother muttered, "Of course this is the sequel to the fine
+talk about attempting and failing."
+
+Elsa threw herself down upon a cushion at his feet, in Claerchen's
+attitude before Egmont, patted his smoothly shaven cheeks, and
+taking the thick manuscript out of his hand, pressed it to her bosom,
+saying, "Take comfort, my poet. Your 'Penthesilea' must always live!
+Here,--here,--and in the hearts of all. Print it, and publish it as a
+dramatic poem. It will find readers among the most intellectual people
+of the country."
+
+"You are a good sister," said Herbert, flattered. "But you know that I
+have never yet been able to find a publisher enlightened enough to
+bring out my tragedies. And my own means are not sufficient to enable
+me to print the work."
+
+"Oh, brother dear, I cannot believe that 'Penthesilea' would not find a
+publisher. It is the greatest thing you have ever written. The coarsest
+of men must be touched by such elevation of thought. There may perhaps
+be some difficulty in representing fitly upon the stage the conflict
+between Trojans, Greeks, and Amazons in the presence of the gigantic
+horse. But I cannot think that any one would refuse to print such a
+gem,--no--never! Yet, even in case of such incredible obtuseness, do
+not despair. My cookery-book will bring me in such a large sum that I
+shall be able to help you. Oh, what a strange freak of destiny, should
+I be permitted by means of a cookery-book to afford the German nation
+the knowledge of this immortal work! The ways of genius are
+inscrutable, and perhaps 'Penthesilea' may one day be born from the
+steam of a soup-tureen, as Aphrodite was from the foam of the sea.
+There, now, you are smiling once more. May not your sister contribute
+somewhat to her brother's success?"
+
+"You are a dear poetical child. Although I do not share your
+anticipations, your appreciation of my efforts does me good. Thank
+you!" And darling Edmund laid his hand upon his sister's curly head as
+it lay tenderly upon his breast.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                       EMANCIPATION OF THE FLESH.
+
+
+On the evening of this eventful day, Professor Herbert, before going to
+the Moellners', entered a splendid boudoir in a retired villa on the
+outskirts of the city. The entire room formed a tent of crimson damask
+shot with gold and gathered in huge folds to a rosette in the centre of
+the ceiling. Around the walls were ranged low Turkish divans of the
+same material. The floor was covered with crimson-plush rugs as thick
+and soft as mossy turf. Turkish pipes and costly weapons of all
+kinds,--shields, swords, pistols, and daggers,--adorned the walls. In
+the background of the apartment slender columns supported a canopy
+above a lounge, before which was spread a lion's skin, with the head
+carefully preserved. Upon the floor beside it stood an elegant
+apparatus for smoking opium. A riding-whip, the handle set with
+diamonds, lay upon a table of bronze and malachite. A Chinese salver,
+heaped with cigars, was upon a low stand beside the lounge. Upon a
+polished marble pedestal in the centre of the room stood a bronze of
+the Farnese bull, and to the right and left of the lounge were placed
+bronzes of the horse-tamers of the Monte Cavallo at Rome. The rich
+hangings of the walls were draped over candelabra holding lamps of
+ground glass.
+
+The smoke of a cigar was circling in blue rings around the room, that
+was far more fit for a Turkish pasha than for a lady. And yet it was
+the abode of a lady, and it was the smoke from her cigar that encircled
+Herbert upon his entrance.
+
+At first he only saw, resting on the lion's skin, two beautiful little
+feet in Russian slippers embroidered with pearls. The drapery of the
+canopy above the lounge concealed the rest of the figure. He advanced a
+few steps, and there, stretched comfortably upon the swelling cushions,
+reclined a woman beside whom all other works of nature were but
+journey-work,--such a woman as appears in the world now and then to
+cast utterly into the shade all that men have hitherto deemed
+beautiful. Herbert stood dazzled and blinded by the apparition before
+him. He was dressed in his new coat, and had an elegant cane in his
+hand, that was covered by a glove, upon which his wife had that morning
+employed her skill. But what was he, in all his elegance, by the side
+of this woman! He stood there dumb "in the consciousness of his
+nothingness." What could he be to her, or what could he give her? She
+was the woman of her race! She must mate with the man of her race, as
+the last giantess in the Nibelungen Lied could love only the last
+giant. Was he in his fine new coat this man of men,--the Siegfried to
+conquer this Brunhilda? Ah, he was but too conscious that he was
+nothing but a poor weakling, whose only strength lay in his passionate
+admiration of her!
+
+"Aha, here comes our little Philister," said the fair Brunhilda in
+broken German with a yawn, holding out her soft hand to him and drawing
+him down upon the lounge beside her like a child. Herbert sank into the
+luxurious cushions, that almost met, like waves, above him. The
+position did not at all suit his stiff, erect bearing, which was
+entirely wanting in the graceful suppleness of the born aristocrat who
+lolls with ease upon silken cushions. Such a seat would become a man in
+loose flowing costume, with an opium-pipe between his lips, and ready
+when wearied to fall asleep with his head pillowed upon the lady's lap.
+Poor Herbert was not one of these favourites of Fortune. He sat there
+stiff and wooden as a broken-jointed doll,--his pointed knees emerging
+from his downy nest, and his tight-fitting clothes stretched almost to
+their destruction by his unusual posture. He timidly placed his hat
+upon the stand beside him, and envied it its loftier position.
+
+"How now, my learned gentleman?" the lady began again. "What! dumb?
+What is the matter now?--what ails you?--domestic misery? Pardon! I
+mean conjugal bliss."
+
+"That is my constant trouble, dearest countess," Herbert replied,
+"although its dust never cleaves to my wings when I am with you. It is
+not that that worries me to-day. My Penthesilea----"
+
+The countess laughed loudly, and puffed out a cloud of smoke to the
+ceiling. "Here it comes! It is either his wife or his Penthesilea that
+teases him! I hope both may rest in eternal peace before long, for an
+unhappy husband and a tragedy are as much out of place in this boudoir
+as the fragrance of eau de Cologne or chamomile-tea--those horrid
+accompaniments of a sick-room!"
+
+"And yet it was you, fairest countess, that inspired me to embalm in
+classic verse that bold Amazon of antiquity."
+
+"That may be, and yet, my good fellow, believe me, Penthesilea herself
+would have considered it a terrible bore to have to read of her glory
+in a German tragedy. Come; don't be offended Have a cigar. Do you want
+fire to light it? Here; I will give you more than you need." And, with
+a laugh, she leaned towards him and lighted his cigar by her own.
+
+"You know you can do whatever you please with me," said Herbert, making
+a feeble attempt to twist his legs into a more comfortable position.
+"But take care not to go too far!"
+
+"Oho! my Herr Professor would fain mount his high horse?"
+
+"No, only take a higher seat," said Herbert involuntarily.
+
+"Well, then, sit on this ottoman, you wooden German with no sense of
+Oriental ease. There! will that do? When you really wish to mount a
+high horse, I pray you take mine. How often I have placed my Ali at
+your disposal! Do let me enjoy the delight of once seeing you on
+horseback! Will you not? Oh, it would be delightful!"
+
+"Thanks! thanks! I would do all that you desire,--even go to the death
+for you,--but it is rather too much to ask me to make a laughing-stock
+of myself."
+
+"Well, then, just take one walk with me, arm-in-arm. Oh, what a face of
+alarm my honourable gentleman puts on! He will go to the death for me,
+but not across the street. Ah, what a glorious hero for a tragedy he
+looks now! Hush! I know just what you would say,--wife, sister,
+cousins, aunts, good name, reputation as professor,--'great dread,' as
+Holy Writ hath it, would 'fall on all!' Every coffee-cup and tea-cup in
+the city of N---- would rattle abroad the startling news that Professor
+Herbert had been seen escorting the wild countess across the street.
+But it is all _en regle_ to slip around here in the twilight, and kiss
+my hands and feet, and then, at your evening party afterwards, shrug
+your shoulders at the mention of my name. For shame, Herbert! you are a
+cowardly fellow, fit for nothing but to be a _messager d'amour_ between
+myself and Moellner."
+
+"Countess," said Herbert menacingly, "do not goad me too far, or you
+will repent it! You know my passion for you--know that I would dare all
+for a single kiss from your lips; but you leave me thirsty at the
+fountain's brink,--hungry beside a spread table,--and you heap me with
+scorn. No living man could endure such treatment!"
+
+"Well, then, _point d'argent, point de Suisse_," cried the countess.
+"For every piece of good news of Moellner that you bring me, you shall
+have a kiss. For the sake of that man I would hold an asp to my breast!
+Why should I refuse a kiss to a German Philister like yourself? But you
+must first taste all the torment of rejected love, that you may make
+all the more haste to put an end to mine."
+
+"This is a poor prospect for me, countess; for I hardly think I shall
+ever be able to bring you good news. All that I can do is to bring you
+news of him; and if you refuse to reward the bad, as well as the good,
+my lips shall be sealed--you must seek another confidant."
+
+He rose, as if to go; but she took his hand, and looked beseechingly at
+him with her large, lustrous eyes.
+
+"Herbert!"
+
+The poor professor could not withstand that look, nor the tone in which
+she uttered that one word. He sank upon the lion-skin at her feet, and
+pressed his lips upon the pearls and silk of her embroidered slipper.
+
+"See, now, you are not as unkind as you would have me believe you," she
+said, looking down upon him with a contemptuous smile, that he,
+fortunately, did not perceive.
+
+"Oh, have some compassion upon me," he moaned. "I am most miserable! My
+home is a scene of ceaseless complaint. A wife disfigured and crippled
+by disease, so that she fills my soul with aversion, and, whenever I
+need rest from the thousand annoyances of my profession, only adds to
+their number. Then I am overwhelmed by vexations of every kind,--my
+talents are slighted,--whatever I attempt fails. And then this contrast
+when I come to you! Before me here lies all that is fairest and
+loveliest that earth has to offer; but the delight that I feel in
+beholding it is an insidious poison, eating into my very life,--for
+nothing--nothing of all this splendour is mine. I stand like a boy
+before the Christmas-tree that has been decked for another,--I am here
+only to light the lights upon the tree, that another may behold his
+bliss; and when I have induced that other to appreciate and take
+possession of his wealth, then--then I must turn and go empty away! Oh,
+it is dreadful!" He buried his face in the lion's mane, and, by the
+motion of his shoulders, he was plainly weeping.
+
+The countess looked down upon him with the compassion that one feels
+for a singed moth. Had it been possible, she would have crushed him
+beneath her foot for very pity,--just as we put an end to the insect's
+sufferings; but, as it was not possible, and as, moreover, she had need
+of the man, she raised him graciously, and again seated him upon the
+cushions beside her. "You shall not go away empty-handed, my good
+fellow. I told you before I will make you a rich man. If you only bring
+Moellner to my side, my banker shall give you, as long as I live----"
+
+"Countess!" he exclaimed, "do not carry your scorn of me too far. I am
+sunk low enough, it is true, since I thus chaffer and bargain with you
+to sell you my assistance for a single kiss. For this single caress I
+would resign my life! The thought of you is the madness that robs me of
+sleep at night, makes me hesitate and stammer when I stand before my
+pupils in the lecture-room, and prevents me from enjoying the food that
+I eat. A single kiss from you is more bliss than such a wretched man as
+I should hope to enjoy. But I am not yet sunk so low as to hire myself
+out for money, and although you may hold me in contempt, you shall at
+least pay some respect to the position of German professor, which I
+have the honour to hold!"
+
+The countess was silent for awhile, struck by his words. But such
+embarrassment could last but a moment with a woman conscious of the
+power to atone by a smile for the grossest insult. "Come here! Forgive
+me! I have erred, but I repent."
+
+"Oh, light of my life!" cried Herbert, seizing her offered hand, and
+pressing it to his breast. "Forgive--forgive you? With what unnumbered
+pains would I not purchase the joy of such a request! The only thing I
+cannot forgive you is that such a woman as you should love this
+Moellner."
+
+"Indeed!--and why?"
+
+"Because he is not worthy of you. Look you,--were you to give yourself
+to an emperor or a king, I could bear it without a murmur. Crowned
+heads are entitled to the costliest of earth's treasures,--how could I
+covet what kings alone could win? But that one of my own class should
+call you his,--one with no special claim of birth, culture, or
+intellect,--with nothing that I too do not myself possess, except a
+physique that is his in common with any prize-fighter,--the thought is
+madness!"
+
+A dark flush coloured the beautiful woman's brow. "I have not even
+acknowledged to myself why I love this Moellner. I never hold myself
+responsible for my impulses--every passion bears its divine credentials
+in itself. But you have just revealed to me what so enraptures me in
+this Moellner. Yes! it is nothing else than what we admire as the
+highest attribute of humanity--a noble, genuine manhood. I think I have
+read in some poet, 'Take him for all in all, he was a man!' But this
+man is more; he is what I have never in my life seen before,--a
+virtuous man. This, my good little professor, is his charm, his
+advantage over monarchs even,--enabling him to buy what is his now and
+forever,--my heart! Oh, there can be no more exquisite flower in the
+garden of Paradise than this which I hope to pluck--the devotion of
+this virtuous man. It is the bliss of Eve when she breathed the first
+kiss upon the lips of the first man and marked his first blush!"
+
+The beautiful woman, speaking more to herself than to the miserable man
+by her side, leaned back upon her lounge and exclaimed with a heavy
+sigh, "Oh, what a divine office for a woman--to teach a man like this
+to love!"
+
+Herbert reflected for a moment. He had been playing the traitor here,
+and, in the hope of winning Johannes for his sister, had never said
+anything to him in favour of this woman. He had deceived her with
+falsehoods, that he might be retained as her confidant as long as
+possible, and perhaps profit by her waning interest in his colleague.
+But now all his hopes and plans were ruined. Moellner loved the
+Hartwich, and was lost for Elsa,--who might, at all events, be avenged
+of her hated rival by means of the countess. The all-conquering charms
+of the Worronska should subdue Moellner, and he, Herbert, would
+receive--all that was left for him in the general shipwreck--the
+gratitude at least of the countess.
+
+He began at last, after a severe inward conflict. "I have a
+communication for you, but it will make you angry. I cannot, however,
+feel justified as your friend in withholding it from you."
+
+"Well?" inquired the Amazon, lighting a fresh cigar.
+
+"I have discovered that Moellner is in love."
+
+The countess started, and looked at Herbert as if in a dream. The smoke
+from the freshly-lighted cigar issued in a cloud from her half-opened
+lips, and she looked like a beautiful fiend breathing fire.
+
+"Whom does he love?" she asked, her eyes flaming as if she would force
+the name from Herbert before his lips could find time to utter it.
+
+"Have you ever heard of a learned woman called Hartwich?"
+
+"Yes, yes! she too is emancipated."
+
+"True, but not at all after your fashion, countess," Herbert corrected
+her, maliciously enjoying the torture to which the haughty woman was
+put. "You are emancipated for the sake of pleasure--she is emancipated
+for the sake of principle. She is a rare person, and fills Moellner with
+admiration of her genius!"
+
+"Well, and it is she?" she cried, stamping her little foot upon the
+soft carpet.
+
+"He is in love with her!"
+
+For the first time, the countess sprang up from her lounge, and stood
+before Herbert in all the majesty of her person. Her gold-embroidered
+Turkish robe hung in heavy folds around her. Her dark hair fell in
+loosened masses upon her shoulders. The glitter of her long diamond
+ear-rings betrayed the tremor that agitated her whole frame. Her low,
+classic brow, with its bold, strongly-marked eyebrows,--her mouth,
+shaped like a bow, with lips parted,--her firm, massive throat,--the
+whole figure, so powerfully and yet so perfectly formed,--all suggested
+the Niobe, only the passion that swayed her was rage, not suffering.
+"Is this true? Is it really true? I must hear all."
+
+Herbert told her all that he had seen and heard.
+
+The countess was silent for one moment, as if paralyzed by
+astonishment. Then she muttered, as if to herself, a few broken words
+that Herbert could not understand, but at last her rage overflowed her
+lips and reached his ears.
+
+"There is a first time for everything. This is the first time that a
+man honoured by my notice has loved another." She strode up and down
+the room so hurriedly that the flame of the lamps flickered as she
+passed them. She threw her cigar into the fireplace. "Must I endure it?
+I? Oh, cursed be the day when the count came here for his health! For
+this I have spent my months of widowhood since his death, in this hole,
+away from all the enchantments of the world, even timidly waiting and
+hoping like a bride,--no society about me but my horses, dogs,
+and--you! For this, for this,--that I might learn that there lives a
+man who can withstand me. The lesson, it is true, was well worth the
+trouble!"
+
+She struck her forehead. "Oh that I had never gone to that lecture!
+then I might never, perhaps, have seen him. Why did I not stay away?
+What do I care about physiology, anatomy, or whatever the trash is
+called? I heard this Moellner was distinguished among his fellows, and
+curiosity impelled me to go. Fool that I was, to imagine that he saw me
+there and admired me as I did him!" She stood still, and involuntarily
+lost herself in thought "Ye gods! how glorious the man was that
+evening! The brow, the hair, the eyes, were all of Jove himself. I felt
+myself blush like a girl of sixteen, when I met his eye. And such
+grace, such dignity! His voice, too,--melodious as a deep-toned bell. I
+did not understand what he said; but there was no need, his voice was
+such harmony that no words were wanting to the charm. It was a
+symphony,--no, finer still, for that we only hear, and in him the
+delight of sight was added. The movements of those lips--how
+inimitable! And then his smile!" She paused,--her cheeks glowed, her
+eyes sparkled. It was a delight to her to lay bare her heart for once,
+careless as to what were the feelings of her auditor.
+
+"And if that voice is so enchanting when it discourses upon dry,
+unmeaning topics, what must it be when it comes overflowing from his
+heart!" She leaned against the pedestal of one of the bronzes, and
+covered her eyes with her hand.
+
+Herbert sat as if upon the rack,--he could not speak,--his voice denied
+him utterance.
+
+"No man has seemed to me worthy of a glance since I saw him first.
+Bound by no vow, no duty, no right, I have still been true to him.
+Since loving him, I have first known a sense of what the moralist would
+call decorous reserve. For a woman who for the first time truly loves
+is in the first bloom of youth, whether she be sixteen or thirty. I was
+a wife before I was a woman, and the spring, that I had never known
+before, began to breathe around me beneath the magic influence of that
+man,--the maiden blossom of my life, crushed in the germ, budded anew.
+Oh, what would I not have been to him! I, with the experience of
+ripened womanhood and the first love of a girl! And scorned! I, for
+whose smile monarchs have contended, scorned by a simple German
+philosopher! Oh, it stings, it stings!"
+
+And she hid her face again.
+
+Herbert timidly approached her and touched her shoulder lightly with a
+trembling hand. "Would that I could console you!"
+
+She shrank from his touch as if a reptile had stung her.
+
+"What consolation can you give me, except the relief that I have in
+pouring out my soul before you?"
+
+She moved away, and again strode restlessly to and fro like a caged
+lioness. "Fool, fool that I was! How could I suppose that the interest
+he took in my husband's case was due to my attractions? It was inspired
+by a hateful disease,--for this he came hither, and I thought he came
+for my sake! Oh, fie, fie! I stayed for love of him by that terrible
+sick-bed, and he had eyes only for the sick man,--he never even saw me
+standing beside him. Is he man, or devil?"
+
+"Oh, no," Herbert interrupted her, with malice, "he is only--a German
+philosopher."
+
+"And once, when I sank fainting in that room, what an arm supported me,
+strong as iron, and yet tender as the arm of a mother! He carried me
+like a child from the apartment. I held my breath, that nothing might
+arouse me from that enchanting dream. He laid me on a couch, saying,
+with icy composure, 'Allow me, madam, to call your maid. I must return
+to the patient.' My cheeks burned with mortification; for one moment I
+hated him, but when the door had closed behind him I revered him as a
+saint. I could have knelt at his feet, and, clasping his knees, bedewed
+his hands with penitential tears. But I restrained myself. I suddenly
+knew that this pure spirit could love nothing that he did not
+respect,--that I must first win that before I could hope for his love.
+I determined to begin a new life, to break with all the past. For no
+sacrifice would be too great to win the love of this man, and I sowed
+renunciation that I might reap delight. Fool that I was! I reap nothing
+but the reward of virtue!"
+
+She laughed bitterly, and a violent burst of tears quenched the fire in
+her brain. She threw herself down upon the lion's skin, unconsciously
+representing the Ariadne.
+
+"Loveliest of women!" murmured Herbert, intoxicated by the sight. "Is
+it not monstrous that such a woman should mourn over an unrequited
+love? Does he who could withstand such charms deserve the name of man?
+No, most certainly not. He is an overstrained pedant, the type of a
+German Philister, and if blind nature had not endowed him with the head
+of a Jove and the form of an athlete, the Countess Worronska would
+never have wasted a tear upon him!"
+
+"Herbert, you shall not revile him! You cannot know how great he seems
+to me in thus coldly despising my beauty, as though he might choose
+amongst goddesses,--as though Olympus were around him, instead of this
+insignificant town filled with ugly, gossiping women. What a lofty
+ideal must have filled his fancy,--an ideal with which I could not
+compete! When he saw me first, he did not know this Hartwich. I
+remember how cold his eye was when he first saw me. He looked at me
+with the cool gaze of an anatomist. And it was always so. Whenever he
+visited my husband, he always treated me with the strictest formality.
+Always the same gentle, inviolable repose,--the same calm scrutiny that
+one accords to a fine picture, but not to a lovely woman. Oh, there is
+something overpowering, in all this, for a woman used to seeing all men
+at her feet!" She sank into a gloomy reverie. At last she seized
+Herbert's hand. "Herbert, who is she who has power to enchant this man?
+Is all contest with her useless? Must I resign all hope?"
+
+Herbert, as if electrified by her touch, whispered scarcely audibly,
+"Will you grant me that kiss if I show you how to annihilate the
+Hartwich in Moellner's eyes?"
+
+A pause ensued.
+
+"It is my only price. Without it I am dumb."
+
+"Well, take it, then!" cried the countess, driven to extremity; and she
+held up to him her lovely lips.
+
+But, as Herbert approached her, with the expression of a jackal
+thirsting for his prey, disgust overpowered the haughty woman, and she
+thrust the slender man from her so violently that he fell to the
+ground. She was terrified,--perhaps her impetuosity had ruined
+everything. She went to him and held out her hand. "Stand up and
+forgive me."
+
+Herbert stood up, pale as a ghost, with sunken, haggard eyes, and
+readjusted his dress, disordered by his fall. He wiped the cold drops
+from his brow with his handkerchief, and, without a word, took up his
+hat.
+
+The countess regarded his proceedings with alarm. "Herbert," she said
+with a forced smile, "are you angry with me for being so rude?"
+
+"Oh, no," he answered, in a hoarse, hollow tone.
+
+She held out her hand, but he did not take it.
+
+"Do not bear malice against me. I--I am too deeply wounded. I do not
+know what I am doing."
+
+Herbert was silent. He shivered, as if with cold. His look--the
+expression of his eyes--alarmed the countess more and more.
+
+"Now you will revenge yourself by not telling me how I can annihilate
+the Hartwich?"
+
+"Why should I not tell you?" stammered Herbert, with blue lips. "I keep
+my promises." He fixed his eyes upon the countess. "Make the Hartwich
+your friend, and you will make her an object of aversion in Moellner's
+eyes."
+
+The countess started; her terrible glance encountered Herbert's look of
+hate. They stood now opposed to each other,--enemies to the death,--the
+effeminate man and the masculine woman. She had offended him mortally,
+but Herbert's last thrust had gone home; and softly, lightly as an
+incorporeal shade, he passed from the room.
+
+When the countess was alone, she fell upon her knees, as though utterly
+crushed.
+
+"Thus outraged Virtue revenges herself! Artful hypocrite that she is!
+When I left her, she gave me no warning,--I sinned unpunished,--and
+now, when I would return to her repentant, she thrusts me from her with
+a remorseless 'Too late!' Too late!--my ships are burned behind me, and
+there is nothing left for me but to advance, or to repent,--Repent?"
+She writhed in despair. "No! O Heaven, take pity on me,--I am still too
+young and too fair for that!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII.
+
+                      EMANCIPATION OF THE SPIRIT.
+
+
+High up upon the platform of her observatory, fanned by the pure
+night-breeze and bathed in starry radiance, stood Ernestine, waiting
+for the moon to rise. On her serious brow and in her maidenly soul
+there was self-consecration, and peace. The heated vapour of passion
+that was gathering like a thunder-cloud about her name in the world
+beneath her, the poisonous slander of lips that mentioned her only to
+defame her, could not ascend hither. Unconscious, assailed by no sordid
+temptations, she stood there in vestal purity,--elevated physically but
+a few feet from the earth, but soaring in mind worlds above it.
+
+Slowly and solemnly the moon's disc arose from the horizon and mounted
+upwards, lonely and quiet, in soft splendour. Thousands of little moons
+were reflected in the telescopes of astronomers in thousandfold
+diversity of aspect; but they were all images of the one orb slowly
+sailing through the air. Ernestine was not busied with her telescope,
+for no mortal quest could aid her in what she was seeking to-night. It
+was to be found only in her own breast. It was not the material, but
+the immaterial, that she was now longing to grasp; no single sense
+could be of any avail. She needed all the powers of her being
+harmoniously co-operating. And, as she gazed there, full of dreamy
+inspiration, it was as if the moon had paused in its course to mirror
+itself in those eyes. Oh that we could die when and as we choose! that
+we could breathe out our souls in a single sigh! No human being could
+pass away more calmly and blissfully than Ernestine could have done at
+that moment, as she gazed at that serene moon and breathed forth a
+yearning sigh after the Unfathomable.
+
+Happiness, pure and unspeakable, descended into her soul from the
+sparkling canopy of night This was her holiday, her hour of
+enfranchisement from the fetters of toil and study. She was alone
+beneath the starry sky,--a lone watcher, while all around were
+sleeping,--thinking while others were unconscious. She seemed to
+herself appointed to keep guard over the dignity of humanity, while all
+beside were sunk in slumber. She could rest only when others were
+roused to consciousness. The fever of night, that brings remorse to so
+many tossing upon restless couches, never assailed her. All earthly
+phantoms recede from the heart bathed in starlight, for in that light
+there is peace. In view of immensity, eternity is revealed to us, and
+every earthly pain vanishes like a shadow before it. But when star
+after star faded, and the moon had paled, the first rosy streak of dawn
+kissed a brow pale as snow, and a weariness as of death assailed her.
+The sacred fire of her soul had devoured her bodily strength and was
+extinguished with it. Then she sank to rest silently and
+uncomplainingly, like the lamps of night at the approach of day. So it
+was at this hour. As the darkness vanished, she descended to her
+apartments, and sought in brief repose the strength that would suffice
+for a day of constant labour.
+
+"The more time I spend in sleep, the less of life do I enjoy," she said
+in answer to the remonstrances of her anxious attendant. "Everything in
+the world is so beautiful that we should not lose one moment of it,--so
+short a time is ours to enjoy it."
+
+"Enjoy! Good heavens! What do you enjoy? you do nothing but work."
+
+"That is my enjoyment, my good Willmers. For my work is nothing less
+than the constant study and discovery of the beauties of the world. An
+immortality would not suffice to enjoy it all,--and what can we
+accomplish in our brief span of existence? Shall we curtail it by
+sleep? Has not nature, who gives us eighty years of life, robbed us of
+almost half of it by imposing upon us the necessity of spending from
+seven to nine hours out of the twenty-four in a state of
+unconsciousness? I will defy her as long as I can, and maintain my
+right to enjoy her gift as I please, and not as she please."
+
+Frau Willmers looked with intense anxiety at the pale cheeks of the
+speaker. As she lay in her bed, white as the snowy draperies around
+her, her thin hands fallen wearied upon the coverlet, her breath coming
+short and quick, the faithful servant's heart misgave her; for she saw
+that nature had already begun to revenge herself for the disobedience
+of her laws. She covered her up carefully in the soft coverlet. "Do not
+talk any more, my dear Fraeulein von Hartwich,--you are worn out."
+
+"And you are wearied too, my good Willmers. Why do you rise whenever
+you hear me going to bed?"
+
+"Because I always hope that I may force you, out of consideration for
+me, to do what you will not do for yourself,--retire earlier and grant
+yourself the repose which is needful even for the strongest man,--how
+much more so for such a delicate creature as you are!"
+
+Ernestine languidly held out her hand. "You are kind and unselfish, my
+dear Willmers, but you cannot understand me. And, if you will insist
+upon sacrificing your night's rest to me, I must give you a room at a
+distance from mine, where you cannot hear what I am doing. Thank you
+for your care. Good-night."
+
+"Good-night," replied the housekeeper sadly, delaying her departure for
+a moment to draw the curtains closely around Ernestine's bed, that they
+might exclude the first golden rays of sunlight.
+
+
+That same night the countess spent tossing, like one scourged by the
+furies, upon her restless couch. She could hardly wait for the day that
+should take her to see her rival, and the same rising sun that filled
+Ernestine's sleep with friendly dreams,--for even in slumber the eye is
+conscious of light, and communicates it to the soul,--the same rising
+sun drove the tortured woman from her silken bed. She knew no
+weariness. Her healthy physical frame, hardened by exercise, withstood
+every attack of weakness. She owned no restraint, physically, morally,
+or mentally. She was talented, but she refused to think. Thought was in
+her view a fetter upon self-indulgence. Knowledge had limits which
+those who knew nothing were unconscious of. She would be free as the
+air, and therefore avoided everything that could disturb her
+superficial security. And she had sufficient intellect to feel that
+thought might lead to conclusions most dangerous to her theory of life.
+
+"Man's destiny is labour, woman's enjoyment" This was her motto, and
+she lived up to it. She dazzled the world with the rare spectacle of
+beautiful power and powerful beauty carrying away like the hurricane in
+its mad career whatever lies in its path, stripping the leaves from
+every flower, uprooting every young tree, and bearing them on perhaps
+for one moment before casting them aside, crushed and dying. A glorious
+spectacle for exultant Valkyrias, but one at which the common herd
+cross themselves. Every destructive force of nature--and such was this
+woman--possesses a shuddering poetic attraction for the on-looker who
+is himself secure. He admires what he fears, he revels in the sight of
+what he knows to be destructive. This was the position held by the
+inhabitants of the little town of N---- towards the beautiful Russian
+since she had arrived there with her sick husband. With her wild manner
+of life, she was a wonderful apparition in their eyes, a constant
+source of interest, yet always provoking sternest disapproval. When the
+magnificent woman galloped through the streets upon her fiery Arabian,
+or held the reins behind her pair of horses with a skilful hand, like
+Victory in her triumphal car, no one could refrain from rushing to the
+window to enjoy a sight not to be forgotten. Strength, health, and
+beauty seemed to be her monopoly and the firm foundation of her joyous
+existence.
+
+"The woman who desires to be emancipated," she was wont to say, "must
+have the true stuff in her. And as there are so few who possess it,
+there are but a few who are emancipated. If you cannot compete with a
+man, do not try to rival him. But she who has been baptized, as I have,
+in the ice-cold Neva, can afford to laugh at the whole tribe with their
+masculine arrogance."
+
+In Russia, where she had played her part in a community far less
+strict, she had had an excellent field for displaying her grace and
+agility in all knightly exercises at the tilting-school which had been
+instituted by the Russian nobility. There she made her appearance
+usually in a steel helmet and closely-fitting coat of mail of woven
+silver that shone in the brilliant sunlight, enveloping her as it were
+in splendour. When she rode into the lists thus arrayed, a crooked
+scimitar by her side, pistols in her belt, and mounted upon her Arabian
+steed, nothing could restrain the loud applause of all present. She
+rivalled the most distinguished sons of the Russian nobility in the
+grace and skill with which she managed her horse, the precision of her
+aim in shooting, and the boldness of her leaps. She knew no fear and no
+fatigue.
+
+She had the strength and vigour of a Northern divinity, with the
+glowing temperament of an Oriental. What wonder that, from Emperor to
+serf, all were her admiring slaves?
+
+Her father, Alexei Fedorowitsch, was a poor and uneducated noble, who
+had distinguished himself by his bravery in the war with Napoleon, and,
+invalided at its close, retired to his small estate in the country,
+where he lived upon his pension. His wife, a sickly aristocrat, who had
+condescended to marry him for want of a more desirable _parti_, was the
+torment of his life. In despair at the trouble and annoyance caused by
+his wife's delicate health, sensibility, and affectation, he made a
+vow, when she bore him a daughter, to educate his child to be an utter
+contrast to her mother. Better that the child should die than live to
+be such an invalid as his wife. And he began by causing his little
+daughter to be baptized, like the children of the poorest Russians in
+that part of the country, in the icy waters of the Neva. The little
+Feodorowna outlived her icy bath, and her entire education corresponded
+with this beginning. Her mother died a few days after this cruel
+baptism; anxiety for her child put the finishing stroke to her invalid
+existence. And so her rude, uncultured father was her only guide and
+instructor. He loved her after his fashion, and made her his companion
+in all his amusements, riding, training horses, and the chase.
+
+She was scarcely sixteen when he married her to a wealthy landed
+proprietor in the neighbourhood, ruder and more illiterate even than
+himself, and to the girl an object of aversion. As his wife, she lived
+on his lonely estate like a serf. Her husband was cruel and suspicious,
+and made her married life perfect torture. She was compelled to resign
+her free habits of life, which she loved better than all else in the
+world. Every extravagance, even the most harmless, was forbidden by her
+husband. The joyous girl who had been used to fly upon the back of her
+spirited steed over steppe and heath was not allowed to mount a horse,
+but was made to sit with her maid-servants and spin by the dim light of
+a train-oil lamp until her husband came home to compel, perhaps by the
+_kantschu_, her reluctant attention to his wishes. She bore this
+martyrdom for one year in silence. At last she made a confidant of a
+neighbouring nobleman, and implored his aid in her great need; but she
+found no sympathy,--no assistance. He called her a fool, who did not
+appreciate her good fortune,--told her that to think of a divorce was a
+crime, and that her husband was perfectly right. In her utter
+loneliness, longing for love, if it were only the love of her old
+father, a desire for freedom and hatred of her tormentor gained the
+victory, and she fled, without taking anything with her but the few
+clothes that she had possessed at her marriage. She travelled the
+greater part of the way on foot, and arrived at her father's in such a
+wretched condition that he was touched by compassion, received her
+kindly, and took her part against her husband. Her suit for divorce
+left her wholly without means, but free, and when shortly afterwards
+she came to know the old diplomat Count Worronska, and he laid his rank
+and his millions at her feet, offering a field for her beauty at court
+at St. Petersburg, she could not withstand the temptation. She became
+his wife, and was transplanted from the midst of half-savage serfs to
+one of the most magnificent courts in the world,--from the Russian
+forests and steppes to apartments gorgeous with every luxury of life.
+At first dazzled and confused, she won all hearts, even those of the
+women, by her innocent beauty and graceful diffidence. At last her
+unbridled nature broke forth all the more impetuously for the long
+restraint under which it had lain, and, with no guidance but that of
+her imbecile husband, who adored her, she rapidly degenerated in every
+way. Society always looks more leniently upon those errors that are
+gradually developed before its eyes and under its protection than upon
+those that it observes outside of its sphere, because it is cognizant
+of the excuse for the faults of those within it, and it was all the
+more willing to pardon the delinquent in this instance for the sake of
+the high rank of her husband. It therefore ignored escapades that the
+distinguished position held by the old count forbade it to punish, and
+the beautiful and enormously wealthy Countess Worronska, in spite of
+her dissipation, was and continued to be the centre of the most
+brilliant, if not the best, circle of society in St. Petersburg. All
+this she had resigned for the last six months, and she had lived like
+an outlaw, avoided by prudent "German Philisters," in the town of
+N----, for the sake of the only man whom she truly loved, and
+who--despised her.
+
+Before the death of her husband she had always been surrounded by a
+brilliant crowd of gentlemen who had sought her society from the
+neighbouring famous baths,--acquaintances from St. Petersburg,
+distinguished Englishmen, Italians, Poles,--in short, the gay, wealthy
+idlers of every nation that invariably flock around a beautiful woman
+upon her travels. With these she smoked, rode, and drove,--proceedings
+that had excited no outcry in the gay world at St. Petersburg, but that
+called forth shrieks of horror from the women in the little German
+University-town and greatly excited the students, who were never weary
+of caricaturing her,--harnessing four horses, and, disguised as women,
+driving them wildly through the streets, mimicking her foreign
+admirers, making her bearded servants drunk, and playing many other
+madcap pranks in ridicule of her.
+
+The universal horror culminated, however, when she did not dress in
+black after the count's death. People said with a shudder that she had
+declared that "it seemed to her despicable to play such a farce, and
+simulate a grief that she did not feel." How could any one so scorn
+conventionalities, and lay bare the secrets of the heart to the public
+gaze? Yes, it was even suggested that she had never been married, and
+they called her the "wild countess,"--much as we speak of wild fruit to
+distinguish them from those that are genuine. Although injustice was
+done her in this respect, she deserved the epithet "wild" in every
+other, and the name clave to her. Even Moellner, who was always ready to
+find some magnanimous excuse for feminine failings, thought that she
+ought to show more respect for her septuagenarian husband, and
+pronounced her conduct heartless ostentation. From that moment she lost
+all interest, if she had ever possessed any, in his eyes. He never
+noticed that for months no gentleman had been allowed to enter her
+doors, for he did not think it worth while to observe her actions.
+Whoever did observe it ascribed it to chance. The report of her
+improvement was drowned in the billows of scandal that had been lashed
+up by her previous conduct. No one believed in her reformation, least
+of all he for whom she made such sacrifices.
+
+And now the moment had arrived when, for the first time, she found
+herself helpless, opposed to a higher power,--and the effect of this
+first collision with invisible barriers upon the untrained heart of the
+countess was terrible. Hitherto she had recognized only the laws of
+decorum, and had transgressed them with impunity whenever they had
+oppressed her. Decorum is almost always subject to the will of
+individuals and to fashion. But the higher law that hovers over the
+universe, subject to no human will, to no change,--unchangeable, as is
+all that is divine,--is the law of _morality_. It was this against
+which the countess was now struggling, of the existence of which she
+seemed now first to become aware.
+
+But such a woman could not give up the battle. It was a law of her
+nature to resist. She could not yield. How could she?--she had never
+learned submission. She would battle for her desires. As a girl, she
+had endured hunger and cold for days in the pursuit of the chase, while
+food and warmth waited for her at home. From her earliest childhood,
+her will had been trained to iron persistence, and now, when she had
+again left the comforts and delights of home in pursuit of a far nobler
+prey, should she desist from the chase because the game belonged to
+another? Such a course was impossible for such a woman, and, as
+strength could not avail her here, she resorted to the commonest weapon
+of the merest flirt,--cunning.
+
+Herbert's malice contained a seed that swiftly ripened and bore fruit
+in the fertile brain of the countess, for she knew only too well how
+much truth there was in the charge that her friendship was a dishonour
+to a young girl. It was a terrible thought for her that there was no
+means left for her whereby she could crush a rival except by so
+poisoning her with her own infection that she might become an object of
+disgust to her lover. But, if she could gain nothing by such a course,
+she could at least revenge herself. She turned over the leaves of
+Ernestine's publications. They were too learned for her. She understood
+nothing from their pages, except that they contended for the
+emancipation of women,--that was enough for her. She too was
+"emancipated." It was enough to establish an understanding between
+them. Perhaps a meeting with Moellner might grow out of a visit to
+Ernestine. She was determined to make use of Herbert's malicious hint,
+his last bequest to her; for she had mortally offended him, and he no
+longer came near her. She hastily studied a few papers upon the
+emancipation of women, that she might comprehend what Herbert had said
+of "principle" in connection with the subject, and this was the day
+upon which she was resolved to see her victim. She selected Wednesday
+for her expedition, because Herbert had told her that Moellner had been
+with Ernestine on the previous Wednesday. Perhaps his visit might be
+repeated on the same day of the week.
+
+As soon as she rose, she blew a shrill whistle upon a little silver
+call. There instantly appeared--not a dog--a maid with a large bucket
+of spring-water, which was dashed over her beautiful mistress in a
+little bathing-tent.
+
+The maid then silently withdrew, and brought coffee and the newspapers.
+The countess, wrapped in a rich brocade dressing-gown, lighted a cigar,
+and, while drinking her coffee, looked carelessly through the papers.
+
+Afterwards she went to her dressing-room, and called to the
+dressing-maid in attendance there, "Riding-habit!" and, after a short
+delay, the maid brought her all she required. "Ali!" said the countess,
+which meant, "Go tell the groom to saddle Ali for me."
+
+The brief order was understood and obeyed with rapidity. Like a shadow
+the attendant glided from the room, appearing again like a shadow in
+the presence of her dreaded mistress. The servants of this woman must
+have neither mind, soul, nor heart,--only ears to hear, and hands and
+feet to obey. The poor dressing-maid did her best to fulfil all that
+was required of her,--she was all ear, hands, and feet. She scarcely
+breathed. It really seemed as if the powerful lungs of her mistress
+inhaled all the air of the apartment, leaving none for any other
+inmate.
+
+She took her place behind the countess, who sat before the mirror,
+smoking, and began, as carefully as possible, to comb out her long
+hair. The lovely woman examined her own features critically to-day. One
+peculiarity of her face, otherwise faultless,--a peculiarity that
+reminded her of the Russian type,--irritated her excessively; she
+thought her cheek-bones somewhat too high.
+
+Just as she was contemplating this imaginary defect, the maid slightly
+pulled her hair. It was too much for her patience.
+
+"Maschinka!" she cried, starting up and snatching the comb from the
+poor girl's hand. A flash--a blow--and Maschinka stooped silently to
+pick up the pieces of the broken comb. The print of its teeth was
+left upon her pale cheek, but no word, no cry of pain, escaped her
+lips,--her eyes alone looked tearful.
+
+"Get another!" ordered her mistress, as if nothing had happened, and
+she sat down again.
+
+Maschinka obeyed, and finished the coiffure, and the rest of the
+toilette, without further disaster. Then she brought riding-whip, hat,
+and gloves, and the countess descended the richly-carpeted stairs.
+Suddenly she stood still, and called, "Maschinka!"
+
+"Madame!"
+
+"Does your cheek hurt you?"
+
+"Oh, no!" whispered the girl.
+
+"What? Don't lie! Well, then, rub it with cold cream, from the silver
+box on my dressing-table; and keep the box,--I give it to you."
+
+Without listening to the girl's thanks, she passed on. Her magnificent
+Arabian was led, snorting and foaming, around the court-yard. She
+beckoned to the stout, bearded Russian, who could scarcely restrain it,
+and he led it towards her. Another servant, in a rich livery, brought
+sugar upon a silver plate. She fed the noble animal, who was instantly
+soothed, kissed its smooth forehead, patted its neck, and mounted
+lightly to her place upon its back.
+
+"What o'clock?" she asked, as the servant handed her the whip, and she
+rose in the stirrup to arrange the folds of her dress.
+
+"Past five o'clock, madame," was the answer.
+
+"I shall return at eight. The carriage must be ready by twelve. Tell
+Maschinka to have my dress prepared."
+
+"As madame pleases," replied the servant.
+
+"Open!" cried the countess, and a third groom, who had been waiting for
+this order, threw open the double gates of the court-yard, letting in a
+flood of morning sun-light. All reared beneath his lovely burden, as if
+he would soar with her into the clouds, but a quick cut from her whip
+somewhat cooled his Pegasus ardour, and he sprang forward, almost
+running over a servant, who had not moved aside quite quickly enough,
+and gained the street. Here, however, his mistress reined him in.
+
+"The dogs!" she called.
+
+The servants all hurried into the court-yard, and a frightful noise was
+heard. The barking, howling pack came rushing from their kennels, and
+leaped around their mistress with all the signs of delight that their
+mad gambols can evince. And now a wild race began. Away tore the
+Arabian, tossing the foam from his mouth. As he flew rather than
+galloped along, he tossed back his head, pointed his ears, and
+distended his nostrils, striving to outstrip the yelling pack at his
+heels. The beautiful hounds followed hard behind, in long leaps. The
+servants stood grouped about the gateway, looking after their mistress.
+
+"Aha," muttered the chief among them to himself, "she is turning into
+the Bergstrasse. The dogs must waken Professor Moellner again, and bring
+him to the window."
+
+But the bearded old Russian observed sadly, "She'll break her neck some
+day."
+
+Peaceful, and buried in slumber, lay the quiet little town. The
+windows,--eyes of the houses,--were closed, as were those of their
+inmates; but, as the countess dashed by in her mad career, one after
+another was opened, a curtain drawn aside here and there, and a sleepy,
+curious face appeared.
+
+The countess laughed at the crop of night-capped heads which her ride
+past their windows suddenly caused to appear. The warm-blooded Arabian
+shivered beneath her in the fresh, dewy morning air, and she felt its
+bracing breath colour her cheek. "What a miserable race is this, that
+spends such hours in bed! They rise only when the smoke from the
+chimneys and the weary sighs of labourers have thickened the air. That
+is the atmosphere for their delicate lungs! They are afraid of the cold
+breeze of dawn!"
+
+She passed by Herbert's dwelling, and, with a vigorous stroke of her
+whip, excited her dogs to a more furious barking. How should she know
+that his invalid wife, in that upper chamber, had just fallen into a
+refreshing slumber after a wakeful night of pain, a slumber from which
+the noise aroused her to a day of suffering?
+
+Here, too, a curtain was drawn aside, and Elsa's dream-encircled head
+peeped out.
+
+"That is his monkey-faced sister," thought the countess, and nodded in
+very wantonness. The face vanished in alarm. Herbert did not appear.
+And she galloped on through the silent streets. It was wearisome riding
+thus upon stony pavements, with a sleeping public all around, her only
+spectators the servants and peasants carrying milk and bread, and
+staring open-mouthed at the haughty horsewoman. Now and then a student
+in his shirt-sleeves, brush or sponge in hand, would appear at a
+window, and one poured out the contents of his washbasin upon her dogs,
+who had fallen fiercely upon an innocent little cur that was just
+taking his morning stroll. It was the only incident that varied the
+monotony of her ride, and she passed swiftly on towards the
+Bergstrasse, as the servant had prophesied.
+
+At last she reached it, and the glorious view of the distant mountains
+lay before her. The rough pavement came to an end, for here the
+pleasure-grounds of the town were laid out, and the roads were strewn
+with fine gravel. She now gave her steed the rein, and the fiery beast
+flew along, _ventre a terre_, with the pack after him in full cry. The
+houses were all surrounded by charming gardens. There was one which for
+a long time riveted the attention of the countess. Look! there was an
+open window, and at it stood Moellner, gazing out upon the far-off
+mountains.
+
+Just as the countess passed, he observed her, and answered her gesture
+of recognition by a respectful bow.
+
+He looked after her, well pleased as he marked the finely-knit figure,
+with a seat in the saddle so light and graceful that she seemed part of
+her horse. She turned her head and saw him looking after her, and in
+her pleasure at the sight she reined in Ali until he reared erect in
+the air and curveted proudly. Then on she galloped, and was soon lost
+to sight. She had reached the foot of the mountains, and, allowing her
+panting steed to ascend a little hill more slowly, she paused to rest
+him on the summit.
+
+Before her lay a golden, sunny world. It was an enchanting morning.
+Thin, vapoury smoke was beginning to rise from the chimneys, and the
+heavens were so cloudless that it ascended straight into the blue arch
+without being pressed down to the earth again.
+
+Over the tops of the pine-trees that crowned the brows of the
+mountains, little white feathery clouds were still hovering. It seemed
+as if those mighty heads would fain shake them off, for they soared
+aloft and then settled again, then shifted from place to place, hiding
+sometimes in the forest, until at last they vanished before the
+increasing power of the sun's rays, and the dark, jagged outline of the
+mountains stood out clear and free against the blue sky. Who, with a
+heart in his breast, beholding and enjoying all this beauty and glory,
+does not involuntarily look above in gratitude to the unseen Giver and
+mourn over his own unworthiness of such bounty? And how many eyes look
+on it all without understanding it or rejoicing in it! Does it not seem
+that on such a morning the most degraded soul would gladly purify
+itself, as the bird dresses his feathers at sunrise before he lifts his
+wings to soar aloft into the glorious ether?
+
+And yet the gloomy fire of the previous night still smouldered on in
+the countess's breast, and no cool breeze, no pearly dew, availed to
+quench its unhallowed glow. Her heart was desecrated,--the abode of the
+demons of low desire and hate. It could no longer soar to higher
+spheres. The beautiful woman gazed upon the landscape without one
+feeling of its beauty. She was far more interested in compelling the
+obedience of her impatient steed than in the grand prospect before her.
+In the gilded saloons of St. Petersburg she had lost all comprehension
+and love of nature, and she was so accustomed to consider herself a
+divinity that she was no longer conscious of the humility of the
+creature before its Creator. Although she might not deny Him, she was
+indifferent to Him, and if she sometimes visited His temple, she did it
+only as one pays a formal visit to an equal.
+
+Thus she stood there upon the hill, inhaling the fresh, fragrant air
+with a certain satisfaction, but with no more interest in the lovely
+scene than was felt by her dogs, who judged of the beauty of the
+landscape chiefly by their sense of smell, as, lying on the ground
+around their mistress, they too snuffed the morning breeze. Now and
+then one was led astray by the scent of game in the thicket; but a call
+from the silver whistle of his mistress reminded him of his duty, and
+he returned to his companions,--only casting longing looks in the
+direction in which his prey had escaped him. Had his haughty mistress
+ever in her life practised such self-denial? Could she have seriously
+answered this question, she might have blushed before the unreasoning
+brute.
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+It was ten o'clock when Ernestine stepped out upon her balcony.
+Gaily-dressed peasants were passing, pipe in mouth, along the road
+outside her garden-wall, for to-day was the Ascension of the Blessed
+Virgin,--a glorious opportunity for drinking to her honour and glory.
+The people were in their gayest humour, their morning libations had
+already had some effect. The peasant seems to know no better way of
+giving God glory than by enjoying His gifts; he believes that he thus
+affords Him the same pleasure that a good host feels in seeing the
+guests at his table enjoy what is placed before them.
+
+Ernestine smiled at the thought of this profane belief, which
+nevertheless springs from honest, childlike traits of human nature.
+
+Leuthold had not yet returned from his journey, and these days of
+solitude had been,--she never asked herself why,--the pleasantest that
+she had known for a long time. She did in his absence only what she was
+used to do when he was with her; but her thoughts were very different.
+The man had so thoroughly imbued with his teaching her every thought
+and action, that when he was by she could not even think what he might
+disapprove. Since his departure she had, if we may use the expression,
+let herself alone. She allowed her thoughts to stray as they pleased.
+She was not ashamed to spring up from her work and feed the birds, or
+to spend an hour in the garden, or at the window in dreamy reverie. And
+she made various scientific experiments, that she might surprise her
+uncle upon his return with their successful results.
+
+And this was not the only advantage of his absence. She could go to the
+school-house to see the good old people there; she could--receive a
+visit!--a visit of which her uncle knew nothing. Was that right? Oh,
+yes, it was right,--it was too sacred a thing to be exposed to his cool
+contempt. Why was he so dry and cold and stern, that she must conceal
+every emotion from him? To have told him of this visit would have been
+like voluntarily exposing her roses to be frozen by ice and snow. She
+still remembered and felt the pain that he had made her suffer when she
+spoke to him of God. Then he had taken her God from her, and now he
+would take from her her friend,--the first, the only one she had ever
+known. It was the pure, sacred secret of her heart,--as pure and sacred
+as the communion she held with the starry heavens at night upon her
+observatory.
+
+Meanwhile the door had opened without her notice, and the AEolian harp
+sounded in the draught that swept across its strings. The birds, that
+had hopped close around her for their accustomed food, flew twittering
+away as a stranger appeared, and a deep, mellow voice asked, "Well, and
+how are you?"
+
+Ernestine started as at a lightning-flash. She turned and looked at the
+intruder with a deep blush, but with undisguised delight.
+
+"Why should you be startled?" he asked.
+
+"I do not know,--you appeared so suddenly. I did not see you coming
+down the road."
+
+"No, I took a cross-cut that was shadier; I came on foot."
+
+"Oh, then you must be tired!" said Ernestine, entering the room with
+him. "Sit down."
+
+"My dear Fraeulein Hartwich, first shake hands with me,--there! And now
+tell me that you have quite forgiven me,--you do not think ill of me."
+
+"No, sir,--doctor!--Can I call you doctor? We give names to everything,
+why should you be the exception?" And she smiled.
+
+It was the first time that he had seen her smile, and it enchanted him.
+
+"If, then, it is so hard not to call me by name, christen me yourself.
+There are kindly titles invented by friendship or good will. Am I not
+worthy, in your stern sight, of any of these?"
+
+"Oh, none that I could find would be worthy of you, you are so kind,
+so--oh, yes! I have a title for you!"
+
+"Well? I am curious."
+
+"Kind sir!--will you allow that?"
+
+"Ah, my dear Fraeulein Hartwich, it is you who are too kind."
+
+Ernestine smiled again. A fleeting blush tinged her cheek.
+
+Johannes looked at her. "Do you know that you seem much more cheerful
+than when I saw you last?"
+
+"Thanks to your skill, kind sir."
+
+"Indeed?--spite of my bitter physic?"
+
+"Yes, it did taste bitter, but good followed it."
+
+"Then you felt the truth of what I said?"
+
+She grew grave. "No, not that,--but I recognized a true, large heart,
+and admiration for that conquered my ailment,--delight in its sympathy
+overcame the pain of being misunderstood by it."
+
+"That is more than I ventured to hope, after so short an acquaintance.
+Were you less magnanimous than you are, you would hate me, for I deeply
+wounded your vanity, and, to be frank, I propose to do so still
+further."
+
+"Not a pleasant prospect, but I will be steadfast. If you deny me the
+strength of a man, you shall at least not find me subject to women's
+weaknesses,--among which I hold vanity to be the most despicable."
+
+Johannes smiled. "And yet you are not free from this weakness. You
+endure my assaults upon your pride because it gratifies your vanity to
+prove that you are not vain."
+
+Ernestine cast down her eyes. "You are clever at diagnosis," she said
+with slight bitterness.
+
+"I am only honest. Do you not see that I know, since you have received
+me so kindly to-day, that it would be quite possible to win your
+further confidence and esteem if I would only have a little
+consideration for your weaknesses? Let me confess frankly that a
+confidence so purchased would not content me. Trifling and jesting may
+have deceit for their foundation, for one will last no longer than the
+other, but the regard that I cherish for you, and that I would awaken
+in you for me, must--can--be founded only in the truth,--must grow out
+of the inmost core of our natures; and if our natures do not harmonize,
+any intimate relation between us is impossible, and an artificial tie
+between us would be, for us, a sin. If, then, my ruthless hand searches
+the hidden depths of your soul,--if I outrage your vanity, so that even
+the vanity of being magnanimously self-forgetting will not help you to
+endure it,--I only fulfil a sacred duty that truth requires of me, both
+to you and to myself,--a duty whose postponement might be heavily
+avenged in the future."
+
+Ernestine looked at him inquiringly. She did not understand him.
+
+"You are puzzled, and do not know how to interpret my words," he
+continued. "You cannot dream how far beyond reality my fancy soars. But
+you must feel that I am not a man to play the _bel-esprit_ for my
+amusement,--to find any satisfaction in measuring my wits to advantage
+with a woman's,--to take delight in hearing the sound of my own voice.
+Before I seriously approach a woman, I must be clear in my own mind as
+to what I can be to her and she to me. You, Fraeulein von Hartwich,
+cannot be to me much or little,--you can be to me everything or
+nothing. Our natures are both too real to admit of our passing each
+other by pleasantly, politely, but without enthusiasm, like ephemeral
+acquaintances in society. We have already, in defiance of conventional
+rules, formed an intimacy in which character is revealed, and the aim
+of our intercourse must be a higher one than that of mere amusement.
+Otherwise I were a boor and you are greatly to blame for enduring me.
+Only a deep personal interest in you could warrant my relentless
+treatment of you. I acknowledge that I feel this deep personal
+interest. More I will not say now, for all else depends upon the
+development of our relations towards each other, in the increase or
+decrease of accord in our views of life and its purposes."
+
+Ernestine was silent. She began to have some suspicion of what she
+might be to this strong, upright character, and what he might be to
+her. But it was not that tender emotion that the first approach of love
+awakens in the heart of every woman, even the coldest; she was troubled
+and anxious. The decision with which he spoke convinced her at once
+that he never could be converted to her views,--that she must mould
+herself according to his,--that a transformation must take place in one
+or the other of them, if she would not lose what was already of such
+value to her. She was not accustomed to self-sacrifice, for her cunning
+uncle had so educated her, so trained her inclinations to accord with
+his wishes, that she always supposed she was having her own way, when
+in reality she was following his. She felt that this hour was a crisis
+in her life, that she was brought into contact with a will which would
+require of her great self-sacrifice, and of which she was almost in
+dread, because it was backed by superior strength.
+
+Johannes waited for an answer, but none came. He saw what was going on
+in Ernestine's mind, and that his words had chilled her, kindly as they
+were meant. He took her hand and looked into her eyes. "Ah, you will
+not call me 'kind sir' any more?"
+
+Ernestine was conscious of the true kindliness of his look, she felt
+the gentle clasp of his hand, and involuntarily she held out to him her
+disengaged hand also, and said almost in a tone of entreaty, "No, you
+will not be cruel, you will not hurt me."
+
+He stood silent for an instant, looking into her clear, confiding eyes,
+holding both her hands in his, and was for the moment unspeakably
+happy.
+
+"I promise you I will not give you more pain than I shall suffer
+myself," he said gently. "But we must buy dearly the happiness that is
+to content us. We are not of those who innocently and artlessly take
+upon trust whatever the present throws into their laps. Constituted as
+we are, we must needs make conditions with Heaven, and accept its gifts
+only when we have proved them. For we cannot be satisfied with what
+many would call happiness,--we can take no delight in what would charm
+thousands of others. It is the curse of natures like ours that they
+erect a standard of happiness far above what if usual,--and how many
+are there upon whom Providence bestows unusual happiness!"
+
+Ernestine smiled bitterly at Johannes's last words. "Providence!" she
+murmured, "we are our own providence. We shape our own destiny, create
+our joy or our misery,--the conditions of either are in ourselves!"
+
+"And because we are so mysteriously gifted beyond other creatures,
+because we are mentally freer and more conscious of ourselves than
+other beings, our responsibility as regards ourselves and those whom we
+see around us is all the greater. There are natures that are eternally
+wretched, because they demand more of life than it can possibly afford
+them, and undervalue all that it offers them, although it makes their
+lot enviable in the eyes of all. Then we say, 'Their unhappiness is
+their own fault, they have everything to make them happy, no one
+injures them; why are they so exorbitant in their longings?' But this
+is wrong. They are not insatiate, they would perhaps be contented with
+a far more moderate lot. What fault is it of theirs that the demands of
+their innermost nature are such that they require just what fate has
+not bestowed upon them? Of what use is a glittering gem to the
+traveller in the desert languishing for a drop of water? How willingly
+would he exchange the bauble for what he longs for! Who would say to
+him, 'You have a precious treasure, why are you not content?' Who would
+reproach him with being a human creature that cannot live without
+drinking? The most one can say to him is, 'Since you know that you
+cannot live without water, why go into the desert?' There is the point
+where we are responsible. If we know what are the conditions of our
+existence, we must see to it that what we choose in life accords with
+those conditions, always provided that Providence gives us the right of
+free choice. If this right is ours and we choose falsely, it is our
+fault if we are wretched. I call it an unusual boon, therefore, when
+Providence permits us to choose a lot that harmonizes with our nature.
+If this is denied us, the man of the greatest freedom of thought is not
+responsible for his fate,--he is under the ban of a higher power."
+
+Ernestine listened to him with undisguised interest. He saw it, and
+continued:
+
+"We, Fraeulein Hartwich, are free to choose, and are therefore
+responsible to each other, and it is incumbent upon us to be on the
+watch. A kindly Providence, you too must admit this, has brought us
+together, and left the decision as to what we will be to each other in
+our own hands. Let us show ourselves worthy of the trust; let us try
+ourselves. I am sure you feel with me that the moment must be a
+glorious one in which two human beings recognize each other as their
+embodied destiny. But it must be celebrated not by gushes of
+sentimentality nor by would-be transcendentalism, but in perfect peace
+of mind!"
+
+He took her hand and gazed into her eyes. She stood quietly before him,
+and gathered calmness from his look. And again that significant silence
+ensued so dear to those whose hearts are full of what they cannot or
+dare not speak. Suddenly Frau Willmers softly opened the door.
+
+"There is a lady without, who wishes to speak with you, Fraeulein
+Hartwich."
+
+"With me!" asked Ernestine in displeased surprise. "Who is she?"
+
+"She refuses to give her name, and will not be denied. She says if
+Fraeulein von Hartwich is not at leisure now, she will wait any length
+of time."
+
+"Did you tell her I was engaged with a visitor?"
+
+"No, there is no knowing whether the lady"--here she cast an
+embarrassed glance at Johannes--"might not tell your uncle!"
+
+Ernestine looked down confused. "That is true--if it should
+chance--What is to be done? How very annoying!"
+
+"I thought perhaps the gentleman would allow me to take him through the
+laboratory and down the other staircase?" said Frau Willmers in a tone
+of anxious entreaty.
+
+"Shall I?" asked Johannes, not without evident vexation.
+
+Ernestine looked at Frau Willmers. "Pray do," she begged, "out of pity
+for poor Frau Willmers, who will have to bear the whole burden of my
+uncle's displeasure if he should learn that she had connived at our
+meeting."
+
+"I must comply with your wishes, but only for this once," he said,
+quietly offering her his hand. "When may I come again?"
+
+"Next Saturday, will you not?"
+
+Johannes knew perfectly well why she appointed that day, but he said
+nothing, and followed Frau Willmers. At the door he turned and looked
+at Ernestine. She saw something like displeasure in his face, and
+hastened after him.
+
+"Pray do not be angry with me, kind sir."
+
+Johannes was touched by the gentle entreaty from one usually so stern
+and cold. He pressed his lips upon her hand and whispered softly, "I
+shall never, never be angry with you. God bless you!"
+
+The door closed behind him, and Ernestine, still agitated by the
+interview, half awake and half dreaming, went into the antechamber to
+receive the stranger waiting there.
+
+The Worronska, in all her grandeur, stood before her.
+
+Ernestine had never in her life seen so extraordinary a vision. She was
+actually dazzled.
+
+The brown, Juno-like eyes were regarding her with strange curiosity,
+the black eyebrows were gloomily contracted; there was something so
+hard and haughty in her air and bearing that Ernestine took offence at
+it before a word had been uttered.
+
+The way in which the lady measured her with her glance from head to
+foot recalled to her memory the pain that she had once suffered beneath
+the gaze of the Staatsraethin's guests. For one second she felt in
+danger of the same overwhelming sensation of embarrassment. She seemed
+to grow pale and wither in the presence of this dazzling and haughty
+person. But she was no longer a child, sensible only of her defects,
+and the next moment the pride of conscious power came to her relief.
+She knew that she stood in the presence of an enemy, but she felt
+herself the equal of her opponent. Who was this woman who thus
+assumed the right to look down upon her? Whence did she derive this
+right?--from beauty, wealth, or rank? Did she know as much as
+Ernestine? Had she written a prize essay? And, more than all, did she
+possess such a friend as now belonged to Ernestine? No, no, assuredly
+not. Ernestine was her equal, whoever she might be.
+
+"Will you walk in?" said Ernestine with icy repose of manner and with a
+dignity that evidently impressed the countess greatly. Ernestine stood
+aside to allow her to pass, and motioned her towards a small sofa
+filling a recess of the room, while she herself took a seat opposite.
+Her lips were closed; no conventional grimace, usual upon the reception
+of a visitor, distorted the pure beauty of her grave countenance. She
+awaited in silence the stranger's communication; she was too unfamiliar
+with the forms of society to excuse herself for having kept her waiting
+in the antechamber. The countess at last understood that she must be
+the first to speak. She felt, too, in the presence of such a woman as
+Ernestine that her coming hither was a mistake, and it made her falter.
+For the first time in her life she was confused. The tables were
+turned. Ernestine was already the victor in this silent encounter. Hers
+was the victory of true self-respect over the frivolous conceit of a
+jealous coquette.
+
+The Worronska had failed in her part even before she began to play it.
+She had heard Moellner's voice and his step as he left the room. The
+affair, then, had gone farther than she had thought. Anger had put her
+off her guard, and given her a hostile air when she had come to allure
+and perhaps lead astray. Her error must be rectified at all hazards.
+She held out her hand to Ernestine and said, in her melodious
+Russian-German, "I am the Countess Worronska."
+
+Ernestine slightly inclined her head, and the expression of her face
+grew colder and more forbidding than before. "And what is your pleasure
+with me, Countess Worronska?"
+
+"What? Oh, that is soon told. I seek from you amusement, instruction,
+excitement,--everything that so talented a companion as you are, and
+one so entirely of my way of thinking, can bestow."
+
+Ernestine recoiled almost perceptibly. "Of your way of thinking?" she
+asked.
+
+"Most certainly! We are both advocates of the emancipation of women,
+each in her own way, but our object is the same. We are both adherents
+of the great champion of women's rights, Louisa A----, who is my
+intimate friend. How charming it would be to enlist you also! We could
+then labour in concert,--I in action, Louisa through the daily press,
+you by your books."
+
+Ernestine listened with the same unmoved countenance to what the
+countess said. When she had finished, Ernestine was silent for a
+moment, as if seeking some fitting form of speech for what she wished
+to say. The countess watched her eagerly. At last Ernestine replied,
+"Countess Worronska, I must decline your proposal,--I am resolved to
+pursue my path alone."
+
+The Worronska bit her lips. "Indeed? You are afraid of sharing your
+laurels?"
+
+"Not so," rejoined Ernestine calmly. "I am afraid of sharing the
+laurels of a Louisa A----."
+
+"Oh! would you think that a disgrace?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A pause ensued. The countess cast a fierce glance at Ernestine, who
+bore it coldly and unflinchingly. Again rage seethed in the bosom of
+the Worronska, but she controlled herself, for she was determined to
+compass her ends, and knew that she must be upon her guard with this
+girl.
+
+"You are certainly frank," she began. "But I like that,--it is
+original."
+
+"It is unfortunate that truth should be so rare among your associates,
+Countess Worronska, that you call it original!"
+
+"You are severe, Fraeulein Hartwich. You should know my friends, and
+then you would be more lenient to their weaknesses. Why is it
+unfortunate? Refinement of taste brings that in its train. We cushion
+the chairs on which we sit, we plane and polish the rough wood of our
+furniture, we clothe the bare walls of our rooms with tapestry, we do
+not devour our meat raw like the Cossacks, but delicately cooked to
+please our palates. Why then should we surround ourselves morally with
+spikes and thorns, which rend and tear those around us? Why should we
+partake of our intellectual food so raw and undressed that it disgusts
+us? Thank Heaven, we have put off such barbarisms with our more
+advanced culture."
+
+"You are perfectly right. Countess Worronska, looking upon the matter
+from a worldly point of view. I am only surprised to hear you defend
+the forms of society while you despise its proprieties."
+
+A crimson flush rose to the brow of her visitor. But her rage only
+strengthened her determination to subdue her foe, superior as she could
+not but acknowledge her to be. "Yes, what you say is true: I love
+forms, because they are pleasant and useful. I hate propriety, because
+it would be our master, and by propriety you mean decorum--I understand
+you perfectly. Yes, then, yes: I love the forms of society, that give
+an aesthetic charm to existence, and make it smooth and easy, but I hate
+what people call decorum. When, in despair at the tyranny of my first
+husband, and utterly loathing his rude vulgarity, I left him by
+stealth, and fled, at peril of my life, across the half-frozen Neva to
+my father, to share his solitude and poverty, I acted honourably, but
+every one condemned me, the runaway wife was an object of scorn,--she
+had sinned against the laws of decorum. But when, after my divorce, I
+married the old Count Worronska, simply because I coveted rank and
+wealth, I acted dishonourably, but I had done nothing indecorous. Every
+one bowed low before me, and I found myself an object of respect to
+others when I was so deeply sunk in my own esteem. And can I do homage
+to decorum, the idol to which we are sacrificed, the empty scarecrow
+that the selfishness of men sets up to keep us within our prison-walls?
+In the folds of its garment lie hidden tyranny, hate and revenge,
+jealousy and envy, malice and uncharitableness, ready to crawl out like
+poisonous serpents and attack its victims. What free spirit will not
+curse it if it has ever been aware of even the shadow of its rod? I
+began by cursing it, but I have ended by despising it. I have sworn
+hostility to it, and, trust me, there is a rare delight in stripping
+it of its mask. Louisa A---- contends against it with far nobler
+weapons-than it deserves. It is not worth the going out to meet it with
+such solemn pathos. A hundred years hence, the world will laugh to
+think that it should have had power to annoy such a woman as Louisa."
+
+She ceased, and looked into Ernestine's face to see the effect of her
+words. But there was no change of feature there.
+
+"I cannot vie with you in your style of speaking, Countess Worronska. I
+am used to plain thoughts. I am not practised in metaphor, and cannot
+adorn what I say with such wealth of imagery. I can only reply plainly
+and frankly to what you say, that what you designate as our foe I
+consider our protection, and that it is a far different foe that I
+contend with. Therefore we should never agree, and it is a useless
+waste of time to attempt any closer intercourse."
+
+The countess started, and the colour left her lips, so tightly were
+they compressed. Yet she would make one more attempt. She regarded
+Ernestine with a look of profound compassion, and possessed herself of
+her reluctant hand. "Poor child! does even your bold spirit languish in
+the fetters of prejudice? What a pity! How inconceivable! And will you
+tell me what foe it is that you wish to subdue?"
+
+"The mean opinion that men entertain of our sex."
+
+"And you would combat this with your pen?"
+
+"I hope to do so."
+
+"Do not mistake; we have mightier weapons for the contest than the
+pen!"
+
+"There are none more effectual than the cultivation of our powers, for
+it will prove to them that we do not deserve their contempt,--that we
+can perform tasks that they consider emphatically their own."
+
+"They will never acknowledge it. All intellectual power is
+relative,--there is nothing absolute but physical force. If we can
+knock a man down, he must believe that we are as strong as he. But he
+will never concede our intellectual equality, because there is no
+compelling him to be just. As long as there is no third authority in
+the world to act as umpire in the contest between the sexes, which can
+only be if God himself should descend from the skies, so long must we
+be victims to the egotism of men!"
+
+Ernestine looked down thoughtfully. "You may be right, but we must
+comfort ourselves with the reflection that by the contest itself we
+have done good. To do good is the object of all, and the individual
+must be content with the peace of this consciousness as his reward."
+
+"What cold comfort! Why, every flower in your path will perish in such
+an icy atmosphere! I pity you! Come, confide in me. In spite of your
+bluntness, I feel drawn towards you. I will introduce you to a new
+existence, where you may learn how to revenge yourself upon men. You
+bear the stamp upon your brow of one gifted by God to be their scourge.
+Learn to understand yourself, and you will see how perverted your views
+are! Your power lies not in the bulky volumes that you write. Our
+charms are the weapons by which we conquer! As long as men have eyes
+and we have beauty, they must be our slaves; and you would imprison
+yourself within four walls, and toil and strive, while you have only to
+face those who shrug their shoulders at your writings, to have them
+prostrate at your feet? Would not this be an easier conquest?"
+
+Ernestine was silent. The countess saw with delight that she was
+evidently agitated, and continued more confidently.
+
+"You are beautiful,--how beautiful you yourself do not probably know,
+or you would not deprive the world of a sight that would enchant it, or
+yourself of the satisfaction of observing its admiration. Believe
+me,--there is no greater delight than the triumph of our charms. To
+know yourself an object of worship,--to be able to bless with a
+smile!--ah, what rapture! It is a divine privilege, that thousands
+would envy you. In comparison with it, what is the feeble pleasure that
+your studies can afford you? What can it matter to you if it is
+reported for a few miles around that you are a great scholar? Is such a
+report a flower, refreshing you by its fragrance?--a flame, that can
+warm you, or a ray of light, that can dazzle you? Can it give pleasure
+to any one besides yourself? It is invisible, incomprehensible,--a mere
+idea, a phantom, a nothing. Its only value for you is the value that it
+gives you in the eyes of others, for in ourselves we are nothing. We
+are only what we may become through our relation to others. Go to the
+hunters of Siberia, or to the Laplanders, and ascertain whether you
+find it any satisfaction that you rank among the scholars of Germany.
+You are striving for one end, that you may secure some value in the
+eyes of men and revenge yourself for the contempt heaped upon you as a
+woman. You seek the means to this end in your inkstand,--seek it in
+your dark lustrous eyes,--in your long silken hair. You will find it
+there, like the girl in the fairy-tale. You can comb pearls and
+diamonds out of those locks. Let me be the fairy to hand you the magic
+comb."
+
+"Cease, I pray you, Countess Worronska!" cried Ernestine, blushing
+deeply. "I cannot listen to such words."
+
+"If you fear my words, it proves the effect that they have upon you,
+and I have half conquered already," cried the temptress exultingly.
+
+"If you think so," said Ernestine haughtily, "continue, I pray you.
+When you have finished, I will tell you what I would rather not have
+been compelled to say."
+
+"You will think more kindly of me when you have heard me to the end,"
+said the countess. "You think my views immoral; but what is immorality?
+What corresponds closely with the laws of nature? What morality do the
+brutes possess? None! and they are, therefore, irresponsible. They obey
+those laws which you, as a student of nature, esteem the first and
+highest. Ascetics say morality is necessary to preserve that order
+without which chaos would come again. But I ask you, Does chaos reign
+in the brute creation? Does not the strictest order in the preservation
+of species prevail there? Does not each possess and preserve its
+individual peculiarities? Does the lion mate with the hyena? Are there
+not inviolable laws prevailing there? And it would be just so with
+mankind. Noble natures would attract only noble natures, and the common
+and vile herd with the vile. Love would direct the whole, and the
+indecorum of conventionality, of force, of falsehood and hypocrisy,
+would vanish. Would not the world be fairer, and, believe me, better?
+Conscious that no legal claim could exist between husband and wife,
+each would endeavour to retain the heart of the other by redoubled
+tenderness and self-sacrifice. Mankind would grow more amiable, more
+self-denying, and the mind would be fed on the freedom of the body. As
+long as we have no freedom of choice, our spirits must be enslaved.
+Have not men arrogated to themselves the right of free choice? Are
+they bound by laws? Where is the man who does not transgress them in
+public or private? But for us there is no appeal,--we are property
+possessed,--we have no right of ownership. We must be far above the
+necessity for change, inherent in every human being,--far above the
+demands of taste, of passion,--above everything except man. We must
+achieve the victory over nature, so impossible for him, but be utterly
+subject to his will. Is this a just order of the world? No! Even those
+who have never felt the pressure of its injustice cannot defend it! Has
+not advancing culture abolished serfdom in Russia? And is the saddest
+of all serfdom--the serfdom of woman--to continue? No! If you do not
+choose to contend for its own sake for that right of free choice, of
+personal freedom for which such women as Louisa A---- are doing battle,
+do it for the thousands of poor weak creatures languishing beneath such
+a perversion of morality!"
+
+Ernestine cast upon her an annihilating glance. After a short pause she
+said, "And if I were to do so, I should be striving for the ruin of
+humanity. I will not argue with you in justification of a morality
+which you do not understand, but I will attempt to remind you of its
+necessity, which has not, it seems, occurred to you. It can be done in
+a few words. Morality is moderation. Where it is wanting, all force
+exhausts itself in immensity; for moderation is the conservative force
+in nature, as in life. You look amazed. You do not understand me. I
+cannot lead you in a single hour along the dark, thorny path by which I
+have attained this conviction, and I know, besides, that I speak to
+deaf ears. But you have challenged my opinion. You shall have it,
+then." Ernestine's cheeks began to flush with noble indignation. "All
+partisans labour for their cause, which may excuse you for attempting
+to disturb the peace of a quiet mind, to instil poison into an innocent
+heart. May you never be more successful than with me! I will believe
+that you have been impelled by the fanaticism of your error, not by the
+demoniac desire to drag me, who have done nothing to harm you, down to
+your abyss. But, Countess Worronska, what wretched error is this upon
+which you are squandering your power, your glorious gifts? I know it.
+Do not think that what you say is new to me. It is the old threadbare
+philosophy of the voluptuary. It is the proclamation of all that
+mankind should conceal, if not for the sake of morality, then for the
+sake of immortal beauty, because it is monstrous if you will not call
+it immoral. It is what has branded the words 'emancipation of woman'
+with eternal disgrace. Enough! Spare me a nearer approach to so
+disgusting a theme. I know sufficient of it to condemn it; for it was
+my right and my duty, as a champion of our rights, to examine and prove
+all that had been done by any of my sex for the amelioration of its
+condition. And I have found with the deepest sorrow how widely
+different these women's paths are from mine, how little they understand
+their own dignity. What they call emancipation is degradation,--what
+should make them free makes them bold. Their frankness becomes
+shamelessness. What they call casting off ignoble fetters is
+licentiousness. What do they do? What do they achieve to show
+themselves worthy of the rights that they demand? Are such feats as
+smoking cigars and shooting pistols the evidences of our greatness? And
+what about these very rights that they demand? What does this Louisa
+A---- want? What do all these women want, who strut like stage-heroines
+about the world, filling it with shrill clamour about their
+misunderstood hearts? Fie upon them! They train themselves to be slaves
+by their struggles for emancipation,--slaves to their desires and to
+men; for all their bombastic phrases about freedom signify freedom of
+intercourse with the other sex."
+
+The countess sprang up.
+
+"Hear me to the end," said Ernestine, more and more animated by a noble
+ardour. "My words cannot do you the harm that yours might have done me.
+I deeply regret that my efforts could have been for one moment
+confounded with yours, and therefore I will clear myself to your better
+self, without an instant's delay, from the suspicion of abetting you in
+any way. Let me tell you that my purpose is solely to vindicate the
+intellectual honour of my sex,--to enlarge the bounds of our ability,
+not of our will. Emancipation of the spirit is the goal for which I
+strive. Or, to speak more plainly, you work for the emancipation of the
+flesh,--I for emancipation from the flesh. You see our efforts are as
+wide asunder as the poles; and, I tell you frankly, I fear the shadow
+that intercourse with you would cast upon my pure cause."
+
+The countess drew around her her mantle of black lace, that had slipped
+from her shoulders, and shrouded herself in it as in a cloud, then
+stepped up to Ernestine, who had also risen from her seat, raised her
+hand, and said in a tone of menace, "You will repent this."
+
+Ernestine calmly returned her gaze. "I scarcely think so, Countess
+Worronska. Thanks to my occupations, I stand entirely outside of the
+sphere where you could harm me."
+
+"I could kill you!" hissed the countess, gasping for breath, while the
+blood rushed to her head and the room grew dark before her eyes.
+
+"Oh, no, you neither could nor would," said Ernestine with cutting
+contempt. "You would not afford the world the spectacle of so bold a
+champion of our freedom ending her days in penal confinement."
+
+"You are right,--it would be folly to commit a crime when easier means
+would gain the same end. I will deal you a death-blow, and your life
+shall bleed slowly away, and none of our excellent laws can touch me. I
+will wrest from you the man whom you love. I will,--and, trust me, what
+I will I can."
+
+Ernestine said not a word. She was benumbed, as if by a blow. She did
+not see the countess leave the room,--she saw only, by the glare of the
+burning torch that the wretched woman had hurled into her breast, her
+own heart.
+
+Was she, then, in love? And with whom?
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                      "WHEN WOMEN HOLD THE REINS."
+
+
+Breathless with rage, the Worronska descended the stairs and left the
+house. A groom was driving a splendid carriage-and-four up and down
+before the house. She beckoned to him; he drove up and sprang down to
+assist his mistress, who, mounted upon the box, took the reins and
+whip, and, relieved by being able to vent her wrath upon some living
+thing, cut viciously at her impatient horses. The groom sprang nimbly
+into his place behind her, and away like the wind went the modern
+Victory in her triumphal chariot, as if rushing to breathe vengeance
+and hate into hosts fighting upon the battle-plain.
+
+"Is it possible that that hectic, ill-tempered girl can rival me with
+such a man as Moellner?" she said to herself. "But shame on me!" she
+instantly added, "let me not, in my anger, prove a slanderer! She is
+beautiful, and a thousand times wiser than I,--but, curse her! I could
+strangle her with this hand!"
+
+The passionate woman felt hot tears coursing down her cheeks. She
+struggled for composure; her chest heaved with the effort to breathe
+freely. She encouraged her horses to still greater speed, so that her
+carriage fairly rocked from side to side. She was glorious to behold in
+her wrath, as she both urged and restrained the spirited animals,--fit
+emblems of her own wild passions.
+
+"But I will show her who she is and who I am," she murmured. "That I
+should be insulted by this German prude!" And she gave the near horse a
+cut with her whip, making him rear wildly and then drag on the others
+in his headlong career. In a few minutes the village was passed
+through, and the village curs desisted from barking at the horses'
+heels, and retired growling to their homes. The steep descent of the
+hill upon which the village was built was close at hand.
+
+"Madame," said the groom to her in Russian, "look there!" He pointed to
+a sign-post by the wayside, warning travellers of the steep road. But
+it was too late; the countess needed both hands and all her strength to
+hold in her steeds, and could not reach the handle of the brake.
+
+"We shall get down safely," she cried, holding the heads of the four
+noble animals well in rein. But as the road made a slight turn she
+recognized in the foot-path before her a well-known form. Her face
+flushed crimson,--it was Moellner. She no longer saw the steep
+descent,--she did not see that she must pass the church, where service
+was held at the time and all vehicles were required by law to pass at a
+walk; she only saw Johannes, whom she would overtake at all hazards.
+She gave the horses the rein, and they rushed on as if for their lives.
+Then Johannes turned his head towards her and made signs to her, but
+she did not understand them. He stood still. She thundered past the
+church, and two or three peasants, disturbed in their devotions, came
+running out and looked menacingly after her. Johannes made signs to her
+again, more earnestly than before, and now she saw that he meant she
+should look where she was going,--in the road just before her there was
+a group of children playing. She tried to turn aside--tried to hold in
+her horses, but in vain. Neither horses nor carriage could be guided or
+restrained in the impetus that they had gained from the steep descent,
+and they tore madly on directly towards the children. Johannes, in the
+greatest alarm, jumped over the hedge dividing the foot-path from the
+road. The children scattered in terror.
+
+There was a shriek. The countess looked around,--no child was near.
+Whence came that cry? It came from under her wheels. At that moment
+Johannes reached the carriage, seized the leaders by their bridles and
+brought them to a stand-still. Then he stooped down and drew forth from
+beneath the carriage a lovely little girl, quite senseless. With a
+wrathful glance at the countess, he took the child in his arms, and
+murmured, "I thought so!"
+
+"Is she dead?" asked the countess, pale with fright, and restraining
+with difficulty her excited steeds, while the groom put large stones in
+front of the wheels.
+
+"Not dead," replied Moellner, "but no doubt severely injured."
+
+"Oh, what an unfortunate accident!" cried the countess, quite beside
+herself.
+
+"It was no accident!" Johannes rejoined severely, "but the inevitable
+consequence of your furious driving, Countess Worronska."
+
+He leaned against the hedge, and began, without a word more, to look
+into the extent of the child's injuries. "This is what comes of it," he
+muttered with suppressed indignation, "'when women hold the reins.'"
+
+"Moellner, do not reproach me," the countess entreated. He paid her no
+attention,--he was engrossed with the poor little victim upon his knee.
+
+"Whose child is it?" he asked of her playmates, who came flocking
+around him.
+
+"It is Keller's Kaethchen!" cried the children. "Ah, our dear little
+Kaethchen!"
+
+Some crowded about Johannes, others ran to the church to call the
+parents. Johannes tenderly bound up the child's bleeding forehead with
+his pocket-handkerchief, and carefully drew off its thick jacket to
+examine the shoulder-joint, that seemed to be broken.
+
+The Worronska devoured the scene with envious eyes. She saw him
+only,--the grace of his motions, the tender care that he lavished upon
+the child,--and, like molten lava, the words burst from her lips, "Oh
+that I were that child!"
+
+Johannes did not even hear her.
+
+"The arm must go," he said sadly. "The best that you can do. Countess
+Worronska, is to drive to town as quickly as you can and send out
+Professor Kern or some other skilful surgeon."
+
+"Moellner," she implored, "I cannot go until you have forgiven me!"
+
+"I pray you make haste, madame. Your first duty is to do what you can
+for the child; and I am afraid you will suffer from any delay, for
+there come the enraged peasants."
+
+Like bees disturbed in their hive, a menacing, murmuring throng came
+flocking out of the church, and in a minute surrounded the strangers.
+
+"What has happened?"
+
+"Who is hurt?"
+
+"A child run over!"
+
+These words ran from mouth to mouth, and every one pressed forward
+to know whether it was his child. But alarm soon gave way to
+indignation,--for Kaethchen, pretty little roguish Kaethchen Keller, was
+the pet of the village. All loved her, and were shocked and grieved to
+see the blooming flower so ruthlessly cut down. The child had never
+harmed a living thing. Every one had been gladdened by her bright smile
+and taken delight in her chubby innocent face. And that this dear,
+artless little creature should be sacrificed to the mad humour of an
+arrogant stranger! What business had this crazy woman in their quiet
+village, disturbing the repose of their holiday and destroying the poor
+peasants' most precious possessions?
+
+Maledictions were the answers to all these questions, that arose
+instantly in the minds of the villagers, already heated by wine, and
+their next thought was of revenge.
+
+"Curses upon the vile woman," began one aloud, "to drive so madly!"
+
+"Where were your eyes?" asked another. "Such a child is not a dog, to
+be driven over! Could you not turn aside?"
+
+"She thought a peasant's child was of no consequence," said a third.
+
+"Who ever saw four horses harnessed together!" exclaimed several.
+
+"There is no end to the insolent pranks of these city folk."
+
+"Thunder and lightning!" cried a sturdy, broad-shouldered peasant.
+"Stop talking, and let us have her before the magistrate."
+
+"Yes, yes! to the burgomaster's!" shouted the crowd.
+
+Johannes was in a most trying position. He still had the child in his
+arms, no one had taken her from him. He could not carry her away,--he
+dared not leave the defenceless woman to the insults of the mob. He
+tried to speak to the people, but in vain; they paid no attention to
+him. They had heard and seen the countess rattle past the church a few
+minutes before, and all their fury was concentrated upon her.
+
+Johannes made a sign to the countess, who stood up in her carriage,
+regarding the people with contempt, to drive on instantly; but she
+cried, "_Croyez-vous que je craigne la canaille? Je ne quitterai pas
+cette place sans que vous veniez avec moi!_"
+
+Then a voice shrieked, in the midst of the tumult, "Holy Mother! my
+child, my poor child!" and a woman rushed up, tore the little girl out
+of Johannes's arms, and covered her with tears and kisses.
+
+A handsome young peasant followed her, and gazed, wringing his hands,
+and stupefied with horror, at his senseless child. "God in heaven! what
+have we done, that we should be visited so heavily?" he murmured, and
+would have fallen, had not two of his friends supported him.
+
+"Her eyes should be torn out!" shrieked the mother, metamorphosed to a
+fury, while she pressed her child to her breast, as if to guard her
+darling from the danger to which she had fallen a victim. "To jail with
+her, abandoned, God-accursed wretch that she is!" And she kissed the
+child and bathed it in tears.
+
+"Do not curse," said her husband gloomily,--"it's sinful on a holiday.
+God will one day," and he pointed to Kaethchen, "demand this life at her
+hands. She will not escape punishment."
+
+"May it soon overtake her!" sobbed the woman.
+
+The priest now approached from the church, with all the consolation
+that the occasion required of him, and the schoolmaster humbly
+followed.
+
+"See, see, reverend father, what they have done to my child," the
+mother cried, when she saw them. "And Herr Leonhardt too,--ah, she was
+his pet. What is to be done?"
+
+"What a piteous sight!" said Herr Leonhardt, stooping over his little
+favourite, while the tears dropped from his poor eyes, and all the
+women wailed in chorus. But the priest felt called to utter a few
+solemn words of consolation in season.
+
+"Give thanks, my dear Frau Keller," he said, raising his hands,--"give
+thanks for the abundant grace of our blessed mother Mary, in that she
+has so distinguished you above others as to call your dear child to be
+a holy angel in a better world, upon the very day of her own most
+blessed Assumption."
+
+"Reverend father," said Johannes, "this gratitude is not necessary,
+thank God, as yet, for the child lives, and will live,--I will answer
+for it."
+
+"Ah!" wailed the mother in despair, "you do not know what it is to
+bring such a child into the world, to love it and work for it night and
+day until it grows big, to go without many a bit yourself that it may
+have enough, and, when it has got to be a joy and pleasure to you, to
+pick it up here all crushed and broken! God punish her! God punish
+her!" With these words the woman hurried away, her husband supporting
+her trembling arms, that were scarcely able to sustain the child's
+weight, and yet would not resign it. The pastor and the schoolmaster
+went with her.
+
+"Here," called the Worronska after the retreating parents, "take this
+for the present. You shall have more by-and-by." She held out a heavy,
+well-filled purse.
+
+"Keep your money, we do not want it," said the husband with sullen
+rage, and went on without turning his eyes from his child.
+
+The countess looked down, pale and agitated.
+
+"He is right, we do not want money, but justice," shouted the mob, and
+pressed so close around the carriage that Johannes reached it with
+difficulty. He hastily kicked away the stones from beneath the wheels,
+and cried out to the Worronska,
+
+"Drive on, in Heaven's name! Would you expose yourself to useless
+insults?"
+
+"Don't let her go," was the cry. "Take out the horses! Go for the
+burgomaster!"
+
+"If one of us drives over a cat, he is carried off to the lock-up,--let
+the great folks fare the same."
+
+Some even began to unharness the horses,--but Johannes interposed with
+iron determination, snatched the whip from the countess, who never took
+her eyes from him, gave the noble animals the lash, and away they went
+through the living wall that was closing around them. A shout of rage
+arose, the carriage was pursued for a short distance, but it was out of
+sight in a few minutes, leaving behind only the unfortunate groom,
+cowering terrified in the middle of the road.
+
+Then the universal indignation was turned upon Johannes, who stood
+quietly there with the whip in his hand. He had delivered the stranger
+from just punishment, and had assisted her to escape,--he was in league
+with her.
+
+"You are one of her friends. You shall answer for her to us!"
+
+"I certainly will, good people," said Johannes calmly and kindly.
+"First let me do all that I can for the poor child, and then I will go
+with you to the burgomaster's or wherever else you choose." This simple
+answer entirely disarmed the rage of the crowd.
+
+"The gentleman is right, I know him," cried a newly-arrived peasant. It
+was the same man with whom Johannes had spoken upon his first visit to
+the castle.
+
+"Why did you help that bad woman to escape?" asked some.
+
+"Because she should be dealt with in an orderly manner. I promise you
+satisfaction, and much greater satisfaction than you would have in
+maltreating a woman."
+
+"He is a just gentleman, a brave man!" said the people one to another.
+
+"He takes it all upon himself,--that is honest!"
+
+"Come, then, good people, and show me where the Kellers
+live,--afterwards we will have a word together."
+
+The peasants assented, well content. "Yes, yes! that's all right!"
+
+They had not far to go to the wretched straw-thatched hut of the
+day-labourer Keller.
+
+A wooden flight of steps upon the outside of the hut led to the upper
+story,--the space beneath was used as a stable, and the one room above
+it, that served for sleeping room and dwelling-room, contained a large
+bed, an earthenware stove, two wooden chairs, and a table. Over the bed
+hung a carved crucifix, with a skull, and a vessel for holy water, and
+in the bed little Kaethchen lay quiet and patient, almost smothered
+beneath the heavy coverlet, gazing at the by-standers with bewildered
+eyes. Her mother knelt by the bedside, weeping. Several women were
+trying to comfort her, telling her how quickly and well the broken limb
+would heal if she would only have a model of it in wax hung before the
+picture of the Holy Mother of God in the church. The waxen limbs of all
+kinds that already hung like a wreath around the sacred picture bore
+witness to the efficacy of this pious custom. Frau Keller must lose no
+time in presenting her offering,--for it was especially efficacious
+upon Assumption day.
+
+Frau Keller shook her head. She was obstinate in her grief, and did not
+believe in this kind of cure.
+
+"Kaspar," she said, "hung up a leg before the Holy Mother, and paid a
+gulden for it. And what good did it do? Did he not die of the trouble
+in his leg after he went to town?"
+
+The priest stood at the foot of the bed, listening to the conversation
+and shaking his head. "Columbane, Columbane," he now began, "you
+blaspheme! Do you not remember the cause of Kaspar's death? Do not
+accuse the Blessed Virgin,--how could she help the man when he would
+not wait for her aid, but listened to the evil counsel of the Hartwich
+and had his leg cut off? He did not die of disease, but because he made
+friends with an enemy of the Holy Mother."
+
+"Well, then," said one of the women, "perhaps the Holy Mother of God
+drew him to her again by that very leg."
+
+"What? Then perhaps she might draw my little Kaethchen to her in the
+same way," cried Frau Keller defiantly. "No, no! let me keep my child,
+crippled though she be, if she only lives. I am strong, and can work
+for her. No, Kaethi dear, you do not want to go to heaven. You will stay
+with father and mother, even if they have only a crust for you."
+
+"Yes, mother dear, I will stay with you," said the child in her sweet
+voice, leaning her head wearily upon her mother, who, sobbing, stroked
+the pale little cheeks. "Mother dear," she said, and there came the
+sweetest expression into her eyes, "do not cry so,--it does not hurt me
+much."
+
+A dull cry of anguish broke from the mother's breast, and she hid her
+face among the bedclothes. "My child! my child! complain,--only be
+naughty and fret,--your patience breaks my heart,--you seem already on
+the way to be a blessed angel."
+
+Upon the other side of the bed, that stood with its head to the wall,
+were two silent figures, the father and the schoolmaster. The latter
+gazed down upon the child with hands clasped as if in prayer, while the
+father leaned against the wall, his face hidden in his hands. He looked
+up now, and said with emotion but with resignation, "Be quiet, wife,
+and let us bear it as well as we can. If we must lose the child, she is
+too good for us,--I almost believe so now."
+
+"Father dear," said Kaethchen, "if you talk so, I must cry, and then you
+will cry more."
+
+Herr Leonhardt plucked the man by the sleeve, and whispered, "The child
+ought to be kept perfectly quiet. Rouse yourself, and send these women
+away."
+
+"So I say," said Johannes, who had stood for a few minutes unobserved
+upon the threshold of the door. "I pray you, good women, leave us to
+ourselves. So many people in this small room worry the child. Your
+friendly interest is very grateful; show it now by withdrawing."
+
+The kindly neighbours willingly departed, he was such a handsome,
+pleasant gentleman who requested them to do so. The priest also look
+his leave; the schoolmaster only, at a sign from Johannes, remained.
+
+Outside, there was no end to the questions and answers, as to how all
+was going on within, and how Kaethchen, usually so nimble, could have
+got under the carriage-wheels. She was indeed a good little child, for
+it was at last ascertained that she had escaped herself and was
+perfectly safe, when she turned back to rescue a smaller child, a
+neighbour's little boy, who was standing still in the middle of the
+road. The boy escaped, but his poor little preserver was thrown down by
+the horses, and so severely injured.
+
+"She is a dear pet--Kaethchen," the men declared; and the women cried,
+"Oh, if you could see her now lying there in bed, you would believe
+that she was half in heaven already."
+
+She was indeed in heaven, as is every true, pure child; for there is a
+heaven so close to the earth that only little children can walk beneath
+its canopy. We have grown up away from it; its glories are veiled from
+our eyes; it lies below us, like golden clouds around a mountain upon
+whose summit we are standing.
+
+"Well, Kaethchen, how are you now?" asked Johannes, stepping up to the
+bedside.
+
+"Very well, thank you," said Kaethchen dutifully, as she had been taught
+to reply.
+
+There was something exquisitely touching in the half-unconscious
+self-control of the child. Johannes was moved by it. He stooped down
+and kissed the pretty lips.
+
+"One more!" she entreated, putting her unhurt arm around his neck.
+
+"Our Kaethchen," said Herr Leonhardt, "is a good little girl. Do you
+know, Herr Professor, that the other day she was the only one in the
+whole school who would give Fraeulein von Hartwich a kiss?"
+
+At mention of that name a slight flush passed over Johannes's face. He
+sat down upon the edge of the bed and looked tenderly at the child.
+"Indeed! Did you do that, you angel?" he whispered, and again he kissed
+the lips, that seemed dearer to him after what the schoolmaster had
+told him. Profound silence reigned in the room. The parents looked on
+without a word. Herr Leonhardt alone saw Johannes's emotion. The little
+chest rose and fell more regularly. Johannes pillowed the head upon his
+warm, soft hand, and the child dropped asleep beneath the gentle gaze
+of her protector. He looked at the clock. The surgeon, whom the
+countess was to send, could not arrive for a long while yet.
+Nevertheless, he determined to wait for him.
+
+"Husband," whispered Frau Keller, "I have a strange thought. When the
+schoolmaster said just now that Kaethi had kissed the Hartwich, I
+suddenly remembered how the child came home and told me all about it,
+and complained that the other children had jeered her, and told her
+that something would certainly happen to her,--that the Hartwich would
+bewitch her! 'Sh!--be still!--don't let the schoolmaster hear; he would
+be angry; but, for the life of me, I can't help thinking it very
+strange!"
+
+The man looked thoughtfully at his wife, and scratched his head. After
+a little he whispered, "It is not worth while to say anything about it;
+but you are right,--it is very strange. Deuce take the Hartwich! What
+business had she to kiss our child? There's something wrong about her."
+
+"Speak to the priest about it, and see what he thinks, but don't let
+the schoolmaster know that you do so. Go. Say you want some beer. The
+child is asleep now."
+
+The man slipped out as softly as he could upon his hob-nailed shoes, to
+consult the priest upon so grave a matter.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+                          VOX POPULI, VOX DEI.
+
+
+When Keller, on his way to the priest, reached the village inn, he went
+in to refresh himself with a mug of beer, and found the priest whom he
+was seeking in the inn parlour, surrounded by a circle of auditors from
+the village and neighbouring farms. The Protestant pastor was also
+present, for the occurrence of the morning was a subject for universal
+discussion. The host was busy supplying the company with beer-mugs and
+bottles, secretly congratulating himself upon the accident that had
+brought him so much custom.
+
+"Ah, here is the poor father! Well, what news? How is she now?" were
+the words that greeted Keller's entrance.
+
+"Bad," he replied. "The child will be a cripple."
+
+A murmur of compassion was heard.
+
+Keller turned to the priest and asked to be permitted a word with him
+in private. His request was willingly granted.
+
+"Your reverence," began the peasant, "Columbane thinks the Hartwich has
+been the cause of all this."
+
+The priest clasped his hands. "What do I hear? Why does she think so?"
+
+Keller told him what had happened.
+
+The priest shook his head, and said in a loud voice to his Protestant
+brother, "Does it not seem, respected brother, as if we were forbidden
+by the visible finger of the Lord from holding any communication with
+this unholy woman, who has crept in among us like a poisonous serpent?"
+He then repeated, so that all could hear, what Keller had just told
+him.
+
+The Protestant divine, who was always in harmony with his colleague
+when there was a common enemy to do battle with, also considered the
+matter a very serious one. "It would of course be superstition to
+believe that the Hartwich had bewitched the child, but it stands
+written, 'Cursed are the ungodly,' and the curse must cleave to all who
+come in contact with any such."
+
+There was instantly a great commotion among the peasants drinking in
+the room.
+
+"This much is certain," cried the pastor with great emphasis, "that
+every misfortune comes, directly or indirectly, from the Hartwich!"
+
+"Yes, yes," resounded from all parts of the room. "Whom has she benefited
+in any way?"
+
+"No one, no one!"
+
+"Has she not tried to sow among you the seeds of her sinful doctrines?
+has she not, like the serpent of Eden, hissed into the ear of the
+sufferers to whose bedside she was admitted dreadful doubts, instead of
+pouring into them the balm of divine consolation?"
+
+"Yes, yes,--she always spoke disrespectfully of our pastors and their
+office."
+
+The clerical gentlemen looked mournfully at each other.
+
+"She has tried to stir up rebellion against the Church!" cried the
+priest. "She even turned me ignominiously from the doors when I went,
+in all the dignity of my office, to administer extreme unction to her
+servant Kunigunda, and she pretended in excuse that the maid was not
+going to die, and the ceremony would excite her and make her worse. She
+could not bear the sight of the Crucified beneath her roof. She is an
+outcast from God and His Church. Centuries ago, such as she were burnt
+alive; there was good reason for it. But we all suffer, and must
+continue to suffer, from their presence among us. The devil has put on
+the cloak of philanthropy, beneath which he hides all such sinners, so
+that we cannot touch them."
+
+"She is a poisonous sore in our flesh," added the Protestant pastor,
+"and it stands written, 'If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out;' but
+we dare not cut out this sore that offends us."
+
+"Why not?--what is to hinder us?" shouted the excited peasants.
+
+"Then you really believe that she has done this mischief to our poor
+child?" said Keller with horror.
+
+"Well, if we cannot exactly believe that," replied the Protestant
+pastor, "we must confess that we see in the accident a sign from
+Providence that we should avoid her. This much is certain, that the
+stranger who drove over the child had been visiting the Hartwich, so
+that, if she had not dwelt among us, the accident would most assuredly
+never have occurred, for that furious woman would never have come
+here."
+
+"The Hartwich is to blame for it all!" growled the drunken throng.
+
+"She is, in one way or another," continued the expositor of Christian
+love. "I repeat, with my respected brother, every misfortune among us
+is her work."
+
+"Yes, every misfortune is the work of the Hartwich!" yelled the chorus.
+
+"Gracious heavens! See! look there!" cried one, pointing to the
+windows.
+
+All looked out.
+
+"'Tis the Hartwich herself!"
+
+"Does she dare to come down here?"
+
+"She wants to see the misery she has caused!"
+
+"Holy Mother!" cried Keller, "she is going to my house!" And he rushed
+out.
+
+Like fermenting wine from a cask when the stopper is removed, the whole
+drunken throng rushed after him into the street.
+
+Priest and pastor remained behind, looking at one another. "What shall
+we do?" asked one. "Ought we not to follow them, to prevent mischief?"
+
+"Let the people rage, my worthy friend," replied the other. "It is not
+for us to interfere in such matters. She is not worthy of our
+protection, and the just indignation of the people will find vent in
+words, that will not harm her, but that it will be well for her to
+hear. _Vox populi, vox Dei!_"
+
+"True, true," assented the other. "We should not interfere with the
+public sense of right in such a case. She would not listen to us. Let
+her hear the truth from the mouths of the peasants; perhaps it will
+have more effect upon her coming from them than from men of culture
+like ourselves!"
+
+"Let us hope so," said the Catholic father devoutly, as he seated
+himself by his Protestant colleague at an empty table, and filled his
+glass from the bottle of old wine that the host placed before him.
+
+
+"What is that?" asked Johannes softly, as a distant hum of approaching
+voices was heard. He sat with his hand still patiently supporting
+Kaethchen's head, and would not draw it away, lest he should awaken the
+child.
+
+The schoolmaster went on tiptoe to the window and looked out. "I cannot
+tell what is the matter," he said. "An excited crowd is rushing to and
+fro in the street, but I cannot see who they are or what it is all
+about."
+
+"The people have not recovered from the event of this morning," said
+Johannes.
+
+Meanwhile the noise drew near. Various abusive words were heard, and it
+seemed as if stones were thrown and fell upon the pavement. Shrill
+female voices cried quite distinctly, "Not in here!" "Go away!" "Put
+her out!" Boys shouted and whistled through it all.
+
+"Good heavens!" cried the schoolmaster, "they are persecuting a lady!
+Oh, yes! Herr Professor, look! she is trying to escape into the houses!
+The women thrust her out and shut their doors upon her----"
+
+"Brutes!" exclaimed Johannes, beside himself with rage, for one glance
+from the window had shown him how matters stood.
+
+"Holy Maria! they are throwing stones and apples at her!" cried Frau
+Keller.
+
+Johannes had rushed from the room as the schoolmaster turned towards
+him with the words, "It is Fraeulein von Hartwich!"
+
+But, just as Johannes reached the stairs, Keller burst in, pale and
+agitated, and locked the door after him.
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Johannes. "Do you wish to shut me in here?"
+
+"Ah, sir!" implored Keller, blocking up the passage, "do not open
+it,--the Hartwich wants to come in----"
+
+"Well, then, let her in instantly! why do you delay?"
+
+"For God's sake, keep her out!" said Keller.
+
+"Are you mad," cried Johannes, "that you would close your doors upon a
+fellow-being imploring protection? Open the door, or I will force the
+lock."
+
+"Sir, sir, my house is my own, if I am only a poor peasant!" cried
+Keller still blocking the entrance. "This is the abode of honest
+labour, and no accursed foot shall cross its threshold."
+
+The uproar without seemed stationary before the house. A shower of
+stones against the door showed that the persecuted woman had fled
+hither. Johannes was no longer master of himself. His blood boiled in
+his veins, his heart throbbed to bursting. With the strength of a giant
+he seized the burly peasant by his broad shoulders and hurled him
+aside--almost into the arms of the schoolmaster, who was coming to the
+rescue also. Then he tore open the door, and Ernestine fell half
+fainting at his feet. He caught her in his arms, and, as he stood thus
+shielding her, cried, in a tone that left no doubt in the minds of his
+hearers as to the truth of his words, "I'll knock down the first man
+who dares to come near this lady."
+
+A dull murmur arose. "Let him try to stop us," cried several, and
+clenched fists were shaken at him.
+
+"Yes, I will try it,--but the man who dares me to try it will repent
+the trial!" threatened Johannes. And so commanding were his words and
+bearing that no one ventured further than to throw a stone or two,
+accompanying them with abusive epithets. Johannes drew Ernestine more
+closely to his side. "Shame on you, cowards that you are!" He turned to
+Keller. "Will you still refuse a shelter to this lady?--you see that
+she can scarcely stand."
+
+Keller looked at his wife, who had run out to them. "Do not let her
+in!" she cried. "For God's sake, keep her out! has she not done us harm
+enough?"
+
+Keller looked at Johannes and shrugged his shoulders. "You see my wife
+will not allow it."
+
+Johannes stamped his foot in despair.
+
+"Are you human?"
+
+"We hope so, sir," said Keller, insolently thrusting his hands in his
+pockets.
+
+"And far better than the friends of that woman there," shouted the mob,
+and a small stone flew close past Johannes.
+
+"If I were as crazy as you are," cried he, "I should throw down upon
+you the stones that you have thrown at me here, and my aim would be
+better than yours. But I will not contend with drunken men or do battle
+with people who are not responsible for their actions; all I ask of you
+is to give way and allow me to take this lady to her home."
+
+The crowd maintained its place in a compact mass, and only replied by
+unintelligible words, from which, however, Johannes gathered that
+Ernestine's punishment was not yet considered sufficient, and that she
+was not to be allowed to escape so easily.
+
+"I will pay you whatever you ask, if you will only afford Fraeulein von
+Hartwich shelter until I have quieted this tumult," said Johannes to
+Keller.
+
+"You'll get nothing out of me, sir! Neither money nor fine words will
+get her across my threshold."
+
+"Mother, let her come in," suddenly cried a voice that had a wonderful
+effect upon the mob. Kaethchen had slipped from her bed unperceived, and
+in her distress had run out to her mother. She threw her uninjured arm
+around Ernestine's knees, and looked up at her weeping. "They shall not
+hurt you; I love you so dearly!"
+
+"Jesus Maria!" shrieked Frau Keller. "My child! my child!" She tore the
+little girl away from Ernestine, and, followed by her husband, carried
+her into the house.
+
+"Do you want to kill yourself?" cried the father in despair.
+
+"No! I want the lady, I want the lady," the child was still heard
+wailing from the room.
+
+A commotion now began, which threatened to be serious indeed. "There,
+now, you see it with your own eyes,--the sick child even crawls out of
+bed to her. Don't you see now that she is bewitched? The Hartwich must
+leave the place this very day, or we'll hunt her out of the village."
+
+"Men! men! for God's sake, what are you doing?" said a gentle voice
+behind Johannes.
+
+"Oho, the schoolmaster!" was now the cry. "Let him come down,--we've
+had our eyes upon him for a long time. Come down, schoolmaster, you
+shall be ducked for your friendship for the witch." And again the human
+flood overflowed the lower step of the stairs at the head of which
+Johannes was standing.
+
+"Back!" commanded Johannes, resigning Ernestine to the schoolmaster,
+"back! now you see my arms are free."
+
+Involuntarily the foremost recoiled at sight of his menacing attitude.
+
+"Deluded people," cried Johannes, beside himself with indignation, "is
+there nothing sacred from your frantic rage,--neither a defenceless
+girl nor the gray head of your teacher? What has he done, except spend
+his life in the thankless endeavour to make reasonable human beings of
+you?"
+
+"He is friends with the Hartwich,--it is his fault that she kissed the
+child. His house ought to be burned over his head!"
+
+"Yes, yes!" roared the mob, "their holes should be burned out and
+destroyed--his and hers. Blasphemers! Unbelievers! They shall yet learn
+to believe in God."
+
+"This is too much!" thundered Johannes. "Would you prove your religion
+by becoming incendiaries? Woe upon you if you lay a finger upon what
+belongs to either of these people! Do you know the penalty for arson?
+And, depend upon it, I will see to it that you do not escape."
+
+A shout of rage arose at these words.
+
+"Herr Professor," said Leonhardt imploringly, "do not aggravate these
+people further,--we cannot convince them. Children," he called down to
+them, and his voice trembled with pain, not with fear,--"children, I
+have grown old among you; I know you better than you know yourselves.
+You are too wise to do anything that would subject you to the penalty
+of the law, and too kind to commit an outrage upon people who have
+never harmed you. You do not believe that I am an unbeliever. Have I
+not educated your children to be useful, God-fearing men and women?
+Have I not stood your friend in every time of trouble? The little
+house, that you in your blind fury would destroy, has afforded many of
+you a peaceful shelter,--it is a sacred spot to your children, and
+could you lay a finger upon it? Go to the church-yard and see if there
+is a single grave there of your loved ones that has not been adorned by
+flowers from my garden, and would you bury it beneath the ruins of my
+dwelling? No, do not try to seem worse than you are." He placed
+Ernestine gently down upon the landing and stood in front of her. "You
+know that your old master loves all God's creatures, and would you
+condemn him for taking compassion upon the unhappy maiden whom no one
+pities, whom all hate? Do you call me godless because I hoped to lead
+this erring but noble nature to find her God again? Yes, take up your
+stones,--look! I will take off my cap and expose my white head to your
+aim. Where is the hand that will lift itself against it?"
+
+The old man stood with uncovered head, holding his cap in his clasped
+hands. The evening breeze played amid his silver locks, and the stones
+that had been picked up were gently dropped again.
+
+Then his arm was drawn down by his side and a kiss was imprinted upon
+his withered hand. It was Ernestine. Johannes saw the act, and his eyes
+were moist She could be grateful. He exchanged a happy glance with the
+old man to whom she had just paid such a tribute.
+
+"He is only a weak old man," muttered the people,--"let him alone. He
+means well."
+
+"I will go and bring their pastors," said Leonhardt softly to Johannes,
+and he descended the steps. He walked quietly through the midst of the
+crowd, that opened before him, but closed up again when he had passed
+through.
+
+"Come," said Johannes, raising Ernestine from the ground, "let us try
+to put an end to this wretched scene." He carried rather than led her
+down the steps. "Make way there!" he called in a commanding tone.
+
+The foremost in the mob gave way. Just then Frau Keller appeared at the
+door. She held the cup of holy water, which usually hung above the bed,
+and she sprinkled with its contents the spot where Ernestine had been
+standing. Her pious act was greeted with a shout of applause. Ernestine
+saw her, and trembled and turned pale, while large tears gathered in
+her eyes; she grew dizzy, and would have fallen had not Johannes
+supported her.
+
+"Courage, courage," he whispered,--"do not let such folly distress
+you."
+
+"Look, look! she cannot bear the holy water. She didn't mind the
+stones,--but a few drops of water are too much for her." Thus shouted
+the mob, and the uproar began again.
+
+"Is this possible?" cried Johannes, casting prudence to the winds. "Is
+it possible that in the nineteenth century, and in a civilized country,
+such utter barbarian stupidity should exist? Do you really believe, if
+Fraeulein Hartwich were in league with the devil, that she would have
+borne your abuse, that she would not have thrown her spells over you
+long ago, and escaped your brutality? Do you think that she listens to
+you from choice, and likes to have stones thrown at her? Why, the very
+patience and resignation with which she has endured your outrageous
+insults might prove to you that she has no supernatural power at her
+command,--that she has not even the protection of a bold nature, like
+the other lady, with whom you were justly indignant. But let me tell
+you that I am neither feeble nor weak, and that my patience is
+exhausted, and my power, although not supernatural is quite sufficient
+to punish such excesses as this, and to conjure up among you a host of
+evil spirits in the shape of a detachment of gens-d'armes. Therefore be
+quiet, and let us pass on our way. Every moment of delay increases the
+weight of the charges that I shall bring against you before the
+magistrate."
+
+So saying, he put one arm about Ernestine, and with the other cleared a
+path for himself through the throng, who were somewhat quelled by his
+last words, and gave place grumbling.
+
+And now the clergymen, followed by the schoolmaster, appeared, with
+every sign of hurry and amazement.
+
+"You come too late, gentlemen, to prevent what must cover those under
+your charge with shame," said Johannes with severity. "I supposed such
+scenes impossible in our day. You, gentlemen, have taken care that I
+should be better informed, and have prepared a rich page in the history
+of our civilization. I am well aware from what source the insults
+heaped by these misguided people upon Fraeulein Hartwich draw their
+inspiration, and I consider you, gentlemen, responsible for the
+restoration of order and the safety of this lady." He drew Ernestine's
+arm more firmly within his own, and walked on without waiting for a
+reply from the reverend gentlemen, who stood there speechless with
+alarm and embarrassment, looking after him with a degree of respect
+that they could not control.
+
+In silence the pair reached the castle and entered the garden.
+Ernestine passively allowed herself to be led through the shady walks.
+Involuntarily Johannes turned towards the little eminence where he had
+seen her for the first time. He had resolved not to leave Ernestine
+here, but to place her that very evening beneath his mother's
+protection. How should he persuade her to such a step? This was the
+question that he propounded to himself, breathlessly searching for the
+answer.
+
+Ernestine was for the time incapable of speech. She could not raise her
+eyes to her protector. Mortification, profound mortification,
+overpowered her. How thoroughly she had recognized his position as a
+man, and her own as a woman! She admired him,--she was ashamed of
+herself. What a feeling it was!--yes, it was the same self-humiliation
+that she had felt once before, beneath the oak tree where, when flying
+as to-day from insults and sneers, she had met the handsome lad who had
+given her the prophetic book. But when would the prophecy in the
+fairy-tale be fulfilled? When should she cease to be laughed at,
+despised, and insulted? When should the lonely, persecuted, weary swan
+unfold its plumage upon calm waters in sunshine and peace? And in an
+access of pain she covered her face with her hands and burst into
+tears. She sank down upon the mound and sobbed like a child. Johannes
+stood silent before her. His mind was filled with the same thoughts,
+the same memories, and, like an answer to her mute soliloquy, there
+came from his lips, in tones of melting tenderness, the words, "Poor
+swan!" Ernestine's hands dropped from her face, she stared at him with
+wide-open eyes,--then sprang up, and, while her pale cheeks flushed,
+and her whole frame trembled, gazed at him still, as if she would look
+him through, her agitation increasing every moment. "There--there is
+only one person on earth who knows that," she faltered.
+
+"What?" asked Johannes with a beating heart.
+
+"What I was thinking of--about the swan!" she articulated with
+difficulty, for her voice failed her.
+
+Johannes, who stood somewhat below Ernestine, looked up at her
+expectantly. "And who is that person?" he asked gently.
+
+Ernestine could not reply,--a strange thrill passed through her, and
+she awaited the issue of the miracle of the moment.
+
+"Ernestine, do you remember the lad who once rescued a wild, timid girl
+from mortal peril?"
+
+She bowed her head in assent. "Ernestine, did you ever then for one
+moment in your childish heart think of him with love?"
+
+She raised her eyes to the twilight skies, and was silent for a moment;
+then she breathed a scarcely audible "Yes."
+
+A light, feathery cloud hovered above her head. Was it the little
+mermaid, dead for her beloved's sake, and, dissolved in foam, borne
+away by the daughters of the air to eternal bliss? Could it return
+again,--that fair, half-forgotten love-dream of her childhood,--the
+only one she had ever dreamed?
+
+And she looked after the floating cloud as it grew thinner and thinner,
+until it was gradually dissolved in air, and the gentle radiance of the
+evening star appeared where it faded.
+
+"Ernestine, do you know me now?" said Johannes. "See, this is the
+second time that God has placed me by your side to rescue you from a
+self-sought peril, and, as when I then brought you down from the broken
+bough, so now I open wide my arms to you, and pray you, 'Seek refuge
+and safety here!' Oh, little dryad, you are the same as then, for all
+that you have grown so tall and beautiful! There are the same
+mysterious dark eyes, the same strange, lonely spirit imprisoned in the
+delicate frame, bewailing its Titan descent. I knew then that there was
+only one such creature in the world,--and I should have recognized you
+among thousands as I recognized you when you stood alone upon this
+hill. Wondrous and fairy-like creature that you are, if you do not
+dissolve in air at the touch of a mortal, come to this heart; if an
+earth-born being may approach you with earthly love, take mine and
+learn to love a mortal. Yes, pure, aspiring spirit, for whom this earth
+has never been a home, I am only a man,--and yet a faithful, true, and
+loving man. Can you love me again?"
+
+Ernestine stood immovable. She had raised her hands to her forehead, as
+one is apt to do at hearing the mysterious, the incomprehensible.
+
+"You do not speak; have you no words for me? Look, Ernestine, do you
+not remember the boy about whose neck you once clasped your trembling
+arms so willingly?"
+
+At last she stretched out both hands to the earnest speaker, with a
+look of unrestrained delight. "Johannes," she cried, as tear after tear
+coursed down her cheek, "Johannes Moellner,--my childhood's friend,--I
+know you now."
+
+He hastened to her side, and opened his arms to clasp her to his heart,
+but she recoiled with such a burning blush, with such childlike alarm
+painted upon her face, that Johannes controlled himself, and only
+pressed her delicate hands to his lips. Her maidenly reserve was sacred
+to him.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+                            NOWHERE AT HOME.
+
+
+On this very evening there was a social meeting of the Professors at
+the Staatsraethin's. Johannes had entirely forgotten it. As the
+afternoon passed and evening approached without bringing him, the
+Staatsraethin grew really anxious about him, apart from the
+embarrassment which his absence caused with regard to her guests, to
+whom she knew not what excuse to make. She was walking to and fro in
+her garden behind the house, where her guests were to assemble and
+enjoy the lovely twilight in the open air.
+
+Suddenly Angelika joined her in breathless haste. "Mother, mother, I
+have found out where Johannes has been all day long!" she cried,
+taking her hat off to cool her forehead, and throwing herself into a
+garden-chair. "Moritz has just got back from Hochstetten, whither he
+was called this afternoon, and he tells a wonderful tale. The whole
+village is in commotion,--the behaviour of the Hartwich has actually
+excited a tumult. There was an outbreak, and Johannes,--our
+Johannes,--publicly declared himself her champion!"
+
+The Staatsraethin clasped her hands and gazed incredulously at Angelika.
+"Is this true?"
+
+"Oh, this is not all!" Angelika went on to say. "Moritz did not even
+see Johannes, for he was all the time--now, be composed, mother--in the
+castle with the Hartwich!"
+
+"Good heavens!" cried her mother, seating herself upon a bench. "Has it
+gone so far already?" A long pause ensued. At last the anxious mother
+folded her hands in her lap and said softly to herself, "My son, my
+son, what are you doing?"
+
+Angelika said nothing, but turned away. The same evening star that had
+beamed so gently upon Ernestine and Johannes glittered in the tears
+which filled the sister's eyes as she looked up at it.
+
+"Angelika," said her mother mournfully, "you should not have told me
+this without some preparation. You forget that I am grown old, and my
+many trials of late years have robbed me of the power of endurance
+that I once possessed. How much I have gone through since your
+uncle Neuenstein's bankruptcy! All our misfortunes have come from
+Unkenheim,--your uncle's unlucky scheme in the purchase of the Hartwich
+factory, the loss of three-fourths of our property in the affair, and
+the consequent necessity of our leaving our home that Johannes might
+practise his profession for his livelihood here. And nothing of all
+this would have happened if we had never seen Unkenheim! And this
+wretched Hartwich girl comes too from that place! You will see that she
+is going to bring us additional misfortune! Shall we never draw a free
+breath again? Why should this creature disturb our dearly-purchased
+peace of mind?"
+
+"Mother dear," Angelika entreated, kneeling down beside the
+Staatsraethin, "mother dear, do not cry now when we expect guests. Be
+comforted,--things will not go as wrong as you fear. Come, be again the
+calm, prudent mother who never seemed so great to me as in misfortune.
+I trust in God, and our Johannes----"
+
+She did not finish her sentence, but arose hastily, for several of
+their friends appeared at the garden-gate. The Staatsraethin, accustomed
+to control herself, had regained her self-possession, and received her
+guests with her usual graceful cordiality.
+
+"Where is your son?"
+
+"Is your son not at home?"
+
+To this question, asked at least twenty times, she replied always with
+unwearied patience, "He was suddenly called away, but I hope he will
+soon be here."
+
+When old Heim appeared, he listened with a queer smile to the terrible
+tale that Angelika whispered into his ear.
+
+"What a fellow he is,--this Johannes!" he said with kindly humour.
+"With her! with her at the castle! That's going rather too fast,--eh?"
+
+"Oh, uncle!" cried Angelika, "is that all the sympathy you have for us
+in so grave a matter?"
+
+"Why, you see, my child, the matter does not seem so grave to me as to
+you. Johannes is a man, and knows what he is about. You act as if he
+were a beardless boy, whose nurse ought to follow him about. If this
+clever girl pleases him, it is a proof of his taste. Whatever you do, I
+will not league with you for all the beseeching glances of those
+forget-me-not eyes of yours." And the old gentleman seated himself
+deliberately upon Angelika's straw hat, that she had forgotten to take
+from the chair where she had thrown it. "God bless me! what kind of a
+cushion have you put in my chair?" he cried, producing, amid universal
+laughter, a flattened mass of straw and violets that bore not the
+faintest resemblance to a hat.
+
+"That comes of leaving one's things about. Who would have supposed that
+I should go about in my old age sitting upon straw hats? Well, well,
+child, to-day is a day of misfortunes!"
+
+The company quickly assembled. The ladies seated themselves at the
+large round tea-table, the gentlemen stood about in groups, and, as
+smoking was allowed, puffed forth blue clouds of smoke into the clear
+evening air.
+
+The moon began to cast a pale light through the crimson evening glow.
+Night-moths fluttered hither and thither, and now and then a big
+booming beetle would fly around the heads of the startled ladies. The
+tired birds flew in among the bushes to seek their nests, arousing the
+alarm of the younger girls who were in great terror of bats.
+
+Suddenly a wiry voice without was heard chirping Rueckert's song:
+
+
+           "Yes, a household dear and blest
+              Mine shall always be.
+            I'll invite there as my guest
+              Him who pleases me."
+
+
+And Elsa, leaning on her brother's arm, appeared at the door. The
+Staatsraethin arose.
+
+"Ah, my dearest, motherly friend," cried Elsa from afar, gliding
+towards her, "I am late, am I not? Could my thoughts have borne me
+hither, I should have been with you long ago; but imagine--our droschky
+lost a wheel--and we had to walk all the way."
+
+"I am very sorry," said the Staatsraethin kindly. "You must have had
+quite a fright."
+
+"Yes, it was a most unfortunate intermezzo, disturbing our
+anticipations of the pleasant evening," said Herbert politely.
+
+"Oh, it did not spoil my enjoyment," laughed Elsa with pretty
+assurance, and she piped out the last couplet of her song:
+
+
+           "Thrown from the carriage should I be,
+            A flowery grave awaiteth me."
+
+
+"The only thing to lament was our tardiness in reaching you, and I ran
+myself quite out of breath."
+
+"Not quite!" replied the Staatsraethin with a smile. "You were trilling
+very gaily as you came along the Bergstrasse."
+
+"Really, did you hear me?" asked Elsa in charming confusion. "My voice,
+then, was more fortunate than I,--it reached you sooner!"
+
+"How is your wife?" the Staatsraethin inquired of Herbert.
+
+"Thank you,--she is always the same. The constant spectacle of her
+sufferings, without the power to alleviate them, is almost too much for
+me."
+
+The Staatsraethin looked compassionately at Herbert's sunken cheeks.
+"Poor Frau Herbert! and you too are greatly to be pitied!"
+
+"I thank you for your sympathy,--it helps to lighten the burden of my
+anxiety on her account."
+
+Elsa had not listened to this grave conversation; she had already
+joined the company, and the Staatsraethin followed with Herbert.
+
+"A bat! a bat!" cried one of the younger gentlemen as Elsa approached,
+and he pointed to a bird just whirring past.
+
+"You are severe," one of his brethren said to him in a low voice.
+
+"Only look," whispered a third, "Herbert is as fine as usual in a dress
+coat. It is not fair to appear in full dress when he knows that by the
+rules of these meetings we are all to come in morning costume."
+
+"It is his way,--no one could expect anything else of Herbert!" said
+Taun.
+
+"He's a fool," said Meibert,--"the charm of ease in an undress coat is
+one of the chief attractions of these meetings. At least I find it so."
+
+"So do I, so do I," cried one and another of the party. Meanwhile Elsa
+was nodding and bowing in every direction. She exulted in the
+consciousness of giving so much pleasure by her presence. She loved
+every one, and every one loved her. Earth was a paradise, full of
+faith, hope, and charity,--through it she fluttered like a kindly fairy
+at her own sweet will. She was a little alarmed at not seeing Moellner,
+and her gaiety received a severer check than when she had nearly found
+her "flowery grave." But she comforted herself,--he would come,--he
+could not stay away from the place where Elsa was. And she determined
+not to visit his absence upon the company,--they were not to blame for
+it,--she would join in the conversation. There was something touching
+in her good-humoured vanity. She would use the advantages which she was
+conscious of possessing over others only for their benefit. She took
+pleasure in her imaginary gift of conversation only because she could
+thereby amuse her dear friends by means of it. How should she know that
+she was ridiculed and laughed at? She saw that mirth abounded wherever
+she was. How could it be caused by anything but delight in her
+presence? Her confidence in the esteem and love of her fellows was
+impregnable, for it was rooted in her unbounded confidence in her own
+excellence. Who would not love a creature so good, so talented, and
+withal so modest that she was kind and gentle to all? Why, no one could
+help it. This conviction inspired her in society with a self-possession
+that carried her untouched through all the contempt and sneers that she
+everywhere provoked, and kept her quiet self-sufficiency unruffled.
+Most happily for her, she felt all the blessing without an idea of the
+curse of mediocrity that attached to her in the presence of others.
+
+She was quite idyllic to-day, for Elsa in the midst of nature was a
+very different person, although scarcely less lovely, from Elsa in her
+study. She had encircled with leaves her large straw hat,--the wide
+brim of which kept flapping up and down as she tripped about,--and a
+nosegay of wild flowers was stuck in her bosom. She loved wild flowers
+far more than garden flowers. Everybody admired garden flowers,--she
+pitied the wild flowers, and would atone by her love to the poor
+neglected blossoms of the field. Her delicate sense perceived beauty in
+the humblest thing that grew. She did not need grace of form and
+vividness of colour to impress her with the wisdom of the Creator.
+Every dandelion, every blade of grass, was lovely in her eyes. How
+wondrous was its structure! How its modest withdrawal from superficial
+eyes accorded with her own retiring nature! And then it was the
+prerogative of a poetic temperament to see what was hidden to all the
+world beside. It was a severe blow, therefore, to her tender heart when
+the professor of botany asked, "But, Fraeulein Elsa, why have you
+brought a bunch of hay to a house noted for its capital suppers?"
+
+"Oh, you naughty man," she pouted, "you cannot tease me out of my love
+for these darlings."
+
+"Do you take all these weeds under your protection?" asked the
+implacable professor. "Then you must have enough to do when the cattle
+are driven out to pasture."
+
+All laughed, and Elsa laughed too. She could take a jest.
+
+"But," she replied, "to fall a sacrifice to the stronger is a fate from
+which even Flora herself cannot shield her children. Thank God, they
+all grow again! I do not wish to save them from the animals whom they
+serve for food. It is an enviable lot to sustain life in others by
+one's own death. I wish to shield them from the contempt of men. Is it
+not a sacred duty to espouse the cause of the despised? And those who
+do not discharge it conscientiously in small matters will neglect it in
+more important things. So let me put my poor thirsty flowers in water,
+that they may lift up their little heads again."
+
+They handed her a glass of water, into which the botanist recommended
+that a lump of sugar should be thrown, because, as he said,
+sugar-and-water was so much more nutritious.
+
+"Go, go, naughty man," said Elsa, arranging her bouquet. "Look! is not
+that lovely?"
+
+"My good Fraeulein Elsa," cried the professor, "do not ask me to be
+enthusiastic over the beauty of a flower. I have long lost the sense of
+delight that people feel at sight of a flower. The most beautiful
+flowers for me are those that furnish most matter for scientific
+investigation."
+
+"What a prosaic point of view!" cried Elsa. "Tell me, ladies, can there
+be anything more monstrous than a botanist who does not love flowers?
+It is as unnatural as for a musician to take no pleasure in music. It
+is treason to the _scientia amabilis_."
+
+"You say so," replied the professor with some asperity, "only because
+you do not know what is at the present day called 'the lovely science.'
+I assure you, modern botany has, as De Bury remarks, no more right to
+this title than any other science. It is only the knowledge of a couple
+of thousands of names of flowers and the manifold conditions of their
+existence,--the examination into their manner of life,--in other words,
+the physiology of plants. The flower is not the end, but the means to
+an end, the end of physics, physiology, and every other science: the
+discovery of the whole by a knowledge of a part Let this part be plant,
+man, or beast, we are all searching for the same laws, and it is just
+as unnecessary that a botanist should be fond of flowers as that a
+physiologist should be a philanthropist."
+
+Elsa blushed rosy red at these words. "Moellner loves mankind,--I know
+he does," she whispered.
+
+"So much the better for him if he does," said the professor smiling.
+"That is a private satisfaction of his own, and we will not disturb it.
+But, seen in the light of his profession, men are no more to him than
+plants,--to me plants are no less than men. Both are to us only
+subjects for untiring investigation."
+
+"I cannot think that of Moellner," said Elsa softly to herself.
+
+The botanist shrugged his shoulders compassionately and left her. When
+he rejoined his brethren, they accosted him with, "It is easy to see
+that you have not been here long, or you would not try to preach reason
+into Elsa Herbert. Who could make a woman understand such things?" And
+there was a burst of laughter, in which Hilsborn was the only one who
+did not join. He was never disposed to sneer. Although he himself could
+not overcome his dislike for Elsa, he was too amiable to put it into
+words.
+
+"But, really, for one's own sake it is best to make an attempt at least
+to enlighten the ignorant," the botanist replied, when thus attacked.
+"It is impossible to listen in silence to such nonsense."
+
+"Then, Fraeulein Elsa, you consider it a blessed lot to be devoured by
+cows," said a young private tutor, who had but just thrown off his
+student's gown.
+
+Elsa was quite happy. She had not received so much attention for a long
+time. It was the consequence of her originality. How excellent, too,
+her spirits were to-day! What a pity that Moellner was not present to
+witness her triumph!
+
+"Yes," she said gaily, "whatever is as perishable as a flower cannot
+die a more charming death than----"
+
+"In a cow's mouth," laughed the skeptic. "It is unfortunate that
+Fechner had not conceived this poetic idea before he wrote his
+'Nanna.'"
+
+"Oh, you may ridicule anything in that way, if you choose to do so,"
+said Elsa.
+
+"Do not vex our kind Elsa," Angelika here interrupted the discussion,
+throwing her fair round arm around the other's thin shoulders. "Elsa
+dear, give me your nosegay."
+
+"There, put it on your brother's writing-table," Elsa whispered in her
+ear.
+
+Angelika looked at her with compassion. "I will do what you ask, Elsa,
+but you know he does not care much for plucked flowers."
+
+"But perhaps he will value them when he knows that they were plucked by
+the faithful hand of such a friend as I."
+
+Angelika took the bouquet, and said hesitatingly, "I hope he will
+not be vexed,--he does not like to have anything placed upon his
+writing-table,--but I will try."
+
+Hastily, as usual, Moritz came running through the garden just as
+Angelika was bending over Elsa. She turned, and found her husband's
+sparkling black eyes resting upon her.
+
+"Moritz," she cried in delight, "have you come at last?"
+
+"Yes, my darling. I had another patient to see; but now I am free to
+stay with you until to-morrow at eight,--twelve whole hours. Is not
+that fine?"
+
+"Fine indeed!" repeated Angelika, and poor Elsa listened to these
+loving speeches, longing for the time when such happiness should be
+hers.
+
+"Come," said old Heim, plucking Moritz by the sleeve, "we cannot live
+upon your pretty speeches to your wife, and they may spoil our
+appetites. Your mamma begs you to play the part of host at supper."
+
+"Come, Angelika," said Moritz, drawing Angelika's arm through his own.
+He never took any other woman than his wife to supper.
+
+This was a trying moment for Elsa, for it was her usual fate to be left
+sitting still when supper was ready or a dance was in prospect. She
+must either join herself to some other unfortunate, similarly
+neglected, or perhaps be offered a left arm by some good-natured man
+already provided with a lady upon his right. Ah, her knight, her
+Lohengruen, was not there, he who would one day rescue her forever from
+this solitude. Where was he? Why did he not come? And in her distress
+she turned to one of the gentlemen who had just finished smoking and
+was approaching the circle of ladies. "Do you not know where Professor
+Moellner is?"
+
+The gentleman was a young assistant surgeon, whom Moritz had taken to
+the village with him that afternoon. The latter, as he passed,
+whispered in his ear, "Do not tell."
+
+The young man looked confused, and just then Herbert approached and
+said maliciously, "You were in Hochstetten this afternoon, where
+Professor Moellner played his usual part of good Samaritan? I heard you
+telling Hilsborn about it,--pray favour us too with the interesting
+story."
+
+He laid his hand, as if unconsciously, upon his sister's shoulder, but
+its heavy pressure, told her that it was not done either unconsciously
+or kindly.
+
+"We all know very well that Moellner never allows an insult to pass
+unpunished," said Hilsborn, "and you should know it, Herr Herbert,
+better than any of us."
+
+"True, I have had occasion to be convinced of the interest that Moellner
+takes in Fraeulein von Hartwich, although it is by no means so dangerous
+to correct an erring professor as an enraged mob."
+
+"What? what is it?" ran from mouth to mouth, and the company drew
+together in a large group.
+
+"Permit me," said Moritz in a loud voice to Herbert, "to be the
+interpreter of my brother-in-law's conduct, as I certainly understand
+it better than a stranger. The truth is, the Hartwich was insulted by a
+Hochstetten mob, and my brother-in-law interfered to prevent her from
+receiving personal injury."
+
+"Ah," said Herbert, as if he were comprehending it all for the first
+time, "this, then, was the generous motive that took your brother two
+miles from town to that retired village?"
+
+"I myself have never yet presumed to cross-examine my brother-in-law as
+to his motives,--I leave the bold undertaking to you," replied Moritz,
+challenging Herbert with his keen glance.
+
+"What can have happened there?"
+
+"What did the Hartwich do? A whole village certainly does not rise
+against a private individual without some cause."
+
+"This Hartwich must be a dreadful person!" Such were the remarks made
+by one and another.
+
+"Gentlemen, let me pray you to come to supper," said the Staatsraethin,
+who was evidently embarrassed.
+
+But her invitation was unheeded. All the ladies and several gentlemen
+had, like hungry wolves, had a taste of the interesting subject, and
+they were not to be tempted by the promise of other food. There was no
+end to their amazement and conjectures. To be sure, it was impossible
+to express before Moellner's relatives all that was thought, but they
+could gain some information by their questions.
+
+They could not understand how Professor Moellner could befriend such a
+person. It was no wonder that public opinion was so opposed to her.
+
+"Yes," said Elsa, "Christian love should be shown to every sinner, but
+this woman puts our sex in such a light that really one blushes at
+being a woman. I can say, with Gretchen, that humanity is dear to me,
+but this Hartwich displays such shamelessness, such vulgarity of mind,
+that it becomes the duty of those possessed of any sensibility to
+suppress all compassion and to regard her with abhorrence."
+
+"Tell me, then, Fraeulein Elsa," Hilsborn here interrupted her, "what
+becomes of your former assertion that the cause of the despised and
+neglected should always be espoused by the true Christian, as in the
+case of your field-flowers?"
+
+Elsa blushed, and stroked back her curls.
+
+"But, my dear friend," remarked the botanist, "the Hartwich is not a
+field-flower."
+
+"Certainly not one that cows can eat, for she is poisonous," said
+Herbert.
+
+"Oh, there are reptiles that feed on hemlock," said old Heim with
+irritation. "But, whether she be hemlock or belladonna, we all know
+that both are medicinal, and she might perhaps be useful as an antidote
+to the affectation and hypocrisy that infect the feminine world of
+to-day, producing bigotry, malice, and all sorts of moral diseases."
+
+"That was going almost too far," Moritz whispered to the old man, who
+passed him grumbling thus, with his hands clasped behind him. "I cannot
+abuse her any more, for Johannes's sake, but I do wish the devil had
+her rather than Johannes should have her!"
+
+Heim looked at him and contracted his white, bushy eyebrows. "To that
+nonsense all I say is, we will talk about it at some future time."
+
+The Staatsraethin approached. "Uncle Heim, you are blinded by
+your partiality. Convince us that this person is anything else
+than a brazen-faced claimant for notoriety, and God knows what
+besides,--convince us of this, And we will beg her pardon,--but, until
+then, we must be allowed to consider any intercourse with her, on my
+son's part, as a misfortune. Now give me your arm; we must go to
+supper."
+
+"Yes, let us go. I am tired, and shall be glad of something to eat,"
+said the old gentleman, conducting the Staatsraethin into the house,
+where the table was laid.
+
+The others followed, and Elsa fluttered after them like the last
+swallow of autumn. They all entered the house by the large door opening
+upon the garden. Directly opposite was the door leading into the
+street. They began, laughing and talking, to ascend the stairs to the
+dining-room, when a carriage drove up. The Staatsraethin, who led the
+way, stopped and listened intently. It might be Johannes.
+
+The door was at that instant thrown open, and he appeared,--but not
+alone. There was a lady leaning on his arm.
+
+A murmur of surprise was heard.
+
+Johannes was quite as much astonished at unexpectedly encountering such
+an assemblage as the guests were at his entrance with a veiled lady,
+who was evidently embarrassed and desirous to withdraw when she saw so
+many people. But Johannes detained her. "I pray you, remain," he said
+to her, "you have no cause for alarm."
+
+The Staatsraethin leaned heavily upon Heim's arm, her knees trembled
+under her.
+
+"Compose yourself," the old man whispered in her ear. "Submit to the
+inevitable,--remember that your son is master of the house."
+
+"I shall not forget it," she replied softly, yet with bitterness.
+
+In the mean time, Johannes had reached the staircase with the evidently
+reluctant Ernestine. "My dear mother," he said, looking up at her with
+a face radiant with pleasure, "I bring you another guest."
+
+The Staatsraethin descended a couple of stairs with the air of one
+compelled to receive a guest whose visit she regards as anything but
+welcome.
+
+"Fraeulein von Hartwich," said Johannes, presenting her at once to his
+mother and his assembled friends, "has been persuaded by me to seek an
+asylum for this night beneath our roof, as her uncle is absent from
+home, leaving her alone and defenceless, the object of a low, and
+brutal conspiracy."
+
+"You are welcome, Fraeulein von Hartwich," said the Staatsraethin with
+cold courtesy, without offering Ernestine her hand, or relieving her
+embarrassment in any way. "Let me entreat you to share our simple meal.
+Unfortunately, we can postpone it no longer, as we have already been
+obliged to wait some time for my son."
+
+And, without another word to Ernestine, she led the way with Heim to
+the dining-room.
+
+Ernestine's heart throbbed. What a reception was this! To what a
+humiliation had she exposed herself! Was not running the gauntlet here
+a thousand times worse than being stoned in the village by rude
+peasants? "Let me go," she said, taking her hand from Johannes's arm.
+"I feel that I am unwelcome to your mother."
+
+"Ernestine," said Johannes, "you are my guest, and I will not let you
+go. Forgive my mother's cold reception. It is not meant for you, but
+for the distorted character of you that she has heard. Remain, and
+convince her that you are not what she thinks, and you will be treated
+by her like a daughter."
+
+"Oh, my only friend, I obey you, but I do it with a heavy heart. It
+would have been better for you to let me go to old Leonhardt for a
+couple of days."
+
+"How could you have gone to old Leonhardt?" Johannes interrupted her
+impatiently. "It would have been visited upon him if he had received
+you. And it was equally impossible for you to pass this night alone in
+the castle without your uncle. You must be content to remain under my
+protection. Is that so hard?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Ernestine, with a grateful look,--"but the others!"
+
+"I am sorry that we arrived just in the midst of this crowd. Everything
+would have gone well if we had not encountered them just upon the
+stairs. I would have taken you to my study, where no one goes,--you
+could have rested there until these people were gone and my mother had
+prepared your room for you. But, since they have seen you, you must not
+hide yourself like a criminal. There are some here who already wish you
+well, and many others whose regard you will soon win."
+
+"I am far more afraid of these people than of the angry peasants," said
+Ernestine sorrowfully. "I am so tired."
+
+"Poor child!" said Johannes kindly. "I know you are, but do it for my
+sake. Will you not? I shall be so glad to have you by my side, and so
+proud to show them all that you accept me as your friend."
+
+"Well, then, I will do as you say," said Ernestine submissively, and
+she ascended the stairs with Johannes.
+
+At the door of the supper-room she laid aside her hat and shawl, and he
+looked admiringly at her lovely pale face, with the noble intellectual
+brow and the large melancholy eyes, and at her tall slender figure. Who
+that saw her could withstand her? He was so proud of her!
+
+As they entered, the guests stood around the table, awaiting him. The
+impression that she produced was an extraordinary one. It was as if one
+of those pale ethereal female figures in Kaulbach's "Battle of the
+Huns" had stepped out of the frame. No one had ever seen before such
+ideal and melancholy beauty in real life. In an instant all were
+silent, and gazed earnestly at the rare spectacle.
+
+"By Jove! she's a dangerous woman," whispered Moritz to the
+Staatsraethin.
+
+"Indeed she is!" she replied, scarcely able to take her eyes away from
+her. "My poor Johannes!"
+
+"You don't see such a woman every day!" growled old Heim with pride.
+"Didn't I always say she would turn out a beauty?"
+
+"The fact is, she is divine, and I shall love her dearly! Now say what
+you please," whispered Angelika. And, without waiting for a reply from
+either husband or mother, she flew across the room to Ernestine, who
+was standing overwhelmed with confusion, and cried, "Fraeulein
+Ernestine, do you not remember me?"
+
+Ernestine looked at her for a few seconds. "This must be little
+Angelika."
+
+"Rightly guessed," said the young wife, and, standing on tiptoe, she
+pressed her rosy lips to Ernestine's delicate mouth.
+
+Then Moritz approached, and said in his blunt, half-jesting way,
+"And I am the husband of this wife. My name is Kern, and I am besides,
+one of the monsters who had the courage to close the doors of our
+lecture-rooms in the face of a most beautiful woman."
+
+Ernestine opened her eyes wide at this address, but, appreciating his
+humour, smiled gently.
+
+"And indeed," he continued, "I do not repent in the least that I did
+so, now that I see you,--for not a student would ever have learned
+anything with such a comrade beside him."
+
+Ernestine cast down her eyes, and, confused and ashamed, said not a
+word.
+
+Moritz turned from her, and, with a paternal tap upon Johannes's
+shoulder, said to him, "Upon my word, you're not to blame for admiring
+her."
+
+"Men are all alike," said the Staatsraethin in a whisper to Frau
+Professor Meibert. "My son-in-law, who never has a word to say to any
+woman but his wife, is already bewitched by her pretty face."
+
+"Yes, and there is my husband making his way towards her," was the
+reply. "It must be admitted that she is quiet and modest."
+
+"Still waters run deep!" said the Staatsraethin.
+
+"Yes, that's true!" said the other with a nod.
+
+"What do you think, Herr Professor," said Taun's wife to Herbert with
+an admiring glance at Ernestine, "of our having _tableaux vivants_ next
+winter? Would it not be beautiful to have her with Angelika for the two
+Leonoras?"
+
+"Better try Hercules and Omphale. Let the Hartwich be Omphale, and set
+Professor Moellner at the spinning-wheel. That would make a charming
+picture!" remarked Herbert.
+
+"I hear you do not like her," said Frau Taun, "but now that I see her I
+cannot believe all the terrible things that are told of her. And
+Moellner, too, is not the man to seat himself at the spinning-wheel,
+even though she were Omphale,--your characters do not fit."
+
+Herbert shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Now, my dear friend," Moellner's clear voice was heard saying, "allow
+me to make you more intimately acquainted with your friends and foes.
+Here is an old friend of yours, Professor Hilsborn. Do you not remember
+him?"
+
+"We met once at a children's party," Hilsborn explained, "and you, with
+the rest of us, threw stones at a glass ball tossed up by a fountain.
+You came off from the contest victorious, and were the object of envy
+and hostility in consequence."
+
+Ernestine blushed. "Oh, yes, now I know. You were that gentle, amiable
+boy,--the adopted son of Dr. Heim; but--where--where is Dr. Heim?"
+
+"Here he is," said the old gentleman, fixing his penetrating eyes upon
+her. Ernestine held out her hand, but she could not endure his glance,
+and her own sought the ground.
+
+"Oh, Father Heim,--may I still call you so?"
+
+"That's right," cried the old man. "Then you have not forgotten?" And
+he laid his hand kindly upon her head.
+
+"How could I forget you, when you saved my life?"
+
+"Aha," said Heim to her so softly that no one else could hear what he
+was saying, "don't be afraid child,--I shall stand up for you before
+all these people, but to you yourself I must say that my heart bleeds
+for you, and that if I did not hope that all the stupid stuff with
+which your little head is crammed would one day give place to something
+infinitely better, I should almost repent patching it up in days
+gone by. Don't be vexed, my child, you don't like to hear this from
+me,--perhaps you may be better pleased to hear it from some one else.
+And now God bless your coming to this house!"
+
+Ernestine made no reply, but his words produced a deep impression upon
+her. A tear trembled upon her eyelashes as she stood silently before
+him. Moellner then gave her his arm, and they all took their seats at
+table. Heim sat upon her right hand, and Taun and Hilsborn were
+opposite her. Then came Moritz with Angelika, and Herbert with Frau
+Taun, while the Staatsraethin sat upon Heim's right.
+
+"Permit me to present my friend Professor Taun," said Moellner after
+they were seated.
+
+"A friend!" added the latter to Moellner's words.
+
+"He is one of those who voted in your favour," Moellner explained.
+
+"I thank you," said Ernestine, "in the name of my sex."
+
+"I cannot appropriate all your thanks to myself. They are due first to
+my dear friends Heim and Hilsborn, for they fought for you more bravely
+than I, to whom you were personally a stranger."
+
+"Really, Father Heim, did you vote for me?" asked Ernestine in
+surprise.
+
+"Well, yes," grumbled Heim, vexed that Taun had told of it. "The thing
+that you sent in was not bad, and I would have liked to open a wider
+field for your restless spirit, where you might find something better
+to do,"--here he sunk his bass voice to a whisper,--"than abuse God
+Almighty as a dog bays the moon, and make all honest folk your enemies
+with your atheistical stuff."
+
+Ernestine started with a sudden shock. Was this, then, urged against
+her? She was amazed. Were there really people in these enlightened
+circles who could be shocked at her skepticism? Had Leuthold spoken
+falsely when he assured her that true culture was synonymous with
+emancipation from all religious prejudices? And who were the cultivated
+class, if these professors and their wives were not?
+
+"Are you wounded by our friend's rough manner?" asked Taun, sorry for
+Ernestine's confusion. "You must know of old what a noble kernel is
+concealed within that rough shell."
+
+"Who is talking about me?" Moritz cried out to them. "I am sure I heard
+'noble Kern,' and that must be meant for me."
+
+"Let those three alone, you vain fellow!" laughed Johannes, signing to
+him not to disturb their grave discourse.
+
+Ernestine looked sadly at Helm. "Father Helm used to be kinder to me.
+He was never so harsh to me before."
+
+"Of course not," said Helm in a low voice. "Then you were a thing made
+of blotting-paper, that a breath might have destroyed. We were content
+only to keep you alive, and, as is apt to be the case with delicate
+children, we forgot, in our anxiety about your physical health, to take
+due care of your mind."
+
+"Well, well, never mind that now," said Taun. "I am not at all afraid
+that you will long fail of finding the right. Your writings give
+evidence of such uncommon talent that I should not wonder if you became
+the most learned woman of the age."
+
+Ernestine's eyes flashed. She raised her head like a thirsty flower in
+a summer rain. "The most learned woman of the age!" The words touched
+her weak point, and penetrated the inner sanctuary of her ambition.
+Heim's harshness was forgotten. "How can you say this to me, in a
+century that has produced a Caroline Herschel and a Dorothea Rodde?"
+
+Herbert, who from a distance had been hastening to the conversation,
+turned to Moritz and asked him in a low voice, "Who is Dorothea Rodde?
+Of course I have heard of Herschel's sister,--just because she was
+Herchel's sister,--but I know nothing of the other."
+
+"Don't ask me," laughed Moritz. "I have too much to do to busy myself
+about the wonders worked by all the blue-stockings immortalized in the
+pages of trashy annuals."
+
+Ernestine shot an angry glance at him. She had heard what was said, and
+she was indignant.
+
+It was the drop too much when Angelika asked across the table,
+"Johannes, pray tell us--the gentlemen want to know--who Dorothea Rodde
+is."
+
+Johannes shrugged his shoulders. "I do not know."
+
+"What, you! Do you not know?" said Ernestine. "Is it possible! Does no
+one know that woman--the famous daughter of that great man Schlaeger?
+She only died in eighteen hundred and twenty-four, and is she forgotten
+already?"
+
+"She cannot have materially advanced the cause of science," said
+Johannes, "or she would not have been forgotten."
+
+"Such a rarely-endowed individual as this woman must, I should suppose,
+always be an object of scientific interest, even if she did not
+directly advance the cause of science itself. It must surely be
+interesting to physiologists, as well as to psychologists, that a woman
+has lived capable of learning all that Dorothea Rodde learned, even
+although she taught nothing. All cannot create. Many men have been held
+in high esteem for diligence alone. Besides, Dorothea would have
+achieved greatness if she had not committed the folly of marrying, thus
+arresting her scientific development in the bud and retiring entirely
+from public view. She buried herself alive, and the world is always
+ready to strew ashes upon a woman's coffin. Had she been a man, every
+one would have known that, when a boy of seventeen, he could speak all
+the dead and living languages, was thoroughly versed in chemistry,
+medicine, anatomy, and mineralogy, and in his eighteenth year, after a
+brilliant examination, received the degree of doctor of philosophy from
+the University of Goettingen! But it was only a girl who achieved all
+this thus early; and if the less envious time in which she studied
+acknowledged her superiority, the more prudent present ignores it all
+the more utterly."
+
+A painful silence ensued. Every one was busied with his or her own
+thoughts. Every one felt confused. This beautiful, placid Ernestine had
+suddenly showed her claws!
+
+The Staatsraethin silently laid down her knife and fork,--she had lost
+all desire to eat.
+
+Johannes looked sadly at Ernestine, and gently shook his head. Herbert
+alone grew more cheerful as the rest seemed disturbed, and looked down
+the table at Elsa, who sat at the other end, lost in melancholy reverie
+as she drew several flowers and grasses out of the large vase on the
+table, intending, like Ophelia, to deck herself with them; but, alas,
+Hamlet had no eyes for her sweet madness!
+
+"May I request you to present me to the lady?" Herbert asked Johannes.
+
+"Herr Professor Herbert," said the latter, and added with emphasis,
+"your bitterest opponent!"
+
+Ernestine bowed slightly and looked coldly at Herbert.
+
+"Permit me," he began sneeringly, "to beg you to inform me, Fraeulein
+von Hartwich,--I ask solely for instruction in the matter,--what
+possible scientific interest the fact that a woman spoke several
+languages--she could hardly have spoken _all_, as you declared--could
+possess."
+
+"Yes, I too am curious upon that point!" cried Moritz.
+
+Ernestine looked gravely from one to the other. "I am quite ready to
+explain it to you. I should not, indeed, have ventured to do so if you
+had not asked me, for it would have seemed to me insulting to suppose
+that you could need any such explanation."
+
+"That shot told," Moritz remarked comically.
+
+"We are foes, gentlemen, and I am bent upon victory," said Ernestine.
+"I think the facility of acquisition shown by Dorothea Rodde is
+certainly as significant a fact in natural history as any example of
+extraordinary instinct in animals, for which zoologists search so
+untiringly. Or is the natural history of women less interesting than
+that of the ape?"
+
+"We are not used to compare or to speak of women thus," Moellner
+interposed.
+
+"Then, if you really accord us an equality with men in the scale of
+creation, Dorothea's eminent talent must certainly be of scientific
+interest, because it must assist in the investigation of the relative
+weight of the masculine and feminine brain,--a point not yet solved,
+the social importance of which is not recognized, or it would not be
+treated with such frivolous indifference. I, gentlemen, am convinced
+that the great contest for the emancipation of woman can be settled
+only through physiology, since that alone can prove whether the
+material conditions of the thinking mechanism are equal in men and
+women; and, if they are, who would deny a woman the right to assert her
+independence of man, even in the world of the intellect?"
+
+"But we have not yet reached this point," said Johannes. "This equality
+has not yet been proved."
+
+"Nor has the contrary," said Ernestine. "Therefore it seems to me that
+it would be well worth while for physiology to come to the aid of
+history, and test the material brain of famous women."
+
+"And what end would that serve?"
+
+"Can you ask that question seriously? Would not the result of such
+investigations, if it were favourable to women, strike a blow at our
+present social arrangements in the relations of the sexes? And would
+not the rendering such an aid to true social harmony be a triumph for
+physiology, of which it might well be proud?"
+
+"It would be all very well," said Moritz, "if the whole question were
+worth the trouble."
+
+"Of course it is not worth it for you, but it is for us. What do men
+care about the position of woman,--her capacity or her incapacity? If
+your wives fill their position,--that is, if they are your obedient
+servants, have sufficient capacity for cooking, and can bring up your
+children,--all is as it should be, as far as you are concerned, and the
+most important problem of mankind, in the social system, is solved to
+your satisfaction."
+
+A unanimous murmur arose at this accusation, but Ernestine was now
+greatly excited, and she continued, "It was the pain I felt at this
+narrow-minded indifference that led me to devote myself to natural
+science. I will do what I can to induce scientific men to turn their
+attention in this direction. Do not smile: even if I can do nothing for
+this cause myself, I would cheerfully dedicate my existence to arousing
+the interest of others in the subject. If I can prevail upon some less
+scrupulous university to afford me an opportunity for pursuing the
+requisite anatomical and physiological studies, these physical and
+psychical investigations shall be the sole occupation of my life."
+
+"But, Fraeulein von Hartwich," said Johannes seriously, "what would you
+discover that could further your desires? We have proved conclusively
+that the feminine brain absolutely weighs less than the masculine,
+and----"
+
+"Have you proved that superiority depends only upon weight?"
+
+"Not precisely, but it certainly does in most instances."
+
+"In most instances? but if it is not proved to do so in all, the
+question is far from settled. It is true that Byron, Cuvier, and others
+had remarkably weighty brains, but, on the other hand, the brains of
+certain philosophers, as, for example, Hermann and Hausmann, weighed
+less than the ordinary feminine brain. We are then led to suspect that
+superiority depends upon the relation of the brain to the rest of the
+body,--perhaps upon the relation of different portions of the brain to
+each other, or the quantity of the gray matter. The only sure
+acquisition that physiology may be able to boast in this matter is that
+the relative weight of the feminine is not lighter than that of the
+masculine brain." Her eyes glowed with enthusiasm. "Oh, how gladly
+would I die if I could only succeed in casting a ray of light upon this
+chaos!"
+
+"But, Fraeulein von Hartwich," Herbert began with an ex cathedra air,
+"as woman is in all respects weaker and more delicate than man, is it
+not natural that her brain also should be smaller and lighter,
+rendering her incapable of as great intellectual exertion?"
+
+"But, Herr Professor," replied Ernestine with a slight smile, "I have
+just said that superiority depended upon the relative, not the
+absolute, weight. Were it otherwise, the largest and strongest man
+would be the wisest, and you, sir, would have less ability than any one
+present, for you are the smallest man here."
+
+Again there was an embarrassed silence. Many could scarcely suppress
+their laughter as they saw the angry look of the little man. Others
+found the scene painful to witness. Such conduct on the part of a lady
+was unprecedented in the annals of professorial gatherings, and,
+although those who were acquainted with Ernestine found her behaviour
+perfectly natural from her standpoint, strangers to her were
+inexpressibly shocked,--none more so than the Staatsraethin, to whom the
+girl's every word was like acid to an open wound.
+
+It was the old story over again. She was unlike the others, and,
+without meaning it, frightened them all away. Wherever she went,
+the curse of eccentricity attached to her. No one shared her
+interests,--she had nothing in common with any one,--she was, and must
+continue to be, alone! Even Johannes grew thoughtful and silent. She
+timidly sought his eye, but he did not look at her.
+
+Elsa, although she had no public, was still playing Ophelia, and was
+pondering upon the sweetness of the service she could render if it were
+only asked of her. Ah, no one wanted to see how charmingly she could
+obey. And she softly hummed to herself, in English, Ophelia's words,
+
+
+           "Larded all with sweet flowers,
+            Which bewept to the grave did go
+            With true-love showers."
+
+
+Frau Taun looked gravely across at Ernestine. She ceased to anticipate
+_tableaux vivants_,--nothing could be done with such material. And then
+the conversation at table! She really could not expose her young guests
+to listen to anatomical treatises.
+
+Herbert noticed the breach that had been made in Frau Taun's good
+opinion, and hastened to throw a bombshell into it. "She has not the
+slightest sense of refinement."
+
+The ladies in the vicinity nodded assent.
+
+Heaven be thanked! this combination of beauty and learning was wanting
+in what they possessed in fullest measure, and she had already
+succeeded in making herself disagreeable to the gentlemen who had been
+so impressed by her appearance.
+
+One lady plucked the sleeve of her neighbour. "See her sit with her
+elbows upon the table!"
+
+"How coarse!"
+
+"There now, see how quickly you have made enemies of all these people,"
+whispered old Heim. "You are not wrong from your point of view,--but
+where is the use of battering so at the door of a house where you have
+been received as a guest? If you wish to associate with mankind, you
+must not go about treading upon their toes."
+
+"I do not wish to associate with these people," said Ernestine.
+
+"Oh, yes, you do! You must wish it. Do you suppose that you need no
+help, no support,--that you can get along entirely alone in the world?
+How unpractical! how terribly exaggerated!"
+
+"I do not understand you, Father Heim."
+
+"I don't suppose you do----"
+
+Angelika here interrupted the conversation, saying, as she handed
+Ernestine a plate of apricot creme, which was greatly lauded, "You must
+eat some of this, Fraeulein Ernestine. I made it myself, and I am very
+proud of it."
+
+"You have just heard how Fraeulein von Hartwich despises the noble art
+of cookery. Don't pride yourself upon it before her," sneered Moritz.
+
+Angelika compassionated Ernestine's mortification at these words, and,
+while the other ladies were deep in a discussion regarding the
+preparation of the delicious creme, she said kindly, "You are quite
+right in lamenting that we women attach so much importance to such
+things, but they are part of our daily life, and we cannot entirely
+ignore them. Why did God give us organs of taste, if we are not to
+enjoy the flavour of our food? It is so natural to try to make the life
+of those whom we love pleasant, even by the most trivial means, amongst
+which are justly ranked eating and drinking."
+
+"Forgive me for asking the question," said Ernestine, "but could not
+their enjoyment be equally well secured by the hands of a cook while
+you were employing your time with something better?"
+
+"Yes," cried Angelika, amid general amusement, "if we had the money to
+pay eighty gulden for an excellent cook. But, as we have not, one must
+either superintend matters one's self, or put up with bad cooking. And
+you would not have a poor man, coming hungry and tired from his day's
+work, do that. No, I assure you, when I see Moritz enjoying something
+that I have prepared for him myself, it gives me almost as much
+pleasure as it does to feed a child."
+
+Ernestine looked at her blankly. This was entirely beyond her horizon.
+
+Angelika continued: "But indeed it does not make us servants. A service
+rendered for love cannot degrade,--voluntary obedience is not slavery.
+We must be guided by some one in life,--why not by a husband who
+protects and labours for us?" And she held out her hand to Moritz.
+
+"But," said Ernestine, "if we learn to labour for ourselves we need be
+beholden to no one,--dependent upon no one."
+
+"Oh," said Angelika, with a charming smile and a roguish glance at
+Moritz out of her large innocent eyes, "we cannot do without them,
+these stern lords of creation,--at least I could not live without
+Moritz, if I were ever so rich and wise."
+
+Loud applause greeted this frank declaration; it seemed as if a sudden
+breath of fresh air were admitted into a sultry, closed apartment,--all
+breathed more freely. Angelika's genuine sunny nature was a relief to
+every one, after the distorted, gloomy views that Ernestine had
+broached.
+
+"And you expect to bring that fool to reason?" whispered Moritz to
+Johannes.
+
+"Yes," replied the latter curtly.
+
+"Well, I wish you all success. I would not win a wife at such a price."
+
+Supper was ended. The Staatsraethin rose from table, and the company
+adjourned to the adjoining room, where punch was served.
+
+Johannes silently conducted Ernestine thither. His duties as host then
+compelled him to leave her. She stood alone in the middle of the room,
+looking around for some one to whom she might turn. No one came near
+her. The ladies whispered together, casting occasional glances in her
+direction, and the gentlemen stood about in groups, either turning
+their backs upon Ernestine or eyeing her through their glasses. She
+stood alone, as upon the stage before an audience. She did not know
+what to do. It seemed cowardly and undignified to flee for refuge to a
+corner, and yet this cross-fire of keen eyes was as hard to endure as
+it had been years before at the Staatsraethin's. What did her intellect
+or learning avail her now? She was as much shunned, despised, and
+misunderstood among people of refinement and culture as by the
+peasants. What fatality was it that thus attended her? Who would solve
+the riddle for her?
+
+An unexpected end was put to her torment. Elsa glided up to her upon
+Moellner's arm.
+
+"Fraeulein Herbert wishes to be presented to you," he said.
+
+Ernestine gazed in amazement at the strange flower-crowned elderly
+child, and took with some hesitation the damp, withered little hand
+held out to her.
+
+"I begged my--our friend--" she looked round, but Moellner had again
+joined the other guests--"to make us acquainted with each other,
+because I feel myself so strangely drawn towards you. Your observations
+upon the brain impressed me greatly,--for I too am wild about natural
+science, and am myself half scientific. I dote on phrenology. I am a
+disciple of Schewe's, whose striking diagnosis of my characteristics
+converted me to Gall's theory. Heavens! what a delight it would be to
+discuss this subject with you, who have studied the brain so
+thoroughly! I am sure we should understand one another. You must let me
+examine your head--so remarkable a head for a woman. What a treat it
+will be for me! Come,--pray sit down."
+
+Ernestine made an impatient gesture of refusal.
+
+"What! you do not wish it? Oh, don't be afraid that I shall prove an
+_enfant terrible_ and tell what I discover. I never tell tales."
+
+"I am not afraid of that," replied Ernestine bluntly. "If you could
+discover my character from the shape of my skull, there would be no
+need of your silence. I have nothing to conceal. But I take no interest
+in such nonsense."
+
+"Nonsense do you call it?" cried Elsa, clasping her withered hands.
+"Then you do not believe in Gall's doctrine?"
+
+"What do you mean by believe?" said Ernestine. "I do not believe in
+anything that has not been proved, and when anything has been proved I
+do not believe it,--I know it. Gall's theory is like Lavater's
+physiognomy, an hypothesis based upon coincidences, fit only to amuse
+idlers, but not worthy the attention of an earnest labourer in the
+cause of science."
+
+"Oh, you cut me to the heart," sighed Elsa, who saw the scientific
+nimbus with which she had crowned her brows thus falling off like a
+theatrical halo of gold-paper. She was greatly offended. She had meant
+so well,--for Moellner's sake she had conquered herself and attempted
+to make a friend of Ernestine. He should see how her wounded but
+self-renouncing heart would open to her rival. She had been so glad not
+to come quite empty-handed to this learned woman; for, as far as she
+had understood the anatomical conversation at table, it coincided
+wonderfully with Gall's theory, which she had lately mastered that she
+might have the pleasure of subjecting Moellner's head to an examination.
+And now, just as she had hoped to recommend herself to him whom she
+loved by her one little bit of scientific acquirement, even this
+unselfish pleasure was denied her, and the attempt had failed entirely.
+Oh, Ernestine was a hard--a terrible woman!
+
+While Elsa had been talking to Ernestine, the gentlemen had cast
+significant glances towards them, and said among themselves, "There is
+a wonderful combination,--the Hartwich and Fraeulein Elsa! It must be
+worth studying."
+
+And so they gradually drew near the two women. At last, Moritz, who,
+like a child with its doll, always had his wife hanging on his arm,
+could not refrain from joining in the conversation, for he pursued a
+jest like a boy after a butterfly. "Tell me, then, Fraeulein Elsa, what
+did Schewe say to your head?" he asked.
+
+"What?" and Elsa smiled diffidently. What an attraction she possessed
+for the other sex! Here were all the gentlemen gathered around her
+again. "What? oh, modesty forbids me to tell you."
+
+"Then he was very complimental?"
+
+"He was indeed."
+
+"That was the reason, then, you found his diagnosis so striking,"
+laughed Moritz.
+
+Elsa became embarrassed.
+
+"That is just what makes that man so successful," said Moritz. "He
+flatters every one, and therefore every one believes him."
+
+"Oh, you do him great injustice!" Elsa remonstrated. "He is so in
+earnest about his science. He can be quite rude. He would certainly be
+rude to you, Professor Kern."
+
+The gentlemen all laughed. "Fraeulein Elsa is severe."
+
+
+             "Dove-feather'd raven! wolfish-ravening lamb!"
+
+
+quoted the youthful tutor.
+
+"Oh, I admire the man so much," said the offended lady, "he is an adept
+in the sense of touch,--really he not only feels, he thinks and sees,
+with the tips of his fingers. After he had examined my head, and was
+standing aside with closed eyes, as if to recapitulate mentally what he
+had discovered, it seemed to me that he was actually holding my soul in
+his closed hand, like a bird just taken from the nest."
+
+"It is to be hoped he did not keep it."
+
+"Oh, no! he gave it back to me; he presented me with it anew in
+teaching me to understand it."
+
+"Well, if he has initiated you into the mystery of his art, Fraeulein
+Elsa, oblige us with some of it now. There ought to be all sorts of
+fledgelings to take out of these nests, and we really would like to
+have a glimpse of our souls."
+
+"I asked Fraeulein von Hartwich just now to let me examine her head, but
+she would not allow it."
+
+"But we are all ready for it," cried Moritz, bowing his head, as did
+several of the other gentlemen.
+
+"Pray don't," Angelika entreated her husband.
+
+"Dear Angelika," said Elsa, determined to be interesting to-day at all
+risks, "I am not at all afraid of the trial, for I am confident of
+success. But it must be seriously undertaken. The gentlemen must be
+disguised so that I cannot recognize them."
+
+"Yes, yes, that's right! It will be delightful!" cried the gentlemen,
+to whose gaiety the punch perhaps had lent some assistance.
+
+"Fraeulein Elsa must leave the room while we disguise ourselves."
+
+"I will wait for a while in the garden, where it is far more charming
+to see the elves sipping the dew than you, gentlemen, drinking your
+punch. Call me when you are ready, and I will come, and, like a bee
+among the flower-cups, dip into your heads and find out whether they
+contain honey or gall."
+
+With this arch threat she was hurrying away, when Ernestine took her
+hand compassionately and whispered in her ear, "Do not do it, you will
+only be laughed at."
+
+Greatly offended, Elsa withdrew her hand. "By you, perhaps, but only by
+you. My friends here understand me and love me!" The tears rushed to
+her little eyes, and she hastened out, without hearing Herbert call
+after her, "You will disgrace yourself."
+
+She hurried down into the garden, to confide her griefs to the elves
+and fairies. She would endure smilingly, no one should know what she
+had dared to dream,--to hope. But could her faithful heart at once
+resign all hope? Patient waiting had before now been crowned with
+success. She went to the spot where Angelika had left the flowers that
+she had given her for Johannes. The glass was overturned, the water
+spilled and the flowers were scattered about withered. How sorry she
+was! It was a bad omen. She picked up her favourites and pressed them
+to her heart. "Thus will it perhaps be one day with me. I shall fade
+away," she thought, "forgotten and neglected like you, and the only
+proof of affection that can then be mine will be that some tender soul
+may lay upon my coffin a wreath of you, sweet flowers of the field!"
+
+She seated herself upon the grass and sung softly, while her tears
+dropped upon the flowers,
+
+
+           "Ah, tears will not bring back your beauty like rain.
+            Or love that is dead, to bloom over again."
+
+
+"Fraeulein Elsa, are you weeping?"
+
+She started and sprang up, Moellner was approaching her across the lawn.
+
+"Oh, no, these are not tears, only the dews of evening," she lisped,
+drying her eyes.
+
+Moellner looked at her with pity. "Poor creature," he thought, "it is
+not your fault that nature has proved such a step-mother to you, and
+that your brother's distorted views of education have made you
+ridiculous, and even deprived you of the sympathy that you deserve."
+
+He offered her his arm. "Come, my dear Fraeulein Elsa!" he said kindly,
+"I am sent to bring you in. Thanks to Fraeulein von Hartwich, you are
+spared the mystification that was contemplated for you."
+
+"How so?" asked Elsa, who, upon Moellner's arm, felt like a vine nailed
+against the wall.
+
+"Fraeulein Ernestine was requested to exchange dresses with Frau Taun,
+whose hair is also black, and both were to wear masks, in order to
+deceive you. The younger portion of the company so insisted upon it
+that I could not prevent it. But Fraeulein von Hartwich, convinced that
+you were not so secure in your art as to be impregnable to deceit,
+refused so obstinately to do what was asked of her that the assemblage
+fairly broke up in disappointment."
+
+Elsa was silent from shame. She knew that she could not have come off
+victorious from such a trial. She had depended upon easily
+distinguishing individuals by their hair, and it had not occurred to
+her that Frau Taun's hair was of the same colour as Ernestine's. And
+yet, glad as she was to be thus relieved, she was humiliated at having
+afforded her enemy an opportunity for such a display of magnanimity in
+her behalf.
+
+"You will make a trial of your skill some time when we are more alone,
+will you not?" asked Moellner in the tone one uses to comfort a child.
+
+"Yes, if you desire it, and if you would allow me to subject your own
+magnificent head----"
+
+Her voice trembled with emotion as she preferred this bold request.
+
+"Why not?" interposed Moellner, "if you think my hard head would prove a
+profitable subject."
+
+"Your hard head! oh, how can you speak so? I should tremble to touch
+that head, lest Minerva should spring from it to punish me for my
+temerity."
+
+Johannes smiled compassionately. "I cannot persuade you not to
+embarrass me with your exaggerated compliments. You know I am a blunt
+man, and cannot repay you in kind."
+
+"How should you repay me? I only ask you to permit me to reverence you.
+What can the brook require from the mighty tree whose roots drink of
+its waters? Let my admiration flow on at your feet, and let your
+vigorous nature draw thence as much as it needs. There will always be
+enough for you,--the brook is inexhaustible."
+
+Johannes was most disagreeably affected by this outburst. What could he
+reply, without either inspiring the unfortunate creature with false
+hopes or deeply offending her?
+
+Her brother's voice relieved his embarrassment. They reached the house.
+
+"Here they come!" Herbert cried to the others, who seemed to be waiting
+for them and were just taking their departure. They ascended the
+stairs, and Elsa put on her hat and shawl.
+
+"Where have you been so long?" Herbert asked in a tone intentionally
+loud.
+
+"Heavens! we fairly flew through the garden!" cried Elsa.
+
+"Have you wings, then, Fraeulein Elsa?" asked the young tutor.
+
+"Yes," she replied, with an enraptured glance at Johannes. "They have
+lately budded anew."
+
+"Pray, then," urged her indefatigable tormentor, "soar aloft, that we
+may see you,--it would be a charming sight!" And he lighted a cigar at
+the lamp in the hall.
+
+"All human beings are born with wings," said Elsa with pathos,--"only
+we forget how to use them."
+
+"Come, Elsa dear, there is no use in our arguing with these men,"
+Angelika said kindly. "Take leave of my mother, and we will walk along
+together, as we are going in the same direction."
+
+Elsa did as she was told. In the doorway, behind the Staatsraethin,
+stood Ernestine, utterly dejected. Elsa went up to her and whispered,
+"May you rest well, if indeed shy Morpheus dare approach your armed
+spirit."
+
+Herbert dragged Elsa away, whispering fiercely, "No pretty speeches to
+her! I will crush her! The 'little' man will prove great enough to
+terrify her!"
+
+"Good-night, sweet mother. Good-night, poor Ernestine!" said Angelika,
+and then had hardly time to kiss them both before her impatient husband
+fairly picked her up and carried her down-stairs.
+
+"Good-night, Professor Moellner," whispered Elsa. "The brook ripples
+onward to the ocean of oblivion."
+
+"Good-night, good-night," resounded, in all variations of tone, from
+all sides, and Father Heim hummed in his strong bass voice an old
+student song, in which the other gentlemen gaily joined, for, with the
+exception of the disturbance caused by "that crazy Hartwich," the
+evening had been a pleasant one, and Moellner's Havanas were delicious
+on the way home. If only the Hartwich had not spoiled their fun with
+Fraeulein Elsa, it would have been too good. Elsa was by far the better
+of the two. If she was a fool, they could at least laugh at her, which
+was impossible with the Hartwich, she was so deuced clever at repartee.
+Thus talking, laughing, and singing, the throng sought their several
+homes through the silent, starry night.
+
+The Staatsraethin had entered the room with Ernestine, Johannes, having
+locked the street-door after his guests, came and took a chair by
+Ernestine's side. "Come, mother dear, sit down by us, and learn to know
+our guest a little before we separate for the night."
+
+But the Staatsraethin took up her basket of keys. "I am very sorry, but
+I must see to the arrangement of Fraeulein von Hartwich's bedroom. The
+servants are all very busy just now."
+
+"Mother, let Regina attend to all that, and do you stay with us,"
+Johannes entreated, with something of reproach in his tone. "Other
+things can be left until to-morrow."
+
+"The silver at least must be attended to. And Fraeulein von Hartwich is
+in great need of repose."
+
+"I am so sorry to give you so much trouble," said Ernestine, really
+grieved.
+
+"Oh, I assure you it is a pleasure!" With these brief words the
+Staatsraethin left the room.
+
+Ernestine sat there pale and exhausted. Johannes took her hand.
+"Patience, patience, Ernestine. She will soon--you will soon learn to
+know each other."
+
+Ernestine silently shook her head. Her brow was clouded. "There is no
+home for me here!"
+
+"Not yet, but it will become one!"
+
+"No, never!"
+
+Johannes compressed his lips. "Ernestine, you do not dream how you pain
+me!"
+
+"Pain you, my friend? The only one who is kind to me! Oh, no, I will
+not,--I cannot!" And she leaned towards him with strong, almost
+childlike, emotion, and laid her hand upon his.
+
+"When I see you thus," said Johannes, with a look of ardent love,
+"I ask myself whether you can be the same Ernestine who seeks to
+sacrifice the unfathomed treasure of her rich, overflowing heart to a
+phantom,--to a struggle that can never yield a thousandth part of the
+pleasure that she might create for herself and others. Oh God!" and he
+pressed his lips to Ernestine's hand, "every word that you said to-day
+stabbed me like a dagger. How was it possible for you to think and talk
+so, after that hour that we passed together? Oh, lovely white rose that
+you are, you incline yourself towards me, but, when I would pluck and
+wear you, your thorns wound my hand!"
+
+Ernestine laid her other hand upon his bowed head. "Dear--unspeakably
+dear--friend, have patience with me. If you could only put yourself in
+my place! In early childhood, when others are borne in the arms of love
+and petted and caressed, I was abused, scorned, neglected,--because--I
+was--a girl. Every cry of my soul, every thought of my mind, every
+feeling of my young heart, asked, 'Why am I so bitterly punished for
+not being a boy?' And in every wound that I received were planted the
+seeds of revenge,--revenge for myself and for my sex,--and of burning
+ambition to rival those placed so far above me in the scale of
+creation. These feelings matured quickly in the glow of the indignation
+which I felt when I saw my sex oppressed and repulsed whenever it
+strove to rise above its misery. They grew with my growth, strengthened
+with my physical and mental strength, and they filled my whole being,
+just as my veins and nerves run through my body. How can I live if you
+tear them thence?"
+
+Johannes held her hand clasped in his, and listened attentively.
+
+"It is," continued Ernestine, "as if my heart had frozen to ice just at
+the moment when the agonized cry, 'Why am I worth less than a boy?'
+burst from me, and as if that question were congealed within it,--so
+that I can think and struggle only for the answer to that 'why?' Why
+are we subject to man? Why do we depend solely upon his magnanimity,
+and succumb miserably when he withholds it? The times when physical
+force ruled are past. Everything now depends upon whether the progress
+of woman is to be retarded by world-old prejudices, or by positive
+mental inferiority on her part; and I shall never rest until science
+satisfies me upon this point."
+
+"And do you not believe, Ernestine, that there is a third power
+subjecting the more delicate sex to the stronger--a higher power than
+the right of the strongest--more effective than the power of the
+intellect,--the power of love?"
+
+Ernestine looked at him with calm surprise. "I do not believe love can
+accomplish what reason fails to prove."
+
+"Is that really so?" Johannes was silent for a moment, then walked to
+and fro with folded arms, and finally stopped before her. "You speak of
+a sentiment that you have no knowledge of. But of all my hopes that you
+have destroyed to-day in the bud, one there is that you cannot take
+from me. You will learn to know it!"
+
+The Staatsraethin entered. "Fraeulein von Hartwich, your room is ready
+for you. Will you allow me to conduct you thither?"
+
+"Mother," cried Johannes, "do not be so cold and formal to Ernestine.
+You cannot keep at such a distance one so near to me."
+
+"I really cannot see wherein I have failed of my duty towards Fraeulein
+von Hartwich,--we are as yet entire strangers to each other."
+
+"You are right, Frau Staatsraethin," said Ernestine. "I am not so
+presuming as to expect more from you than you would accord to the
+merest stranger. I am very sorry to be obliged to accept even so much
+from you. I will go to my room, that I may not any longer keep you from
+your rest; but be assured I shall trespass upon your hospitality for a
+single night only."
+
+She turned to Johannes, and, with a grateful look, offered him her
+hand.
+
+"Good-night, kind sir."
+
+"God guard your first slumbers beneath this roof!" said Johannes
+fervently, and it seemed as if the wish took the airy shape of her lost
+guardian angel, and hovered before her up the stairs to the cosy little
+room whither the Staatsraethin conducted her, and then, placing itself
+by the side of her snowy couch, fanned her burning brow with cooling
+wings.
+
+"Mother," said Johannes gravely, when the Staatsraethin rejoined him,
+"to-day, for the first time in my life, you have been no mother to me!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+                        INHARMONIOUS CONTRASTS.
+
+
+The morning sun streamed brightly through the white muslin curtains of
+Ernestine's windows, yet she still slept in peaceful and childlike
+slumber. For the first time for many years, she was not cheated of her
+repose by haste to go to her work. The guardian angel, that Johannes
+had invoked to her side, forbade even her uncle's ghost to knock at her
+door, and still kept faithful watch beside her bed. It seemed as if the
+whole house were aware of its sacred presence, for a quiet as of a
+church reigned among its inmates. They were all up, but, at the command
+of their head, every door was softly opened and shut, every footfall
+noiseless. Johannes knew how much need Ernestine had of repose, and he
+would not have her disturbed. He even controlled the throbbing of his
+own heart, that longed to bid her good-morning.
+
+The sleeper drew calmly in with every breath the repose that surrounded
+her,--and what a blessing it was for the poor, wearied child!
+
+The Staatsraethin had superintended the arrangement of the
+breakfast-table, and was seated with her work at the window. But her
+hands were dropped idly in her lap, and her eyes, red with weeping,
+were fixed sadly upon the flame of the spirit-lamp that had been
+burning for an hour beneath the coffee-urn.
+
+"Do you not think I had better have fresh coffee prepared? this has
+been waiting so long," she said to her son as he entered the room.
+
+"Just as you please, mother dear," said Johannes. "You know I
+understand nothing of such things."
+
+The Staatsraethin rang for the servant. "Regina, take this coffee away
+and bring back the urn. I will boil some more."
+
+The maid did as she was directed, with a sullen face. "'Tis a shame to
+waste such good coffee!" she muttered as she went out.
+
+"It is very disagreeable, mother," observed Johannes, "to have Regina
+criticising all our arrangements. I do not like to have servants of
+that sort about me. If you cannot break her of it, pray send her away."
+
+"She does her work well, and is thoroughly honest," replied the
+Staatsraethin.
+
+"That may be, but there certainly are servants to be had who would do
+their duty more respectfully and good-humouredly. I do not like to have
+my comfort destroyed by sullen faces around me. I like to have people
+who render their service cheerfully."
+
+"It is not very easy to find them."
+
+"They must be sought until they are found," said Johannes, cutting
+short the conversation by opening and beginning to read his newspaper.
+
+The Staatsraethin sighed, but said not a word.
+
+Regina re-entered with the urn, and asked crossly, "Is the Fraeulein not
+to be wakened yet?"
+
+"No!" was Johannes's curt reply.
+
+"Then the urn might as well be washed, if the coffee is not to be made
+until noon," she grumbled again, and left the room, closing the door
+with something of a slam.
+
+"Now, mother, this really is too much. I cannot undertake the direction
+of the servant-maids, but I will not tolerate them when they are so
+insolent. Regina must conduct herself differently, or she goes!"
+
+"You have suddenly grown very impatient with the girl," said his mother
+bitterly. "I hope you may always be as implicitly obeyed as you
+desire."
+
+"I understand what you mean, mother, but it does not touch me. I desire
+only what is right,--obedience from the servants whom I hire, love from
+a wife who is my equal."
+
+"Love alone will not answer."
+
+"Yes, true, faithful love will."
+
+"There must be submission and self-sacrifice."
+
+"True love embraces all these,--submission, self-sacrifice, the entire
+self."
+
+"It is not every one who can love truly; so be upon your guard that you
+are not intentionally or unintentionally deceived."
+
+"Reassure yourself, mother, and spare me your misgivings," said
+Johannes with unusual sternness, again turning to his newspaper, while
+he listened to every rustle outside the door of the room.
+
+The Staatsraethin brought from a cupboard a delicate little coffee-mill
+and began to grind some fresh coffee. The clock struck half-past eight.
+
+"It is easy to see that the young lady has not been used to a regular
+household," the Staatsraethin could not forbear observing.
+
+"I only see that she is worn out after the fatigue of yesterday."
+
+"No one who is accustomed to early rising ever sleeps so late in the
+morning."
+
+"It is impossible to rise early when one works all night long."
+
+"It is a bad custom for the head of a household!"
+
+"Mother," said Johannes, starting up, "I should be downright unhappy if
+I did not know how kind-hearted you really are."
+
+"Indeed?" The Staatsraethin shook up the coffee, but her hands trembled
+visibly. "This girl changes everything. Since she came into the house,
+all things are wrong: to-day, I make you unhappy,--yesterday, I was no
+mother to you! And yet, my son, since the painful day when I gave you
+birth, I have never been more a mother to you than now in my anxiety
+for your true happiness!" She could say no more; her emotion choked her
+utterance.
+
+"Mother dearest," cried Johannes, embracing her tenderly, "you must not
+shed a tear because of a hasty word of mine. Come forgive me,--I am
+really so happy to-day. My dear, good mother, scold your boy well, I
+beg."
+
+The Staatsraethin smiled again, and stroked her darling's shining curls.
+
+"God bless you, my dear son. It is because I love you so that I cannot
+give you to any but the noblest and best of women. I tremble lest you,
+who are without an equal in my eyes, should throw yourself away upon a
+wife who is unworthy of you."
+
+"Trust me, mother, I understand and thank you, but, if you want me to
+be happy, love me a little less and Ernestine more! This is all I ask
+of you,--will you not do it?"
+
+"The first I cannot do, but I will try to do the last, because you
+desire it, my son!"
+
+"That's my own dear mother!" cried Johannes, kissing her still
+beautiful hands. "And now you may go and waken our guest, for I must
+see her before I go to the University."
+
+"Here she is!" said the Staatsraethin, going forward to greet Ernestine.
+"Good-morning, my dear. How did you sleep?" And she kissed her brow.
+
+Ernestine looked at her, surprised and grateful. "Oh, I slept as if
+rocked by angels,--I have not felt so rested and refreshed for a long
+time!" Then, holding out a bunch of lovely white roses to Johannes, she
+asked, "Did you have these beautiful roses laid outside my door?"
+
+Johannes blushed slightly, and gazed enraptured at the beautiful
+creature. "Yes, I put them there myself."
+
+"I thank you!" said Ernestine. "You are kinder to me than any one ever
+was before. I have many flowers in my garden, but none, I think, so
+lovely as these. They are the first flowers I ever had given to me. I
+know now how pleasant it is."
+
+"Did your uncle never give you a bouquet upon your birthday?" asked the
+Staatsraethin.
+
+"Oh, no! And I do not think it would have delighted me so from him!"
+said Ernestine, with artless ease.
+
+Johannes's face beamed at these words. "When is your birthday,
+Ernestine?" he asked, while the Staatsraethin led her to the
+breakfast-table.
+
+Ernestine set down the cup that she was just about putting to her lips,
+and looked at him in amazement "I do not know!"
+
+"You do not know!" cried Johannes.
+
+"I will ask my uncle,--he told me once, but I have forgotten."
+
+The Staatsraethin clasped her hands. "Forgotten your own birthday? Is it
+possible? Was it never celebrated?"
+
+"Celebrated?" repeated Ernestine in surprise. "No, why should it have
+been celebrated?"
+
+"What! do you know nothing of this affectionate custom?"
+
+Ernestine shook her head almost mournfully. "I know of no loving
+customs."
+
+The Staatsraethin looked at her with compassion. "Then you hardly know
+how old you are?"
+
+"Not exactly; but my father died when I was twelve years old,--shortly
+before his death he reproached me for being so little and weak for
+twelve years old,--and since then ten summers have passed away."
+
+"Poor child!" said the Staatsraethin. "I begin to understand!"
+
+"I thought you would, mother," said Johannes from the other side of the
+table.
+
+"Your uncle has deprived you of many of the pleasures of life,"
+continued the Staatsraethin.
+
+"Such pleasures, perhaps. But I must not be ungrateful,--he has given
+me others no less fair and great!"
+
+"And what were they?"
+
+"He has taught me to think and to study. There can be no greater or
+purer pleasures than these."
+
+Again the Staatsraethin's brow was overcast.
+
+Johannes saw it, and broke off the conversation. "Ernestine, it is not
+good for you to drink your coffee black. It excites your nerves."
+
+"On the contrary, my uncle bids me always take it so, to stimulate
+me,--without it, I often could not begin my day's work."
+
+"That accords entirely with your uncle's system of education. First he
+utterly prostrates you by wakefulness and study at night, and then
+stimulates you by artificial means. Why, you yourself can understand
+that such a life of alternate prostration and over-excitement must wear
+you out. I really do not know what to think of your uncle in this
+respect."
+
+Ernestine looked down, evidently impressed by the truth of Johannes's
+words.
+
+"But tell me, Johannes," said the Staatsraethin, "why do you address
+Fraeulein Ernestine by her first name, when she does not authorize you
+to do so by returning the familiarity?"
+
+"She asks me to do so."
+
+"Oh, yes, I begged your son to call me Ernestine,--it makes me feel
+like a child again, and as if I could begin my life anew!"
+
+"But you should address him by his first name, and not have the
+intimacy all upon one side."
+
+Ernestine blushed. "I cannot do so now,--by-and-by, perhaps."
+
+"Leave it to time and Ernestine's own feelings, mother dear. I shall
+not ask for it until it comes naturally. Some time when she wishes to
+give me a special pleasure she will do it. And now good-by, Ernestine.
+I must go. I lecture at nine, but as soon as I get through I will
+return."
+
+Ernestine looked up at him with glistening eyes, and breathed, scarcely
+audibly, "Farewell, my friend."
+
+Johannes pressed her hand, and then, turning to his mother, said, "Dear
+mother, I leave Ernestine to you for an hour, and hope with all my
+heart that you will understand each other. But, at all events, remember
+what you promised me."
+
+"Most certainly I will, my son." He went as far as the door, then
+lingered, and, calling his mother to him, whispered imploringly, "Be
+kind to her,--all that you do for her you do for me."
+
+And, with one more look of longing love at Ernestine, he was gone. It
+was very hard to go. It seemed to him that he must stay,--that
+Ernestine would escape him if he did not guard her well. He would have
+turned back again if his duty had not been so imperative. "If I only
+find her here when I return!" he said to himself one moment, and the
+next he blamed himself for his childish weakness. He loved her too
+well. The one hour of lecture seemed to him an eternity. He longed to
+see her again almost before he had crossed the threshold that separated
+him from her.
+
+How beautiful she was to-day after her refreshing sleep,--how maidenly!
+If, when he returned, she looked at him with those glistening eyes, he
+could not control himself,--he would throw himself at her feet and
+implore her to be his. The decisive word must be spoken,--he must have
+certainty. The state of doubt into which he was plunged by the strange
+contrast between Ernestine's cold, stubbornly expressed opinions and
+her tender personal behaviour towards himself was not to be borne any
+longer. Only one hour separated him from the goal for which he longed
+with every pulse of his strong, manly nature. Oh, were it only over!
+
+
+"Do you like beans?" the Staatsraethin asked Ernestine.
+
+"Why do you ask me?"
+
+"Only because you are to have them at dinner to-day."
+
+"Thank you, but I cannot dine with you."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"My uncle might return unexpectedly from his journey, and be angry if
+he did not find me at home."
+
+"Strange! How comes it that you, who contend so earnestly for freedom,
+are under such strict control? Is it not somewhat of a contradiction?"
+
+Ernestine started.
+
+The Staatsraethin continued: "You are battling for the independence of
+woman, you brand as slavery a wife's obedience to her protector, and
+yet a man who, as I understand the case, is far more dependent upon you
+than you are upon him, has such complete dominion over you that you do
+not dare to stay from home a day without his permission."
+
+Ernestine was again startled and surprised. "You are right. But I have
+grown up under his control. It has become a habit with me, so that I am
+hardly conscious of it, and it has never yet been so opposed to my
+wishes as to induce me to shake it off."
+
+"Now, let me ask you, my dear, whether you regard this dull,
+half-unconscious habit of submission as nobler and loftier than the
+loving, voluntary obedience that a wife yields to a husband?"
+
+Ernestine was silent for a moment, and then said with her own generous
+frankness, "No, it is not. But I have brought it upon myself, and
+cannot escape from it as long as my uncle possesses the legal right of
+my guardian."
+
+"But this legal right does not in any way affect your personal freedom
+as long as you do not desire to do anything contrary to law."
+
+"He always told me that the guardian was the master of the ward. And if
+this tyrannical regulation had not applied equally to the male and
+female sex, I should long ago have attacked it in my publications."
+
+"That would not have done much good, I fear," said the Staatsraethin
+dryly.
+
+Ernestine shrugged her shoulders. "None of my writings effect much
+good. But they are not meant to be anything more than a few of the many
+drops of water that must one day wear away the stone that dams the
+course of the pure waters of reason."
+
+"We will not discuss such abstract subjects," said the Staatsraethin
+evasively. "I would rather persuade you to stay with us to-day."
+
+"If I only thought that I should not be a burden to you!"
+
+"You certainly will not be to me, and you will give my son a pleasure
+far greater than the annoyance to which your absence may subject your
+guardian. But you are the best judge of what you ought to do."
+
+Ernestine laid her hand upon the Staatsraethin's. "I will stay!"
+
+"There,--that's right! Johannes would never have forgiven me if I had
+failed to persuade you to stay." She rang the bell. Regina appeared,
+and carried away the coffee-tray.
+
+"You may bring me the beans, I will prepare them," said the
+Staatsraethin. Regina brought in the beans in a dish, with a bowl for
+the stalks.
+
+"I'm sure you will excuse me," said the Staatsraethin to Ernestine, and
+she seated herself by the window, knife in hand, ready to begin her
+task.
+
+Ernestine looked on in astonishment. "Do you do that yourself?"
+
+"Why not? The cook has a great deal to do to-day, and I am glad to
+assist her."
+
+"I would help you if I knew how," said Ernestine.
+
+"Try it,--perhaps it will amuse you. It does not require much skill."
+The old lady, quite delighted at Ernestine's interest in domestic
+affairs, handed her another knife and a bean, saying, "Look! you first
+strip off the stem and those tough fibres,--so. The people in this part
+of the country are apt to pay no attention to the fibres, but if you do
+not strip them off they are very tough. And now cut the bean
+lengthwise. Stop!--not so thick,--a little finer. Now, don't put the
+stems back in the dish, but here in this bowl! See! everything in the
+world can be learned, and, if you should not be compelled to do it, it
+is at least well to know how."
+
+A gentle sigh escaped her as she remembered that her own circumstances
+had once, before she had lost her property by her brother's failure,
+been such as to make these homely offices entirely unnecessary.
+
+Ernestine contemplated with smiling surprise the Staatsraethin's
+enthusiasm in encouraging her to undertake this new role. She asked
+herself seriously if it were possible that this was really an
+intellectual woman. But one glance at the broad, thoughtful brow and
+the clear, expressive eyes of the speaker convinced her of the truth.
+
+Lost in these reflections, Ernestine continued her novel taskwork, but
+the Staatsraethin suddenly discovered, to her horror, that she was
+throwing the stems in with the beans, and the beans into the bowl of
+stems and strings.
+
+"My dear," she cried, "see what you are doing! now I shall have to pick
+over the whole dishful!"
+
+Ernestine threw down the knife and leaned back in her chair. "I never
+was made for such work! Forgive me, but I cannot think it worth while
+to learn it. I shall never be so situated as to need such knowledge."
+
+"As you please," said the Staatsraethin coldly.
+
+"Are you displeased with me? Is it possible that you are displeased
+with me because I cannot cut beans?" She seized the old lady's busy
+hand. "Frau Staatsraethin, make some allowance for me. You must not ask
+one to do what she is not fit for. Would you ask the fish to fly, or
+the bird to swim? Of course not. Do not, then, expect a person who is
+at home only in a different world to take an interest in the every-day
+concerns of this."
+
+
+           "This strife about the beans you make,
+            When really crowns are now at stake,
+
+
+we might say," remarked the Staatsraethin. "And certainly in our case
+these matters are not so widely different. What is most important
+cannot be entirely divided here from what is unimportant. Such little
+household occupations, slight, even insignificant, as they may appear,
+belong to the responsibilities of a woman's position. They are stitches
+in the web of her life. If a single one is dropped, the whole is
+gradually frayed!"
+
+Ernestine shrugged her shoulders. "You are perfectly right from your
+point of view, Frau Staatsraethin, but your point of view is not mine.
+To me a woman's mission is something higher. A noble mind cannot
+condescend to occupy itself with such cares, which are--forgive me the
+expression--always more or less sordid."
+
+The Staatsraethin frowned slightly, but she did not interrupt Ernestine,
+who continued: "It is hard enough that so much of the brute cleaves to
+us that we must eat and drink to keep our physical mechanism in order;
+thus, in the process of development, we never attain any higher degree
+of perfection. We ought to take pride in developing ourselves as fully
+as possible, in contending against every animal appetite instead of
+making a formal study how best to pamper it. We ought to blush for our
+frail, indigent physical nature, instead of making an idol of it and
+regarding her who sacrifices to it most freely as the loftiest
+illustration of feminine virtue."
+
+"That all sounds very fine," said the Staatsraethin, "but it is,
+nevertheless, a deplorable mistake. With the capacity for pleasure the
+Creator has bestowed upon us the right to enjoy. We ought only to see
+to it that our pleasures are true and noble. It is false shame that
+would repudiate what we cannot live without, and it sounds strangely
+contradictory from the lips of a natural philosopher like yourself.
+Before whom would you blush? Before your fellow-beings? Certainly not,
+for they all share your mortal infirmities. And, since you do not
+believe in a God, where does there exist for you any supernatural
+ideal, any bodiless spirit, subject to do change nor desire of change,
+before whom you can be ashamed of being a mortal?"
+
+"In myself,--in my own imagination."
+
+"Yes, yes, this is the usual jargon. Because you deny your God, and
+still feel the need of Him, you exalt yourself into a divinity, and are
+humiliated at the idea of your imprisonment within a mortal frame!"
+
+"Oh, no, I am not so vain and arrogant. There is, if I may thus express
+it, a refinement of mind that is shocked by the coarse demands of
+material nature. And I should be afraid of degrading myself in my own
+eyes if, in satisfying these demands, I used the time and ability that
+might be employed for higher purposes."
+
+"You speak as if by the responsibilities of a woman I meant devotion
+solely to creature comforts. I understand by these something more than
+eating and drinking. Order and cleanliness, for example, are among the
+necessities of our life, especially for fine natures, for they belong
+to the domain of the beautiful, and must be the special concern of the
+female head of a household, whatever may be the number of her servants.
+To be sure, there are women who are so busy with brooms and dusters
+that we might almost think them neat from their love of dirt. But I am
+not speaking of such extreme cases. The superintendence of servants, if
+you have them, the distribution of labour, the purchase of clothing,
+with its hundred various branches, and, finally, the direction and care
+of children, are all necessities of existence, duties to which no
+woman, even the wealthiest, can refuse to attend. Least of all should
+they be left to the husband. I consider it one of our most sacred
+duties to relieve him from all material cares, that he may be free to
+work for the benefit of mankind. Thus we assist him, modestly though it
+be, in the great work, by enabling him to keep himself free and fit for
+his labours."
+
+"I frankly acknowledge that I am incapable of such modesty. I cannot be
+satisfied with an excellence that I must share with every housekeeper.
+I am conscious of the ability to assist directly in the cause of human
+progress. Why should I waste it in labour wholly possible to
+mediocrity?"
+
+"You depreciate this labour because you do not know it. Rightly
+conceived and executed, it may prove of the greatest significance. For
+the more cultivated and intellectual a woman is, the more capable is
+she of appreciating the importance of the task assigned to man, and the
+necessity of lightening it as much as she can by due care of his
+physical and mental welfare. And with this thought ever in her mind,
+the meanest employment, the most menial occupation, becomes a labour of
+love. And even the most careful housewife can find time, if she is so
+disposed, to educate herself still further, and so to form and exercise
+her talents as to make them the delight of her husband's hours of
+leisure. That is what I understand, my dear, to be a wife in the truest
+sense." She suddenly took Ernestine's hand and drew her towards her.
+"And thus,--why should I not speak frankly?--thus I would have the
+woman to whom I am to be a mother."
+
+Ernestine looked at her in amazement. "Will you--are you to be a mother
+to me, then?"
+
+The Staatsraethin hesitated for a moment, and then said, "I should like
+to be. You are an orphan, and I pity you. If you would only be what a
+woman should be,--if you would only conform to our social and Christian
+views, I could give you all a mother's love."
+
+Ernestine withdrew her hand. "I thank you for your kind intentions,
+but, if these are the only conditions upon which you can bestow your
+affection upon me, I fear I shall never deserve it."
+
+The Staatsraethin shook her head in rising displeasure. "You do not
+understand me."
+
+"I understand you far better than I am understood by you."
+
+"You probably think my homely wisdom very easy of comprehension--while
+yours is too deep for my powers of mind." The Staatsraethin laid down
+her knife, and pushed away the dish of beans. "But the time may come
+when you will think of what I have been saying, and will be sorry that
+you have repulsed me."
+
+"Frau Staatsraethin, I have not repulsed you. I am only too honest to
+accept a regard bestowed upon me on conditions that I cannot fulfil. To
+gain your approval I should be obliged to equivocate,--and I have
+always been true. It is robbery to accept an affection springing from a
+false idea of one's character. What would it profit me to throw myself
+on your breast and silently return your tenderness, when I know that
+you would love me not for what I am, but for what I might pretend to
+be? Sooner or later you would discover your error, and despise me for
+deceiving you. No, I am not unworthy of the love of good people just as
+I am, but if I cannot win it by frankness and conscientiousness, I will
+never try to steal it."
+
+"You speak proudly. Such self-assertion does not become a young girl
+towards an old woman, least of all towards the mother of her best
+friend and benefactor."
+
+"Frau Staatsraethin," cried Ernestine, "I shall always be grateful to
+your son for his kindness to me, but surely I ought not to testify my
+gratitude by hypocrisy and slavish servility."
+
+"My dear," said the Staatsraethin, controlling herself, "you agitate
+yourself causelessly. I am a simple, practical woman, who does not
+speak your language, and cannot follow you in your flights. I have no
+desire to drag you down to us. I simply wish to show you the world in
+its actual shape, that you may know what awaits you when you come to
+make your home in it; and I would gladly receive you in my motherly
+arms, lest you should receive too severe a shock from your first
+contact with reality."
+
+"Oh, Frau Staatsraethin, if the world is what you describe it to me, I
+would rather remain above it, in a colder but purer sphere."
+
+"I should have thought the sphere in which you were not safe from the
+assaults of angry peasants hardly a desirable one. I, at least, should
+prefer the modest discharge of domestic duties in the circle of home.
+But tastes differ."
+
+Ernestine shrank from these words. "Truth is born in heaven, but stoned
+upon the earth. Those who wish to bring it into the world must have the
+courage of martyrs. These are such old commonplaces that one can hardly
+give utterance to them without their seeming trite. Those who recognize
+truth must speak it, and the happiness of possessing it outweighs with
+me the misery that I may incur in speaking it."
+
+"Forgive me, but these are phrases that utterly fail to cast any halo
+around such a disgraceful occurrence as that of yesterday."
+
+"Frau Staatsraethin!" cried Ernestine, flushing up.
+
+"Be calm, my dear child, I am speaking like a mother to you. What can
+you gain by casting discredit by your conduct, beforehand, upon the
+truths that you wish to assert? Who will place any confidence in the
+understanding and learning of a woman who does not understand how to
+guard herself from ridicule? Pray listen to me calmly, for I speak as
+he would who would give his life for you every hour of the day. I would
+empty my heart to you, that no shadow may exist between us. The world
+is thus pitiless towards everything in the conduct of a woman that
+provokes remark, because our ideas of propriety have assigned her a
+modest retirement in the home circle, and it sees, in the bold attempt
+to emancipate herself from such universally received ideas, a want of
+womanly modesty and sense of honour, which, it thinks, cannot be too
+severely punished. Publicity is a thorny path. At every step aside from
+her vocation, although never so carefully taken, a woman meets with
+briers and nettles that wound her unprotected feet but are carelessly
+trodden down by a man. And even although she succeeds in weaving for
+herself a crown in this unlovely domain, it is, as one of our poets
+justly says, 'a crown of thorns.'"
+
+Ernestine was looking fixedly upon the ground. The Staatsraethin could
+not guess her thoughts. Suddenly she raised her head proudly. "And if
+it be a crown of thorns, I will press it upon my brow. It is dearer to
+me than the fleeting roses of commonplace happiness, or the pinched
+head-gear of a German housewife!"
+
+The Staatsraethin looked up to heaven, as though praying for patience.
+Then she replied with an evident effort at self-control, "I grant you
+that the lot of woman might be, and should be, better than it is. But
+we cannot improve it by struggling against it, but by enduring it with
+the dignity which will win us esteem, while our struggles can only
+expose us to the ridicule that always attends unsuccessful effort."
+
+"Frau Staatsraethin, I hope to turn ridicule into fear."
+
+"And if you should succeed, what will it avail you? Which is the
+happier, to have people shun you in fear, or to be surrounded by a
+loving circle for whom you have suffered?"
+
+"I do not live for myself,--I live for the cause of millions of women
+for whom it is my mission to struggle and contend. Even if I could be
+ever so happy, I should despise myself were I able in my own good
+fortune to forget the misery of others. But I confess frankly that I
+could not be happy with such a lot as you prescribe for woman. Whoever
+has once floated upon the ocean of thought that embraces the world,
+would die of homesickness if confined within the narrow limits of the
+domestic circle."
+
+The Staatsraethin dropped her hands in her lap,--her patience was
+exhausted. "It is of no use,--you cannot comprehend the words of
+reason!"
+
+"Do you call that reason? I assure you, my ideas of reason are very
+different."
+
+"Of course, of course. You are thinking of the definitions of Kant and
+Hegel. You are talking of what is called 'pure reason,' that repudiates
+everything hitherto dear and sacred in men's eyes, and would have
+created a far better world if God Almighty had not so bungled the work
+beforehand. But scatter abroad your doctrines far and wide,--they
+cannot do much harm, for they only serve to show upon how flimsy an
+argument the enemies of God base their denial of Him. But such a person
+can never be cordially received into a family circle. She can never
+inspire confidence, and that grieves me for my Johannes's sake!"
+
+Ernestine was silent for awhile, and then looked sadly at the
+Staatsraethin. "I have not asked you to receive me into your family,
+Frau Staatsraethin. I know that my opinions make me an object of dislike
+wherever I go. Any one who sees through the defects and abuses of
+society will never be a welcome guest, but will be shunned as an
+embodied reproach. Strong-minded women, as they are called, think me
+narrow-minded,--the narrow-minded call me strong-minded. I belong to no
+party, I am opposed to all. It is a terrible fate, and nothing can help
+me to endure it, save a good conscience."
+
+"Or excessive self-conceit," the Staatsraethin interposed half aloud.
+
+Ernestine blushed deeply. Scarcely restraining her anger, she replied,
+"Frau Staatsraethin, people, accustomed all their lives long to the
+modesty of stupidity that characterizes the women of your circle, will
+find it very easy to stigmatize as self-conceit the courage of a woman
+daring to have an opinion of her own."
+
+"It is not necessarily stupidity that prevents one from trumpeting
+forth one's opinions as indisputable truth."
+
+"Frau Staatsraethin," said Ernestine, trembling from head to foot, "if
+you possessed for me one drop of the motherly kindness of which you
+spoke a little while ago, you would judge me less harshly. A mother
+makes allowance for her child. How could you wish to be my mother, when
+you are not disposed to make any allowance for me?"
+
+"I really cannot tell how I fell into such an error,--and yet I was
+sincere, perfectly sincere. God knows I meant kindly by you. If you
+knew the part that you are playing in the eyes of the world, you would
+be more humble and grateful for the sacrifice,--yes, listen to the
+truth, you who pride yourself upon your frankness,--for the sacrifice,
+I say, that a mother makes when she opens her house and heart to such a
+person for her son's sake."
+
+Ernestine sat pale and mute, her hands folded in her lap; she could not
+stir. The Staatsraethin continued, greatly irritated: "But I did it; I
+conquered myself, and tried to forget your skepticism, your
+unwomanliness, your reputation. I hoped--hoped for my son's sake--that
+you would change, and I would gladly have been a help to you. But you
+repulse my first approach in a manner that makes me tremble at the
+thought that my Johannes has given his loving heart to such a hardened
+nature,--that he should have by his fireside a woman who despises a
+wife's duties, and who will be the ruin of himself and his home."
+
+Ernestine sprang up. She gasped for breath, and her words broke forth
+from her with painful effort. "Frau Staatsraethin, I can assure you
+there has never been a word or hint at any nearer relation between your
+son and myself. I never would have crossed your threshold had I known
+how I was slandered. I promise you, you shall have no cause for alarm.
+I shall never disgrace you by forcing you to receive me as your son's
+wife. If he should ever offer me his hand, I should refuse it. As I do
+not pretend to believe in a God, I cannot offer to appeal to him, but I
+swear to you by my honour, which is dearer to me than life----"
+
+"Stop, stop!" the Staatsraethin interrupted her in mortal terror. "Oh,
+my Johannes, what am I doing! Ernestine, do not make matters worse than
+they are. Do not drive them to extremities. I want you to reject, not
+my son, but your own faults and errors. Promise me to give up these,
+and you shall be the beloved daughter of my heart!"
+
+"I cannot promise you that. I do not wish to do so. Do you think I
+would beg and fawn for the doubtful happiness of reigning at a fireside
+where every occasion would be improved to remind me of the sacrifice
+that was made in enduring me?--where the only commendation that I could
+earn would be for the skilful management of sauce-pans and dish-cloths,
+and where a badly-cooked dinner would brand me as a useless member of
+society? No, you know less of me than I thought, if you imagine that
+the chasm that you have opened between us can ever be bridged over.
+Spare me the humiliation of further explanations. I thank you for your
+hospitality. I leave you, as I did years ago, when I stood trembling
+and wet through before you, and you had nothing for me but cold words
+of reproof, that made me feel myself a little culprit, although I was
+as unconscious of wrong as I am to-day. Then I would sooner have died
+than have returned to you, although your son, blessings upon him! would
+have treated me like a sister. Ten years afterwards he has brought me
+again to you and overcome my old childish timidity; but the first
+moment that I stepped across your threshold and encountered your cold
+greeting, I knew that there was no home for me here!" She covered her
+face with her hands, and leaned exhausted against the door through
+which she was about to leave the room.
+
+The Staatsraethin, like all impulsive but really fine-tempered people,
+was easily appeased and touched. She hastened to her and threw her arms
+around her. "My dear child! Can you not forgive the hasty words of an
+anxious mother? Indeed I was unjust. You are more sinned against than
+sinning. I thought only of my son, and--"
+
+"There was no need to stab me to the heart for his sake. I never
+dreamed of becoming the wife of your son,--he is far too hostile to my
+views, much as I esteem him. I wished for nothing but the happiness of
+calling one human being in the world friend. But I can go without that
+too. I will prove it to you. Farewell!"
+
+And she hurried out, followed by the Staatsraethin, who could not
+prevent her from gathering together the few things she had brought with
+her and leaving the house.
+
+The mother looked after her with anxious forebodings. "What will
+Johannes say? How he will blame his mother!" she lamented,--but she
+soon collected herself, and said calmly and firmly, "In God's name,
+then, I will bear it. It is better thus!"
+
+
+
+
+
+                               PART III.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I.
+
+                       THE STRENGTH OF WEAKNESS.
+
+
+On the morning of the day that drove Ernestine from her peaceful but
+brief refuge, Herr Leonhardt slept unusually late. His wife, who did
+not wish to waken him, looked anxiously at the old cuckoo clock, that
+pointed to half past six. It was very natural that the old man should
+be tired, after the trying occurrences of the previous day. Frau
+Brigitta had never seen him so agitated. He had shed bitter tears upon
+his return home,--tears from those poor eyes! Every drop had fallen
+scalding hot upon his faithful wife's heart. Those amongst whom he had
+lived for half a century as a steadfast, self-sacrificing friend and
+teacher, had taken up stones to stone him,--had forgotten all that they
+owed him,--it broke the heart of the weary old man.
+
+Frau Leonhardt sat upon the bench by the stove. She folded her kind,
+fat hands, and wondered how any one could grieve the man who was to her
+the very ideal of honour and worth! The door in the clock opened, and
+out hopped the cuckoo, flapped his wings, called "cuckoo" seven times,
+and then disappeared, slamming the door behind him as if he were
+greatly irritated at finding nothing astir as yet. Frau Leonhardt
+arose,--the old man must be called now, for the children came to school
+at eight.
+
+She ascended the ladder-like staircase to their upper story, which was
+under the roof of the cottage, and softly entered the bedroom. Herr
+Leonhardt lay with his face turned to the wall.
+
+"Are you asleep?" asked Frau Leonhardt.
+
+"What is it? what is the matter?" cried her husband alarmed. "Is it
+really on fire?"
+
+"Why, you are dreaming,--it is time to get up,--the children will be
+here!"
+
+"But, my dear wife, it is still night. What are you doing up so early?"
+
+"Night?" and Frau Leonhardt smiled. "Why, how sleepy you are!--it is
+broad daylight--seven o'clock."
+
+"Broad daylight!" cried the old man in a strange tone of voice. He sat
+up in bed, rubbed his eyes, then rubbed them again and stared at the
+bright sunbeams, but not an eyelash quivered. He was very pale.
+
+"How are you, dear husband?" asked his wife anxiously.
+
+"Well, well, mother dear, only a little tired still," he said in an
+uncertain voice. "Go down now and get the coffee ready. I will come
+soon!"
+
+"Can I not help you? you are trembling so; you must have fever!" cried
+Frau Brigitta.
+
+"Oh, no, I am quite well,--go down now, I pray you."
+
+She obeyed, hard as it was for her, and below-stairs she could not help
+weeping, she knew not why. She prepared the coffee, and listened with a
+beating heart for Bernhard's step upon the stairs. Then, after twenty
+minutes, that seemed to her an eternity, she heard him coming with a
+slow, uncertain tread. Some great misfortune seemed upon its way to
+her. How strange!--he felt for the door before opening it. He must be
+very sick. She ran towards him, but his look reassured her. He was pale
+indeed, but his expression was as calm and gentle as ever. He laid his
+hand upon her arm. "Well, dear wife, now let us breakfast. I have kept
+you waiting for me!"
+
+"Oh, yes, I waited," said Frau Brigitta, leading him to the table.
+"Have you any appetite? Do you feel any better?"
+
+"Oh, yes, but pour out the coffee for me, my dear. I am still somewhat
+fatigued."
+
+"That I will." And the old woman poured the coffee into his cup. "Here
+is the milk." And she placed the pitcher near his hand.
+
+Herr Leonhardt took it carefully, and touched the edge of his cup with
+his hand, that he might not pour in too much; but, in spite of his
+care, he spilt the hot milk upon his fingers. He said nothing, but
+secretly wiped it off and slowly put his cup to his lips. His wife laid
+a piece of bread upon his plate, and this also he ate slowly.
+
+"Is it not good?" asked Brigitta.
+
+"Certainly it is," he replied, "but pray eat your own breakfast." And
+he listened to be sure that she did so. Then, when he had drank his
+coffee, he felt for the table before he put down his cup.
+
+His wife looked at him with anxiety. "Bernhard, I think your eyes are
+worse again to-day."
+
+"I think they are," he replied quietly. "Have you breakfasted?"
+
+"Yes, I have finished."
+
+"Well, come then and sit here beside me. I want to tell you something.
+Give me your hand, my dear wife, and listen quietly to what I have to
+say."
+
+Frau Brigitta looked at him wonderingly, and her heart beat so
+quickly--she knew not why--that it almost took away her breath.
+
+Herr Leonhardt stroked her hand, and spoke with the tenderness with
+which one speaks to a child. "During all these eighteen years that I
+have been such a care to you, and in all the thirty years of our
+marriage, you have never caused me an hour of suffering, and I have
+done what I could to aid and support you. You have borne bravely all
+our common misfortunes, followed our first children to the grave with
+me, and comforted me when I was overcome by despair. Do not let your
+courage fail you now, for I must give you pain. I cannot help it. Try,
+as you always have done, to spare me the pang of seeing you sink under
+it. Promise me this!"
+
+"For Heaven's sake, my husband, speak! I will promise you everything!"
+
+"What we have so long feared, dear wife, has at last come upon us!" He
+drew her nearer to him. "This morning when I awoke there was no
+daylight for me!"
+
+A dull, half-suppressed moan was heard at these words; then silence
+ensued. The old woman's hands slipped from her husband's,--he put his
+own out towards her, but she was not at his side. She had sunk down
+from her seat and buried her face in her arms, that he might not hear
+her sob.
+
+"Mother, where are you?" he asked after a little while.
+
+She embraced his knees and hid her streaming eyes in his lap. "Oh, my
+poor, kind husband,--blind! Oh God! Those dear, dear eyes!" And then
+her grief would not be controlled, and she lay at his feet, sobbing
+loudly.
+
+Herr Leonhardt gently raised her until her head rested upon his
+shoulder, and then waited until the first outbreak should be past. He
+too had had moments this morning that none but his God might witness.
+He could not ask his wife to do what had been impossible for himself.
+At last he said softly and tenderly, "Brigitta, you have been
+everything to me that a wife can be to her husband. I have always
+thought there was nothing left for you to do, and yet in your old age
+our loving Father has filled up the measure of your self-sacrifice and
+laid upon you a heavier burden than any you have yet had to bear. He
+has taken from me the power to support you, and calls upon you, a
+weary, aged pilgrim, to be your husband's staff upon his path to the
+grave. It seems very hard,--but, dear Brigitta, when God calls, what
+should we answer?"
+
+"Lord, here am I!" said his wife, and the resignation and cheerful
+submission in her voice were truly wonderful. She embraced her aged
+husband, and her tears flowed more gently as she said, "I will guide
+and support you, and never be weary."
+
+"Thanks, dear heart. And now be calm, for my sake! Think how much worse
+it would have been if you had found me this morning dead in my bed!"
+
+"Oh, a thousand times worse!"
+
+"Then do not let us rebel because God has taken from me one of the five
+senses, with which He endows us that we may enjoy the glory of His
+universe, he has still left me four. If I can no longer see your dear
+face, I can still hear your gentle voice of comfort and feel you by my
+side; and although I cannot see the sun, I can still warm myself in its
+beams,--I can inhale the fragrance of the flowers that it calls into
+life,--enjoy the fruits that it ripens. I can hear the songs of the
+birds, and with them praise my Creator from the depths of my soul. How
+much he has left me! We will not be like thankless beggars, showing our
+gratitude for benefits by complaining that they are not great enough. I
+have seen the sunlight for sixty-eight years. Shall I complain because,
+just before my entrance into eternal light, God darkens my eyes, as we
+do a child's when we lead it up to a brilliant Christmas-tree? I will
+bear the bandage patiently, and try to prepare my soul for the glories
+awaiting it. Let us but remember all this, dear wife, and we shall not
+be sad any longer."
+
+The old man ceased. His darkened eyes were radiant with light from
+within, the reflection of those heavenly beams of which in spirit he
+had a foresight.
+
+His wife had listened to him with folded hands, and her simple nature
+was elevated and refined by thus witnessing his lofty resignation. The
+peaceful silence that reigned in the room was too sacred to be broken
+by any sounds of earthly sorrow. Her eyes were tearless as she gazed
+upon the noble face of the man who was all in all to her, and she
+waited humbly for further words from him. At last the only words
+escaped her lips that she could utter in her present frame of mind.
+"And our son?" she asked softly.
+
+An expression of pain flitted across his features. "That is the hardest
+to bear,--our poor son! God give him strength, as He once gave me
+strength when I was forced to leave the University and become a
+schoolmaster. I told him a short time ago what the physicians said. I
+did not tell you, for I wanted to spare you as long as I could. He sent
+me a reply by return of mail, which you shall hear, now that I have
+nothing to conceal from you. You shall read it, and be glad that you
+have such a son."
+
+"My good boy!"
+
+"He will give up his studies and take my place here, so that we need
+never come to want."
+
+"But will that be allowed?"
+
+"Yes,--I have already obtained permission from the proper authorities."
+
+"Oh, how thoughtful you have been!" cried his wife with emotion. "With
+all that burden to bear so silently, and now you console me instead of
+my comforting you! How did such a poor creature as I ever come to have
+such a husband?"
+
+She pressed a kiss upon his withered hand. The footsteps of the
+school-children were heard in the hall. Herr Leonhardt arose and went
+to the door.
+
+"Wait I let me lead you," said Brigitta.
+
+"Oh, you need not," he said smiling. "I have been preparing myself for
+blindness for a long time, and I have practised walking about with
+closed eyes, that I might not be so helpless when the time came. And so
+now I can find my way very well." He had reached the door, and went
+out. "Good-morning, children!" he cried, and felt his way along the
+wall to the school-room, followed by his anxious wife. He stumbled a
+little upon the threshold. "Never mind," he said to Brigitta, who would
+have supported him. "I need more practice, but it will be better soon."
+He found his desk, seated himself there, and waited until the children
+had all taken their places.
+
+"Are you all here?"
+
+"Yes," was the reply.
+
+"Well, then, sit down,--we cannot have any school to-day. My dear
+children, I must take leave of you. I cannot teach you any more. God
+has taken from me my eyesight. I cannot see you nor your lessons, and
+therefore I can no longer be your schoolmaster. Your parents will
+consider my blindness a punishment from God for my conduct, but I tell
+you, if the trials God sends us are rightly borne they are not
+punishments, but benefits. Remember this all your lives long. There
+will come dark hours in every one of your lives, if you live to grow
+up, when you will understand what your old master meant. And now come
+and give me your hands, one after the other. So,--I thank you for your
+childlike tenderness and affection, and I forgive from the bottom of my
+heart those few who have ever given me any trouble. My son will soon be
+here in my place; promise me to obey him, and to make his duty easier
+for him by diligence and obedience. Farewell, my dear children. God
+bless and prosper you!"
+
+He held out his hands, and the children, sobbing and crying, thronged
+around him to clasp and kiss them.
+
+"Who is this?" the old man asked of each one, and then, as the names
+were told him, he shook the little hands.
+
+"Do not cry, dear children, we are not bidding farewell for life. You
+will often pass by the school-house on Sunday and shake hands with your
+old master as he sits on his bench before the door. And then I can
+guess by the voice who it is, and can feel how much you have grown, and
+you can tell me what you have been learning during the week. And those
+who have studied the best shall have some nuts, or one of my loveliest
+flowers, or some other little gift. Won't that be delightful?"
+
+The children were consoled by this prospect, and hastened home to tell
+the important news to their parents.
+
+The old man stood alone with his wife in the deserted school-room.
+"Come, dear wife, we will send a message to Walter." He laid his hands
+once more upon his desk, and tears fell from his eyes. "It is strange,"
+he said, "how much it costs us to leave a spot where we have laboured
+so long, even although our work has been hard and ill rewarded. Our
+home is wherever we have been used to the consciousness of duties
+fulfilled, and when we must leave it, it is as if we were going among
+strangers!"
+
+He put his arm in Brigitta's, and, with heard bent, crossed the
+threshold which separated him from the humble scene of the daily labour
+of his life. For the first time, he looked, to his wife's anxious eyes,
+like a broken-down old man.
+
+"I must leave you alone for an hour," she said, when she had seated him
+in the dwelling-room on the bench by the stove. "I must prepare the
+dinner."
+
+"Do so, mother; man must eat, whether he be merry or sorrowful, eh? And
+we are not really sorrowful, are we?" And he forced a smile and patted
+her shoulder.
+
+"No, dear Bernhard, we are not!" said his wife, struggling to repress a
+fresh burst of tears.
+
+"Send a messenger to town to Walter as soon as possible," said Herr
+Leonhardt.
+
+"Indeed I will. I cannot rest until my boy is with us. And I will send
+for the doctor, too!"
+
+"Do not send for the doctor; he can do nothing more for me."
+
+"But it will be a comfort to me to see him,--do let me send," said
+Brigitta. And she left the room.
+
+The old man sat there, calm and still. "And now I must begin my new
+daily task,--the laborious task of idleness!" he thought, as he folded
+his hands and gazed into the night that had closed around him for this
+life.
+
+He sat thus for some time, when the cuckoo began to announce the hour
+of nine, but the last "cuckoo" stuck in the bird's throat, and he stood
+still at his open door. The clock had run down. For the first time in
+many years, Herr Leonhardt had neglected to wind it up. He arose,
+groped his way towards it, felt for the weights, and carefully drew
+them up. The cuckoo took breath again, finished his song, and slammed
+to his door. "I will not forget you again, little comrade," said he,
+"you, who have chirped on through such merry and sorry times. How often
+now shall I long for you to tell me when the long, weary hours end!"
+
+Thus said the old man to himself, and again slipped back to his place.
+"There is something done," he said as he sat down. Then minute after
+minute passed by, his head sank upon his breast, the darkness made him
+sleepy, and for awhile even his thoughts faded and were at rest.
+
+His wife looked in upon him several times, but withdrew softly, that
+his sleep might not be disturbed.
+
+It was almost twelve o'clock.
+
+Then something rustled into the room; the old man felt the air stirred
+by an approaching form, and he raised his head. The figure threw itself
+at his feet. He put out his hand and touched waves of silky hair.
+
+"Father Leonhardt!"
+
+"Oh, this is Fraeulein Ernestine."
+
+Ernestine looked at him, and observed with dismay that the pupils of
+his eyes did not contract with the light.
+
+"Herr Leonhardt, what is the matter with your eyes?"
+
+He smiled. "Their work is done."
+
+"Good heavens! already? I thought they would last months at least."
+
+"What matters a few months more or less?" said the old man quietly.
+
+Ernestine looked amazed. Involuntarily she clasped her hands. "Is this
+possible? I tremble from head to foot at the mere sight of such a
+calamity, and you--you upon whom it has fallen--are so perfectly calm
+and composed. Tell me, oh, tell me, what gives you such superhuman
+strength?"
+
+The old man turned to her his darkened eyes. "My faith, Fraeulein
+Ernestine."
+
+Ernestine's gaze fell. "It is well for you."
+
+"Yes, it is well for me," repeated Herr Leonhardt.
+
+A long pause ensued. At last the old man asked kindly, "How are you
+after that terrible yesterday?"
+
+"Oh, Father Leonhardt, do not ask me how I am! Until this moment I
+thought myself very miserable, but your calamity teaches me to despise
+my own pain. In comparison with that, what is all the imaginary
+unhappiness that comes from being misunderstood? What matters it if
+people despise me for differing from them? What can their esteem give
+me or their contempt deprive me of? They cannot bestow upon me or take
+from me one ray of sunlight, one glimmer of the stars. The golden day
+shines upon my path, and I am young and able to labour. I see the
+beauty of the world, the universe is painted upon my organs of sight,
+my soul is bathed in light, and how can I give room to mortified pride
+or offended vanity, when I see a great enlightened soul peacefully
+resigned to endless night? No, Father Leonhardt, holy martyr that you
+are, I discard all my petty personal trials, and am grieved only for
+you." She bowed her head upon his hands, and sobbed passionately.
+
+"My daughter," said the old man, much moved, "you are not telling me
+the truth. The pain that you have suffered must be great indeed, for
+only a heart that knows what suffering is can feel so for others' woes.
+Your heart must have been filled before to overflowing with these tears
+that you are now shedding for me."
+
+"Oh, Father Leonhardt, blind though you are, you see clearly. I came to
+seek advice and comfort from your paternal heart, and you have
+comforted me even before I could tell you of my grief. Yes, there was a
+moment when I forgot myself, but it is past. Your noble example has
+made me strong again. Let it go. I can think and talk now only of
+yourself. I pray you take me for your daughter. You have treated me
+with a father's tenderness,--let me repay you as a child should.
+Yesterday you perilled that venerable head to save me from the angry
+mob,--now let me shield you from the menacing phantoms of night and
+loneliness. Come, live in my house with your wife. I will be with you
+as much as I can. I will talk to you and read to you. I am so lonely,
+and,--I cannot tell why,--I begin to thirst so for love."
+
+Herr Leonhardt clasped his hands. "Oh, what comfort and delight Heaven
+still sends me! Yes, although my eyes are blind, I can see the hidden
+beauty of the heart that you reveal to me. God bless you, my dear
+daughter, and grant you the light of His countenance, that you may one
+day recognize Him as your best friend and benefactor!" He paused, and
+then added almost timidly, "Forgive me,--I am falling into a tone
+that you do not accord with. Remember that in my youth I studied
+theology,--a little of the pulpit still sticks to me. Do not think that
+I arrogate the right or ability to instruct you. I, old and broken down
+as I am, am not the one to train that proud spirit. I will accept the
+crumbs of love that fall for me from your large heart, and gratefully
+pray for your happiness."
+
+"Father Leonhardt, do not undervalue yourself. You must know how far
+above me you are. When I saw you in your simple greatness confront
+those rude men yesterday, I was filled, for the first time since my
+childhood, with a sentiment of adoration. You understand me, you make
+allowance for me, while every one else misunderstands and condemns me.
+You stood by me in the hour of danger, and yet you never boast of your
+kindness. Oh, you are noble and true! Come to me,--let me find peace
+upon your paternal heart, let me give you a home and provide for your
+son's future."
+
+"Thanks, thanks for all your offers, my dear child, but I cannot take
+advantage of your generosity, and, thank God, I do not stand in need of
+it. My son has already determined to give up the study of medicine and
+take my place here as schoolmaster. Thus, our future is provided for,
+we shall not have to leave the dear old school-house, and I can die
+where my whole life has been passed."
+
+"Does that thought comfort you?" asked Ernestine, shaking her head.
+
+"Oh, yes, it is all that I desire. Those who, like yourself, my child,
+pass through life with all sails set, have no idea of the restraint
+which those in our class must gradually learn to put upon themselves in
+order not to despair. Yet in this very restraint, in this perpetual
+narrow round of duties that life assigns us, there is happiness, a
+content that routine always brings. You may say that routine blunts the
+faculties,--but, for the most part, it only seems to do so. A nature
+strong from within will thrust its roots deep into the soil of its
+abiding-place with the same force that enables it to grasp the
+universe, and if you should attempt to tear it thence in its old age,
+you would almost tear its life away also. I love the little spot of
+ground and the little house that have been the world to me. I believe I
+should die if I had to leave them."
+
+Ernestine listened thoughtfully. "Well, then, if I may not offer you a
+support, I can at least offer your son the means of pursuing his
+studies. My library, my apparatus, are at his disposal. I hope he will
+not refuse to make use of them in his leisure hours."
+
+"That indeed is a favor that I accept most gladly, although I can never
+hope to repay it! I thank you in my son's name. You will know the
+happiness of having restored to a human being what he most prizes,--his
+hopes for the future."
+
+"You amaze me more and more," cried Ernestine with warmth, "as you
+afford me an insight into the depth and cultivation of your mind. What
+self mastery it must have cost you to live here among these savages!"
+
+The old man smiled. "Living among them, one gradually grows like them
+in some things, and is no longer shocked. At first, to be sure, I
+thought myself too good for them. But my faith soon taught me that no
+one is too good for the post God has assigned him. When I was a student
+I delighted in the theatres, and visited them frequently. Once, as I
+was leaving the manager's room, I heard him lamenting the obstinacy of
+one of his corps. 'He utterly refuses to take a subordinate part. Good
+heavens! they cannot all play principal parts!' The man never dreamed
+of the serious lesson he had taught me. 'All cannot play principal
+parts,' I said to myself whenever the demon of arrogance assailed me,
+and I gave myself, heart and soul, to the subordinate role that had
+fallen to me on the stage of life. I soon desired no better lot than to
+hear some day my Master's 'Well done, good and faithful servant!'"
+
+"All cannot play first parts," murmured Ernestine. "I too, Father
+Leonhardt, will ponder these words." She sat silent for awhile, then
+passed her hand across her brow. "No! to be nothing but a subordinate,
+a figure that appears only to vanish again, occupying attention for one
+moment, but just as well away,--no, that I could not endure!" She
+sprang up, and walked to and fro.
+
+"My dear Fraeulein----"
+
+"Father, call me Ernestine,--it is so pleasant to hear one's first name
+from those whom one values."
+
+"Certainly, if you desire it. Then, my dear Ernestine, I was going to
+answer you by saying that no one who fulfils the duties of life
+conscientiously is 'as well away.' As far as the world is concerned, it
+may be so; but we must not seek to have the world for our public, or to
+find the sole delight of life in its applause. It is not modest to
+imagine one's self an extraordinary person, destined to enchain the
+attention of nations upon the stage of the world."
+
+Ernestine blushed deeply.
+
+Leonhardt continued: "Every one finds associates amongst whom to play a
+principal part, and in whose applause satisfaction is to be found. For
+these few he is no subordinate, for them he does not 'appear only to
+vanish again.' Is not a wife, or a husband, to whom one may be
+everything, worth living for?"
+
+"Only for persons, Father Leonhardt, who have never so soared above
+their surroundings as to find the centre of their being in the life of
+the mind and what pertains to it. Those who have so far forgotten
+themselves as to make the interests of the world their own, can only
+live with and for the world, and it is as impossible for them to be
+content in a narrow round of private satisfactions as for the plant to
+retreat into the seed whence it sprung."
+
+"Indeed, Ernestine?" cried a familiar voice behind her.
+
+She turned, startled. Johannes had been listening on the threshold to
+the conversation. He was evidently in a state of feverish agitation.
+His chest heaved passionately as he approached. "Would you escape me
+thus--thus?" He took her hand, and his eyes sought hers, as if to dive
+into the depths of her soul in search of the pearl of love deeply
+hidden there. There was a fervent appeal in his glance,--he clasped her
+hand, and every breath was an entreaty, every throb of his heart a
+remonstrance. Pain, anxiety, and the haste of pursuit so shook him that
+he trembled. Ernestine saw, heard, felt it all, but she stood mute and
+motionless,--she could not open her lips or utter a sound,--she was as
+if stunned. "Ernestine!" Johannes cried again, "Ernestine!" The tone
+went to her very soul,--a low moan escaped her lips,--she inclined her
+head towards his breast, and would have fallen into his arms,--but a
+shadow, the shadow of his mother, stepped in between them and darkened
+Ernestine's eyes so that she no longer saw the noble figure before her,
+or the tears of tenderness in his eyes. All around her was cold and
+dim, as when clouds veil the sun,--his mother's shadow scared her from
+his heart.
+
+She raised her head, and slowly withdrew her hand from his.
+
+His arms dropped hopelessly. A moment of utter exhaustion followed his
+previous emotion. He put his handkerchief to his forehead, that seemed
+moist with blood. His veins throbbed,--there was a loud singing in his
+ears,--he could hardly stand. He exerted all his self-control, and went
+towards Leonhardt.
+
+"God strengthen you, Herr Leonhardt!" he said in broken sentences. "I
+know it all from your messenger to your son, whom I met on the road. I
+need not offer to console you,--you are a man, and will endure like a
+man."
+
+"I am a Christian, my dear Herr Professor, and that stands to feeble
+age in the stead of manhood!"
+
+"True, true!" said Johannes with a troubled glance at Ernestine. She
+approached, and said in a trembling voice,
+
+"Father Leonhardt, I must say farewell to you now and go home. When
+your son comes, send him to me." She offered Moellner her hand. "Forgive
+me, I could not help it!"
+
+Johannes mastered his emotion, and said, with apparent composure, "I
+shall write to you."
+
+Ernestine silently assented, and went. The old man listened. He heard
+her retreating footsteps and Johannes' labouring breath, and again he
+saw for all his blind eyes.
+
+"Oh, Herr Professor, do not let her go. Follow her quickly, and let all
+be explained. Believe me, she is an angel. Grudge her no words. There
+is no use in writing,--her uncle can intercept all her letters. Spoken
+words are safest and best. Quick, quick, or you may both be wretched!"
+
+"Thanks, old friend, you are right!" cried Johannes, all aglow again;
+and, before the words were well uttered, he was gone.
+
+Frau Brigitta entered with the soup, and looked after him in surprise.
+"The gentleman seems in a hurry!" said she.
+
+"Let him go, mother dear. These young people are struggling, amid a
+thousand fears and anxious hopes, for a goal that we old people have
+long gazed back upon contentedly. God guide them!"
+
+Johannes called to his coachman to await his return before the
+school-house, and followed Ernestine, who was slowly pursuing the
+foot-path directly before him. All was quiet and lonely around, for it
+was noon, and the peasants were at dinner.
+
+She looked round upon hearing Johannes' step behind her, and stood
+still. He soon overtook her.
+
+"Ernestine," he said resolutely, "I must have a final, decisive word
+with you, and Leonhardt is right,--it should go from heart to heart.
+Will you listen to me?"
+
+He drew her arm through his, and as they talked they slowly approached
+the eminence upon which stood the castle.
+
+"Ernestine, dear Ernestine, I would give all that I have that the scene
+between you and my mother, this morning, had never been. You have been
+mortally offended, and that, too, while you were my guest in a house
+whither you had fled for refuge, and that should have been a home to
+you. But it happened in my absence,--it was not my fault. Will you make
+me suffer for it?"
+
+"No, my friend, certainly not."
+
+"Well, then, be magnanimous and forgive my mother, although she never
+can forgive herself!"
+
+"I have nothing to forgive."
+
+"You are implacable in your righteous anger. Let me hope that the time
+may come when my mother may atone for what she said to you to-day.
+Dearest Ernestine, she startled back your young heart, just awakening
+to its truest instincts; it was a poor preparation for what I wished to
+say to you to-day, and yet,--and yet I must speak,--I can be silent no
+longer. Yes, Ernestine, I wished to-day to ask you to be my wife. I
+wished to entreat of you the sacrifice that marriage demands of every
+woman, and of you more especially; and I firmly believe that if you
+could have listened first to my views of the duties and the lot of a
+wife, they would not have seemed to you as terrible as from the lips of
+my practical mother. I hope to be able to shield you from the hard
+materialism of life that so alarms you, and to which my mother attaches
+too much importance. My white rose shall not be planted in a
+kitchen-garden. You shall be the pride and ornament of my life. I ask
+nothing from you but love for my heart, sympathy in my scientific
+pursuits, and allowance for my faults." He took her hand in his, and
+stood still. "Ernestine, will you not give me these?"
+
+With bated breath he waited for her reply. In vain his glance sought
+her eyes beneath their drooping lids.
+
+Ernestine stood motionless in marble-like repose, and no human being
+could divine what was passing in the depths of her soul. At last her
+pale lips breathed scarcely audibly: "I cannot,--your mother,--I
+cannot----"
+
+"Oh, if you cannot love me, do not make her bear the blame, do not
+overwhelm her with the curse of having robbed her son of the joy of his
+life,--that were too severe a punishment! And, if you do love me,
+conquer your pride nobly by showing her how she has mistaken you. Show
+her all the woman in you, and prove to her that you are capable of
+self-sacrifice, and revenge could not desire for her more profound
+humiliation."
+
+"I cannot make the sacrifice that she demands; and if I could I would
+not, because she _demands_ it and makes it a condition. A soul that is
+free will not barter away its convictions and its aims, even though the
+happiness of a lifetime is at stake. When your mother asks me to resign
+my plan of achieving an academic career, and to bury the immature
+fruits of all my labours, she is excusable, for she does not dream what
+she asks; but when you propose such conditions, you can, not only never
+be my husband,--you can no longer be my friend, for you do not
+understand me."
+
+"Good God, Ernestine! what do I ask of you more than what every man
+asks of the woman whom he wishes to marry,--that she shall live for him
+alone? And how can you do this if you do not relinquish your ambition
+and be content with a private life? You need not relinquish science,
+you shall be my confidante, my aid in all my labours, my friend,
+sharing all my plans and hopes. Only do not any longer seek publicity,
+do not try to obtain a degree or deliver lectures. No opprobrium or
+contempt must dare attach itself to the pure name of my wife."
+
+Ernestine started as if struck by an arrow. "Those are your mother's
+very words. What? Do you, who assume such superiority to woman,
+condescend to repeat phrases taught you by your mother?"
+
+"Ernestine, you are unjust. You have long known my views concerning the
+position of woman, and you cannot expect that I should be false to my
+most sacred convictions at what is the most important moment of my
+life."
+
+"And yet you require this of me?"
+
+"A woman's convictions, Ernestine, are always dependent upon her
+feelings in such matters. And where feeling is concerned, the stronger
+must always conquer the weaker. Hitherto you have been moved only by
+the wrongs of your sex,--they are all that you have known anything of.
+When you love, you will learn to know its joys, and be all the more
+ready to resign your vain championship for your husband's sake."
+
+"Do you think so?" asked Ernestine with unaccustomed irony.
+
+"I hope so. It is our only chance for happiness. I am true to you, and
+tell you beforehand what I look for from you. I will not influence your
+decision by flattery or false acquiescence. It must be formed in full
+view of the duties it imposes upon you, or it will be worthless. You
+may think this a rude fashion to be wooed in, and perhaps you are
+right. But I will not win my wife by those arts which woman's vanity
+has made such powerful aids to the lover. I will not owe my wife to a
+weakness,--and vanity certainly is a weakness. Your love for me must be
+all strength. I would have you great indeed when you give yourself to
+me,--and when is a woman greater than when she conquers her pride and
+herself for love's sake? In her self-conquest she accomplishes what
+heroes, who have subdued nations, have found too hard a task, for it
+requires the greatest human effort. It is true, the world will not
+shout applause,--deeds truly great often shun the eyes of the
+multitude: in the renunciation of all acknowledgment there is a joy
+known only to a few. Within quiet convent walls, past which the stream
+of human life flows heedlessly, many a victory over self has been
+attained that was never rewarded by a single earthly laurel. What
+awaits the end of the painful contest? The grave! But I ask of you,
+Ernestine, far less of sacrifice, and surely there is a reward to reap
+in bestowing perfect happiness upon one who loves you. Do you hesitate?
+Is the struggle not ended? Can your royal soul not cast aside the
+self-imposed chains of false ambition? Oh, Ernestine, do not let me
+implore you further; say only one word,--to whom will you belong,--to
+your uncle, or to me?"
+
+"To myself, for no human being can belong to any other!" And her look
+at Johannes was almost one of aversion. "Yes, now I see that you are
+your mother's' son. I see her stern features, I hear her voice of
+remonstrance, and I see myself between you,--a creature without
+will,--no longer capable of independent thought or feeling, still less
+of rendering any service to the world. Am I to cast aside like a
+garment what has been the guiding hope of my life,--my dream by night
+and day,--and go to your mother begging for forgiveness and indulgence,
+excusing myself like a child, and promising future improvement, that I
+may humbly receive from her cold lips the kiss of condescending pardon?
+Again and again, No! What right has your mother to regard me as a
+criminal, and to attempt to improve me? Whom have I injured? What law
+of propriety have I infringed, that she should treat me like some
+noxious thing in the world? I have lived in calm retirement, asking for
+no happiness but that of labour. Why should she insist upon thrusting
+another kind of happiness upon me, and blame me for not considering it
+as such? Did I seek her out? Was it not against my will, and only in
+accordance with your earnest entreaties, that I accompanied you to her
+house? Why should she drive me from it like an intruder, and impose
+upon me conditions of a return that I did not desire? Oh, if you, noble
+and true as I once thought you, had loved me, not as you thought I
+ought to be, but as I am, with all my faults and eccentricities, I
+would have striven for your sake to become the most perfect woman in
+the world. And if you had said to me, 'Be my companion,--I will help
+you to vindicate the honour of your sex, whatever is sacred to you
+shall be so to me also,'--if you had thus acknowledged my
+individuality, and had intrusted your happiness, your honour, to my
+keeping, without other warranty than the dictates of your own heart, I
+would have bowed in reverence to a love so powerful,--I would gladly
+have sacrificed my freedom to you,--to please you, I would have
+performed the hardest task of all--humiliated myself before your
+haughty mother! But when you come to me thus,--only her echo,--when you
+make it the foundation of our happiness that I should be what she
+chooses, and try to assure yourself at the outset that I will submit to
+all your requirements, that you may run no risk from such a self-willed
+creature,--all this shows me that she has separated us utterly. I have
+lost you, and all that you have given me is the knowledge that I have
+no place in this world, and that I am miserable!"
+
+Johannes stood pale and mute before her, but his pure conscience shone
+in his steady eyes. Ernestine did not venture to look at him. With
+trembling hands she plucked to pieces a twig that she had just broken
+from a bush at her side.
+
+"After this we can be nothing more to each other," he began; and it
+seemed as if every word fell from his lips into her heart like molten
+lead. He took breath, as if after some violent physical exertion, and
+then continued: "I do not answer the accusations with which you have
+overwhelmed my mother and myself. They grieve me for your sake. They
+are unworthy of your nobler self. I have treated you as I was compelled
+to do by my sense of honour. I have told you what was, according to my
+profoundest convictions, indispensable to the happiness of marriage.
+That you refuse,--that you can refuse me the sacrifice I ask of
+you,--proves to me that you do not love me. This is what separates us.
+And I pray you to remember that, as I sacredly believe, it is the duty
+of a man to convince himself that the woman whom he seeks to marry is
+fitted to be the mother of his children; and your heart is not yet open
+to the wide, self-forgetting affection that can alone suffice to enable
+a woman to undertake the hard duties of a wife and mother. Will it ever
+be thus open? Who can tell? Another may one day reap in joy what I have
+sown in pain. I do not reproach you,--how could I?" He laid his hand
+upon her head, his eyes were for one moment suffused. As he looked at
+her, grief had the mastery, and he was silent. She was crushed beneath
+his gaze, her artificial composure forsook her, a cry escaped her lips.
+She now first began to perceive what she had done, and her heart shrunk
+from the burden that she had laid upon it, although she did not as yet
+dream of its weight.
+
+Johannes gently smoothed her hair from her brow. Her agitation restored
+his self-control.
+
+"You are kind, Ernestine,--you see how you have hurt me, and you are
+sorry for me. It is the way with women. This little weakness does you
+honour in my eyes. I pray you be composed. I am quite calm again." He
+would have withdrawn his hand, but she held it fast and looked up at
+him with those eyes of sad entreaty that had worked such magic upon him
+when she was a child.
+
+"Do not utterly forsake me!" she whispered in half-stifled accents.
+
+"No, as truly as I trust my God will not forsake me, I will not forsake
+you. I will not shun you like a coward, who, to make renunciation easy
+and to learn forgetfulness, turns his back upon the good he cannot
+attain. You need a friend who can protect you, placed as you are with
+regard to your uncle and the world. This friend I will be to you, until
+you find a worthier. Do not fear that you will hear another word of
+love, or of regret. I will conquer my grief alone. My one care shall be
+for your happiness. Farewell, and when you have need of me send for
+me." He pressed her hands once more, and turned away without another
+word.
+
+Ernestine looked after him as he receded from her gaze. She looked and
+looked until he turned a corner and vanished. Then she sank on her
+knees and cried in an outburst of anguish, "Have I really had the
+strength to do this?"
+
+She must have remained thus some time beneath the shade of the trees,
+when the sound of carriage-wheels approaching startled her to
+consciousness. It was her uncle. He stopped the vehicle and descended
+from it.
+
+"You can take out the horses," he said to the coachman. "I shall not
+drive to town." The man turned and drove home again.
+
+Leuthold stood mute before Ernestine, piercing her soul with his
+penetrating glance. He had learned from Frau Willmers everything that
+had occurred the day before, but nothing of the intercourse that had
+previously taken place between Ernestine and Johannes. Scarcely a week
+had passed, and had his ward already escaped him--fled with an utter
+stranger? The thing was impossible. Ernestine was no coward,--a crowd
+of drunken peasants could never have driven the shy girl into the arms
+of the first stranger whom she met. She must have previously known her
+magnanimous champion. He interrogated the other servants, but they one
+and all hated him and were devoted to Frau Willmers. They all declared
+their entire ignorance,--"the Fraeulein must have met the gentleman at
+the school-house,--he was often there."
+
+This was enough to prove to Leuthold that the ground was unsteady
+beneath his feet, and for a moment he succumbed under the weight of
+this new anxiety. Was it possible to guard a woman more strictly, to
+seclude her more utterly, than he had guarded and secluded Ernestine?
+And yet--yet in this heart, that he thought long since dead, impulses
+were strong that would seek and find expression in spite of every
+precaution that he might take. And all this at a moment when he was
+battling for life and death with a peril which required younger and
+more unbroken energies than his own!
+
+It was too much; a presentiment seized him that fate had decreed his
+ruin. But he collected himself once more, and took counsel with
+himself, as was his custom in all emergencies. As we turn to Heaven
+when all around us seems dark, so he turned in his direst need to his
+own understanding and will, that had hitherto sufficed him.
+
+Allowing himself but brief refreshment after all his anxiety and alarm,
+he ordered the carriage and set out for town to bring home his ward.
+But, to his great surprise and delight, he found her thus near home,
+evidently weary and disconsolate.
+
+"Aha, like the mermaid in your beloved fable, you have been trying your
+fortunes among mankind, away from your cool, clear, native element," he
+said to himself with a smile. "They liked you well, I doubt not, at
+first sight, but you have not gained much, for they soon discovered
+that you were half fish and not fit to live with them!"
+
+As he approached her, he put on an expression of distress, and when the
+coachman had gone he began in a tone of great anxiety, "Merciful
+heavens, do I find you thus? Weeping by the roadside like a homeless
+beggar!"
+
+"True, true indeed,--like a homeless beggar," Ernestine repeated.
+
+"But, my dear child, is this becoming,--such a scene in this open
+spot,--writhing on the ground here like a worm?"
+
+She looked at him. He had on a broad-brimmed, light-gray felt hat. As
+ever, his costume was faultless. Standing before her with a lowering
+glance, his tall, supple figure now bending down to her, his eyes
+riveted upon her, he it was that seemed to her like a worm, and a most
+poisonous one, and with unmistakable aversion she sprang up and
+recoiled from him.
+
+He stepped back and looked at her with amazement. "What! is this
+Ernestine von Hartwich, whom I have educated--whose philosophical
+composure nothing could disturb? or is this wayward child a changeling,
+brought hither by some evil sprite?"
+
+"Spare me your sneers, uncle," said Ernestine imperiously. "They
+disgust me!"
+
+Leuthold's amazement increased still further. "What--what words are
+these? Is this what is taught at Frau Staatsraethin Moellner's? Upon my
+word, Ernestine, I believe you are ill."
+
+"Yes, yes, I am, and I pray you to leave me. You cannot restore me to
+health."
+
+"What an amount of mischief has been done in these few days when you
+were without my advice and protection! It is true, I cannot tell what
+has happened, but something serious must have occurred. I forbear to
+reproach you for making acquaintances without my knowledge, and for
+leaving the house without my permission, and thus causing me great
+anxiety, for I see you are sufficiently punished already, but, I beg of
+you, do not do so again. You see now what comes of it."
+
+"And I beg of you, uncle, not to treat me thus, like a child, who must
+say, after she has been chastised, 'I will not do so again!' If I
+wished to return to the world, of which I had my first experience
+yesterday, you could not forbid me to do so, for"--involuntarily she
+repeated what the Staatsraethin had said--"you cannot forbid my doing
+what does not infringe the law. But I do not, and never shall, wish to
+return,--never! I am out of place among other people. I do not
+understand their ways, nor they mine." She looked at Leuthold with
+suspicion. "I do not know whether you have been right in bringing me up
+as a perfect recluse,--in making me so unfit for life in the world. Who
+can tell that it would not have been better to leave me my simplicity
+of heart, and not to have led me into paths whence there is no return?
+I will struggle on in my lonely way as never woman struggled before,
+until the day comes when I can convince and shame the most incredulous.
+But let me tell you, uncle, that if the day never comes when my fame
+atones to me for all the happiness I have resigned,--then, uncle, I
+shall curse you!"
+
+She spoke the last words with an expression that alarmed even the
+cold-blooded Leuthold. In an instant he grasped the whole situation. He
+saw that she had made some sacrifice to her ambition that was almost
+too great for her strength. His ready wit soon divined what had
+occurred. It was a blow, of the significance of which he was perfectly
+aware. He felt that he had reached a crisis that demanded all his
+caution and forethought, and he did not venture to speak until he had
+pondered well what course to adopt. Thus they arrived at the gate of
+the castle-garden in silence. He opened it for Ernestine to pass in. As
+they walked past the spot where she had stood with Johannes on the
+previous evening, Ernestine burst into tears. Leuthold looked at her in
+surprise, and she controlled herself and walked hastily on. As always,
+he had the effect of cold water upon her. Her wound did not bleed in
+his presence.
+
+"I was greatly irritated when I learned, upon my arrival this morning,
+what had happened," he began at last "Our very lives are not secure in
+the midst of this mob of ignorant peasants. We must seriously think of
+removing elsewhere,--we cannot possibly remain here."
+
+Ernestine made a gesture of dissent.
+
+"What, you do not wish to go? What can induce you to stay here, where
+all are so hostile to you?"
+
+Ernestine did not reply. After a pause she said curtly, "Very well. You
+have proposed our departure,--that is enough for the present I will
+think of it."
+
+They entered the house.
+
+"Ernestine, I have brought you the sphygmometer I promised you,--would
+you like to see it?"
+
+"No, I will go to my room and rest."
+
+Leuthold knew not what to do. He did not wish to leave her to herself,
+but would have made use of her agitation to extort her secret from her.
+She had reached the door when he cried after her, "Apropos, Ernestine!
+I congratulate you!"
+
+"Upon what?"
+
+"I committed an indiscretion this morning, and found upon your table
+the essay that you have withheld from me for so long. I assure you,
+Ernestine, I was actually astounded! It is far beyond anything you have
+ever done before,--it will be a perfect bomb-shell in the scientific
+world!"
+
+Ernestine dropped the handle of the door and looked sadly at him. "Do
+you think so?" She shook her head. "They will not pay it any
+attention."
+
+"Oh, you are mistaken. It must make its mark. Be easy upon that point.
+How did such a magnificent thought occur to you?"
+
+"As such thoughts always occur,--if it can only be verified!"
+
+"Oh, most certainly it can be verified. I'll warrant its correctness.
+Girl, there is a great future in store for you. I thought I knew you,
+but you continually surprise me by your genius."
+
+"Oh, uncle, I scarcely dare to hope. I know now how men despise the
+attainments of learned women. There is no use in talking or writing
+unless I can adduce proofs, irrefragable proofs, that are accessible to
+all. The science of to-day demands facts, and, if I cannot procure
+them, I can never convince these prejudiced minds."
+
+"Be assured that every one who reads that paper of yours will be
+spurred on to make experiments in the matter. Leave it to those
+practised in technicalities to work out the demonstration. The merit of
+the idea will always be yours."
+
+"And even if they find it worth the trouble to investigate the matter,
+and then do it so carelessly that they do not arrive at the desired
+result, it will always be thought a mere hypothesis, and I a learned
+fool. Madame du Chatelet was laughed at for publishing her novel idea
+that the different colours of the spectrum gave out different degrees
+of heat. What did it profit her that Rochon, forty years afterwards,
+hit on the experiments that yielded the proof of her hypothesis?[1] She
+had long been mouldering in the grave, and not a laurel had ever been
+laid upon it. Oh, this is a miserable existence! How long must we toil
+on thus, step by step?"
+
+Involuntarily she left the door of her room, and approached her uncle.
+
+He took her clasped hands, and felt that she was again within his
+power. "Until there is a woman with sufficient force to withstand a
+man. They are all Brunhildas,--these mighty heroines. They fall victims
+to the Siegfrieds who master them. You, Ernestine, are perhaps the only
+woman capable of accomplishing the task calmly and with a clear mind.
+You succumb to no inferior passion, but keep your eyes fixed steadily
+on the mark. You will shatter the prejudices of the world, and no human
+being will dream who aided you in your work, I have long forgotten how
+to think and act for my own advantage. You are my pride, something more
+than my child,--the child of my mind. Your education is my work, your
+honour is my honour. Come then, I have been thinking of it, and believe
+I have hit upon an experiment that will demonstrate your idea."
+
+"Uncle, what is it?" cried Ernestine, flushing up.
+
+"Come into the laboratory now. We will see, upon the spot, what can be
+done."
+
+"Uncle," said Ernestine, overflowing with gratitude, "you give me new
+life! Forgive me for doubting you and doing you injustice for a
+moment!"
+
+"Never mind, my dear child, it is all forgotten. I can easily imagine
+how others have assailed me to you, and that you gave heed to them.
+Have we not all our hours of weakness?"
+
+"Yes, oh, yes, uncle, it was an hour of weakness!" And in deep
+humiliation she covered her face with her hands.
+
+"I can guess," said Leuthold calmly, with his melodious insinuating
+voice. "They burdened your heart,--you have been spoken to of
+love,--you have been sought for a wife. Is it not so?"
+
+Ernestine made no reply.
+
+"They knew you for the feminine Samson that you are, and would have
+shorn your hair, that they might call out, 'The Philistines are upon
+you!'"
+
+Ernestine interrupted him. "Hush, uncle! not one word, in that tone, of
+a man who is sacred to me!"
+
+"God forbid that I should offend you! I am not speaking of him, but of
+his lady-mother, who has him fast by her apron-string." And he gave her
+a quick, keen glance.
+
+"And never mention his mother to me! I hate her!" cried Ernestine
+angrily, ascending with him the stairs to the laboratory.
+
+Leuthold now knew enough. "I can readily understand that these people
+should have tried to turn you against me,--for he who seeks to win you
+must first remove me from his path. This they well know, and their
+attempt is natural. But you, with your calm power of reasoning, can
+soon convince yourself that they require of you no less a sacrifice
+than your entire self, and that unbounded, although perhaps
+unconscious, selfishness is the mainspring of their proceedings, while
+I, as long as you have known me, have treated you with thorough
+disinterestedness. They humiliated you in your own esteem that you
+might be bought at a more reasonable price. I can see by your depressed
+condition how they discouraged you. I will restore your confidence in
+yourself, and let this act of mine prove to you that I desire nothing
+of you but that you remain true to yourself. This is all the
+satisfaction I ask. And now all is right again, is it not?"
+
+"Yes, uncle," said Ernestine, collecting her energies afresh. "And now
+come, let us try the experiment you spoke of."
+
+Leuthold's light eyes sparkled with triumph as he heard these words,
+and together they entered the apartment containing her costly
+scientific apparatus.
+
+But, exert herself as she might, her labour was all in vain. Her hands
+trembled, everything grew dim before her eyes. Her interest in the
+matter flagged; other thoughts intruded upon her mind. With superhuman
+resolution, she made further efforts, and the hectic spot, so alarming
+to a physician, appeared on either cheek. Leuthold did not notice them.
+He was so absorbed in his work that he started, as if from a dream,
+when she fainted away by his side.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II.
+
+                       THE WEAKNESS OF STRENGTH.
+
+
+The Bergstrasse was quiet and lonely when Johannes returned from
+Hochstetten. The inmates of the houses there were all within-doors,
+shielding themselves from the heat of the midday sun, reflected with
+oppressive intensity from the white houses. Johannes leaned back
+motionless in the carriage, his eyes covered with his hand. He never
+looked up when some dogs came barking around the wheels,--indeed, he
+did not hear them. The exterior world was dead for him.
+
+"_Halte-la!_" cried a voice from a carriage drawn up before his own
+door. "_Parbleu! il dort_."
+
+Johannes raised his head. The Worronska was awaiting him.
+
+His carriage stopped. He got out, and the Worronska beckoned him to
+her. Contrary to her custom, she was not holding the reins to-day, and
+was not seated upon the box.
+
+"I am glad you are come. I came myself to see you, Professor Moellner,
+as I received no answer to my note,--and I was just driving away."
+
+Johannes was confused. He had received the note she had alluded to, but
+had not opened it.
+
+"Pray lend me your arm. Have you one moment for me?"
+
+"I am at your service," said Johannes gravely, and he helped her out of
+her carriage.
+
+"Will you grant me a short audience in your house,--or am I unworthy to
+enter this temple of science?"
+
+Johannes opened the door for her. "My simple dwelling is but poorly
+adapted for the reception of such distinguished guests. I can scarcely
+hope that you can be comfortable here, even for a few minutes."
+
+"How pleasant this is!" she cried, as he led the way to his office.
+"Believe me, I like this much better than my marble halls, where there
+is no breath of true feeling."
+
+"I should have thought that one like yourself could always collect
+warm-hearted friends about her," said Johannes absently, only for the
+sake of saying something.
+
+The countess looked at him for an instant suspiciously. She knew in
+what repute she was held, and the compliment was perhaps ambiguous. But
+the cloud upon his brow convinced her that his thoughts were busy
+elsewhere. She looked in his eyes, but his gaze fell before hers, as we
+look away from what offends our delicacy. The countess interpreted it
+otherwise,---his embarrassment flattered her.
+
+"Do you call the crowd of coarse flatterers, who once surrounded me,
+warm-hearted people?" she asked in a tone of disdain.
+
+"If you found none such amongst them, I must lament that they kept all
+such from your side. For no man of sincere and warm heart could
+approach you as long as you were surrounded by such a throng."
+
+The countess rose from the sofa, upon which she had thrown herself. "I
+sent them from me long ago: there is nothing to prevent the approach of
+any man of noble character,--but none such attempt it,--I must go
+half-way to seek them."
+
+Johannes was silent. The conversation was an infinite weariness to him:
+he had need of all his chivalry to enable him to endure it with
+becoming patience.
+
+"You are out of spirits, Dr. Moellner. Am I the cause of it?"
+
+"What a question, countess! Could I say yes, even if you were? I must
+have been guilty of great rudeness towards you, if you can suspect me
+of such _gaucherie_."
+
+"I certainly cannot boast of any exaggerated courtesy from you."
+
+"I never force upon others what can have no possible value for them,"
+said Johannes coldly.
+
+The countess bit her lip. "Is that meant for me?"
+
+"I do not see how. I said nothing that could in any way apply to you."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"It surprises me to have to assure you of it," replied Johannes, who
+began to divine that he had touched a sensitive spot in the countess's
+mind.
+
+"Then I believe you. Now let me force upon you what can indeed have no
+value for you, but what people usually prize greatly,--money."
+
+She opened a pocket-book, and counted out a number of bank-notes. "See,
+I have come to give you what I can for the little girl who was injured.
+Here are ten thousand roubles. I have no more ready money just at
+present. Do you think I may offer this to the people now?"
+
+"You are very generous, countess, but it would be a greater kindness to
+these simple people not to put the whole sum into their hands at once.
+If I may advise you, just settle upon the little girl a small annuity
+for life,--that will preserve her from want,--since she must lose her
+arm, she will hardly be able to support herself. These people will not
+know what to do with so large a sum all at once."
+
+"Do you invest it for them, then, in the way you think best. An annuity
+is out of the question: I might die, and then there would be
+difficulties thrown in the way of its payment. No. I have written to my
+agent in St. Petersburg for forty thousand roubles more. Then the child
+will be in possession of fifty thousand roubles, and can live upon this
+sum in Germany quite comfortably."
+
+"Countess," cried Johannes, looking at her with unfeigned admiration,
+"do you know what you are doing? It is the gift of a monarch! I cannot,
+of course, judge of the proportion that this sum bears to your wealth,
+but it is my duty to warn you that it is far beyond what these people
+can possibly expect!"
+
+"Heavens, what a talk about a trifle!" cried the countess impatiently.
+"I need only a little prudence for a couple of years, and the
+expenditure will be entirely covered. Even if I should have to deny
+myself now and then, what is it in comparison with the injury that my
+heedlessness has inflicted upon the poor child? I would give her more
+if I had not so many poor relatives whom I must not defraud."
+
+"Such wealth in such hands, Countess Worronska, is a blessing to the
+poor. I see, for the first time, that this hand can do more than hold
+the reins and wield the whip, that it can open wide, and scatter with
+princely liberality what others would amass and hoard. Let me imprint
+upon it a kiss of fervent gratitude,--I have done you injustice."
+
+"Oh, Moellner," cried the beautiful woman, flushed with delight, "I
+would give all that I possess, and all that I am, for one such grateful
+glance from your eyes! I know what the injustice is of which you speak.
+You have hitherto despised me, and now you see that there is something
+in me worthy of admiration. Yes, I have lived wildly,--I have not
+heeded the restraints imposed upon woman by man, because I did not
+respect mankind. Now, now I acknowledge them, because at last I have
+found a human being whom I respect from the depths of my soul, and to
+whom I would gratefully commit the guidance of my life. I can give what
+is better than a few thousand roubles. I am capable of the sacrifice of
+myself! If I thought it would win me your esteem, I would throw away
+whip and rein. My hand should know only the needle. I would never mount
+horse again,--never rush from place to place, sipping the froth of this
+world's delights. I would never stir from this spot, but lie here,
+clasping your knees, a penitential Magdalene. My wealth I would cast at
+your feet, and lay aside all splendour that might charm other eyes than
+yours. All that I have to give, so ardently desired by others, should
+be yours. I should think it an act of mercy if you deigned to accept my
+gift. I know how I transgress all law and custom when I, a woman, thus
+offer myself to him whom I love,--but what would be a departure from
+womanly delicacy and reserve in others, is for me a return thither. It
+is not for me to wait proudly for such a man as you to bring me his
+heart. I am sunk so low that in remorseful humiliation I must sue for
+esteem and love, try to deserve them by the penitence of a lifetime,
+and not murmur if they are withheld from me. I feel the disgrace of
+this; but, oh, if I can only through this disgrace recover my lost
+honour,--if I can only, by thus transgressing law, cease to be lawless!
+Believe me, it is no fleeting emotion that speaks through my lips,--it
+is the despairing effort of a stray soul to grasp the redeeming power
+of a true love!"
+
+She could scarcely conclude; overcome by passion, she fell upon her
+knees, stretched out her arms to him as if drowning, and burst into a
+storm of sobs.
+
+Johannes sought in vain to raise her. He was stunned, as it were, by
+this volcanic outburst. Suddenly, into the gaping wounds made by
+Ernestine's coldness, poured the hot lava-stream of a passion of which,
+in the temperate zone of his German intellectual existence, he had
+never dreamed. He stood as if before some startling natural phenomenon,
+amazed, overwhelmed, unable to collect himself. One thought filled his
+mind. Where he longed for love he could not find it, and where he
+neither desired nor hoped for it he found it in fullest measure. The
+contrast was too vivid; as if dazzled, he covered his eyes with his
+hand, and a profound sigh escaped him.
+
+She drew his hand away from his face, and asked, "Moellner, is that sigh
+for me?"
+
+"For both of us."
+
+"Moellner!" she said, and her voice was deep and rich, and her soft,
+gentle touch sought his hand, while her dark, glowing eyes were fixed
+upon him in an agony of suspense. Thus the beautiful majestic woman
+knelt there, expiating in the torment of that moment her sin in not
+keeping herself pure for this long-delayed love, looking up to him as
+to a redeemer, ready to sacrifice for his sake herself and a life of
+worldly enjoyment,--for him, the simple student, unadorned by any of
+the studied graces that distinguished the men that had hitherto crowded
+around her, and unconscious of having ever sought her love. Could this
+woman, used only to ask and to have, love him thus, and she, the only
+one who could ever be to him what his whole soul thirsted for,--she for
+whom he would only too willingly have sacrificed his life, resign him
+for an illusion, a chimera, that could never give her one moment's joy?
+He grew giddy,--he drew his hands from the countess's grasp, and sprang
+up. She bowed her head upon the lounge that he had just left, and hid
+her face in her arms, as if awaiting the death-stroke from the sword of
+the executioner. Now, when she knelt thus in the abandonment of her
+grief, for the first time he perceived her wonderful loveliness,--but
+only for one moment,--the next, he turned from her and threw open a
+shutter, admitting the broad day to chase away the bewildering twilight
+that filled the room. A cool breeze had arisen,--he inhaled it
+thirstily, and, when he turned again to the countess, he was calm.
+Reflection, so native to him, had conquered his agitation, and by his
+sufferings for Ernestine's sake he knew how to pity this woman who
+loved so hopelessly. It was the purest compassion that beamed in his
+eyes as he raised her head, but again his glance had upon her the
+effect of magic.
+
+"Oh, not that look, Moellner! Do not look thus while you sentence me! it
+makes my doom doubly hard to bear. If you cannot tell me that you love
+me, turn those eyes away,--their glance would wake the dead!"
+
+"Good heavens! Countess Worronska, how can I find the right words in
+which to tell you what I must, if you so increase the labour of the
+task? I pray you, dear friend, listen to me calmly, and think what you
+impose upon me,--either I must play the hypocrite, or give the worst
+offence that can befall a woman."
+
+The countess sprang up, and measured him with a look in which pain and
+anger strove for the mastery. He took her hands and gently forced her
+to sit down upon the sofa,--she yielded to him mechanically.
+
+"Dear Countess Worronska, for both our sakes let me preserve the
+temperate self-possession not easy to so ardent and impulsive a
+temperament as yours, but all the more incumbent upon the man to whose
+hands you so confidingly entrust your future destiny. It would be of
+little avail to tell you that you promise more than you can ever
+perform. You would not believe me, for the woman who loves thinks no
+sacrifice too great. But even true affection is subject to natural
+change. For a time much may be resigned without a murmur, for
+unaccustomed joy will compensate for unaccustomed privations, but, dear
+countess, one grows used even to the joy of love, and, though it may
+not grow cold, it gradually ceases to be an exceptional bliss, and
+becomes a natural condition, in which the requirements of our nature,
+the habits of our birth and education, reassert themselves. And if we
+are unable to meet these, in spite of our affection we become conscious
+of a want that may in the end deprive us even of the knowledge of our
+happiness. This fate is unavoidable in a marriage where upon either
+side a disproportionate sacrifice is made. Formed as you are, you could
+never content yourself with the trivial domestic affairs of a German
+scholar; you would soon pine in such captivity, and, without losing
+your love for me, in the sincerity of which I believe, you would long
+for your previous mode of living. Those who have never all their lives
+long recognized the restraints of homely duty can scarcely reconcile
+themselves to them, however honest their intentions may be. As soon as
+you felt that your duties to me imposed a restraint upon you,--and you
+would feel this sooner or later,--you would be wretched!"
+
+"It is enough, Professor Moellner," cried the countess. "Give yourself
+no further trouble in persuading me to doubt myself. If you loved me,
+you could not consider so prudently my advantage in the matter. If you
+felt for me as I do for you, you would not ask how long we might be
+happy,--you would enjoy the moment and be willing for it to resign an
+eternity. Oh, proud and great as you are, you bear the brand of a petty
+existence upon your brow, although you know it not. In truth, Moellner,
+your cool repulse does not shame me, for I feel that in the past hour I
+have been the nobler of the two!"
+
+"You are right, my friend. A woman as beautiful, as high in rank, and
+as richly endowed as yourself has no cause to blush for having vainly
+offered to one what thousands covet so greedily. Believe me, if one of
+us is shamed, it is I, to whom favour has been shown so undeserved, so
+unhoped-for,--such favour as only the bountiful gods bestow,--a favour
+which I can never deserve or repay!" Deeply moved, he took her hand;
+again her eyes sought his.
+
+"Oh, Moellner, your heart relents,--I see it does. You do not know what
+love is. Who was there here to teach you? The poor vapid sentiment that
+they call by its name, suffices, it is true, for domestic use,--little
+is given, little required,--how were you to differ from the rest? A
+genuine passion would have caused infinite commotion in your
+commonplace, every-day circles. Only intense feeling can beget intense
+feeling, and whoever has known none such has never lived. Such a man as
+you must not close his ears like a coward when passion calls. Do not
+withdraw your hand. This moment must decide whether I remain here or
+return to Russia. My estates are going to ruin. I must either sell them
+or return to them myself. Give me the smallest hope of winning your
+affection, and I will sell all my Russian possessions and live here
+beneath your dear eyes, in conventual retirement and repose, year after
+year, until at last you take me to your heart and say, 'I believe in
+you!' Then--then I will surround you with such a heaven as these cold,
+timid natures about you do not dream of. One word, Moellner,--no
+promise, only a hope,--and I am your creature!"
+
+Johannes regarded the passionate woman in her demonic beauty with a
+strange mixture of admiration and horror, sympathy and aversion. At
+last he adopted a resolution, for he felt that an end must be put to
+this interview. "Madame," he said,--not without effort, for it was hard
+for his magnanimous nature to give offence to a woman,--"madame, I see
+that I must tell you all the truth. Hope nothing. It would certainly
+inflict a deeper wound were I to tell you I _cannot_ love you,--it
+would be casting doubt upon your personal charms. What man of flesh and
+blood could swear that he _could_ not love you--a woman all perfection
+from head to foot? Such an oath I could not presume to take, for my
+senses are as keen as other men's. But, countess, I _will_ not love
+you, and I can swear to what I will, and what I will not do!"
+
+He arose, and the countess arose also, and stood opposite to him, a
+picture of despair. "And must I content myself with this declaration?
+Am I not worth the being told why?"
+
+"Let it suffice you to know that I consider myself bound."
+
+"Aha! to the Hartwich!"
+
+Johannes stretched out his hand with a deprecatory gesture. "Do not
+utter her name, madame. I will not hear it from your lips."
+
+"It is true, then! That proud, frigid wraith--that phantom, in whose
+veins there flows not one drop of warm blood--has robbed me of you!
+Curse her!"
+
+"Hush! curse her not, madame; it destroys my new-born pity for you!"
+cried Johannes. "It is not she that comes between you and me. I could
+never, never have given you my heart or hand, even had I been entirely
+free. Do not force me to say to you what no man should say to any
+woman."
+
+"What is it? Let me drain the last drop in the cup. I will not leave
+you until I know all."
+
+"Well, since you will have it, listen, and may it prove your cure in a
+twofold sense. You could bestow upon me, madame, all that the world
+holds precious, but there is one thing that is no longer yours to
+give,--your honour! And were a goddess to descend from the skies for my
+sake, wanting this jewel, she could be nothing to me. I should send her
+back to her glories, and choose rather to abide here below, a poor
+solitary man."
+
+A low cry followed these words, and then silence ensued. The Worronska
+stood like a statue, with eyes, for the first time in her life perhaps,
+seeking the ground. Johannes approached her and said quietly, "You can
+never forgive what I have said. I do not ask you to do it; it is best
+thus. You will hate me for awhile, and then forget me. I shall, all my
+life, have a melancholy remembrance of you, for you wished to be kind
+to me and I was obliged to wound you in return. Pour out your hatred
+upon me; I deserve it at your hands."
+
+"Moellner," said the beautiful woman, drawing her breath with effort,
+"at this moment I am expiating all the sins I have ever committed.
+Farewell, and if you hear that I have fallen back into my old manner of
+life, sign the cross above my memory, and tell her whom you love, 'I
+might have saved that soul, but I would not.'"
+
+Johannes looked at her sadly. "Madame, if the agony of this moment does
+not make the thought of your former life hateful to you, my love never
+could have saved you. I disclaim the terrible responsibility you would
+thrust upon me. I have done what I could. I have told you the truth,
+and I cannot believe it will be without effect."
+
+"I thank you," said the despairing woman with bitter irony. Then, with
+one last tender look at Johannes, which he, standing calmly before her,
+did not return, she turned to go, with the bearing of a queen. He
+offered to conduct her to her carriage, but she refused his aid. Her
+face was ashy pale, and not another word passed her compressed lips.
+
+He looked after her as she entered her carriage and buried her face in
+her hands. He saw how her whole frame was shaken with emotion. The
+carriage whirled away, the dust rose in clouds. Johannes re-entered his
+lonely room. "Ernestine!" he exclaimed, as if she could hear him,
+"Ernestine!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III.
+
+                         SILVER-ARMED KAeTHCHEN.
+
+
+That was wonderful news for the village of Hochstetten! The oldest
+people there could remember nothing to match it! The Kellers' terrible
+accident had turned out the greatest good fortune. The Kellers--poor
+despised day-labourers that they had always been--had come to be rich
+people, and were to be richer still. Kaethchen might well do without her
+arm, and, since that was all the harm that had been done her, it really
+was hardly worth so much money. Many a one had suffered greater
+injuries, and not a mouse had stirred in their behalf,--not even when
+everything had been pawned in the long idleness that followed. And this
+lucky child got immense wealth in exchange for her useless little arm!
+Where was the justice of that, pray? It would have been some comfort to
+think that it was devil's money, and could bring the Kellers no good,
+and that it would be better to starve than to use it. At first, indeed,
+the Kellers thought of refusing it, but the Reverend Father had been
+too much for the devil. He had advised the Kellers to erect a crucifix
+by the side of the road where the accident had occurred, and to give
+the church three hundred gulden for masses for their benefactress's
+soul. Thus the gift was consecrated, and they could accept it with a
+clear conscience.
+
+Scarcely four weeks had passed, and the cross was already standing by
+the roadside just, where Kaethchen had been run over. It was finer than
+any other in all the country round; and the Kellers, husband and wife,
+tossed their heads, as they passed it, as proudly as if they had placed
+the Lord Jesus Christ himself there in person. The cross was ten feet
+high, and stood upon a pedestal five feet high, upon which were
+inscribed the words, "Erected to the glory of God by Pankratius Keller
+and Columbane his wife, Anno Domini 18--. 'Let little children come
+unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven!'"
+And directly beneath was a beautiful painted tablet, whereon all might
+read, "Wanderer, pause, and mark how wondrously the promise has been
+kept to our child!" The painting that was to illustrate these words
+represented Kaethchen with one arm; the other lay upon the ground, and a
+broad stream of blood was gushing from the maimed shoulder. A carriage
+was driving furiously away. Above Kaethchen's head the heavens were
+opened, and the infant Christ was seen in the arms of the Madonna,
+handing down a silver arm.
+
+This most magnificent and ingenious allegory of the silver blessing
+that had followed Kaethchen's misfortune had cost the poet of the
+village, the highly-gifted Reverend Father, many an anxious thought;
+and, in consequence of it, the little girl went universally by the name
+of "Silver-armed Kaethchen," although she persistently refused to verify
+her nickname by making use of an artificial limb. Her father and mother
+were the objects of great ridicule and envy, but they did not mind
+it at all, they could laugh in their turn,--they had plenty of
+money,--and, what was more, they had, by means of it, gained more
+favour with the Lord than all those who jeered at them. The host of the
+"Stag" and the burgomaster were the richest people in the village, but
+neither of them could boast that he had given three hundred gulden to
+the Church, and the burgomaster had put up a very mean cross over in
+the meadow, and, for economy's sake, had had only the head and hands
+and feet of Christ painted upon it, leaving all the rest of the figure
+to the imagination.
+
+So they could enjoy their wealth without any misgivings. They knew how
+high in favour they stood with the Lord; and, besides, Frau Keller had
+sprinkled the package of notes that Moellner had given her with holy
+water. She had done this entirely of her own mind. It was impossible to
+be too prudent in such a case. So now that everything had been done to
+keep off the Evil One, a blessing would be sure to follow. Little
+Kaethchen, however, thought and felt very differently. She was very
+unhappy to find that the children stood aloof, staring at her as at
+some strange animal when she went to sit in the sunshine before the
+door, and that the big boys called her Silver-arm, and plucked her by
+the empty sleeve that dangled from her shoulder.
+
+But it was worse than all one day when a cripple came crawling
+past,--there were many cripples in the country round about, as there
+always are where human beings are fighting for the mastery with the
+rude forces of nature. This man stopped before her and muttered, "Oh,
+yes, you are treated like a princess! Such a poor fellow as myself is
+worse off than a dog, for when a dog breaks its leg it is shot, but I
+must hobble about and starve for the sake of Christian charity! Such
+pious people as you are can always make friends with the Almighty, and
+therefore a grand coach is sent to drive over you, while only a huge
+stone in the quarry crushed my hip, and there was no fuss made about
+it. The grand folks, whose house the stone helped to build, never
+troubled themselves about the human blood that had sprinkled it. Well,
+well,--to every one his own!"
+
+And the man went hobbling off upon his crutches, and Kaethchen covered
+her eyes with the one poor hand that was left, and sobbed bitterly.
+
+"Is that my merry little Kaethchen that I hear crying?" suddenly asked a
+familiar voice; and, when the child looked up, she saw Herr Leonhardt
+approaching, supported by his son.
+
+Young Herr Leonhardt was tall and slender, with a gentle, frank
+expression of countenance,--such a face and form as one might imagine
+belonged to the favourite son of the patriarch Jacob. There was a
+certain poetic grace in the devotion with which he guided the uncertain
+steps of his blind father. His eyes were bent upon the ground, that
+every obstruction might be removed against which his father's feet
+might stumble.
+
+He swung his light straw hat hither and thither in his hand, and his
+fair hair encircled his broad brow with masses of curls.
+
+Kaethchen stopped crying as soon as she saw him. His graceful figure
+stood alone among the coarse peasant youths, and, truly as she loved
+and honoured his father, the son was dearer to her childish heart, for
+he was young, hardly twelve years older than she herself, and youth
+clings to youth. She arose and walked feebly towards the pair.
+
+"Why, Kaethi, brave little girl, that never cried when they cut off her
+arm, what has happened to you?"
+
+"They tease me," sobbed Kaethchen, "because I have such an easy time and
+was run over by a grand coach. They envy me my good luck, and no one
+loves me any more. But it shall not be so,--I will not have anything
+more than the other poor cripples,--I will give them all some of my
+money. Seppel needs it far more than I do, and he got nothing for the
+big stone that fell upon him, although he is a grown-up man. I am only
+a stupid little child, who never earned anything, and yet I get so
+much, because I have to sit still. But I will not keep it, and my
+father and mother must not keep it all to themselves,--they are well
+and strong. I will share it with those who have suffered as I have."
+
+"But, my dear little Kaethchen," said Herr Leonhardt, much moved, "you
+are too generous to the people who tease you so. If you try to share
+with all the cripples and maimed people in the village, you will have
+very little left for yourself. If Heaven has decreed that you are to be
+rich while they remain poor, you may resign yourself gratefully to its
+inscrutable designs without any qualms of conscience. You can help the
+needy by giving them work upon your farm that you are to buy with the
+money that is coming to you. Until then, it would be much better to
+give them a little money weekly, than to bestow upon such rough men a
+large sum, that might tempt them to be idle and drink and gamble."
+
+"Yes, it would be better; but mother will not let me have anything. She
+does not like to have me give away a single kreutzer."
+
+"But what does your father say?" asked Walter, who had been regarding
+the child with silent admiration.
+
+"Oh, he works all day long in our new field, and does not care for
+anything. Mother keeps the money, and when she says, 'So it must be,'
+he does not say a word."
+
+"But how does that agree with your parents' great liberality to the
+Church?"
+
+"Yes, I told mother she had better give some of the money to these poor
+people than to the Reverend Father and the stone-mason for the masses
+and the cross; but then she told me I was too silly,--that she had
+given the money to the Lord,--and it was far wiser and more profitable
+to give it to Him than only to men, for He was more powerful than any
+of them, and could give a great deal better reward for what was done
+for Him."
+
+Herr Leonhardt turned to his son, and, with a gentle smile, said, "Does
+not that one sentence show the evil of this false piety? These people
+turn to the Highest only for the sake of the reward that they expect.
+For them the Lord is a venal human being, whose protection they can
+procure by bribery, and they now think themselves absolved from all
+humane and Christian duty. Oh, holy,--no, not holy,--unhallowed
+simplicity!"
+
+"Dear father," said Walter, "it is the same old story of indulgences,
+only in another shape. Tetzel, to be sure, is here no longer, but there
+are still Tetzels in plenty to be found, and always will be while there
+are men in the world who prize money beyond all else on earth and think
+it no way beneath the dignity of the Almighty actually to drive a
+bargain with them. The noble thought of the antique sacrifice is at the
+bottom of it all. Polykrates threw the ring into the sea to appease the
+gods,--the Christian pays his money to erect a crucifix. But the Greek
+trembled when the gods rejected his offering and the fish brought back
+his ring. The conceit of our age regards its offering as an investment
+of capital, and hopes for large interest upon it."
+
+The young man passed his hand through his blonde curls with a light
+laugh. His father bowed his gray head thoughtfully, and pondered upon
+what his son had said, and how far mankind still were from a knowledge
+of the truth. Kaethchen looked at both, surprise in her eyes, as if they
+were speaking some strange tongue. All was quiet around, for the little
+girl's parents were away in the fields. A couple of doves were picking
+up the crumbs from Kaethchen's supper, and the ducks were diving and
+whisking their tails in the little brook near the house.
+
+Quick, firm footsteps were heard approaching.
+
+"Here comes our friend Moellner," said the old man, listening. "I know
+his step from all others."
+
+"Yes, Father Leonhardt, it is I," said Moellner's clear voice. "How are
+you all?" He drew near the quiet little group. Before him ran three or
+four geese, greatly terrified and in great anxiety,--but yielding not
+one jot of their dignity, for they never thought of turning aside; they
+were left in the middle of the road, when Johannes reached his friends.
+
+"Look, Herr Professor," remarked young Leonhardt gaily, "those stupid
+birds are priding themselves upon having maintained their place. See
+with what haughty disdain they are regarding you. They evidently think
+that they have compelled you to turn aside for them! It is always the
+way. Wisdom vacates the path shared with stupidity, and the latter
+swells with the pride of an imagined victory."
+
+Johannes smiled. "What puts these little moral sentiments into your
+head, my dear Walter? Are you about to compose a new primer for your
+school?"
+
+"It really would not be a bad idea among such people as these!" said
+Walter, as he shook hands with Moellner.
+
+Moellner sat down upon the bench before the house and took Kaethchen upon
+his knee. "Would not you like, Kaethchen, to have Herr Walter make you a
+new primer?"
+
+"It might be a capital undertaking, Walter," remarked Herr Leonhardt.
+"We must not despise small opportunities, since larger ones are denied
+us."
+
+"Yes, father," laughed the light-hearted young fellow, "but, if my
+primer is to succeed here, I must have for the letter H,
+
+
+          "'H stands for Hartwich, good Christians must know,
+            She's a terrible witch, who will work them all woe.'"
+
+
+Herr Leonhardt made a sign to the thoughtless speaker, who looked in
+alarm at Moellner, who preserved a gloomy silence.
+
+"You must not laugh at the lady at the castle," said Kaethchen, leaning
+her pale little face against Johannes' throbbing heart. "My mother
+complained to-day that I had grown as pale and ugly as the Fraeulein,
+and she prayed the Lord to break the spell that the Fraeulein had laid
+upon me. It made me so sorry, for she cannot help my being so pale. She
+is so good and kind,--how could she bewitch me?"
+
+Johannes silently drew the child closer to him.
+
+"To be sure, she is good and kind, and would not harm any one," said
+Herr Leonhardt;--but his son interposed, with youthful exaggeration,
+"She is a saint,--far too holy for these ignorant people to be
+permitted to kiss her footprints as she passes!"
+
+Johannes pressed his bearded lips upon the child's head, but did not
+speak.
+
+"Herr Professor, where are your thoughts?" asked Leonhardt anxiously,
+laying his hand gently upon Johannes' shoulder.
+
+"With the subject of your conversation, dear friend. It gives me no
+rest. It is now four weeks since I have seen her. I would not seek her
+again until I had collected all the material that was necessary to
+convict her uncle, for I must be prepared for the most determined
+opposition on his part to my visits. To-day, through my kind old friend
+Heim, I have discovered a clue to Gleissert's rascalities, and when I
+compare the intelligence that I have received with the fact of which
+you informed me, that all his letters are addressed to Unkenheim, I
+think I have a terrible weapon against him in my possession. And
+yet,--yet I do not know whether I ought to warn Ernestine by letter or
+to go to her myself. Will not,--must not the sight of me be painful to
+her?"
+
+"As well as I remember, you told me that she begged you not to forsake
+her," said Herr Leonhardt.
+
+"So she did, old friend. But how do I know how she thinks and feels
+now, since she never visits you without such anxious inquiries
+beforehand as to whether I am with you, and never, too, unless
+accompanied by Gleissert?"
+
+"That is all her uncle's doings," said Walter. "You cannot think, Herr
+Professor, how he watches and guards her. Since I have been allowed to
+study in her laboratory, I have never for one moment been alone with
+her,--that devil is always present. And it was with difficulty that she
+obtained permission for me to come to the castle. Willmers says that
+there was a three-days fight about it, but Fraeulein Ernestine had made
+up her mind, and he was at last obliged to give way. It is high time
+that something were done for the unfortunate lady, for since the
+completion of her last treatise she has been utterly exhausted, and if
+she goes on thus much longer she will kill herself."
+
+"I have known that for a long time," said Johannes with a profound
+sigh, "but what is to be done? I can make no impression either upon her
+head or heart. My solitary hope now lies in separating her from that
+villain."
+
+"I think it would be much the best for you to see her yourself," said
+Walter. "She is really wasting away from day to day."
+
+"Yes, I know that it is so by her hands," added his father; "they grow
+so thin and small, and are as cold and damp as if she were dying. Ah,
+Herr Professor, their touch pierces me to the heart! I actually think I
+can see her suffer, for hands feel so only when they are often wrung in
+physical or mental anguish."
+
+Johannes put the child from off his knee, and turned away his head, but
+he could not conceal his emotion from the blind eyes of the
+schoolmaster.
+
+"Why attempt to suppress a pain that is so natural, dear friend? Go to
+her quickly. It will do her good."
+
+"Well, then, I will write her a line," said Johannes. "I will ask her
+whether the sight of me would pain or console her. Good God! I desire
+nothing but her happiness! You, Walter, will, I know, contrive to let
+her have my note without her uncle's knowledge. She will, I hope,
+answer it in the same way."
+
+"Then let us go directly home," said Herr Leonhardt, "that you may
+write immediately."
+
+The gentlemen started to go.
+
+Kaethchen plucked Johannes by his coat. "But, Herr Professor, if you go
+to see the Fraeulein to-morrow, you will not find her."
+
+"How so, Kaethchen?" asked Johannes, who had not thought that the child
+had been listening to the conversation.
+
+"Oh, yes; I know it is true. Frau Willmers from the castle went by here
+to-day, and whispered to me to tell the gentlemen secretly, if they
+came to see me to-day, that the Fraeulein was going away to-night
+forever, but I must not let any one know that she had told me, or she
+should lose her place. And if the Herr Professor did not come, I must
+tell it to the master, that he might send a messenger to town to the
+Herr Professor. Frau Willmers cried a great deal, and said she dared
+not go to the school-house, because,--because the Evil One, who watches
+the Fraeulein so closely, would know it."
+
+"Kaethchen!" cried Johannes, "you little angel, how much you have done
+for me! The Fraeulein would have gone to-night, and I should never have
+known whither, if it had not been for you! Is this all that you know?"
+
+"Yes, this is all,--you may trust me. I listened to all she said."
+
+Johannes took the child in his arms and kissed her. "Child, tell me how
+I can reward you. Speak. What would you like? Whatever it is, you shall
+have it."
+
+"Ah, dear Herr Professor, if you would only persuade my father and
+mother to let me have some money for the poor people. Oh, do, do beg
+them. And then they will not laugh at me and call me Silver-arm any
+more. I will make them happy, too, or else I shall be just like the
+Fraeulein, and no one will like me at all,--and I would not have it so
+for all the money in the world."
+
+"I know what you mean, you good little thing, and I promise you that
+when the rest of your property is sent to me I will invest it so that
+your parents shall have no right to any of it, but that you may do with
+it just what Herr Leonhardt advises."
+
+"Ah, that will be splendid!" cried Kaethchen, as she kissed the sleeve
+of Johannes' coat. "Herr Walter!" she called out, "then you will find
+out all the poor people for me, and tell me how much to give them?"
+
+"Yes, Kaethi dear, indeed we will!" Walter gladly replied.
+
+Johannes gave the child some pieces of silver. "There, my darling, give
+those to the next beggar you see, if you want to do so. Farewell, all
+of you. I will not delay a moment, for it is time to proceed to
+extremities." He pressed Leonhardt's hand, and walked quickly away in
+the direction of the castle.
+
+"What can have passed up there between the uncle and niece?" said
+Leonhardt, shaking his head.
+
+"Father Leonhardt," said Kaethchen, "don't you tell, but I know
+something."
+
+"What is it, my child?"
+
+"That guardian up there is a very bad man."
+
+"That is an old story, Kaethi," said Walter.
+
+"Yes, but you don't know what he does; he empties the letter-box at the
+school-house when it is dark."
+
+"Is that true?"
+
+"Yes, father saw him do it, but he told me he would shut me up for
+three days if I told any one."
+
+"How did your father happen to see such a thing?" asked Herr Leonhardt,
+amazed.
+
+"Oh, he told mother all about it, and I ought not to have heard it, but
+I did hear. Last week, one night when he was biding to try and catch
+the thief who steals our grapes, he heard some one going softly towards
+the school-house, and he hid close, thinking it was the thief. And then
+he saw it was Herr Gleissert, who busied himself about the place where
+the letters are slipped into the box. And father crept nearer, and saw
+plainly how he poked something long and thin into the slit and drew out
+the letters, and then lighted a match and held his hat before it that
+no one might see it. Then by the light of the match he read all the
+writing on the letters, and put them back again into the box,--all but
+one, which he kept. And then he went home to the castle again. Father
+said he wanted to seize him and hold him, but he did not know what
+weapons he might have about him, and that there was no use of accusing
+him, for father would be sure to get the worst of it."
+
+"What mischief can the scoundrel be brewing?" said Herr Leonhardt,
+anxiously.
+
+Walter laughed. "Ah, father, we are paid now for always reading the
+addresses of the letters he sent from the castle."
+
+"That is an entirely different case," said Leonhardt "But our friend
+ought to know this before he reaches the castle. Run, Walter, you are
+young and strong; try to overtake him, and tell him."
+
+"Yes, father, I can do it easily. Sit down here, I will soon return,"
+said the young man, hurrying away, fleet-footed as a deer.
+
+Herr Leonhardt felt for Kaethchen. "My child, are you there?"
+
+"Yes, Father Leonhardt."
+
+"Kaethchen, you have repaid me to-day for all the love I have ever given
+you." He passed his hands over the little, thin face. "I cannot see
+you; they tell me you are changed,--and I think you must be. But in my
+mind's eye you will always have the same roguish black eyes and chubby
+rosy cheeks, with the little berry-stained mouth,--you have never since
+told what is not true, eh, Kaethi?"
+
+"No, Father Leonhardt, on my word and honour, never, and I never will
+again. I am now the richest child in all the country round, mother
+says, and I will try to be the best, and thank the kind God, as you say
+I should, by kindness to others. And, now that I cannot fold my hands
+any more when I say my prayers, I must pray very hard indeed,--harder
+than before,--for then I always felt as if I had the dear God between
+my hands and could keep Him and make Him listen to me, but now that I
+cannot do that I must call Him oftener, and beg Him to listen to my
+prayers."
+
+"My dear little child, God is always near you,--he loves to dwell in a
+pure, childlike heart. Kaethchen, you are a flower in the blind man's
+path. Do you know what that means?"
+
+Kaethchen laid her head upon Leonhardt's knee. "I think it means that
+you love me."
+
+"Yes, my child, and that there are few joys in my life like what you
+are to me."
+
+"But, father, you have Walter, he is more to you than I can be."
+
+"God bless him! he is my staff and prop in the darkness. He is the best
+that I have on this earth."
+
+"Father Leonhardt, when I grow up I will marry Walter, and then we will
+all live together."
+
+"My child, what put that into your little head?"
+
+"Why, my mother says that now I am so rich that I can choose any
+husband that I please,--and I will choose Walter and no one else--no
+one."
+
+"But suppose he will not have you?" asked Herr Leonhardt with a smile.
+
+"Oh, but he will have me,--I know he will," said the child confidently.
+
+"Oh, holy, holy simplicity!" whispered the old man, and laid his hand
+in blessing upon the little girl's head.
+
+And as he sat there, gazing into the night that had closed around him,
+suddenly to his inner vision all grew light about him. From the
+vanishing darkness arose the columns of a church, and through the high
+arched windows the sunlight fell full upon the heads of a youthful pair
+kneeling at the altar. Around stood a throng of glad relatives and
+friends, amongst them a hoary blind father, and by his side an old
+mother, with tears of joy standing in her eyes. The young couple were
+fair to look upon,--the bridegroom blonde, bearded, manly, the bride
+blushing in girlish timidity. Her large, frank eyes were swimming in
+tears of devotion and emotion, but her charming little mouth was
+slightly stained as if from eating berries.
+
+"What! what!" said the people around her, "picking blackberries upon
+her wedding-day?"
+
+Then the organ began a well-known hymn, and all present joined in
+singing it The bride gave her lover her hand,--only her left, to be
+sure,--but its clasp was as strong as if there were two to give,--for
+it was for a lifetime. And then the ceremony was ended, and they all
+went out into the clear Spring sunshine. A crowd of familiar faces
+pressed around,--poor, deformed, and maimed figures, that still seemed
+not unhappy, for they were all well clad and fed,--and they waved their
+caps in the air, with "Long life to the bridal pair! Since you have
+made this place your home, there will be no starving or freezing poor
+here. Long life to our Doctor Walter Leonhardt and to Silver-armed
+Kaethchen!"
+
+Oh, sunny, peaceful picture! how it cheered the blind man's soul! A
+lovely dream of the future, born of the prattle of a child, hovering
+around an old man upon the verge of the grave!
+
+"Father Leonhardt, what are you smiling at?" asked the child.
+
+"At something beautiful that I have just seen."
+
+"I thought you could not see any more?"
+
+"I can see, my child, not things that are, but perhaps all the more
+plainly things that are to be."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+
+                                BATTLE.
+
+
+Ernestine was sitting at her writing-table, arranging books and papers
+to be packed up. Her uncle was assisting her with trembling haste. From
+time to time she leaned her head wearily upon her hand.
+
+"It will be impossible for us to leave to-day if you do not make more
+haste," said Leuthold urgently.
+
+"I am doing all that I can, but I am so weak that I do not know whether
+I shall be able to travel to-night."
+
+"I cannot imagine how you can give way so. You never used to do it.
+When I think of the self-control that you were wont to exercise,--your
+determination would have done honour to a man,--and now! Oh, it is
+deplorable!"
+
+"You torture me, uncle!" cried Ernestine, as she threw several books
+into a chest at her side. "You will not believe that I am really much
+weaker than I have ever been before. It is of my own free will that I
+am going away--why should I not hasten as much as I can?"
+
+Her uncle looked askance at her with a smile. "You are mistaken, my
+child. It is not your will that is acting,--it is only a whim that thus
+urges you on. And a whim is the child of circumstances, and can be
+controlled by them."
+
+"I do not know what circumstances could control this 'whim,' as you are
+pleased to call it. Nothing can happen to-day or to-morrow to change my
+determination. What delay can you apprehend? No one knows of my
+departure, so that it cannot be impeded by remonstrances from any
+quarter. I have not even told good old Leonhardt that I am going, and
+Willmers heard it only this morning. Could I do more to prove to you
+that I am in earnest?"
+
+Leuthold looked at her again with his sarcastic smile. He knew well
+that Ernestine had preserved this strict silence concerning her
+departure only because she did not feel strong enough to withstand any
+friendly remonstrances. Therefore he trembled lest some unforeseen
+accident might yet divulge her plans. His very existence depended upon
+her staying or going. During the four weeks that had elapsed since
+Ernestine's return from town, Leuthold's entire influence had been
+exerted to remove Ernestine from this part of the country, and, if
+possible, from Germany. She must never again see the man who had
+evidently made such an impression upon her. Now less than ever could
+she be allowed to form any attachment, for, if she were now to marry,
+and require her property at his hands, he was lost! He had cautiously
+managed to secure an appointment, through an American agent, in a large
+chemical manufactory in New York. To Ernestine he had opened the
+brilliant prospect of delivering a course of scientific lectures there.
+The fact that she had received the prize from a German university for
+one of her papers would surely suffice to make her reputation in
+America,--and Leuthold had honestly done his best to have her fame as
+an intellectual phenomenon noised abroad. In his present embarrassed
+circumstances, it was of the greatest importance to him that she should
+be placed in a position to support herself, that she might not be a
+burden to him. If the lectures did not succeed, she would have to earn
+her living as a "female physician." But upon this point he prudently
+forbore to enlighten her. He fired her imagination with the enormous
+advantages, pecuniary and other, that must accrue from her lectures.
+The means that he employed to win her to his purpose were to an
+ambitious woman irresistible. She saw before her a future such as no
+woman had hitherto enjoyed. She saw herself in one of the vast halls of
+New York, lecturing to a crowd of men who were all listening
+attentively to--a girl! She saw herself regarded as the miracle of her
+sex. The most secret dreams of her pride were to be realized,--the
+seeds of her quiet diligence were to spring up and bud forth in the
+sight of all,---the world should ring with the fame of what a woman
+could do. And yet it was hard to decide; it was weeks before she could
+bring herself to sign the simple letters of her name to the acceptance
+of these proposals; no labour of her life--nothing whereon she had
+expended days and nights of study--ever cost her as much as this single
+signature.
+
+Moellner's grave, earnest face had scared her back from clutching these
+new honours, as Banquo's ghost frightened the usurper from the royal
+chair. It seemed to her that she was guilty of a crime towards
+him,--and at last, in a torment of doubt, she secretly wrote to him.
+She told him everything, and begged for his counsel and advice. She did
+not conceal from him that she could not take so decisive a step without
+his blessing. Why this letter never reached Moellner, no one knew
+besides Leuthold, except Kaethchen and her parents.
+
+Day after day passed, and of course Ernestine waited in vain for an
+answer. She waited as if for a decree of life or death. Sleep refused
+to visit her burning eyelids. She took barely sufficient nourishment to
+support life. She pined with desire for only one word--one single
+word--from Moellner,--and it did not come. She was no longer worth a
+stroke of his pen. Since her refusal of his suit, he would none of her.
+He had conquered himself,--had given her up,--and in how short a time!
+
+And the more she had longed for a letter or a visit from him, the
+greater was her bitterness of mind,--the offence to her pride,--when
+she received neither. As often as she approached her writing-table, her
+eyes were greeted by the large capitals of the flattering proposal she
+had received, with all its alluring promises. What was there now to
+wait for? Why should she hesitate now? And so she signed her
+acceptance.
+
+And now nothing should cause her to waver in her pride of purpose. She
+would have the revenge of being irrevocably lost to him, she would
+vanish without one word of farewell, that from a distant quarter of the
+globe the fame of her greatness might reach his ears.
+
+She did not even confide in Willmers, for she dreaded her garrulity.
+Only on the very last day the housekeeper received orders to dispose of
+Ernestine's movables as quickly as possible, and then to follow her,
+for Leuthold wished, before sailing, to take leave of Gretchen, whom he
+purposed to leave in Germany for the present. But Ernestine was to
+accompany him. He would not,--he dared not now,--lose sight of her for
+a moment.
+
+She wrote a fervent, heartfelt farewell letter to Leonhardt, and begged
+him to keep her books and apparatus until she should claim them again.
+As she did not know yet where her future home would be, she could not
+make use of them herself. Walter might find them useful. Thus
+delicately she bestowed upon Walter the costly gift of the instruments
+for the further pursuit of his studies.
+
+After their departure, her uncle was to be informed of her disposal of
+the physiological works and apparatus, which he had ordered Willmers to
+sell. He would never have consented to it, for Ernestine had often, to
+her surprise, noticed how desirous he was of ready money.
+
+She bound Willmers by a solemn promise not to deliver the letter to
+Herr Leonhardt until the writer had departed, and thus everything was
+provided for,--everything was thought of,--everything except
+Ernestine's physical condition. The inflexible girl had been accustomed
+to take so little care of her health that she had given no heed to her
+increasing exhaustion,--the natural consequence of the superhuman
+efforts of the last few weeks. But to-day she could hardly stand, and
+the thought of undertaking so long a journey began to alarm her.
+
+She sat there before her uncle the picture of weariness. He regarded
+her dubiously. Could he succeed in getting her on board of the steamer?
+Then, if she were taken ill, it would of course be ascribed to
+seasickness, which scarcely any one escapes. And if she died? Then all
+would be well with her. He would bury her under the billows of the
+ocean, and all his hatred, his alarm, and his crimes would sink with
+her beneath the waves, which, as they swathed her dead body, would wash
+away from him all disgrace and guilt. This thought was as boundless in
+comfort as the ocean that was beginning to open upon his horizon.
+
+"Uncle, do not gaze so strangely at nothing," said Ernestine. "You look
+as if you were devising no good."
+
+Leuthold smiled. "You are nervous indeed, my child. Since when has my
+face looked strange to you?"
+
+Ernestine did not reply. She went on wrapping a book in paper, to pack
+it in the chest.
+
+"Is that old fairy-book to go too?" asked Leuthold ironically.
+
+"Yes," was the curt, decided reply.
+
+"Well! well! Have you not a doll somewhere that I can pack with it?"
+
+Ernestine started up. "Uncle, I told you once before that I will not
+endure that tone!"
+
+"Beg pardon, but such folly provokes a jest. Or perhaps the book has a
+deeper value for you? You need not blush,--I can guess. It is a
+remembrance of the knight of the oak,--Moellner! Ah, then indeed we must
+certainly take it with us."
+
+"Uncle," cried Ernestine, taking the book from him as he was about to
+put it in with some others, "you know how to depreciate with your
+sneering speeches everything that I have held dear. Let the book alone;
+I will give it to little Kaethchen."
+
+"And when Professor Moellner visits her, and finds it there, it will
+touch his heart, that the friend whom he has forsaken has guarded his
+memory so faithfully until now. If he turns over its leaves, he will
+doubtless find the oak leaf that you have pressed among them. Perhaps
+he will think it a mute farewell, and bestow upon you a tear of
+compassion. How gratifying it will be!"
+
+"Uncle, if I thought that, I would rather burn the book!"
+
+"And that would, at all events, be the best thing to do with it. That
+self-conceited fellow is not worth the remembrance that you cherish of
+him. I would efface it, as I would every impression that is unworthy of
+you. Indeed, I have long been indignant, although I never spoke of it
+to you, at his so easily forgetting you. Such a woman as you are is not
+to be resigned like an article of merchandise about which buyer and
+seller cannot agree. He never loved you, or he would never have dreamed
+of making conditions in his proposal to you, as if you were to deem it
+a great honour that he should condescend to you. Trust me, I know the
+world and mankind thoroughly. He was in the greatest embarrassment, for
+he felt himself morally obliged to offer you his hand."
+
+Ernestine started.
+
+Leuthold continued, "I do not know how you conducted yourself towards
+him, but, with your inexperience and the preference that you entertain
+for him,--do not deny it,--it is reasonable to suppose that you must
+have made advances."
+
+Ernestine bit her lip, and looked down.
+
+"The one fact that you accompanied him to his house alone, without any
+intimate acquaintance with him,--without an invitation from his
+mother,--must have led him to fancy that you were desperately in love
+with him, and he was conscientious enough to wish to efface the stain
+that you had thus unwittingly cast upon your honour, by asking you to
+be his wife. I do not question for a moment that his intentions towards
+you from the very beginning were honourable and kind, but his feelings
+seem to me to have been those of simple friendship, until your advances
+forced him, as it were, to a declaration. Probably he is now
+congratulating himself in silence upon his fortunate escape. But you
+sigh and languish like a love-sick girl over his memory, and would
+carry the only gift that you have ever received from him, bestowed upon
+you out of sheer compassion when you were a fright of a child, across
+the ocean with you as a relic! Ernestine, what is the matter with you?
+For Heaven's sake, control yourself! What nonsense! You have actually
+contracted a habit of fainting!"
+
+He supported her drooping head and fanned her pale face.
+
+She looked up at him wearily, then thrust him from her with evident
+aversion, and stood up. Leuthold said nothing more. For the first time
+she had allowed him to speak of Moellner, and he had seized the
+opportunity to pour into her soul the surest poison that ever destroyed
+love,--he was content now to let it work.
+
+Ernestine walked several times to and fro: her step, her bearing, was
+queenly,--she seemed suddenly to have grown taller. Her uncle might be
+right,--she hated him for it, but still he might be right. What must
+Johannes--what must his mother think of her for so throwing herself at
+him? This was why his mother had treated her so,--this was the cause of
+the cool conditions proposed to her by the son! She repeated to herself
+every one of Johannes's words,--they were almost all words either of
+grave warning or stern reproof. Even when he had been kind to her, it
+had been the kindness of a father or a judge. Never, not even when
+suing for her hand, had he laid aside the proud, measured bearing that
+was native to him. His pity had been that of a superior being for a
+soul astray, not of a lover for his beloved. And she! She recalled
+every cordial word, every kindly glance, that she had bestowed upon
+Johannes, and she persuaded herself that she had been too fond, that
+her behaviour, in contrast with her usual cold demeanour, had verged
+upon impropriety, and must have been construed by him into an advance.
+Yes, possibly he despised her for it,--and she had even gone so far as
+to write to him! All the little merit of not consenting under the
+proposed conditions to become his wife was annulled by this last act,
+which must have been regarded by him as a fresh advance, and, as such,
+silently repulsed. She could have fled from him to the ends of the
+earth,--the mere thought of him was enough to drive the hot blood to
+her cheeks. Away, away, across the ocean!--this suddenly became the one
+desire of her heart. She stood still as she passed the fireplace, and
+said to Leuthold, "Burn the book!" They were the first words that
+passed her lips.
+
+The instant the words were spoken, Leuthold threw the volume into the
+midst of the flames. Ernestine stood by and watched them curling around
+the covers, which bent and rolled up in the heat. They were soon
+destroyed, and with invisible, soft-crackling fingers the fiery draught
+toyed with the burning book, and, as page after page opened to the
+glow, the flame--greedy reader--devoured them. Ernestine watched it
+all. She saw the names which had been so dear to her, flash out and
+vanish. The cold, glittering snow queen,--the little mermaid in her
+watery home,--all perished in the red heat!
+
+Now the oak leaf, that she had once snatched from the dear old tree,
+fell away to ashes,--the whole book dropped apart and blazed up
+afresh,--the loosened leaves were tossed up and down in the wreathing
+flames. There,--there was one more name,--the swan. The leaf flew
+aloft, and the swan, the beautiful swan, was burned to ashes. Never
+again would it spread its plumage for her,--never arise, a second
+phoenix, from its funeral pyre. The little fairy world had vanished,
+and only a few sparks remained, shooting hither and thither, as if in
+search of the transformed shapes of the creatures of fairy lore.
+
+Ernestine turned away. The fire seemed to have scorched the pinions of
+her soul. She hung her head, like the god with the inverted torch, and
+wept!
+
+Leuthold did not disturb her; he felt that he must spare her now.
+
+Suddenly the door opened, and Frau Willmers said in a tone of great
+trepidation, "Herr Professor Moellner!"
+
+Leuthold started as if struck by an arrow. Ernestine leaned against the
+chimney-piece, or she would have fallen.
+
+"How dare you admit any one just at this moment?--how dare you?" he
+said, transported with rage and terror.
+
+"I cannot help it, Herr Doctor. I could not do otherwise,--the
+gentleman declared positively that he would not stir from the spot
+until I had announced him."
+
+"Tell the gentleman that we cannot receive visitors."
+
+Frau Willmers looked hesitatingly at Ernestine, who stood as pale and
+immovable as ever.
+
+"Well, what are you waiting for?" asked Leuthold, and there was a
+threat conveyed in his tone and manner.
+
+"I am going,--I will go instantly," replied the woman, and hurried from
+the room.
+
+Ernestine took one step forward, as if she would have followed her. But
+she controlled herself. She was a prey to a storm of emotions that
+almost deprived her of consciousness. He had come, then,--he had not
+utterly given her up. It almost broke her benumbed heart to send him
+away. But no,--she rebuked her own weakness,--he had waited long before
+coming, and perhaps had come at last only because he felt it his duty
+to obey her summons. She would--she could yield to no further weakness.
+
+Leuthold stood by the door, and held his breath while he listened to
+hear Johannes depart; but, to his immense discomfiture, Frau Willmers
+reappeared.
+
+"The gentleman will not go," she said with secret exultation. "He says
+he came to see the Fraeulein, and will take no dismissal from her uncle,
+for, as the Fraeulein has been of age for several years, it is for her
+to say whom she does or does not wish to see."
+
+Ernestine listened eagerly. "What--what does that mean?" She turned
+with a look of inquiry to her uncle, and was shocked at the great and
+evident alarm expressed in his countenance. "Uncle," she asked again,
+"what does this mean? Answer me!"
+
+"Do not heed such stupid gossip. The fellow is a liar--or----"
+
+"Tell him so yourself, if you have the courage," Ernestine interrupted
+him in rising wrath. "Ask the gentleman to walk in," she said
+authoritatively.
+
+Willmers hurried out.
+
+"Ernestine!" cried Leuthold in despair,--"this to me?"
+
+"I will understand what this means about my being of age," cried the
+girl, with a glance at Leuthold before which his eyes sought the
+ground.
+
+Moellner entered. He regarded Leuthold with entire composure and
+profound contempt, then bowed to Ernestine without looking at her. He
+wished to spare her, to give her time to collect herself. She
+misunderstood him. She thought he was cold, and met him with coldness.
+
+A long pause ensued.
+
+Leuthold, wishing to appear quite at his ease, broke the silence.
+"Allow me to ask, sir, what, after all that has passed between my niece
+and yourself, procures us the honour of a visit from you."
+
+"I am about to inform Fraeulein von Hartwich upon that head, and you
+will greatly oblige me by remaining present at this interview."
+
+"Be pleased, then, to be seated," said Leuthold, motioning Johannes to
+a chair, "and let me request you to be brief, since we are just on the
+eve of departure."
+
+"You will not go, Doctor Gleissert."
+
+"Sir! Are you better instructed than ourselves concerning our plans?"
+
+Johannes waited until Ernestine was seated, and then, taking a chair,
+replied with decision, "Not concerning your plans, but their
+fulfilment,--which I shall, in case of necessity, prevent by your
+arrest."
+
+Leuthold was stunned for one moment, but, recovering himself, smiled at
+Ernestine, who looked astounded, and said, "Ah, here we have the
+genuine knight of the oak! It is a pity that we do not live in feudal
+times, when an honest man could be seized upon the highway and flung
+into a dungeon."
+
+"Oh, no. Doctor Gleissert. A quiet scholar like myself has no taste for
+such adventures. I prefer safer and legal means. I shall simply, in
+case you attempt to depart from this place, have you detained by the
+gens-d'armes stationed here, until your business relations with
+Fraeulein von Hartwich are satisfactorily explained. Then you will be
+perfectly free to go whithersoever you may please. My interest in you
+will be at an end."
+
+"Herr Professor," cried Leuthold, "I can only suppose that some one has
+shamefully calumniated me to you. Let me beg you to come with me to my
+study, that we may not distress my niece by these representations. She
+needs the utmost consideration at present."
+
+"If Fraeulein von Hartwich is strong enough to undertake the voyage to
+New York, of which Frau Willmers tells me, she can certainly support
+this conversation. But, first of all, let me ask you, Ernestine,
+whether you are leaving your home of your own free will."
+
+"Yes," she breathed scarcely audibly.
+
+"Of course you are your own mistress. But, before you carry out your
+intentions, you must know what you are doing. This you do not know at
+present, and I am here to inform you. If you depart with Herr
+Gleissert, you link your destiny to a villain's!"
+
+Ernestine and Leuthold started up. Johannes arose at the same time,
+and, leaning one hand upon the table, regarded them steadily without a
+word.
+
+Leuthold found it impossible to speak. Ernestine was lost in gazing at
+the noble form of his adversary.
+
+Johannes continued, "You will require the proofs of such an accusation.
+I have had them in my possession only since early this morning,--here
+they are." He took several papers from his breast-pocket, and unfolded
+one of them. Leuthold glanced at it, staggered back, and sank upon a
+seat.
+
+"Did you write that?" asked Johannes, handing the sheet to Ernestine.
+"Pray read it."
+
+"No!" she said in evident surprise, as she ran over its contents.
+
+"Or did you affix your name to a deed, ignorant of its contents, in
+presence of a notary?"
+
+"Never!" was the decided reply.
+
+ Moellner breathed freely. "This, then, is the proof that could send
+your uncle to jail, if I made use of it, for it is a forgery!"
+
+Ernestine made a gesture of dissent, as if she could and would hear no
+more. But Johannes was not to be deterred. "From your first letter to
+Helm, and from your conversation with my mother, it is evident,
+Ernestine, that you consider yourself still a minor. It is true that
+you are so by the laws of your country, which make the period of
+minority terminate at the age of twenty-four,--and you are only
+twenty-two years old. But through Dr. Heim, who was present at the
+drawing up of your father's will, I know that you are by it declared
+legally of age at eighteen. This your uncle has concealed from you. We
+will speak by-and-by of his reasons for this concealment."
+
+"Then I have been my own mistress now for four years?" cried Ernestine
+in inconceivable amazement,--"and you, uncle, have treated me as if I
+were a child?"
+
+"More than that,--he has withheld your property from you. Here is a
+copy of your father's will. You will see that it accords you the right,
+at eighteen years of age, to take possession of the estate, put in
+trust for you in the guardians' court, and dispose of it as you please.
+Of course you could not avail yourself of this right, as you were kept
+in utter ignorance of it, as well as of the fact that you had attained
+your majority. But your uncle has availed himself of it in your
+stead. He has contrived--Heaven only knows how--to imitate your
+handwriting--and forge the signature to the document by which the
+guardians' court delivered over to you--that is, to your uncle--the
+property in its charge for you. There was no doubt cast upon the
+authenticity of the document, for it was drawn up in due form by an
+Italian notary and accredited by two witnesses to your personal
+identity. When I suspected that your uncle had purposely kept you in
+ignorance of your affairs, I acquainted the court with my suspicions,
+and they delivered to me this copy of the document which I have just
+handed you for identification. You have declared it a forgery. Whether
+I now spare or destroy this man will depend upon the result of what we
+have to say to each other. That I allow him one word of explanation is
+due to my regard, not for him, but for your sense of delicacy,
+Ernestine, which would suffer deeply in your uncle's disgrace."
+
+Having thus spoken, while Ernestine had listened in mute amazement,
+Johannes turned to Leuthold. "I ask you, Doctor Gleissert, what you
+have done with the money that you have hitherto withheld from your
+niece."
+
+"Before I answer you, sir," replied Leuthold, who had regained his
+composure, "allow me to ask you when you exchanged the pursuit of
+physiology, wherein you have rendered such important service to
+science, for the study of the law, in which, I fear, you will hardly
+prove so great a proficient."
+
+"I did so," said Johannes calmly, "when I felt it my duty to protect
+with the shield of law a young creature most grossly defrauded. And I
+think, sir, that I am already sufficiently versed in my newly-espoused
+science thoroughly to expose your frauds. But let me ask you again to
+account, without further circumlocution, for the property we have
+spoken of."
+
+"And I demand of you, Herr Professor, what legal right you possess to
+subject me to such an inquiry."
+
+Johannes looked at him composedly. "So be it. If you prefer to answer
+my question to a court of justice, I will withdraw my request for an
+explanation between ourselves. Take time to consider which you prefer
+in this matter."
+
+"I should, at all events, have less to fear from a legal investigation
+than from a madman, who, in defiance of custom and decorum, and
+regardless of domestic privacy, invades a home, and, with a knife at
+the throats of its inmates, demands 'your money or your life,' like any
+highway robber."
+
+"Uncle," interposed Ernestine, "I forbid you, in my presence, to insult
+my friend. If you can clear yourself of the terrible suspicion that he
+has cast upon you, do so with dignity. Useless insults cannot convince
+us."
+
+"And you, Ernestine,--do you take part against me?" cried Leuthold
+pathetically.
+
+"I take part with no one; on the contrary, I tremble to think that the
+man who has brought me up may be a criminal. But I will not and cannot
+shield you from the discovery of the troth. You yourself have taught
+me to subject every duty, every impulse of the heart, to cool
+investigation,--to search everything to the foundation,--even at the
+price of the most sacred illusions. Now, cruel preceptor, reap what you
+have sown!"
+
+"Well, then, I am ready to answer you, since you desire it. There is
+one point upon which I owe you an explanation.--the minority in which I
+have kept you in spite of your father's weak will. My course in this
+respect I think entirely justifiable, for every right-minded person who
+knows you must agree with me that it would have been unprincipled in
+the extreme to leave you to yourself at eighteen, inexperienced and
+immature as you were. It was an arbitrary measure on my part, but it
+was well meant, and was the result of an exaggerated affection and
+anxiety for you. The thought that you were to live without me, and I
+without you, was unendurable to me. This is my crime,--this is all that
+I can say. To this gentleman's charges I answer nothing. My life is
+open to the scrutiny of all, it has been passed in unpretending
+repose,--in the calm pursuit of science, and in the delight--now, alas!
+disturbed indeed--of educating you. I regard all your machinations,
+sir, with indifference. Your heated fancy would fail to see the truth
+in my defence of my actions. Only a legal investigation can satisfy you
+of my innocence. Why should I waste further words upon you?"
+
+Johannes smiled. "I reserve my answer to the first part of your
+remarks, but with regard to the last I cannot refrain from asking you
+how you can venture to speak of innocence after your niece has denied,
+in my presence, the signature of this document to be hers, thus proving
+that it is a forgery?"
+
+"Yes, sir, it is certainly a forgery,--no one can deny that. But does
+it follow that I executed it? I had a friend in Italy to whom
+unfortunately I intrusted every fact in relation to our family affairs,
+placing in him a confidence that prudence could not warrant, and, in
+view of this present revelation, I cannot but fear that he has played
+the traitor, and, assisted by some unprincipled notary----" He shrugged
+his shoulders, as if unwilling to complete so grave a charge.
+
+Johannes smiled again, almost compassionately. "Will you attempt to
+support your defence upon such a foundation? and do you venture to meet
+me upon this plea alone?"
+
+"I do, sir; for the law will, I trust, shortly discover the witnesses
+of the crime who can testify as to whether I or my false friend
+committed the forgery."
+
+Johannes bethought himself for an instant, and then said, looking
+Leuthold directly in the eye, "Is this same false friend the purchaser
+of the factory at Unkenheim? Or did you find in Italy what you
+certainly failed to find here,--such wealth of friends?"
+
+Leuthold's cheek blanched again, and Johannes saw that he had thrust
+his probe into a deep wound. He instantly availed himself of his
+advantage. "I suppose that the superintendent at Unkenheim, acquainted
+as he is with your Italian friends, will shortly be able to produce the
+witnesses required for the vindication of your innocence, and I will do
+all that I can to bring about this desirable termination of the
+affair." Then, with a glance at Leuthold, who could scarcely hold up
+his head, "Now, Herr Gleissert, I will give you twenty-four hours in
+which to decide whether you prefer an explanation with me or in a court
+of justice. If by to-morrow evening you are not ready to explain
+matters thoroughly with regard to Fraeulein von Hartwich's property, and
+either to produce the same or, if it is invested in the Unkenheim
+factory, to give sufficient security for it, your fate is sealed. From
+this hour your house will be watched day and night. You are now my
+prisoner. At the slightest attempt to escape, you will be handed over
+to the custody of the law, even although I should be forced to deliver
+you up with my own hands. You see I am resolved to proceed to
+extremities. You have nothing to hope for, either from my weakness or
+your cunning, even if a miracle could be worked in your favour, and the
+costly expedient succeed of bribing some Italian rogue to personate
+'the false friend,' to declare your crime his own and endure the
+punishment of it,--even although the notary, who could establish your
+identity and the drawing up of the deed, were dead,---even then you
+could never hope to escape the punishment for mail-robbery!"
+
+Leuthold started as if stung.
+
+"You can hardly accuse of falsehood the sharp eyes of a peasant of this
+place, who can testify that, in default of other amusement, you
+selected for your perusal the contents of the village letter-box,
+retaining in your own possession whatever especially interested you."
+Johannes turned to Ernestine. "I do not know, Fraeulein Ernestine,
+whether you have done me the honour to write to me lately, but, if you
+have, your uncle probably knows the contents of your letter much better
+than I, who have never received it. At all events, this little
+occurrence, for which I can produce witnesses, is a significant
+illustration of your uncle's character. And you, Herr Gleissert, can
+now understand that there is no escape for you unless you fulfil the
+conditions upon which alone I will spare Fraeulein von Hartwich the
+disgrace of having so near a relative occupy a criminal's cell. You are
+beset on all sides,--entangled in your own crimes. There is no hope for
+you!"
+
+He ceased. Leuthold sat still, pale and mute. Ernestine looked down at
+him with compassion. Then she glanced at Johannes with admiration
+bordering on awe. "You are, as I have always known you, upright, but
+severe!"
+
+"Severe? No, by Heaven! The punishment too severe for this unprincipled
+man is yet to be devised. My imagination is not cruel enough for the
+task!" He regarded Ernestine mournfully. "You are worn out,--you need
+repose." Then he awaited a reply, but none came. The setting sun threw
+its crimson rays across the room. Ernestine stood silent, her hands
+hanging clasped before her, exerting all her self-control. Leuthold had
+propped his head upon his hand, and did not stir. Johannes took his
+hat. "Farewell, Ernestine. Permit me to return to-morrow to learn your
+uncle's final decision." He stepped up to her side. "I will not weary
+you. Let me watch over your destiny. I ask it as the right of
+friendship,--nothing more,--I assure you,--nothing more!"
+
+"Nothing more!" It echoed harshly in Ernestine's heart, and, without a
+word or a look, with only a cold inclination of the head, she dismissed
+him. "He does not love me," she said to herself, and her heart grew
+like ice. He watched over her as a man of honour, not as a lover. He
+knew that she cared for him,--she had not concealed it from him; he had
+thrust the obstacle to their union between them in the shape of his
+narrow-minded conditions--he knew that these were all that separated
+them, and he preferred to relinquish her rather than his own stubborn
+will! He demanded of her every concession, without making any, even the
+smallest, himself! No, her uncle was right, he had never loved her. How
+could she make advances now without proof that she was the object of
+his love? How could she humble herself to make the required sacrifice,
+possessed by the terrible doubt that he had required it in the full
+conviction that it would not be made? The least advance on his side,
+the faintest sign that he would yield one jot of the prejudice that
+separated them, would have given her new life and made her happy. But
+from this day their union was impossible,--it was not to be thought of.
+
+Leuthold interrupted her reverie. He had left the room, and now
+returned with a letter. With the air of a man resolved upon death, he
+held it out to his niece. "Read that, and then show me how truly great
+you are!"
+
+Ernestine, in surprise, unfolded the letter. It was from the
+superintendent, received the day previous. It contained the
+announcement in a few words that the establishment was bankrupt and
+Leuthold ruined. If he did not escape by instant flight, he would be
+overtaken by the punishment of his crime. Ernestine read and re-read
+the letter; she seemed unable to understand it "What does it mean?" she
+asked at last.
+
+"It means that Moellner is right when he calls me forger and thief."
+
+"Uncle!" cried Ernestine in the greatest alarm.
+
+"The money that is lost in the Unkenheim factory was yours----"
+Leuthold faltered.
+
+"You have, then, deprived me of my fortune?" she asked in a low tone.
+
+Leuthold stood before her apparently annihilated. "Yes!"
+
+There was silence. Ernestine uttered a low cry and recoiled from him.
+He breathed with difficulty, and continued, "I could and would confess
+nothing to that man. There is only one soul on earth magnanimous enough
+to forgive me, and to it alone I will reveal all my weakness.
+Ernestine, I have shown you before, in my love and care for you, the
+reasons that induced me to conceal from you the termination of your
+minority. Did you believe me?"
+
+"I will believe it."
+
+"I never dreamed into what fearful temptation I was thereby led. The
+consequences of what I did were these:--I was obliged, in order to
+conceal the fact of your majority from you, to appropriate in your name
+the amount that was yours when you reached the age of eighteen, and
+this without your knowledge. I did it with the firm intention of doing
+what was best for you. I executed the forgery, never dreaming of the
+punishment that it would entail upon me. For months I kept your money
+in my possession, guarding it like the apple of my eye. Hitherto I had
+been an honest man, even although, with the best intentions, I
+had transgressed the letter of the law. Now, Ernestine, came the
+turning-point of my life, and I implore you to lend a lenient ear to
+this terrible confession. The brother of the Staatsraethin Moellner was
+just bankrupt, and the Unkenheim factory was advertised for sale upon
+the most favourable conditions. To this temptation I succumbed. Can you
+not divine how a man is fascinated by the one pursuit to which he has
+given the best years of his life, that is in a certain sense the work
+of his mind and hands? It had been a bitter pain to me to relinquish
+the flourishing business to which I had so long devoted my best
+energies, and now it was again in the market. Want of knowledge and
+capacity had ruined it. I, who knew every part of it most thoroughly,
+could easily build it up again if I had the means to buy it. I resisted
+a long time,--the advertisement of its sale appeared a second and a
+third time. I consulted a merchant in Naples who was, I heard, on the
+point of visiting Germany. He offered to make the purchase for me in my
+name,--he persuaded me to allow him to do it. The opportunity was so
+favourable,--the money lay idle in my hands,--I was so certain of
+doubling it, and thus securing my own and my poor child's future,--I
+knew as surely that when you should come to know it, you would never
+reproach me for thus investing your money. Ten times I stood upon your
+threshold, determined to tell you everything and entreat your
+permission to dispose of your property thus. I knew you would not
+withhold it from me. But the insane dread of losing you as soon as you
+knew you were of age always deterred me. I took the money, firmly
+resolved to restore it to the uttermost farthing. This is the story of
+my crime. Now for the tale of my misfortunes. I failed in what I
+undertook. I enlarged the factory at considerable expense, and suddenly
+unforeseen obstacles, in the nature of the soil, presented themselves,
+material that I had purchased at a high price sunk in value before it
+could be manufactured, and I lost fifty per cent, in the sale of the
+finished goods. Such disasters as these followed each other in rapid
+succession. There was a curse upon everything that I undertook,--the
+curse, I admit it, of an overestimate of my own powers,--for I should
+have known that a clever scholar is not necessarily a merchant, and
+that the technical knowledge as a chemist which had stood me in such
+stead in a comparatively small establishment was not business capacity
+for an immense undertaking. But what now avails my remorse, my late
+confession? Your fortune, Ernestine, has been the price of the terrible
+lesson. I can give you no more of it than will pay for your passage to
+New York,--can offer you no indemnification for it but the revenge
+which this frank confession will afford you the means of gratifying.
+Decide; do with me what you will,--I will accept my fate from your
+hand, but from no other."
+
+The hypocrite sank at her feet, as though utterly crushed, and pressed
+the tips of her cold fingers to his lips.
+
+"Uncle," began Ernestine, and her voice trembled, "stand up! I cannot
+endure the sight of a man before whom I have been used to stand in awe,
+grovelling at my feet like a crushed serpent, whose writhings excite
+aversion rather than compassion. Stand up! I pray you stand up!" She
+turned from him, that she might no longer see him.
+
+"Ernestine," cried Leuthold terrified, "you are marble!"
+
+"I am what you have made me."
+
+He had expected a different result from his confession, and he watched
+Ernestine with the greatest anxiety. She read the letter once more, and
+then sank on the sofa and buried her face in the cushions.
+
+"Ernestine, be composed!" he cried, with a degree of his native
+insolence which could not all be concealed behind the mask that he had
+assumed. "Punish my crime, take what revenge you will, but spare me the
+sight of your humiliating despair at the loss of wealth."
+
+"Do you imagine, man of no conscience, that I mourn for my lost
+wealth?" said Ernestine wrathfully, but with dignity. "If you had asked
+me honourably for the money and then lost it through some misfortune, I
+would have died sooner than have reproached you by a word or a tear.
+But I must despise the only human being in the world upon whom I have
+any claim. All that I have is lost through crime, and this passes my
+endurance. You know well what depends upon the shining bits of metal of
+which you have robbed me--freedom of thought and action,--the noblest
+possessions that life can give. For the sake of these you have robbed
+me, for you are no thief to steal money only for the sake of money. You
+know, too, what a loss it is for a woman,--that it entails upon her
+dependence perhaps servitude,--yes, servitude, to become a mere
+machine, obeying unquestioningly another's will,--and this for a soul
+that would have bowed to no power on earth or in heaven, but that
+rejoiced in its pride in being the centre of its own self-created
+world! And you, knowing how in this thought I die a thousand deaths,
+dare to reproach me with despair at the loss of mere wealth! Look you,
+I do not forget, even in this terrible moment, what you have done for
+me since my childhood,--what an inexhaustible mine of intellectual
+wealth you have revealed to me in exchange for the earthly treasure you
+have taken from me,--and, remembering this, I renounce the revenge that
+you offer me. Save yourself if you can, but do not require of me
+sufficient 'greatness of soul' to forgive you!"
+
+Leuthold breathed freely once more. This was all he wished to
+hear,--that she would not deliver him up to justice. The worst was
+over. If she thus in the first outburst of her anger rejected the idea
+of bringing punishment upon him, she might, when more composed, be
+brought to connive at and share his flight.
+
+"Ernestine," he said, after a moment of reflection, "every one of your
+words is like a coal of fire upon my guilty head. Even in your
+righteous indignation you are noble and gentle. You tell me I may save
+myself, but do you imagine that I can go away without you? Could I
+endure the thought of you struggling with poverty, without me to labour
+for you and to shield you? Have I tended you for all these years with a
+mother's solicitude, to leave you to your fate now, when you need me
+more than ever? Girl, if you think thus of me, you do me grievous
+wrong!" Ernestine looked at him in surprise.
+
+"Either you fly with me, or I remain and brave the worst!" said
+Leuthold with heroic resolution.
+
+Ernestine recoiled. "I go with you! No, I cannot descend so low,--our
+paths in life lie, from this moment, far, far apart."
+
+Leuthold saw her aversion. He was lost if she persisted in her refusal.
+For even although he might succeed in escaping Moellner's vigilance for
+the time, it would soon be known abroad that he had embezzled
+Ernestine's fortune and left her impoverished, and his foe would only
+pursue him all the more obstinately. Ernestine would be required by the
+law to speak, and, truthful as she was, there was no doubt that she
+would expose all his villainy. Only by keeping her with him could she
+be rendered harmless; concealment without her was impossible.
+
+"You hate me, and it is natural for you to do so," said he. "I will not
+recall to you all the time and trouble that I have expended upon you
+since your childhood,--the patience with which I have endured your
+caprices, nor the love with which, when Heim gave you up, I watched
+over and preserved your life. All this you know, and you believe it
+fully repaid by your magnanimous resolve not to deliver up your uncle
+to a jail. You best know your duty in this matter. But, Ernestine, you
+should not hate me more than you do your father, whom you have long
+since forgiven, and upon whom you now bestow so much sympathy, for I
+can truly affirm that I have dealt more kindly by you than he. He was a
+drunkard,--a man degraded to the level of a brute. He did not bring you
+up; I have done it. He scarcely clothed and fed you. I have surrounded
+you with everything that your heart could desire. He always hated you,
+I have loved you from a child. You must remember well how often I
+protected you from his ill treatment, and that once, when I was not by,
+he almost killed you. He never would have provided for you as a father
+should, had he not been driven to it by remorse for his conduct towards
+you. Two-thirds of the property, Ernestine, that he bequeathed to you
+were mine by right. I had earned it in his service. He bequeathed it to
+you, and I acquiesced silently. I resigned it without even hinting to
+you my just claims. I separated myself from my child that she might be
+educated as became her moderate expectations, a sure proof that I had
+no designs upon your wealth. For all this self-sacrifice I asked only
+the delight, the great delight, of training to full perfection a young
+mind,--such a mind as no woman was ever before possessed of. You can
+bear me witness that I have taught you nothing evil,--that I have
+opened your eyes to the good and the beautiful, helping you to decipher
+the book of nature, where only what can elevate the mind is to be
+found. You can comprehend, by the aversion with which you now regard
+your fallen teacher, how pure his teachings have preserved your heart.
+I ask you to reflect, Ernestine, whether all this does not give me at
+least the same claim upon your sympathy as that which you now yield to
+your father."
+
+Ernestine listened with increasing emotion and sympathy. She buried
+her face in the cushions of the sofa, and burst into tears.
+
+Leuthold regarded her with satisfaction. He knew that the woman who
+weeps yields. He continued, "You have convinced me that I have nothing
+to fear from your hatred. You have told me that you renounce your
+revenge, and a nature like yours performs what it promises. But,
+Ernestine, this does not content me. My tortured conscience cannot rest
+until you permit me to take charge of your future. Let me at least try
+to atone for my crime. Grant me this alleviation of the burden that
+weighs me to the earth. Pity me, and allow me the only expiation that
+is possible for me!"
+
+"What shall I do, then?" asked Ernestine in broken accents.
+
+"Go with me, my child, that I may share with you the bread that I
+earn,--that I may open such a future to you as you could never enjoy in
+Germany. You have just signed a brilliant engagement; you cannot break
+it now, just when you need a means of support. It would be madness to
+reject what offers you a position commensurate with your ability. But
+you can never occupy it satisfactorily without my aid. You well know
+how indispensable I am to you in every new undertaking. You must pursue
+fresh studies. Not for the world must you allow a flaw to be found in
+your acquirements on the other side of the water. Hate me, despise me,
+if you will, but consent to avail yourself of my protection on the long
+voyage to New York. Trust me, I detest sentimentality, as you know, but
+it is hard to bury one of your kin before he is dead. You will find it
+harder than you think. One cannot tear one's self loose in a moment
+from the memory of hours, days, and years spent together striving for a
+common aim, and the buried companion will knock upon his coffin-lid
+when such memories arise." He paused. Ernestine's short, quick
+breathing showed what a struggle was going on within her. At last she
+shook her head, sprang up, and walked undecidedly to and fro.
+
+Leuthold continued, "You cannot help it,--you must go with me,--what
+else can you do? Reflect, what course can you adopt if you remain
+here?"
+
+"I do not know," she murmured gloomily in a low tone.
+
+"There are none here to whom you could turn, except the Moellners----"
+
+Ernestine added, "And old Dr. Helm."
+
+"Yes, Heim and the Moellners are like one family. Naturally, they would
+all do what they could for you. Heim would exult greatly in the
+fulfilment of his prophecies."
+
+Ernestine bit her lip.
+
+"To be sure, after what has occurred, you may safely look to them for
+the means of support. Perhaps they may find you a place as a governess,
+if they should become tired of you. But the question is whether that
+would not be a deeper humiliation than going abroad with me. Good
+heavens! in this world you must call many a one comrade whose
+conscience is far from clear, and whom you must not ask for a
+certificate of character. Let your uncle be to you one of these. I will
+not intrude upon you,--will not enter your presence, if you do not
+desire it."
+
+He waited for an answer. Ernestine's eyes were fixed broodingly upon
+the ground.
+
+"Or possibly you would rather reconsider your determination, and go to
+the Frau Staatsraethin and beg to be forgiven. I fear,--I greatly
+fear,--the prudent mother would say, 'Aha, she was haughty enough as
+long as she had plenty of money, but, now that it has all gone, she
+grows humble and is quite willing to ask for shelter and countenance.
+She asks for bread now that she is hungry. The most savage brutes are
+tamed by hunger,--when its pangs are keen the heart is weak.'"
+
+"Hush, uncle! oh, hush!" cried Ernestine with a shudder.
+
+But Leuthold was not to be silenced. He was in his element again. "That
+is what the supercilious mother would say, for these intellectual
+aristocrats are filled with the pride of independence, and exact it
+from others. And the Herr Professor? Naturally, he would feel it doubly
+his duty to marry you and cherish the starving woman. But when the
+first enthusiasm of sympathy was past, what, think you, Ernestine,
+would be his reflections in cooler moments?"
+
+"He would say, 'Necessity made her my wife,--not love.'"
+
+"'And why should I give love in return?'" Leuthold completed the
+thought.
+
+"Or even esteem," Ernestine added with a spasmodic shiver. "No, no! it
+shall not come to that. I will not sink so low. Noble and true as he
+is, he shall not accuse me of such selfishness. His proud, suspicious
+mother shall not find me a beggar at her door,--rather a grave in
+mid-ocean!" She drew near to Leuthold. Her breath came in gasps, her
+pulses throbbed. "Uncle, you have destroyed my happiness in life, help
+me to preserve all that is left for me,--my self-respect!"
+
+"Then come with me. Not until the ocean rolls between you and this man
+can you be secure from your own weakness."
+
+Ernestine sank down exhausted. "So be it! You have conquered!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V.
+
+                           SCIENCE AND FAITH.
+
+
+The dawning day strove in vain to lift the misty veil that a rainy
+night had spread over hill and dale. It was one of those mornings when
+the waning summer--like a belle whose charms are of the past in her
+morning dishabille--showed plainly that its glories were fading. The
+rising sun crept behind the cold, misty clouds, and the bushes were
+dripping with tears of regret. The faithful watcher, who had stood on
+guard all night near the castle, shook the wet from his cloak and
+shivered as he looked in the direction of the school-house, whence
+relief was to arrive.
+
+He did not wait long. The powerful figure of a young man appeared
+briskly advancing through the mist. Slowly and sleepily the clock in
+the tower of the village church tolled half-past four.
+
+"To a moment!" cried the watcher to the new arrival. "This is
+punctuality indeed!"
+
+"Good-morning!" said Walter. "Brr! the air is cold. You must be almost
+frozen."
+
+"Not more so than the huntsman on the watch," replied Johannes. "Ardour
+for the chase makes him warm. I burn and long to clutch that beast of
+prey up there. Oh, Walter, I am not easily roused,--my nature is a
+quiet one,--but if that man had tried to slip away in the night, and
+had fallen into my hands, I could not have answered for the
+consequences."
+
+"I do not wonder at you," laughed Walter. "Nothing would gratify me
+more than a chance at the fellow. How did you spend the night? Could
+you not sit down?"
+
+"No, I was not calm enough to do anything but pace to and fro, and now
+it is beginning to tell upon my wearied limbs."
+
+"Make haste, then, and get dry and warm. My father is impatiently
+expecting you. He is up and dressed, and my mother has a good cup of
+coffee waiting for you."
+
+"How kind you all are!" said Johannes. "But I am very anxious, Walter.
+Gleissert was with Ernestine until midnight. From the hill yonder I
+could see their heads through the window. They appeared to be in eager
+conversation, and moved about, as if they were packing. Oh, if she can
+possibly intend----"
+
+"Do not be in the least alarmed,--she cannot, after what you have told
+her."
+
+"But how, after what I have told her, can she endure that man about her
+for hours? How can she breathe the air of the room where he is, for
+even ten minutes?"
+
+"Hm--it does seem incredible. But, whatever happens, we have nothing to
+do but to watch and be ready. I will do my duty in this respect. Go,
+now, and rest for a couple of hours, that you may relieve me at
+school-time. Had you only allowed me to watch in your place, he would
+have found me as difficult as you to deal with."
+
+"You help me enough by assisting me during the day. Good-by, then. I
+shall be back at eight o'clock." And Johannes walked slowly and wearily
+towards the school-house. When he entered the low, dimly-lighted room,
+he found the steaming coffee-pot already upon the table. Frau Leonhardt
+had seen him coming, and all was in readiness for him.
+
+Herr Leonhardt sat in his place by the stove, and held out his hand
+with a kind but anxious "Good-morning! How are you after your unwonted
+duty through the night?"
+
+"Tolerably, old friend," replied Johannes, "but I cannot deny that my
+respect has considerably increased since yesterday for the honourable
+guild of watchmen.--No, thank you, Frau Leonhardt, I cannot eat
+anything."
+
+"Oh, do not drink your coffee without a morsel of something solid.
+Well, if you do not wish it--but, you see, here it is!"
+
+"Yes, my dear Frau Leonhardt, I see it," Johannes assured her, with a
+smiling glance at the great basketful of biscuits.
+
+"You must know that my Brigitta was up half the night to prepare her
+most tempting biscuits for your breakfast,--it is all she could do for
+you. Yes, Brigitta, the Herr Professor can appreciate your good will."
+
+"Indeed I can," said Johannes. "Such womanly kindness is dear to me
+wherever I meet with it. Your labour shall not be in vain." And he
+forced himself to eat.
+
+"Oh," said Brigitta, "if the Fraeulein had known that you were walking
+up and down beneath her windows in the cold night, she would have been
+grieved enough, and filled with pity!"
+
+"The Fraeulein knows no pity, my dear Frau Leonhardt," said Johannes
+bitterly.
+
+The old man laid his hand kindly upon Johannes' shoulder. "You do not
+mean what you say. You cannot think so meanly of her--your impatience
+speaks now, not you. If you could only understand her noble nature as I
+do, who am not blinded by passion!"
+
+"But, Father Leonhardt, I do not deny Ernestine's noble nature. Should
+I devote myself to her as I am now doing after her rejection of me, if
+I did not know her to be more than worthy of all that I can do? But if
+you could have seen her rigid, marble face yesterday, you would have
+questioned, as I did, whether that young girl really possessed a
+heart."
+
+"Indeed, indeed she does possess one," affirmed the old man. "But
+remember, Herr Professor, her heart has hitherto been fed solely
+through her understanding. She has had nothing to love but ideas. Human
+beings she has known nothing of. What wonder, then, if she imagines
+that she should love only where her intellect can say Amen? That Amen
+cannot be said in your case, for you have opposed all that has hitherto
+had the warrant of her intellect, which must needs be in arms against
+you, and the oppressed young heart must mutely acquiesce. Ernestine's
+intellect is that of a full-grown man, while her sensibilities are as
+undeveloped as those of a girl of fifteen. The consequence is that
+incessant contradictions appear in her conduct. Give these undeveloped
+sensibilities time, do not stunt them by coldness, and you will see
+them assert their rights in opposition to the intellect. She might
+almost be called a kind of Caspar Hauser in the world of sentiment. She
+is not at home there. She needs a patient teacher, and such a one she
+will find in you, I am sure. Do all that you can to prevent her from
+going to America; if she goes, she is as good as dead for us."
+
+"Rely upon me, faithful and wise old friend," cried Johannes, and fresh
+resolution was depicted on his face. "I will do all that I can for
+her,--not for my own sake, but for hers."
+
+"If you have finished your breakfast, you must take some rest," said
+Leonhardt. "My wife has arranged a bed for you."
+
+"I accept your kindness gratefully," replied Johannes, "for I am
+exhausted, and have a fatiguing day before me."
+
+"Then let me show you to your room. That service even a blind man can
+render you," said the old man with a smile.
+
+And the two ascended to the upper story, where Herr Leonhardt opened a
+door and showed his guest into a scrupulously neat little apartment,
+containing a most inviting bed. Then he groped about, assuring himself
+that all was as it should be, and returned to the room below, saying,
+as he closed the door, "Take a good sleep,--you may need the strength
+it will give you."
+
+"Thanks, a thousand thanks, Father Leonhardt!" Johannes cried after
+him, and he listened to the careful tread of his kind host upon the
+narrow stairway. Then his eyes closed. Frau Brigitta's words sounded in
+his ears, "If the Fraeulein had known that you were walking up and down
+beneath her windows in the cold night----"
+
+She must have known it. He had told her plainly enough that he should
+do so, and she had not even opened a window or looked out at him. But
+stay,--stay! She would come out to him herself. See! see! The gate
+opened softly. Was her uncle with her? No! She was alone,--quite alone!
+"Come," she whispered, "you are cold. Come in." And she took his hands
+and breathed upon them and rubbed them. "Will you not come into the
+house?" she asked. "There you can watch for my uncle and be out of the
+rain, and I will stay with you and never, never leave you."
+
+"Ernestine," cried Johannes, stretching out his arms to embrace her.
+The sudden motion awoke him, and he found himself alone. He could not
+have slept more than a quarter of an hour, and yet he could not go to
+sleep again. He lay quietly resting for a time, and then arose,
+prepared to go through with the decisive day that awaited him.
+
+
+Evening had come. As on the previous day, Ernestine was sitting at her
+writing-table, but it was empty now. Its contents were packed up in the
+chests which were standing in the room, locked and ready for the
+voyage. Ernestine sat idly, with her hands in her lap, listening to her
+uncle's directions to the weeping housekeeper in reference to the price
+at which she was to dispose of the furniture of the house.
+
+"The scientific works and the apparatus I shall leave to Walter
+Leonhardt," she said.
+
+"What!" cried Leuthold. "Are you going to give away at least a thousand
+thalers?" He paused, with a glance at Frau Willmers, who had the tact
+to leave the room. "Why throw money out of the window, now that we are
+beggared?"
+
+"The thousand thalers that the things would bring would not keep me
+from starving, while they will secure the young man's future. He has
+talents that must not run to waste, and which I can foster by giving
+him the means of pursuing his studies."
+
+"Is it possible? You think it your duty, then, to foster all neglected
+genius?"
+
+"Uncle," said Ernestine with cold severity, "I pray you spare me your
+opinion of my conduct. The habit of submission, it appears, is more
+easily discarded than that of ruling. I have cast aside the former,
+since yesterday, like a garment. It would be well for you to do the
+same with the latter."
+
+"But I thought I might at least be suffered to advise," observed
+Leuthold.
+
+"I will ask your advice when I think it necessary. In this matter it is
+enough that I choose to do as I have said."
+
+Leuthold regarded her immovable features with a mixture of fear and
+hatred, and thought to himself, "Once let me get you on the other side
+of the water, and in my power, and you shall atone bitterly for all the
+trouble that you give me now."
+
+And his restless fancy painted vividly before his mind's eye the
+revenge that awaited him in that new world, and an ugly smile was upon
+his lips as he thought of all that his niece's proud nature would have
+to endure.
+
+Ernestine arose. "There are only a few hours left before our
+departure," she said. "I must be sure that my intentions will be
+carried out."
+
+She went into her laboratory, and packed up, as well as she could, the
+apparatus that she designed for Walter. Then she reopened the letter
+that she was to leave with Willmers for Leonhardt, and added these
+words, "Come what may, I pray you preserve these books and instruments
+for me as relics. Say they are yours, or they will be snatched from you
+and from me."
+
+Thus she made her gift secure from the clutches of the law. She knew
+Leuthold well enough to feel sure that he would not seek to prevent its
+removal from the house if he could not keep it for his niece. Then she
+sent off the chests from the laboratory, and went into the library to
+select the books that Walter was to have. Leuthold hurried in, and said
+to her, "Moellner is coming! Now, Ernestine, summon up all your
+resolution!" His teeth fairly chattered with agitation. "Be strong,
+Ernestine. A human life is at stake! If you do not save me from
+Moellner's revenge and from the law, I am a dead man! By the life of my
+child,--dearer to me than aught else on earth,--I swear to you that I
+will commit suicide sooner than put on a convict's jacket! Now act
+accordingly."
+
+Ernestine gazed at him with horror. At last he was speaking the truth!
+Sheer, blank despair was painted on his features.
+
+"Uncle," she cried, "be calm! I will not drive you to suicide! My
+resolve is firm. Will you not be present?"
+
+"No, that would make mischief. I will get everything ready for our
+departure, that nothing may detain us. Do not forget. We are
+reconciled,--do you hear? Will you tell him so?"
+
+"I promise you."
+
+"I will go. I will not meet him. Bless you for every kind word, and
+curses upon you if you should betray me."
+
+He hurried away, and Ernestine looked after him with a shudder. A human
+life hung upon her lips! A curse awaited every thoughtless word that
+she might utter! She stood alone and helpless, burdened thus heavily, a
+young, inexperienced creature, scarcely able to bear the responsibility
+of her own actions. She spurred on her fainting energies to accomplish
+the almost superhuman task allotted to her.
+
+Her dreaded visitor entered.
+
+"Forgive me, Ernestine," he said, "for thus intruding unannounced. Your
+housekeeper directed me hither. This is no time for empty formalities.
+It is time for action, and, if need be, for a life-and-death struggle.
+I have just seen the chests sent off to Herr Leonhardt. I learn from
+Frau Willmers that you are going,--really going,--with your uncle.
+Ernestine, I have no words for the anguish that I am now enduring! I
+could submit to your rejection of my suit, for I might still love you,
+but to find you unworthy of my love, Ernestine, would be more than I
+can bear."
+
+"And what could so degrade me in your eyes?" asked Ernestine with
+offended pride.
+
+"Your not fleeing from such a villain, as from the Evil One
+himself,--your harbouring the intention of going forth into the world
+with one abhorred alike of God and man, not feeling sufficient
+detestation of the crime to induce you to avoid the criminal who must
+be shunned by every honest man. Oh, Ernestine, I cannot believe it now!
+I would rather die than believe it!"
+
+"He has excused himself in my eyes," said Ernestine, deeply wounded.
+"He has convinced me that no human being should condemn another
+unheard. I am not conscious of such perfection and infallibility in
+myself as would permit me to dare to judge and denounce. That must be
+left for those better and stronger than I. The tie that bound me to him
+is, it is true, broken, but I must tread the same path that he treads.
+I cannot refuse to share his wanderings."
+
+"Do you not fear the disgrace that will attach to you by thus joining
+your lot with that of a criminal, amenable to the law?"
+
+"The law has no power over him. He has satisfied me with regard to my
+property, and, if I am content, it is enough."
+
+"Good heavens! What security has he offered you? You are so
+inexperienced in such matters, he will deceive you again. Tell me, at
+least, what he has told you."
+
+Ernestine stood more erect. Agitation almost choked her utterance, and,
+to conceal it, she put on a colder, sterner manner than usual. "When I
+tell you I am satisfied, it seems to me that should content you."
+
+"Ernestine," cried Johannes, "why do you adopt this tone with me? I am
+acting and thinking only for you and your interest, and you treat me
+like a foe."
+
+"For all that you have done and are doing for me, I am grateful to you,
+as also for your kind intentions. But now, I pray you, leave to me all
+care for my future fate. I feel fully competent to direct it."
+
+"I tell you, Ernestine, that, whether you will it or not, I must snatch
+you from the abyss upon whose brink you are tottering. And first I will
+make sure of your companion. He has not given me the securities for
+your property that I required, the respite that I allowed him is past,
+the twenty-four hours for reflection have gone." He turned towards the
+door.
+
+"Dr. Moellner, what are you about to do?" cried Ernestine.
+
+"Give him up to justice."
+
+Ernestine placed herself in his way. "You must not do that!"
+
+"And why not?"
+
+"You will not attempt to avenge what I have forgiven. You will not so
+intrude into my life as to make it impossible for me to decide whether
+I will punish or forgive a crime that affects me alone. You are about
+to publish abroad my affairs, and I demand for myself the right to
+regulate my own private affairs as it may seem to me best. I cannot
+allow a stranger--yes, I say, a stranger--to meddle thus with the
+concerns of two human beings, as if he were an emissary of the Holy
+Vehm!"
+
+"Ernestine!" gasped Johannes.
+
+"I repeat it," she continued, "I am grateful for your kind intentions.
+But the best intentions result in unwelcome violence when they would
+rob a human being, of the right of free choice. I insist upon this most
+sacred of all rights, and forbid you any further interference with my
+fate, and, as my uncle's lot is so closely allied to mine that in
+striking him you would harm me, I hope you are sufficiently chivalric
+to desist from further persecution of him." Almost fainting, she leaned
+against the door.
+
+"Fraeulein von Hartwich," replied Johannes, controlling himself with
+difficulty, "you propose a hard trial for my patience. But I can
+forgive you, for you are a true woman." Ernestine started at these
+words, but he entreated silence by a gesture. "You are a woman, and, as
+such, easily aroused, easily deceived. Your uncle has taken advantage
+of this fact. You do not dream what you are doing in following the
+fortunes of this bad man. I thought I had opened your eyes yesterday,
+but I was mistaken. You saw, but I did not teach you to understand what
+you saw. I will retrieve my error. I will explain to you the motives
+for your uncle's course of action."
+
+"I have already told you," replied Ernestine, "that I know them. I need
+no further explanation. He has sinned, grievously sinned,--who can deny
+it? Not he himself. But his life has been dedicated to me with a
+devotion rare enough in our selfish world. He has lived for me ever
+since I was a child, and all his errors sprang from the dread of losing
+me. This is, perhaps, incredible to you, because from your point of
+view it is inconceivable that a man should entirely give himself up to
+the training of a woman's mind. To you a life spent solely in
+intellectual association with a woman seems impossible, and of course
+you would accuse of falsehood a man who professes to prefer such a life
+to all others. Therefore I know beforehand all you would say, and would
+be spared the listening to it now."
+
+"Ernestine," cried Johannes, fairly roused, "you must hear me, or, by
+Heaven, I do not know you!"
+
+He paused for one moment. Ernestine looked down, and apparently awaited
+what he had to say.
+
+"Yes, then, yes,--you are perfectly right. It does seem to me an
+impossibility that a man should make it the sole aim of his existence
+to develop the intellect of a woman. I can love as deeply as man can
+love. You know that I love you, and, were you mine, I would adore you,
+and you only, with my whole heart and soul, truly and unchangeably,
+until death separated us. But, in my love for you, to forego all other
+interests and duties in life, to idle away in delicious intercourse
+with you all opportunities for true manly exertion,--that I could
+not do, truly and warmly as I love you. It would be the part of a
+woman,--not of a man, who has public as well as private duties to
+fulfil. I have no confidence in a man who pretends to lead such a life
+out of simple affection for a relative. He must have some other purpose
+in view, and I believe that your uncle's purpose in this matter was a
+detestable one, leading him to sin against you in a way that God alone
+can justly punish. He would sacrifice everything for money--he would
+murder alike body and soul. Stay--be calm for a few moments. I will
+justify these terrible accusations. The theft of your fortune has been
+the purpose that he has kept steadily in view ever since he was your
+guardian. The possession of this property seems to have been the fixed
+idea of his life, for he induced your father at one time to bequeath it
+to him, leaving you, notwithstanding his boasted affection for you,
+only what the law accords to you. Heim prevailed upon your father to
+destroy this will and to reinstate you in your rights. But he was not
+sufficiently prudent, for the will that your father then dictated left
+too much margin for your uncle's administration. He longed to recover
+what he had lost, and circumstances favoured his desire. Your father,
+in his will, as you can see from this copy of it, stated that in case
+of your dying unmarried your entire fortune should go to Gleissert or
+his children. When your father died, matters looked propitious for
+Leuthold, for little Ernestine was such a frail, sickly child that he
+cherished a hope almost amounting to a certainty that the delicate cord
+of life that kept him from his inheritance would soon break, and give
+him all that he coveted. But the pale, quiet child confounded his plans
+by recovering her health Und strength. Hers was a rare nature, and
+recuperated quickly, both physically and mentally. The hope that she
+would die grew fainter and fainter, but he could not so easily
+relinquish the prospect of possessing her fortune. If he might not
+secure the inheritance, he could at least secure the person of the
+heir, and contrive to keep you, Ernestine, from marrying, since the
+money could be his only in the event of your dying single. To this end,
+you must be secluded from the world, and, that you might not miss
+its amusements, your restless spirit must be introduced to a new
+realm,--the realm of the intellect. Therefore he studiously concealed
+from you your coming of age, lest it should occur to you to break the
+bonds of the strict control to which you were subjected, and mingle
+with your kind. This was the plan of your education, this the reason of
+your uncle's tender solicitude for you. The time and trouble expended
+upon you were all in the way of business, a fair exchange for the
+ninety thousand thalers and the contingent advantages that he trusted
+to obtain thereby. He could never have attained such a competency as a
+German professor. This is criminal legacy-hunting. And now for my
+accusation of murder. I do not mean by it a murder with poison or
+dagger,--he is too cowardly and too prudent for that,--but he made use
+of a poison which, if it were not as quick in its effects as arsenic,
+at least possessed this advantage over it--no chemist could detect it,
+and no law punish its use. The body was to be destroyed through the
+mind. He knew how to foster in your passionate heart an ambition that
+dreaded no labour, that, in its burning desire to attain its ends,
+pursued them with a feverish haste that never heeded whether the
+physical frame were equal or not to such unceasing exertion. Oh, the
+plan was ingenious, but there were eyes, thank God! that saw through
+it. It is true he did not stand at your back with a rod, like a severe
+schoolmaster, to urge you on,---he did not compel you to work all night
+long, denying yourself the only refreshment that could strengthen your
+shattered nerves,--sleep,--but he contrived that you should do all this
+voluntarily. He saw you droop, and took no notice of it. He would not
+kill you with his own hand, but he put into yours the poison with which
+you should do it yourself, and, when the natural love of life in you
+spoke out and entreated aid, he forbade you to summon a physician, lest
+he should save you by an antidote! Thus, consciously and voluntarily,
+he has let you sicken and languish, and now he would carry you to
+America to bury you there. So much for the grounds of my accusation of
+physical murder. And now as to his murder of your soul. I said before
+that your uncle had secluded you from the world to make sure of your
+never marrying. How could he do this? By making you an object of
+aversion to society at large--by hardening your heart, so that you
+might never feel the desire for loving intercourse and companionship
+stirring within you. He accomplished these ends by making you a
+skeptic. And were this the only crime that he is guilty of towards you,
+it would justify any punishment, however severe,--any contempt, however
+profound."
+
+"If this is all that you have to say, I can only reply that you talk
+like a theologian, not like a physiologist," said Ernestine, vainly
+endeavouring to conceal her horror. "It is possible that there is some
+foundation for your other accusations of Doctor Gleissert,--I will not
+decide upon them at present,--but for this last there is none, or, at
+least, none in the degree that you mean. Yes, he did take from me my
+faith, but in its place he gave me that philosophy which is the
+resting-place of all thought, and wherein alone the doubting spirit can
+find peace."
+
+"Oh, what a miserable mistake!" cried Johannes. "Do you suppose that
+anything can take the place of faith in the world? Can a soul as lofty
+as your own be content with the mere knowledge of the laws that rule
+the universe, without raising reverential eyes to the Power whom those
+laws represent? Forgive me if I talk like a theologian. Let me be clear
+with you upon this point too, before we part. I would at least restore
+to you one possession of which your uncle has robbed you, and that
+belongs to women in an eminent degree, far more than to men,--the power
+of seeing heaven open when the earth does not suffice us!"
+
+Ernestine gazed at him in utter amazement: "Do you speak thus, you, a
+man of exact science,--a science that teaches how everything in
+existence is developed from itself! What is left for us to reverence in
+the God whom you would seem to declare, after we have learned that
+nature of itself alone creates and achieves everything?"
+
+Johannes shook his head. "Oh, Ernestine, can we believe in Him only by
+believing that his Spirit hovered over the face of the waters and
+created the heavens and the earth in six days? I think we have learned
+to separate this gross material representation from the actual being of
+God! Thus only can faith and knowledge join hands, and I am one of
+those in whose minds they have thus formed an alliance, although
+perhaps not without a struggle. I can give my belief no concrete shape,
+I have not the simplicity that is satisfied with a Deity compounded of
+human attributes and powers, but the fervent aspiration that looks up
+and holds fast to my formless God,--this aspiration is my rock of
+safety."
+
+"That is only a subjective emotion. What does it prove?"
+
+"Nothing!" said Johannes. "For the existence of a God can be as little
+proved as disproved. I might say He is to the world what the soul is to
+the body, and we cannot give form to the soul in our minds. The organs
+of the body work in obedience to unchangeable laws, but, although they
+thus work, they are under the control of the soul, and, although we can
+explain never so exactly the mechanism that the soul puts in motion at
+its good pleasure, we cannot explain how it thinks and desires. Are we
+therefore to deny that it does think and desire? But I know what little
+value will attach to such comparisons in your eyes, for you will demand
+logical proof of the truth of my parallel, and this I cannot give you."
+
+Ernestine was lost in thought. "I never should have conceived it
+possible that such a man as you are could believe in the existence of a
+God!"
+
+"If you will listen, I will tell you how faith first entered into my
+heart. I was a wayward lad, just emancipated from the ignorant
+illusions of childhood, with a living desire for the Infinite in my
+heart,--longing to prove scientifically the existence of the God in
+whom I no longer believed. In my ignorance of myself, I naturally fell
+into the way of that spurious philosophy which the science of to-day
+looks back upon with contempt, and--to use Du Bois' words--racked my
+brain for awhile over the riddle of Being, human and divine. My
+affections were warm,--I loved those belonging to me, and especially my
+little sister Angelika. One day the child was taken dangerously ill,
+and, as she was more devoted to me than to any other member of the
+family, I watched with her through long nights with fraternal
+tenderness. The child suffered greatly, and one night in particular her
+cries fairly broke my heart. My mother at last took her little hands in
+her own, clasped them, and said, 'Pray, my darling,--pray to God. He
+may grant your prayer!' And the child, suppressing her sobs, cried,
+'Ah, dear God, take away my pain!' And I--I flung myself upon my knees
+and prayed fervently, I knew not what,--I knew not to whom,--no
+matter! I prayed. I heard my mother's voice say Amen, and I repeated
+Amen,--almost unconsciously. The child was soothed, grew calm, looked
+up to heaven with childlike trust, then smiled upon us and went to
+sleep with her head upon my breast,--her first sound sleep after a week
+of suffering. I listened to her breathing, it was soft and regular. I
+was filled then with an emotion such as I had never before
+experienced,--tears came to my eyes. I could have embraced the world in
+my delight,--no, a world would not suffice me, I needed a God beside.
+What shall I say,--how explain it in words? Like the girl born blind,
+in the poem, that believed she _saw_ when she _loved_, I loved the God
+to whom I had prayed, and because I loved Him I saw Him with my heart!"
+
+He paused, and looked at Ernestine, who had listened with sympathy.
+
+"That is the very essence of faith," he continued. "No reason can give
+it to you or take it from you. One single agonized moment taught me
+what science and philosophy had failed to teach. I found by the bedside
+of a child the God for whom my intellect had vainly searched earth and
+skies. From this time I learned to keep myself open to conviction. I
+now first became an exact physiologist. I no longer set fantastic
+bounds to science, I no longer adulterated my pure contemplation of
+nature with metaphysical notions, but confined myself strictly to the
+actual, and it never conflicted with my feelings, for Science itself
+pauses before the first cause of all Being, and says, 'Thus far, and no
+farther,' and here, where my knowledge ceases, my faith begins!"
+
+"You speak well, but you do not convince me," said Ernestine sadly.
+
+"I see. I know that the remedy for your disease does not lie in the
+words or the example of others, but in your own experience. I prophesy,
+if you are ever overwhelmed by a moment of despair, that you will waken
+to the need of that God whom you now ignore. Even were it not to be so,
+I could only pity you, for a woman who cannot pray is a bird with
+broken wings. I maintain that there is no woman who does not
+believe,--for there is none who does not _fear_, and fear looks in
+reverence to God, whether as avenging justice or protecting love, to
+which to flee when all other aid fails. Can you be the sole exception
+to this rule?"
+
+"I hope so," said Ernestine proudly. "I am not one of those weaklings
+who dread danger in the dark. I look every phantom of terror boldly in
+the face, and can recognize its natural origin. I fear nothing, and
+have no need of a God."
+
+"You fear nothing?" asked Johannes, and then, struck by a sudden
+thought, added, "Not even death?"
+
+"Not even death! I know that I am but a part of universal matter, and
+must return to it again. What is there to fear? The dissolution of a
+personal existence in the great sum of things,--the transformation of
+one substance into another? Since I learned to think, I have constantly
+pondered this great law of nature, and have accustomed myself to
+consider my insignificant existence only as part and parcel of the
+wondrous transmutation of matter perpetually taking place in the
+universe. Only when we have attained this conviction can we smilingly
+renounce our vain claim to individual immortality, and see in death the
+due tribute that we pay to nature for our life."
+
+"Indeed? And you imagine that this consolation will stand you in stead
+when the time really comes for you to descend into that dark abyss
+which is illuminated for you by no ray of faith or hope?"
+
+"I am sure of it."
+
+"And if you were plunged into it before the appointed time?"
+
+"I should not quarrel with the measure of existence that nature
+accorded me."
+
+"You would not, however, curtail that existence intentionally?"
+
+Ernestine looked at him in surprise. "No, assuredly not."
+
+"Are you not afraid of doing so by going to America?"
+
+"Why should I fear it?--on account of the dangers of the sea, perhaps?
+Oh, no. It has borne millions of lives in safety upon its waves,--why
+not mine also? It will be more merciful than my kind, I think."
+
+"Then you are still determined to go, after all that I have told you of
+your uncle?"
+
+"With him or without him, I shall go," said Ernestine.
+
+"Well, then, God is my witness that I have tried my best! Now,--you
+will think me cruel, but I cannot help it,--one remedy still is left
+me,--a terrible one, but your proud courage gives me strength to use
+it. Ernestine, if you persist in your determination to undertake this
+voyage, I fear the time is close at hand when the genuineness of your
+philosophical consolation will be tried indeed. You will hardly live to
+reach New York."
+
+Ernestine grew, if possible, paler than before at these words. "What
+reason have you to say so?" she faltered.
+
+"I will tell you, for there is no time left for concealment." He looked
+at the clock. "I cannot understand how, with your understanding and
+the knowledge that you possess, you should fail to see that you are
+ill,--not only nervous and prostrated, but seriously ill."
+
+Ernestine looked at him in alarm.
+
+"I am firmly convinced that you are lost if you continue your present
+mode of life, as you will and must in America. Notwithstanding all your
+uncle may have told you, I know that, once in New York, you will have
+no chance of recovering from him one thaler of your fortune, even
+supposing that, in accordance with your wishes, I allow him to leave
+this country. You will be forced to earn your daily support, and, I
+tell you truly, your life, under such conditions, will not last one
+year. You will die in your bloom in an American hospital, and be buried
+in a nameless grave!"
+
+Ernestine turned away.
+
+"Are you still determined to go?" Johannes asked after a pause.
+
+Ernestine pondered for one moment of bitter agony. She knew only too
+well that he was right. But what should she do? He had no idea that her
+fortune was actually lost,--that she would be forced to earn her bread
+if she stayed as surely as if she went,--that she must labour
+incessantly, if she would not be a dependent beggar. Think and reflect
+as she might, she saw nothing before her but death in a hospital! And
+she would far rather perish in a foreign land than here, where all knew
+her, and where all would triumph over her downfall, that they had
+prophesied so often. No! she must fly! Like the dying bird in winter,
+hiding himself in his death-agony from every eye, she would conceal, in
+a distant quarter of the globe, her poverty, her degradation and
+disgrace, from the arrogant man of whom she had been so haughtily
+independent in the day of her prosperity.
+
+At last she raised her head, and, with a great effort, said, "There is
+no choice left me. I must fulfil my contract,--I _must_ go to America!"
+
+Johannes had awaited her decision with breathless eagerness. He lost
+almost entirely his hardly-won self-control. "Ernestine," he exclaimed,
+seizing both her hands, "Ernestine, I plead for life and death. Do you
+not hear?--I tell you there is no hope for you but in absolute repose.
+Will you voluntarily hurry into the grave yawning at your feet? I have
+watched you with the eyes of a physician and a lover, and I swear to
+you, by my honour, that I have been continually discovering fresh cause
+for anxiety. You look as if you were in a decline at this moment. You
+have the feeble, capricious pulse and the cold hands of a victim of
+disease of the heart. Yesterday I heard from Frau Willmers of symptoms
+that filled me with alarm for you,--I grasp at the hope that they may
+be only the effects of your unnaturally forced manner of life. But
+these effects may become causes, in your present exhausted condition,
+causes of mortal disease, if you do not spare yourself I cannot, in
+duty or conscience, let you go without, hard as it is, enlightening you
+with regard to your physical condition. I would have spared you the
+cruel truth, but your determined obstinacy extorts it from me. Have
+some compassion upon me, and do not go before you have seen Heim. He is
+a man of experience, let him judge whether I am right or not. I entreat
+you to see him. Do, Ernestine, do, for my sake, if you would not leave
+me plunged in the depths of despair."
+
+Still he held her hands firmly clasped in his. His chest heaved, his
+cheeks were flushed with emotion. All the strength of his passionate
+affection for her seethed and glowed in his imperious and imploring
+entreaties.
+
+Ernestine stood pale and calm before him. No human eye could divine her
+thoughts.
+
+Whilst they stood thus silently gazing into each other's eyes, there
+was a sound as of a carriage driving from the door below. Johannes, in
+his agitation, never heard it. Ernestine thought it was possibly her
+uncle, but she did not care. She had suddenly grown strangely
+indifferent to everything in the world.
+
+"Ernestine, have you no answer for me?" asked Johannes.
+
+"I will--reflect--until to-morrow."
+
+"Thank God!" burst from the depths of Johannes' heart. As he dropped
+Ernestine's hands, he fairly staggered with exhaustion.
+
+Again a few moments passed in gloomy silence.
+
+"Ernestine," he then said, "you have in this last hour punished an
+innocent man for all the sins of his sex. Let it suffice you--indeed
+you are avenged."
+
+Ernestine did not speak.
+
+Johannes continued. "I will intrude no longer. May I come with Heim
+to-morrow?"
+
+"You shall learn my decision to-morrow."
+
+"Your hand upon it. No? Then farewell!"
+
+Ernestine was alone. She stood motionless for awhile, never thinking of
+Johannes, nor of her uncle, who, strangely enough, did not appear, but
+with one sentence ringing in her ears,--"Your pulse is that of a victim
+to disease of the heart." Those words had stung like a scorpion. There
+was no doubt, then, that Johannes considered her past all hope of
+recovering,--he had plainly intimated as much, although he had
+refrained from bluntly telling her so. But was Dr. Moellner capable of
+forming a correct judgment in her case? Yes, certainly, both as
+physiologist and physician, he was thoroughly able to form a just
+diagnosis. She did not understand how she could so long have ignored
+the signs in herself of physical decline. He was right,--her uncle was
+her murderer. She shuddered at the thought. How near death seemed to
+her now! She thought, and thought called to mind every peculiar
+sensation that she had lately been conscious of, weighed the evidence,
+and drew conclusions.
+
+It was remarkable how everything betokened trouble with her heart.
+Johannes wished to consult Heim. He would not have done that, had he
+not thought her dangerously ill. What could he or Heim tell her that
+she did not know herself? Had he any means of obtaining knowledge that
+were not hers also? Had she not a pathological library, filled with all
+that a physician needed,--the same that she had destined for Walter,
+but had not yet sent to him? She would consult it and know the truth
+that very day.
+
+Night had fallen--the rain was dripping outside--the room lay in dreary
+shadow. She rang for lights. Frau Willmers brought a study-lamp with a
+green shade, and left her alone again.
+
+Ernestine placed a small library-ladder against one of the tall,
+heavily-carved bookcases, and mounted it, with the lamp in her hand.
+She took out one book after another, without finding the one for which
+she was searching. Impatiently she rummaged among the dusty folios,
+that had not been touched for months. At last, by the dim light of her
+lamp, she saw the title that she was looking for, but it was beneath a
+pile of books hastily heaped above it. She dragged it out with feverish
+impatience. The volumes tumbled about, some hard, heavy object, lying
+among them, fell upon her head, almost stunning her, and then shattered
+the lamp in her hand, falling afterwards upon the floor with a dull
+noise amidst the broken glass that accompanied it. Ernestine, her book
+under her arm, got down from the ladder with trembling knees, to see,
+by the expiring flame of the wick of the lamp, what it was that had
+caused the mischief. As she stooped to pick it up, a fleshless,
+grinning face stared into her own. She started back with a cry. It was
+one of the skulls that she had put away in the library and long
+forgotten. The dim light of the lamp died out, but through the darkness
+the white jaws still grinned horribly. Almost insane with horror, she
+called again for lights. To her overwrought nerves, the trifling
+accident was in strange harmony with the thoughts that were tormenting
+her. It was as if nature thus gave her ominous warning of her fate.
+
+When lights were brought, she forced herself to look the hateful thing
+in the face again. She picked up the head by its empty eye-sockets.
+"Thus shall I shortly look,--no fairer than this horror!" And she went
+up to a mirror, and, in a kind of bravado, compared her own head with
+the fleshless thing. "You must learn to recognize the family likeness,"
+she said to her own reflection, and in feverish fancy she began to
+analyze her own fair, noble features and imagine all the changes that
+they must pass through before their resemblance to their mute, bleached
+companion should be complete. Disgust and dread mastered her again, and
+she feared her own reflection in the mirror as much as the skull. She
+threw it from her, and then started at the noise it made as it fell
+into the corner of the room. The blood rushed to her head, and she was
+deafened by the whirr and singing in her ears, although, through it
+all, she seemed to hear something, she knew not what, that she could
+not comprehend, and that increased her terror. The death's-head in the
+corner would not--so it seemed to her--keep quiet; it was rolling about
+there. She could not stay in the room,--there was something evil in the
+air. She took the book that she had found, and the candle, and fled
+like a hunted deer to her own apartment, never looking around her in
+the desolate rooms, in fear lest the formless thing that so filled her
+with dread should take visible shape and stare at her from some dim
+recess. But it followed at her heels, dogging her footsteps,
+surrounding her like an atmosphere, and with its hundred arms so
+oppressing her chest and throat, even in the quiet of her own room,
+that it scarcely left space for her heart to beat. How strangely it did
+beat,--so irregularly! now faint, now strong, as only a diseased heart
+can beat! And she opened the book and read her doom,--read the pages
+devoted to diseases of the heart, hastily, feverishly, with little
+comprehension of their meaning, for by this time thought was merged in
+fear, and of course she gave the words a meaning they did not possess,
+in dread of finding what she wanted to know and yet greedily searching
+for it. Yes, it was just as she feared. Not a symptom here described
+that she had not felt. Now it was beyond all doubt, she was lost,--no
+cure was possible,--only delay, and even that, in her present state of
+weakness, was hardly to be hoped. She tossed the book aside, and went
+to the window for air. Damp with rain and close as it was, still it was
+air,--freer and purer than any that she would have in her coffin. Then,
+to be sure, she would need it no more, but it was still delightful to
+breathe, and the thought of lying beneath that close coffin-lid was
+suffocation!
+
+And she was to die soon! Johannes had not been mistaken. It was true.
+And her strength had been failing for a long time. What was she afraid
+of? What was there to fear? The pain that she might suffer? Thousands
+had suffered the same agony, and the hour of her release was perhaps
+closer at hand than she thought. Then she would be strong,--this hope
+should sustain her. She would not falsify, even to herself, the
+declaration that she had made to Johannes scarcely an hour before.
+Fear? What? Annihilation,--to cease to be,--it was not cheering, and
+certainly not sad,--it was simply nothing! It was not annihilation that
+she feared, but a continuation of existence that might be worse than
+death,--the uncertainty whether the soul perished with the body.
+"True," she said to herself, "if our eyes are blinded they are not
+conscious of light, our closed ears cannot hear. Let this physical
+mechanism, that is our means of communication with the exterior world,
+pause in its working, and communication ceases. But suppose thought
+should be independent of this mechanism? Oh! horrible, horrible! why is
+there no proof that it cannot be so? What if memory lives on and there
+are no eyes for seeing, and of course no light,--no ears for hearing,
+and no sound, no body sensitive to touch, no time or space,--nothing
+but eternal night, eternal silence, only informed by the memory of what
+we have seen and heard, and the longing for light, sound, and feeling?"
+
+This was the worst of all,--more dreadful than personal annihilation;
+this was what she feared. Eternal night, eternal silence, and eternal
+solitude! Whose blood would not curdle at the thought, except theirs,
+perhaps, who were weary and worn with existence, or who, looking back
+upon life's long labour well performed, needed not shun an eternity of
+remembrance? But she? She was not weary of the world, she had not yet
+began to enjoy it,--she was not old, she was just beginning to live.
+She had done nothing towards fulfilling her high purposes, nothing that
+she could look back upon with satisfaction. It was too soon,--if she
+must go now, she had nothing to look forward to but an eternity of
+remorse! And how long must she endure this dread before the horrible
+certainty came upon her? "Oh, cruel death!" she moaned, "to assail me
+thus insidiously in his most horrid shape,--of slow, languishing
+disease! If he would only attack me like an assassin, that I might do
+battle with him,--meet me in the shape of some falling fragment of rock
+that I might try to avoid, or in engulfing waves that I could breast
+and strive against,--it would be kinder than to steal upon me thus,
+invisible, impalpable, inevitable! Let me flee across the ocean to the
+farthest ends of the earth, I cannot escape him, I take him with me!
+Let me mount the swiftest steed and be borne wildly over hill and
+valley, I cannot escape him, he will ride with me! Let me climb the
+loftiest Alps,--in vain! in vain! He nestles within me." She fell upon
+her knees. "Oh, omnipotent nature, cruel mother who refusest me
+your bounteous nourishment, have compassion upon me, and save your
+child,--do not give my thought, my life, to annihilation, and its
+garment to decay! Millions breathe and prosper who are not worthy of
+your blessings,--will you thrust out me, your priestess, from your
+grace?" And she lay prostrate, wringing her hands, as if awaiting an
+answer to her entreaty. All around her was silent. There was no pity
+for her. She bethought herself, "Oh, nature is implacable, why should I
+pray to her? she does not hear, she does not think or feel, but sweeps
+me from her path in the blind despotism of her eternal mechanism. Is
+there no hand to aid? no judge of the worth of an existence, to say,
+'Thou art worthy to live, therefore live?' There is, there is! By the
+agony of this hour, I know there must be a higher justice, a Divinity
+other than nature. The spirit that now in dread of death wrestles with
+nature must have another refuge, a loftier destiny than the life of
+this world!" She clasped her hands upon her breast. "Oh, Faith! Faith!
+and if it be so,--if there be a God, what claim can I have upon His
+pity? Could my vain pride sustain me before such a judge? What have I
+done to make me worthy of His compassion? Have I been of any use in the
+world,--conferred happiness upon a single human being, formed one tie
+pleasant to contemplate? Have I not all my life long denied His
+existence, and now, like a coward, do I fly to Him for succour? Can I
+expect aid, and dare to raise my eyes to heaven and seek there what the
+earth denies me? No! I will not deceive myself; there is no pity for
+me,--none in nature, none in mankind, none in God!"
+
+And Faith overwhelmed her with its terrors, for only to the loving
+heart is Faith revealed as Love. To those who have shunned and denied
+it, it comes like an avenging blast. It bore her poor diseased mind
+away upon its wings like a withered leaf from the tree of knowledge,
+and tossed it down into the night of despair.
+
+A cry, "Johannes, come! save me!" burst from Ernestine's lips, and, in
+a vain effort to reach the door, she fell senseless upon the ground.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+
+                               SENTENCED.
+
+
+Leuthold had listened to the conversation between Johannes and
+Ernestine until it reached the point where he saw that Johannes would
+prevail. Several times he wondered whether it might not be best to
+break in upon them and try to give their interview another colour, but
+he reflected that the attempt would be useless with a man of Moellner's
+determination, and that he should only be forced to listen to fresh
+accusations. Then he devised another plan, and determined to make use
+of the opportunity to effect his own escape. Convinced now that his
+game was lost, he gathered together the contents of his strong
+box, and wrote a few lines to Ernestine that might be found upon his
+writing-table when his absence was discovered. They ran thus:
+
+
+"I have listened to your conversation, and have heard the unfortunate
+turn for me that it has taken. I can no longer cherish any hope, and
+all that I can do is to outwit this fellow and escape while he is with
+you. I take with me whatever of money there is in the house, to defray
+the expenses of my journey. I cannot wait until Moellner has gone to ask
+you for it, for he would stand guard at the door again, and I should
+never escape from his clutches. My life, and my child's future
+existence, are at stake. I cannot delay. If you should still decide to
+leave with me to-day, you will find me at the railroad-station. There
+are still two hours before the departure of the train. If you remain, I
+will send you the money for the journey as soon as I can. Farewell,
+and, I hope, _au revoir_."
+
+
+Having written these lines, he slipped out to the stables, had the
+horses put into the carriage, and drove to the station. In two hours
+his fate would be decided! Once off in the train, and he was safe!
+
+The time spent by Ernestine in mortal struggle with her doubts and
+reawakening faith was no less a time of torture to him who was the
+cause of all her woe. Any one who has waited a couple of hours for the
+arrival of a railroad-train at some insignificant station knows the
+meaning of the word "patience." To stand about upon a desolate
+platform, stamping your feet to keep them warm, now peering forward to
+look along the endless level road, in hopes of discovering the red
+spark in the distance, then walking up and down the narrow space again,
+and interrogating the sleepy superintendent as often as you think his
+patience will permit, as to whether the train will not soon arrive, and
+always hearing the same answer, "It will soon be here now,"--an
+assertion which the official himself does not believe,--then, for a
+change, to wander into the dreary refreshment-room, with its eternal
+leathery sandwiches and its faded waiter-girls, who reward you with
+such an offensive want of interest because you are not sufficiently
+exhausted by a long journey to be brought down to the point of
+purchasing any of their stale provisions,--to look at the clock every
+ten minutes, under the full conviction that at least half an hour must
+have elapsed since you looked last,--and finally, when, stupefied with
+fatigue and dully resigned to waiting, you have sunk upon a seat, to be
+roused with a start by the shrill whistle of the locomotive, causing
+you hastily to collect your seven bundles and rush out, only to be
+stopped by the station-porter, because this is not the train you want,
+but one that passes before your train,--all these are the miseries of
+human life at a railroad-station that every one is familiar with. But
+for him who is waiting for the iron steed to save him from pursuit and
+death, they become the most terrible tortures that malicious demons can
+devise.
+
+Leuthold experienced them to the utmost, with the added anxiety of
+watching in two different directions,--in that whence the train was to
+approach, and in that whence he himself had come, and where the avenger
+might now be upon his track. Thus he passed two hours upon a mental
+rack--and when at last the glittering point appeared upon the horizon,
+and, coming nearer and nearer, the train swept up before the station,
+he thought he should fall senseless at the sound of the whistle that
+rung in his ears. With all the strength that he was master of, he
+mounted the high steps of the car, and the black, red-eyed, guardian
+angel of thieves and murderers spread abroad its smoky pinions and
+steamed away with him into the night.
+
+Safety seemed assured. Upon the iron path, along which he was carried
+with such fiery speed, no pursuit could overtake him, except through
+the electric spark,--that might outstrip him and cause his arrest at
+some other station. But this fear did not trouble him greatly, for no
+one knew whither he had fled. To baffle pursuit, he had purchased a
+ticket for a distant town on the left bank of the Rhine while he
+intended going directly to Hamburg, first stopping at Hanover to take
+his daughter from her boarding-school.
+
+It was a cold, disagreeable night. Overpowered by fatigue, he fell
+asleep once or twice. He dreamed he was in the cabin of a vessel upon
+the ocean,--once more he breathed freely--his fears were at an end. And
+as we are apt to say, when some danger is past, "Now we are on dry land
+again," he, on the contrary, exulted in being on the water. But
+suddenly the cruel guard shouted in at the door his monotonous "Five
+minutes for refreshment!" and recalled him to the consciousness that he
+was still on the land, on the land where for him there was no real
+safety. Thus the night passed between waking and sleeping. The other
+travellers looked compassionately, by the flickering light of the
+car-lamp, at the pale, beardless man leaning back so wearily in the
+corner, and thought he must be very ill.
+
+At last the dawn flushed the horizon, and revealed the uninteresting
+level landscape. The usual beverage was offered at all the
+stopping-places, and drank for coffee by the chilly travellers, who,
+reduced to a state of physical and mental weakness, made no complaints,
+only murmured, "At least it is something warm!"
+
+An old lady, who had got into the car during the night, and, seated by
+Leuthold, fairly drank herself through the whole journey, was greatly
+troubled by the presence of the pale man who appeared impervious to
+earthly needs and sat perfectly motionless in his corner. What kind of
+a man could this be, who never stirred, never took any refreshment,
+never smoked, never spoke, not even to answer the usual question,
+"Where are we now?" which is almost sure to open a conversation?
+Nothing makes friends more speedily than common discomfort in
+travelling at night. All the other travellers in the car had grown
+confidential,--had stretched themselves, and told whether and how they
+had slept. Leuthold alone was as if deaf and dumb. Of course the others
+leagued against him. They watched him curiously, and made whispered
+remarks upon his appearance. At last he grew very uncomfortable. The
+restlessness of the old lady by his side tormented him, she was
+perpetually burying him beneath her huge fur cloak, which, she informed
+him, she had brought into the car with her because it would not go into
+her trunk, and now it had turned out quite useful--who would have
+thought a September night would be so cool? Still, she must take it
+off, lest she should take cold, and she disentangled herself from the
+voluminous garment, almost smothering Leuthold in the process. The
+other gentlemen smilingly assisted her, and Leuthold extricated himself
+impatiently. The cloak was at last, with considerable pains, secured in
+the place made for portmanteaus on one side of the car, during which
+process the towers of the capital, looming in the light of morning,
+were approached unperceived. The pains had been fruitless, for the
+guard opened the door with the words that would release Leuthold,
+"Tickets for Hanover, gentlemen!"
+
+"Oh, good gracious I are we there already?" cried the old lady,
+rummaging her pockets for her ticket, which Leuthold fortunately picked
+up from the floor and handed to her.
+
+Appeased by his courtesy, she asked him if he too was going to get out
+at Hanover, and, upon his answering by a brief "Yes," she informed him,
+to his horror, that she was going to take her youngest daughter from
+the boarding-school there, to establish her as companion with a lady in
+Copenhagen. She had a hard journey before her, for she should continue
+it that very night.
+
+Therefore he determined not to take the night train for Hamburg, as he
+had at first intended, since then he would have to travel the long road
+thither from Hanover in company with this officious old gossip and her
+daughter. He could not avoid them, as the daughter was in the same
+boarding-school with Gretchen, and probably one of her friends. It was
+incumbent upon him to have no companions to whom he might become known
+and who could thus afford intelligence to the authorities concerning
+his route. Great as was the danger in delay, this peril was still
+greater. He must choose the lesser evil, and lose a day.
+
+The train stopped. The old lady emerged from the car, like a mole from
+the earth, and was greeted with a joyful exclamation from her daughter,
+who was waiting for her at the station.
+
+Leuthold threw himself into a droschky, and drove to a hotel, whence he
+dispatched a few lines to his daughter, requesting her to come to him.
+
+A long half-hour ensued. What would the daughter be whom he had not
+seen for seven years? Was she what she seemed in her letters? If she
+were, how should he meet her and gaze into her innocent eyes?
+
+There was a gentle knock at the door. "Come in," he cried eagerly, and
+there entered a creature so lovely in her budding maidenhood that
+Leuthold could only open his arms to her in mute delight.
+
+The girl stood for one moment timidly upon the threshold, and then
+threw herself upon her father's breast with a cry of joy,--a cry in
+which all the home-sickness of years was dissolved in the rapture of
+reunion. Closer and closer each clasped the other,--neither could utter
+a word. The child wept tears of joy in her father's arms, and bitter
+drops fell from Leuthold's eyes upon the head that he pressed to his
+breast as if this happiness were to be his only for a few minutes.
+
+"Father, let me look at you," Gretchen said at last, extricating
+herself from his embrace. And she put her hands upon either side of his
+head, and gazed into his eyes with the clear, frank glance of
+innocence. He bore her look as he would have borne to look at the sun:
+it seemed to him that it must blind him, and that he should never be
+able to raise his eyelids again.
+
+"Father dear, I can see how you have laboured and suffered," said
+Gretchen sadly. "It was high time for you to allow yourself a little
+relaxation. Ah, how good it is of you to come to me,--to me!" And her
+emotion found vent in kisses. "But the surprise!" she cried with a long
+breath, "the surprise! I could hardly believe my eyes when your note
+was handed to me. 'My father's hand,' I thought, 'and from here?' I
+opened the note and read,--and read,--in distinct letters, that my
+father was really here. I gave such a cry of delight that every one
+came running to know what was the matter. I was just out of bed, and
+would gladly have run to you in my dressing-gown! Oh, heavens! I could
+scarcely dress myself--everything went wrong. I should never have got
+through if the Fraeulein had not helped me,--I was in such a hurry!" And
+she laughed, and cried, and threw her arms around her father again, as
+if she feared he might vanish from her sight. "Ah, father, what shall I
+call you? My own darling father, is this really you? Are you going to
+stay with me now for a while? Are you half as glad to see me as I am to
+see you?"
+
+Thus the innocent, joyous creature overwhelmed him with love and
+caresses, and he, lost as he was, heard his condemnation in every one
+of her tender words.
+
+Could this angel ever descend from her upper sphere to a knowledge of
+her father's crime? Could her pure soul ever be stained with thoughts
+of sin, of which as yet she had no idea, and learn to despise, as a
+criminal, him whom she now held dearest in the world?
+
+But this was not all that he feared. What if his disgrace were to be
+visited upon his child? What if this young bud should be buried beneath
+the ruins of his shattered existence? Who would have anything to do
+with the daughter of a criminal?
+
+"Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and
+fourth generation!" These words, hitherto only empty sounds to him,
+haunted his memory in terrible distinctness. They perfectly expressed
+the dread that possessed him.
+
+"Father, how silent you are!" said Gretchen timidly.
+
+"Oh, my child,--my life! I can do nothing but look at you and delight
+in you! Your loveliness is like a revelation to me from on high! I have
+become a new man since I know myself the father of such a child! I
+cannot jest and laugh,--my joy is too deep! So let me be silent, and,
+believe me, the graver I am, the more I love you."
+
+Gretchen instantly understood and sympathized with her father's mood.
+"You are right,--we do not jest and laugh in church, and yet I am so
+filled there with gratitude for God's kindness to me! How I thank Him
+now for this moment! I have prayed Him for so many years to send you to
+me, and now my prayer is answered,--you are here. His way is always the
+best. He has not sent you before, because I was not old enough to
+appreciate this happiness." Leuthold had seated himself by this time,
+and she stood beside him and pillowed his head upon her breast. "You
+are worn out, father dear. You look so sad. But now you are mine, and I
+will tend you and cherish you until you forget all your care and
+anxiety. Oh that Ernestine,--I will not wish her ill, but would she
+only give back to me every smile that she has stolen from you,--to me,
+who have nothing but your smile in this world!" She imprinted upon his
+forehead a kiss that burned there like a coal of fire.
+
+"We will not speak of Ernestine now, my child," said Leuthold. "Let her
+be what she is. We will talk of her by-and-by. Lately she has not been
+so hard to control, and has often spoken of you affectionately. I think
+she will shortly marry, and then she will be gentler, for love always
+ennobles. She has not quite decided as to her future course yet, but I
+think she will marry. At all events, she will take care of you if
+anything should happen to me. Yes, she will,--I am sure of it."
+
+"Father," cried Gretchen in alarm, "how can you talk so? What could
+happen to you?"
+
+"Why, my child, I might die suddenly. We must be prepared for
+everything, the future is in God's hand."
+
+Gretchen knelt down beside him, and pressed her rosy lips upon his
+slender hand. "Father dear, why cast a shadow upon this happy hour?
+Just as I have found you, must I think of losing you? Oh, my Heavenly
+Father cannot be so cruel! You are in His hand, and He who has brought
+you to me will let me keep you."
+
+She laid her head upon his knee with childlike tenderness, and was
+silent.
+
+"Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children" rang again in the
+ears of the happy and yet miserable father. Thus several hours passed,
+amid the girl's loving talk and laughing jests, until at last, at noon,
+she sprang up and declared she must go home to dinner. Leuthold would
+not let her go. He said they would not expect her at the school,--they
+would know she would stay with her father. And so they dined together,
+for the first time after so many years. But to Leuthold the meal was
+like the last before his execution.
+
+After dinner he went to see the governess of the Institute, and asked
+her to allow Gretchen to take a pleasure-trip of a few weeks with
+him,--a request that was readily granted, although madame declared that
+she could not tell how she should do without Gretchen so long. "For I
+assure you," said she, "that Gretchen has richly rewarded us for our
+trouble. When she really leaves me, she will carry a large piece of my
+heart with her."
+
+"Oh, how can I thank you?" cried Gretchen, throwing herself into her
+kind friend's arms.
+
+Leuthold was deeply troubled. Should he snatch this child from the soil
+into which she had struck root so securely, and where she had blossomed
+so fairly in the sunshine of peace and good will? And yet could he
+leave her here to lose her forever? If justice should pursue him to
+America, he never could send for his daughter without betraying his
+place of refuge. She was his child. He had a sacred claim upon her,
+and, since he had seen her again, was less able than ever to do without
+her. She should share his fate.
+
+While he was in the parlour of the Institute, the old lady who had been
+his travelling companion, and who had passed the whole day with her
+daughter, entered, and was charmed to meet him again, only regretting
+that they were not to continue their journey together that evening.
+
+Madame invited him to return to tea,--an invitation that he could not
+refuse,--and he left the house for awhile for a walk with Gretchen. The
+girl's delight knew no bounds when she found herself promenading the
+streets upon her father's arm. She had on her prettiest bonnet and her
+best dress,--she wished to be a credit to her father and to please him,
+and she entirely succeeded. She was charming. Leuthold regarded her
+with increasing admiration, and his busy mind began to weave fresh
+plans for the future out of her brown hair and long eyelashes. The
+world stood open for this angel, might she not pass scathless through
+it with a father who had been proscribed? Who could withstand those
+half-laughing, half-pensive gazelle-eyes, and those pouting lips;
+pleading for a father?
+
+As she walked beside him thus, her elastic form lightly supported upon
+his arm, prattling on with all the grace of a nature full of sense and
+sensibility, he too began to smile and to revive. He might be most
+wretched as a man, but he was greatly to be envied as a father.
+
+Gretchen interrupted his reverie. "Father," she said in a low voice,
+"when I was a little child, you never liked to have me speak of my
+mother. But I want very much to know what became of her after she
+married that head-waiter. Will you tell me to-day?"
+
+"I can tell you nothing,--I know nothing of her since she left Marburg,
+after her father's death. At the time of the divorce she sent me the
+sum that she was to contribute to the expenses of your education, and
+her coarse husband permitted no further correspondence between us. He
+sent back to me unopened every letter in which I tried to arrange
+matters more methodically. I learned through a third person that she
+had left Marburg. I do not know where she is living now."
+
+Gretchen shook her head and said nothing.
+
+"I look like you, father, do I not?" she asked anxiously. She did not
+want to resemble her faithless mother in anything.
+
+"You inherit her beauty, refined and ennobled, and my way of thinking
+and feeling."
+
+Gretchen nestled close to his side. "I would like to grow more like you
+every day."
+
+"God forbid!" Leuthold thought to himself, in the full consciousness of
+what he was, as he turned to go back to the Institute. If he could only
+have thus retraced his steps in the path of life!
+
+The evening passed more slowly than if he had been alone with Gretchen,
+although he was delighted by fresh proofs of her ability and progress.
+He was especially surprised by her artistic talent,--her drawings and
+sketches in colour. She had not exaggerated when she wrote to him that
+she was as entirely fitted as a girl could be to earn her own
+livelihood. He was perfectly satisfied upon that point. And as he lay
+down to rest at night, a sense of relief filled his mind greater than
+any he had felt for a long time, and it soothed him to repose.
+
+The next morning Gretchen heard, to her surprise, that her kind father
+desired to give her a glimpse of the ocean. He would wait until they
+were on board of the steamer, he thought, before he told her of his
+real plans. They took the early train for Hamburg, and arrived there
+towards evening. Leuthold thought it advisable to go directly to a
+large hotel, where an individual would not excite as much observation
+as in a smaller house. He selected one of the most splendid hotels in
+the gayest street in Hamburg.
+
+Gretchen was enchanted with the sight of this northern Venice. The
+extensive basin of the Alster lay before them, framed in hundreds of
+bright lights, on its bank the brilliantly illuminated Alster Pavilion,
+while the rippling waves reflected the moon's rays in a long path of
+shining silver. Like pictures in a magic lantern, the gondolas glided
+hither and thither, and the fresh sea-breeze wafted the notes of gay
+music from the other side. The waves of the sea of light and of sound
+burst in harmony upon Gretchen's eyes and ears, and made her fairly
+giddy with delight. She could almost believe that the Nixies, scared
+away to their depths during the day by the passing to and fro upon the
+waters of so much life and vivacity, were now beginning to sport there
+in the moonlight, playing around the skiff's and singing their enticing
+strains. And when she turned her eyes to the shore, bordered by palaces
+and crowded with restless throngs of pedestrians and gay equipages,
+presenting a scene of reality to counteract the dreamy impression
+produced by the expanse of water, the world seemed to the child a
+garden of enchantment, and her father the mighty magician reigning over
+it, who had brought her hither to enjoy its splendours. She threw her
+arms around him and kissed his hands, and could not thank him enough
+for giving her such new delight.
+
+The carriage stopped at the entrance of the magnificent hotel, and the
+attendants came running to offer their services. The head-waiter stood
+in the doorway, ready to receive the new arrivals. Leuthold helped out
+Gretchen and handed over the baggage to a servant. As he ascended the
+steps, he glanced for the first time at the dignified and trim deputy
+of the host. He started, and the man too was evidently startled. Each
+seemed familiar to the other; one moment of reflection, and the
+recognition was mutual. Leuthold held fast by Gretchen, or he would
+have staggered. There stood the headwaiter of his father-in-law's
+inn,--Bertha's husband.
+
+They exchanged a hostile glance of recognition. Then the man cried with
+a perfectly unconcerned air, "Louis, show Dr. Gleissert and his
+daughter to Nos. 42 and 43."
+
+It seemed to Leuthold that the servant smiled at the mention of his
+name, and that he exchanged a significant glance with his chief. But
+this was probably only an illusion of his excited fancy. He hesitated
+whether it would not be better to go to another hotel. But that would
+look like flight,--he had been recognized, and, if the man chose to
+pursue him, he could follow him to any inn in Hamburg.
+
+His enemy stood aside with a contemptuous obeisance, and Leuthold
+followed his guide up to the fourth story. "Have you no room in a lower
+story?" he asked.
+
+"Very sorry, sir," replied the servant with a smile, "they are all
+occupied--you have a very good view here of the river."
+
+Leuthold was silent. He seemed to have fallen into a trap. How had he
+come to choose in all this wide city the very house where dwelt his
+worst enemy? How did the fellow come here?
+
+The servant Louis opened a charming room, looking out upon the water,
+and Gretchen could not suppress an exclamation of delight as she looked
+down from such a height upon all the beauty below them. It seemed like
+heaven to her. Louis lighted the candles, and awaited further orders.
+
+"How long has Herr Meyer been head-waiter here?" Leuthold asked as if
+incidentally.
+
+"For about a year," Louis replied, arranging his napkin upon his arm.
+"He is a relative of the proprietor of this house, who, when his only
+son died, sent for Herr Meyer, that the business might not pass into
+strange hands."
+
+"Indeed--then will Herr Meyer succeed him?"
+
+"I believe so,--yes, sir."
+
+Leuthold walked to and fro upon the soft carpet.
+
+"Will you have supper, sir?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Will you go down to the dining-hall, sir?"
+
+"No, I had rather not mount those four flights of stairs again. Bring
+our supper here, if you please."
+
+"Very well, sir, I will get you the bill of fare instantly."
+
+"Here--stop a moment----"
+
+"What do you wish, sir?"
+
+"Bring me up a couple of newspapers at the same time."
+
+"Very well, sir."
+
+As the door closed behind the man, Gretchen turned round from the
+window, where she had been standing with clasped hands. "Father," said
+she, "I am fairly dazzled with all that I see. I never was so happy in
+my life before. But, in the midst of it all, I never forget whom I have
+to thank for all this pleasure." And she knelt upon the carpet and laid
+her head upon the lap of her father, who had flung himself exhausted
+into a chair. "Do not you too, father, feel easy and free up here in
+the pure, clear air, with this lovely view of the shining water?"
+
+"Oh, yes, dear child," said Leuthold, his breast filled the while with
+deadly forebodings.
+
+Gretchen sprang up again, and took two or three deep breaths. "Oh," she
+cried, running to the window again, "it seems to me that I have been
+thirsty all my life, and am now drinking deep refreshing draughts in
+looking at those rolling waves." She leaned her fair forehead against
+the window-frame, and eagerly inhaled the fresh breeze that blew into
+the room from the Alster. "How happy those are who are at home upon two
+elements," she continued, "land and water! We, poor land-rats, must
+cling to the soil. Think of inhabiting all four of the elements, now
+working and walking upon the earth, then soaring aloft into the air,
+now floating dreamily upon the waves, or dancing in the ardent glow of
+fire,--would not that be glorious?"
+
+"Then you would be man, fish, bird, and salamander all at once," said
+Leuthold, smiling in surprise at the girl's earnest tone. "Well, well,
+it might be all very delightful at sixteen, but a man as aged as your
+old father is thankful if he can live respectably upon the earth only."
+
+"My old father!" laughed Gretchen, hastening to his side again--"you
+darling papa, how can you call yourself aged? Come with me to the
+window, the prospect there will make you twenty years younger." She
+drew him towards it. "It is very strange, I think, but certainly a new
+revelation of beauty should make the old younger, and the young older.
+It is a new experience for the young, and experience always makes us
+mature. It is a memory for the old, for they are sure to have seen
+something of the kind in previous years, and it carries them back to
+the earlier and youthful sensations that it first awakened in them.
+Such a memory should lighten the soul of ten years at least."
+
+Leuthold looked at his daughter with unfeigned surprise. "Child, where
+did you learn all that?"
+
+"Why, out of some book that I have read, I suppose," said Gretchen
+modestly. "One always remembers something, you know."
+
+"Blessed be the day that gave you to me,--you are all that I have."
+
+There was a knock at the door, and the servant entered with the bill of
+fare and the newspapers.
+
+"Excuse me, sir, for keeping you waiting. I had to go to Madame for
+to-day's paper."
+
+"No matter," said Leuthold, almost gaily. His talk with his daughter
+had done him good.
+
+He ordered a little supper, and, when the man left the room, seated
+himself on a sofa and began to read.
+
+Gretchen took her work,--she was just at the age when affection finds
+instant pleasure in embroidering or crocheting some article for the
+beloved object. So she sat and sewed diligently upon a letter-case that
+she was embroidering for her father while he read. Now and then she
+turned and looked out of the window, to be sure that all the splendour
+there had not vanished.
+
+Suddenly she was startled by a profound sigh from her father, and,
+looking up, she saw him sitting pale as ashes, staring at the paper
+that had fallen from his hands. In an instant he sprang to his feet and
+walked up and down the room in mute despair.
+
+"What is the matter, dear, dear father? what is it?" she asked in
+alarm, but, receiving no reply, she picked up the newspaper, to see if
+she could discover from it what had caused his agitation. She read
+unobserved by him--he was leaning out of the window for air--read what
+seemed to her a strange tongue, to be deciphered only in her heart's
+blood. It was a telegraphic order from the magistrate of W----. "Dr.
+Leuthold Gleissert, former Professor in Pr--, is charged with having
+appropriated, by means of forgery, and expended upon his own account,
+the property, amounting to upwards of ninety thousand thalers, of his
+ward Ernestine von Hartwich, of Hochstetten, and also of having robbed
+the mail. You are desired to arrest and detain him." A personal
+description of him followed, but Gretchen had read enough. "Father!"
+she screamed, "father! father!" And, as if in these three words she had
+summed up all there was to say, she fell forward with her face upon the
+floor, as though never to raise it again.
+
+There stood the guilty man, forced to behold his child crushed
+beneath the ruins of his shattered existence. He did not venture to
+touch the sacred form extended before him in anguish. He looked down
+upon her like one almost bereft of reason. God had visited his sin
+upon him, probing the only place in his heart sensitive to human
+feeling--his punishment lay in the sight of his child's agony without
+the power to relieve it.
+
+Suddenly Gretchen raised her head and looked at him with those clear,
+conscious eyes whose gaze he had always endured with difficulty, and
+before which his own eyes now drooped instantly. "It is not true--it
+cannot be! Father, you are innocent--you cannot have done this thing!"
+
+"For God's sake, Gretchen, do not speak so loud," Leuthold entreated.
+
+"You tremble--you will not look at me. Father, if you have thus
+burdened your soul, I cannot be your judge--I will be your conscience.
+I will not let you enjoy a single hour of rest or sleep until you have
+restored what does not belong to you. I will die of hunger before your
+eyes, rather than taste a morsel that is not honestly earned. But what
+am I saying? I am beside myself! It is not possible!--not possible!
+Relieve me from my misery by one word. My soul is in darkness, cast one
+ray of light into it." She clasped his knees imploringly. "Father,
+swear to me that you are innocent----"
+
+"My child----"
+
+She interrupted him. "No, no oath, no asseveration--there is no need
+between us of any such--only a simple yes or no, and I will believe
+you! Look at me, father,--oh, look at me! Do not speak, do not even say
+yes or no,--let me but look into your eyes, and my doubts will
+disappear."
+
+"Gretchen," whispered Leuthold, trying to extricate himself from her
+clasping arms, "listen to me!"
+
+"No, father, no, I will not let you go. I want no explanation, no
+argument. If you have committed this crime, nothing can extenuate it. I
+will hear nothing, know nothing, but whether you have committed it or
+not." She sought, in childlike eagerness, to meet his eye--she
+unclasped her arms from his knees to seize his hands and cover them
+with kisses, while a flood of tears relieved her heart. "Forgive me,
+forgive me for daring to speak thus to you, a child to a father. Oh,
+God! how unworthy I am of your affection! The false accusation invented
+by evil men could lead me astray, and I dare to ask if you are
+innocent! Forgive me, my kind, patient father--see, I will not ask you
+again, I will not even look inquiringly into your eyes. The touch of
+your hand, this dear, faithful hand, suffices to reassure me and lead
+me back to the knowledge of a daughter's duty." And she laid her face,
+wet with tears, upon his hands, with a touching humility that cut him
+more deeply than any accusations could have done.
+
+"There--that's quite enough!" suddenly said a voice behind them, that
+curdled the blood in Leuthold's veins. "I will teach you a daughter's
+duty!" And from the doorway of the adjoining room Bertha's stout figure
+made its appearance boldly advancing.
+
+"Good God, my mother!" shrieked Gretchen, and she recoiled
+involuntarily.
+
+"Gretel," said the woman, "are you afraid of your mother while you are
+on your knees to that villain?"
+
+Leuthold stepped between her and his child. "Bertha," said he, "it
+seems to me my punishment is sufficient. Surely you need not avenge
+yourself by snatching from me my child's heart,--a heart that you never
+prized, and will never win to yourself. If there is a particle of
+maternal tenderness in your breast, spare, not me, but this innocent
+angel. Do not destroy the most precious possession of a youthful
+heart,--confidence in her father. Bertha, Bertha, you will harm the
+daughter more than the parent! Give heed to your maternal heart, which
+must throb more quickly at sight of this fair flower, and spare me a
+blow that would annihilate her."
+
+Frau Bertha folded her arms, and looked upon Leuthold with exceeding
+disdain. "Oho! now it is your turn to beg. I am no longer rude, clumsy,
+and coarse as a brute, as I was when you drove me off because I was too
+awkward to help you to steal the inheritance."
+
+"Bertha!" cried Leuthold, pointing to Gretchen, whose imploring eyes
+were turning from one parent to the other in increasing distress.
+
+"Yes, yes, she shall hear it all! She shall know what a charming papa
+she has, and that you are not unjustly accused in the papers. Why
+should you stop at such a crime as that, when you would have beggared
+Ernestine as a child, persuading old Hartwich to make you his heir?
+There is nothing that you would not do. I can tell her that,--I, your
+wife, who lived with you for years. And your child shall curse you,
+instead of adoring you as a saint. No one can tell what a fine game you
+might have played, if you had once got off to America with such a
+pretty girl."
+
+At these words Gretchen uttered a loud shriek.
+
+Bertha pitilessly continued, "And just because I have maternal feeling
+enough to try to save my child, I will prevent your evil designs.
+You shall not carry the poor thing away with you to such a life as
+yours,--not while I live!"
+
+"Bertha," cried Leuthold, forgetting all caution, "hush, or mischief
+will be done here!"
+
+"What mischief? Will you try to throttle me, as you did when Hartwich
+made Ernestine his heir instead of you? Only lay a finger on me! There
+is a police-officer outside in the passage, whom my husband placed
+there lest Louis should not be able to serve my fine gentleman with
+sufficient elegance."
+
+"Great God!" gasped Gretchen, staggering as if mortally wounded.
+
+"Is it really so? Could your mean desire for revenge degrade you thus?"
+asked Leuthold, still incredulous.
+
+"It was not I, but my husband, who owes you a grudge because I played
+him false and married you. A gentleman came here this morning with the
+chief of police to search this house, as well as all the other hotels
+in the city, and left orders that if you arrived here he was to be
+informed of it. My husband sent for him, and, for greater security's
+sake, for a police-officer too,--I only wanted to speak to poor Gretel
+beforehand, and take her under my protection when her father was
+arrested." She approached the girl, who fled like some frightened
+animal to the farthest corner of the room.
+
+"Go!" she cried, trembling in every limb. "Do not touch me! You can do
+nothing for me now but kill me, and put an end to the agony you have
+brought upon me."
+
+She burst into a piteous fit of sobbing. No one observed that the door
+had been gently opened, and that a young man was standing upon the
+threshold, regarding the unfortunate girl with the deepest compassion.
+
+"My child," said Leuthold, going timidly up to her, "my child, will you
+not listen to one word from your unworthy father?"
+
+"Do not speak, father. What good can it do? I cannot believe you any
+more,--cannot save you,--cannot, although I would so gladly do
+it,--wash away your guilt, even with my heart's blood. I can only weep
+for you."
+
+"Forgive one entirely unknown to you for intruding upon such grief,"
+the stranger now said, in a voice trembling with pity. "I am compelled
+by cruel circumstances to appear as an enemy, when I would gladly act
+the part of a friend and comforter." He turned to Bertha. "May I
+entreat you to leave us a few minutes alone?"
+
+She went out grumbling.
+
+"Herr Gleissert," he continued, "my name is Hilsborn. Do not start. I
+am not come to avenge my dead father. His sainted spirit would disdain
+revenge. He forgave you freely while he lived. I come in place of my
+friend Moellner, who is detained by the dangerous illness of your niece,
+to vindicate the rights of Fraeulein Ernestine. We learned from Frau
+Willmers that you had sent your effects to Hamburg _poste-restante_
+several days ago, and that you would of course be obliged to come
+hither to reclaim them. Moellner requested me to pursue you without
+delay, and, without one thought of personal revenge, I consented to
+assist my friend in reinstating your unfortunate ward in her rights. I
+little knew what my acceptance of this duty would cost me, for the few
+minutes that I lingered on that threshold taught me that my task is not
+alone to hand you over to justice, but to deprive a daughter of her
+father."
+
+"You shame me, sir, by such kindness at a moment when a less
+magnanimous man would have believed himself justified in heaping me
+with insult. I am the more grateful to you since you, of all others,
+have most reason to hate me. Your humanity, under these sad
+circumstances, relieves me with regard to the fate of my unfortunate
+child, for it emboldens me to hope that you will extend your chivalrous
+kindness to her also."
+
+"Rely upon it, I will do so," Hilsborn assured him.
+
+"And let me hope, my child, that you will not reject the noble
+protection thus offered you. Herr Hilsborn, remember, has done your
+father no wrong,--he has only, in his natural desire for justice, lent
+his aid to the hand that is pursuing me. I presume," continued he,
+turning to Hilsborn, "that you have provided for my immediate arrest?"
+
+"Yes, Herr Gleissert," said Hilsborn gently, "the superintendent of the
+hotel has assisted me to do so."
+
+"Then I will place no unnecessary obstacles in your way. I shall submit
+to the investigation with a good conscience."
+
+Hilsborn laid his hand lightly upon Leuthold's arm. "Herr Gleissert, do
+not reject advice that is well meant." He spoke in a whisper, that
+Gretchen, who was listening with feverish eagerness, might not hear
+what he said.
+
+"Well?" asked Leuthold.
+
+"Do not attempt denial, you will only weaken your case. The proofs of
+your crime are most decisive."
+
+"How so?" asked Leuthold quietly, believing that he had destroyed every
+scrap of paper that could criminate him.
+
+"On the evening of your flight, a letter was received from a former
+maid of Fraeulein Hartwich's, who travelled in Italy with you, demanding
+immediate payment of her yearly stipend, for which she had written
+several times in vain. She reminds you, Herr Gleissert, of what she has
+done for you,--how she worked sometimes all night long, trying to
+imitate Fraeulein von Hartwich's signature, that she might be able to
+counterfeit her successfully before the notary. In short, the letter
+proves beyond a doubt that you deceived the notary by substituting the
+person as well as the signature of the maid for your ward's, that the
+deed might be complete by which the Orphans' Court was induced to
+resign the estate in its charge."
+
+Leuthold stood before the young man pale and mute. Hilsborn saw the
+terrible agony of his soul.
+
+"I do not tell you this to humiliate you or to increase your pain, but
+only to warn you," he continued, "that you may not lose any time by a
+false plan of defence, and perhaps thereby deprive yourself of the
+sympathy sure to await a man of your culture who makes frank and
+remorseful confession of his guilt."
+
+Leuthold's lips quivered at these well-meant words. "Have steps been
+taken to secure the person of the maid?" he inquired, in the tone in
+which he would have asked, "How long have I to live?"
+
+"Professor Moellner telegraphed immediately to O----, the girl's present
+place of abode, and just before I left him he received intelligence
+that she had been placed under arrest. The notary also has been
+summoned. Be assured that, as your arrest has been conducted with the
+greatest foresight, no measures will be neglected to insure your
+conviction. The only course left for you is to endeavour to secure the
+sympathies of the jury."
+
+"I thank you!" said Leuthold.
+
+Gretchen had been standing leaning against the window-frame, and had
+understood more than Hilsborn had intended that she should. The waters
+of the Alster were still rolling below her, the lights were sparkling,
+and, in the terrible silence that now ensued, the music of the waltzes
+in the pavilion could be plainly heard. Was it possible that there was
+no change outside, while she felt as if the world were crumbling in
+pieces around her?
+
+Again the door opened, and several figures appeared. Everything swam
+before Gretchen's eyes, her heart beat as though every throb were its
+last. An official entered, "Excuse me, sir," he said to Hilsborn, "I
+cannot wait any longer."
+
+Leuthold looked towards the door. Two police-officers were standing
+outside, and Bertha with her husband. And who were those? Other figures
+were constantly appearing in the brilliantly lighted hall, inmates of
+the house, eager to witness the arrest. And was he to be led through
+all that gaping, staring crowd? He, who, with all his crimes, had
+always preserved appearances,--was he at last to be as it were held up
+to public contempt, dragged through the lighted passages and down the
+staircases by policemen, like a common thief? Of course there would be
+an eager crowd below, and another upon his arrival at N--. His only
+road now lay through long rows of curious faces, dragged from
+examination to examination, from disgrace to disgrace,--he, a man who
+had always preserved an outward respectability,--until he should end
+either in a convict's coat or the strait-jacket of a madman! The time
+for reflection was over. He turned a little, only a very little, aside,
+and drew a folded paper from his pocket,--it did not take a moment, no
+one observed the motion. And what else? it was so easy to put his hand
+to his lips and swallow the powder that the paper contained, far easier
+than to pass through that brilliant hall, through that murmuring,
+staring mob, to the courtroom, and thence to a jail! Only an
+instant,--it was done. It tasted bitter, and he drank a glass of water
+to destroy the taste upon his tongue. Then he stepped up to Gretchen,
+who was upon her knees, her face buried in her hands. "Gretchen," he
+said almost inaudibly, "forgive your unhappy father!"
+
+"Father? Almighty God, I have no father!" burst from the lips of his
+tortured child.
+
+Leuthold looked at her with dim eyes. "I am condemned!" was all he
+could say.
+
+Then he turned to the officials. "Gentlemen, at such a moment as this,
+it is surely natural for a father to provide for the future of those
+whom he may leave behind him. I am ill, and may die at any moment. In
+case of my demise, therefore, I appoint, before all these witnesses,
+Herr Professor Hilsborn my daughter's guardian, as I hold her mother,
+who survives me, entirely unfit in every respect to be her guide and
+protector. The fact of her having forsaken her daughter at a tender
+age, and never troubling herself to inquire concerning her afterwards,
+will prove the justice of what I say. I pray you, gentlemen, to attest
+the validity of this my last will, when the hour for doing so arrives.
+Observe that I am at present in full possession of my mental
+faculties."
+
+The by-standers looked at him in amazement. Bertha would have spoken,
+but her husband restrained her.
+
+The officer said, coldly but politely, "Your directions shall, if
+necessary, receive due attention. Rely upon it."
+
+"You have no objections to make?" Leuthold asked Hilsborn.
+
+"Your wish shall be sacred to me," the young man assured him.
+
+"And now, sir, I beg for one great favour," Leuthold whispered to the
+officer. "Grant me one half-hour's delay."
+
+"I am sorry, but I have waited too long already."
+
+"Only one-half hour, sir, for the love of Heaven,--a quarter of an
+hour!" Leuthold pleaded. The poison was beginning to work. His knees
+trembled, his gray eyes were glassy in their sockets, his features grew
+rigid.
+
+"Not a minute longer!" the official replied impatiently, and beckoned
+to the police-officers.
+
+"Have some pity!" the tortured man gasped out to Hilsborn. "I have
+taken poison. For humanity's sake, induce him to let me die here with
+my child."
+
+"Good God!" exclaimed Hilsborn. "Let instant aid----"
+
+Leuthold clutched his arm, and with a ghastly smile whispered, "It will
+be of no use, my friend!"
+
+Hilsborn was horror-struck. "Sir," he said, "I unite my entreaties to
+those of Herr Gleissert. Allow him to remain here only until I have
+spoken with your chief."
+
+"If the arrest is an unjust one, it will soon be at an end. I have
+nothing to do with that. I must obey orders."
+
+Hilsborn whispered a few words in his ear, but he shrugged his
+shoulders. "Any man could say that. We will stop at a physician's as we
+drive past. That is not contrary to orders. We must go!" The policemen
+entered.
+
+Hilsborn whispered to Leuthold, "I will bring you an antidote. I hope,
+for your child's sake, that you will take it. God have mercy on you!"
+
+Leuthold would have replied, but a spasm prevented him from uttering a
+word.
+
+Hilsborn saw that the poison had already infected the blood, and that
+all aid would come too late. Nevertheless, he would do what he could.
+In passing, he lightly touched Gretchen's shoulder. "Fraeulein
+Gleissert, your father is going. Say one word to him."
+
+Gretchen started, as if from a swoon, looked around her, and saw
+Leuthold between the officers. "Father!" she shrieked, and rushed
+towards him. She clasped him in her arms, and pressed kiss after kiss
+upon his blue lips. Her cries wrung the souls of the by-standers, and
+Bertha hurried away, that she might not hear them.
+
+"I take back what I said," Gretchen moaned. "How could I say I had no
+father? Now that I am going to lose you, I feel that I can never
+forsake you!"
+
+Leuthold writhed in agony in her embrace, but he managed to speak once
+more. "My child," he gasped thickly, "if there is a God, may He bless
+you! and when you hear that your father took his own life, remember
+that estate, freedom, honour, were gone past recall, but that by his
+own act he at least avoided a public exposure."
+
+Gretchen gazed at him speechless. She tried to reply, but her lips
+refused her utterance. She only knew that her father was taken from
+her, and that stranger hands loosened her frantic clutch of his
+garments. She heard footsteps retreating, a door closed, and there was
+silence. For a few moments she lost consciousness. But other noises
+roused her from the fainting-fit that had brought her repose from
+grief, and recalled her to herself. Were the footsteps approaching
+again? Yes, they came on to the door of her room. What a strange murmur
+mingled with them! She raised her weary head with a mixture of fear and
+hope.
+
+The door was thrown open as wide as it could go. Four men entered,
+bearing a well-nigh senseless burden. Her father had returned to
+her,--but how? They laid him upon the bed. Gretchen would have thrown
+herself into his arms, but he thrust her from him convulsively, for her
+clasping arms, her loving kiss, were tortures too great to be borne. He
+tried to speak, but in vain. Amidst frightful spasms, alternating with
+utter exhaustion, he breathed his last sigh, and his spirit bore its
+burden of guilt to new, unknown spheres of existence.
+
+He had avoided all "public exposure."
+
+But the only judge that he had acknowledged upon earth,--his
+child,--lay crushed at his feet expiating the crimes of the condemned.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+                              THE ORPHAN.
+
+
+Day was again mirrored brightly in the waters of the Alster, and again
+the streets swarmed with life. The prattle and laughter of children on
+their way to school, the monotonous cries of the street-hawkers, the
+rattle of passing vehicles, were all borne aloft into the quiet room
+where Leuthold had died, and where Gretchen still knelt beside the bed,
+and, by her constantly recurring bursts of grief, showed that the long
+night had not sufficed to exhaust the fountains of her tears. Her head
+lay upon the edge of the bed, and her arms were stretched across the
+empty mattress,--for the host had insisted upon the immediate removal
+from his house of the body of the suicide. But Gretchen could not yet
+be induced to leave the desolate room, the vacant couch. Since she was
+not allowed to follow her father's corpse, she would at least pillow
+her head where he had lain. She repulsed all her mother's advances.
+When everything had been done that the law requires in such terrible
+cases, and the officials had vacated the apartment, she shot the bolt
+of the door behind them, and thanked God that she was alone with her
+misery, alone by her father's death-bed.
+
+What human eye can pierce the depths of a young heart lacerated by such
+anguish? All that goes on in the soul at such moments, when the
+creature wrestles with its Creator, must remain a profound mystery,--a
+mystery known to almost every human being, but never to be revealed, no
+mortal language can declare God's revelations to us in our direst need.
+Experience alone can enlighten us, and those who have lived through
+such a time can only clasp the hand of a fellow-sufferer, and say, "I
+know what it is," and henceforth there is a bond between them that is
+none the less close because it can never be explained.
+
+Thus was it with Gretchen and Hilsborn when the latter's low knock at
+the door aroused the girl from her grief, and she arose from her knees
+and admitted him. She put her hand in the one he held out to her, and
+looked confidingly into his serious blue eyes.
+
+"You never went to bed, dear Fraeulein Gleissert," said he. "I can see
+that."
+
+"How could I rest?" she replied. "They would not even let me watch by
+his body. All that I could do was to wake and pray for him here where
+he drew his last breath. How hard it is to have to leave what one has
+loved so dearly, and not to be allowed to cling to it at least until it
+is consigned to the earth! Suppose he were not quite dead. If he should
+stir, no one will be near to fan the spark of life into a flame. If he
+should open his eyes once more and find himself alone, and then die in
+helpless despair----Oh, the thought is madness!"
+
+"I can assure you, Fraeulein Gleissert," said Hilsborn quietly, "that
+your father sleeps peacefully. I did what you were not permitted to
+do,--I spent the night by his body."
+
+"Could you do this for the man for whom you could have had no regard?"
+cried Gretchen.
+
+"I did it for you. I could imagine all you felt, and I knew it would be
+some comfort to you this morning to know that I had done it."
+
+"Oh, how can I thank you, sir? I am too childish and insignificant
+to thank you as I ought. My heart is filled with gratitude that will
+not clothe itself in words! You watched by my father from pure
+humanity,--compelled by no duty, no obligation,--only that you might
+soothe the grief of a poor orphan. I cannot express what I feel. You
+must know----" She could go no further. Tears gushed from her eyes. She
+took his hand, and, before he knew what she was doing, had imprinted
+upon it a fervent kiss.
+
+"Fraeulein Gleissert!" cried Hilsborn, in great embarrassment. And a
+deep blush overspread his cheeks.
+
+Gretchen never dreamed that she had committed any impropriety,--how
+could she, at such a moment? And Hilsborn knew this, and would not
+shame her by hastily withdrawing his hand. She was still but a child,
+in spite of her blooming maidenhood, and the kiss was prompted by the
+purest impulse of her heart.
+
+"You reward me far more richly than I deserve," he said softly.
+"Although it is long since I suffered the same sorrow, I know what it
+is. Grief for the death of my father never deserts me. Sorrow easily
+unites with sorrow, and you are more to me in your affliction than any
+of the gay, laughter-loving girls of my acquaintance. Let me do what I
+can for you,--it will be done with my whole heart,--and, for your own
+sake, do not give way to grief. Remember,--it is a melancholy
+consolation, nevertheless it is a consolation,--that it is far better
+for him to die before his crime brought its dreadful consequences. His
+home could never again have been among honourable men. What, then,
+would have become of you? Believe me, it is better as it is!"
+
+"Do you think, then, my father does not deserve these tears? I know how
+great his offences were, and that every one is justified in condemning
+him,--every one but his child,--I cannot blame him. Do you think I
+ought not to grieve for him as I should for an honourable father? Ah,
+sir, is it less sad to lose a father thus, just as I was reunited to
+him, to find that he whom I so revered was a criminal, and to have him
+vanish in his sin before I could even breathe a prayer to God for mercy
+upon him? Whatever he may have done, I must mourn for him all the more,
+for he was and always will be my father. And there never was a kinder
+father. Let others curse his memory, I can only mourn for him. If the
+holy words are true, 'With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured
+to you again,' I must give him nothing but love, for he never meted to
+me anything else. Do not despise me. I do not feel his guilt the less,
+although I cannot love him less."
+
+Hilsborn looked down at her with admiration. "How can you suppose that
+I could despise this sacred filial affection? I respect you all the
+more for it. It reveals in you treasures of womanly tenderness! Most
+certainly he who had such a daughter, and knew how unworthy he was of
+her, is doubly to be pitied. I will not try to console you. You have in
+yourself a richer consolation than any that mortal words can give. What
+can such a stranger as I say to you or be to you? I can only stand
+ready to protect and advise you, should you need advice or protection."
+
+"If you will be so kind as to direct my first steps in life, it lies
+all so untried before me, my poor father will bless you from beyond the
+grave."
+
+She paused, startled, for the door opened hastily, and Bertha entered.
+She regarded her daughter with a satisfaction that equalled the
+aversion that she excited in her child. Bertha's beauty had been of a
+kind that endures only for a season and then gradually becomes a
+caricature of its former self. Her fresh colour had turned to purple.
+Her mouth had grown full and sensual, with a drooping under-lip. Her
+sparkling black eyes had receded behind her fat cheeks, and had an
+expression of low cunning. An immense double chin and a round, waddling
+figure added to the coarseness of her appearance. This was the woman
+who stood ready to claim affection from a daughter whose whole
+education had tended to create disgust at her mother's chief
+characteristic--coarseness. What was this woman to her? She had heard
+that she was her mother, but she had never felt it. She had not seen
+her since she was scarcely five years old. She could feel no stirring
+of affection for. She could hardly connect her with the image in her
+mind of her father's faithless wife. While she was thus regarding
+Bertha with aversion, the man entered the room whom she was
+henceforward to consider in the light of a father,--her mother's second
+husband.
+
+Involuntarily Gretchen retreated a step nearer to Hilsborn, as if
+seeking in him a refuge from the pair.
+
+"Well," began Bertha, "if Fraeulein Gretel is at home to young
+gentlemen, surely her father and mother----"
+
+"Forgive me," said Gretchen gently but with decision, "my father is
+just dead, and I lost my mother when I was very young. I pray you to
+respect my grief and not mention names so sacred to me."
+
+"Just hear the girl!" exclaimed Bertha. "Instead of thanking God that
+she still has parents to take care of her and not feel her a disgrace,
+she pretends to have no other father than the thief, the----"
+
+"You must not speak thus in Fraeulein Gleissert's presence," cried
+Hilsborn indignantly. "Can you not see how you wring her heart?"
+
+"Oh, sir, I thank you," said Gretchen with dignity. She turned to
+Bertha. "Whatever your unfortunate first husband may have been, he was
+my father in the truest sense of the word, and no one can have a second
+father. Just so a mother who has once ceased to be such can never be a
+mother again. Call me false and heartless if you will,--God, who sees
+my heart, knows how it can love."
+
+"This is all one gets for kindness," grumbled Bertha. "Here have I been
+beating my brains half the night to think what I could do for the girl,
+how I could take care of her, and this is all the thanks I get! Well,
+it's no wonder. 'What's bred in the bone will never come out of the
+flesh.'"
+
+"Mammy! mammy! they want you to get out some clean sheets," a
+bullet-headed lad called aloud at the door.
+
+"Come here, Fritz," cried Bertha. "There, look at your sister." And she
+drew the boy towards her, evidently expecting the sight of him to
+produce a deep impression upon Gretchen. "Look, Gretel, this is your
+brother,--doesn't this touch you? We have three more of them. But that
+makes no difference, you shall be the fifth; I want some one to take
+care of the little ones. Only think how fine it is for you to find
+parents and brothers and sisters all at once. They'll take care of
+you." And suddenly a tear rolled down her fat cheek. "For you are my
+child, after all!"
+
+And she took Gretchen's face between her hands and pressed upon it a
+smacking kiss. The girl patiently endured the caress, but when her
+mother released her she stood erect again, like a fair flower upon
+which dust has been cast without robbing it of its fragrance or soiling
+its purity. As the flower differs from the soil whence it springs, this
+child differed from her mother. And as surely as the flower turns from
+the ground to the sun, the girl's pure spirit turned from her mother to
+the light that her education and training had revealed to her.
+
+"Mammy," the boy persisted, plucking Bertha by the skirts, "come,
+hurry!"
+
+"You'll tear my dress, you bad boy!" cried his mother, slapping his
+hand.
+
+The boy screamed. "You're so slow when any one is in a hurry, I had to
+call you."
+
+"Hold your tongue!" his father now interposed. "Leave the room. What
+will your new sister think of you?"
+
+"I don't mind her," said the boy insolently, as he left the room.
+
+Gretchen and Hilsborn exchanged one long look. It was as if they were
+old acquaintances and could understand each other without a word.
+Gretchen shuddered at the thought of living in this family, and,
+besides, she had during the night formed a resolution that she was
+determined to carry out although it should cost her her life.
+
+Her step-father broke the silence. "We shall never come to any
+conclusion in this way. Where's the good in talking? You must be taken
+care of, whether you like us or not. You might at least show some
+gratitude to us for taking any trouble about you." He stroked his
+smooth, oily head as he spoke, and his artistic fingers gave a fresh
+curl to the lock just above his ear. "The case is simply this: My wife
+thinks it her duty to support you. As you may suppose, it comes rather
+heavy upon us with our four children, and it stands to reason that you
+should do a little something for yourself. We will not ask anything
+unsuitable of you, for I can see plainly that you are a young lady of
+education. But, if we are to fulfil the duty of parents towards you, it
+is only fair that we should claim some filial duty from you in return."
+
+He concluded his speech with the bow that he always made in presenting
+travellers with their little account.
+
+"Oh, is that all?" said Gretchen, greatly relieved. "Then do not have
+any anxiety on my account. I renounce all claim to a support, and, in
+the presence of this witness, to any parental duties from you. I ask
+nothing of you, and shall never ask anything of you, but that you will
+allow me to depart without hindrance."
+
+The man looked significantly at Bertha, who clasped her hands in
+amazement. "Do you want to go, then? Why, what will such a child as you
+do without money or friends?"
+
+Here Hilsborn interposed. "You forget that your deceased husband
+appointed me his daughter's guardian, and I assure you solemnly, I have
+never valued my life as I do now that this duty is mine,--a duty that I
+am determined not to give up."
+
+Gretchen looked confidingly at Hilsborn. "You see, I am not without
+friends. I will go with this gentleman. There is but one path for me in
+this world, and that leads me to Ernestine's feet. There is but one
+duty for me,--atonement for my father's sin. I cannot restore to
+Ernestine what has been taken from her,--that I learned from the papers
+yesterday. I can offer her nothing but two strong young arms to work
+for her. The Bible says, 'The sins of the fathers shall be visited upon
+the children,' but I will not wait until they are visited upon me. I
+will blot them out, as far as I may, and make the curse powerless, that
+rests upon my unhappy father's grave. I will do what he had no time to
+do here,--make atonement for his crime." She raised her hands to Bertha
+in entreaty. "Oh, if you are my mother, open your heart to the first
+and last request of your child, and do not take from me the hope of
+obtaining pardon for my father by my labour and suffering!"
+
+And she fell upon her knees before Bertha, who sobbed aloud.
+
+"Ah, Gretel, my child, you are a dear, good girl. How could I ever
+forsake such a true, brave child? I see now how wrong and foolish I
+was. But I will do better. You shall learn to love me again. Only give
+up this silly idea of doing penance for your father. Why should you,
+innocent creature, suffer for his fault? you are not responsible for
+his actions."
+
+"I am his flesh and blood, a part of him,--his honour is mine. The
+curse that strikes him strikes me too. Whatever burdened his conscience
+weighs upon mine. How could I find rest, living or dying, if I did not
+do all that I could to make good what he did that was wrong? If he took
+what was not his, ought I to keep it? Is it not my duty to restore it?
+And, if I cannot do this, should I not try to pay the debt, although I
+can do so in no other way than by constant labour?"
+
+"But tell me what you want to do. Your cousin has nothing more. What
+will you both live upon?" asked Bertha.
+
+"I do not know yet I only know that, thanks to my poor father, I have
+been taught everything to enable me to support myself, and even another
+besides. I only know that I will dedicate my whole future life to
+Ernestine. I long to go to her,--she has suffered most from my father's
+fault."
+
+The head-waiter drew Bertha aside, and whispered to her, "Let her go,
+be thankful that we have not a fifth child to support."
+
+"But, oh, I love the girl so much!" said Bertha.
+
+"That's all very well,--but are we in a condition to take such a charge
+upon ourselves, just for a whim? And do you suppose that, if we force
+her to stay, this spoiled princess will be of the least use to us? She
+would cry from morning until night, instead of working. Let her go wherever
+she chooses. You have done without her long enough not to make such a fuss
+now about having her with you. I should think four children were enough
+for you."
+
+"Yes, but----"
+
+"Hush, now, or we will leave the room," her husband whispered
+emphatically. "I will not burden myself with Dr. Gleissert's daughter
+against her will. Let her go with her new champion, and let us hear no
+more of her!"
+
+"As you choose, then. It is my fault, and I must bear the
+consequences," said Bertha, for the first time with real sorrow.
+
+"Fraeulein Gleissert," the man said, turning to Gretchen, who had
+meanwhile been talking in a low tone with Hilsborn, "if you will not
+make any claim upon us hereafter, we are ready now, hard as it is, to
+relinquish our rights in favour of this gentleman, who was appointed
+your guardian by your father."
+
+"I will promise never to do so, sir," replied Gretchen with a long sigh
+of relief. "I am ready to give you all the security I can."
+
+"There is no need of that," replied Herr Meyer politely, with great
+satisfaction. "You know that the giving up of our claims depends upon
+your keeping your promise."
+
+"Yes, I know that."
+
+"Well, then, we will not trouble you further. Probably you would prefer
+settling the account for this room. It is not much,--you have eaten
+nothing."
+
+"Come, that is too mean of you!" Bertha here interposed. "Is my own
+child to pay for the shelter of this roof for one night? No, I will not
+have it. Gretel, do not listen to him,--you shall have something to
+eat, too, before you go. I am not quite such an unnatural mother. And
+now come, Meyer, you ought to be ashamed of playing such a disgraceful
+part."
+
+And half angrily, half good-naturedly, she drew her smart husband from
+the room.
+
+"O God, I thank thee!" cried Gretchen from the depths of her soul.
+Suddenly she paused, and reflected with evident hesitation and
+embarrassment. Hilsborn took her hand.
+
+"Well, my dear little ward, will you not tell me what is troubling
+you?"
+
+Gretchen blushed and still hesitated. At last she conquered herself,
+and confided this grief also to her faithful friend.
+
+"It has just occurred to me that I am not sure that I have money enough
+to pay my travelling expenses. I have something with me that I can
+sell, but if it should not be enough!"
+
+Hilsborn smiled. "Is that all? Oh, never mind that, I have enough for
+both of us."
+
+Gretchen looked mortified. "But I cannot take it from you, certainly
+not."
+
+"What, Gretchen, will you not take it from your guardian? Why, this is
+a guardian's duty. And I will not give it to you, I will only lend it,
+and you can repay me when you are able."
+
+"You will have to wait a long time,--I have so little that I can call
+my own. It will embarrass me very much to be in your debt."
+
+"Gretchen," said the young man earnestly, "do not let us speak of such
+trifles. I transport you to N----, you transport me to heaven. Which
+owes most to the other--you or I?"
+
+Gretchen could not reply. These new, strange words bewildered her. The
+sunlight streaming from them penetrated her heart, crushed by the
+tempest of grief that had swept over it. The blossom opened,--she was
+no longer a child!
+
+She looked down in confusion. Hilsborn too was embarrassed. Neither
+could immediately recover from a certain constraint.
+
+"Will you do me a great favour?" the girl asked at last
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Take me to where my father is lying, and let me bid him farewell once
+more."
+
+"My dear Fraeulein Gleissert, I would do so with all my heart, but it
+would take us half an hour to reach the house where he lies, and the
+train starts in three-quarters of an hour. If you will remain here
+another day, I will do what you ask."
+
+"No, oh, no!" cried Gretchen in alarm. "I would not for the world
+trespass any longer upon Herr Meyer's hospitality, or wound my mother's
+new-found affection any further. It is better to go as quickly as
+possible. If my poor father still sees and hears me, he must know that
+I feel the pain of parting from him thus quite as much as if I were
+allowed to weep beside his lifeless body."
+
+"That is right. Better dwell in thought upon the spirit that was all
+affection for you, than linger beside the senseless clay that it
+informed----" He ceased, for Frau Bertha entered with breakfast. She
+had a black dress hanging upon her arm.
+
+"There, Gretel, my dear, is something to eat. I will not let you go
+until you have taken something. And, if the gentleman will be kind
+enough to step out one minute, we will try on this dress. You must have
+some mourning, and where else can you get it, poor child?"
+
+She spread the table hastily, and Hilsborn left the room.
+
+"Now come here, and let us see how this fits. It is the very dress that
+I bought ten years ago, when your step-uncle Hartwich died. But it is
+as good as new. I have worn it but little, and, if you put the skirt on
+over the pointed waist, it has quite a modern air. Just look! It is not
+much too large. I was smaller then than I am now, and I have taken it
+in wherever I could. I was afraid it would be too big for you. Look at
+that little spot,--that is where you threw your cake into my lap when
+you were a little thing. I hid it so,--in a fold. Dear, dear! I had
+this very dress on when I left you. I never thought then that you would
+one day put it on and leave me, as I was leaving you!"
+
+There was something touching in these simple words, and, for the first
+time, Gretchen threw herself into her mother's arms and burst into
+tears. "Gretel," said Bertha, crying bitterly, "you must one day feel
+that you are my child, just as I feel that I am your mother. I hope you
+will not then repent leaving me."
+
+"Ah, mother," sobbed Gretchen, "how could you be so cruel to my poor
+father? How could you so wring my heart when I first saw you again that
+I turned away from you? I might have learned to love you. A child must
+try to honour its parents. I would never have reproached you for
+forsaking me, but the abyss into which you plunged my father lies
+between us, and can never be bridged over."
+
+"But, Gretchen, Gretchen," cried Bertha, "I have done no worse than the
+young gentleman whom you think so much of. Why do you not blame him?"
+
+"He only did his duty by a friend, and performed it in the kindest way
+possible. My father saw that, and reposed the greatest confidence in
+him in intrusting me to his care. But you, mother, permitted Herr Meyer
+to bring the stranger here who came to hand over my father to
+punishment, and to whom my father was only the enemy of his friend. It
+was not his duty to spare my father. But, mother, he had once been your
+husband, he was the father of your child, and yet, when, hunted and
+pursued, he sought the shelter of your roof, you had the heart to
+betray him and deliver him up to death and disgrace. I will not judge
+you, but ask yourself, mother, did he deserve such treatment at your
+hands?"
+
+"Ah, merciful Heaven! you may be right, but it really seemed that it
+was to be so. I had forgotten everything but the wrong he did me. He
+has had his punishment, and I must have mine, for, indeed, to love you
+and lose you so is a heavy trial."
+
+Hilsborn knocked at the door. "Frau Meyer, it is almost time to go."
+
+"Yes, yes. Come in," cried Bertha. "Gretchen is dressed."
+
+Hilsborn entered. He regarded compassionately the touching figure in
+the black dress,--the lovely childlike face, with those sad, large
+eyes, reminding him of a wounded doe's. His heart overflowed with pity,
+and he held out his hand, with, "Come, we must be upon our way."
+
+"I am ready," Gretchen murmured.
+
+"Stop," cried Bertha. "You must take something first." And she poured
+out a cup of chocolate, and followed Gretchen, who was collecting her
+various trifles for her travelling-bag, about the room, until she
+persuaded her to take some of it. "And you must eat some of this cake.
+You used to be so fond of it, and your lamented,--well, yes,--your
+lamented father too. Ah, I used to be well treated when I put that
+cake on the table! Will you not taste it? Well, then, take some with
+you." And she crammed as much of it as she could into the girl's
+travelling-bag.
+
+One minute more, and Gretchen was ready to leave the room. "Good-by,
+mother," she said, throwing herself once more into the arms of her
+mother, whose hot tears fell upon her child's neck. "I will never
+forget your kindness to me to-day, and if you ever need me you will
+find me a daughter to you."
+
+"My child, my good child!" sobbed Bertha. "Try to think as well of me
+as you can."
+
+"Yes, yes, dear mother. God bless you and yours!"
+
+Hilsborn hurried the girl away. She gently extricated herself from her
+mother's arms, and, in anguish of soul, descended the stairs that her
+father had on the previous day ascended for the first and last time.
+
+"Write to me now and then," Bertha called after her.
+
+"Indeed I will, I promise you."
+
+When they reached the hall, they found there a crowd of curious
+idlers, all eager to see the suicide's daughter. Gretchen paused,
+overcome with dismay. She could hardly trust her limbs to bear her
+through the throng. A soft, warm hand clasped hers,--it was Hilsborn's.
+He drew the little hand under his arm, and led her through the gaping
+loiterers to the carriage. Gretchen was scarcely conscious, she only
+felt that, supported by this arm, she could raise her head once more,
+and she was filled with gratitude towards the man who did not shrink
+from thus espousing the cause of the child of a criminal.
+
+Herr Meyer made them a formal bow as they entered the carriage, and it
+rolled away past the gay, sparkling waters of the Alster, now swarming
+with boats.
+
+Gretchen looked out of the carriage window. Yesterday all this had been
+the world to her,--to-day her world was within, and all this was mere
+outward show.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                  BLOSSOMS ON THE BORDER OF THE GRAVE.
+
+
+"Come quick, Johannes, Hilsborn has arrived," the Staatsraethin
+whispered from the door of the apartment. Johannes was seated by
+Ernestine's bedside, her head leaning upon his hand, while the poor
+girl moved restlessly from side to side, muttering unintelligibly. He
+motioned to Willmers to take his place, and went softly out.
+
+"Thank God, you are back again. Have you brought him with you?"
+
+"He has escaped."
+
+"Hilsborn, that is terrible!"
+
+"He is gone whither he cannot be pursued, and whence he can work no
+more mischief."
+
+"Is he dead?"
+
+"He is dead, and he died in fearful agony.
+
+"God have mercy on his soul! Did he take poison?" asked the
+Staatsraethin.
+
+"Yes, just after his arrest I arranged matters as well as I could, but
+he had only a little over two thousand gulden in his possession. He had
+put all the property in the Unkenheim factory."
+
+"And that is bankrupt, so we shall not be able to save anything for
+Ernestine," said Johannes.
+
+"I am very sorry for that."
+
+"But Hilsborn, faithful friend, I am quite forgetting to thank you. How
+shall I repay you for taking this journey for me?" said Johannes
+warmly.
+
+"I am already paid."
+
+"Indeed? What possible pleasure could result from such a mission?"
+inquired the Staatsraethin.
+
+Hilsborn smiled. "Such pleasure as I never dreamed of. Gleissert
+bequeathed me a treasure whose possession no one, God willing, shall
+dispute with me. May I show it to you? I would like to intrust it to
+your keeping, dear friends, for awhile."
+
+Johannes and his mother exchanged looks of surprise. Was Hilsborn quite
+right in his mind?
+
+"I will tell you nothing more," he said. "See for yourselves." He left
+the room, and appeared again in a few moments with Gretchen upon his
+arm. The poor child ventured only one timid, beseeching look at the
+strangers, but the touching expression of her eyes won their hearts
+immediately.
+
+"Good God! his child?" asked the Staatsraethin.
+
+"His child," Hilsborn replied with grave emphasis.
+
+The old lady went up instantly to the lovely, shrinking girl and
+embraced her, saying significantly to Hilsborn, "Now I understand you!"
+
+"Dear Fraeulein Gleissert," said Johannes, "you are most welcome, and
+you must allow us to offer you a home until you find a better."
+
+"You are too kind," stammered Gretchen. "I know how bold I am, but my
+guardian----"
+
+"What! Hilsborn, are you her guardian?"
+
+"Her dying father wished it to be so, and therefore I brought her here
+to place her under your protection, although she wished to see no one
+except Ernestine."
+
+"She can hardly see her for sometime yet," said Moellner. "Ernestine's
+fever may be infectious."
+
+"Oh, is that all?" Gretchen ventured to remonstrate. "Then pray let me
+go to her. Nothing can harm me when I am doing my duty. Better to die
+than live on without being permitted to do as I know I ought. Oh, dear
+Herr Hilsborn, you know what I mean, speak for me!"
+
+"Do not refuse her, Johannes. She will not be content until she is with
+Ernestine. I make a fearful sacrifice in exposing her to this danger,
+when I would guard her like the apple of my eye, but I know how she is
+longing for Ernestine."
+
+"Then, Fraeulein Gleissert, you shall share with my mother the care of
+the invalid."
+
+"Thank you all a thousand times! May I go now?"
+
+"Take her to Ernestine's room, mother dear, while I speak with
+Hilsborn," said Johannes.
+
+"Come, then, my child." The Staatsraethin opened the door of the
+darkened apartment, and the girl entered.
+
+Gretchen stood as if rooted to the spot. There lay the dreaded, mute
+accuser of her father, the unfortunate victim of his crimes, pale and
+beautiful as an ideal embodiment of death,--a glorious lily,
+prostrated, perhaps never again to stand erect, by the same hand that a
+few days before had been laid in blessing upon Gretchen's head. The
+poor child, crushed by the sight, sank upon her knees, and, extending
+her arms, cried in a suppressed voice of agony, "Forgive, forgive!"
+
+Ernestine did not reply, for she did not hear. Reason was dethroned
+behind that pale, broad brow, and confused dreams were running riot
+there in the wildest anarchy.
+
+Only when Gretchen perceived that Ernestine was wholly unconscious, did
+she dare to approach close to her. Gazing at her with admiring pity,
+she murmured to herself, "No, my father did not understand, or he
+maligned you. You are not bad, you cannot be bad!" And, kneeling, she
+breathed a gentle kiss upon the small hand.
+
+Did the invalid feel that something loving was near? She put out her
+hand towards the kneeling girl, and, detaining her by the dress, leaned
+her head upon her shoulder.
+
+"She will let me stay by her," whispered Gretchen with a face of
+delight.
+
+The Staatsraethin could not help stroking the brow of the charming
+child, and Frau Willmers felt as if this stranger were an angel, come
+to lead Ernestine into a better world.
+
+"Such a sick-room I like to see," suddenly said a suppressed bass voice
+that made Gretchen start. "This is a pretty sight," it continued, and
+old Heim looked searchingly at Gretchen from beneath his bushy white
+eyebrows.
+
+The girl would have arisen, but Ernestine would not release her, and
+Heim motioned to her to be quiet. "You have one hand free, my child,
+give it to me. I am your guardian's foster-father, and I know what a
+good child you are. The fellow was right to bring you here,--I would
+have brought you myself. God bless you!"
+
+He seated himself by the bedside, and a deep expectant silence reigned
+in the room as he felt Ernestine's pulse. Besides Gretchen's, two other
+anxious eyes were riveted upon his face. Moellner had just entered
+noiselessly. "Well, what do you think?" he asked eagerly.
+
+Heim shrugged his shoulders. "I do not think it is typhus.
+Nevertheless----"
+
+Scarcely had the invalid heard Johannes' voice when she released
+Gretchen and turned her face towards the spot where Moellner was
+standing. He approached the bed and leaned over her. She put out her
+arms to him, but instantly dropped them again, as if, even in her
+delirium, she would not confess herself conquered. And then she talked
+wildly on, at times declaring that she could not get rid of the
+skull,--it would follow her everywhere, and then pleading piteously
+that she was not yet dead, and they must not put her down into the
+narrow grave.
+
+"This is the result of a woman's giving herself up to anatomical
+studies," said Moellner.
+
+"There has been dreadful work with the nerves here, and with the brain
+too," muttered Heim. "The fever has increased since I have been sitting
+here. If we could only disabuse her mind of these delirious fancies!"
+
+"I have tried that, but contradiction only excites her."
+
+"Let this child try, then. It is impossible to say what effect she
+might produce," said Heim. "Have you the courage, my child, to watch
+with your cousin tonight?"
+
+"Oh, sir, I think I can never touch my bed until Ernestine has left
+hers."
+
+"There's a brave girl! upon my word, I've seen nothing so charming for
+a long while. She will soon rival Ernestine in my heart!"
+
+Johannes laid a cloth dipped in ice-water upon Ernestine's forehead,
+who continued to moan bitterly that she was not dead and they must not
+treat her thus.
+
+"Ernestine," said Gretchen in her clear, bell-like voice, "no one shall
+harm you. Be quiet, dear."
+
+"Do you not see," wailed the sick girl, "that they are trying to weigh
+my brain? and it hurts! oh, how it hurts!"
+
+"Ernestine, you are dreaming," said Gretchen. "This is only a damp
+cloth. Feel it yourself."
+
+"Remember that, although I am dead, my soul is living. Oh, if I could
+only stop thinking! Dying is nothing! living is the worst of all!"
+
+Johannes turned away, and wrung his hands. "Ah, Johannes!" she
+exclaimed, "my uncle's knife is sharp, I cannot get away. Why did they
+bind me here, if they thought me dead?" And in an instant she thrust
+Gretchen aside, and would have leaped from the bed, had not Johannes
+gently but firmly thrown his strong arm around her and forced her back
+among the pillows.
+
+"Let me go! let go!" she moaned. "Who ever heard of dissection before
+death?"
+
+"Ernestine," Johannes cried in despair, "it is I,--Johannes. No one
+shall harm you!"
+
+But she either did not hear or did not understand him, and she
+struggled so that Johannes could scarcely hold her.
+
+"This is dreadful!" said the Staatsraethin, supporting Gretchen's
+tottering form. "Do you still think, Father Heim, after this, that
+physiology is the study for a woman's nerves? Can a woman's nature take
+a more terrible revenge than this?"
+
+Heim shook his head, and grumbled, "Frail stuff, indeed, but yet I
+thought she could stand it. Well, well, one is never too old to learn."
+
+And still Ernestine raved on, ceaselessly haunted by the same grim
+phantoms created by the fearful struggle that she had lately passed
+through.
+
+At last exhaustion supervened, and she lay perfectly silent and
+motionless. Heim took his hat and cane. "I think she will have a
+quieter night. You should take some rest, Johannes. You cannot stand
+such uninterrupted watching."
+
+"I have done all that I could to persuade him to lie down," said his
+mother. "I can easily watch one night, especially now since I have such
+a dear little assistant. And Willmers too will wear herself out. She is
+as obstinate as Johannes."
+
+"There is nothing to be done with him," said Heim. "It is a good thing
+that it is vacation, or this would soon come to an end. Well, I must
+go. It is quite a drive to town."
+
+"It would have been better if we could have taken her home with us,"
+said the Staatsraethin. "But the illness was so sudden and violent that
+she could not be moved, and we had to come out here to nurse her."
+
+"You are good people!" And Heim held out his hand to them. "God will
+reward you for your kindness to the poor child."
+
+"All that I do, dear friend, is done for my son's sake. I am sure he
+will thank me."
+
+"Indeed he will, mother," Johannes declared with emphasis.
+
+When Heim entered the next room, he found Hilsborn there, standing at
+the window, lost in dreamy reverie.
+
+"Well, my boy, will you have a seat in my carriage?"
+
+"Why, father, I should like to stay here to-day and assist Moellner,"
+said Hilsborn, slightly confused.
+
+"Assist Moellner? Hm----" Heim paused, and riveted his piercing eyes
+with infinite humour upon Hilsborn's blushing face. "Well, well, my
+boy, since you wish it, pray assist Moellner. You have my free consent
+to do so."
+
+The young man clasped his foster-father's hand with an emotion of
+gratitude that he hardly understood himself.
+
+"Hm," said Heim again. "We understand! we understand! All right!
+Anything else would be unnatural. There's no need to be ashamed of your
+choice. Good night, and"--a good-humoured smile played about his
+mouth--"do assist Moellner diligently. Do you hear?"
+
+And the genial old man went chuckling out of the room.
+
+Hilsborn bethought himself awhile, then looked cautiously into the
+sick-room and beckoned to Gretchen. She instantly came to him.
+
+"Only a moment," he begged, and gently drew her away with him. "You
+must have a little fresh air. All the others think only of Ernestine. I
+am here to take care of you, and to see that you do not overtask your
+strength. Come, take a few turns with me in the garden."
+
+"As you please," said the girl meekly.
+
+"Not as I please, Gretchen. You must not talk in that way. I do not
+like it." He threw a shawl over her shoulders, and gave her his arm.
+Together they went down into the garden.
+
+"This garden," said Gretchen, "reminds me of ours at the pension."
+
+"Were you happy there?" asked her companion.
+
+"Oh, very! I had so many kind teachers and companions!"
+
+"It must be very hard for you to leave such a home."
+
+"My home now is with Ernestine. I am content only by her bedside. I
+wish for nothing else. I do not choose to wish for anything else."
+
+Hilsborn broke off a fading acacia-sprig from the tree.
+
+"Give it to me?" said Gretchen. "I will try whether Ernestine will
+recover or not." And she pulled off the leaves, one after another.
+"Yes,--no,--yes,--no. Yes, she will get well!"
+
+"Do you know Faust?"
+
+"No. We were never allowed to read Goethe."
+
+"Your namesake in Faust plucks off the leaves of a daisy, to answer a
+question that she puts it, but the question is a different one."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"She asks whether she is beloved."
+
+Gretchen looked down.
+
+"Did you never put that question?"
+
+"How could I? I was sure that my father, my teachers and friends loved
+me, and I knew no one else."
+
+"And yet you must often have consulted your flower oracle?"
+
+"Oh, yes. There was plenty to ask,--whether I was to take the first,
+second, or third rank in the examination,--whether I was to have a
+letter from my father that day,--and ever so many things besides. But
+that is all over. There are few flowers or questions for me now."
+
+"You must not indulge such gloomy, autumnal fancies. The flowers will
+bloom again, and with them many a youthful hope in your heart. You
+will, perhaps, one day want to know whether one whom you love loves
+you."
+
+Gretchen looked seriously and kindly at him from out her brown eyes.
+
+"If Ernestine only loves me, and----"
+
+"Well, and----?"
+
+"And you, I will ask nothing more."
+
+"Gretchen, do you not believe that I love you?"
+
+"Yes, I think you do," the girl replied frankly.
+
+"By the good God, who sees all hearts, I think so too," cried Hilsborn,
+clasping the little hand that lay upon his arm more closely to his
+heart.
+
+They stood still for one moment together in the gathering twilight, and
+then walked slowly on. It was an unusually mild autumn evening. The
+crescent of the new moon glimmered, like a gleaming diamond upon dark
+locks, just above the tall firs that crowned the hill that had been
+Ernestine's favourite spot. As she looked up, Gretchen's eyes were
+moist.
+
+"The moon is the sun of the unhappy," she said suddenly. "Hers is the
+only light that weeping eyes can endure. They must close in the garish
+rays of the sun, but they can look up to her through their tears. When
+she reigns in the sky, repose comes to the weary after the day's dull
+pain. And you, my kind guardian, seem to me like the moon,--you are so
+calm and still. I shrink from the others, it seems to me they must
+despise me, but with you I can weep freely, and rest from all my pain."
+
+"I thank you, Gretchen, for these words," said Hilsborn.
+
+And the girl, in the self-abandonment of her grief, leaned her head
+upon Hilsborn's shoulder and wept silently.
+
+Thus they walked slowly on for a time, without a word. The moon began
+to disappear behind the firs, and only gleamed through them when the
+night breeze stirred their boughs. A low whisper,--a soft suggestion of
+the resurrection,--trembled among the withered leaves and leafless
+branches. The little silver skiff glided quietly down the horizon, and
+misty vapours floated about the youthful pair like a bridal veil. Their
+innocent hearts mourned over scarcely-closed graves in the midst of
+nature, enlivened by no young blossoms, no nightingale's song, and yet
+a future spring was gently stirring around and within them, amid tears
+and autumn desolation.
+
+"We must return," said Gretchen, suddenly rousing herself from her sad
+thoughts. "They will miss us." And she hastened on in advance of her
+friend. At the door of the sick-room he detained her for one moment.
+"Gretchen, you have done more than I can tell for me in this last
+half-hour, but yet not enough. You will give me just such another every
+evening, will you not?"
+
+"With all my heart!"
+
+"And, Gretchen, I shall pass this night watching here in this room.
+Come to the door now and then, and give me one look."
+
+"Why?" she asked, with a blush.
+
+"Because your face is the dearest sight in the world to me."
+
+"Oh, I am glad of that!" she faltered.
+
+"Remember sometimes to give me a smile,--will you not? I shall wait for
+it from minute to minute and from hour to hour."
+
+"You shall not wait in vain. How could I refuse to gratify a wish of
+yours?"
+
+And with these words, that were more to the young man than she herself
+dreamed of, she left him, and entered the sick-room with her heart
+filled with mingled joy and pain.
+
+Johannes was kneeling by the bed, his forehead leaning upon Ernestine's
+arm, that was hanging down outside the coverlet. His mother gave
+Gretchen a kindly nod. No one ventured to speak. Ernestine seemed
+asleep.
+
+Gretchen sat down beside the Staatsraethin and gratefully pressed her
+offered hand.
+
+Thus they sat for an hour, motionless, and then Ernestine had a fresh
+access of delirium. Her whole illness seemed to be only a vain effort
+of nature to banish the evil, unnatural ideas nestling in her brain
+like destructive parasites. At last Johannes induced his mother and
+Willmers to take a little rest while he and Gretchen watched. He
+suffered so much at the sight of Ernestine's sufferings that it was a
+relief to him to know that his mother was not in the room,--his mother,
+in whose presence his affection forced him to exercise such difficult
+self-control.
+
+Gretchen was a faithful assistant, although the poor child's heart was
+well-nigh broken at the constant reference to her father that filled
+Ernestine's ravings. Fragments of the past were brought to light,
+detached scenes rehearsed incoherently, but running through all the
+unfortunate daughter could perceive the dark crimson thread of her
+father's guilt.
+
+The hot tears coursed down her cheeks. Johannes never noticed them. He
+had eyes and ears only for Ernestine. The poor orphaned child felt
+alone indeed. But no! How could she entertain such a thought? Had she
+not a friend and protector near? And had she not promised to bestow a
+kindly glance now and then upon the faithful sentinel? How could she
+forget him for one moment? While Johannes stood by Ernestine, she
+softly opened the door and looked out. There he sat, his eyes full of
+expectation, and a bright smile broke over his face at the sight of
+Gretchen. He started up and tore a leaf, upon which he had been
+writing, out of his note-book.
+
+"Gretchen," he whispered, "here is something for you. Take it, as it is
+meant,--kindly. You are having a hard night. I can imagine all you are
+suffering. Do not forget that there is one sitting here thinking of and
+for you."
+
+Gretchen held out her hand, and he put the paper into it.
+
+"I thank you, even before I know what it contains," she whispered in
+reply. "It must be something kind, since it comes from you." And she
+re-entered the sickroom and seated herself by the table upon which the
+night-lamp stood. She shivered, for Ernestine's words were all full of
+horror. But she held a talisman in her hand, and Hilsborn's handwriting
+banished all haunting sorrow. She unfolded the paper and read:
+
+
+           "Weep, poor heart, and yet again
+            Breathe those gentle songs of sadness,
+            Not for thee are notes of gladness,
+            Softly fall thy tears like rain.
+            Look to heaven when woes thus move thee,
+            From the eternal stars above thee
+            Comfort seek in earthly pain.
+
+           "Weep, poor heart, when all in vain
+            Thou hast hoped for rest from sadness,
+            When the stars rain down no gladness.
+            Yet despair not! once again
+            Lift thine eyes when sorrow moves thee,
+            In the eyes of one who loves thee,
+            Comfort seek in earthly pain."
+
+
+Gretchen sat with hands folded, looking at these words, that arched a
+new heaven above her and revealed a new earth around her. Large as her
+young heart was, it seemed all too narrow for the flood of tenderness
+that filled it now. She arose once more, and glided from the room. To
+Johannes, who gazed after her absently, it seemed as if her airy figure
+actually diffused a light around it.
+
+In the next room she approached Hilsborn, silently, her eyes suffused
+with tears, and held out her hand. He looked up at her with imploring
+entreaty, saw how she was agitated, and that her heart was beating
+almost to suffocation. He gently drew her nearer and nearer to him,
+until, like ripened wheat awaiting the reaper's scythe, she sank into
+his arms, and burst into tears. But her tears were like the glittering
+drops that the breeze shakes from the trees after a summer rain.
+
+
+           "In the eyes of one who loves thee,
+            Comfort seek in earthly pain,"
+
+
+echoed in the hearts of the lovers.
+
+Then Ernestine's voice came ringing through the open door. "What is the
+end? Eternal night, eternal silence, and eternal solitude!"
+
+"Oh, not eternal bliss!" Gretchen breathed softly to herself.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX.
+
+                          IT IS MORNING AGAIN.
+
+
+A call from Moellner to Gretchen separated the young people before they
+found words to express what they felt. Ernestine grew so much worse in
+the course of the night that Gretchen did not leave her again. When at
+last the rays of the rising sun shone through the heavy curtains of the
+room, the Staatsraethin released the poor child from her painful watch,
+and she was free to hasten to her lover. He drew her with him to
+Ernestine's study. Everything was just as it had been left on the day
+when Ernestine was taken ill,--nothing had been touched here. The ashes
+of the burnt fairy-book were still lying on the hearth, the AEolian harp
+breathed forth sad melody to the rude autumn wind, the roses were fled,
+and only the thorn-covered bushes remained. The chests were still
+standing about, all packed for the voyage,--speaking plainly of what
+had been the plans of the proud spirit now so prostrated by disease. A
+forgotten pen lay upon the desk, and dust was everywhere. No one had
+thought of arranging this room,--care for Ernestine had given abundant
+occupation to the entire household. The pause in the life of the
+invalid was mirrored in this apartment, where everything seemed
+awaiting the moment when a busy hand should sweep, dust, and put all in
+order, and the glad news be heard--"Ernestine is better!" But this
+moment was still in the dim future. Hither the young couple came,
+ignorant of the struggles these walls had witnessed, the pain and
+anguish that had been suffered here.
+
+"Our life lasts seventy--perhaps eighty--years, and the delight of it
+is labour and trouble." These words, carved on the table, were the
+first visible sign to these youthful hearts of the struggles,
+sufferings, and sacrifices of the woman by whose feverish bed they had
+truly found each other. And Gretchen stayed her steps by the table, and
+read the words thoughtfully. "She is right," she said to herself. "And
+if she chose to impose upon herself this severe law, can I choose any
+other motto--I? What right have I to desire any other delight in life
+but labour and trouble and penance? Ah, Ernestine, now first I see how
+noble you are, and what wrong my father did you."
+
+"Gretchen," asked Hilsborn, "what are you thinking?"
+
+"It seems to me as if an invisible hand here inscribed, 'Hold!' for my
+eyes alone. How could I for one moment resign myself to the thought of
+a happiness that could turn me aside from my first and most sacred
+duty?"
+
+"Gretchen, how am I to understand you?"
+
+She clasped her hands, and, with eyes fixed reverentially upon the
+carved motto, said, "All my hopes and dreams must be sacrificed for her
+whose motto this is. Until she is happy, how can I wish to be so?"
+
+"I see what you have resolved, my dearest. You intend to obtain
+forgiveness for your father, to blot out his sin by your devotion. But
+you think only of her against whom your father sinned most heavily?
+There is another to whom you owe some reparation on his account, and
+that is myself!"
+
+"What?"
+
+He drew her towards him, and went on with all a lover's sophistry.
+"Yes, dearest, your father wronged mine. He robbed him of a valuable
+scientific discovery."
+
+"Heaven help me! is this so?" cried the girl, greatly distressed.
+
+"And do you not see that it will be no infringement of the duty that
+you impose upon yourself, if you grant me the reparation that I ask of
+you, even although I should ask for nothing less than yourself,--your
+entire life, Gretchen,--would you think me too bold? would you think
+the compensation for what your father deprived me of too great?"
+
+"No, oh, no! much too small," whispered Gretchen, with glistening eyes.
+
+"Not too small. I know it is too great. But love, Gretchen, will not
+weigh deserts. Everything is in your hands, dearest. Your father
+injured my father, but he gives me his child."
+
+The girl put her hands to her throbbing brow. "Can this be so?--can so
+great a blessing spring from a curse? I do not deserve such joy. Can it
+be no wrong, but a duty, to love you, whom I would have renounced for
+duty's sake? I longed to labour and suffer for my father's crime, and
+is this my penance--to give myself to him whom I love? It is too
+much,--I cannot believe it. But what shall I do? How shall I reconcile
+my duty to Ernestine and to you? Help me, advise me, that I may not
+neglect one duty for the sake of the other,--there can be no true
+happiness without a clear conscience. Help me, then, to be really
+happy."
+
+"My darling," said Hilsborn, "I understand you now, just as I have
+always understood you, and I will help you to satisfy your conscience.
+If I could, I would shower every precious gift upon you,--how then
+could I deprive you of that priceless possession--peace of mind? True
+love brings true peace in its train, and this peace shall be yours.
+Therefore do for Ernestine all that your heart dictates, as long as you
+can be of service to her. I shall be near you, and we can at least
+exchange a word now and then. True love is easily content, it prizes
+even the smallest token. I will not claim one moment that you think
+belongs to Ernestine,--that would trouble you. We will tell no one as
+yet of our betrothal but my faithful foster-father Heim, without whose
+blessing I can take no step in life. The knowledge of our happiness
+might grate upon poor Moellner, who has so much to endure. But when,
+Gretchen, Ernestine has entirely recovered, it will be ours to enjoy
+our bliss without a pang. And if,--which I can scarcely believe,--she
+should still refuse to share Moellner's lot, then, I swear to you, I
+will aid you truly in all that you do for her. She shall live with us
+and be to me as a sister. Is not this all that you desire, my dearest
+one?"
+
+"Yes, yes, you read my very soul, for I could never consent to be
+your--wife, until I knew that Ernestine was well and content. And I
+have hardly thought myself grown up--I am hardly fit to be a wife. How
+can I accustom myself to the thought?"
+
+"I will do all I can to teach you, dear little wife,--the lesson will
+not, I hope, be hard to learn," said Hilsborn gaily.
+
+"Perhaps not," Gretchen replied, and for the first time there was an
+arch sparkle in the melancholy brown eyes.
+
+Thus these two hearts were united, speedily, in childlike faith, after
+the manner of youth, and without a struggle. But above in the sick-room
+two hearts were wrestling in mortal pain. Love, for poor Ernestine,
+must attain the light only through the dark night of error and illusion
+that was around her,--that light in which Gretchen and Hilsborn
+innocently basked, driven from their Eden by no angel with the flaming
+sword. Such strong natures as Moellner's and Ernestine's could not unite
+without a struggle. Each had framed a world for itself, and one of
+these worlds must be shattered before they could become one world. The
+farther apart they were, the more powerful the attraction between them,
+the more certainly would the weaker crumble to pieces in contact with
+the stronger. It is the mysterious condition under which gifted natures
+receive their talents from God, that they must strive and labour for a
+happiness that often falls unsought into the lap of weaker natures.
+Thus Eternal Wisdom maintains the balance of its gifts,--the weak and
+the simple receive without asking what the strong must earn. And these
+two gifted creatures were earning hardly their portion of life's joy,
+that they might fulfil the law prescribed by God for creatures so
+constituted. His laws are inscribed not upon the heavens, but in the
+human heart, and all our striving for perfection is, in fact, only an
+endeavour to read these laws correctly. And how often do we read them
+falsely, in spite of all our honest pains!
+
+How much more was this the case with one like Ernestine, who had never
+been taught to heed the still small voice in her heart as the voice of
+God! All her errors and sufferings were the result, as are those of
+most men, of a misconception of the Divine will. If she had known that
+she was destined to purchase happiness by self-sacrifice, she would
+have paid for it voluntarily, and would not have wrestled with her
+destiny to the last, until she almost succumbed in the conflict. Her
+life had well-nigh been ruined by the want of true Christian culture;
+she was ready to make every sacrifice, except that which is alone well
+pleasing in God's sight--the sacrifice of self.
+
+And Johannes, true and without guile as he was, endured a terrible
+trial in Ernestine's sufferings. From hour to hour he became more
+thoroughly convinced that he had been the means of prostrating
+Ernestine upon a sick-bed,--that he had burdened her beyond her
+strength by his reckless description of the danger that threatened
+her,--and he was a prey to remorse. He reproached himself bitterly, and
+tormented himself with devising a thousand ways in which he could have
+managed matters more wisely. "It is presumptuous to attempt to play the
+part of Providence to another, for the best intentions are no warrant
+for the consequences," he said to his mother, just when Gretchen and
+Hilsborn were weaving their rosy future.
+
+"Results are always in God's hand," replied Frau Moellner.
+
+"Amen!" said Johannes solemnly, from the depths of his tortured heart.
+
+Thus the pilot, seeing looming before him the dangerous rock, past
+which his skill has not availed to guide the vessel intrusted to his
+care, says, "I have done what I could, now Providence takes the helm."
+And here too Providence was guiding the vessel, but slowly,--so slowly
+that the lookers-on were agonized.
+
+Day after day and week after week passed, without any visible
+improvement. Ernestine's consciousness did not return. Heim shook his
+head. He said to Johannes one morning, "I wish your brother-in-law were
+at home, Johannes. I should very much like to hear his opinion of the
+case."
+
+And he made no other reply to Johannes' inquiries.
+
+Moritz Kern and his wife had been employing the vacation in a
+pleasure-trip, and were shortly to return home.
+
+It looked as if Heim were coming to a conclusion, and did not wish to
+pronounce an opinion without consulting a third authority.
+
+Johannes was consumed by anxiety. For four weeks he never left
+Ernestine's bedside, only sleeping when she was quiet, and then with
+his weary head supported against the back of his chair. He would have
+no help, except from his mother and Gretchen. Even Willmers was not
+allowed to do all that she wished to do. Only one stranger was now and
+then admitted to the sick-room,--a venerable, aged form, that sat there
+motionless, disturbing no one. It was old Leonhardt. Every third day
+his son conducted him to the castle, and no one had the heart to refuse
+to allow him to take his place at the foot of Ernestine's bed, where he
+listened to her gloomy ravings and Moellner's deep-drawn sighs, and only
+now and then sadly shook his gray head.
+
+"If she would only come to herself sufficiently," he said one day, "to
+let us relieve her mind of this anxiety about dying, that seems at the
+root of her delirium, she would soon be better."
+
+"True, Father Leonhardt, true," replied Johannes. "But she has not one
+sane instant. It drives me to despair!"
+
+"Courage, courage, dear friend," said Leonhardt, "and, remember, you
+only did your duty. That thought must comfort you."
+
+"I am afraid it will not comfort me long," was Johannes' gloomy reply.
+
+While they were speaking, Heim's carriage drove op. This time he was
+not alone,--Moritz was with him. Leonhardt retired to the library,
+where Walter always awaited him, and Helm and Moritz entered the
+antechamber. Gretchen and Hilsborn were standing whispering together by
+the window. The former hastily left the room, embarrassed by the
+entrance of the stranger with Heim.
+
+"Who the deuce is your pretty companion?" asked Moritz in surprise.
+
+"It is my ward, Gleissert's unfortunate daughter," Hilsborn explained
+with some reserve. "I brought her hither from Hamburg."
+
+"Oh, I know, I know,--heard all about it. Guardian, then, are you? Very
+delightful position, with such a charming ward," laughed Moritz.
+"Here's a fellow! looks as if he couldn't say 'boh' to a goose, and
+brings home such a pretty girl the first journey he takes! Yes,
+yes,--'still waters!'"
+
+"Do not jest," Hilsborn begged. "It is too serious a matter for
+jesting."
+
+"Nay, never mind what I say," said Moritz. "I must pay some respect to
+your new dignity. Hardly out of leading-strings yourself, and appointed
+guardian to young unprotected females! Ha! ha!"
+
+"Be quiet, Johannes will hear you," grumbled Heim. "Reserve your jests
+for more congenial society."
+
+"But, my good friend, you cannot expect me to hang my head for the sake
+of that fool of a woman, whom I have always wished at the deuce. Who
+could see, without getting angry, that fellow Johannes wasting his best
+powers upon such an ungrateful creature? If we were compelled to stand
+by and look on while some one spent time and trouble in trying to make
+a common brier produce tea-roses, should we not long to root out the
+senseless weed, rather than witness such a foolish undertaking?"
+
+"Your comparison does not hold good, my friend. The Hartwich has her
+thorns, but with care and patience she will blossom into a beautiful
+flower."
+
+"Are you never coming in?" asked Johannes, opening the door of the
+sick-room and looking out impatiently. "What keeps you so long?"
+
+"Yes, we are coming," said Heim, "but, Johannes, I would rather see
+Ernestine alone with Moritz."
+
+"As you please, but pray make haste," said Johannes, coming fully into
+the room. "Good-day, Moritz. How are you? Did you not bring Angelika
+with you?"
+
+"She wanted to come with me, but I would not let her."
+
+"And why not?" asked Johannes in a tone of disappointment.
+
+"Because women are always in the way at such times."
+
+"But had you any right to refuse to allow your wife to see her mother
+and brother after a separation of four weeks?"
+
+"I have the right, as her husband, to allow and forbid whatever I
+choose. If you wished it otherwise, you should have had it so said in
+the marriage contract," Moritz replied sharply. "Angelika never wishes
+for anything that I do not choose she should have, and whoever does not
+train his wife in the same way is a fool, my dear brother-in-law. Come,
+don't be vexed--you know what a prickly fellow I am."
+
+"I am not in the mood to mind your insinuations," said Johannes
+wearily. "You war with an unarmed foe. Go in, and bring me some good
+news if you can."
+
+Moritz repented his hasty words when he saw how troubled Johannes
+really was, and immediately entered the sick-room with Heim.
+
+Johannes sank into the chair by the window and leaned his heavy head
+against the panes. Such terrible thoughts and fears had lately assailed
+him! He would not heed them. But if the two physicians should share
+them also? His heart beat louder and louder with every moment's delay.
+He could hardly breathe. Hilsborn stood beside him, and, without
+speaking, pressed his hand. They heard Moritz speak to Ernestine, and
+her wild, confused replies. Then the murmur of Heim's and Moritz's
+voices was alone audible.
+
+At last the door opened. Even Moritz looked very grave.
+
+"Well?" asked Johannes.
+
+"Yes," said Moritz with a shrug, "I agree with Heim, the fever is a
+secondary consideration now. It is subdued--there is something worse
+than death to be dreaded."
+
+"Ah! I feared it!" Johannes said with a low suppressed cry. "Be
+brief,--I am upon the rack--you fear--good God I you fear for her
+mind?"
+
+He could say no more.
+
+Moritz and Heim exchanged glances. "Be calm, Johannes. Remember, this
+is only conjecture. We are mortal, and cannot be certain. Only it
+cannot be denied that it looks now more like an affection of the brain
+than anything else."
+
+"It is a well-known fact," Helm continued, "that patients affected in
+this manner are often slightly deranged in mind for some time after
+the fever is subdued, but such cases are most frequent among the aged,
+and the derangement is not of as long duration as with Ernestine.
+Her continual harping upon the same idea troubled me from the
+beginning,--it was like monomania,--always her death and a terrible
+eternity ensuing upon it. She must have pondered upon it far too much
+lately,--it has grown to be a fixed idea. If there are not shortly
+signs of returning reason, I am afraid she will be----"
+
+"Insane!" Johannes completed the sentence--"oh!--insane!" He buried his
+face in his hands, in an agony that convulsed his whole frame.
+
+Moritz laid his hand upon his shoulder. "Johannes," he said, "be
+strong. For years we have looked to you, in joy and sorrow, as the very
+ideal of manly self-control and firm determination. Your example has
+shown as the true dignity of manhood,--and shall pain upon a woman's
+account have power to move you thus? No indeed! she is not worth it.
+Ten of these fools are not worth one throb of agony in such a man!"
+
+"Do not speak to me. Leave me, I pray you, to myself," cried Johannes.
+
+"We had better go," said Heim. "He will soon come to himself."
+
+"Good-by, Johannes," Moritz said, pressing his hand. "And listen--open
+the shutters in Ernestine's room. Speak to her, call to her. It is not
+good for her to be in that gloomy twilight. It is a case where you must
+try to awaken reason--not let it smoulder away with too much care and
+nursing. Some convalescents would never leave their beds if they were
+not driven from them, because they are too weak to exert themselves.
+And it is just so with a diseased brain. The mind must be helped upon
+its feet, especially with women, who are only too ready to let
+themselves go."
+
+"Moritz is right," said Heim. "I agree with him. Today is the ninth
+that she has been without fever. We may risk something. Farewell,
+Johannes. I will come again this evening."
+
+The gentlemen motioned to Hilsborn to accompany them, and left the
+room.
+
+Johannes clasped his hands, and there burst from his heart such a
+prayer as comes from the soul only in moments of deepest anguish. "O
+God, who knowest my heart and its thoughts and desires, canst Thou
+enter into judgment with me so heavily? Must I be the ruin of her whom
+I would have saved? Shall I be the cause of worse than death to her
+whom I would have rescued from death? Can I bear this and still retain
+my own reason? Have I destroyed the treasure, the hope of my existence?
+Have I shattered the glorious image to whose perfection I would have
+lent an aiding hand? And yet I meant to fulfil my duty. O God, if I
+have erred, mine be the punishment, mine,--not hers through me. No
+burden can be laid upon me that I will not gladly bear, save this
+alone!"
+
+He entered the sick-room, and stood looking at Ernestine, who was lying
+as if half asleep, muttering disconnected, unintelligible words. Should
+he arouse her from this apparent repose? No, he had not the heart to do
+it. He drew aside the curtain, and the broad light of day fell full
+upon the ghost-like face. She moved, as if the light pained her, and
+turned aside. Willmers, who sat by the bedside, knitting, motioned him
+away. Johannes let the curtain fall again.
+
+Suddenly the door was flung open, and Gretchen rushed in, her chest
+heaving, her eyes full of horror and despair. Hilsborn followed,
+attempting in vain to restrain her.
+
+"Do not keep me!" the girl wailed out. "There is no comfort, no hope
+for me in this world! It is my father's work--and I have sworn to
+repair the injury done by him. How can I repair this wrong? How recall
+the glorious mind that he has destroyed?" And, almost frantic, she
+threw herself upon the bed beside Ernestine, and, seizing her hands,
+"Ernestine, wake up!--you must not lose your reason! Ernestine,
+listen--hear--Ernestine, Ernestine!" she cried, in the tone in which
+she had bidden her father farewell.
+
+And Ernestine trembled at the call. She started up, and stared with a
+wild expression at the strange figure clad in black. She closed her
+eyes, then opened them again, only to close them wearily once more, as
+if she had not had sufficient sleep. Then she asked, "Who is this?"
+
+Johannes and Hilsborn stood in breathless expectation. They pressed
+each other's hands with a look that said more than any words could have
+done, and Johannes made a sign to Willmers.
+
+"It is your young nurse, Fraeulein Ernestine," Willmers replied.
+
+"Oh, indeed!" said Ernestine slowly. Again she closed her eyes, but
+remained sitting upright. Hilsborn went to the window, and admitted a
+little more light.
+
+Then she rubbed her eyes and looked around. Gretchen had sunk upon her
+knees, and did not venture to stir. Johannes stood concealed by the
+head of the bed.
+
+"What o'clock is it?" asked Ernestine.
+
+"Half-past eleven," said Willmers.
+
+Again there was silence for awhile. Hilsborn drew the curtains still
+more aside. Just then the Staatsraethin in the other room, ignorant of
+what was going on, approached the half-open door. Fortunately, Johannes
+saw her, and motioned her away: she withdrew instantly, but the door
+creaked a little.
+
+"Who was coming in?" asked Ernestine.
+
+"The maid," Willmers replied, with ready presence of mind.
+
+Then there was a long pause, during which the throbbing of the three
+hearts, agitated by alternate fear and hope, was almost audible.
+
+"Willmers," said Ernestine.
+
+"Fraeulein?"
+
+"Have I been dreaming--or did I really burn the book?"
+
+"What book, dear Fraeulein Ernestine?"
+
+"The fairy-book,--the old fairy-book. Ah, I burned it. How sorry I am!"
+
+"Another can easily be procured. Do not fret about that, dear," said
+Willmers, suddenly remembering that there had been a fire in
+Ernestine's library on the day when she was taken ill.
+
+"Oh, no, it will not be the same,--not the same," said Ernestine sadly,
+and was silent again for some time.
+
+"Willmers!"
+
+"Fraeulein?"
+
+"I thought I was wakened by a terrible shriek. I was so frightened I
+trembled all over. See how vivid our dreams can be!"
+
+"No one shrieked," said Willmers.
+
+"Where is my uncle?"
+
+"Gone to America."
+
+"Gone!--and left me here?"
+
+"You were ill."
+
+"How long have I been in bed, then?"
+
+"Oh, a couple of weeks."
+
+"Ah! Who has been attending me?"
+
+"Herr Geheimrath Heim and Herr Professor Moellner."
+
+"Indeed!----Moellner!"
+
+She was silent, and then passed into a quiet half slumber, but she
+smiled in her sleep.
+
+Hilsborn and Johannes went out of the room on tiptoe. Without, they
+clasped each other's hands in mutual congratulations.
+
+"What do you think now?" asked Johannes.
+
+"I think she is safe," said Hilsborn.
+
+Gretchen slipped out and joined them. "Oh, you should see her lying
+there now, so calm and quiet--she does not even murmur in her sleep as
+she did."
+
+"Gretchen," said Johannes, "it is your doing. God bless you for it!"
+
+Gretchen looked up at Hilsborn, who could not resist the temptation to
+put his arm around her and draw her towards him. Johannes smiled, for
+the first time for weeks, and said, "I saw it coming. Would that such
+happiness were mine!"
+
+"But," said Gretchen timidly, "remember, it is a great deal harder to
+win such a creature as Ernestine than such a poor little thing as I.
+And only think what she will be when won!"
+
+The Staatsraethin interrupted the conversation. She saw with delight the
+hope in her son's eyes, and thanked God.
+
+They sat together in the antechamber for half an hour, until they heard
+Ernestine waken.
+
+Johannes then beckoned to Willmers, and said to her, "Prepare Ernestine
+as cautiously as you can for seeing us."
+
+"Willmers!" called Ernestine.
+
+"Here I am, Fraeulein Ernestine."
+
+"I feel so well now,--so rested! I must have been very ill, for my head
+is still confused, and it is hard to think. Tell me, my dear Willmers,
+am I not very poor?"
+
+"No one is very poor, Fraeulein, who is as rich in mind and heart as you
+are."
+
+"Do not evade my question. I begin to remember it exactly. My uncle
+deceived me. And Moellner,--yes, that was the evening when he told me
+I must die--and the skull fell down and struck my poor head just
+here,"--and she put up her hand to the scar that had remained since her
+childhood from her terrible fall,--"just here. It was very painful, but
+I hardly felt it, in my hurry to read all that there was in the book
+about diseases of the heart. And then those terrible thoughts of
+eternal night and eternal silence--and then--then--I remember nothing
+more. Oh, Willmers, pray draw aside the curtains, and let me enjoy the
+light as long as I may."
+
+Willmers opened the curtains of both the windows. The bright rays of
+the autumn sun streamed into the room. Ernestine stretched out her arms
+towards them, and said, "Oh, glorious light! How long shall I look upon
+you? How soon will your warm rays kiss the flowers upon my grave? Shall
+the blest look upon the face of God? This beautiful smiling world is
+His face, and blessed indeed are they who may still look upon it and
+recognize God. Ah, Willmers, life is such a gift! It is truly valued by
+those who stand looking down into their open graves, as I do, and I
+think I was never so worthy to live as now when it is too late."
+
+She clasped her hands over her eyes and burst into tears. "If I could
+only hope to go to eternal peace upon a Father's loving, forgiving
+heart, I would gladly die, I long for His love. All feel His presence,
+and look to Him. But I dare not approach Him. I should be thrust out."
+
+"Dear Fraeulein Ernestine," said Willmers, "you are still ill, and that
+is the cause of these gloomy thoughts. If you would only talk with
+Professor Moellner, he would know better how to answer you than such a
+simple old woman as I."
+
+"When is Dr. Moellner coming again?"
+
+"He is here with his mother. They came here to stay, that they might
+take care of you, and the Frau Staatsraethin has done all that she could
+to help her son. Oh, how anxious and unhappy they have been about you!
+The Herr Professor would not stir from your bedside, and he looks quite
+ill with constant watching."
+
+Ernestine cast down her eyes with emotion.
+
+"May I not ask him to come in now?" asked Willmers.
+
+"Pray do so."
+
+Willmers did not have to go far to call him. He was already at the
+door.
+
+"Ernestine, how are you?" he said, doing his best to appear composed.
+
+"Well, dear friend." And she smiled, and held out her hand to him.
+"What have you not done for me! How can a dying woman thank you for
+such self-sacrifice?"
+
+"Ernestine," cried Johannes, pressing her hand to his lips, "you are in
+error. I myself led you into it, and severely has God punished me for
+my imprudence. Everything that I told you of your physical condition
+was founded upon mistaken suppositions. What I thought a symptom of
+chronic disease was nothing but the approach of an acute attack of
+illness. Two physicians, Heim and Moritz Kern, pronounce your heart
+sound, and you are now out of danger. Oh, Ernestine, you cannot dream
+what my sufferings have been! I saw you writhing in mortal agony. All
+your fancies betrayed the terror into which I had plunged you. I would
+have rescued you from it, but you could not hear nor understand me. I
+offered you the truth that would save you from destruction, and you
+could not open your lips to receive it. It was too much, too much!"
+
+"Then I need not die?" asked Ernestine with a long breath, as if
+awaking from an oppressive dream.
+
+"On my honour, Ernestine, you are quite out of danger."
+
+She could not speak. She could only look fondly and gratefully at the
+blue heavens outside the window. Then she silently pressed Moellner's
+hand to her breast, and the large tears gathered in her eyes.
+
+The Staatsraethin then entered. "May I come in?" she asked. "May I say
+good-morning to the invalid?"
+
+Ernestine drew the old lady towards her, put her arm around her, and
+whispered, "You have so much to forgive, but you granted me your
+forgiveness before I could ask you for it. I feel so humiliated in
+comparison with you, I will not conceal the shame this confession
+causes me. It is your only reward for all that you have done for me."
+
+"How she has been purified in the terrible furnace that she has passed
+through!" the Staatsraethin said to Johannes, who was looking down
+enraptured upon the pale, beautiful features, once more informed by the
+clear light of reason.
+
+"I thank you all, and you, too, dear Willmers. Every breath that I draw
+of this new gift of life shall be full of gratitude to you and"--she
+looked timidly upwards--"to God. In that dark, dark night of horror, I
+felt that His hand prostrated me, and now His hand lifts me up again.
+Oh, yes, He is a merciful God!"
+
+"Then, Ernestine," said Johannes, "a blessing has come even from the
+terror that I caused you,--the blessing of faith."
+
+"Yes, dear friend, you were right when you said, 'To some God comes in
+fear.' You were right in everything, and I am only a woman!" Her head
+drooped. She was exhausted.
+
+Johannes and his mother looked significantly at each other, joy in
+their eyes. It seemed to them that Ernestine was born again.
+
+The blessed relief that followed this brief conversation kept the
+invalid sunk in profound sleep all the rest of the day.
+
+When Heim came, towards evening, he would not even see her, lest he
+should disturb the repose which was, he said, the best medicine for a
+convalescent.
+
+At nightfall she opened her eyes and saw Johannes sitting beside her.
+
+"Are you still with me?" she asked.
+
+"I am always with you, Ernestine. I shall never leave you," he said
+with fervour.
+
+Her eyelids closed, and she was silent, but her breath came quickly. He
+saw that his words had excited her, and he resolved carefully to avoid
+in future every syllable that could possibly disturb the perfect repose
+of her mind.
+
+He left the room, that she might become composed. Willmers persuaded
+her to take some nourishment, and she fell asleep again without a word.
+
+She was so much refreshed the next morning that Johannes breakfasted
+with his mother for the first time for many days, and assured her that
+he confidently hoped now for Ernestine's speedy recovery.
+
+"Thank God!" ejaculated the Staatsraethin fervently. "Since yesterday I
+have seen how dear she may become to me. I acknowledge now that you, my
+son, understood this rare creature better than I did. But where are
+Gretchen and Hilsborn? Why do they not come to breakfast?"
+
+"They are taking a turn together in the garden. How happy they are!"
+
+"God willing, we shall soon have a double wedding in N----."
+
+"Ah, mother, yours are bold dreams!" cried Johannes.
+
+"But why not? Be sure, my son, she will soon be well again. Her
+constitution, both mental and physical, is strong. In two weeks your
+holidays will be at an end, and then we will carry her back to town
+with us, and when her trousseau, that I shall provide, is complete,
+where will there be any need of delay?"
+
+"Why, mother, you yourself have just said that her mind is vigorous as
+well as her body. I shall never believe she can be mine until she is
+actually my affianced bride."
+
+"Ah, Moritz and Angelika!" cried the Staatsraethin, rising to meet them
+as they entered.
+
+Angelika kissed her mother and brother. She was, if possible, plumper
+and rosier than ever.
+
+"Aha!" laughed Moritz, "we frightened you for nothing yesterday. I
+know--I know all about it from Heim. Your coy damsel has come to her
+senses--congratulate you! If she can be cured of the rest of her
+brain-sickness, why, Heaven speed the wooing! There'll be no getting
+any good out of you until you are married."
+
+Angelika put her plump, dimpled little hand over his mouth. "Can you
+not let poor Johannes have some peace?"
+
+Moritz kissed the soft, warm fetter placed upon his lips and freed
+himself from it.
+
+"'Poor' Johannes! Why poor? He's sure of her now. She hasn't a
+groschen. Let her thank Heaven that there is a comfortable home ready
+for her, and she will,--no one can accuse her of stupidity," said
+Moritz.
+
+Johannes and his mother looked grave, but did not speak, and he went
+on. "I can't conceive how she withstood you so long. You're the very
+hero for a novel,--too sentimental for my taste, but that's just what
+women like, and if I were a woman I'd have you on the spot."
+
+"Thank you kindly, Moritz," said Johannes gaily, "but make your mind
+easy,--I certainly would not have you."
+
+"Oh, do stop! you do nothing but quarrel and fight when you are
+together," said Angelika merrily. "You are both good and true, each
+after his own fashion, and I love you both dearly. What more do you
+want?"
+
+"All right," said Moritz, contemplating the fair little figure with
+immense satisfaction. "If you love us, I am entirely content. It is
+only your discontented brother who is not satisfied."
+
+"Angelika knows well enough," said Johannes, "what she is to me!"
+
+Here Willmers appeared. "Herr Professor, Fraeulein Ernestine is awake,
+and is asking for her 'pretty young nurse,' as she calls her. Shall I
+go for Fraeulein Gretchen?"
+
+"Yes," said Johannes, "but I must tell her who Gretchen is,--you will
+excuse me?"
+
+"Yes, yes, go, for Heaven's sake! don't wait an instant!" Moritz called
+after him.
+
+"Ernestine," said Johannes, after he had exchanged morning greetings
+with the invalid, whose improvement was evidently steady and
+sure,--"Ernestine, you wish to see the young girl who was here
+yesterday, and I must first tell you who she is. Do you still cherish
+any affection for your uncle?"
+
+Ernestine shook her head. "He is dead to me."
+
+"I have something to tell you of him that may agitate you, and I
+scarcely dare to do it."
+
+"What can agitate me, after all the terrors that my own fancy has
+conjured up?" Ernestine asked composedly.
+
+"Well, then, the girl who has helped to nurse you with touching
+fidelity for the last four weeks is Leuthold's daughter, and--an
+orphan!"
+
+"Good God!" she exclaimed. "Poor child! Is Leuthold dead?"
+
+"Yes, he inflicted upon himself the punishment of his crimes. This
+world is past for him."
+
+Ernestine looked up gravely. "I cannot mourn him. He was my evil
+genius, and shamefully abused my confidence. But I will not visit it
+upon his daughter,--poor, innocent child. I pray you bring her to
+me,--she is the only creature in this world who is linked to me by the
+tie of kindred!"
+
+Johannes went to the window and beckoned to Gretchen, who was
+approaching the house with Hilsborn.
+
+She came instantly, and a minute later was upon her knees at
+Ernestine's bedside. Ernestine would have drawn her towards her, but
+she sobbed, "Let me kneel at your feet,--only so should the daughter of
+one who greatly wronged you dare to approach you."
+
+"Gretchen, poor, innocent orphan," cried Ernestine, "come to my heart!"
+Then, regarding her with emotion, she declared, "Indeed, if anything
+could lighten his errors, it would be his affection for such a child.
+For the sake of that pure human love, I forgive him. If I were rich, I
+would share all with you as with a sister. If I had anything to give, I
+would give it to you. But I have nothing for you, except sympathy and
+affection."
+
+And the two girls were clasped in each other's arms.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X.
+
+                                RETURN.
+
+
+With reawakening strength, entirely novel feelings of affection and
+interest penetrated Ernestine's nature,--genuine human sympathies, such
+as her life hitherto had afforded no room for. In a few days the
+closest intimacy was established between herself and Gretchen. There
+was a simplicity about Ernestine that no one had believed her to
+possess. It was as if she now began to live for the first time, as if
+during the long period of her unconsciousness she had forgotten her
+former experience of the outward world, and she was as delighted as a
+child with all that unfolded itself before her eyes. She was as charmed
+as if she had never seen it before with the sight of the clear autumn
+sky. She would gaze long and thoughtfully upon the flowers that were
+laid upon her bed. She eagerly turned over, with Gretchen, the books of
+rare prints that Johannes brought for her amusement. Hitherto she had
+known Art only by name, and had not had an idea of its significance.
+Her uncle had never supplied food for her imagination, lest she should
+be turned aside from the pursuit of her graver studies. Her weary soul
+now bathed in the waters of fancy which Johannes unlocked for her
+refreshment. He brought her photographs of pictures and statues by
+famous masters, and ideas of the beautiful were awakened within her,
+filling her with glad inspiration. And Gretchen met her with ready
+sympathy,--she was in advance of her, indeed, and could point out to
+her many beauties that else might have escaped her unpractised eyes. At
+such times Ernestine would regard Gretchen with admiration and
+surprise. It was a pleasure to see the two girls throwing their whole
+souls into these new enjoyments together. Even Hilsborn, who since
+Ernestine's convalescence had naturally been defrauded of many a
+delightful moment, could not grudge them so pure and true a happiness.
+Sometimes from morning until night the two lovely heads would be
+bent together over books and prints, and sometimes they had a
+companion,--Father Leonhardt, who would come "on purpose," as he
+expressed it, "to see the new books." But his delight was in listening
+to Ernestine while she described the pictures minutely, oftentimes with
+so much truth and spirit that the old man would clasp his hands and
+cry, "How beautiful that must be!"
+
+"Do you see it, Father Leonhardt?" she would ask in her zeal, and the
+old man would reply delightedly, "Yes, I see it!"
+
+And when anything pleased him particularly, he would ask, "Show me that
+picture again!" and Ernestine was unwearied in her descriptions and
+explanations.
+
+Johannes and his mother were enchanted with this rejuvenation, as it
+might be called.
+
+She avoided with secret dislike any return to her former world of
+thought,--it was too harsh a contrast to her present delight,--she
+seemed actually disgusted with the anatomical pursuits which had led
+her to dissect so curiously what now gave her so much pleasure. She
+would not again descend into those gloomy depths whence she had drawn
+nothing but despair, and all that she now looked upon was as novel and
+strange as if she had spent the last ten years immured in a tower, from
+which she had only looked out upon God's fair world from a far-off
+height.
+
+Her recovery advanced so rapidly that eight days after her first
+awaking to consciousness she was able to be carried by Johannes and
+Gretchen into the library, once more restored to order and comfort by
+the faithful care of Willmers. She was placed in an arm-chair, and, as
+the Staatsraethin covered her with a warm, soft coverlet, she said in a
+weak voice, "Now let us begin where we left off ten years ago!"
+
+The Staatsraethin stooped, and, kissing her brow, whispered softly, "It
+is a pity so much time has been lost!"
+
+"Oh, no,--not a pity," replied Ernestine,--"no time spent in searching
+for truth is lost; but the measure of my strength is exhausted. I must
+give up."
+
+And, with a melancholy smile, she leaned back her head and was silent
+
+The days passed on, and the time approached very nearly when Moellner
+must return to his duties in town. Ernestine grew more silent and
+thoughtful. No one could understand the change in her mood, for her
+physical condition improved daily, while she fell into a state of
+depression such as had not befallen her since she began to recover. At
+last Heim decreed that she must have fresh air, and one warm noon she
+drove out for the first time. She had begged that Gretchen alone might
+accompany her, and the Moellners had, although unwillingly, acceded to
+her request, Johannes carefully lifting her into the carriage.
+
+"Gretchen," said Ernestine, as they drove along, "Dr. Moellner has twice
+alluded to the fact that in two or three days he, with his mother, must
+move back to town, as his lectures at the University will begin again.
+You heard how they took it for granted that we should accompany them. I
+made only evasive answers, but now I must resolve what to do. Gretchen,
+you have often told me that your peace of mind depended upon your
+helping to support me as long as I needed you." She looked searchingly
+at the girl. "What if I were to take you at your word?"
+
+"I should keep it, for I gave it not only to you, but to God Almighty,"
+said Gretchen. "Tell me, Ernestine, what I can do for you."
+
+"Everything!" cried Ernestine. "You can save me from living upon
+charity."
+
+"How so?"
+
+"Can you not imagine, Gretchen, what it must be to me to accept further
+benefits from people whom I long to repay in kind, whom I would like to
+reward a thousandfold for all that they have done for me? I do not know
+whether you understand me when I tell you that I would far rather earn
+my living by the work of my hands than depend upon the kindness of
+those whom I once treated so arrogantly, and who have already heaped
+more coals of fire upon my head than I can bear. You shake your head.
+Your father, Gretchen, would have understood me,--his words upon this
+subject, the evening before he left me, are ineffaceably impressed upon
+my mind."
+
+"Forgive me, Ernestine, it does not become me to depreciate my father
+still further in your eyes, but I cannot be silent! I have arrived at
+the melancholy conviction that my father never advised you well. He was
+wrong here too. He did not know Dr. Moellner,--he could not conceive of
+the depth and truth of his affection for you. Will you reward the man
+who has done so much for you by making him wretched? You certainly will
+do so if you refuse to go with him. No, Ernestine, I do not understand
+how you can break a man's heart just for the sake of your pride!"
+
+Ernestine did not speak for a few moments, and then she said,
+"Gretchen, you are a child,--I cannot explain to you that there is a
+principle of honour to which one must sacrifice the happiness of a
+life, should circumstances demand it. You know, perhaps, that when I
+was wealthy and independent, Moellner offered me his hand, and that I
+refused it, because I could not fulfil the conditions that he proposed.
+Since that time his conduct has failed to assure me that he still loves
+me, for a nature as noble as his, is perfectly capable of sacrificing
+all that he has for me, from pure sympathy and mere compassion. And,
+even if he still loved me, could he value a heart open to the suspicion
+of surrendering itself to him under the pressure of necessity, not from
+free choice? No, Gretchen, there can be no firm structure of happiness
+erected upon such a foundation. This is not the time when I could
+withdraw my refusal to be his wife! No, no! such a course at this point
+would fix the blush of shame upon my forehead forever. Perhaps I may
+still succeed in obtaining an independence by my own exertions,--an
+independence that will again make me his equal. Then it would be
+different,--then he would know that I gave myself to him from free
+choice, not upon compulsion. If he should woo me then,--oh, Gretchen,
+it would be happiness that I scarcely dare to think of!"
+
+Gretchen kissed a tear from Ernestine's pale cheek, and said gently,
+"You are not like any one else, but always true and noble. I have no
+right to judge you. If you say, 'Thus shall it be,' I will submit. My
+only desire is to obey you."
+
+"You shall not obey me, Gretchen, but you shall be my guide in a world
+where I am a stranger,--you shall lend me your arm to support me until
+I can stand alone. Will you not?"
+
+"Yes," was the low reply. The girl was thinking of Hilsborn and his
+sorrow at the postponement of his hopes and of her own hopes also, and
+she tried to take heart and tell her cousin that she loved and was
+loved in return, and that she would be able to offer her an asylum. But
+Gretchen paused, and bethought herself. Ernestine would never accept
+from Hilsborn what she refused to receive from Moellner. She could not
+make such an offer without offending Ernestine, and, if Ernestine
+learned how matters stood with Gretchen, she would assuredly refuse all
+assistance or service from her that could delay her happiness with
+Hilsborn. For Ernestine's proud nature never could endure the thought
+of being a burden to any one Gretchen had felt all this from the first,
+and therefore had insisted that her betrothal should be kept secret
+from Ernestine. And could she tell her of it now? She controlled
+herself, and was silent.
+
+"I will tell you my plan," Ernestine began. "Of course I have given up
+the idea of going to America. I could never do what would be required
+of me there, without assistance, and, even if I could, I would not
+leave home and all that I love for the sake of mere fame. I will try to
+find a position as a teacher of natural science in some institution,
+or, failing that, I will go out as a private governess. But I know how
+ignorant I am of everything that is looked for from a woman in such a
+position. I know nothing of feminine occupations myself, and, of
+course, am quite unfit to have the entire charge of children. I
+understand no art,--I am deficient in all practical knowledge,--the
+knowledge that I possess is seldom needed in life. This I have learned
+since I have seen something of the world. You, Gretchen, are my only
+hope. You will teach me everything,--you are a proficient in all that a
+woman should know. I must leave this place. I must get away from this
+part of the country. Until I am out of Moellner's reach, there will be
+no peace either for him or for me. He would always be thinking that he
+ought to take me from my position, and there would be endless
+struggles. So I think it would be best that we two should retire to
+some small town, as far off as my means will permit, and then, if you
+would sacrifice to me a few months of your young, hopeful life, until I
+should be sufficiently far advanced to procure a situation."----She got
+so far with difficulty, and then, breaking off, asked humbly, "Is this
+asking too much of you? The world is open to you, Gretchen. Every one
+would welcome you back from your seclusion. Moellner's house will always
+be a home for you, where you may be tenderly cared for. Will you
+sacrifice all this to me, for a little while?"
+
+"With all my heart," said Gretchen. "But, dearest Ernestine, have we
+the means to carry out this plan? All that I possess is three gold
+pieces that I found in the pocket of the dress that my mother gave me.
+Look, here they are--I always carry them about me. My mother had
+written upon the paper in which they were wrapped, 'To be used in case
+of necessity.' I meant to spend them for you, for you are all the
+'necessity' that I have. Take them,--they are all that I have, but I am
+afraid they will not go far."
+
+"Thank you, you dear faithful little sister!" cried Ernestine. "We are
+not so poor as you think. Dr. Moellner has succeeded in saving all my
+furniture from your father's creditors. The sale of it will bring us in
+a sum sufficient to support us until I shall find a situation."
+
+"The question is, then, how long that will be," said Gretchen,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Only a few months at the longest, I should suppose."
+
+Gretchen was startled, but she only said gently, "Then we had better
+select a place where I too can earn something, that there may be no
+danger of our suffering from want."
+
+"That shall be as you think best," replied Ernestine. "I put myself
+entirely in your hands,--only take me away secretly, so that no one may
+seek to detain us."
+
+"Must no one know anything of it? Must I tell nobody?"
+
+"Do you suppose we should be allowed to go, Gretchen, if our intention
+was suspected? If you are afraid that you cannot keep our departure
+secret, tell me so frankly, and I will go alone, without your
+knowledge."
+
+"Oh, no, Ernestine, I will not let you go out into the world alone.
+What are all my resolutions and protestations worth, if I fail you at
+the outset? But there is one person, Ernestine, to whom I owe a certain
+obedience, my guardian! I am not of age, as you are. I cannot do just
+as I please. I must ask him whether I may go with you--but I will
+answer for his secrecy. He shall promise me, before I confide in him,
+that he will not betray my confidence,--and he always keeps his
+promises."
+
+Ernestine considered for a moment. "Yes, I see this cannot be avoided.
+I rely upon you. Johannes and his mother are going to drive into town
+together in a few days to prepare a room for us in their house. When
+they return in the evening, they must not find us here."
+
+"I cannot help feeling," said Gretchen, "as if I were guilty of
+treachery towards all these kind people. I never deceived any one in my
+life before; I feel like a criminal."
+
+"We will not deceive them, only spare them a parting scene that would
+be painful to us all,--we will not impose upon them the necessity of
+preventing what in their hearts they may think best for us. When we are
+once away, I will write and explain to them what we have done, and they
+will understand me."
+
+"Ernestine, I will pray God to give you more love and less pride. My
+only hope is that you will not long be able to live without the
+faithful friend who loves you so devotedly."
+
+Ernestine looked out of the carriage-window without a word. The fields
+were bare and deserted, but the spiders' webs, that lay like nets upon
+the stubble, glistened in the sunlight. Here and there the peasants
+were burning underbrush, and the red flames darted with a merry crackle
+through the thick white smoke that the autumn breeze kept lying low
+upon the ground. The cattle were gleaning a scanty meal from the shorn
+pastures,--they raised their heads to look after the carriage as it
+passed, or to rub their necks against some dried old stump of a tree.
+In the distance, a sportsman was making his toilsome way through the
+deep furrows of a ploughed field, while his dog busied himself among
+the hedges until he started a covey of birds, and the fatal crack of
+the gun was heard. A wagon, laden high with full wine-casks, passed
+along the road,--the boy that was driving had a bunch of withered
+asters in his hat, and cracked his whip gaily at sight of Gretchen's
+lovely face, while the little dog perched on the top of the load barked
+angrily. "Every one is making ready for winter," said Gretchen. "How
+much labour meat and drink cost!"
+
+The carriage turned towards the village, and Ernestine called to the
+coachman to stop at the school-house,--"I must see the Leonhardts once
+more." As they reached the low-roofed house, one of the windows was
+opened, and Frau Brigitta looked out. "Good-morning, Frau Leonhardt,"
+cried Ernestine from the carriage.
+
+"My dear Fraeulein Ernestine, I can hardly trust my eyes!" And out she
+came to the carriage-door. "Come in, come in, both of you,--I will
+bring Bernhard--he is with Kaethchen in the garden. But Walter is in the
+house. He is so happy with the things you have sent him! He studies
+night and day!" Thus the old woman ran on, as she assisted her guests
+to alight.
+
+"I think," said Ernestine, "that I should like to go into the garden to
+Father Leonhardt."
+
+"Just as you please. He is sitting round the corner, in the sun."
+
+"Go into the house, then, Gretchen," said Ernestine. "I will come in
+one moment."
+
+And she went round the house as quickly as her strength would permit,
+and approached the old man, who was teaching Kaethchen her lesson. The
+child would have run to meet her, but Ernestine motioned to her not to
+speak, and knelt silently down by Leonhardt.
+
+"Who is this?" he asked.
+
+Ernestine made no reply, but imprinted a kiss upon his hand. He smiled.
+"Oh, it is my daughter Ernestine!"
+
+"Yes, father, it is I," she said. "I come to you the first time that I
+have driven out. There is much within me that is still dark. I come to
+you for light."
+
+"You bring me light, and do you ask me to give you light? But I know
+what you mean, and I will give you all that I have. Heaven may make me,
+poor blind old man, its instrument in comforting and assisting you.
+Tell me, then, Ernestine, why does the sunshine that now floods your
+life fail to penetrate your heart?"
+
+"Send the child away, father."
+
+"Go, Kaethi dear," Leonhardt said.
+
+"To Walter?" the little girl asked, delighted.
+
+"Yes, if he is not busy,--see that you do not trouble him."
+
+Kaethchen still lingered, with a look of inquiry at Ernestine, who
+perceived it, and held out her hand. "My good little Kaethchen, do you
+remember me? I would like to give you a kiss, but you might fear my
+touch would harm you again."
+
+"Oh, no. That cannot be," said Kaethchen. "I am not at all afraid of
+you."
+
+"Then come here, my sweet child." And she took her upon her lap, and
+kissed her kindly. It was the first time that she had ever had a child
+in her arms, and the pleasure that it gave her was new and strange.
+
+"Oh, Father Leonhardt," she said, "how many different kinds of love
+there are! Strange that they all seem so new and delightful to me!"
+
+"You are like the man with the heart of stone, in Hauff's story. Your
+uncle put a marble heart in your breast, and Moellner has given you a
+warm, living heart instead."
+
+Ernestine blushed at these words. She was glad that Leonhardt could not
+see her, yet he did see her.
+
+"He brings a blessing wherever he comes," the old man continued. "He
+has done everything for this child. Did he tell you? The Countess
+Worronska sent the forty thousand roubles, as she promised, and Dr.
+Moellner succeeded at last in persuading the Kellers to send Kaethchen to
+a good school. She will leave now in about a week."
+
+"I knew nothing of it," said Ernestine.
+
+"It is not his custom to speak of the good he does," said Leonhardt,
+"but indeed he is a benefactor to all."
+
+"A benefactor to all," Ernestine repeated thoughtfully. "All the less
+should any one individual boast of his kindness,--a kindness shown to
+all, without respect of persons."
+
+Leonhardt involuntarily turned his darkened eyes towards her as she
+spoke thus. "Go, Kaethchen," he said, "Fraeulein Ernestine will come
+by-and-by."
+
+Kaethchen went into the house, and, not finding Walter in the
+sitting-room, mounted to his study, in the upper story, just under the
+roof. She nestled up to his side and said, with an air of great
+mystery, "Only think! the lady of the castle has kissed me again!"
+
+"Not possible!" laughed Walter. "And do you feel nothing queer?"
+
+"Of course not," Kaethchen cried in some confusion. "She can't bewitch
+me."
+
+"I wouldn't like to try her," said Walter with an involuntary sigh. "I
+think, if I had been in your place, I should have felt the enchantment
+instantly."
+
+"Why, you told me yourself there was no such thing," said Kaethchen.
+
+"Well, Kaethi," said the young man, "it would be as well, perhaps, for
+the sake of precaution, that I should kiss off her kisses. Where was
+it?--here?"
+
+"Yes, and here on my forehead, and on my shoulder."
+
+"There, we will put an end to all that," cried Walter, as he kissed the
+child. "And now go down-stairs. I must work."
+
+"Oh, you always have to work," Kaethchen complained.
+
+"Yes, you school-children have the best time, with nothing to do but
+laugh and play, while I have all the studying. Go now, and when the
+Fraeulein comes in from the garden, come and call me."
+
+"Yes, I'll call you. Good-by. But promise me that you won't tell that
+the Fraeulein kissed me. They would all scold and laugh at me."
+
+"Oh, no,--not for the world. Where's the use of telling everything? But
+you mustn't love the Fraeulein better than you do me, or I must tell
+your mother."
+
+"Oh, no. I love you best of all the world!" cried Kaethchen, shutting
+the door behind her with emphasis. She had been but a few moments with
+Gretchen and Frau Brigitta when Ernestine entered with Leonhardt. Both
+looked agitated, and Ernestine's eyes showed traces of tears.
+
+Kaethchen would have gone to call Walter, as she had been told to do.
+
+"Stay, Kaethchen," said Ernestine, "I will go up to Herr Leonhardt
+myself and see what he is doing."
+
+And she took Father Leonhardt's arm, and with him ascended the narrow
+staircase.
+
+Walter sprang up, with flushed cheeks, when Ernestine and his father
+entered his room.
+
+"Have you come all the way up here?" he exclaimed, "you, before whom I
+stand humbly as a mere pupil,--revering you almost as the very
+personification of Science?"
+
+"Do not speak thus, Walter,--you do not know what you are saying. I
+have, through much pain, obtained the victory over self, and will
+content myself with my lot as a woman, but I am weak, and such speeches
+might easily arouse again within me the demon of ambition. Yon mean it
+kindly, but, now that I stand on the borders of the realm I have
+forsaken, I must not listen to any voice recalling me to that dear old
+home. I have come to take leave of you. Your father will tell you
+wherefore and whither I am going."
+
+"Oh, Fraeulein Ernestine, are you going away? and are you going to give
+up your studies too?"
+
+"I must resign them, Walter, or at least all scientific pursuits. My
+knowledge must be to me now a means of support, and in these days it
+can serve me only in the position of a governess. I must content myself
+with teaching in a girls' school. Men do not want women for professors,
+and no man wants a professor for a wife. The world is not what I
+dreamed,--there is no place in it for a woman's efforts, and I am too
+weak to create one for myself."
+
+"What a shame it is," said Walter, "that such a woman should need to
+create a place for herself! she should be placed upon a pedestal and
+worshipped, if only for the sake of such a mind in such a body."
+
+Leonhardt laid his hand in warning upon the boy's arm.
+
+"Father, I must speak," he went on. "I must give some relief to the
+indignation that fills me at the idea of such a nature's being
+condemned to contend in the world for the bare means of subsistence."
+
+Ernestine hid her face in her hands, and sighed heavily.
+
+Leonhardt shook his head disapprovingly at his son. "It is not kind,
+Walter, to make the sacrifice harder than it need be. Ernestine is and
+always must be noble, and never was she nobler than in her present
+resolution. We cannot change the world, Walter, and Ernestine is a
+woman,--she must submit."
+
+"Yes, submit!" she repeated, and there was a keener pain in her
+accents.
+
+"Fraeulein Ernestine," Walter implored her, "forgive me if I have
+revived buried griefs. I meant well,--I cannot tell you what pain it
+gives me to see you giving up what is so dear to you, and for me your
+going is like the departure of his muse to the poet,--the vanishing of
+his saint to the rapt devotee."
+
+"Walter," Ernestine said gravely, "your words tempt me sorely, but, I
+hope, for the last time. I will resist them, and when you are older you
+will know why I do so. You are very young, Walter. It is not long,
+scarcely six weeks, since I was so too. In this short time I have grown
+older by six years, and the world and mankind are changed in my
+eyes,--I must struggle now for the simple means of subsistence."
+
+She went to the bookshelves, on which the bright rays of the sun were
+just falling. "Yes, dear old Darwin, your famous name still shines
+brightly upon me. I now begin to understand you and to appreciate the
+sublime import of your teachings."
+
+She held out her hand to Walter, with tears in her eyes. "Thank you for
+the opportunity of trying my strength for one moment. It has been a
+melancholy satisfaction. A bright future is before you; if I have
+contributed in a degree to the realization of your hopes in life, I
+will descend cheerfully from the heights I dreamed of,--I have not
+lived in vain. I must go."
+
+She looked around the room. Wherever her glance fell, it rested upon
+some of her books or instruments. "Keep all these things for me,
+Walter,--perhaps I may reclaim them at some future day." Again tears
+filled her eyes. She knew she was never again to possess, what had been
+so long the sole joy of her life, the companions of her labours. "No,
+let them go. I release from my service the spirits prisoned in these
+instruments that have brought the stars near to me and revealed the
+hidden mysteries of the earth to my asking eyes. They can serve me
+no longer,--I must return to the every-day world,--the spell is
+broken,--knowledge and sight are mine no longer."
+
+She left the room noiselessly, and her old friend followed her.
+
+A quarter of an hour later, the carriage rolled away from the
+school-house towards the castle, and the Leonhardts, father and son,
+stood on the threshold, the one gazing after the distant carriage, the
+other listening intently to the last sound of its wheels.
+
+Ernestine, sunk in thought, was leaning back in the vehicle, when she
+suddenly called to the coachman to stop. They were just passing the
+church.
+
+"Stay here and wait for me," she said to Gretchen. "I must go in here
+for a moment."
+
+She got out, and went to the door, which stood ajar. Her hand lingered
+on the latch. What impelled her thus irresistibly to enter this poor
+little village church?--Memory! Like a painted curtain, all the events,
+thoughts, experiences, of the last ten years were hung around the low
+portal. Again she stood before the church-door of her northern home, a
+trembling, longing, doubting, despairing child. "Enter, and learn to
+kneel," the same voice within that spoke then was speaking now. And she
+entered, softly and timidly. It was empty and quiet,--the people were
+all at their work. The floor between the benches was strewn with green
+box twigs from the last holiday, and the atmosphere was filled
+with the odour of incense. Through the painted window the sun threw
+many-coloured rays upon a picture of the Virgin. A swallow, scared from
+his summer's nest in the dome, flew circling above Ernestine's head,
+like the dove of the Holy Spirit. Ernestine slowly passed the quiet
+confessionals, where so many sorrow-laden hearts had unburdened
+themselves of their weight of woe and received forgiveness in the name
+of the Lord. She thought with compassion of the cumbrous formalities
+that separated these wandering souls from their hope and trust.
+"Straight to Him," breathed the voice within, and she passed with
+quickened steps over the soft, leaf-strewn floor, directly to the
+altar. Was it the same at which she had knelt and wept ten years
+before? Whether it were or not. He was the same Divine One whose image
+looked down from the cross, touching her heart now as it had touched it
+then. She knew now that she had but completed a circle, and had come
+back to the point at which she had been ten years before.
+
+And she extended her arms and fell upon her knees. "Father," she cried,
+"I have come back,--receive me! ah, receive me!"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+                  "GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD."
+
+
+"What a hard winter we are having!" said Ernestine to herself, looking
+thoughtfully out through the dim panes of the little window by which
+she was sitting, upon the roofs of the houses that bounded her
+prospect. They were covered with snow, that lay thick also on the
+outside window-sill. She sat with her hands wrapped in her cotton
+apron. "Well, I wanted to know everything,--why not poverty, and
+hunger, and cold,--the mighty foes with which humanity is always
+contending? I could philosophize excellently well upon abstinence in a
+warm room, by a well-spread table, and am I to shrink now? No, no! no
+living soul shall ever hear me ask for help."
+
+She stood up, and walked firmly to and fro.
+
+The room was a gloomy garret, a kind of kitchen,--at all events, there
+was a cooking-stove in it, and a cupboard containing articles of
+crockery. The floor was paved with stone.
+
+Ernestine's feet were bitter cold. "I wonder what o'clock it is," she
+thought. "The postman ought to be here soon. It is terrible to have
+nothing to mark the time."
+
+She listened to catch the striking of a church-clock--going to the
+window and letting her eyes wander over the white roofs in search of a
+distant tower. There was no sun visible through the snowy air. It was a
+genuine winter's day.
+
+At a window just opposite, a little boy breathed upon the frosty pane
+and made two round peep-holes, through which a pair of blue eyes beamed
+at her. She nodded to them--she knew the pretty child well. The little
+head behind the peep-holes nodded in its turn. She thought of Little
+Kay and her northern winter. Then the snow before the window rose like
+white clouds hiding the prospect, and, gradually taking a human shape
+clothed in wide flowing robes, that began to sparkle and glitter as if
+strewn with diamonds, and a veil of frozen gossamer fluttered in the
+air. And beneath the veil there looked at her through the window a
+white face, with fixed transparent eyes like crystal, and upon the
+beautiful brow was a diadem of icicles made of the tears of all who had
+perished in the ice and snow since the world was made, and of all who
+starve and freeze in winter-time,--a diadem richer in pearls than that
+of any earthly monarch. The mighty form had on one arm a shield,--but
+it was a plate of the ice upon which had been wrecked the ships that
+sought to penetrate the inhospitable kingdom of the Snow-queen around
+the north pole. With the other hand she was leading away the little boy
+from over the way,--she longed for some coral to adorn her colourless
+robes, for a few drops of warm human blood. It was the Snow-queen of
+the fairy-dreams of Ernestine's childhood. But she was more majestic
+and gloomy than formerly, and she spoke other words to her now:
+
+"I know you,--you never feared me as you do now that you have no warm
+roof, no firm walls, to protect you from my icy breath. But I will not
+harm you,--you belong to those who believe in the future of my
+dominion, who know that in thousands and thousands of years it must
+spread over the whole world, when all this swarming life will have
+passed to other spheres. Then my time will come,--there will be quiet,
+eternal icy quiet, here below,--and I will laugh at the old
+extinguished sun, glimmering like a burnt-out coal and envying me my
+diamond palace which he can no longer melt away."
+
+Thus spoke the Snow-queen to the dreaming woman of science, and there
+was a cold pain at her heart,--sorrow for the end of Being here below,
+sorrow at "the judgment-day of an eternal glacial period," as Du Bois
+has it.
+
+The Snow-queen had vanished, and Little Kay with her,--a thick
+snow-storm hid from view the path that she had taken.
+
+Slowly and weakly, as if the clock were frozen and could thaw only by
+degrees, twelve o'clock struck from the church-tower.
+
+Ernestine did not hear it. She sat with her head leaning against the
+window. The voice of the Snow-queen sounded in her ears, "Open your
+eyes, and see!"
+
+And she opened her eyes, and saw across billions of years. The sun, its
+fires only dimly burning, hung, a bloody disk in the skies, heavy
+brooding clouds were tinged with dull red, and twilight rested over the
+cold earth. Upon its hardened surface only a few wretched imbruted
+creatures crawled, seeking to sustain life upon the scanty remains of a
+decaying vegetation.
+
+Sadly Ernestine closed her eyes upon the painful picture.
+
+But she was again commanded to look abroad. Centuries swept on, and all
+grew darker and colder. The red disk faded, and all colour with it.
+Ernestine marked it all vanish in a dull gray. Weary with fruitless
+struggle, the last remains of organic life lay down in eternal rest.
+
+It was night at last. Still the earthly sphere performed its appointed
+circuit around the charred mass that was once its sun. But the mighty
+firmament was clear and cloudless,--the lifeless earth exhaled no mists
+to obscure the light of the distant stars, which revealed to Ernestine
+immeasurable depths and immense heights of frozen seas and oceans amid
+eternal repose,--the world was only a gigantic memorial of things that
+were.
+
+"But where, and in what guise, are the transformed forces of this spent
+world now lingering?" asked Ernestine. "Nothing in the great Universe
+is lost."
+
+"Ah! good heavens I here you are sitting dreaming in this cold
+kitchen!" suddenly said a clear, bright voice. "No fire on the
+hearth,--no dinner made; or, let me see,--yes,--but how? Burnt to a
+cinder. My dear Ernestine, what have you been doing?"
+
+Ernestine had sprang up, and was staring at the speaker as if she had
+come from another world.
+
+Gretchen, for she it was, laid aside a couple of schoolbooks that she
+had under her arm, threw off her cloak and hood, and busied herself
+with the neglected soup. "I understand,--first you kindled a huge fire,
+and then never thought of it again. The soup is not skimmed, and the
+beef is burned, and yet half raw. Yon cannot have looked at it for at
+least an hour."
+
+"It is such a pity that we had to sell my watch," Ernestine excused
+herself. "I never know now how the time goes."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Gretchen, "you can surely tell without a watch whether
+the soup boils and the fire burns or not. Only try, and all will go
+right. You have often proved that you can really cook quite well if you
+will only take pains. But I cannot trust you with soup and beef
+again,--you forget everything when once you begin to dream."
+
+"Gretchen, don't be angry," pleaded Ernestine.
+
+"But here is all the food spoiled that was so hardly earned, and we
+have not a single groschen in the house, and shall not have, until my
+money is paid me to-morrow." And tears of vexation came into Gretchen's
+eyes. "I care more about you than about myself. I am strong, and do not
+need meat; but you,--indeed you ought to think of yourself, if not of
+me!"
+
+Ernestine, in her confusion, looked from the saucepan to Gretchen,
+and from Gretchen to the saucepan, in dismay. "You are right," she
+said,--"it is unpardonable not to take care that you, poor child,
+should have something hot and good when you come home wearied from your
+work. Indeed I am a useless creature!"
+
+Gretchen was instantly appeased. She laughed, and threw her arms around
+Ernestine. "Ah! my beautiful, grand, intellectual sister, it is too bad
+to scold you! Just hear my queenly Ernestine sue for pardon, like some
+poor Cinderella, and all for a piece of burnt meat! Don't mind it,
+dear. You can't think how touching your humility is. Why, I could kneel
+at your feet, if you would let me." She kissed her sister's lips. "Oh,
+what a poor distressed face! Don't you know, dearest Ernestine, that
+the sight of that face is more to me than all the dinners in the
+world?" And she laughed as merrily as a child.
+
+Ernestine returned her embrace. "There, you forgive me," she said
+tenderly.
+
+"Oh, no, I beg your pardon," said Gretchen, "I will educate you. But
+enough of this. We must proceed to business at once. I must go back to
+school at two o'clock, and we cannot starve. We must give up the meat
+for to-day. There is no help for it. We must indulge ourselves in the
+luxury of an omelet."
+
+"Let me make it," Ernestine begged. "Sit down and rest yourself, you
+are tired."
+
+"What! let you make it?" asked Gretchen. "That would be wise indeed.
+Suppose you spoiled it, what should we do then?" And she took out a
+basket containing eggs. "We have just eggs enough for one omelet, and
+no more.
+
+
+           'Entraenn' er jetzo kraftlos meinen Haenden,
+            Ich habe keinen zweiten zu versenden,'
+
+
+as Schiller makes Tell say when he had no second string to his bow."
+
+"Indeed, Gretchen," pleaded Ernestine, "I will not spoil it. I should
+be so glad to recover your good opinion,--only let me try."
+
+"Dearest, darling Ernestine," said Gretchen, "trust me, we cannot
+indulge in experiments any longer. While we had a little money, it did
+not make much difference if we had a spoiled dish now and then, but now
+we must save every groschen.--there is no help for it." And she began
+to beat the eggs, while Ernestine put more wood in the stove.
+
+"Never mind that!" cried Gretchen. "If you want to do something, dress
+the salad. But make haste, the omelet will be ready in an instant."
+
+Ernestine made all the haste she could,--she was so anxious to do
+something.
+
+Suddenly Gretchen, who was busy at the fire, heard a low exclamation,
+and, turning, she saw Ernestine standing with a face of despair before,
+the salad-bowl, with the oil-bottle in her hand. "What have you done?"
+cried Gretchen, hastening to her side. "Not got hold of the wrong
+bottle, I hope?" But one sniff at the salad was enough. "Bless me!
+she has put petroleum into it! Now we must sit in the dark this
+evening,--our week's supply is exhausted. Such nice salad and such good
+petroleum, each so valuable by itself and so worthless mixed! Now, dear
+Ernestine, you cannot ask me to permit you to stay in the kitchen a
+moment longer. This is one of your unlucky days." And, with a comical
+air of pathos, she untied and took off her sister's apron. "Herewith I
+solemnly depose you from your responsible office. You have to-day shown
+yourself entirely unworthy to wear this ornament. Now go into the next
+room, and wait quietly until I bring the omelet in to you." And she
+opened the door and led Ernestine from the room.
+
+When she went to her, shortly afterwards, she found her sitting sewing,
+her eyes red with weeping. "Darling," she said to her, "I do believe
+you are crying about that trifle! I must be a little strict with you,
+you see, or you will never learn to economize and take care of things.
+Ernestine dear, you are not vexed with me for scolding you? I was only
+in jest."
+
+"How could I be vexed with you? I am crying because I am of no earthly
+use in the world! If it were not for you, you angel, what would become
+of me? There is no child eight years old more clumsy and awkward than
+I. Who would bear with me as you do? Do you think I am not humiliated
+by these thoughts? For these last two months, ever since my money was
+exhausted, you have supported me by your hard work at that school, and
+I could do nothing for you but prepare our frugal noonday meal while
+you are away, and now I cannot even do that! It is shameful! Have I
+made the most complicated chemical combinations, and yet can I not make
+decent soup? Have I overcome the greatest difficulties, and yet are
+these simple tasks beyond me? This cannot go on. I promise you I will
+take myself in hand, and you shall not have to fast again when you come
+from school."
+
+"My dear Ernestine, I do not believe you can ever learn these things.
+They are too far beneath you."
+
+"My superiority is truly deplorable," replied Ernestine. "It does not
+help me to discharge the smallest duty. Difficulties always incite me,
+and, now that I see how difficult these trifles are, I am determined to
+master them."
+
+Gretchen handed her a piece of the omelet. "Now put away your work, or
+your dinner will be quite cold."
+
+Ernestine laid aside the skirt upon which she was working. "I shall
+never get it together again. I wish I had not ripped it apart!"
+
+"Why, you could never have worn it, with the front breadth so scorched.
+But I will help you this evening. It is my fault that you scorched
+it,--I should not have let you make the fire,--so it is no more than
+reasonable that I should help you to repair the injury. But, Ernestine
+dear, you do not eat."
+
+"I have had enough. If you would have allowed me, I could have made two
+omelets out of those eggs."
+
+Gretchen laughed merrily. "Hear her say how much better she could have
+made it! Well, only wait, day after to-morrow is Sunday, and I shall be
+at home, and then you may cook as much as you please, under my
+direction. That will be a real holiday for you."
+
+"Ah, Gretchen, how often I think of the Staatsraethin, when she wanted
+to teach me to prepare the beans for cooking, and I felt it an
+occupation so far beneath my dignity! I did not understand her then,
+but I have learned to do so now." She sat lost in sad reflections.
+
+Gretchen looked at Ernestine's plate, and shook her head. "What shall I
+get for you that you can eat? If you would only let me accept something
+now and then from my guardian. He would be so glad to assist us."
+
+"Gretchen, I have nothing to do with what he gives you," said Ernestine
+gravely, "but no morsel that he might send us should pass my lips, any
+more than I would accept one of the two dresses he sent to you. I know
+I am severe, for I force you to starve with me, but, God willing,"--and
+she uttered the name of God with more reverence than is usually shown
+by those who have it constantly on their lips,--"it will not last much
+longer. I must surely obtain a situation soon, and then you, you dear,
+faithful child, will be free to return to the Moellners, or
+whithersoever you choose, and begin to enjoy your young life. I will
+confess to you, Gretchen, that I wrote again, the day before yesterday,
+to the agent in Frankfort, begging him to do all that he could for me.
+There must be a place for me somewhere in this wide world."
+
+She threaded her needle with difficulty, and began to sew again. Two
+large tears fell upon her work, but she brushed them hastily away, that
+Gretchen might not see them.
+
+"Dear Ernestine," Gretchen said, when she had carried away the plates,
+"I must go now, for half-past one has struck. Do not sew too long, and
+pray forget your sad thoughts. Some place for you is sure to offer. It
+would, to be sure, have been better if we could have lived in
+Frankfort, instead of coming out here to Rothelheim. Then you would
+have been able to see the people yourself. But the living there was
+really too expensive, and I was certain of employment here. Oh, if
+people only knew you, they would seize upon you instantly. If I could
+only induce my good directress to see you, she never could withstand
+you! Now good-by, dearest and best,--all good spirits protect you in
+the dark,--you know we have no light this evening!"
+
+"Never mind that, Gretchen. I will think of father Leonhardt, who is
+always in the dark, while for us the sun will surely rise again."
+
+"Yes indeed, Ernestine, always remember that,--'The sun will surely
+rise for us,' Gretchen called back into the room from the doorway.
+
+"In that sense? Who can tell?" Ernestine thought sadly.
+
+She looked for a moment irresolutely at the little spider-legged table
+that served as dining- and writing-table. She would so like to write to
+Walter. It was now over a week since she had heard from him, and her
+scientific correspondence with this young friend was her sole
+self-indulgence,--the only tie that still connected her with her former
+pursuits. In all his letters he told her of his progress, asked her
+opinion upon many points, and glowed with enthusiasm for her genius.
+She could scarcely withstand the temptation to devote the time while it
+was yet light to writing. Her heart was still full of the wonderful
+dreams of the morning.
+
+But she looked down at the skirt upon which she was working, and which
+she really stood in need of, and thought, "No, I was thoughtless this
+morning, and dreamed away the time, instead of cooking. I will be
+conscientious this afternoon, and work."
+
+She seated herself, sighing heavily, at the window, and sewed on
+diligently. "Practice makes perfect," she had said in the essay that
+was to procure her admission to the lecture-room of the University. She
+never dreamed then how she was one day to prove the truth of the
+proverb. If she only had that essay now, she thought! She had forgotten
+to ask Dr. Moellner for it, and he had it still. What had he done with
+it? Should she reclaim it? No, assuredly not! He had written to her but
+once since her flight from Hochstetten, and had afterwards sent her the
+proceeds of the sale of her furniture, without one friendly word,--only
+transacting her business for her as formally as for a stranger. And
+what a letter that was after her flight! She took it out to read it
+once more, although she had read it already again and again:
+
+"I understand you, Ernestine. I expected this. It would have been
+unjust to our future to put force upon your feelings. God will one day
+guide me out of this dilemma. Until then, live in peace, and gratify a
+pride that I am now convinced nothing can break. Perhaps in time it may
+consume itself, and perhaps love may overcome it. I will endure, as I
+have learned to do since I first knew you. There is a strength in you
+such as I never believed a woman could possess, and with which I know
+not how to contend. I do not grudge you the triumph that this
+confession affords you. It is a poor delight in comparison with that
+which love would yield you, if you did not scorn it. Ah, Ernestine,
+could I have snatched you from your poverty to my heart and home, my
+joy would have been beyond that of mortals. A grateful smile from you
+would have been more than worlds to me. But you do not choose, since
+you would sacrifice nothing for me, to accept any sacrifice from me.
+You choose to be your husband's equal in all respects,--to owe nothing
+to any human being. I forgive you your pride in this respect, for it
+presupposes an exaggerated self-depreciation. As you think so lightly
+of yourself,--as you do not dream of your wealth of charms, of the
+power that you possess to bless and enrich,--you cannot believe that
+you can bestow a treasure to the worth of which the wealth of the world
+is nothing. Perhaps this is partly my fault. In my desire to deal
+truthfully with you, I have neglected to impress this fact upon you.
+But, Ernestine, it seems to me a true woman does not ask, 'How much do
+I receive, and what can I give in return?' She accepts in love what is
+offered in love, and is glad to owe everything to him to whom she is
+everything. She gives him all that she can, and never stints him of the
+dearest delight that he can have,--that of labouring and toiling for
+one so dear to him. She willingly wears the fetters of dependence,
+regarding them only as ties binding her more closely to the loved one.
+You cannot feel so, Ernestine. It would be unjust to require it of you,
+and you were wrong if you feared I should seek to detain you by force.
+I only used force to preserve you from a menacing peril. Now you are
+safe. The world into which you are going will be only a school for you,
+and you have need of this school. Therefore, choose your own path, and
+prove the independence, your right to which you insist upon asserting.
+I would not exact what would be a blessing only as a free gift. There
+was no need of your leaving us as you did, without even a farewell to
+my mother, who had grown so fond of you and nursed you so tenderly. It
+pained her that you should do so.
+
+"I will not speak of what I suffered upon finding you gone upon my
+return from town, leaving only those few lines of farewell. You are
+bent upon maintaining the dignity of your sex, and, in such an
+important undertaking, it is scarcely worth while to consider the
+wrecked happiness of one human life.
+
+"Farewell, and, if I can serve you in anything, command me.
+                                                Johannes."
+
+
+When she first received this letter, she had sunk fainting into
+Gretchen's arms. Since then Moellner's name had never passed her lips,
+and almost five months had gone by. She had not allowed a thought of
+him to enter her mind, except when, as now, some other subject had
+brought him vividly before her, and then she punished herself by
+quickly thinking of other things. Whence came the tears that now
+trickled down her cheeks? Her cold, benumbed hands trembled as she
+wiped them away. She bravely choked them down, and thought--poor
+child!--that she was not crying, when she swallowed down the bitter
+drops that welled up from her heart. Such weeping is the bitterest of
+all.
+
+The shades of night fell fast, and she could no longer see to sew.
+There was an end of a candle on the shelf, and she lighted it, but it
+scarcely burned half an hour before it died out and she was left in
+darkness. She began to arrange and open the narrow beds that stood
+against the wall of the room, and, as she did so, thought of her good
+Willmers. How kind it was of the Frau Staatsraethin to take the faithful
+soul into her service! Fie! thinking of him again! What weakness! The
+little room grew darker and darker. The panes began to be covered with
+frost, and the light from the neighbour's room opposite glittered in
+prismatic colours upon the ice-flowers and trees. They were wealthier
+over there than Ernestine, for they could afford a light. They had not
+poured their petroleum on the salad, to be sure, but then they had not
+been visited by the Snow-queen! Ernestine sat down wearily by her bed,
+and rested her head on the pillow. She felt better when her body was in
+entire repose, she thought.
+
+How wearily she had lain upon her soft bed six months ago in
+Hochstetten! And how anxious she had been to live! Would it have been
+so terrible to lose such a life as this? Then it seemed as if a strong,
+tender hand clasped hers, and she felt a quick, anxious breath upon her
+brow. She knew it well, and the gentle questioning that was sure to
+follow,--knew that firm, quiet pressure upon her heart to count its
+pulsations. And if she had only clasped it fast,--that strong, tender
+hand,--she would not now be sitting here alone in the dark! "Oh,
+Johannes!" she gasped, and extended her arms. Then there was a noise of
+some one stumbling upstairs,--that could not be Gretchen. There was a
+knock at the door. "Who is there?" cried Ernestine, frightened.
+
+"Postman," a rough voice answered from without.
+
+"Oh, a letter from the agent," thought Ernestine, opening the door.
+
+"Four kreutzers," said the man, handing her a letter.
+
+Ernestine stood aghast. "Is it not prepaid? I--I have not a single
+kreutzer in the world--we shall have no money until to-morrow."
+
+"No kreutzers, and no light? Hm--hm! Such a beautiful lady, with no
+money in her pocket? Well, well, you can pay me to-morrow. I'll trust
+you until then."
+
+"Thank you, you are very kind," Ernestine stammered, greatly ashamed.
+She was obliged to run in debt to the postman.
+
+"Have you no light, to show me the way down-stairs? I shall break my
+legs or my neck upon these steep, narrow steps."
+
+"I will lead you down. I know the way, and I must go down to read my
+letter by a street-lamp."
+
+"Good God! what poverty! Go down to the people on the lower floor--they
+will give you a candle-end."
+
+"No, I will not. They are not respectable people, and I will have
+nothing to do with them. The poorer one is, the prouder one must be--so
+as not to sink too low. You are a good man, Herr Bittner. Tell no one
+how poor we are."
+
+"No, if you say so, but something ought to be done for you. I have seen
+what a hard time you have had of it ever since you came here. It's none
+of my business. I can only hope that there may be something good in the
+letter that I brought you,--and I do hope so, with all my heart.
+Good-evening."
+
+"God grant it!" said Ernestine, going into the street to read her
+letter by the gas-lamp there. A fine snow was falling again, and the
+passers-by looked at her in amazement. The colour mounted to her
+forehead, but she could not wait until morning to read this letter,
+which she felt sure contained her fate. It was from the Frankfort agent
+who was to procure a situation for her, and was short and to the point:
+
+
+"Fraeulein von Hartwich:
+
+"You wish me to tell you frankly how it is that I have as yet procured
+no situation for you. I will do so,--for I see from your note that you
+accuse me in your thoughts of a negligence that I should be sorry to be
+guilty of towards any one,--least of all towards yourself.
+
+"You yourself, unfortunately, Fraeulein von Hartwich, furnish the reason
+why I have hitherto been unable to procure a situation for you. No
+agent in the world would be able to find a position as governess in a
+respectable family for a lady bearing such a reputation as yours. For
+their children's sake, people are unwilling to receive into their
+houses a person who has written as you have done against religion and
+in favour of the emancipation of woman. You assure me, I know, that you
+have altered your opinions, and that you yourself now condemn these
+writings. But no one will believe in such a forced conversion. Besides,
+in your advertisement in the papers you referred to the Prorector of
+the University at N----, without giving any name. I can only conclude
+that you must have been mistaken in the person of the Prorector, for
+the present holder of the office is a Professor Herbert, who gives the
+strongest possible testimony against you, and has already destroyed
+your prospects in three separate instances, by referring people to your
+books,--after reading which, no one would listen to a word in your
+behalf."
+
+
+Ernestine's arms dropped by her sides. From delicacy, she had
+suppressed Moellner's name in the papers, entirely forgetting that at
+this time the office of Prorector was held but for a year by one
+person. She remembered how she had mortally offended Herbert on the
+only occasion when she had met him, and she knew that this man's
+mortified vanity had made him her implacable foe. But that was a
+secondary matter. The blameless need fear no foe. It was her own fault
+that Herbert had the power to destroy her prospects. He had not
+maligned her, he had simply referred to the books which she had
+written. She had herself whetted the knife that he had used against
+her. She had only herself to blame.
+
+Never had the phantom of the past loomed so monstrously before her as
+now. There she stood,--she, who had thought herself able to defy the
+world,--starving and freezing in the cold, reading by the light of a
+street-lamp the anathema that society hurls at the woman who offends
+it. The iron wheels of conventionality, in the path of which she had so
+boldly thrown herself, had passed over her prostrate form. She was only
+a helpless, desolate woman.
+
+She was scarcely capable of reading any further. She held the sheet in
+her trembling hands, caring not to decipher the few words of condolence
+with which the agent closed his communication. The snow-flakes wetted
+the paper, so that the letters ran together, and in the wintry wind it
+fluttered to and fro in her hand.
+
+Her feet were stiff with cold as she turned into the house again and
+groped her way up the dark staircase. Gretchen's return was unusually
+delayed, and Ernestine longed so for her sympathy and advice.
+
+What should she do? She could not permit her sister to sacrifice the
+best years of her life to her support. She could no longer be dependent
+upon the kindness of such a child. What should she attempt? Must she
+beg from door to door? How could she earn her own living, when she had
+been taught none of the arts by which to earn it? In these last few
+months Gretchen had taught her something of what was indispensable in
+such great need. She had never dreamed how difficult the things were
+that she had accounted so unimportant. She had come to the point where
+self-respect is imperilled in the struggle for mere subsistence. She
+wrung her hands, and called out into the darkness, "O God, take pity on
+me, and guide me through this valley of the shadow of death!"
+
+And the bitter doubt whether He would listen to her cry would arise
+within her heart. She reviewed in her mind the miserable superficial
+essays that she had written denying Him, and felt that she was justly
+punished. How little had she thought, when exulting in the attention
+that they had excited, that she should ever feel herself disgraced by
+their authorship! As yet, she had uttered no reproach against her
+uncle. He had expiated by his death his theft of her property, but his
+crime against her mind and soul he could never expiate,--this it was
+that now branded him with infamy in her memory. What a happy woman she
+might now have been, if he had not misdirected her ambition! What
+friends might have been hers, had he not made a misanthrope of her! and
+now, when starvation stared her in the face, the demon of his teaching
+snatched from her lips the bread that she might have earned.
+
+When Gretchen at last returned, she found Ernestine crouching upon the
+hearth, gazing into the fire that she had kindled to warm her wet feet
+and to cook the evening meal.
+
+"What are you doing, Ernestine dear?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"I am praying for daily bread," she replied in a monotone.
+
+Poor Gretchen listened sorrowfully to all that Ernestine had to tell
+her. She knew that for such a nature as Ernestine's this state of
+dependence and inactivity was worse than death, and that no love or
+devotion on her part could reconcile her proud sister to such a lot.
+She could advise nothing. The only thing that Ernestine could do for
+her own support was, perhaps, copying. But who in the little town would
+have anything to copy? And they could hardly live unless Ernestine was
+able to earn something. Gretchen's modest salary would hardly suffice
+to keep them from starvation. She did not mind any amount of
+deprivation for herself,--but could she see Ernestine pine and sicken
+for want of nourishing food? And she had promised solemnly to accept no
+help from Moellner or Hilsborn. What was to be done?
+
+After a long, sleepless night, she arose at dawn, and, while Ernestine
+was still sleeping, sat down and wrote to Hilsborn. She wrote
+hurriedly, and the long letter was wet with tears that Ernestine would
+have been grieved to see. She finished it before Ernestine awoke, and
+her eyes began to sparkle again, as if they trusted that this letter
+would change the whole aspect of affairs.
+
+"Gretchen," said Ernestine, as Gretchen leaned over her to give her a
+morning kiss, "how gay you look! Do you not feel the heavy burden that
+I have laid upon your shoulders?"
+
+"Oh, Ernestine," her sister replied, "as long as I have you I will be
+thankful for you, however dark matters may look outside."
+
+Ernestine looked at her thoughtfully. "Gretchen, there is a greatness
+in your fidelity and self-sacrifice that I never before conceived of.
+Now first I know what Dr. Moellner meant by true womanliness. This
+womanliness your father took from me,--you, his child, have restored it
+to me. It is the greatest gift you have given me, and it atones for his
+depriving me of it."
+
+Gretchen breathed a sigh of relief. "When you say so, I seem to hear
+the angels tell me that mercy will be shown to my poor father. Indeed,
+dear Ernestine, you are in alliance with beings of a better world, or
+you could not know how to console and inspire me thus. Indeed, when you
+look at me so tenderly I must believe there is redemption for the soul
+of my father. What can I do to repay you for such consolation?"
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII.
+
+                            THE THIRD POWER.
+
+
+"'What the law of force fails to accomplish, the intellect will
+effect,--where the intellect fails, love succeeds!' That was what he
+said," said Ernestine. Again her thoughts were involuntarily occupied
+with Johannes. "I wish I could write the sermons for his reverence,
+instead of copying them,--that would be such an excellent text." Thus
+she broke forth one day while seated with Gretchen at the table, where
+the latter was busy finishing the new dress that Hilsborn had sent her.
+
+"Have you proposed it to Herr Pastor?" asked Gretchen with a smile.
+
+"If he were not so conceited, I certainly would do so. But I suppose he
+would be offended."
+
+"I rather suppose so too," laughed Gretchen.
+
+"There is a Nemesis in it," said Ernestine, as she sat making a pen.
+"Here am I, who have hardly ever listened to a sermon in my life,
+obliged to copy sermons for my bread. Well," she added gravely, "it is
+just."
+
+And again her pen flew quickly over the paper. After some time she sat
+up, with a long breath. "I have learnt to deny myself and to pray, but
+I have yet to learn the hardest task of all,--patience."
+
+"It must be a terrible drudgery to such a mind as yours merely to write
+down the thoughts of another," said Gretchen.
+
+"If there only were thoughts here, but these are nothing but empty
+words. And I must not even correct them,--it is mental death!" She
+wrote on for awhile, then suddenly raised her head and broke out, "At
+least they might let women have something to do with religion, if they
+deny our right to meddle with science or politics. Religion is so much
+a matter of feeling, and feeling is a woman's prerogative. Humility,
+self-sacrifice, and submission are native to woman, and a woman's lips
+could discourse far more eloquently than a man's of these Christian
+qualities. Why should a woman not be found worthy to declare the word
+of God? Why?" She suppressed a sigh. "Ah, the old indignation is
+getting possession of me! I will not yield to it,--such independence of
+thought does not become a mere copyist." She tried to go on with her
+writing, but her cheeks were flushed, and the tears stood in her eyes.
+"Oh, Gretchen, I shall never live it down,--this pity for our poor sex.
+It will always be the same,--any allusion to our wrongs cuts me to the
+very quick."
+
+Gretchen laid her hand upon her shoulder. "Dear Ernestine, we will
+speak of this some other time. Now remember that you have promised that
+your copy shall be ready by four o'clock."
+
+"You are right I will finish it instantly," said Ernestine, dipping the
+pen in the ink. "No, I cannot let such nonsense stand as it is!" she
+exclaimed after a pause. "The man is going to have the sermons
+printed,--he will thank me for correcting the worst faults."
+
+"Ernestine, take care,--he may be offended," said Gretchen.
+
+"Oh, no, surely I may change a couple of words. Whatever goes through
+my hands shall be as free from errors as possible."
+
+Gretchen shook her head.
+
+Ernestine completed her copy in about half an hour, and prepared to
+carry it to the pastor.
+
+The days were beginning to grow longer. Although it was past four
+o'clock, the winter sun was looking brightly into the room, and upon
+the roofs below their windows the snow was melting into little rills.
+
+"Shall you be back soon?" Gretchen called after Ernestine as she went
+out.
+
+"In a very little while," was the answer, as the speaker left the room
+with her bundle of papers under her arm.
+
+Gretchen was left alone in the room.
+
+Another half-hour passed. A firm step was heard ascending the stairs.
+Gretchen listened intently. Her heart beat fast with joyous expectancy.
+Who was it that was intruding upon their seclusion?
+
+She had not long to wait, there was a loud knock at the door.
+Gretchen's "Come in" was instantly followed by a "Thank God, 'tis he!"
+for Moellner stood upon the threshold.
+
+"I knew you would come,--I was sure my letter to Herr Hilsborn would
+bring you,--I am delighted!" cried the girl, drawing him into the room.
+He said nothing in reply to her welcome, but let her take his hat and
+coat, and then, with a glance around the wretched apartment, exclaimed,
+in a tone of horror-stricken compassion, "Good God!"
+
+Gretchen understood him, and gave him time to recover himself.
+
+At last he asked, "Where is she?"
+
+"She has gone to carry home some copying that the pastor gave her to
+do. She will be here very soon. Do not be startled at seeing her look
+so badly. We have lived wretchedly of late."
+
+Johannes took her hand. "Gretchen, can't you hide me somewhere? I am
+not sufficiently composed to see her at present,--I must collect
+myself."
+
+"Yes, come into our kitchen. I had better prepare Ernestine, too, for
+seeing you,--she is weak, and must be treated with great caution."
+
+She conducted him into the little, cold, dark room that she called a
+kitchen. "Look! the poor girl has cooked our wretched dinners in this
+place for the last five months, and shed many a tear when she spoiled
+anything. Oh, if you could have seen, as I have, our proud Ernestine
+work and struggle and starve, you would not have refrained so long from
+putting an end to our misery."
+
+"It is well that I could not see it. I should have been unnerved, and
+spoiled all by precipitation."
+
+"Forgive me, but indeed you are hard. Hilsborn would not have left me
+here one instant longer than he could have helped."
+
+"And he would have been right, Gretchen. But Ernestine and you are very
+different characters. She needed, and would have, this struggle for
+life,--even now I tremble lest she should refuse to let me put an end
+to it."
+
+"Oh, no! when you see Ernestine, you will acknowledge that it was high
+time to hasten to her. Since all her efforts to obtain a situation have
+failed, her spirit seems well-nigh broken. I think in a little while
+she would have been hopelessly embittered, and her health would have
+given way entirely."
+
+Johannes threw himself into the wooden chair by the window, where, in
+the midst of the hard prose of her life, Ernestine had been visited by
+such wondrous dreams. "Here is a letter to you, my dear Gretchen, from
+Hilsborn. He would have been only too glad to come with me, but every
+moment of his time is in demand."
+
+"He is good and true," said Gretchen, "and I know how he trusts in me,
+but I cannot leave Ernestine until her future is assured."
+
+"You are a noble child, Gretchen! If Ernestine had the least suspicion
+of what you are renouncing for her sake, she would never permit----" He
+paused, a flush mounted to his brow, his lips trembled, as he
+whispered, "There she is! I hear her coming! For God's sake, Gretchen,
+give me time to collect myself."
+
+"I will go and meet her, that she may not come in here," said Gretchen.
+
+Johannes handed her a book. "Here, lay this upon her table. It is a
+copy of the same edition of Andersen's Fairy Tales that I once gave
+her, and that was burnt. It may prepare her for seeing me."
+
+"Yes, yes!" Gretchen hurried into the next room, and laid the book in
+Ernestine's work-basket. She started at the haggard appearance of
+Ernestine who entered with eyes flashing, and an expression of sullen
+indignation upon every feature.
+
+"What is the matter, Ernestine?" she asked.
+
+Ernestine threw off her hat and cloak, wrung her hands, and walked
+hurriedly to and fro. "That has gone too!"
+
+"What, Ernestine?--what?"
+
+"The pastor has refused to give me any more sermons to copy, because I
+ventured to correct his errors."
+
+"Oh, is that all?" cried Gretchen, very much relieved.
+
+"Is that all?" Ernestine repeated bitterly. "You say that, because,
+faithful and true as you are, you see no hardship in the prospect of
+supporting me again, without any help on my part, by your own unwearied
+exertions. You can say, 'Is that all?' but I, who fancied myself the
+first and proudest of my sex, am a beggar, dependent upon charity, fit
+for nothing but the duties of a common maid-servant, and not able to
+perform even these decently. I have lost all confidence, all hope, in
+myself. That is all!"
+
+Gretchen caressed her lovingly, and smiled,--how could she smile at
+this moment? "Ah, Ernestine, how could you reject Dr. Moellner when he
+first wooed you? I should have thought you would have given your heart
+to him upon the spot. I only hope you may never know what you threw
+away."
+
+"Gretchen," said Ernestine gravely, "it is long since I have learned
+what I then rejected. The pride with which I turned away from him,
+refusing to sacrifice my foolish ambition to make myself a name, has
+been severely punished. As in our dreams we are sometimes borne aloft
+as upon wings into immeasurable space, until our balance is lost and we
+fall headlong, awaking with the shock, so my ambition carried me to
+heights where I could not sustain myself. I fell, but strong and tender
+arms were held out to receive me, and I awoke to find myself embraced
+by them instead of prostrate in a frightful abyss. Then, in the
+confusion of my wakening, I thought those sustaining arms were fetters.
+I thrust them from me, and now I lie crushed and broken on the ground."
+She crossed her arms upon the table, and bowed her head on them.
+
+Gently Gretchen took the book from the basket, and, opening it where
+she saw that Johannes had put a mark, she silently pushed it towards
+Ernestine, who raised her head at the touch, and at first looked
+absently at the pages before her, then gazed and gazed as if utterly
+unable to comprehend what she saw. It was her dear old book,--there was
+the swan that she had burned. "Heavens!" she cried, between laughter
+and tears, "can this be real? My swan! My swan! Who brought me this?
+Oh, dreams of my childhood, who has restored you to me?"
+
+And she knelt beside the table, and laid her cheek upon the book.
+Before her closed eyes it was night again. Before her upon the table
+burned the dim night-lamp, and her father lay asleep close at hand. She
+read the story of the Ugly Duckling, and above her softly rustled the
+snowy plumage of the swan, and among her curls trembled the leaves of
+the oak whence the handsome boy had snatched her from mortal peril. And
+then her father awoke, and sent her up to her uncle. There stood the
+telescope, through which she was again gazing, thirsting for a peace
+which her young heart presaged without the power to grasp,--filled with
+longing to be borne up--up to those starry worlds gliding so silently
+through space. She knew now what she had so desired,--Love! But she
+searched for it among those worlds in vain. Suddenly she was standing
+upon the hill in the garden of her castle, and above her hovered the
+faithful little mermaid, in the shape of a sunset cloud, while a deep,
+tender voice whispered, "Poor swan!" Here, here was what she sought.
+
+"Poor swan!" The words sounded distinctly now in her ears, not in her
+dreaming fancy only. She opened her eyes, and started up with a
+low cry, and would have fled,--fled to the uttermost ends of the
+earth,--but she could not stir from the spot. She tottered and would
+have fallen, but two strong arms upheld her, and for a moment she lost
+all consciousness. This was rest indeed.
+
+"Shall I get some water?" asked Gretchen.
+
+"Oh, no. Do not grudge me one moment," said Johannes, clasping the
+lifeless form to his heart "She will recoil from me as soon as she
+comes to herself."
+
+"You should not have spoken to her so suddenly," said Gretchen.
+
+Ernestine opened her eyes, looked up and around for a moment in
+bewilderment, and then extricated herself instantly from the arms in
+which she had found such rest.
+
+"Did I not know her well?" Johannes said, by a glance, to Gretchen.
+
+"You came so unexpectedly,--I was weak. I am ashamed of myself," she
+said, struggling for composure.
+
+"You might be ashamed, if you could be what you call strong at this
+moment," he replied. At a sign from him, Gretchen withdrew.
+
+Johannes gazed for a moment with intense devotion into Ernestine's
+eyes. "Dear heart, let me speak one fervent, last word to you. I know
+that I just now held another Ernestine in my arms than she who fled
+from me almost half a year ago. I felt it in the throbbing of your
+heart. But fear nothing, I am not come to take advantage of your
+helpless condition,--to wring from you a decision which might be
+stigmatized, in your present circumstances, as extorted from you by
+necessity. I understand you now. Yours is a nature never to yield to
+pressure from without,--it must take form and direction from within. It
+would be as useless to attempt controlling such a nature by force as to
+endeavour to make a rose bloom by tearing open the bud. We might
+destroy, but we could not unfold it. I have done all that I could to
+restore to you what is as necessary to you as light and air,--your
+independence. You once accused me of selfishness and interested
+motives. You shall be convinced that you did me injustice in this
+respect." He drew a paper from his breast-pocket. "I have succeeded
+through my friend Brenter, in St. Petersburg, in procuring you the
+offer of a position as Teacher of Natural Science in the famous Normal
+School established there. The place is a capital one, and has hitherto
+been occupied by men only. You will be entire mistress of your time,
+with the exception of the few hours daily spent in instruction. You can
+easily pursue your studies, and I can procure you admission to the
+scientific society of St. Petersburg. Your life there will be what your
+former ambition craved. You can earn your livelihood honourably, and
+sooner or later you will have an opportunity of attaining the goal of
+your desires,--a degree, for the Russian universities are not so strict
+as the German in the matter of admitting women to a share in their
+honours. Here is Brenter's letter. You see it makes you independent of
+all aid, even of mine. And now I venture again to ask you to make a
+sacrifice for me,--a great sacrifice. You cannot fear, if you now grant
+my suit, that any suspicion can be cast upon the freedom of your
+choice, or that you can be accused of being driven by necessity into my
+arms. If you yield now, you renounce brilliant prospects for my sake. I
+will urge nothing in my own behalf. Leave me, and there is a great
+future before you. Be mine, and my heart and home stand wide open to
+receive you. I will only say, 'Choose, Ernestine.'"
+
+"And have you done this,--this for me?" said Ernestine, trembling with
+emotion. "How truly have you understood and respected my pride! How
+firm and yet how tender you are with me! How can I thank you, how repay
+you?"
+
+"How, Ernestine? Let your own heart answer."
+
+"I cannot listen to my heart alone. I must do whatever will make me
+worthiest of such devoted love. What shall,--what should I decide?"
+
+"Let me tell you, if you do not know, for the last time, that true
+pride will teach you that you can give me nothing half so precious as
+yourself. The value of this gift no worldly wealth or honours could
+enhance. True humility will teach you to yield your fate
+unquestioningly to the man who gives you his very life. Go from me, and
+you may be great, but you cannot be womanly, and what is such
+greatness, attained at the cost of a heart? Give up the false pride
+that would seek fame beyond the bounds of a woman's sphere, and confess
+that you can do nothing greater than to enrich and bless, as you will
+when you are what God intended you should be--a true, loving woman." He
+broke off. "But, I repeat, the choice is yours."
+
+"The choice? Is there any choice left for me?" cried Ernestine with
+sparkling eyes. "Shall I dissemble now, and try to conceal what I have
+scarcely been able for a long time to control! What are learning and
+fame, what the pride of position that you have offered me, compared
+with the happiness of this moment? Away with them all, and with my
+false pride! My choice is made, Johannes." And she sank upon his
+breast.
+
+He clasped her as in a dream. Their lips met in a first long kiss, in
+which the lover breathed forth his long-pent-up tenderness.
+
+She trembled like a scarce-opened flower in the first wind of summer,
+and yet all was as well with her as when she had, as a child, measured
+herself against the Titanic force of the elements in commotion around
+her. She knew now that love was no weakness, but a mighty power, and
+that it was divine to put forth this power. She raised her head at
+last, and looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Johannes,--dearest,
+best,--forgive--forgive my faults and failings--I repented them so long
+ago!"
+
+He leaned over her, and whispered, "Ernestine, only love, do you now
+confess the third power of which I once told you?"
+
+"Yes, yes, I confess and bow before it." She folded her hands, and her
+face seemed for a moment transfigured. "Oh, Spirit of Love, dwell in my
+heart, and teach me to be worthy of him who is so dear to me."
+
+                           *   *   *   *   *
+
+There was a double wedding such as the town of N---- had never seen
+before! Moellner and Ernestine, Hilsborn and Gretchen, were married on
+the same day. There was a great crowd before the quiet house where
+Professor Moellner lived, to witness the arrival of the numerous guests
+who were to escort the bridal parties to church.
+
+"That is one of the bridesmaids, but an old one," was whispered among
+the people as Elsa and her brother alighted from their carriage.
+
+"And that is another, but a very little one," was added, as a stalwart
+young man lifted a charming brown-eyed child out of the carriage. She
+was dressed in white with pink ribbons, and had a huge bouquet in her
+hand.
+
+"But, oh, she has only one arm!" was uttered in a tone of compassion as
+she passed into the house, accompanied by her companion bridesmaid, and
+disappeared beneath the garlands and among the flowering shrubs with
+which the hall was decorated.
+
+Within, the large drawing-room was crowded with the science and
+respectability of N----. There had been great astonishment among the
+inhabitants of the place when Johannes' actual engagement to the
+Hartwich was announced, but all agreed that Professor Moellner always
+knew what he was about; and those who were invited to the wedding
+declared themselves delighted with the match.
+
+Even Elsa was appeased by Moellner's request that she would act as
+bridesmaid. "I am glad to be his bridesmaid," she said to her
+sister-in-law in the morning. "It will break my heart, but I will not
+repine! I shall fade away like a blossom that zephyrs waft from the
+tree before it can become fruit. Oh, no, I do not repine,--I only share
+the fate of thousands of my sisters. The blossom dying the death of
+innocence in its virgin purity is not to be pitied--no, let pity be for
+him who could crush it beneath his trend in his onward path without
+ever dreaming of the delight that it might have given him." She did not
+foresee that the poetic death that she anticipated would be very long
+delayed, and that she would be a welcome guest in Moellner's house in
+future years, as "Aunt Elsa" to a throng of attentive little listeners
+whom she would delight with many a tale about the elves, gnomes, and
+wild flowers of her youth. She was dressed in character on the present
+occasion, in sea-green, with a wreath of cherry-blossoms in her hair; a
+long narrow scarf of white satin fluttered about her slender figure.
+"Many might be more richly clad," she thought, "but none so
+romantically and poetically."
+
+Her brother was in a sad state of mind as he this morning put on the
+dress-coat in which he had made his first appearance a year before in
+the Countess Worronska's boudoir. He had just heard that the beautiful
+countess had been killed in a race at St. Petersburg, and his grief at
+the death of the woman whom he still loved was increased by the
+necessity of concealing it.
+
+In spite of the number of guests, there was a solemn silence reigning
+in the large apartment. For all were awaiting the entrance of the two
+brides.
+
+Who has not been conscious of a slight shudder at the first appearance
+of a bride, a young girl, about to take the most important step of her
+life? All eyes were turned towards the door of the antechamber.
+
+Johannes, with his mother, and Hilsborn, with Heim, placed themselves
+opposite it, the guests withdrew from around them, and a space through
+the centre of the room was left free.
+
+Slowly, and enveloped in her floating veil as in a white cloud, her
+head bowed beneath the myrtle-wreath, Ernestine entered the room. Her
+dark eyelashes were drooping, and upon her broad brow true womanhood
+was enthroned. She paused, bewildered and confused by the presence of
+so many people, among whom the whisper ran, "How lovely the bride
+looks!" In defiance of all rule, Johannes hastened to her, and clasped
+her hands in his.
+
+"My swan," he whispered, "now you have unfolded your plumage!"
+
+Ernestine bent her head lower still, and a tear fell on his hand.
+
+"Johannes," she said softly, "let me confess,--I have loved you ever
+since you made known to me, eleven years ago, the promise of the swan,
+but I could not know that it was only through you that the promise was
+to be fulfilled!"
+
+"You loved me then, and could reject and torment me! Oh, Ernestine,
+what penalty is there for such cruelty?"
+
+"Only one, dearest, but a severe one,--grief for time wasted."
+
+"Amen, my daughter," said the Staatsraethin gravely.
+
+The second bride, Gretchen, now entered, with blushing cheeks and a
+radiant smile. Hilsborn, with his foster-father, went to her, and Heim
+gave her his paternal benediction. Then came Angelika, and the faithful
+Willmers, who had discharged the office of dressing-maid to the pair.
+
+From a corner of the room, Johannes led forward a bowed, aged form, the
+friend whom Ernestine had chosen to give her away,--old Leonhardt.
+
+"Father," she said, gently taking his hand in one of hers, while she
+held out the other to the Staatsraethin,--"father, mother in spirit and
+in truth, I thank you both."
+
+"Ernestine," said Leonhardt, "only one day in my life,--the day of my
+own marriage,--equals this in happiness. God bless you!" The old man
+was happy indeed, for the day before Walter had handed him a parchment
+roll with the announcement "It is my diploma."
+
+"Are we never going to start?" suddenly exclaimed Moritz. "These lovers
+are not in any hurry, apparently. They have had sufficient time to make
+up their minds,--pray Heaven they are not regretting their decision. To
+church, then, in God's name."
+
+"In God's' name," Ernestine whispered, and the words were spoken with
+her whole soul.
+
+
+
+
+                             A YEAR LATER.
+
+
+"Who would have thought that Ernestine would ever have turned out such
+a woman?" said Moritz Kern in a suppressed tone to his wife.
+
+The pair were walking to and fro in Moellner's study, which was
+furnished precisely like Ernestine's former library, and they were
+evidently awaiting some event with anxiety.
+
+Half hidden by the heavy folds of the blue curtains, Hilsborn and
+Gretchen were standing at the window. They did not speak, their hearts
+were too full. Gretchen's hands were folded, as though she were
+breathing a silent prayer, and Hilsborn stood grave and anxious beside
+her. Even Moritz stopped now and then and looked towards the door of
+the adjoining room, as if expecting it to open, but he evidently wished
+to conceal all emotion, and talked on gaily. "Yes, who would have
+thought it? Johannes must have been puzzled indeed to know how to train
+that scatterbrain."
+
+"I always told you that Johannes could do whatever he chose, and
+Ernestine was always sweet and good in reality, only she had been so
+warped by her education," said Angelika. "I liked her from the first
+moment that I saw her after she was grown up, and you know I always
+defended her from your attacks. And now all is just as I said it would
+be."
+
+"Oh, of course! I really should like to hear of anything that you women
+did not know all about beforehand," laughed Moritz. "You are always so
+much sharper than we. If Ernestine had made her husband as unhappy as
+she makes him happy, we should hear the same thing,--'Oh, I told you
+so, I saw how it would be from the first, I never liked her.' I know
+you well!"
+
+"Are you not ashamed," pouted Angelika, "to go on with your silly jests
+when we are all so anxious? If Johannes should lose his wife, what
+would become of him?"
+
+"Ah, bah! he is not going to lose her. Don't be foolish," said Moritz.
+
+Hilsborn came towards them. "Don't make yourself out worse than you
+are, Moritz," said he. "I never saw you look more troubled than you do
+just at this moment. You know well enough what Ernestine is to us all."
+
+"Deuce take it, of course I know it!" cried Moritz,--"she's as much to
+me as to any of you,--but I hate to hear people cry before they are
+hurt. God keep her, she's a jewel of a woman!"
+
+"Yes," said Gretchen, joining in the conversation, "such women are rare
+indeed. How she fulfils every duty, even those that she once considered
+so dull and commonplace!"
+
+"Yes, yes," chimed in Angelika, "my mother is never weary of sounding
+her praises."
+
+"This is the most wonderful thing she has accomplished yet," said
+Moritz. "Only hear these two notable housewives, Hilsborn, joining in a
+chorus of praise of a third! Did you ever hear anything like it? I
+never did."
+
+"She deserves it all," answered Hilsborn. "And then she is invaluable
+to Johannes as a scientific companion and assistant. He could as ill
+spare her at his desk or in his laboratory as at the head of his
+household--or----"
+
+"Hush!" interrupted Angelika, "did you not hear some one at the door?"
+And silence reigned in the room again for awhile.
+
+"I hope it will be a boy,--Ernestine longs for a boy," sighed Angelika.
+
+"Past two o'clock," said Hilsborn. "I wish they would send us some one
+to say how she is."
+
+Suddenly the door was flung open, and old Heim's deep voice cried, "It
+is over."
+
+"Thank God!" they all exclaimed as with one breath.
+
+"Is it a boy?" asked Angelika.
+
+"No, a girl!"
+
+"A girl!" said Moritz. "Well, ''tis not pretty, but sin is uglier,' as
+the Suabian said."
+
+"Do be quiet! What would Ernestine say if she heard you, you mocker?"
+said Angelika. "May we not go to her, Uncle Heim?"
+
+"No, stay where you are," said the old man, closing the door.
+
+Within Ernestine's apartment all was quiet and repose. Johannes was
+standing, mute with happiness, by Ernestine's side, supporting her
+head, when he was called to look at his little daughter, a bundle of
+snowy wrappings in her grandmother's arms.
+
+He took the little creature from her and laid it by his wife's side.
+"Mother," was all he said, leaning over her enraptured for awhile,
+gazing into the pure delight mirrored in her eyes. At last he raised
+his head, and said, laughingly, "But, Ernestine, 'it is only a girl.'"
+
+"Be it so. I do not question what God has sent me. I am a mother. I
+envy no man now, and our daughter shall never do so. We will cherish
+and train our child to be what a true woman should be, and some day she
+may say to one whom she loves, as I do to you, my dearest, 'Thank God
+that I am a woman, and that I am yours.'"
+
+"Ernestine," said Johannes, "those are the dearest words you could
+utter. Happy the daughter of such a mother! Father Heim, mother dear,
+did you hear Ernestine's confession? She is reconciled at last to the
+destiny of her sex."
+
+Ernestine gazed at the atom of being by her side, as if it were a
+miracle. She quite agreed with the Staatsraethin that it was a
+wonderfully pretty child for a new-born baby, and, as she laid her hand
+upon its little heart and felt its regular beating, she smiled amid her
+tears, and would gladly have clasped it in her arms, only it seemed so
+frail and slight she was afraid of breaking it.
+
+"Uncle Heim," she said, "I once thought that it would have been better
+if you had left me to die when my father gave me that almost fatal
+blow, but since then I have been often grateful to you for preserving
+my life, although never so grateful as at this moment."
+
+"Ah, bah!" said the old man, "I was only the physician of your body.
+Reserve your gratitude for this fellow," he laid his hand upon
+Johannes' shoulder,--"he was the physician for your soul, and so
+judicious was his treatment, that now you can have some comfort of your
+life."
+
+Ernestine looked up gratefully at her husband. "Yes, faithful physician
+of my soul,--your medicines were very bitter, but they were my
+salvation."
+
+
+
+                               FOOTNOTE:
+
+[Footnote 1: See Du Bois Reymond: _Voltaire, in Relation to Natural
+Sciences_. Berlin, 1868.]
+
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Only a Girl:, by Wilhelmine von Hillern
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