up one of Edwin's works and commenced to read; for a
moment she was soothed by the thought of how thoroughly she understood
all that would have been above the comprehension of many women, only to
throw aside the book the next instant with passionate grief, as she
remembered how powerless all the cultivation of the mind would be to
the blind, unreasoning, elementary instinct of Nature, which conquers
all freedom and befools the wisest. She herself felt this instinct in
her heart more strongly than ever, and she remembered how happy she had
been made by it only two evenings before--only to be rendered utterly
wretched by it now since it had shown her the emptiness of her hopes.

Herr Feyertag's arrival roused her from this abstraction. The old man
knew nothing about Edwin's departure, and came to say that he should
return home that evening. He was in a comically mysterious mood, gave
obscure hints of the reasons that had so suddenly recalled him to
Berlin, but repeatedly declared that he felt as if he were new born,
and people were never too old to go to school. As Mohr was also
absent, he could indulge in the harmless pleasure of uttering many of
the things he had heard yesterday from his clever physician of
the mind--especially the theory of the oak trees and the soil of
humanity--as the result of his own matured wisdom, in such a lofty,
matter-of-course tone, that several times Leah, in spite of her sorrow
could not help laughing, for she easily perceived their source.

"I'll tell you, little lady," exclaimed the eager old man, as he
concluded his remarks about the necessity of first advancing public
welfare in our own persons, "come with me to Berlin to-night. Why
should you stay here alone? Your husband can have no objections to your
devoting this week to your dear parents, and it will afford me the
greatest pleasure to show you Berlin, the Museum, the theatre, and of
course we'll go out to Sans Souci too; as a native of Berlin, you ought
to be ashamed of knowing next to nothing of all these things. Just to
consider how many means of culture are daily at hand, that we need only
stretch out our hands for, and just because they're not a long distance
off--"

She shook her head with a forced smile. "Thank you, dear Herr Feyertag.
But just now I really do not desire culture, so much as--rest, or
whatever else you choose to call it. Give my parents the kindest
remembrances from me, don't let them know that you found me