rt to do my fellow citizens these trifling services; for at
the bottom of my heart I'm still the aristocrat whom only the old
saying _noblesse oblige_ can lure from his seclusion. I'm bound to few
by the tie of affection, and whether that wouldn't break up too, if I
should strike my tent and continue my journey--"

"Do you intend to resign your position?"

"No; but certain people, who can't bear to have a simple teacher of
mathematics take the liberty of thinking and saying what doesn't suit
their turn, may drive me to it. It's a very simple story; I delivered,
before a sort of society for the education of workmen, which Franzelius
of course instituted immediately upon coming to the city, and at which
every week honorary as well as working members assemble, a lecture on
Darwinism, relating purely to natural history; I was quite thoughtless
of the consequences, which were nevertheless very striking. Our city
pastor, my worthy colleague in the school, where he gives religious
instruction, took it so much amiss, that he instigated the principal to
suggest to me to send in my resignation. As I felt neither desire nor
obligation to do so, a report has been sent to the authorities, the
answer to which is still delayed. I'm awaiting it very calmly. I'm not
in the way of my other colleagues, the principal is well disposed
toward me and only yielded reluctantly to the authority of our
spiritual shepherd; if any change should occur in my position, my
opponent's victory is not to be envied, as the favor of young and old
will accompany me in my exile. So you see I'm beginning to make a
career, though at first in the sense of the rolling stone that gathers
no moss. But motion refreshes the blood, and a child of the world finds
his home everywhere."

"But your wife?"

"She'd undoubtedly find it much harder to part from our friends, than
I. Reginchen is as dear to her heart as a sister. For the rest, we two
are so well satisfied with each other's society, that we could not long
lack anything if we kept each other.

"True," he continued after a pause, as Marquard thoughtfully brushed
the ashes from his cigar, "one thing I do lack, or rather my dear wife.
It's strange, I was very fond of children, and a marriage without the
fulfillment of this purpose of life always seemed to me a very
sorrowful thing. Now that I experience the sorrow, I see that the
deficiency brings its own compensation. There's no third person between
husband a