loveliest creature I had ever
seen. And about the trains. It stands in this way. I thought a few hours
of her society would make me very happy, and would be like--oh, well! I
knew that in the future, if she ever should see me again, she would
either treat me with distant politeness as an inferior, or, supposing
she discovered that I had cheated her, would cut me dead. And as it did
not matter, as I could not possibly be an acquaintance of hers in the
future, I gave myself that pleasure then. It has turned out a mistake
on my part, but that is nothing new; my whole existence has been a
monstrous mistake. However, now she sees what a churl's nature was under
my fair-seeming exterior, her pride will show her what to do. She will
take a wrong view of my character, but what does that signify? She will
say that to be deceitful first and uncivil afterward are the main
features of the German character, and when she is at Cologne on her
honey-moon, she will tell her bride-groom about this adventure, and he
will remark that the fellow wanted horsewhipping, and she--"

"There! You have exercised your imagination quite sufficiently. Then
you intend to keep up this farce of not recognizing her. Why?"

He hesitated, looked as nearly awkward as he could, and said, a little
constrainedly:

"Because I think it will be for the best."

"For you or for her?" I inquired, not very fairly, but I could not
resist it.

Eugen flushed all over his face.

"What a question!" was all he said.

"I do not think it such a remarkable question. Either you have grown
exceedingly nervous as to your own strength of resistance or your fear
for hers."

"Friedhelm," said he, in a cutting voice, "that is a tone which I should
not have believed you capable of taking. It is vulgar, my dear fellow,
and uncalled for; and it is so unlike you that I am astonished. If you
had been one of the other fellows--"

I fired up.

"Excuse me, Eugen, it might be vulgar if I were merely chaffing you, but
I am not; and I think, after what you have told me, that I have said
very little. I am not so sure of her despising you. She looks much more
as if she were distressed at your despising her."

"Pre--pos--ter--ous!"

"If you can mention an instance in her behavior this evening which
looked as if she were desirous of snubbing you, I should be obliged by
your mentioning it," I continued:

"Well--well--"

"Well--well. If she had wished to snub you she would have se