d for
many years; but, _mein Fraeulein_"--(he looked at me, and paused a
moment)--"that was the first occasion upon which I ever was really
angry; it has been the last. I have never felt the sensation of anger
since--I mean personal anger. Artistic anger I have known; the anger at
bad work, at false interpretations, at charlatanry in art; but I have
never been angry with the anger that resents. I tell you this as a
curiosity of character. With that brief flash all resentment seemed to
evaporate from me--to exhaust itself in one brief, resolute, effective
attempt at self-cleansing, self-government."

He paused.

"Tell me more, Herr von Francius," I besought. "Do not leave off there.
Afterward?"

"You really care to hear? Afterward I lived through hardships in plenty;
but I had effectually severed the whole connection with that which
dragged me down. I used all my will to rise. I am not boasting, but
simply stating a peculiarity of my temperament when I tell you that what
I determine upon I always accomplish. I determined upon rising, and I
have risen to what I am. I set it, or something like it, before me as my
goal, and I have attained it."

"Well?" I asked, with some eagerness; for I, after all my unfulfilled
strivings, had asked myself _Cui bono?_ "And what is the end of it? Are
you satisfied?"

"How quickly and how easily you see!" said he, with a smile. "I value
the position I have, in a certain way--that is, I see the advantage it
gives me, and the influence. But that deep inner happiness, which lies
outside of condition and circumstances--that feeling of the poet in
'Faust'--don't you remember?--

"'I nothing had, and yet enough'--

all that is unknown to me. For I ask myself, _Cui bono?_"

"Like me," I could not help saying.

He added:

"Fraeulein May, the nearest feeling I have had to happiness has been the
knowing you. Do you know that you are a person who makes joy?"

"No, indeed I did not."

"It is true, though. I should like, if you do not mind--if you can say
it truly--to hear from your lips that you look upon me as your friend."

"Indeed, Herr von Francius, I feel you my very best friend, and I would
not lose your regard for anything," I was able to assure him.

And then, as it was growing dark, the woman from the receipt of custom
by the door came in and told us that she must close the rooms.

We got up and went out. In the street the lamps were lighted, and the
people going up an