y could not help feeling
for him, were still terrified at the thought of being forced to adore
him as a husband. They were however soon released; for the lot, for
which they felt themselves too good, was imperceptibly and artfully
shifted upon me. I now heard perpetually how noble, nay how necessary
it was, to sacrifice one's self, how wretched a thing the mere passion
of love appeared, how much a prudent marriage surpassed all other
happiness on earth. Believe me, I should have given way, my life had
lost all its bloom, I should have fallen a victim, and become utterly
wretched, if----"

Dorothea hesitated. "Well, my child?" asked her friend on the stretch.

"If it had not been, that to-day," she proceeded in her melodious tone,
"on this very day, the day on which I was born, and on which I have
returned to life again, a man appeared, who was an abomination to our
family, with whom, from the descriptions I had heard, I was myself
violently angry, a man, who has made a total revolution in my heart,
indeed has regenerated it, and whose mere presence, even if he had not
spoken, would have rendered it impossible for me to marry the Baron, or
indeed any man whatever."

"Wonderful!" cried Madame von Halden.

"Call it so," said the maiden: "indeed it is so, O, and yet again so
natural, so necessary! In him, in his mild look, which inspires
confidence (believe me I had really quite forgotten there were such
things as eyes) in his intelligent discourse, in every one of his
gestures, there appeared to me once more that truth which had now
become a fable to me, my youthful days, the blessed time of my father.
I never could conceive that which men call love; in the Poets indeed I
may have caught a glimpse of it, but I always believed that this
heavenly feeling was not made for a poor outcast like me; but now I
know, it must be that which I experience towards this excellent man,
for I could not imagine that such a being really moved upon the earth."

"Poor girl!" said her friend; "he is a ruined man, without property,
and besides who knows whether he may feel the same sentiments for you,
for he is no longer young. Now go to bed, to-morrow morning early we
will consult rationally on the means of soothing the Baroness, and
making the Baron leave you in peace."

"I never will return!" cried Dorothea with renewed vehemence. "I would
rather be a servant-maid in a distant land."

A noise was now heard more distinctly in the adjoi