, and catching Clara's hand, sighed forth, as if melted
into the most inconsolable grief: "Oh Clara!--Clara!" Clara pressed
him gently to her bosom, and said softly, but very solemnly and
sincerely: "Nathaniel, dearest Nathaniel, do throw that mad, senseless,
insane stuff into the fire!" Upon this Nathaniel sprang up enraged,
and thrusting Clara from him, cried: "Thou inanimate, accursed
automaton!" He ran off; Clara, deeply offended, shed bitter tears, and
sobbed aloud: "Ah, he has never loved me, for he does not understand
me." Lothaire entered the arbour; Clara was obliged to tell him all
that had occurred. He loved his sister with all his soul, and every
word of her complaint fell like a spark of fire into his heart, so that
the indignation which he had long harboured against the visionary
Nathaniel, now broke out into the wildest rage. He ran to Nathaniel
and reproached him for his senseless conduct towards his beloved sister
in hard words, which the infuriated Nathaniel retorted in the same
style. The appellation of "fantastical, mad fool," was answered by
that of "miserable common-place fellow." A duel was inevitable. They
agreed on the following morning, according to the academical custom of
the place, to fight with sharp rapiers behind the garden. Silently and
gloomily they slunk about. Clara had overheard the violent dispute,
and seeing the fencing-master bring the rapiers at dawn, guessed what
was to occur. Having reached the place of combat, Lothaire and
Nathaniel had in gloomy silence flung off their coats, and with the
fierce desire of fighting in their flaming eyes, were about to fall
upon one another, when Clara rushed through the garden door. Sobbing,
she cried aloud, "Ye wild cruel men! Strike me down before you attack
each other, for how shall I live longer in the world if my lover
murders my brother, or my brother murders my lover." Lothaire lowered
his weapon, and looked in silence on the ground; but in Nathaniel's
heart, amid the most poignant sorrow, revived all the love for the
beautiful Clara, which he had felt in the best days of his happy youth.
The weapon fell from his hand, he threw himself at Clara's feet. "Can
you ever forgive me, my only--my beloved Clara? Can you forgive me, my
dear brother, Lothaire?"

Lothaire was touched by the deep contrition of his friend; all three
embraced in reconciliation amid a thousand tears, and vowed eternal
love and fidelity.

Nathaniel f