. I confessed my wrong, indeed, and
entreated my little mystery to pardon my infidelity; but by the
declining power of that strange crisis, which had ordinarily moved my
inmost soul with glowing love; nay, by a certain unpleasant void, I
could plainly feel that I was receding from my object rather than
approaching it. And yet the passions of a youth, blooming in full
vigour, seemed to deride my mystery and my repugnance. I trembled at
the slightest touch of a charming woman, though I found myself red with
blushes. Chance conducted me again to the _Residence_. I saw the
Countess von L----, the most charming woman, and the greatest lover of
conquests that then shone in the first circles of Berlin. She cast her
glances upon me, and the mood in which I then was, naturally rendered
it very easy for her to lure me completely into her toils. Nay, she at
last induced me to reveal my whole soul, without reserve, to discover
my secret, and even to show her the mysterious image that I wore upon
my breast."

"And," interrupted Albert, "did she not laugh at you heartily, and call
you a besotted youth?"

"Nothing of the sort," continued Victor; "she listened to me with a
seriousness which she had not shown on any other occasion, and when I
had finished, she implored me, with tears in her eyes, to renounce the
diabolical arts of the infamous O'Malley. Taking me by both my hands,
and looking at me with an expression of the tenderest love, she spoke
of the dark practices of the cabalistic art in a manner so learned and
so profound, that I was not a little surprised. But my astonishment
reached the highest point, when she called the major the most
abandoned, abominable traitor, for trying to lure me into destruction
by his black art, when I had saved his life. Weary of existence, and
in danger of being crushed to the earth by the deepest ignominy,
O'Malley was, it seems, on the point of shooting himself, when I
stepped in and prevented the suicide, for which he no longer felt any
inclination, as the evil that oppressed him had been averted. The
countess concluded by assuring me, that if the major had plunged me
into a state of psychic distemper, she would save me, and that the
first step to that end would consist in my delivering the little image
into her hands. This I did readily, for thus I thought I should, in
the most beautiful manner, be freed from a useless torment. The
countess would not have been what she really wa