advise, if her love had still
continued."

"And what answer did she make?"

"She went over the history of their lives; she was pleading against her
wishes to satisfy her conscience. She said that all along through their
childhood she had been his strength; that while under her personal
influence he had been negatively good; away from her, he had fallen into
mischief--"

"Not to say vice," put in Herr Mueller.

"And now he came to her penitent, in sorrow, desirous of amendment,
asking her for the love she seems to have considered as tacitly plighted
to him in years gone by--"

"And which he has slighted and insulted. I hope you told her of his
words and conduct last night in the 'Adler' gardens?"

"No. I kept myself to the general principle, which, I am sure, is a
true one. I repeated it in different forms; for the idea of the duty
of self-sacrifice had taken strong possession of her fancy. Perhaps,
if I had failed in setting her notion of her duty in the right aspect,
I might have had recourse to the statement of facts, which would have
pained her severely, but would have proved to her how little his words
of penitence and promises of amendment were to be trusted to."

"And it ended?"

"Ended by her being quite convinced that she would be doing wrong
instead of right if she married a man whom she had entirely ceased to
love, and that no real good could come from a course of action based on
wrong-doing."

"That is right and true," he replied, his face broadening into happiness
again.

"But she says she must leave your service, and go elsewhere."

"Leave my service she shall; go elsewhere she shall not."

"I cannot tell what you may have the power of inducing her to do; but
she seems to me very resolute."

"Why?" said he, firing round at me, as if I had made her resolute.

"She says your sister spoke to her before the maids of the household,
and before some of the townspeople, in a way that she could not stand;
and that you yourself by your manner to her last night showed how she
had lost your respect. She added, with her face of pure maidenly truth,
that he had come into such close contact with her only the instant
before your sister had entered the room."

"With your leave, sir," said Herr Mueller, turning towards the door, "I
will go and set all that right at once."

It was easier said than done. When I next saw Thekla, her eyes were
swollen up with crying, but she was silent, almost defiant toward