ead on his breast, and began counting off her
guesses on her fingers.

"You have been listening to gossip?"

"Something of the sort."

"About whom?"

"Oh, if I were to tell, the riddle would be at an end. You must guess."

"About me?"

"Anybody who would circulate gossip about you would have to be endowed
with a very lively imagination."

"About whom then?"

"Don't worry me. I will tell you. I came here, indeed, resolved to tell
you; but then I thought it might disturb you, and I take you to witness
that I only come out with it after the most rigorous inquisition on your
part. It does not please me, nay--more than that, it disquiets me to see
you so very friendly with Madame Karpathy."

"Ah!" So astounded was Flora, that that was all she could say. It was
the last thing in the world she had expected to hear. "This really is
surprising!" she exclaimed at last. "Another husband would only have
been afraid of his wife's intercourse with men: you present the very
first example of a husband who is afraid of his wife's women-friends
likewise."

"It is because I love you so. My love of you is so devoted, so
idolatrous, that I would have every one who sees and knows you approach
you with a reverence, a homage equal to mine own. Not even in thought
must any one dare to sin against you."

"And do I give cause to the contrary?"

"You do not, but your surroundings do; and this Karpathy woman has a
very equivocal reputation."

"Rudolf, my good Rudolf, why are you so incensed against this poor
woman? If you only knew her, you would say there was not a more
honourable woman in the whole world."

"I know all about her; and you, from sheer compassion, have made her a
present of your heart. Your sympathy does you honour, but the world has
an opinion of this woman very different from yours: in the world's
opinion she is frivolous enough."

"The world is unjust."

"Not altogether, perhaps. This woman has a past, and there is much in
that past which justifies the world's judgment."

"But in her present there is much which contradicts that judgment. This
woman's present conduct is worthy of all respect."

Rudolf tenderly stroked the head of his consort.

"My dear Flora, you are a child; there is much you do not understand,
and will not understand. In the world there are ideas, ugly,
extraordinary ideas, of which your pure, childlike mind can form no
notion."

"Oh, don't suppose me so simple! I know everything. I k