no
reason in this whole catastrophe that you have told me of to change my
way of thinking. That our Felix has lost a few drops of blood will not
do the scapegrace any particular harm, perhaps, and will take the
wildness out of him a little. At the worst, there will be no immediate
bad consequence--for that I can trust my good old Schnetz; and
Providence will not be so foolish as to send such a fine young fellow
over the bourn by such a miserable knife-scratch as this. And if we
escape with a simple fright, the whole situation will be left in the
best condition imaginable to repair some foolish errors that we have
made. Come, my child! Look me in the face, and confess that in secret
you are of my opinion."

She looked him directly in the eyes, but with a sad expression.

"We misunderstand one another again, uncle."

"Say, rather, you don't think it becoming to wish to understand my
honest and candid opinion. But, since you are ten times brighter and
more diplomatic than an old hunter and soldier like myself--"

"I entreat you, uncle--"

"You can't fail to understand, without any further explanations on my
part, that it amuses me enormously to see our youngster Felix, whom I
imagined to be wandering about God knows where, a sighing and rejected
suitor, suddenly turn up next door to us. Do you mean to tell me that
chance has arranged all this so skillfully? Pooh, pooh!--you can't
cheat me. I tell you he has been traveling after us, and has secretly
followed his old flame, whom he still worships, into the primeval
forests of Starnberg and across the tempestuous lake of Wuerm; and,
since there was no other way of making up to you again with any
self-respect, he has adopted the very wisest course, and one that never
fails in its effect upon you soft-hearted souls, namely, that of
creeping into your sympathy by means of a few ounces of spilt blood, of
which article, by-the-way, he still possesses a very fair abundance.
And now--"

"Unless you want me to leave the room, uncle, spare me these perfectly
groundless insinuations. Have I not told you that he had no suspicion
of our plan to make a stay in Munich, and that Schnetz told me how he
entered a studio with his old friend Jansen, with the intention of
becoming a sculptor? But even if it were all just as you have arranged
it in your own mind--what difference would it make in my resolution?
Hasn't this unfortunate meeting proved the truth of all that I said to
myself w