sn't at all necessary you should understand me, dear one. Only
keep quiet and trust to your best friend. It is true, circumstances
treat us ill! but a true love and a little common-sense--oughtn't they
to come out triumphant over all the tricks of blind fortune? I am only
a woman; but it goes against my pride to submit so tamely and
helplessly, when life is at stake. For in our hearts, is not everything
pure between us two? And shall we not belong to one another merely
because all sorts of impurity and hostility work against us from
without? No, my dearest, we will not submit to this. Because we live in
an imperfect world, we will do our best to make it more perfect; at
least on that plot of earth on which our cot may stand."

Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke, but she smiled upon him so
tenderly that, for the first time in a long while, a sense of warmth
passed over the soul of this broken-hearted man.

"What do you mean, dear?" he asked, looking at her in surprise.

"Be still--not yet!" she whispered, as she brushed back his hair from
his forehead and kissed his eyes. "But if you love me, as you say, and
as I must believe you do or else I could not live, trust me and do just
what I ask. In the first place ride home and take some breakfast, at
which little Frances will keep you company. And then lie down and sleep
as well and as soundly as you possibly can. But I must wake you up
toward evening, for I shall expect to see you at my house punctually at
seven o'clock. If you will be very obedient and do all this, you shall
learn, as a reward, the plan I have formed to smooth over these wearing
troubles, and to make four good people happy. Until then don't try to
think what it can be, but rely upon your true love. Will you do this?"

She kissed him long and tenderly, while he stammered some confused
words. Then she led him out of the room. He cast a timid look toward
the door of his saint factory.

"My child," he said, "I am ashamed of myself. You saw me there! Is it
possible you can love a madman?"

"I am not a bit afraid," she smiled. "That wild spirit will never, even
in its darkest hour, shatter anything that is sacred to us both."

When she saw the drosky roll away, she breathed more freely, and went
slowly into the house. She had given the friends, who waited
impatiently for news, a hint to withdraw and not to come in his way.
Kohle had gone with Rosenbusch into the latter's studio; Angelica sat
before h