articularly
to Fraeulein Julie. _Adieu!_' I was, as you can imagine, somewhat taken
aback by this order of the day in true bulletin style. It was not until
she turned away, and I saw that she was really in earnest in what she
said, that I found enough breath to ask, 'But Felix! Does he know about
this? And what shall I tell him when he comes and no longer finds his
betrothed here?' 'He will not come,' she said. 'He--he is prevented.
You will find out all about it later. Now I must hurry, unless I want
to miss the train.' And with this, she was up and away! Oh, my dear
Fraeulein! I, too, can cry out with the old cabinet-maker in a
blood-and-thunder piece they are playing here at the theatre: 'I no
longer understand this world!' Tell me yourself, is there a kreutzer's
worth of common-sense in this whole comedy? To say nothing of the
capricious Fraeulein, there is the lover, who, only yesterday, swore by
all the stars in Heaven he was the happiest wretch who had ever been
pardoned with the rope already round his neck--he comes to a different
conclusion over night and 'is prevented!' Now, you associate with these
artists, Fraeulein Julie. Tell me, do they learn diabolical tricks of
this kind in their so-called Paradise, and are they the result of their
celebrated joviality? If so, then my Kabyles and Arabs are the most
Philistine of Philistines compared with these gentlemen!"

Julie had listened, full of sympathy, to this long outpouring of the
heart. Yet now she had to laugh.

"Dear Herr Baron," she said, "don't take the matter so to heart. I
think I am justified in assuring you that all will be cleared up and
come out right in the end. Whatever I can do to bring this about, I
shall naturally do with all my heart, since my own peace and happiness
depend upon knowing that the young couple are happy too. I hope soon to
be able to talk the matter over with your niece in person. In case you
should have any messages, I also start for the South to-morrow, and
shall most certainly go by the way of Riva."

"You, too!" broke out the baron, springing up as if he had been struck
by lightning. "Now the world is coming to an end! That was the only
thing lacking. No, tell me you are only joking! What is it that drives
you off as if you, too, had been stung by a scorpion? And, besides, you
made me a promise in regard to my child--or, perhaps, she goes too, now
that all Paradise is being loaded on a cart, and Bohemia retreats
through t