at Stuttgart

[Illustration: Chapter 11]

The appointment which Esther had made with me would probably have serious
results; and I felt it due to my honour not to deceive her any longer,
even were it to cost me my happiness; however, I had some hope that all
would turn out well.

I found her in bed, and she told me that she intended to stop there
throughout the day. I approved, for in bed I thought her ravishing.

"We will set to work," said she; and her governess set a little table by
her bed, and she gave me a piece of paper covered with questions tending
to convince me that before I married her I should communicate to her my
supposed science. All these questions were artfully conceived, all were
so worded as to force the oracle to order me to satisfy her, or to
definitely forbid my doing so. I saw the snare, and all my thoughts were
how to avoid it, though I pretended to be merely considering the
questions. I could not make the oracle speak to please Esther, and I
could still less make it pronounce a positive prohibition, as I feared
that she would resent such an answer bitterly and revenge herself on me.
Nevertheless, I had to assume an indifferent air, and I got myself out of
the difficulty by equivocal answers, till the good-humoured papa came to
summon me to dinner.

He allowed his daughter to stay in bed on the condition that she was to
do no more work, as he was afraid that by applying herself so intently
she would increase her headache. She promised, much to my delight, that
he should be obeyed, but on my return from dinner I found her asleep, and
sitting at her bedside I let her sleep on.

When she awoke she said she would like to read a little; and as if by
inspiration, I chanced to take up Coiardeau's 'Heroides', and we inflamed
each other by reading the letters of Heloise and Abelard. The ardours
thus aroused passed into our talk and we began to discuss the secret
which the oracle had revealed.

"But, Esther dear," said I, "did not the oracle reveal a circumstance of
which you knew perfectly well before?"

"No, sweetheart, the secret was perfectly unknown to me and would have
continued unknown."

"Then you have never been curious enough to inspect your own person?"

"However curious I may have been, nature placed that mole in such a
position as to escape any but the most minute search."

"You have never felt it, then?"

"It is too small to be felt."

"I don't believe it."

She allowed my