on her table.

He shook his head in perplexity. He was bewildered by the masses of
answers, by the apparent universality of impoverishment and hopelessness
among Christian ladies of good family.

He could not come himself more than once a day, and the letters arrived
by every post; so in the afternoon he sent Herr Klutz, the young cleric
of poetic promptings, who had celebrated Anna on her arrival in a poem
which for freshness and spontaneousness equalled, he considered, the
best sonnets that had ever been written. What a joy it was to a youth of
imagination, to a poet who thought his features not unlike Goethe's, and
who regarded it as by no means an improbability that his brain should
turn out to be stamped with the same resemblance, to walk daily through
the gleaming, whispering forest, swinging his stick and composing
snatches not unworthy of her of whom they treated, his face towards the
magic _Schloss_ and its enchanted princess, and his pockets full of her
letters! Herr Klutz's coat was clerical, but his brown felt hat and the
flower in his buttonhole were typical of the worldliness within. "A
poet," he assured himself often, "is a citizen of the world, and is not
to be narrowed down to any one circle or creed." But he did not expound
this view to the good man who was helping him to prepare for the
examination that would make him a full-fledged pastor, and received his
frequent blessings, and assisted at prayers and intercessions of which
he was the subject, with outward decorum.

The first time he brought the letters, Anna received him with her usual
kindness; but there was something in his manner that displeased her,
whether it was self-assurance, or conceit, or a way he had of looking at
her, she could not tell, nor did she waste many seconds trying to
decide; but the next day when he came he was not admitted to her
presence, nor the next after that, nor for some time to come. This
surprised Herr Klutz, who was of Dellwig's opinion that the most
superior woman was not equal to the average man; and take away any
advantage of birth or position or wealth that she might possess, why,
there she was, only a woman, a creature made to be conquered and brought
into obedience to man. Being young and poetic he differed from Dellwig
on one point: to Dellwig, woman was a servant; to Klutz, an admirable
toy. Clearly such a creature could only be gratified by opportunities of
seeing and conversing with members of the oppo