you that I love you, and that I want
you to be my wife, will you consent?" there was a great deal of risk in
that, for if she misjudged her own feelings, and said that she loved
some one else, and so could not listen to him, the rupture between them
would be accomplished, and it would be no use to him if later she found
out that she had been mistaken in her feelings. There could be no
secure step for him, on that he was quite decided.

If he could approach neither Frau Brohl nor Malvine, there was one way
clearly open to him, and he took it without further delay.

One sunny afternoon in May, a few weeks after the Labor meeting at the
Tivoli, Paul came to see Wilhelm, and asked him to go for a walk with
him in the Thiergarten. Wilhelm was soon ready, and while they were
walking Paul was astonishingly quiet, and seemed sunk in deep thought.
He suddenly broke the silence, and when they were under the trees,
without any beating about the bush, asked his friend:

"Wilhelm, do you love Malvine?"

Wilhelm stood still, as if rooted to the ground, and in boundless
astonishment he said:

"Are you off your head, Paul?"

"I implore you, Wilhelm," said he in an anxious way, "just answer 'yes'
or 'no,' because the happiness of my life depends on your answer."

"But I never thought of it," cried Wilhelm, grasping Paul's hand. "What
put such an idea into your head?"

"Then you are not in love with Malvine?" asked Paul obstinately.

"No, I am not in love with Malvine, if you will have the answer in that
precise form."

"I thought as much, but I wished to have the answer from your own
lips;" and as they walked, he continued, "Do you see, Wilhelm, if you
had loved Malvine, I would have got out of your way; I would have
submitted to fate without any struggle or opposition."

"Have I been injudicious? Perhaps too intimate? Forgive me, Paul, if it
is so. It happened quite unintentionally. I only thought of her as my
friend's fiancee, and believed her also to be a friend of mine."

"I don't mean that, Wilhelm; you have always behaved awfully well--with
great tact, and all that. But you have not seen how it has been with
Malvine; she is quite mad about you, especially since you have been
free."

"You imagine these things."

"Be quiet, you impatient baby, and hear what I have to say. I believe
it is not love Malvine has for you, but it only wants a word or a look
from you to turn it into love. If she were convinced that you fee