herself so many "pricks" that they had been unable to
bring her round again. Anne declared that it was on the anniversary of
the day on which Madame la Comtesse had made the acquaintance of
monsieur. At the breaking up of the household, Monsieur le Docteur's
things had been handed over to him, Auguste, and he held them at
monsieur's disposal. Schrotter wrote in answer that he might keep them,
and sent him a small sum of money as a bequest from Wilhelm.

Pilar's suicide made somewhat of an impression on him. So there were
women, after all, who could die of love, and that not in the first
moments of a mad and passionate grief, but after months, when the
nerves have had time to cool down. "She was hysterical," Schrotter said
to himself, endeavoring thereby to dispel various uncomfortable
suggestions. He did not wholly succeed.

As Paul begged him so earnestly to come to his festival, he accepted
the invitation, and found himself, on the first of May, among the
guests whom Malvine received on the steps of Friesenmoor House.

In the great oak-paneled dining room, with its windows looking to the
west, a banquet was laid for twenty-four guests. Following the country
custom, they sat down to table at twelve o'clock. Malvine, handsomely
dressed and richly adorned, sat enthroned in the middle of the long
side of the table, and had Chamberlain von Swerte (of the House of
Hellebrand) and the Landrath, to right and left of her. Paul, who sat
opposite, insisted against all the rules of etiquette on having
Schrotter beside him as his left-hand neighbor. On his right, Frau
Brohl, in rustling silk, sat in rapt silence. The ever-modest Frau
Marker was content to take a lower place.

The pastor said grace before the dinner began, which seemed to surprise
the Landrath, but the Chamberlain was much edified. The Young Men's
Verein played dance-music and marches in front of the open windows.
Paul proposed the health of the emperor, whereupon the Landrath, in a
carefully worded speech, drank to the host and the ladies. They all
clinked glasses with an enthusiasm which was in no way feigned, but
perfectly accountable after so splendid a dinner and such well-assorted
wines. In the midst of the gayety and noise, and while the clarionets
and trumpets blared away outside, Paul turned to his neighbor, and
tapping the foot of his glass against the edge of Schrotter's, he
whispered to him, unheard by the others: "To HIS memory!" He turned his
head