"in order
that you might look upon your beloved to the last, and then--I should
take poison!"

Her answer delighted him, but he said that there was no danger. He was
greeted on every hand with great consideration; and it seemed not
unlikely that, in recognition of his influence with the people, he
might rise to some high position. The King of Prussia sympathized with
him. Heine called him the Messiah of the nineteenth century. When he
passed from city to city, the whole population turned out to do him
honor. Houses were wreathed; flowers were thrown in masses upon him,
while the streets were spanned with triumphal arches.

Worn out with the work and excitement attending the birth of the
Deutscher Arbeiterverein, or workmen's union, which he founded in 1863,
Lassalle fled for a time to Switzerland for rest. Helene heard of his
whereabouts, and hurried to him, with several friends. They met again
on July 25,1864, and discussed long and intensely the possibilities of
their marriage and the opposition of her parents, who would never
permit her to marry a man who was at once a Socialist and a Jew.

Then comes a pitiful story of the strife between Lassalle and the
Donniges family. Helene's father and mother indulged in vulgar words;
they spoke of Lassalle with contempt; they recalled all the scandals
that had been current ten years before, and forbade Helene ever to
mention the man's name again.

The next scene in the drama took place in Geneva, where the family of
Herr von Donniges had arrived, and where Helene's sister had been
betrothed to Count von Keyserling--a match which filled her mother with
intense joy. Her momentary friendliness tempted Helene to speak of her
unalterable love for Lassalle. Scarcely had the words been spoken when
her father and mother burst into abuse and denounced Lassalle as well
as herself.

She sent word of this to Lassalle, who was in a hotel near by. Scarcely
had he received her letter, when Helene herself appeared upon the
scene, and with all the intensity of which she was possessed, she
begged him to take her wherever he chose. She would go with him to
France, to Italy--to the ends of the earth!

What a situation, and yet how simple a one for a man of spirit! It is
strange to have to record that to Lassalle it seemed most difficult. He
felt that he or she, or both of them, had been compromised. Had she a
lady with her? Did she know any one in the neighborhood?

What an extraordinar