Thus the prejudices (as they were called) of his father and uncle had
not been unfounded, and the Baroness had deceived him in the most
deliberate manner. He was obliged to confess to himself--and he made no
secret of it--that it was a fortunate circumstance that the Baroness
had died on the morning of his wedding-day. But Aurelia declared that
as soon as her mother was dead she had been seized by dark and terrible
terrors, and could not help thinking that her mother would rise from
her grave, and drag her from her husband's arms into perdition.

She said she dimly remembered, one morning when she was a mere child,
being awakened by a frightful commotion in the house. Doors opened and
shut; strangers' voices cried out in confusion. At last, things
becoming quieter, her nurse took her in her arms, and carried her into
a large room where there were many people, and the man who had often
played with her, and given her sweetmeats, lying stretched on a long
table. This man she had always called "Papa," and she stretched her
hands out to him, and wanted to kiss him. But his lips, always warm
before, were cold as ice, and Aurelia broke into violent weeping,
without knowing why. The nurse took her to a strange house, where she
remained a long while, till at last a lady came and took her away in a
carriage. This was her mother, who soon after took her to the Residenz.

When Aurelia got to be about sixteen, a man came to the house whom her
mother welcomed joyfully, and treated with much confidentiality,
receiving him with much intimacy of friendship, as being a dear old
friend. He came more and more frequently, and the Baroness's style of
existence was soon greatly altered for the better. Instead of living in
an attic, and subsisting on the poorest of fare, and wearing the most
wretched old clothes, she took a fine lodging in the most fashionable
quarter, wore fine dresses, ate and drank with this stranger of the
best and most expensive food and drink daily (he was her daily guest),
and took her part in all the public pleasurings which the Residenz had
to offer.

Aurelia was the person upon whom this bettering of her mother's
circumstances (evidently attributable solely to the stranger) exercised
no influence whatever. She remained shut up in her room when her mother
went out to enjoy herself in the stranger's company, and was obliged to
live just as miserably as before. This man, though about forty, had a
very fresh and yout