owever, always
managed to play off one against the other; and as they were all serious
and provincial, they did not know precisely what to make of it. In order
to instil patience into them, Doederlein took to delivering them lectures
on the intricate complications of the artistic temperament, or he made
mysterious allusions to the handsome legacy to which Dorothea would one
day fall heir.

It was this very fact, however, that made him exercise caution with
regard to Dorothea. Knowing her spirit of defiance, and appreciating her
youthful lack of judgment, he was afraid she might make some _faux pas_
that would offend that old fool of a Carovius. He was already giving her
a little spending money, and the Doederleins found this a highly
advantageous arrangement.

The state of Doederlein's own finances was hopeless. It was with the
greatest difficulty that he kept up the appearance of a well-to-do man.
The chief cause of his pecuniary embarrassment was his relation of
long standing with a woman by whom he had had three children. To support
this second family, of whose existence not a soul in his immediate
surroundings knew a thing, burdened him with a care that made it hard
for him to preserve his cheerful, Jove-like disposition.

He had been leading a double life for fourteen years. His regular visits
to the woman he loved--she lived very quietly out in the remote suburbs
of the city--had to be made without attracting attention. To conceal his
connection with her from the vigilant eyes of his fellow citizens made
constant dissimulation, discretion, and shrewdness a necessary part of
his character. But to practise these traits year in and year out and
suffer at the same time from economic pressure filled him with
suppressed anger and fear.

He was afraid of Dorothea. There were moments when he would have liked
to maul her; and yet he saw himself obliged to hold her in check with
kind words. He could not see through her. But she was always around,
always adding to his troubles with her plans, wishes, engagements and
intrigues. He thought he had her under control, only to discover that
she was a tyrant, lording it over him. Now she would burst out crying
because of some bagatelle, now she was laughing as though nothing had
ever happened. The roses her serious and moneyed admirers brought her
she picked to pieces in their very presence, and threw the pieces in the
waste-paper basket. Doederlein would lecture her in the kin