s sparkled with daring; she did not lower her lids.
Suddenly, as if moved from within, Daniel bent over and kissed her on
the forehead.

"You know who I am," he said, and walked back and forth in the room.
"You know how I have lived and how I am living at present. I am a guilty
man, and a lonely man. My nature craves tenderness, but is unable to
give tenderness in return. My lot is a hard one, and whoever decides to
share it with me must be able to bear her part of this hardness. I am
frequently my own enemy and the enemy of those who mean well by me. I am
not a humourist, and make a poor impression in society. I can be gruff,
offensive, spiteful, irreconcilable, and revengeful. I am ugly, poor,
and no longer young. Are you not afraid of your twenty-three years,
Dorothea?"

Dorothea shook her head vigorously.

"Test yourself, Dorothea, examine yourself," he continued urgently,
"don't be too inexact, too careless with me, nor with yourself. Study
the situation from all sides, so that we may make no false calculations.
Fate, you know, is fate. Love can get control of me more than I can get
control of myself, and when this takes place I will do everything in my
power. But I must have confidence, unlimited confidence. If I were to
lose confidence, I should be like a mortal proscribed to Hell, an
outcast, an evil spirit. Examine yourself, Dorothea. You must know what
you are doing; it is your affair, and it is a sacred one."

"I cannot do otherwise, Daniel!" cried Dorothea, and threw herself on
his bosom.

"Then God be merciful to us," said Daniel.

XVIII

Daniel took Dorothea over to Sylvia von Erfft's at Siegmundshof. He had
written to her, given her all the details, explained the entire
situation, and begged her to take Dorothea in and entertain her until
the day of the wedding. Sylvia had shown herself most obliging in the
matter; she met his requests with unaffected cordiality.

Dorothea had spent two nights at home, during which she had succeeded in
evading all explanations with her father. She did this by having him
agree to give her three days to think it over. On the morning of the
third day, after her father had gone to the conservatory, she packed up
her belongings and left the house.

Andreas Doederlein found the following letter from her: "Dear Father:
Abandon all your hopes with regard to my marrying Herr Weisskopf. I am
of age and can marry whomsoever I wish. I hav