CHAPTER XIII.

THE MAJOR MAKES A CONQUEST.

The same sun that shone at Wolfsgarten, where Bella was maintaining a
severe internal struggle, and that shone through the lowered green
shades in the court-room upon the bench of the accused, glimmered also
through the closed Venetian blinds in the quiet sitting-room of the
Professor's widow in the University-town. Eric's mother sat by the
window filled with flowers, in the piano recess, at her silent work,
thinking of her son; it was a subject of constant thought with her, why
he had to enter upon a mode of life so out of the ordinary course.

She often looked up sadly to the portrait of her husband, which seemed
to say to her: My child, both of us entered upon a path in life out of
the ordinary course, thou even more than I: and that is transmitted as
an inheritance from generation to generation; we ought to rest content,
as thereby we keep a firmer hold upon the spirit of our son, and though
he may be thrown down to the ground by fortune, he can never be held
there permanently.

So did the mother console herself; and Eric's letters were also a
source of consolation. He had made a faithful report to her, then he
excused himself for the irregularity and haste of his letters, on the
ground that he must forget, for a time, himself and everybody else
who belonged to him, as only in this way could he hope to gain
possession of another soul. At first he mentioned Clodwig and Bella
frequently,--his home feeling with these friends, and the happy
realization of a state of tranquillity; then, for a while, there was
nothing said of Bella, except sometimes a brief greeting from her at
her request. The mother had not noticed this, but aunt Claudine, who
seldom said any thing unless her opinion was asked, and then had
something to say very much to the purpose, did not hesitate to remark
unreservedly, after Clodwig's and Bella's visit, on being asked what
impression it had left, that she had noticed a certain restlessness in
Bella's look, and she feared from the manner in which she had looked at
a likeness of Eric, taken when he was young, that there was here a more
than common interest. The mother was forced to assent to this, for she
had also noticed how deeply interested Bella had been in making
inquiries concerning Eric's youthful years. But she said further to her
sister-in-law that Bella was an artist, at least was more than a common
dilettante, and had