into the most select society,
thanks to the influence of Bella. It was no matter to him that the
aristocracy said among themselves that a bath-acquaintance did not
necessitate any subsequent relation with a man. He hoped, nay, he was
almost sure, that during his stay here at Carlsbad, the first step
would be taken that should put him on an equality with the best; in the
meanwhile he conducted himself in the most free and easy manner, as a
peer among peers.

Already his relations to Bella had assumed a character which added a
fresh interest to his life here. They had always been secretly
attracted together, chiefly by admiration of a certain heroic power
which each saw to exist in the other, and which each held to be the one
mark of distinction from the masses. This daily intercourse now
revealed more distinctly to them what they had only glimpses of during
the winter in the capital.

Both agreed perfectly in looking upon all communities, all human
society, as nothing but a tacit agreement to tell lies: no one believes
his neighbor, no one honors his neighbor; all that is valued is a
certain outside show, a humbug, which must be kept up as long as it
can; no one, except a few idiots of teachers or idealists, actually
believes in the idols of his own constructing.

Sonnenkamp admired Bella extremely, and maintained that she was the
only woman of spirit and intellect he had ever met, a declaration which
both knew to be true, in spite of their agreeing that all fair words
were nothing but lying conventionalities. Bella knew that she had
spirit, and acknowledged Sonnenkamp's right to bear witness to it.

He repeatedly gave her to understand that he alone appreciated the
greatness, of her nature.

"The man who should have a wife like you," he once said openly to her,
"and were himself a man--a dominant nature with a wife like you would
establish a new throne in the world. I consider it a privilege to have
been allowed to know a nature so born to rule as yours."

He said it half in a tone of gallantry, but she knew he meant it in
earnest, and she took it in earnest, being full of contempt for the
pettinesses of the world, where half the people found pleasure in
intrigue, and the other half in what they call humanity, which is
really nothing but sentimentality.

Their mutual salutations, therefore, if they only met and passed, were
significant, and implied a secret understanding. Their glance said: We
alone are strong,