ssor's wife announced herself at Manna's door; Manna opened
it. With a bloodless countenance, she stood, before the Mother and
languidly-held out her hand.

"I have wrestled with myself all alone," she said; "I cannot find the
outlet; I must tell you all."

And now Manna related how she had grown up in most reverent respect for
her father, and how she had often painfully lamented that her mother
was so harsh and cold to him; but once--she had never learned what had
transpired previously--her mother had said in the presence of her
father:--

"'Know then who your father is, who your father is.' Don't look at me,
I beg of you; I beg you, let me speak it softly in your ear."

She whispered the words softly in the ear of the Professorin. The
latter sat there and held her hands in her lap, and shut her eyes; not
a sound was heard in the room: it seemed as if the whole world was
dead, and the two human beings that sat there opposite to each other,
dead as well. Manna went on to say that she did not at first understand
what this meant, but gradually it had come to her, and she had
persuaded her, parents to let her go to the convent. On the way thither
the thought was continually present to her, how, in old times,
Iphigenia had offered herself up as a propitiatory sacrifice, and so
she longed to offer herself up a willing and a hopeful victim, to wash
away all the guilt of those who were dear to her.

"I felt then as if something had been cleft within me, as if a vein had
burst in my heart. I looked upon myself as a victim on the altar. I had
the courage then, I wanted to act decisively before that courage
deserted me, for I was afraid of my own cowardice, and for that reason
was anxious to bind myself at once."

Again, after a longer pause--the Professorin did not interrupt with a
single word--Manna said that she did not understand what her father was
doing, and she, she herself must be made noble, and become Pranken's
bride, of equal rank with him. She had honored and esteemed Pranken; he
was a man of the world, but of a profoundly generous and religious
character.

Sobbing bitterly, she threw herself upon the mother's neck, and
exclaimed:--

"I cannot! I cannot be his wife. Ah! I am too weak. You have told me
that I should have to experience trying conflicts, but I had never
thought, never dreamt of such a thing as this. No; no, indeed."

"What more?" asked the Mother.

Manna hid her face in her hands, then threw