umed a first part
that did not belong to her.

And Bella continued:--

"This wasteful expenditure on the abandoned, on notorious tipplers,
will shortly cease."

The Professorin now requested Fraeulein Milch to leave her; she had
never kissed her yet, but to-day she embraced her affectionately and
gave her a kiss. She wanted to calm her wounded feelings, to make her
some amends, and show the countess how highly she esteemed the person
she had so rudely attacked, who appeared so defenceless, or who did not
choose to defend herself. After Fraeulein Milch had gone, Bella said,--

"I cannot conceive how you can be so intimate with this person; you
dishonor thereby all who stand in relations of friendship with you."

"I think that any one whom I esteem, and whom I unite to myself in
friendship, is placed by this fact in a position of respect, and I have
a right to expect that every one will show it."

"Of course, of course, so long as you are here. But if you leave the
vicinity before long----"

"Leave the vicinity?"

"The work here is now accomplished, and--"

The Professorin had to sit down. Bella's eyes flashed; she had attained
what she wished; she had torn off all the tinsel from these people, who
were forever making a parade of spirituality, and decking themselves
out with sublime ideas, and now here they were naked and helpless.

In a very courteous tone she said,--

"Oh, I assure you, I should be very sorry to anticipate Herr
Sonnenkamp's dismissal."

The calm bearing which the Professorin had been accustomed to maintain
in all extremities, now failed her for the first time. She had had an
extensive observation of life, but never had she seen this, had never
regarded it as even possible that there should be such a thing as pure
malice, which has no other motive than to be malicious, and derives its
joy from the suffering of others. In the feeling that this additional
experience must now be hers, and in the endeavour to settle this in her
thought and give it lodgment as an actual and accepted truth, she lost
all ability to make any resistance.

She cast up a glance at Bella that ought to have overcome her, but
Bella was resolved not to give way a single hair's breadth; she must
have something to rend in pieces, and as Eric could not be got at, his
mother must answer instead. She continued talking for a long time,
using very polite phrases, but the Professorin hardly listened, and
scarcely noticed when