ill wished;
that he went like one intoxicated through the world, which was
only a flitting by of passing shadows; here were swiftly darting
railway-trains, there towns and castles reflected in the river: all
were fleeting shadows which would soon be gone, while only the soul had
real being, the soul alone.

Such had been the influence of Thomas a Kempis, so had he read the
words on which Manna's dark-brown eye had rested. All this passed
through his mind; he could not make his sister comprehend the
transformation, he could hardly comprehend it himself. He came to the
conclusion to keep it all to himself; and changing his tone, with great
self-command, he said smiling:--

"Yes, Bella, love has a sort of sanctifying power, if the word is
allowable."

Bella told him in a bantering way, that he uttered this like a
Protestant candidate for the ministry, who is making a declaration of
love in the parsonage arbor to the minister's blonde little daughter,
clad in rose-colored calico. She looked upon it, however, as an
excellent, very commendable guaranty of his feelings, that he had
declined, in his present state of mind, to enter the Justice's house;
she praised his intention of breaking off now his flirtation with Lina.

Otto nodded, with a feeling of shame; and he began now to speak of
Manna, in so gentle a tone, and in such serious earnestness, that Bella
was more and more amazed. She let him go on without interruption, and,
clasping together the fingers of her right and left hand, she said to
herself in a low tone:--

"Nut-brown eyes seven times, gazelle three times, glorious beyond all
count."

They drove through a little, fragrant pine-wood, and it seemed to
Pranken as if this perfumed air from without, and that from the book in
his bosom, enveloped him, enwrapped him in its sweet odors, and
elevated him above everything. He said, looking fixedly before him:--

"Since our great-uncle, the Archbishop Hubert, no one of our family has
entered the service of the church; I shall--"

"You?"

"I shall," continued Pranken, "dedicate my second son to the church."

It appeared exceedingly comical, and yet Pranken said it with the
deepest seriousness, while leaning comfortably against the back of the
carriage, and puffing thick clouds of smoke in quick succession from
the cigar in his mouth.

Bella, who always had some direct reply or some apposite remark to make
in continuation, now said nothing, and Otto, who found