it very hard to
change the tone of conversation, seemed to himself to be under a spell.
He, the merry one, he, always so free and easy, was reduced to the
level of some intrusive Swaggerer in a convivial company, who had
pretended to be a boon-companion, and must drink and drink, whether he
relished it or not.

"I should like to give you one piece of advice," said Bella at last.

"I should like to hear it."

"Otto, I believe that your feeling is genuine, and I will also believe
that it will last; but, for heaven's sake, don't let anything of it be
perceived, for it will be considered hypocrisy, and the abject
submission of a suitor, to win by this means this pious, wealthy
heiress. Therefore, for the sake of your own honor, for the sake of
your position,--I pass by every other consideration,--keep all these
extravagances under safe lock and key. Otto, it is not my mouth that
speaks, I am but the mouth-piece of the world: lock up all these
heavenly sensations. Forgive me if I have not used the right word; I
can think now of no other. In short, be the same as you were before you
took this journey, at least in presence of the world. Are you offended
with me? Your features are so painfully contracted."

"O, no, you are shrewd and kind, and I will do as you say."

As if a new stop had been drawn out, Pranken immediately asked:--

"What's the state of things at the Villa? Is the All-wise, the great
World-soul, still there?"

"You mean, perhaps, your friend?" Bella could not refrain from
bantering her brother.

"My friend? He never was my friend, and I never called him so. I
have allowed myself to be bamboozled only through pity. It is a
long-standing trait in our family, that we are not able to see anyone
in misfortune, and I, when I help an unfortunate one, come readily into
a more intimate relation with him than is natural and proper. If one
wishes to rescue a man from drowning, one must grasp him in his arms
and to his heart, but this does not make him our bosom-friend."

Here was again the flippant, galloping style of speaking, but there was
a depth of thought in the illustration derived from the meditations of
the previous days.

Bella handed her brother a note which Fraeulein Perini had given her for
him. Pranken broke the seal and read it; his countenance became
cheerful. He put the letter in his breast-pocket, but as it did not
seem to suit the neighborhood of Thomas a Kempis, he took it out again,
and p