amazement. "A moment ago you did not
understand me, he said after a pause; and now you have told me a
riddle that terrifies me."

"And yet," she answered with perfect simplicity, "it is the most
natural thing in the world. My father too, I fancy, has already made
up his mind, that our honest Eleazar is to be my future husband. Were
I to love and choose you, there would be nothing remarkable in it; for
I like you, and so does every body else; no one can help feeling
confidence in you; and at the same time you are very handsome, and
always friendly and good-humoured, so that, when one has once become
acquainted with you, one hardly knows how to live without you. Such
persons as our William would find a thousand girls to grow fond of
them; and it is a pity that he has already run away from us again.
Even old Conrad, and my father himself, must have been good-looking
when they were younger: but only look at poor Eleazar, who is not so
very old yet, and whom not a creature in the house, nay in the whole
world can endure;--what is to become of him, if I do not marry him."

"How!" said Edward interrupting her; "is your fair life to fall a
victim to this fantastical delusion? Can the perplexity in which dark
spirits involve themselves, entangle the purity of innocence in its
snares? and must love itself devise a robe to deck out the most
frantic extravagance as an act of noble self-sacrifice and reasonable
resignation?"

"We are quite at cross purposes today," she continued calmly. "It is
not that I really love him: I have not even a notion yet what this
love they talk of is, or what it means. Let me tell you again about
the sorrows of my youth, with which we began. In the days when I was
still very fond of my Clary, I had also a cat in the house here, that
was no less dear to my childish heart. I even fancied to myself that
the doll and the little white playful creature must be very jealous of
each other on my account. Now Herr Eleazar detested and persecuted
everything that even looked like a cat; for he says they are
malicious. This seems to be a general superstition. Wherever the sleek
animals shew their faces, everybody, even the best-natured people,
will begin shouting, _puss! puss!_ and will worry and hunt them, as if,
in pursuing the harmless things, they were driving away Antichrist
himself. And this it is that makes them, as no doubt they are, so
mistrustful and wary. My cat had kittens, which were just nine days