r--as the man for whom
there is but one woman on earth. And that one can only be she whom I
have so deeply injured, whom I fought with as frantic, relentless, and
cruel weapons as ever I used against a foe of my own sex."

"But one," murmured the girl; she passed her hand across her brow, and a
faint smile of happy pride dwelt on her lips as she went on:

"I shall love you as long as breath animates this crushed and wretched
heart."

Again the letter was in danger of destruction, but again it escaped
unharmed, and Paula's expression became one of calm and tender pleasure
as she read to the end of Orion's clearly written epistle:

"I am fully conscious that I have forfeited your esteem, nay even all
good feeling towards me, by my own fault; and that, unless divine love
works some miracle in your heart, I have sacrificed all joy on earth.
You are revenged; for it was for your sake--understand that--for your
sake alone, that my beloved and dying father withdrew the blessings he
had heaped on my remorseful head, and in wrath that was only too just
at the recreant who had desecrated the judgment-seat of his ancestors,
turned that blessing to a curse."

Paula turned pale as she read. This then was what Katharina had meant.
This was what had so changed his appearance, and perhaps, too, his whole
inward being. And this, this bore the stamp of truth, this could not be
a lie--it was for her sake that a father's curse had blighted his only
son! How had it all happened? Had Philippus failed to observe it, or had
he held his peace out of respect for the secrets of another?--Poor man,
poor young man! She must see him, must speak to him. She could not
have a moment's ease till she knew how it was that her uncle, a tender
father.--But she must go on, quickly to the end:

"I come to you only as what I am: a heart-broken man, too young to give
myself over for lost, and at the same time determined to make use of
all that remains to me of the steadfast will, the talents, and the
self-respect of my forefathers to render me worthy of them, and I
implore you to grant me a brief interview. Not a word, not a look shall
betray the passion within and which threatens to destroy me.

"You must on no account fail to read what follows, since it is of no
small real importance even to you. In the first place restitution must
be made to you of all of your inheritance which the deceased was able
to rescue and to add to by his fatherly stewardship.