he midst of the city I am as solitary as Saint Anthony in his
cave; yes, even more lonely, for I suffer no temptations. Won't you
take a look at my hermitage? Here we are at the door."

They had arrived at the old house with which Felix had already made
acquaintance. He felt very little disposition to mount the stairs
again. While his companion had been running on in this odd, bitter way,
his mind had been occupied by one single thought. "She is here! You
need only wish it, and you can see her to-morrow!" Nevertheless, he
could not well refuse Schnetz's polite invitation; and so he followed
him up into his fourth-story quarters.

CHAPTER VI.

The pale, quiet woman opened the door for them, and looked neither at
Schnetz nor his companion, but withdrew hastily to a little back-room
near the kitchen, without giving any other answer than a slow shake of
the head to her master's kind nod and inquiry whether any one had been
there. Felix was struck, even more than the first time, by the sad,
timid expression of her eyes, which had a noble form and a soft
brilliancy, while her features could never have been handsome even in
her younger days.

"You must excuse me," said Schnetz, when they had entered his room,
where he offered his visitor a cigar--he himself smoked Algerian
tobacco out of a short clay-pipe--"for not having introduced you to
Madame Thersites. You would not have gained much by it, for the spirits
of that good soul are not, unfortunately, the best in the world. She
labors under the fixed delusion that she is the great misfortune of my
life, because I quitted the service on her account; since which time I
have had hard work to keep her from quitting life itself in some moment
of depression. Yes, my dear fellow, there is a little example of the
profound sense, wisdom, and morality of our social condition. This
excellent woman, who has now borne the world with me for ten years,
comes of a family of country schoolmasters. I became acquainted with
her when I was visiting the lord of the manor; her old father had been
pensioned, her mother was dead, and she, the eldest daughter, took
entire charge of the household, educated her brothers and sisters, and
yet found time enough to do something for herself and perfect her
education. Of course she is a Protestant. Well, I began to respect her
greatly; and so one thing followed another, until I discovered that I
could not live without