"Not quite irrevocably as yet; but she will--accept--I do not doubt it! And why should she hesitate? He is an honourable, handsome man; one's heart opens when one hears him speak. He is wealthy and a man of position, and I believe that Cäcilie thinks something of belonging to the nobility--it is a matter of indifference to me."
The Doctor had seated himself beside her. She looked so meaningly at him with her large eyes, that at the last words he started up as if he had been stung by a spiteful insect.
"She, too, only thinks of marrying," said he to himself; "I perceive it in every word. Therefore, she brings me this news so quickly; Cäcilie no longer stands in her way. Now she flatters herself she shall be sole sovereign of my heart."
And he cast hostile glances at the proud beauty who sought to soothe him, drawing nearer to him, and raising her Juno-like eyes, in which her love was written in German characters.
What should he do? He scolded her on account of her want of understanding; yet she always renounced her heresies at once. Proper guidance was only needed, and as all theory is grey as the uncertain future, and all practice green as the fresh present, he deemed it best not to trouble himself about her farseeing plans, held his forefinger up menacingly and pressed a kiss upon her full lips.
As he looked round, Cäcilie stood before him.
Olga blushed this time, although Paul had often kissed her in her sister's presence, and Cäcilie too appeared to be disturbed by an occurrence to which usage must really have hardened her.
"Your mother sent me here," said she to Paul in a somewhat sharp tone.
"Olga, you surely did not find Kanzleirath's Minna at home?"
"And I must almost fear," replied the latter, "that Major Bern's child is dead."
"I was not needed; the child has quite recovered."
A short truce ensued between the two powers at war.
Kuhl contemplated them with folded arms and sinister countenance; were they not a living picture of that outrageous weakness of mind, the most contemptible of all passions in which jealousy finds utterance?
In vain had he preached against it for many long years; in vain had he extolled a common alliance of hearts; there lay his work in ruins. But why was Cäcilie jealous on the very day on which she had sacrificed him to another?