Part 50 (1/2)

”Oh, yes, I begged your son to call me Ernestine,--it makes me feel like a child again, and as if I could begin my life anew!”

”But you should address him by his first name, and not have the intimacy all upon one side.”

Ernestine blushed. ”I cannot do so now,--by-and-by, perhaps.”

”Leave it to time and Ernestine's own feelings, mother dear. I shall not ask for it until it comes naturally. Some time when she wishes to give me a special pleasure she will do it. And now good-by, Ernestine.

I must go. I lecture at nine, but as soon as I get through I will return.”

Ernestine looked up at him with glistening eyes, and breathed, scarcely audibly, ”Farewell, my friend.”

Johannes pressed her hand, and then, turning to his mother, said, ”Dear mother, I leave Ernestine to you for an hour, and hope with all my heart that you will understand each other. But, at all events, remember what you promised me.”

”Most certainly I will, my son.” He went as far as the door, then lingered, and, calling his mother to him, whispered imploringly, ”Be kind to her,--all that you do for her you do for me.”

And, with one more look of longing love at Ernestine, he was gone. It was very hard to go. It seemed to him that he must stay,--that Ernestine would escape him if he did not guard her well. He would have turned back again if his duty had not been so imperative. ”If I only find her here when I return!” he said to himself one moment, and the next he blamed himself for his childish weakness. He loved her too well. The one hour of lecture seemed to him an eternity. He longed to see her again almost before he had crossed the threshold that separated him from her.

How beautiful she was to-day after her refres.h.i.+ng sleep,--how maidenly!

If, when he returned, she looked at him with those glistening eyes, he could not control himself,--he would throw himself at her feet and implore her to be his. The decisive word must be spoken,--he must have certainty. The state of doubt into which he was plunged by the strange contrast between Ernestine's cold, stubbornly expressed opinions and her tender personal behaviour towards himself was not to be borne any longer. Only one hour separated him from the goal for which he longed with every pulse of his strong, manly nature. Oh, were it only over!

”Do you like beans?” the Staatsrathin asked Ernestine.

”Why do you ask me?”

”Only because you are to have them at dinner to-day.”

”Thank you, but I cannot dine with you.”

”Why not?”

”My uncle might return unexpectedly from his journey, and be angry if he did not find me at home.”

”Strange! How comes it that you, who contend so earnestly for freedom, are under such strict control? Is it not somewhat of a contradiction?”

Ernestine started.

The Staatsrathin continued: ”You are battling for the independence of woman, you brand as slavery a wife's obedience to her protector, and yet a man who, as I understand the case, is far more dependent upon you than you are upon him, has such complete dominion over you that you do not dare to stay from home a day without his permission.”

Ernestine was again startled and surprised. ”You are right. But I have grown up under his control. It has become a habit with me, so that I am hardly conscious of it, and it has never yet been so opposed to my wishes as to induce me to shake it off.”

”Now, let me ask you, my dear, whether you regard this dull, half-unconscious habit of submission as n.o.bler and loftier than the loving, voluntary obedience that a wife yields to a husband?”

Ernestine was silent for a moment, and then said with her own generous frankness, ”No, it is not. But I have brought it upon myself, and cannot escape from it as long as my uncle possesses the legal right of my guardian.”

”But this legal right does not in any way affect your personal freedom as long as you do not desire to do anything contrary to law.”

”He always told me that the guardian was the master of the ward. And if this tyrannical regulation had not applied equally to the male and female s.e.x, I should long ago have attacked it in my publications.”

”That would not have done much good, I fear,” said the Staatsrathin dryly.