med forgotten. But when
Balder reminded him of it, Edwin started up and said he would attend to
the matter at once; he was curious to know what important news could
come to him from that quarter. So he left the room, with a dry "Adieu!"
Seldom, as we know, did he part from Balder without a jest or a
brotherly caress, but the spell of melancholy was too strong for him.

Since his first visit, he had only seen the estimable lady a few times
in the zaunkoenig's studio, from which she instantly retreated when he
came to give his lesson. She seemed very kindly disposed toward him,
with a motherly cheerfulness, which often, on her brightest days,
reminded him of his own mother; so he noticed it the more plainly, when
she now met him with anxious seriousness and a certain degree of
formality.

"Dear Herr Doctor," said she, "I begged you to come to see me because I
wished to discuss a matter which has caused me grave anxiety. Do you
know that you've cost me a sleepless night?"

"You're too kind," he answered smiling.

"I'm entirely in earnest. I should have to like you much less than I do
if my opinion of you could be a matter of indifference to me. Tell me,
is it true? Are you really the author of this essay, or have you a
namesake, for whose opinions you are not responsible?"

She took out a green volume, which she had carefully locked up in her
writing desk. It was a number of a philosophical magazine, to which for
several years Edwin had been a contributor.

"So far as I'm aware," he answered in a jesting tone, "my parents have
had but one son Edwin, who devotes himself to philosophy. Let me see.
'Examination of the proofs of the existence of God.' Certainly that's
mine. It's to be continued. It was left unfinished on account of my
foolish prize essay."

He laid the book on the table, and now looked at his companion, who was
sitting opposite to him with the most heartfelt expression of pitying
surprise.

"So it's really yours!" said she. "And these views, these
principles--you've not yet renounced them?"

"I don't know of what principles you speak, Madame. So far as I can
remember, I refrain from making any hypothesis of my own, and limit
myself entirely to a critical investigation of the opinions that have
been advanced by others."

"Yes. So it appears! But can he who so coolly, in his own opinion,
annihilates the logical proofs of an eternal truth, be expected to
cherish the desire, to say nothing of the conv