ows but little. From the assize court of Dusseldorf, of all
places, we have a very definite glimpse of a good-looking man, likely to
be a favourite in the society of the opposite sex:--

"Ferdinand Lassalle," runs the official document, "aged twenty-three,
a civilian, born at Breslau, and dwelling recently at Berlin. Stands
five feet six inches in height, has brown curly hair, open forehead,
brown eyebrows, dark blue eyes, well proportioned nose and mouth, and
rounded chin."

He was indeed a favourite in Berlin drawing-rooms, pronounced a
"Wunderkind" by Humboldt, and enthusiastically admired on all sides. But,
assuming the story of Sophie Solutzeff to be mythical, there is no
evidence that Lassalle had ever had any very serious romance in his life
until he met Helene von Donniges.

_Es ist eine alte Geschichte_,
_Doch bleibt sie immer neu_.--HEINE.

II. Helene von Donniges

Helene von Donniges has told us the story in fullest detail--the story of
that tragic love which was to send Lassalle to his too early death. She
was the daughter of a Bavarian diplomatist who had held appointments in
Italy, and later in Switzerland. She was betrothed as a child of twelve
to an Italian of forty years of age. At a time when, as she says, her
thoughts should have been concentrated upon her studies, they were
distracted by speculations on marriage and the marriage tie. A young
Wallachian student named Yanko Racowitza crossed her path. His
loneliness--he was far from home and friends--kindled her sympathy. Dark
and ugly, she compared him to Othello, and called him her "Moor." In
spite of some parental opposition she insisted upon plighting her troth
to him, and the Italian lover was scornfully dismissed. Then comes the
opening scene of the present story. It was in Berlin, whither Helen--we
will adopt the English spelling of the name--had travelled with her
grandmother in 1862, that she was asked at a ball the momentous question,
"Do you know Lassalle?" She had never heard his name. Her questioner
was Baron Korff, a son-in-law of Meyerbeer, who, charmed by her
originality, remarked that she and Lassalle were made for one another.
Two weeks later her curiosity was further excited, when Dr. Karl
Oldenberg let fall some similar remark as to her intellectual kinship
with the mysterious Lassalle. She asked her grandmother about him, and
was told that he was a "shameless demagogue." Then she tur