ssive scene closed with a
storm of acclamation.

But Lassalle was worn out, and he fled for a time from the storm and
conflict to Switzerland. Helen at Geneva heard of his sojourn at Righi-
Kaltbad, and she made an excursion thither with two or three friends, and
thus on July 25 (1864) the lovers met again. An account of their
romantic interview comes to us in Helen's own diary and in the letter
which Lassalle wrote to the Countess Hatzfeldt two days later. Helen
tells how they climbed the Kulm together, discussing by the way the
question of their marriage and the possibility of opposition.

"What have your parents against me?" asked Lassalle; and was told that
only once had she mentioned his name before them, and that their horror
of the Jew agitator had ever since closed her mouth. So the conversation
sped. The next morning their hope of "a sunrise" was destroyed by a fog.
"How often," says Helen, "when in later years I have stood upon the
summit of the Righi and seen the day break in all its splendour, have I
recalled this foggy, damp morning, and Lassalle's disappointment!"

As he looked upon her, so pale and trembling, he abused the climate, and
promised that he would give up politics, devote himself to science and
literature, and take her to Egypt or India. He talked to her of the
Countess, "who will think only of my happiness," and he talked of
religion. Was his Jewish faith against him in her eyes? Mahommedanism
and Judaism, it was all one to her, was the answer, but paganism by
preference! They parted, to correspond immediately, and Lassalle to
write to the astonished, and in this affair, unsympathetic Countess, of
the meeting with his beloved. With the utmost friendliness, however, he
endeavoured to keep the elder lady at a distance for a time.

On July 20 Helen writes to him, repeating her promise to become his wife.

You said to me yesterday: "Say but a sensible and decided 'Yes'--_et
je me charge du reste_." Good; I say "Yes"--_chargez-vous donc du
reste_. I only require that we first do all in our power to win my
parents to a friendly attitude. To me belongs, however, a painful
task. I must slay in cold blood the true heart of Yanko von
Racowitza, who has given me the purest love, the noblest devotion.
With heartless egotism I must destroy the day-dream of a noble youth.
But for your sake I will even do what is wrong.

Meanwhile Lassalle's unhappy attempts to conc