hiding?' I scolded,
irritably.

"He laughed, and kissed my hand. 'Pardon, Fraeulein Rosamond, I was still
thinking about Klaus.'

"'And the result, Edwin?'

"'Is that I have come to none; he is really incomprehensible to me.'

"'Why?'

"'Do allow me _not_ to say it,' he replied; 'but I _envy_ him.'

"'May I not also know what?'

"'Yes,' he said, rising, 'his cool temperament. How much needless
agitation, how many sleepless nights one to whom such calmness has been
given is spared!'

"'But Klaus is not cold; I do not know what you mean,' said I,
reproachfully; 'as little cold as Anna Maria, and--as you.'

"He sat down again, and without regarding my objection, continued: 'For
Heaven's sake, do tell me where they got this even temperament, this
indifference, this coolness. The father was an eccentric, energetic man,
warmly sensitive, even to passionateness--perhaps the mother was so?'

"'I assure you, Edwin,' I repeated, almost hurt, 'you know them both
very little yet when you speak thus. They are neither indifferent nor
cold-hearted; but both have, alas! inherited too much of the father's
warm feelings and eccentricity. Believe me,' I added with a sigh. I was
thinking of the scene in the Dambitz forge.

"Edwin Stuermer laughed. 'Well, well,' he said, 'I am far from
reproaching Klaus with it; it is only incomprehensible to me. I suppose
I seem odd to you?'

"'Oh, Stuermer, such a hot-head as you Klaus has never been, certainly,
and I know that you owe to your vivacity my brother's love, which
preferred you before his own son. You may be convinced that just that
passionate, changeable nature of my brother has made the children so
earnest, so deliberate.'

"'Klaus is the best, the noblest of men; he is my friend!' cried
Stuermer, with warmth. 'Do I say, then, that I reproach him? But he has
not learned to know life; he has never come from mere fidelity to duty
and deliberation, to call his a moment of inspiration which is able to
carry one quite out of himself; he has ever kept to the golden mean,
blameless; he has always done enough, but not too much. In short--in
short, such men are model men. But what life means, Aunt Rosamond, that
he does not know, and only _he_ could trust himself----'

"He broke off suddenly. 'I should like to know how I came to deliver
such a lecture to you,' he added, jokingly.

"It was almost dark in the room now. I could scarcely distinguish
Stuermer's profile. He twisted hi