"And do you trust me also?"
"Of course I do." "Are you convinced that I love you honestly?" "Quite."
"Then do not hesitate any longer to bestow your hand upon me," her lover
said, in conclusion. "What are you thinking about?" she cried, quickly,
in a tone of refusal. "What is to be the end of our connection? What is
at any rate not permissible with a woman, is wrong and dishonorable
with a girl. You yourself must feel lowered if you do not become my wife
as soon as possible." "What a narrow-minded view," Angelica replied,
angrily, "but as you wish it, I will give you my opinion on the subject,
but ... by letter." "No, no; now, directly."

The pretty girl did not speak for some time, and looked down, but
suddenly she looked at her lover, and a malicious, mocking smile lurked
in the corners of her mouth. "Well, I love you, Max, I love you really
and ardently," she said, carelessly; "but I can never be your wife. If
you were an officer I might perhaps marry you; yes, I certainly would,
but as it is, it is impossible." "Is that your last word?" the cadet
said, in great excitement. She only nodded, and then put her full, white
arms round his neck, with all the security of a mistress who is granting
some favor to her slave; but on that occasion she was mistaken. He sprang
up, seized his sword and hurried out of the room, and she let him go, for
she felt certain that he would come back again, but he did not do so, and
when she wrote to him, he did not answer her letters, and still did not
come; so at last she gave him up.

It was a bad, a very bad, experience for the honorable young fellow; the
highborn, frivolous girl had trampled on all the ideals and illusions of
his life with her small feet, for he then saw only too clearly, that she
had not loved him, but that he had only served her pleasures and her
lusts, while he, he had loved her so truly!

About a year after the catastrophe with charming Angelica, the handsome
cadet happened to be in his captain's quarters, and accidentally saw a
large photograph of a lady on his writing table, and on going up
and looking at it, he recognized--Angelica.

"What a beautiful girl," he said, wishing to find out how the land lay.
"That is the lady I am going to marry," the captain, whose vanity was
flattered, said, "and she is as pure and as good as an angel, just
as she is as beautiful as one, and into the bargain she comes of a very
good and very rich family; in short, in the fulles