ld of imagination in
which my thoughts delighted to exercise themselves, he valued not in the
least, whilst the burdensome actuality which he always was seeking for
in life, had no charm for me. Nevertheless there were many points in
which we accorded--these especially were questions of morals--and
whenever this was the case, it afforded both of us great pleasure.

And now came the time, Cecilia, in which you left me; when our fates
separated themselves, although our hearts did not.

One day there were many strangers with us; and in the afternoon I played
at shuttlecock with young cousin Emil, to whom we were so kind, and who
deserved our kindness so well. How it happened I cannot tell, but before
long Ernst took his place, and was my partner in the game. He looked
unusually animated, and I felt myself more at ease with him than common.
He threw the shuttlecock excellently, and with a firm hand, but always
let it fly a little way beyond me, so that I was obliged to step back a
few paces each time to catch it, and thus unconsciously to myself was I
driven, in the merry sport, through a long suite of rooms, till we came
at last to one where we were quite alone, and a long way from the
company. All at once then Ernst left off his play, and a change was
visible in his whole countenance. I augured something amiss, and would
gladly have sprung far, far away, but I felt powerless; and then Ernst
spoke so from his heart, so fervently, and with such deep tenderness,
that he took my heart at once to himself. I laid my hand, although
tremblingly, in his, and, almost without knowing what I did, consented
to go through life by his side.

I had just then passed my nineteenth year; and my beloved parents
sanctioned the union of their daughter with a man so respectable and so
universally esteemed, and one, moreover, whom everybody prophesied would
one day rise to the highest eminences of the state--and Ernst, whose
nature it was to accomplish everything rapidly which he undertook,
managed it so that in a very short time our marriage was celebrated.

At the same time some members of my family thought that by this union I
had descended a step. I thought not; on the contrary, the very reverse.
I was of high birth, had several not undistinguished family connexions,
and was brought up in a brilliant circle, in all the superficial
accomplishments of the day, amid superfluity and thoughtlessness. He was
a man who had shaped out his own cou