mself to Frau von Kubinyi.

She evidently wished to enjoy his humiliation.

He was shown into a small drawing-room, which was furnished with an
amount of taste and magnificence such as he had never seen before, and
was told to wait. But he had not been alone many minutes, before the
door-curtains were parted and Frau von Kubinyi came in, calm but deadly
pale, in a splendid dressing gown of some Turkish material, and he
recognized his former mistress.

"Irma!" he exclaimed.

The cry came from his heart, and it also affected the heart of the
woman, who was surfeited with pleasure, so greatly that the next moment
she was lying on the breast of the man whom she had believed to be dead,
but only for a moment, and then he freed himself from her.

"We are fated to meet again thus!" she began.

"Not through any fault of mine," he replied bitterly.

"And not through mine either," she said quickly; "everybody thought that
you were dead, and I wept for you; that is my justification."

"You are really too kind," he replied sarcastically. "How can you
condescend to make any excuses to me? I wear your livery, and you have
to order, and I have to obey; our relative positions are clear enough."

Frau von Kubinyi turned away to hide her tears.

"I did not intend to hurt your feelings," he continued: "but I must
confess that it would have been better for both of us, if we had not met
again. But what do you mean by making me wear your livery? It is not
enough that I have been robbed of my happiness? Does it afford you any
pleasure to humiliate me as well?"

"How can you think that?" the actress exclaimed. "Oh! Ever since I have
discovered your unhappy lot, I have thought of nothing but the means of
delivering you from it, and until I succeed in doing this, however, I
can at least make it more bearable for you."

"I understand," the unhappy poet said with a sneer. "And in order to do
this, you have begged your present worshiper, to turn your former lover
into a footman."

"What a thing to say to me!"

"Can you find any other plea?"

"You wish to punish me for having loved you, idolized you, I suppose?"
the painter continued. "So exactly like a woman! But I can perfectly
well understand that the situation promises to have a fresh charm for
you..."

Before he could finish what he was saying, the actress quickly left the
room; he could hear her sobbing, but he did not regret his words, and
his contempt and hatred for her o