be the victim of patriarchal despotism."

He rose, took his hat from the carpet, and calmly, elegantly, but
with a brick-colored flush on his cheeks, and a blue, swollen
vein on his forehead, he added:

"I know not what I shall do. It may happen me to be the creator
of my own destiny. I know how to be this; and I shall decide more
readily to be a workman at my own will than at the will of
another. I shall surely leave this place. Expatriation has come
to my mind more than once, but not in the direction in which you
have seen fit to indicate. Besides, I do not know yet, for this
has fallen suddenly. I shall look into myself; I shall look
around me. Meanwhile, I must go; for I have promised one of my
friends to be at a certain collector's place at a given hour, to
examine a very curious picture. It is an original; an authentic
Overbeck. A rare thing; a real find--I take farewell of you, my
father."

He made a low bow and went out. Exquisite elegance did not desert
him for an instant; still, in the expression of his face, and
especially his excited complexion, and his voice, too,
indignation and distress were evident in a degree which bordered
on suffering.

The door of the antechamber opened and closed. Darvid was as if
petrified. What was this? What had happened? Was it possible that
this should be the end of the conversation, and that such a
conversation should end in Overbeck, and a perfectly elegant bow?
Wonderful man! Yes, for that was no petulant child, with childish
requests, evasions, outbursts; but a premature man, almost an old
man. A reasoner; a pessimist; a sceptic. A genial head! What
elegance! What command of self. A princely exterior. Marvellous
man! What could he do with him? If he had asked for forgiveness;
had promised, in part, even to accommodate himself to his
father's wishes; even to change his life a little. But this iron
persistence and unshaken confidence in himself, joined with
perfect politeness, and with reason which would not yield a step!
What was to be done with him? Fortresses are taken sometimes
through famine; but, suppose it is resolved on everything except
yielding. Well, he would try; he would keep his word; he would
see.

A servant at the door announced:

"The horses are ready."

He was invited to dine at the house of one of the greatest
dignitaries in the city. He would have given much to remain that
day in quiet. But he had to go. In his position--with his
business--to