deep
voice, which he never has had, 'Colleague, I have found the basic,
original form of beauty, simply beauty-in-itself.' I tell you, I felt
it in all my limbs, a kind of fright or joy or emotion, I suppose, I
was so near weeping. Those are sensations which we can only have in
dreams. 'No, really,' I said, 'where is it?' 'There,' he said and
why--and showed it to me."

"He showed it to you?" asked the count, coming to a stop, "well--and
how did it look?"

The professor squinted, as if to look sharply at some object. "It
looked," he said, "why, it really looked quite simple, you know. A
narrow white slab like the gravestones in the Jewish cemeteries, a yard
high, I guess, rounded at the top, and in the curve a face: the eyes
simply two points, the nose a vertical stroke, the mouth a horizontal
one--that was all. What do you say to that, ha?"

"Peculiar," said the count, looking out into the garden over the
professor's head.

"Yes, but the most wonderful part of it was," continued the professor,
lowering his voice as if speaking of very mysterious things, "that I at
once said 'Ah yes,' for it was immediately obvious to me, and I knew
that that was beauty-in-itself; yes, I felt as if I had really known it
for a long time. How do you explain that?"

"Why, that is not easy," replied the count a little absentmindedly,
still looking out into the garden.

[Illustration: A PORTRAIT]
Adolf Muenzer

Yonder between the hollyhocks and the beds of mallow there were now
signs of life. A bevy of young girls and men came down the path toward
the house, light summer dresses and flannel suits and an eager whirl of
voices. Now the professor also became silent and turned toward the
newcomers. There were his two daughters, big girls in flaming pink
batiste dresses and yellow sun-hats, both very heated. Both were
laughing at once in a high, rather shrill soprano. Beside them walked
Lieutenant von Rabitow of the Alexander Regiment, a little stiff-legged
in his white tennis suit. The count's two nephews, Egon and Moritz of
Hohenlicht, both students, both very fair, their hair parted all the
way down to their necks, had stopped midway and were sparring with
their racquets. Miss Demme, the governess, was chiding and pushing
fourteen-year-old Erika before her, and Erika opposed her by moving but
sluggishly her thin legs in their black stockings. The two old
gentlemen complacently let this wave of youthful life swirl by them.
Both smile