s will fall? It is the course of life! but must one, therefore,
think of the grave, of the finale, when the act begins?"

"Love is a kind of monomania," said Otto; "it may be combated: it
depends merely upon our own will."

"Ah, you know this not at all!" said Wilhelm. "But it will come in due
time, and then you will be far more violent than others! Who knows?
perhaps this is the sorrow of which you spoke, the misfortune which
should bring your whole being into equipoise! That was also a kind of
search after the sorrowful. I will sincerely wish that your heart may be
filled with love as mine is; then will the influence of the sand-hills
vanish, and you will speak with me as you ought to do, and as my
confidence deserves!"

"That will I!" replied Otto. "You make the poor girl miserable! Now you
love Eva, but then you will no longer be able. The distance between
you and her is too great, and I cannot conceive how the beauty of her
countenance can thus fill your whole being. A waiting-girl! yes, I
repeat the name which offends your ear: a waiting-girl! Everywhere
will it be repeated. And you? No one can respect nobility less than I
do--that nobility which is only conferred by birth; it is nothing, and a
time will come when this will not be prized at all, when the nobility of
the soul will be the only nobility. I openly say this to you, who are a
nobleman yourself. The more development of mind, the more ancestors!
But Eva has nothing, can have nothing, except a pretty face, and this
is what has enchained you; you are become the servant of a servant, and
that is degrading yourself and your nobility of mind!"

"Mr. Thostrup!" exclaimed Wilhelm, "you wound me! This is truly not the
first time, but now I am weary of it. I have shown too much good nature,
and that is the most unfortunate failing a man can be cursed with!"

He seated himself at the piano, and hammered away.

Otto was silent a moment, his checks glowed, but he was soon again calm,
and in a joking tone said: "Do not expend your anger upon that poor
instrument because we disagree in our views. You are playing only
dissonances, which offend my ear more than your anger!"

"Dissonances!" repeated Wilhelm. "Cannot you hear that they are
harmonies? There are many things for which you have a bad ear!"

Otto knew how to lead his anger to different points regarding which
they had formerly been at variance, but he spoke with such mildness that
Wilhelm's anger rather