. The weak point
of dogmatism is that it attempts to teach that which can only be
learned from life itself. His children had not shared in his life, and
it was now of little avail to recount it to them, in all its details,
or to explain the motives that directed it. There was enough of
contradiction implied in the fact that the father was obliged to tell
what his life had been.

In his own mind, Eberhard acknowledged that his own conduct had borne
its legitimate results. He had no real claim to filial affection; at
all events, not to the degree in which he craved it, for he had lived
for himself alone. When Irma returned and asked permission to visit her
friend Emma, he nodded assent. He had boasted that nothing could
interrupt him. He might use the rule for himself, but not for others.
He had told his child the story of his life--who knew but what this
untoward interruption would efface it all from her memory?

CHAPTER XI.

Seated in the open court carriage, Irma rode over hill and dale. She
lay back on the cushions; the waiting-maid and the lackey sat on the
back seat.

Emma's sad and sudden message had almost paralyzed her; but, now that
she was in the carriage, her strength returned. Travel and change of
air always exerted a magic influence over her.

The echo of her father's story followed her during a great part of the
journey. She had listened with great interest, although the story
itself had made but a faint impression upon her. An inner voice told
her: These matters are not so serious or important as he takes them. It
is his peculiar temperament that causes them to affect his course in
life. It would not be so with another. It was enough that she was able
to do justice to his eccentricity. He could hardly expect it to exert
any decided influence upon her. Emma's fate was horrible, maddening;
but her father's was not. Much of his life-trouble was mere
self-torment. He spoke of repose, and yet knew it not.

With all Irma's affection for her father, she had really so little in
common with him, that the painful expression that played about his
mouth, while he told her his story, simply served to remind her of the
Laocooen.

Irma shook her head quite petulantly.

What a chaos is the world!

A mad dog destroys a life and, here and there, solitary beings are
tormenting themselves to death. Every one is conscious of some fault or
weakness; all seek the unattainable and