o them here, here, where the question is not of this
thing or of that, but of everything; not of our single condition of
life, but of the whole complex life itself?"

Again the Major powerfully and impressively urged on Edward to consider
what he owed to his wife, what was due to his family, to the world, and
to his own position; but he could not succeed in producing the slightest
impression.

"All these questions, my friend," he returned, "I have considered
already again and again. They have passed before me in the storm of
battle, when the earth was shaking with the thunder of the cannon, with
the balls singing and whistling around me, with my comrades falling
right and left, my horse shot under me, my hat pierced with bullets.
They have floated before me by the still watch-fire under the starry
vault of the sky. I have thought them all through, felt them all
through. I have weighed them, and I have satisfied myself about them
again and again, and now forever. At such moments why should I not
acknowledge it to you? You too were in my thoughts, you too belonged to
my circle; as, indeed, you and I have long belonged to each other. If I
have ever been in your debt I am now in a position to repay it with
interest; if you have been in mine you have now the means to make it
good to me. I know that you love Charlotte, and she deserves it. I know
that you are not indifferent to her, and why should she not feel your
worth? Take her at my hand and give Ottilie to me, and we shall be the
happiest beings upon the earth."

"If you choose to assign me so high a character," replied the Major, "it
is the more reason for me to be firm and prudent. Whatever there may be
in this proposal to make it attractive to me, instead of simplifying the
problem, it only increases the difficulty of it. The question is now of
me as well as of you. The fortunes, the good name, the honor of two men,
hitherto unsullied with a breath, will be exposed to hazard by so
strange a proceeding, to call it by no harsher name, and we shall appear
before the world in a highly questionable light."

"Our very characters being what they are," replied Edward, "give us a
right to take this single liberty. A man who has borne himself honorably
through a whole life, makes an action honorable which might appear
ambiguous in others. As concerns myself, after these last trials which I
have taken upon myself, after the difficult and dangerous actions which
I have accomp