not from my father, but from _him_--that evil spirit who, with his
cold smile and mocking composure, stood at my father's side! He has
poisoned my father's heart with jealousy and hate, he has filled it with
mistrust toward his only son, and sowed discord, that he may himself reap
a harvest from the hatred! And he was witness of my humiliation, and I saw
how he looked down upon me with scornful superiority as I knelt before my
father and pleaded in vain for one word of love from his lips! But _he_
had withered this word upon his lips, and only for _him_ were words of
tenderness and veneration there! Only for _him_ acknowledgments,
confidence, and love! As he stood there with cold and haughty face at the
side of my poor father, who, stooping and insignificant, cowered below
him--oh, so far below him in his easychair--I felt it in every nerve of my
heart, in every fiber of my brain, that _he_ and _he_ alone is ruling lord
here, the commander and Sovereign; and that he who will not bow and cringe
before him, will by him be hurled into the dust and trodden upon! They all
bow before him--_all_! He is like a magician, who by the magnetic glances
of his eyes subjects to his will all who approach him, and makes the
stoutest hearts soft and pliant, so that like wax they allow themselves to
be molded by his forming hands. Even my mother, who is his enemy, who has
been battling against him for twenty years, even she is conquered by him,
and he has become her master and forces her to his will. She knows not at
all that she has fallen within the circle of his magic, yet is, like all
the rest, a mere tool in his hands. But she feels it not, and fancies
herself free, while she lies bound, and has no will of her own in his
presence. I have seen it, I have felt it, and it has filled my heart with
unutterable woe, with raging anger. She felt not at all the shame and
humiliation under which I almost expired; she came not to my aid, for the
magician was there, and in his presence my mother forgot her son so
recently come back to her, and _he_ was the center around which all
turned, _he_ was master of the situation, and before _him_ all shrank into
wretched nothingness. He charmed the hearts which had remained cold at my
reception, charmed them with the prospect of a _fete_, which, as he said,
he was to give in my honor, and they believed the mockery, and allowed
themselves to be touched by that noble condescension, and felt not the
cruel boa