“Of course,” said Klemm, “you retain your affection for things and persons of this world, notwithstanding your loss of belief in the doctrines that relate to that which is to come?” “Not entirely.” “Have you ceased to love Louise—do you love another?” “Neither; but I confess to you that as I released myself from the trammels which the religious opinions of Louise placed upon my mind and conduct, I felt less respect, and consequently less love for her.” “Does your respect and love go together?” “My love for her was almost entirely dependent on respect. She was my superior in education, my teacher in religion.” “And so she put on airs, did she—played the school-mistress?” “I should certainly do injustice to her were I to admit the force of your query. She led me back into religious observances less by any thing masculine in her character than by the evident disinterestedness of her conduct, and the conviction that however little I might respect the requirements of religion, I certainly found the results of the outward observances of the rules the best for myself.” “Do you still love Louise?” “Can I love her, and live as I have lived for these last six months? I ask seriously.” “I will answer _that_ when I can ascertain how intimately your self-respect is connected with that respect which you say was the fount of your love for Louise.” “It is certain that for some months after I entered the army, my resolutions for good were well maintained, and I thought that my affections for Louise were augmented by absence. But I fell into the habits of those with whom I associated, and I soon found that they shared the opinions which my earlier companions professed; and I confess to you that my old skepticism returned, and though my sufferings here have certainly prevented me from the indulgence of dissipation into which I had fallen, yet I do not find that my religious belief has returned with my change of conduct.” “Probably not, your change of conduct, as you call it, is only the necessity of your position, and you have perhaps sinned as heartily here, within sight of death, as when you were in the full flush of health.” “And, by the way, Mr. Klemm, that is the unkindest remark you have made to me yet, and smacking the least of German accent of any sentence you have uttered. How much your voice resembles Louise’s!” “Do I resemble her much in other respects?” “You are not as tall, and you are darker; beside, your shock of hair resembles her splendid head about as much as your guttural German does her pure French.” “Adolph,” said Klemm, in accents far more _Germanic_ than those recently used, “would you seek to renew your relations with Louise if you were now permitted to return?” “The only weakness which I ever knew in Louise was her love for me, and that, I have occasion to know, would not allow her to marry me with my present vices.” “Could you not conform to the customs of her family without a change of opinion?”