"Angelika," said the latter, "we must hurry, so that Uncle Neuenstein shall not wait for his tea. Good-by, my little Ernestine. Herr Gleissert will tell you what we intend to do when you come back. Get well and strong, my child, so that you may come back to us a healthy little girl." Angelika kissed Ernestine hastily, and drew her mother towards the door. Ernestine stood still with downcast eyes. Heim went up to her and clasped her in his arms. He only said, "God bless you!" but these words agitated her greatly, and, as he turned to go, she sank on the floor, sobbing aloud. The visitors had gone,--the carriages had rolled away. Leuthold had been amusing himself for some time with Gretchen in his own room. But Ernestine was still on her knees in the cheerless room below-stairs, weeping over the grave of her childhood. PART II. CHAPTER I. "ONLY A WOMAN." Upon a bright, sunny day, at the house of Professor Möllner in N---- there were gathered the principal Professors of medicine and philosophy in the town. The table provided for the guests was loaded with everything that could rejoice the hearts of men who had spent the morning in delivering lectures. Lunch was not the only end for which this assemblage was gathered together. These learned gentlemen had taken this occasion to discuss a very ludicrous matter,--nothing less than an application from a lady for permission to attend the lectures and to graduate at the University of the place. Möllner had invited these gentlemen to his house for the purpose of this discussion. There sat the physiologist Meibert, the anatomist Beck, and the philosophers Herbert and Taun, leaning back in comfortable arm-chairs,--their throats very dry,--regarding with longing eyes the various bottles that stood as yet uncorked, as if awaiting the magic word that should make them yield up their contents. Hector, too, Möllner's large dog, was devouring with his eyes, at a respectful distance, the delicacies upon the table, quite unable to understand how the gentlemen could refrain so long from falling to. He would have done very differently had he been a man. The Staatsräthin entered the room, and with dignified repose and kindliness of manner greeted the guests, who rose as she appeared. "I have just learned that my son is not here to receive his friends," she said. "Allow me to act his part. You must need refreshment after the lectures." "Thanks, thanks! you are most kind," was heard from all sides as the Staatsräthin filled the glasses. Herbert, the philosopher, was foremost in his acknowledgments; for he was a great favourite in society, and aspired to unite the solidity of the scholar with the grace of the man of the world. "We are greatly privileged in being allowed to kiss the hand whose tasteful care we have already admired in the charming, arrangement of this table."