"You are a brave champion, Hilsborn," said Möllner, holding out his hand to the young man. "Then we are only three against four," said old Heim. "Möllner's vote alone is wanting,--and if he gives it in favour of the Hartwich, there will be a tie; so I propose that we give him the casting vote, especially as he, as a physiologist, is best capable of judging of the value of the essay before us." "I should have thought," cried Moritz, "that any one of us could have passed judgment upon such a piece of dilettanteism; it is only the modern nonsense about the fibres. There is not much in it!" All present looked eagerly towards Johannes, who was calmly leaning back in his arm-chair. "It is no piece of dilettanteism. I grant that it is hasty and one-sided to attempt to ascribe all self-control to the impediments of reflex motion; nevertheless, Fräulein Hartwich's essay evinces a comprehension of the physiology of the nervous system far beyond what is usual, and I cannot deny that such a self-dependent realization of scholarship is a proof of the most decided creative faculty." Here he looked at Herbert. "Indeed?" said the latter pointedly. "Yes!" said Möllner with warmth; "but, nevertheless, I give my vote against her admission; and of course that decides the matter,--we are now five to three!" The gentlemen looked at one another, some with surprise, some with annoyance. "What do you mean?" cried Heim. "You were thoroughly delighted to-day with the girl's talent." "We relied upon you," said Hilsborn reproachfully. "This is the first injustice of which I have ever convicted my friend Möllner," said Taun, shaking his head. Johannes looked at his dismayed associates with quiet amusement, and did not observe that Herbert extended his hand to him to thank him for his assistance. "God be thanked," he muttered, "that you have given the fool her discharge!" And he swallowed the contents of his glass with evident satisfaction. "Johannes! Johannes!" Hilsborn began again, "why have you treated the girl and ourselves in this manner?" "Why?" asked Johannes,--and there was a glow in his face that quite transfigured it,--"because she is far more to me than to any of you." "You have chosen a very odd method to show that it is so," Hilsborn remonstrated. "Do you think so, short-sighted man?" asked Möllner gravely. "What harm can it do you to make the Hartwich happy?" grumbled Hilsborn. Möllner looked at him with a smile.--"When we take away from a child a knife with which it is playing, we do so, not because we are afraid it will harm us, but itself. True, the child will regard us as an enemy, but we act for its own sake." "Well, is the Hartwich the child that you feel so bound to protect?"