"Better try Hercules and Omphale. Let the Hartwich be Omphale, and set Professor Möllner at the spinning-wheel. That would make a charming picture!" remarked Herbert. "I hear you do not like her," said Frau Taun, "but now that I see her I cannot believe all the terrible things that are told of her. And Möllner, too, is not the man to seat himself at the spinning-wheel, even though she were Omphale,--your characters do not fit." Herbert shrugged his shoulders. "Now, my dear friend," Möllner's clear voice was heard saying, "allow me to make you more intimately acquainted with your friends and foes. Here is an old friend of yours, Professor Hilsborn. Do you not remember him?" "We met once at a children's party," Hilsborn explained, "and you, with the rest of us, threw stones at a glass ball tossed up by a fountain. You came off from the contest victorious, and were the object of envy and hostility in consequence." Ernestine blushed. "Oh, yes, now I know. You were that gentle, amiable boy,--the adopted son of Dr. Heim; but--where--where is Dr. Heim?" "Here he is," said the old gentleman, fixing his penetrating eyes upon her. Ernestine held out her hand, but she could not endure his glance, and her own sought the ground. "Oh, Father Heim,--may I still call you so?" "That's right," cried the old man. "Then you have not forgotten?" And he laid his hand kindly upon her head. "How could I forget you, when you saved my life?" "Aha," said Heim to her so softly that no one else could hear what he was saying, "don't be afraid child,--I shall stand up for you before all these people, but to you yourself I must say that my heart bleeds for you, and that if I did not hope that all the stupid stuff with which your little head is crammed would one day give place to something infinitely better, I should almost repent patching it up in days gone by. Don't be vexed, my child, you don't like to hear this from me,--perhaps you may be better pleased to hear it from some one else. And now God bless your coming to this house!" Ernestine made no reply, but his words produced a deep impression upon her. A tear trembled upon her eyelashes as she stood silently before him. Möllner then gave her his arm, and they all took their seats at table. Heim sat upon her right hand, and Taun and Hilsborn were opposite her. Then came Moritz with Angelika, and Herbert with Frau Taun, while the Staatsräthin sat upon Heim's right. "Permit me to present my friend Professor Taun," said Möllner after they were seated. "A friend!" added the latter to Möllner's words. "He is one of those who voted in your favour," Möllner explained. "I thank you," said Ernestine, "in the name of my sex." "I cannot appropriate all your thanks to myself. They are due first to my dear friends Heim and Hilsborn, for they fought for you more bravely than I, to whom you were personally a stranger." "Really, Father Heim, did you vote for me?" asked Ernestine in surprise.