"They knew you for the feminine Samson that you are, and would have shorn your hair, that they might call out, 'The Philistines are upon you!'" Ernestine interrupted him. "Hush, uncle! not one word, in that tone, of a man who is sacred to me!" "God forbid that I should offend you! I am not speaking of him, but of his lady-mother, who has him fast by her apron-string." And he gave her a quick, keen glance. "And never mention his mother to me! I hate her!" cried Ernestine angrily, ascending with him the stairs to the laboratory. Leuthold now knew enough. "I can readily understand that these people should have tried to turn you against me,--for he who seeks to win you must first remove me from his path. This they well know, and their attempt is natural. But you, with your calm power of reasoning, can soon convince yourself that they require of you no less a sacrifice than your entire self, and that unbounded, although perhaps unconscious, selfishness is the mainspring of their proceedings, while I, as long as you have known me, have treated you with thorough disinterestedness. They humiliated you in your own esteem that you might be bought at a more reasonable price. I can see by your depressed condition how they discouraged you. I will restore your confidence in yourself, and let this act of mine prove to you that I desire nothing of you but that you remain true to yourself. This is all the satisfaction I ask. And now all is right again, is it not?" "Yes, uncle," said Ernestine, collecting her energies afresh. "And now come, let us try the experiment you spoke of." Leuthold's light eyes sparkled with triumph as he heard these words, and together they entered the apartment containing her costly scientific apparatus. But, exert herself as she might, her labour was all in vain. Her hands trembled, everything grew dim before her eyes. Her interest in the matter flagged; other thoughts intruded upon her mind. With superhuman resolution, she made further efforts, and the hectic spot, so alarming to a physician, appeared on either cheek. Leuthold did not notice them. He was so absorbed in his work that he started, as if from a dream, when she fainted away by his side. CHAPTER II. THE WEAKNESS OF STRENGTH. The Bergstrasse was quiet and lonely when Johannes returned from Hochstetten. The inmates of the houses there were all within-doors, shielding themselves from the heat of the midday sun, reflected with oppressive intensity from the white houses. Johannes leaned back motionless in the carriage, his eyes covered with his hand. He never looked up when some dogs came barking around the wheels,--indeed, he did not hear them. The exterior world was dead for him. "_Halte-là!_" cried a voice from a carriage drawn up before his own door. "_Parbleu! il dort_." Johannes raised his head. The Worronska was awaiting him.