All the greater was her concern about Helen. She could not conceal from herself that all her attempts to draw her daughter nearer to herself had so far been fruitless. Of course, she blamed only Helen's "childish disposition" and her "overwrought notions" for the failure, but that did not change the matter itself. And now she had to see, moreover, that Helen had evidently more confidence in her father than in herself, that she was more warmly attached to Bruno than to her brother Malte, and that she treated Oswald, and even Mr. Timm, more courteously than her cousin. Felix had laughed when the baroness told him what she had noticed; he had even said it was a good sign. The ruder the better! was the ex-lieutenant's doctrine, which he accompanied with a gallant comparison between horses and girls strongly smacking of the guard-house. But the baroness had the habit of trusting her own eyes, and her own eyes confirmed daily the correctness of her observation. At last Felix also had begun to feel less sure of success. Emily's words on that night had pierced his self-complacency like a barbed arrow. Jealousy has hawk's eyes. Emily knew that only the love of another could have produced such a change in Oswald, and that wonderful instinct which in women more than replaces the slow logic of men, had in an instant revealed to her that her rival could be no one else but the beautiful Helen. Felix, in his rash manner of trying to get rid of a troublesome thought, had at once communicated the matter to the baroness, and she had meditated on it till she had come to the conclusion that Emily's suggestion was too probable not to be thoroughly investigated. Just then accident had placed Helen's letter in her hand. This letter, intended only for her daughter's most intimate friend, would probably furnish her the key to her daughter's heart, and confirm or destroy her suspicion. That, this key in her hand became a thief's tool--what did it matter? She must have certainty at any price. And has not a mother the right to know her daughter's secrets? And if this daughter, as she feared, was going astray on a dangerous path, was it not the mother's sacred duty to bring her back by any means in her power? Thus the baroness had tried to quiet her conscience. Man never is in want of excuses for an act which he has determined to commit at all hazard.