Slightly embarrassed, she answered: "That was not an empty compliment. My mother's relatives on the maternal side have done much in scientific ways. Professor Jacob Friedlaender in Breslau, Professor Emil Friedlaender in Marburg, Professor Felix Friedlaender of the Karlsruhe Polytechnic, are all men of scientific note; as is also Professor Ernest Biedermann, whose mother was a Friedlaender, and who is a leader among modern German painters." All unconscious though she was of it, her words reflected pride and joyous enthusiasm. A slight flush overspread her face; her animated glance rested involuntarily upon the family pedigree that hung opposite to them. "You are well acquainted with the positions your relatives occupy. Do you visit them?" She was startled at his words as though she had discovered a false note in them, irony and derision. But he looked at her so innocently and so sympathetically that she was ashamed of her mistrust. "Not at all. Occasionally we meet Professor Biedermann. As a rule his calling takes him into quite different circles." "And who are the people who would not be glad to have the _entree_ in such a home as your parents'?" he asked thoughtfully. "My parents have not cared for a wide circle of acquaintances for years. My father, whose eminently successful career and public services entitle him to a certain amount of pride, scorns to be put in a position where he is merely tolerated; and my mother's pride is no more able to bear rebuffs." She paused in alarm at what she had said. Why had she allowed herself to be so carried away? She had been overcome by the everlasting woe and sorrow of her race, which arise anew in every generation; and this in the presence of a stranger,--of this stranger. She looked at him timidly, with a troubled expression. "Why do you not continue, Miss Rita,--or may I call you cousin, as I did before? You have no idea how much I am interested by what you say. I have met Professor Biedermann, but I did not introduce myself as cousin." "Indeed!" she answered suddenly becoming quite cold. "Do not misunderstand me. You see, all these cousins of whom you spoke have very plainly given me to understand that they have renounced me; for otherwise one or the other of them who moves in the same walks that I do would some time have bethought himself of me." "How could you expect that?" she said eagerly. "You are unjust. You were the one to withdraw entirely from the connection, without possibility of recall." Again she hesitated. "Do you believe that unprejudiced men would lay that up against me?"