She gave him a sidelong glance. "Yes, I know it," she said; "and in two years you are to pass your examination." "Adela, can you tell me that and yet wish me to keep this ring?" He took her hand, but she withdrew it from his clasp. "Stay, Herr Doctor _in spe_; if I _do_ refuse to take back the ring, there is no need for such conduct on your part as we remember on a former occasion." "Dearest Adela, I entreat you not to trifle with me. This moment must decide our future, and if you deceive me now----" "Good heavens, Walter! I am not deceiving you; I have grown older, and perhaps a little wiser, but for all that I am only sixteen years old, and you are still a student, and papa cannot spare me, and you must work very hard, and--no, stay where you are, please--what I wanted to say to you was that I thought it terrible that we should both go through the world so angry with each other, and I could not bear it, and so I begged papa to ask you here." Whilst she spoke she had retreated step for step around the rose-bush as Walter advanced, so that both had now made its entire circuit. Again he tried to take her hand, but, lithe and swift as a fawn, she placed the entire bush between herself and her lover, and from her place of vantage went on: "Stand still there, and I will tell you something. There was a young officer in Berlin who wanted me to marry him----" "Adela!" "Hush! Yes, he wanted me to marry him, and I refused point-blank." "Adela!" "Stand still, Walter, or I will leave you. I told him that at present I would betroth myself to no one, but that when I was eighteen, if any one should woo me, I never would marry an officer or a lawyer, for that I had decided if I ever married that it should be a doctor!" And away she sped to the house, which she was entering just as Walter reached the foot of the veranda steps. "Adela! dearest Adela!" he cried. As he spoke, a fresh dewy rose was tossed into his face, and Adela vanished, with a laugh, inside the house. CHAPTER XXIV. PER CRUCEM AD LUCEM. Bernhard's exertions in Berlin were fruitless. The failure of the large banking firm had involved many other business firms. There had been heavy losses, and those who had not suffered shook their heads and kept their money safe in their pockets. The word 'railway' provoked a perfect panic, and confidence everywhere was greatly shaken. Upon a closer examination Bernhard's losses were found to be much greater than had been at first supposed. After conscientious consideration he could not but admit to himself that it was time for him to look after his own interests and relinquish, for the present at least, his efforts for the benefit of the country at large. So he returned to his home very much cast down, his confidence in his own ability greatly shaken, discontented with himself and with destiny.