Fritz jumped up simultaneously, but Niebeldingk laughingly pushed him back into his seat. "You just stay," he said, "our dear friend is only too eager to slaughter a few more peoples." Chapter V. When he dropped in at Alice's a few days later he found her sitting, hot-cheeked and absorbed, over Strauss's _Life of Jesus_. "Just fancy," she said, holding up her forehead for his kiss, "that young poodle of yours is making me take notice. He gives me intellectual nuts to crack. It's strange how this young generation--" "I beg of you, Alice," he interrupted her, "you are only a very few years his senior." "That may be so," she answered, "but the little education I have derives from another epoch.... I am, metaphysically, as unexacting as the people of your generation. A certain fogless freedom of thought seemed to me until to-day the highest point of human development." "And Fritz von Ehrenberg, student of agriculture, has converted you to a kind of thoughtful religiosity?" he asked, smiling good-naturedly. In her zeal she wasn't even aware of his irony. "We're not going to give in so easily.... But it is strange what an impression is made on one by a current of strong and natural feeling.... This young fellow comes to me and says: 'There is a God, for I feel Him and I need Him. Prove the contrary if you can.' ... Well, so I set about proving the contrary to him. But our poor negations have become so glib that one has forgotten the reasons for them. Finally he defeated me along the whole line ... so I sat down at once and began to study up ... just as one would polish rusty weapons ... Bible criticism and DuBois-Reymond and 'Force and Matter' and all the things that are traditionally irrefutable." "And that amuses you?" he asked compassionately. A theoretical indignation took hold of her that always amused him greatly. "Does it amuse me? Are such things proper subjects for amusement? Surely you must use other expressions, Richard, when one is concerned for the most sacred goods of humanity...." "Forgive me," he said, "I didn't mean to touch those things irreverently." She stroked his arm softly, thus dumbly asking forgiveness in her turn. "But now," she continued, "I am equipped once more, and when he comes to-morrow--" "So he's coming to-morrow?" "Naturally, ... then you will see how I'll send him home sorely whipped ... I can defeat him with Kant's antinomies alone.... And when it comes to what people call 'revelation,' well! ... But I assure you, my dear one, I'm not very happy defending this icy, nagging criticism.... To be quite sincere, I would far rather be on his side. Warmth is there and feeling and something positive to support one. Would you like some tea?" "Thanks, no, but some brandy."