"If not--why, what can I say?--we must simply wait and see. But it would surprise me very much. The worst is over. In such cases, if women mean to commit some act of madness, they do it in the first moment. The countess has her mother with her, she has three children, she has, from all I hear, an extremely buoyant nature, her despair will soon calm down. If not, it is always open to you to return in a year's time and do the prodigal son, and have the fatted calf killed for you." As Wilhelm looked at him with suppressed reproach, Schrotter laid his hand on the young man's shoulder. "You no doubt think me a hard-hearted old fogey--you miss the ring of romance in what I say. That is quite natural. The language of reason always sounds flat to the ear of passion--and not to passion only, but to sentimentality and feebleness. Let us finish. You know my advice. Give no sign of life, and so give time a chance to do its work. Try to forgot the past, and help the lady to do likewise, and do not remind her of it again by letters, or any other kind of communication. And now let us talk of something else. What are your plans?" "I have none," answered Wilhelm, with a dispirited gesture. "I have not forgotten what you wrote to me at New Year. If our wishes make up our future, I have no future before me, for I have no wish." "Not even to be near me again?" asked Schrotter. "Ah, yes," answered Wilhelm quickly, and looked him affectionately in the deep-set blue eyes. "You see now. This wandering life is no good for you. You must see about getting back to Berlin." "Yes, but you know--" "Of course I know. But something must be done. You must apply to the authorities to withdraw your sentence of banishment." "And you advise me to do this?" "Unwillingly, as you may well suppose. But I see nothing else for you." "And how should I word such a petition? I could neither acknowledge a transgression in the past, nor promise amendment in the future." "No, it would be of no use going into details. It would have to be a bald petition for pardon." And seeing Wilhelm recoil involuntarily, he added: "It does not do to be too proud in such a case. In the preposterously unequal struggle between the individual and the organized power of the State, it is no disgrace to declare yourself beaten and ask for quarter." "A petition without any gush or protestations of loyalty, in which I would simply say: 'Please allow me to come back to Berlin, because I prefer it to any other place of residence,' would certainly be ineffectual, and I should only have humiliated myself for nothing." "We must get somebody to take up your cause. I shall do all in my power to make the Oberburgermeister put in a good word for you." "Would you yourself do what you are advising me to do?" Schrotter was silent for a moment. "I am not in the same case. If Berlin were as much a necessity to me as it is to you I would do it--most certainly."