"Stop, my dear, please," said Frau Jula, "Don't be insulting! There is no occasion. I have come to you with the best intentions. For anyone else I would not have taken the trouble; I should only have smacked my lips. But _you_--well, I am fond of you, even if you prefer to have nothing to do with me. And you he shall leave alone. And yesterday, when I saw to what a pass things had come, I could give myself no peace.... I felt compelled to come ... before it was too late." "But, indeed, you are mistaken," said Lilly; nevertheless, she cast an anxious look at the clock. Frau Jula, whom this did not escape, made a grimace, "Directly there's a ring, I'll slip out through the next room, but by that time I shall have achieved my object, I hope.... You see, child"--she sank into the sofa-corner and drew Lilly down beside her--"we poor women have all longed to raise ourselves again, so long as we were pretty faithful to one person.... And then Dr. Salmoni enters. He has to angle longer for some of us than others, but he doesn't mind how cheaply he gets us. He has, too, various baits. For a cold-blooded lump like Karla he doesn't go the same way to work as with us, naturally. With us he begins in this way: 'My gracious one, I am always amazed to find you in such an environment as this. Tell me, what are you doing here?'" Lilly looked startled. "Well, was that it? or wasn't it?" "Yes, but ..." "It was. That's enough. Next comes his depicting of the dangers we encounter if we continue to live in bondage.... He is especially down on duty. Duty he can't tolerate; it is obnoxious to him. As if we were so terribly particular about our little bit of duty, forsooth! Now then, wasn't that it? Am I not right?" "Yes, but ..." stammered Lilly. "I thought so. And next he says _he_ wants to set us free ... to lead us upwards on high. He is the personal conductor to the heights. Isn't it so?" Lilly turned her head aside to conceal the blush of shame that suffused her neck and face. "And then the books! Wretched trash written by little raw scribblers in imitation of our great Nietzsche! But we all fall into the trap; it works up our blood like cayenne pepper; we get quite maudlin over it. What enrages us afterwards is that we were actually such geese as to believe in his scoundrelly sentiment, although the scurviest cynicism exudes from all his pores. But one is so stupid, and he is so clever. Yes, to give the devil his due, he is clever." "But how does he manage it?" asked Lilly, who dared no longer stand up for him. "How does he seem to know everything about your past, as if he had lived it with you?" "Yes, child, it's strange. But, you know, people whose circumstances are the same generally have the same experiences. It is easy enough for him to reconstruct our past when we tell him we've lived in the country. I am a landed-proprietor's daughter. Didn't he, by-the-by, tell you he had passed much of his time in castles?" Lilly nodded.