"If my suspicion be correct," Leo concluded, "and the more I reflect upon the matter the more convinced I am that it is so, you are the boy, the lawful possessor of this castle, whom my uncle has deprived of his estate and of his name. According to law you are my uncle's son,--Hilda's brother." "Hilda's brother!" Paul almost shouted. "Would you drive me mad? Is it not enough to take from me everything to which I have hitherto clung,--even the father whom I loved and in whom I had full faith? I, Hilda's brother! Never I never! I cannot believe it! And yet can I help believing it?" he continued, after a short pause. "Have you not succeeded in discovering an explanation for all which I thought inexplicable? Heydeck, who stole from me my estate and thrust me forth into the world because he knew that I was not his son, recognizes me by my likeness to the man who dishonoured him. There is not in my veins one drop of your worthless uncle's blood, and yet the law makes me Hilda's brother,--and the worst of criminals, should I ever dare to entertain for her in my heart one sentiment save that of a brother for a sister!" As he spoke, Paul was pacing the room to and fro in the greatest agitation; his olive cheek was deeply flushed; and such unmistakable despair was painted in his face, that Leo, who had had no idea of the depth and strength of the 'love at first sight' that had taken possession of Paul for Hilda, could have no doubt as to the sentiments that filled his soul. He was utterly amazed. Paul, with his critical sneer, his ridicule of all sentimentality, his constant insistance that the intellect should always maintain its dominion over the affections, had suddenly lost his heart,--lost it irretrievably to a young girl whom he had known only for a few hours, and who, in Leo's opinion, was to be sure very charming and amiable, but not at all the one to inspire such a man as Delmar with this sudden overmastering passion. Yet although this love was a riddle to Leo, none the less did his friend's despair excite his compassion, and he repented having so pitilessly pronounced the sentence 'according to law you are Hilda's brother,' without dreaming of the effect it might produce upon his friend. "Calm yourself, Paul," he said gently; "do not forget that all I have said is only hypothetical. I have no facts to substantiate my supposition, no way of proving even the possibility of its correctness."