"I was not speaking of Fräulein Hilda, but of Herr von Heydeck. I asked whether you had arranged this visit, because I had hoped you would remember what I said yesterday." "You said yesterday that you were not afraid of meeting my friend." "And I also said that I thought it desirable that any such meeting should be avoided. It is not fair in you, Herr Delmar, intentionally to expose me to embarrassment of this kind." While she was speaking Paul regarded her with gentle gravity; her reckless frankness enlisted his sympathy profoundly. As she finished he bent his head, and in a low and gentle tone said, "Your frank, honest reproof shall receive as frank and honest a reply. I might easily deceive you by telling you that Leo must see his friend Herwarth, and that therefore I had arranged this visit; but I will not deceive you. Frankly and honestly, then, I wish Leo to see you again for his own sake and--for yours!" "Herr Delmar, I must beg----" "Stay, Fräulein Schommer! I know what you would say. You would accuse me of unjustifiable interference in your affairs which are no concern of mine; but there you are wrong. I take a deeper interest in them than you would probably think permissible, but nothing is so near to me in this world as Leo's happiness. You see I am honest and do not flatter you." "No, you have shown me that you do not, both yesterday and to-day; yet I really cannot see what interest your affection for Herr von Heydeck can have for me." "That is not said with your usual ingenuousness, Fräulein Schommer," Delmar said earnestly. "You know well that you take a degree of interest in my friend Leo's destiny, and you ought not to deny it. Leo bitterly regrets having been misled in an unfortunate moment to say words which wounded you." "That is not so, Herr Delmar." "Excuse me, it is so; and Leo is all the more sensible of his injustice since he was not true to himself in what he said. Irritated by a certain haughty demeanour, which Fräulein Schommer is apt to display towards those whom she knows but slightly, Leo was induced that day, in answer to his friend Herwarth's badinage, to say what was no sooner uttered than it was deeply repented. He will never be satisfied until he has had an opportunity of entreating your forgiveness,--an opportunity which I am sure you are too magnanimous to deny him." Eva was much moved by Paul's words. Was he telling the truth, or was what he said the result of the ironical mood that so often possessed him? Had he read her heart? Did he know that she could not bear a grudge to Leo,--that his insulting words had long since been forgiven by her,--that she only mourned he should have been prompted to utter them?