There was the tutor with the moustache, handsome Dr. Sperner, he became bolder and more defiant each day, yes even at times he seemed to treat her like a little girl, and not as the principal of the school. Blanden should advise her how she was to behave to the doctor, a little interference in her favour would lower the young man's presumptuous tone; he must learn that she was sure of manly protection. When in the act of taking her straw hat out of the drawer so as to make her toilette in keeping with her correspondence, Dr. Sperner was announced again. He entered so boldly, that one might have expected to see spurs on his boots. "You wish to speak to me, dear Fräulein?" "Later, a few hours later, I begged you to come to me." "I know, but I shall not have time! This white slavery only extends over lectures and consultations, not the entire day, even if it be the most amiable lady planter's slavery." "What do these insinuations mean, Herr Doctor?" "I gladly look upon myself as your slave, my Fräulein! If capital be allowed to plunder our mental labour, it may be endured from an owner of capital, such as you, dear Fräulein, with whom a man could live. But what do you wish?" "I can now only explain my views very briefly upon two points which I wish to see altered; yes, I expect, I command that they be altered!" The Doctor bowed with a mocking smile. "Even on my first visit to the establishment, I made these observations," continued Lori, while she assumed a stern tone, and shook back one spiral curl that fell over her face, "the themes which you give to the pupils are totally unsuitable, just so the theme for the last composition, 'Why did Egmont not marry Klärchen?' That does not appear to be the proper manner of introducing our classics." "There our views differ, dear Fräulein! Upon reflection, you will find how improving such tasks are. They accustom the girls to grasp the most important questions in life in an independent manner, and, above all, to treat them with tact. Besides, I avoid themes which lead to commonplaces, and which have already been written upon hundreds of times. New questions which cause independent thought--that is my object. I should like to wager that hitherto even you have not thought over my questions." "I must decline, Herr Doctor, to be placed on a par with my pupils." "I am far from doing so, excepting on one point, namely, youth and loveliness." "You forget to whom you are speaking. Such susceptibility, however, is a superfluous quality in the masters at my school." "What would a teacher of youth be, who possessed no susceptibility for the beautiful?"