"You are much mistaken," Leo quietly replied. "I have come once by this path, and I shall not again pass over it, least of all in descending to the valley. I shall take the safer footpath or the road, even although it be somewhat longer."
"How can an artist be so terrible a Philistine!" Paul exclaimed, indignantly.
"If not to run into unnecessary peril is to be a Philistine, I certainly am one. You will admit, I know, that I am not backward in facing danger when any good end is to be gained thereby."
"I should be the last to dispute that. Do I not know that you, my unattainable model and example, are all compact of the strongest and loftiest principles? Do I even try to emulate you? I should be the most tiresome fellow in the world if but the half of your virtues were mine, although I confess that they suit you remarkably well; so keep them all, I pray. Trust one who knows, lovely fairy; your excellent cousin is the embodiment of pure principles and strong good sense; he has only one fault: he chooses his friends very foolishly."
"Are you not one of them?" asked Hilda.
"Exactly; that is just it. His reputation suffers from my friendship. I am principled against principle. My aim in life is to do what I like. I am a thorough egotist, who has no idol but self. Now is such a man a fit companion for Leo von Heydeck? He should blush to own such a friend, by whom he may be judged by others. But here we are safely arrived at the castle, and I will take my leave. I must bid you farewell, Fräulein von Heydeck, only asking permission to return and visit my friend Leo at Castle Reifenstein."
They had, in fact, reached the garden, which lay on the eastern declivity of the mountain, and before them was the colossal old pile.
"You are not going to leave us, Herr Delmar?" Hilda asked, in surprise. "You cannot be in earnest. Rooms were arranged for you and Leo two days ago. Of course you will stay at Castle Reifenstein with my cousin?"
"A most kind and amiable invitation, and so tempting from such lovely lips that I should not perhaps be able to refuse it had I not promised to return immediately to Tausens. As, unfortunately, I have so promised, there is nothing for me to do except to thank you most sincerely for the hospitality, which, to my regret, I cannot accept."
"To whom can you possibly have made such a promise?"