After the Major's speech, the wine-cup travelled the rounds of the whole table.
After the clinking of glasses, and the drinking of healths, the conversation had become loud and excited; after that, all became as noiseless as in a church during silent prayer. It was one of those pauses that ensue after the soul has unburdened itself, and when, for a moment, there is nothing new to engage it.
And during that pause I could hear Annette saying to Conny, "Yes, dear Conny, I, as a stranger, beloved and loving in return, can speak more impartially than relatives can. I cannot describe the mother to you; and yet I have seen her to-day, or at least her counterpart. When Julius was standing at the altar, he had her very expression. He resembles her more than any one--he has her eyes.
"Ah, what a pity that you did not know her! She was full of life, and yet gentle withal; and when she spoke with you, she never looked to right or left. She never tried to create an impression, and yet in her presence one always felt exalted; and while her glance rested on one, it was impossible to indulge in vile or ignoble thoughts. What to others seemed exalted and great, was with her a matter of course. She practised and expressed all that is highest as easily as others say 'Good-morning.' In her hands, even the common-place became invested with beauty. She judged of people with love, and yet with freedom.
"Thus, she once said, 'I felt inclined to be angry with Baroness Arven, because she does not understand her excellent husband; but he, on the other hand, does not do his wife justice. She is created for society--for interesting, witty small talk--and he desires to feed her soul with thoughts of nature and Fatherland. Fanaticism, in every one of its thousand shapes, endeavors to force its own convictions on others, and this is both good and evil at the same time.'
"She said something to me which I have worn as an amulet, and it is, after all, but a simple maxim.
"When I complained to her that it was so difficult with me to fix the proper relation towards others, she replied:
"'Child, you do not maintain the right distance between yourself and others. With every one, even though it be a Rothfuss, you move into most familiar contiguity.' Her words impressed me deeply, and were of great help to me.
"She understood herself, and that made every one else feel on sure ground. When one felt depressed or sad, without hardly knowing why, the mere fact that you were suffering was enough to arouse her sympathy: and that would always cure the pain.
"But what avails it to speak of separate disconnected traits. I might as well try to give you an idea of a glorious symphony by singing a few bars of one of its melodies. When with her I felt in a higher world."