What was the matter with him to-day? He spoke with evident constraint, and every word he said seemed to force Alide and himself further apart.
"Yes?" answered she, absently. "I did not go there this morning to admire the architecture. And I am not going to dwell any length of time in Strasburg, either," she continued, with a quiet smile. "Do you know that we are going home to-morrow?"
"To-morrow!" cried Goethe, springing from his seat. "But you have only just arrived. And our walks, our river-excursions, our drives, all the pleasure that we promised ourselves together! What is the meaning of this sudden determination?"
She explained to him in a few words the discomfort and humiliation of her sister's position.
"Was that all?" he thought, with a sigh of relief, and he looked quickly and searchingly into Alide's ingenuous face. "I cannot dispute it," answered he: "poor Rahel has been miserably restless and unhappy here; the situation was a novel one for her, and its exactions have chafed terribly her wild spirit. But it is the more admirable how you, Alide, have fitted yourself to each new condition; everywhere you seem free as a bird in the branches."
"Wherever you are, Wolfgang, I am content," she replied, simply.
For a moment he did not speak; then, abruptly looking her full in the face, he pressed her hand warmly.
"You are a good girl, Alide," he said, and began to pace the room, with his eyes cast to the ground.
Alide felt emboldened by his evident agitation to put forward the subject nearest her heart.
"And why, Wolfgang," she began, timidly, "should I remain longer in the city? If mamma and Rahel are happier at home, why should my pleasure detain them? Whither is our present life leading,—and for what are we waiting?" She paused, with her heart in her throat.