"Yes indeed, yes indeed!" replied Mr. Bemperlein. "My coming here was neither expected nor desired, I understand that perfectly. The poor lady! But what courage! What decision! I have always said she is not made of common clay. A real blessing that Doctor Birkenhain had the good idea not to write to her directly. Thus I can do something, little though it be, for her support."
"You happy man!" said Oswald "You can work for her and help her, while I can do nothing but wish her a pleasant journey, and then fold my hands idly in my lap."
"I really pity you with all my heart, really," said Mr. Bemperlein. "It is a hard task which you are expected to perform; but where there is much light there is also much shade. We will write diligently. You shall hear of every step we take. And then, I hope, our journey will not be long, and especially I trust we shall find Baron Berkow dead when we get there."
"You hope that? And yet you seem to think it important to go there?"
"Assuredly!" said Mr. Bemperlein. "There are certain sad duties which must be performed--not to please the world, which could, and might not, blame us if we left them unfulfilled, nor for the sake of others whom we could benefit by what we do, but because of the respect we owe to ourselves. But you know all that, of course, much better than I do. You have yourself advised this journey, although you lose most by it. It must be a terrible sensation to be thus suddenly torn from one's paradise! Strange, strange! The more I think of it, the more natural it seems to me. Yes, yes; that you should love this glorious woman is perfectly natural, is,--I might say, so logical that the contrary would be sheer nonsense. Everybody must love her, and the nobler the soul is that loves her the deeper the love. Your heart is a noble heart, your soul harmonizes with all that is beautiful, hence you cannot but love, love with all your heart and soul this best and most beautiful of all women. And on the other side: Is she not free? If not before men, certainly before the Judge who looks into the heart? Did she ever love her husband? Could she love him, sold as she was by her own father to a man who bought her with money, at a time when she was too young still, and too innocent even to suspect such villany? Oh! it makes my blood boil to think of it! I am so glad it has all come about in this way! I congratulate you most heartily. I am a plain, insignificant man, and would never have dared to lift up my eyes so high; but when I see another man boldly and bravely stand on that eminence my heart fills with admiration, which is perfectly free from envy, and once more I wish you joy and all blessings with my whole heart!"
Mr. Bemperlein seized both of Oswald's hands and pressed them warmly. His eyes filled with tears; he was deeply moved.
"And I thank you with all my heart," said Oswald, touched. "The good opinion of a man whom I esteem is worth a thousand times more to me than that of the whole stupid world. The world will condemn our love, but the world knows nothing of justice."
"No," said Mr. Bemperlein, "and yet it does judge us, and we have to submit to its sentence whether we choose or not. And this thought alone casts a deep shadow on the sunny pictures of such pure, disinterested love. But I will not make your head heavier at such a moment, when it is no doubt heavy enough. Fortune favors the brave and the strong. You are bold and strong; you are doubly so since you love, and faith is said to be able to move mountains. What faith can, love surely will not find impossible. But hush! there comes the baroness."
The door opened, and Melitta appeared in her travelling costume. Old Baumann stood by her.
"I am ready, dear Mr. Bemperlein," she said, and then throwing herself into Oswald's arms: "Farewell, darling, farewell!"