'Gracious me! you have not read the book?'
'Right through, dear aunt, with all respect to you.'
'It's in the house?'
'It is in my study.'
'Then I don't wonder! I don't wonder!' the margravine exclaimed.
'Best hear what the enemy has to say,' Prince Ernest observed.
'Excellently argued, papa, supposing that he be an enemy.'
'An enemy as much as the fox is the enemy of the poultry-yard, and the hound is the enemy of the fox!' said the margravine.
'I take your illustration, auntie,' said Ottilia. 'He is the enemy of chickens, and only does not run before the numbers who bark at him. My noble old Professor is a resolute truth-seeker: he raises a light to show you the ground you walk on. How is it that you, adoring heroes as you do, cannot admire him when he stands alone to support his view of the truth! I would I were by him! But I am, whenever I hear him abused.'
'I daresay you discard nothing that the wretch has taught you!'