She silently assented, and he went on: "My plans and views are nowise altered; on the contrary, I am more than ever devoted to the profession I have chosen."
She gave him a sidelong glance. "Yes, I know it," she said; "and in two years you are to pass your examination."
"Adela, can you tell me that and yet wish me to keep this ring?"
He took her hand, but she withdrew it from his clasp.
"Stay, Herr Doctor in spe; if I do refuse to take back the ring, there is no need for such conduct on your part as we remember on a former occasion."
"Dearest Adela, I entreat you not to trifle with me. This moment must decide our future, and if you deceive me now----"
"Good heavens, Walter! I am not deceiving you; I have grown older, and perhaps a little wiser, but for all that I am only sixteen years old, and you are still a student, and papa cannot spare me, and you must work very hard, and--no, stay where you are, please--what I wanted to say to you was that I thought it terrible that we should both go through the world so angry with each other, and I could not bear it, and so I begged papa to ask you here."
Whilst she spoke she had retreated step for step around the rose-bush as Walter advanced, so that both had now made its entire circuit. Again he tried to take her hand, but, lithe and swift as a fawn, she placed the entire bush between herself and her lover, and from her place of vantage went on: "Stand still there, and I will tell you something. There was a young officer in Berlin who wanted me to marry him----"
"Adela!"
"Hush! Yes, he wanted me to marry him, and I refused point-blank."