"I thought it was your intention not to speak again of it to strangers."
"I have unwillingly broken my silence. I had no choice but to be frank with my associate. The province of Science is extensive and it does not often happen that associates in the same university pitch upon the same work. Nay, for obvious reasons, they avoid competition. If, therefore, by accident such a coincidence occurs, the most delicate consideration should be mutually shown by members of the same institution. To-day Struvelius told me that he knew I had been occupied with Tacitus and he requested some particulars of me. He asked me about the manuscripts that I had seen and collated years ago in other countries and about the fac-simile of the characters I had made for myself."
"Then you imparted to him what you knew?" inquired Ilse.
"I gave him what I possessed, as a matter of course," replied the Professor. "For whatever he may do with it is sure to be a gain to learning."
"Then he will make use of your labors for the advancement of his own! Now he will appear before the world in your plumes," lamented Ilse.
"Whether he will make proper use of what has been given him, or misuse it, is his affair; it is my duty to have confidence in the honor of a respectable colleague. That I did not for a moment doubt; but, indeed, another idea occurred to me. He was not quite open with me: he acknowledged that he was occupied with a criticism of certain passages of Tacitus; but I feel sure that he concealed the most important particulars from me. Nothing then remained to me but to tell him plainly that I had long had a warm interest in that author, and that since last summer I had been the more attracted to him by the possibility of a new discovery. So I showed him the account which first brought me into your neighborhood. He is a philologist, like myself, and knows now of what great importance this author is to me."
"My only consolation is," said Ilse, "that if Struvelius wishes to disinter the manuscript in our place, a hard fate awaits him at the hands of my sensible father."
The thought of the defiance of his stem father-in-law was consoling to the Professor, and he laughed.
"On this point I am safe; but what can he want with Tacitus?--his department was formerly not concerned with the historians. It can scarcely be imagined. But the most improbable things happen! Has, perhaps, the lost manuscript, by any accident, been found and got into his hands? But it is folly to worry about that."
He strode vehemently up and down, and, shaking his wife's hand with great emotion, exclaimed at last: