The Princess stepped up to him. "I do not speak mere empty words," she said, in a changed tone. "My father wishes you to make your home with us. Bergau is commissioned to enter into business arrangements, but they are not of the nature to determine your decision. Yet when I express the same wish, that you should remain with us, I do it from my own heart."
"This demand upon me is very unexpected," answered the learned man, with astonishment. "My custom is to weigh such proposals calmly, and from different points of view. I therefore beg your Highness not to require an answer."
"I cannot let you off," exclaimed the Princess. "I should like to gain you in my own way. You shall choose your office and occupation here as freely as is compatible with our different relations: you shall have every kind of distinction, and every wish that it is in the power of the Sovereign to satisfy shall be fulfilled."
"I am a teacher in the University," replied the Professor. "I teach with pleasure, and not without success. My whole nature and the course of my education fit me for this vocation. The rights and duties which enclose my life have a firm hold on me. I have pupils, and I am engrossed with the work in which I wish them to partake."
"You will never find pupils that will be more truly devoted, or cling more warmly to you, than my brother and myself."
"I am not a tutor who can for any length of time oversee the duties of a prince; I am accustomed to the rigid method of the professor, and to quiet labor among my books."
"This last part of your occupation, at least, will not be lost to the world by your remaining here. This is just the place where you would find leisure, perhaps more than among your students."
"This new life would bring me new duties," replied the Professor, "which I should feel called upon to fulfill. It would occasion me also distractions to which I am not accustomed. You invite a man whom you regard as firm. True, in his own circle of life, that character he possesses; but you have no surety that in another sphere of life he will continue to be so. Do not believe that under changed circumstances I shall retain the repose and calmness of effort that the mind of a worker needs; and my dissatisfaction at inner disturbances would certainly make itself felt upon those about me. But even if I could hope for all regarding my home and my private relations that would make life satisfactory to me, I must still take into consideration where I can personally be most useful; and I am not at present convinced that this would be the case here."
The Princess looked down sadly. The steps of the men who were to free the manuscript from the piles of rubbish still continued to sound above.
"Yet," continued the Professor, "if we were to be fortunate enough to find the manuscript, many days, perhaps many years of my life would be taken up by a new task, which would be so great that I might find my University occupations a burden. Then I should have a right to ask myself, in what surroundings I should best be able to advance this work. In this case, I should also have a right to leave the University for a long time. But if I do not find it, it will be painful to me to part from here, for my soul will long hover restlessly about this place."