“Goethe,” she murmured, extending both hands to greet him, “Goethe, I thank you for having come.”
“Charlotte,” said he, gently, “how can you thank me for doing what is as gratifying to me as to yourself?”
“And yet I was compelled to entreat you to do so for the fourth time. Three times you excused yourself with pretexts,” she cried, forgetful of her good resolutions, and carried away by her sensitiveness.
“Pretexts?” repeated Goethe.—“Well, if you will have it so, I must admit that they were pretexts, and this should convince you, Charlotte, of my anxiety to avoid offending you; for to any one else I would plainly and openly have said: ‘I will not come.’ It will be better for us both if we avoid any further explanation. It would perhaps have been wiser, my dear Charlotte, if you had endeavored to master this irritation in silence, instead of bringing about the explanations which it would have been better for us both to have avoided.”
“I have nothing to avoid; I can give every explanation. I can lay bare my heart and soul to you, Wolf, and give an account of my every thought and deed. No, I have no cause to avoid explanations. I love you and have always been true to you, but you, you—”
“My love,” he said, interrupting her, “do not reproach me again; my soul’s pinions are already drooping under the weight of reproaches that retard the flight of my imagination!”
“Now you are reproaching me!” cried Charlotte. “I am to blame that the pinions of your soul are drooping! O Wolf, how can you be so cruel! To reproach me!”
“No, Charlotte, I do not reproach you, and how could I? If you have to bear with me in many things, it is but right that I, too, should suffer. It is much better to make a friendly compromise, than to strive to conform to each other’s requirements in all things, and, in the event of our endeavor being unsuccessful, to become completely estranged. I would, however, still remain your debtor in any agreement we might make. When we reflect how much we have to bear from all men, my love, it will teach us to be considerate with each other.”[55]
“Then we are no longer to endeavor to live together in happiness, but only in an observance of consideration toward each other?” cried Charlotte.
“I had hoped that consideration for each other’s weaknesses would lead us back to happiness. I, for my part, will gladly be indulgent.”