“Oh, yes,” he replied, “I know that well. I also have noticed his dislike. But what objection can he have to me?”
“Well,” said Anna, “to tell you the truth, I do not think he knows that himself—some unaccountable antipathy, I suppose. You know he calls you a dreamer, an enthusiast, an unpractical person, in fact, who will never make much way in the world.”
“And my Anna,” asked the young man, “does she also look upon me as a dreamer and an enthusiast?”
The fair girl looked up to him with a merry smile.
“Yes,” continued van Nerekool, “I am an enthusiast—that is quite true. I am devoted to all that is good and all that is beautiful. I am an enthusiast where my darling is concerned—that is true enough. But is it a fact that I am an unpractical fellow, and one who will never make his way in the world? Methinks that just now, when I am trying to win the dearest girl in the world, I am proving myself to be most thoroughly practical, inasmuch as I am striving to secure for myself the greatest imaginable happiness, and I think that, far from dreaming, I am giving proof of being very properly and very wide awake. Don’t you think so, dearest?”
Another soft pressure on that poor shoulder which already had had so much to bear was her answer.
“And do you think, dearest Anna,” he continued, “that that antipathy is strong enough to make your father so hostile to me that he will refuse his consent to a union on which he knows that your happiness as well as mine depends?”
“I do not say so, Charles,” was her reply. “But you must make up your mind to difficulties and obstacles of all kinds.”
“Very good,” said he, “we shall have to fight against them; difficulties are made to be removed and obstacles to be overcome. Anna, my darling, I count upon your love and your constancy; you may safely count on mine. Nothing—you hear me?—nothing in the world will in the slightest degree affect my love to you. The very obstacles you speak of will only serve to enhance the joy of our union.”
The music ceased, and with it ceased the dance. Charles released his partner’s waist and offered her his arm.