To a head accustomed to think correctly, this was a decided advantage, for how much evil has not befallen many a family by the marriage of a younger daughter preceding that of an elder one. Surely everything in the world must be done in proper rotation. "In proper rotation" is one of the principles of creation, and the Doctor did little to offend them when he wooed the ripest beauty of the Baute family. But, from want of other conquests, as Dr. Kuhl was absent, and, according to report, was unattainable for several reasons, Ophelia and Lori had also resolved to be pleased with Reising, and to cast out their nets over him. Thus the Baute family performed a sort of "Midsummer Night's Dream," a rushing to and fro, seeking and evading ensued, such as only the sap of the wonderful flower, "Love-in-Idleness," can produce.
There they sat together in a jasmine bower, Reising and Euphrasia; he had caught her, and she had let herself be caught with pleasure. She sat there reading Puschkin's poems, and her two blonde plaits moved about most gracefully when she shook her head over any of the poet's bold or inadmissible thoughts.
He had come to her; at first she started at this surprise, but then resigned herself to the inevitable. As is befitting womanly modesty, when alone with a strange man, she did not venture to look straightly at him; now and again she cast a glance towards him, in which flashed as much meaning as possible.
"Puschkin is a great poet," said she, in a kind of ecstasy. "Indeed, I love the Russian poets; they are not such Philistines as the Germans. What views! One sees that they belong to a nation that rules the earth!"
"Very beautiful, Fräulein Euphrasia! But still the world is ruled by the mind, and it is the German mind that is called to the world's dominion."
"Herbart, or Hegel?" asked Euphrasia, smiling coquettishly.
"Oh, my Fräulein! You touch a very tender spot in my life; it makes me so sad that I cannot hold the same opinions as your father."
"Why sad?" asked Euphrasia. "Learned men are seldom of the same opinion."
"Oh, you know; you must know why it makes me sad!"
"Not at all," replied the fair one, smiling unconsciously.