Gratia pressed Beate's hand gratefully, but then she shook her head, threw herself upon the sofa, and, weeping silently, buried her face in the cushions.
CHAPTER IX.
[IN THE BOARDING SCHOOL.]
Upon his writing table in the hotel garni that he inhabited with his wife and sisters-in-law, Professor Reising found a delicate, perfumed little note in disguised handwriting, which invited him to a rendezvous in a confectioner's shop by the Castle lake.
He read it through carefully, pushed it all crumpled up into his pocket, and gave himself up to meditation as grave as if he had to decipher the most difficult passages in the Hegelian logic.
He was so convinced of his personal charms that he did not deem it at all impossible that he should have inflamed some female heart.
Rose-coloured paper--disguised writing---what could this tiny sheet signify, that might have been wafted into his room through the air?
All philosophers are inquisitive; is not all study of philosophy one great piece of inquisitiveness that peeps behind the scenes of the world, in order to convince itself by what means they are pushed and turned, and how the comedy of life is prepared.
Euphrasia was allowing the dreams of an afternoon nap to float around her. The sisters-in-law were in her room. Reising brushed his hat and repaired to the confectioner's shop.
It was situated by the Castle lake, and contained a suite of small rooms, which opened into a large hall looking towards the lake.