Lori looked charming at that moment; she smiled so roguishly. Reising could not resist squeezing her hand heartily once more.
"I invited you to come here for this reason, that I have an important request to make to you. You must go with me now at once to Fräulein Sohle's boarding school; it is only a few houses distant from here."
"And what shall I do there?"
"Fräulein Sohle is about to retire, to give up her school and boarding house to some one else, and--I will be that some one."
"You, Lori, you would leave us?"
"With a heavy heart, but it must be; you have known my wish for long, but I could never talk it over quietly with you. I require some money for the good-will, about three thousand dollars, not given, oh, on no account--only lent upon ordinary interest, and for this money I was about to ask you."
Reising was not at all unwilling, but he feared the opposition of his wife, who held the portfolio of the minister of financial affairs with sovereign power.
"Euphrasia need know nothing about it," said Lori; "there are plenty of ways and means. Only a guarantee from you; any banker would give me the money. Euphrasia may continue to rattle the keys of her cash-box just as usual. Is it not true, dear Ferdinand?"
Lori deemed the moment suitable for making the utmost use of the rights which their relationship permitted them; she stroked her brother-in-law's bristly hair, and after a keen scrutinising survey of the lonely hall and a rapid glance at the door, she even pressed a hasty kiss upon his lips.
Reising's mood was such--that for the charming girl he would have even bought Fräulein Sohle also, had she been a marketable commodity. A heretical thought took possession of him; he rejected it as worthy of damnation, but still it arose again and again, even although in pale colours. Had he, then, been blind in those days by the seaside? Could Dr. Kuhl not give him better counsel? Was Lori not more graceful, more clever than Euphrasia? At that time he had the choice of the seven girls. He had then thought her too piquante for the wife of a future professor; how foolish! Such tediousness reigns in a University lecture rooms and in the drawing-rooms, that strong spices are needed to make life in any degree palatable. Lori was so piquante, so charming; but--too late!