CHARLOTTE BIRCH-PFEIFFER.
TO YOU, DEAR MOTHER BELONGS THIS FIRST PRODUCT OF AN ASPIRATION YOU
AWOKE, AND, IN LOYAL UNION WITH MY BELOVED FATHER, AIDED BY
YOUR POWERFUL EXAMPLE TO DEVELOP. RECEIVE IT AS A
FAINT TOKEN OF GRATITUDE FOR A LOVE WHICH
A WHOLE LIFE WOULD NOT BE
SUFFICIENT TO REPAY.
THE AUTHORESS.
CONTENTS.
| [I.]-- | Mental Strife. |
| [II.]-- | Dual Apparitions. |
| [III.]-- | From Falsehood to Falsehood. |
| [IV.]-- | A Guardian Angel. |
| [V.]-- | Master and Pupil. |
| [VI.]-- | The Prison Fairy. |
| [VII.]-- | An Aristocrat. |
| [VIII.]-- | In the Prison. |
| [IX.]-- | Fraulein Veronica von Albin. |
| [X.]-- | Progress. |
| [XI.]-- | A New Life. |
| [XII.]-- | The Search for a Wife. |
| [XIII.]-- | A Sacrifice. |
| [XIV.]-- | Churchyard Blossoms. |
| [XV.]-- | A Royal Marriage. |
| [XVI.]-- | The Two Betrothed Brides. |
| [XVII.]-- | Insnared. |
| [XVIII.]-- | Cornelia and Ottilie. |
| [XIX.]-- | The Catastrophe. |
| [XX.]-- | Thither. |
| [XXI.]-- | Spring Storm. |
| [XXII.]-- | Light and Shadow. |
| [XXIII.]-- | Between Heaven and Earth. |
| [XXIV.]-- | Regeneration. |
A TWOFOLD LIFE.
[I.]
MENTAL STRIFE.
In an elegant apartment which luxury and wealth had adorned with everything that the fantastic industry of our times affords, two stately figures were pacing rapidly up and down: a lady no longer young but still magnificently beautiful, a true Parisienne and lionne of society, and a young man with an aristocratic, though somewhat stern, bearing, dark hair, and strongly marked features. At times they eagerly approached each other with flashing eyes, then turned away to resume their restless pacing to and fro.
"It is useless, we must part!" cried the youth, after a pause. "My passion for you is destroying my whole life: my studies are neglected, nothing has any charm for me unless connected with you; my fancy is unceasingly busied with your image. I can no longer work, no longer think, no longer create anything, and unless I can break loose from this conflict I shall become a dishonored wretch, or consume my strength in endless torture and go to destruction! We must part forever!"