Ernestine stood for one moment as if stunned. At last she began slowly and dejectedly, "Ah, I understand it all! the gentlemen took the author of that treatise for a man, and awarded it the prize, but my application was refused because I am so unfortunate as to be a woman. It is only natural, why should a woman be permitted to vie with the lords of creation?"
"Your disappointment makes you unjust," said Johannes. "Your essay received the prize because it accomplished what it aimed at. The application of the woman was rejected because in the University no woman can accomplish what should be her aim."
"How can you prove that?" asked Ernestine with bitterness.
"Because she has deserted the sphere which nature has assigned her, and cannot fulfil the requirements of the one that she has selected for herself."
"You, then, are one of my opponents?"
"I am, Fräulein Hartwich."
"Oh, I am sorry!"
"Why? Of what consequence can the opinion of a stranger be to you?"
Ernestine looked down. "The impression that you make upon me, sir, is such that it pains me to find that you are one of those narrow-minded persons who deny to women the possession of any but the humblest ability."
"You are mistaken, I think them, and especially your self, possessed of very great ability."