"Yes," said Elsa, "Christian love should be shown to every sinner, but this woman puts our sex in such a light that really one blushes at being a woman. I can say, with Gretchen, that humanity is dear to me, but this Hartwich displays such shamelessness, such vulgarity of mind, that it becomes the duty of those possessed of any sensibility to suppress all compassion and to regard her with abhorrence."
"Tell me, then, Fräulein Elsa," Hilsborn here interrupted her, "what becomes of your former assertion that the cause of the despised and neglected should always be espoused by the true Christian, as in the case of your field-flowers?"
Elsa blushed, and stroked back her curls.
"But, my dear friend," remarked the botanist, "the Hartwich is not a field-flower."
"Certainly not one that cows can eat, for she is poisonous," said Herbert.
"Oh, there are reptiles that feed on hemlock," said old Heim with irritation. "But, whether she be hemlock or belladonna, we all know that both are medicinal, and she might perhaps be useful as an antidote to the affectation and hypocrisy that infect the feminine world of to-day, producing bigotry, malice, and all sorts of moral diseases."
"That was going almost too far," Moritz whispered to the old man, who passed him grumbling thus, with his hands clasped behind him. "I cannot abuse her any more, for Johannes's sake, but I do wish the devil had her rather than Johannes should have her!"
Heim looked at him and contracted his white, bushy eyebrows. "To that nonsense all I say is, we will talk about it at some future time."
The Staatsräthin approached. "Uncle Heim, you are blinded by your partiality. Convince us that this person is anything else than a brazen-faced claimant for notoriety, and God knows what besides,--convince us of this, And we will beg her pardon,--but, until then, we must be allowed to consider any intercourse with her, on my son's part, as a misfortune. Now give me your arm; we must go to supper."
"Yes, let us go. I am tired, and shall be glad of something to eat," said the old gentleman, conducting the Staatsräthin into the house, where the table was laid.