"Oh, you cut me to the heart," sighed Elsa, who saw the scientific nimbus with which she had crowned her brows thus falling off like a theatrical halo of gold-paper. She was greatly offended. She had meant so well,--for Möllner's sake she had conquered herself and attempted to make a friend of Ernestine. He should see how her wounded but self-renouncing heart would open to her rival. She had been so glad not to come quite empty-handed to this learned woman; for, as far as she had understood the anatomical conversation at table, it coincided wonderfully with Gall's theory, which she had lately mastered that she might have the pleasure of subjecting Möllner's head to an examination. And now, just as she had hoped to recommend herself to him whom she loved by her one little bit of scientific acquirement, even this unselfish pleasure was denied her, and the attempt had failed entirely. Oh, Ernestine was a hard--a terrible woman!
While Elsa had been talking to Ernestine, the gentlemen had cast significant glances towards them, and said among themselves, "There is a wonderful combination,--the Hartwich and Fräulein Elsa! It must be worth studying."
And so they gradually drew near the two women. At last, Moritz, who, like a child with its doll, always had his wife hanging on his arm, could not refrain from joining in the conversation, for he pursued a jest like a boy after a butterfly. "Tell me, then, Fräulein Elsa, what did Schewe say to your head?" he asked.
"What?" and Elsa smiled diffidently. What an attraction she possessed for the other sex! Here were all the gentlemen gathered around her again. "What? oh, modesty forbids me to tell you."
"Then he was very complimental?"
"He was indeed."
"That was the reason, then, you found his diagnosis so striking," laughed Moritz.
Elsa became embarrassed.
"That is just what makes that man so successful," said Moritz. "He flatters every one, and therefore every one believes him."
"Oh, you do him great injustice!" Elsa remonstrated. "He is so in earnest about his science. He can be quite rude. He would certainly be rude to you, Professor Kern."