"Ah, Möllner, have you been listening?"
"Oh, no; but I could not help hearing, as I came in, that you were making pretty speeches to one another,--just as if you had cups of tea before you, instead of glasses of good wine. Pray, what has made you so sentimental?"
"Your protracted absence, probably," said Angelika, relieving her brother of his hat and cane.
The strong, fine-looking man threw an affectionate glance at her. "Indeed! let me entreat forgiveness, then. One of my experiments was unsuccessful, and I was obliged to repeat it. That is why I am late!"
"I suppose, then, you have been torturing some unfortunate dog or rabbit," said Angelika in a tone of distress. "Poor thing!"
"For shame, Angelika!" said her brother. "Those are not words for the sister of a physiologist,--a woman who ought to understand the object of science."
Angelika made no reply, but observed, well pleased, how tenderly Johannes stroked Hector, who came to greet his master.
The door was flung violently open, and in rushed, in a great hurry, Angelika's husband, Moritz Kern, Clinical Professor and practising physician. His figure was not tall, but muscular,--his eyes were black and sparkling, his features sharply cut, and his stiff black hair close cropped around his head. "Morning, morning," he cried, quite out of breath, but in high good humour, as he threw his hat and gloves upon a table and himself into a chair. "Excuse me for my tardiness. Ah, my dear,--kiss your hand,--love me? Yes? Not seen you since morning. Walter with you? No? Was he good?"
"Yes, indeed," said Angelika, who stood beside her boisterous husband like a rose upon a thorny stem; "but he fell off his rocking-horse and has got a great bruise."
"Good, good,--harden him," he replied smiling. He looked for an instant into Angelika's blue eyes, and the fire of his glance must have penetrated her heart, for her fair brow flushed and her eyelids drooped like those of a girl upon the day of her betrothal.