There was something fairy-like,
exalted, intoxicating, in the feeling that the object of the
longing and hope of his youth had been under the protection of a
good spirit, and that the great unknown had taken care of and
prepared for him a companion, a wife, just at the moment when he
had become Counsellor of Justice of the Superior Court. But who
was she? This was the only thing painful in the affair; but this
intriguing annoyance was not to be avoided, if the lady was to
remain within her sphere, surrounded by respect and esteem.
"What would I have thought of a lady, a woman, who came straight
forward and handed out the billet, saying: 'Here I am'?" he asked
himself, at the moment when at last he had found the court-house
stairs and was ascending.
How it fared that day with the examinations is recorded in
criminal and police court documents; but a veil is thrown over it
in consideration of the fact, that a man only once in his life is
made Counsellor of Justice in the King's Court. The day following
it went better; although it is pretty sure that a horse thief went
free from further reproof, because the counsellor was busy rolling
that stone up the mountain: Where shall I seek her if she does not
write again? Will she write again? If she would do that, why did
she not write a little more at first?
A couple of weeks after the receipt of the letter, one evening
about seven o'clock, the counsellor sat at home, not as before by
his writing-table busy with acts, but on a corner of the sofa, with
drooping arms, deeply absorbed in a mixture of anxious doubts
and dreaming expectations.
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