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home and coming to settle in our town.
    The meal was very jolly. My uncle had placed it in the hands of Walter, who, as a positive man, knew how to eat well, and who had ordered it from one of the best cooks for hire in Fischausen. Laura had not been averse to busying herself with it too, and the governess had added to it with a few Italian dishes in her own style, strongly spiced and cooked in copious amounts of wine. Walter ate and drank enough for four. My uncle even became sufficiently jolly at dessert to perform a few courtly madrigals addressed to the governess, who was scarcely more than forty-five, and he wanted to open the dancing with her when Laura’s young female friends demanded the violins.
    I waltzed with my cousin. All at once it seemed to me that her face came alive with a singular beauty and that she was speaking to me with fire in the rapid whirlpool of the dance.
    Let us leave here, she said to me, it’s stifling; let us pass through those mirrors, which reflect back the candles’ flame into the interminable distance. Don’t you see that this is the image of the infinite, and that it is the road we must take? Come! a little courage, a leap forward, and we shall soon be in the crystal.
    While Laura was speaking to me thus, I heard the mocking voice of Walter, who shouted out to me as I was passing close to him:
    Hey! have a care! Not so close to the mirrors! Do you want to break those too? This boy is a veritable stag beetle, who beats his head against anything that shines.
    Punch was being served. I was one of the last to approach, and found myself sitting next to Laura.
    There, she said, handing me the chilled nectar in a fine goblet of Bohemian crystal, drink to my health, and look more cheerful. Do you realise you look as if you are bored, and that your distracted expression is preventing me from numbing myself as I would wish?
    How can you want me to be jolly, my good Laura, when I see that you are not? You do not love Walter; why rush to marry without love, when love could come for him … or for another?
    I am not permitted to love another, she replied, since it is he my father has chosen. You do not know all that has passed with regard to this marriage. You were considered too young to be informed of it; but, for myself who am even younger than you, you are not a child, and, since we were brought up together, I owe you the truth.
    “We were originally destined for each other; but at first you proved too lazy, then extremely pedantic, and now, despite your goodwill and your intelligence, no one yet knows for what career you are best suited. I do not say this to cause you pain; I consider, myself, that no time has yet been lost with regard to your future. You learn, you have become hardworking and modest. You may well be a universal scholar like my uncle, or a specialised scholarlike Walter; but my father, who wishes to see me married when he returns to settle near me, charged my uncle and my cousin Lisbeth with finding me a husband of an age suited to my own, that is a little older than you and engaged in very positive studies. He blames the unfortunate beginnings of his business career on ignorance and imagination, and he wants a son-in-law who is knowledgeable about some industry or other.
    “Now my father, tired of voyages and adventures, seems satisfied with his position: he has sent me quite a nice sum of money for my dowry; but he did not wish to involve himself in setting me up. He claims he has become too much of a stranger to our customs, and that the choice made by my other relations will be better than one he could make himself or only advise upon.
    “And so my poor mother’s plans have been overturned, for she wanted to unite us; but she is no more, and one must admit that the present combination better assures my future and yours. You certainly do not wish to enter into married life so soon, and you have neither wealth nor a lucrative employment, since you do not yet even know