The Baroness, however, had something else in view as well.  While she was last at the castle, she had talked over with Charlotte the whole affair of Edward and Ottilie.  She had insisted again and again that Ottilie must be sent away.  She tried every means to encourage Charlotte to do it, and to keep her from being frightened by Edward’s threats.  Several modes of escape from the difficulty were suggested.  Accidentally the school was mentioned, and the Assistant and his incipient passion, which made the Baroness more resolved than ever to pay her intended visit there.

She went; she made acquaintance with the Assistant; looked over the establishment, and spoke of Ottilie.  The Count also spoke with much interest of her, having in his recent visit learnt to know her better.  She had been drawn toward him; indeed, she had felt attracted by him; believing that she could see, that she could perceive in his solid, substantial conversation, something to which hitherto she had been an entire stranger.  In her intercourse with Edward, the world had been utterly forgotten; in the presence of the Count, the world appeared first worth regarding.  The attraction was mutual.  The Count conceived a liking for Ottilie; he would have been glad to have had her for a daughter.  Thus a second time, and worse than the first time, she was in the way of the Baroness.  Who knows what, in times when passions ran hotter than they do now-a-days, this lady might not have devised against her?  As things were, it was enough if she could get her married, and render her more innocuous for the future to the peace of mind of married women.  She therefore artfully urged the Assistant, in a delicate, but effective manner, to set out on a little excursion to the castle; where his plans and his wishes, of which he made no secret to the lady, he might forthwith take steps to realize.

With the fullest consent of the Superior he started off on his expedition, and in his heart he nourished good hopes of success.  He knew that Ottilie was not ill-disposed toward him; and although it was true there was some disproportion of rank between them, yet distinctions of this kind were fast disappearing in the temper of the time.  Moreover, the Baroness had made him perceive clearly that Ottilie must always remain a poor, portionless maiden.  To be related to a wealthy family, it was said, could be of service to nobody.  For even with the largest property, men have a feeling that it is not right to deprive of any considerable sum, those who, as standing in a nearer degree of relationship, appear to have a fuller right to possession; and really it is a strange thing, that the immense privilege which a man has of disposing of his property after his death, he so very seldom uses for the benefit of those whom he loves, only out of regard to established usage appearing to consider those who would inherit his estate from him, supposing he made no will at all.