The Assistant was glad to have had the opportunity, at the moment when he saw himself obliged to take his leave, of saying something agreeable to Charlotte, and thus making himself a new link to secure her favor.  He had been already too long absent from home, and yet he could not make up his mind to return there until after a full conviction that he must allow the approaching epoch of Charlotte’s confinement first to pass by before he could look for any decision from her in respect to Ottilie.  He therefore accommodated himself to the circumstances, and returned with these prospects and hopes to the Superior.

Charlotte’s confinement was now approaching; she kept more in her own room.  The ladies who had gathered about her were her closest companions.  Ottilie managed all domestic matters, hardly able, however, the while, to think what she was doing.  She had indeed utterly resigned herself; she desired to continue to exert herself to the extent of her power for Charlotte, for the child, for Edward.  But she could not see how it would be possible for her.  Nothing could save her from utter distraction, except patiently to do the duty which each day brought with it.

A son was brought happily into the world, and the ladies declared, with one voice, it was the very image of its father.  Only Ottilie, as she wished the new mother joy, and kissed the child with all her heart, was unable to see the likeness.  Once already Charlotte had felt most painfully the absence of her husband, when she had to make preparations for her daughter’s marriage.  And now the father could not be present at the birth of his son.  He could not have the choosing of the name by which the child was hereafter to be called.

The first among all Charlotte’s friends who came to wish her joy was Mittler.  He had placed expresses ready to bring him news the instant the event took place.  He was admitted to see her, and, scarcely able to conceal his triumph even before Ottilie, when alone with Charlotte he broke fairly out with it; and was at once ready with means to remove all anxieties, and set aside all immediate difficulties.  The baptism should not be delayed a day longer than necessary.  The old clergyman, who had one foot already in the grave, should leave his blessing, to bind together the past and the future.  The child should be called Otto; what name would he bear so fitly as that of his father and of his father’s friend?

It required the peremptory resolution of this man to set aside the innumerable considerations, arguments, hesitations, difficulties; what this person knew, and that person knew better; the opinions, up and down, and backward and forward, which every friend volunteered.  It always happens on such occasions that when one inconvenience is removed, a fresh inconvenience seems to arise; and in wishing to spare all sides, we inevitably go wrong on one side or the other.