now?  What can we say to that?  ‘Thou shalt do no murder;’ as if any man ever felt the slightest general inclination to strike another man dead.  Men will hate sometimes; they will fly into passions and forget themselves; and as a consequence of this or other feelings, it may easily come now and then to a murder; but what a barbarous precaution it is to tell children that they are not to kill or murder!  If the commandment ran, ’Have a regard for the life of another—­put away whatever can do him hurt—­save him though with peril to yourself—­if you injure him, consider that you are injuring yourself;’—­that is the form which should be in use among educated, reasonable people.  And in our Catechism teaching we have only an awkward clumsy way of sliding into it, through a ‘what do you mean by that?’

“And as for the seventh; that is utterly detestable.  What! to stimulate the precocious curiosity of children to pry into dangerous mysteries; to obtrude violently upon their imaginations, ideas and notions which beyond all things you should wish to keep from them!  It were far better if such actions as that commandment speaks of were dealt with arbitrarily by some secret tribunal, than prated openly of before church and congregation—­”

At this moment Ottilie entered the room.

“‘Thou shalt not commit adultery,’”—­Mittler went on—­“How coarse! how brutal!  What a different sound it has, if you let it run, ’Thou shalt hold in reverence the bond of marriage.  When thou seest a husband and a wife between whom there is true love, thou shalt rejoice in it, and their happiness shall gladden thee like the cheerful light of a beautiful day.  If there arise anything to make division between them, thou shalt use thy best endeavor to clear it away.  Thou shalt labor to pacify them, and to soothe them; to show each of them the excellencies of the other.  Thou shalt not think of thyself, but purely and disinterestedly thou shalt seek to further the well-being of others, and make them feel what a happiness is that which arises out of all duty done; and especially out of that duty which holds man and wife indissolubly bound together.’”

Charlotte felt as if she was sitting on hot coals.  The situation was the more distressing, as she was convinced that Mittler was not thinking the least where he was or what he was saying; and before she was able to interrupt him, she saw Ottilie, after changing color painfully for a few seconds, rise and leave the room.

Charlotte constrained herself to seem unembarrassed.  “You will leave us the eighth commandment,” she said, with a faint smile.

“All the rest,” replied Mittler, “if I may only insist first on the foundation of the whole of them.”

At this moment Nanny rushed in, screaming and crying:  “She is dying; the young lady is dying; come to her, come.”

Ottilie had found her way back with extreme difficulty to her own room.  The beautiful things which she was to wear the next day were laid out on a number of chairs; and the girl, who had been running from one to the other, staring at them and admiring them, called out in her ecstasy, “Look, dearest madam, only look!  There is a bridal dress worthy of you.”