Two days later there arrived in Hohen-Cremmen a letter which ran:  “Most gracious Lady:  My long-standing friendly relations to the houses of Briest and Belling, and above all the hearty love I cherish for your daughter, will justify these lines.  Things cannot go on any longer as they are.  Unless something is done to rescue your daughter from the loneliness and sorrow of the life she has been leading for years she will soon pine away.  She always had a tendency to consumption, for which reason I sent her to Ems years ago.  This old trouble is now aggravated by a new one; her nerves are giving out.  Nothing but a change of air can check this.  But whither shall I send her?  It would not be hard to make a proper choice among the watering places of Silesia.  Salzbrunn is good, and Reinerz still better, on account of the nervous complication.  But no place except Hohen-Cremmen will do.  For, most gracious Lady, air alone cannot restore your daughter’s health.  She is pining away because she has nobody but Roswitha.  The fidelity of a servant is beautiful, but parental love is better.  Pardon an old man for meddling in affairs that lie outside of his calling as a physician.  No, not outside, either, for after all it is the physician who is here speaking and making demands—­pardon the word—­in accordance with his duty.  I have seen so much of life—­But enough on this topic.  With kindest regards to your husband, your humble servant, Dr. Rummschuettel.”

Mrs. von Briest had read the letter to her husband.  They were sitting on the shady tile walk, with their backs to the drawing room and facing the circular bed and the sundial.  The wild grapevine twining around the windows was rustling gently in the breeze and over the water a few dragon-flies were hovering in the bright sunshine.

Briest sat speechless, drumming on the tea-tray.

“Please don’t drum, I had rather you would talk.”

“Ah, Luise, what shall I say?  My drumming says quite enough.  You have known for over a year what I think about it.  At the time when Innstetten’s letter came, a flash from a clear sky, I was of your opinion.  But that was half an eternity ago.  Am I to play the grand inquisitor till the end of my days?  I tell you, I have had my fill of it for a long time.”

“Don’t reproach me, Briest.  I love her as much as you, perhaps more; each in his own way.  But it is not our only purpose in life to be weak and affectionate and to tolerate things that are contrary to the law and the commandments, things that men condemn, and in the present instance rightly.”

“Hold on!  One thing comes first.”

“Of course, one thing comes first; but what is the one thing?”

“The love of parents for their children, especially when they have only one child.”

“Then good-by catechism, morality, and the claims of ‘society.’”

“Ah, Luise, talk to me about the catechism as much as you like, but don’t speak to me about ‘society.’”