On one of these voyages of discovery, as
she called them, she saw Paul for the first time. He met them in the
Konigstrasse, as they stood on the Konigsmauer, Loulou looking
halffearfully down the narrow street. Paul looked very much
astonished, and seemed as if he were not going to notice the pair of
lovers, but Wilhelm nodded and asked him to join them. So he went
home with them, and as soon as he was alone with his friend he fell
into rapturous admiration of the lovely girl, as Wilhelm had
predicted in his letter from Hornberg. One thing Paul could not
understand, and he said so: why had not Wilhelm formally asked for
Loulou's hand, why he was not properly engaged to her, and how could
an impulsive man bear such a constrained position, which would cease
the instant that he was Fraulein Ellrich's declared fiance?
Wilhelm had at first no explanation to give his friend, but he knew
very well that he delayed, and that he put off from day to day going
to Loulou's parents. His was a sensitive, dreamy nature, and much
too thoughtful to allow himself to act from passion. He was
accustomed to make his impulses subordinate to his reason, and to
ask himself severe questions as to the where, how, and why of
things. He was not clear himself as to the condition of things
between him and Loulou.
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