But his friends did not laugh at him; they bore with him,
treated him gently, as if he had been a disappointed girl. Paul, who
was filling the place of an invalided professor of agricultural
chemistry, and working hard after the college term began, found time
to come every day for a long walk in the Thiergarten, and resigned
himself to long philosophical discussions which so far had not been
at all to his taste. Dr. Schrotter seldom had any spare time during
the day; but Wilhelm always took tea with him in the evenings.
Did Bhani know anything of his story?
Had her womanly instinct guessed that his careworn, melancholy
expression betrayed an unhappy love story--a subject so sympathetic
to women? Anyhow she anticipated every means of serving him, and her
glance betrayed an almost shamefaced sympathy.
One November evening they were sitting at the little drum-shaped
table in the Indian drawing-room; the teaurn steaming, and Bhani
standing near, ready to obey her master's slightest wish. Schrotter
touched on the wound in Wilhelm's heart hitherto so tenderly
avoided.
"My friend," he said, "it is time that you came to yourself. It is
obvious that you are still grieving, instead of fighting against
your dreams; you give way to them without a struggle.
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