Did he love her, or Rebecca? They had appeared to him so closely
together that he was confused. He viewed them as a double-star, without
yet having the coolness to separate them. He was a man to love once
only, and there is but one love. There are different phases of it as
there are different lodgers in the same house; they do not know each
other, but they come in and go forth by the same staircase-way.

Of this he was instinctively certain that if he loved Kaiserina, she
would guide him in altogether another direction than he had looked and
whither his proud and admiring professors had pointed. Enormous wealth
in our days is to the monopolist, immense fame to the specialist. To
rise above contestants, one must be patient, resigned, long toiling and
abhorrent of the social ties which fetter one when most of the time is
demanded to solve a problem, and pester one to recite the two or three
letters he has learnt when he ought to study till he masters the entire
alphabet. A man must immolate himself.

Oh, he had been so happy at whiles with the thought, accounted
providential, that he stood alone, with no one to distract him, to
impose burdens on him and to claim a right to make inroads on his
precious hours. He loved the loneliness in which he sank when he stepped
out of the lecture-room and the amphitheatre. He had not felt the need,
which others confessed, of some one with whom to share griefs, debate
enigmas and communicate projects. Since he saw Rebecca, he had, indeed,
had an almost momentary glimpse of a home where a dashing woman, moving
silently and airily, guarded his meditations from the external plagues.
Such a woman was created to comfort, cheer and encourage if he flagged.
But the love she inspired was ideal, perceived hazily during the hours
when he was out of health, and divined rather than watched her tender