I watched him narrowly, thinking I might learn something now in support
of my theory, but he simply added ironically--

"The towers of Nideck are high, and slander flies too low to reach their
elevation!"

"No doubt; but still it is a fact, is it not?"

"Oh yes, so it is; but after all it is only a craze, an effect of his
complaint. As soon as the crisis is past all his love for mademoiselle
comes back. I assure you, sir, that a lover of twenty could not be more
devoted, more affectionate, than he is. That young girl is his pride and
his joy. A dozen times have I seen him riding away to get a dress, or
flowers, or what not, for her. He went off alone, and brought back the
articles in triumph, blowing his horn. He would have entrusted so
delicate a commission to no one, not even to Sperver, whom he is so fond
of. Mademoiselle never dares express a wish in his hearing lest he should
start off and fulfil it at once. The lord of Nideck is the worthiest
master, the tenderest father, and the kindest and most upright of men.
Those poachers who are for ever infesting our woods, the old Count Ludwig
would have strung them up without mercy; our count winks at them; he even
turns them into gamekeepers. Look at Sperver! why, if Count Ludwig was
alive, Sperver's bones would long ago have been rattling in chains;
instead of which he is head huntsman at the castle."

All my theories were now in a state of disorganisation. I laid my head
between my hands and thought a long while.

Knapwurst, supposing that I was asleep, had turned to his folio again.