that the figure under the pall had risen, and was stealthily approaching
to look over his shoulder. But Lottchen resisted the feeling, and, being
already no contemptible draughtsman, was soon interested enough to forget
it. And then, any moment _she_ might enter.

"Now began a system of slow torture, for the chance of which the painter
had been long on the watch--especially since he had first seen Karl
lingering about the house. His opportunities of seeing physical suffering
were nearly enough even for the diseased necessities of his art; but now
he had one in his power, on whom, his own will fettering him, he could try
any experiments he pleased for the production of a kind of suffering, in
the observation of which he did not consider that he had yet sufficient
experience. He would hold the very heart of the youth in his hand, and
wring it and torture it to his own content. And lest Karl should be strong
enough to prevent those expressions of pain for which he lay on the watch,
he would make use of further means, known to himself, and known to few
besides.

"All that day Karl saw nothing of Lilith; but he heard her voice once--and
that was enough for one day. The next, she was sitting to her father the
greater part of the day, and he could see her as often as he dared glance
up from his drawing. She had looked at him when she entered, but had shown
no sign of recognition; and all day long she took no further notice of
him. He hoped, at first, that this came of the intelligence of love; but
he soon began to doubt it. For he saw that, with the holy shadow of
sorrow, all that distinguished the expression of her countenance from that
which the painter so constantly reproduced, had vanished likewise. It was
the very face of the unheeding angel whom, as often as he lifted his eyes
higher than hers, he saw on the wall above her, playing on a psaltery in
the smoke of the torment ascending for ever from burning Babylon.--The