Why should a professor marry? Was not Heine right, and
were not some kinds of professors cumberers of the earth, as Achilles
called himself when Patroclus had been killed? Horrible creatures all
those whom the Swabians disliked! The professor of Roman law looked
more like a disappointed hyaena than ever, and as for his colleague,
the professor of Greek philosophy, he had begun by looking like
Socrates, when he was born, and time had done its work with its usual
efficacy. Would not Greif be ready soon? It was supper-time.
Greif was thinking of the vanity of human sentiment. A few hours
earlier he had been oppressed by one of the most melancholy moods that
had ever afflicted him. Now, as he stood still for a moment, looking
through the open window at the stars as they began to shine out above
the cathedral spire across the river, he felt as though ten years had
passed since he had driven down through the forest. Only the image of
Hilda remained, and seemed to drown in light the gloomy forebodings
that had so much distressed him. As for Hilda's own warning, it had
been nothing but the result of her sorrow at parting. And since parting
there must be, he would enjoy to the full what was left of this happy
student life, with its changing hours of study and feasting, of
poetry, and fighting, and song that almost mingled with the clash of
steel.
'Are you ready?' asked the students in chorus.
Greif set his yellow cap upon his close-cut golden hair.
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