The record-union., 1897-03-07

llChGlS CreTIHdu STUDENTS lnSCflDc WlIu
their names and affix to the lecture
room desks to reserve to themselves
the same seat throughout a semester.
and she assented with a bow and the
usual Bite" Whereupon he made
the ticket fast, While she busted her
self with her notes as if she were quite
Indifferent to this evidence of his de-
sire to retain the place at her side.
But when he had bowed and departed
at the end of the lecture she satisfied
her curiosity by stealing a glance at
his card. Kurt Won Drachenfels," was
the aristocratic name she read, and
"A Won. of course; knew it." was her
thought. That's what makes his
manners so fine. Blood will tell
He was down in the court again lin
gering as before in her path. and this
time she looked at him, meeting in his
gaze surprised and half-unwlling in
terest that made her think of him all
the way home, for Allan Armstrong did
not join her. Indeed, he was not at
the lecture at ALL having doubtless
oversight. He continued to be
irregular thereafter, and moreover he
did not always wait for her when he
think of me-" she said to herself re-
sentfully on one occasion when she
caught glimpse of him striding back
to his room in her neighborhood, re-
gardless Of the fact that she was in his
wake.
But the German was always there to
bow to her in his courtly way before
and after lecture and to obtrude him
self delicately on her notice somewhere
in her pathway home, for he changed
after few days from the court to the
street and thence to the promenadeS.
Then it was in Konigsplatz. and final
ly before her own door that she met
him. He followed her at other times,
too, coming away from other lectures
she would meet him, and at the theater
she found him seated where he could
watch her as we'll as the play
Now Cynthia was too dignified and
regardful of her position as woman
student among men to fiirt. She never
for a moment forgot that, in a way,
her whole sex was on trial in her. But
it was not in woman nature absolutely
to ignore the evident interest, the per-
sistent pursuit, of this young and hand
some man. The result was that one
morning as she was going home from
the early lecture with vague involun-
tary thoughts of him for company, his
quick, firm, yet light step, overlook her
at an advantageous turn in the prom
enades, and with profound salute he
addressed her:
"Gnadiges Fraulein, will you not per-
nit colleg to speak to you to the ex-
tent of asking you how he may make
your honOred acquaintance in more
proper way? My name is Kurt Won
Drachenfels at your command" and
with another bow and his hat still in
his hand, the handsome German waited
for her answer. His manner was per-
feet; assured, yet respectful and en-
treating, and his address, whose suave,
high-bred German was as balm to her
Germanophile ears, was so happily
chosen, especially as to the word colleg,
that she could not bring herself to re-
pei him.
II hardly think we have any common
acquaintance, Herr -" and she hes
itated, as if his name were not already
almost as familiar to her as her own.
"Von Drachenfels, Gnadigste," he re-
peated, drawing out a visiting card and
presenting it to her with another of his
elaborate bows. 81 have quite num-
ber of friends here he added eagerly,
and he reeled off a list of them, all
Vons like himself and all unknown to
Cynthia, whose German acquaintances
had been till now hopelessly middle
class or plebian.
fnrfJI
nately, I do not know any of them,
but she smiled as she spoke, and she
did not resent his keeping on beside her
as she resumed her homeward way.
"Then why not make an exception,
gnadiges Fraulein," he pleaded in his
enhancing voice, "since it is between
fellow-students, and permit me the
pleasure of your acquaintance. I so
desire to know you. You have no idea
how much you interest me. You are
for me an entirely new species of
woman. I was astonished when first
beheld you in the lecture-room. And
the way you conduct yourself there, so
earnest and so Indifferent to us all, it
is perfect, Gott, what things have I
pictured to myself as weibliche Stu
denten. hideous, short haired hybrids,
with spectacles, and devoid of feminine
charm. Aber Sie."
That "Aber Sie'' would have reduced
less relenting soul than Cynthia's.
She suffered the young man to walk
with her to her door, where she parted
from him with the promise to consider
the matter of their further acquain-
tance and let him know-she had seen
that his address was on the card he
had given her.
She took nearly a week to decide
however, being seriously in doubt
whether in fealty to American woman
hood, and to woman-student woman
hood in particular, she ought to per-
nit what in it's way was a liberty. But,
on the other hand, would it not be we'll
to let this German learn to know
woman who represented what he had
been used to despise and oppose? 1t
would serve him right to teach him a
lesson-a bitter lesson. Then, too.
there was his language as he spoke it;
refined, high-bred. He had already
used several expressions new to her
and evidently select. And finally there
was himself.
1t was on a Monday he accosted her.
The following Saturday she wrote to
him that if he still desired to make her
acquaintance. he might meet her the
following day at Bonorand, where she
proposed to take her afternoon coffee
And precisely at four o'clock the next
day-the hour she had named in her
note-Herr Won Drachenfels met her at
the entrance to the pleasant cafe and
concert garden in the RosenthaI-her
favorite of the city parks-which she