But Greif did not fall a victim to any such schemes. If Hilda
had at all resembled most girls of her age, he could have com-
pared her with them, and the comparison would not have been
to her advantage. She could not have possessed their cheap
accomplishments, their knowledge of waltzing, or their intimate
acquaintance with their neighbours' affairs. She could not have
put on their sentimentality with men, nor their cynicism with
each other. She could not imitate their glances and she did
not imitate their dress. She was a creature apart from them
all. Deeply imbued as he was with all the prejudices of an
exclusive caste, Greif could not have looked upon Hilda as he
; did, if she had been a peasant's child, even though she had
been herself in all other respects. There was that in her
position which appealed to the romanticism of his nature. The
noble but unfortunate maiden, the last of an ancient race,
dwelling in dignified retirement in her half-ruined ancestral
home, was vastly more interesting than any equally well-born
girl could have been, who chanced to be rich enough to be



GEEIPENSTEIN. 23

marched into society as a matrimonial investment for young
men of her station. But it was precisely because Hilda pos-
sessed that one point in common with all such eligible young
ladies that Greif regarded her with a, romantic 'devotion he
could never have felt for a village Gretchen. His pride in her
nobility was indeed far less than his love for herself, but it
made for that love a rampart against love's deadliest enemy,
which is ridicule. He certainly did not tell himself so. He
would have thought it an insult to Hilda to worship her for
anything but her own self ; but he was none the less aware that
the pedestal upon which his idol stood was strong enough to
withstand any assault. This being certain, it was the very
impossibility of any further comparison that attracted him
most. She was unlike any one whom he met, or was ever likely
to meet, and his imagination invested her with many exceptional
attributes, most of which she undoubtedly possessed in one
degree or another.
