I, too, began to get angry, and as he, evidently deeply agitated, still persisted in saying that my picture could not have been painted from the dead Korinna, I swore to him solemnly, with the most sacred oath I could think of, that it was really so.
"On this he declared to me in words so tender and touching as I never before heard from his lips, that if I were deceiving him his peace of mind would be forever destroyed-nay, that he feared for his reason; and when I had repeatedly assured him, by the memory of our departed mother, that I had never dreamed of playing a trick upon him, he shook his head, grasped his brow, and turned to leave the room without another word." "And you let him go ?" cried Melissa, in anxious alarm.
"Certainly not," replied the painter.

"On the contrary, I stood in his way, and asked him whether he had known Korinna, and what all this might mean.

But he would make no reply, and tried to pass me and get away.

It must have been a strange scene, for we two big men struggled as if we were at a wrestling-match.

I got him down with one hand behind his knees, and so he had to remain; and when I had promised to let him go, he confessed that he had seen Korinna at the house of her uncle, the high-priest, without knowing who she was or even speaking a word to her.
And he, who usually flees from every creature wearing a woman's robe, had never forgotten that maiden and her noble beauty; and, though he did not say so, it was obvious, from every word, that he was madly in love.
Her eyes had followed him wherever he went, and this he deemed a great misfortune, for it had disturbed his power of thought.