Page:Stories Translated from the German.djvu/207

 after a few weeks, the professor fancied that both these lovely women preferred his intercourse to that of other people. He was unmarried, agreeable in person, added to which, he was a celebrated author, and when he tinned over every thing in his mind, he thought at last that he might anticipate, with some degree of probability, that this womanly predisposition in his favour would gradually blossom into love itself.

His mind wavered some time as to which beauty he should give the preference, which scholar he should approach with the design of awakening and experiencing the sentiments of love. At length, after some hesitation, he decided in his own mind for the younger sister, who was rather the handsomer of the two (and was besides half a German) whose property, of which he had heard a great deal, was situated in Alsace, and which to him, as a prudent worldly man, as he considered himself to be, was by no means a disagreeable appendage. Besides all these considerations, he had become more confidential with her, in consequence of the attempts at translation of his lectures, and he was far from being displeased when, as it sometimes happened, he found this younger sister at home alone.