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               The Baroness Is Disappointed                203 
go up to this unhappy youth and talk to him like a father. Phil- 
ippson must have heard the strokes of the machete, and known 
who it was who wielded it, and Frederick waited for a while to see 
whether he would look up or make some movement towards or 
away from him. He did nothing, but sat on as though unconscious 
of every sight and sound, as though the neighborhood of neither 
friend nor enemy could mitigate his dejection. Frederick consid- 
ered the hopeless situation of this boy, comparing him with Lorenz, 
his companion in slavery. And his wide experience and great knowl- 
edge of such matters made him realize that there was nothing to 
be done for either of them, least of all for this one, whose passion 
for the woman was so absolute and so consuming that until it had 
burned itself out-if ever it did-he could never come back to his 
real life. So Frederick did not speak to him. He must have worked 
a good two hours longer. When he left, Philippson was still sitting 
on the stone, and had not moved.