t to-day his
mother had waited already an hour, in vain. What accident had detained
him, or had their secret been disclosed? Since a third knew it, she was
prepared for such a contingency.

All was so silent in the wood that the rustle of her gown and her light
footsteps as she walked to and fro, were the only sounds which greeted
her ear.

Beneath the tall trees lay long nocturnal shadows; over the pond where
there was more light, being free from shade, hung a faint vapory cloud,
and over yonder in the meadows, where a pool of water, concealed by the
mossy moorland, had formed, the mists had gathered still more thickly
and hung like a gray-white veil over all the heath. The air from the
meadows was blowing damp and chill.

At last there was a light step, faint and uncertain--then, as it came on
quickly in the direction of the pond, firmer and more resolute. Now a
slender figure came in view, scarcely recognizable in the gathering
darkness, and Zalika flew to meet her son, who, in the next minute lay
in her arms.

"What has happened?" she asked amidst the wonted stormy caresses. "Why
are you so late? I had begun to despair of seeing you to-day. What
detained you?"

"I could not come sooner," Hartmut explained, still breathless, after
his long run. "I come from my father."

Zalika drew back.

"From your father? And he knows--?"

"All!"

"So he is at Burgsdorf? Since when? who told him?"

The young man related in a few words all that had happened, but he had
not finished when a bitter laugh from his mother interrupted him.

"Of course, they are all in the plot together to keep me from my child.
And your father? He has threatened and punished you again as if you were
a criminal, because you have been in your mother's arms?"

Hartmut shook his head. The memory of the moment when his father drew
him to his breast was yet before him, despite all the bitterness with
which the scene had ended.

"No," he said sadly, "but he has forbidden me to see you again, and
sternly commanded me to part from you."

"And in spite of all, you are here? O, I knew it!"

Her words had a joyful sound.

"Do not triumph too soon, mamma," her son answered her bitterly. "I only
came to say good-bye."

"Hartmut!"

"Father has given me permission to see you this time, and then--"

"Then he will take you away again, and you will be forever lost to me.
Is that it?"

Hartmut did not answer, he only threw himself upon his mother'