voice:--

"I ascend into heaven--I ascend to you. Irma, I kiss you, I kiss your
image, and may this kiss forever rest upon those lips, enduring beyond
all time. I kiss thee with the kiss of eternity." He stood aloft and
kissed the lips of the statue. Irma could not help looking up, and just
at that moment a slanting sunbeam fell on the King and on the face of
the marble figure, making it glow as if with life.

Irma felt as if wrapped in a fiery cloud, bearing her away into
eternity.

The King descended and placed himself beside her. His breathing was
short and quick. She did not dare to look up; she stood as silent and as
immovable as a statue. Then the King embraced her--and living lips
kissed each other.

Translation of S.A. Stern.

THE NEW HOME AND THE OLD ONE

From 'On the Heights'

Hansei received various offers for his cottage, and was always provoked
when it was spoken of as a 'tumble-down old shanty.' He always looked as
if he meant to say, "Don't take it ill of me, good old house: the people
only abuse you so that they may get you cheap." Hansei stood his ground.
He would not sell his home for a penny less than it was worth; and
besides that, he owned the fishing-right, which was also worth
something. Grubersepp at last took the house off his hands, with the
design of putting a servant of his, who intended to marry in the fall,
in possession of the place.

All the villagers were kind and friendly to them,--doubly so since they
were about to leave,--and Hansei said:--

"It hurts me to think that I must leave a single enemy behind me, I'd
like to make it up with the innkeeper."

Walpurga agreed with him, and said that she would go along; that she had
really been the cause of the trouble, and that if the innkeeper wanted
to scold any one, he might as well scold her too.

Hansei did not want his wife to go along, but she insisted upon it.

It was in the last evening in August that they went up into the village.
Their hearts beat violently while they drew near to the inn. There was
no light in the room. They groped about the porch, but not a soul was to
be seen. Dachsel and Wachsel, however, were making a heathenish racket.
Hansei called out:

"Is there no one at home?"

"No. There's no one at home," answered a voice from the dark room.

"Well, then tell the host, when he returns, that Hansei and his wife
were here, and that they came to ask him to forgive them if they've done
him any wrong; an