ur long years!" The thought aroused
within him an unspeakable sense of oppression, sorrow, and indignation.
He took advantage of a pause in the card playing, to approach the
count, and pleading that he was fatigued by his pedestrian tour, to
take leave of him for the night. The count looked at him absently a
moment, as if he were some stranger whose face he could not instantly
recall, then pressed his hand with marked cordiality and apologized for
having enjoyed so little of his society that evening. He hoped to make
up for the loss on the morrow. Then he motioned the butler to show the
guest to his room, and returned to his game, in which fortune, to judge
from the piles of gold before his companions, turned her back on him as
usual.

CHAPTER V.

The room to which Edwin was conducted, was situated in a wing of some
considerable length, a modern addition to the old castle, which had
completely destroyed the symmetry of the rear of the edifice. The
windows looked out upon the park, and on the other side a small
staircase led down into the courtyard, which was surrounded by domestic
offices, so that from thence the apartments in this one story wing
could be reached without using the stairs and corridors of the castle.

The sun must have found free admittance to Edwin's room all day, for an
oppressive atmosphere greeted him, which was not improved even after he
had thrown both windows wide open. But under any circumstances, it
would have been long ere he could have attempted to go to sleep. The
events of the day and the anticipation of the morrow quickened his
pulses. He went to the window and gazed out into the garden, where the
lofty jet of a fountain fell into a basin lined with shells. The
windows and balcony of the dining hall projected in softly rounded
lines from the facade, now but dimly illuminated by a moon that was
about to sink below the horizon. The remainder of the edifice lay in
shadow, but in the other wing of the castle two lofty windows in the
second story were brightly lighted. He did not doubt for a moment that
_she_ occupied them. How many evenings he had gazed up at her windows
in Jaegerstrasse; now he found her here, once more in the count's rooms,
this time of her own free will, and yet--

Voices in the corridor aroused him from the reverie into which this
comparison had thrown him. The other guests were retiring to their
rooms; Edwin distinctly recognized