not be healed. But then what remained for _him_ to do, what had
he to accomplish here? And yet--how could he tear himself away, leave
her to herself, after he had learned how entirely she was right in
believing her life by this man's side a lost existence?

He again plunged into the forest and wandered about a long time through
the loneliest portions of the woods, a slave to the greatest mental
torture he had ever experienced, until at last he could think no
longer, because of exhaustion and over excitement. Toward noon he found
himself near a handsome farm-house, which stood in a secluded spot
beside a foundry. Here he obtained some food and asked for a quiet spot
to rest. He was shown into a large barn, where he threw himself down on
the freshly threshed straw. Ere long nature asserted its right to a
recompense for the previous wakeful night. He fell asleep, and the sun
had already sunk behind the hills, when the farm laborers returning
from their work roused the wearied man from his dreamless slumber.

CHAPTER VIII.

Edwin's first thought was that his long nap had fortunately debarred
him from dining at the castle with the aristocratic visitors. He hoped
also to evade them in the evening, and was therefore unpleasantly
surprised when he learned that all his wanderings had only led him
around the castle in a circle, and that he merely needed to cross a
hill to find himself at the gate in the rear of the park. He submitted
to his fate, allowed a day laborer's barefooted child to show him the
way, and reached the entrance just in time to see the last rays of
sunset reflected from the copper roof of the little corner tower.

He tried to slip unobserved into his room by the staircase that led
from the courtyard into the wing, but a footman, who seemed to have
been waiting for him, reminded him of the accident which had befallen
his neighbor in the adjoining apartment, and apologized for having
removed his luggage during his absence to a room in the upper story of
the main building--a beautiful front room, which Her Excellency the
countess said would undoubtedly please the Herr Doctor. But Edwin was
perfectly indifferent as to where he was lodged, when, on entering his
apartment he approached the high bay-window and saw outspread before
him in the calm twilight, the peaceful forest, the broad fields, and
tender hued sky arching over them, he felt for the first time that day,
lighthe