closed."

She had arisen, and was pacing excitedly up and down the narrow room,
while he sat silently on one corner of the turning lathe with his head
bowed on his breast.

"You're slandering, Leah!" he said in a hollow tone. "You're slandering
his heart."

"His heart?" she passionately replied. "Has he a heart he can call his?
Oh! don't suppose I'm reproaching him for the lack of it! Yesterday I
often thought--ought the remembrance of all the grave and joyous,
pleasant and painful things we have shared together for four years, to
be utterly effaced and blown away? Had not his heart been animated and
warmed by mine till both beat in unison, in all questions of life great
and small? You see, I thought so yesterday; today I no longer hold the
same opinion, but find the present state of thing perfectly natural."

"To-day--what has happened to-day, that has so suddenly--"

She approached him till she stood close by his side, and without
raising her eyes to his, whispered in an undertone: "To-day I've made
_her_ acquaintance."

"What? Then the veiled lady--"

"Came in search of him and found only me. Don't you agree with me,
Reinhold, that under these circumstances it's quite time for the wife
to go away, that the husband may be at home when such an agreeable
visitor arrives?"

"Leah! What are you saying? You don't know how you wrong him. He--what
did he know about her mad plan? And if he had been aware of it, would
he not have gone away just at the right time to baffle it?"

"Yes indeed," she nodded with a bitter expression on her face, "he
would have fled from his fate to-day and to-morrow until it should
overtake him at last. No, my friend, I do not wrong him; I know how he
suffers, and I also know that it will be no disgrace if he succumbs. I
have never seen such a woman; will you believe that I, who had good
reasons for hating her, could not help loving her; not merely thinking
her charming, more charming than I have ever thought any of my own sex
before, but liking, loving her! Or no, I will not say too much; but I
understand how people cannot help loving her unless they have reasons
for hating her as strong as mine."

"Did she make herself known to you?"

"Not by a single syllable. But as soon as she entered the door, even
before she threw back her veil, I knew it was she! She cast a hasty
glance around the room, a glance that sought him. If I had not been
dazzled and fascinated by her appearance, I sho