es, and therefore I'm glad you can see him. True, his rare smile
will never come again, and his eyes--but dear Fraeulein, this is
exhausting you too much. Let them take you home--I'll come in a few
days--you ought to spare yourself."

A look from him summoned her father, who gently took the hand of the
deeply agitated girl and led her out of the room. Frau Valentin
embraced Edwin like a mother, and then followed the others. The room
was again perfectly still, and they sat together in silence for several
hours, until Marquard came and insisted that Edwin must spend the night
with him. "To-morrow!" replied the latter. "Let me have my own way
to-day. Go all of you, and leave me. Rest assured this course is best
for me; I'll go to sleep, and my quiet companion will not disturb me."

At first Marquard would not listen to such a proposal, but Edwin was
firm in his resolution, and they at last left him alone with the dead.
It was ten o'clock on a cold, dark winter's night; the wind drove snow
flakes into the open windows, and ever and anon the candles flickered
as if they would be extinguished. Edwin, wrapped in Balder's cloak, had
thrown himself on his bed without undressing, and now lay listening to
the wind, the spluttering of the candles, and the distant rolling of
the carriages in the crowded city. No restful sleep visited his excited
senses, only a hasty changeful dream, in which scenes from his earliest
childhood passed before his mind, and amid them Toinette seated in a
light carriage beside a stranger, gazing coldly and sadly at him,
followed by a vision of Leah's thoughtful face which appeared beside
her mother's bust. When he opened his eyes to drive away these confused
images, he looked straight into the round yellow eyes of the cat that
would not leave the bier. This at last made him uncomfortable. He rose,
took the animal in his arms and carried it to the door, to drive it
down stairs. But when he turned the handle, he saw crouching on the
threshold the figure of some one who seemed to have been peeping
through the key hole.

"You here, Reginchen?" he exclaimed in astonishment.

The young girl had started up, and was standing before him trembling
from head to foot like some detected criminal.

"Ah! Herr Doctor," she faltered at last, "don't be angry with me. I
couldn't sleep, I tossed about continually, and let me close my eyes as
resolutely as I would, I constantly saw him before me, and then--then
somethin