to your dear daughter, and hope
it is not yet too late."

He turned away to conceal his emotion, and hastily left the studio.
When he entered Leah's room, he found her resting on the sofa with a
book in her lap, her beautiful dark eyes fixed upon it, each a burning
fire in whose glow a waxen image is slowly consuming. In other respects
she was not altered, except that her complexion was more transparent
and a sorrowful smile seemed frozen on her lips. But as he approached
her and with a few cordial words took her hand, a deep blush suffused
the delicate face and gave to it the appearance of blooming freshness
and health.

"What sorrow you are causing us, dear Leah!" he said drawing a chair
toward her couch. "No," he added as she attempted to rise, "you must
remain as you are, if you don't want to drive me away. I'm so glad to
see you again. Since that terrible day I've only heard of you through
others. And yet not entirely through others, through yourself, too. Do
you know that I read your journal yesterday for the first time?"

She moved her head as if to beg him not to talk about it, and replied:
"You've so many better things to do--if my father had not desired it--"

"No, dear Fraeulein," he answered, "I only wished I had not spent my
time over things so much more useless, before I took up that volume.
And yet, who knows whether I should before have been capable of
estimating the full value of the treasure entrusted to me."

She suddenly turned pale. "No," she murmured, "do not talk so, don't
treat me like a silly child, to whom you must make pretty speeches,
because you perceive my weakness and think you must spare or flatter
me; it pains me--I've been used to different things from you."

"I know you're ill and need consideration," he replied in a trembling
voice. "And yet, dear Leah, I've come to tell you something which will
at any rate excite you, think what you please and answer as you may.
Since I've read those pages, it has become evident to me that I've been
groping about in the mist like a dreamer and not perceived a real
happiness--the happiness of having found a soul, such as is revealed in
those pages, never to lose it again!

"They've tried to part us, dear Leah," he continued with increasing
agitation, while she lay with closed eyes and hands clasped upon her
bosom, without any sign of life. "But it only served to unite our
hearts more closely. We've both experienced how necessary we are to
each