id,--

"Say to my mother that I must think over all these matters again, and
that she must not be uneasy any more. Take good care of her, and don't
let her work too hard with the arm that was broken. Next to my mother,
you and Nat are the dearest persons in the world to me."

Ivo as well as Emmerence looked down at these words, while the former
continued:--"Have you heard nothing of Nat?"

"No."

The time allowed for their interview had passed by before they were
aware of it. "You are going to church, a'n't you?" asked Ivo.

"Yes; but afterward I must make haste to get home."

"If I can arrange it, I'll see you once more after church, down in the
Neckar Bottom, on the road to Hirsau; but, if it can't be, good-bye.
God bless you! Don't walk too fast, and,--be a good girl."

They parted. Although an hour before Emmerence had scolded Betsy so
lustily, she now took her seat in church on the left of the altar, and
was rejoiced at Ivo's nod of recognition.

[Illustration: For an hour she waited in the Neckar Bottom.]

For an hour she waited in the Neckar Bottom; but no one came. She
started on the road home, often stopping to look back: at last she
resolved to do so no longer. "It is better so," she said. "I'm always
afraid I haven't told him the matter just in the right way; but it's
better so." Though she did not stop to look back any more, she soon sat
down to eat her bread upon a hill which commanded a view of the whole
length of the road to the city. Brushing the crumbs from her dress, she
then rose up hastily and pursued her journey.

We cannot accompany her farther than to say that she arrived in good
health and spirits. Our business is with Ivo, who was oppressed with
heavy thoughts. He had in a manner domiciliated himself in the calling
from which it seemed impossible to escape. The message from his mother
had again unsettled the firm foundation of his will, and once more made
him doubtful of himself. The sight of the girl of his heart had aroused
a fresh straggle within him. He might easily have gone to the Neckar
Bottom after church; but fear of himself and of others kept him away.

The pure, fresh action of the will which Ivo had vindicated before his
parents was broken by his voluntary return, and it was not easy to
reunite the fragments: It is very difficult to return to a project once
firmly entertained but afterward abandoned. There is no vital thread to
bind the future and the past: it is like the