I
cannot help thinking that when he came home he thought me pretty and
attractive, and had a real fancy and liking for me. Yes, it was so, it
certainly was so!--But then he saw that other one, and I cannot compare
with her. She is indeed the woman he wants,--and that other, Paula, is
yourself. Yes, indeed, you yourself; an inner voice tells me so. And I
tell you truly, you may quite believe me: it is a pain no doubt, but I
can be glad of it too. I should hate any mere girl to whom he held out
his hand--but, if you are that other--and if you are his wife. . ."

"Nonsense," exclaimed Paula decidedly. "Consider what you are saying.
When Orion tempted you to perjure yourself, did he behave as my friend or
as my foe, my bitterest and most implacable enemy?"

"Before the judges, to be sure . . ." replied the girl looking down
thoughtfully. But she soon looked up again, fixed her eyes on Paula's
face with a sparkling, determined glance, and frankly and unhesitatingly
exclaimed: "And you?--In spite of it all he is so handsome, so clever, so
manly. You can hardly help it--you love him!"

Paula withdrew her arm, which had been round Katharina, and answered
candidly.

"Until to-day, at the funeral, I hated and abominated him; but there, by
his father's tomb, he struck me as a new man, and I found it easy to
forgive him in my heart."

"Then you mean to say that you do not love him?" urged Katharina,
clasping her friend's round arm with her slender fingers.

Paula started to feel how icy cold her hand was. The moon was up, the
stars rose higher and higher, so, simply saying: "Come away," she rose.
"It must be within an hour of midnight," she added. "Your mother will be
anxious about you."

"Only an hour of midnight!" repeated the girl in alarm. "Good Heavens, I
shall have a scolding! She is still playing draughts with the Bishop, no
doubt, as she does every evening. Good-bye then for the present. The
shortest way is through the hedge again."

"No," said Paula firmly, "you are no longer a child; you are grown up,
and must feel it and show it. You are not to creep through the bushes,
but to go home by the gate. Rufinus and I will go with you and explain to
your mother. . ."

"No, no!" cried Katharina in terror. "She is as angry with you as she is
with them. Only yesterday she forbid. . ."

"Forbid you to come to me?" asked Paula. "Does she believe. . ."

"That it was for your sake that Orion. . . . Yes, she is only too gl