nother man on earth so good
as you are, and my mother will bless you for it. Do what you will with
me! And I declare to you, once for all that all that is past and gone,
and only to think of it gives me horror. And it was exactly as you say:
my mother dead, no one to warn me or protect me,--I was hardly sixteen, a
simple, ignorant creature, and he called me, and it all came over me like
a dream in my sleep; and when I awoke. . . ."

"There we are," he interrupted and he tried to laugh as he wiped his
eyes. "Both laid up with holes in our heads.--And when I am in my own
country I always think the prettiest time is just when the hard
winter-frost is over, and the snow melted, and all the flowers in the
valleys rush into bloom--and so I feel now, my little girl. Everything
will be well now, we shall be so wonderfully happy. The day before
yesterday, do you know, I still was not quite clear about it all. Your
trouble gave me no peace, and it went against the grain-well, you can
understand. But then, later, when I was lying in my room and the moon
shone down on my bed . . . " and a rapt expression came into his face that
strangely beautified his harsh features, "I could not help asking myself:
'Although the moon went down into the sea this morning, does that prevent
its shining as brightly as ever to-night, and bringing a cooler breeze?'
And if a human soul has gone under in the same way, may it not rise up
again, bright and shining, when it has bathed and rested? And such a
heart--of course every man would like to have its love all to himself,
but it may have enough to give more than once. For, as I remembered, my
mother, though she loved me dearly, when another child came and yet
another gave them the best she had to give; and I was none the worse when
she had my youngest sister at the breast, nor was she when I was petted
and kissed. And it must be just the same with you. Thought I to myself:
though she once loved another man, she may still have a good share left
for me!"

"Yes, indeed, Rustem!" she exclaimed, looking tearfully but gratefully
into his eyes. "All that is in me of love and tenderness is for you--for
you only."

At this he joyfully exclaimed:

"All, that is indeed good hearing! That will do for me; that is what I
call a good morning's work! I sat down under this tree a vagabond and a
wanderer, and I get up a future land-holder, with the sweetest little
wife in the world to keep house for me."

They sat