r garden--you have a little while to yourselves yet before
dinner; and you, Clement, think over what I have been saying to
you."--And then the young people went away.

"What is the matter with your father?" said the young girl, when they
had got downstairs--"his tone sounded rather strange, and so does
yours. Have you had any angry words together?"

"I found him very much excited; his blood appears to be in a disordered
state. Has he been complaining again of late?"

"Not to me. He sometimes appeared to be ill at ease, and would not
speak for hours together, so as often to surprise our mother. Was he
severe on you just now?"

"We had a discussion upon very serious subjects. He questioned me, and
I could not conceal my convictions."

Marlene grew pensive, and her countenance only brightened when they got
into the fresh air.

"Is it not pleasant here?" She asked, stretching out both hands.

"Indeed I hardly know the place again," he said; "what have you done to
this neglected little spot? As far back as I can remember, there never
was anything here but a few fruit-trees, and the hollyhocks and asters,
and now it is all over roses."

"Yes," she said; "your mother never used to care much about the garden,
and now she likes it too. The bailiffs son learned gardening in the
town, and he made me a present of some rose-trees, and planted them for
me--by degrees I got the others, and now I am quite rich. The finest
are not in flower yet."

"And can you take care of them all yourself?"

"Do you wonder at that, because I cannot see?" she said, merrily; "but
all the same, I understand them very well, and I know what is good for
them--I can tell by the scent, which of them are fading, and which are
opening, and whether they are in want of water--they seem to speak to
me. Only I cannot gather one for you; I tear my hands so with the
thorns."

"Let me gather one for you;" he said, and broke off a monthly rose--she
took it--but--"You have broken off too many buds," she said--"I will
keep this one to put in water, and there is the full blown rose for
you."

They walked up and down the neatly kept path, until they were called to
dinner--Clement felt embarrassed with his father--but Marlene,
generally so modest in the part she took in conversation, now found a
thousand things to ask and say. And thus the vicar forgot the painful
feeling left by that first meeting with his son, and the old footing of
cordiality was soon res