e light hoping that the darkness may give you
confidence. You dare not acknowledge your love for me in the face of
day. You are a poor hero indeed. But I will now confess to you that I
have owed you a grudge for many a year."

"You are jesting again, Eugenie."

"No, this time I am thoroughly in earnest. If in former years you had
as little courage as now, why at all events could you not have been as
cunning. Was there no door then behind which you could have owned to me
what now comes too late!"

"Too late? No, Eugenie; where are the years that separate us from that
time? Is it not the same timid lad of those days who now stands here,
and implores you to lighten the darkness around him with a heavenly ray
from your eyes. Can you leave me to despair?"

He waited some time for an answer. Suddenly the door was noiselessly
opened, and she stood before him smiling, but with tears in her eyes.

"One kiss freely given you, as a token of forgiveness for all you have
made me suffer," she said.

He folded her in his arms and she softly passed her hand across his
brow, saying: "Here, there are many lines, but our hearts are still
fresh and youthful, and to-morrow we will begin life anew where we left
it off fourteen years ago."

She pressed her lips to his, and with his arm round her waist, he led
her to the window. The moon had dispersed the fog, and a gentle
autumnal breeze wafted the scent of the grapes through the open
casement.

"Let us drive back to-night, my darling," she said. "I could not sleep
now, and the air is quite mild. Go, while you order the carriage, I
will write a few lines to the doctor, and tell him not to expect us
to-morrow: Is it true, Valentine, can it be true, that we have at last
told each other what we knew years ago?"--

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The title given to all housekeepers in old-fashioned
houses. _Die Hausmamsell_ is so untranslatable a title in its exact
meaning, that I have left it. _Translator's_ note.]

[Footnote 2: A part of Switzerland on the frontiers of Italy.--The
Translator.]

[Footnote 3: Not the Lombardy poplar, but the populus Alba, or Abele
tree, which is wide spreading.--The Translator.]

[Footnote 4: Name of a promenade at Meran.--The Translator.]

[Footnote 5: Lauben. A provincial term for arcades.--The Translator.]

[Footnote 6: This is an old custom at the German universities when
a new comer enters the Fellowship--they call it "Bruederschaft
trinken.