re
she sighed from the depths of her heart, "is alas! lost to me, as I
shall tell you later. But I do not choose your parents to think that
after nursing you here we have taken advantage of your gratitude to
procure a husband for my daughter; and you yourself, when you go off
and mix with the world again, may wonder at the especial charm you
found in my simple child, when she was your only companion. Therefore
you must part without one binding word on either side, and thus my
child, too, will have time to examine her young heart, and to find out
whether compassion and the interest of an adventure may not have
produced an illusory belief that you are her Heaven-appointed
bridegroom. If when you have spoken to your parents and obtained their
consent you are still of the same mind as now, you can let us know by
letter or in person, and God will then give his blessing if this
marriage be really made in Heaven. And now, dear son, I leave you, and
shall expect you at breakfast, for you shall not leave my house fasting
and unrefreshed, although I must still impose abstinence upon your
yearning heart."

She rose and pressed a mother's kiss on the brow of the youth, who had
listened in speechless rapture. But if he drew from this token of
affection any hope that she would not be so stern as to prevent him
pressing his loved maiden to his heart once at least before they
parted, he did not know the strong character of this mother, in whose
nature severity and tenderness were strangely blended. The farewell had
to take place exactly in the manner prescribed, and if Lisabethli had
not in reaching out her hand given him a look that was one long
confession of the deepest love and fidelity, he might have gone away,
not in joyous hope, but in uncertainty as to whether or not he had
found a heart that was his for life and death. He left a ring on the
table of his room, wrapped in paper, with just one line to the mother.
"Will you keep this token for me till you allow me to offer it to your
child." As to Valentin and Donate, he rewarded their care so liberally
that in their amazement they came to tell Frau Helena that Herr Kurt
must surely have made some mistake. But when they saw the traces of
tears in Lisabethli's eyes, they silently went their way, and began to
put many things together.

This was about noon, when most persons were at home, and Kurt could go
through Frau Amthor's garden-gate with least risk of being observed.
Some ho