such a Madonna, he thought
I should have no loss of him, and that it would be better for us both
if he kept out of my way.

"'All that he said to me, and still more the way in which he said it,
hurt me so cruelly that I had not a word to answer, but burst into a
flood of tears that I could not check, that got worse and worse, till I
was shaken by such a convulsion of sobs that I thought I must have died
on the spot. When he saw this, he was suddenly transformed; he embraced
me, and in the tenderest voice said a thousand things that at first,
owing to the confusion in my head, I only half understood. He told me
he had behaved so rudely merely to guard against his own heart, that
through all these years he had had no other thought but me, and had
only kept away in order not quite to lose his senses, and that if it
were true that I cared at all for him--well, you can imagine the rest!
That evening we pledged ourselves to live only for each other, and when
at last Lina came and drew me away, that our parents need not scold, I
had quite forgotten that I was the _fair_ Kate, and only thought that a
_happier_ Kate was not to be found in all Rhineland, or anywhere under
the sun.'

"When she had got so far, she rose and went to the door, as if to look
after the child, who was quietly sitting on a garden-seat, and weaving
her garland. When Kate turned round to us again, I noticed the traces
of tears. Van Kuylen, however, did not seem to observe them; he had got
hold of an old cork and was carving away at it, his cold pipe still in
the corner of his mouth.

"'And how was it,' said I after a while, 'that fortune deserted you,
and that what began so well had so melancholy an issue? I find it hard
to believe that he was not true to you!'

"'_He!_' returned she with an indescribable tone and expression. 'If it
had only all depended upon him! But you see the misfortune was just
this, that I was such a wonder of the world they needs must make the
most of me, however unhappy I myself might be. My elder sisters--if
Hans Lutz had taken a fancy to one of them, why he would have had her
with all the pleasure in the world, and indeed the husbands that they
did get were not fit to hold a candle to my lover. But _I_, that he
should aspire to _me_, he who was neither a Count nor made of money,
that was such audacity that he could hardly be supposed to be right in
his mind. True he did not himself think of marrying at the present
time, all