ther of the girl was
still living; it was possible, however, that they would be doing her a
poor service if they should be over hasty in enlightening her on the
subject. The first thing to be done was to induce her to become
reconciled to her grandfather.

As the old man was, at heart, entirely of this opinion, he took his
leave, evidently feeling much comforted and full of glad hopes; though
he still lingered a little, secretly hoping he might catch at least
another distant glimpse of the shy little creature. But the girl took
good care to keep out of sight. So that at last, with a quiet sigh, her
grandfather had to set out upon his homeward way. Schnetz stood at the
gate, looking after him.

"A mad farce, this life of ours!" he growled under his mustache. "The
only thing still wanting is that my old lion-hunter should come riding
past his father-in-law, smoking a cigar and gazing complacently at the
white-haired old boy, who would be powdered still whiter by the dust
kicked up by his nag's hoofs; and that then he should stop here in the
park gate, and make inquiries of Zenz in regard to the health of our
patient, playfully pinching the child's cheek just as he would any
other pretty servant girl's, or giving her a _pourboire_ if she held
his horse for him for ten minutes. And then his niece, our proud little
highness! What big eyes she would make if I should tell her that the
little red-haired waiter-girl was her own, though not exactly her
legitimate, cousin!"

CHAPTER IV.

Week after week had passed away. The autumn was approaching; the
rose-bushes on the little lawn shed their last buds, and at evening a
stealthy white mist crept over the lake, and for a whole week the
opposite shore and the distant mountains beyond disappeared completely
behind a dull, gray rain that spread a curtain over lake and land. When
at last it was drawn away the same landscape was indeed there, but in
different colors; much yellow was scattered among the tall beech woods;
the waves of the lake, usually of a transparent green, were changed to
a dull gray, and on the summits of the Zugspitz and the
Karwendelgebirge could be seen the melancholy white of the first snow.

Even Rossel, who usually regarded the surrounding landscape with great
indifference, and who declared the symbolical relations of Nature to
our moods to be a sentimental prejudice, expressed himself to Kohle
with great displeasure c