he felt more
than once as if he were whirling about in one of those strangely happy
dreams that change, in some curious way, the most familiar features,
and lead us only into the arms of the unattainable.

Yet, all the while he felt so wonderfully happy that he was content to
leave everything just as it was, and strove only to clasp this miracle
as closely as possible to his breast, and to enjoy the full blessedness
of this meeting as long as the dream would last. Nor did she try to
resist; indeed, she herself felt as if it were a necessity for her
to press her head and glowing face close to his shoulder, and, with
half-closed eyes, to submit herself absolutely to his guidance. He
could not see her face, for she held her head bent down; but his eyes
rested on her soft, brown hair, and his arm, clasped about her waist,
could feel how her heart was beating. No word came from the lips of
either of these two happy beings; they did not even press one another's
hands in silent sympathy, for the simple reason that both felt that
there was nothing special for them to communicate--two souls had merely
become one again. Nor did they take heed of those about them, who gazed
with earnest interest upon this noble couple the moment they entered
the room--the strangers with simple pleasure, or perhaps here and there
with envy, the initiated with heart-felt joy at the triumphant success
of their work.

For them there was no outside world at this moment, no friends or
strangers. Besides the beating of their own hearts they felt nothing
but the music; and it seemed to them a heavenly kindness on the part of
fortune, that allowed them to dance instead of forcing them to talk
with one another; that the wild and merry tones of the instruments gave
them wings that lifted them above the earth, the one clasped as tightly
to the other as only the dance could have made permissible before so
many witnesses.

Neither of them felt the slightest fatigue, or thought of stopping to
rest. Indeed, when the music finally came to an end, it seemed to them
as if they had just begun; and they stood in the middle of the hall,
startled, and almost painfully still, clasped in one another's embrace
as they had been in the waltz. His arm reluctantly released her figure,
but he could not bring himself to give up her little slender hand.
However, this did not appear to attract any attention, since the other
couples also were very tender with one another, and ha