are a great sinner, my darling
hero, but I--what wouldn't I forgive you on this day, this glorious day
of festival and joy! And, you see, it did not help you any after all.
You imagined you were safe from me, and thought you could march in here
with the rest without any one's being the wiser, while I sat and sulked
in my old-maid's cell on the Lung' Arno. But this is the time of
miracles! I cast aside my pride of birth, and all the good training I
owe to myself, as if they had been old rags, and went to uncle and said
to him: 'If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to
the mountain. That wicked Felix would like to be rid of me; but it
takes two to do that. Come, uncle, let us go to Munich. I must see my
lover ride in through the gate of victory, Schnetz writes that he looks
nobly in his uniform, and I can't help it even if the old countess
doesn't think it proper for me to run after this faithless man. He ran
after me long enough, and we ought to exchange _roles_ for once.' And
so here I am, and have been sitting here on the very same spot for
three hours, waiting for a certain youthful hero, and scolding terribly
at Schnetz, who had promised me that he would entice him into this
love-trap just as soon as he possibly could. And now it has actually
sprung upon you, and you sha'n't be let out again as long as you live."

The lights in the streets outside had long been blazing in full
brilliancy, and under the windows a joyous crowd of happy people
streamed past toward the centre of the city, where the illumination was
said to be the finest. But the two happy lovers had forgotten all else
in the bliss, so long deferred, of gazing into one another's eyes and
seeing the flame of inextinguishable love and devotion glowing there.
She asked after the companions who had been with him through the war,
and he after the friends she had left behind in Florence. But neither
paid much attention to what the other answered; all they cared for was
to hear each other speak, and to assure themselves by the sound of
their voices that they were once more united.

An hour may have passed in this way, when some one knocked softly. The
knock was repeated three times before they heard it, and Irene ran to
open the door. Angelica came flying in, the two girls fell on one
another's necks, and good Angelica's voice was so stifled by suppressed
tears that it was a long time before she could speak.

"Of course I have come too s