the smile deepened on her pale face.
"You're happier already! And you begin to understand me. You can hear
what I am saying. Because no sin, no grossness has ever shut your ears
to all but earthly sounds. Now listen to me carefully: Katje, I want you
to break that silly, wicked promise I wheedled you into making. I want
you to break it. You mustn't ruin your life--and James's--by marrying
Frederik. It would mean misery for every one. Most of all for _you_,
little girl. That's why I came here. To undo the harm that my blindness
and obstinacy brought about. When that is settled I can take my journey
back in peace. I can't go until you break that promise. And--and oh, I
_long_ to go, Katje! _Katje!_" his voice rising in yearning entreaty, as
the smile faded from her face and her big eyes once more filled. "Isn't
my message _any_ clearer to you?"

"Oh," sighed Kathrien, half aloud. "I'm so alone--so _alone_!"

"Alone?" he echoed. "You are not alone, Katje. I'm here. Can't you feel
my presence? And then there's your mother. The mother you were too
little to remember. I have met her, Katje. I have met your mother. She
knew me at once. After all those years. 'You are Peter Grimm!' she said.
I told her you had a happy home here. And she said she knew that. Then I
told her about the future I had arranged, and the plans I'd made for you
and Frederik. And she said: 'Peter Grimm, you have overlooked the most
important thing in the world:--_Love!_ Give her the right to the choice
of her lover. It is her right.' Then it came over me all at once that I
had made a terrible mistake. That I had been presumptuous and had tried
to play Providence and shape the future of another. At that moment,
Katje, you called to me. And I came back to show you the way."

He moved nearer to her.

"Your mother," he whispered, bending over the girl as she sank into a
chair by the fire, her eyes dreaming and full of a new joy, "your mother
told me to lay my hand on your dear head and give you her blessing. And
she said I must tell you she will be with you,--close--_close_ to
you--in heart and thought, until the day shall come when she can hold
you in her arms. You and your loved husband."

Kathrien's dreamy gaze strayed from the fire-flicker on the hearth to
the office door, on whose farther side she knew Hartmann was at work.

"Yes," smiled Peter Grimm, noting her glance. "You and James. And the
message ended in this kiss."

He touched his lips to h