d. The passion in
his voice was unmistakable, and she was listening with astonished eyes.
"I am lecturing you," he said in his usual even tones, "Forgive me for
thinking that you are setting about your plan in a way that can never be
successful. As you say, we talk and talk, and the more we talk the less
do we understand each other. It is a foolish world, and a pre-eminently
lonely one."

He lifted his hat and turned away. Anna opened her lips to say
something, but he was gone.

She went home and meditated on volcanoes.

CHAPTER XX

The May that year in Northern Germany was the May of a poet's dream. The
days were like a chain of pearls, increasing in beauty and preciousness
as the chain lengthened. The lilacs flowered a fortnight earlier than in
other years. The winds, so restless usually on those flat shores, seemed
all asleep, and hardly stirred. About the middle of the month the moon
was at the full, and the forest became enchanted ground. It was a time
for love and lovers, for vows and kisses, for all pretty, happy, hopeful
things. Only those farmers who were too old to love and vow, looked at
their rye fields and grumbled because there was no rain.

Karlchen, arriving on the first Saturday of that blessed month, felt all
disposed to love, if the _Englaenderin_ should turn out to be in the
least degree lovable. He did not ask much of a young woman with a
fortune, but he inwardly prayed that she might not be quite so ugly as
wives with money sometimes are. He was a man used to having what he
wanted, and had spent his own and his mother's money in getting it.
There was a little bald patch on the top of his head, and there were
many debts on his mind, and he was nearing the critical point in an
officer's career, the turning of which is reserved exclusively for the
efficient; and so he had three excellent reasons for desiring to marry.
He had desired it, indeed, for some time, had attempted it often, and
had not achieved it. The fathers of wealthy German girls knew the state
of his finances with an exactitude that was unworthy; and they knew,
besides, every one of his little weaknesses. As a result, they gave
their daughters to other suitors. But here was a girl without a father,
who knew nothing about him at all. There was, of course, some story in
the background to account for her living in this way; but that was
precisely what would make her glad of a husband who would relieve her of
the necessity of b