e was hungry, and, glad to be able to
add his mite to her pleasure, he took her by the arm and steered her to
the CAFE FRANCAIS, where they had coffee and ices. The church-steeples
were booming eleven when they emerged; it did not seem worth while
going home and settling down to work. Instead, they went to the
ROSENTAL.

It was a brilliant autumn day, rich in light and shade, and there was
only a breath abroad of the racy freshness that meant subsequent decay.
The leaves were turning red and orange, but had not begun to fall; the
sky was deeply blue; outlines were sharp and precise. They were both in
a mood this morning to be susceptible to their surroundings; they were
even eager to be affected by them, and made happy. The disagreements of
the two preceding nights were like bad dreams, which they were anxious
to forget, or at least to avoid thinking of. Her painful, unreasonable
treatment of him, the evening before, had not been touched on between
them; after his incoherent attempts to justify himself, after his
bitter self-reproaches, when she lay sobbing in his arms, they had
both, with one accord, been silent. Neither of them felt any desire for
open-hearted explanations; they were careful not to stir up the depths
anew. Louise was very quiet; had it not been for her eyes, he might
have believed her happy. But here, just as an hour before in the
watchmaker's shop, they brooded, unable to forget. And yet there was a
pliancy about her this morning, a readiness to meet his wishes, which,
as he walked at her side, made him almost content. The old, foolish
dreams awoke in him again, and vistas opened, of a gentle comradeship,
which might still come true, when the strenuous side of her love for
him had worn itself out. If only an hour like the present could have
lasted indefinitely!

It was a happy morning. They ended it with an improvised lunch at the
KAISERPARK; and it remained imprinted on their minds as an unexpected
patch of colour, in an unending row of grey days, given up to duty.

The next one, and the next again, Louise continued in the same yielding
mood, which was wholly different from the emotional expansiveness of
the past weeks. Maurice took a glad advantage of her willingness to
please him, and they had several pleasant walks together: to Napoleon's
battlefields; along the GRUNE GASSE and the POETENWEG to Schiller's
house at Gohlis; and into the heart of the ROSENTAL--DAS WILDE
ROSENTAL--where it was ver