rom beautiful women they all at once assumed the faces of
dragons, and when he started up from these hideous visions the
moonlight shone pale and cold into the room; terrified he looked at
Undine on whose bosom he fell asleep and who still lay in unaltered
beauty and grace. Then he would press a light kiss upon her rosy lips
and would fall asleep again only to be awakened by new terrors.
After he had reflected on all this, now that he was fully awake, he
reproached himself for any doubt that could have led him into error
with regard to his beautiful wife. He begged her to forgive him for
the injustice he had done her, but she only held out to him her fair
hand, sighed deeply, and remained silent. But a glance of exquisite
fervor, such as he had never seen before, beamed from her eyes,
carrying with it the full assurance that Undine bore him no ill-will.
He then rose cheerfully and left her, to join his friends in the
common apartment.

He found the three sitting round the hearth with an air of anxiety,
as if they dared not venture to speak aloud. The priest seemed to be
praying in his inmost spirit that all evil might be averted. When,
however, they saw the young husband come forth so cheerfully, the
careworn expression of their faces vanished.

The old fisherman even began to tease the knight, but in so chaste and
modest a manner that the aged wife herself smiled good-humoredly as
she listened to them. Undine at length made her appearance. All rose
to meet her and all stood still with surprise, for the young wife
seemed so strange to them and yet the same. The priest was the first
to advance toward her, with paternal affection beaming in his face,
and, as he raised his hand to bless her, the beautiful woman sank
reverently on her knees before him. With a few humble and gracious
words she begged him to forgive her for any foolish things she might
have said the evening before, and entreated him in an agitated tone
to pray for the welfare of her soul. She then rose, kissed her
foster-parents, and thanking them for all the goodness they had shown
her, she exclaimed, "Oh, I now feel in my innermost heart, how much,
how infinitely much, you have done for me, dear, kind people!" She
could not at first desist from her caresses, but scarcely had she
perceived that the old woman was busy in preparing breakfast than she
went to the hearth, cooked and arranged the meal, and would not suffer
the good old mother to take the least