hat is the good of my reproving him? What is the use of
my sending him angrily away? He does not believe a word I say. His
poor nature has no idea that the joys and sorrows of love have so
sweet a resemblance, and are so closely linked that no power can
separate them. Amid tears a smile shines forth, and a smile allures
tears from their secret chambers."

She looked up at Huldbrand, smiling and weeping; and he again
experienced within his heart all the charm of his old love. She felt
this, and, pressing him more tenderly to her, she continued amid tears
of joy, "As the disturber of our peace was not to be dismissed with
words, I have been obliged to shut the door upon him. And the only
door by which he obtains access to us, is that fountain. He is at odds
with the other water-spirits in the neighborhood, counting from the
adjacent valleys, and his kingdom only recommences further off on the
Danube, into which some of his good friends direct their course. For
this reason I had the stone placed over the opening of the fountain,
and I inscribed characters upon it which cripple all my uncle's power,
so that he can now neither intrude upon you, nor upon me, nor upon
Bertalda. Human beings, it is true, can raise the stone again with
ordinary effort, in spite of the characters inscribed on it; the
inscription does not hinder them. If you wish, therefore, follow
Bertalda's desire, but, truly, she knows not what she asks! The
ill-bred Kuehleborn has set his mark especially upon her; and if this
or that came to pass which he has predicted to me and which might
indeed happen without your meaning any evil--ah! dear one, even you
would then be exposed to danger!"

Huldbrand felt deeply the generosity of his sweet wife, in her
eagerness to shut up her formidable protector while she had even been
chided for it by Bertalda. He pressed her therefore in his arms with
the utmost affection, and said with emotion, "The stone shall remain,
and all shall remain, now and ever, as you wish to have it, my sweet
little Undine."

She caressed him with humble delight as she heard the expressions
of love so long withheld, and then at length she said, "My dearest
friend, since you are so gentle and kind today, may I venture to ask
a favor of you? See now, it is just the same with you as it is with
summer. In the height of its glory summer puts on the flaming and
thundering crown of mighty storms and assumes the air of a king over
the earth. You t