Ay!" replied the Doctor. "It is very well said. It is the true answer
to the pessimist, and the standing miracle of mankind. So you still love
me? and so you can forgive your wife? Why, then, we may bid conscience
'Down, dog,' like an ill-trained puppy yapping at shadows."

The pair fell into silence, the Doctor tapping on his empty glass.

The carriage swung forth out of the valleys on that open balcony of
high-road that runs along the front of Gruenewald, looking down on
Gerolstein. Far below, a white waterfall was shining to the stars from
the falling skirts of forest, and beyond that, the night stood naked
above the plain. On the other hand, the lamplight skimmed the face of
the precipices, and the dwarf pine-trees twinkled with all their
needles, and were gone again into the wake. The granite roadway
thundered under wheels and hoofs; and at times, by reason of its
continual winding, Otto could see the escort on the other side of a
ravine, riding well together in the night. Presently the Felsenburg came
plainly in view, some way above them, on a bold projection of the
mountain, and planting its bulk against the starry sky.

"See, Gotthold," said the Prince, "our destination."

Gotthold awoke as from a trance.

"I was thinking," said he, "if there is any danger, why did you not
resist? I was told you came of your free will; but should you not be
there to help her?"

The colour faded from the Prince's cheeks.

CHAPTER III

PROVIDENCE VON ROSEN: ACT THE LAST IN WHICH SHE GALLOPS OFF

When the busy Countess came forth from her interview with Seraphina, it
is not too much to say that she was beginning to be terribly afraid. She
paused in the corridor and reckoned up her doings with an eye to
Gondremark. The fan was in requisition in an instant; but her disquiet
was beyond the reach of fanning. "The girl has lost her head," she
thought; and then dismally, "I have gone too far." She instantly decided
on secession. Now the _Mons Sacer_ of the Frau von Rosen was a certain
rustic villa in the forest, called by herself, in a smart attack of
poesy, Tannen Zauber, and by everybody else plain Kleinbrunn.

Thither, upon the thought, she furiously drove, passing Gondremark at
the entrance to the palace avenue, but feigning not to observe him; and
as Kleinbrunn was seven good miles away, and in the bottom of a narrow
dell, she passed the night without any rumour of the outbreak reaching
her; and the glow of the co