bers were still smoking, and
thin columns of smoke circled up from the ruins; a loathsome odor lay
about the unfortunate spot, but human hands were already at work again.
The blacksmith's shop was half demolished, the gabled wall was warped by
the heat of the fire, and the blacksmith's young wife was bravely
rummaging among her household goods, which had been thrown, _nolens
volens_, into the street, a promiscuous heap of beds, clothing, and
furniture. A little woman was sitting on a chest, weeping bitterly; it
was her husband who had met with the fatal accident last night, the
coachman told me. A young girl of perhaps sixteen was hunting about the
half-burned and partially wet rubbish; her eyes were swollen with
weeping.

"'You poor people,' thought I; 'no one can give you back what has been
taken from you, but we will help to replace the earthly property.' And I
looked at the small but heavy roll in my hand; it was a not
insignificant sum in gold. Well for him who can give, and gives gladly
and lovingly!

"We now drove along by the park wall; the great gate of skilfully
wrought iron stood open; the luxuriant foliage of the beautiful park
here parted, and let the eye roam over velvety green lawns and broad
flower-beds to the white, castle-like buildings. Awnings protected the
terrace from the sun's rays, and a black and white flag waved gayly in
the morning wind. A delicious freshness lay over the garden; not a
yellow leaf was yet to be seen on the broad gravel-walk; everywhere most
painstaking neatness.

"I called to the coachman to stop, and had myself lifted out of the
carriage, so as to walk through the park. I do not know myself how the
idea came into my head. How long it was since I had been here! I was
then still a girl; my sister-in-law was by my side, and Klaus and Edwin,
wild lads, rushing about us. I felt very strangely; there was still the
little bridge of tree-trunks, the ingeniously planned moat, which always
used to be dry; to-day water was splashing in it. The trees had grown
taller, the shrubbery more luxuriant, and a marble Diana stood out
against the green of the taxus-hedge. Stuermer's taste for the beautiful
struck me at every step. At home no one thought of marble statues and
English turf; at home the wish had never yet been spoken to see such
jets of crystal water as those shooting up before the group of fine old
elms; there was still the same old garden with its gnarled oaks, its
primitive a