indeed, what that really is; I am
such a stupid, dull being. Listen, last evening I could have opened my
arms and embraced the whole world from happiness. I could not sleep, I
walked about my room restlessly, and read his letter a hundred times; as
long as my eye rested upon it I was calm, and when I had folded it up
doubts came to me, such anxious, evil doubts, such as, "What if you
have made a mistake? What if he has something to say to Aunt Rosamond
which does not concern you at all?" And then it seemed to me as if I
were sinking into a deep, black abyss, and there was nothing that I
could hold on to, aunt. Oh! it was frightful, so empty, so cold, so
dead! Dear Aunt Rosamond, do laugh me out of these foolish thoughts,
scold me for a stupid girl; tell me how faint-hearted I am, that a doubt
of Edwin's love should come to me! He does love me, Aunt Rosamond, does
he not? One can never forget it when one has once loved a person with
his whole heart. I know it; yes, Aunt Rosamond, I am a foolish, childish
creature; do laugh me right out of it, please, please!'

"She had drawn me to the sofa as she spoke, and hidden her face on my
shoulder. Amid laughing and crying the words came out, all
self-consciousness was gone, that unapproachable harshness of her nature
had disappeared, and she was now like any other girl expecting her
lover. She trembled and sobbed, and wound her arms tightly about my
neck--the proud, cold Anna Maria had become a happy child. What a
fulness of love and resignation now gushed from her heart, now that
happiness touched it! 'So do laugh me well out of it, aunt,' she said,
again.

"I stroked her hair caressingly; how gladly would I have laughed her out
of it! But in my soul, too, there were doubts, inexplicable doubts; and
why? There was really no reasonable ground for them, no, no! Susanna
might have denied the walk in the garden because the evening air was
prohibited on account of her health; and just because she stood under
the linden and waved her handkerchief--was that any proof? And I thought
of my letter to Stuermer, and really had to laugh.

"'Anna Maria,' said I, 'I will laugh at you, but you must laugh back at
me. Only think, yesterday I sent an announcement of the engagement to
Stuermer; I could not keep it to myself any longer that Klaus is
engaged.'

"She straightened up with a start.

"'Heavens, the papers! I forget everything. The banns--I must see to
that first, aunt.'

"To-day