. "I am
certain that you are tired of all the good things you get every day;
you are satiated with the Vienna cookery. Wait, and I shall cook you
something myself--your favorite dish, Peter, which you often said no
one cooked so well as I did. I shall make you some porridge."

Peter was electrified. A smile broke out all over his face, either at
the mention of his favorite dish, or at the thought that his hostess
would herself prepare it. But how is she to cook? There is no hearth,
no cooking-vessels.

"Everything will be here," said Eveline, laughing joyously. "I shall
change my dress; I cannot cook in this."

She ran off as she spoke, and returned in two minutes. Actresses
learn how to dress quickly. She now wore a white embroidered maid's
frock, and a little cap on her head. She called no one to help her,
but laid a cloth on the oak table, filled a silver kettle with water,
set it to boil on a spirit-lamp. She turned up the sleeves of her
dress to the elbows, and shook with a light hand the meal into the
boiling water; then she turned the mixture deftly with a silver spoon
round and round until it became thick. Then she took the kettle by the
handle, emptied it on to a glazed clay plate--yes, actually a clay
plate!--and poured some cream over the mixture. She fetched two wooden
spoons, one for Peter, one for herself.

"Let us eat off the one plate, Peter."

And they ate this porridge off one plate. Peter felt a strange
moisture fill his eyes; he had not wept since he was a child. The
porridge was excellent; all the cooks in Vienna put together couldn't
have given him a meal so much to his mind. There was wine on the
table, but no glasses.

Peasants never drink during meals; but when they had finished Eveline
fetched a clay jug and asked Peter to drink, after, as is the custom,
she had taken a draught.

"Drink this, Peter; it is your old favorite."

There was mead in the jug--a very innocent sort of drink--and Peter
thought it was his duty to empty the last drop. The hell that had been
raging in his breast seemed all at once to be extinguished. He said to
himself:

"Yes, I shall go back to the church, and to the spot where I made that
awful vow; I shall implore the Holy Mother to allow me to take it
back. I shall hurt no one; I shall take no revenge. Let the green
grass grow again in the fields, and let her live in splendor in the
smiles of the great ones. I shall not grudge her her happiness. This
day, w