er there. You cannot escape it."

With eyes that were hot and tearless, Theudelinde looked through her
veil at Ivan. He returned the glance. If either had shed a tear, or
even let a sob escape, both would have burst into passionate weeping,
for grief is infectious; but each one of them was resolved to show
mental strength in the presence of the other. They could even command
their emotions.

"Do you undertake the duty?"

Ivan bowed his head.

"Then you will perform it alone. Alive I shall never enter the family
vault. You know why."

Both were silent. Then Theudelinde burst out:

"Why was I not left in my castle? Why was I undeceived when I imagined
that my ancestors visited me? If I had not been shaken in my delusions
I should still have been happy. I should never have gone into the
world, where I have only found misery; Angela would not have come to
me; my brother Theobald would not have been ruined; hell would not
have been let loose in the Bondavara mines; I should have never known
you; all--all would have been different!" Then, after a pause, she
went on: "There is no need of a clergyman; there is no need of any
ceremony. You can say some prayers. You are a Protestant--so was
Angela. She became one that she might get a separation from her
unworthy husband. Let them carry the coffin quietly and reverently to
the family vault. There I shall leave you and it, for I shall not go
inside--never, until I am dead. You will put the coffin in its place,
and then I return whence I came, where I am wanted by no one."

Ivan called the miners to take the coffin again upon their shoulders,
and told them to carry it through the vestibule to the private door
which led into the park. The park separated the director's house from
the castle.

As they walked through the winding paths of the park the trees shed
their golden leaves upon the coffin and the titmice in the brushwood
chanted the dirge.

Ivan walked bareheaded behind the coffin, and behind him came Countess
Theudelinde.

When they reached the entrance of the vault Ivan told the bearers to
put the coffin down, and, kneeling down beside it, he remained for a
long time praying. God hears us if we speak to Him in a whisper; nay,
He hears us, even although we do not speak, but feel.

Theudelinde bent over Ivan and kissed his forehead.

"I thank you. You walked behind her with your head uncovered. Now she
is all yours." Then she returned by the winding path, as if s