. No, I won't say anything to them about that."

"Won't you stay until the old gentleman comes back? Then I shall be
free of my responsibility." He hoped that Herr Nettenmair would find
some way to dissuade her from her purpose.

The young wife nodded assent. "I will wait that long," she said.

Anxiety and hope drove Valentine out of the house to see if Herr
Nettenmair were anywhere in sight. Christine took her hymn-book from
the desk and sat down at the table.

When Valentine returned he was no longer the same man who had gone
out. He was confused and embarrassed, but in a very different way from
what he had been before. He appeared constantly on the point of doing
or saying something, became suddenly frightened and did and said
something entirely different, and then seemed uncertain whether he
should not be frightened at that too. At first the young wife did not
notice the change in him, but soon she began to watch him curiously
and with increasing apprehension. Gradually she became infected by his
behavior. When he laughed involuntarily she glowed with hope, and when
he put on a long face she clasped her hands convulsively together and
turned pale; sometimes she pressed her hands to her beating heart,
sometimes to her burning, hammering temples. At last Valentine
considered her sufficiently prepared, to abandon the weather topic.
"It is a day," said he, "when men might rise from the dead, and who
knows--but please, for my sake, don't be frightened." She became
frightened, however. She said to herself, "But it isn't possible." And
she was all the more frightened because it was not only possible but
certain. "Look toward the back of the house," sobbed Valentine,
attempting to laugh. She had looked before he told her to do so. She
held fast to the door post as she heard footsteps in the shed. But
even the door post no longer stood firmly, she herself stood no longer
on firm ground; she rocked dizzily between heaven and earth. When she
saw him coming, there was nothing in the world for her except the man
for whom she had suffered weeks of death-agony; everything whirled
about her in a circle, the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the trees,
the sky and the green earth; it was as if the whole world would sink
from under her and drag her into its vortex if she did not hold fast
to him. She felt herself fall to the ground, and then she knew nothing
more.

Apollonius caught her as she fell. He stood and held in his arms th