hot here. I should
so much like to have your answer before we leave and to know how Herman
takes my request. I know that he is very fond of me and will doubtless
gladly grant it and that he will try to like Othomar for my sake; and
let me hasten to add that it is also _Othomar's_ dearest wish that he
should travel with Herman. The sea-voyage did not attract him in the
least at first, because he knew of no one to take with him and he said
he preferred to go with us to Castel Xaveria; but, when I mentioned
Herman, he joined in my plan entirely.

"Olga, what will the summer bring us, peace or not? I dare not hope. The
winter has been horrible; our northern provinces have not yet recovered
from the disasters. The misery there is irretrievable. There is an
epidemic of typhoid and there have been many cases of cholera. The
strikes in the east are now over, but I am so afraid of that rough,
violent repression. Oh, if everything could only be done with
gentleness! That attempt on Othomar's life and the explosion at the last
ball have also made me so ill. How I should love to see you and take you
in my arms: can you not come to Castel Xaveria and spend the summer with
us? It would give me such intense, such intense pleasure!

"Kiss Siegfried and the children for me. And answer me soon, will you
not? I embrace you fervently.

"Your affectionate sister,

"ELIZABETH."

CHAPTER IV

1

August, on the Baltic. The grey billows curl against the rocks with
high, rounded crests of thick foam. The sky above is one wide cupola,
through which drift great mountain-ranges of grey-white clouds. They
come up slowly, filling the firmament with their changing, shadowy
masses, like chains of rocks and Alps floating on the air, and slowly
drift away again. The sea has a narrow beach, with many crumbling
cliffs; quite close at hand loom sombre green pine-woods. With the gloom
of the pine-woods for a background, as it were half out of the cliffs
rises old Altseeborgen. It is a weather-beaten castle, at which the
writhing waves seem to gnaw; its three tall, uneven towers soar round
and massive into the sky. The broad road to the castle slants up from
the woods terrace-wise and leads to the esplanade at the back, where the
main entrance is. Round the castle the wide granite terraces are cut
into stairs, with their rugged balustrades, whose freestone is worn away
by the salt air. These