you laugh you are quite another person. Say good-bye to
your father; he is at the stable. The bay mare has a colt. That is a
good sign. Go in God's name, and you will come home happy again. God
keep you!"

As Thoma went past she called a hurried good-bye into the stable, and
did not wait for an answer. On the road it seemed to her as if she must
turn back: she ought not to leave her mother to the care of strangers;
but she went forward, thinking over what she should say to the judge's
wife.

Thoma often threw up her hands in distress, and looked sadly at the
destruction which the hail had wrought in the fields; but she soon
comforted herself. She knew that her father had them insured against
hail. Now they should have something in return for the tax they had
paid so many years. When she reached the beautiful pear-tree which
before had looked like a nosegay, she stood still. The storm had shaken
off almost all the pears, and they lay scattered on the ground. Thoma
called a girl who was working in the potato field to come and pick them
up. Then she went on her way.

Everything reminded her of her first and only walk with Anton, after
their betrothal. Since then she had not been on this road. She avoided
the spot where Vetturi had spoken to her; but where she had rested, and
Anton had stroked her face with the lily of the valley, she paused
awhile. There was no sound in the forest; not a bird sang, a sultry
stillness brooded over moss and grass on which the sunbeams quivered,
the path was strewn with dead and green branches, and the trees which
had been tapped for resin were broken down. The way was not clear and
open again till she reached the path through the meadow where the grass
was still trodden down from the celebration. The water in the river was
yellow, and ran in high, roaring waves almost to the upper arch of the
bridge.

The hostess of the Sword Inn nodded to Thoma from the window. Thoma
responded and hurried past.

CHAPTER LXIII.

The judge's wife was not at home, but the maid--saying that she would
be back soon: she had only gone to the station; her brother was
expected, and might perhaps come by the first train--opened the corner
room, where Thoma was to wait.

An air full of rest and comfort, full of refreshing odors from blooming
plants on tables and pedestals, surrounded Thoma; and her eyes wandered
over the beautiful pictures and statues on which the sun sho