irst appearance in church together."
This then was the cause of her dismissing Felice in so summary a
manner.

The beauteous morning was succeeded by a close afternoon. Since that
dream the images of the brothers came up before her so continually that
she could hardly tell them apart. But the present moment maintained its
right. The gloomy priest disappeared in the joyous artist, and from the
moment that Lydia had accustomed herself to the thought, that the
Magister could never be hers, and that he had only played a sinful part
towards her, she sadly compelled herself to find once more her idol in
the happy trusty friend. Thus there remained much that was true in her
unfaithfulness. In reality she only cared for Felix for Paul's sake.
The artist in the meanwhile stood outside on his scaffold in a pensive
manner. The oppressive heat, precursor of a storm weighed him down, and
Lydia's dismissal had deeply affected him. He made no effort to resume
his jokes of the morning, and could not even hum an air. "Could I have
offended him?" thought the kind-hearted child within, "he has become so
silent;" as she looked upwards at the streaky sky, a gust of wind blew
the dust in her eyes, and whirled the loose leaves high up into the
air. "May the storm not break forth before that he is safely down from
his scaffold," thought she anxiously as a heavier gust burst forth. The
windows rattled, the shutters blew to, slates fell from the roof,
boards were carried off and crashed into the court beneath; slates,
panes of glass, bricks, came tumbling from above, and noise and
confusion were heard on all sides of the court. Lydia rushed to shut
the window, and then saw Felice clinging convulsively to the shaking
scaffold. "Come in here, in here," she cried in her fright to him. He
shook his head sadly, and made a motion to show that he would slide
down the poles so soon as the wind abated. A more violent gust caused
the bricks to shower down from the roof and shook the whole scaffold.
"Felix, Felix," cried the terrified maiden stretching out her arms
towards him. A happy smile played over his features, and with one bound
the active youth was at her side. As she closed the window, he had
already folded her within his strong arms. "I have won thee by storm,"
he cried rejoicingly, but she was silent and loosed herself from his
embrace. "You called me in, now keep me," he said earnestly, "you
wished to save my life, save it in reality." She gaze