w could you
believe such stories?"

Maren also joked about it, but after they had parted she seated herself
in a corner, drew her little apron over her head and wept; perhaps
because she should soon leave the lively city, where she had been seven
times to the theatre, and yet had not seen the wolf-glen.

"Betrothed!" repeated Otto to himself, and thought of Sophie, of the
cousin, and of his own childhood, which hung like a storm-cloud in
his heaven. Many thoughts passed through his mind: he recollected the
Christmas Eve on which he had seen Sophie for the first time, when she,
as one of the Fates, gave him the number. He had 33, she 34; they were
united by the numbers following each other. He received the pedigree,
and was raised to her nobility. The whole joke had for him a
signification. He read the verse again which had accompanied it. The
conclusion sounded again and again in his ears:--"From this hour forth
thy soul high rank hath won her, Nor will forget thy knighthood and thy
honor!"

"O Sophie!" he exclaimed aloud, and the fire which had long smouldered
in his blood now burst forth in flames. "Sophie! thee must I press to my
heart!" He lost himself in dreams. Dark shapes disturbed them. "Can she
then be happy? Can I? The picture which she received where the covering
of ice was broken and the faithful dog watched in vain, is also
significant. That is the fulfillment of hopes. I sink, and shall never
return!"

The image of the cousin mingled in his dreams. That refined countenance
with the little mustache looked forth saucily and loquaciously; and
Sophie's eyes he saw rest upon the cousin, whilst her white hand played
with the brown curls which fell over her cheek.

"O Sophie!" sighed Otto, and fell asleep.

CHAPTER XXX

..."We live through others,
We think we are others; we seem
Others to be... And so think others of us."
SCHEFER.

When the buds burst forth we will burst forth also! had Otto and Wilhelm
often said. Their plan was, in the spring to travel immediately to
Paris, but on their way to visit the Rhine, and to sail from Cologne to
Strasburg.

"Yes, one must see the Rhine first!" said Cousin Joachim; "when one has
seen Switzerland and Italy, it does not strike one nearly as much.
That must be your first sight; but you should not see it in spring, but
toward autumn. When the vines have their full variety of tint, and the
heavy gra