a's
finger.

"Good heavens!" cried the old woman suddenly, "I've seen you
before--yes, yes, it was you. Didn't you once wear a little golden
heart and send it to a child? Didn't you once, at the palace, order
them to get something to eat for an old woman and have her son set
free, and didn't you give her money besides? Good heavens! you're
the--"

"Don't mention my name! Only let me rest a moment; ask me nothing, and
say nothing more."

"As you don't want me to, certainly not. I'll hurry and get the soup
ready for you."

She went out, leaving Irma alone.

Irma lay on the bed, which was nothing more than a sack of leaves that
crackled strangely whenever she turned her head. The leaves seemed to
say: "Ah! when we were green, we had a better time of it--" The moon
shone in through the window; everything seemed dancing before her
eyes; she felt as if she were on the open sea. But she soon fell
asleep.--When she awoke, she heard a man's voice.

CHAPTER XI.

Out on the porch, which also served as a kitchen, were Thomas and his
mother. He had removed his false beard, was cleaning his black face,
and now said:

"Mother, do you know what I'm sorry for?"

"What for?"

"Why, that I didn't shoot the young count the other day. I won't have
as good a chance at him again. I could have shot him through the back
of the neck and that would have been the last of him. I'd have given
the daylight a chance to shine through him."

"You're a nice fellow to talk repentance."

"Yes, and I'd have done a good deed if I'd shot the fellow. Just think,
mother, that's the kind of people the grand folks are who own the
forest and all the game in it. Just think of it, mother! I'm a good
fellow, after all."

"How so?"

"Only think, mother! Do you know why the count was in the forest? He
wanted to be out of the way while his father was dying; and so he rode
off and let the old man end his days alone. I promise you, if you were
going to die, and I were about, I'd stay with you to the last. I'd
deserve to go to heaven, if I'd put that fellow out of the way. If I'd
known all about it at the time, I'd have done it, too. Indeed, I did
want to, just for the fun of the thing. But it's great fun to think how
the fellow must have shook, to be riding in front of me while I had a
ball ready for him and could have shot him at any minute. Oh, you
Wildenort!"

At the mention of her family name, Irma fell over