stmas and on
Good Friday, now she went almost every Sunday to please her boy, for he
had to go now. They left the house together every Sunday, drove to
church together, sat next to each other; but whilst she thought: "How
clever, how thought-out, what fervour, surely he must carry a youthful
mind away with him"? Wolfgang thought: "If only it were over!"
He felt bored. And his soul had never soared there as when the little
bell rang when the monstrance had been raised, when he had smelt the
odour of incense before dim altars.

There was something in him that drove him to the church he had once
visited with Cilia. When he went to the Bible-class he had to pass
close by it; but even if the road had been longer, he would still have
made it possible to go there. Only to stand a few minutes, a few
seconds in a corner, only to draw his breath once or twice in that
sweet, mysterious, soothing air laden with incense. He always found the
church door open; and then when he stepped out again into the noise of
Berlin, he went through the streets with their hurry and their rush
like one come from another world. After that he did not take any
notice of what he was told about the doctrines and the history of the
Church--what were Martin Luther, Calvin and other reformers to him? His
soul had been caught, his thoughts submerged in a feeling of gloomy
faith.

Thus the summer and winter passed. When the days grew longer, and
the mild warmth of the sun promised to dry up all the moisture winter
had left behind ere long, Paul Schlieben had his villa cleaned and
painted. It was to put on a festive garment for their son's great day,
too.

The white house looked extremely pretty with its red roofs and green
shutters, as it peeped out from behind the pines; there would almost
have been something rustic about it, had it not been for the large
plate-glass windows and the conservatory, with its palms and flowering
azaleas, that had lately been built on. Friedrich was sowing fresh
grass in the garden, and an assistant was tidying up the flower-beds;
they were digging and hoeing everywhere. The sparrows were
chirping noisily, bold and happy; but strips of paper tied to long
pieces of string and stretched across the lawns that had just been sown
fluttered in the purifying wind and frightened the impudent birds away
from the welcome food. All the gardens were waking up. The stems of the
roses had not yet been released from their coverings, in whic