Immensee | Page 9

of the tin case. "I will put your favourite
flower inside," she said, giving back the book into his hands.
At length came the last day of the vacation and the morning of his
departure. At her own request Elisabeth received permission from her
mother to accompany her friend to the stage-coach, which had its
station a few streets from their house.
When they passed out of the front door Reinhard gave her his arm, and
thus he walked in silence side by side with the slender maiden. The
nearer they came to their destination the more he felt as if he had
something he must say to her before he bade her a long farewell,
something on which all that was worthy and all that was sweet in his
future life depended, and yet he could not formulate the saving word. In
his anguish, he walked slower and slower.
"You'll be too late," she said; "it has already struck ten by St Mary's
clock."
But he did not quicken his pace for all that. At last he stammered out:
"Elisabeth, you will not see me again for two whole years. Shall I be as
dear to you as ever when I come back?"
She nodded, and looked affectionately into his face.
"I stood up for you too," she said, after a pause.
"Me? And against whom had you to stand up for me?"
"Against my mother. We were talking about you a long time yesterday
evening after you left. She thought you were not so nice now as you

once were."
Reinhard held his peace for a moment: then he took her hand in his,
and looking gravely into her childish eyes, he said:
"I am still just as nice as I ever was; I would have you firmly believe
that. Do you believe it, Elisabeth?"
"Yes," she said.
He freed her hand and quickly walked with her through the last street.
The nearer he felt the time of parting approach, the happier became the
look on his face; he went almost too quickly for her.
"What is the matter with you, Reinhard?" she asked.
"I have a secret, a beautiful secret," said Reinhard, looking at her with a
light in his eyes. "When I come back again in two years' time, then you
shall know it."
Meanwhile they had reached the stage-coach; they were only just in
time. Once more Reinhard took her hand. "Farewell!" he said, "farewell,
Elisabeth! Do not forget!"
She shook her head. "Farewell," she said. Reinhard climbed up into the
coach and the horses started. As the coach rumbled round the corner of
the street he saw her dear form once more as she slowly wended her
way home.
* * * * *

A LETTER

Nearly two years later Reinhard was sitting by lamplight with his books
and papers around him, expecting a friend with whom he used to study
in common. Some one came upstairs. "Come in." It was the landlady.
"A letter for you, Herr Werner," and she went away.
Reinhard had never written to Elisabeth since his visit home, and he
had received no letter from her. Nor was this one from her; it was in his
mother's handwriting.
Reinhard broke the seal and read, and ere long he came to this
paragraph:
"At your time of life, my dear boy, nearly every year still brings its own
peculiar experience; for youth is apt to turn everything to the best
account. At home, too, things have changed very much, and all this will,
I fear, cause you much pain at first, if my understanding of you is at all

correct.
"Yesterday Eric was at last accepted by Elisabeth, after having twice
proposed in vain during the last three months. She had never been able
to make up her mind to it, but now in the end she has done so. To my
mind she is still far too young. The wedding is to take place soon, and
her mother means to go away with them."
* * * * *

IMMENSEE

Again years have passed. One warm afternoon in spring a young man,
whose sunburnt face was the picture of health, was walking along a
shady road through the wood leading down to the valley below.
His grave dark eyes looked intently into the distance, as though he was
expecting to find every moment some change in the monotony of the
road, a change however which seemed reluctant to come about. At
length he saw a cart slowly coming up from below.
"Hullo! my friend," shouted the traveller to the farmer, who was
walking by the side of the cart, "is this the right road to Immensee?"
"Yes, straight on," answered the man touching his slouch hat.
"Is