staircase and looked
upward, she found the top of the narrow flight barred by the tall figure
of a soldier. The latter had his back towards her and was showing
Bessie his dark velvet cap, surrounded by rectangular teeth, above which
floated a beautiful light-blue ostrich-plume. The child seemed to have
formed a close friendship with the soldier, for, although the latter was
refusing her something, the little girl laughed gaily.

Maria paused irresolutely a moment; but when the child snatched the
gay cap and put it on her own curls, she thought she must check her and
exclaimed warningly: "Why, Bessie, that is no plaything for children."

The soldier turned, stood still a moment in astonishment, raised his
hand to his forehead, and then, with a few hurried bounds, sprang down
the stairs and rushed up to the burgomaster's wife. Maria had started
back in surprise; but he gave her no time to think, for stretching out
both hands he exclaimed in an eager, joyous tone, with sparkling eyes:
"Maria! Jungfrau Maria! You here! This is what I call a lucky day!" The
young wife had instantly recognized the soldier and willingly laid her
right hand in his, though not without a shade of embarrassment.

The officer's clear, blue eyes sought hers, but she fixed her gaze on
the floor, saying: "I am no longer what I was, the young girl has become
a housewife."

"A housewife!" he exclaimed. "How dignified that sounds! And yet! Yet!
You are still Jungfrau Maria! You haven't changed a hair. That's just
the way you bent your head at the wedding in Delft, the way you raised
your hands, lowered your eyes--you blushed too, just as prettily."

There was a rare melody in the voice which uttered these words with
joyous, almost childlike freedom, which pleased Maria no less than the
officer's familiar manner annoyed her. With a hasty movement she raised
her head, looked steadily into the young man's handsome face and said
with dignity:

"You see only the exterior, Junker von Dornburg; three years have made
many changes within."

"Junker von Dornburg," he repeated, shaking his waving locks. "I was
Junker Georg in Delft. Very different things have happened to us, dear
lady, very different things. You see I have grown a tolerable, though
not huge moustache, am stouter, and the sun has bronzed my pink and
white boyish face--in short: my outer man has changed for the worse, but
within I am just the same as I was three years ago."

Maria felt the