ach must own its sway;
One heart avails not, each must share
Its influence: dear mistress mine,
Say, wilt thou share with me, thou lovely May?

"Well, though you have shared your love equally with the poor young
man," said the playful Marie, "I pity you, from my heart, the painful
burden of its weight. If such be its chains, cousin Kraft, who would
willingly give me a portion of his, must wait awhile, and groan under
the load of carrying the whole charge of it on his own shoulders. But I
see you are again absorbed in thought," she added, "so I must sing you
another of Walther's songs:

"I know not what has chanced, I ween
My sight was never on this wise.
Since in my heart she first was seen,
I see her still without my eyes.
What miracle is this? What pow'r
Enables me, without the aid of sight,
To see her every day and every hour?

"Would you then learn the organs and the art,
By which I see to earth's extremest zone?
They are the thoughts I nourish in my heart;
They penetrate through walls of brick and stone;
And, should these watchers fail, her presence still
Is evermore, as 't were, before my eyes,
Seen by my heart, my spirit, and my will."

Bertha praised the song of Walther the birdfeeder, as being consolatory
in separation. Marie agreed with her. "I have one more verse," she
added, smiling:

"Though she wander'd in Swabia, far and wide,
Through castles and walls her course he espied.
O'er the Alb unto Lichtenstein had she gone,
His eyes would have follow'd through rock and stone."

Marie was going on with her singing, when the garden door opened.
Footsteps were heard in the walk, and the girls rose to receive their
expected visitants.

"Albert von Sturmfeder," began Marie, after the usual salutations were
over, "you will pardon me for having ventured to invite you into my
father's garden; but, as my cousin, Bertha wishes to give you some
commissions, for her friend, I have taken the liberty." She then turned
to Dieterich von Kraft, and said, "We will not interrupt their
conversation; so, come and talk over the ball of last evening." Upon
which she took the hand of her cousin, and led him away down the
yew-tree walk.

Albert seated himself