go through my heart at this. I suppose I
must have turned as red as blood.

"'"What I was thinking of," I said, "was probably the happiest moment
of my life, though at that moment I received a mortal wound."

"'"But you've quite got over it, have you not?" she asked with much
anxious sympathy. "I suppose some bullet struck you at the moment of
victory?"

"'I felt a good deal of an ass; but I suppressed this feeling to the
best of my power, and without looking up, but fixing my eyes on the
ground like some naughty schoolboy who has just been having a blowing
up, I said in a feeble voice:

"'"I have had the pleasure of seeing you before."

"'Then the conversation went on in most edifying fashion, Pauline
saying:

"'"Oh, really, I didn't know!"

"'"Yes," I went on; "it was such magnificent spring weather, and I was
enjoying it with two friends of mine, whom I hadn't seen for several
years."

"'"Ah! that must have been very nice," she said.

"'"I saw you, Miss Asling," I said.

"'"Did you really?" she answered. Oh, that must have been in the
Thiergarten."

"'"Yes," said I; "one Whit Monday, in the Webersche Zelt."

"'"Yes, yes; quite right," cried Pauline. "I was there with my father
and mother. There was a great crowd of people. I enjoyed it immensely.
But I don't remember seeing you."

"My former state of idiocy came back upon me in full force, and I was
on the point of saying something very absurd, when the Geheime Rath
came in, to whom Pauline announced with much joy that I had brought a
letter from her cousin. The old gentleman was charmed, and cried:

"'"What! a letter from Leopold! He's alive, then? How's his wound
getting on? When will he be able to be moved?"

"'And with that he took me by the lapels of the coat, and led me into
his own room. Pauline followed; he called for breakfast, and asked
endless questions. In short, I had to stay two good hours, and when at
last I tore myself away with much difficulty (for Pauline sat close
beside me, and kept looking me in the eyes with childlike
unconstraint), he put his arm about my shoulders and begged me to come
in as often as I could--at breakfast-time, for preference.

"'I was now (as often happens in field service) right in the thick of
the fire, without expecting it. If I were to detail to you the tortures
that I underwent; how I often, as if impelled by some irresistible
power, rushed away to that house which appeared to me a place so fatal
t