or they saw in the water
at their feet, between their own blooming heads, an icy gray, aged one
reflected. 'Here he is,' said a trembling, stooping old man, with hair
as white as snow, who stood behind them. He wore the new black cloak
of the student.

"'Yes,' said the old man, with weak, faint voice, 'I am thy friend,
Peter of Stetten. I have stood long behind you, and I have heard your
converse, and our fates are clear enough. It is still the day of Peter
and Paul, on which we met and parted on the highway, which is scarcely
a thousand paces from here, and since we parted, perhaps an hour may
have elapsed, for the shadow which yonder hedge casts upon the turf, is
but a little increased. Before that hour we were four-and-twenty years
of age; but during that hour you have become sixty minutes older, and I
sixty years. I am now four-and-eighty. Thus do we see each other
again; indeed I did not think it.'

"Conrad and Emma had arisen. She clung timidly to her lover, and said
softly: 'It is a poor madman.' But the old man said: 'No, fair Emma, I
am not mad. I have loved thee; my spell influenced thee, and thou
mightest have been mine, had I been permitted to kiss thy rosy lips in
God's name--the only benediction by which fair love may be awakened.
Instead of this, I was forced to go in quest of the yew-bough, and to
keep the wind and weather out of the owl's cave. All has happened of
necessity. He has gained the bride, I have gained--death.'

"Conrad had been looking with fixed eyes at the countenance of the old
man, to see if he could detect among the wrinkles one former lineament
of the friend of his youth. At last he stammered forth: 'I entreat
thee, man, tell us how this transformation was brought about, lest our
brains be turned, and we do something frightful.'

"'Whoever tempts God and nature shall behold sights, the presence of
which shall quickly wither him,' replied the old man. 'Therefore, man,
even if he see the plants grow, and understand the discourse of birds,
remains as simple as before, allows a foolish magpie to pass off upon
him fables of a princess and a spider-king, and takes ladies' veils for
cobwebs. Nature is a curtain, no magical word can remove it--it will
only make thyself an old fable.'

"He retired slowly into the depths of the wood, whither Conrad did not
venture to follow him. He conducted his Emma from the shadow of the
trees to the broad road, where the light played in a