ck. She
stretched her arms towards him, but she ventured neither to call, nor
to implore him; but she soon saw that it was not he himself, only his
hunting coat and hat, which were hanging on his alpine staff, as the
hunters are accustomed to place them, in order to deceive the chamois!
Babette moaned in boundless anguish:

"Ah! would that I had died on my wedding day, my happiest day! Oh! my
heavenly Father! That would have been a mercy, a life's happiness!
Then we would have obtained, the best, that could have happened to us!
No one knows his future!" In her impious sorrow, she threw herself
down the steep precipice. It seemed as if a string broke, and a
sorrowful tone resounded.

Babette awoke--the dream was at an end and obliterated; but she knew
that she had dreamt of something terrible, and of the young
Englishman, whom she had neither seen, nor thought of, for many
months. Was he perhaps in Montreux? Should she see him at her
wedding? A slight shadow flitted over her delicate mouth, her brow
contracted; but her smile soon returned; her eyes sparkled again; the
sun shone so beautifully without, and to-morrow, yes to-morrow was her
and Rudy's wedding day.

Rudy had already arrived, when she came down stairs, and they soon
left for Villeneuve. They were so happy, the two, and the miller also;
he laughed and was radiant with joy; he was a good father, an honest
soul.

"Now we are the masters of the house!" said the parlour-cat.

XV.

CONCLUSION.

It was not yet night, when the three joyous people reached Villeneuve
and took their dinner. The miller seated himself in an arm-chair with
his pipe and took a little nap. The betrothed went out of the town arm
in arm, out on the carriage way, under the bush-grown rocks, to the
deep bluish-green lake. Sombre Chillon, with its grey walls and heavy
towers, mirrored itself in the clear water; but still nearer lay the
little island, with its three acacias, and it looked like a bouquet on
the lake.

"How charming it must be there!" said Babette; she felt again the
greatest desire to visit it, and this wish could be immediately
fulfilled; for a boat lay on the shore and the rope which fastened it,
was easy to untie. As no one was visible, from whom they could ask
permission, they took the boat without hesitation, for Rudy could row
well. The oars skimmed like the fins of a fish, over the pliant water,
which is so yielding and still so strong; which is all back