ve from the spot. Has your wife given her consent?"

"Haespele declares she has," interrupted Edward. "He will be here
presently."

Adam hurried away and brought Haespele back with him; he came in a great
fright, and when the Pastor appealed to his conscience to say whether
the Roettmaennin had really given her consent, he said at length, after
biting his lips till the blood came, "No, she did not."

"Very well then," said the Pastor; "I will on my own responsibility
undertake to marry you, even without the Roettmaennin's consent; but now
I have something to say to you. Neither your pride, Adam, nor your
humility--and I believe in your sincerity, and hope I shall have reason
to do so henceforth--nor your swaggering, Speidel-Roettmann, as to
paying the fine, but----"

"For the sake of little Joseph," the Pastorin could not help saying:
"you give in on account of the boy. He is a precocious child. What
would he think, if he heard that the banns of his parents were only
published now? What battles he would have with his companions, and who
knows what poisonous drops might fall into his heart, and what evil
might be produced by them hereafter?"

"Exactly so," said the Pastor; "the child is now asleep, and utterly
unconscious of all the perplexities and disorders of this wicked world;
he has been in danger of death, and miraculously saved in search of his
father, who proved himself a weak person, in spite of his strength; and
his grandfather, who hitherto believed that everything could be
purchased with money. So for little Joseph's sake I will marry you this
night."

Martina rushed up to the Pastor, and knelt down and kissed his hand;
Adam would evidently have gladly done the same, but in spite of his
humility he could not quite bring himself to kneel yet; he only laid
his hand on Martina's head, as if to testify that she was kneeling for
him also.

All was still in the room, and the Pastor ended by saying, "We shall
see each other again in church," and then went into his study. The
Parsonage soon resumed its usual quiet aspect, but even before the
wedding party left it, the news ran like wildfire from house to house
in the village. "Adam and Martina are to be married to-night. Leegart
said they would beforehand."

CHAPTER XIX.
A VOICE AT MIDNIGHT.

The bells were ringing out into the cold night air; a bright ray of
light from the open church door s