e the only human being in the world who ever
really loved me? That was the very reason why I was obliged to part
from you. Your love and goodness deserved something better than to be
made unhappy for my sake. It is enough that one wretched life should be
destroyed, and even that is not very intelligible when one thinks that
there is a Providence--but why should we talk of such melancholy
subjects? Tell me what you have been doing all this while. Do you know
that you are much better looking than you were? Your beard becomes you
so well, and with it you have the same innocent eyes that would better
suit a girl's face, and yet they can look brave and resolute enough too
when they flash out at a villain.

"Forgive me," she went on, "for being so talkative, but you cannot
guess how long I have been silent--almost _always_, since we parted. I
had too much to think about. But now I have arranged it all, and since
then I am quite happy. It is not very long ago that I have done so.
Last night even I had quite too horrible thoughts; they actually
pierced my brain like needles of ice. So I said to myself, 'there must
be an end to this.' Neither man nor God can require any one to live on
with thoughts like these. And after becoming quite clear about that, my
spirits returned, and even my tongue is loosed again. But you are all
the more silent. What is the matter with you? Are not you a little tiny
bit glad that we can wander about together so confidentially, and feel
the snow on our faces, and see so many poor men enjoying their
Christmas Eve? I too wanted to make a festival for myself, and so I
spent my last two dollars in an improvised Christmas gift. But it did
not answer so very well either: unless one loves the person one gives
to, there is not much pleasure in giving. Now I am sorry that I have no
more money. You and I might so well have made presents to each other."

"O Lottka," said he, "now that I have found you again--that you are so
kind to me--that you know how I love you--"

"Hush!" interposed she, "this may be felt, but not spoken of. For
to-day everything is as sad as it ever was, and as utterly hopeless."

He stopped suddenly and looked full at her. "Hopeless," he groaned.
"But are you aware that I know everything, and no more heed it than if
it were some story going on in the moon. That I have no one in the
world to consult but myself, and if my own father and my own mother--"

"For God's sake do not go on," sh