so happy that I did not think. I
didn't understand till this moment. Forgive a poor sinner! Won't you
look at me?"

She turned her head towards him; her eyes were unhappy and full of
tears; they met his, which were also unhappy, but beseeching. It was not
long before his and hers melted into each other. He stretched out his
arms, embraced her, tried to kiss her; but this he was not allowed to
do.

"Alice, dear, sweet Alice, you will help me again!"

"It is of no use. You spoil everything."

"After this, I will do every single thing you ask me."

"You promised the same before."

"But now I have learned a lesson. Now I shall keep my promise. On my
honour!"

"Your promises are not to be relied on. For you do not understand."

"I don't understand?"

"No, you don't understand in the least who she is!"

"I confess that I must have been mistaken, for even now I fail to
comprehend what made her so angry."

"That I can quite believe."

"Yes. When she threw everything away and ran, I felt certain that it was
to get me to run after her."

"Did you not hear me call twice: 'Don't do it!'?"

"Yes, but I did not understand that either."

Alice sat down with a hopeless feeling. She said no more; she thought it
useless to do so. He seated himself opposite to her.

"Explain it to me, Alice! Did you not see how she laughed when I danced
off with you?"

"Has it not dawned upon you yet that there is a difference between us
and her?"

"Mary Krog is most unassuming; she makes no pretensions whatever."

"Quite so. But now you are misunderstanding me again. Whereas we are
ordinary beings, whom other people may touch with impunity, she dwells
in a remoteness which no one as yet has diminished by one foot. It is
not from pride or vanity that she does so."

"No, no!"

"She _is_ like that. If she were not, she would have been captured and
married long ago. You surely don't imagine that proposals have been
wanting?"

"Everyone knows they have not."

"Ask Mrs. Dawes! She keeps a diary of them in her thousand letters. She
writes about nothing else now."

"But what, then, is the explanation of it, dear Alice?"

"It is quite simple. She is gentle, sweet-tempered, obliging--all this
and more. But she dwells in an enchanted land, into which none may
intrude. She preserves it inviolate with extraordinary vigilance and
tact."

"To touch her is forbidden, you mean?"

"Absolutely! Fancy your not understanding that yet!"