g-place, and Loulou
even did not seem particularly miserable. The fact was, that at the
bottom of her not very sentimental nature, she did not take the leaving
of the Schloss hotel as a matter of great importance, and Ostend with
its balls and concerts, its casino and lively society, was not in the
least alarming to her. She found the opportunity that evening of
consoling Wilhelm, and promised him always to think about him, and to
write to him very often, and said she could not be very miserable about
their separation, as she felt so happy at the thought of meeting him
again in Berlin. The following morning they made a pilgrimage to the
castle, the woods, the neighboring valley, to all the places where they
had been so happy during the last fortnight. The sky was blue, the pine
woods quiet, the air balmy, and the beautiful outline of the mountains
unfolded itself far away in the depth of the horizon. Wilhelm drank in
the quiet, lovely picture, and felt that a piece of his life was woven
into this harmony of nature, and that these surroundings had become
part of his innermost "ego," and would be mingled with his dearest
feelings now and ever. His love, and these mountains and valleys, and
Loulou, the mist and perfume of the pine trees, were forever one, and
the pantheistic devotion which he felt in these changing flights of his
mind with the soul of nature grew to an almost unspeakable emotion, as
he said in a trembling voice to Loulou:

"It is all so wonderful, the mountains and the woods, and the
summer-time and our love. And in a moment it will be gone. Shall we
ever be so happy again? If we could only stay here always, the same
people in the midst of the same nature!"

She said nothing, but let him take her answer from her fresh lips.

They left by the Offenberg railway station in the afternoon. Loulou's
eyes were wet. Frau Ellrich smiled in a motherly way at Wilhelm, and
Herr Ellrich took his hand in a friendly manner and said:

"We shall see you in Berlin at the end of September."

As the train disappeared down the Gutach valley, it seemed to Wilhelm
as if all the light of heaven had gone out, and the world had become
empty. He stayed a few days longer at the Schloss hotel, and cherished
the remembrance of his time there with Loulou, dreaming for hours in
the dearly-loved spots. In this tender frame of mind he received
another letter from Paul Haber, who wrote thus:

"DEAREST WILHELM: Your letter of the 13t