ly felt pleasantly excited, because he had been told
that Moritz and Jeno and the others were coming over presently and that
they meant to carry him in his chair, just as he was, so that he could
be present at his daughter's "maiden's farewell." This had greatly
elated him: he was looking forward to the rich food and the luscious
wine which his rich future son-in-law was providing for his guests.

And now, when Elsa came to him, dressed in all her pretty finery, he
loved to look on her, and his dulled eyes glowed with an enthusiasm
which had lain atrophied in him these past two years.

He was like a child now with a pretty doll, and Elsa, delighted at the
pleasure which she was giving him, turned about and around, allowed him
to examine her beautiful petticoats, to look at her new red boots and to
touch with his lifeless fingers the beads of solid gold which her fiance
had given her.

Suddenly, while she was thus displaying her finery for the benefit of
her paralytic father, she heard the loud bang of the cottage door.
Someone had entered, someone with a heavy footstep which resounded
through the thin partition between the two rooms.

She thought it must be one of the young men, perhaps, with the poles for
the carrying-chair; and she wondered vaguely why he had come so early.

She explained to the invalid that an unexpected visitor had come, and
that she must go and see what he wanted; and then, half ashamed that
someone should see her contrary to her mother's express orders and to
all the proprieties, she went to the door and opened it.

The visitor had not closed the outer door when he had entered, and thus
a gleam of brilliant September daylight shot straight into the narrow
room; it revealed the tall figure of a man dressed in town clothes, who
stood there for all the world as if he had a perfect right to do so, and
who looked straight on Elsa as she appeared before him in the narrow
frame of the inner door.

His face was in full light. She recognized him in the instant.

But she could not utter his name, she could not speak; her heart began
to beat so fast that she felt that she must choke.

The next moment his arms were round her, he kicked the outer door to
with his foot, and then he dragged her further into the room; he called
her name, and all the while he was laughing--laughing with the glee of a
man who feels himself to be supremely happy.

CHAPTER XII

"It is too late."

And now there h