. Willy was greatly amazed, but
he, too, burst out laughing and said in his comic fashion:

"Oh, in that case I certainly am _de trop_."

When Frederick and Eva returned in the evening, to the handsome
dining-room of the Meriden Hotel, a delicate charm, a tender warmth
hovered about them, making them younger and comelier. Their friends
observed it. To their own surprise, these two human beings had been
penetrated by a new element and a new life. Though they had been steering
towards it, neither of them had had a divination of it even a short time
before. That evening champagne was drunk.

A week later the little colony of artists saw Miss Burns and Frederick
off on the _Auguste Victoria_.

"I am going to follow you soon," Willy bawled as the steamer began to
move from the pier.

Every day on board the steamer was a Sunday to Frederick and Eva. The
afternoon of the third day the captain, never suspecting that he was
speaking to one of the survivors of the _Roland_, said:

"It was hereabouts that the _Roland_ went down about three months ago."

The sea was smooth, like a sky eternally cloudless. Dolphins were
sporting in the waters. The night following that afternoon, a glorious
night, became Frederick's and Eva's wedding night. In blissful dreams
they were carried over the place of horror which was the grave of the
_Roland_.

At the quay in Cuxhaven, Frederick's parents were awaiting him with
his children. He saw nothing but his children. He held them, all three
of them, in his arms for a whole minute. They laughed and chattered
and clung to him wildly. Eva approached them, and everything was
self-understood.

After all could get their breath again, Frederick made several obeisances
and laid both hands on the ground, while looking into Eva's eyes. Then he
arose and held up his finger to command silence. From the broad stretches
of the fields with their young crops came the thousand-throated trilling
of the larks.

"This is Germany, this is Europe! What of it, if after an hour like this,
one should sink?"

The captain of the _Auguste Victoria_ passed by and greeted Frederick.

"Do you know," said Frederick in his overflowing spirits, "do you know,
I am actually one of the survivors of the _Roland_?"

"Indeed!" said the captain, adding, as he walked away, "Yes, we always
cross the same ocean. I hope you have a pleasant trip, Doctor von
Kammacher."

THE END

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook