oped about
for a pencil and when he had found one he sat down and wrote a few
lines on a sheet of white paper. Having finished his writing he took
up hat and stick, and leaving the paper behind him, carefully opened
the door and descended to the vestibule.

The morning twilight yet brooded in every corner; the big house-cat
stretched its limbs on the straw mat and arched its back against
Reinhard's hand, which he unthinkingly held out to it. Outside in the
garden the sparrows were already chirping their patter from among the
branches, and giving notice to all that the night was now past.[9]

[9] Literally, "sang out pompously, like priests." The word seems to
have been coined by the author. The English 'patter' is derived from
_Pater noster_, and seems an appropriate translation.

Then within the house he heard a door open on the upper floor; some
one came downstairs, and on looking up he saw Elisabeth standing
before him. She laid her hand upon his arm, her lips moved, but not a
word did he hear.

Presently she said: "You will never come back. I know it; do not deny
it; you will never come back."

"No, never," he said.

She let her hand fall from his arm and said no more. He crossed the
hall to the door, then turned once more. She was standing motionless
on the same spot and looking at him with lifeless eyes. He advanced
one step and opened his arms toward her; then, with a violent effort,
he turned away and so passed out of the door.

Outside the world lay bathed in morning light, the drops of pearly dew
caught on the spiders' webs glistened in the first rays of the rising
sun. He never looked back; he walked rapidly onward; behind him the
peaceful farmstead gradually disappeared from view as out in front of
him rose the great wide world.

* * * * *

THE OLD MAN

The moon had ceased to shine in through the window-panes, and it had
grown quite dark; but the old man still sat in his arm-chair with
folded hands and gazed before him into the emptiness of the room.

Gradually, the murky darkness around him dissolved away before his
eyes and changed into a broad dark lake; one black wave after another
went rolling on farther and farther, and on the last one, so far away
as to be almost beyond the reach of the old man's vision, floated
lonely among its broad leaves a white water-lily.

The door opened, and a bright glare of light filled the room.

"I am glad that you