I have grieved you--I will not do it again.
Ah! I will not now lay a stone on your burden. See, how disobedient I
have been--this ring, and these letters, I have received against your
will and against my promises from Major R. I will now send them back.
See here! read what I have written to him. Our acquaintance is for ever
broken! Pardon me, that I have chosen these hours to busy you with my
affairs, but I feared my own weakness when the force of this hour shall
have passed. Oh, my parents! I feel, I know, that he is not worthy to be
your son! But I have been as it were bewitched--I have loved him beyond
measure;--ah, I love him still--nay, do not weep, mother! You shall
never again shed a tear of grief over me--you have wept already enough
on my account. Since Henrik's death every thing in me is changed. Fear
nothing more for me; I will conquer this, and will become your obedient,
your happy child. Only require not from me that I should give my hand to
another--never will I marry, never belong to another! But for you, my
parents, will I live; I will love you, and with you be happy! Here, my
father, take this, and send it back to him whom I will no more see!
And--Oh, love me! Love me!'

"Tears bedewed the face which she bowed down to her father's knee. Never
had she looked so lovely, so attractive! Ernst was greatly affected; he
laid his hand as if in blessing upon her head, which he raised, and
said:

"'When you were born, Eva, you lay long as if dead; in my arms you first
opened your eyes to the light, and I thanked God. But I thank him
manifold more for you in this moment, in which I see in you the joy and
blessing of our age--in which you have been able to combat with your own
heart, and to do that which is right! God bless you! God reward you!'

"He held her for a long time to his bosom, and his tears wetted her
forehead. I also clasped her in my arms, and let her feel my love and my
gratitude, and then, with a look which beamed through tears, she left
us.

"We called her 'our blessed child' at that time, for she had blessed us
with a great consolation. She had raised again our sunken hearts.

"Ernst went to the window and looked silently into the star-lighted
night; I followed him, and my glance accompanied his, which in this
moment was so beautiful and bright, and laying his arm around me he
spoke thus, as if to himself:

"'It is good! It is so intended--and that is the essential thing! He is
gone! What m