l! farewell! my good, brave
comrades." And Conrad ran away across the field without once stopping.

Reinhold said, "There is something peculiar about this young fellow; we
can't weigh or measure this deed by any ordinary standard. Perhaps the
future will unfold to us the secret that has lain heavy upon his
breast."

_Reinhold leaves Master Martin's house._

If formerly there had been merry days in Master Martin's workshop, so
now they were proportionately dull. Reinhold, incapable of work,
remained confined to his room; Martin, his wounded arm in a sling, was
incessantly abusing the good-for-nothing stranger-apprentice, and
railing at him for the mischief he had wrought Rose, and even Dame
Martha and her children, avoided the scene of the rash savage deed, and
so Frederick's blows fell dull and melancholy enough, like a
woodcutter's in a lonely wood in winter time, for to Frederick it was
now left to finish the big cask alone, and a hard task it was.

And soon his mind and heart were possessed by a profound sadness, for
he believed he had now clear proofs of what he had for a long time
feared. He no longer had any doubt that Rose loved Reinhold. Not
only had she formerly shown many a kindness to Reinhold alone, and
to him alone given many a sweet word, but now--it was as plain as
noonday--since Reinhold could no longer come to work. Rose too no
longer thought of going out, but preferred to stay indoors, no doubt
to wait upon and take good care of her lover. On Sundays, when all the
rest set out gaily, and Master Martin, who had recovered to some extent
of his wound, invited him to walk with him and Rose to the Allerwiese,
he refused the invitation; but, burdened with trouble and the bitter
pain of disappointed love, he hastened off alone to the village and the
hill where he had first met with Reinhold. He threw himself down in the
tall grass where the flowers grew, and as he thought how that the
beautiful star of hope which had shone before him all along his
homeward path had now suddenly set in the blackness of night after he
had reached his goal, and as he thought how that this step which he had
taken was like the vain efforts of a dreamer stretching out his
yearning arms after an empty vision of air,--the tears fell from his
eyes and dropped upon the flowers, which bent their little heads as if
sorrowing for the young journeyman's great unhappiness. Without his
being exactly conscious of it, the