by the Luitpoldbrucke
now, and she went towards the bridge, which lay upon their homeward
route. Von Ibn followed her lead placidly until they were upon the
opposite bank, when he suddenly halted.

"Have you lost something?" she asked, stopping also.

"No, but I asked you some question just now and you have never reply."

"What was it?"

"About believing."

"But I am going so soon," she objected.

"How soon?"

"In December."

"It is then all settled?" he inquired, with interest.

"Yes."

"But you can unsettle it?" he reminded her eagerly.

"I don't want to unsettle it--I want to go."

He stared at her blankly.

"How have I offended you?" he asked after a while.

"You have not offended me," she said, much surprised.

"But you say that you want to go?"

"That is because I feel that I must go."

"Why must you go? why do you not stay here this winter?--or, hold! why
do you not go to Dresden? Later I also must go to Dresden, and it would
be so _gemuthlich_, in Dresden together."

"It will be _gemuthlich_ for me to get home, too."

"Do you wish much to go?"

"Yes; I think that I do."

Then she wondered if she was really speaking the truth, and, going to
the edge of the bank, looked abstractedly down into the rapid current.

"What do you think?" he asked, following her there.

She turned her face towards him with a smile.

"I cannot help feeling curious as to whether, when I shall really be
again in America, I shall know a longing for--for the Isar, or not?"

"I wonder, shall I ever be in America," he said thoughtfully; "and if I
ever should come there, where do you think would be for me the most
interesting?"

"_Chez moi_," she laughed.

He smiled in amusement at her quick answer.

"But I shall never come to America," he went on presently; "I do not
think it is a healthy country. I have an uncle who did die of the yellow
fever in Chili."

"There is more of America than Chili; that's in South America--quite
another country from mine."

"Yes, I know; your land is where the men had the war with the negroes
before they make them all free. I study all that once and find it quite
dull."

"The war was between the Northern and Southern States of North
America--" she began.

"_Ca ne m'interesse du tout_," he broke in; "let us walk on."

They walked on, and there was a lengthy pause in the conversation,
because Rosina considered his interruption to be extremely rude and
would not broach an