by the railway."

"No, by boat. Is no boat going?"

"Certainly; one this very night."

"I will go with you. But leave me now, leave me. Here is my hand, I go
with you."

She sat motionless, her hands folded, her eyes closed. Sonnenkamp took
her hand firmly in his, touched her wedding-ring, and drew it gently
from her finger.

"What are you doing?" exclaimed Bella in sudden passion. Her eyes were
fixed on Sonnenkamp; she saw the ring in his hand.

"Let me keep it as a pledge," he urged.

"What do you mean? We are not people to make a scene. Give it to me."

He gave back the ring; but she did not return it to her finger.

That night, a steamer stopped at the little town; there was a storm of
wind and rain, and the engine screeched and hissed. On the wharf stood
a man wrapped in his cloak, and presently a tall veiled figure passed
him.

"Leave me to myself!" the woman said as she hurried by.

A plank was laid across from the steamer: the woman crossed it,
followed by the man.

The plank was drawn up, the boat turned, and steamed away into the
darkness and the storm. No one was on deck except those two figures:
the sailors made haste into the cabin. The pilot, wrapped in his suit
of India-rubber, whistled softly to himself as he turned the wheel.

The tall figure of the woman, muffled in black, stood upon the deck of
the steamer as it shot down the stream. Long she stood, abstractedly
gazing at the water and the towns and villages on the shore, with here
and there a light flashing from the windowpanes, and casting a
swiftly-vanishing gleam upon the river. A fiery shower, a stream, of
bright sparks from the chimney, swept over the figure. A hand appeared
from under the folds of the cloak; it held a ring between its fingers
for a while, then dropped it into the stream below.

BOOK XIV.

CHAPTER I.

MANY KINDS OF LOVE.

The modest little dwelling of the Major became once more the place
where all sought rest and found it.

As Eric had first gone to the Major to tell him of his happiness, so
the Cooper also, and his betrothed, first sought the Major and Fraeulein
Milch, to tell their new-found joy.

Here they met Knopf, who was an especial favorite with Fraeulein Milch,
because he had a faculty for being taken care of; and besides he had
brought her a great many books in former days, and instructed her