again like moss blown through a flame. The electric
light seemed to make a road through the park, spread a silver carpet
over it, and invite the two who watched its course to walk along this
shining road to the distance where the shadowy white shapes hovered in
the shrubbery, appearing and disappearing.

The temptation was irresistible.

"Let us go down," said Ada, and a few minutes later, with a light
mantilla over her shoulders, she was walking by his side over the
creaking gravel of the avenue and then over the noiseless side paths.

How blissful is the wandering of a handsome young couple, with glowing
hearts in their breasts, through a moonlit, fragrant summer night!
Their feet do not feel the earth on which they tread, but seem to be
floating on clouds. Nothing is left of the world save these two and
the night which maternally conceals them--he and she, naught else, like
Adam and Eve, when they were the only human dwellers in Paradise.

A damp branch of the bushes often brushed Ada's shoulders like an
affectionate, caressing hand, as she slowly passed along. Now and then
a bird whose nest was in the underbrush, disturbed in its sleep,
fluttered up before them, and, stupid with slumber, flew to a
neighboring bough. Ada sometimes plucked a flower, or cautiously
touched with her finger one of the little glow worms, which in great
numbers edged the path with their greenish light. They went down to
the Main and back again to the park fence, facing Marktbreit. Just as
they reached it the clock struck one, and the night watchman blew his
horn, and again solemnly intoned his old-fashioned melody:

"One thing, Lord God of truth, we want;
A happy death to us all grant."

The full magic of the moment held them both in its thrall. Bergmann
passionately clasped Ada's head between his hands, and pressed a long,
ardent kiss on her golden hair and her white brow. Drawing a long
breath, she submitted, not shrinking back until his burning lips sought
hers. Their hearts beat audibly as they continued their walk, and long
pauses interrupted their faltering speech.

What did they say to each other? Why repeat it? One who has never had
such conversations will not understand them, and one who has
experienced them, only needs to be reminded of them. They are always
the same. Memories of childhood, rapture and extravagance, words of
enthusiastic love, words which create the slight tremor of the skin
like a cool