They could say nothing
that did not mock the weight on their hearts, and seem trivial and
impertinent because it was exclusive of more important matter. The
utmost they could do was to lay their hearts open toward each other to
receive every least impression of voice, and look, and manner, to be
remembered afterward. At evening they went into the minster church,
and sitting in the shadows listened to the sweet shrill choir of boys
whose music distilled the honey of sorrow, and as the deep bass organ
chords gripped their hearts with the tones that underlie all weal and
woe, they looked in each other's eyes and did for a space feel so near
that all the separation that could come after seemed but a trifling
thing.

It was all arranged between them. He was to earn money, or get a
position in business, and return in a year or two at most and bring
her to America.

"Oh," she said once, "if I could but sleep till thou comest again to
wake me, how blessed I should be; but, alas, I must wake all through
the desolate time!"

Although for the most part she comforted him rather than he her, yet
at times she gave way, and once suddenly turned to him and hid her
face on his breast, and said, trembling with tearless sobs:

"I know I shall never see thee more, Karl. Thou wilt forget me in thy
great far land and wilt love another. My heart tells me so."

And then she raised her head and her streaming eyes blazed with anger.

"I will hover about thee, and if thou lovest another I will kill her
as she sleeps by thy side."

And the woman must have loved him much, who, after seeing that look of
hers, would have married him. But a moment after she was listening
with abject ear to his promises.

The day came at last. He was to leave at three o'clock. After the
noontide meal Ida's mother sat with them and they talked a little
about America, Frau Werner exerting herself to give a cheerful tone to
the conversation, and Randall answering her questions absently and
without taking his eyes off Ida, who felt herself beginning to be
seized with a nervous trembling. At last Frau Werner rose and silently
left the room, looking back at them as she closed the door with eyes
full of tears. Then as if by a common impulse they rose and put their
arms about each other's necks, and their lips met in a long shuddering
kiss. The breath came quicker and quicker; sobs broke the kisses;
tears poured down and made them salt and bitter as parting kisses
s