men's cottages, one little line of them in a green nest
of rushes and willows along the water's edge, with a hill at the back,
and some way up the hill a small, dilapidated church, forlorn and
spireless, in a churchyard bare of trees.

We dropped anchor in the glassy bay about two o'clock, the last bit of
the Vitter Bodden having been slow, almost windless work, and were rowed
ashore in a dinghy, there not being enough water within a hundred yards
to float so majestic a craft as the _Bertha_. The skipper leaned over
the side of his brig watching us go and wishing us _viel Vergnuegen_. The
dinghy and the two rowers were to wait at the little landing-stage till
such time as we should want them again. Gertrud came with us, carrying
the landlady's basket of food.

'Once more thou takest the excellent but unprepossessing Gertrud with
thee?' inquired the Professor with increased displeasure.

'Yes. To carry the cakes.'

'Tut, tut.' And he muttered something that sounded irritable about the
_lieber Gott_ having strewn the world with so many plain women.

'_This_ isn't the time to bother about plain women,' I said. 'Don't you
feel in every fibre that you are within a stone's throw of your
Charlotte? I am sure we have caught her this time.'

For a moment he had forgotten Charlotte, and all his face grew radiant
at the reminder. With the alacrity of eighteen he leapt ashore, and we
hurried along a narrow rushy path at the water's edge to the one inn, a
small cottage of the simplest sort, overlooking green fields and placid
water. A trim servant in Sunday raiment was clearing away coffee cups
from a table in the tiny front garden, and of her we asked, with some
trembling after our many disappointments, whether Frau Nieberlein were
there.

Yes, she was staying there, but had gone up on to the downs after
dinner. In which direction? Past the church, up the lighthouse way.

The Professor darted off before she had done. I hastened after him.
Gertrud waited at the inn. With my own eyes I wished to see that he
actually did meet Charlotte, for the least thing would make him forget
what he had come for; and so nimble was he, so winged with love, that I
had to make desperate and panting efforts to get up to the top of the
hill as soon as he did. Up we sped in silence past the bleak churchyard
on to what turned out to be the most glorious downs. On the top the
Professor stopped a moment to wipe his forehead, and looking back for
th