know everything?"

"But you do not know, or have forgotten, that love does not
calculate--so much have you, and so much have I. Collect yourself and
build up your happiness for yourself and your lover, and your parents,
and all who mean well and kindly by you, as I do. Hush! There's someone
coming up stairs."

The door opened; the counselor entered, and the judge's wife embraced
him.

"Welcome, dear Julius."

Thoma stood at one side, and the judge's wife introduced her brother,
the government counselor. Thoma could not answer a word. A counselor is
a brother, and is called "dear Julius!" A government counselor was to
her a sort of executioner, who brought people to the block. And now, as
this courteous gentleman put his eye-glass up, she was aware that this
was the man who had prosecuted her father. Defiance and smiles
alternated swiftly in her manner. "Would not I, too, have defended
myself against this man with all means in my power?" She did not
recover her speech until, after the introduction, the counselor let his
eyeglass fall. As if in a dream, she heard him say:

"Your father made a master-stroke. He played for a high stake, but he
won it. I wish him good fortune. Give him my greeting."

"So, even the judges do not look at it so severely!" Thoma thought.

The counselor opened the piano, ran his fingers over the keys, and said
to his sister:

"I shall be glad to play a duet with you again."

Thoma prepared to go. The judge's wife accompanied her to the stairs,
and begged her again not to delay making things happy and right once
more. She should remember that we do not know how long we shall have
our parents, and then repentance comes too late.

A sudden fear overcame Thoma that she had stayed here too long, and she
hastened homeward. At the pear-tree the Galloping Cooper met her, and
said that he had been sent to tell her to come home quickly; that her
mother was very ill.

CHAPTER LXIV.

Not long after Thoma had gone, her mother called Landolin and said:

"Put your mind at ease and be cheerful again. You may be sure that
Thoma will come home with pure happiness and blessing. Everything will
be right again. She will come holding Anton's hand."

Landolin was silent. He was struck by his wife's glorified expression,
and changed voice. She closed her eyes, but after a while she said,
laughing:

"Walderjoergli! Nothing has pleased me so much for a long time as h