him. No wonder; he is soulless, shallow, and
unthinking as a mirror, in whom no feeling can pierce the surface. He
has two or three times seen that you were displeased with me, that I
in my childishness could not help weeping, and that Bertalda might
chance to laugh at the same moment. And upon this he builds all manner
of unjust suspicions, and interferes, unasked, in our concerns. What
is the use of my reproaching him, or repulsing him with angry words?
He believes nothing that I say. A poor cold life is his! How should he
know, that the sorrows and the joys of love are so sweetly alike, so
closely linked, that it is not in human power to part them. When a
tear gushes out, a smile lies beneath; and a smile will draw the tears
from their secret cells."

She smiled through her tears in Huldbrand's face, and a warm ray of
his former love shot through his heart. She perceived this, pressed
closer to him, and with a few tears of joy she went on.

"As I found it impossible to get rid of our tormentor by words, I had
nothing for it, but to shut the door against him. And his only access
to us was that fountain. He has quarrelled with the other fountain
spirits in the surrounding valleys, and it is much lower down the
Danube, below the junction of some friends with the great river, that
his power begins again. Therefore I stopped the mouth of our fountain,
and inscribed the stone with characters which cripple the might of my
restless uncle; so that he can no longer cross your path, or mine, or
Bertalda's. Men can indeed lift the stone off as easily as ever; the
inscription has no power over them. So you are free to comply with
Bertalda's wish; but indeed, she little knows what she asks. Against
her the wild Kuehleborn has a most particular spite, and if some of his
forebodings were to come true, (as they might, without her intending
any harm) O, dearest, even thou wert not free from danger!"

Huldbrand deeply felt the generosity of his noble-minded wife, in so
zealously shutting out her formidable protector, even when reviled by
Bertalda for so doing. He clasped her fondly in his arms, and said
with much emotion, "The stone shall remain; and everything shall be
done as thou wishest, now and hereafter, my sweetest Undine."

Scarce could she trust these words of love, after so dreary an
estrangement; she returned his caresses with joyful but timid
gratitude, and at length said, "My own dear love, as you are so
exceedingly k