e descending sun, with the same feelings, the same
thoughts, ardent and adoring in the waste, dead solitude. Susanna could
not resist the feelings of deep and solemn emotion which filled her
heart. She extended her hand to Harald, and her tearful look seemed to
say, "Peace! peace!" Susanna felt this a leave-taking, but a
leave-taking in love. In that moment she could have clasped the whole
world to her breast. She felt herself raised above all contention, all
spite, all littleness. This great spectacle had awakened something great
within her, and in her countenance _Sanna_ beamed in beautiful and mild
illumination.

Harald, on the contrary, seemed to think of no leave-taking; for he held
Susanna's hand fast in his, and was about to speak; but she hastily
withdrew it, and, turning herself from him, said:

"We must now think about supper!"

The fire outside the cave blazed up cheerfully, and in the eastern
heaven uprose the moon amid rose-coloured clouds.

Soon was Susanna, lively and cheerful, busied by the fire. From cakes of
bouillon and prepared groats which she had brought with her, she
prepared an excellent soup, in which pieces of veal were warmed. Whilst
this boiled, she distributed bread, cheese, and brandy to the men who
accompanied them, and cared with particular kindness for the old guide.
Harald allowed her to do all this, without assisting her in the least.
He sate upon a stone, at a little distance, supported on his gun, and
observed her good and cheerful countenance lighted up by the fire, her
lively movements and her dexterity in all which she undertook. He
thought upon her warm heart, her ingenuous mind, her activity; he
thought upon the evenings of the former winter, or when he read aloud,
related stories to her, and how she listened and felt the while. All at
once it seemed to him that the ideal of a happy life, which for so many
years had floated before his mind, now was just near to him. It stood
there, beside the flames of the nocturnal fire, and was lighted up by
them. Alette's warnings flitted from before him like the
thence-hastening night-mists, without shape or reality. He saw himself
the possessor of an estate which he would ennoble as Oberlin has done
the sunken rocky valley; saw himself surrounded by dependents and
neighbours, to whose happiness he really contributed; he saw himself in
his home--he contemplated it in the most trying light--the long winter
evenings; but it dimmed not ther