kerchief; it
seemed to me that this would almost be an offense. Eva went away with
the flowers, but the next morning it seemed to me that she was uneasy; I
fancied I saw her color come and go when I bade her adieu! She must have
read the thoughts in my soul!"

"And the handkerchief?" interrupted Otto.

"I gave it to my sister Sophie," said Wilhelm.

CHAPTER XXXV

"Tell me
What would my heart?
My heart's with thee,
With thee would have a part."
GOETHE'S West-oestlicher Divan.

"There stands the man again--
The man with gloomy mien."
Memories of Travel, by B. C. INGEMANN.

Several days passed; the fine crimson again returned to Eva's cheeks.
The first occasion of her going out with the others was to see the
rape-stalks burned. These were piled together in two immense stacks. In
the morning, at the appointed hour, which had been announced through
the neighborhood that no one might mistake it for a conflagration, the
stalks were set fire to. This took place in the nearest field, close
beside the hall, where the rape-seed was threshed upon an out-spread
sail.

The landscape-painter, Dahl, has given us a picture of the burning
Vesuvius, where the red lava pours down the side of the mountain; in the
background one sees across the bay as far as Naples and Ischia: it is a
piece full of great effect. Such a splendid landscape is not to be found
in flat Denmark, where there are no great natural scenes, and yet this
morning presented even there a picture with the same brilliant coloring.
We will study it. In the foreground there is a hedge of hazels, the nuts
hang in great clusters, and contrast strongly with their bright green
against the dark leaves; the blue chicory-flower and the blood-red poppy
grew on the side of the ditch, upon which are some tall rails, over
which the ladies have to climb: the delicate sylph-like figure is Eva.
In the field, where nothing remains but the yellow stubble, stand Otto
and Wilhelm; two magnificent hounds wag their tails beside them. To the
left is a little lake, thickly overgrown with reeds and water-lilies,
with the yellow trollius for its border. In the front, where the wood
retreats, lie, like a great stack, the piled-together rape-stalks: the
man has struck fire, has kindled the outer side of them, and with a
rapidity like that of the descending lava the red fire flashes up the
gigantic pile. It crackles and