piness of seeing her once more! I overcame all obstacles
to our marriage, and I became almost mad with joy and impatience as I
flew like lightning to the home where I left her; and then my only
recompense, my only consolation, was to find her _gone_ and the house of
her fathers a wilderness!--to know, alas! that she is poor, and,
perhaps, languishing in want!--to know that my noble-hearted and beloved
Lenora sinks under the weight of misfortune, and yet to be able to do
nothing to relieve her!--to be condemned to count in powerless despair
her days of affliction, and not even to be sure that suffering has not
killed her!"

A profound silence followed this complaining outburst, and the
peasant-woman, with her head bent to the earth, sympathized with him
truly, till, after a few moments, she attempted to console the sufferer
in her simple way:--

"Oh, sir, I understand only too well how much you endure! And yet why
despair? Who knows but we may receive some news of our dear young lady
when we least expect it? God is good; he will hear our prayers; and our
joy for her return will make us forget all our grief!"

"Oh that your prophecy might be realized, my good woman! But seven
months have already gone since they departed. During three of them a
hundred persons have been employed in seeking the wanderers. They have
been sought for in every direction, and not the slightest intelligence
has been obtained; not a trace, not the least sign that they are even
alive! My reason tells me not to despair; but my heart magnifies my ills
and cries aloud that I have lost her!--lost her forever!"

He was about quitting the garden, when a noise attracted his attention
as he pointed toward the road leading to the _chateau_.

"Listen! Don't you hear something?" cried he.

"It is the gallop of a horse," answered Bess, without comprehending why
the noise so much startled her master.

"Poor fool!" said the young man to himself; "why am I so startled by the
passing of a horseman?"

"But see! see! he is coming into the avenue!" cried Bess, with
increasing interest. "Oh, God! I am sure it is a messenger with news!
Heaven grant it may be good!"

As she said this the rider passed through the gate at full gallop, and,
drawing rein at the door they had just reached, took a letter from his
pocket and handed it to the master of Grinselhof:--

"I come," said he, "from your notary, who ordered me to deliver you this
letter without a moment's d