Together the knight and his wife went to the door of the cottage, and
looked out at the meadows and the lake lying in the morning sunshine.

'Why should we leave this quiet spot to-day?' said Huldbrand, for well
he loved the island where he had found his beautiful bride. 'In the
great world we will spend no gladder days than in this simple
meadow-land. Let us, then, yet linger here for a few days.'

'It shall be as you wish,' answered Undine. 'Yet will my
foster-parents grieve the more when I leave them, should they learn
that I have now a soul. To-day they only marvel that I am kind and
thoughtful, thinking that to-morrow I will once again be wild and
careless as of old. But should I dwell here much longer they will know
that never in the days to come will I be thoughtless as in former
days. For I cannot hide my new gift. They will hear it in my voice,
they will feel it in my touch, they will see it in my eyes. And having
known that now, at length, I could love them well, they would grieve
to lose me.'

'We will leave to-day, this very hour,' said the knight, so pleased
was he with Undine's new care for her kind old foster-parents.

The priest who had found shelter in the cottage was also ready to
return to his monastery. He would journey with the knight and his lady
until they were safe from the perils of the haunted wood.

Accordingly they sought the fisherman and his wife, and told them that
now they must leave the shelter of their cottage and journey toward
the city that lay beyond the forest.