through the power of love.

Bertalda listened to the strange story in silence, but as she listened
she felt a faint feeling of dread creep into her heart. And the
feeling grew and grew until at last it seemed to stand as a wall
between her and the gentle Undine.

At supper that evening she began to be sorry for the knight, who had
married a lady beautiful indeed and good, yet one who seemed to belong
to another world than theirs.




CHAPTER XII

CASTLE RINGSTETTEN


Now as the days passed, a change crept over those who dwelt in the
castle.

Huldbrand saw that Bertalda seemed to shrink away from his beautiful
wife. And when at length he asked her the reason that she no longer
loved Undine so well as she had been used to do, she told him that she
now knew from whence his wife had come. 'And for the spirit world,'
said Bertalda, 'I do not care, for I know it not. It and those who
have dwelt there fill me with fear and dread.'

Little by little the knight himself began to look at his wife with