me and you--unfeeling child!"

"Well, say what you will, that is what I think and feel," replied
Undine, "whoever brought me up; and all your talking cannot help it."

"Silence!" exclaimed the fisherman, in a voice of stern rebuke; and
she, who with all her wild spirit was extremely alive to fear, shrank
from him, moved close up to Huldbrand, trembling, and said very
softly:

"Are you also angry, dear friend?"

The knight pressed her soft hand, and tenderly stroked her locks.
He was unable to utter a word, for his vexation, arising from the old
man's severity towards Undine, closed his lips; and thus the two
couples sat opposite to each other, at once heated with anger and in
embarrassed silence.

In the midst of this stillness a low knocking at the door startled
them all; for there are times when a slight circumstance, coming
unexpectedly upon us, startles us like something supernatural.
But there was the further source of alarm, that the enchanted forest
lay so near them, and that their place of abode seemed at present
inaccessible to any human being. While they were looking upon one
another in doubt, the knocking was again heard, accompanied with a
deep groan. The knight sprang to seize his sword. But the old man
said, in a low whisper:

"If it be what I fear it is, no weapon of yours can protect us."