great provocation, from betraying that she had detected him in the theft
of the emerald? All was not yet lost; and he breathed more freely as he
went back to the house where duty, and his anxiety for his father,
required his presence. There were his flowers, floating on the stream.

"Hatred cast them there," thought he, "but before they reach the sea many
blossoms will have opened which were mere hard buds when she flung them
away. She can never love any man but me, I feel it, I know it. The
first time we looked into each other's eyes the fate of our hearts was
sealed. What she hates in me is my mad crime; what first set her against
me was her righteous anger at my suit for Katharina. But that sin was
but a dream in my life, which can never recur; and as for Katharina--I
have sinned against her once, but I will not continue to sin through a
whole, long lifetime. I have been permitted to trifle with love
unpunished so often, that at last I have learnt to under-estimate its
power. I could laugh as I sacrificed mine to my mother's wishes; but
that, and that alone, has given rise to all these horrors. But no, all
is not yet lost! Paula will listen to me; and when she sees what my
inmost feelings are--when I have confessed all to her, good and evil
alike--when she knows that my heart did but wander, and has returned to
her who has taught me that love is no jest, but solemn earnest, swaying
all mankind, she will come round--everything will come right."

A noble and rapturous light came into his face, and as he walked on, his
hopes rose:

"When she is mine I know that everything good in me that I have inherited
from my forefathers will blossom forth. When my mother called me to my
father's bed-side, she said: 'Come, Orion, life is earnest for you and me
and all our house, your father. . .' Yes, it is earnest indeed, however