her, she threw her arms round him with passionate grief; unscared by his
fixed gaze or the altered hue of his beloved face, she kissed his lips
and cheeks, exclaiming:

"Grandfather, dear grandfather, do not leave us; stay with us, pray, pray
stay with us!"

Something faintly resembling a smile parted his parched lips, and all the
tenderness with which his soul was overflowing for this sweet young bud
of humanity would have found expression in his voice but that he could
only mutter huskily:

"Mary, my darling! For your sake I should be glad to live a long while
yet, a very long while; but the other world--I am standing already on its
threshold. Good-bye--I must indeed say good-bye."

"No, no--I will pray; oh! I will pray so fervently that you may get well
again!" cried the child. But he replied:

"Nay, nay. The Saviour is already taking me by the hand. Farewell, and
again farewell. Did you bring Paula? I do not see her. Did you bring
Paula with you, sweetheart? She--did she leave us in anger? If she only
knew; ah! your Paula has treated us ill." The child's heart was still
full of the horrible crime which had so revolted her truthful nature, and
which had deprived her of rest all through an evening, a long night and
a morning; she laid her little head close to that of the old man--her
dearest and best friend. For years he had filled her father's place, and
now he was dying, leaving her forever! But she could not let him depart
with a false idea of the woman whom she worshipped with all the fervor of
her child's heart; in a subdued voice, but with eager feeling, she said,