full of plans. Wait, only wait! In Italy I shall learn to fly, and when
I have finished my Holy Family and my Temple of Art, with all the skill
I intend to attain...."

"Then, then, what will happen then?"

"Then you will perhaps change your opinion and cease your tutoring, once
for all. This fault-finding, this warning vexes me. It spoils my
pleasure, it clouds my fancy. You are poisoning my happiness, you--
you....the croaker's voice is disagreeable to me."

Isabella sadly bent her head in silence. Ulrich approached her, saying:

"I do not wish to wound you, Belita; indeed, I do not. You mean well,
and you love me, a poor forsaken fellow; do you not, little girl?"

"Yes, Ulrich, and that is just why I have told you what I think. You are
rejoicing now in the thought of Italy...."

"Very, very much, unspeakably! There, too, I will remember you, and what
a dear, faithful, wise little creature you are. Let us part in
friendship, Isabella. Come with me; that would be the best way!"

The young girl flushed deeply, and made no answer except: "How gladly I
would!"

The words sounded so affectionate and came so tenderly from the inmost
depths of the heart, that they entered his soul. And while she spoke,
her eyes gazed so faithfully, lovingly, and yearningly into his, that he
saw nothing else. He read in them love, true, self-sacrificing love; not