"He received me kindly. And the pretty elf up yonder?"

"His child by his first marriage, but now mine also. How do you happen
to call her the elf?"

"Because she looks as if she had been born among white flowers in the
moonlight, and because the afterglow of the sunrise, from which the elves
flee, crimsoned her cheeks when I caught her."

"She has already received the name once," said Maria. "May I take you to
my husband?"

"Not now, Frau Van der Werff, for I must attend to my men outside, but
to-morrow, if you will allow me."

Maria found the dishes smoking on the dining-table. Her family had
waited for her, and, heated by the rapid walk at noon, excited by her
unexpected meeting with the young German, she opened the door of the
study and called to her husband:

"Excuse me! I was detained. It is very late."

"We were very willing to wait," he answered kindly, approaching her.
Then all she had resolved to do returned to her memory and, for the first
time since her marriage, she raised her husband's hand to her lips. He
smilingly withdrew it, kissed her on the forehead, and said:

"It is delightful to have you here."

"Isn't it?" she asked, gently shaking her finger at him.