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When the Easter vacation came Reinhard journeyed home. On the morning
after his arrival he went to see Elisabeth.

"How tall you've grown," he said, as the pretty, slender girl advanced
with a smile to meet him. She blushed, but made no reply; he had taken
her hand in his own in greeting, and she tried to draw it gently away.
He looked at her doubtingly, for never had she done that before; but
now it was as if some strange thing was coming between them.

The same feeling remained, too, after he had been at home for some
time and came to see her constantly day after day. When they sat alone
together there ensued pauses in the conversation which distressed him,
and which he anxiously did his best to avoid. In order to have a
definite occupation during the holidays, he began to give Elisabeth
some instruction in botany, in which he himself had been keenly
interested during the early months of his university career.

Elisabeth, who was wont to follow him in all things and was moreover
very quick to learn, willingly entered into the proposal. So now
several times in the week they made excursions into the fields or the
moors, and if by midday they brought home their green field-box full
of plants and flowers, Reinhard would come again later in the day and
share with Elisabeth what they had collected in common.