he wings then?"

"It is only a story," answered Reinhard; "there are no angels, you
know."

"Oh, fie! Reinhard!" she said, staring him straight in the face.

He looked at her with a frown, and she asked him hesitatingly: "Well,
why do they always say there are? mother, and aunt, and at school as
well?"

"I don't know," he answered.

"But tell me," said Elisabeth, "are there no lions either?"

"Lions? Are there lions? In India, yes. The heathen priests harness
them to their carriages, and drive about the desert with them. When
I'm big, I mean to go out there myself. It is thousands of times more
beautiful in that country than it is here at home; there's no winter
at all there. And you must come with me. Will you?"

"Yes," said Elisabeth; "but mother must come with us, and your mother
as well."

"No," said Reinhard, "they will be too old then, and cannot come with
us."

"But I mayn't go by myself."

"Oh, but you may right enough; you will then really be my wife, and