than a mere freak of Nature!"

"Only do not let Nature play her freaks with you!" said Otto,
smiling, and raised his hand. "You speak often of Eva."

"Here it was association of ideas," answered Wilhelm. "The contrast
awoke remembrance."

Otto entered his chamber--he opened the window; it was a moonlight
night. From the near wood resounded laughter and song. They came
from the young men and girls, who, on their wandering, gave
themselves up to merriment. Otto stood silent and full of thought
in the open window. Perhaps it was the moon which lent her paleness
to his countenance. On what did he reflect? Upon his departure,
perhaps? Only one more day would he remain here, where he felt
himself so much at home; but then the journey was toward his own
house, to his grandfather, to Rosalie, and the old preacher, who
all thought so much of him. Otto stood listening and silent. The
wind bore the song more distinctly over from the wood.

"That is their joy, their happiness!" said he. "It might have been
my joy also, my happiness!" lay in the sigh which he heaved. His
lips did not move, his thoughts alone spoke their silent language.
"I might have stood on a level with these; my soul might have been
chained to the dust, and yet it would have been the same which I
now possess, with which I long to compass all worlds! the same,
endowed with this sentiment of pride, which drives me on to active
exertion. My fate wavered whether I should become one such as these
or whether I should rise into that circle which the world calls the
higher. The mist-form did not sink down into the mire, but rose