And while he was gazing at it he suddenly started. Just opposite the cross which crowned the altar stood a dark woman clad in gray, of supernatural stature, looking down upon him with big, hollow eyes. It was the penitent Magdalene. He felt a cold shudder run through his frame. “Dame Care,” he murmured, and bent his head as if he wished to accept with humility what she might grant him for life. And when he lifted his eyes again the sun shone more magnificently than before. Fiery red and emerald green sparkled the rays, weaving a radiant halo round the gray dame’s head. But she stood there sadly in the midst of all the brilliant radiance, and stared down upon him with her big, hollow eyes. Then the organ began the finale with swelling chords. A joyful thrill passed through the congregation. The troop of children hastened to throw themselves into the arms of their parents, and a kindly glance greeted him from Elsbeth’s eyes. CHAPTER VIII. Paul now began to help with the farming. He faithfully kept the vow which he had made on the morning of his confirmation. He worked like the meanest of his servants, and when his mother begged him to spare himself, he kissed her hand and replied, “You know we have a great deal to make good.” In the evening, when the servants had retired to rest and the twins had frollicked till they fell asleep, mother and son often sat together for hours and planned and calculated; but when some resolution had ripened within them and a gleam of hope shone from their eyes, it often happened that they would suddenly start and let their heads droop with a sigh; but neither of them gave utterance to that which weighed on their minds. About this time Frau Elsbeth began to age rapidly. Long, deep furrows lined her face, her chin became very prominent, and silver streaks appeared in her hair. Only from the depths of her sorrowful eyes one could still see how beautiful she had once been. “Yes, you see, I am quite an old woman now,” she said to her son one morning, as she combed her hair before the looking-glass, “and luck has never yet come.” “Hush, mother, what else am I here for?” he answered, though he did not feel hopeful at all. Then she smiled sadly, stroked his cheeks and his brow, and said, “Yes, you certainly look as if you had caught luck in its flight! but I won’t speak like this,” she continued; “what should I do without you?” Such moments of overflowing love had to satisfy them for a long time, for often months passed by without mother or son daring to say any loving words to each other; their hearts were too sorrowful. The twins meanwhile grew up--two frolicksome, apple-cheeked tomboys, for whom no tree was too high, no ditch too deep. Their curly brown hair fell over their foreheads in a thousand little ringlets, and beneath them two pairs of eyes peeped out, as full of mischief and as sparkling, both with shyness and impudence, as if a stray sunbeam were laughing out of black forest depths.