It seemed to her that a full minute must have elapsed before she brought her lips to move, but in reality she answered almost immediately: "It is nothing—nothing whatever. I am quite ready—I will come now." Outwardly pale and calm, she had lost all inner self-possession, and in a kind of frenzied fear was tearing the letter into a thousand pieces. She had no thought for the future; blindly and instinctively she was saving herself from the present. Wolff watched her in puzzled silence. Then, when the last fragment fell to the ground, he came and took her hands. "Nora, something _is_ wrong. Did that letter trouble you? What was it?" "No, no. If it is anything, it is just the thought of leaving them all. Surely you understand?" Poor Nora! That "some day" when she had thought to tell him everything had become a "never," sealed and made irrevocable by a silence and a lie. Poor Wolff! He thought he understood. He put his arms tenderly about her. "Yes, I understand. I know you have given up everything for my sake. But, oh, Nora, God helping us, we shall be so happy!" He waited, and then, as she did not speak, went on gently: "Can you bear to come now? Is your love big enough to give up all that is past, to start afresh—a new life with me in a new home, a new country? Is it too great a sacrifice to ask, Nora?" His words acted like a strong charm. She thought they were prophetic, and her reckless despair changed into a more reckless happiness. She lifted her face to his, and her eyes were triumphant. "It is no sacrifice," she said. "My love for you can perform miracles. It has made your people my people, your God my God, and it can wipe out the past—everything—and leave nothing in my life but you! Take me with you, Wolff. I am quite, quite ready!" He led her proudly and happily from the room, and afterwards from the house that had been her home. But, little as she knew it, no miracle had been performed in Nora’s life. END OF BOOK I *BOOK II* *CHAPTER I* *THE NEW HOME* "My dear," said Frau von Seleneck, bustling into her husband’s study, "is it true that the Arnims have arrived? I heard something about it yesterday from Clara, but she was not certain, and I want to know. Of course they ought to call first, but as one of the regiment, we don’t need to stand on ceremony. Besides, I want to see his wife." "And his flat, and his furniture, and his cook, and her dresses," Herr von Seleneck added, with a chuckle. "Yes; call by all means. They arrived some days ago, and have a flat in the Adler Strasse. You had better go this morning." "I thought you had duty?"