"You must know," she said; "only this morning I went to see your father and found him asleep in his armchair; his drawing pen was in his hand and the drawing board with a half-finished drawing lay before him on the table. And when he had waked up and talked to me with effort for a quarter of an hour, and I wanted to go, then he held me back by the hand so full of fear, as if he were afraid it was for the last time; but--" "But what, Elke?" asked Hauke, when she hesitated to go on. A few tears ran down the girl's cheeks. "I was only thinking of my father," she said; "believe me, it will be hard for him to get on without you." And then added, as if she had to summon her strength for these words: "It often seems to me as if he too were getting ready for death." Hauke said nothing; it seemed to him suddenly, as if the ring were stirring in his pocket. But even before he had suppressed his indignation over this involuntary impulse, Elke went on: "No, don't be angry, Hauke; I trust you won't leave us anyway." Then he eagerly took her hand, and she did not draw it away. For a while the young people stood together in the falling darkness, until their hands slipped apart and each went his way. A gust of wind started and rustled through the leaves of the ash tree and made the shutters rattle on the front of the house; but gradually the night sank down, and quiet lay over the gigantic plain. Through Elke's persuasion, the old dikemaster had relieved Hauke of his services, although he had not given notice at the right time, and two new hired men were in the house. A few months later Tede Haien died; but before he died, he called his son to his bedside: "Sit by me, my child;" said the old man with his faint voice, "close by me! You don't need to be afraid; he who is near me now is only the dark angel of the Lord who comes to call me." And his son, deeply affected, sat down close by the dark bed fixed to the wall: "Tell me, father, what you still have to say." "Yes, my son, there is still something," said the old man and stretched out his hands across the quilt. "When, as a half-grown boy, you went to serve the dikemaster, then you had the idea in your head that you wanted to be one yourself some day. That idea I caught from you, and gradually I came to think that you were the right man for it. But your inheritance was too small for such an office. I have lived frugally during your time of service--I planned to increase it."