"_Two days later_.--I and my letter are still here; but to-day it starts four days in advance of me. I cannot help thinking, This last time every flower in Maienthal, and every word my best teacher says to me, will give me still greater and deeper joy than ever, because I journey thither right from the turmoil of visiting, and with such a melancholy heart. The morning after that lovely night of the church-going festival I sat alone in an arbor near the great pond, and made myself sadder with all that I saw and thought; for during that whole morning, by reason of a dream I had had, my faded friend[172] stood before my soul,--her grave lay transparent above her, and I looked down through it, and saw that lily of heaven lying within there pale and still,--I reflected, indeed, as the gardener buried flowers with their pots in the earth, that the body in which we are planted must, in like manner, go down into the earth for future blooming, but, nevertheless, I could no longer control my tears.--In vain did I look upon the sparkling spring, which draws every day new colors, new insects, new flowers out of the earth,--I only grew sadder, since it rejuvenates everything, but not man.[173]--And when I saw Herr von Schleunes with a frog-bow approaching the pond, I was obliged, as he could see my eyes at a great distance as he passed by, to make believe asleep, in order not to betray them.... But before my dearest teacher I would have opened them as now, because he forgives me my weaknesses. "CLOTILDA v. L. B." Victor had kept his left hand, with which he held the letter, too near to his heart, and his arm and letter began to tremble with the thumping heart, and he could hardly read and comprehend it for emotion. "Such a teacher! such a pupil!"--beyond that his looks could say nothing more. There was a struggle within him whether he should tell his friend his love for Clotilda. In _favor_ of the confession was Emanuel's request to seek her society,--that eye of his beholding, as if out of fixed stars, all trifles of earth,--Victor's grateful desire to repay one secret with another, and, most of all, oh! this love for his teacher, this love of his teacher for him.... And this, too, conquered, however much there was otherwise to be said _per contra_. For if Victor's whole nature glowed in the fire of friendship, so did his heart mount higher and higher, and burn to lay itself open,--he still wrestled with it, and still it was silent,--it loved boundlessly,--it lifted itself up as if by an invisible power,--at last it burst asunder,--his bosom opened wide as before God,--and now, beloved, look in, but forgive him all!