Michael paused a moment, and then found courage to say what for the last two days he had been longing to give utterance to. “I know; but pleasures are very nice things,” he said. “And doesn’t it seem obvious now that you are coming to Munich with me? It’s a purely selfish suggestion on my part. After being with you it will be very stupid to be alone there. But it would be so delightful if you would come.” Falbe looked at him a moment without speaking, but Michael saw the light in his eyes. “And what if I have my pride too?” he said. “Then I shall apologise for having made the proposal,” said Michael simply. For just a second more Falbe hesitated. Then he held out his hand. “I thank you most awfully,” he said. “I accept with the greatest pleasure.” Michael drew a long breath of relief. “I am glad,” he said. “So that’s settled. It’s really nice of you.” The heat of the day was passing off, and over the sun-bleached plain the coolness of evening was beginning to steal. Overhead the wind stirred more resonantly in the pines, and in the bushes birds called to each other. Presently after, they rose from where they had lain all the afternoon and strolled along the needled slope to where, through a vista in the trees, they looked down on the lake and the hamlet that clustered near it. Down the road that wound through the trees towards it passed labourers going homeward from their work, with cheerful guttural cries to each other and a herd of cows sauntered by with bells melodiously chiming, taking leisurely mouthfuls from the herbage of the wayside. In the village, lying low in the clear dusk, scattered lights began to appear, the smoke of evening fires to ascend, and the aromatic odour of the burning wood strayed towards them up the wind. Falbe, whose hand lay in the crook of Michael’s arm, pointed downwards to the village that lay there sequestered and rural. “That’s Germany,” he said; “it’s that which lies at the back of every German heart. There lie the springs of the Rhine. It’s out of that originally that there came all that Germany stands for, its music, its poetry, its philosophy, its kultur. All flowed from these quiet uplands. It was here that the nation began to think and to dream. To dreamt! It’s out of dreams that all has sprung.” He laughed.