Oswald sauntered leisurely along, enjoying all the charming details of the delicious morning, and giving himself up to the enjoyment all the more heartily to-day, as the loveliness, the soft beauty that surrounded him here on all sides contrasted very strangely with the sombre monotony of the seacoast, which he had of late continually had before his eyes. Now he could hardly understand how he had been so completely overcome by his bad humor. The doctor was right: solitude is a sweet intoxicating poison which finally kills. I must consult the doctor frequently. A clear head, which sees men and things always in the right light. But still he is mistaken about the proposed match between Miss Helen and her cousin. In the first place, she is much too young; secondly, she is too beautiful; and thirdly, I won't have it. Do you hear, _madame la baroness_? I won't have it! You will not carry out your nice plan, however much you may stare at me with your big and presumptuous eyes, and draw yourself up to your full height. It was fortunate that Oswald was not pronouncing these words grandly and pathetically, but murmured them merely in his beard, for just as he was turning round the corner of the walk, which a projecting shrub made still sharper, he found himself suddenly face to face with Miss Helen. The meeting was so surprising to both parties that the young girl scarcely succeeded in suppressing a loud cry, and Oswald, contrary to his habit, became exceedingly embarrassed, and hardly knew whether to speak to the young lady or pass her with a silent bow. Miss Helen, however, relieved him from his doubts; for she found it quite natural that the young tutor, whose powers of conversation had not shone forth very brightly the night before, should not have the presence of mind to start immediately a conversation. She thought it, therefore, quite proper to help him, by making a harmless remark about the fine morning. "The fine morning, I see, has brought you out too." "Yes, the morning is really very fine." "Delicious. Have you always had such fine weather of late?" "Always--I mean, a few rainy days excepted." "When one sees the sky looking so deep blue, one would be tempted to consider bad weather a fairy fable--don't you think so?" "Certainly." Miss Helen probably thought the very clever conversation had lasted quite long enough, and as they happened to have come to a place where a narrow flight of steps led down from the wall into the garden, she availed herself of this opportunity to end the scene in her own interest and that of her monosyllabic companion. "Have you any idea what time it is?" "Half-past six." "Already? Then I must make haste to get back to the house before mamma finds out that I am not there." Miss Helen nodded carelessly with her head, stepped down the steep steps, and went slowly between the flower-beds towards the house.