"Your saint?" "The great lady of Milo. I must tell you now also how great my enthusiasm was for the deity. After my return home, the memory of the beautiful statue in the Louvre pursued me so persistently that I did not rest till I had procured an excellent copy from Paris. But as I did not dare to set up my saint here in the house, I had her carried to the cottage in the forest, which thus became a forest-chapel. Whenever visitors come to Berkow, the key is lost; when I am alone I spend days and nights there, especially when the world has annoyed me more than ordinarily; or when I desire to be rather alone, than to have such company as I do wish to have." "I should not have expected such hypochondriacal caprices in you." "Why not?" "Because you look--can look so good and so cheerful." "And do you not know that cheerful eyes weep most readily?" "I should not like to see you weep for anything in the world; I believe I should forget how to laugh forever." And again their glances met and their souls kissed each other. "Well then, come!" "We shall have a thunder-storm," said old Baumann, from his window, without turning round. "We shall be there long before it comes up," replied Melitta, who had already risen. "And if you are not more afraid of a thunder-storm than I am--or are you afraid?" Oswald smiled. "Then that shall not keep us. Besides, I do not see a trace of a thunder-storm," she said, in the door of the garden room. At the same moment a blue shadow swept over the garden, and a few swallows flew past the door, twittering and almost grazing the ground. "Had we better not go?" said Melitta, who had already crossed the threshold, turning back to Oswald. "I am not afraid of the storm," replied Oswald, not looking at the sky, but into her eyes. "And the forest is so beautiful after a storm," said Melitta. "Good-by, Baumann! When the carriage comes from Grenwitz, send it over to the forester. Tell the coachman to report at the cottage." Baumann looked after the two until Melitta's white dress had disappeared in the bushes.