She did not answer, but in her eyes, as she looked at him, there lay a world of happiness. Fast and furious came the sound of music from the inn, and the bridal couple, intoxicated by the strains and by the shouting and clapping all about them, were dancing themselves into a delirium. George drew the girl to his heart, and their lips met in one long, passionate kiss. My intention is to tell you this simple story just as it happened. Shall I try to describe the bliss that had come into the life of those two people? I would rather not attempt it. However, they had to conceal their new-found happiness as if it were a sin; yet it glowed in their souls all the warmer for that. With a humility inborn and constantly developed by their hard life they were content to greet each other with a stolen smile or press their hands in secret whenever they met in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. It seemed almost as if the foreman had relaxed his watchfulness, and they soon began to lose all fear of discovery, or even of his suspecting their walk to Schottwien. Sometimes as George came from the tracks to the quarry with his wheelbarrow to get the crushed stones, he would even dare to run up to Tertschka for a moment, and then the lovers forgot the world in a quick embrace and a kiss. One morning he had greeted her in this way when they suddenly heard a footstep quite close to them, and turning quickly in terror they saw the foreman standing there, his face distorted with fury. “At last you are caught, you thieves!” he yelled. “Is that the way to obey me? You thought I did not notice what was going on, but I tell you I knew all the time of your doings last Sunday, and only waited to catch you in the act! I shall make you pay for all this!” And he seized George by the back of the neck, and with brutal force swung him to the ground some distance away, where he fell among the stones. “Take your stones down, you jailbird, then pack your belongings and go! If you dare come near me again, I will beat you till I break every bone in your body!” With these words he ran shoving the man, already stunned from the fall, headlong down the hill; then he went back to Tertschka, and stared at her a long time with fury and malice in his eyes. At last he hissed: “You miserable wretch, you; I shall talk to you later!” and, muttering to himself, went away.