"I think--yes," said Elsa. "You cannot keep it from him in the end, and a wife should have no secrets from her husband. It seems to me that all the evil in the world comes from our keeping and concealing from one another our most sacred feelings, as if we had reason to be ashamed of them; as if we did not live in them--only in them!" She stood up and seized her hat and shawl from the round table. "You are going already?" said Frau Pölitz sorrowfully; "but indeed it is a long way to Warnow." "I have much farther to go," said Elsa, putting on her hat. "Three miles, did you say?" "Where to?" "To Wissow Head." Frau Pölitz stared at Elsa, as if she were talking nonsense. "Yes," said Elsa, "to the Head. I cannot miss the way?" "A road goes from here straight through the marshes, but makes a great bend at Ahlbeck on account of the brook. But, my dear young lady, for heaven's sake what do you want to go there for?" Elsa had put on her shawl, and now grasped Frau Pölitz by both hands. "I will tell you. To have one look--one look only--at the place where the man I love lives. You need not look at me so anxiously, dear Frau Pölitz, He really lives at Wissow." "The Superintendent of Pilots?" exclaimed Frau Pölitz. She sat down and burst into tears of joy. "You also love him," said Elsa with a proud smile. "Oh! indeed I do," cried Frau Pölitz, sobbing; "and oh! how happy my husband will be! May I tell him----" "You may tell whom you will." "Oh! how pleased I am! You could not have given me greater pleasure than to tell me this. It makes me feel quite young again. Such a charming gentleman as he is, and such a dear, dear young lady! I feel sure that everything must go right now." She kissed Elsa's hand again and again, with hot tears. Elsa gently disengaged herself. "I will tell you everything next time. Now I must go." "No," said Frau Pölitz, standing up, "you must not walk such a long way; my husband shall drive you." "I am determined to walk," said Elsa. "You cannot be back before dark. It is already beginning to get dark, and we are certainly going to have bad weather." Elsa would allow no objection to weigh with her. She was a good walker and had eyes like a hawk. She feared neither the distance nor the darkness. With that she once more shook Frau Pölitz's hand, and the next minute had left room, and house, and farm, and was walking quickly through the fields along the road, of which the farmer's wife had spoken, towards the headland, whose broad mass stood out from the wide plain. CHAPTER III.