She glanced at her watch, took her hat and gloves from a console table close by, and hastily and noiselessly quitted the room. Descending the great staircase of the hotel, she issued into the beautiful garden attached to it, and proceeded at once to a certain fountain, near which a gentleman was lingering. He hurried towards her, and took both her tremulous little hands within his own. He gazed tenderly into her eyes, and then scanned the windows of the hotel. Alas! too many overlooked them, so the longed-for kiss was neither given nor taken; and neither knew that at this very time, they were both seen by the Countess and the laughing Ernestine. Though in plain clothes, attired as a civilian, the soldier-like air of Ludwig Mansfeld would not conceal. He was dark-complexioned, especially for a German, with straight handsome features. He was closely shaven, all save a thick moustache, and he had tender brown eyes--tender, at least, when they looked into those of Herminia, who was now weeping freely. 'Tears?' said he, inquiringly. 'Yes, Ludwig, tears; I have much reason for them.' 'How, darling? 'We leave Cologne to-morrow.' 'Ah! why so soon?' 'It is the resolve of my aunt.' 'And for where, darling?' 'Aix-la-Chapelle.' Her lover's features brightened as she said this. 'Well, my own one, I shall be there in a few days,' he whispered cheerfully; 'and if we are prudent, and watch well our opportunities, it will indeed be a very remarkable thing if we don't meet as often as we may desire.' 'But my cousin--this most odious _fiancé_--Heinrich von Frankenburg, joins us in a week from Potsdam, where, I understand, his regiment is stationed.' 'I have seen Frankenburg, and know that he has the reputation of being dangerously handsome; but I thought he was on leave of absence?' 'So he has been. As for Aunt Adelaide, she is a tyrant, and I do believe would keep me in pinafores, if she could!' said Herminia bitterly. 'Herminia, dearest,' said the young man, while gazing at her lovingly, earnestly, and very keenly, 'you have never seen this wondrous cousin, to whom your family wish to assign you like a bale of goods?' 'Oh, never even once, Ludwig; and to me he is an object of abhorrence!' she exclaimed passionately. 'Excuse me, my love,' said Ludwig sadly; 'but I have a strange foreboding--a presentiment which comes to me unbidden, and seems to say that when you _do_ see him, your present abhorrence may pass away, and--and a tender emotion take its place. The propinquity and charms given to a cousin are perilous for a secret lover like me.' Herminia now wept bitterly. 'Ludwig, I could quarrel with you for such a cruel suspicion,' she sobbed out, 'but that we are, I fear me, now speaking together for the--the--the last time,' and, heedless of who might see the action, in the abandonment of her great grief, her head sank on his shoulder, and she nestled her sweet face in his neck.