For the garden became the forest without wall or barrier, except the shadow cast by the trees; and you could walk from the sunlight and the sound of the fountains into the dryad-haunted twilight and the old quaint world of the woods. The Countess kissed Eloise; then she bent to kiss me, and I--I turned my face away--a crimson face--and felt like a fool. Someone laughed--a gentleman who was standing by. The Countess laughed; and then, to my extreme relief, someone came to my rescue. It was little Carl. He had run into the house for his drum, and now he was coming along the path solemnly beating it, with Eloise for a faithful camp follower. I joined her; and away down the garden we went, hand in hand, marching in time to the rattle of the little drum. Eloise snatched flowers from the flower-beds as we passed them, and pelted the drummer with them as he marched before us; and so we went, a gallant company, through the garden, past the running man, and under the forest trees, the echoes and the bluejays answering to the drum. My father, the Countess Feliciani, our host, and a number of ladies and gentlemen were in the garden. They laughed as we marched away; and when the shadow of the trees took us they forgot us, I suppose, and the pretty picture we must have made. * * * * * Scarcely twenty minutes could have elapsed when screams from the wood drew their startled attention, and out from the trees came Carl, dripping with water, without his drum, running, and screaming as he ran. After him ran Eloise and I. "He tried to drown me in the lake in the wood!" screamed Carl, clasping the knees of his father, who had run to meet him, and looking back at me. "He tried to drown me; he did it before--he did it before! Save me from him, father, father! Father! Father!" Baron Lichtenberg's face, as he clasped the child, was turned on me. He was white as little Carl, and I shall never forget his expression. "Did you try to drown my child?" he said. And he spoke as though he were speaking to a man. Before I could reply Eloise struck in: "Oh, Carl, how can you say such things? I saw it all. No, monsieur. They had a little quarrel as to who should play with the drum, and Toto pushed him, and he fell into the water. Was it not so, Carl?" But Carl was incapable of answering. Screaming like a girl in hysterics he clung to the Baron, who had taken him in his arms. "Now, then," said my father, who had come up. "What is this? What is the meaning of this, sir? Come, speak! Did you dare to----" "Father," I said, "I pushed him, but I did not mean to hurt him--truly I did not." "Do not blame him," said Von Lichtenberg, turning to the house with Carl in his arms. "It is Fate. Children do these things without knowing it. Do not punish him." The hypocrisy of those last four words! Lost to my father, whose simple mind could not read the tones of a man's voice or guess what hatred can be hidden in honey.