He replied eagerly in the affirmative. "If I had not been so awkward I should have asked your pardon then for playing the eavesdropper. I saw how startled you were ... but at the moment I could think of nothing to do but to make myself scarce. It seemed the kindest course to take from your point of view." His manner of speaking was so joyously frank, it was like a tonic to her, yet withal made her feel slightly ashamed. "And now you have done something kinder still," she answered, with as much hearty appreciation as if he had saved her life. "Oh, please don't mention it," he said. "I ought to have turned back at once. But it seemed as if the earth had swallowed you up. I was quite anxious about you." She smiled to herself in happy trepidation. A little more and she would have confided to him where she had hidden herself. "What must you have thought of me," she said, "wandering about in the woods by myself?" "I thought that you did not feel lonely in the society of Nature, otherwise you would have brought a companion." "You were right," she responded eagerly. "I left my carriage at the Restaurant Hundekehl"--the carriage had to be dragged into the conversation after all--"but it drove back, through some misunderstanding, and I was venturesome. You love Nature very much too?" "I don't know about 'very much,'" he answered. "I may say in Cordelia's words: 'I love it according to my bond, not more nor less.' Don't you find that love of Nature is neither a merit nor an eccentricity, but simply a vital function?" "Yes, of course," Lilly faltered, thinking to herself, "How exceedingly clever he is! Will you ever be able to keep pace with him?" "But to be quite sincere," he went on, "I cannot get used to Nature in these climes. Her poverty oppresses me. I am in the position with regard to her of having outgrown the home of my fathers, for which I heap reproaches on myself. I try hard to get back on the old terms with her, and praise her whenever I honestly can. But first more recent pictures must fade from my mind. You see, I have only just come back from Italy, where I have been living for the last two years." With a deep sigh she gazed at him, considering him now positively unearthly. "Two whole years!" she cried. "I am engaged on a great scientific work," he continued; "for its sake--no, it would be more correct to say for my health's sake--I was sent to Italy. My uncle, who is a father to me, wished it.... And it was Italy that first inspired me with the idea of the work, and afterwards fatherland and my old life and studies, everything else, went to the wall." As he spoke his eyes flashed with enthusiasm. He seemed palpitating with his great purpose; and the old former yearning for Italian skies awoke and beat its wings within her heart.