"A robber," thought Hertha, and laid her hand on her beating heart. Erect she stood there, turning a courageous face to the approaching danger. The figure of a man came in view on the edge of the clearing. Hertha felt her blood run cold. It was Leo. He hurried towards her with his firm stride. The veins stood out on his forehead; his eyes flashed fire. "What are you doing here?" he demanded. She was silent and bit her lips, feeling all her meekness depart at one blow. "Have you taken leave of your senses? Didn't I forbid you to row here alone, and the stream swollen too." Hertha began to boil inwardly. Was this the reward of her renunciation? But "have patience, be silent," a voice cried within her. "It's a marvel that you haven't been carried away," he scolded on, all his anxiety for her turning into wrath. "When I forbid a thing, I have my reasons for doing so, but the devil himself seems to drive you into disobedience, girl. I am not at all inclined to go on a wild-goose chase after you again, I can tell you!" Ah! that was hard. He scorned that hour which lived in her memory as the most sacred she had known. It was more than hard; it was brutal! At this moment she hated him so that she felt as if she was almost swooning from the intensity of her emotions. All--all that she had just sworn was forgotten, and with a smile of icy contempt, hardly knowing what she said, she answered-- "You can order and forbid as much as you like. But he who is not honest and does not keep his word himself, can scarcely expect that others will respect and obey him." The words were spoken. They could not be recalled. Reeling a step forwards, he stared at her dully. "What--what does that mean?" Every drop of blood had forsaken his face. "You must know perfectly well what it means;" and she turned to go. He would have liked to shake her, to question her, and force her to speak. But he had not the courage. It seemed to him that from the lips of this child he had been condemned. In silence they walked to the landing-place; in silence he rowed her over the stream; in silence they parted. Two who, because they belonged to each other, determined to go through life as enemies. XXV The reconciliation of the two women removed the last obstacle that stood in the way of Leo resuming his old relations with his friend. Nevertheless, things remained as they were.