"I expect nothing. I only wish--I ..." He could not go on. His thoughts moved tardily, clumsily. He only knew that her astonished, resentful question had not displeased him so much as it ought to have done. "The promise I made you," she continued, "I have honestly kept to the best of my ability. I have tried to be a good housewife, worthy of him, a wife of whom he need not be ashamed. But the penance I have imposed on myself is terrible. I suffer tortures that no man can have any idea of." "And do you imagine that I am lying on a bed of roses?" he responded. "You! What do you want?" Then he burst forth. "I? Ah, woman, little do you know what I endure. I am in torment; I appear to myself polluted from head to foot. I scarcely know how to look honest people in the face. I think every one is pointing the finger of scorn at me. If it goes on like this, I must go out of my mind. Isn't that bad enough?" She let her eyes rest on him full of curiosity.... Something like stealthy joy shone in them, for since the long, long ago he had never poured out to her such confidences, from the depths of his being. "Can I help you?" she murmured. He laughed stridently. "Oh, please, Leo!" "Don't talk of your helping," he answered; "help from your side would be only a fresh crime. Besides, how could you? Only one person can help me, and that is Ulrich." "For God's sake!" she cried out, "you are not thinking of----" "Calm yourself," he made answer. "I know what I owe you. We two are yoked together.... We are both bound to hold our tongues; that is an understood thing." There was a pause. Then Felicitas asked in a trembling voice-- "Can you pray, Leo?" He gazed at her in shocked amazement. "Pray, indeed! It's well for those who can. But I have sneaked out of the Almighty's way, like my dog Leo sneaks out of my way when he has torn a fowl to pieces." "You ought to try," she said, with her most pious expression "It has done wonders for me lately.... I confide all my yearning to the merciful ear of the Saviour, and----" "Yearning? Yearning for what?" he asked. She smiled in confusion. "Really, you ought to pray," she repeated. "Indeed!" "Perhaps our Lord is only inflicting this trial on us as a test of our faith, and we shall come through it glorified. It may be that it is part of His system of salvation to----" "Tell me," he broke in, aghast, "have you been calling on Brenckenberg?" "God forbid!" she cried. "I am horribly afraid of him." "Or perhaps on Johanna?" "No," she answered, colouring; "Johanna has been to see me." "Ah, indeed." "Don't be so hard. I bless the day that led me to her arms, for she has shown me the way to the Cross." "How often has she been here?" "Three times." "And you have made yourself over to her body and soul?" She shook her head with a smile. "I have only done that for one person in the world," she said. "There is much that I cannot speak of to her, but her influence has been of infinite benefit to me."