"Most fortunate of mortals!" Delmar called down to him, "come up here. I will give you a hand, that you may display all the grace you are master of in ascending. Here you will find the lovely fairy who reigns in the enchanted Castle Reifenstein, and who has descended to aid us miserable mortals." With no less astonishment than Delmar had experienced Leo now looked up at Hilda, who was standing beside his friend; he, too, recognized her from the postmaster's description, and he, too, thought her extremely beautiful. Still her beauty made no extraordinary impression upon him; he thought the worthy innkeeper's enthusiastic comparison of her to an angel rather exaggerated; nevertheless he was most pleasantly surprised by this encounter with his cousin. Before Paul could hold out a hand to help her she sprang lightly down from rock to rock until she stood beside Leo, to whom she held out her hand with the same easy grace with which she had offered it to his friend. This time, however, although it was grasped cordially, it was not kissed, and was instantly relinquished. Leo had anticipated with a certain anxiety his first meeting with the cousin whose hand had been destined by the will of her father and of his own to be bestowed upon him. He now stood face to face with the destined bride whom he had made up his mind never to marry, without any of the embarrassment he had expected to feel when he should first see her. No; any uncomfortable sensation of the kind was entirely dispelled by Hilda's easy frank reception of him as a near relative. She evidently saw in him, not a future lover, but simply her cousin Leo, to whom she was ready and pleased to show all the familiar kindness warranted by their close relationship, and he was instantly as much at his ease with her as if they had known each other for years. "It is a very extraordinary but none the less delightful chance. Cousin Hilda, that led you here to us in the midst of this rocky waste, where, of all places in the world, I least expected to meet you." "It is no chance," she replied, looking with a smile at Delmar, who had just made his descent from the rock. "Papa and I have been expecting you for some days; a letter from your father told us that you and one of your friends were coming to the Tyrol. When a little while ago I saw from my window two strangers coming up to the castle, I instantly divined that you were one of them, and when I saw you go astray among the Reifenstein rocks I made haste to join you to show you the path, which it is impossible that any stranger should find. I had just climbed this rock to see where you were when I heard voices close by. I sat down instantly I confess to play the part of eavesdropper, and when I heard that the 'evil fairy Hilda' had 'conjured away' the castle I could not help laughing aloud."