Hilda's heart throbbed as she observed his careless demeanour; she had warned him, but she did not venture to call to him again. The ascent of the rocks had never seemed to her half so long, and only when she saw that Paul had reached in safety the small but secure strip of meadowland that intervened between the old castle-wall and the edge of the precipice, did she once more breathe freely and with an easy mind follow Leo, with whom she soon joined his friend. Paul received her with a laugh. "Thanks, charming fairy," he said, again advancing to the edge of the precipice and leaning forwards so as to overlook the entire path up the rock; "thanks for the greatest enjoyment I have had in our mountain tour. I delight in a path like this; it is inspiriting to climb the rocks by it. One false step is certain death. Life is the meed only of strength and sureness of foot. Let fear once assail the climber, vertigo is sure to follow and he is lost; but for a steady brain and strong muscles there is no danger; and what a glorious prospect we have had over the fertile valleys to the snowy peaks that bound the horizon on the south! If I lived at Castle Reifenstein I should choose no other path save this by which to reach the valley, and I am sure that you also. Leo, will visit us in Tausens by no other." "You are much mistaken," Leo quietly replied. "I have come once by this path, and I shall not again pass over it, least of all in descending to the valley. I shall take the safer footpath or the road, even although it be somewhat longer." "How can an artist be so terrible a Philistine!" Paul exclaimed, indignantly. "If not to run into unnecessary peril is to be a Philistine, I certainly am one. You will admit, I know, that I am not backward in facing danger when any good end is to be gained thereby." "I should be the last to dispute that. Do I not know that you, my unattainable model and example, are all compact of the strongest and loftiest principles? Do I even try to emulate you? I should be the most tiresome fellow in the world if but the half of your virtues were mine, although I confess that they suit you remarkably well; so keep them all, I pray. Trust one who knows, lovely fairy; your excellent cousin is the embodiment of pure principles and strong good sense; he has only one fault: he chooses his friends very foolishly." "Are you not one of them?" asked Hilda. "Exactly; that is just it. His reputation suffers from my friendship. I am principled against principle. My aim in life is to do what I like. I am a thorough egotist, who has no idol but self. Now is such a man a fit companion for Leo von Heydeck? He should blush to own such a friend, by whom he may be judged by others. But here we are safely arrived at the castle, and I will take my leave. I must bid you farewell, Fräulein von Heydeck, only asking permission to return and visit my friend Leo at Castle Reifenstein."