It was wonderfully like Martella; or was it simply self-deception caused by her having been in our thoughts during the whole evening? I felt so agitated that I lit the lamp again and took another look at the picture. The likeness seemed to have vanished. CHAPTER XII. Towards the end of November, my wife wrote to me that Ernst had been at home again, and that, several hours after his arrival, he had, in the most casual manner, mentioned that he had successfully passed his examination as forester. When my wife and Martella signified their pleasure at this piece of news, he declared that he had only passed his examination in order to prove to us and the rest of his acquaintance, that he, too, had learned something, but that he was not made to be put just where the state desired to place him, and that, in the spring, he and Martella would emigrate to America, as he had already come to an understanding with Funk in regard to the passage. When he asked Martella why she had nothing to say on the subject, she replied: "You know that I would go to the end of the world with you. But we are not alone. If we go, your parents and your brothers and sisters must give us their blessing at parting." "Oh! that they will." "I think so too. But just consider, Ernst! We are both of us quite young, and I have just begun to live. Do not look so fierce; when you do that, you do not look half so handsome as you really are. And besides, there is something yet on my mind which I must tell you, and in which I am fully resolved." "I cannot imagine what you mean; it seems, at times, that I really do not know you as I once did." "You do know me, and it grieves me to be obliged to tell you so." "What is it? What can it be? You have become quite serious all at once." "I am glad that you can say so much in my praise, for I have need of it; and I feel quite sure that you will approve of what I am going to say. "Just see, Ernst! I won't speak of anything else--but with mother's aid I have begun so much that is good, that I cannot bear to think of hurrying away while the work is half finished. You have passed your examination; let me pass mine too. First let mother tell me that my apprenticeship is at an end, and then I will wander with you; and we shall be two jolly gadabouts, and have lots of money for travelling expenses. Isn't it so? You will let me stay here ever so long; won't you? "Ah, that is right. You are laughing again, and I see that you approve of what I have said. If you had not done so you should have had no peace, for my mind is made up. "The canopied bed next to your mother's is now mine; and indeed it is a heavenly canopy that one must be slow to leave. And, as I told you before, I have just begun to live."