The sounds of music had long been hushed, but through the window rang the thunder of the sea; it increased with the growing storm. The hoarse breaking of the waves rocked Eva to sleep; but it was a sleep full of fear, and a distant angry destiny, into which the noise of the waves was changed, broke menacingly into her dreams. CHAPTER XII. UNDER THE PEAR TREE. Kuhl was no friend of betrothal and marriage feasts; he thought such customs should be left to the savage races of people. For educated human beings it was most unseemly to announce such quiet secret happiness to towns and villages as if with the beating of drums. That eccentric man, therefore, experienced deep dissatisfaction at the festive mood in which all Neukuhren rejoiced on his friend's betrothal day, and sought the most lonely paths on the strand in order to escape the noise of preparations and arrangements. This was not easy; for the great kettle-drum having once been called into requisition, it shook the atmospherical waves on every side at the incessant musical rehearsals, and strove to out-do the roaring of the billows. That Cäcilie should also take part in these rehearsals, and probably practise her vocal solo with Wegen, did not conduce to improve his humour. He had become more indifferent to Olga during those days; was he not certain of her love. She was all devotion, and, as of old, had an approving smile for his most daring flights of thought; but that fugitive, smooth as an eel, occupied all his thoughts, and strengthened the ill-temper to which he gave himself up so recklessly. Wegen meanwhile was ubiquitous; now he sat at the piano and accompanied Cäcilie, then he stood by the carts full of evergreens and overlooked the decorations of the room. The Chief Forester, who was a friend of Blanden's, and who was expected on that evening, had proved himself particularly helpful in supplying garlands of leaves and flowers. Then again Wegen, with a powerful telling tenor, gave decision and firmness to the choruses, and during the pauses he might be seen outside under the pear tree where he had the nature's carpet of the dancing ground swept by the fair sex of the village. The entire programme of the entertainment lay in his hands, he was assisted in the arrangements by the future diplomatist, who, as Wegen's aide-de-camp, sped hither and thither in equally feverish activity.