"That is quite possible! All the same, it will be hard for me to point her out as the girl's mother; nor is it in truth, necessary, she has no longer any right over the girl. Should she, however, come to the betrothal, nothing will remain for us but to raise the veil. But where is Eva? The worst would be if we troubled our heads about matters which, indeed, exist nowhere but in our brains; day after day passes, and Blanden does not return." While the married couple thus exchanged their anxieties and fears, their looks were suddenly arrested by a boat gliding over the sea. The Regierungsrath had a perfect right to cough, because his telescope did not deceive him; it was Eva who, instead of reading and watering the flowers in the garden, let herself once again be rocked upon the ocean's waves, with the idiot fisherman's girl. "A disobedient child," said the Regierungsräthin, annoyed; "there is something erratic about her; she does not belie her mother's blood." "Yet her father, who died early, was an honourable man; he only committed the fault of trying to use a will-o'-the-wisp as a night-light." "Fie, Kalzow." "She is my sister, and yet she was not worthy of so good a man as the captain; from her youth upwards she was a strange creature, enthusiastically dreamy, often wild and eager for pleasure. Eva, fortunately, takes more after her father than her mother." Meanwhile Eva had landed and wandered, singing, up the Fuchs-spitze. "Naughty girl! You wanted to be taken captive again," her foster-father cried to her, his good humour having gradually been restored during his conversation with Miranda. "Oh, no, papa! I am already a captive," said Eva, smiling. "Disobedience merits punishment," interposed her stern mother! "we will leave you at home on our next pleasure party." "Then Salomon will be thoroughly miserable," retorted Eva, laughing. "And Herr von Blanden does not come," said the Rath, assuming the air of a judge of assizes. "You both have a little conspiracy between you; but he promised to return soon." "Do not be uneasy, papa! He has more important business at home than here, but as he pledged his word he is sure to come." "I suppose the mermaids sang that to you?" "What do mermaids know of a man's word? But I know that it is firm and unchanging, and that one may sleep quietly beneath its care, as if under angels' wings." She said this in an elevated voice, and a transfiguring radiancy seemed to pass over her features. Her parents also soon felt calmed by Eva's indomitable trust. The Rath would gladly have directed a few more questions to the girl, but Salomon's arrival interrupted the conversation. The latter came breathlessly up the hill. "I know something, Fräulein Eva, but even I can keep my secrets to myself." "Then you--" "Redeem it, as one does in playing at forfeits!" "I am not inclined to play." "I believe it! The sun is setting so beautifully, it makes one think--