But as he was walking through the garden towards the narrow rock-path, oblivious of his promise to Hilda, a prey to dire temptation, a voice was suddenly heard that caused him to pause, startled.
"Where are you going, Herr Delmar?"
He looked up, and Hilda stood before him, with pain and reproach in her eyes.
Her simple question covered Paul with confusion. He now first remembered the promise so frankly given a short time before; a promise he was on his way to break. He might have given an evasive reply. Indeed, Hilda helped him to do so by adding, "Perhaps you hoped to meet me here in the garden. Did you speak with Leo about my visit to Fräulein Schommer?"
But such an evasion seemed unmanly and unworthy of him. "Forgive me, Fräulein Hilda," was his only reply.
Hilda understood him. "Were you really about to return to Tausens by the rock-path in spite of your promise?"
"I had forgotten it. Indeed, you have a right to be angry, but if you knew----"
He hesitated; he could not make Hilda the confidante of his misery.
"What has happened, Herr Delmar? Why do you pause? You are evidently agitated. What can you have learned in the short time since I saw you? Tell me, I pray."
As she spoke she kindly offered him her hand, but he did not take it. He shuddered as he thought of how happy he had been but a few short moments before when he took that little hand, and of the hopes that had then dawned in his soul, hopes that must be crushed forever. Should he press his lips upon it in one farewell kiss? No! not even that. She must not dream how hard it was to part from her; she must think of him as of a stranger, and he looked away, that Hilda might suppose he did not see the hand she held out to him.