"And dost thou indeed love me?"
She flung herself forward into his strong arms.
"I have loved thee," she cried, "from the first moment when I saw thee ride out of the wood below."
"And now?"
"And now," she repeated, "thou tellest me that thou art not a man, but that thou art a monster of the wood."
"Truly I was a monster, but thou hast made me other. Thou hast given me a soul, and now I am human as thou art. It was that I might have a soul that Herr von Zimmern trained me, and only to-day I know that it was because he wished me ill, and schemed that I should be lost forever."
"And must thou indeed be lost forever?" Erna cried, starting away from him and then clasping him more closely.
"Nay, sweetheart; thou hast given me a soul, and I have striven that it be not lost. Thou hast given me a soul, and thou wilt help me that it be for me all blessedness instead of the ruin that he in his wickedness meant."
"I?"
The remembrance of all that she had not told him swept over her like a wave of the sea. She slipped from his side down to his feet, and crouched there, clasping his knees. She remembered all her old longing for spiritual greatness and for virtue, and how she had fallen into the temptations of the lower things. Bitter tears gushed from her eyes, and a sob choked her voice.