"Oh women, women, and those women in especial! They prophesy an immediate marriage if two people only say good morning to each other. But perhaps they are right in this case,—it clears up much to my mind that has hitherto seemed inexplicable to me."
"But, uncle, you cannot believe that any one would sacrifice the best feelings of our nature to such a preference?"
"Many other things have happened, my child, for the sake of such a preference, and although I do not for one moment defend Fräulein von Walde's weakness and submission; still, I shall henceforth judge her more leniently. She succumbs to the power which leads us to forget father and mother for another's sake."
"Ah! that is just what I cannot understand," said Elizabeth, earnestly. "How can any one love a stranger better than father or mother?"
"Hm!" rejoined the forester, touching the horses lightly with his whip, to accelerate their speed. This "hm" was followed by a clearing of his throat, and he changed the subject, for he justly thought, "If that be so, she will never understand my definition of love, although I should speak with the tongues of angels." And he himself?—Far, far in the past lay the time when he had carved the dear name upon the trees, and trained his deep voice to sing love songs; when he had walked miles for a single smile, and had hated as his bitterest enemy the man who dared to regard with favour the object of his adoration. He looked back and rejoiced in that wonderful time, but to paint it with its tempests of excited feeling,—its tears and laughter, its hopes and fears,—was more than he could do.
"Do you see that perpendicular black streak just above the forest there?" he asked, after a long silence, pointing with his whip to the mountain which they were approaching.
"Yes, indeed, it is the flag-staff upon Castle Gnadeck. I saw it a few moments ago, and am now rejoicing unspeakably in the thought that there lies a spot of earth that we may call our own,—a place from which no one has the right to drive us. Thank God, we have a home!"
"And such a home!" said the forester, as his beaming eyes looked around the horizon. "When I was quite a little child, how I longed for the Thuringian forest! It was all because of my grandfather's stories. In his youth he had lived in Thuringia, and had the tales and legends of his home at his tongue's end; and when I had reached man's estate, I came hither. Then all the forest which we see before us belonged to the Gnadewitzes, but I would not enter their service,—my father had told me too much about them. I was the first Ferber from time immemorial who had renounced their service. I applied to the Prince of L——. The last of the Gnadewitzes divided his forests because the Prince of L—— was willing to pay an immense sum of money that he might enlarge his own woodland possessions. And thus it happened that the most ardent desire of my youth was gratified, for I live now in the house that may be called the cradle of the Ferbers. You know that we came at first from Thuringia?"
"Oh yes, I have known that from my childhood."
"And do you know the story of our origin?"