On her way back she came past the Rose Lake, where Oscar had first confessed his love to her. Today, indeed, the spot looked very different from what it had done on that May-day in the splendor of sunshine and spring. Dry leaves covered the ground, and the reeds lining the shore were likewise withered and dry, while the lake itself looked black and uninviting in the dull light of that stormy day. No sweet singing of birds any longer sounded from the thicket, laid bare as it was by autumnal blasts; all was lifeless and still, while the mountain-chain, that had once looked so dreamily blue from the distance, was wrapped to-day in a dense fog.
Involuntarily Maia's steps were arrested here; she gazed fixedly upon the sadly altered spot, and, shivering, drew her mantle closer around her shoulders. Then she heard approaching steps, and the next minute Oscar von Wildenrod emerged from the coppice.
"I have been all through the park looking for you, Maia," said he, petulantly, "and had despaired of finding you."
"I was with Cecilia at Eric's grave," replied the young girl. "She is still there."
"So much the better, for what I have to say is for yourself alone. Will you listen to me?"
Without waiting for an answer, he drew her down upon the bench, over which the beech now stretched her ghostlike arms, half-stripped as they were of their foliage. Not till now had Maia observed that he wore hat and overcoat, and that his features had a strangely disordered expression.
"Nothing bad has happened, has there?" she asked in great agitation. "Papa----"
"The matter does not concern him, but me, or rather both of us. Maia, I have something serious--hard to tell you. You are to show me, now, whether your love for me stands firm. You love me still, do you not? You once gave yourself fully to me, on this very spot. I thought, then, I was asking your hand only for happiness, for a life full of sunshine and joy--have you the courage to share sorrow with me also?"
Maia was stunned, as it were, by this torrent of words; she shuddered.
"Oscar, for heaven's sake, tell me what you mean? You distress me unutterably by these dark hints."