The Count's brow darkened.
"I had a hard battle with her, for she alone guessed the reason for my determination. She must thank her own hardness and obstinacy if a stranger's hand closes her eyes. We parted without reconciliation."
"O, Hermann, you are giving up all for my sake!"
He gently raised her head, and looked into her eyes.
"And you gave up what was most sacred to you, the only treasure you possessed, to save me. Sacrifice for sacrifice! Gertrud, I am no longer the cold egotist who knows nothing but ambition. You know what had made me hard and bitter, what poisoned my youth, and took away, when I was but a child, my love, my trust in men; give it back to me!"
The full, passionate look of love in her eyes answered him--
"I have one request, Hermann, it is my first. Let the past be buried between us, let us never allude to it, even by a word. We will forget it--for ever."
"For ever!"
Without, the snow still fell noiselessly, and laid itself thick and cold on the hard earth; but here two hearts beat warm against one another, ready to meet the future bravely. The old curse, which had so long darkened the lives of both, and appeared as if it must separate them for ever, had been banished by their own hands.
Not avenged, but expiated was the crime, and both now felt what the old Präsidentin had said, as the last fragment of the fateful paper sank in dust and ashes; "God be thanked! The evil is at an end!"