A shadow passed across Erna's happy face, and there were tears in her eyes as she said, looking up at the Wolkenstein, "One other conquered her, but he had to pay with his life the price of his victory."
"Rather of a foolhardy attempt that could benefit no one." Elmhorst's voice sounded harsh. "He risked his life, and found what he sought. Can you never forget him, Erna?"
She shook her head: "Do not be unjust. Wolf, nor jealous of the dead. You know well whom I have always loved. But it is impossible for you with your practical energy of character to comprehend a nature like Ernst's."
"Possibly; we were too diametrically antagonistic to be just to each other. But no more of him to-day, Erna; your memory and your thoughts to-day belong to me. The first height is surmounted; with the completion of the Wolkenstein railway a sure foundation is laid for my future. But the path was a difficult one."
"And yet it was delightful, in spite of cliffs and chasms," Erna declared. "Was I not right, Wolf? It is so fine to ascend from below, to feel your strength increase with every step onward, with every obstacle overcome, and at last to stand above on the height, conscious of victory, as you are now!"
"And with my best beloved beside me," Elmhorst added, with passionate tenderness. "You came to me in the darkest hour of my life, when everything about me was crumbling to ruin, and with you my lost fortune returned to me. Now I can hold it fast and pursue my way to loftier goals."
The night fell slowly, the sacred old Midsummer night with its breath of mystery. It was not filled as on that other night with dreamy moonlight, but a clear starlit sky arched above the mountains, which began to glow here and there with the beacon-fires,--the largest, as of old, kindled upon the slope of the Wolkenstein. It flashed abroad over the realm of the Alpine Fay,--her conquered realm, into which human will had broken a pathway in spite of all her terrors, and in which it had come off victorious in a strife with the blind fury of the elements. The work was finished,--the iron road wound secure among the mountains, the huge bridge spanned the dizzy chasm, and the Wolkenstein, unveiled, looked down upon it all. One brilliant star gleamed just above its peak upon the brow of the Alpine Fay.
FOOTNOTE:
[Footnote 1]: "Cloud-stone."