"Why do you not thank me for my performance? I have done my best," she said, innocently, turning quickly around and looking him full in the face. His eyes were quite wet, and his whole frame was trembling with excitement.
"It is too beautiful," he said, in a low voice.
"Let us go in," exclaimed Alide, abruptly. "It is chilly out here."
Lights had been brought, and the family were just preparing to go to supper as they re-entered the room. The first words that Steck heard were sufficient to recall him fully to himself. "Wolfgang Goethe!" Max was saying, as if in answer to a question, while the whole group hung upon his speech. "Of course I know him,—all Strasburg knows him already——" Then, seeing Steck, he laughed, hesitated, and finally added, with some awkwardness, "Well, after all, there is nothing remarkable about him: he is only a jovial young fellow, like the rest of us." Steck looked at him with a startled glance of inquiry, and, being met by a mystifying expression on the part of Max, he resumed his prim student's manner.
At the supper-table Alide sat directly opposite him, and as she noted his demure appearance an unaccountable fear and trouble overcame her. And yet a powerful fascination led her eyes constantly towards his face, until she found herself forgetting the food before her and blushing with shame lest her preoccupation had been remarked. As the wine flowed freely, by imperceptible degrees his countenance became again mobile and eloquent as it had flashed upon her in the porch.
In the midst of supper the door was opened, and a lad of about seventeen sprang into the room, nodded in a half-shy half-familiar way to Steck and Waldstein, and seated himself boldly among them. "What, Moses, too!" exclaimed Steck, involuntarily.
"How do you mean?" asked the pastor, with surprise. "This is my son Otto."
"Oh, sir, I beg your pardon," replied Steck, with a laugh. "It is a foolish habit I have of trying to realize the ideal world. I have lately been reading a charming story of English life,—the description of a country parson's home and family,—and I seem to be among them all since I have been with you. This brave lad was the only one wanting to complete the novelist's group."
"That is a fantastic trick," said Dr. Duroc. "Since you have such romantic tastes, I have no doubt you will be delighted to visit the interesting localities about us here. Not a hill, a grove, nor a waterfall but has its own tradition; my girls can tell you them all."
"I have, indeed, too much pleasure to promise myself here," answered Steck, eagerly. "But when will you allow me to guide you through my beloved Strasburg? There, too, every stone in the streets has its history."