‘The resemblance cannot be very striking, for no one has noticed it, not even the professors themselves, who ought to know.’
‘Must you go back to Schwarzburg?’ Hilda asked, suddenly growing serious.
‘Yes, but it is the last time. It will not seem long—there is so much to be done.’
‘No. It will not seem long,’ answered Hilda, thinking of all that she and her mother must do before the wedding. ‘But the long times are not always the sad times,’ she added sorrowfully.
‘I shall be here for Christmas,’ said Greif. ‘And in the new year we will be married, and then—we must think of what we will do.’
‘We will live at Sigmundskron, as you said, shall we not?’
‘Yes. But before that we will go away for a while.’ ‘Away? Why?’
‘People always do when they are married. We will go to Italy, if you like, or anywhere else.’
‘But why must we go away?’ asked Hilda anxiously. ‘Do you think we shall not be as happy here as anywhere else? Oh, I could not live out of the dear forest!’
‘But, sweetheart, you have never seen a town, nor anything of the world. Would you not care to know what it is all like beyond the trees?’