"You always say so!"
"Make haste!"
Oswald went into the garden and up the wall where he had met the beautiful girl so many mornings when his heart was light. But he had never felt sadder than he did this morning. Bruno's sickness, the impending catastrophe in the family drama, whose gradual progress he had watched with such painful interest, and in which he saw himself now compelled to play the unpleasant part of go-between--all this weighed heavily on his soul and kept him from enjoying the beautiful morning. He saw neither the warm sunlight nor the bluish shadows of the morning; the perfume of countless flowers, the whirling and dancing of myriads of merry insects, and the jubilees of joyous birds in the trees, all left him untouched. The flowers would not restore his beloved to health, and the birds could not attract Helen!
But see there! Her dress was shining through the trees and the shrubs on the other side. It must be she. She was walking more rapidly, now she had noticed him; she evidently wished to speak to him.
"God be thanked that I find you at last," she said, from a distance, already; "I have not closed my eyes all night long from care and anxiety. He is better--is he not? You would not have left him if he were not, I am sure!"
"He is better, at least Bruno says so. But I fear he is anything but well. You know he is a hero in endurance."
"Yes, indeed," said Helen. "I love him as I love my brother, no--much more than my brother. I cannot bear the thought of losing him. You cannot imagine how it troubles me to know that he is suffering."
"He is not less troubled about you," said Oswald.
"How so?" asked Helen, fixing her large eyes interrogatively on Oswald's face.
"I do not wish to lose the precious moments of this interview by a long introduction," said Oswald "This letter which I hold in my hand, evidently directed in your handwriting, was found night before last by Bruno near the old chapel, directly after a conversation between the baroness and Felix. Bruno, who happened to be in the chapel, had not well been able to avoid hearing it all. He has requested me to return your property to you. I need not tell you that it has been held sacred from the moment it fell into Bruno's hands."