"I should not like to see you weep for anything in the world; I believe I should forget how to laugh forever."
And again their glances met and their souls kissed each other.
"Well then, come!"
"We shall have a thunder-storm," said old Baumann, from his window, without turning round.
"We shall be there long before it comes up," replied Melitta, who had already risen. "And if you are not more afraid of a thunder-storm than I am--or are you afraid?"
Oswald smiled.
"Then that shall not keep us. Besides, I do not see a trace of a thunder-storm," she said, in the door of the garden room.
At the same moment a blue shadow swept over the garden, and a few swallows flew past the door, twittering and almost grazing the ground.
"Had we better not go?" said Melitta, who had already crossed the threshold, turning back to Oswald.
"I am not afraid of the storm," replied Oswald, not looking at the sky, but into her eyes.