She blushed a little and smiled, and said—
"You mustn't expect too much," and we soon found ourselves walking thither up the avenue. Thus we had often walked as children, and once—a memorable once—besides.
There stood the little white house with its golden legend, as I had seen it a thousand times when a boy—a hundred since.
How sweet and small it looked in the mellow sunshine! We mounted the stone perron, and opened the door and entered. My heart beat violently.
Everything was as it had always been, as far as I could see. Dr. Seraskier sat in a chair by the window reading Schiller, and took no notice of us. His hair moved in the gentle breeze. Overhead we heard the rooms being swept and the beds made.
I followed her into a little lumber-room, where I did not remember to have been before; it was full of odds and ends.
"Why have you brought me here?" I asked.
She laughed and said—
"Open the door in the wall opposite."
There was no door, and I said so.