"Let us meanwhile pay attention to the little we have found."
She took up the parchment volume, and put it in the hands of the learned man. Some leaves slipped out; the Professor caught hold of them; his eyes contracted, he jumped up and hastened to the window.
"These leaves do not belong to it," he said, reading them. At last he exclaimed: "A piece of the manuscript is found."
He held out the leaves to the Princess; his hand trembled, and the agitation of his countenance was such that he was obliged to turn away. He hastened to the table and searched the missal, opening it leaf by leaf, from beginning to end. The Princess held the leaves in her hand in eager expectation, and approached him. As he looked up he saw two large eyes fixed on him with tender sympathy. Again he seized the two leaves, "What I have here, he cried, is both valuable and discouraging; one could almost weep that it is not more; it is a fragment out of the sixth book of the annals of Tacitus, that we already possess in another manuscript. These are two leaves of a parchment volume, but between them many are lost. The writing is well preserved--better than I should have expected. It is written by a German, in the characters of the twelfth century."
"He looked quickly over the contents in the light of the setting sun. The Princess glanced over his shoulder curiously at the thick letters of the monk's hand.
"It is correct," he proceeded, more calmly, "the discovery is of the greatest interest. It will be instructive to compare this manuscript with the only one extant." He looked at it again. "If it is a copy," he murmured, "perhaps both indicate a common source. Thus the manuscript that we are seeking must be torn; these leaves have fallen out, and perhaps during the packing up have been shoved into a wrong book. There is much still that is mysterious; but the main fact appears to me certain, that we have here a remnant of the manuscript of Rossau, and this discovery ought to be a guarantee that the remainder is at hand. But how much of it?" he continued, gloomily, "and in what condition will it be?"
He again listened anxiously to the steps of the men who were clearing away in the loft. He rushed out of the room up the stairs, but returned in a few minutes.
"The work goes on slowly," he said; "as yet there is nothing to be seen."
"I do not know whether to wish that it should go on quickly," exclaimed the Princess, cheerfully; but her eyes gave the lie to her smiling mouth. "You must know that I am very selfish in helping you to find the manuscript. As long as you are searching you belong to us. When you have obtained the treasure, you will withdraw yourself into your invisible world, and the retrospect alone will remain to us. I have a mind to close the remaining rooms of the house, and only to open one to you each year, until you have become quite at home with us."
"That would be cruel not to me alone," replied the Professor.