He bit his lip, and stared before him into the lacework of the young green foliage. Did she suspect what would befall her in a few hours?
"But now all is right again, isn't it?" he asked unsteadily.
With a cry she sank on the ground, and clinging to his knees exclaimed, "Yes, oh yes, Herr. When you are here everything is right, everything is different. If you were to go away again, Herr, what should I do?"
No, she suspected nothing. The heaviest, most crushing blow of all was in store for her. He felt as if there were a thunderbolt concealed in his sleeve, which the next time he stirred would descend and shatter her to fragments. But he had still time to dispose of as he pleased. A few hours to devote to this poor creature, in which to revive and make her happy again before signing her death-warrant, and in which she would unconsciously gather up strength for the ordeal.
"Stand up, Regina," he said gently. "Let us enjoy ourselves, and not think of the future."
Then they walked side by side through the dusky garden, the neatly kept paths of which were strewn with white gravel, and skirted, like glittering rivulets, the smooth turf. The shrubs exhaled an indescribable fragrance, the breath of spring mingled with the scent of dying things, and in the tree-tops that waved above their heads, they heard the subdued whispering twitter of home-coming birds.
"How beautifully everything has come out here since I went away!" he exclaimed.
"Yes, Herr," she answered. "It has never been so beautiful as it is now."
"It has become so all at once?" he asked, smiling. He looked at her sideways and noticed the hollows in her cheeks. But an exquisite colour was already tinging them.
She has begun to live again, he thought to himself, and it seemed as if the next few hours were to be the last vouchsafed to him too of a vanishing happiness.