Then a fear came over Charlie that the same event might prevent Ernestine meeting him, as she might be deprived of her brother's escort.
But if she failed to come, a messenger of some kind might meet him at Burtscheid.
CHAPTER XXII.
AT BURTSCHEID.
'In five hours—in four—in two,' and so on he reckoned, 'I shall see her again—my darling! my darling!'
At last the wished-for time came when he was to set forth on that walk which—he fondly, ardently, and tenderly hoped—was to end in her presence; but, as he walked down the leafless avenue from the city, he felt his heart become tremulous, almost sick with anxiety and fear, lest she should be unable to meet him, even after all the months of separation undergone; yet his was a heart that never quailed, even when he faced that battery in the wood—a battery that was not of cannon, but mitrailleuses!
Anon as he proceeded, something of Ernestine's high and strange enthusiasm gathered in his breast.
Even if he were fated never to wed her, he felt that she was the one great passion of his life, a worship almost spiritualized, and that beyond the trammels of this material world, he would follow her, faithful and unchanged, into that to come.
Then he almost smiled to think how German the tone of his mind was becoming.
The evening sky was cloudless, and wore a kind of pale violet tint, amid which the stars sparkled out brilliantly.