She entered with her heavy eyelids drooping, and advanced with her gaze bent on the oak planks of the polished floor; then she shuddered as some one approached and took her unresisting hand.
'Herminia, dearest, look up! look upon me!' said a familiar voice.
'Ludwig! my own Ludwig!' she exclaimed in astonishment—almost terror, to see him there, and in the uniform of the Thuringians, as he said—
'And now, cousin, let me introduce you to my dear friend, Herr Carl Pierrepont of ours.'
'Ludwig?' said the thoroughly bewildered girl.
'No Ludwig at all,' he replied, laughing, and embracing her; 'but your own cousin, my belle—Heinrich of Frankenburg.'
'Aunt Adelaide!—Ernestine!—what does all this mean?'
'It means, my dear child,' said the Countess, laughing heartily at her niece's perplexity; 'it means that it was all a plot of Ernestine's and Heinrich's, too. They had early learned your repugnance to the plan of betrothal, when you were too young to consent or refuse, and we all saw the folly of a constraint that seemed so heart-sickening to you. Thus we arranged that you should meet him as a stranger under an assumed name. You have met, and know and love each other, so the tie of that love alone binds you now.'
'Oh, Ernestine, my sweet cousin, forgive and forget my reproaches!' exclaimed the blushing and trembling, but happy girl, as she laid her head on the bosom of the beautiful brunette, who laughed and kissed her, fondling her as if she were a child.
'Well, Carl,' said Heinrich, 'what do you think of all this?'