“Max!” exclaimed Adelaide, in a low voice, full of surprise and emotion, and she half started up.
“It is you! That is too wonderful!” said he, pausing.
“You are not yet gone?”
“I have been detained to-day. I leave early to-morrow. I thought I would take at least one turn in the Malkasten garden, which I may perhaps never see or enter again. I did not know you were here.”
“We—May and I—thought it so pleasant that we would not go in again to listen to the play.”
Von Francius had come under the trees and was now leaning against a massive trunk; his slight, tall figure almost lost against it; his arms folded, and an imposing calm upon his pale face, which was just caught by the gleam of a lamp outside the trees.
“Since this accidental meeting has taken place, I may have the privilege of saying adieu to your ladyship.”
“Yes—” said Adelaide, in a strange, low, much-moved tone.
I felt uneasy, I was sorry this meeting had taken place. The shock and revulsion of feeling for Adelaide, after she had been securely calculating that von Francius was a hundred miles on his way to ——, was too severe. I could tell from the very timbre of her voice and its faint vibration how agitated she was, and as she seated herself again beside me, I felt that she trembled like a reed.
“It is more happiness than I expected,” went on von Francius, and his voice too was agitated. Oh, if he would only say “Farewell,” and go!