It is now many a long year since little Violet escaped out of her cage and mounted up like a bird to heaven, and yet she is remembered as lovingly as ever by the people of Edelsheim. If you turn aside into the little church-yard at the foot of the hill, you will see the monument that they have erected with much love and care to her memory. And perhaps you may meet there a woman who comes often to weep at her grave and to pray, but from whom the townspeople still turn away with aversion. She is never tired looking at the white face carved so faithfully and beautifully in marble, nor at the outstretched pinions which, spreading across the arms of the cross, support the cherub's head.
There is no epitaph to tell of their darling's pure life, nor of her sad death; only three words, and yet they embrace all—"Violet has wings."
It was Fritz who chose them. But to comfort the hearts of all those in Edelsheim who had loved her so well, the sculptor added at the base of the monument a bunch of fading violets, and beneath them he carved these words of hope and consolation—"Auf wiedersehen" (To meet again).