"I was wrong," he said, half bitterly, half tenderly. "You
will not forget me any more than I can forget you. It will
make it harder to say good-bye."

" It shall never be said, until one of us two is dying, Greif."

"We cannot change our fate, though we love ever so dearly,''
he answered. " Think, Hilda, if you took me as I am, what
you might suffer in after years, what our children would surely
suffer when they went out into the world, and the world began
to whisper that they were the grandsons of that Greifen-
stein — '■

" What is the world to us, dear ? And as for our sons, if
God sends us any, I know that if they grow up to be brave
gentlemen, loyal and true, the world will leave them in peace."

" The world is a hard place — "

" Then why have anything to do with it ? I have been happy,
here in the forest, for so many years — could you not be happy
here with me ? "

" I should still be my father's son — I should still be Greif-
enstein."

" Would I have you anything else ? "



238 GEEIFBNSTEIN.
