Everett had walked out under the autumn sky nearly all night. In the days that had passed since his interview with Walda at the meeting-house all the villagers had avoided him. Even the school-master had passed him by with scarcely a nod of recognition. Time had dragged. Of all the people of Zanah, Hans Peter alone remained on friendly terms with him.
At dawn Everett arose from a brief sleep, and dressed himself with unusual care. The thought came to him that before sundown he might be robbed of Walda. All his strength left him. He dropped upon a chair near the window. Love had become life to him. Sitting with his elbows on his knees he looked out upon Zanah. Walda represented hope, worship, aspiration. The touch of her lips had awakened all that was good in him. He, who had rarely prayed, petitioned, in an agony of longing, that he might be given the woman of Zanah.
Some one knocked. Everett jumped to his feet to open the door. Hans Peter, freshly scoured with soap until his round face shone, stood in the hall, twirling a cap that had been recently mended.
“The elders have sent me to tell thee that thou art to remain away from the timber-land where the _Untersuchung_ is to be held,” announced the simple one.
“And why is my absence desirable?” Everett asked.
“Question not the village fool,” Hans Peter replied. “He knoweth not what the great men of Zanah think inside their wise heads.”
“What do you think inside your foolish head?” Everett laughed, as if he made light of the order.
Hans Peter looked down at a pair of copper-toed shoes, which were to him the insignia of an unusual occasion.
“It seemeth to the simple one of Zanah that it is wise for the stranger to be far away when the prophetess doth pledge herself to love only God and the angels.”
“I intend to go to the _Untersuchung_, Hans Peter, and I want you to find a good place from which I can look on during the hours when the people give their testimonies concerning the state of their souls.”
“Thou canst not sit among the colonists,” said Hans Peter. “The men and women of Zanah have turned against thee. They will not permit thee to mingle with them on the most solemn day of all the year.”
“Whether or not they permit me, I shall go to the _Untersuchung_,” Everett replied. “Would it not be safe for me to wait behind the line of poplars not far off from the platform upon which the elders will sit?”
