“Thy dreams, as thou callest them, first made me feel the mysteries of life. Gerson Brandt, it was thou who didst awaken my soul; it was thou who didst turn my heart to God, and now, verily, thou wilt not be sorrowful when my day of inspiration comes?”
“To-day there is so much of self victorious in me that I know the day of the _Untersuchung_ will make me sad. It was my intention on that day to give thee the Bible that is lost. For many months thou knowest I worked upon it, making the letters beautiful for thine eyes, and it was a solace to me to feel, every day as I turned the pages upon which I had worked with many a prayer and blessing for thy welfare, that thou wouldst take pleasure in its beauty.”
“And was that Bible for me, Gerson? On the last day when thou didst give it to me to read before the school I did covet it.”
“I did think that I should never tell thee, and it was a sore trouble when Adolph Schneider demanded that it be sold. I tell thee this because, as I have said to-day, I am weak, and I would say something in extenuation of my unseemly conduct towards the head of the thirteen elders.”
“And I am very human, for I am glad that the book is lost, and that the elders had no chance to take it from thee.”
“I could not endure the thought that the stranger from the outside world should possess what I had come to believe belonged to thee.”
Walda turned her head away a moment. Then she answered:
“I want the Bible very much indeed; but, Gerson Brandt, if any stranger were to have it, it had been better it should go to Stephen Everett than to any one else.”
A look of pain came into the school-master’s face. His eyes sought the girl’s with a glance that strove to read her heart.
“And I would rather that the Bible be destroyed, that its pages be scattered and its letters obliterated, than that Stephen Everett should call it his own.”
“Why, Gerson Brandt, thou speakest with much stress. Thou art, indeed, unlike thyself to-day.”
“Perhaps my real self is uppermost, Walda, and the school-master, who was always so submissive and passive, is not the actual man.”
“Peace to thy heart.” Walda came close to him. “Let me tell thee that I should have held the Bible as a precious token from thee, and that I am grateful for the kindly thought with which thou hast wrought it for me.”