"Oh, do not laugh," she broke in with eagerness, "or else I must say to you to-day what you said to me yesterday: 'Why do you laugh so much?'" And after a short silence she continued: "Do you remember, yesterday we were talking of wings? My wings are grown--but where shall I fly?"
"What are you saying!" I replied. "To you all ways are open."
"You have a bad opinion of me today," she said, and drew her eyebrows together.
"What is the matter with you two to-day?" Gagin interrupted me. "Shall I play a waltz for you as I did yesterday?"
"No, no," exclaimed Assja, clasping her hands together--"not for the world to-day."
"Not for the world," she repeated, and her cheeks grew pale.
Does she love me? I thought, as I came to the Rhine, whose waves rolled swiftly by.
Does she love me? I asked myself when I awoke the next morning. I did not wish to look into my own heart. I felt that her image--the image of the "girl with the bold laugh"--had impressed itself upon my soul, and that I could not easily get rid of it. I went to L---- and remained there the whole day; but I had only one glimpse of Assja. She was not well; her head ached. She came down stairs for a few moments with her head bound up, her eyes half closed, pale and weak; she smiled feebly, said, "It will pass; it is nothing; everything passes, does it not?" and went away. I was depressed and had a painful sense of blankness, but I would not go home till very late, without, however, seeing her again.
I spent the next day like a man walking in his sleep. I tried to work, but could not; then I tried to be absolutely idle, and to think of nothing; but neither did that succeed. I strolled about the town, returned home, and went out again.
"Are you Mr. N.?" said suddenly the voice of a child behind me. I turned. A little boy was standing before me. "From Miss Annette," and handed me a note.
I opened it, and recognized Assja's irregular and scrawling handwriting. "I must see you," she wrote. "Come to-day at four o'clock to the stone chapel on the way to the ruins. Something unexpected has happened. For heaven's sake, come. You shall know everything. Say to the bearer, 'yes.'"
When I had reached my room I sat down and fell into deep thought. My heart beat forcibly. I read Assja's note several times over. I looked at the clock; it was not yet midday.