"'What remains to me? Again I turn my back on my home and seek to forget.
"'In Bütze everything will remain as of old, and I--go. But I do not like to leave you, who have suspected it, in darkness. Pardon me if have caused you anxiety; I did so unconsciously. Think of me kindly! When I come home again some day, Susanna will be the wife of my friend, and I--a calm man, who will have forgotten all the dreams of youth. I kiss your dear hands, and beg you to let what I have said here remain our secret. Susanna will be most likely of all to suspect why I went--she will secretly mourn for me, but only soon to forget me in her young happiness.
"The sheet trembled in my hands, and every instant tears hindered my reading.
"About half-past three in the afternoon Pastor Grüne came with his sister to offer congratulations on the engagement. Ah, me! yes, yesterday the appointment for publishing the banns was made. Anna Maria and I sat in painful embarrassment, receiving the hearty congratulations of the two old friends. They inquired for the young bride-elect, and the pastor praised her beauty and her happy, child-like nature. When he saw Anna Maria's pale face, he took her hand:
"'My dear child,' said he, kindly and earnestly, 'marriages are made in Heaven. God leads the hearts together, and when they have found each other no human being may disturb them. So few marriages are made to-day out of true, unselfish love that it ought to be a real joy for every one who experiences it, to see a couple go before the altar who are restrained by no earthly consideration from belonging to each other in true love. God's blessing be upon Klaus von Hegewitz and his bride!' He was much moved, the old man who had held Klaus and Anna Maria over the font, but in surprise he let the girl's hand drop, with a look of disapprobation at the cold, unsympathetic face. She did not answer a syllable.
"My old friend had, a little while before, drawn a sheet of paper from her knitting-bag and put it in my hand. I first glanced at it now; it was the printed notice of the engagement of Klaus and Susanna. 'We received it this morning,' she nodded, 'but I saw it yesterday at Frau von R----'s at Oesfeld; I was there to coffee. You ought to have been there, Rosamond, to see how the ladies contended for that little sheet.'