She suddenly clasped him in her arms again with unspeakable tenderness, and Hartmut returned the embrace with ardor.  It seemed to him like the fairy tales which he had so often dreamed, and he gave himself up unresistingly to the spell of happiness which some wonderful magic had cast over him.

Just at that moment, Will called loudly to his friend from the opposite shore to come on, that it was time to go home.  Zalika spoke at once.

“We must part now.  Nobody must learn that I have seen and spoken with you; above all things your father must not know it.  When do you return to him?”

“In eight days.”

“Not for eight days?” The words sounded almost triumphant.

“Until then I can see you daily.  Be here by the pond to-morrow at this same hour; make some pretext for leaving your friend behind, so that we may be undisturbed.  You will come, Hartmut?”

“Certainly, mother, but—­”

She gave him no time for any objection, but continued in a passionate whisper: 

“Above all things maintain absolute silence toward every one.  Do not forget that.  Good-bye, my child, my own dear son, good-bye.”

Another kiss and she had retreated in the woods as noiselessly as she had come.  It was high time, for Willibald appeared at this moment, though not noiselessly by any means, for he broke the twigs with many a crackle as he stepped heavily on them.

“Why didn’t you answer me?” he asked.  “I called you three times.  You have been asleep; you look as if you were dreaming.”

Hartmut did have a dazed look as he stood gazing at the trees behind which his mother had disappeared.  Now he straightened himself and drew his hand across his forehead.

“Yes, I have been dreaming.  A very strange, marvelous dream,” he said slowly.

“You had better have been fishing,” returned Will.  “See what a fine catch I have made.  A man should never dream in daylight—­that’s the time to be at something serious—­mother says.”

CHAPTER II.

The Falkenried and Wallmoden families had been on friendly terms for years.  Living upon adjoining estates, their intercourse was frequent, and their children grew up together, while many common interests united the bonds of friendship still more closely.  Neither of the families were wealthy, and the sons, after completing their education, always had to make their own way in the world, and this in their turn Major Hartmut von Falkenried and Herbert von Wallmoden had done.

They had played together in their youth, and as men had remained true to their boyhood’s friendship.  At one time it looked as if they would be more closely allied, for their parents had planned a marriage between Lieutenant Falkenried, as he was then, and Regine Wallmoden.  The young couple seemed to understand one another fully, and everything stood on the happiest footing, when an event occurred which put an abrupt termination to all their plans.