III.
"They worked side by side."
Thus days followed days, and they worked together side by side. George began to pick up his strength with amazing rapidity. The wretchedness in which he had hitherto lived was overcome. The vivifying mountain air swept away the fever which was consuming him. Already he handled his hammer with real vigour, whilst at the same time recounting to his companion the perils and adventures of his military life. There were many things which Tertschka only understood intuitively—others not at all. They were all so alien to her monotonous life, passed amidst the solitude of the great mountains. One thing she seized clearly, and that was that George had suffered. She began to tell him in return her own sad life and all its unhappiness. These long days of toil, passed side by side under the high, scorching sun, became very sweet to them both. They started each morning at daybreak to the quarry, and when the bell rang at meal-time, they were loth to be torn from their solitude and pleasant companionship, to endure the coarse jests and savage humour of the other occupants of the hut.
But, alas! These days when mutual friendship was beginning heal their wounds, and to soothe their poor bruised hearts, were not to last.
Whether the overseer had been informed of their intimacy by some vindictive companion, or his own evil nature made him divine the pleasure they took in each other's society, they never knew. But suddenly one day they perceived him standing behind them.
"What are you always doing here together, like two toads?" he bellowed. "Begone, to your proper place, you famished scarecrow," he cried, turning to George, and pointing to another part of the quarry.
"As for you, you hypocrite," he continued to Tertschka, whilst George crept silently away, "I should like to know what plots you are contriving with that wretched dwarf. Listen: if I see you speaking to him again, I will kick the vagabond out of the place, and that day will be your last; you understand?"
Thus were the two poor creatures brutally separated. On the following day, George received an order to work farther away, near the line. It was only at meal-times, or in the evening after the sun had set, that they saw each
