anything noteworthy had taken place in the town or its surroundings, but he learned no news, and, as he had apprehended, found out nothing about The Range. At last he drove up the familiar valley- road in the deep, evening twilight; there were no stars; the villas were for the most part deserted; the hills stood out darkly. Of a sudden he realized with inexorable clearness something which he had been stupidly trying to conceal from himself for days and up to the very last: he was facing a desperate—and probably hopeless—attempt to recapture the goodwill of the most glorious of beings—the goodwill which he had half carelessly, half faint-heartedly, trifled away.
While he was searching incessantly, but vainly for irrefutable words of vindication and for phrases of irresistible tenderness, the wagon suddenly halted—in the middle of the road, it seemed to Doctor Graesler. And all at once, as though the house had only just been illuminated, a reddish gleam of light fell along the foot- path and across to him. He climbed out; slowly, in order to calm his violently beating heart, he strode up to the door-way. His ring brought an immediate response; just as he was about to enter, he saw the door of the living-room open and Frau Schleheim step forth, while Sabine, after raising her eyes from a book, had remained quietly sitting at the table.
"Why, how lovely that you should have taken notice of us poor, forsaken women," said the mother, holding out her hand to him in hearty welcome.
"I took the liberty of dropping Fräulein Sabine a line to say I was coming."
Sabine had now also risen and, stretching out her hand pleasantly to the doctor, who had approached the table, she said:
"Welcome, Doctor."
He tried to read her look, which rested upon him serenely, altogether too serenely. Then he inquired after the head of the house.
"He is away on a trip," Frau Schleheim replied.
"And may I ask where he happens to be at present?" Doctor Graesler went on to ask, taking a chair at Sabine's invitation.
Frau Schleheim shrugged her shoulders. "We don't know that ourselves. This happens now and then. He will be coming back again in a few weeks. We have had the experience before," she concluded, and exchanged a glance of mutual understanding with her daughter.
