.18 UNDINE.
instant a gentle voice of warning cried near him, " Do not venture, do not venture ! — that old man, the stream, is too full of tricks to be trusted !" He knew the soft tones of the voice ; and wliile he stood as it were entranced, be- neath the shadows which had now duskily veiled the moon, his head swam with the swell and rolling of the waves as he saw them momentarily rising above his knee. Still he disdained the thought of giving up his purpose.
" If you are not really there, if you are merely gambol- ling round me like a mist, may I, too, bid farewell to life, and become a shadow like you, dear, dear Undine !" Thus calling aloud, he again moved deeper into the stream. "Look round you — ah, pray look round you, beautiful young stranger! why rush on death so madly?" cried the voice a second time close by him ; and looking on one side, he perceived, by the light of the moon, again cloud- less, a little island formed by the flood ; and crouching ujion its flowery turf, beneath the branches of embowering trees, he saw the smiling and lovely Undine.
O how mucii more gladly than before the young man now plied his sturdy staff! A few steps, and he had crossed the flood that was rushing between himself and the maiden; and he stood near her on the little spot of greensward in security, protected by the old trees. Undine half rose , and she threw her arms around his neck to draw him gently down upon the soft seat by her side.
" Here you shall tell me your story, my beautiful friend," she breathed in a low whisper ; " here the cross old i)eoi)le cannot disturb us ; and, besides, our roof of leaves here will make quite as good a shelter as their jjoor cottage."
" It is heaven itself," cried Iluldbrand ; and folding her in his arms, he kissed the lovely girl with fervour.
The old fisherman, meantime, had come to the margin of the stream, and he sliouted across, "Why how is this, sir knight I I received you with the welcome which one true-hearted man gives to another ; and now you sit there
