Feelings and thoughts which had never troubled him during the
long years in which by land or sea, he had drunk of that freedom for
which he had sacrificed so much.
The old German woods! They whispered here in the South, just as they had
done in the North; the same wind moved the branches of the fir and the
oak, and whistled through the tops of the distant pine trees. Yes, these
were the self-same voices which had once told all their secrets to the
willful boy lying on the mossy bank of the Burgsdorf fish pond.
There was a stir and sound as of some one moving between the trees.
Hartmut looked up indifferently, expecting to see an animal of some kind
spring out, but he saw instead the fluttering of a light gown between
the low bushes, and from a little side path, which he had not before
noticed, a young lady stepped out, almost in front of him, and stood
hesitatingly, evidently uncertain what direction to take.
Rojanow was roused from his dreaming by this unexpected apparition, and
the stranger caught sight of him at once. She appeared surprised, too,
but only for a second, then she stepped forward, and said, with a slight
bow:
"May I beg you, sir, to show me the way to Fuerstenstein? I am a stranger
here and have lost my way, and am, I fear, far from the place I seek.
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