so lovely in her budding maidenhood that
Leuthold could only open his arms to her in mute .

The girl stood for one moment timidly upon the threshold, and then
threw herself upon her father's breast with a cry of ,--a cry in
which all the home-sickness of years was dissolved in the  of
reunion. Closer and closer each clasped the other,--neither could utter
a word. The child wept tears of  in her father's arms, and bitter
drops fell from Leuthold's eyes upon the head that he pressed to his
breast as if this  were to be his only for a few minutes.

"Father, let me look at you," Gretchen said at last, extricating
herself from his embrace. And she put her hands upon either side of his
head, and gazed into his eyes with the clear, frank glance of
innocence. He bore her look as he would have borne to look at the sun:
it seemed to him that it must blind him, and that he should never be
able to raise his eyelids again.

"Father dear, I can see how you have laboured and suffered," said
Gretchen sadly. "It was high time for you to allow yourself a little
. Ah, how good it is of you to come