--

"And you really wished to come hither, Fräulein Nordheim,--really?"

"Yes, Herr Doctor," was the low, trembling reply.

Reinsfeld knew not what to think. Lately Alice's intercourse with him
had been perfectly easy and familiar. True, since their last interview
in the forest, her ease of manner had vanished, but that could not
explain this alteration in her. She stood pale and trembling before
him, seeming actually afraid of him, for she retreated timidly when he
would have approached her.

"You are afraid--of me?" he asked, reproachfully.

She shook her head: "No, not of you, but of what I have to tell you. It
is so terrible."

Reinsfeld was still puzzled for a moment, and then suddenly the truth
flashed upon him.

"Good God! You do not know----?"

He paused, for, for the first time, Alice looked up at him with eyes
filled with such , such , that all other reply was
needless. He hastily went up to her and took her hand.

"How could it be? Who could have been so cruel, so dastardly, as to
 you with _that_?"

"No one!" the girl