She uncovered her face, and exclaimed, while she looked fearfully round upon Huldbrand, "Alas! you will now refuse to look upon me as your own; and still I have done nothing evil, poor unhappy child that I am!" She spoke these words with a look so infinitely sweet and touching, that her bridegroom forgot both the confession that had shocked, and the mystery that had perplexed him; and hastening to her, he raised her in his arms.

She smiled through her tears; and that smile was like the morning light playing upon a small stream.

"You cannot desert me!" she whispered confidingly, and stroked the knight's cheeks with her little soft hands.

He turned away from the frightful thoughts that still lurked in the recesses of his soul, and were persuading him that he had been married to a fairy, or some spiteful and mischievous being of the spirit-world.

Only the single question, and that almost unawares, escaped from his lips.
"Dearest Undine, tell me this one thing: what was it you meant by 'spirits of earth' and 'Kuhleborn,' when the priest stood knocking at the door ?" "Tales! mere tales of children!" answered Undine, laughing, now quite restored to her wonted gaiety.