They appeared to feel, at the moment of separation, all that they were losing in their affectionate foster-daughter.
The three travellers had reached the thickest shades of the forest without interchanging a word.

It must have been a fair sight, in that hall of leafy verdure, to see this lovely woman's form sitting on the noble and richly-ornamented steed, on her left hand the venerable priest in the white garb of his order, on her right the blooming young knight, clad in splendid raiment of scarlet, gold, and violet, girt with a sword that flashed in the sun, and attentively walking beside her.

Huldbrand had no eyes but for his wife; Undine, who had dried her tears of tenderness, had no eyes but for him; and they soon entered into the still and voiceless converse of looks and gestures, from which, after some time, they were awakened by the low discourse which the priest was holding with a fourth traveller, who had meanwhile joined them unobserved.
He wore a white gown, resembling in form the dress of the priest's order, except that his hood hung very low over his face, and that the whole drapery floated in such wide folds around him as obliged him every moment to gather it up and throw it over his arm, or by some management of this sort to get it out of his way, and still it did not seem in the least to impede his movements.

When the young couple became aware of his presence, he was saying: "And so, venerable sir, many as have been the years I have dwelt here in this forest, I have never received the name of hermit in your sense of the word.

For, as I said before, I know nothing of penance, and I think, too, that I have no particular need of it.