"But you calmly said that it did not matter whether the rooms were on the same floor or not."
"Before the waiter, dearest."
"Yes, yes, I understand."
She jumped to her feet and suddenly gave me an eager kiss; it was as if I had been hit in the face by a soft ball.
"Then you are not angry any longer?"
I lifted her to the seat by my side.
"Any longer? But I assure you, Minna, I have not been angry at all."
"But you really might have been; yes, you ought to have been."
"Oh, nonsense! I only think it much sweeter now that I know that it was not an accident but your wish."
"There is nothing to be done with you; you will absolutely spoil me, and I can't imagine what the end of it will be!" Minna exclaimed, and pressed me tenderly to her. "But look how the weather is clearing. We shall have a fine day after all."
Outside, on the white sheet of mist which was stretched in front of the window, appeared dusky crowns of fruit trees, pointed fir-tops, and the margin of a roof with a tiny shining skylight, everything becoming indistinct as it approached the ground, just like the pictures of a magic-lantern that are beginning to take shape.
And above all this appeared a dark mass; it was the rock plateau of Lilienstein, floating like an island in the air with the mist stream gliding round its rough stone sides, with long dark purple clefts, and with myriads of little fir-tops pointing up towards the sky, which shone through with the bluish tint of an opal.
"And what shall we do to-day?" I asked. "To-
