UNDINE. 11
our eyes find no sleep the whole night ; for who can assure us, in spite ol' her past escapes, that she will not some time or other come to harm, if she thus continue out in the dark and alone until daylight ?"
" Then pray, for God's sake, father, let us follow her," cried Hiddbrand anxiously.
" Wherefore should we?" replied the old man. "It would be a sin were I to suffer you, all alone, to search after the foolish girl amid the lonesomeness of night : and my old limbs would fail to carry nie to this wild rover, even if I knew to what place she has betaken her- self."
" Still we ought at least to call after hei-, and beg her to return," said Huldbrand ; and he began to call, in tones of earnest entreaty, " Undine! Undine! couje back, come back !"
The old man shook his head, and said, " All your shout- ing, however loud and long, will be of no avail ; you know not as yet, sir knight, how self-willed the little thing is." But still, even hoping against hope, he could not himself cease calling out every minute, amid the gloom of night, " Undine ! ah, dear Undine ! I beseech you, pray come back, — only this once."
It turned out, however, exactly as the fisherman had said. No Undine could they hear or see ; and as the old man would on no account consent that Huldbraud should go in quest of the fugitive, they were both obliged at last to return into the cottage. There they found the fire on the hearth almost gone out, and the mistress of the house, who took Undine's flight and danger far less to heart than her husband, had already gone to rest. The old man blew up the coals, put on dry wood, and by the fire- light hunted for a flask of wine, which he brought and set between himself and his guest.
" You, sir knight, as well as I," said he, " are anxious on the silly girl's account ; and it would be better, I think, to spend part of the night in chatting and drinkingj than
