At last he spoke, and she made no protest against his using the “thou”
of their childhood days. It seemed but yesterday since they had talked
together.
“Thou art little changed, Katrina, save that thou hast grown to be a
woman.”
“I have lived such a quiet life,” she answered, “too quiet to have left
its traces.”
“Thou hast lived a beautiful life,” he said. “Have I not heard how it
has gone out in gracious, loving deeds until hundreds adore thy very
name!”
A deep flush mounted in Katrina’s cheeks.
“But thou, Fritz, hast done and seen wonderful things. Even in our
seclusion word has reached us of thy vast knowledge. It must be
splendid to be known far and near as one who possesses such great
wisdom.”
“Ah, Katrina, what have I not sacrificed in that search! Home, friends,
those I held closest to my heart,--all were put aside in my eagerness
to find the greatest treasure. But thou dost not know, Katrina, what
was the impulse that sent me forth.”
At this Katrina shook her head.
“Dost thou not remember the ‘voice’ which used to tell us stories of
the castle?”
“Yes;” and as she answered, the woman’s face glowed with the memories
of childhood.
“Well,” said Fritz, his eyes meeting her astonished gaze, “I never
told thee this; it was a secret I carried with me. One evening I came
alone, and sat here in the courtyard, for I wished to try and discover
something.”
“I know, I know,” she interposed, “it was one evening when I felt sure
I heard thy footstep on the gravel.”
“Yes,” Fritz answered smiling, “and thou didst say next morning that
it must have been a ghost. Not only did I wish to hear the voice
again, but I felt a keen desire to ask what it meant by the greatest
of all treasures. And it was then that I discovered it to be the Ivy
speaking,--yes, that old vine yonder on the wall. In answer to my
query, it assured me that of all the treasures of the world knowledge
is the greatest. From that moment I was consumed with one overwhelming
purpose,--the determination to search until I found _the greatest
treasure_.”
“And thou hast had thy wish fulfilled,” Katrina said.
“Yea, but as I have said, at what a sacrifice! Its possession has not
brought me happiness, and I have come back a disappointed, discouraged
man. Thou wilt doubtless be surprised, Katrina, when I tell thee that
the only real happiness I have known in many years was only lately
when, out of love for my father’s memory, I completed some of the toys
which his hands had left unfinished. On reaching Grünwald I learned
that a fair was soon to take place at Eisenach, and I knew what pride
he would have felt to have his toys displayed; so I came to the old
home, and for many, many days I hardly left his work-bench.”
“So,” exclaimed Katrina with amazement, “it was thou who sent that
anonymous exhibit to the fair!”
“Yes,” Fritz answered, smiling, “and thou canst not guess, Katrina,
what became of the money won in prizes?”
Katrina, puzzled, shook her head.
“It is the nucleus of a fund with which I intend to endow a school
where poor but ambitious boys can be provided, not only with an
education, but also with a home, and it shall be dedicated to the
memory of Martin Luther.”
As Fritz looked into Katrina’s face he saw a beauty that seemed not of
earth. He drew her hand close within his own, and long, long they sat
there by the Rose-bush.
“Yea, Katrina, I have searched in all the wide world for the greatest
treasure.”
“And yet thou sayest thou hast not found it, Fritz?”
As he answered Fritz’s face seemed full of light, “I have found it, my
own Katrina; but not out there in the world. Vain were my searchings
there. It is here, within; so close, so close.”
[Illustration: “_Long they sat there by the Rose-bush_”]
The castle had almost faded now, and the ivy looked strange and ghostly
in the gathering gloom. A soft mist crept up from the valley, then
the moon came to its throne in the sky. Still Fritz and Katrina sat
there, hand clasped in hand; while over and about them, as though in
benediction, there came a wonderful delicate fragrance--the breath,
as it were, of a beautiful, living soul. Then they heard the Roses of
Saint Elizabeth saying gently: “But the greatest of these is Love.”