Now they are here. She, the two children, and the servants. I need not
have removed the stones, for they drove in carriages. Nearly all
Winkelsteg was assembled on the square when they arrived. The priest
made an address of welcome; I crept into the schoolhouse. But I was
thoroughly alarmed, for they alighted directly in front of my window,
and I thought they were about to enter.
I saw her very plainly; she has grown younger. She was hardly out of her
carriage before she was chasing a butterfly. But that was her youngest
daughter. She herself----
By my faith, I should not have recognised her.
Of all her old mirrors with golden frames, not one is so true or has so
faithfully retained her glorious image to the present day as my heart
has done.
Now the image has disappeared and my youth has vanished like a mist.