Part 22 (1/2)

'I have no doubt whatever that this was the place,' he remarked, 'and Kluver was correct in his conjecture'

'Nohat is the use,' I said, sitting down on theto ? Who is Kluver?

And what did he conjecture?'

His eyes suddenly flashed out of their dream, and he smiled and pattedpleased

'It is May I ask what you are doing here?'

'Doing? Agreeing with Kluver that this is undoubtedly the spot'

'What spot?'

'Tacitus describes it so accurately that there can be no reasonable doubt'

'Oh--Tacitus I thought Kluver had so to do with Charlotte Where is Charlotte?'

'Conceive the procession of the Goddess Nerthus, or Hertha, roves on the way to bless her children Her car is covered, so that no eye shall behold her The priest alone, walking by the side, is permitted to touch it Wherever she passes holyday is kept Arns absolute

No man may seek to slay his brother while she who blesses all alike is passing a her children Then, when she has once more been carried to her temple, in this water thou here seest, in this very lake, her car and its draperies are cleansed by slaves, who, after perfor their office, are themselves thrown into the water and left to perish; for they had laid hands on that which was holy, and even to-day, e are half-hearted in the defence of our adorations and rarely set up altars in our souls, that is a dangerous thing to do'

'Dear Professor,' I said, 'it is perfectly sweet of you to tell me about the Goddess Nerthus, but would youafter her in a waggonette Did you ever catch her?'

He looked atpocket of his waterproof a sounding slap 'Little cousin,' he said, 'in reybeard, a venerable sheep's-head

Never, I suppose, shall I learn to reet Therefore I assistnotes of them to which I can refer Unfortunately it seldom happens that I remember to refer Thou, however, hast reed different articles fro them carefully on the moss beside him in tidy rows But the fact of only one of the two handkerchiefs being there nearly put hi did he ht of his extra pair of socks re, and he broke off his search for the note-book to hold each up in turn to me and eloquently lament _'Nein, nein, was fur Socken!'_ he moaned, with a final shake of the head as he spread thereed for the tenth time

'Bad! They are emblematic'

'Will you let me mend them? Or rather,' I hastily added, 'cause thereat as Charlotte's

'No, no--what is the use? There are cupboards full of socks like them in Bonn, skeletons of that which once was socks, mere outlines filled in with holes'

'And all are ele one' But this time he looked at me with a twinkle in his eye

'I don't think,' I said, 'that I'd let my soul be ruffled by a sock If it offended me I'd throw it away and buy soaily, 'proceeding fro!' And withoutboth the socks into the Hertha See There they lay, like strange flowers of yelloool, motionless on the face of the mystic waters

'And now the note-book?' I asked; for he had relapsed into i the socks with abstracted eyes

'_Ach_ yes--the note-book'

Being heavy, it was at the very bottom of as more like a sack in size than a pocket; but once he had run his glance over the latest entries he began very volubly to tell ht It had been an even busier night than mine Charlotte, he explained, had left Sassnitz by the Berlin train, and had taken a ticket for Berlin, as he ascertained at the booking-office, a few minutes before he took his He arrived at the very last ht sight of her sitting in a ladies' coave a sigh of satisfaction,' he continued, 'litheavens fro so near my little wife, I fell into an abstraction'

I shook my head 'These abstractions Professor,' I observed, 'are inconvenient things to fall into What had happened by the tied fro on the ferry that takes the train across the water to Stralsund The ancient city rose in venerable majesty----'