BERTHA. 81 



a bunch of fresh wildflowers adorned Bertha's table. Was it 

 strange that the image of that fair girl bending with parted lip 

 above those dewy flowers, should go with the student to his 

 lonely room, and too often cross his mental vision in the hour 

 of intellectual toil ? Was Elbert in love with Bertha ? Who 

 can say ? He was verging towards manhood, full of ambition, 

 full of energy, while she was only a merry child who had scarce 

 counted her fourteenth summer. But when another year had 

 passed, and again another glided on, then Elbert knew that in 

 the secret temple of his heart, her name was inscribed in char- 

 acters which time could not efface ; — he knew that he loved 

 her. But Bertha had no such perceptions. As childlike at 

 sweet sixteen as she had been years before, she still bore with- 

 in her bosom an unawakened heart. Her birds, her flowers, 

 her friends, were all loved with an affection differing only in 

 degree, but not in character. Whether this apparent want of 

 depth in her feelings disheartened Elbert, or whether he looked 

 upon his love as hopeless from other causes, and therefore 

 resolved to root it out from his strong nature, I know not, but 

 about this period he resolved to leave his native land, and finish 

 his studies at the university of Gottingen. He accordingly 

 sailed for "Europe, — his last parting gift to Bertha being a 

 cluster of the sweet blossoms of the wild Honeysuckle, gather- 

 ed on the mountain-top at sunrise on the morning of his de- 

 parture. Her grief at his absence was so frankly expressed, 

 and she shed tears so unrestrainedly over the faded flowers 

 which day after day were allowed to linger in the vase where 

 his hand had placed jhem, that it needed no great skill in hu- 

 man nature to decide upon the character of her affection. She 



