LXIOh to meet again!
What golden sunshine over the mountains, and what gentle tears in the peaceful valleys!
We stood opposite each other in wondering rapture; we had no words to ask or answer, but we fell into each other's arms, and with tears of joy, and faint with happiness we sang the praise of the dawning of the day. Is it not all a dream? Is it really you and I? We are looking at each other, but we shake our heads, we cannot believe it. And yet for the first time now it seems as if we really knew each other. This is the wonderful beauty of our meeting; before we had met in a scarcely realised dream of happiness, now the dream has become living reality.
You lovely girl, so full of life, with such glory of joy and peace in your mischievous eyes, and with that grown-up woman's thoughtfulness on your childish brow, you are putting your arms round my neck, saying: 'So at last, in the eleventh hour, that has happened for which I never dared hope. For it is true now, is it not? It is not something you will repent to-morrow, not something you imagine at the moment, because you have been longing for me?'
I answer: 'I love you, as surely as I have always said too little rather than too much. I love you in joy and in sorrow, on week-days and Sundays. You are the woman I will die with, but with whom I intend first to live a long, long time. Naturally I have been longing for the caresses of my dearest