Let us go back to him."
Astonished, she raised her large blue eyes toward him, and after a
pause answered slowly and reluctantly: "To please you, I will:
whatever you like pleases me too. But the old man yonder must first
promise me that he will let you tell me all you saw in the forest, and
the rest we shall see about."
"Only come back--do come!" cried the Fisherman, and not another word
could he say. At the same moment he stretched his arms over the stream
toward her, and nodded his head by way of giving her the desired
promise; and as his white hair fell over his face, it gave him a
strange look, and reminded Huldbrand involuntarily of the nodding
white man in the woods. Determined, however, that nothing should stop
him, the young Knight took the fair damsel in his arms, and carried
her through the short space of foaming flood, which divided the island
from the mainland. The old man fell upon Undine's neck, and rejoiced,
and kissed her in the fulness of his heart; his aged wife also came
up, and welcomed their recovered child most warmly. All reproaches
were forgotten; the more so, as Undine seemed to have left her
sauciness behind, and overwhelmed her foster parents with kind words
and caresses.
When these transports of joy had subsided, and they began to look
about them, the rosy dawn was just shedding its glow over the lake,
the storm had ceased, and the birds were singing merrily on the wet
branches. As Undine insisted upon hearing the story of the Knight's
adventure, both the old folks cheerfully indulged her.
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