For what is to become of me if you avoid and reject
me? Still I would not retain you by deceit. And if you mean to reject
me do so now, and return alone to the shore. I will dive into this
brook, which is my uncle; and here in the forest, far removed from
other friends, he passes his strange and solitary life. He is,
however, powerful, and is esteemed and beloved by many great streams;
and as he brought me hither to the fisherman, a light-hearted,
laughing child, he will take me back again to my parents, a loving,
suffering, and soul-endowed woman."
She was about to say still more, but Huldbrand embraced her with the
most heartfelt emotion and love, and bore her back again to the shore.
It was not till he reached it that he swore, amid tears and kisses,
never to forsake his sweet wife, calling himself more happy than the
Greek sculptor Pygmalion, whose beautiful statue received life from
Venus and became his loved one. In endearing confidence Undine walked
back to the cottage, leaning on his arm, and feeling now for the first
time with all her heart how little she ought to regret the forsaken
crystal palaces of her mysterious father.
CHAPTER XIII
How they lived at Castle Ringstetten
The writer of this story, both because it moves his own heart and
because he wishes it to move that of others, begs you, dear reader, to
pardon him if he now briefly passes over a considerable space of time,
only cursorily mentioning the events that marked it.
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