The true northerner., 1895-10-18


was beautiful. and the baron was very
kind to her, and instead of t0iliug In the
fields Gretchen sat In her handsome houeR,
to be waited on by her maidens, and wore
silk In place of coarse stuff, and golden
rings upon the fingers whence she had
slipped poor Carl's gift, the little silver
circlct which was all that he could afford
to give her.
And In year little baby lay within
her arms and looked into her eyes and
taught her to love its father, who had been
so tender and so kind to her, and she was
the Baroness Claussen, and o wife and
mother, and not the peasant girl grieving
for her lover any moro.
Just at this time Carl, with his two
years pay In his wallet and some hard
won possessions besides, stepped from the
ships deck upon dry land and hurried rs
best he might toward Hesse Darmstadt to
find Gretchen. That she might be dead
was a fear that crossed his mind, but that
she might be married never occurred to
him He had sent her information OF his
intentions. He had toiled, drenched by
rain, beaten by wind, pelted by hail, In
danger OF shipwreck and assailed by the
fever laden breezes of southern lands, to
win the little pittance which seemed so
great sum to him. He had done IL for
the sake of her love. He boated 1t and
footed II homeward In an ecstasy of yearn-
ing, and the mermaid, who had followed
the vessel over the ocean, waited for IL at
foreign ports and followed 1t back again,
made her way along the Rhine.
The baron's castle hung over the Rhine,
and the nursery wherein the baroness
watched over her baby looked out upon
the water. 1t was under this window
that the mermaid stopped, her flossy hair
all tangled, her eyelids heavy, her lutte un-
strung. And Carl hurried down to the
cottage, where Gretchen's grandmother
dwelt, and rushed In and cried, for he
was so brown and so long bearded that
they did not know him:
81 am Carl Steyer come back to marry
Gretchen. Tell me where to find her."
But the old granddame answered.;
"You can't be Carl, for he Is drowned
and has had masses said for him. But even
If you were you have no business TO call
the Baroness Won Claussen your Gretch-
en-"
"The baroness!" faltered Carl "How
the baroness?"
"Ayer' said the old granddame. "She
married the Baron Won Claussen and has
as fine a young baron as any one ever set
eyes on"
where is shes" gasped Carl. "I'l
believe no one but her.
''She is where she ought to be, at the
castle, I" said the old woman. "But you'd
be mad to go there.
Perhaps Carl was mad, for he went. He
put aside porter and maid and page and
made his way to the room where Gretchen
-, Lar Hat nd cho
him, forgot everything else and rushed to
meet him, and he took her in his arms,
and they wept. But soon he put her off
and asked her.
II thought you dead" she said.
Then great horror came upon her.
"Why did you Gomez she cried. II
am a wife 1 had learned to love my hus-
band. Now there will be only you again.
And amid these words they heard a clatter
of horses hoofs and a voice below bidding
the servant say If 1t were true that Carl
Steyer really were closeted with their mis-
tress-the barons voice.
'See!'' cried Gretchen. "Seel He Is
jealous! He will hate me. l must not
love you, for am a wife. / cannot love
him, for he keeps me from you. Oh, cruel
to come back and seek me and bring me
such shame and sorrow''
"Cruel!' cried Carl. "Ah, she calls me
crnel Rut sac, Gretchen. 81. kinder
than you have been to me. The baron
shall not find me here. Tell him Carl
Steyer's ghost came to you. You will
speak the truth, for shall be dead when
you utter the words Forget NE, since
that will make you happy. FAREWELL"
And as he spoke he pushed the lattice
open and jumped into the foaming waters
of the Rhine.
The jealous baron rushed in the moment
after, but found his wife alone beside her
baby's cradle-alone, muttering and moan
ing of the sea and of Carl Steyer, as she
muttered and moaned through all her
weary life.
But as for Carl Steyer, he did not drown.
The mermaid caught him in her arms as
he sank beneath the waters and bore him
away TO her caves of coral and pearl,
where with her songs and her embraces,
she taught him TO forget inconstant
Gretchen, the tolls of the sea, the pleasures
of the land, his own soul and everything
but her
So now, though the castle Of the Baron
Won Claussen IL ruin, and all the barons
of that name dead long ago, the peasants
often see a fair, weeping phantom at its
site and see in the stream below another
fair as a maiden of the sea can be, who
bears in her white arms the most beauti-
full of mankind, lullcd into a mystic sleep
by the magic of her song And they say
that it is the mermaid who followed Carl
Steyer across the ocean and now comes TO
taunt and triumph over the phantom of
Gretchen Baroness Won Claussen.-Ex-
change