"
"There," cried Roland, with enthusiasm, "you have more than repaid
whatever you may owe."
After breakfasting at St. Goarhausen and purchasing the horses, they
journeyed down the rough road that extended along the right bank of the
Rhine. Roland and Hilda rode side by side, the other two following some
distance to the rear. The young man maintained a gloomy silence, and the
girl, misapprehending his thoughts, remained silent also, with downcast
eyes, seeing nothing of the beautiful scenery they were passing. Every
now and then Roland cast a sidelong glance at her, and his melancholy
deepened as he remembered how heedlessly he had pledged his word to the
three Archbishops regarding his marriage.
"I see," she said at last, "that I have offended you more seriously than
I feared."
"No, no," he assured her. "There is a burden that I cannot cast from my
mind."
"May I know what it is?"
"I dare not tell you, Hilda. I have been a fool. I am in the position of
a man who must break his oath and live dishonored, or keep it, and
remain for ever unhappy.
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