Page:Maria Felicia.pdf/62

 parent atmosphere, to rise to the peaks of those lofty mountains, and from there still higher until she penetrated the clouds surrounding them. Unconsciously she stretched out her hand toward the clouds, and to give some relief to her feelings, she exclaimed in a voice louder than the song of the finch in a bush near by:

“Gentlemen, let us race here a while, if you please,” and at the same time she answered their anxious questions as to whether or not she was hurt, or at least severely frightened. Before she had finished speaking, she turned from the “Deep Road” to a fallow over which a flock of sheep with their curly guard and his master were running away affrighted before her.

Just as the young nobles started to race with the Countess, the Emperor and the Count overtook the company. Joseph II. stopped his horse and hid behind a bush, so as not to disturb the racers, as it seemed, but instead of that, it was to gaze upon the Countess. She was in that moment really