A radiant morning sky arched over a green island which lay in the midst
of a broad, ruffled lake. Blue mountain-peaks, veiled in mist, bounded
the almost-immeasurable surface of water. Who can describe all the
changeful lights upon the tide when the young rays of the morning sun
play upon the dancing wavelets--the rising and falling, the sparkling
and flashing, the confused blending of the reflections? A fresh breeze
swept over the lake to the island and rustled the leaves of the lofty
trees; with that exception, a deep silence, a sabbath-like peace,
brooded over the scene.
A girlish figure stood upon the shore, gazing, in a trance of delight,
at the starry shimmer of the waves, and inhaling with parted lips the
cool breath of the water; dewy leaves and blossoms kissed her floating
robes, and dragon-flies sported upon the tide at her feet. Her eyes
followed with a longing look a bird of prey which soared in a majestic
flight towards the pure, vaulted firmament. Just then the sound of the
matin-bell rang out upon the silence, and at the same moment a tall
man, in long, dark robe, appeared in the doorway of a peasant's house
near by, and, standing motionless, gazed at the slender figure, whose
marvelous proportions were sharply outlined against the sparkling lake!
"Cornelia!" he called at last.
She turned and hurried towards him. "My dear Severinus! Oh, how happy I
am! Here the free German air blows once more; here I again hear the
rustling of German oaks and pines. Home surrounds me in this fresh,
simple nature, speaks in the familiar language, looks from the kindly
blue eyes. I live once more,--I am awake,--and what surrounds me is
charming, bright reality."
"Have you only been dreaming while in our glorious Italy?" asked
Severinus, gravely.
"Yes, Severinus; a beautiful, wonderful dream, but a dream after all. I
was torn from my native soil; my heart could not take root anywhere; no
dear relations with my past existed; no new ones were formed with the
present. What I saw and experienced only enriched my intellect, not my
heart; it afforded me pleasure without making me happy; occupied my
mind without obtaining any hold upon my nature. I gazed, admired,
learned, and reveled in a wealth of beauty; but I was not myself,--my
individual life had no connection with my surroundings. What is this
except a dream into which we bring nothing, and from which we take only
a memory?"
"I had hoped you would not return so empty from a country of the
loftiest revelations. I expected your great soul would there find its
only true home, and the sorrow of finding myself mistaken shall be the
last the world can prepare for me."
"Oh, do not talk so, Severinus, dear, pious father! Do not Look at me
so sadly; do not be so stern and bitter, but enjoy with me the blessing
of this peaceful morning. Let holy nature be the church in which our
souls can unite in adoration of our common God. See, my friend,
clearness of vision is as unavoidable a necessity to me as light and
air; in clearness of vision God shows himself to me, while you only
perceive him in mysteries. In order to see him I open my spiritual
eyes; you close yours. I receive his manifestations with sharpened, you
with artificially deadened, senses. I see him in each of these light
clouds floating over the sunny sky; you darken your churches, and
shroud yourselves in clouds of incense, that in the mysterious,
rich-hued twilight you may paint a vague, fanciful picture. His natural
and moral laws everywhere announce themselves to me in shining
characters, and I serve him by cheerful obedience to them; you collect
from the ambiguous writings of the Bible a book of church regulations,
to which you slavishly submit, and exhaust your hearts and minds the
superhuman effort of satisfying all your self-created duties."
"I hope this is not the only result of your observation of our sublime
worship. It must be the short residence on this dull German soil which
has loosened the strings that resounded so clearly in Rome."
"Do not cherish such a fancy, Severinus," said Cornelia, as she walked
up and down the shore with him. "The forms of your worship, as I saw
them in Rome, delighted me; nay, their grandeur and poesy aroused a
wild enthusiasm. But it was the revelation of art, not that of the
Deity, at which I gazed. All your miracles, all your lofty precepts,
proved nothing except the grandeur of the human intellect, and in this
the existence and influence of a God, which I never doubted, and which
had been just as clearly revealed to me in every creation of genius. My
God, to whom I pray in childish adoration, has remained the same; he
has come from Rome with me the same as he went. You neither
strengthened nor shook my belief; I cherish the deepest reverence for
your worship of God; it is more beautiful, more sublime, than ours; my
heart has opened to much that revealed a character of sincere piety,
but I still see in it only a transitory _form_, liable to alter with
the changes of centuries; while I bear within me the imperishable
essence, ever the same through the lapse of ages."
"Oh, Cornelia, how I pity you!" said Severinus, as he leaned against an
oak, covering his dark eyes with his hand, while his breast rose and
fell as if he were struggling for breath. "Cornelia," he suddenly
exclaimed, encircling her forehead with both hands, "free your mind,
your godlike mind, from the clutches of this prejudice; cast aside the
arrogance of independent judgment; bend your haughty brow in obedience
to our church. Oh, if I could give you the blessing to be found in
unconditional submission,--blind faith,--I would willingly sacrifice my
life to save for the church this soul, which has no peer in human form!
Cornelia, a fiend has taken possession of you; that of pride, doubt,
indifference. He has concealed himself under the false lustre of an
abstract reverence for God, to lull your conscience to sleep, in order
that you may the more surely fall into unbelief and destruction." He
suddenly threw himself at her feet, and gazed despairingly into her
eyes. "Here I lie before you in the dust, and I plead in infinite
anguish for the precious imperiled property of Christ. The next moment
of time may perhaps decide your fate, and part us forever. Cornelia,
join our church; believe me, she alone can save you."
"Oh, God, how hardly you try me! You wrong me, Severinus. No evil
spirit, no prejudice, guides me. Have you ever seen me arrogant? If I
were, should I not go over to you? for you have opened the most
tempting prospects to my pride; you would halt my conversion with joy,
and receive me with every kind of pomp and distinction. My self-love
would be so greatly flattered that it would far, far outweigh the
self-denial of an outward subordination to the church, while in my own
congregation no one asks about Cornelia Erwing. But I cannot thus belie
myself. Do not sadden my heart with entreaties and lamentations:
convince me, Severinus; for so long as you do not succeed in that I can
do nothing but weep, because I must grieve my best friend so deeply."
"Convince you!" cried Severinus, starting up. "If the whole gigantic
structure of our religion, whose foundations certainly do not rest upon
air, the marvels of our worship, the words of the fathers of the
church, the historical proofs of our traditions which reach beck to the
time of the establishment of Catholicism by Peter himself, could not
convince you, there is nothing left for me to say."
"All that, my friend, even granting that they were proofs, could not
make me forget the causes of the Reformation. The Reformation is the
mother of my faith."
"Ah, do not utter these words in the same breath! What had your
Reformation in common with faith? Were your dry, philosophical
Melanchthon, your rough, sensual Luther, your chiding, physically
and morally starving Hutten, representatives of a religious
transformation?"
"They were men who had the courage to appear before the hypocrisy of
your degenerate priesthood as they really were; who did not seek the
halo of sanctity in the denial of human nature, but honored God and his
wisdom in his laws. Besides, we too do not lack sainted martyrs, and
the flames that consumed a Huss branded an eternal stigma upon your
church."
"I cannot argue with you about the means the church was permitted to
use against such apostates. I will only tell you, my child, that the
Reformation of the sixteenth century was nothing more than a secular
insurrection against abuses in the church, which unfortunately cannot
be denied. But a secular revolution can never create a religion, and
therefore Protestantism lacks the positive character the human heart
needs, and where it strives to appropriate it, becomes a monster, for
it is and remains nothing more than a--protest against Catholicism."
"Our Reformation was not to create a religion; its purpose was merely
to free one already existing from abuse and error. Its task was to
restore Christianity to its original purity, and if it did not wholly
succeed, if in Protestantism it has only produced a transitory,
imperfect form, we still thank it for the highest blessings of
civilization, and most precious of all, that freedom of conscience
which permits the dissatisfied mind to choose its own religion."
"And this much-praised 'freedom of conscience' leads directly to want
of principle, and becomes the destruction of all virtue, all religion!"
cried Severinus, indignantly. "The human race cannot dispense with a
positive church discipline without falling into anarchy. And in you,
Cornelia, unhappily, I have already had an opportunity to learn the
effects of this emancipation."
"You have learned, Severinus," interrupted Cornelia, with noble pride,
"that I resisted evil with the same power with which I now repel the
flattering allurements of a church adorned with all the magic of fancy
and attraction of rites, because it is at variance with my own
convictions. Is this a want of moral discipline?"
Severinus walked on beside Cornelia in silence. The sun had risen
higher in the heavens, and the bell for mass rang from the neighboring
convent. Severinus paused and gazed long and earnestly into Cornelia's
eyes. "Girl, does not that innocent voice fall upon your ear in tones
of touching warning, like the pleading of a mother calling to her lost
child?"
"Do not be such a bigoted Catholic to-day, Severinus," said Cornelia,
gazing at him beseechingly. "All the joy of this earthly life is
stirring in my heart, and must I constantly argue with you about the
best means of reaching heaven? Oh, let me enjoy with a thankful soul
the rich abundance of happiness my Creator has poured out for me! Do
not cast the black shadow of your religious harshness over the sunny
picture of this day. Severinus, my dear, gloomy friend, be mild and
gentle. Look at me as kindly as you used to do. See, see, there is the
glimmer of a smile upon your face! Ah, it has already vanished again!
What a pity! Ever since the news of Ottmar's going over to the liberal
party brought me back to Germany, and filled me with the blissful
certainty of being reunited to him, you have become a different person.
When I lost him, I gained you; and now that I am to gain him once more,
I lose you. When I felt miserable and lonely, you were as loving and
patient as a father; but since I have been animated with new hope, you
have retired coldly into yourself, and you have hidden yourself behind
the walls of your work of conversion."
"My task, Cornelia, is only to aid the afflicted; the happy do not need
me." Severinus looked silently up towards heaven. His eyes were
bloodshot; his wasted face, bronzed by the Italian sun, glowed with
fervor.
Cornelia laid her clasped hands compassionately and beseechingly upon
his breast. "Severinus, you are suffering; I see it."
For a moment he pressed her hands closely to his throbbing heart, then
hurled them away, with an expression of horror, and hurried off.
Cornelia looked after him in astonishment, but did not try to follow,
for she felt that the emotion which moved him was a secret she ought
not to fathom. She turned towards the rural inn where she lodged, and
now observed for the first time that one of the artists who came to the
island to sketch was seated an a little hillock not far from the spot
where she had been pacing with Severinus, and recognized him as the
very person to whose talent she owed her first picture of Ottmar. She
approached, and he hastily concealed in his portfolio the paper upon
which he had been working.
"You only arrived yesterday evening, and are already sketching the
scenery, Herr A----. Is it not a little hasty?"
"I have already made myself familiar with all its details," said A----,
with evident embarrassment. "I am very much hurried, because I would
like to finish the picture in time for the exhibition at H----."
"Then I will not detain you, but wish you all possible success. Au
revoir, Herr A----."
"I will do myself the honor of waiting upon you at a later hour,
Fraeulein Erwing," said A----, bowing respectfully; and, as Cornelia
turned away, he drew out his sketch, and eagerly continued his work.
Cornelia entered the public room, to ask if the newspapers had arrived.
It was full of active life. Some twenty young artists were standing
together consulting about a trip they were to take; most of them
handsome young fellows, with large beards, boldly-curved Calabrian
hats, open shirt-collars, and the general adventurous negligence of
apparel with which the young representatives of the laws of beauty seek
to remove the pedantic stiffness of modern costume.
A general "ah!" echoed through the room at Cornelia's entrance, and a
movement took place which made the dense clouds of tobacco-smoke that
filled the low apartment whirl as if driven by the wind. The hats were
removed; the beer-glasses noiselessly set aside. All crowded around
Cornelia.
"Fraeulein Erwing!" cried one, to whom a waving red mane and
widely-dilated nostrils gave the appearance of a lion, "we have at last
caught you without your black guardian! You must yield to superior
force, and let us steal your face. We are a terrible band of robbers,
and a person for whom we once lay snares does not escape us so easily."
"Yes, but we must first have a fight, to decide which of us she will
allow to paint her," said another, waving a staff in the air.
"Fraeulein Erwing," cried a little black-bearded Pole, with a shrill
accent, "I will shoot the first man to whom you sit!"
"That is not necessary," growled he of the lion's mane; "we will all
paint her at once!"
"Yes, yes!" cried many voices at the same moment. "That's a good idea!
We will all paint her at once!"
"That is, if I will sit to you," laughed Cornelia, "for I have not yet
resigned all right of ownership in my own face, gentlemen."
"Fraeulein Erwing," began the man of the lion's mane, with great pathos,
"we do not know in what branch of Christian duty your reverend father
instructs you, but he has certainly taught you that our advantages are
only bestowed upon us that we may make them available for the profit
and welfare of others; so you will perceive that it is your duty to pay
the debt you owe Providence for your face, by using it to aid the
development of youthful talent."
"Yes!" cried another; "you could not justify yourself before God if you
displayed such a wealth of beauty to idle gazers, and grudgingly
refused the struggling artist permission to use and perpetuate its
lines in an inspired creation."
"You would make me unconscionably vain, gentlemen," said Cornelia, "if
the fame of being the most beautiful on this little island were not so
cheaply purchased."
A general "Oh, oh!" expressed the indignation of the enthusiastic
artists at this modesty, and a torrent of eager protestations
threatened to follow; but Cornelia cut them short by exclaiming, gayly,
"Well, well, if you can make me of any use for a picture, I will give
you a sitting; but one only, and at the utmost two hours long. So,
whoever wants to paint me must take advantage of the opportunity."
"That is excellent!" they all cried, joyously. "It's a very short time,
to be sure, but we'll see about the rest. But when may we draw you?"
"Whenever you choose, gentlemen. Perhaps the best time would be now!"
"Yes, yes; we will take her at her word," said one of the older ones of
the party. "It shall be done now; and when the two hours are over,
Fraeulein Erwing shall see the sketches, and decide which of us she
considers worthy the honor of another sitting for the completion of her
picture."
"But our excursion," said a tall lad, whose whole vitality seemed to
have run into an immense length of limb. "Shall we defer our
excursion?"
"Let your chicken legs take you where you like, man," thundered he of
the lion's mane; "but don't say you are an artist, if you talk about
excursions while our eyes are permitted a glimpse into the holy of
holies of beauty."
"Let him go!" cried another. "He can't help it; all his vital functions
are expended in the use of his feet. It will be one the less to take up
the room; there are twenty-three of us without him. The number is still
too large. I scarcely believe that there were ever so many assembled on
the island at one time before."
A long debate now followed concerning the place where they should
sketch Cornelia, while the latter had meantime obtained possession of
the newspaper, and was reading it in breathless suspense. Suddenly she
started. She had found what she sought,--Ottmar's name as a candidate
for the H---- Chambers. Her face was suffused with a rosy flush of joy,
and her eyes sparkled as she laid the sheet aside and turned towards
the artists, who were disputing violently because some thought it too
hot out of doors, and others considered the room too small.
"Gentlemen," she cried gayly, "peace is the first condition I shall
impose if I am to sit for you. We will go out into the open air and
look for some shady spot; if you all want to paint me at the same time,
we shall certainly need more room than there is here."
The proposal was accepted, and the whole party went out with Cornelia.
On a lofty part of the shore, not far from the inn, was a large open
space surrounded with lofty trees, beneath which stood wooden benches
and tables, and where, in spite of the heat, it was cool and pleasant.
The eye could wander undazzled over the rippling lake and the beautiful
island, which rested on the waters like a large green leaf. The light
surges gently rocked the boats fastened near by; in one of them, under
the spreading branches of an ancient linden, a peasant lad was extended
sleeping comfortably, undisturbed by the loud bustle of the approaching
artists. It seemed as if all nature was slumbering in her sunny
noontide brightness.
"Well, gentlemen," exclaimed Cornelia, "is it not delightful here? Have
we not shade, fresh breezes, and comfort?"
"Yes, yes," cried the artists in one breath; "we will stay here. Out
with the portfolios, and let every one take his place and go to work!"
They buzzed about Cornelia like a swarm of bees which are about to
settle and fly from one spot to another, now alighting, now rising
again, now dispersing, and anon collecting at the same point, scuffling
with each other about places, and filling the inexperienced observer
with anxiety lest they should never get established. Such were the
preparations of the artists at the beginning of their work. Here
several were disputing about the profile, yonder a group wished to sit
opposite to her, not unfrequently a slight skirmish decided the matter,
and those who did not succeed in conquering a place climbed up into the
trees and established themselves and their portfolios among the
branches.
"We must form the narrowest possible semicircle," advised he of the
lion's mane, who, as the possessor of the strongest lungs in the
company, undertook the duty of organizing the party, in which, by means
of a great expenditure of voice and unwearied energy, he at last
succeeded; and when, with the aid of the trees, a half-circle was
formed in the shape of an amphitheatre whose extremities could not even
obtain a full profile, but merely a portion of the cheek and ear, the
zealous artist first perceived that he had completely excluded himself.
His nostrils dilated to an unprecedented size as his large eyes
wandered around the circle, while his broad freckled hands were thrust
helplessly through his unkempt mane. A shrill peal of laughter echoed
jeeringly from the circle and the trees, "Richard C[oe]ur de Lion has
no place!"
"Be calm, Richard," cried one; "we will get you into the exhibition
after all. We'll paint Fraeulein Erwing as the lion's bride, and you as
the monster!"
"Jeer away, you mocking-birds!" he thundered. "Because I am an artist,
I thought more of the subject than myself, and I'll show you what an
artist can do. I'll paint a neck and heir such as the world never yet
saw!" and with these words he strode majestically on, seated himself
behind Cornelia, and began to work with the must grotesque movements.
Silence now reigned while the three-and-twenty artists struggled in the
greatest possible haste to perpetuate her features.
Cornelia had watched the tumult absently; her thoughts were wandering
far away, and the stillness that ensued was most welcome. She could
give herself up to her dreams undisturbed. "She is marvelously
beautiful!" suddenly cried one of the younger artists from his perch in
the tree. Universal applause answered this naive expression of delight.
"The birds in the trees are singing your praises, Fraeulein Erwing!"
cried another. "Doesn't that flatter you?"
"Oh, certainly," she answered, smiling as indifferently as if she had
not understood the compliment paid her.
"The best likeness will flatter her most," growled Richard C[oe]ur de
Lion from behind Cornelia. "Express your admiration by work instead of
words, and she will value it more."
"Well growled, lion!" said the young enthusiast in the tree.
"Go on the stage and declaim verses; you are more fit for an actor than
an artist," exclaimed Richard, without having the slightest suspicion
that he was himself in his appearance the most theatrical of all; for
naturalness, when carried too far, becomes as great a caricature as
affectation, and the stage is certainly the home of caricatured forms.
"Come, gentlemen," cried Cornelia, laughing; "the time you spend in
disputing you will lose in work; for I must tell you that I will not
sit a moment longer than the two hours agreed upon! It is altogether
too uncomfortable to endure the gaze of three-and-twenty pairs of
eyes."
This threat re-established peace; for the artists once more devoted all
their energy to their work, and henceforth nothing was heard but the
wondering exclamations of several country people who stationed
themselves here and there on the outskirts of the shaded spot to gaze
at a proceeding utterly incomprehensible to them. The time agreed upon
passed away, and Cornelia rose. Neither grumbling nor entreaties
availed; she kept resolutely to her determination. The sketches were
laid before her, and as she looked at them in succession she burst into
a merry laugh. She saw her own face taken from some twenty different
stand-points. "Dear me, can I be like all these?" she exclaimed,
clasping her hands in astonishment. "If I ever knew how I looked, I
should not from this day! Who can decide which of these many faces is
mine? If this is, of course that can't be; and if this profile taken
from the right is a good likeness, how can the one sketched from the
left resemble me? The right side of my face must be entirely different
from the left,--and that would be horribly abnormal. According to these
profile views I should have two kinds of eyes, eyebrows, cheeks; nay,
even my nose would consist of two dissimilar halves. Now, can you
dispute this, gentlemen?"
The artists themselves could not help laughing as they looked at their
pictures.
"Now you will get an idea of the variety and abundance of beauty your
features possess, Fraeulein Erwing," said one of the oldest of the
group. "When compared with you the majority of the sketches seem
passable likenesses, although so different from each other that one
would almost doubt whether they all represented the same face."
"A very pretty compliment to me--and an admirable defense of your
colleagues," said Cornelia, courteously.
"But, Fraeulein Erwing," cried another; "you have not yet noticed a
picture which is at all events unique in its way; and our C[oe]ur de
Lion, with unusual modesty, has already been waiting a long time for
your opinion."
He handed Richard's drawing to Cornelia, and all gazed at it in
astonishment, for it was a master-piece. A woman's upraised head,
adorned with a wealth of hair so boldly drawn that one felt tempted to
pass it through the fingers. A few curls which had escaped from the
braids fell upon a most beautiful neck. Cornelia looked at the sheet in
amazement. "You are indeed an artist," said she, fixing her large eyes
with winning kindness upon Richard's rugged face. He blushed to the
roots of his tawny hair with delight. "Fraeulein Erwing," he exclaimed,
"no praise ever made me so proud!"
"Yes, yes, C[oe]ur de Lion, Fraeulein Erwing is right," said several of
the group; "this hair and neck irresistibly tempt the beholder to turn
the head and see the face, which is concealed from us. You have
produced a master-piece."
"If you go on so much longer, he'll get so vain that he will comb his
hair to-morrow. Just see! he is running his fingers through his mane!"
said others, laughing.
"Well," exclaimed the rest, "we will hope that at the exhibition
Fraeulein Erwing's features will yet win the victory over the beauty of
her hair."
Thus each was cheered by the conviction that he alone would obtain the
prize.
"So you will not sit longer to any of us?" asked Richard, as he placed
his sketch in his portfolio.
"No, gentlemen. I was in the mood to enter into your jest; but if you
ask me in earnest, I must tell you that it would not be at all
agreeable to me to expose my face to the eyes of the whole public. I am
both too proud and too modest."
"Is this your final decision?"
"It is irrevocable," said Cornelia, with courteous resolution.
"Well, we will not be ungrateful. In these two hours we have at least
fixed the outlines of your features," said one of the quieter members
of the party.
But the others would not yield at once, and began to plead again.
"If you understood the spirit that animates these features, you would
beg no longer, for you would know it to be vain," cried Richard, with
his usual artless pathos. Then he held out his hand to Cornelia and
continued: "I should probably have the best right to entreat you for
another sitting, since I was so great a loser; but I will not ask it
after what you have just said."
"I thank you for your delicacy of feeling, Herr Richard," replied
Cornelia, with unconcealed admiration. "You may be assured that if I
sat to any of these gentlemen it would be to you; yet if you understand
the reason of my refusal, you will not be angry if I make no exception,
even in your favor."
Richard buried Cornelia's hand in his prickly beard to press a kiss
upon it. "Angry with you? Who that had the heart of a true artist could
be? For, although we are not permitted to make portraits of you, we
still owe you thanks for a type of beauty which will be of service to
us all."
"Yes, yes; he is right," they all assented. "You have not only enriched
our eyes, but our imaginations! Long live Cornelia Erwing! Hurrah!"
At that moment the sound of the dinner-hell echoed from the inn, and at
the same instant Severinus's black-robed figure appeared, coming from
the neighboring convent. The artists wiped the perspiration from their
brows, for the noonday sun and their zeal had made them very bot.
"There comes your pious father!" declaimed the young enthusiast, who
always spoke in quotations. "Now, brothers, let us fly!"
And partly fear of the "black coat," partly hunger, drove the noisy
group to the table. They departed waving their hats, nodding, and
singing; and Cornelia was still looking after them with a smile, when
Severinus approached with a pale, gloomy face.
"Such ovations certainly do not prepare one for the church," he
murmured, somewhat bitterly.
"Ah, Severinus! I am so happy!" cried Cornelia, frankly. "What
open-hearted, gay, magnificent men they are! How I laughed! It
is a pity you were not here! Tell me, Father Severinus,--you are
sincere,--am I really as beautiful as they all say?" she asked, with
mischievous naivete.
Severinus looked timidly away from her, and with a deep flush fixed his
eyes upon the ground. "I do not know."
"You don't know?"
"I think only your soul beautiful, but not your body. Physical beauty
is something so perishable that it is unheeded by one who perceives,
and knows how to value, that of the soul."
Cornelia became embarrassed. She was ashamed of the want of reserve
which had induced her to ask Severinus so inappropriate a question, and
did not see the strange glance with which he gazed at her blooming
cheeks and lips, and then clinched his teeth.
"Forgive me for disturbing your grave mood with such jests, my reverend
friend; but I cannot help it. The gayety natural to my youth will
sometimes assert its rights. I was very glad they thought me beautiful.
The sight of a lovely face is always a pleasure to me, and the idea
that my appearance could also rejoice the eyes and hearts of others
pleased me. If this is vanity, is, at least, very innocent."
"Certainly, my child," said Severinus, and his tone gradually lost its
assumed harshness. "I will not embitter the harmless little pleasures
of your youth. I am sure they will not smother the earnestness of your
nature."
"Severinus," said Cornelia, smiling, "isn't it a fact that you do not
know what hunger is?"
"No, certainly not. But you seem to know; so come,--let us go to
dinner."
Cornelia was glad to have put an end to the uncomfortable conversation,
and hastened lightly on before him. Since her joy in life was once more
awakened, and hope and cheerfulness again stirred within her, she felt
Severinus's gloomy mood as a heavy burden. As long as she was at
variance with her own heart and the world, the character of the ascetic
priest suited her better than aught else; but now it began to form
a disagreeable contrast with her mood, and cast a shadow over the
newly-risen sun of her love. Yet she was too grateful to forget for a
moment what consolation his assistance had afforded her in the time of
her heavy visitation; so she maintained an unaltered, frank cordiality
towards him, although he now began to torture her with a thousand
contradictions and absurdities.
The scene with the artists, innocent as it was in itself, seemed to
have made Severinus very thoughtful, in consequence of the pleasure
Cornelia derived from it. Such impressions must be kept from her at any
cost, for they were not adapted to aid his work of conversion. Even if
he should remove her from the neighborhood, he could not prevent these
young enthusiasts from traveling after her. He therefore went to the
superior of the convent on the island, and, when he returned, brought
an invitation from her to Cornelia to take up her residence in the
cloister, "as it was not proper for a young girl, with an equally young
companion, to remain in a country inn with a party of gay young men."
Cornelia, who did not care where she lodged, easily allowed herself to
be persuaded to fulfill Severinus's wish, and accept the friendly
superior's offer. Her removal to the cloister took place immediately,
and the astonished hostess told the artists, on their return from an
excursion, that the beautiful Fraeulein Erwing had just entered a
convent. They were beside themselves at the news, for who could doubt
that the poor victim of the black coat had been brought here to
commence her novitiate? Thus Severinus's design of spreading a halo of
inaccessibility around Cornelia, and cutting off any intrusive pursuit,
was effectually attained; but that neither she nor her companion should
betray the truth in their unavoidable walks, it was necessary that they
should be taken away with all secrecy. On that very evening Severinus
excited Cornelia's interest in the B---- Oberland to such a degree that
she herself expressed a wish to continue her journey as soon as
possible, and he was merely fulfilling her own desire when he proposed
that they should leave the Island at daybreak, not to return. As no one
saw or heard anything of this departure, Cornelia was, and remained, in
the convent, whose strict seclusion made any inquiries impossible, and
the young artists grieved deeply that the world was robbed of so much
beauty.
Meantime Severinus took the supposed victim farther and farther away,
and several months passed so quickly in the constant change from one
beautiful scene to another, and in grave but intellectually exciting
conversation with Severinus, that she was not conscious how skillfully
he managed to cut her off from all society. Priests and nuns were the
only persons with whom she held occasional intercourse; and she passed
them by with friendly indifference, which rendered any advances
impossible. Severinus's hopes of a conversion drooped more and more; he
could not conceal from himself that a sorrow was gnawing at his soul
which exhausted his best powers, and felt, with increasing despair,
that he should succumb himself before he could conquer Cornelia's
resolute temper.