A silent night of anxious, breathless suspense ensued upon this horrible
day. No one went to bed; the gas was lighted all over the house, the
servants glided noiselessly about on tiptoe, or huddled whispering in
corners, and when some fireman passed near the house, or a door was
softly opened, all started as from an electric shock and hurried into
the corridors, sure that some intelligence would be brought of the
master of the house. But the night waned, and the dawn peeped in at the
windows,--he never, never came.
The rosy light of a glorious morning shone upon Villa Baumgarten, making
the broken window-panes glitter and shine. It entered the ball-room and
kindled the crimson of the fallen canopy, it kissed the fading leaves of
the festoons of green and the broken boughs of the plants brought from
the conservatory;--what chaos reigned there! One single minute had
converted the costly but frail "Arabian Nights' Entertainment" into a
heap of ruins and fragments. The charming verses in praise of the bride
were unspoken, and upon the spot where the bespangled genius should have
hovered in a rosy cloud, the keen morning breeze toyed mockingly with
shreds of pink and white tulle.
It was the first time, perhaps, that the light of dawn had seen these
splendid interiors; no shutter had been closed, no shade drawn down,--it
even stared in upon the gorgeous bedroom in the northeastern angle of
the building, upon the violet silk draperies, the richly-carved bedstead
covered with lace, and it might mirror itself in the diamonds strewn
among the puffs of the Frau President's hair. The maid had not dared to
offer her services to the old lady, who now and then would totter
through the long suite of apartments, dragging after her her heavy
yellow train among overturned furniture and statues toppled from their
pedestals.
The cloud of tulle which she always wore about her neck and chin had
become loosened, and the sharp, withered outline of the lower portion of
her face and of the throat was painfully evident. Yes, she was very
old, and the sun of her life was low on the horizon; nevertheless, her
aged brain was busy with but one absorbing thought, "Who is Moritz's
heir?" She herself had not the slightest claim upon the wealth of the
man so suddenly snatched away, not even upon the bed in which she slept
or the plate from which she ate. The councillor had been early left an
orphan; so far as she knew, he had no existing relatives of his name;
but had he not continually sent a subsistence to a sister of his
mother's living on the Rhine? Would she inherit his wealth? The idea
was maddening. The wife of an obscure clerk, a needy seamstress, would
then take possession of this colossal fortune, and the Frau President
Urach, who for years had not been able to conceive how any one could
move without silken-cushioned equipages, how any one could dine without
lackeys in waiting, or sleep unless in a bed canopied with silk, would
have to rout out her old furniture from the garrets whither it had been
banished, and hire narrow lodgings where there were no stables filled
with horses, no liveried servants and princely _menage_, for neither she
nor her granddaughters were connected by any tie of blood with the
millionaire who had gone out of the world intestate.
The guests invited from the neighbourhood had remained with the old lady
until midnight, and, although no distinct mention had been made of this
subject, there had not been lacking allusions to the business
complications that must ensue upon the catastrophe, since the councillor
had kept all his ledgers and business papers of every description in the
tower, and not a scrap of them was to be found.
But, although enormous sums had thus been destroyed, did not she, the
Frau President, at present make her home upon an estate valued at many
thousands? Were not the vaults of the plate-chamber beneath her feet?
Were not the stables full of thorough-bred horses? And was not the
collection of paintings of incalculable value? All this would more than
suffice to ensure a luxurious existence to the old lady to the end of
her days, if only she could prove that one drop of blood in her
aristocratic veins came from the same source that had given life to the
rope-maker's son.
And they spoke also of her who lay at present above-stairs, in
Henriette's sitting-room, the castle miller's granddaughter; they knew
that her entire fortune had been kept in the tower. Upon this theme the
Frau President in her nervous agitation did not care to speculate; what
was the old miller's hoarded wealth to her? Flora, on the contrary,
maintaining an entire self-possession in spite of the horrors of the
day, pondered long upon the possible consequences to her half-sister of
the destruction of the safe in the tower.
There was an angry frown upon her brow as she came down from the third
story about ten o'clock in the evening. She, the admired centre of a
large and aristocratic circle, the beautiful woman whose intellectual
force and ripe judgment had been the wonder of her acquaintances, had
been obliged, to her intense disgust, to play the pitiable part of a
supernumerary in the sick-room. In addition to Henriette, who had taken
up her position on a couch and would not consent to leave the room, the
dean's widow had made her appearance as Kitty's nurse. She had sought
refuge in the villa, for the house by the river being the nearest to the
tower had suffered much from the explosion; the chimneys had been thrown
down, the southern wall was much damaged, the windows were shivered to
pieces, and none of the doors would latch or bolt. The friend and
companion had gone with the maid to Susy, at the mill, and the doctor
had left two watchmen to guard the house during the night.
There had been no place for Flora at the wounded girl's bedside. At the
head sat the dean's widow, her eyes red with weeping, and opposite her
the doctor. "The old woman" had behaved as if the trifling injury that
Kitty had sustained were the gravest consequence of the disaster, and
the doctor had never stirred from his post, only relinquishing his clasp
of Kitty's hand when the bandage upon her brow needed renewing. It
required more patience and self-control than Flora had at command to
look quietly on at such anxious care bestowed upon "a tall, robust girl,
with nerves and muscles inherited from the former woodcutter's
daughter."
Weary of the perpetual whispering, and perceiving that there was no
sensible word to be extorted from all these frightened people, the
beautiful woman had at last left the room alone and greatly irritated:
the doctor had not even accompanied her to the door. Of course she did
not go to bed; she took off her evening dress, and, putting on a white
cashmere dressing-gown, reclined towards morning upon her crimson
lounge.
The former study looked desolate and dreary enough. The black
writing-table had been emptied of all its papers, and stood dusty in the
recess by the window; most of the books had been taken from the shelves
and were packed in boxes in the middle of the floor; the pedestals were
overturned, while, over all, the hanging lamp but carelessly lighted by
the servants threw a pale uncertain gleam, which, now that the morning
air and dawning light came freshly in through the broken panes of glass,
swung to and fro in its white globe like the last faint spark of fire
from the ruins.
When the day had fairly broken, Flora sent up-stairs to request the
doctor to come to her, and as his firm, military step was heard in the
corridor she hastily arranged her curls beneath her lace morning cap,
leaned back among the crimson cushions, and looked from under her
half-closed eyelids towards the door by which he was to enter.
He came in. Never had she seen him thus, and involuntarily,
mechanically, she arose as if to greet a stranger.
"I am not well, Leo," she said with hesitation, not turning her glance
of surprise from his face, which although pale and weary was as if
inspired by some light from within that had totally changed its
character. "My head burns; fright and wet feet must have brought on an
attack of fever." She added this uncertainly, whilst his eyes dwelt
upon her with the cool searching gaze of the physician. The look
irritated her.
"Have a care, Bruck!" she said, in a perfectly calm tone, but her breath
came quick, and her finely pencilled eyebrows contracted so that two
deep lines showed between them. "For months I have borne to see that
your practice is your best beloved, to which I am subordinate." She
shrugged her shoulders. "I can foresee that such must be my fate, and
possess magnanimity enough to acquiesce in it, since such devotion to
his profession will bring fame to the man whose name I shall bear." She
turned her head as she spoke with a haughty air, as if looking through a
world filled with his renown. "But I protest against being set aside
when I have need of your medical skill," she continued. "We have all
suffered from the terrible catastrophe. It was my task, and one of
indescribable difficulty, to protect and soothe grandmamma, who was half
insane with terror, and Henriette; and yet it has never occurred to you
to ask, 'How have you borne all this?'"
"I have not asked because I know you pride yourself upon subordinating
all emotion to the intellect, and because I can see at a glance how
little your physical condition has been affected."
She listened amazed to his tone, which, with all its wonted calmness,
trembled audibly as if in consequence of throbbing pulses.
"With regard to your second assertion you are wrong," she said, after a
moment's silence. "My temples throb with nervous excitement. Your
first may be correct; I do strive to compose myself in view of every
event whatsoever, that I may bring my calm judgment to bear upon it.
From your tone you would seem to disapprove of this method of mine,
although just at present it certainly deserves your praise. I have
never been induced to speculate with my paternal inheritance; I have
never been tempted by fortunate chances; were it otherwise I should
stand here this moment with empty hands, my dowry would have been
dispersed upon the air like the papers that were destroyed yesterday.
Yes, look dismayed if you will, Bruck,"--she lowered her voice,--"I am
not deceived, and I choose to call things by their right names.
Grandmamma is pacing her room and wringing her hands in fear lest the
'colossal fortune' should fall into stranger hands. Our precious guests
spent half the night bewailing the fate of the wealthy man, fortune's
darling, torn by cruel destiny so tragically from his earthly paradise.
But _I_ say, this theatric exit was tolerably well put upon the stage,
nevertheless there is a rent in the curtain which lets in the light of
reality upon the corpse. In a short time, perhaps in a day or two, the
fact will be spread abroad that Roemer was at first only a bold
speculator, it may be, but in the end--a scoundrel."
There could not have been a more striking illustration of the wayward
turns of fortune than was presented at this moment. There stood the
beautiful woman in her white Iphigenia robes, the crimson carpet beneath
her feet, the swinging lamp above her brow, upon the very spot where in
the preceding December she had stigmatized as pretended her lover's
medical skill, and had declared, "I cannot endure concealment of my
opinion."
Flora was right; she certainly called things by their right names; she
gave utterance to what the man standing before her could not in his
inmost soul deny, and which since yesterday had caused him great pain;
but to hear the naked fact thus boldly stated by those finely chiselled
lips, in order that their owner might vaunt her keen insight, naturally
offended deeply his sense of delicacy and refinement.
"Ah, I see I am so unfortunate to-day as to displease you," she began
again, half sarcastically half poutingly, as she followed him to the
window recess whither he had gone in evident irritation. "It may be
that my speech was too downright; perhaps in view of many little
kindnesses shown me now and again by Roemer it would have been well to
be less frank and true,"--she elevated her eyebrows and shrugged her
shoulders,--"but I am the sworn foe of all hypocrisy and have reason
enough for indignation. My sister Henriette, with whose inheritance
Roemer has been speculating, will be a beggar; and Kitty?--rest assured
that not a stiver of all her immense fortune is left."
"So much the better!" came as if only breathed from the lips that seemed
at this moment to be curved beneath the thick moustache in a tender
smile.
Faint as was the sound, Flora's ear caught it. "So much the better?"
she asked, in surprise, half laughing as she clasped her hands. "Our
youngest is certainly not much to my taste, but what crime has she
committed, that her ill luck should so content you?"
He bit his lip, and, pressing his forehead against the window-frame,
looked abroad into the garden, where the golden morning light was just
touching the head of the marble nymph at the fountain.
"Of course Kitty will not be so badly off as Henriette; she will have
the castle mill, and that is worth a good round sum," she added, after a
pause. "She can live there when matters are arranged; and indeed I know
of no better refuge for our poor invalid. The sisters are very fond of
each other, and would like to be together. In fact, no other
arrangement is possible, for grandmamma's limited income will make it
impossible for her to take charge of Henriette, and of course I should
not think of burdening you with my sick sister." She suddenly put her
hand within his arm and looked up at him tenderly. "Ah, Leo, how
thankful I shall be when we are seated together in the carriage
to-morrow, leaving behind us all this disaster and misery!"
With a passionate gesture and a face in which shone an indignation she
had never seen there before, he snatched his arm from her clasp. "Would
you really forsake them all, leave them helpless and alone to meet the
terrible shocks of the near future?" he cried, as if beside himself.
"Go then whenever you choose,--I remain here!"
"Leo!" she almost screamed, and then stood for a moment speechless,
overpowered by anger. She laid her clenched hand upon her heart, as if
she had received a stab. "Surely you do not estimate the full meaning
of your hasty words," she said, slowly and emphatically. "I will regard
them only as they call for this reply from me. If we do not set out
upon our tour to-morrow, before further revelations are made as to
Roemer's affairs,--and surely no one can take it amiss of us that we
quietly carry out plans so long decided upon,--our union must be
indefinitely postponed."
He made no reply, but stood motionless in his former position, looking
from the window. His silence evidently irritated her further: passion
gleamed in her large gray eyes.
"I said before that I am willing to yield the first place in your heart
to your practice, to your devotion to your profession," she went on,
with increasing emphasis, "but I will not yield one jot of my rights to
other women,--remember that, Leo! I cannot see why I should be forced
to struggle through the fearful crash that must come here, with
grandmamma and my sisters, when I have the right to flee to the calm
protection of the home you have promised me. Can I do anything to alter
the state of affairs? Nothing whatever. Why, then, do you wish to
consign me to needless suffering? Must I too be an object for universal
compassion? I would sooner depart on the instant. I _will not_ be
pointed at and pitied."
She paced the room in agitation. "You have not the faintest excuse to
make me for remaining here," she said, standing at a distance from him,
frowning darkly, when she had waited in vain for a reply. "You cannot
even plead the necessity here for your professional aid. You would have
had to leave Henriette to her fate; and as for Kitty, you will not
assert that the scratch on her forehead which you yourself declared to
be trifling demands all your medical skill. To tell the truth, I could
scarcely suppress a laugh last night at your aunt's conduct and your
own. It is allowable for Henriette to shed childish tears over a few
drops of blood,--she is weak and nervous,--but for you to behave as if
our youngest, the robust child of a race of peasants, were framed of
snow and air----" She paused at the menacing look that Leo turned upon
her as he raised his finger, unable longer to control the expression of
his indignation.
She laughed angrily. "Do you think I am afraid? I return menace for
menace. Take care, the 'yes' has not yet been uttered before the altar;
it still lies with me to give a turn to affairs that you would hardly
like. I repeat that your whole conduct yesterday with regard to Kitty
was distasteful to me. Am I not to sneer at your treating her like a
princess----"
"No, not like a princess,--like the best beloved of my heart, like my
first and only love," he interrupted her, in a deep, melodious voice.
She started as if the earth had suddenly yawned at her feet;
involuntarily she raised her arms towards heaven, and then she
approached him.
He extended his hands as if to ward off her touch, and stood erect and
decided. "Yes, I confess to you what I have hitherto struggled fiercely
to lock within my own breast, from a shame that was the result of a
perverted idea of right and wrong. I do it without a word of excuse or
self-justification----" His voice sank. "I have been faithless to you
from the moment of my first meeting with Kitty."
Flora slowly dropped her arms. Plain and distinct as the words were,
they were the most incredible she had ever heard. Pshaw! why had she
betrayed such foolish terror? It was true that the petted Flora Mangold
had ensnared many a man's heart to reject it pitilessly in wanton love
of power: not a season had passed without bringing her such triumphs;
but that a man should prove faithless to her--ridiculous! The idea was
too absurd; no one in the capital would credit it, herself least of all.
It was far easier to believe that Doctor Bruck had at length summoned
courage to attempt to revenge himself. She had pushed her fiery trial
to extremes; in her justifiable irritation she had threatened to
withhold her "yes" on the very altar-steps, and his long-suffering was
exhausted; he was trying to punish her by arousing her jealousy. Her
boundless vanity and frivolity postponed for a few minutes the bitterest
experience of her life.
She curled her lip ironically and folded her arms. "Ah, at first sight,
then!" she said. "Was that outside in the corridor, where she made her
appearance like a genuine child of the people, the dust of travel on her
boots and the poetic kerchief bundle in her hand?"
It was plain that her trifling irritated the man almost to madness. At
this terrible moment, when his "first and only love" had asserted itself
after suffering and struggles unspeakable, he was laughingly taken to
task like a school-boy. He controlled himself, however. This question
must be decided now; to see that it was decided with dignity was his
task.
"I had then been Kitty's guide and companion from the mill, where I
first saw her," he replied, with tolerable composure.
A dark blush of surprise crimsoned Flora's cheek. Her eyes sparkled:
she bit her lip. "Ah! this is the first I have heard of that. She
too,--the hypocrite of the 'pure' heart had her reasons for suppressing
all mention of this interesting meeting." She laughed a short, hard
laugh. "And what more, Bruck?" she demanded, her arms still folded, one
foot advanced upon the carpet.
"If you persist in this tone, no explanation is possible for me except
in writing." And he indignantly attempted to pass her.
She stepped before him. "Good heavens! how tragically you take it! I
am only doing my best to play my part in your little farce. What! you
would strive with me in a warfare of the pen? Dear Leo, believe me, you
would come off the loser there, in spite of the telling medical
brochures you have given to the world."
The arrogant smile that accompanied her words faded upon her lips in the
presence of the stern cold glance that met her own. Gradually the
suspicion dawned within her that he was indeed in earnest, bitter
earnest; not as to his pretended affection for Kitty,--that passed all
belief,--but as to his resolution, in spite of his passionate love for
herself, to break with his capricious betrothed at the last moment
rather than submit to a life-long "fiery trial." She regretted the
words she had spoken, but arrogance and vanity retained their mastery of
her.
"Then go!" she said, stepping aside. "I will not bear such looks as the
one you have just given me. Go! I will not stir a finger to keep you."
She burst into a scornful laugh. "Oh, rare masculine nature, so vaunted
and so sung! There was a time when I begged almost upon my knees for my
freedom; the chains were only the more closely riveted upon me. Look
then, and learn from me what in such moments is the sole and only stay
even for a 'vain, weak, feminine nature:' pride----"
"It was pride that then made me inexorable,--invincible pride, although
a very different quality from the mixture of anger and defiance which
you designate as such," he interrupted her. "I confess I was
wrong,--very wrong. I will trouble you, as I have said, with no
self-justification that might seem to throw blame upon others however
remotely. The motive for my conduct then sprang from a fancied need to
assert my own force, my masculine will, which as I thought should rise
superior to all vagaries of feeling. I would not give you back your
troth because I had been accustomed to regard my own when once plighted
as pledged for all eternity. From that point of view our betrothal was
as indissoluble as a Catholic marriage. I do not deny that the relics
of my student days had weight with me in a false conception of honour.
I spoke of one spring of action to you on that evening, and I refer to
it again. I did not choose to join the throng of those who had been
bound to your chariot-wheels only to be publicly rejected. I repeat
that this was a boyish, unformed view to take, since in such cases it is
not the man's honour, but the woman's, that is compromised."
She turned from him and drummed angrily with her fingers upon the table.
"I never concealed from you the fact that I had been wooed repeatedly
before our betrothal," she said, with proud indifference.
"You never did, nor did any of my acquaintances," he interposed. "But
you must not forget that you were the lofty ideal of my boyhood. At the
university, in my last campaign, I was spurred on by the thought that
the proud heart so often wooed had never inclined to any, that it would
bless him who should win it----" He broke off; he would not refer to
the coquetry she had displayed; he scorned to bring the slightest
recrimination to his aid.
"And do you assert that I ever loved a single one of this throng of
inevitable adorers?" she asked, indignantly.
"_Loved_? No, Flora, not one; not even myself," he exclaimed, carried
away for the moment. "You loved only the incomparable beauty, the
elegant carriage, the vaunted wit, the future fame, of the petted Flora
Mangold."
"Aha! I have looked in vain for loving flattery from your lips. Even
in the first days of our betrothal you had no caressing words for me,
and now in your anger you paint a picture of me with which I may well be
content."
He blushed like a girl. It was long since he had kissed that beautiful
mouth, and yet that he had ever done so now seemed to him an offence
against that other, whose purity made her the first and only true
embodiment of his ideal woman. Involuntarily he withdrew his glance
from the eyes that gazed at him with laughter in their depths.
Ah, she had done well to remind him of those happy first days,--the game
was her own. "Did you really come to me, Leo, only to find fault and
quarrel with me?" she asked, approaching him again and hastily laying
her hand on his arm.
"You forget that you sent for me, Flora," he replied, gravely. "I
should not have come of my own accord. I have two patients
above-stairs; Henriette's condition became critical towards morning. If
you had not expressly desired my presence I should not have left her,
nor should I, at this miserable and unhappy time, have brought affairs
to the crisis you have just provoked."
"Crisis? Because in a fit of childish vexation I told you to go! How
can you take girlish pique in such bitter earnest?" What words from one
who usually repudiated all maidenly emotion as unworthy her masculine
intellect! This slippery eel-like nature was hard to grapple with.
The doctor looked dismayed. Her capricious words had caused him merely
to describe a circle; he was no farther with her than he had been at the
beginning of the interview. "There I do not blame you," he answered,
with a passionate impatience that would not be suppressed. "I allowed
myself to confess to you----"
"Ah, yes, you told me of your masculine will, which must rise superior
to all vagaries of feeling. Has it played you false at last?"
"No, not played me false, but submitted to better and purer convictions.
Flora, I told you awhile ago that my refusal to dissolve the engagement
between us was the result of a false principle. I had long known that
in your heart there was not a trace of true self-sacrificing love for
me; and I too had entirely outlived my feeling for you, which had never
been a warm genuine emotion of the heart, but merely enthusiastic
admiration. We had both been mistaken. True, I suffered severely in
the thought of the loveless future that awaited me,--me to whom nature
had given a heart craving affection; but I resigned myself to it, and
you had less difficulty in reconciling yourself to your pretended rival,
my profession, because our estrangement required of you no real
sacrifice."
She was silent, and her eyes sought the ground; she could not look into
the grave intense face of the speaker and contradict the truth he
uttered.
"And I clung to keeping my troth to the letter, all the more that my
spirit was faithless to you----"
"Ah!--indeed?"
"Yes, Flora, I have struggled with my inclination as with a deadly foe."
He sighed heavily. "From the first moment I have dealt cruelly with
myself, and with the girl who inspired me with this invincible passion.
I would not permit the slightest, the most innocent approach upon her
part. I would not even endure in my room the flowers she had held in
her hand and thoughtlessly forgotten. She liked to be in my house. I
forbade her coming as if she had desired to fire my roof. I was coldly
uncivil to her even while I looked into her face that was heaven to
me----"
"Ah, yes, one can well conceive it. Divine to the eye of a
physician,--round and healthy, pure white and red painted in strong
colours by Nature herself." With these words the breathless listening
figure awoke to life. "And you dare to tell me this? What! this naive,
innocent creature throws flowers into the rooms of the men whom she
would ensnare----"
"Hush!" He raised his hand with an air of such command as silenced even
those wayward lips. "Overwhelm me with reproaches, I shall not justify
myself; but in defence of Kitty I am armed to the teeth. She never
wittingly attracted me; she returned to Dresden with no knowledge of my
heart or--of her own. Why she went you well know. Whilst from one
quarter she was met by persuasions to contract a loveless marriage, from
another she was informed that the rooms which she occupied were needed
for the comfort of a high-born guest. I was witness to this uncivil
treatment, and almost forgot myself so far as to remonstrate indignantly
with the Frau President; yet when an indirect request was made to me to
receive the unwelcome inmate in my house I had no room there for her;
nay, more, an hour afterwards she was an involuntary auditor of my
request to my aunt to break off all intercourse with her until I should
have removed to L----. And she went, wounded to the core of her proud
firm and yet gentle nature, and I was brutal nay wicked enough, for the
sake of a false principle, for the sake of the idol of clay which
represents certain ideas of honour, to persist in the monstrous lie
which I tried to make credible to her, to myself, and to the world about
me."
As if overpowered by his own description, he paused for some seconds.
Flora threw herself upon the couch and clasped her head between her
hands, as if she chose to hear no more; but he continued: "I pitilessly
allowed her to go, and breathed again; now I should be better of this
mental torture. Folly, folly! I did not see that at the moment she
vanished from my sight a demon glided to my side and clutched my very
heart-strings. It was not the cares of my profession that hollowed my
cheeks and made me gloomy and taciturn in society,--incessant labor is
my delight and steels my nerves and muscles,--it was longing, a longing
that increased as the days went by."
He had left the window, and was pacing the room in evident agitation of
mind, while Flora sat upright and tossed back the curls from her
forehead.
"Upon Kitty's account?" she cried, with a bitter laugh. "Oh, if papa
could only see now how just was the instinct that guided his first-born
when she refused to call the miller's daughter mamma, and when she
turned away in anger from his youngest born because she already had two
real sisters and did not want a half-sister! And it is no false
principle which you have hitherto adopted as your spring of action,--no!
How many thousand 'monstrous lies' are maintained and rule men's actions
for the sake of this principle!--and those who maintain them
victoriously will be respected as honourable men forever----"
"I vowed to myself that during this decisive interview I would not
allude to the past," he interrupted her, standing still, his voice
trembling, but evidently determined to make an end of the matter, "yet
you force me to refer to the scene between us which took place after the
attack upon you in the forest. I then allowed my betrothed to tell me
to my face that she hated me, or rather despised me, because untoward
chance seemed to prevent my proving to be the celebrity to whom she had
first plighted her troth. The following day I endured the unexampled
transformation of this hatred into fond affection, in consequence of my
title of Hofrath conferred upon me by the prince, and I silently
suppressed my contempt and dragged on my chain, because I wished to be
'respected as an honourable man.' And I should have carried out the
detestable falsehood if we two had been the only ones concerned in the
matter, if the burden of a ruined existence had been mine alone to bear.
I should like to summon these three human hearts for judgment before the
bar of true morality; one pronounces the solemn 'yes' before the altar
because she thereby ensures to herself a desirable worldly position, and
the two others who have suddenly become conscious of the true sacred
love that unites them,--who belong to each other although they may be as
far asunder as the poles----"
A half-stifled cry interrupted him. "Did she really dare then,
hypocrite that she is, to raise her eyes to her sister's betrothed? Has
she avowed her sinful love to you?"
He looked at her for an instant with speechless indignation. "However
base the accusations you may utter, you cannot sully the stainless
purity of that character," he said, firmly. "Since that departure I have
never heard one word from her lips, not even during the past night when
with returning consciousness she opened her eyes. She returned
yesterday, but I did not know of it. I had retired to my garden to
avoid the noise and bustle of the evening's entertainment, reports of
which had pursued me from patient to patient during the day, when I
suddenly saw her upon the bridge, an exile who dared not cross it,
banished thence by my cruel words." He paused, and his face flushed;
never could he confide to these ears how then and there the entrancing
conviction had possessed his soul that the girl weeping by the poplars
loved him.
"After the fearful catastrophe I sought her in the park," he continued,
forcing himself to proceed calmly, "and as I raised her from the ground
I told myself that death had passed her by that I might yet be happy. I
tore myself loose from the fetters of conventionality and a false sense
of honour, I rose superior to the malice of a calumniating world, and
resigned all claim to the title of a 'respected' hypocrite."
During his last words Flora's air and manner underwent a transformation;
she had lost her game, all was at an end, and the cold designing woman
used her quick wit to become mistress of this situation also. All that
was defiant in her bearing vanished, and was replaced by a soft cat-like
suppleness. She hurriedly drew her morning cap over her curls, and
looking up from beneath them with a Satanic smile that showed her sharp
white teeth, she said, as if in reply to his last declaration, "What!
without asking _me_, Herr Doctor? Well, let it go! In view of all these
naive confessions, I cannot but ask, with a sigh of relief, 'What would
have become of me at the side of such a sentimental enthusiast?' And
therefore it happens well, well for each of us. I give you back your
troth, but only as one might let loose a bird tied fast by a string that
has one end wound around one's finger." She smiled again, and touched
the betrothal-ring upon her hand with her delicate finger-tip. "Woo the
most charming girl in the capital, one who hates and envies me,--and
there are enough who do so,--and I will resign the ring to her, but
never to Kitty, never! Do you hear? Although you should flee across
the ocean together, or stand before the altar in the most obscure
village church, I shall be there at the right moment and forbid the
union."
"Thank God you have no power to do so!" he said, drawing a deep breath,
and very pale.
"Do you think so? Trust me to bar the fulfilment of your hopes in the
future, pitiable traitor that you are, who could trample down a superb
flower-bed to pluck a daisy! You shall hear from me again!"
With a low, sneering laugh, she hastily retired to the next room,
locking the door behind her, and almost at the same moment a footman
knocked, to request the doctor to come instantly to Fraeulein Henriette,
who had suddenly become much worse.