The morning air came, blowing over the tops of the trees in the park,
through the open window, bringing into the church-like stillness of the
bedroom a dreamy murmur of waters from the distant river, and breathing
the fragrance of mignonette and heliotrope above the white face of the
sleeping invalid. The crimson leaves of the wild vine that wreathed the
window-frame quivered in the soft, gentle breeze that seemed to have
plucked the reddened leaves as it passed to strew them upon the white
coverlet, the fair hair, and the pale hands. Henriette had asked to have
them brought to her, "as a farewell from the summer that was _also_
passing away."
Kitty sat by the bedside watching her sister's slumber. She had, by a
gentle gesture, scared away the robin that, accustomed to find crumbs
scattered for him upon the window-sill, had boldly ventured into the
room, his gentle twitter sounding alarmingly loud in the profound
silence, in which each gasping breath issuing from the narrow chest was
painfully audible. Doctor Bruck had been obliged to leave his patient
for half an hour; the prince made a point of seeing at least once a day
the physician who had cured him in a few weeks of a trouble of long
standing. And so Bruck had chosen for this visit a time when Henriette
was sleeping and would not miss him.
The maid had taken her place with her sewing behind the bed-curtains to
be within call if needed. Every now and then she glanced towards the
motionless figure in the arm-chair. They had declared below-stairs that
the "Fraeulein from the mill" would be the worst sufferer from the
master's failure, but it seemed to Nanni that a girl who had just lost
half a million must show it in some despairing way, and not look at all
like the fair young creature who, with a bandage about her brow, and
dressed in soft creamy white, sat watching by the bedside, grave but
composed, and motionless as a statue. "So young, but so steady, so fresh
and blooming, but with so little care for the good things of life," the
maid thought after true lady's-maid fashion: the beautiful Fraeulein
packing up her trousseau in a neighbouring apartment was far wiser. She
was taking care of everything belonging to her; sending her maid up- and
down-stairs for every pocket-handkerchief that might have been mislaid;
she was determined to lose nothing--nothing. Ah, she had always known
how to take care of herself, and was just as rich as ever: she had not
lost a penny. Now she was going to set off for L---- before her lover,
with all her trunks and boxes, and so got rid of the trouble that might
come upon the villa at any moment. It was vexing enough, but everything
prospered with her; she might do as she pleased, and every one thought
it all perfectly right. Suddenly there was such a noise in the
trousseau-room that the sick girl started and moaned in her sleep.
"Fraeulein Flora is packing up her things there," Nanni said, with
affected unconcern, as Kitty started up and laid her hand soothingly
upon that of her half-awakened sister.
Henriette's boudoir separated the two rooms, and Flora had of course
supposed that no noise she made could be heard in this bedroom, or she
would have been more careful in having her trunks moved. Kitty arose,
and, closing behind her the door of the bedroom, crossed the
sitting-room and entered the apartment whence the noise proceeded.
Flora uttered a low cry--whether from fright or vexation was
doubtful--as the tall white figure appeared upon the threshold and in a
low voice begged for quiet for her sleeping sister.
"I am sorry. I did not think the noise made in moving the trunks could
be heard in Henriette's bedroom," she said, curtly. "You glide about so
white and noiseless that one might suppose the ghostly Baumgarten
ancestress, now that her wanderings in the tower are no longer possible,
had taken up her abode in the villa. Mischief enough attends you. A
good Christian ought to cross herself three times at sight of you."
She motioned to her maid to leave the room. "Stay!" she cried, tossing
aside her bridal veil, as Kitty was about to follow the girl. "If there
is a spark of honour alive in you, answer me now."
Kitty quietly released her dress from the detaining hand that grasped
it, and turned back into the room. "I am at your service," she said,
her clear, earnest eyes fixed calmly upon her sister's agitated face.
"Only I must beg you not to speak so loud, lest Henriette should be
disturbed."
Flora made no reply; she seized Kitty's hand and drew her towards a
window. "Come here! Let me look at you! I must see how wooing suits
you."
The young girl recoiled from the bold, flashing eyes, which, together
with the insulting words, sent the blood to her face. "As the elder
sister, you should be ashamed to adopt such a tone----"
"Oh, divine innocence! I tell you that, as the youngest sister, you
should be ashamed to raise your eyes to your elder sister's betrothed."
Kitty stood paralyzed. Who had searched the depths of her heart, and
plucked thence the secret which she had guarded with all the force of
her nature? She was conscious that she lost colour; she felt that she
was standing like a culprit detected in some crime; and yet no word came
from her pale lips.
"See what a guilty conscience! It could not be more perfectly
personified," Flora said, with a laugh, touching the girl's breast with
her finger-tips. "Yes, yes, you will admit, my dear, that for all your
fine plots there is no duping your elder sister. She sees through such
'purity of soul'; her keen eye detects each tender approach, from the
first spring flowers left in the man's room, in the innocent hope that
they may attract his notice."
Life now returned to the motionless figure. Involuntarily she clasped
her hands. It seemed to her that ever since she had set foot upon the
soil of her native place her unconscious, secret soul had been tracked
like some wild animal by the huntsman. Was it possible that such
hateful designs could be attributed to her because of the trifling
negligence which had already caused her tears of vexation? Righteous
indignation stirred within her.
"I have already regretted my negligence on the occasion to which you
seem to allude," she said, proudly. "But whoever spoke of it to
you----"
"Whoever? He himself, child!"
"Then it is you who represent the trifling circumstance in an entirely
false light."
"Ah, take care, take care, child! The passion so long suppressed gleams
in your eyes," Flora exclaimed, and, although she smiled coldly, her
foot tapped the floor impatiently. "_I_ am false, then? Not _he_, when
he boasts of his conquest?"
Again the colour left Kitty's cheek as she firmly shook her head. "No!
Although you should repeat that to me a thousand times, I would not
believe it! I would sooner doubt all that I have been taught to believe
in as good and true! He--even think a falsehood? He, like some
brainless fop, boast of a conquest? He, who----" She paused, as if
terrified at the passionate tone of her own voice. "You calumniated him
vilely when I first came home," she added, controlling herself. "Then I
could not answer you, although instinctively I espoused his cause; but
now that I know him I will not have a word breathed against him. It is
monstrous that I must say this to you. How can you find it in your
heart,--how dare you persist in attainting the honour of the man whose
name you will shortly bear?"
As she uttered these last words Flora turned and gazed at her
incredulously, as if doubting the evidence of her senses. "Either you
are a most finished actress or--a declaration of love must be handed to
you in black and white before you can understand it. You really know
nothing of it?" With an impertinent smile, she laid her hands upon
Kitty's shoulders and gazed keenly into the clear brown eyes. Then
thrusting her from her, she exclaimed, "Pshaw! What more do I need?
Have you not just fought for him as if you were willing to spend your
last breath in his defence?"
Kitty turned towards the door. "I cannot see why you detained me here,"
she said.
"Ah! was I too figurative, then? Must it be said plainly in good
German? Well, then, my dear, I wish nothing more or less than to know
what has passed between Bruck and yourself yesterday and to-day."
"What passed between us," Kitty replied, "you may readily learn word for
word. He took great pains, and I made his task very hard, to destroy my
blind reliance upon some future improvement in Henriette's condition; he
took pains to prepare me"--her voice trembled and tears glistened in her
eyes--"for her departure."
Flora, in evident confusion, walked away to the window. With all her
idolatry of self, the suspicion faintly dawned upon her that she played
but a poor part in contrast to these two people. "Child, you must have
long known of that," she said, in a subdued tone. "And have you not
felt that we all ought to pray that the poor sufferer might be released
from the burden of pain she has borne so long?" She approached the girl
once more. "And was that really all that was said, word for word?"
A feeling of unutterable scorn awoke in Kitty's mind This, she thought,
was the jealousy, not of a loving woman, but of a vain one, who would
watch her lover stealthily, and control, if she might, every word that
he spoke. "Do you suppose that in an hour when he lends support and
consolation to the dying, Doctor Bruck has either mind or heart for
aught else," she asked, with grave reproof in her tone, "and when,
besides, in the sufferer to whom he ministers he loses the dearest
friend he has upon earth?"
"Yes, she loved him," Flora said, coldly.
Kitty's cheeks burned. Flora fairly exulted in the girlish
embarrassment which was so evident. "Yes, yes, the man may congratulate
himself upon the charm which he unconsciously possesses, and which
attracts female hearts as the light of a candle allures moths. The
world will laugh to learn that all the daughters Mangold the banker left
behind him succumbed to the spell. Stay!" She had spoken in what was
almost a playful tone, until Kitty once more hastened towards the door,
and then the authoritative word came like a command from her lips. The
young girl paused as if rooted to the spot, for fear lest a louder
repetition of the word might arouse her sleeping sister. "Even our
youngest, the fair miller's maid, hardy of limb and strong in soul, has
proved weak," Flora continued. "Oh, you may protest as you please, with
that defiant air and that pitiable pretence of offended pride. Well, I
will believe you; you can clear your name, if you will retract the
eulogium you pronounced upon Bruck just now with such incomparable
emphasis----"
"I do not retract one iota!"
"Do you not see, wicked girl, that you are bound hand and foot in the
fetters of your sinful love? Look in my eyes! Can you look your
betrayed sister in the face and say 'No'?"
Kitty raised her bowed head and looked back over her shoulder; she put
her hand up to the wound in her forehead, which was beginning to throb,
but it was done mechanically; even if her life-blood had been streaming
from it, she would hardly have heeded it at this moment, when thought
and feeling were concentrated upon one point. "You have no right to
require from me an answer to such a question," she said, firmly,
although her heart throbbed loud and fast; "and I am not bound to reply
to you. But you have called me wicked, and have spoken of treachery;
these are the very words with which I reproached myself until I
understood the true nature of the affection which you call sinful----"
"Ah, a confession after the most approved style!"
A soft smile played about the pale lips; the face, white it seemed as
the bandage about the brow, was transfigured for the moment. "Yes,
Flora, I confess, because I have no cause for shame. I confess too for
our dead father's sake. I will not, in view of that dear memory, bear
upon my soul even the appearance of treachery towards one of my sisters.
We are not responsible for our feelings, but for the power that we allow
them; this I know after a fruitless struggle with a mysterious
affection, which seems to have been born with me, to have been present
with me always, though slumbering. Is it a crime to approach reverently
another's domestic altar? Is it a crime to look up gladly at a tree
growing in another's garden? Is it a crime to love and not covet? I
desire nothing of you; I shall never cross your path or your lover's.
You shall never hear of me again; you need never even remember me. How
can it harm either of you that I shall love him while I have breath, and
be faithful to him as to one taken from me by death?"
A low laugh interrupted her. "Take care, child! In a moment your
rhapsody will clothe itself in rhyme."
"No, Flora, that I leave to you, although I know that my whole
conception of life has been more exalted since this affection has had
lodgment in my heart." She stepped back into the room, past the stand
upon which hung the wedding gown. Without knowing it, she brushed by
the hanging train, and, with a low rustle, the whole silken fabric fell
upon the floor.
Kitty stooped to raise it, but Flora pushed the satin scornfully aside
with her foot. "Let it lie!" she said, bitterly. "Even the lifeless
stuff rebels against a sister's treachery."
"And are you free from blame, Flora?" Kitty asked. Her blood was easily
roused; her sense of justice was strong, and not even for the sake of
peace would she submit to the persistent injustice of wayward egotism.
"What was it that first filled my heart? Sympathy, unutterable sympathy
for the noble man whom you misunderstood, whom you reviled to the world,
and from whom you struggled to be free. If all this were not wrong, why
did you ask forgiveness? I have seen you penitent---- When you threw
the ring into the river----"
"Good God, Kitty! do not retail again that old vision of yours," Flora
cried, putting her fingers to her ears for a moment, and then turning to
her sister and holding up her hand before her eyes. "There, there it
is. And I can assure you it is genuine; the letters engraved inside
leave nothing to be desired. And besides let me tell you, to put an end
to the matter, that the thing will play no further part in my life,
except that of a wire with which to guide a puppet. My engagement with
Bruck is broken----"
Kitty started in amazement. "You tried in vain to break it a while
ago," she stammered.
"Yes; then the fellow had some remnant of strength in him; now he has
become weak as a child."
"Flora, he has released you?"
"Good heavens, yes! if you must hear the joyful news a second time."
"Then he never loved you. Then he insisted upon his rights, prompted by
some other motive. Thank God, he may yet be happy!"
"Do you think so? I still have a voice in the matter," said Flora. She
laid her hand with a firm pressure upon her sister's arm, and looked
with a diabolic expression into the honest brown eyes. "I will never
forgive him for letting me beg in vain for my freedom. He shall know
now what it is to have the cup dashed from thirsting lips. I will never
resign his ring----"
"The counterfeit----"
"How can you prove that, child? Where are your witnesses? Your
accusation of me has not a foot to stand upon. I have been rightly
credited with legal acumen. But do not be alarmed. I would not be so
cruel as to forbid marriage altogether to my former betrothed; he may
marry--to-morrow, if he pleases; but only one whom he does not love,--I
have not the least objection to a marriage of convenience. I shall
haunt his path, detect every emotion of his soul which he may happen to
betray. Woe be to him should he attempt to defy me!"
She had picked up one of the sprays of orange-blossoms scattered about
the room, and as she waved it to and fro she looked like some beautiful
tigress circling with subtle, supple windings her destined prey.
"Well, Kitty, since you love him, do you not wish to beg for him?" she
began again, slowly emphasizing her words. "Look, I have his happiness
in my hands. I can crush it, or bid it live and flourish, according to
my pleasure. This absolute power is priceless to me, of course, and yet
I can hardly resist the temptation to resign it, chiefly to test the
strength of what is so vaunted as true love. Suppose I were to place
this ring in your hands, with the right to dispose of it as you
please,--understand me, I myself should from that moment resign all
claim, all right of protest,--would you, in order that Bruck might from
this time be free to choose, submit to any conditions that I should
impose?"
Kitty had involuntarily pressed her clasped hands tightly to her
throbbing breast,--there was a terrible conflict going on within her.
"I will comply with any even the hardest conditions immediately, if only
I may free him from your toils," came hoarsely but resolutely from her
lips.
"Not too fast, my child. You might possibly destroy the happiness of
your own life by too ready a self-sacrifice."
The young girl paused for a moment, and put one hand up to her aching
head. Evidently, strong though she was, one support after another was
failing her, her youthful ardour, the elastic force that breeds
self-reliance, faith in her own power of self-conquest: her will alone
remained firm. "I know what I mean; there is no need for reflection,"
she said.
Flora held the orange-spray before her face as if she were inhaling the
fragrance of the artificial blossoms. "What if his choice--perhaps only
to humiliate me--fell upon yourself?" she asked, looking askance at her
young sister.
Kitty's breath failed her. "It never will,--he never liked me!"
"True. But suppose he should tell you that he loves you, the pledge of
his freedom would scarcely be safe in your hands, I am afraid. Some day
he would woo his beloved, and I might fare ill with my conditions. No!
I will keep my ring!"
"Just heaven! can it really be that one sister can so torture another?"
Kitty cried, in indignant pain. "And yet at this very moment, seeing as
I do your incorrigible egotism, your pitiless nature, your invincible
passion for intrigue more clearly than ever before, I am all the more
impelled to deliver your former lover at any price from the vampire that
thirsts for his life-blood. You _must_ not retain any hold upon him. He
shall begin his life anew, in a home where he will find happiness and
peace, now that he is no longer condemned to lead a mere life of society
by the side of a heartless coquette----"
"Many thanks for your flattering description! You show far too much
enthusiasm for his happiness to allow of my entrusting my treasure to
your keeping."
"Give it to me; you may do so without fear."
"Even if he should indeed and in truth love you?"
The girl's lips quivered in absolute agony, she wrung her hands as in
despair, but she was firm. "What if it were so? I should be no
irreparable loss. He can easily find a better than I. His past bitter
experience is warrant that he will not again deceive himself. Give me
the ring, the counterfeit. Although I know that not the least particle
of value attaches to it in reality, I promise you to respect it as the
one now lying in the river, since it is a sign and pledge of Bruck's
enfranchisement." She held out her hand.
"I know you to be honourable enough never to use it for your own
advantage," Flora said, slowly and with emphasis, drawing off the ring.
A tremor shook Kitty's limbs as the gold touched her palm, and her
fingers closed tight upon the circlet, while a contemptuous smile
hovered upon her lips; she was too proud to assert by a single syllable
her purity of purpose.
"Well?" Flora cried.
"I have given you my word; now I am the puppet whom you rule by this
wire,"--she raised her closed hand,--"are you satisfied?" And she left
the room.
As she crossed the threshold, Doctor Bruck was ascending the opposite
staircase. He glanced towards the two figures, the one erect and
triumphant in the middle of the room, coldly smiling, while the girl,
issuing from it flushed and agitated, almost broke down at sight of him.
He hurried to her side, and, regardless of all else, put his arm around
her to support her. The door closed behind them to the accompaniment of
a low, mocking laugh.