They say there was a countess who was very fond of her husband, and
her husband was very fond of her; and they vowed nothing should ever
make the one think ill of the other.
One day the brother of the countess, who had been long away at the
wars, and whom the count had never seen, came back to see her just
while the count was out.
'Now we'll have some fun,' said the countess. 'We'll watch till my
husband is coming home, and then as he comes into the room you just
be kissing me; he will be so astonished to see a stranger kissing me,
he will not know what to make of it. Then in five minutes we will
tell him who you really are, and it will make a good laugh.'
The brother thought it would be a good joke, and they did as she
had said.
It happened, however, that by accident [412] the count did not that
day as usual come into his wife's room, but passing along the terrace
in front of it, he saw, as she had arranged, one who was a stranger
to him kissing her.
Then he went into his room, and calling his confidential servant
[413] he told him what had happened, and adding, 'You will never see
me any more,' went his way.
The countess waited on and on for her husband to come in, full of
impatience to have her joke out. But when she found he did not come
at all, she went into his room to seek him there. There she found
the servant, who told her what the Count had said, and the desperate
resolution he had taken.
'What have I done!' exclaimed the terrified Countess. 'Is it possible
that I am to be punished thus for a harmless joke!'
Then, without saying anything to anyone she wrapped her travelling
cloak about her, and set out to seek her husband.
The Count had walked on till he could walk no farther, and then he
had gone into an inn, where he hired a room for a week; but he went
wandering about the woods in misery and despair, and only came in at
an hour of night. [414]
The Countess also walked on till she could walk no farther, and thus
she came to the same inn; but as she had only a woman's strength the
same journey took her a much longer time, and it was the afternoon
of the next day when she arrived. She too asked for a room, but the
host assured her with many expressions of regret, that he had not
a single room vacant. The Countess pleaded her weariness; the man
reiterated his inability to serve her.
'Give me only a room to rest a little while in,' she begged; 'just
a couple of hours, and then I will start again and journey farther.'
Really compassionating her in her fatigue, the man now said:
'If you will be satisfied with that much, I can give you a room for
a couple of hours; but no more.'
She was fain to be satisfied with that, as she could get no more,
and the host showed her into her husband's room, which he would not
want till 'an hour of night.'
By accident, however, the Count came in that night an hour earlier, and
very much surprised he was to find a lady in his room. The Countess,
equally surprised to see a stranger enter, pulled her veil over her
face, so that they did not recognise each other.
'I am sorry to disturb you, madam, but this room, I must inform you,
I have engaged,' said the count; but sorrow had so altered his voice
that the countess did not know it again.
'I hope you will spare me,' replied the Countess. 'They gave me this
room to rest in for two hours, and I have come so long a way that I
really need the rest.'
'I can hardly believe that a lady of gentle condition can have come
a very long way, all alone and on foot, for there is no carriage in
the yard; so I can only consider this a frivolous pretext,' replied
the Count, for sorrow had embittered him.
'Indeed it is too true though,' continued the Countess. 'I came
all the way from such a place (and she named his own town) without
stopping for one moment's rest.'
'Indeed!' said the Count, his interest roused at the mention of his
own town; 'and pray what need had you to use such haste to get away
from that good town?'
'I had no need to haste to leave the place,' replied the Countess,
hurt at the implied suspicion that she was running away for shame. 'I
hasted to arrive at another place.'
'And that other place was ----?' persisted the Count, who felt that
her intrusion on his privacy gave him a right to cross-question her.
The Countess was puzzled how to reply. She had no idea what place
she was making for.
'That I don't know,' she said at last, with no little embarrassment.
'You will permit me to say that you seem to have no adequate reason to
allege for this unwarrantable occupation of my room; and what little
you tell me certainly in no way inclines me to take a favourable view
of the affair.'
The Countess was once more stung by the manner in which he seemed to
view her journey, and feeling bound to clear herself, she replied:
'If you only knew what my journey is about, you would not speak
so!' and she burst into a flood of tears.
Softened by her distress, the Count said in a kinder tone:
'Had you been pleased to confide that to me at first, maybe I had not
spoken so; but till you tell me what it is, what opinion can I form?'
'This is it,' answered the Countess, still sobbing. 'Yesterday I
was the happiest woman on the face of the earth, living in love and
confidence with the best husband with whom woman was ever blessed. So
strong was my confidence that I hesitated not to trifle with this
great happiness. My brother came home from the wars, a stranger
to my husband. "Let him see you kiss me," I said, "it will seem so
strange that we will make him laugh heartily afterwards." He saw him
kiss me, but waited for no explanation. He went away without a word,
as indeed (fool that I was) I well deserved, and I journey on till
I overtake him.'
The Count had risen to his feet, and had torn the veil from her face.
'It can be no other but my own!' he exclaimed, in a voice from which
sorrow being banished his own tones sounded forth, and clasped her
in his arms.