How can so much happiness, so much pain, so much terror, so much
blessedness, lie in a single word?
She reeled, and would have fallen; but a strong arm upheld her, which
she knew would never again be released through time and eternity.
A severe November storm raged around them; but as it drove Sibylla
backward, the strong arm was protectingly behind her. They go on and
on, and can find no end. She is not troubled on account of the
distance; she has been long enough her own leader. The hands of both
are clasped together as if they could never be sundered. As water
which an unfriendly hand has parted reunites never to be separated
again, these two are henceforth one.
Finally the bands of the tongues of these happy ones are loosed.
What they said, no one heard; but perhaps imagination may tell us
that as, out of the deepest woe, thoughts climb to heaven, so in the
highest bliss they also climb thitherward.
It was very late when Wulf parted from Sibylla at her door.
"Come early to-morrow morning," she begged; "I am too horrid to be
alone by myself." Entering the room, she fell on her knees, and
cried through streaming eyes: "Dear Lord, can you have such love for
me?"
How gloriously the sun arose the next morning!--no November sun, but
one of May, full of joy and happiness. It shone forth strong, as if
there were joy and delight in its nature, as well as storm and rage.
It was not very late when Wulf stood before Sibylla's door, but still
not so early that she had not been looking out for him. How
beautiful she was! Wulf met her with eyes of love and admiration.
Yes; that was his Sibylla Von Herbig. It was incredible that she had
ever belonged to another. He could not bear the thought of how he
had struggled against all remembrance of her during the past years,
believing it to be wrong. But now she was his, wholly his--and
forever!
And Sibylla? If any one could have bribed her with every thing for
which once she had been so enthusiastic and regarded essential to her
life; if any one had brought to her liberty, beauty, art, riches,
happiness of every other kind, it would have been no temptation. In
resignation and submission she found her happiness.
And--wonderful!--this happiness rejuvenated her; it flashed from her
eyes; it beamed from her rosy cheeks; it uttered itself in every
movement of her youthful form, as the sunshine unfolds the rose which
had been only a bud for so long.
To-day Sibylla told Wulf that Theodora had returned to Berlin, and
intended to remain. They went together to see their friend.
Theodora was delighted over the happy circumstance that greeted her
on the threshold of her new home. She had not received Wulf's
letter. When he brought his sweet bride another day, she pressed
Sibylla to her heart and said, joyfully: "May a good spirit accompany
you through life, and the gold which you carry in your own person be
transformed for every-day use into small change for every body!"
Yes; every-day life--that must show now what Sibylla really is.