Every day pa.s.sed like a dream: my cousin gradually came to treat me with a true sisterly familiarity; she did not conceal from me the pleasure that she felt in seeing me; she confided to me all that interested her. Two or three times she begged me to accompany her when she went with the grand d.u.c.h.ess to visit the young orphans; often, also, she spoke to me of my future plans with a maturity of reason, a serious and reflective interest, that astonished me, coming from a girl of her age; she was very fond, too, of inquiring of my infancy, and of my mother, alas! ever regretted. Every time that I wrote to my father, she begged me to recall her to his remembrance; then, for she embroidered to admiration, she gave me one day for him a charming piece of tapestry, upon which she had worked for a long time. What more shall I tell you, my friend? a brother and sister, meeting again after a long separation, would not have enjoyed a sweeter intimacy.
Let me add that, when, by some unusual chance, we were left alone, the entrance of a third could never have changed the subject, or even the accent of our conversation. You will be perhaps astonished, my friend, at this brotherly feeling between two young people, especially as you recall what I have acknowledged to you; but the more confidence and familiarity my cousin showed me, the more I watched over, the more I constrained myself, for fear of putting an end to the adorable familiarity. And then, what increased still more my reserve, the princess showed, in her intercourse with me, so much frankness, so much n.o.ble confidence, and especially so little coquetry, that I am almost certain that she has always been ignorant of my violent pa.s.sion, though there remains a slight doubt on this subject, arising from a circ.u.mstance that I will relate immediately. If this brotherly intercourse could always have lasted, perhaps this happiness might have been sufficient for me; but even while I was enjoying this with delight, I reflected that my service or the new career in which the prince was inducing me to engage would soon call me to Vienna or abroad; I reflected, in short that, presently, perhaps, the grand duke would think of marrying his daughter in a manner worthy of her. These thoughts became the more painful to me as the moment of my departure approached. My cousin soon observed the change that was at work in me. The evening before the day I left her, she told me for a long time she had found me gloomy and abstracted. I endeavored to elude her questions; I attributed my sadness to a vague ennui.
"I cannot believe you," said she to me; "my father treats you almost as a son; everybody loves you; to be unhappy would be ingrat.i.tude."
"Ah well!" said I to her, without being able to conquer my emotion, "it is not ennui; it is grief--yes, a penetrating grief that I feel."
"And why? What has happened to you?" she asked me, with interest.
"Just now, my cousin, you told me that your father treated me as a son; that everybody loved me. Ah! well, before long, I must renounce these precious attachments; I must, in short, leave Gerolstein, and, I confess to you, this thought fills me with despair."
"And the remembrance of those that are dear to us--is this then, nothing, my cousin?"
"Ah, yes--but years, but events bring so many unforeseen changes!"
"There are at least attachments which are not changed: such as my father has always shown you. What I feel for you is of this kind, you know full well; we are brother and sister--never to forget one another," added she, raising toward me her large blue eyes, filled with tears.
This glance overwhelmed me; I was on the point of betraying myself; fortunately, I restrained myself.
"It is true that feeling lasts," said I to her, in an embarra.s.sed manner; "but circ.u.mstances alter. For instance, my cousin, when in a few years I shall return, do you think that then this intimacy, whose charm I value so fully, may yet continue?"
"Why should it not continue?"
"Because you will then be, undoubtedly, married, my cousin--you will have other duties--and you will have forgotten your poor brother."
I swear to you, my friend, I said no more to her. I know not yet if she saw in these words an avowal which was displeasing to her, or whether she, like myself, was sadly struck by the inevitable changes that the future must necessarily make in our intercourse; but, instead of answering me, she remained a moment silent, overwhelmed; then, rising suddenly, her countenance pale and disordered, she went out, after examining some embroidery by the young Countess d"Oppenheim, one of her ladies of honor, who was working in the embrasure of one of the windows of the saloon where our conversation took place. The evening of this day I received a new letter from my father, which recalled me suddenly here. The next morning I went to take leave of the grand duke; he told me that my cousin was a little unwell, that I might entrust to him my last words to her; he pressed me to his heart, like a father, regretting, he added, my sudden departure, and especially that this departure was occasioned by the anxiety that the health of my father gave me; then, recalling to me, with the greatest kindness, his counsel on the subject of the new career which he begged me to embrace immediately, he added, that on my return from my emba.s.sies, or on my leaves of absence, he should see me again at Gerolstein with warm pleasure. Happily, on my arrival here I found the state of my father a little improved; he still keeps his bed, and is constantly feeble, but his health no longer gives me any serious anxiety. Unfortunately, he has already noticed my depression, my gloomy taciturnity, several times; but he has supplicated me in vain to confide to him the cause of my melancholy grief. I should not dare it, notwithstanding his blind tenderness for me; you know his severity as regards everything which appears to him wanting in frankness and loyalty. Yesterday, I watched with him; when alone by his side, believing him asleep, I could not restrain my tears, which flowed in silence as I thought of my happy days at Gerolstein. He saw me weep, for he soon awaked while I was absorbed in my grief; he questioned me with the most touching kindness; I attributed my sadness to the anxiety that his health had caused me, but he was not deceived by this evasion. Now that you know all, my good Maximilian, say is not my fate forlorn enough! What shall I do--what resolve?
Ah, my friend, I cannot tell you my anguish. What is to happen, my G.o.d! All is utterably lost! I am the most wretched of men if my father does not renounce his project. I will tell you what has just happened; just now I had finished this letter, when, to my great astonishment, my father, whom I believed in bed, entered my cabinet, where I was writing to you; he saw upon my desk my first four great pages all filled; I was at the end of this last--"
"To whom do you write so at length?" he asked, smiling.
"To Maximilian, father."
"Oh!" said he to me, with an expression of affectionate reproach, "I know that he possessed your confidence entirely; _he is very happy--he!_"
He p.r.o.nounced these last words so sadly, in such a bounded tone, that, touched by his accent, I replied to him, giving him my letter, almost without reflection: "Read, father."
My friend, he has read all. Do you know what he said to me, after remaining for some time thoughtful?
"Henry, I am going to write to the grand duke all that pa.s.sed during your stay at Gerolstein."
"My father, I conjure you, do not do it."
"Is what you relate to Maximilian perfectly true?"
"Yes, my father."
"In this case, until now your conduct has been upright. The prince will appreciate it. But in future you should not show yourself unworthy of his n.o.ble confidence; you would do so if, abusing his offer, you should return hereafter to Gerolstein, with the intention, perhaps, of making yourself beloved by his daughter."
"My father, could you think----"
"I think that you love with pa.s.sion, and that pa.s.sion is, sooner or later, an evil consoler."
"How, my father? you will write to the prince that----"
""You love your cousin desperately.""
"In the name of heaven, my father, I supplicate you, do nothing of this!"
"Do you love your cousin?"
"I love her to idolatry; but----"
My father interrupted me: "If this is the case, I shall write to the grand duke to demand of him for you the hand of his daughter."
"But, my father, such a claim is madness for me!"
"It is true; nevertheless, I ought frankly to make this demand of the prince, representing to him the reasons that lead me to this step. He has received you with the most true hospitality, he has shown you fatherly kindness; it would be unworthy me and you to deceive him. I know the greatness of his soul; he will feel that I am dealing as an honest man; if he refuses to give you his daughter, and this is almost unquestionable, he will know at least that in future, if you should return to Gerolstein, you ought to be no more in the same intimacy with her. You have shown me, my child," added my father, kindly, "the letter that you have written to Maximilian. I am now informed of everything; it is my duty to write to the grand duke, and I am going to write this very moment."
You know, my friend, that my father is the best of men, but he has an inflexible tenacity of will when the question is what regards his _duty_; judge of my anguish, my terror. Though the step he is going to take may be, after all, frank and honorable, it does not trouble me less.
How will the grand duke receive this mad offer? Will he not be displeased with it? and will not the Princess Amelia be as much wounded that I have allowed my father to take such a step without her consent?
Ah, my friend, pity me, I know not what to think. It seems as though I were looking upon an abyss, and that a dizziness were coming over me.
I finish in haste this long letter; I shall write you soon. Yet once more pity me, for, in truth, I fear I shall become crazy if the fever that excites me lasts longer. Adieu, adieu! Yours from my heart, and ever,
HENRY D"H.-O.
We now conduct our reader to the palace of Gerolstein, where Fleur-de-Marie had dwelt since her return from France.
CHAPTER IV.
THE PRINCESS AMELIA.
The apartment occupied by Fleur-de-Marie (we shall call her the Princess Amelia only officially), in the grand ducal palace, had been furnished by Rudolph"s care, with extreme taste and elegance. From the balcony of the young girl"s oratory could be seen, in the distance, the two towers of the Convent of St. Hermangilda, which, rising above immense ma.s.ses of verdure, were themselves commanded by a high wooded mountain, at the foot of which the abbey stood. On a beautiful morning in summer, Fleur-de-Marie was allowing her glances to wander over the splendid landscape, which extended far away in the distance. Her hair was dressed, but she wore a morning dress of thin material, white, with narrow blue stripes; a large handkerchief of plain cambric falling upon her shoulders, left visible the two ends and the knot of a little silk cravat, of the same blue as the girdle of her dress. Seated in a large, high-backed elbow chair made of carved ebony and cramoisie velvet, her elbow supported by one arm of this seat, her head a little bent down, she supported her cheek upon the back of her small white hand, delicately veined with azure. The languishing att.i.tude of Fleur-de-Marie, her paleness, the fixedness of her gaze, the bitterness of her half-smile, revealed a deep melancholy. After some moments, a heavy, sad sigh relieved her breast. Then, letting her hand which supported her cheek fall again, she bent her head further upon her breast. You would have said that the wretched girl was bending beneath the weight of some heavy misfortune. At this moment a woman of mature age, with a grave and distinguished air, dressed in elegant simplicity, entered the oratory, almost timidily, and coughed slightly, to attract the attention of Fleur-de-Marie. Arousing herself from her reverie, she raised her head quickly, and said, saluting her with a motion full of grace,
"What do you wish, my dear countess?"
"I come to inform your highness that my lord begs you to await him; for he will meet you here in a few minutes," replied Princess Amelia"s maid of honor, with respectful formality.
"I was wondering that I had not yet saluted my father to-day; I wait his visit each morning with so much impatience! But I hope that I do not owe to any illness of Fraulein Harneim the pleasure of seeing you, my dear countess, at the palace two days in succession."