It seemed quite terrible--almost incredible. And how should she conduct herself in this trying ordeal?
"I must not just fall into his arms," thought she, "so that he will think me crude in everything, and misunderstand me again."
She decided to cut a handful of roses. Instead of the usual "Good morning," she would greet him with these and a look that should say, "Take them, beloved. All is yours--all." She selected deep-crimson blooms, full grown with a wealth of curving petals. Each one would speak of love to him--of that wild, entrancing love of which poets sang so beautifully, from whose kisses one drank either eternal bliss or d.a.m.nation. Nothing pale or faded should have a place in her bouquet.
But she did not adorn herself with a rose. Was he not to be for always the one and only ornament of her life?
Leo, the dog, trotted meanwhile behind her well satisfied, now and then rubbing his nose lovingly against her sleeve.
"Where is your master?" she asked him, with a sigh.
The beast looked up in her face with comprehending, melancholy eyes.
For hours, since daybreak, he had been looking for him everywhere, but he had ridden off on a secret mission without asking his faithful friend to bear him company.
As she ascended the steps of the terrace grandmamma came to meet her.
She caught hold of the bal.u.s.trade, trembling. What if he had already confided the news to his mother? Was she coming before her with a heart whose secret had been laid bare? She ran to her quickly, and hid her head on her breast so that she shouldn"t be looked at.
The old lady patted her, full of solicitude "No cold, I hope--no fever?" she asked.
Hertha breathed more freely. Ah! she didn"t know.
"Let me feel your pulse," grandmamma commanded.
Hertha wriggled away.
"I like that!" she thought. "To-day, of all days, to have my pulse felt! Next I shall be asked to put out my tongue!" And she barricaded herself behind the table.
Grandmamma made the best of a bad matter, but she was not going to let her off without a lecture. Hertha, with quivering lips and wandering eyes, let the mild outburst pa.s.s over her head. Her gaze was directed to Leo"s empty coffee-cup, her ear towards the courtyard.
And then suddenly the hound gave a howl of delight. Ringing, clattering footsteps came echoing along the corridor.
Hertha felt her blood ebb from her veins, and as if she must, at his glance, fall dead from shame. She dashed the roses down on the table, and tore at hot speed into the garden; and grandmamma, whose lecture was in full swing, looked after her in consternation. There was a nook in the yew hedge which ran out from the castle into the garden where, unseen, it was possible to hear and see all that pa.s.sed on the terrace.
There she quickly concealed herself.
He stood framed in the gla.s.s door, heated and dusty, with a deep frown on his brow which terrified Hertha.
Grandmamma gently reproached him. How was it that it was nearly noon and nothing had been seen of him before?
"I had business to attend to," was his curt, gruff answer. Then he sat down and played carelessly with the scattered roses.
Hertha was grieved; thus her pretty little plan came to nothing. Of course, he didn"t suspect how significant those roses were for him.
"What are the kids doing?" he asked.
Hertha started. She didn"t deserve to be called by such a name as that.
But she comforted herself with the thought that he was trying to hide his secret.
Grandmamma gave him the desired information. Hertha had put in an appearance, but Elly was still asleep. To-day she might have grace and sleep to twelve if she liked--the longer the better.
He was hungry, and crumbled the toasted rolls impatiently. "What incapable dog of a cook have we got now?" he grumbled.
Grandmamma stood up to go and see what had happened in the kitchen.
"Hertha is waiting too," she said.
"Where is the little one?" he asked.
"She has scampered away from you once more, like a frightened hare,"
responded grandmamma. "I will send her out if I see her." With which she went into the house.
Hertha saw how he smiled to himself for a moment, then wrinkled his brows again in heavy thought. With his head buried in his hands, he sat brooding there.
Infinite compa.s.sion awoke in Hertha. "He has been bothered by some new trouble," she thought, "and his cares make his head ache." From now on it would be her duty to stand by him in time of trial, whatever her mood might be.
And with resolute steps, digging her heels into the ground, she emerged from the yew hedge. But when she reached the foot of the terrace, she reeled and was obliged to pause for breath. She had never imagined that one could feel such unspeakable fear of the man one loved better than life itself.
Now she was at the top of the steps. But, still lost in meditation, he did not look up. He held one of the roses between his lips, and chewed the stalk.
She was trembling so much that she had to steady herself by holding on to the corner of the table. How should she greet him? A mere "Good morning" sounded too commonplace and everyday. She sighed.
Then at last he looked up. A friendly, quiet smile beamed on his face.
"Good morning; good morning," he said quite naturally. "Why that deep sigh? Have we caught cold--a touch of fever, eh?"
She gazed silently at him with great wounded eyes. These were almost exactly the same words as good old grandmamma had used. Perhaps he too was going to ask to feel her pulse. Her hand fluttered in his; then she sank into an armchair, still not speaking. Again the dread overcame her that, after thinking it over, he had decided she was too immature, and would treat yesterday as if it had never been. And she would have no means of combating his decision and making him act otherwise.
"Yes--yes, that was a quaint adventure," he went on, as he stretched himself and put his hand before his mouth to suppress a yawn of fatigue; "but we caught you neatly, you runaway."
Her fears increased. If only she had not been such a coward--such an unutterable coward--she would have drawn herself to her full height and exclaimed indignantly, "Why do you despise me to-day? Don"t you know what you have done?" But she didn"t dare move an eyelash, much less look up.
And as she still remained tongue-tied, he bent over her, and, stroking her forehead, asked her, grinning--
"Have we made peace at last, dear child?"
This was a ray of light. She thanked G.o.d for it, nodded, and tried to smile.
"Well, well," he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed in doubt, as she had not spoken.
But instead of an answer, she gathered the roses together and offered them to him.
"Do they belong to me?" he asked.
"Yes, to you," she whispered, with a shy, tender light in her eyes, "dir".[1] He marked the expression, and a bitter sense of a marred happiness stabbed his soul. He seized the little brown hand in grat.i.tude.
At this moment steps were heard in the dining-room, the gla.s.s door of which stood open.
"Grandmamma is coming!" exclaimed Hertha, shocked, s.n.a.t.c.hing away her hand.