Part 2 (1/2)

”She must yet be mine!” he says under his breath, by way of consolation, like all men whose hopes are doubtful. ”I will even dare the battle with a phantom.”

CHAPTER II.

OLD AMMERGAU.

At last, alter a long circuit and many enquiries, the goal was gained.

The dripping, sorely shaken equipage stopped with two wheels in a ditch filled with rain water, whose overflow flooded the path to the house.

The courier and maid seemed to have missed their way, too, for the second carriage was not there. People hurried out of the low doorway shading small flickering candles with their hands. The countess shrank back. What strange faces these peasants had! An old man with a terribly hang-dog countenance, long grey hair, a pointed Jewish beard, sharp hooked nose, and sparkling eyes! And two elderly women, one short and fat, with prominent eyes and black curling hair, the other a tall, thin, odd-looking person with tangled coal-black hair, hooked nose, and glittering black eyes.

In the mysterious shadows cast by the wavering lights upon the sharply cut faces, the whole group looked startlingly like a band of gypsies.

”Oh! are these Ammergau people?” whispered the countess in a disappointed tone.

”Does Gross, the wood-carver, live here?” the prince enquired.

”Yes,” was the reply. ”Gross, the stone-cutter. Have you engaged rooms here?”

”We wrote from Tegernsee for lodgings. The Countess von Wildenau,”

answered the prince.

”Oh yes, yes! Everything is ready! The lady will lodge with us; the carriage and servants can go to the old post-house. I have the honor to bid you good evening,” said the old man. ”I am sorry you have had such bad weather. But we have a great deal of rain here.”

The prince alighted--the water splashed high under his feet.

”Oh Sephi, bring a board, quick; the countess cannot get out here!”

cried the old man with eager deprecation of the discomfort threatening the lady. Sephi, the tall, thin woman, dragged a plank from the garden, while a one-eyed dog began to bark furiously.

The plank was laid down, but instantly sunk under the water, and the countess was obliged to wade through the flood. As she alighted, she felt as if she should strike her head against the edge of the overhanging roof--the house was so low. Fresco paintings, dark with age, appeared to stretch and writhe in distorted shapes in the flickering light. The place seemed more and more dismal to the countess.

”Shall I carry you across?” asked the prince.

”Oh no!” she answered reprovingly, while her little foot sought the bottom of the pool. The ice-cold water covered her delicate boot to the ankle. She had been so full of eager antic.i.p.ation, in such a poetic mood, and prosaic reality dealt her a blow in the face. She s.h.i.+vered as she walked silently through the water.

”Come in, your rooms are ready,” said the old man cheeringly.

They pa.s.sed through a kitchen black with myriads of flies, into an apartment formerly used as the workshop, now converted into a parlor.

Two children were asleep on an old torn sofa. In one corner lay sacks of straw, prepared for couches, the owners of the house considered it a matter of course that they should have no beds during the Pa.s.sion. A smoking kerosene lamp hung from, the dark worm-eaten wooden ceiling, diffusing more smoke than light. The room was so low that the countess could scarcely stand erect, and besides the ceiling had sunk--in the dim, smoke-laden atmosphere the beams threatened to fall at any moment.

A sense of suffocation oppressed the new-comer. She was utterly exhausted, chilled, nervous to the verge of weeping. Her white teeth chattered. She s.h.i.+vered with cold and discomfort. Her host opened a low door into a small room containing two beds, a table, an old-fas.h.i.+oned dark cupboard, and two chairs.

”There,” he cried in a tone of great satisfaction, ”that is your chamber. Now you can rest, and if you want anything, you need only call and one of my daughters will come in and wait upon you.”

”Yes, my good fellow, but where am _I_ to lodge?” asked the prince.

”Oh--then you don't belong together? In that case the countess must sleep with another lady, and the gentleman up here.”