Part 16 (1/2)
He caressed her feverish cheeks, while she kept pressing herself against his bosom. ”Let us only consider your own case. You, Vreni, are still so very young, and quite likely you will fare well enough after a short while.”
”And you also--you ancient man,” she said, smiling wistfully.
”Come!” now said Sali, and dragged her along. But they only went on a few steps, and then they halted once more, the better to embrace and kiss. The deep quiet of the world ran like music through their souls, and the only sound to be heard around them was the gentle rush and swish of the waves as they slowly went on further down the valley below.
”How beautiful it is around here! Listen! It seems to me there is somebody far away singing in a low voice.”
”No, sweetheart; it is only the water softly flowing.”
”And yet it seems there is some music--way out there, everywhere.”
”I think it is our own blood coursing that is deceiving our ears.”
But though they hearkened again and again, the solemn stillness remained unbroken. The magic effect of the light of a resplendent full moon was visible in the whole landscape, as the autumnal veil of fog that rose in semi-transparent layers from the river sh.o.r.e mingled with the silvery sheen, waving in grayish or bluish bands.
Suddenly Vreni recalled something, and said: ”Here, I have bought you something to remember me by.”
And she gave him the plain little ring, and placed it on his finger.
Sali, too, found the little ring he had meant for her, and while he put it on her hand, he said: ”Thus we have had the same thought, you and I.”
Vreni held up her hand into the silvery light of the moon and examined the little token curiously.
”Oh, what a fine ring,” she then said, laughing. ”Now we are both betrothed and wedded. You are my husband, and I'm your wife. Let us imagine so, just long enough until that small cloud has pa.s.sed the moon, or else until we have counted twelve. You must kiss me twelve times.”
Sali was surely fully as much in love as was Vreni, but the marriage problem was, after all, not of such intense interest to him, not such a question of Either--Or, of an immediate To Be or Not To Be, as it was in the case of the girl. For Vreni could feel just then only that one problem, saw in it with pa.s.sionate energy life or death itself. But now at last he began to see clearly into the very soul of his companion, and the feminine desire in her became instantly with him a wild and ardent longing, and his senses reeled under its potency. And while he had previously caressed and embraced her with the strength and fervor of a devoted lover, he did so now with an incomparably greater abandonment to his pa.s.sion. He held Vreni tightly to his beating heart, and fairly overwhelmed her with endearments. In spite of her own love fever, the girl with true feminine instinct at once became aware of this change, and she began to tremble as with fear of the unknown. But this feeling pa.s.sed almost in a moment, and before even the cloud had flitted over the moon's face her whole being was seized by the whirlwind of his ardor, and engulfed in its depths. While both struggled with and at the same time fondled the other, their beringed hands met and seized the other as though at that supreme moment their union was consummated without the consent of their will power. Sali's heart knocked against its prison door like a living being; anon it stood still, and he breathed with difficulty and said slow and in a whisper: ”There is one thing, only one thing, we can do, Vreni; we keep our wedding this hour, and then we leave this world forever--there below is the deep water--there is everlasting peace and fulfilment of all our hopes--there n.o.body will divorce us again--and we have had our dearest wish--have lived and died together--whether for long, whether for short--we need not care--we are rid of all care--”
And Vreni instantly responded. ”Yes, Sali--what you say I also have thought to myself--not once but constantly these days--I have dreamed of it with my whole soul--we can die together, and then all this torment is over--Swear to me, Sali, that you will do it with me!”
”Yes, dearest, it is as good as done--n.o.body shall take you from me now but Death alone!” Thus the young man in his exaltation. But Vreni's breath came quick and as if freed from an intolerable burden. Tears of sweetest joy came to her eyes, and she rose with spontaneous alacrity and, light as a bird, flew down towards the river side. Sali followed her, thinking for a moment she wanted to escape him, while she fancied he would wish to prevent her. Thus they both sprang down the steep path, and Vreni laughed happily like a child that will not allow her playmate to catch her.
”Are you sorry for it already?” Thus they both apostrophized the other, as they in a twinkling had reached the river sh.o.r.e and seized hold of each other. And both answered: ”No, indeed, how can you think so?”