Part 11 (2/2)
Magelone was ready on the instant to comply. ”Johann Leopold jealous,--charming!” she said to herself; adding aloud, ”Indeed, Johanna dear, you do look wretched. Sit there in the corner of the sofa, and I will pour out coffee for you.”
”I would rather go to bed,” Johanna replied. And, bidding good-night to Magelone and to Johann Leopold, whose kindness she had perfectly understood, she slipped out of the room, unperceived, she thought, by its other inmates. But in the corridor Otto joined her. ”Dear Johanna,”
he said, ”here is a little Christmas-token that had no place in the joyous confusion of the evening. Do not look at it until you are in your own room; but, before you go, tell me how you really are.” And he gazed into her eyes with the expression that always confused her.
”It is nothing; I shall be quite well to-morrow,” she stammered, mechanically, taking the little packet he handed her, and then hastening up-stairs to her apartment, while he returned to the drawing-room.
Why should her heart beat so fast? Her trembling hands could scarcely steady themselves sufficiently to light her candle; but when they had done so, and she had unwrapped Otto's Christmas-gift, she said to herself that it was the suspicion of what it was that had so moved her.
Otto had given her a small miniature of her father, taken from a well-known life-size bust. She gazed at it lost in thought. What would she not have given to be able to pour out her grat.i.tude to Otto on the instant, to speak with him of the departed one whom he had known and revered! Otto had been the first at the close of her old life to bid her welcome on the threshold of the new existence, and he was the only one in all this new existence who appreciated her love and veneration for her father.
When she met him the next morning at breakfast, he learned from her eyes and voice even more than from her words how great had been the pleasure his little gift had given her.
”I knew you would like it,” he said, simply, as he conducted her to the breakfast-table; and, although no further allusion could be made then to the picture, their intercourse seemed more cordial than ever before.
Hildegard contemplated the pair with an unfriendly mien. They did not appear to notice it, and therefore the careful sister judged it best at last to signify to Otto that he was bestowing his attentions upon a most unsuitable object. The Freiherr's question as to whether the clear winter's day might not be made available for a sleigh-ride afforded her an opportunity to carry out her intention.
”Yes, dear grandpapa, a sleigh-ride would be glorious,” she said; ”I would merely propose that we should also pay a visit. Do you not think,”
she went on, looking around the circle at the table, ”that it would be well to call at Klausenburg? When church is over the sleighs can take us there, and we can be back in time for the second breakfast.”
”Will there be room for all of us?” asked Hedwig.
”Certainly,” Hildegard replied. ”Magelone and Johann Leopold can go in the small sleigh, and Eduard can drive, and the large sleigh will easily hold Aunt Thekla, us two, and Otto, with Karl to drive us.”
”I will resign my place to Johanna,” said Aunt Thekla.
Johanna was about to declare that she would rather stay at home, but Hildegard gave her no time. ”Johanna at Klausenburg?” she exclaimed.
”That will never do. I, at least, have not the courage to take her there.”
”Make your mind easy; that is my affair,” the Freiherr interposed, and his eyes flashed at the speaker. ”On New Year's day we give our customary dinner, at which I shall present my grand-daughter to the neighbourhood, and I promise you that she will meet with the reception I desire her to have. Christian, take me to my room.”
The servant wheeled the old man away, and every one rose from table.
Johann Leopold began to converse with Johanna upon indifferent subjects, and involuntarily she became interested. Hedwig whispered to her discomfited sister, ”Rather awkward of you, my dear.” Otto asked his brother-in-law, Karl, how he could allow Hildegard to display such want of tact, and was answered by a shrug of the shoulders, whilst Aunt Thekla tried to dispel every one's embarra.s.sment by reminding them that it was time to make ready for church.
”Come, let us go together!” said Magelone, putting her arm through Johanna's and leaving the room with her. ”Let me entreat you not to look so grieved,” she went on. ”Don't let that stupid woman vex you; you know how the others love you.”
Johanna pressed Magelone's arm, and went up-stairs with her in silence.
At the door of her room she said, ”You must go to church without me to-day; I cannot feel devotional after what has happened.”
”Oh, Johanna, we ought not to bear malice! Be kind, and come,” Magelone entreated; but with a decided ”I cannot!” Johanna left her and shut herself up in her own room. She could not say to Magelone that she was far less annoyed by Hildegard's hostility than by the prospect of being thrust into a society where she was not welcome.
”If I could but get away!” she thought, as she looked from the window out over the wintry landscape. ”Yes, away, away, if but for an hour!”
she said, aloud. And putting on her wraps, and accompanied by Leo, barking joyously, she hurried out into the park, and thence to the path that led up the mountain from the village into the forest.
Her heart grew lighter in the fresh winter air. She walked on quickly, upwards beneath the snow-laden boughs, upon which the sunlight played in thousands of prisms, and from which the glittering dust came powdering down upon her. At length the sight of the forester's lodge, its windows sparkling in the suns.h.i.+ne, warned her to return.
Since she had come thus far, she would inquire after Johann Leopold's protege. Greeted and accompanied by the barking dogs, she was going towards the door, when close by the house a girl, very poorly clad, with a shawl about her head and shoulders, came out of the thicket. The slender figure stooped low as it pa.s.sed the windows, softly lifted the latch of the house-door, and went in.
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