Part 20 (2/2)
”I think I can prevent that.”
With a polite bow the physician replied: ”Faith is supposed to be able to remove mountains. I have great confidence in your faith. But hus.h.!.+”
The piano struck up in the next room. A portly, merry Catholic priest sang with strong tenor voice; and presently the young wife of the Protestant clergyman was persuaded to sing a duet with him.
Joyous songs, sung by sweet voices, floated out into the moonlit summer evening, and all dissension and all misery seemed to be forgotten.
CHAPTER x.x.xIX.
It was a source of vexation to Landolin that the people of rank of the Casino did not notice him; and as their wagon went slowly up the hill, he said to his wife, with unaccustomed tenderness:
”We'll not concern ourselves at all about the world, but be happy in having each other and being together again. n.o.body cares for a man as his own family does.”
His wife looked at him in astonishment, and her careworn face shone in the clear moonlight. She was not used to such affection from Landolin, and she had never known that he felt any need of sympathy.
”Is Thoma ill?” he asked, after a little while.
”No, only frightened, and angry about Anton. She goes around for days without speaking a word; but she works busily, and eats and drinks as usual. To be sure, she doesn't sleep as she should. I made her sleep with me; but she would not lie in your bed, and I had to give her mine.”
”Everything will come around all right now,” said Landolin. For his part, he thought it strange that his wife, contrary to her usual habit, had so much to say; but he wanted to hear more, so he asked:
”Has the prize cow a bull calf?”
”Yes; coal black, with a white star on its forehead, and stout hoofs.
Didn't Peter tell you that we were going to raise it?”
As for Peter, who sat on the front seat driving, his sides shook. He was evidently laughing.
Landolin, who had striven against the temptation, at last yielded, and asked:
”How does Cus.h.i.+on-Kate get along?”
His wife did not answer, and Landolin repeated impatiently, ”Don't you hear me? Didn't you hear what I said? I asked how Cus.h.i.+on-Kate was getting along.”
”Don't scream so! You have changed very much.”
”It's you, not I, that have changed. Why don't you give me an answer?”
”Because I have none to give. Last night Cus.h.i.+on-Kate was not at home.
Early this morning she came back, and lit a fire for the first time in many days. She must have been at the grave yesterday, for the pastor found her red kerchief there, and sent it to her. Since then she has disappeared again; and her goat cries terribly, for it has had no fodder. The poor animal----”
”What do I care for the goat! I don't know how it is--either everybody is crazy or I am crazy myself. Is this my forest? Are those my fields?
To whom do these horses and this wagon belong? Say, am I crazy?”
”If you go on in this way, you'll make both me and yourself so. For G.o.d's sake, don't torment us both! What do you want with Cus.h.i.+on-Kate just now?”
His wife had scarcely uttered these words, when Cus.h.i.+on-Kate rushed out of the forest, and grasped the horse's reins.
<script>