Volume Ii Part 2 (1/2)
”Come along, then,” said the goblin.
They proceeded for a short time in silence along the corridors of the old castle. They carried no candle, but the baron noticed that everything seemed perfectly light wherever they stood, but relapsed into darkness as soon as they had pa.s.sed by. The goblin spoke first.
”I say, baron, you've been an uncommon old brute in your time, now, haven't you?”
”H'm,” said the baron, reflectively; ”I don't know. Well, yes, I rather think I have.”
”How jolly miserable you've been making those two young people, you old sinner! You know who I mean.”
”Eh, what? You know that, too?” said the baron.
”Know it; of course I do. Why, bless your heart, I know everything, my dear boy. But you _have_ made yourself an old tyrant in that quarter, considerably. Ar'n't you blus.h.i.+ng, you hard-hearted old monster?”
”Don't know, I'm sure,” said the baron, scratching his nose, as if that was where he expected to feel it. ”I believe I have treated them badly, though, now I come to think of it.”
At this moment they reached the door of Bertha's chamber The door opened of itself at their approach.
”Come along,” said the goblin; ”you won't wake her. Now, old flinty-heart, look there.”
The sight that met the baron's view was one that few fathers could have beheld without affectionate emotion. Under ordinary circ.u.mstances, however, the baron would not have felt at all sentimental on the subject, but to-night something made him view things in quite a different light.
I shouldn't like to make affidavit of the fact, but it's my positive impression that he sighed.
Now, my dear reader, don't imagine I'm going to indulge your impertinent curiosity with an elaborate description of the sacred details of a lady's sleeping apartment. _You're_ not a fairy, you know, and I don't see that it can possibly matter to you whether fair Bertha's dainty little bottines were tidily placed on a chair by her bedside, or thrown carelessly, as they had been taken off, upon the hearth-rug, where her favorite spaniel reposed, warming his nose in his sleep before the last smouldering embers of the decaying fire; or whether her crinoline--but if she did wear a crinoline, what can that possibly matter to you?
All I shall tell you is, that everything looked snug and comfortable; but, somehow, any place got that look when Bertha was in it.
And now a word about the jewel in the casket--pet Bertha herself.
Really, I'm at a loss to describe her. How do you look when you're asleep?--Well, it wasn't like _that_; not a bit! Fancy a sweet girl's face, the cheek faintly flushed with a soft, warm tint, like the blush in the heart of the opening rose, and made brighter by the contrast of the snowy pillow on which it rested; dark silken hair, curling and cl.u.s.tering lovingly over the tiniest of tiny ears, and the softest, whitest neck that ever mortal maiden was blessed with; long silken eyelashes, fringing lids only less beautiful than the dear earnest eyes they cover. Fancy all this, and fancy, too, if you can, the expression of perfect goodness and purity that lit up the sweet features of the slumbering maiden with a beauty almost angelic, and you will see what the baron saw that night. Not quite all, however, for the baron's vision paused not at the bedside before him, but had pa.s.sed on from the face of the sleeping maiden to another face as lovely, that of the young wife, Bertha's mother, who had, years before, taken her angel beauty to the angels.
The goblin spoke to the baron's thought. ”Wonderfully like her, is she not, baron?” The baron slowly inclined his head.
”You made her very happy, didn't you?”
The tone in which the goblin spoke was harsh and mocking.
”A faithful husband, tender and true! She must have been a happy wife, eh, baron?”
The baron's head had sunk upon his bosom. Old recollections were thronging into his awakened memory. Solemn vows to love and cherish somewhat strangely kept. Memories of bitter words and savage oaths showered at a quiet and uncomplaining figure, without one word in reply.
And, last, the memory of a fit of drunken pa.s.sion, and a hasty blow struck with a heavy hand. And then of three months of fading away; and last, of her last prayer--for her baby and him.
”A good husband makes a good father, baron. No wonder you are somewhat chary of rashly intrusting to a suitor the happiness of a sweet flower like this. Poor child! it is hard, though, that she must think no more of him she loves so dearly. See! she is weeping even in her dreams. But you have good reasons, no doubt. Young Carl is wild, perhaps, or drinks, or gambles, eh? What! none of these? Perhaps he is wayward and uncertain; and you fear that the honeyed words of courts.h.i.+p might turn to bitter sayings in matrimony. They do, sometimes, eh, baron? By all means guard her from such a fate as that. Poor, tender flower! Or who knows, worse than that, baron! Hard words break no bones, they say, but angry men are quick, and a blow is soon struck, eh?”
The goblin had drawn nearer and nearer, and laid his hand upon the baron's arm, and the last words were literally hissed into his ears.
The baron's frame swayed to and fro under the violence of his emotion.
At last, with a cry of agony, he dashed his hands upon his forehead. The veins were swollen up like thick cords, and his voice was almost inarticulate in its unnatural hoa.r.s.eness.
”Tortures! release me! Let me go, let me go and do something to forget the past, or I shall go mad and die!”