Part 22 (1/2)
”You mock me,” exclaimed Gentz, smiling, ”and yet you know the maiden's a.s.surance would not prove true in our case, and that there is something rendering such a happiness, the prospect of calling you my wife, an utter impossibility. Unfortunately, you are no Christian, Marianne.
Hence I cannot marry you.” [Footnote: Marriages between Christians and Jews were prohibited in the German states at that period.]
”And if I were a Christian?” she asked in a sweet, enchanting voice.
He fixed his eyes with a searching glance upon her smiling, charming face.
”What!” he asked, in evident embarra.s.sment. ”If you were a Christian?
What do you mean, Marianne?”
”I mean, Frederick, that, I have given the highest proof of my love to the man who loves me so ardently, constantly, and faithfully. For his sake I have become a Christian, Yesterday I was baptized. Now, my friend, I ask you once more, I ask you as a Christian woman: Gentz, will you marry me? Answer me honestly and frankly, my friend! Remember that it is 'the beloved of your heart and of your enthusiasm,' as you called me yourself a few moments ago, who now stands before you and asks for a reply. Remember that this moment will be decisive for our future--speedily, nay, immediately decisive. For you see I have removed all obstacles. I have become a Christian, and I tell you I am ready to become your wife in the course of the present hour. Once more, then, Gentz, will you marry me?”
He had risen and paced the room in great excitement. Marianne followed him with a lurking glance and a scornful smile, but when he now stepped back to her, she quickly a.s.sumed her serious air.
”Marianne,” he said, firmly, ”you want to know the truth, and I love you too tenderly to conceal it from you. I will not, must not, cannot marry you. I WILL not, because I am unable to bear once more the fetters of wedded life. I MUST not, because I should make you unhappy and wretched.
I CANNOT, while, doing so, I should act perfidiously toward a friend of mine, for you know very well that the Prince von Reuss is my intimate friend.”
”And _I_ am his mistress. You wished to intimate that to me by your last words, I suppose?”
”I wished to intimate that he loves you boundlessly, and he is a generous, magnanimous man, whose heart would break if any one should take you from him.”
”For the last time, then: you will not marry me?”
”Marianne, I love you too tenderly--I cannot marry you!”
Marianne burst into a fit of laughter. ”A strange reason for rejecting my hand, indeed!” she said. ”It is so original that in itself it might almost induce me to forgive your refusal. And yet I had counted so firmly and surely upon your love and consent that I had made already the necessary arrangements in order that our wedding might take place to-day. Just look at me, Gentz. Do you not see that I wear a bridal-dress?”
”Your beauty is always a splendid bridal-dress for you, Marianne.”
”Well said! But do you not see a myrtle-wreath, my bridal-wreath, on the table there? Honi soit qui mal y pense! The priest is already waiting for the bride and bridegroom in the small chapel, the candles on the altar are lighted, every thing is ready for the ceremony. Well, we must not make the priest wait any longer. So you decline being the bridegroom at the ceremony? Well, attend it, then, as a witness. Will you do so?
Will you a.s.sist me as a faithful friend, sign my marriage-contract, and keep my secret?”
”I am ready to give you any proof of my love and friends.h.i.+p,” said Gentz, gravely.
”Well, I counted on you,” exclaimed Marianne, smiling, ”and, to tell you the truth, I counted on your refusal to marry me. Come, give me your arm. I will show you the same chapel which the Prince von Reuss has caused to be fitted up here in the building of the Austrian emba.s.sy.
The servants will see nothing strange in our going there, and I hope, moreover, that we shall meet with no one on our way thither. At the chapel we shall perhaps find Prince Henry--that will be a mere accident, which will surprise no one. Come, a.s.sist me in putting on this long black mantilla which will entirely conceal my white silk dress. The myrtle-wreath I shall take under my arm so that no one will see it. And now, come!”
”Yes, let us go,” said Gentz, offering his arm to her. ”I see very well that there is a mystification in store for me, but I shall follow you wherever you will take me, to the devil or--”
”Or to church,” she said, smiling. ”But hush now, so that no one may hear us.”
They walked silently through the rooms, then down a long corridor, and after descending a narrow secret staircase, they entered a small apartment where three gentlemen were waiting for them.
One of them was a Catholic priest in his vestments, the second the Prince von Reuss, Henry XIII., and the third the first attache of the Austrian emba.s.sy.
The prince approached Marianne, and after taking her hand he saluted Gentz in the most cordial manner.
”Every thing is ready,” he said; ”come, Marianne, let me place the wreath on your head.”