Part 32 (1/2)

When the Judge laid the affair before the family council, it occasioned a great surprise; on which a general silence ensued, and attractive visions began to swarm before the eyes of the young people, not exactly of the highest Court of Judicature, but of the seat of the same--of the Capital. Louise looked almost like a Counsellor of Justice herself. But when her father had made known his and his wife's feelings on the subject, he read in their tearful eyes grat.i.tude for the confidence he had placed in them, and the most entire acquiescence with his will.

No one spoke, however, till ”the little one”--the father had not said to her, ”Go out for awhile, Gabriele dear;” ”Let her stop with us,” he said, on the contrary, ”she is a prudent little girl!”--no, none spoke till Gabriele threw her arms about her mother's neck, and exclaimed, ”Ah, don't let us go away from here--here we are so happy!”

This exclamation was echoed by all.

”Well, then, here we remain, in G.o.d's name!” said the Judge, rising up and extending his arms, with tears in his eyes, towards the beloved circle. ”Here we remain, children! But this shall not prevent your seeing Stockholm, and enjoying its pleasures and beauties! I thank G.o.d, my children, that you are happy here; it makes me so, too. Do you understand that?”

On this day, for the first time after a long interval, Leonore dined with the family. Everybody rejoiced on that account; and as her countenance had a brighter and more kindly expression than common, everybody thought her pretty. Eva, who had directed and a.s.sisted her toilet, rejoiced over her from the bottom of her heart.

”Don't you see, Leonore,” said she, pointing up to heaven, where light blue openings were visible between clouds, which for the greater part of the day had poured down rain--”don't you see it is clearing up, Leonore?

and then we will go out together, and gather flowers and fruit.” And as she said this her blue eyes beamed with kindness and the enjoyment of life.

”What, in all the world, are these doing here?” asked Henrik, as he saw his mother's shoes standing in the window in the pale suns.h.i.+ne; ”they ought to be warmed, I fancy, and the sun has no desire to come out and do his duty. No, in this case, I shall undertake to be sun!”

”That you are to me, my summer-child!” said the mother, smiling affectionately as she saw Henrik had placed her shoes under his waistcoat, to warm them on his breast.

”My sweet Louise!” exclaimed Jacobi, ”you can't think what lovely weather it is! Should we not take a little walk? You come with us? You look most charming--but, in heaven's name, not in the Court-preacher!”

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Thomas Thorild, born 1759, died 1808, an eminent Swedish poet.

PART III.

CHAPTER I.

LEONORE TO EVA.

”And so you are coming home? Coming really home soon, sweet Eva? Ah! I am so happy, so joyful on that account, and yet a little anxious: but don't mind that; come, only come, and all will be right! When I can only look into your eyes, I feel that all will be clear. Your good eyes!--Gabriele and I call them 'our blue ones'--how long it is that I have not seen you--two long years! I cannot conceive, dear Eva, how I have lived so long without you; but then it is true that we have not been in reality separated. I have accompanied you into the great world; I have been with you to b.a.l.l.s and concerts; I have enjoyed with you your pleasures and the homage which has been paid to you. Ah! what joy for me that I have learned to love you! Since then I have lived twofold, and felt myself so rich in you! And now you are coming back; and then, shall we be as happy as before?

”Forgive, forgive this note of interrogation! But sometimes a disquiet comes over me. You speak so much of the great world, of joys and enjoyments, which--it is not in home to afford you. And your grand new acquaintance--ah, Eva! let them be ever so agreeable and interesting, they would not love you as we do, as I do! And then this Major R----! I am afraid of him, Eva. It appears to me the most natural thing in the world that he should love you, but--ah, Eva! it grieves me that you should feel such affection for him. My dear, good Eva, attach yourself not too closely to him before--but I distress you, and that I will not.

Come, only come to us; we have so much to talk to you about, so much to hear from you, so much to say to you!

”I fancy you will find the house yet more agreeable than formerly; we have added many little decorations to it. You will again take breakfast with us--that comfortable meal, and my best-beloved time; and tea with us--your favourite hour, in which we were a.s.sembled for a merry evening, and were often quite wild. This morning I took out your breakfast-cup, and kissed that part of the edge on which the gold was worn off.

”We will again read books together, and think about and talk about them together. We will again go out together and enjoy all the freshness and quiet of the woods. And would it not be a blessed thing to wander thus calmly through life, endeavouring to improve ourselves, and to make all those around us happier; to admire the works of G.o.d, and humbly to thank Him for all that he has given to us and others? Should we not then have lived and flourished enough on earth? Truly I know that a life quiet as this might not satisfy every one; neither can it accord with all seasons of life. Storms will come;--even I have had my time of unrest, of suffering, and of combat. But, thank G.o.d! that is now past, and the sensibility which destroyed my peace is now become as a light to my path; it has extended my world; it has made me better: and now that I no longer covet to enjoy the greater and stronger pleasures of life, I learn now, each pa.s.sing day, to prize yet higher the treasures which surround me in this quiet every-day life. Oh, no one can be happy on earth till he has learned the worth of little things, and to attend to them! When once he has learned this, he may make each day not only happy, but find in it cause of thankfulness. But he must have peace--peace both within himself and without himself; for peace is the sun in which every dewdrop of life glitters!

”Would that I could but call back peace into a heart which--but I must prepare you for a change, for a great void in the house. You will not find Petrea here. You know the state of things which so much distressed me for some time. It would not do to let it go on any longer either for Louise or Jacobi's sake, or yet for her own, and therefore Petrea must go, otherwise they all would have become unhappy. She herself saw it; and as we had tidings of Jacobi's speedy arrival here, she opened her heart to her parents. It was n.o.ble and right of her, and they were as good and prudent as ever; and now our father has gone with her to his friend Bishop B. May G.o.d preserve her, and give her peace! I shed many tears over her; but I hope all may turn out well. Her lively heart has a fresh-flowing fountain of health in it; and certainly her residence in the country, which she likes so much, new circ.u.mstances, new interests----

”I was interrupted: Jacobi is come! It is a good thing that Petrea is now whiling away her time in the shades of Furudal; good for her poor heart, and good too for the betrothed pair, who otherwise could not have ventured to have been happy in her presence. But now they are entirely so.

”Now, after six years' long waiting, sighing, and hoping, Jacobi sees himself approaching the goal of his wishes--marriage and a parsonage!

And the person who helps him to all this, to say nothing of his own individual deserts, is his beloved patron the excellent Excellency O----. Through his influence two important landed-proprietors in the parish of Great T. have been induced to give their votes to Jacobi, who, though yet young, has been proposed; and thus he will receive one of the largest and most beautiful livings in the bishopric, and Louise will become a greatly honoured pastor's wife--'provost's wife' she herself says prophetically.