Part 24 (2/2)
”Yes, yes, Cornelia, the spirit is yours, for you have been the first to awaken it. Lay the head that contains it on your breast, let your hand rest lovingly upon it, and it will disdain heaven and earth, and linger here, here on this one sweet spot forever, forever!”
He stooped and pressed a kiss upon Cornelia's heart. Blus.h.i.+ng deeply, she laid her clasped hands upon his dark hair and raised her eyes in an ecstasy of love. ”Oh, G.o.d, one who had denied thee throughout a whole lifetime must acknowledge thee in such an hour!”
”You pious priestess, priestess of a religion whose blessings I gratefully feel at this moment, shall I tell you how I pray to you,--yes, pray fervently and devoutly? I know that in you I possess the greatest blessing earth can offer, and that I do not deserve it. If I had not found it I should have gone to destruction; but you will lead me back from the exhausted pleasures of the world to pure nature, to truth and simplicity of heart. A new day breaks upon me through you,--an Easter-day,--for in you my better self celebrates its resurrection. Your breath is the fresh air of morning, the dawn glows upon your cheeks, and in your eyes beams the sunrise of a happiness never known before. Come, let me inhale your breath. Ah, youth, purity, and strength emanate from you to revive and cheer!” He again pressed his lips to hers for a moment. ”Now,” he continued, ”the whole man is exclusively and entirely yours, yours forever; do with him whatever you choose, for he has no longer any claim to a life which you alone preserved to him, and which without you would have been lost.”
”What shall, what can, I say to you in return for such words? Not I, but you yourself took the new flight which has made you so dear to me.
What could I be to you? What influence could the few moments we have spent together exert?”
”And if I should ask you the same question, and inquire how you could love me in so short a time, what would you reply?”
”Why, that love and mutual understanding do not depend upon time.”
”The case is precisely the same with me, my child. Years of study and intercourse are not necessary to understand a superior nature. A few traits enable it to be characterized, single extremes allow its full compa.s.s to be measured, and as one accord contains the elements of music, so it can easily reveal to the observer the keynotes of its soul; and you did this. Wherever I struck, it echoed. I know the whole scale of your nature, although a thousand sweet harmonies which may be formed from it are still concealed from me.”
”Tell me, _Heinrich_, how long have you loved me?”
”Since, since--permit me to answer you with the most common of all forms of speech,--since the first time I saw you.”
”Since our meeting in the prison?”
”Yes; I cannot tell you what a powerful impression I received from you.
I was astonished! Your boldness, your disregard of my dignity, your philanthropic enthusiasm, so entirely devoid of all affectation and sentimentality, aroused the greatest admiration, and your beauty excited my love. Had you been merely beautiful, I should only have desired you; but since you showed an equal intellect, I love you, and loved you from the beginning as I never did any other.”
”As you never loved any other?” asked Cornelia. She had seated herself upon the sofa, and he took a chair beside her. She folded her arms upon the little barrier the broad side of the divan formed between them, and they gazed lovingly into each other's eyes.
”As I never loved any other,” repeated _Henri_. ”If you fully realized your own value, you would not look at me so incredulously. You would know that you must be loved differently from the commonplace girls with whom people can only trifle, whose insignificance renders all serious conversation impossible. There is nothing which continues to keep a woman interesting to a man except _originality_; and before I knew you I almost despaired of finding it. The female mind cannot reach the perception of things by the established, endlessly long path marked out for it; it has not sufficient perseverance, cannot keep pace with man.
Most women pause half-way, with the goal before their eyes, but unable to reach it; they then become weary, disgusted with the world, and consume themselves in idle longings, which they at last permit some friend to heal. Others turn into by-paths of fruitless scholars.h.i.+p, and wonder aimlessly to and fro; such persons become utterly disagreeable, a terror to every man, for they enter into a sort of intellectual compet.i.tion with him, which is charmless and a mere waste of time, because there is no true honorable victory to be obtained in such an unequal struggle. The true womanly nature knows the extent of her powers; she does not strive for things too far beyond her, for she cheerfully makes out her own object and builds her own path to it. This unthinking exercise of natural instincts, this radiance of free, pure thought, beaming from a youthful brow, is extremely refres.h.i.+ng, and while I am with you I regret every moment that I cannot philosophize with you about everything in earth or heaven. But the mouth which speaks so wisely is far too sweet, and so my senses are constantly battling with my intellect. I cannot kiss you without wis.h.i.+ng you were talking, and I cannot hear you speak without wanting to kiss you. Is not this an unfortunate contradiction?”
”Ought it not to be harmonized? Cannot people be both sensible and affectionate?” asked Cornelia.
”No, my angel! In your presence I have not the necessary calmness,”
said _Henri_, involuntarily casting down his eyes. ”Clearness of thought requires cool blood; and when I am so near you, when your sweet breath floats over me, and your warm hand rests in mine, my heart throbs violently, and sends the blood so quickly through my veins, that I can think of nothing but you and my ardent love!”
”Oh, do not look at me so fiercely! Your kindling eyes pierce my soul until I cannot help blus.h.i.+ng. You do not know how terribly your glances flash. I do not fear you, but a strange horror overwhelms me when I see you thus. I feel myself a match for the spirit that darts menacing looks from those eyes, and a shudder thrills my soul as the wind rustles gently through the banners before a battle.”
”So you are belligerently disposed towards me, Cornelia?”
”No, indeed; except when you are in your present mood then, I know, I shall often be compelled to uphold my standard against you.”
”And what standard might that be?”
”That of gentleness, truth: in one word, virtue,” she said, simply and firmly.
”Do you think me dest.i.tute of them?”
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