Part 27 (2/2)
”You angel! Look me in the eyes; do you no longer believe in your _Heinrich_, and yet love him still?”
”Ah, _Heinrich_, forgive my distrust! I feared to lose you, because you are the dearest thing in the would to me. I cannot think clearly to-day, I am so bewildered and worn out by grief. How contemptible I must seem to you!”
”If you knew how lovely you are in your weakness! You are not contemptible, you are only a true, tender woman, and therein lies your charm. Do you suppose firm muscles, large bones, and nerves of steel are attractive to men? It is your very helplessness that rouses our magnanimity; your delicacy demands our indulgence. To support a beautiful, trembling woman on his strong arm, and defend her from real or fancied terrors, is a sweet joy to a man,--sweeter than admiration of an abnormal strength, which woman attains only at the cost of her charms.”
Cornelia listened to his words with increasing delight.
”Do you suppose,” he continued, ”that you were ever dearer to me than at this hour, when I am permitted to cradle your weary form upon my knees and fondly caress you? when your strong mind succ.u.mbs to the laws of womanly nature and you fly to me in your horror of death? You have trusted yourself to me more than ever before, and in your sorrow are sacred. You have nestled confidingly to this heart, and it shall never deceive you.”
”_Heinrich_! _Heinrich_ What a magic you exert! You banish all griefs with a single glance of love, and your words fill my soul with peace.
Ah, it is beautiful to love in happiness! But we only know what we are to each other when we need each other. No language can express what you have been to me in this hour. A dark, starry sky arches over me in your eyes and invites me to repose; it extends over my whole soul and seems as if it enthroned the G.o.d to whom I bewail my sorrows, in whom I trust, to whom I shall send up my nightly prayer, and then rest--sleep!” She closed her eyes as if exhausted, and laid her head upon his breast.
_Henri_ clasped her closely in his arms. ”Oh, bear this happiness! bear it firmly!” he murmured to himself.
She sat upright again. ”I cannot lean upon you; your hard orders hurt me.”
”Then rest on the other side,” he pleaded.
She pushed her hair back from her brow, looked sadly at the flas.h.i.+ng decorations, and rose. ”It is late, Heinrich; you must leave me now.”
_Henri_ cursed the diamond stars with sincere vexation. What had they availed him? They had destroyed the happiest moment of his life; and the magic night of love, with all its sweet dreams and illusions, which Cornelia's weary soul had spread around herself and him, had melted in their rays.
He rose and extended his hands imploringly to Cornelia. ”My darling, you shall never again be parted from the place where you belong. I promise you. I shall never wear them in your presence.”
”Ah, yes, put them away; they have hurt my cheek, but wounded my heart still more.”
”Cornelia, are you angry with me?”
”I angry with you? Ah, Heinrich, I love you only too well! Tell me, where is this to end? If I am away from your side a moment, I feel as if the cold breath of the grave floated over me, and a throb of pain thrills my frame as if I had torn away a part of my own nature.
Heinrich,--beloved, terrible Heinrich,--where is this to end?”
”In a happy, ardent love,” cried _Henri_, radiant with joy. ”You shall not miss me often. I will spend every leisure hour with you. But say, my angel, shall you still be accessible to me? Does Veronica's death make no change in your situation?”
”Oh, I had entirely forgotten that. Old Herr Linderer is my guardian, and the executor of Veronica's will. He proposed that I should reside in his family for the future.”
”What! would you do that?” cried _Henri_.
”It would be very painful to me, and I might remain, for through Veronica's generosity the house and everything she possessed is mine; but a young girl ought not to live so entirely alone, without protection.”
”And have you not a moral protection in yourself, and a personal one in your servants?”
”Certainly.”
”That I cannot visit you when you are living with Herr Linderer is a matter of course. Our intercourse must be broken off, for it cannot exist under the watchful eyes of that family; so you have but one choice, my darling,--either to remain here and be the happiest of betrothed brides, or dispense with my society for the sake of a world that will not thank you for the sacrifice.”
Cornelia clung closely to him. ”Do without you? Oh, _Heinrich_, how could I?”
”Well, promise me you will take courage and refuse Linderer's proposal; then, Cornelia, I shall first believe in the strength of your love.”
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