Part 32 (2/2)

And now she hears it. Like an angel's voice does it sound in her ear. He calls her name, he reaches his hand out to her, and says with infinite, touching gentleness, ”Give me your hand, Elise. Come here to me, my child--it is so long since I have seen you!”

She turned to him, and yet she dared not look upon him. Seizing his offered hand, she pressed it to her lips. ”And do you remember that you have been so long absent? You have not then forgotten me?”

”Forgot you!” cried her father tenderly; and then immediately, as if ashamed of this outburst of fatherly love, he added calmly and almost sternly--”I have much to talk with you, Elise. You have accused me.”

Elise interrupted him with anxious haste: ”I was beside myself,” said she, confused and bashfully. ”Forgive me, my father; pa.s.sion made me unjust.”

”No, it only developed what lay hidden in your heart,” said Gotzkowsky; and the recollection of that unhappy hour roughened his voice, and filled his heart with sadness. ”For the first time, you were candid with me. I may have been guilty of it all, but still it hurts!” For a moment he was silent, and sank his head on his breast, completely overpowered by painful reminiscences.

Elise answered nothing, but the sight of his pale and visibly exhausted countenance moved her to tears.

When Gotzkowsky raised his head again, his face had resumed its usual determination and energy. ”We will talk over these things another time,” said he seriously. ”Only this one thing, remember. I will not restrain you in any way, and I have never done so. You are mistress of every thing that belongs to me except my honor. This I myself must keep unsullied. As a German gentleman I cannot bring the dishonor upon me of seeing my daughter unite herself to the enemy of my country--to a Russian. Choose some German man: whoever he may he, I will welcome him whom you love as my son, and renounce the wishes and plans I have so long entertained. But never will I give my consent to the union of my only child with a Russian.”

While he spoke the expression of the countenance of both changed surprisingly. Both evinced determination, defiance, and anger, and the charm which love had laid for a moment on their antagonistic souls was destroyed. Gotzkowsky was no longer the tender father, easily appeased by a word, but the patriot injured in his holiest right, his most delicate sense of honor. Elise was no longer the humble, penitent daughter, but a bride threatened with the loss of her lover.

”You would, then, never give your consent?” asked she, pa.s.sionately.

”But if this war were ended, if Russia were no longer the enemy of Germany; if--”

”Russia remains ever the enemy of Germany, even if she does not appear against her in the open field. It is the antagonism of despotic power against culture and civilization. Never can the free German be the friend of the barbarous Sclavonian. Let us hear nothing more of this--you know my mind; I cannot change it, even if you should, for that reason, doubt my love. True love does not consist only in granting, but still more in denying.”

Elise stood with bowed head, and murmured some low, unintelligible words. Gotzkowsky felt that it would be better for both to break off this conversation before it had reached a point of bitterness and irritation. At the same time he felt that, after so much excitement, his body needed rest. He, therefore, approached his daughter and extended his hand toward her for a friendly farewell. Elise seized it, and pressed it with pa.s.sionate feeling to her lips. He then turned round and traversed the room on the way to his bedchamber.

Elise looked after him with painful longing, which increased with each step he took. As he was in the act of leaving the room she rushed after him, and uttered in a tone of gentle pleading, the single word, ”Father!”

Gotzkowsky felt the innermost chord of his heart touched. He turned round and opened his arms to her. With a loud cry of joy she threw herself on his breast, and rested there for a moment in happy, self-forgetting delight. They looked at one another, and smilingly bade each other good-by. Again Gotzkowsky turned his steps toward his bedroom. And now he was gone; she saw him no more. Father and daughter were separated.

But Elise felt an unutterable grief in her heart, a boundless terror seized her. It seemed as if she could not leave her father; as if it would be a disgrace for her, so secretly, like a criminal, to sneak out of her father's house, were it even to follow her lover to the altar. She felt as if she must call her father back, cling to his knees, and implore him to save her, to save her from her own desires.

Already had she opened her lips, and stretched forth her arms, when she suddenly let them fall, with a shudder.

She had heard the loud rolling of a carriage, and she knew what it meant. This carriage which stopped at her door--could it be the one in which Feodor had come to take her? ”It is too late--I cannot go back,”

muttered she low, and with drooping head she slowly left her father's room in order to repair to her own chamber.

CHAPTER XV.

THE RIVALS.

Elise, immediately on reaching her room, hurried to the window and looked into the street, already darkened by the shades of evening. She was not mistaken--a carriage stood at the door; but to her surprise, she did not perceive the signal agreed on, she did not hear the post-horn blow the Russian air, ”Lovely Minka, I must leave thee.” Nor was it the appointed hour; neither did her chambermaid, who waited in the lower story, come to seek her. She still stood at the window, and involuntarily she felt herself worried by this equipage. A sharp knocking at the door was heard. Before she had time to come to any determination, it was hastily opened, and Bertram entered with a lady, deeply veiled, on his arm.

”Bertram!” cried Elise, drawing back shyly. ”What do you wish here?”

”What do I wish here?” answered Bertram, earnestly. ”I come to ask a favor of my sister. I have promised this lady that she shall see and speak with you. Will my sister fulfil her brother's promise?”

”What does the lady wish with me?” asked Elise, casting a timid look toward the mysterious veiled figure.

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