Volume I Part 34 (1/2)
”_I_ shall retreat, then, sir,--and indeed this is not my place”
She courtesied lowly as to a monarch, but without a shadow of timidity, or sothe flowers, he looking after her strangely, wistfully
”Is not that a Cecilia, Carlomein?”
”If you think so, sir”
”You do not think it? You ought to knoell as I As she is gone, let us go”
And lightly as she fled, he turned back to follow her But we had lost her e ca the flowers, he touched first one and then another of the delicate plants abstractedly, until at length he pulled off one blossom of an eastern jasmine,--a beautiful specimen, white as his own forehead, and of perfuayly, ”I have bereaved the soft sisterhood; but,” he added earnestly, as he held the pale blossoers, ”I wonder whether they are unhappy so far from home I wonder whether they _know_ they are away!”
”I should think not, sir, or they would not blosso, and no reason, O Carlomein! for I have seen such a beautiful soul that ay from home, and it was very homesick; yet it was so fair, so very fair, that it would put out the eye of this little flower”
I could not help saying, or quicklyrather, ”It must be your soul then, sir”
”Is it mine to thee? It is to me another; but that does not spoil thy pretty compliment”
I never heard tones so sweet, so infantine But we had reached the door of the glass cha anxiously--certainly with inquiry--at the sky At that moment it first struck reenness the sun had gone in Si cloud, had fallen upon that brilliant countenance We stepped out into the linden grove, and then it came upon uor had seized upon the fresh young foliage
Both leaves and yellow blossoloom, and I felt the intense lull that precedes an electric shower I looked at him He was entirely pale, and the soft lids of his eyes had dropped,--their lights had gone in like the sun His lips seeitation
”I think it will rain, but we cannot stay in the conservatory”
”Sir, it will be dry there,” I ventured
”No, but if it should thunder”
At the very instant the western cloudland, as it were, shook with a quivering flash, though very far off; for the thunder was, indeed, but a mutter several minutes afterwards But he seemed stricken into stillness, and moved not from the trees at the entrance of the avenue
”Oh! sir,” I cried,--I could not help it, I was in such dread for him,--”do not stand under the trees It is a very little way to the house, and we can run”
”Run, then,” he answered sweetly ”But I cannot; I never could stir in a storinning to prick the leafy calm ”And you will take cold too, sir Oh, come!”
But he seemed as if he could scarcely breathe He pressed his hands on his brow and hid his eyes I thought he was going to faint; and under a vague i assistance, I rushed down the avenue
FOOTNOTE:
[16] The Volkslied is a people's song; the Burschenlied a student's song
CHAPTER xxx