Volume I Part 35 (1/2)
”Dear master, I would not have come without your leave But you know very well I could not refuse this gentleman, because he is a friend of yours, and you said yourself we must all obey him”
”Whippersnapper and dandiprat! I never said such words to _thee_ I regard him too much to inform such as thou with obedience Thou hast, I can see very clearly, made aith all his spirit by thy frivolities, and I especially co such as he up the hill in this heat There are no such things as coaches in the Kell Platz, I suppose, or have the horses taken a holiday too?”
”Stop, stop, Aronach! for though I aer than he, and I brought hied him thither too, for I don't like your coaches And it is I who ought to beg pardon for taking him from work he likes so much better than any play, as he told ht ask hilish friends, hom he is better acquainted than I a anecdotes!”
At the utterance of this small white fib I was almost in fits; but he still went on,--
”I know I have done very wrong, and I was an idle boy to te truant to-day And, dearest master,”--here his sweet, sweet voice was retrieved froayety,--”do letYou have not toldtiet back before bed-ti and rest, if you can, until I shall be free; for I shall never empty my hands while you are by”
Aronach did not say ”thou” here, I noticed, and his voice was even courteous, though he still preserved his stateliness Like a boy, indeed, Seraphael laid hold of ain I cannot express the nation of the worthies we left in there at such sportiveness They all stood firm, and in truth they _were_ all older, both in body and soul, than we But no sooner e outside than he began to laugh, and he laughed so that he had to lean against the wall I laughed too; it was a ious spell
”Now, Carl,” he said, ”very Carlomein! ill make a tour of discovery I declare I don't knohere I a ladies' bedroos are carried on here”
We turned this way and that way, he running down all the passages and trying the very doors; but these were all locked
”Oh!” he exclaimed, vivaciously, ”they are, I suppose, too fine;” and then we explored farther One end of the corridor was screened by a large oaken door froe of rooms, and not without difficulty we effected an entrance, for the key, although in the lock, was rusty, and no joke to turn Here, again, were doors, right and left; here also all was hidden under lock and key that they ht be supposed to contain; but we did at last discover a curious hole at the end, which we did not take for a roo opened the door, which was latched, and not especially convenient
However, before we advanced I had ventured, ”Sir, perhaps some one is in there, as it is not fastened up”
”I shall not kill theerness Then with the old sweetness, ”You are very right, I will knock; but I knoill be knocking to nobody”
He had then touched the panel with his delicate knuckles; no voice had answered, and with a mirthful look he lifted the latch and we both entered It was a sight that surprised me; for a most desolate prison-cell could not have been darker Theought not to be so nah its lack-lustrous green glass There was no furniture at all, except a very narrow bed,--looking harder than Lenhart Davy's, but wearing none of that air of his There was a closet, as I ed to discover in a niche, but no chest, no stove; in fact, there was nothing suggestive at all, except one solitary picture, and that hung above the bed and looked down into it, as it were, to protect and bless I felt I know not hohen I saw it then and there; for it hat picture do you think? A copy of the verywalls It was fresher, newer, in this instance, but it had no gold or carven frae with fair blue ribbon only, beautifully stitched, and suspended by it too Above the graceful tie isted one long branch of lately-gathered linden blossoive an air of heaven to the close little cell; it was even as flowers upon a tohs and smiles of immortality where the mortal has passed forever!
”Oh, sir!” I said, and I turned to him,--for I knew his eyes were attracted thither,--”oh, sir! do you knohose portrait that is? For my master has it, and I never dared to ask him; and the others do not know”
”It is a picture of the little boy who played truant and tempted another little boy to play truant too”
And then, as he replied, I wondered I had not thought of such a possibility; for looking from one to the other, I could not now but trace a certain definite reselets and the profuse dark curls wherein the elder's strength almost seemed to hide,--so sanization
”Now, sir, do coo”
He was standing abstractedly by that narrow bed, and looked as sad, as troubled, as in the i thunder-cloud; but he rallied just as suddenly
”Yes, yes; we had better go, or she ular prescience daunted me,--how could he tell it was _her_ very room? But e cahtness, which was not banished thence, that there was a kind of li upon those hills
We threaded our way downstairs again,--for he see to explore farther,--and I wondered where he would lead me next, e met Milans-Andre in the hall The Chevalier blushed even as an angry virgin on beholding him, but still , Chevalier? At the Furstin Haus?”
”I a back to Lorbeerstadt to sleep, and to-, and then to ht you would have supped with me, and I could have a little initiated you But if you are really returning to Lorbeerstadt, pray usein the yard”
”You are only too areatest pleasure”
Oh! how black did Andre look when Seraphael laid that small, delicate stress upon the ”we;” for I knew the invitation intended his colleague, and included no one else But the other evidently took it all for granted; and again thanking hiayety, ran out into the court-yard, and cried to e