Tales for Young and Old | Page 8

stood and looked at her, he felt that he
must save her at all risks. The air he had let in might not be enough; he
would take the charcoal from the stove and throw it out of the window;
but what if she awoke with the noise and screamed? He hesitated a
moment; but he remembered that this would be a safer plan than
leaving the window open, as that might be observed in the morning
from below, and he would thus be betrayed. So, as quietly as possible,
he emptied the stove, and then, having sufficiently aired the room, he
hung on the window again, and retired.
During the whole of these operations Adelaide had remained quite still,
and appeared to be sound asleep. But was she? No. The opening of the
window had awakened her: surprise and terror had at first kept her
silent--a surprise and terror that were by no means diminished by
discovering who the intruder was. Although she had always spoken
kindly to Karl, and even endeavoured, by the amenity of her manner, to
soften his rude nature, she had from the first moment disliked him
exceedingly, and felt his countenance most repulsive; so that, when she
saw him entering her room through the window, she did not doubt that
he was come for some very bad purpose, probably to rob her, although
the booty he was likely to get was small, since her trunks, with all her
valuable property, were nightly placed under Mazzuolo's care for safety.

Still, the little money she carried in her purse, together with her rings
and watch, would be a great deal to so poor a creature; and expecting to
see him possess himself of these, she thought it more prudent to lie still
and feign sleep, than to disturb him. But when she saw that all he came
for was to take the fire out of the stove, she was beyond measure
puzzled to conceive his motive. Could it be a jest? But what a strange
jest! However, he did nothing else; he touched neither her money nor
her watch, though both were lying on the table, but went away as
empty-handed as he came.
The amazement and alarm that so extraordinary a visit necessarily
inspired, drove sleep from her eyes, and it was not till the day dawned
that she so far recovered her composure and sense of safety, as to close
them in slumber. Then, however, fatigue got the better of her
watchfulness, and she gradually sunk into a sound sleep.
In the meantime, Karl, whose unexcitable temperament insured him his
night's rest even under the most agitating circumstances, was in a happy
state of oblivion of the whole affair, when he felt himself shaken by the
shoulder, and heard his uncle say: 'Come, come, rise, and make haste!
The sun is up, and we must get the horses out and be off.'
Karl was as anxious to be off as anybody: the sooner the better for him;
for if Adelaide should awake before they started, he, on the one hand,
dreaded that he might incur his uncle's suspicion, and, on the other, that
some new plot might be formed, which it would be impossible for him
to evade; so, between the exertions of one and the other, the horses
were out, the bill paid, and the carriage at the door, very soon after the
sun had shown his broad disc above the horizon. Tina, in female attire
and a veil, was handed down stairs by Mazzuolo; the waiter stood on
the steps, and bowed, for the landlord was not yet up; they all three
stepped into the carriage; the postilion cracked his whip, and away they
drove rejoicing.
In the meantime, Monsieur Louison had become very uneasy about his
wife. He had received no intelligence since she quitted Dresden; for
although she had, in fact, written more than once, Mazzuolo had not
forwarded the letters. Day after day he had waited in impatient
expectation; till at length, unable to bear his suspense any longer, he
resolved to start on the road she was to come, in the hope of meeting
her. When he reached the gate called the Gozzinger, his carriage was

stopped by a berlin containing two men and a woman. It was loaded
with luggage; and thinking that this might be the party he expected, he
jumped down, and put his head into the window of the berlin, to
ascertain if his wife were there. She was not: so, with a bow and an
apology, he proceeded on his way. At Meitingen he stopped to change
horses; and the first question that was asked him was, if he had seen a
heavily-laden berlin, containing two men and a woman. On answering
in the affirmative,