The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. II | Page 8

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hearts in the same point. Let us bear them together, since we neither of
us can press our own against the other."
"We are strange creatures," said Edward, smiling. "If we can only put
out of sight anything which troubles us, we fancy at once we have got
rid of it. We can give up much in the large and general; but to make
sacrifices in little things is a demand to which we are rarely equal. So it
was with my mother,--as long as I lived with her, while a boy and a
young man, she could not bear to let me be a moment out of her sight.
If I was out later than usual in my ride, some misfortune must have
happened to me. If I got wet through in a shower, a fever was inevitable.
I traveled; I was absent from her altogether; and, at once, I scarcely
seemed to belong to her. If we look at it closer," he continued, "we are
both acting very foolishly, very culpably. Two very noble natures, both
of which have the closest claims on our affection, we are leaving
exposed to pain and distress, merely to avoid exposing ourselves to a
chance of danger. If this is not to be called selfish, what is? You take
Ottilie. Let me have the Captain; and, for a short period, at least, let the
trial be made."
"We might venture it," said Charlotte, thoughtfully, "if the danger were
only to ourselves. But do you think it prudent to bring Ottilie and the
Captain into a situation where they must necessarily be so closely
intimate; the Captain, a man no older than yourself, of an age (I am not
saying this to flatter you) when a man becomes first capable of love and
first deserving of it, and a girl of Ottilie's attractiveness?"
"I cannot conceive how you can rate Ottilie so high," replied Edward.
"I can only explain it to myself by supposing her to have inherited your
affection for her mother. Pretty she is, no doubt. I remember the
Captain observing it to me, when we came back last year, and met her
at your aunt's. Attractive she is,--she has particularly pretty eyes; but I
do not know that she made the slightest impression upon me."
"That was quite proper in you," said Charlotte, "seeing that I was there;
and, although she is much younger than I, the presence of your old
friend had so many charms for you, that you overlooked the promise of
the opening beauty. It is one of your ways; and that is one reason why it

is so pleasant to live with you."
Charlotte, openly as she appeared to be speaking, was keeping back
something, nevertheless; which was that at the time when Edward came
first back from abroad, she had purposely thrown Ottilie in his way, to
secure, if possible, so desirable a match for her protégée. For of herself,
at that time, in connection with Edward, she never thought at all. The
Captain, also, had a hint given to him to draw Edward's attention to her;
but the latter, who was clinging determinately to his early affection for
Charlotte, looked neither right nor left, and was only happy in the
feeling that it was at last within his power to obtain for himself the one
happiness which he so earnestly desired; and which a series of incidents
had appeared to have placed forever beyond his reach.
They were on the point of descending the new grounds, in order to
return to the castle, when a servant came hastily to meet them, and,
with a laugh on his face, called up from below, "Will your grace be
pleased to come quickly to the castle? The Herr Mittler has just
galloped into the court. He shouted to us, to go all of us in search of
you, and we were to ask whether there was need; 'whether there is
need,' he cried after us, 'do you hear? But be quick, be quick.'"
"The odd fellow," exclaimed Edward. "But has he not come at the right
time, Charlotte? Tell him, there is need,--grievous need. He must alight.
See his horse taken care of. Take him into the saloon, and let him have
some luncheon. We shall be with him immediately."
"Let us take the nearest way," he said to his wife, and struck into the
path across the churchyard, which he usually avoided. He was not a
little surprised to find here, too, traces of Charlotte's delicate hand.
Sparing, as far as possible, the old monuments, she had contrived to
level it, and lay it carefully out, so as to make it appear a pleasant spot
on which the eye and the imagination could equally repose with
pleasure.