Even thought must be silenced. I have lived a lifetime
since--" his words began to come very slowly--as she listened she
felt as if he were opening a grave and drawing from its depths
long buried things, "--since the night when I met her alone in a
wood in the park of the Schloss and--lost hold of myself--lost it
utterly."
The Duchess' withered hands caught each other in a clasp which
was almost like a passionate exclamation.
"There was such a night. And I was young--young--not an iron bound
vieillard then. When one is young one's anguish is the Deluge
which ends the world forever. I had lain down and risen up and
spent every hour in growing torture for months. I had been forced
to bind myself down with bands of iron. When I found myself, without
warning, face to face with her, alone in the night stillness of
the wood, the bands broke. She had dared to creep out in secret
to hide herself and her heartbroken terror in the silence and
darkness alone. I knew it without being told. I knew and I went
quite mad for the time. I was only a boy. I threw myself face
downward on the earth and sobbed, embracing her young feet."
Both of them were quite silent for a few moments before he went
on.
"She was not afraid," he said, even with something which was like
a curious smile of tender pity at the memory. "Afterwards--when I
stood near her, trembling--she even took my hand and held it.
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