"Such a reply should have sufficed you——"
"Not so, my dear Moritz; it was a very convenient and easy answer, and I am sceptical with regard to speaking looks and gestures: I require more. But I show you that my will is good in the matter by repeating again what I said at first: 'Prove to me and to the world that he did his duty well, for you were present!'"
He retreated hastily from the threshold of the door and put his hand over his eyes: the sunlight shining full upon the balcony was insupportable to him. "You know well enough that I cannot do what you ask; I am no surgeon," he replied, in a stifled tone, that was lost in an almost inarticulate murmur.
"Not another word, Moritz," Henriette exclaimed. "Your every attempt to defend him gives some colour to this girl's cowardly indecision." Her large eyes, glowing with internal fever, were riveted with an expression of hatred upon her sister's beautiful face. "It would be best that your cruel designs should attain their end as soon as possible,—to speak plainly, that your evident estrangement should induce him voluntarily to break the bond between you. Your heart, cleaving as it does to mere externals, would be small loss to him; but he loves you, and would rather contract an unhappy marriage, knowing it to be such, than resign you. His whole conduct proves this——"
"Unfortunately," Flora said over her shoulder, by way of interjection.
"And therefore I will stand by him, and defeat your machinations if I can," Henriette concluded, in a louder voice, and with quivering lips.
The glance that Flora here bestowed upon her frail, agitated sister sparkled with cruel scorn, but, as she looked, a startling revelation seemed to dawn upon her; she suddenly put her right arm around Henriette's shoulders, and drew her towards her, as she whispered in her ear, with a sardonic smile, "Why not make him happy yourself, child? You will meet with no opposition from me,—be sure of that."
To such wanton malice can vanity prompt a petted, spoiled, and worshipped woman! Kitty stood near enough to understand the whisper, and, although she had hitherto held herself passively aloof, her eyes now fairly flashed with honest indignation.
Flora saw it. "Just look what a pair of eyes the girl can make! Can you not understand a joke, Kitty?" she asked, half startled, half amused. "I will not harm your petted nursling,—although it really would be well to put a final stop to Henriette's petty malice. These two people," she pointed to the councillor and Henriette, "imagine it their duty to form my morals, and you, our youngest, just out of school, your head filled with crochet, worsted-work, and a few French phrases, side with them against me. You little goose, do you really think yourself capable of passing judgment upon your sister Flora?" She laughed aloud, and pointed to a chestnut-tree, from the boughs of which a white dove was flying. The bird flew high in air, a dazzling point of light. "Look, child, a moment ago it nestled amid the branches among its fellows, now its outspread wings gleam like silver, and it hangs in the blue, lonely firmament a shining spectacle for mortal eyes to gaze upon. Perhaps you may one day stand what thirsting, aspiring soul it resembles. Apropos, Moritz," she suddenly interrupted herself, beckoning the councillor out upon the balcony, "the old barracks that Bruck has just purchased must lie behind that grove,—I see smoke curling above the trees——"
"Simply because there is a fire kindled upon the hearth," the councillor replied, smiling. "The dean's old widow arrived there yesterday."