Henriette, when alone with her young sister, was careful never to make the betrothed pair the subject of conversation; but from casual remarks of hers, Kitty had gathered that Flora must at first have shown a passionate affection for her lover.
Doctor Bruck, after serving as regimental surgeon during the Franco-Prussian War, and then remaining for some time in Berlin as assistant to a distinguished surgeon there, had returned to M——, principally in compliance with his aunt's entreaty. There the favourable reputation that had preceded him, and his fine person, had soon made him a popular physician as well as a great social favourite. It was therefore no condescension even on the part of the haughty Flora Mangold to yield him the coveted treasure of her hand. She had herself made decided advances to him in persisting in placing herself under the skilful young doctor's care for a painful sprained ankle; before the ankle had recovered they were betrothed, and the lady was much envied. This was, of course, why she wished to avoid any sudden breach of the engagement, and laid perfidious plans for inducing a gradual termination to it, founded upon mutual decline of affection.
Kitty started up; it was intolerable to her to think that if she remained she must be a witness of this distressing drama,—must see the unhappy man, in spite of his strong affection and efforts to the contrary, thrust forth from the paradise he had dreamed of. No; she sided with Moritz and Henriette. Flora could not and should not break her troth; the whole family must combine to prevent such wretched treachery. What folly so blinded her as thus to induce her to destroy her own happiness! Had she not seen him in his home with his loving foster-mother? Did she not know that the winds of heaven would never be allowed to visit her too roughly if she bestowed upon him the happiness he craved?
Kitty started and covered her face with her hands. It had grown so dark here, so black was the night, that it seemed a fitting time for sinful thoughts to creep into an unguarded soul. She ran across the room and threw wide the door upon the stairs; the large lamp was burning in the hall below, throwing slender rays upwards among the pillars of the gallery, even to her feet, while from the mill itself, the door of which opened at that moment, came the noise of loud voices. Light and sound instantly dissipated the alluring phantoms that were crowding into the young girl's mind. There was the huge whitewashed hall of the castle mill, and from its wall looked down in ghostly dimness out of the worm-eaten black frame the figure, in full armour, of its knightly builder. In former days the picture had terrified her; now it seemed to her an old friend, beckoning her back to reality from a treacherous dream in which she was playing a false part.
She descended the stairs, and left the mill. The night wind of spring refreshed her hot cheeks, and stars filled the clear sky with glittering arabesques. Kitty was ashamed of her idle dreaming; but had it not assailed her like a sudden vertigo which may suddenly attack even the healthiest and strongest of human kind?
From a distance she saw through the trees the glimmer of the lights at the villa; and as she entered the hall-door she was greeted by the sound of the piano. It was a magnificent instrument, but was being shamefully maltreated at present. This was one of the Frau President's reception evenings,—old and young came to take tea,—the elders went to the card-tables, and the young people amused themselves with music and conversation as best pleased them.
Kitty made a hasty toilette, and entered the drawing-room,—the large balconied apartment on the ground-floor. There were but few guests this evening; only one card-table was in demand, and the tea-table, usually surrounded by young ladies, looked lonely and deserted.
Henriette was seated at it, making the tea; again she had scarlet ribbons in her blonde hair, and a sleeveless jacket of the same brilliant colour over a light blue silk dress. Her small, pallid face looked ghostly in so theatric a costume, but her beautiful eyes shone with an almost unearthly fire. "Bruck has come!" she whispered, breathlessly, into Kitty's ear, pointing through the adjoining music-room, where the grand piano was being so punished, towards Flora's study. "Kitty, he really seems grown, so tall and majestic—— Good heavens! do not look 'so sober, steadfast, and demure'!" she hastily interrupted herself. She was strangely agitated. "They are all so cross to-day; Moritz has had a dispatch which has made him absent-minded, and grandmamma is dreadfully out of sorts because her rooms are so empty. But I am so happy,—so happy! Do you know, Kitty, that the day before yesterday, when I had that attack, I really imagined that Bruck would see me next as a corpse? That must not be. I will not die without him!"
It was the first time she had ever spoken to Kitty of dying; and it was well that the fingers scrambling hither and thither over the keys in the music-room seemed just now endowed with fresh energy, and that three elderly gentlemen, standing by the chimney-piece, raised their voices in the ardour of their discussion, for the invalid's last exclamation was loud and passionately uttered. Kitty gave her a warning glance, and the Frau President looked keenly and disapprovingly over her eye-glass towards the tea-table. Henriette instantly controlled herself. "Nonsense! how can any one object to my saying so?" she said, lightly shrugging her shoulders. "No one likes to die alone. One has a physician in order that his presence may inspire with hope even one's last breath."
Kitty understood now perfectly that the sick girl would never return with her to Dresden. She declined the cup of tea which Henriette filled for her with a trembling hand, and drew a small piece of embroidery from her pocket.