Othmar

by Ouida

'No,' said Rosselin angrily. 'No one does well who meddles with fate or displaces peaceful ignorance and honest content by unrest and desire. This child was happy on her island. The world may perchance make her famous some day, but happy it will never make her again, for happiness is not amongst its gifts!'

'That is quite true,' said Béthune with a sigh. He asked many more questions, but obtained little information. He waited in vain for Damaris to re-appear. The sun sank, the shadows deepened into dusk over all the vale, the swallows circled in their last flight round the high house roofs. With reluctance he was forced to bid adieu to Rosselin and take his way to the distant château of Dampierre, where he was a guest.

'Salute her for me,' he said at parting. 'Say that I shall return to thank her to-morrow.'

'If you wish to do her any service in return for the help to your horse, do not speak of her at Dampierre or in Paris,' said Rosselin.

'I will not speak of her to anyone,' returned Béthune, 'unless it be to the Countess Othmar. But you will allow me to return.'

'I have no power to forbid you. Yet it is to her that perhaps it would be desirable you should say nothing,' answered Rosselin after a moment of hesitation. 'I merely mean that the Lady of Amyôt did, I believe, prophesy a great career for my pupil, and first of all suggest to her the possible possession of talents the world might recognise. For that reason I think Damaris Bérarde would prefer that she should hear nothing more of her, unless some day the world itself may have justified her predictions.'

'You think it probable, or you would not waste your hours on her?'

'I think she has infinite feeling and a poetic temperament. Whether these are enough remains to be seen. There are so many other qualities required, all those humbler qualities which are the prose of genius, the plain bread of character.'

'She has one requisite, beauty. She is exceedingly handsome. What brought her here?'