She felt the power within herself to keep spring-time awake in him; so mighty were the wish and will in her. And for her, too, what nameless bliss! What unknown enchantments the future concealed for her in its lap! How she had thrilled at his ardent kisses! Like the evening's glow from golden clouds, a dream-like fire had flowed towards her. She plunged below into the flames, and the flames did not scorch nor burn her, but pressed themselves around her limbs with a hitherto unknown feeling of ecstasy and sweet enchantment.
And yet she became so feverishly hot in that dream! She threw the window open; without, all lay calmly and indifferently in the silvery coolness of the moonlight. The waves broke upon the shore as they had done since the beginning of time, unconcerned in the troubles and joys of men, and only the agonised notes of unperfected music that seemed to quiver convulsively beneath the conductor's bâton, reminded her, as they fell upon her ears from the Kurhans, of human life and her own betrothal feast.
She sat at the window, lost in thought. For simultaneously with the beloved man, another joy entered into her poor life. A touching vision bent over her; her tears flowed lightly.
The mother, who had so long been kept afar from her, was invited. She was sure to come to-morrow; could it have been a betrothal feast without her blessing? In the cold one of her adopted parents lay no charm which should be able to enchain her destiny; but a mother's every silent wish must become a blessing. How would she look now? Oh, to gaze again into those large, touching eyes, to be able to ask her why she had remained so far away from her daughter; to be able to comfort her, if she had endured great sorrow--and certainly she must be unhappy! The wicked world had made her so! All pictures of early childhood rose again before her, dream-like, unconnectedly. Yet from none was her mother's countenance absent. Here they sat in an arbour before a coffee-table, and the mother drove away the wasps which tried to steal the little daughter's cake; there she stood at a door, behind the curtained glass panes of which the lights of a Christmas tree were already gleaming impatiently. She beckoned and called, and all the festive brilliancy which had delighted the child's heart reflected itself in the mother's eyes, and as she embraced the latter, the never-to-be-forgotten tears that she kissed away from those cheeks told her how intensely she was beloved by the only one who watched over her life like the eye of Providence! And again she saw herself in a large park. The mother sat upon a bench, and worked; it was already dusk. Eva could even now still transport herself entirely into the feelings of that time--what fear she was in lest her mother might spoil her beautiful eyes. She cautioned her dear mother, and sprang to the pond close by--the lights of evening flickered--a splendid water lily attracted her--Evchen stooped down to gather it, and sank into the pond. A cry for help--she awoke in her mother's arms, who had torn her quickly as lightning from out the waves. As she opened her eyes, she looked into a face smiling beneath its tears; and often in her dreams appeared her mother's picture, as it had stood before her at that moment.
Infinite yearning, deep emotion, took possession of her; how abundant was her mother's love, and who had parted her from her daughter, wrenched her away from that child's heart? She felt that it was not the mother's will; a dark, spectre-like secret had stepped between the two! Yet separated, even from a distance, the mother watched over her life, reckoning up hour after hour of her present and future, and adding them together in one single divine thought of illimitable love!
Sobbing loudly, she rested her head upon her hand; her eyes did not see the heavens above, nor the wide ocean--only her mother's picture.
Then she suddenly arose; why this sorrow before a day of joy? To-morrow the sun illumines their reunion, to-morrow she gives her troth to the beloved man; she will sleep and dream of all her approaching happiness.
The sounds of music had long been hushed, but through the window rang the thunder of the sea; it increased with the growing storm. The hoarse breaking of the waves rocked Eva to sleep; but it was a sleep full of fear, and a distant angry destiny, into which the noise of the waves was changed, broke menacingly into her dreams.