Soon all revolved in merry dance. Blanden opened the ball with Giulia, and then stood thoughtfully for some time, leaning against a pillar of the radiated arch; he thought of the other dance beneath the pear tree, and the pale shadow of his lovely Eva mingled in the rows of the dancers. She had pledged him in the unalloyed bliss of youth; this woman brought the rapture of passion. But he felt that with her came a rent in his life. The gay company assembled, from which the most distinguished ladies of the neighbourhood were absent, the coldness of the members of his party in the capital, all proved to him that he had once more rendered it impossible to take a firm foothold in his home, and to attain a higher position in political life by any recognised influence; but it was only a transient heretical thought! There she stood before him in all her beauty, a fascinating woman! Her eyes gleamed with promise; dancing had brought a warmer colour to the marble of her features; her bosom heaved with sweet excitement, she appeared like a breathing statue of a goddess! A lamp shone in the pavilion! myrtles and oranges shed their perfume; the stars of Italy gazed sparklingly down from the deep blue sky! He encircled her firmly with his arms, and sped to a wild measure through the old hall. Giulia was in her brightest mood, she would and did forget everything that was painful and hostile in her life; she chatted more pleasantly than ever before, and had a friendly winning word for every one; a roguish smile played around her lips, as she said to Blanden--
"I cannot realise that I shall never more stand behind the piano; never more look down upon my worthy conductor's bald head when he wields his bâton, or into the manager's complacent countenance after a well-paying house; that Dr. Schöner will never more arrange a poetical nosegay for my vase; no Spiegeler cause me sleepless nights by the stings of his wasps and bees. But away with all laurel wreaths! Without, in the theatrical world, the echo of my name will not yet have quite died away, and when it is dead, it will no longer trouble the memory of the world to come, which will be inundated with many more."
Kuhl, the heathen, who had just performed a wild round dance with the orange-perfumed Italian, in which he had squeezed Iduna's hands with more fervour than the requirements of the dance demanded, now turned to Giulia and began a battle of words with her upon which she readily entered. Kuhl had only seen her as Blanden's nurse, when wounded, and spoken to her in a serious manner; her happy mood stirred him strangely, but was doubly attractive, and he could not leave her side while Blanden was enjoying a dance with Olga.
"Excuse me, Signora," suddenly said Cäcilie's somewhat sharp voice. "Look here, my friend! I only wish to tell you that there must now be an end of polytheism, and that you shall neither worship the slight Italian marble goddess nor plump Iduna with her apples of eternal youth, neither one of Raffael's nor Ruben's beauties. Look this way my friend! I am now your Alpha and Omega, as the Bible says. I have now a right to you, and shall know how to assert it."
Kuhl listened to the conjugal lecture; sadly he then took up his club, which had been propped against a pillar, and leaning upon it, pondered over the fate which even the most irrefutable theories find in life's irksome custom. He resigned himself to the melancholy conviction that he, the Hercules of free love, had, after all, allowed his Dejanira to charm him into a Nessus shirt.
Dancing and enjoyment lasted until late into the night, then the guests retired to their chambers. Blanden accompanied his betrothed to the carved oak door of her apartment, and left her with an ardent kiss and the whispered words, "Until to-morrow!"
Beate, who had danced bravely and made a slight conquest of a young lawyer, was so fatigued that she had thrown herself, half undressed, upon the bed in her room, which was situated behind Giulia's, and had fallen into a sound sleep.
Giulia was still in her sitting-room--she gazed into the moonlit park; high into the air the fountain cast its stream of silver, gently around the trees quivered that dreamy light which rocks the soul with vague forebodings.
Dance, wine, love had intoxicated her. Was not the world so beautiful, life so happy!
She longed to rejoice, like the ray of water springing up towards the skies!