Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/122

122THE HALLIG.

over to her, he could not help shrinking back. Grazing
fixedly at her, he was obliged to ask himself : "Is this
heartless, mocking child of enchantment worth a dou-
ble treason ?"
  Idalia stepped proudly back. She was too much ac-
customed to an all-absorbing devotion to inquire of him
sympathizingly what was the matter. Although love
as well as curiosity strongly urged her to ask an ex-
planation of his conduct, he having now thrown him-
self into a chair and covered his eyes with both hands,
yet pique obtained the victory. She seated herself pet-
tishly in another comer, and supporting her head with
her arm, pouting out her delicate lips, pressing her
handkerchief upon her eyes moist with tears, and throw-
ing now and then a hasty stolen glance at Godber, she
played perfectly the part of one in ill humor, as in fact
she really was. At least this had become evident, that
she did not reign so exclusively iu his hearty but that
there was still something in the world which could make
him insensible to the power of her charms ; that her
victory was by no means so complete as she had till now
supposed. And was this agitation of his owing perhaps
to a meeting with Maria ? If this thought was to the
prejudice of her affection, which required from its object
an idolatrous worship as well as a complete surrender
of the heart, it also roused her pride, and through this a
resolution to chain him by every means in her power.
It is true that she did not herself so clearly understand
her own feelings, and attributed this resolution chiefly
to love.
  But Godber seemed to be entirely absent with his own
spirit. Sometimes he brooded over his own thoughts