Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/163

168

THE DISAPPOINTMENT.

      Thou wave-rocked child, of ocean born !
            Poor islet on a stormy sea !
        Though man may pass thee by in scorn,
            An angel loves to dwell with thee.
 
  Godber found these verses on a slip of paper that
was used as a mark im one of the books which Hold had
lent Mander. This simple song must have moved him
powerfully, as the sentiment seemed to be taken from
his own heart. He could scarcely read it without tears,
and would gladly have expressed his thanks to the pas-
tor who alone could have composed it, had not his pres-
ence always inspired him with a sort of timidity. The
concluding line,

      "An angel loves to dwell with thee,"
 
he referred to Idalia, and she was pleased with this, as
his love really made the place pleasant to her, and she
knew that her stay on the hallig could not now last
much longer. She could also enter into his views of
their future life together on his native island, so far as
to conceal from him for a long time the fact that she
saw only dreams in these pictures of a contented, world-
renouncing happiness. Had she for a moment sup-
posed that Godber would hesitate, in the least, as to
the choice between the loss of her or the leaving of his
home she would have drawn back from him with pride,
even with contempt, although perhaps with a wound
in her heart. If she felt herself happier, here on this
naked waste, than she had ever done in the gay world,
she referred this happiness in no way to the miserable
sod, but to her love for the young man whom she be-
lieved indifferent to every thing on earth but herself.