Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/237

237

THE PARTING.

city, in an active and exciting life, among men who
would only ridicule such tears as are now standing in
your eyes. You, with your quiet, simple habits, would
never feel yourself at home in their brilliant circles.
For the son of a hallig, a hallig is the only soil in
which his being can thrive ; nowhere else can he be
happy. And Idalia — the inclination she has shown for
you is merely the excitement of gratitude, a conse-
quence of unusual solitude, the filling up of idle hours,
or at most, an impulse of passion which she could ex-
change as easily as her fashionable dresses."
  Godber colored deeply with mortification at these
words ; and Hold, observing it, took his hand, and said,
  "It humbles your pride that I say this ; it is painful
to you that another should know the fact that you
have over-estimated yourself. But it would rouse your
pride still more to learn it first at her side, when no re-
treat was possible, when you were fastened by a holy
bond to the magic sphere of her brilliant being, and
when you felt yourself uncomfortable then, and she al-
lowed you to perceive that you were only a disagreeable
shadow. And it is not your fault that you have trusted
her honeyed words and flattering ways. It is rather to
your honor that you could be deceived by it. The man
who can say, 'I was never deceived,' has pronounced
judgment against himself ; and I would shun his friend-
ship as much as I would seek that of one whose heart
was bleeding from the wounds inflicted by confidence
betrayed. For this reason, Godber, and because I
promised myself to do so, when in the boat you brought
to restore me to my wife and child, I press myself upon
you, and beg for your full confidence. I will never prove