She thanked him with a
fluttering voice, and resumed her place upon the bench, at the far
end from Otto. 'Now you see,' she said, 'why I bade you keep the
thief at distance, and why I came alone. How I trembled for my
treasure!'
'Madam,' said Otto, with a tearful whimper in his voice, 'spare me!
You are too good, too noble!'
'I wonder to hear you,' she returned. 'You have avoided a great
folly. You will be able to meet your good old peasant. You have
found an excellent investment for a friend's money. You have
preferred essential kindness to an empty scruple; and now you are
ashamed of it! You have made your friend happy; and now you mourn
as the dove! Come, cheer up. I know it is depressing to have done
exactly right; but you need not make a practice of it. Forgive
yourself this virtue; come now, look me in the face and smile!'
He did look at her. When a man has been embraced by a woman, he
sees her in a glamour; and at such a time, in the baffling glimmer
of the stars, she will look wildly well. The hair is touched with
light; the eyes are constellations; the face sketched in shadows - a
sketch, you might say, by passion. Otto became consoled for his
defeat; he began to take an interest. 'No,' he said, 'I am no
ingrate.'
'You promised me fun,' she returned, with a laugh. 'I have given
you as good. We have had a stormy SCENA.
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