In the palpitating light one could see fantastic cloud pictures, forms
which seemed to struggle and battle with one another as if borne by
force before the storm, and yet the cloud-mountain stood immovable on
the far horizon; and just as immovable stood the man upon whose dark
countenance the lightning flash revealed a deep pallor.
His eyes had not turned from the young wife's face, but the wild glow
within them was extinguished, and his voice had a strange sound as he
said:
"And this is the sentence for which I begged. I am then, in your eyes
nothing more than a--reprobate?"
"A lost man, perhaps--you have forced me to this avowal."
Hartmut stepped slowly back a few steps.
"Lost," he repeated in bitter tone. "That is probably what you think.
You may be at rest, my dear madam. I will never approach you again; one
has no desire to hear such words a second time. You stand so proud and
firm upon your watch tower of virtue and judge so severely. You have no
conception what a wild, desperate life can make of a man who goes
through the world without home or family. You are right. I believed in
nothing in the heavens above or on the earth beneath--until this hour."
There was something in his tone and in his whole bearing which disarmed
Adelheid.
She felt she had no cause to fear a further explosion of passion, and
her voice grew milder as she answered:
"I judge no one, but I belong heart and soul to another world, with
other laws than yours.
Pages:
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259