Robert did not conceal this from Else, though he endeavoured to find
softening expressions. But oratorical caution does not deceive a woman
who is in love. Else was very unhappy over the rebuff. Her passion,
however, was stronger than her pride, and she humbled herself to
entreaties, persuasions, persistent pleading. Robert, to whom the
situation was becoming extremely uncomfortable, ceased to call upon the
irritated and excited woman and, as Mahomet showed himself unhesitatingly
ready to come to the mountain when the mountain did not come to Mahomet,
Robert refused to see his persecutor. For a time Frau von der Lehde was
filled with the most bitter resentment against the man who disdained her.
She had worked herself up into the idea that he owed her expiation, if
not before the world, surely before her own conscience, and it seemed to
her dishonourable that he should evade his duty. But her indignation did
not last. She could no longer live without Robert, and as he quietly
left her to sulk and did not make the slightest attempt to conciliate
her, after several sleepless nights she one day wrote a little note in
which she gently reproached him for so culpably neglecting her, and
expressed the hope that he would dine with her the next day, and by his
own observation, convince himself that her grief for his long absence was
really injuring her looks.
Pages:
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171