her hair, his gaze rested on her brow,
which was damp as if from mortal agony, and she had closed her eyes as
if fainting. As she still remained motionless, a sudden terror seized
upon him. "Christiane!" he cried, clasping her impetuously in his arms
and seeking her lips with his. But at this moment he was violently
thrust back. She had sprung from her chair and retreated a step. In the
dim light of the lamp he saw her eyes wide open and fixed with an
indescribable expression upon vacancy.

"You're a fiend!" she exclaimed. "Leave me instantly! if you have the
Satanic courage to utter another word, I will throw the window open and
rouse the quiet night with shrieks of murder. Do you hear what I say?
If your own honor is not as indifferent to you as mine, go--go--GO!"

She uttered the last word in so loud a tone, and waved her hand so
imperiously toward the door, that he remained silent. Yet he did not
seem to be deeply agitated; nay even a smile hovered around his lips as
he took his hat and overcoat from the sofa, bowed carelessly, and with
a "good night" left the room. She heard him open the door that led into
the entry and slam it violently after him, but could not distinguish
his steps on the stairs. She was aware of his noiseless tread, however,
and so at last believed herself alone. But the solitude only enabled
her to collect her thoughts, and they made her still more wretched. She
sank back into her chair, and the grief and anguish so painfully
repressed found vent in passionate tears.

What had she been forced to hear! Although indignant at the art with
which the gloomy fanatic blended the highest with the basest things,
the divinest impulses with the maddest desires, striving with subtle
boldness to lull to sleep the pure voice of the soul: was it not
passion, she asked herself, that blazed within him, the language of
unbridled love, which risks all to attain its object, and summons hell
as well as heaven to its aid? Then she was not too repulsive to kindle
such a fire, there was one man who would dare all for her, whom neither
her hatred nor abhorrence could restrain from persecuting her with his
ardent longings! From the chill in which she had shivered during her
long walk through the misty night, into what a fiery gulf was she now
hurled! or no, not yet into the blazing abyss, but the flames that rose
from it were near enough to make her gasp for breath. She could not sit
still in her chair, the air was s