FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120  
121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   >>   >|  
progress before I arrived, it was with much difficulty I could avoid being served with soup and all the earlier delicacies of the entertainment. I will not dwell on the day that to recall seems more to me like a page out of a fairy tale than a little incident of daily life. I was, indeed, to all intents, the enchanted prince of a story, who went about with the lovely princess on his arm, for I danced the mazurka with the Fraulein Sara, and was her partner several times during the evening, and finished the fete with her in the cotillon; she declaring, in that calm quiet voice that did not seek to be unheard around, that I alone could dance the waltz a deux temps, and that I slid gently, and did not spring like a Fiumano, or bound like a French bagman,--a praise that brought on me some very menacing looks from certain commis-voyageurs near me, and which I, confident in my "skill of fence," as insolently returned. "You are not to return to the Hof, Herr von Owen, tomorrow," said she, as we parted. "You are to wait on papa at his office at eleven o'clock." And there was a staid dignity in her words that spoke command; but in styling me "von" there was a whole world of recognition, and I kissed her hand as I said good-night with all the deference of her slave, and all the devotion of one who already felt her power and delighted in it. CHAPTER XX. OUR INNER LIFE Let me open this chapter with an apology, and I mean it not only to extend to errors of the past, but to whatever similar blunders I may commit hereafter. What I desire to ask pardon for is this: I find in this attempt of mine to jot down a portion of my life, that I have laid a most disproportionate stress on some passages the most insignificant and unimportant. Thus, in my last chapter I have dwelt unreasonably on the narrative of one day's pleasure, while it may be that a month, or several months, shall pass over with scarcely mention. For this fault--and I do not attempt to deny it is a fault--I have but one excuse. It is this: my desire has been to place before my reader the events, small as they might be, that influenced my life and decided my destiny. Had I not gone to this fetey for instance,--had I taken my holiday in some quiet ramble into the hills alone, or had I passed it, as I have passed scores of happy hours, in the solitude of my own room,--how different might have been my fate! We all of us know how small and apparently insignificant a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120  
121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

attempt

 
desire
 

passed

 

insignificant

 

chapter

 

pardon

 
portion
 
CHAPTER
 

delighted

 

devotion


similar

 

blunders

 

errors

 

extend

 

apology

 
commit
 

instance

 
holiday
 

ramble

 

influenced


decided

 

destiny

 

scores

 
apparently
 

solitude

 

events

 

reader

 

narrative

 
pleasure
 

unreasonably


passages

 

stress

 
unimportant
 

months

 

deference

 

excuse

 
scarcely
 
mention
 

disproportionate

 

danced


mazurka
 

Fraulein

 

princess

 

lovely

 

prince

 

enchanted

 

partner

 
unheard
 

declaring

 
cotillon