d face.
"We interrupt here," said Tausdorf to Rasselwitz, struck by her
appearance, "and must seek some other place."
"You do not interrupt me, gentlemen," said Bona, rising with graceful
kindness. "A woman, who knows how to maintain her female dignity, has
no occasion to be afraid of men. But perhaps you wish to have a private
conversation with your companion, in which case I give way to you,
although I should have willingly enjoyed this splendid evening for a
quarter of an hour longer."
"You love then the charms of nature?" asked Tausdorf, whose sympathy
had been won by the first words of the stranger, and who now thought no
more of going.
"What being of head and heart but must love them?" replied Bona warmly.
"Nature ever reflects herself, and yet is ever new, nor has any mortal
hitherto succeeded in imitating the least of her wonders: so has she
gone on for centuries, silent and beautiful, clear and sublime,
benevolent in creating and maintaining as in destroying."
"Nature," said Tausdorf with warmth, "has always seemed to me like a
perfect woman in the arms of the all-powerful--in the arms of a
beneficent master and loving husband."
"You are probably married, sir knight," observed Bona roguishly, "by
this image in particular striking your fancy?"
"Not yet," replied Tausdorf, colouring.
"But already promised and bound by indissoluble chains," interrupted
Rasselwitz, to whom this brief conversation grew much too animated.
"You have become so rapidly acquainted with the knight, fair Bona, that
I must hasten to inform you, you are talking with the Herr
Sparrenberger von Tausdorf, the betrothed of the Frau von Netz; and now
take your place, my old friend, that the noble wine may not grow vapid,
and pledge me to the health of your fair intended."
"I regret to-day, for the first time, that I have for ever renounced
wine," said Bona, while the knights touched their glasses. "A toast to
the health of so noble a lady would be well in place now."
"You know my Althea?" asked Tausdorf.
"No," replied Bona with lovely frankness; "but I have heard so much
good of you, sir knight, that I believe you could have chosen none but
a noble being for the companion of your life."
"Pray, lady," said Rasselwitz, breaking in upon them with
vexation,--"did you not tell me to-day that you had a relation in
Prague, of whom you had long heard nothing? Herr Tausdorf lived there a
considerable time, and perhaps will be ab
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