229
FATAL CURIOSITY.
(From the German of Apel.)
BY M. A. Y.
Chap. I.
“My child, you have passed the night in weeping, instead of sleeping, again,” said the aged Gertrude, as she came to the bed-side of the young Countess Viola, to awaken her. “How you have dimmed those pretty eyes! Fie, fie! if you go on thus much longer, you will wash all the bloom of youth away before it has come to perfection. Come, come, cheer up. See, I have brought you a beautiful new dress for the ball at your sister’s wedding. Here’s embroidery! My little Viola will outshine all the court dames there. Now, get up, and let us see how you look in this lovely dress.”
“Ah, my dear nurse,” replied the young maiden, leaning her aching head on the bosom of her faithful attendant, “how can you talk to me of weddings and balls? Take away that costly robe. Would that I could be attired as a simple peasant girl, and be as happy as one.”
“Silly child!” said Gertrude; “a straw hat may cover as aching a head as a golden coronet. Reared in the solitude of this castle, you know little of the world, nay, even of your own heart. Believe me, sweet, many a maiden of your age, who would willingly have given half her life to obtain her lover, would in a very short time gladly surrender the other half to be quit of him again.”
“But it is not so with me, good Gertrude! Separated from Serini, nor heaven nor earth would have any happiness for me. Dear nurse, do not you be dazzled by the riches and magnificence of my sister’s lover, and scorn my poor, devoted Serini.”
Gertrude was moved by the piteous accents of her young mistress, and besides was a great admirer of the brave, gallant boy, whose devotion to that fair maiden was so earnest and sincere; she therefore sought to soothe and console her, adding, “I know for a certainty that one day you will see all your wishes fulfilled.”
“How often you have said that, nurse; tell me, how do you know this? Do, do tell me, dear nurse; now that I am sad, it will console me to hear the ground of your certain hopes.”
The old woman asked nothing better than to be coaxed and entreated, and after a while replied thus: “When little, you were a poor sickly child, and anything but pretty; therefore no one cared much about you, but abandoned you solely to my care, while all petted and caressed your lovely sister Maria. One day, as I was out walking with you, the ‘old woman of the woods’ met us. ‘Gertrude,’ she exclaimed, ‘what an angel that child is!’ and she kissed your little hands and feet, and seemed as if she would never have done admiring you. ‘Good mother,’ I said, ‘my little Viola is a gentle, amiable child; but if you want to see beauty, go and look at her sister Maria. ‘Maria is fair,’ replied the old woman, ‘but Viola is fairer; and where she appears, her sister must give place. She will be happy in love, and have the handsomest man in all the kingdom for her husband.’ With this she kissed your hand again, and hobbled away. So you see, my darling, that, as her prophecy respecting your beauty is come to pass, I hope that the rest will also be fulfilled; although, sooth to say, there seems little chance of it now.”
Viola sprang up joyfully: “Thanks, dear nurse!” she exclaimed. “My hopes revive; I may yet become Serini’s bride. It was but yesternight we vowed eternal fidelity.”
There was a sound beneath the window as if some one thrice clapped their hands; it was the lover’s signal, and hastily kissing her nurse, Viola bounded with fairy step and sparkling eyes to meet him. “But why thus equipped for travelling?” she inquired, as she gazed on his clouded brow.
“I must leave you for a few days,” was the reply; “the Count Nadasti requires my presence.”
“And must you go? Why not remain here, near your Viola?”
“How willingly would I do so; but the Count is my feudal lord, and must not be denied. He wishes to celebrate his approaching nuptials with all due pomp.”
“It is to his marriage then that you are summoned!” exclaimed Viola. “How delightful! We shall meet there. Nadasti is to marry my sister. Now I will go and wear my gay dress since you are to be there.”
Serini felt by no means so delighted. Viola would see her sister wedded to the rich and powerful Count Nadasti, whose wealth and splendour could not but dazzle so young and inexperienced a girl. Would she, after this, look on the vassal Serini, who could only offer to his bride a poor pittance, and even that dependent on the will of her sister’s husband? His melancholy and emotion did not escape the notice of the maiden, but she was too youthful and inexperienced to dream even of its cause; she only wondered why he should be sad when she felt so happy, and was half inclined to doubt the truth of his affection.
