Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/376

370 "Your brother came back without you," answered Vincenz, with a shade o embarrassment. "I thought I could overtake you and tell you of the mistake, for it was getting late. I walked as fast as I could; but apparently you must have walked faster, for I could not get up to you. When I came to the head of the gorge, I could hear the stones rolling further down, and I guessed you were on in advance. Did you not hear me shout?"

"Oh, then it was you who shouted?" said Gretchen, beginning to be ashamed of her groundless alarm.

"I am afraid that villain has frightened you most terribly," he added, looking down at her with a concern that was more that of a father than of a lover.

Gretchen tried to smile. "I think you frightened me also a little."

"I frightened you!" he repeated, in a tone of the blankest consternation. "Is that possible?"

Looking at him at this moment, it did seem scarcely possible to Gretchen herself. He had quite resumed his ordinary manner – his voice and his look were gentle, almost timid.

The hands which had dealt such crushing blows a few minutes ago, with what tender care had they arranged the seat for her, and placed the coat over her feet! And yet neither in the tone nor words was there the shadow of anything which could have alarmed the most sensitive delicacy. They were alone here in this wild solitude, and she knew that this man loved her; but she knew also, with as firm a conviction, that she was as safe as if her father had been by her side. This time it was not by any process of logical deduction that she reached this conclusion: the conviction sprang only from an unreasoning but not a mistaken instinct.

"Did I really frighten you?" asked Vincenz, anxiously.

The flush of movement was still on his face; and though he was calm again outwardly, the strong effort he made could not succeed in suppressing his inward excitement. A man does not pass fifteen years at desk drudgery, and then find himself suddenly plunged into a hand-to-hand fight, without feeling his whole nature stirred up by it. The strength which had so long lain dormant and useless had found a subject on which to wreak itself, and instinct had told him how to use his advantages.

"You would have been frightened at yourself, if you could have seen your own face," said Gretchen.

"I am not at all sorry that I knocked him down," said Vincenz, simply; "but I am sorry I could not have knocked him down more quietly. I am afraid" – with growing anxiety – "that I must have used some rather strong language."

"Rather," said Gretchen, smiling. "I thought you were going to throw him over the rock at one moment."

Vincenz looked grave.

"I believe I was. If you had not screamed then, I should have had Dr Kokovics on my conscience. I scarcely knew what I was doing. I felt rather wild just then. I see now that it must have frightened you terribly. Can you forgive me?"

"Oh! it is you who should forgive me," said Gretchen, catching her breath.

Dr Komers made no answer, but turned and walked a few steps away. His back was towards her, and to all appearance he seemed absorbed in the contemplation of a clump of trampled fern. The green tufts of