Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/395

 sacred. Go, and may they surround you with a curse that nothing shall efface."

"Yes," then exclaimed chevalier Menars, beside himself; "yes, I am accursed, I know it; but can you really pronounce a curse without hope! Oh, Angela, the sight of you alone has caused an inexpressible change in me; but you cannot and will not understand me; bet yet it imports, to me, death or life. For I love you, Angela, I feel it and I cannot refrain from it. I can renounce, for your sake, my gambler's life. I can, with the gold that I possess, expiate my past life by benefiting all around me. But if I do not succeed in gaining your good opinion, you will soon see me fall dead at your feet!" and, under the influence of this fiery exaltation, chevalier Menars sprang out of the room like a madman. Old Vertua, who first thought of the necessity of regaining his fortune, wished to try this opportunity, and pressed Angela to become the chevalier's guardian angel.—But the noble young girl forcibly rejected this proposition.—Nevertheless, whilst the gambler Menars only appeared to her worthy of contempt, fate, which so victoriously plays with our wills and feelings, gradually prepared the accomplishment of this long rejected union. Chevalier Menars suddenly decided upon changing his course of life. He shut up his pharo bank, and he was no longer met with in any gambling house. The strangest and most contradictory reports were circulated concerning him; but instead of paying heed to them, he became more and more savage and inaccessible.—Angela was not ignorant of the change that had taken place in him. Her woman's vanity, flattered by such a proof of his passion, became gradually a serious and intimate affection. When, several months after their first interview, she met the chevalier in a walk of Malmaison park, she could not refrain from a shudder. He was so pale, so cast down, appeared to be suffering so much, so unhappy!—Vertua, who did not lose sight of his marriage project, from which he expected to make an excellent speculation, gave him a very friendly