Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/407

 sofa, uttering such noisy bursts of laughter, that friend Franz Bickert was obliged to renounce his sallies. Ottmar took up the conversation:—"Our friend," said he, "places himself by his recitals in contradiction with his system; for he tells funny stories, or he has not succeeded in preparing himself for pleasant dreams. However it may be, I am not the less persuaded of the virtue of magnetism"

"Enough," exclaimed the baron, "are you going to begin again on that subject? It would suit me better to have Maria make us a bowl of punch to keep us in a good humor." Bickert loudly applauded this idea; and whilst Maria set herself to work, he busied himself in reanimating the fire smouldering in the chimney corner. When the punch was made, Ottmar filled the glasses, and Bickert said, after emptying his at a single draught:—"I have never found this liquor so delicious as when it is prepared by the hands of our pretty Maria. She communicates to everything that she touches a celestial perfume. The mysterious influence of her beauty produces this charming effect; this is to my senses the most indisputable magnetism"

"Still talking of magnetism!" interrupted the baron.—"For heaven's sake, shall we never have done this evening with the strange and the extravagant? Maria is, indeed, a good and handsome young girl; but thanks to you, I shall begin soon to take her for a being from the other world.—Let us try then, I beg of you, to live peaceably this good common life which is so sweet!"

"Nevertheless," replied Ottmar, "I have a great desire to relate to friend Bickert a fact confided to me by Alban, which left a deep impression upon my mind. Alban became intimate during his stay at the university, with a young man named Theobald, whose exterior exercised at first a complete seduction over those who saw him. Theobald possessed at the same time a happy disposition and a native goodness.—But gradually, after his acquaintance with Alban, his soul became clouded, his character became sad and uneasy; his