Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/418

 "Ah!" exclaimed the counsellor, striking his forehead, "it is because it has pleased God to give me a second sight which pierces the future, which guesses the clangers, and which only assists me I to foretell them at the price of continual anxiety! I believe that there is always near us an occult power opposed to our happiness, which seems wholly occupied in seducing and drawing us towards evils that cannot be remedied. I suffer and I wrestle, I am unhappy in the midst of my apparent happiness, as if I bore upon my forehead the mark of a Cain!"

"The same reflections still!" said the lady, sighing deeply. "But, tell me, dear counsellor, tell me, to change this lugubrious conversation, what has become of that young and charming child, the son of your younger brother, whom you received several years ago, with evidences of truly paternal affection?"

"I have driven him away," cried the counsellor; "he was a monster!"

"A monster! you do not mean it; a child six years old!"

"Yes," replied the counsellor; "you know the history of that brother of whom you speak; I have told you more than once the infamous tricks he has played upon me, and all the evil he has tried to do me in exchange for my many services. You know how it was that, plunged into extreme misery, thanks to his misconduct, he outwardly feigned towards me the most hypocritical actions, to make me believe in his repentance and gain my support! You know how he profited by his residence in my house to gain possession of certain documentsBut it is useless to fatigue you with these details. The infamous man disappeared one day, to withdraw himself from the effects of my just resentment. I took charge of this child whom he had abandoned, and I only thought of preparing for his future a tranquil and honest destiny, when fate gave me notice in time to allow me to shake off this serpent that I was warming in my bosom."

"Nonsense," said the lady, "that was still another dream of your restless [sic]