Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/95

 tender welcome. He thought that he should he able, in the calm of domestic life, to forget his lost reflection. After some time, the remembrance of Giulietta was nearly effaced from his mind. But one evening, while he was playing with his son near the stove, the child daubed his face with soot, and cried out to him—"Father! father! see how black you are!" and running to get a pocket mirror, he held it before Erasmus, and he looked into it himself. Struck with fright at not seeing the face of his father by the side of his own, he ran crying away, and related his grief to his mother.

The lost reflection destroyed the peace of the household. The wife of Erasmus uttered loud cries, and the neighbors came in. Erasmus, mad with fury and despair, fled from the house, and ran until he was out of breath in the fields. The image of Giulietta appeared to him then in all the brilliancy of her charms. "Oh, Giulietta! Giulietta!" exclaimed he; "she to whom I have sacrificed thee has repulsed me! Giulietta, I have no longer any one but thee in the world. I give myself up to thee; take me wholly and forever."

"And you shall be satisfied, my master," exclaimed the voice of Signor Dapertutto, who suddenly appeared at his side, as if by enchantment.

"Alas!" said Erasmus, "how shall I find her again?"

"She is near by here, and more in love with you than ever," replied Dapertutto. "Happy to possess you, wholly and forever, she will take, my dear sir, pleasure in giving you back your reflection."

"Oh, lead me to her quickly," interrupted Spicker.

"Softly, if you please," replied the doctor, with his former sneer and satanic smile. "It is necessary, before all, that the ties which bind you to your wife and child be broken, in order that Giulietta may have assurance of possessing you wholly. Take this phial!"

"Execrable man!" exclaimed Erasmus, with a gesture of horror, "what! you wish me to poison my wife and child?"

"Who speaks of poisoning?" said Dapertutto; "what I