Page:Stories after Nature.pdf/79

Rh himself at the banquet, opposite this lady, but to feast only at the beauty of her countenance. When Gertrude turned round, and saw him patiently gazing upon her face, she thought he was an angel. Farewell to all contentment! She became the slave of love. Forgetting, at that moment, her misfortune, her eyes fed at his, in a dream of luxury; though short, yet heavenly sweet. Soon, however, the remembrance of her former lovers, and of her affliction, came over her, and she looked in his face so mournfully that it chilled him, and he grew sick at heart. She wore, for that time, such a settled sorrow in her face, that his cheek got pale, and he could not look at her surcharged eyes; he dared not speak, for he feared to hear that she was married, or bound by some tie that severed them for ever. He quitted the board early; and as he went, with a slow and lingering step, he fixed his eyes upon her face. Gertrude looked after him, feeling that with him went her hope, and at her shoulder stood despair. When she had gazed a little while upon his seat, she went home; and, having shut herself up, she finished the night in weeping bitterly. She felt she loved him, and he felt that he loved her.

When the next day was come, Gertrude reasoned with herself, whether it was just to nourish