Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 097.djvu/87

Rh she permitted her head to rest affectionately on his shoulder—but he quickly disengaged himself, and pushed her coldly from him.

"What is the matter, Ludvig?" she asked, in much surprise. "Are you out of humour again? What is wrong now?"

"Oh! nothing, nothing! at least nothing of consequence enough for you to care about."

"What can you mean? Am I not privileged to share your sorrows and annoyances, whether they are great or small? You know you are sure of my sympathy; why, then, should you conceal anything from me? But you hare no longer any confidence in me; you love me no longer as you used to do, or you would not treat me thus."

"These reproaches come well from your lips indeed, Miss Lisette. Certainly you have much to complain of."

Lisette became angry, for she knew that she was innocent of all evil. Had she not, a few minutes before, vowed not to go so often to the window, when the handsome hussar officer passed? And had she not recently, in fancy, discarded all her suitors, determining to admit and to listen only to Ludvig? And now to be treated so by him! Was her fidelity to be thus rewarded? "Fie, Ludvig!" she exclaimed, with some vehemence. "You are too tyrannical; you have often been hasty, irritable, nay, unkind to me; but I have borne it all patiently, for I knew your unreasonable jealousy; but you are too sharp with me—too cruelly sharp—I have not deserved this from you, and I will not put up with it."

"Well said! You speak out, at any rate. You won't put up with it, Lisette? Of course you have no need to put up with me any longer. There are plenty, I know, who will flatter you, and make a fool of you; but you will not find one who loves you as sincerely as I do."

"And why not, pray? Perhaps I may though."

"What do you say, Lisette? Ah! now I see I have been mistaken in you. Farewell! You shall never behold me more. I will not stand in the way of your good fortune. My presence shall never again irritate you for a moment. Farewell!"

He rushed from the room, and Lisette had already the handle of the door in her hand, intending to run after him and call him back; but she stopped a moment to reflect. "No!" she exclaimed to herself, "I will not afford him such a triumph. Let him go! Is he not clearly in the wrong; and must I invariably give in? No; this time he shall wait awhile."

Lisette is very angry; she paces up and down her room, without so much as casting one look down towards the street to see where he is going. "It is quite unbearable," she cries. "He teazes me out of my life with his ridiculous jealousy. It is a proof of his love, he says …. Ah, dear! I am sure I would much rather dispense with such love-tokens." Lisette throws herself into the easy-chair, and commences humming an opera air. Then she begins to rack her brains to discover what on earth could have caused Ludvig's sudden transition from good-humour to anger and jealousy; but she vainly tries to find a reason for his strange conduct. "I will think no more about him! He does not deserve the affection I waste upon him, nor that I should take his folly so much to heart. Is this love? Not the slightest indulgence will he permit to me; he cannot endure that I should be happy even in dreams! It is my only, only comfort, and he shall not deprive me of it." So