An Old Story of My Farming Days Vol. 3 (of 3).: (Ut Mine Stromtid)Reuter, Fritz
General
An Old Story of My Farming Days Vol. 3 (of 3).: (Ut Mine Stromtid)
Reuter, Fritz
Farm life -- Fiction
Mrs. Nüssler took Frida home, and on the way there she dropped many a
word of comfort into her sad heart, and her words fell like rain upon a
dry and parched field. If hope did not spring up strongly in Frida's
heart, she was yet able to wait in patience, and to find rest in Mrs.
Nüssler's reiterated words: "Don't fret about it. Trust my brother
Charles, I am sure that he'll put it all right for you." When Frida
went into her room in the grey of the early morning she felt herself a
different creature from what she had been when she rushed out on the
previous evening. With the spark of hope that had been kindled in her
breast, love and faith had come back to her, and she went up to Sophie
Degel, who was seated in a large arm chair watching over her child, and
stroking her hair gently, said: "I am so much obliged to you, Sophie,
but I'm sure that you're tired; go to bed now."--"Oh, Madam," cried
Sophie starting up--no doubt from the midst of a dream about her lover,
"she has slept quietly all night; she only wakened once, and I gave her
some milk and then she went to sleep again."--"That's right," answered
Mrs. von Rambow, "but now go to bed." When the maid had left the room,
she bent over her little girl's crib and looked at her: no, no, the
baby was far too lovely for the sad fate of a penniless lady of rank;
the mother's thoughts this morning were quite changed from her
desponding forebodings of the evening. Her soul had been writhing in
anguish the night before, and out of that anguish hope had been born
anew in her heart. This child of pain now clasped her in its arms
kissed her and whispered the heavenly words: Faith--and--victory!
Mrs. von Rambow went to bed, and thought of all the people she had seen
that night. Caroline Kegel and Mrs. Nüssler, Mrs. Behrens and Louisa,
Hawermann and Bräsig, she could recall their faces clearly, and could
understand their kindness and sympathy; but there was another person
she could not understand, and that was the old Jew. She remembered his
speaking expression, the dark heavy folds of his dressing gown, his
shadowy wrinkled face--a face such as she had never seen before--then
all seemed to grow more misty--when she thought of the last words the
Jew had said to her as he was going away, she seemed to see him growing
larger and larger, but more and more indistinct, and folding her hands
upon her breast, she fell asleep.
She slept and dreamt of the old Jew, but it was a happy dream; at last
she awoke thinking she heard a carriage drive into the yard. She
listened attentively, but body and mind longed for rest, her head sank
back on the pillow, and her happy dream returned to her and whispered
marvellous things in her ears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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