She grew pale, but made no remark; but when, a day or two after,
Agenor, observing her moodiness, proposed another excursion, she
declined, saying, sarcastically: "It might make you unwell again.
Pardon me," she then sobbed, "I know you are not happy, either. You,
who are so sought for at home, dare not go out abroad lest your
fellow-countrymen should see you and tell that the Jewess is your wife.
I will not say that it is a disgrace, such as you regard it, but it is
sufficient for me to know you are unhappy for my sake. How miserable
that makes me!"
"Think of the child!" he begged. This was his last resource, and even
that had now lost its effect.
"It is because I do think of it," she cried in despair, "that I am
doubly wretched. How can you love the child of the woman who is a
burden to you, and which will bind you still closer? As yet, you have
only cursed the hour of our marriage. Soon you will curse the hour of
its birth."
They were both wretched, and there seemed no end to this misery, ever
new.
"I was a villain! I was mad!" the young man said to himself, as he
watched the sunshine playing on the autumnal landscape. "What shall I
say when she asks where the child is to be baptized?"
That was his closest and most pressing care, but it was not the only
one that burdened him. As yet he paid little attention to the exactions
of Wroblewski, but now he began to appreciate the dangers threatening
his future and honor by this vampire. What would be the end?
He would never desert Judith, nor yet waken her from her dream. But
could he pass his life in this way, in idleness and disgrace, a
fugitive startled at the sight of a gendarme, dreading lest he should
be asked to show the passports of Count and Countess Nogile,
compressing himself into the closest quarters possible when driving
through the streets, for fear of recognition by an old acquaintance. It
could not continue; was there any chance of escape?
A shrill little voice woke him from his reverie. Down in the garden,
in front of the house, the fat Italian nurse, Annunciata, paced
up and down, trying to still the crying of the child by her songs. He
heard Judith's voice calling her; very probably she was in the
breakfast-room, waiting for him. He drew himself up, passed his hand
over his face, as if to smooth out all traces of sadness, and then went
to the ground-floor.
At the breakfast-room door he was met by the nurse. He bent over and
kissed the boy, who stared at him out of his dark, wide-open eyes
soberly, even thoughtfully. When he lifted his eyes, he met Judith's
fixed inquiringly upon him. He understood. "Poor thing," he thought,
"she is watching to see with what expression I kiss the child." He bade
her good-morning as naturally as possible. But he could tell by her
eyes and the pallor of her complexion that she had cried during the
night. And why? Ah! he had no need to ask.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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