LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 215, 16 February 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

FRONL An Alpine Story. ( Continued .) Chapter 11. Next day bore the reflex of the previous night. The setting sun leaves its glorious red glow behind to fade away slowly on the sky; the ‘ Kirchtag ’ leaves the ‘ Nachkirchtag ’ to the same effect upon the earth. Where, as in our village, the yearly fair is joined to the Kirchtag, the sale, beginning on Sunday afternoon with sweetmeats, cakes, and other dainties useful for the purposes of the Kirchtag, is carried on the next day on a larger scale. The poor and dependent who cannot afford to spend another day in idle merriment, retire home after marketing. The well-to-do people are so favored as to drain the cup of joy to the dregs. There is a smaller and select party meeting in the inn, on the dancing-places in the room, and outside on the green turf, on Monday afternoon. Dancing had begun long ago, and Boldl was still missing from the ground. Hannerl went up and down, pouting her pretty lips, now and then dancing with some boy; then again, under pretence of superintending the servants, retiring into the house, hoping at each new exit to encounter Boldl’s joyous greeting. Boldl had been seen walking upwards on the way to the inn. A freshly-cut stick lay over his shoulder, a bundle dangling from it —a well-stocked bundle, tied up in a newly-bought red silk kerchief—just the bundle boys are usually seen to carry to their sweethearts, containing sweets, cakes, ribbons, and other acceptable things from the market. Boys and girls, merrily walking hand in hand, accosted him. ‘La! what a bundle for Hannerl!’— ‘ Give me a honey cake, thy sweetheart won’t miss it.’ ‘ Well, thou givest us nothing? What a miser!’ No joke or taunt could rouse Boldl’s usual spirits. Any other day he would have punished a girl’s saucy remark with a kiss, or rewarded a flattery with a sweetmeat. But to-day he nodded simply and replied not. A shower of merry Avords were wasted after him as he silently walked on. Higher up, where two roads and a footpath meet, he stopped, and first cautiously looked round Avhether any one could see him. Then suddenly, as if ashamed of his caution, he stamped the ground with his foot, muttering between his teeth, ‘ The d 1! I am not a fool! Have I not the right to go whereAmr I please, and on my own grounds too?’ And swiftly swinging himself round, he with brisk, elastic, firm steps went down the footpath, in the opposite direction to the inn and Hannerl. Boldl stood at Froni’s door. Afraid lest she, seeing him, should bolt the door against his face, energetically clasping the latch, he pushed the door wide open. * Grass Gott! ’ (God greet thee !) he called out to Froni. Froni was sitting as usual turned aAvay from the door, at her spinning Avheel beside the cradle. She recognised Boldl’s voice instantly—had she not often heard those rich manly tones ringing through the Avood ? SloAvly rising from her seat she turned round, and her clear blue eyes fell full upon the intruder, sweeping up and down his tall figure. He felt a chill from top to toe, then suddenly fire rushing through his veins. ‘ Gott grass Dich ! ’ Boldl repeated, Avitli a tremulous Amice; and he advanced some steps, stretching out his hand to her. Froni took it not, but quietly kept looking at him as if searching in his face for the motiA r e which might possibly have brought him hither. But when he came up close to her she bent down, and lifting the slumbering baby out of its white cushions, she held it up towards Boldl. He looked down into the quiet, pale little face, with its calm blue eyes now opening, the braised lump on its delicate white temple, and he felt —he never knew how and what. In the intensity of that undefined feeling, he with an imploring look stretched out his arms towards the child, and receiving it into them, he sank doAvn on one knee, kissing and pressing it to his throbbing heart. He could never part with it : and Avben at last he looked up from the child to the mother, she saAv his handsome/lark eyes overflowing with tears. A vivid color rushed to Froni’s pale face, her eyes dilated, brightened; and the glistening tears bedewed the glowing cheek, Avhich gradually turned to deadly paleness again. Oh! she Avas strangely beautiful, that woman, standing before Boldl in her simple cotton gown —before Boldl, the rich Wiesenhofbaner’s Boldl! He gazed at her Avith rapturous admiration, Avatchiug those lovely blushes come and go alternately on her pure, delicate face, until he move felt than saAv her shrinking beneath his intense gaze. He rose quickly, putting the baby Avith careful tenderness into its cradle; then, to hide his embarrassment, moved to the table and began with a trembling hand unfolding the bundle’s contents. ‘ Look here, Froni, ’ he said, without raising his eyes; ‘here are sweets for Jorg (George) and—and for thee: and here is a nosegay and ribbons for thee?’ ‘ Flowers and ribbons for me?’ said Froni, with calm, genuine wondering. ‘ Give that to Hannerl. Boldl stood embarrassed, not finding the right word to say. ‘ 1 do not Avaut anything,’ Froni continued; ‘ 1 thank God for having escaped the hardship so far.’ ‘Froni!’ cried Boldl, ‘do not be hard upon me!’ And once more he stretched out his hand. ‘ I do not Avaut to be,’ she said ; her voice softened. And dropping her eyes she added: ‘Look here, people missing you on the dancing ground Avill see you coming out of my hut, and there will be more talk about it than Avill do ns good. It is getting dusk, get thee away, please.’ ‘ Who has a right to talk about ns, and what do I care for people’s gossip !• he fired up, gradually getting himself again. s ‘ Thou dost not care, of course; it cannot harm thee—but me ?’ said Froni, indignantly. ‘ They shalt not hurt thee,’ cried he; ‘ and if I choose to remain here, no one shall prevent me.’ ‘ And 1 ?’ said Froni, in the same tone. ‘ Thou AA’ilt not drive me from thee : thou dost not hate me, dost thou ?’ Froni remained silent. • Look here ? if I woo thee, —if 1 oiler thee my hand, my whole self, and lands, and forest, and herds, and houses, and all my moue-y—thou wilt say a kiud word to

me ? Froni, one little word ! Do say thou likest me a little !’ Froni looked up to him with a glance of deepest earnestness. ‘ I am but a poor woman,’ said she, * who must earn her living and that of her orphan baby by hard handy-work, but I am free to like anyone or not. Boldl, I cannot like thee, thy ways are too wild.’ ‘ That to me ! to the Wiesenhof Boldl!’ he exclaimed, overpowered by rage; now quite himself again ; quite wild Boldl. ‘ That to thee !’ said Froni, firmly, ‘to thee, the rich Wiesenhofbauern’s sou. And if the Wiesenhofbauern’s son. And if the Wiesenhofbauer himself stood here before me, and asked me to marry his son, I would say No!’ Boldl stood petrified ; he could not find another word for his emotion but the expressive * Sapperment. ’ ‘ There, that is thyself again! ’ said Froni, sadly. ‘ Adieu ; greet Hannerl from me.’ Boldl struggled for his breath. ‘Froni?’ he gasped. Froni held her peace. ‘ Froni, come to the dancing-place ; I will dance with the alone, in sight of all the village ; thou shalt see I am in earnest.’ Froni smiled sadly ; she pointed to the baby in the cradle : ‘ Here is my place ; thine is at Hannerl’s side. Go, and give thy presents to her.’ In the same moment a loud, shrill voice, singing out a merry ‘ Jodie.- ’ was heard in the neighborhood. * God keep thee, and Hannerl! ’ said Froni, and pointed witli a commanding gesture to the bundle and then to the door. Boldl precipitated himself upon that outstretched hand, and wrung it violently ; then hastily gathering up the bundle, he threw it into the cradle, at the infant’s feet to prevent another refusal. Storming out of the hut, he passed the astonished Tobi, who, wonderingly looked after him, and disappeared behind the thick trees. Tobi (Tobias) was Flbsser for the time being, but a bachelor ; the old man did not take up more room in the house than that of a bed in the back kitchen, and a stone seat before the door outside. Froni and her baby, by a mutual understanding were allowed the use of the house as before, without paying rent, of course. Tobi was godfather to George, and was felt to be a protection to the child’s mother. Seeing Boldl at the hut that evening, he apprehended mischief, and from that time kept more at home than he had been wont to.

Chapter 111. From that time Boldl haunted that part of the wood where the hut stood. He never came right close to the house, but he would roam around it in a narrow circle, pouring out his heart’s emotion in song ; or he would stand leaning over the railing above the hut, at the top of the steps, for hours ; silently and patiently waiting for Veronica's appearance, watching her coming and going at her household work. For Boldl the wide world contained but a little, miserable, thatch-roofed cottage on the wild brook side, in it a young, fair-haired woman with her baby—all the rest w-as a desert—a void. Mingling with the mysterious rustling of the foliage, the soft, soothing murmuring of the fast falling waters, From’s sensitive ear caught the deep, wild tones of a passionate love, now warbling in exulting joyfulneas, now in playful merriment, then suddenly falling to a woe-begone misery, to notes of despair tones which met a ready echo in the vibration of her young sorrowful heart. The passionate appeal awakened corresponding feelings, which, however, she tried to stifie, never allowing her thoughts to dwell on them. Veronica had not known much of love in her poor life. She scarcely had known herself anything but an orphan or a widow : the short span of her married life had not stirred up any slumbering fonder feelings while it lasted—had not left in her memory either satisfaction, or more than the usual regret at the loss of a true old friend. And now l ove — a blessing to others—came to her as an evil; some shapeless but dreadful danger which struck her with terror. By the summer heat most of her household work was done out of doors : could she have said herself whether she did not fetch water ofteuer than was absolutely necessary? or whether spinning wheel and baby’s cradle had not on some evenings been better indoors? Tobi, morose (and fidgety, sat before the house; he had cars as well as From, and gladly would he have answered Boldl’s singing by snatches of biting sarcasm, had he not been afraid of Wild Boldl doing something dreadful in revenge ; or the Wieseuhofbauer getting angry and sending him away from his post, making Froni homeless. Froui never raised her eyes when she felt Boldl’s presence; but his standing over her at the stile, his burning look, followed her about. One day Froni was occupied in drying her baby’s clothes which she had been washing snow-white in the brook. Turned to the water, and intent on her work, she had not looked up or around for a long while. Happening to turn round for some implement, she beheld the shadow of a man thrown by the rays of the sinking sun on the white-washed wall of her hut. That -was not Boldl’s shadow; it was a much bigger and apparently older man, although there was a great semblance in outline and attitude. Froni instinctively felt it must be the Wicsenhofbauer himself. Her heart, terror-stricken, stood still. Recovering her breath after some minutes, she hastened in as if guilty of some fraud, and caught in the act. Safe behind her bolted door she found relief in a passionate burst of tears. From this time she did not trust herself so much out of doors. But the Wicsenhofbauer moved away, thoughtfully shaking his head. People had not exaggerated; that was a dangerous woman, quite fit to come between a man and his quiet happiness; yet mingling with his feelings of resentment were those of admiration of the fair woman and pity with the poor widow and her orphan baby. Boldl’s idleness was in a great measure the cause of this new evil; that the father understood; a radical cure for mental disease was hard bodily work, and accordingly, Boldl was sent up the heights to superintend the cutting of the trees, an office which the father filled himself many another year. (To be continued.)