Agnes Castle and Egerton Castle

“ Fortunately the Maréchale liked discreet hinges, and Sidonia was able noiselessly to draw the door the necessary fraction of an inch apart, that she might listen. There was not a tremor in her hands; she held her breath lest a rustle of silk should betray her. Strong spirits rise to the great situation.
There was whispering within. The ear of the little heiress of Wellenshausen had been trained in forest glades, full of the small sounds of lesser lives. ”

“ But, alas! the fatal gift of speech has estranged more honest souls seeking each other than ever years of silence!
Count Steven Lee, of Waldorf-Kilmansegg, had come riding in great haste into the inn courtyard to seek his truant bride, and his heart was beating high with a love at once tender and ardent. But the first sight of Sidonia's face, marble white and set, seemed to freeze in his veins the warm tide that was rushing all to her. ”

“ VI.—THE HOMING BIRD. IT was afternoon in Cassel, the capital of King Jerome's patchwork kingdom of Westphalia.
They stood facing each other in the half tawdry-French, half dowdy-German sitting-room. All inn-chambers have, no doubt, seen in their day much of the comedy, much of the tragedy of life; but the walls of the "Aigle Impérial" could scarce have held a stress of deeper passion than that which moved the two young lives, sport of perverse Fate, this day. ”

“ The looks the King and d'Albignac had cast upon her, the glance of odious intelligence they had then exchanged, her uncle's obsequious haste to disclaim her marriage, and her aunt's public insult, were as many lightning flashes showing the precipice yawning in the dark at her feet Not a friend had she in the world to whom she could turn—save the man who did not love her—and a poor, wandering musician, now probably far away on some Thurigian road, playing gay tunes to the rhythm of his own incurable melancholy. ”

“ Foolish Sidonia, clinging in her heart to the honour she outwardly repudiated!
"Do you know what sort of a place this is?" pursued the fiddler, with ever-increasing severity. "Do you know with what people you are surrounded? Have you not heard the common saying that if it be doubtful whether an honest woman—save the unhappy Queen—ever crossed these Palace doors, to a certainty no honest woman ever went forth from them? Why are you not with your husband?—with your husband?" ”

“ The scent of the wood-smoke from the forest-house, where foster-mother Friedel was preparing supper for her hungry sons, where all was so wholesome, so honest, so homelike; where at this moment—who knows?—kind Fiddle-Hans might be seated in the ingleglow, his strange music, lilt of joy and sorrow mingled, of humour and tenderness, floating out through the open door into the solemn forest-aisle. ... Little Sidonia's thoughts began to wander from her own sorrow. She saw the sunrise in the forest, she felt the evening peace. ”

“ Steven felt suddenly as if the clasps of his cloak were strangling him. He tore them apart, falling back two or three steps, that he might fling the burden on the bed. He must have his limbs free. The grating voice went on—
"It is my Sovereign's desire that the young heiress of Wellenshausen should espouse a member of his households. And his choice has fallen upon your servant here—I may say the charming creature is not unwilling——"
Confusedly, through the humming of the blood in his ears, Steven heard. Mechanically he gathered his cloak into a bundle and pulled the damask curtain aside. ”

“ Sidonia's heart seemed to empty itself, too, and become an aching void. She closed the door and sat down hopelessly. But, after a while, a sense of shelter, a physical, a moral warmth of comfort crept upon her. She marked that Steven's chattels were scattered around. No fear, then, but that he would return! The vague fragrance of the lavender scent he liked brought his presence suddenly and vividly to her. The little bride melted into tears. She was worn out; her aching feet were stinging as she held them against the warm porcelain of the stove. Her whole being seemed melted, her spirit broken ”

“ Only that the rats are flying already from the falling house; only that I happened to meet the second violin of Jerome's orchestra, an acquaintance of old—a musical rat in full scuttle!—I might still be racking my brains for means to come near you! Here am I this hour, wearing the livery of the Upstart, not knowing if I shall be given the necessary minute for speech. The prisons are stuffed full to-night, and Jerome is afraid of me. Let but his eye, or that of his spies, turn this way and recognise me, and it is to the lock-up with Fiddle-Hans! O, then, what of Madame Sidonia? ”

“ A piece of quixotic nonsense on the part of my cousin, Count Kilmansegg, an ill-considered undertaking to which this child would hold him bound, against all ... against all proper pride, all feminine delicacy, and his own better judgment!"
She shot an arrow of fury at her niece; then she nudged the Burgrave, who instantly put in his deep bass—
"The deed of annulment is drawn up, sire."
Jerome's good humour returned. He rubbed his hands. In spite of all his royal assumptions, much of the exuberant gesture of the Corsican had stuck to him, to the infinite distaste of his stolid subjects. ”

“ I would rather die!"
"O, death!" said the fiddler, and struck his strings so that they wailed—"death is the least of evils—nay, the release of a clean, proud soul. ... that is joy. The worst end of life is not death. Beware, little madam!" He had another change of tone: never had Sidonia been rated with such incisive earnestness. "Why, what a child are you! Yet none so childish but that you know full well this is no child's mischief, but woman's danger! With what anxiety am I here to save you from yourself ”

“ Ha, little Madame Sidonia, laugh with me! It is the Burgravine's own carriage—nothing less. Nay, German wives do not so easily escape their husbands, even at Jerome's Court. My Lady Burgravine makes no journeying to-night, or ever, away from her lord! A berline and four good post-horses ... 'twere pity to waste them! Quick, children! for I tell you night will not he over ere the storm break on this town!"
Sidonia had little preparation to make. She put on her cloak. From the depths of her hood, her pretty face looked inquiringly at Fiddle-Hans. ”

“ The cloak over her pale dress—the hood over Bettine's fine coiffure! And now the window! People who shut up a little bird in a cage should make sure that the bars are close enough to keep it safe; for the bird has wings, and its heart beats towards freedom, towards the mate, towards the nest! The Maréchale's apartments were on the rez-de-chaussée; but had they been on the topmost floor, that window would yet have been the way of Sidonia's flight. ”

“ Hey, little Sidonia! Such a fine husband, such a fine position!"
The girl raised her eyes and desperately scanned his empurpled countenance. Again the Burgrave archly shook his head, and laughter rumbled in his huge body. Aye, aye, it was the way of women to feign coyness, but men knew what was good for them. One must humour them from time to time, but never yield. ”

“ I am very fond of girls."
Her voice was purring, her smile was comfortable. As she moved away, Sidonia felt vaguely reassured. If her own kindred failed her, there was yet salvation; salvation other than the inadmissible humiliation of that return to the man she loved, but who did not love her: all that cruel Fiddle-Hans would devise for her!
In the Chancellor's apartment she found bustle and confusion. Two footmen staggered past her, bringing in trunks. The Burgravine's maids were running to and fro with folded packets of lace and silk. ”

“ Mademoiselle de Wellenshausen is, you are aware, now at the Palace?"
"Are you speaking of Countess Waldorf-Kilmansegg?" put in Steven briefly.
"Immaterial, now!" deprecated the other. "The marriage, I understand, is regretted on both sides. Your signature here, and we do the rest."
Steven listened with outward calmness.
"We?" echoed he. "What have you to say to this, Colonel d'Albignac?"
It is not always by weight of hand or stroke of sword that man can have his sweetest vengeance upon man. D'Albignac, as he replied, knew that he was at last paying off scores. ”

“ She pressed her hands against her burning eyeballs, for the brilliancy of the lights became unbearable. And as she stood leaning against the gilt pilaster, close to her, the orchestra, half hidden behind a bank of flowers, struck up a gay French air which added to her overwhelming sense of misery.
Her uncle's words, "The annulment deed is already drawn out," seemed to jig in her brain in time to the vulgar measure. It was almost the same phrase that she herself had flung at Steven—but now it bore a sound of cruel reality quite novel to her ”

“ She could run no more; she must grope her way. But presently her eyes became more accustomed to the dimness. The whiteness of an alley glimmered to her between rows of trees; it led down to the lights. Here on firm ground, she was able to make speed again, catching up her impeding skirts to free her flying feet. ”

“ But if a gentleman have behind him long generations of gentlemen, each of whom has planned his life upon the conventional code of the point of honour among gentlemen, he cannot easily bring his lips to form the words that will betray a woman in relation to himself—be it for what is dearer than life. ”

“ It was not in her nature to hesitate; she paused but to catch up a travelling cloak in er room; then seeking the outer corridor again, bade the first valet on her way guide her to the apartment of Madame la Grande Maréchale. She would wait (thought the girl) for the great lady's return from festivity. There must be refuge where such gentle old age presided, and good counsel, and aid forthcoming on the morrow for her journey back to the Thuringian forest. ”