And yet the present would not let itself be robbed of its own unlovely
right. They spent a part of the night talking and laughing at all sorts
of things, the more freely as the heart had no part in it. But when
Edward awoke in the morning, on his wife's breast, the day seemed to
stare in with a sad, awful look, and the sun to be shining in upon a
crime. He stole lightly from her side; and she found herself, with
strange enough feelings, when she awoke, alone.




CHAPTER XII


When the party assembled again at breakfast, an attentive observer might
have read in the behavior of its various members the different things
which were passing in their inner thoughts and feelings. The Count and
the Baroness met with the air of happiness which a pair of lovers feel,
who, after having been forced to endure a long separation, have mutually
assured each other of their unaltered affection. On the other hand,
Charlotte and Edward equally came into the presence of the Captain and
Ottilie with a sense of shame and remorse. For such is the nature of
love that it believes in no rights except its own, and all other rights
vanish away before it. Ottilie was in child-like spirits. For her--she
was almost what might be called open. The Captain appeared serious. His
conversation with the Count, which had roused in him feelings that for
some time past had been at rest and dormant, had made him only too
keenly conscious that here he was not fulfilling his work, and at bottom
was but squandering himself in a half-activity of idleness.