Once more with you, and surrounded with the souvenirs of my girlhood, I feel a horror of myself, and could sink in shame and contrition. I have become as bad as they are. Can you forgive the hard-hearted daughter who banished her own mother from her house? Ifelt that I could not endure her presence, and feared that an inveterate rancor and hate would overpower me, and that I should curse her.""She deserves it, my poor child," whispered Trude, the tears streaming down her cheeks. "She has just told you that she never loved you, and in this painful scene she thought only of bargaining and making money. God has heard her and forgiven you as I do, and Ibeg and implore Him to punish those who have made you so wretched, and that He will have no mercy upon them, as they have shown none to you. It breaks my heart to see you so changed, and I can hardly believe this cold, haughty lady is my Marie. In your tears Irecognize you, and I bless God that you can weep; your grief proves to me that you are yet the child of my heart.""Oh Trude, you know not how I have longed to see you ; it was my only consolation in these painful years. When I doubted every human being, then I thought of you, and was comforted and sustained.""And was there no one else to think of, my child?""Yes," she gently murmured, "I thought of him. Tell me all you know about him, and hide nothing from me in this hour.""I thought you would ask me, and I went to Director Gedicke yesterday, to inform myself.""What did you hear? Tell me the most important. Does he live? Is he restored to health?""He lives, but, for one year, he was so wretched that he could not teach; now he is better. Herr Gedicke went himself to Spandau, immediately after the wedding, and brought him back with him, relating as forbearingly and carefully as possible the circumstances of your marriage, and of your sacrificing yourself for him alone.""How did he receive it? What did he say?""Nothing. His eyes were fixed, and his lips uttered not a sound.
This lasted for weeks, and suddenly he became excited, enraged, and they were obliged to bind him to keep him from injuring himself.""Tell me no more, cried Marie, shuddering. "I thought myself stronger, nay, heartless, and yet it seems as if a hand of iron were tearing, rending my soul!""That is well," said Trude, gently; "you must awaken from this hardened indifference; giving way to your grief in tears will soften your heart, and it will again be penetrated with the love of God and mankind. I will tell you every thing; you ought to know how poor, dear Moritz suffered. After he vented his rage he became melancholy, and withdrew to Halle in solitude, living in a hay-loft. His favorite books and an old piano were his only companions; no one presumed to intrude him, and they even conveyed his food secretly to him, shoving it through a door. He talked aloud to himself for hours long, and at night sang so touchingly, accompanying himself upon the piano, that those who listened wept."Marie wept also--scalding tears trickled through her fingers as she lay upon the floor.
