Hope built air-castles, and doubt
then puffed them over like card-houses. One of his fancies was,
that she summoned him--he would not even in thought use the expression:
gave him an interview--at a masquerade. It was consequently no
common masquerade, but a grand, elegant masked ball, to which
a true lady could repair. The clock was at eleven, the appointed
hour: he waited anxiously the pressing five minutes; then she came
and extended him the fine hand in the finest straw-colored glove--
"Letter to the Counsellor of Justice," said Jens, with strong
Funen accent, and short, soldierly pronunciation.
It is so uncommon that what one longs for comes just at the moment
of most earnest desire; but notwithstanding the letter was from
her, the Counsellor of Justice knew the superscription, would have
known it among a hundred thousand. The letter read thus:
"I ought to be open towards you; and, as we shall never meet, I
can be so."
Here the Counsellor of Justice stopped a moment and caught for
breath. A good many of our twenty-year-old beaux, who have never
been admitted to the bar, far less have been Court Counsellors,
would, under similar circumstances, have said to themselves: "She
writes that she will be open; that is to say, now she will fool
me: we will never meet; that is to say, now I shall soon see her."
But Counsellor Bagger believed every word as gospel, and his knees
trembled. He read further:
"I am ashamed of the few words I last wrote you; but my apology
is, that it is only two days since I learned that you are married.
Pages:
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50