Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/140

140THE HALLIG.

   Did not thy first greeting
          Cradle my young life—
    As thy last caressing
          Would seal its death strife?

    Can the flower bloom freshly,
          Wanting light and dew,
    Can the rolling ocean
          Touch the ether blue ?

    Is there any region
          Where thy potent will
    Could not place thy creature
          There held captive still ?

    But I only render
         Back what thou dost give,
    If, alone for loving
         Thee, I wish to live.

Godber saw in this and other similar expressions, proofs
of the most devoted love, and they served to strengthen
him in his effort to cover his former relation to Maria
with the vail of complete forgetfulness ; for they seemed
at the same time to impose upon him the full return
of such an affection, as a duty, in the fulfillment of
which his heart too was deeply interested.
  So passed about two weeks, and, except the debility
which naturally followed such intense excitement of
body and mind, Godber had almost entirely recovered
from his illness, and the bond of affection between the
lovers was greatly strengthened. The manner, too, in
which Mander spoke of this connection, promised a cer-
tain future to an attachment which till now had seemed
to Idalia only a pleasant dream of the moment, a trans-
itory boon of fate which she had surrendered herself