Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/239

239

THE PARTING.

times beamed on him as a milder, friendlier star. But
if his love for Idalia were to seem hereafter only as a
dream which fades on our waking, and scarcely sur-
vives in our memory, could he also forget that for her
sake he had forsaken the ship whose helm was confided
to him, that for her sake he had been faithless to his
betrothed Maria ? If she could forgive him, could he
forgive himself ? So long as he had any hope of possess-
ing her for whom he had given up so much, there was a
bright side to his sacrifice, an advantage, though per-
haps too deeply purchased, an altar on which he had
laid his offering. Now that he was about, himself, to
annihilate this hope, it fell back upon his heart like a
dark, heavy cloud, through which no beam of morning
could break to enlighten the prospect of his future
days. Only one thing was clear to him ; that it was
his immediate duty to separate from Idalia. All the
future was night and darkness for him, while Hold
looked forward, with happy sympathy, to the renewal
of his former relations with Maria.
  "Do you go with your father ?" said Godber the
next morning to Idalia in a tone which made the ques-
tion sound as if the answer were already certain ; for
a sleepless night of reflection had only fixed him the
more decidedly in his resolution to wrap himself, with
despairing courage, in the dark drapery of an unavoid-
able destiny.
  Idalia trembled visibly. Was it a last feeling of
affection for the youth, or was it the sudden approach
of the long wished-for moment of separation, which
agitated her so violently ? She could not immediately
answer. She was seeking for words, which, while they