The Gossamer Cord Read Free Page B

had been divided between us.
    However, on that occasion she did manage to disperse that mild feeling of uneasiness.
    I remember our first meal in the schloss inn. I recall going down the narrow spiral staircase to the dining room where we dined with the family, apart from the guests who were staying at the inn; and we had our meal after they had had theirs.
    It was a small dining room which looked out—as so many of the rooms did—on the forest. There were rugs on the wooden floor, and two stuffed heads of deer protruded from the walls on either side of the open fireplace.
    We discovered that long ago—before the unification of Germany, when the country had consisted of a number of small states—the schloss had been the hunting lodge of some baron, and the animals’ heads must have been put there then. One looked somewhat ferocious, the other scornfully resentful. They seemed to intrude into the peaceful atmosphere of the room. There were pictures, too, of the Brandt family which I later learned had been painted before the disastrous years of 1914 to 1918.
    It was a merry party. The language represented little problem. Dorabella and I had learned a smattering from our school lessons which was of some small help to us. Kurt and Edward were fairly good; and Kurt’s parents seemed to have acquired a little English, possibly through visitors to the schloss; and Helmut and Gretchen had some English, too. So the language problems which cropped up now and then only added to the merriment.
    It was a very pleasant evening.
    Dorabella and I discussed it when we were alone in our room.
    “It’s going to be fun,” said Dorabella. “Helmut is rather disappointing, though.”
    “You mean he has not responded to the allure of Miss Dorabella Denver?”
    “He’s a bit stodgy,” she said. “I can’t bear these intense people. Like those men in the hotel. Helmut doesn’t laugh much.”
    “Perhaps he doesn’t see anything to laugh about, or it may be that he doesn’t feel it necessary to let everyone know what he is feeling.”
    “Tomorrow,” she went on, “we shall explore. It’s going to be interesting.”
    “I’m sure it will be…different from anything we have done before.”
    I went to the window and looked out. The mist had thickened. I could just see the outline of the nearest trees.
    “It looks exciting like that,” I said.
    Dorabella came to stand beside me.
    I went on: “Weird almost. Do you think so?”
    “It just looks like mist to me.”
    I found it difficult to turn away, and suddenly I saw a figure emerge from the schloss.
    Dorabella whispered: “It’s the maid.”
    “Else,” I murmured. “Yes, that’s her name. I wonder where she’s going. It must be nearly eleven.”
    Then we saw a man step out of the shadows. We could not see him clearly, but he was obviously not one of those whom we had seen in the schloss. He was tall and very fair. Else was caught up in his arms and for a few moments they clung together.
    Dorabella was giggling beside me.
    “He’s her lover,” she said.
    We watched them as, hand in hand, they slipped into one of the outhouses, which in the days of the baron may have been stables.
    We left the window. Dorabella got into her little bed and I got into mine.
    We did not sleep well that night, which was to be expected; and when I did dream it was of a fairy-tale kind of blue mist which turned into shapes of strange people, and the branches of the trees became long arms that stretched out to catch me.
    During the days which followed, we settled into the life of the schloss. I learned from Kurt’s mother that the inn was by no means full. They had at the moment only six people staying, and they considered that fairly good. Times had been bad, but they were in some respects getting better as the country became more prosperous.
    “It had a long way to come after the war,” said Kurt. “Now there are more visitors because people come from abroad…from England, America, and