A Twofold Life

I.--Mental Strife.
II.--Dual Apparitions.
III.--From Falsehood to Falsehood.
IV.--A Guardian Angel.
V.--Master and Pupil.
VI.--The Prison Fairy.
VII.--An Aristocrat.
VIII.--In the Prison.
IX.--Fraulein Veronica von Albin.
X.--Progress.
XI.--A New Life.
XII.--The Search for a Wife.
XIII.--A Sacrifice.
XIV.--Churchyard Blossoms.
XV.--A Royal Marriage.
XVI.--The Two Betrothed Brides.
XVII.--Insnared.
XVIII.--Cornelia and Ottilie.
XIX.--The Catastrophe.
XX.--Thither.
XXI.--Spring Storm.
XXII.--Light and Shadow.
XXIII.--Between Heaven and Earth.
XXIV.--Regeneration.




A TWOFOLD LIFE.

I.

MENTAL STRIFE.


In an elegant apartment which luxury and wealth had adorned with
everything that the fantastic industry of our times affords, two
stately figures were pacing rapidly up and down: a lady no longer young
but still magnificently beautiful, a true Parisienne and _lionne_ of
society, and a young man with an aristocratic, though somewhat stern,
bearing, dark hair, and strongly marked features. At times they eagerly
approached each other with flashing eyes, then turned away to resume
their restless pacing to and fro.

"It is useless, we must part!" cried the youth, after a pause. "My
passion for you is destroying my whole life: my studies are neglected,
nothing has any charm for me unless connected with you; my fancy is
unceasingly busied with your image. I can no longer work, no longer
think, no longer create anything, and unless I can break loose from
this conflict I shall become a dishonored wretch, or consume my
strength in endless torture and go to destruction! We must part
forever!"

There was no answer. The lady had thrown herself upon a causeuse which
stood just under a niche overgrown with ivy and lighted with lamps that
gleamed through crimson shades, and was gazing steadily into the soft
gloom, while a tear rolled slowly down her cheek. Our hero turned,
after vainly waiting for a reply, and looked ardently at the beautiful
picture.

The deepest silence pervaded the elegant apartment, only interrupted by
the low plashing of a tiny fountain which fell into a marble basin
filled with goldfish. Countless hyacinths exhaled their fragrance amid
tall exotic plants, and between the heavy silken curtains and portières
gleamed marble statues, which in the dim purple light seemed instinct
with life. Everything breathed love and secret bliss. Allured by some
magnetic attraction our hero knelt before the silent figure, and
kissing the hand that hung by her side, whispered: "Great Heaven, if
you weep how shall I find strength to conquer this moment? Oh, do not
condemn me to suffer all the torments which only a fiend can devise for
feeble human beings! If you have a heart that can weep, in mercy soften
this farewell. If you really loved me, you would not by every alluring
art seek to place me in a relation where your better self must renounce
and despise me."