The leaves seemed to jut out and expand; on every
hand were prickles sprouting from the trunks; but Serpentina twisted
and wound herself deftly through them; and so drew her fluttering
robe, framing her as if in changeful colors, along with her, that,
playing round the dainty form, it nowhere caught on the projecting
points and prickles of the palm-trees. She sat down by Anselmus on the
same chair, clasping him with her arm, and pressing him toward her,
so that he felt the breath which came from her lips, and the electric
warmth of her frame.
"Dear Anselmus!" began Serpentina, "thou shalt now soon be wholly
mine; by thy faith, by thy Love thou shalt obtain me, and I will bring
thee the Golden Pot, which shall make us both happy forevermore."
"O thou kind, lovely Serpentina!" said Anselmus. "If I have but thee,
what care I for all else! If thou art but mine, I will joyfully give
in to all the wondrous mysteries that have beset me ever since the
moment when I first saw thee."
"I know," continued Serpentina, "that the strange and mysterious
things with which my father, often merely in the sport of his humor,
has surrounded thee, have raised horror and dread in thy mind; but
now, I hope, it shall be so no more; for I came now only to tell thee,
dear Anselmus, from the bottom of my heart and soul, all and sundry to
a tittle that thou needest to know for understanding my father, and so
learn the real condition of both of us.
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