Bertalda, especially, thought that she could trace the effect
of jealousy on the part of the injured wife whenever her wishes
were in any way thwarted. She had therefore habituated herself to an
imperious demeanor, to which Undine yielded in sorrowful submission,
and the now blinded Huldbrand usually encouraged this arrogant
behavior in the strongest manner. But the circumstance that most of
all disturbed the inmates of the castle was a variety of wonderful
apparitions which met Huldbrand and Bertalda in the vaulted galleries
of the castle, and which had never been heard of before as haunting
the locality. The tall white man, in whom Huldbrand recognized only
too plainly Uncle Kuehleborn, and Bertalda the spectral master of the
fountain, often passed before them with a threatening aspect, and
especially before Bertalda, on so many occasions that she had several
times been made ill with terror and had frequently thought of quitting
the castle. But still she stayed there, partly because Huldbrand was
so dear to her, and she relied on her innocence, no words of love
having ever passed between them, and partly also because she knew
not whither to direct her steps. The old fisherman, on receiving the
message from the lord of Ringstetten that Bertalda was his guest, had
written a few lines in an almost illegible hand but as well as his
advanced age and long disuse would admit of.
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