He cast a serious look at
his poor wife, and she looked down in great distress; yet she said
with great composure, "My lord and husband does not reprove even a
bond-slave without a hearing, how much less, then, his wedded wife?"
"Speak," said the knight with a gloomy countenance, "what induced you
to act so strangely?"
"I should like to tell you when we are quite alone," sighed Undine.
"You can tell me just as well in Bertalda's presence," was the
rejoinder.
"Yes, if you command me," said Undine; "but command it not. Oh pray,
pray command it not!" She looked so humble, so sweet, so obedient,
that the knight's heart felt a passing gleam from better times. He
kindly placed her arm within his own and led her to his apartment,
when she began to speak as follows:
"You already know, my beloved lord, something of my evil uncle,
Kuehleborn, and you have frequently been displeased at meeting him in
the galleries of this castle. He has several times frightened Bertalda
into illness. This is because he is devoid of soul, a mere elemental
mirror of the outward world, without the power of reflecting the world
within. He sees, too, sometimes, that you are dissatisfied with me;
that I, in my childishness, am weeping at this, and that Bertalda
perhaps is at the very same moment laughing. Hence he imagines various
discrepancies in our home life, and in many ways mixes unbidden with
our circle.
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