But his heart shrinks from such
a task, for he has met with such passages in real life, and cannot
even abide their shadows in his memory. Perhaps, gentle reader, such
feelings are known to thee also, for they are the common lot of mortal
man. Well is thee if thou hast felt, not inflicted, these pangs; in
these cases it is more blessed to receive than to give. As such
recollections wake up from their cells, they will but cast a soft
shade over the past; and it may be the thought of thy withered
blossoms, once so fondly loved, brings a gentle tear down thy cheek.
Enough of this: we will not go on to pierce our hearts with a thousand
separate arrows, but content ourselves with saying, that so it
happened in the present instance.
Poor Undine drooped day by day, and the others were neither of them
happy; Bertalda especially was uneasy, and ready to suspect the
injured wife, whenever she fancied herself slighted by Huldbrand;
meantime she had gradually assumed the command in the house, and the
deluded Huldbrand supported her openly. Undine looked on, in meek
resignation. To increase the discomfort of their lives, there was no
end to the mysterious sights and sounds that haunted Huldbrand and
Bertalda in the vaulted galleries of the castle; such as had never
been heard of before. The long white man, too well known to him as
Uncle Kuehleborn, and to her as the spirit of the fountain, often
showed his threatening countenance to both; but chiefly to Bertalda,
who had more than once been made ill by the fright, and thought
seriously of leaving the castle.
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