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Page 83
"Here comes Rosa."
This evening none of those little noises broke the silence
of the lobby, the clock struck nine, and a quarter; the
half-hour, then a quarter to ten, and at last its deep tone
announced, not only to the inmates of the fortress, but also
to all the inhabitants of Loewestein, that it was ten.
This was the hour at which Rosa generally used to leave
Cornelius. The hour had struck, but Rosa had not come.
Thus then his foreboding had not deceived him; Rosa, being
vexed, shut herself up in her room and left him to himself.
"Alas!" he thought, "I have deserved all this. She will come
no more, and she is right in staying away; in her place I
should do just the same."
Yet notwithstanding all this, Cornelius listened, waited,
and hoped until midnight, then he threw himself upon the
bed, with his clothes on.
It was a long and sad night for him, and the day brought no
hope to the prisoner.
At eight in the morning, the door of his cell opened; but
Cornelius did not even turn his head; he had heard the heavy
step of Gryphus in the lobby, but this step had perfectly
satisfied the prisoner that his jailer was coming alone.
Thus Cornelius did not even look at Gryphus.
And yet he would have been so glad to draw him out, and to
inquire about Rosa. He even very nearly made this inquiry,
strange as it would needs have appeared to her father. To
tell the truth, there was in all this some selfish hope to
hear from Gryphus that his daughter was ill.
Except on extraordinary occasions, Rosa never came during
the day. Cornelius therefore did not really expect her as
long as the day lasted. Yet his sudden starts, his listening
at the door, his rapid glances at every little noise towards
the grated window, showed clearly that the prisoner
entertained some latent hope that Rosa would, somehow or
other, break her rule.
At the second visit of Gryphus, Cornelius, contrary to all
his former habits, asked the old jailer, with the most
winning voice, about her health; but Gryphus contented
himself with giving the laconical answer, --
"All's well."
At the third visit of the day, Cornelius changed his former
inquiry: --
"I hope nobody is ill at Loewestein?"
"Nobody," replied, even more laconically, the jailer,
shutting the door before the nose of the prisoner.
Gryphus, being little used to this sort of civility on the
part of Cornelius, began to suspect that his prisoner was
about to try and bribe him.
Cornelius was now alone once more; it was seven o'clock in
the evening, and the anxiety of yesterday returned with
increased intensity.
But another time the hours passed away without bringing the
sweet vision which lighted up, through the grated window,
the cell of poor Cornelius, and which, in retiring, left
light enough in his heart to last until it came back again.
Van Baerle passed the night in an agony of despair. On the
following day Gryphus appeared to him even more hideous,
brutal, and hateful than usual; in his mind, or rather in
his heart, there had been some hope that it was the old man
who prevented his daughter from coming.
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