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CHAPTER VIII.
Wilhelm’s feelings, on returning home after this conversation, may be easily
conceived. All his old wounds had been torn up afresh, and the sentiment that
Mariana was not wholly unworthy of his love had again been brought to life.
The interest the old man had shown about her fate, the praises he gave her
against his will, displayed her again in all her attractiveness. Nay, even the bitter
accusations brought against her contained nothing that could lower her in
Wilhelm’s estimation; for he, as well as she, was guilty in all her aberrations.
Nor did even her final silence seem greatly blamable: it rather inspired him with
mournful thoughts. He saw her as a frail, ill-succored mother, wandering
helplessly about the world, — wandering, perhaps, with his own child. What he
knew, and what he knew not, awoke in him the painfullest emotions.
Mignon had been waiting for him: she lighted him up stairs. On setting down
the light, she begged he would allow her, that evening, to compliment him with a
piece of her art. He would rather have declined this, particularly as he knew not
what it was; but he had not the heart to refuse any thing this kind creature
wished. After a little while she again came in. She carried below her arm a little
carpet, which she then spread out upon the floor. Wilhelm said she might
proceed. She thereupon brought four candles, and placed one upon each corner
of the carpet. A little basket of eggs, which she next carried in, made her purpose
clearer. Carefully measuring her steps, she then walked to and fro on the carpet,
spreading out the eggs in certain figures and positions; which done, she called in
a man that was waiting in the house, and could play on the violin. He retired
with his instrument into a corner: she tied a band about her eyes, gave a signal;
and, like a piece of wheel-work set a-going, she began moving the same instant
as the music, accompanying her beats and the notes of the tune with the strokes
of a pair of castanets.
Lightly, nimbly, quickly, and with hair’s-breadth accuracy, she carried on the
dance. She skipped so sharply and surely along between the eggs, and trod so
closely down beside them, that you would have thought every instant she must
trample one of them in pieces, or kick the rest away in her rapid turns. By no
means! She touched no one of them, though winding herself through their mazes
with all kinds of steps, wide and narrow, nay, even with leaps, and at last half
kneeling.
Constant as the movement of a clock, she ran her course; and the strange
music, at each repetition of the tune, gave a new impulse to the dance,
recommencing and again rushing off as at first. Wilhelm was quite led away by
this singular spectacle; he forgot his cares; he followed every movement of the
dear little creature, and felt surprised to see how finely her character unfolded
itself as she proceeded in the dance.
Rigid, sharp, cold, vehement, and in soft postures, stately rather than
attractive, — such was the light in which it showed her. At this moment he
experienced at once all the emotions he had ever felt for Mignon. He longed to
incorporate this forsaken being with his own heart, to take her in his arms, and
with a father’s love to awaken in her the joy of existence.
The dance being ended, she rolled the eggs together softly with her foot into a
little heap, left none behind, harmed none; then placed herself beside it, taking
the bandage from her eyes, and concluding her performance with a little bow.
Wilhelm thanked her for having executed, so prettily and unexpectedly, a
dance he had long wished to see. He patted her; was sorry she had tired herself
so much. He promised her a new suit of clothes; to which she vehemently
replied, “Thy color!” This, too, he promised her, though not well knowing what
she meant by it. She then lifted up the eggs, took the carpet under her arm, asked
if he wanted any thing further, and skipped out of the room.
The musician, being questioned, said, that for some time she had taken much
trouble in often singing over the tune of this dance, the well-known fandango, to
him, and training him till he could play it accurately. For his labor she had
likewise offered him some money; which, however, he would not accept.
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