The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1896-07-24
CHAPTER wv

mltted 70 the events which had brought
about the temporary estrangement.
Preparations were being made for
wedding, and Hulda, though she was
not directly consulted, was aware that
it was hers. She walked about like a
phantom in a phantom world, and all
things seemed of slight moment. There
were times when she aroused herself and
resolved TO appeal to her father to use
his authority to save her from mar
riage that could bring nothing but mis-
fortune. But then came the.bitter re-
Election that the pastor, kind though he
was, was so completely under his wife's
sway that he would offer no permanent
refuge. He would agree with his perse-
cuted daughter, perhaps, and give her
his sympathy without stint, but in the
end he would be sure to act as his wife
demanded That she was not herself
without blame she fully realized. She
had incautiously given Falck reason to
believe that her sentiments toward him
had changed. She knew that in that mo-
mcnt when her tense nerves, like an over
strained string, vihrated loudly at the
slightest touch, her exaggerated remorse
had been capable of misinterpretation,
and she had not the heart TO destroy his
happiness and blight his life once more.
Tho family, after her vagaries, had evil
IDENTIFY come TO the conclusion that she
was not wholly responsible, and that
her elders must therefore act for her,
taking her consent for granted And
after all the agitation Of these recent
months there was something restful and
comfortable in that simple fatalism
which acquicsces in the inevitable.
Though she had answered Olaf Brun S
letter promptly, several months had
elapsed without bringing her any mes
sage from him. Taking it for granted
that he was i'll or that the letter had
failed TO reach him, she wrote a second
time, acquainting him with the situa-
tion and asking his advice. In the
meanwhile the date fixed for her we'd
ding was approaching. and her dilem-
ma was becoming every day moro tor
turing. 1t seemed at last as if her heart
was burned out, or as if she had lost the
capacity for further suffering. A stony
indifference took possession Of her, and
speech and silence seemed equally irk-
some. Falck, regarding her -rrespon-
siveness as something darkly feminine
and probably normal enough at the ap-
proach Of marriage, refused to be Of
Tended at whatever she said and did and
treated her with a tender forbearance
which heaped glowing Goals upon her
head Possessed at times by a spirit of
desperate perversity, she would exert
herself 20 be hateful to him, and his
gentle, clerical liberation only exasper-
ated her the more, until she was ON the
point of wishing that he would strike
her simply to demonstrate that he had
the feelings Of n man, and that there
was limit to his terrible patience
1t was in the beginning of February
when year had passed since the mem
orable sleigh ride that the pastor called
Hulda into his study and announced to
herwith much solemnity that the banns
for her marriage had now been thrice
published, as the law demanded, and
that invitations had been issued for her
wedding which would take place in
the church on the following Wednesday
He praised Falck and said il was a com
fort 60 him 60 think that his daughter
happiness was to be intrusted 10 SO good
man. 1t struck Hulda that there Wai
in all the kindly commonplace which hs
uttered a sort of official tone, and that
his heart was not in it. He had received
his instructions obviously and was car
rying out a prearranged programme
With unmoYed countenance she listened
and answered in curt monosyllablei
when he directly questioned her. She
was half glad when the interview wa
at am end, though deeper hopelessnesi
sank into her mind now that she knew
definitely that her father, TOO, belonged
TO the enemy's camp
There had been until this moment
certain affiatus in her grief which haC
lifted it into the region of poetry anC
made it easier 10 bear. She had appear
ed to herself interesting, if not heroic
| IN her stern endurance and unfiinchini
/ devotion to him to whom she haC
pledged her troth. The parallels which
history and fiction supplied Of blue eyed
/ golden haired Morse maidens faithful
unto death were constantly suggested
/ 20 her fancy. She sometimes thought O
herself as Ingeborg, sacrificed by thu
/ greed and cowardice Of her relation
and welded 10 the gray bearded Kinl
Ring, but far oftener she fingered at tn
thought Of Brunhilde mounting the fu
neral pile Of her beloved Siegfried an,
dying nobly at his side. But somehow
this near prospect of marriage. with al
that it implied, robbed her Of her 70
nance and compelled her to face tn
/ cold prose Of reRunciation. She foresaw
with a shudder, the deadly tedium Of
married life unsustained by love, un
quickened by the divine rapture whicl
love alone can inspire. There was abou
her certain fierce virginity. which
like Brunhilde Of old, resented the ap
preach Of any one but the hero, the be
loved. And to such z nature, the suffer
ing. the degradation, Of an uncongenia
union are q hundredfcld intensified.