



Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books







Transcriber's Notes:
   1. Page scan source:
      http://books.google.com/books?id=lOUBAAAAQAAJ

   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].





                           AT ALL LIBRARIES.

                        BY THE SAME TRANSLATOR.

                              SACRED VOWS,

                             By E. WERNER,

  _Author of_ "_Under a Charm_," "_Success and How He Won it_," _&c_.

                            3 VOLS. 31s. 6d.

                           *   *   *   *   *


"The loves of Bruno and Lucie are simply told with that accompaniment
of mysterious sympathy in the inanimate surroundings of their
struggles, which is the highest application of true literary insight
into nature."--_Athenaeum_.

"The incidents are striking * * * * * The whole scene rises before the
reader with as much clearness as if it were represented before him on
the stage."--_Saturday Review_.

"The ability of Werner's Novels is implied in the simultaneous
publication of two translations of 'Sacred Vows.' His scenes are more
than paintings, they are sculptures, and stand out in _alto relievo_,
distinctly conceived and vigorously executed."--_The British
Quarterly_.


                           *   *   *   *   *

            REMINGTON & Co., 5, Arundel Street, Strand, W.C.






                            WITHERED LEAVES.

                                A Novel,

                                   BY

                         Rudolf von Gottschall.


                            FROM THE GERMAN,

                            By BERTHA NESS.

        Translator of Werner's "Riven Bonds" and "Sacred Vows."


                             THREE VOLUMES.

                           *   *   *   *   *

                        AUTHORISED TRANSLATION.

                           *   *   *   *   *

                               VOL. III.

                           *   *   *   *   *


                                London:
                           REMINGTON AND CO.,
                     5, Arundel Street, Stand, W.C.
                               *   *   *
                                 1879.

                        [_All Rights Reserved_.]






                        CONTENTS OF VOLUME III.


     CHAP.

       I.--Primavera.

      II.--In the Lion's Den.

     III.--The Mistress of the Boarding School.

      IV.--In the Forest of Juditenkirchen.

       V.--Internal Struggles.

      VI.--A Sleighing Party.

     VII.--In the Land of the Lotus-Flowers.

    VIII.--In the Church of San Giulio.

      IX.--The Bridal Jewels.

       X.--The Wedding Day.

      XI.--A Legacy.

     XII.--Confessions.

    XIII.--To the East!






                            WITHERED LEAVES.




                               CHAPTER I.

                               PRIMAVERA.


_Primavera_--in the midst of winter, which sketched its frozen pictures
upon the window!

_Primavera_--and yet a midsummer of love, which had long since gathered
the blossoms of spring for its transient enjoyment!

And Blanden wooed Giulia with a passion which, possessing no history of
the past, asserting no prior right, only living in his recollections as
if it were the fairy-like charm of a dream, will conquer her love for
the bright day of the present; yes, for the endurance of a life time.
He did not strive to obtain the renewal of former affection; she had
from the very first resisted everything that could encourage such
wooing; he was resolved to win her hand, and to defy those prejudices
which could pronounce his union with a singer to be unsuitable.

But ardent as was his passion, much as her beauty, intellect, talent
and her great knowledge of the world and of life fascinated him, he was
yet by no means disposed blindly to follow his heart's inclination; he
could even not suppress a soft warning voice of suspicion, which he was
obliged to term ungrateful, because it was connected with their own
former meeting--could this admired actress always have withstood the
temptations that beset her upon her path of triumph?

Did not smiling Euphrosyne cast roses into her lap, as the goddess
stood beside victory upon her car of triumph, decking her with laurels?
How many phenomena of theatrical fame do but shine through a dim vapour
which the repute of their evil habits of life spreads around them, and
it was not Blanden's intention to guide one of these beauties, weary of
adventures, into a haven of refuge.

In the town even her enemies did not attack her character; she
possessed admirers, but she favoured none; all that Blanden learned
there, spoke in favour of the singer, but this did not suffice him.
During his travels he had formed many connections in the various
capitals of Europe, in Paris and London, in Rome and Florence;
everywhere he had friends and acquaintances who were familiar with art
and theatrical life. Immediately after the performance of "Norma," when
the thought first was kindled within him of calling this beautiful
woman his own, he had written to all these people to obtain information
as to the actress' life and character. Day by day the replies now came
in; not one single letter contained an accusation, a shred of
suspicion; the testimony that was given to the singer's private life
was most brilliant. No scandal had contributed to the augmentation of
her fame; she owed it entirely to her talent, of which all spoke with
admiration.

Blanden dropped all suspicions, and the project of making Giulia his
wife took still deeper root. He had reason to expect that she would be
ready to resign the stage, as she had frequently lamented the
disappointments to which she was daily more and more exposed in her
artistic career; nor did she conceal a feeling, which caused her
uneasiness, the conviction that the epoch of her glory was at an end,
and that the decadence of her voice was making its announcement gently
but perceptibly. Surely therefore was she often so melancholy; who
would not, with a heavy heart, bear the claims of a day of reckoning as
it crumbles from us one object of pride, one advantage after another,
and with such cruel indifference sweeps away all the flowers of our
life.

_Primavera!_ But there is a spring-time of feeling, which time cannot
kill. It was that which bound Giulia to the wintry provincial town,
when she might have been celebrating her triumphs in the capitals of
the south.

This it was that made her await the arrival of her friend with a
palpitating heart, as she had once awaited him in the moonlight by Lago
Maggiore; and if to her other admirers she made no secret of his
visits; if she denied herself to them as soon as he was present, or
received him at a time when she was inaccessible to others; in so doing
she obeyed no decree of prudence which counselled her not to alienate
her other enthusiastic friends by distinguishing the one; it was a
necessity, a happiness for her to have him quite alone; happiness that
might not be desecrated by contact with the world.

Blanden still exercised the same entrancing magic over her as in those
days of unguarded devotion; she had remained true to him since that
time, little as it was his right or her duty thus to continue faithful.
His image alone accompanied her through life; all emotions to which she
must give expression upon the stage were for him. She confessed it to
him, and he uttered no doubt of such assurances. Blanden's person would
account for such passion; it was distinguished and possessed of a
peculiar charm. An enthusiast, a dreamer, as he had been from his youth
upwards, he seemed to be one still, when, with half-closed languid
eyes, he buried himself in the rich stores of his mental life; but then
they would suddenly flash and open, and gleam with passion and manly
power. In all else he was in perfect harmony; his figure symmetrical,
the well-bred smile upon his lips, full of intellectual superiority;
his conversation, in earnest and in jest, combined sweetness and charm.
As Desdemona to Othello's tales, Giulia listened to the descriptions of
the adventures which Blanden had met with in distant lands and oceans,
he raised her imagination far above the painted decorations of
theatrical life; she was susceptible to all the grandeur and beauty of
nature, to all intellectual struggles; only the unrest and bustle of
her artist's calling prevented her giving herself up to those mental
enjoyments for which she longed now more fervently than formerly. To
her it would have appeared unutterable bliss to belong entirely to the
man in company with whom she might revel in such enjoyments; to the man
who offered her a refuge from the tempests of stage life. With what
just pride she would have borne the name with which that noble scion
represented a family so esteemed in the world!

And yet--from out the past one shoal reared itself in her life: a shoal
upon which all her proud dreams of a future should be wrecked.

In sleepless nights she meditated how she could guide her ship round
that reef; her senses became confused in the rapid flight of thought
from one possibility to another, which, clutched convulsively, never
granted a firm hold; sometimes she rose to the daring venture of
defying those rocks and trying if the high storm-lashed billows of her
life would not bear her over. Her experiences upon the stage became
daily more unpleasant, the enthusiasm of her adherents more disputed by
steady opposition.

These were the results of Spiegeler's malicious condemnation.

On the other hand the poet Schoener prepared one slight pleasure for
her; he who belonged to her warmest admirers, and two years ago had
striven eagerly to gain her favour, but who had been rejected. For a
long time he avoided all intercourse with her, but without bearing any
ill-will remained one of her most zealous adorers. Now, when her
enemies roused themselves, he sought her out again, and, like a
troubadour, devoted his lyre to the noble lady. He read a poem to her,
in which he sang of her as the _primavera_ of Baltic winter, and at the
same time attacked her opponents with epigrammatic arrows, and those
mighty blows which he had acquired in the fencing-school of political
poetry.

The poem appeared in the most important papers, and again increased the
diminishing numbers of Giulia's followers. She was heartily grateful to
him for it, because she perceived that his thoughts were noble and free
from personal motives, that he but followed his own convictions.

The more retiringly Schoener behaved, the more obtrusive became
Lieutenant Buschmann; he could not accustom himself to the idea that he
must retire from so long a siege without success. The uniform
friendliness of the singer seemed to him like scorn; from day to day he
hoped for a more passionate return. Constantly renewed disappointment
embittered him. His character was somewhat violent, he tolerated no
barriers, and once when the singer, through her maid, refused him
admittance on a morning call, he forced himself ruthlessly into her
boudoir, and reproached her passionately.

It was the day after his visit to Frau Hecht's kitchen,