clefts yawned around him, and the water-drops tinkled like the chiming of
church bells, and shone clearly as pearls in the light of a pale-blue flame.
The Ice Maiden, for she it was, kissed him, and her kiss sent a chill as of ice
through his whole frame. A cry of agony escaped from him; he struggled to
get free, and tottered from her. For a moment all was dark before his eyes,
but when he opened them again it was light, and the Alpine maiden had
vanished. The powers of evil had played their game; the sheltering hut was
no more to be seen. The water trickled down the naked sides of the rocks,
and snow lay thickly all around. Rudy shivered with cold; he was wet
through to the skin; and his ring was gone,-the betrothal ring that Babette
had given him. His gun lay near him in the snow; he took it up and tried to
discharge it, but it missed fire. Heavy clouds lay on the mountain clefts, like
firm masses of snow. Upon one of these Vertigo sat, lurking after his
powerless prey, and from beneath came a sound as if a piece of rock had
fallen from the cleft, and was crushing everything that stood in its way or
opposed its course.
But, at the miller’s, Babette sat alone and wept. Rudy had not been to see
her for six days. He who was in the wrong, and who ought to ask her
forgiveness; for did she not love him with her whole heart?
XIII. At the Mill
What strange creatures human beings are,” said the parlor-cat to the
kitchen-cat; “Babette and Rudy have fallen out with each other. She sits and
cries, and he thinks no more about her.”
“That does not please me to hear,” said the kitchen-cat.
“Nor me either,” replied the parlor-cat; “but I do not take it to heart.
Babette may fall in love with the red whiskers, if she likes, but he has not
been here since he tried to get on the roof.”
The powers of evil carry on their game both around us and within us.
Rudy knew this, and thought a great deal about it. What was it that had
happened to him on the mountain? Was it really a ghostly apparition, or a
fever dream? Rudy knew nothing of fever, or any other ailment. But, while
