It was rather the strangeness of the
power and purity of this timid, fragile creature, that had struck the
young noble. With all their brutal manners reverence for a lofty
female nature had been in the German character ever since their
Velleda prophesied to them, and this reverence in Eberhard bowed at
the feet of the pure gentle maiden, so strong yet so weak, so wistful
and entreating even in her resolution, refined as a white flower on a
heap of refuse, wise and dexterous beyond his slow and dull
conception, and the first being in whom he had ever seen piety or
goodness; and likewise with a tender, loving spirit of consolation
such as he had both beheld and tasted by his sister's deathbed.
There was almost a fear mingled with his reverence. If he had been
more familiar with the saints, he would thus have regarded the holy
virgin martyrs, nay, even Our Lady herself; and he durst not push her
so hard as to offend her, and excite the anger or the grief that he
alike dreaded. He was wretched and forlorn without the resources he
had found in his sister's room; the new and better cravings of his
higher nature had been excited only to remain unsupplied and
disappointed; and the affectionate heart in the freshness of its
sorrow yearned for the comfort that such conversation had supplied:
but the impression that had been made on him was still such, that he
knew that to use rough means of pressing his wishes would no more
lead to his real gratification than it would to appropriate a snow-
bell by crushing it in his gauntlet.
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