But either there was an
obstacle in the way, or the young Baron's push had not been quite
straight: the wheel suddenly swerved aside, its course swerved to
the right, maugre all the objurgations addressed to it as if it had
been a living thing, and the next moment it had disappeared, all but
a smoky, smouldering spot of red, that told where it lay, charring
and smoking on its side, without having fulfilled a quarter of its
course.
People drew off gravely and silently, and Eberhard himself was
strangely discomfited when he came back to the hermitage, and,
wrapping Christina in his cloak, prepared to return, so soon as the
glare of the fire should have faded from his eyesight enough to make
it safe to tread so precipitous a path. He had indeed this day made
a dangerous venture, and both he and Christina could not but feel
disheartened by the issue of all the omens of the year, the more
because she had a vague sense of wrong in consulting or trusting
them. It seemed to her all one frightened, uncomprehended dream ever
since her father had left her in the chapel; and, though conscious of
her inability to have prevented her marriage, yet she blamed herself,
felt despairing as she thought of the future, and, above all, dreaded
the Baron and the Baroness and their anger.
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