Her husband had not
stayed a single instant longer in that town, but was conveying her,
though it was now night time, straight to Hidvar.
It is not very advisable to travel in pitch-black darkness along
mountain roads. Henrietta could gather from the slow jolting of the
coach that they were proceeding very cautiously. She opened the window
and peeped out. She then saw her husband walking along by the side of
the coach with a lantern in his hand picking his way. The coachman was
sitting on the box and the heyduke was close to the carriage in order to
steady it over the more difficult places.
A voice within her reproached her for hating this man so long--how could
she have done it? He had always been delicacy itself towards her, he had
never demanded anything of her, and no doubt the reason why he had held
back from his young wife for a time was because he would not importune
her with his presence--her who had now learnt to recognize him as her
sole protector!
After a vast amount of jolting and tumbling about, they got at last on
to a regular road again. Here the baron halted the coach and looked
inside it. When he saw that Henrietta was awake, he asked her if she
wanted anything, and whether she would allow him to sit down beside her.
Henrietta had resolved to tell her husband everything at the very first
question, everything, even to her most secret enthusiasms; nay, even
that which God alone could read in her heart.
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