rrible.

"Krespel disappeared with Antonia from F----, and came to H----.
B---- heard with despair of their departure, followed on their track,
and arrived at H---- at the same time that they did.

"'Only let me see him once, and then die!' Antonia implored.

"'Die--die!' cried Krespel in the wildest fury. His daughter, the only
creature in the wide world who could fire him with a bliss he had never
otherwise felt, the only being who had ever made life endurable to him,
was tearing herself violently away from him. So the worst might happen,
and he would give no sign.

"B---- sat down to the piano, Antonia sang, and Krespel played the
violin, till suddenly the dark red spots came to Antonia's cheeks. Then
Krespel ordered a halt, but when B---- took his farewell she fell down
insensible in a swoon.

"'I thought she was dead,' Krespel said, 'for I quite expected it would
kill her; and as I had wound myself up to expect the worst, I kept
quite calm and self-possessed. I took hold of B---- by the shoulders
(in his frightful consternation he was staring before him like a
sheep), and said (here he fell into his singing voice), "My dear Mr.
Pianoforte-teacher, now that you have killed the woman you were going
to marry by your own deliberate act, perhaps you will be so kind as to
take yourself off out of this with as little trouble as you can, unless
you choose to stay till I run this little hunting-knife through you, so
that my daughter, who, as you see, is looking rather white, may derive
a shade or two of colour from that precious blood of yours. Even though
you run pretty quick, I could throw a fair sized knife after you."
I suppose I must have looked rather terrible as I said this, for
B---- dashed away with a scream of terror downstairs, and out of the
door.'

"When, after B----'s departure, Krespel went to raise Antonia, who was
lying senseless on the floor, she opened her eyes with a profound sigh,
but seemed to close them again, as if in death. Krespel then broke out
into loud, inconsolable lamentations. The doctor, fetched by the old
housekeeper, said that Antonia was suffering from a violent shock, but
that there was no danger, and this proved to be the case, and she
recovered even more speedily than was to be expected. She now clung to
her father with the most devoted filial affection, and entered warmly
into all his favourite hobbies, however absurd. She helped him to take
old fiddles to pieces, and to put ne