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Pictures of Rural Life in Austria and Hungary [novels and Tales, by A. Stifter]. From the Germ. by M. Norman
Pictures of Rural Life in Austria and Hungary From the Germ by M Norman - novels and Tales, by A. Stifter Author:Adalbert Stifter General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1850 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II. THE KIND-HEARTED COLONEL. Three days ago I was sitting with her, the only woman I have ever loved or wooed, talking to her for several hours together, and using every argument that reason or passion could suggest to persuade her to alter her determination ; and when at last I saw that all was in vain, I rushed out into the wood, up to a birch-tree, resolving to hang myself upon it. I shall describe afterwards how I had bound up my happiness so exclusively in this woman, that I imagined I could not live without her. " No matter," such was then my prevailing thought; " I will punish her, that false and fickle heart! she shall repent it.'' For the present, I will say no more of this, I would rather speak of the Colonel. I rushed away from her, back into my house, snatched a coloured handkerchief from the table, ran through the garden, sprang over the hedge, and crossed the road, passing over AllerVsboundary line and the Beringer meadows. I reached the foot-path leading through the Midway fields, and still I hurried on. I had twisted up the handkerchief and concealed it in my bosom. Then I again turned off to the left, made my way through the thin, withered stems of the Durrschnabel Wood, crossed the skirt of the Kirm forest, passed the fir-bushes, the blocks of stone, and finally sprang out upon the green turf where the birch- trees grow. I paused awhile, and all the trees looked inquiringly at me. There was a broad mass of granite rock rising high at a few yards' distance, from which the sunbeams were dazzlingly reflected, its surface sparkling and glistening in the glorious rays. And the...« less