But when the heart hungers behind such meditations, that thinking without language is a dangerous habit; for there will suddenly come a dash usurping the series of tentative dots, which is nothing other than the dreadful thing resolved on, as of necessity, as naturally as the adventurous bow-legged infant pitches back from an excursion of two paces to mother’s lap; and not much less innocently within the mind, it would appear.  The dash is a haven reached that would not be greeted if it stood out in words.  Could we live without ourselves letting our animal do our thinking for us legibly?  We live with ourselves agreeably so long as his projects are phrased in his primitive tongue, even though we have clearly apprehended what he means, and though we sufficiently well understand the whither of our destination under his guidance.  No counsel can be saner than that the heart should be bidden to speak out in plain verbal speech within us.  For want of it, Clotilde’s short explorations in Dot-and-Dash land were of a kind to terrify her, and yet they seemed not only unavoidable, but foreshadowing of the unavoidable to come.  Or possibly—­the thought came to her—­Alvan would keep his word, and save her from worse by stepping to the altar between her and Marko, there calling on her to decide and quit the prince; and his presence would breathe courage into her to go to him.  It set her looking to the altar as a prospect of deliverance.

Her mother could not fail to notice a change in Clotilde’s wintry face now that Marko was among them; her inference tallied with his report of their interview, so she supposed the girl to have accepted more or less heartily Marko’s forgiveness.  For him the girl’s eyes were soft and kind; her gaze was through the eyelashes, as one seeing a dream on a far horizon.  Marko spoke of her cheerfully, and was happy to call her his own, but would not have her troubled by any ceremonial talk of their engagement, so she had much to thank him for, and her consciousness of the signal instance of ingratitude lying ahead in the darkness, like a house mined beneath the smiling slumberer, made her eager to show the real gratefulness and tenderness of her feelings.  This had the appearance of renewed affection; consequently her parents lost much of their fear of the besieger outside, and she was removed to the city.  Two parties were in the city, one favouring Alvan, and one abhorring the audacious Jew.  Together they managed to spread incredible reports of his doings, which required little exaggeration to convince an enemy that he was a man with whom hostility could not be left to sleep.  The General heard of the man’s pleading his cause in all directions to get pressure put upon him, showing something like a devilish persuasiveness, Jew and demagogue though he was; for there seemed to be a feeling abroad that the interview this howling lover claimed with Clotilde ought to be granted.  The latest report spoke of him as off to the General’s Court for an audience of his official chief.  General von Rudiger looked to his defences, and he had sufficient penetration to see that the weakest point of them might be a submissive daughter.