The Torrents Of Spring

and emotions with more fire and persuasive force even to Gemma herself.
Those emotions were of the sincerest, those intentions were of the
purest, like Almaviva’s in the Barber of Seville. He did not conceal from
Frau Lenore nor from himself the disadvantageous side of those intentions;
but the disadvantages were only apparent! It is true he was a foreigner;
they had not known him long, they knew nothing positive about
himself or his means; but he was prepared to bring forward all the necessary
evidence that he was a respectable person and not poor; he would
refer them to the most unimpeachable testimony of his fellow-countrymen!
He hoped Gemma would be happy with him, and that he would be
able to make up to her for the separation from her own people!… The allusion
to ‘separation’ – the mere word ‘separation’ – almost spoiled the
whole business… . Frau Lenore began to tremble all over and move
about uneasily… . Sanin hastened to observe that the separation would
only be temporary, and that, in fact, possibly it would not take place at
all!
Sanin’s eloquence was not thrown away. Frau Lenore began to glance
at him, though still with bitterness and reproach, no longer with the
same aversion and fury; then she suffered him to come near her, and
even to sit down beside her (Gemma was sitting on the other side); then
she fell to reproaching him, – not in looks only, but in words, which
already indicated a certain softening of heart; she fell to complaining,
and her complaints became quieter and gentler; they were interspersed
with questions addressed at one time to her daughter, and at another to
Sanin; then she suffered him to take her hand and did not at once pull it
away … then she wept again, but her tears were now quite of another
kind… . Then she smiled mournfully, and lamented the absence of Giovanni
Battista, but quite on different grounds from before… . An instant
more and the two criminals, Sanin and Gemma, were on their knees at
her feet, and she was laying her hands on their heads in turn; another instant
and they were embracing and kissing her, and Emil, his face beaming
rapturously, ran into the room and added himself to the group so
warmly united.
Pantaleone peeped into the room, smiled and frowned at the same
time, and going into the shop, opened the front door.
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