by Felix Dahn
CHAPTER V.
Adalo's glance followed the little creature's bound, which reallyresembled flying.
But meanwhile, from amid the dense foliage in the centre of the tree afigure clad in the dress of a girl slid nimbly down the trunk, and assoon as she reached the ground, smoothed her garments carefully fromher knees to her ankles. With her dainty, sparkling beauty, her almostchildlike delicacy of form, this apparition looked less like a mortalmaiden than a spirit of light.
She wore no cloak. Her white linen robe, with its cherry-red border andgirdle of the same hue a hand's breadth wide, left her neck and armsbare; her complexion, wherever any portion of her almost too slenderlymoulded figure was visible, gleamed with the dazzling whiteness ofivory; the unusually heavy dark-red eyebrows, which nearly met in thecentre but were beautifully arched, frowned threateningly, and herclear blue eyes were now flashing with wrath. The vision attractedrather by the vivacious charm of expression and the perfect symmetry ofher dainty figure than by regular beauty. For it must be confessed,though the charming inquisitive little nose did not actually turnup--by no means--it was really a little too short. And, as it slopedsharply away at the end, the space between it and the upper lip becametoo long, thereby giving the oval face when in repose an expressionhalf of alert surprise, half of mischievous wilfulness.
Everything about this dainty dragon-fly was so delicate that the younggirl might easily have been taken for a child, had not her rounded bustrevealed her womanhood. Wonderfully charming was the little mouth,whose lips were so full that they seemed to pout mirthfully, whiletheir hue rivalled the red border of her robe. A dimple in the chin anda slight tendency to a double chin lent the face that innocentsweetness without which woman's beauty fails to attract.
The most remarkable thing about this elfin vision was her hair--hairwhose bright red hue was the very tint of flame--which rippled aroundher brow and temples in a thousand wilful little ringlets as if eachindividual one curled separately. They seemed to frame the faceprotectingly, as thorns cluster about a rosebud. The rest of her locks,after the Suabian fashion, were combed upward toward the crown, knottedthere, and then flowed in magnificent tawny waves, somewhat darker intint, over her dazzlingly white neck far below her waist.
The expression of saucy defiance, inquisitive surprise, nay evensuperiority, enhanced by this arrangement of the hair, was stillfurther heightened by the little creature's habit of raising her heavyeyebrows as if in mingled astonishment and reproof. In the charm of thecontradiction lay a temptation to smile which this fragile elf, withher pert little nose and sparkling blue eyes, seamed to discover--andif necessary instantly resent.
An extremely strong will, a hot, ungovernable temper, and the sweetnessof a half unfolded bud, were contrasts which provoked a smile--nay,almost irresistibly awakened a desire to try what the impetuous littlething would do if her swift wrath were aroused. But when she raised hereyes with a more gentle expression, they were so bewitchinglybeautiful, so pure, so tender, so soulful, that enthusiastic admirationmade the spectator forget the inclination to tease her.
True, at this moment the elf looked by no means angelic, but thoroughlyevil, as, darting only one swift glance of furious rage at the tallyoung noble, she seized the old woman violently by the shoulder and ina low voice stifled by suppressed fury--cried: "Grandmother!--Away!--Tothe marshes! Zercho the bondman must guide us. Away!"
"Gently, child, gently! Did not you hear? It will be safer on themountain."
"Safer perhaps for us; but not for those whom we--no, whom _I_ shouldthen be near. Go," she cried furiously to the youth, "save yourself, Iadvise you, from the red-hair. 'False and spitting her ire like the foxand the fire.' Was that the way it ran, you witty fellow? As soon asthe daughter of our neighbor Ero, giggling with spiteful mirth, told meyour last jibe against me, I climbed the hay-ladder to the ridge-poleof our house and painted our white star up there red: painted it verythick and bright, so that you could see it from the edge of the forestand keep far away from the evil color. Very far--do you hear?"
