On the Night of the Seventh Moon

“You are so precious that there must always be those to worry about you. First it is nuns and now this Ilse.”

“I must find her at once.”

“Do you think you will in that crowd?”

“Of course.” I tried to withdraw my hand, but he would not release me.

“We will go back and if it is possible to find her, we will.”

“Come then. She was anxious. She thought we might not be able to come because her husband wasn’`t well enough. She must have visualized something like this.”

“Well, she did lose you and I found you. Surely I should have some reward for that?”

“Reward?” I repeated; he laughed and put an arm about me.

I said primly: “How shall I introduce you to Ilse?”

“When the time comes I’ll introduce myself.”

There seems to me a great mystery about you. First you appear as Siegfried and now as Odin, or is it Loke? “

“That is what you have to find out. It’s part of the game.”

He had some sort of magic which put a spell on me; he was already making me stop worrying about Ilse. But I remembered how anxious she had been about our coming; and now she would be very worried indeed.

We had reached the square; the dancing seemed to have become more frenzied; and there was no sign of Ilse. Someone trod on my heel and my shoe came off. I stopped and stooped. He was just behind me. I told him what had happened.

“I’ll get it.”

He stooped but it wasn’`t there; and the crowd was so great that we were jostled along.

“Now,” he said, ‘you have lost both a cousin and a shoe. ” His eyes gleamed suddenly.

“What next will you lose?”

I said quickly: “I must go back to the house.”

“Allow me to escort you.”

“You, you have come for the excitement of all this. I don’t want to take you away from it.”

“That would be quite impossible. The excitement of this night is where you are.”

I was really frightened. I must get away. Common sense urged me to.

“I must get back.”

“If that is what you really want then you must. Come with me.”

I limped along beside him.

“How far is the house?” he asked.

“It’s about a mile from the centre of the town.”

“I dare say the road is bad. None of the roads are good in these parts. Something should be done about it. I have a horse in the inn yard there. You shall ride with me as you did on another occasion.”

I assured myself that it would be very difficult walking minus a shoe so I went with him to the inn yard and there was the horse; he placed me on it as he had done on that other occasion and we started off.

He didn’`t speak as we went along; he held me firmly against him and my excitement was almost unendurable. I felt I was living in a dream but I suddenly suspected that we were not going towards the house.

I pulled away from him.

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll know soon.”

“You said you were going to take me back to Ilse.”

“I said no such thing.”

“You said if that was what I wanted.”

“Exactly, but it’s not what you want. You don’t want me to take you back and say ” Here is your cousin, just as you left her apart from the loss of one shoe of course. “

“Put me down,” I commanded.

“Here! We’re in the forest. You’d be lost. It’s not the night for young ladies to be about alone.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Surprises are almost more amusing than the expected.”

“You are taking me away somewhere.”

“We are not very far from my hunting lodge.”

“No,” I said firmly.

“No.”

“No? But you really did enjoy your last visit.”

“I want to go straight back to my cousin’s house. How dare you try to take me away against my will.”

“Be truthful, Lenchen. It’s not against your will. Remember the wishbone? You wished that we should meet again, didn’`t you?”

“Not, not like this.”

How else? “

“This is so irregular.”

“You are talking like those aunts of yours.”

“How could you know? You`’ve never met them.”

“My dear little Lenchen, you told me so much on that night. Do you remember? You sat there with the blue velvet robe about you and you talked and talked.

You were so disappointed when we said good night. “

And you didn’`t even come to say goodbye. “

“But it was not goodbye.”

“How could you know that?”

“I did know it. I was determined that we should meet again. It would have been such a tragedy if we had not.”

“You are talking to lull me to security. I want to go back. I must go back to my cousin.”

He stopped the horse; and suddenly he kissed me; it was the strangest kiss I had ever received. But then who had ever kissed me before?

Father on the forehead; mother on both cheeks; a peck once on my return from Aunt Caroline; Aunt Matilda did not kiss at all; she had heard that it was not a practice to be unnecessarily indulged in as it was a means of passing on germs. But this kiss seemed to drain me of all resistance; it made me feel exalted and expectant all at once. It was cruel and yet tender; it was passionate and caressing.

I drew away and said shakily, “Take me back at once.”

“You should not have been turned out on the Night of the Seventh Moon,” he said; and he laughed rather cruelly, I thought; his eyes gleamed through the mask and the horns made him look like a Viking raider.

I said angrily: “Whom do you represent tonight?”

“Just myself,” he replied.

“You seem to have the impression that you are some invader who can seize women and carry them off and behave as you like.”

“And don’t you think I can?” He put his face close to mine, laughing.

“No,” I cried fiercely.

“Not with me. Perhaps with some but not with me.”

“Lenchen,” he said, ‘do you swear that that is not what you want? “

“I don’t understand you.”

“Swear by the moon, by the seventh moon, that your great est wish is for me to take you back to your cousin’s house.”

“But of course you must...

He brought his face closer to mine.

“It is dangerous to swear by the seventh moon.”

“Do you think I’m afraid of fairy stories or of you?”

“You are more afraid of yourself, I think.”

“Will you please say clearly ^what you mean.”

“Lenchen, I have thought of you constantly since that night when we supped together and it ended there.”

“How could you possibly think it could end any other way?”

“Easily-and so did you.”

“I.. I do not indulge in such adventures, I assure you.”

“The assurance is unnecessary. I know it.”

But of course you cannot say the same. Such adventures are commonplace with you. “

“There has never been an adventure like that one. You made it unique and now here we are again. Lenchen, stay with me. Don’t ask me to take you back to your cousin’s house.”

“I must. She will be frantic with anxiety.”

“Is that the reason the only reason?”

“No. I want to go back because...

“Because you have been brought up by the nuns, but if I were your husband you would be very happy riding off alone with me.”

I was silent.

“It’s true, Lenchen,” he cried.

“They have instilled these ideas into you. You have chosen the path of respectability or at least it has been chosen for you; and no matter what ecstasy, what joy, what pleasure I could give you, it would always be incomplete unless you were my wife.”

“You are talking nonsense,” I said.

“Please take me home.”

“It could have been so perfect,” he said.