The Gossamer Cord Read Online Free PDF

way.”
    But was it? Wherever I looked, I could see very little. The mist was everywhere. I began to feel very alarmed. But I did not want Dorabella to see how much. The instinct to protect Dorabella was with me as strong as it used to be in our childhood.
    She turned to me as she always did, and I was gratified to see that she still had that childlike confidence in me.
    I felt very tender toward her.
    “We’ll soon be out of this,” I said. “We shouldn’t have come into the forest, of course, after what they have told us.”
    She nodded. I grasped her hand firmly and said: “Come on.”
    We walked on. It might have been for ten minutes but it seemed like an hour. I was beginning to get very uneasy. The forest had taken on that Grimm-like quality. The trunks of the trees seemed to form themselves into grotesque faces which leered at me. The bracken caught at our ankles like tentacles trying to hold us back.
    I glanced at Dorabella. She did not have these fancies.
    I had a terrible fear that instead of going out of the forest we were getting deeper and deeper in. As the thought struck me I drew up sharply.
    “What is it?” asked Dorabella.
    I said: “I am wondering if we should wait here…until the mist lifts.”
    “What! Here! That could be all night.”
    She was right. But how could we know whether we were getting deeper and deeper into the forest? What idiots we had been to come in the first place! It was not as though we had not seen that there was mist in the air.
    I felt exasperated—more so because I was becoming more and more alarmed.
    And this had all come about because of that young man in the town. If I had not been so concerned about Dorabella’s disappointment I should have insisted that it was foolish to walk into the forest on such a day. Everything that had happened was because of that young man. We might have been safe with Kurt and Edward.
    Then I thought of the consternation there would be at the schloss when we did not return. So what should we do? Stay where we were and wait? Or go on and perhaps deeper into the forest?
    Despair settled on me—and then I thought I heard someone not so very far off.
    I shouted: “Help! Is anyone there?”
    We stood in silence, listening.
    To our great relief there was a reply. And in English.
    “Yes…where are you?”
    I was aware first of Dorabella’s face. It was bright with excitement. She recognized the voice, as I had. It was that of Dermot Tregarland.
    “We’re lost,” I shouted.
    “I’ll find you. Go on calling.”
    Both Dorabella and I called: “Here! Here!”
    “I’m getting nearer…” came the response.
    Now he seemed very close and we shouted at the tops of our voices: “Here…here.”
    With what joy we saw him looming out of the mist.
    “Oh,” cried Dorabella. “How wonderful! We were quite scared.”
    He was grinning. “I was hoping to find you,” he said. “I saw you turn into the forest.”
    “Where were you?”
    “I came for coffee. I hoped you’d be there. The waiter told me you had just gone. Then I saw you down the road. I watched you go into the forest and I hurried down to catch you up. If I couldn’t, I decided I would have a beer in the schloss and await your return.”
    Dorabella was overcome with delight and wonder. It had all turned out right after all.
    Dermot Tregarland took charge.
    “This devilish mist!” he said. “It is a shocker, don’t you agree? One doesn’t know which way to turn. We’d better get out of here fast. It could get worse as night comes on. I know the way I came and I’m fairly good at finding my way around. There was a gnarled old tree I passed…struck by lightning, I imagine…I guess when we find that we’ll be on the right road. There is a small one growing nearby. So…Excelsior!”
    Dorabella giggled. The nightmare had turned into a thrilling adventure because our perfect, gentle knight had arrived to rescue us. This alone would make the holiday worthwhile and, to tell the