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Parting with Fräulein Sara
William Cubitt Cooke
1904
16 cm high by 10 cm wide (6 by 4 inches), framed.
Charles Lever's That Boy of Norcott's. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1904. Facing p. 580.
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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“Oh, Sara,” I whispered rather than spoke, “if you knew how devoted I am to you, if you knew how willingly I would give my very life for you, you would not think yourself friendless at this hour. Your trust in me has made me forget how lonely I am, and how humble, — to forget all that separates us, even to telling that I love you. Give me one word — only one — of hope; or if not that, let your dear hand but close on mine, and I am yours forever.”
She never spoke, however, and her cold fingers returned no pressure to mine.
“I love you; I love you!” I muttered, as I covered her hand with kisses.
“There! Do you not hear?” cried she, suddenly. “My father is calling me.”
“Sara, Sara! Where is Sara?” cried the old man, in a weak, reedy voice.“I am coming, dear father,” said she. “Good-bye, Digby; remember that I trust you!” [Chapter XXIV, "My Instructions," 581]
Fräulein Sara Oppovich now despatches Digby to deal with a complicated timber transaction in Transylvania in which her scapegrace brother, Adolf, has forged her father's signature on a contract with Count Graf Hunyadi. Adolf or perhaps Hunyadi has apparently defrauded Sara's small financial house since the value of the timber is a fraction of the half-million francs negotiated. Madly in love (of course! for he is a young Lever protagonist on the Continent) with Fräulein Sara, Digby agrees to visit Hunyadi in order to renegotiate the sale. This would avert the financial ruin of the business since their Parisian financial backer, Baron Elias Nathanheimer, is about to withdraw his support as a result of faulty contract. The successful prosecution of Digby's romance with the golden-haired Sarah (foreground in the illustration) depends upon his somehow extricating the house of Oppovich from the contract. Curiously, Cooke has Digby rather than Sara leaving the room, as if to suggest his departure for Transylvania.
Lever, Charles. A Day's Ride: A Life's Romance. To Which is Added That Boy of Norcott's. Illustrated by William Cubitt Cooke. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1904.
Lever, Charles James. That Boy of Norcott's. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32693/32693-h/32693-h.htm
Stevenson, Lionel. Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. New York: Russell & Russell, 1939, rpt. 1969.
Sutherland, John. "Charles Lever." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989. 372-374.
Created 28 July 2022