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THE FREEDOMSEEKER Chapter Six The Despairer
ONLY A FEW WEEKS STILL REMAINED TO HIM of this one year of
freedom.
He decided, before taking up once more the struggle for his own existence, to spend the time left him in undisturbed peace. It was to be a period of meditation in which to collect and collate the tremendous impressions of this year. He knew that, for the next few years at least, he would have to return to Germany, and therefore he chose for these sabbatical weeks a small town by the great lake which divides and unites three countries, a junction for the tourist traffic which flows hither and thither, touching but not disturbing it. He was tired of the changing scene and of the ever-changing faces, and longed for the peace of meditation. ON A HILLSIDE he found a large room in a house which was empty and to be sold, with a wide view over the lovely town and the lake. It was a wonderful autumn. Red tendrils of the wild vine wound around his balcony, and the delicate perfumes of the last flowers of the year rose up to him. Sometimes, on clear days, he could see the opposite side of the lake like a thin line; sometimes, on dull days, an ocean of fog and mist weaved below him. Not a sound of life reached up to him. |