"I will see Bertha this day, and she will find her lover cold and regardless: too happy to be disdainful, yet how utterly indifferent to her!"
This is how Bertha made him feel in a way. She brushed him off and followed orders, now he is kind of doing the same thing. He drank to potion and now he is too bliss to be bothered by her.
The old high-born hag, who called herself her protectress, and was her tyrant, had seen me, also; she hobbled, panting, up the terrace; a page, as ugly as herself, held up her train, and fanned her as she hurried along, and stopped my fair girl with a "How, now, my bold mistress? whither so fast? Back to your cage--hawks are abroad!"
HA! I think this may be high register because he does not like the lady. She wouldn't let him and Bertha meet each other.
"Winzy, my boy," he again said, "do not touch the vessel--do not put it to your lips; it is a philter--a philter to cure love; you would not cease to love your Bertha--beware to drink!"
This has so much irony & suspence.
for some persons have become entirely white headed before twenty years of age.
emphasizes that for many others, life rushes by? certain people feel "old" at 20 and their body shows it....