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diff --git a/old/13929.txt b/old/13929.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e592bbd --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13929.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6414 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ilka on the Hill-Top and Other Stories +by Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ilka on the Hill-Top and Other Stories + +Author: Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen + +Release Date: November 2, 2004 [EBook #13929] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ILKA ON THE HILL-TOP *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + +ILKA ON THE HILL-TOP +AND OTHER STORIES + +BY HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN + +AUTHOR OF "GUNNAR," "FALCONBERG," ETC. + + +SECOND EDITION + + +1891 + + + To DR. EGBERT GUERNSEY. + + DEAR DOCTOR: + + I can never expect adequately to repay you for your many valuable + services to me and mine. Nevertheless, in recognition of what you + have been to us, allow me to dedicate this unpretentious volume to + you. I shall have more respect for my little stories if in some way + they are associated with your name. + + Very sincerely yours, + HJALMAR H. BOYESEN. + + NEW YORK, January, 1881. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + ILKA ON THE HILL-TOP + ANNUNCIATA + UNDER THE GLACIER + A KNIGHT OF DANNEBROG + MABEL AND I (_A Philosophical Fairy Tale_) + HOW MR. STORM MET HIS DESTINY + + + + +ILKA ON THE HILL-TOP + + +I. + + +Mr. Julius Hahn and his son Fritz were on a summer journey in the +Tyrol. They had started from Mayrhofen early in the afternoon, on two +meek-eyed, spiritless farm horses, and they intended to reach Ginzling +before night-fall. + +There was a great blaze of splendor hidden somewhere behind the +western mountain-tops; broad bars of fiery light were climbing the +sky, and the chalets and the Alpine meadows shone in a soft crimson +illumination. The Zemmbach, which is of a choleric temperament, was +seething and brawling in its rocky bed, and now and then sent up a +fierce gust of spray, which blew like an icy shower-bath, into the +faces of the travellers. + +"_Ach, welch verfluchtes Wetter!_" cried Mr. Hahn fretfully, wiping +off the streaming perspiration. "I'll be blasted if you catch me going +to the Tyrol again for the sake of being fashionable!" + +"But the scenery, father, the scenery!" exclaimed Fritz, pointing +toward a great, sun-flushed peak, which rose in majestic isolation +toward the north. + +"The scenery--bah!" growled the senior Hahn. "For scenery, recommend +me to Saxon Switzerland, where you may sit in an easy cushioned +carriage without blistering your legs, as I have been doing to-day in +this blasted saddle." + +"Father, you are too fat," remarked the son, with a mischievous +chuckle. + +"And you promise fair to tread in my footsteps, son," retorted the +elder, relaxing somewhat in his ill-humor. + +This allusion to Mr. Fritz's prospective corpulence was not well +received by the latter. He gave his horse a smart cut of the whip, +which made the jaded animal start off at a sort of pathetic mazurka +gait up the side of the mountain. + +Mr. Julius Hahn was a person of no small consequence in Berlin. He was +the proprietor of the "Haute Noblesse" Concert garden, a highly +respectable place of amusement, which enjoyed the especial patronage +of the officers of the Royal Guard. Weissbeer, Bairisch, Seidel, +Pilzner, in fact all varieties of beer, and as connoisseurs asserted, +of exceptional excellence, could be procured at the "Haute Noblesse;" +and the most ingenious novelties in the way of gas illumination, +besides two military bands, tended greatly to heighten the flavor of +the beer, and to put the guests in a festive humor. Mr. Hahn had begun +life in a small way with a swallow-tail coat, a white choker, and a +napkin on his arm; his stock in trade, which he utilized to good +purpose, was a peculiarly elastic smile and bow, both of which he +accommodated with extreme nicety to the social rank of the person to +whom they were addressed. He could listen to a conversation in which +he was vitally interested, never losing even the shadow of an +intonation, with a blank neutrality of countenance which could only be +the result of a long transmission of ancestral inanity. He read the +depths of your character, divined your little foibles and vanities, +and very likely passed his supercilious judgment upon you, seeming all +the while the personification of uncritical humility. + +It is needless to say that Mr. Hahn picked up a good deal of valuable +information in the course of his career as a waiter; and to him +information meant money, and money meant power and a recognized place +in society. The diplomatic shrewdness which enabled him to estimate +the moral calibre of a patron served him equally well in estimating +the value of an investment. He had a hundred subterranean channels of +information, and his judgment as to the soundness or unsoundness of a +financial enterprise was almost unerring. His little secret +transactions on the Bourse, where he had his _commissionaires_, always +yielded him ample returns; and when an opportunity presented itself, +which he had long foreseen, of buying a suburban garden at a bankrupt +sale, he found himself, at least preliminarily, at the goal of his +ambition. From this time forth, Mr. Hahn rose rapidly in wealth and +power. He kept his thumb, so to speak, constantly on the public pulse, +and prescribed amusements as unerringly as a physician prescribes +medicine, and usually, it must be admitted, with better results. The +"Haute Noblesse" became the favorite resort of fashionable idlers, +among whom the military element usually pre-ponderated, and the flash +of gilt buttons and the rattle of swords and scabbards could always be +counted on as the unvarying accompaniment to the music. + +With all his prosperity, however, Mr. Hahn could not be called a happy +man. He had one secret sorrow, which, until within a year of his +departure for the Tyrol, had been a source of constant annoyance: Mrs. +Hahn, whom he had had the indiscretion to marry before he had arrived +at a proper recognition of his own worth, was not his equal in +intellect; in fact, she was conspicuously his inferior. She had been +chamber-maid in a noble family, and had succeeded in marrying Mr. Hahn +simply by the fact that she had made up her mind not to marry him. Mr. +Hahn, however, was not a man to be baffled by opposition. When the +pert Mariana had cut him three times at a dancing-hall, he became +convinced that she was the one thing in the world which he needed to +make his existence complete. After presenting him with a son, Fritz, +and three rather unlovely daughters, she had gradually lost all her +pertness (which had been her great charm) and had developed into a +stout, dropsical matron, with an abundance of domestic virtues. Her +principal trait of character had been a dogged, desperate loyalty. She +was loyal to her king, and wore golden imitations of his favorite +flowers as jewelry. She was loyal to Mr. Hahn, too; and no amount of +maltreatment could convince her that he was not the best of husbands. +She adored her former mistress and would insist upon paying respectful +little visits to her kitchen, taking her children with her. This +latter habit nearly drove her husband to distraction. He stamped his +feet, he tore his hair, he swore at her, and I believe, he even struck +her; but when the next child was born,--a particularly wonderful +one,--Mrs. Hahn had not the strength to resist the temptation of +knowing how the new-born wonder would impress the Countess von +Markenstein. Another terrible scene followed. The poor woman could +never understand that she was no longer the wife of a waiter, and that +she must not be paying visits to the great folks in their kitchens. + +Another source of disturbance in Mr. Hahn's matrimonial relations was +his wife's absolute refusal to appear in the parquet or the proscenium +boxes in the theatre. In this matter her resistance bordered on the +heroic; neither threats nor entreaties could move her. + +"Law, Julius," she would say, while the tears streamed down over her +plump cheeks, "the parquet and the big boxes are for the gentlefolks, +and not for humble people like you and me. I know my place, Julius, +and I don't want to be the laughing-stock of the town, as I should be, +if I went to the opera and sat where my lady the Countess, and the +other fine ladies sit. I should feel like a fool, too, Julius, and I +should cry my eyes out when I got home." + +It may easily be conjectured that Mr. Hahn's mourning covered a very +light heart when the dropsy finally carried off this loving but +troublesome spouse. Nor did he make any secret of the fact that her +death was rather a relief to him, while on the other hand he gave her +full credit for all her excellent qualities. Fritz, who was in cordial +sympathy with his father's ambition for social eminence, had also +learned from him to be ashamed of his mother, and was rather inclined +to make light of the sorrow which he actually felt, when he saw the +cold earth closing over her. + +At the time when he made his summer excursion in the Tyrol, Fritz was +a stout blond youth of two and twenty. His round, sleek face was not +badly modelled, but it had neither the rough openness, characteristic +of a peasant, nor yet that indefinable finish which only culture can +give. In spite of his jaunty, fashionable attire, you would have put +him down at once as belonging to what in the Old World is called "the +middle class." His blue eyes indicated shrewdness, and his red cheeks +habitual devotion to the national beverage. He was apparently a youth +of the sort that Nature is constantly turning out by the +thousand--mere weaker copies of progenitors, who by an unpropitious +marriage have enfeebled instead of strengthening the type. +Circumstances might have made anything of him in a small way; for, as +his countenance indicated, he had no very pronounced proclivities, +either good or bad. He had spent his boyhood in a gymnasium, where he +had had greater success in trading jack-knives than in grappling with +Cicero. He had made two futile attempts to enter the Berlin +University, and had settled down to the conviction that he had +mistaken his calling, as his tastes were military rather than +scholarly; but, as he was too old to rectify this mistake, he had +chosen to go to the Tyrol in search of pleasure rather than to the +Military Academy in search of distinction. + +At the mouth of the great ravine of Dornauberg the travellers paused +and dismounted. Mr. Hahn called the guide, who was following behind +with a horse laden with baggage, and with his assistance a choice +repast, consisting of all manner of cold curiosities, was served on a +large flat rock. The senior Hahn fell to work with a will and made no +pretence of being interested in the sombre magnificence of the +Dornauberg, while Fritz found time for an occasional exclamation of +rapture, flavored with caviar, Rhine wine, and _pate de foie gras_. + +"_Ach, Gott_, Fritz, what stuff you can talk!" grumbled his father, +sipping his Johannisberger with the air of a connoisseur. "When I was +of your age, Fritz, I had--hush, what is that?" + +Mr. Hahn put down his glass with such an energy that half of the +precious contents was spilled. + +"_Ach, du lieber Gott_," he cried a moment later. "_Wie wunderschon_!" + +From a mighty cliff overhanging the road, about a hundred feet +distant, came a long yodling call, peculiar to the Tyrol, sung in a +superb ringing baritone. It soared over the mountain peaks and died +away somewhere among the Ingent glaciers. And just as the last faint +note was expiring, a girl's voice, fresh and clear as a dew-drop, took +it up and swelled it and carolled it until, from sheer excess of +delight, it broke into a hundred leaping, rolling, and warbling tones, +which floated and gambolled away over the highlands, while soft-winged +echoes bore them away into the wide distance. + +"Father," said Fritz, who was now lying outstretched on a soft Scotch +plaid smoking the most fragrant of weeds; "if you can get those two +voices to the 'Haute Noblesse,' for the next season it is ten thousand +thalers in your pocket; and I shall only charge you ten per cent. for +the suggestion." + +"Suggestion, you blockhead! Why, the thought flashed through my head +the very moment I heard the first note. But hush--there they are +again." + +From the cliff, sung to the air of a Tyrolese folk-song, came this +stanza: + + Tell me, Ilka on the hill-top, + While the Alpine breezes blow, + Are thy golden locks as golden + As they were a year ago? + (Yodle) Hohli-ohli-ohli-ho! + Hohli-ohli-ohli-ho! Hohlio-oh! + +The effect of the yodle, in which both the baritone of the cliff and +the Alpine soprano united, was so melodious that Mr. Hahn sprang to +his feet and swore an ecstatic oath, while Fritz, from sheer admiring +abstraction, almost stuck the lighted end of his cigar into his mouth. +The soprano answered: + + Tell me, Hansel in the valley, + While the merry cuckoos crow, + Is thy bristly beard as bristly + As it was a year ago? + Hohli-ohli-ohli-ho! + Hohli-ohli-ohli-ho! Hohli-oh! + +The yodling refrain this time was arch, gay--full of mocking laughter +and mirth. Then the responsive singing continued: + + _Hansel_: Tell me, Ilka on the hill-top, + While the crimson glaciers glow, + Are thine eyes as blue and beaming + As they were a year ago? + _Both_: Hohli-ohli, etc. + + _Ilka_: Hansel, Hansel in the valley + I will tell you true; + If mine eyes are blue and beaming, + What is that, I pray, to you? + _Both_: Hohli-ohli, etc. + + _Hansel_: Tell me, Ilka on the hill-top, + While the blushing roses blow, + Are thy lips as sweet for kissing + As they were a year ago? + _Both_: Hohli-ohli, etc. + + _Ilka_: Naughty Hansel in the valley, + Naughty Hansel, tell me true, + If my lips are sweet for kissing, + What is that, I pray, to you? + _Both_: Hohli-ohli, etc. + + _Hansel_: Tell me, Ilka on the hill-top, + While the rivers seaward flow, + Is thy heart as true and loving + As it was a year ago? + _Both_: Hohli-ohli, etc. + + _Ilka_: Dearest Hansel in the valley, + I will tell you, tell you true. + Yes, my heart is ever loving, + True and loving unto you! + _Both_: Hohli-ohli-ohli-ho! + Hohli-ohli-ohli-ho! Hohli-oh! + +For a few moments their united voices seemed still to be quivering in +the air, then to be borne softly away by the echoes into the cool +distance of the glaciers. A solitary thrush began to warble on a low +branch of a stunted fir-tree, and a grasshopper raised its shrill +voice in emulation. The sun was near its setting; the bluish evening +shadows crept up the sides of the ice-peaks, whose summits were still +flushed with expiring tints of purple and red. + +Mr. Hahn rose, yawned and stretched his limbs. Fritz threw the burning +stump of his cigar into the depths of the ravine, and stood watching +it with lazy interest while it fell. The guide cleared away the +remnants of the repast and began to resaddle the horses. + +"Who was that girl we heard singing up on the Alp?" said Mr. Hahn, +with well-feigned indifference, as he put his foot in the stirrup and +made a futile effort to mount. "Curse the mare, why don't you make her +stand still?" + +"Pardon, your honor," answered the guide stolidly; "but she isn't used +to the saddle. The girl's name is Ilka on the Hill-top. She is the +best singer in all the valley." + +"Ilka on the Hill-top! How--where does she live?" + +"She lives on a farm called the Hill-top, a mile and a half from +Mayrhofen." + +"And the man who answered--is he her sweetheart?" + +"Yes, your honor. They have grown up together, and they mean to marry +some time, when they get money enough to buy out the old woman." + +"And what did you say his name was?" + +"Hansel the Hunter. He is a garnet polisher by trade, because his +father was that before him; but he is a good shot and likes roving in +the woods better than polishing stones." + +"Hm," grumbled Mr. Hahn, mounting with a prodigious effort. + + +II. + + +It was in the autumn of 1863, only a few weeks after Mr. Hahn's visit +to Ginzling and Dornauberg. There were war and rumors of war in the +air. The Austrians and the Prussians were both mobilizing army-corps +after army-corps, and all the Tyrolese youth, liable to service, were +ordered to join their regiments. The Schleswig-Holstein question was +being violently debated in the German and the English press, the +former clamoring for blood, the latter counselling moderation. The +Danish press was as loud-mouthed as any, and, if the battles could +have been fought with words, would no doubt have come out victorious. + +It had been a sad day at the Hill-top. Early in the morning Hansel, +with a dozen other young fellows of the neighborhood, had marched away +to the music of fife and drum, and there was no knowing when they +would come back again. A dismal whitish fog had been hovering about +the fields all day long, but had changed toward evening into a fine +drizzling rain,--one of those slow, hopeless rains that seem to have +no beginning and no end. Old Mother Uberta, who, although she +pretended to be greatly displeased at Ilka's matrimonial choice, +persisted in holding her responsible for all her lover's follies, had +been going about the house grumbling and scolding since the early +dawn. + +"Humph," said Mother Uberta, as she lighted a pine-knot and stuck it +into a crack in the wall (for it was already dark, and candles were +expensive), "it is a great sin and shame--the lad is neither crooked +nor misshapen--the Lord has done well enough by him, Heaven knows; and +yet never a stroke of work has he done since his poor father went out +of the world as naked as he came into it. A shiftless, fiddling, and +galavanting set they have always been, and me then as has only this +one lass, givin' her away, with my eyes wide open, into misery." + +Ilka, who was sitting before the open fire-place mingling her furtive +tears with the wool she was carding, here broke into a loud sob, and +hid her face in her hands. + +"You always say mean things to me, mother, when Hansel is away," +sobbed she, "but when he is here, you let on as if you liked him ever +so much." + +The mother recognized this as a home-thrust, and wisely kept silent. +She wet her finger-tips, twirled the thread, stopped the wheel, +inspected some point in its mechanism with a scowl of intense +preoccupation, and then spun on again with a severe concentration of +interest as if lovers were of small consequence compared to +spinning-wheels. Mother Uberta was a tall, stately woman of fifty, +with a comely wrinkled face, and large, well-modelled features. You +saw at once that life was a serious business to her, and that she gave +herself no quarter. + +"Humph!" she began after awhile with that indefinable interjection of +displeasure which defies all spelling. "You talk like the witless +creature that you are. Didn't I tell the lad, two years ago, +Michaelmas was, that the day he could pay off the mortgage on the +farm, he should have you and the farm too? And eight hundred and fifty +florins oughtn't to frighten a man as has got the right spirit in +him. And there was Ruodi of Gaenzelstein, as has got a big farm of his +own, and Casper Thinglen with fifteen hundred a-comin' to him when his +grandfather dies; and you sendin' them both off with worse grace than +if they had been beggars askin' you for a shillin'. Now, stop your +snivellin' there, I tell you. You are like your poor sainted +father,--God bless him where he lies,--he too used to cry, likely +enough, if a flea bit him." + +At this moment Mother Uberta's monologue was interrupted by a loud +rapping on the door; she bent down to attach the unfinished thread +properly, but before she had completed this delicate operation, the +door was opened, and two men entered. Seeing that they were strangers +she sent them a startled glance, which presently changed into one of +defiance. The fire was low, and the two men stood but dimly defined in +the dusky light; but their city attire showed at once that they were +not Tyrolese. And Mother Uberta, having heard many awful tales of what +city-dressed men were capable of doing, had a natural distrust of the +species. + +"And pray, sir, what may your errand be?" she asked sternly, taking +the burning pine-knot from its crack and holding it close to the face +of the tallest stranger. + +"My name is Hahn, madam," answered the person whose broad expanse of +countenance was thus suddenly illuminated, "and this is my son, Mr. +Fritz Hahn. Allow me to assure you, madam, that our errand here is a +most peaceful and friendly one, and that we deeply regret it, if our +presence incommodes you." + +"Ilka, light the candles," said Mother Uberta, sullenly. "And you," +she continued, turning again to Mr. Hahn, "find yourself a seat, until +we can see what you look like." + +"What a vixen of an old woman!" whispered the proprietor of the "Haute +Noblesse" to his son, as they seated themselves on the hard wooden +bench near the window. + +"Small chance for the 'Haute Noblesse,' I fear," responded Fritz, +flinging his travelling cap on the clean-scoured deal table. + +Ilka, who in the meanwhile had obeyed her mother's injunction, now +came forward with two lighted tallow dips, stuck in shining brass +candle-sticks, and placed them on the table before the travellers. She +made a neat little courtesy before each of them, to which they +responded with patronizing nods. + +"_Parbleu! Elle est charmante_!" exclaimed Fritz, fixing a bold stare +on the girl's blushing face. + +"_Bien charmante_," replied Mr. Hahn, who took a great pride in the +little French he had picked up when he carried a napkin over his +shoulder. + +And indeed, Ilka was _charmante_ as she stood there in the dim +candle-light, her great innocent eyes dilated with child-like wonder, +her thick blond braids hanging over her shoulders, and the picturesque +Tyrolese costume--a black embroidered velvet waist, blue apron, and +short black skirt--setting off her fine figure to admirable advantage. +She was a tall, fresh-looking girl, of stately build, without being +stout, with a healthy blooming countenance and an open, guileless +expression. Most people would have pronounced her beautiful, but her +beauty was of that rudimentary, unindividualized kind which is found +so frequently among the peasantry of all nations. To Fritz Hahn, +however who was not a philosophical observer, she seemed the most +transcendent phenomenon his eyes had ever beheld. + +"To make a long story short, madam," began Mr. Hahn after a pause, +during which Mother Uberta had been bristling silently while firing +defiant glances at the two strangers, "I am the proprietor of a great +establishment in Berlin--the 'Haute Noblesse'--you may have heard of +it." + +"No, I never heard of it," responded Mother Uberta, emphatically, as +if anxious to express her disapproval, on general principles, of +whatever statements Mr. Hahn might choose to make. + +"Well, well, madam," resumed the latter, a trifle disconcerted, "it +makes very little difference whether you have heard of it or not. I +see, however, that you are a woman of excellent common sense, and I +will therefore be as brief as possible--avoid circumlocutions, so to +speak." + +"Yes, exactly," said Mother Uberta, nodding impatiently, as if eager +to help him on. + +"Madame Uberta,--for that, as I understand, is your honored +name,--would you like to get one thousand florins?" + +"That depends upon how I should get 'em," answered the old woman +sharply. "I shouldn't like to get 'em by stealin'." + +"I mean, of course, if you had honestly earned them," said Hahn. + +"I am afeard honesty with you and with me ain't exactly the same +thing." + +Mr. Hahn was about to swear, but mindful of his cherished enterprise, +he wisely refrained. + +"I beg leave to inform you, Madame Uberta," he observed, "that it is +gentlemen of honor you have to deal with, and that whatever proposals +they may make you will be of an honorable character." + +"And I am very glad to hear that, I am sure," responded the undaunted +Uberta. + +"Three weeks ago, when we were travelling in this region," continued +Hahn, determined not to allow his temper to be ruffled, "we heard a +most wonderful voice yodling in the mountains. We went away, but have +now returned, and having learned that the voice was your daughter's, +we have come here to offer her a thousand florins if she will sing her +native Tyrolese airs for eight weeks at our Concert Garden, the 'Haute +Noblesse.'" + +"One thousand florins for eight weeks, mother!" exclaimed Ilka, who +had been listening to Hahn's speech with breathless interest. "Then I +could pay off the mortgage and we should not have to pay interest any +more, and I should have one hundred and fifty florins left for my +dowry." + +"Hush, child, hush! You don't know what you are talkin' about," said +the mother severely. Then turning to Hahn: "I should like to put one +question to both of you, and when you have answered that, I'll give my +answer, which there is no wrigglin' out of. If the old woman went +along, would ye _then_ care so much about the singin' of the +daughter?" + +"Certainly, by all means," responded Hahn promptly; but Fritz was so +absorbed in polishing his finger-nails with a little instrument +designed especially for that purpose, that he forgot to answer. + +A long consultation now followed, and the end of it was that Ilka +agreed to go to Berlin and sing for eight weeks, in her national +costume, on condition that her travelling expenses and those of her +mother should be defrayed by the manager. Mr. Hahn also agreed to pay +for the board and lodgings of the two women during their sojourn in +the capital and to pay Ilka the one thousand florins (and this was a +point upon which Mother Uberta strenuously insisted) in weekly +instalments. + +The next day the contract was drawn up in legal form, properly stamped +and signed; whereupon Mother Uberta and Ilka started with Hahn and +Fritz for Berlin. + + +III. + + +The restaurant of the "Haute Noblesse" was a splendid specimen of +artistic decoration. The walls were frescoed with all sorts of +marvellous hunting scenes, which Fritz had gradually incorporated in +his own autobiography. Here stags were fleeing at a furious speed +before a stout young gentleman on horseback, who was levelling his +deadly aim at them; there the same stout young gentleman, with +whiskers and general appearance slightly altered, was standing behind +a big tree, firing at a hare who was coming straight toward him, +pursued by a pack of terrible hounds; again, on a third wall, the +stout young gentleman had undergone a further metamorphosis which +almost endangered his identity; he was standing at the edge of a +swamp, and a couple of ducks were making somersaults in the air, as +they fluttered with bruised wings down to where the dogs stood +expecting them; on wall number four, which contained the +_chef-d'oeuvre_ of the collection, the young Nimrod, who everywhere +bore a more or less remote resemblance to Fritz Hahn, was engaged in a +mortal combat with a wild boar, and was performing miraculous feats of +strength and prowess. The next room,--to which it was, for some +unknown reason, deemed a high privilege to be admitted,--was +ornamented with a variety of trophies of the chase, which were +intended, no doubt, as incontestable proofs of the veracity of the +frescoed narrative. There were stuffed stags' heads crowned with +enormous antlers (of a species, as a naturalist asserted, which is not +found outside of North America), heads of bears, the insides of whose +mouths were painted in the bloodiest of colors, and boars, whose +upward-pointed tusks gave evidence of incredible blood-thirstiness. +Even the old clock in the corner (a piece of furniture which every +customer took pains to assure Mr. Hahn that he envied him) had a frame +of curiously carved and intertwisted antlers, the ingenious +workmanship of which deserved all the admiration which it received. +Mr. Hahn had got it for a song at an auction somewhere in the +provinces; but the history of the clock which Fritz told omitted +mentioning this incident. + +In this inner room on the 19th of April, 1864, Mr. Hahn and his son +were holding a solemn consultation. The news of the fall of Duppel, +and the consequent conquest of all Schleswig, had just been received, +and the capital was in a fever of warlike enthusiasm. That two great +nations like the Prussians and the Austrians, counting together more +than fifty millions, could conquer poor little Denmark, with its two +millions, seemed at that time a great and glorious feat, and the +conquerors have never ceased to be proud of it. Mr. Hahn, of course, +was overflowing with loyalty and patriotism, which, like all his other +sentiments, he was anxious to convert into cash. He had therefore made +arrangements for a _Siegesfest_, on a magnificent scale, which was to +take place on the second of May, when the first regiments of the +victorious army were expected in Berlin. It was the details of this +festival which he and Fritz had been plotting in the back room at the +restaurant, and they were both in a state of agreeable agitation at +the thought of the tremendous success which would, no doubt, result +from their combined efforts. It was decided that Ilka, whom by various +pretexts Mr. Hahn had managed to detain in Berlin through the whole +winter, should appear in a highly fantastic costume as Germania, and +sing "Die Wacht am Rhein" and "Heil dir im Siegeskranz," as a greeting +to the returning warriors. If the weather proved favorable, the garden +was to be brilliantly illuminated, and the likenesses of King Wilhelm, +Bismarck, and von Moltke were to appear in gas-jets, each surmounting +a triumphal arch, which was to be erected in front of the stage and at +the two entrances to the garden. + +"As regards that Tyrolese wench," said Fritz, as he lighted a fresh +cigar, "are you sure we can persuade her to don the Germania costume? +She seems to have some pretty crooked notions on some points, and the +old woman, you know, is as balky as a stage horse." + +"Leave that to me, Fritzchen, leave that to me," replied the father, +confidently. "I know how to manage the women. Thirty years' practice, +my dear--thirty years' practice goes for more in such matters than a +stripling like you can imagine." + +This remark, for some reason, seemed to irritate Mr. Fritz +exceedingly. He thrust his hands deeply into his pockets, and began to +stalk up and down the floor with a sullen, discontented air. + +"Aha! you old fox," he muttered to himself, "you have been hunting on +my preserves. But I'll catch you in your own trap, as sure as my name +is Fritz." + +"The sly young rascal!" thought Mr. Hahn; "you have been sniffing in +your father's cupboard, have you?" + +"Fritz, my dear," he said aloud, stretching himself with a long, +hypocritical yawn, "it is ridiculous for two fellows like you and me +to wear masks in each other's presence. We don't care a straw for the +whole _Sieges_ business, do we, Fritz, except for the dollars and +cents of it? I am deucedly sleepy, and I am going to bed." + +"And so am I, father dear," responded Fritz, with a sudden outburst of +affection. "Yes, yes, father," he continued heartily, "you and I +understand each other. I am a chip of the old block, I am--he, he!" + +And with the most effusive cordiality this affectionate parent and son +separated, with the avowed purpose of seeking oblivion in slumber, in +their respective apartments. + +"Perhaps I have been doing the old fellow injustice, after all," +thought Fritz, as he clasped his father's hand once more at the bottom +of the staircase. + +"The young gosling hasn't ventured into such deep water as I thought," +murmured the happy father, as he stood listening to Fritz's footsteps +re-echoing through the empty corridors. + + +IV. + + +Mr. Hahn, Sr., having satisfied himself as to his son's sincerity, +retired to his private chamber; not for the purpose of going to rest, +however, but in order to make an elaborate toilet, having completed +which, he hailed a droschke and drove to an obscure little street in +the Friedrich-Wilhelm Stadt, where he ordered the coachman to stop. As +he was preparing to dismount, he saw to his astonishment another +droschke driving away from the door which he was intending to enter. + +"Hm," growled Hahn, "if she has been making acquaintances, she isn't +the girl I took her for. But there are other people living in the +house, and the visit may not have been for her." + +Clinging fondly to this hope, he climbed with wary steps two flights +of dark and narrow stairs, which was no easy feat for an elderly +gentleman of his bulk. As he reached the second landing, panting and +breathless, he found himself in violent contact with another person, +who, like himself, seemed to be fumbling for the bell-handle. + +"Beg your pardon, sir," said a voice in the dark. + +"What, you sneaking young villain!" cried Hahn in great wrath (for the +voice was only too familiar to him); "I might have known you were up +to some devilish trick, or you wouldn't--" + +Here the senior Hahn choked, and was seized with a violent coughing +fit. + +"You miserable old sinner!" hissed Fritz; "the devil has already got +his finger on your throat." + +This was too much for Mr. Hahn; he made a rush for his rival, and in a +moment he and Fritz were grappling furiously in the dark. It seemed +about an even chance who was to be precipitated down the steep +staircase; but just as the father was within an inch of the dangerous +edge, the hall door was torn open, and Mother Uberta, followed by Ilka +with a lamp in her hand, sprang forward, grasped the combatants in her +strong arms and flung them against the opposite wall. They both fell +on the floor, but each managed, without serious injury, to extricate +himself from the other's embrace. + +"You are a fine, well-behaved lot, you are!" broke out Mother Uberta, +planting herself, with arms akimbo, in front of the two culprits, and +dispensing her adjectives with equal liberality to both. + +"It was a mistake, madam, I assure you," said Hahn huskily, as he +pulled out his handkerchief, and began to whip the dust off his +trowsers. + +The wreath of thin hair which he had carefully combed, so as to make +the nakedness of his crown less conspicuous, was bristling toward all +the points of the compass. His tall hat had gone on an independent +journey down the stairs, and was heard tumbling deliberately from step +to step. Fritz, who had recovered himself much more rapidly, seemed to +have forgotten that he had himself borne any part in the disgraceful +scene; he looked at his father with kind of a pitying superiority, and +began to assist him in the repair of his toilet, with the air of an +officious outsider, all of which the crest-fallen father endured with +great fortitude. He seemed only anxious to explain the situation to +the two women, who were still viewing him with marked disapproval. + +"It was all a mistake, madam--a great mistake," he kept repeating. + +"A great mistake!" ejaculated Mother Uberta, contemptuously. "This +isn't a time to be makin' mistakes outside the door of two lonely +women." + +"It is fifteen minutes past nine," said Hahn meekly, pulling a +corpulent gold watch from the pocket of his waistcoat. + +"Madam," said Fritz, without the slightest air of apology, "I came +here to consult you on a matter of business, which would bear no +delay." + +"Exactly, exactly," interrupted Hahn eagerly. "So did I, a matter of +business which would bear no delay." + +"Well, _Vaeterchen_, we are simple countrywomen, and we don't +understand city manners. But if you want to see me on business, I +shall be at home to-morrow at twelve o'clock." + +So saying, Mother Uberta slammed the door in the faces of her +visitors, and left them to grope their way in the dark down the steep +stairway. It was highly characteristic, both of the senior and the +junior Hahn, that without a word of explanation they drove home +amicably in the same droschke. + +Ilka's engagement at the "Haute Noblesse" in the autumn had proved a +great success, and Mother Uberta, who was never averse to earning +money, had, without difficulty, been persuaded to remain in Berlin +during the winter, on condition of the renewal of their contract for +another six weeks in the spring. Ilka was in the meanwhile to take +lessons in singing at Hahn's expense, possibly with a view to future +distinction as a prima donna of the opera. Her _maestro_ had told her +repeatedly that she had naturally a better voice than Nilsson, and +that, if she could dry up for ever her fountain of tears, she might +become a great _artiste_. For Ilka had the deplorable habit of crying +on very slight provocation. The _maestro_, with his wild hair, his +long, polished nails, and his frantic gesticulations, frightened and +distressed her; she thought and spoke of him as a kind of curious +animal, and nothing could persuade her that he and she belonged to the +same species. Nor did Mr. Hahn and Fritz seem to her more than half +human. Their constant presents and attentions sometimes annoyed, and +frequently alarmed her. She could not rid herself of the apprehension, +that behind their honeyed words and manners they were hiding some +sinister purpose. She could not comprehend how her mother could talk +so freely and fearlessly with them. She thought of Hansel, who was +away in the war, and many an evening she stood outside the +telegraph-office with a quaking heart, waiting for the bulletin with +the names of the dead and the wounded; but Hansel's name was never +among them. And many a night she lay awake, yearning for Hansel, +praying for him, and blessing him. She seemed to hear his gay and +careless laugh ringing from Alp to Alp--how different from the polite +smirk of the junior, the fat grin of the senior Hahn! She saw his +tall, agile figure standing upon a rock leaning upon his gun, outlined +against the blue horizon,--and she heard his strong clear voice +yodling and calling to her from afar. It is not to be wondered at that +Ilka did not thrive in Berlin as well as her mother did; just as the +tender-petaled alpine rose can only breathe the cool breezes of its +native mountains, and withers and droops if transplanted to a garden. + +Mother Uberta was by no means blind to the fact that both Fritz and +his father had designs on her daughter, and having convinced herself +that their prosperity rested on a solid basis, she was not disinclined +to favor their suits. The only difficulty was to make a choice between +them; and having ascertained that Fritz was entirely dependent upon +his father's bounty, she quickly decided in favor of the father. But +she was too wise to allow Mr. Hahn to suspect that he was a desirable +son-in-law, being rather addicted to the belief that men only worship +what seems utterly beyond their reach. Ilka, it is needless to say, +was not a party to these speculations; to her the Hahns appeared +equally undesirable in any capacity whatsoever. + +As for the proprietor of the "Haute Noblesse," I believe he was +suffering from an honest infatuation. He admired Ilka's face, he +admired her neck, her figure, her voice, her ankles as displayed by +the short Tyrolese skirt; he wandered about in a sort of frenzy of +unrest, and was never happy except in her presence. That a certain +amount of speculation entered into love's young dream, I cannot +positively deny; but, on the whole, the emotion was as sincere as any +that Mr. Hahn's bosom had ever harbored. Whether he should allow her +to sing in public after she had become his wife was a point about +which he sometimes worried, but which he ended by deciding in the +affirmative. It was a splendid investment for the "Haute Noblesse." + +Mr. Fritz's matrimonial speculations took a somewhat different turn. +He raved to his friends about the perfection of Ilka's physical +development; talked about her "points" as if she had been a horse. So +much of cynicism always mingled with his ardor that his devotion could +hardly be dignified by the name of love. He was convinced that if he +could keep Ilka for some years in Berlin and persuade her to continue +cultivating her voice, she would some day be a great prima donna. And +Fritz had an idea that prima donnas always grew immensely rich, and +married worthless husbands whom they allowed great liberties in +financial matters. Fritz had no objection to playing this subordinate +part, as long as he could be sure of "having a good time." Beyond this +point his ambition had never extended. In spite of his great +confidence in his own irresistibility, and his frequent boasts of the +favors he had received from the maiden of his choice, he knew in his +heart that his wooing had so far been very unprosperous, and that the +prospects for the future were not encouraging. Ilka could never rid +herself of the impression that Fritz was to be taken very +seriously,--that, in fact, there was something almost awful about him. +She could laugh at old Hahn's jokes, and if he attempted to take +liberties she could push him away, or even give him a slap on his +broad back. But Fritz's talk frightened her by its very +unintelligibility; his mirth seemed terrible; it was like hearing a +man laugh in his sleep; and his touch made her shudder. + + +V. + + +The return of the first regiments of the united armies was delayed +until after the middle of May, and the _Siegesfest_ accordingly had to +be postponed. But the delay was rather in Mr. Hahn's favor, as it +gave him ample time to perfect his arrangements, so that, when the day +arrived, the "Haute Noblesse" presented a most brilliant appearance. +Vividly colored transparencies, representing the most sanguinary +battle scenes in more or less fictitious surroundings were suspended +among the trees; Danish officers were seen in all sorts of humble +attitudes, surrendering their swords or begging for mercy, while the +Prussian and Austrian heroes, maddened with warlike fury, stormed +onward in the path of glory and victory. The gas-jet programme, with +the royal and military portraits, was carried out to perfection; and +each new wonder was hailed with immense enthusiasm by the assembled +multitude. Innumerable Chinese lanterns glimmered throughout the +garden, and from time to time red, white, and blue magnesium lights +sent up a great blaze of color among the trees, now making the budding +leaves blush crimson, now silvering them, as with hoar-frost, or +illuminating their delicate tracery with an intense blue which shone +out brilliantly against the nocturnal sky. Even the flower-beds were +made to participate in the patriotic frenzy; and cunning imitations, +in colored glass, of tulips, lilies, and roses, with little gas-jets +concealed in their chalices, were scattered among the natural flowers, +which looked like ghosts of their real selves among the splendid +counterfeits. In order to tune the audience into perfect accord with +the occasion, Mr. Hahn had also engaged three monster bands, which, +since early in the afternoon, had been booming forth martial melodies +from three different platforms draped in national banners. + +The hour was now approaching when Germania was to lift up her voice to +celebrate the glorious achievements of her sons. The audience, which +consisted largely of soldiers and officers, were thronging forward to +the tribune where she was advertised to appear, and the waiters, who +had difficulty in supplying the universal demand for beer, had formed +a line from the bar to the platform, along which the foam-crowned +schooners were passing in uninterrupted succession. Fritz, who was +fond of fraternizing with the military profession, had attached +himself to a young soldier in Austrian uniform with the iron cross +upon his bosom. They were seated amicably together at a small table +near the stage, and the soldier, by liberal treats of beer, had been +induced to relate some of his adventures in the war. He was a tall, +robust man, with a large blonde mustache and an open, fearless +countenance. He talked very modestly about his own share in the +victories, and cooled Fritz's enthusiasm by the extreme plainness of +his statements. + +"It was rather an uneven game at the start," he said. "They were so +few and we were so many. We couldn't have helped whipping them, even +if we had done worse than we did." + +"You don't mean to say that we were not brave," responded Fritz, with +an ardor which was more than half feigned. + +"No, I don't say that," said the warrior, gravely. "We were brave, and +so were they. Therefore the numbers had to decide it." + +He emptied his glass and rose to go. + +"No, wait a moment," urged Fritz, laying hold of his arm. "Take +another glass. You must stay and hear Germania. She is to sing 'Die +Wacht am Rhein' and 'Heil dir in Siegeskranz'." + +"Very well," answered the soldier, seating himself again. "I have +furlough for to-night, and I can stay here as well as anywhere." + +Two more glasses were ordered, and presently arrived. + +"Listen!" began Fritz, leaning confidentially across the table. "I +suppose you have a sweetheart?" + +"Yes, I have, God bless her," replied the other simply, "though I +haven't seen her these six months, and not heard from her, either. She +isn't much of a hand for writing, and, somehow, I never could get the +right crooks on the letters." + +"Here's to her health," said Fritz, lifting his glass and touching it +to that of his companion. + +"With all my heart," responded the latter, and drained the beer mug +at one draught. + +They sat for a while in silence, Fritz trying to estimate the +pecuniary value of the audience, the soldier gazing, with a half-sad +and dreamy expression, into the dark sky. + +"Curious lot, the women," broke out the junior Hahn chuckling to +himself, as if absorbed in some particularly delightful retrospect. +"There is the girl, now, who is to sing as Germania to-night,--and, +between you and me, I don't mind telling you that she is rather +smitten with me. She is as fine a specimen of a woman as ever trod in +two shoes; splendid arms, a neck like alabaster with the tiniest tinge +of red in it, and--well, I might expatiate further, but I wont. Now, +you wouldn't think it of a girl like that; but the fact is, she is as +arch and coquettish as a kitten. It was only the other night I went to +see her--the old woman was in the room--" + +A tremendous burst of applause completely drowned Fritz's voice, as +Germania walked out upon the stage. She was dressed in white, flowing +robes, with a golden zone about her waist and a glittering diadem in +her hair. A mantle of the finest white cashmere, fastened with a Roman +clasp on her left shoulder and drawn through the zone on the right +side, showed the fierce Prussian eagle, embroidered in black and gold. +A miniature copy of the same glorious bird, also in gilt embroidery, +shone on her breast. She had been, elaborately trained by her +_maestro_ as to how she was to step the stage, what attitudes she was +to assume, etc., and the first part of the programme she performed +very creditably, and with sole reference to her instructions. + +The orchestra began to rumble something by way of an introduction. The +soldier in the Austrian uniform at Fritz's table turned pale, and sat +staring fixedly upon the stage. Ilka stood for a moment gazing out +upon the surging mass of humanity at her feet; she heard the clanking +of the scabbards and swords, and saw the white and the blue uniforms +commingled in friendly confusion. Where was. Hansel now--the dear, +gay, faithful Hansel? She struck out boldly, and her strong, sonorous +voice soared easily above the orchestral accompaniments. "Heil dir im +Siegeskranz!"--she was hailing the returning warriors with a song of +triumph, while Hansel, perhaps, lay on some bloody battle-field, with +sightless eyes staring against the awful sky. Ilka's voice began to +tremble, and the tears flooded her beautiful eyes. The soldier in the +Austrian uniform trembled, too, and never removed his gaze from the +countenance of the singer. There was joy and triumph in her song; but +there was sorrow, too--sorrow for the many brave ones that remained +behind, sorrow for the maidens that loved them and the mothers that +wept for them. As Ilka withdrew, after having finished the last +stanza, the audience grew almost frantic with enthusiasm; the men +jumped up on benches and tables, shouted, and swung their hats, and +even the women cheered at the tops of their voices. A repetition was +loudly called for, and Ilka, although herself overcome with emotion, +was obliged to yield. She walked up to the footlights and began to +yodle softly. It sounded strangely airy and far away. She put her hand +to her ear and listened for a moment, as if she expected a reply; but +there was a breathless silence in the audience. Only a heavy sigh came +from the table where Fritz sat with the Austrian soldier. The yodle +grew louder; then suddenly some one sprang up, not a dozen rods from +the stage, and sang, in a deep, magnificent baritone: + + Tell me, Ilka on the hill-top, + While the rivers seaward flow, + Is thy heart as true and loving + As it was a year ago? + Hohli-ohli-ohli-ho! + Hohli-ohli-ohli-ho! Hohli-oh! + +Ilka stood for a while as if stunned; her eyes peered in the direction +whence the voice had come; her face lighted up with a sweet, serene +happiness; but the tears streamed down her cheeks as she answered: + + Dearest Hansel in the valley, + I will tell you, tell you true, + Yes, my heart is ever loving, + True and loving unto you! + Hohli-ohli-ohli-ho! + Hohli-ohli-ohli-ho! Hohli-oh! + +Suddenly she made a leap over the edge of the stage, and in the next +moment the gorgeous Germania lay sobbing on the soldier's bosom. It +made a very touching tableau, and some of the male sceptics among the +audience were inclined to view it in that light. Fritz Hahn, as soon +as the idea was suggested to him, eagerly adopted it, and admitted in +confidence to half a dozen friends, whom he had allowed to suspect the +fair singer's devotion to him, that it was all a pre-arranged effect, +and that he was himself the author of it. + +"Germania weeping on the breast of her returning son," he said. "What +could be more appropriate on a day like this?" + +The maidens and matrons, however, would listen to no such theory; they +wept openly at the sight of the reunited lovers, and have until this +day maintained that the scene was too spontaneous and genuine to be a +product of Mr. Hahn's inventive genius. + +The singing of "Die Wacht am Rhein," although advertised on the +programme, had to be indefinitely postponed, for Germania had suddenly +disappeared, and was nowhere to be found. The Austrian soldier, +however, was seen later in the evening, and some one heard him +inquiring in a fierce tone for the junior Hahn; but the junior Hahn, +probably anticipating some unpleasantness, had retired from the public +gaze. + + +VI. + + +Six weeks after this occurrence--it was St. John's day--there was a +merry festival in the village of Mayrhofen. Ilka and Hansel were bride +and groom, and as they returned from church the maidens of the village +walked in the wedding procession and strewed flowers before them. And +in the evening, when the singing and fiddling and dancing were at an +end, and the guests had departed, Mother Uberta beckoned Hansel aside, +and with a mysterious air handed him something heavy tied up in the +corner of a handkerchief. + +"There," she said, "is eight hundred and fifty florins. It is Ilka's +own money which she earned in Berlin. Now you may pay off the +mortgage, and the farm is yours." + +"Mother Uberta," answered Hansel laughing, and pulling out a skin +purse from his bosom. "Here is what I have been saving these many +years. It is eight hundred and fifty florins." + +"Hansel, Hansel," cried Mother Uberta in great glee, "it is what I +have always said of you. You are a jewel of a lad." + + + + +ANNUNCIATA. + + +I. + + +In the gallery of one of the famous Roman villas which commands a +splendid view of the city, Mr. Henry Vincent, a young American, was +lounging. Judging by his appearance he was a college graduate, or, to +speak more definitely, a graduate of Harvard; for he had that jaunty +walk and general trimness of attire which are the traditional +attributes of the academical denizens of Cambridge. He swung his arms +rather more than was needed to assist locomotion, and betrayed in an +unobtrusive manner a consciousness of being well dressed. His face, +which was not without fine possibilities, had an air of well-bred +neutrality; you could see that he assumed a defensive attitude against +aesthetic impressions,--that even the Sistine Madonna or the Venus of +Milo would not have surprised him into anything like enthusiasm or +abject approval. It was evident, too, that he was a little bit ashamed +of his Baedeker, which he consulted only in a semi-surreptitious way, +and plunged into the pocket of his overcoat whenever he believed +himself to be observed. Such a contingency, however, seemed remote; +for the silence that reigned about him was as heavy and profound as if +it had been unbroken since creation's day. The large marble halls had +a grave and inhospitable air, and their severe magnificence compelled +even from our apathetic traveller a shy and reluctant veneration. He +tried to fix his attention upon a certain famous Guido which was +attached by hinges to the wall, and which, as he had just learned from +Baedeker, was a marvel of color and fine characterization; he stood +for a few moments staring with a blank and helpless air, as if, for +the first time in his life, he was beginning to question the finality +of his own judgment. Then his eyes wandered off to the cornice of the +wall, whose florid rococo upholstery won his sincere approval. + +"Hang it!" he murmured impatiently, pulling a gold watch from his +waistcoat pocket. "That loon Jack--he never does keep an engagement." + +At this moment, distant footsteps were heard, which, as they +approached, resounded with a sepulchral distinctness on the marble +pavement. Presently a young man entered breathlessly, holding his hat +in one hand and a white handkerchief in the other. + +"Harry," he cried, excitedly, "I have found the goddess of the place. +Come quick, before she vanishes. It is a rare chance, I tell you." + +He seized his companion's arm and, ignoring his remonstrances, almost +dragged him through the door by which he had entered. + +"What sort of lunacy is it you are up to now, Jack?" the other was +heard to grumble. "I'll bet ten to one you have been making an ass of +yourself." + +"I dare say I have," retorted Jack, good-naturedly; "a man who has not +the faculty of making a fool of himself occasionally is only half a +man. You would be a better fellow, too, Harry, if you were not so +deucedly respectable; a slight admixture of folly would give tone and +color to your demure and rigid propriety. For a man so splendidly +equipped by fortune, you have made a poor job of existence, Harry. +When I see you bestowing your sullen patronage upon the great +masterpieces of the past, I am ashamed of you--yes, by Jove, I am." + +"Don't you bother about me," was the ungracious response of his +comrade. "I cut my eye-teeth a good while before you did, even though +you may be a few years older. I'll take care of myself, you may depend +upon it, and of you, too, if you get yourself into a scrape, which you +seem bent upon doing." + +"Now, do be amiable, Harry," urged the other with gentle +persuasiveness. "I can't take it upon my conscience to introduce you +to a lady, and far less to a goddess, unless you promise to put on +your best behavior. You know from your mythology that goddesses are +capable of taking a terrible vengeance upon mortals who unwittingly +offend them." + +Mr. John Cranbrook--for that was the name of the demonstrative +tourist--was a small, neat-looking man, with an eager face and a pair +of dark, vivid eyes. His features, though not in themselves handsome, +were finely, almost tenderly, modelled. His nose was not of the +classical type, but nevertheless of a clear and delicate cut, and his +nostrils of extreme sensitiveness. On the whole, it was a pleasant, +open, and enthusiastic face,--a face in which there was no guile. By +the side of his robust and stalwart friend, Cranbrook looked almost +frail, and it was evident that Vincent, who felt the advantages of his +superior avoirdupois, was in the habit of patronizing him. They had +been together in college and had struck up an accidental friendship, +which, to their mutual surprise, had survived a number of +misunderstandings, and even extended beyond graduation. Cranbrook, who +was of a restless and impetuous temperament, found Vincent's quiet +self-confidence very refreshing; there was a massive repose about him, +an unquestioning acceptance of the world as it was and an utter +absence of intellectual effort, which afforded his friend a refuge +from his own self-consuming ambition. Cranbrook had always prophesied +that Harry would some day wake up and commit a grand and monumental +piece of folly, but he hoped that that day was yet remote; at present +it was his rich commonplaceness and his grave and comfortable dulness +which made him the charming fellow he was, and it would be a pity to +forfeit such rare qualities. + +Cranbrook's own accomplishments were not of the kind which is highly +appreciated among undergraduates. His verses, which appeared +anonymously in the weekly college paper, enjoyed much popularity in +certain young ladies' clubs, but were by the professor of rhetoric +pronounced unsound in sentiment, though undeniably clever in +expression. Vincent, on the other hand, had virtues which paved him an +easy road to popularity; he could discuss base-ball and rowing matters +with a gravity as if the fate of the republic depended upon them; he +was moreover himself an excellent "catcher," and subscribed liberally +for the promotion of athletic sports. He did not, like his friend, +care for "honors," nor had he the slightest desire to excel in Greek; +he always reflected the average undergraduate opinion on all college +affairs, and was not above playing an occasional trick on a freshman +or a professor. As for Cranbrook, he rather prided himself on being a +little exceptional, and cherished with special fondness those of his +tastes and proclivities which distinguished him from the average +humanity. He had therefore no serious scruples in accepting Vincent's +offer to pay his expenses for a year's trip abroad. Vincent, he +reasoned, would hardly benefit much by his foreign experiences, if he +went alone. His glance would never penetrate beneath the surface of +things, and he therefore needed a companion, whose aesthetic culture +was superior to his own. Cranbrook flattered himself that he was such +a companion, and vowed in his heart to give Harry full returns in +intellectual capital for what he expended on him in sordid metals. +Moreover, Harry had a clear income of fifteen to twenty thousand a +year, while he, Cranbrook, had scarcely anything which he could call +his own. I dare say that if Vincent had known all the benevolent plans +which his friend had formed for his mental improvement, he would have +thought twice before engaging him as his travelling companion; but +fortunately he was so well satisfied with his own mental condition, +and so utterly unconscious of his short-comings in point of intellect, +that he could not have treated an educational scheme of which he was +himself to be the subject as anything but an amiable lunacy on Jack's +part, or at the worst, as a practical joke. Jack was good company; +that was with him the chief consideration; his madness was harmless +and had the advantage of being entertaining; he was moreover at heart +a good fellow, and the stanchest and most loyal of friends. Harry was +often heard to express the most cheerful confidence in Jack's future; +he would be sure to come out right in the end, as soon as he had cut +his eye-teeth, and very likely Europe might be just the thing for a +complaint like his. + + +II. + + +After having marched over nearly half a mile of marble flag-stones, +interrupted here and there by strips of precious mosaic, the two young +men paused at the entrance to a long, vaulted corridor. White, silent +gods stood gazing gravely from their niches in the wall, and the pale +November sun was struggling feebly to penetrate through the dusty +windows. It did not dispel the dusk, but gave it just the tenderest +suffusion of sunshine. + +"Stop," whispered Cranbrook. "I want you to take in the total +impression of this scene before you examine the details. Only listen +to this primeval stillness; feel, if you can, the stately monotony of +this corridor, the divine repose and dignity of these marble forms, +the chill immobility of this light. It seems to me that, if a full, +majestic organ-tone could be architecturally expressed, it must of +necessity assume a shape resembling the broad, cold masses of this +aisle. I should call this an architectonic fugue,--a pure and lofty +meditation--" + +"Now, do give us a rest, Jack," interrupted Vincent mercilessly. "I +thought you said something about a nymph or a goddess. Trot her out, +if you please, and let me have a look at her." + +Cranbrook turned sharply about and gave his comrade a look of +undisguised disgust. + +"Harry," he said gravely, "really you don't deserve the good fortune +of being in Italy. I thought I knew you well; but I am afraid I shall +have to revise my judgment of you. You are hopelessly and incorrigibly +frivolous. I know, it is ungracious in me to tell you so,--I, who have +accepted your bounty; but, by Jove, Harry, I don't want to buy my +pleasure at the price you seem to demand. I have enough to get home, +at all events, and I shall repay you what I owe you." + +Vincent colored to the edge of his hair; he bit his lip, and was about +to yield to the first impulse of his wrath. A moment's reflection, +however, sobered him; he gave his leg two energetic cuts with his +slender cane, then turned slowly on his heel and sauntered away. +Cranbrook stood long gazing sadly after him; he would have liked to +call him back, but the aimless, leisurely gait irritated him, and the +word died on his lips. Every step seemed to hint a vague defiance. +"What does it matter to me," it seemed to say, "what you think of me? +You are of too little account to have the power to ruffle my temper." +As the last echo of the retiring footsteps was lost in the great +marble silence, Cranbrook heaved a sigh, and, suddenly remembering his +errand, walked rapidly down the corridor. He paused before a +round-arched, doorless portal, which led into a large sunny room. In +the embrazure of one of the windows, a young girl was sitting, with a +drawing-board in her lap, apparently absorbed in the contemplation of +a marble relief which was suspended upon the wall. From where +Cranbrook stood, he could see her noble profile clearly outlined +against the white wall; a thick coil of black hair was wound about the +back of her head, and a dark, tight-fitting dress fell in simple folds +about her magnificent form. There was a simplicity and an unstudied +grace in her attitude which appealed directly to Cranbrook's aesthetic +nature. Ever since he entered Italy he had been on the alert for +romantic impressions, and his eager fancy instinctively lifted every +commonplace incident that appeared to have poetic possibilities in it +into the region of romance. He remembered having seen somewhere a +statue of Clio whose features bore a remote resemblance to those of +the young girl before him--the same massive, boldly sculptured chin, +the same splendid, columnar throat, the same grave immobility of +vision. It seemed sacrilege to approach such a divine creature with a +trivial remark about the weather or the sights of Rome, and yet some +commonplace was evidently required to pave the way to further +acquaintance. Cranbrook pondered for a moment, and then advanced +boldly toward the window where the goddess was sitting. She turned her +head and flashed a pair of brilliant black eyes upon him. + +"Pardon me, signorina," he said, with an apologetic cough. "I see you +are drawing. Perhaps you could kindly tell me where one can obtain +permission to copy in this gallery." + +"I do not know, signore," she answered, in a low, rich voice. "No one +ever copies here. The prince is never, here, and his major-domo comes +only twice a year. He was here two weeks ago, so it will be a long +time before he will return." + +"But you seem to be copying," the young man ventured to remonstrate. + +"Ah, _sanctissima_!" she; cried, with a vivid gesture of deprecation. +"No, signore, I am not copying. I am a poor, ignorant thing, signore, +not an artist. There was once a kind foreigner who lodged with us; he +was an artist, a most famous artist, and he amused himself with me +while I was a child, and taught me to draw a little." + +"And perhaps you would kindly allow me to look at your drawing?" + +Cranbrook was all in a flutter; he was amazed at his own temerity, +but the situation filled him with a delicious sense of adventure, and +an irresistible impulse within him urged him on. The girl had risen, +and, without the slightest embarrassment or coquettish reluctance +handed him her drawing-board. He saw at a glance that she was sincere +in disclaiming the name of an artist. The drawing was a mere simple +outline of a group, representing Briseis being led away from her lover +by the messengers of Agamemnon. The king stood on one side ready to +receive her, and on the other, Achilles, with averted face, in an +attitude of deep dejection. The natural centre of the group, however, +was the figure of Briseis. The poise of her classic head as she looked +back over her shoulder at her beloved hero was full of the tenderest +suggestions. She seemed to offer no resistance to the messengers, but +her reluctant, lingering steps were more expressive than any violent +demonstration. Cranbrook saw all this in the antique relief, but found +it but feebly, and, as it were, stammeringly rendered in the girl's +drawing. The lines were firmly and accurately traced and the +proportions were approximately correct; but the deeper sentiment of +the group had evidently escaped her, and the exquisite delicacy of +modelling she had not even attempted to imitate. Cranbrook had in his +heart to admit that he was disappointed. He feared that it was rude +to return the board without a word of favorable comment, but he +disdained to resort to any of those ingenious evasions which serve so +conveniently as substitutes for definite judgments. The girl, in the +meanwhile, stood looking into his face with an air of frank curiosity. +It was not his opinion of her work, however, which puzzled her. She +had never been accustomed to flattery, and had no idea of claiming a +merit which she was well aware did not belong to her. She seemed +rather to be wondering what manner of man her critic might be, and +whether it would be safe to appeal to him for information on some +subjects which lay beyond the reach of her own faculties. + +"Signore," she began at last, a little hesitatingly, "I suppose you +are a learned man who has read many books. Perhaps you know who that +man is with the big helmet. And the maiden there with the bare feet, +standing between the men--who is she? She looks sad, I think, and yet +the large man who seems to be waiting for her is well made and +handsome, and his garments appear to be precious. His shield is finely +wrought, and I am sure he must be a man of great dignity." + +"You are right," responded Cranbrook, to whom her guileless talk was +highly entertaining. + +"He is a king, and his name is Agamemnon. By nationality he is a +Greek--" + +"Ah, then I know why the girl is sad," she interrupted, eagerly. "The +Greeks are all thieves, Padre Gregorio says; they all steal and lie, +and they are not of the true faith. The padre has been in the Greek +land and he knows their bad ways." + +"The padre probably means the modern Greeks. I know very little about +them. But the ancient Greeks were the noblest nation the world has +ever seen." + +"Is it possible? And what did they do that was so great and noble? +_Sanctissima!_ the greatest nation the world has ever seen!" + +These exclamations were uttered in a tone of sincere surprise which to +Cranbrook was very amusing. The conversation was now fairly started. +The American told with much expenditure of eloquence the story of "the +wrath of Achilles, the son of Peleus," and of the dire misfortunes +which fell upon the house of Priamus and Atreus in consequence of one +woman's fatal beauty. The girl sat listening with a rapt, far-away +expression; now and then a breeze of emotion flitted across her +features and a tear glittered in her eye and coursed slowly down over +her cheek. Cranbrook, too, as he was gradually tuned into sympathy +with his own tale, felt a strange, shuddering intoxication of +happiness. He did not perceive how the time slipped by; he began to +shiver, and saw that the sun was gone. The girl woke up with a start +as his voice ceased and looked about her with a bewildered air. They +both rose and walked together through the long, empty halls and +corridors. He noticed wonderingly that she carried a heavy bunch of +keys in her hand and locked each door after they had passed through +it. This then led to some personal explanations. He learned that her +name was Annunciata, and that she was the daughter of Antonio +Caesarelli, the gardener of the villa, who lived in the house with the +_loggias_ which he could see at the end of the steep plane tree +avenue. If he would like to pick some oranges, there were plenty of +them in the garden, and as the prince never asked for them, her father +allowed her to eat as many as she liked. Would he not come and see her +father? He was a very good and kind man. At present he was trimming +the hedge up on the terrace. + +During this colloquy they had entered the garden, which seemed at +first glance a great luxuriant wilderness. On the right hand of the +gate was a huge jungle of blooming rose-bushes whose intertwisted +branches climbed the tall stuccoed wall, for the possession of which +it struggled bravely with an equally ambitious and vigorous ivy. +Enormous bearded cacti of fantastic forms spread their fat prickly +leaves out over both sides of the pavement, leaving only a narrow +aisle in the middle where locomotion was practicable. A long flight of +green and slippery stone steps led up to a lofty terrace which was +raised above the rest of the garden by a high wall, surmounted by a +low marble balustrade. Here the palms spread their fan-like crowns +against the blue sky, and the golden fruit shone among the dark leaves +of the orange-trees. A large sculptured Triton with inflated cheeks +blew a column of water high up into the air, and half a dozen +dolphins, ridden by chubby water-sprites, spouted demurely along the +edges of a wide marble basin. A noseless Roman senator stood at the +top of the stairs, wrapping his mossy toga about him, with a splendid +gesture, and the grave images of the Caesars, all time-stained and more +or less seriously maimed, gazed forth with severe dignity from their +green, leafy niches. + +The upper garden showed signs of human supervision. A considerable +area was occupied by flower-beds, laid out with geometrical regularity +and stiffness; and the low box-wood hedges along their borders had a +density and preciseness of outline which showed that they had been +recently trimmed. Stone vases of magnificent design were placed at +regular intervals along the balustrade; and in the middle projection +of the terrace stood a hoary table with a broken porphyry plate, +suggestive of coffee and old-time costumes, and the ponderous gossip +of Roman grandees. + +Cranbrook had walked for a while silently at Annunciata's side. He +was deeply impressed with all he saw, and yet a dreamy sense of their +unreality was gradually stealing over him. He imagined himself some +wonderful personage in an Eastern fairy-tale, and felt for the moment +as if he were moving in an animated chapter of the "Arabian Nights." +He had had little hesitation in asking Annunciata questions about +herself; they seemed both, somehow, raised above the petty etiquette +of mundane intercourse. She had confessed to him with an unthinking +directness which was extremely becoming to her, that her artistic +aspirations which he had found so mysterious were utterly destitute of +the ideal afflatus. She had, as a child, learned lace-making and +embroidery, and had earned many a _lira_ by adorning the precious +vestments of archbishops and cardinals. She was now making a design +for a tapestry, in which she meant to introduce the group from the +antique relief. Her father allowed her to save all she earned for her +dowry; because then, he said, she might be able to make a good match. +This latter statement grated a little on Cranbrook's sensitive ears; +but a glance at Annunciata's face soon reassured him. She had the air +of stating a universally recognized fact concerning which she had +never had occasion to reflect. She kept prattling away very much like +a spoiled child, who is confident that its voice is pleasant, and its +little experiences as absorbing to its listener as they are to +itself. + +At length, by many devious paths, they reached a house on a sunny +elevation, at the western extremity of the garden. It was a house such +as one sees only in Rome,--a wide expanse of stuccoed wall with six or +seven windows of different sizes scattered at random over its surface. +Long tufts of fine grass depended from the gutters of the roof, and +the plain pillars supporting the round arches of the _loggias_ had a +humid and weather-beaten look. The whole edifice, instead of asserting +itself glaringly as a product of human art, blended with soft +gradations into the surrounding landscape. Even the rude fresco of the +Mother of Sorrows over the door was half overgrown with a greenish, +semi-visible moss which allowed the original colors to shine faintly +through, and the coarse lines of the dial in the middle of the wall +were almost obliterated by sun and rain. But what especially attracted +Cranbrook's attention was a card, hung out under one of the windows, +upon which was written, with big, scrawling letters,--"_Appartamento +Mobiliato d'Affitarsi_." He determined on the spot to become the +occupant of this apartment whatever its deficiencies might be; +therefore, without further delay, he introduced himself to +Annunciata's mother, Monna Nina, as a _forestiero_ in search of +lodgings; and, after having gone through the formality of inspecting +the room, he accepted Monna Nina's price and terms with an eagerness +which made the excellent woman repent in her heart that she had not +asked more. + +The next day Cranbrook parted amicably from Vincent, who, it must be +admitted, was beginning to have serious doubts of his sanity. They had +had many a quarrel in days past, but Jack had always come to his +senses again and been the first to make up. Vincent had the +comfortable certainty of being himself always in the right, and it +therefore never occurred to him that it might be his place to +apologize. He had invariably accepted Jack's apologies good-naturedly +and consented gracefully to let by-gones be by-gones, even though he +were himself the offender; and the glow of conscious virtue which at +such times pervaded him well rewarded him for his self-sacrifice. But +this time, it seemed, Jack had taken some mysterious resolution, and +his reason had hopelessly forsaken him. He even refused all offers of +money, and talked about remaining in Rome and making his living by +writing for the newspapers. He cherished no ill-will against Harry, he +said, but had simply made up his mind that their tastes and +temperaments were too dissimilar, and that they would both be happier +if they parted company. They would see each other frequently and +remain on friendly terms. No one was blamable for the separation, +except Nature, who had made them so different. With these, and many +similar assurances Cranbrook shook Vincent's hand and repaired to his +new abode among the palms and cypresses. And yet his ears burned +uncomfortably as he drove away in the _fiacre_. It was the first time +he had been insincere to Harry, even by implication; but after what +had happened, it was impossible to mention Annunciata's name. + + +III. + + +It was the afternoon of Christmas-day, six weeks after Cranbrook's +arrival at the villa. The air was soft and balmy and the blooming +rose-bushes under the windows sent up from time to time delicious +whiffs of fragrance. The sky was strangely clear, and long, cool +vistas opened to the sight among the cloud-banks that hung over the +tops of the Alban Mountains. Cranbrook was sitting out on the _loggia_ +reading the scene in the Odyssey where the shipwrecked Ulysses steps +out from the copse where he has been sleeping and interrupts the +ball-play of Nausicaa and her maidens. How pure and sweet the air that +breathed from these pages! What a noble and dignified maiden was this +Nausicaa! At this moment the merry voice of Annunciata was heard in +the garden below. The young man let his book drop and leaned out over +the wall. There she stood, tall and stately, receiving, with the +manner of a good-natured empress, a white-haired priest who came +waddling briskly toward her. + +"_Bona festa_, Padre Gregorio," she cried, seizing the old man's hand. +"Mother is going to have macaroni for supper and she was just going to +send Pietro after you. For you know you promised to be with us this +blessed day." + +"_Bona festa_, child," responded the priest, smiling all over his +large, benevolent face. "Padre Gregorio never forgets his promises, +and least of all on a holy Christmas-day." + +"No, I knew you would not forget us, padre; but you are all out of +breath. You have been mounting the stairs to the terrace again instead +of going round by the vineyard. Come and sit down here in the sun, for +I wish to speak to you about something important." + +And she led the priest by the hand to a stone bench by the door and +seated herself at his side. + +"Padre," she began, with a great earnestness in her manner, "is it true +that the Holy Virgin hates heretics and that they can never go to +heaven?" + +The good padre was evidently not prepared for such a question. He +gazed at Annunciata for a moment in helpless bewilderment, then +coughed in his red bandanna handkerchief, took a deliberate pinch of +snuff and began: + +"The Holy Virgin is gracious, child, and she hates no one. But little +girls should not trouble their heads with things that do not concern +them." + +"But this does concern me, padre," retorted the girl eagerly. "I went +this morning with Signore Giovanni, the stranger who is lodging with +us,--for he is a very good and kind man, padre; I went with him to the +Aracoeli to see the blessed Bambino and the shepherds and the Holy +Virgin. But he did not kneel, and when I told him of the wonderful +things which the Bambino had done, he would not believe me, padre, and +he even once laughed in my face." + +"Then he is not a good man," said the padre emphatically, "and he will +not go to heaven, unless he changes his faith and his conduct before +God takes him away." + +Cranbrook, who had made several vain attempts to call attention to his +presence, now rose and through the window re-entered his room. The +snatch of the conversation which he had overheard had made him uneasy +and had spoiled his happy Homeric mood. He was only too willing to put +the most flattering construction upon Annunciata's solicitude for his +fate in the hereafter, but he had to admit to himself, that there was +something in her tone and in the frank directness of her manner which +precluded such an interpretation. He had floated along, as it were, in +a state of delicious semi-consciousness during the six weeks since he +first entered this house. He had established himself firmly, as he +believed, in the favor of every member of the family, from Antonio +himself to the two-year-old baby, Babetta, who spent her days +contentedly in running from one end to the other of a large marble +sarcophagus, situated under a tall stone pine, a dozen steps from the +house. Monna Nina could then keep watch over her from the window while +at work, and the high, sculptured sides of the sarcophagus prevented +Babetta from indulging her propensity for running away. Pietro, a +picturesque vagabond of twelve, who sold patriotic match-boxes with +the portraits of Garibaldi and Vittorio Emanuele, had been bribed into +the stanchest partisanship for the foreigner by a ticket to the monkey +theatre in the Piazza delle Terme, and had excited his sister's +curiosity to a painful pitch by his vivid descriptions of the +wonderful performance he had witnessed. Antonio, who was a quiet and +laborious man, listened with devout attention to Cranbrook's accounts +of the foreign countries he had visited, while Monna Nina sometimes +betrayed an invincible scepticism regarding facts which belonged to +the A B C of transatlantic existence, and unhesitatingly acquiesced in +statements which to an Italian mind might be supposed to border on the +miraculous. She would not believe, for instance, that hot and cold +water could be conducted through pipes to the fifth and sixth story of +a house and drawn _ad libitum_ by the turning of a crank; but her +lodger's descriptions of the travelling palaces in which you slept and +had your dinner prepared while speeding at a furious rate across the +continent, were listened to with the liveliest interest and without +the slightest misgiving. She had, moreover, well-settled convictions +of her own concerning a number of things which lay beyond Cranbrook's +horizon. She had a great dread of the evil eye and knew exactly what +remedies to apply in order to counteract its direful effects; she wore +around her neck a charm which had been blessed by the pope and which +was a sure preventive of rheumatism; and under the ceiling of her +kitchen were suspended bunches of medicinal herbs which had all been +gathered during the new moon and which, in certain decoctions, were +warranted to cure nearly all the ailments to which flesh is heir. + +To Cranbrook the daily companionship with these kind-hearted, +primitive people had been a most refreshing experience. As he wrote to +a friend at home, he had shaken off the unwholesome dust which had +accumulated upon his soul, and had for the first time in his life +breathed the undiluted air of healthful human intercourse. Annunciata +was to him a living poem, a simple and stately epic, whose +continuation from day to day filled his life with sonorous echoes. +She was a modern Nausicaa, with the same child-like grandeur and +unconscious dignity as her Homeric prototype. It was not until to-day +that he had become aware of the distance which separated him from her. +They had visited together the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, where +a crude tableau of the Nativity of Christ is exhibited during +Christmas week. Her devoutness in the presence of the jewelled doll, +representing the infant Saviour, had made a painful impression upon +him, and when, with the evident intention of compelling his reverence, +she had told him of the miracles performed by the "Bambino," he had +only responded with an incredulous smile. She had sent him a long, +reproachful glance; then, as the tears rose to her eyes, she had +hurried away and he had not dared to follow her. + +While pursuing these sombre meditations, Cranbrook was seated--or +rather buried--in a deep Roman easy-chair, whose faded tapestries +would have been esteemed a precious find by a relic-hunter. Judging by +the _baroque_ style of its decorations, its tarnished gilding, and its +general air _a la_ Pompadour, it was evident that it had spent its +youthful days in some princely palace of the last century, and had by +slow and gradual stages descended to its present lowly condition. A +curious sense of the evanescence of all earthly things stole over the +young man's mind, as his thoughts wandered from his own fortunes to +those of the venerable piece of furniture which was holding him in its +ample embrace. What did it matter in the end, he reasoned, whether he +married his Nausicaa or not? To marry a Nausicaa with grace was a feat +for the performance of which exceptional qualities were required. The +conjugal complement to a Nausicaa must be a man of ponderous presence +and statuesque demeanor--not a shrill and nervous modern like himself, +with second-rate physique, and a morbidly active intellect. No, it +mattered little what he did or left undone. The world would be no +better and no worse for anything he could do. Very likely, in the arms +of this chair where he was now sitting, a dozen Roman Romeos, in +powdered wigs and silk stockings, had pined for twice that number of +Roman Juliets; and now they were all dust, and the world was moving on +exactly as before. And yet in the depth of his being there was a voice +which protested against this hollow reasoning; he felt to himself +insincere and hypocritical; he dallied and played with his own +emotions. Every mood carried in itself a sub-consciousness of its +transitoriness. + +The daylight had faded, and the first faint flush of the invisible +moon was pervading the air. The undulating ridge of the Sabine +mountains stood softly denned against the horizon, and here and there +a great, flat-topped stone pine was seen looming up along the edges +of the landscape. Cranbrook ate hurriedly the frugal dinner which was +served him from a neighboring _trattoria_, then lighted a cigar, and +walked out into the garden. He sat for a while on the balustrade of +the terrace, looking out over the green campagna, over which the moon +now rose large and red, while the towers and domes of the city stood, +dark and solemn, in the foreground. The bells of Santa Maria Maggiore +were tolling slowly and pensively, and the sound lingered with long +vibrations in the still air. A mighty, shapeless longing, remotely +aroused or intensified by the sound of the bells, shook his soul; and +the glorious sight before him seemed to weigh upon him like an +oppressive burden. "Annunciata," came in heavy, rhythmic pulses +through the air; it was impossible not to hear it. The bells were +tolling her name: "Annun-ciata, Annun-ciata." Even the water that was +blown from the Triton's mouth whispered softly, as it fell, +"Annunciata, Annunciata." + +Cranbrook was awakened from his reverie by the sound of approaching +footsteps. He turned his head and recognized, by the conspicuous +shovel-hat, the old priest who had prophesied such a cheerful future +for him in the hereafter. And was that not Annunciata who was walking +at his side? Surely, that was her voice; for what voice was there in +all the world with such a rich, alluring cadence? And that firm and +splendidly unconscious walk--who, with less than five generations' +practice could even remotely imitate it? Beloved Annunciata! Wondrous +and glorious Annunciata! In thy humble disguise thou art nevertheless +a goddess, and thy majestic simplicity shames the shrill and +artificial graces of thy sisters of the so-called good society. But +surely, child, thou art agitated. Do not waste those magnificent +gestures on the aged and callous priest! + +"Thou art hard-hearted and cruel, Padre Gregorio!" were the words that +reached Cranbrook's ears. "The Holy Virgin would not allow any one to +suffer forever who is good and kind. How could he help that his father +and his mother were not of the right faith?" + +The padre's answer he could not distinguish; he heard only an eager +murmur and some detached words, from which he concluded that the +priest was expostulating earnestly with her. They passed down the long +staircase into the lower garden, and, though their forms remained +visible, their voices were soon lost among the whispering leaves and +the plashing waters. Cranbrook followed them steadily with his eyes, +and a thrill of ineffable joy rippled through his frame. He had at +last, he thought, the assurance for which he had yearned so long. +Presently he saw Annunciata stop, plunge her hands into a side-pocket, +and pull out something which he imagined to be a key; then she and +the padre disappeared for a few moments in the gloom of a deep portal, +and when Annunciata re-appeared she was alone. She walked rapidly back +through the garden, without being apparently in the least impressed by +the splendor of the night, mounted the stairs to the terrace, and +again passed within a dozen yards of where Cranbrook was sitting, +without observing him. + +"Annunciata," he called softly, rising to follow her. + +"Signore Giovanni," she exclaimed wonderingly but without the +slightest trace of the emotion which had so recently agitated her. +"You should not sit here in the garden so late. The air of the night +is not good for the foreigner." + +"The air is good for me wherever you are, Annunciata," he answered +warmly. "Come and walk with me here down the long plane tree avenue. +Take my arm. I have much to say to you: + + '* * * In such a night as this, + When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees,' etc. + 'In such a night, + Troilus, methinks, mounter! the Trojan walls, + And sighed his soul toward the Grecian tents + Where Cressid lay that night.'" + +She took the arm which he offered her silently, but with a simple +dignity which a princess might have envied her. + +"I cannot stay out long," she said. "My mother would miss me." + +"I shall not detain you long. I have only a confession to make to you. +I was sitting on the _loggia_ this afternoon when Padre Gregorio came, +and I heard what you said to him." + +He had expected her to blush or show some sign of embarrassment. But +she only lifted her calm, clear countenance toward him and said: + +"You were kinder and better than all the men I had known, and it gave +me trouble to think that you should be unhappy when you die. Therefore +I asked the padre; but I do not believe any more that the padre is +always right. God is better and wiser than he, and God will find a way +where a priest would find none." + +There was something inexpressibly touching in the way she uttered +these simple words. Cranbrook, although he was, for reasons of his +own, disappointed at her perfect composure, felt the tears mounting to +his eyes, and his voice shook as he answered: + +"I am not afraid of my lot in the next world, Annunciata; and although +it is kind of you to be troubled about it, I fear you can do nothing +to improve it. But my fate in this world I yearn to lay in your hands. +I love you very dearly, Annunciata, and all I need to make me what I +aspire to be is to have you give me a little affection in return. +What do you say, Annunciata? do you think you could? Would you be my +wife, and go with me to my own country and share my life, whatever it +may be." + +"But signore," she replied, after a moment's deliberation; "my mother +would not like it, and Babetta would cry the whole day long when I was +gone." + +"I am speaking seriously, Annunciata, and you must not evade my +question. It all depends upon you." + +"No, it also depends upon mother and Babetta. But I know you would be +good and kind to me, Signore Giovanni, and you would always treat me +well; for you are a good and kind man. I should like to be your wife, +I think, but I do not know whether I should like to go with you across +the great sea." + +Cranbrook was hopelessly perplexed, and for an instant even inclined +to question whether she might not be ridiculing him; but a glance at +her puzzled face showed him that she was grappling earnestly with the +great problem, and apparently endeavoring to gain time by uttering the +first thought that suggested itself to her mind. The gloom of the +plane-trees now enveloped them, and only here and there a quivering +ray of moonlight pierced through the dense roof of leaves. The marble +phantoms of the Caesars gazed sternly at the daring intruders who had +come to disturb their centuries' repose, and the Roman senator at the +end of the avenue held his outstretched hand toward them, as if +warning them back from the life that lay beyond the moment's great +resolution. And yet, before the moon had faded out of the sky, the +great resolution was irrevocably taken. When they parted in the hall, +leading up to Cranbrook's room, Annunciata consented with the faintest +show of resistance to being kissed, and she even responded, though +vaguely and doubtingly, to his vehement caresses. "_Felicissima +notte_, Signore Giovanni," she murmured, as she slowly disengaged +herself from his embrace. "You are a dear, good man, and I will go +with you across the great sea." + + +IV. + + +Since their first parting, Vincent and Cranbrook had seen little of +each other. They had met occasionally in the Vatican galleries, in the +palace of the Caesars, and on the Monte Pincio, and had then stopped to +shake hands and to exchange a few friendly inquiries, but Cranbrook, +for a reason which he strove hard to embellish, had hitherto refrained +from inviting Harry to visit him in his dwelling. The latter had of +course noticed this omission, but had attributed it to a very +pardonable desire on Jack's part to keep him in ignorance as to the +real state of his finances. "He is probably living in some cheap +hovel," he thought, "and he is too proud to wish me to know it. But he +needn't be afraid of my intruding upon his privacy until he himself +opens his door to me." Unfortunately for both, Harry was not destined +to carry out this amiable intention. A hostile fate led him to +encroach upon his friend's territory when he was least suspecting it. + +It was a sunny day early in February. Antonio Caesarelli had saddled an +uncommonly hoary and wise-looking donkey, named Abraham, and, as was +his wont every Saturday, had repaired with it to the Piazza del Fiori, +where he sold _broccoli_ and other vegetables of the cabbage species. +About noon, Annunciata came to bring him his dinner, and after having +enjoyed for a while the sensation she made among the cabbage-dealers, +betook herself on a journey of exploration through the city. Pietro's +tale of the miracles performed at the monkey theatre had given a +lively impetus to her imagination, and being unable to endure any +longer his irritating airs of superior knowledge, she had formed the +daring resolution to put his veracity to the test. She arrived quite +breathless in the Piazza delle Terme, and with much flutter and +palpitation inquired the price of a ticket. The door-keeper paused in +his stentorian address to the multitude that was gathered about him, +and informed her that ten soldi would admit her to the enchanted +realm within. Poor Annunciata's countenance fell; she pulled her seven +soldi from her pocket, counted them three or four times deliberately +in her hand, and cast appealing glances at the stony-hearted Cerberus. +At this moment she discovered a handsome young gentleman who, with his +eyes fixed on her face, was elbowing his way through the crowd. + +"Come along, my pretty lass," he said, in doubtful Italian. "Put those +coppers in your pocket and let me get your ticket for you." + +Annunciata was well aware that it was a dangerous thing to accept +favors from unknown gentlemen, but just then her conscience refused to +assert itself. Nevertheless, she summoned courage to answer, though in +a voice which betrayed inward wavering: + +"No, I thank you, signore; I would rather not." + +"Oh, stuff, my child! I won't harm you, and your mother need never +know." + +He seized her gently by the arm and pointed toward the canvas door +which was drawn aside to admit another spectator. A gorgeously attired +monkey, riding on a poodle, became visible for an instant through the +aperture. That was too much for Annunciata's conscience. + +"But really, signore, I ought not!" she murmured, feebly. + +"But we all do so many things that we ought not to do," answered he, +with a brusque laugh. "However, I won't bite you; you needn't be +afraid of me." + +And before she knew it he had pushed her in through the door, and she +found herself standing in a large tent, with long circular rows of +benches which rose ampitheatrically from the arena toward the canvas +walls. It was not quite to her taste that he conducted her to a seat +near the roof, but she did not feel at liberty to remonstrate. She sat +staring rigidly at the performances of the poodles and the monkeys, +which were, no doubt, very wonderful, but which, somehow, failed to +impress her as such, for she felt all the while that the gentleman at +her side was regarding her with unaverted gaze. The thought of Signore +Giovanni shot through her mind, and she feared she should never dare +to look into his honest eyes again. Her heart kept hammering against +her side, her blood burned in her cheeks, and she felt guilty and +miserable. And yet she saw, in a sort of blind and unconscious way, +that her escort was a very dazzling phenomenon, and in external finish +much superior to her plain and unassuming lover. Gradually, as she +accustomed herself to her novel situation, she began to bestow her +furtive admiration upon the various ornaments which he carried about +his person in the shape of scarf-pin and sleeve-buttons, and she also +found time to observe that his linen and his handkerchief were +immaculate and of exceeding fineness. The _tout ensemble_ of his +personality made the impression of costliness which, to her +unsophisticated soul, was synonymous with high birth and an exalted +social position. + +"If only Signore Giovanni would dress like that," she thought, "how +much more I should love him!" + +That was a very disloyal thought, and her conscience immediately smote +her. She arose, thanked her companion tremulously for his kindness, +and hastened toward the door. When she was once more under the open +sky, she drew a full breath of relief, and then hurried away as if the +earth burned under her feet. It was nearly five o'clock when she +reached the garden-gate of the villa; she paused for a moment to +collect her thoughts, to arrange her excuses, and to prepare for the +scolding which she knew was in store for her. She was just about to +turn the key when, to her horror, she saw her unknown companion +stepping out of a _fiacre_, and fearlessly approaching her. + +"Surely, child, you didn't imagine you could run away from me in that +style," he said smilingly. "Our acquaintance is not to come to such an +untimely end. You must tell me your name, and, I was going to say, +where you live, but that key will relieve you from the latter +necessity. But, in order to prove to you that I am an honest fellow +and mean no harm to you, here is my card. My name is Henry Vincent, I +am an American, and--and--I should like to meet you again, if you have +no objection." + +Annunciata was now seriously alarmed. + +"Signore," she faltered, "I am an honest girl, and you must not speak +to me thus." + +"By Jove! So am I an honest fellow, and no one need be ashamed of my +acquaintance. If you had anything to fear from me, do you suppose I +would offer you my card, and give you my name? But I _must_ meet you +again; if you don't give me the opportunity, I shall make my +opportunity myself, and that might get you into a scrape and be +unpleasant for both of us. Well, what do you say?" + +The young girl stood for a while pondering. Her first impulse was to +cut short the interview by mentioning Cranbrook's name and revealing +her own relation to him. She had an idea that Cranbrook was a sort of +national character and that all Americans must have heard of him. A +second glance at Vincent's splendid attire, however, turned the scale +in his favor. + +"About noon next Saturday," she said, scarcely audibly, "I shall be in +the Piazza del Fiori. My father will be there, too." + +With a swift movement she tore the garden-gate open, slammed it behind +her and ran up the path toward the terrace. + + +V. + + +March, the very name of which makes a New Englander shiver, is a +glorious month in Rome. Then a warmer tone steals into the sky, the +clouds become airier and more buoyant in color and outline, and the +Sabine Mountains display, with the varying moods of the day, tints of +the most exquisite softness and delicacy. Cranbrook, from his lofty +hermitage, had an excellent opportunity to observe this ever-changing +panorama of earth and sky; but it had lost its charm to him. The long, +cool vistas between the cloud-banks no more lifted the mind above +itself, pointing the way into a great and glorious future. A vague +dread was perpetually haunting him; he feared that Annunciata did not +love him as he wished to be loved; that she regretted, perhaps, having +bound herself to him and was not unwilling to break loose from him. +But what was life to him without Annunciata? He must bide his time, +and by daily kindness teach her to love him. That she was not happy +might have other causes, unknown to him. Her vehement self-accusations +and tearful protestations that she was not true to him might be merely +the manifestations of a morbidly sensitive conscience. + +Vincent in the meanwhile had changed his attitude completely toward +the old masters. After his first meeting with Annunciata, his artistic +sense had been singularly quickened. He might be seen almost daily +wending his way, with a red-covered Baedeker under his arm, to the +gate of a certain villa, where he would breathe the musty air of the +deserted gallery for hours together, gaze abstractedly out of the +windows, and sometimes, when he was observed, even make a pretence of +sketching. Usually it was Monna Nina or Pietro who came to open the +gate for him on such occasions, but, at rare intervals, it happened +that Annunciata was sent to be his cicerone. She always met him with +fear and trembling, but so irresistible was the fascination which he +exerted over her, that he seemed to be able to change her mood at +will. When he greeted her with his lazy smile her heart gave a great +thump, and she laughed responsively, almost in spite of herself. If he +scowled, which he was sometimes pleased to do when Monna Nina or +Pietro had taken her place for several successive days, she looked +apprehensive and inquired about his health. The costly presents of +jewelry which he had given her, she hid guiltily in the most secret +drawer of her chest, and then sat up late into the night and rejoiced +and wept over them. + +As for Vincent, it must be admitted that his own infatuation was no +less complete. He had a feeling as if some new force had entered his +life and filled it with a great, though dimly apprehended, meaning. +His thought had gained a sweep and a width of wing which were a +perpetual surprise to him. Not that he reasoned much about if he only +felt strong and young and mightily aroused. He had firmly resolved to +make Annunciata his wife, and he was utterly at a loss, and even +secretly irritated at her reluctance to have their relation revealed +to her parents. He could brook no obstacle in his march of conquest, +and was constantly chafing at the necessity of concealment. He had +frequently thought of anticipating Annunciata's decision, by +presenting himself to her parents as a Croesus from beyond the sea, +who entertained the laudable intention of marrying their fair +daughter; but somehow the character of Cophetua was ridiculously +melodramatic, and Annunciata, with her imperial air, would have made a +poor job of the beggar-maid. + +It was on the tenth of March, 186--, a memorable date in the lives of +the three persons concerned in this narrative. Cranbrook had just +finished a semi-aesthetic and semi-political letter to a transatlantic +journal, in which he figured twice a month as "our own correspondent." +It was already late in the night; but the excitement of writing had +made him abnormally wakeful, and knowing that it was of no use to go +to bed, he blew out his lamp, lit a cigar and walked out upon the +_loggia_. There was a warm and fitful spring wind blowing, and the +unceasing rustling of the ilex leaves seemed cool and soothing to his +hot and overwrought senses. In the upper strata of the air, a stronger +gale was chasing dense masses and torn shreds of cloud with a fierce +speed before the lunar crescent; and the broad terrace beyond the +trees was alternately illuminated and plunged in gloom. In one of +these sudden illuminations, Cranbrook thought he saw a man leaning +against the marble balustrade; something appeared to be unwinding +itself slowly from his arms, and presently there stood a woman at his +side. Then the moon vanished behind a cloud, and all was darkness. +Cranbrook began to tremble; a strange numbness stole over him. He +stood for a while motionless, then lifted his hand to his forehead; +but he hardly felt its touch; he only felt that it was cold and wet. +Several minutes passed; a damp gust of wind swept through the +tree-tops and a night-hawk screamed somewhere in the darkness. +Presently the moon sailed out into the blue space, and he saw again +the two figures locked in a close embrace. The wind bore toward him a +dear familiar voice which sounded tender and appealing; his blood +swept like fire through his veins. Hardly knowing what he did, he +leaped down the stairs which led from the _loggia_ into the court +rushed through the garden toward the terrace, grappled for a moment +with somebody, thrust against something hard which suddenly yielded, +and then fell down--down into a deep and dark abyss. + +When he awoke he felt a pair of cold hands fumbling with his +shirt-collar; trees were all about him and the blue moonlit sky above +him. He arose, not without difficulty, and recognized Annunciata's +face close to his; she looked frightened and strove to avoid his +glance. + +"The Holy Virgin be praised, Signore Giovanni!" she whispered. "But +Signore Enrico, he seems to be badly hurt." + +He suddenly remembered what had happened; but he could bring forth no +sound; he had a choking sensation in his throat and his lips seemed +numb and lifeless. He saw Annunciata stooping down over a form that +lay outstretched on the ground, but the sight of her was repulsive to +him and he turned away. + +"Help me, Signore Giovanni," she begged in a hoarse whisper. "He may +be dead and there is no one to help him." + +Half mechanically he stooped down--gracious heavens! It was Vincent! +In an instant all his anger and misery were forgotten. + +"Hurry, Annunciata," he cried; "run for a doctor. Great God! what have +you done?" + + +VI. + + +Six weeks later two young Americans were sitting on the deck of the +Cunarder _Siberia_, which had that morning left the Queenstown harbor. + +"Jack," said the one, laying his hand on the other's shoulder in a way +that expressed an untold amount of friendliness, "I don't think it is +good policy to keep silence any longer. I know I have committed my +monumental piece of folly, as you prophesied, but I need hardly tell +you, Jack, that I didn't know at the time what--what I know now," he +finished, hurriedly. + +"I never doubted that, Harry," answered the other with a certain +solemn impressiveness. "But don't let us talk. I have not reached the +stage yet when I can mention her name without a pang; and I fear--I +fear I never shall." + +They sat for a long while smoking in silence and gazing pensively +toward the dim coast-line of Europe, which was gradually fading away +upon the eastern horizon. + +"Jack," began Vincent abruptly, "I feel as if I had passed through a +severe illness." + +"So you have, Harry," retorted Cranbrook. + +"Oh, pshaw! I don't mean that. That little physical suffering was +nothing more than I deserved. But a fever, they say, sometimes +purifies the blood, and mine, I think, has left me a cleaner and a +wiser fellow than it found me." + +The steamer kept ploughing its broad pathway of foam through the +billows; a huge cloud of fantastic shape loomed up in the east, and +the vanishing land blended with and melted away among its fleecy +embankments. + +"Are you perfectly sure, Jack," said Vincent, throwing the burning +stump of his cigar over the gunwale, "that the experiences of the past +year have not been all an excursion into the 'Arabian Nights'? If it +were not for that fine marble relief in my trunk which I bought of +that miserable buffoon in the Via Sistina, I should easily persuade +myself that the actual world were bounded on the east by the Atlantic +and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. I was just considering whether I +should try to smuggle it through the custom-house, or whether, +perhaps, it would be wiser to give Uncle Sam his due." + +"And what does the relief represent?" asked Cranbrook, half +indifferently. + +"It is a copy from an antique one. Agamemnon robbing Achilles of +his--" + +Cranbrook gave a start, and walked rapidly toward the other end of the +boat. In half an hour he returned, stopped in front of Vincent, +grasped his hand warmly and said: + +"Harry, let us agree never to refer to that which is passed. In your +life it was an episode, in mine it was a catastrophe." + +Since that day, Annunciata's name has never passed their lips. + +There is, however, an epilogue to this tale which cannot well be left +untold. In the winter of 187-, ten years after their first Italian +sojourn, the two friends again visited Rome together. One beautiful +day in February, they found themselves, perhaps not quite by accident, +in the neighborhood of the well-remembered villa. They rang the bell +at the garden gate and were admitted by a robust young man who seemed +to be lounging among the overgrown hedges in some official capacity. +The mossy Triton was still prosecuting his thankless task in the midst +of his marble basin; the long stairs to the terrace were yet as damp +and slippery as of old, and the noseless Roman senator was still +persevering in his majestic attitude, although a sprig of maiden-hair +was supporting its slender existence in the recess of his countenance +which had once been occupied by his stately nose. Vincent and +Cranbrook both regarded these familiar objects with peculiar emotions, +but faithful to their agreement, they made no comment. At last they +stopped before the sarcophagus--and verily Babetta was still there. A +clean and chubby-faced Italian baby with large black eyes rose out of +its marble depth and hailed them with simple, inarticulate delight. +Cranbrook gazed long at the child, then lifted it up in his arms and +kissed it. The young man who had opened the gate for them stood by +observing the scene with a doubtful expression of suspicion and +wonder. As the stranger again deposited the child on the blanket in +the bottom of the sarcophagus, he stepped up before the door and +called: + +"Annunciata!" + +A tall, comely matron appeared in the door--and the strangers hastened +away. + + + + +UNDER THE GLACIER. + + +I. + + +In one of the deepest fjord-valleys on the western coast of Norway +there lives, even to this day, a legend which may be worth relating. +Several hundred years ago, a peasant dwelt there in the parish who had +two sons, both born on the same day. During their infancy they looked +so much alike that even the father himself could not always tell one +from the other; and as the mother had died soon after their birth, +there was no one to settle the question of primogeniture. At last the +father, too, died, and each son, feeling sure that he was the elder, +laid claim to the farm. For well nigh a year they kept wrangling and +fighting, each threatening to burn the house over the other's head if +he dared to take possession of it. The matter was finally adjusted by +the opportune intervention of a neighbor who stood in high repute for +wisdom. At his suggestion, they should each plant side by side a twig +or sprout of some tree or herb, and he to whose plant God gave growth +should be the owner of the farm. This advice was accepted; for God, +both thought, was a safer arbiter than man. One of the brothers, Arne, +chose a fern (_Ormgrass_), and the other, Ulf, a sweet-brier. A week +later, they went with the wise man and two other neighbors to the +remote pasture at the edge of the glacier where, by common consent, +they had made their appeal to the judgment of heaven. Arne's fern +stood waving in dewy freshness in the morning breeze; but Ulf's +sweet-brier lay prostrate upon the ground, as if uprooted by some +hostile hand. The eyes of the brothers met in a long, ill-boding +glance. + +"This is not heaven's judgment," muttered Ulf, under his breath. +"Methinks I know the hand that has wrought this dastardly deed." + +The umpires, unmindful of the charge, examined the uprooted twig, and +decided that some wild animal must have trodden upon it. Accordingly +they awarded the farm to Arne. Then swifter than thought Ulf's knife +flew from its sheath; Arne turned pale as death and quivered like an +aspen leaf. The umpires rushed forward to shield him. There was a +moment of breathless suspense. Then Ulf with a wild shout hurled his +knife away, and leaped over the brink of the precipice down into the +icy gulf below. A remote hollow rumbling rose from the abyss, followed +by a deeper stillness. The men peered out over the edge of the rock; +the glacier lay vast and serene, with its cold, glittering surface +glaring against the sky, and a thousand minute rivulets filled the air +with their melodious tinkling. + +"God be his judge and yours," said the men to Arne, and hastened away. + +From that day Arne received the surname Ormgrass (literally Wormgrass, +Fern), and his farm was called the Ormgrass farm. And the name has +clung to his descendants until this day. Somehow, since the death of +Ulf, the family had never been well liked, and in their proud +seclusion, up under the eternal ice-fields, they sought their +neighbors even less than they were themselves sought. They were indeed +a remarkably handsome race, of a light build, with well-knit frames, +and with a touch of that wild grace which makes a beast of prey seem +beautiful and dangerous. + +In the beginning of the present century Arne's grandson, Gudmund +Ormgrass, was the bearer of the family name and the possessor of the +estate. As ill luck would have it, his two sons, Arne and Tharald, +both wooed the same maiden,--the fairest and proudest maiden in all +the parish. After long wavering she at last was betrothed to Arne, as +some thought, because he, being the elder, was the heir to the farm. +But in less than a year, some two weeks before the wedding was to be, +she bore a child; and Arne was not its father. + +That same night the brothers met in an evil hour; from words they +came to blows, knives were drawn, and after midnight Tharald was +carried up to the farm with a deep wound in his shoulder and quite +unconscious. He hovered for a week on the brink of death; then the +wound began to heal and he recovered rapidly. Arne was nowhere to be +found; rumor reported that he had been seen the day after the affray, +on board a brig bound for Hull with lumber. At the end of a year +Tharald married his brother's bride and took possession of the farm. + + +II. + + +One morning in the early summer of 1868, some thirty-five years after +the events just related, the fjord valley under the glacier was +startled by three shrill shrieks from the passing steamer, the usual +signal that a boat was wanted to land some stray passenger. A couple +of boats were pushed out from the beach, and half a dozen men, with +red-peaked caps and a certain picturesque nonchalance in their attire, +scrambled into them and soon surrounded the gangway of the steamer. +First some large trunks and boxes were lowered, showing that the +passenger, whoever he might be, was a person of distinction,--an +impression which was still further confirmed by the appearance of a +tall, dark-skinned man, followed by a woolly-headed creature of a +truly Satanic complexion, who created a profound sensation among the +boatmen. Then the steamer shrieked once more, the echoes began a +prolonged game of hide-and-seek among the snow-hooded peaks, and the +boats slowly ploughed their way over the luminous mirror of fjord. + +"Is there any farm here, where my servant and myself can find lodgings +for the summer?" said the traveller, turning to a young peasant lad. +"I should prefer to be as near to the glacier as possible." + +He spoke Norwegian, with a strong foreign accent, but nevertheless +with a correct and distinct enunciation. + +"My father, Tharald Ormgrass, lives close up to the ice-field," +answered the lad. "I shouldn't wonder if he would take you, if you +will put up with our way of living." + +"Will you accompany me to your father's house?" + +"Yes, I guess I can do that." (_Ja, jeg kan nok det_.) + +The lad, without waiting for further summons, trotted ahead, and the +traveller with his black servant followed. + +Maurice Fern (for that was the stranger's name) was, as already +hinted, a tall, dark-complexioned man, as yet slightly on the sunny +side of thirty, with a straight nose, firm, shapely mouth, which was +neither sensual nor over-sensitive, and a pair of clear dark-brown +eyes, in which there was a gleam of fervor, showing that he was not +altogether incapable of enthusiasm. But for all that, the total +impression of his personality was one of clear-headed decision and +calm energy. He was a man of an absorbing presence, one whom you would +have instinctively noticed even in a crowd. He bore himself with that +unconscious grace which people are apt to call aristocratic, being +apparently never encumbered by any superfluity of arms and legs. His +features, whatever their ethnological value might be, were, at all +events, decidedly handsome; but if they were typical of anything, they +told unmistakably that their possessor was a man of culture. They +showed none of that barbaric frankness which, like a manufacturer's +label, flaunts in the face of all humanity the history of one's +origin, race, and nationality. Culture is hostile to type; it +humanizes the ferocious jaw-bones of the Celt, blanches the ruddy +lustre of the Anglo-Saxon complexion, contracts the abdominal volume +of the Teuton, and subdues the extravagant angularities of Brother +Jonathan's stature and character. Although respecting this +physiognomic reticence on the part of Mr. Fern, we dare not leave the +reader in ignorance regarding the circumstances of which he was the +unconscious result. + +After his flight from Norway, Arne Ormgrass had roamed about for +several months as "a wanderer and a vagabond upon the earth," until, +finally, he settled down in New Orleans, where he entered into +partnership with a thrifty young Swede, and established a hotel, known +as the "Sailors' Valhalla." Fortune favored him: his reckless daring, +his ready tongue, and, above all, his extraordinary beauty soon gained +him an enviable reputation. Money became abundant, the hotel was torn +down and rebuilt with the usual barbaric display of mirrors and +upholstery, and the landlords began to aspire for guests of a higher +degree. Then, one fine day, a young lady, with a long French name and +aristocratic antecedents, fell in love with Arne, not coolly and +prudently, as northern damsels do, but with wildly tragic +gesticulations and a declamatory ardor that were superb to behold. To +the Norseman, however, a passion of this degree of intensity was too +novel to be altogether pleasing; he felt awed and bewildered,--standing, +as he did, for the first time in his life in the presence of a +veritable mystery. By some chance their clandestine meetings were +discovered. The lady's brother shot at Arne, who returned the shot with +better effect; then followed elopement--marriage--return to the +bosom of the family, and a final grand tableau with parental blessing +and reconciliation. + +From that time forth, Arne Fern, as he was called (his Norse name +having simply been translated into English), was a man of distinction. +After the death of his father-in-law, in 1859, he sold his Louisiana +property and emigrated with his wife and three children to San +Francisco, where by successful real-estate investments he greatly +increased his wealth. His eldest son, Maurice, was, at his own +request, sent to the Eastern States, where educational advantages were +greater; he entered, in due time, one of the best and oldest +universities, and, to the great disappointment of his father, +contracted a violent enthusiasm for natural science. Being convinced, +however, that remonstrance was vain, the old gentleman gradually +learned to look with a certain vague respect upon his son's +enigmatical pursuits, and at last surprised the latter by "coming down +quite handsomely" when funds were required for a geological excursion +to Norway. + + +III. + + +A scientific enthusiasm is one of the most uncomfortable things a +human bosom can harbor. It may be the source of a good deal of private +satisfaction to the devotee, but it makes him, in his own estimation, +superior to all the minor claims of society. This was, at least in an +eminent degree, the case with Maurice Fern. He was not wilfully +regardless of other people's comfort; he seemed rather to be +unconscious of their existence, except in a dim, general way, as a man +who gazes intently at a strong light will gradually lose sight of all +surrounding objects. And for all that, he was, by nature, a generous +man; in his unscientific moments, when his mind was, as it were, off +duty, he was capable of very unselfish deeds, and even of sublime +self-sacrifice. It was only a few weeks since he had given his plaid +to a shivering old woman in the Scottish stage-coach, and caught a +severe cold in consequence; but he had bestowed his charity in a +reserved, matter-of-fact way which made the act appear utterly +commonplace and unheroic. He found it less troublesome to shiver than +to be compelled to see some one else shivering, and his generosity +thus assumed the appearance of a deliberate choice between two evils. + +Phenomena of this degree of complexity are extremely rare in Norway, +where human nature, as everything else, is of the large-lettered, +easily legible type; and even Tharald Ormgrass, who, in spite of his +good opinion of himself, was not an acute observer, had a lively sense +of the foreignness of the guest whom, for pecuniary reasons, he had +consented to lodge during the remainder of the summer. + +A large, quaint, low-ceiled chamber on the second floor, with a +superfluity of tiny greenish window-panes, was assigned to the +stranger, and his African servant, Jake, was installed in a smaller +adjoining apartment. The day after his arrival Maurice spent in +unpacking and polishing his precious instruments, which, in the +incongruous setting of rough-hewn timbers and gaily painted Norse +furniture, looked almost fantastic. The maid who brought him his meals +(for he could waste no time in dining with the family) walked about on +tip-toe, as if she were in a sick-chamber, and occasionally stopped to +gaze at him with mingled curiosity and awe. + +The Ormgrass farm consisted of a long, bleak stretch of hill-side, in +part overgrown with sweet-brier and juniper, and covered with large, +lichen-painted bowlders. Here and there was a patch of hardy winter +wheat, and at odd intervals a piece of brownish meadow. At the top of +the slope you could see the huge shining ridge of the glacier, looming +in threatening silence against the sky. Leaning, as it did, with a +decided impulse to the westward, it was difficult to resist the +impression that it had braced itself against the opposite mountain, +and thrown its whole enormous weight against the Ormgrass hills for +the purpose of forcing a passage down to the farm. To Maurice, at +least, this idea suggested itself with considerable vividness as, on +the second day after his arrival, he had his first complete view of +the glacier. He had approached it, not from below, but from the +western side, at the only point where ascent was possible. The vast +expanse of the ice lay in cold, ghastly shade; for the sun, which was +barely felt as a remote presence in the upper air, had not yet reached +the depths of the valley. A silence as of death reigned everywhere; it +floated up from the dim blue crevasses, it filled the air, it vibrated +on the senses as with a vague endeavor to be heard. Jake, carrying a +barometer, a surveyor's transit, and a multitude of smaller +instruments, followed cautiously in his master's footsteps, and a +young lad, Tharald Ormgrass's son, who had been engaged as a guide, +ran nimbly over the glazed surface, at every step thrusting his +steel-shod heels vindictively into the ice. But it would be futile for +one of the uninitiated to attempt to follow Maurice in his scientific +investigations; on such occasions he would have been extremely +uninteresting to outside humanity, simply because outside humanity was +the last thing he would have thought worth troubling himself about. +And still his unremitting zeal in the pursuit of his aim, and his cool +self-possession in the presence of danger, were not without a +sublimity of their own; and the lustrous intensity of his vision as +he grasped some new fact corroborative of some favorite theory, might +well have stirred a sympathetic interest even in a mind of +unscientific proclivities. + +An hour after noon the three wanderers returned from their wintry +excursion, Maurice calm and radiant, the ebony-faced Jake sore-footed +and morose, and young Gudmund, the guide, with that stanch neutrality +of countenance which with boys passes for dignity. The sun was now +well in sight, and the silence of the glacier was broken. A thousand +tiny rills, now gathering into miniature cataracts, now again +scattering through a net-work of small, bluish channels, mingled their +melodious voices into a hushed symphony, suggestive of fairy bells and +elf-maidens dancing in the cool dusk of the arctic midsummer night. + +Fern, with an air of profound preoccupation, seated himself on a ledge +of rock at the border of the ice, took out his note-book and began to +write. + +"Jake," he said, without looking up, "be good enough to get us some +dinner." + +"We have nothing except some bread and butter, and some meat extract," +answered the servant, demurely. + +"That will be quite sufficient. You will find my pocket-stove and a +bottle of alcohol in my valise." + +Jake grumblingly obeyed; he only approved of science in so far as it +was reconcilable with substantial feeding. He placed the lamp upon a +huge bowlder (whose black sides were here and there enlivened with +patches of buff and scarlet lichen), filled the basin with water from +the glacier, and then lighted the wick. There was something +obtrusively incongruous in seeing this fragile contrivance, indicating +so many complicated wants, placed here among all the wild strength of +primitive nature; it was like beholding the glacial age confronted +with the nineteenth century. + +At this moment Fern was interrupted in his scientific meditations by a +loud scream of terror, and lifting his eyes, he saw a picturesque +combination of yellow, black, and scarlet (in its general outline +resembling a girl), fleeing with desperate speed up the narrow path +along the glacier. The same glance also revealed to him two +red-painted wooden pails dancing down over the jagged bowlders, and +just about to make a final leap down upon the ice, when two determined +kicks from his foot arrested them. Feeling somewhat solicitous about +the girl, and unable to account for her fright, he hurried up the +path; there she was again, still running, her yellow hair fluttering +wildly about her head. He put his hands to his mouth and shouted. The +echoes floated away over the desolate ice-hills, growing ever colder +and feebler, like some abstract sound, deprived of its human quality. +The girl, glancing back over her shoulder, showed a fair face, +convulsed with agitation, paused for an instant to look again, and +then dropped upon a stone in a state of utter collapse. One moment +more and he was at her side. She was lying with her face downward, her +blue eyes distended with fright, and her hands clutching some tufts of +moss which she had unconsciously torn from the sides of the stone. + +"My dear child," he said, stooping down over her (there was always +something fatherly in his manner toward those who were suffering), +"what is it that has frightened you so? It is surely not I you are +afraid of?" + +The girl moved her head slightly, and her lips parted as with an +effort to speak; but no sound came. + +Fern seized her hand, and put his forefinger on her pulse. + +"By Jove, child," he exclaimed, "how you have been running!" + +There was to him something very pathetic in this silent resignation of +terror. All the tenderness of his nature was stirred; for, like many +another undemonstrative person, he hid beneath a horny epidermis of +apathy some deep-hued, warm-blooded qualities. + +"There now," he continued, soothingly; "you will feel better in a +moment. Remember there is nothing to be afraid of. There is nobody +here who will do you any harm." + +The young girl braced herself up on her elbow, and threw an anxious +glance down the path. + +"It surely was the devil," she whispered, turning with a look of shy +appeal toward her protector. + +"The devil? Who was the devil?" + +"He was all black, and he grinned at me so horribly;" and she trembled +anew at the very thought. + +"Don't be a little goose," retorted he, laughing. "It was a far less +important personage. It was my servant, Jake. And it was God who made +him black, just for the sake of variety, you know. It would be rather +monotonous to have everybody as white as you and me." + +She attempted to smile, feeling that it was expected of her; but the +result was hardly proportionate to the effort. Her features were not +of that type which lends itself easily to disguises. A simple maidenly +soul, if the whole infinite variety of human masks had been at its +disposal, would have chosen just such a countenance as this as its +complete expression. There was nothing striking in it, unless an +entirely faultless combination of softly curving lines and fresh +flesh-tints be rare enough to merit that appellation; nor would any +one but a cynic have called it a commonplace face, for the absolute +sweetness and purity which these simple lines and tints expressed +appealed directly to that part of one's nature where no harsh +adjectives dwell. It was a feeling of this kind which suddenly +checked Fern in the scientific meditation he was about to indulge, and +spoiled the profound but uncharitable result at which he had already +half arrived. A young man who could extract scientific information +from the features of a beautiful girl could hardly be called human; +and our hero with all his enthusiasm for abstract things, was as yet +not exalted above the laws which govern his species. + +The girl had, under his kindly ministry, recovered her breath and her +spirits. She had risen, brushed the moss and loose earth from her +dress, and was about to proceed on her way. + +"I thank you," she said simply, reaching him her hand in Norse +fashion. "You have been very good to me." + +"Not at all," he answered, shaking her hand heartily. "And now, +wouldn't you please tell me your name?" + +"Elsie Tharald's daughter Ormgrass." + +"Ah, indeed! Then we shall soon be better acquainted. I am living at +your father's house." + + +IV. + + +Two weeks had passed since Maurice's arrival at the farm. Elsie was +sitting on the topmost step of the store-house stairs, intent upon +some kind of coarse knitting-work, whose bag-like convexity remotely +suggested a stocking. Some straggling rays of the late afternoon sun +had got tangled in the loose locks on her forehead, which shone with a +golden translucence. At the foot of the stairs stood her father, +polishing with a woollen rag the tarnished silver of an ancient +harness. At this moment Fern was seen entering the yard at the +opposite side, and with his usual brisk step approaching the +store-house. Elsie, looking up from her knitting, saw at once that +there was something unusual in his manner--something which in another +man you might have called agitation, but which with him was but an +intenser degree of self-command. + +"Good-evening," he said, as he stopped in front of her father. "I have +something I wish to speak with you about." + +"Speak on, young man," answered Tharald, rubbing away imperturbably at +one of the blinders. "Elsie isn't likely to blab, even if what you say +is worth blabbing." + +"It is a more serious affair than you think," continued Fern, +thrusting his peaked staff deep into the sod. "If the glacier goes on +advancing at this rate, your farm is doomed within a year." + +The old peasant raised his grizzly head, scratched with provoking +deliberation the fringe of beard which lined his face like a frame, +and stared with a look of supercilious scorn at his informant. + +"If our fare don't suit you," he growled, "you needn't stay. We +shan't try to keep you." + +"I had no thought of myself," retorted Fern, calmly; for he had by +this time grown somewhat accustomed to his host's disagreeable ways. +"You will no doubt have observed that the glacier has, within the last +thirty years, sent out a new branch to the westward, and if this +branch continues to progress at its present rate, nothing short of a +miracle can save you. During the first week after my arrival it +advanced fifteen feet, as I have ascertained by accurate measurements, +and during the last seven days it has shot forward nineteen feet more. +If next winter should bring a heavy fall of snow, the nether edge may +break off, without the slightest warning, and an avalanche may sweep +down upon you, carrying houses, barns, and the very soil down into the +fjord. I sincerely hope that you will heed my words, and take your +precautions while it is yet time. Science is not to be trifled with; +it has a power of prophecy surer than that of Ezekiel or Daniel." + +"The devil take both you and your science!" cried the old man, now +thoroughly aroused. "If you hadn't been poking about up there, and +digging your sneezing-horn in everywhere, the glacier would have kept +quiet, as it has done before, as far back as man's memory goes. I knew +at once that mischief was brewing when you and your black Satan came +here with your pocket-furnaces, and your long-legged gazing-tubes, and +all the rest of your new-fangled deviltry. If you don't hurry up and +get out of my house this very day, I will whip you off the farm like a +dog." + +Tharald would probably have continued this pleasing harangue for an +indefinite period (for excitement acted as a powerful stimulus to his +imagination), had he not just then felt the grasp of a hand upon his +arm, and seen a pair of blue eyes, full of tearful appeal, raised to +his. + +"Get away, daughter," he grumbled, with that shade of gruffness which +is but the transition to absolute surrender. "I am not talking to +you." + +"Oh, father," cried the girl, still clinging to his arm, "it is very +wrong in you to talk to him in that way. You know very well that he +would never do us any harm. You know he cannot move anything as large +as the glacier." + +"The devil only knows what he can't do," muttered Tharald, with a +little explosive grunt, which might be interpreted as a qualified +concession. The fact was, he was rather ashamed of his senseless +violence, but did not feel it to be consistent with his dignity to +admit unconditionally that he had been in the wrong. + +"These learned chaps are not to be trusted, child," he went on, in a +tone of serious remonstrance. "It isn't safe to have one of them +fellows running about loose. I heard of one up in the West Parish +last summer, who was staying with Lars Norby. He was running about +with a bag and a hammer, and poking his nose into every nook and +cranny of the rocks. And all the while he stayed there, the devil ran +riot on the farm. Three cows slinked, the bay mare followed suit, and +the chickens took the cramps, and died as fast as they were hatched. +There was no luck in anything. I tell you, my lass, the Almighty +doesn't like to have anybody peeping into His hand, and telling Him +when to trump and when to throw a low card. That is the long and short +of it. If we don't ship this fellow, smooth-faced and nice as he may +be, we shall have a run of bad luck here, such as you never saw the +like of before." + +In the meanwhile, Maurice, not wishing to overhear the conversation, +had entered the house, and father and daughter were left to continue +their parley in private. There was really, as Elsie thought, some +plausibility in the old man's prognostications, and the situation +began to assume a very puzzling aspect to her mind. She admitted that +scientists, viewed as a genus, were objectionable; but insisted that +Fern, to whose personal charms she was keenly alive, was an exception +to the rule. She felt confident that so good a man as he could never +have tried to pry into the secrets of God Almighty. Tharald yielded +grumblingly, inch by inch, and thus saved his dignity, although his +daughter, in the end, prevailed. She obtained his permission to +request the guest to remain, and not interpret too literally the +rather hasty words he had used. Thus a compromise was effected. Fern +suspended his packing, and resumed his objectionable attitude toward +the mysteries of creation. + +About a week after this occurrence, Maurice was walking along the +beach, watching some peasant lads who were spearing trout in a brook +near by. The sun had just dipped below the western mountain peaks, and +a cool, bluish twilight, which seemed the essence of atmospheric +purity, purged of all accessory effects, filled the broad, placid +valley, and made it a luxury to breathe. The torches of the fishermen +flitted back and forth between the slender stems of the birches, and +now and then sent up a great glare of light among the foliage, which +shone with a ghostly grayish green. The majestic repose of this scene +sank deeply into Fern's mind; dim yearnings awoke in him, and a +strange sense of kinship with these mountains, fjords, and glaciers +rose from some unknown depth of his soul. He seemed suddenly to love +them. Whenever he thought of Norway in later years, the impression of +this night revived within him. After a long ramble over the sand, he +chanced upon a low, turf-thatched cottage lying quite apart from the +inhabited districts of the valley. The sheen of the fire upon the +hearth-stone fell through the open door and out upon the white beach, +and illuminated faintly the middle portion of a long fishing-net, +which was suspended on stakes, for drying. Feeling a little tired, he +seated himself on a log near the door, and gazed out upon the gleaming +glaciers in the distance. + +While he was sitting thus, he was startled at the sound of a voice, +deep, distinct, and sepulchral, which seemed to proceed from within +the cottage. + +"I see a book sealed with seven seals," the voice was saying. "Two of +them are already broken, and when the third shall be broken--then it +is all black--a great calamity will happen." + +"Pray don't say that, Gurid," prayed another voice, with a touching, +child-like appeal in it (and he instantly recognized it as Elsie's). +"God is so very strong, you know, and He can certainly wipe away that +black spot, and make it all bright again. And I don't know that I have +done anything very wrong of late; and father, I know, is really very +good, too, even if he does say some hard things at times. But he +doesn't mean anything by it--and I am sure--" + +"Be silent, child!" interrupted the first voice. "Thou dost not +understand, and it is well for thee that thou dost not. For it is +written, 'He shall visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, +even unto the third and fourth generation.'" + +"How terrible!" + +"Hush! Now I see a man--he is tall and beautiful--has dark hair and +rather a dark face." + +"Pray don't say anything more. I don't want to know. Is he to break +the seals?" + +"Then there is water--water--a long, long journey." + +Maurice had listened to this conversation with feelings of mingled +amusement and pity, very much as he would have listened to a duet, +representing the usual mixture of gypsy and misguided innocence, in an +old-fashioned opera. That he was playing the eavesdropper had never +entered his mind. The scene seemed too utterly remote and unreal to +come within the pale of moral canons. But suddenly the aspect of +affairs underwent a revolution, as if the misguided young lady in the +opera had turned out to be his sister, and he himself under obligation +to interfere in her behalf. For at that moment there came an intense, +hurried whisper, to which he would fain have closed his ears: + +"And does he care for me as I do for him?" + +He sprang up, his ears tingling with shame, and hurried down the +beach. Presently it occurred to him, however, that it was not quite +chivalrous in him to leave little Elsie there alone with the +dark-minded sibyl. Who knew but that she might need his help? He +paused, and was about to retrace his steps, when he heard some one +approaching, whom he instinctively knew to be Elsie. As she came +nearer, the moon, which hung transfixed upon the flaming spear of a +glacier peak, revealed a distressed little face, through whose +transparent surface you might watch the play of emotions within, as +one watches the doings of tiny insects and fishes in an aquarium. + +"What have they been doing to my little girl?" asked Fern, with a +voice full of paternal tenderness. "She has been crying, poor little +thing." + +He may have been imprudent in addressing a girl of seventeen in this +tender fashion; but the truth was, her short skirts and the two long +braids of yellow hair were in his mind associated with that age toward +which you may, without offence, assume the role of a well-meaning +protector, and where even a kiss need not necessarily be resented. So +far from feeling flattered by the unwished-for recollection of Elsie's +feeling for him, he was rather disposed to view it as a pathological +phenomenon,--as a sort of malady, of which he would like to cure her. +It is not to be denied, however, that if this was his intention, the +course he was about to pursue was open to criticism. But it must be +borne in mind that Fern was no expert on questions of the +heart,--that he had had no blighting experiences yielding him an +unwholesome harvest of premature wisdom. + +For a long while they walked on in silence, holding each other's hands +like two children, and the sound of their footsteps upon the crisp, +crunching sand was singularly exaggerated by the great stillness +around them. + +"And whom is it you have been visiting so late in the night, Elsie?" +he asked, at last, glancing furtively into her face. + +"Hush, you mustn't talk about her," answered she, in a timid whisper. +"It was Gurid Sibyl, and she knows a great many things which nobody +else knows except God." + +"I am sorry you have resort to such impostors. You know the Bible says +it is wrong to consult sibyls and fortune-tellers." + +"No, I didn't know it. But you mustn't speak ill of her, or she will +sow disease in your blood and you will never see another healthy day. +She did that to Nils Saetren because he mocked her, and he has been a +cripple ever since." + +"Pshaw, I am not afraid of her. She may frighten children--" + +"Hush! Oh, don't!" cried the girl, in tones of distress, laying her +hand gently over his mouth. "I wouldn't for the world have anything +evil happen to you." + +"Well well, you foolish child," he answered, laughing. "If it grieves +you, I will say nothing more about it. But I must disapprove of your +superstition all the same." + +"Oh, no; don't think ill of me," she begged piteously, her eyes +filling with tears. + +"No no, I will not. Only don't cry. It always makes me feel awkward to +see a woman cry." + +She brushed her tears away and put on a resolute little pout, which +was meant to be resigned if not cheerful. + +Fifteen minutes later they were standing at the foot of the stairs +leading up to his room. The large house was dark and silent. Everybody +was asleep. Thinking the opportunity favorable for giving her a bit of +parting advice, Maurice seized hold of both her arms and looked her +gravely in the eyes. She, however, misinterpreting the gesture, very +innocently put up her lips, thinking that he intended to kiss her. The +sweet, child-like trustfulness of the act touched him; hardly knowing +what he did, he stooped over her and kissed her. As their eyes again +met, a deep, radiant contentment shone from her countenance. It was +not a mere momentary brightening of the features, such as he had often +noticed in her before, but something inexpressibly tender, soul-felt, +and absolute. It was as if that kiss had suddenly transformed the +child into a woman. + + +V. + + +Summer hurried on at a rapid pace, the days grew perceptibly shorter, +and the birds of passage gathered in large companies on the beach and +on the hill-tops, holding noisy consultations to prepare for their +long southward journey. Maurice still stayed on at the Ormgrass Farm, +but a strange, feverish mood had come over him. He daily measured the +downward progress of the glacier in agitated expectancy, although as a +scientific experiment it had long ceased to yield him any +satisfaction. That huge congealed residue of ten thousand winters had, +however, acquired a human interest to him which it had lacked before; +what he had lost as a scientist he had gained as a man. For, with all +respect for Science, that monumental virgin at whose feet so many +cherished human illusions have already been sacrificed, it is not to +be denied that from an unprofessional point of view a warm-blooded, +fair-faced little creature like Elsie is a worthier object of a +bachelor's homage. And, strive as he would, Maurice could never quite +rid himself of the impression that the glacier harbored in its snowy +bosom some fell design against Elsie's peace and safety. It is even +possible that he never would have discovered the real nature of his +feelings for her if it had not been for this constant fear that she +might any moment be Snatched away from him. + +It was a novel experience in a life like his, so lonely amid its cold, +abstract aspirations, to have this warm, maidenly spring-breath +invading those chambers of his soul, hitherto occupied by shivering +calculations regarding the duration and remoteness of the ice age. The +warmer strata of feeling which had long lain slumbering beneath this +vast superstructure of glacial learning began to break their way to +the light, and startled him very much as the earth must have been +startled when the first patch of green sod broke into view, steaming +under the hot rays of the noonday sun. Abstractly considered, the +thing seemed preposterous enough for the plot of a dime novel, while +in the light of her sweet presence the development of his love seemed +as logical as an algebraic problem. At all events, the result was in +both cases equally inexorable. It was useless to argue that she was +his inferior in culture and social accomplishments; she was still +young and flexible, and displayed an aptness for seizing upon his +ideas and assimilating them which was fairly bewildering. And if +purity of soul and loving singleness of purpose be a proof of noble +blood, she was surely one of nature's noblewomen. + +In the course of the summer, Fern had made several attempts to +convince old Tharald that the glacier was actually advancing. He +willingly admitted that there was a possibility that it might change +its mind and begin to recede before any mischief was done, but he held +it to be very hazardous to stake one's life on so slim a chance. The +old man, however, remained impervious to argument, although he no +longer lost his temper when the subject was broached. His ancestors +had lived there on the farm century after century, he said, and the +glacier had done them no harm. He didn't see why he should be treated +any worse by the Almighty than they had been; he had always acted with +tolerable fairness toward everybody, and had nothing to blame himself +for. + +It was perhaps the third time when Tharald had thus protested his +blamelessness, that his guest, feeling that reasoning was unavailing, +let drop some rather commonplace remark about the culpability of all +men before God. + +Tharald suddenly flared up, and brought down his fist with a blow on +the table. + +"Somebody has been bearing tales to you, young man," he cried. "Have +you been listening to parish talk?" + +"That matters little," answered Fern, coolly. "No one is so blameless +that he can claim exemption from misfortune as his just desert." + +"Aha, so they have told you that the farm is not mine," continued his +host, while his gray eyes glimmered uneasily under his bushy brows. +"They have told you that silly nursery tale of the planting of the +fern and the sweet-brier, and of Ulf, who sought his death in the +glacier. They have told you that I stole the bride of my brother Arne, +and that he fled from me over the sea,--and you have believed it all." + +At the sound of the name Arne, a flash darted through Maurice's mind; +he sprang up, stood for a moment tottering, and then fell back into +the chair. Dim memories of his childhood rose up within him; he +remembered how his father, who was otherwise so brave and frank and +strong, had recoiled from speaking of that part of his life which +preceded his coming to the New World. And now, he grasped with +intuitive eagerness at this straw, but felt still a vague fear of +penetrating into the secret which his father had wished to hide from +him. He raised his head slowly, and saw Tharald's face contracted into +an angry scowl and his eyes staring grimly at him. + +"Well, does the devil ride you?" he burst forth, with his explosive +grunt. + +Maurice brushed his hand over his face as if to clear his vision, and +returned Tharald's stare with frank fearlessness. There was no denying +that in this wrinkled, roughly hewn mask there were lines and +suggestions which recalled the free and noble mold of his father's +features. It was a coincidence of physiognomic intentions rather than +actual resemblance--or a resemblance, such as might exist between a +Vandyck portrait and the same face portrayed by some bungling village +artist. + +The old man, too, was evidently seeing visions; for he presently began +to wince under Maurice's steady gaze, and some troubled memory dwelt +in his eye as he rose, and took to sauntering distractedly about on +the floor. + +"How long is it since your brother Arne fled over the sea?" asked +Maurice, firmly. + +"How does that concern you?" + +"It does concern me, and I wish to know." + +Tharald paused in his walk, and stood long, measuring his antagonist +with a look of slow, pondering defiance. Then he tossed his head back +with a grim laugh, walked toward a carved oaken press in a corner, +took out a ponderous Bible, and flung it down on the table. + +"I am beginning to see through your game," he said gruffly. "Here is +the family record. Look into it at your leisure. And if you are right, +let me know. But don't you tell me that that scare about the glacier +wasn't all humbug. If it is your right of entail you want to look up, +I sha'n't stand in your way." + +Thereupon he stalked out, slamming the door behind him; the walls +shook, and the windows shivered in their frames. + +A vast sheet of gauzy cloud was slowly spreading over the western +expanse of the sky. Through its silvery meshes the full moon looked +down upon the glacier with a grave unconcern. Drifts of cold white +mist hovered here and there over the surface of the ice, rising out of +the deep blue hollows, catching for an instant the moonbeams, and +again gliding away into the shadow of some far-looming peak. + +On the little winding path at the end of the glacier stood Maurice, +looking anxiously down toward the valley. Presently a pale speck of +color was seen moving in the fog, and on closer inspection proved to +be that scarlet bodice which in Norway constitutes the middle portion +of a girl's figure. A minute more, and the bodice was surmounted by a +fair, girlish face, which looked ravishingly fresh and tangible in its +misty setting. The lower portions, partly owing to their neutral +coloring and in part to the density of the fog, were but vaguely +suggested. + +"I have been waiting for you nearly half an hour, down at the +river-brink," called out a voice from below, and its clear, mellow +ring seemed suddenly to lighten the heavy atmosphere. "I really +thought you had forgotten me." + +"Forgotten you?" cried Maurice, making a very unscientific leap down +in the direction of the voice "When did I ever forget you, you +ungrateful thing?" + +"Aha!" responded Elsie, laughing, for of course the voice as well as +the bodice was hers. "Now didn't you say the edge of the glacier?" + +"Yes, but I didn't say the lower edge. If you had at all been gifted +with the intuition proverbially attributed to young ladies in your +situation, you would have known that I meant the western edge--in fact +here, and nowhere else." + +"Even though you didn't say it?" + +"Even though I did say it." + +Fern was now no longer a resident of the Ormgrass Farm. After the +discovery of their true relation, Tharald had shown a sort of sullen, +superstitious fear of him, evidently regarding him as a providential +Nemesis who had come to avenge the wrong he had done to his absent +brother. No amount of friendliness on Maurice's part could dispel this +lurking suspicion, and at last he became convinced that, for the old +man's sake as well as for his own, it was advisable that they should +separate. This arrangement, however, involved a sacrifice which our +scientist had at first been disposed to regard lightly; but a week or +two of purely scientific companionship soon revealed to him how large +a factor Elsie had become in his life, and we have seen how he managed +to reconcile the two conflicting necessities. The present rendezvous +he had appointed with a special intention, which, with his usual +directness, he proceeded to unfold to her. + +"Elsie dear," he began, drawing her down on a stone at his side, "I +have something very serious which I wish to talk to you about." + +"And why do you always want to talk so solemnly to me, Maurice?" + +"Now be a brave little girl, Elsie, and don't be frightened." + +"And is it, then, so very dreadful?" she queried, trembling a little +at the gravity of his manner rather than his words. + +"No, it isn't dreadful at all. But it is of great importance, and +therefore we must both be serious. Now, Elsie dear, tell me honestly +if you love me enough to become my wife now, at once." + +The girl cast timid glances around her, as if to make sure that they +were unobserved. Then she laid her arms round his neck, gazed for a +moment with that trustful look of hers into his eyes, and put up her +lips to be kissed. + +"That is no answer, my dear," he said, smiling, but responding readily +to the invitation. "I wish to know if you care enough for me to go +away with me to a foreign land, and live with me always as my wife." + +"I cannot live anywhere without you," she murmured, sadly. + +"And then you will do as I wish?" + +"But it will take three weeks to have the banns published, and you +know father would never allow that." + +"That is the very reason why I wish you to do without his consent. If +you will board the steamer with me to-morrow night, we will go to +England and there we can be married without the publishing of banns, +and before any one can overtake us." + +"But that would be very wrong, wouldn't it? I think the Bible says so, +somewhere." + +"In Bible times marriages were on a different basis from what they are +now. Moreover, love was not such an inexorable thing then, nor +engagements so pressing." + +She looked up with eyes full of pathetic remonstrance, and was sadly +puzzled. + +"Then you will come, darling?" he urged, with lover-like +persuasiveness. "Say that you will." + +"I will--try," she whispered, tearfully, and hid her troubled face on +his bosom. + +"One thing more," he went on. "Your house is built on the brink of +eternity. The glacier is moving down upon you silently but surely. I +have warned your father, but he will not believe me. I have chosen +this way of rescuing you, because it is the only way." + +The next evening Maurice and his servant stood on the pier, waiting +impatiently for Elsie, until the whistle sounded, and the +black-hulled boat moved onward, ploughing its foamy path through the +billows. But Elsie did not come. + +Another week passed, and Maurice, fired with a new and desperate +resolution, started for the capital, and during the coming winter the +glacier was left free to continue its baneful plottings undisturbed by +the importunate eyes of science. Immediately on his arrival in the +city he set on foot a suit in his father's name against Tharald +Gudmundson Ormgrass, to recover his rightful inheritance. + + +VII. + + +On a cold, bleak day, in the latter part of March, we find Maurice +once more in the valley. He had played a hazardous game, but so far +fortune had favored him. In that supreme self-trust which a great and +generous passion inspires, he had determined to force Tharald Ormgrass +to save himself and his children from the imminent destruction. The +court had recognized his right to the farm upon the payment of five +hundred dollars to its present nominal owner. The money had already +been paid, and the farm lay now desolate and forlorn, shivering in the +cold gusts from the glacier. The family had just boarded a large +English brig which lay at anchor out in the fjord, and was about to +set sail for the new world beyond the sea. In the prow of the vessel +stood Tharald, gazing with sullen defiance toward the unknown west, +while Elsie, her eyes red with weeping, and her piquant little face +somewhat pinched with cold, was clinging close to him, and now and +then glancing back toward the dear, deserted homestead. + +It had been a sad winter for poor little Elsie. As the lawsuit had +progressed, she had had to hear many a harsh word against her lover, +which seemed all the harder because she did not know how to defend +him. His doings, she admitted, did seem incomprehensible, and her +father certainly had some show of justice on his side when he +upbraided him as cruel, cold, and ungrateful; but, with the sweet, +obstinate loyalty of a Norse maiden, she still persisted in believing +him good and upright and generous. Some day it would all be cleared +up, she thought, and then her triumph and her happiness would be the +greater. A man who knew so many strange things, she argued in her +simplicity (for her pride in his accomplishments was in direct +proportion to her own inability to comprehend them), could not +possibly be mean and selfish as other men. + +The day had, somehow, a discontented, dubious look. Now its sombre +veil was partially lifted, and something like the shadow of a smile +cheered you by its promise, if not by its presence; then a great rush +of light from some unexpected quarter of the heavens, and then again +a sudden closing of all the sunny paths--a dismal, gray monotony +everywhere. Now and then tremendous groans and long-drawn thunderous +rumblings were heard issuing from the glaciers, and the ice-choked +river, whose voice seldom rose above an even baritone, now boomed and +brawled with the most capricious interludes of crashing, grinding, and +rushing sounds. + +On the pier down at the fjord stood Maurice, dressed from head to foot +in flannel, and with a jaunty sailor's hat, secured with an elastic +cord under his chin. He was gazing with an air of preoccupation up +toward the farm, above which the white edge of the glacier hung +gleaming against the dim horizon. Above it the fog rose like a dense +gray wall, hiding the destructive purpose which was even at this +moment laboring within. Some minutes elapsed. Maurice grew impatient, +then anxious. He pulled his note-book from his pocket, examined some +pages covered with calculations, dotted a neglected _i_, crossed a +_t_, and at last closed the book with a desperate air. Presently some +dark figure was seen striding down the hill-side, and the black +satellite, Jake, appeared, streaming with mud and perspiration. + +"Well, you wretched laggard," cried Maurice, as he caught sight of +him, "what answer?" + +"Nobody answered nothing at all," responded Jake, all out of breath. +"They be all gone. Aboard the ship, out there. All rigged, ready to +sail." + +A few minutes later there was a slight commotion on board the brig +_Queen Anne_. A frolicsome tar had thrown out a rope, and hauled in +two men one white and one black. The crew thronged about them, + +"English, eh?" + +"No; American." + +"Yankees? Je-ru-salem! Saw your rig wasn't right, somehow." + +General hilarity. Witty tar looks around with an air of magnanimous +deprecation. + +A strange feeling of exultation had taken possession of Maurice. The +light and the air suddenly seemed glorious to him. He knew the world +misjudged his action; but he felt no need of its vindication. He was +rather inclined to chuckle over its mistake, as if it and not he were +the sufferer. He walked with rapid steps toward the prow of the ship, +where. Tharald and Elsie were standing. There was a look of +invincibility in his eye which made the old man quail before him. +Elsie's face suddenly brightened, as if flooded with light from +within; she made an impulsive movement toward him, and then stood +irresolute. + +"Elsie," called out her father, with a husky tremor in his voice. "Let +him alone, I tell thee. He might leave us in peace now. He has driven +from hearth and home." Then, with indignant energy, "He shall not +touch thee, child. By the heavens, he shall not." + +Maurice smiled, and with the same sense of serene benignity, wholly +unlover-like, clasped her in his arms. + +A wild look flashed in the father's eyes; a hoarse groan broke from +his chest. Then, with a swift rekindling of energy, he darted forward, +and his broad hands fell with a tiger-like grip on Maurice's +shoulders. But hark! The voices of the skies and the mountains echo +the groan. The air, surcharged with terror, whirls in wild eddies, +then holds its breath and trembles. All eyes are turned toward the +glacier. The huge white ridge, gleaming here and there through a cloud +of smoke, is pushing down over the mountain-side, a black bulwark of +earth rising totteringly before it, and a chaos of bowlders and blocks +of ice following, with dull crunching and grinding noises, in its +train. The barns and the store-house of the Ormgrass farm are seen +slowly climbing the moving earth-wall, then follows the +mansion--rising--rising--and with a tremendous, deafening crash the +whole huge avalanche sweeps downward into the fjord. The water is +lashed into foam; an enormous wave bearing on its crest the shattered +wrecks of human homes, rolls onward; the good ship _Queen Anne_ is +tossed skyward, her cable snaps and springs upward against the +mast-head, shrieks of terror fill the air, and the sea flings its +strong, foam-wreathed arms against the farther shore. + +A dead silence follows. The smoke scatters, breaks into drifting +fragments, showing the black naked mountain-side. + +The next morning, as the first glimmerings of the dawn pierced the +cloud-veil in the east, the brig _Queen Anne_ shot before a steady +breeze out toward the western ocean. In the prow stood Maurice Fern, +in a happy reverie; on a coil of rope at his feet sat Tharald +Ormgrass, staring vacantly before him. His face was cold and hard; it +had scarcely stirred from its dead apathy since the hour of the +calamity. Then there was a patter of light footsteps on the deck, and +Elsie, still with something of the child-like wonder of sleep in her +eyes, emerged from behind the broad white sail. + +Tharald saw her and the hardness died out of his face. He strove to +speak once--twice, but could not. + +"God pity me," he broke out, with an emotion deeper than his words +suggested. "I was wrong. I had no faith in you. She has. Take her, +that the old wrong may at last be righted." + +And there, under God's free sky, their hands were joined together, and +the father whispered a blessing. + + + + +A KNIGHT OF DANNEBROG. + + +I. + + +Victor Julien St. Denis Dannevig is a very aristocratic +conglomeration of sound, as every one will admit, although the St. had +a touch of irony in it unless placed before the Julien, where in the +present case its suggestion was not wholly unappropriate. As he was +when I first met him, his nature seemed to be made up of exquisite +half-tints, in which the most antagonistic tastes might find something +to admire. It presented no sharp angles to wound your self-esteem or +your prejudices. Morally, intellectually, and physically, he was as +smooth as velvet, and as agreeable to the touch. He never disagreed +with you, whatever heterodox sentiments you might give vent to, and +still no one could ever catch him in any positive inconsistency or +self-contradiction. The extreme liberal who was on terms of intimacy +with the nineteenth century, and passionately hostile to all temporal +and spiritual rulers, put him down as a rising man, who might be +confidently counted on when he should have shed his down and assume I +his permanent colors; and the prosperous conservative who had access +to the private ear of the government lauded his good sense and his +moderate opinions, and resolved to press his name at the first vacancy +that might occur in the diplomatic service. In fact, every one parted +from him with the conviction that at heart he shared his sentiments; +even though for prudential reasons he did not choose to express +himself with emphasis. + +The inference, I am afraid, from all this, is that Dannevig was a +hypocrite; but if I have conveyed that impression to any one, I +certainly have done my friend injustice. I am not aware that he ever +consciously suspended his convictions for the sake of pleasing; but +convictions require a comparative depth of soil in order to thrive, +and Dannevig's mind was remarkable for territorial expanse rather than +for depth. Of course, he did with astonishing ease assume the color of +the person he was talking with; but this involved, with him, no +conscious mental process, no deliberate insincerity. It was rather +owing to a kind of constitutional adaptability, an unconquerable +distaste for quarrelling, and the absence of any decided opinions of +his own. + +It was in the year 186--, just as peace had been concluded between +Prussia and Denmark, that I made Dannevig's acquaintance. He was then +the hero of the day; all Copenhagen, as it seemed, had gone mad over +him. He had just returned from the war, in which he had performed some +extraordinary feat of fool-hardiness and saved seven companies by the +sacrifice of his mustache. The story was then circulating in a dozen +different versions, but, as nearly as I could learn, he had, in the +disguise of a peasant, visited the Prussian camp on the evening +preceding a battle and had acted the fool with such a perfection of +art as to convince the enemy of his harmlessness. Before morning, +however, he had furnished the Danish commander with important +intelligence, thereby preventing the success of a surprise movement +which the Prussians were about to execute. In return for this service +he had been knighted on the battle-field, the order of Dannebrog +having been bestowed upon him. + +One circumstance that probably intensified the charm which Dannevig +exerted upon the social circles of the Danish capital was the mystery +which shrouded his origin. There were vague whisperings of lofty +parentage, and even royal names were hinted at, always, of course, in +the strictest privacy. The fact that he hailed from France (though no +one could say it for a certainty) and still had a Danish name and +spoke Danish like a native, was in itself looked upon as an +interesting anomaly. Then again, his easy, aristocratic bearing and +his finely carved face suggested all manner of romantic +possibilities; his long, delicate hands, the unobtrusive perfection of +his toilet and the very texture of his handkerchiefs told plainly +enough that he had been familiar with high life from the cradle. His +way of living, too, was the subject of much curious comment. Without +being really extravagant, he still spent money in a free-and-easy +fashion, and always gave one the impression of having unbounded +resources, though no one could tell exactly what they were. The only +solution of the riddle was that he might have access to the treasury +of some mighty man who, for reasons which perhaps would not bear +publicity, felt called upon to support him. + +I had heard his name abundantly discussed in academical and social +circles and was thoroughly familiar with the hypothetical part of his +history before chance led me to make his personal acquaintance. He had +then already lost some of his first lustre of novelty, and the +professional yawners at club windows were inclining to the opinion +that "he was a good enough fellow, but not made of stuff that was apt +to last." But in the afternoon tea-parties, where ladies of fashion +met and gently murdered each other's reputations, an allusion to him +was still the signal for universal commotion; his very name would be +greeted with clouds of ecstatic adjectives, and wild interjections and +enthusiatic superlatives would fly buzzing about your ears until +language would seem to be at its last gasp, and for a week to come the +positive and comparative degrees would be applicable only to your +enemies. + +It was an open secret that the Countess von Brehm, one of the richest +heiresses in the kingdom, was madly in love with him and would +probably bestow her hand upon him in defiance of the wishes and +traditions of her family. And what man, outside of the royal house, +would be fool enough to refuse the hand of a Countess von Brehm? + + +II. + + +During the winter 1865-66, I met Dannevig frequently at clubs, student +festivals, and social gatherings, and his melodious voice, his +epigrammatic talk, and his beauty never failed to extort from me a +certain amount of reluctant admiration. I could not help noticing, +however, that his charming qualities were all very much on the +surface, and as for his beauty, it was of a purely physical kind. As a +mere animal he could not have been finer. His eyes were as pure and +blue and irresponsible as a pair of spring violets, and his face was +as clean-cut and perfect as an ideal Greek mask, and as devoid of +spiritual meaning. His animation was charmingly heedless and genuine, +but nevertheless was mere surface glitter and never seemed to be the +expression of any really strong and heartfelt emotion. I could well +imagine him pouting like Achilles over the loss of a lovely Briseis +and bursting into vituperative language at the sight of the robber; +but the very moment Briseis was restored his wrath would as suddenly +have given way to the absolute bliss of possession. + +The evening before my final departure from Copenhagen he gave a little +party for me at his apartments, at which a dozen or more of our +friends were invited. + +I must admit that he was an admirable host. Without appearing at all +to exert himself, he made every one feel at his ease, filled up every +gap in the conversation with some droll anecdote or personal +reminiscence, and still contrived to make us all imagine that we were +entertaining instead of being entertained. The supper was a miracle of +culinary skill, and the wines had a most refined and aristocratic +flavor. He ate and drank with the deliberation and relish of a man +who, without being exactly a gourmand, nevertheless counted the art of +dining among the fine arts, and prided himself on being something of a +connoisseur. Nothing, I suppose, could have ruined me more hopelessly +in his estimation than if I had betrayed unfamiliarity with table +etiquette,--if, for instance, I poured Rhine wine into the white +glasses, or sherry or Madeira into the blue. + +As the hours of the night advanced, Dannevig's brilliancy rose to an +almost dangerous height, which, as it appeared to us, could end in +nothing short of an explosion. And the explosion came at last in the +shape of a speech which I shall quote as nearly as the long lapse of +years will permit. + +After some mysterious pantomimic play directed toward a singularly +noiseless and soft-mannered butler, our host arose, assumed an +attitude as if he were about to address the universe, and spoke as +follows: + +"Gentlemen! As our distinguished friend here (all Americans, as you +are aware, are born sovereigns and accordingly distinguished) is about +to leave us, the spirit moves me to give voice to the feeling which +animates us all at this peculiar juncture of events." (Here the butler +returned with two bottles, which Dannevig seized and held up for +general inspection.) "Bravo! here I hold in my hand a rare and potent +juice, the condensed essence of all that is rich and fair and sweet in +the history, character, and climate of _la belle France_, a juice for +which the mouths of princes have often watered in vain--in short a +bottle of Chateau Yquem. I have my reasons for plucking the fairest +bloom of my cellar on an occasion like this: for what I am about to +say is not entirely in the nature of a compliment, and the genial +influence of this royal wine will be needed to counteract the possible +effects of my speech. In other words, I want the goodness of my wine +to compensate for the rudeness of my intended remarks. + +"America has never until now had the benefit of my opinion of her, +which may in part account for the crudeness of her present condition. +Now she has sent a competent emissary to us, who will return and +faithfully report my sentiments, and if he does his work well, you may +be prepared for revolutions beyond the Atlantic in decades to come. To +begin with the beginning: the American continent, extending as it does +from pole to pole, with a curious attenuation in the middle, always +looked to me in my boyhood as a huge double bag flung across the back +of the world; the symbolic sense of this form was not then entirely +clear to me; but now, I think, I divine its meaning. As the centuries +with their changing civilizations rolled over Europe, it became +apparent to the Almighty that a spacious lumber-room was needed, where +all the superfluous odds and ends that no longer fitted to the changed +order of things might be stowed away for safe-keeping. Now, as you +will frequently in a lumber-room, amid a deal of absolute dross, +stumble upon an object of rare and curious value, so also in America +you may, among heaps of human trumpery, be startled by the sparkle of +a genuine human jewel. Our friend here, I need not add, is such a +jewel, though cut according to the fashion of the last century, when +men went wild over liberty and other illusory ideals and when, after +having exhausted all the tamer kinds of dissipation, they amused +themselves by cutting each other's heads off. Far be it from me to +impute any such truculent taste to my honored guest. I only wish to +observe that the land from which he hails has not yet outlived the +revolutionary heresies of a century ago, that his people is still +afflicted with those crude fever fantasies, of which Europe was only +cured by a severe and prolonged bleeding. It has always been a +perplexing problem to me, how a man who has seen the Old World can +deliberately choose such a land as his permanent abode. I, for my +part, should never think of taking such a step until I had quarrelled +with all the other countries of the world, one by one, and as life is +too short for such an experience, I never expect to claim the +hospitality of Brother Jonathan under his own roof. + +"As regards South America, I never could detect its use in the cosmic +economy, unless it was flung down there in the southern hemisphere +purely as ballast, to prevent the globe from upsetting. + +"Now, the moral of these edifying remarks is that I would urge my +guest to correct, as soon as possible, the mistake he made in the +choice of his birthplace. As a man never can be too circumspect in +the selection of his parents, so neither can he exercise too much +caution in the choice of his country. My last word to thee is: 'Fold +thy tent, and pitch it again where mankind, politics and cookery are +in a more advanced state of development.' Friends, let us drink to the +health of our guest, and wish for his speedy return." + +I replied with, perhaps, some superfluous ardor to this supercilious +speech, and a very hot discussion ensued. When the company finally +broke up, Dannevig, fearing that he had offended me, laid his arm +confidentially on my shoulder, drew me back from the door, and pushed +me gently into an easy-chair. + +"Look here!" he said, planting himself in front of me. "It will never +do for you and me to part, except as friends. I did not mean to +patronize you, and if my foolish speech impressed you in that way, I +beg you to forgive me." + +He held out his long, beautiful hand, which after some hesitation I +grasped, and peace was concluded. + +"Take another cigar," he continued, throwing himself down on a +damask-covered lounge opposite me. "I am in a confiding mood to-night, +and should like to tell you something. I feel an absolute need to +unbosom myself, and Fate points to you as the only safe receptacle of +my confidence. After to-morrow, the Atlantic will be between us, and +if my secret should prove too explosive for your reticence, your +indiscretion will do me no harm. Listen, then. You have probably heard +the town gossip connecting my name with that of the Countess von +Brehm." + +I nodded assent. + +"Well, my modesty forbids me to explain how far the rumor is true. +But, the fact is, she has given me the most unmistakable proofs of her +favor. Of course, a man who has seen as much of the world as I have +cannot be expected to reciprocate such a passion in its sentimental +aspects; but from its--what shall I say?" + +"Say, from a financial point of view it is not unworthy of your +consideration," I supplied, unable to conceal my disgust. + +"Well, yes," he resumed blandly, "you have hit it. However, I am by no +means blind to her fascination. Moreover, the countess has a latent +vein of fierceness in her nature which in time may endear her to my +heart. Last night, for instance, we were at a ball at the Baron +P----'s, and we danced together incessantly. While we were whirling +about to the rhythm of an intoxicating melody, I, feeling pretty sure +of my game, whispered half playfully in her ear: 'Countess, what would +you say, if I should propose to you?' 'Propose and you will see,' she +answered gravely, while those big black eyes of hers flashed at until +I felt half ashamed of my flippancy. Of course I did not venture to +put the question then and there, although I was sorely tempted. Now +that shows that she has spirit, to say the least. What do you think?" + +"I think," I answered, with emphasis, "that if I were a friend of the +Countess von Brehm I should go to her to-morrow and implore her to +have nothing to do with you." + +"By Jove," he burst forth, laughing; "if _I_ were a friend of the +countess, I should do the very same thing; but being her lover, I +cannot be expected to take such a disinterested view of the case. +Moreover, my labor would be thrown away; for, _entre nous_, she is too +much in love with me." + +I felt that if I stayed a moment longer we should inevitably quarrel. +I therefore rose, somewhat abruptly, and pulled on my overcoat, +averring that I was tired and should need a few hours of sleep before +embarking in the morning. + +"Well," he said, shaking my hand heartily, as we parted in the hall, +"if ever you should happen to visit Denmark again, you must promise me +that you will look me up. You have a standing invitation to my future +estate." + + +III. + + +Some three years later I was sitting behind my editorial desk in a +newspaper office in Chicago, and the impressions from my happy winter +in Copenhagen had well nigh faded from memory. The morning mail was +brought in, and among my letters I found one from a Danish friend with +whom I had kept up a desultory correspondence. In the letter I found +the following paragraph: + + "Since you left us, Dannevig has been going steadily down hill, + until at last his order of Dannebrog just managed to keep him + respectable. About a month ago he suddenly vanished from the social + horizon, and the rumor says that he has fled from his numerous + creditors, and probably now is on his way to America. His + resources, whatever they were, gradually failed him, while his + habits remained as extravagant as ever. If the popular belief is to + be credited, he lived during the two last years on his prospect of + marrying the Countess von Brehm, which prospect in Copenhagen was + always convertible into cash. The countess, by the way, was + unflinching in her devotion to him, and he would probably long ago + have led her to the altar, if her family had not so bitterly + opposed him. The old count, it is said, swore that he would + disinherit her if she ever mentioned his name to him again; and + those who know him feel confident that he would have kept his word. + The countess, however, was quite willing to make that sacrifice, + for Dannevig's sake; but here, unfortunately, that cowardly + prudence of his made a fool of him. He hesitated and hesitated long + enough to wear out the patience of a dozen women less elevated and + heroic than she is. Now the story goes that the old count, wishing + at all hazards to get him out of the way, made him a definite + proposition to pay all his debts, and give him a handsome surplus + for travelling expenses, if he would consent to vanish from the + kingdom for a stated term of years. And according to all + appearances Dannevig has been fool enough to accept the offer. I + should not be surprised if you would hear from him before long, in + which case I trust you will keep me informed of his movements. A + Knight of Dannebrog, you know, is too conspicuous a figure to be + entirely lost beneath the waves of your all-levelling democracy. + Depend upon it, if Dannevig were stranded upon a desert isle, he + would in some way contrive to make the universe aware of his + existence. He has, as you know, no talent for obscurity; there is a + spark of a Caesar in him, and I tremble for the fate of your + constitution if he stays long enough among you." + +Four months elapsed after the receipt of this letter, and I had almost +given up the expectation (I will not say hope) of seeing Dannevig, +when one morning the door to my office was opened, and a tall, +blonde-haired man entered. With a certain reckless grace, which ought +to have given me the clue to his identity, he sauntered up to my desk +and extended his hand to me. + +"Hallo, old boy!" he said, with a weak, weary smile. "How are you +prospering? You don't seem to know me." + +"Heavens!" I cried, "Dannevig! No, I didn't know you. How you have +altered!" + +He took off his hat, and flung himself into a chair opposite me. His +large, irresponsible eyes fixed themselves upon mine, with a +half-daring, half-apologetic look, as if he were resolved to put the +best face on a desperate situation. His once so ambitious mustache +drooped despondingly, and his unshaven face had an indescribably +withered and dissipated look. All the gloss seemed to have been taken +off it, and with it half its beauty and all its dignity had departed. + +"Dannevig," I said, with all the sympathy I had at my command, "what +_has_ happened to you? Am I to take your word for it, that you have +quarrelled with all the world, and that this is your last refuge?" + +"Well," he answered, evasively, "I should hardly say that. It is +rather your detestable democratic cookery which has undone me. I +haven't had a decent meal since I set my foot on this accursed +continent. There is an all-pervading plebeian odor of republicanism +about everything one eats here, which is enough to ruin the healthiest +appetite, and a certain barbaric uniformity in the bill of fare which +would throw even a Diogenes into despair. May the devil take your +leathery beef-steaks, as tough as the prose of Tacitus, your +tasteless, nondescript buckwheats, and your heavy, melancholy wines, +and I swear it would be the last you would hear of him!" + +"There! that will do, Dannevig!" I cried, laughing. "You have said +more than enough to convince me of your identity. I do admit I was +sceptical as to whether this could really be you, but you have +dispelled my last doubts. It was my intention to invite you to dine +with me to-day but you have quite discouraged me. I live quite _en +garcon_, you know, and have no Chateau Yquem nor pheasant _a la Sainte +Alliance_, and whatever else your halcyon days at the Cafe Anglais may +have accustomed you to." + +"Never mind that. Your company will in part reconcile me to the +republicanism of your table. And, to put the thing bluntly, can you +lend me thirty dollars? I have pawned my only respectable suit of +clothes for that amount, and in my present costume I feel +inexpressibly plebeian,--very much as if I were my own butler, +and--what is worse--I treat myself accordingly. I never knew until now +how much of the inherent dignity of a man can be divested with his +clothing. Then another thing: I am absolutely forced to do something, +and, judging by your looks, I should say that journalism was a +profitable business. Now, could you not get me some appointment or +other in connection with your paper? If, for instance, you want a +Paris correspondent, then I am just your man. I know Paris by heart, +and I have hobnobbed with every distinguished man in France." + +"But we could hardly afford to pay you enough to justify you in taking +the journey on our account." + +"_O sancta simplicitas_! No, my boy, I have no such intention. I can +make up the whole thing with perfect plausibility, here under your +own roof; and by little study of the foreign telegrams, I would +undertake to convince Thiers and Jules Favre themselves that I watched +the play of their features from my private box at the French opera, +night before last, that I had my eye at the key-hole while they +performed their morning ablutions, and was present as eavesdropper at +their most secret councils. Whatever I may be, I hope you don't take +me to be a chicken." + +"No," I answered, beguiled into a lighter mood by his own levity. "It +might be well for you if you were more of one. But as Paris +correspondent, we could never engage you, at least not on the terms +you propose. But even if I should succeed in getting a place for you, +do you know English enough to write with ease?" + +"I see you are disposed to give vent to your native scepticism toward +me. But I never knew the thing yet that I could not do. At first, +perhaps, I should have to depend somewhat upon your proof-reading, but +before many months, I venture to say, I could stand on my own legs." + +After some further parley it was agreed that I should exert myself in +his behalf, and after a visit to the pawnbroker's, where Dannevig had +deposited his dignity, we parted with the promise to meet again at +dinner. + + +IV. + + +It was rather an anomalous position for a knight of Dannebrog, a +familiar friend of princes and nobles, and an _ex-habitue_ of the Cafe +Anglais, to be a common reporter on a Chicago republican journal. Yet +this was the position to which (after some daring exploits in +book-reviewing and art criticism) my friend was finally reduced. As an +art-critic, he might have been a success, if western art had been more +nearly in accord with his own fastidious and exquisitely developed +taste. As it was, he managed in less than a fortnight to bring down +the wrath of the whole artistic brotherhood upon our journal, and as +some of these men were personal friends of the principal stockholders +in the paper, his destructive ardor was checked by an imperative order +from the authorities, from whose will there is no appeal. As a +book-reviewer he labored under similar disadvantages; he stoutly +maintained that the reading of a volume would necessarily and unduly +bias the critic's judgment, and that a man endowed with a keen, +literary nose could form an intelligent opinion, after a careful +perusal of the title-page, and a glance at the preface. A man who +wrote a book naturally labored under the delusion that he was wiser or +better than the majority of his fellow-creatures, in which case you +would do moral service by convincing him of his error, inhumanity +continued to encourage authorship at the present rate, obscurity would +soon become a claim to immortality. If a writer informed you that his +work "filled a literary void," his conceit was reprehensible, and on +moral grounds he ought to be chastised; if he told you that he had +only "yielded to the urgent request of his friends," it was only fair +to insinuate that his friends must have had very long ears. +Nevertheless, Dannevig's reviews were for about a month a very +successful feature of our paper. They might be described as racy +little essays, bristling with point and epigram, on some subject +suggested by the title-pages of current volumes. At the end of that +time, however, books began to grow scarce in our office, and before +another month was at an end, we had no more need of a reviewer. My +friend was then to have his last trial as a reporter. + +One of his first experiences in this new capacity was at a +mass-meeting preceding an important municipal election. Not daring to +send his "copy" to the printer without revision, I determined to +sacrifice two or three hours' sleep, and to await his return. But the +night wore on, the clock struck twelve, one, and two, and no Dannevig +appeared. I began to grow anxious; our last form went to press at four +o'clock, and I had left a column and a half open for his expected +report. Not wishing to resort to dead matter, I hastily made some +selections from a fresh magazine, and sent them to the foreman. + +The next day, about noon, a policeman brought me the following note, +written in pencil, on a leaf torn from a pocket-book. + + DEAR FRIEND; + + I made a speech last night (and a very good one too) in behalf of + oppressed humanity, but its effect upon my audience was, to say the + least, singular. Its results, as far as I am personally concerned + were also somewhat unpleasant. Looking at myself in my pocketglass + this morning, I find that my nose has become disproportionately + prominent, besides showing an abnormal lateral development If you + would have the goodness to accompany the obliging gentleman, who is + the bearer of this, to my temporary lodgings, I will further explain + the situation to you. By the way, it is absolutely necessary that + you should come. + + Yours in haste, + + VICTOR J. ST. D. DANNEVIG, R.D.O.[A] + +[Footnote A: Knight of the Order of Dannebrog.] + +I found Dannevig, as I had expected, at the so-called Armory (the city +prison), in pleasant converse with half-a-dozen policemen, to whom he +was describing, with inimitable grace and good-humor, his adventures +of the preceding night. He was too absorbed in his narrative to notice +my arrival, and I did not choose to interrupt him. + +"You can imagine, gentlemen," he was saying, accompanying his words +with the liveliest gesticulations, "how the rude contact of a +plebeian fist with my tender skin must have impressed me. Really +gentlemen, I was so surprised that I literally lost my balance. I was, +as you are no doubt aware, merely asserting my rights as a free +citizen to protest against the presumptions of the unprincipled +oligarchy which is at present ruling this fair city. My case is +exactly parallel to that of Caius Gracchus, who, I admit, reaped a +similar reward." + +"But you were drunk," replied a rude voice from his audience. "Dead +drunk." + +"Drunk," ejaculated Dannevig, with a gesture of dignified deprecation. +"Now, I submit it to you as gentlemen of taste and experience: how +would you define that state of mind and body vulgarly styled 'drunk?' +I was merely pleasantly animated, as far as such a condition can be +induced by those vulgar liquids which you are in the habit of imbibing +in this benighted country. Now, if I had had the honor of your +acquaintance in the days of my prosperity, it would have given me +great pleasure to raise your standard of taste regarding wines and +alcoholic liquors. The mixed drinks, which are held in such high +esteem in this community, are, in my opinion, utterly demoralizing." + +Thinking it was high time to interrupt this discourse, I stepped up to +the orator, and laid my hand on his shoulder. + +"Dannevig," I said, "I have no time to waste Let me settle this +business for you at once." + +"In a moment I shall be at your service," he answered, gracefully +waving his hand; and for some five minutes more he continued his +harangue on the corrupting effects of mixed drinks. + +After a visit to the court-room, a brief examination, and the payment +of a fine, we took our departure. Feeling in an exceptionally amiable +mood, Dannevig offered me his arm, and as we again passed the group of +policemen at the door he politely raised his dilapidated hat to them, +and bade them a pleasant good-morning. The cross of Dannebrog, with +its red ribbon, was dangling from the button-hole of his coat, the +front of which was literally glazed with the stains of dried punch. + +"My type of countenance, as you will observe," he remarked, as we +hailed a passing omnibus, "presents some striking deviations from the +classic ideal; but it is a consoling reflection that it will probably +soon resume its normal form." + +Of course, all the morning as well as the evening papers, recounted, +with flaming headings, Dannevig's oration, and his ignominious +expulsion from the mass-meeting, and the most unsparing ridicule was +showered both upon him and the journal which, for the time, he +represented. One more experience of a similar nature terminated his +career as a journalist; I dared no longer espouse his cause and he +was dismissed in disgrace. For some weeks he vanished from my horizon, +and I began to hope that he had again set his face toward the Old +World, where talents of the order he possessed are at higher premium +in the social market. But in this hope I was to be grievously +disappointed. + + +V. + + +One day, just as I had ordered my lunch at a restaurant much +frequented by journalists, a German, named Pfeifer, one of the largest +stockholders in our paper, entered and seated himself at the table +opposite me. He was a somewhat puffy and voluminous man with a very +round bald head, and an air of defiant prosperity about him. He had +retired from the brewery business some years ago, with a very handsome +fortune. + +"I have been hunting for you high and low," he began in his native +tongue. "You know there is to be a ball in the _Turnverein_ to-morrow +night,--a very grand affair, they say. I suppose they have sent you +tickets." + +"Yes, two." + +"And are you going?" + +"I had half made up my mind to send Fenner or some one else." + +Mr. Pfeifer here grew superfluously confidential and related to me in +a mysterious whisper his object in seeking me. The fact was, he had a +niece really _ein allerliebstes Kind_, who had come from Milwaukee to +visit him and was to spend the winter with him. Now, to be honest, he +knew very few young gentlemen whom he would be willing to have her +associate with, and the poor child had set her heart on going to the +_Turn_-ball to-morrow. Would I kindly overlook the informality of his +request, and without telling the young lady of his share in the +proceeding, offer her my escort to the ball? Would I be responsible +for her and bring her home in good season? And to avert Fraulein +Pfeifer's possible suspicions, would I come and dine at his house +to-night and make her acquaintance? + +To refuse the acquaintance of a young lady who even remotely answered +to the description of "a very lovely child," was contrary to my +principles, and I need not add that I proved faithful to them in the +present instance. + +A German, even if he be not what one would call a cultivated man, has +nevertheless a certain sombre historic background to his life which +makes him averse to those garish effects of barbaric splendor that +impress one so unpleasantly in the houses of Americans whose +prosperity is unsupported by a corresponding amount of culture. This +was my first reflection on entering Mr. Pfeifer's drawing-room, while +in my heart I begged the proprietor's pardon for the patronizing +attitude I found myself assuming toward him. The heavy, solid +furniture, the grave and decorously mediocre pictures, and the very +tint of the walls wore an air of substantial, though somewhat +lugubrious comfort. His niece, too, although her form was by no means +lacking in grace, seemed somehow to partake of this all-pervading air +of Teutonic solidity and homelike comfort. She was one of those women +who seemed born to make some wretched man undeservedly happy. (I +always feel a certain dim hostility to any man, even though I may not +know him, who marries a charming and lovable woman; it is with me a +foregone conclusion that he has been blessed beyond his deserts.) +There was a sweet matronliness and quiet dignity in her manner, and +beneath the placid surface of her blue eyes I suspected hidden depths +of pure maidenly sentiment. The cast of her countenance was distinctly +Germanic; not strikingly beautiful, perhaps, but extremely pleasing; +there was no discordant feature in it, no loud or harsh suggestion to +mar the subdued richness of the whole picture. Her blond hair was +twisted into a massive coil on the top of her head, and the +unobtrusive simplicity and taste of her toilet were merely her +character (as I had conceived it) translated into millinery. My +feelings, as I stood gazing at her, unconsciously formulated +themselves into the well-known benediction of Heine's, which I could +with difficult keep from quoting: + + "Mir ist als ob ich die Haende, + Auf's Haupt dir legen sollt', + Betend dass Gott dich erhalte, + So rein mid schoen und hold." + +I observed with quiet amusement, though in a very sympathetic spirit, +that she did not manage her train well; and from the furtive attention +she was ever bestowing upon it, I concluded that her experience with +long dresses must have been of recent date. I noticed, too, as she +came forward to salute me, that her hands were not unused to toil; but +for this I only honored her the more. + +The dinner was as serious and substantial as everything else in Mr. +Pfeifer's house, and passed off without any notable incident. The host +persisted in talking business with me, which the young lady, at whose +side I sat, accepted as a matter-of-course, making apparently no claim +whatever upon the smallest share of my attention. When the long and +tedious meal was at an end, upon her uncle's suggestion, she seated +herself at the piano, and sang in a deep, powerful contralto, +Schubert's magnificent arrangement of Heine's song of unrequited love: + + "Ich grolle nicht, und wenn das Herz auch bricht, + Ewig verlornes Lieb! ich grolle nicht. + Wie du auch strahlst in Diamantenpracht, + Es fallt kein Strahl in deines Herzens Nacht." + +There was a pathos and passion in her voice which fairly startled me, +and when I hastened to her side to thank her for the pleasure she had +given me, she accepted my compliments with a beautiful, unaffected +enthusiasm, as if they were meant only for the composer, and were in +no respect due to her. + +"There is such a depth of suffering in every word and note," she said +with glowing cheeks. "He bears her no ill-will, he says, and still you +feel how the suppressed bitterness is still rankling within him." + +She then sang "Auf Fluegeln des Gesanges," whereupon we sat down and +talked music and Heine for the rest of the evening. Mr. Pfeifer, +reclining in his capacious easy-chair, smoked on with slow, brooding +contentment, and now and then threw in a disparaging remark regarding +our favorite poet. + +"He blackguarded his country abominably," he said. "And I have no +respect for a man who can do that. Besides, he was a miserable, +renegade Jew, and as I never like to have any more to do with Jews +than I can possibly help, I have never read any of his books." + +"But, uncle," retorted his niece, warmly, "he certainly could not help +being a Jew. And there was no one who loved Germany more ardently than +he, even though he did say severe things about it." + +"That is a thing about which you can have no opinion, Hildegard," +said Pfeifer, with paternal decision; and he blew a dense cloud of +smoke toward the ceiling. + +Miss Hildegard looked rebellious for an instant, but accepted the +verdict of superior wisdom with submissive silence. The old man gave +me a little confidential wink as if to say: + +"There is a model girl for you. She knows that women should not speak +in meeting." + +"What a delightfully fresh and unspoiled girl," I reflected, as I +wended my way homeward through the still moonlight; "so true-hearted, +and genuine, and unaffected. And still beneath all that sweet, womanly +tranquillity there are strong slumbering forces, which some day will +startle some phlegmatic countryman of hers, who takes her to be as +submissive as she looks." + + +VI. + + +Some fifteen minutes after the appointed hour I called with a carriage +for Fraulein Hildegard, whom, to my wonder, I found standing in all +the glory of her ball-toilet (for she was evidently afraid to sit +down) in the middle of the sombre drawing-room. I had been prepared to +wait for a good half-hour, and accordingly felt a little provoked at +myself for my seeming negligence. + +"I do not mind telling you," she said, as I sat compressed in a +corner of the carriage, striving to reduce myself to the smallest +practicable dimensions, "that this is my first ball. I don't know any +of the gentlemen who will be there to-night, but I know two or three +Milwaukee ladies who have promised to come, so, even if I don't dance +much, I shall not feel lonely." + +"Of course you will give me the first chance at your card," I +answered. "How many dances will you grant me?" + +"As many as you want. Uncle was very explicit in impressing upon me +that I am to obey you unquestioningly and have no will of my own." + +"That was very unkind of him. I shall be unwilling to claim any +privilege which you do not of your own free will bestow upon me." + +"I didn't mean it so," she answered, impulsively, and by the passing +light of a gas-lamp I caught a glimpse of her beaming, innocent face. +"I shall not be apt to forget that I am indebted to your kindness for +all the pleasure I shall have to-night, and if you wish to dance with +me, of course it is very kind of you." + +"Well, that is not much better," I murmured, ruefully, feeling very +guilty at heart. "On that ground I should be still more reluctant to +assert my claim on you." + +"Oh, what a bungler I am!" she exclaimed with half-amused regret. +"The truth is, I am so glad, and when I am very happy I always make +blundering speeches." + +As we entered the magnificently lighted and decorated hall, I noticed, +to my dismay, that the company was a little more mixed than I had +anticipated. I had, therefore, no scruples in putting down my name for +four waltzes and a quadrille. I observed, too, that my fair partner +attracted much attention, partly, perhaps, on account of her beauty, +and partly on account of her superb toilet. Her dress was of satin, of +a cool, lucid, sea-green tint, such as one sees in the fjords of +Norway on a bright summer's day; the illusion was so perfect that in +dancing with her I expected every moment to see sea-weeds and +pale-green things sprouting up along its border, and the white bunches +of lilies-of-the-valley in her hair, as they wafted their faint +fragrance toward me, seemed almost an anomaly. She danced, not with +vehement abandon, but with an airy, rhythmical grace, as if the music +had entered into her soul and her limbs were but obeying their innate +tuneful impulse. When we had finished the first waltz, I left her in +the company of one of her Milwaukee friends and started out in quest +of some acceptable male partner whose touch of her I should not feel +to be a positive desecration. I had reached about the middle of the +hall when an affectionate slap on my shoulder caused me to turn +around. + +"Dannevig!" I exclaimed, with frigid amazement "By Jove! Where do you +come from? You are as unexpected as a thunderclap from a cloudless +sky." + +"Which was a sign that Jupiter was wroth," replied Dannevig, promptly, +"and required new sacrifices. Now the sacrifice I demand of you is +that you shall introduce me to that charming little girl you have had +the undeserved luck of securing." + +"You choose your metaphors well," I remarked, calmly. "But, as you +know, even the Romans with all their reputed hardness of heart, were +too conscientious to tolerate human sacrifices. And I, being, in the +present instance, the _pontifex_, would never be a party to such an +atrocity." + +The transformation which Dannevig's face underwent was almost +terrible. A look of perfectly animal savageness distorted for a brief +moment his handsome features; his eyes flashed, and his brow was one +mass of wrinkles. + +"Do you mean to say that you refuse to introduce me?" he asked, in a +hoarse whisper. + +"That is exactly what I mean to say," I answered, with well-feigned +coolness. + +"And do you really suppose," he continued, while his brow slowly +relaxed, "that you can prevent me from making that girl's +acquaintance, if I have made up my mind to thwart you?" + +"I don't suppose anything of the kind," was my reply. "But you know me +well enough to be aware that you cannot browbeat me. She shall, at all +events, not owe your acquaintance to me." + +Dannevig stood for a while, pondering; then with one of those sudden +transitions of feeling which were so characteristic of him, he +continued in a tone of good-fellowship: + +"Come, now; this is ridiculous! You have been dining on S----'s +leathery beef-steak, which I have so frequently warned you against, +and, what is worse, you have had mince pie for dessert. Your digestion +is seriously deranged. For old friends like you and me to quarrel over +a little chit of a girl, is as absurd as committing suicide because +you have scratched your hand with a pin. If your heart is really +engaged in this affair, then I wont interfere with you. I wish you +luck, although judging by what I have seen, I should say you might +have made a better choice. _Au revoir_." + +He skipped lightly down the floor, and was lost in the crowd. Having +selected some journalistic friends as partners for Fraulein Hildegard, +and listened with great patience to their rhapsodies over her beauty +and loveliness, I stationed myself at the upper end of the hall, and +in philosophic discontent watched the dancers. Dannevig's parting +words had filled me with vague alarm; I knew that they were insincere, +and I suspected that he was even now at work to accomplish some +disastrous intention. At this moment a couple came whirling straight +toward me; a pale-green satin, train swept over my feet, and the cross +of the order of Dannebrog sent a swift flash into my very eyes. A +fierce exclamation escaped me; my blood was in tumult. I began to feel +dangerous. As the usual accelerated rush of violins and drums +announced that the dance was near its end, I did not dare to seek my +fair partner, and I had no pleasure to feign when I saw her advancing, +with a light and eager step, to where I was standing. She was +evidently too preoccupied to notice the change I had undergone since +our last parting. + +"Now," she said, with as near an approach to archness as a woman of +her type is capable of, "you must not think me odd if I do something +that may seem to you a little bit unconventional. It is only your own +kindness to me which encourages me to ask a favor, which I shouldn't +wonder if you would rather grant than not. The fact is, there is a +gentleman who wishes very much to dance with me, and my card is +already full. Now, would you mind giving up one of yours? I know, in +the first place, that it was from a sense of duty that--that--that you +took so many," she finished desperately, as I refused to come to her +aid. + +"We will not discuss my motives, Fraulein," I said, with as much +friendliness as I had at my command. "But, before granting your not +unreasonable request, you must be good enough to tell me who the +gentleman is who is to profit by my sacrifice." + +"His name is Mr. Dannevig. He is a knight of Dannebrog, and moreover, +as he tells me, an intimate friend of yours." + +"Tell him, then, Fraulein, that he might have presumed sufficiently +upon our friendship to prefer his request in person, instead of +sending you as his messenger." + +The color sprang to her cheeks; she swept abruptly around, and with an +air of outraged majesty, marched defiantly down the hall. + +The night wore on. The hour for supper came, and politeness forced me +to go and find Miss Pfeifer. Then we sat down in a corner, and ate and +chattered in a heedless, dispirited fashion, dwelling with feigned +interest on trifling themes, and as by a tacit agreement avoiding each +other's glances. Then some gentleman came to claim her, and I was +almost glad that she was gone. And yet, in the very next moment a +passionate regret came over me, as for a personal loss, and I would +fain have called her back and told her, with friendly directness my +reasons for interfering so rudely with her pleasure. + +I do not know how long I sat thus idly nursing my discontent, and now +and then, as my anger blazed up, muttering some fierce execration +against Dannevig. What was this girl to me, after all? I was certainly +not in love with her. And if she chose to ruin herself, what business +had I to prevent her? But then, she was a woman, and a sweet and pure +and true-hearted woman; it was, at all events, my duty to open her +eyes, and I vowed that, even though she should hate me for it, I would +tell her the truth. I looked at my watch; it was a few minutes past +two. With a sting of self-reproach, I remembered my promise to Mr. +Pfeifer, and resolved not to shirk the responsibility I had +voluntarily assumed. I hastened up the hall, then down again, surveyed +the dancers, sent a girl into the dressing-room with a message; but +Fraulein Hildegard was nowhere to be seen. A horrible thought flashed +through me. I seized my hat, and rushed down into the restaurant. +There, in an inner apartment, divided from the public room by drooping +curtains, I found her, laughing and chatting gayly with Dannevig over +a glass of Champagne and a dish of ice-cream. + +"Fraulein," I said, approaching her with grave politeness, "I am sorry +to be obliged to interrupt this agreeable _tete-a-tete_. But the +carriage has arrived, and I must claim the pleasure of your company." + +"Now, really," she exclaimed, with impulsive regret, while her eyes +still hung with a fascinated gaze on Dannevig's face, "is it, then, so +necessary that we should go just now? Do you really insist upon it? +Mr. Dannevig was just telling me some charming adventures of his life +in Denmark." + +"I am happy to say," I answered, "that I am so well familiar with Mr. +Dannevig's adventures as to be quite competent to supplement his +fragmentary statements. I shall be very happy to continue the +entertainment--" + +"_Sacr--r-r-e nom de Dieu_!" Dannevig burst forth, leaping up from his +seat. "This is more than I can bear!" and he pulled a card from his +portmonnaie and flung it down on the table before me. "May I request +the honor of a meeting?" he continued, in a calmer voice. "It is high +time that we two should settle our difficulties in the only way in +which they are capable of adjustment." + +"Mr. Dannevig," I replied, with a cool irony which I was far from +feeling, "the first rule of the code of honor, to which you appeal, +is, as you are aware, that the combatants must be equals in birth and +station. Now, you boast of being of royal blood, while I have no such +claim to distinction. You see, therefore, that your proposition is +absurd." + +Miss Hildegard had in the meanwhile risen to take my proffered arm, +and with a profound bow to the indignant hero we moved out of the +room. During our homeward ride hardly a word was spoken; the wheels +rattled away over the uneven pavement and the coachman snapped his +whip, while we sat in opposite corners of the carriage, each pursuing +his or her own lugubrious train of thought. But as we had mounted +together the steps to Mr. Pfeifer's mansion, and I was applying her +latchkey to the lock, she suddenly held out her hand to me, and I +grasped it eagerly and held it close in mine. + +"Really," she said in a tone of conciliation, "I like you too well to +wish to quarrel with you. Won't you please tell me candidly why you +objected to my dancing with Mr. Dannevig?" + +"With all my heart," I responded warmly; "if you will give me the +opportunity. In the meanwhile you will have to accept my reasons on +trust, and believe that they were very weighty. You may feel assured +that I should not have run the risk of offending you, if I had not +felt convinced that Dannevig is a man whose acquaintance no young lady +can claim with impunity. I have known him for many years, and I do not +speak rashly." + +"I am afraid you are a very severe judge," she murmured sadly. +"Good-night." + + +VII. + + +During the next months many rumors of Dannevig's excesses reached me +from various sources. He had obtained a position as interpreter for +one of the Immigration Companies, and made semi-monthly excursions to +Quebec, taking charge of the immigrants, and conducting them to +Chicago. The opportunity for revealing his past history to Miss Pfeifer +somehow never presented itself, although I continued to call +frequently, and spent many delightful evenings with her and her uncle. +However, I consoled myself with the reflection that the occasion for +such a revelation no longer existed, and I had no desire needlessly to +persecute a man whose iniquities could, at all events, harm no one but +himself. And still, knowing from experience his talent for occult +diplomacy, I took the precaution (without even remotely implicating +Miss Hildegard) to put Mr. Pfeifer on his guard. One evening, as we +were sitting alone in his library enjoying a confidential smoke, I +related to him, merely as part of the secret history of our paper, +some of Dannevig's questionable exploits while in our employ. Pfeifer +was hugely entertained, and swore that Dannevig was the most +interesting rascal he had ever heard of. + +A few days later I was surprised by a call from Dannevig, who seemed +again to be in the full bloom of prosperity. And yet, that +inexpressible flavor of aristocracy, and that absolute fineness of +type which at our first meeting had so fascinated me, had undergone +some subtle change which was almost too fleeting for words to express. +To put it bluntly, he had not borne transplantation well. Like the +finest European grapes, he had thriven in our soil, but turned out a +coarser product than nature intended. He talked with oppressive +brilliancy about everything under the sun, patronized me (as indeed he +had always done), and behaved with a certain effusive amiability, the +impudence of which was simply masterly. + +"By the way," he cried, with fine unconcern, "speaking of beer, how is +your friend, Miss Pfeifer? Her old man, I believe, owns a good deal of +stock in this paper, quite a controlling interest, I am told." + +"It will not pay to make love to her on that ground, Dannevig," I +answered, gravely, knowing well enough that he had come on a +diplomatic errand. "Mr. Pfeifer is, in the first place, not her +father, and secondly, he has at least a dozen other heirs." + +"Make love to Miss Pfeifer!" he exclaimed, with a hearty laugh. "Why, +I should just as soon think of making love to General Grant! Taking +her all in all, bodily and mentally, there is a certain Teutonic +heaviness and tenacity about her--a certain professorial ponderosity +of thought which would give me a nightmare. She is the innocent result +of twenty generations of beer-drinking." + +"Suppose we change the subject, Dannevig," I interrupted, rather +impatiently. + +"Well, if you are not the oddest piece I ever did come across!" he +replied, laughingly. "You don't suppose she is a saint, do you?" + +"Yes, I do!" I thundered, "and you would greatly oblige by never +mentioning her name again in my presence, or I might be tempted to do +what I might regret." + +"Heavens!" he cried, laying hold of the door-knob. "I didn't know you +were in your dangerous mood to-day. You might at least have given a +fellow warning. Suppose, henceforth, when you have your bad days, you +post a placard on the door, with the inscription: 'Dangerous--must not +be crossed.' Then I might know when not to call. Good-morning." + + * * * * * + +On the lake shore, a short distance north of Lincoln Park, Mr. Pfeifer +had a charming little villa where he spent the summer months in +idyllic drowsiness, exhibiting a spasmodic interest in the culture of +European grapes. Here I found myself one Saturday evening in the +middle of June, having accepted the owner's invitation to stay over +Sunday with him. I rang the door-bell, and inquired for Mr. Pfeifer. +He had unexpectedly been called in to town, the servant informed me, +but would return presently; the young lady I would probably find in +the garden. As I was not averse to a _tete-a-tete_ with Miss Hildegard +just then, I threaded my way carefully among the flower-beds, whose +gorgeous medley of colors gleamed indistinctly through the twilight. A +long bar of deep crimson traced itself along the western horizon, and +here and there a star was struggling out from the faint, blue, +nocturnal dimness. Green and red and yellow lights dotted the surface +of the lake, and the waves beat, with a slow, gurgling rhythm, against +the strand beneath the garden fence; now and then the irrational +shrieks of some shrill-voiced little steamer broke in upon the +stillness like an inappropriately lively remark upon a solemn +conversation. I had half forgotten my purpose, and was walking +aimlessly on, when suddenly I was startled by the sound of human +voices, issuing apparently from a dense arbor of grape-vines at the +lower end of the walk. + +"Why will you not believe me, darling?" some one was saying. A great +rush of emotion--fear, anguish, hatred, shook my very soul. "Your +scepticism would make Tyndall tear his hair. Angels have no business +to be so sceptical. You are always doubting me, always darkening my +life by your irrational fears." + +"But, Victor," answered another voice, which was none other than +Hildegard's, "he is certainly a very good man, and would not tell me +anything he believed to be untrue. Why, then, did he warn me so +solemnly against you? Even though I love you, I cannot help feeling +that there is something in your past which you hide from me." + +"If you will listen to that white-livered hypocrite, it is useless for +me to try to convince you. But, if you must know it,--though, mind you, +I tell you this only because you compel me,--I once interfered, +because my conscience forced me to do so, in a very disgraceful +love-affair of his in Denmark. He has hated me ever since, and is now +taking his vengeance. I will give you the details some other time. +Now, are you satisfied?" + +"No, Victor, no. I am not. It is not because I have been listening to +others, that I torment you with these ungrateful questions. Sometimes +a terrible dread comes over me, and though my heart rebels against it, +I cannot conquer it. I feel as if some dark memory, some person, +either living or dead, were standing between us, and would ever keep +you away from me. It is terrible, Victor, but I feel it even now." + +"And then all my love, my first and only abiding passion, my life, +which I would gladly lay down at your feet--all goes for naught, +merely because a foolish dream has taken possession of you. Ah, you +are ill, my darling, you are nervous." + +"No, no, do not kiss me. Not to-night, Victor, not to-night." + +The horrible discovery had completely stunned me. I stood as if +spell-bound, and could neither stir nor utter a sound. But a sudden +rustling of the leaves within broke through the torpor of my senses, +and, with three great strides, I stood at the entrance to the arbor. +Dannevig, instantly recognizing me, slipped dexterously out, and in +the next moment I heard him leaping over the fence, and running away +over the crisp sand. Miss Hildegard stood still and defiant before me +in the twilight, and the audible staccato of her breath revealed to my +ears the agitation which the deepening shadows hid from my eyes. An +overwhelming sense of compassion came over me, as for one who had +sustained a mortal hurt that was beyond the power of healing. Alas, +that simplicity and uprightness of soul, and the boasted womanly +intuitions, should be such poor safeguards against the wiles of the +serpent! And yet, I knew that to argue with her at this moment would +be worse than vain. + +"Fraulein," I said, walking close up to her, and laying my hand +lightly on her arm, "with all my heart I deplore this." + +"Pray, do not inconvenience yourself with any such superfluous +emotion," she answered, in a tone, the forced hauteur of which was +truly pathetic. "I wish to hear no accusations of Mr. Dannevig from +your mouth. What he does not choose to tell me himself, I will hear +from no one else." + +"I have not volunteered any revelations, Fraulein," I observed. +"Moreover, I see you are posing for your own personal gratification. +You wish to convince yourself of your constancy by provoking an attack +from me. When love has reached that stage, Miss Hildegard, then the +patient is no longer absolutely incurable. Now, to convince you that I +am right, will you have the kindness to look me straight in the eyes +and tell me that there is no shadow of doubt in your heart as to Mr. +Dannevig's truthfulness; that, in other words, you believe that on one +occasion he assumed the attitude of indignant virtue toward me, and in +holy horror rebuked my profligacy. Dare you meet my eye, and tell me +that?" + +"Yes," she exclaimed, boldly stepping out into the moonlight, and +meeting my eye with a steady gaze; but slowly and gradually the tears +_would_ gather, her underlip _would_ quiver, and with a sudden +movement she turned around, and burst out weeping. + +"Oh, no! I cannot! I cannot!" she sobbed, sinking down upon the green +sod. + +I stood long gazing mournfully at her, while the sobs shook her +frame; there was a child-like, hearty _abandon_ in her grief, which +eased my mind, for it told me that her infatuation was not so +hopeless, nor her hurt so great as I had feared. + + * * * * * + +The next evening when dinner was at an end, Mr. Pfeifer proposed a +walk in the park. Hildegard pleaded a headache, and wished to be +excused. + +"Nonsense, child," said Pfeifer, with his usual good-humored +peremptoriness. "If you have a headache, so much the more ought you to +go. Put on your things now, and don't keep us waiting any longer than +you can help." + +Hildegard submitted with demure listlessness, and soon re-appeared in +her walking costume. + +The daylight had faded, and the evening was in its softest, most +ethereal mood. The moon was drifting lazily among the light summer +clouds, gazing down upon the many-voiced tumult of the crowded city, +with that calm philosophic abstraction which always characterizes the +moon, as if she, up there in her airy heights, were so infinitely +exalted above all the distracting problems and doubts that harass our +poor human existence. We entered a concert garden, which was filled +with gayly dressed pleasure seekers; somewhere under the green roof of +the trees an orchestra was discoursing strains of German music to a +Teutonic audience. + +"_Donnerwetter_!" said Pfeifer, enthusiastically; "that is the +symphony in _E flat_; pretty well rendered too. Only hear that"--and +he began to whistle the air softly, with lively gesticulations "Come, +let us go nearer and listen." + +"No, let us stay here, uncle," remonstrated Hildegard. "I don't think +it is quite nice to go so near. They are drinking beer there, and +there are so many horrible people." + +"Nonsense, child! Where did you get all those silly whims from? Where +it is respectable for your uncle to go, I am sure it won't hurt you to +follow." + +We made our way through the throng, and stationed ourselves under a +tree, from which we had a full survey of the merry company, seated at +small tables, with huge foam-crowned mugs of beer before them. +Suddenly a voice, somewhat louder than the rest, disentangled itself +from the vague, inarticulate buzz, which filled the air about us. +Swift as a flash my eyes darted in the direction from which the voice +came. There, within a few dozen steps from us, sat Dannevig between +two gaudily attired women; another man was seated at the opposite side +of the table, and between them stood a couple of bottles and several +half-filled glasses. The sight was by no means new to me, and still, +in that moment, it filled me with unspeakable disgust. The knight of +Dannebrog was as charmingly free-and-easy as if he were nestled +securely in the privacy of his own fireside; his fine plumes were +deplorably ruffled, his hat thrust back, and his hair hanging in +tangled locks down over his forehead; his eyes were heavy, and a smile +of maudlin happiness played about his mouth. + +"Now, don't make yourself precious, my dear," he was saying, laying +his arm affectionately around the waist of the woman on his right. "I +like German kisses. I speak from experience. Angels have no business +to be--" + +"_Himmel_, what is the matter with the child," cried Pfeifer, in a +voice of alarm. "Why, my dear, you tremble all over. I ought not to +have made you go out with that headache. Wait here while I run for +some water." + +Before I could offer my services, he was gone, leaving me alone with +Hildegard. + +"Let us go," she whispered, with a long, shuddering sigh, turning a +white face, full of fright, disgust, and pitiful appeal toward me. + +"Shall we not wait for your uncle?" I asked. + +"Oh, I cannot. Let us go," she repeated, seizing my arm, and clinging +convulsively to me. + +We walked slowly away, and were soon overtaken by Mr. Pfeifer. + +"How do you feel now, child?" he inquired anxiously. + +"Oh, I feel--I feel--unclean," she whispered and shuddered again. + + +VIII. + + +Two years passed, during which I completely lost sight of Dannevig. I +learned that he had been dismissed from the service of the Immigration +Company; that he played second violin for a few months at one of the +lowest city theatres, and finally made a bold stroke for fame by +obtaining the Democratic nomination for County Clerk. I was faithless +enough, however, to call attention to the fact that he had never been +naturalized, whereupon, a new caucus was called, and another candidate +was put into the field. + +The Pfeifers I continued to see frequently, and, at last, at +Hildegard's own suggestion, told her the story I had so long withheld +from her. She showed very little emotion, but sat pale and still with +her hands folded in her lap, gazing gravely at me. When I had +finished, she arose, walked the length of the room, then returned, and +stopped in front of me. + +"Human life seems at times a very flimsy affair, doesn't it?" she +said, appealing to me again with her direct gaze. + +"Yes, if one takes a cynical view of it," I answered. + +She stood for a while pondering. + +"Did I ever know that man?" she asked, looking up abruptly. + +"You know best." + +"Then it must have been very, very long ago." + +A slight shiver ran through her frame. She shook my hand silently, and +left the room. + +One evening in the summer of 1870, just as the news from the +Franco-Prussian war was arousing the enthusiasm of our Teutonic +fellow-citizens, I was sauntering leisurely homeward, pondering with +much satisfaction on the course history was taking. About half a mile +from the Clark street bridge I found my progress checked by a crowd of +men who had gathered on the sidewalk outside of a German saloon, and +were evidently discussing some exciting topic. My journalistic +instincts prompted me to stop and listen to the discussion. + +"Poor fellow, I guess he is done for," some one was saying. "But they +were both drunk; you couldn't expect anything else." + +"Is any one hurt?" I asked, addressing my next neighbor in the crowd. + +"Yes. It was a poor fool of a Dane. He got into a row with somebody +about the war. Said he would undertake to whip ten Deutschers +single-handed; that he had done so many a time in the Schleswig-Holstein +war. Then there was some fighting, and he was shot." + +I spoke a few words to the policeman at the door, and was admitted. The +saloon was empty but in the billiard-room at its rear I saw a doctor +in his shirt-sleeves, bending over a man who lay outstretched on a +billiard-table. A bartender was standing by with a basin of water and +a bloody towel. + +"Do you know his name?" I inquired of the police officer. + +"They used to call him Danish Bill," he answered. "Have known him for +a good while. Believe his real name was Danborg, or Dan--something." + +"Not Dannevig?" I cried. + +"Dannevig? Yes, I guess you have got it." + +I hastily approached the table. There lay Dannevig--but I would rather +not describe him. It was hard to believe it, but this heavy-lidded, +coarse-skinned, red-veined countenance bore a cruel, caricatured +resemblance to the clean-cut, exquisitely modelled face of the man I +had once called my friend. A death-like stupor rested upon his +features; his eyes were closed, but his mouth half open. + +"By Jove!" exclaimed the physician, in a burst of professional +enthusiasm, "what a splendid animal he must have been! Hardly saw a +better made man in all my life." + +"But he is not dead!" I protested, somewhat anxiously. + +"No; but he has no chance, that I can see. May last over to-morrow, +but hardly longer. Does any one know where he lodges?" + +No one answered. + +"But, _Himmel_! he cannot stay here." The voice was the bartender's, +but it seemed to be addressed to no one in particular. + +"I have known him for years," I said. "Take him to my rooms; they are +only a dozen blocks away." + +A carriage was sent for, and away we drove, the doctor and I, slowly, +cautiously, holding the still unconscious man between us. We laid him +on my bed, and the doctor departed, promising to return before +morning. + +A little after midnight Dannevig became restless, and as I went to his +side, opened his eyes with a look of full, startled consciousness. + +"I'm about played out, old fellow, aint I?" he groaned. + +I motioned to him to be silent. + +"No," he went on, in a strained whisper, "it is no use now. I know +well enough how I stand. You needn't try to fool me." + +He lay for a while motionless, while his eyes wandered restlessly +about the room. He made an effort to speak, but his words were +inaudible. I stooped over him, laying my ear to his mouth. + +"Can--can you lend me five dollars?" + +I nodded. + +"You will find--a pawnbroker's check--in my vest pocket," he +continued. "The address is--is--on it. Redeem it. It is a ring. Send +it--to--to the Countess von Brehm--with--with--my compliments," he +finished with a groan. + +We spent several hours in silence. About three o'clock the doctor paid +a brief visit; and I read in his face that the end was near. The first +sunbeams stole through the closed shutters and scattered little +quivering fragments of light upon the carpet. A deep stillness reigned +about us. As I sat watching the defaced ruin of what had been, to me +at least, one of the noblest forms which a human spirit ever +inhabited, the past moved in a vivid retrospect before my eye, and +many strange reflections thronged upon me. Presently Dannevig called +me and I stood again bowing over him. + +"When you--bury me," he said in a broken whisper. "Carry my--cross +of--Dannebrog--on a cushion after me." And again after a moment's +pause: "I have--made a--nice mess of it, haven t I? I--I--think it +would--have--have been better for--me, if--I had been--somebody else." + +Within an hour he was dead. Myself and two policemen followed him to +the grave; and the cross of Dannebrog, with a much soiled red ribbon, +was carried on a velvet cushion after his coffin. + + + + +MABEL AND I. + +(A PHILOSOPHICAL FAIRY TALE.) + + +I. + + +"I want to see things as they are," said I to Mabel. + +"I don't see how else you can see them," answered Mabel, with a laugh. +"You certainly don't see them as they are not." + +"Yes, I do," said I. "I see men and things only as they _seem_. It is +so exasperating to think that I can never get beyond the surface of +anything. My friends may appear very good and beautiful to me, and yet +I may all the while have a suspicion that the appearance is deceitful, +that they are really neither good nor beautiful." + +"In case that was so, I shouldn't want to know it," said Mabel. "It +would make me very unhappy." + +"That is where you and I differ," said I. + +Mabel was silent for a moment, and I believe she was a little hurt, +for I had spoken rather sharply. + +"But what good would it do you, Jamie?" asked she, looking up at me +from under her wide-brimmed straw hat. + +"What would do me good?" said I, for I had quite forgotten what we had +been talking about. + +"To see things as they are. There is my father now; he knows a great +deal, and I am sure I shouldn't care to know any more than he does." + +"Well, that is where you and I differ," said I again. + +"I wish you wouldn't be always saying 'that is where you and I +differ.' Somehow I don't like to hear you say it. It doesn't sound +like yourself." + +And Mabel turned away from me, took up a leaf from the ground and +began to pick it to pieces. + +We were sitting, at the time when this conversation took place, up in +the gorge not half a mile from the house where Mabel's father lived. I +was a tutor in the college, about twenty-three years old, and I was +very fond of German philosophy. And now, since I have told who I was, +I suppose I ought to tell you something about Mabel. Mabel was,--but +really it is impossible to say what she was, except that she was very, +very charming. As for the rest, she was the daughter of Professor +Markham, and I had known her since my college days when she was quite +a little girl. And now she wore long dresses; and, what was more, she +had her hair done up in a sort of Egyptian pyramid on the top of her +head. The dress she had on to-day I was particularly fond of; it was +of a fine light texture, and the pattern was an endless repetition of +a small, sweet-brier bud, with two delicate green leaves attached to +it. + +I had spread a shawl out on the ground where Mabel was sitting, for +fear she should soil her fine dress. A large weeping-willow spread its +branches all around us, and drooped until it almost touched the +ground, so that it made a sort of green, sunlit summer-house, for +Mabel and me to live in. Between the rocks at our feet a clear brook +came rushing down, throwing before it little showers of spray, which +fell like crystal pearls on the water, sailed down the swift eddies +and then vanished in the next whirlpool. A couple of orioles in +brand-new yellow uniforms, with black epaulets on their shoulders, +were busy in the tree over our heads, but stopped now and then in +their work to refresh themselves with a little impromptu duet. + + "Work and play + Make glad the day,"-- + +that seemed to be their philosophy, and Mabel and I were quite ready +to agree with them, although we had been idling since the early dawn. +But then it was so long since we had seen each other, that we thought +we could afford it. + +"Somehow," said Mabel at last (for she never could pout long at a +time), "I don't like you so well since you came back from Germany. You +are not as nice as you used to be. What did you go there for, anyway?" + +"Why," I responded, quite seriously, "I went there to study; and I did +learn a good deal there, although naturally I was not as industrious +as I might have been." + +"I can readily believe that. But, tell me, what did you learn that you +mightn't just as well have learned at home?" + +I thought it was no use in being serious any longer; so I tossed a +pebble into the water, glanced up into Mabel's face and answered +gayly: + +"Well, I learned something about gnomes and pigmies and elves and +fairies and salamanders, and--" + +"And what?" interrupted Mabel, impatiently. + +"And salamanders," repeated I. "You know the forests and rivers and +mountains of Germany are full of all sorts of strange sprites, and you +know the people believe in them, and that is one of the things which +make life in the Old World so fascinating. But here we are too prosy +and practical and business-like, and we don't believe in anything +except what we can touch with our hands, and see with our eyes, and +sell for money." + +"Now, Jamie, that is not true," responded Mabel, energetically; for +she was a strong American at heart, and it didn't take much to rouse +her. "I believe, for instance, that you know a great deal although not +as much as my father; but I can't see your learning with my eyes, +neither can I touch it with my hands--" + +"But I hope I can sell it for money," interrupted I, laughing. + +"No, joking aside. I don't think we are quite as bad as you would like +to make us out." + +"And then you think, perhaps, that the gnomes and river-sprites would +be as apt to thrive here as in the Old World?" + +"Who knows?" said Mabel, with an expression that seemed to me half +serious and half playful. "But I wish you would tell me something +about your German sprites. I am so very ignorant in such things, you +know." + +I stretched myself comfortably on the edge of the shawl at Mabel's +feet, and began to tell her the story about the German peasant who +caught the gnome that had robbed his wheat-field. + +"The gnomes wear tiny red caps," I went on, "which make them +invisible. They are called tarn-caps, or caps of darkness. The peasant +that I am telling about had a suspicion that it was the gnomes who had +been stealing his wheat. One evening, he went out after sunset (for +the gnomes never venture out from their holes until the sun is down) +and began to fight in the air with his cane about the borders of the +field. Then suddenly he saw a very tiny man with knee-breeches and +large frightened eyes, turning a somersault in the grass right at his +feet. He had struck off his cap, and then, of course, the gnome was no +longer invisible. The peasant immediately seized the cap and put it +into his pocket; the gnome begged and implored to get it back, but +instead of that, the peasant caught him up in his arms and carried him +to his house, where he kept him as a captive until the other gnomes +sent a herald to him and offered him a large ransom. Then the gnome +was again set free and the peasant made his fortune by the +transaction." + +"Wouldn't it be delightful if such things could ever happen here?" +exclaimed Mabel, while her beautiful eyes shone with pleasure at the +very thought. + +"I should think so," said I. "It is said, too, that if there are +gnomes and elves in the neighborhood, they always gather around you +when you talk about them." + +"Really?" And Mabel sent a timid glance in among the large mossy +trunks of the beeches and pines. + +"Tell me something more, Jamie," she demanded, eagerly. + +Mabel had such a charming way of saying "Jamie," that I could never +have opposed a wish of hers, whatever it might be. The professor +called me James, and among my friends I was Jim; but it was only Mabel +who called me Jamie. So I told her all I knew about the nixies, who +sang their strange songs at midnight in the water; about the elves, +who lived in the roses and lilies, and danced in a ring around the +tall flowers until the grass never grew there again; and about the +elf-maiden who led the knight astray when he was riding to his bride +on his wedding-day. And all the while Mabel's eyes seemed to be +growing larger; the blood burned in her cheeks, and sometimes she +shuddered, although the afternoon was very warm. When I had finished +my tale, I rose and seated myself at her side. The silence suddenly +seemed quite oppressive; it was almost as if we could hear it. For +some reason neither Mabel nor I dared to speak; but we both strained +our ears listening to something, we did not know what. Then there came +a strange soft whisper which filled the air all about us, and I +thought I heard somebody calling my name. + +"They are calling you, Jamie," whispered Mabel. + +"Calling me? Who?" said I. + +"Up there in the tree. No, not there. It is down in the brook. +Everywhere." + +"Oh," cried I, with a forced laugh. "We are two great children, Mabel. +It is nothing." + +Suddenly all was silent once more; but the wood-stars and violets at +my feet gazed at me with such strange, wistful eyes, that I was almost +frightened. + +"You shouldn't have done that, Jamie," said Mabel. "You killed them." + +"Killed what?" + +"The voices, the strange, small voices." + +"My dear girl," said I, as I took Mabel's hands and helped her to +rise. "I am afraid we are both losing our senses. Come, let us go. The +sun is already down. It must be after tea-time." + +"But you know we were talking about them," whispered she, still with +the same fascinated gaze in her eyes. "Ah, there, take care! Don't +step on that violet. Don't you see how its mute eyes implore you to +spare its life?" + +"Yes, dear, I see," answered I; and I drew Mabel's arm through mine, +and we hurried down the wood-path, not daring to look back, for we had +both a feeling as if some one was walking close behind us, in our +steps. + + +II. + + +It was a little after ten, I think, when I left the professor's house, +where I had been spending the evening, and started on my homeward way. + +As I walked along the road the thought of Mabel haunted me. I +wondered whether I ever should be a professor, like her father, and +ended with concluding that the next best thing to being one's self a +professor would be to be a professor's son-in-law. But, somehow, I +wasn't at all sure that Mabel cared anything about me. + +"Things are not what they seem," I murmured to myself, "and the real +Mabel may be a very different creature from the Mabel whom I know." + +There was not much comfort in that thought, but nevertheless I could +not get rid of it. I glanced up to the big round face of the moon, +which had a large ring of mist about its neck; and looking more +closely I thought I saw a huge floundering body, of which the moon was +the head, crawling heavily across the sky, and stretching a long misty +arm after me. I hurried on, not caring to look right or left; and I +suppose I must have taken the wrong turn, for as I lifted my eyes, I +found myself standing under the willow-tree at the creek where Mabel +and I had been sitting in the afternoon. The locusts, with their +shrill metallic voices, kept whirring away in the grass, and I heard +their strange hissing sh-h-h-h-h, now growing stronger, then weakening +again, and at last stopping abruptly, as if to say: "Didn't I do +well?" But the blue-eyed violets shook their heads, and that means in +their language: "No, I don't think so at all." The water, which +descended in three successive falls into the wide, dome-shaped gorge, +seemed to me, as I stood gazing at it, to be going the wrong way, +crawling, with eager, foamy hands, up the ledges of the rock to where +I was standing. + +"I must certainly be mad," thought I, "or I am getting to be a poet." + +In order to rid myself of the painful illusion, which was every moment +getting more vivid, I turned my eyes away and hurried up along the +bank, while the beseeching murmur of the waters rang in my ears. + +As I had ascended the clumsy wooden stairs which lead up to the second +fall, I suddenly saw two little blue lights hovering over the ground +directly in front of me. + +"Will-o'-the-wisps," said I to myself. "The ground is probably +marshy." + +I pounded with my cane on the ground, but, as I might have known, it +was solid rock. It was certainly very strange. I flung myself down +behind the trunk of a large hemlock. The two blue lights came hovering +directly toward me. I lifted my cane,--with a swift blow it cut the +air, and,--who can imagine my astonishment? Right in front of me I saw +a tiny man, not much bigger than a good-sized kitten, and at his side +lay a small red cap; the cap, of course, I immediately snatched up and +put it in a separate apartment in my pocket-book to make sure that I +should not lose it. One of the lights hastened away to the rocks and +vanished before I could overtake it. + +There was something so very funny in the idea of finding a gnome in +the State of New York, that the strange fear which had possessed me +departed and I felt very much inclined to laugh. My blow had quite +stunned the poor little creature; he was still lying half on his back, +as if trying to raise himself on his elbows, and his large black eyes +had a terrified stare in them, and seemed to be ready to spring out of +their sockets. + +"Give--give me back my cap," he gasped at last, in a strange metallic +voice, which sounded to me like the clinking of silver coins. + +"Not so fast, my dear," said I. "What will you give me for it?" + +"Anything," he cried, as he arose and held out his small hand. + +"Then listen to me," continued I. "Can you help me to see things as +they are? In that case I shall give you back your cap, but on no other +condition." + +"See things as they are?" repeated the gnome, wonderingly. + +"Yes, and not only as they seem," rejoined I, with emphasis. + +"Return here at midnight," began he, after a long silence. "Upon the +stone where you are sitting you shall find what you want. If you take +it, leave my cap on the same spot." + +"That is a fair bargain," said I. "I shall be here promptly at +twelve. Good-night." + +I had extended my palm to shake hands with my new friend, but he +seemed to resent my politeness; with a sort of snarl, he turned a +somersault and rolled down the hill-side to where the rocks rise from +the water. + +I need not say that I kept my promise about returning. And what did I +find? A pair of spectacles of the most exquisite workmanship; the +glasses so clear as almost to deceive the sight, and the bows of gold +spun into fine elastic threads. + +"We shall soon see what they are good for," thought I, as I put them +into the silver case, the wonderful finish of which I could hardly +distinguish by the misty light of the moon. + +The little tarn-cap I, of course, left on the stone. As I wandered +homeward through the woods, I thought, with a certain fierce triumph, +that now the beauty of Mabel's face should no more deceive me. + +"Now, Mabel," I murmured, "now I shall see you as you are." + + +III. + + +At three o'clock in the afternoon I knocked at the door of the +professor's study. + +"Come in," said the professor. + +"Is--is Mabel at home?" asked I, when I had shaken hands with the +professor and seated myself in one of his hard, straight-backed +chairs. + +"She will be down presently," answered he "There is _The Nation_. You +may amuse yourself with that until she comes." + +I took up the paper; but the spectacles seemed to be burning in my +breast-pocket, and although I stared intently at the print, I could +hardly distinguish a word. What if I tried the power of the spectacles +on the professor? The idea appeared to me a happy one, and I +immediately proceeded to put it into practice. With a loudly beating +heart, I pulled the silver case from my pocket, rubbed the glasses +with my handkerchief, put them on my nose, adjusted the bows behind my +ears, and cast a stealthy glance at the professor over the edge of my +paper. But what was my horror! It was no longer the professor at all. +It was a huge parrot, a veritable parrot in slippers and +dressing-gown! I dared hardly believe my senses. Was the professor +_really_ not a man, but a parrot? My dear trusted and honored teacher, +whom I had always looked upon as the wisest and most learned of living +men, could it be possible that _he_ was a parrot? And still there he +sat, grave and sedate, a pair of horn spectacles on his large, crooked +beak, a few stiff feathers bristling around his bald crown, and his +small eyes blinking with a sort of meaningless air of confidence, as +I often had seen a parrot's eyes doing. + +"My gnome has been playing a trick on me," I thought. "This is +certainly not to see things as they are. If I only had his tarn-cap +once more, he should not recover it so cheaply." + +"Well, my boy," began the professor, as he wheeled round in his chair, +and knocked the ashes out of his pipe on the polished andirons which +adorned the empty fire-place. "How is the world using you? Getting +over your German whims, eh?" + +Surely the spectacles must in some mysterious way have affected my +ears too. The professor's voice certainly did sound very curious--very +much like the croak of some bird that had learned human language, but +had no notion of what he was saying. The case was really getting +serious. I threw the paper away, stared my teacher full in the face, +but was so covered with confusion that I could hardly utter two +coherent words. + +"Yes, yes,--certainly,--professor," I stammered. "German whims?--I +mean things as they are--and--and not as they seem--_das Ding an +sich_--beg your pardon--I am not sure, I--I comprehended your +meaning--beg your pardon?" + +"My dear boy," croaked the professor, opening his beak in great +bewilderment, and showing a little thick red tongue, which curved +upward like that of a parrot, "you are certainly not well. Mabel! +Mabel! Come down! James is ill! Yes, you certainly look wretchedly. +Let me feel your pulse." + +I suppose my face must have been very much flushed, for the blood had +mounted to my head and throbbed feverishly in my temples. As I heard +the patter of Mabel's feet in the hall, a great dread came over me. +What if she too should turn out to be somebody else--a strange bird or +beast? No, not for all the world would I see Mabel--the dear, blessed +Mabel--any differently from what she had always seemed to me. So I +tore the spectacles from my nose, and crammed them into the case, +which again I thrust into my pocket. In the same instant Mabel's sweet +face appeared in the door. + +"Did you call me, papa?" she said; then, as she saw me reclining on +the sofa, where her father (now no longer a parrot) had forced me to +lie down, there came a sudden fright into her beautiful eyes, and she +sprang to my side and seized my hand in hers. + +"Are you ill, Jamie?" she asked, in a voice of unfeigned anxiety, +which went straight to my heart. "Has anything happened to you?" + +"Hush, hush!" said the professor. "Don't make him speak. It might have +proved a serious attack. Too much studying, my dear--too much +studying. To be sure, the ambition of young men nowadays is past +belief. It was different in my youth. Then, every young man was +satisfied if he could only make a living--found a home for himself, +and bring up his family in the fear of God. But now, dear me, such +things are mere nursery ambitions." + +I felt wretched and guilty in my heart! To be thus imposing upon two +good people, who loved me and were willing to make every sacrifice for +my comfort! Mabel had brought a pillow, and put it under my head; and +now she took out some sort of crochet-work, and seated herself on a +chair close by me. The professor stood looking at his watch and +counting my pulse-beats. + +"One hundred and five," he muttered, and shook his bald head. "Yes, he +has fever. I saw it at once, as he entered the room." + +"Professor," I cried out, in an agony of remorse, "really I meant +nothing by it. I know very well that you are not a parrot--that you +are--" + +"I--I--a parrot!" he exclaimed, smiling knowingly at Mabel. "No, I +should think not. He is raving, my dear. High fever. Just what I said. +Won't you go out and send Maggie for the doctor? No, stop, I shall go +myself. Then he will be sure to come without delay. It is high time." + +The professor buttoned his coat up to his chin, fixed his hat at the +proper angle on the back of his head, and departed in haste. + +"How do you feel now, Jamie dear?" said Mabel, after awhile. + +"I am very well, I thank you, Mabel," answered I. "In fact, it is all +nonsense. I am not sick at all." + +"Hush, hush! you must not talk so much," demanded she, and put her +hand over my mouth. + +My excitement was now gradually subsiding, and my blood was returning +to its usual speed. + +"If you don't object, Mabel," said I, "I'll get up and go home. +There's nothing whatever the matter with me." + +"Will you be a good boy and keep quiet," rejoined she, emphasizing +each word by a gentle tap on my head with her crochet-needle. + +"Well, if it can amuse you to have me lying here and playing sick," +muttered I, "then, of course, I will do anything to please you." + +"That is right," said she, and gave me a friendly nod. + +So I lay still for a long while, until I came once more to think of my +wonderful spectacles, which had turned the venerable professor into a +parrot. I thought I owed Mabel an apology for what I had done to her +father, and I determined to ease my mind by confiding the whole story +to her. + +"Mabel," I began, raising myself on my elbow, "I want to tell you +something, but you must promise me beforehand that you will not be +angry with me." + +"Angry with you, Jamie?" repeated she, opening her bright eyes wide in +astonishment. "I never was angry with you in my life." + +"Very well, then. But I have done something very bad, and I shall +never have peace until I have confided it all to you. You are so very +good, Mabel. I wish I could be as good as you are." + +Mabel was about to interrupt me, but I prevented her, and continued: + +"Last night, as I was going home from your house, the moonlight was so +strangely airy and beautiful, and without quite intending to do it, I +found myself taking a walk through the gorge. There I saw some curious +little lights dancing over the ground, and I remembered the story of +the peasant who had caught the gnome. And do you know what I did?" + +Mabel was beginning to look apprehensive. + +"No, I can't imagine what you did," she whispered. + +"Well, I lifted my cane, struck at one of the lights, and, before I +knew it, there lay a live gnome on the ground, kicking with his small +legs." + +"Jamie! Jamie!" cried Mabel, springing up and gazing at me, as if she +thought I had gone mad. + +Then there was an unwelcome shuffling of feet in the hall, the door +was opened, and the professor entered with the doctor. + +"Papa, papa!" exclaimed Mabel, turning to her father. "Do you know +what Jamie says? He says he saw a gnome last night in the gorge, and +that--" + +"Yes, I did!" cried I, excitedly, and sprang up to seize my hat. "If +nobody will believe me, I needn't stay here any longer. And if you +doubt what I have been saying, I can show you--" + +"My dear sir," said the doctor. + +"My dear boy," chimed in the professor, and seized me round the waist +to prevent me from escaping. + +"My dear Jamie," implored Mabel, while the tears started to her eyes, +"do keep quiet, do!" + +The doctor and the professor now forced me back upon the sofa, and I +had once more to resign myself to my fate. + +"A most singular hallucination," said the professor, turning his +round, good-natured face to the doctor. "A moment ago he observed that +I was _not_ a parrot, which necessarily must have been suggested by a +previous hallucination that I _was_ a parrot." + +The doctor shook his head and looked grave. + +"Possibly a very serious case," said he, "a case of ----," and he gave +it a long Latin name, which I failed to catch. "It is well that I was +called in time. We may still succeed in mastering the disease." + +"Too much study?" suggested the professor. "Restless ambition? Night +labor--severe application?" + +The doctor nodded and tried to look wise. Mabel burst into tears, and +I myself, seeing her distress, could hardly refrain from weeping. And +still I could not help thinking that it was very sweet to see Mabel's +tears flowing for my sake. + +The doctor now sat down and wrote a number of curiously abbreviated +Latin words for a prescription, and handed it to the professor, who +folded it up and put it into his pocket-book. + +Half an hour later, I lay in a soft bed with snowy-white curtains, in +a cozy little room upstairs. The shades had been pulled down before +the windows, a number of medicine bottles stood on a chair at my +bedside, and I began to feel quite like an invalid--and all because I +had said (what nobody could deny) that the professor was not a parrot. + + +IV. + + +I soon learned that the easiest way to recover my liberty was to offer +no resistance, and to say nothing more about the gnome and the +spectacles. Mabel came and sat by my bedside for a few hours every +afternoon, and her father visited me regularly three times a day, +felt my pulse and gave me a short lecture on moderation in study, on +the evil effects of ambition, and on the dangerous tendencies of +modern speculation. + +The gnome's spectacles I kept hidden under my pillow, and many a time +when Mabel was with me I felt a strong temptation to try their effect +upon her. Was Mabel really as good and beautiful as she seemed to me? +Often I had my hand on the dangerous glasses, but always the same +dread came over me, and my courage failed me. That sweet, fair, +beautiful face,--what could it be, if it was not what it seemed? No, +no, I loved Mabel too well as she seemed, to wish to know whether she +was a delusion or a reality. What good would it do me if I found out +that she too was a parrot, or a goose, or any other kind of bird or +beast? The fairest hope would go out of my life, and I should have +little or nothing left worth living for. I must confess that my +curiosity often tormented me beyond endurance, but, as I said, I could +never muster courage enough either to conquer it or to yield to it. +Thus, when at the end of a week I was allowed to sit up, I knew no +more about Mabel's real character than I had known before. I saw that +she was patient, kind-hearted, sweet-tempered,--that her comings and +goings were as quiet and pleasant as those of the sunlight which now +stole in unhindered and again vanished through the uncurtained +windows. And, after all, had I not known that always? One thing, +however, I now knew better than before, and that was that I never +could love anybody as I loved Mabel, and that I hoped some time to +make her my wife. + +A couple of days elapsed, and then I was permitted to return to my own +lonely rooms. And very dreary and desolate did they seem to me after +the pleasant days I had spent, playing sick, with Mabel and the +professor. I did try once or twice the effect of my spectacles on some +of my friends, and always the result was astonishing. Once I put them +on in church, and the minister, who had the reputation of being a very +pious man, suddenly stood before me as a huge fox in gown and bands. +His voice sounded like a sort of a bark, and his long snout opened and +shut again in such a funny fashion that I came near laughing aloud. +But, fortunately, I checked myself and looked for a moment at a couple +of old maids in the pew opposite. And, whether you will believe me or +not, they looked exactly like two dressed-up magpies, while the stout +old gentleman next to them had the appearance of a sedate and pious +turkey-cock. As he took out his handkerchief and blew his nose--I mean +his bill--the laughter again came over me, and I had to stoop down in +the pew and smother my merriment. An old chum of mine, who was a +famous sportsman and a great favorite with the ladies, turned out to +be a bull-dog, and as he adjusted his neck-tie and pulled up his +collar around his thick, hairy neck, I had once more to hide my face +in order to preserve my gravity. + +I am afraid, if I had gone on with my observations, I should have lost +my faith in many a man and woman whom I had previously trusted and +admired, for they were probably not all as good and amiable as they +appeared. However, I could not help asking myself, as Mabel had done, +what good such a knowledge would, in the end, do me. Was it not better +to believe everybody good, until convinced to the contrary, than to +distrust everybody and by my suspicion do injustice to those who were +really better than they seemed? After all, I thought, these spectacles +are making me morbid and suspicious; they are a dangerous and useless +thing to possess. I will return them to their real owner. + +This, then, was my determination. A little before sunset I started for +the gorge, and on my way I met a little girl playing with pebbles at +the roadside. My curiosity once more possessed me. I put on the +gnome's spectacles and gazed intently at the child. Strange to say no +transformation occurred. I took off the glasses, rubbed them with my +handkerchief, and put them on once more. The child still remained what +it seemed--a child; not a feature was changed. Here, then, was really +a creature that was neither more nor less than it seemed. For some +inconceivable reason the tears started to my eyes; I took the little +girl up in my arms and kissed her. My thoughts then naturally turned +to Mabel; I knew in the depth of my heart that she, too, would have +remained unchanged. What could she be that was better than her own +sweet self--the pure, the beautiful, the blessed Mabel? + +When the sun was well set, I sat down under the same hemlock-tree +where I had first met the gnome. After half an hour's waiting I again +saw the lights advancing over the ground, struck at random at one of +them and the small man was once more visible. I did not seize his cap, +however, but addressed him in this manner: + +"Do you know, you curious Old World sprite, what scrapes your +detestable spectacles brought me into? Here they are. Take them back. +I don't want to see them again as long as I live." + +In the next moment I saw the precious glasses in the gnome's hand, a +broad, malicious grin distorted his features, and before I could say +another word, he had snatched up his cap and vanished. + +A few days later, Mabel, with her sweet-brier dress on, was again +walking at my side along the stream in the gorge, and somehow our +footsteps led us to the old willow-tree where we had had out talk +about the German gnomes and fairies. + +"Suppose, Jamie," said Mabel, as we seated ourselves on the grass, +"that a good fairy should come to you and tell you that your highest +wish should be fulfilled. What would you then ask?" + +"I would ask," cried I, seizing Mabel's hand "that she would give me a +good little wife, with blue eyes and golden hair, whose name should be +Mabel." + +Mabel blushed crimson and turned her face away from me to hide her +confusion. + +"You would not wish to see things as they are, then," whispered she, +while the sweetest smile stole over her blushing face. + +"Oh, no, no!" exclaimed I. "But what would you ask, Mabel?" + +"I," answered she, "would ask the fairy to give me a husband who loved +me well, if--if his name was--Jamie." + +A little before supper-time we both stole on tip-toe into the +professor's study. He was writing, as usual, and did not notice us. +Mabel went up to his chair from behind and gently put her hands over +his eyes, and asked if he could guess who it was. He, of course, +guessed all the names he could think of, except the right one. + +"Papa," said Mabel, at last, restoring to him once more the use of his +eyes, "Jamie and I have something we want to tell you." + +"And what is it, my dear?" asked the professor, turning round on his +chair, and staring at us as if he expected something extraordinary. + +"I don't want to say it aloud," said Mabel. "I want to whisper it." + +"And I, too," echoed I. + +And so we both put our mouths, one on each side, to the professor's +ears, and whispered. + +"But," exclaimed the old man, as soon as he could recover his breath, +"you must bear in mind that life is not a play,--that--that life is +not what it seems--" + +"No, but Mabel _is_," said I. + +"Is,--is what?" + +"What she seems," cried I. + +And then we both laughed; and the professor kissed Mabel, shook my +hand, and at last all laughed. + + + + +HOW MR. STORM MET HIS DESTINY. + + +I. + + Huet' dich vor Maegdelein, + Soehnelein, Soehnelein.--HEINE. + + +I do not know why people always spoke of my friend Edmund Storm as a +confirmed bachelor, considering the fact that he was not far on the +shady side of thirty. It is true, he looked considerably older, and +had to all appearances entered that bloomless and sapless period which +with women is called "uncertain age." Nevertheless, I had a private +conviction that Storm might some fine day shed this dry and shrunken +chrysalis, and emerge in some brilliant and unexpected form. I cannot +imagine what ground I had for such a belief; I only know that I always +felt called upon to combat the common illusion that he was by nature +and temperament set apart for eternal celibacy, or even that he had +ceased to be agitated by matrimonial aspirations. I dimly felt that +there was a sort of refined cruelty in thus excluding a man from the +common lot of the race; men often have pity but seldom love for those +who either from eccentricity or peculiar excellence separate +themselves from the broad, warm current of human life, having no part +in the errors, ideals, and aspirations of their more commonplace +brethren. Even a slight deviation from the physical type of common +manhood and womanhood, as for instance, the possession of a sixth toe +or finger, would in the eyes of the multitude go far toward making a +man morally objectionable. It was, perhaps, because I wished to save +my friend Storm from this unenviable lot that I always contended that +he was yet a promising candidate for matrimony. + +Edmund Storm was a Norseman by birth, but had emigrated some five or +six years before I made his acquaintance. Our first meeting was +brought about in rather a singular manner. I had written an article in +one of our leading newspapers, commenting upon the characteristics of +our Scandinavian immigrants and indulging some fine theories, highly +eulogistic of the women of my native land. A few days after the +publication of this article, my pride was seriously shocked by the +receipt of a letter which told me in almost so many words that I was a +conceited fool, with opinions worthy of a bedlam. The writer, who +professed to be better informed, added his name and address, and +invited me to call upon him at a specified hour, promising to furnish +me with valuable material for future treatises on the same subject. +My curiosity naturally piqued, and, swallowing my humiliation I +determined to obey the summons. I found some satisfaction in the +thought that my unknown critic resided in a very unfashionable +neighborhood, and mentally put him down as one of those half-civilized +boors whom the first breath of our republican air had inflated a good +deal beyond their natural dimensions. I was therefore somewhat +disconcerted when, after having climbed half a dozen long staircases, +I was confronted with a pale, thin man, of calm, gentlemanly bearing, +with the unmistakable stamp of culture upon his brow. He shook my hand +with grave politeness, and pointing to a huge arm-chair of +antediluvian make, invited me to be seated. The large, low-ceiled room +was filled with furniture of the most fantastic styles;--tables and +chairs with twisted legs and scrolls of tarnished gilt; a +solid-looking, elaborately carved _chiffonier_, exhibiting Adam and +Eve in airy dishabille, sowing the seeds of mischief for an unborn +world; a long mirror in broad gilt frame of the most deliciously +quaint rococo, calling up the images of slim, long-waisted ladies and +powdered gentlemen with wristbands of ancient lace, silk stockings, +and gorgeous coats, _a la_ Louis XV. The very air seemed to be filled +with the vague musty odor of by-gone times, and the impression grew +upon me that I had unawares stepped into a lumber-room, where the +eighteenth century was stowed away for safe-keeping. + +"You see I have a weakness for old furniture," explained my host, +while his rigid features labored for an instant to adjust themselves +into something resembling a smile. I imagined I could hear them +creaking faintly in the effort like tissue-paper when crumpled by an +unwary hand. I almost regretted my rudeness in having subjected him to +the effort. I noticed that he spoke with a slow, laborious +enunciation, as if he were fashioning the words carefully in his mouth +before making up his mind to emit them. His thin, flexible lips seemed +admirably adapted for this purpose. + +"It is the only luxury I allow myself," he continued, seeing that I +was yet ill at ease. "My assortment, as you will observe, is as yet a +very miscellaneous one, and I do not know that I ever shall be able to +complete it." + +"You are a fortunate man," remarked I, "who can afford to indulge such +expensive tastes." + +"Expensive," he repeated musingly, as if that idea had never until +then occurred to him. "You are quite mistaken. Expensive, as I +understand the term, is not that which has a high intrinsic worth, but +that which can only be procured at a price considerably above its real +value. In this sense, a hobby is not an expensive thing. It is, as I +regard it, one of the safest investments life has to offer. An +unambitious man like myself, without a hobby, would necessarily be +either an idler or a knave. And I am neither the one nor the other. +The truth is, my life was very poorly furnished at the start, and I +have been laboring ever since to supply the deficiency. I am one of +those crude colorless, superfluous products which Nature throws off +with listless ease in her leisure moments when her thoughts are +wandering and her strength has been exhausted by some great and noble +effort." + +Mr. Storm uttered these extraordinary sentiments, not with a careless +toss of the head, and loud demonstrative ardor, but with a grave, +measured intonation, as if he were reciting from some tedious moral +book recommended by ministers of the gospel and fathers of families. +His long, dry face, with its perpendicular wrinkles, and the whole +absurd proportion between his longitude and latitude, suggested to me +the idea that Nature had originally made him short and stout, and +then, having suddenly changed her mind, had subjected him to a +prolonged process of stretching in order to adapt him to the altered +type. I had no doubt that if I could see those parts of his body which +were now covered, they would show by longitudinal wrinkles the effects +of this hypothetical stretching. His features in their original shape +may have been handsome, although I am inclined to doubt it; there were +glimpses of fine intentions in them, but, as a whole, he was right in +pronouncing them rather a second-rate piece of workmanship. His nose +was thin, sharp, and aquiline, and the bone seemed to exert a severe +strain upon the epidermis, which was stretched over the projecting +bridge with the tensity of a drum-head. I will not reveal what an +unpleasant possibility this niggardliness on Nature's part suggested +to me. His eyes (the only feature in him which was distinctly Norse) +were of a warm gray tint, and expressed frank severity. You saw at +once that, whatever his eccentricities might be, here was a Norseman +in whom there was no guile. It was these fine Norse eyes which at once +prepossessed me in Storm's favor. They furnished me approximately with +the key-note to his character; I knew that God did not expend such +eyes upon any but the rarest natures. Storm's taste for old furniture +was no longer a mystery; in fact, I began to suspect that there lurked +a fantastic streak of some warm, deep-tinged hue somewhere in his bony +composition, and my fingers began to itch with the desire to make a +psychological autopsy. + +"Apropos of crude workmanship," began my host after a pause, during +which he had been examining his long fingers with an air of criticism +and doubtful approbation. "You know why I wrote to you?" + +I confessed that I was unable to guess his motive. + +"Well, then, listen to me. Your article was written with a good deal +of youthful power; but it was thoroughly false. You spoke of what you +did not know. I thought it was my duty to guard you from future +errors, especially as I felt that you were a young man standing upon +the threshold of life, about to enter upon a career of great mischief +or great usefulness. Then you are of my own blood--but there is no +need of apologies. You have come, as I thought you would." + +"It was especially my sentiments regarding Norsewomen, I believe, that +you objected to," I said hesitatingly; for in spite of his fine eyes, +my friend still impressed me as an unknown quantity, and I mentally +labelled him _x_, and determined by slow degrees to solve his +equation. + +"Yes," he answered; "your sentiments about Norsewomen, or rather about +women in general. They are made very much of the same stuff the world +over. I do not mind telling you that I speak from bitter experience, +and my words ought, therefore, to have the more weight." + +"Your experience must have been very wide," I answered by way of +pleasantry, "since, as you hint, it includes the whole world." + +He stared for a moment, did not respond to my smile, but continued in +the same imperturbable monotone: + +"When God abstracted that seventh or ninth rib from Adam, and +fashioned a woman of it, the result was, _entre nous_, nothing to +boast of. I have ever ceased to regret that Adam did not wake up in +time to thwart that hazardous experiment. It may have been necessary +to introduce some tragic element into our lives, and if that was the +intention, I admit that the means were ingenious. To my mind the only +hope of salvation for the human race lies in its gradual emancipation +from that baleful passion which draws men and women so irresistibly to +each other. Love and reason in a well-regulated human being, form at +best an armed neutrality, but can never cordially co-operate. But few +men arrive in this life at this ideal state, and women never. As it is +now, our best energies are wasted in vain endeavors to solve the +matrimonial problem at the very time when our vitality is greatest and +our strength might be expended with the best effect in the service of +the race, for the advancement of science, art, or industry." + +"But would you then abolish marriage?" I ventured to ask. "That would +mean, as I understand it, to abolish the race itself." + +"No," he answered calmly. "In my ideal state, marriage should be +tolerated; but it should be regulated by the government, with a total +disregard of individual preferences, and with a sole view to the +physical and intellectual improvement of the race. There should be a +permanent government commission appointed, say one in each State +consisting of the most prominent scientists and moral teachers. No +marriage should be legal without being approved and confirmed by them. +Marriage, as it is at present, is, in nine cases out of ten, an +unqualified evil; as Schopenhauer puts it, it halves our joys and +doubles our sorrows--" + +"And triples our expenses," I prompted, laughing. + +"And triples our expenses," he repeated gravely. "Talk about finding +your affinity and all that sort of stuff! Supposing the world to be a +huge bag, as in reality it is; then take several hundred million +blocks, representing human beings, and label each one by pairs, giving +them a corresponding mark and color. Then shake the whole bag +violently, and you will admit that the chances of an encounter between +the two with the same label are extremely slim. It is just so with +marriage. It is all chance--a heartless, aimless, and cruel lottery. +There are more valuable human lives wrecked every hour of the day in +this dangerous game than by all the vices that barbarism or +civilization has ever invented." + +I hazarded some feeble remonstrance against these revolutionary +heresies (as I conceived them to be), but my opponent met me on all +sides with his inflexible logic. We spent several hours together +without at all approaching an agreement, and finally parted with the +promise to dine together and resume the discussion the next day. + +This was the beginning of my acquaintance with the pessimist, Edmund +Storm. + + +II. + + + "Freundschaft, Liebe, Stein der Weisen, + Diese Dreie hoert' ich preisen, + Und ich pries und suchte sie, + Aber ach! ich fand sie nie."--HEINE. + + +During the next two years there was never a week, and seldom a day, +when I did not see Storm. We lunched together at a much-frequented +restaurant not far from Wall street, and my friend's sarcastic +epigrams would do much to reconcile me to my temperance habits by +supplying in a more ethereal form the stimulants with which others +strove to facilitate or to ruin their digestions. + +"Existence is even at best a doubtful boon," he would say while he +dissected his beefsteak with the seriousness of a scientific observer. +"A man's philosophy is regulated by his stomach. No amount of stoicism +can reconcile a man to dyspepsia. If our nationality were not by +nature endowed with the digestion of a boa-constrictor, I should +seriously consider the propriety of vanishing into the Nirvana." + +I often wondered what could be the secret of Storm's liking for me; +for that he liked me, in his own lugubrious fashion, there could be no +doubt. As for myself, I never could determine how far I reciprocated +his feeling. I should hardly say that I loved him, but his talk +fascinated me, and it always irritated me to hear any one speak ill of +him. He was the very opposite of what the world calls "a good fellow;" +he did not slap you on the shoulder and salute you with a "Hallo, old +boy!" and I am inclined to think that he would have promptly resented +any undue familiarity. He was a man of the most exact habits, +painfully conscientious in all his dealings, and absolutely devoid of +vices, unless, indeed, his extravagance in the purchase of old +furniture might be classed under that head. To people of slipshod +habits, his painstaking exactness was of course highly exasperating, +and I often myself felt that he was in need of a redeeming vice. If I +could have induced him to smoke, take snuff, or indulge in a little +innocent gambling, I believe it would have given me a good deal of +satisfaction. Once, I remember, I exerted myself to the utmost to +beguile him into taking a humorous view of a mendacious tramp, who, +after having treated us to a highly pathetic autobiography, importuned +us for a quarter. But no, Storm could see nothing but the moral +hideousness of the man, lectured him severely, and would have sent +him away unrewarded, if I had not temporarily suspended my principles. + +During our continued intercourse, I naturally learned a good deal +about my friend's previous life and occupation. He was of very good +family, had enjoyed an excellent university education, and had the +finest prospects of a prosperous career at home, when, as far as I +could ascertain, he took a sudden freak to emigrate. He had inherited +a modest fortune, and now maintained himself as cashier in a large tea +importing house in the city. He read the newspapers diligently, +apparently with a view to convincing himself of the universal +wretchedness of mankind in general and the American people in +particular, had a profound contempt for ambition of every sort, +believed nothing that life could offer worthy of an effort, +except--old furniture. + +In the autumn of 187- he was taken violently ill with inflammation of +the lungs, and I naturally devoted every evening to him that I could +spare from my work. He suffered acutely, but was perfectly calm and +hardly ever moved a muscle. + +"I seldom indulge in the luxury of whining," he said to me once, as I +was seated at his bedside. "But, if I should die, as I believe I +shall, it would be a pity if the lesson of my life should be lost to +humanity. It is the only valuable thing I leave behind me, except, +perhaps, my furniture, which I bequeath to you." + +He lay for a while looking with grave criticism at his long, lean +fingers, and then told me the following story, of which I shall give a +brief _resume_. + + * * * * * + +Some ten years ago, while he was yet in the university, he had made +the acquaintance of a young girl, Emily Gerstad, the daughter of a +widow in whose house he lived. She was a wild unruly thing, full of +coquettish airs, frivolous as a kitten, but for all that, a phenomenon +of most absorbing interest. She was a blonde of the purest Northern +type, with a magnificent wealth of thick curly hair and a pair of blue +eyes, which seemed capable of expressing the very finest things that +God ever deposited in a woman's nature. It was useless to disapprove +of her, and to argue with her on the error of her ways was a waste of +breath: her moral nature was too fatally flexible. She could assume +with astonishing facility a hundred different attitudes on the same +question, and acted the penitent, the indifferent, the defiant, with +such a perfection of art as really to deceive herself. And in spite of +all this, poor Storm soon found that she had wound herself so closely +about his heart, that the process of unwinding, as he expressed it, +would require greater strength and a sterner philosophy than he +believed himself to possess. He had always been shy of women, not +because he distrusted them, but because he was painfully conscious of +being, in point of physical finish, a second-rate article, a bungling +piece of work, and naturally felt his disadvantages more keenly in the +presence of those upon whom Nature had expended all her best art. He +was, according to his own assertion, an idealist by temperament, and +had kept a sacred chamber in his heart where the vestal fire burned +with a pure flame. Now the deepest strata of his being were stirred, +and he loved with an overwhelming fervor and intensity which fairly +frightened him. In a moment of abject despair he proposed to Emily, +and to his surprise was accepted. And what was more, it was no comedy +on her part; he even now believed that she really loved him. All the +turbulent forces of her being were toned down to a beautiful, womanly +tenderness. She clung to him with a passionate devotion which seemed +to be no less of a surprise to herself than it was to him--clung to +his stronger self, perhaps, as a refuge from her own waywardness, +listened with a sweet, shame-faced happiness to his bright plans for +their common future, and shared his pleasures and his light +disappointments with an ardor and an ever ready sympathy, as if her +whole previous life had been an education for this one end--to be a +perfect wife and to be his wife. + +But alas, their happiness was of brief duration. At the end of a year +he had finished his legal studies, and passed a brilliant examination. +An excellent situation was obtained for him in a small town on the +sea-coast, whither he removed and began to prepare for the foundation +of his home. It was here he contracted his taste for quaint furniture, +all that was now left to him of his happiness--nay, of his life. +Suddenly, at the end of eight months, she ceased writing to him--a +fact which after all, argued well for her sincerity; full of +apprehension, he hastened to the capital and found her engaged to a +young lieutenant,--a dashing, hare-brained fellow, covered all over +with gilt embroidery, undeniably handsome, but otherwise of very +little worth. At least that was Storm's impression of him; he may have +done him injustice, he added, with his usual conscientiousness. A man +who sees the whole structure of his life tumbling down over his head +is not apt to take a charitable view of the author of the ruin. A week +later, Storm was on his way to America,--that was the end of the +story. + +Yes, if my friend had died, according to his promise, the story would +have ended here; but, as for once, he broke his word, I am obliged to +add the sequel. I noticed that for some time after his recovery he +kept shy of me. As he afterward plainly told me, he felt as if I had +purloined a piece of his most precious private property, in sharing a +grief which had hitherto been his own exclusive treasure. + + +III. + + + Fuercht' dich nicht, du liebes Kindchen, + Vor der boesen Geister Macht; + Tag und Nacht, du liebes Kindchen, + Halten Engel bei dir Wacht.--HEINE. + + +Once, on a warm moonlight night in September, Storm and I took a walk +in the Park. The night always tuned him into a gentle mood, and I even +suspect that he had some sentiment about it. The currents of life, he +said, then ran more serenely, with a slower and healthier pulse-beat; +the unfathomable mysteries of life crowded in upon us; our shallow +individualities were quenched, and our larger human traits rose nearer +to the surface. The best test of sympathy was a night walk; two +persons who then jarred upon each other might safely conclude that +they were constitutionally unsympathetic. He had known silly girls who +in moonlight were sublime; but it was dangerous to build one's hopes +of happiness upon this moonlight sublimity. Just as all complexions, +except positive black, were fair when touched by the radiance of the +night, so all shades of character, except downright wickedness, +borrowed a finer human tinge under this illusory illumination. Thus +ran his talk, I throwing in the necessary expletives, and as I am +neither black nor absolutely wicked, I have reason to believe that I +appeared to good advantage. + +"It is very curious about women," he broke forth after a long +meditative pause. "In spite of all my pondering on the subject, I +never quite could understand the secret of their fascination. Their +goodness, if they are good, is usually of the quality of oatmeal, and +when they are bad--" + +"'They are horrid,'" I quoted promptly. + +"Amen," he added with a contented chuckle. "I never could see the +appropriateness of the Bible precept about coveting your neighbor's +wife," he resumed after another brief silence. "I, for my part, never +found my neighbor's wife worth coveting. But I will admit that I have, +in a few instances, felt inclined to covet my neighbor's child. No +amount of pessimism can quite fortify a man against the desire to have +children. A child is not always a 'thing of beauty,' nor is it apt to +be a 'joy for ever'; but I never yet met the man who would not be +willing to take his chances. It is a confounded thing that the +paternal instinct is so deeply implanted, even in such a piece of +dried-up parchment as myself. It is like discovering a warm, live vein +of throbbing blood under the shrivelled skin of an Egyptian mummy." + +We sauntered on for more than an hour, now plunging into dense masses +of shadow, now again emerging into cool pathways of light. The +conversation turned on various topics, all of which Storm touched with +a kindlier humor than was his wont. The world was a failure, but for +all that, it was the part of a wise man to make the best of it as it +was. The clock in some neighboring tower struck ten; we took a +street-car and rode home. As we were about to alight (I first, and +Storm following closely after me), I noticed a woman with a wild, +frightened face hurrying away from the street-lamp right in front of +us. My friend, owing either to his near-sightedness, or his +preoccupation, had evidently not observed her. We climbed the long +dimly lighted stairs to his room, and both stumbled at the door +against a large basket. + +"That detestable washwoman!" he muttered. "How often have I told her +not to place her basket where everybody is sure to run into it!" + +He opened the door and I carried the basket into the room, while he +struck a match and lighted the drop-light on the table. + +"Excuse me for a moment," he went on, stooping to lift the cloth which +covered the basket. "I want to count--Gracious heavens! what is this?" +he cried suddenly, springing up as if he had stepped on something +alive; then he sank down into an arm-chair, and sat staring vacantly +before him. In the basket lay a sleeping infant, apparently about +eight months old. As soon as I had recovered from my first +astonishment, I bent down over it and regarded it attentively. It was +a beautiful, healthy-looking child,--not a mere formless mass of fat +with hastily sketched features, as babes of that age are apt to be. +Its face was of exquisite finish, a straight, well-modelled little +nose, a softly defined dimpled little chin, and a fresh, finely curved +mouth, through which the even breath came and went with a quiet, +hardly perceptible rhythm. It was all as sweet, harmonious, and +artistically perfect as a Tennysonian stanza. The little waif won my +heart at once, and it was a severe test of my self-denial that I had +to repress my desire to kiss it. I somehow felt that my friend ought +to be the first to recognize it as a member of his household. + +"Storm," I said, looking up at his pale, vacant face. "It is a +dangerous thing to covet one's neighbor's child. But, if you don't +adopt this little dumb supplicant, I fear you will tempt me to break +the tenth commandment. I believe there is a clause there about +coveting children." + +Storm opened his eyes wide, and with an effort to rouse himself, +pushed back the chair and knelt down at the side of the basket. With a +gentle movement he drew off the cover under which the child slept, and +discovered on its bosom a letter which he eagerly seized. As he +glanced at the direction of the envelope, his face underwent a +marvellous change; it was as if a mask had suddenly been removed, +revealing a new type of warmer, purer, and tenderer manhood. + +The letter read as follows: + + "DEAREST EDMUND: + + It has gone all wrong with me. You know I would not come to if there + was any other hope left. As for myself, I do not care what becomes + of me, but you will not forsake my little girl. Will you dear + Edmund? I know you will not. I promise you, I shall never claim her + back. She shall be yours always. Her name is Ragna; she was born + February 25th, and was christened two months later. I have prayed to + God that she may bring happiness into your life, that she may + expiate the wrong her mother did you. + + I was not married until five years after you left me. It is a great + sin to say it, but I always hoped that you would come back to me I + did not know then how great my wrong was. Now I know it and I have + ceased to hope. Do not try to find me. It will be useless. I shall + never willingly cross your path, dear Edmund. I have learned that + happiness never comes where I am; and I would not darken your life + again,--no I would not, so help me God! Only forgive me, if you can, + and do not say anything bad about me to my child--ah! what a + horrible thought! I did not mean to ask you that, because I know how + good you are. I am so wild with strange thoughts, so dazed and + bewildered that I do not know what I am saying. Farewell, dear + Edmund.--Your, EMILY. + + If you should decide not to keep my little girl (as I do not think + you will), send a line addressed E.H.H., to the personal column in + the 'N.Y. Herald.' But do not try to find me. I shall answer you in + the same way and tell you where to send the child. E.H." + +This letter was not shown to me until several years after, but even +then the half illegible words, evidently traced with a trembling hand, +the pathetic abruptness of the sentences, sounding like the +grief-stricken cries of a living voice, and the still visible marks +of tears upon the paper, made an impression upon me which is not +easily forgotten. + +In the meanwhile Storm, having read and reread the letter, was lifting +his strangely illumined eyes to the ceiling. + +"God be praised," he said in a trembling whisper. "I have wronged her, +too, and I did not know it. I will be a father to her child." + +The little girl, who had awaked, without signalling the fact in the +usual manner, fixed her large, fawn-like eyes upon him in peaceful +wonder. He knelt down once more, took her in his arms, and kissed her +gravely and solemnly. It was charming to see with what tender +awkwardness he held her, as if she were some precious thing made of +frail stuff that might easily be broken. My curiosity had already +prompted me to examine the basket, which contained a variety of clean, +tiny articles,--linen, stockings, a rattle with the distinct impress +of its nationality, and several neatly folded dresses, among which a +long, white, elaborately embroidered one, marked by a slip of paper as +"Baby's Christening Robe." + +I will not reproduce the long and serious consultation which followed; +be it sufficient to chronicle the result. I hastened homeward, and had +my landlady, Mrs. Harrison, roused from her midnight slumbers; she +was, as I knew, a woman of strong maternal instincts, who was fond of +referring to her experience in that line,--a woman to whom your +thought would naturally revert in embarrassing circumstances. She +responded promptly and eagerly to my appeal; the situation evidently +roused all the latent romance of her nature, and afforded her no small +satisfaction. She spent a half hour in privacy with the baby, who +re-appeared fresh and beaming in a sort of sacerdotal Norse +night-habit which was a miracle of neatness. + +"Bless her little heart," ejaculated Mrs. Harrison, as the small fat +hands persisted in pulling her already demoralized side curls. "She +certainly knows me;" then in an aside to Storm: "The mother, whoever +she may be, sir, is a lady. I never seed finer linen as long as I +lived; and every single blessed piece is embroidered with two letters +which I reckon means the name of the child." + +Storm bowed his head silently and sighed. But when the baby, after +having rather indifferently submitted to a caress from me, stretched +out its arms to him and consented with great good humor to a final +good-night kiss, large tears rolled down over his cheeks, while he +smiled, as I thought only the angels could smile. + +I am obliged to add before the curtain is dropped upon this nocturnal +drama, that my friend was guilty of an astonishing piece of Vandalism. +When my landlady had deposited the sleeping child in his large, +exquisitely carved and canopied bed (which, as he declared, made him +feel as if a hundred departed grandees were his bed-fellows), we both +went in to have a final view of our little foundling. As we stood +there, clasping each other's hands in silence, Storm suddenly fixed +his eyes with a savage glare upon one of the bed-posts which contained +a tile of porcelain, representing Joseph leaving his garment in the +hand of Potiphar's wife; on the post opposite was seen Samson sheared +of his glory and Delilah fleeing through the opened door with his +seven locks in her hand; a third represented Jezebel being +precipitated from a third-story window, and the subject of the fourth +I have forgotten. It was a remnant of the not always delicate humor of +the seventeenth century. My friend, with a fierce disgust, strangely +out of keeping with his former mood, pulled a knife from his pocket, +and deliberately proceeded to demolish the precious tiles. When he had +succeeded in breaking out the last, he turned to me and said: + +"I have been an atrocious fool. It is high time I should get to know +it." + +A week later I found four new tiles with designs of Fra Angelico's +angels installed in the places of the reprobate Biblical women. + + +IV. + + + "Wer zum ersten Male liebt, + Sei es auch gluecklos ist ein Gott."--HEINE. + + +During the following week, Storm and I, with the aid of the police, +searched New York from one end to the other; but Emily must have +foreseen the event, and covered up her tracks carefully. Our seeking +was all in vain. In the meanwhile the baby was not neglected; my +friend's third room, which had hitherto done service as a sort of +state parlor, was consecrated as a nursery, a stout German nurse was +procured, and much time was devoted to the designing of a cradle (an +odd mixture of the Pompeiian and the Eastlake style), which was well +calculated to stimulate whatever artistic sense our baby may have been +endowed with. If it had been heir to a throne, its wants could not +have been more carefully studied. Storm was as flexible as wax in its +tiny hand. Life had suddenly acquired a very definite meaning to him; +he had discovered that he had a valuable stake in it. Strange as it +may seem, the whole gigantic world, with its manifold and complicated +institutions, began to readjust itself in his mind with sole reference +to its possible influence upon the baby's fate. Political questions +were no longer convenient pegs to hang pessimistic epigrams on, but +became matters of vital interest because they affected the moral +condition of the country in which the baby was to grow up. Socialistic +agitations, which a dispassionate bachelor could afford to regard with +philosophic indifference, now presented themselves as diabolical plots +to undermine the baby's happiness, and deprive her of whatever earthly +goods Providence might see fit to bestow upon her, and so on, _ad +infinitum_. From a radical, with revolutionary sympathies, my friend +in the course of a year blossomed out into a conservative Philistine +with a decided streak of optimism, and all for the sake of the baby. +It was very amusing to listen to his solemn consultations with the +nurse every morning before he betook himself to the office, and to +watch the lively, almost child-like interest with which, on returning +in the evening, he listened to her long-winded report of the baby's +wonderful doings during the day. On Sundays, when he always spent the +whole afternoon at home, I often surprised him in the most undignified +attitudes, creeping about on the floor with the little girl riding on +his back, or stretched out full length with his head in her lap, while +she was gracious enough to interest herself in his hair, and even +laughed and cooed with much inarticulate contentment. At such times, +when, perhaps, through the disordered locks, I caught a glimpse of a +beaming happy face (for my visits were never of sufficient account to +interfere with baby's pleasures), I would pay my respectful tribute to +the baby, acknowledging that she possessed a power, the secret of +which I did not know. + +But in spite of all this, I did not fail to detect that Storm's life +was not even now without its sorrow. At our luncheons, I often saw a +sad and thoughtful gloom settling upon his features; it was no longer +the bitter reviling grief of former years, but a deep and mellow +sadness, a regretful dwelling on mental images which were hard to +contemplate and harder still to banish. + +"Do you know," he exclaimed once, as he felt that I had divined his +thoughts, "her face haunts me night and day! I feel as if my happiness +in possessing the child were a daily robbery from her. I have +continued my search for her up to this hour, but I have found no trace +of her. Perhaps if you will help me, I shall not always be seeking in +vain." + +I gave him my hand silently across the table; he shook it heartily, +and we parted. + +It was about a month after this occurrence that I happened to be +sitting on one of the benches near the entrance to Central Park. That +restless spring feeling which always attacks me somewhat prematurely +with the early May sunshine, had beguiled me into taking a holiday, +and with a book, which had been sent me for review, lying open upon +my knees, I was watching the occupants of the baby carriages which +were being wheeled up and down on the pavement in front of me. +Presently I discovered Storm's nurse seated on a bench near by in +eager converse with a male personage of her own nationality. The baby, +who was safely strapped in the carriage at the roadside, was +pleasantly occupied in venting her destructive instincts upon a linen +edition of "Mother Goose." As I arose to get a nearer view of the +child, I saw a slender, simply dressed lady, with a beautiful but +careworn face, evidently approaching with the same intention. At the +sight of me she suddenly paused; a look of recognition seemed to be +vaguely struggling in her features,--she turned around, and walked +rapidly away. The thought immediately flashed through me that it was +the same face I had seen under the gas-lamp on the evening when the +child was found. Moreover, the type, although not glaringly Norse, +corresponded in its general outline to Storm's description. Fearing to +excite her suspicion, I forced my face into the most neutral +expression, stooped down to converse with the baby, and then sauntered +off with a leisurely air toward "Ward's Indian Hunter." I had no doubt +that if the lady were the child's mother, she would soon reappear; and +I need not add that my expectations proved correct. After having +waited some fifteen minutes, I saw her returning with swift, wary +steps and watchful eyes, like some lithe wild thing that scents danger +in the air. As she came up to the nurse, she dropped down into the +seat with a fine affectation of weariness, and began to chat with an +attempt at indifference which was truly pathetic. Her eyes seemed all +the while to be devouring the child with a wild, hungry tenderness. +Suddenly she pounced upon it, hugged it tightly in her arms, and quite +forgetting her _role_, strove no more to smother her sobs. The nurse +was greatly alarmed; I heard her expostulating, but could not +distinguish the words. The child cried. Suddenly the lady rose, +explained briefly, as I afterward heard, that she had herself lately +lost a child, and hurried away. At a safe distance I followed her, and +succeeded in tracking her nearly a mile down Broadway, where she +vanished into what appeared to be a genteel dressmaking establishment. +By the aid of a friend of mine, a dealer in furnishing goods, whom I +thought it prudent to take into my confidence, I ascertained that she +called herself Mrs. Helm (an ineffectual disguise of the Norwegian +Hjelm), that she was a widow of quiet demeanor and most exemplary +habits, and that she had worked as a seamstress in the establishment +during the past four months. My friend elicited these important facts +under the pretence of wishing to employ her himself in the shirtmaking +department of his own business. + +Having through the same agency obtained the street and number of her +boarding-place, I visited her landlady, who dispelled my last doubts, +and moreover, informed me (perhaps under the impression that I was a +possible suitor) that Mrs. Helm was as fine a lady as ever trod God's +earth, and a fit wife for any man. The same evening I conveyed to +Storm the result of my investigations. + +He sat listening to me with a grave intensity of expression, which at +first I hardly knew how to interpret. Now and then I saw his lips +quivering, and as I described the little scene with the child in the +park, he rose abruptly and began to walk up and down on the floor. As +I had finished, he again dropped down into the chair, raised his eyes +devoutly to the ceiling, and murmured: + +"Thank God!" + +Thus he sat for a long while, sometimes moving his lips inaudibly, and +seemingly unconscious of my presence. Then suddenly he sprang up and +seized his hat and cane. + +"It was number 532?" he said, laying hold of the door-knob. + +"Yes," I answered, "but you surely do not intend to see her to-night." + +"Yes, I do." + +"But it is after nine o'clock, and she may--" + +But he was already half way down the stairs. + +Through a dense, drizzling rain which made the gas-lights across the +street look like moons set in misty aureoles, Storm hastened on until +he reached the unaristocratic locality of Emily's dwelling. He rang +the door-bell, and after some slight expostulation with the servant +was permitted to enter. Groping his way through a long, dimly-lit +hall, he stumbled upon a staircase, which he mounted, and paused at +the door which had been pointed out to him. A slender ray of light +stole out through the key-hole, piercing the darkness without +dispelling it. Storm hesitated long at the door before making up his +mind to knock; a strange quivering agitation had come upon him, as if +he were about to do something wrong. All sorts of wild imaginings +rushed in upon him, and in his effort to rid himself of them he made +an unconscious gesture, and seized hold of the door-knob. A hasty +fluttering motion was heard from within, and presently the door was +opened. A fair and slender lady with a sweet pale face stood before +him; in one hand she held a needle, and in the other a bright-colored +garment which resembled a baby's jacket. He felt rather than saw that +he was in Emily's presence. His head and his heart seemed equally +turbulent. A hundred memories from the buried past rose dimly into +sight, and he could not chase them away. It was so difficult, too, to +identify this grave and worn, though still young face, with that soft, +dimpled, kitten-like Emily, who had conquered his youth and made his +life hers. Ah! poor little dimpled Emily; yes, he feared she would +never return to him. And he sighed at the thought that she had +probably lost now all that charming naughtiness which he had once +spent so much time in disapproving of. He was suddenly roused from +these reflections by a vague, half-whispered cry; Emily had fled to +the other end of the room, thrown herself on the bed, and pressed her +face hard down among the pillows. It was an act which immediately +recalled the Emily of former days, a childish, and still natural +motion like that of some shy and foolish animal which believes itself +safe when its head is hidden. Storm closed the door, walked up to the +bed, and seated himself on a hard, wooden chair. + +"Emily," he said at last. + +She raised herself abruptly on her arms, and gazed at him over her +shoulder with large, tearless, frightened eyes. + +"Edmund," she whispered doubtfully. "Edmund." + +"Yes, Emily," he answered in a soothing voice, as one speaks to a +frightened child. "I have come to see you and to speak with you." + +"You have come to see me, Edmund," she repeated mechanically. Then, as +if the situation were gradually dawning upon her, "You have come to +see _me_." + +His _role_ had appeared so easy as he had hastily sketched it on the +way,--gratitude on her part, forgiveness on his, and then a speedy +reconciliation. But it was the exquisite delicacy of Storm's nature +which made him shrink from appearing in any way to condescend, to +patronize, to forgive, where perhaps he needed rather to be forgiven. +A strange awkwardness had come over him. He felt himself suddenly to +be beyond his depth. How unpardonably blunt and masculinely obtuse he +had been in dealing with this beautiful and tender thing, which God +had once, for a short time, intrusted to his keeping! How cruel and +wooden that moral code of his by which he had relentlessly judged her, +and often found her wanting! What an effort it must have cost her +finer-grained organism to assimilate his crude youthful maxims, what +suffering to her tiny feet to be plodding wearily in his footsteps +over the thorny moral wastes which he had laid behind him! All this +came to him, as by revelation, as he sat gazing into Emily's face, +which looked very pathetic just then, with its vague bewilderment and +its child-like surrender of any attempt to explain what there was +puzzling in the situation. Storm was deeply touched. He would fain +have spoken to her out of the fulness of his heart; but here again +that awkward morality of his restrained him. There were, +unfortunately, some disagreeable questions to be asked first. + +Storm stared for a while with a pondering look at the floor; then he +carefully knocked a speck of dust from the sleeve of his coat. + +"Emily," he said at last, solemnly. "Is your husband still alive?" + +It was the bluntest way he could possibly have put it, and he bit his +lip angrily at the thought of his awkwardness. + +"My husband," answered Emily, suddenly recovering her usual flute-like +voice (and it vibrated through him like an electric shock)--"is he +alive? No, he is dead--was killed in the Danish war." + +"And were you very happy with him, Emily? Was he very good to you?" + +It was a brutish question to ask, and his ears burned uncomfortably; +but there was no help for it. + +"I was not happy," answered she simply, and with an unthinking +directness, as if the answer were nothing but his due; "because I was +not good to him. I did not love him, and I never would have married +him if mother had not died. But then, there was no one left who cared +for me." + +A blessed sense of rest stole over him; he lifted his grave eyes to +hers, took her listless hand and held it close in his. She did not +withdraw it, nor did she return his pressure. + +"Emily, my darling," he said, while his voice shook with repressed +feeling (the old affectionate names rose as of themselves to his lips, +and it seemed an inconceivable joy to speak them once more); "you +must have suffered much." + +"I think I have deserved it, Edmund," she answered with a little pout +and a little quiver of her upper lip. "After all, the worst was that I +had to lose my baby. But you are very good to her, Edmund, are you +not?" + +Her eyes now filled with tears, and they began to fall slowly, one by +one, down over her cheeks. + +"Yes, darling," he broke forth,--the impulse of tenderness now +overmastering all other thoughts. "And I will be good to you also, +Emily, if you will only let me." + +He had risen and drawn her lithe, unresisting form to his bosom. She +wept silently, a little convulsive sob now and then breaking the +stillness. + +"You will not leave me again, Edmund, will you?" she queried, with a +sweet, distressed look, as if the very thought of being once more +alone made her shudder. + +"No, Emily dear, I will never leave you." + +"Can you believe me, Edmund?" she began suddenly, after a long pause. +"I have always been true to you." + +He clasped her face between his palms, drew it back to gaze at it, and +then kissed her tenderly. + +"God bless you, darling!" he whispered, folding her closely in his +arms, as if he feared that some one might take her away from him. + +How he would love and keep and protect her--this poor bruised little +creature, whom he had once so selfishly abandoned at the very first +suspicion of disloyalty! As she stood there, nestling so confidingly +against his bosom, his heart went out to her with a great yearning +pity, and he thanked God even for the long suffering and separation +which had made their love the more abiding and sacred. + +The next day Storm and Emily were quietly married, and the baby and I +were present as witnesses. They now live in a charming little cottage +on the Jersey side, which is to me a wonder of taste and comfort. Out +of my friend's miscellaneous assortment of ancient furniture his wife +has succeeded in creating a series of the quaintest, most fascinating +boudoirs and parlors and bedrooms--everything, as Storm assures me, +historically correct and in perfect style and keeping; so that, in +walking through the house, you get a whiff of at least three distinct +centuries. To quote Storm once more, he sleeps in the sober religious +atmosphere of the German Reformation, with its rational wood-tints and +solid oaken carvings, dines amid the pagan splendors of the Italian +Renaissance, and receives company among the florid conventionalities +of the French rococo period. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ilka on the Hill-Top and Other Stories +by Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ILKA ON THE HILL-TOP *** + +***** This file should be named 13929.txt or 13929.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/9/2/13929/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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