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diff --git a/17241-8.txt b/17241-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e359a36 --- /dev/null +++ b/17241-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13569 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantis, by Gerhart Hauptmann + +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: Atlantis + +Author: Gerhart Hauptmann + +Translator: Adele Seltzer and Thomas Seltzer + +Release Date: December 6, 2005 [EBook #17241] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIS *** + + + + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + ATLANTIS + + A novel by Gerhart Hauptmann + + Translated by Adele and Thomas Seltzer + + + + +NEW YORK +B.W. HUEBSCH +1912 + +Copyright 1912 by +S. FISCHER, VERLAG, BERLIN + +Copyright 1912 by +B.W. HUEBSCH + +_All rights reserved_ + +PRINTED IN U.S.A. + + + + +ATLANTIS + + + + +PART I + + + + +I + + +The German fast mail steamer, _Roland_, one of the older vessels of the +North German Steamship Company, plying between Bremen and New York, left +Bremen on the twenty-third of January, 1892. + +It had been built in English yards with none of those profuse, gorgeous +gold decorations in a riotous rococo style which are so unpleasant in the +saloons and cabins of ships more recently built in German yards. + +The crew of the vessel included the captain, four officers, two engineers +of the first rank, assistant engineers, firemen, coal-passers, oilers, a +purser, the head-steward and the second steward, the chef, the second +cook, and a doctor. In addition to these men with their assistants, to +whom the well-being of that tremendous floating household was entrusted, +there were, of course, a number of sailors, stewards, stewardesses, +workers in the kitchen, and so on, besides two cabin-boys and a nurse. +There was also an officer in charge of the mail on board. The vessel was +carrying only a hundred cabin passengers from Bremen; but in the steerage +there were four hundred human beings. + +Frederick von Kammacher, to whom, the day before, the _Roland_ had been +non-existent, telegraphed from Paris to have a cabin on it reserved for +him. Haste was imperative. After receiving notification from the company +that the cabin was being held, he had only an hour and a half in which to +catch the express that would bring him to Havre at about twelve o'clock. +From Havre he crossed to Southampton, spending the night in a bunk in +one of those wretched saloons in which a number of persons are herded +together. But he managed to sleep the whole time, and the crossing went +without incident. + +At dawn he was on deck watching England's ghostly coast-line draw nearer +and nearer, until finally the steamer entered the port of Southampton, +where he was to await the _Roland_. + +At the steamship office, he was told that the _Roland_ would scarcely +make Southampton before evening, and at seven o'clock a tender would be +at the pier to convey the passengers to the ship as soon as it was +sighted. That meant twelve idle hours in a dreary foreign town, with the +thermometer at ten degrees below freezing-point. Frederick decided to +take a room in a hotel, and, if possible, pass some of the time in sleep. + +In a shop window he saw a display of cigarettes of the brand of Simon +Arzt of Port Said. He entered the shop, which a maid was sweeping, and +bought several hundred. It was an act dictated by sentiment rather than +by a desire for enjoyment. The cigarettes of Simon Arzt of Port Said were +excellent, the best he had ever smoked; but the significance they had +acquired for him was not due to any intrinsic virtue of theirs. + +He carried an alligator portfolio in his waistcoat pocket. In that +portfolio, among other things, was a letter he had received the very day +he left Paris: + + * * * * * + +Dear Frederick, + +It's no use. I left the sanatorium in the Harz and returned to my +parents' home a lost man. That cursed winter in the Heuscheuer Mountains! +After a stay in tropical countries, I should not have thrown myself into +the fangs of such a winter. Of course, the worst thing was my +predecessor's fur coat. To my predecessor's fur coat I owe my sweet fate. +May the devil in hell take special delight in burning it. I need scarcely +tell you that I gave myself copious injections of tuberculin and spat +a considerable number of bacilli. But enough remained behind to provide +me with a speedy _exitus letalis_. + +Now for the essential. I must settle my bequests. I find I owe you three +thousand marks. You made it possible for me to complete my medical +studies. To be sure, they have failed me miserably. But that, of course, +you cannot help, and, curiously enough, now that all's lost, the thing +that most bothers me is the horrid thought that I cannot repay you. + +My father, you know, is principal of a public school and actually managed +to save some money. But he has five children beside myself, all of whom +are unprovided for. He looked upon me as his capital which would bring +more than the usual rate of interest. Being a practical man, he now +realises he has lost both principal and interest. + +In brief, he is afraid of responsibilities which unfortunately I cannot +shoulder in the better world to come--faugh, faugh, faugh!--I spit three +times. What shall I do? Would you be able to forego the payment of my +debt? + +Several times, old boy, I have been two thirds of the way over already, +and I have left for you some notes on the states I have passed through, +which may not be lacking in scientific interest. Should it be possible +for me, after the great moment, to make myself noticeable from the +Beyond, you will hear from me again. + +Where are you? Good-bye. In the vivid, flashing orgies of my nocturnal +dreams, you are always tossing in a ship on the high seas. Do you intend +to go on an ocean trip? + +It is January. Isn't there a certain advantage in not needing to dread +April weather any longer? I shake hands with you, Frederick von +Kammacher. + +Yours, +George Rasmussen. + + * * * * * + +Frederick, of course, had immediately sent a telegram from Paris, which +relieved the son, dying a heroic death, from solicitude for his hale +father. + +Though Frederick von Kammacher had profound troubles of his own to occupy +his mind, his thoughts kept recurring to the letter in his pocket and his +dying friend. To an imaginative person of thirty, his life of the past +few years is in an eminent degree present to his mind. There had been a +tragic turn in Frederick's own life, and now tragedy had also entered his +friend's life, a tragedy far more awful. + +The two young men had been separated for a number of years. They had met +again and passed a number of happy weeks together, enriched by a liberal +exchange of ideas. Those weeks were the beginning of similar epochs in +the career of each. It was at little winter festivities in Frederick von +Kammacher's comfortable home that the cigarettes of Simon Arzt of Port +Said, which Rasmussen had brought from the place of their manufacture, +had played their rôle. + +Now, in the reading-room of Hofmann's Hotel, near the harbour, he wrote +him a letter. + + * * * * * + +Dear old George, + +My fingers are clammy. I am constantly dipping a broken pen in mouldy +ink; but if I don't write to you now, you won't get any news of me for +three weeks. This evening I board the _Roland_ of the North German +Steamship Company. + +There seems to be something in your dreams. Nobody could have told you +of my trip. Two hours before I started, I myself knew nothing of it. + +Day after to-morrow it will be a year since you came to us direct from +Bremen, after your second journey, with a trunk full of stories, +photographs, and the cigarettes of Simon Arzt. I had scarcely set foot in +England when twenty paces from the landing-place, I beheld our beloved +brand in a shop window. Of course, I bought some, by wholesale, in fact, +and am smoking one while writing, for the sake of auld lang syne. +Unfortunately, this horrible reading-room in which I am writing doesn't +get any the warmer, no matter how many cigarettes I light. + +You were with us two weeks when fate came and knocked at the door. We +both rushed to the door and caught a cold, it seems. As for me, I have +sold my house, given up my practice, and put my three children in a +boarding school. And as for my wife, you know what has befallen her. + +The devil! Sometimes it makes one creepy to think of the past. To both of +us it seemed a splendid thing for you to take over our sick colleague's +practice. I can see you dashing about to visit your patients in his +sleigh and fur coat. And when he died, I had not the slightest objection +to your settling down as a country physician in the immediate vicinity, +although we had always poked a lot of fun at a country physician's +starvation practice. + +Now things have turned out very differently. + +Do you remember with what an endless number of monotonous jokes the +goldfinches that fairly overran the Heuscheuer Mountains used to furnish +us? When we approached a bare bush or tree, it would suddenly sway to and +fro and scatter gold leaves. We interpreted that as meaning mountains of +gold. In the evening we dined on goldfinches, because the hunters who +went out on Sundays sold them in great quantities and my tippling cook +cooked them deliciously. At that time you swore you would not remain a +physician. You were not to live from the pockets of poor patients; the +State was to salary you and put at your disposal a huge store of +provisions, so that you could supply your impoverished patients with +flour, wine, meat and necessities. And now, in token of its gratitude, +the evil demon of the medical guild has dealt you this blow. But you must +get well again. + +I am off for America. When we see each other again, you will learn why. +I can be of no use to my wife. With Binswanger, she is in excellent +hands. Three weeks ago, when I visited her, she did not even recognise +me. + +I have finished forever with my profession and my medical and +bacteriological studies. I have had ill luck, you know. My scientific +reputation has been torn to shreds. They say it was fuzz instead of the +exciting organism of anthrax that I examined in a dye and wrote about. +Perhaps, but I don't think so. At any rate, the thing is a matter of +indifference to me. + +Sometimes I am thoroughly disgusted with the clownish tricks the world +plays upon us, and I feel an approach to English spleen. Nearly the whole +world, or, at least Europe, has turned into a cold dish on a station +lunch-counter, and I have no appetite for it. + + * * * * * + +He wound up with cordial lines to his dying friend, and handed the letter +to a German porter to mail. + +In his room, the temperature was icy, the window-panes frozen over. +Without undressing he lay down in one of two vast, chilly beds. + +At best, the frame of mind of a traveller with a night's journey behind +him and an ocean crossing ahead of him, is not enviable. Frederick's +condition was aggravated by a whirl of painful, partially warring +recollections, which crowded into his mind, jostling and pushing one +another aside in a ceaseless chase. For the sake of storing up strength +for the events to come, he would gladly have gone to sleep, but as he lay +there, whether with open or closed eyes, he saw past events with vivid +clearness. + +The young man's career from his twentieth to his thirtieth year had not +departed from the conventional lines of his class. Ambition and great +aptitude in his specialty had won him the protection of eminent +scientists. He had been Professor Koch's assistant, and, without a +rupture of their friendly relations, had also studied several semesters +under Koch's opponent, Pettenkofer, in Munich. When he went to Rome for +the purpose of investigating malaria, he met Mrs. Thorn and her daughter, +who later became his wife and whose mind was now deranged. Angèle Thorn +brought him a considerable addition to his own small fortune. The +delicacy of her constitution caused him, eventually, to move with her and +the three children that had come to them to a healthy mountain district; +but the change did not interfere with his scientific work or professional +connections. + +Thus it was that in Munich, Berlin, and other scientific centres, he had +been considered one of the most competent bacteriologists, a man whose +career had passed the stage of the problematical. The worst against +him--and that only in the opinion of the cut-and-dried among his +fellow-scientists, who shook their heads doubtfully--had been a certain +belletristic tendency. Now, however, that his abortive work had appeared +and he had suffered his great defeat, all serious scientists said it was +the cultivation of side interests that had weakened his strength and led +the promising young intellect along the path of self-destruction. + +In his icy room in the English hotel, Frederick meditated on his past. + +"I see three threads which the Parcæ have woven into my life. The +snapping of the thread that represents my scientific career leaves me +utterly indifferent. The bloody tearing of the other thread"--he had in +mind his love for his wife--"makes the first event insignificant. But +even though I should still hold a place among the most hopeful of the +younger generation of scientists, the third thread, which is still whole, +which pierces my soul like a live wire, would have nullified my ambitions +and all my endeavours in science." + +The third thread was a passion. + +Frederick von Kammacher had gone to Paris to rid himself of this passion; +but the object of it, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a Swedish teacher +of stage dancing, held him in bondage against his will. His love had +turned into a disease, which had reached an acute stage, probably because +the gloomy events of so recent occurrence had induced in him a state in +which men are peculiarly susceptible to love's poison. + +It was a friend of his, a physician, who had introduced him in Berlin to +the girl and her father, and who later, when sufficiently acquainted with +Frederick's secret, raging love, had to take it upon himself to inform +the enamoured man of every change in the couple's address. + +Doctor von Kammacher's scanty luggage did not indicate careful +preparation for a long trip. In a fit of desperation, or, rather, in an +outburst of passion, he had made the hasty decision to catch the _Roland_ +at Southampton when he learned that the Swede and his daughter had +embarked on it at Bremen on the twenty-third of January. + + + + +II + + +After lying in bed about an hour, Frederick arose, knocked a hole +in the ice crust in the pitcher, washed himself, and in a fever of +restlessness descended again to the lower rooms of the little hotel. +In the reading-room sat a pretty young Englishwoman and a German Jewish +merchant, not so pretty and not so young. The dreariness of waiting +produced sociability. Frederick and the German entered into a +conversation. The German informed Frederick that he had lived in the +United States and was returning by the _Roland_. + +The air was grey, the room cold, the young lady impatiently paced up +and down in front of the fireplace, where there was no fire, and the +conversation of the new acquaintances dwindled into monosyllables. + +The condition of the unhappy lover, as a rule, is concealed from the +persons he meets, or unintelligible to them. In either case it is +ridiculous. A man in love is alternately transported and tormented by +brilliant and gloomy illusions. In spite of the cold, cutting wind, the +young fool of love was driven restlessly out to roam the streets and +alleys of the port. He thought of what an embarrassing position he had +been in when the Jewish merchant had insinuatingly inquired for the +purpose of his journey. In his effort not to reveal the secret motive of +his ocean crossing, Frederick had stammered and stuttered and given some +sort of a vague reply. He decided that from now on, in answer to +intrusive questioners, he would say he was going to America to see +Niagara Falls, Yellowstone Park, and visit an old collegemate of his, +also a physician. + +During the silent meal in the hotel, the news came that the _Roland_ +probably would reach the Needles at five o'clock, two hours earlier than +was expected. Frederick took his coffee and smoked some Simon Arzt +cigarettes with the German, who at the same time tried to do some +business in his trade, which was ready-made clothing. The two men, +carrying their luggage, then went to the tender together. + +Here they had an uncomfortable hour's wait, while the low smoke-stack +belched black vapours into the dirty drab mist that lay oppressively +upon everything about the harbour. From time to time the sound of the +shovelling of coal arose from the engine-room. One at a time five or six +passengers came on board, porters carrying their luggage. The saloon was +nothing more than a glass case on deck, inside of which, below the +windows, a bench upholstered in red plush ran around the sides. At +irregular intervals the bench was heaped with disorderly piles of +luggage. + +Everybody was taciturn. No one felt reposeful enough to settle in any one +place for a length of time. What conversation there was, was conducted in +a subdued, frightened sort of whisper. Three young ladies, one of whom +was the Englishwoman of the reading-room, unwearyingly paced up and down +the full length of the saloon. Their faces were unnaturally pale. + +"This is the eighteenth time I have made the round trip," suddenly +declared the clothing manufacturer, unsolicited. + +"Do you suffer from seasickness?" somebody asked in reply. + +"I scarcely set foot on the steamer when I turn into a corpse. That +happens each time. I don't come back to life until shortly before we +reach Hoboken or, at the other end, Bremerhaven or Cuxhaven." + +Finally, after a long, apparently vain wait, something seemed to be +preparing in the bowels of the tender and at the wheel. The three ladies +embraced and kissed, and an abundance of tears were shed. The prettiest +one, the lady of the reading-room, remained on the tender; the others +returned to the pier. + +Still the little boat refused to move. Finally, however, at nightfall, +amid pitch-black darkness, the hawsers were loosened from the iron rings +of the dock, a piercing whistle burst from the tender, and the screw +began to churn the water slowly, as if merely to test itself. + +At the last moment three telegrams were handed to Frederick, one from his +old parents and his brother, who wished him a happy voyage, one from his +banker, and one from his attorney. + +Though Frederick had left neither friend nor relative nor even an +acquaintance on the quay, yet, the instant he perceived the tender in +motion, a storm assailed him, whether a storm of woe, misery, despair, or +a storm of hope in endless happiness, he could not tell. All he felt was +that something burst convulsively from his breast and throat, and seethed +up, boiling hot, into his eyes. + +The lives of unusual men from decade to decade, it seems, enter dangerous +crises, in which one of two things takes place; either the morbid matter +that has been accumulating is thrown off, or the organism succumbs to +it in actual material death, or in spiritual death. One of the most +important and, to the observer, most remarkable of these crises occurs +in the early thirties or forties, rarely before thirty; in fact, more +frequently not until thirty-five and later. It is the great trial balance +of life, which one would rather defer as long as is expedient than make +prematurely. + +It was in such a crisis that Goethe went on his Italian journey, that +Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the church door in Wittenberg, +that Ignatius Loyola hung his weapons in front of an image of the Virgin, +never to take them down again, and that Jesus was nailed to the cross. As +for the young physician, Frederick von Kammacher, he was neither a Goethe +nor a Luther nor a Loyola; but he was akin to them not only in culture, +but also in many a trait of genius. + +It is impossible to express in words the extent in which his whole +previous existence passed in review before Frederick's mental vision as +the little tender sped beyond the harbour lights of Southampton, carrying +him away from Europe and his home. He seemed to be parting with a whole +continent in his soul, upon which he would never set foot again. It was a +farewell forever. No wonder if in that moment his whole being was shaken +and could not regain its balance. + +Loyola had not been a good soldier. Else, how could he have discarded his +arms? Luther had not been a good Dominican. Else, how could he have +discarded his monk's robes? Goethe had not been a good barrister or +bureaucrat. A mighty, irresistible wave had swept over those three men +and also, for all the disparity between them, over Frederick von +Kammacher, washing the uniform away from their souls. + +Frederick was not one of those who enter this crisis unconsciously. He +had been feeling its approach for years, and it was characteristic of him +that he reflected upon its nature. Sometimes he was of the opinion that +it marked the termination of youth and the beginning, therefore, of real +maturity. It seemed to him as if hitherto he had worked with other +people's hands, according to other people's will, guided rather than +guiding. His thinking appeared to him to have been no thinking, but an +operating with transmitted ideas. He put it to himself that he had been +standing in a hothouse, and his head, like the top of a young tree +reaching upward to the light, had broken through the glass roof and made +its way into the open. + +"Now I will walk with my own feet, look with my own eyes, think my own +thoughts, and act from the plenary power of my own will." + +In his valise, Frederick carried Stirner's "The Individual and his Own." + +Man living in society is never wholly independent. There is no intellect +that does not look about for other intellects, if for no other object +than to seek confirmation, that is, reinforcement or guidance, at all +events, companionship. That Frederick von Kammacher's new intellectual +companion was Max Stirner, was the result of a profound disillusionment. +He had been disillusioned in his deep-seated altruism, which until now +had completely dominated him. + + + + +III + + +Dense darkness closed in around the tender. The lights of the harbour +disappeared completely, and the little cockle-shell with the glass +pavilion began to roll considerably. The wind whistled and howled. +Sometimes it blew so hard that it seemed to be bringing the tender to a +standstill. The screw actually did rise out of the water. Suddenly the +whistle screeched several times, and again the steamer made its way +through the darkness. + +The rattling of the windows, the quivering of the ship's body, the +gurgling whirr-whirr of the propeller, the whistling, squalling and +howling of the wind, which laid the vessel on her side, all this combined +to produce extreme discomfort in the travellers. Again and again, as if +uncertain what course to pursue, the boat stopped and emitted its shrill +whistle, which was so stifled in the wild commotion of the waters that it +seemed nothing but the helpless breathing of a hoarse throat--stopped +and went backwards--stopped and went forwards, until again it came to an +uncertain halt, twisting and turning in the whirling waters, carried +aloft, plunged down, apparently lost and submerged in the darkness. + +To be exposed to impressions of this sort for only an hour and a half is +enough gradually to reduce a traveller's nerves to a state of torture. +The proximity of that awful element the surface of which marks the limits +of the one element in which man is capable of living, forces upon the +mind thoughts of death and destruction; all the more so since the water's +tricks seem so incalculable to the landman that he sees danger where +there actually is none. Another thing hard for the man accustomed to +unhampered movement to bear is the close confinement. All at once he +loses his illusion of freedom of will. Activity, the thing that in the +eyes of the European endows life with its sublimest charm, cannot in +the twinkling of an eye turn into absolute passivity. Nevertheless, +despite these novel, distressing experiences, despite throbbing pulses, +over-stimulated senses, and nerves tautened to the snapping point, the +situation is by no means lacking in fascination. + +Thus, Frederick von Kammacher felt a flush of exaltation. Life was +straining him to her breast more closely, wildly, passionately than she +had for a long time. + +"Either life has again become the one tremendous adventure, or life is +nothing," a voice within him said. + +Again the tender lay still. Suddenly it groaned, churned the water, sent +out huge puffs of hissing steam, whistled as if in great fear, once, +twice--Frederick counted seven times--and started off at its utmost +speed, as if to escape Satan's clutches. And now, all at once, it turned, +swept into a region of light, and faced a mighty vision. + +The _Roland_ had reached the Needles and was lying tide rode. In the +protection of its vast broadside the little tender seemed to be in a +brilliantly lighted harbour. The impression that the surprising presence +of the ocean greyhound made upon Frederick was in a fortissimo scale. +He had always belonged to that class of men--a class which is not +small--whose senses are open to life's varied abundance. Only on the +rarest occasions he found a thing commonplace or ordinary, and was never +blasé in meeting a novelty. But, after all, there are very few persons +who would be dull to the impressions of an embarkation by night, outside +a harbour in the open waters. + +Never before had Frederick been inspired with equal respect for the might +of human ingenuity, for the genuine spirit of his times, as at the sight +of that gigantic black wall rising from the black waters, that tremendous +façade, with its endless rows of round port-holes streaming out light +upon a foaming field of waves protected from the wind. In comparison with +this product, this creation, this triumph of the divine intellect in +man, what were undertakings like the Tower of Babel, allowing that they +were not isolated instances and had actually been completed. + +Sailors were busy letting the gangway-ladder down the flank of the +_Roland_. Frederick could see that up on deck, at the point where the +ladder was being suspended, a rather numerous group of uniformed men +had gathered, probably to receive the new passengers. His state of +exaltation continued, even while everybody in the tender's saloon, +including himself, suddenly seized with haste, grasped his or her hand +luggage and stood in readiness. In the presence of that improbability, +that Titan of venturesomeness, that floating fairy palace, it was +impossible to cling to the conviction that modern civilisation is all +prose. The most prosaic of mortals here had forced upon him a piece of +foolhardy romance compared with which the dreams of the poets lose colour +and turn pale. + +While the tender, dancing coquettishly on the swelling foam, was warping +to the gangway-ladder, high overhead, on the deck of the _Roland_, the +band struck up a lively, resolute march in a martial yet resigned strain, +such as leads soldiers to battle--to victory or to death. An orchestra +like this, of wind instruments, drums and cymbals was all that lacked to +set the young physician's nerves a-quiver, as in a dance of fire and +flame. + +The music ringing from aloft out into the night and descending to the +little tender manoeuvring in the water, was designed to inspire timid +souls with courage and tide them over certain horrors attendant upon the +moment. Beyond lay the infinite ocean. In the situation, one could not +help representing it to oneself as black, gloomy, forbidding, a fearful, +demoniac power, hostile to man and the works of man. + +Now, from the breast of the _Roland_, tore a cry rising higher and +louder, upward from a deep bass, a monstrous call, a roar, a thunder, +of a fearfulness and strength that congealed the blood in one's heart. + +"Well, my dear friend _Roland_," flashed through Frederick's mind, +"you're a fellow that's a match for the ocean." With that he set foot on +the gangway-ladder. He completely forgot his previous identity and the +reason of his being here. + +When, to the wild tune of the brass band, he stepped from the upper rung +upon the roomy deck, and stood in the garish sheen of an arc-light, he +found himself between two rows of men, the officers and some of the +ship's crew. It was the group of uniformed men he had noticed from below. +He was astonished and delighted to behold so many confidence-inspiring +masculine figures. It was an assemblage of magnificent specimens of +manhood, all, from the first mate down to the stewards, tall, picked men, +with bold, simple, intelligent, honest features. Moved by a sense at once +of pride and of complete trust and security, Frederick said to himself +that after all there was still a German nation left; and the singular +thought flashed through his mind that God would never decide to take such +a selection of noble, faithful men and drown them in the sea like blind +puppies. + +A steward picked up his luggage and led the way to a cabin with two +berths, which he was to have to himself. Soon after, he was sitting at +one end of a horseshoe-shaped table in the dining-room. The service was +excellent, and the few passengers from the tender ate and drank; but it +was not very lively. The main dinner was over, and the little company +from the tender in the great, low-ceiled, empty saloon, were each too +tired and too engrossed in self to talk. + +During the meal Frederick was not aware whether the mammoth body was +moving or standing still. The faint, scarcely perceptible quiver seemed +too slight to be a sign of the motion of so huge a mass. Frederick had +made his first sea voyage when a lad of eighteen as the only passenger on +a merchantman going from Hamburg to Naples. The thirteen years since had +considerably weakened the impressions of that trip. Moreover, the luxury +of this ocean liner into which he had strayed was something so new to +him, that all he could do at first was scrutinize everything in +astonishment. + +When he had drunk his customary few glasses of wine, a sense of peace and +comfort stole over him. After their long irritation and tension his +nerves succumbed to a pleasant tiredness, which pressed upon him so +healthily and imperatively that he felt almost sure of a refreshing +night's sleep. He even made the firm resolution--in his condition +scarcely necessary--that for this night bygones should be bygones, the +future the future, and the present, without regard for past or future, +should belong unqualifiedly to rest and sleep. + +When he went to bed, he actually did sleep for ten hours, heavily, +without stirring. At breakfast in the dining-room, he asked for the +passenger list, and with a wild leap of his heart read the names for +which he had been looking, Eugen Hahlström and Miss Ingigerd Hahlström. + + + + +IV + + +He folded up the list and glanced about. There were about fifteen to +twenty men and women in the saloon, all engaged in breakfasting or giving +their orders to the stewards. To Frederick it seemed they were there for +no other purpose than to spy upon his emotions. + +The steamer had already been travelling for an hour on the ocean. The +dining-room took up the full width of the vessel, and from time to time +its port-holes were darkened by the waves dashing against them. Opposite +Frederick sat a gentleman in uniform, who introduced himself as Doctor +Wilhelm, the ship's physician. Straightway a very lively medical +discussion began, though Frederick's thoughts were far away. He was +debating with himself how he should act at his first meeting with the +Hahlströms. + +He tried to find support in self-deception, telling himself he had +boarded the _Roland_, not for the sake of little Ingigerd Hahlström, but +because he wanted to see New York, Chicago, Washington, Boston, +Yellowstone Park, and Niagara Falls. That is what he would tell the +Hahlströms--that a mere chance had brought them together on the _Roland_. + +He observed that he was gaining in poise. Sometimes, when the adorer is +at a distance from the object of his devotion, the idolatry of love +assumes fateful proportions. During his stay in Paris, Frederick had +lived in a state of constant fever, and his yearning for his idol had +risen to an unendurable degree. About the image of little Ingigerd +Hahlström, a heavenly aureole had laid itself, so compelling in its +attraction that Frederick's mental vision was literally blinded to +everything else. That illusion had suddenly vanished. He felt ashamed of +himself. "I'm a ridiculous fool," he thought, and when he arose to go on +deck, he felt as if he had shaken off oppressive fetters. The salt sea +air blowing vigorously across the deck heightened his sense of +emancipation and convalescence and refreshed him to his inner being. + +Men and women lay stretched out on steamer chairs with that green +expression of profound indifference which marks the dreaded seasickness. +To Frederick's astonishment, he himself felt not the least trace of +nausea, and only the sight of his fellow-passengers' misery caused him to +realise that the _Roland_ was not gliding through smooth waters, but was +distinctly pitching and rolling. + +He walked around the ladies' parlour, past the entrance of an extra +cabin, and took his stand under the bridge, breasting the steely, salt +sea wind. On the deck below, the steerage passengers had settled +themselves as far as the bow. Though the _Roland_ was running under full +steam, it was not making its maximum speed, prevented by the long, heavy +swells that the wind raised and hurled against the bow. Across the +forward lower deck there was a second bridge, probably for emergency. +Frederick felt strongly tempted to stand up there on that empty bridge. + +It aroused some attention, of course, when he descended down among the +steerage passengers and then crawled up the iron rungs of the ladder to +the windy height. But that did not trouble him. All at once such a madcap +spirit had come over him, he felt so happy and refreshed; as if he had +never had to suffer dull cares, or put up with the whims of a hysterical +wife, or practise medicine in a musty, out-of-the-way corner of the +country. Never, it seemed to him, had he studied bacteriology, still +less, suffered a fiasco. Never had he been so in love as he appeared to +have been only a short time before. + +He laughed, bending his head before the gale, filled his lungs with the +salty air, and felt better and stronger. + +A burst of laughter from the steerage passengers mounted to his ears. At +the same instant something lashed him in the face, something that he had +seen rearing, white and tremendous, before the bow. It almost blinded +him, and he felt the wet penetrate to his skin. The first wave had swept +overboard. + +Who would not find it humiliating to have his sublime meditations +interrupted in such a tricky, brutal way? A moment before, he felt as +if to be a Viking were his real calling, and now, inwardly shaking and +shivering, amid general ridicule, he crawled ignominiously down the +iron ladder. + +He was wearing a round grey hat. His overcoat was padded and lined with +silk. His gloves were of dressed kid, his buttoned boots of thin leather. +All these garments were now drenched with a cold, salty wash. Leaving a +damp trail behind, he made his way, not exactly a glorious way, through +the steerage passengers, who rolled with laughter. In the midst of his +annoyance Frederick heard a voice calling his name. He looked up and +scarcely trusted his eyes on seeing a large fellow in whom he thought he +recognised a peasant from the Heuscheuer Mountains, a peasant with an +evil reputation for drunkenness and all sorts of misdeeds. + +"Wilke, is that you?" + +"Yes, Doctor, I'm Wilke." + +The little town in which Frederick had practised was called Plassenberg +an der Heuscheuer, that is, Plassenberg by the Heuscheuer Mountains, a +range in the county of Glatz where excellent sandstone is quarried. The +people of the district loved Frederick both as a man and a physician. He +was the wonder-worker who had performed a number of splendid cures and he +was the human being, without pride of caste, whose heart beat warmly for +the good of the lowliest of his fellow-men. They loved his natural way +with them, always cordial, always outspoken, and sometimes harsh. + +Wilke was bound for New England to join his brother. + +"The people in the Heuscheuer," he said, "are mean and ungrateful." + +Shy and distrustful at home, even toward Frederick, who had treated him +for his last knife wound on his neck, his manner here, with the other +passengers crossing the great waters, was frank and trustful. He was like +a well-behaved child chattering freely. + +"You didn't get the thanks you deserved, either, Doctor von Kammacher," +he said in his broad dialect, rich in vowel sounds, and recounted a +number of cases, of which Frederick had not known, in which good had been +repaid by evil tattle. "The people around Plassenberg are not fit for men +like you and me. Men like you and me belong in America, the land of +liberty." + +Elsewhere, Frederick would have resented being placed in the same +category as this rowdy, for whom, he recalled, the police were searching. +But here he felt no indignation. On the contrary, he was pleasantly +surprised, as if by an unexpected meeting with a good friend. + +"The world's a small place," said Frederick, passing over the theme of +ingratitude and the land of liberty, "the world's a small place. Yet I am +surprised to see you here. But I'm wet to the skin, and have to go change +my clothes." + +On his way to the cabin, on the promenade deck, he encountered the blond +captain of the _Roland_, Von Kessel, who presented himself to Frederick. + +"The weather is not quite up to mark," he said by way of excuse for the +little mishap on the lower bridge. "If you enjoy standing in front there, +you'd better put on one of our oilskins." + +Now that the vessel's movement was more accentuated, the cabin, in which +Frederick changed his clothes, was a problematical place of abode. The +light came from a round port-hole of heavy glass. When the wall with the +port-hole in it rose and turned inward like a slanting roof, the sunlight +from a rift between the clouds in the sky fell upon the mahogany berth +opposite. Sitting on the edge of the lower berth, Frederick tried to +steady himself, holding his head bent to keep from striking against his +upper berth, and frantically endeavouring not to follow the receding +movement of the wall behind. The cabin was rolling in unison with the +vessel's movement. Sometimes it seemed to Frederick as if the port-hole +wall were the ceiling, and the ceiling the right wall; then again as if +the right wall were the ceiling, and the ceiling the port-hole wall, +while the actual port-hole wall, as if inviting him to jump, shoved +itself at right angles under his feet--during which the port-hole was +wholly under water and the cabin in darkness. + +It is no easy matter to dress and undress in an oscillating room. That +the vessel's motion could have changed so markedly within the one hour +since he left the cabin, astonished Frederick. The simple operation of +drawing off his boots and trousers, finding others in his trunk, and +putting them on again became a gymnastic feat. He had to laugh, and +comparisons occurred to him, which made him laugh still more. But his +laughter was not heartfelt. Each time he received a knock, or had to +jump to regain his balance, he muttered exclamations and instinctively +contrasted all this with the comfortable waking up from sleep in his own +house. Groaning and labouring, he said to himself: + +"My whole personality is being shaken through and through. I was mistaken +when I supposed that I had already got my shaking up these last two +years. I thought fate was shaking me. Now, both my fate and I are being +shaken. I thought there was tragedy in me. Now, I and my tragedy are +bowling about in this creaking cage, and are being disgraced in our own +eyes. + +"I have a habit of pondering over everything. I think about the beak +of the ship, which buries itself in each new wave. I think about the +laughter of the steerage passengers, those poor, poor people, who, I +am sure, scarcely have a gay time of it. My sousing was a treat to them. +I think of the rapscallion, Wilke, who married a humpbacked seamstress, +ran through her savings, and abused her daily--and I almost embraced +him. I think of the blond Teuton, Captain von Kessel, that handsome man, +somewhat too insipid-looking and too thick-set, who is our absolute lord +and whom we trust at first glance. And, finally, I think about my +constant laughing and admit to myself that laughing is a sensible thing +only in the rarest circumstances." + +Frederick continued a conversation with himself in a similar strain for +a while, and cast bitter, ironical reflections upon the passion that had +brought him on this trip. He had actually been robbed of his will; and in +this condition, in that narrow cabin, surrounded by the ocean, it seemed +to him as if his life, and his foolish impotence, were being held up to +the rudest ridicule. + +When Frederick went up again, there were still a number of persons on +deck. The stewards had fastened the steamer chairs to the walls, some of +them having slipped and left the occupants, ladies and gentlemen, with +the blue marks of their fall. Refreshments were being served. It was +interesting to see how the stewards, carrying six or eight full cups, +balanced themselves over the heaving deck. + +Frederick looked about in vain for Hahlström and his daughter. + +In walking the full length of the deck several times, examining all +the passengers with the utmost care and circumspection, he noticed the +pretty young Englishwoman, whom he had seen for the first time in the +reading-room of the hotel in Southampton. She was wrapped in rugs and +furs and snugly settled in a spot shielded from the wind and warmed by +the two huge smoke-stacks. She was receiving the attention of a very +lively young man sitting beside her. Each time Frederick passed, the +young man scrutinised him sharply. Suddenly he jumped up, held out his +hand, and introduced himself as Hans Füllenberg of Berlin. Though +Frederick could not recall ever having met him before, the good-looking, +dashing young fellow succeeded in convincing him that they had both been +present at a certain evening affair in Berlin. He told Frederick he was +going to the United States to take a position in a mining region near +Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was a wide-awake young man and, what is +more, a Berlinese, and had great notions of his own importance. +Frederick's reputation in Berlin society inspired him with tremendous +respect. Frederick responded to his advances courteously, and allowed him +to recount all the latest Berlin news, as if he himself had not left the +German capital only a week before. He realised he could depend upon +Füllenberg's garrulousness for every item of interest. + +It quickly became evident that Hans Füllenberg was an amiable, +giddy-headed young buck, knowing well how to deal with the ladies. When +Frederick called his attention to the fact that the Englishwoman was +casting impatient glances toward him, visibly eager for his return, he +complacently winked his eye as if to say: + +"She won't run away. And if she does, there are plenty more." + + + + +V + + +"Do you know, Doctor von Kammacher," Füllenberg said suddenly, "that +little Hahlström is on board?" + +"What little Hahlström do you mean?" asked Frederick coolly. + +Hans Füllenberg could not contain his surprise that Frederick should have +forgotten little Hahlström. He was sure of having seen him in the +Künstlerhaus in Berlin when Ingigerd danced her dance there for the first +time, the dance that then aroused admiration only in the artist world, +but later became the sensation of all Berlin. He described the affair. + +"The pick of the Berlin artists were standing around the room and on the +stairs in informal groups, leaving the centre of the floor clear. Even +Menzel and Begas were there. A special exhibition was to open soon, and +the walls were hung with a collection of Böcklin pictures. The name of +the dance was 'Mara, or the Spider's Victim.' + +"I tell you, Doctor von Kammacher," the young man went on, "if you +didn't see that dance, you missed something. In the first place, little +Ingigerd's costume was very scanty, and then her performance was really +wonderful. There are no two opinions about it. A huge artificial flower +was set in the middle of the room, and the little thing ran up and smelt +of it. She felt all about the flower with closed eyes, vibrating as if +with the gauzy wings of a bee. Suddenly she opened her eyes and turned to +a rigid statue of stone. On the flower was squatting a huge spider! She +darted like an arrow to the farthest corner of the room. Even in the +first part of the dance she had seemed to float without weight in the +air; but the way sheer horror blew her across that room made her seem +like nothing but a vision." + +Frederick von Kammacher had seen her dance the dreadful dance, not only +at the matinée in the Künstlerhaus, but eighteen times again. While +Füllenberg was trying to express his impression with "great," +"tremendous," "glorious," and similarly strong epithets, Frederick saw +the whole dance over again with his mind's eye. He saw how the childlike +body, after cowering and trembling a while in the corner of the room, +approached the flower again to the accompaniment of music played by a +tom-tom, a cymbal, and a flute. Something which was not pleasure drew her +to it. The first time she had traced her way to the source of the perfume +by sniffing fragrance in the air. Her mouth had been open, the nostrils +of her fine little nose had quivered. Hans Füllenberg was correct in his +observation that her eyes, as she held her head back, had been closed. +The second time, she seemed to be drawn against her will by a gruesome +something, which alternately aroused fear, horror, and curiosity. She +held her eyes wide open, and now and then covered them with both hands, +as if in dread of seeing something hideous. + +But when she came quite close to the flower, all fear suddenly seemed +to drop away from her. She hopped for joy and laughed--she had been +needlessly alarmed. How could a fat, immobile spider squatting on a +flower be dangerous to a creature with wings? This part of her dance was +so graceful, so full of droll, bubbling, childlike merriment, that the +audience laughed tears of delight. + +Now, however, a new phase of the dance began, introduced in a thoughtful +strain. Having danced herself to satiety and intoxicated herself with the +flower's perfume, Mara, with movements of agreeable fatigue, made as if +to lay herself to rest, but delayed here and there to brush from her body +something like the threads of a spider's web, at first serenely and +pensively, then with growing disquiet, which communicated itself to the +onlookers. The child paused, reflected an instant, and apparently was +about to laugh at herself because of the fears that had arisen in her +soul; but the next minute she paled with fright, and made a dexterous +leap, as if to free herself from a trap. Her blond hair tossed back in +Mænadic waves turned into a flaming stream. Her whole appearance evoked +involuntary cries of admiration. + +The flight began. And now the theme of the dance was Mara's entanglement +in the threads the spider wove about her, which gradually choked her to +death. No dancer has ever executed such an idea with equal skill and +fidelity. + +The little creature freed her foot from the meshes, only to find her neck +entwined; she clutched at the threads about her throat, only to find her +hands entangled; she tore at the cobweb, she bent her body, she slipped +away; she beat with her fists, she raged, and only enmeshed herself the +more tightly in the horrible skein; finally she lay fast bound. During +this last phase of the dance, her artist audience stood there rigid, +breathless, suffocating with a sense of horror. + +It was not until nearly the end that Frederick von Kammacher felt that +his fate was forever linked with this girl. The feeling grew stronger +during the few moments that remained before the conclusion of the +performance. The poison of infatuation came from the expression of her +face. He noted precisely how it forced its way into him and how his whole +being suddenly grew sick. When little Ingigerd Hahlström once more opened +her eyes with a look of abysmal dismay, and fastened them in helpless +inquiry upon the spider, calmly drinking her blood away, an inner voice +seemed to command Frederick to become her compassionate knight, saviour, +and protector. + + + + +VI + + +Since, in Füllenberg's opinion, Frederick von Kammacher was not +sufficiently interested in the dancer, Ingigerd Hahlström, he mentioned +several other recent Berlin celebrities also on the _Roland_ on their way +to the United States. There was _Geheimrat_ Lars, a man well-known in art +circles, who often cast the deciding vote in purchases of works of art by +the government. He was going to America to visit museums, private and +public, and study the art situation in general. There was Professor +Toussaint, an eminent sculptor, some of whose monuments had been erected +in several German cities, chiefly Berlin, works done in a wishy-washy +Bernini style. + +"Toussaint," Füllenberg, who seemed to be fairly loaded with Berlin +gossip, explained, "needs money. He needs the money that his wife spends +and the social season in Berlin swallows up. He and his wife and his +wife's maid are all travelling free on his reputation. When he lands in +New York, he won't have enough in his pocket even to pay his hotel bill +for three days." + +Füllenberg pointed out the sculptor, Toussaint. He was lying in a +steamer chair, rising and falling in unison with the _Roland_. As +Frederick turned to look at him, he noticed an odd man without arms +being led across the deck by his attendant, who grasped him by his +collar and carefully dragged him through a small door close by into +the smoking-room. + +"That man's a vaudeville star," Füllenberg continued with his descriptive +catalogue. "He will appear in New York with Webster and Forster." + +Some stewards came oscillating across the deck to serve the chilly +passengers with bowls of hot bouillon. After Füllenberg had seen to it +that his lady was duly served, he deserted her and went with Frederick to +the smoking-room. Here, of course, loud talking and tobacco smoke +prevailed. The two gentlemen lit their cigars. In one corner of the small +room, some men were playing skat, and at several tables, German and +English politics were being thrashed out. The main theme of discussion +was the rivalry between America and Europe. Wilhelm, the ship's doctor, +with whom Frederick had become acquainted at breakfast, came in from his +morning inspection of the steerage, and seated himself beside Frederick. + +"There are two hundred Russian Jews emigrating to the United States or +Canada," he told him, "thirty Polish families, and about the same number +of German families from the south, north, and east of Germany. Altogether +there are nearly four hundred steerage passengers, among them five babies +at the breast and fifty children between the ages of one and fifteen." + +Doctor Wilhelm invited Frederick to accompany him the next day on his +tour of inspection. He was a man of not more than twenty-six. He had a +fair complexion and wore glasses. His manner was somewhat stiff. Ever +since he had passed his examinations, two years before, he had been a +physician on a vessel. Once he had taken the trip to Japan, once to South +America, and several times to the United States. Frederick, of course, +immediately thought of his dying friend, George Rasmussen, put his hand +in his pocket, and presented his new colleague with Simon Arzt +cigarettes. + +The cigarettes furnished a starting-point to tell all about George +Rasmussen; and when Doctor Wilhelm had learned everything about him, +except his name, and then learned his name, too, the world again turned +out to be a very small place. Doctor Wilhelm was a friend of George +Rasmussen's. They had studied together, one semester in Bonn and one +semester in Jena, and had belonged to the same club in Jena. The last few +years they had even corresponded. Naturally, the discovery instantly +brought the two physicians closer. + +The tone in the smoking-room was that of jolly carousals in German +_Bierstuben_. The men let themselves go, talked in loud voices, and gave +rein to that coarse humour and noisy gaiety in which time flies for them +and which to many of them is a sort of narcotic, giving them rest and +ease for a while from the mad chase of existence. Neither Frederick nor +Doctor Wilhelm was averse to this tone, which revived old memories of +their student days, when they had become accustomed to it. Though to the +average student the carousals, now taboo, may be an evil, physically and +intellectually, they are the time and place, nevertheless, at which the +phoenix of German idealism soars up from tobacco smoke and beer froth +to wing its flight to the sun. + +Hans Füllenberg soon felt bored in the company of the two physicians who, +in fact, had completely forgotten him; and he slipped away, back to his +lady. + +"When Germans meet," he said to her, "they must scream and drink +_Brüderschaft_ until they get tipsy." + +Doctor Wilhelm seemed to be proud of the smoking-room. + +"The captain," he said, "is very strict about not having the gentlemen +disturbed. He has given absolute orders that women under no +circumstances, not even if they smoke, are to be permitted here." + +The room had two metal doors, one on the starboard and one on the port +side. The person entering or leaving had to contend violently with the +wind and the motion of the vessel. The stewards had mastered the art +perfectly. Shortly before eleven o'clock, Captain von Kessel appeared. +It was his custom to visit the room at about this time every day. After +giving friendly or curt answers, as the case might be, to the usual +questions regarding the weather and the prospects for a good or bad +crossing, he seated himself at the same table as the physicians. + +"A seaman was lost in you," he said to Frederick. + +"I think you must be mistaken," Frederick rejoined. "I have had quite +enough of a salt water sousing. I assure you, I am not longing for +another." + +A few hours before, a pilot-boat from the French coast had brought the +latest news, which the captain proceeded to recount in a calm, quiet +manner. + +"A vessel of the Hamburg-American line, a twin-screw steamer, the +_Nordmania_, running for only a year, had a mishap about six hundred +miles out from New York. It turned back and reached Hoboken safely. +The sea was comparatively calm, but all of a sudden a waterspout arose +close to the ship, and a great mass of water burst over the ladies' +saloon, crushing through its roof and the roof of the deck below and +hurling a piano down into the very hold." + +The other piece of news he told was that Schweninger was in Friedrichsruh +with Bismarck and that Bismarck's death was being expected hourly. Though +both Doctor Wilhelm and Frederick von Kammacher disapproved of Bismarck's +exceptional anti-Socialist law and its consequences, they were filled +with hero worship of the man, Doctor Wilhelm the more so, since the home +of his childhood stood on the edge of Sachsenwald, scarcely an hour's +ride from Friedrichsruh. He was choke-full, of course, of local Bismarck +anecdotes and began to reel them off. + +"Are you annoyed?" Bismarck asked his barber, when he came in one day +with his moustache twirled upward in the new fashion of the race tracks. +"A moustache trimmed and twisted like that to me looks as if it were +terribly annoyed and for no reason." + + + + +VII + + +The international gong had not been introduced on the _Roland_. The +trumpeter of the band sent two blasts across the promenade deck and +through the corridors of the first cabin as a signal for the midday meal. +The first blast entered with the howling of the wind into the close, +noisy, crowded smoking saloon. The attendant of the man without arms came +to conduct his master across the deck again. Frederick watched the +armless man with great interest. He seemed to be extraordinarily brisk +and quick-witted. He spoke English, French and German with equal fluency, +and to everybody's delight parried the impertinences of a saucy young +American, whose disrespectfulness did not yield even before the sacred +person of the captain; for which the dignified skipper sometimes rewarded +him by staring over his head like a lion over a yapping terrier. + +The table in the dining-room was in the form of a trident, with the +closed end at the rear and the three prongs pointing to the prow. +Opposite the centre prong was a false mantel with a mirror, where +was posted the elegant figure in blue livery of Mr. Pfundner, the +head-steward. He was a man of between forty and fifty. With his white, +artificially curled hair, which gave the impression of being powdered, he +resembled a major-domo of Louis XIV's time. As he stood there, head +erect, looking over the swaying hall, he seemed to be the special squire +of Captain von Kessel, who sat at the end of the middle prong, in the +capacity both of host and most honoured guest. Next to the captain sat +Doctor Wilhelm and the first mate. Frederick, having found favour in the +captain's eyes, was assigned a place next to Doctor Wilhelm. The ship +was no longer tossing so violently, and the dining-room, in consequence, +was fairly well filled. The last ones to enter were the card players of +the smoking-room, who came storming in. At the closed end of the trident, +Frederick saw Mr. Hahlström, but without his daughter. + +Many stewards very quickly and deftly served a vast quantity of dishes. +Wine was also placed on the table. Within a short while the corks were +popping from champagne bottles in the vicinity of the card players. In +a gallery the band played without interruption. There were seven numbers +on the printed music programme, which bore the name of the vessel, the +date, and a picture of negroes in evening dress and high hats plucking +at banjos. + + + + +VIII + + +Still the forward part of the vessel and, along with it, the dining-room +with all its dishes, plates, and bottles, with its gentlemen guests and +lady guests and the steward-waiters, with its fish and vegetables and +meats and drinks and brass band, were lifted high on the mountain top of +one wave and plunged deep in the trough of the next. The mighty working +of the engines quivered through the ship. The dining-room walls had to +cope with the onslaught of the opposing element. + +The electric lights were turned on full. The grey of the cloudy winter +day did not suffice to illuminate the room, especially since what +brightness there was outside was every instant shut off by the water +splashing against the port-holes. + +Frederick enjoyed the daring of it--to be dining in festivity to the +accompaniment of frivolous music in the illuminated bowels of this +monster, this _Roland_. From time to time the mighty ship seemed on the +point of encountering invincible resistance. A combination of opposing +forces would rise up against the stem, producing the effect of a solid +body, a veritable mountainside. At such moments the noise of the talking +would die down, and many pale faces would exchange glances and turn to +the captain or to the prow of the vessel. But Captain von Kessel and his +officers were absorbed in their meal and paid no attention to the +phenomenon, which for moments at a time brought the _Roland_ to a +quivering standstill. They never looked up, but kept to their eating and +talking, even when, as often happened, tremendous masses of water hurled +themselves against the walls, threatening to crash through what seemed +like pitifully thin partitions for excluding that mighty, wrathful +element, thundering and roaring with suppressed hate and fury. + +During the meal Frederick's eyes were constantly drawn to Hahlström's +tall figure. Though his hair was touched with grey, he was certainly +still to be counted a handsome man. Next to him sat a man of about +thirty-five, with a bushy beard, dark, bushy eyebrows, and dark, deep-set +eyes, which sometimes darted a sharp, piercing glance at Frederick--at +least so it seemed to Frederick. The man troubled him. He noticed that +Hahlström graciously permitted the stranger to entertain him and pay him +court. + +"Do you know that tall, fair-haired man, Doctor von Kammacher?" the +physician asked. In his confusion Frederick failed to answer, looking +helplessly at Doctor Wilhelm. "He is a Swede. His name is Hahlström," +Doctor Wilhelm continued. "A peculiar fellow. Earlier in his life he made +a mess of your and my profession. He is travelling with his daughter, not +an uninteresting little miss. She's been dreadfully seasick, and hasn't +left the horizontal in her berth since we set sail from Bremen. That dark +fellow sitting next to Hahlström seems to be something like, well, let us +say, her fiancé." + +"By the way, what do you do for seasickness?" Frederick asked hastily, to +conceal his dismay and turn the conversation. + + + + +IX + + +"You here, Doctor von Kammacher? I can scarcely trust my eyes." At the +bottom of the companionway Frederick felt Hahlström tackle him, just as +he was about to mount to deck. + +"Why, Mr. Hahlström, what a peculiar coincidence! It's as if the whole +of Berlin had agreed to emigrate to America!" Frederick exclaimed, +simulating surprise with somewhat forced liveliness. + +"May I present Mr. Achleitner? Mr. Achleitner is an architect from +Vienna." + +The man with the piercing eyes smiled with an air of interest, holding +fast to the brass balustrade to keep from being hurled against the wall. + +The door of a rather gloomy saloon opened on the first landing. It bore +the misleading sign "smoking-room," misleading because the smokers never +used it, far preferring the cosey little saloon on deck. A brown +upholstered bench ran around the brown, wainscoted walls. Kneeling on the +bench one could look out through three or four port-holes upon the +seething and boiling of the waves. The entire floor space between the +benches was taken up by a table finished in a dark stain. + +"This room is a horrid hole," said Hahlström. "It positively makes me +creepy." + +A loud, trumpet-like, laughing voice called out from inside the room: + +"I say, Hahlström, if this sort of weather holds out, neither your +daughter nor I will keep the first day of our engagement with Webster +and Forster. We're not even making eight knots. Perhaps I'll be able +to manage. A big dose of salt water doesn't hurt me. To-day is the +twenty-fifth. If we reach Hoboken at eight o'clock the evening of the +first of February, I can appear for my act in perfect serenity at nine +o'clock; but that frail blossom of yours can't. She will certainly need +a few days to recover from the hardships of this trip." + +The three men entered the smoking-room. Frederick had already recognised +the voice as belonging to the man without arms, who, he learned later, +from Hahlström, was a world-renowned celebrity. For more than ten years +the bill-boards of every great city in the world had been displaying +simply his name, Arthur Stoss, which alone sufficed to draw throngs to +the theatres. His special art consisted in doing with his feet whatever +other people do with their hands. + +The first sight of him, of course, was repellent; but in the smoking-room +on deck Frederick had got over his first repulsion and had become +interested in his personality. Yet the situation in which he now beheld +him was so novel, so remarkable, almost to the point of improbability, +that he had difficulty in concealing his amazement. Arthur Stoss was +eating lunch. Since this room was so little used and since a man forced +to handle his knife and fork with his feet could not be permitted to eat +in the public dining-room, they served Arthur Stoss with his meals here. +To the three onlookers it had the value of an artistic performance to see +how the actor managed to manipulate his instruments with his clean, bare +toes--and that despite the pitching of the vessel--meanwhile, in the best +of humour, uttering the wittiest remarks as bite after bite disappeared +down his throat. He began to banter Hahlström and Achleitner, sometimes +in rather caustic fashion, while exchanging glances with Frederick, as +if he thought vastly more of him than of the other two men, who soon +withdrew from his attacks to go on deck. + +"My name is Stoss." + +"Mine, Von Kammacher." + +"It's very good of you to keep me company. That Hahlström and his +henchman are disgusting. Though I have been an actor for twenty years, +I can't stand the sight of such weedy weaklings, who don't do anything +themselves and exploit their daughters. They have the effect of an emetic +on me. For all that, he plays the great man. He has no talent, so he is +going to boil soup from his daughter's bones. Yet he goes about nose up +in the air. If he sees a dollar in the dirt and somebody of distinction +is looking, he will let it lie. He won't pick it up. There is no denying +he has an attractive appearance. He has the stuff in him for a very +clever, fashionable swindler. But he would rather take it easy and live +off his daughter and his daughter's admirers. It's astonishing how +many people are willing to make asses of themselves. There's that +Achleitner--look at the condescension with which Hahlström treats him +and the lofty way Hahlström plays the rôle of benefactor! He used to be +a riding-master. Then he got mixed up in some quack cure, a combination +of Swedish gymnastics and hydrotherapeutics, and his wife left him, a +fine, hard-working woman, now doing splendidly as head of a department +at Worth's in Paris." + +Frederick felt drawn up-stairs to Hahlström. The man's past as Stoss +described it was at that moment a matter of indifference to him. But +Stoss's remark about the asses some people are willing to make of +themselves sent a fleeting red to his face. + +Arthur Stoss grew more and more communicative. He sat like an ape, a +resemblance impossible to avoid when a man uses his feet instead of his +hands. When he had finished his meal, he stuck a cigar in his mouth, like +any other gentleman. In him the likeness to an ape was accentuated by the +breadth and flatness of his nose and the formation of his heavy jaws. He +looked like a fair-skinned orang-outang. However, his high, broad +forehead gave him the mark of the human intellect. He had no beard, that +is, he had never in his life, probably, had to remove a hair from his +parchmenty, freckled, yellow skin. His cheek bones were prominent, and +his head unusually large. Though his general appearance made a most +energetic, by no means effeminate impression, there still was something +eunuch-like about it, the high pitch of his voice adding to this +impression. While casting about for an opportunity to escape the +monster's spell, Frederick was nevertheless deeply interested in him from +a medical and anthropological standpoint. The man, without doubt, was an +extremely instructive specimen of abnormality. His facies was that of an +intermediate sexual stage. + +"People like Hahlström," he continued, "are actually not worthy of the +healthy limbs with which God endowed them. Of course, even if one has a +figure like a statue by Myron, it is awkward if there is too little up +here"--he tapped his forehead. "That is what is the trouble with +Hahlström. There is too little up here. Look at me. I don't say +everybody, but at least nine out of ten, in my position would have +succumbed as a child. Instead of that, I have a wife, I own a villa in +the Kahlenberg Mountains, I support three children of my step-brother and +an older sister of my wife, who was a singer and lost her voice. I am +absolutely independent. I remain on the stage because I want to bring +my wealth up to a certain point. If the _Roland_ were to sink to-day, +I could go down with perfect equanimity. I have done my work. I have +invested my money at a high rate of interest. My wife, my wife's sister, +and my step-brother's children are all provided for." + +The actor's attendant appeared, to help his master to his cabin for his +afternoon nap. + +"My days are mapped out like a time-table," Stoss explained. "My +attendant here, Bulke, served his four years in the German navy. With all +the ocean crossings I have to make, I couldn't get along with a man who +wasn't used to the water. I need a perfect water rat." + + + + +X + + +A little spell of dizziness came over Frederick when he went to his cabin +to fetch his heavy overcoat. On deck it was very quiet as compared with +the morning. Hahlström was nowhere to be seen, and Frederick seated +himself on a bench near the entrance to the main companionway. With his +collar turned up and his hat drawn over his forehead, he succumbed to the +state of drowsiness characteristic of sea trips, in which, despite the +heaviness of one's eyelids, one feels and perceives with a restless +lucidity of the inner vision. Images chase through one's mind, a +kaleidoscopic stream, shifting incessantly, going and coming, and finally +reducing the soul to a state of torture. The sybaritic meal with its +clatter of plates, its talking and music, was still whirling through +Frederick's brain. He heard the vaudeville actor declaiming. The half-ape +was holding Mara in his arms. Hahlström in all his height was looking on, +smiling. The waves were rolling heavily against the tiny dining-room and +pressing hard on the creaking hull. Bismarck, a huge figure in armour, +and Roland, the valiant warrior in armour, were laughing grimly and +conversing. Frederick saw both wading through the sea. Roland was holding +Mara, the tiny dancer, on his right palm. Every now and then Frederick +shivered. The ship careened, a stiff southeaster heeling her to +starboard. The waves hissed and foamed. The rhythm produced by the +rise and fall of the pistons finally seemed to turn into the rhythm of +Frederick's own body. The working of the screw was distinctly audible. At +regular intervals the stern would rise out of the water, carrying with it +the screw, which would then buzz in the air, and Frederick would hear +Wilke from the Heuscheuer saying: + +"Doctor, if only the screw doesn't snap." + +Finally, all the machinery of the vessel seemed to be turning in his +brain. Sometimes one engineer in the engine-room would call out to +another, and the clang of the metal shovels when the stokers fed the +furnace penetrated to the deck. + +All of a sudden Frederick jumped to his feet; he thought he saw a ghost, +or a dead-alive corpse, reeling up the companionway and making for him. +It was the clothing manufacturer whom he had met at Southampton, looking +more like a man in his death throes than one already dead. He gave +Frederick a ghastly glance of unconsciousness and let a steward support +him to the nearest steamer chair. + +"If that man," Frederick thought, "is not to be reckoned among the +heroes, then there never have been any heroes in the world." + +"Each time I cross," the clothing manufacturer had said, "I suffer from +seasickness, from the moment I set foot on the ship until I leave it." + +And what horrible extremes of suffering he had to go through! + +Opposite Frederick, at the entrance to the companionway, stood a +cabin-boy. From time to time at the signal of a whistle from the bridge, +he would disappear to receive orders from the first or second mate, or +whatever officer happened to be on duty. Often an hour and more would +pass without the summons, and the handsome lad had plenty of time to +meditate upon himself and his lot in life. Frederick felt sorry for him +as he stood there on guard, bored and chilly; so he spoke to him. + +He learned that his name was Max Pander and that he came from near the +Black Forest. The next logical question to put to him was whether he +liked his work. The boy answered with a resigned smile, which heightened +the charm of his handsome head, but showed he had none too much passion +for the seaman's calling. + +"There is not much in travelling on steamers," he observed. "A real +sailor belongs on board a sailing vessel. There is a mate of mine here +on the _Roland_," he added in a tone of great admiration, "who is only +eighteen years old and has already been on two long, dangerous trips on +a schooner." + +To Frederick, it seemed as if lasting passion for the sea--the sea, which +was already making him miserable--must be a conventional myth. It was +three o'clock. He had been on board only nineteen or twenty hours, and +already found it a petty hardship. "If the _Roland_ doesn't make better +time," he calculated, "I shall have to go through the same difficulties +of existence eight or nine times twenty-four hours. But I will get back +to land and remain there, while Pander, the cabin-boy, will have to +return across the ocean a few days after landing." + +"If someone were to find you a good position on land," Frederick asked, +"would you give up your position here?" + +"Yes, indeed," said Pander, emphasising his reply with a decided nod of +his head. + +"A nasty southeaster," said Doctor Wilhelm, passing by beside the tall +figure of the first mate. "How would you like to come to my room? We can +smoke and have some coffee there without being disturbed." + + + + +XI + + +Walking along the deck below the promenade deck, one passed a covered +gangway on both the starboard and port sides, into which opened various +official rooms, including the officers' cabins, among them Doctor +Wilhelm's, a comparatively spacious room, containing a bed, a table, +chairs, and a well-equipped medicine closet. + +The gentlemen had scarcely seated themselves when a Red Cross sister, +who worked under Doctor Wilhelm's direction, appeared and gave a report, +smiling as she did so, of a woman patient in the second cabin. + +"In my two years of practice on a steamer, this is the fifth time I have +had a case like this," Doctor Wilhelm said after the sister had left. +"Girls who can no longer conceal the consequences of their mistake and +are at loss what to do, take passage on a ship, when it is almost certain +that the event they expect will occur. Such girls, of course, never +suspect that they are typical on all sea trips, and are surprised when +our stewards and stewardesses sometimes treat them with corresponding +respect. I myself, of course, always do all I can for the poor creatures, +and I usually succeed in inducing the captains not to make an +announcement of the birth, in case there is one. Once a girl about whom +we could not help giving notice was found hanging to the window sash in +her lodgings near the harbour." + +Over their coffee and Simon Arzt cigarettes, the whole woman question was +unrolled. + +"So far," said Frederick, "the woman question is nothing but the old-maid +question, at least in the way women conceive it. The sterility of old +maids sterilizes the whole movement." + +Frederick developed his ideas. But tormenting visions of Mara and her +admirer pursued him, and he discoursed mechanically, his reasoning on the +woman question having become a matter of rote to him. + +"The vital germinal spot of each reform in women's rights," he argued +with apparent liveliness, blowing clouds of smoke, "must be the maternal +instinct. The cells of the future cell-state, which will be a healthier +social body, is the woman with the maternal instinct. The great women +reformers are not those who would have women act just like men in all +externals, but those who are conscious that all men, even the greatest, +were born of women. They are the conscious mothers of the race of men and +gods. A woman's natural right is her right to the child, and it is a most +inglorious page in the history of woman that she has allowed herself to +be deprived of that right. The birth of the child, in so far as it is not +sanctioned by a man, is subject to the fire and brimstone of public +scorn. And this scorn is the most pitiful page in man's history. The +devil knows how it ever came to possess such awful, absolute dominion. +Form a league of mothers, I should counsel women. Each member shall give +token of her motherhood by having children without the sanction of a man, +that is, without regard for so-called honour. In this lies woman's +strength, but only if she takes pride in her child, instead of bearing +it with a troubled conscience, in cowardice, concealment, and fear. +Reacquire your proud, instinctive consciousness, which you are fully +justified in having, of being the mothers of humanity; and having that +consciousness, you will be invincible." + +Doctor Wilhelm, who kept in touch with professional circles, was +acquainted with Frederick's name and the outcome of his scientific +career. His unfortunate bacteriological work was on his book shelf. +Nevertheless, the name of Frederick von Kammacher had an authoritative +ring, and association with the great man flattered him. He listened to +Frederick's exposition intently. + +The Red Cross sister entered again to summon Doctor Wilhelm to a +first-class woman patient. The physician's small, close hermitage, in +which Frederick was now left alone, gave him opportunity to reflect upon +the meaning of his remarkable journey. The _Roland_ was proceeding more +smoothly, and while he sat there smoking cigarettes, a sense of comfort +came over him, partly attributable, however, to the general effect of a +sea trip on one's nerves. It seemed wonderful to him to be on this great +transport of human cargo, to be driven onward to a new continent along +with so many fellow-men, subject to the same weal and woe. And the cause +of his presence on the ship was so curious! Never before had he had so +strange a sense of being a will-less puppet in the hands of destiny. +Again dark and light illusions mingled in his brain. He thought of +Ingigerd, whom he had not yet seen; and when he touched the quivering +wall of the low room, he was penetrated by happiness, that the same walls +were protecting him as the little dancer and that the same bottom was +holding them up. + +"It's not true. It's a lie," he repeated half aloud, referring to the +statement of the armless man, that Hahlström was exposing his daughter +to dishonour and was exploiting her. + +Doctor Wilhelm's return aroused Frederick from his dreams with a painful +shock. Doctor Wilhelm laughed and continued to laugh, as he threw his cap +on the bed and said: + +"I've just dragged our little Hahlström and her pet dog on deck. The +little imp has been giving a regular performance, in which her faithful +poodle, Achleitner, plays the part, one moment of the beaten cur, the +next moment of the spoiled darling." + +Doctor Wilhelm's report made Frederick uneasy. The first time he had seen +Mara, she seemed to him the incarnation of childish purity and innocence. +But since then, rumours had reached his ears which shook his faith in her +chastity and caused him many agonised hours and sleepless nights. He had +even had an excellent opinion of her father, and that, too, was shaken. + +Doctor Wilhelm, who also seemed to be extremely interested in Ingigerd, +began to speak of Achleitner. + +"He told me in confidence, he's engaged to her." + +Frederick remained silent. That was his only way of concealing his +profound dismay, now that the ship's doctor confirmed the supposition he +had expressed at the dinner-table. + +"Achleitner is a faithful dog," Doctor Wilhelm continued. "He is one of +those men who have a canine sort of patience. He sits up on his hind legs +and begs for a lump of sugar. He fetches and carries and lies down and +plays dead. She could do whatever she wanted, and he would still, I +think, be her patient, faithful poodle. If you'd like to, Doctor von +Kammacher, we might go on deck and visit her. She's lots of fun. Besides +we can watch the sun set." + + + + +XII + + +Little Mara lay stretched out in a steamer chair. Achleitner was most +uncomfortably perched on a small camp-stool directly in front of her, so +that he could look straight into her face. He had wrapped her up to her +shoulders in rugs. The setting sun, casting its rays across the mighty +heavings of the sea, glorified a lovely face. The ship was no longer +tossing so violently, and the deck was lively with people sitting in +chairs or promenading up and down. Some of the passengers had got over +their seasickness, and there was a general air of revived animation and +talkativeness. + +Mara's appearance was somewhat conspicuous. She wore her very long, light +hair flowing, and was playing with a small doll, a fact of which every +passerby turned about to assure himself. + +When Frederick saw this girl, who for weeks had been hovering in his +soul, in his dreams, in his waking hours, who, as it were, had covered +the rest of the world from his sight, or, at least, had cast a veil over +it, his excitement was so intense and his heart beat so violently against +his ribs that he had to turn away to keep his countenance. Even after the +lapse of several seconds, it was difficult for him to believe that the +enthralled, enslaved condition of his being was not noticeable to the +people about him. But his excitement was by no means due solely to the +fear of self-betrayal. It sprang from his passion, which, he suddenly +realised, dominated him with undiminished strength. + +"Papa told me you were here," the little miss said to him, adjusting the +blue silk cap on her doll's head. "Won't you sit down with us? Mr. +Achleitner, please go and get a chair for Doctor von Kammacher." She +turned to Doctor Wilhelm. "Your treatment was summary, but I am grateful +to you. I feel very well sitting here, watching the sun set. You're fond +of nature, aren't you, Doctor von Kammacher?" + +"_Nur für Natur hegte sie Sympathie_," trolled Doctor Wilhelm, swaying on +tip-toe. + +"Oh, you are impudent," Ingigerd reproved him. "Doctor Wilhelm _is_ +impudent, you know," she added to Frederick. "I saw he was the very +instant he looked at me and the way he took hold of me." + +"But, my dear young lady, so far as I know, I never took hold of you." + +"If you please, you did--going up the stairs. I have blue marks as the +result." + +The chatter ran on for a while in a similar strain. Frederick, without +betraying it, was on the alert for every word she uttered, noted every +play of feature, watched for her glances, for the rise and fall of her +lashes. He jealously studied the others, too, and caught every +expression, every movement, every glance that was meant for her. He even +noticed how Max Pander, the handsome cabin-boy, still standing at his +post, held his eyes fixed upon her, a broad smile on his lips. + +Ingigerd's pleasure in receiving the homage of three men and being the +centre of general interest was evident. She plucked at her little doll +and her odd, checked jacket, and gave herself up to coquettish whimsies. +Her affected voice filled Frederick with the delight of a long, cool +drink to a thirsty man. At the same time, his whole being was inflamed +with jealousy. The first mate, Von Halm, a magnificent young man of +twenty-eight, a perfect tower of a man, joined the group and was favoured +by Ingigerd with looks and pointed remarks, which indicated to her +admirers that this weather-tanned officer was not an object of +indifference to her. + +"How many miles, Lieutenant, since we left the Needles?" asked +Achleitner, who was pale and evidently chilly. + +"We're making better time now," Von Halm replied; "but for the last +twenty-two or twenty-three hours, we haven't made more than two hundred +miles." + +"At that rate it will take two weeks to reach New York," cried Hans +Füllenberg, somewhat too forwardly, from where he was sitting a little +distance away. He was still flirting with the English lady from +Southampton; but now, irresistibly drawn to Mara's sphere, he jumped up +and left her, bringing the tone that was agreeable to Mara and all her +admirers, except Frederick von Kammacher. The jolliness of the little +group communicated itself to the rest of the promenade deck. + +Disgusted with the orgy of banality, Frederick moved off to be alone with +his thoughts. The deck, which in the middle of the day had been dripping +with water, was now quite dry. He walked to the stern and looked out over +the broad, foaming wake. He heaved a deep breath of joy at the thought +that he was no longer in the narrow spell of the little female demon. +Suddenly the long tension of his soul relaxed. Though he might have +suffered a profound disenchantment, yet he felt as if he had taken a +sobering bath, which left him a free agent, alone with his own soul. He +felt ashamed of his instability. His passion for that little person +seemed ridiculous, and he covertly beat his breast and rapped his +forehead with his knuckles as if to awaken himself from a dream. + +But, finally, the great cosmic moment of the slowly setting sun cast its +spell over the young German adventurer. + +A fresh wind was still blowing from the southeast, slanting the vessel +slightly to the side where the sun hung over the horizon, turning the +heavens in the west into a great, dusky conflagration. That sun, beneath +which a slate-coloured sea was rolling in waves gently tossing foam--that +sea, slate-coloured in the east and a cold, darkening blue in the west +and south--that sky above, with great masses of clouds--these were to +Frederick like the three mighty motives of a world symphony. + +"Any one who is susceptible to them," he thought, "has no real cause to +feel small, for all their awful majesty." + +He was standing near the log, the long line of which was trailing in +the ocean. The great ship was quivering under his feet. From the two +smoke-stacks the wind was pressing the smoke down over the waves, and a +melancholy procession of figures, widows in long crêpe veils, wringing +their hands in mute grief, drifted away backward, as if into the twilight +gloom of eternal damnation. He heard the talking of the passengers, and +represented to himself all that was united within the walls of that +immense house, hurrying forward restlessly--how much hunting, fleeing, +hoping, fearing. And in his soul, responding to the universal miracle, +arose the great unanswered questions that seek to penetrate to the dark +meaning of existence: "Why?" "What for?" + + + + +XIII + + +He began to pace the deck again without noticing that he drew near +Ingigerd Hahlström. + +"You are wanted," a voice behind him suddenly announced. Seeing how he +started, Doctor Wilhelm excused himself. + +"You were dreaming; you are a dreamer," Mara called. "Come over here. +I don't like these stupid men." + +The six or eight gentlemen in attendance, with the exception of +Achleitner, laughed and withdrew with a humorous show of great obedience. + +"Why do you stay here, Achleitner?" Thus the faithful canine received his +dismissal. + +Frederick saw how the men withdrew together in groups at a little +distance, whispering as they usually do when having sport with a pretty +woman who is not exactly a prude; and it was with some shame, at any +rate, with expressed repugnance that he took the stool still warm from +Achleitner's body. Mara began to rhapsodise about nature. + +"Isn't everything prettiest when the sun goes down? I think it's fun--at +least I like it," she quickly substituted, when Frederick made a wry face +at the remark. She spoke in sentences that all began with "I don't like," +or "I despise," or "I do detest." In the face of that vast cosmic drama +unfolding itself before her senses, she sat wholly unmoved and +unsympathetic, displaying the overweening arrogance of a spoiled child. +Frederick wanted to jump up, but remained where he was, pulling nervously +at the end of his moustache, while his face assumed a stiff, mocking +expression. Mara noticed it, and was visibly upset by this unusual form +of homage. + +Frederick had one of those idealistic heads set on broad shoulders +characteristic of certain circles in the "nation of poets and +philosophers." His ancestors had been scholars, statesmen, and soldiers. +The general, his father, was in externals wholly the soldier; but beneath +his uniform, his heritage from his own father, a renowned botanist, +director of the botanical gardens at Genoa, actively manifested itself in +a strong interest in science. Frederick's mother was a well-read woman, +passionately fond of the theatre and an enthusiastic lover of Goethe and +the poets of the romantic school. Her father, who had been prime minister +of Wittenberg, as a student and even later in his career, composed +poetry, which her adoring love for him had caused her to publish and +several times revise and reprint. + +Though Frederick had never been ill, there were times when he showed +symptoms of a peculiar passionateness. His friends knew that when all +went well, he was a dormant volcano; that when things did not go so well, +he was a volcano spitting fire and smoke. To all appearances equally +removed from effeminateness and brutality, he was subject, nevertheless, +to accesses of both. Now and then a dithyrambic rapture came over him, +especially when there was wine in his blood. He would pace about, and if +it was daytime, might address a pathetic, sonorous invocation to the sun, +or at night, to the constellations, particularly to the chaste +Cassiopeia. + +Since she had known him, Mara felt that his proximity was by no means +lacking in danger; but being what she was, it piqued her to play with +fire. + +"I don't like people that think themselves better than others," she said. + +"Being a Pharisee, I do," Frederick drily rejoined, and went on cruelly: +"I think for your years you are extremely forward and cock-sure. Your +dance pleases me better than your conversation." He felt much like a man +berating his sister. + +Mara silently studied him for a moment, a suggestive smile on her lips. + +"According to your notions," she finally said, "a girl mustn't speak +unless she's spoken to, and she mustn't have any opinions of her own. You +look as if the only sort of girl you could love would be one that was +always saying, 'I am a poor, ignorant thing. I don't understand what he +sees in me.' I hate such nincompoops!" + +Conversation came to a halt. Frederick half rose to leave, but she +restrained him with a self-willed, pouting, "No." There was something +childlike and honest in that pouting "no" which touched his soul and drew +him down on the stool again. + +"In Berlin, while I danced, I always had to look at you," she continued, +holding her doll against her lips so that her little nose was a bit +flattened. "The very first time I saw you, I felt something like a bond +between us; I knew we should meet again." + +Frederick started, though not for an instant deceived, knowing this must +be an oft-used formula for establishing a relationship, and in essence a +lie. + +"Are you married?" he heard before he had fully recovered his balance. He +turned pale. His answer was hard and repellent. + +"It would be well, Miss Hahlström, if you were to examine me more closely +before you treat me as one among many. So far, I don't believe in the +bond that unites us. During your dance you looked not only at me, but at +everybody else." He spoke with increasing coldness. "At any rate, it +doesn't in the least concern you whether I am, or am not, married--just +as little as it concerns me what repulsive personages, whom nothing but a +depraved instinct can enjoy, you keep company with." He meant Achleitner. + +Ingigerd gave a short laugh. "Do you take me for Joan of Arc?" + +"Not exactly that," rejoined Frederick, "but if you would allow me, I +should like to regard you as still a girl, a distinguished little lady, +whose reputation cannot be too carefully guarded against the faintest +blemish." + +"Reputation!" sneered the girl. "You are very much mistaken if you think +I ever cared for anything of the sort. I'd rather be disreputable ten +times over and live as I please, than have a good reputation and die of +boredom. I must enjoy my life, Doctor von Kammacher." + +Frederick's teeth clenched. Outwardly composed, he was suffering the +pangs of torture. + +Ingigerd proceeded to reveal her life in a series of confidences of such +shocking content as to be worthy of a Laïs or a Phryne. Doctor von +Kammacher, she said, might be sorry for her if he wanted to, but nobody +was to make a mistake about her. Everybody associating with her was to +know exactly who she was. In this she betrayed a certain dread, as one +who would absolutely guard others as well as herself against the +catastrophe of disillusionment. + +When the sun had set, and Ingigerd, still with that suggestive, sensual, +evil smile on her lips, had finished her hideous confession, Frederick +found himself confronting the knowledge of a childhood so outrageous as +to be worse than anything he had met with in all his experience as a +physician. + +Several times in the course of her narrative, Achleitner and her father +had come to take her inside, but she had angrily driven them away. It was +Frederick who finally helped her back to her cabin. + +In his own cabin, without even removing his overcoat, he threw himself on +his berth to think over the inconceivable story. He sighed, he gnashed +his teeth, he wanted to doubt it. Several times he said aloud, "No!" or +"Impossible!" and beat his fists against the mattress of the berth above. +He could have sworn an oath that this time there had not been a single +lie in Mara's whole shameless narrative. "Mara, or the Spider's Victim." +Now, of a sudden, he understood her dance! She had danced the thing she +had lived in her own life! + + + + +XIV + + +"I have set my all on nothing." + +To the accompaniment of this refrain beating in his soul Frederick +maintained an outer show of hilarity. He and the ship's doctor were +drinking champagne. He had ordered the first bottle with the soup and +had immediately drunk several glasses. + +The more he drank the less he felt the smart of a certain burning wound, +and the more wonderful the world appeared, full of miracles and riddles, +surrounding and penetrating him with the intoxication of an adventurer's +life. He was a brilliant entertainer, with an easy, happy way in +conversation of popularising his rich store of knowledge, and with a +light humour, which stood at his command even when, as now, grim humour +crawled in the depths of his being, like evil reptiles. Thus it was that +the captain's corner that evening fell under his spell, both of his +jocular self and serious self. + +Though he had lost his belief that science and modern progress alone +possess the power to convey happiness, he extolled their virtues. As a +matter of fact, in the festive gleam of the countless electric lights, +excited by the wine, the music, and the rhythmic pulse beat of the moving +vessel, it seemed to him at times as if humanity in a festal procession +with music playing were sailing to the Isles of the Blessed. Perhaps, he +said, science may some day teach man the secret of immortality. Ways and +means would be found to keep the cells of the body young. Dead animals +had been brought back to life by pumping a salt solution into them. He +spoke of the wonders of surgery, always the theme of conversation when a +man of the present, over his champagne and pâté de foie gras, triumphs in +the superiority of his age over all other ages. In a short while, he +declared, chemistry would solve the social question, and man would forget +what it is to worry about food. Why, chemistry was on the verge of +discovering how to make bread of stones, a thing that hitherto only +plants could do. Frederick continued in a similar strain, speaking +by rote, and scarcely looking up, yet fascinating his listeners. + +But in the midst of the whirl of self-intoxication, he thought with a +shudder of bedtime, knowing he should not close his eyes the whole night. +And what recompense was the brightest height of the clearest day for the +hell of a single sleepless night, such as he had often spent within the +last years. + +After dinner, he went with Doctor Wilhelm to the ladies' parlour, from +there to the smoking-room. Soon after, he went on deck, where it was dark +and gloomy and the wind was again whining dismally through the rigging of +the four masts. It was bitter cold, and snowflakes, it seemed to him, +swept his cheeks. Finally, there was nothing for him to do but go to bed. + +For two hours, between eleven and one, he lay writhing in his berth, +sometimes for a short while falling into a troubled state between waking +and sleeping. In both states he saw visions, now a wild dance of faces, +now a single stark face, which tormented him and would not budge. Yet an +irresistible impulse gathered in him to keep his mental eye open for the +devilish play of supernatural powers. + +He had turned out the electric lights, and in the dark, when the eye +is unoccupied, one is doubly sensitive to the messages of hearing and +feeling. He caught every sound, felt every movement, of the mighty ship, +steadily pursuing its course through the midnight. He heard the churning +of the propeller, like the labouring of a great demon condemned to slave +for mankind. He heard shouts and calls and the walking of men when the +coal-passers threw overboard the cinders from the huge boiler furnaces. +On the trip to New York those furnaces consumed over a thousand tons of +coal, and the casting away of the slag and ashes was left for the +nighttime. Thus, to the relief of the man wrestling with sleep, his +attention was drawn to the present and the things taking place in the +ship's body. + +Yet, when there was no sound or movement to distract him, his imagination +succumbed to torturing thoughts of Mara and sometimes of his wife, with +whose sufferings he occasionally used to reproach himself. Now that +Ingigerd Hahlström had dishonoured his love for her, his conscience smote +him all the more. His whole mentality seemed to have entered a state of +reaction against the poison of his passion. A high fever raged in his +veins. The thing that in this condition represented his "I" was engaged +in a wild chase after the "you" of Mara. He picked her up in the streets +of Prague and dragged her back to her mother. He discovered her in houses +of ill repute. He saw her standing before the home of a man who had taken +her with him out of pity and then had turned her away in scorn, and she +stood for hours weeping outside his window. Frederick had by no means +fully sloughed the skin of the conventional German youth. The old +hackneyed ideal of virginity was in his eyes still surrounded by a sacred +aureole; but no matter how often he discovered Mara in evil things, no +matter how often he rejected her in his imagination, or tried with all +the moral strength of his being to destroy her image in his mind, her +face in its golden setting, her frail, white girlish body pierced through +each curtain, each wall, each thought with which he strove to conceal the +evil spirit that would not be exorcised either by prayers or curses. + +Shortly after one o'clock, Frederick was tossed out of his berth. This +time it was not one of those dream-like visions that had roused him with +a start from a doze. The next instant he was thrown against the frame of +the berth. It was evident that the weather had grown worse and the +_Roland_ was travelling in heavier waters of the Atlantic. + + + + +XV + + +A few minutes after five o'clock Frederick was already on deck. He seated +himself on the same bench as yesterday, opposite the companionway leading +down to the dining-room. His steward, a sympathetic, indefatigable young +man from the province of Magdeburg, brought him tea and toast. It was a +boon to Frederick. + +Every few minutes the water dashed over the railing and washed the deck. +From the penthouse over the door of the companionway, streams would +suddenly come raining down, completely drenching Max Pander's little +mate, who was now standing on guard. The masts and rigging were decorated +with icicles, and rain and snow were falling alternately. It seemed as if +the dreary grey dawn, with its uproar, with the whining, whistling, and +howling of the furious wind in the masts and rigging, with the swishing +and seething of the waters, wanted to prolong its existence infinitely, +while the day refused to enter. + +Warming his hands on his big tea-cup, he looked out over the ship's side, +which every now and then seemed to sink perpendicularly. His eyes glowed. +He felt as if they had sunk deep into their sockets. After the hardships +of the last few days, especially the past night, it was natural that he +should feel bruised, bodily and spiritually. He had a sense of vacancy +and dull-mindedness, a welcome feeling, to be sure, compared with his +sensations of the night, when the procession of images passed through his +brain. Nevertheless, the strong, moist, tonic wind, the taste of salt on +his lips refreshed him. He shivered a little, and sat with his head sunk +in the upturned collar of his overcoat. Presently he began to feel +pleasantly drowsy. + +But he did not fail to perceive the full majesty in the turmoil of the +waves and the struggle of the floating palace. There was beauty and +strength in the steamer's fixed course, in the way it clove the rolling +crests of the bottle-green waves, steady, tranquil, fearless. He admired +the _Roland_, praised it, and was grateful to it as to a living being. + +Next after him to appear on deck were three children, two girls and a +boy, of from five to eleven. One of the helpful stewards fastened their +chairs and most solicitously guided them to their seats, one at a time. +Children are spoiled on steamers. There they sat, rocked to and fro, +fearlessly looking out upon the solemn, awful rolling of the long waves, +upon the horror of the tempest. + +Shortly after seven o'clock, a slim man wearing the ship's uniform slowly +approached Frederick. Frederick had noticed him the day before and been +interested by his air of cool impassibility. He was smoking a cigarette +and inhaling, as when Frederick had first seen him. Wearing an expression +of profound apathy, he seemed to be completely absorbed in this +occupation of smoking and inhaling. As if casually, he drew near +Frederick's bench, touched his cap, and said: + +"Doctor von Kammacher?" + +"Yes." + +"Here is a letter for you," he said, drawing it from his waistcoat +pocket. "It came by the French pilot-boat yesterday. The reason I did not +deliver it is, that I could not find your name on the passenger list. My +name is Rinck. I am in charge of the mail on board." + +Frederick thanked him. He was moved to see his father's handwriting. +Rather for the sake of being friendly than from genuine interest at that +moment, he asked Mr. Rinck what prospect there was of better weather. The +sole answer was an unintelligible English word, a shrug of the shoulders, +and a puff of cigarette smoke blown with gusto. + +Frederick put the letter in his breast pocket, and he felt his heart +beneath beat more warmly, less turbulently. He had to close his eyes to +prevent a hot gush of tears. Doctor Wilhelm found him in this soft mood, +and it occurred to him that perhaps after all Frederick had been +tragically affected by the bitter close of his professional career. + +"I slept like a bear," he said. And it was evident from the healthy +colour of his face and his comfortable way of stretching and yawning that +his night's sleep had thoroughly refreshed him. "But the weather is +fiendish," he added, seating himself close beside Frederick. + +"Congratulate you," said Frederick. "I didn't sleep a wink." + +"Take some veronal. But whatever you do, come down now to breakfast with +me. The best thing for you is to keep moving. So I advise you, after +breakfast to come with me on my visit to the steerage. It will take your +mind off things and may interest you. There are interesting types there, +women, too. But before we go, we must make ourselves insect-proof. We'll +puff powder on our clothes in my room." + + + + +XVI + + +The gentlemen had breakfasted--baked potatoes and cutlets, ham and eggs, +broiled flounder and other fish, beside tea and coffee--and were entering +the steerage. + +Here, to keep from falling, they had to hold fast to the iron posts +supporting the ceiling. After their eyes had grown accustomed to the +twilight always reigning in the steerage, they saw a swarm of human +beings rolling on the floor, groaning, whimpering, wailing, shrieking. +The weather did not permit of the opening of the port-holes, and the +exhalations of about twenty Russian-Jewish families, with bag and baggage +and babies, polluted the air to such an extent, that Frederick could +scarcely breathe. Mothers lying on their backs with open mouths and +closed eyes, more dead than alive, had infants at their breasts; and it +was fearful to see how the retching convulsed them. + +"Come," said Doctor Wilhelm, observing something like a tendency to faint +in Frederick's face. "Come, let us show how superfluous we are." + +But Doctor Wilhelm and the Red Cross nurse, who accompanied him, had a +chance, here and there, to do some good. He ordered grapes and a tonic +for those who were suffering most. These things were obtained from the +store-rooms of the first and second cabin. + +With great difficulty they made their way from section to section. +Everywhere the same misery, the same flight from want and infuriated +persecution. Even the pale faces of those who were able to keep on their +feet and had found a place to stand in that swaying shelf of misery, were +marked by a hopeless, brooding expression of anguish and bitterness. + +Among the hundreds of immigrants, there were some pretty girlish faces. +To a few the fever produced by the unusual circumstances had imparted a +bold, passionate charm. The glances of the physicians and these girls +met. Such circumstances overstimulate the feelings and make them highly +susceptible. Great stress, great danger cause the life of the moment to +flare up more alluringly and also create a sense of profound equality +among human beings. In the very midst of fear and tension, a boldness +develops ready at any moment to make a leap. + +Doctor Wilhelm pointed out to Frederick a Russian-Jewish girl of about +seventeen. The expression of her face was sombre. Her features were most +delicately chiselled, and she was as transparent as an image of wax. +Doctor Wilhelm, observing the defiant air with which she glowered at +Frederick, remarked that he must have conquered at first sight. + +On passing farther, Frederick heard a voice bawl his name. It was Wilke, +but a very different Wilke from the one he had met on deck the morning +before. He was cursing and scolding at everybody and everything, while +trying to raise himself from his mattress; a feat rather difficult for +him to accomplish, because, in the first place, the rolling of the vessel +in the steerage was fearful, and in the second place, he had evidently +been trying to counteract the wretchedness of his condition by the +imbibing of whisky. Doctor Wilhelm gave him a sharp berating. Wilke, +very clearly, was a nuisance, perhaps even a danger, to everybody about +him. In his intoxication he fancied he was being pursued. The rags from +his open bundle lay spread on his mattress mixed with cheese and +bread-crumbs, and in his right hand he held open a large pocket-knife. + +Doctor Wilhelm had not been aware that he was dealing with a particular +acquaintance of Frederick's. His admonitions were of no effect. Wilke +shouted that his neighbours had robbed him, and so had the stewards, and +the sailors and the captain. Frederick took his knife away from him, +spoke to him in a military tone, and unceremoniously touched a scar on +the rough fellow's hairy neck to recall to him the fact that he had +already sewed one knife wound, from which he had barely escaped with his +life. That worked, and Wilke seemed to be repentant. Frederick gave him +some money, but not for whisky, as he told him, and added he would try +his best for him, but only if he heard that he had been behaving like +a decent human being. + + + + +XVII + + +The physicians ascended on deck again. On breathing in the ocean's pure +breath after the foul odours of the steerage, Frederick felt as if he had +escaped from a hideous, suffocating hell. + +With difficulty they made their way across the wet, empty deck, ever and +again washed by waves sweeping overboard. To keep their footing they had +to cling to the railing. Not a soul was on deck. The ship, restlessly +rolling and pounding, seemed to have been left to fight its fight alone. +But this was an awful scene that relieved and refreshed Frederick. + +He went to the ladies' parlour, there to read the letter from home, +which he had nearly forgotten. A few women, who were not seasick, were +scattered through the room, lolling in their chairs in a state of limp +exhaustion. The saloon smelled of plush and varnish. It was decorated +with a number of mirrors in gold frames, there was a grand piano, and the +sound of footsteps was muffled by the soft carpet covering the floor. The +prevailing colour was blue. + +Frederick made himself comfortable in one of the blue arm-chairs, and +opened the envelope. He found a letter from his mother also. But he was +more anxious to learn his father's feelings and opinion of the step he +had taken, and he read his letter first. + + * * * * * + +Dear Frederick, + +I do not know whether this letter will find you, or where it will find +you. Perhaps not until you reach New York, where it may arrive later than +you. I should really like you to have your old father's and mother's +greetings on your trip, which is something of a surprise to us. But we +are used to surprises from you, since we have not had your unreserved +confidence for a long time. I am a fatalist, and far from wishing to bore +you with reproaches; but it is a pity that ever since you have been of +age, so many differences have arisen in our ways of thinking and acting. +A great pity, God knows. If only you had sometimes listened to me--but, +as I said, there's no use to come limping after with "if only's" and the +like. + +My dear boy, now that fate has afflicted you so sorely--I told you from +the very first that Angèle comes of a diseased family--at least hold +your head up. If you do, then nothing's lost. And I especially beseech +you--don't take that nonsense of your failure with bacilli too much to +heart. You know, I've already told you I think all the noise they make +about bacilli is a hoax. Why, Pettenkofer himself swallowed the whole +culture of a typhus bacillus without its hurting him. + +For all I care, go to America. It may not be a bad idea and need not be +a failure, I know persons whose lives were wrecked here and who went to +America and returned millionaires, to be envied and fawned upon. I don't +doubt that after all you have gone through, you have carefully weighed +and considered the step you are taking. Dear Frederick, I beg of you, +concentrate. The man who wants too much wants nothing. Above all, get rid +of your philanthropic notions. You would never believe me when I told you +that you uselessly sacrificed your money, your time, and your career to +your philanthropic notions. And don't take up with Utopias, such as, for +example, Socialism is, even at best. Bismarck is gone. The exceptional +law against the Socialists has been repealed. Now we'll be seeing wonders +from that pack of red internationals without a country. Did you read that +some Anarchist dogs have again been throwing bombs--in Paris in a café +not far from the Gare St. Lazare, right among a lot of innocent people, +and seven or eight were killed. My dear boy, you were in Paris. For God's +sake, in the discontented mood you are in, don't throw yourself in with +such desperate elements. + +Forgive me. It was a slip of my pen. But here in Görlitz, far from the +firing line, even a rational man, when he is troubled, begins to imagine +things. With your talents you might have been an officer on a general's +staff long ago. + +God be with you. Write to us. I am convinced that with your great +talents, you will strike root over there and make your fortune. Be on +your guard against art and against side interests, from which a man +cannot make a living. Do you know that the Grand Duke has made Botho his +adjutant? It looks as if the boy might rise pretty high. + +Have a good trip and sometimes think of your devoted father. + + * * * * * + +With a sigh and a short, almost inaudible laugh of great compassion and +great bitterness, Frederick folded up the letter. + +"'I don't know whether this letter will find you, or where it will find +you,'" he repeated, and added mentally, "or how it will find you." + +Then he sat still for a while, staring into space. + +After a time he became observant of the American jackanapes, who had +annoyed him in the smoking-room the day before. He was flirting with a +young lady apathetically lounging in an easy-chair, a Canadian, Frederick +had been told. He did not trust his eyes when he saw the American, who +had been toying with a small box of matches, pile them up carelessly, and +set fire to them in that inflammable room. A steward came up and modestly +explained that it was his duty to ask him to refrain from what he was +doing. At which the jackanapes dismissed him with "Get out of here, you +idiot." + +Frederick drew out his mother's letter, but before reading it, he had +to meditate briefly upon the matter that took the place of brains in the +young American's skull. + + * * * * * + +My Dear Son, + +Your mother's prayers accompany you. You have gone through a great deal +and suffered very much for one of your years. To let you hear something +pleasant at the very start, I will tell you of the children. They are +very well. This week I convinced myself with my own eyes that they have +a good home with Pastor Mohaupt. Albrecht is splendid. Bernhard, you +know, is more like his mother and always has been a quiet child. But he +seemed more alert and more talkative. The life in the pastor's house and +on the farm seems to please him. Pastor Mohaupt thinks both boys are by +no means untalented. He has already begun to give them lessons in Latin. +Little Annemarie asked me very timidly about her mother, but especially +about you. She spoke of you often. I told the children there was a +medical congress in New York or Washington, where they would at last make +an end of that dreadful disease, consumption. My dear child, do come back +soon to this dear old Europe. + +I had a long talk with Doctor Binswanger. He told me your wife's trouble +is hereditary. It was in her all the time and would certainly have +cropped out, sooner or later. He spoke of your work, too, dear child, and +thought you ought not allow yourself to be crushed. Four or five years of +hard work, he said, would make up for your set-back. + +Dear Dietrich, listen to your old mother and put your trust in our loving +Father in heaven. I think you are an atheist. Just laugh at your old +mother. But believe me, we are nothing without God's help and mercy. Pray +sometimes. It won't do any harm. I know how you reproach yourself on +Angèle's account. Binswanger says you may have a perfectly easy +conscience. And if you pray, believe me, God will remove every thought of +guilt from your harassed soul. You are only thirty. I am seventy. From +the experience of the forty years more that I have, I tell you, your life +can still turn out so that some day you will scarcely have a recollection +of all you are now suffering. You will remember the facts; but you will +try in vain to recall the feelings of anguish with which they are now +connected in your mind. I am a woman. I was fond of Angèle. And yet I +could observe you two together perfectly objectively. Believe me, there +were times when she would have driven any man desperate. + + * * * * * + +The end of the letter was all motherly tenderness. Frederick saw himself +at his mother's sewing-table by the window, and in his thoughts kissed +her hair, her forehead, her hands. + +When he looked up, he heard the steward remonstrating with the American +and heard the American say in good German: + +"The captain's a donkey." + +The word had the effect of an electric shock. The next instant another +pile of matches sent up a wavering flare in the gloomy, terrifying +twilight. + +Frederick mentally cut out the young man's cerebrum and cerebellum for an +anatomical examination, proceeding strictly according to the rules of +dissection, as he had so frequently done in actuality. He hunted for the +centre of stupidity, which undoubtedly composed the American's whole +soul, though his impudence, which he possessed in a rare degree, may also +have had its seat in the brain. Frederick had to laugh. In his amusement +he realised that little Ingigerd Hahlström no longer had any power over +him, less, perhaps than, for example, the dark Jewess from Odessa, whom +he had seen for the first time only a quarter of an hour before. + +Captain von Kessel entered. He greeted Frederick with a slight nod of +his head and seated himself at a table beside a lady, with whom he was +acquainted, apparently. The American coxcomb and the pretty Canadian +exchanged glances. She was languishing in her easy-chair, pale but +coquettish. Frederick set her down as a woman of unusual southern +beauty--straight nose, quivering nostrils, heavy, nobly arched eyebrows, +black as her hair and the shadowy down over her fine, expressive, +twitching lips. Her gestures had the weary grace of a Spaniard. She was +laughing, and her long, slim form stretched on the chair shook. Her +admirer, with a comic expression of seriousness, was again building a +little pile of matches. In her weak condition she was unable to resist +the impulse to laugh, and every now and then hid her face behind a black +lace shawl. + +It was an exciting moment when the American, in defiance of the Captain's +presence, again made ready for his dangerous play. + +Von Kessel, broad and ponderous and somewhat too short-legged, seemed out +of proportion in the dainty parlour. He was speaking quietly with his +lady. From the expression of his face it was evident that the weather was +giving him cause to be serious. Suddenly the matches flared up. Now the +captain's calm St. Bernard head turned slightly, and a voice said in a +tone not to be misunderstood: + +"Put that fire out!" + +Frederick had never heard an order from a man's lips so incisive, so +truly commanding, so fearful. The American turned pale and in the +twinkling of an eye smothered the flame. The beautiful Canadian closed +her eyes. But the captain, as if nothing had occurred, continued to +converse with his lady. + + + + +XVIII + + +Soon after, Frederick was in the barbershop getting a shave. + +"Wretched weather," observed the barber, wielding the razor with a sure +hand, despite the dreadful tossing of the vessel. He seemed to be an +intelligent man. Frederick had to listen to a second account of the +_Nordmania_, of how the waterspout had plunged through the ladies' +parlour and carried the piano down into the hold. + +An ordinary German servant-girl of the peasant class entered. She looked +healthy to the core and none too intelligent. The barber called her Rosa +and gave her a bottle of eau de Cologne. + +"That's the fifth bottle of eau de Cologne that I've given her for her +mistress since we left Cuxhaven," the barber explained after she had +left. "Her mistress is a divorced woman with two children. Her name is +Mrs. Liebling. She is very nervous. Rosa hasn't a very easy time of it. +For five dollars a month she has to be at Mrs. Liebling's beck and call +morning, noon and night. She takes entire charge of the children. Soon +after we left Cuxhaven, Mrs. Liebling came to have her hair dressed. You +should have heard how she went on about that girl. The things she said +against her. Not a spark of gratitude. She said the stupid, lazy thing +wasn't worth the price of her second-class cabin." + +Several times Frederick had heard the sound of quarrelling mingled with +children's crying in the cabin opposite his. Once he had even distinctly +caught the slapping sound of what must have been a box over somebody's +ear. + +"Does she hit Rosa?" he asked the barber. + +"Yes." + +Clearly, then, it was his neighbour of the opposite cabin in whose +service the girl was. + +Frederick enjoyed listening to the lively barber retail gossip, while +he lay stretched out in his patented chair. It diverted his mind from +troublesome thoughts. The barber, who had been sailing the seas for many +years, was by no means of the ordinary type of his class. He delivered a +short discourse on modern shipbuilding, the moral of which was, not to +construct light steamers for speed. + +"Altogether," he observed, "it's a pity to lay so much stress on +record-making. How is a great big body with walls like a wafer to resist +heavy seas for any length of time? And see what tremendous engines it +has to carry and what an enormous amount of coal it consumes. But the +_Roland's_ a good boat. It was built in Glasgow in the yards of John +Elder and Company. It has been running since June, 1881. The engines are +compound steam-engines with three cylinders and 5800 horse power. They +require one hundred and fifteen tons of coal every day. The boat makes +sixteen knots an hour, and has a tonnage of 4510. There are one hundred +and sixty-eight men in the crew." + +The barber had all these details at his fingers' ends. In a tone of +annoyance, as if the thing caused him personally a lot of trouble, he +told that the _Roland_ on each trip to or from New York dragged one +thousand and three hundred tons of anthracite coal in its coal-bunkers. +A slow trip, he insisted, was safe and comfortable, while a quick trip +was dangerous and expensive. + +The little saloon with its electric lighting would have been a very +comfortable place to be in, had it only stood at rest. But unfortunately +its walls were quivering to the pulse of the engines and the floor was +rising and sagging to the swell and fall of the waves, which every now +and then leapt against the port-hole with tiger-like fury. The flasks in +the closets rattled. + +"A heavier ship," said the barber, "built to go more slowly, wouldn't be +pitching like this." + +Next he spoke of a little person, who dyed her hair, a dancer. She had +spent more than an hour in his chair, having him show her rouge and face +powders, until finally he had displayed his entire stock of Pinaud and +Roger et Gallet. The barber chuckled. + +"On sea trips," he said, "a man has a chance of getting to know the +queerest women." And he proceeded to recount a number of incidents, +which, on his own word, he himself had witnessed. The heroine in each +case was an erotomanic woman. + +"Just ask our doctor," he said. He was of the old-fashioned sort of +barber-surgeon, and in the capacity of surgeon had gathered the most +scandalous portion of his experiences. "One of the worst cases," he went +on, "was that of an American girl, who was found lying unconscious in one +of the life-boats swinging from the davits. She was hideously abused by +all the crew, one at a time, but they fixed it so that the whole blame +could be laid on her." + +Frederick knew that none other than Ingigerd Hahlström was responsible +for the direction the barber's thoughts had taken. She had been sitting +in the very chair in which he was now reclining. A current streamed from +its upholstery into his body. His heart began to beat irregularly, +ceasing for an instant, then leaping wildly. To his horror, he observed +that Mara's power over him was not yet broken. + +He jumped up and shook himself. He felt as if he must plunge into a hot +and cold bath and let stinging douches run down his spine to wash him +outwardly and inwardly clean and expel that foul poison from his blood. + + + + +XIX + + +The barbershop lay aft, and nearby one could look through glass panes +upon the working of the cylinders and pistons. Frederick toilsomely +clambered up to the promenade deck and crept into the overcrowded +smoking-room. Though it disgusted him to be wedged into a small space +with a lot of noisy men, he had come here in the desire to escape the +wild orgy of his thoughts. Doctor Wilhelm had kept a place for him. + +"The doctor tells me you were in the steerage, and a beautiful Deborah +made a dangerous impression upon you," the captain said, smiling +roguishly. + +Frederick laughed. He ordered beer, and the conversation was jolly from +the start. + +In their corner the skat players were sitting over their cards. They were +business men, all of apoplectic constitution. They had been drinking beer +and playing skat ever since breakfast, in fact, except when they slept, +ever since boarding the steamer. The conversation in the room was of no +interest to them. Even the weather failed to elicit any questions from +them. They seemed to be insensible to the tossing of the great vessel, +or the dismal howling of the wind. The force of the roll was so +tremendous that Frederick involuntarily clutched at the thing nearest +to him. Up went the port side, down went the starboard. Up went the +starboard, down went the port side. Sometimes Frederick felt as if +port and starboard might plunge one over the other; in which case the +_Roland's_ keel would float above water, while the bridge, masts, and +smoke-stacks would be submerged at a distance below the surface. And in +that case all would be lost; but those skat players, it seemed to him, +would go on playing undisturbed. + +Hahlström's tall figure came creeping with bent head into the tobacco +smoke. His clear, cold, critical eyes roved about looking for a seat. He +paid no attention to the armless man, who jestingly shouted an ironic +remark to him. With cool politeness he seated himself at the greatest +possible distance from Stoss, drew a pouch of tobacco from his pocket, +and filled a short Dutch pipe. Frederick's immediate thought was, "Where +is Achleitner?" + +"How is your daughter feeling?" Doctor Wilhelm asked. + +"Oh, she's just a little upset now. The weather will be getting better, +I suppose." + +The whole company, which, of course consisted of the men either by nature +or from frequent exposure proof against seasickness, now entered into the +usual discussion of the weather. + +"Is it true, Captain," somebody asked, "that last night we nearly +collided with a derelict?" + +The captain smiled, raised his brows, and made no reply. + +"Where are we now, Captain? Was there fog last night? I saw some snow +fall. And for at least an hour I heard the siren blow every two minutes." + +But Captain von Kessel remained highly monosyllabic in everything +pertaining to the management of the vessel and the prospects for a good +or bad crossing. + +"Is it true that there is gold bullion on board for the treasury in +Washington?" + +Von Kessel smiled and sent a thin wreath of cigarette smoke curling +through his moustache. + +"That would be carrying coals to Newcastle," remarked Wilhelm. + +And now the great theme, the theme of themes, became the general topic +of conversation. Each of the travellers, of course, straightway had a +picture of his own fortune in mind, every cent of it, or else tried to +make an accurate mental calculation. They all turned into calculating +machines, while aloud comparing the capitals of the great American +banking firms, the Bank of England, the Crédit Lyonnais and the wealth of +all the American millionaires. Even the skat players gave their attention +for a few moments at a time. + +America was then suffering from a business depression, a crisis, as the +political economists dub it. The causes of the depression came up for +discussion. Most of the Americans present happened to be Democrats, and +they threw the blame on the Republicans. The Tammany Tiger was the +subject of especial execration. It not only controlled New York City, the +mayor of which was a creature of Tammany, but had also put its men into +the most influential positions throughout the land. And every Tammany man +knew how to shear his sheep. As a result, the American people were +thoroughly bled. The corruption in the highest offices was said to be on +a tremendous scale. Millions of dollars were appropriated to the navy, +but if a man-of-war actually happened to be built, the thing was a great +achievement, since the money, long before it was applied to its proper +purpose, sifted down into the pockets of peaceful Americans, whose +interest in the navy was of the slightest. + +"I shouldn't care to be buried in America," cried Stoss, in his sharp +voice. "It would be too dreary and boresome for me in my grave. I hate +their spitting and their ice-water." The burst of laughter that greeted +his remark encouraged him to further sallies. "Americans are parrots, +incessantly chattering two words, dollar and business, dollar and +business, dollar and business. Those two words have been death to culture +in America. An American doesn't even know what it is to have the +Englishman's spleen. Think of the fearfulness of living in a country +called the land of dollars. We have human beings living in Europe. The +Americans regard everything, even their fellow-men, from the point of +view of the number of dollars they represent. If a thing can't be +reckoned in dollars, they have no eyes for it. And then Carnegie and +Company come and want to astonish us with their disgusting shopkeeper's +philosophy. Do you think they're helping the world on by slicing off some +of the world's dollars and then returning some of the sliced off dollars +with a great flourish of trumpets? Do you think that if they do us the +favour to give us some of their money, we'll throw overboard our Mozart +and Beethoven, our Kant and Schopenhauer, our Schiller and Goethe, our +Rembrandts, Leonardos, Michael Angelos, in short, all our wealth of art +and intellect? What is a miserable cur of an American millionaire, a +dollar maniac, as compared with all those great men? Let him come and ask +us for alms." + + + + +XX + + +The captain invited Frederick to his cabin and asked him to write a +few words in his album. On the way, he showed him the chart-room and +the wheel-house, where a sailor was turning the great wheel at the +directions of the first mate, whose voice came from the bridge through +a speaking-tube. Frederick read the compass in front of the wheel and saw +that the _Roland_ lay west-southwest. The captain was in hopes of +striking better weather by taking a more southerly route. The helmsman +did not allow his attention to be diverted for the fraction of a second. +He kept his bronzed, weather-beaten face with its corn-coloured beard +turned unwaveringly toward the compass, and his sea-blue eyes fastened +upon the west-southwest line. And the face of the compass, in its round +copper case, notwithstanding the vessel's elephantine leaps and bounds, +never deviated from the horizontal. + +When they reached his cabin, the handsome blond German, whose eyes came +of the same stock as the mariner's at the wheel, became more expansive. +He insisted on Frederick's taking a comfortable seat and offered him a +cigar. He spoke of his own life. Frederick learned that he was unmarried, +had two unmarried sisters and a brother with a wife and children. The +pictures of his sisters, his brother, his brother's wife, his brother's +children, and his parents were hung symmetrically on the wall over a red +plush sofa. They were sacred objects. + +Frederick did not fail to ask his stereotyped question: + +"Do you follow your calling because you have a decided preference for +it?" + +"Tell me of a position on land where I could command the same salary, and +I'd exchange without an instant's hesitation. Seafaring begins to lose +its charms when a man gets on in years." + +The captain's guttural voice was extremely agreeable. It suggested to +Frederick the sound of colliding billiard balls. His enunciation was +perfect, absolutely free of a dialectic tinge. + +"My brother has a wife and children," he said. Though there was, of +course, not the slightest trace of sentimentality in his tone, it was +evident from the gleam in his eyes how he idolised his nieces and +nephews. He pointed out each one's picture and at the end said frankly, +"My brother is an enviable man." Then he asked Frederick whether he was +the son of General von Kammacher. He had taken part in the campaign of +1870 and 1871 as lieutenant of the regiment of artillery of which +Frederick's father had been chief. He spoke of him with great admiration +and reverence. + +Frederick remained in the captain's cabin over half an hour. His presence +seemed to give the skipper special pleasure. It was astonishing what a +gentle, tender soul was hidden beneath the commanding exterior. Before +disclosing a bit of that soul, he always puffed harder at his cigar and +gave Frederick a long, searching look. By degrees Frederick discovered +what magnet was tugging strongly at the blond giant's heart. He kept +recurring alternately to the Black Forest and the Thüringian Forest, and +Frederick had a mental picture of the magnificent man clipping his privet +hedge in front of his cosey cottage, or walking among his rose bushes +with a pruning knife in his hand. He could detect that the captain would +far rather be living secluded in a sea of green leaves and green pine +needles; and he felt convinced that it would have been delicious to him +to submerge himself forever in the soft rushing of endless forests and +dispense forever with the rushing and roaring of all the oceans in the +world. + +"Perhaps the night of all days has not yet come," said the captain, with +a humorous expression. He rose and placed the large album in front of +Frederick. "Now I am going to lock you in here with this pen and this +ink, and when I return, I want to find something clever on this page." + +Frederick von Kammacher turned the leaves of the mariner's album. It was +unmistakable that the hope for a vegetable garden, gooseberry bushes, the +chirping of birds, and the buzzing of bees was most intimately connected +with this book. Under the pressure of dreariness and the grave +responsibility for many a sea trip, it must expand the captain's soul to +look over it, Frederick thought. It seemed to point to a time when, in +the peace and security of his simple home, it would serve its turn by +testifying to all the dangers its possessor had gone through, all his +past struggles and hardships. In a sheltered haven it would afford +pleasant retrospect, full of content. + +Frederick's own quietistic ideal in the form of a farm and a solitary log +hut occurred to him. But he was not living in it alone. The little devil +Mara was sharing it with him. In embitterment he mentally climbed to +still lonelier regions, and saw himself a hermit, who prayed, drank +nothing but water, and lived on roots, nuts, and sometimes a fish of his +own catching. + +When the captain returned and he and Frederick had taken leave of each +other, this is what he found in his book: + + Borne aloft on wave and ocean, + Of thy master's course partaking, + Some day thou wilt cease thy motion, + Of thy master's rest partaking. + In the garden of his stillness, + To his manly deeds inspiring, + Thou wilt faithfully bear witness. + Thou art language well becoming + Him who daily danger faces, + Gratitude of souls proclaiming, + Whom he bore through cosmic spaces. + +The signature was + +"Frederick von Kammacher, Globetrotter." + + + + +XXI + + +Frederick, holding on to his hat with one hand and clinging to the +railing with the other, descended from the windy heights of the captain's +cabin to the promenade deck. When he passed the cabin of the first mate, +the door opened, and Von Halm appeared in conversation with Achleitner. +Achleitner was pale, and there was an anxious look in his face. + +"I have rented the lieutenant's cabin for Miss Hahlström. I could not +bear to see her suffering so in her own cabin," he called to Frederick. + +The gale had increased. Not a passenger was to be seen on deck. Sailors +were inspecting the life-boats. Huge masses of water seethed against the +ship's side, cutting into its course obliquely. The waves made a mad leap +into the air, hung there for an instant in the form of white corals, and +fell like a thousand lashes on the deck, which was all awash. The breath +of the gale tore the smoke backward from the mouths of the smoke-stacks +and scattered it in the wild chaos in which heaven and sea were mingled. +Frederick glanced down at the fore-deck. In his burning brain arose a +thought of the Jewess and then of the scoundrel, Wilke. But the fore-deck +was so swept by the seas that nobody could keep his footing there, except +the lookout men, who were holding watch at the beak of the vessel, not +far from the cat-head. + +Between the door leading to the main companionway and the companionway +itself was a square level space, about which a railing ran and in which +a few people could stay and enjoy the fresh air without being drenched. +When Frederick, on his way below deck, passed through the open door, he +found a quiet assemblage of pale-faced passengers. One chair was still +unoccupied. He seated himself in it, with the fanciful notion that he was +joining a gathering of condemned men. + +"That poor sinner there must be Professor Toussaint, the famous sculptor +in need," Frederick thought, judging so from the man's slouched hat and +great cape. Now and then the man exchanged a few words with a person +sitting next to him, who might be _Geheimrat_ Lars. Frederick had once +met the _Geheimrat_ at a dinner at the mayor's house, but he had only +a faded recollection of his appearance. The clothing manufacturer had +dragged himself from his cabin, heaven knows how, and was lying in his +chair like a corpse. Besides these, there were two men conversing with +each other, one small, rotund and scary-faced, the other tall and thin. + +The tall one was showing the other a section of a submarine cable +and letting the hard piece, intricately braided of hemp, metal and +gutta-percha, pass from hand to hand. From his choppy, whispered +sentences, the company learned that in 1877 he had worked as electrical +engineer on a steamer laying a cable between Europe and the United +States. The work on the high seas had lasted without interruption for +many months. He had spent several months supervising the construction +of the steamer itself in the yards, especially the riveting of its metal +plates. He spoke of what is called the cable plateau at the bottom of the +ocean, stretching from Ireland to Newfoundland, a strip of grey sand +so named because it supports the main transatlantic cable. + +The copper wires in the centre of the cable, he said, were called its +soul, the rest of the mass, almost as thick as a man's fist and +resembling a great hawser, served merely as a sheath to protect the soul. +Frederick had a mental vision of the fearful solitudes of the ocean +depths, with the monstrous metal serpent, apparently without beginning +and without end, creeping over the sandy bottom peopled by the enigmatic +creatures of the deep. It seemed to him as if such profound isolation +must be gruesome even for the dead mass of cable. + +Then he wondered why it was that mankind at each end of the cable had +burst into jubilation upon the transmission of the first messages. +Perhaps there was some mystic cause for rejoicing. The real cause could +not possibly be that one was now able to telegraph "Good morning, Mr. +Smith," or "Good morning, Mr. Brown," twenty times a minute around the +earth's circumference, or that one could adulterate humanity's mind with +newspaper gossip from the four quarters of the globe. + +In the midst of these meditations, his chair slipped, and Frederick, in +company with the electrical engineer, the dozing manufacturer, a lady +physician, and a lady artist, was hurled against the banister, while the +opposite row of passengers, including the _Geheimrat_ and the professor, +was hurled on top of them. It was a ridiculous incident, but Frederick +observed that no one seemed to find it so. + +They tried to arrange themselves in order again. One of the +ever-industrious stewards appeared, and, as if to comfort them for their +overthrow, passed about Malaga grapes from the ship's inexhaustible +store. + +"When shall we reach New York?" somebody asked. The eyes of all the +others instantly turned upon the questioner in amazement and alarm. The +steward, usually so polite merely smiled an embarrassed smile and gave no +reply. In his opinion an answer, one way or the other, would have been to +challenge fate. The passengers felt much the same. Indeed, the idea that +their feet would actually ever tread solid land again seemed in their +present condition almost like an extravagant fairy tale. + +The short, stout man, to whom the electrical engineer was chiefly +directing his discourse, was conducting himself peculiarly. At short +intervals he would look out anxiously into the uproar, turning his small, +watchful eyes searchingly up to the tops of the masts, which never ceased +to describe great arcs in the air (starboard to port, port to +starboard!), and out into the monotonous rolling of the waves, swelling +into ever higher and larger masses. His face was full of concern. +Frederick was on the point of inwardly ridiculing the pitiful +landlubber's cowardice, when he heard him say that scarcely three weeks +before he had brought his schooner safely to New York from a three years' +trip around the world, and intended to start out from New York on the +same trip to last the same length of time. The little gentleman was the +experienced captain of a sailing vessel. In the course of his fifty +years, he had spent more than thirty on all the waters of the globe. + + + + +XXII + + +Frederick reflected upon the timid skipper, whose characteristics seemed +to harmonise so poorly with the demands, active and passive, of his +rigorous calling. He wondered what it is that permanently holds a man +like that to his marriage ties and all the duties of his life. Then he +arose to wander about the _Roland_ vaguely. + +The enforced idleness of a sea trip, especially in bad weather, induces +passengers, when they have made the complete round of the vessel, to +begin over again and go through the same circle. Thus, Frederick, after +descending the companionway, ascending it, and descending again, found +himself on the leather-seated bench in the smoking-room avoided by most +of the smokers, in which the armless man had taken his meal the day +before. + +Hans Füllenberg entered, asked whether he was not permitted to smoke a +cigarette in the room, and began to grumble about the weather. + +"Who knows how this thing is going to end?" he complained dismally. +"Perhaps, instead of reaching New York, we'll have to be towed into port +somewhere in Newfoundland." + +Frederick was indifferent to the prospect. He noticed that young +Füllenberg cared for nothing except to produce an impression; and young +Füllenberg noticed that Frederick von Kammacher was not susceptible +to the impression he tried to produce. He cast about for another theme +of conversation. + +"Do you know there are two priests on board? You should have been at +Cuxhaven when they got on. The sailors were beside themselves. I hunted +up the fellows, the sailors I mean, in the forecastle. How they did +curse! It was fearful. The stoker told all the men of the engine-room. +They said you could not get genuine seamen to think any differently--with +priests on board something is bound to go wrong." + +"How is your lady?" asked Frederick. + +"My lady is retching her soul away, if she has such a thing as a soul. +Two hours ago I helped her to bed. That Englishwoman is already a +full-blooded American. Shameless, I tell you! Something tremendous. I +rubbed her forehead with brandy. She partook of a goodly quantity, and +then I unbuttoned her waist. She seems to take me for a masseur chartered +extra by her munificent husband. The thing became boresome. And besides, +in that pitching boudoir, my own soul began to rise up through my +stomach, and the poetry went to the devil. She showed me the photograph +of her devoted husband in New York. I think she has another in London." +He was interrupted by the first call for dinner, which the trumpeter +announced at the bottom of the companionway. The trumpet blast was lost +without resonance in the heavy air and the bluster of the waves. "What's +more," he concluded, "she sent for Doctor Wilhelm." + +The dining-room presented a very dreary appearance. Neither the captain +nor any of the officers of the _Roland_ were present, the demands upon +them in such bad weather being too severe to permit them to leave their +posts. The tables had been provided with a wooden apparatus dividing them +into small compartments, which prevented the plates, glasses and bottles +from slipping any distance. Nevertheless, there was much breaking of +crockery, and it required all the skill of the stewards to serve the +dishes, especially the soup. From the kitchen and the china room every +now and then came the sound of a tremendous crash. There were scarcely +twelve people at table, among them Hahlström and Doctor Wilhelm. After +a time the skat players, as usual, came bursting in, talking noisily and +red of face. Their winnings were immediately transmuted into Pommery. +Notwithstanding the fearful weather, the band was playing. There seemed +to be something frivolous, almost challenging, in the playing of music +when, at short intervals, the _Roland_ would come to a quivering +standstill, as if it had run upon a reef. Once the illusion was so strong +that a panic arose in the steerage. Mr. Pfundner, the head-steward, +brought this explanation of the horrified shrieks that had penetrated the +dining-room above the noise of the raging waters, the rattling of the +plates and the blare of the band. + +At dessert Hahlström left his place at the other end of the room and, +balancing himself with difficulty, came over to Frederick and Doctor +Wilhelm, and asked permission to seat himself beside them. He seemed +to have been drinking whisky, as he had dropped his natural shell of +reticence. He spoke of hydrotherapy and gymnastic exercises, and called +himself a quack. It was the gymnastics, he said, that had given his +daughter the idea of taking up dancing. As if to challenge the others, he +elaborated bold philosophic theories, dealing out one wild statement +after the other, each of which would have been a trump sufficient to end +the game for ten German Philistines. To believe his own word, he was a +terroristic Anarchist, a white-slave trafficker, an adventurer always. At +any rate, he espoused the cause of all who were Anarchists, procurers, or +adventurers. He argued in all superiority, upon egotistic grounds, +calling these the intellectuals, and all others, creatures without +brains; in which his philosophy showed some similarity to Frederick von +Kammacher's new philosophy, now that Frederick had entered upon a new +phase of his life. + +"America," said Hahlström, "is known to have been settled by rogues. Were +you to spread a tent over America, you would have the most beautiful, +the most comfortable penitentiary in the world. The natural form that +survives and triumphs in America is the great rascal, the great +Renaissance idiot. In fact, it is the one form that will triumph +throughout the world. You'll see some day how the great American rascal +will get the whole of Europe, including England, into his clutches. +Europe is also dabbling a little in Renaissance ideals and Renaissance +beasts. It is busily working away, so to speak, on its own rascalization. +But America is in advance by ten horse lengths. Europe's Cesare Borgias +sit in the cafes with _Glockenröcken à la Biedermaier_ and give voice to +their criminal genius in fairly innocent verses. They all look sickly, as +if a barber had cupped all the blood out of their veins. If Europe wants +to save herself, she has only one hope--to make a law by which it will be +a crime to surrender an adventurer, an embezzler, a fraudulent bankrupt, +the keeper of a disorderly house, a thief, or a murderer to America. On +German, English and French vessels in American ports, such people have +already been placed under the special protection of Europe. Then you will +see how soon Europe will outdistance Uncle Sam." + +The physicians burst out laughing. + +"When did geniuses ever do anything morally? Even the creator of heaven +and earth did not know how to. He produced an immoral world. Every high +form of human intellectual activity has thrown ethics overboard. What +would a historian be who, instead of making researches, would moralise? +What would a physician be who would stop to moralise? Or a great +statesman, who would toe the chalk-line of your middle-class ten +commandments? As for an artist, when he moralises, he is a fool and a +knave. And please tell me, what sort of a business would the church do +if all of us were moral? There would be no church." + +There was a cold gleam of audaciousness in the Swede's eyes. His +utterances produced a strange impression. Even if he had pronounced fewer +wild paradoxes, Frederick von Kammacher would have succumbed to his +spell. He eagerly sought for resemblances between father and daughter, +or, more accurately, he observed them without seeking. They were very +evident to one who, alas, to his own torture, was carrying the daughter's +picture alive in his soul. As long as the Swede spoke, he could not help +wavering between repugnance and admiration, and he kept asking himself +whether this man was really the sort of person that Arthur Stoss had +described him to be, no gentleman, a weakling, an idle ragamuffin. + + + + +XXIII + + +As they arose from table and were ascending the companionway to the deck, +Hahlström suddenly said to Frederick: + +"My daughter is expecting you. We have a friend on board, Mr. Achleitner, +a soft creature, but the possessor of much money, which he doesn't know +the best way to get rid of. So he made it worth while for one of the +officers to give up his luxurious cabin opening on deck to my daughter. +Unfortunately, that gives him the right to make an unmitigated nuisance +of himself sometimes." + +When the men entered the comparatively roomy cabin on deck, they found +Achleitner sitting on a rather unsteady chair, while Mara, carefully +wrapped up, was lying stretched out on a couch. She instantly called +to her father, please to remove Mr. Achleitner, who was boring her, and +signified to Frederick that she had a special favour to ask of him. +Hahlström and Achleitner obediently withdrew, and Frederick _nolens +volens_ had to seat himself on the camp-chair. + +"How can I be of service?" he asked. + +She put one of those inconsequential requests with which she liked to +busy everybody about her. She did this, she explained, because if many +people were not doing something for her, she felt neglected. + +"But if you don't want to do it," she added--it was to get her a bottle +of perfume, or something of the sort, for which a stewardess would have +been the right person to ask--"but if you don't want to do it, then +please don't. I should prefer it if you didn't. In fact, if I bore you, +I would just as soon sit alone." + +Frederick realised that this beginning was a foolish expression of +embarrassment. + +"I should like to be of service to you in anything I can, and you don't +in the least bore me." + +That was the truth. Alone with Ingigerd in her cabin, where the vessel's +motion was less perceptible, he was sensitive to the full fascination of +her presence. The pangs of the ocean crossing had given her sweet girlish +face a waxen transparency. At her request the stewardess had loosened her +hair, and it lay spread in a golden flood over her white pillow, a golden +flood, the sight of which was highly disturbing to Frederick. Where was +there an adornment for the head, a queen's diadem, which could exercise +so powerful, so divine a charm? It seemed to Frederick as if that +tremendous vessel, with its hundreds of human ants, were nothing more +than the cocoon of this tiny silkworm, this delicately coloured, +delicious little butterfly; as if the sixty naked helots down at the +ship's bottom shovelling coal into the white heat under the boilers, were +toiling and sweating merely to be of service to this childish Venus; as +if the captain and officers were the paladins of the queen, and the rest +of the crew her following; as if the steerage were rilled with blindly +devoted slaves, and as if the _Roland_ were proudly carrying a fairy tale +from "A Thousand and One Nights" across the salt desert. + +"Did I hurt your feelings yesterday by telling you my story?" she asked +suddenly. + +"Mine? No! You are the injured one in the life you have unfortunately +led." + +She looked at him with a sardonic smile, plucking a pink wad from the lid +of a box of sweetmeats beside her. In her looks and smiles, Frederick +felt her cold, wicked enjoyment. And since he was a man and knew he was +impotent in the face of such fiendish mockery, a wave of physical fury +mounted in him, driving the blood into his eyes and causing him +involuntarily to clench his fists. His full-blooded nature occasionally +had need of such frenzy. It was a phenomenon with which his friends were +familiar. + +"What is the matter with you?" whispered Ingigerd, plucking at the pink +wad. "I am not afraid of a monk like you." + +Her remark was not calculated to calm Frederick's passionate surge. +However, he mastered his feelings with evident, redoubled exertion of his +will power. Had he not succeeded in controlling himself, he might have +more resembled a Papuan negro than a European. He might have turned into +a beast in human form, and might have thrown overboard, as he himself +clearly felt, more than was good of what both self-acquired and imposed +culture had formed in him. He had no desire to turn into another animal +in Circe's stables. + +It was as if Ingigerd were the very incarnation of the evil Psyche, so +few of a man's feelings were concealed from her. She knew what fight +Frederick had just fought and she knew he had conquered. + +"Oh, I wanted to become a nun once myself," she said, and began in a +mixture of truth and fiction to prattle of a year she had spent in a +convent. "I wanted to turn good, but didn't get very far. I am religious. +Really I am. I can say so with a clear conscience. Anybody with whom I +don't feel I could pray to God, is disgusting to me. Perhaps, after all, +I shall end by being a nun, but not because I am pious." She did not +realise how egregiously she was contradicting herself. "Oh, no! It +wouldn't occur to me to be pious. I don't believe in anything but myself. +Life is short, and nothing is coming afterward. A person ought to enjoy +life. A person who deprives himself of a single enjoyment sins against +himself, beside practising self-deception." + +She was led to speak of her mother. Frederick was startled by the hatred, +the vulgarity with which she referred to her. + +"I could kill her," she said, "although, or just because she is my +mother." Her face lost its purity of expression and assumed an ugly, +repulsive look. "With papa it is different. But it gets to be an awful +nuisance always to be dragging him about with me." + +The stewardess came in. She spoke to Ingigerd in a loud, cheery way. + +"Better here than down below, isn't it, Miss?" + +She bolstered up her cushions, rearranged her coverings, and left again. + +"The silly thing has already fallen in love with me, too," said Ingigerd. + +"Why am I sitting here?" Frederick thought, and was about to attempt in +all kindness to remove the cataract from the eyes of the foolish little +creature. Why did great waves of pity keep sweeping over him? Pity for +which she did not ask. Why could he not rid himself of the idea of +innocence, of chastity, of the uncontaminated while in the presence of +this child fiend? She seemed pure and unsullied, and each capricious +movement, each remark of hers only heightened the impression of touching +helplessness. + +"All love is pity." This sentence of Schopenhauer's, which he held to be +both true and paradoxical, flashed into his mind. He took one of her +dolls in his hand, and tried in the kindly way that he had acquired with +his patients to make Ingigerd Hahlström understand that one does not go +through life unpunished in the belief that life is mere doll's play. + +"Your dolls," he said, "are actually beasts of prey. Woe to you, if you +don't realise they are beasts before they bury their claws in your flesh +and rend you with their fangs." + +She gave a short laugh without answering. She complained of a pain in her +breast. + +"You're a physician. Won't you examine me?" + +"That's Doctor Wilhelm's business," Frederick answered brusquely. + +"Well," she said, "if I am in pain and you as a physician can stop the +pain, but don't want to, your friendship cannot amount to much." + +Frederick did not turn a deaf ear to this correct reasoning. He had long +before realised that her delicate constitution was with difficulty +holding the balance between debit and credit. Each instant it was in +danger of losing its balance. + +"If I were your physician," he said, "I should send you to live for three +years with a German country pastor, or an American farmer. I should not +let you see anybody but the old pastor or the old farmer and his wife and +their daughters. I should not let you go to see a play, let alone appear +on the stage yourself. It is those cursed variety shows that have sent +you to the dogs, physically and morally." + +"I am a ruffian," he thought, "and there's medicine for her." + +"Do you want to become a farmer?" + +"Why?" + +"Because you are already a pastor," she laughed. + +The conversation was interrupted by the screeching of a cockatoo on a +stand in the back of the cabin. Until then Frederick had not noticed it. + +"What else will be turning up? Where did you get that beast?" + +She laughed again. + +"Please give me the beast. Koko! Koko!" Frederick arose and let the +great, rosy-white seafarer clamber on his hand. "I like animals better +than I do most people I meet," she said. + +The bird kept screaming "Cockatoo!" until Frederick felt it fairly +applied to him. + +In the meantime the _Roland_, sinking into deep troughs and climbing over +watery mountain crests in an ocean that was like a great machine +regularly at work, had plowed its way into fog. The siren was bellowing. + +"Fog?" exclaimed Ingigerd. Every bit of blood vanished from her face, +which was already too pale. "But I am never afraid," she added +immediately, took a bonbon in her mouth, and let the cockatoo nibble at +it. The bird unfeelingly trod on the girl's beautifully heaving breast. +She made it sing _Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht_ and some well-known +music-hall airs, and told stories of her menagerie. + +Every instant Frederick had to perform some small service, and while she +was giving an enthusiastic description of a little monkey from Java that +she had once owned, he asked himself whether he was a physician, a nurse, +a hairdresser, a chambermaid, or a steward, and whether Ingigerd +Hahlström would not in the end reduce him to a messenger boy. + +He yearned to be on deck in the open air. + +Soon after, Achleitner entered with an anxious, questioning expression in +his eyes, and Ingigerd dismissed Frederick most ungraciously. There was a +look of hatred in her glance. But scarcely was Frederick outside in the +fog with the knob of the door still in his hand, when it seemed to him as +if ropes and chains, the chains of an enslaved man, were dragging him +back to the girl's couch. + + + + +XXIV + + +"What is to become of me?" Frederick questioned himself. He scarcely +heard Hans Füllenberg's jolly shout of greeting as the young man reeled +past. Hans Füllenberg did not fail to observe whose door it was that +Frederick von Kammacher had just closed behind him, nor that, as he stood +there with the knob still in his hand, he seemed to be in a state of +indecision and absorption. + +The siren was sending up its deafening roar. It was that wild, fearful, +ascending cry, as if torn from the breast of a monster bull, which he had +first heard on the tender. There was something menacing in it, and at the +same time something of an anxious warning. Frederick never heard it +without applying menace and warning to himself. Likewise, the driving +mist seemed to be a reflection of his soul; or his soul a reflection of +the driving mist and also of the vessel, as it struggled onward into the +unknown, unseeing and unseen. He stepped over to the railing and looked +straight down the ship's side. There he could tell with what tremendous +rapidity the _Roland_ was cleaving the water. + +"Isn't man's courage utter madness?" he thought. Could any one, from +captain to the lowest sailor, prevent the propeller-shaft from snapping +at any moment? The screw was constantly rising and buzzing in the air. +Who could sight a vessel in time to prevent the collision that would +inevitably smash in the thin walls of the great hollow body? Who could +hope to avoid one of the many derelicts drifting in the fog almost +submerged? What would happen if the might of the waves were to hurl that +great lumped mass of wood and iron against the _Roland's_ side? What +would happen if the engines were to break down? If a boiler were to +prove unequal to the uninterrupted strain put upon it? Then, too, +icebergs were met with in those waters. And suppose the storm were to +grow worse. + +The things that European civilisation has accomplished are tremendous. +The trouble is, the object to which the means are applied is not worthy +of the means. The how is great. The wherefore receives only a stammering +reply. So much is certain, that the life of the average man to-day is +fuller of adventure and heroism than the life of a bold adventurer a +hundred and fifty years ago. + +Frederick went to the smoking-room on deck. He found the card players, +Doctor Wilhelm, Arthur Stoss, Professor Toussaint and some more gentlemen +gathered over their afternoon coffee. + +"Hullo!" they shouted when he appeared in the doorway. + +The room smelled strong of coffee and the pungent odour of tobacco. In +the instant that Frederick held the door open, the wreaths of mist and +heavy tobacco smoke met. + +"What's the matter, gentlemen?" Frederick asked. + +"Did you operate on the dancer," someone cried, "to remove that mole two +inches from her backbone right over her left hip?" + +Frederick turned pale, and said nothing. Had he uttered a single word, +the result might have been a scandal, perhaps even a duel, out there on +the high seas. + +He seated himself beside Doctor Wilhelm and acted as if the shout of +greeting and the unknown man's question had not referred to him. Doctor +Wilhelm proposed a game of chess. Frederick accepted, and while playing, +he had time to choke down his humiliation and resentment. He glanced +about furtively to find the speaker. + +"There are some people, Doctor von Kammacher," Arthur Stoss said in +a raised voice, "who leave their decency in Europe when they travel +to America, though that does not reduce the price of the passage." + +The man at whom the remark was aimed left it unanswered. + +"But, Mr. Stoss," said an elderly man from Hamburg, whose conscience in +regard to the offence thrust upon Frederick was evidently clear, "we're +not in a ladies' parlour, and we needn't take jokes amiss." + +"I am not in favour of jokes," said Stoss, "that are made at the expense +of persons who are near at hand, but not present, especially when a lady +is concerned. I am still less in favour of them when they are coarse and +indecent." + +"Oh, Mr. Stoss," rejoined the man from Hamburg, "everything in its place. +I have nothing against sermons, but we're having bad weather here on the +ocean and this room is not a church." + +"Besides, nobody mentioned names," another man said. + +Here the American jackanapes joined in the cross talk. + +"When Mr. Stoss is in New York," he said drily, "he will hold services +every night at Webster and Forster's." + +"Some American youngsters are celebrated for their cheek," Stoss +countered. + +"Directly after the celebrated Barrison sisters' appearance, after the +song 'Linger Longer Loo,' Mr. Stoss will raise his hands to heaven and +beg the audience to pray." The American spoke without moving a muscle of +his face. He had the last word. The next instant the slim young fellow +was outside the door. + +Arthur Stoss had the pleasure of knowing he was a fool for his pains. +But, like Frederick, he paid no attention to the thrust, or to the +laughter it provoked. + +"People are very much mistaken," he said, turning to Professor Toussaint, +who was sitting beside him and to whom he had been introduced a few +minutes before, "if they suppose that morality among vaudeville +performers is laxer than among any other set of persons. It's an +absolutely false assumption. A performer above the average, who must +always be at the very height of his powers, has to practise moderation to +the point of abstinence if he wants to remain on top. Does anybody +suppose that a loose life is compatible with those startlingly bold feats +that an acrobat does every day and tries to improve upon every day? Damn +it! It's something to make your ordinary mortal marvel at. Why, to do any +one of the many things we do, we have to practise asceticism and +chastity, and patiently peg away day after day at hard, dangerous work. +Your plain business man, who never omits his glass of beer, has no idea +what it is like." He continued to sing the praises of vaudeville actors. + +"May I ask what your specialty is, Mr. Stoss?" asked Hans Füllenberg. + +"A very easy specialty, once you know how. But if it should ever come to +a duel between you and me, young man, you'd have to choose what eye or +ear or tooth you'd be ready to part with." + +"He's as good a shot as Carver," someone said. "He can take the middle +right out of an ace three or four times in succession." + +"Just like any other display of skill. But don't for a moment suppose, +gentlemen, that even if a man has arms and doesn't have to hold the gun +with his feet and pull the trigger with his toes, that he learns how to +do it without sweating and self-denial and endless patience." + +"Somebody said you play the violin like Sarasate," said Hans Füllenberg. + +"Not exactly. Nor need I, considering the way I was born. But I am fond +of music and my audiences go wild over my playing." + +Captain von Kessel entered. He was received with a general "Ah!" Through +the door burst a great wave of sunlight. + +"The barometer is rising, gentlemen." + +The fog had lifted, and now the men in the smoking-room realised that the +_Roland_ was rocking no more than easily and comfortably and was making +its way with majestic speed. + +This acted like a charm. The captain left the door open and had Pander +hook it back. A man, who had been lying asleep in a corner--in that half +sleep which is the mildest symptom of seasickness--rose to a sitting +posture and rubbed his eyes. Hans Füllenberg and a number of other men +hastened out on deck. Doctor Wilhelm and Frederick, who had lost the +game, followed. + + + + +XXV + + +The two physicians paced the full length of the promenade deck. The air +was mild. The ship was moving quietly, as if its great body took delight +in pushing onward through none but low waves. It was surprising to see +how gay the life on deck was. They were constantly raising their hats and +making way for somebody. The stewards had carried the news of the good +weather down to the passengers in their stuffy cabins, and all the +seasick travellers had come crawling on deck. There was much talking and +laughing. Each moment brought fresh surprise over the galaxy of merry +women that had kept themselves stowed away in the _Roland's_ interior. It +was just an ordinary Saturday afternoon in January; yet suddenly an +atmosphere of festivity prevailed not to be outdone by a Christmas eve. + +Hans Füllenberg passed by. He was cracking jokes for everybody's benefit +and flirting desperately with his Englishwoman, who had recovered from +her seasickness. She had found a friend, a woman in a fur cap and coat, +with a magnificent crown of light hair, like a Swedish woman's. She +seemed to be greatly amused by Füllenberg's poor jokes and poor English. +He had abstracted her muff and was alternately conveying it to his +stomach, his heart, and--this very passionately--his mouth. The young +American jackanapes was promenading with his Canadian, who looked very +haughty and blasé, yet much fresher. The delicate creature seemed to be +shivering with cold, though she was wearing an elegant coat of Canadian +sable, which reached to her knees. Frederick greeted the clothing +manufacturer, whom his steward had helped up on deck. He had been lying +in his cabin more dead than alive, and his steward had been feeding him +on nothing but Malaga grapes. + +Ingigerd was holding court on the port side in front of her cabin, the +door to which stood open, it flattering her vanity to have the many +promenaders see and envy the privilege she was enjoying. + +"If it is agreeable to you, Doctor Wilhelm, let us remain this side of +the Rubicon. That little girl slightly bores me. By the way, can you tell +me how I came to bring down on myself that shout when I entered the +smoking-room and that man's vulgar remark? To be sure, as a physician and +free-thinker it's a matter of indifference to me." + +"Oh," said Wilhelm, trying by an air of lightness to appease Frederick, +"this is all it was. Füllenberg probably saw you coming out of Miss +Hahlström's cabin, and said something in the smoking-room. You know +his mischievous way." + +"I'll box his ears," said Frederick. + +"The trouble is, the little girl is making herself generally conspicuous. +The worst rumours are afloat about her. All men seem alike to her, +whether stewards, firemen, sailors, or cabin-boys. And that greasy +Achleitner! I assure you, all over the ship, in the forecastle, among the +stewards when they polish the silver, and in the officers' cabins, they +do nothing but titter and laugh at her and Achleitner and anybody falling +under suspicion on her account." + +"Don't you think that's slander?" + +"Why, you and I are physicians. I don't care a fig one way or the other." + +Frederick laughed. "I have set my all on nothing." + +Suddenly he said: + +"You're right. I'm of the same opinion. I must really throw overboard +that old idealistic German Adam sticking in me like a Sunday afternoon +preacher." + +The two men laughed. Their mood turned merrier, chiming in with the +general atmosphere of hilarity. + +One reason for this predominating sense of happiness was the fact that +all the passengers, after struggling with nausea and sleeplessness during +those miserable, crawling, endless hours in the doleful grave of their +cabins, had learned to appreciate the value of mere healthy existence. +Merely to live, merely to live! That was the cry that rang in every step, +every laugh, every word, drowning all care. None of those concerns which +each of them had dragged on board, whether from Europe or America, now +had the least might. Merely to live was to win in the great lottery. They +knew sunshine follows rain, and they said to themselves, "If worse comes +to worst, you will willingly put up with bread and salt and a hoe and a +vegetable garden, and no one in the world will be a happier mortal than +you." + +Those promenading men and women were each glad of the other's existence. +They loved one another and were ready without hesitation to commit all +sorts of follies, deeming them mere bagatelles, which on solid land they +would never have condoned in themselves. Their rejoicing was a crucible +melting together all the barriers by which convention divides man from +man. They experienced a sense of relief and liberation, and drew in deep +breaths of this atmosphere of freedom. + +At the captain's order, the band set up its music stands and instruments +on deck amidships; and when the blithe strains resounded through the +whole of the _Roland_, that was the climax of festivity. For half an hour +it seemed as if the few clouds floating in the blue sky, the steamer, the +people on the steamer, and the ocean had agreed to dance a quadrille. + +For moments at a time the waves would form the droll, chubby-cheeked +face of a jolly old man. All at once the dreadful old man of the sea +had turned good-humoured. He even seemed to be in a jocular mood and +displayed a certain clumsy vanity in letting his puppets, swarms of +flying fish, dance their dance, too, in a circle about the _Roland_. +Perhaps, at his bidding, a whale would soon be spouting. Indeed, within +a few minutes, the immigrants on the fore-deck were shouting, "Dolphins!" + +The gentlemen could not for any length of time avoid Ingigerd. + +"Theridium triste, the gallows spider, you know," said Wilhelm, as they +approached her. + +"How so?" said Frederick, slightly startled. + +"You know what a gallows spider does near an ant nest. It sits on the top +of its blade of grass, and when a myrmidon passes below, it throws a +little skein of cobweb at its head. The ant does the rest. It gets +tangled up until it is absolutely helpless, and then the tiny little +spider comfortably eats it up." + +"If you had seen her dance," said Frederick, "you would be more inclined +to assign her the rôle of the ant throttled by the spider." + +"I don't know who," said Wilhelm, "but some poet says, the sex is +strongest when it is weak." + +Ingigerd was able to boast a new sensation, which she owed to Mr. Rinck, +the officer in charge of the mail, a pretty little dog, a ball of white +wool, scarcely larger than a man's two fists put together. The polar bear +in miniature was barking wildly in its ridiculous thin falsetto at the +great ship's cat, which Mr. Rinck was holding to its nose. + +"With your permission, Mr. Rinck, we shall sleep well to-night," said +Wilhelm. + +"I always sleep well," replied the other phlegmatically. Close to the +cat's soft, heavy, hanging body, his cigarette, as always, was burning +between the fingers of his right hand. + +The cat spat, the dog barked. The piping sound drilled Frederick's ears +like needle pricks. Ingigerd laughed and kissed the little yelper. + +Wilhelm began a conversation by telling of the tremendous amount of work +Mr. Rinck had to do between Cuxhaven and New York. + +"Just take a look here, Doctor von Kammacher," he said, opening a door +nearby, through which one could look into a deep, square pit filled half +way up to the top with thousands of packages of all sizes. "Mr. Rinck has +to arrange all of these." + +"Exclusive of the letters," Mr. Rinck supplemented phlegmatically. + +"Theridium triste," thought Frederick. He seemed to himself like an ant +trying head over heels to escape the spell of the little spider, whose +golden cobweb in long, open strands was luring on its victims. + +"That Rinck," said Wilhelm, as they resumed their promenading, "is a +peculiar sort of chap. It is worth the while to get to know him. Twenty +years ago he suffered hard luck from a woman of the same type as little +Miss Hahlström. Men should never marry women of that type. Ever since, he +has been indifferently facing every sort of death on all the waters of +the globe, not to mention an attempt at suicide. You ought to hear him +talk. It is very difficult to get him to do it, because he doesn't drink. +You can't succeed until you have been on four or five trips with him. +People speak a great deal of fatalism, but to most of them the idea is +merely a paper idea. To Rinck it is not a paper idea." + +The life on deck kept assuming a more and more unconcerned, mundane +aspect. Frederick was astonished to see so many persons from Berlin whom +he knew by sight. Professor Toussaint introduced himself, and led +Frederick to his wife, who was lying stretched out in a steamer chair. +Their attempt at what is called conversation resulted in a few sickly +sprouts. + +"I am making this trip at the invitation of an American friend," +Toussaint explained somewhat condescendingly, and mentioned the name of a +well-known millionaire. "Even if I receive orders over there, I will not +allow myself to be persuaded into making America my home. Interest in art +should be elevated--" The pale, aristocratic man with the care-worn +expression went on to expatiate upon his hopes and troubles, while his +wife, who was still beautiful, looked on with a blasé expression of +irony. Probably without being conscious of it, Professor Toussaint too +frequently referred to the United States as the dollar land. + +On the after-deck the passengers in unrestrained jollity, had begun to +dance. It was Hans Füllenberg, the ever vivacious Berlinese, who had +taken the lead. Inspired by the Strauss waltz that the band was playing +he had engaged the lady in the fur coat. A number of other couples +followed their example, and there, under the bright sky, an informal ball +was opened, which did not end until sundown. + +When the musicians with their shining brass instruments were about to +make their way inconspicuously below deck, the passengers detained them, +and in the twinkling of an eye, a large collection was taken up. +Thereupon the dance music began again, even blither than before. + + + + +XXVI + + +Doctor Wilhelm was summoned away, and after a while Frederick succeeded +in taking leave of Toussaint and his wife. He remained alone. The clear +heavens, the deep blue sea, smooth as glass, calmed as if by a miracle, +the music, the dancing, the sunlight, and the dear, sweet, pacifying, +all-forgiving letter of his mother--it was in his pocket--awakened in him +a fresh, pleasant sense of vitality. + +"Life," he said to himself, "is always this way or that, a moment filled +with pain or pleasure, with darkness or brightness, with sunlight or +heavy, black clouds; and according to the moment in which we view our +past and future, these will darken or brighten. Should existence in the +shining light possess lesser reality than existence in the dark?" "No, it +should not," was the answer that came from everything within and about +him, filling him with youthful, almost childlike joy. + +Frederick had pushed back his slouched hat, had unbuttoned his light +overcoat, and was standing with his arms crooked over the railing. He +looked out upon the sea. He felt the pulse beats of the engines, his ears +were filled with the pliant, melodious chords of the Viennese waltz; the +whole world had turned into a brilliant, lively, sparkling ballroom. He +had suffered and caused others to suffer. Now he embraced all those +through whom he had suffered and who had suffered through him, and seemed +to wed them in blissful intoxication. + +At this point Ingigerd Hahlström passed by with the giant Von Halm. +Frederick heard her say she did not dance, that dancing was an insipid +pleasure. With that, he started away from the railing, went up to the +Canadian, and in a peculiar, fiery German manner ruthlessly drew her away +from the young American, who was completely taken aback. It was evident +that the delicate, exotic woman, whose breast rose and fell convulsively, +took pleasure in that strong conqueror's arm as they circled about in the +dance. + +At the conclusion of the dance, he found himself under the necessity of +murdering French and English with her for a time and was very glad when +he could gracefully deliver her over again to the jealous young American. + +Stoss was being transported across the deck by his valet, who, as always, +held him by his coat collar. + +"My private overland and oversea express," he called to Frederick. + +Frederick pulled up a steamer chair for him in a sudden impulse to chat +with Stoss. + +"If the weather remains like this," said Stoss, after his valet had +carefully and skilfully seated him in the chair, "we can reach Hoboken +some time on Tuesday. But only if the weather does remain like this. The +captain tells me that when we are running under full steam, as now, we +make sixteen knots an hour." + +Frederick started. So Tuesday this life under the same roof with Ingigerd +was to end. + +Frederick had been profoundly humiliated by the coarse insult offered him +in the smoking-room. He knew of no other way to escape the impression of +it except by a sort of ostrich policy. For that reason he had passed over +the incident lightly when speaking to Doctor Wilhelm. Once his feeling of +delicacy, smarting like a sensitive nerve, had ceased to ache so +intensely, he looked upon the scandal much as a somnambulist would +look upon the thing that has awakened him and guarded him against a +humiliating fall. For more than half an hour his passion for the little +devil of a dancer had turned into disgust and repugnance, until now he +suddenly had to admit once again that separation from her was +inconceivable. + +"That little dancer is a piquant wench," said Stoss, as if he had divined +Frederick's thoughts. "It would not seem at all strange to me if an +inexperienced man were to fall into her toils. I think she resembles one +of the younger Barrison sisters, who sing 'Linger Longer Lucy, Linger +Longer Loo.' A man must certainly don armour in dealing with her." + +"I am completely at a loss to understand," lied Frederick, "how I ever +came to fall under suspicion with that creature. She is of absolutely no +interest to me." + +"Good Lord, Doctor von Kammacher! Who doesn't fall under suspicion with +her?" He laughed unblushingly. "I myself did." + +Frederick suffered. He looked sidewise at the armless trunk, and his soul +writhed in humiliation at the thought of his own ridiculousness. + +Stoss went on to philosophise on erotics in general. He, the Don Juan +without arms, read Frederick a lecture on the art of handling women. +This led to his boasting, which detracted markedly from his quality of +fineness. His intellect also shrank in direct proportion to the increase +of his vanity. Something seemed to be working in him impelling him to +impress people at all costs with his successes as a man. + +A servant-girl led two children by. Frederick drew a breath of relief, +for she diverted Stoss from his unsavoury theme. + +"Well, Rosa," he called, "how is Mrs. Liebling?" It was his habit to +obtrude himself upon everybody. From the gossip of Bulke, his valet, he +had learned of Rosa and her cross. The difficult lady she served was the +excitable person of whom the barber had told Frederick and with whom he +was acquainted from certain impressions of his hearing. Rosa, who was +carrying Ella Liebling, a girl of five years, on her crimson arm, looked +pleased and laughed. + +"She is not coming on deck. She's taken up with fortune-telling and +table-turning." + +Bulke, in whose eyes Rosa seemed to have found unqualified favour, took +Siegfried Liebling, a boy of seven, from her hand and helped her place +both children safely in steamer chairs. + +"There is nothing to beat a crazy woman," Stoss declared. "That Mrs. +Liebling actually called in Mr. Pfundner, the head-steward, to help her +with Rosa"--the very Rosa, who unwearyingly and self-sacrificingly +worked for her day and night, in good weather and bad. The worst to be +said against her was that at utmost she was a little too ready with her +tongue. + + + + +XXVII + + +The music was still playing, the sun was still shining from a slightly +clouded sky. On the dry deck the travelling city, in the gayest, most +superficial mood, was still dancing in the face of the infiniteness of +heaven and sea. A steward came up to Frederick and presented the second +engineer, who brought a message from Doctor Wilhelm asking Frederick to +come to him immediately. The engineer led Frederick to the engine-room +and down a perpendicular iron ladder. The warm, heavy smell of oil almost +robbed Frederick of his breath. The downward climb seemed endless. + +On all sides the engines were working. Frederick glanced at the gigantic +cylinders, in which the compressed steam was moving pistons up and down +like pump handles. The pistons communicated their motion to the big shaft +running aft along the keel to the stern, and the revolutions of the shaft +in turn produced the revolutions of the screw propelling the vessel +across the Atlantic. + +Oilers holding oil cans and waste clambered in and out of the rotating +masses of iron with astounding sureness and boldness. To graze one of the +fly-wheels, or to step one inch within the unguarded circle of their +revolution, was to receive a deadly blow. Here was the heart and soul of +the vessel, the real modern miracle of strength, the like of which no age +in the past has been able to produce. An iron soul, a steely heart. It +was as if one were descending below earth into the glowing workshop of +Vulcan of old, the lame god, who did not demonstrate the full skill of +his divinity until our times. + +Still deeper down went the descent, to where, from numerous shovels +handled by almost naked helots, coal was flying into the white heat under +the boilers, into a row of gaping jaws of fire. Frederick felt as if he +had reached the heart of a crater. It was a black shaft smelling of coal, +slag, and burning things. Apparently it was lighted only by the constant +opening of the furnace doors, spitting white heat. How was it possible +for such a conflagration to be contained in the _Roland's_ interior +without reducing the whole to ashes? What a conquest to fight such a sea +of fire, to keep it in check, and carry it through sea and storm; to +manage that it should carry itself three or six thousand miles in the +ocean in fair weather or foul, hidden away and absolutely innocuous. + +Frederick panted for breath. The glowing heat of the abyss instantly +brought the perspiration pouring out on his face and neck. He was so +absorbed in the novelty of the impressions that he completely forgot he +was surrounded by water about twenty feet under the surface of the sea. +Suddenly, he became aware of Doctor Wilhelm's presence, and in the same +instant saw a man entirely naked stretched out like a corpse, a white +body on the black coal dust. The man had ceased to breathe. + +In a second Frederick, now wholly the physician, had Doctor Wilhelm's +stethoscope in his hand and was listening to the man's heart. His mates, +blackened with coal from head to foot, were ceaselessly at work in the +engine's unremitting service, shovelling coal, opening the furnace doors, +and slamming them shut. They scarcely cast a glance at their fallen +comrade, and that only when they stopped to gulp a glass of beer or +water. + +"It was hardly three minutes ago," said Doctor Wilhelm, "that he broke +down. That man over there, the one who has just washed himself, is his +successor." + +"He was just about to throw coal into the furnace," explained the +engineer who had called for Frederick, shouting at the top of his voice +to make himself heard above the clanging of the shovels and the banging +of the iron doors, "when his shovel flew out of his hand about twelve +feet away and almost struck a coal-trimmer. He was hired in Hamburg. The +moment he set foot on board, I thought, 'If only you pull through, my +boy.' He joked about himself. He said, 'If my heart is good.' I was sorry +for him. He wanted to cross the great pond, and that was his only way of +getting over. He wanted, no matter how, to see his brother again, his +only living relative, or somebody else. They hadn't seen each other for +fourteen years." + +"_Exitus_," said Frederick, after a prolonged investigation of the man's +heart. Even a few moments after the stethoscope had been removed, one +could see the ring it made on his bluish, waxen skin. His chin dropped. +They put it back in place, and Frederick bound his jaws with his white +handkerchief. "He had a bad fall," Frederick remarked. It may actually +have been the unfortunate fall to which the helot owed his death. There +was a deep bleeding gash in his temple from the edge of a large nut. +"Probably a heart stroke," Frederick added, "the result of the heat and +over-exertion." He looked at the dead man, then at his mates, naked, +blackened, illuminated by the jaws of the glowing furnaces, and thought +of the fifth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." If we were to take the +commandment literally, how far should we get? + +The physicians mounted on deck, and several of the men picked up the +victim of civilisation, the modern galley-slave, still covered with the +sweat of his fearful occupation. With the handkerchief about his head, he +looked as if he were suffering from toothache. They carried him up out of +the glowing pit to the cabin set aside for dead bodies. + +Doctor Wilhelm had to notify the captain. Nobody on deck, where the band +was playing the last measures, was to suspect that a stoker had died. +With the help of the Red Cross sister, they stretched him on a mattress, +and within a short time a circle of the higher officials of the vessel, +at their head the captain, and among them the purser and the physicians, +were gathered about the corpse. + +Captain von Kessel ordered the stoker's death to be kept secret, +particularly requesting the two physicians not to mention it. Formalities +had to be gone through, documents had to be drawn up and signed. This +kept them busy until dark, when the first call for dinner was trumpeted +across the deck and through the gangways of the first-class section. + + + + +XXVIII + + +Frederick went to his cabin and removed the grey suit he had worn in +the purgatory of the stoke-hole. He put on striped trousers, a black +waistcoat, and black frock coat. By the time he appeared in the +dining-room, a lively procession of brilliant toilettes was already +making its way there. Almost all the ladies of the first class came +rustling in. Frederick from his seat observed that many of them had +to stop for an instant at the doorway to pluck up their courage. Then, +with a charmingly humorous smile, they would conquer their dread of +seasickness, particularly threatening in the dining-room, and step over +the threshold. + +Save for the slight quiver that ran through the walls and ceilings of the +whole vessel, its motion was scarcely perceptible. The music began, and +the swarm of stewards in livery, who came hurrying in, could serve each +guest with a full plate of soup without need of balancing. + +"A full-dress dinner," said the captain with a contented glance about the +room as he seated himself. + +Fish was already being served when Ingigerd entered on the arm of the +very ungainly and very ordinary looking Achleitner. At the sight of her +absurd get-up, Frederick felt like sinking through the floor. The barber +had piled her beautiful light hair into a fearful mountain of puffs, and +about her narrow shoulders she wore a Spanish shawl, as if to represent +Carmen--a very pitiful Carmen, who provoked jeers and jibes from one end +of the table to the other. + +"What deadly green stockings!" Frederick thought, as he choked down a +piece of fish with the bones in it. + +"Why in the name of sense does she wear those bronze slippers?" + +"Some chalk, please, for the lady," said one man. "She is going to dance +the tight rope for us." + +Mischievous looks and remarks flew about the table. Both the ladies and +the gentlemen choked over their fish or wine and had to hold their +napkins to their lips. Not all of their remarks were pronounced _sotto +voce_, and among the card players, who were again drinking champagne, the +jokes aimed at Ingigerd and Achleitner were particularly loud and coarse. + +Could Frederick believe his eyes? Terror shot to his heart. That sad +little monstrosity was walking toward him--stood next to him in +compromising intimacy--was saying poutingly: + +"When are you going to pay me a visit again?" + +Frederick made some inconsequential reply. + +Necks in standing collars, bare throats encircled with gold chains and +pearls turned toward the captain's table. Frederick could not recall ever +having had an experience so painfully humiliating. Ingigerd saw nothing +and felt nothing. Achleitner, however, seemed to be rather ill at ease +under the perceptible cross-fire of the animated company, and tried to +lead her away. Finally, she left the tortured man, saying: + +"My, you're dull and stupid! I don't like you." At which the captain's +corner burst into a prolonged laugh, which was a relief to everybody's +but Frederick's feelings. + +"I assure you," said Frederick, with a tolerable attempt at dry irony, "I +don't know what I have done to deserve this distinction, or what I shall +do to deserve it in the future." + +Then they spoke of other things. + +The clear weather and the prospect of a peaceful night filled the festive +diners with undimmed gaiety. They ate, they drank, they laughed, they +flirted, all in the delightful consciousness that they were citizens of +the departing nineteenth century, with the probability of being citizens +of the even grander twentieth century. + + + + +XXIX + + +After dinner the two physicians went to Doctor Wilhelm's cabin, where +they sat together discussing the resultant of modern civilisation. + +"I very much fear, very much, indeed," said Frederick, "that our +world-wide means of communication, which mankind is supposed to own, +really own mankind. At least so far, I see no signs that the tremendous +working capacity of machines has lessened human labour. Nobody will deny +that our modern machine slavery, on so tremendous a scale, is the most +imposing slavery that has ever existed. And there is no denying that it +is slavery. Has this age of machinery subtracted from the sum of human +misery? No, most emphatically, no! Has it enhanced happiness and +increased the chances for happiness? No, again." + +"That is why every three or four men of culture," said Doctor Wilhelm, +"are disciples of Schopenhauer. Modern Buddhism is making rapid strides." + +"Yes," said Frederick, "because we are living in a world all the time +making a tremendous impression upon itself. As a result, it is getting +to be more and more fearfully bored. The man of the intellectual middle +class is gaining in prominence, while he is more mediocre than he has +been in any previous age. At the same time he is glutted and more blasé. +No form of idealism, no sort of genuinely great belief can hold its +ground any longer." + +"I admit," said Wilhelm, "that the great industrial corporation, +civilisation, is parsimonious of everything except human lives and the +best that is in the human being. It places no value upon them. It lets +them rot. But I think there is one comfort. I think civilisation +possesses this one good, that it breaks us away once for all with the +worst savageries of the past. No inquisition, for instance, can ever be +possible again." + +"Are you sure of it?" asked Frederick. "Don't you think it is strange +that alongside the greatest achievements of science, alongside Galileo, +Kepler, Laplace; alongside the spectrum analysis and the law of the +conservation of energy; alongside Kirchoff and Bunsen; alongside steam, +gas, electricity, the blindest and most antiquated superstitions still +survive, powerful as ever? I am not so certain that backsliding into the +most horrible times of the _Malleus maleficarum_ is impossible." + +Doctor Wilhelm had rung for a steward, who now entered. Max Pander +appeared at the same time. + +"Doctor von Kammacher, I feel as if we must have some champagne. Adolph," +turning to the steward, "a bottle of Pommery." + +"They're making a big hole in the champagne cellar," said Adolph. + +"Of course. The people are all celebrating their escape from drowning +yesterday and day before yesterday." + +Pander had come at the captain's order for the stoker's death +certificate. The document was lying ready in the medicine closet. After +Pander had left, Wilhelm told Frederick some remarkable incidents of the +dead man. + +"His name was Zickelmann. There was the beginning of a letter in his +pocket. It was something like this: 'Dear mother, I have not seen you for +sixteen years. I have forgotten how you look, dear mother. I am not doing +well, but I must go to America to see you once again. It is very sad when +a man has no relatives in the whole world. Dear mother, I just want to +look at you, and I really won't be a burden to you.'" + +The champagne appeared. Before long, the first bottle was replaced by the +second. + +"Don't be surprised if I am immoderate," said Frederick. "My nerves are +in need of it to-day. I have to stupefy myself. Perhaps, with the help of +this glorious medicine, I shall be able to sleep a few hours." + +It was half past ten, and the physicians were still sitting together. The +wine naturally produced a greater degree of intimacy between these two +men, who were of the same profession and had already become fairly well +acquainted with each other. It was very pleasant to Frederick to unbosom +himself. + +He said he had entered the world with too favourable a preconceived +notion. In a spirit of idealism he had refused the military career +for which his father had intended him, and had taken up the study +of medicine, in the belief that he would thus be of most service to +humanity. He had been deceived. + +"The genuine gardener works for the garden full of healthy plants; but +our work is devoted to a decaying vegetation sprung from diseased germs. +That is why I took up the fight against mankind's awfullest enemy, the +bacteria. I admit that the dreary, patient, laborious work, which +bacteriology requires, did not satisfy me, either. I didn't possess the +capacity to petrify, which is absolutely indispensable in an academic +man. When I was sixteen years old, I wanted to become a painter. Over the +dissecting table, I composed verses. The thing that I should now most +like to be is a freelance writer. From all of which you can see," he +concluded, laughing ironically, "that I have made rather a mess of my +life." + +Wilhelm refused to admit it. + +"But I have," Frederick declared. "I am a genuine child of the times, and +I am not ashamed of it. The greatest intellects of the day are all in a +state of inner ferment. Every individual of significance is just as +divided against himself as humanity on the whole. I refer, of course, +only to the leading European races. I embody the Pope and Luther, William +II and Robespierre, Bismarck and Bebel, the spirit of the American +millionaire and the enthusiasm for poverty that was the glory of St. +Francis of Assisi. I am the maddest progressive of my time and the +maddest reactionary. I despise Americanism, and yet I see in the great +American world-invasion, the dominion of the exploiter, something similar +to one of the biggest works that Hercules performed in the Augean +stables." + +"Here's to chaos!" cried Wilhelm. + +They touched glasses. + +"Yes," said Frederick, "but only if it gives birth to a dancing heaven, +or, at least, a dancing star." + +"Beware of dancing stars," said Wilhelm, laughing and looking at +Frederick significantly. + +"What can a man do if his blood is on fire with that cursed poison?" + +Under the influence of the champagne, the sudden confession seemed as +natural to Wilhelm as to Frederick. + +"'There once was a rat in a cellar hole,'" Wilhelm quoted. + +"Of course, of course," said Frederick, "but what is to be done against +it?" Then he turned the conversation to general questions again. "Why +should a man keep himself intact when he has lost his ideals? I have made +_tabula rasa_ of my past. I have drowned Germany in the ocean. Is Germany +really the great, strong, united Empire? Is it not rather the booty over +which God and the devil--I was about to say the Kaiser and the Pope--are +still wrangling? You will admit that for more than a thousand years, the +unifying principle was the imperial principle. People talk of the Thirty +Years' War as having disintegrated Germany. I should say it was the +thousand years' war, of which the Thirty Years' War was only the worst +excess, the worst paroxysm of that plague of religious dissension with +which the Germans are inoculated. And without unity, Germany is a very +queer structure. Its owners, or its inhabitants, don't possess it, except +in a slight degree. And the believer with the tiara at Rome tugs and tugs +at it, levying extortion under the threat of destroying the entire +structure; until he is actually able to buy it back with the compound +interest that has been accumulating. In that case nothing will be left +but a heap of ruins. One could shriek and tear one's hair because the +German does not see that in his basement there is an awful Bluebeard's +chamber. And not for women alone. He has no inkling of what an arsenal +of clerical instruments of torture lie there ready for use--clerical, +because they lie ready for the infliction of horrible corporal martyrdom +in the service of a bloody, fanatical, papistical belief. Woe, when the +door to the Bluebeard chamber opens. They are continually picking at the +lock. Then we shall witness all the sanguinary horrors of the Thirty +Years' War, the degenerate slaughter-house cruelty of an inquisition." + +"That's something we won't drink a toast to. Rather let us toast the +healthy, cynically outspoken ideal of the American, the exploiter ideal, +with its tolerance and levelling down." + +"Yes, a thousand times rather," said Frederick. + +So they drank a toast to America. + +A second-cabin stewardess led in the Russian Jewess. The girl was holding +a handkerchief to her nose and mouth. Her nose had been bleeding for an +hour without cease. + +"Oh," she said, retreating a step from the threshold back to the deck, +"I am in the way." But Doctor Wilhelm insisted on her coming in. + +It turned out that this was not the real mission on which the stewardess +had come to see Doctor Wilhelm. She whispered a few words, unintelligible +to the others, into his ear. He excused himself to Frederick, asked him +to look after the Jewess, and left the cabin with the stewardess. + + + + +XXX + + +"You are a doctor?" asked the Russian Jewess. + +"Yes," said Frederick. + +Without wasting many words, he made her lie prone on the couch, inserted +a tampon in her nose, and used other means to stanch the flow of blood. +He had kept the door to the deck open to let the cigarette smoke out +and the fresh, healing salt air in. The girl lay quietly on the couch; +and Frederick thought it advisable to look through one of Wilhelm's +medical books. + +"So far as I am concerned, you may smoke," she said after a while, having +noticed that Frederick absent-mindedly started to light a cigarette +several times and then, recollecting himself, desisted. + +"No," he said curtly, "I won't smoke now." + +"You might at least offer me a cigarette," she said. "I am bored." + +"That's proper," he said. "A patient should be bored." + +"Oh, I am not a patient." + +"_Patientia_ is the Latin for 'patience,' my dear young lady. You are not +a patient in so far as you are very impatient." + +"If you let me have a cigarette, then I will say 'Yes, you are right.'" + +"I know I am right, and there can be no question of your smoking now." + +"But I want to smoke. You are impolite," she said, obstinately kicking up +her heel. + +Frederick ordered her to be quiet, and she let her foot drop again on the +leather upholstery. He looked at her with an intentionally exaggerated +expression of sternness. + +"I am not your slave, do you understand? Do you think I left Odessa, +where there is enough ordering about, to be ordered about by every +stranger I meet?" she grumbled. "I am cold. Please shut the door." + +"If you want, I will shut the door," said Frederick, getting up to do so +with an air of resignation not altogether genuine. + +In the morning in the steerage, Frederick and this Deborah had exchanged +a glowing look of understanding. Now, although, or perhaps because, the +wine was in his veins, he was eager for Doctor Wilhelm's return. His +absence seemed to be unduly prolonged. For a time the girl lay silent. +Frederick found it necessary to examine the tampon in her nostril. As he +was doing so, he noticed tears in her eyes. + +"What is the matter?" he asked. "Why are you crying?" + +She suddenly began to beat him with her arms and fists, called him a +sleek, heartless bourgeois, and wanted to jump up; but she had to succumb +to Frederick's superior, gentle strength and return to her reclining +posture. Frederick seated himself as before on an upholstered chair +opposite the couch. + +"My dear child," he said, very gently, "you are behaving queerly, +slinging about those honourable epithets. But we won't discuss that. You +are nervous. You are excited. You have no blood in your veins, and even +if you had a stronger constitution, the condition of your nerves after +the hardships of this trip, especially in the steerage, could scarcely be +different." + +"I'll never travel first class, never!" + +"Why not?" + +"Because, considering the misery in which the majority of human beings +are languishing, it is a mean low thing to do to travel first class. Read +Dostoievsky, read Tolstoy, read Kropotkin! We are being chased like +animals. We are being persecuted. It doesn't matter where we die." + +"It may interest you to know that I have read them all, Kropotkin, +Tolstoy, Dostoievsky. But don't suppose you are the only persecuted +person on earth. I am persecuted, too. We are all persecuted." + +"Oh, you are travelling first class and you are not a Jew. I am a Jew. +Have you the faintest idea of what it means to be a Jew in Russia?" + +"That is why you and I are now travelling to a new world," said +Frederick, "to America, the land of liberty." + +"Indeed!" she sneered, "I and liberty! I know my fate. Don't you know +into what hands I have fallen? I am the victim of vile exploiters!" + +The girl cried, and since she was young and of the same delicacy of +figure as Ingigerd, only of a very different race, a dark-haired, +dark-eyed race, Frederick felt himself perceptibly weakening. His +compassion grew; and he was well aware that openly expressed sympathy +is the surest approach to love. So he again forced himself into a hard, +repellent attitude of opposition. + +"Now I am nothing but a physician representing another physician. What +does it concern me, and how can I help it, if you have fallen into the +hands of exploiters? Besides, all of you intellectual Russians are +hysterical--a trait utterly repugnant to me." + +She jumped to her feet and wanted to run away. To restrain her he caught +first her right, then her left wrist. She looked at him with such an +expression of hate and contempt that he could not but be sensitive of the +girl's passionate beauty. Her face was of the colour that greensickness +imparts. Her features were exquisitely delicate. In contrast, Ingigerd's +face, with which Frederick fleetingly compared hers, seemed unrefined, +even coarse. Here was the aristocracy of a too highly bred race, somewhat +faded, to be sure, but at that moment all the more seductive. + +"Ugh! Let me go, let me go, I say!" + +"What have I done to you?" Frederick asked. For a moment he was genuinely +alarmed, scarcely knowing whether he had not been actually guilty of a +wrong against her. He had been drinking champagne and was excited. If +someone were to enter now, what would he think of him? Even centuries +before, had not Potiphar's wife, from whom Joseph fled, resorted to +certain successful slanderous means? "What have I done?" he repeated. + +"Nothing," she said, "except what you are in the habit of doing. You have +insulted an unprotected girl." + +"Are you crazy?" he asked. + +Suddenly she answered: "I don't know." And in that instant the hard, +hateful expression of her face melted, turning into complete submission, +a change that went irresistibly to the heart of a man like Frederick. He +forgot himself. He was no longer master of his feelings. + + + + +XXXI + + +This strange incident of meeting, seeing, loving, and parting forever had +passed swiftly as in a dream. Since Wilhelm had not yet returned, +Frederick, long after his visitor had fled, went out on deck, where the +exalted impression of the starry heavens shining over the infinite +expanse of the ocean, purified him, as it were. He was neither by nature +nor by habit a Don Juan, and it astonished him that the unusual, +surprising adventure seemed the most natural thing in the world. + +The deck was empty. Another boy was on guard in Pander's place. The +temperature had sunk to below freezing-point, and a thick coating of +hoar-frost lay on the rigging. + +As he stood leaning over the railing, he had a painful vision of the sum +total of life and death within the eons of life on earth. His innermost +being smarted with the pain of it. Death must have existed before the +beginning. Death and death! That was the limit, he thought, of vast sums +of trouble, hope, desire, enjoyment--enjoyment which forthwith consumed +itself to make way for renewed desire, for illusions of possession, for +realities of loss, for anguish, for conflicts, for meetings and partings; +all uncontrollable processes bound up with suffering and fresh suffering +and suffering again. It gave him some satisfaction to assume that now +that the passage was so smooth, his Deborah and all her companions in +suffering were probably lying wrapt in unconscious sleep, for a time +relieved of the great madness of life. + +While waiting for Doctor Wilhelm, absorbed in these reflections, +Frederick involuntarily turned away from the edge of the deck, and became +aware of a dark mass not far from the smoke-stack, cowering in a corner +against the wall. The thing looked strange to him. On stepping closer he +saw it was a man on the floor asleep, wrapped in his overcoat with his +cap drawn over his eyes, his bearded head resting on a low camp-chair. +Frederick was convinced it was Achleitner. Why was he lying there in the +freezing cold instead of in bed? Frederick found the right answer. Not +more than three paces away was the door of Ingigerd's cabin; and he was +the faithful dog in three senses, the watchdog, the Cerberus, the dog +crazed with the rabies of jealousy. + +"Poor fellow," Frederick said aloud. "Poor, stupid Achleitner!" He felt +genuine, almost tender sympathy; and over him came all the woe of the +deceived lover, as we can trace it from Nietzsche and Schopenhauer down +to Buddha Gotama, whose pupil, Ananda, asks: "Master, how shall we +comport ourselves toward a woman?" Quoth the master: "Avoid the sight of +her, Ananda, because a woman's being is hidden. It is unfathomable as the +way of the fish in the water. To her, lying is as truth, and truth as +lying." + +"Sst! What are you doing here?" said Doctor Wilhelm, stepping up softly. +He was carrying something in his hands carefully wrapped up. + +"Do you know who is lying here?" said Frederick. "It is Achleitner." + +"He wanted to keep his eye on that cabin," Wilhelm remarked cynically, +"to limit the attendance." + +"We must wake him up." + +"Why?" said Wilhelm. "Later, when we go to bed." + +"I am going to bed now." + +"Come to my cabin first for a moment." + +In his cabin the physician laid a human embryo on the table. + +"She has attained her end," he said, meaning the girl travelling second +class, who in his opinion had taken the trip for no other purpose than to +rid herself of her burden and avoid disgrace. At the sight of the little +object, Frederick did not know whether to be born or never to awaken to +life was preferable. + +He went out on deck again, aroused Achleitner, and led him to his cabin, +resisting and mumbling incomprehensible words, though half asleep. Then, +in dread of the agonies of insomnia, he went to his own cabin. + + + + +XXXII + + +He fell asleep immediately, but when he awoke, it was only two o'clock. +The ship was still moving easily, and he could hear the screw working +regularly under the water. Life in times of great physical crises is a +fever, which travelling and sleeplessness enhance. Frederick well knew +his own nature, and was alarmed when he saw himself robbed of the peace +of sleep after so short a time. + +But had his sleep actually meant peace? Lying on his back with wide, +staring eyes, he saw vast nocturnal spaces of his soul opened up, where +in bottomless depths another chaotic life had been born--a multitude of +tormenting visions, in which things and persons most familiar had arisen +in combination with things and persons entirely strange. He tried to +recall his dreams. + +He had dreamed he was wandering hand in hand with Achleitner among the +dark smoke widows trailing backward over the ocean from the funnels of +the _Roland_, far, far away. He and the Russian Jewess together with +great difficulty dragged the dead stoker, Zickelmann, up into the blue +ladies' parlour; and by means of a serum, which he himself had +discovered, he brought him back to life. He smoothed over a quarrel +between the Russian Jewess and Ingigerd Hahlström, who fought and called +each other abusive names. He was sitting with Doctor Wilhelm in his +cabin, and, as Wagner once had done, was observing a homunculus still +undergoing embryonic development in a glass sphere on which light was +shining. At the same time Ingigerd's cockatoo was squawking in Arthur +Stoss's voice and continually asseverating: + +"I am already a man of absolutely independent fortune. I am touring +simply to bring my fortune up to a certain amount." + +Under the impression that he was recalling these things to his memory, +Frederick was really dreaming again. Suddenly he started up, cuffing Hans +Füllenberg furiously and saying: "I'll box your ears." Shortly afterward +he was in the smoking-room delivering a crushing sermon for the third or +fourth time, morally felling to the ground the man who had desecrated his +sacred relation to Ingigerd. But the captain came in, and said they had +to bury the stoker. There was a dead man on board. When Frederick stepped +from the smoking-room, he saw the corpse lying in the coffin. It was not +Zickelmann, the stoker, but Angèle, his suffering, neglected wife, in one +of her hysterical attacks in which she lay in a trance. And it was not at +the entrance to the smoking-room, but in Plassenberg in the Heuscheuer, +in front of his comfortable house. Captain von Kessel was standing in the +garden clipping a privet hedge. It was at night, but a full moon was +shining bright as day over the lonely valley meadows in front of his +house. Angèle arose and Frederick went to lead her into the house. She +resisted. Now the consciousness of his spiritual separation from her +filled him with infinite sadness, a sadness more bitter and profound +than any that had ever inspired him in his waking moments. + +"I am a mother," said Angèle, "but not by you." + +He embraced her, weeping, and wanted to draw her into his house. She +resisted gently, but firmly, and declared she was forbidden to enter. He +saw her wandering across the meadows in the moonshine, slowly and +wearily. + +"Angèle!" he cried. He ran after her. + +"It is so hard for me," she said, "because life and not death has robbed +me of you." + +Frederick groaned aloud. A great stone seemed to be lying on his breast. +He heard the rushing of waters. He saw the flood come leaping through all +the valleys, over the tops of all the hills, wave upon wave, from all +sides. The moon was shining. He saw Angèle climb to a little skiff lying +moored somewhere; and the tide carried away the skiff with her in it. The +waters overwhelmed his house. + +Again the wandering began, hand in hand with Achleitner and the smoke +widows across the ocean desert. Again began that difficult dragging +up-stairs and down-stairs of the naked, dead stoker, with the help of the +young admirer of Kropotkin. The dispute between Ingigerd and Deborah, his +sermonising of Füllenberg and the man in the smoking-room repeated +themselves, each repetition intensifying his torment. The homunculus +in the glass sphere in Doctor Wilhelm's cabin appeared again. It +developed with light thrown on it. In his anguish, in his impotence +against that martyrising chase of visions, Frederick's persecuted soul, +gasping for peace, suddenly rose in revolt, and he said aloud: + +"Kindle the light of reason, kindle the light of reason, O God in +heaven!" + +He rose in his berth, and saw that Rosa, the servant-girl, was in reality +holding a burning candle over him. She bent down slightly, and said: + +"You are dreaming hard. Aren't you feeling well, Doctor von Kammacher?" + +The door creaked. The servant-girl Rosa had left. The ship was moving +quietly. Or was he mistaken? Was the _Roland_ no longer proceeding so +calmly and steadily as before? He listened intently, and heard the screw +whirring regularly under the water. Monotonous calls penetrated from the +deck. Then came the loud rattling of the cinders pouring overboard. +Frederick looked at his watch. It was five o'clock. So three hours had +passed since he had first awakened! Again, with a clatter and a thunder, +a load of ashes slid into the Atlantic Ocean. Was it not the mates of the +dead stoker, Zickelmann, who were throwing it overboard? Frederick heard +the crying of children, thereupon the sobbing and whimpering of his +hysterical neighbour, and finally Rosa's voice, trying to quiet Siegfried +and Ella, who was a talkative little girl. Siegfried was fretfully +begging to be taken back to his grandmother in Luckenwalde. Mrs. Liebling +was scolding Rosa, telling her she was responsible for the children's +behaviour. Frederick heard her say: + +"You all trample about on my nerves. I wish the three of you were at the +bottom of the sea. For heaven's sake, let me sleep!" + + + + +XXXIII + + +Notwithstanding all these impressions, Frederick fell asleep again. He +dreamed that he and Rosa, the maid, and little Siegfried Liebling were in +a life-boat, rocking on a calm, shimmering green sea. Strangely enough, +there was a mass of gold ingots in the bottom of the boat, probably the +gold ingots that the _Roland_ was supposed to be carrying to the mint in +Washington. Frederick was at the helm, and after cruising about a while, +they reached a bright, cheery port. It may have been a port in the +Azores, or the Madeira Islands, or the Canary Islands. At a short +distance from the quay, Rosa jumped overboard and reached land holding +Siegfried clear of the water. People received them, and they disappeared +in one of the snowy white buildings at the harbour front. When Frederick +landed, to his joy he was greeted on the marble steps of the quay by his +old friend, Peter Schmidt, the physician he intended to visit in America. +In response to curious questions, he always said that this was his main +purpose in crossing the ocean. His delight at seeing him in a dream, in +the setting of the white tropical town, after a separation of eight or +nine years, was a surprise to himself. How was it possible that he had +only occasionally and superficially remembered so magnificent a man, so +dear a youthful companion? + +Peter Schmidt was a Friesian. He and Frederick had sat together on the +same school bench; later, they had spent two years together in the +gymnasium at St. Magdalene at Breslau and several semesters in the +universities of Greifswald, Breslau, and Zürich. Owing to a combination +of common sense, many-sided knowledge, and humanitarian enthusiasm, Peter +Schmidt had exerted great influence on his friends. There was also an +adventurous streak in his nature, inherited from his father, a Friesian +colonist, who lay buried in a churchyard in Meriden, Connecticut. + +"It is good that you have come," said Peter Schmidt. Frederick felt as +if he had been long expecting him. "Your wife, Angèle, just arrived in +a skiff." + +His friend silently led him to an inn near the harbour. A sense of +security such as he had never before felt came over him. While he took +a little luncheon in the dining-room, where the host, a German, stood +opposite, twirling his thumbs, Peter Schmidt explained: + +"The town is not large, but it will give you an idea of the country. +You will find people here that are contented and have made their last +landing." + +It was taken as a matter of course that there, in that strange, silent +city in the dazzling sunlight, the fewest possible words were to be +spoken. Some new, mute inner sense appeared to make meanings clear. +Nevertheless, Frederick said: + +"I've always taken you for the mentor in unknown depths of our +predestination." By which he meant to express his awe at his friend's +mysterious being. + +"Yes," said Peter Schmidt, "but this is only a small beginning, though +enough to indicate what is hidden under the surface here." + +Peter Schmidt, born in Tondern, now led Frederick out to the harbour. It +was a very small harbour. There were a number of ancient vessels lying +half-sunk in the water. + +"Fourteen-ninety-two," said Peter Schmidt. That was the year the four +hundredth anniversary of which was being much discussed by the Americans +on board the _Roland_. The Friesian pointed to both the half-submerged +caravels and explained that one of them was the _Santa Maria_, +Christopher Columbus's flag-ship. "I came over with Christopher +Columbus," he said. + +All this was unqualifiedly enlightening to Frederick. Nor was there +anything enigmatic in Peter Schmidt's explanation that the wood of those +slowly decaying caravels was called _legno santo_ and was used for fuel, +because it contained the spirit of knowledge. Farther out to sea lay a +third vessel, with a great, black breach forward on the port side. + +"It sank," said the Friesian. "It brought in a great lot of people." + +Frederick looked at the vessel. He was dissatisfied. He would have liked +to ask questions about the unfamiliar, yet curiously familiar ship out +there at sea; but the Friesian left the harbour and turned into a narrow, +crooked street with a steep flight of stairs. + +Here an old uncle of Frederick, who had been dead more than fifteen +years, came toward him comfortably puffing at a pipe. He had just arisen, +it seemed, from a bench by the open entrance to his house. + +"How do you do?" he said. "We are all here, my boy." Frederick knew whom +the old man meant when he said, "We are all here." "We fare very well," +the old man, who in his lifetime had not been exactly favoured by +fortune, continued, grinning. "I didn't get along so well when I was up +with you in the dismal air. In the first place, my boy, we have the +_legno santo_." With his pipe he pointed to the dark interior of his +house, where blue tongues of flame were leaping on the hearth. "And +besides, we have the Toilers of the Light. But I am detaining you. _We_ +have time, but _you_ must hurry." Frederick said good-bye. +"Fiddlesticks!" exclaimed his uncle. "Do you people down there still keep +up that tiresome business of 'how-do-you-do' and 'good-bye'?" + +Climbing higher up the street, Peter Schmidt led Frederick through a +number of houses and inside courtyards. In one of the courtyards with +many corners, reminding Frederick of certain ancient sections of Hamburg +and Nuremberg, was a ship-chandlery bearing the sign, "The Seagoing +Ship." + +"Everything here looks quite ordinary," said Peter Schmidt, "but here we +have all the ancient models." He pointed to the small model of an ancient +vessel standing in the little window of the chandlery, among packages +of chewing tobacco and leather whips. + +Ships, ships, nothing but ships! The sight of this last vessel seemed +to produce the beginning of a slight gnawing resistance in Frederick's +brain. He knew he was looking upon an all-embracing symbol, which he had +never before seen. With a new sense organ, with centralised clarity of +thought, he realised that here, in this little model, was comprehended +all the wandering and adventuring of the human soul. + +"Oh," said the chandler, opening the glass door of the little shop, at +which all sorts of wares hanging on the door swung to and fro with a +clatter, "Oh, you here, Frederick? I thought you were still at sea." + +Frederick recognised the chandler as George Rasmussen, whose farewell +letter he had received in Southampton. He was dressed in a shabby cap and +dressing-gown belonging to a confectioner long dead, whom he had known +when a boy. Mysterious as it all was, there was yet something natural in +this meeting with his friend. The little shop was alive with goldfinches. +"They are the goldfinches," Rasmussen explained, "that settled in the +Heuscheuer Mountains last winter, you know, and were fatal to me." + +"Yes, I remember," said Frederick. "We would approach a bare branch or +tree, and suddenly it would seem to shake itself and scatter thousands of +gold leaves. We interpreted it as auguring mountains of money." + +"Well," said the chandler, "it was precisely thirteen minutes past one +on the twenty-fourth of January when I drew my last breath. I had just +received your telegram from Paris absolving me from my debt. Back there +in the shop, among other things, is my predecessor's fur coat, which--I +am by no means complaining--infected me. I wrote you that if I could, I +would make myself noticeable from the Beyond. Well, here I am. But even +here everything isn't perfectly clear and plain, though I am feeling +better, and we all rest in a pleasant sense of basic security. I'm glad +you and Peter Schmidt have met. He counts for a lot here in this country. +You will meet each other above again, in New York, at the celebration of +the four hundredth anniversary of 1492. Good Lord! Of what significance +after all, is that little discovery of America?" Rasmussen in his strange +disguise removed the miniature vessel from the show window. It, too, was +called the _Santa Maria_. "Now, please be careful," he said. Frederick +noticed that the old confectioner took one vessel after another of the +same sort, but diminishing in size, from the first one. "Patience," he +said, while still pulling more and more vessels from the entrails of the +_Santa Maria_. The procedure caused Frederick no slight astonishment. +"Patience. The smaller are always the better ones. If I had time, we +should reach the smallest, the final, the most glorious work of +Providence. Each one of these ships carries us not only beyond the +boundaries of our planet, but even beyond the limited barriers of our +senses. Each of them is adapted to carry us across the border. If you are +interested," he continued, "I have other wares in my shop. Here are the +captain's hedge-scissors, here is a plummet with which one can sound the +lowest depths of the firmament and the Milky Way. Here are the tropics of +Cancer and Capricorn. But you have no time, and I won't detain you." + +The chandler closed the glass door on them; but they saw him with his +nose flattened against the pane, mysteriously, as if he still had +something to sell, holding his finger to his mouth, shaped like a carp's. +His lips seemed to be framing certain words. Frederick understood _legno +santo_, Toilers of the Light, and even what his uncle had said about "up +with you in the dismal air." But Peter Schmidt thrust his fist through +the glass door, pulled Rasmussen's embroidered cap off his head, took +from it a little key, and beckoned Frederick to come away with him. They +left the houses behind and stepped out into the open rolling country. + +"The thing is," said Peter, "it will mean a lot of trouble." + +And they ran and climbed for hours. Evening fell. They lit a fire, and +slept in a tree rocking in the wind. Morning came. They took to wandering +again, until the sun lay low on the horizon. Finally, Peter opened a +small gate in a low wall. On the other side of the wall was a garden. +A gardener was tying vines. + +"How do you do, Doctor?" he said. "The sun is setting, but we know why we +die." + +On looking at him more closely, Frederick recognised the dead stoker in +the man, whose face was illuminated by the rosy flush of the setting sun +and wore a friendly smile, as he stood there in what was a strange +garden, or vineyard, or fairy-land. + +"I'd rather be doing this than shovelling coal," said the stoker, +pointing to the cords hanging in his hands, with which he had been tying +up the vines. + +The three of them together now walked a rather long distance to a wild +section of the garden, where it had turned completely dark. The wind +began to rush, and the shrubs, trees and bushes of the garden swished +like breakers on the shore. The stoker beckoned to them, and they +squatted on the ground in a circle. It seemed as if the stoker with his +bare hand had taken a bit of burning wood from his pocket. He held it +close to the ground, to illuminate a round opening, something like the +burrow of a marmot or a rabbit. + +"_Legno santo_," said Peter Schmidt, pointing to the glowing piece of +charcoal. "Now, Frederick, you will get to see those ant-like little +elves that are called _noctiluci_ or night-lights. They pompously call +themselves Toilers of the Light. But whatever their name, it must be +admitted that they are the ones that take the light hidden in the +entrails of the earth, store it up, and sow it in fields, the soil of +which has been especially prepared; and when it has grown to its full +size and has borne fruit a hundredfold in the shape of gold sheaves or +nuggets, they harvest it and save it for the darkest of dark times." + +And, actually, looking through a crevice, Frederick saw something like +another world, with a subterranean sun shining on it. A multitude of +little elves, the Toilers of the Light, were mowing with scythes, cutting +stalks, binding sheaves, loading carts, and storing in barns. Many cut +the light out of the ground, like nuggets of gold. Undoubtedly it was the +gold meant for the mint in Washington that was haunting Frederick's +dreams. + +"These Toilers of the Light," said the Friesian, Peter Schmidt, "are the +most stimulating to my ideas." + +At this point Frederick awoke, while the voice of the stoker close beside +him was saying: + +"Many will soon be following me." + + + + +XXXIV + + +The first thing Frederick did on waking was to look at his watch. He had +a dull feeling that he must have slept through the whole night and even +the following day. He peered at the hands incredulously and held the +watch to his ear to convince himself it had not stopped. No, it was still +running. Consequently, since his last waking, only six or, at the utmost, +eight minutes had passed. + +This fact as well as the peculiarity and the vividness of his dream set +him to marvelling. He could not recall ever having dreamed so coherently +and logically. Are there dreams that are more than dreams? Was Rasmussen +dead? Had his friend, keeping his promise, chosen this way to make +himself noticeable from the Beyond? A strange shudder went through +Frederick. In his excitement it seemed to him that he had been honoured +with a revelation. He took his memorandum book from the net bag over his +berth and jotted down the date and hour that the remarkable chandler had +mentioned as the time of his death. "Thirteen minutes past one," he +distinctly heard Rasmussen's voice saying, "thirteen minutes past one, on +the twenty-fourth of January." + +The _Roland_ was tossing slightly again, and the great siren was +bellowing. Its repeated thunderous cries, which indicated fog, the +lurching of the vessel, the sign, perhaps, of fresh storms and hardships +to be gone through, vexed and fretted Frederick. From the adventurous +doings in his brain, he was transported to the no less adventurous doings +in reality. Awakening from his dreams, he found himself locked into a +narrow cabin, plowing through the high seas, on a vessel heavily +freighted with the fearful dreams of many souls, and yet not sinking +from the load of that cargo. + +Frederick was already on deck before half past five. The fog had lifted, +and from over the edge of a leaden sea of moderate-sized waves rose the +dawn of a gloomy morning. The deck was empty, producing the impression of +dreary loneliness. The passengers were all lying in their berths. None of +the crew even were visible. It looked as if the mighty ship were pursuing +its course wholly without human agency. + + + + +XXXV + + +Frederick was standing near the log-line, which dragged in the broad, +churning wake. Even in the ghostly dawn, hungry gulls were following the +ship, sometimes flying near, sometimes dropping back, ever and anon +swooping down into the foamy wake with a mournful cry, as of condemned +souls. This was no vision, and yet Frederick scarcely distinguished it +from a dream. With his nerves unstrung, with his being still penetrated +by the marvels of his sleeping life, which remained partially present to +him, the strange heaving waste of the ocean seemed no less miraculous +than his dreams. Thus the ocean had been tossing its mountains of waves +beneath the blind eyes of millions of years, itself no less blind than +those eons. Thus and not otherwise had it been since the first day of +creation: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the +earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the +deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." + +Frederick shivered. Had he ever lived with anything else than a spirit +and spirits, that is, with ghosts? And at this moment was he not farther +removed than ever from what is considered immovable solid ground, from +what is called reality? In his state of mind, did he not believe in fairy +tales, sailors' superstitions, the Flying Dutchman, and hobgoblins? What +was that ocean hiding in its infinite waves rolling under the low, grey +sky? Had not everything arisen from the ocean? Had not everything gone +down into its depths again? Had some power disclosed the submerged +Atlantis to Frederick's mental vision? Why not? + +He was passing through profound, enigmatic moments of a fearful yet +pleasurable dread. There was the ocean, on which an apparently abandoned +vessel, a small spot in infinity, was staggering forward with no visible +goal ahead and no visible starting-point behind. There were the heavens +lying heavily upon it, grey and dismal. There was Frederick himself, +alone. Every animate creature in that solitude was transformed in his +soul into visions, phantoms and apparitions. Man is always facing the +unfathomable alone. That gives him a sense of greatness along with a +sense of desertion. There was a man standing at the stern of a vessel, +while the darkness of night was yielding to the dawn, bound by the +invisible, glowing threads of his fate to two continents of the globe, +and awaiting the new, less tormenting form of life that comes from the +sun, a strange star millions of miles removed from the planet earth. All +this was a miracle to Frederick, almost overwhelming him, as if he were +imprisoned in marvels. In a sudden seizure of hopelessness that he would +ever throw off the suffocating oppression of riddles and miracles, the +temptation came upon him to leap over the railing. Close upon this +feeling followed the timidity of a man with a bad conscience. He glanced +about, as if in fear of discovery. He wiped his eyes and forehead with +his hands, because it seemed to him that the dead stoker with the bloody +wound had for a long time been sitting nearby on a coil of rope. His +chest felt heavy, as if a load were dragging it down. He heard voices. He +saw his wife, Angèle, wringing her hands. Suddenly he thought he was to +blame for her illness, that he was a criminal; and all his thoughts of +Ingigerd Hahlström made him doubly despicable in his own eyes. His ideas +grew confused. In a wave of absolute credulity, he thought the voice of +his conscience was condemning him to death. He thought that his life was +being demanded as an atonement, that he must sacrifice himself, or else +the _Roland_, with all it carried, would sink. + +At that moment Frederick heard a strong voice saying: + +"Good morning, Doctor von Kammacher." + +It was the first mate, Von Halm, on his way to the bridge. Before the +healthy beauty of the human voice, the haunting visions instantly fled, +and Frederick's soul was restored to sanity. + +"Were you making deep-sea researches?" Von Halm asked. + +"Yes," said Frederick with a laugh, "I was about to make a sounding for +the submerged Atlantis. What do you think of the weather?" + +The giant was wearing his sou'wester and oilskin. He pointed to the +barometer. Frederick saw it had dropped considerably. Adolph, the +steward, came in search of Frederick. Having failed to find him in his +cabin, he was bringing him his zwieback and large peasant cup of tea on +deck. Frederick seated himself on the same bench as the day before, +opposite the companionway. He sipped the cordial drink and warmed +his hands on the cup. + +Before he had finished, the wind was again beginning to boom in the +rigging of the four masts, and a stiff, obstinate wind was heeling the +vessel to starboard. Frederick set to bargaining inwardly, as if he had +to reckon with the powers on account of the new hardships to be gone +through. He suddenly longed to be with Peter Schmidt in America. Since +his dream, it seemed more and more important for him to see, and +associate with, his old comrade again. He thought he was rid of Ingigerd, +the more surely as she had played no part at all in the momentous +Atlantis dream. The sooner the voyage with her ended the better. + + + + +XXXVI + + +By the time Frederick was taking his real breakfast with Doctor Wilhelm +in the dining-room, at about eight o'clock, the whole mass of the vessel +was again quivering and at short intervals again seemed to be running +hard against walls of rock. The low-ceiled room in dismal gloom, dotted +here and there by electric lights, was leaping in a mad dance, one moment +riding high on the crest of a wave, the next moment plunging deep into an +eddying trough. The few men that had ventured to table tried to laugh and +joke away the situation, which by no means offered a rosy outlook. + +"In the pit of my stomach I have the feeling I used to get as a child +when I swung too high." + +"Kammacher, we're in the devil's cauldron. There'll be things doing +compared with which the things we've gone through aren't a circumstance," +said Wilhelm. + +From somewhere came the word, "Cyclone," a dreadful word, though it +seemed to make no impression upon the steamer _Roland_, a model of +determination, steadfastly cleaving the waves and tearing breaches in +the mountains of water. New York was its goal, and it was hastening +onward. + +Frederick wanted to go on deck, but it looked bad there, and he remained +on the upper step under the protection of the companionway penthouse. The +level of the sea seemed to have risen, so that the warrior _Roland_ +appeared to be making his obstinate way through a deep defile. One could +not help succumbing to the impression that each instant the defile would +close overhead and settle the faithful vessel's fate forever. Sailors in +oilskins were climbing about to make fast every loose thing. Great waves +had already swept overboard. The salt water was trickling and flowing +over the deck. As if that were not enough, the heavens were driving down +rain and snow. The rigging was howling, groaning, booming, and whistling +in every pitch and key. That severity, that awfulness of the elements, +that eternal rushing and roaring and seething of great masses of water, +through which the steamer was staggering forward as if in mad, blind +intoxication, that mournful, raging tumult kept up hour after hour. By +noon it had even grown worse. + +Very few responded to the trumpet-call for luncheon. There were about ten +men beside the woman physician and the woman painter. Hahlström seated +himself at Frederick's and Wilhelm's empty table. The ladies' places were +not far away. + +"No wonder," said Frederick, "that sailors are superstitious. The way +this awful weather dropped out of a clear sky is enough to make a man +believe in magic." + +"It may even grow worse," Wilhelm observed. + +The women heard his remark, looked up, and made horrified eyes. + +"Do you think there is danger?" one of them asked. + +"Danger is always imminent in life," he replied, and added with a smile: +"It is merely a question of not being frightened." + +Incredible to relate, the band began to play as usual, and, what is more, +played a piece entitled _Marche triomphale_. The effect on all was at +first a slight shudder; then nobody could resist a smile at the apparent +irony of it. + +"The musicians are heroes," said Frederick. + +"In general," remarked Hahlström, "our grim humour nowadays is a great +asset. If those musicians were to receive the order, they would play 'A +Country Girl,' and 'My Hannah Lady,' in the jaws or the belly of a whale. +If they didn't, they'd fare just as badly." + +"O Lord, anything for a steady table, a steady seat, a steady berth! The +man possessing these things seldom knows how rich he is," said Frederick, +in a voice raised to a shout to make himself heard above the noise of the +sea without and the music within. The men laughed, and the ocean, to add +to their amusement, raised them up in the fog, the tempest, and the snow +to the top of a wave ninety feet high. Everybody was instantly silenced. +Even the orchestra played a frightened pause not indicated in the score. + +On ascending the companionway after lunch, Frederick saw Arthur Stoss in +the unfrequented smoking-room eating his meal in perfect equanimity and +cheerfulness undisturbed by the weather. Frederick went in for a chat +with the original, witty monstrosity. He was cutting his fish with a +knife and fork held between the great toe and the second toe. + +"Our old omnibus is jolting a bit," he said. "If our boilers are good, +there is nothing to fear. But there's this much about it. If it is not +a cyclone yet, it may still turn into one. I don't care. It looks more +discouraging than it really is. What a man will do! To show the people +in Cape Town, Melbourne, Buenos Aires, San Francisco and Mexico what a +man with a firm, energetic will can accomplish, even if nature has not +favoured him, he will plow through all the cyclones, hurricanes and +typhoons of all the waters of the globe. Your business man sitting in the +Winter Garden in Berlin, or the Alhambra in London, never dreams of all +the things the performer giving his number must go through before he can +merely stand where he is standing. He can't ever take it easy and let +himself get rusty." + +Frederick was feeling miserable. Although his dreams were still haunting +his brain, and Ingigerd, or his sick wife, or the Russian Jewess was +still present in his soul, he nevertheless felt that all sensations were +becoming more and more submerged in the one sensation, that on all sides +there was distinct menace of a brutal danger. + +Hans Füllenberg entered. His face was lifeless. + +"There is a corpse on board," he said, in a tone implying a causal +relation between the dead stoker and the raging storm. It was very +evident that the spice had been taken out of Hans Füllenberg's life. + +"I heard the same thing," Stoss said. "My man, Bulke, told me a stoker +died." + +Frederick simulated ignorance of the event. Accustomed to observe himself +honestly, he realized that though the fact was not new to him, +Füllenberg's statement of it had made him shudder. + +"The dead man is dead," said Stoss, now attacking his roast with +appetite. "We won't be wrecked on the dead stoker's corpse. But last +night a derelict was sighted. Those corpses, the corpses of vessels, are +dangerous. When the sea is rough, they can't be sighted." + +Frederick asked for more information about derelicts. + +"About nine hundred and seventy-five drifting derelicts," Stoss +explained, "have been sighted in five years here in the northern part of +the Atlantic. It is certain that the actual number is twice as great. One +of the most dangerous of such tramps is the iron four-masted schooner, +_Houresfeld_. On its way from Liverpool to San Francisco, fire broke out +in its hold, and the crew abandoned it. If we were to collide with +anything of that sort, there wouldn't be a soul left to tell the tale." + +"You can't pass through the gangways," said Füllenberg, "the bulkheads +are closed down." + +The siren began to roar again. Frederick still heard defiance and triumph +in the cry, and yet something recalling the broken horn of the hero +Roland in Roncesvalles. + +"There is no danger yet," said Stoss to calm him. + + + + +XXXVII + + +Long after Stoss had been led away by his valet and tucked in bed for his +afternoon nap, Frederick still remained in the unfrequented smoking-room. +The place made an uncanny impression. Yet its very gloominess insured +privacy; and in the gravity of the situation he had need to be by +himself. He began, perhaps prematurely, to consider the worst +eventuality. He thought it might be well to stand in readiness. Around +the walls ran a bench upholstered in leather. Kneeling on it, he could +look through the port-holes out upon the mighty uproar of the waters. In +that position, watching the waves beat with inconceivable persistency +against the desperately struggling vessel, he let his life pass in review +before his mind's eye. + +Grey gloom was closing down on him. After all, he felt that he yearned +for life and was far from being as ready to die as he had occasionally +supposed. Something akin to regret came over him. "Why am I here? Why did +I not stop to consider and summon all my rational will power to keep me +from this senseless trip? For all I care, let me die; but not here, not +in a desert of water far from mother earth, immeasurably far from the +great community of men. This seems to me a particularly awful curse. Men +on solid land, in their own homes, men among men, have not the least +notion of it." What was Ingigerd to him now? A matter of indifference. +Shaking his head, he admitted that he now had only the narrowest concern +for himself. What a beautiful hope to escape that brutal fate and land on +some shore! Any fragment of land, any island, any city, any snow-clad +village was a garden of Eden, an improbable dream of happiness. How +extravagantly grateful he would be in the future merely to tread dry +land, merely to draw breath, merely to see a lively street! He gnashed +his teeth. Of what avail a cry for help here? How could a man find God's +ear here? If the extreme thing were to happen, and the _Roland_ with its +mass of human beings were to founder, one would see things that would +prevent the man that had seen them, even if he escaped, from ever being +happy again. + +"I would not witness it," thought Frederick. "I would jump overboard to +avoid the sight of it. And while that would be happening, none of my +friends and relatives would be thinking of me at all. 'The steamship +_Roland_ sunk' appears as a head-line in the newspapers. 'Oh!' says the +reader in Berlin, the reader in Hamburg, and Amsterdam. He takes a sip +of coffee, puffs at his cigar, and comfortably settles back to a taste of +more details of the catastrophe, whether observed or fabricated. What a +hurrah for the newspaper publishers! A sensation! More readers! That is +the Medusa into whose eyes we look, and who tells us what the genuine +value of a cargo of human lives is in the world." + +Frederick attempted in vain to battle against a still-life picture, +which the _Roland_, valiantly struggling onward, with its siren almost +stifled in the storm, showed him at the bottom of the sea. He saw the +majestic vessel in a coffin of glass. Across its decks swarms of fish +swam hither and thither. Its cabins were all filled with water. The +large dining-room, with its panels of walnut, its tables, and +leather-upholstered revolving chairs, was filled with water. A big polyp, +jelly-fish, and red, mushroom-like sea-anemones had penetrated into the +very gangways along which the passengers were now walking. And to +Frederick's horror, the liveried corpses of Pfundner, the head-steward, +and his assistant stewards were slowly floating about in a circle. The +picture would have been almost ridiculous, had it not been so gruesome +and had it not so certainly lain in the realm of the possible. Think of +all the things divers report! All the things they have seen in the cabins +and gangways of submerged steamers; inextricably knotted masses of human +beings, passengers or sailors coming toward them with outstretched arms, +upright, as if alive and as if awaiting them. A closer examination of the +clothes of those guardians and administrators of a lost estate at the +bottom of the sea, those strange ship-owners, business men, captains, +pursers, those fortune-seekers, money-seekers, embezzlers, adventurers, +or whatever they might be, showed that they were filled with polyps, +crustaceans, and all sorts of ocean worms, enjoying their stay there +as long as something remained beneath their shredded garments except +gnawed-off bones. + +Frederick beheld himself down there, too, one of those decaying phantoms, +months old, wandering about in the ghastly abode of the sunken _Roland_, +in that horrible Vineta, where each man passed his neighbour mutely with +a frightened gesture, each seeming to carry in his breast a congealed cry +of anguish, which he expressed with bowed head and outstretched arms, or +head thrown back and open mouth. Or else he was hideously crawling on his +hands, or wringing his hands, or folding them, or spreading out his +fingers. The engineers in the boiler-room seemed still slowly, slowly +to be controlling the cylinder and driving-wheel; yet differently than +before, since the law of gravity seemed no longer to be in force. One of +the engineers was doing his work in a peculiarly twisted way, like a man +asleep caught between the rim of the wheel and the piston-rod covered +with verdigris. Frederick descended on his ghastly tour down to the +stokers, whom the catastrophe had surprised in the midst of their +occupation. Some were still holding their shovels in their hands, though +unable to lift them. They themselves were floating, while the shovels to +which they clung did not stir from the bottom. All was over. They could +not kindle the fire into a white glow, and so could not keep the mighty +steamer in its course. In the steerage the sight was so horrible to +behold, with men, women and children of all nationalities huddled and +tossed in thick, dark heaps, that even a cat-shark, which had made its +way through the chimney of the stoke-hole and then through the engine, +did not feel sufficiently courageous or hungry to mingle in the +gathering. _Noli turbare circulos meos_, these people, too, seemed to +be saying. All were thinking strenuously, absorbed in the profoundest +meditation--they had plenty of time for profound meditation--upon the +riddle of life. + +In fact, they seemed to be placed there merely for the purpose of +reflecting. Those men and women wringing their hands or spreading their +fingers, or walking on their hands, or even standing on the tip of a +single finger, while grazing the ceiling with their feet, were all +thinking. Professor Toussaint alone, who came floating toward Frederick +in the gangway, seemed to be acting differently. With his right hand +raised, he seemed to be saying: "An artist may not rust. He must air +himself. He must seek new conditions of life. If he doesn't receive the +honour he should in Italy, he should simply go to France, like Leonardo +da Vinci, or even emigrate to the land of liberty." + +"I want to live, live, nothing else," thought Frederick. "In the future, +like Cato the Elder, I would rather walk a year on foot along a way that +I could cover in three days on a steamer." + +To avoid the hideous companionship of the blue, swollen thinkers, he left +the gloomy, funereal smoking-room, and, with aching head and leaden +limbs, dragged himself on deck, where the wild scurrying of the storm +and the chaos of snow, rain and salty clouds of foam tore the weight away +from his soul. + + + + +XXXVIII + + +In the space at the head of the companionway Frederick came upon the +same company as the day before, sitting close together in steamer +chairs--Toussaint, the timid skipper of the sailing vessel, the woman +artist, the woman physician, the tall electrical engineer, and a man who +had not been there the day before, an American colonel. He was a handsome +specimen of the highest type of his widely spread species. He was engaged +in a conversation on the number of miles covered by all the railroads in +the United States, and his statements concerning their extent set fire to +the European chauvinism of the electrical engineer. They forgot the +weather in their debate. Each party to the dispute named an incredible +number of miles and vaunted the advantages of the railroads in his native +country. + +"We are running at only half speed," said Toussaint to Frederick. "Isn't +it strange how suddenly the weather changed?" + +"Very," answered Frederick. + +"Of course," Toussaint continued with a pale grimace intended for a +smile, "I don't understand anything about cyclones, but the seamen say +this storm is cyclonic." + +"It may be called a cyclone," said the timid little skipper of the +sailing vessel. "If it were striking us astern instead of ahead, it would +not be so bad. As it is, the _Roland_ at the utmost cannot make more than +three miles an hour. Were I on my schooner and had the same storm blown +up so suddenly, we should not have had time to furl a sail. We should +have been lost. Thank the Lord, it is better on modern steamers. +Nevertheless, I feel more comfortable on my four-master, and the devil +knows, I'd like to be on it now." + +Frederick could not help laughing. + +"As for the _Roland_," he said, "I would rather be, let us say, in the +Hofbräuhaus in Munich. Your four-master has no greater charms for me than +a cabin on the _Roland_." + +Hans Füllenberg came lounging in and told them a wave had swept away one +of the life-boats on the after quarter. At the very same instant an +arched mass of water came flying slantwise over the port bow. + +"Oh!" everybody cried. + +"Magnificent, beautiful," said Frederick. + +"That's cyclonic," the woman artist repeated. + +"Believe me," they heard the colonel say again, "the stretch from New +York to Chicago alone"-- + +"That was a Niagara Falls," said Toussaint. + +The wave, dropping into the ventilators and chimneys, had fairly bathed +the vessel. It was cold, too, and the _Roland_ was continuing its +obstinate, praiseworthy trip under a crust of ice and snow. Icicles were +hanging from the rigging. Glassy stalactites formed about the chart-room +and everywhere on the railings and edges of things. The deck was +slippery, and it was a perilous venture to attempt to make one's way +forward. But when Ingigerd's cabin door opened and her long light hair +rumpled by the wind appeared in the slit, Frederick instantly made the +venture. She drew him into her cabin, where he found two children keeping +her company. + +"I invited them to stay with me because it's fairly comfortable in this +cabin." + +The seriousness of the situation had extinguished in the girl all +coquetry and capriciousness. Frederick almost forgot what he had suffered +on her account and in what fatal dependence he had been upon this +creature only a short time before. + +"Tell me, is there danger, Doctor von Kammacher?" she asked. + +His evasive answer seemed to make no impression upon her. He was +astonished to see how energetic and resolute she was, in contrast with +her behaviour of yesterday, when she played the spoiled, suffering, +helpless child. She begged him to go try to find her father. + +"In case anything happens, you know, it would be well not to be so far +away from him." + +"What do you suppose will happen?" + +Without answering this, she asked him to stop at cabin 49 on the way and +tell Rosa to come up. + +"My little guests keep clamouring for her. If she doesn't come up for +a while, I can't keep them quiet. Then she can serenely go back again +to her silly, sentimental mistress. What do you think of a man like +Achleitner?" she continued. "He is lying on all fours in his cabin, +crying and groaning, 'Oh, my poor mother! Oh, my poor sister! Why didn't +I obey you, mamma!' and so on. Just fancy, a man! Poor fellow!" she +added, her tone changing. "It's enough to move a heart of stone." She +held fast to the bedstead, not to be thrown into a corner like a +splinter, and shook with laughter. + +The mountain of stones under which Frederick had buried the little +sinner, Ingigerd, was at that moment removed, and love stood there with +unparalleled might. Such genuine bravery and genuine humour, combined +with so much tenderness, he had never credited her with. Nervous and +tired as he was, he felt irresistibly drawn to her, felt his will +slipping from him. But a little, and he would have thrown himself to +the floor and kissed the small feet in slippers. + +Frederick's amazement waxed when all of a sudden she wanted to cross +the deck and go below to comfort that donkey Achleitner. Frederick +would not allow her. He was ashamed of his previous attack of fright, +called himself a miserable coward, and got himself under perfect +control. In this attitude he played the rôle of a severe mentor, +Ingigerd's responsible guardian and protector, strict, but fatherly +and good-natured. Though she laughed at him, it by no means displeased +her to let him have his way. + + + + +XXXIX + + +Frederick's kindliness to Ingigerd's little wards made it unnecessary to +summon Rosa. He asked the children their names, and they were soon +chattering confidingly with their new uncle. Ella Liebling, a girl of +five, to whom Ingigerd had given her doll, was sitting at one end of the +couch, a cover wrapped about her legs, while Siegfried had established +himself comfortably on the bed. With a spiritless expression for a child, +he was playing a rather monotonous game of cards with an imaginary +partner. + +"Mamma is divorced," Ella explained. "Papa was always quarrelling with +her." + +"Yes," said Siegfried, pushing his cards aside, as if waking up from +a trance, and bending over to Frederick, who was sitting beside Ella, +"mamma once threw a boot at papa." + +"But papa is strong," said Ella. "He once picked up a chair and knocked +it down and smashed it to pieces." + +Though Ingigerd was suffering from nausea, she had to laugh. + +"Those children are great sport," she said. + +"Papa once threw a bottle against the wall," Siegfried went on, "because +Uncle Bolle was always coming to see us." + +And so the children continued, like little wiseacres, to discuss in +detail the theme of "happy marriages." + +"Rosa says mamma is to blame because papa left us," observed Siegfried. + +"I think so, too," said Ella. "I think mamma's to blame." + +"Rosa said mamma doesn't do anything but read novels." + +"Rosa says," Ella chimed in, "that if mamma were not always lying in bed, +she would feel much better." + +And "Rosa says," "Rosa says," went on for a long while. The former +non-commissioned officer and lackey of the vaudeville star, Bulke, came +towing Rosa across the deck in the same way as he did his master. Both +looked red and contented. Frederick asked what the prospects were for the +_Roland_. + +"Oh, everything's all right," Bulke laughed, "if only something else +doesn't turn up." + +"Bulke," said Rosa, "take Siegfried on your back." + +Bulke proceeded to do so, while Rosa lifted Ella to her crimson arm. + +Now the children begged to remain where they were, although before they +had been annoying Ingigerd by constantly crying for Rosa. + +"Let them stay," said Ingigerd. + +Rosa thanked her. "They are really best off here," she said. "All they +take for supper is some milk and a roll. I will bring it right away." + +"What is that on your arm?" asked Frederick. It looked as if a beast had +been clawing at her. + +"Oh, nothing," she said. "My mistress doesn't know what she is doing. +She's out of her senses from seasickness and fright." + + + + +XL + + +For five hours the cyclone raged unmercifully. At ever shorter intervals, +gust on gust in increasing fury hurled itself against the vessel. + +With great difficulty Frederick made his way down to the barber, who, +though the ship's movement was a fearful combination of rolling and +pitching, actually performed the miracle of shaving him. + +"One has to keep going," said the barber. "If you don't work, you're +lost." + +He spoke and suddenly stopped, removed the razor from Frederick's throat +and turned pale, if his dirty grey colour could turn a shade lighter. +Frederick's face, too, still partly covered with lather, showed signs of +surprise and alarm. In the engine-room the signal bell had rung loud, as +a sign that the captain was sending an order down from the bridge through +the speaking-tube. Thereupon the revolution of the engines had slowed +down and within a few moments had ceased entirely. This event, simple +enough in itself, had in this weather, about fifteen hundred miles from +land, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the effect of a catastrophe, +not only on Frederick and the barber, but on every passenger still +capable of reasoning, and even on the whole crew. One instantly observed +the excitement that seized upon all at the cessation of the engines, +which seemed to turn the vessel into a torpid, powerless thing. Voices +cried, women shrieked, steps hurried up and down the gangways. A man tore +the door open and indignantly cried, as if imputing to the poor barber +the responsibility of a captain: + +"Why are we standing still?" + +Frederick wiped the lather from his face and, along with a multitude of +questioning, groping, staggering persons, thrown now against one wall of +the gangway, now against the other, hastened to make his way on deck. + +"We are drifting," everybody said. + +"The screw is broken." + +"Cyclone!" + +"Oh," said a young girl, who had dragged herself up in a dressing-gown, +to Frederick, "I don't care about myself, not a bit, but my poor mother, +my poor mother in Stuttgart." + +"What's the matter? What's the matter?" twenty voices at the same time +demanded of a steward, who was attending to his duties. He ran away, +shrugging his shoulders. + +Since the passengers, huddled like sheep, blocked the way to the deck at +the head of the companionway, Frederick tried to get out by another way, +leading a long distance through the after part of the vessel and then +through a narrow corridor forward again. He walked rapidly and seemed +outwardly composed, though in a state of unusual tensity, even fear. + +In the second cabin Frederick's way was barred by a good-looking young +man standing in front of his cabin barefoot, in his shirt sleeves and +trousers. He was attempting to button his collar; but in his excitement +was not succeeding. + +"What's the matter?" he shouted to Frederick. "Is everybody in this +cursed hole crazy? The first thing you know a stoker dies, and now there +is a leak, or the screw is broken. What's the matter with the captain? I +am an officer. I must be in San Francisco on the twenty-fifth of +February, without fail. If it keeps on this way, I'll be in a fix." + +Frederick wanted to hurry by, but the man got in his way. + +"I am an officer," he said. "My name is Von Klinkhammer." Frederick also +gave his name. "That's what comes of having priests on board," the young +man continued, twirling the end of his moustache upward, Prussian +fashion. "If there's no help for it, then the fellows ought simply to be +chucked overboard. What is the captain thinking of?" he kept shouting, +while an unexpected lurch of the vessel sent him plunging against the +wall almost back into his cabin. "I didn't leave the service and give up +a career and board this damned--" + +But Frederick had run away. Now deep, intense silence prevailed +throughout the vessel, which was like a dead thing; a silence, in which +every now and then a step or a hasty tread on the heavy carpet in the +gangway was audible. Through the thin walls came the dull, confused +murmur of many voices. Doors banged, and when they opened, brief, broken +sounds penetrated from the cabins, evidence of the bewilderment and alarm +of their tenants. The thing that was particularly weird to Frederick in +that swaying corridor, creaking like a new boot and lighted by +electricity, was the incessant ringing of electric bells. In a hundred +cabins at the same time, frightened persons, who had paid dear for their +passage and were entitled to excellent service, were pressing the +buttons. None of them was inclined to recognise the _force majeure_ of +the Atlantic Ocean, the cyclone, the breaking of the screw, or any other +possible accident. They thought that by ringing the bells they would be +giving expression to the irresistible demand for a responsible rescuer to +bring them safely to dry land. + +"Who knows," thought Frederick, "while they are ringing the bells down +here, perhaps the life-belts are being handed out on deck, the boats are +being swung out on the water and over-loaded with passengers to the +sinking point." + + + + +XLI + + +But, thank the Lord, by the time he had finally fought his way to +Ingigerd's cabin on deck, it had not yet reached that point. It was to +Ingigerd Hahlström that an impulse had been driving him. Beside the +children, for whom in a motherly way she was trying constantly to devise +a new occupation, he found her father and Doctor Wilhelm. + +"People's cowardice is something fearful," said Doctor Wilhelm. + +"Easily said; but what's the matter?" asked Frederick. + +"One of the bearings got too hot. It takes time for it to cool off." + +The passengers crowded on the companionway kept calling for the captain. + +"The captain has other things to do than answer silly questions," said +Wilhelm. + +"I think the people should be quieted and given an explanation," +Frederick declared. "To me a certain amount of fear seems justifiable in +the landlubber, who doesn't know anything of nautical matters and hasn't +the least notion of what is happening." + +"Why should they be told anything?" rejoined Wilhelm. "Even if matters +are very bad, it is advisable to deceive them." + +"Well, then," said Hahlström, "deceive them. Send stewards around to tell +them everything is all right and we'll have to drown." + +Shortly afterward, the captain actually did send the little army of +stewards through the vessel to inform the passengers that, as Doctor +Wilhelm had said, one of the bearings had got too hot, and in a short +while the engines would be working again. + +"Is there danger?" the stewards were asked a thousand times. + +"No," was the decided answer. + +To keep the air in her cabin pure, Ingigerd left the door slightly ajar; +and the sight of the colossal _Roland_, as seen from her cabin, +helplessly drifting in the ocean, by no means seemed to bear out the +stewards' declaration. + +"There is no use concealing the fact that we are scudding under bare +poles," said Hahlström. + +"We are dripping oil on the water," said Wilhelm, pointing through the +opening of the door to where Pander and a sailor were lowering a bag of +sail-cloth filled with oil. With the heavy seas that kept sweeping down +like great mountains in motion and the fearfully boiling waves +accompanying the swells, the measure seemed almost ridiculous. Each +instant the dead _Roland_, constantly sending out its long-drawn signal, +which sounded more like a call for help than a warning, was raised up on +a plunging mountain of water, where there seemed as little prospect of +safety as when it sank into the valleys. The great steamer seemed not +to know where to turn. The raging waters twisted it over now on its +starboard side, now on its port side. Of its herculean might, nothing +remained but its unwieldy, helpless bulk. It turned about slowly, and +turned back again, and all of a sudden a fearful sea, like a thousand +hissing white panthers leaping from a dark green mountain ridge, dashed +over the railing. + +"That was bad," said Wilhelm, slamming the door shut in the nick of time. +Frederick's nerves were in a state of tension, not in a mere metaphoric +sense. They produced a purely physical sensation, as of violin strings +too tightly drawn. + +"Is it making you nervous?" asked Hahlström. + +"Somewhat," said Frederick. "I don't deny it. A man has strength and +intelligence, but can't exercise either, even when danger is imminent." + +"Immediate danger?" asked Wilhelm. "No, we are not there yet. In the +first place, the engines will be working again pretty soon; and secondly, +even if we should really have to drift and had to resort to the sails, +we could count on being perfectly easy in our minds a week from now." + +"What do you mean by being easy in our minds?" demanded Hahlström. + +"The storm is blowing from north-northwest. A ship like this never +capsizes. So, in all probability, we should be carried to the Azores, +where a steamer would tow us into port. Or, perhaps, we should be driven +even further south, and in a week we should be anchoring in view of the +glorious Peak of Teneriffe." + +"Many thanks for your Peak of Teneriffe. I have to be in New York. My +daughter has an engagement there. We are under obligations to be there." + +"A week of uncertainty would be ruin to my nervous system," said +Frederick. "I am not suited for this passive heroism. I might do more +if I could be active." + +"You've read the 'Leather-stocking Tales,'" said Wilhelm, ironically. +"You +know that the American Indians have greater respect for passive heroism. +Think of the stakes on which they burn their captives to death." + +"Never mind," said Frederick. "No martyr stakes for me. Were I to hear +that the screw is broken and we should have to drift, my nerves couldn't +stand it. I would jump into the water. That is why I am against +life-preservers. I wouldn't accept one if it were offered to me ten +times over. Why prolong the death agony?" + + + + +XLII + + +The hours passed. The grey day went down into still greyer twilight. The +ear-splitting tumult of the sea never ceased. Frederick, like everybody +else, had in vain awaited the moment when the engines would be working +again, and the helpless ship would resume its course. Everybody, with the +anxiety of despair, watched whether the intervals between the great +swells would lengthen or shorten. Sometimes a superstitious illusion that +he was being persecuted would take hold of Frederick. Particularly awful +were the cries of the emigrants penned in the steerage, which at short +intervals penetrated above on deck. They wept and wailed and shrieked to +heaven for help. They were like men driven mad by fear, fury and physical +pain. + +Yet, as if nothing had happened, the call for dinner was trumpeted at the +regular time through the gangways of the drifting vessel, through that +majestic, helpless ark, lighted by electricity, which, shining through +the port-holes, turned the _Roland_ with its crust of ice into a fairy +palace, a mournful plaything of the waves. + +Frederick wondered who would have the phlegm or the courage or the desire +to go to dinner. But Wilhelm cried, "Come, gentlemen," and since Rosa +appeared, wet and courageous, to attend to the children, it was out of +place for him to remain in the cabin, and there was nothing for him to do +but join Doctor Wilhelm and Hahlström. The cockatoo was screeching and +Ella was crying. The child was refractory. Ingigerd was trying to console +her, while Rosa reprimanded her rather energetically. + +"Would you like me to stay near here?" Frederick asked before leaving. +"It would mean a great deal to me if you would let me be entirely at your +disposal, Miss Ingigerd." + +"Thank you, Doctor von Kammacher, you will be coming again." + +Frederick marvelled at the naturalness with which he had made the offer +and she had accepted. + +Now an unexpected change set in, which allayed everybody's excitement and +went through Frederick's muscles and nerves like a soothing stream. The +walls and floors of the _Roland_ began to quiver faintly, a sign that her +heart and pulse were beating again. It was the rhythm of its strength, +the rhythm of its race to its goal. Ingigerd shouted with joy, like a +child, and Frederick set his teeth. Renewed life, renewed prospects and +hopes, the reassumption of system, the relaxation of his nerves made him +so weak that the tears almost started to his eyes. Choking down his +emotion, he stepped out on deck. + +Here the scene had changed. Blithely, in all its might, the _Roland_ was +leaping forward again into the roaring darkness. That monstrous, seething +witch's cauldron of the boiling waters was now welcome to him. Again the +_Roland_ was tearing breaches in dark mountains, was rising to mountain +heights, and madly plunging into deep valleys; during which, for many +seconds at a time, the screw would whirl wildly in the turbulent air. + +Mr. Rinck was sitting on the threshold of his cabin, which was brightly +lighted, smoking and petting his spotted cat. + +"It's good we're under way again," Frederick could not refrain from +saying as he walked past. + +"Why?" said Rinck phlegmatically. + +"I for one," said Frederick, "would rather be running under full steam +than drifting helplessly." + +"Why?" said Mr. Rinck again. + +In the gangways below, even though the ship was pitching, the atmosphere +was fairly pleasant and lively. Everybody seemed to have forgotten his +fear. The passengers, cracking jokes and clinging to the nearest +stationary thing, reeled and stumbled into the dining-room. The rattle +of china near the kitchen was deafening, especially when, as frequently +happened, some of the plates broke. + +Frederick's clothes were pretty well soaked, and he mustered up the +courage to go to his cabin to dress. Adolph, his steward, came to help +him, and told Frederick of a panic that had broken out in the steerage +when the engines stopped. Some of the women with their babies on their +arms had wanted to jump right into the water. It was with difficulty that +the other emigrants had restrained them. One of the stewards and a sailor +had clutched a Polish woman by her feet just as she was taking the +downward plunge. + +"You can't blame these people for acting like cowards in this situation," +said Frederick. "It would be strange if they didn't. Who will insist that +he can stand upright when the ground beneath his feet is giving away? If +a man were to say so, either he would be lying, or his lack of feeling +would be so great as to degrade him below an animal." + +"Yes," said the steward, "but what would _we_ do if _we_ were so +cowardly?" + +Frederick now began to deliver one of those fiery dissertations that had +won him a number of youthful auditors when he was a _Privatdozent_. + +"With you it is different," he said. "You are upheld, and at the same +time rewarded, by the feeling that you are doing your duty. While we +passengers are living in terror, the cooks have been boiling soup, +cleaning fish, preparing vegetables, roasting and carving, larding +venison and so on." The steward laughed! "But I assure you, at times it +is easier to roast a roast than to eat it." And Frederick continued in +a solemn, but for that very reason, roguish manner to philosophise on +courage and cowardice. + + + + +XLIII + + +Dinner began, and, though the weather had by no means improved, a +comparatively large number of passengers had gathered in the dining-room. +Mr. Pfundner, the head-steward, with his white hair curled and arranged +by the barber, if not in a braid at the back of his head, yet like a wig +of the rococo period, stood, as usual, in majestic pose, before the false +mantelpiece between the two entrance doors. It was the place from which +he could best supervise the waiters and keep his eye on the whole +dining-room. + +The band was playing _Le Père la Victoire_ by Ganne. This was followed by +Gillet's _Loin du Bal_. At Suppé's overture from _Banditenstreiche_, the +eternal skat players came tramping into the saloon, having delayed, as +usual, to finish their game. At all the tables much wine was being drunk, +because it strengthened one's courage and dulled one's nerves. The +passengers toasted the _Roland_. It amused them. They were all conscious +of the pleasant rhythm of the great engine, to which no music in the +world was comparable. Over Vollstedt's waltz, _Lustige Brüder_, the +company with a sense of relief was still discussing the danger they had +safely escaped. + +"We hoisted distress signals." + +"Rockets were shot off." + +"They were already getting the life-belts and life-boats ready." + +"Why, they were even dripping oil on the water." + +The remarks flew about with the less restraint as neither the captain nor +any of his officers were at table. + +"The captain," they said, "has never left the bridge since morning." + +Suddenly the port-holes were illuminated from outside. Everybody, with an +"Oh!" of astonishment, let his knife and fork fall and jumped up from his +seat. "A ship!" "A steamer!" all exclaimed, and crowded on deck. There, +in overawing majesty, in the gleam of its thousand lights, one of the +mightiest ocean liners of the time was rolling and pounding at a distance +of not more than fifty yards. "The _Prince Bismarck_, the _Prince +Bismarck_!" the people cried, having heard the name from the officers and +crew, who had recognised the vessel. "Hurrah!" went up the full-throated +cry. "Hurrah!" Frederick shouted, and so did Wilhelm and so did Professor +Toussaint. Everybody who could shouted "Hurrah!"--Ingigerd and the woman +physician and the woman artist. They all waved their napkins or +handkerchiefs. The same shout of joy went up from the steerage, and by +way of greeting the two vessels let their steam whistles thunder. They +could see the passengers on the various decks of the _Prince Bismarck_ +waving to them, and, in spite of the noise of the tempest, could hear +their faint hurrah. + +The _Prince Bismarck_, a twin-screw steamer, one of the first models of +its kind, had just made its record-breaking trip, in which it had crossed +the Atlantic Ocean in six days, eleven hours, and twenty-four minutes. +About two thousand people were now making the trip from New York to +Europe. Two thousand people! That means twice as many as can fill a +Berlin theatre from the orchestra to the top gallery. + +The _Roland_ and the _Bismarck_ exchanged lively flag signals. Yet +the whole grandiose vision, from the moment of its appearance to its +disappearance, lasted only three minutes. In that time the seething ocean +was flooded with light. It was not until nothing remained of the +_Bismarck_ but a dancing mist of light that its band came on deck and +played. On the _Roland_ they caught two or three trembling, fading +measures of the national hymn, _Heil dir im Siegerkranz_. Within a few +moments the _Roland_ was again alone on the ocean, in the night, the +tempest, and the snowstorm. + +With twice as much fire, the band now played a quadrille by Karl, +_Festklänge_, and a galop by Kiesler, _Jahrmarktskandal_; and with twice +as much appetite and twice as much liveliness the passengers seated +themselves at dinner again. "Fairylike!" they cried. "Glorious!" +"Tremendous!" "Colossal!"--this last a favourite expression of the +Germans. + +Even Frederick had a sense of pride and tranquillisation. He felt a vital +breath of that atmosphere which is no less necessary to the mind of the +modern man than air is to his lungs. + +"No matter how much we resist the thought," he said to Wilhelm, "and no +matter how much I railed yesterday evening against modern culture, a +sight like that must impress a man. It must go to the very marrow of his +bones. It is simply absurd that such a marvellous product of secret +natural forces, joined together by man's brains and hands, such a +creation over creation, such a miracle has become even possible." They +touched glasses. The sound of clinking glasses could be heard all over +the room. "And what courage, what boldness has been built into that great +living organism, what a degree of fearlessness in opposing those natural +forces which man has been standing in awe of for thousands of years! What +an audacious world of genius, from its keel to the top of its mast, from +its bowsprit to its screw!" + +"And all this," responded Wilhelm, "has been attained in scarcely a +hundred years. So it signifies only the beginning of a development. +Object as much as you will, science, or rather technical progress, is +eternal revolution and the only genuine reform of human conditions. +Nothing can hinder this development that has begun. It is constant, +eternal progress, yes, progress itself." + +"It is the human intellect," said Frederick, "which throughout the +centuries has been lying passive and has suddenly turned active. +Undoubtedly man's brains and, at the same time, social industry have +entered a new phase." + +"Yes," said Wilhelm, "in a certain way the human intellect was already +active in ancient times, but it fought too long with the man in the +mirror." + +"Then, let us hope," said Frederick in confirmation, "that the last hour +of the men that fight images, the swindlers, the South Sea Island +medicine-men and magicians, is not far off; that all filibusters and +cynical freebooters, who for thousands of years have been living by the +capture of souls, will strike sail before the fast, safe ocean-going +steamer of civilisation, whose captain is intellect and whose sole +steward is humanity." + +After dinner, Frederick and Wilhelm climbed up to the smoking-room on +deck. + +"It is difficult to comprehend," said Frederick, when they reached the +smoky little saloon, "how a vessel can keep its course in such a stormy, +pitch-black night." + +At the skat table, the players were sitting, smoking, drinking whisky and +coffee, and tossing the cards on the table. Everything else seemed to be +a matter of indifference to them. Frederick ordered wine and continued to +goad his mind into activity. His head ached. He could scarcely hold it +upright on his aching neck. His eyelids ached with weariness; but when +they drooped, his eyes seemed to radiate a painful light shining from +within. Every nerve, every muscle, every cell in him was alert. He could +not hope for sleep. How weeks in his life, months, years had passed as in +the twinkling of an eye! And this evening only three and a half days had +elapsed since he boarded the _Roland_ at Southampton, a period with the +content of years, in which seconds were eternities. Its beginning lay in +the remote distance, at the conclusion of a life lived long before, on an +earth from which he had parted long before. + +"You're tired, Doctor von Kammacher," said Wilhelm. "So I won't invite +you to the stoker's funeral on the after-deck." + +"Oh, I'll come," said Frederick. He was obsessed by a stinging rage not +to spare himself anything, but to taste to the dregs even the bitterest +impressions of this detached, jogged and jolted fragment of a human +world. + + + + +XLIV + + +The physicians arrived when they were sewing the stoker, Zickelmann, into +sail-cloth. The bare cabin was not very brilliantly lighted by a single +electric bulb. Frederick recalled his dream--how the dead stoker had been +standing under the vines with the cords in his hand and had then led +Peter Schmidt and himself to the Toilers of the Light. A great change had +taken place in his appearance. His face was no longer of flesh, but +seemed to be chiselled out of yellow wax, to which his hair, his eyebrows +and beard were pasted. A faint, cunning smile seemed to be curving his +mouth; and when Frederick with odd interest and curiosity scrutinised him +closely, it seemed to him he was saying, "_Legno santo!_ Toilers of the +Light!" + +When the dead man's face was covered up and his whole body had been sewed +into the cloth in coarse stitches, the sailors bound the puppet, with +difficulty keeping it in position, on a smoothly planed board, weighted +with iron. + +"Will such a chrysalis ever really turn into a butterfly?" Frederick +wondered. + +The procedure, a piece of reeling, staggering acrobatics, was less +gruesome than ridiculous. Yet, though this long package might be only the +mortal shell of an immortal soul, one had a sense of infinite sadness in +entrusting it to the fearful solitudes of the ocean. + +Since in the stormy weather it was no easy matter to throw the corpse +overboard and since it was impossible to conduct ceremonies on a rolling +deck constantly washed by the waves, the purser asked the few persons +present--Captain von Kessel could not leave the bridge--to say a silent +prayer for the soul of the dead man. They did so, and four of the +stoker's mates, staggering, stopping, lurching and panting, carried the +long package on deck to the railing, where at the word of command they +let it slide into the sea. + +When Doctor Wilhelm bade Frederick good-night, he added: + +"You ought to try to go to sleep." + +They parted, and Frederick hunted for a sheltered spot on deck, where he +could spend the night. He wanted to look the wind and weather straight in +the face, there in the glacial air, in the gloom under the pale sheen of +the arc-lights fastened to the mast. He shuddered at the thought of a +night in the oppressive confines of his cabin, with the closed port-hole +and the hot, stale air. But that alone was not the reason which kept him +chained to the deck. It was the urge, in case of danger, to be near +Ingigerd Hahlström. And when he seated himself near the smoke-stack, +with his back against the heated wall, his hat drawn low over his face, +his chin in his coat collar, he suddenly laughed to himself bitterly. +It was in the same position and on the selfsame spot that he had found +Achleitner the night before. + +There was a rushing in Frederick's ears. He observed the huge arcs that +the lights on the mast described. He observed the regular onslaught of +the waves, and above the seething and foaming of the water, he heard the +miauing of the wind in the rigging, a wicked obstinate miauing, +accompanied by the sudden spitting and leaping of a tiger. Then the +sounds seemed to Frederick to be more like the pitiful whimpering of +strayed children, a troop of children whom he could now distinctly +discern weeping over the bier of the dead stoker. And there were the +Toilers of the Light again. He immediately snatched for one to carry it +to Ingigerd Hahlström in her cabin; but Ingigerd was dressing for her +famous dance. The great spider was already hanging on the flower, weaving +the cobweb in which Mara was later to entangle herself. Frederick asked +for a broom. He wanted to prevent the dance by sweeping the spider away. +A broom came, but in the form of a serving man, who was carrying water +and pouring it out. Another man followed and a third and a fourth, until +everything was flooded with rushing waters. Frederick awoke from a dream +in which he was learning sorcery. The momentous word that chains the +floods was still on his lips. The waves rushed. He fell asleep again. Now +it was the rushing of a stream at his feet. The sun was shining. It was a +clear morning. From the other shore came his wife, young, beautiful, in a +dress of flowered goods, rowing her skiff. Her full, gentle figure had +the charm of the vestal virgin and the wife. From woods nearby, Ingigerd +appeared in the delicacy and the adornment of her light hair and naked +body. The sunny landscape, of which her pure nudity was a part, seemed +to belong to the time before Adam and Eve were driven from Paradise. +Frederick took his wife's hand--she was smiling on him graciously--took +Ingigerd Hahlström's hand--she seemed to be gentle and pure and +obedient--and joined them. He said to Ingigerd: + + "And thou shalt walk in brightness; + I'll purge thee clean of all thy dross." + +But the heavens darkened, the woods blackened, and the light of a ghostly +moon rose over the trees, rushing fearfully like great waters. Frederick +ran along the edge of gloomy fields, when suddenly the cry "Moira! +Moira!" resounded, and a piece of the darkness severed itself from the +edge of the woods and soared heavily, as if borne by mighty black +pinions. It was a gigantic bird, crying, "Moira, Moira!" Frederick fled. +He was struck by hideous fear, as if the fearful roc were after him. +"Moira, Moira!" He drew his penknife to defend himself. + +He awoke to find himself lying undressed in his berth. Someone had +discovered him, as he had discovered Achleitner the night before, and had +led him down to his cabin. But the cry "Moira!" which reminded him of the +Moeræ, the ancient goddesses of fate, still rang fearfully in his ears. + + + + +XLV + + +It was still long before daylight, and he fell asleep again. This time +on awaking he found himself in the corridor speaking to some stewards, +already at work. It slowly dawned upon him that he was clad in nothing +but his night-shirt and must have been walking in his sleep. What, had he +turned into a somnambulist! He was utterly disconcerted and ashamed and +had to let one of the stewards help him back to his cabin. + +He found his cabin covered with about three inches of water, from a leaky +pipe. Crawling into bed, he squeezed himself, to keep from being tossed +out, into a hollow between the boards, a method he himself had devised. + +Shortly after six, he was on deck sitting on his bench, warming his hands +on his hot tea-cup. The weather was frightful. The morning was of an icy +dreariness unsurpassed. The fury of the sea had waxed. The falling +twilight was a new sort of darkness. The roaring of the waters and the +raging of the winds were deafening. Frederick's ear-drums ached. But the +ship struggled on, managing to pursue its course, though slowly. + +And suddenly--Frederick did not know whether to trust his hearing--above +the noise of the sea rose Ariel strains, beginning solemnly and swelling +serenely. It was the chords and melodies of a church choral. He was moved +almost to tears. He recollected that this dreary morning was a Sunday +morning, and the orchestra, even in the midst of the cyclone, was +carrying out its instructions to begin the day with devotional music. +It was playing in the unused smoking-room half way up the companionway, +whence the strains ascended faintly to the deck. Everything lying heavily +upon Frederick's soul in chaos and struggle melted away before the +seriousness, the simplicity, the innocence of this music. It brought +back memories of his boyhood, of many a morning full of innocence, +expectation, and anticipations of great happiness; Sundays, holidays, his +father's and his mother's birthdays, when the chorus of a regimental song +woke him up in the morning. What was to-day compared with that past? What +lay in between! What a sum of useless work, disenchantment, recognition +bitterly paid for, possession snatched after passionately and then lost, +love trickled away, passion trickled away; how many meetings and hard +partings; what an amount of wrestling with everything in general and in +particular; how much purity of purpose dragged in the mud; how much +striving for freedom and self-determination, resulting only in impotent, +blind imprisonment. + +Was he really a person of so much importance before God that He visited +him with such bitter, refined chastisements? + +"I'm wild!" screamed Hans Füllenberg, who appeared at the entrance to the +companionway. "I won't put up with it, or else I'll go insane." + +Nevertheless, Hans Füllenberg and Frederick and all the other passengers, +though in the last degree exhausted, terrorized, desperate, expecting +each moment to be their last, lived through the same awful strain, from +hour to hour, from morning till evening, and from evening till morning +again. + +To most of them it seemed impossible to hold out an hour longer. Yet +there were to be three days more of it, they were told, before the +_Roland_ reached New York. + + + + +XLVI + + +Monday brought some sunshine, but no diminution of the tempest. It was +fearful. Everything on deck not nailed or riveted was removed. The cries +at regular intervals piercing the struggling vessel from the steerage +more resembled the bellowing of beasts under the knife of the slaughterer +than human sounds. Monday night was one prolonged agony. Nobody, unless +unconscious from weakness or the tortures of seasickness, closed an eye. + +At dawn Tuesday morning, each first-class passenger was startled by the +word, "Danger!" quietly uttered at his cabin door by a steward. + +Frederick had been lying a while on his bed dressed, when his steward +opened the door and according to instructions gravely pronounced the one +word, "Danger." At the same time the herald of this message, as fraught +with large significance as it was laconic, turned on the electric light. +Frederick jumped to a sitting posture, and was annoyed by the water from +the leaky pipe, which ran now from one side of the room to the other, as +the vessel lurched. At first he was uncertain whether the word he had +heard had really been pronounced, or whether it was an illusion of his +unstrung nerves. Every night he had been torn with a jerk of his nerves +from his restless dozing, only to find that the cause had been a delusive +fall or a delusive cry. But now, when he distinctly heard the stewards +rapping at the other cabin doors, heard the doors open, and heard the +word, "Danger," repeated several times, a sensation came over him that +produced a most remarkable change in his condition. + +"Very well," he said softly; and, as if he had been summoned to a game +that did not concern him, he carefully put on his heavy overcoat, and +stepped out into the gangway. + +Here there was not a soul. + +"Very well," he had been thinking, "the invisible powers, whose +playthings we human beings are, will now completely expose their supreme +brutality." + +He had not been awakened from sleep; he had been awakened and brought to +his sober reason from beneath a hundred strata of dreams and sleep. Now, +in that empty corridor, it again seemed to him to be a fantastic illusion +of his disordered brain; and he was about to return to his cabin, when he +noticed for the first time that the rhythm of the engines and the +churning of the screw were neither to be heard nor felt. Suddenly he +thought the great vessel was drifting in the ocean abandoned by +passengers and crew, and he alone had been left behind from the general +rescue. But a passenger in a silk dressing-gown reeled by, whom Frederick +could question. + +"What's the matter, do you know?" he asked. + +"Oh, nothing," said the man. "I've only been looking for my steward. I'm +thirsty. I want a glass of lemonade." He staggered past Frederick into +his cabin. + +"Ass!" Frederick mentally exclaimed, disgusted with himself for what +he again believed was his illusion. Yet the silence weighed upon him +dreadfully. Seized by a wild instinct, he could not help but suddenly +rush forward, merely to be on deck. + +Somebody came toward him from the opposite direction, and asked him where +he was going. + +"Get out of my way," said Frederick. "It's none of your business." + +But the hideous, half-dressed, corpse-like creature, besmirched by the +traces of seasickness, would not make way. + +"Are the stewards here all crazy?" he cried. + +Hard by Frederick's ear an electric bell began to hammer noisily, and the +next moment the tottering phantom that barred his way was multiplied by +ten, twenty, a host of similar phantoms. + +"What's the matter! What's the matter! We're sinking!" + +"Steward! Steward!" a voice commanded; and another, "Captain! Captain!" + +"Wretched service!" a man scolded in a voice that broke. "No stewards +about. What do they mean by it?" The call bells began to rage. + +Frederick turned, and ran down the endless corridor to the after part +of the vessel. Nobody intercepted him. He passed the windows of the +engine-room. The cylinders and pistons were not stirring. From the depths +of the ship, from the boilers and furnaces, a sound of rushing, splashing +water penetrated above the creaking and grinding of the walls. + +"Did a boiler burst?" Frederick thought, forgetting that there would have +been the report of an explosion and the hiss of escaping steam. + +But he hastened on without stopping, past the post office, on his way +through the second cabin to the stern. In his flight it occurred to him +how happy he had been in Paris when at Cook's office they had told him +that by great haste he could still make the _Roland_ at Southampton. Why +had he been in such a fever of impatience, in such dread of missing the +boat and rushing into the open arms of doom? For there was no veiling the +fact that something fearful had happened to the _Roland_. + +At the door of the second cabin, he encountered the barber. + +"The fires are out," said the barber. "A collision. The water is pouring +into the hold below my shop." + +The hammering of the bells never ceased. The barber was dragging two +life-preservers. + +"What do you need two for?" Frederick asked, and took one and sped on. + + + + +XLVII + + +He reached the door leading to the after deck, but could not open it. +From the position of the ship, he realized that something irretrievable +had happened. On the port side, the steamer was lying high, on the +starboard side, it was only ten or twelve feet above the level. As the +stern was also much lower than the bow, it would have been a practically +hopeless venture to clamber forward across the deck, especially with the +heavy seas that were constantly sweeping it. + +Willy-nilly, he must return through the mole's gallery he had traversed +to the forward part of the boat. + +Scarcely fifteen seconds later, when he had reached the forward entrance +to the deck, at the head of the companionway leading up from the +dining-room, he could not have told how he succeeded in making his +way through the corridor jammed with panicky passengers without having +been beaten to death, strangled, or trodden underfoot. His hands and +forehead were bruised, and he was clinging to the door-post with all +his might, parleying violently with Doctor Wilhelm. Doctor Wilhelm +clutched him, and the two physicians, in defiance of death, climbed up to +the bridge, where they huddled in the shelter of the deck-house on the +port side. They saw something huge rise high up in the morning twilight +and fly madly above their heads. The next instant they were drenched up +to their waists, and would have been washed overboard, had they not +clung to the railing with all their strength. + +On the bridge it looked pretty much as usual. Captain von Kessel, +apparently quite composed, was leaning forward, and the giant Von Halm +was searching the ever-thickening fog with spy-glasses. The siren was +howling, and rockets were being shot off from the bow. On the captain's +right stood the second mate. The third mate had just received the order: + +"Cut the falls. Get the boats away." + +"Cut the falls. Get the boats away," he repeated and disappeared to +execute the order. + +To Frederick, it all seemed unreal. Moments such as this, to be sure, had +entered his imagination as within the realm of the possible; but now he +realised that he had never reckoned with them seriously. He knew the fact +confronting him stood there inexorable; nevertheless, he was unable to +grasp it in convincing reality. He was telling himself he ought to try +to get into a boat, when the captain's blue eyes glanced at him, but +apparently with no recognition in them. The captain's commands were +uttered in his beautiful voice, remotely suggesting the clinking sound +of colliding billiard balls. + +"Women and children starboard." + +"Women and children starboard," came like a near, word-for-word echo. + +Now Max Pander stepped up to the captain. He had the noble idea of +proffering him a life-belt. Von Kessel's hand found its way for an +instant to his cap. + +"No, thank you, my boy, I don't need it. But here--" he took a pencil +from his pocket, wrote a hasty line on a piece of paper, and handed it +to Pander. "Jump in a boat and, if you can, bring this greeting to my +sisters." + +A heavy sea swept over the port side, and a tremendous swell raised and +turned and twisted the colossal vessel. Frederick in vain tried to rouse +himself from the leaden indifference that had come upon him in view of +the incomprehensible drama. Suddenly, he was seized with horror, but he +fought it down. At no cost was he to show cowardice either to himself or +to others. Nevertheless, he followed Doctor Wilhelm, who stuck close to +Max Pander's heels. + +"We must get into one of the boats," said Doctor Wilhelm. "There's no +doubt we are sinking." + +The next moment Frederick found himself in Ingigerd's cabin. + +"Hurry!" he cried. "The people are already jumping into the boats." + +He had left the cabin door open, and close by they could see Pander and +two sailors hacking away with axes at the frozen tackles by which a +life-boat was suspended. + +Ingigerd asked for her father. She asked for Achleitner. + +"There's no time now for you to think of anybody but yourself. It's +impossible to go below deck. It would mean sure death," Frederick +explained. "Get dressed! Get dressed!" + +Ingigerd mutely hastened to carry out his orders. It was not until then +that one of the stewards passing her cabin called in his brief message, +"Danger!" + +"Danger! What's the matter? Are we sinking?" she cried. + +But Frederick had already picked her up and carried her over to the boat, +which the next instant gave way under the axe and fell into the misty +turmoil below. + +"Women and children on the other side!" the third mate shouted +commandingly. + +His order referred not only to Ingigerd, but also to the maid Rosa, who, +fiery-red with her exertions, appeared on deck dragging her mistress and +both the children, with the air of a housewife loaded with purchases, +afraid of missing a street car. + +"Women and children on the other side!" the third mate repeated in +somewhat too Prussian a manner. Fortunately his presence was now required +for the next boat, over which the struggles were already commencing. + +There was no time to be lost, and despite the determined resistance of +two sailors, Frederick, Pander, and Doctor Wilhelm let Ingigerd safely +down into the boat. In doing so, Frederick also turned somewhat too +loud-voiced and Prussian. Through his iron energy, which hewed down +resistance as the sailors had hewed at the life-boat tackles, he +succeeded in having the children, Mrs. Liebling, and finally Rosa lowered +into the boat. It was no easy matter. Frederick heard himself shouted at, +roared at, and commanded, and he, in turn, shouted at the sailors, +commanded, and roared. He fought, he worked, though without a gleam of +hope and with the positive consciousness that the situation was beyond +salvation. All was over, all was lost. If he had not thought so before, +the next occurrence would have convinced him. + +A second boat had been lowered, and three sailors had jumped in. It +rolled from side to side and rose on a wave. About eight or nine other +persons leapt for it--Frederick thought he recognised familiar figures. +It filled and disappeared. As if by sleight-of-hand, the spot where the +boat with the dozen people in it had been dancing turned into empty sea +with mist and spray driving over it. + +Slowly the dark grey of the early dawn turned into the lighter grey of +the day, approaching coldly and indifferently. When the fog lifted a +little, Frederick for seconds at a time had a dismaying illusion that he +was in a green valley with glorious, flowery meadows, through which a +snowstorm of blossoms was sweeping. But then the mountains came, driven +by the ferocious spirits of the hurricane, and closed down on the valley. +The heavy, glassy heights broke, and with the weight of their fluid +masses, snapped away two of the _Roland's_ masts like reeds. + +With its boilers quenched, the poor wreck could no longer send up a cry +for help. Its sad body was still towering upward at the bow in colossal +majesty. Rockets flew, signals of distress fluttered briskly from the +foremast; a futile language in that merciless raging of the elements. + +In the steerage it had grown still. But from the port side came a +peculiar, persistent, unbroken sound, resembling the shouting and +screaming of a crowd on toboggan-slides and merry-go-rounds at a village +fair. A buzzing as of swarming bees pierced distinctly through the +roaring of the tempest, while above it rose the shrieking of infuriated, +frenzied women. Frederick thought of his dark-eyed Deborah. She, too, was +doomed. He thought of Wilke. + +Bulke, the faithful valet, appeared, leading Arthur Stoss by his coat +collar. Within the next few moments, Wilke also appeared. He had been +drinking, and was shouting as if the whole thing were a frolic; but he +was half dragging, half carrying on deck an old, wheezing working woman. +Thrusting Stoss and Bulke aside, he landed her safely in the boat. + +Ingigerd was clamouring incessantly for her father and Achleitner. +Instead of either of these, Stoss, whom Bulke and Wilke had lowered by +a rope, dropped down beside her. + +About thirty feet from Frederick, a man was standing in a cabin door, +carefully hooked back. With incredible calm he was smoking a cigarette +and inhaling, and stroking a yellow cat on his arm. + +"It looks pretty bad, doesn't it, Mr. Rinck?" Frederick said, going up to +him. + +"Why?" + +"Well, don't you think we're lost?" + +Mr. Rinck shrugged his shoulders without answering. + +"What's the matter? What's the matter?" somebody bellowed in his ear. + +"Nothing," he said, stroking his cat. + +In the meantime Bulke and Wilke had lowered Doctor Wilhelm into the boat. + +"That girl down there is giving herself a sore throat screaming for her +father," said Bulke. + +Frederick decided, cost what it might, to take a look around below deck. +Perhaps fortune might favour him; he might discover Hahlström and perhaps +Achleitner, too, and help one or both into the boat. There was danger, to +be sure, that the boat would put off before he returned. + +He had worked his way as far as the unused smoking-room. It was empty. +Suddenly Wilke was standing beside him. + +"If you're looking for somebody, I'll help," the peasant declared. + +The two together descended the rest of the companionway. The space in +front of the dining-room was empty and so was the dining-room. It was +tilted at an acute angle. A heap of dishes and silverware blocked the +doorway. + +"Hahlström! Achleitner!" Frederick shouted again and again. + +Wilke pushed a short way down the long corridor, on which the cabins +gave. But the spot closed off by the rising waters was only too clearly +distinguishable. + +"Come away, come away!" Frederick cried, and ran. He ran for his life. He +ran in wild fear of missing the boat. + + + + +XLVIII + + +A moment later he was on deck, over the railing, and in the boat. The men +wanted to put off. Frederick protested, and disputed loudly with the +third mate, who in the meantime had entered the boat and was grasping the +tiller. + +He could not make up his mind to desert Wilke of the Heuscheuer, who had +so courageously followed him below deck and had not yet reappeared. But +now he saw him, literally sliding from the companionway entrance to the +railing. + +"Wilke! Wilke!" he shouted. "Jump into the boat!" + +"Right away, right away," Wilke answered several times. Then he did +something that Frederick tried to scold him out of doing, because it +seemed so senseless and useless to everybody in the boat. He had +discovered a number of life-belts and was throwing them from various +points out on the water, where persons swept overboard might be +struggling desperately for their lives. + +The boat did not wait for him. Under the third mate's command, the +sailors began to row. The sea favoured them, and soon they were more than +thirty yards from the _Roland's_ side. + +Now they could see the spot where another vessel, or a drifting derelict, +had bored the flank of the _Roland_, making a great gash near the +engine-room. Since the whole of the breach was not yet under water, they +could see the foaming sea streaming into the hold. Frederick thought he +could hear its greedy gulping. At the sight, for all the horror about +him, he felt a desire to burst into mourning for the brave warrior +_Roland_, and with difficulty restrained an outcry. The fog closed in +and hid the fatally wounded giant from view. + +When, in a few moments, the mist cleared, the wreck had in some +incomprehensible way turned. The twenty persons in the boat looked down +from a dizzy height upon the after part of the deck, almost on a level +with the water. They shrieked in terror, for they thought that the next +instant they would be hurled down upon the mass of human beings wedged in +there, swarming like ants. + +Not until that moment did Frederick grasp to its full extent the +catastrophe that was occurring, a catastrophe beyond human conception. +All those dark little crowding ants, helplessly running up and down, were +tearing at one another, hitting about, beating, wrestling, forcing their +way. Groups of men and women were united in struggling knots. Some of the +life-boats that had not yet been lowered seemed to have turned into dark, +swaying bunches of grapes, from which every now and then a single grape +dropped off and fell into the sea. + +Once more the fog and spray hid the ship from view. But a sound, which +Frederick did not immediately connect with the ghastly spectacle on the +deck, rose above the seething and roaring of the merciless sea and the +metallic clanging of the hurricane. For several seconds Frederick's +thoughts were far away in a certain place near his home, a wide, marshy +meadow-land, where great flocks of migrating birds stopped to rest in +their passage. But it was not the chirping of joyous birds that reached +his ears through the fog. It was the outcry of those human beings, who +were suffering something so horrible, beyond all conception, that no +human crime, he felt, could be great enough to justify such atonement. He +distinctly felt how, through the excess of the hideous impression, the +bridge carrying the message of his senses to his innermost soul snapped. + +But suddenly the fever of the visible death struggle of eight or nine +hundred innocent men after all did penetrate to his innermost soul, and +wrung a cry from him, in which the whole boat load joined as by command. +In that cry were fear, anguish, fury, protest, supplication, horror, +wailing, cursing, and despair. + +And the horror was increased by the consciousness that there was no +merciful ear to listen, but only a deaf heaven. Wherever Frederick turned +his eyes, he saw death. Indifferently the bottle-green, mountainous waves +came rolling. In their march there was a murderous regularity, with which +nothing interfered and which recognised no obstacles. He closed his eyes +ready to die. Several times he felt for his parents' letters in his +breast pocket, as if he needed them for passports to the land of +darkness, where he was soon going. He dared not open his eyes again, +because he could no longer bear to see the convulsions of the women in +the boat or the hideous massacre on the stern of the _Roland_. + +The sea raged. It was icy cold. The water froze on the edge of the boat. +Rosa, the maid, was the only one that constantly bestirred herself to +help others, the children, Mrs. Liebling, Ingigerd, and Arthur Stoss. +Bulke and she vied with each other in bailing out the water in which +Stoss and Mrs. Liebling were lying and which reached to the knees of the +others. + +What was in the meantime happening on the deck of the _Roland_, so far +as Frederick caught momentary glimpses of it, did not fit in with his +conception of human nature. The things he thought he saw in detail had +nothing in common with those civilised, decorous ladies and gentlemen +whom he had seen in the dining-room and on deck, promenading, conversing, +smiling, exchanging greetings, and daintily dissecting the fish on their +plates with forks. He could have sworn that he distinguished the white +figure of a cook cutting his way, with a long knife, through the +honourable person of a first-class passenger for whom he had cooked. +Frederick was convinced he saw a stoker, a black fellow, strike a woman +who was clinging to him--perhaps she was the beautiful Canadian--pick her +up and throw her overboard. Some stewards, whom he distinctly recognised, +were still heroically executing orders. But they got entangled in +fighting groups. One of them covered with blood, struggling and shouting, +helped a woman and her child into a life-boat, but the boat capsized and +disappeared. + +"Father! My father!" Ingigerd suddenly cried. It was only a faint breath +blown away by the raging elements. She pointed, and Frederick looked +where she pointed with vacant, staring eyes. Again the fog lifted and +opened a sort of gap through which the sinking steamer could be seen in +all its length. Somebody was standing at the railing waving a white +handkerchief. It was impossible to tell who it was. But a man whom +Frederick recognised as distinctly as if he were looking through a +spy-glass was Hans Füllenberg, racing about like a madman, leaping with +the agility of a squirrel from one point of the deck to the other. + +The port-holes, making a slanting line from stem to stern, still shone +with the electric lights inside. Now and then a stifled shot could be +heard, as a rocket rose up into the air, making a pale line of light. But +soon the gem-like gleam of the port-holes was extinguished. As if the sea +in its unbridled hate of man's work had been waiting for this event, it +swept over the deck from the other side. That instant the waters on the +near side swarmed with human beings, swimming, shrieking, and struggling. + +Suddenly, no one knew how, the boat was carried close to the _Roland_ +again, where maddened, half-drowned, desperate men clutched at it. A +hideous, bestial conflict began. + +Frederick saw it all, yet without seeing it. Although it went on under +his very eyes, it seemed to be happening at an infinite distance. He +struck at something. It was a hand, an arm, a head, a wet monster of the +deep, shrieking in a voice not human. Suddenly, pulled backwards by the +merciless hands of a hidden executioner, it disappeared. Frederick saw +how, with the strength of desperation, Rosa's red fists and Mrs. +Liebling's and Ingigerd's little cramped fingers unloosened the hold of +the hand or arm of a fellow-man from the icy edge of the boat. The +sailors used their oars in a way that produced dark spurts of blood. + +None in the boat noticed that the third mate disappeared, that Bulke +took his place at the helm, and that in the bottom of the boat lay a +long-haired young man, who gave no sign of life. + +The servant, Bulke, took command. For the sake of something to do and to +delay the inevitable capsizing, Frederick and Wilhelm each seized an oar +and rowed with the sailors. + +Minutes passed. The fog lifted. Many eternally moving mountains and +valleys of water had rolled between the little boat and the wreck. Of the +_Roland_, the mighty fast mail steamer of the North German Steamship +Company, nothing was to be seen. + + + + +XLIX + + +Late in the afternoon of the same day, the captain of a sturdy little +trading vessel from Hamburg sighted a boat drifting on the long, high +swells. The weather was clear, and the captain made certain that the +people in the boat were signalling with handkerchiefs. Within half an +hour, the shipwrecked passengers of the _Roland_ were with great +difficulty hoisted on board the trader, one at a time. + +There were fifteen persons in all, three sailors and a cabin-boy, with +the well-known name of the _Roland_ on their caps, two ladies, a woman +evidently from the steerage, a maid, a long-haired man of about thirty in +a velvet jacket, an armless man, the man who had been steering, two other +men, and two children, a boy and a girl. The boy was dead. + +The hardships and terrors to which the delicate child had succumbed had +had almost equally dire effects upon the others. With the exception of +the maid Rosa, they looked as if they had been drowned beyond hope of +resuscitation. A very wet man--it was Frederick--attempted to drag an +unconscious wet young woman up the gangway-ladder, but his strength +failed him, and the sailors of the trader had to catch him as he +tottered, take the young woman from his arms, and help him struggle up +the ladder on deck, like a man whose every bone and muscle is racked by +rheumatism. Attempting to speak, he could produce only an asthmatic, +sibilant wheeze. On deck, he groaned, burst into a senseless, cackling +laugh, and spread out his purple, frozen hands. His lips, too, were +purple, and his sunken eyes glowed feverishly from a face crusted with +dirt and brine. He seemed to want nothing so much as to be dried, warmed +and cleaned. + +He was followed by Rosa. Upon laying an unconscious little girl in the +arms of the first mate, she turned back to descend to the boat again, but +found the way barred by Bulke and one of the sailors of the trader, +hauling up the armless actor, Arthur Stoss. He was dripping wet, his eyes +were staring blankly, his nose was running, and his eyelids were red and +inflamed, while the tip of his nose was waxen white. After several vain +attempts to produce a sound through his chattering teeth, he finally +succeeded in framing "Rum! Hot rum!" + +A mutual inclination seemed to make Bulke and Rosa pull together in their +rescue work like two old mates. Fairly raining water, they descended +again for Mrs. Liebling, who was lying prone in the bottom of the boat +in a serious condition. + +"She's dead, and the boy is dead," said the sailors of the trader, and +wanted first to carry up the other woman, the steerage passenger, who +showed she was still alive by a rattle in her throat, fearful to hear. +Rosa burst into a howl and swore Mrs. Liebling was not dead. + +"She's blue," the sailors declared. "She swallowed too much water." + +But Rosa would not desist, and the sailors were compelled to carry Mrs. +Liebling up first. + +As they were lifting on deck the unconscious woman from the steerage, +still emitting the fearful rattle, one of the _Roland_ sailors, whose +feet were frozen and who, during the whole long, dreadful drifting about +on the ocean had not uttered a sound, suddenly began to bellow in pain. + +"Shut up!" said his mates. "Don't carry on like an old woman." + +He was the next to be lifted on board, merely whimpering now in ineffable +agony. After him came the man in the velvet jacket, who was maundering, +Doctor Wilhelm, Max Pander, and the other two sailors. Lastly the little +corpse of Siegfried Liebling was lifted from the boat. + +When the absurdly dressed man with long hair reached deck, he performed +the drollest antics. For a moment he would stand upright, chest out, like +a recruit, the next instant bow profoundly, or take aim, as if hunting; +and all the time he kept bawling: + +"I'm an artist. I paid for my cabin. I am well known in +Germany"--striking a conscious attitude--"I am Jacob Fleischmann. +I am a painter, from Fürth." + +Every now and then he would writhe pitifully and vomit salt water. The +water dripping from his clothes formed a pool where he stood. + +Doctor Wilhelm had completely lost the faculty of speech. All he could do +was to sneeze incessantly. + +In the meantime, the steward of the vessel brought Frederick hot tea, +and one of the sailors, who acted as barber and nurse on the vessel, +attempted to restore Mrs. Liebling to life. Within less than two minutes, +Frederick felt sufficiently revived to meet the demands of the occasion +and assist the sailor-nurse with his Good Samaritan work. + +After swallowing several glasses of brandy, Doctor Wilhelm with the help +of the chief engineer, Mr. Wendler, attempted to revive Siegfried +Liebling, though with small hope of success. + +Mrs. Liebling, in no wise differing from a corpse, had been laid on the +long mahogany table in what would have been the dining-room, had the +vessel been carrying passengers. Ugly, dark, purplish patches disfigured +the forehead, cheeks, and throat of the woman, who was still young and +who, before the shipwreck, had been beautiful. On baring her body, they +found that it, too, was marked, though less closely, with the same +gangrenous spots, somewhat duller in colour. Her body was swollen. Death +might have resulted from choking in a moment when she fell into a faint +unobserved by any of her companions. Toward the last, there had been +several feet of water in the boat, and Rosa had for some time been +entirely occupied with the dying boy. + +When Frederick and the sailor-nurse laid Mrs. Liebling's body face +downward on the table, water flowed from her nose and mouth. Her heart +was no longer beating, and she gave no sign of life. As Frederick +assumed, what had happened was, that she had sunk unconscious to the +bottom of the boat and had lain for some time under water. He opened her +mouth, forced her gold-filled teeth apart, put her tongue in the right +position, and removed mucus, which had gathered at the opening of the +air-passages. While the ship's cook rubbed her body with hot cloths, +Frederick tried to induce artificial respiration by raising and lowering +her arms and legs like a pump-handle. + +The mahogany table took up the larger part of the low, creaking saloon, +the only one the vessel possessed. It was on the quarter-deck and was +lighted from above. The two walls running the length of the room were +formed of the mahogany doors of the twelve staterooms, six on each side. +In the twinkling of an eye the deserted saloon was converted into a +medical laboratory. + +A common sailor had peeled Ingigerd Hahlström out of her clothes, +and without circumstance had laid her delicate body, shining like +mother-of-pearl, on a couch against the wall taking up the full width of +the room. At Frederick's instruction, he rubbed her body vigorously with +woollen cloths. Rosa was doing the same for Ella Liebling, who was the +first to be put to bed. The steward was working away in a glow of zeal to +get each of the dozen beds freshly spread, and as soon as the second one +was ready, Ingigerd was laid between the warmed covers. Thanks to his +faithful valet, Arthur Stoss, his teeth still chattering, was the next to +be ready for bed. + +Jacob Fleischmann gave his rescuers much trouble. When a sailor spoke +to him kindly and attempted to undress him, he struck about wildly, and +shouted in a rage, "I'm an artist!" + +The steward and Bulke had to hold him fast and use main force in putting +him to bed. Doctor Wilhelm abandoned his vain efforts to revive Siegfried +Liebling and came with his leather case of drugs, which he had managed to +save, just in time to give the painter an injection of morphine. + +The sailor whose agony of pain had overcome him before he was lifted on +deck had such badly swollen, frostbitten feet that his boots had to be +cut off bit by bit. He clenched his teeth to keep from screaming, and +merely uttered low groans until they laid him in bed; when he called for +chewing tobacco. + +The woman from the steerage clad in rags was also put to bed. All she +could tell was that she was bound for Chicago with her sister, her four +children, her husband, and her mother. Nothing of what had in the +meantime befallen her seemed to have penetrated, or remained in, her +consciousness. + +The whole while Frederick, his upper body bared, with only the barber to +help him, kept working uninterruptedly over Mrs. Liebling. It was good +for him, because it made him perspire. Finally, however, his strength +gave out, and Doctor Wilhelm came to his relief. He tottered into the +nearest cabin, the door of which stood open, and fell face downward into +the unmade bed, utterly exhausted. + + + + +L + + +After a time Mr. Butor, the captain of the _Hamburg_, now speeding on +its way, appeared in the saloon to welcome and congratulate the two +physicians, who, notwithstanding their extreme exhaustion, were still +working without cease over Mrs. Liebling's body. + +The room, of course, was flooded and was reeking with the sweetish-sour +smell of human exhalations. The captain sent a sailor to fetch dry +clothes for Frederick. + +While continuing their efforts and relieving each other at intervals, +Doctor Wilhelm and Frederick gave a short account of the catastrophe on +the _Roland_. Captain Butor was greatly astonished. Though the weather +throughout his trip had not been especially good, yet it had not been the +reverse. Most of the time, as at present, it had been clear, with a stiff +wind and a moderately high sea. His vessel was bound for New York with a +cargo of oranges, wine, oil, and cheese from Fayal in the Azores, to +which it had carried a load of agricultural implements from Hamburg. + +Frederick and Wilhelm could give little information concerning the cause +of the accident. Wilhelm said that shortly before six in the morning, he +had been awakened by a sound like the clang of a gong. In his half-waking +state, he thought it was the signal to dinner, until he remembered that +on the _Roland_ a trumpet blast was used to announce meals. + +Frederick thought the _Roland_ had probably struck a wreck or a rock. But +rocks, the captain said, were out of the question. There were none in +those waters, and the _Roland_ could not have been carried by strong +currents into a region where there were rocks, since in that event the +life-boat would not have entered the course of his own vessel within so +short a time. The skipper, who knew Captain von Kessel personally and had +met him in Hamburg only recently, spoke of him in the highest terms, as +one of the most experienced, trustworthy captains in the German merchant +marine. The catastrophe, he said, was possibly the worst that had +occurred in decades, if the steamer had actually sunk and not been towed +into a port. + +Before leaving, Captain Butor invited the two men, as soon as their task +was ended, to supper at the mess table. + +An hour and a half passed. The physicians were about to give up their +attempts to resuscitate Mrs. Liebling, when her heart began to stir and +her breast to heave. Rosa's joy was boundless. With the greatest +difficulty restraining an emotional outburst, she felt the warmth return +even to Mrs. Liebling's soles, which she had been rubbing unwearyingly +with her palms, hard as flat-irons. The rescued woman was carried to bed +and packed in hot water bottles, like a premature baby. + +This great success of the physicians' efforts--it was like a raising of +the dead--produced profound emotion in all that witnessed it, including +Frederick and Doctor Wilhelm, who were suddenly moved to shake hands with +each other. + +"We have been saved," said Wilhelm. "The most improbable, the most +incredible thing has actually happened." + +"Yes," rejoined Frederick. "It has actually happened. It _is_ absolutely +the most improbable thing that has ever occurred in my life. The question +is, What were we saved for?" + + + + +LI + + +The mess-room of the _Hamburg_ was a small square cabin with iron walls, +its only furniture a square table and a bench running around three sides. +Once a person was seated, it was impossible to pass him; and when the +officers gathered for meals, they shoved themselves into place in a +certain order, the captain first. + +At seven o'clock Doctor Wilhelm and Frederick appeared for supper. They +found a soup tureen sending up clouds of steam and a well-constructed oil +lamp over the table shedding a cheerful light. The _Hamburg_ was not +lighted by electricity. + +The two physicians, like all victims of accidents, the objects of really +touching solicitude, were assigned seats against the warmest wall, +dividing the cabin from the engine-room. Captain Butor served the strong +hot soup, and Mr. Wendler, chief engineer, a rotund little mariner, in an +attempt to enliven the shipwrecked men, cautiously ventured a joke or two +even before the roast was served. He came from Lindenau near Leipzig, and +the rest of the crew teased him for his Low German. + +"Don't talk," said the captain to Wilhelm and Frederick. "Just eat, +drink, and sleep." + +At first they were inclined to take his advice, but in the course of the +meal, after one of the sailors had served an immense cut of roast beef, +and the captain had carved it, and they had washed the meat down with red +wine, their spirits rose from moment to moment. + +Bulke appeared at the door showing evidences of the royal banquet to +which he and the sailors of the _Roland_ had been treated by the sailors +of the _Hamburg_. Notwithstanding his condition, pardonable enough in +the circumstances, he would not go to sleep without first receiving +instructions from Doctor Wilhelm and Frederick, before whom he stood in +military attitude, hand to his cap, awaiting orders. + +It was decided that the sailor-nurse and another sailor of the _Hamburg_ +should go on night duty, since all the men from the _Roland_ needed rest +and sleep. + +Though Frederick's and Doctor Wilhelm's spirits rose visibly, they never +referred to the sinking of the _Roland_. It was too tremendous a thing, +too dreadful, too near for any of the survivors, except the sailors, to +speak of it without intense emotion. It was like a dull weight on their +souls. Whatever Wilhelm and Frederick said related merely to their +difficulties in the life-boat, or to the trip on the _Roland_ before it +overstepped that moment in eternity which determined its awful fate. + +"Captain," said Frederick, "you don't know how astonishing it is to be +raised from the dead. Conceive a man who has taken definite leave of +everything that was dear to him in life, who has felt the rattle in his +throat, and received extreme unction, and death, death itself, has +settled on his flesh and limbs. I still feel death in my joints. And yet +I am sitting here in safety, in the pleasant lamplight, almost as in a +circle of friends and relatives. I am sitting in the cosiest home, with +the difference that I still cannot get myself to look upon you"--they +were the captain, the engineer, the boatswain, and the first mate--"as +something so insignificant as mere men." + +"When we sighted the _Hamburg_", said Wilhelm, "I had just made my last +will and testament. You see I don't give myself up for lost as quickly as +my friend, Doctor von Kammacher. When your ship gradually grew from the +size of a pinhead to the size of a full-grown pea, all of us who could, +screamed at the top of our voices. We nearly burst our throats screaming. +And when your _Hamburg_ attained the size of a walnut, and we realised we +had been sighted, your ship flamed in my eyes like a huge diamond or +ruby, and to me the east from which you came shone more brilliantly than +the west, where the sun was still shining above the horizon. All of us +howled like watch-dogs." + +"It will always be a miracle to me," Frederick resumed, "that such an +evening as this could follow such a morning. I have let days slip past, +by the hundreds, holding no more in them than minutes. But in this one +day, a whole summer has passed, and a whole winter. I feel as if the +first violet had followed directly upon the first snow." + +Wilhelm told of how excited the sailors had been in Cuxhaven because +Catholic priests had boarded the _Roland_. Then he mentioned a dream his +old mother had had the night before he was to sail. A child of hers that +had been born many years before and had lived only a day, appeared to her +as a grown-up man and warned her not to let him make the trip. + +"She begged me not to go," he said, "but, as I am an enlightened man, I +simply laughed at her for her fears." + +Once launched upon the boundless sea of superstition, beloved by sailors, +the men went on to recite cases they knew of prophetic dreams, of +forebodings fulfilled, and the appearance of dying or dead men. This +suggested his friend's last letter to Frederick. He drew his portfolio +from his waistcoat pocket, where it had remained throughout his perilous +trip, and passed the letter around. + +They read the passage, "In the vivid, flashing orgies of my nocturnal +dreams, you are always tossing in a ship on the high seas. Do you intend +to make an ocean trip?" Of course, it excited not a little astonishment, +and it was with some thrills that they read: "Should it be possible for +me, after the great moment, to make myself noticeable from the Beyond, +you will hear from me again." + +Captain Butor asked with an incredulous smile, yet eagerly, whether his +friend had indeed made himself noticeable from the Beyond. + +"This is what happened to me in a dream. Judge for yourselves. I don't +know," said Frederick, in a voice still hoarse and barking. It was unlike +him to go on and relate, as he did, the dream that had been greatly +occupying his thoughts, which began with the landing in a mystic port and +ended with the Toilers of the Light. He described his friend, Peter +Schmidt, and declared that Peter had sent his astral self half way across +the Atlantic to greet him. He spoke of 1492, of Columbus's flag-ship, the +_Santa Maria_, but chiefly of his meeting with Rasmussen in the form of +an old chandler, giving a detailed description of the remarkable ship in +the shop window, the shop itself, and the chirping of the goldfinches. He +drew out his note-book and read aloud what the mysterious chandler had +said to him: + +"It was precisely thirteen minutes past one on the twenty-fourth of +January when I drew my last breath." + +"Whether that is true," Frederick concluded, "remains to be proved. So +much is certain--if there is anything about this dream that isn't the +illusory work of my imagination--my soul grazed the boundaries of the +world beyond, and I received a hint of the catastrophe to come. As to the +_Roland_, my friend, Peter Schmidt, showed me a ship in the harbour with +a tremendous hole in its side and said it had brought in a great many +people,--which would mean, it had transferred them to the world beyond. +In regard to my rescue, my disguised friend, Rasmussen, said I should +soon celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of 1492 with Peter Schmidt +in New York. But dreams are froth and foam. I fancy it would not be +difficult to explain all this rationalistically, from psycho-physiologic +causes." + +Before the little family circle of the _Hamburg_ broke up for the night, +they touched glasses again with great gravity, even solemnity. + + + + +LII + + +Frederick awoke the next morning from an eleven hours' sleep, for which +he was indebted chiefly to a dose of veronal. Doctor Wilhelm had +undertaken to do whatever was necessary during the night for the sick +passengers of the _Roland_ and had persuaded Frederick, whose more +delicate constitution was in the utmost need of rest, to take the drug. +The sun was shining brightly into his tiny cabin. Through the slat door, +he heard the sound of voices speaking calmly and the cheerful clatter of +plates and dishes. At first he recalled nothing of the previous day's +events, and thought he was on the fast mail steamer, _Roland_. But he +could not reconcile the change in his cabin with the idea he had formed +of his room on the _Roland_. In his bewilderment he reached out from bed +and knocked on the mahogany slats of the door. The next moment Doctor +Wilhelm's face, lively and refreshed, was bending over him. + +"With the exception of the woman from the steerage, all our patients had +a good night," the _Roland's_ doctor said, and went on to give a report +of each case. It was not until he had nearly ended his account that he +noticed the difficulty Frederick was having to explain his surroundings. +Wilhelm laughed and recalled some incidents. Frederick started up and +clapped his hands to his temples. + +"A void," he exclaimed. "A whirl of impossible things is going round in +my brain." + +Shortly after, he was sitting at breakfast with Doctor Wilhelm, eating +and drinking. And yet not a word was said of the sinking of the _Roland_. + +Ingigerd Hahlström had awakened and fallen asleep again. The barber and +sailor-nurse, Flitte by name, had locked her door. Arthur Stoss was still +lying abed with his door open and was cracking jokes in the best of +spirits, while his trusty valet, Bulke, fed him or handed him food to +take with his feet. From the ring of his falsetto voice one would have +judged that the horrors he had survived were nothing but a series of +comic situations. + +"This business," he said, leaving his original subject and dropping a few +highly flavoured oaths, "is going to cost me one thousand American +dollars. I shall not be able to keep the first days of my engagement in +New York." In good English he cursed the whole German Hansa, especially +the _Hamburg_. "The wretched little herring keg! At the utmost it doesn't +make more than ten knots an hour." + +Fourteen hours of peaceful sleep brought the painter, Jacob Fleischmann +of Fürth to his senses. He had his breakfast served in bed, rang the +call-bell, gave orders, and kept the steward dancing attendance on him. +The others could hear him loudly reiterate again and again that though +the loss of his oil-paintings, sketches, and etchings, which he had +intended to sell in America, was irreparable and beyond compensation, yet +the steamship company was unquestionably liable, and as soon as he +reached New York, he would take to haunting the company's office, until +they paid him full damages. They were to find out who and what he was. + +Rosa, happy and eager, though with eyes red from crying, passed to and +fro between her mistress's cabin and the dining-room table, carrying now +one thing, now another, to Mrs. Liebling, who was still whining +reproachfully. It had been agreed to keep Siegfried Liebling's death a +secret from her, an easy thing to do since she had declared she was not +yet strong enough to see the children. Yet it was remarkable how the dead +woman had revived. When Frederick after breakfast paid her a professional +visit, he found she had only a dim recollection of having been +unconscious. She had had glorious dreams, she said, and when she realised +she was to be awakened, had felt so regretful that she tried to resist +the summons back to earthly life, back from the wondrous isle, the +veritable paradise, in which she had been. + +Mrs. Liebling was beautiful. She complained of pains, and at Frederick's +bidding bared her body. He found it marked with blue spots, the result of +the rough tossings in the life-boat, which had left him, too, bruised and +wounded in various places and with frozen toes and fingers. + +"My dear Mrs. Liebling," he said, "put up with your slight discomfort. We +were all dead, and we have undeservedly been granted a second life." + +Shortly before ten o'clock, Captain Butor entered the dining-room, shook +hands with the gentlemen, asked how they had slept, and told them that +all night the men on the bridge had redoubled their vigilance on the +chance of discovering more survivors of the _Roland_. Since the wind was +still from the northwest, it was possible that the _Hamburg_ might chance +on the wreck, in case it had not sunk. + +"As a matter of fact," he said, "we did sight a derelict at one o'clock, +but there were absolutely no persons aboard. It was an older wreck and a +sailing vessel, not a steamer." + +"Perhaps it was the _Roland's_ murderer," said Doctor Wilhelm. + +The captain asked the two physicians to come to the chart-room where they +and the sailors of the _Roland_, who were already awaiting him, were to +give him the vouchers he needed for his brief report to be submitted to +his company's agent in New York in regard to the picking up of the +castaways. A sort of audience was held, during which nothing new +concerning the tremendous disaster was revealed. + +Pander showed the scrap of paper with the pencilled message that +Captain von Kessel had asked him to take to his sisters. All were greatly +moved on reading the few hastily scrawled words. The incident revealed +what a wrench the hearts and nerves of even the seamen had undergone. At +the mention of this or that person or incident, Pander and the three +sailors burst into hysterical tears. When asked whether they thought the +_Roland_ would remain above water over the day, all said "No." One of the +sailors, who from the first warning of danger to the boarding of the +_Hamburg_, had gone about his heavy duty with the same grit, the same +matter-of-course manner, scarcely uttering a word, concluded each of his +statements with: "Captain, it was like on Judgment Day." + +At the conclusion of the audience, Frederick felt a great need to be +alone for a while. "It was like on Judgment Day," followed him. Yes, it +was like on Judgment Day! The horrors of the cruellest judgment could not +exceed those amid which the victims of the shipwreck had perished. +Strange, the evening before, Frederick had still been able to laugh; +to-day he felt as if the gravity of his being were turned to brass and +had laid itself about him, not like an iron mask, not like a leaden +cloak, but rather like a heavy metal sarcophagus. + +He knew a man, an architect verging on middle age, who had been on the +island of Ischia during the last great earthquake there. The architect +and some very dear friends were sitting together over a bottle of wine +when the calamity was ushered in by the roll of subterranean thunder. A +moment later the ceiling and floors burst, and an abyss swallowed up +five or six persons, men and women, full of hope and joy in life. He +himself remained on the brink of the abyss unscathed. Though years +intervened, there was still not a clod of earth, not a rock, no matter +how adamantine, on which he could set foot with his old confidence; there +was no wall or ceiling that he did not seem to see falling on his head +and crushing him. Groping along the walls of houses on the street, terror +would seize him. Open places made him dizzy, and not infrequently a +passerby seeing his helplessness would lead him like a blind man across +the city square. + +Frederick felt that the sinking of the _Roland_ had left him with a +gloomy heritage, a black compact cloud-mass brooding menacingly in the +spaces of his soul. With all his will, he had to overcome a shudder when +something like a flash of lightning darted from the cloud and illuminated +the horror he had witnessed, as if it were still present to his eye. + +Why had the powers revealed Judgment Day to him, not as a vision, but as +an actuality? Why had they showed such partiality as to let him and a few +others escape perdition? Was he, the tiny ant, which was susceptible of +such titanic terrors, important enough to assume the guidance of things +for himself, to fulfil a loftier purpose for good or evil? Had he +transgressed? Was he deserving of punishment? But that wholesale massacre +was too fearful, too vast a thing! It was ridiculous to attribute to it a +pedagogic purpose for the discipline of one minute human existence. +Indeed, he felt how the large generalness of the event had almost +entirely dislodged everything personal. No! Nothing but blind, deaf +and dumb powers of destruction had been at work. + +Yet, in facing the elemental tragedy of the human race, the inexorable +gruesomeness of the powers, in looking into the eyes of death, he had +acquired knowledge that turned something in his being into the hardness +of the hardest rock. What was the sense of such a disaster if the eternal +goodness ordained it? And where was the power of eternal goodness, if it +was incapable of hindering it? Nothing remained but to strip oneself bare +of all pride and dignity and grovel in the dust before the great unknown, +a humble, will-less slave, completely at its mercy. + + + + +LIII + + +While on the _Roland_, time had crawled at a snail's pace, the hour hand +of the clock on the _Hamburg_ travelled twice around its face with +surprising rapidity. During that interval, the two ladies remained in +bed, though the weather, which was clear and moderate, permitted being +on deck. In Mrs. Liebling the consequences of the strain manifested +themselves in periodic attacks of great excitement and fear accompanied +by violent palpitation; in Ingigerd Hahlström, in healthy sleepiness, +which made the administration of morphine in her case unnecessary. +Neither of the women developed fever. But the sailor whose feet were +frozen and the woman from the steerage had a high temperature. The +immigrant in her delirium wanted to jump from bed, and, at the +physicians' request, Captain Butor appointed one of the well sailors from +the _Roland_ and a sailor from the _Hamburg_ to relieve each other in +keeping constant watch over her. + +Each time Frederick went to look after the poor creature, he felt himself +assailed by the temptation to save her forever from the moment of +awakening. From her own lips, while she had still been conscious, he had +heard of all the relatives she had probably lost on the _Roland_, her +husband, three sons, and a daughter-ranging from seven to eighteen years +of age--a sister and her mother. At first her fevered fancy occupied +itself with the shipwreck, her husband, children, and sisters. Later she +seemed to become a child again, reliving her life in her parents' home. +Swallows' nests, a cow, a goat, a meadow, in which there was a haystack +roofed to keep off the rain, figured as important things. + +"Would that she passed away in those illusions!" thought Frederick. + +Arthur Stoss, transported up-stairs by his faithful Bulke, and Jacob +Fleischmann strolled about on deck, or reclined in the steamer chairs, +which even the trading vessel possessed. Stoss needed some massaging +and patching up, and while the physicians were busy with him, he crowed +and cawed in his most jovial manner: + +"I always say you can't destroy weeds. Tanned leather is impervious to +salt water. I am like an ant which can spend a week under water without +dying." + +Thanks to Rosa's unwearying care, Ella Liebling escaped with nothing but +a bad cold. Looking very pretty and saucy in her own clothes, which had +been cleaned and dried, the little maiden pried about in every nook and +cranny of the vessel. The skipper granted her a free pass to his bridge, +the engineers to the engine-room. She was even admitted into the great +tube of the propeller-shaft. She was everybody's pet, and all soon became +acquainted with her mother's position in the world and manner of life. + +When Ingigerd, after about fifty hours of rest in bed, finally appeared +on deck, wrapped in Frederick's overcoat, the passengers and crew fairly +celebrated the event. The exquisite creature, who had lost her father, +was regarded with the same masculine pity by all the men on board. +Pander, the gallant cabin-boy, converted himself into her shadow. He made +a stool for her feet from an empty box of smoked sprats, and while she +sat talking to Frederick, he stood off at a short distance ready to +receive her orders. Even Flitte, sailor and barber and nurse, who was +supposed to give all who needed him equal attention, ran hither and +thither for her sake with special zeal. + +The call for Flitte was the one most frequently heard on the _Hamburg_. +The undersized little man from Brandenburg, whom a love of adventure had +changed from a barber-surgeon into a sailor, unexpectedly experienced a +triumph of his personality. Now it was Mrs. Liebling who summoned him, +now Ingigerd, now the sailor with the frozen feet, now Fleischmann, now +Stoss, and even Bulke and Rosa--Rosa, who for several hours during the +day made herself useful in the contracted little kitchen, which was ruled +by a shrewd old cook. The physicians, too, had, of course, constant use +for him; and it was the most natural thing that he should become a man +of importance in the eyes of even his idolised captain, whom, in the +ordinary course of things it was his duty to shave. He was well aware of +this, and since, moreover, pity had fanned into a lively flame his old +inclination for nursing, he outdid himself in self-sacrificing deeds for +the sick, both by day and night. Frederick asked him the same question he +had asked each member of the _Roland's_ crew: + +"Would you rather be a seaman than anything else?" + +And Flitte was the first that without hesitation answered, "Yes." + + + + +LIV + + +The unexpected arrival of the little troupe of peculiar passengers on the +_Hamburg_ in mid-ocean produced a flutter of excitement in both captain +and crew. It was a feeling of mingled solemnity and gaiety. For the +benefit now of the captain, now of the boatswain, or the first mate, or +the cook, or the engineer, the physicians had to repeat again and again +the account of how they had been sighted and rescued. It was a story that +never grew stale, and from the eagerness with which the _Hamburg's_ crew +listened to the oft-told tale, the physicians realised that even to those +old sea-dogs the event was a miracle. None of them, in all the years they +had been sailing the high seas, had ever fished up such booty. + +"When Captain Butor had me look through the spy-glasses," Wendler would +say, "his face was the colour of green cheese. And when I thought for a +moment that I made out a boat and the next second heard the captain say, +'Look sharp, there are people in it,' I felt my knees getting weak." + +In telling of his impressions when the boat entered, and immediately +disappeared from, the field of his spy-glasses, the captain invariably +declared that he had suddenly been beset by a paralysed feeling in his +feet, and rubbed the glasses, and began to search again. He was on the +point of leaving the bridge, since he could not get another view of that +strange little flyspeck on the ocean and decided it was an allusion, when +it occurred to him that for reasons of general security he had better +scan the entire circle of the horizon. This time he looked backwards. +Instantly he had the _Hamburg_ stopped and turned, because he had sighted +the boat a second time and it was now decidedly nearer. The first mate, +too, on looking through the glasses saw it was a boat and that it +contained passengers. Wendler was called on deck. When he peered through +the glass, he distinguished white cloths waving. + +"When my boys found out what was doing," said Captain Butor, "they began +to carry on like lunatics. I had to use some of my sea-lingo on them. +They wanted to dive over the railing into the sea, and swim to the boat." + + * * * * * + +Ingigerd was lying stretched out in her comfortable steamer chair, and +Frederick was sitting on a camp-stool in front of her. On the _Roland_, +when the sense of danger began to thicken, a feeling of ownership in +regard to Ingigerd had taken hold of Frederick and never left him. Doctor +Wilhelm and, as a result of his influence, everybody on the _Hamburg_ +looked upon Frederick as the romantic rescuer and lover of the little +dancer. All were conscious of witnessing the development of a romance +especially sanctioned by Divine Providence, and looked on with interest +and respect. Ingigerd's attitude to Frederick was that of tacit docility, +as if she, the obedient ward, recognised in him her natural guardian. + +The air was fresh, the motion of the sea was easy. Suddenly, after a long +spell of silence, which Frederick had imposed upon her, Ingigerd asked: + +"Was it really nothing but chance that brought us together on the +_Roland_?" + +"There is no such thing as chance, or, rather, everything is chance, +Ingigerd," was his evasive answer. + +Ingigerd was not satisfied, and did not desist until she learned the +causes and circumstances that had led Frederick to board the unfortunate +_Roland_ at Southampton. + +"So for my sake," she said, "you came within a hair's breadth of losing +your life. Instead, you saved my life." + +This brief conversation cemented the bond between them more firmly. + +In the survivors, with the exception of Frederick and Ingigerd, the +consciousness of their newly acquired life soon assumed exuberant forms. +Scarcely two days lay between them and the sinking of the _Roland_, yet +these very people, who had undergone the brutal terrors of that awful +event, abandoned themselves to the greatest gaiety. Arthur Stoss probably +had never before shot off such an incessant fire of jokes and jibes, and +probably never before had set such an audience a-laughing as the captain, +the first mate, the boatswain, Wendler, the ship's cook, Fleischmann, +Doctor Wilhelm, and even Mrs. Liebling, Rosa, Bulke, and the sailors of +the _Roland_ and the _Hamburg_. + +Fleischmann involuntarily and unconsciously danced to the tune that Stoss +in perfect good humour intentionally piped. It was most amusing when the +man with black locks, dressed in a black velvet suit saturated with salt +water, swaggeringly passed judgment upon Adolf Menzel, Böcklin, +Liebermann, and other celebrated German masters. In expanding his +theories of painting, he always used his lost treasures as examples. +Stoss never wearied of getting the caddish genius to describe his +paintings, the loss of which in Fleischmann's opinion was the worst +disaster connected with the sinking of the _Roland_. The form that Doctor +Wilhelm's teasing of Fleischmann took was, when Ingigerd was not present, +to make him describe his rescue in detail. In the artist's brain, it was +an event in an eminent degree glorifying to himself. All the sorry +incidents had completely passed from his mind, including the fact that +Rosa, Bulke and Ingigerd had pulled him out of the waves howling like a +wet poodle. + +The sum at which he estimated the loss of his pictures and which he +intended to demand of the steamship company was a matter of general +knowledge, like the price of stocks and bonds, within two and a half +days jumping from eight hundred dollars to six thousand. There was no +telling to what amount it might soar. + +Fleischmann had contrived to get some writing paper on the _Hamburg_, +and industriously set to work to caricature everybody on board. Thus, he +often bestowed his company unbidden upon Frederick and Ingigerd, who had +no need of anybody else in the world. That would ruffle Frederick's +temper. + +"I am surprised," he once said to him, by no means amiably, "that after +so solemn an event, you are capable of such superficial trifling." + +"A strong character!" said Fleischmann, laconically. + +"Don't you think," Frederick continued, "that Miss Hahlström may be +annoyed by your constantly looking at her?" + +"No," said Fleischmann, "I don't think so." + +Ingigerd took Fleischmann's part, thereby heightening Frederick's ill +humour. + + + + +LV + + +Shortly after, just as Wendler, who was off duty, passed by with a +chess-board under his arm, Frederick was summoned to Mrs. Liebling. Of +the two physicians, he was the one that had inspired her special +confidence, why, he did not know. + +"Doctor von Kammacher," said Doctor Wilhelm, with a swift side glance at +Ingigerd, "you've cut me out again." + +At least once every twenty minutes Mrs. Liebling called for Flitte and at +least once every hour Frederick von Kammacher had to sit beside her on +the edge of her bed. Strangely enough, it did not occur to the young +scientist to take amiss the jokes that Doctor Wilhelm and the others +aimed at him on that account. He was really sorry for the poor woman and +was unaffectedly ready to be of service to her. + +They had not yet informed her of Siegfried's death, but, now that only +Ella kept coming to her, a suspicion had arisen in her mind. Flitte and +Rosa, when she begged them to go fetch Siegfried, always returned without +him, and when pressed, gave as the reason that the boy was sick. + +"What is the matter with my dear, sweet Siegfried?" she cried, wringing +her hands, when Frederick entered her cabin. The next moment she fell +back on her pillow and lay rigid, pressing her hands to her eyes. + +"O my God! O my God!" she exclaimed in impotent denial of the truth. +Without waiting for what Frederick had to say, she began to cry quietly, +in genuine grief. + +On returning to the deck half an hour later, Frederick found the fat +little engineer and Ingigerd playing chess together. + +"The painter and I have made Miss Hahlström laugh three times already," +cried the engineer. + +"I know where you were, Doctor von Kammacher," Ingigerd said. "Does she +know the truth now?" + +"Yes," Frederick replied. "I hope she will be quieter now." + +Ingigerd wanted to go down to Mrs. Liebling. Tears came to her eyes, and +revealed, as with a ray of light shining inward, what she refrained from +saying, that she who had lost her father was most fitted to share the +grief of a mother who through the same misfortune had lost her son. +Frederick was indignant that Ingigerd had been told, and used all his +authority to prevail upon her not to visit Mrs. Liebling for the present. + + + + +LVI + + +The next day at about noon Doctor Wilhelm and Frederick helped Mrs. +Liebling on deck. Her appearance there made a gruesome impression upon +those who had not seen her since she had been dragged, a lifeless corpse, +from the boat to the _Hamburg_. The sailors, though most solicitous to +read Ingigerd Hahlström's wishes from her eyes, even before they were +conceived, kept at a distance from Mrs. Liebling and cast shy glances at +her, as if still in doubt whether she was a real human being. If the sea +gives up its dead, why should not little Siegfried emerge from his death +chamber? + +Mrs. Liebling, wrapped in blankets and a coat belonging to the captain, +was placed in a comfortable position on the other side of the deck from +Ingigerd, because she wished to be alone. For a long while she looked +across the expanse of the quiet sea. Then she said to Frederick, whose +company she had requested: + +"It's strange that I feel merely as if I had had a dreadful dream--just +a dream--that is the strange thing. No matter how hard I try, I cannot +fully convince myself, except when I think of Siegfried, that my dream +reflects an actuality which I experienced." + +"We mustn't indulge in vain broodings," said Frederick. + +"I know," she continued without looking at him, "I know I didn't always +do what is right, but if _I_ deserved to be punished, Siegfried did not. +Why did I escape?" After an interval of silence, she began to speak of +her past, of conflicts with her husband, who had deceived her. Hers had +been one of those loveless matches which are contracted in the customary +business fashion. She told Frederick that she was an artist by nature, +Rubinstein, for whom she had played when she was eleven years old, having +prophesied a great future for her. "I don't know anything about cooking +or children. I was always terribly nervous. Still, I love my children. If +I didn't, would I have been so obstinate in trying to win them from my +husband? I pledge you my word, Doctor, if I could change places with +Siegfried, you would find me ready at any moment." + +Frederick made all sorts of consolatory remarks, some of which were not +wholly superficial; for instance, what he said of death and resurrection +and the great atonement that every form of death, even mere sleep, +involves. + +"If you were a man, I should recommend Goethe. I should say to you, 'Read +over and over the beginning of the second part of _Faust_:' + + 'Then the craft of elves propitious + Hastes to help where help it can.' + +or the passage beginning: + + 'The fierce convulsions of his heart compose; + Remove the burning barbs of his remorses, + And cleanse his being from the suffered woes!' + +Doesn't what we went through give you a sense of expiation and +purification?" + +"I feel," said the woman who had arisen from the dead, "as if my former +life were far, far away, as if, since the sinking of the _Roland_, an +impassable mountain were lying between me and my past. But leave me now, +Doctor. You are bored. Don't waste the precious time you owe your pretty +friend on me." + +As a matter of fact, Frederick preferred to talk to Mrs. Liebling rather +than to Ingigerd. If he was bored, it was with Ingigerd, not with Mrs. +Liebling. + +"Oh," he said, "never mind. Ingigerd Hahlström always has company. She +doesn't need me." + +"My mother urged me," said Mrs. Liebling, "not to take the children, but +to leave them with her. Had I obeyed, Siegfried would still have been +alive. She has a perfect right to reproach me severely. And how can I +face Siegfried's father? He did what he could to keep the children back. +He wrote to me and sent friends and his attorneys." + +"With 'if' and 'hadn't I,' you can't undo what has been done. The event +is too general, too titanic, to be thought of in such a way. It is too +fearful to be considered with reference to a single individual and his +puny fate. What happened had to happen, whether or not we believe in +predestination. We human beings must not have feelings so petty as to +allow mere chance to play a rôle in this event." + +Frederick could not make up his mind to speak of his dream, in which Rosa +figured as jumping from the boat with Siegfried in her arms and escaping +to the white marble quay of the wonderful Columbus port, where he had +been received by Peter Schmidt and where the _Santa Maria_ was slowly +crumbling away. Since there were things in his dream that gave support to +a belief in predestination relieving the mind of self-blame, his telling +it might have soothed Mrs. Liebling's troubled conscience; but Rosa had +remained alive, Siegfried alone was dead. Besides, though Frederick was +constantly revolving the dream in his soul and kept recalling Hamlet's +words, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are +dreamt of in your philosophy," he did not want to strengthen Mrs. +Liebling's superstition, which showed itself in a predisposition for +table-tipping and patience-playing. + +On walking to the other side of the deck, after a rather prolonged +absence, he was greeted with a shout. + +"Hullo, father confessor!" they cried. + +"Come be seated, my saviour," said Ingigerd, looking considerably better +and brighter than the day before. + +Frederick turned slightly pale, but did as he was bidden and said in a +tone that did not harmonise with the good humour of the group: + +"Mrs. Liebling was Rubinstein's pupil. I haven't met another woman on +this trip to whom it is so well worth the while to talk." + +"All due respect to you, a matter of taste," said Doctor Wilhelm. + +"Let him alone. My saviour is displeased," said Ingigerd. + +It was evident that occasionally she stood in awe of Frederick. + + + + +LVII + + +Aside from little tiffs between Ingigerd and Frederick, the spirit on +board the _Hamburg_ was generally good-humoured, even jolly. The weather +remained clear, and the place of terror already lay eight hundred miles +behind in the ocean. Each minute carried the passengers of the _Roland_ +farther along in their newly acquired lives. The ladies were feasted from +the cargo of tropical fruit in the hold of the vessel, which had a +carrying capacity of some two thousand register tons. Often the men for +Ingigerd's amusement would use the oranges for playing ball. The Atlantic +Ocean about the _Hamburg_ seemed a very different thing from that awful, +treacherous sea which had swallowed the _Roland_. It lay like a +wave-tossing heaven under the steamer, and gave it a gentle rocking +motion, by no means unpleasant. There was majesty in the course of even +the plain little trader, painted black above the water-line and red +below. Compared with that mechanical marvel, the _Roland_, it was like +a comfortable old stage-coach, and could be depended upon to make its +ten knots an hour with a great show of speed. Captain Butor in all +seriousness declared the castaways had brought him good luck. The moment +they appeared, the old man of the sea turned as peaceful and serene as an +octogenarian English rector. + +"Yes," said Stoss, "but your old English rector first filled his belly +with a few hecatombs of human lives. Stop, look, listen! Don't be too +quick to trust him. When he's done assimilating, he'll have a still +better appetite." + +Up to the very end of the trip, though there was a corpse on board and +the woman from the steerage was still very sick, the atmosphere on the +_Hamburg_ lost none of its festal character. The bridge was free +territory. Ingigerd was usually to be seen there in the daytime playing +chess with Wendler, or looking on while Frederick won one game after the +other from the engineer. Naturally enough, the entire crew, by no means +exclusive of Captain Butor, felt profound satisfaction because of the +booty they had recovered on the high seas, each wearing an air of evident +pride in the catch. Had the exalted feelings that swelled the hearts of +all on board the gallant freight coach, the _Hamburg_, been transferred +into od-rays, the steamer would have sailed up New York Harbour +surrounded, even at high noon, by an aureole of its own radiance. + +There was betting as to the number of the pilot-boat that would come to +meet the _Hamburg_, when suddenly it appeared hard by, with the number +"25" decipherable on its sail. Arthur Stoss had won. Almost choking with +laughter, he raked in a considerable sum, and Jacob Fleischmann envied +him with comically obvious greed. + +The close companionship with his fellow-passengers on the small steamer, +the compulsion he was under to listen to their jokes and to the +superficial, reiterated tale of the disaster made Frederick inwardly +impatient. Unlike the others, he had not yet recovered his old relation +to life. His soul was numbed. He had lost his feeling for the past, his +feeling for the future, even his passion for Ingigerd. The moment of the +catastrophe seemed to have snapped all the threads that bound him to the +events, men, and things of his former life. Whenever he looked upon +Ingigerd, he felt an oppressive consciousness of responsibility. In these +days it almost seemed as if the girl in her predominatingly soft, serious +mood were awaiting the declaration of his love. + +"You all want to have fun with me," she once said, "but nobody wants +anything serious of me." + +Frederick did not understand himself. Hahlström was no longer living, +Achleitner had had to pay the penalty of his undignified, dog-like love, +and the girl, shaken and refined to the depths of her being, was wax in +his hands. Often he would look at her to find that her eyes had been +fixed upon him in a long, grave, meditative gaze. Then he would seem to +himself a very sorry sort of person, and was compelled to admit that he +who had once wished to overwhelm the girl with the infinite riches of a +passionately loving soul, was a bankrupt, groping with empty hands in +empty pockets. He ought to speak, ought to open the sluices on the other +side of which the flood of his passionate love must have gathered and +risen high; but all the waters had trickled away, all the sources had +dried up. To mask the aridity of his soul, he adopted his old method of +a curt, dictatorial manner. + + + + +LVIII + + +It was the fifth of February, about thirteen days after the _Roland_ +had left Bremen, and twelve after Frederick had boarded the _Roland_ +at the Needles in the Channel, when the pilot took the guidance of +the _Hamburg_. Compared with the length of the _Fürst Bismarck's_ +record-making passage, this was an extremely long time. But how +inconceivably brief it seemed to him when he recalled all he had +experienced in that period, both in his waking and sleeping hours. On +the _Hamburg_, he no longer dreamed at night. A mighty blast had swept +his soul clean and denuded it of all images. + +Shortly before ten o'clock in the morning of the sixth of February, +Captain Butor, standing back of Ella Liebling, who was sitting under +the telescope merrily kicking her thin legs, spied land. It was a +tremendously stirring moment when the news was carried to the passengers. +The steward that called it into Frederick's cabin and the next instant +disappeared little realised how his brief announcement, "Land!" affected +the stranger. Frederick closed the door, shaken by great, hollow, +toneless sobs coming from the depths of his being. + +"Such is life," went through his heart. "Did not a steward on a gloomy, +horrid night call 'Danger!' into my cabin, like the shouting of a death +sentence into the cell of a poor sinner by both the judge and the +hangman? And now comes the peaceful piping of the shepherd's reed, while +the thunder is still rolling." It was not until his sobbing ceased that +he felt a thrill of bliss, as if life were again drawing near in triumph. +A flash of feeling set him afire, as when a vast army approaches with +music playing and banners flying, an army of invincible brethren, among +whom he is safe at home again. Never before had life come rolling toward +him in waves so strong or colours so shining. One must have been cast +very, very deep down in darkness and confusion to learn that there is no +more glorious sun in all God's heavens than the sun that shines upon our +earth. + +The other passengers from the _Roland_ were each in his own way affected +by the call of "Land!" Mrs. Liebling was heard to cry for Rosa and +Flitte. + +"By Jove, you rascal," said Arthur Stoss to his faithful Bulke, "by Jove, +we'll feel the land under our soles again after all." + +Doctor Wilhelm peeped into Frederick's cabin. + +"Congratulate you, Doctor von Kammacher," he said. "The land of +Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci has been sighted. We enjoy the +advantage of having no trunks to pack." + +Suddenly the fat little engineer, Mr. Wendler, was peering over Doctor +Wilhelm's shoulder. + +"Doctor," he cried, wringing his hands with a comic air of helplessness, +"you must come right on deck. Your ward is crying her eyes out." He +referred, of course, to Ingigerd. + +She was still crying when Frederick reached deck. His attempts at +consolation did not touch her. He had never before seen her cry, and the +state she was in, so like the one from which he himself had scarcely +emerged, aroused his pity and sympathy, which, however, were rather of +a paternal sort, untinged by his former passion. + +"I am not to blame," she suddenly said, "that my father lost his life. I +am not even responsible for Mr. Achleitner. I did my best to dissuade him +from making the trip." + +Frederick stroked Ingigerd's hand. + +"All due respect to Achleitner, but if I mourn single victims of that +fearful night, I first think of the heroes of the _Roland_, Captain von +Kessel, his mate, Von Halm, and all those picked braves who really died +like great men fulfilling their duty. They are a loss to the world. At +the first sight of them, I, in my innocence, actually believed the Lord +would never permit their destruction." + + + + +LIX + + +The _Hamburg_ had left behind the vast solitude of the ocean, broken only +at long intervals by single far-off ships, and was already making its way +through waters lively with a large number of steamers and sailing craft, +leaving, and making for, the port. Now the lighthouse at Sandy Hook was +visible. + +Though Ingigerd as well as Frederick could not still the fluttering of +their shaken souls, they were fascinated by the changing pictures of the +entrance to the harbour. It was an amazing spectacle. Surprise followed +surprise. Each second brought a new sensation. + +A gigantic White Star liner came gliding toward them slowly, to the +accompaniment of its brass band. It was starting out on the passage that +the _Hamburg_ was just concluding. Passengers swarmed like ants on the +majestic vessel's decks, giving an impression of gaiety and festivity. +What knew they of the thing awaiting them, perhaps, out there on the +ocean? When they looked down upon the little _Hamburg_, with its few +passengers on deck, they had not the least inkling of the greatness, +the fearfulness of the event of which those few puny persons were the +sole surviving witnesses. + +The emotion that filled the _Roland's_ passengers with restlessness and +excited them as with fire and tears when the _Hamburg_ entered New York +Harbour and steamed up through the Lower Bay toward the Narrows, was +both a farewell to home and to the dangers of the sea and a greeting to +solid land, to a stable human civilisation. This was the known, the +usual, the mother's lap from which they had sprung and in which they had +grown until the time came for them to start out upon their spiritual +life's journey. It was also that without which the individual even to-day +is helpless against the powers of nature. + +Thus, they experienced a sort of home-coming, mingled with a peculiar +dream-like feeling, that they were arriving on a strange planet, after +having been ferried across Stygian currents on a Charon's raft. Out +there, on the ocean and over the ocean, hovered a gruesomeness of +solitudes, in which the human being, himself seeing everything, remains +unseen, unknown, forgotten by God and the world. To be happy in his +heated, clustered ant nests, man can and must forget the murderous in +those watery transitional realms--man, that insect-like being whose sense +organs and intellect are capacitated for the knowledge of his vast +isolation in the world, but for nothing beyond that knowledge. + +Sailing vessels passed one another, steamers blew their whistles, +flocks of gulls swooped down on the water for fish, or darted hither +and thither in the fresh breeze. Another great ocean greyhound, of the +Hamburg-American line, neared them at Norton Point. The huge structure +was propelled forward quietly and surely, as by some mysterious force. +The gong summoning the passengers from the promenade deck to the +dining-room could be distinctly heard. + +"At this moment," said Frederick, drawing his watch from his pocket, "it +is quarter of six in Europe, and still dark." + +Captain Butor exchanged flag signals with the quarantine station. The +_Hamburg_ came to a standstill to receive health officers on board. After +prolonged negotiations, in the course of which the physicians were +called upon to give detailed information, the sick woman from the +steerage and, with Mrs. Liebling's consent, Siegfried's corpse were taken +from the _Hamburg_. Frederick saw to it that Mrs. Liebling remained in +her cabin and was spared the too painful scene. Within half an hour, the +gallant _Hamburg_ was steaming at full speed through the Narrows into the +magnificent Upper Bay. + +Long before it appears, travellers are always on the lookout with +spy-glasses for the Statue of Liberty, the gift of the French nation. +Even Frederick, when he beheld the goddess towering up from the water +on her star-shaped base, did homage to her in his thoughts. From the +distance at which he saw her, she did not look so gigantic. She seemed +to be sending him a beautiful message, rather of the future than of the +present, a message that found its way to his heart and, even in the +strange mood he was in, expanded his breast. + +"Liberty!" The word may be misused, yet it has not lost any of its magic +or promise. + + + + +LX + + +And now, suddenly, the world seemed to Frederick to have gone mad. The +_Hamburg_ was entering the narrow harbour, the basin surrounded by +skyscrapers, veritable towers of Babel, and alive with numberless +grotesquely shaped ferry-boats. The scene, perhaps, would be a ridiculous +monstrosity, were it not so truly gigantic. In that crater of life +civilisation bellows, howls, screeches, roars, thunders, rushes, whizzes +and whirls. Here is a colony of white ants, whose activity is staggering, +bewildering, stupefying. It seemed inconceivable that in that intricate, +raging chaos, a single minute could pass without a collision, or a +collapse, or a killing. How could one possibly pursue one's own affairs +quietly amid that shrieking, that hammering, that clanging, that mad +uproar? + +During these last moments together, the involuntary passengers of the +_Hamburg_ had become as one in heart and soul. Frederick had not lost his +cash in the disaster, and he persuaded Ingigerd Hahlström not to reject +his services during her first days on land. All agreed not to lose sight +of one another in New York. Naturally enough, there had been much lively, +genuinely heartfelt leave-taking and well-wishing for more than an hour +before the _Hamburg_ was secured to the dock. + +The dithyrambic noise of the mighty city, where millions of men were at +work, exercised a renewing, transforming influence. It was a whirlpool +into which one was drawn unresistingly. It suffered no pondering, no +immersion in an unalterable past. Everything in it urged and impelled +forward. Here was the present, nothing but the present. + +Arthur Stoss seemed already to have one foot planted on Webster and +Forster's stage. There was much parleying in regard to Ingigerd's +appearance in theatre. She and Stoss had been engaged for the same time, +which was already past. With the uncertainty in her heart as to her +father's fate, she said she could not possibly dance; while Arthur Stoss +declared if he got there in time, he would appear for his number that +very evening. + +"I've already lost two evenings," he said, "at a round five hundred +dollars an evening. Besides, I must work, I must get among people." + +He advised Ingigerd for her own advantage to do the same, and cited +instances of persons who had not allowed the greatest griefs to keep them +from the exercise of their calling. He knew of a scholar, he said, who +delivered his lecture while his wife was dying, of a clown who cracked +his jokes on the stage, though his wife had eloped with another man and +his heart was bleeding. + +"That's our profession," Stoss continued, "and not only our profession, +but everybody's profession--to do his duty, whether with liking or +disliking, whether with happiness or with anguish in his soul. Every man +is a tragi-comic clown, although he doesn't pass for one, perhaps, as we +do. To me it is a triumph, after what I have gone through, to stand on +the stage this evening without trembling, among three thousand +sensation-seeking spectators, and shoot the middle out of an ace." + +By degrees Stoss fell more and more into a lively strain of boasting, +which, though not disagreeable, utterly lacked wit. "If you haven't +anything better to do," he said, turning to the physicians, "you +might come to Webster and Forster's and see me cut my capers. Work! +Work!"--this was meant for Ingigerd--"I very much wish you would make up +your mind to dance. Work is medicine, work is everything. To lament the +past is of no use. Besides," he said, turning serious, "don't forget, +stocks in us are booming. Actors must not reject such an opportunity. +Just wait and see how we'll be surrounded by reporters the moment we set +foot on land." + +"How so?" said Frederick. "Don't you suppose that all the details of +the sinking of the _Roland_ have been telegraphed to New York from +quarantine? Look at those great skyscrapers, that one with the cupola is +the _World_ building. We have already gone to press, and millions of +newspapers have spun us out, in the greatest detail. The next four or +five days there won't be a man or woman in New York who can vie in +celebrity with the survivors of the _Roland_." + +Amid similar talk, the _Hamburg_ reached its pier, and leave-taking began +in earnest. It was truly remarkable to see what emotion suddenly seized +these people, who at bottom were strangers to one another. Mrs. Liebling +wept, and Frederick and Doctor Wilhelm had to submit to her overflowing +kisses of gratitude. Rosa kissed Bulke; she kissed Doctor Wilhelm's and +Frederick's hands again and again, amid veritable howls. It goes without +saying that the ladies also exchanged endearments. Praises were bestowed +upon Flitte; and Captain Butor and Wendler, in fact the entire crew of +the _Hamburg_, were extolled as brave, noble rescuers. The physicians and +Stoss called the sailors of the _Roland_, "Our dear comrades! Our +heroes!" + +It was agreed that all should meet again, and Doctor Wilhelm made an +appointment with Captain Butor, Wendler, and even the tattered painter, +Fleischmann, for noon of the day after next. The place chosen for the +meeting was the Hoffman House bar. From there, they would go together on +a jaunt through the city. + +Poor Jacob Fleischmann, the painter, was somewhat perplexed by the mad +city, and turned rather mealy-mouthed. He could not speak English, he had +little cash, and he had lost his only capital, his paintings. He tried +delicately, though with evident anxiety, to attach himself to the men +with whom fate had thrown him, and they did not withhold the support he +sought. They agreed to look out for him. Even Arthur Stoss proffered his +services and good advice. + +"Should you have trouble with the company's agent," he said, "call on me, +and I'll introduce you to my friend, the owner of the _Staats-Zeitung_." + + + + +PART II + + + + +I + + +A few moments later Frederick felt the solid pier beneath his feet. His +brain reeled lightly. The crowd on the pier cheered and hurrahed. In that +shouting, shrieking, roaring, swaying mass of humanity, he and Ingigerd, +who was clinging to his arm, seemed exposed to the danger of another sort +of drowning. Suddenly he found himself confronted by a little Japanese, +or someone whom at first glance he took to be a Japanese, and heard him +saying: + +"How d'ye do, Doctor von Kammacher? Don't you know me? How d'ye do, +Doctor von Kammacher? Don't you know me?" several times in rapid +succession. + +Frederick tried to recall the man to his memory. He scarcely knew who he +himself was, with those cheers thundering in his ears, with hands on all +sides shaking his hands, and newsboys flourishing newspapers behind him +and above him and under his very nose. + +"Don't you know me, Doctor von Kammacher?" the Japanese repeated, +grinning. + +"By Jove," cried Frederick, "now I recognise you. You are Willy Snyders. +How do you come to be here?" + +While studying several semesters in Breslau, Frederick had eked out his +income by tutoring a boy, a rather desperate case, whose father, a +furniture manufacturer, paid handsomely for his son's private lessons. +Frederick's pupil turned out to be a good-hearted chap, an amusing +scapegrace, who soon became his devoted slave. It was this scapegrace, +now a full-grown man, that Frederick recognised in the jolly Japanese. + +"How I come to be here? I'll explain later," said Willy, his nostrils +dilating with the joy of seeing his teacher again. "The first thing is, +have you already engaged rooms, and shall I slip you past that damned +lot of reporters? Or do you want to be interviewed?" + +"For heaven's sake, no! Not for the world." + +"Then stick close to me," shouted Willy. "A cab is waiting for us, and +we'll drive straight to our folks." + +Frederick introduced Ingigerd. + +"I must first see this young lady safe to a hotel. And even then I can't +leave her entirely alone." + +Willy instantly took in the situation, but it did not change his plans. + +"Miss Hahlström can stop with us, too. She will be far more comfortable +than in a hotel. The only question is, can she put up with Italian +cooking?" + +"I don't anticipate any difficulties from your macaroni and spaghetti _al +sugo_," said Frederick, who read Ingigerd's willingness in her eyes. "So +I'll follow your lead as you followed mine years ago." + +"All right! Forward, march!" Willy's joy in his booty was patent. + +When they left the pier, they saw Stoss still surrounded by reporters, +working his jaws with incredible rapidity, as he discoursed upon himself +and the role he had played in the sinking of the _Roland_. They were +about to enter their cab after their flight, through the crowd, when +an elderly gentleman, panting breathlessly and perspiring, despite the +nipping wind, stepped up to Ingigerd Hahlström with, "I beg your pardon, +but I come from Webster and Forster." He took off his hat and wiped the +inside band with his handkerchief. "I was told--I was told--I came in a +carriage--a carriage is waiting--" He stopped, too exhausted to continue. + +"Miss Hahlström cannot possibly appear this evening." + +"Oh, Miss Hahlström looks very well!" + +"See here," said Frederick ready to flare up. + +Webster and Forster's agent put his hat back on his bald pate. + +"It would be the greatest mistake if Miss Hahlström were not to dance +to-night," he said. "I was commissioned to provide her with money and +anything else she needed. There's my carriage. Rooms have already been +engaged for her at the Astor." + +Frederick grew angry. + +"I am a physician," he snapped, "and as a physician, I tell you Miss +Hahlström will not dance to-night, nor for several nights." + +"Will you make good to Miss Hahlström her financial loss?" + +"What I shall do in regard to that is neither your nor Webster and +Forster's business." + +Frederick thought he had disposed of the matter, but the agent became +offensive. + +"Who are you, sir? My dealings are with Miss Hahlström exclusively. What +right have you to mix in this affair?" + +"I don't think I could dance to-night," Ingigerd interposed. + +"You will lose that feeling as soon as you step on the stage. The +manager's wife gave me a letter for you. Her maid is at the Astor with +everything you need. She is entirely at your disposal." + +"Our Petronilla is a jewel, too," Willy Snyders interjected. "If you +tell her what you need, Miss Hahlström, she'll have it for you in five +minutes." With the insistence of a seducer, he helped Ingigerd into the +cab. + +"Very well, then," said the agent emphatically, "you are breaking a +contract, and I warn you of the consequences. I will have to ask you for +your address." + +Willy Snyders shouted a number on 107th street. The agent jotted it down +in his note-book. + +The cab with Ingigerd, Frederick, and Willy in it was transported from +Hoboken to New York in the usual way, jammed in between other carriages +and trucks on the ferry-boat. A newsboy on the ferry handed into the cab +a copy of _The Sun_, with whole columns already describing the disaster. +The authors of the information were probably the health officers and +Captain Butor. When Willy Snyders began to speak of the _Roland_, +Frederick checked him with a nod toward Ingigerd; but she had of herself +noticed the report in the paper and asked if they had been the first +to bring the news to New York. + +"The _Roland_ was overdue more than three days," Willy explained. "We +were already beginning to be alarmed. Finally the passenger list from +Bremen was published, and soon after your name, too, Doctor von +Kammacher, appeared in the newspapers, your father in the meantime having +cabled that you left Paris to catch the _Roland_ at Southampton. I never +lost faith that nothing but the wretched weather was delaying you, and I +inquired at the steamship company's office every day. It was there that I +learned of the sinking of the _Roland_ and the arrival of the _Hamburg_ +with the first rescued passengers on board, with you among them." +Noticing Ingigerd's sudden pallor, Willy added vivaciously, with apparent +conviction, "A lot of others must surely have been rescued." + +The amount of traffic, as indicated by an endless number of ferry-boats, +tugs, and steamers of every sort, was immense. The ferry-boats, black +with people, resembled floating towers of Babel, above which rose an +iron something like a pump-handle, seesawing up and down with the +invisible pistons. + +When the boat lay fast in the slip, there was a great thundering as the +vehicles all began to move at the same time to the accompaniment of a +tramping mass of humanity. + +"This city," Frederick thought, "is obsessed by a craze for money +making." The idea was suggested to him chiefly by the advertisements +staring on all sides, those shrill, over-spiced, over-charged +asseverations, compared with which the same thing in Europe was delicate +as a violet, innocent as a newborn babe. Wherever he turned his eyes, +gigantic placards glared at him, gigantic letters, gigantic, garishly +coloured pictures, gigantic fingers and hands pointing to something. +Twenty negroes carrying bill-boards, a carriage drawn by twelve horses +harnessed like circus horses passed by. It was a shrieking, greedy war of +competition, waged with every conceivable means, a wild, shameless orgy +of acquisitiveness, but for that very reason not lacking in a certain +greatness. There was no hypocrisy about it. It was honest in its +outspokenness. + +The cab stopped at a telegraph office, and Frederick cabled to his +father, "I am safe, sound, and well;" Ingigerd to her mother in Paris, +"I am safe. Papa's fate uncertain." While Ingigerd was writing, Frederick +took the chance to tell Willy Snyders that she had probably lost her +father in the wreck. + +Several times newsboys thrust a paper under Frederick's nose, calling out +the great sensation, "All about the sinking of the _Roland_! All about +the sinking of the _Roland_!" In large, catching headlines he read: "The +_Roland_ leaves Bremen. Slight accident compels her to return. _Roland_ +starts on trip again. Constant storms. Dead man on board. Nine hundred +drowned. Heroic conduct of a servant-girl. Doctor Frederick von Kammacher +performs miracles of bravery." Frederick started, reflected, but could +not recall anything of the sort. "Child dies in life-boat. Captain Butor +of the _Hamburg_ sights castaways. Report of survivors. Arthur Stoss, +champion armless marksman, helped into life-boat by faithful valet," and +so on. It was an invaluable supply of fresh, sensational, gratuitously +obtained material, to be served for a week in generous portions to +readers in both the old and the new worlds. + +The cab rolled up Broadway, that main thoroughfare of New York stretching +along for miles, with two apparently unbroken chains of street-cars +moving by each other. At that time the cars were propelled by an endless +cable travelling in a conduit under the roadway. The traffic all along +Broadway was enormous, and the contrast was the more surprising when +the cab, after traversing another lively street, turned into a +deserted-looking side street, where almost country-like quiet prevailed. + +The cab came to a halt, and Willy Snyders helped Ingigerd out. The +travellers found themselves in front of a low one-family house with a +flight of outside steps, differing in no wise from the other houses on +the block, which were all built on the same plan, of exactly the same +height, of exactly the same width, and with absolute similarity of +detail. Frederick had observed such architectural monotony only in +workingmen's houses in Germany, while here it was the mark of a fairly +aristocratic section. + +Twilight had already fallen when Frederick and Ingigerd at length found +privacy in their rooms. The rooms, plainly furnished and scrupulously +clean, were lighted by electricity and heated from a furnace in the +cellar; and the floors were not laid with wood, but paved with red +bricks. Petronilla, the old Italian housekeeper, took Ingigerd in charge, +looking after the smallest of her wants with touching motherliness. The +two said what was necessary to say in a mixture of Italian and English. +After showing Ingigerd to her room and seeing that she was provided with +everything, Petronilla stepped out into the hall to call a maid, who was +working in another part of the house. Frederick heard her, and put his +head out of the door to inquire after Ingigerd. + +"The signorina dropped on the couch without undressing and fell right +asleep," she said. + +Frederick feeling somewhat uneasy went with Petronilla to look after +Ingigerd, and found that she had merely succumbed to a leaden sleep. Her +constitution, after weeks of over-exertion and abuse, was asserting its +rights. Petronilla and the maid undressed her and put her to bed, all +unconscious, though now and then opening wide her shimmering sea-green +eyes. + + + + +II + + +Frederick washed and went down-stairs to the basement with Willy Snyders. +Here there was a tidy little dining-room with a table set for eight. As +in the other rooms, the floors were of brick, and the walls half-way up +were hung with burlap. Where the burlap ended, a narrow shelf ran around +the entire room, set with all sorts of household utensils, chiefly +_fiaschi_ of wine in straw cases. Like everything else about the place, +the napery was exquisitely clean. + +Willy in the meantime had in his droll, lively way fully informed +Frederick of the character and purpose of this extremely comfortable +house. It was leased by a group of German artists, whose main prop was a +sculptor of twenty-eight by the name of Ritter. Willy lauded Ritter as a +genius. He had entered upon a career in the New World most remarkable for +a man of his age. Among his patrons were the Astors, the Goulds, and the +Vanderbilts; and he had received most of the orders for exterior +sculpture work on the buildings of the Chicago Exposition. Willy called +Ritter "a devil of a fellow," and praised him for his "smartness." + +In a corner of the dining-room, in the halls and on the stairway +landings, were reproductions of Ritter's works. Willy extolled them to +the skies; Frederick honestly admired them. The large bas-relief in the +corner of the dining-room represented a group of singing boys, for which +Ritter, probably at the suggestion of his customer, a Vanderbilt or an +Astor, had used the famous relief of Luca della Robbia as a model. In +style, nobility and freshness, his work surpassed anything then being +done in Germany. + +Another sculptor partaking of the benefits of the club-house was a friend +of Ritter, who helped him with his work. Like Ritter, Lobkowitz was a +native Austrian. The fourth member of the group was Franck, a painter +from Silesia, an impecunious eccentric, upon whose talents his comrades +placed an extremely high estimate. It was Willy Snyders the kind-hearted +who, soon after a chance meeting with his fellow-Silesian, dragged him +from his wretched quarters, not without much coaxing, and transferred him +to the club-house. + +"Wait and see the way that lunatic Franck is going to behave," said Willy +in his peculiar voice, in which there was a blending of the guttural and +nasal tones of American English with the Austrian German accent of his +friends. "He snaps like a mad dog. He's enough to make you split your +sides laughing--that is, if the perverse creature comes at all and +doesn't have dinner served in his room." + +As a matter of fact, Franck was the first to enter the dining-room. +Willy's tongue kept wagging, while the eccentric merely shook hands +limply with Frederick and said nothing. Though the three were countrymen, +Franck's appearance--like Willy, he was wearing evening dress--added a +touch of embarrassment where there had been perfect unconstraint; and +though Willy had lent Frederick a suit, and a tailor had already been +ordered, Frederick expressed regret at not being appropriately dressed. + +"Yes, Ritter's a great stickler for form," Willy observed. "Every evening +we have to present the appearance of at least attachés to an embassy." + +Petronilla entered and explained in wordy Italian that the poor, dear, +sweet little signorina had fallen asleep in bed and was breathing quietly +and regularly. + +"You could shoot off a cannon, bum! bum! Outside her window, and she +wouldn't wake up," she said. Then holding out a newspaper, she asked +whether the gentlemen had heard of the sinking of the _Roland_ and the +few survivors. When Willy, with his dilating nostrils and his +characteristic half-serious, half-comic expression, introduced Frederick +as one of those survivors, she burst into a noisy laugh, which vastly +amused two of the three Silesians. When convinced that Willy was not +teasing, she stared at Frederick speechlessly, burst into tears, and +kissed his hands. Then she ran out. + +Soon after, Lobkowitz entered, a tall, quiet man. He had heard of +Frederick's recent experience, and greeted him with simple cordiality. + +"Ritter has just come in his cart," he said. + +They looked out of the window. Frederick saw an elegant two-wheeled +dog-cart with a handsome coachman in black livery preparing to drive off, +while a thoroughbred grey, feeling the tightening of the reins, was +rearing and plunging in the shafts. + +"The coachman," said Willy, whose lack of reserve and extreme +indiscretion his friends accepted good-naturedly, "is a ruined officer +of the Austrian army. He ran away from his gambling debts. I don't know +whether he got out of the army or was put out. At any rate he is of +invaluable service to Ritter. He tells him to the dot how he must dress +for luncheons and dinners, for tennis and golf and riding and driving; +how to manage a four-in-hand, when to wear a black chimney-pot or a grey +one, what colour gloves to wear, what sort of necktie, what sort of cuff +links, what sort of stockings. In short, he tells him all the things a +man has to pay attention to in order to succeed here in high life." + +At this point Bonifacius Ritter, whom fortune had favoured in America +beyond his most extravagant expectations, now entered, young, brisk, +handsome, amiable as Alcibiades. Frederick was instantly carried away +by his manner, radiating bonhomie, naïveté, joy in life, and simple +heartiness. The atmosphere of the New World had imparted ease and fire +to the flabby amiability of the Austrian. + +Dinner was served, and over genuine Italian soup, conversation was soon +in full swing. Willy Snyders, as commissary, poured the wine. It was +evident how proud he was of Bonifacius Ritter and what satisfaction it +gave him to present his quondam teacher to such friends and such a home +in this foreign land. The company thawed; and by the time the maid in +white cap and apron had finished serving, the four had all touched +glasses with Frederick on his and his protégée's rescue. A short pause +of embarrassment followed, which Frederick interpreted as a demand for +a statement regarding himself. His pale scholarly face still showed deep +traces of the hardships he had undergone. + +"I came over," he said, "to continue some studies with a friend which he +and I began years ago. You know him, Willy. He is Peter Schmidt, the +physician, in Springfield, Massachusetts." + +"He's in Meriden now, an hour's ride from Springfield." + +"Yes?" said Frederick, "I assumed he was still in Springfield. But +no matter. While I was in Berlin and Paris, I conferred with some +scientists, friends of mine, before boarding the _Roland_ at Southampton. +Everybody told me the _Roland_ was one of the best vessels. To my +astonishment, I met the young lady who is now enjoying your hospitality. +She was going to the United States with her father. We were fortunate. +We got into the life-boat perfectly quietly, before the panic broke out, +but we had to leave the young lady's father behind. I forgot to say I had +already become acquainted with Hahlström and his daughter in Berlin. +Thus, fate brought us together, and I consider myself responsible for +Miss Hahlström, both as a physician and a human being. She is an artistic +wonder. She is a dancer." + +Willy Snyders gave a witty account of the attack of Webster and Forster's +agent; and the conversation turned on art in general and on American art +in particular. + +"Millions of dollars annually," said Bonifacius Ritter, "are spent upon +all sorts of art objects, an enormous sum on paintings alone. At the same +time, there is a class of persons here of Puritanic descent to whom any +kind of art is the abomination of the arch-enemy. For instance, there is +an association of pious pillars of society, an association of vandals, +invested with certain civic rights, whose object is the abolition of +filth and the maintenance of chastity. To that end it recently broke into +one of the famous clubs of the New York _jeunesse dorée_ and destroyed a +number of irreplaceable art treasures, masterpieces, among them even a +Venus by Titian." + +"And the relation of the amateurs here," said Lobkowitz, "to their +artistic possessions is very funny. You should see how they place their +paintings. The "Crucifixion" by Munkaczy is displayed in a department +store in Philadelphia. The Goulds have Rembrandts in their extremely +comfortable bathrooms. Of course, I have nothing to say against good +pictures hanging in hotel halls and stairways. The largest bar-room +in New York has the whole Barbizon school--Millets, Courbets, +Bastien-Lepages, and Daubignys--hanging over the bar." + +"My sole reason," said Franck, "for going there every day for my whisky +and soda." + +Ritter, Snyders and Lobkowitz burst out laughing. + +Franck had the looks of a gypsy; so that two more un-European types, +as Frederick said to himself, than he and Willy Snyders were scarcely +conceivable. Though a year older than Frederick, Franck, small-boned and +youthfully slim, seemed to be seven or eight years younger. He was +forever shoving from his eyes a pitch-black lock, which promptly fell +over his forehead again to the top of his nose. He drank heavily and kept +smiling. He smiled, while the others laughed as he expounded the relation +of art to whisky. + +A sense of security such as he had not experienced in years came over +Frederick. He had always felt drawn to artists. Their conversation, their +camaraderie never failed to exercise a charm over him. Now was added the +fact that here, where he had counted upon a chilly foreignness and +complete isolation, he had been ardently expected, had been welcomed with +open arms by such a circle. In the midst of their merry toasting and +informal dining, informal despite their evening dress, Frederick every +now and then asked himself whether the awful experiences he had gone +through had really occurred. Was he actually in New York, three thousand +miles away from old Europe? Was not this his home? Within the past ten +years in his own country had he ever felt even nearly so comfortable +and at home as here? How life came surging toward him! Each minute a new +wave rolling to his feet--to him who had undeservedly escaped with his +bare existence from almost universal perdition. + +"I thank you from the depths of my heart, gentlemen and countrymen," he +said, "for the hospitality you show me. I don't deserve it." He raised +his glass, and they all touched glasses with him. Suddenly, to his own +surprise Frederick expanded in a wave of frankness, calling himself a +shipwrecked man in two senses of the word. "I have gone through much in +my past; and were not the sinking of the _Roland_ so fearfully tragic, I +should feel inclined to look upon it as a symbol of my former life. The +Old World, the New World. I have taken the step across the great pond, +and already feel something like new life within me. + +"I don't know just what I shall do." He did not realise he was +contradicting himself. "I shall certainly not practise medicine or take +up my profession as a bacteriologist. Possibly I shall write books. +What sort of books I don't know. One of the things I think of a great +deal is the restoration of the Venus of Milo's body. I have already +completed in my mind a work on Peter Vischer and Adam Krafft. But for all +I know, I may merely write on the use of artificial manure. For I am +thinking of buying some land, felling trees, and living a retired life, +farming and raising cattle. Then again, I may write nothing but a sort of +romance, the romance of a whole life, which may turn out to be something +like a modern philosophy. In that case, I should begin where Schopenhauer +left off. I mean the sentence that is always going around in my head from +_Welt als Wille und Vorstellung_: 'Something lurks behind our existence +which is inaccessible to us until we shake off the world.'" + +The discourse of the young scholar, passing through his belated period +of storm and stress, was listened to respectfully. His reference to +artificial manure produced a burst of merriment, and when he ended, his +audience applauded. + +"Shaking off the world, that's something for Franck, Doctor von +Kammacher. Tell him, Franck, how you came to America," said Willy. + +"Or about your tramping on foot to Chicago," said Lobkowitz. + +"Or," said Ritter, "your adventure in Boston, when two policemen, +strangely mistaking your condition for a tremendous jag, took you on a +drive in the patrol wagon to the lock-up." + +"It's very good they did," said Franck, smiling and tossing the lock from +his forehead. "I should certainly have caught a cold if they hadn't." + +To Frederick's puzzlement, every one of Franck's utterances was greeted +by a shout of laughter. + +"Franck is a genuine genius," whispered Willy to Frederick, while filling +a glass with Chianti, "and the greatest eccentric in the world. Franck," +he cried, "didn't you come to America without a cent of money?" + +"For what does one need money?" Franck rejoined, at great leisure, with a +naïve smile. + +"Didn't you come over as a stoker?" + +"Ye-e-es," said Franck, "I was engaged as a stoker." + +"But you didn't do any stoking?" + +"No, I didn't have the muscle for it." + +"But what did you do on the ship?" asked Lobkowitz. + +"I? I sailed on the ocean." + +"Of course. But you were engaged to work. You must have done something to +earn money." + +"I played sixty-six with the first mate." + +Finally Franck's story was extracted from him. It was by painting the +portrait of the head-steward that he had lived so handsomely on the +steamer and had landed on American soil with fifty dollars in his pocket, +though a day later not a cent of the fifty dollars was left. + +"Money's a nuisance," said Franck. + + + + +III + + +Up to this point a wholesome-looking waitress, in white cap and apron, +had been serving. Now the Italian cook himself, Simone Brambilla, came +in to bring on the dessert and cheese and inquire whether the dinner had +been to the gentlemen's taste. The familiarity between masters and cook, +who spoke Italian together, testified to the best relations between them. +This little fragment of the artists' Italy in America enlivened them all, +bringing back memories of the days they had spent in Italy, the days that +signify the heyday of their youth to all German scholars and artists. + +"Now then, strike up a tune, my boy!" Willy suddenly ordered the cook, +"Signor Simone Brambilla, you will please perform for us now! And +_cantare_. Understand? _Ma forte_ not too _mezza voce_!" He took a +mandolin from the sideboard and pressed it into the chef's arms. + +"_Signor Guglielmo è sempre buffo_," said the cook. + +"That's it--_buffo, buffo_," cried Franck, striking the table with his +fist. His smile had already turned somewhat idiotic, and he seemed to +think "_buffo_" meant "to sing." + +"_Cosa vuole sentire?_" asked Brambilla. + +"'_Addio mia bella Napoli_,'" suggested Willy, "or anything you like, Mr. +Brambilla." + +"What does 'like' mean?" asked Franck. "I have heard the word so often." + +"Would you believe," Willy said to Frederick, "that that ox has been here +over a year and doesn't know a word of English?" + +"'_Deutschland, Deutschland über alles!_'" Franck began to sing. + +"Goodness gracious!" said Willy. "His toothache has begun to bother him +again." + +"'_Ich weiss nicht, was soll es bedeuten_,'" sang Franck. + +"But I do!" cried Willy. "_Silentium!_ When Franck begins to sing and +Lobkowitz to yawn and Ritter empties his first glass on the table-cloth, +we'll soon be lying stretched out under the table." + +The cook had seated himself decorously and was holding the mandolin in +position. With his cap of white linen and his white linen jacket and +apron, he cut a droll figure among those correctly dressed young men. +Willy Snyders poured some _vino nero_ for him into a tumbler, and he +struck a few notes by way of prelude, though hesitating to interrupt +Franck and begin. He kept his face, glowing from the kitchen fire, turned +toward Franck with an expression of courteous waiting and politely +besought him in Italian to keep on singing. Finally, since Franck, +instead of answering, arose, gave him a comically commanding look, and +waved his fork like a baton, he began, striking up an accompaniment +with a catching rhythm, which titillated his auditors' nerves. He was an +excellent singer and a master-hand at playing the mandolin. He gave those +well-known street-ballads which one hears everywhere in Italy, especially +in Naples: "_Addio mia bella Napoli_," "_Funiculi Funicula_," "_L'altro +ieri a Piedigrotta_," "_Margherita di Parete era sarta delle signore_," +and also more serious songs, such as the languishing "_Ogni sera di +sotto all' mio balcone sento cantar una canzon d' amore_." + +The cook's melodies undoubtedly charmed back his home to him, though +in colours less glorious and alluring to himself, perhaps, than to the +artists, whether they had been in Italy or not. Frederick leaned his head +back and closed his eyes. The dining-room was filled with the fumes of +cigars and cigarettes, and the electric bulbs shone as in a mist. +Frederick's thoughts carried him far, far away. His arm hung at his side +limply, while a Simon Arzt cigarette burned to a stump between his +fingers--throughout his adventures, his silver cigarette case had +remained safe in his pocket. + +Before his inner vision rose the coasts and blue gulfs of Italy, the +brown Doric temples of Pæstum and the cliffs of Amalfi, Sorrento, and +Capri. He was standing on the Posilipo. He was with Doctor Dorn in the +loggia of the zoologic station for deep-sea researches, which Hans von +Marées had decorated. In Rome, Frederick had sat over many a bottle of +wine with Hans von Marées and Otto, who died while working on the Luther +Memorial in Berlin. He saw himself in the famous Est Est Café in Rome, +or visiting the malaria patients in the hospital on the Capitol, or +promenading in the sunshine on Monte Pincio with a deaf and dumb +sculptor, with whom he then went to an afternoon concert. He had laughed +because the artist explained that he did not hear the music with his +ears, but felt it, or rather felt the drum alone, in his belly. + +In that period of his life, Frederick had been undergoing a crisis. But +a little more and his preoccupation with Goethe's "Italian Journey," his +intercourse with the artists, and the vast number of his impressions of +sublime art would have turned him aside from science. But one day he +chanced to meet Mrs. Von Thorn and her daughter Angèle. He became +engaged, and there was no question now of a change of profession. Angèle +was beautiful, and those days, when he read aloud to her chapters from +Goethe, or inspired and inspiring passages from Winckelmann, or recited +Hölderlin, or held forth to her on the masterworks in the Vatican, were +full of never-to-be-repeated romantic asininity. They bought engagement +rings of a jeweller on the Corso. Where was his ring? He had removed it +from his finger, and, like all his other possessions, it had gone down +forever in the cabin of the _Roland_. + +Frederick again felt that sensation of hot waves rising from his breast +to his eyes. This time the emotion was a soft one, a feeling of +reconciliation, of mourning over lost illusions. The second epoch of his +life, if a second epoch were really to develop from this beginning, was +not like the first, full of innocence and based upon illusions. Frederick +was sorry for himself. He was moved almost to tears. For it is an all-too +strong faith, an all-too certain hope in happiness that finally bring +disillusionment. + +It was in one of the intervals of clapping and applause punctuating the +end of each of Brambilla's songs, that Petronilla came in and whispered +something to Willy Snyders, which caused Willy in turn to whisper to +Frederick, who immediately jumped up and left the room. Willy went with +him. + +Despite Petronilla's protestations, a gentleman and a stately, rather +gorgeously dressed lady had forced their way into Ingigerd's room. +Frederick and Willy arrived just as the lady was trying to wake Ingigerd +and raise her up in bed. + +"For Heaven's sake, child," she kept saying, "wake up for a second." + +Frederick and Willy recognised Webster and Forster's agent and +immediately expelled him to the hall, talking to him in whispers, but +none the less energetically. They told him a few forceful things, which +he received with a shrug of his shoulders. When they asked the lady by +what right she had forced her way in, she said she was the proprietor of +one of the largest New York theatrical agencies and had negotiated the +contract between Webster and Forster and Ingigerd Hahlström's father, who +had received a thousand dollars in advance. + +"Time is money, especially here in New York," she declared. "Even if Miss +Hahlström cannot dance to-night, she must begin to think of to-morrow. I +should be willing to accommodate her, but this is only one of a hundred +cases that I have to look after. And if Miss Hahlström is to appear +to-morrow, she must go with me this very minute to"--she mentioned the +Gerson of New York--"so that they can work on her costume over night. The +establishment is on Broadway, and a cab is waiting in front of the door." + +The lady said all this in Ingigerd's room, intentionally refraining from +lowering her voice. Several times Frederick and Willy interrupted to ask +her to moderate her tones. + +"Miss Hahlström will not dance at all," said Frederick, finally. + +"Indeed?" said the agent. "Then she'll be involved in a very unpleasant +law suit." + +"Miss Hahlström is a minor," said Frederick, "and her father, with whom +you concluded the contract, probably lost his life in the sinking of the +_Roland_." + +"And I," said the agent, "don't want to lose a thousand dollars for +nothing." + +"Miss Hahlström is sick." + +"Very well, then I'll send my physician." + +"I myself am a physician." + +"A German physician, I suppose," she said. "The only physicians that +count for us are Americans." + +Perhaps this American woman, equipped with a masculine intellect, +masculine energy, and a masculine voice would have put through her will, +had not Ingigerd's heavy sleep defied all the noise about her, even the +shaking to which she had been subjected. At length Frederick displayed a +degree of determination so unambiguous that the agent had to recede from +her position and temporarily withdraw from the field. Besides, Willy hit +upon an idea, the far-reaching significance of which Frederick did not +realise until later. He declared that if the agent did not desist, he +would notify the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, since +Miss Hahlström was not yet seventeen years old. + +"Gentlemen," said the lady, evidently taken aback and coming round a bit, +"remember that both Webster and Forster and myself have been spending +enormous sums on advertising for four weeks. I reckoned on a tour as +far as San Francisco. Now that Miss Hahlström happens to be one of the +survivors of the _Roland_ and has lost her father besides, she has become +the sensation of the season. If she were to appear now, she could return +to Europe in three months with fifty thousand dollars over and above the +sum contracted for. Would you be responsible to Miss Hahlström for such +an enormous loss?" + +After the agent and her escort had left, Willy Snyders confirmed what she +had said about the amount of advertising that had been done. For weeks +all the bill-boards, all the building scaffoldings, every empty barrel +where building was going on were covered with posters announcing "Mara, +or the Spider's Victim." Sometimes they displayed a life-size figure of +a dancer, represented as almost a child still, a sort of albino with red +rabbit's eyes and streaming saffron-yellow hair. A spider, with a body +the size of a small balloon, was crouching behind its web. The poster was +by Brown, the most talented poster-painter in New York. + +"You can see those posters everywhere on the streets still," said Willy +Snyders. "That's why it seems so funny to think I always stared at them +quite unsuspecting; and now Miss Ingigerd and you are in this house. Life +concocts crazy plots. I assure you, when I looked at those posters, I +thought of everything else in the world but you, Doctor von Kammacher. +And little did I divine that they would ever be of more significance to +me than the advertisements of any ordinary vaudeville." + +When Frederick and Willy returned to the dining-room, the chef was gone, +and Lobkowitz and Franck were engaged in the time-worn dispute, whether +Raphael or Michael Angelo is the greater. Willy gave a humorous, though +indignant account of the battle of the Amazons that had just taken place +and how Webster and Forster wanted to insist on Miss Hahlström's +appearing that very night. The artists' chivalry was aroused. They +declared unanimously that they would refuse to give up their lovely ward, +even if all New York were to come and besiege them. + +Frederick looked at his watch. It was a few minutes past ten. The last +thing Arthur Stoss had said on parting occurred to him, "At half past ten +to the dot, I shall be on the boards behind the footlights." Frederick +told the artists about Arthur Stoss; and Willy Snyders, the man of +initiative, proposed that they go together to Webster and Forster to see +the armless actor's performance. + + + + +IV + + +Ritter lent Frederick one of his evening suits, which fitted him to +perfection, and within less than half an hour the company was sitting in +a box at Webster and Forster's. The enormous hall, in which smoking and +drinking were allowed, was full. Willy estimated that there were about +four or five thousand people present. A number of immense arc-lights +shone in the tobacco smoke like frosty, white moons. + +When Frederick and his friends entered, a woman and a slim toreador were +dancing. The music was of an exciting nature, and the character of the +performance and the performer immediately took the artists captive. The +dance was an eccentric mixture of drollness, innocence, and wildness. +When watching the toreador, Frederick felt as if he were in an arena at +Seville; when watching the girl, as if he were near the Gulf of Corinth, +or on one of the islands of the Cyclades. He promptly decided to leave +Spain and follow the lovely dancer to her home in Greece, where she was +his Chloë and he, her Daphnis. Old shepherds sat tippling in a pine grove +dedicated to Pan. From the highland meadows he looked down upon the far +off Ægean Sea beating noiselessly against the rocky coast-line. + +The music of the orchestra turned into the piping of Pan, while Webster +and Forster, the heavy fumes, the air vitiated by the exhalations of five +thousand people no longer existed. The pure breath of spring was rustling +in the pines. The shepherdess was dancing as she had learned to dance +from the droll caperings of the goats or, by natural inheritance, from +great Pan himself. It was a dance of young, wild, bubbling joy in life. + +"The origin of all music," thought Frederick, "is dance and song in one +and the same person. The feet compel the rhythm that the throat voices; +and if the dancer herself does not sing, she hears music different from +the music to which she is dancing, and if she dances without an +accompaniment, we who behold her hear her music nevertheless. The +melodies I hear in this girl's dancing are comparable in their bucolic +innocence to the things of the same sort that Mozart, Beethoven and +Schubert wrote. They have exorcised the vulgar muse from this vulgar +place, banishing her to a remote distance." + +The dancer was a Spaniard. She made little leaps in the air and tossed +her head archly, as if for her own joy, unconscious both of the audience +and the toreador, who sometimes picked her up and held her aloft. Her +dancing was innocent, entirely free from sensuality. At the conclusion of +her performance, Frederick and his friends clapped madly, while the vast +audience gave very scanty signs of applause. + +"Caviar to the general," said Frederick. + +When she disappeared in the wings, a lackey in red livery stepped on the +stage and set a number of small seats at regular distances from one +another. It was not until he had left and returned again with a pea-rifle +and a violin that Frederick recognised the brave private, Bulke. The next +moment Stoss appeared. A frantic outburst of delight, threatening never +to end, greeted him. He wore a jacket and knee-breeches of black velvet, +a lace jabot, lace cuffs, black silk stockings, and buckled pumps of +patent leather. His yellowish hair was brushed straight up all around his +large head. His pale face, with its broad cheek bones and broad flat +nose, was turned to the audience with a professional smile. The applause +refused to end, and the armless trunk made a moderately profound bow. + +Frederick saw the same man helpless, drenched with water, crouching +under the seats of the life-boat; and he recalled with what murderous +determination the sailors, Bulke, Doctor Wilhelm, and he himself, as well +as the women, Rosa, Mrs. Liebling, and Ingigerd, had prevented the boat +from capsizing. What an unreal contrast between the past and the present! +And why was Stoss receiving such homage? + +The psychology of certain mass demonstrations has yet to be written. What +could the applause have been intended to signify? "We are grateful to God +that he rescued you. This you have accomplished, you poor armless man, +that hundreds, though they had two arms, perished, while you are +privileged to appear on the stage this evening as if nothing had +occurred. We must enjoy ourselves; and it is better that you who +entertain and amuse us with your thousands of tricks should have been +saved than any Tom, Dick, or Harry. Besides we want to reimburse you for +all the troubles you have been through. What is more, because of your +skill and because of your rescue, you are a lion whose worth has +increased twofold." + +The turbulence continued. The man the audience so honoured was fairly +drowned in a sea of applause. At last a man in evening dress stepped from +the wings and made signs that he wanted to speak. Silence fell, and he +announced that Arthur Stoss, the world's champion, would say a few words. +The next instant Stoss's sharp, clear boyish voice rang through the +theatre reaching even the hindmost seats. + +Frederick caught expressions here and there, "My dear New Yorkers," +"hospitable Americans," "the hospitable shores of America," "Columbus," +and "1492." He heard Stoss say that on the bill-boards one read "1492," +the year in which modern America was born. He distinguished phrases such +as "_navigare necesse est, vivere non necesse_," "through darkness to +light," and so on. Stoss's speech utterly lacked inspiration. + +"Noah's ark," he said, "has not yet become superfluous. Two-thirds of the +earth's surface is still covered with water. But if a vessel here and +there is swallowed up in the flood, the ark of humanity cannot sink, +since God has set his rainbow in the heavens. The ocean is the cradle of +heroism, it is the unifying, not the dividing element." + +The name of Captain von Kessel resounded in the hall. Frederick saw the +dead hero tossing about in the great black waters under a starless +heaven. Above the performer's shrill voice, he heard the captain's voice +saying: + +"My brother has a wife and children. He is an enviable man, Doctor von +Kammacher." + +Frederick was roused from his recollections by the frantic applause that +greeted the conclusion of the brilliant speech. + +Arthur Stoss now seated himself on one of the seats, and Bulke, the hero +and life saver in red livery, laid a violin on another and proceeded to +draw off his master's shoes. Stoss's feet were clad in black stockings +leaving his toes bare. With the toes of his right foot, he took the bow +and with his left foot, deftly rosined it; a spectacle that sent a +whisper of astonishment rippling through the audience. The orchestra +struck up Bach's "Prelude," to which Stoss played Gounod's "Ave Maria." +The tones he produced were beautiful, and the vast crowd was enraptured. +Remembering the awful disaster, they were transported into a sentimental, +religious mood. Frederick shuddered with disgust. The sinking of the +_Roland_ was being exploited. + +It was a relief when Stoss finally took up the pea-rifle. Bulke in the +part he now played aroused as much admiration in Frederick and the +artists as Stoss, if not more. While his master shot off the rifle, he +stood at a distance of fifteen feet, with total unconcern holding up +cards for Stoss to aim at. Stoss put a hole through the middle of the +card every time. + + + + +V + + +When he awoke rather late the next morning, Frederick was astonished to +find everything about him standing still. The bed was not pitching, the +glasses and water basin were not rattling, the floor was not sloping +downward, nor were the walls tumbling on his head. The grey light of +a cloudy winter day coming through the window by no means made an +unpleasant or cheerless impression. + +He rang, and Petronilla appeared. The young lady, she said, had awakened, +looking well and rosy, and had already breakfasted. She handed him a note +from Willy Snyders, saying exactly where he could be found at different +times during the forenoon and that he would be back for lunch at quarter +past twelve. + +Frederick took the second bath he had had within twelve or fourteen +hours. They had laid out fresh underwear and several perfectly new suits +of Bonifacius Ritter's for him to choose from; and he sat down to +breakfast a "newborn" man. Petronilla herself brought in breakfast. While +serving, she told him everybody, even all the servants, had gone out. She +left the room, and returned a few moments later to ask if there was +anything else he wished. + +"Nothing, thank you." + +She then requested permission to go out for about an hour and a half to +purchase various trifles for the signorina. Soon after, Frederick saw the +excellent housekeeper, all muffled up, step from the front door into the +wet, almost deserted street. + +After he had made this observation, he became uneasy, lit a cigarette, +screwed his right eye meditatively, and bit his lips. The house was +empty. For that reason his heart was audibly knocking against his ribs. +Again the fantastic incalculableness of life struck him as so remarkable. +An occasion, a condition such as this he had scarcely hoped to reach in +weeks, or even months, certainly not in the wild welter of New York. From +the noise of the steamer and the city, from the rushing and roaring of +the Atlantic Ocean, he was suddenly plunged into the silence of the +grave. It affected him with a sense of desertion and oblivion. In that +city of four million inhabitants, each man was strenuously pursuing his +own affairs, or was harnessed into an iron yoke of duties, which deafened +and blinded him to everything beside the path he had to tread. + +Frederick looked at his watch. It was twelve minutes past ten. His +uneasiness increased. He was unable to sit still. Each nerve, each cell +of his body was touched and excited by invisible forces storming upon +him from all sides. A force of this nature, penetrating walls, floors and +ceilings, has been called by various names. We speak of magnetism, of od, +of electricity. As for electricity, Frederick just then had a peculiar +experience of it. He was trying to find composure in front of the open +fireplace; and whenever he touched metal with the tongs, crackling little +sparks shot out. Everything in the room seemed to be charged. If he +merely ran his finger tips lightly over the rug before the hearth, there +were little flashes and reports, like the crack of a tiny whip. + +"There they are," he thought, smiling, "the Toilers of the Light." And +while he racked his brain to recall in what book of fairy tales he had +read of those diminutive elves, the dream he had had on the _Roland_ +occurred to him. "Toilers of the Light, what are you doing?" he asked +several times, and snatched after the sparks, as one snatches after flies +in a fit of impatience and boredom. It seemed to him that countless +numbers of those little children of Lucifer were pricking his blood like +so many dancing stars. Even the air was filled with stars. They clogged +his breathing. He arose and walked out into the hall. + +As he paced up and down there for a while, undecided what to do, making +as little sound on the bricks as possible, he looked into the kitchen, +which, like the dining-room, was in the basement, and convinced himself +that it was empty. Then he softly ascended the marble steps to the +next floor, where he tried with all his might to check the rise of a +passion almost robbing him of his senses. In that endeavour he entered +the library, a room comfortably furnished and well equipped with +appurtenances for reading and writing. The walls were covered with views +of ancient Rome and engravings by Piranesi. But neither the city of the +Tiber nor the grave of Cecilia Metella, nor the Colosseum, nor the Temple +of Vesta in Tivoli had the power to engage his real attention. + +He was out in the hall again, though hesitating still whether to mount to +the first story. For a while he stood uncertain, clinging with both hands +to the wooden post of the balustrade, his head sunk on his hands, and his +whole body shivering as in a chill. Then he raised his head. His eyes +were fixed. He seemed a different person. + +In that moment Frederick comprehended the passionate speech of his body, +and sanctioned its demands. The thing that now came to the fore, despite +all the grief that had been gathering in him, despite all his spiritual +conflicts, his bitter mental convictions and self-condemnations, despite +his repugnance, his horror, his compassion and his hesitating and +delaying, the thing that came to the fore was the suppressed, unsatisfied +demand of his body. In the silence of the morning in that strange house, +it suddenly assumed an elemental, indomitable force. It would have +overridden the firmest will opposing it. But Frederick's will did not +oppose it. His clear, firm intention approved it, strengthened it, and +made its power invincible. He entered Ingigerd's room. She was sitting at +the open fireplace in a dressing-gown of Petronilla's purchasing, and was +drying the masses of her long, light hair. + +"Oh, Doctor von Kammacher!" she cried in slight alarm, and fixed her +shimmering sea-green eyes upon the man standing there with eyes almost +closed, breathing heavily, incapable of uttering a word. As by hypnotic +influence, a helpless look of self-abandonment, of complete melting away +spread over her face. + +The sight of her expression robbed Frederick all the more of +self-control. At last the time had come to extinguish the fires +tormenting him in one wild, greedy draught. With the hoarse cry of a +beast and the fury of a man dying of thirst, he plunged deep into the +slowly, slowly cooling waves of love. + + + + +VI + + +It was nearly eleven o'clock when Petronilla returned. She was +accompanied by an errand boy and a fair-haired young man, who was not +dressed with the elegance of the residents of the club-house. His feet +were heavily shod. While waiting in the hall he waved a wet umbrella with +his sinewy left hand and a worn felt hat with his right hand, whistled +very skilfully, and paced noisily to and fro in long strides, as if +entirely at home in the place. + +Petronilla summoned Frederick. With an almost passionate outcry of +welcome, the one of the two men ran up the stairs, two steps at a time, +and the other down the stairs twice as fast. They kissed and shook hands +vigorously. + +Frederick's early visitor was Peter Schmidt, of whom he had dreamed on +the _Roland_. He had read Frederick's name in the newspaper among the +survivors and had come from his home in Meriden, several hours' ride +from New York, to see his old friend. The paper also gave Frederick's +address, the reporters having got hold of it through his connection with +the celebrity, Ingigerd Hahlström. + +The first question Frederick asked after the storm of greeting had +subsided, was, "I say, old boy, do you believe in telepathy?" + +"Telepathy? Not a bit," replied the Friesian, and laughed a mighty laugh. +"I am scarcely thirty, and sound in mind and body. I'm not an idiot. I +hope no Mr. Slade has turned your head like old Zöllner's in Leipzig. +Have you come over to preside at a theosophical or spiritualistic +meeting? Then good-bye to our friendship, old fellow." + +This was the familiar tone to which the friends were accustomed from +their university days. It was infinitely refreshing to both to hear it +again. No conventions of any sort divided them. Their relations were +free of everything that hampers association in later years. + +"You've been through a thing or two," his friend said, when Frederick +confirmed the newspaper account of his having witnessed the sinking of +the _Roland_. "I believe you're a married man and have children and are +living in Germany, and as an avocation are doing scientific work, while +practising medicine as a vocation. You were thinking of everything else +in the world but a trip to America, which never had any charms for you." + +"Isn't it weird," said Frederick, "how one suddenly finds oneself in a +place one never dreamt of, arriving there in ways most unforeseen and +at a time most unforeseen? And doesn't it seem as if the life we lived +eight years ago, which was so choke-full of actuality, of real living, +had all of a sudden turned to nothing?" + +Peter Schmidt proposed, since they were both peripatetic philosophers, to +take a walk through the streets of New York. Frederick went to consult +Ingigerd. He found that for the next few hours she would be completely +taken up with dressmakers. All she said was that she hoped to see him +again at luncheon. Soon after, the two friends were walking along the +asphalt paths of Central Park, swept clean of snow, under the bare, snowy +trees between snowy lawns, while the mad city around them filled the air +with a hundred-tongued Dionysiac uproar. + +Though there had been an interruption of eight years in their +intercourse, they took up the threads of conversation as if they had +parted only half an hour before. Within a short time, each had told the +other the most important facts of their lives during those eight years. +Frederick for his account of himself had to go back to the date of his +marriage, the notice of which he had sent to Peter Schmidt. Without +departing from the truth, he related his story with a certain +fancifulness, and though stating facts, mingled in psychological effects +and spiritual crises. He did not refrain from telling how he had been +uprooted and torn this way and that. The first and final achievement of +his former life, he said, was that he had acquired the will to +resignation, though the tone of his voice, as a result of his morning's +experience and his meeting with his best friend, was fresh and vigorous, +by no means tinged with the drab of resignation. + +Peter Schmidt's account of himself, in contrast, was very brief. All he +had to report was that his marriage had remained childless and his wife, +a physician, overwhelmed with a sort of midwife practice, had to fight +against the climate and was sick with longing for her father and mother +and her Swiss mountains. + +Nostalgia, Frederick suggested, was probably the universal ill from which +all Germans in America suffered. The Friesian refused to admit it, and +Frederick observed in unchanged form that characteristic in his friend +which made of him at once the well-informed practical man of affairs and +the undismayed ideologist. As ideologist, he hoped for the best for +humanity's future in America, for that reason refusing to admit that a +large number of the inhabitants of the United States had not yet struck +root, spiritually speaking, in the land of liberty. + +A newsboy with a heavy pack of papers, seeing the Germans laughing and +talking and gesticulating in the Park, which at that hour was not much +frequented, came toward them, holding out a paper. Peter Schmidt, who +had always been a great devourer of newspapers, bought several. + +"There you are," he said, unfolding one of the immense sheets. "The +_Roland_, the _Roland_, and still the _Roland_, columns and pages of the +_Roland_." + +Frederick clutched at his head. + +"Was I really on the _Roland_?" he exclaimed. + +"Very much so, it seems," said Schmidt. "Here you are in black type. +'Doctor Frederick von Kammacher performs miracles of bravery.' And here +they have a picture of you." + +The artist of _The World_ had with a few strokes dashed off a young man, +the replica of a million others of his kind, descending into a life-boat +on a rope ladder from the top deck of a half-submerged steamer and +carrying on his back a young lady wearing nothing but a shift. + +"Did you really do it?" asked Peter Schmidt. + +"I don't think so," said Frederick. "I must admit the details of the +accident are not very clear in my mind any more." Frederick stood still, +turned pale, and tried to recollect. "I don't know," he said, "what is +most fearful about such an event, the things that really occurred, or the +fact that one gradually digests it and forgets it." Still standing in the +middle of the path, he continued: "What strikes a man hardest is the +absurdity of it, the stupid senselessness of it, the superlative +brutality. We know nature's brutality in theory; but to be able to live, +we must forget it in its real extent, in its gruesome actuality. The most +enlightened modern man somehow and somewhere in his soul still believes +in something like an all-beneficent God. But such an experience gives +that 'somehow' and 'somewhere' an unmerciful drubbing with iron fists. +And I have come from the sinking of the _Roland_ with a spot in my +soul deaf and dumb and numb. It has not awakened to life yet. The +brutalisation is so extreme that while it is still fresh in one's mind, +one would as soon express belief in God or man or the future of humanity +or in a Utopia, or anything else of the sort, as give utterance to +something that one knows to be a vile deception. What is the sense of +our sentimentalising over man's dignity, his divine destiny, when such +fearful, inane injustice is wrought upon innocent persons and cannot be +undone?" + +Frederick turned very pale. He was seized by a violent attack of nausea. +His lids opened wide, his eyes popped with a curious expression of +horror. He trembled slightly, and in some alarm clutched impetuously at +his friend's arm. His brain reeled dully as he felt the ground beneath +his feet beginning to heave. + +"I have never had anything like this before," he said. "I think the +accident has left me with something." + +Peter Schmidt led his friend to a bench, which fortunately happened to be +close by. He saw it was a nervous attack. Frederick's hands turned numb, +cold sweat broke out on his body, and he suddenly fell over in a faint. +When he awoke, it took some time for him to recognise his surroundings. +He said things meant for somebody else. He thought he saw his wife, then +his children, and then his father in full uniform. When he regained +complete consciousness, he implored his friend to keep the incident a +secret. Peter Schmidt promised he would. + +"My opinion is," he said, "that your over-wrought, over-taxed nerves are +in revolt. They are taking revenge and at the same time curing +themselves." + +"Though I have inherited the strongest constitution from both my father's +and mother's sides," said Frederick, "yet, from last summer on, I have +been assailed by so many things that I have long been expecting a +collapse. I know this will not be the last attack. I should have cause +for rejoicing were the condition not to become chronic." + +"Oh," said Schmidt, "you may have two or three more attacks, but if you +live quietly for a few months, they may never recur again." + +In coming out of his swoon Frederick, as he himself said, returned from +a trip around the world. He had travelled through the axis of the earth +to the antipodes, which actually did hang head downward. + +"I felt as if I had been dead and had come back to life," he said, trying +to give his friend a conception of the remarkable state through which he +had passed. "It was not like being asleep. During the first part of my +dreams, I felt as if I had been something like a block of granite for +hundreds of years. On awaking I stood in the shadow of the deepest abyss. +I saw subterranean landscapes, gigantic caves, heavens of stone, enormous +Adelsberg grottoes. Something lifted me up. The only thing I can compare +it to was the way a diver must feel who slowly, slowly rises to brighter +and brighter regions from ten thousand feet below the surface of the sea. +I felt as if I were forcing myself up out of the grave. I re-lived my +whole conscious life from my babyhood up to this very day. You can +imagine what a medley it was of nurses, military expeditions, cramming +for examinations, confirmations, birthdays, marriages, sick-beds and +death-beds. At the end I went through the whole sinking of the _Roland_ +again. And when you called me, I heard you in spite of my paralysed +condition, but I saw you coming out of an inn on the quay of the little +harbour where Columbus's flag-ship was slowly decaying." + +"All right, all right, Friedericus Rex," Peter Schmidt soothed him. +Friedericus Rex had been Frederick's nickname at the university. "Never +mind," Peter continued, in a tone clearly revealing that he took +Frederick's dreams to be a symptom of his over-wrought nerves. "Don't +think of it, don't think of anything, old man. Let your ganglion cells +rest." + +Frederick assured Peter that he felt like one newly arisen to a new +world and had rested better than he had for years. While they walked +on together, Peter Schmidt tried to speak only of the mechanical, +physiological causes of the attack. After a while, the friends regained +their old liveliness and began to talk of other things. From now on, +Peter Schmidt was careful never to mention the sinking of the _Roland_ +in Frederick's presence. + + + + +VII + + +"We are near Ritter's studio," Schmidt said. "If you like, we might drop +in for a while." + +Frederick agreed, again begging his friend not to refer to his nervous +attack. + +"It was very astute of me, or of the wire-puller above us, to postpone my +fit until the very moment you were with me," he said. + +Several times within the next few hours, Schmidt had occasion to be +struck by Frederick's evident belief in predestination and the +superstition that clung to him from his crossing of the Atlantic. + +The street that Bonifacius Ritter's studios were on adjoined Central +Park. In the first room, a man in a round paper cap of his own making +was at work taking a plaster cast of a man. His cap and his smock and +trousers, or as much of his trousers as showed from under his smock +and above his slippers, were covered with hardened daubs of clay. +Death-masks, casts of antique statues, and anatomical studies of the +human body, in whole or part, hung on all the walls. When the workman +left the room to announce the visitors the model, whose upper body, nude +to the hips, showed the brawny development of an athlete, began to speak +to Frederick and Peter. + +"What won't a man do to earn his bit of daily bread!" he said. "I am from +Pirna"--he pronounced it "Berna," speaking in a round Saxon dialect--"and +I tell you, it's no joke for fellows like me in this damned New York. At +first I earned my living as a professional strong man. Then my boss +failed, and I had to give up my outfit, my iron bars and my weights and +everything I needed for my job. I can carry twelve hundred pounds on my +stomach." + +Ritter sent word asking the gentlemen to come to his private studio. They +passed through a room in which a stately young lady was working without +a model at an almost completed portrait bust in clay. In the next room, +three or four marble-cutters were making a great noise hammering and +chiselling imperturbably, without glancing up, at marble blocks of +various sizes. From this room, a cast-iron circular stairway led up to +a narrow skylight studio, where Bonifacius Ritter received Frederick and +Peter. + +It was a delight merely to behold the young master in his slimness and +elegance. When the men entered, he removed his left hand from the pocket +of his light smock, tossed away his burning cigarette, and greeted them +with evident pleasure, blushing like a girl. He ushered them into a small +room adjoining, lighted by a single window of antique stained glass from +a French church. The low ceiling was coffered in weathered oak, and the +walls were panelled in wood to a height of about six feet. A heavy oak +table with benches on three sides took up nearly half the length of the +room. The front of the room was partially blocked up by a genuine +Nuremberg stove with the precious Delft tiles of antique green glaze +testifying to the wonderful old potter's art. Willy Snyders had chanced +upon the beautiful Renaissance piece in a shop near the wharf, and had +succeeded in buying it for Ritter for only one hundred dollars. + +"Here's a comfortable corner of the Fatherland," said Ritter. "Willy +planned it all, collected all the stuff, and attended to the entire +furnishing." + +The university student in Frederick, the thorough German in him was +surprised and delighted. Though the room looked like the cell of a St. +Jerome, or, better still, the study of an Erasmus, it nevertheless +resembled in its least details the dim sanctum of a German _Weinstube_, +and all the more so when a young man in a blue apron, a stone-cutter's +helper, who might equally well have been a wine-cellar keeper, brought in +a bottle of old Rhine wine and several coloured hock glasses. + +The wonderful poetry of their student days long past descended upon the +friends. Frederick was still in a state of excitement and irrational +recklessness. He pinned his faith to the moment, ready to stake his +yesterday and his morrow upon it. The twilight of the room brought back +memories of youthfully blissful times. He had found his old friend again +and a new friend of the same warmth of temperament and of the same German +ways, far from the old home. Settling himself snugly in the corner by the +window, like a man intending to take his ease in a restaurant, he touched +glasses with the others and uttered an exclamation of rapture. + +"You'll never get me to budge from this corner, Mr. Ritter--though," he +added, "I should first like to see your works." + +"No hurry about that," said Ritter gaily, at the same time bringing an +album bound in pigskin, in which he asked Frederick and Schmidt to write +their names. Then he opened a very practical closet reaching to the +floor, one of Willy's contrivances, and took out a carved wooden figure, +a German Madonna by Till Riemenschneider. The sweet oval of her lovely +face was not so much that of a Madonna as of a real German Gretchen. + +"Willy Snyders told me," Ritter explained, "that he bought it from a +rascal of a New York customs official, a man of German extraction, whose +father had been a cabinet-maker in Ochsenfurt. The figure comes from the +town-hall there and had been taken to the cabinet-maker for repair. He +substituted another freshly painted figure, which the good folk of +Ochsenfurt greeted with joy as the original greatly beautified and +rejuvenated. Thus, Willy Snyders. I am not responsible for the version," +he concluded laughing. "But one thing is certain, it's a genuine +Riemenschneider." + +The lovely statue by the Würzburg master radiated a vivid charm, which +with the spell of the small room, decorated with such tender affection +for old memories, and the greenish-golden sparkle of the Rhine wine in +the hock glasses, brought back the German home in all its deep-seated +force and beauty--a beauty, it is true, unintelligible, and therefore +non-existent, to the average German of to-day. + +"Once I followed up Tillman Riemenschneider's works," said Ritter. "I +started at Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and went down the valley of the +Tauber past Kreglingen, and so forth, as far as Würzburg. I am confident +of recognising every piece of his at first glance, especially his +Madonnas. They have almost completely cast off the Gothic, and no other +sculptor in wood of his time knew so well how to treat the peach bloom of +a woman's skin or the charm of a woman's face and body. His women are the +pick of the lovely girls of Würzburg and its surroundings. Each one is +adorably beautiful. Here is Veit Stoss." He took a portfolio from a shelf +filled with portfolios. "Veit Stoss is superior to Riemenschneider in +force of temperamental expression; he has capacities in his passions that +make him superior, or at least equal, to Rembrandt." Ritter spread before +them several reproductions of the master, showing the seriousness and +sorrow inspiring all his works. "Nevertheless," he said, "Riemenschneider +holds his own against him for the very reason that he differs from him +so absolutely." + +"The obstinate resistance of the Gothic," said Frederick, "the nightmare +condition of mediæval Christianity, its fearful revelling in pain, its +ardour for suffering had to give way to the clear, healthy vision of a +burgher. The atmosphere clears, the garments acquire a natural flow of +line, erring flesh begins to blossom forth--" + +"Tillman Riemenschneider's portraits are unsurpassed by any works, +ancient or modern, unsurpassed, I say, by the very best," Ritter +reiterated. + +Willy Snyders entered with a great bluster. He had come directly from his +work in the offices of an interior decorating firm. + +"I say, Ritter," he said, shaking hands with the men, "if you think I'm +not thirsty, you're very much mistaken." He examined the bottle. "The +deuce! Without me to help him, the wretch taps one of the twenty bottles +of Johannisberger with which a Chicago pork packer presented him when he +made a portrait of his humpbacked daughter. Well, now that one is gone, +another may as well follow. Gentlemen, isn't this a jolly place for +little carousals?" Pointing to the Madonna from Ochsenfurt-on-the-Main. +"Isn't she a smart little body? She certainly is not by Pappe. I myself +collect nothing but Japanese works." The fact seemed quite to accord with +his appearance. "I'm nothing but a poor dog now, but inside of four or +five years I intend to have the wherewithal, and the collecting of things +Japanese will proceed by electricity. There's no race that can compete +with those fellows in art. But now I want to tell you something." He +turned to Ritter. "With your kind permission, I'll go call Lobkowitz and, +what is more, I'll call Miss Eva. Just now, as I passed through her room, +she told me she would like to meet the hero of the _Roland_." Without +awaiting an answer, he left the room; and within a few moments Lobkowitz, +who collaborated with Ritter, and Miss Burns, the pupil, appeared. + +After the conventional greetings were over, the little Madonna was used +as a welcome occasion for starting conversation again, which had begun to +lag a bit on the entrance of the newcomers. Willy held the statue, a +little less than three feet high, against different panels of the wall to +see how it looked for permanent placing there. A spot was finally chosen, +and the Madonna was fastened to it temporarily. + +The stone-cutter's helper brought another bottle of the heavy, expensive +wine, more hock glasses, large Delft plates, and a mountain of +sandwiches. Though Frederick and Peter had declared they must end their +too lengthy visit, a fresh wave of conviviality swept over the company +and held them on. A half hour passed, and another half hour, and a whole +hour, and still the new friends were sitting over their German wine and +still they were discussing that inexhaustible theme so dear to all of +them, German art. + +"It is an eternal shame," said Frederick, "that the spirit which created +the art of the old Greeks cannot be united with that profound German +spirit, an entirely new spirit, which characterises the works of Adam +Krafft, Veit Stoss, and Peter Vischer." + +"Doctor von Kammacher," Miss Burns asked, "have you ever done any work in +sculpture?" Miss Burns spoke a correct German. Her father was a Dutchman, +her mother a German, and when her parents settled in London, she was only +a child of three. + +"Doctor von Kammacher exudes talent at every pore," said Willy, answering +in Frederick's place. "I can testify to it." Willy Snyders' passion for +collecting had manifested itself while he was still a boy. Among his +treasures had been some copies of so-called "beer gazettes," humorous +sheets got up to be read at German students' merrymaking. The copies in +his possession contained sketches by Frederick, both of a humorous and +serious character. + +"I exude talent?" Frederick exclaimed, blushing. "Never, Willy. I beg +of you, Miss Burns, don't believe that enthusiast of a schoolboy. If +I really have talent, those sketches of mine in beer gazettes wouldn't +prove it. As a matter of fact, I once did do some work in art. Why should +I deny that, like all silly children of between sixteen and twenty, I +dabbled in painting, sculpture, and literature? Once my father had to +bring me to reason because I was all afire for going on the stage. Later, +I wanted to throw everything to the winds to enter politics and +revolutionise society by working for a party which has never even +existed, a German-Social party. I leave you to judge how flighty I was +and how much talent I had for art. But I love art, with a love stronger, +I think, now than ever before, because everything in the world beside art +has become problematical to me. I would rather have carved a wooden Mary +like this"--indicating the statue by Riemenschneider--"than have been +Robert Koch and Helmholtz rolled into one. Of course, I am speaking +purely subjectively. I know how great Koch and Helmholtz are, and I have +the profoundest admiration for both." + +"See here! See here! What's the matter with us, Friedericus?" cried Peter +Schmidt, jumping to his feet. Though the artists had great fondness and +respect for Peter Schmidt and went to him for advice, yet, whenever he +was with them, a violent discussion invariably arose whether art or +science deserves precedence in the field of human culture, Peter, of +course, championing the cause of science. "If you were to throw that +wooden statue into the fire," he said, "it would burn like wood. Neither +the wood nor the immortal art infusing it resists fire. And once it burns +to ashes, it can, of course, be of no significance to the world's +progress. The world is full of marvellous gods and mothers of God, and so +far as I know, they never cast a single ray of light into the night of +the darkest ignorance." + +"I'm not saying anything against science," Frederick declared laughing, +"I am merely speaking of a very unsettled man's love of art. So be at +ease, Peter." + +"If sculpture really attracts you," said Miss Burns, who had given her +exclusive attention to Frederick, "why don't you begin right away to +model here under Mr. Ritter? Begin to-morrow." + +"I can't say I know very much about wood-carving," said Ritter, gaily. +"However, I am entirely at Doctor von Kammacher's disposal." + +"I cannot leave my little Madonna, my wooden Mother of God," cried +Frederick, flushed with the wine, rising and holding up his glass. The +others followed his example, laughing; and they drank to the little +Madonna, each with a secret thought linking Frederick's outburst with the +girl in the club-house. The glasses rang, and Frederick continued rather +daringly: "I wish it had been granted me to do with divine intelligence +and human hands, as Goethe said, what the animal man can and must do with +the animal woman." He made a cup of his hands as if to dip up water. "I +feel my Madonna in the hollow of my hands like a homunculus. She is alive +there. The palms of my hands are warm. They are a golden shell. Conceive +my Madonna to be a hand's breadth high, of live ivory, and imagine some +rosy flecks here and there on her. Imagine her robed in the garments that +Godiva wore, that is, nothing but her hair of flowing sunbeams, and so +on, and so on." Frederick began to improvise poetry. + + "Said the master: 'Come into my workshop.' + And he took, like unto the Creator, + God! in both his hands a little image, + And his heart with mighty throb vibrated. + 'As thou seest it, once I saw it living.' + And so on, and so on. + + Over my hands + Flowed golden wavelets, + Cool, sweet lips and-- + +I'll say no more. I'll merely add that I should like to carve that +Madonna in German linden-wood and give her all the colours of life +itself, and then die, for all I care." + +Frederick's enthusiastic outburst was received with great applause. + +Eva Burns was a beautiful young woman of over twenty-five years, imposing +and perhaps somewhat masculine in appearance. Her German was rather hard, +suggesting to a hypercritical person that her tongue was too thick for +her mouth, like a parrot's. Her abundant hair was parted in the middle +and drawn over her ears. Her figure was broad, stately, and perfectly +formed. While Frederick spoke, and even after he had done speaking, she +looked at him with searching interest in her large, intelligent, +meditative eyes. Finally she said: + +"You really ought to try to do it." + +Eva Burns was one of those knowing, companionable women that are always +welcome and never disturbing in a company of men. Her eyes and +Frederick's eyes met, and the young scholar answered her in a tone of +mixed raillery and gallantry: + +"Miss--Miss--" + +"Burns," Willy helped him, "Miss Burns from Birmingham." + +"Miss Burns from Birmingham, you said something of great significance. On +you be the blame if the world is impoverished by the loss of a poor +physician and enriched by the addition of a poor sculptor." + +It had grown dark, and they lighted three large candles of the finest +bee's wax in the chandelier above the table. + +"I have no objections," Schmidt several times interjected in the debate, +"I have no objections to your trying to help toward the evolution of +sublimer types by means of divine intelligence and human hands; for all +I care, by means of divine intelligence alone, that is, by means of +reason. The very same, if you will allow it, is the object, the ultimate +object, of the science of medicine. A day is coming when artificial +selection among human beings will be obligatory." The artists burst out +laughing, but Schmidt continued unabashed. "And another day, a still more +beautiful day, is coming when persons like ourselves will be considered +like, well, let us say at the utmost, the African Bushmen." + + + + +VIII + + +The candles had almost burned to the bottom when the little company +decided it was time to break up. It was a half holiday, the stone-cutters +had stopped work sooner than usual, and the other rooms were dark and +deserted. The artists used the stumps of the candles to light the company +about. In passing through the first studio, Lobkowitz partially uncovered +pieces meant for the Chicago Exposition, colossal plaster casts and +models in clay representing commerce, manufacture, agriculture and the +like. They threw enormous shadows on the walls and ceiling. + +"You can't get results in art from large figures," said Ritter, though +the statues were full of animation, and there was something prepossessing +in them. + +"Everything for the anniversary of 1492, everything for the Chicago +Exposition," said Willy. "A Viking ship is coming over from Norway. The +last descendant of Christopher Columbus, a knock-kneed Spaniard, is +to be passed around for show, a tremendous humbug, always an acceptable +dish to the Americans. Ritter owes this big order to his monkey-like +quickness. The building commission applied to various sculptors, and +Ritter sent them sketches for all the statues before the other artists +had even wet their clay." + +"I was working in my little studio in Brooklyn," said Ritter, "and for +forty-eight hours in succession I didn't take my hands out of clay. These +figures don't bother me in the least. After the Exposition they won't +exist except in photographs." + +"That's the way the Americans are. Please, Ritter, do give us a +Washington memorial. Perhaps you have a Washington memorial ready-made in +your waistcoat pocket." + +"No, but by eight thirty-five this evening I will have one for you." + +"He can do it, too," said Willy, patting his idol. "That is why he fits +so well into the United States of America." + +The men now entered Ritter's real workshop. Here there were pieces very +different in spirit. While the large figures for the Chicago Exposition +showed traces of commercialism, here everything was thoroughly artistic. +A companion piece in clay to the bas-relief in the club-house, a group of +singing girls not yet completed, was standing on a heavy scaffolding. It +showed the same noble qualities that Frederick had observed in the relief +of the singing boys. Had these works been displayed in Germany, they +would undoubtedly have been epoch-making. A bust of an old woman had some +of the traits of Donatello. Everything in the room testified to the +facility with which the youthful master created. There was a long +decorative frieze in clay, putti with goats, dancing fauns, mænads, +Silenus on his donkey, a procession of bacchantic figures celebrating +the vintage and reproducing all the bacchic joyousness, the drunkenness, +of men and women vintagers, as they cut and trod the grapes and drank the +wine. Another uncompleted work in clay was the figure of a middle-aged +Neptune at a fountain, looking with a jolly smile at a huge fish in his +hands. There was a completed plaster cast of St. George, frankly inspired +by its glorious model, the St. George of Donatello in the National Museum +in Florence. In all these works, Ritter had struck a happy medium between +the Greeks and Donatello and created a style fully expressing his own +personality, yet showing permissible dependence upon his predecessors. + +The pieces in this room were without exception meant for the country +residence of an American Croesus, who had taken a tremendous fancy to +the young sculptor and his work and jealously tried to keep his creations +from straying into another's possession. He looked upon himself as a +Medici of the nineteenth century. His marble palace in extensive grounds +on Long Island had already swallowed up millions of dollars, though meant +as a residence merely for himself, his wife, and his only daughter. No +one but Ritter was to do the statuary and sculptural decorations for his +house and garden, and he was to have free play. What commissions are +given in America! Were talents as easy to create in "our country" as +dollars, there would be a second Renaissance even greater than the great +Italian Renaissance. + +Frederick was fairly intoxicated by the young man's singular good +fortune. What he particularly admired was the union of success and merit. +When he compared the abundance of these works, tossed off apparently as +in play, and the young man's cheerful evenness of temper with his own +torn, distracted existence, a feeling came upon him that he had never +before had, the feeling that he was an outcast, a feeling of +discouragement and helpless defeat. While the light of the candles glided +over the creations of the man who had infused form and soul into the +formless clay, a voice within him kept saying: + +"You have frittered away your existence, you have wasted your days, you +will never retrieve your loss." + +And the voice of envy, of bitter reproach against a nameless being asked +why he had not been permitted to find a similar path and follow it in +time. + +Ritter's life had received a wrench in Europe. Some brutal mishap while +he was serving in the army had made him revolt and later desert. Now, +after seven years in America, he was compelled to admit that the wrench +had been indispensable for transplanting the sapling to the soil best +suited to its growth. In the new surroundings, Ritter's nature developed +simply, harmoniously and symmetrically, like a tree with plenty of space +and sunlight. Fate atoned for the lack of military subordination in the +young prince from genius-land by granting him a surplus of +superordination. + +Suddenly Ritter said to Frederick: + +"I understand Toussaint, the Berlin sculptor, was on board the _Roland_." + +Peter Schmidt had warned the artists in an aside not to touch upon the +disaster, telling them his friend was very nervous and a reference to the +accident might have a bad effect upon him. But his warning had been +forgotten. + +"Poor Toussaint," Frederick said, "hoped to find mountains of gold here, +though, you may say, he was nothing but a fancy-cake genius." + +"And yet I assure you," said Lobkowitz, "there was something grand about +him as a man. In spite of his success, he was always poor. He suffered +from having a wife who was too fond of society and from having to +associate with the persons who bestowed favours upon him and were so much +richer than himself. That dandyism of his was not natural. Had he reached +America, he would probably have ignored his wife and become an entirely +different man. All he wanted to do was to create, to work. What he loved +best was to be perched on a scaffolding, with shirt sleeves tucked up, +among first-rate workmen. Once he said to me, 'If you should happen to +see a mason resembling me in New York, sitting on the pavement eating his +lunch and drinking a can of beer, don't hesitate to believe I am that +mason, and don't pity me. Congratulate me.'" + +"Another one," thought Frederick, "who kept the best part of himself +hidden beneath the conventional foppishness of his time; another one who, +like me, may always have been trying in vain to reach a definite decision +between being and seeming." + + + + +IX + + +Ritter's dog-cart was waiting in front of the door. He suggested that +Frederick and Schmidt drive down in it to the railroad station, where +Schmidt was to get the train back to Meriden. The two men squeezed in +beside the Austrian horse-trainer, valet, or whatever Ritter's coachman +was. The trotter went off at a swift gait, and again the wild, noisy +phantasmagoria of the streets of the new Babylon went flashing by +Frederick's eyes. + +Ritter had introduced his coachman as Mr. Boabo. He wore a small round +hat of brown felt, brown gloves, and a short brown jockey's overcoat. His +chin was heavy, his nose finely chiselled, and his moustache dark and +downy. He was a handsome man, or lad, since boyish naïveté still +predominated in his expression. He was about the same age as Ritter. +While guiding the magnificent grey through the medley of cabs, trucks, +and street-cars, he smiled faintly, as if delighted by it all. + +Notwithstanding the city's excesses of architecture and engineering, its +distinctive characteristic was unimaginativeness. The hurry and bustle, +"business," the chase after the dollar had lashed the technical arts on +to audacious attempts; for example, the skyscrapers, or the elevated +railroad, with its unfenced tracks high overhead, its trains thundering +along incessantly in two directions, winding sharply about the corners +like an illuminated snake, and writhing into streets so narrow that a +person in one of the upper stories of the houses can almost touch the +coaches with his hands. + +"Madness, lunacy!" Frederick exclaimed in his amazement. + +"Not altogether," said Schmidt. "Back of it all is a very sane, +unscrupulous practicality, riding down every obstacle in its way." + +"It would be hideous were it not so tremendous," Frederick shouted above +the din. + +The newsboys were still calling the wreck of the _Roland_. + +"What is that? What was that?" thought Frederick. "I am wallowing in +life. How does that story concern me?" + +A congestion of traffic compelled the grey to come to a halt. He champed +on his bit, tossed his head, sending flecks of foam flying from his +mouth, and looked about as if to try the heart and reins of the young +Austrian officer with his heroic, fiery eyes. During the compulsory +pause, Frederick had a chance to observe how sheafs of newspapers were +being consumed by the pressing, crushing, jostling throngs. + +"The cow gobbles grass, and New York gobbles newspapers," Frederick +thought. And heaven be praised! In _The World_ that Schmidt bought of a +boy, who at risk of his life had threaded his way to the cart, there were +fresh sensations taking precedence of the _Roland_--"Explosion in a +Pennsylvania mine. Three hundred miners cut off." "Fire in a factory in +a thirteen-story skyscraper. Four hundred working-girls perish in the +flames." + +"After us the deluge," said Frederick. "Coal is dear, wheat is dear, oil +is dear, but men are cheap as dirt. Mr. Boabo, don't you think our +civilisation is a fever of a hundred and six degrees? Isn't New York a +mad-house?" + +But the handsome youth, after the fashion of Austrian officers, put his +hand to his cap with inimitable grace, while a decided smile, a smile of +happiness, played about the corners of his mouth, and his answer by no +means expressed assent. + +"Well, I love life. Here one really lives. When there is no war in +Europe, then it is wearisome," he said, speaking in English, which most +clearly proved how distant his relation to the old continent was. + +At the station, when they were standing on the platform beside the train, +Schmidt said to Frederick, wringing his hand impetuously in his German +way: + +"Now, old fellow, you must soon come to see me in Meriden. Meriden is a +small place, and you can recuperate there better than here." + +"I'm not altogether a free agent," Frederick replied with a faint, +fatalistic smile. + +"Why not?" + +"I have obligations. I am tied down." + +With the indiscretion of intimacy, Schmidt asked: + +"Has it anything to do with the wooden Madonna?" + +"Perhaps it is something of the sort," Frederick replied. "The poor +little thing lost her father, her natural protector, and as I had a share +in her rescue--" + +"Then there was a girl in a shift, and a rope ladder!" + +"Yes and no. I'll tell you more about it some other time. Now just take +my word for it, there are times when all of a sudden in a most surprising +way, one finds oneself saddled with complete responsibility for a +fellow-creature." + +Peter Schmidt laughed. + +"You mean, if a woman steps up to you in a crowded city street and asks +you to hold her baby a moment, and never comes back for her baby?" + +"I'll tell you everything some other time." + +The train with its long, elegantly built coaches began to move slowly, +though no signal of any sort had been given, no whistle or bell or word +of command. Without the least to-do, it slipped out of the station wholly +disregarded. Peter and Frederick were the only persons taking leave of +one another in this crowded train bound inland. Peter mounted the steps, +and again shook hands with Frederick. + +"I hope to see you soon again," each said to the other warmly. + + + + +X + + +When Frederick returned home, he learned that a number of reporters and +other persons had been there inquiring for him. Webster and Forster's +agent had given his address, Frederick deduced upon seeing among the +reporters' cards one of Arthur Stoss's. There was also a letter from an +impresario, a German of the name of Lehmann, who, failing to find +Frederick in, had left a pencilled note asking whether, and under what +conditions, Frederick would be prepared to deliver a medical lecture in +New York, Boston, Chicago, and later other cities, in which lecture he +was each time to touch upon the sinking of the _Roland_ and weave in some +of his impressions of the event. + +"What else?" thought Frederick, disgusted, though he had to admit that he +had actually become famous. + +Through Petronilla he sent word to Ingigerd to ask whether it would be +agreeable to her to receive him. Petronilla returned with the message +that Ingigerd would see him in a quarter of an hour. "Signor Pittore +Franck is with her," the housekeeper added; which piece of information +sent the blood rushing to Frederick's head; and though it had been his +intention to wash and change his clothes, he scarcely waited for +Petronilla to conclude her message, and dashed up-stairs three steps at +a time. He knocked on Ingigerd's door loudly. No one said "Come in." +Nevertheless he opened the door and entered and saw the gypsy painter +sitting at Ingigerd's side. On the table under the electric bulbs, lay +a large sheet of paper, on which Franck was sketching with a soft pencil +what Frederick on stepping nearer saw to be hasty designs for costumes. + +"I said in a quarter of an hour," said Ingigerd slowly, making a wry +face. + +"I'll come whenever I choose to," said Frederick. + +Franck, rising without the least air of haste or confusion, greeted +Frederick with perfect cordiality and walked to the door. + +"I don't want to disturb you. Good evening, Doctor von Kammacher," he +said with a grin betraying some delight in Frederick's annoyance. + +"Rigo!" Ingigerd called after him. "You promised to come again to-morrow +morning." + +"What's that boy doing in your room, Ingigerd?" Frederick demanded +somewhat roughly, in evident anger. "And 'Rigo'? What does 'Rigo' mean? +Are both of you out of your wits?" + +Though this tone of his must have been new to her, it seemed agreeable to +her, for she said very humbly: + +"Well, why did you stay away so long?" + +"I'll tell you later. But as matters now stand between us, I forbid your +striking up such friendships. If you want to do something for the fellow, +present him with a comb and a nail brush and a tooth-brush. Besides, his +name isn't Rigo but Max, and he's a seedy sort of chap, absolutely +dependent upon his friends." + +In his moments of jealousy, it was easy for Ingigerd to put Frederick to +shame. + +"It makes no difference to me," she said, "whether a man is poor or rich, +whether he dresses like a dude or a tramp. Rigo intends to paint my +portrait, and I'm looking forward with pleasure to being his model." + +"His model? You won't be his model. I'll see to that," said Frederick. +"But please explain how you hit upon 'Rigo'? Why do you call him 'Rigo'? +Tell me." + +"His mother was a gypsy, and when he was a child, some respectable people +took him into their family." + +"Do you believe that? Franck's friends say he lies every time he opens +his mouth." + +"I'm not a father confessor. He may lie for all I care." + +Frederick did not reply. + +Ingigerd was still sitting at the table. With gentle ardour he pressed +his lips to her head, loosened the ribbon tying her hair at the nape of +her neck, and plunged his fingers deep into the wave of flowing gold. + +"Where were you?" the girl asked. Frederick told her of Peter Schmidt and +the exhilarating afternoon in Ritter's studio. + +"I don't like that sort of thing," she said. "How can people drink wine?" + +The thought passed through Frederick's mind that the girl's remarks were +rather flat and failed to echo the things he had been telling her. + +About an hour later Frederick asked Willy to help him find a boarding +house where he and Ingigerd could live, or Ingigerd could live alone +without his protection. + +"You must realise," Frederick explained, "that no matter how unprejudiced +you and your friends may be, it won't do to let a young lady remain +permanently in a bachelors' club-house." + +Willy did realise the impropriety of the situation; and that very same +evening he found an excellent place for her with friends on Fifth Avenue. + +The next morning, after the men had left the house, Frederick again fell +under the spell of a strange excitement that led him to Ingigerd's room. +This time, however, it was not a wave of passion, but a storm of desire +for self-purification. + +"Ingigerd," he said, "fate has brought us together. I am sure you, too, +feel that in spite of all the appalling events we underwent, something +like predestination was at work." Frederick now told her, as he had fully +planned to do, the story of his past. It was a complete confession. He +spoke of his youth and marriage, spoke with all possible forbearance and +love of his wife. "There was no hope for her ever getting well again. +I have nothing to reproach myself with in regard to her, except that I +was a man merely of good intentions and imperfect achievement. But I may +not have been the right husband for her in so far as I could not give +her the repose of spirit that she needed and I myself lacked. When the +collapse finally occurred and other misfortunes--they seldom come +singly--and in addition I suffered disappointments outside my family +life, I had great difficulty in bearing up. I hate to speak of it, but it +is the truth--before I saw you, I picked up a revolver more than once for +a very definite purpose. Life weighed upon me like lead. It had turned +stale and tasteless. The sight of you, Ingigerd, and, strange to say, the +wreck, which I experienced not only symbolically but in actuality, taught +me to value life again. You and bare existence--the two things +I saved from the wreck. Once more I stand on terra firma. I love the +soil. I should like to fondle it. But I am not yet secure, Ingigerd. I am +still sore, without and within, you know. You have suffered a loss, I +have suffered a loss. We have beheld the other side of existence, the +unforgettable gloom. We have looked into the pit. Ingigerd, shall we +cling to each other? Will you come to a man torn and distracted, lashed +by scorpions, to a man who is greedy to-day and surfeited to-morrow, to a +man who longs for peace and repose, and be peace and repose to him? Could +you for my sake give up all that has until now filled your life, if I for +your sake leave behind me everything that has wasted my existence? Shall +we both begin afresh, on a new basis, simply and without any false +glamour, and live and die as plain country persons? I will be tender with +you, Ingigerd." Frederick hollowed his hands and held them as he had done +when speaking of the Madonna. "I will--" He broke off and cried: "Say +something! Just tell me the one thing, Ingigerd! Can you--can you become +my comrade for life?" + +Ingigerd was standing at the window looking out into the fog and tapping +the pane with a pencil. + +"Perhaps, Doctor von Kammacher," she said finally. + +"Perhaps!" Frederick blazed up. "And Doctor von Kammacher!" + +Ingigerd turned and said quickly: + +"Why do you always fly into such a temper right away? How do I know if I +am suited to your needs and desires?" + +"It is merely a question of love," replied Frederick. + +"I like you. Yes, I do like you, but whether my feeling for you is love, +how can I tell? I always say that so far I haven't loved anything but +animals." + +"Animals!" cried Frederick von Kammacher. He felt mortally ashamed. +Never, it seemed to him, in his whole life had he so degraded himself. + + + + +XI + + +A few moments later there was a knock at the door, and a man in a long +overcoat and brown kid gloves, carrying a silk hat in his fat hand +entered. + +"Excuse me," he said, "I presume this is Miss Hahlström?" + +"Yes. I am Miss Hahlström." + +"My name is Lilienfeld--manager of the Cosmopolitan Theatre." He handed +Frederick his card, which announced that he was also manager of a variety +theatre and impresario in general. "I obtained your address from Mr. +Stoss, the armless marksman, you know. I heard you had had some +unpleasantness with Webster and Forster, and I said to myself, I must go +and call on the daughter of a good old friend of mine. I knew both your +father and mother." Mr. Lilienfeld, in tactfully subdued tones, wound up +his rather lengthy address with delicate expressions of sympathy and his +personal sorrow at Hahlström's death. + +Ingigerd being helpless as a child in business matters, Frederick had +taken it upon himself to represent her, and he used the pause in the +impresario's speech to put in a word. The man's personality was by no +means displeasing to him, and his presence for several reasons was highly +welcome. + +"Owing to the state of her health, Miss Hahlström was unable until now to +appear in public. I as her physician am responsible for her refusal to +dance, but Webster and Forster used such rough methods of coercion both +through intermediaries and through the mail that Miss Hahlström of her +own accord decided in no circumstances to dance under their management." + +"Never!" explained Ingigerd. "Absolutely never." + +"Besides," Frederick continued, "their terms are miserable. We have +received letters offering three and four times as much." + +"Exactly what was to be expected," declared Lilienfeld. "Pardon me if I +give you a bit of advice. In the first place, be perfectly easy in your +mind about Webster and Forster's attempts to intimidate you. For various +reasons the contract with Mr. Hahlström is legally invalid. It so happens +that I have pretty accurate information regarding the terms of the +divorce between your father and mother. They themselves told me, and what +is more, my brother was counsel for your father. Your mother was made +your legal guardian. Your father had no right to make a contract for you. +You ran away. You went with your father because you were devoted to him +body and soul and the relation between you and your mother may not have +been quite so pleasant. I do not hesitate to say you acted wisely, very +wisely. Your father's training has made a great artist of you." + +"Thank you," Ingigerd laughed, at the mere memory of her training +involuntarily protesting against her artistic education. "For hours at a +time, while he sat in a chair comfortably smoking his meerschaum, I had +to dance for him without a stitch of clothing on and perform all sorts of +contortions and acrobatic feats on a rug. In the afternoon he would play +the piano and I would have to go through the same thing all over again." + +"Your father was a positive marvel as a trainer. He put two or three +international stars on their dancing legs, if you will permit the +expression. He was the dancing master of two worlds and"--the impresario +laughed significantly--"many other interesting things besides. But to +stick to the matter in hand--if you want, your contract with Webster and +Forster is null and void." He paused for an instant and began again, this +time addressing himself more to Frederick. "I do not deny that I am a +business man--always within the limits of gentlemanliness--and I should +like to ask you a question, Doctor von Kammacher. Is it your intention +to let Miss Hahlström dance at all again, or have you and she decided +that she is to retire to private life?" + +"Oh, no," said Ingigerd very decidedly. + +Frederick felt something like cold iron enter his soul. He seemed to +himself to be a sword-swallower unable immediately to extract the steel +from his body. + +"No, we have not," he, too, said, "though I for my part should like Miss +Hahlström to give up the stage because she has a delicate constitution. +But she maintains she needs the sensation of it. And when I see the +offers she receives, I do not know whether I have the right to persuade +her against her will." + +"Don't, Doctor von Kammacher, don't!" cried Mr. Lilienfeld. "Miss +Hahlström, Doctor von Kammacher, let me take up the cudgels for you +against Webster and Forster--bloodsuckers, I tell you--and they've +insulted the lady, besides. I assure you, they are the source of a lot +of vile rumours about her." + +"Mention names," said Frederick, turning white. "I shall have no +difficulty, I fancy, in finding a second, and I hope the same code of +honour holds for gentlemen here as in Europe." + +"Tush--tush!" The impresario lifted his fat hands in pacification, and it +seemed to Frederick as if the business man's round head, set low between +his shoulders, were trying to make signs to him, as if he were winking +his eyes furtively and were suppressing a broad smile, unexpectedly +upsetting his business zeal and gravity. "You make entirely too much of +it." He looked Frederick straight in the face in a peculiar way with a +significant expression in his large round eyes. Then he continued: "For +an engagement of twenty evenings in cities to be decided upon, I offer +you one hundred and fifty dollars more per evening than anybody else has +yet offered you, the engagement to begin inside of four days. If you are +agreed, we can go to the lawyer this minute." + +Within less than half an hour Frederick and Ingigerd were standing in a +huge elevator, which was to take them to the fifth floor of a New York +City office building. Ingigerd was the only woman in the elevator, and it +pleased her that for her sake the nineteen gentlemen in the car held +their hats in their hands. + +"If you have never before seen such a thing," Lilienfeld said to +Frederick, "the offices of a big American lawyer will astonish you. This +is a law firm, two partners, Brown and Samuelson; but Brown's a +nincompoop and Samuelson is the whole thing." + +The offices of the famous New York lawyer, Samuelson, were partitioned +off with wood and ground glass from an immense hall, a writing factory, +in which there was a horde of assistants working typewriters. Samuelson +made the impression of a man of nearly forty. He was not very tall, had a +bad, pallid complexion, and wore a short, pointed beard. The clothes of +this man, whose share of the firm's income was estimated at three hundred +thousand dollars a year, though of the correct cut, were by no means new; +in fact, they were rather shabby, and his entire appearance suggested +that he was scarcely a model of American cleanliness. He spoke in a very +low, thick voice, as if suffering from a sore throat. + +Within less than fifteen minutes, the contract between Lilienfeld and +Ingigerd had been concluded, a contract, which owing to the fact that +Ingigerd was a minor, was no more valid than the contract with Webster +and Forster. Samuelson showed that he was informed of all the details of +the case of Hahlström _vs._ Webster and Forster. When the question of +their demands arose, he merely smiled with an air of great disdain and +said: + +"We will quietly lie low and let them make the advance." + +When Ingigerd and Frederick were sitting alone together in a closed cab +on the way home, he put his arms about her passionately. + +"If you dance on the stage, Ingigerd, I'll go out of my mind. I feel as +if you and I and our love would be exposed in the pillory. If it were I +instead of you, it would not be half so hard to stand." + +The poor young scholar began again to pour out before the little vampire +all the anguish he had been suffering, this time with hot kisses and +embraces. + +"I am a drowning man. If you do not hold your hand out to me I shall sink +forever. You are stronger than I am. You can save me. The world is +nothing to me. What I lost is nothing, was nothing and will always be +nothing to me, if only I can exchange it for you. Come with me, and you +shall be all in all to me, the one thing of significance in my life." + +"You are not weak," the girl whispered with a dying-away look in her +eyes. She breathed heavily, her narrow lips parted, and that fatal, +seductive smile spread over her languishing face, like a mask. + +"Take me! Run away with me!" + +For a time they were silent as the cab rolled along easily on its rubber +tires. + +"They can wait a long while for you, Ingigerd," Frederick at length said. +"To-morrow we shall be with Peter Schmidt in Meriden." + +But she laughed. Yes, she laughed at him, and Frederick clearly saw he +had melted her body, not her soul; or a soul was a thing this girl did +not possess. + +The cab came to a halt in front of the club-house. Frederick seemed to +have lost his speech. Without saying a word, he escorted Ingigerd to the +door, pressed her hand, and returned to the cab. He chose a place at +random, and called to the coachman to drive him there. + + + + +XII + + +Frederick crouched in a corner of the cab. In a passion of shame, he +called himself the vilest names. He removed his slouched hat, which he +had not yet replaced by the New York chimney-pot, wiped the sweat from +his brow, and beat his fist against his forehead. + +"My poor father! Within a month, I shall probably be no more nor less +than the official kept man of a prostitute. Everybody will know me and +pay homage to me. Every German barber in New York will tell his patrons +who my father is, and who I am, and what I live by, and whom I am running +after. I shall become that worthless little fiend's lap dog, her monkey +to perform tricks for her, her procurer. The German colonies in every +city, large or small, that we visit will behold in me a typical example +of the loathsome degree to which a scion of the German nobility can sink, +into what a cesspool of vice a man who was once a good man, husband, and +father can descend." + +While being bowled rapidly down Broadway, Frederick, in his state of +introspection and shame, looked blindly upon the houses as they glided +by. Suddenly he started up from his crouching position. The sign of the +Hoffman House had struck his eye and recalled the appointment the men on +the _Hamburg_ had made. He consulted his watch, and found it was just +about the time they had set, between twelve and one. He called to the +driver, but before the horse could be brought to a stop, the cab had +rolled some distance beyond the hotel. Frederick got out, paid the +coachman, and in a few moments was inside the well-known New York +bar-room. + +He saw a long bar, marble slabs, marble wainscoting, polished brass, +polished silver, shining mirrors, on which there was not the smallest +speck of dust, very many shining glasses, empty glasses, glasses with +straws sticking in them, and glasses partially filled with bits of ice. +Bar-keepers in spotless white linen prepared the famous American drinks, +innumerable in variety, with a dexterity bordering on art and a stolidity +out of which nothing could shake them. + +The wall behind the bar was studded within reaching distance with an +array of gleaming polished metal taps; back of the bar were the +passageways to the pantries and kitchen. Oil paintings hung above the +taps and doorways. Over the heads of the business men standing or leaning +at the bar, with derbies or silk hats shoved back from their foreheads, +Frederick saw a delicious woman's figure by Courbet; sheep by Troyon; a +bright seascape with clouds by Dupré; several choice pieces by Daubigny, +sheep on a dune landscape, a pool reflecting the full moon hanging low +over the horizon and two cud-chewing oxen; a Corot--a tree, a cow, water, +a glorious evening sky; a Diaz--a pond, old birches, light reflected in +the water; a Rousseau--a gigantic tree in a storm; a Millet--a pot with +turnips, pewter spoons and knives; a dark portrait by Delacroix; another +Courbet, a landscape; a small Bastien-Lepage, a girl and a man in the +grass with a great deal of light; and many other excellent pictures. He +was so fascinated that he almost forgot his recent experience and his +purpose in coming. + +In his complete absorption, he was only vaguely annoyed by a rather loud +group, whose boisterous laughter and restlessness contrasted sharply with +the quiet demeanour of the other guests. Suddenly he felt a hand on his +shoulder, started, looked around and met the eyes of a man whose bearded +face seemed coarse and unfamiliar. Cocktails and other good drinks had +shot his peony complexion with a bluish tinge. + +"What's the matter?" the stranger said. "Don't you know me--Captain +Butor?" + +Captain Butor, the man to whom Frederick owed his life! And now he also +recognised the other members of the noisy group. There were Arthur Stoss +and his valet, Bulke, in inconspicuous black livery, sitting a little off +from the others. There were Doctor Wilhelm, and the painter Jacob +Fleischmann, and Wendler, the _Hamburg's_ engineer, and two sailors from +the _Roland_, wearing new suits and caps. They had already been engaged +on another steamer of the same line and had been presented with a fair +sum of money. + +The men all greeted Frederick like an old friend. Arthur Stoss, for the +benefit of a New York gentleman, was retailing his old story, that he +intended in a short while to give up touring and retire. He made frequent +loud references to his wife, evidently considering it very worth while to +publish as widely as possible the fact that he, the man without arms, +actually possessed a wife. + +"I have met with the most tremendous success this time," he said. "Last +night the audience stormed the stage and lifted me on their shoulders to +the tune of '1492,' the song they sing every evening in the Metropolitan +Theatre." + +"1492"--wherever he turned his eyes, on the streets and open squares, +Frederick read advertisements of the ballad, a product of the vaudeville +stage, in which the discovery of America, four hundred years after the +landing of Columbus, was interpreted in the patriotic sense of the new +nation that had since arisen. + +"Well, Doctor von Kammacher, how are you?" asked Doctor Wilhelm. "How +have you spent your time?" + +"Oh, so, so," Frederick replied, shrugging his shoulders. He did not know +how he came to frame this summary dismissal of a time so rich in content. +Strange to say, here on land, in the Hoffman bar, little or none of his +former impulse remained to entrust confidences to his fellow-physician. + +"How's our little girl?" Doctor Wilhelm inquired, smiling significantly. + +"I do not know," Frederick returned with an expression of cool +astonishment, and added: "Whom do you mean?" + +As his answers to all their inquiries were equally curt and stiff, it was +impossible to start a conversation. He himself in the first few minutes +did not understand why he had come. It was extremely disturbing to him +that the other men in the bar-room recognised the group as the survivors +of the _Roland_. Stoss by himself, the man without arms, the well-known +marksman, would have been conspicuous. + +Stoss could drink holding a glass between his teeth; but he was not +touching liquor to-day. Nevertheless, he was in a treating mood, a +circumstance by which Captain Butor, Wendler, Fleischmann and the sailors +profited to toast one another freely. Nor did Doctor Wilhelm require much +urging. + +In an undertone he informed Frederick that _The Staats-Zeitung_ in its +issue of the morning before had opened a collection for Fleischmann, and +a sum had already come in such as the poor fellow in his whole life had +probably never before seen. At last Frederick laughed, and heartily. He +understood why Fleischmann was drinking heavily, with so determined a +manner, and why he was puffing himself like a turkey. + +"What do you think of that stuff, Doctor von Kammacher?" he asked, +pointing to the paintings and snorting disdainfully. "To call such stuff +art! Millions and millions are spent on getting those things over from +France. They palm the trash off on the Americans. I'll wager that if one +of us Germans in Munich, Dresden, or Berlin were to do no better than +that, or that"--he pointed at random to several pictures--"we'd put him +in the A B C class." + +"Perfectly true," said Frederick, laughing. + +"Just you wait," cried Fleischmann. "I'll show the Americans a thing or +two. German art--" + +But Frederick ceased to listen. His only impression after the lapse of +some time was, that in the meanwhile Fleischmann had misused the same +words, "German art," an endless number of times. Turning to Doctor +Wilhelm he said unblushingly: + +"Do you remember the way this howling dog, this creature laughing like a +lunatic, rose up out of the waves beside our boat?" + +Captain Butor and Wendler, who had been laughing mightily over something, +now stepped up with brimming eyes, as if they deemed the time had come to +be serious for a few moments in the company of the two physicians. + +"Did you hear, gentlemen, that Newfoundland fishermen have sighted +corpses and floating fragments of the _Roland_?" said Captain Butor. +"Life-preservers from the _Roland_ have also been found. The corpses and +fragments are said to have been washed on a sand reef, where a lot of +sharks and birds are hovering and swarming. The fishermen say the sharks +and birds are what first attracted their attention." + +"What is your opinion, Captain?" asked Doctor Wilhelm. "Do you think +anybody from the _Roland_ beside ourselves will turn up dead or alive?" + +As to living persons, the captain would not commit himself. + +"It may be," he said, "that one or two of the life-boats were carried +farther south and entered calm waters. Only, in that case, they were not +in the course of the large steamers, and they may not have met a vessel +for three or four days. Derelicts, fragments, and corpses are usually +carried south by the Labrador Current until they meet the Gulf Stream, +which carries them to the northeast. If they turn northward with the Gulf +Stream at the Azores, they may soon reach the coast of Scotland." + +"Then there is a chance," said Frederick, "that our magnificent Captain +von Kessel may still find a grave in some Scotch potter's field." + +"We poor captains," said Butor, who looked more like a German horse-car +conductor than a captain. "They ask us to command the sea and the storm, +like our Lord Jesus Christ, and if we cannot, we have the choice of +drowning in the ocean or hanging on land." + +Arthur Stoss joined them, and said: + +"Do you remember when the _Roland_ began to sink, were the bulkheads shut +down?" + +Frederick reflected and said, "No, they weren't." + +"I am of the same impression," said Stoss. "The sailors declare they know +nothing about it." + +"We carried out whatever orders we received," said the sailors. + +Fleischmann put in his word: + +"The bulkheads were not closed down. I never saw the captain, and I don't +know what sort of man he was. But the bulkheads were not closed. My place +was next to a family of Russian Jewish emigrants. We felt an awful shock, +and a crashing and crunching as if the ship had run against a great rock. +The panic broke out immediately. All lost their heads and went clean out +of their minds. We were hurled against one another and against the walls. +Here you can see how I was bruised." He rolled up his sleeves. "There was +a dark girl belonging to the Russian Jewish family who saw to it that +time should not hang heavy on my hands during the trip." Doctor Wilhelm +looked at Frederick significantly. "She wouldn't let go of me. She was +hoarse from screaming. Finally, all she could do was pant. She hung on to +me, and, as I said, kept panting, 'Either you'll go down with me or +you'll save me.' What could I do? I really had to give her one over her +head." + +"Yes," said Wendler, "what is a man to do in a case like that? Here's to +you, gentlemen!" + +All touched glasses. Frederick turned pale, and the others laughed +heartily. + +"By the way, Doctor von Kammacher," said Stoss, "I just thought of that +Hahlström girl. Really, you ought to persuade her to come to an agreement +with Webster and Forster. If you keep her from dancing, you will be +interfering with her future." + +"I?" queried Frederick. "What an idea! What business is it of mine?" + +Stoss, without heeding him, continued: + +"Webster and Forster are, as a rule, very decent. But their influence and +connections are incalculable. Woe to the man or woman that incurs their +displeasure." + +"I beg your pardon, Mr. Stoss, but you may as well spare your breath. +I am by no means the girl's guardian. Nor am I at all fitted to be a +trafficker in men or girls." + +"Oh, oh, oh! Why so severe?" said Stoss. The others, including Doctor +Wilhelm, chimed in; which only heightened Frederick's brusqueness. "Don't +you know there's lots of money in that little witch just now? As the +American business man says, 'There's money in it.' Don't forget we're in +the dollar land, where you can't rest until the ground has been +completely exhausted and the last nugget of gold has been extracted." + +Frederick was outraged. He felt like taking his hat and running away. In +his present mood, he could scarcely conceive why he had come to meet +these people. To turn the conversation and give vent to his spite and ill +humour, and also for a nobler reason, he suddenly began to speak of the +maid, Rosa, denouncing the American newspapers for having said almost +nothing of the heroic girl. + +"It would be of far more importance to me to do something for her than +for any other woman. I'm not a man to bargain and haggle; but if a +collection was made and they did not collect for Rosa, then they +neglected a true heroine of the _Roland_." + +"What do you mean by that? What do you mean?" Fleischmann demanded +somewhat rudely, afraid of losing his booty. + +Here Bulke intervened. + +"Remember, Mr. Fleischmann, Rosa was the first to see you. If Rosa hadn't +dragged you out of the water--she's as strong as a bear--the rest of us +in the boat might merely have struck you over the head with our oars and +let you sink." + +"You're talking nonsense, you numskull," said Fleischmann, withdrawing +and turning toward the wall with the pictures. "I keep seeing nothing but +those two moonstruck oxen." He referred to one of the wonderful +Daubignys. + +Frederick paid and took leave, declining, as politely as he could, their +proposition that they all lunch together. + + + + +XIII + + +When alone on the street, Frederick felt some disgust with himself for +lacking humour. Were those innocent men to blame if he happened to have +rasped nerves? Since it was Frederick's way, as soon as he perceived that +he had done a wrong, to set resolutely to work to undo it to the full +extent of his ability, he decided, after coming to the conclusion that +the fault had been his, to lunch with his shipmates after all. He had +been walking about eight minutes. He now turned back, accelerating his +pace, and within five minutes the sign of the Hoffman House was again in +sight. Broadway as usual was crowded, and the two endless chains of +yellow cable cars with short spaces between were perpetually moving by +each other. It was cold and windy. There was a great din and bustle on +the streets, and into the din and bustle Frederick saw his friends of the +_Roland_ and the _Hamburg_ step from the bar. As he was about to wave to +them, he slipped and stumbled on a piece of fruit on the pavement. + +"Don't fall, Doctor von Kammacher!" a woman's voice cried. "How do you +do?" On regaining his equilibrium Frederick found himself face to face +with a beautiful, dignified young lady hidden behind a veil and wearing +a fur hat and coat. He slowly recognised Miss Eva Burns. "I'm in luck," +she said. "I very rarely come to this part of the city. It just so +happened that I had to buy something near here, and I am on the way now +to my restaurant. I always take my meals in a restaurant, because I +loathe boarding-houses. By chance, too, I am later than usual. A little +lady whom you know, Miss Hahlström, visited the studio with Mr. Franck +and kept me three quarters of an hour longer than I am accustomed to +stay." + +"Do you take your meals alone, Miss Burns?" + +"Yes," she said, somewhat taken aback at the abrupt question. "Does that +seem strange to you?" + +"Oh, no, not at all," Frederick hastened to assure her. "The astonished +expression on my face was merely due to my stumbling and to this +unexpected meeting with you. The reason I inquired whether you eat alone +was because I wanted to ask you if you had any objections to my lunching +with you." + +"I should be very glad if you were to, Doctor von Kammacher." + +The stately couple attracted much attention from passers-by. Frederick +was tall and rather broad and carried himself well, and his hair and +beard may have gone rather too long without the application of the +shears. Eva Burns was almost as tall. She was a brunette, suggesting in +her face and figure, which bore no resemblance to the wasp-like figures +of the American women, a race and type more in accordance with the +Titian ideal of feminine beauty. + +"Would you mind waiting here a minute?" Frederick asked. "You see +those people over there getting into the car? Some of them God in +his inscrutable ways destined to be fellow-passengers of mine on the +_Roland_, the others my rescuers. I should not like to meet them again." +When the little company was safely aboard the car on the way to Brooklyn, +he said: "I am profoundly grateful--" and stopped. + +"Because you were rescued from those men in the car?" Miss Burns laughed. + +"No. Because I met you, and you rescued me from them. I admit I am +ungrateful. There's that captain--when I saw his ship come steaming +toward us from across the waters and saw him standing on the bridge, +he seemed to me to be an instrument of God, if not an archangel. +Awe-inspiring repose, solemn, awe-inspiring grandeur rested upon him. He +was not _a_ man, he was _the_ man, the saviour man, and beside him there +was none. My soul, all of our souls, clamoured for him, worshipped him. +But here he has dwindled into nothing but a good, commonplace little +workman. On the trip, Stoss's liveliness was a relief. Now, in the +treadmill of his daily occupation, he has turned from the finer thoughts +of his leisure moments. Duty, while deepening Captain Butor and +temporarily converting him into a useful, even an important personage, +acts as a leveller on Stoss. Stoss merely seemed to partake in the life +on the sea, while in actuality concerned with nothing but himself. And +there's my colleague, the ship's surgeon. I was completely upset to find +what an empty vessel he is. I really thought he was more interesting." As +if sluices in his being had been opened wide, Frederick began to speak +freely of the shipwreck, to which he had never before more than merely +alluded. + +"What particularly frightened me to-day was the fact that a man can, as +it were, digest an oak-tree twice within less than forty-eight hours. I +keep discovering myself in the act of doubting the wreck of that giant +steamer, every corner of which was familiar to me. I saw something, but +I am so infinitely remote from it that I still cannot grasp it. I am only +just beginning to feel the ship coming to life in my soul. Four or five +times within the past twenty-four hours, I experienced the whole accident +over again. Last night I started up actually bathed in cold sweat, and +did not know where I was. The confusion on board, the tooting of the +distress signals, the bloody, distorted faces, the floating human limbs, +all was so frightfully appalling. If I keep on seeing such visions, I'll +go down with the _Roland_ again. + +"It may be morbid to feel as I do. A man in my condition may say to +himself, 'Go down and stay down, if once you have sunk.' But those people +who got into the car do not even say that, Miss Burns. The whole thing +has gone down for them once for all. They have digested the whole of the +_Roland_ and everything that happened to the hundreds of human beings it +was carrying. They have digested the whole affair and almost forgotten +it. That ability of theirs, enviable though it may be, insults my general +humanitarian instincts. It is loathsome to me. And their clumsy phrases +revealing the indifference, the obtuseness of their souls make me +shudder. In their eyes I see that calm selfish sense of their own +security to the damage of another person's security which is at the +bottom of a murderous madness that I myself experienced. Those men are +cold men, they are murderous men. And a brutal state of self-defence but +slightly veiled and suppressed is their permanent state." + +"Your friends, it seems to me, must have behaved very badly," Miss Burns +said, laughing. + +To this Frederick could not truthfully assent. He merely repeated: + +"The way I feel about it is that they have taken the ship between their +teeth, the ship with all its timber and iron and its immense human cargo, +and chewed it to a pulp, and swallowed it down without leaving a trace +behind." He removed his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. + +"If you really do wish to lunch with me, Doctor von Kammacher, you must +not have high-flown notions, like Mr. Ritter," said Miss Burns halting in +front of a tidy little restaurant. + +They entered a low room with a red brick floor and panelled walls and +ceiling. Owing to the enormous timber resources of their country, the +Americans make a very free, though refined use of wood. The clean little +room was frequented by German barbers, riding-masters, coachmen, and +clerks. An inexpensive lunch and the usual American drinks were dispensed +at the bar. The corner where the proprietor sat was decorated with a +small collection of sporting pictures, well-known jockeys with their +horses, acrobats, and baseball champions. Something in his appearance +suggested that at night he had different customers to deal with than in +the daytime, that his athletic figure--he was neatly dressed, but in his +shirt sleeves--was meant to inspire respect in his clients. Frederick +still suffered from too much breeding, and he was secretly astonished +that Eva Burns ventured into such a place. + +"You are late, Miss Burns. Aren't you feeling well?" inquired the host, +with an immobile mask-like seriousness of expression. + +"Oh, yes, Mr. Brown. I'm always all right," Miss Burns answered brightly. +"Bring me my regular lunch. But the gentleman, I am afraid, will not be +satisfied with it. Perhaps you have something special for him?" + +Frederick, however, insisted upon ordering the very same as Miss Burns. + +"I give you fair warning," she said when they were alone, "I really don't +think you will be satisfied with my diet. I never eat meat, I want you to +know, and you surely do." + +Frederick laughed. "We physicians," he said, "are also coming more and +more to give up a meat diet." + +"I think it is horrible to eat meat," said Miss Burns. "I have a handsome +fowl in my garden. I see it every day, and then I go and cut its throat +and eat it up. When we were children, we had a pony which had to be +killed, and the people in the East End ate it." She drew her long kid +gloves from her hands without removing them from her arms. "People eat +dogs, too. I adore dogs. But the worst thing is the frightful, endless +shedding of blood which human meat-eaters deem necessary for their +preservation. Think of all the butchers in the world, think of those +immense slaughter-houses in Chicago and other places where the +machine-like, wholesale murder of innocent animals is constantly going +on. People can live without meat. It isn't indispensable to their +welfare." + +She said all this in a tone of seriousness tinged with humour, speaking +a correct, though somewhat laboured German. + +"For various reasons," Frederick said, "I still hesitate to form a +definite opinion in regard to meat-eating. As for myself, I can do very +well without meat, provided I have my steak regularly every day for lunch +and my roast beef for dinner." + +Miss Burns looked astonished, then laughed merrily. + +"You are a physician," she cried. "You physicians are all animal +torturers." + +"You refer to vivisection?" + +"Yes, to vivisection. It's a shame, it's a sin. It's a horrible sin to +torture innocent animals to death just for the sake of adding a few days +more to the life of some commonplace person." + +Frederick did not reply, being too much a man of science to concur in her +opinion. Miss Burns detected this, and said: + +"You German physicians are horrible men. When I am in Berlin, I am in +a constant state of dread that I shall die unexpectedly and before my +relatives can prevent it, I shall be taken to your dreadful laboratories +for dissection." + +"Oh, then you have been in Berlin, Miss Burns?" + +"Certainly, I have been everywhere." + +The conversation now turned on Berlin. Miss Burns spoke of it glowingly, +because it offered the greatest opportunities for hearing good music and +seeing good plays. + +"I have a number of friends among the Berlin professors and artists. One +of them is a Polish pianist. He brings back money by the bushel from his +American tours. He owns an estate near Cracow, and has asked me to visit +him there. Unless I accept his invitation sooner than I expect to, I +shall not see Berlin again for a long time." + +The host served the lunch, consisting of baked potatoes, cabbage and +fried eggs. Though at any other time this would scarcely have satisfied +Frederick, he ate with a hearty appetite and, like Miss Burns, drank +American ice-water. + +Miss Burns's manner in talking was thoroughly unconstrained and +sprightly. She had observed that the foundering of the _Roland_ was still +too vivid in Frederick's thoughts, and bearing Peter Schmidt's warning +in mind, purposely turned the conversation away from it. But Frederick, +for some reason dissatisfied with himself for his criticism of his +fellow-passengers, tried several times to revert to the shipwreck. His +whole demeanour showed that something was gnawing at him and tormenting +him. + +"We speak of a justice imminent in the plan of the world. But why was +such a pitiful collection of men saved, while hundreds of others drowned? +Why did that splendid Captain von Kessel drown? I shall never forget him. +Why did all those splendid picked men of the crew of the _Roland_ drown? +Why and for what purpose was I myself saved?" + +"Doctor von Kammacher," said Miss Burns, "yesterday you were an entirely +different man. You were full of brightness and life; to-day you are all +gloom. I think you are wholly wrong in not being simply grateful for your +good fortune. In my opinion, you are not responsible either for the +quality of those who were rescued, or for your own rescue, or for the +number of those that sank. The creation was planned and executed without +regard to you, and you have to accept it as it is. After all, to accept +life is the one art the practice of which is really of permanent use." + +"You are right," said Frederick, "only I am a man. Besides I inherit a +most unnecessary instinct for ideal rather than practical activity. 'The +time is out of joint,' says your Danish Englishman, Hamlet. 'O cursed +spite that ever I was born to set it right.' I cannot get rid of that +absurd megalomania. To make matters worse, there is the Faust in me that +sticks in every good German who thinks anything of himself. 'I've studied +now Philosophy and Jurisprudence, Medicine,' and so on. As a result, a +man has all the more chances of being disillusioned at every turn, and so +would rather pledge himself to the devil. Strange to say, the first thing +the devil usually prescribes is a blonde Gretchen, or something like +her." + +Miss Burns remained silent, and Frederick felt himself under the +necessity of continuing. + +"I don't know whether it is of interest to you to learn something of the +remarkable adventures of a German scholar and ideologic bankrupt." + +Miss Burns laughed and said: + +"A bankrupt? No, I don't think you are a bankrupt. Of course, whatever +concerns you and whatever you wish to tell me is of interest to me." + +"Very well," said Frederick, "we'll see whether you are right. Conceive +a man who, until he was thirty years old, was always going the wrong way, +or if not that, then, at least, the trips he took, no matter along what +way, always ended precipitately in a broken shaft or a fractured limb. +That I escaped the real catastrophe, the shipwreck, is really most +peculiar. Nevertheless, I think my ship has been wrecked and I with it, +or I and my ship are in the midst of foundering. For I see no land. I see +nothing solid or firm anywhere near me. + +"I was kept in a military school until I was ten years old. The desire +came upon me to commit suicide, and I was punished for insubordination. +There was no fascination for me in being prepared for a great carnage. +So my father, though it meant that he had to give up his pet idea, took +me away from the school, and I went through the much-discussed humanistic +_Gymnasium_. My father is a passionate soldier. I became a physician, but +I had scientific interests outside of my profession, and I devoted myself +to bacteriology. Broken shafts and fractured limbs again. Good-bye to +medicine and bacteriology. It is scarcely likely that I shall ever work +in those fields again. I married. Beforehand, I had reared, as it were, +an artificial structure of the whole matter of marriage--a house, a +little garden, a wife and children, children whom I intended to educate +in a freer, better way than most people do. I practised in a poor country +district, being of the opinion that I could do more real good there than +in Berlin West. 'But, my dear boy,' everybody said, 'with your ancestral +name, your income in Berlin could be thirty or forty times larger.' And +my wife absolutely objected to having children. From the very moment she +knew a child was coming until its birth, there was one desperate scene +after the other. Life became a veritable hell to us. It was no rare thing +for us, instead of sleeping, to argue the whole night through, from ten +o'clock in the evening until five the next morning. I would try mild +persuasion and comfort, I would urge every conceivable argument softly +and loudly, violently and gently, wildly and tenderly. My wife's mother, +too, did not understand me. My wife was disillusioned, her mother was +disillusioned. She saw nothing but craziness in my avoiding a great +career. Then there was this--I don't know whether it occurs in all young +marriages--each time before the child was born, we quarrelled over all +the minutiæ of its education, from infancy to its twentieth year. We +quarrelled over whether the boy should be educated in the house, as I +wished, or in the public schools, as my wife wished. I said, 'The girl +shall receive instruction in gymnastics.' My wife said, 'She shall not +receive instruction in gymnastics.' And the girl was not yet born. We +quarrelled so violently, that we threatened each other with divorce and +suicide. My wife would lock herself into a room and I would beat against +the door, because I was frightened and dreaded the worst. Then there +were reconciliations, the consequences of which were only to increase +the miserable nervous tension in our home. One day I had to put my +mother-in-law out of the house as a way of securing peace. Even my wife +realised that it was necessary to do it. We loved each other, and in +spite of all that happened, we both had the best intentions. We have +three children, Albrecht, Bernhard and Annemarie. They came inside of +three years, one very soon after the other, you see. My wife had a +nervous tendency which these births brought to a crisis. After the very +first child was born, she had an attack of profound melancholia. Her +mother had to admit that Angèle had been subject to similar attacks from +childhood up. After the last child was born, I took her on a two months' +trip in Italy. It was a lovely time, and her spirits actually seemed to +brighten under the happy sky of Italy. But her sickness progressed below +the surface. I am thirty-one years old and have been married eight years. +My oldest boy is seven years old. It is now"--Frederick reflected a few +moments--"it is now the beginning of February. It was about the middle of +October last fall when I found my wife in her room slashing to tiny bits +a piece of not exactly inexpensive silk which we had bought in Zürich and +which had been lying in her drawer more than four years. I can still see +the costly red stuff, that is, as much of it as had not been cut, and a +loose mountain of patches lying on the floor. I said, 'Angèle, what are +you doing?' And then I took in the situation. Nevertheless, I cherished +hopes for a time. But one night I awoke and saw my wife's face close +above me with a ghastly far-away look in it. At the same time I felt +something at my throat. It was the very pair of scissors with which she +had cut the red silk. 'Come, Frederick,' she said, 'get up and dress. We +must both go to sleep in a coffin of linden-wood.' It was high time to +tell her relatives and mine and convoke a family council. I might have +protected myself, but it was dangerous for the children. + +"So you see," Frederick concluded, "it was not very far along the road of +marriage that I travelled with my talent for life. I want everything and +nothing. I can do everything and nothing. My mind has been over-loaded, +and yet has remained empty." + +"You certainly did go through a hard time," said Miss Burns simply. + +"Yes," said Frederick, "you are right, but only if you use the present +tense instead of the past and if you fully gauge the extent to which the +trouble with my wife has been complicated for me. The question is, am I +to blame for the course that my wife's mental suffering took, or may I +acquit myself of all blame? All I can say is, that the suit in this case, +in which I myself am plaintiff, defendant and judge, is still pending, +and no definite decision has yet been rendered. + +"Now, Miss Burns, do you see any sense in the Atlantic Ocean's having +refused to take me of all the persons on board the _Roland_? Do you see +any sense in my having fought like a madman for my mere existence? Do you +see any sense in my having struck some unfortunate creatures over the +head with my oars because they nearly capsized our boat? I struck them +so hard that they sank back in the water without a sound and disappeared. +Isn't it vile that I still cling to life and that I would rather do +anything than give up this botched and bungled existence of mine?" + +Though he had spoken in a light conversational tone, Frederick was pale +and excited. It was long since the plates had been removed, and Miss +Burns, perhaps to avoid a painful answer, asked: + +"Shall we take coffee here, Doctor von Kammacher?" + +"Whatever you will, to-day, to-morrow, and forever, provided I do not +annoy you. I am a gloomy companion, I fear. I fancy there is no other +person in the world troubled with such petty egoism as I am. Think of it, +my wife locked up in an asylum is occupied every moment of the day with +proving her own selfishness, weakness, unworthiness and wickedness toward +me. Because she is so unworthy, as she says, and because I am so great, +so noble, so admirable, they have to watch her all the time, I am told, +to keep her from inflicting injury upon herself. A very pleasant fact to +be conscious of, isn't it, Miss Burns, and haven't I good reason to feel +proud?" + +"What you need," said Miss Burns, "is rest. I never thought--I beg your +pardon for saying so--that a man who outwardly makes the impression of +such strength can possess such a wee, trembling soul. What you ought to +do now, I should think, is simply cover up your past as much as possible. +All of us have to do some covering up in order to be fit for life." + +"But I am altogether unfit," said Frederick. "This minute I am feeling +strong, because I am with someone in whose presence, for some reason or +other, I can wash myself in clean water--excuse me, I am speaking +euphemistically." + +"You ought to concentrate on something, you ought to work," said Miss +Burns. "You ought to make yourself physically tired to the point of +exhaustion." + +"Oh, my dear Miss Burns," cried Frederick, "how you overestimate me! +Work! I am no better than a tramp. The thing I thought to cure myself +with was laziness, idleness. Here I sit in a land discovered and +conquered as a result of the tremendous will power of the Europeans, with +my oars gone, my rudder gone and my last bit of free will. It is this +that distinguishes most men of to-day from the men of that time." + +Coffee was served, and for a while Frederick and Miss Burns stirred the +sugar without speaking. Then Miss Burns asked: + +"How did you come to lose your free will, as you say?" + +"Theridium triste," said Frederick and suddenly recalled the simile of +the spider that Doctor Wilhelm had used in reference to Ingigerd. Miss +Burns, of course, did not understand him; but Frederick broke off, and +though she questioned him, refused to explain. She promptly withdrew her +question, saying she thought it was quite right and good for him if the +conversation lost its German philosophic cast and descended to the level +of a superficial person like herself. + +"I advise you," she added, "no matter how sharply you may criticise +yourself for having travelled so many roads without reaching the end, to +strike out into a new road, and do so quite cheerfully. Confine yourself +to something that makes an equal demand on your hands, your eyes and your +brain. In short, return to your old love and try your hand again on +sculpture. Perhaps in a few months you will be the creator of a +world-famous Madonna in polychrome wood." + +"You are mistaken in me," Frederick rejoined. "I do nothing but blow soap +bubbles. Leave me to my illusion, that there is a great artist in me +awaiting the moment of self-expression and development. What I am really +much more fitted for is to be Mr. Ritter's coachman, or valet, or at best +his business manager." + + + + +XIV + + +Miss Burns took out her little purse, refusing to let Frederick pay for +her, and they stepped out again into the busy streets. + +"By Jove," said Frederick, whose manner when in the hurly-burly changed +completely, "what a lot of stuff I have been chattering! I deserve to be +punished for trying your patience to such an extent. I must have bored +you horribly." + +"Oh, no," she said, "I am accustomed to such conversations. I have +associated with artists for many years." + +"Do you mean to impugn my truthfulness, Miss Burns?" Frederick asked in +some alarm. + +"No, but I think," she said calmly, with almost masculine firmness, "that +if nature makes us suffer through something, she does not intend us to +suffer again and again from the same thing. It seems to me the Creator +had a definite intention in always and everywhere placing night and sleep +between day and day." + +"Not always and not everywhere," Frederick observed, thinking of the +difficulty he had had for many nights in snatching a few hours' sleep. + +At a street crossing Miss Burns stopped to wait for a car to take her +back to the studio. + +"Look at that," said Frederick, pointing to six similar placards of +gigantic dimensions, which represented Mara, the Spider's Victim, in +screaming colours. A green stripe was pasted slantwise on each placard, +announcing that the dancer had been suffering from the consequences of +the shipwreck, but that she would appear at Webster and Forster's the +next day for the first time in America. Above the advertisement on the +same wall were seven or eight full-length pictures of Arthur Stoss larger +than life-size. + +"Your little friend invited Mr. Ritter to a rehearsal in a theatre on +Broadway day after to-morrow. It was not Webster and Forster's," said +Miss Burns. Frederick explained what had happened in connection with +Mr. Lilienfeld, though he himself had not known of the intended +rehearsal. + +"I feel nothing but pity for that girl," he said lightly. "As a result of +a strange combination of circumstances, I feel I am responsible for her. +She lost her father, who was all in all to her, since she is not on good +terms with her mother." + +"Indeed?" said Miss Burns. "Why, this very morning in a short +conversation in the studio, she told me something very different." + +"She did!" exclaimed Frederick. + +"She told me that in many ways her father had been a fearful burden to +her. In the first place, she had to earn money for him, and then he +tyrannised over her terribly." + +"Well," said Frederick, somewhat confused, "it is perhaps the essence of +perversion that a person feels compelled to hoodwink people by doing +things and making statements the very reverse of what is natural and +what is to be expected. Miss Burns, I wish, I heartily wish, you would +look out a little for that poor creature drifting about without anybody +or anything to guide her." + +"Good-bye," said Miss Burns, hailing a car. "Come and start work in +the studio as soon as possible. As for your little friend, she is too +self-willed. In fact, she has an iron will. There is no holding her, or +leading her, that would keep her from doing anything she had once made up +her mind to do." + +When the car had carried Miss Burns off into the stream of New York +traffic, Frederick, strangely enough, had a fleeting sense of +forlornness, to him a novel sensation. Feeling inclined to taste it to +the full, he continued to walk the streets alone, choosing his way at +random. For the first time after speaking so freely to a comparative +stranger, he did not regret his conduct. Again and again he went over in +his mind his first meeting with Miss Burns in the studio, her manner +during the lively carousal, when they discussed the wooden Madonna, his +second meeting with her on the street, her upright carriage, her proud +eyes, her imposing appearance in the little cosmopolitan restaurant. +Without intending to, she undeniably dominated her surroundings, and that +merely as a result of her naturalness. It had given Frederick secret +pleasure to watch her eat and drink daintily, yet heartily, without any +airs or graces, and systematically dissect her orange and peel her apple. +Eating and drinking was to her a noble, legitimate and also inevitable +act, not to be disposed of lightly beneath a foolish masquerade. When +Frederick recommended Ingigerd to her guidance, he did so because he +himself had experienced a beneficent influence from her remarks, dictated +by a beautiful intellect, and from the glance of her straight, honest, +scrutinising eyes. + +"At the risk of making myself ridiculous," he said to himself, "I will go +to Ritter's studio to-morrow morning, bury my hands in the clay, and try +to reconstruct my life again from the bottom up out of moist clay." + + + + +XV + + +At about ten o'clock the next morning Ritter himself gave Frederick a +very glad, bright welcome to his studio, and assigned to him a small room +opening on Miss Burns's room. Miss Burns proposed that he begin by +copying a plaster-cast of the arm of the Saxon athlete. + +Frederick for the first time handled the moist clay fraught with so much +significance, the clay out of which the gods made man and man in turn has +made gods. As a result of the hours he had spent in Rome with sculptor +friends, watching them work and observing each movement of their fingers, +he accomplished his task with great ease, to his own astonishment and +Miss Burns's admiration. His anatomical knowledge and medical experience +also stood him in good stead. Shortly before completing his course as a +medical student, he had for a time entertained the idea of publishing +an anatomy for sculptors, and with this in view had made a number of +drawings which won the favour of real connoisseurs. + +After Frederick had worked feverishly with his shirt sleeves rolled up +for three hours, the athlete's muscular arm began to take shape clearly, +and he felt a sense of satisfaction wholly novel to him. In working he +completely forgot who he was, and where he was. When Willy Snyders came +in, as he usually did on his way from his work to luncheon for the +purpose of saying "how-do-you-do" to Bonifacius Ritter and art, it seemed +to Frederick that he had been awakened from a dream and called back to a +strange life. + +"I am sorry to have to leave work and go to lunch. Lunch is really a very +disturbing thing," he confessed. + +When Ritter entered, they all laughed heartily at his genuine passion for +sculpture. + +"When I return to Europe," he said, "I must immediately make portraits of +my three children." + +Miss Burns and Willy Snyders had actually made Frederick proud by their +praise, though in Ritter's presence they turned silent awaiting the +master's verdict. + +"You must certainly have modelled in clay before," said Ritter. Frederick +could honestly deny that he ever had. "Well," Ritter rejoined, "then you +have handled your material like a man who has art in his blood. To judge +by this first attempt, it seems to me you have merely been waiting for +the clay and the clay has been waiting for you." + +"We'll see," said Frederick, and added, "Unfortunately there is a serious +drawback. The saying is that all beginnings are difficult. My former +experiences lead me to believe that with me the reverse is generally +true. As a rule I win the first and second round of chess, or cards, or +billiards, and lose in the end. I succeeded at first in my practice and +my bacteriological researches. If I write a book, only the first and +second chapters are worth anything." + +The artists refused to believe this, though there was a grain of truth +in what he said. Nevertheless, Frederick left the studio with them in +a healthier frame of mind than he had been in for years. + +But his spirits departed in a measure after he had spoken with Ingigerd +Hahlström in the club-house. The girl listened unsympathetically, if not +ironically, to his account of his new occupation. Ritter, Willy and +Lobkowitz were secretly outraged at her disdainful remarks, especially +since they observed that Frederick was still entangled in the girl's +meshes, body and soul. + +She told him he must go to Webster and Forster and insist on their +withdrawing a notification which they had sent to the Society for the +Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Since her new contract with Lilienfeld +meant the loss of the money that she was worth to them, they wanted +revenge, at least, and were going to put a spoke in their competitor's +wheel. Ingigerd, beside herself with rage, told Frederick that in the +morning she had had a brief rehearsal in the theatre, and a +representative of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children +had announced his intention of attending the rehearsal the next day. She +was bent upon letting her light shine in New York and receiving twofold +homage, the homage of pity and the homage of admiration. Besides, she did +not want to lose the money in prospect. If she were prevented from +appearing in New York, there was no chance for her anywhere in the United +States. + +It was useless to oppose the girl's obstinate will. Whether or no, to +his unspoken disgust, Frederick had to perform messenger and handy-man +services for the little star. He rushed from Webster and Forster to +Lilienfeld, from Lilienfeld to the attorneys, Brown and Samuelson, from +Second Avenue to Fourth Avenue, from Fourth Avenue to Fifth Avenue, +finally to knock at the door of Mr. Garry himself, the head of the +Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and represent to +him Ingigerd Hahlström's position, which was, that by preventing her +appearance, the society would expose her to material want in a strange +country. Mr. Garry refused to receive Frederick. + +Fortunately for him, Willy Snyders the good-hearted, in order to make +things as easy as possible for him, sacrificed himself by obtaining an +afternoon's leave of absence from work. His saucy, healthy humour, his +jolly remarks on New York conditions helped Frederick through many +unpleasant moments. + +Frederick was happy when the next morning came and he could go at his +modelling again. His brain, whirling with the rattle and clatter of New +York, could spend itself in his passionate occupation, which employed +both his eyes and his hands. He deemed himself fortunate for being +genuinely unpractical and not having to take part in that gruesome +horse-racing and sack-racing and target-shooting, that crawling and +dancing and jumping for the sacrosanct dollar. The very breath of that +frenzied life tore the garments of his soul into shreds, as it were, +while this simple occupation of modelling the details of the athlete's +arm, was healing to his soul. He was conscious of it. Now and then Miss +Burns came in to inspect his work and exchange a few words with him. He +liked this. Her companionable presence soothed him and even made him +happy. Her figure, her gestures, her conversation seemed to be the very +essence of firmness and repose, and her self-sufficiency always aroused +Frederick's silent admiration. When he told her how perceptibly his new +work acted as a sedative upon him, she replied that she had had the same +experience, and if he did not fly off at a tangent but remained steadily +at the work, he would feel the good it did him even more. + + + + +XVI + + +Ingigerd Halström had "invited" the artists to her rehearsal at twelve +o'clock. When they gathered in Miss Burns's room--beside Frederick, there +were Ritter, Lobkowitz, Willy Snyders, Miss Burns, and the gypsy-like +painter Franck, who carried a portfolio and sketching material--there was +a certain solemnity in their manner. + +It was a clear day and the streets were dry, and they decided to walk to +the theatre. On the way Ritter told Frederick of a little country house +he was building for himself on Long Island. Frederick had already heard +of it through Willy Snyders. It was to be a rather pretentious building, +with gardens and stables and barns. Ritter was erecting it according to +his own ideas and plans. He discussed the beauties of the Doric column. +It was the most natural of column forms and therefore the most suitable +for any surroundings. That was why he had used it in his villa. For his +interiors, he had partly followed Pompeian models, and there was to be +an atrium. He spoke of a little figure, a gargoyle, which he intended to +place over a square fountain. + +"In these things, which offer the jolliest possibilities, artists +nowadays are very unresourceful," he said. "We have naïve German examples +in the _Gänsemännchen_, the _Männicken Piss_, and the _Tugendbrunnen_ in +Nuremberg. One of the best classic examples is the drunken Silenus of +Herculaneum. Water when combined as a mobile element with immobile works +of art, can run, trickle, dash, splash, spray, bubble up, or rise up in a +splendid jet. It can hiss and sputter and foam. From the drinking bottle +of the drunken Silenus in Herculaneum it must have popped. I have had a +plaster-cast model made of the little Pompeian figure of Narcissus at the +spring in Naples. It is exquisitely beautiful. I am going to place it +somewhere in my villa. My gardens will reach down to the seashore, and +I intend to have a landing-place for boats, with marble steps and +balustrades and sculpture work." + +While walking in the cold sunny air next to the slim, elegantly dressed +sculptor, listening to his Greek fantasies, Frederick's heart beat +mightily against his ribs. Whenever the thought arose in his mind that +here, in this new country, after everything that had happened, he would +again see Ingigerd Hahlström dance her dance, he felt that he was no +longer equal to the trial. The forces of his soul that had remained +healthy were already rising in rebellion against anything that might +increase the power of the little demon. Nevertheless, he was so +intimately connected with her, that the public exhibition of her charms +tortured him, and he suffered from the anticipation of her great success. +Yet while dreading it, he fervently desired it. + +The theatre was dark and empty when Ritter and his following entered. +They could scarcely see and had to grope their way after the young man +that led them to seats in the parquet. Gradually, their eyes grew +accustomed to the darkness, and they could distinguish the vast +windowless cave, with its rows of seats, its galleries and painted +ceiling. The air, smelling of dust and decay, lay heavily on Frederick's +lungs. There were recesses in the great grotto that made the impression +of gloomy holes for coffins. Some of them were hung with grey canvas, and +canvas lay spread over the whole parquet, with the exception of a few +rows left free for seats for the visitors. The stage curtain was up, and +the only lighting on the stage came from a few incandescent lamps with +weak reflectors, which cast only a narrow circle of light, which widened +somewhat as the visitors' eyes learned to be content with the faint +illumination. + +None of the men had ever before seen an empty unlighted theatre, and they +felt cramped and oppressed. For no special reason, they lowered their +voices in speaking, and sat there in the expectant mood in which people +always await the beginning of a performance. + +No wonder that Frederick's heart throbbed more and more turbulently. Even +Willy Snyders, who was not easily shaken out of his composure and was +always inclined to make sarcastic remarks, was silent and adjusted his +glasses on his nose. He sat with his mouth open and his nostrils +dilating. When Frederick's eye happened to fall upon him in his unwonted +state of self-forgetfulness, he was amused by the comic appearance of his +black Japanese head. + +After a number of tense minutes had passed and nothing had yet occurred, +the artists were about to unburden their feelings in questions and +remarks, when the silence was suddenly broken by a tramping of feet, and +the stage resounded with a loud, though dull and by no means melodious +voice. It was the impresario Lilienfeld, in a long overcoat, his hat +pushed back on his neck. He was scolding violently and flourishing a +cane. The vision tickled the artists' risibilities. It was all they could +do to keep their laughter within the limits of courtesy. + +Lilienfeld roared and called for the porter, and thundered unmercifully +at a charwoman happening to stray on the empty stage. + +"Where's the carpet, where are the musicians, where is that +good-for-nothing of a fellow who attends to the reflector? I expressly +ordered him to be here at twelve o'clock. Miss Hahlström is standing back +there and can't get into her dressing-room." + +A voice from the parquet--it came from the young man that had guided the +artists to their seats--several times attempted a timid "Mr. Lilienfeld, +Mr. Lilienfeld." Finally Lilienfeld caught the sound and, holding his +hand to his ear, stepped to the edge of the stage. Forthwith a shower of +curses, which had ceased for an instant, descended upon the lad, with +reinforced severity. The reflector man came and received his dose of +furious rebukes. A man in a silk hat pushed in three musicians, carrying +a tom-tom, a cymbal and a flute. + +"Where's the flower? The flower! The flower!" Lilienfeld now shouted into +the parquet, when a hesitating "I don't know" came from somewhere. +Lilienfeld disappeared, crying "Where's the flower? Where's the flower?" + +"Where's the flower? The flower! The flower!" was taken up in endless +echoes here and there, above and below, from the wings, on the stage, and +now from the last rows of the parquet--a circumstance which only +increased the artists' inclination to titter. + +A few more lights were turned on, and a remarkable, great red paper +flower was set on the stage. Lilienfeld, now better satisfied, reappeared +and entered into a conversation with the three musicians. + +"Have you studied the dance I told you to?" he demanded, humming the tune +and stressing the accented parts to impress it upon them. "Now then," he +said, "let's hear what you can do." He raised his bamboo cane like a +conductor's baton and said commandingly, "Well, begin." + +And the musicians began to play that provoking, passionate melody, that +barbaric music, now dull and suppressed, now loud and screeching, which, +ever since it first began to excite his nerves, had pursued Frederick +night and day. He thanked heaven that the darkness helped conceal his +emotion. It was that hard, convulsive motive conjuring up the demons +which had been the beginning of his obsession in the _Künstlerhaus_ in +Berlin. Over and again those sounds had lured him and led him on. + +What was this strange Ariel's intention with him? At whose bidding was he +acting when he assailed his victim with inner storms and almost let him +perish in a real storm on the seas? Why did he prick Frederick's flesh +with this music? Why did he cast its inseverable hempen cords about his +throat and limbs? How was it that after so tremendous an eternal tragedy +had been enacted out there on the cosmic solitudes of the ocean, after +the waters had unmercifully swallowed so vast a number of men, loving +life--how was it that this music had remained untouched and unweakened, +that it had here resumed its fantastic devilishness? Frederick felt as if +new cords were biting into his flesh and tightening about his throat. +Something like the anguish and frenzy of a bull with a lasso about its +horns came over him--a bull whom a cruel power will misuse for a +senseless, bloody show in the arena. Frederick did not hit about him. He +did not run away, and yet he came near doing both. His head, it seemed to +him, was wrapped up heavily in thick sail-cloth. He must do something +finally to rid himself of that enforced blindness. He must look straight +in the face of his grotesque opponent--Prospero or Caliban? + +"There is no doubt," Frederick felt, while the music tortured and +harrowed him, "that men seek madness, they seek it again and again. They +are fond of madness. Was not madness the leader of those men who first +made the impossible possible and crossed the ocean, though they were +neither fish nor fowl?" + +In Skagen in Denmark there is a sight worth seeing. In the dining-room of +a small inn there are painted figureheads of foundered vessels saved from +the wreckage. The hand of madness has unmistakably touched all those +wooden men and women with their painted faces and clothes. They look +forward into the distance, where they seem to see something beyond all. +Their noses quiver in the air on the scent of gold and foreign spices. +In some way or other they have come upon a secret and have lifted their +feet from their native land to tread the air and pursue illusions and +phantasmagoria and discover new secrets in the trackless salt waste. It +was by such that El Dorado was discovered. It was such that have led +millions and millions of men to their destruction. + +And Ingigerd Hahlström, who shortly before had been his painted Madonna +of wood, now became Frederick's ecstatic figurehead. He saw her high +above the waves on the prow of a phantom sailing ship, bent forward +with open mouth and wide eyes, her yellow hair falling straight down from +both sides of her head. + +The music ceased, and Ingigerd Hahlström stepped on the stage. She was +wearing a long blue evening cloak over her costume. + +"Mr. Lilienfeld, I think it is rather stupid to change the name of my +number from 'Mara, the Spider's Victim' to 'Oberon's Revenge,'" she said +very dryly. + +"Miss Hahlström," said the impresario, nervously, "please, for heaven's +sake, leave that to me. I know the audiences here. Besides, I have +reasons for choosing another title. I want to avoid a damage suit by +Webster and Forster. Please begin, Miss Hahlström. We have to hurry." Mr. +Lilienfeld clapped his hands and called to the musicians to strike up. + +Again those provoking strains, immediately upon which Mara danced in, +like a naked elf floating in the air. While flying in wide circles about +the flower, as yet unseen, she resembled a fabulous, exotic butterfly +in her transparent veil shot with gold. Willy Snyders called her a naiad, +Ritter a moth. Franck said nothing, merely keeping his eyes fixed upon +the transformed girl. + +The moment came when with her eyes closed, like a somnambulist, she +sniffed the perfume and began to seek its source. In that seeking, there +was both innocence and maddening wantonness. A fine quiver went through +her body, like the quiver of a moth in its sultry love-play. At last she +smelt of the flower itself, and her sudden rigidity showed that she had +perceived the great spider on it. + +As Frederick knew, she did not always represent the horror, the numbness +of fright and the flight in the same way. The artists all admired the +change of expression on the dancer's sweet face, where faint distaste +gave way to violent repulsion, fright and stark horror. As if a great +hand had tossed her, she flew to the outer limits of the circle of light. + +But a force compelled her to return to the flower. Mara no longer +followed sweet scents. The hideous venomous creature in the flower's +calyx drew her against her will, struggling wildly. Her lids were no +longer closed. It was with clairvoyant eyes that the little thing went +to meet her doom. + +"Strange," thought Frederick, "if her father really conceived the idea of +this dance himself. In that case he may have divined his daughter's fate +with greater insight and love than he is credited with. As she herself +admitted, she is sometimes more irresistibly drawn by what is ugly than +by what is pure and beautiful; and the dance follows a logical course +leading on pitilessly to tragedy." + +The new phase of the dance began, in which the dancer looks at the spider +again, takes it to be harmless, and laughs at herself, as it were, for +her fears. Ingigerd portrayed this with inimitable grace, innocence and +merriness. + +After passing through a state of pleasant repose, the fight with the +imaginary threads enmeshing her limbs began. At this point, the door +opening on the parquet creaked on its hinges, and a tall, stately, +noble-looking old man was ushered in. He carried his hat in his hand. His +hair was silvery grey, and his clear-cut face was clean shaven. He was a +gentleman, "every inch of him." The young man who had led the stranger +in, dashed out again, and the gentleman seated himself near the door by +which he had entered. Director Lilienfeld appeared and, turning and +twisting like an eel around the awe-inspiring old man, officiously begged +him to be seated in one of the front rows. + +The gentleman, Mr. Garry, President of the Society for the Prevention of +Cruelty to Children and many other organisations, declined with a wave of +his hand and fixed his attention upon the performance. Ingigerd had been +confused by the creaking of the door, the arrival of a new spectator, and +the mumbled greeting of her impresario. She stopped dancing. + +"Keep on! Keep on!" cried Lilienfeld. But the girl stepped to the edge of +the stage. + +"What's the matter?" she inquired. + +"Nothing, nothing at all," the director assured her, all impatience. + +Ingigerd called for Doctor von Kammacher. Frederick, who was reminded of +his father by the old gentleman and had been looking at him with respect, +was not a little startled when he heard his name echo through the +theatre. It was fearfully painful and humiliating to him to have to step +up to the platform and speak to Ingigerd. She bent down and told him to +go "sound that old guy from the Society and try to bring him around." + +"If I am not allowed to dance, I will jump from Brooklyn Bridge, and you +can go fishing for me where my father is," she cried. + +Amid convulsive jerkings of her body, throttled by the spider's threads, +Ingigerd ended what was apparently her life, though in reality nothing +but her dance. Lilienfeld introduced Frederick to Mr. Garry. The stiff +old descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers, who had come over in the +_Mayflower_ and founded the New England States, measured Frederick with a +cold, penetrating glance of his steely grey eyes, a glance hostile as +a cat's and as capable, it seemed to Frederick, as a cat's to see in +utter darkness. Mr. Garry spoke very quietly, but what he said scarcely +aroused hopes that his attitude would be tolerant. + +"Evidently," he said after Lilienfeld had got done with an eager +harangue, "evidently, the girl's father has already misused her for low +purposes, and evidently, the child's education has been neglected. The +creature is to be pitied for not having been taught even the commonest +notions of feminine shame and decency. Unfortunately," he added in a +cold, haughty manner, which in advance robbed any statements in +controversion of their force, "unfortunately we have as yet no law +to prevent such revolting performances, which grossly offend public +sentiment and morality." He scarcely seemed to comprehend Lilienfeld's +arguments, assuming without question that Lilienfeld must know how vile +he and his profession were in the eyes of every gentleman and that +Lilienfeld in his, Mr. Garry's, eyes was entitled to but one epithet, +"vermin." + +His inadequate English prevented Frederick from taking an important part +in the conversation. Nevertheless, he ventured to mention the necessity +under which Ingigerd was of earning her own living. Mr. Garry instantly +silenced him with the old question: + +"Are you the girl's brother?" + +Mr. Garry left the room, and Lilienfeld cursed and stormed against the +miserable hypocrisy of those old-fashioned Yankees and Puritans. + +"I have my strong suspicions," he said, "that an injunction will be +issued preventing Ingigerd Hahlström from appearing in public. I owe the +whole cursed business to Webster and Forster." + +When Frederick went to fetch Ingigerd in the dressing-room, he found her +in tears. + +"I have nobody but you to thank for this," she cried in a fury. "Why +couldn't you let me dance the first day under Webster and Forster, as Mr. +Stoss and everybody else advised?" + +"Ingigerd," said Frederick, "I had to look out for your health." + +"Stuff and nonsense! You took the whole matter into your hands. You +acted illegally, against my expressed wish, when you chased Webster and +Forster's agent away from the cab when we left the steamer." + +Frederick was disgusted. Mr. Garry had made his father's personality more +vivid to him than it had been for weeks. Although his father would never +have expressed and carried out his views in the same form as Mr. Garry, +yet his opinions, as Frederick very well knew, were akin to the Yankee's. +Indeed, even in Frederick's soul, many of the same notions, implanted by +birth and education, remained unshaken. For the first time since he had +fallen under Ingigerd's spell, he realised that he was inwardly +independent of her. The one question that still troubled and occupied him +was how to rid himself outwardly as well as inwardly from the degrading +liaison. Without fully admitting it to himself, he had suffered a +disenchantment in Ingigerd's dance; to judge by which, the demon's spell +was broken. This time that alluring seductive dance had seemed +inconceivably empty. Nor was his compassion aroused to nearly the same +extent as formerly. + +Franck, the gypsy painter, burst in. He behaved like a madman. His +enthusiasm, which somewhat improved Ingigerd's temper, was of the sort +that stammers and stutters and cannot find the words to express itself. +Frederick looked at him in disgust, but the next moment started when he +recognised in his behaviour the marks of his own former obsession. +Ingigerd let the painter take her hand and cover it with wild, passionate +kisses, which travelled from her wrist to her elbow, a demonstration that +seemed to her to be perfectly natural and quite in order. + +"I wish you would go visit Mr. Garry again and try to influence him with +pleas and threats and money," she said to Frederick. + +"That would be foolish and useless," Frederick declared; whereupon +Ingigerd wept. + +"The only friends I have," she wailed, "are friends that exploit me. Why +isn't Achleitner here? Why did Achleitner have to lose his life, and not +somebody else? Achleitner was my real friend. He knew how to go about +things in the world, and he was rich and unselfish, too." + + + + +XVII + + +The very next day the injunction was issued, restraining Ingigerd +Hahlström from dancing in public. The girl conducted herself wildly. +Lilienfeld said the time had come to place the matter before the Mayor of +New York. In order to protect Ingigerd from slander and from being sent +to an orphan asylum, Lilienfeld, who was married but had no children, +offered her a refuge in his own home on 124th Street near Lenox Avenue. +Whether she wanted to or not, Ingigerd had to accept. + +The morning after Ingigerd's departure to Mr. Lilienfeld's home, when +Frederick sat in front of his modelling in a new smock of unbleached +linen of Miss Burns's buying, he experienced a sense of relief on +Ingigerd's account. A burden had been lifted from him. Her change of home +had removed a part of the responsibility from his shoulders and made a +break in the feeling he had had of their belonging to each other. + +After the rehearsal, Ingigerd was much discussed in the studio. Ritter +had expressed to Miss Burns and his friends a desire to make a model of +the dancing girl for a bronze statuette. Miss Burns told Frederick of his +wish. But Frederick, who was still regarded somewhat in the light of +Ingigerd's guardian, assented unwillingly. + +"You see, Miss Eva," he said, "I am really the last person in the world +to stand in the way when beautiful things are to be created. But I am +only a man, and if Ritter were to use Miss Hahlström as a model here, +where only one or two walls would separate us, that would mean an end to +my peace of soul." Miss Burns laughed. "You may well laugh," he said, +"but I am a convalescent, and relapses, you know, are worse than the +sickness they follow." + +A week passed, in which Frederick carried on a remarkable, but not, as +yet, victorious warfare. He worked in the studio daily, and Miss Burns +became his confidante. From his own mouth she learned what she had +already observed, that he was languishing in the chains of an unhappy +passion. Without ever interfering in his spiritual struggles unless he +positively demanded it of her, she gave him advice as a good friend +and comrade. + +"Every time I see Ingigerd, or go out with her, or spend any time at all +with her," he said, "I feel outraged and bored. I have firmly made up my +mind not to go back to her."--A resolution frequently broken a few hours +after it was made. + +Miss Eva was so long-suffering that Frederick never felt compelled to +drop the theme of Ingigerd Hahlström. The girl's soul was turned inside +out and back again. + +One day Ingigerd said to him: + +"Take me, seduce me, do with me whatever you will, Frederick. Be strict, +be cruel with me. Lock me up. You are the only man I want to have +anything to do with me any more." Another time she said beseechingly: +"I want to be good, Frederick. Make me good." + +But the very next day she again subjected her friend and protector to +unpardonably vile treatment. The fact was, she already had a following of +men, running errands for her, attending to her affairs, thinking for her, +and paying for her. + +The thing that Frederick could not wean himself from was that sweet, +fair, frail, pathetic body. Yet he was determined to wean himself. + +One day Ingigerd came to sit for Miss Burns for her portrait. Frederick +placed a revolving stand in front of her and also tried to model the +blonde Madonna in clay. Even Ritter had a mass of clay for modelling a +bust of her prepared on a revolving stand, and the master entered into +rivalry with his pupils. Miss Burns's purpose in arranging these sittings +was not easily fathomed. The result was, however, that the very severe +study of his idol's features had a remarkable effect upon Frederick. + +The flatness of her forehead, her eyebrows, the setting of her eyes, the +turn of her temples, the shape of her ears and the twist they took where +they joined her head, her nose as narrow as the dull edge of a knife, +her nostrils, the oldish-looking nasolabial line, the depressions at the +corners of her mouth, her beautiful yet brutal chin, her unbeautiful +throat, with the washer-woman's pit in it--all these traits had a very +sobering effect upon Frederick, sapping from his imagination every bit +of its strength to beautify or palliate. Perhaps Miss Burns knew what +results from such strenuous, such persistently logical observation of an +object. In some ways it has the same effect as blood-letting. That is why +the artist must bleed to death unless new sources of illusion always open +up to him. + +Moreover, in the long sittings, to which Ingigerd submitted from vanity, +she betrayed the narrowness, the attenuation, the barrenness of her mind. +In contrast with Miss Burns, Frederick perceived in Ingigerd with fearful +clearness that incompleteness which is eternally rudimentary. Once she +brought a letter from her mother in Paris and read it aloud. For about +a quarter of an hour, it actually seemed to torture her. It was serious, +severe, full of concern, and not unloving. Her mother referred +sorrowfully to Hahlström's death, and asked Ingigerd to come and live +with her in Paris. She told her of a woman in New York, the wife of a +German barber, with whom it would be eminently suitable for her to remain +until she returned to Europe. She even mentioned the steamer she should +take. + +"I am not wealthy," she wrote. "You will have to help me with my work, +Ingigerd, but I will try to be a mother to you in every respect,"--here +came the apodosis--"if you make up your mind to change your mode of +life." + +There was hard, stupid, even savage hatred in Ingigerd's commentaries on +this and other parts of her mother's letter. + +"I am to go to her and repent," she mimicked, "because the Lord has so +miraculously saved me. Mamma should be the first to repent. I am not +going to be such a fool as to turn myself into a dressmaker. Always to +receive orders and listen to sermons from mamma! I am not bothered about +myself so long as I am not under somebody's thumb." + +And so she went on, without the least hesitancy retailing the ugliest +intimacies in the life of her parents. + + + + +XVIII + + +The Mayor of New York appointed the twenty-fifth of February for a +hearing in the City Hall, at which Lilienfeld and his attorneys, Brown +and Samuelson, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children +were to present their arguments for and against the injunction +restraining Ingigerd Hahlström from dancing in public. Mrs. Lilienfeld +dressed Ingigerd up in "smart" clothes, put her in a cab, and in the +capacity of chaperone drove down to the City Hall with her. Frederick, +upon whose presence Ingigerd had insisted, had gone ahead in another cab +with Lilienfeld. + +"This is the situation," Lilienfeld explained as they drove through the +length of the cold, grey, dreary city. "At present New York is in the +control of Tammany. At the last elections the Republicans were defeated. +Ilroy, the Mayor, is a Tammany man. The word Tammany is derived from an +Indian sachem, Tamenund, who figures in Cooper's Leather-stocking novels. +The party leaders have silly Indian names and titles. But don't be +deceived by all that romantic Indian nonsense. The members of Tammany +Hall are mighty practical. The Tammany tiger is an animal not to be +trifled with in the great New York sheepfold. I think we may feel pretty +sure, though not absolutely certain, of having the Tammany tiger, and +therefore the Mayor, with us in this matter. Mr. Garry is a Republican, +a deadly enemy of Tammany Hall, and it would give Ilroy the greatest +satisfaction to deal a neat little blow at him and that idiotic +institution, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. But +his term is nearly expired, and as he would like to be elected again, it +is politic for him to make a few concessions to the Republicans. Well, +we'll see. We have to wait and see." + +The cab rolled down Lenox Avenue through Central Park and along Fifth +Avenue, past the Metropolitan Museum, the Lenox Library, the millionaire +residences, and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Below Fiftieth Street it turned +into Broadway, where Lilienfeld pointed out the buildings of interest, +Madison Square, and the Hoffman House, the gathering place of the +Democrats. Finally they reached the City Hall Park, in the centre of +which stands the City Hall, a marble structure with a cupola and a +portico. In the portico the gentlemen awaited the ladies. + +While walking to and fro, Frederick suddenly felt someone tugging at his +coat. He turned and saw a pretty, stylishly dressed little girl. + +"Why, Ella Liebling, where do you come from?" + +Ella courtesied and said: + +"I am out with Rosa. There she is." + +Frederick turned and saw Rosa standing on the steps. + +"Good morning, Doctor von Kammacher," she said. + +Frederick introduced Ella to Mr. Lilienfeld. "Ella was in the shipwreck. +Here you have additional proof of the tremendous physical power of +resistance of the so-called weaker sex." + +"Good morning, little girl. Is it really true that you were in that awful +shipwreck?" + +"Yes, indeed," came the unabashed answer, spiced with a dash of +childishly coquettish pride, "and my brother was drowned." + +"Oh, poor child," said Lilienfeld. His manner was abstracted. Evidently +his mind was on the speech he might be compelled to deliver before the +Mayor of New York. "Excuse me," he said suddenly to Frederick, and moved +a few steps away to make a hasty, nervous perusal of his notes, which he +had written on a slip of paper and had taken from his pocket. + +"My mother was dead, too, but came back to life again." + +"How's that? How's that?" asked Lilienfeld, raising his gold spectacles +slightly from his nose and peering at her from under them. + +Frederick explained how they had had to work over Mrs. Liebling for +several hours before they succeeded in resuscitating her. + +"If in this world honours were awarded according to merit," Frederick +added, "then that simple servant-girl there"--he pointed to Rosa--"ought +to receive greater honour as a hero of two worlds than Lafayette. She +performed miracles. She never thought of herself, but only of her +mistress, Mrs. Liebling, of the two children, and the rest of us." + +Frederick went to Rosa and shook hands with her. When he inquired for +Mrs. Liebling, she turned red as a peony. + +"Mrs. Liebling is very well," she said, and promptly burst into tears, +having been reminded of little Siegfried. When she dried her eyes, she +told Frederick that she and a German consul, without Mrs. Liebling, had +attended to all the formalities of the burial and that she had been the +only one to see the little corpse laid away in the Jewish cemetery. + +"Oh, why did you stop trying to revive Siegfried so soon? I begged and +begged you to go on. There was still life in him. He would have come to," +she wailed. + +Here a stranger joined them. It was not until he was quite close that +Frederick recognised in the correctly clad man the valet of Arthur Stoss. + +"Doctor von Kammacher," said Bulke, "Rosa cannot get it out of her mind. +Can't you make her understand that it isn't right always to be going over +and over such a thing and that she ought to forget it? It couldn't be +worse if she had lost a boy of her own. I want to tell you, Doctor von +Kammacher, Rosa and I are engaged to be married." + +"You are certainly to be congratulated, Mr. Bulke. I am delighted to hear +it." + +"As soon as I can get away from Mr. Stoss and Rosa can get away from Mrs. +Liebling, we are going back to Europe. Before I entered the navy, I was a +skilled butcher. My brother in Bremen wrote to me that there was a little +meat and sausage and steamer supply business to be had there. We both +have some money saved up. So why shouldn't we try it? You can't go on +working for strangers forever." + +"I quite agree with you," said Frederick. + +The marksman's valet held out his hand to Rosa, whispered "Mrs. +Liebling's coming," and left. The same instant Ella ran off calling, +"Mamma." + +Mrs. Liebling was coming through the park, walking beside a gentleman. +From her costume, befitting the wife of a Russian prince of the royal +house, it was evident that she had already found the opportunity to +replace her wardrobe. Frederick shook hands with her and remembered the +mole under her left breast and several other marks on the lovely body, +which he had so ruthlessly worked like a machine to restore the breath +to it. + +She introduced him to her companion, a dark, thick-set, elegantly dressed +man, who eyed Frederick with a suspicious, repellent expression. + +"Curious," thought Frederick. "This microcephalous creature thinks I am +his enemy, whereas he ought to know what he owes me. There I toiled and +travailed and sweated to raise the dead. I considered myself a highly +moral instrument of Providence, and after all, I was working for nothing +but the pleasure of a sleek, consequential Don Juan." + +Mrs. Liebling, who had already been in Boston and Washington, was +perfectly delighted with America. + +"What do you think of the New York hotels? I am living at the Waldorf. +Aren't they magnificent? I have four rooms in the front. Such quiet, +such luxury, such beautiful pictures! You feel as if you were in the +Arabian Nights. Doctor von Kammacher, you positively must go to +Delmonico's. What has Berlin, or even Paris, to compare with it? You +can't find a restaurant like Delmonico's or hotels like New York hotels +in Europe." + +"Possibly," said Frederick, quite dazed. + +"Have you been in the Metropolitan Opera House yet?" + +Mrs. Liebling continued to put similar lively interrogations, to which +she demanded small responses from Frederick, supplying most of the +answers herself. + +He thought of Rosa and Siegfried and had time to inspect and reinspect +the signor's brand-new patent leather shoes, the straight creases down +his trousers, his watch chain, his diamond scarf pin, his monocle, his +high hat, and his expensive fur coat. + +"What have you got to do with our famous tenor of the Metropolitan Opera +Company?" Lilienfeld asked Frederick, when he returned to the portico +with a "Whew!" of relief. Frederick did not understand, and Lilienfeld +repeated the same Italian name that Mrs. Liebling had mentioned in +introducing the signor to Frederick. He was astonished that Frederick did +not know what a world-renowned star this new friend of Mrs. Liebling's +was. + + + + +XIX + + +The meeting had so clearly put before Frederick the tragi-comedy of +existence that his sense of humour was stirred and he was capable of +taking the painful situation less seriously. + +The cab with the ladies drove up. Simultaneously half a dozen reporters +stepped into the lobby. Frederick, to his surprise, observed that most of +them were on a rather free and easy footing with Ingigerd, and shook +hands with her familiarly. She looked very dainty and pretty. + +Her rather numerous body-guard, which now included Mr. Samuelson and his +assistant, were ushered into the audience chamber, a lofty wainscoted +room with bay windows. When they entered, they saw Mr. Garry's tall +figure already seated at a long table near the empty chair that the Mayor +was to occupy. He was dressed in black, almost like an English clergyman, +and the theological spirit of the Puritan shone from his face. Yet there +was too much worldly acumen, too much cold determination in his +impressive features for a clergyman. He held his eye-glasses in his hand +and now and then turned over the pages of his notes. Mr. Samuelson and +Mr. Lilienfeld took seats on the other side of the Mayor's chair, without +greeting him. The rest of the space about the table was occupied by a few +clerks, the reporters, and other persons interested, among whom sat +Frederick, Lilienfeld's wife, prepossessing and stately, and Ingigerd +Hahlström, the _casus belli_. + +The Mayor entered by a high folding door a few feet behind his chair. He +was an Irishman, somewhere between forty and fifty, wearing a smile of +mixed shrewdness and embarrassment. Though he did not go through the +formality of a greeting, there was a touch of courteous affability in the +glance he cast about the room. + +One of the reporters at the bottom of the table whispered to Frederick: + +"Miss Hahlström's case is going to come out all right. Everybody is of +the firm opinion that the Mayor is going to give that old hypocrite a +jolt." As a matter of fact, the Mayor's manner toward his honourable +neighbour on the right was too cordial to presage good. Silence was +ordered, and the session began. The Mayor called upon Mr. Garry to +speak. + +The old gentleman arose in all his height, with a gravity and +self-assurance seldom seen except in eminent statesmen. Frederick was +fascinated. He could not remove his eyes from him and almost regretted +that his speech, according to the reporter, was doomed to failure in +advance. As for Frederick's feelings in regard to the real issue, when he +listened to the voice of his passion, he did not desire Ingigerd's +appearance in public. But for some time he had learned to silence that +voice, and he had no objections if his cure were to be accomplished as +the result of a severe operation. He felt certain that for Ingigerd to +receive permission to dance in public would mean a definite verdict in +his own case. + +Mr. Garry first set forth clearly and succinctly the aims of his society, +citing a number of cases to show how children are maltreated, how their +health is ruined in industry, commerce and on the stage. + +Here a reporter whispered in Frederick's ears: + +"He should sweep before his own door. He's a Wall Street man and employs +a whole lot of children in his chemical works in Brooklyn. He is a +merciless exploiter." + +Mr. Garry went on to explain that these abuses had necessitated the +organisation of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. +The society made it its duty to interfere only in cases in which the +maltreatment could be actually proved. Such a one was the case in hand. + +"For several years," he said, "New York has been overrun by a peculiar +sort of freebooters." He laid emphasis on the word freebooters. "There is +a connection between this phenomenon and the increasing atheism in our +country, the increasing irreligion, and the craving for pleasure and +dissipation, which always goes hand in hand with irreligion. This growing +immorality, this festering corruption in our midst is the wind that fills +the sails of those pirates. The disease is not of American origin. It has +come to us from the dens of vice in the large European cities, London, +Paris, Berlin, Vienna. It is an epidemic the spread of which must be +arrested, and to that end we must put a curb upon the freebooters who +spread the infection and continue to bring it in from abroad." + +Lilienfeld, red as a lobster with rage, fidgeted on his seat. + +"In the opinion of these men, circumventers and despisers of the laws of +the land, the United States is here merely for their purposes, to allow +them to sow disease and rake in the dollars. They are not good American +citizens, these peculiar Europeans. They are not citizens at all." Mr. +Garry pronounced every word with hard correctness. "That is why it is a +matter of perfect indifference to them if our religion, our customs, our +morals are destroyed. They are unscrupulous birds of prey, and once they +have filled their crops, they return with their spoil to their haunts in +Europe. The time has come when Americans should take thought and repel +the invasion of such parasites." + +While the old jingo made these cutting remarks, speaking with an unshaken +front, proudly, hitting straight out from the shoulder, Frederick +unwearyingly watched every movement of his hard, noble old face. The +anthropologist and the newly awakened sculptor in him were equally +stirred. When comparing the "freebooters" to birds of prey, Garry himself +had resembled a bird of prey. His expression was like an eagle's. He +stood with his back to the windows, but with his head turned slightly to +one side, and when he spoke of the birds filling their crops, it seemed +to Frederick that his light-blue eyes paled to a whitish sheen. + +Garry now came down to the subject of Ingigerd. + +"By God's will a tremendous shipwreck has occurred, an appalling event, +wholly calculated to turn men's thoughts to repentance." He interrupted +himself to say it was useless to go into more details on this point, +since those who did not know how to respect such a visitation from God +were beyond redemption. "It has not been proved that the girl who +survived the shipwreck is over sixteen years of age. I propose to place +her in a hospital, have one of the steamship companies transport her back +to Europe as soon as possible, and consign her to her mother, who lives +in Paris. She should be placed in the care of a physician and under +guardianship. She has been trained to do a certain dance, during which +she falls into a pathologic condition not unlike an epileptic fit. She +turns stiff and rigid as a block of wood, her eyes start from her head, +she plucks at her clothes. Finally, she falls into a faint and loses +consciousness of her surroundings. Such things do not belong on the +stage. It would be an outrage, an insult to public opinion to reproduce +this hospital scene in a theatre. I protest against it in the name of +good taste, in the name of public morality, in the name of American +decency. It is not seemly to drag that poor unfortunate child before an +audience and shamelessly exploit her misery, merely because the shipwreck +has placed her name in everybody's mouth." + +Mr. Garry seated himself. He had pronounced his last words with sharp +emphasis. Mr. Samuelson, Lilienfeld's counsel, turned pale and arose +instantly. The reporters moved up closer and leaned forward, cocking +their ears to catch every word of the famous lawyer. He began in a very +faint voice. Frederick as a physician saw he was suffering from chronic +laryngitis, probably having exchanged his sound larynx for his millions. +Samuelson's delivery, his way of pleading were well known. At first he +would spare himself, in order later to take his auditors by storm in a +violent outburst of passion. + +When the violent outburst of passion came, it did not fulfill the +expectations either of Lilienfeld, his client, or the reporters, or +Frederick. It was very noticeable that his indignation was forced, that +it did not flow from a natural source, but from a bottle standing long +uncorked. His iron will compelled him to simulate a feeling that he owed +it to his client to display. In fact, the tired, harassed man, with his +small, pointed beard and his worn, dirty-looking skin, was remarkable +merely as a victim of his profession. Even in that capacity he was not so +imposing as pitiable. Unfortunately, he was most pitiable when he gave +the whip and spurs to that jaded little charger, the Rosinante of his +eloquence, to ride down his opponent. + +Mr. Garry and Mr. Ilroy, the Mayor, looked at each other significantly. +They seemed to wish to return good for evil and come to the help of this +knight of the sorry figure on his hack all skin and bone, which at the +end of the attack fell and broke his legs. + +Lilienfeld could not restrain himself. He turned crimson. The veins of +his forehead swelled. The time for remaining silent had ended and the +time to speak had come. Since the man with the hundred typewriters and +the millions was unequal to the task, Lilienfeld had to take the reins in +his own hands. From the mouth of the dumpy, bull-necked impresario, the +words came pouring with irresistible momentum, with elemental force, as +from the crater of a volcano. + +Now it was Mr. Garry's turn to suffer in silence the thrusts and blows +that rained down on him from his opponent. The old gentleman was not +spared. He had to swallow many disagreeable statements about the +exploitation of children in certain factories in Brooklyn, about Puritan +hypocrisy, about drinking water in public and wine in secret. He was told +he was a member of that narrow-minded caste hating art, culture, and life +itself, and seeing devils with cloven hoofs and long tails in authors +like Shakespeare, Byron, and Goethe. + +"Such people," Lilienfeld said, "are always trying to turn back the hands +on the clock, a most revolting sight in this so-called land of freedom. +There is very little hope of success in trying to turn back the hands +on the clock. The days of Puritan prudery, the bothersome Puritan +conscience, Puritan orthodoxy, and Puritan intolerance have passed, +never to return. There is no stemming the tide of time, or the tide of +progress, or the tide of culture. But the forces of reaction, threatened +in their mediæval management of things, have begun a cowardly guerilla +warfare, a series of petty, cowardly, miserable, meddlesome tricks." + +And now Lilienfeld handed back to Mr. Garry what Mr. Garry had given Mr. +Lilienfeld. + +"If there really is a pest in America, its seat is in the Society for the +Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The society is the very breeding-place +of the epidemic, in so far as there is an epidemic in the land. It is +ridiculous in Mr. Garry to maintain that Europe is a plague-boil. Europe +is the mother of America. Without the genius of a Columbus--we are at +this very moment celebrating Columbus's discovery of America--without the +genius of a Columbus and the constant influx of powerful intellects from +Germany, England and Ireland," here he winked an eye at the Mayor, "the +United States would be a dead and dreary land." + +After thus moving heaven and earth and sea for the little dancer's sake, +Lilienfeld exposed the base intent of his competitors, Webster and +Forster, in denouncing him to the Society, and indignantly repudiated +Garry's assertion that he, Lilienfeld, was an exploiter. His competitors, +perhaps, were exploiters. + +"See how good the conditions are under which Miss Hahlström is filling +her engagement with me. There is my wife. In some respects she has been +a mother to the girl. She is taking care of her in our own home, and +the girl is in good health. She has a dancer's physique. It is a piece +of bare-faced impudence to impugn the girl's honour. She is not a +degenerate. She is not a neglected child. On the contrary she is simply +a great artist." + +Lilienfeld had left his highest trump for the last. + +"Mr. Garry," he shouted so loud that the lofty windows rattled, "Mr. +Garry called me a foreigner, a freebooter and the like. I object most +decidedly. I am as much an American citizen as Mr. Garry. Mr. Garry, do +you hear I am an American citizen?" For certain reasons Lilienfeld had +had himself naturalised only a month before. "Mr. Garry, do you hear I am +an American citizen?" he cried several times in succession, directly +addressing the old jingo and leaning far across the table. "Mr. Garry, do +you hear I am an American citizen? Mr. Garry, I am an American citizen, +and I will have my rights like you." + +That was the end. The wheezing in Lilienfeld's chest, as he seated +himself, breathing heavily, was distinctly audible. There was not the +faintest quiver in Mr. Garry's face. + +After a rather lengthy pause, during which there was profound silence, +the Mayor spoke. His words came out quietly, in his customary manner of +mild embarrassment and shrewd affability, which rather became him. His +decision was exactly what the political augurers, judging by the +constellation in the ascendant, had prophesied. Ingigerd was granted the +right to dance in public. + +"The young lady, according to the decision of physicians called upon to +testify, has been declared sound in body. There is no occasion to doubt +that she is over sixteen years of age and no reason for preventing her +from earning her livelihood by the exercise of an art which she has +already practised in Europe." + +The reporters grinned at one another significantly. The secret hate of +the Irish Catholic toward the native Puritan of English descent had +broken through the surface. Mr. Garry arose and shook his enemy's hand +with cold dignity. Then he walked away, drawn up to his full height. His +other adversary, of a very different nature from the Mayor, did not +succeed in darting in his face his look of hate, also of a very different +nature from the Mayor's; for Mr. Garry's eyes did not rest upon +Lilienfeld for the fraction of a second. + +Everybody crowded about Ingigerd, overwhelming the girl, the impresario +and his wife with congratulations. In her joyous excitement Ingigerd's +small face beamed sweetly. She looked very lovely. It was something to +her heart's desire, this struggle to possess her carried on, as it were, +before the eyes of two continents. Indeed, the extreme importance to +which her person had attained almost humbled her a bit; but her pride and +pleasure every now and then showed in her glances, even in the glances +she sent Frederick. The men fairly courted her and did homage to her. Had +a princess of the royal blood come along at that moment, their attention +could not have been diverted for an instant from the little dancer, whom +the delight, even gratitude shining in her face made very attractive. + +Lilienfeld immediately invited all the reporters to luncheon. Mr. +Samuelson declined the invitation, pleading an urgent appointment in the +Court House. This may have been a pretext, for Frederick noticed, not +without peculiar sympathy, that he was suffering under the consciousness +of his failure. The poor man, so famous and influential, but now totally +disregarded, was extremely grateful when Frederick, descending the City +Hall stairs beside him, said a few words of appreciation of Samuelson's +presentation of the case, though he actually felt no appreciation. + +To excuse himself from taking part in the luncheon, Frederick said he had +several business engagements. Nevertheless he had to promise Ingigerd +that he would return in time for the demi-tasse. + + + + +XX + + +Frederick crossed the park to the main Post Office, a huge building, in +which twenty-five hundred clerks and officials worked. Here he despatched +a telegram, and then turned back into the noise of the streets, where the +people, bending their heads before a cutting wind, ran about in hurrying +swarms. The unceasing traffic, the cars and cabs and trucks, produced a +deafening din. Frederick drew out his watch. It was half-past twelve, the +exact time at which Miss Burns was wont to take her modest lunch in the +little restaurant near the Grand Central Station. Frederick hailed a cab +and drove to the restaurant. If on this occasion Miss Burns had failed to +be lunching there, he would have been sadly disappointed. But there she +was, happy as usual to see the young German scholar. + +"Miss Burns," he cried, seating himself beside her, "you see in me a man +who has been dismissed from prison, from a reformatory, from an insane +asylum. Congratulate me! I am at last a free and independent agent +again." He was blissful, exultant. "I have the appetite of three men, +the humour of six men, and good spirits enough to cheer Timon of Athens +out of the blues. I am totally indifferent to the future. So much is +certain--no Circe has power over me any more." + +Miss Burns congratulated him and laughed heartily. + +"What happened?" she asked. + +"I will tell you all about the tragi-comedy in the City Hall some other +time. First I have to prepare you for dreadful news. Set your teeth, Miss +Eva, and listen--you are going to lose me." + +"I, you!" she laughed. Yet she was somewhat taken aback, and a dark red +came and went on her face. + +"Yes, you are going to lose me," Frederick repeated. "I just sent a +telegram to Peter Schmidt in Meriden, and to-morrow morning at the latest +I shall leave you. I shall leave New York, go to the country, and turn +farmer." + +"Oh, I really am sorry if you are going away," said Miss Burns, turning +serious, though without the least trace of sentimentality in her voice. + +"Why should you be sorry?" Frederick cried gaily. "You will come out to +see me. The man you have until now known me to be has been nothing but a +dish-rag. Perhaps, when you come to visit me in the country, you will +discover that I am good for something after all. I really think I see +land in the distance now. I feel I still have sound bones in my body. +To take an illustration from chemistry. A salt solution vigorously +stirred by the spoon of God Almighty begins to crystallise. Something in +me is struggling to crystallise. Who knows whether, when the clouds that +surround and penetrate the solution precipitate, the result of all the +storms in the glass will not be a new, solid piece of architecture. +Perhaps the evolution of a Teuton does not stop at the age of thirty. +In that case the crisis may come just before the attainment of settled +manhood, the crisis which, to all appearances, I have just safely passed +through, and which, in any circumstances, I should have had to pass +through." + +Frederick now gave a brief account of the audience in the City Hall, the +comic clash of two worlds in Garry's and Lilienfeld's speeches, which he +called _tant de bruit pour une omelette_. + +"The Mayor's decision," he said, "in opening up to Ingigerd the career +for which she was so anxious, has opened up to me the way to a new life, +a life all my own. It was almost like a physical sensation to realise +that the Mayor's verdict decided my case, too." + +He described Garry and told how, despite the opposition in their views, +the descendant of Cromwell's followers, whom Charles I persecuted and +executed, had impressed him and made him think. Undoubtedly his harsh, +severe dealings had been dictated by purely humanitarian sentiment for +Ingigerd's welfare, because of the frailty of her body and still more the +frailty of her soul, all in accordance with the narrow-minded principles +of a traditional belief, of which he was a credulous follower. As for +Lilienfeld, did not victory in the struggle to possess Ingigerd body and +soul mean money to him? + +"Garry may really have been a hypocrite, yet wasn't Lilienfeld a +hypocrite, too, when he spoke openly of Ingigerd Hahlström's honour and +chastity? I looked up in alarm, and I saw a grin glide like a malicious +shadow over the rows of reporters. Doesn't falsehood blossom everywhere? +Doesn't hypocrisy flourish equally on each side of every contest? Isn't +it a matter generally taken for granted?" + +Frederick, as always, was feeling very comfortable in Miss Burns's +company. Her presence always gave him, spiritually speaking, a sense of +neatness and order. A man could tell her everything, and her replies +straightened things out, instead of muddling them, steadied things and +gave them a mooring, instead of tossing them about tempestuously. But he +was not so well satisfied by her manner as usually, she not seeming +sufficiently pleased with his release. He did not know whether he should +attribute this to lack of sympathy or to secret doubts. + +"I came to you, Miss Burns, because I do not know anybody to whom I would +rather speak of this new phase of my life. Tell me frankly, was I right +in doing what I did, and do you understand how a man feels when he is no +longer in the chains of a senseless passion?" + +"Perhaps I do," said Miss Burns, "but"-- + +"But what?" + +Miss Burns did not reply. + +"What you mean is, you cannot be certain of the convalescence of a man +like myself. But I assure you, I will never sit in an audience watching +that girl publicly expose her body. Still less likely am I to follow her +to the four corners of the globe, through all the music-halls in the +world. I am rid of her! I am free! I will prove to you that I am." + +"If you were to prove it to yourself, it might be of some value to you," +said Miss Burns. + +But he much preferred to prove it to her. + +"Perhaps you think it is a whim in me or a piece of foolishness. Yet, the +way I am constituted, it is practically impossible for me to do anything +for my sake alone. Your sympathy would act as a stimulus to keep me to my +resolution." He drew from his pocket a letter from Peter Schmidt, saying +that near Meriden there was a frame house that would be suitable for +Frederick. Evidently his plan to retire to rural solitude was by no means +a recent one. "When I come to myself in the quiet of the country, and I +have reason to hope I will come to myself, you will hear from me. From +time to time the world learns of a man of about thirty who suddenly +disappears, leaving his family, his wife and his children in ignorance of +his whereabouts. Sometimes he is a statesman, sometimes a young professor +in a university, sometimes a mayor in good standing with all the citizens +of his town, sometimes a rich business man enjoying the respect of the +community. He leaves most unceremoniously, without concerning himself for +the affairs of importance, even of extreme importance, that he may have +to attend to the next day, perhaps the very next hour. He obeys the iron +impulse to throw off the entire world, his next of kin, his dearest +friends, and be alone with himself, so alone that he passes into oblivion +and may even count as dead. It is a similar state, though perhaps not so +pathologic in its character, a state conditioned rather by strokes of +fortune, that has uprooted me. Don't forget, all social connections +signify an immense consumption of nerve force and attach a person to his +surroundings by a thousand threads and fibres. Ingigerd Hahlström is not +the only one that is enmeshed and throttled in a spider's web. Every now +and then all of us have to pant for air and tear away wrappings. Then the +moment comes when we no longer do the thing that has been well +considered, the thing that convention has established, but the very thing +that has not been considered, that takes heed of nothing, the purely +instinctive thing. Call it what you will, fermentation, folly, passion, +shipwreck, storm. Whatever it may be, the fact is, all at once a man +again feels the desire for life expanding his lungs." + +Frederick now drew from his pocket the photographs of his three children, +which his father and mother had sent along with their letters. In their +great happiness that he had escaped drowning and was safe and sound, his +parents had completely forgotten their solicitude for him. + +Miss Burns took a friendly interest in the pictures and found a word +of praise for each child. There was some discussion, pedagogic and +non-pedagogic, of the characteristics of the little people. Frederick +again spoke of his wife, this time without any critical reflections, +dwelling only on her good and lovely and excellent qualities, really +native to her. + +The meal was over. Frederick had eaten heartily of the vegetarian dishes. +He rose, shook hands warmly with Miss Burns, and thanked her for having +listened so patiently. He left hastily, and jumped into a cab in order to +keep his promise to Ingigerd Hahlström to come before luncheon was over +at Lilienfeld's house. + + + + +XXI + + +The Lilienfelds lived in a one-family house, an exact replica of the +other houses on the same block on 124th Street. Frederick found the +company drinking coffee in a reception-room on the first floor, richly +furnished with oriental rugs, expensive lamps, Japanese vases, and fine, +dark, highly polished walnut furniture. The shades were drawn, and the +electric bulbs of a gorgeous chandelier imparted a certain splendour to +the room. The air was heavy with the smoke of Lilienfeld's strong +imported cigars, at which the reporters were puffing away comfortably. + +Ingigerd, smoking a cigarette, was reclining in an easy-chair surrounded +by the reporters. Her hair was hanging loose about her shoulders and +down her back. Altogether her appearance was not prepossessing. Since +she looked impossible dressed as a grown lady in long skirts, she +wore schoolgirl clothes and was tempted to furbish herself up like a +tight-rope dancer with ribbons, openwork stockings, and white shoes. + +When Frederick von Kammacher entered the room, she blushed slightly, and +held her hand out to him indolently. Unfortunately, this hand had short, +ordinary fingers, probably the plebeian heritage from her mother, her +father having had long, beautiful hands. Frederick was at least a head +taller than anybody in the room and was distinguished from the other +gentlemen by his air of good breeding. He kissed Mrs. Lilienfeld's hand, +German fashion, and begged her pardon for having come so late. + +The subject of discussion, of course, was the hearing in the City Hall. +Lilienfeld ran about, offering the reporters cigars and cordials, so +importunate in his hospitality as not to shrink from sticking long +Havanas into their coat pockets and cigarettes into their cases. There +was design in this. Every now and then he would take a reporter aside to +force upon him information regarding Ingigerd's past, her birth, her +rescue, her father, her European success, and the way in which her talent +had been discovered. It was a rather garish mixture of truth and fiction. +Lilienfeld knew that this story of her life would appear in the New York +newspapers that very same evening in connection with the report of the +audience in the City Hall. He had brewed the concoction according to his +own recipe from various details that he had heard, and he felt certain of +its effectiveness. + +Ingigerd looked very tired. But she had received orders to be as lavish +as possible with her amiabilities so long as a single reporter remained +in the house. Frederick felt sorry for her. He saw that her severe +professional duties had begun. + +Mrs. Lilienfeld was a calm, refined woman of nearly forty, with a look of +suffering on her face, yet extremely attractive. She was dressed with +tasteful simplicity. One got the impression that her husband worshipped +her blindly and was accustomed to act, or to refrain from acting, +according to a scarcely perceptible glance from her soft, grave eyes. For +all his noisiness the bull-necked man, coarse, brutal, sensual, was like +a timid child before her. + +She devoted herself for a while to Frederick, who felt he had found grace +in the lady's eyes and that for some reason she wished to be helpful to +him in leading him away from the aberrations of his passion. Had he not +had a sense of security in the firmness of his decision, he might perhaps +have given more serious attention to her searching questions, which +showed that she had done some thinking about him. + +Her method was far from flattering to Ingigerd. With an infinitely +disdainful smile, she called the girl, who was chattering nonsense to a +circle of flirtatious reporters and was overwhelmed with their tokens of +approval, "a mechanical doll with a light head of porcelain filled with +sawdust." + +"A good plaything," she said, "a plaything for a man, an article of +merchandise, but nothing more. She may be worth money, but she is not +worth anything else. She is not worth more than any piece of emptiness, +any trifle, or knickknack." + +Ingigerd, moved perhaps by a little wave of jealousy, came up and asked +Frederick, without suspecting the significance the question had in his +eyes, whether he had packed his things. + +"Not yet. Why should I pack my things?" + +"Mr. Lilienfeld," she said, "has made a contract for me for two evenings +a week in Boston. You must get ready and go to Boston with me day after +to-morrow." + +"To the ends of the world," said Frederick lightly, "to the ends of the +world, dear lady." + +She was contented, and gave Mrs. Lilienfeld a look of satisfaction. + + + + +XXII + + +Frederick was greatly relieved when the festivity at Lilienfeld's house +was at last a thing of the past. With Willy Snyders' help, he had +succeeded in getting together a few effects, and he spent part of the +afternoon arranging them. In the evening the artists, who had grown very +fond of their guest and were sorry to lose him, gave him a farewell +dinner at the round table. + +For a long time Frederick had not felt so serene and at peace with +himself and the world as that afternoon. After he had got his baggage +ready, Willy Snyders, who had been waiting ever since Frederick's +arrival to show him his collection of Japanese art objects, invited him +to his room. It was a small room on the top floor, cluttered up with a +mass of antiques. He first placed before Frederick a number of Japanese +sword-guards, tsubas, as the Japanese call them, small elliptical pieces +of metal, about which a man's hand can easily reach. They are decorated +with figures in slight relief, partly of the same metal as the ground, +partly damascened, or inlaid with copper, gold, or silver. + +"A tiny object, tremendous labour," Frederick observed, after more than +an hour spent in admiring the wonderful workmanship of pieces in the +Kamakura and Namban styles, pieces by members of the Goto family +extending over centuries, of the Jakushi family, and the Kinai family; +pieces of the Akasaka school and the Nara school; pieces from Fushimi in +the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, from Gokinai and Kagonami; +glorious sword-guards in the maru-bori, maru-bori-zogan, and hikone-bori +styles; pieces of the Hamano family, and so on. Who can boast a prouder +aristocracy than Goto Mitsunori, who lived at the end of the nineteenth +century and could trace his descent back through a line of sixteen +ancestors, all great masters in the art of sword-decorating, a glorious +race of craftsmen, inheriting not only the life, but also the skill of +their fore-fathers. + +And all the things portrayed on those small oval tsubas! The cloven +turnip of Daikoku, god of fortune. The god Sennin creating a man by his +breath. A shining full moon and flying geese. Wild geese flying over +reeds. The moon rising from between snow-clad mountains, an oval of iron, +gold and silver, no larger than a man's palm, yet suggesting the vast +reaches of a moonlit night. + +Frederick and Willy both marvelled at the lapidary style of this metal +work, in which the artist with the finest understanding of his art +displayed a wealth of composition within the smallest space. + +One of the tsubas represented a tea pavilion behind a hedge. In the +spacious landscape was a waterfall, sky and air, perfectly depicted by +holes in the iron, that is, by nothing. Others represented the hero +Hidesato vanquishing a monster on the bridge of Seta; the sage Lao Tsze +on his ox; Senno Kinko, a pious man, riding on his golden-eyed carp, +absorbed in a book; the god Idaten, pursuing an oni, or devil, who had +stolen Buddha's pearl; a bird prying open a Venus's shell with his bill; +a golden-eyed octopus or cuttlefish; the sage Kiko leaning from the +window of his house, reading a scroll by moonlight. + +Willy, endlessly resourceful and allowing nothing to daunt him, had +ferreted this collection out of a restaurant in the Five Points district, +a restaurant of viler repute than even the neighbourhood it was in. A +Japanese had left the tsubas with the proprietor of the den as pledge of +the payment of his bill, but had disappeared without ever returning to +redeem his pledge. Scarcely a day passed that Willy did not visit a junk +shop on the Bowery, or in the Jewish quarter. Peering with his fearless, +fiery eyes, which always wore an expression of mingled astonishment and +indignation, he ventured into the worst sections of the city, even into +the obscurest opium hells of Chinatown. His confident manner and round +spectacles, he told Frederick, caused him to be mistaken for a detective; +which stood him in good stead in making his purchases. + +In one shop in Chinatown, belonging to a fat Chinese usurer, Willy for +very little money came into possession of a quantity of Japanese prints. +These were the next things he showed Frederick. There were most of +Hiroshige's views of Lake Biwa; there were the thirty-six views of +Fujiyama by Hokusai. One of the most exquisite showed remnants of snow +left on the mountain and a brownish red sun setting in a cold sky with +fleecy clouds. There were Shunsho's and Shigemasa's illustrations of the +book, "Mirror of the Beauties of the Green Houses," Yedo, 1776, and +Shunsho's illustrations of "The Book of Sprouting Weeds." Frederick +called one of Hokusai's prints "the golden poem of summer." It was a +deep-blue heaven with Fujiyama to the left and golden grain beneath, +persons sitting on benches, heat, radiance, joy! One of Hiroshige's +prints he dubbed "the great poem of the moon." On wide, moist, melancholy +meadows, scant-leaved trees, like weeping willows, their branches +drooping in the mirror of an idly flowing stream, barges loaded with turf +passing by, a floating bridge propelled by Japanese raftsmen, the water +blue in the evening twilight, a great, pale moon, veiled by pale, bloody +tints, rising above the distant edge of the melancholy plain. + +In addition to his tsubas and prints, Willy had a collection of so-called +netsuke, some in boxwood, some in ivory, small, dice-like carvings, +representing with remarkable animation all sorts of real and fantastic +scenes. + +Among the finest of Willy's possessions was a Japanese figure carved in +wood not more than a foot high, a woman selling oysters. Each least +detail was most precisely rendered. It was the attempt of a more recent +Japanese master to portray feminine beauty. In this one rare instance he +had succeeded, having produced one of those precious objects adapted to +make thieves of their lovers. + +Willy, who mingled in American sporting circles, had also found occasion +to collect a few Indian curiosities. He showed Frederick the feather +adornment of an Apache chief, a wampum belt, Indian knives and bows and +arrows. He had made the acquaintance of Buffalo Bill, the famous hunter, +and some Indian chief and cowboys in his troupe, men in whom natural +instincts are combined with a Barnum and Bailey business sense, and real +excellence with the actor's vanity. Willy's especial friend, whom he had +been very eager for Frederick to meet, was a well-known acrobat who had +jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River. + +"Willy," said Frederick, "since you have so profitably employed your time +in America, you won't be going back to Europe empty-handed." + +"The devil!" replied Willy. "What else is to be got out of this damned +country?" + + + + +XXIII + + +The next morning Frederick went down alone to the train. He had taken +final leave of his friends the night before, telling them expressly not +to let his departure interfere with their day's routine. After placing +his luggage in a wire basket hanging over one of the red plush seats in a +coach which was one of a train of six or seven similar coaches, long and +elegantly built, he returned to the platform. All of a sudden the whole +little colony of artists appeared, with the master-sculptor at their +head--_in corpore_, as college students say. Miss Burns, too, had come, +like the rest of them, carrying three of those purplish-red, long-stemmed +roses with deep green leaves which were not yet being grown in Europe. + +"I feel like a prima donna," Frederick said, really touched, as he took +the roses from each. + +The platform and the train were as quiet as a cemetery, as if there never +were arrivals or departures between friends. But here and there, the face +of a traveller, aroused by the "temperamental" chatter of the Germans, +peered from behind the window-panes of the train to look curiously upon +the little rose procession. Finally, without a signal, or a word from any +official, the train started to move, as if by chance. + +Soon the group of artists in the station receded. There stood Bonifacius +Ritter, dignified and elegant, waving his handkerchief. There was +Lobkowitz, friendly and serious, Willy Snyders the good-hearted, Franck +the gypsy painter, and, last but not least, Miss Eva Burns. Frederick +felt that with this moment, an epoch of his life had come to a close. He +was conscious of what he owed these fellow-countrymen and kindred spirits +for their warmth and hospitality, and of what he lost in losing them. +Nevertheless, after the strange way of man, he was in a state of joyous +excitement because his future, in a real and in a metaphoric sense, had +been set in motion. + +At first the train rolled for some time through a dark tunnel under the +city, then through an open cut between high walls of masonry, and finally +it burst into a wide, free landscape. So this was America's real face. +Only now, after the noises of the Witches' Sabbath, the turmoil of the +great invasion, had somewhat subsided, Frederick breathed the true breath +of the virgin country's soil. + +Observing that all the passengers in the coach stuck their tickets in +their hat bands, Frederick did the same, and then turned his eyes on the +fields and hills clothed in their white winter garments. To the young +man, uprooted from his native soil, there was a happy, stimulating +mystery in this landscape, which in the light of the winter sun so +closely resembled his birthplace. The alien surroundings all spoke to him +of his home. He could have jumped from the car and taken the snow in his +hands, not only to look upon it, but to feel that it was the very same +snow which as a schoolboy he had rolled into balls for bombarding his +playmates. He felt as a spoiled child feels which is torn from its +mother's arms and thrown upon a heartless world of strangers and, after +a long period of anguish, unexpectedly meets a sister of his mother in +a dreary country far, far from home. He feels the blood-tie, he feels how +like he is to her and she to him, how surprisingly, how delightfully she +resembles his mother, feature by feature. + +At last, it seemed to Frederick, the great Atlantic Ocean was really +behind him. Though he had landed in New York, he felt that until now he +had not planted his feet firmly on the ground. Great well-established +mother earth, the breadth and extent of her solidity, which he beheld +again after so long a separation, at last set bounds in his soul to the +fearful expanse and might of the ocean. Mother earth was a good and great +giantess who had cunningly snatched the lives of her children from the +giantess ocean and had put everything on a firm, everlasting basis with a +hedge of safety all around. + +"Forget the tumbling waters, forget the ocean, strike root into the +soil," a voice within Frederick spoke; and while the train rolled +smoothly and faster and further inland, he had a sense of being on a +blissful flight. + +Frederick was so lost in meditation that he started when someone +without saying a word took the ticket from his hatband. It was a +cultivated-looking man in a simple uniform, the conductor, who punched +the card, said not a word, moved not a muscle of his face, and travelled +from seat to seat, performing the same operation and always returning the +punched tickets to the men's hats, which they kept on their heads. Nobody +paid the least attention to him. Frederick smiled when he thought of +Germany, where every train was received with the clanging of a bell and +set in motion with three soundings of a gong, amid the general uproar +of the officials, who bellowed like a horde of Apaches; and where the +conductors demanded the tickets from the passengers with much rough, +awkward ceremony. + +The whirring of the wheels made a pleasant accompaniment to his thoughts. +He was enjoying his flight, which signified anything but shame and +disgrace. In his complete absorption, he discovered himself picking +little threads from his clothes, like a spider's cobweb, and he observed +how with each minute he drew his breath more freely. Sometimes it seemed +to him that the wheels of the tremendous express train were not turning +swiftly enough on their axles, and that he himself ought to put his hands +to the wheels to hasten on the new health-giving impressions and place +them behind him like thin curtains, so that the partitions dividing him +from that dangerous, fatal magnet which he had left behind should grow +denser and denser. + +In New Haven, where the train halted for a short time, a negro with +sandwiches and a boy with newspapers passed through the train. Frederick +bought one of the papers, and found the whole disaster of the _Roland_ +warmed up over again in connection with the sensational reports of the +hearing in the City Hall. On that bright winter day his mood was too gay +and peaceful to suffer the appalling impressions of the sinking of the +vessel and its drowning mass of humanity to revive in his soul. To be +sure, he had had absolutely no right to escape, and he was still somewhat +ashamed that the regnant powers had preferred him to so many innocent +brothers and sisters. On that account, there had been a time when he +would have given back his life in a passion of embittered pity and +glowing indignation; for there was no sin great enough to justify that +horrible, brutal drowning on the seas and no merit great enough to +justify escape from it. But on this winter day, on his flight from New +York, his rescue filled him with nothing but sincere gratitude. Captain +von Kessel and the many others that had gone down with the _Roland_ were +dead and so were removed from all pain and suffering. Everything about +Frederick this day breathed an atmosphere of convalescence and +reconciliation. + +All the way from New Haven to Meriden he regaled himself with the sketch +of Ingigerd's life that appeared in the papers. He could scarcely keep +from laughing. Lilienfeld displayed a positively poetical, exuberant +imagination. Though Ingigerd's father was of German parentage and her +mother a French Swiss, Ingigerd figured as the scion of a noble Swedish +family, and the body of a relative of hers was reported to be resting in +the Riddarholms-Kyrka in Stockholm. The impresario well knew that +Americans are fascinated by a single drop of royal blood. + +"Poor little thing!" thought Frederick, as he folded up the newspaper. +Then, at the sudden realisation of what tremendous import the "poor +little thing" had until that moment been to him and others, he clapped +his hand to his brow and muttered, "That's over and done with, that's +over and done with," and swore several oaths at himself. + + + + +XXIV + + +Peter Schmidt was at the train to meet Frederick, who was the only +passenger getting off at Meriden. The little station was empty, but near +by was the hurry-scurry of the main street of this country town of about +twenty-five thousand inhabitants. + +"Now," said Schmidt, "all's well. No more New York dissipation. We'll +sound different chords here in Meriden. My wife sends her regards. She +could not come to meet you because she had to look after some patients. +If you like, we might lunch together and afterwards drive out in a sleigh +to take a look at the little house I found for you in the country. If it +suits you, you can rent it at a very low figure. In the meantime you can +take a room at our hotel here, which the whole city is proud of." + +"Oh," said Frederick, "I have a wild longing for solitude. I should +prefer to spend the very first night beneath my own roof far, far from +the madding crowd of Meriden." + +"Very well," responded Schmidt, "the man that owns the house is a good +friend of mine, a druggist. His name is Lamping, a pleasant Dutchman. +He'll be satisfied with any arrangements we make; and if you decide +to take the house, everything can be settled with him in fifteen +minutes." + +The two men went to the hotel, where they were served with a rather +tasteless meal in surroundings comfortable and luxurious far beyond +European notions. Schmidt left Frederick alone for a while and in a few +moments sent a bell-boy to announce that the sleigh was waiting outside. +To Frederick's astonishment he found his friend sitting alone in a +pretty, two-seated sleigh reining in a fiery chestnut. + +"I congratulate you on this tidy little conveyance," he said. + +Peter laughed and quickly dispelled Frederick's illusion, that the +immaculate little vehicle with the horse and harnessings were his own. He +had merely hired it without a driver, a frequent practice in America. + +"In fact," he joked, "I shall be quite content if we get there without +being pitched out into the snow. I confess, I have never in my life +driven a horse." + +"Ah," said Frederick with chuckling satisfaction, "it is not for nothing +that my father is a general. Let me drive." + +Frederick's luggage was placed in the sleigh, he jumped in, caught up the +reins, the chestnut reared, and off they dashed, with a deafening jingle +of the sleigh-bells. Their way lay along the main street, a broad, +bustling thoroughfare. + +"Is this the sort of horse they usually have here?" asked Frederick. "The +beast is positively running away. If we come out of this crowded street +without broken limbs, it will be God's doing, not mine." + +"Let him have his way. Every day there are one or more runaways here. +What's the difference if it's our turn to-day?" + +But Frederick reined the horse in so tightly, that he actually succeeded +in pulling him up just as the Boston-New York express thundered by on a +line of railroad tracks crossing the street not safeguarded by gates or +fence. Frederick wondered how it was that a multitude of children, +workmen, gentlemen in high hats, ladies in silk dresses, horses, dogs, +trucks, and carriages were not mangled to a pulp and dashed against the +walls of the houses lining the tracks. The horse plunged and reared and +shot forward over the rails behind the last coach, sending clods of ice +and snow flying in Frederick's and Peter's faces. + +"The devil!" snorted Frederick. "Now for the first time I observe that +form of madness which is specifically American. If you fall under the +wheels, you fall under the wheels. If you want to take a drive, be your +own coachman. If you break your bones, you break your bones. If you break +your neck, you break your neck." + +Farther along on the same highway Frederick for the first time saw an +electric street car, then still unknown in Europe. The brilliant sparking +at the meeting of the trolley and the overhead wire was to him a new, +stimulating phenomenon. The posts holding up the wire were all shapes, +thick and slender, bowed and slanting, so that the whole made a +promiscuous impression, though the coaches were of a pleasing shape and +glided along with great rapidity. + +They had passed the more frequented and dangerous section of the city +without an accident and had reached the open country. The houses grew +lower and farther apart. Before the chestnut with his jingling bells lay +an endless stretch of unblocked roadway, with excellent tracks for the +sleigh worn into the snow. The valiant American could speed to his +heart's content. + +"How strange!" thought Frederick. "Here I am riding in a sleigh and +driving a horse, things I have not done since I was a boy." + +Stories of sports and incidents that he had not thought of for ten years +or more occurred to him. How his father's accounts of hunting expeditions +and sleighing mishaps had set them all laughing when the family was +cosily gathered together in one room on a winter evening. + +During that brisk, refreshing drive Frederick's heart was +rejuvenated. The happiest years of his boyhood were as vivid to him as +yesterday--thrilling, romantic rides by night, when the same sound of +sleigh-bells scared the silence of sleeping forests and filled the boy's +soul with pictures of midnight attacks, romantic murders, and strange +devilish phantoms. In the dazzling brilliance of the snowy fields, +breathing in the pure, bracing air, mere existence became unspeakable +bliss. Sitting there in that dainty sleigh Frederick was inclined to look +on life as a pleasure drive. + +Suddenly he turned pale and had to hand the reins over to Peter Schmidt. +In the jingling of the sleigh-bells his ear caught something like the +insistent hammering ring of electric bells. It was an illusion of his +hearing, but it filled him with rising horror, and a shiver went through +his whole body. By the time Peter Schmidt, who instantly observed the +change in his friend, had brought the horse to a stop, Frederick had +already mastered his nervous attack. He did not admit it was the sinking +of the _Roland_ that had unexpectedly announced its presence again. He +merely said that the noise of the bells had irritated his nerves beyond +endurance. Fortunately, the spotless expanse of Lake Hanover was already +close by and the little house on the other shore already visible. So the +two men descended from the sleigh. Peter Schmidt, in silence, removed the +bells from the harness and hitched the horse to the branch of a bare +tree. They crossed the frozen lake on foot, making for the solitary house +under its heavy covering of snow. + +Peter ascended the front door steps, which resembled great bolsters of +snow, and opened the door. + +"To judge by the way it looks now, the house is scarcely habitable in +winter." + +"Oh, yes it is," Frederick declared. + +Having been built for summer use only, it had no cellar. On the ground +floor there was a little kitchen and two other rooms; in the attic a +bedroom as large as the two down-stairs rooms together. In the attic room +Frederick immediately decided to build his nest for an indeterminate +length of time. He scouted Peter's considerations in regard to household +service. + +"I feel," he declared, "as if this house had been waiting for me, and I +for the house." + + + + +XXV + + +The very next day he took up his abode in his lonely refuge on Lake +Hanover, which he alternately dubbed his Diogenes tub, his Uncle Tom's +Cabin, and his retort. It was no Diogenes tub, because the two friends +brought wood and anthracite coal for a little American stove in the +bedroom, which gave quite a good deal of heat and made a cosey appearance +with the glow of the burning coal visible; and because the kitchen and +pantry contained everything that is necessary for life, and a little +more. Frederick refused to have anybody share his quarters with him or +help with the housework. As he said, he wanted to settle his accounts and +take his trial balance, and the presence of another person might be +disturbing to that process. + +After Peter Schmidt disappeared in the distance and the sound of the +sleigh-bells had died away and Frederick felt he was quite alone in that +wide American landscape wrapped in the night's darkness, it was a supreme +moment for him. He returned into the house, closed the door and listened. +He heard the crackling of the wood in the small kitchen stove. Taking the +candle that had been left standing on one of the lower steps in the hall, +he went up-stairs, where the warmth and the dusky glow of his little +American stove rejoiced him. He lit a lamp, and after arranging his +toilet articles on an unusually long, bare dresser, he settled himself +beside the lamp in a comfortable bamboo chair. He was filled with a +mysterious sense of rich, deep delight. + +He was alone. Outside, lay the clear, silent winter's night, the same +that he had known in the home of his childhood. The things he had +hitherto experienced were no more, or as if they never had been. His +home, his parents, his wife, his children, the girl that had drawn him +across the ocean, everything that had happened to him on his trip were +nothing more in his soul than magic lantern pictures. + +"Is life," Frederick asked himself, "meant to be nothing more than +material for dreams? So much is certain, my present condition is the sort +that leaves an everlasting effect. We should not be unsociable, but we +have still less right to leave this state uncultivated, which is the +basic state of man's personality, in which he is most natural and +undisturbed and stands face to face with the mystery of life as though it +were a dream." + +During the past months, he had led a life full of incidents of the +extremest contrasts. He had been alarmed, excited, menaced. His own +anguish had been submerged in the anguish of others, and their pangs had +only increased his own. From the ashes of a dead love, the flames of +another passionate illusion had flared up. Frederick had been driven, +pursued, lured on, led about in the world, without a will of his own, +like a puppy on a strap--without a will of his own and with his senses +departed. Now at last his senses had returned. And the senses return when +the life that has been lived in an unconscious state becomes material for +dreams to the mind in a conscious state. + +Frederick took a sheet of paper, dipped a new American pen in a new +inkwell of fresh ink, and wrote: "Life: Material for Dreams." + +He rose and again went about arranging his Robinson Crusoe household to +suit his fancy. He piled up books that he had got in New York, little +Reclams and other volumes, among them a copy of Schleiermacher's +translation of Plato, which he had borrowed from Peter Schmidt. In front +of an old Dutch sofa covered in leather, which Lamping, the druggist, +had brought over from Leyden, his birthplace, stood a large, round +table. Frederick covered the table with a green cloth and arranged the +long-stemmed roses that the artists had given him in plain glass vases, +placing Miss Burns's roses by themselves. Before Peter Schmidt had left, +he and Frederick had taken a cup of coffee together. Frederick now washed +and cleared away the utensils, loaded a revolver that Schmidt had lent +him, and placed it beside the inkstand on his writing table. Next he took +from his trunk a more peaceable instrument, a Zeiss microscope, examined +all its parts, and set it up. It was the microscope that he had selected +years ago in Jena for his friend, Peter, when he was leaving for America. +Here was a remarkable meeting with the old instrument. + +There were more things that Frederick had to do. He had to take apart a +seaman's clock, put it together again and hang it on the wall. It was an +antique that he had come across that very day and secured at a low price +along with some furniture. To his joy the old grandfather began to tick +away at a proper, dignified pace on the wall at the foot of the bed. +There it was to remain in its brown case about three feet long until, +as Frederick inwardly vowed, he would return it to its home in Europe, +Schleswig-Holstein, for which it was pining. When Frederick lay on his +bed, he could see the yellow brass pendulum gleam back and forth behind +a small glass door. The dial was a curiosity. It was painted in garish +colors in a primitive style and represented a chubby-cheeked sun wearing +the Island of Heligoland as a crown. Below the face, little metal +sailing vessels connected with the clockwork swayed back and forth in +the same sober rhythm as the pendulum. This was designed to make the +tempest-tossed seafarer doubly sensible of the comforts of a solid +hearth. + +"When was it," Frederick pondered, "that I listened to Mr. Garry's +cutting remarks, Mr. Samuelson's unsuccessful attack, and Lilienfeld's +wild sally against Puritan intolerance--a low, hypocritical battle +ostensibly fought for the salvation of a soul; in reality nothing more +than the clapperclawing of crows over a helpless hare. When was it? It +must have been years ago. But no, it was only last night that Ingigerd +appeared in public for the first time. So it cannot have been longer ago +than day before yesterday." + +He had already received her first letter. He had laughed over it +heartily, and yet it had moved him. She was furious and complained +bitterly of his breach of faith. In one and the same breath, she said she +had been dreadfully deceived in him and had seen through him the very +moment she laid eyes on him when he came up to speak to her after her +dance in Berlin. In one sentence she tore his character to shreds, in the +next sentence urged him to return. + +"I celebrated a tremendous triumph to-day. The audience lost their heads. +After the performance Lord ---- came up to congratulate me. He is a +handsome young Englishman, who is living over here because he had a +falling out with his father. But when the old man dies, he will inherit +the title of duke and millions." + +"This story," Frederick thought, "is either a true story or a concoction. +If a concoction, then I have reason to assume that the little girl wants +to make me jealous and so has not lost interest in me. But the story need +not be an invention, either wholly or in part. For if an invention, it +will undoubtedly become a fact within three or four days, or, at the +utmost, within a week. Some rich rascal will come along and buy her." + +Frederick shrugged his shoulders. He no longer felt the slightest impulse +to be the girl's protector, knight and saviour, or the faintest +solicitude for her probable fate. + +The next morning he awoke in a shiver, though the stove had retained some +heat and the sun was shining into the room brightly. He took his gold +watch from his pocket--a possession that had escaped drowning with +him--and ascertained that his pulse was beating more than a hundred times +a minute, which is too much for a healthy man. But he paid no attention +to his condition, got up, washed all over in cold water, dressed, and +prepared his breakfast, by no means feeling like an invalid. Nevertheless +he was aware he ought to be cautious, knowing that now, when the tension +and excitement had relaxed, his body might have to confess to its +consumption of capital and file a petition in bankruptcy. Sometimes, +without a warning to one's strength, the body overcomes the severest +hardships as if the thing were mere child's play; and all goes well so +long as the stimulated body is in motion. It works on its surplus energy, +and as soon as the will and the tension relax, it collapses. + + + + +XXVI + + +Shortly before ten o'clock Frederick was in his friend's consultation +room. The walk to Meriden on the brisk winter day had done him good. + +"How did you sleep?" asked Schmidt. "You know, you superstitious people +maintain that what you dream the first night in a strange place will come +true." + +"I hope not," said Frederick. "My first night was rather insignificant, +and things passed helter-skelter through my brain." + +He said nothing of a dream he had had, in which he heard the ringing of +the electric bells on the _Roland_. Though he fought against the +impression, it obstinately transported him back to those horrid moments +of the shipwreck. Little by little this illusion of his hearing had +become Frederick's cross. Sometimes he feared it might be a species of +aura, which he, as a physician, knew not infrequently announces an attack +of severe illness. + +The consultation rooms of the two physicians were separated by the +waiting-room, which they used in common. Mrs. Schmidt, whom Frederick had +met the day before, came over and, greeting him parenthetically, asked +her husband to help her with the examination of one of her patients, a +woman of about twenty-seven, who shortly before had married a workman +holding a good position in one of the Meriden factories. The woman +complained of an upset stomach. Mrs. Schmidt suspected cancer of the +stomach. + +Both Schmidt and his wife asked Frederick to join them in the +examination. They found the patient smiling as she lay stretched on the +table. Her smile changed to an expression of astonishment when she saw +the two gentlemen. Mrs. Schmidt introduced Frederick as a famous German +physician. + +"I just spoiled my stomach a little," the woman, who was pretty and well +dressed, said in excuse for the trouble she was giving. "My husband will +laugh at me and scold me if he hears I ran to a doctor." + +Frederick and Peter confirmed Mrs. Schmidt's diagnosis, and Mrs. Schmidt +told the candidate for the grave, who was so gay and unsuspecting, that +she might have to undergo a slight operation. She inquired kindly for her +husband and her child, who had come into the world three months before +with her help, and the woman gave ready answers in the best of spirits. +Peter took it upon himself to acquaint her husband the very same day with +her condition. + +During the next week, Peter drew his friend more and more into his +practice. Frederick found a certain grim attraction in it. It was a +strange treadmill, set in a world of everlasting suffering and dying, +in a subterranean stratum of life, having nothing in common with that +deceptive existence of a comparatively happy superficiality which he had +been able to lead in New York. The Schmidts were doing hard service +requiring the utmost self-renunciation. They received no greater +compensation than enabled them to obtain sufficient food, clothing and +shelter to be able to continue in that service. Though Peter Schmidt was +not a Socialist, his practice was almost exclusively confined to the +working class. Most of the two doctors' clients were poor immigrants +with large families, who toiled laboriously in the Britannia-metal +factories to keep the wolf from the door. Their fees were extremely low, +and in half the cases Peter, true to his views of life, did not collect +them. + +The section of the city in which their office was located was dismal +beyond parallel. A factory with its offices took up a whole block. Though +Frederick was well acquainted with the corrosive sublimate and carbolic +acid smell of consultation rooms, he nevertheless had difficulty in +concealing the depressing effect the Schmidts' home had upon him. It was +dark and gloomy, and the street noises came in directly from the windows. +In Germany, a city of thirty thousand inhabitants is dead. This American +city of twenty-five thousand inhabitants raced and rushed, rang bells, +rattled and clattered and raved like mad. Nobody had a moment's time. +Everybody hurried past everybody else. No question of joy in life here. +If a man lived in Meriden, he lived there to work. If a man worked in +Meriden, he worked for the sake of the dollars that had the power finally +to free him from that environment and introduce him to a period of +enjoyment. Most of the people, especially the German and Polish workmen +and tradesmen, saw in the life they were compelled to lead a temporary, +provisional existence, a condition the bitterness of which was +intensified when return to the home country was cut off by sins committed +in the past or by expulsion and banishment. From psychologic interest, +Frederick had entered into conversation with patients in the waiting-room +and had already learned of sad cases of men having been ejected from +their country and left without a home. + +Mrs. Schmidt was a Swiss. She had a broad German head, straight, finely +chiselled nose, and a figure like the figures of the women of Basel that +Holbein painted. + +"She is much too good for you," Frederick teased Peter. "She ought to be +the wife of a Dürer, or still better, the wife of the wealthy Ratsherr +Willibald Pirkheimer of Nuremberg. She was born to preside over a +comfortable patrician household, with closets and chests full of linen +and heavy silk and brocade garments. She should go to sleep every night +on a bed three yards high covered with silk spreads. She should have +twice as many hats and fur garments as the town council allows the +wealthy. Instead of that, poor soul, she studied medicine, and you let +her run around to every Tom, Dick, and Harry with her little bag of ill +omen." + +As a matter of fact, the ugliness of her surroundings and the +strenuousness of her occupation, which opened up no vista of hope and +usually robbed her of four nights' sleep in a week, had made of Mrs. +Schmidt an embittered person suffering from homesickness. What aggravated +matters was that she was dominated by an obstinate sense of duty and that +dogged insistence on saving characteristic of the Swiss. Since her +parents' letters strengthened her in her notions, she was not to be +shaken in her resolve not to return home until after a certain sum had +been laid aside, and of this there was no immediate prospect. Whenever +Peter, saddened to see his wife withering away from overwork and +nostalgia, proposed that they return to Europe, she would become very +hard, cutting and bitter. But when she had a free hour in which to talk +to Frederick and her husband of the Swiss mountains and mountain climbs, +she revived visibly. There, in the musty office, or in the physicians' +private rooms, arose the glorious vision of Sentis, in the face of which +Mrs. Schmidt had been rocked in her cradle. The conversation, of course, +turned on Scheffel's "Ekkehard," the chamois reserve, Lake Constance, and +St. Gall. They recalled memories of a Rigi tour, a tour up from Lake +Lucerne at Fluelen to Göschenen, from Göschenen to Andermatt, from +Andermatt up over the Rhone glacier and down to the wonderful Grimsel +Hospice, with its clear icy-cold lake, which lies in a rocky funnel, like +the entrance to the kingdom of shades. One looks about to see if Charon's +raft is not waiting. Mrs. Schmidt said she would rather be the dirtiest +shepherdess on Sentis than a physician in Meriden. + +"Very well," cried Peter, "we will cross the ocean again and settle in +Berne or Zürich." As always when Peter Schmidt made this proposition, +Mrs. Schmidt's face took on an expression of hard, hostile determination. +It did not escape Frederick's notice. + +Everything Mrs. Schmidt said testified to her humanity and her clear, +serious, sympathetic insight. What a pity she had forgotten how to laugh! +What a pity she was not Ratsherr Willibald Pirkheimer's stately, +respected wife, surrounded by his healthy children! Her broad shoulders +and hips, her long, thick hair required the soft curves of a body +blooming in happiness, sunlight and wealth. As it was, her face, though +she was only twenty-seven years old, was fearfully worn and anxious, and +her shabby clothes hung carelessly on her angular figure. Nevertheless, +Frederick perceived the beauty even in her neglected appearance. + +Naturally Peter Schmidt, the blond Friesian, also suffered under these +conditions, but not to such an extent as to be shaken in his peculiar, +deep-seated idealism. It was his idealism, never for an instant forsaking +him, that raised him above all momentary hardships. This very fact, it +seemed to Frederick, only added to his wife's vexation. From certain +remarks of hers, he could tell that it would have been more pleasing to +her had Peter cared more for his own advancement and less for the +advancement of humanity at large. No man possessed firmer belief than he +in the triumph of good, and no man rejected religious beliefs with +greater horror. He was one of those who disavow the Garden of Eden and +declare the next world to be a myth, yet are firmly convinced that the +earth may be developed and will develop into a paradise and that man +may be developed and will develop into the divinity of that paradise. +Frederick, too, had an inclination for Utopias, and his friend's +notions had a revivifying effect upon him. When accompanying him on +his professional visits, or skating on the little Lake of Hanover, or +conversing with him in his Diogenes tub, hope came back to him; but when +his friend left, hope forsook him. + +But Peter Schmidt was no vain Utopist. He had a solid basis for his +ideals, and endeavoured to realise them in practice. Frederick knew no +one so well versed in the natural sciences, political economy, and +medicine; and since he also had very accurate knowledge of the geography +and history of the important countries, his survey of political +conditions was enviably broad. When twenty years old, he had upheld the +pan-Germanic ideal. Now, at thirty, he wrote anonymous editorials, which +received much attention, advocating the coalition of America, Germany and +England, while strongly objecting to the Russian policy in Germany that +originated with Bismarck. The theme that the friends chiefly discussed in +those days may be summed up in the names of Marx and Darwin, or either +of them. In Peter Schmidt a sort of adjustment, or rather fusing, of the +fundamental tendencies of those two great personalities was in process, +though the Christ-Marxian principle of the protection of the weaker gave +way to the natural principle of the protection of the stronger; and this +mirrors the result of the profoundest revolution that has ever taken +place in the history of mankind. + +"If, with that tough Friesian skull of yours," Frederick once said to +him, "you succeed for twenty years in propagating the idea of artificial +selection as applied to man, and if the idea of race hygiene, of a +teleologic improvement of human types is sufficiently spread, it will +undoubtedly be fruitful of practical results some day. That is, a fresh, +healthy, vigorous stream of blood will flow through our veins and tend +more and more to counteract the increasing marasmus that is enfeebling +the race." + + + + +XXVII + + +The first week Frederick regularly took his midday meal with the two +physicians in a boarding-house. Towards dusk he always returned to his +Diogenes tub, usually on foot. + +The next week he did not visit his friends so often, why, he himself did +not know. He slept badly. Again and again the electric bells haunted his +dreams. Even in his waking hours, he easily took fright, a condition to +which in former times he had been a perfect stranger. If a sleigh with +bells actually did pass the house, he was sometimes so alarmed that he +trembled. That he should hear his own breathing in the silence of his +room did not surprise him; but it perturbed him strangely to listen to +it. Sometimes he had chills. As a physician he kept a clinical +thermometer, and on several occasions ascertained that he had some +temperature. These circumstances disquieted him. He seemed to be living +in an atmosphere producing mild shocks and alarms, which he tried in vain +to dispel. Once, when he was starting off to lunch with Peter Schmidt, +a disinclination to leave his room and lack of appetite kept him back. +Another time it was complete exhaustion that turned him homeward again +when he was half way on the road to Meriden. He could scarcely drag +himself back to the house. His friends never learned anything of these +secret experiences of his. It did not seem odd to them if now and then he +should prefer to remain alone under his own roof. + +Over him came creeping a strange life, growing ever stranger. The world, +the sky, the landscape, the country, everything that fell within his +vision, even the human beings he met changed. They moved away. Their +affairs took on a remote, alien character. Indeed, his own affairs +underwent a change. They had been taken from him. Somebody had led them +aside for a time. Later, perhaps, he would find them again, provided the +goal of his altered condition remained the same as his former goal. + +At length Peter Schmidt became observant of his friend's retired +existence. When he expressed his solicitude, Frederick repulsed him +somewhat brusquely. Even his friend had grown remote. He betrayed nothing +of that oppressive atmosphere of alarm in which he was enclosed. +Curiously, there was a secret fascination in it, which he was loath to +share with any one and so have it disturbed. + +On a starless, pitch-black night, he was sitting, as usual, in his lonely +house at his desk beside his lamp, when it seemed to him that someone was +bending over his shoulder. He was holding his pen in his hand over a pile +of disordered manuscript pages, absorbed in profound thought. He started +and said: + +"Rasmussen, where do you come from?" He turned and actually saw Rasmussen +sitting reading at the foot of his bed wearing the Lloyd cap in which he +had come from his trip around the world. + +"How tremendously interesting!" he thought, and carefully studied the +apparition from head to foot. He could see where the stuff of his jacket +and the lining joined. He could distinguish the buttons on his waistcoat, +and noted that the last one was off. Rasmussen was holding a clinical +thermometer in his hand with the manner and attitude of a nurse who is +passing unoccupied time at the patient's bed reading. + +Frederick noticed that solitude heightens the visionary character of +existence. Without a companion, a man is always condemned to intercourse +with spirits. In his hermitage Frederick had merely to think of someone +to see him in person, talking and acting as in life. This inflammability +of his imagination did not alarm him. He had given George Rasmussen's +apparition cool, careful observation. Nevertheless he was aware that his +spiritual life had entered a new phase. + +Before going to bed he went down-stairs to lock up the house. To his +great astonishment, as he opened the door of one of the rooms to close +the shutters, he saw by the light of his candle another phantom as +distinct as the first. He congratulated himself upon no longer having to +depend upon mere hearsay in regard to this psycho-pathologic phenomenon. +At the table four men were sitting playing cards. One of them was looking +on. The men had rather coarse red faces, were smoking cigarettes and +drinking beer. They seemed to be business men. Suddenly Frederick clapped +his hand to his forehead. From the brand and the bottle, he recognised +the beer that had been served on the _Roland_, and these men were those +eternal drinkers and card players who had been in everybody's mouth on +the _Roland_. Shaking his head over the remarkable fact that they should +be sitting in his own house, he returned up-stairs to his warm room. + +The daytime, in which he did a great deal of out-of-door work, even +though by himself, had a wholesome effect upon him and brought him back +to reality. On the whole, his opinion of his own condition remained +sound. Nevertheless, as the sickness came creeping over him stealthily, +he failed to notice it. It seemed natural to him that he should reckon +with the apparition of Rasmussan sitting at the foot of his bed and +the four men playing skat in one of his down-stairs rooms as with +realities. In the instinct to counteract the physical crisis, which in a +dull way he felt was approaching, he resorted to exercise. But even while +skating on the lake, which he himself had swept clean of snow, dreams, he +found, gradually threw their veil over him, and he associated with men +and things that were not of the lake or of its snowy, solitary banks. + +Many Indian legends are connected with the lake and the little stream, +the Luinnipiac, which empties into it. One day Frederick skated miles up +the stream to follow it to its source. On the way he was accompanied +by a hovering shadow, the corporeality of which he never for a moment +doubted. It resembled the stoker Zickelmann who had died on the _Roland_, +not the Zickelmann that he had seen lying stretched out a corpse in the +stoke-hole, but the Zickelmann he had seen in his dream. + +The shade of the stoker told him that five engine-men, thirty-six +stokers, and thirty-eight coal-passers had sunk with the _Roland_, a +number far greater than Frederick had thought. + +"The harbour where you landed in your dreams," he told Frederick, "was +the Atlantis, a submerged continent. The Azores, the Madeira Islands, and +the Canary Islands are the remnants of that continent." + +When Frederick found himself leaning over a hole such as foxes make, +seriously hunting for a way to the Toilers of the Light, he came to his +senses and laughed at himself. + +From day to day, aye, from hour to hour, the creations of his disordered +brain assumed more and more fantastic forms. Rasmussen was always sitting +on his bed, the four passengers of the _Roland_ were always playing skat +in the lower room, and the sick man went about his house conversing in +whispers with all sorts of invisible men and things, unconscious for +hours at a time of where he was. Sometimes he thought he was in the house +in which he lived when a practising physician, at other times, in the +home of his parents. As a rule, he was on the deck, or in the saloons of +the _Roland_, crossing the ocean to America. + +"Why," he said to himself, shaking his head, "after all, the _Roland_ did +not sink." + +After midnight he would get up from bed and take the wrapping from +a mirror hanging on the wall, which he had covered up because he was +not fond of mirrors. He would hold the candle close to the glass and +frighten himself by making grimaces, which distorted his features +beyond recognition. Then he would talk to himself, asking questions and +listening to answers, and hearing questions and giving answers. Some of +this was utterly irrational, some perfectly rational. It showed that he +had investigated one of the obscurest, most awful psychic problems, the +sickness of men who are haunted by their doubles. He jotted down a note: + +"The mirror has made man out of the animal. Without the mirror, no I and +no you. Without an I and a you, no thought. All fundamental concepts are +twins, beautiful and ugly, good and evil, hard and soft, sorrow and joy, +hate and love, cowardice and courage, jest and earnest, and so on." + +The image in the mirror said to Frederick: + +"You have divided yourself into you and me before you could distinguish +the separate characteristics of your being, which acts only as a whole. +That is, you divided yourself before you could divide yourself. Until +you saw yourself in a mirror, you saw nothing of the world." + +"It is good to be alone with my image in the mirror," thought Frederick. +"I don't need all those distressing concave and convex mirrors which +other people are. This condition in which I am is the original condition, +and in the original condition one escapes the distortion to which other +people's words and glances subject one. The best thing is to be silent or +to speak with oneself, that is, with oneself in the mirror." + +Frederick kept this up until one evening, when he was returning from a +walk in the neighbourhood, he opened the door of his room and saw himself +sitting at his desk. He stood still and rubbed his eyes, but the man +continued to sit there, though Frederick tried to drive him away with a +sharp look as a ray of light dispels a cloud of fog. He was filled with +horror, and at the same time a wave of hate swept over him. + +"You or I!" he cried, quickly grasping his revolver and holding it to the +face of his double. Hate confronted hate. It was not twin love and hate, +each confronting the other. + +The mirror had been an illusion. + + + + +XXVIII + + +Peter Schmidt had a serious operation to perform for a fibroid tumour. +Knowing that Frederick had witnessed Kocher perform the same operation in +Berne and had repeatedly been successful with it himself, he called upon +him for help. The patient was a native Yankee farmer, forty-five years of +age. His son, a lad of nineteen, drove out in a sleigh to fetch +Frederick. + +At the appointed time Frederick entered the office, very pale, but +outwardly calm. Nobody suspected what a tremendous amount of will power +he had to summon to keep his self-control. Like a boy saying his A B C's, +he kept repeating to himself: + +"I am Frederick von Kammacher. This is Peter Schmidt. This is his wife, +and this is the patient." + +When he looked about the room, he saw other persons, the shades of those +he had met within the last few days and on his trip across the ocean. But +he pulled himself together and swore to himself--even in the moment of +greatest danger he had not prayed--and saw that the unbidden guests in +the room were also swearing. + +The farmer was sitting in the waiting-room. The physicians consulted with +one another, and Peter Schmidt and his wife urged Frederick to do the +operating. His head was a-whirl. He was hot, he trembled, but his friends +detected nothing. He asked for a large glass of wine and went about his +preparations without speaking. When Mrs. Schmidt brought the wine, he +drank it down in one gulp. + +Mrs. Schmidt led the old farmer in. They had agreed that she was to do +the washing and administer the anæsthetic. She adjusted him on the +operating table, bared his body, and washed it thoroughly. Then Peter +Schmidt shaved the hair away from his armpit. The physicians exchanged +only brief words and signs. It was a matter of life and death. Success +hung by a thread. + +The torpor and composure of a somnambulist had come upon Frederick, who +with his shirt sleeves rolled up was ceaselessly washing his arms and +hands and brushing his finger nails, all at the bidding of a will not his +own. He was acting in a state of will-lessness, of auto-suggestion. Yet +it was with perfect lucidity and due deliberation that he selected the +necessary instruments from the doctor's closet. + +The anæsthetic was taking effect. Peter handed the instruments to +Frederick, who once again carefully and coolly examined the morbid spot, +found that the tumour might already have progressed too far, but +nevertheless, with a firm, sure touch, cut into the mass of living flesh. +He kept cursing at the insufficient light. The room was on the ground +floor with the windows giving directly upon the main street with its +heavy traffic. Contrary to expectation, the tumour lay deep, extending +between the large nerve bundles and blood vessels in the inner portion of +the brachial plexus. It had to be removed with a scalpel, a very ticklish +operation because of the proximity to the thin-walled great vein, which +at the least incision sucks in air and produces instant death. But +everything went well. The large hollow wound was stuffed with antiseptic +gauze, and at the end of three-quarters of an hour the farmer, with the +help of his son, was carried unconscious into a hospital room on the +other side of the hall and laid in bed. + +Immediately after the operation, Frederick said he would have to +telegraph to Miss Burns, who intended to visit him the next day, telling +her not to come. But the words were scarcely out of his mouth, when a boy +brought a cable message from Europe for him. He opened it, said not a +word, and asked the farmer's son to drive him straight back home. He +shook hands with his friends and took leave without referring to the +contents of the message. + +The drive in the sleigh beside the farmer's son through the snowy +landscape was very different from the drive he had taken with Peter +on his arrival two weeks before. This time he himself was not driving; +what was worse was the absence of the earlier feeling that he had +regained mastery over himself and renewed joy in life. He feared his last +moment had come. The country he was in, the place he was driving to, the +fact that he was sitting in a sleigh, these things he realised only +intermittently. Though the sun was shining in a cloudless sky upon a +dazzling white earth, he felt for minutes at a time that he was being +drawn forward into utter darkness to the accompaniment of sleigh-bells. +The farmer boy noticed nothing, except that the famous German physician +was taciturn and extremely pale. + +Frederick had never been in greater need of all his will power. But for +his iron self-control, he would have gone stark mad and jumped with a +shout from the sleigh dashing along at full speed. He knew a telegram was +lying crumpled in the right-hand pocket of his fur coat; but each time he +tried to recall what was in the telegram, it seemed that a hammer kept +knocking at his head, dulling his senses. The grateful country boy had +no inkling that close beside him was sitting a man who had to exert +superhuman strength not to succumb to an attack of raving madness. As a +matter of fact, the boy was in danger of a maniac's clutching him by the +throat and drawing him into a life and death struggle. + +At his door Frederick shook hands with the farmer's son and groped his +way into the house through midnight darkness. The boy's few words of +thanks went down in a rushing and roaring of vast black waters. The +sleigh-bells began to jingle again and never ceased, turning into that +infernal ringing that had become firmly fixed in Frederick's head since +the shipwreck. + +"I am dying," he thought when he reached his room. "I am dying, or else +I am going crazy." The clock on the wall came into his vision and receded +again. He saw his bed and clutched for the post. + +"Don't fall," said Rasmussen, who was still sitting there with the +thermometer in his hand. + +But no, this time it was not Rasmussen. It was Mr. Rinck, with his yellow +cat in his lap, the man who had been in charge of the mail on the +_Roland_. + +"What are you doing here, Mr. Rinck?" Frederick roared. + +The next moment he was at the window in the light of the dazzling sun, +which radiated, not light, but raven-black darkness, like a hole in the +heavens pouring out night. The wind suddenly began to moan and howl +about the house. It whistled derisively through the door cracks, like the +jeers and taunts of a mob of rowdies. Or was it Mr. Rinck's cat miauing? +Or was it children whimpering in the hall? Frederick groped about. The +house quivered and was thrown from its foundations. It swayed to and fro. +The walls began to snap and crack like wickerwork. The door flew open. +The rain and hail whipped in. A sudden gust of wind lifted Frederick from +his feet. Somebody cried "Danger!" The electric bells raged and mingled +with the voices of the storm. + +"It's not so! It's a lie! The devil is hoaxing you. You will never set +foot on American soil. Your hour is come. You are at the Judgment seat. +You are going to perdition." + +Suddenly silence set in. Something unheard-of was about to happen, +something far worse to see perhaps than to experience. Frederick wanted +to save himself. He tried to gather his things together, but he had no +hat. He could not find his trousers, his coat, or his boots. + +Outside, the moon was shining. In the bright light, the storm was raging. +Suddenly, like a wall broad as the horizon, the sea came rolling up. The +ocean had risen over both its banks. + +"Atlantis! The hour has come," thought Frederick. "Our earth is to be +submerged like Atlantis of old." + +He ran down-stairs. On the steps he caught up his three children and +realised it was they who all the time had been whining and whimpering in +the hall. He carried the smallest one on his arm and led the other two by +the hand. At the front door, they saw the dreadful tidal wave sweeping +nearer and nearer in the ashen light of the moon, carrying along the +ship, which was a steamer rolling and pounding fearfully in the waters. +The whistles were blowing frightfully, sometimes in a prolonged blare, +sometimes in abrupt toots, one after the other. + +"It's the _Roland_ with Captain von Kessel," Frederick explained to the +children. "I know it. I was on the ship. I myself went down with that +superb steamer." He heard shots being fired from the struggling vessel. +Rockets hissed up towards the moon and burst in the sombre grey of dawn, +dazzling his eyes. "All's over," he said to the children. "All those +fine, brave men are doomed to rot in the water." + +And picking up on his arm now one of the children, now another, and +losing them and finding them again, he began to run to save their lives +from the flood. He ran, he raced, he jumped, he fell down. He protested +against having to sink after all, though he had already been rescued. He +swore, he ran, he fell, and scrambled to his feet, and ran and ran, with +a hideous fear in his breast, a senseless fear such as he had never +before experienced. When the wave overtook him, fear changed into +soothing peace and calm. + + + + +XXIX + + +The next morning, with the same train by which Frederick had come, Miss +Burns arrived in Meriden. She went directly to Peter Schmidt's office to +inquire for him, having expected to find him awaiting her at the station. +Peter told her of the operation Frederick had performed the day before. + +"It was a mighty difficult job, I tell you," said Peter Schmidt, "and he +covered himself with glory. He intended immediately afterwards to send +you a telegram telling you not to come. But just as he was about to go, +he himself received a cablegram." + +"Well, now that I am here," said Miss Burns in her sprightly way, "I +shall not allow myself to be turned down in such an offhand manner. I +don't intend to visit Rome without seeing the Pope." + +Three quarters of an hour later the two-seated sleigh drawn by the +spirited chestnut, with whose peculiarities they now knew better how to +deal, reached Uncle Tom's Cabin on Lake Hanover. Peter, who was anxious +to bring Frederick news of the farmer and tell him he had not developed +fever, drove Miss Burns out. They were amazed at the condition in which +they found things, and, as they mounted the stairs, freely exchanged +criticisms without lowering their voices. The door to Frederick's room +was slightly ajar. They walked in. He was lying stretched on his bed, +still wearing the fur coat in which he had left the office after the +operation. He was unconscious, mumbling in a delirium, evidently very +ill. Peter Schmidt picked up the cablegram lying on the floor. He and +Miss Burns felt that in the circumstances they were justified in learning +its contents. What they read was: + + Dear Frederick, news from Jena. In spite of the greatest care Angèle + passed away yesterday afternoon. Take the inevitable with composure. + Keep yourself well for your loving old parents. + +For a week Frederick hovered between life and death. The powers of +darkness, perhaps, had never grappled for him so greedily. For a week his +whole body was like something about which tongues of fire lick and roar, +ready to consume it and send it up into the air, like a puff of smoke. + +Peter Schmidt, of course, brought all his medical skill to his friend's +service. Mrs. Schmidt, too, did whatever she could for him. Miss Burns +felt it was predestination, not chance, that had brought her to his side +at so critical a moment, and instantly decided not to leave until he was +entirely out of danger. She engaged a woman attendant and a man to go on +errands by day and night. + +The terrible frenzy in which Frederick had been the night before was +apparent from the way in which things had been thrown about. The glass of +his seaman's clock on the wall was broken, and dishes were shivered to +bits. Peter Schmidt's diagnosis was typhoid fever. The first two days and +nights he did not leave Frederick's side, except when his wife took his +place. The paroxysms repeated themselves. Memories of the shipwreck still +tormented him, and at certain hours he would tell his attendants, whom he +did not recognise, to look in a corner of the room, where, he said, a +black spider, the size of a bowling ball, was lying in wait for him. +Peter and his wife with extreme caution applied all the means at a +physician's disposal to reduce his temperature; but the third day passed, +and still it did not fall below 105.8°. Peter grew graver and graver. +Finally, however, the fever curve showed declinations, and by the end of +a week its downward course remained pretty constant. + +Frederick looked like a pale, empty, incombustible husk, inside of which +a great auto-da-fé had taken place. What a wild orgy salamander-like +creatures must have been holding behind his sweaty forehead. Countless +times, by the most different methods, Angèle murdered Ingigerd and +Ingigerd Angèle. His father, the general, fought a pistol duel with Mr. +Garry, Captain von Kessel acting as second and measuring the distance. +Doctor Wilhelm kept rising again and again from beneath the raging chaos +in his soul. Ten or twenty times he brought him a human embryo wrapped in +paper, and said: + +"To live is good. Not to live is better." + +Hans Füllenberg had to leave his hiding-place and join in the gruesome, +grotesque dance to death. Sometimes it seemed as if a puff of burning air +swept all these figures into an oven to destroy them forever. + +Something like the dizzy movement of the sea kept tossing up and down. He +was carried aloft--his consciousness left him. He sank deep down--again +his consciousness left him. He flew--he lost his sense of ponderosity. +High on the crest of this cosmic, immaterial swell, he suffered +constantly from nausea. In his lucid moments he said to himself: + +"The ocean does not wish me to be saved. It kept me alive just to display +the full extent of its powers and draw me down from my security." + +He had dreams of tremendous cosmic proportions, showing he had images of +a might and power far exceeding the sane, normal strength of conception, +with no precedent for them in experience. Even when the life-boat with +its small load of castaways, shrieking, praying, or unconscious, was +dancing on the great broad swells of the heavy, mineral ocean, Frederick +had had no such feeling of the microscopic minuteness of his personality. + +At the end of the first week he recognised Miss Burns and began to +understand what she had done for him. He smiled with difficulty and made +signs with his hand lying limply on the bedspread. + +It was not until the end of the second week, the twenty-sixth of March, +that the fever left him entirely. He spoke, slept, had vivid dreams. In a +tired voice and sometimes with a touch of humour, he told of the wild +things that had passed through his brain. He expressed desires, showed +gratitude, inquired for the farmer on whom he had operated, and smiled +when Peter told him the wound had healed promptly and the farmer had +driven out to bring some guinea-fowls for bouillon. + +Miss Burns's management of the household was exemplary. Such considerate, +ever-ready ministrations as Frederick received do not fall to the lot of +many men. Physicians like Peter and his wife are not, of course, prone to +prudery. Neither was Miss Burns, with her strong arms and sculptor hands, +which were accustomed to modelling from life. Though her manner was calm +and composed, there was secret passion and a strong maternal instinct in +her nursing. She seemed to have found her true vocation. + +At her bidding Peter sent cablegrams to Frederick's parents, keeping them +informed of his condition, and notifying them when he was pronounced out +of danger. With the request that it be held for him until his health was +restored, she returned a thick letter from the general written before +Frederick was taken ill, correctly assuming that it contained details of +his wife's tragic end. She knew that by keeping the letter, she might be +tempted to betray its existence to the sick man and would then find it +too hard to prevent him from reading it. At the beginning of the fourth +week, she received a letter from the old general, in which he thanked her +and the two doctors from the depths of his heart for all they had done +for his son. + +"I may tell you," he wrote, "that poor Angèle did not die a natural +death. At the institution, they knew she needed the strictest watching, +but, unfortunately, even with the greatest care, there are moments when a +patient is not observed. It was one of those moments that Angèle seized +to take poison, one of the poisons that are frequently used and are not +kept under lock and key." + +The snow had melted away. Slowly, slowly Frederick adjusted himself to +life again. There was a mildness in him like the mildness of nature +outside his window. It was a surprisingly sweet experience. The world +seemed to be granting him indulgence. Lying on his clean bed, with the +little pewter sailing vessels on the old seaman's clock ticking to and +fro, he had a sense of security and, what is more, a sense of +rejuvenation, of having expiated and received pardon. From torrid black +clouds, a storm had come with thunder and lightning to cleanse the air. +It was still rumbling on the distance horizon, farther and farther away, +never to return again, leaving behind in the weak man a rich, full, +peaceful joy in life. + +"A cure of force, a violent eruption and revolution has purged your body +of all poisons and putrid matter," said Peter Schmidt. + + + + +XXX + + +"A pity no birds are singing," Frederick said one day to Miss Burns, who +had opened his bedroom window wide. + +"Yes," said Miss Burns, "it is a pity." + +"Because," Frederick went on, "you say it is already greening on the +banks of Lake Hanover." + +"What does that mean--'greening'?" asked Miss Burns, who did not know the +German word he had used. He laughed. + +"It means spring is coming, and spring without the singing of birds is a +deaf and dumb spring." + +"Come to England. There's where you hear birds." + +"You come to Germany, Miss Burns. There's where you hear birds," +Frederick mimicked his friend's drawl. + +When the time came for him to sit up for a while, he refused. + +"I don't want to get out of bed. I feel too comfortable lying here," he +declared. + +Soon after the fever left him, he ceased to feel ill, and for the last +week they had been bringing him books, entertaining him with stories and +anecdotes of the neighbourhood, and reading the papers to him, all in +moderation, of course. They divined his wishes from his eyes. His +microscope was put beside his bed, and he set seriously to work to +examine specimens from his own body, an occupation that brought many +jests down on him. The horror of his illness had turned into a diversion, +a pleasant subject of study. + +It was not until he had left his bed and was sitting in a comfortable +chair wrapped in blankets that he inquired whether a letter had not +come from his parents. Miss Burns told him his father had written and +recounted those things in his letter which she knew would please +Frederick and ease his mind. She was astonished to hear the pale +convalescent say: + +"I am convinced poor Angèle took her own life. Well," he continued, "I +have suffered what I had to suffer; but I will not reject the hand that I +feel is graciously extended towards me. By that I mean," he added, +thinking from the expression in Miss Burns's eyes that she did not +understand him, "that for a' that and a' that, I am glad to be restored +to life and confidence in life." + +One day, while Miss Burns was telling of some eminent men in different +countries with whom she had become acquainted, mild complaints escaped +her, showing she had suffered disenchantments. + +"In a year," she said, "I am going back to England, to some village, and +devote myself to the education of neglected children. The sculptor's +profession does not satisfy me." + +"How would you like this, Miss Burns," said the convalescent, with a +frank, roguish smile, "wouldn't you like to educate a rather difficult +big child?" + +Peter and Eva had agreed not to mention Ingigerd Hahlström's name. But +one day Frederick handed Miss Burns a piece of paper with a verse written +in lead pencil in a trembling hand. + +"To whom does this refer?" he asked. + + "Have threads been spun? No, there were none! + We were so chill, so small and lone. + Have we to higher regions gone? + To give the key Peter was not prone. + I saw the sacramental stone + And laid my hallowed hands thereon. + Alas! the bread and wine were gone. + With dazzling radiance all things shone, + 'Twas base deceit; I was undone." + +Miss Burns was touched to see that his thoughts were still engaged with +the little dancer. On another occasion he said to her: + +"I am not fitted to be a physician. I am incapable of making the +sacrifice to humanity of pursuing an occupation that depresses me so. +I have a riotous imagination. Perhaps I could be a writer. But I am +determined to become a sculptor. While I was sick, especially at the end +of the second week, I remodelled all the works of Phidias and Michael +Angelo. Don't misunderstand me, Eva. In becoming a sculptor, I am no +longer ambitious of distinction. I shall merely be rendering homage to +the greatness of art. While remaining a faithful workman asking nothing +for myself, I may in time succeed in mastering the nude form sufficiently +to produce at least one good piece." + +"You know I have confidence in your talent," said Miss Burns. + +"Then, what do you think of this plan, Miss Eva? The income from my +wife's estate is about five thousand marks, enough for the education of +my three children. I receive an annuity of three thousand marks. Do you +think we five could end our days in peace in a little house with a +studio, say, near Florence?" + +Miss Burns's answer to the weighty question was a hearty laugh. + +She was intimately acquainted with the artistic disposition and so, +perhaps, was actually well fitted to educate adult children. She had been +the good friend and comrade of two or three great artists in France +and England, and had a soothing way of entering into the work, the +interests, and the experiences of such extraordinary men. Neither of her +parents had been an artist. Her father had been a plain business man. +Yet both had possessed that veneration and love of art and artists which +is almost as rare as the creative gift. In the museum at Birmingham, +there were pictures by Burne-Jones and Rossetti and a collection of +drawings, the gift of her father while still a prosperous man. She +herself was not convinced that she had an imperative calling to art. Her +passion was to be useful to art in serving artists. This was not the +first time, and Frederick knew it, that she had acted the part of the +good Samaritan. She was always ready to sacrifice herself in order to +help artists out of every sort of difficulty. + +"I have no desire to be a Bonifacius Ritter," said Frederick. "A great +collection of studios, with works turned out by wholesale, no matter how +excellent they may be, does not suit my disposition. What I want is a +workshop opening on a garden, where I can pick violets in winter and +break off branches of evergreen oak, yew, and laurel. There, in peace and +quiet, hidden from the world, I should like to devote myself to art and +culture in general. The myrtle, too, would have to blossom again within +my garden wall, Miss Burns." Miss Burns laughed and paid no attention to +the allusion. + +She thoroughly approved of his plans from her own healthy point of view. + +"There are enough people," she said, "who are born physicians and men of +action, and there are far too many entering those careers and jostling +one another out of the way." + +She spoke of Ritter with sympathy, yet in a tone of superiority, and +smiled with benignant understanding upon his naïve penetration into the +regions of the Upper Four Hundred. + +"Life," she said, "when it is eager to hurry on with a show of vivacity, +demands credulity, love of pleasure, ambition. I, myself, before my +father lost the greater part of his fortune, got to know high life in +England through and through. I found it insipid and boresome." + +When Frederick was able to stand alone and walk and go up and down +stairs, Miss Burns left for New York to complete the work that she had +begun in Ritter's studio, wishing to finish it before the middle of +May, when she intended to return to England to straighten out some legal +matters in connection with a small inheritance from her mother, who had +died two years before. She had already engaged passage on the _Auguste +Victoria_ of the Hamburg-American line. Frederick von Kammacher let her +go without protest. He did not try to detain her. He profoundly admired +the girl who was so strong and stately; and he had conceived of his +future existence as a state of lasting companionship with her. There was +Dutch and German blood combined with the culture and polish of the +Englishwoman. Wherever she settled down, wherever she busied herself, she +produced the cosey charm of the English home. She was healthy and, as +Frederick had to admit, very beautiful. He did not detect the faintest +symptom of the thing he most dreaded, feminine hysteria. + +"I should like to have a comrade like her for life," he thought. "I +should like her to be the mother of Angèle's children." + + + + +XXXI + + +Frederick grew better daily. It seemed to him as if he had been ill for +more than a decade. His body was not undergoing a process of evolution +but of rebuilding from fresh young cells. The same thing seemed to be +happening to his soul. The burden that had been weighing upon his +spirits, the restless thoughts that had constantly been circling about +the various shipwrecks in his life had departed. He had thrown off his +past as one discards a cloak which the wind and weather, thorns and sword +thrusts have torn and worn. Memories, which before his illness had forced +themselves upon him unbidden in the awful guise of actual presence, no +longer recurred to him. To his astonishment and satisfaction he observed +that they had sunk forever on the other side of a remote horizon. The +itinerary of his life had brought him to a province wholly new and novel. +He had passed through a fearful process of fire and water and had come +out cleansed, purified and young. Convalescents always grope their way +into their newly granted lives, like children without a past. + +The American spring had come early. Suddenly the weather turned hot. In +that part of America the transition from winter to summer is very abrupt. +In the pools and lakes, the bullfrogs croaked in rivalry with the high, +clear shrilling of the other American frogs. Now came that unendurable +combination of heat and humidity which Mrs. Schmidt so dreaded. She +suffered fearfully during the summer, when she continued with her hard +work just as in winter. + +Frederick began again to accompany Peter Schmidt on his professional +rounds, and sometimes the friends took long excursions into the country. +They fell back into their old habit of revolving problems and pondering +the destinies of mankind. To his friend's astonishment, Frederick did not +display his old incisiveness in debate, whether in attack or defence. +There was a cheerful placidity about him which took the keenness from any +hope or fear of a universal character upon which they touched in their +discussions. + +"How do you account for it?" asked Peter Schmidt. + +"I think I have well earned the precious right merely to breathe, and +I think I appreciate it. What I want to do for the time being is smell, +taste, and enjoy. An Icarus flight does not suit my present condition, +and with my newly awakened tender love for the superficial, you will +scarcely find me ready to dig laboriously into the depths. I am now a +bourgeois. I am done with my former state," he concluded, smiling. + +Peter Schmidt, as a practising physician, expressed his satisfaction with +this mood of Frederick's. + +"To be sure," he said, "you will change again." + +"Time will show, but I think not," rejoined Frederick. + +Indian lore had a fascination for Peter Schmidt. He liked to go to +certain spots in the hilly country to which history or legend attaches +stories of the conflicts between the first white colonists and the +Indians, and remain there a long time, mentally living over again the +experiences of the fur trappers and the tenacious wrestling of the +settlers for possession. Sometimes, in a wave of warlike feeling, he +would draw his revolver and shoot at a mark. Frederick was no match for +him as a marksman. + +"The blood of the old German adventurers and colonists is flowing in your +veins," he said. "A finished civilisation, over-ripe and over-refined +such as ours, really does not suit you. Where you ought to be is in a +wilderness with a Utopia hovering above." + +"The world is still not much more than a wilderness," said Peter. "It +will be quite a while before the structure of our cosmic philosophy will +stand on a solid foundation. In short, Frederick, much remains to be +done." + +"Like the Lord God, I shall knead human beings from wet clay and inspire +them with a living breath." + +"Stuff and nonsense!" said Peter Schmidt. "Making dolls like that leads +nowhere. You are too good to be doing it. You belong on the ramparts, in +the front ranks of the battle line, my dear boy." + +"I for my part," said Frederick, smiling, "have stipulated an armistice +for the next few years. I want for once to try to get on with what the +world is able to offer. I want to disaccustom myself as much as possible +from reflection and dreams." + +Frederick felt it was his duty to persuade his friend, both for his own +and for his wife's sake, to return to Europe. + +"Peter," he said, "the Americans have no use for a man like you. You +cannot recommend patent medicines, nor can you by administering small +doses keep a man chained to his bed for two months when you can cure him +with quinine in a week. You have none of those characteristics which in +the eyes of the average American make an aristocrat. From the American +point of view you are a simpleton, because you are always ready to +sacrifice yourself for every poor dog that strays your way. You ought to +return to a land where, thank the Lord, the aristocracy of the spirit, +the aristocracy of ideas is still a match for that other aristocracy. You +ought to return to a land that would consider itself defunct and buried +were the men of science and art no longer to represent the flower of its +inhabitants. There are enough Germans here without you who are breaking +their necks to forget the language of Goethe, the language their mothers +taught them. Save your wife. Save yourself. Go back to Germany, go to +Switzerland, go to France, go to England, go anywhere you will, but don't +remain in this tremendous industrial corporation, where art, science, +and true culture are, at present at least, wholly out of place." + +But Peter Schmidt wavered. He loved America. And if, Indian fashion, he +laid his ear to the ground, he already heard the festive music being +rehearsed below ground that is to be played on the great day of a +universal renaissance. + +"All of us," he said, "should first be Americanized and then become +neo-Europeans." + +One of Frederick's favourite walks was to the suburb of Meriden where the +Italian wine-growers settled. You could hear the men singing with their +voices warm as the sunlight, the women calling the children with that cry +of theirs pitched in octaves. You saw brown men binding the vines, and on +Sundays you heard them talking and laughing, while the _boccia_ balls +rolled with dull thuds over the well-trodden soil in the open fields +where they played. Those voices and sounds were piercingly sweet and +familiar to Frederick. + +"You may kill me for saying so, but I am, and will remain, a European." + +His homesickness grew stronger and stronger. He went about singing such +passionate praises of Europe to his friends that he entangled them in the +web of his feelings, and finally melted away even Mrs. Schmidt's rigid +resistance. + +A surprising change came over her. She forgot her exhaustion, she moved +briskly, she laughed again, and began to make all sorts of plans for a +future in Europe. + +The farmer upon whom Frederick had operated fairly persecuted him with +gratitude. He expatiated upon how he had always relied upon God and how a +man always can rely upon God, and how God on this occasion had sent him +the right man at the right time. Frederick now realised the profound +motive that destiny had had in sending him on his fearful trip. + +In a morbid disinclination to learn of his comrades on the sea trip, +Frederick avoided reading newspapers. One day Ingigerd Hahlström +accompanied by a distinguished looking American by no means in his prime +got off the Boston train and went directly to Peter Schmidt's office. She +introduced herself and asked whether Frederick von Kammacher was still in +Meriden. Before he was taken ill they had exchanged letters. Later she +had had no time to write because she had been making a rapid tour of the +whole United States. She knew nothing of his illness. Peter Schmidt and +his wife, though they had an instinctive habit of always telling the +truth, a habit which interfered with their success in life, now +deliberately, shamelessly, boldly told a bare-faced lie. + +"Frederick has returned to Europe. He took a White Star steamer, the +_Robert Keats_," they told Ingigerd. + +Without informing anyone, Frederick had engaged passage on the _Auguste +Victoria_ for the same crossing as Miss Burns. Peter and his wife wanted +to go by a slower, less expensive steamer. They were all in a glorious +state of impatience. Once more the ocean became nothing but a small pond +across which their yearning lightly swung a bridge. + +At that time a sentimental song was being sung in all the theatres in +America, entitled "Hands Across the Sea." Every bill-board, fence and +barrel bore "Hands Across the Sea." Frederick went about humming "Hands +Across the Sea." Whenever he saw "Hands Across the Sea," his soul was +stirred by a rich, beautiful melody. + +But there was one thing that still prevented Frederick from enjoying +complete serenity of spirit. A single thought kept haunting him. Should +he express that thought by word of mouth or by letter? He constantly +wavered between the two impulses. Not a day passed that he did not make +ten decisions, one way or another, until one Sunday chance came to his +rescue in the form of Willy Snyders and Miss Eva Burns, who had come to +Meriden on an excursion. When he saw the lovely girl, dressed in light +summer clothes, coming towards him with a smile, he realised that "Shall +I?" or, "Shall I not?" had until then played an important rôle in his +deliberations. But now that question was decided. + +"Willy," he cried beaming, "do what you will, go wherever you will, stay +wherever you will, amuse yourself as best you can, and at supper we'll +all meet at the hotel." He grasped Miss Eva's hand and drew her arm in +his, and she went off with him, laughing. Willy was greatly amazed, but +he, too, burst out laughing and said in his comic fashion: + +"Oh, in that case I certainly am _de trop_." + +When Frederick and Eva returned in the evening, to the handsome +dining-room of the Meriden Hotel, a delicate charm, a tender warmth +hovered about them, making them younger and comelier. Their friends +observed it. To their own surprise, these two human beings had been +penetrated by a new element and a new life. Though they had been steering +towards it, neither of them had had a divination of it even a short time +before. That evening champagne was drunk. + +A week later the little colony of artists saw Miss Burns and Frederick +off on the _Auguste Victoria_. + +"I am going to follow you soon," Willy bawled as the steamer began to +move from the pier. + +Every day on board the steamer was a Sunday to Frederick and Eva. The +afternoon of the third day the captain, never suspecting that he was +speaking to one of the survivors of the _Roland_, said: + +"It was hereabouts that the _Roland_ went down about three months ago." + +The sea was smooth, like a sky eternally cloudless. Dolphins were +sporting in the waters. The night following that afternoon, a glorious +night, became Frederick's and Eva's wedding night. In blissful dreams +they were carried over the place of horror which was the grave of the +_Roland_. + +At the quay in Cuxhaven, Frederick's parents were awaiting him with +his children. He saw nothing but his children. He held them, all three +of them, in his arms for a whole minute. They laughed and chattered +and clung to him wildly. Eva approached them, and everything was +self-understood. + +After all could get their breath again, Frederick made several obeisances +and laid both hands on the ground, while looking into Eva's eyes. Then he +arose and held up his finger to command silence. From the broad stretches +of the fields with their young crops came the thousand-throated trilling +of the larks. + +"This is Germany, this is Europe! What of it, if after an hour like this, +one should sink?" + +The captain of the _Auguste Victoria_ passed by and greeted Frederick. + +"Do you know," said Frederick in his overflowing spirits, "do you know, +I am actually one of the survivors of the _Roland_?" + +"Indeed!" said the captain, adding, as he walked away, "Yes, we always +cross the same ocean. I hope you have a pleasant trip, Doctor von +Kammacher." + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Atlantis, by Gerhart Hauptmann + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ATLANTIS *** + +***** This file should be named 17241-8.txt or 17241-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/2/4/17241/ + +Produced by Audrey Longhurst, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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