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diff --git a/23808.txt b/23808.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e3d871d --- /dev/null +++ b/23808.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1536 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Romance Of Tompkins Square, by Thomas A. Janvier + +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: A Romance Of Tompkins Square + 1891 + +Author: Thomas A. Janvier + +Illustrator: W. T. Smedley + +Release Date: December 10, 2007 [EBook #23808] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A ROMANCE OF TOMPKINS SQUARE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +A ROMANCE OF TOMPKINS SQUARE. + +By Thomas A. Janvier + +Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers + + +Whether the honey shall be brought to the boiling-point slowly or +rapidly; whether it shall boil a long time or a short time; when and in +what quantities the flour shall be added; how long the kneading shall +last; in what size of earthen pot the dough shall be stored, and what +manner of cover upon these pots best preserves the dough against the +assaults of damp and mould; whether the pots shall be half-buried in the +cool earth of the cellar or ranged on shelves to be freely exposed +to the cool cellar air--all these several matters are enshrouded in a +mystery that is penetrated only by the elect few of Nuernberg bakers by +whom perfect lebkuchen is made. And the same is true of the Brunswick +bakers, who call this rare compound honigkuchen, and of the makers of +pferfferkuchen, as it is called by the bakers of Saxony. + +Nor does the mystery end here. This first stage in the making of +lebkuchen is but means to an end, and for the compassing of that +end--the blending and the baking of the finished and perfect +honey-cake--each master-baker has his own especial recipe, that has come +down to him from some ancestral baker of rare parts, or that by his own +inborn genius has been directly inspired. And so, whether the toothsome +result be Nuernberger lebkuchen, or Brunsscheiger peppernotte, or Basler +leckerly, the making of it is a mystery from first to last. + +It was because of this mystery that the life of Gottlieb Brekel had been +imbittered for nearly twenty years--ever since, in fact, his first essay +in the compounding of Nuernberger lebkuchen had been made. He was but a +young baker then: now he was an old one, and notwithstanding the guarded +praise of friends and the partial approval of the public (notably of +that portion of the public under the age of ten years that attended St. +Bridget's Parochial School) he full well knew that his efforts through +all these years to make, in New York, lebkuchen such as he himself had +eaten when he was a boy, at home in Nuernberg, had been neither more nor +less than a long series of failures. + +In the hopeful days of his apprenticeship all had seemed so easy before +him. Let him but have a little shop, and then a little capital wherewith +to lay in his supply of honey, and the thing would be done! He had +no recipe, it is true; for he was a baker not by heredity, but by +selection. Yet from a wise old baker he had gleaned the knowledge of +honey-cake making, and he believed strongly that from the pure fount of +his own genius he could draw a formula for the making of lebkuchen +so excellent that compared with it all other lebkuchen would seem +tasteless. But these were the bright dreams of youth, which age had +refused to realize. + +In course of time the little shop became an accomplished fact; a very +little shop it was in East Fourth Street. Capital came more slowly, and +three several times, when a sum almost sufficient had been saved, was +it diverted from its destined purpose of buying the honey without which +Gottlieb could not make even a beginning in his triumphal lebkuchen +career. + +His first accumulation was swept away through the conquest of Ambition +by Love. In this case Love was personified in one Minna Schaus--who was +not by any means a typical sturdy German lass, with laughing looks and +stalwart ways, but a daintily-finished, golden-haired maiden, with soft +blue eyes full of tenderness, and a gentleness of manner that Gottlieb +thought--and with more reason than lovers sometimes think things of this +sort--was very like the manner of an angel. And for love of her Gottlieb +forgot for a while his high resolves in regard to lebkuchen making; +and on the altar of his affections--in part to pay for his modest +wedding-feast, in part to pay for the modest outfit for their +housekeeping over the bakery--the money laid aside for the filling of +his honey-pots very willingly was offered up. + +A second time were his honey-pots sacrificed, that the coming into +the world of the little Minna might be made smooth. This, also, was a +willing sacrifice; though in his heart of hearts Gottlieb felt a twinge +of regret that his first-born was not a son, to whom the fame and +fortune incident to the making of perfect lebkuchen might descend. +But he was a philosopher in his way, and did not suffer himself to be +seriously disconcerted by an accident that by no means was irreparable. +As he smoked his long pipe that night, while the bread was baking, +he said to himself, cheerily: "It is a girl. Yes, that is easy. Girls +sprout everywhere; they are like grass. But a boy, and a boy who is to +grow up into such a baker as my boy will be--ah, that is another matter. +But patience, Gottlieb; all in good time." Then, when his third pipe was +finished--which was his measure of time for the baking--he fetched out +the sweet-smelling hot bread from the oven with his long peel, and set +forth upon his round of delivery. And he whistled a mellow old Nuernberg +air as he pushed his cart through the streets before him that frosty +morning, and in his heart he thanked the good God who had sent him +the blessings of a dear wife and a sweet little daughter and a growing +trade. + +And yet once more were his honey-pots sacrificed, and this time the +sacrifice was sad indeed. From the day that the little Minna came into +the world his own Minna, as in a little while was but too plain to +him, began to make ready to leave it. As the weeks went by, the little +strength that at first had come to her was lost again; the faint color +faded from her cheeks, and left them so wan that through the fair skin +the blue veins showed in most delicate tracery; and as her dear eyes +ever grew gentler and more loving, the light slowly went out from them. +So within the year the end came. In that great sorrow Gottlieb forgot +his ambition, and cared not, when the bills were paid, that his +honey-pots still remained unfilled. For the care of his home and of +little Minna his good sister Hedwig came to him. Very drearily, for a +long while, the work of the bakery went on. + +But a strong man, stirred by a strong purpose, does not relinquish +that purpose lightly; and the one redeeming feature of the life of many +sorrows which in this world we all are condemned to live is that even +the bitterest sorrow is softened by time. But for this partial relief +our race no doubt would have been extinguished ages ago in a madness +wrought of grief and rage. + +Gottlieb's strong purpose was to make the best lebkuchen that baker ever +baked. After a fashion his sorrow healed, as the flesh heals about a +bullet that has gone too deep to be extracted by the surgeon's craft, +and while it was with him always, and not seldom sent through all his +being thrills of pain, he bore it hidden from the world, and went +about his work again. Working comforted him. The baking of bread is an +employment that is at once soothing and sustaining. As a man kneads the +spongy dough he has good exercise and wholesome time for thought. +While the baking goes on he may smoke and meditate. The smell of the +newly-baked bread is a pleasant smell, and brings with it pleasant +thoughts of many people well nourished in the eating of it. Moreover, +there is no time in the whole twenty-four hours when a city is so +innocent, so like the quiet honest country-side, as that time in the +crisp morning when a baker goes his rounds. + +As Gottlieb found himself refreshed and strengthened by these manifold +good influences of his gentle trade, his burden of sorrow was softened +to him and made easier to bear. Comforting thoughts of the little +Minna--growing to be a fine little lass now--stole in upon him, and +within him the hope arose that she would grow to be like the dear mother +whom she never had known. So the little fine roots of a new love struck +down into his sad heart; and presently the sweet plant of love began +to grow for him again, casting its delicate tendrils strongly about the +child, who truly was a part of the being about which his earlier and +stronger love had clung. Yet the love that thus was re-established in +Gottlieb's breast was far from filling it, and so for ambition there was +ample room. + +[Illustration: Sat beside the oven smoking his second pipe 204] + +Somewhat to his surprise, one night, as he sat beside the oven smoking +his second pipe, he found himself thinking once more about his project +for making such lebkuchen as never yet had been known outside of +Nuernberg--lebkuchen that would make him at once the admiration and +the despair of every German baker in New York. Nor was there, as he +perceived as he turned the matter over in his mind, any reason now why +he should not set about making this project a reality; for he had money +enough, and more than enough, in store to buy the honey that he had so +long desired. His eyes sparkled; he forgot to smoke; and when he turned +again, half unconsciously, to his pipe, it had gone out. This roused +him. The brightness faded from his eyes; he drew a long sigh. Then he +lighted his pipe again, and until the baking was ended his thoughts no +longer were busied with ambitious schemes for the making of lebkuchen, +but went back with a sad tenderness to the happy time that had come so +quickly to so cruel an end. + +But the spark was kindled, and presently the fire burned. When he told +the good Hedwig that he had bought the honey at last, that excellent +woman--albeit not much given to display of the tender emotions--shed +tears of joy. She was a sturdy, thick-waisted, stout-ankled person, this +Aunt Hedwig, with a cheery red face, and prodigiously fine white teeth, +and very bright black eyes; and her taste in dress was such that when +of a Sunday she went to the Church of the Redemptorist Fathers, in Third +Street, she was more brilliant than ever King Solomon was in all his +glory, in her startling array of vivid reds and greens and blues. But +beneath her violent exterior of energetic color she had a warm and +faithful heart, as little Minna knew already, and as her brother +Gottlieb had known for many a long good year. Therefore was Gottlieb now +gladdened by her hearty show of sympathy; and he returned with a good +will the sounding smack that she gave him with her red lips, and the +strong hug that she gave him with her stout arms. + +It was at sight of this pleasing manifestation of affection that Herr +Sohnstein, the notary--who was present in the little room back of the +shop where it occurred--at once declared that he meant to buy some honey +too. And Aunt Hedwig, smiling so generously as to show every one of her +fine white teeth, promptly told him that he had better be off and buy +it, because perhaps he could buy at the same place some hugs and kisses +too: at which sally and quick repartee they all laughed. Herr Sohnstein +long had been the declared lover of Aunt Hedwig's, and long had been +held at arm's-length (quite literally occasionally) by that vigorous +person; who believed, because of her good heart, that her present duty +was not to consult her own happiness by becoming Frau Sohnstein, but +to remain the Fraeulein Brekel, and care for her lonely brother and her +brother's child. + +Being thus encouraged, Gottlieb bought the honey forthwith; and with +Aunt Hedwig's zealous assistance set about boiling it and straining it +and kneading it into a sticky dough, all in accordance with the wise old +baker's directions which he so long had treasured in his mind. And when +the dough was packed in earthen pots, over which bladders were tied, all +the pots were set away in the coolest part of the cellar, as far from +the great oven as possible, that the precious honey-cake might undergo +that subtle change which only comes with time. + +[Illustration: Pots were set away in the coolest part of the cellar 208] + +For at least a year must pass before the honey-cake really can be said +to be good at all; and the longer that it remains in the pots, even +until five-and-twenty years, the better does it become. Therefore it is +that all makers of lebkuchen who aspire to become famous professors of +the craft add each year to their stock of honey-cake, yet draw always +from the oldest pots a time-soaked dough that ever grows more precious +in its sweet excellence of age. Thus large sums--more hundreds of +dollars than a young baker, just starting upon his farinaceous career, +would dare to dream of--may be invested; and the old rich bakers who can +dower their daughters with many honey-pots know that in the matter of +sons-in-law they have but to pick and choose. + +It was about Christmas-time--which is the proper time for this +office--that Gottlieb made his first honey-cake; and it was a little +before the Christmas following that his first lebkuchen was baked. For +a whole week before this portentous event occurred he was in a nervous +tremor; by day he scarcely slept; as he sat beside the oven at night his +pipe so frequently went out that twice, having thus lost track of time, +his baking of bread came near to being toast. And when at last the +fateful night arrived that saw his first batch of lebkuchen in the oven, +he actually forgot to smoke at all! + +Gottlieb had but a sorry Christmas that year. The best that even +Aunt Hedwig could say of his lebkuchen was that it was not bad. Herr +Sohnstein, to be sure, brazenly declared that it was delicious; but +Gottlieb remembered that Herr Sohnstein, who conducted a flourishing +practice in the criminal courts, was trained in the art of romantic +deviations from the truth whenever it was necessary to put a good face +on a bad cause; and he observed sadly that the notary's teeth were at +variance with his tongue, for the piece of lebkuchen that Herr Sohnstein +ate was infinitessimally small. As for the regular German customers of +the bakery, they simply bit one single bite and then refused to buy. +Indeed, but for the children from St. Bridget's School--who, being +for the most part boys, and Irish boys at that, presumably could eat +anything--it is not impossible that that first baking of lebkuchen +might have remained uneaten even until this present day. And it was +due mainly to the stout stomachs of successive generations of these +enterprising boys that the series of experiments which Gottlieb then +began in the making of lebkuchen was brought, in the course of years, +to something like a satisfactory conclusion. But even at its best, never +was this lebkuchen at all like that of which in his hopeful youth he had +dreamed. + +Herr Sohnstein, to be sure, spoke highly of it, and even managed to eat +of it quite considerable quantities. Gottlieb did not imagine that +Herr Sohnstein could have in this matter any ulterior motives; but Aunt +Hedwig much more than half suspected that in order to please her by +pleasing her brother he was making a sacrifice of his stomach to his +heart. If this theory had any foundation in fact, it is certain that +Herr Sohnstein did not appreciably profit by his gallant risk of +indigestion; for while Aunt Hedwig by no means seemed disposed to +shatter all his hopes by a sharp refusal, she gave no indication +whatever of any intention to permit her ripe red lips to utter the +longed-for word of assent. Aunt Hedwig, unquestionably, was needlessly +cruel in her treatment of Herr Sohnstein, and he frequently told her so. +Sometimes he would ask her, with a fine irony, if she meant to keep him +waiting for his answer until her brother had made lebkuchen as good as +the lebkuchen of Nuernberg? To which invariably she would reply that, in +the first place, she did not know of any question that he ever had asked +her that required an answer; and, in the second place, that she did mean +to keep him waiting just precisely that long. And then she would add, +with a delicate drollery that was all her own, that whenever he got +tired of waiting he might hire a whole horse-car all to himself and ride +right away. Ah, this Aunt Hedwig had a funny way with her! + +And so the years slipped by; and little Minna, who laughed at the +passing years as merrily as Aunt Hedwig laughed at Herr Sohnstein, grew +up into a blithe, trig, round maiden, and ceased to be little Minna at +all. She was her mother over again, Gottlieb said; but this was not by +any means true. She did have her mother's goodness and sweetness, but +her sturdy body bespoke her father's stronger strain. Aunt Hedwig, of +this same strain, undisguisedly was stocky. Minna was only comfortably +stout, with good broad shoulders, and an honest round waist that anybody +with half an eye for waists could see would be a satisfactory armful. +And she had also Aunt Hedwig's constant cheeriness. All day long her +laugh sounded happily through the house, or her voice went blithely in +happy talk, or, failing anybody to talk to, trilled out some scrap of a +sweet old German song. The two apprentices and the young man who drove +the bread-wagon of course were wildly and desperately in love with +her--a tender passion that they dared not disclose to its object, but +that they frequently and boastingly aired to each other. Naturally these +interchanges of confidence were apt to be somewhat tempestuous. As +the result of one of them, when the elder apprentice had declared that +Minna's beautiful brown hair was finer than any wig in the window of the +hair-dresser on the west side of the square, and that she had given him +a lock of it; and when the young man who drove the bread-wagon (he was +a profane young man) had declared that it was a verdammter sight finer +than any wig, and that she hadn't--the elder apprentice got a dreadful +black eye, and the younger apprentice was almost smothered in the +dough-trough, and the young man who drove the bread-wagon had his head +broken with the peel that was broken over it. + +[Illustration: Almost smothered in the dough-trough 214] + +Aunt Hedwig did not need to be told, nor did Minna, the little jade, the +cause of this direful combat; and both of these amiable women thought +Gottlieb very hard-hearted because he charged the broken peel--it was +a new one--and the considerable amount of dough that was wasted by +sticking to the younger apprentice's person, against the wages of the +three combatants. + +This reference to the apprentices and to the wagon shows that Gottlieb's +bakery no longer was a small bakery, but a large one. In the making of +lebkuchen, it is true, he had not prospered; but in all other ways he +had prospered amazingly. From Avenue A over to the East River, and from +far below Tompkins Square clear away to the upper regions of Lexington +Avenue, the young man who drove the bread-wagon rattled along every +morning as hard as ever he could go, and he vowed and declared, this +young man did, that nothing but his love for Minna kept him in a place +where all the year round he was compelled in every single day to do the +work of two. Meanwhile the little shop on East Fourth Street had +been abandoned for a bigger shop, and this, in turn, for one still +bigger--quite a palace of a shop, with plate-glass windows--on Avenue B. +It was here, beginning in a modest way with a couple of tables whereat +chance-hungry people might sit while they ate zwieback or a thick slice +of hearty pumpernickel and drank a glass of milk, that a restaurant was +established as a tender to the bakery. It did not set out to be a large +restaurant, and, in fact, never became one. In the back part of the +shop were a dozen tables, covered with oil-cloth and decorated with +red napkins, and at these tables, under the especial direction of Aunt +Hedwig, who was a culinary genius, was served a limited, but from a +German stand-point most toothsome, bill of fare. There was Hasenpfeffer +mit Spaetzle, and Sauerbraten mit Kartoffelkloesse, and Rindfleisch mit +Meerrettig, and Bratwurst mit Rothkraut; and Aunt Hedwig made delicious +coffee, and the bakery of course provided all manner of sweet cakes. In +the summer-time they did a famous business in ice-cream. + +On the plate-glass windows beneath the sweeping curve of white letters +in which the name of the owner of the bakery was set forth was added in +smaller letters the words "Cafe Nuernberger." Gottlieb and Aunt Hedwig +and the man who made the sign (this last, however, for the venal reason +that more letters would be required) had stood out stoutly for the +honest German "Kaffehaus;" but Minna, whose tastes were refined, had +insisted upon the use of the French word: there was more style about it, +she said. And this was a case in which style was wedded to substantial +excellence. What with the good things which Gottlieb baked and the good +things which Aunt Hedwig cooked, the Cafe Nuernberger presently +acquired a somewhat enviable reputation. It became even a resort of the +aristocracy, in this case represented by the dwellers in the handsome +houses on the eastern and northern sides of Tompkins Square. Of winter +evenings, when bright gas-light and a big glowing stove made the +restaurant a very cozy place indeed, large parties of these aristocrats +would drop in on their way home from the Thalia Theatre, and would stuff +themselves with Hasenpfeffer and Sauerbraten and Kartoffelkloesse, and +would swig Aunt Hedwig's strong coffee (out of cups big enough and thick +enough to have served as shells and been fired from a mortar), until it +would seem as though they must certainly crack their aristocratic skins. + +Altogether, Gottlieb was in a flourishing line of business; and but +for the deep sorrow that time never wholly could heal, and but for the +continued failure of his attempts to make a really excellent lebkuchen, +he would have been a very happy man. By this time he had come to be a +baker of ease. The hard part of the work was done by the apprentices, +and the morning delivery of bread was attended to by the young man who +drove the bread-wagon. In the summer-time he would take Minna and +Aunt Hedwig, always accompanied by her faithful Herr Sohnstein, upon +beer-drinking expeditions to Guttenberg and other fashionable suburban +resorts; and through the cozy winter evenings he smoked his long pipe +comfortably in the little room at the back of the shop, where Minna and +Aunt Hedwig sat with him, and where Herr Sohnstein, also smoking a long +pipe, usually sat with him too. Sometimes Minna would sing sweet German +songs to them, accompanying herself very creditably upon a cabinet +organ--for Minna had received not only the substantial education that +enabled her to keep the bakery accounts, but also had been instructed +in the polite accomplishments of music and the dance. In summer, when +expeditions were not on foot, these smoking parties usually were held +upon the roof; where Gottlieb had made a garden and grew roses in pots, +and even had raised some rare and delicious cauliflowers. + +It was a pleasant place, that roof, of a warm summer evening, especially +when the rising full-moon sent a shimmering path of glory across the +rippling waters of the East River, and cast over the bad-smelling region +of Hunter's Point a glamour of golden haze that made it seem, oil tanks +and all, a bit of fairy-land. At such times, as they sat among the +rose-bushes and cauliflowers, Herr Sohnstein not infrequently would stop +smoking his long pipe while he slyly squeezed Aunt Hedwig's plump hand. +And Gottlieb also would stop smoking, as his thoughts wandered away +along that glittering path across the waters, and so up to heaven where +his Minna was. And then his thoughts would return to earth, to his +little Minna--for to him she still was but a child--and he would find +his sorrow lessened in thankfulness that, while his greatest treasure +was lost to him, this good daughter and so many other good things still +were his. + +But the lebkuchen dream of Gottlieb's youth remained unrealized; still +unattained was the goal that twenty years before had seemed so near. +However, being a stout-hearted baker of the solid Nuernberg strain, +he did not at all surrender hope. Each year he added to his stock of +honey-cake; and he knew that when fortune favored him at last, as he +still believed that fortune would favor him, he would have in store such +honey-cake as would enable him to make lebkuchen fit to be eaten by the +Kaiser himself! + +After the affair of the broken peel there was a coolness between +Gottlieb and the elder apprentice, which, increasing, led to a positive +coldness, and then to a separation. And then it was that Fate put a +large spoke in all the wheels which ran in the Cafe Nuernberg by bringing +into Gottlieb's employment a ruddy young Nuernberger, lately come out of +that ancient city to America, named Hans Kuhn. + +It was not chance that led Hans to earn his living in a bakery when he +came to New York. He was a born baker: a baker by choice, by force of +natural genius, by hereditary right. Back in the dusk of the Middle +Ages, as far as ever the traditions of his family and the records of +the Guild of Bakers of Nuernberg ran, all the men of his race had been +bakers, and famous ones at that. A cumulative destiny to bake was upon +him, and he loved baking with all his heart. It was no desire to abandon +his craft that had led him to leave Nuernberg and cross the ocean; +rather was he moved by a noble ambition to build up on a broad and sure +foundation the noble art of baking in the New World. And it had chanced, +moreover, that in the conscription he had drawn an unlucky number. + +When this young man entered the Cafe Nuernberg--being drawn thither by +its display of the name of his own native city--and asked for a job, his +air was so frank, his talk about baking so intelligent, that Gottlieb +took kindly to him at once; and Minna, sitting demurely at her accounts +in the little wire cage over which was a fine tin sign inscribed in +golden letters with the word "Cashier," was mightily well pleased, in a +demure and proper way, at sight of his ruddy cheeks and bushy shock of +light-brown hair and little yellow mustache and honest blue eyes. When +he told, in answer to Gottlieb's questions, that he was the grandson of +the very baker in Nuernberg whose delicious lebkuchen Gottlieb had eaten +when he was a boy, and that a part of his bakerly equipment was the +lebkuchen recipe that had come down in his family from the baker genius, +his remote ancestor, who had invented it--well, when he had told this +much about himself, it is not surprising that Gottlieb fairly jumped for +joy, and engaged him, not as his apprentice, but as his assistant, on +the spot. + +It was rather dashing to Gottlieb's enthusiasm, however, that his +assistant--thereby manifesting a shrewd worldly wisdom--declined +immediately to impart his secret. He would make all the lebkuchen that +was required, he said, but for the present he need not tell how it was +made--possibly the Herr Brekel might not be satisfied with it, after +all. But the Herr Brekel was satisfied with it, and so was all the +neighborhood when the first batch of lebkuchen was baked and placed on +sale. Indeed, as the fame of this delicious lebkuchen went abroad, the +coming of the new baker was accepted by all Germans with discriminating +palates as one of the most important events that ever had occurred on +the East Side. The work of the young man who drove the bread-wagon was +so greatly increased that he organized a strike, uniting in his own +person the several functions of strikers, walking delegates, district +assembly, and executive committee. And when the strike collapsed--that +is to say, when the young man was discharged summarily--Gottlieb really +did find it necessary to hire two new young men, and to buy an extra +horse and wagon. Morally speaking, therefore (although the original +young man, who remained out of employment for several weeks, and had +a pretty hard time of it, did not think so), the strike was a complete +success. + +As a matter of course no well-set-up, right-thinking young fellow of +three-and-twenty could go on baking lebkuchen in the same bakery with +Minna Brekel for any length of time without falling in love with her. +Nor was it reasonable to suppose that even Minna, who had treated casual +apprentices and wagon-driving young men with a seemly scorn, would +continue to sit in the seat of the scornful when siege in form was laid +to her heart by a properly ruddy-cheeked and blue-eyed assistant baker, +whose skill was such that he could make lebkuchen fit to be eaten by the +German portion of the saints in Paradise. At the end of three months +the feelings of these young people towards each other were quite clearly +defined in their own minds; at the end of six months, as they were +sitting together one afternoon in the little back room at a time when +the shop happened to be empty, things came to the pleasing crisis that +they both for a considerable period had foreseen. + +But then, unfortunately, came a storm--that neither of them had foreseen +at all--that shook the Cafe Nuernberg to its very foundations! + +Gottlieb was the storm, and he moved over a wide area with great +rapidity and violence. He was central, naturally, over Hans and Minna: +the first of whom, after being denounced with great energy as a viper +who had been warmed to the biting point, was ordered to take himself off +without a single instant's delay, and never to darken the doors of the +Cafe Nuernberg again; and the second of whom was declared to be a baby +fool, who must be kept locked up in her own third-story back room, and +fed on nothing more appetizing than pumpernickel and water until she +came to her senses. In the outer edges of the storm the apprentices and +the young men who drove the wagons found themselves most hotly involved; +and a very violent gust swept down upon Aunt Hedwig and Herr Sohnstein, +who surely were as innocent in the premises as any two people quite +satisfactorily engaged in earnest but somewhat dilatory love-making of +their own very well could be. Indeed, this storm was an ill wind that +blew a famous blast of luck to Herr Sohnstein: for Aunt Hedwig, being +dreadfully upset by her brother's outbreak, went of her own accord to +Herr Sohnstein for sympathy and consolation--and found both in such +liberal quantities, and with them such tender pleadings to enter a +matrimonial haven where storms should be unknown, that presently, +smiling through her tears, she uttered the words of consent for which +the excellent notary had waited loyally through more than a dozen weary +years. It was Herr Sohn-stein's turn to be upset then. He couldn't +believe, until he had soothed himself with a phenomenal number of pipes, +that happiness so perfect could be real. + +Possibly one reason why Gottlieb's storm was so violent was that he +could not give any good reason for it. Hans really was a most estimable +young man; he came of a good family; as a baker he was nothing short of +a genius. All this Gottlieb knew, and all this he frequently had said to +Aunt Hedwig and to Herr Sohnstein, and, worst of all, to Minna. As each +of these persons now pointed out to him, in order to be consistent in +his new position he must eat a great many of his own words; and he would +have essayed this indigestible banquet willingly had he been convinced +that thus he really could have proved that Hans was a viper and all the +other unpleasant things which he had called him in his wrath. In truth, +Gottlieb was, and in the depths of his heart he knew that he was, +neither more nor less than a dog in the manger. His feeling simply was +that Minna was his Minna, and that neither Hans nor anybody else had any +right to her. This was not a position that admitted of logical defence; +but it was one that he could be ugly and stick to: which was precisely +what he did. + +Minna did not remain long a prisoner in her own room, feeding upon +pumpernickel and water and bitter thoughts. Aunt Hedwig and Herr +Sohnstein succeeded in putting a stop to that cruelty. And these elderly +lovers, whose fresh love had made them of a sudden as young as Minna +herself, and had filled thera with a warm sympathy for her, laid their +heads together and sought earnestly to circumvent in her interest her +father's stern decree. It was a joy to see this picture, in the little +room back of the shop, of middle-aged love-making; and it was a little +startling to find how the new youth that their love had given them +had filled them with a quite extravagantly youthful recklessness. +Herr Sohnstein, who was well known as a grave, sedate, and unusually +cautious notary, seriously suggested (though he did not explain exactly +how this would do it) that they should make an effort to bring Gottlieb +to terms by burning down the bakery. And Aunt Hedwig, whose prudent +temperament was sufficiently disclosed in the fact that she had +hesitated in the matter of her own love affair for upward of a dozen +years, not less seriously advanced the proposition that they all should +elope from the Cafe Nuernberg and set up a rival establishment! Herr +Sohnstein did not make any audible comment upon this violent proposal of +Aunt Hedwig's, but it evidently put an idea into his head. + +As Gottlieb happened to be walking along the south side of Tompkins +Square, a fortnight or so after the tempest, he found his steps arrested +by a great sign that lay face downward on trestles across the sidewalk, +in readiness for hoisting in place upon the front of a smart new shop. +Inside the shop he saw painters and paper-hangers at work; and on the +large plate-glass window a man was gluing white letters with a dexterous +celerity. The letters already in place read "Nuernberger Lebku--" And as +to this legend he saw "chen" added, he rolled out a stout South German +oath and stamped upon the ground. But far stronger was the oath that he +uttered as the big sign was swung upward, and he read upon it, in golden +German letters: + +[Illustration: Bakery Sign 226] + +That the Recording Angel blotted out with his tears the fines which +he was compelled on this occasion to record against Gottlieb Brekel in +Heaven's high chancery is highly improbable. In the only known case of +such lachrymic erasure the provocation to profanity was a commendable +moral motive that was eminently unselfish. But when Gottlieb Brekel +swore roundly in his native German all the way from the south-west +corner of Tompkins Square to the corner of Third Street and the Bowery; +and from that point, when he had transacted his business there, all the +way back to the Cafe Nuernberg in Avenue B, his motives could not in any +wise be regarded as moral, and selfishness lay at their very root. + +Gottlieb already found himself involved in serious difficulties with the +many customers who bought his lebkuchen; for with the departure of Hans +he had been compelled to fall back upon his own resources, and with +the most lamentable results. Great quantities of his first baking were +returned to him, with comments in both High German and Low German of +a very uncomplimentary sort. His second baking--saving the relatively +inconsiderable quantities consumed by the omnivorous children of St. +Bridget's School--simply remained upon his hands unsold. And now, +to make his humiliation the more complete, here was his discharged +assistant setting up as his rival; and with every probability that +the attempted rivalry would be crowned with success. Really there was +something, perhaps, to be said in palliation of Gottlieb's profanity +after all. + +When he told at home that evening of Hans Kuhn's upstart pretensions, +his statements were received with an ominous silence. Aunt Hedwig +only coughed slightly, and continued her knitting with more than usual +energy. Herr Sohnstein only moved a little in his chair and puffed a +little harder than usual at his pipe. Minna, who was in her wire cage in +the shop settling her cash, only bent more intently over her books. But +when Gottlieb went a step further and said, looking very keenly at Herr +Sohnstein as he said it, that some great rascal must have lent Hans the +money to make his fine start, Aunt Hedwig at once bristled up and said +with emphasis that rascals, neither great nor small, were in the habit +of lending their money to deserving young men; and Herr Sohnstein, a +little sheepishly perhaps, and mumbling a little in his gray mustache, +ventured the statement that this was a free country already, and people +living in it were at liberty to lend their money to whom they pleased; +and Minna, looking up from her books--Gottlieb's back was turned towards +her--blew a most unfilial kiss from the tips of her chubby fingers to +Herr Sohnstein right over her father's shoulder. All of which goes +to show that something very like open war had broken out in the Cafe +Nuernberg, and that the once united family dwelling therein was fairly +divided into rival camps. + +Gottlieb's dreary case was made a little less dreary when he found that +the lebkuchen which Hans produced in his fine new bakery was distinctly +an inferior article; not much better, in fact, than Gottlieb's own. To +any intelligent baker the reason for this was obvious: Hans was making +his lebkuchen with new honey-cake. Thus made, even by the best of +recipes, it could not be anything but a failure. Gottlieb gave a long +sigh of relief as he realized this comforting fact, and at the same time +thought of his own great store of honey-pots--there were hundreds +of them now--all ready and waiting to his hand. But his feeling of +satisfaction passed quickly to one of impotent rage as he recognized his +own powerlessness, for all his wealth of honey-pots, to make lebkuchen +which would be eaten by anybody but the tough-palated children from St. +Bridget's School. He was alone, smoking, in the little room back of the +shop as this bitter thought came to him; in his rage he struck the table +beside him a blow so sounding that the family cat, peacefully slumbering +behind the stove, sprang up with a yell of terror and made but two jumps +to the open door. Coming on top of all his other trials--the revolt of +his own little Minna, the defection of Aunt Hedwig, and the almost open +enmity of Herr Sohnstein--this compulsory surrender of all his hope of +honest fame was indeed a deadly blow. + +Gottlieb smoked on in sullen anger; his heart torn and tortured, and his +mind filled with a confusion of bitter evil thoughts. And presently--for +the devil is at every man's elbow, ready to take advantage of any sudden +weakness, or turn to his own purposes any too great strength--these +thoughts grew more evil and more clear: until they fairly resolved +themselves into the determination to steal from Hans the recipe for +making lebkuchen, and so to crush completely his rival and at the same +time to make certain his own fortune and fame. + +Of course the devil did not plant the notion of theft in Gottlieb's mind +in this bald fashion; for the devil is a most considerate person, and +ever shows a courteous disposition to spare the feelings of those whom +he would lead into sin. No: the temptation that he suggested was the +subtle and ingenious one that Gottlieb should proceed to recover his +own stolen property! His logic was admirable: Hans had been Gottlieb's +assistant; and as such Gottlieb had owned him and his recipe as well. +When Hans went away and took the recipe with him, he took that which +still belonged to his master. Therefore, triumphantly argued the devil, +Gottlieb had a perfect right to regain the recipe either by fair means +or by foul. And finally, as a bit of supplementary devil-logic, the +thought was suggested that inasmuch as Hans certainly must know the +recipe by heart, the mere loss of the paper on which it was written +would not be any real loss to him at all! It is only fair to Gottlieb's +good angel to state that during this able presentment of the wrong +side of the case he did venture to hint once or twice--in the feeble, +perfunctory sort of way that unfortunately seems to be characteristic of +good angels when their services really are most urgently required--that +the whole matter might be compromised satisfactorily to all the parties +in interest by permitting Hans to marry Minna, and by then taking him +into partnership in the bakery. And it is only just to Gottlieb to state +that to these fainthearted suggestions of his good angel he did not give +one moment's heed. + +Now the devil is a thorough-going sort of a person, and having planted +the evil wish in Gottlieb's soul he lost no time in opening to him an +evil way to its accomplishment. When Hans, a stranger in New York, had +come to work at the Cafe Nuernberg, Gottlieb had commended him to +the good graces of a friend of his, a highly respectable little round +Brunswicker widow who let lodgings, and in the comfortable quarters thus +provided for him Hans ever since had remained. In this same house lodged +also one of Gottlieb's apprentices--a loose young fellow, for whose +proper regulation the widow more than once had been compelled to seek +his master's counsel and aid. In this combination of circumstances, +to which the devil now directed his attention, Gottlieb saw his +opportunity. It was easy to make the widow believe that the loose young +apprentice had taken the short step from looseness to crime, and that +a suspicion of theft rested upon him so heavily as to justify the +searching of his room; it was easy to make the widow keep guard below +while Gottlieb searched; and it was very easy then to search, not for +imaginary stolen goods in the chest of the apprentice, but for that +which he himself wanted to steal from the chest of Hans Kuhn. As to +opening the chest there was no difficulty at all. Gottlieb had half +a dozen Nuernberg locks in his house, and he had counted, as the event +proved correctly, upon making the key of one of these locks serve his +turn. And in the chest, without any trouble at all, he found a leather +wallet, and in the wallet the precious recipe--written on parchment +in old High German that he found very difficult to read, and dated +in Nuernberg in the year 1603. Gottlieb was pale as death as he went +down-stairs to the widow; and his teeth fairly chattered as he told her +that he had made a mistake. He tried to say that the apprentice was not +a thief--but the word _dieb_ somehow stuck in his throat. Keen chills +penetrated him as he almost ran through the streets to his home. For the +devil, who heretofore had been in front of him and had only beckoned, +now was behind him and was driving him with a right goodwill. + +When he entered the room at the back of the shop, where Minna was +sewing, and where Herr Sohnstein, with his arm comfortably around Aunt +Hedwig's waist, was smoking his long pipe, he created a stir of genuine +alarm. As Aunt Hedwig very truly said, he looked as though he had seen +a ghost. Herr Sohnstein, of a more practical turn of mind, asked him if +he had been knocked down and robbed; and the word _beraubt_ grated most +harshly upon Gottlieb's ears. But what cut him most of all was the way +in which Minna--forgetting all his late unkind-ness at sight of his +pale, frightened face--sprang to him with open arms, and with all the +old love in her voice asked him to tell her what had gone wrong. Under +these favoring conditions, Gottlieb's good angel bestirred himself +somewhat more vigorously, and for a moment it seemed not impossible that +right might triumph over wrong. But the devil bustled promptly upon the +scene, and of course had things all his own way again in a moment. It +certainly is most unfortunate that good angels, as a rule, are so weak +in their angelic knees! + +Gottlieb pushed Minna away from him roughly; addressed to Aunt Hedwig +the impolite remark that ghosts only were seen by women and fools; in a +surly tone informed Herr Sohnstein that policemen still were plentiful +in the vicinity of Tompkins Square; and then, having planted these +barbed arrows in the breasts of his daughter, his sister, and his +friend, sought the retirement of his own upper room. As he left them, +Minna buried her face in Aunt Hedwig's capacious bosom and cried +bitterly, and Aunt Hedwig also cried; and Herr Sohnstein, laying aside +for the moment his pipe, put his arms protectingly around them both. +They all were very miserable. + +In the upper room, where the air seemed so stifling that he had to open +the window wide in order to breathe, Gottlieb was very miserable too. +He was fleeing into Tarshish, this temporarily wicked baker; and just as +fell out in the case of that other one who fled to Tarshish, his flight +was a failure: for this little world of ours is far too small to give +any one a chance to run away from committed sin. + +Gottlieb tried to divert his thoughts from his crime, and at the same +time tried to reap its reward by studying the stolen recipe; but his +attempt was not successful. The cramped letters, brown with age, on the +brown parchment, danced before his eyes; and the quaint, intricate High +German phraseology became more and more involved. He could make nothing +of it at all. And the thought occurred to him that perhaps he never +would be able to make anything of it--that, without losing any part +of the penalty justly attendant upon his crime, the crime itself +might prove to be, so far as the practical benefit that he sought was +concerned, absolutely futile. As this dreadful possibility arose before +his mind a faintness and giddiness came over him. The room seemed to be +whirling around him; life seemed to be slipping away from him; there +was a strange, horrible ringing in his ears. He leaned forward over the +table at which he was sitting and buried his face in his hands. + +Then, possibly, Gottlieb fell asleep, though of this he never felt +really sure. What is quite certain is that he saw, as clearly as he +ever saw her in life, his dear dead Minna; but with a face so sad, so +reproachful, so full of piteous entreaty, that his blood seemed to stand +still, while a consuming coldness settled upon his heart. He struggled +to speak with her, to assure her that he would repair the evil that he +had done, to plead for forgiveness; but, for all his striving, no other +words would come to his lips save those which a little while before +he had spoken so roughly to poor Aunt Hedwig: "The only people who see +ghosts are women and fools!" + +And then, of a sudden, he found himself still seated at the table, the +brown parchment still spread out before him, and the faint light of +early morning breaking into the room. The window was wide open, as he +had left it, and he was chilled to the marrow; he had a shocking cold +in the head; there were rheumatic twinges in all his joints as he arose. +What with the physical misery arising from these causes, and the moral +misery arising from his sense of committed sin, he was in about as +desperately bad a humor with himself as a man could be. He was in no +mood to make another effort to read the difficult German of the recipe, +the cause of all his troubles. The sight of it pained him, and he thrust +it hurriedly into an old desk in which were stored (and these also +were a source of pain to him) several generations of uncollected +bills--practical proofs that the adage in regard to the impossibility of +simultaneously possessing cakes and pennies does not always hold good. + +He locked the desk and put the key in his pocket; and then returned the +key to the lock and left it there, as the thought occurred to him that +the locking of this desk, that never in all the years that he had +owned it had been locked before, might arouse suspicion. It seemed most +natural to Gottlieb that his actions should be regarded with suspicion; +he had a feeling that already his crime must be known to half the world. + +And before night it certainly is true that the one person most deeply +interested in the discovery and punishment of Gottlieb's crime--that +is to say, Hans Kuhn--did know all about it; which fact would seem +surprising, considering how skilfully Gottlieb had gone about his work, +were it not remembered that his unwitting accessory had been the +little round Brunswicker widow, and were it not known that little round +widows--Brunswick born or born elsewhere--as a class are incapable of +keeping a secret. + +This excellent woman, to do her justice, had followed Gottlieb's orders +to the letter. He had warned her not to tell the loose apprentice +that his chest had been searched; and, so far as that apprentice was +concerned, wild horses might have been employed to drag that little +round widow to pieces--at least she might have permitted the wild horses +to be hitched up to her--before ever an indiscreet word would have +passed her lips. But when Hans Kuhn, for whom she entertained a high +respect, and for whom she had also that warmly friendly feeling which +trig middle-aged widows not seldom manifest towards good-looking young +men, came to her in a fine state of wrath, and told her that his chest +had been ransacked (he did not tell her of his loss, for he had not +himself observed it), she did not consider that she violated any +confidence in telling him everything that had occurred. It was all a +mistake, she said; the Herr Brekel had gone into the wrong room; she +must set the matter right at once; that bad young man might be a thief, +after all. Hans felt a cold thrill run through him at the widow's words. +But he controlled himself so well that she did not suspect his inward +perturbation; and she accepted in as good faith his offer to inform the +Herr Brekel of his error as she did, a day later, his assurance that the +matter had been satisfactorily adjusted, and that the innocence of the +apprentice had been proved. + +And then Hans returned to his violated chest, and found that the dread +which had assailed his soul was founded in substantial truth--the recipe +was gone! In itself the loss of the recipe was no very great matter, for +he knew it by heart; but that Gottlieb--who had also a cellar full of +rich old honey-cake--should have gained possession of it was a desperate +matter indeed. Here instantly was an end to the hope of successful +rivalry that Hans had cherished; and with the wreck of his luck in +trade, as it seemed to him in the first shock of his misfortune, away +in fragments to the four winds of heaven was scattered every vestige +of probability that he would have luck in love. Being so suddenly +confronted with a compound catastrophe so overwhelming, even a bolder +baker than Hans Kuhn very well might have been for a time aghast. + +But as his wits slowly came together again Hans perceived that the game +was not by any means lost, after all; on the contrary, it looked very +much as though he had it pretty well in his own hands. Gottlieb was a +thief, and all that was needed to complete the chain of evidence against +him was his first baking of lebkuchen; for that as clearly would prove +him to be in possession of the stolen recipe as what the widow could +tell would prove that he had created for himself an opportunity to steal +it. The most agreeable way of winning a father-in-law is not by force of +threatening to hale him to a police court, but it is better to win him +that way than not to win him at all, Hans thought; and he thought also +that this was one of the occasions when it was quite justifiable to +fight the devil with fire. So his spirits rose, and now he longed for, +as eagerly as in the first moments of his loss he had dreaded, the +production of such lebkuchen at the Cafe Nuernberg as would prove the +proprietor of that highly respectable establishment to be neither more +nor less than a robber. + +Hans was both annoyed and surprised as time passed on and the "cakes +succulent but damnatory" were not forthcoming from Gottlieb's oven. He +himself went on making unsatisfactory lebkuchen of bad materials by a +good formula, and Gottlieb continued to make unsatisfactory lebkuchen +by a bad formula of the best materials. Orthodox German palates found +nothing to commend and much to reprobate in both results. This was the +situation for several weeks. Hans could not understand it at all. The +subject was a delicate one to broach to Minna during their short but +blissful interviews about dusk in the central fastnesses of Tompkins +Square, at which interviews Aunt Hedwig winked and Herr Sohnstein +openly connived by keeping watch for them against Gottlieb's possible +appearance; for Hans had determined that until he had positive proof to +go upon he would keep secret, and most of all from Minna, the dreadful +fact of her father's crime. Therefore did he remain in a state of very +harrowing uncertainty, with his plan of campaign completely brought to a +stand. + +During this period a heavy cloud hung over the Cafe Nuernberg. Gottlieb +came fitfully to his meals; and when he did come, he ate almost nothing. +Each day he grew more and more morose; each night, when poor Aunt Hedwig +was not kept awake by her own sorrowful thoughts, her slumbers were, +broken by hearing her brother pacing heavily the floor of the adjoining +room. In some sort he made up for his loss of sleep at night by sleeping +of an evening in the little room back of the shop, falling into restless +naps (when he should have been restfully smoking his long pipe), from +which he would wake with a start and sometimes with a cry of alarm, and +would dart furtive horrified glances at Aunt Hedwig and Herr Sohnstein: +who were doing nothing of a horrifying nature, only sitting cozily close +together, more or less enfolded in each other's arms. It was a little +inconsiderate on the part of the lovers, and very-hard on Minna, this +extremely open love-making; for Minna's love-making necessarily was +by fitful snatches amid the bleak desolations of Tompkins Square. They +would try to comfort each other, she and Hans, as they stood cheerlessly +under the chill lee of the music stand; but their outlook was a dreary +one, and their efforts in this direction were not crowned with any great +success. Sometimes as Minna came home again along the west side of the +square, and saw in Spengler's window the wreaths of highly-artificial +immortelles with the word "Ruhe" upon them in vivid purple letters, +she fairly would fall to crying over the thought that until she should +become a fit subject for such a wreath there was small chance that any +real rest would be hers. + +However, all this is aside from Gottlieb's horrified looks as he waked +from his troubled slumbers--looks which would disappear as he became +thoroughly aroused, but only to return again after his next uneasy nap. +One day he startled Aunt Hedwig by asking her if she believed in ghosts. +Remembering his severe words in condemnation of her casual reference to +these supernatural beings, it was with some hesitation that she replied +that she did. Still more to her surprise, Gottlieb turned away from her +hurriedly, yet not so hurriedly but that she saw a strange, scared look +upon his face, and in a low and trembling voice replied: "And so do I!" + +And now the fact may as well be admitted frankly that a ghost was the +disturbing element that was making Gottlieb's life go wrong; that, as +there seemed to be every reason to believe, was hurrying him towards the +grave: for a middle-aged German who refuses to eat, whose regular sleep +forsakes him, and who actually gives up smoking, naturally cannot be +expected to remain long in this world. + +It was the ghost of his dead wife. At first she appeared to him only in +his dreams, standing beside the desk in which he had placed the stolen +recipe for making lebkuchen, and holding down the lid of that desk with +a firm but diaphanous white hand. Presently she appeared to him quite as +clearly in his waking hours. Her face still wore an expression at once +tender and reproachful; but every day the look of tenderness diminished, +while the look of reproach grew stronger and more stern. Each time that +he sought to open the desk that he might take thence the recipe and make +his crime a practical business success, the figure assumed an air +so terribly menacing that his heart failed him, and he gave over the +attempt. + +This, then, was the all-sufficient reason why the good lebkuchen +that would have proved Gottlieb a thief was not for sale at the Cafe +Nuerenburg; and this was the reason why Gottlieb himself, broken down +by loss of food and sleep and by the nervous wear and tear incident to +forced companionship with an angry ghost, was drawing each day nearer +and nearer to that dark portal through which bakers and all other people +pass hence into the shadowy region whence there is no return. + +Gottlieb Brekel never had been an especially pious man. As became a +reputable German citizen, he had paid regularly the rent of a pew in the +Church of the Redemptorist Fathers in Third Street; but, excepting on +such high feasts as Christmas and Easter, he usually had been content +to occupy it and to discharge his religious duties at large vicariously. +Aunt Hed-wig's bonnet invariably was the most brilliantly conspicuous +feature of the entire congregation, just as the prettiest face in the +entire congregation invariably was Minna's. But now that Gottlieb was +confronted with a spiritual difficulty, it occurred to him that he might +advantageously resort in his extremity to spiritual aid. He had no very +clear notion how the aid would be given; he was not even clear as to +how he ought to set about asking for it; and he was troubled by the +conviction that in order to obtain it he must not only repent of his +sin, but must make atonement by restitution--a possibility (for the +devil still had a good grip upon him) that made him hesitate a long +while before he set about purchasing ease for his conscience at so heavy +a material cost. However, his good angel at last managed to pluck up +some courage--it was high time--and, strengthened by this tardily given +assistance, he betook himself in search of consolation within church +walls. + +The Church of the Redemptorist Fathers is a very beautiful church, and +at all times--save through the watches of the night and through one +mid-day hour--its doors stand hospitably open, silently inviting poor +sinners, weary and heavy laden with their sins, to enter into the calm +of its quiet holiness and there find rest. Tall, slender pillars uphold +its vaulted roof, in the groinings of which lurk mysterious shadows. +Below, a warm, rich light comes through the stained-glass windows: +whereon are pictured the blessed St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, founder +of the Redemptorist Congregation, blessedly instructing the chubby-faced +choristers; and the Venerable Clement Hofbauer, "primus in Germania" of +the Redemptorists, all in his black gown, kneeling, praying no doubt for +the outcast German souls for the saving of which he worked so hard and +so well; and (a picture that Minna dearly loved) St. Joseph and the +sweet Virgin and the little Christ-child fleeing together through the +desert from the wrath of the Judean king. And ranged around the walls on +perches high aloft are statues of various minor saints and of the Twelve +Apostles; of which Minna's favorite was the Apostle Matthias, because +this saint, with his high forehead tending towards baldness, and his +long gray beard and gray hair, and his kindly face, and even the axe in +his hand (that was not unlike a baker's peel), made her think always +of her dear father. The pew that Gottlieb paid for so regularly, and so +irregularly occupied, was just beneath the statue of this saint; which, +however, gave Minna less pleasure than would have been hers had not the +next saint in the row been the Apostle Simon with his dreadful saw. It +must have hurt so horribly to be sawed in two, she thought. In the dusky +depths of the great chancel gleamed the white marble of the beautiful +altar, guarded by St. Peter with his keys and St. Paul with his naked +two-edged sword; and above the altar was the dead Christ on Calvary, +with His desolate mother and the despairing Magdalene and St. John the +divine. + +Into this beautiful church it was that Gottlieb, led thither by his +good angel, entered; and the devil--raging in the terrible but impotent +fashion that is habitual with devils when they see slipping away from +their snares the souls which they thought to win to wickedness--of +course was forced to remain outside. But what feelings of keen +repentance filled this poor sinning baker's heart within that holy +place, what good resolves came to him, what light and refreshment +irradiated and cheered his darkened, harried soul--all these are things +which better may be suggested here than written out in full. For these +things are so real, so sacred, and so beautiful with a heavenly beauty, +that they may not lightly be used for decorative purposes in mere +romance. + +Let it suffice, then, to tell--for so is our poor human stuff put +together that trivial commonplace facts often exhibit most searchingly +the changes for good or for evil which have come to pass in our +inmost souls--that Gottlieb, on returning to the Cafe Nuernberg, ate +a prodigious dinner; and after his dinner, for the first time in a +fortnight, smoked a thoroughly refreshing pipe. + +Over his dinner and his pipe he was silent, manifesting, however, a sort +of sheepishness and constraint that were not less strange in the eyes +of Aunt Hedwig and Minna than was the sudden revival of his interest in +tobacco and food. As he smoked, a pleasant thought came to him. When he +had knocked the ashes from his pipe he ordered Minna, surlily, to bring +him his hat and coat; he must pay a visit to that rascal Sohnstein, he +said; and so went out. He left the two women lost in wonder; and Aunt +Hed-wig, because of his characterization of her dear Sohnstein as a +rascal, disposed to weep. And yet, somehow, they both felt that the +storm was breaking, and that clear weather was at hand. There was nobody +in the shop just then; and the two, standing behind the rampart of +freshly-baked cakes that was high heaped up upon the counter, embraced +each other and mingled tears, which they knew--by reason of the womanly +instinct that was in them--were tears of joy. + +And that very evening the prophecy of happiness that was in their joyful +sorrow was happily fulfilled. + +Gottlieb did not return to the Cafe Nuernberg until after nine o'clock. +With him came Herr Sohnstein. They both were very grave and silent, yet +both exhibited a most curious twinklesomeness in their eyes. Neither +Aunt Hedwig nor Minna could make anything of their strange mood; and +Aunt Hedwig was put to her trumps completely when she was sure that +she saw her brother--who was whispering to Herr Sohnstein behind the +pie-counter--poke the notary in the ribs. As to the joint chuckle at +that moment of those two mysterious men there could be no doubt; she +heard it distinctly! 14 + +Still further to Aunt Hedwig's surprise, for the Cafe Nuernberg never +was closed before ten o'clock, and usually remained open much later, +Gottlieb himself began to put up the shutters; and when this work was +finished he came back into the shop and locked behind him the double +front door. Almost as he turned the key there was a knock outside, as +though somebody actually had been waiting in the street for the signal +that the closing of the shutters gave. + +"Another rascal would come in already, Sohn-stein," said Gottlieb, +gruffly. "Open for him, but lock the door again. I must go up-stairs." + +Gottlieb, with a queer smile upon his face, left the little back room; +and a moment later Minna uttered a cry of surprise, as Herr Sohnstein +unlocked the door and her own Hans entered the shop. What, she thought, +could all these wonders mean? As for Aunt Hedwig, she had sunk down into +her big armchair and her bright black eyes seemed to be fairly starting +from her head. + +Herr Sohnstein locked the door again, as he had been ordered to do, and +then brought Hans through the shop and into the little back room. Hans +evidently was not a party to the mystery, whatever the mystery might +be. He looked at Minna as wonderingly as she looked at him, and he was +distressingly ill at ease. But there was no time for either of them +to ask questions, for as Hans entered the room from the shop, Gottlieb +returned to it. In his hand Gottlieb held the brown old parchment on +which the lebkuchen recipe was written; the smile had left his face; he +was very pale. For a moment there was an awkward pause. Then Gottlieb, +trembling a little as he walked, crossed the room to where Hans stood +and placed the parchment in his hands. And it was in a trembling, broken +voice that Gottlieb said: + +"Hans, a most wicked man have I been. But my dead Minna has helped me, +and here I give again to thee what I stole from thy chest--I who was a +robber." Then Gottlieb covered his face with his hands, and presently +each of his bony knuckles sparkled with a pendant tear. + +"My own dear father!" said Minna; and her arms were around him, and her +head was pressed close upon his breast. + +"My own good brother, thou couldst not be a thief!" said Aunt Hedwig; +and, so saying, clasped her stout arms around them both. + +"My good old friend! all now is right again," said Herr Sohnstein; who +then affected to put his arms around the three, but really embraced only +Aunt Hedwig. However, there was quite enough of Aunt Hedwig to fill even +Herr Sohnstein's long arms; and he made the average of his one-third of +an embrace all right by bestowing it with a threefold energy. + +The position of Hans as he regarded this affectionately writhing group +(that was not unsuggestive of the Laoecoon: with a new motive, a fourth +figure, a commendable addition of draperies, and a conspicuous lack of +serpents) would have been awkward under any circumstances; and as the +circumstances were sufficiently awkward to begin with, he was very much +embarrassed indeed. To Aunt Hed-wig's credit be it said that she was the +first (after Minna, of course; and Minna could not properly act in the +premises) to perceive his forsaken condition. + +"Come, Hans," said the good Hedwig, her voice shaken by emotion and the +tightness of Herr Sohn-stein's grip about her waist. + +"Thou hadst better come, Hans," added Herr Sohnstein, jollily. + +"_Wilt_ thou come, Hans--and forgive me?" Gottlieb asked. + +But it was not until Minna said, very faintly, yet with a heavenly +sweetness in her voice: "Thou _mayst_ come, Hans!" that Hans actually +came. + +[Illustration: Thou mayst come, Hans 248] + +And then for a while there was such hearty embracing of as much of +the other four as each of them could grasp that the like of it all for +good-will and lovingness never had been seen in a bakery before. And +Gottlieb's good angel exulted greatly; and the devil, who had lingered +about the premises in the hope that even at the eleventh hour the powers +of evil might get the better of the powers of good, acknowledged his +defeat with a howl of baffled rage: and then fled away in a blue flame +and a flash of lightning that made the waters of the East River (which +stream he was compelled to wade, thanks to General Newton, who took away +his stepping-stones) fairly hiss and bubble. And never did he dare to +show so much as the end of his wicked nose in the Cafe Nuernberg again! + +"But thou wilt not take from me this little one, my daughter, Hans?" +Gottlieb asked, when they had somewhat disentangled themselves. "Thou +wilt come and live with us, and be my partner, and together we will make +the good lebkuchen once more. Is it not so?" + +Hans found this a trying question. He looked at Herr Sohnstein, +doubtfully. "Ah," said Herr Sohnstein, "thou meanest that a very +hard-hearted, money-lending man has hired a shop for thee and has made +it the most splendid bakery and the finest restaurant on all the East +Side, eh? And thou art afraid that this man, this old miser man, will +keep thee to thy bargainings, already?" + +Hans gave a deprecating nod of assent. + +"Well, my boy Hans," Herr Sohnstein continued, with great good-humor, +and sliding his arm well around Aunt Hedwig's generous waist again as he +spoke--"well, my boy Hans, let me tell thee that that bad old miser man +is not one-half so bad as thou wouldst think. Dost thou remember that +when he had a garden made upon the roof of that fine bakery, and thou +toldst to him that to make a garden there was to waste his money, what +he said? Did he not say that if he made the garden God would send the +flowers? And when that fine sign was made with 'Nuernberger Baekerei' upon +it, and thou toldst to him that to take that name of Nuernberg was not +fair to his old friend, did he not tell thee that with his old friend +he would settle that matter so that there should be no broken bones? For +did he not know already that for these five years past it has been the +wish of Gottlieb's heart to leave this old bakery--where his lease ends +this very coming May--and to have just such a new fine bakery upon the +Square as now you two together will have? Ah, this bad old miser man is +not afraid but that his miser money will come back to him again; and he +is not such a fool but that he had faith in his good friend Gottlieb, +and knew that all would end well. And now, truly, all will be happiness: +for Gottlieb, who has gained a good son, can spare to me this dear +Hed-wig, his sister, and he will come to church with us and see us all +married in one bright day." + +Aunt Hedwig looked up into Herr Sohnstein's face as he ended this long +speech--not so fine, perhaps, as some of the speeches which he had +delivered in the criminal courts, but much more moving and a great deal +more genuine than the very best of them--and, with her eyes filling +with happy tears, said to him: "And it is to thee that we owe it, this +happiness!" + +But Herr Sohnstein's face grew grave and his voice grew reverent as he +answered: "It is not so, my Hedwig. We owe our happiness to the good God +who has taken away the evil that was in our dear Gottlieb's heart." They +all were very quiet for a little space, and upon the silence broke the +sweet sound of the clock bell in the near-by church-tower. + +When the last stroke had sounded Herr Sohnstein spoke again, and in his +customary jolly tone: "As for these young ones here, we will unlock the +door and let them walk out and look for a little at the music-stand that +they love so well in the Square. And Hedwig shall sit beside me while +we smoke our pipes, Gottlieb, eh? It is a long time already, old friend, +since thou and I have sat together and smoked our pipes." + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Romance Of Tompkins Square, by Thomas A. 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