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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Timar's Two Worlds, by Mór Jókai
+
+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: Timar's Two Worlds
+
+Author: Mór Jókai
+
+Translator: Mrs. Hegan Kennard
+
+Release Date: February 26, 2010 [EBook #31409]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: M. J. IVERS & CO. PRICE 25 CENTS.
+
+AMERICAN SERIES No. 343.
+
+TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS By MAURUS JOKAI.
+
+Entered at Post-Office, New York, as Second-Class Matter. Issued
+Monthly--November 17th, 1894--Subscription, $3.00 per Year.]
+
+
+
+
+_AMERICAN SERIES._
+
+TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS.
+
+BY MAURUS JOKAI.
+
+
+NEW YORK:
+M. J. IVERS & CO., PUBLISHERS,
+379 PEARL STREET.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+_BOOK FIRST.--THE "ST. BARBARA."_
+
+I.--THE IRON GATE                                  5
+II.--THE WHITE CAT                                14
+III.--A DANGEROUS LEAP WITH A MAMMOTH             17
+IV.--A STRICT SEARCH                              22
+V.--THE OWNERLESS ISLAND                          27
+VI.--ALMIRA AND NARCISSA                          32
+VII.--THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT                     40
+VIII.--THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS               45
+IX.--ALI TSCHORBADSCHI                            53
+X.--THE LIVING STATUE                             56
+XI.--A BURIAL AT SEA                              58
+XII.--AN EXCELLENT JOKE                           61
+XIII.--THE FATE OF THE "ST. BARBARA"              63
+XIV.--THE GUARDIAN                                67
+
+
+_BOOK SECOND.--TIMÉA._
+
+I.--GOOD ADVICE                                   75
+II.--THE RED CRESCENT                             78
+III.--THE GOLD MINE                               82
+IV.--MICHAEL TIMAR, BARON VON LEVETINCZY          88
+V.--A GIRL'S HEART                                93
+VI.--ANOTHER JEST                                102
+VII.--THE WEDDING-DRESS                          105
+VIII.--TIMÉA                                     114
+
+
+_BOOK THIRD.--THE OWNERLESS ISLAND._
+
+I.--THE MARRIAGE OF THE MARBLE STATUE            123
+II.--THE GUARDIAN DEVIL                          127
+III.--SPRING MEADOWS                             134
+IV.--A SPIDER AMONG THE ROSES                    144
+V.--OUT OF THE WORLD                             153
+VI.--THE TROPIC OF CAPRICORN                     157
+VII.--SWEET HOME                                 167
+
+
+_BOOK FOURTH.--NOÉMI._
+
+I.--A NEW GUEST                                  176
+II.--THE WOOD-CARVER                             185
+III.--MELANCHOLY                                 197
+IV.--THERESE                                     207
+
+
+_BOOK FIFTH.--ATHALIE._
+
+I.--THE BROKEN SWORD                             213
+II.--THE FIRST LOSS                              223
+III.--THE ICE                                    227
+IV.--THE PHANTOM                                 235
+V.--WHAT HAS THE MOON TO TELL?                   247
+VI.--WHO COMES?                                  250
+VII.--THE CORPSE                                 252
+VIII.--DODI'S LETTER                             254
+IX.--"YOU STUPID CREATURE!"                      257
+X.--ATHALIE                                      262
+XI.--THE LAST STAB                               269
+XII.--THE PENITENT IN "MARIA-NOSTRA"             273
+XIII.--NOBODY                                    273
+
+
+
+
+TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS
+
+
+
+
+_BOOK FIRST.--THE "ST. BARBARA."_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE IRON GATE.
+
+
+A mountain-chain, pierced through from base to summit--a gorge four
+miles in length, walled in by lofty precipices; between their dizzy
+heights the giant stream of the Old World, the Danube.
+
+Did the pressure of this mass of water force a passage for itself, or
+was the rock riven by subterranean fire? Did Neptune or Vulcan, or both
+together, execute this supernatural work, which the iron-clad hand of
+man scarce can emulate in these days of competition with divine
+achievements?
+
+Of the rule of the one deity traces are visible on the heights of Fruska
+Gora in the fossil sea-shells strewn around, and in Veterani's cave with
+its petrified relics of saurian monsters of the deep; of the other god,
+the basalt of Piatra Detonata bears witness. While the man of the iron
+hand is revealed by long galleries hewn in the rock, a vaulted road, the
+ruined piers of an immense bridge, the tablets sculptured in bas-relief
+on the face of the cliff, and by a channel two hundred feet wide,
+hollowed in the bed of the river, through which the largest ships may
+pass.
+
+The Iron Gate has a history of two thousand years. Four nations--Romans,
+Turks, Roumanians and Hungarians, have each in turn given it a different
+name.
+
+We seem to approach a temple built by giants, with rocky pillars,
+towering columns, and wonderful colossi on its lofty frieze, stretching
+out in a perspective of four miles, and, as it winds, discovering new
+domes with other groups of natural masonry, and other wondrous forms.
+One wall is smooth as polished granite, red and white veins zigzagging
+across it like mysterious characters in the handwriting of God. In
+another place the whole face is rusty brown, as if of solid iron. Here
+and there the oblique strata suggest the daring architecture of the
+Titans. At the next turn we are met by the portal of a Gothic cathedral,
+with its pointed gables, its clustered basaltic columns. Out of the
+dingy wall shines now and again a golden speck like a glimpse of the Ark
+of the Covenant--there sulphur blooms, the ore-flower. But living
+blossoms also deck the crags. From the crevices of the cornice hang
+green festoons. These are great foliage-trees and pines, whose dark
+masses are interspersed with frost-flecked garlands of red and gold.
+
+Now and then the mouth of some valley makes a break in the endless,
+dizzy precipice, and allows a peep into a hidden paradise untrodden by
+man.
+
+Here between two cliffs lies a deep shadow, and into this twilight
+shines like a fairy world the picture of a sunny vale, with a forest of
+wild vines, whose small red clusters lend color to the trees, and whose
+bright leaves weave a carpet below. No human dwelling is visible; a
+clear stream winds along, from which deer drink fearlessly; then the
+brook throws its silver ribbon over the edge of the cliff. Thousands
+pass by the valley, and each one asks himself who lives there.
+
+Then follows another temple more huge and awful than the first; the
+towering walls drawing closer by three hundred yards and soaring three
+thousand feet into the sky.
+
+That projecting needle at the top is the "Gropa lui Petro," the grave of
+St. Peter; the two gigantic forms on either side are his apostolic
+companions; yonder monster opposite is the "Babile," and the one which
+closes the vista is the "Golumbaczka Mali" or Dove-rock; while the gray
+pinnacle which towers above is the high Robbers' Peak, "Rasbojnik
+Beliki."
+
+Between these walls flows the Danube in its rocky bed. The mighty
+mother-stream, accustomed far above on the Hungarian plains to flow with
+majestic quiet in a bed three miles wide, to caress the overhanging
+willows, to look on blooming meadows and play with chattering mills, is
+here confined in a pass only a hundred and fifty fathoms in width.
+
+With what rage it rushes through! He who traveled with it before
+recognizes it no longer; the grisly giant is rejuvenated into heroic
+youth. Its waves leap along the stony bed, from which sometimes a great
+bowlder projects like a witch's altar, the huge "Babagay," the crowned
+"Kassan." On this it bursts with majestic fury, roaring round it with
+swirls which hollow deep abysses in the bottom; thence it rushes,
+hissing and seething, across the slabs of rock which stretch obliquely
+from side to side of the channel. In many places it has already mastered
+the obstacles which barred its way, and flows foaming through the open
+breach. There, it has burrowed beneath the wall of the ravine, and by
+its continuous current has washed out a channel below the overhanging
+rock. Here, it has carved islands out of the stubborn granite, new
+creations, to be found on no chart, overgrown with wild bushes. They
+belong to no state--neither Hungary, Turkey, nor Servia; they are
+ownerless, nameless, subject to no tribute, outside the world. And there
+again it has carried away an island, with all its shrubs, trees, huts,
+and wiped it from the map.
+
+The rock and islets divide the stream, which between Ogradina and
+Plesvissovicza has a speed of ten miles an hour, into many arms; and the
+sailor has need to study these intricate and narrow passages, for there
+is but one deep-water channel through the rocky bed--in-shore none but
+the smallest boats can float.
+
+Among the small islands between the lesser branches of the Danube,
+singular constructions of human hands are mingled with the grand works
+of nature; double rows of palisades made of strong trunks of trees,
+which, joined in the form of a V, present their open side down stream.
+These are the sturgeon-traps. The marine visitors swim up stream into
+the snare, and on and on into the ever-narrowing trap--for it is not
+their custom to turn back--until they find themselves in the
+death-chamber from which there is no release.
+
+The voices of this sublime region are superhuman. A perpetual universal
+tumult; so monotonous, so nearly akin to silence and yet so distinct--as
+if it uttered the name of God. How the great river dances over the
+granite shores, how it scourges the rocky walls, bounds against the
+island altars, dives rattling into the whirlpool, pervades the cataract
+with harmony!
+
+The echo from the mighty cliffs raises this eternal voice of the waters
+into an unearthly melody, like organ notes and thunder dying away. Man
+is silent, as if afraid to hear his own language amidst this song of the
+Titans: sailors communicate by signs, and the fishermen's superstition
+forbids talking here under a penalty. The consciousness of danger impels
+all to silent prayer.
+
+At any time the passage between these dark precipices, towering on
+either hand, might give the sensation of being ferried along under the
+walls of one's own tomb; but what must it be when that supreme terror of
+the sailor, the Bora, sweeps down! A continuous and ever-increasing
+gale, which at certain seasons makes the Iron Gate impassable.
+
+If there were only one cliff it would be a protection from the wind; but
+the draught of air confined between the two is as capricious as the wind
+in the streets of a town; at each corner it takes a new departure, now
+it stops suddenly, then bursts out of a corner as from an ambush, seizes
+the ship, carries away the steering-gear, throws the whole towing-beam
+into the water, then shifts again, and drives the wooden vessel before
+it as though it were going down-stream--the water throwing up clouds of
+spray as blinding and fine as the sand of the desert in a simoom.
+
+At such times the sighing church-music of the gale swells to the thunder
+of the Last Judgment, in which is mingled the death-cry of departing
+spirits.
+
+At the time to which this history refers there were no steamers on the
+Danube. Between Galatz and the junction with the Main, over nine
+thousand horses were employed in towing ships up-stream; on the Turkish
+Danube sails were also used, but not on the Hungarian branch. Besides
+these a whole fleet of smugglers' boats traded between the two
+countries, propelled only by strong arms. Salt-smuggling was in full
+swing. On the Turkish side the same salt was sold for five gulden, which
+cost six and a half on the Hungarian shore. It was brought by contraband
+back from Turkey to Hungary, and sold here for five and a half gulden.
+So every one profited by this comfortable arrangement.
+
+The only one not satisfied was the government, which for its own
+protection established custom-houses along the frontier, in which the
+male population of the neighboring villages had to keep guard armed
+with guns. Each village supplied watchmen, and each village had its own
+smugglers. While the young men of the place were on guard, the old ones
+carried the salt, and so both trades were kept in the family. But the
+government had another important object in its strict watch on the
+frontier--security from the plague.
+
+The terrible Eastern plague!
+
+In these days we know nothing of it, for it is a hundred and fifty years
+since a vain widow in Semlin brought an infected shawl, and fell dead as
+she went to church in it. But we have to thank the regulations which
+shut the door against it for this immunity. For each contact with a new
+people has endowed us with a new disease. From China we received scarlet
+fever, from the Saracens small-pox, from Russia influenza, from South
+America yellow fever, and from the Hindoos cholera. But the plague comes
+from Turkey.
+
+Therefore, along the whole bank, the opposite neighbors can only
+communicate with each other on condition of observing strict preventive
+measures, which must add considerable interest to their daily life.
+
+If the plague breaks out in Brussa, everything living or dead is
+officially declared infected: whoever has been in contact with it comes
+under the same ban, and must be in quarantine for ten or twenty days. If
+the cable of a left-bank ship touches the cable of a right-bank vessel,
+the whole crew of the former is unclean, and she must lie for ten days
+in the middle of the stream; for the plague might pass along the ropes
+from one to the other, and be communicated to the whole crew.
+
+And all this is carefully watched. On each ship sits an official called
+a "purifier." A terrible person, whose duty it is to keep an eye on
+every one, what he handles, what touches him; and if a passenger has
+been in contact with any person, or any material of hair, wool, or hemp
+on the Turkish side (for these substances carry infection), even with
+the hem of his garment, the health-officer must declare him under
+suspicion, and on arrival at Orsova must drag him from the arms of his
+family and deliver him over to quarantine.
+
+Woe to the purifier if he should conceal a case! For the slightest
+neglect, fifteen years' imprisonment is the penalty.
+
+It would appear, however, that smugglers are not liable to the plague,
+for they have no purifier on board, and if the disease should break out
+a hundred times over in Brussa, they would still ply day and night
+between the two banks. We must remember, however, that St. Procopius is
+their patron. Only the Bora disturbs their retail trade; for the swift
+current through the Iron Gate drives the rowing-boats toward the
+southern shore. Of course smuggling is done by tow-boats too, but that
+belongs to wholesale traffic, costs more than friendly business, and so
+is not for poor people: in them not only salt, but also tobacco and
+coffee are smuggled across the frontier.
+
+The Bora has swept the Danube clear of vessels, and has thereby so
+raised public morality and obedience to law, that for the last few days
+there has been no occasion for forgiveness of sins. Every vessel has
+hastened into harbor, or cast anchor in mid-stream, and the watchmen can
+sleep in peace as long as this wind makes the joints of their wooden
+huts creak. No ship can travel now, and yet the corporal of the Ogradina
+watch-house has a fancy that ever since day-break, amidst the blustering
+wind and roaring waters, he can detect the peculiar signal tones which
+the speaking-trumpet sends for many miles, and which are not drowned
+even by the voice of the thunder; the haunting, mournful blasts which
+issue from the long wooden tube.
+
+Is some vessel declaring its approach, so that no other ship may meet it
+in such weather in the narrow channel of the Iron Gate? Or is it in
+danger and calling for help?
+
+This ship approaches.
+
+It is an oaken vessel of ten to twelve thousand measures burden: deeply
+laden it would appear, for the waves wash over the bulwarks on each
+side.
+
+The massive hull is painted black, with a white bow, which ends in a
+long upstanding spiral beak plated with shining tin. The upper deck is
+shaped like a roof, with narrow steps up to it, and a flat bridge
+leading from one side to the other. The forward part of the raised deck
+ends in a double cabin, containing two rooms, with doors to right and
+left. The third wall of the cabin shows two small windows with green
+painted shutters, and in the space between them the maidenly form of the
+martyred St. Barbara is painted on a gold ground, with a pink dress,
+light-blue mantle, red head-dress, and a white lily in her hand.
+
+In the small space between the cabins and the thick coils of rope on the
+prow of the ship, stands a long green wooden trough filled with earth,
+in which lovely blooming carnations and stocks are planted. A three-foot
+iron railing shuts in the little garden, and on its spikes hang garlands
+of wild flowers. In the middle burns a lamp in a red glass globe, near
+to which is a bundle of dried rosemary and consecrated willow-catkins.
+
+On the forepart of the vessel stands the mast, to whose center rings the
+tow-rope is attached; a three-inch cable, by which thirty-two horses on
+the bank are trying to move the heavy ship up-stream. At other times
+sixteen horses would have sufficed here, and on the upper reaches twelve
+would be enough, but in this part and against such a wind even the
+thirty-two find it hard work. The horn signals are for the leader of the
+team-drivers; the human voice would be powerless here: even if the call
+reached the shore, no one could understand it amidst the confused
+echoes.
+
+But the language of the horn is intelligible even to horses; from its
+now drawling, now abrupt, warning, or encouraging tones, man and beast
+understand when to hasten or slacken their speed, or when to stop
+altogether.
+
+For in this narrow ravine the lot of the vessel is very uncertain; it
+has to struggle with gusts of furious wind, variable currents, its own
+weight, and the rocks and whirlpool which must be avoided. Its fate lies
+in the hands of two men. One is the pilot who steers; the other is the
+captain, who amidst the roar of the elements signals his orders to the
+towing-team by blasts on the horn. If the signal is misunderstood the
+ship either runs on to a rock, glides into the rapids, goes to pieces
+on the southern shore, or strands on some newly formed sand-bank, and
+sinks with every soul on board.
+
+The steersman is a six-foot weather-beaten sailor with a very red face,
+whose color on both cheeks comes from a network of veins with which the
+white of the eye is also transfused. He is always hoarse, and his voice
+knows only two variations, either a loud bellow or a low growl. Probably
+this is what obliges him to take double care of his throat. Prevention
+by means of a red comforter tightly wound round his neck, and cure by
+means of a brandy-flask occupying a permanent position in his coat
+pocket.
+
+The captain is a man of about thirty, with fair hair, dreamy blue eyes,
+and a long mustache, the rest of his face clean shaven. He is of middle
+height, and gives an idea of delicacy; with this impression his voice
+accords, for when he speaks softly it is like a woman's.
+
+The steersman is called Johann Fabula; the name of the captain is
+Michael Timar.
+
+The official "purifier" sits on the edge of the rudder bench; he has
+drawn a hood over his head, so that only his nose and mustache appear:
+both are red. History has not recorded his name. At present he is
+chewing tobacco.
+
+One of the ship's boats, manned by six rowers, has taken out a line from
+the bow, and the united efforts of the oarsmen materially assist the
+towing of the vessel.
+
+At the door of the double cabin sits a man of fifty, smoking a Turkish
+chibouque. His features are Oriental, with more of the Turkish than the
+Greek type; his dress, with the striped kaftan and red fez, is like that
+of a Servian or Greek. It will not escape an attentive observer that the
+shaven part of his face is light in contrast to the rest, which is the
+case with a person who has lately removed a thick beard. This is
+Euthemio Trikaliss, under which name he appears in the way-book. He is
+the owner of the cargo, but the ship itself belongs to a merchant of
+Komorn called Athanasius Brazovics.
+
+Out of one of the cabin windows looks the face of a young girl, and so
+becomes a neighbor of St. Barbara. One might fancy it was another sacred
+picture. The face is not pale but white--the inherent whiteness of
+marble or natural crystal. As an Abyssinian is born black, and a Malay
+yellow, so is this girl born white. No other tint disturbs the delicate
+snow; on this face neither the breath of the wind nor the eye of man
+calls up a blush. She is certainly only a child, hardly more than
+thirteen; but her figure is tall and slender, her face calm as if hewn
+out of alabaster, with severely antique lines, as if her mother had
+looked always at the Venus of Milo. Her thick black hair has a metallic
+gleam like the plumage of the black swan; but her eyes are dark-blue.
+The long delicate eyebrows almost meet over the brow, which gives her
+face a curious charm; it is as if these arching brows formed a black
+aureole round the brow of a saint.
+
+The girl's name is Timéa.
+
+These are the passengers of the "St. Barbara."
+
+When the captain lays his speaking-trumpet aside, and has tried with the
+lead what water the ship has under her, he has time to chat with the
+girl as he leans against the iron railing round the picture.
+
+Timéa understands only modern Greek, which the captain can speak
+fluently. He points out to her the beauties of the scenery, its grim,
+cruel beauties: the white face, the dark-blue eyes, remain unchanged,
+and yet the girl listens with fixed attention.
+
+But it seems to the captain as if these eyes gave their thoughts not so
+much to him as to the stocks which grow at St. Barbara's feet. He breaks
+off one and gives it to the child, that she may listen to what the
+flowers tell.
+
+The steersman sees this, away there by the tiller, and it displeases
+him. "You would do better," he growls in a voice like the rasping of a
+file, "instead of plucking the saint's flowers for that child, to burn a
+holy willow-wand at the lamp, for if the Lord drives us on to these
+stone monsters, even His own Son won't save us. Help, Jesu!"
+
+This aspiration would have been uttered by Johann Fabula, even if he
+were alone; but as the purifier sat close by, there followed this
+dialogue:
+
+"Why must the gentry pass the Iron Gate in such a storm?"
+
+"Why?" answered Johann Fabula, who did not forget his laudable habit of
+aiding the collection of his thoughts by a gulp out of the wicker
+brandy-flask. "Why? For no other reason but being in a hurry. Ten
+thousand measures of wheat are in our hold. In the Banat the crops
+failed; in Wallachia there was a good harvest. This is Michaelmas; if we
+don't make haste, November will be upon us, and we shall be frozen in."
+
+"And why do you think the Danube will freeze in November?"
+
+"I don't think--I know. The Komorn calendar says so. Look in my berth,
+it hangs by my bed."
+
+The purifier buried his nose in his hood, and spat his tobacco juice
+into the Danube.
+
+"Don't spit into the water in such weather as this--the Danube won't
+bear it. But what the Komorn calendar says is as true as Gospel. Ten
+years ago it prophesied that frost would set in in November; so I
+started at once to get home with my ship--then too I was in the 'St.
+Barbara'--the others laughed at me. But on the 23d of November cold set
+in, and half the vessels were frozen in, some at Apathin, and others at
+Foldvar. Then it was my turn to laugh. Help, Jesu! Hard over,
+he--e--e--!!"
+
+The wind was now dead ahead. Thick drops of sweat ran down the
+steersman's cheeks while he struggled to get the tiller over, but he
+asked for no help. Then he rewarded himself with a pull at his bottle,
+after which his eyes looked redder than ever.
+
+"Now if the Lord will only help us to pass that stone pier," groaned he
+in the midst of his exertions. "Pull away, you fellows there! If only we
+can get by this point!"
+
+"There's another beyond."
+
+"Yes, and then a third, and a thirteenth, and we must keep our
+mass-money ready in our mouths, for we are walking over our open coffins
+all the time."
+
+"Hark ye, my good friend," said the purifier, taking his plug out of
+his mouth, "I fancy your ship carries something besides wheat."
+
+Master Fabula looked askance at the purifier under his hood, and
+shrugged his shoulders. "What's that to me? If there's contraband on the
+ship, at any rate we sha'n't stop in quarantine, and we shall get on
+pretty quick."
+
+"How so?"
+
+The steersman made a circle with his thumb behind his back, on which the
+health-officer burst out laughing. Could he possibly have understood
+this pantomime?
+
+"Now, look you," said Johann Fabula, "since I was here last, the course
+of the river has altered; if I don't let her go a bit free we shall get
+into the new eddy which has formed under the 'Lovers' Rock.' Do you see
+that devilish monster which keeps swimming close to us? That's an old
+sturgeon--he must be at least five hundred-weight. If this beast keeps
+up with us, he'll bring us ill-luck. Help, Lord! If only he would come
+near enough for me to get the grappling-iron into him! The skipper is
+always sneaking up to the Greek girl instead of blowing his horn to the
+riders. She brings us misfortune--since she has been on board, we've had
+nothing but north wind; there's something wrong about her--she's as
+white as a ghost, and her eyebrows grow together like a witch's. Herr
+Timar, blow to the teamsmen, ho--ho--ho!"
+
+But Timar did not touch the horn, and went on telling legends of the
+rocks and water-falls to the white maiden.
+
+Beginning from the Iron Gate up to Clissera, each valley, each cave on
+both banks, every cliff, island, and every eddy in the stream has its
+history: a fairy tale, a legend, or an adventure with brigands, of which
+books, or sculptured inscriptions, or national songs, or fisherfolks'
+tradition tell the story. It is a library in stone, the names of the
+rocks are the lettered back of the volumes, and he who knows how to open
+them may read a romance therein.
+
+Michael Timar had long been at home in this library. With the vessel
+committed to his charge he had often made the passage of the Iron Gate,
+and every stone and island was familiar to him.
+
+Possibly he had another object with his legends and anecdotes besides
+the satisfaction of the girl's curiosity. When a highly strung creature
+has to pass through a great danger, which makes even a strong man's
+heart quake, then those who know the danger try to turn the attention of
+the ignorant person into the kingdom of marvels. Was it perhaps thus?
+
+Timéa listened to the story of the hero Mirko with his beloved, the
+faithful Milieva; how they fled to the peaks of the Linbigaja Rock out
+in the Danube; how there he alone defended the precipitous approach to
+his refuge, against all the soldiers of his pursuer Hassan; how they
+lived on the kids brought by the eagles to their nest on the cliff,
+cared not for the roar of the breakers round the base of their island,
+and felt no fear of the white surges thrown up by the compressed force
+of the narrowed current. Mariners call these woolly wave-crests the
+"Lovers' Goats."
+
+"It would be better to look ahead than astern," growled the steersman,
+and then exerted his voice in a loud call, "Haha! ho! skipper, what's
+that coming down on us?"
+
+The captain looked round, and saw the object pointed out by the pilot.
+The ship was now entering the Tatalia Pass, where the Danube is only two
+hundred fathoms wide, and has a rapid incline. It looks like a mountain
+torrent, only that this torrent is the Danube. And besides, the stream
+is here divided in two by a mass of rock whose top is covered with
+bushes. The water forks in two arms on the western side, of which one
+shoots under the steep precipice of the Servian bank, while the other
+discharges through an artificial channel a hundred yards wide, by which
+the large vessels pass up and down. In this part it is far from
+desirable that two ships should meet, for there is barely room for them
+to pass in safety. To the northward lie hidden rocks where a ship might
+strike, and to the southward is the great whirlpool formed by the
+junction of the two branches; if this should seize a vessel, no human
+power could save her.
+
+So that the danger which the steersman had announced by his question was
+a very real one.
+
+Two ships meeting in the Tatalia Pass with the river so high and under
+such a pressure of wind!
+
+Michael Timar asked for his telescope, which he had lent to Timéa to
+look at the place where Mirko had defended the beautiful Milieva.
+
+At the western curve of the river a dark mass was visible in the stream.
+
+Michael looked through his glass, and then called to the steersman, "A
+mill!"
+
+"Holy Father! then we are lost."
+
+A water-mill was driving down on them; probably the storm had loosened
+its chains from the bank. Obviously it was without pilot or oarsman, who
+must have fled to the shore; so it drifted blindly on, sweeping away the
+mills it met on its way, and sinking any cargo-boats which could not get
+out of its road.
+
+How could they escape between Scylla and Charybdis?
+
+Timar said not a word of this to Timéa, but gave her back the glass, and
+told her where to look for the eagles' nest whose ancestors had fed the
+lovers. Then he threw off his coat hastily, sprung into the barge where
+the rowers were, and made five of them get into the small boat with him;
+they were to bring the light anchor and thin cable with them, and cast
+off.
+
+Trikaliss and Timéa did not understand his orders, as he spoke
+Hungarian, which neither of them knew.
+
+The captain shouted to the steersman, "Keep her steady; go ahead!" In a
+few moments Trikaliss also could see what was the danger. The drifting
+mill came floating swiftly down the brawling stream, and one could see
+with the naked eye the clattering paddle-wheel, whose width occupied the
+whole fairway of the channel. If it touched the laden ship both must go
+down.
+
+The boat with the six men still struggled up against the current. Four
+of them rowed, one steered, and Timar stood in the bow with folded arms.
+
+What was their insane design? What could they do in a little boat
+against a great mill? What are human mind and muscles against stream and
+storm?
+
+If each were a Samson, the laws of hydrostatics would set at naught
+their strength. The shock with which they touch the mill will recoil on
+the skiff; if they grapple it they will be dragged away by it. It is as
+if a spider would catch a cockchafer in its web.
+
+The boat, however, did not keep in the center, but tried to reach the
+southern point of the island.
+
+So high were the waves that the five men disappeared again and again in
+the hollows between, then the next moment they danced on the foamy
+crest, tossed hither and thither by the willful torrent, seething under
+them like boiling water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE WHITE CAT.
+
+
+The oarsmen consulted in the boat what was to be done.
+
+One advised cutting through the side of the mill below the water-line
+with an ax, so as to sink it: but that would do no good; the current
+would drive the wreck down on to the ship.
+
+A second thought they ought to grapple the mill with hooks, and give it
+a list away, so as to direct it toward the whirlpool: but this counsel
+was also rejected, for the eddies would drag the boat down too.
+
+Timar ordered the man at the tiller to keep straight for the point of
+the island where the Lovers' Rock lies.
+
+When they approached the rapids he lifted the heavy anchor and swung it
+into the water without shaking the boat, which showed what muscular
+strength the delicate frame contained. The anchor took out a long coil
+of rope with it, for the water is deep there. Then Timar made them row
+as quickly as possible toward the approaching mill. Now they guessed his
+design--he meant to anchor the mill. Bad idea, said the sailors; the
+great mass will lie across the fairway, and stop the ship; besides, the
+cable is so long and slight that the heavy fabric will part it easily.
+
+When Euthemio Trikaliss saw from the vessel Timar's intention, he
+dropped his chibouque in a panic, ran along the deck and cried to the
+steersman to cut the tow-rope, and let the ship drift down-stream.
+
+The pilot did not understand Greek, but guessed from the old man's
+gestures what he wanted.
+
+With perfect calmness he answered as he leaned against the rudder,
+"There's nothing to grumble at; Timar knows what to do." With the
+courage of despair Trikaliss drew his dagger out of his girdle in order
+to cut the rope himself; but the steersman pointed toward the stern, and
+what Trikaliss saw there altered his mind.
+
+From the Lower Danube came a vessel toward them: an accustomed eye can
+distinguish it from afar. It has a mast whose sails are furled, a high
+poop, and twenty-four rowers.
+
+It is a Turkish brigantine.
+
+As soon as he caught sight of it, Trikaliss put his dagger back in his
+sash; if he had turned purple at what he saw ahead, now he was livid.
+He hastened to Timéa, who was looking through the glass at the peaks of
+Perigrada. "Give me the telescope!" he exclaimed in a hoarse voice.
+
+"Oh, how pretty that is!" said Timéa, as she gave up the glass.
+
+"What?"
+
+"On the cliffs there are little marmots playing together like monkeys."
+
+Euthemio directed the telescope toward the approaching vessel, and his
+brows contracted; his face was pale as death.
+
+Timéa took the glass from his hand and looked again for the marmots on
+the rocks. Euthemio kept his arm round her waist.
+
+"How they jump and dance and chase each other; how amusing!" and Timéa
+little knew how near she was to being lifted by the arm that held her,
+and plunged over the bulwarks into the foaming flood.
+
+But what Euthemio saw on the other side brought back into his face the
+color it had lost.
+
+When Timar arrived within a cast of the mill, he took a coil of the
+anchor-rope in his right hand; a hook was fastened to its end. The
+rudderless mass came quickly nearer, like some drifting antediluvian
+monster--blind chance guided it; its paddle-wheel turned swiftly with
+the motion of the water, and under the empty out-shoot the mill-stone
+revolved over the flour-bin as if it was working hard.
+
+In this fabric devoted to certain destruction, there was no living thing
+except a white cat, which sat on the red-painted shingle roof and mewed
+piteously.
+
+When he got close to the mill, Timar swung the rope and hook suddenly
+round his head, and aimed it at the paddle-wheel.
+
+As soon as the grappling-iron had caught one of the floats, the wheel,
+driven by water-power, began to wind up the rope gently, and so give the
+mill a gradual turn toward the Perigrada Island; completing by its own
+machinery the suicidal work of casting itself on the rocks.
+
+"Didn't I say Timar knew what he was about?" growled Johann Fabula;
+while Euthemio in joyful excitement exclaimed, "Bravo! my son," and
+pressed Timéa's hand so hard that she was frightened and even forgot the
+marmots.
+
+"There, look!"
+
+And now Timéa also noticed the mill. She required no telescope, for it
+and the ship were so near together that in the narrow channel they were
+only separated by about sixty feet.
+
+Just enough to let the diabolical machine get safely past.
+
+Timéa thought neither of the danger nor of the deliverance, only of the
+forsaken cat.
+
+When the poor animal saw the floating house and its inhabitants so near
+to it, it leaped up and began running up and down the roof-ridge, and to
+measure with its eye the distance between the mill and the ship, whether
+it dared jump.
+
+"Oh, the poor little cat!" cried Timéa, anxiously, "if we could only get
+near enough for it to come over to us."
+
+But from this misfortune the ship was preserved by its patron saint, and
+by the anchor-rope, which, wound up by the paddle-wheel, got shorter
+and shorter, and drew the wreck nearer the island and further from the
+vessel.
+
+"Oh, the poor pretty white cat!"
+
+"Don't be afraid," Euthemio tried to console her; "when it passes the
+rock the cat will spring ashore, and be very happy living with the
+marmots."
+
+Only unluckily the cat, keeping on the hither side of the roof, could
+not see the island.
+
+When the "St. Barbara" had got safely past the enchanted mill, Timéa
+waved her handkerchief to the cat, and called out first in Greek, and
+then in the universal cat's language, "Quick, look, jump off,
+puss-s-s-s;" but the animal, frantic with terror, paid no heed.
+
+At the very moment when the stern of the ship had passed the mill, the
+latter was suddenly caught by the current, swung round so that the
+grappled wheel broke, and the liberated mass shot like an arrow down the
+stream. The white cat sprung up to the ridge.
+
+"Ah!"
+
+But the mill rushed on its fate.
+
+Below the island is the great whirlpool.
+
+It is one of the most remarkable eddies ever formed by the river
+giants--on every map it is marked by two arrows meeting in a corner. Woe
+to the boat which is swept in the direction of either arrow! Round the
+great funnel the water boils and rages as in a seething caldron, and in
+the middle of the circle yawns the bare abyss below. This whirlpool has
+worn a hole in the rock a hundred and twenty feet deep, and what it
+takes with it into this tomb, no one ever sees again: if it should be a
+man, he had better look out for the resurrection. And into this place
+the current carried the mill. Before it reached there it sprung a leak
+and got a list over; the axle of the wheel stood straight on end; the
+white cat ran along to the highest point and stood there humping its
+back; the eddy caught the wooden fabric, carried it round in wide
+circles four or five times, turning on its own axis, creaking and
+groaning, and then it disappeared under the water. With it the white
+cat.
+
+Timéa shuddered and hid her face in her shawl.
+
+But the "St. Barbara" was saved.
+
+Euthemio pressed the hands of the returning oarsmen--Timar he embraced.
+Timar might have expected that Timéa would say a friendly word; but she
+only asked, pointing to the gulf with a disturbed face, "What is become
+of the mill?"
+
+"Chips and splinters!"
+
+"And the poor cat?" The girl's lips trembled, and tears stood in her
+eyes.
+
+"It's all up with her."
+
+"But the mill and the cat belonged to some poor man?" said Timéa.
+
+"Yes; but we had to save our ship and our lives, or else we should have
+been wrecked, and the whirlpool would have drawn us into the abyss, and
+only thrown up our bones on the shore."
+
+Timéa looked at the man who said this, through the prism of tear-filled
+eyes.
+
+It was a strange world into which she gazed through these tears. That
+it should be permissible to destroy a poor man's mill in order to save
+one's own ship, that you should drown a cat so as not to get into the
+water yourself!--she could not understand it. From this moment she
+listened no more to his fairy stories, but avoided him as much as
+possible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A DANGEROUS LEAP WITH A MAMMOTH.
+
+
+Indeed Timar had but little time for story-telling; for he had hardly
+got his breath after the exertions of his perilous achievement, before
+Euthemio gave him the glass and pointed where he was to look.
+
+"Gunboat--twenty-four oars--brigantine from Salonica."
+
+Timar did not put down the telescope till the other vessel was hidden
+from him behind the point of the Perigrada Island.
+
+Then suddenly he let it fall, and, putting the horn to his lips, blew
+first three, then six sharp blasts, at which the drivers whipped up
+their horses.
+
+The rocky island of Perigrada is surrounded by two branches of the
+Danube. The one on the Servian side is that by which cargo-ships pass
+up; it is safer and cheaper, for half the number of horses suffice. By
+the Roumanian shore there is also a narrow channel, with just room for
+one vessel, but here you must use oxen, of which often a hundred and
+twenty are harnessed. The other arm of the river is again narrowed by
+the little Reskival Island, lying across the stream. (Now this island
+has been blown up in part, but at the time of our story the whole still
+existed.) Through the narrows between the two islands the river shoots
+like an arrow; but above, it lies between its rocky walls like a great
+lake. Only this lake has no smooth surface, for it is always in motion,
+and never freezes in the very hardest winter. Its bottom is thickly sown
+with rocks; some are under water, while other uncouth monsters project
+many feet above it.
+
+This is the most dangerous part of the whole voyage. To this day,
+experienced seamen, English, Turks, Italians, at home on all seas,
+adventure themselves with much anxiety in this rock-strewn channel. Here
+the majority of shipwrecks occur. Here in the Crimean War the splendid
+Turkish man-of-war "Silistria" was lost. She had been ordered to
+Belgrade, and might have given a new turn to affairs if she had not
+received a thrust in the ribs from one of the Reskival rocks, so
+enthusiastic in their peace policy that they obliged her to stay where
+she was.
+
+Yet this lake, with its dangerous bottom, has a passage through it which
+but few ships know, and still fewer care to use.
+
+This short cut enables mariners to cross from the channel on the Servian
+side to the Roumanian shore. The latter channel is divided by a ledge of
+rock from the Upper Danube, and you can only enter it at Szvinicza, and
+come out at Szkela-Gladova.
+
+This is the dangerous leap with a floating mammoth.
+
+The captain blows first three, and then six blasts on his horn; the
+drivers know at once what it means, the leader of the team has
+dismounted--with good reason too--and they all begin with cries and
+blows to hurry on the horses. The vessel goes swiftly against the
+stream.
+
+The horn blows nine times.
+
+The drivers flog the horses furiously: the poor beasts understand the
+call and the blows, and tug till the rope is nearly strained to
+breaking. Five minutes of such effort are more exhausting than a whole
+day's labor.
+
+Now twelve blasts of the horn sound in rapid succession. Men and horses
+collect the last remnant of their strength. Every moment one fancies
+they must break down. The towing-rope, a three-inch cable, is as taut as
+a bow-string, and the iron bolt round which the rope is wound is burning
+hot with the friction. The captain stands by with a sharp ax in his
+hand.
+
+When the vessel gained its greatest impetus, with a single blow he
+severed the cable at the bow.
+
+The tense rope flew whistling like a giant fiddle-string into the air;
+the horses of the towing-team fell down in a heap, and the leader broke
+its neck--his rider had wisely dismounted. The ship, relieved of the
+strain, altered its course suddenly, and began, with its bow to the
+northern shore, to cut obliquely across the river.
+
+Sailors call this bold maneuver the "Cross-cut."
+
+The heavy bulk is now propelled neither by stream nor oars; even the
+current is against it. Merely the after effect of the shock it has
+received drives it over to the other bank.
+
+The calculation of this impulse, with the distance to be traversed and
+the resistance which lessens the speed, would be a credit to any
+practical engineer. Common sailors have learned it by rule of thumb.
+
+From the moment when Timar cut the tow-rope, the lives of all on board
+were in the hands of the steersman.
+
+Johann Fabula showed now what he could do. "Help, Lord Christ!" he
+muttered, but he did not keep his hands in his lap. Before him the ship
+rushed with winged speed into the lake formed by the Danube. Two men
+were now required at the tiller, and even these could hardly bridle the
+monster in its course.
+
+Timar stood on the prow and sounded with the lead, in one hand holding
+the line; the other he stretched up, and showed the pilot with his
+fingers what water they had.
+
+The steersman knew the rocks they were passing over just as well as he
+could have told exactly how much the river had risen in the last few
+weeks. In his hands the helm was safe; if he had made a single false
+movement, if only by an inch, the vessel would have received a shock
+which would stop her for a moment, and then she and all on board would
+have been driven head over heels into the Perigrada whirlpool, where the
+ship and the beautiful white girl would have joined the mill and the
+beautiful white cat.
+
+Safely past the shallows of the Reskival rapids! Yet this is a bad
+place. The speed is less, the effect of the motive power already
+paralyzed by the force of the stream, and the bottom sown with sharp
+rocks.
+
+Timéa leaned over the bulwarks and looked down into the water. Through
+the transparent waves, the bright-colored rocks, a huge mosaic of green
+and yellow and red, looked quite close. Between them shot silvery fishes
+with red fins. She was fascinated.
+
+Deep silence fell over the scene; each knew that he passed over his
+grave, and would owe it to God's mercy if he did not find his monument
+down below. Only the girl felt no emotion of fear.
+
+The vessel had arrived in a bay of rocks. Sailors have given them the
+name of "gun-stones"; perhaps because the sound of the breakers reminds
+one of the cracking of musketry fire.
+
+Here the principal branch of the Danube concentrates itself in a deep
+bed. The sunken rocks are too far under water to be dangerous. Below, in
+the dark-green depths, one may see the slow and indolent forms of the
+dwellers of the sea--the great sturgeon and the hundred-pound pike, at
+whose approach the bright shoals of small fish scatter in haste.
+
+Timéa gazed at the play of the aquatic population; it was like a
+bird's-eye view of an amphitheater.
+
+Suddenly she felt her arm seized by Timar, who dragged her from the
+bulwarks, pushed her into the cabin, and shut the door violently.
+
+"Look out! Halloo!" shouted the crew as with one voice.
+
+Timéa could not imagine what was happening that she should be so roughly
+treated, and ran to look out of the cabin window.
+
+It was only that the ship had passed safely through the "gun-rocks," and
+was about to enter the Roumanian channel; but from the little bay the
+water rushes so furiously into the canal that a regular water-fall is
+formed, and this is the dangerous moment of the "Leap."
+
+When Timéa looked out of the cabin window, she only saw that Timar stood
+at the bow with a grappler in his hand. Then suddenly a deafening noise
+arose, a huge foam-crowned mountain of water struck the fore part of the
+vessel, splashed its spray right against the window, and blinded Timéa
+for a moment. When she looked out again, the captain was no longer to be
+seen.
+
+There were great cries outside. She rushed out of the door and met her
+father. "Are we sinking?" she cried.
+
+Timéa had seen that: the big wave had washed him away before her eyes.
+But her heart beat no faster when she heard it.
+
+Curious! When she saw the white cat drowned, she was in despair, and
+could not refrain from tears, and now when the water had swallowed up
+the captain, she did not even say "Poor fellow!"
+
+Yes, but the cat had cried so pitifully, and this man defies the whole
+world; the cat was a dear little animal, the captain only a great rough
+man. And then the cat could not help itself; but he is strong and
+clever, and can certainly save himself. That's the only good of a man.
+
+After the last leap the ship was safe, and swam in the smooth water of
+the canal. The sailors ran with grappling-irons to the boat to seek the
+captain. Euthemio held a purse up as a prize for the rescue of Timar. "A
+hundred ducats for him who rescues the captain!"
+
+"Keep your hundred ducats, good sir!" cried the voice of the man in
+question from the other end of the ship. "I'm coming."
+
+Then they saw him climbing up the stern by the rudder-chains. No fear of
+his being lost!
+
+As if nothing had happened, he began giving orders. "Let go!"
+
+The three hundred-weight anchor was thrown over, and the ship brought up
+in the middle of the channel, so as to be hidden by the cliffs from the
+upper reaches of the river.
+
+"And now ashore with the boat," Timar ordered three oarsmen.
+
+"Change your clothes," advised Euthemio.
+
+"Waste of time," answered Timar. "I shall soon be wet again; now I am
+thoroughly soaked. We have no time to spare."
+
+The last words he whispered into Euthemio's ear.
+
+The man's eyes glittered as he agreed. The captain sprung into the boat
+and rowed himself, so as to get quicker to the post-house on the bank,
+where towing-teams could be engaged. He collected hastily eighty oxen.
+Meanwhile, a new towing-rope was attached to the vessel, the oxen
+harnessed, and before half an hour had passed, the "St. Barbara" was on
+her way again through the Iron Gate, and on the opposite side of the
+stream.
+
+When Timar returned on board, his exertions had dried his clothes.
+
+The ship was saved, perhaps doubly saved, and with it the cargo,
+Euthemio, and Timéa.
+
+But what are they to him that he should work so hard? He is only the
+captain and supercargo, and receives a scanty salary as such. It can not
+matter to him whether the vessel's hold is full of wheat or contraband
+tobacco or real pearls; his wages remain the same.
+
+So also thought the "purifier," who, when they reached the Roumanian
+canal, resumed his interrupted conversation with the steersman.
+
+"You'll allow, neighbor, that we were never nearer all going to
+destruction together than we were to-day."
+
+"There's some truth in that," answered Fabula.
+
+"But why should we try the experiment whether we could get drowned on
+St. Michael's day?"
+
+"H'm!" said Johann, and took a short pull at his brandy-flask. "What
+salary do you get, sir?"
+
+"Twenty kreutzers a day," answered the purifier.
+
+"Why the devil do you come here to venture your life for twenty
+kreutzers a day? I didn't send for you. I get a gulden and my food; so I
+have forty kreutzers more reason to venture my life than you. What does
+it matter to you?"
+
+The health-officer shook his head, and threw back his hood, so as to be
+more easily heard.
+
+"Listen," he said; "it strikes me the brigantine is chasing you, and the
+'St. Barbara' is trying to escape."
+
+"H'm!" coughed the steersman, clearing his throat, and becoming suddenly
+too hoarse to make a sound.
+
+"Well, it doesn't matter to me," said the purifier, with a shrug. "I'm
+Austrian born, and I don't like the Turks. But I know what I know."
+
+"Well, then, will the gentleman listen to what he doesn't know?" said
+Fabula, who had suddenly recovered his voice. "Certainly the gunboat is
+chasing us, and that's why we are showing him our heels. For, look you,
+they wanted to take the white-faced maiden into the sultan's harem, but
+her father would not consent; he preferred to escape with her from
+Turkey, and now the object is to reach Hungarian territory as quickly as
+possible--there the sultan can't touch her. Now that's all about it, so
+no more questions, but go to St. Barbara's picture, and light the lamp
+again if the water has extinguished it; and don't forget to burn three
+consecrated willow-twigs, if you're a good Christian."
+
+The purifier drew himself up slowly, and looked for his tinderbox, and
+then he growled in his beard--
+
+"_If_ I am an orthodox Catholic? But they say you are only a Papist on
+board, and a Calvinist directly you set foot on shore; that you pray in
+the ship, and can hardly wait for dry land before you begin cursing and
+swearing. And they say too that your name is Fabula, and that Fabula
+means just the same as a pocketful of lies. But of course I believe all
+you have told me, so you need not be angry."
+
+"You're quite right there; but now you be off, and don't you come back
+till I call you."
+
+The twenty-four rowers in the gunboat required three hours to get from
+the point where first the "St. Barbara" was seen to the Perigrada
+Island, where the Danube divides into two arms. The cliffs of the island
+masked the whole bend, and on board the brigantine nothing of what had
+passed behind them could be seen.
+
+Even below the island the gunboat had met with floating wreckage, which
+the eddy had thrown to the surface. This was part of the sunken mill,
+but could not be distinguished from the remains of a vessel. When the
+brigantine had passed the island a reach of a mile and a half lay open
+before her; neither in the stream nor by the bank was any large craft to
+be seen; near the shore were only barges and rowing-boats.
+
+The man-of-war went a little higher, cruised about in the river, and
+then returned to the shore. There the Turkish first-lieutenant inquired
+of the watchmen about a cargo-vessel passing by. They had seen nothing,
+for the ship had not got so far. Presently the brigantine overtook the
+"St. Barbara's" towing-team, and of them also questions were asked. They
+were all good Servians, and explained to the Turks where they could find
+the "St. Barbara."
+
+"She has gone down at the Perigrada Island with her cargo of fruit and
+all her crew; you can see here how the tow-rope parted."
+
+The Turkish brigantine left the Servian drivers, who were all lamenting
+because no one was left to pay their wages. (In Orsova they know full
+well they will come up with their ship and tow her on.) But the
+commander, being a Turk, of course turned about and went down-stream.
+
+When the brigantine got back to the island the sailors saw a board
+dancing on the water which did not float away. They fished it out: a
+rope was fastened to it by an iron hook, for the board was a float from
+the mill-wheel. Then they heaved up the rope, which had an anchor at its
+other end. This also was got in, and on its cross-piece, painted in
+great letters, there was the name "St. Barbara."
+
+Now the whole catastrophe was quite clear. Her towing-rope had broken,
+she cast her anchor, but it could not hold her, she drifted into the
+whirlpool, and now her timbers float on the surface, but her crew rests
+below in the deep pool.
+
+Mashallah! We can not follow her there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A STRICT SEARCH.
+
+
+The "St. Barbara" had escaped two dangers--the rocks of the Iron Gate
+and the Turkish brigantine; two remained, the Bora and the quarantine in
+Orsova.
+
+Above the bay of the Iron Gate, the powerful stream is confined by its
+steep banks in a chasm only a hundred fathoms wide, through which the
+pent-up current forces its way, in parts with a fall of twenty-eight
+feet.
+
+Up above the mountain peaks, three thousand feet in air, the eagles
+circle in majestic flight across the narrow strip of sky visible, whose
+pure azure, seen from the awful depths below, looks like a glass vault,
+and further yet rise more and higher peaks.
+
+It is a sight, I trow, to call up spirits from hell. The impotent
+vessel, which has neither hands nor feet, nor yet fins, which, like an
+overladen nutshell, floats upward in this narrow channel against wind
+and stream; and in it a handful of men, trusting in their intelligence
+and their strength. Here, too, even the Bora can not harm them, for the
+double range of cliffs keeps off the wind. The steersman and the
+towing-team have easier work now.
+
+But the Bora was not asleep. It was already afternoon. The chief
+steersman had given over the tiller to his deputy, and had gone to the
+galley, which was in the stern. There he was busy preparing a "thieves'
+roast," of which the recipe is to spit on a long skewer a piece of beef,
+a piece of ham, and a piece of pork alternately, and then turn the
+skewer above an open fire till the meat is cooked.
+
+All at once the narrow strip of sky visible between the almost touching
+cliffs grew dark. The Bora will not be defied.
+
+Suddenly it drives down before it a storm which overcasts the blue sky,
+so that it is pitch dark in the valley. Up above masses of cloud; dark
+rocks on either hand. Now and then a dazzling flash darts through the
+heights, followed by a short abrupt thunderclap, as if the narrow gorge
+could only contain one chord of the awful concert; then again the
+lightning shoots into the Danube just in front of the ship, and by its
+fiery rays for an instant the whole rocky cathedral looks like the
+flaming gulf of hell, and the thunder rolls, with a crash as of a world
+destroyed, from one end of the resounding Titan's hall to the other.
+Rain falls in torrents, but the vessel must go on.
+
+It must get on, that it may have left Orsova before night.
+
+They can only see by the flicker of the lightning. Even with the horn
+they dare not signal, for it might be heard on the Roumanian side. But
+inventive man has found a way out of this difficulty.
+
+The captain goes into the bow, gets out his flint and steel, and begins
+to strike out sparks. This fire can not be extinguished by rain; it can
+be seen by the drivers through the darkness, and as often as the steel
+strikes a spark they know at once what to do; they also make signals
+from the bank by sparks. This is the secret telegraph of sailors and
+smugglers at the Iron Gate. And this silent language has been brought to
+perfection by the shore population on each side of the river.
+
+Timéa liked the tempest. She had drawn her Turkish hood over her head,
+and looked out of the cabin window. "Are we in a cavern?" she asked the
+captain.
+
+"No," answered Timar, "but at the door of a tomb. That high peak, which
+glows in the lightning flashes like a mountain of fire, is the grave of
+St. Peter, the 'Gropa lui Petro.' And the two other monsters near it are
+the 'Two Old Women.'"
+
+"What old women?"
+
+"According to the legend, a Hungarian and a Wallachian woman quarreled
+as to which of their two countries could claim the tomb of St. Peter.
+The apostle could not sleep in his grave for their squabbling, and in
+his anger he turned them into stone."
+
+Timéa did not smile at the grotesque legend. She did not see anything
+ridiculous in it. "And how do they know that this is the grave of an
+apostle?" asked she.
+
+"Because here many healing herbs grow, which they collect to cure all
+sorts of diseases, and send them great distances."
+
+"So they call him an apostle, who even in his grave does good to
+others?" Timéa questioned.
+
+"Timéa!" sounded from the cabin the imperious call of Euthemio. The girl
+drew back her head from the window, and closed the circular shutter.
+When Timar looked round again, he saw only the saint's picture.
+
+The vessel continued her course in spite of the storm.
+
+Suddenly the dark ravine was left behind, and as the two rock walls
+trended further apart the gloomy vault overhead disappeared. Just as
+rapidly as the Bora had brought up the black thunderclouds, so quickly
+had it swept away the storm; and, all at once, the travelers saw
+stretched before them the lovely Cserna valley.
+
+The cliffs on both shores were covered to their summits with vineyards
+and fruit orchards; the landscape glittered in the glow of the evening
+sun; out of the green distance shone while houses, slender spires, and
+red roofs, and through the crystal rain-beads gleamed a gorgeous
+rainbow.
+
+The Danube had lost its uncanny aspect. In its wider bed it could spread
+itself out comfortably; and on the western reaches of its sea-green
+mirror the travelers saw the reflection of Orsova on its island--for
+them the fourth, and greatest, bugbear.
+
+The day had already sunk into twilight when the "St. Barbara" arrived at
+Orsova.
+
+"More wind to-morrow than even to-day," grumbled the steersman, looking
+at the red sky.
+
+There the evening clouds were piled like an avalanche, in all shades of
+fiery and blood red, and if the glowing mist-veil parted through the
+rent, the sky was not blue but emerald-green. Below, mountain and
+valley, forest and field, gleamed in the sunset reflex with radiance
+which hurt the eye, unable to find a shady point of rest. The Danube
+rushing on beneath, like a fiery Phlegethon, and in its midst an island
+with towers and massive buildings, all glowing as if part of a huge
+furnace, through which every creature, coming from the pestilential east
+to the frontier of the healthy west, must pass as through purgatory.
+
+But what most fixed the attention of the crew under this stormy sunset
+was a black-and-yellow striped boat, which was being rowed from the
+shore to the ship.
+
+The Szkela is the double gate through which the neighboring inhabitants
+of both sides of the Danube speak, bargain, and do business together.
+
+The "St. Barbara" had cast anchor before the island, and awaited the
+approaching boat, in which were three armed men--two with muskets and
+bayonets--besides two rowers and the steersman.
+
+Euthemio paced anxiously up and down the small space in front of the
+cabin. Timar approached him and whispered, "The searcher is coming."
+
+Trikaliss drew from his leathern pouch a silk purse, and took out two
+_rouleaux_, which he pressed into Timar's hand. In each were a hundred
+ducats.
+
+Before long the boat was alongside, and the three armed men came on
+board. One is the overseer of taxes, the inspector, whose office it is
+to search the cargo for anything contraband or a prohibited importation
+of arms; the other two are custom-house officials, who render armed
+assistance, and serve as a check on the inspector to see if he carries
+out the search properly.
+
+The purifier is the official spy, who reports whether the two officers
+have properly controlled the inspector. Then the latter three form a
+tribunal, which takes the evidence of the purifier as to whether he has
+detected the passengers in any infectious communication. This is all
+very systematically arranged, so that one organ should control the
+other, and each be mutually under inspection.
+
+As a legal fee for these functions the chief has to receive a hundred
+kreutzers, each of the customs officials fifty, and the purifier also
+fifty--which certainly is a moderate fee enough.
+
+As soon as the inspector reaches the deck, the purifier comes toward
+him: the former scratches his ear and the latter his nose. No contact
+takes place.
+
+Then the inspector turns to the captain, and both the other officials
+ground their arms. Still three paces apart! One can't tell whether the
+man has not got the plague.
+
+The examination begins.
+
+"Where from?"
+
+"Galatz."
+
+"Name of ship's owner?"
+
+"Athan Brazovics."
+
+"Owner of cargo?"
+
+"Euthemio Trikaliss."
+
+"Where are the ship's papers?"
+
+The reception of these is carefully arranged. A pan of live coals is
+brought, and strewn with juniper-berries and wormwood: the aforesaid
+papers are held over it and well smoked, then taken by the inspector
+with a pair of tongs, read from as great a distance as possible, and
+afterward returned. Nothing wrong, apparently, with the ship's papers.
+
+The pan is carried away, and in its place a jug of water is brought. It
+is a capacious earthenware pot, with a mouth through which the largest
+fist can pass. It serves to facilitate the transmission of the tax. As
+the oriental plague is more easily communicated by coins than by
+anything else, the sailors coming from the Levant must throw the money
+into a jug of water, in order that the western health-officer may take
+it out cleansed: just as at the Szkela every one must fish the money he
+receives out of a basin.
+
+Timar thrust his clinched fist into the water, and brought it out open.
+
+Then the inspector puts his hand in, draws it out as a clinched fist,
+and transfers it to his pocket. He does not need to look at it by the
+sunset light to see what manner of money it is. He knows it by the size
+and weight. Even a blind man knows the feel of ducats. He does not
+change a muscle.
+
+After him come the custom-house officials. These also with serious faces
+fish up their fee from the bottom of the jug.
+
+Now for the turn of the purifier. His countenance is stern and
+forbidding. It hangs on a single word from his lips, whether the ship
+may have to lie ten or twenty days in quarantine with all her
+passengers. There are cold-blooded men like that who have only an eye to
+duty.
+
+The inspector demands, in a surly, dictatorial tone, that the entrance
+to the lower deck be opened. His desire is obeyed. They all three go
+down; but none of the crew may follow them. When they are alone, the
+three strict servants of the law grin at each other. The purifier
+remains on deck, and only laughs in his sleeve.
+
+They unfasten one of the many sacks, in which certainly there is only
+wheat. "Well, I hope it's moldy enough," remarks the inspector.
+"Probably there is only wheat in the other sacks, and very likely even
+more worm-eaten."
+
+A document is now drawn up describing the search: one of the armed
+officials has the writing materials, and the other the form to be filled
+in. All is accurately set down. Then the inspector writes something on a
+bit of paper, which he folds and seals with a wafer, on which he presses
+the official seal. He writes no address on the note.
+
+Then, after they have rummaged in every hole and corner where nothing
+suspicious is hidden, the three searchers rise to the light of day once
+more. At least to moonlight; for the sun has set, and through the
+hurrying clouds the moon ever and anon peeps down, and then vanishing,
+plays hide-and-seek with the world.
+
+The inspector calls for the captain and gives him to understand--still
+in a severe official manner--that nothing suspicious has been found on
+board: then he requires the purifier, in the same manner, to declare the
+condition of the ship's health.
+
+With an appeal to his oath of fidelity, the purifier bears witness that
+every person on board, as well as the cargo, is free from infection.
+
+A certificate that the papers are in order is prepared, and the receipts
+for the fees are handed over. A hundred kreutzers to the inspector, two
+fifties to the customs officers, and fifty to the health-officer. Not a
+kreutzer is wanting. These receipts are delivered to the owner of the
+cargo, who has never left his cabin the whole time--he is at supper. He
+also must countersign the receipts. From these signatures and
+indorsements, the shipowner and the honorable officials in question
+mutually learn that the captain gave away as many kreutzers as he
+received, and that not one remained sticking to his fingers.
+
+Kreutzers! Well, yes; but about the gold?
+
+The thought may well have passed through Timar's head, how would it be
+if of the fifty ducats which this dirty lot were to fish out of the jug
+he were only to put in forty (a fabulous sum to such fellows)? No
+creature would know that he had kept back ten. Indeed he might easily
+retain half of the whole sum, for who is there to control it? Those for
+whom the money is intended are quite enough rewarded with half.
+
+Another thought possibly answered thus. "What you are doing is without
+doubt bribery. You don't corrupt them with your own money, but Trikaliss
+gives it because his interests imperatively require it. You hand over
+the gold, and are as innocent of the bribery as the water-jug. Why he
+wants to bribe the inspector you do not know. Whether the ship carries
+contraband goods, whether he is a political refugee, or the persecuted
+hero of a romantic adventure, who in order to assist his escape strews
+gold in handfuls, what does it matter to you? But if one single gold
+piece sticks to your fingers, you become an accomplice in all which
+burdens another's conscience. Keep none of it."
+
+The inspector gave permission for the vessel to proceed, in token of
+which a red-and-white flag with a black eagle on it was hoisted to the
+masthead. Then, after thus officially certifying that the ship from the
+Levant was quite free of infection, the inspector, without any previous
+ordeal by water, pressed the captain's hand and said to him: "You come
+from Komorn? Then you know Herr Katschuka, chief of the commissariat
+department? Be good enough to give him this note when you get home.
+There is no address on it--not necessary, you won't forget his name; it
+sounds like a Spanish dance. Take him the letter as soon as ever you get
+there. You won't be sorry."
+
+Then he clapped the captain most graciously on the shoulder, as if to
+make him his debtor for life, and the whole four left the ship and
+returned to Szkela in their black-and-yellow boat.
+
+The "St. Barbara" could now continue her voyage, and if all her sacks
+from the keel to the deck had been filled with salt or Turkish tobacco,
+and all her passengers covered with small-pox or leprosy from top to
+toe, no one could stop her any more on the Danube.
+
+Now, however, there was on board neither contraband goods nor contagion,
+but--something else. Timar put the unaddressed note into his pocket-book
+and wondered what it contained.
+
+This was what was written--
+
+     "BROTHER-IN-LAW,--I recommend to you the bearer of this
+     letter. He is a man of sterling worth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE OWNERLESS ISLAND.
+
+
+The towing-team left behind on the Servian bank crossed over the same
+night in ferry-boats to the Hungarian side with their severed hawser,
+spreading everywhere the news that the tow-rope had parted of itself at
+the dangerous Perigrada Island, and the ship had gone down with every
+soul on board. In the morning there was no longer a sign of the "St.
+Barbara" in the harbor of Orsova. If by chance the commandant of the
+Turkish brigantine had had an idea of rowing up the channel from the
+Iron Gate to Orsova, he would not have found what he sought; and above,
+as far as Belgrade, only half the Danube belonged to him: on the
+Hungarian side he had no jurisdiction, but the fortress at New Orsova
+belonged to him.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning the "St. Barbara" left Orsova. After
+midnight the north wind generally stops; the favorable time must be
+utilized, and the crew had received a double ration of brandy to keep
+them in a good humor.
+
+The departure was quite silent: from the walls of the New Orsova fort
+sounded the long call of the Turkish sentries. The horn gave no signal
+till the Allion point had disappeared behind the new mountain-chain.
+
+At the first blast Timéa came from her cabin, where she had slept for a
+few hours, and went, wrapped in her white burnoose, to the bow to look
+for Euthemio, who had never lain down all night, nor entered his cabin,
+nor even--which was more remarkable--smoked at all. He was not allowed
+to light any fire on board the ship, so as to avoid attracting attention
+to the vessel at the Orsova fortress.
+
+Perhaps Timéa felt that she had to make up for a fault, for she
+addressed Timar, and asked him about the wonders of both shores.
+
+The instinct of her childish heart whispered to her that she owed this
+man a debt of gratitude.
+
+Dawn found the ship near Ogradina. The captain drew Timéa's attention to
+a monument eighteen hundred years old. This was "Trajan's Tablet," hewn
+in the precipitous cliff, held by two winged genii and surrounded by
+dolphins. On the tablet is the inscription which commemorates the
+achievements of the godlike emperor. If the peaks of the great
+"Sterberg" have vanished from the Servian shore, there follows a fresh
+rock corridor, which confines the Danube in a ravine five hundred
+fathoms wide. This mountain hall goes by the name of "Kassan." Cliffs of
+two to three thousand feet high rise right and left, their curves lost
+in opal-colored mist. From one precipice a stream falls a thousand feet
+out of a cave, like a delicate silver streak, dissolved in spray before
+it reaches the river. The two rock faces run on unbroken, only in one
+part the mountain is split, and through the rift laughs the blooming
+landscape of an alpine valley, with a white tower in the background. It
+is the tower of Dubova: there is Hungary.
+
+Timéa never turned her gaze from this spectacle until the ship had
+passed, and the mountains had closed over the exquisite scene, hiding
+the deep chasm in their shadows.
+
+"I feel," she said, "as if we were going through a long, long prison,
+into a land from which there is no return."
+
+The precipices grow higher, the surface of the Danube darker, and, to
+complete the wild and romantic panorama, there is visible on the
+northern face a cave whose mouth is surrounded by an earthquake with
+embrasures for cannon.
+
+"That is Veterani's Cavern," said the captain. "There, more than a
+century ago, three hundred men and five cannon held out for forty days
+against a whole Turkish army." Timéa shook her head. But the skipper
+knew more still about the cavern.
+
+"Forty years ago our people defended that cave in a bloody struggle
+against the Turks; the Osmanli lost over two thousand men among the
+rocks."
+
+Timéa drew together her delicate eyebrows and threw the narrator an
+icy-cold glance, so that all his eloquence died in his throat. She hid
+her mouth with her burnoose, turned from Timar, went into the cabin, and
+did not reappear till evening. She only looked through the little window
+at the toppling crags on the bank, the massive watch-towers now
+deserted, the wooded cliffs of the Klissura valley, and the rock-colossi
+projecting from the stream, as they swept by her. She did not even ask
+for the history of the octagonal castle-donjon, with three small ones
+beside it inside a bastion. And yet she would have heard the fate of the
+lovely Cecilia Rozgonyi, the danger of King Sigismund, and the defeat of
+the Hungarians. This ruin is the Galamboczer Tower.
+
+From first to last this double shore is a petrified history of two
+nations, mutually shadowed by a mad vagary of fate with the lust of
+conquest, which makes them fly at each other's throats directly a war
+begins.
+
+It is a long crypt containing the bones of many a hundred thousand
+heroes.
+
+Timéa did not come out that day or the next. She sketched little views
+in her book, which she could hold quite steady on the smoothly gliding
+vessel.
+
+Three days passed before the "St. Barbara" arrived where the Morava
+falls into the Danube.
+
+At the junction lies Semendria. On the thirty-six towers of this
+fortress have waved the banners sometimes of the Blessed Virgin and anon
+of the Crescent, and their circular brown walls are sprinkled with the
+blood of many nations. On the other shore of the Morava stand only the
+bare walls of the forsaken "Veste Kulics," and beyond the Ostrovaer
+Island frown down from a peak the ruins of the castle of Rama, now only
+a monument.
+
+But this is not the moment to stand gazing at them--no one is inclined
+to indulge in melancholy reflections on the vanished greatness of fallen
+nations, for there is more pressing work on hand.
+
+As soon as the Hungarian plains open out, the north wind storms down on
+the ship with such force that the towing-horses can not make head
+against it, and the wind drives the vessel toward the opposite shore.
+
+"We can get no further," is the general opinion.
+
+Trikaliss exchanges a few private words with Timar, who goes to the
+pilot. Master Fabula makes the tiller fast and leaves it. Then he calls
+the rowers on board, and signs to the shore to stop the team. Here
+neither oars nor towing are of use. The ship is above the Orsova Island,
+which stretches a long pointed tongue into the stream: its northern side
+is steep and rugged, overgrown with old willows.
+
+The task now is to get over to the south of the island, where the "St.
+Barbara" can lie in a harbor protected from the north wind, as well as
+from the curious eyes of men; for the wider stream which circles round
+the island toward Servia is not used by sailors, being full of
+sand-banks and fords.
+
+It is a work of skill to approach: cutting the cable is no use, for the
+ship could not carry any way against such a wind. The only solution is
+hauling to the anchor.
+
+The vessel casts anchor in mid-stream: the towing-rope is brought on
+board; to its end a second anchor is attached and placed in the boat.
+The rowers go toward the island till the whole length of the cable is
+out, then cast anchor and return to the ship. Now they weigh the first
+anchor, and four men haul on the cable made fast to the windlass. Heavy
+work!
+
+When the vessel is close up to the anchor, they put the other in the
+boat, row forward, cast anchor again, and haul up as before. So by the
+sweat of their brow they made their way up-stream step by step. It took
+them half a day of hard labor to work the heavy cargo-ship from the
+middle of the Danube to the point of the great island. A fatiguing day
+for those who had to work, and wearier still to look on at. The vessel
+had left the frequented branch, where, at any rate, one saw ruins from
+time to time, where one met other ships, or floated by long lines of
+clattering mills: it now passed through the unfrequented channel, where
+the view was hidden on the right by a long ugly island, on which only
+poplars and willows seemed to grow, nowhere a human habitation to be
+seen, and on the left the water was covered by a thick sea of reeds,
+among which the only sign of _terra firma_ was a group of slender,
+silver-leaved poplars.
+
+In this quiet uninhabited spot the "St. Barbara" was brought up. And now
+appeared a new calamity--the food was exhausted. When leaving Galatz,
+they had reckoned on the usual halt at Orsova for the purpose of
+shipping provisions; but after starting so suddenly at night, they found
+there was nothing on board when they reached the island of Orsova but a
+little coffee and sugar, and in Timéa's possession a box of Turkish
+sweets and preserved fruits, which, however, she would not open, because
+it was intended as a present.
+
+"Never mind," said Timar; "somebody must live on one shore or the other.
+There are lambs and kids everywhere, and one can get anything for
+money."
+
+Another misfortune set in. The anchored ship was so rolled about by the
+wind-driven waves of the river, that Timéa got seasick and frightened.
+
+Perhaps there was some house where she and her father could spend the
+night.
+
+Timar's sharp eyes discovered that above the tops of the poplars rising
+from the reeds a faint smoke hovered in the air. "There must be a house
+there. I will go and see who lives in it."
+
+There was a small skiff on board, which the captain used on sporting
+expeditions, at times when the ship was delayed by foul winds, and he
+had leisure for wildfowl-shooting. He lowered it into the water, took
+his gun, his game-bag, and a landing-net--one never knows what may come
+in one's way, a bird or a fish--and went toward the bed of rushes,
+rowing and steering with one and the same oar. Being an experienced
+marsh-sportsman, he soon found the one opening in the reeds through
+which it was possible to penetrate, and recognized by the vegetation the
+depth of the channel.
+
+Where the great leaves and snowy cups of the water-lily float on the
+surface, there is deep water which scours the weeds and mud away; in
+other places duckweed forms a green carpet on the top, and on this
+floating velvet cowers the poisonous water-fungus in the form of a
+turnip-radish, blue and round, and swelled like a puff ball--deadly
+poison to every living thing. When Timar's oar struck one of these
+polyp-like fungi, the venomous dust shot out like a blue flame. The
+roots of this plant live in a fetid slime which would suffocate man or
+beast who should fall into it; nature has given this vegetable murderer
+a habitat where it is least accessible. But where the cardinal-flower
+spreads its clubbed suckers, and where the beautiful bells of the
+water-violet sway among the rushes, there is gravel, which is not always
+under water. And where the manna tendrils begin to form a thicket, in
+pressing through which the sailor finds the brim of his hat full of
+little seeds--the food of the poor, manna of the wilderness--there must
+be higher ground, so that only the root of the plant is submerged.
+
+The boatman who does not know these vegetable guides might lose himself
+in the reed-beds, and not get out all day.
+
+When Timar had worked his way through the brake, which formed a
+labyrinth of flesh-colored flower-clusters, he saw before him what he
+sought--an island.
+
+No doubt this was a new alluvial formation, of which no trace was to be
+found on the latest maps.
+
+In the bed of the right arm of the Danube lay long ago a great bowlder,
+at whose base the sluggish current had deposited a sand-bank.
+
+During some winter flood, the ice-floes tore from the Ostrova Island a
+spit of land bearing earth, stones, and a small wood. This mingled
+deluge of ice, gravel, and trees flung itself on the sand-bank near the
+bowlder. Repeated inundations spread over it year by year layers of mud,
+and enlarged its circumference by fresh deposits of pebbles: from the
+moldering tree-trunks sprung a luxuriant vegetation as quickly as the
+natural creations of the New World; and so arose a nameless island, of
+which no one had taken possession, over which was no landlord, no king,
+no authority, and no church--which belonged to no country and no
+diocese. In Turco-Servian territory there are many such paradises,
+neither plowed nor sown, not even used for pasture. They are the home of
+wild flowers and wild beasts, and God knows what besides.
+
+The northern shore plainly proclaims its genesis. The gravel moraine is
+heaped there like a barricade, often in pieces larger than a man's head;
+between are tufts of rushes and rotten branches; the shallows are
+covered with green and brown river-shells; on the marshy parts round
+holes are washed out, in which, at the sound of approaching footsteps,
+hundreds of crabs rush to hide. The shore is covered along its whole
+length with prickly willow, which the ice-floes shave off every winter
+close to the root.
+
+Here Timar drew his boat ashore and tied it to a tree. Pressing forward,
+he had to push his way through a thicket of huge willows and
+poplars--overthrown in many places by repeated storms--and there the
+fruitful bramble forms a thorny undergrowth, and tall valerian, shooting
+upward from the weather-beaten soil, mixes its aromatic scent with the
+wholesome smell of the poplar.
+
+On a level depression where are neither trees nor bushes, luxuriant
+umbelliferous plants rise amid the grass over a swamp--hemlock and
+"Sison Amonum," smelling of cinnamon. In an isolated tuft like a
+vegetable aristocrat glitter the fiery blossoms of the veratrum; among
+the grass the forget-me-not spreads rankly, and the medicinal comfrey
+with red flowers full of honey. No wonder if in the hollows of the old
+trees there are so many wild bees' nests. And among the flowers rise
+curious green, brown and red capsules, the ripe seed-vessels of bulbous
+plants which bloom in spring.
+
+On this flowery region follows more forest; but here the willows and
+poplar are mixed with wild apple-trees, and white-thorn forms the
+underwood. The island is higher here.
+
+Timar stopped and listened. No sound. There can be no wild beasts on
+this island. The floods have exterminated them, and the place is only
+inhabited by birds.
+
+Even among birds the lark and the wood-pigeon do not come here: it is no
+dwelling for them. They seek places where men live and sow and cultivate
+grain. But two creatures live here which betray the presence of man--the
+wasp and the blackbird; both of which come after the ripe fruit which
+they passionately love. Where the great wasps' nests hang from the
+trees, and where the blackbird's alluring whistle sounds in the hedges,
+there must be fruit. Timar followed the blackbird. After he had pushed
+through the prickly whitethorn and the privet-bushes which tore his
+clothes, he stood transfixed with admiration.
+
+What he saw before him was a paradise.
+
+A cultivated garden of five or six acres, with fruit-trees, not planted
+in rows, but in picturesquely scattered groups, whose boughs were
+weighed down by their sweet burden. Apple and pear-trees covered with
+glittering red and yellow fruit, plums of all colors looking as if the
+shining crop were turned to roses and lilies, the fallen surplus lying
+unnoticed on the ground. Beneath, a regular plantation formed of
+raspberry, currant, and gooseberry bushes, with their red, yellow, and
+green berries; and the spaces between the large trees filled by the
+hanging branches of the Sidonian apple or quince.
+
+There was no path through this labyrinth of fruit-trees--the ground
+underneath was covered with grass.
+
+But where you can see through, a flower-garden beckons you on. It is
+also a collection of wonderful field blossoms not to be found in an
+ordinary garden: the roots of blue campanula, swallow-wort, with its
+fleecy seed-vessels from which a sort of silk is collected, the spotted
+turban-lily, alkermes, with its scarlet berries, the splendid butterfly
+orchis--all of these raised to the rank of garden-flowers, bear witness
+to the presence of man. And this is further betrayed by the dwelling
+from which the smoke comes.
+
+It also is a fantastic little refuge. Behind it stands a great rock, in
+which is an excavation, where the hearth must be, and another hole for
+the cellar. At the top is a chimney, from which a blue cloud arises. A
+building of stone and clay tiles is stuck on to the cliff; it has two
+rooms, each with a window. One window is smaller, and one room lower
+than the other; both are roofed with rushes; each has a wooden porch,
+forming a veranda, with fanciful ornaments made of little bits of wood.
+
+Neither stone, clay, nor wood-work can be distinguished, so thickly is
+it covered on the south side with vines, out of whose frost-bitten
+leaves thousands of red and gold bunches peep out. On the northern side
+it is overgrown with hops, whose ripe clusters hide even the pinnacle of
+the great rock with their greenish gold; and on its highest point tufts
+of house-leek are planted, so that no spot may remain which is not
+green.
+
+Here women live.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ALMIRA AND NARCISSA.
+
+
+Timar turned his steps toward the creeper-covered cottage. Through the
+flower-garden a path led to the house, but so covered with grass that
+his steps were not heard, and he could thus get as far as the little
+veranda quite noiselessly. Neither far nor near was a human being
+visible.
+
+Before the veranda lay a large black dog--one of the noble race of
+Newfoundland, generally so sensible and dignified as to forbid undue
+familiarity on the part of strangers. The aforesaid quadruped was one of
+the finest of the race--a colossal beast, and occupied the whole width
+of the door-way.
+
+The sable guardian appeared to be asleep, and took no notice of the
+approaching stranger, nor of another creature which left no fool-hardy
+impertinence untried in order to tax the patience of the huge animal.
+This was a white cat, which was shameless enough to turn somersaults
+back and forward over the dog's recumbent form, to strike it on the nose
+with her paw, and at last to lay herself before it on her back, and take
+one of its webbed paws between her four soft feet and play with it like
+a kitten. When the great black porter found its foot tickled, it drew it
+back and gave the cat the other paw to play with.
+
+Timar did not think to himself--"Suppose this black colossus seizes me
+by the collar, it will go hard with me;" but he thought, "Oh! how
+delighted Timéa will be when she sees this white cat."
+
+You could not pass the dog and get in--it barred the whole entrance.
+Timar coughed, to announce that some one was there. Then the great dog
+raised its head and looked at the new-comer with its wise nut-brown
+eyes, which, like the human eye, can weep and laugh, scold and flatter.
+Then it laid its head down again, as much as to say, "Only one man; it's
+not worth while to get up."
+
+But Timar decided that where a chimney smokes, there's a fire in the
+kitchen; so he began from outside to wish this invisible some one
+"Good-morning," alternately in three languages--Hungarian, Servian and
+Roumanian. Suddenly a female voice answered in Hungarian from within,
+"Good-day. Come in then. Who is it?"
+
+"I should like to come in, but the dog's in the way."
+
+"Step over it."
+
+"Won't it bite?"
+
+"She never hurts good people."
+
+Timar took courage and stepped across the powerful animal, which did not
+move, but raised its tail as if to wag him a welcome.
+
+Going into the veranda, Timar saw two doors before him: the first one
+led to the stone building, the other to the grotto hollowed in the rock.
+The latter was the kitchen. There he observed a woman busy at the
+hearth.
+
+Timar saw at a glance that she was not preparing a magic potion of
+witch's cookery, but simply roasting Indian-corn.
+
+The woman thus occupied was a thin but strong and sinewy figure, with a
+dark skin; in her compressed lips lay something severe, though her eye
+was soft and inspired confidence. Her sunburned face betokened her age
+as not much over thirty. She was not dressed like the peasants of the
+district; her clothes were not bright in color, but yet not suited to
+towns.
+
+"Now, come nearer and sit down," said the woman, in a singularly hard
+voice, which, however, was perfectly quiet; and then she shook the
+floury snow-white Indian-corn into a plaited rush-basket, and offered it
+to him. Afterward she fetched a jug which stood on the floor, and gave
+him elder-wine, this also just freshly made.
+
+Timar sat down on the stool offered him, which was skillfully woven of
+various osiers, and of a curious shape. Then the Newfoundland, rising,
+approached the guest and lay down in front of him.
+
+The woman threw the dog a handful of the white confectionery, which it
+at once began to crack in the proper way. The white cat attempted to do
+the same, but the first cracked kernel of the maize stuck in her teeth,
+and she did not try it again. She shook the paw with which she had
+touched it, and sprung up to the hearth, where she blinked with much
+interest at an unglazed pot which was simmering by the fire, and
+probably held something more to her taste.
+
+"A magnificent beast," said Timar, looking at the dog. "I wonder it is
+so gentle; it has not even growled at me."
+
+"She never hurts good people, sir. If a stranger comes who is honest,
+she knows it directly, and is as quiet as a lamb--doesn't even bark;
+but if a thief tries to get in, she rages at him as soon as he sets foot
+on the island, and woe to him if she gets her teeth in. She is a
+formidable creature! Last winter a large wolf came over the ice after
+our goats--look, there is his skin on the floor of the room. In a moment
+the dog had throttled him. An honest man can sit on her back, she won't
+touch him."
+
+Timar was quite satisfied to have such excellent evidence of his
+honesty. Who knows, perhaps, if some of those ducats had lost their road
+in his pocket, he might have been differently received by the great dog?
+
+"Now, sir, where do you come from, and what do you want of me?"
+
+"First, I must beg you to excuse my having pushed through the thorns and
+bushes into your garden. The storm has driven my vessel over to this
+bank, so I was obliged to run for shelter under the Ostrova Island."
+
+"Indeed, yes; I can hear by the rustle of the branches that a strong
+wind is blowing."
+
+This place was so completely sheltered by the virgin forest, that one
+could feel no wind, and only knew by the sound when it blew.
+
+"We must wait for a change of wind before the storm blows over. But our
+provisions have run out, so I was forced to seek the nearest house from
+which I saw smoke rising, to ask the housewife whether for money and
+fair words we could get food for the crew."
+
+"Yes, you can have what you want, and I don't mind being paid for it,
+for that's what I live on. We can serve you with kids, maize-flour,
+cheese, and fruit; choose what you want. This is the trade which keeps
+us; the market-women round about fetch away our wares in boats: we are
+gardeners."
+
+Till now Timar had seen no human being except this woman; but as she
+spoke in the plural, there must be others besides herself.
+
+"I thank you beforehand, and will take some of everything. I will send
+the steersman from the ship to fetch the things; but tell me, my good
+lady, what's to pay? I want food for my seven men for three days."
+
+"You need not fetch out your purse; I don't receive payment in money.
+What should I do with it, here on this lonely island? At best thieves
+would be sure to get in and kill me to get hold of it; but now every one
+knows there is no money on the island, and therefore we can sleep in
+peace. I only barter. I give fruit, wax, honey, and simples, and people
+bring me in exchange grain, salt, clothes, and hardware."
+
+"As they do on the Australian islands?"
+
+"Just the same."
+
+"All right, good lady; we have grain on board, and salt too. I will
+reckon up the value of your wares, and bring an equal value in exchange.
+Rely upon it, you sha'n't be the loser."
+
+"I don't doubt it, sir."
+
+"But I have another favor to ask. On board my vessel there is a grand
+gentleman and his young daughter. The young lady is not accustomed to
+the motion, and feels unwell. Could you not give my passengers shelter
+till the storm is over?"
+
+"Well, that I can do too, sir. Look, here are two small bed-rooms. We
+will retire into one, and in the other any honest man who wants shelter
+can have it--rest, if not comfort. If you also would like to stay, you
+will have to be contented with the little garret, as both the rooms will
+have women in them. There is new hay there, and sailors are not
+particular."
+
+Timar puzzled his head as to the position of this woman, who chose her
+words so well and expressed herself so sensibly. He could not reconcile
+it with this hut, which was more like a cave, and with the residence on
+this lonely island in the midst of a wilderness. "Many thanks, good
+lady; I'll hurry back and bring up my passengers."
+
+"All right; only don't go back to your boat the same way you came. You
+can't bring a lady through those marshes and briers. There's a tolerable
+path all along the bank, rather overgrown with grass, it is true, for it
+is very little trodden, and turf grows quickly here; but you shall be
+conducted to where your boat lies; then when you come back in a larger
+one, you can land rather nearer. I will give you a guide now. Almira!"
+
+Timar looked round, to see from what corner of the house or from what
+bush this Almira would appear who was to show him the way. But the great
+black Newfoundland rose and began to wag her tail, whose strokes made a
+noise on the door-post as if an old drum was touched.
+
+"Off, Almira; take the gentleman to the shore," said the woman; on which
+the creature growled something to Timar in dog's language, and taking
+the edge of his cloak in her teeth, pulled at it, as if to say, Come
+along.
+
+"So this is Almira, who is to conduct me. I am much indebted to you,
+Miss Almira," Timar said smiling, and took his gun and hat; then saluted
+his hostess and followed the dog. Almira led the guest steadily in all
+friendship by the hem of his cloak. The way lay through the orchard,
+where one had to tread carefully so as not to crush the plums which
+covered the ground. The white cat, too, had not remained behind; she
+wanted to know where Almira was conducting the stranger, and leaped here
+and there in the soft grass.
+
+When they arrived at the edge of the orchard, somewhere above was heard
+the call of a musical voice, "Narcissa!"
+
+It was a girl's voice, in which some reproach, but much love and
+maidenly shyness, were blended--a sympathetic voice. Timar looked round:
+he wanted to know, first, where it came from, and then to whom it
+belonged.
+
+He soon discovered who was called, for at the sound the white cat sprung
+quickly to one side, and, curling her tail, climbed zigzag up a gnarled
+pear-tree, through whose thick foliage Timar saw something like a white
+dress glimmering. He had no time for further research, for Almira gave a
+few deep sounds which, in quadruped's language, probably meant, "What
+business have you to spy about?" and so he was obliged to follow his
+leader, if he did not desire to leave a piece of his cloak in her teeth.
+
+Almira led Timar by a soft turf path along the bank to the place where
+his boat was made fast. At this moment a couple of snipe rose with their
+shrill cry close to the island. Timar's first thought was of the savory
+dish they would make for Timéa's supper. In an instant he had shouldered
+his gun, and with a well-aimed right and left brought down both snipe.
+
+But the next moment he was himself on the ground. As soon as he had
+fired, Almira seized him by the collar, and like lightning pulled him
+down. He tried to rise, but soon felt that he had to do with an
+overpowering adversary who was not to be trifled with. Not that Almira
+had hurt him, but she held him by the collar, and would not allow of his
+getting up.
+
+Timar tried every conceivable means to soften her, called her Miss
+Almira, his dear friend, and explained to her sport and its usages;
+where the devil had she heard of a dog that retrieves a sportsman? she
+should rather go after the snipe in the rushes: but he talked to deaf
+ears.
+
+He was at last relieved from this dangerous situation by the woman of
+the island, who had run up at the report of the gun, and called Almira
+by name from afar, on which the dog let go her hold.
+
+"Oh, my God!" she lamented, hastening over the stones to the point of
+danger. "I forgot to tell you not to shoot, because Almira was sure to
+attack you. She gets in a fury when a shot is fired. Well, I was stupid
+not to tell you."
+
+"Never mind, good woman," said Timar, laughing. "Almira would really
+make a capital gamekeeper. But look, I have shot a couple of snipe; I
+thought they would be a help toward the supper that you will set before
+your guests."
+
+"I will fetch them; get into your boat, and when you come back, just
+leave your gun at home, for, believe me, if the dog sees you with a gun
+on your arm, she will take it away from you. You can't joke with her."
+
+"So I find. A powerful, grand animal that! Before I had time to defend
+myself, I was on the ground: I can only thank Heaven that she did not
+bite my head off."
+
+"Oh, she never bites any one; but if you defend yourself, she seizes
+your arm in her teeth, as if it were in irons, and then holds you fast
+till we come and call her off. _Auf Weidersehen!_"
+
+In less than an hour the larger boat had landed its passengers safely at
+the island. All the way from the vessel to the shore, Timar talked to
+Timéa of Almira and Narcissa, to make the poor child forget her sickness
+and her fear of the water. As soon as she set foot on shore, her
+seasickness vanished.
+
+Timar went on in front to show the way; Timéa followed, leaning on
+Euthemio's arm; and two sailors and the steersman carried behind them on
+a stretcher the equivalent of the barter in sacks. Almira's bark was
+heard a long way off. These were the sounds of welcome by which the dog
+acknowledged the approach of good friends. Almira came half-way, barked
+at the whole party, then had a little talk to the sailors, the
+steersman, and Timar; then trotting to Timéa, tried to kiss her hand.
+But when the dog came to Euthemio, it was quiet, and began to sniff at
+him from the soles of his feet upward, never leaving his heels. It
+snuffed continually, and shook its head violently, rattling its ears
+till they cracked. It had its own opinion on this subject.
+
+The mistress of the island settlement awaited the strangers at the
+door, and as soon as they appeared between the trees, called in a loud
+voice, "Noémi!"
+
+At this summons some one appeared from inside the garden. Between two
+tall thick raspberry hedges, which, like green walls, almost closed in
+an arch at the top, came a young girl. Face and form those of a child
+just beginning to develop, dressed in a white chemise and petticoat, and
+carrying in her upturned overskirt fruit freshly plucked.
+
+The figure coming out of the green grove is idyllic. The delicate tints
+of her face seem to have been borrowed from the complexion of the white
+rose when she is grave, and take that of the red rose when she blushes,
+and that up to the brow. The expression of the clear-arched brow is
+personified sweet temper, in complete accord with the innocent look of
+the expressive blue eyes; on the tender lips lies a mixture of devoted
+regard and modest shyness. The rich and luxuriant golden-brown hair
+seems to be curled by nature's hand; a lock thrust back gives a view of
+an exquisite little ear. Over the whole face gentle softness is spread.
+It is possible that a sculptor might not take each feature as a model,
+and perhaps if the face were hewn in marble one might not think it
+beautiful; but the head and the whole figure, just as they are, shine
+with a loveliness which charms at the first glance, and inthralls more
+every moment.
+
+From one shoulder the chemise has dropped, but, that it may not remain
+uncovered, there sits a white cat, rubbing her head against the girl's
+cheek. The delicate feet of the maiden are naked--why should she not go
+barefoot? She walks on a carpet of richest velvet. The spring turf is
+interspersed with blue veronica and red geranium.
+
+Euthemio, his daughter, and Timar, stopped at the entrance of the
+raspberry arcade to await the approaching figure.
+
+The child knew of no more friendly reception to give the guests than to
+offer them the fruit she had in her lap. They were beautiful
+red-streaked Bergamot pears. She turned first to Timar. He chose the
+best, and gave it to Timéa.
+
+Both girls shrugged their shoulders impatiently. Timéa because she
+envied the other one the white cat on her shoulder, but Noémi because
+Timar had given the fruit to Timéa.
+
+"Oh, you rude thing!" cried the mistress to her from the cottage; "could
+you not put the fruit in a basket, instead of offering it in your apron?
+Is that the proper way?"
+
+The little thing grew red as fire, and ran to her mother; the latter
+whispered a few words into her ear, so that the others might not
+overhear, then kissed the child on the forehead, and said aloud, "Now go
+and take from the sailors what they have brought, carry it into the
+store-room, and fill the sacks with corn-flour, the pots with honey, and
+the baskets with ripe fruit: of the kids, you can choose two for them."
+
+"I can't choose any," whispered the girl; "they must do it themselves."
+
+"Foolish child!" said the woman with a kind reproof; "if it were left to
+you, you would keep all the kids and never let one be killed. Very
+well, let them choose for themselves, then no one can complain. I will
+look after the cooking."
+
+Noémi called the sailors, and opened the food and fruit stores, which
+were each in a different cave and shut off by a door. The rock which
+formed the summit of the island was one of those wandering blocks,
+called "erratic" by geologists--an isolated bowlder, a monolith, which
+must once have been detached from a distant mountain, some limestone
+formation from the Dolomites, out of a moraine. It was full of large and
+small caves, which the first person who took possession of it had
+adapted to his own purposes: the largest with the natural chimney for
+the kitchen, the highest, as a dove-cote, the others for summer and
+winter storehouses. He had settled on the heaven-sent rock, and, like
+the wild birds, built his nest there.
+
+The child managed the barter with the crew well and honestly. Then she
+gave each his glass of elder-wine to wet the bargain, begged for their
+custom when they passed again, and went back to the kitchen.
+
+Here she did not wait to be told to lay the table. She spread a fine
+rush mat on the small table in the veranda, and placed on it four
+plates, with knives and forks and pewter spoons. And the fifth person?
+
+She will sit at the cat's table. Near the steps to the veranda stands a
+small wooden bench; in the center is placed an earthenware plate with a
+miniature knife and fork and spoon, and at each end a wooden platter,
+one for Almira, the other for Narcissa. They require no _couvert_. When
+the three guests and the mistress of the house have sat down and helped
+themselves from the dish, it goes to the cat's table, where Noémi serves
+her friends. She conducts the division with great fairness--the soft
+pieces to Narcissa, the bones to Almira--and helps herself last. They
+must not touch their food till she has cooled it for them, however much
+Almira may cock her ears, and the cat snuggle up to her mistress's
+shoulder. They must obey the girl.
+
+The island woman wished, according to the good or bad Hungarian custom,
+to show off before her guests, and especially to prove to Timar that her
+larder was independent of his game. She had cooked the two snipe with
+oatmeal, but whispered to Timar that that was only food for ladies; for
+the gentlemen she had some good fried pork. Timar attacked it bravely,
+but Euthemio touched none of it, saying he had no appetite, and Timéa
+rose suddenly from the table. But that was natural: she had already cast
+many inquisitive glances toward the party at the other table; there was
+nothing remarkable in her rising suddenly and going over to sit by
+Noémi. Young girls soon make friends. Timéa did not know Hungarian, nor
+Noémi Greek; but between them was Narcissa, to whom both languages were
+the same.
+
+The white cat seemed to understand perfectly when Timéa said "Horaion
+galion" to it, and stroked its back with a soft white hand: then it
+crept from Noémi's lap to Timéa's, raised its head to her face and
+gently rubbed its white head against her white cheeks, opened its red
+mouth, showed its sharp teeth, and blinked at her with cunning eyes;
+then sprung on her shoulder, crawled round her neck, and clambered to
+Noémi and back again.
+
+Noémi was pleased that the strange young lady liked her favorite so
+much, but bitterness mingled with her pleasure when she saw how much the
+stranger had fallen in love with the cat, kept and kissed it; and still
+more painful was it to realize how easily Narcissa became untrue to her,
+how willingly it accepted and replied to the caresses of its new friend,
+and took no notice when Noémi called it by name to come back to her.
+"Horaion galion" (pretty pussy) pleased it better. Noémi grew angry with
+Narcissa, and seized her by the tail to draw her back. Narcissa took
+offense, turned her claws on her mistress, and scratched her hand.
+
+Timéa wore on her wrist a blue enameled bracelet in the form of a
+serpent. When Narcissa scratched her mistress, Timéa drew off the
+elastic bracelet, and wanted to put it on Noémi's arm, obviously with
+the intention of comforting her in her pain; but Noémi misunderstood,
+and thought the stranger wanted to buy Narcissa with it. But she was not
+for sale.
+
+"I don't want the bracelet! I won't sell Narcissa! Keep the bracelet!
+Narcissa is mine. Come here, Narcissa!" and as Narcissa would not come,
+Noémi gave her a little box on the ear, on which the frightened animal
+made a jump over the bench, puffing and spitting, climbed up a nut-tree,
+and looked angrily down from thence.
+
+As Timéa and Noémi at this moment looked into each other's eyes, each
+read there a dreamy presentiment. They felt like a person who shuts his
+eyes for a moment, and in that short time dreams whole years away; yet,
+when he awakes, has forgotten it all, and only remembers that the dream
+was very long. The two girls felt in that meeting of looks that they
+would some day mutually encroach on each other's rights, that they would
+have something in common--a grief or a joy--and that, perhaps, like a
+forgotten dream, they would only know that each owed this grief or joy
+to the other.
+
+Timéa sprung up from beside Noémi and gave the bracelet to the
+housewife: then she sat down by Euthemio and leaned her head on his
+shoulder.
+
+Timar interpreted the gift. "The young lady gives it to the little girl
+as a remembrance--it is gold."
+
+As soon as he said that it was of gold, the woman threw it, frightened,
+from her hand, as if it were a real snake. She looked anxiously at
+Noémi, and was not even able to articulate "Thank you."
+
+Then Almira suddenly drew attention to herself. The dog had sprung
+quickly from its bed, had uttered a low howl with its head up, and now
+began to bark with deafening noise. In the sound lay something of the
+lion's roar; it was a vehement, defiant tone, as if calling to the
+attack, and the dog did not run forward, but remained by the porch,
+planted its paws on the ground, and then threw up the earth with its
+hind feet.
+
+The woman turned pale. A figure appeared between the trees on the
+footpath.
+
+"The dog only barks in that way at one man," she murmured. "There he
+comes. It is he!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT.
+
+
+The new arrival is a man of youthful appearance; he wears a blouse and
+trousers, round his neck a red cotton handkerchief, and on his head a
+Turkish fez.
+
+He has a handsome face. If he sat quietly to an artist, every one would
+say of his portrait that it was the ideal of a hero; but when he is in
+motion, the first thought must be--that is a spy. His features are
+regular, the thick hair curly, the lips finely chiseled, the eyes deeply
+black; but the wrinkles round them and their restless fire, the upturned
+corners of the mouth, and the ever-twitching brows, betray the soul of a
+slave to his own appetites.
+
+Almira barked furiously at the new-comer, who came swinging along with
+defiant nonchalance, like one who knows that it is other people's duty
+to protect him. Noémi told the dog to lie down, but it gave no heed; she
+caught the creature's ears in both hands and drew it back: the dog
+whined and growled at the discomfort, but did not cease barking. At last
+Noémi put her foot on its head and pressed it to the ground. Then Almira
+gave in, lay down growling, and let the girl's foot lie on her great
+black head, as if that were a burden she could not shake off.
+
+The stranger came whistling and humming up to them. From afar he called
+out--"Ah! you have still got that confounded big brute; you haven't had
+her poisoned? I shall have to get rid of her in the end. The stupid
+beast!" When the young man got near Noémi, he stretched out his hand
+with a familiar smile toward the girl's face, as if he would have
+pinched her cheek; but she drew her face quickly away.
+
+"Well, my dear little _fiancée_, are you still so shy? How you have
+grown since I saw you!"
+
+Noémi looked at the speaker with her head thrown back. She wrinkled her
+forehead, curled her lips, and threw a defiantly penetrating glance at
+him; even her complexion changed, the rose tint on her cheeks turned
+livid. Evidently she could look odious if she chose.
+
+The new-comer, however, quite unabashed, continued, "How pretty you have
+grown!"
+
+Instead of answering she said to the dog, "Down, Almira!"
+
+The stranger behaved as though he were quite at home under the veranda,
+where his first act was to kiss the hand of the woman of the house. He
+greeted Timar with friendly condescension, made a polite bow to Euthemio
+and Timéa, and then opened the flood-gates of his eloquence.
+"Good-evening, dear mother-in-law! Your obedient servant, captain! Sir
+and mademoiselle, you are welcome. My name is Theodor Krisstyan; I am
+chevalier and captain, the future son-in-law of this worthy lady. Our
+fathers were bosom friends, and betrothed Noémi to me in their
+life-time, so I come every year to see my sweetheart in her summer
+abode, in order to judge how my bride is growing. Uncommonly delighted
+to find you here: you, sir--if I am not mistaken, your name is Timar--I
+have had the pleasure of meeting before? The other gentleman, I fancy--"
+
+"Understands nothing but Greek," interrupted Timar, thrusting his hands
+well into his pockets, as if he wanted to make it impossible for the
+stranger to shake hands over the joy of meeting. He, who from his
+calling was always traveling, might very likely have met him before.
+
+Theodor Krisstyan did not feel inclined to occupy himself any more with
+Timar, but looked at life from the practical side. "It is just as if you
+had expected me; a beautiful supper, an unused place, pork, just my weak
+point. Thanks, dear mamma, thanks, gentlemen and young lady; I will pay
+my respects to the supper--so many thanks!"
+
+Not that a single person of those addressed had asked him to sit down
+and partake; but as though accepting their invitation, he seated himself
+in Timéa's empty place and began to enjoy the pork; offering it
+repeatedly to Euthemio, and seeming much astonished that any Christian
+should neglect such a delicious dish.
+
+Timar rose from the table and said to the hostess, "The
+gentleman-passenger and the young lady are tired. They want rest more
+than food. Would you be so good as to show them their beds?"
+
+"That shall be done at once," said the woman. "Noémi, go and help the
+young lady to undress."
+
+Noémi rose and followed her mother and the two guests into the
+back-room. Timar also left the table, at which the new-comer remained
+alone, and gobbled down with wolfish hunger every eatable left:
+meanwhile, he talked over his shoulder to Timar, and threw to Almira the
+bare bones with his fork.
+
+"You must have had a devilish bad journey, sir, with this wind. I can't
+think how you got through Denin Kafoin and the Tatalia Pass. Catch,
+Almira! and don't be cross with me any more, stupid brute! Do you
+remember, sir, how we once met in Galatz?--there, that's for you too,
+you black beast!"
+
+When he looked round, he found that neither Timar nor Almira was there.
+Timar had gone to the attic to sleep, where he soon made himself a couch
+of fragrant hay, while Almira had crept into some cranny in the great
+mass of rock.
+
+He turned his chair round, but not till he had drained the last drop
+from the wine-jug and the glasses of the other guests. Then he cut a
+splinter from the chair he was sitting on, and picked his teeth with it,
+like a person who has thoroughly deserved his supper.
+
+Night had set in; travelers weary of knocking about want no rocking.
+Timar had stretched himself on the soft sweet hay very comfortably, and
+thought that to-night he would sleep like a king. But he deceived
+himself. It is not easy to fall asleep after hard work, which has been
+mingled with varied emotions. Successive shapes besieged his bed like a
+chaotic panorama: a confusion of pursuing forms, threatening rocks,
+water-falls, ruined castles, strange women, black dogs, white cats; and
+amid it all a howling tempest, blasts of the horn, cracking of whips,
+showers of gold, laughing, whispering, and screaming human voices.
+
+And all at once people began to speak in the room below. He recognized
+the voices, the hostess and the last comer talking together. The garret
+was separated from the other room only by a thin floor, and every word
+was audible, as if it had been whispered in the listener's ear. They
+spoke in suppressed tones, only now and then the man raised his voice.
+
+"Well, Mother Therese, have you much money?" began the man.
+
+"You know very well that I have none. Don't you know that I only barter
+and never take money?"
+
+"That's very stupid. I don't like it. And what's more, I don't believe
+it."
+
+"It is as I say. Whoever comes to buy my fruit brings me something for
+my own use. What should I do here with money?"
+
+"I know what you could do, you could give it to me. You never think of
+me. When I marry Noémi you can't give her dried plums for a dowry; but
+you don't care about your daughter's happiness. You ought to help me,
+that I may get a good situation. I have just received my nomination as
+first dragoman at the embassy; but I have no money to get there, for my
+purse has been stolen, and now I shall lose my situation."
+
+The woman answered in a calm tone, "That any one has given you any place
+that you could lose I don't believe; but I do believe you have a place
+you can't lose. That you have no money, I believe that; but that it was
+stolen from you I don't believe."
+
+"Well, don't then. And I don't believe you have no money; you must have
+some. Smugglers land here sometimes, and they always pay well."
+
+"Speak loud, of course! Yes, it is true, smugglers often land on the
+island; but they don't come near my hut, or if they do, they buy fruit
+and give me salt in exchange. Will you have some salt?"
+
+"You are laughing at me. Well, and such visitors as you have to-night?"
+
+"I don't know whether they are rich or not."
+
+"Ask them for money! Demand it! Don't make a solemn face! You must get
+money somehow; don't try to take me in with this ridiculous Australian
+barter. Get ducats if you want to keep the peace with me; you know if I
+say a single word at the right place it's all up with you."
+
+"Softly, you wretched man!"
+
+"Ay! now you want me to whisper. Well, shut my mouth then, be kind to
+me, Therese--let me have a little money."
+
+"But I tell you there is none in the house! Don't worry me! I have not a
+farthing, and don't want any; there is a curse on anything which is
+gold. There, all my chests and boxes are here; look through them, and if
+you find anything, take it."
+
+It appeared that the man was not slow to take advantage of this
+permission, for soon he was heard to exclaim, "Ah! What is this? A gold
+bracelet."
+
+"Yes; the strange lady gave it to Noémi. If you can make use of it, take
+it."
+
+"It's worth some ten ducats--well, that's better than nothing. Don't be
+angry, Noémi; when you are my wife I will buy you two bracelets, each
+thirty ducats in weight, and with a sapphire in the middle--no, an
+emerald. Which do you prefer, a sapphire or an emerald?" He laughed at
+his sally, and as no one answered his question, he continued, "But now,
+Mother Therese, prepare a bed for your future son-in-law, your dear
+Theodor, so that he may dream sweetly of his beloved Noémi!"
+
+"I can not give you a bed. In the next room and in the garret are our
+guests; you can't sleep here in our room, that would not be
+proper--Noémi is no longer a child. Go out and lie down on the bench."
+
+"Oh, you hard-hearted, cruel Therese. You send me to the hard bench--me,
+your beloved future son-in-law!"
+
+"Noémi, give your pillow--there, take it! And here's my coverlet.
+Good-night."
+
+"Yes, if there were not that accursed great dog out there--the fierce
+brute will devour me."
+
+"Don't be afraid, I will chain her up. Poor beast! she is never tied up
+except when you are on the island."
+
+Frau Therese had some trouble to entice Almira out of her hole; the poor
+dog knew well enough what awaited her in these circumstances, and that
+she would now be chained up, but she was used to obedience, and allowed
+her mistress to fasten the chain.
+
+But this made her all the more furious against him who was the cause of
+her confinement. As soon as Therese had gone back to her room, and
+Theodor remained alone outside, the dog began to bark madly, and danced
+about on the small space left free to her by the chain, now and then
+making a spring, to see whether she could succeed in breaking the collar
+or the chain, or rooting up the tree-trunk to which the chain was
+fastened.
+
+But Theodor teased her again. He thought it amusing to enrage an animal
+which could not reach him, and foamed with fury at its impotence. He
+went closer, leaving only a step between himself and the point the chain
+permitted the dog to reach; then he began to creep toward her on all
+fours and make faces at her. He brayed at her like a donkey, put his
+tongue out, spat in her face, and imitated the dog's bark. "Bow-wow! You
+would like to eat me, wouldn't you? Bow-wow! There's my nose; bite it
+off if you can. You're a lovely dog--you horrid beast! Bow-wow! Break
+your chain and come wrestle with me; snap at my finger, there it is
+before your nose; only don't you wish you may get it?"
+
+At the moment of her greatest fury, Almira suddenly stopped. She barked
+no more; she understood. It is the wise one that gives in, thought she.
+She stretched her head up as if to look down on that other four-legged
+beast in front of her, then turned and scratched as dogs do, backward,
+with her hind feet, whirling up dust and sand, so that the other brute
+got his eyes and mouth full of it, which made him beat a retreat,
+breaking out in the human bark--curses, to wit. But Almira retired with
+her chain into the hole near the elder-tree and came out no more; she
+ceased to bark, but a hot panting could be heard for a long time.
+
+Timar heard it too. He could not sleep; he had left the trap-door open
+to get some light. The moon shone, and when the dog was silenced, deep
+stillness lay over the scene; a wonderful calm, rendered more fantastic
+by the isolated voices of the night and the solitude. The rattle of
+carriages, the clatter of mills, human voices--none of these struck the
+ear. This is the kingdom of swamps, islets, and shallows. From time to
+time a deep note sounds through the night--the boom of the bittern, that
+hermit of the marsh. Flights of night-birds strike long-drawn chords in
+the air, and the breathing wind stirs in the poplars, as it sighs
+through their quivering leaves. The seal cries in the reeds like the
+voice of a weeping child, and the cockchafer buzzes on the white wall of
+the hut. All around lies the dark brake, in which fairies seem to hold a
+torch-light dance; under the decayed trees will-o'-the-wisps wander,
+pursuing each other. But the flower-garden is flooded by the full
+radiance of the moon, and night-moths hover on silvery peacock wings
+round the tall mallows. How exquisite, how divine is this solitude! the
+whole soul is absorbed in its contemplation.
+
+If only no human tones were mingled with these voices of the night!
+
+But there below in the two little divisions of the hut lie other
+sleepless people, whom some evil spirit has robbed of their slumber, and
+who add their deep sighs to the other voices. From one room Timar heard
+the sigh, "Oh, thou dear Christ!" while from the other "Oh, Allah!"
+resounded.
+
+They can not sleep; what is there down below which keeps people awake?
+
+While Timar tried to collect his thoughts, an idea flashed through his
+mind which induced him to leave his couch, throw on the coat he had had
+over him, and descend the ladder to the ground.
+
+At the same moment, some one in one of the rooms below had had the same
+thought. And when Timar, standing at the corner of the house, uttered
+the name of "Almira" under his breath, another voice from the door
+opening into the veranda called Almira's name too, as if one were the
+ghostly echo of the other.
+
+The speakers approached each other with surprise.
+
+The other person was Therese. "You have come down from your bed?" she
+asked.
+
+"Yes; I could not sleep."
+
+"And what did you want with Almira?"
+
+"I will tell you the truth. The thought struck me, whether that . . .
+man had poisoned the dog, because she became so suddenly silent."
+
+"Just my idea. Almira!" At the call the dog came out of the hole and
+wagged her tail.
+
+"No; it's all right," said Therese. "His bed on the veranda is
+undisturbed. Come, Almira, I will set you free."
+
+The great creature laid her head on her mistress's lap, and allowed her
+to take off the leather collar, sprung round her, licked her cheeks, and
+then turned to Timar, raised one of the shaggy paws, and placed it as a
+proof of doggish respect in his open hand. Then the dog shook herself,
+stretched herself out, and, after a roll on both sides, lay quiet on the
+soft grass. She barked no more; they could be thoroughly satisfied that
+that man no longer remained on the island.
+
+Therese came nearer to Timar. "Do you know this man?"
+
+"I once met him in Galatz. He came on board and behaved so that I could
+not make up my mind whether he was a spy or a smuggler. At last I got
+rid of him, and that concluded our acquaintance."
+
+"And how came you by the notion that he might have poisoned Almira?"
+
+"To tell you the truth, every word spoken down below is audible in the
+garret, and as I had lain down I was forced to hear all the conversation
+between you."
+
+"Did you hear how he threatened me? If I could not satisfy him, it would
+only cost him a single word, and we should be ruined?"
+
+"Yes; I heard that."
+
+"And what do you think about us? You believe that some great, nameless
+crime has banished us to this island outside the world? that we drive
+some dubious trade, of which one can not speak? or that we are the
+homeless heirs of some dishonored name, who must hide from the sight of
+the authorities? Say, what do you think?"
+
+"Nothing, my dear lady; I don't trouble my head about it. You have given
+me hospitable shelter for a night, and I am grateful. The storm is over;
+to-morrow I shall go on my way, and think no more of what I saw and
+heard on this island."
+
+"I do not want you to leave us so. Without your desire you have heard
+things which must be explained to you. I do not know why, but from the
+first moment when I saw you, you inspired me with confidence, and the
+thought troubles me that you should leave us with suspicion and
+contempt: that suspicion would prevent both you and me from sleeping
+under this roof. The night is quiet, and suitable to the story of the
+secrets of a hard life. You shall form your own judgment about us; I
+will conceal nothing, and tell you the whole truth, and when you have
+heard the history of this lonely island and this clay hut, you won't
+say, 'To-morrow I go away and think no more of it,' but you will come
+back year by year, when your business brings you near us, and rest for a
+night under this peaceful roof. Sit down by me on the doorstep, and
+listen to the story of our house."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS.
+
+
+"Twelve years ago we lived in Pancsova, where my husband held a
+municipal office. His name was Bellovary; he was young, handsome, and
+honest, and we loved each other dearly. I was then two-and-twenty and he
+was thirty.
+
+"I bore him a daughter, whom we called Noémi. We were not rich, but well
+off; he had his post, a pretty house, and a splendid orchard and meadow.
+I was an orphan when we married, and brought him some money; we were
+able to live respectably.
+
+"My husband had a friend, Maxim Krisstyan, of whom he was very fond. The
+man who has just been here is his son, who was then thirteen, a dear,
+handsome, clever boy. When my little daughter was still a baby, the
+fathers already began to say they would make a pair, and I was glad when
+the boy took the little thing's hand and asked her, 'Will you be my
+wife?' at which the child laughed merrily.
+
+"Krisstyan was a grain dealer without having ever learned regular
+business, but was like the speculators in a small way, who catch hold of
+a rope behind the great wholesale dealers, and go blindly in their wake.
+If the speculation succeeds, well and good; if not, they are ruined. As
+he always won, he thought there was nothing easier than mercantile
+transactions. In the spring he went round to see the crops, and made
+contracts with the large dealers for the grain to be delivered to them
+after the harvest. He had a regular customer in the wholesale merchant
+of Komorn, Athanasius Brazovics, who made large advances to him every
+spring for grain which he was to deliver in autumn at the price settled
+in advance, on board ship. This was a lucrative affair for Krisstyan;
+but I have often thought since that it was not so much trade as a game
+of chance, when one sells what does not yet exist. Brazovics advanced
+large sums to Krisstyan, and as the latter had no real property,
+security was required of him. My husband went surety for him gladly--was
+he not a landowner and Krisstyan's friend? Krisstyan led an easy life;
+while my good man sat for hours bent over his desk, the other was at the
+café, smoking his pipe and chatting with tradespeople of his own sort.
+But at last God's scourge alighted on him. The year 1819 was a terrible
+year; in the spring the crops looked splendid over the whole country,
+and every one expected cheap prices. In the Banat a merchant was lucky
+if he could make a contract for delivery of grain at four gulden a
+measure. Then came a wet summer--for sixteen weeks it rained every day;
+the corn rotted on its stem. In places reputed as a second Canaan,
+famine set in, and in autumn the price of grain rose to twenty gulden a
+measure: and even so there was none to be had, for the landowners kept
+it for seed."
+
+"I remember it well," Timar interrupted. "I was then just beginning my
+career as a ship's captain."
+
+"Well, in that year, it happened that Maxim could not fulfill the
+contract he had concluded with Athanasius Brazovics; the difference he
+had to cover made an enormous sum. What did he do then? He collected his
+outstanding debts, got loans from several credulous people, and
+disappeared in the night from Pancsova, taking his money with him, and
+leaving his son behind.
+
+"He could easily do it; his whole property consisted of money, and he
+left nothing for which he cared. But what is the good of all the money
+in the world if it can make a man so bad as to care for nothing else?
+His debts and liabilities rested on the shoulders of those who had been
+his good friends, and stood security for him, and among these was my
+husband.
+
+"Then came Athanas Brazovics, and required from the sureties the
+fulfillment of the contract. It was true that he had advanced money to
+the absconding debtor, and we offered to pay it back: we could have sold
+half our property, and so met the obligation. But he would not hear of
+it, and insisted on the fulfillment of the contract; it was not how much
+money he had lost, but what sums we were bound to pay him. Thus he made
+five-fold profits; his contract gave him the right to do so. We begged
+and entreated him to be content with smaller gain--for it was only a
+question of more or less gain, not of loss--but he was inflexible; he
+required from the sureties the satisfaction of his claims in full. What
+is the use, say I, of faith and religion, and all Christian and Jewish
+churches, if it is permitted to make such a demand?
+
+"The affair came before the court; the judge gave sentence that our
+house, our fields, our last farthing, should be distrained, sealed and
+put up to auction.
+
+"But what is the use of the law, a human institution, if it can be
+possible that people should be brought to beggary by a debt of which
+they have never had a groschen, and fall into misery for the benefit of
+a third, who rises laughing from the ground?
+
+"We tried everything to save ourselves from utter ruin. My husband went
+to Ofen and Vienna to beg an audience. We knew the artful deceiver who
+had escaped with his money was living in Turkey, and begged for his
+extradition, that he might be brought here to satisfy those who had
+presented claims against him; but we were told that there was no power
+to do so. Then what is the use of the emperor, the ministers, the
+authorities, if they are not in a position to extend protection to their
+subjects in distress? After this fearful blow, which brought us all to
+beggary, my poor husband one night sent a bullet through his head. He
+would not look on the misery of his family, the tears of his wife, the
+pale, starved face of his child, and fled from us into the grave.
+
+"But what is a husband good for, if, when he falls into misfortune, he
+knows no other outlet than to quit the world himself, and leave wife and
+child alone behind?
+
+"But the horrors were not yet at an end. I was a beggar and homeless;
+now they tried to make me an infidel. The wife of the suicide begged her
+pastors in vain to bury the unhappy man. The dean was a strict and holy
+man, for whom the laws of the Church were the first thought. He denied
+my husband a decent burial, and I had to look on while the dear form of
+my adored one was carried by the knacker's cart to be hastily buried in
+a corner of a church-yard. What are the clergy for, if they can not
+relieve us of such misery as that? What is the whole world about?
+
+"Only one thing was left; they drove me to kill myself and my child,
+both at once. I wrapped a shawl round the child at my breast, and went
+with it to the river bank.
+
+"I was alone. Three times I went up and down to see where the water was
+deepest. Then something plucked my dress and drew me back. I looked
+round. Who was it? The dog here--of all living beings the only friend
+left to me.
+
+"It was on the shore of the Ogradina Island that this happened. On this
+island we had a beautiful fruit-garden and a little summer-house; but
+there too the official seal had been affixed to every door, and I could
+only go through the kitchen and out under the trees. Then I sat down by
+the Danube and began to reflect. What, am I, I, a human being, a woman,
+to be worse than an animal! Did one ever see a dog drown its young and
+then kill itself? No, I will not kill either myself or my child; I will
+live and bring it up. But how? Like the wolves or the gypsy woman, who
+have no home and no food. I will beg--beg of the ground, the waters, the
+wilderness of the forest; only not of men--never!
+
+"My poor husband had told me of a little island which had been formed
+some fifty years ago in the reed-beds near Ogradina; he often went
+shooting there in autumn, and spoke much of a hollow rock in which he
+had sought shelter from bad weather. He said, 'The island has no master;
+the Danube built it up for no one; the soil, the trees, the grass which
+grow on it belong to no one.' If it is ownerless, this island, why
+should not I take possession of it? I ask it of God, I ask it of the
+Danube. Why should they refuse it? I will raise fruit there. How? and
+what fruit? I do not know, but necessity will teach me.
+
+"A boat remained to me which the officer had not noticed, and which,
+therefore, had not been seized. Noémi, Almira and I got into it, and I
+rowed myself over to the ownerless island. I had never used an oar
+before, but necessity taught me.
+
+"When I touched this piece of ground, a wonderful feeling took
+possession of me: it was as if I had forgotten what had happened to me
+out in the world. I was surrounded by a pleasant silence and rest, which
+softened my heart.
+
+"After I had explored pasture, grove, and meadow, I knew what I should
+do here. In the field bees were humming, in the woods hazel-nuts were
+hanging, and on the surface of the river floated water-chestnuts. Crabs
+basked on the shore, edible snails crept up the trees, and in the marshy
+thickets manna was ripening. Kind Providence, Thou hast spread a table
+before me! The grove was full of wild fruit--seedlings; the blackbirds
+had brought seeds from the neighboring island, and already the wild
+apples grew rosy on the trees, and the raspberry bushes bore a few
+belated berries.
+
+"Yes, I knew what I would do on the island. I alone would make of it a
+Garden of Eden. The work to be done here could be managed by a single
+person, one woman, and then we should live here like the first man in
+Paradise.
+
+"I had found the rock with its natural grottoes, in the largest of which
+a layer of hay was spread, which must have served as a bed to my poor
+husband. I had a widow's right to it; it was my legacy. I hushed my
+child to sleep there, made it a couch in the hay, and covered it with my
+large shawl. Then I told Almira to stay there and watch over Noémi till
+I came back, and rowed across to the large island again. On the veranda
+of my old summer-house there was an awning spread out, which I took
+down; it would serve as a tent or roof, and perhaps later on be used for
+winter clothing. I packed in it what food and vegetables I could see,
+and made a bundle as large as I could carry on my back. I had come to
+the house in a four-horse wagon richly laden; with a bundle on my back I
+left it; and yet I had been neither wicked nor a spendthrift. But what
+if even that bundle were stolen goods? It is true that the contents were
+my own; but that I should carry them off, was it not theft? I hardly
+knew: notions of right and wrong, the legal or the illegal, were
+confused in my head. I fled with the bundle like a thief out of my own
+home. On my way through the garden I took a cutting of each of my
+beautiful fruit-trees, and shoots from the figs and bushes, picked up
+some seeds from the ground and put them in my apron; then I kissed the
+drooping branches of the weeping willow under which I had so often dozed
+and dreamed. Those happy dreams were gone forever. I never went back
+there. The boat took me safely along the Danube.
+
+"While I rowed back two things fretted me. One was that there were
+noxious inhabitants on the island--snakes; probably some in that grotto:
+the thought filled me with horror and alarm for Noémi. The other anxiety
+was this. I can live for years on wild honey, water-nuts, and manna
+fruit; my child lives on her mother's breast; but how shall I feed
+Almira? The faithful creature can not live on what nourishes me; and yet
+I must keep her, for without Almira as a protector I should die of
+fright in this solitude. When I had dragged my bundle to the grotto, I
+saw before me the still quivering tail of a large snake, and not far off
+lay its head, bitten off; Almira had eaten what lay between the head and
+tail. The clever beast lay before the child, wagging her tail and
+licking her lips, as if to say, I have made a good meal. Thenceforward
+she made war on snakes; they were her daily food. In the winter she
+scratched them out of their holes. My friend--for so I grew to call the
+dog--had found her own livelihood, and freed me from the objects of my
+dread.
+
+"Oh, sir, it was an indescribable feeling, our first night alone
+here--no one near but my God, my child, and my dog. I can not call it
+painful--it was almost bliss. I spread the linen awning over us all
+three, and we were only awoke by the twitter of the birds. Now began my
+work--savages' work, for before sunrise I must collect manna, called by
+Hungarians 'Dew-millet.' Poor women go out into the swamp, where this
+bush with its sweet seeds luxuriates; they hold up their dress in both
+hands, shake the bush, and the ripe seeds fall into their lap. That is
+the bread from heaven for those whom no one feeds. Sir, I lived two
+whole years on that bread, and thanked daily on my knees Him who cares
+for the birds of the air. Wild fruit, honey, nuts, crabs, wild fowls'
+eggs, water-chestnuts preserved for winter use, land snails, dried
+mushrooms, formed my food. Praised be the Lord who so richly provides
+the table of His poor! And during the whole time I labored for the
+object I had set before me. I grafted the wild stocks with the cuttings
+I had brought, and planted in the cultivated soil fruit-trees, vines,
+and walnut-seeds. On the south side I sowed cotton-plant and silky
+swallow-wort, whose products I wove on a loom made of willow-wood, and
+made clothes for us. From rushes and reeds I made hives, in which I
+housed swarms of wild bees, and even in the first year I could begin a
+trade in wax and honey. Millers and smugglers often came here; they
+helped me with the hard labor, and never did me any harm. They paid me
+for provisions by their work; they knew already that I never took money.
+When the fruit-trees began to bear, then I lived in luxury, for in this
+alluvial soil all trees flourish, to that it is a pleasure to see them.
+I have pears which ripen their fruit twice in a year; all the young ones
+make fresh shoots at St. John's day, and the others bear every year. I
+have learned their secrets, and know that in the hands of a good
+gardener there should be no failure nor over-crop. Animals understand
+the language of man, and I believe that trees too have ears and eyes for
+those who tend them kindly and listen to their private wishes; and they
+are proud to give them pleasure in return. Oh, trees are very sensible!
+a soul dwells in them. I consider that man a murderer who cuts down a
+noble tree.
+
+"These are my friends. I love them, and live in and by them. What they
+yield me year by year is fetched away by the people of the villages and
+mills round, who give me in exchange what I need for my housekeeping. I
+have no use for money, I have a horror of it--the accursed money, which
+drove me out of the world and my husband out of life: I don't want ever
+to see it again.
+
+"But I am not so foolish as to be unprepared for some years of failure,
+which make vain the work of man. There might be late frosts or
+hail-storms, which would destroy the blessings of the season; but I am
+prepared for such bad times. In the cellar of my rock and in its airy
+crevices I store away whatever durable wares I possess--wine in casks,
+honey in pots, wool and cotton in bales, in sufficient quantity to keep
+us from want for two years. You see I have some savings, though not in
+money; I may call myself rich, and yet for twelve years not a single
+coin has passed through my hands. For I have lived on this island twelve
+years, sir, with the other two, for I count Almira as a person. Noémi
+declares we are four; she counts Narcissa, too--silly child!
+
+"Many people know of our existence, but treachery is unknown here. The
+artificial barrier which exists between the frontiers of the two
+countries has made the people about here very reserved. No one meddles
+in a stranger's affairs, and every one instinctively keeps secret what
+he knows. No intelligence from here ever reaches Vienna, Ofen, or
+Stamboul. And why should they inform against me? I am in nobody's way,
+and do no harm; I grow fruit on my bit of desert land, which has no
+master. God the Lord and the royal Danube gave it to me, and I thank
+them for it daily. I thank Thee, my God! I thank Thee, my King!
+
+"I hardly know if I have any religion; it is twelve years since I saw a
+priest or a church. Noémi knows nothing about it. I have taught her to
+read and write: I tell her of God, and Jesus, and Moses, as I knew them.
+Of the good, all-merciful, omnipresent God--of Jesus, sublime in His
+sufferings, and divine in His humanity--and of Moses, that leader of a
+people to liberty, who preferred to wander hungry and thirsty in the
+wilderness rather than exchange freedom for the flesh-pots of
+slavery--Moses who preached goodness and brotherly love--of these as I
+picture them to myself. But of the relentless God of vengeance, the God
+of the chosen people--a God calling for sacrifices, and dwelling in
+temples--of that privileged Christ asking for blind faith, laying heavy
+burdens on our shoulders, followed by a crowd of worshipers--and of the
+avaricious, revengeful, selfish Moses of whom books and preachers
+tell--of these she knows nothing.
+
+"Now you know who we are, and what we are doing here, you shall learn
+with what we are threatened by this man.
+
+"He is the son of the man for whom my husband stood surety, who drove
+him to suicide, on whose account we have fled from human society into
+the desert. He was a boy of thirteen when we lost our all, and the blow
+fell on him also, for his father had forsaken him.
+
+"Indeed, I do not wonder that the son has turned out such a wretch.
+Abandoned by his own father, thrust out like a beggar into the world,
+cast on the compassion of strangers, deceived and robbed by the one on
+whom his childish trust was placed, branded in his earliest youth as the
+son of a rogue, is it surprising if he was forced to become what he is?
+
+"And yet I hardly know what to think of him; but what I do know is
+enough. The people who come to the island can tell a great deal about
+him. Not long after his father had escaped, he also started from Turkey,
+saying he was going to look for his father. Some maintained that he had
+found him, others that he had never been able to trace him. According to
+one report he robbed his own father and squandered the money he stole,
+but no one knows for certain. From him nothing can be learned, for he
+tells nothing but lies. As to where he has been, and what he has done,
+he relates romances, in whose invention he is so well versed, and which
+he presents so skillfully, that he staggers even those who have actual
+knowledge of the facts, and makes them doubt the testimony of their own
+eyes. You see him here to-day and there to-morrow. In Turkey, Wallachia,
+Poland, and Hungary he has been met. In all these countries he is by way
+of knowing every person of distinction. Whomsoever he meets he takes in,
+and whoever has once been deceived by him may be sure it will happen
+again. He speaks ten languages, and whatever countryman he pretends to
+be, he is accepted as such. He appears now as a merchant, then a
+soldier, again as a seafaring man; to-day a Turk, to-morrow a Greek. He
+once came out as a Polish count, then as the betrothed of a Russian
+princess, and again as a quack doctor, who cured all maladies with his
+pills. What his real profession may be no one knows. But one thing is
+certain, he is a paid spy. Whether in the service of the Turks,
+Austrians, or Russians, who can tell? Perhaps he is in the pay of all
+three and more besides--he serves each, and betrays all. Every year he
+comes several times to this island. He comes in a boat from the Turkish
+shore, and goes in the same boat from here to the Hungarian bank. Of
+what he does there I have no idea; but I am inclined to believe that he
+inflicts the torture of his presence on me for his own amusement. I
+know, too, that he is an epicure and a sensualist: he finds good food
+here, and a blooming young girl whom he loves to tease by calling her
+his bride. Noémi hates him; she has no idea how well founded is her
+abhorrence.
+
+"Yet I do not think that Theodor Krisstyan visits this island only for
+these reasons; it must have other secrets unknown to me. He is a paid
+spy, and has a bad heart besides; he is rotten to the core, and ripe for
+any villainy. He knows that I and my daughter have only usurped the
+island, and that by law I have no claim to it, and by the possession of
+this secret he lays us under contribution, vexes and torments us both.
+
+"He threatens that if we do not give him what he wants, he will inform
+against us both in Austria and Turkey, and as soon as these governments
+know that a new piece of land has been formed in the midst of the
+Danube, which is not included in any treaty, a dispute about its
+jurisdiction will commence between the countries, and until its
+conclusion all the inhabitants will be warned off, as happened in the
+case of Allion Castle and the Cserna River.
+
+"It would only cost this man a word to annihilate all that I have
+brought to perfection by my twelve years' labor; to turn this Eden,
+where we are so happy, back into a wilderness, and thrust us out anew,
+homeless, into the world. Yes, and more still. We have not only to fear
+discovery by the imperial officials, but discovery by the priest. If the
+archbishops, the patriarchs, archimandrite, and deans learned that a
+girl is growing up here who has never seen a church since she was
+baptized, they would take her away by force and put her in a convent.
+Now, sir, do you understand those sighs which kept you awake?"
+
+Timar gazed at the full disk of the moon, which was beginning to sink
+behind the poplars. "Why," thought he to himself, "am I not a man of
+influence?"
+
+"So this wretch," continued Therese, "can throw us into poverty any day.
+He need only give information in Vienna or Stamboul that here on the
+Danube a new territory exists, and we should be ruined. No one here
+would betray us--he alone is capable of it. But I am prepared for the
+worst. The whole foundation of this island is solely and entirely formed
+by the rock: it alone stems the force of the Danube current. In the year
+when Milos made war against the Serbs, some Servian smugglers hid three
+barrels of blasting powder in the bushes near here, and no one has ever
+fetched them away. Perhaps those who hid them were taken prisoners by
+the Turks, or killed. I found them, and have concealed them in the
+deepest cavity of this great rock. Sir, if they try to drive me from
+this island, now ownerless, I shall thrust a burning match into the
+powder, and the rock and all upon it will be blown into the air. In the
+next spring, after the ice has melted, no one would find a trace of the
+island. And now you know why you could not sleep well here."
+
+Timar leaned his head on his hand and looked away.
+
+"There is one more thing I ought to say," said Frau Therese, bending
+close to Timar, that he might hear her low whisper--"I fancy this man
+had another reason for coming here and vanishing again, besides his
+having gambled away his money in some low pot-house, and wanting to get
+more out of me. His visit was either on your account, or that of the
+other gentleman. Be on your guard, if either of you dreads the discovery
+of a secret."
+
+The moon disappeared behind the poplars, and it began to dawn in the
+east. Blackbirds commenced their song; it was morning. From the Morova
+Island long-drawn trumpet-calls sounded, to awake the seafaring folk.
+Steps were audible in the sand; a sailor came from the landing-place
+with the news that the vessel was ready for departure, the wind had gone
+down, and they could proceed. The guests came out of the little
+dwelling: Euthemio Trikaliss and his daughter, the beautiful Timéa, with
+her dazzling pale face.
+
+Noémi also was up and boiling fresh goat's milk for breakfast, with
+roasted maize instead of coffee, and honey for sugar. Timéa took none,
+but let Narcissa drink the milk instead, who did not despise the
+stranger's offer, to Noémi's great vexation.
+
+Trikaliss asked Timar where the stranger had gone who came last evening?
+Timar told him he had left in the night. At this intelligence his face
+fell.
+
+Then they all took leave of their hostess. Timéa was out of sorts, and
+still complained of feeling unwell. Timar remained behind, and gave
+Therese a bright Turkish silk scarf as a present for Noémi; she thanked
+him, and said the child should wear it. Then they took the path leading
+to the boat, and Therese and Almira accompanied them to the shore. But
+Noémi went up to the top of the rock: there, sitting on soft moss and
+stonecrop, she watched the boat away.
+
+Narcissa crept after her, cowered in her lap, and crept with bending
+neck into her bosom. "Be off, faithless one! that is how you love me.
+You leave me in the lurch, and make up to the other girl, just because
+she is pretty and I am not. Go! I don't love you any longer!" and then
+she caught the coaxing cat with both hands to her breast, pressed her
+smooth chin on the white head of the little flatterer, and gazed after
+the boat. In her eye glittered a tear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+ALI TSCHORBADSCHI.
+
+
+The following day the "St. Barbara" continued her voyage with a fair
+wind up the Hungarian Danube. Until evening nothing remarkable occurred,
+and all went to bed early; they agreed that the previous night no one
+had been able to sleep. But this night also was to be a wakeful one for
+Timar. All was quiet on board the ship, which lay at anchor--only the
+monotonous splash of the wavelets against the vessel broke the
+stillness; but amidst the silence it seemed to him as if his neighbor
+was busy with important and mysterious affairs. From the neighboring
+cabin, which was only divided from his by a wooden partition, came all
+sorts of sounds; the clank of money, a noise as of drawing a cork and
+stirring with a spoon, as of one clasping his hands and performing his
+ablutions in the darkness, and then again those sighs, as in the
+previous night, "Oh, Allah!"
+
+At last there was a gentle knocking at the partition. Trikaliss
+called--"Come to me here, sir."
+
+Timar dressed quickly and hastened into the cabin. There were two beds,
+and between them a table. The curtains were closed in front of one, and
+on the other lay Euthemio. On the table stood a casket and two small
+glasses. "What are your orders, sir?" asked Timar.
+
+"I have no orders--I entreat."
+
+"You want something?"
+
+"I shall not want anything long. I am dying; I want to die--I have taken
+poison. Don't give the alarm--sit down and listen to what I have to tell
+you. Timéa will not wake. I have given her opium to send her into a
+deep sleep, for she must not wake up now. Don't interrupt; what you
+would say is useless, but I have much to tell you, and only one short
+hour left, for the poison acts quickly. Make no vain attempts to save
+me. I hold the antidote in my hand--if I repented of my deed it rests
+with me to undo it. But I will not--and I am right--so sit down and
+listen.
+
+"My true name is not Euthemio Trikaliss but Ali Tschorbadschi. I was
+once governor of Candia, and then treasurer in Stamboul. You know what
+is passing in Turkey now. The Ulemas and governors are rising against
+the sultan, because he is making innovations. At such times men's lives
+are of little value. One party murders by thousands those who are not
+its allies, and the other party burns by thousands the houses of those
+in power. No one is high enough to be safe from his rulers or his
+slaves. The Kaimakan of Stamboul had at least six hundred respectable
+Turks strangled there, and then was stabbed by his own slave in the
+Mosque of St. Sophia. Every change cost human blood. When the sultan
+went to Edren, twenty-six important men were arrested, and twenty of
+them beheaded, while the other six were stretched on the rack. After
+they had made false accusations against the great men of the country in
+order to save themselves, they were strangled; then those were arrested
+against whom they had borne witness, and these suspected nobles
+disappeared without being heard of again. The sultan's secretary, Waffat
+Effendi, was sent to Syria, and murdered by the Druses. The Pasha Pertao
+was invited to dinner by the governor of Edren, Emin Pasha: when the
+meal was over, black coffee was brought, and he was told that the sultan
+commanded him to take poison in it. Pertao only asked that he might be
+allowed to mix the poison he had with him in the coffee, as it was more
+certain; then he blessed the sultan, performed his ablutions, prayed and
+died. Even in these days every Turkish noble carries poison in his
+signet-ring, to have it at hand when his turn comes.
+
+"I knew in good time when my turn was coming. Not that I was a
+conspirator, but for two reasons I was ripe for the sickle; these
+reasons were my money and my daughter.
+
+"The treasury wanted my treasures and the seraglio my daughter. Death is
+easy, and I am ready for it; but I will not let my daughter go into the
+harem, nor myself be made a beggar. I determined to upset the
+calculations of my enemies and fly with my daughter and my property; but
+I could not go by sea, for the new galleys would have overtaken me. I
+had kept a passport for Hungary in readiness for a long time; I
+disguised myself as a Greek merchant, shaved off my long beard, and
+reached Galatz by by-roads. From there I could go no further by land; I
+therefore hired a vessel and loaded it with grain which I bought: in
+this way I could best save my wealth. When you told me the name of the
+ship's owner I was very glad, for Athanas Brazovics is a connection of
+mine; Timéa's mother was a Greek of his family. I have often shown
+kindness to this man, and he can return it now. Allah is great and
+wise--no man can escape his fate. You guessed I was a fugitive, even if
+you were not clear whether you had a criminal or a political refugee on
+board--still you thought it your duty as commander of the vessel to
+help the passenger intrusted to you in his speedy escape. By a miracle
+we traversed safely the rocks and whirlpools of the Iron Gate; by
+fool-hardy audacity we eluded the pursuit of the Turkish brigantine; by
+lucky chance we escaped quarantine and the search at the
+custom-house--and after we had left every bugbear behind, I stumbled
+over a straw under my feet into my grave.
+
+"That man who followed us last evening to the unknown island was a spy
+of the Turkish Government. I know him, and he certainly recognized me;
+no one could have traced me except himself. He has hurried on in front,
+and at Pancsova they are ready to receive me. Don't speak--I know what
+you mean; you think it is Hungarian territory, and that governments
+grant no extradition of political refugees.
+
+"But they would not pursue me as a political criminal, but as a
+thief--unjustly--for what I took was my own, and if the State has claims
+on me, there are my twenty-seven houses in Galatz, by which they can be
+satisfied; but in spite of that they will cry after me 'Catch thief!'
+
+"I pass for one who has robbed the treasury, and Austria gives up
+escaped thieves to Turkey if the Turkish spies succeed in tracing them.
+This man has recognized me and sealed my fate."
+
+Heavy drops of perspiration stood on the speaker's brow. His face had
+turned as yellow as wax.
+
+"Give me a drink of water that I may go on, for I have still much to
+tell you. I can not save myself, but by dying I can save my daughter and
+her property. Allah wills it, and who can flee from His presence? So
+swear to me by your faith and your honor that you will carry out my
+instructions. First, when I am dead, do not bury me on shore--a
+Mussulman does not require Christian burial, so bury me like a sailor;
+sew me up in a piece of sail-cloth, fasten at my head and feet a heavy
+stone, then sink me where the Danube is deepest. Do this, my son, and
+when it is done, steer steadily for Komorn, and take care of Timéa!
+
+"Here in this casket is money--about a thousand ducats; the rest of my
+property is in the sacks packed as grain. I leave on my table a note
+which you must keep. I declare therein that I have contracted dysentery
+by immoderate enjoyment of melons, and am dying of it; further, that my
+whole possessions were only these thousand ducats. This will serve you
+as a security that no one may accuse you of having caused my death or
+embezzled my money. I give you nothing; what you do is of your own kind
+heart, and God will reward you: He is the best creditor you can have.
+And then take Timéa to Athanas Brazovics and beg him to adopt my
+daughter. He has a daughter himself who may be a sister to her. Give him
+the money--he must spend it on the education of the child; and give over
+to him also the cargo, and beg him to be present himself when the sacks
+are emptied. There is good grain in them, and it might be changed. You
+understand?"
+
+The dying man looked in Timar's face, and struggled for breath. "For--"
+Again speech failed him. "Did I say anything? I had more to say--but my
+thoughts grow confused. How red the night is! How red the moon is in the
+sky! Yes; the Red Crescent--" A deep groan from Timéa's bed attracted
+his attention and gave another turn to his thoughts. He raised himself
+anxiously in his bed, and sought with a trembling hand for something
+under his pillow, his eyes starting from their sockets. "Ah, I had
+almost forgotten--Timéa! I gave her a sleeping-draught--if you do not
+wake her up in time she will sleep forever. Here in this bottle is an
+antidote. As soon as I am dead, take it and rub her brow, temples, and
+chest, until she awakes. Ah! how nearly I had taken her with me! but no,
+she must live. Must she not? You vow to me by all you hold sacred, that
+you will wake her, and bring her back to life--that you will not let her
+slumber on into eternity?"
+
+The dying man pressed Timar's hand convulsively to his breast: on his
+distorted features was already imprinted the last death-struggle. "What
+was I talking of? What had I to tell you? What was my last word? Yes;
+right--the Red Crescent!"
+
+Through the open window the half-circle of the waning moon shone
+blood-red, rising from the nocturnal mists. Was the dying man in his
+delirium thinking of this? Or did it remind him of something?
+
+"Yes--the Red Crescent," he stammered once more; then the death-throes
+closed his lips--one short struggle, and he was a corpse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE LIVING STATUE.
+
+
+Timar remained alone with the dead body, with a person sunk in a
+death-like stupor, and with a buried secret. The silent night covered
+them, and the shades whispered to him, "See! if you do not do what has
+been committed to you--if you throw the corpse into the Danube, and do
+not wake the slumberer, but let her sleep on quietly into the other
+world--what would happen then? The spy will have already given evidence
+in Pancsova against the fugitive Tschorbadschi; but if you anticipate
+him and the land at Belgrade instead, and lay information there, then,
+according to Turkish law, a third of the refugee's property would fall
+to you; otherwise it would belong to no one. The father is dead, the
+girl, if you do not rouse her, will never wake again; thus you would
+become at one stroke a rich man. Only rich people are worth anything in
+this world--poor devils are only fit for clerks."
+
+Timar answered the spirits of the night--"Well, then, I will always
+remain a clerk;" and, in order to silence these murmuring shadows, he
+closed the shutters. A secret anxiety beset him when he saw the red moon
+outside; it seemed as if all these bad suggestions came from it, as well
+as an explanation of the last words of the dying man about the Red
+Crescent.
+
+He drew back the curtain from Timéa's berth.
+
+The girl lay like a living statue; her bosom rose and fell with her slow
+breathing--the lips were half open, the eyes shut; her face wore an
+expression of unearthly solemnity. One hand was raised to her loosened
+hair, the other held the folds of her white dress together on her
+breast.
+
+Timar approached her as if she were an enchanted fairy whose touch might
+cause deadly heart-sickness to a poor mortal. He began to rub the
+temples of the sleeper with the fluid from the bottle. In doing so, he
+looked continually in her face, and thought to himself, "What, should I
+let you die, you angelic creature? If the whole ship were filled with
+real pearls, which would be mine after your death, I could not let you
+sleep away your life. There is no diamond in the world, however
+precious, that I should prefer to your eyes when you open them."
+
+The lovely face remained unchanged, in spite of the friction on brow and
+temples; the delicate meeting eyebrows did not contract when touched by
+a strange man's hand. The directions were that also over the heart the
+antidote must be applied. Timar was obliged to take the girl's hand, in
+order to draw it away from her breast: the hand made no smallest
+resistance; it was stiff and cold, as cold as the whole form--beautiful
+and icy as marble.
+
+The shadows whispered--"Behold this exquisite form! a lovelier has never
+been touched by mortal lips; no one would know if you kissed her."
+
+But Timar answered himself in the darkness, "No--you have never stolen
+anything of another's in your life. This kiss would be a theft." And
+then he spread the Persian quilt, which the girl had thrown off in her
+sleep, over her whole person up to her neck, and rubbed above the heart
+of the sleeper with wetted fingers, while, in order to resist
+temptation, he kept his eyes fixed on the maiden's face. It was to him
+like an altar-picture--so cold, yet so serene.
+
+At last the lids unclosed, and he met the gaze of her dark but dull
+eyes. She breathed more easily, and Timar fell her heart beat stronger
+under his hand; he drew it away. Then he held the bottle with the strong
+essence for her to smell. Timéa awoke, for she turned her head away from
+it, and drew her brows together. Timar called her gently by name.
+
+The girl started up, and with the cry "Father!" sat up on her bed,
+gazing out with staring eyes. The Persian quilt fell down from her lap,
+the night-dress slipped from her shoulders. She looked more like a Greek
+marble than a sentient being.
+
+"Timéa!" and as he spoke he drew the fine linen over her bare shoulders.
+She did not answer. "Timéa!" cried Timar, "your father is dead." But
+neither face nor form moved, nor did she notice that her night-dress had
+left her bosom uncovered. She seemed totally unconscious.
+
+Timar rushed into the other cabin, returned with a coffee-pot, and began
+in feverish haste, and not without burning his fingers, to heat some
+coffee. When it was ready, he went to Timéa, took her head on his arm
+and pressed it to him, opened her mouth with his fingers, and poured
+some coffee in. Hitherto he had only had to contend with passive
+resistance; but as soon as Timéa had swallowed the hot and bitter
+decoction of Mocha, she pushed Timar's hand with such strength that the
+cup fell; then she drew the quilt over her, and her teeth began to
+chatter.
+
+"Thank God! she lives; for she is in a high fever," sighed Timar, "And
+now for a sailor's funeral."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A BURIAL AT SEA.
+
+
+On the ocean this is managed very easily: the body is sewed up in a
+piece of sail-cloth, and a cannon-ball is suspended to the feet, which
+sinks the corpse in the sea. Corals soon grow over the grave. But on a
+Danube craft, to throw a dead person into the river is a great
+responsibility. There are shores, and on the shores villages and towns,
+with church bells and priests, to give the corpse his funeral-toll and
+his rest in consecrated ground. It won't do to pitch him into the water,
+without a "By your leave," just because the dead man wished it.
+
+But Timar knew well enough that this must be done, and it caused him no
+anxiety. Before the vessel had weighed anchor, he said to his pilot that
+there was a corpse on board--Trikaliss was dead.
+
+"I knew for certain," said Johann Fabula, "that there was bad luck on
+the way when the sturgeon ran races with the ship--that always betokens
+a death."
+
+"We must moor over there by the village," answered Timar, "and seek out
+the minister to bury him. We can not carry the body on in the vessel--we
+should be under suspicion as infected with plague."
+
+Herr Fabula cleared his throat violently, and said, "We can but try."
+
+The village of Plesscovacz, which was nearest at hand, is a wealthy
+settlement; it has a dean, and a fine church with two towers. The dean
+was a tall, handsome man, with a long curling beard, eyebrows as broad
+as one's finger, and a fine sonorous voice. He happened to know Timar,
+who had often bought grain from him, as the dean had much produce to
+sell.
+
+"Well, my son," cried the dean, as soon as he saw him in the court-yard,
+"you might have chosen your time better. The church harvest was bad, and
+I have sold my crops long ago." (And yet there was threshing going on in
+yard and barn.)
+
+"But this time it is I who bring a crop to market," Timar answered. "We
+have a dead man on board, and I have come to beg your reverence to go
+over there, and bury the corpse with the usual ceremonies."
+
+"Oh, but my son, that's not so easy. Did this Christian confess? Has he
+received the last sacraments? Are you certain that he was not a heretic?
+For if not, I can not consent to bury him."
+
+"I know nothing about it. We don't carry a father-confessor on board,
+and the poor soul left the world without any priestly assistance--that
+is the lot of sailors. But if your reverence can not grant him a
+consecrated grave, give me at any rate a written certificate that I may
+have some excuse to his friends why I was not in a position to show him
+the last honors; then we will bury him ourselves somewhere on the
+shore."
+
+The dean gave him a certificate of the refusal of burial; but then the
+peasant threshers began to make a fuss. "What! bury a corpse within our
+boundaries which has not been blessed? Why, then, as certain as the Amen
+to the Pater Noster, the hail would destroy our crops. And you need not
+try to bestow him on any other village. Wherever he came from, nobody
+wants him, for he's sure to bring a hail-storm this season before the
+vintage is over--the farmer's last hope; and then next year a vampire
+will rise from a corpse so buried, which will suck up all the rain and
+the dew!"
+
+They threatened to kill Timar if he brought the body ashore. And in
+order that he might not bury it secretly on the bank, they chose four
+stout fellows, who were to go on board the ship and remain there till it
+had passed the village boundaries, and then he could do what he liked
+with the dead man.
+
+Timar pretended to be very angry, but allowed the four men to go on
+board. Meanwhile, the crew had made a coffin and laid the body in it:
+there was nothing more to do but to nail the lid down.
+
+The first thing that the captain did was to go and see how Timéa was.
+The fever had reached its highest point; her forehead was burning, but
+her face still dazzling white. She was unconscious, and knew nothing of
+the preparations for the burial.
+
+"Yes, that will do," said Timar, and fetched a paint-pot and busied
+himself in marking Euthemio Trikaliss's name and date of death in
+beautiful Greek letters on the coffin-lid. The four Servian peasants
+stood behind and spelled out what he wrote.
+
+"Now, then, you paint a letter or two while I see to my work," said
+Timar to one of the gazers, and handed him the brush. The man took it
+and painted on the board an X, which the Servians use like S, to show
+his skill.
+
+"See what an artist you are!" Timar said, admiringly, and got him to
+draw another letter. "You are a clever fellow. What is your name?"
+
+"Joso Berkics."
+
+"And yours?"
+
+"Mirko Jakerics."
+
+"Well, God bless you! Let us drink a glass of Slivovitz." They had
+nothing against the proposition. "I am called Michael; my surname is
+Timar--a good name, and sounds just the same in Hungarian, Turkish, or
+Greek--call me Michael."
+
+"Egbogom Michael."
+
+Michael ran constantly into the cabin to see after Timéa. She was still
+very feverish, and knew no one. But that did not discourage Timar: his
+idea was that whoever travels on the Danube has a whole chemist's shop
+at hand, for cold water cures all maladies. His whole system consisted
+in putting cold compresses on head and feet, and renewing them as soon
+as they got hot. Sailors had already learned this secret before
+Priessnitz the hydropath. The "St. Barbara" floated quietly all day
+up-stream along the Hungarian bank. The Servians soon made friends with
+the crew, helped them to row, and in return had a thieves' roast offered
+them from the galley.
+
+The dead man lay out on the upper deck; they had spread a white sheet
+over him--that was his shroud. Toward evening Michael told his men that
+he would go and lie down for a spell--he had had no sleep for two
+nights; but that the vessel might as well go on being towed till it was
+quite dark, and then they could anchor. He had no sleep that night
+either. Instead of going into his own cabin, he stole quietly into
+Timéa's, placed the night-lamp in a box, that its light might not
+disturb her, and sat the whole time by the sick girl's bed listening to
+her delirious fancies and renewing her compresses. He never shut his
+eyes. He heard plainly when the anchor went down and the ship was
+brought up; and then how the waves began to plash against the sides! The
+sailors tramped about the deck for some time, then one by one they
+turned in. But at midnight he heard a dull knocking. That sounds,
+thought he, like hammering in nails whose heads have been covered with
+cloth to muffle the sound. Before long he heard a noise like the fall of
+some heavy object into the water, then all was still.
+
+Michael remained awake, and waited till it was light and the vessel had
+started again. When they had been an hour on their way, he came out of
+the cabin. The girl slept quietly, the fever had ceased.
+
+"Where is the coffin?" was the first question.
+
+The Servians came up with a defiant air. "We loaded it with stones and
+threw it into the water, so that you might not bury it anywhere ashore
+and bring bad luck on us."
+
+"Rash men! what have you done? Do you know that I shall be arrested and
+have to render an account of my vanished passenger? They will accuse me
+of having put him out of the way. You must give me a certificate in
+which you acknowledge what you did. Which of you can write?"
+
+Naturally, not one of them knew how to write.
+
+"What! You, Berkics, and you, Jakerics, did you not help me to paint the
+letters on the coffin?"
+
+Then they came out with a confession that each only knew how to write
+the one letter which he had painted on the lid, and that, only with the
+brush and not with a pen.
+
+"Very well; then I shall take you on to Pancsova. There you can give
+evidence verbally to the colonel in my favor; he will find your tongues
+for you."
+
+At this threat suddenly every one of them had learned to write; not only
+those two, but the others as well. They said they would rather give a
+certificate at once than be taken on to Pancsova. Michael fetched ink,
+pen, and paper, made one of these skillful scribes lie on his stomach on
+the deck, and dictated to him the deposition in which they all declared
+that, out of fear of hail-storms, they had thrown the body of Euthemio
+Trikaliss into the Danube while the crew slept, and without their
+knowledge or aid.
+
+"Now, sign your names to it, and where each of you lives, so that you
+may be easily found if a commission of inquiry is sent to make a
+report."
+
+One of the witnesses signed himself "Ira Karakassalovics," living at
+"Gunerovacz," and the other "Nyegro Stiriapicz," living at "Medvelincz."
+
+And now they took leave of each other with the most serious faces in
+the world, without either Michael or the four others allowing it to be
+seen what trouble it cost them not to laugh in each other's faces.
+
+Michael then put them all ashore.
+
+Ali Tschorbadschi lay at the bottom of the Danube, where he had wished
+to be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AN EXCELLENT JOKE.
+
+
+In the morning when Timéa awoke she felt no more of her illness; the
+strength of youth had won the victory. She dressed and came out of the
+cabin. When she saw Timar forward she went to him and asked, "Where is
+my father?"
+
+"Fraülein, your father is dead."
+
+Timéa gazed at him with her great melancholy eyes; her face could hardly
+become paler than it was already. "And where have they put him?"
+
+"Fraülein, your father rests at the bottom of the Danube."
+
+Timéa sat down by the bulwarks and looked silently into the water. She
+did not speak or weep; she only looked fixedly into the river.
+
+Timar thought it would lighten her heart if he spoke words of
+consolation to her. "Fraülein, while you were ill and unconscious, God
+called your father suddenly to himself. I was beside him in his last
+hour. He spoke of you, and commissioned me to give you his last
+blessing. By his wish I am to take you to an old friend of his, with
+whom you are connected through your mother, who will adopt you and be a
+father to you. He has a pretty young daughter, a little older than you,
+who will be your sister. And all that is on board this vessel belongs to
+you by inheritance, left to you by your father. You will be rich; and
+think gratefully of the loving father who has cared for you so kindly."
+
+Timar's throat swelled as he thought, "And who died to secure your
+liberty, and killed himself in order to endow you with the joys of
+life."
+
+And then he looked with surprise into the girl's face. Timéa had not
+changed a feature while he spoke, and no tear had fallen. Michael
+thought she was ashamed to cry before a stranger, and withdrew; but the
+maiden did not weep even when alone. Curious! when she saw the white cat
+drowned, how her tears flowed! and now, when told that her father lies
+below the water, not a drop falls.
+
+Perhaps those who break out in tears at some small emotion brood
+silently over a deep grief?
+
+It may be so. Timar had other things to do than to puzzle his head over
+psychological problems. The towers of Pancsova began to rise in the
+north, and down the stream came an imperial barge, straight for the "St.
+Barbara," with eight armed Tschaikists, their captain, and a provost.
+When they arrived they made fast to the side without waiting for
+permission, and sprung on deck. The captain approached Timar, who was
+waiting for him at the door of the cabin. "Are you in command of this
+vessel?"
+
+"At your service."
+
+"On board this ship, under the false name of Euthemio Trikaliss, there
+is a fugitive treasurer from Turkey--a pasha with stolen treasures."
+
+"On board this vessel travels a Greek corn-merchant, of the name of
+Euthemio Trikaliss, not with stolen treasures but with purchased grain.
+The vessel was searched at Orsova, and here are the certificates. This
+is the first; be so good as to read it, and see if all is not as I say.
+I know nothing of any Turkish pasha."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"If he was a Greek, with Abraham; if a Turk, with Mohammed."
+
+"What! is he dead, then?"
+
+"Certainly he is. Here is the second paper, containing his will. He died
+of dysentery."
+
+The officer read the document, and threw side glances at Timéa, who
+still sat in the place where she had heard of her father's death. She
+understood nothing; the language was strange to her.
+
+"My six sailors and the steersman are witnesses of his death."
+
+"Well, that is unlucky for him, but not for us; if he is dead he must be
+buried. You will tell us where, and we shall have the body exhumed; we
+have a man who can recognize it, and prove the identity of Trikaliss
+with Ali Tschorbadschi, and then we can at any rate lay an embargo on
+the stolen property. Where is he buried?"
+
+"At the bottom of the Danube."
+
+"Oh! this is too much. Why there?"
+
+"Gently now. Here is the third paper, prepared by the Dean of
+Plesscovacz, in whose parish the decease of Trikaliss took place, and
+who not only refused him a consecrated burial, but forbid me to bring
+the body ashore; the people insisted on our throwing it overboard."
+
+The captain clinched his hand angrily on the hilt of his sword. "The
+devil! these confounded priests! Always the most trouble with them. But
+at any rate you can tell me where he was thrown into the river?"
+
+"Let me tell you everything in proper order, Herr Captain. The
+Plesscovaer sent four watchmen on board, who were to prevent our landing
+the corpse; in the night, when we were all asleep, they threw the
+coffin, which they had loaded with stones, into the Danube without the
+knowledge of the crew. Here is the certificate delivered to me by the
+culprits; take it, search them out, take their evidence, and then let
+each have his well-merited punishment."
+
+The captain stamped with his foot, and burst into angry laughter.
+
+"Well, that is a fine story. The discovered fugitive dies, and can not
+be made responsible; the priest won't bury him, the peasants shove him
+into the water, and hand in a certificate signed with two names which no
+man ever possessed, and two places which never existed in this world.
+The refugee disappears under the water of the Danube, and I can neither
+drag the whole Danube from Pancsova to Szendre, nor get hold of the two
+rogues, by name Karakassalovics and Stiriapicz. If the identity of the
+fugitive is not proved, I can not confiscate the cargo. You have done
+that very cleverly, skipper. Cleverly planned indeed! And everything in
+writing. One, two, three, four documents. I bet if I wanted the
+baptismal certificate of that lady there, you would produce it."
+
+"At your orders." That Timar certainly could not produce, but he could
+put on such an innocent, sheepish face, that the captain shook with
+laughter and clapped him on the shoulder.
+
+"You are a splendid fellow, skipper. You have saved the young lady's
+property for her; for without her father I can do nothing to either her
+or her money. You can proceed, you clever fellow!"
+
+With that he turned on his heel, and the last Tschaikiss, who had not
+swung round quick enough, got such a box on the ear that the poor devil
+all but fell into the water; and then he gave the word for departure.
+
+When he was down below in the boat, he cast one searching look back; but
+the skipper was still looking after him with the same sheepish face.
+
+The cargo of the "St. Barbara" was saved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE FATE OF THE "ST. BARBARA."
+
+
+The "St. Barbara" could now pursue her way unmolested; and Timar had no
+worse misfortunes than the daily disputes with the leader of the
+towing-team. On the great Hungarian plains the voyage up the Danube
+becomes extremely wearisome; there are no rocks, no water-falls or old
+ruins, nothing but willows and poplars, which border both sides of the
+river. Of these there is nothing interesting to relate.
+
+Timéa frequently did not come out of her cabin during a whole day, and
+not a word did her lips utter. She sat alone, and often the food they
+set before her was brought out again untouched. The days grew shorter,
+and the bright autumn weather turned to rain; Timéa now shut herself
+entirely into her cabin, and Michael heard nothing of her except the
+deep sighs which at night penetrated to his ear through the thin
+partition. But she was never heard to weep; the heavy blow which had
+fallen on her had perhaps covered her heart with an impenetrable layer
+of ice. How glowing must that love be which could melt it!
+
+Ah, my poor friend, how came you by that thought? Why do you dream
+waking and sleeping of this pale face? Even if she were not so
+beautiful, she is so rich, and you are only a poor devil of a fellow.
+What is the good of a pauper like you filling all his thoughts with the
+image of such a rich girl? If only it were the other way, and you were
+the rich one and she poor! And how rich is Timéa? Timar began to reckon,
+in order to drive himself to despair, and turn these idle dreams out of
+his head. Her father left her a thousand ducats in gold and the cargo,
+which, according to the present market prices, must be worth, say, ten
+thousand ducats--perhaps she has ornaments and jewels besides--and might
+be counted in Austrian paper-money of that date as worth a hundred
+thousand gulden; that in a Hungarian provincial town is a very rich
+heiress. And then Timar asked himself a riddle whose solution he could
+not guess.
+
+If Ali Tschorbadschi had a fortune of eleven thousand ducats, that would
+not weigh more than sixteen pounds; of all metals, gold has the smallest
+volume in proportion to its weight. Sixteen pounds of ducats could be
+packed in a knapsack, which a man could carry on his back a long way,
+even on foot. Why was the Turk obliged to change it into grain and load
+a cargo-ship with it, which would take a month and a half for its
+voyage, and have to struggle with storms, eddies, rocks, and
+shallows--which might be delayed by quarantine and custom-houses--when
+he could have carried his treasure with him in his knapsack, and by
+making his way cautiously on foot over mountain and river, could have
+reached Hungary safely in a couple of weeks?
+
+The key to this problem was not to be found.
+
+And another riddle was connected with this one. If Ali's treasure
+(whether honestly come by or not) only consists of eleven or twelve
+thousand ducats altogether, why does the Turkish Government institute a
+pursuit on such a large scale, sending a brigantine with four-and-twenty
+rowers, and spies and couriers after him? What would be a heap of money
+for a poor supercargo is for his highness the Padischa only a trifle;
+and even if it had been possible to lay an embargo on the whole cargo,
+representing a value of ten or twelve thousand ducats, by the time it
+had passed through the fingers of all the informers, tax-collectors, and
+other official cut-purses, there would be hardly enough left for the
+sultan to fill his pipe with.
+
+Was it not ridiculous to set such great machinery in motion in order to
+secure so small a prize?
+
+Or was it not so much the money as Timéa that was the object? Timar had
+enough romance about him to find this a plausible assumption, however
+little it agreed with a supercargo's one-times-one multiplication table.
+
+One evening the wind dispersed the clouds, and when Timar looked out of
+his cabin window he saw on the western horizon the crescent moon.
+
+The "red moon!"
+
+The glowing sickle seemed to touch the glassy surface of the Danube. It
+looked to Timar as if it really had a human face, as it is depicted in
+the almanacs, and as if it said something to him with its crooked mouth.
+Only that he could not always understand--it is a strange language.
+
+Moonstruck people perhaps comprehend it, for they follow it; only they,
+as well as the sleep-walkers, remember nothing of what was said when
+they awake. It was as if the moon answered Timar's questions. Which?
+All. And the beating of his heart? or his calculations? All.
+
+Only that he could not put these answers into words.
+
+The red crescent dipped slowly toward the water, and sent its reflected
+rays along the waves as far as the ship's bows, as if to say, "Don't you
+understand now?" At last it drew its horns gently below the surface,
+saying plainly, "I shall return to-morrow, and then you will know."
+
+The pilot was in favor of making the most of the light of the after-glow
+to go on further, until it grew dark. They were already above Almas, and
+not far from Komorn; in those parts he knew the channel so well that he
+could have steered the vessel safely with his eyes shut. As far up as
+the Raab Danube, there was no more danger to fear.
+
+And yet there was something! Off Fuzito a soft, dull thud was heard; but
+at this thud the steersman cried "Halt!" in a fright, to the
+towing-team.
+
+Timar also grew pale, and stood petrified for a moment. For the first
+time during the whole voyage dismay was depicted in his features. "We
+have struck a snag!" he cried to the steersman.
+
+And that great strong man entirely lost his head, left the rudder, and
+ran crying like a little child across the deck to the cabin.
+
+We have touched a snag! Yes, that was so. When the Danube is in flood it
+makes breaches in the bank, the uprooted trees fall into the current,
+and are carried to the bottom by the weight of the soil clinging to
+their roots; if a cargo-ship drawn by horses touches such a tree-trunk,
+it pierces the hull. From shallows and rocks the steersman can guard his
+vessel, but against a tree-trunk lying in ambush under water, neither
+knowledge, experience nor skill is of any avail. Most of the shipwrecks
+on the Danube are from this cause.
+
+"It is all up with us!" howled the pilot and the sailors. Every one left
+his post and ran for his bundle and his chest, to get them into the
+boat.
+
+The vessel swung across the stream, and the forepart began to sink. It
+was useless to think of saving it--absolutely impossible. The hold was
+filled with sacks of grain; before they could shift these in order to
+get at the leak and stop it, the vessel would long ago have gone down.
+
+Timar broke in the door of Timéa's cabin.
+
+"Fraülein, put on your cloak quickly, and take the casket which stands
+on the table; our ship is sinking, we must save ourselves." As he spoke
+he helped her into her warm kaftan, and gave her directions to get into
+the boat; the pilot would help her. He himself ran back into his cabin
+to get the box which held the ship's papers and cash. But Johann Fabula
+was not thinking of helping Timéa; he flew into a rage when he saw the
+girl. "Didn't I say this milk-face, this witch with the meeting
+eyebrows, would bring us all to destruction? We ought to have thrown her
+overboard."
+
+Timéa did not understand what he said, but she shrunk from his bloodshot
+eyes, and preferred to go back to her cabin, where she lay down, and saw
+the water rush through the door and mount gradually to the level of the
+edge of her bed. She thought to herself that if the water washed her
+away, it would carry her down-stream, to where her father was lying at
+the bottom of the Danube, and then they would again be united.
+
+Timar was wading up to his knees in water before he had collected all he
+wanted from his cabin and packed them in a box, which he took on his
+shoulder and then hurried to the boat.
+
+"And where is Timéa?" he cried, not seeing her there.
+
+"The devil knows!" growled the pilot. "I wish she had never been born."
+Timar flew back into Timéa's cabin, now up to his waist in water, and
+took her in his arms. "Have you the casket?"
+
+"Yes," whispered the girl.
+
+He asked no more, but hurried with her on deck, and carried her in his
+arms into the boat, where he put her on the middle seat. The fate of the
+"St. Barbara" was being decided with awful rapidity. The ship was going
+down stern first, and in a few minutes only the upper deck and the mast,
+with the dangling tow-rope, were visible above water.
+
+"Shove off!" Timar said to the rowers, and the boat moved toward the
+shore.
+
+"Where is the casket?" Timar asked the girl, when they had already gone
+some distance.
+
+"Here it is," answered Timéa, showing him what she had brought away.
+
+"Miserable girl! that is the box of sweetmeats, not the casket." In
+fact, Timéa had brought the box of Turkish sweets, meant as a present to
+her new sister, and had totally forgotten the casket which held her
+whole fortune. That was left behind in the submerged cabin. "Back to the
+ship!" Timar cried to the pilot.
+
+"Surely nobody has got such a mad notion as to look for anything in a
+sunken ship," grumbled Fabula.
+
+"Back!--no words--I insist!"
+
+The boat returned to the vessel. Timar asked no one's help, but sprung
+himself to the deck and down the steps to the cabin.
+
+Timéa looked after him with her great dark eyes as he vanished under the
+surface, as if to say--"And you too go before me into the watery grave."
+
+Timar reached the bulwarks, but had to be very careful, because the
+vessel had a list toward the side where Timéa's cabin door was. He had
+to hold on by the timbers of the roof, so as not to slip altogether
+under water. He found the door, luckily, not shut by the waves; for it
+would have been a long job to get it open. It was quite dark inside, the
+water had filled it almost to the ceiling; he groped to the table, the
+casket was not there; perhaps she had left it on the bed. The water had
+floated the bed to the roof, and he had to draw it down; but the casket
+was not there either. Perhaps it had been knocked over by the rush of
+water. He felt about vainly with his hands, stooping under water. His
+feet were more fortunate, for he stumbled over the object sought for;
+the casket had fallen to the ground. He lifted it, and tried while
+holding it to climb up to the other side, where he need not hold on with
+both hands.
+
+The minute that Timar was under water seemed to Timéa an eternity.
+
+He was a full minute under water. He had held his breath the whole time,
+as if to try an experiment how long a man could do without breathing.
+
+When Michael's head appeared above the water she heaved a deep sigh,
+and her face beamed when Timar gave her the rescued casket, but not on
+its account.
+
+"Well, captain!" exclaimed the steersman, as he helped Timar into the
+boat, "that's thrice you've got soaked for the love of these eyebrows.
+Thrice!"
+
+Timéa asked Michael in a whisper, "What is the Greek for the word
+thrice?" Michael translated it. Then Timéa looked at him long, and
+repeated to herself in a low voice "Thrice."
+
+The boat approached the shore in the direction of Almas.
+
+Against the steely mirror in the twilight a long line was visible, like
+a distressful note of exclamation or a pause in life. It was the topmast
+of the "St. Barbara."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE GUARDIAN.
+
+
+At six in the evening the ship's crew had left the sunken craft, and by
+half past seven Timar with Timéa was in Komorn. The post-cart driver
+knew Brazovics' house very well, and galloped his four bell-decked
+horses with unmerciful cracks of the whip through the little streets up
+to the square, as he had been promised a good _trinkgeld_ if he brought
+his passengers quickly to their destination.
+
+Michael lifted Timéa from the country wagon and told her she was now at
+home. Then he took the casket under his cloak and led the girl up the
+steps.
+
+The house of Athanas Brazovics was of two stories--a rarity in Komorn;
+for in remembrance of the destructive earthquakes by which the town had
+been visited in the last century, people usually only built on the
+ground-floor. The lower story was occupied by a large café, which served
+the resident tradespeople as a casino; the whole upper floor was
+inhabited by the family of the merchant. It had two entrances from the
+street, and a third through the kitchen.
+
+The owner was generally not at home at this hour, as Timar knew; he
+therefore led Timéa straight to the door through which the women's rooms
+were reached. In these reigned fashionable luxury, and in the anteroom
+lounged a man-servant. Timar asked him to fetch his master from the
+café, and meanwhile led Timéa to the ladies.
+
+He was certainly hardly got up for company, as may be imagined when one
+remembers what he had gone through, and the number of times he had been
+soaked; but he was one of those who belonged to the house, who could
+come in at any time and in any dress: they looked upon him as "one of
+our people." In such a case one gets over the strict rules of etiquette.
+
+The announcement revives the old habit of the mistress, as soon as the
+door of the anteroom is open, of putting her head through the parlor
+door to see who is coming. Frau Sophie has kept this habit ever since
+her maid-servant days. (Pardon, that slipped out by accident.) Well,
+yes, Herr Athanas raised her from a low station; it was a love-match, so
+no one has a right to reproach her.
+
+It is therefore not as idle gossip, but only as a characteristic touch,
+that I mention that Frau Sophie even as "gracious lady" could not get
+rid of her early habit. Her clothes always fitted her as if they had
+been given to her by her mistress. From her coiffure an obstinate lock
+of hair would always stick out either in the front or at the back; even
+her most gorgeous costumes always looked tumbled and creased; and if
+nothing else went wrong, there would be invariably a pair of
+trodden-down shoes with which she could indulge in her old propensity.
+Curiosity and tattle were the ingredients of her conversation, in which
+she generally introduced such extraordinary expressions that when she
+began to scatter them in a mixed party, the guests (that is, those who
+were seated) almost fell off their chairs with laughter. Then, too, she
+had the agreeable custom of never speaking low; her voice was a
+continuous scream, as if she were being stabbed and wished to call for
+assistance.
+
+"Oh, good Lord, it's Michael!" she cried, as soon as she got her head
+through the door-way. "And where did you get the pretty fraülein? What
+is the casket you have under your arm? Come into the parlor! Look, look,
+Athalie, what Timar has brought!"
+
+Michael let Timéa pass, then he entered and politely wished the company
+good-evening. Timéa looked round with the shyness of a first meeting.
+Besides the mistress of the house there were a girl and a man in the
+room. The girl was a fully developed and conscious beauty, who, in spite
+of her naturally small waist, did not disdain tight stays; her high
+heels and piles of hair made her appear taller than she was; she wore
+mittens, and her nails were long and pointed. Her expression was of
+artificial amiability; she had somewhat arrogant and pouting lips, a
+rosy complexion, and two rows of dazzling white teeth, which she did not
+mind showing; when she laughed, dimples formed on chin and cheek, dark
+brows arched over the bright black eyes, whose brilliancy was increased
+by their aggressive prominence. With her head up and bust thrown
+forward, the beautiful creature knew how to make an imposing appearance.
+This was Fraülein Athalie.
+
+The man was a young officer, verging on thirty, with a cheerful open
+face and fiery black eyes. According to the military regulations of the
+period, he had a clean-shaven face, with the exception of a small
+crescent-shaped whisker. This warrior wore a violet tunic, with collar
+and cuffs of pink velvet, the uniform of the engineers. Timar knew him
+too. It was Herr Katschuka, first lieutenant at the fort, and also a
+commissariat officer--rather a hybrid position, but so it was.
+
+The lieutenant has the pleasure of taking a portrait of the young lady
+before him in chalks; he has already finished one by daylight, and is
+trying one by lamplight. The entrance of Timéa disturbs him in this
+artistic occupation.
+
+The whole appearance of the slender delicate girl was something
+spiritual at this moment--it was as if a ghost, a phantom, had stepped
+out of the dusk.
+
+When Herr Katschuka looked up from his easel, his dark-red chalk drew
+such a streak across the portrait's brow, that it would be hard for
+bread-crumbs to get it out, and he rose involuntarily from his seat
+before Timéa.
+
+Every one rose at the sight of the girl, even Athalie. Who can she be?
+
+Timar whispered to Timéa in Greek, on which she hastened to Frau Sophie
+and kissed her hand, while the girl herself received a kiss on her
+cheek.
+
+Again Timar whispered to her. The girl went with shy obedience to
+Athalie, and looked steadily in her face. Shall she kiss her, or fall on
+the neck of her new sister? Athalie seemed to raise her head higher
+still. Timéa bent to her hand and kissed it--or rather not her hand, but
+the kid mitten. Athalie allowed it, her eyes cast a flaming glance on
+Timéa's face, and another on the officer, and she curled her lips yet
+more.
+
+Herr Katschuka was completely lost in admiration of Timéa.
+
+But neither his nor Athalie's fiery looks called up any emotion on
+Timéa's face, which remained as white as if she were a spirit.
+
+Timar himself was not a little confused. How was he to introduce the
+girl and relate how he had come by her, before this officer?
+
+Herr Brazovics helped him out of his difficulty. With a great bustle he
+burst in at the door. He had just now in the café--to the surprise of
+all the regular customers--read aloud from the Augsburg _Gazette_ that
+the escaped pasha and treasurer, Ali Tschorbadschi and his daughter, had
+fled on board the "St. Barbara," evaded the watchfulness of the Turkish
+authorities, and reached Hungary in safety. The "St. Barbara" is his
+ship. Tschorbadschi is a good friend of his--even a connection by the
+mother's side. An extraordinary event! One can fancy how Herr Athanas
+threw his chair back when the servant brought him the news that Herr
+Timar had just arrived with a beautiful young lady, and under his arm a
+gilt casket.
+
+"So it is actually true!" cried Herr Athanas, and rushed up to his own
+apartments, not without upsetting a few of the card-players on his way.
+
+Brazovics was a man of enormous corpulence. His stomach was always half
+a step in front of him. His face was copper-colored at its palest, and
+violet when he ought to have been rosy: even when he shaved in the
+morning his chin was all bristles by the evening, his scrubby mustache
+perfumed with smoke, snuff, and various spirits; his eyebrows formed a
+bushy wall over his prominent and bloodshot eyes. (A fearful thought,
+that the eyes of the lovely Athalie, when she grows old, will resemble
+her father's!)
+
+When Herr Brazovics opens his mouth, one understands why Frau Sophie
+always screams; her husband, too, can only speak in shouts, but with the
+difference that he has a deep bass voice like a hippopotamus.
+
+Naturally Frau Sophie, when she wants to overpower his voice with her
+own, raises it to a yell. It was as if they had a wager which could
+bring on the other a lung disease or a stroke of apoplexy. It is
+doubtful who will win; but Brazovics always stops his ears with wool,
+and Frau Sophie invariably has a comforter round her throat.
+
+Athanas rushed, panting with haste, into the ladies' room, where his
+voice of thunder had already preceded him. "Is Michael there with the
+young lady? Where is the fraülein? Where is Michael?"
+
+Timar hastened to catch him at the door. He might have succeeded in
+keeping back the man himself, but the weight of his approaching paunch,
+when once set in motion, bore down all obstacles.
+
+Michael made a sign to him that a visitor was present. "Ah, that doesn't
+matter! You can speak openly before him. We are _en famille_; the Herr
+Lieutenant belongs to the family. Ha! ha! don't get cross, Athalie;
+every one knows it. You can speak freely, Michael; it is all in the
+papers."
+
+"What is in the papers?" exclaimed Athalie, angrily.
+
+"Well, well, not you; but that my friend Ali Tschorbadschi, my own
+cousin, the treasurer, has fled to Hungary with his daughter and his
+property on board my ship the 'St. Barbara;' and this is the daughter,
+isn't she? The dear little thing!" And with that Herr Brazovics suddenly
+fell upon her, took her in his arms, and pressed two kisses on her pale
+face--two loud, wet, malodorous kisses, so that the girl was quite
+confused.
+
+"You are a good fellow, Michael, to have brought her here so quickly.
+Have you given him a glass of wine? Go, Sophie--quick! A glass of wine!"
+
+Frau Sophie pretended not to hear; but Herr Brazovics threw himself into
+an arm-chair, drew Timéa between his knees, and stroked her hair with
+his fat palms. "And where is my worthy friend, the governor of the
+treasury? Where is he?"
+
+"He died on the journey," answered Timar in a low voice.
+
+"What a fatality!" said Brazovics, trying to give an angular form to his
+round face, and taking his hand from the girl's head. "But no accident
+happened to him?"
+
+A curious question. But Timar understood it.
+
+"He intrusted his property to my care, to deliver it over to you with
+his daughter. You were to be her adopted father and the guardian of her
+property."
+
+At these words Herr Brazovics grew sentimental again; he took Timéa's
+head between his two hands, and pressed it to his breast.
+
+"As if she were my own child. I will regard her as my daughter;" and
+then again smack! smack! one kiss after another on brow and cheek of the
+poor victim. "And what is in this casket?"
+
+"The gold I was to deliver to you."
+
+"Very good, Michael. How much is there?"
+
+"A thousand ducats."
+
+"What!" cried Brazovics, and pushed Timéa off his knee; "only a thousand
+ducats? Michael, you have stolen the rest!"
+
+Something stirred in Timar's face. "Here is the autograph will of the
+deceased. He declares therein that he has given over to me a thousand
+ducats in gold, and his remaining property is contained in the cargo,
+which consists of ten thousand measures of wheat."
+
+"That's something more like. Ten thousand measures of wheat, at twelve
+gulden fifty a measure in paper money, that makes a hundred and
+twenty-five thousand gulden, or fifty thousand gulden silver. Come here,
+little treasure, and sit on my knee; you're tired, aren't you? And did
+my dear never-to-be-forgotten friend send me any other directions?"
+
+"He told me to tell you that you must be present in person when the
+sacks are emptied, lest they should exchange the grain, for he had
+bought a very good quality."
+
+"Naturally I shall be there in person. How should I not be? And where is
+the ship with the grain?"
+
+"Below Almas, at the bottom of the Danube."
+
+But now Athanas thrust Timéa right away, and sprung up in a rage. "What!
+my fine vessel gone down, as well as the ten thousand measures of wheat!
+Oh, you gallows-bird! you rascal! You were all drunk, for certain. I'll
+put you all in jail; the pilot shall be in irons; and I shall not pay
+one of you. You forfeit your ten thousand gulden caution-money: you
+shall never see that again. Go and sue me if you like!"
+
+"Your vessel was not worth more than six thousand gulden, and is insured
+for its full value at the Komorn Marine Insurance Office. You have come
+to no harm."
+
+"If that were true a hundred times over, I should still require
+compensation from you, on account of the _lucrum cessans_. Do you know
+what that means? If you do, you can understand that your ten thousand
+gulden will go to the last kreutzer."
+
+"So be it," answered Timar, quietly. "We will speak of that another
+time; there's time enough. But what we have to do now is to decide what
+is to happen to the sunken cargo, for the longer it remains under water,
+the more it will be spoiled."
+
+"What does it matter to me what happens to it?"
+
+"So you will not take it over? You will not be personally present at the
+discharge of cargo?"
+
+"The devil I will! What should I do with ten thousand measures of soaked
+grain? I am not going to make starch of ten thousand measures of corn;
+or shall I make paste of it? The devil may take it if he wants it!"
+
+"Hardly; but the stuff must be sold. The millers, factors,
+cattle-dealers, will offer something for it, and the peasants too, who
+want seed-corn; and the vessel must be emptied. In that way some money
+may be got out of it."
+
+"Money!" (This word could always penetrate into the cotton-stuffed ears
+of the merchant.) "Good. I will give you a permit to-morrow to empty the
+vessel and get rid of the cargo in bulk."
+
+"I want the permit to-day. Before morning everything will be ruined."
+
+"To-day! You know I never touch a pen at night; it is against my
+habits."
+
+"I thought of that beforehand, and brought the permit with me. You have
+only to sign your name to it. Here are pen and ink."
+
+But now Frau Sophie interrupted with a scream. "Here in my parlor I do
+not allow writing to be done! That's the only thing wanting--that my new
+carpet should be all spotted with ink. Go to your room if you want to
+write. And I won't have this squabbling with your people here in my
+rooms!"
+
+"I should like to know if it isn't my house," growled the great man.
+
+"And it's my sitting-room!"
+
+"I am master here!"
+
+"And I am mistress here!"
+
+The screeching and growling had the good result for Timar that Herr
+Brazovics flew into a rage, and in order to show that he was master in
+his own house, seized the pen and signed the power of attorney. But when
+he had given it, both fell on Timar, and overwhelmed him with such a
+flood of reproaches and invective, that he would willingly have taken
+yet another bath in the Danube to wash them away. Frau Sophie only
+scolded Timar indirectly, as she abused her husband for giving such a
+ragged, dirty fellow, such a tipsy, beggarly scoundrel, a warrant like
+that.
+
+Why had he not given it to any other supercargo than Timar, who would
+run away with the money, and drink and gamble till it was gone.
+
+Timar stood the whole time with the same immovable calm in the midst of
+this tumult as that with which he had defied storm and waves at the Iron
+Gate. At last he broke silence: "Will you take charge of the money which
+belongs to the orphan, or shall I give it over to the City Orphanage?"
+(At this last question Brazovics got a great fright.) "Now, then, if you
+please, come with me into the office and we will settle the affair at
+once, for I don't like servants' squabbles."
+
+With this hundred-pound insult he succeeded in suddenly silencing both
+master and mistress. Against such scolds and blusterers, a good round
+impertinence is the best remedy. Brazovics took the light and said, "All
+right; bring the money along." Frau Sophie appeared all at once to be in
+the best of tempers, and asked Timar if he would not have a glass of
+wine first.
+
+Timéa was quite stunned; of what passed in a foreign language she
+understood not a word, and the gestures and looks which accompanied it
+were not calculated to enlighten her. Why should her guardian now kiss
+and hug her, the orphan, and the next moment push her from him? Why did
+he again take her on his lap, only to thrust her away once more? Why did
+both of them scream at this man, who remained as calm as she had seen
+him in the tempest, until he spoke a few words, quietly, without anger
+or excitement, and thereby instantly silenced and overpowered the two
+who had been like mad people the minute before, so that they could
+prevail as little against him as the rocks and whirlpools and the armed
+men. Of all that went on around her, she had not understood one word;
+and now the man who had been hitherto her faithful companion, who had
+gone "thrice" into the water for her sake, with whom alone she could
+speak in Greek, was going away--forever, no doubt--and she would never
+hear his voice again.
+
+Yet no; once again it sounds in her ear. Before he stepped over the
+threshold Timar turned to her and said in Greek, "Fraülein Timéa, there
+is what you brought away with you."
+
+And with that he took the box of sweets from under his cloak. Timéa ran
+to him, took the box, and hastened to Athalie, in order to present to
+her, with the sweetest smile, the gift she had brought from far away.
+Athalie opened the box.
+
+"_Fi donc!_" she exclaimed, "it smells of rose-water, just like the
+pocket-handkerchiefs the maid-servants take to church."
+
+Timéa did not understand the words, but from the pouting lips and
+turned-up nose she could easily guess their meaning, and that made her
+very sad.
+
+She made another attempt, and offered the Turkish sweetmeats to Frau
+Sophie, who declined with the remark that her teeth were bad, and she
+could not eat sweets. Quite cast down, she now offered them to the
+lieutenant. He found them excellent, and swallowed three lumps in three
+mouthfuls, for which Timéa smiled at him gratefully.
+
+Timar stood at the door and saw Timéa smile. Suddenly it occurred to her
+that she must offer him some of the Turkish delight. But it was already
+too late, for Timar no longer stood there. Soon after, the lieutenant
+took leave and departed. Being a man of breeding, he bowed to Timéa
+also, which pleased her greatly.
+
+After a time Herr Brazovics returned to the room, and they were now just
+the four alone.
+
+Brazovics and Frau Sophie began to talk in a gibberish which was
+intended for Greek.
+
+Timéa understood a word here and there, but the sense seemed to her more
+strange than those languages which were altogether unknown to her.
+
+They were consulting what to do with this girl whom they had been
+saddled with. Her whole property consists of twelve thousand paper
+gulden. Even if it were likely that the soaked grain should bring in a
+little more, that would not suffice to educate her like a lady, like
+Athalie.
+
+Frau Sophie thought she must be treated as a servant, and get used to
+cook and sweep, to wash and iron--that would be some use. With so little
+money no one would marry her except some clerk or ship's captain, and
+then it would have been better for her to be brought up as a servant and
+not a lady.
+
+But Athanas would not hear of it; what would people say? At last they
+agree on a middle course; Timéa is not to be treated like a regular
+servant, but take the position of an adopted child. She will take her
+meals with the family, but help to wait. She shall not stand at the
+wash-tub, but must get up her own and Athalie's fine things. She must
+sew what is wanted for the house, not in the maid's room but in the
+gentlefolks' apartments; of course she will help Athalie to dress, that
+will only be a pleasure to her, and she need not sleep with the maids
+but in the same room as Athalie; the latter wants some one to keep her
+company and be at her service. In return, Athalie can give her the old
+clothes she no longer requires.
+
+A girl who has only twelve thousand gulden can thank Heaven that such a
+fate should fall to her share.
+
+And Timéa was satisfied with her lot. After the great and
+incomprehensible catastrophe which had thrown her on the world, the
+lonely creature clung to every being she came near. She was gentle and
+obliging. This is the way of Turkish girls. It pleased her to be allowed
+to sit by Athalie at supper, and it was not necessary to remind her: she
+rose of her own accord to change the plates and wash the spoons, and
+did it with cheerful looks and kind attention. She feared to annoy her
+guardians if she looked sad, and yet she had cause enough. Especially
+she busied herself in trying to help Athalie. Whenever she looked at
+her, her face showed the open admiration which young girls feel for a
+grown-up beauty; she forgot herself in gazing at the rosy cheeks and
+bright eyes of the other. Those innocent minds think any one so lovely
+must be very good.
+
+She did not understand what Athalie said, for she did not even speak bad
+Greek, like her parents; but she tried to guess by her eyes and hands
+what was wanted. After supper, at which Timéa only ate fruit and bread,
+not being used to rich dishes, they went into the salon.
+
+There Athalie sat down to the piano. Timéa crouched near her on the
+footstool and looked with admiration at her rapid execution. Then
+Athalie showed her the portrait which the lieutenant had executed, and
+Timéa clasped her hands in astonishment.
+
+"You never saw anything like it?"
+
+"Where should she have seen such things?" answered the father. "If is
+forbidden to the Turks to take a likeness of any one. That is why there
+is a revolution just now--because the sultan has had his picture painted
+and hung up over the divan. Ali Tschorbadschi was mixed up in the
+movement, and was forced to fly. You poor old Tschorbadschi, to have
+been such a fool!"
+
+When Timéa heard her father's name, she kissed the hand of Brazovics.
+She supposed he had sent some pious blessing after the dead man.
+
+Athalie went to bed, and Timéa carried the light for her. Athalie seated
+herself at her dressing-table, looked in the glass, sighed deeply, and
+then sunk back in her chair tired and cross, with a gloomy countenance.
+Timéa would have liked to know why this lovely face had suddenly grown
+so sad.
+
+She took the comb from Athalie's hair and loosened the plaits with a
+skillful hand, and then again dressed the richly flowing chestnut locks
+for the night in a simple coil.
+
+She took out the earrings, and her head came so near to Athalie's that
+the latter could not help seeing the two contrasting faces in the
+mirror.
+
+One so radiant, rosy, and fascinating, the other so pale and soft; and
+yet Athalie sprung up angrily and pushed away the glass. "Let us go to
+sleep." The white face had thrown hers into the shade. Timéa collected
+the scattered clothes and folded them neatly together by instinct.
+
+Then she knelt before Athalie and took off her stockings. Athalie
+permitted it.
+
+And after Timéa had drawn them off, and held the snow-white foot, more
+perfect than a sculptor's ideal, in her lap, she bent and pressed a kiss
+on it. Athalie permitted that too.
+
+
+
+
+_BOOK SECOND.--TIMÉA._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+GOOD ADVICE.
+
+
+Lieutenant Katschuka went through the café and found Timar there gulping
+down a cup of black coffee. "I am soaked and frozen, and have a great
+deal still to do to-day," he said to the officer, who hastened to press
+his hand.
+
+"Come and have a glass of punch with me."
+
+"Many thanks, but I have no time now; I must go this instant to the
+insurance company, that they may help me with the salvage of the cargo;
+for the longer it remains under water the greater the damage. From there
+I must run to the magistrate, that he may be in time to send some one to
+Almas to receive the power of attorney; then I must go round to the
+cattle-dealers and carriers, to induce them to come to the auction; and
+later on I must go by the stage to Iotis to find out the starch
+manufacturers there: they can make the best use of the wet grain.
+Perhaps in this way some of the poor child's property may be saved. But
+I have a letter to deliver to you which was given me in Orsova."
+
+Katschuka read the letter, and then said to Timar, "Very good, my
+friend. Do your business in the town, but afterward come to me for half
+an hour; I live near the Anglia--over the door hangs a shield with a
+large double eagle. While the diligence baits we will drink a glass of
+punch and have a sensible talk; be sure you come."
+
+Timar consented, and went off to look after his business. It might be
+about eleven o'clock when he entered the door under the double eagle,
+which was near the promenade called in Komorn the Anglia. Katschuka's
+private servant waited for him there, and led him up to his master's
+room. "Well, I expected," began Timar, "you would have been already
+married to Athalie long before I came up from yonder."
+
+"Yes, comrade, but the affair doesn't get on well; it is delayed by
+first one thing and then another. It seems to me as if one of us is not
+keen about it."
+
+"Oh! you may be sure Athalie is keen enough."
+
+"In this world you can't be sure of anything, least of all a heart. I
+only say one thing, long engagements are bad. Instead of getting nearer
+to each other people only get further apart, and learn to know each
+other's failings and weaknesses. If this occurs after marriage one
+thinks, in God's name, we can not go back. Let me advise you, comrade,
+if you wish to marry and have fallen in love, don't wait long to think
+about it; for if you begin to calculate it will only end in a breach."
+
+"With you I should fancy there is no danger in calculations about a girl
+who is so rich."
+
+"Riches are relative, my friend. Believe me, every woman knows how to
+get rid of the interest of her dowry; and then no one exactly knows the
+financial position of Herr Brazovics. A heap of money goes through his
+hands, but he does not like striking a proper business-like balance, so
+as to show what he has gained or lost by his dealings."
+
+"For my part I think he is very well off. And Athalie is a very pretty
+and clever young lady."
+
+"Yes, yes; but you need not praise Athalie to me like a horse you take
+to market. Let us rather talk of your affairs."
+
+If Katschuka had been able to look into Timar's heart he would have
+found that what they had been talking of _was_ his friend's affair.
+Timar had turned the conversation to Athalie because--because he envied
+the officer the smile of Timéa's face. It was as if he had said, "You
+have no right to Timéa's smile--you are engaged; marry Athalie!"
+
+"Now, let us talk of serious matters. My friend in Orsova writes me that
+I am to befriend you. Good; I will try. You are in a position anything
+but pleasant: the ship intrusted to you is wrecked. It is not your
+fault, but a great misfortune for you, for every one will now fear to
+intrust you with a vessel. Your principal seizes your caution-money, and
+who knows whether you can recover it by law. You would like to help the
+poor orphan--I see it in your eyes; that she should lose such a pretty
+fortune affects you more than any one else. How can we get out of this
+with one _coup_?"
+
+"I know no way out of it."
+
+"But I do. Listen to me; next week the annual concentration of troops
+begins round Komorn. Twenty thousand of them will be maneuvering here
+for three weeks. A contract for the bread supply is on hand; large sums
+will be paid, and he who goes about it wisely will make a good haul. All
+the tenders go through my hands, and I can say beforehand who will get
+the contract, for it depends more on what is not contained in the offer
+than on what is. Till now Brazovics' tender is the lowest. He is
+prepared to undertake the contract at 140,000 gulden, and promises 'the
+officials concerned' 20,000 gulden."
+
+"What do you mean?--the officials concerned?"
+
+"Don't be so stupid. It is the usual thing that whoever receives such a
+large contract should give a present to those who get it for him. It has
+always been so since the world began. What else do we live on? You know
+that well enough."
+
+"Certainly; but I never tried it in my own person."
+
+"Very foolish of you. You burn your fingers for other people, while you
+might get the chestnuts out of the fire for yourself, if you knew how to
+do it. Send in a tender to undertake the contract at 130,000 gulden, and
+promise 30,000 commission."
+
+"I can not do that for several reasons. First, I have not got the
+deposit, which must accompany the tender; then I have not the capital
+requisite to buy such quantities of grain and flour; next, I greatly
+object to bribery; and lastly, I am not such a bad reckoner as to
+persuade myself of the possibility of undertaking with only 130,000
+gulden to complete the contract as well as pay the friendly commission."
+
+Katschuka laughed at him. "Oh, my dear Michael, you will never be a man
+of business. In our line that is always the way. Only to make a groschen
+on a gulden is peddler's trade. The chief thing is to have interest, and
+you don't want for that; that's what I am good for. We have been good
+friends ever since our school days: rely on me. How do you mean you have
+no money to deposit? Hand over the receipt for your caution-money of
+10,000 gulden which you left with Brazovics--it will be regarded as a
+sufficient security--and then I will tell you what to do next; go
+quickly to Almas, and bid yourself for the sunken cargo. The grain,
+which represents a value of 100,000 gulden, will certainly be knocked
+down to you for 10,000. Then you will possess 10,000 measures of corn.
+You will promise all the millers in Almas, Fuzito, and Izsaer double pay
+if they will grind your corn at once. Meanwhile you build ovens, in
+which the corn is immediately baked into bread. Within three weeks it
+will all be consumed, and if a bad part slips in, it will be the
+business of your 'good friends' to hush it up. At the end of three weeks
+you will have a clear gain of at least 70,000 gulden. Believe me, if I
+were to take such an affair to your principal, he would seize it with
+both hands. I wonder at your slowness."
+
+Timar thought it over. It was indeed a tempting offer. To make in three
+weeks 60,000 or 70,000 gulden--and without much trouble, in complete
+security. The first week the ration-bread would be rather sweeter than
+usual, the second week rather bitterer, and the third week rather musty.
+But soldiers do not look narrowly at such things; they are used to it.
+
+But yet Timar turned with disgust from this bitter cup. "Oh, Emerich!"
+he said, laying his hand on his former schoolmate's shoulder, "where
+have you learned such things?"
+
+"Why," answered the other, with a gloomy face, "there where they are
+taught. When I entered on the military career, I was full of romantic
+illusions. They are all in ashes now. Then I thought this was the school
+of chivalry, the heroic career, and my heart beat high at the thought:
+now I know that all in this world is speculation, and that public
+concerns are governed by private interests. In the engineers I had
+completed my studies, with remarkable, I may say distinguished results.
+When I was sent to Komorn, the prospect filled me with pride, at the
+opportunity I should have for the development of my capacities in
+military engineering. The first plan for the fortifications submitted by
+me was declared to be a masterpiece by good judges; but do not imagine
+that it was accepted: on the contrary, I received orders to prepare
+another, which was more costly, and involved the expropriation of whole
+streets in the town. Well, I prepared that too. You will remember that
+part of the town which is now an open space--this change cost half a
+million. Your principal had some ruinous houses there which he sold at
+the price of palaces. And they call that fortification! And for that I
+had studied engineering. Well, a man falls by degrees and finds his
+level. Perhaps you have heard the anecdote--it is in every mouth--how
+the Crown-Prince Ferdinand, when he visited us last year, said to the
+commandant of the fortress, 'I thought this fortress was black?' 'Why
+should it be black, your imperial highness?' 'Because in the
+fortification accounts there are every year 10,000 gulden put down for
+ink. I thought the walls must be dyed with ink.' Every one laughed, and
+that was the end of it. If nothing comes out, nothing is said; and if
+everything comes out, it only raises a laugh. You had better laugh too!
+Or will it please you better to be shoved out into the world from the
+threshold of the corn-dealer, and sell matches with two kreutzers profit
+a day? I have already come down from the ethereal regions. Off, my
+friend, to Almas, and buy the sunken wheat. Till ten to-morrow night you
+will have time to send in your tender. Listen, there is the
+diligence--be off, and see that you get back quickly."
+
+"I will think it over," said Timar, slowly.
+
+"Remember that you will do the poor orphan a good turn, if you give
+10,000 gulden for her lost property. Otherwise she won't have as many
+hundred when the salvage is paid."
+
+Those words rang in Timar's ears. An invisible hand drove him on. "_Fata
+nolentem trahunt!_" says St. Augustine. Soon after, Timar sat again in
+the diligence, which galloped away with its four Neudorf horses. In the
+town every one slept. Only at the station-house sounded the night
+watchman's call. No one has written on his brow what the next day will
+bring to him; but from the walls the sentries, wet through with the
+autumn rain, challenged in turn "Who goes there?"--"Patrol"--"Pass."
+
+What sort of bread have these fellows had?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE RED CRESCENT.
+
+
+On the following day, Timar did actually bid for the sunken grain in
+company with brokers and millers, who made trifling bids, a few groschen
+a measure. Timar got tired of this groschen business, and suddenly
+cried, "I will give ten thousand gulden for the whole cargo." When the
+bidders heard this they ran away, and it would have been in vain to run
+after them. The official auctioneer accepted Timar's offer, and gave
+over the whole cargo to him as his property. Every one thought him mad.
+What could he do with such a mass of soaked grain? What he did was this.
+
+He lashed two lighters together, fastened them with iron clamps to the
+deck of the sunken ship, and made arrangements to get up the cargo.
+There was a change since yesterday in the position of the vessel, for
+the stern had sunk so that now the forepart stood out of water, and one
+of the two cabins was quite dry. Timar installed himself here, and then
+began the hard work. He tore up the deck, and with the help of a crane
+drew up one sack after the other. They were first piled near the cabin,
+that the water might drain away; then they were transferred to a raft,
+and taken ashore: there straw mats were laid, on which the grain was
+shaken and spread out. Timar bargained meanwhile with the millers for
+immediate grinding of the corn. The weather was favorable, there was a
+strong wind, and the corn dried fast.
+
+If only the work would go on quickly!
+
+He began to calculate. The little ready money he had would all go to the
+payment of the work-people; if the undertaking failed he would be a
+beggar. Johann Fabula told him beforehand, that after this senseless
+purchase nothing would be left him but to hang the last sack round his
+neck, and throw himself into the Danube. A thousand disquieting thoughts
+passed through Timar's head, without beginning or end. He looked on till
+night-fall, while one sack after the other was propped against the cabin
+wall. The sacks all had the same mark--a five-spoked wheel printed in
+black on the sacking. In truth, that poor fugitive pasha had been wiser,
+if, instead of buying so much grain, he had just put his money in his
+knapsack. And to think of pursuing him so obstinately only for this
+stuff! Was it worth while to flee only for this, and then actually to
+poison himself? Till late evening the work continued, and still only
+about three thousand measures were spread out to dry. Timar promised the
+laborers double pay if they would work a few hours longer. The grain
+which lies a second night under water will hardly make bread. The
+sack-carriers worked on cheerfully.
+
+The wind had dispersed the clouds, and the moon appeared again in the
+sunset sky. Heavens and moon were red.
+
+"How ghostly it looks!" said Timar, and turned his back on the moon, so
+as not to see it.
+
+But even as he stood there, and counted the sacks as they were drawn up,
+the red moon rose again before him. This time it was painted on a sack.
+In the place where the other sacks bore a wheel of five spokes, here
+above the trade-mark a crescent was painted in vermilion.
+
+A cold shiver ran through Timar. Here was the answer to the riddle! This
+was what the dying man meant by his last words. But either his
+confidence was not strong enough, or else time had failed him to finish
+his phrase. When the laborers turned away Timar took the sack and
+carried it into the cabin; no one noticed it, and then he locked the
+door behind him.
+
+The work-people went on for two hours more; but at last they were so
+tired, wet, and stiff with water and wind, that they were not in a
+condition to go on any longer: the rest of the cargo must wait till the
+morrow. The wearied folk hurried to the nearest alehouse to warm
+themselves with food and drink. Timar remained alone on board: he said
+he wished to count the unloaded sacks, and would row himself ashore in
+the little boat. The moon had reached the water with its lower horn, and
+seemed to look in at the cabin window. Timar's hand trembled as if with
+ague. When he opened the blade of his knife, he cut his hand, and the
+drops of blood painted stars on the sack by the side of the red
+crescent. He cut the rope with which the sack was tied, and put his hand
+in; what he brought out was beautiful white wheat. Then he cut the lower
+end of the sack; here too only grain came out. He now slit the whole
+sack up, and with the scattered corn, a long leathern bag fell at his
+feet. The bag had a lock. He broke it open.
+
+And then he shook the contents out on to the bed--the same bed where
+once the living marble statue had lain.
+
+What a sight was presented to him in the moonlight! Long rows of rings
+strung together--brilliant, sapphire, and emerald rings; armlets of
+opals and huge turquoises; pearl bracelets, each bead as large as a
+hazel-nut; a necklace of magnificent brilliants of the finest water; an
+agate box, from which when he opened it a whole heap of unset diamonds
+flashed upon him; at the bottom of the bag a number of agraffes and
+girdles, all set with rubies, and four rouleaux, each containing five
+hundred louis d'or. Here was an enormous treasure, at least a million
+gulden.
+
+Now one can understand the man fleeing even to the bottom of the Danube,
+that this treasure might not fall into the hands of his pursuers. For
+this, it was worth while to send a gunboat and spies after the fugitive.
+For this, it was worth while to cut the tow-rope in the midst of a storm
+at the Iron Gate.
+
+The "St. Barbara" had carried a million on board! that is no child's
+play, no dream--it is reality. Ali Tschorbadschi's treasures lie there
+on the wet quilt with which Timéa had once covered herself. Whoever
+knows the value of pearls and precious stones, can understand that it
+was not for nothing that Ali Tschorbadschi had been Governor of Candia
+and guardian of the treasury.
+
+Timar sat in silent stupefaction on the edge of the bed, and held in his
+trembling hands the agate box, whose diamonds sparkled in the moonlight.
+He looked away through the window at the moon shining in. Again the moon
+seemed to have eyes and mouth, as it is depicted in the almanac, and to
+be entering into conversation with the poor mortal.
+
+"To whom do these treasures belong?"
+
+"Why, whom should they belong to but you? You bought the sunken cargo,
+just as it is, with the sacks and the grain. You were liable to the
+danger that it might remain on your hands as spoiled waste, as stinking
+rubbish. Now it has turned into gold and jewels. It is true that the
+dying man said something about the Red Crescent, and you puzzled your
+head as to what he could have meant; you wondered how it was possible
+that the refugee should have no more property than was visible. Now you
+see clearly how it all hung together; but then, when you bought the
+cargo, you did not know--you bought this mass of wet grain for quite
+another purpose. You wanted to make sweet and bitter bread out of it for
+the poor soldiers. Fate willed otherwise. Do you not see that this is a
+sign from Heaven? It would not permit you to make a shameful profit at
+the expense of twenty thousand poor soldiers--it has provided for you
+otherwise. As Providence has prevented something wicked, that which
+happened by its direction must without doubt be good."
+
+"Besides, to whom should these treasures belong?"
+
+"The sultan must have stolen them in his victorious campaigns; the
+treasurer most probably stole them from the sultan. Both were robbed of
+them by the Danube: now they have no owner--they belong to you. You
+possess them at any rate with just as much right as the sultan, the
+treasurer, and the Danube."
+
+"And Timéa?"
+
+At this question a long narrow black cloud rose before the moon's face.
+
+Timar remained long in thought. The moon appeared again.
+
+"So much the better for you. You know best how the world treats a poor
+devil like you. They scold him when he has done his duty; they call him
+a knave when a misfortune overtakes him; they allow him to hang himself
+on the nearest tree when he has nothing more to live on; for his
+love-sorrows pretty girls have no balm. A poor man remains always only a
+clerk. Then see how the world honors the rich man--how people seek for
+his friendship, ask his advice, and trust him with the fate of the
+nation; and women, how they fall in love with him! Did you ever get even
+a friendly word of thanks from their lips? What would you get if you
+took the treasure you have found and laid it at her feet with the words,
+'There, take what is yours--I saved it for you from the depths?' In the
+first place, she would not know how to use it. She can hardly
+distinguish the value of a box of diamonds from that of a box of sweets;
+she is only a child; and then it would never reach her hands, for her
+adopted papa would absorb it and get rid of nine tenths of it. Who can
+prevent him from taking one gem at a time and turning it into money? But
+granted that Timéa gets it, what would be the result? She would be a
+rich lady, who would not cast a look at you from her height; and you
+would remain a miserable supercargo, in whom it would be madness even to
+dream of her. Now, however, things are the other way--you will be a rich
+man and she a poor girl. Is not that exactly what you desired of fate?
+Well, that is what has happened. Did you put that log in the way of the
+ship which stove her in? Do you mean badly by Timéa? No; you do not want
+to keep for yourself the treasures you have found; you will invest them
+profitably, increase them, and when you have earned with the first
+million a second and a third, then you will go to the poor girl and say,
+'There, take it--it is all yours; and take me too.' Do you wish to do
+anything wrong with it? You only wish to become rich in order to make
+her happy. You can sleep with a good conscience, having such designs."
+
+The moon was already half hidden in the Danube; only the tip of one horn
+rose from the water like a light-house; its reflection in the waves
+reached to the ship's bow; and every ray and every wave spoke to Timar.
+And they all said, "You have fortune in your hand; hold it fast--you
+risk nothing. The only one who knew of the treasure lies below the
+Danube."
+
+Timar heard what was whispered to him, and also the secret voice in his
+own breast, and cold drops stood on his brow. The moon's fiery tip
+vanished beneath the surface of the water, and cried to him with its
+last ray, "You are rich--you are a made man!"
+
+But when it was dark, the inward voice whispered in the silent night,
+"You are a thief!"
+
+An hour afterward a four-horse post-chaise was rushing along the Szönyer
+road at a gallop, and as the tower clock of St. Andrew's Church in
+Komorn struck eleven, the carriage stood at the door in the Anglia
+under the double eagle. Timar sprung quickly out and hurried in. He was
+expected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE GOLD MINE.
+
+
+After the concentration of troops in Komorn, Timar had suddenly become a
+wealthy man. He had bought a house in the Servian Street, the "City" of
+the Komorn merchants. No one was surprised. The phrase once uttered by
+the Emperor Francis I. to a contractor who had remained poor, was, "The
+ox stood at the manger, why did he not eat?" These golden words have, I
+fancy, been written by every contractor in his memorandum-book.
+
+How much Timar made by his bread contract it is impossible to say; but
+that he has suddenly become a great personage it is easy to see. He is
+always on the spot when there is a large undertaking on hand, and has
+money in abundance. This is not surprising to merchants or speculators;
+the first stage is the difficult one. If once the first hundred thousand
+gulden are made, the rest follows of itself--he has credit.
+
+On one point Herr Brazovics had no doubt whatever. He guessed rightly
+that Timar had offered the officials a larger commission than he himself
+usually did, and that he had thus obtained the profitable bread contract
+by which Brazovics usually enriched himself. But that he should have
+made so large a profit out of it--on that point he shook his head
+incredulously. Since Timar had risen in the world, and become his own
+master, Brazovics cultivated the friendship of his former supercargo,
+and invited him to his evening receptions, which Timar accepted
+willingly enough. He met Timéa there very often, who had already learned
+a little colloquial Hungarian.
+
+Timar was now welcome even to Sophie, who once half whispered and half
+screamed to Athalie that it would do no harm if she was rather more
+friendly to him, for he was now a rich man, a far from despicable
+_parti_, worth more than three officers put together, who have nothing
+but their smart uniform and their debts. To which Fraülein Athalie
+replied, "It does not follow that I should take my father's servant for
+a husband." Frau Sophie could finish the sentence for herself--"Because
+my papa married his maid-servant"--in which lay a well-earned reproach
+to Frau Sophie. How could she have dared to intrude herself in the
+capacity of mother upon such a grand young lady!
+
+Toward the end of supper one evening, as the two sat alone at table,
+Herr Brazovics began to incite Timar to drink, by repeatedly taking wine
+with him. His own head was pretty strong from constant practice, but
+this poor devil could never have been used to the bottle.
+
+When they were well on the road, he cunningly brought up the subject.
+"You, Michael, out with the truth now--how did you contrive to profit so
+much by the commissariat contract? I have tried it myself, and I know
+what can be got out of it. I also have mixed feldspar, bran, and
+millers' dust with the dough; I understand how to get acorns ground
+instead of corn, and know the difference between rye and wheat flour;
+but to make such a _coup_ as you have done has never happened to me.
+Confess now! What trick were you up to? You are already wealthy--you
+have found a gold mine."
+
+Timar put on the look of a tipsy man who required six horse-power to
+raise his eyelids, and began with drunken fluency and a stammering
+tongue to explain. "Well, you must know, sir--"
+
+"No sir to me! How often have I told you! Call me by my name."
+
+"Well, then, you must know, Nazi, it was no trick. You remember that I
+bought in the soaked grain-cargo of the 'St. Barbara' at a nominal
+price, a gulden a measure. I did not get rid of it, as people fancied,
+to the millers and farmers, with a profit of a couple of groschen; but I
+had it baked into bread at once, which did not cost me half so much as
+if I had bought the very cheapest flour."
+
+"Oh, you prodigy! I ought to go to school to you in my old age. You
+arch-rascal! Was the ration-bread very bad, then?"
+
+Michael laughed so that the wine almost ran out of his mouth again. "I
+should just think it was bad--bad beyond words."
+
+"And were no complaints laid before the commissariat committee?"
+
+"What use would that have been, when I had the whole lot of them in my
+pocket?"
+
+"But the commandant of the fortress, the inspector of ordnance?"
+
+"I squared them too," cried Michael, proudly, striking his pocket, in
+which so many great men had found room. The eyes of Herr Brazovics shone
+in a curious way, as if they were even redder than usual. "And did you
+give the bread made of soaked wheat to the soldiers to eat?"
+
+"Why not? Bread once swallowed tells no tales."
+
+"Quite true, Michael, quite true; but you be careful not to tell any one
+yourself. You can tell me, of course--I am your true friend; but if one
+of your enemies got wind of it, it might go badly with you. Your house
+in the Servian Street might go too. Hold your tongue before other
+people."
+
+On this Timar began, like one who has suddenly come to his senses, to
+entreat Herr Brazovics not to betray his secret and make him miserable;
+he even kissed his hands. Brazovics pacified him, he need not be uneasy
+about him, he must not let out his secret to others. Then he called the
+servant and ordered him to take a lantern and go home with Herr Timar,
+and take good care of him that he should come to no harm, and if he were
+unable to walk, to take his arm. When the servant returned, he related
+what trouble it had cost him to get Timar home; he had not known his own
+door, and had begun to sing in the street. They had at last got him to
+bed, and there the good gentleman had instantly gone to sleep. But when
+Brazovics' servant had gone, Timar left his bed, and wrote letters until
+morning.
+
+He had not been in the least tipsy. Timar was as certain that his dear
+friend would at once give information of the whole affair as that Monday
+comes after Sunday; and he also knew to whom.
+
+It was therefore no surprise to him that, a few days later, after an
+evening spent with Brazovics, he was cited to appear at the fortress,
+where a gentleman entitled "Financial Privy Counselor" gave him to
+understand that he was to remain for the present under strict
+observation, and demanded his keys, in order to lay an embargo on his
+books and papers.
+
+This will be a big thing. Timar's secret had been denounced to the
+general chamber of finance, which was in rivalry with the leaders of the
+council of war. Here was an opportunity to reveal in the most
+conspicuous way the scandals which took place in the bosom of this
+community, and to remove from it the control of the commissariat. The
+accusation was supported by the three high courts--only the police
+department was on the side of the council of war. At last the chamber
+gave its decision, and a commission was appointed, with strict
+injunctions to spare no one, to suspend the whole department of supply,
+to request the commandant to arrest the contractor, commence a criminal
+suit, and discover everything. If one morsel of musty bread should
+appear against Timar, woe to him!
+
+But nothing of the sort was found. For eight days the commission worked
+day and night. They heard witnesses, took oaths, inquired, had the
+provost up--all in vain, no one could say anything against Timar. From
+the whole inquiry it was proved that he had divided the spoiled cargo
+among millers, country people, and manufacturers; that not one single
+handful had been mixed with the bread baked for the troops. They had
+even the soldiers up to give evidence. They said they had never eaten
+better bread than during the two weeks when it was provided by Timar. No
+complaint, no adverse witness appeared against him, much less could the
+officials be accused of corruption; they had given the contract to him
+who offered the best and lowest terms. At last they boiled over; they
+felt insulted by the inquiry, stormed and rattled their swords; the
+commission, driven into a corner, got alarmed, revoked, rehabilitated,
+and tried to get away from Komorn as quickly as possible. Timar was set
+free with many excuses, and with the assurance that he was a thoroughly
+honest man.
+
+At his acquittal Herr Katschuka was the first who hastened to
+congratulate him, and shook his hand demonstratively in public. "My
+friend, you must not put up with this quietly; you must have
+satisfaction for it. Just fancy, they suspected _me_ of being bribed! Go
+to Vienna and demand reparation; the informer must have an exemplary
+punishment. And in future," he added aside, "you may be sure no one will
+ever get us out of the saddle. Strike while the iron is hot."
+
+Timar promised to do so, and mentioned his intention to Brazovics when
+he next met him. The latter seemed furious at the ill-treatment his
+friend Michael had received. Who could the scoundrel be who had so
+libeled him?
+
+"Whoever it may be," Timar declared, "shall rue it dearly; and if he has
+a house in Komorn, I'll lay my head that this joke will cost him his
+home. I am going to-morrow morning to Vienna, to demand satisfaction
+from the treasury."
+
+"Yes, do so, by all means," said Brazovics; and thought to himself,
+"Just as well that I know it; I shall be there too."
+
+And he happened to get there a day sooner than Timar. There, with the
+assistance of his old connections, he so prepared the way (which cost
+him a mint of money) that if once Timar set his foot in this labyrinth,
+he would never get out again. From the treasury he will be sent to the
+high court; there the affair will be given over to the judicial office,
+thence to the superintendent of police, and from there to the secret
+department of finance.
+
+The unfortunate plaintiff at last loses patience, gets angry, and says a
+few impudent words--even possibly gets them printed. Then the censor
+gets hold of him, and at last he begs to be let go, and swears never
+again to pull the bell at any public office. He will be a fool for his
+pains if he tries to get justice. But Timar was not a fool; he was far
+cleverer than either of his advisers--than both put together. He had
+grown cunning from the time when he let himself be persuaded to take the
+first wrong step: he knew already that you should never tell any one the
+real thing you are going to do. At Pancsova, when he snapped his fingers
+at the authorities, he had shown what talents lay undiscovered in him.
+Then he had done in another's interest what could be of no use to
+himself: he did what he was told to do, and humbugged the pursuers; now
+he was doing it in his own interest. Being in possession of the
+treasure-trove, he must find some excuse for appearing as a rich man
+before the public. He must pretend to be a speculator who had been lucky
+in his business. In his very first affair he must be reputed to have
+made large sums. If people imagined he had made his money by corrupt
+means, that was the lesser evil; and it could not be proved, for it was
+not true. He had been put to such great expense by the contract, that
+hardly any profit was left; but he was in a position to buy houses and
+ships, and pay in gold, and every one thought the money at his disposal
+came from his successful tender. He required a pretext, a title, a
+visible ground, in order to go quietly forward with the help of
+Tschorbadschi's wealth.
+
+What, then, did he do in Vienna?
+
+He must ask for compensation from the exchequer, and could reckon on the
+support of the war department. From his friends at Komorn he had
+received letters of recommendation to the most influential officials. He
+left all these letters at the bottom of his trunk, and went direct to
+the chancellor himself, of whom he requested an audience. The minister
+was pleased that this man did not try to get in by backstairs influence,
+but came direct by the front entrance. He admitted him. The minister was
+a tall man with a clean-shaven face, an imposing double chin, severe
+brows, and very bald. On his breast shone numerous orders. He had stuck
+both hands under his coat-tails when this poor individual with the big
+mustache was shown in. Timar wore a simple black Hungarian costume.
+
+The first question of his excellency to Timar was, "Why do you not wear
+a sword when you come to an audience?"
+
+"I am not a noble, gracious sir."
+
+"Indeed! I suppose you have come to me to ask for compensation for your
+arrest and the injury which was inflicted on you?"
+
+"Far from it," answered Timar. "The government only did its duty in
+proceeding against greater men than I, as well as myself, on the ground
+of apparently well-founded information. As I am not of nobility, it is
+of no consequence to me to lay damages on account of my injured honor.
+Indeed, I owe gratitude to the informer as well as to the court, for
+having by their strict inquiry made it perfectly clear that my hands
+were clean all through my contract."
+
+"Oh, then, you have no intention of demanding satisfaction from the
+informer?"
+
+"On the contrary, I should think it unadvisable to do so, for many an
+honest man might be prevented from revealing real abuses. My honor is
+established: it is not my nature to revenge myself. Besides, I have
+neither time nor desire for it. Forgive and forget."
+
+While Timar spoke, his excellency had already taken one hand from under
+his coat-tails in order to clap Timar on the shoulder.
+
+"That is a very practical way of looking at it. You can do better than
+losing time by running about after vengeance. A very sensible idea. What
+brings you, then, to me?"
+
+"A tender for which I need your excellency's protection."
+
+The excellency stuck his hand behind him again.
+
+"The crown has a property on the frontier, in Levetincz."
+
+"H'm!" grumbled the great man, and frowned. "What do you want with it?"
+
+"In my business as a wholesale dealer, I have often been there, and know
+the local circumstances. The crown lands extend to thirty thousand
+acres, and are let to Silbermann, the Vienna banker, at forty kreutzers
+an acre. The conclusion of this contract lies within the province of the
+treasury; but the disposal of the income belongs to the military
+department. This income amounts to a hundred thousand gulden. Silbermann
+divided the estate into three parts, and let to subtenants at a gulden
+an acre."
+
+"Of course he wanted to make something out of it."
+
+"Naturally. The subtenants let the land in smaller parcels to the
+peasantry for a certain percentage of the crops. But now, after two bad
+harvests, the land in the Banat has not even grown enough for seed-corn.
+The peasants got nothing, and could not give any percentage to the
+subtenants, who paid nothing to the crown lessee; and he, in order to
+get rid of his contract, went bankrupt, and paid no rent to the
+government."
+
+Now both hands of the great official came out and began to gesticulate.
+"Yes; because he lived in princely luxury, the rascal! Just imagine, he
+kept horses which cost eight thousand gulden, and drove them about. Now
+they are up for sale. I am an 'excellency,' but I am not in a position
+to keep such costly horses as those."
+
+Timar took no notice, and continued his remarks: "The treasury now is
+defrauded of its rent, for there is nothing to seize. The tenant and the
+subtenants are married; their whole property belongs to their wives
+under the name of dowry. The hundred thousand gulden are lost to the
+military department, which, I have been told, will claim the sum from
+the exchequer."
+
+The chancellor opened his snuff-box, and while he put his two fingers in
+for a pinch, he threw an inquiring look on the speaker with one eye.
+
+"My humble offer therefore is," continued Timar, laying a folded paper
+on the table, "to rent the Levetincz estate for ten years at the price
+paid by the sub-lessees--namely, a gulden an acre."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"The new tenant will already have lost a year, for it is November, and
+all the fields are lying fallow. But in spite of that, I offer not only
+to include the past year in the term, but also to be responsible for the
+irrecoverable rent."
+
+His excellency tapped twice on the lid of his gold snuff-box, and pursed
+his lips together. Well, thought he, this is a man of gold. He is not
+such a fool as he looks. He guesses that the treasury would like to take
+the commissariat out of the hands of the war office, and that all this
+was mixed up with the inquiry at Komorn. Then, after that horrible
+fiasco, the clattering swords are at the top of the tree, and would be
+very glad to get the manipulation of the lands on the military frontier
+into their own hands. They think it would be a good milch-cow, and the
+deficit caused by the bankruptcy of the Levetincz tenant gives them a
+pretext. And now this fellow does not combine with the enemies of the
+treasury which persecuted him, but comes over to us, and will improve
+our position and help us out of our difficulty. A man of gold indeed,
+and to be properly appreciated! "Good!" said his excellency; "I see you
+are an honest man. You had some cause to complain of us, but abstained:
+you will see that this is the right way for a good citizen to act. Just
+to show you that the state knows how to reward patriotic subjects, I
+guarantee you the acceptance of your offer. Come to my office to-night.
+I pledge you my word as to the result."
+
+Timar presented his offer in writing, and took leave with low bows. His
+excellency was pleased with this man. In the first place, he is wise
+enough to look over the injustice done to him, which if he had followed
+it up would have brought unpleasant scandal on the department. Secondly,
+he offers the government an advantageous rent, fifty per cent higher
+than the last. Thirdly, he comes to the aid of the exchequer with a
+generous offer, and enables them victoriously to repel the attack of the
+war department. He is a threefold man of gold--no, fourfold--but of that
+his excellency knows nothing as yet. He was to learn it for the first
+time when he went home to dinner at his palace, and his stud-groom
+informed him that the gentleman from Hungary who had been commissioned
+by his excellency to bid for the eight thousand gulden horses had
+brought them home, and would personally report particulars of their
+price to his excellency.
+
+A four-fold treasure!
+
+When Timar visited the great man in his office that evening, he saw on
+every face a polite smile--the reflection of gold. His excellency met
+him at the door, and led him to the table. There lay the contract
+outspread; complete with all signatures, with the greater and lesser
+seals affixed. "Read--I hope you will be satisfied."
+
+The first thing which surprised Timar was that the lease ran for twenty
+years instead of ten.
+
+"Well, are you satisfied with the term."
+
+Was he satisfied! The second surprising thing was his own name, "Michael
+Timar, Baron von Levetinczy."
+
+"Do you like your title?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MICHAEL TIMAR, BARON VON LEVETINCZY.
+
+
+"The diploma of nobility shall be sent to you," said the great man with
+a gracious smile.
+
+Timar signed his name, with the addition of his new title, to the
+contract.
+
+"Do not be in a hurry," said his excellency, "I have something more to
+say. It is a duty of the government to distinguish those who have
+deserved it by their services to the nation. Especially in regard to
+such as have won universal recognition in the regions of commerce and
+political economy. Could you name any one whom I could recommend in the
+highest quarters for the decoration of the Iron Crown?"
+
+His excellency was quite prepared to receive for answer--"Here is my own
+button-hole, sir; you can find no better place for your order of merit.
+If you only want an honest man, here am I." And the offer was made with
+this idea.
+
+So much the greater was the astonishment of the minister when Michael
+Timar-Levetinczy after a brief pause replied--"Yes, sir, I will make so
+free as to point out a person who has long enjoyed universal respect,
+who has secretly been the benefactor of the district where he lives; it
+is no other than the Dean of Plesscovacz, Cyril Sandorovics, who
+deserves this distinction in an imminent degree."
+
+The minister started back. An individual had never before come under his
+notice who, on being asked--"To whom shall I give this order," had not
+turned to the mirror, and pointing to himself, replied--"Give it to this
+worthy man!" but who instead of that had indicated with his finger the
+furthest limit of the national map, and there seeking out a country
+priest, not his brother-in-law or godfather, not even a priest of his
+own church, had said--"This is a better man than I." Indeed this is a
+man of pure gold. A gold worker would have to mix at least three carats
+of silver with him before he would be malleable. But as the question has
+been asked, it must be seriously considered. "Good, good," replied the
+great man, "but the bestowal of an order involves certain formalities.
+The sovereign can not contemplate the eventuality of a refusal: the
+person to whom such a distinction falls must go through the form of
+personally applying for it."
+
+"His reverence is a very modest man, and would only, if I know him,
+decide on such a step on receiving an invitation from high quarters."
+
+"Indeed? I understand. A line from my hand would suffice? Good. As it is
+recommended by you, it shall be done. Yes; the state must reward modest
+merit."
+
+And the great man wrote with his own hand a few lines to the Rev. Dean
+Cyril Sandorovics, with the assurance that, if he desired it, he should
+receive the decoration of the Iron Crown in return for services. Timar
+thanked his excellency warmly for this favor, and was assured of his
+high protection for all future time. And, further, Timar had the
+pleasure of finding that in the whole office, where one generally has to
+go through every kind of tiresome formality, here every one was at his
+service, so that he only required an hour to get through his business,
+while it would have taken any one else weeks before he could get out of
+this official labyrinth. The water-jug of the Orsova purifier was there
+in an invisible shape!
+
+It was night before he had packed all the documents relative to his
+completed contract in his portmanteau. And now for speed! He neither
+supped nor slept, but hastened to the Golden Lamb, where the mail-cart
+put up. In the bar he bought a roll and a smoked sausage, which he put
+in his pocket; he could eat them on the journey. Then he called to the
+driver, "We must be off at once--spare neither whip nor horses. I will
+give you a gulden an hour for yourself, and pay double price for my
+place." It was needless to say more.
+
+Two minutes later the mail-cart was dashing through the streets of
+Vienna with great cracking of whips, the police in vain calling out that
+it was forbidden in Vienna. The courier-posts, which at that time took
+the place of railways, formed one connected chain between Vienna and
+Semlin. The horses stood harnessed day and night, and as soon the crack
+of the whip at one end of the village announced the approach of the
+post, the postmaster brought out the new team from the stable, and in
+two minutes the cart with the fresh horses rolled away over hill and
+dale at a gallop. If two post-carts met on the road they changed horses
+and drivers, who then had only half the distance to go back. The speed
+of the journey was regulated by the amount of the pay.
+
+Timar sat in the cart two days and nights without getting down for a
+meal, let alone a night's rest. He was quite used to sleeping in the
+carriage, in spite of shaking and rolling and knocking about.
+
+On the evening of the second day he was in Semlin, whence he drove all
+night to the first village on the Levetinczy estate.
+
+It was fine mild weather for the first of December. He drove to the
+little town hall, and sent for the village judge; he told him he was the
+new tenant of the estate, and requested him to make known to the farmers
+that they could rent the land in shares as in former years. During the
+two last years the fields which bore no fruit had lain as good as
+fallow, so that there would be a prospect of a rich harvest for the next
+season. The weather was favorable, the autumn lasting long; by setting
+to work at once there was still time to plow and sow.
+
+That was all very well, they replied; plowing could be managed if the
+principal thing, seed-corn, were not wanting. It was not to be got for
+love or money. The landowners had only with the greatest difficulty
+secured any for themselves; poor people would have to live on maize all
+the winter.
+
+Timar gave the consoling assurance that he would take care that they did
+not want for seed-corn, and so he went through the other villages whose
+inhabitants farmed as subtenants, and who, on his permission, got out
+their plows and went to turn over the fields which had been allowed to
+lie fallow a whole year. But where was the seed to come from? It was too
+late to get grain from Wallachia, and there was none in the
+neighborhood. But Timar knew where to get it. On the 2d December he
+reached Plesscovacz, whence a short time before he had almost been
+driven by force, and sought out his reverence, Cyril Sandorovics, who
+had then turned him out of his house.
+
+"Aha! my son, are you here again?" This was his reception by the
+venerable gentleman, that friend and benefactor of the people who ought
+long ago to have received the order of the Iron Crown if he had not been
+so retiring. "What do you want now? To buy grain? I told you two months
+ago I had none, and could not sell any. It is no use talking! You will
+lie in vain, for I don't believe a word you say. You have a Greek name
+and a long mustache. I don't trust your face."
+
+Timar smiled. "Well, this time nothing but truth shall pass my lips."
+
+"Tell that to the other people. You dealers from the upper country are
+always deceiving us. You pretend there was a poor harvest in your parts
+and drive our prices down. When you wanted to buy hay from us, you
+spread the report that the government was going to sell all its horses.
+You are a rascally lot."
+
+"But now I tell you the truth. I am here with a commission from the
+government to beg your reverence in their name to open your granaries.
+The government having heard that the people are in need of seed-corn,
+wishes to divide among them some supplies of grain. This is a sacred
+purpose, a great benefit to be conferred on the people, and whoever
+assists them in this renders them a great service. I am not to receive
+the grain, but it is to be delivered to the farmers, who will use it for
+seed-corn."
+
+"My son, that is all very true, and I am very sorry for the poor people,
+but I have no grain. Where should I get it? I had no harvest. There is
+my great stupid barn, but all three floors are empty."
+
+"It is not empty, reverend sir. I know very well that three years'
+harvest is stored away there: I could get at least ten thousand measures
+out of it."
+
+"You would get trash. Spare yourself the trouble. I would not sell for
+five gulden a measure; in the spring it will be seven gulden, and then I
+will sell. You lie in your throat when you say the government sends you;
+you only want to make your own profit, and not a grain will you get from
+me. Much the government knows about you and me; we might as well be in
+the moon for all it cares!"
+
+Till now the fortress had held out bravely against small arms. But Timar
+put his hand in his pocket and brought out a four-and-twenty pounder,
+the minister's letter. When the reverend gentleman had read it he could
+hardly believe his own eyes.
+
+The great seal on the envelope with the imperial double eagle, the stamp
+of the exchequer on the paper, left no room for doubt. It was no
+deception but the absolute truth.
+
+To wear that brilliant cross upon his breast had long been the _ne plus
+ultra_ of his dreams. Timar knew of this weakness of the dean's, who
+often, as they sat over their wine, had bitterly complained of the
+injustice of the government in heaping decorations on the patriarch at
+Carlovitz. Why give all to one and send the other empty away? Now he had
+attained his greatest desire--how the peasants will gape at him when he
+has attached this order to his breast, and how the Tschaikiss captain
+will envy him, having none of his own! Even the patriarch will be a
+degree more condescending in future. Meanwhile, his own manner to Timar
+had suddenly undergone a great change.
+
+"Sit down, little brother!" (until now he had not even offered a
+seat)--"tell me, how did you get to know their excellencies? Why did
+they intrust the letter to you?"
+
+Timar told him some story or other, and lied like print. He had given up
+his post under Brazovics and taken service under government. He had
+great influence with the minister, and it was he who had recommended his
+reverence for this distinction, as a good old friend of his own.
+
+"I knew you were not such a fool as you look; that's why I have always
+liked you so much. Now, my son, because you have such a beautiful Greek
+name, and such an honest face, you shall have the grain. How much do you
+want? Ten, twelve thousand measures? I will sell you all I have. Not to
+please the minister, no, indeed! but for the sake of your own honest
+face, and to do good to the poor people. What price did I say? Five
+gulden? I will tell you what, I will give it to _you_ for four gulden
+nineteen kreutzers. You pay cash down? Or shall I get the money in
+Vienna? I shall be going there, and can do it at the same time. I must
+thank his excellency in person for this honor. You will come and
+introduce me? Or if you want to have nothing to do with it, tell me at
+any rate what sort of a man he is. Is he big or little, friendly or
+haughty? Will he give me the cross himself? Does he like good Carlovitz
+and Vermuth? Now then, you shall taste some yourself."
+
+In vain Timar assured him he must go back that night to Levetinczy, to
+give orders to the steward to send the tenants for the seed-corn. The
+friendly host would not part with his guest, but placed the servant at
+his disposal, who could ride to Levetinczy and deliver the instructions.
+Michael must remain overnight with him. The reverend gentleman had
+glasses with rounded bottoms, which when they were filled could not be
+laid down till they were empty. He gave one to Timar, took another
+himself, and so they caroused till morning. And Timar showed no signs of
+drink; he had lived in that district and had got used to it. Early in
+the morning the farmers came with their wagons to the dean's court-yard.
+When they saw that the doors of the three-storied granary were really
+open, they said to Timar he was the right sort of saint and could work
+miracles. In the barn were supplies for three years, more than was
+required for all their winter seed.
+
+Timar never left the estate he had rented until the winter frosts set
+in, which stopped field-work for the season. But it was enough for the
+present. The remaining acres would do for spring-sowing, or as fallows,
+or for pasture. On the whole estate of thirty thousand acres there were
+only a few hundred acres of meadow-land, all the rest was arable and of
+the first class. If the next year should be favorable, the harvest would
+be superabundant.
+
+It was sown at exactly the right time. October remained dry and windy to
+the end. Those who had sown before that might be sure of a bad crop, for
+the legions of marmots had scratched out the seed before it sprung up.
+Those who sowed during the wet November were no better off, for it had
+snowed early, and in the warm ground, under the snow-covering, the seed
+rotted; but when the snow had melted, a long mild spell set in which
+lasted till Christmas. Whoever had sown then could congratulate himself;
+the marmots were gone; frost now came before snow, and under the
+beautiful white covering the treasure intrusted to the soil lay safely
+hidden till spring. Farming is a game of chance. Six or nothing! Timar
+threw six.
+
+Then followed such a fruitful year that whoever had profited by the
+favorable season in Banat received twenty-fold in crops.
+
+In this year Timar brought thirty cargoes of the finest wheat to Komorn
+and Raab, and these thirty had cost him no more than three to another
+person. It depended on himself whether to make half a million of profit
+or a hundred thousand more or less--either to make poor people's bread
+cheaper, or to hold a knife to the throat of his competitors.
+
+It lay with him to drive prices down as low as he chose. In Brazovics'
+café there was angry talk every evening among the assembled
+corn-dealers. He scatters money like chaff, and squanders his goods as
+if they were stolen. If only he would come among them they would get him
+by the throat!
+
+But he does not come; he goes nowhere and seeks no acquaintances. He
+takes care to tell no one what he is going to do, and all he undertakes
+turns into gold. Many new industries are called into being by him, which
+might have occurred to anyone else: they lay, so to speak, in the
+street, and only wanted picking up; but they were only noticed by others
+when this man had already got hold of them. He is always in movement,
+traveling here and there, and people wonder why he goes on living in
+this town; why he does not move to Vienna; why he, who is so rich, has
+his headquarters in Komorn, though it was certainly then an important
+commercial center.
+
+Timar knows what keeps him there. He knows why he lives in a town where
+all his mercantile colleagues are his sworn enemies, where the people
+sitting before Brazovics' café send a curse after him every time he
+passes. That house too he means to get into his clutches, with all that
+therein is. This it was which kept him in Komorn, when already he was
+the owner of a million and a half; he remained where they still called
+him Timar, and had not got used to his noble title of Levetinczy.
+
+Yet he knew how to suit noble deeds to his noble name. He founded an
+hospital for the poor of the town, he endowed the Protestant schools;
+even the chalice turned to gold in his hands. Instead of the silver one
+he presented a golden one to the church. His door was always open to the
+poor, and every Friday a long line of beggars went through the streets
+to his house, where each received a piece of money, the largest copper
+coin in existence, the so-called "schuster-thaler." People said that
+when a sailor was drowned, Timar maintained his orphans and gave a
+pension to his widow. A heart of gold indeed! A man of gold!
+
+But in his heart a voice continually whispered, "It is not true! It is
+all false!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A GIRL'S HEART.
+
+
+Herr Brazovics usually drank coffee after dinner, and had it served in
+the ladies' sitting-room, which he filled unmercifully with clouds of
+Latakia tobacco.
+
+Katschuka sat whispering with Athalie at a little table, at the corner
+of which Frau Sophie pretended to be busy sewing. (For years this table
+had been ostentatiously spread with needle-work and knitting, so that
+visitors might imagine they were occupied with the trousseau.)
+
+Herr Katschuka almost lived in the house; he came in the forenoon, was
+pressed to stay to dinner, and only found his way home late in the
+evening.
+
+It would appear that the fortifications of Komorn were complete, as the
+engineer officer had the whole day to spend with Fraülein Athalie. But
+the fortifications of Herr Katschuka's own fortress could not hold out
+any longer--the time was come for his marriage. He resisted like a
+second Zriny. When driven from the outworks, he retreated to the
+citadel. He always had some plausible pretext for delaying the marriage.
+Now, however, the last mine had been exploded. His deposit was indorsed
+by the Brazovics firm, and the council of war had accepted their receipt
+instead of money down; a house had been found for the young couple, and
+besides all this Katschuka had received his promotion to the rank of
+captain. This removed his last excuse; the last cartridge of the
+besieged had been expended, and nothing remained but to capitulate, and
+take the rich and beautiful girl home.
+
+Herr Brazovics became more and more venomous every day when he drank his
+coffee with the ladies; and the man by whom his coffee was poisoned was
+always Timar.
+
+This was his daily _delenda est Carthago_.
+
+"What confounded tricks that fellow is up to! While other honest dealers
+are glad to rest in winter from their labors, he is busy with things
+that no cat would think of. He has hired the Platten-See now, and fishes
+under the ice: a little while ago his people caught three hundredweight
+of fish in one haul. It is a theft! Before the spring comes he will have
+cleared the Platten-See, so that not a single perch, not a shad nor a
+roach, not a garfish, let alone a fogasch,[1] will be left in it. And
+he sends them all to Vienna. As if that was what fogasch swam in the
+Balaton lake for--that those Germans might eat them! The damned
+scoundrel! The government ought to set a price on his head. Sooner or
+later I will get rid of him, that's certain. When he goes over the
+bridge I will get a couple of fishermen to throw him into the Danube; I
+will pay a sentry a couple of gulden to shoot him by accident when he
+passes in the dark; I'll turn a mad dog into his yard, that it may bite
+him when he comes out in the morning. They ought to hang the rascal!
+I'll set his house on fire, that he may burn with it! And they ennoble
+such a fellow! In the town council they make him assessor, and the
+good-for-nothing sits at the green table with me. I, whose grandfather
+was of ancient Hungarian nobility, must suffer him near me, this runaway
+rogue!
+
+[Footnote 1: Leucia perca.]
+
+"But just let him attempt to come near this café. I'll set a band upon
+him who will throw him out of the window and break his neck! If ever I
+sat down to table with him I would season his soup so that he would soon
+be on his back like a dead fish! And this vagabond pays visits to
+ladies! This Timar, this former supercargo, who used to be a mud-lark!
+If he happened to be in the company of a brave officer who would call
+him out, and spit him like a frog--so!"
+
+Herr Brazovics threw a meaning glance on Herr Katschuka, who seemed as
+if he had heard nothing. He had heard well enough; but what had
+principally struck him in the monologue of his future father-in-law was
+that the new millionaire must have made a great breach in the riches of
+Herr Brazovics, and that this rage was caused by the threatened ruin of
+the firm. A thought not calculated to increase the officer's joy at the
+approaching wedding-day.
+
+"No; I will not wait for some one else to get rid of him!" said
+Brazovics at last, and stood up, laid aside his chibouque, and fetched
+his bamboo cane from its corner. "I have a dagger. I bought it since the
+fellow settled here, on purpose for him" (and that he might be believed
+he drew the sharp blade out of his sword-stick). "There it is! The first
+time we meet alone, I will stick it into him and nail him to the wall
+like a bat. And that I swear!"
+
+And he tried by rolling his bloodshot eyes to give emphasis to his
+threat. He drank the rest of his coffee standing, drew on his overcoat,
+and said he was going to business.
+
+He would come home early (that is, early in the morning). Every one was
+glad when he went.
+
+Just as Herr Brazovics went carefully down the steps to the street--for
+his corpulence prevented his running down-stairs--who should come to
+meet him but--Timar!
+
+Now is his chance; at striking distance, and in a dark place where no
+one can see them. We know by history that most murders are committed on
+the stairs. Timar had no weapon with him, not even a walking-stick; but
+Herr Athanas had a stiletto two feet long.
+
+When he saw Timar, he put his sword-stick under his arm, and cried aloud
+as he took off his hat, "Your obedient servant! good-day to you, Herr
+von Levetinczy!"
+
+Timar answered with a "Servant, Nazi--off to business again?"
+
+"He! he! he!" laughed Herr Brazovics jovially, like a boy who is caught
+in a bit of mischief. "Now then, Michael, won't you keep us company?"
+
+"Shouldn't think of it. If you want to win a couple of hundred gulden
+from me, I had better pay them now; but to sit the whole night gambling
+and drinking, no, thank you."
+
+"He! he! he! Well, go up to the ladies then; they are upstairs. A
+pleasant evening to you. I sha'n't see you again to-day."
+
+And they parted with a hearty shake of the hand, for Herr Athanas does
+not mean anything by his threats. No one is afraid of him, in spite of
+his frightful voice and imposing appearance, not even his
+wife--especially his wife. He knows well enough that Timar goes
+regularly to his house, and arranges to be away when he comes. Frau
+Sophie has not concealed her opinion that the visits are doubtless owing
+to the fine eyes of Athalie. Well, that is Katschuka's affair: if he
+does not spit his rival like a frog it is his own fault; he has been
+warned. But he does not seem inclined to do it, though Timar and Athalie
+are often together.
+
+And why the devil should the captain challenge Timar? They are as good
+friends as ever they were.
+
+Herr Brazovics guessed--indeed he had means of knowing--that it was no
+other than Captain Katschuka who had opened the door through which Timar
+had attained his riches. Why he had done so was easy to imagine. He
+wanted to get rid of Athalie, and it would suit him very well if
+Brazovics intervened and forbid him the house.
+
+But that was just what he did not do, but overflowed with tenderness for
+the captain--his son-in-law. There was no way out of it: he must marry
+Athalie. The captain has long been betrothed to Athalie, to whom a
+dangerous rival pays daily court--a rich man whom he ought to hate,
+because he left him in the lurch in the quarrel between the treasury and
+the war office, and yet the captain is so fond of his old friend that he
+is capable of forgiving him if he ran away with his bride.
+
+Athalie despises Timar, once her father's clerk, but treats him
+nevertheless in a friendly way. She is passionately in love with the
+captain, but pays attention to Timar in his presence to make him
+jealous.
+
+Sophie hates Timar, but receives him with honeyed words, as if it were
+her dearest wish to have him for her son-in-law, and live under the same
+roof with him.
+
+Timar, on the other hand, means to ruin the whole of them--the master,
+the mistress, the young lady, and the bridegroom; all of them he would
+like to turn into the street, and yet he visits at the house, kisses the
+ladies' hands, and endeavors to make himself agreeable.
+
+They are all civil to him. Athalie plays the piano to him. Frau Sophie
+keeps him to supper, and offers him coffee and preserved fruits. Timar
+drinks the coffee with the thought that perhaps there is rat-poison in
+it.
+
+When the supper-table is brought, Timéa appears, and helps to lay it.
+Then Timar hears no more of Athalie's words or music; he has eyes only
+for Timéa. It was a pleasure to see the pretty creature. She was fifteen
+and already almost a woman, but her expression and naïve awkwardness
+were those of a child. She could speak Hungarian, though with a curious
+accent, and sometimes with a wrong word or phrase--ridiculous, of
+course, but not wholly unknown even in Parliament, and during the most
+serious debates.
+
+Athalie had made an acquisition in Timéa: she had now some one to make
+fun of. The poor child served her as a toy. She gave her old clothes to
+wear which had been fashionable years ago. At one time people wore a
+high comb turned backward, over which the hair was drawn, and on the top
+rose a gigantic bow of colored ribbon. They wore crinoline round their
+shoulders instead of their waists, having huge sleeves stuffed and
+padded. This dress looked well when in fashion; but a few years after
+the vogue had passed, its revival suggested a masquerade.
+
+Athalie found it amusing to dress up Timéa thus. In taste the poor
+child, never having seen European fashions, stood on a par with a wild
+Indian: the more remarkable the dress the better she liked it. She was
+charmed when Athalie dressed her in the queer old silk gowns, and struck
+the high comb and bright ribbon in her hair. She thought she looked
+lovely, and took the smiles of the people whom she met in the street for
+admiration, hastening on so as not to be stared at. In the town she was
+always called "the mad Turkish girl."
+
+And it was easy to make fun of her without her taking it ill. Athalie
+took special delight in making the poor child an object of ridicule
+before gentlemen. If young men were present, she encouraged them to pay
+court to Timéa, and it amused her highly when she saw that Timéa
+accepted these attentions seriously; how pleased she was to be treated
+like a grown-up lady, to be asked to dance at balls, or when some
+pretended admirer offered her a faded bouquet, and extracted some quaint
+expression of thanks in reply, which caused the company to burst into
+fits of laughter. How Athalie's laugh resounded on these occasions!
+
+Frau Sophie took a more serious view of Timéa. She scolded her
+continually; all she did was wrong. Adopted children are often awkward,
+and the more Timéa was scolded the more awkward she became. Then
+Fraülein Athalie defended her. "But, mamma, don't be always scolding the
+girl! You treat her like a servant. Timéa is not a servant, and I won't
+have you always going on at her!"
+
+Timéa kissed Sophie's hand that she might cease to be angry, and
+Athalie's out of gratitude for taking her part, and then the hands of
+both that they might not quarrel. She was an humble, thankful creature.
+Frau Sophie only waited till she had left the room to say to her
+daughter what was on the tip of her tongue, in order that the other
+guests, Timar and Katschuka, might hear. "We ought to get her used to
+being a servant. You know her misfortune: the money which Timar--I mean
+Herr von Levetinczy--saved for her was invested in an insurance
+company. It has failed and the money is gone. She has nothing but what
+she stands up in."
+
+(So they have already brought her to beggary, thought Timar, and felt
+his heart lighter, like a student who is let off a year before his
+time.)
+
+"It annoys me," said Athalie, "that she is so unimpressionable. You may
+scold her or laugh at her, it is all the same. She never blushes."
+
+"That is a peculiarity of the Greek race," remarked Timar.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Athalie, contemptuously. "It is a sign of sickliness.
+That artificial white complexion could be attained by any school-girl
+who chose to eat chalk and burned coffee-berries."
+
+She spoke to Timar, but looked toward Herr Katschuka. He, however, was
+glancing at the large mirror in which one could see when Timéa came
+back. Athalie saw it, and it did not escape Timar's notice.
+
+Timéa now came in, carrying a large tray of clinking glasses, her whole
+attention concentrated on preventing one from falling.
+
+When Frau Sophie shrieked at her, "Take care not to drop them!" she did
+let the whole tray fall. Fortunately the glasses fell on the soft
+carpet, and did not break, but rolled about.
+
+The mistress would have burst out in a storm, but Athalie silenced her
+with the words, "That was your fault; why did you scream at her? Remain
+here with me, Timéa; the servant shall bring the coffee."
+
+That made Sophie angry, and she went out and brought it all in herself.
+But at the instant when Timéa let the glasses fall, Katschuka, with
+military promptitude, sprung up, collected the glasses, and put them all
+on the tray, still held by Timéa's trembling fingers. The girl cast a
+grateful look on him out of her large dark eyes, which was seen by both
+Athalie and Timar.
+
+"Captain Katschuka," whispered Athalie to her _fiancé_, "just for a joke
+make the little thing fall in love with you; pretend to pay court to
+her; it will be great fun. Timéa, you sup with us to-night; come and sit
+down here by the captain."
+
+This might be a cruel joke, or perhaps scornful raillery; or was it an
+ironical outbreak of awakened jealousy, or was it pure wickedness? We
+shall see what comes of it.
+
+With feverish excitement and ill-concealed delight, the girl sat down
+opposite Athalie secure in conquering charms, who, while encouraging her
+_fiancé_ to pay compliments to Timéa, did it like a queen who throws a
+gold piece to a beggar. The child is made happy by the gift for a day,
+and she herself does not feel its loss.
+
+The captain offered the sugar-basin to Timéa; she could not manage the
+tongs.
+
+"Take the sugar with your pretty little white hand," said he to the
+girl, who was so confused that she put the lump into the tumbler instead
+of the coffee cup. No one had ever told her that she had a pretty white
+hand. These words remained on her mind, and she looked often privately
+at her hands to see if they were really white and pretty. Athalie could
+hardly suppress a smile. She found it amusing to carry on the
+jest--"Timéa, offer the cakes to the captain."
+
+The girl lifted the glass dish from its silver stand, and handed it to
+Katschuka.
+
+"Now then, choose one for him."
+
+By accident she chose one in the shape of a heart. She certainly did not
+know that it represented a heart, nor what it meant.
+
+"Oh, that is too much for me!" laughed the captain; "I can only take it,
+if pretty Miss Timéa divides it with me." And with that he broke the
+heart in two and gave part to Timéa.
+
+The girl left it on her plate; she would not have eaten it for the
+world. Jealously guarding it with her eyes, she did not wait till Frau
+Sophie or the servant should change the plates, but hastened to remove
+the dish of cakes herself and to vanish with them from the room. No
+doubt she will keep this half-heart, and it will be found in her
+possession. That will be droll! There is nothing easier than to turn the
+head of a girl of fifteen, who takes everything in earnest and believes
+the first man who tells her that she has pretty hands.
+
+And Herr Katschuka was just the man not to forgive himself if he came
+near a pretty girl without paying her attention. He paid court even to
+older women; that he could do without scruple. But even to the
+house-maid, when she lighted him to the door, he could not resist paying
+compliments. His ambition was to make every girl's heart beat higher at
+the sight of his blue uniform.
+
+Still Athalie was certain that she was the ruling planet. But it was, of
+course, worth his while to take a little trouble for Timéa. She was only
+a child; but one could see she would be a beauty. Then she was an
+orphan, and a Turkish girl, not baptized, and not quite right in her
+head--all reasons for flattering her without compunction. Herr Katschuka
+let no chance escape him, and thereby gave great amusement to his bride.
+
+One evening Athalie said to Timéa, as she was going to bed, "I say,
+Timéa, the captain has proposed for you. Will you accept him?"
+
+The child looked at Athalie quite frightened, ran to her couch, and drew
+the covering over her head, so that no one should see her.
+
+Athalie was highly entertained that the girl could not sleep on account
+of these words--that she should toss restlessly on her bed, and sigh
+wakefully all night. The delicate jest had succeeded.
+
+The next day Timéa was unusually quiet. She laid aside her childish
+manner; thoughtful melancholy lay on her features; and she became
+monosyllabic. The philter had done its work.
+
+Athalie let the whole household into the secret. They were to treat
+Timéa henceforward as a future bride--as the betrothed of Herr
+Katschuka. The servants, the mistress, all took part in the comedy.
+
+Let no one say this was a heathenish jest; on the contrary, it was a
+Christian one.
+
+Athalie said to Timéa:
+
+"Here, see, the captain has sent you an engagement-ring; but you must
+not put it on your finger as long as you are a heretic. You must first
+become a Christian. Will you be baptized?"
+
+Timéa crossed her hands on her breast and bowed her head.
+
+"Then you shall be baptized first. That this may be done, you must learn
+the articles of faith, the catechism, the Bible history, psalms, and
+prayers; you must go to the priest and to the schoolmaster to be
+instructed. Will you do that?"
+
+Timéa only nodded. And now she went every day to be taught, with her
+books under her arm like a little school-girl; and late at night, when
+the rest were in bed, she went to the empty sitting-room, and sat half
+the night learning by heart the ten plagues of Egypt, and the highly
+moral histories of Samson and Delilah, Joseph and Potiphar's wife.
+Learning was difficult to her, as she was not used to it. But what would
+she not have done to be baptized?
+
+"You see," said Athalie, often in Timar's presence, "without this hope
+in her mind we should never have induced her to be converted and to
+study in order to be baptized."
+
+So it was quite a pious work to turn the child's head, and make her
+fancy she was already betrothed. And Timar must look on at the cruel
+trick played on the girl without moving a finger to prevent it. What
+could he say? She would never understand. And his coming to the house
+made it worse, for it justified the fable in her eyes. She was often
+told that the rich Herr von Levetinczy visited them on Athalie's
+account, which seemed to her quite natural. The rich man woos a rich
+girl. They suit each other. Who should suit the poor Hungarian officer
+better than the poor daughter of a Turkish officer? Nothing more
+natural. She studied day and night, and when she had finished with the
+catechism and the psalter, they found a new trick to play upon her. They
+said the wedding-day was fixed, but there was still much to be done to
+the trousseau. On account of the dresses, linen, and other details, the
+day could not be a very early one. And then her wedding-dress! That the
+bride herself must embroider. This is also a Turkish custom and suited
+Timéa, who knew how to work beautifully in gold and silver, for the
+harems are all instructed in that art.
+
+She was given Athalie's dress, in order to execute upon it the beautiful
+designs which had been taught her at home. Of course they told her it
+was her own. Timéa drew lovely arabesques upon it, and began to
+embroider them. A perfect masterpiece grew under her fingers; she worked
+at it from early morning till late evening, and did not even lay it
+aside when visitors came, with whom she conversed without looking up,
+and that was fortunate, as then she could not see how they made fun of
+her. Timar, who had to look on at all this, often left the house with
+such bitterness in his heart that he struck the two marble pillars at
+the door with all his force. He would have liked to do as Samson did,
+and pull the house of the Philistines down on his head.
+
+How long will he allow it to stand?
+
+The day to which Timéa looked forward with secret alarm was really fixed
+for Herr Katschuka's marriage--but with Fraülein Athalie. Only that
+various hinderances stood in the way of its arrival. Not in the stars,
+nor in the hearts of the lovers, but in the financial position of Herr
+Brazovics.
+
+When the captain asked Athanas for his daughter's hand, he told him
+plainly that he could only marry if the wife's dowry was sufficient to
+keep house upon.
+
+Herr Brazovics made no objection. He was not going to be stingy about
+it: he meant to give his daughter a hundred thousand gulden on her
+wedding-day, and they could do as they liked with it. And at the time
+when he made this promise, he was in a position to carry it out. But
+since then Timar had put a spoke in his wheel. He had in many ways
+thrown Herr Brazovics' speculations into confusion, upset his safest
+combination, run him up in the corn-market, outbid him in contracts, and
+barred his road to influential quarters where before he had had
+interest, so that it was no longer possible to pay the dowry down. It
+was well known that his affairs were in confusion, and whoever had a
+claim to his money would be wise to ask for it to-day rather than
+to-morrow.
+
+And Herr Katschuka was a wise man.
+
+His future father-in-law tried to persuade him that it would be much
+better to leave the money at interest with him; but the engineer would
+not allow his last redoubt to be taken. He charged the mines, and
+threatened to blow the whole marriage citadel into the air if he did not
+have the money down before the wedding-day.
+
+Then a brilliant idea shot into the head of Athanas. Why not marry
+Athalie to Timar? The exchange would not be a bad one. It is true that
+he hated him and would like to poison him in a spoonful of soup. But if
+he married Athalie his opposition would cease, he would be a member of
+the firm and have its interests at heart.
+
+Timar comes to the house regularly--if only he were not so modest! He
+must be helped.
+
+One afternoon Herr Athanas poured a double dose of anisette into his
+black coffee (a capital way of encouraging one's self), and had it
+brought into his office, giving orders that if Timar came, the ladies
+were to send him into his room.
+
+There he lighted his chibouque, and surrounded himself with such an
+atmosphere of smoke, that as he walked up and down he appeared and
+disappeared alternately, with his great starting, bloodshot eyes, like a
+huge cuttle-fish lying in wait for its prey.
+
+The prey did not keep him waiting long.
+
+As soon as Timar heard from Frau Sophie that Athanas wished to speak to
+him, he hastened to his room. The great cuttle-fish swam toward him
+through the smoke, with his horrible fishy eyes fixed upon him, and fell
+upon him just like the sea-monster, while he cried, "Listen to me, sir;
+what is the meaning of your visits to this house? What are your
+intentions with regard to my daughter?"
+
+That is the best way to bring these poltroons to their senses; they get
+startled, their head swims, and before they can turn round they fall
+into the net of holy matrimony. It is no joke to answer such a question
+as that.
+
+The first thing Timar remarked from the speech of Herr Athanas was that
+he had again taken too much anisette. Thence this courage.
+
+"Sir," he replied, quietly, "I have no intentions whatever with regard
+to your daughter. So much the less because your daughter is engaged,
+and the bridegroom is a good old friend of mine. I will tell you why I
+come to your house. If you had not asked me, I should have kept silence
+longer, but as you inquire I will tell you. I visit your house because I
+swore to your dead friend and kinsman, who came to such a dreadful end,
+that I would look after his orphan child. I come here to see how the
+orphan committed to your care was treated. She is shamefully treated,
+Herr Brazovics, disgracefully! I say it to your face in your own house.
+You have made away with the whole of the girl's property--defrauded her;
+yes, that is the word. And your whole family carries on a shameful game
+with the poor child. Her mind is being poisoned for her whole life. May
+God's curse light on you for it! And now, Herr Brazovics, we two have
+met for the last time in your house, and you had better pray that you
+may never see the day when I come into it again."
+
+Timar turned on his heel and slammed the door behind him. The
+cuttle-fish drew back into the dusky depths of its smoky lair, poured
+down another glass of anisette, and considered that some answer ought to
+have been given. But what?
+
+For my own part I don't know what he could have said.
+
+Timar went back to the reception-room, not only to get his hat, which he
+had left there, but for something else.
+
+In the room there was no one but Timéa; Athalie and her _fiancé_ were in
+the next room.
+
+In Timar's face, flushed with anger, Timéa saw a great change. His
+generally soft and gentle countenance looked proud, and was roused into
+emotion which made it beautiful. Many faces are beautified by passion's
+flame.
+
+He went straight to Timéa, who was working golden roses and silver
+leaves on the bridal dress.
+
+"Fraülein Timéa," he said to her in deeply moved tones, "I come to take
+leave of you. Be happy, remain a child for a long time; but if ever an
+hour comes in which you are unhappy, do not forget that there is some
+one who would--for you--"
+
+He could not speak, his voice failed, his heart contracted. Timéa
+completed the interrupted phrase--"Thrice!"
+
+He pressed her hand and stammered brokenly, "Always."
+
+Then he bowed and went, without troubling those in the next room.
+
+No "God be with you!" came from his lips. At this moment he was only
+conscious of the wish that God would withdraw His hand from this house.
+
+Timéa let the work fall, and gazed before her, sighing again, "Thrice!"
+
+The gold thread slipped out of the needle's eye.
+
+As Timar went down the path, he came once more to the two marble pillars
+which supported the veranda. With what rage he struck them! Did those
+above feel the shock! Did not the tottering walls warn them to pray,
+because the roof was falling in on them?
+
+But they were laughing at the mystified child, who worked so diligently
+at her wedding-dress.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ANOTHER JEST.
+
+
+The newly ennobled Herr von Levetinczy was already, not only in Hungary
+but in Vienna, a famous person. He was said to be a "golden man."
+Everything he touched turned to gold, all he undertook became a gold
+mine; and this is the real gold mine.
+
+The science of the gold digger consists in finding out earlier than his
+rivals what large affairs are in contemplation by the government; and in
+this art Timar was a past master. If he took up any speculation, a whole
+swarm of speculators threw themselves upon it, for they knew money was
+to be had there for the picking up.
+
+But it was not only on that account that Timar was called a "golden
+man," but also for quite another reason.
+
+He never swindled or defrauded any one.
+
+He made large profits, for he undertook large concerns, but he was never
+tempted to steal or lie, for he never risked anything. He shared the
+profit with those on whom it depended whether he received a contract on
+reasonable terms, and in this way kept the source always open.
+
+Once he began to buy up vineyards on the Monostor, the highest point of
+Komorn. It is a sandhill lying above Uj-Szöny, and its wines are very
+poor. But notwithstanding this, Timar bought ten acres of vine-growing
+land there.
+
+This excited attention in the commercial world. What could he want with
+it? There must be some sort of gold mine there.
+
+Herr Brazovics thought he was on the right track, and attacked Katschuka
+on his own ground. "Now, my dear son, tell me the truth; I swear by my
+soul and my honor that I will not betray it to a creature. Confess now,
+the government is going to build fortifications on the Monostor? That
+fellow Timar is buying up all the land: don't let us leave him the whole
+mouthful. It is so, isn't it--they are going to build a fort there?"
+
+The captain allowed the acknowledgment to be got out of him that there
+might be something in it. The council of war had decided to extend the
+fortifications of Komorn in that direction. There could be no better
+news for Athanas. How many hundred thousand gulden had he made in
+similar circumstances by buying hovels before the expropriation, and
+selling them afterward to the government at the price of palaces? Only
+he would certainly like to have seen the plans, and begged his future
+son-in-law as prettily as possible to let him have just one peep at
+them.
+
+Katschuka did him that favor too, and thus Athanas learned what portion
+would be bought by government. And that wretch of a Timar had really
+pitched on the place where the fort was to be built.
+
+"And what are to be the terms of the expropriation?"
+
+That was the question, and that the captain could not reveal without
+committing a capital crime. But he did it. The terms were, that the
+government would pay double the last purchase money.
+
+"Now I know enough," cried Herr Athanas, embracing his son-in-law; "the
+rest is my affair. On your wedding-day the hundred thousand gulden will
+be on your table."
+
+But he was wrong in thinking that he knew enough. He would have done
+well to ask one more question. Herr Katschuka, after saying so much,
+would have told him that too. But Katschuka no longer cared much about
+the hundred thousand gulden, nor yet about what depended on them. It he
+gets them, all right; if not, his hair will not turn gray for lack of
+them.
+
+Brazovics hurried off to Uj-Szöny, and went to all the vine-growers to
+ask who had a vineyard to sell. He paid whatever was asked, and if any
+one refused to sell, he offered treble the price. The more he paid the
+better for him. Naturally this attracted the attention of other
+speculators, who arrived in troops and ran up the prices, so that the
+poor "Hönigler" and "Schafschwanz" wines of Monostor could not
+understand why they had suddenly turned into "Grands Crûs," to be bought
+up even before the vintage.
+
+The price of vineyards ran so high, that the land for which the
+government would have had to pay, before the plans were betrayed, at
+most one hundred thousand gulden, now could not be bought under five
+hundred thousand.
+
+Brazovics had himself bought a fifth of them, though he had the greatest
+difficulty in getting the money together. He got rid of his stock of
+grain, sold his ships, borrowed from the usurers, and made use of
+trust-money committed to his care. This time he was safe! Timar was in
+the swim. He was the worst off, for he had bought cheap and would make a
+very small profit.
+
+But this, too, was perfidy on Timar's part. It was a _coup_ aimed at the
+head of Herr Brazovics. He had learned from Katschuka the one thing
+Athanas had omitted to ask. It was true that the government would this
+year greatly enlarge the fortifications; but the question was, Where
+would they begin? For the work would extend over thirty years.
+
+Here again Timar had done his rivals a bad turn, which would bring their
+maledictions down on him. As a good business man, he took care, whenever
+he had undertaken anything which would bring him curses, to set
+something else to work for which many more would bless him. So that
+between blessing and cursing he might keep a good balance on the credit
+side.
+
+He sent for Johann Fabula and said to him, "Johann, you are getting old;
+many hardships have aged you. Would it not be better to look out for
+some employment which will allow you to rest?"
+
+Fabula was already hoarse, and when he spoke it sounded as if he was
+whispering to the actors from the prompter's box.
+
+"Yes, sir; I have often thought of leaving the sea and looking out for
+work on shore; my eyes are weak. I wish you would give me a stewardship
+on your land."
+
+"I know of something better than that. You would never get on with the
+Rascians; you are too much used to the white bread at Komorn. Much
+better turn farmer."
+
+"I should like it well enough; but there are two things wanting--the
+land and the stock."
+
+"Both will come in time. I have an idea: the old pastures by the river
+are for sale--go to the auction and buy them all."
+
+"Oh," said Fabula, with a hoarse laugh, "I should be a fool indeed! It
+is a waste where nothing grows but camomile. Shall I sell it to the
+chemists? And it's a large piece of land; one would want several
+thousand gulden."
+
+"Don't argue, but do as I tell you. Just you go there. Here are the two
+thousand gulden for the deposit, which you must hand in at the auction.
+Then bid till it is knocked down to you, and take it all at the price
+agreed on. Share with no one, whoever offers to go into partnership with
+you. I will lend you the money to pay for it, and you shall repay me
+when you are able. I ask no interest, and you need not give me a
+receipt. The whole bargain shall be a verbal one. There now, shake hands
+on it!"
+
+Johann Fabula shook his head thoughtfully. "No interest, no writing, a
+lump of money, and bad waste land! The end of it will be, that I shall
+be arrested and stripped to my shirt."
+
+"No scruples, my friend; you have it for a year, and whatever you get
+off it meanwhile will be entirely yours."
+
+"But what shall I plow and sow with?"
+
+"You will neither plow nor sow. But go and do what I told you--the
+harvest will not be wanting; but do not tell any one."
+
+Fabula was in the habit of looking on all that Timar did or said as
+folly _à priori_; but nevertheless he acted with absolute obedience on
+his orders, for _à posteriori_ he had been forced to acknowledge that
+these unheard-of follies had the same result as if they had been wisdom
+personified. So he did as Timar had advised.
+
+And now we will let the reader into the secret of these singular
+proceedings. The plan for the fortification did really exist. But it had
+been suggested to the council by some busybody that it was not necessary
+to execute all the sections at once, and that it would be sufficient for
+the present to expropriate the land lying between the two arms of the
+river, while the portion covered by the Monostor vineyards could wait
+twenty years. Now the speculators who got wind of the new plans had all
+thrown themselves on the sandhill, and no one thought of the shore
+between the two river branches. Herr Fabula got it for twenty thousand
+gulden. The land on the Monostor would not be wanted for twenty years to
+come, and during that time the money invested in the unproductive
+vineyards would all be eaten up by the interest. This was a trick played
+by Timar especially for the benefit of Herr Athanas Brazovics; and as
+soon as he had bought the Monostor vineyards, Timar set every lever in
+motion to prevent the council of war from beginning the fortifications
+on all points at the same time.
+
+Affairs were in this position three days before the time fixed for
+Athalie's wedding.
+
+Two days before it Johann Fabula came flying into Timar's house. Yes,
+flying--his floating cloak represented the wings.
+
+"Ten thousand! Twenty thousand! Forty thousand! Commission paid! The
+emperor! The king! Pasture! The crop!" He gasped out disconnected
+words, which Timar at last put together.
+
+"All right, Johann; I know what you mean. The commission has come to
+settle the value of the land wanted for the new works. Your fields,
+bought for twenty thousand, will be sold by you for forty thousand: the
+surplus is your profit; that is the crop--did not I tell you?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and they were words like those of the golden-mouthed St.
+John. I see very clearly that you told me the truth, and I see that I
+get the twenty thousand gulden for nothing. Never in my life did I earn
+so much money by the hardest work. My senses are going. Do let me turn a
+somersault!"
+
+Timar had no objection. Johann Fabula turned not one but three
+somersaults all across the floor, and then three back again; and then
+stood straight on his legs again before Timar.
+
+"There! now I am all right again. All that money belongs to me."
+
+He came six times that day to pay a visit to Timar. First he brought his
+wife, then his younger daughter, then his married daughter, afterward
+his son who had left college, and the fifth time the little boy who was
+still at school. His wife brought Timar a splendid Komorn loaf of white
+bread with a brown glazed crust; the married daughter a dish of
+beautiful Indian-corn cakes; the unmarried one a plate of red eggs, gilt
+nuts, and honey-cakes decorated with colored paper like a wedding
+present; the big boy, who was a noted bird-catcher, brought a cage full
+of linnets and robins; and the school-boy declaimed a rhymed ode. The
+whole day they overwhelmed him with gratitude, and the sixth time they
+all came together late in the evening and sung in his honor a song of
+praise out of the hymn-book.
+
+But what will his competitors, and especially Herr Brazovics, bring and
+sing to him when they learn how he has entrapped them about the purchase
+of the Monostor?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE WEDDING-DRESS.
+
+
+The wedding was to be in three days' time.
+
+On Sunday afternoon Athalie went to pay visits in turn to all her school
+friends. It is one of the bride's privileges to pay these visits without
+her mother; they have so much to say to each other the last time in all
+their girlhood.
+
+Frau Sophie was delighted to be allowed to stay at home one day in the
+year, and neither pay nor receive calls--not to act as chaperon to her
+daughter and listen to conversation in German, of which she did not
+understand a word. She could remain at home and think of her happy
+parlor-maid times--the days when on an idle Sunday like this she could
+fill her apron with ears of Indian corn, and sit down on the bench
+before the door picking out the grains one by one and cracking them,
+while she chatted and gossiped with her companions. To-day the leisure
+time and the boiled ears of maize were at hand, but the friends and the
+gossip on the bench were wanting. Frau Sophie had allowed the
+maid-servants and the cook to go out, that she might have the kitchen to
+herself; for you can not eat corn in the parlor on account of the husks
+which get strewn about. In the end she found suitable company. Timéa
+came creeping up to her. She also had no work to do. The embroidery was
+finished, and the dress had gone to the needle-woman, who would send it
+home at the last moment. Timéa was quite suited to the kitchen bench
+beside Frau Sophie. They were both only on sufferance in the house. The
+difference was that Timéa felt herself a lady, though every one looked
+on her as a servant; while all the world knew that Frau Sophie was the
+mistress of the house, and yet she felt like a servant. So Timéa perched
+herself on the little bench near Frau Sophie, as the nursery-maid and
+the cook do after quarreling all the week, when they make it up on
+Sunday and have a chat together.
+
+Only three days and then the marriage!
+
+Timéa looked cautiously round to see if any listeners were near to
+overhear, and then in a low voice asked, "Mamma Sophie, do tell me what
+is a wedding like?"
+
+Frau Sophie drew her shoulders up and shook like a person who laughs
+internally, looking with half-shut eyes at the inquiring child. With the
+malicious delight old servants take in deceiving young ones, she
+encouraged the laughable simplicity of the girl. "Yes, Timéa," in the
+important tone of a story-teller, "that is a wonderful sight. You will
+see it."
+
+"I tried once to listen at the church door," confessed Timéa, frankly;
+"I had crept in when a wedding was going on, but all I could see was
+that the bride and bridegroom stood before a lovely golden shrine."
+
+"That was the altar."
+
+"Then a naughty boy saw me and drove me away, calling out, 'Be off, you
+Turkish brat!' Then I ran away."
+
+"You must know," began Sophie, while she took out a grain at a time and
+put them in her mouth, "that then comes the venerable pope, with a
+golden cap on his head, on his shoulders a robe of rustling silk worked
+with gold, and carrying a great book with clasps in his hand. He reads
+and sings most beautifully, and then the bridal pair kneel on the steps
+of the altar. The pope asks them both whether they love each other."
+
+"And are they obliged to answer?"
+
+"Of course, silly; and not only that, but the priest reads out of the
+big book an oath to the bridegroom and then afterward to the bride, that
+they will love and keep to each other till death divides them. They
+swear it by the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin and all the saints,
+forever and ever, Amen; and the whole choir repeats the Amen. Then the
+priest takes the two rings from a silver dish and puts one on each of
+their third fingers, makes them clasp hands and winds a golden girdle
+round them, while the precentor and the choir sing to the organ 'Gospodi
+Pomiluj.'"[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: Lord have mercy on us.]
+
+The melancholy sound of the words "Gospodi Pomiluj" pleased Timéa. That
+must be some magic blessing.
+
+"Then they cover the bridegroom and also the bride with a flowered-silk
+veil from head to foot, and while the pope blesses them the two
+witnesses hold a silver crown over each."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+When Frau Sophie noticed the deep interest of the girl she got warmer
+and warmer, and tried to inflame her fancy with the splendors of the
+Greek ritual. "The choir goes on singing, and the pope takes one crown
+and makes the bridegroom kiss it, then places it on his head and says,
+'I crown thee as servant of God and husband of this handmaid of the
+Lord.' Then he takes the other crown, gives it to the bride to kiss, and
+says to her, 'I crown thee as handmaid of the Lord, and wife of this
+servant of God.' The deacon begins to pray for the young pair, and
+meanwhile the priest leads them three times round the altar, and the
+witnesses take off the veil which covered them. The church is full of
+people, who all look and whisper, 'That is a bride to be kissed. What a
+beautiful pair!'"
+
+Timéa nodded her head with girlish delight, as if to say, "That is
+delightful; it must be lovely."
+
+"Then the pope brings out a golden cup of wine, and the bride and
+bridegroom drink from it."
+
+"Is there really wine in it?" asked Timéa in alarm. Her fear of wine
+came partly from the recollection of the prohibition in the Koran.
+
+"Of course there is--real wine. Then the bride-maids and groomsmen throw
+maize baked in honey over them; that brings luck. It is lovely, I can
+tell you."
+
+Timéa's eyes shone with the prophetic fire of a magnetic dream. She
+pictured these mysterious proceedings to herself as partly a rite,
+partly an enigma of the heart, and trembled all over. Sophie laughed in
+her sleeve and found this most amusing; a pity she should be disturbed
+in it. Manly steps approached the kitchen door, and some one came in.
+
+What a surprise! it was Herr Katschuka.
+
+The mistress of the house was horrified, for she had only slippers on,
+and her apron full of maize. Which should she hide first? But Timéa was
+more frightened, though she had nothing to hide.
+
+"Excuse me," said Katschuka, with familiar ease; "I found the doors all
+shut on the other side, so I came round by the kitchen."
+
+"You see," screeched Frau Sophie, "my daughter has gone to visit her
+friends. I sent the maids to church, and we two are the only ones at
+home; so we just sat down in the kitchen. Pray excuse our _négligée_,
+Herr Captain."
+
+"Don't disturb yourself, I will remain here with you."
+
+"Oh, no, I could not allow it. Here in the kitchen! We have not even a
+chair for the captain."
+
+But Herr Katschuka knew what to do in any emergency. "Don't make a
+stranger of me, Mamma Sophie. Here, this can will do for a seat," and he
+sat down opposite Timéa on a pail, and even set the hostess at ease with
+respect to the ears of maize. "That is excellent for dessert; give me a
+handful in my cap. I like it very much."
+
+Frau Sophie was on the broad grin when she saw that the captain did not
+disdain to take the vulgar sweets in his military cap, and eat a
+quantity without even shelling them. It made him very popular with his
+mother-in-law. "I was in the midst of an interesting conversation with
+Timéa," began Sophie; "she was asking me about--a baptism."
+
+Timéa was on the point of rushing away, if Frau Sophie had told the
+truth; but she would not have been the mother of a marriageable daughter
+if she had not possessed the art of turning the conversation at the
+entrance of an unexpected visitor.
+
+"I was describing a baptism to her. She is quite frightened at it. Just
+look how she is trembling; for I was telling her that she would have to
+be wrapped up like a baby and carried in arms, and that she must cry
+like one. Don't be alarmed, you little fool. It is not true; I was only
+joking. Her greatest trouble is that her hair will be all spoiled."
+
+This requires explanation. Timéa had splendid long, thick hair. Athalie
+amused herself by making the hairdresser execute on it the most
+surprising coiffures. Sometimes all the hair was combed up and built
+into a tower, again it was frizzed into wings on each side over the ear;
+in short, the girl had to appear in the most ridiculous head-dresses,
+such as no one had ever worn, and which required unsparing use of tongs,
+pincers, brushes, and pomade. Athalie pretended to do this out of
+affection for her cousin, and the poor child had no idea how she was
+disfigured by it.
+
+Herr Katschuka undeceived her. "Fraülein Timéa, you need not regret this
+coiffure. It would suit you much better if you wore your hair quite
+plain; you have such lovely hair, that it is a sin to burn it with irons
+and smear it with pomade. Do not allow it; it is a shame to lose any of
+your magnificent hair, and it is soon ruined by the ill-treatment which
+ladies call hairdressing--it loses its brilliancy, splits at the points,
+breaks easily, and falls early. You do not require all that artificial
+structure. Your hair is so beautiful that you need only plait it
+plainly, to possess the finest of all coiffures." It is possible that
+Herr Katschuka only said this out of a humane sympathy with the
+ill-treated head of hair, and meant merely to free it from the tortures
+inflicted on it. But his words had a deeper effect than he expected:
+From that moment Timéa had a feeling as if the comb in her hair was
+splitting her head, and could hardly bear it till the captain had gone.
+He did not stay long, for he took pity on Frau Sophie, who was
+struggling continually to hide her feet in their torn and down-trodden
+slippers. Herr Katschuka promised to look in again in the evening, and
+took his leave. He kissed Frau Sophie's hand, but made a low bow to
+Timéa.
+
+Hardly was he out of the door before Timéa snatched the large comb from
+her hair, tore down the heaped-up plaits, destroyed the whole edifice,
+then went to the basin and began to wash her hair and her whole head.
+
+"What are you doing there, girl?" said Frau Sophie, angrily. "Will you
+leave off this moment! Let your hair alone. Athalie will be fine and
+angry when she comes home and sees you."
+
+"Let her be angry, for all I care," replied the girl, defiantly; and
+she wrung her locks out, sat down behind Frau Sophie, and began to put
+up her loosened hair into a simple threefold plait. Pride was awakened
+in her heart; she began to be less timid; the word of the captain
+infused courage into her--his wish, his taste, were laws to her. She
+coiled the plait simply into a knot, and wound it round her head as he
+had suggested. The mistress laughed to herself: this child has been made
+a fool of certainly!
+
+While Timéa was plaiting her hair, Sophie came nearer and tried to
+wheedle her again.
+
+"Let me tell you more about the wedding. Where did that stupid Katschuka
+interrupt us? If he had only known what we were talking about! Yes, I
+stopped where the bride and bridegroom drink from the cup, the choir and
+the deacon sing 'Gospodi Pomiluj.' Then the pope reads the Gospel, and
+the witnesses hold the crowns over the heads of the couple. The pope
+receives them back, lays them on the silver dish, and says to the
+bridegroom, 'Be praised like Abraham, and blessed like Isaac, and
+increase like unto Jacob;' and to the bride, 'Be praised like Sara,
+happy like Rebecca, and increase like Rachel'--and after this blessing
+the bride and bridegroom kiss each other three times before the altar
+and before the wedding-guests."
+
+Timéa shut her eyes at the thought of the scene.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Athalie was not a little surprised when she came home and saw Timéa with
+plaited hair.
+
+"Who allowed you to turn up your hair? Where is your giraffe comb and
+your bow? Put it on at once."
+
+Timéa pressed her lips together and shook her head.
+
+"Will you do what I tell you instantly?"
+
+"No."
+
+Athalie was staggered at this resistance. It was unheard of that any one
+should contradict her. And this from an adopted child, who ate the bread
+of charity, who had always been so submissive, and once even kissed her
+foot. "No!" said she, going toward Timéa, and bringing her face, red
+with anger, as close to the other's alabaster cheek as if she would set
+it on fire.
+
+Frau Sophie looked on with malicious joy from her corner, and said,
+"Didn't I say you would catch it when Athalie returned?"
+
+But Timéa looked straight into Athalie's flaming eyes, and repeated her
+"No!"
+
+"And why not?" screamed Athalie, whose voice was now like her mother's,
+while her eyes were exactly like her father's.
+
+"Because I am prettier thus," answered Timéa.
+
+"Who told you that?"
+
+"He."
+
+Athalie crooked her fingers like eagles' claws, and her teeth shone
+clinched between her red lips. It was as if she would tear the girl in
+pieces. Then her unbridled rage suddenly turned into scornful laughter.
+She left Timéa and went to her room.
+
+Herr Katschuka paid another visit the same evening. At table Athalie
+overwhelmed Timéa with unwonted kindness.
+
+"Do you not think, Herr Captain, that Timéa is much prettier with her
+hair dressed in this simple way?"
+
+The captain assented. Athalie smiled. Now it was no longer a joke, but a
+punishment which was to be inflicted on the girl.
+
+Only two days to the marriage. During that time Athalie overflowed with
+attention and tenderness to Timéa. She must not go out to the kitchen,
+and the servants were told to kiss her hand on entering the room. Frau
+Sophie often called her "little lady." The dress had come home finished,
+and what child-like delight it gave Timéa! She danced round it and
+clapped her hands.
+
+"Come and try on your wedding costume," said Athalie, with a cruel
+smile.
+
+Timéa let them put on the splendid dress she had herself embroidered.
+She wore no stays, and was already well formed for her age, and the
+dress fitted her very fairly. With what shy pleasure she looked at
+herself in the great mirror! Ah! how lovely she will be in her wedding
+finery! Perhaps she thought, too, that she would inspire love! Perhaps
+she felt her heart beat; and possibly a flame was already alight there
+which would cause her grief and pain.
+
+But that was no matter to those who were carrying on the shameful jest.
+The maid who dressed her bit her lips so as not to laugh aloud. Athalie
+brought out the bridal wreath, and tried it on Timéa's head. The myrtle
+and the white jasmine became her well.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful you will be to-morrow!"
+
+Then they took the dress off Timéa; and Athalie said, "Now I will try it
+on; I should like to see how it would suit me."
+
+She required the help of the stays to squeeze her waist into the dress,
+which gave her splendid figure an even more magnificent "contour." She
+also put on the wreath and looked at herself in the glass. Timéa sighed
+deeply, and whispered to Athalie, in tones of undisguised admiration,
+"How lovely, how lovely you are!"
+
+It might, perhaps, have been time now to make an end of this deception.
+But no--she must drain the cup. First, because she is so forward; and
+then, because she is so stupid. She must be punished. So the
+contemptuous farce was carried on the whole day by all the household.
+The poor child's head swam with all the congratulations. She listened
+for Herr Katschuka, and ran away when she saw him coming.
+
+Did he know what was going on? Quite possibly. Did it vex him? Perhaps
+it did not even vex him. Very likely he knew things of which the
+laughers did not dream, and awaited the important day with perfect
+indifference.
+
+On the last morning before the marriage, Athalie said to Timéa, "To-day
+you must fast entirely. To-morrow is a very solemn day for you. You will
+be led to the altar, and there first baptized and then married; so you
+must fast the whole of the day before, in order to go purified to the
+altar."
+
+Timéa obeyed this direction, and ate not a morsel for the entire day.
+
+It is well known that all these adopted children have excellent
+appetites. Nature demands its rights; and the love of good things is the
+only desire which they have a chance of satisfying. But Timéa conquered
+that appetite. She sat at dinner and supper without touching anything,
+and yet they had purposely prepared her favorite dishes.
+
+In the anteroom the maids and the cook tried to persuade her to eat
+secretly the delicacies which they had put aside for her, telling her
+she might break her fast if no one knew it. She would not be persuaded,
+and controlled her hunger. She helped to prepare the tarts and jellies
+for the wedding feast; a mass of tempting and luscious cakes lay before
+her, but she never touched one. And yet Athalie's example, who also was
+busy with the preparations for the next day, showed her that it is quite
+permissible to take a taste when one has a chance. She must keep her
+fast. She went early to bed, saying she felt chilly. And so she was, and
+trembled with cold even under her quilt and could not sleep. Athalie
+heard her teeth chattering, and was cruel enough to whisper in her ear,
+"To-morrow at this time where will you be?"
+
+How should the poor child sleep, when all the slumbering feeling which
+at this age lie in the chrysalis stage were being prematurely scared
+into life?
+
+Timéa lay till dawn in a fever, and slumber never closed her eyes.
+Toward day-break she slept heavily; a leaden hand lay on her limbs, and
+even the noise which went on around her in the morning did not rouse
+her.
+
+And this was the marriage-day!
+
+Athalie ordered the servants to let Timéa sleep on; she herself let down
+the window curtains that the room might be dark: Timéa was only to be
+awakened when Athalie was already dressed in all her bridal array. That
+required much time, for she wished to appear to-day in the whole panoply
+of her beauty. From far and near numerous relations and friends had
+arrived to assist at the marriage of the rich Brazovics' only daughter,
+the prettiest girl for seven parishes round.
+
+The guests were already beginning to assemble in the house of the bride.
+Her mother, Frau Sophie, had been squeezed into her new dress, and into
+her even more uncomfortable new shoes, by which her desire to get the
+day over was much increased.
+
+The bridegroom had also arrived, with a beaming countenance, and polite
+as usual; but this cheerful aspect did not mean much--it was only part
+of his gala uniform. He had brought the bouquet for the bride. At that
+time camellias were unknown; the bouquet was composed of various colored
+roses. Herr Katschuka said as he presented it that he offered roses to
+the rose. As a reward, he received a proud smile from the radiant face.
+
+Only two were wanting--Timéa and Herr Brazovics.
+
+Timéa was not missed; no one asked after her. But every one waited most
+impatiently for Herr Brazovics. It was said that he had gone very early
+to the castle to see the governor, and his return was impatiently
+expected. Even the bride went several times to the window and looked out
+for papa's carriage.
+
+Only the bridegroom showed no anxiety. But where could Herr Brazovics
+be? Yesterday evening he had been in a very good temper. He had been
+amusing himself with his friends, and invited all his acquaintances to
+the wedding. Late in the night he had knocked at Herr Katschuka's
+window, and called to him, instead of "Good-night," "The hundred
+thousand gulden will be all ready to-morrow." And he had good reason to
+be in such a merry mood. The governor of the fortress had informed him
+that the plans had been accepted to their full extent by the war
+department: the expropriation was arranged. Even the money had been paid
+for that part which lay on the ground between the two river branches;
+and the others concerned had received notice that this very night they
+would obtain the signature of the minister. It was as good as having the
+money in one's pocket. The next morning, Herr Brazovics could hardly
+await the usual hour of reception, and arrived so early in the
+ante-chamber of the governor, that no one else was there. The governor
+did not keep him waiting, but called him in at once.
+
+"A little misfortune," said he.
+
+"Well, if it is not a great one--"
+
+"Have you ever heard of the privy council?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Nor I. For fifteen years I never heard it spoken of. But it does exist,
+and has just given a sign of life. As I told you, the minister had
+agreed to the execution of the fortifications and the necessary purchase
+of land. Then from some unknown source evidence was brought forward by
+which many disadvantageous circumstances were discovered. It would not
+do to compromise the minister, so they called the council together,
+which had not been heard of for fifteen years, except when its members
+drew their salary and had their band to play. The council, when this
+questionable affair was submitted to it, found a wise solution: it
+agreed to the decision in principle, but divided its execution into two
+parts. The fortifications on the river-side are to be provided for at
+once, but the Monostor section is only to be begun when the other is
+finished. So the owners of the Monostor land will have the pleasure of
+waiting eighteen or twenty years for their money. Good-morning, Herr
+Brazovics."
+
+Herr Athanas could not utter a syllable. There was no help for it. The
+profit so certainly counted on was gone--gone also those other hundred
+thousand gulden which were buried in vineyards of no value, which are
+now worthless. He saw all his castles in the air destroyed: his
+beautiful house, his cargo-ships on the Danube, the lighted church with
+the brilliant company, they were only a _fata morgana_, blown away with
+the mirage of the Monostor forts by the first puff of wind--melted into
+nothing, like the light cloud which obscures the sun.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ah! here comes Timéa!
+
+At last she had had her sleep out. In the twilight of the curtained room
+it had taken her long to rouse herself; she dressed like one in a
+feverish dream, and groped sleepily through the adjoining rooms, all
+empty, till she came to the one where Athalie had dressed. When she
+entered the bright room full of flowers and presents, she remembered for
+the first time that this was her wedding-day.
+
+When she saw Herr Katschuka with the bouquet in his hand, the thought
+shot across her that this was the bridegroom; and when she cast a glance
+on Athalie she thought, "That is my wedding-dress." As she stood there
+in her astonishment, with wide eyes and open mouth, she was a sight for
+laughing and weeping.
+
+The servants, the guests, Frau Sophie, could not contain their
+merriment.
+
+But Athalie stepped forward majestically, took hold of the little
+thing's delicate chin with her white-gloved hand, and said, smiling,
+"To-day, my little treasure, you must allow me to be the one to go to
+the altar. You, my child, must go to school and wait five years before
+you are married, if indeed any one proposes to you."
+
+Timéa stood as if petrified, and let her folded hands fall into her lap.
+She did not blush or become paler. There was no name for what she felt.
+
+Perhaps Athalie knew that this cruel jest was not calculated to enhance
+her charms, and tried to lessen its effect. "Come, Timéa," she said; "I
+only waited for you. Come and put on my veil."
+
+The bridal veil!
+
+Timéa took the veil with stiffened fingers, and went toward Athalie. It
+was to be fastened to her hair with a golden arrow.
+
+Timéa's hand trembled, and the arrow was heavy: it would not go through
+the thick hair. At an impatient movement of Athalie's its blunt point
+pricked the lovely bride's head slightly.
+
+"You are too stupid for anything!" cried Athalie, angrily, and struck
+Timéa on the hand. Her eyebrows contracted. Scolded, struck, on such a
+day, and in the presence of that man! Two heavy drops formed in her eyes
+and rolled down her white cheek. I trow those two drops turned the scale
+held by the Great Judge's hand, from which happiness and misery are
+measured out to man.
+
+Athalie tried to excuse her hastiness by her feverish excitement. A
+bride may be pardoned if she is nervous and irritable at the last
+moment. The witnesses, the bride-maids, are ready, and the bride's
+father has not yet arrived.
+
+Every one was uneasy; only the bridegroom was quite composed.
+
+A message had come from the church that the pope was ready and waiting
+for the bridal pair. Already the bells are ringing, as is the custom at
+grand weddings. Athalie's heart beats high with vexation that her father
+does not come. One messenger after another is sent for him. At last his
+glass coach is seen approaching. Here he is at last!
+
+The bride steps up to the mirror once more, to see if her veil falls in
+the right folds. She puts her bracelets and necklace straight.
+
+Meanwhile, a curious sound is heard below, as if many people were
+rushing upstairs together. Mysterious noises and smothered exclamations
+are heard in the next room; every one presses thither; the bride-maids
+and friends run out to see what it is; but it is remarkable that none of
+them return.
+
+Athalie hears her mother scream. Well, she generally screams even when
+she is talking quietly.
+
+"Do see what has happened," says Athalie to her bridegroom.
+
+The captain goes out, and Athalie remains alone with Timéa, the
+suppressed whispering grows louder. At last even Athalie becomes uneasy.
+
+The bridegroom returns. He remains standing at the open door, and says
+thence to his bride, "Herr Brazovics is dead."
+
+The bride throws her arms into the air and falls swooning backward. If
+Timéa had not caught her in her arms, she would have struck her head on
+the marble table behind her. The lovely, haughty face of the bride is
+whiter even than Timéa's; and Timéa, while she holds Athalie's head on
+her breast, thinks, "See how the beautiful wedding-dress lies in the
+dust!"
+
+The bridegroom stands at the door and looks at Timéa, then turning away
+suddenly, he leaves the house amid the universal confusion.
+
+He does not even take the trouble to lift his bride from the ground.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+TIMÉA.
+
+
+"How the beautiful dress lies in the dust!"
+
+Instead of the wedding feast there followed the funeral banquet, and in
+the place of the embroidered robe came the mourning garments.
+
+Black! The color which makes rich and poor alike.
+
+Athalie and Timéa were dressed alike in black. And if the mourning had
+consisted only in the wearing of its outward garb! But with the sudden
+death of Herr Athanas, all the birds of ill omen had collected, as the
+ravens come and sit in long lines on the roof before a great storm.
+
+The first croak was, that the bridegroom sent back his engagement-ring.
+He did not appear at the funeral to lend his bride a supporting arm as
+she followed the coffin half fainting; for in this little town it was
+the custom that the mourners, whether gentle or simple, should follow
+their dead on foot and with bare heads to the burial-ground.
+
+There were some who blamed this course of action in Katschuka, and did
+not consider it an excuse that, as Herr Brazovics had not kept to the
+condition of handing over the dowry beforehand, the bridegroom was
+justified in considering himself freed from his obligations. There are a
+few narrow-minded people who can find no excuse for such a withdrawal.
+Then came the ravens and sat on the roof. One creditor after another
+appeared and demanded his money. And then the whole house of cards
+collapsed.
+
+The first who spoke of a suit at law blew the concern into the air. When
+once the avalanche begins to roll, it never stops till it gets to the
+foot of the hill.
+
+It was soon ascertained that the fears of the bridegroom, who had got
+safely away, were only too well founded. In the affairs of Herr
+Brazovics there figured so many investments apparently sound but really
+unprofitable, such false calculations, unsecured debts, and imaginary
+securities, that when order was brought into this chaos, the whole
+property did not suffice to satisfy the creditors. Besides, it came to
+light that he had used moneys intrusted to his honor: orphans' capital,
+church endowments, hospital funds, the deposits of his ship captains.
+The floods rose over the roof of the house, and these floods brought
+mire and dirt with them; and what they left behind was--shame.
+
+Timéa too lost her whole property. The orphan's trust-money had never
+been invested at all.
+
+Every day lawyers, magistrates' clerks, bailiffs, came to the house.
+They sealed each box and closet; they did not ask the ladies for
+permission to visit them; unannounced they bounced in at any hour of the
+day, ransacked the rooms, and gave vent to reproaches and curses on the
+dead man, so loud that the mourning women could not but hear them. All
+they found in the house was taken out in turn and appraised, down to the
+pictures, with and without their frames; even the wedding-dress, without
+a bride, did not escape this fate. And then they decided on the date,
+and had it posted on the door, on which everything was to be sold by
+auction--everything, not excepting the embroidered dress. The last lot
+would be the house itself; and when it was sold the former owners could
+go their way wheresoever they chose, and the beautiful Athalie might
+look up to Heaven and ask where she was henceforth to lay her haughty
+head. Where indeed?--she, the orphaned daughter of a fraudulent
+bankrupt, to whom not even her good name was left, whom no one wanted,
+not even herself. Of all the treasures she possessed, only two valuable
+souvenirs remained which she had hidden from the bailiffs--an onyx box
+and the returned engagement-ring. The box she had concealed in her
+pocket; and when alone at night, she drew it out and looked at its
+precious contents. There were all sorts of poison in it. By some odd
+freak, Athalie had bought it in one of her Italian journeys, and while
+it was in her possession she thought she could defy the world. She
+imagined herself able to destroy her own life at any moment, and this
+idea made her feel as a despot to her parents and her lover. If they do
+not do all she wishes, the box is there; she need only choose the
+swiftest poison, and in the morning they would find her a corpse. Now a
+great temptation assailed her; life lay before her as a desolate waste;
+the father had made his child a beggar, and the bridegroom had forsaken
+his bride.
+
+Athalie rose from her bed: she looked into the open box, and sought
+among the various poisons.
+
+Then she suddenly discovered that she was afraid of death! She had not
+strength to cast life away; she gazed at herself in the glass--was all
+that beauty to be annihilated?
+
+She shut the box and put it away. Then she brought out the other jewel,
+the ring. There is a poison in that too, and of a yet more deadly sort,
+for it kills the soul. But she has the courage to swallow it--to
+intoxicate herself with it. She had loved the man who gave her this
+ring--not only so, but she was still madly in love with him. The
+poison-box gives bad advice--the ring even worse. Athalie begins to
+dress; there is no one to help her--the servants have all left the
+house, Frau Sophie and Timéa are sleeping in the maids' room; the
+official seal has been attached to the doors of the public apartments.
+Athalie does not wake the sleepers, but dresses alone. How far the night
+has passed she can not tell; no one winds up the splendid clocks, now
+that they are to pass under the hammer. One points to eight o'clock,
+another to three, but it does not matter. Athalie finds the key of the
+street-door, and creeps out, leaving all open behind her. Who is likely
+to be robbed? and besides, who would, like her, venture alone in the
+dark streets?
+
+At that time the streets of Komorn were decidedly dark at night. One
+lamp at the Trinity pillar, one at the town-hall, and a third at the
+main guard--no others anywhere. Athalie takes the road to the Promenade,
+the so-called Anglia. It is a region of evil reputation. A dark lane
+between the town and the fort, in which at night fallen women with
+painted faces and disheveled hair loiter, when they are driven from
+their haunts on the "little square." Athalie is sure to meet such
+creatures if she goes by the Anglia. But she is not afraid. The poison
+she sucked out of the golden ring has taken away from her fear of these
+impure forms. One only shrinks from the gutter as long as one has kept
+clear of it.
+
+At the corner stands a sentry: she must try to creep past him without
+being seen and challenged.
+
+The corner house has a colonnade leading to the square. Here in the
+day-time the bread-sellers have their stand. Athalie chooses her path
+through this arcade, as it hides her from the sentry's eyes.
+
+In walking quickly she stumbled over something. It was a ragged woman,
+quite drunk, lying across the threshold. The half-human creature whom
+her foot touched gave vent to filthy curses. Athalie took no notice, but
+stepped aside from the obstacle; she felt easier when she turned the
+corner toward the Promenade. The light of the main-guard lamp had now
+disappeared, and she found herself under the gloom of the trees. Through
+the juniper-bushes shone a ray from a lighted window. Athalie followed
+that guiding star. There lay the dwelling of the engineer officer. She
+seized the lion-headed knocker at the little door, over which was
+painted the double eagle; her hand trembled as she raised it in order to
+knock gently, and at the sound the soldier-servant came out and opened
+to her.
+
+"Is the captain in?" asked Athalie.
+
+The fellow nodded, grinning. Yes--he was at home. He had often seen
+Athalie, and many a pretty bright coin had rolled into his hand from her
+delicate fingers, when he carried the beautiful lady flowers or choice
+fruit from his master.
+
+The captain was up and at work; his room was simply furnished, without
+any luxury. On the walls hung maps and surveying instruments; the
+strictest military simplicity surprise the in-comer, as well as a
+penetrating smell of tobacco, which adhered to the books and furniture,
+and was perceptible even when no one was smoking. Athalie had never seen
+the captain's room. The house to which he was to have taken her on their
+marriage-day was very different, but it had been taken possession of by
+the creditors with all its contents on that very morning. She had only
+looked in at the window when she walked with her mother on the Promenade
+in the afternoon to hear the band play.
+
+Herr Katschuka started up in alarm. He was not prepared for a lady's
+visit; the three top buttons of his violet tunic were unbuttoned,
+contrary to regulations, and he had laid aside his horsehair cravat.
+Athalie remained standing at the door with hanging arms and her head
+down: the captain hastened to her.
+
+"In God's name, fraülein, what are you doing here? What are you here
+for?" She could not speak--she sunk on his breast and sobbed wildly. He
+did not embrace her. "Sit down, fraülein," said he, leading her to the
+plain leather sofa, and then his first care was to put on his cravat
+again. He drew a chair near the divan and sat down opposite Athalie.
+"What do you want, fraülein?"
+
+She dried her tears and looked with her radiant eyes long at the
+captain, as if thus to tell him why she came. Will he not understand?
+
+No, he understood nothing. When she was obliged to break silence, she
+began to tremble as if with ague.
+
+"Sir," she said, with a quivering voice, "as long as I was prosperous,
+you were very devoted to me. Is nothing left of that affection?"
+
+"Fraülein," answered Katschuka, with cold politeness, "I shall always be
+your devoted friend. The blow which fell on you struck me too--we have
+both lost our all. I am in despair, for I see no means of resuscitating
+my hopes reduced to ashes. My profession imposes conditions on me which
+I can not fulfill: it is not allowed to those of us who have no private
+means to marry."
+
+"I know it," said Athalie, "and it was not that which I wished to
+suggest to you. We are now very poor, but there may be some favorable
+turn in our lot. My father has a rich uncle in Belgrade whose heirs we
+are; at his death we shall be rich again. I will wait for you--do you
+wait for me. Take back your ring--take me to your mother, and let me
+stay with her as your betrothed. I will wait for you till you fetch me
+away, and will be a good daughter to your mother."
+
+Herr Katschuka sighed so deeply that he nearly blew out the light which
+stood before him. "Alas, fraülein," said he, taking up the golden circle
+from the table, "that is, unhappily, quite impossible. You little know
+my mother. She is an ambitious woman--an inaccessible nature. She lives
+on a small pension, and loves no one. You have no idea what struggles I
+have had with my mother about my _affaires du cœur_. She is a baroness
+by birth, and has never consented to this union. She would not come to
+our marriage. I could not take you to her, fraülein--on your account I
+have quarreled with her."
+
+Athalie's breast heaved feverishly, her face glowed; she seized with
+both her hands that of her faithless bridegroom, on which the ring was
+wanting, and whispered, while tears ran down her cheeks, so low that
+even the deaf walls could not hear, "You--you have braved your mother
+for me: I will defy the whole world for you!"
+
+Katschuka dared not meet the speaking eyes of the lovely woman. He drew
+geometrical figures on the table with the golden circle he still held,
+as if he would decipher from their angles of incidence the difference
+between love and madness.
+
+The girl continued in a whisper, "I am already so deeply humiliated that
+no shame can bring me lower; I have no more to lose in this world. If
+you were not here, I should have already killed myself. I belong not to
+myself, but to you--say, what shall I be to you? I have lost my senses,
+and all is the same to me; kill me, if you choose--I will not stir."
+
+Herr Katschuka, during this passionate speech, had worked out the
+problem of what he was to answer. "Fraülein Athalie, I will speak
+frankly--you know I am an honest man."
+
+Athalie had not asked him about that.
+
+"An honest and chivalrous man would be ashamed to take advantage of the
+misfortune of a woman for the satisfaction of his lowest passions. I
+will give you good advice as a well-meaning friend, as one who has a
+boundless respect for you. You tell me you have an uncle in Belgrade: go
+to him. He is your blood relation, and must receive you in a friendly
+way. I give you my word of honor that I will not marry, and if we meet
+again I shall always bring you the same feelings which for years I have
+experienced toward you."
+
+He told no lie when he gave this promise. But from what his face showed
+at this moment, Athalie could read what he did not say--that the captain
+neither now nor for years past had loved her, that he loved another, and
+if this other was poor and made a beggar, he had good reason to promise
+on his word of honor that he would not marry. This it was which Athalie
+read in the cool expressions of her faithless bridegroom. And then
+something flashed through her brain like lightning. Her eyes flashed
+too.
+
+"Will you come to-morrow," she asked him, "to escort me to my uncle in
+Belgrade?"
+
+"I will come," Katschuka hastened to reply. "But now go home. Did any
+one come with you?"
+
+"I came quite alone."
+
+"What imprudence! Who is to take you back?"
+
+"You need not," she said, bitterly. "If at this hour any one saw us
+together, what a scandal it would be--for you. I can walk alone. I am
+not afraid. I have no longer anything worth stealing."
+
+"My servant shall follow you."
+
+"He shall do nothing of the sort. The patrol might arrest the poor
+devil. After the last post he must not be seen in the streets. I will
+find my way alone. So then--to-morrow--"
+
+"I will be with you by eight o'clock."
+
+Athalie wrapped herself in her black cloak, and hurried away before
+Katschuka had time to open the door for her. It seemed to her as if the
+captain was putting on his sword almost before she had left his door. Is
+he perhaps going to follow her in the distance?
+
+She stopped at the corner of the Anglia, but no one was following. She
+ran home in the darkness, and as she hastened through the deep night she
+concocted a plan in her head. If only the captain once sits by her in
+the carriage, if he goes with her to Belgrade, he will see that no power
+on earth can deliver him from her. As she passed through the long
+market-hall, she stumbled again over the same female figure as it lay on
+the stones. This time it did not awake nor curse her. What sound sleep
+these wretches enjoy! But when Athalie got to the door of her home, a
+thought sunk like lead into her mind. What if the captain was only so
+ready with his promise of escorting her to Belgrade in order to get rid
+of her? What if he does not come to-morrow, either at eight or later? A
+torturing jealousy excited her nerves. When she reached the anteroom,
+she felt about on the table for the candle and matches she had left
+there. Instead of these her hand touched a knife--a sharp cook's knife
+with a heavy handle. This also sheds light on darkness. She grasped the
+knife and walked up and down. Her teeth chattered: the thought was
+working in her, how if she were to drive this knife into the heart of
+that girl with the white face, who sleeps beside her? That would be an
+end of them both. They would convict her of the murder, and so she would
+get out of the world.
+
+But Timéa is not sleeping there now.
+
+Athalie only remembered when she had gone to the bed in which Timéa
+usually slept, that she was sleeping with Frau Sophie to-night. The
+knife fell from her hand, and then she was frightened. She began to feel
+how lonely she was, how dark was all around her, dark too in her own
+soul.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The roll of a drum awoke Athalie out of a distressing dream. She dreamed
+of a young lady who had murdered her rival, and was led to the place of
+execution. Already she knelt on the scaffold, the headsman with his
+naked sword stood behind her, the judge read the sentence and said,
+"With God there is pardon." The drum beat, then Athalie awoke.
+
+It was the auctioneer's drum. The bidding had begun; but that drum is
+even more dreadful than the one which gives the signal of death. To
+listen, when the voice which penetrates even to the street calls out the
+well-known old favorite things which only yesterday were our own! "Once,
+twice; any advance?" and then "thrice!" and the drum rolls and the
+hammer falls. Then it begins again, "Once, twice; any advance?"
+
+Athalie put on her mourning-dress, the only one left to her, and went to
+find some one. There were only her mother and Timéa to look for. They
+would probably be in the kitchen.
+
+Both had long been up and dressed. Frau Sophie was as round as a tub.
+Knowing well enough that no one would search her, she had put on a dozen
+dresses one over the other, and hidden a few napkins and silver spoons
+in her pockets. She could hardly move. Timéa was in her simple black
+every-day dress, and was preparing warm milk and coffee. At the sight of
+Athalie, Frau Sophie broke into loud sobs, and hung on her neck. "Oh, my
+dear, darling, pretty daughter! What have we come to, and what will
+become of us? Oh, that we had not lived to see this day! This dreadful
+drum woke you, I suppose?"
+
+"Is it not yet eight o'clock?" asked Athalie. The kitchen clock was
+still going.
+
+"Not eight? Why, the auction began at nine. Can you not hear it?"
+
+"Has no one been to see us?"
+
+"Silly idea! Why, who should visit us at such a time?"
+
+Athalie said no more, but sat down on the bench--the same little seat on
+which Frau Sophie had described to Timéa the splendid wedding ceremony.
+
+Timéa prepared the breakfast, toasted the bread, and laid the kitchen
+table for the two ladies. Athalie did not heed the invitation, however
+much pressed by Frau Sophie. "Drink, my dear, my own pretty! Who knows
+where we shall get coffee to-morrow? The whole world is against us, and
+every one abuses and curses us. What will become of us?" But that did
+not hinder her from gulping down her cup of coffee. Athalie was thinking
+of the journey to Belgrade, and of her expected traveling companion.
+
+Frau Sophie's mind was much occupied with original notions on easy modes
+of death. "If there were only a pin in the coffee that it might stick in
+my throat and choke me." Then the wish arose that the flat-iron would
+fall down from the shelf as she passed and crush her skull. She would be
+glad, too, if one of the earthquakes which occasionally occur in Komorn
+would happen now, and bury the house and all in it. As, however, none of
+these ways of dying came to pass, and Athalie would not speak, there was
+nothing left but to vent her wrath on Timéa. "She takes it easily, the
+ungrateful creature! She is not even crying; indeed it is easy for her
+to laugh--she can go to service, or work with a milliner and keep
+herself; she will be glad to be quit of us, and live on her own hook.
+You just wait, you will soon have to remember us. You'll be
+sorry--before a year is over you'll repent fast enough." Timéa had done
+nothing to repent of, but Frau Sophie saw it in the future, and her
+anger was only surpassed by the grief she felt about Athalie. "What will
+become of you, you sweet and only darling? Who will take care of you?
+What will become of your pretty white hands?"
+
+"There, go and leave me in peace," said Athalie, shaking her lamenting
+mother off her neck. "Go and look out of the window and see if any one
+is coming up to us."
+
+"Nobody, nobody!--who should be coming?"
+
+Time went on; drum and bid succeeded each other; whenever the kitchen
+clock struck, Athalie started up, and then let her head fall into her
+hands again and stared before her. The roses on her cheeks took a violet
+shade, her lips were blue, an olive shadow darkened her exquisite face;
+her staring eyes, with deep marks below them, her swollen lips, her
+painfully contracted eyebrows, turned the ideal beauty into an image of
+horror. She sat like a fallen angel driven from heaven. It was already
+noon, and he for whom she waited never came. The noise of the sale came
+nearer and nearer. The auctioneer went from room to room; they had begun
+in the outer rooms, now they were coming to the reception-rooms, at
+whose far end was the kitchen.
+
+Frau Sophie, in spite of her despair, had her senses about her enough to
+notice that the bidding was very quick. Hardly was anything put up
+before the drum beat, and "any advance?" was cried. The buyers standing
+in groups complained, "No one has a chance--the man is mad. Who can this
+fool be?"
+
+Now only the kitchen department is left, but no one enters it. Outside,
+the drum is heard, "No one will give more?" It has been bought as a
+whole, unseen--by some fool.
+
+It struck Frau Sophie, too, that people did not hasten to fetch the lots
+they bought out of the rooms, as usual at an auction; here nothing is
+touched. Now comes the principal lot, and every one goes down to the
+yard, for the house itself is being put up. The buyers press round the
+table of the official auctioneer; the upset price is named. Then some
+one makes an offer in a low voice. Among the crowd arises a confused
+noise, tones of astonishment, laughter, hissing; the people scatter, and
+again one hears, "He must be a fool." Grumbling and angry, all go away.
+"Once, twice, thrice!" the hammer falls. The house has found a
+purchaser.
+
+"Now it's time to go, my sweet darling daughter. We will look out for
+the last time. If only the tower of St. John's Church would fall and
+crush us all together!" But Athalie sat on the bench, waiting and
+waiting, and looking at the clock. It points to two. One little ray of
+hope still shone through the Egyptian darkness--perhaps it was the dread
+of pushing through the crowd of bidders which had kept the captain from
+coming; perhaps he will appear as soon as the yard is clear.
+
+"Don't you hear some one coming?"
+
+"No, my beauty, I hear nothing."
+
+"Yes, mother, I hear some one creeping upstairs gently, on tiptoe."
+
+In truth soft steps approach. Some one knocks at the kitchen door, like
+a polite visitor who begs permission to enter, and waits till it is
+given him; and then the door opens gently, and in comes, with hat off,
+and courteous bow--Michael Timar Levetinczy. He remained standing near
+the door after saluting the ladies. Athalie rose with an expression of
+disappointment and hatred; Frau Sophie wrung her hands, and looked up
+with a mixture of hope and fear; Timéa met his gaze with gentle
+calmness.
+
+"I," began Timar, sending his "I" in advance like a pope in his bull--"I
+have had this house and all its saleable contents knocked down to me at
+the auction. I did not buy it for myself, but for the one person in it
+who is not to be bought, and yet is the only treasure on earth in my
+sight. . . . Fraülein Timéa, from this day forward you are the mistress
+of this house. Everything in it belongs to you--the clothes, the jewels
+in the wardrobes, the horses in the stable, the securities in the
+safe--all is inscribed in your name, and the creditors are satisfied.
+You are the owner of the house--accept it from me; and if there is a
+corner in it where there is room for a quiet fellow who would only
+impose on you his respect and admiration, and if this corner could be
+given to me--if there was a little shelter for me in your heart, and you
+did not refuse my hand--then I should be only too happy, and would swear
+that the whole aim of my life would be to make you as happy as you made
+me."
+
+Timéa's face beamed at these words with maidenly pride. A mixture of
+inexpressible pain, noble gratitude, and holy sacrifice lighted up her
+countenance. "Thrice, thrice," her lips stammered, but without a sound,
+only her sympathetic nerves heard what she wanted to utter. This man had
+so often saved her; he was always so good to her; he had never made
+sport of her, nor flattered her, and now he gives her all her heart
+could desire. All? No, all but one thing, and that is gone; it belongs
+to another.
+
+Timar waited quietly for an answer. Timéa remained silent.
+
+"Do not answer hastily, Fraülein Timéa," he said. "I will await your
+decision. I will come to-morrow, or in a week, or whenever you like to
+give me an answer. You are mistress of all I have handed over to you; I
+attach no conditions to it; it is all registered in your name. If you do
+not wish to see me here again, it only costs you one word; take a week
+or a month or a year to consider what you will answer."
+
+Timéa stepped forward with decision from behind the stove where the
+other two women had pushed her, and approached Michael.
+
+In her manner lay a precocious gravity, which lent to her face a womanly
+dignity. Since that eventful wedding-day she had ceased to be a child;
+she had become serious and silent. She looked calmly into Michael's
+face, and said, "I have already decided."
+
+Frau Sophie listened with envious malice for Timéa's answer. If only she
+would say to Timar, "I don't want you--go away!" Anything is possible
+from such an idiot of a girl, who has had another man put in her head.
+And if Timar, just to revenge himself, were to say, "Well then, stay as
+you are; you shall have neither the house nor my hand, I will offer both
+to Fraülein Athalie"--and if he were to marry Athalie! As if cases had
+not been heard of in which an honest lover was refused by some stuck-up
+girl, and then out of pique offered his hand to the governess, or
+proposed to the housemaid on the spot! This hope of Frau Sophie's,
+however, was not destined to be fulfilled.
+
+Timéa gave her hand to Timar, and said in a low but firm voice, "I
+accept you as my husband."
+
+Michael grasped the offered hand--not with the fire of a passionate
+lover, but with the homage of a man, and looked long into the unearthly
+beauty of the girl's eyes.
+
+And the girl allowed him to read her soul. She repeated her words: "I
+accept you as my husband, and will be a faithful and obedient wife; I
+only ask one favor--you will not refuse me?"
+
+Happiness made Michael forget that a merchant should never sign his name
+to a blank sheet of paper. "Oh, speak! what you desire is already done."
+
+"My request is," said Timéa, "if you take me to wife, and this house
+becomes yours again, and I the mistress in your house, that you should
+allow my adopted mother who received me, an orphan, and my adopted
+sister with whom I have grown up, to remain here with me. Regard them as
+my mother and sister, and treat them as kindly."
+
+An involuntary tear fell from Timar's eye. Timéa noticed it, seized his
+right hand with hers, and made a new attack on his heart. "You will, I
+know you will do as I ask you; and you will give back to Athalie all
+that was hers?--her nice clothes and jewels; and she will stay with us,
+and you will be the same to her as if she were my own sister; and you
+will treat Mamma Sophie as I do, and call her mother?"
+
+Frau Sophie, hearing this, began to sob aloud. She sunk on her knees
+before Timéa, and covered her hands, her dress, even her feet with
+unceasing kisses, while she murmured broken and inaudible words.
+
+In the next moment Timar was himself again, and the far-seeing vision
+came to his aid, which at any critical time raised him above his rivals.
+His quick invention whispered to him what must be done to provide
+against future complications. He took Timéa's little hands in his. "You
+are a noble creature, Timéa. You will permit me henceforward to call you
+by your name? and I will not disgrace your good heart. Stand up, Mamma
+Sophie; do not cry; tell Athalie she might come nearer to me. I will do
+more than Timéa asked, for love of her, and for you two; I will provide
+for Athalie not only a place of refuge, but a happy home of her own; I
+will pay the deposit for her bridegroom, and give her the dowry which
+her father had promised to her. May they be happy together."
+
+Timar had foreseen things still below the horizon, and thought that no
+sacrifice would be too great to get the two women out of the house and
+away from Timéa, and to manage that the handsome captain should be
+married to the lovely Athalie.
+
+But now it was his turn to be overwhelmed with kisses and gratitude by
+Frau Sophie. "Oh, Herr von Levetinczy! Oh, dear, generous Herr von
+Levetinczy! let me kiss your hand, your feet, your clever head." And she
+did as set forth in her programme, and kissed besides his shoulders,
+coat-collar, and his back, at last embracing both Timar and Timéa in her
+arms, and bestowing her valuable blessing upon them. "Be happy
+together!"
+
+It was impossible to help laughing at the way the poor woman expressed
+her joy. But Athalie poisoned all their pleasure.
+
+Proud as a fallen angel who is asked to return, and who prefers
+damnation to humbling her pride, she turned away from Timar, and said in
+a voice choked with passion, "I thank you, sir. But I never wish to hear
+of Herr Katschuka again, either in this world or the next! I will never
+be his wife; I will remain here with Timéa--as her servant."
+
+
+
+
+_BOOK THIRD.--THE OWNERLESS ISLAND._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE MARRIAGE OF THE MARBLE STATUE.
+
+
+Timar was intensely happy at being engaged to Timéa.
+
+The unearthly beauty of the girl had captivated his heart at first
+sight. He admired her then, and afterward the sweet nature which he
+learned to appreciate won his respect. The shameful trick played on her
+in the house of Brazovics awoke in him a chivalrous sympathy. The airy
+courtship of the captain aroused his jealousy; all these were symptoms
+of love, and at last he had reached the goal of his wishes: the lovely
+maiden was his, and would be his wife.
+
+And a great burden was lifted from his soul--self-reproach; for from the
+day when Timar found the treasures of Ali Tschorbadschi in the sunken
+ship, his peace was gone. After each brilliant success of any of his
+undertakings, the voice of the accuser rose in his breast "This does not
+belong to you--it was the property of an orphan which you usurped. You a
+lucky man? You a man of gold? It is not true! Benefactor of the poor?
+Not true! Not true! You are a thief!"
+
+Now the suit is decided. The inward judge acquits him. The defrauded
+orphan receives back her property, and in double measure, for whatever
+belongs to her husband is hers too. She will never know that the
+foundation of this great fortune was once hers; she only knows it is
+hers now--thus fate is reconciled.
+
+But is it really reconciled? Timar forgot the sophism that he offered
+Timéa something besides the treasures which were hers--himself--and in
+exchange demanded the girl's heart, and that this was a deception, and
+like taking her by force.
+
+He wished to hasten the wedding. There was no need of delay on account
+of the trousseau, for he had bought everything in Vienna. Timéa's
+wedding-dress was made by the best Parisian house, and the bride was not
+obliged to work at it herself for six weeks, as at that other. That
+double unlucky dress was buried in a closet which no one ever opened; it
+would never be brought out again.
+
+But other hinderances of an ecclesiastical nature presented
+themselves--Timéa was still unbaptized. It was only natural that Timar
+should wish Timéa, when she left the Moslem faith for Christianity, to
+enter at once the Protestant Church to which he belonged, so that they
+might worship together after their marriage. But then the Protestant
+minister announced it as an indispensable condition of conversion that
+neophytes should be instructed in the creed of that church into which
+they were to be received. Here a great difficulty arose. The Mohammedan
+religion has nothing to say to women in its dogmas. To a Moslem a woman
+is no more than a flower which fades and falls, whose soul is its
+fragrance, which the wind carries away, and it is gone. Timéa had no
+creed.
+
+The very reverend gentleman found his task by no means easy when he
+tried to convince Timéa of the superiority of the Christian religion. He
+had converted Jews and Papists, but he had never tried it with a Turkish
+girl.
+
+On the first day, when the minister was explaining the splendors of the
+other world, and declaring that there all who in this world had loved
+each other would be reunited, the girl put this question to him--"Would
+those meet who had loved each other, or only those whom the minister had
+united?" This was a ticklish question; but the reverend gentleman
+answered, from his own puritanical point of view, that only those could
+possibly love each other who were united by the church, and that it was
+of course impossible for those who were thus united _not_ to love each
+other. But he was careful not to repeat this question to Herr Timar.
+
+The next day Timéa asked him whether her father, Ali Tschorbadschi,
+would also arrive in that world to which she was going?
+
+To this delicate question the minister was unable to give a satisfactory
+reply.
+
+"But is it not the case that I shall there still be the wife of Herr
+Levetinczy?" asked Timéa, with lively curiosity. To this the Herr Pastor
+was glad to reply, with gracious readiness, that that would certainly be
+the case.
+
+"Well, then, I shall ask Herr Levetinczy, when we both go to heaven, to
+keep a little place for my father, that he may be with us; and surely he
+will not refuse me?"
+
+The reverend gentleman scratched his ear violently, and thought he had
+better lay this difficult point before the church synod.
+
+The third day he said to Timar that it would be best to baptize and
+marry the young lady at once: then her husband could give her
+instruction in the other dogmas.
+
+The next Sunday the sacred rite was celebrated. Timéa then for the first
+time entered a Protestant church. The simple building, with its
+whitewashed walls and unornamented chancel, made a very different
+impression on her mind from that other church, out of which the naughty
+boys had chased her when she peeped in. There were golden altars, great
+wax tapers burning in silver candelabra, pictures, incense filling the
+air, mysterious chants, and people sinking on their knees at the sound
+of a bell. Here sat long rows of men and women apart, each with their
+book before them, and after the precentor had set the tune, all the
+congregation joined in unison. Then silence, and the minister mounted
+the high pulpit and began to preach without any ceremony. He did not
+sing, nor drink from the chalice, nor show any holy relics--only talk,
+talk on.
+
+Timéa sat in the first row with her sponsors, who led her to the font,
+where another long sermon was preached. At last it was over; the
+neophyte bowed her head over the basin, and the minister baptized her,
+in the name of the Trinity, "Susanna." She wondered why she should be
+called Susanna, as she was quite satisfied with her own name.
+
+Then they all sat down again and sung the eighty-third psalm, "Oh, God
+of Israel," which awoke in Timéa a slight doubt as to whether she had
+not been turned into a Jewess.
+
+All her doubts vanished, however, when another minister arose, and read
+from the chancel a document which set forth that the noble Herr Michael
+Timar von Levetinczy, of the Swiss Protestant Church, had betrothed
+himself to Fraülein Timéa Susanna von Tschorbadschi, also of the Swiss
+Protestant religion.
+
+Two more weeks must pass before the marriage. Michael spent every day
+with Timéa. The girl always received him with frank cordiality, and he
+was happy in his anticipations of the future. He generally found Athalie
+with his bride, but she made some pretext for leaving the room, and her
+mother look her place.
+
+Mamma Sophie entertained Michael with praises of his bride--what a dear
+girl she was, and how often she spoke of her kind, good Michael, who had
+taken such care of her on board the "St. Barbara." Sophie had heard
+every little detail, which only Timéa could have known, and Michael was
+delighted to find that she remembered so well.
+
+"If you only knew, dear Levetinczy, how fond the girl is of you!" And
+Timéa was not confused when she heard Frau Sophie say this. She affected
+no modest contradiction, but did not strengthen the assurance by any shy
+blushes. She allowed Timar to hold her hand in his and look into her
+eyes, and when he came and went she smiled at him.
+
+At last the wedding-day arrived. Troops of guests streamed in from all
+parts, a long row of carriages stood in the street, as on that other
+ill-omened day; but this time no misfortune occurred.
+
+The bridegroom fetched the bride out of the house of Brazovics, which
+was now her own, and took her to the church, but the wedding banquet was
+in the bridegroom's house. Frau Sophie would not be denied the task of
+arranging everything. Athalie remained at home and looked from behind
+the curtain, through the same window at which she had awaited the
+arrival of her own bridegroom, while the long row of carriages was set
+in motion.
+
+And there she waited till they all went past again after the marriage,
+bride and bridegroom now in the same carriage, and looked after them.
+And if during this time the whole congregation had prayed for the young
+couple, we may be sure that she also sent a--prayer--after them.
+
+Timéa had not found the ceremony as impressive as Frau Sophie had
+described it to her. The clergyman did not wear a golden robe or miter
+himself, nor did he bring out any silver crowns to crown them as lord or
+lady to each other. The bridegroom wore a velvet coat, as nobles did
+then, with agraffes and fur on it. He looked a fine man, but he held his
+head down; he was not yet used to carry it proudly, as beseems the gala
+suit of a noble. There was no veil wound round the two, no drinking from
+the same cup, no procession round the altar and holy kiss, not even any
+altar at all; only a black-robed minister, who said wise things no
+doubt, but which had not the mysterious charm of the "Gospodi Pomiluj."
+The Protestant marriage, deprived of all ceremony, leaves the Oriental
+fancy, with its desire for excitement, quite cold. And Timéa only
+understood the external ceremony as yet.
+
+The brilliant banquet came to an end; the guests went away, the bride
+remained in the bridegroom's house.
+
+When Timar was alone with Timéa, when he sat by her side and took her
+hand, he felt his heart beat and its pulsation spread through his whole
+frame. . . . The unspeakable treasure which was the goal of all his
+desires is in his possession. He has only to stretch out his arm and
+draw her to his breast. He dares not do it--he is as if bound by a
+spell. The wife, the baroness, does not shrink at his approach. She does
+not tremble or glow. If only she would cast her eyes down in alarm when
+Michael's hand touched her shoulder! If only the warm reflex of a shy
+blush passed over her pale face, the spell would be broken. But she
+remains as calm and cold and passionless as a somnambulist. Michael sees
+before him the same figure which he awoke from death on that eventful
+night--the same which lay on the bed before him like an altar-picture
+which radiates cold to the spectator, and whose face never changed when
+her night-dress slipped from her shoulders, nor even when told that her
+father was dead--not even when Timar whispered into her ear, "Beloved!"
+
+She is a marble statue--a statue which bows, dresses itself, submits,
+but is not alive. She sees, but her glance neither encourages nor
+alarms. He can do what he likes with her. She allows him to let down her
+lovely bright hair, and spread the locks over her shoulders; she allows
+his lips to approach her white face, and his hot breath to touch her
+cheek: but it kindles no responsive warmth in her. Michael thinks if he
+were to press the icy form to his breast, the charm would be broken; but
+in the act of doing it, an even greater emotion overcomes him. He starts
+back as if he was about to commit a crime against which nature, his
+guardian angel, every sensitive nerve in him protested. "Timéa," he
+whispered to her in caressing murmurs, "do you know that you are my
+wife?"
+
+Timéa looked at him and answered, "Yes, I know it."
+
+"Do you love me?"
+
+Then she opened wide her large dark eyes, and as he looked into them it
+seemed to him as if he were granted a glimpse into all the mysteries of
+the starry heavens. Then she veils them again with her silky lashes.
+
+"Do you feel no love for me?" entreats the husband with a yearning sigh.
+
+That look again, and the pale woman asks, "What is love?"
+
+What is love? All the wise men in the world could not explain it to one
+who does not feel it. But it requires no explanation for those who have
+it within them.
+
+"Oh, you child!" sighed Timar, and rose from his wife's side.
+
+Timéa rose also. "No, sir, I am no longer a child. I know what I
+am--your wife. I have sworn it to you, and God has heard my vow. I will
+be a faithful and obedient wife to you--it is appointed to me by fate.
+You have shown me so much kindness, that I owe you a lifelong gratitude.
+You are my lord and master, and I will always do what you wish and
+order."
+
+Michael turned away and covered his face. This look of self-sacrifice
+and abnegation froze all desire in his veins. Who would have the courage
+to press a martyr to his heart, the statue of a saint, with
+palm-branches and crown of thorns?
+
+"I will do what you command."
+
+Michael now first began to guess what a hollow victory he had won. He
+had married a marble statue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE GUARDIAN DEVIL.
+
+
+It has often happened that a man has found his wife's heart to be devoid
+of all inclination toward him.
+
+And no doubt many have looked for a cure in course of time. What can one
+do in winter, except look forward to spring? As the daughter of
+Mohammedan parents, Timéa had been brought up not to see the face of the
+man who was to be her husband until the wedding-day. There no one asks,
+"Do you, or do you not, love him?" neither her parents, the priest, nor
+the man himself. The husband will be good to her, and if he should find
+her out in infidelity, he will kill her. The principal thing is that she
+should have a pretty face, bright eyes, fine hair, and a sweet
+breath--no one asks about her heart. But Timéa had learned in a
+different school in the house of Brazovics. There she learned that among
+the Christians love was allowed, and every opportunity given for it; but
+that any one who did fall in love was not cured like a sick person, but
+punished like a criminal. She had expiated her crime.
+
+When Timéa became Timar's wife, she had schooled herself strictly, and
+forbidden every drop of her blood to speak to her of anything except her
+duties as a wife; for if she had allowed them to talk of her secret
+fancies, then each drop of blood would have persuaded her to go the same
+road on which that other girl had twice, in the darkness of the night,
+stumbled over the body of the sleeping woman, and that stumble would
+have killed her soul. She crushed and buried the feeling, and gave her
+hand to a man whom she respected, to whom she owed gratitude, and whose
+life-companion she was to remain.
+
+This story is repeated every day. And those who meet with it console
+themselves with the idea that soon the spring will come and the ice will
+melt.
+
+Michael went with his young wife to travel, and visited Italy and
+Switzerland. They returned as they went. Neither the romantic Alpine
+valleys nor the fragrant orange-groves brought balm to his heart. He
+overwhelmed his wife with all that women like, dress and jewels; he
+introduced her to the gayeties of great cities. All in vain: moonlight
+gives no heat, even through a burning glass. His wife was gentle,
+attentive, grateful, obedient; but her heart was never open to him,
+neither at home nor abroad, neither in joy nor sorrow. Her heart was
+buried.
+
+Timar had married a corpse.
+
+With this knowledge he returned from his travels. At one time he thought
+of leaving Komorn and settling in Vienna. Perhaps a new life might begin
+there. But then he thought of another plan: he decided to remain in
+Komorn and move into the Brazovics' house. There he would live with his
+wife, and arrange his own house as an office, so that business people
+might have nothing to do with the house his wife lived in. In this way
+he could be absent from home all day, without its being noticed that he
+left his wife alone.
+
+In public they always appeared together. She went into society with him,
+reminded him when it was time to leave, and departed leaning on his arm.
+Every one envied his lot; a lucky man to have such a lovely and faithful
+wife! If she were not so true and good! If he could only hate her! But
+no scandal could touch her.
+
+This spring brings no melting of her ice-bound heart. The glaciers grow
+every day. Michael cursed his fate. With all his treasures he can not
+buy his wife's love. It is all the worse for him that he is rich;
+splendor and great wealth widen the rift between them. Poverty binds
+close within its four walls those who belong to each other; laborers and
+fishermen, who have only one room and one bed, are more fortunate than
+he. The woodman, whose wife holds the other end of the saw when he is at
+work, is an enviable man: when they have finished they sit down on the
+ground, eat their bean-porridge out of one bowl, and kiss each other
+afterward.
+
+Let us become poor people!
+
+Timar began to hate his riches, and tried to get rid of them. If he was
+unfortunate and became poor, he would get nearer to his wife, he
+thought.
+
+He could not succeed in impoverishing himself. Fortune pursues those who
+despise it. Everything he touched, which with another would certainly
+have failed, became a brilliant success. In his hands the impossible
+turned to reality--the die always threw six; if he tried to lose his
+money by gambling, he broke the bank--gold streamed in upon him; if he
+ran away or hid, it rolled after him and found him out.
+
+And all this he would have joyfully given for a kiss from his wife's
+sweet lips.
+
+And yet they say money is almighty. Everything is to be had for money.
+Yes--false; lying love, bright smiles on the charming lips of such as
+feel it not--forbidden, sinful love, which must be concealed--but not
+the love of one who can love truly and faithfully.
+
+Timar almost wished he could hate his wife. He would have liked to
+believe that she loved another, that she was faithless and forgot her
+wifely duty; but he could not find any cause for hatred. No one saw his
+wife anywhere but on her husband's arm. In society she knew how to
+preserve a bearing which compelled respect, and kept bold advances at a
+distance. She did not dance at balls, and gave as a reason that when a
+girl she had not been taught to dance, and as a woman she no longer
+wished to learn. She sought the company of older women. If her husband
+went on a journey, she never left the house. But what did she at home?
+For reception-rooms in society are transparent, but not the walls of
+one's house. To this question Michael had a most convincing reply.
+
+In this house Athalie lived with Timéa.
+
+Athalie was--not the guardian angel but the guardian devil of Timéa's
+honor. Every step, every word, every thought of his wife, every sigh she
+uttered, every tear she shed, even the unconscious mutterings of her
+dreams, were spied upon by another woman, who hated him as well as his
+wife, and certainly would hasten to make both miserable, if a shadow of
+guilt could be found on the walls of the house.
+
+If Timéa, at the moment when she begged Michael to allow Athalie and
+Frau Sophie to continue living in the same house, had listened to
+anything but the voice of her kind and feeling heart, she could not have
+invented a better protection for herself than keeping with her the girl
+who had once been the bride of the man she ought never to meet again.
+
+These pitiless and malicious eyes follow her everywhere; as long as the
+guardian devil is silent, Timéa is not condemned even by God. Athalie is
+silent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Athalie was a real dragon to Timéa, in small things as well as great. No
+circumstance, ever so trifling, escaped her attention if it afforded her
+a chance of playing Timéa a trick. She pretended that Timéa wished to
+show her generosity by treating the quondam young lady of the house as a
+sister, or like a lady visitor, which was enough to make Athalie behave
+in company as if she were a servant. Every day Timéa took the broom out
+of her hand by force when she came in to clean the room; she constantly
+caught her cleaning "her mistress's" clothes, and if visitors came to
+dinner, she could not be induced to leave the kitchen. Athalie had
+received back from Timéa her whole arsenal of ornaments and toilet
+necessaries. She had wardrobes full of silk and merino dresses; but she
+chose to wear her shabbiest and dirtiest gowns, which formerly she had
+put on only when the hairdresser was busy with her coiffure; and she was
+glad if she could burn a hole in her dress in the kitchen, or drop oil
+on it when she trimmed the lamp. She knew how much this hurt Timéa. All
+her jewels too, worth thousands, had been restored to her: she did not
+wear them, but bought herself a paste brooch for ten kreutzers, and put
+it on. Timéa took the brooch away quietly, and had a real opal put into
+it; the faded old dresses she burned, and had others made for Athalie of
+the stuff she was herself wearing.
+
+Oh, yes, one could grieve Timéa, but not make her angry.
+
+Even in her way of speaking, Athalie made a parade of an insufferable
+humility, although, or rather because, she knew it hurt Timéa. If the
+latter asked for anything, Athalie rushed to fetch it with an alacrity
+like that of a black slave who fears the whip. She never spoke in a
+natural tone, but annoyed Timéa by always lowering her voice to the thin
+whining sound which gives an impression of servility; she stammered with
+affected weakness, and could not pronounce the letter _s_.
+
+She never let herself be surprised into forgetfulness or familiarity;
+but her most refined cruelty consisted in her unseasonable praises of
+the husband and wife to each other.
+
+When she was alone with Timéa she sighed, "Oh, how happy you are, Timéa,
+in having such a good husband who loves you so much!" If Timar came
+home, she received him with naïve reproaches. "Is it right to stay away
+so long? Timéa is quite desperate, she awaits you with such longing; go
+in gently and surprise your wife. Hold your hands over her eyes, and
+make her guess who it is."
+
+Both had to bear the derision which, under the mask of a tender,
+flattering sympathy, wounded their hearts. Athalie knew only too well
+that neither of them was happy.
+
+But when she was alone, how completely she threw off the mask with which
+she tormented the others, and gave vent to her suppressed rage. If alone
+in her room she threw the broom Timéa had tried to take away furiously
+on the ground; then again beat the chairs and sofas with the handle, in
+order, as she said, to shake the dust out, but really to work off her
+anger on them. If in going out or in her dress caught in the door, or
+the sleeve on the handle, she wrenched it away with her teeth clinched,
+so that either the dress was torn or the handle dragged off, and then
+she was satisfied.
+
+Broken crockery, chipped glasses, mutilated furniture, bore witness in
+quantities to the disastrous hours they passed in her company. Poor
+Mamma Sophie avoided her own daughter, and was afraid to be left alone
+with her. She was the only person in the house who ever heard Athalie's
+natural voice, and to whom she showed the bottomless depths of the gulf
+her hatred had dug. Frau Sophie was frightened of sleeping in the same
+room with her, and in a confidential moment showed her faithful cook the
+black bruises which her daughter's hand had left on her arms. When
+Athalie came into her mother's room in the evening, she would pinch her,
+and scream in her ear, "Why did you ever give me birth?"
+
+And when at last she went to bed, after finishing her day's work with
+pretended gentleness and hidden fury, she required no one to help her.
+She tore off her clothes, dragged the knotted strings asunder,
+ill-treated her hair with hands and comb as if it was some one's else;
+then stamped on her clothes, blew out the candle, leaving a long wick to
+smolder and fill the room with its evil odor, and threw herself on her
+bed; there she bit the pillow, and tore at it with her teeth while she
+brooded over the torture she had to endure. Sleep only came to her after
+she had heard a door shut--the door of the lonely chamber of the master;
+then she was glad--then she could sleep.
+
+It could be no secret to her that the young husband and wife were not
+happy. She waited with malicious joy to see what mischief could be
+developed from it.
+
+Neither of them seemed to notice it. No quarrel ever took place; no
+complaint, not even an involuntary sigh, ever escaped either of them.
+Timéa remained unchanged, only the husband grew more gloomy every day.
+He sat for hours by his wife, often holding her hands in his, but he did
+not look into her eyes, and rose to go away without a word. Men can not
+keep a secret as women can. Timar got into the habit of going away and
+fixing the day of his return, and then returning sooner than he was
+expected. Another time he surprised his wife at a moment when he was not
+looked for; he pretended a chance had brought him home, and would not
+say what he wanted. But suspicion was written on his brow. Jealousy left
+him no peace.
+
+One day Michael said at home that he had to go to Levetinczy, and could
+hardly get back in less than a month. All his preparations were made for
+a long absence. When the married couple took leave of each other with a
+kiss--a cool, conventional kiss--Athalie was present.
+
+Athalie smiled. Another would hardly have noticed the smile, or at any
+rate would not, like Michael, have marked the derision which lay in
+it--the malicious mockery at one who little knows what goes on behind
+his back. It was as if she said, "When you are once gone, you fool--!"
+
+Michael took the sting of this spiteful smile with him on his journey.
+He carried it on his heart half-way to Levetinczy; then he made his
+carriage turn round, and by midnight he was back in Komorn. In his
+house there were two extra entrances to his room, whose keys he always
+carried about with him, so that he could get in without any one knowing
+of his return. From his room he could reach Timéa's through the several
+anterooms. His wife was not in the habit of locking her bedroom door.
+She was accustomed to read in bed, and the maid generally had to come
+and see whether she had not fallen asleep without putting out the light.
+On the other side, the room in which Athalie and her mother slept
+adjoined his wife's bedroom. Michael approached the door noiselessly and
+opened it cautiously. All was still; every one slept. The room was dimly
+lighted by the shaded light of a night-lamp.
+
+Michael drew the curtain aside: the same statue of a sleeping saint lay
+before him which he had once aroused to life in the cabin of the "St.
+Barbara." She seemed to be fast asleep; she did not feel his
+neighborhood; she did not see him through her downcast lashes. But a
+slumbering woman can see the man she loves even in her sleep, and with
+closed eyes. Michael bent over her breast and counted her heart-beats.
+Her heart beat with its normal calm. No suspicious symptom to be
+found--nothing to feed the hungry monster which seeks a victim.
+
+He stood long and gazed on the slumbering form. Then suddenly he
+started. Athalie stood before him, dressed, and with a candle in her
+hand. Again that insulting smile of mockery lay on her lips. "Have you
+forgotten something?" she asked in a whisper.
+
+Michael trembled like a thief caught in the act.
+
+"Hush!" said he, pointing to the sleeper, and hurried away from the bed.
+"I forgot my papers."
+
+"Shall I wake Timéa that she may get them out?"
+
+Timar was angry at being detected for the first time in his life in a
+direct lie.
+
+His papers were not kept by Timéa, but in his own room.
+
+"No, do not wake my wife; the papers are in my room--I only wanted the
+key."
+
+"And you have already found it?" asked Athalie, seriously, who then
+lighted the candles and officiously conducted Michael to his room.
+
+Here she put down the candle and did not go away. Michael turned
+over his papers with confusion; he could not find what he
+sought--naturally--for he knew not what to look for. At last he shut
+his desk without taking anything out. Again he was met by the hateful
+smile which from time to time played round Athalie's lips. "Do you
+wish for anything?" said Athalie, in answer to his inquiring looks.
+
+Michael remained silent.
+
+"Do you wish me to speak?"
+
+Michael felt at these words as if the world was falling on him. He dared
+not answer.
+
+"Shall I tell you of Timéa?" whispered Athalie, bending nearer to him,
+and holding the stupefied man under the spell of her beautiful
+serpent-eyes.
+
+"What do you know?" asked Michael, hotly.
+
+"Everything--do you wish me to tell you?"
+
+Michael was undecided.
+
+"But I can tell you beforehand that you will be very unhappy when you
+learn what I know."
+
+"Speak!"
+
+"Very well--listen. I know as well as you do that Timéa does not love
+you. But one thing I know which you do not--namely, that Timéa is as
+true to you as an angel."
+
+Timar started violently.
+
+"You did not expect that from me? It would have been welcome news to
+hear from me that your wife deserved your contempt, so that you might be
+able to hate and reject her. No, sir; the marble statue you have taken
+to wife does not love you, but does not deceive you. This I only know,
+but with absolute certainty--oh, your honor is well guarded. If you had
+engaged the hundred-eyed Argus of the legend as a watchman, she could
+not be better guarded than by me. Nothing of what she does, says,
+thinks, escapes me: in the deepest recesses of her heart she can have no
+feeling hidden from me. You acted wisely in the interests of your honor
+when you took me into your house. You will not drive me out of it,
+though you hate me; for you know well that as long as I am here, the man
+whom you fear can never approach your sanctuary. I am the diamond lock
+of your house. You shall know all: when you leave town, your house is a
+cloister while you are absent; no visitors are received, neither man nor
+woman; the letters which come to your wife, you will find unopened on
+your writing-table; you can give them to her to read or throw them into
+the fire, just as you choose. Your wife never sets foot in the streets,
+she only drives out with me; her only walk is on the island, and I am
+always with her; I see her suffer, but I never hear her complain. How
+could she complain to me, who suffer the same torment, and on her
+account? For from the time when that ghostly face appeared in the house
+my misery began; till then I was happy and beloved. Do not be afraid of
+my bursting into tears; I love no longer--now I only hate, and with my
+whole soul. You can trust your house to me; you can ride through the
+world in peace; you leave me at home, and as long as you find your wife
+alive on your return you may be sure that she is faithful to you. For
+know, sir, that if she ever exchanges a friendly word with that man, or
+responds to his smile, or reads a letter from him, I would not wait for
+you, I would kill her myself, and you would only come home to her
+funeral. Now you know what you leave behind--the polished dagger which
+the madness of jealousy holds aimed at your wife's heart; and under the
+shadow of that dagger you will daily lay your head down to sleep, and
+although I inspire you with loathing, you will be forced to cling to me
+with desperation."
+
+Timar felt all his mental energy crippled under this outburst of
+demoniac passion.
+
+"I have told you all I know about Timéa, about you and myself; I repeat
+once more, you have taken to wife a girl who loves another, and this
+other was once mine. It was you who took this house from me; under your
+hand my father and my property sunk into dust; and then you made Timéa
+the mistress of this house. You see now what you did. Your wife is not a
+woman, but a martyr. It is not enough that you should suffer; you must
+also acquire the certainty that you have made her, for whose possession
+you strove, miserable, and that there can be no happiness for Timéa as
+long as you live. With this sting in your breast you may leave your
+house, Herr Levetinczy, and you will nowhere find a balm for your
+smarting wound, and I rejoice at it with all my heart!"
+
+With glowing cheeks, gnashing teeth, and glaring eyes, Athalie bowed to
+Timar, who sunk exhausted into a chair. But the girl clinched her fist
+as if to thrust an invisible dagger into his heart.
+
+"And now--turn me out of your house if you dare!" All womanhood was
+quenched in the girl's face. Instead of a hypocritical submission, it
+was dominated by the fury of unbridled passion. "Drive me away from here
+if you dare!"
+
+And proud as a triumphant demon she left Michael's room. She had taken
+the lighted candle which was on the table away with her, and left the
+wretched husband in darkness. She had told him that she was not the
+humble servant, but the guardian devil of the house. As Timar saw the
+girl with the light in her hand go toward the door of Timéa's bedroom,
+something whispered to him to spring up, seize Athalie's arm, and
+setting his foot before the threshold, to cry to her, "Remain then
+yourself in this accursed house, as I am bound by the promise I gave;
+but not with us!"
+
+And then to rush into Timéa's room, as on the eventful night when the
+ship went down, to lift her in his arms from the bed, and with the cry,
+"This house is falling in, let us save ourselves!" to fly from it with
+her, and take her to some place where no one spies on her . . . this
+thought darted through his head . . . that was what he ought to have
+done.
+
+The door of the bedroom opened, and Athalie looked back once more; then
+she went in, the door shut, and Michael remained alone in the darkness.
+
+Oh, in what darkness!
+
+Then he heard the key turn twice in the lock. His fate was sealed; he
+arose and felt round in the dark for his traveling-bag. He kindled no
+light, made no noise, so that no one should awake and report that he had
+been here. When he had collected all his things, he crept softly to the
+door, shut it gently behind him, and left his own house cautiously and
+noiselessly, like a thief, like a fugitive. That girl had driven him
+away from it.
+
+Out in the street he was met by a snow shower. That is good weather for
+one who does not wish to be seen. The wind whistled through the streets,
+and drove the snowflakes into his face; Michael Timar, however, went on
+his way in an open carriage, in weather in which one would not turn a
+dog into the street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SPRING MEADOWS.
+
+
+As far as the Lower Danube, the traveler took with him rough and wintery
+skies; here and there fresh snow covered the fields, and the woods stood
+bare. The stormy cold suited the thoughts with which Timar was
+occupied. That cruel girl was right--not only the husband but the wife
+was wretched. The man doubly so; for he was the author of their mutual
+misery.
+
+These bitter, disconsolate thoughts followed Michael to Baja, where he
+had an office, and where, when he traveled into the flax districts of
+Hungary, he had his letters sent. A whole bundle awaited him; he opened
+one after another with indifference; what did he care whether the rape
+had been frost-bitten or not, that the duties in England were raised, or
+that exchange was higher? But among the letters he found two which were
+not uninteresting--one from his Viennese, the other from his Stamboul
+agent. The contents greatly rejoiced him. He put them both away, and
+from that moment the apathy began to disperse which had hitherto
+possessed him. He gave his orders to his agents with his usual quickness
+and energy, carefully noted their reports, and when he had finished with
+them, proceeded on his way in haste.
+
+Now his journey had an object--no great or important one, but still an
+object. It was to give a pleasure to two poor people--but a real joy.
+
+The weather had changed; the sky had cleared, and the sun shone warmly
+down below. In Hungary, where summer follows immediately on winter,
+these swift changes are common. Below Baja the face of the country, too,
+was changed. While Michael rushed southward with frequent changes of
+horses, it was as if nature had in one day advanced by many weeks. At
+Mohacs he was received by woods decked in new green; about Zambor the
+fields were spread with a verdant carpet; at Neusatz the meadows were
+already dressed with flowers; and in the plains of Pancsova golden
+stretches of rape smiled at him, and the hills looked as though covered
+with rosy snow--the almonds and cherry-trees were in blossom. The two
+days' journey was like a dream-picture. The day before yesterday
+snow-covered fields in Komorn, and to-day on the Lower Danube hedges in
+bloom!
+
+Michael alighted at the Levetinczy castle to spend the night. He gave
+his instructions to the bailiff on the day of his arrival; the next
+morning he got up early, entered the carriage, and drove to the Danube
+to inspect his cargo ships. Everything was in order. Our Herr Johann
+Fabula had been appointed overseer of the whole flotilla: there was
+nothing for him to do. "Our gracious master can go and shoot ducks."
+
+And Herr von Levetinczy followed this good advice of Herr Fabula. He had
+a boat brought, and ordered provisions for a week, his gun, and plenty
+of ammunition to be put in it. No one will be surprised if he does not
+return from the reed-bed, now full of prime water-fowl, before a week
+has elapsed. It storms with duck, snipe, and herons, the last only
+valued for their feathers; even pelicans are to be met with, and an
+Egyptian ibis has been shot there. It is said a flamingo was once seen.
+When an ardent sportsman once gets into those marshes, you may wait till
+he comes out! And Timar loved sport, like all sailors. This time Michael
+did not load his gun. He let his boat float down with the stream till he
+reached the point of the Ostrova Island--there he seized the sculls and
+crossed the Danube obliquely. When he got round the island he soon saw
+where he was. From the southern reed-beds rose the tops of the
+well-known poplars--thither he went. There was already a channel broken
+through the rushes, across and along as required, if you only understood
+it. Where Michael had once been, he could find his way in the dark. What
+would Almira and Narcissa be doing? What should they be doing in such
+lovely weather but gratifying their passion for sport? Only, however,
+within certain limits: the field-mouse must be pursued at night, and
+that is easy for Narcissa, but she is strictly forbidden to chase birds.
+To Almira the marmots which came across the ice and settled in the
+island are positively interdicted. Aquatic prey still remain, and that
+is good sport too. Almira wades into the pure, clear water among the
+heaps of great stones at the bottom, and cautiously puts her fore-paw
+into a hole, out of which something dark is peeping. Suddenly she makes
+a great jump, draws her foot back, limps whining out of the water on
+three legs, and on the fourth paw hangs a large black crab, which has
+caught hold with its claws. Almira hobbles along in despair till, on
+reaching the bank, she succeeds in shaking off the dangerous monster; it
+is then carefully inspected by both Almira and Narcissa, to see at what
+price it can be induced to allow its body to be deprived of the shell.
+The crab naturally does not quite see the fun of this, and retires with
+all speed backward to the water. The two sportsmen, however, shove the
+reactionary party forward with their paws, until at one shove it is
+turned on its back, and now all three are in doubt what to do
+next--Almira, Narcissa, and the crab.
+
+Almira's attention is suddenly attracted by another object. She hears a
+noise and scents something. A friend approaches by water; she does not
+bark at him, but utters a low growl. This is her way of laughing, like
+some cheery old gentleman. She recognizes the man in the boat. Michael
+springs out, fastens the boat to a willow stump, pats Almira's head, and
+asks her, "Well, then, how is it all? is it all well?" The dog replied
+many things, but in the Newfoundland-dog language. To judge by the tone,
+the answer is satisfactory.
+
+Then all at once a pitiful cry disturbs the pleasant greeting. The
+catastrophe which might have been foreseen has occurred. Narcissa came
+near enough to the upset and sprawling crab for it to catch her ear with
+its nippers, and then to bury all its six claws in her fur. Timar rushed
+to the scene of misfortune, and with great presence of mind, seeing the
+magnitude of the danger, seized the mailed criminal in a place where its
+weapons could not reach him, pressed its head between his strong
+fingers, and obliged it to let go its prey; then he dashed it with such
+force on to a stone that it was shattered, and gave up its black ghost.
+Narcissa, to show her gratitude, sprung on to the shoulder of her
+chivalrous deliverer, and snorted from there at her dead enemy.
+
+After this introductory deed of heroism, Timar busied himself in
+disembarking what he had brought with him. All are packed into a
+knapsack, which he can easily throw over his shoulder. But the gun, the
+gun! Almira can not abide him with a gun in his hand, but he can not
+leave it here, for it might easily be stolen by some one. What to do?
+The idea struck Timar to give it into Almira's charge, who then, in her
+leonine jaws, carried the weapon proudly before him as a poodle bears
+its master's cane. Narcissa sat on his shoulder and purred in his ear.
+Michael allowed Almira to go on before and show him the way.
+
+Timar felt transformed when he trod the turfy paths of the island. Here
+was holy rest and deepest solitude. The fruit-trees of this paradise are
+in bloom; between their white and rosy flower-pyramids wild roses arch
+their sprays; the golden sunbeams coax the flowers' fragrance into the
+air; the breeze is laden with it--with every breath one inhales gold and
+love. The forest of blossom is full of the hum of the bees, and in that
+mysterious sound, from all these flower-eyes, God speaks, God looks: it
+is a temple of the Lord. And that church music may not be wanting, the
+nightingale flutes his psalm of lament, and the lark trills his song of
+praise--only better than King David. At a spot where the purple lilacs
+parted, and the little island-home was visible, Michael stood
+spell-bound. The little house seemed to swim in a flaming sea, but not
+of water, only of roses. It was covered with rose-wreaths climbing to
+the roof, and for five acres round it only roses were visible--thousands
+of bushes, and six-foot rose-trees, forming pyramids, hedges, and
+arcades. It was a rose-forest, a rose-mountain, a rose-labyrinth, whose
+splendor dazzled the eye and spread afar a scent which surrounded one
+like a supernatural atmosphere.
+
+Hardly had Michael entered on the winding path through this wilderness
+of roses, before a melodious cry of joy was heard. His name was called.
+"Ah, Herr Timar!"
+
+And she who had uttered his name came running toward him. Timar had
+already recognized her by her voice: it was Noémi--little Noémi, whom he
+had not seen for nearly three years. How she had grown since then--how
+changed, how developed she was! Her dress was no longer neglected, but
+neat, though simple. In her rich golden hair a rose-bud was fastened.
+
+"Ah, Herr Timar!" cried the girl, and stretched out her hand to him from
+afar, greeting him with frank delight, and a warm shake of the hand.
+
+Michael returned it, and remained lost in gazing at the girl. Here then,
+at last, is a face that beams with joy at the sight of him. "How long it
+is since we saw you!" said the girl.
+
+"And how pretty you have grown!" exclaimed he.
+
+Sympathy shone in every line of Noémi's face. "So you remember me
+still?" asked Timar, holding the little hand fast in his own.
+
+"We have often thought of you."
+
+"Is Madame Therese well?"
+
+"There she comes."
+
+When she saw Michael she hastened her steps; from a distance she had
+recognized the former ship's captain, who now again, in his gray coat
+and with his knapsack, approached her hut. "God greet you! you have kept
+us waiting a long time!" exclaimed the woman to her visitor. "So you
+have thought of us at last?" And she embraced Michael without ceremony;
+then his well-filled knapsack caught her eye. "Almira," she said to the
+dog, "take this bag and carry it in."
+
+"There are a brace of birds in it," said Michael.
+
+"Indeed! then take care, Almira, that Narcissa does not get at it."
+
+Noémi was affronted. "Narcissa is not so badly educated as that."
+
+To make it up, Frau Therese kissed her daughter, and Noémi was
+reconciled.
+
+"Now let us go in," said Therese, taking Michael's arm familiarly.
+"Come, Noémi."
+
+A huge boat-shaped basket made of white osier-twigs stood in the way,
+and its heaped-up contents were covered with a cloth. Noémi began to
+lift it by both handles; Michael sprung to help her, and Noémi burst
+into a childish shriek of laughter, and drew off the cloth. The basket
+was heaped with rose-leaves. Michael took one handle, and so they
+carried it together with its sweet cargo along the lavender-bordered
+path.
+
+"Do you make rose-water?" asked Timar.
+
+Therese threw a glance at Noémi. "See how he finds out everything!"
+
+"With us in Komorn much rose-water is made. Many poor women live by it."
+
+"Indeed? Then elsewhere also the rose is a blessing of the Lord--the
+exquisite flower which alone would make man love this world! And it not
+only rejoices his heart, but gives him bread. Look you--last year was a
+bad season; the late frost spoiled the fruit and the vintage; the wet,
+cold summer destroyed the bees, and the poultry died of disease: we
+should have had to fall back on our stores if it had not been for the
+roses, which helped us in our need. They bloom every year, and are
+always faithful to us. We made three hundred gallons of rose-water,
+which we sold in Servia, and got grain in exchange. Oh, you dear
+roses--you life-saving flowers!"
+
+The little settlement had been enlarged since Timar was last there.
+There was a kiln and a kitchen for the preparation of the rose-water.
+Here was an open fire with the copper retort, from which the first
+essence dropped slowly; near the hearth stood a great tub with the
+crushed rose leaves, and on a broad bench lay the fresh ones which
+required drying.
+
+Michael helped Noémi to empty the basket on to the bench; that was a
+scent, a perfume, in which one could revel and intoxicate one's self!
+
+Noémi laid her little head on the soft hill of rose leaves, and said,
+"It would be delicious to sleep on such a bed of roses."
+
+"Foolish child," Therese chided her. "You would never awake from that
+slumber; the odor would kill you."
+
+"That would be a lovely death!"
+
+"Then you want to die?" Frau Therese said, reproachfully; "you want to
+leave me here alone, you naughty child?"
+
+"No, no!" cried Noémi, embracing her mother with eager kisses. "I leave
+you, my dear, darling, only little mother!"
+
+"Why do you make such silly jests then? Don't you think, Herr Timar, it
+is not right for a young girl to allow herself these jokes with her
+mother--for a little girl who was playing with a doll only yesterday?"
+Michael quite agreed with Frau Therese that it was inexcusable under any
+pretense for a young lady to tell her mother that she thought any kind
+of death would be delightful. "Now just stop here and see that the
+essence does not boil, while I go to the kitchen to get a good dinner
+ready for our guest. You'll stay all day, of course?"
+
+"I will stay to-day and to-morrow too, if you will give me something to
+do for you. As long as you find me work I will remain."
+
+"Oh, then, you can stop the whole week," Noémi interrupted, "for I can
+find you plenty to do."
+
+"What work would you give Herr Timar, you little simpleton?" laughed the
+mother.
+
+"Why, of course, to crush the rose leaves!"
+
+"But perhaps he does not know how."
+
+"How should I not know all about it?" said Timar. "I have often enough
+helped my mother with it at home."
+
+"Your mother was a very good woman, I am sure."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"And you loved her very much?"
+
+"Very much."
+
+"Is she still living?"
+
+"She has long been dead."
+
+"So now you have no one in the world belonging to you?"
+
+Timar thought a moment, and bowed his head sadly--"No one." . . . He had
+spoken the truth.
+
+Michael noticed that Therese still stood at the door, doubtful whether
+to go or not. "Do you know, good mother," said he, suddenly remembering,
+"you need not go to the kitchen to cook anything for me. I have all
+sorts of provisions with me; there is only the table to spread--we shall
+all have enough."
+
+"Then who has looked after you and provided you so well with traveling
+comforts?" asked Noémi.
+
+"Who but our Herr Johann Fabula?"
+
+"Oh, the honest steersman!--is he here too?"
+
+"He is loading the ship on the other bank."
+
+Therese guessed Timar's thought, but she would not be behind him in
+delicate tact. She wished to show him that she had no scruple about
+leaving him alone with Noémi. "No, I have thought of something else; I
+will manage both here and in the kitchen. You, Noémi, can meanwhile take
+Herr Timar over the island and show him all the changes since he was
+here."
+
+Noémi was an obedient daughter; she did without question what her mother
+told her. She tied her Turkish handkerchief round her head, which framed
+her face charmingly. Timar recognized the scarf he had left as a present
+to her.
+
+"Au revoir, darling!" "Au revoir," said the mother and daughter with a
+kiss. They seemed to take leave of each other every time they parted, as
+if going on a long journey; and when they met again in an hour, they
+embraced as if they had been separated for years: the poor things had
+only each other in this world.
+
+Noémi threw one more inquiring look, and Therese answered with a nod
+which meant, "Yes, go!"
+
+Noémi and Timar now wandered on through the whole island. The path was
+so narrow that they were forced to walk close together, but Almira had
+the sense to push her great head between them and form a natural
+barrier. In the last three years cultivation had made great strides on
+the little island. A practicable road had been cut through the bushes;
+the old poplars had been uprooted, the wild crabs grafted; a skillful
+hand had formed neat fences from the broken branches; and where the
+orchard ceased, hedges divided the island, and hemmed in fields which
+supplied pasture for lambs and goats. One little lamb had a red ribbon
+round its neck, and this was Noémi's pet. When the flock saw her they
+ran to her and bleated a greeting which she understood; then they
+followed her and Timar to the border of the field where the fence
+stopped them.
+
+Behind these was to be seen a plantation of fine walnuts, with
+widespread shady heads and thick trunks, whose bark was smooth as silk.
+"Look," said Noémi, "those are my mother's pride; they are fifteen years
+old--just a year younger than I am," she said quite simply.
+
+On the right was the marsh, as Timar well remembered when he first came
+to the island and made his way through it. Now it was covered with
+water-plants; yellow lilies and white bell flowers were spread over the
+surface of the morass, and in the midst stood quietly two storks.
+
+Timar opened the little gate; it was a pleasant reminder to see this
+wilderness once more, and yet it seemed to him as if his guide was
+afraid and uncomfortable.
+
+"Are you still all alone here?" asked Michael.
+
+"We are alone. At market-times people come to barter with us, and in
+winter wood-cutters come and help us to hew the trees and root them up:
+the wood serves to pay them. We do the rest ourselves."
+
+"But fruit-gathering is very troublesome, especially on account of the
+wasps."
+
+"Oh, that is not hard work; our friends singing there on the trees help
+us with the wasp-killing. Do you see all the nests? Our laborers live
+there; here no one troubles them, and they do us good service. Just
+listen!"
+
+The wilderness resounded indeed with a heavenly concert. In the evening
+every bird hastens home, and then they are at their best. The cuckoo,
+the clock of the woods, has enough to do in striking the hours, and the
+thrush whistles in Greek strophes.
+
+Then suddenly Noémi screamed aloud, grew pale, and started back with her
+trembling hand on her heart, so that Timar felt it his duty to seize her
+by the hand that she might not fall. "What is it?" Noémi held her hand
+before her eyes and said, half laughing and half crying, in a tone of
+mingled fear and disgust, "Look, look! there he comes."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"There, that one!"
+
+He saw a large, wrinkled, fat frog, which was creeping quietly in the
+grass, keeping an eye on the new-comers, and ready for a spring, in case
+of danger, into the nearest water-course.
+
+Noémi was so paralyzed with fright that she had not the strength to run
+away.
+
+"Are you afraid of frogs?" asked Timar.
+
+"I have a horror of them; I should be frightened to death if it jumped
+on me."
+
+"How like a girl! They love cats because they coax and flatter, but they
+can not bear frogs because they are ugly; and yet, do you know, the
+frogs are just as good friends to us as the birds: this common, despised
+animal is the best assistant to the gardener. You know there are moths
+and beetles and grubs which only come out at night; birds are asleep
+then, but the detested frog comes out of his hole and attacks our
+enemies in the dark; he feeds on the night-moths and their grubs, the
+caterpillars and the slugs, and even the vipers. It is splendid the war
+he makes on noxious insects. Keep quiet, just look--the ugly, wrinkled
+frog is not creeping there to frighten you--he is not thinking about it.
+He is a gentle beast, conscious of no sin, and does not regard you as an
+enemy. Do you see a blue beetle fanning with his wings? That is one of
+the worst insects, a wood-borer, of which one grub suffices to spoil a
+whole young plantation; and our little friend has fixed on him as a
+prey. Don't disturb him; look, he is drawing himself up for a
+spring--wait. There! now he has made his leap, and darts out his long
+tongue like lightning: the beetle is swallowed. You see that our good
+frog is not such a disgusting creature, in spite of his shabby coat."
+
+Noémi clasped her hands, quite pleased, and already felt less dislike to
+frogs. She let Michael lead her to a seat, and tell her what sensible
+creatures they are, what funny tricks they play, and what curious games
+exist among them. He told her of the sky-blue frog of Surinam, of which
+one specimen cost the King of Prussia four thousand five hundred
+thalers; then of the fire-frog, which sheds a clear light around in the
+darkness, creeps into houses, hides in the beams, and croaks
+unmercifully at night. In Brazil sometimes you can not hear the singers
+in the opera-house for the chorus set up by the frogs which live in the
+building. Now Noémi was laughing at this awful enemy, and the laugh is
+half-way from hatred to love.
+
+"If only they would not make such an ugly noise!"
+
+"But you see in these tones they express their tender affection for
+their little wives, for among frogs only the little husband has a
+voice--the lady is dumb. The frog exclaims all night to his wife, 'How
+lovely, how charming you are!' Can there be a more affectionate creature
+than a frog?"
+
+Noémi was beginning to look at it from the sentimental side.
+
+"Then, too, the frog is a learned animal. You must know that the true
+frog is a weather-prophet: when it is going to rain he knows it, comes
+out of the water and croaks his prophecy; when dry weather is coming he
+goes back to the water."
+
+"Ah!" began Noémi, getting interested.
+
+"I will catch one," said Timar; "I hear one among the bushes."
+
+He soon came back with a tree-frog between his palms. Noémi trembled and
+got excited. She was red and pale by turns.
+
+"Now look," said Timar to her, opening his hands a little. "Is it not a
+pretty little thing? It is as lovely a green as the young grass, and its
+tiny foot is like a miniature human hand. How its little heart beats!
+How it looks at us with its beautiful wise black eyes with a golden ring
+round them! It is not afraid of us!"
+
+Noémi, wavering between fear and curiosity, stretched out a timid hand,
+but drew it quickly back.
+
+"Take it, touch it--it is the most harmless creature on God's earth."
+She stretched out her hand again, frightened and yet laughing, but
+looked into Timar's eyes instead of at the frog, and started when the
+cold body came in contact with her reluctant nerves; but then suddenly
+she laughed with pleasure, like a child which would not go into the cold
+water, and then is glad to be there.
+
+"Now look, he does not move in your hand; he is quite comfortable. We
+will take him home and find a glass, put water in, and then place a
+small ladder in it which I can cut out of wood. The frog shall be
+imprisoned in it, and when he knows that rain is coming he will climb up
+the ladder. Give it to me; I will carry it."
+
+"No, no; I will keep him, and carry him home myself."
+
+"Then you must hold your hand shut, or he will jump out; but not too
+tight so as to press him. And now let us go, for the dew is falling, and
+the grass is wet."
+
+They turned homeward, and Noémi ran on, calling from afar to Therese,
+"Mother, mother, see what we have caught! a beautiful bird."
+
+Mamma Therese prepared to scold her daughter severely.
+
+"Don't you know that it is forbidden to catch birds?"
+
+"But such a bird! Herr Timar caught it, and gave it to me. Just peep
+into my hand."
+
+Frau Therese threw up her hands when she saw the green tree-frog there.
+
+"Look how it blinks at me with its beautiful eyes!" cried Noémi, beaming
+with delight. "We are going to put him in a glass, catch flies for him,
+and he will foretell the weather for us. Oh, the dear little thing!" And
+she held the frog caressingly to her cheek.
+
+Therese turned to Timar in astonishment. "Sir, you are a magician! Only
+yesterday you could have driven this girl out of her senses with such a
+creature as that."
+
+But Noémi was quite enthusiastic about the frog. While she laid the
+table on the veranda for supper, she delivered a complete batrachian
+lecture to her mother on what she had heard from Timar: how useful, as
+well as wise, amusing, and interesting frogs were. It was not true that
+they spat venom, as people said, that they crept into sleepers' mouths,
+sucked the milk of cows, nor that they burst with poison if you held a
+spider to them--all this was pure calumny and stupid superstition. They
+are our best friends, which guard us at night; those little soft
+foot-prints which are visible on the smooth sand round the house, are
+the consoling sign of their nightly patrol: it would be ungrateful to
+fear them. Timar had meanwhile prepared a small ladder of willow-twigs
+for the little meteorologist. He put it in a wide-mouthed bottle, which
+he half filled with water, and covered with a pierced paper, through
+which the imprisoned prophet was to receive its provision of flies. It
+of course went down to the bottom, and declined either to eat or to
+talk. Noémi welcomed this as a sign that the weather would remain fine.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Frau Therese, as she brought out the supper to the
+little table at which they all sat down; "you have not only worked a
+miracle on Noémi, but have really done her a great benefit. Our island
+would have been a paradise if Noémi had not been so afraid of frogs. As
+soon as ever she saw one she grew quite white and got a fit of
+shivering. No human power would have induced her to go across the fence
+to where the innumerable frogs croak in the marsh. You have made a new
+creature of her, and reconciled her with her home."
+
+"A sweet home!" sighed Timar. Therese sighed aloud.
+
+"Why do you sigh?" Noémi asked.
+
+"You know well enough."
+
+And Timar too knew to whom the sigh was due.
+
+Noémi tried to give a cheerful turn to the conversation. "I took my
+aversion to frogs from the time when a naughty boy played me a trick,
+and threw a great big toad, as brown as a crust, at me. He said it was a
+bull-frog, and that if he struck it with a nettle it would roar like a
+bull. He did strike the poor thing, and then it began to moan piteously,
+so that I can never forget it, as if it would call for vengeance against
+our whole race; and its body was covered with white froth. The bad boy
+laughed when he heard the uncanny voice of the poor beast."
+
+"Who was that wicked boy?" asked Michael.
+
+Noémi was silent, and only made an expressively contemptuous movement of
+the hand. Timar guessed the name; he looked at Frau Therese, and she
+nodded assent--already they can guess each other's thoughts.
+
+"Has he never been here since?"
+
+"Oh, yes; he comes every year, and never ceases tormenting us. He has
+found a new way of laying us under contribution. He brings a large boat
+with him, and as I can not give him any money, he loads it with honey,
+wax, and wool, which he sells. I give him what he wants, that he may
+leave us in peace."
+
+"He has not been here lately," said Noémi.
+
+"Oh, nothing has happened to him, I expect his arrival any day."
+
+"If only he would come now!" said the girl.
+
+"Why, you little goose?"
+
+Noémi grew crimson. "Only because I should prefer it."
+
+Timar, however, thought to himself how happy he could make these two
+people with a single word. But he gloated over the thought, like a child
+which had some sweets given to it, and begins by eating the crumbs
+first. He felt an inward impulse to share the joys and sorrows of these
+islanders.
+
+Supper was over, the sun had set, and a splendid, still, warm night sunk
+on to the fields; the whole sky looked like a transparent silver
+veil--no leaf stirred on the trees. The two women went with their
+visitor to the top of the great bowlder; from there one had a wide view
+over the trees and the reed-beds far across the Danube. The island lay
+at their feet like an enchanted lake with variegated waves. The
+apple-trees swam in a rosy, and the pomegranates in a dark-red, sea of
+blossom; the poplars looked golden-yellow, and the pear-trees white with
+snowy bloom, and the waving tips of the plum-trees were radiant in
+brazen green. In the midst rose the rock like a lighted cupola, wreathed
+with fiery roses, on whose top old lavender bushes formed a thicket.
+
+"Superb!" cried Timar, enchanted with the landscape outspread before
+him.
+
+"You should see the rock in summer, when the yellow stonecrop is in
+bloom," exclaimed Noémi, eagerly; "it looks as if it had on a golden
+robe. The lavender blossom makes a great blue crown for its head."
+
+"I will come and see it," said Timar.
+
+"Really?" The girl stretched out her hand to him joyously, and Michael
+fell a warm pressure such as no woman's hand had ever given him in his
+life. And then Noémi leaned her head on Therese's shoulder, and threw
+her arm round her mother's neck. All nature was under the spell of deep
+repose undisturbed by any human sound. Only the monotonous chorus of the
+frogs enlivened the deep shadows of the night. The sky offered a curious
+spectacle; half was blue, and the other opal green. There are two sides
+even to happiness.
+
+"Do you hear what the frogs are saying?" whispered Noémi to her
+mother--"'Oh, how dear you are, how sweet!' They say that all night
+long--'Oh, you darling, you sweet!'" and she kissed Therese at every
+word.
+
+Michael, forgetful of himself and of the whole world, stood on the rock
+with folded arms. The young crescent glittered between the quivering
+foliage of the poplars, now shining like pure silver; a wonderful new
+feeling crept into the man's breast. Was it fear or longing?--memory
+aroused or dawning hope?--awakening joy or dying grief?--instinct or
+warning?--madness, or that breath of spring which seizes on tree and
+grass, and every cold or warm-blooded animal?
+
+Just so had he gazed at the waning moon, which threw its long reflection
+on the waves as far as the sinking ship. His involuntary thoughts talked
+with the ghostly magnetic rays, and they with him.
+
+"Do you not understand? I will return to-morrow, and then you will
+know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A SPIDER AMONG THE ROSES.
+
+
+People who live by their labor have no time to admire the moonlight from
+mountain-tops, or to waste in observation on the beauties of nature: the
+flocks of sheep and goats already waited to be relieved of their milky
+tribute by their mistress. Milking was the office of Frau Therese, and
+it was Noémi's duty to cut grass enough for the herd. Timar continued
+the conversation meanwhile with his back leaning against the
+stable-door, and lighting his pipe just as the countryman does when he
+is courting the peasant girl.
+
+The great boiler must be refilled with fresh rose-infusion, and then
+they can all go to bed. Timar begged for the bee-house to sleep in,
+where Frau Therese spread him a couch of fresh hay, and Noémi arranged
+his pillow. Very little was needed to woo him to slumber. Hardly had he
+lain down before sleep closed his eyes; he dreamed all night that he had
+become a gardener's boy, and was making endless rose-water.
+
+When he awoke the sun was already high in the heavens. The bees buzzed
+round him busily; he had overslept himself. That some one had already
+been here he guessed, because near his couch lay all the toilet
+necessaries he had brought in his knapsack. A poor traveler who is used
+to shaving every day feels very uncomfortable when unable to go through
+that operation; his mind is as much disturbed by that confounded stubble
+as if it were a prick of conscience. When he was ready, the women
+already awaited him at breakfast, which consisted of bread and milk, and
+then they went to the day's work of rose-gathering.
+
+Michael was, as he desired, set to rose-crushing. Noémi picked off the
+petals, and Frau Therese was busy with the boiler. Timar told Noémi all
+about roses. Not that they were like her cheeks, at which she would have
+burst out laughing, but he imparted to her what he had learned about
+them in his travels: learned things which Noémi listened to with
+attention, and which instilled into her a still greater respect for
+Timar. With young and innocent maidens a clever, intelligent man has a
+great advantage.
+
+"In Turkey they use rose-water in eating and drinking. There, too, whole
+groves of roses are planted; there beads are made of roses pressed into
+the form of balls and strung together: that is why they are called
+rosaries. In the East there is one lovely kind of rose from which attar
+is made; it is the balsam rose, and grows on trees of ten feet high,
+whose branches are bent to the ground by their snow-white burden. Their
+scent surpasses that of any other kind; if you throw the petals into
+water and set them in the sun, in a very short time the surface is
+rainbow-colored with the oil that the petals exude. It is the same with
+the evergreen rose, which does not shed its leaves in winter. The Ceylon
+and Rio roses dye the hair and beard light, and so fast that they do not
+lose their color for years; for this purpose alone there is a
+considerable trade in them. The leaves of the Moggor rose stupefy; you
+are intoxicated by their scent as if with beer. The Vilmorin rose has
+the property that, it if is bitten by a certain insect which is
+obnoxious to it, it throws out great tubers, which are said to send a
+crying child to sleep if put under its pillow."
+
+"Have you been everywhere where roses grow?" asked Noémi.
+
+"Well, I have been a good deal about in the world. I have been to
+Vienna, Paris, and Constantinople."
+
+"Is that far from here?"
+
+"If one traveled on foot one would get to Vienna in thirty days from
+here, and to Constantinople in forty days."
+
+"But you went in a ship."
+
+"That takes longer still; for I should have to take in cargo on the
+way."
+
+"For whom?"
+
+"For the owner I was traveling for."
+
+"Is Herr Brazovics still your principal?"
+
+"Who told you about him?"
+
+"The steersman who came with you."
+
+"No longer now--Herr Brazovics is dead."
+
+"Dead! so he is dead? And his wife and daughter?" interrupted Frau
+Therese, quickly.
+
+"They have lost everything by his death."
+
+"Ah, just God! Thy avenging hand has reached them!"
+
+"Mother, good mother!" cried Noémi, with gentle entreaty.
+
+"Sir, there is one more thing you ought to know. When that blow fell on
+us, when I had implored Brazovics on my knees not to drive us to
+beggary, it struck me that this man had a wife and child. I determined
+to find out his wife and tell her my misery--she would help me and take
+pity on us. I took my child in my arms and traveled in the hottest part
+of the summer to Komorn. I sought her out in her fine large house, and
+waited at the door, for they would not let me in. At last Frau Brazovics
+came out with her five-year-old daughter. I fell on my knees, and begged
+her for God's sake to take compassion on us, and be our mediator with
+her husband. The woman seized my arm and thrust me down the step; I
+tried, in falling, to protect my child with both arms, that it might not
+be hurt, and struck my head against one of the two pillars which support
+the balcony. Here is the scar still visible. The little girl laughed
+aloud when she saw me limping away and heard my baby cry. That is why I
+sing 'Hosanna,' and blessed be the hand which thrust her away from the
+steps down which she cast us."
+
+"Oh, mother, don't talk so!"
+
+"So they have come to misery? Have they become beggars themselves--the
+haughty, purse-proud people? Do they wear rags, and beg in vain at the
+doors of their former friends?"
+
+"No, dear lady," said Michael; "some one has been found to take care of
+them."
+
+"Madman!" cried Therese, with passionate force. "Why should he put a
+spoke in fate's wheel? How can he dare to receive into his home the
+curse which will ruin him?"
+
+Noémi ran to her mother and covered her mouth with both hands; then she
+fell on her neck and sealed her lips with kisses. "Dearest mother, do
+not say such things. Do not utter curses; I can not bear to hear
+them--take them back. Let me kiss away the dreadful words from your
+lips."
+
+Therese recovered herself under her daughter's caresses. "Do not be
+afraid, silly child," she said, shaking her head. "Curses fall idly on
+the air. They are only a bad, superstitious habit of us old women. God
+never thinks of noticing the curses of such worms as we are, and keeping
+them till the day of judgment. My curses will take effect on no one."
+
+"It is already fulfilled on me," thought Timar. "I am the madman who
+received them into his house."
+
+Noémi tried to bring the subject of roses back. "Tell me, Herr Timar,
+how could you get such a Moggor rose whose scent stupefies?"
+
+"If you wish, I will bring you one."
+
+"Where do they grow?"
+
+"In Brazil."
+
+"Is that far?"
+
+"The other side of the world."
+
+"Must you go by sea?"
+
+"Two months continuously at sea."
+
+"And why would you go?"
+
+"On business--and to fetch you a Moggor rose."
+
+"Then do not bring me any."
+
+Noémi left the kitchen, and Michael noticed that tears were in her eyes.
+She only returned to the distillery when she had filled her basket with
+rose leaves, and shook them out on to the rush-matting, where they made
+a large hill.
+
+The boiling of yesterday's rose-essence lasted till midday, and after
+breakfast Frau Therese said to her guest that there was not much work
+for to-day, and that they could go for a walk in the island. One who was
+so great a traveler might be able to give good advice to the islanders,
+as to what vegetables they might usefully and profitably introduce into
+their little Eden. Frau Therese said to the dog, "Stop here and watch
+the house! Lie down in the veranda and don't stir!" Almira understood
+and obeyed.
+
+Michael disappeared with his companions among the plantations.
+
+Hardly had they vanished into the wood before Almira began to prick her
+ears uneasily and to growl angrily. She scented something. She shook her
+head, rose from time to time, but lay down again. A man's voice became
+audible, which sung a German song, whose refrain was, "She wears, if I
+can trust my eyes, a jet-black camisole." The person coming from the
+shore sings, of course, on purpose to attract the attention of the
+inhabitants. He is afraid of the great dog--but it does not bark.
+
+The new arrival appears from among the shadows of the rose-arbor. It is
+Theodor Krisstyan.
+
+This time he is attired like a fashionable dandy, in a dark-blue tunic
+with golden buttons; and his overcoat hangs on his arm. Almira does not
+stir at his approach. She is a philosopher, and reasons, if I fly at
+this man, the end of it will be that I shall be tied up and not he. I
+shall do better to keep my opinion of him to myself, and to look on in
+armed neutrality at what he does. Theodor drew near confidently, and
+whistling to his huge black enemy. "Your servant, Almira. Come,
+Almirakin, you dear old dog--where are your ladies? Bark a bit to please
+me. Where is our dear Mamma Therese?" Almira could not be induced to
+answer.
+
+"Look, then, little doggie, what I have got for you--a piece of meat;
+there, eat it. What? Don't you want it? You fancy it's poisoned, you
+fool? Gobble it up, you beauty!" But Almira would not even sniff at the
+piece of meat, until Narcissa (it is well known that cats have no
+decision of character) crept up to it, which made Almira angry, and she
+began to scratch a large hole in the ground; there she buried the meat,
+like a careful dog which makes provision for a day of necessity.
+
+"Well, what a distrustful beast it is," murmured Theodor to himself. "Am
+I to be allowed to go in?"
+
+But that was not allowed. Almira did not say so in words, but she curled
+her lip to let him see the beautiful white teeth underneath.
+
+"Stupid creature, you don't mean to bite me? Where can the women be?
+Perhaps in the distillery?"
+
+Theodor went in and looked round--he found no one. He washed his face
+and hands in the steaming rose-water, and it gave him especial pleasure
+to think that so he had spoiled the work of a whole day.
+
+When he wanted to come out of the distillery, he found the entrance
+barred by the dog. Almira had laid herself down across the threshold and
+showed him her white teeth. "Indeed, so now you won't let me come out,
+you churl? Very well, I can wait here till the women return. I can find
+a little place to rest on." And so saying he threw himself on the heap
+of rose leaves Noémi had turned out. "Ah, what a good bed--a Lucullan
+couch! Ha! ha!"
+
+The women came back with Michael from their walk through the island.
+Therese saw with uneasiness that Almira was not lying in the veranda,
+but was guarding the door of the distillery.
+
+When Theodor heard Therese's voice, he thought of a good trick to play.
+He buried himself in the rose leaves, so that nothing was to be seen of
+him; and when Noémi, with the words, "What have you here, Almira?"
+looked in at the door, he put his head out and grinned at her: "Your own
+beloved bridegroom is here, lovely Noémi!"
+
+Noémi, starting back, screamed aloud.
+
+"What is it?" asked the mother, hastening up.
+
+"There, among the roses . . ." stammered the girl.
+
+"Well, what among the roses? A spider?"
+
+"Yes . . . a spider . . ."
+
+Theodor sprung laughing from his bed of roses, and like one who has
+surprised his dear ones with a capital joke, rushed with shouts of
+laughter to Mamma Therese, embraced her, without noticing her angry
+looks or Noémi's disgusted face, and kissed her several times.
+
+"Ha! ha! Did I take you by surprise? You sweet dear mamma, be happy:
+your dear son-in-law is here; he has risen like a fairy from the roses.
+He! he!" Then he turned toward Noémi, but she slipped away from his
+embrace, and then first Theodor Krisstyan was aware of the presence of a
+third person--Michael Timar.
+
+This discovery damped his joviality, which indeed was only put on, and
+for this reason it was disagreeable to see some one with whom most
+unpleasant recollections were connected.
+
+"Your servant, Mr. Supercargo!" he addressed Timar. "We meet here again?
+You have not any more Turkish pashas in your ship? He! he! Don't be
+afraid, Mr. Supercargo."
+
+Timar shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. Then Theodor turned to
+Noémi, and put his arm caressingly round the girl's waist, who in
+answer to it pushed him away and turned her face from him.
+
+"Leave the girl alone!" said Therese shortly, in a severe tone. "What do
+you want now?"
+
+"There, there--don't turn me out of the house before I have got in. Is
+it not permissible to embrace my little bride? Noémi won't break if I
+look at her? What are you so afraid of me for?"
+
+"We have good reason," said Therese, sullenly.
+
+"Don't be angry, little mother. This time I have not come to get
+anything from you: I bring you something--a great, great deal of money.
+Ho! ho! a heap of money! So much that you could buy back your fine house
+that you once had, and the fields and gardens on the Ostrova Island--in
+short, all that you have lost. You shall have it all again. I know that
+I, as a son, owe you the duty of making good all that you lost by my
+poor father's fault."
+
+By this time Theodor had become so sentimental that he was shedding
+tears, but it left the spectators unmoved: they believed as little in
+his tears as in his laughter.
+
+"Let us go in, into the room," said he, "for what I have to say is not
+for every ear."
+
+"Don't talk such nonsense," Frau Therese said, angrily. "What do you
+mean by 'every ear' here on this lonely island? You can say anything
+before Timar: he is an old friend--but go on. I know you are hungry, and
+that's what it all means."
+
+"Ah, you dear good mother! how well you know your Theodor's little
+weakness of always having a splendid appetite. And you do so thoroughly
+understand the exquisite Greek _cuisine_, at sight of which one would
+wish to be all stomach. There is no such housekeeper in the world as you
+are. I have dined with the Sultan of Turkey, but he has no cook who can
+compare with you."
+
+Frau Therese had the weakness of being sensitive to praise of her
+housekeeping. She never grudged good things to any guest, and even her
+deadly enemy she could not send away empty.
+
+Theodor wore a so-called Figaro hat, which was then in fashion, and
+managed that the low door-way of the little cottage should knock it off
+his head, in order to be able to say, "Oh, these confounded new-fangled
+hats! but that's sure to happen when one is used to high door-ways. In
+my new house they are all folding-doors, and such a splendid view over
+the sea from my rooms."
+
+"Have you then really a home anywhere?" asked Therese as she laid the
+table.
+
+"I should think so! At Trieste, and in the finest palace in the town. I
+am agent to the principal shipbuilder."
+
+"At Trieste?" interrupted Timar. "What's his name?"
+
+"He turns out sea-going vessels," said Theodor, casting a contemptuous
+look at Timar. "He is not merely a barge-builder--and for that matter
+his name is Signor Scaramelli."
+
+Timar was silent. He did not care to let out that he himself was having
+a large vessel built for the ocean trade by Scaramelli.
+
+"I am just rolling in money!" bragged Theodor. "Millions and millions
+pass through my hands. If I were not such an honest man, I could save
+thousands for myself. I have bought something for my dear little Noémi,
+which I once promised her. What did I promise? A ring. What sort of a
+stone? A ruby, an emerald? Well, it is a brilliant, a four-carat
+brilliant: it shall be our betrothal ring. Here it is." Theodor felt in
+his breeches-pocket, fumbled a long time, made at last a terrible
+grimace, and stared on the ground. "It is lost!" groaned he, turning his
+pocket out, and showing the treacherous hole through which the valuable
+engagement-ring with the four-carat diamond had escaped. Noémi broke
+into a hearty laugh. She had such a lovely ringing voice when she
+laughed, and one seldom had a chance of hearing it.
+
+"But it is not lost!" cried Theodor; "you may spare your laughter, fair
+lady!" and he began to draw off his boot--and there really was the ring,
+which fell out of the turned-over top of the boot on to the tray.
+
+"There it is! A good horse does not run away. My little Noémi's
+engagement-ring has never left me. Look now, Mamma Therese--your future
+son-in-law has brought this for his bride; there, what do you say to
+that? And you, Mr. Underwriter, if you understand these things, what do
+you value this diamond at?"
+
+Timar looked at the stone and said, "Paste. In the trade it is worth
+about five groschen."
+
+"Hold your tongue, Supercargo! What do you know about it? You understand
+hay and maize, and perhaps never saw a diamond in your life."
+
+And so saying, he placed the despised ring, which Noémi would on no
+account wear, on his little finger, and was busy all through the meal in
+showing it off. The young gentleman had a fine appetite. During dinner
+he talked very big about what a gigantic establishment this
+shipbuilder's was, and how many million square feet of wood were
+required every year. There were hardly any trees left in the
+neighborhood fit for building ships. They had to be brought from
+America. There were only a few left in Sclavonia. Only after he had
+dined well, he came out with the principal affair.
+
+"And now, my dear lady, I will tell you what I have come about."
+
+Therese looked at him with anxious distrust.
+
+"Now I will make you all happy--you, as well as Noémi and myself. And
+besides, I can do Signor Scaramelli a good turn. That's enough for me.
+Says Scaramelli to me one day, 'Friend Krisstyan, I say, you will have
+to go off to Brazil.'"
+
+"If only you were there now!" sighed Therese.
+
+Theodor understood and smiled. "You must know that from there comes the
+best wood for shipbuilding. The makaya and the murmuru tree, used for
+the keel; the poripont and patanova, from which the ribs are made; the
+royoc and grasgal-trees, which do not decay in water; the
+'mort-aux-rats'-tree, the iron-wood for rudder shafts, and sour-gum-tree
+for paddle-floats; also the teak and mahogany for ship's fittings,
+and--"
+
+"Pray, stop with your ridiculous Indian names," interrupted Therese;
+"you think you will turn my head by reeling out a whole botanical
+catalogue, so that I sha'n't see the wood for the trees. Tell me why--if
+there are such incomparable trees in Brazil--why you are not there
+already?"
+
+"Yes, but that's just where my grand idea comes in. Why, said I to
+Signor Scaramelli, should I travel to Brazil when we have plenty of wood
+close by even better than that of Brazil? I know an island in the middle
+of the Danube which is provided with a virgin forest, and where grow
+splendid trees, which can compete with those of South America."
+
+"I thought so," murmured Therese to herself.
+
+"The poplars take the place of the patanovas; the nut-trees far surpass
+mahogany, and those we have in hundreds on our island."
+
+"My nut-trees!"
+
+"The wood of the apple-tree is much better than that of the
+jaskarilla-tree."
+
+"Indeed; so you have already disposed of my apple-trees!"
+
+"Plum-tree wood need not fear comparison with the best teak."
+
+"And those too you would cut down and sell to Signor Scaramelli?" asked
+Frau Therese, quietly.
+
+"We shall get a mint of money for them; at least ten gulden for each
+tree. Signor Scaramelli has given me _carte blanche_. He has left me
+free to make a contract with you. I have it in my pocket; you have only
+to sign and our fortune is made. And when once the useless trees here
+are cut down, we will not stay here, but go and live in Trieste. We will
+plant the whole island with 'Prunus mehaleb'--you know they make Turkish
+pipe-stems from it. This tree requires no care; we need only keep one
+man here; he would sell the yearly crop of tubular stems to the
+merchants, and we should receive five hundred ducats for every rood--for
+ten roods five thousand ducats."
+
+Timar could not suppress a smile. Speculations of such rashness had not
+occurred even to him.
+
+"Well, what is there to laugh at?" Theodor said, in a lordly manner. "I
+know all about these things."
+
+"And I understand, too," said Therese, "what you want. As often as my
+unlucky star brings you here, you appear like a bird of prey, and I may
+be sure you have some malicious scheme against me. You know that you
+will not find any money with me, but you help yourself. Once before you
+came with a boat and carried off what we had saved for our own use, and
+turned it into money. Now you are no longer satisfied with the fruit of
+which you took tithes more jealously than any usurious pasha. You want
+to sell the trees, too, over my head--those trees, my treasures, my only
+friends in the world, which I have planted and nurtured, which keep me,
+and under which I can rest. Fy! for shame! to tell me such stories of
+getting money for these trees, to build ships of them. For certain, you
+would only cut them down to sell them for a trifle to the nearest
+charcoal-burner--that is your splendid plan. Who are you going to take
+in? Not me, who know your cunning. I tell you, have done with your
+foolish tricks, or you may yet learn what is the use of Turkish
+pipe-stems!"
+
+"No, no, Mamma Therese, I am not thinking of joking; you may be sure I
+did not come here for nothing: remember what day it is. It is my
+_fête_-day, and the day of my little darling Noémi's birth. You know my
+poor father and hers betrothed us to each other when we were little;
+they settled that as soon as Noémi was seventeen we should be united. I
+should have come from the ends of the earth for such a day as this. Here
+I am, with all the warmth of my loving heart; but people can not live on
+love alone. It is true I get good pay from Signor Scaramelli, but that
+goes to the splendid furniture of my house in Trieste. You must give me
+something with Noémi, so that she may make an appearance consistent with
+her rank. The bride can not enter the bridegroom's house with empty
+hands; she is your only daughter, and has a right to require of you that
+you should provide for her handsomely."
+
+Noémi had sat down sulkily in a corner of the room, and remained with
+her back to the company and her head against the wall.
+
+"Yes," continued Theodor. "You must give Noémi a dowry. Do not be so
+selfish. Keep half your trees, for all I care, and leave the other half
+to me; where and how I sell them is my affair. Give Noémi the nut-trees
+for a dowry: for those I have, really, a certain purchaser."
+
+Therese had come to the end of her patience. "Listen, Theodor. I do not
+know whether to-day is your _fête_ or not, but one thing I do know, that
+it is not Noémi's birthday. And yet more surely I know that Noémi will
+not marry you, if you were the only man on God's earth."
+
+"Ha! ha! leave that to me--I am not afraid."
+
+"Just as you like; but now, once for all, you shall never have my
+splendid nut-trees, if Noah's ark was to be built of them. One single
+tree I will give you, and that you can use for the end you will come to
+sooner or later. You say to-day is your _fête_-day, and that would be a
+good day to do it."
+
+At these words Theodor rose, but not to go on his way--only to turn the
+chair he had been sitting on, and place himself astride on it, with his
+elbows on its back, and looking into Therese's eyes he said with
+provoking coolness--
+
+"I must say you are very kind, Mamma Therese; you seem to have forgotten
+that if I say one word--"
+
+"Say it then! You can speak freely before this gentleman: he knows
+everything."
+
+"And that this island does not belong to you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And that it would only cost me one word, either at Vienna or
+Constantinople--"
+
+"To make us homeless and shelterless and beggars."
+
+"Yes; I can do that!" cried Theodor Krisstyan, who, now showing his true
+colors, looked with greedy eyes at Therese and drew a paper from his
+pocket, which he held toward her. "Here is the agreement, and here is
+the date. You know what I can do, and I will do it, if you do not sign
+this contract immediately." Therese trembled.
+
+"No, sir," said Timar, laying his hand gently on Theodor's shoulder.
+"You can not do that."
+
+"What?" asked he, throwing his head back defiantly.
+
+"Lay information anywhere of the existence of this island, and of its
+unauthorized occupation."
+
+"Why should I not do it?"
+
+"Because another has already done it."
+
+"You!" cried Theodor, raising his fist to Michael.
+
+"You!" exclaimed Therese, pressing her hands to her brow.
+
+"Yes; I," said Timar, steadily and calmly. "I have given information
+both at Vienna and in Constantinople, that here close to the Ostrova
+Island a nameless and uninhabited islet has been formed in the course of
+the last fifty years. Then I begged of the Vienna Government as well as
+of the Sublime Porte to leave me the usufruct of the islet for ninety
+years: as an acknowledgement of ownership, the Hungarian Government is
+to receive every year a sack of nuts, and the Sublime Porte a box of
+dried fruit. The patent in question and the imperial firman are already
+in my hands." Timar drew the two deeds out of the envelope he had
+received at his Baja office, and which had, so much pleased him. When he
+became a great man, he had determined to procure comfort and peace for
+this poor storm-driven family. That sack of nuts and box of fruit had
+cost him large sums. "But," he concluded, "I hastened to transfer the
+rights thus obtained to the present inhabitants and colonists. Here is
+the official deed of settlement."
+
+Therese fell speechless at Michael's feet. She could only sob and kiss
+the hands of the man who had freed her from this incarnate curse, and
+driven away the phantom which oppressed her heart by day and night.
+
+Noémi held her two hands on her heart, as if afraid that it would cry
+aloud, and betray what her lips suppressed.
+
+"You see then, Herr Theodor Krisstyan," said Michael, "that you have
+nothing to get on this island for the next ninety years."
+
+Pale with rage, Theodor screamed, foaming at the mouth, "And who are you
+who dare to meddle in the affairs of this family? What gives you a right
+to do it?"
+
+"My love!" cried Noémi suddenly, with all the strength of overpowering
+passion, while she fell on Michael's breast, and threw her arms round
+his neck.
+
+Theodor said not a word more. He shook his fist in silent rage at Timar,
+and rushed out of the room. In his look lay that hatred which does not
+hesitate to use a dagger or to mix poison. But even when he was gone,
+the girl still held Timar's neck in her embrace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OUT OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+What induced Noémi to throw herself on Timar's breast and acknowledge
+openly that she loved him? Did she wish thus to banish forever the man
+whose presence was hateful to her, and make it impossible for him any
+longer to desire her as his wife? Had this child of solitude no idea of
+the etiquette which demands that such feelings should be concealed in a
+maiden's breast? Or did she confuse love with the gratitude she could
+not help feeling toward the man who had freed her and her mother from
+anxiety, and won for their lifelong enjoyment the possession of this
+little paradise? Perhaps she was alarmed when she saw her tormentor
+feeling for a weapon, and had instinctively thrown herself on her
+benefactor's breast to protect him from attack. She might have thought
+that this poor ship's captain, whose mother was as poor as her mother,
+had said that he had "no one" in the world; why should she not be "some
+one" to him? Would he have returned here if something had not attracted
+him, and if he cared for her why should she not love him?
+
+No, no; no explanation, no reason, no excuse was needed; here was
+nothing but pure, unselfish love.
+
+She did not know why, she asked for no reason--she only loved. She loved
+without inquiring whether it was allowed by God and man, whether it
+would bring her joy or sorrow. She did not long to be happy or great,
+her lord's liege lady, crowned with the silver crown, and blessed by the
+Triune God--she only loved. She never thought of humiliation with bent
+head, she asked neither the protection of a husband nor the pity and
+forgiveness of God--she only loved. Such was Noémi.
+
+Poor Noémi! what you must suffer for this! . . . Michael had for the
+first time in his life heard it said that some one loved him. From real
+inclination, as a poor ship's captain in another man's service, without
+selfish interest, for his own sake alone. A miraculous warmth overflowed
+his heart, the warmth which will awake the dead from their long sleep at
+the resurrection. He raised his hands timidly and trembling to the
+shoulders of the girl, and asked, with softly whispering voice, "And
+that is really true?"
+
+The maiden moved the head which lay on his heart and nodded to him.
+"Yes; it is true."
+
+Michael looked at Therese. She came toward them, and laid her hand on
+Noémi's head, as if to say, "Well, then, love him!" It was a solemn and
+silent scene, in which each could hear the heart-beats of the other.
+
+Therese broke the silence first. "If only you knew," she said to Timar,
+"how many tears the girl has shed for you. If you had seen her go daily
+up the rock, and look for hours over the quiet landscape, where you
+vanished from her sight. If you had heard her whisper your name in her
+dreams!"
+
+Noémi made a deprecating gesture with her hand, as if to entreat her
+mother to betray no more. But Michael only noticed it by drawing her
+closer to himself. See, here at last is one being in the wide world who
+knows how to love him; who in the "Man of Gold" loves the man and not
+the gold. And it seemed to him as if he had been in banishment, as long
+as he had walked through the world, and only now had found a new earth
+and new heaven, and in them a new life. He bent to kiss the girl's brow,
+and felt her heart throb against his.
+
+And around him were only springing flowers, fragrant shrubs, humming
+bees, and singing birds, which all proclaimed "Thou shalt love!"
+Speechless bliss led them out into the air, and when they looked into
+each other's eyes, both thought, "How wonderful! thine eyes are the same
+color as mine." The brilliant sky and the fragrant earth had agreed to
+inthrall them--their own inclination completed the spell. When a child
+who has never loved, and a man who has never been loved, meet each
+other, how is it likely to be with them?
+
+The day drew to a close, but they had not yet been satisfied with joy.
+The evening fell, the moon rose. Noémi led Michael to the top of the
+rock, whence she had once looked after the departing guest with tears.
+There Timar sat down among the sweet lavender; Noémi placed herself
+beside him, and leaned her curly golden head on the arm of the man,
+whose enraptured face was raised to the sky. Therese stood behind them
+and looked down smiling. The silver moon shone radiant from the
+golden-dusky vault, and the tempting phantom spoke, "Behold this
+treasure! it belongs to you. You found it; it gave itself to you and is
+yours. You had obtained all except love, only that was wanting, and now
+you have found that too. Take, enjoy to the dregs the cup which the
+Almighty has given you. You will become a new man! The man whom a woman
+loves becomes a demi-god. You are happy; you are beloved." . . . Only
+the inner voice whispered, "You are a thief!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With the first kiss a new world had arisen for Michael; a wonderful
+change had taken place in his soul. The first feeling which overpowered
+him was a secret dread, a fear of happiness; should he submit to it or
+fly from it? Does a blessing or a curse rest on it? does it bring life
+or death? what follows on it? What deity will answer these questions?
+The flower is answered when it unfolds its cup, the butterfly when it
+opens its wings, the bird when it builds its nest; but not the man when
+he asks, "Is it good or evil to follow the call of my heart?"
+
+And his heart said, "Look in her eyes!" It is not sinful to be
+transported by a glance of the eye, and this intoxication lasts. Michael
+forgot the whole world when he looked in her eyes; a new creation arose
+for him, full of bliss and joy and earthly happiness. The exquisite
+presentiment stupefied him.
+
+Since his youth no one had loved him. He had once hoped for affection,
+struggled for it with might and main, and when he thought he was at the
+goal, his joy was turned to ashes by crushing disappointment. And here
+to his face he is told that he is beloved. Everything tells him so; the
+animals which lick his hand, the lips which betray the heart's secret,
+the blush and the glance which tell more than the mouth. Even she who
+ought to guard the secret jealousy, the mother of the loving girl, even
+she betrays it--"She loves so passionately that it will be her death!"
+
+No; that it shall not be. . . .
+
+Timar passed on the island one of those days which outweigh an eternity.
+A day full of endless feeling--a day of self-forgetfulness and waking
+dreams, when what a man has longed for in visions of the night actually
+stands before him.
+
+But when on the third night, after a season of ideally rapturous
+intercourse, he returned from the moonlit world of enchantment to his
+solitary dark bedroom, the inward accuser, who would not be silenced or
+lulled to sleep, called him to account.
+
+This voice would not let him sleep. He was restless all night, and dawn
+found him out under the trees; his decision was made--he would go away
+and not come back for a long time, till he was forgotten. Till he also
+had forgotten that he had lived three days in Elysium, that he had been
+permitted to know happiness.
+
+When the sun rose, he had been round the whole island, and when he got
+back he found Frau Therese and her daughter busy preparing breakfast.
+
+"I must go away to-day," said Michael to Therese.
+
+"So soon," whispered Noémi.
+
+"He has a great deal to do," said Therese to her daughter.
+
+This was only natural enough. A captain is only a servant who must look
+after his affairs, and not waste the time for which he must account to
+his employer.
+
+He was not pressed to stay--it was quite right that he should leave. He
+will come back, and they have plenty of time to wait for him--one year,
+two years, till the hour of death, till eternity. But Noémi did not
+touch her glass of new milk: she could not have swallowed a drop. He
+must not be detained; if he has business he must go and attend to it.
+Therese herself brought out his gun and knapsack, and said to Noémi,
+"You carry the gun, that Almira may not hurt it. Go with him to the
+boat."
+
+Timar walked silently beside Noémi; the girl's hand rested in his;
+suddenly she stood still. Michael did so too, and looked in her eyes.
+"You want to ask me something?" he said. The girl thought awhile, then
+she said, "No; nothing." Timar had learned to read her eyes; he guessed
+her thoughts. Noémi wanted to ask him, "Tell me, my beloved, my all;
+what has become of the white-faced girl who once came with you to the
+island, and was called Timéa?"
+
+But she said nothing, only walked on silently with his hand in hers.
+
+Michael's heart was heavy when they said good-bye. When Noémi gave him
+his gun she whispered to him, "Take care of yourself, that no harm may
+come to you;" and when she pressed his hand, she looked at him once more
+with those heavenly blue and soulful eyes, and said, with a voice of
+entreaty, "You will return?"
+
+Michael was fascinated by the entreating voice. He pressed the child to
+him and murmured--"Why don't you say 'Wilt not _thou_ return?' Why am I
+never to hear _thou_?"
+
+The girl cast down her eyes and gently shook her head. "Do say 'thou,'"
+he begged once more. She hid her face on Michael's breast, but would not
+do his will.
+
+"So you can not, or will not, call me 'thou?'--one single word--are you
+afraid?" The maiden covered her face with both hands, and was silent.
+"Noémi, I beg of thee say that one little word and make me happy. Do not
+let me go without it."
+
+But she shook her head silently and could not utter it.
+
+"Then farewell to you, dear Noémi," faltered Michael, and sprung into
+his boat. The rushes of the marsh soon hid the island from his gaze. But
+as long as he could distinguish its woods, he still saw the girl leaning
+on an acacia-tree, sadly gazing out with her head on her hand; but she
+did not call after him the desired word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE TROPIC OF CAPRICORN.
+
+
+After Michael had rowed across to the other side, he gave over the boat
+to a fisherman to keep till he came back. But would he ever come back?
+
+He wished to go on foot as far as the wharf, where Fabula was busy with
+the lading of his ships. It is hard work to row against the stream, and
+in Timar's present frame of mind he was in no mood for muscular
+exertion; there was in his heart a stronger current, to contend against
+which he needed all his strength.
+
+The district through which he had to pass was a widespread alluvial
+deposit of the Danube, like those found in the lower reaches of the
+river. The capricious stream has burst some dam, and altered its course.
+Every year it tears portions from one bank and carries them over to the
+other. On this deposit the trees uprooted with it form a new growth, and
+through this dark natural forest wind lonely paths--the roads of the
+osier-cutters and fisher-folk. Here and there you come to a forsaken hut
+with a shingle roof whose walls are covered with creepers. These
+sometimes shelter a snipe-shooter, conceal a robber, or form the lair of
+a wolf and her cubs.
+
+Michael, deep in thought, strode silently on through this desert: he had
+thrown his gun over his shoulder.
+
+"You can never return here," said Timar to himself. "If it is difficult
+to carry through one lie with consistency, how can you manage two?--two
+contradictory lies? If you accept Noémi's love, you will be inseparably
+bound to her, and must live henceforth two lives, both full of deceit.
+. . . You are no boy, to be passion's tool, and perhaps it is not
+passion which you feel, possibly merely a passing desire or only
+gratified vanity.
+
+"Then the rejected bridegroom--how is he to be got rid of? He would kill
+you, or you him--a delightful relationship indeed to end on the
+scaffold!"
+
+He took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his brow; it soothed his
+burning temples to let the breeze fan them.
+
+"Am I never to be happy?" he sighed. "All these years I have worked
+early and late for other people; why should I be so wretched? I adored
+my wife, and her coldness has brought me to despair; but Noémi loves me.
+That can no longer be altered, and in the island, outside the world, the
+laws of society and religion have no power. . . . I could easily pay off
+that fellow who comes between us, and then I could live here in peace
+for half the year. Timéa would only suppose that I was away on
+business."
+
+The wind of spring rustled through the young poplar stems. Here, where
+the path turned, stood a hut made of interwoven osier-twigs, whose
+entrance was concealed by brambles. Timar stood still and put on his
+hat. At that moment two shots rattled close to him, the two balls
+whistling over his head with that unpleasant sound which resembles the
+buzz of an approaching wasp or the clang of an æolian harp. Michael's
+hat, pierced by two balls, flew from his head into the bushes. Both
+shots came from the ruined hut. For the first instant the shock
+paralyzed his limbs; they came like two answers to his secret thoughts.
+A shudder ran through his whole body: the next moment rising fury took
+the place of fear; he lowered his gun, cocked both barrels, and rushed
+angrily toward the hut, from which the smoke of the discharged weapon
+poured through the crevices.
+
+Before the muzzle of his gun stood a trembling man--Theodor Krisstyan.
+His discharged pistol was still in his hand, he held it now as a
+protection to his head, and shook so that every limb quivered.
+
+"It is you--you!" cried Michael.
+
+"Mercy!" stammered the trembling wretch, throwing away his pistol, and
+stretching both hands entreatingly to Michael: his knees knocked
+together, and he could hardly keep his feet; his face was pale as death,
+his eyes dull, he was more dead than alive. Timar recovered his
+composure: fear and anger had left him--he lowered his gun. "Come
+nearer," he said to the assassin.
+
+"I dare not," faltered he, clinging to the wood-work. "You will kill
+me."
+
+"Don't be afraid; I don't want your life. There"--he discharged his gun
+in the air--"now I am unarmed, and you have no cause to fear." Theodor
+crept out. "You wanted to kill me," said Michael. "You wretched
+creature! I pity you!"
+
+The young rascal dared not look at him.
+
+"Theodor Krisstyan, so young, and already a murderer!--but you could not
+do it. Examine yourself; you are not naturally bad, but your soul has
+been envenomed: I know your history, and I make excuses. You have good
+capacities, and use them badly--you are a vagabond and a swindler; does
+such a life content you? Impossible!--begin afresh--shall I help you to
+a post in which you can, with your education, honestly support yourself?
+I have many connections: it is in my power: there is my hand on it."
+
+The murderer fell on his knees before the man he would have killed,
+seized the offered hand with both his own, and covered it, sobbing, with
+kisses.
+
+"Oh, sir, you are the first man who has ever spoken thus to me; let me
+kneel at your feet! From boyhood I have been chased from every door like
+a dog without a master; I had to steal or beg every morsel I eat; no one
+gave me a hand but those who were worse than myself, and who led me
+further astray. I have led a shameful, miserable life, full of deceit
+and treachery, and I tremble before any one who knows me; and you hold
+out a hand to me--you, for whom I have been lying in wait like a
+brigand, you will save me from myself! Let me kneel before you, and thus
+receive your commands!"
+
+"Stand up! I am no friend to sentiment; tears make me suspicious."
+
+"You are right," said Theodor, "and especially with such a well-known
+actor as I am, who if you say to him 'Take that groschen and cry,' could
+at once break into floods of tears. Now people don't believe me if I
+really weep; I will suppress my tears."
+
+"All the more because I do not intend to address a moral lecture to you,
+but only to speak of very dry business matters. You spoke of your
+connection with Scaramelli, and a business journey to Brazil."
+
+"All lies, sir."
+
+"So I thought. You have no connection with Scaramelli?"
+
+"I had, but it was broken off."
+
+"Did you run away, or were you dismissed?"
+
+"The former."
+
+"With trust-money?"
+
+"With three or four hundred gulden."
+
+"Say five hundred. Would you not be glad to return them to the firm? I
+have relations with their house."
+
+"I do not want to remain there."
+
+"And what connection has this with the Brazilian journey?"
+
+"There is not a word of truth in it; no ship-wood comes from there."
+
+"Not even those you mentioned, among which were dye and chemical woods?"
+
+Theodor smiled. "The truth is that I wanted to sell the trees of the
+ownerless island to a charcoal-burner to get a little money; Therese
+guessed at once my real object."
+
+"Then you did not come to the island for Noémi's sake?"
+
+"Oh, I have as many wives as the countries I have visited."
+
+"H'm--I know of a very good situation for you in Brazil, an agency for a
+lately commenced enterprise, where a knowledge of the Hungarian, German,
+Italian, English, and Spanish languages is necessary."
+
+"I speak and write all these languages."
+
+"I know it--and also Greek, Turkish, Polish, and Russian: you are a
+clever fellow. I will procure for you this situation, in which you can
+make use of your talents. The agency of which I speak carries with it a
+salary of three thousand dollars and a percentage of the profits, the
+amount of which will depend on yourself."
+
+Theodor could hardly believe his ears. But he was so accustomed to
+pretense that when he was overcome by real gratitude he had not the
+courage to give it expression, lest it should be taken for acting.
+
+"Is this your real meaning, sir?"
+
+"What motive should I have at this moment for jesting with you? You
+attempted my life, and I must secure myself. I can not send you out of
+the world--my conscience forbids it--so I must try to make an honest man
+of you in the interest of my own safety. If you are in good
+circumstances, I shall have nothing to fear. Now you can understand my
+course of action. As a proof that my offer is in earnest, take my
+pocket-book. You will find in it the necessary journey expenses to
+Trieste, and probably as much as what you owe to Scaramelli. At Trieste
+you will find a letter which gives you further directions. And now we
+will part--one to the right, and the other to the left."
+
+Theodor's hand shook as he received the pocket-book. Michael lifted his
+pierced hat from the ground. "And you can look on these shots just as
+you like. If they were the attack of an assassin, you have every reason
+not to approach me in any region within reach of the law; but if they
+were the shots of an insulted gentleman, you know that at our next
+meeting it is my turn to shoot."
+
+Theodor Krisstyan bared his breast, and exclaimed passionately, "Shoot
+me if ever I come in sight of you again! Shoot me like a mad dog!" He
+raised the discharged pistol, and pressed it into Timar's hand. "Shoot
+me with my own pistol it you ever meet me in this world! Do not ask, say
+not a word, but kill me!"
+
+He insisted on Michael's taking the pistol, and putting it in his
+pocket.
+
+"Farewell!" said Timar, and then he left him and went on his way.
+
+Theodor stood still looking after him. Then he ran, and caught him up.
+"Sir, one word--you have made a new man of me--allow me, if ever I write
+to you, to begin with the words, 'My Father.' In those words once lay
+for me shame and horror; let me find in them henceforth a fountain of
+trust and happiness--my father, my father!"
+
+He kissed Michael's hand with impassioned warmth, rushed away, threw
+himself down on the grass behind the first bush that hid him from
+Timar's eyes, and wept--real, true tears.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Poor little Noémi stood for an hour under the acacia-tree where she had
+taken leave of Michael. Therese, as she stayed out so long, had gone to
+seek her, and now sat beside her daughter on the grass. Not to be idle,
+she had brought out her knitting.
+
+Suddenly Noémi exclaimed, "Mother, did you hear?--two shots on the other
+shore!"
+
+They listened. There was deep stillness in the drowsy air.
+
+"Two more shots! Mother, what is it?"
+
+Therese tried to calm her. "They must be sportsmen, child, who are
+shooting there."
+
+Noémi's cheeks lost their color, and she looked as pale as the acacia
+blossoms over her head. She pressed her hands vehemently to her breast
+and faltered, "Oh, no, no! he will never come back!"
+
+It grieved her to the heart that she had not said the little word "thou"
+to him when he begged so hard.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Master Fabula," said Timar to his faithful steward, "this year we will
+not send the crop either to Raab or Komorn."
+
+"What shall we do with it, then?"
+
+"We will grind it here. I have two windmills on my property, and we can
+hire thirty water-mills; those will suffice."
+
+"Then we must open a huge warehouse, where we can sell such a quantity."
+
+"That will not be wanting. We will load the flour into small ships,
+which can go up to Karlstadt; thence we will transfer it in barrels to
+Brazil."
+
+"To Brazil!" screamed Fabula, quite frightened. "I can't go there with
+it."
+
+"I was not thinking of sending you there, Master Fabula; your department
+is the grinding and the transport to Trieste. I will give the agents
+and millers their orders to-day, and you can scold and manage in my
+absence just as if I were there."
+
+"Many thanks," said Master Fabula, and shook his head violently as Herr
+von Levetinczy left the office. "That will be a gigantic folly," he
+grumbled to himself. "To begin with, the flour will be musty before it
+arrives; then no one will buy it; thirdly, nobody will ever see the
+color of money which has to come from Brazil. How could he claim it?
+there is no fiscal authority there, or even a vice-consul. In short, it
+is just another of those colossal, everlasting pieces of folly of our
+Herr Levetinczy, but it will turn out well, to every one's surprise, as
+every stupid thing does that our master undertakes. And I don't doubt
+that our flour-ships will come back laden with gold-dust from Brazil;
+but for all that it is a great folly."
+
+Our Herr Fabula was perfectly right. Timar was of the same opinion. He
+ran a risk in this speculation of losing at least a hundred thousand
+gulden. But this idea was not of to-day. It had long been in his mind
+whether a Hungarian merchant might not make better profits than in grain
+contracts and the chartering of cargo-ships. Would it not be possible
+for those goods which have to struggle with foreign competition to find
+their own place in the great bazaar of the world's market?
+
+The export trade in flour was an old plan of his. To prepare for its
+execution he had completed his mills, and built a large vessel at
+Trieste. But the reason of his hasty determination to begin work at once
+was only on Noémi's account; and his meeting with Theodor had brought
+this decision to a head.
+
+This business was only a pretext; the principal thing was to put a
+hemisphere between himself and that man. Those who saw in what ceaseless
+labor Timar spent the next weeks--how he hurried from one mill to
+another, and from there to his ships; how he dispatched them the moment
+they were laden, and personally superintended the transport--all said,
+"What a pattern of a merchant! He is tremendously rich; he has
+directors, agents, captains, stewards, overseers, foremen, and yet he
+sees to all himself like a common contractor. He understands business."
+(If only they had known what depended on this business!)
+
+Three weeks passed before the first ship laden with barrels of Hungarian
+flour lay ready to weigh anchor in the harbor of Trieste. The ship was
+called "Pannonia;" it was a beautiful three-masted galliot. Even Master
+Fabula was loud in its praise; for he was present at the loading of the
+flour. But Timar himself never saw it; he had not once come to Trieste
+to see it before it started. During those weeks he remained in
+Levetinczy or Pancsova. The whole enterprise was in Scaramelli's name;
+Timar had his reasons for keeping his own name out of it; and he only
+communicated in writing with the fully empowered firm of Scaramelli.
+
+One day he received a letter from Theodor Krisstyan. When he opened it
+he was surprised to find money in it--a hundred gulden note. The
+contents of the letter ran thus--
+
+     "MY FATHER,--When you read these lines I shall be
+     afloat on board the splendid ship 'Pannonia,' as
+     Brazilian agent of the house of Scaramelli.
+
+     "Accept my warmest thanks for your kind recommendation.
+     The bank has advanced me two months' salary, of which I
+     inclose a hundred gulden, with the request that you
+     would be good enough to pay it over to the landlord of
+     The White Ship at Pancsova. I am in debt to that amount
+     to that poor man, and am thankful to be able to pay
+     this sum. Heaven bless you for all your goodness to
+     me!"
+
+Timar breathed freely. "The man has already improved; he remembers his
+old debts and pays them with his savings. What a sweet thought to have
+brought a lost sheep back to the fold--to be the savior of an enemy who
+attempted one's life--to give back to him life, the world, honor, and
+bring to light a pearl purified of the mire in which it lay! Is not this
+a truly Christian act? You have a generous soul. If only the inward
+accuser would not reply, 'You are a murderer!'
+
+"You do not rejoice to have saved a man, but rather at getting rid of
+him. If you received news that a tornado had caught your ship and sunk
+it with every soul on board, what joy it would give you! You are not
+thinking of the flour-trade with its profits and losses, but that every
+year in the swamps of La Plata and the river Amazon that fearful specter
+walks--the yellow fever--which, like the tiger, lies in ambush for the
+new-comer. Of every hundred, sixty fall victims to it. It is that of
+which the prospect gives you pleasure. You are a murderer!"
+
+Timar felt the satisfaction of a man who has succeeded in putting an
+enemy out of the way--a joy with which bitter self-condemnation and
+anxious forebodings were mingled.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From henceforward Timar was transformed. He was hardly to be recognized.
+The usually cold-blooded man betrayed in everything a singular
+restlessness; he gave contradictory orders, and forgot an hour after
+what he had said. If he started on a journey, he turned back half-way;
+he began to avoid business, and seemed indifferent to the most important
+affairs; then again he grew so excitable that the smallest neglect
+enraged him. He might be seen wandering on the shore for half a day at a
+time, with his head down like one who is nearly mad, and begins by
+running away from home. Another time he shut himself into his room and
+would not let any one in; the letters which came to him from all parts
+lay unopened in a heap on his table. This shrewd, clever man could think
+of nothing but the golden-haired girl whom he had seen for the last time
+leaning on a tree by the island shore, with her head supported on her
+arm. One day he determined to return to her, and the next to drive the
+remembrance of her from his breast. He began to be superstitious; he
+waited for signs from Heaven, and visions to decide what he should do.
+Dreams always brought the same face, happy or sad, submissive or
+inconsolable, and he was more crazy than ever. But Heaven sent him no
+sign.
+
+One day he decided to be reasonable and attend to his business affairs;
+that might perhaps steady his brain. He sat down before the heap of
+letters and began to open them all in turn. All that came of it was that
+he had forgotten at the end of a letter what he had read at the
+beginning. He only cared to read what was written in those blue eyes.
+But his heart began to beat fast when a letter fell into his hands which
+was heavier than the rest; he knew the handwriting of the address; it
+was Timéa's.
+
+His blood ran cold. This was the sign from Heaven, this will decide the
+conflict in his soul.
+
+Timéa writes to him--the angelic creature, the spotless wife. A single
+tender word from her will exercise an influence on her husband like a
+cry of "danger" to a drunken man. These well-known characters will call
+up the saintly face before his mind's eye, and lead him back to the
+right path.
+
+In the letter is a small object; it must be a loving surprise, a little
+souvenir. Yes! to-morrow is her husband's birthday. This will be a
+charming letter, a sweet remembrance. Michael opened the envelope very
+carefully, after cutting round the seal. The first thing that surprised
+him was a key which fell out--the key of his writing-table.
+
+But in the letter were these words: "MY DEAR SIR,--You left the key of
+your writing-table in the lock. That you may not be uneasy about it, I
+send it to you. God keep you!--TIMÉA."
+
+Nothing further. Timar had forgotten to take out the key that night when
+he came home secretly, when the conversation with Athalie had so
+disturbed his mind.
+
+Nothing but the key and a couple of frigid lines. Timar put down the
+letter in vexation.
+
+Suddenly a dreadful idea flashed through his mind. If Timéa found this
+key in his writing-table lock, perhaps she looked through the desk.
+Women are curious, and do such things. But if she did search in it, she
+must have found something she would recognize. When Timar disposed of
+Ali Tchorbadschi's treasures, he had been careful not to part with some
+objects, which, if they came into the trade, might have led to
+discovery, but had, for the most part, only sold the separate diamonds.
+Among the precious objects was a medallion framed in brilliants, which
+contained a miniature portrait of a young lady, whose features bore a
+striking likeness to those of Timéa. It must be the picture of her
+mother, who had been a Greek. If Timéa found this medallion, she must
+know all; she would at once recognize her mother's portrait, and
+conclude that this jewel had belonged to her father. This would lead her
+to the further conclusion that her mother's valuables had fallen into
+Timar's hands, and thus she would arrive at the knowledge of how he had
+become rich, and that he had married her at the price of her own money.
+If Timéa was curious, she now knows all, and then she must despise her
+husband.
+
+And do not the words of the letter betray this? Does not the wife wish
+her husband to understand, by the forwarding of the key, that she had
+discovered his secrets?
+
+This thought was decisive to Michael as to whether his path was to lead
+up or down! Down!
+
+"It is all one," thought he. "I am unmasked before the woman. I can no
+longer play the honest man, the true-hearted, generous benefactor. I am
+found out. I can only sink lower still!"
+
+He was determined to return to the island. But he would not retreat
+like a defeated foe. He wrote to Timéa, and begged her to open all the
+letters which should come during his absence, to inform his agents of
+their contents, and, where a decision was necessary, to dispose, in the
+name of her husband, of all as she chose. At the same time he sent the
+key back, that it might be at hand if any documents were wanted.
+
+That was his trump card. With the feeling that his secret was near
+discovery he hastened to lead up to it, and possibly that very thing
+might prevent its revelation. He left orders to his agents that all
+letters concerning his affairs were to be directed to his wife. He was
+going away for a long time, but he did not say where to.
+
+Late in the afternoon he started in a hired carriage. He hoped his track
+would be lost, and did not take his own horses. A couple of days ago he
+had been superstitious, and awaited signs from Heaven, from the
+elements, to show him the way. Now he noticed them no longer. He was
+determined to return to the island. But the sky and the elements tried
+to frighten him by evil omens, and even to detain him by force. Toward
+evening, when the long lines of poplars on the Danube shore were already
+in sight, suddenly a reddish-brown cloud appeared in the sky,
+approaching with great rapidity. The peasant driver began to pray and
+sigh, but when the smoke-like cloud drew nigh, his prayers changed to
+curses. The Galambocz gnats are coming!
+
+They are creations of the Evil One, trillions in number, and living in
+the holes of the Galambocz rocks: suddenly they come out in swarms,
+forming a thick cloud, and if they descend into the plain, woe to the
+cattle they find in the open!
+
+The flight of gnats covered the plain through which Timar had to drive;
+the tiny stinging plague swarmed over the bodies of the horses, creeping
+into their eyes, ears, and nostrils. The terrified animals could no
+longer be controlled--they turned round suddenly with the carriage, and
+bolted in a north-westerly direction. Timar ventured on a jump from the
+carriage; he leaped cleverly and safely without injury; the horses flew
+off and away. If he had attended to omens, this might have been
+sufficient to turn him also aside. But he was now obstinate. He was
+going on a road where man no longer asks for help from God. He was going
+where Noémi drew him and Timéa drove him. North pole and south pole,
+desire and his own will, pressed him on.
+
+When he jumped from the carriage, he continued his journey on foot,
+keeping along the wooded river-bank. His gun had remained in the
+carriage, he had come with empty hands: he cut himself a walking-stick,
+and that was his only weapon: provided with this, he tried to make his
+way through the thicket. There he lost himself; night surprised him, and
+the more he wandered the less he found an outlet. At last he came on a
+hut built of osier-twigs, and decided to spend the night there.
+
+He made a fire out of the dry branches lying near: fortunately he was
+carrying his game-bag when he jumped from the carriage, and in it were
+bread and ham; he broiled the ham over the fire and ate it with the
+bread.
+
+He found also something else in the bag, the pistol with which Theodor
+had attacked him from the hut; perhaps from this very hut--quite
+possible that it was the same. He could make no use of the pistol, for
+he had left his powder-horn in the carriage; but it did him a service by
+strengthening him in his fatalism: a man who had escaped so many dangers
+must still have some work to do in the world. And indeed he required
+some encouragement, for after nightfall it began to be uncanny here in
+the desert. Not far away wolves were howling, and through the bushes
+Timar saw the shining green eyes: one and another old Sir Isegrim came
+up to the back wall of the hut and executed a fearful howl. Timar dared
+not let the fire out all night, for it alone kept away the wild beasts.
+When he went inside, the uncomfortable hiss with which snakes receive
+human beings struck his ear, and a sluggish mass moved under his foot;
+perhaps he had trodden on a tortoise. Timar kept up the fire all night,
+and drew fantastic figures in the air with the glowing end of the
+fire-stick--perhaps the hieroglyphics of his own thoughts.
+
+What a miserable night! He who has a home provided with every luxury,
+and a comfortable bed; in whose house rules a lovely young woman whom he
+can call his wife--spends a lonely night in a damp, fungus-grown hut:
+wolves howl round him, and over his head adders creep slowly through the
+rush-woven roof. And to-day is his birthday; a happy family festival
+indeed--in such surroundings! But they suit him--he wants nothing else.
+
+Michael had a pious mind. From childhood he had been used night and
+morning to put up a silent prayer. He had never lost the habit, and in
+every danger or trouble of his eventful life, he had taken refuge in
+prayer. He believed in God; God was his deliverer, and whatever he
+undertook succeeded. But in this dreadful night he dared not pray; he
+would not speak with God.
+
+"Do not Thou look where I go." From this birthday he gave up prayer. He
+defied fate.
+
+When the day dawned, the nocturnal beasts of prey slunk back to their
+lairs. Timar left his inhospitable refuge, and soon found the path which
+led direct to the shore of the Danube: here a new horror awaited him.
+The Danube was enormously swollen, and had overflowed its banks. It was
+the season of the spring floods after the melting of the snow; the
+foaming yellow stream was filled with uprooted reeds and tree-trunks.
+The fisherman's hut which he sought, and which stood on the point of a
+hill, was in the water up to the threshold, and the boat he had left
+there was tied to a tree close by.
+
+He found not a creature there. It is impossible to fish in such a flood,
+and the people had removed all their nets. If he wanted a sign from
+heaven, a direction from God's finger--here he had it. The swollen river
+barred his way with its whole majestic strength; at such times no one
+ventures on the river; the warning was there, the elements commanded him
+to return.
+
+"Too late," said Timar. "I can not go back; I must go on."
+
+The door of the hut was locked, and he broke it open to get his oars, as
+he saw through a chink that they were kept there. Then he got into the
+boat, tied himself in, loosed the boat, and pushed off. The current
+seized him at once, and rushed on with him. The Danube was at that time
+a powerful master, and uprooted forests in its rage; a mortal venturing
+on its surface was like a worm floating on a straw, and yet this worm
+defied it. He alone managed the two oars, which also served to steer
+with. On the rapid waves his skiff danced like a nutshell, but the wind
+was contrary, and tried to drive him back to the shore he came from. But
+Timar succumbed neither to wind nor water.
+
+He had thrown his hat to the bottom of the boat; his hair, wet with
+perspiration, fluttered in the wind, and the waves splashing over the
+side threw their icy spray in his face--but they did not cool him. The
+thought was hot within him that Noémi might be in danger on the island.
+But the idea did not paralyze his arms. The Danube and the wind are two
+mighty powers--but stronger still are the passions and the will of man.
+Timar felt this. What activity in his mind, what muscle in his arm! It
+was a superhuman task in which he succeeded, to cross the current at the
+head of the Ostrova Island. Here he rested awhile.
+
+The island of Ostrova was overflowed, the water was rushing among the
+trees. Here it was easier to get on by pushing his oars against the
+trunks; at the back of Ostrova he must let himself float down-stream to
+arrive at the ownerless island. When he had reached the right spot, and
+came out from among the trees, a new and surprising spectacle lay before
+him. The ownerless island was usually hidden behind a thick bed of
+osiers, over which only the tree-tops were visible; now none of the
+reeds was to be seen, and the island lay out in mid-stream. The flood
+had covered the reeds, the trees of the island stood in the water, and
+only at one place the rock raised its head above the surface.
+
+With feverish impatience he let his boat float down. Every stroke
+brought him nearer to the erratic bowlder, whose crown was blue with
+lavender flowers, while the sides were shining gold with climbing
+nasturtium which clung to the stone; and the nearer he came the greater
+was his impatience. He could already see the orchard, whose trees stood
+in the water half-way up their trunk; but the rose-garden was dry, and
+there the lambs and kids had taken refuge. Now Almira's joyful bark fell
+on his ear; the black creature came running to the shore, rushed back,
+came on again, leaped into the water, and swam toward the new arrival
+and back again.
+
+Does Michael see that rosy face there at the base of a blooming
+jasmine-bush, hurrying toward him to the very edge of the rushing water?
+One more stroke, and the boat has reached the shore. Michael springs out
+and the waves carry off the boat; he no longer wants it, and no one
+thinks of drawing it ashore.
+
+Each only saw the other. Around them the paradise of the first
+man!--fruit-laden trees, blossoming fields, tame animals, surrounded by
+a watery ring, and therein--Adam and Eve.
+
+The maiden stands pale and trembling before the new-comer, and as he
+rushes toward her, when she sees him before her, she throws herself with
+a burst of passion on his breast, and cries, in the self-forgetfulness
+of ecstasy, "Thou hast returned! Thou, thou!" and even when her lips are
+closed they still say, "Thou, thou!"
+
+Around them is Eden. The jasmine-bush sends down on them its silvery
+flower-crown, and the choir of nightingales and blackbirds sing "Gospodi
+pomiluj."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SWEET HOME.
+
+
+The waves carried off Michael's boat. That of the islanders, which had
+brought them here, had long rotted away, and they had never had another.
+The new-comer could not leave the island before the first fruit-dealers
+arrived. Before that time weeks and months must elapse.
+
+Happy weeks, happy moons! Uncounted days of unbroken joy! The ownerless
+island was Timar's home. There he found work and rest. After the flood
+had passed away, the work of getting rid of the water left in the
+hollows gave him plenty to do. The whole day he was busy digging canals
+to carry it away; his hands looked like a laborer's from the blisters
+with which they were covered. When he threw spade and pick over his
+shoulder in the evening, and came back to the little cottage, he was met
+afar off, and lovingly welcomed. And when he had finished his canal and
+drawn off the marshy water, he looked upon his work as proudly as if it
+was the only one in all his life which could lay claim to be called a
+good action, and which he could confidently submit to his inward judge.
+The day of the opening of this canal was a festival on the little
+island. They had no church festivals and did not count Sundays: their
+saints' days were those on which God gave them some special joy.
+
+These islanders were sparing of words. What the holy David said in one
+hundred and fifty psalms, was by them expressed in a sign, and what the
+poets have sung of love in all their verses, one glance of the eye was
+sufficient to tell; they learned to read each other's thoughts on the
+brow, they learned to think together.
+
+Michael admired Noémi more every day. She was a faithful, grateful
+creature; she knew no care nor anxiety for the future; happy herself,
+she diffused happiness around. She never asked him, "What will become of
+me when you go? Will you leave me or take me? Is it good for me to love
+you? What church has given you its priestly blessing? Ought you to be
+mine? Has no other a right to you? What are you out there in the world?
+What sort of world do you live in?" Even in her face, her eyes, he never
+read a disquieting doubt--ever and only the one question "Lovest thou
+me?"
+
+Frau Therese reminded Michael one day that he was tarrying long here;
+but he assured her that Master Fabula was looking after everything, and
+when Therese looked at Noémi, whose soft blue eyes ever turned like the
+sunflowers to the sun of Michael's face, she could only sigh, "Oh, how
+she loves him!"
+
+Timar found it very necessary to dig all day, to drive piles, and bind
+fascines, in order by hard bodily labor to calm his even more heavily
+tasked mind. What is going on in the world? Thirty of his ships float on
+the Danube, and a fleet on the sea: his whole wealth, a property of more
+than a million, all lies in the hands of a woman. And if this woman in
+some giddy mood squanders the whole and scatters it to the winds,
+ruining her husband and his house, could he reproach any one? Was it not
+by his own will? He was happy here at home, and yet would have liked to
+know what was going on over there. His spirit lived in two places, was
+torn in two parts: there, his money, his honor, his position in the
+world; here, his love held him fast. In truth he could have got away.
+The Danube is not a sea; he was a good swimmer, and could at any time
+have reached the opposite shore; no one would have detained him. They
+knew he had work to do out in the world. But when he was with Noémi he
+forgot again everything outside her arms; he was sunk in love, bliss,
+and wonder.
+
+"Oh, do not love me so much!" whispered the girl to him.
+
+And so day after day passed by. The time of fruit-ripening drew near,
+and the branches were weighed down by their sweet burden. It was a
+pleasure to watch the daily progress of the fruit, how every day it
+developed more. Pears and apples began to put on their distinctive
+colors; the green is tanned to a leathery yellow, or receives gold and
+red streaks. The brown tone colors purple on the sunny side. In the
+golden tint mingle carmine splashes, and in the carmine greenish specks;
+the scented fruit smiles at one like a merry childish face. Timar helped
+the women to gather it. They filled great baskets with this blessing of
+heaven. He counted every apple he threw into the basket, how many
+hundreds, how many thousands. What a treasure! Real gold!
+
+One afternoon, when he was helping Noémi to carry a full basket to the
+apple-room, he saw strangers arrive at the cottage: the fruit-buyers had
+come, the first visitors for many months past, bringing tidings from the
+outer world.
+
+They negotiated about the fruit with Therese--the usual system of
+barter. Frau Therese wanted as usual to have grain in exchange, but the
+peddlers would not give her as much as before. They said wheat had
+become very dear. The corn-merchants of Komorn had made large purchases
+and driven up the prices; they ground it themselves, and sent it over
+the seas. Therese would not believe this--it was only gossip of the
+fruit-hawkers; but Timar paid great attention to it. That was his idea;
+what had come of it since then? Now he had no more rest for thinking of
+business and the cares of property. This news was to him what the bugle
+call is to an old soldier, who at the sound wishes himself back in the
+battle-field, even from the arms of his beloved.
+
+The islanders thought it quite natural that Michael should make
+preparations to leave them. His business called him; and then he would
+return the following spring. Noémi only begged him not to throw away the
+clothes she had spun and woven for him, and which he had worn while with
+her. He will preserve them like a jewel.
+
+And then he must often think of his poor Noémi. To that he could not
+answer in words.
+
+He bribed the fruit-women to stay a day longer. And all that day he did
+nothing but visit, arm in arm with Noémi, all the places which had been
+witnesses of his tranquil happiness; here he plucked from a tree, and
+there from a flowery cluster, some leaflet to keep as a memorial. On
+every leaf and petal whole romances were written which only two people
+could read.
+
+The last day passed so quickly! The boatmen wanted to leave in the
+evening, so as to row while it was cool. Michael must say farewell.
+Noémi was sensible, and did not cry; she knew he would return, and was
+more occupied in making provision to fill his knapsack.
+
+"It will be dark when you get to the other side," she said, with tender
+anxiety. "Have you any arms?"
+
+"No. No one will hurt me."
+
+"But yet--here is a pistol in your haversack," said Noémi, and drew it
+out; and then her check paled, for she recognized Theodor's pistol, with
+which he had often, when he came to the island, bragged and threatened
+that he would shoot Almira. "This is _his_ weapon!" Timar was struck by
+the expression of her face.
+
+"When you left here," said the girl, who was all excitement, "he watched
+for you on the other side, and shot at you with this pistol."
+
+"What makes you think such a thing?"
+
+"I heard two shots, and then yours. So it was this pistol that you took
+from him?" Timar was surprised that love can see what the eye can not
+reach. He could not tell a lie. "Did you kill him?" asked the girl.
+
+"No."
+
+"What has become of him?"
+
+"You need fear him no longer. He is gone to Brazil; a hemisphere lies
+between us and him."
+
+"I wish there were only three feet of earth between us!" cried Noémi,
+impetuously, seizing Michael's hand.
+
+Michael looked in her face surprised. "You! you! with such murderous
+thoughts--you, who can not bear to see a chicken killed, who can not
+bring yourself to tread on a spider or to stick a butterfly on a pin!"
+
+"But any one who would tear you from me, I could kill, were he a man, a
+devil, or an angel--!"
+
+And she pressed the dearly beloved man to her breast in a passionate
+embrace. He trembled and glowed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On reaching the other side, Michael again visited the fisherman's hut.
+
+Two things occupied his mind: the slender figure among the evening mists
+on the flower-crowned rock, waving to him its tender farewells; and then
+that other figure conjured up by his imagination as it looks at home in
+Komorn. Well, he will have time to picture this image to himself on the
+long journey from the Lower Danube up to Komorn.
+
+When the old fisherman saw Michael, he began to sigh (fishing-folk do
+not swear). "Just think, my lord, some rascal of a thief has stolen your
+boat during the floods: he broke into the hut and carried off the oars.
+What thieves there are in the world, to be sure!"
+
+It did Timar good that at last some one should call him a thief to his
+face; that was what he was--and if he had stolen nothing more than a
+boat! "We must not condemn the man," said he to the fisherman. "Who
+knows what danger he was in, or how much he needed a boat. We will get
+another. But now, my friend, we will get into your boat and try to
+arrive at the ferry to-night."
+
+The fisherman was persuaded by a promise of liberal payment to undertake
+this, and by daylight they had reached the ferry where the ships
+generally took in their cargo. There were post-carriages at the inn on
+the bank, of which Timar engaged one to take him to Levetinczy. He
+thought he would there receive reports from the agent of what had passed
+during the last five months, so that when he got home to Komorn nothing
+new or surprising should greet him.
+
+There was a one-storied residence on the estate at Levetinczy. In one
+wing lived the steward and his wife, while the other was given up to
+Timar. A staircase from this wing led to the park, and by this means he
+could gain access to the room which he had chosen as an office. Michael
+must pay attention to the trivial details if he wished to carry out his
+wearisome deceit consistently. He has been absent for five months, and
+has, of course, been a long way; but that hardly agrees with his arrival
+without luggage. In his knapsack there is only the suit of striped linen
+made for him by Noémi, for the suit in which he had gone to the island
+was intended for the cold season, and that, by now, was torn and worn
+out; his boots were patched. It would be difficult to account for his
+appearance. If he could get through the garden and by the outside steps
+into his office, the key of which he carries with him, he could there
+change his clothes quickly, get out his trunk, and when to all
+appearances he looked as though just come from a long journey, he could
+call in the steward.
+
+All began well. Timar arrived without being seen, by the garden steps,
+at the door of his office.
+
+But when he was going to open it with his private key, he made the
+disquieting discovery that another key was already in the lock. Some one
+was in the room! But his papers and ledgers were all there, and no one
+had any business inside. Who could the intruder be? He pulled the door
+open angrily and went in, and now it was his turn to be startled.
+
+At his writing-table sat the last person he expected to find there. It
+was Timéa. Before her lay the great ledger, in which she was at work.
+
+A storm of mingled feelings burst over Michael--alarm because the first
+person he met after his secret journey was his own wife, pleasure at
+finding her alone, and astonishment that this woman was at work here.
+
+Timéa raised her eyes in surprise when she saw Michael enter; then
+hastening toward him, she offered him her hand in silence. This white
+face was still an unsolved enigma to her husband. He could not read in
+it whether she knew all--whether she guessed something or not. What lay
+under this cold indifference? restrained contempt or concealed love? Or
+was the whole only the indolence of a lymphatic race? He had nothing to
+say to Timéa.
+
+His wife seemed not to remark that his clothes were torn--women can see
+without looking. "I am glad you have come," said she gently. "I expected
+you any day. You will find your clothes in the next room; when you have
+dressed, will you please come back here? I shall have finished by that
+time." And then she put her pen in her mouth.
+
+Michael kissed Timéa's hand. The pen between her teeth did not invite
+him to kiss her lips. He went into the adjoining room; there he found a
+basin of water, a clean shirt, and his clothes and house-shoes as at
+home. As Timéa could not know the day of his arrival, he must take for
+granted that she had made ready for him every day--and who knows for how
+long? But how comes this woman here, and what is she doing? He dressed
+quickly, hiding his cast-off clothes in a corner of his wardrobe. Some
+one might ask him what caused these holes in the coat-sleeves, which are
+quite through at the elbows. And this linen suit with the colored
+embroidery, would not a woman's eye decipher something from it?--women
+understand the mysteries of needle-work. He must hide the clothes. He
+and the soap had hard work to wash his hands clean. Would he not be
+asked what he had done to make them so black and horny?
+
+When he was ready he went back to the office, where Timéa was waiting
+for him at the door, and putting her hand on his arm, said, "Let us go
+to breakfast."
+
+From the office they passed through the dressing-room to get to the
+dining-room. Another surprise awaited Michael there; the round table was
+laid with three places--for whom were they intended? Timéa made a
+signal, and through one door came the servant, through the other
+Athalie. The third place was for her.
+
+On Athalie's face an unconcealed anger shone when she saw Timar. "Ah,
+Herr von Levetinczy, you have come home at last! It was a kind thought
+of yours to write to your wife, 'Take my keys and books, and be so good,
+dear wife, as to do all my work for me,' and then to leave us five
+months without news of your whereabouts."
+
+"Athalie!" said Timéa, sternly.
+
+Michael sat down in silence at his place, which he recognized by his own
+silver drinking-cup. He had been daily awaited here, and the table laid
+for him. Athalie said no more, but whenever she looked at Timar he could
+read her vexation in her eyes. This was a satisfactory sign.
+
+When they rose from table Timéa asked her husband to go with her to the
+office. Michael began to think what he could invent when she should ask
+him about his journey. But she never referred to it even remotely. She
+placed two chairs at the desk, and laid her hand on the open day-book.
+"Here, sir, is the account of your business since the time when you gave
+over its direction to me."
+
+"Have you carried it on yourself?"
+
+"I understood that you desired me to do so. I found by your papers that
+you had undertaken a new and wholesale enterprise--the export of
+Hungarian flour. I saw that here not only your money, but also your
+credit and your mercantile honor, were at stake, and that on the good
+result of this affair hung the foundation of an important branch of
+trade. I did not understand this business, but I thought that it
+depended more on conscientious and faithful stewardship than on
+knowledge of affairs. I trusted this to no third person. Directly I
+received your letter I started for Levetinczy, and took, as you desired,
+the conduct of business into my own hands. I studied book-keeping and
+learned to deal with figures. I think you will find everything in
+order--the books and the cash balance." Timar looked with admiration at
+this woman, who knew how to apply the millions passing through her hands
+with such calm good sense, to their right object, to receive and expend
+moneys, and with a skillful hand to withdraw endangered funds; and who
+knew even more than that. "Fortune has favored us this year," continued
+Timéa, "and made up for my inexperience. The five months' income
+amounted to five hundred thousand gulden. This sum has not lain idle.
+Taking advantage of the powers intrusted to me, I have made
+investments."
+
+What sort of investments are they likely to be which occur to a woman?
+
+"Your first experiment with the export of flour succeeded entirely.
+Hungarian flour became at one stroke an article in request for the South
+American markets. So your agents write from Rio Janeiro, where all with
+one accord praise the ability and uprightness of your chief agent,
+Theodor Krisstyan." Timar thought to himself, "Even when I do evil good
+comes of it, and the greatest folly I commit turns into wisdom--when
+will this end?" "After receiving this intelligence I began to consider
+what you would have done. One must seize an opportunity and occupy with
+all speed the newly opened markets. I hired immediately many mills,
+chartered more ships, had them laden, and at this moment a new cargo is
+on its way to South America, which will defy competition."
+
+Michael was astonished. In this woman there was more courage than in any
+man. Another woman would have locked up the money that it might not run
+away, and this one ventures to carry on her husband's enterprise, only
+in tenfold measure. "I thought you would have acted thus," said Timéa.
+
+"Yes, indeed," muttered Timar.
+
+"My expectations, moreover, were justified by the fact that, as soon as
+we threw ourselves more openly into this undertaking, a whole herd of
+competitors appeared, who are grinding away for dear life, and packing
+off their good in barrels to America. But this need not cause you any
+anxiety--we shall beat them all. Not one of them knows the secret of the
+superiority of the Hungarian flour."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"If one of them asked his wife, perhaps she would have known--that is
+how I discovered it. Among all the samples of American wheat, I can find
+none as heavy as ours. We must, therefore, make flour of our heaviest
+kinds, so as to carry off the prize from the Americans. I selected our
+heaviest grain; our rivals here use lighter corn, and they will find
+their mistake, while we shall maintain our position."
+
+Michael kissed Timéa's hand with the sacred awe with which we kiss our
+beloved dead, who no longer belong to us, but to the ground, and who can
+not feel our caress. Whenever during his life of happy forgetfulness on
+the island he had thought of Timéa at all, it was as amusing herself,
+traveling, going to watering-places, having plenty of money, and wasting
+it as she chose. Now he saw in what her amusement had consisted--keeping
+books, sitting at a desk, conducting a correspondence, and learning
+foreign idioms without the help of a master--and all this because her
+husband had desired it.
+
+His wife gave him a report of all branches of his extensive business. It
+was now all as familiar to her as if she had known it from childhood,
+and everything was in perfect order. While Timar ran over the accounts,
+he acquired the conviction that if he himself had had to do it all in
+those few months, he would have been hard at work all day. What labor
+this must have cost a young woman who had to learn everything by
+experience! Indeed she must have had but little time for sleep.
+
+"But, Timéa, this is a tremendous task which you have accomplished in my
+stead!"
+
+"It is true, and at first I found it very difficult, but by degrees I
+got used to it, and then it was easy enough. Work is wholesome."
+
+What a sad reproach!--a young wife who finds consolation in work.
+Michael drew Timéa's hand to him. Deep sadness clouded his brow, his
+heart was heavy. If only he knew what Timéa was thinking.
+
+The key of the desk was constantly in Timar's mind. If Timéa had
+discovered his secret, then her present conduct to her husband was only
+a fearful judgment held over him, to mark the difference between the
+accuser and the accused.
+
+"Have you never been in Komorn since?" he asked Timéa.
+
+"Only once, when I had to look in your desk for the contract with
+Scaramelli."
+
+Timar felt his blood run cold. Timéa's face betrayed nothing.
+
+"But now we will go back to Komorn," said Timar; "the flour is in full
+swing; we must wait for news of the fate of the cargoes now at sea, and
+they will not arrive before the winter. Or would you rather make a tour
+in Switzerland and Italy? This is the best season for it."
+
+"No, Michael; we have been long enough apart, we will remain at home
+together."
+
+But no pressure of the hand explains why she would like to remain at
+home with him. Michael had not the courage to say a tender word to her.
+Should he lie to her? He would have to live a lie in her presence from
+morning to evening. His silence even was a falsehood.
+
+Looking through all the papers took the whole time until late dinner,
+and to this meal two guests were invited--the bailiff and the reverend
+dean. The latter had begged to be at once informed of Herr von
+Levetinczy's return, that he might call upon him immediately. As soon as
+he received the news he hastened to the castle, and of course put on his
+new decoration. The moment he entered he let off some oratorical
+fireworks, in which he lauded Timar as the benefactor of the place. He
+compared him to Noah who built the Ark, to Joseph who saved his people
+from famine, and to Moses who made manna fall from heaven. The flour
+trade which he had set on foot was pronounced the greatest enterprise
+Europe had ever seen. Long live the Columbus of flour export!
+
+Timar had to answer this address of welcome. He stammered and talked
+great nonsense. He had to control himself that he might not laugh aloud,
+and say to the worthy preacher, "Ha, ha! do not fancy that I had this
+idea in order to make your fortune; it was only to get a young rascal
+out of reach of a certain pretty girl, and if any good came of it, it is
+only by means of this woman here near me. Laugh then, good people!"
+
+At table good-humor reigned. The dean and the steward were neither of
+them despisers of the bottle. The wit and anecdotes of the two old men
+made Timar laugh too; but whenever he cast a glance on Timéa's icy face,
+the laugh died on his lips. She had left her merriment elsewhere in
+pledge.
+
+It was evening before they rose. The two old gentlemen reminded each
+other jocosely that it was quite time to leave, for the husband had
+returned to his young wife after a long absence, and they would have
+much to say to each other.
+
+"Indeed you will do wisely to go soon," whispered Athalie to Timar.
+"Timéa has such dreadful headaches every evening, that she can not sleep
+before midnight. See how pale she is!"
+
+"Timéa, you are unwell?" asked Timar, tenderly.
+
+"There is nothing the matter with me," answered she.
+
+"Don't believe her; ever since we came to Levetinczy she has suffered
+from headache. It is neuralgia, which she contracted by overtaxing her
+brain, and by the bad air here. I found a white hair in her head the
+other day. But she conceals her suffering till she breaks down, and even
+then she never complains."
+
+Timar experienced in spirit the tortures of a criminal stretched on the
+rack. And he had not the courage to say to his wife, "If you are
+suffering, let me sleep in your room and take care of you." No; he was
+afraid of uttering Noémi's name in his sleep, and that his wife might
+hear it, as she was kept awake by pain half the night. He must shun his
+marriage-bed.
+
+The next day they started for Komorn, and traveled by post, Michael
+sitting opposite the two ladies. It was a tedious journey: in the whole
+Banat the harvest was over; only the maize was still standing, otherwise
+they saw nothing but monotonous fields of stubble. None of them spoke;
+all three found it hard to keep awake. In the afternoon Timar could no
+longer endure the silent looks, the enigmatical expression of his wife;
+under pretense of wanting to smoke he took a seat by the driver in the
+open _coupé_, and remained there. When they got out at a post-house,
+Athalie grumbled at the bad roads, the dreadful heat, the annoying
+flies, the stifling dust, and all the rest of a traveler's trials. The
+inns are dirty, the food disgusting, the beds hard, the wine sour, the
+water impure, and the countenances of all the people frightful. She
+feels so ill all through the journey, she is quite knocked up, she has
+fever, and her head will burst: what must Timéa be suffering, who is so
+nervous?
+
+Timar had to listen to these lamentations all the way, but Timéa never
+uttered a complaint.
+
+When they arrived at Komorn, Frau Sophie informed them that she had
+turned gray with loneliness. Gray indeed! She had been very happy--being
+able to go about all day from house to house to gossip to her heart's
+content. Timar felt a painful anxiety. Home is either a heaven or a
+hell. Now at last he would know what lay behind the marble coldness of
+this silent face.
+
+As he entered the room with his wife, she handed him the key of his
+desk. Michael knew she had opened it to get out the contract.
+
+This writing-desk was an old and elaborate piece of furniture, whose
+upper part was closed by a rolled falling cover, under which were
+drawers of various sizes. In the large drawer lay the contracts, in the
+small ones notes and valuables; the lock was a puzzle one, which you
+might vainly turn if you did not know its secret.
+
+Timéa was in the secret, and could have access to all the drawers. With
+an uneasily beating heart Timar drew out the drawer where those jewels
+were kept which it had been unadvisable to place on the market. These
+gems have their own experts, who recognize by certain marks where this
+stone or that gem came from; and then follows the question, how did he
+get it? Only the third generation from the finder can venture to show
+it, as to him it is all one in what way his grandfather came into its
+possession.
+
+If Timéa had been inquisitive enough to open that drawer she must have
+seen these gems. And if so, one among them, the diamond locket with the
+portrait which is so like her, must have been recognized by her. It is
+her mother's picture, and then she must know all. She knows that Timar
+has received her father's treasures; it is hard to believe he came by
+them honestly. And by that dark, perhaps criminal road, they would lead
+to the fabulous riches which gained her hand for Timar, while he played
+the generous friend to her whom he had robbed. She may even think worse
+things of him than are true. Her father's mysterious death, his secret
+burial, might awake in her the suspicion that Timar had a hand in it.
+
+These doubts were unbearable. Timar must set them at rest, and call yet
+one more falsehood to his aid. He took out the medallion and went with
+it to Timéa. "Dear Timéa," he said, sitting down beside his wife, "I
+have been living a long time in Turkey. What I did there you will learn
+later on. When I was in Scutari an Armenian jeweler offered me a
+diamond-framed picture, which is very like you. I bought it, and have
+brought you the ornament."
+
+When Timéa saw the portrait her face changed in an instant. An emotion
+which could neither be assumed nor concealed was visible in her
+sculptured features; she seized the picture with both hands and pressed
+it eagerly to her lips; her eyes filled with tears. This was true
+feeling; Timéa's face began to live.
+
+Michael was saved. The girl, overpowered by her long-suppressed
+feelings, began to sob violently. Athalie heard and came in; she was
+surprised--she had never known Timéa to sob. But when she saw Athalie
+she ran toward her like a child, and cried, in a tone of mingled
+laughter and tears, "See, see! my mother! It is my mother's picture.
+. . . He has brought it to me!"
+
+And then she hastened back to Michael, put both her arms round his neck,
+and whispered in a broken voice, "Thanks, oh, a thousand thanks!"
+
+It seemed to Timar as if the time had come to kiss these grateful lips,
+and to kiss them on and on.
+
+But alas! his heart said, "Thou shalt not steal." Now a kiss on these
+lips would be a theft, after all that had passed on the ownerless
+island.
+
+Another thought struck him. He went back to his room, and fetched all
+the hidden jewels which remained in the drawer.
+
+A wonderful woman this, who, though she had the key in her hands, left
+the secret drawers untouched and only took out the one paper she
+required! Then he packed all the ornaments into the bag he had over his
+shoulder when he came home, and went back to his wife. "I have not told
+you all," he said to Timéa. "Where I found the picture I discovered also
+these jewels, and bought them for you. Take them as a present from me."
+
+And then he laid the dazzling gems one after another in Timéa's lap,
+until the sparkling heap quite covered her embroidered apron. It was
+like some magical gift from the thousand and one nights.
+
+Athalie stood there pale with envy, with angrily clinched teeth. Perhaps
+these might all have been hers! But Timéa's face darkened and grew
+marble-like again. She looked with indifference at the heap of jewels in
+her lap. The fire of diamonds and rubies could not warm her.
+
+
+
+
+_BOOK FOURTH.--NOÉMI._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A NEW GUEST.
+
+
+What rich bankers call business filled up the winter season, and
+Levetinczy began to enjoy his position. Riches bring pleasant dreams. He
+went often to Vienna and took part in the amusements of the commercial
+world, where many good examples were presented to him. A man who owns a
+million can allow himself the luxury, when he goes to the jeweler to buy
+New Year's gifts, of buying two of everything to please two hearts at
+once.
+
+One for his wife, who sits at home and receives guests or looks after
+the household--the other for another lady, who either dances or sings,
+but in any case requires an elegant hotel, jewels, and laces. Timar was
+so fortunate as to be invited to the parties given at home by his
+friends, where the lady of the house makes tea--as well as to those
+differently organized _soirées_, where a very unceremonious set of
+ladies preferred champagne, and where Timar was constantly attacked by
+the question whether he had no little friend at the opera yet.
+
+"The pattern of a faithful husband," declared his admirers.
+
+"An unbearable prig," was the verdict of his critics.
+
+But he says nothing, and thinks of--Noémi. What an eternity to have been
+separated from her--six months; to think of her every day, and not dare
+to confide his thoughts to a single soul!
+
+He often caught himself on the point of betraying his thoughts; once as
+he sat at table the words all but escaped him, "Look! those are the same
+apples which grow on Noémi's island." "When Noémi had a headache, it
+went away if I laid my hand on her forehead." And if he looked at
+Timéa's pet white cat, the exclamation hovered on his lips, "Narcissa,
+where did you leave your mistress, eh?"
+
+He had every reason to be on his guard, for there was a being in the
+house who watched him as well as Timéa with Argus eyes.
+
+Athalie could not but remark that since his return he was no longer so
+melancholy as before; every one noticed how well he looked; there must
+be some mystery in it. And Athalie could not bear any one in this house
+to be happy. Where did he steal his contentment? Why does he not suffer
+as he ought to do?
+
+Business prospered. In the first month of the new year news came from
+the other side of the sea. The flour exported had arrived safely, and
+its success was complete. Hungarian flour had won such renown in South
+America, that now people tried to sell the native product under that
+name. The Austrian consul in Brazil hastened to inform his government of
+this important result, by which the export trade was increased in a
+marked degree. The consequence was that Timar was made a privy
+councilor, and received the minor order of St. Stephen, as an
+acknowledgment of the services rendered by him to his native land in the
+fields of commerce and philanthropy.
+
+How the mocking demon in his breast laughed when they fastened the order
+on to his coat and called him "the right honorable!" "You have to thank
+two women for this--Noémi and Timéa." Be it so. The discovery of the
+purple dye had its origin in the eating of a purple snail by the little
+dog of a shepherd's mistress; but yet purple has become a royal color.
+
+Herr von Levetinczy now first began to rise in the estimation of the
+people of Komorn. When a man is a privy councilor, one can not deny him
+a proper portion of respect. Every one hastened to congratulate him, and
+he received them all with a gracious condescension. Our Johann Fabula
+came too to wish him joy in the name of the fisher-folk. He was in the
+gala clothes of his class. On his short dolman of dark-blue cloth shone
+three rows of shell-shaped silver buttons, as large as nuts, and from
+one shoulder to the other hung a broad silver chain with a large
+medallion for a clasp, on which the Komorn silversmith had stamped the
+head of Julius Cæsar. The other members of the deputation were equally
+splendid. Silver buttons and chains were at that time still worn by the
+mariners of Komorn. It was the custom to keep the visitors to dinner,
+and this honor fell to Fabula. He was a very frank person, who spoke
+with complete unreserve. When wine had loosened his tongue, he could not
+forbear to tell the gracious lady that when he first saw her as a girl
+he would never have thought that she would have become such a good
+housewife and be the wife of Herr von Levetinczy. Yes, indeed; he was
+afraid of her then, and now see how wonderful are the ways of God's
+providence, and how short-sighted are men; how everything has been
+ordered for the best: what happiness reigns in this house! If only a
+kind Providence would hear the prayers of those who entreat that a new
+blessing may be sent down from heaven to the good lord of Levetinczy, in
+the shape of a little angel.
+
+Timar covered his glass with his hand; a thought started through his
+mind--"Such a wish might have an unlooked-for result."
+
+But Herr Fabula was not content with good wishes, he thought he must add
+some good advice. "But his honor rushes about too much. In good truth I
+would not leave such a sweet, pretty lady alone. But it can't be helped
+if the master must see to everything himself, for that's why it
+succeeds. Who would have thought of sending our flour across the sea? To
+tell the truth, when I heard it--excuse me for making so free--I thought
+to myself the master must have gone silly; before that flour gets there
+it will all be musty, while loaves grow out there on the trees and roll
+on the bushes. And now just see what credit we have all got by it. But
+it is the master's eye that feeds the horse--"
+
+This was to Michael an unwelcome irony, which he could not leave without
+contradiction. "My good Johann, if that was the secret of our success,
+you must bestow all your praises on my wife, for it was she who looked
+after everything."
+
+"Yes, indeed; all honor to the merits of our noble lady!" said Fabula;
+"but, with his honor's permission, I know what I know. I know where his
+honor spent the whole summer."
+
+Michael felt as if his hair stood on end with horror. Could this man
+know where he had been? It would be awful if he did.
+
+Michael winked with one eye over his glass at his guest, but in vain.
+
+"Well, shall I tell our gracious lady where the master spent the summer?
+Shall I let it out?"
+
+Michael felt every limb paralyzed by terror. Athalie kept her eyes fixed
+on his face; he durst not betray by a gesture that the gossip of the
+tipsy chatterer confused him. "Well, tell us then, Johann, where I was,"
+he said, with enforced calmness.
+
+"I will complain of you to the gracious lady; I will tell her," cried
+Fabula, putting down his glass. "His honor ran away without saying a
+word to any one. He went quietly on board a ship and sailed away to
+Brazil; he was over there in America and settled everything himself, and
+that's why it all went so smoothly."
+
+Timar looked at the two women. On Timéa's face was reflected pure
+surprise, Athalie was vexed. She believed as fully in the truth of
+Fabula's tale as he did himself, and he would have staked his head on
+it.
+
+Timar also smiled mysteriously at the story; now he was the one who
+lied, not Johann Fabula. The man of gold must go on lying.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The story was very useful to Timar. He had now a sufficient excuse for
+his mysterious disappearances, and it was possible for him to give such
+an air of probability to the story of his Brazilian voyage that even
+Athalie believed it. Indeed, she was the easiest to deceive. She knew
+what Timéa was feeling, and that she was glad to distract herself by
+absence and work from the thought of him on whose account her heart
+ached. If a wife can do so, why not the husband? It was even simpler for
+him to fly from his sorrows to another hemisphere, and in the pursuit of
+wealth to forget what his heart coveted. How should Athalie have guessed
+that it was the husband who had already found a cure for his mortal
+sickness, and who was happy away from home? What would she have given to
+him who should have revealed the truth? But the rushes round the
+ownerless island did not chatter like the reeds to which King Midas's
+barber trusted his secret. Athalie was consumed with envy, while she
+vainly sought for a key to the riddle. At home and in public, Timar and
+Timéa presented the exemplary picture of a happy marriage. He heaped on
+his wife expensive jewels, and Timéa loaded herself with them when they
+went into society; she wished to shine by this means.
+
+What could better prove the affection of the husband than the diamonds
+of the wife? Could Timar and Timéa really be a couple whose love
+consisted in giving and receiving diamonds, or are there people in this
+world who can be happy without love?
+
+Athalie still suspected Timéa and not Timar. But Timar could hardly wait
+till the winter was over and spring had come: of course, because then
+the mills can begin to grind again--what else could a man of business
+have in his mind?
+
+This year Michael persuaded Timéa not to try her health by the
+management of business; he would give it over to his agents, and she
+should go during the summer to some sea-bathing place, to get rid of her
+neuralgia.
+
+No one asked him where he was going. It was taken for granted that he
+would again travel to South America, and pretend he had been in Egypt or
+Italy.
+
+But he hurried away to the Lower Danube. When the poplars grew green, he
+could not stay at home: the alluring picture filled his dreams and took
+captive all his thoughts. He never stopped at Levetinczy, but only gave
+general instructions to his agent and his steward to do their best; then
+he went on to Golovacz, where he stayed a night with the dean; thence he
+had only a half-day's journey to get to Noémi. He had not seen her for
+six long months; his mind was filled with the picture of the meeting.
+Awake and asleep he was full of longing, and could hardly wait for dawn.
+Before sunrise he was up, put on his knapsack, threw his gun over his
+shoulder, and without waiting for the appearance of his host, he left
+the presbytery and hastened to the wooded river-bank.
+
+The Danube does a good work in widening the limits of the wood every
+year by retreating from its banks, for in this way the watch-houses
+built twenty-five years ago on the shore have now taken up a position
+much further inland. And he who wishes to cross the river without a
+passport finds in the young brushwood an entirely neutral territory.
+
+Timar had sent a new boat to the hut, where he went on foot; he found it
+ready, and started as usual alone on the way to the reed-beds. The
+skiff floated like a fish on the water, and that it traveled so swiftly
+was not owing to itself alone. The year had grown to April, it was
+spring, and the trees at Ostrova were already in blossom. So much the
+more astonished was he at the sight which met his eyes on the other
+side. The ownerless island did not look green; it seemed to have been
+burned. As he approached he saw the reason; all the trees on the
+northern side were quite brown. The boat traversed the rushes quickly;
+when it touched the bank, Michael saw plainly that a whole long row of
+trees, Frau Therese's favorite walnuts, were dead--every one of them.
+Michael felt quite downcast at the sight. At this season he was
+generally greeted by green branches and rosebuds. Now a dead forest
+welcomed him--a bad omen.
+
+He pressed forward and listened for the bark of greeting: not a sound to
+be heard. He walked on anxiously; the paths were neglected, covered by
+dry autumn leaves, and it seemed to him as if even the birds were
+silent. When he drew near the hut, a dreadful feeling overcame
+him--where were the inhabitants? They might be dead and not buried; he
+had been busied about other things for half a year--with affairs of
+state, with showing off his young wife, and making money. And meanwhile
+Heaven had watched over the islanders--if it chose.
+
+As he entered the veranda, a door opened and Therese came out. She
+looked serious, as if something had frightened her; and then a bitter
+smile appeared on her face. "Ah! you have come!" said she, and came to
+press his hand. And then it was she who asked him why he came looking so
+grave. "No misfortune has happened?" Timar asked, hastily.
+
+"Misfortune? No," said Therese, with a melancholy smile.
+
+"My heart was sore when I saw the dead trees," said Michael, to excuse
+his serious looks.
+
+"The flood last summer did that," answered Therese; "walnut-trees can
+not stand wet."
+
+"And how are you both?" asked Timar, uneasily.
+
+Therese answered gently, "We are pretty well, I and the other two."
+
+"What do you mean? the other two?"
+
+She smiled and sighed, and smiled again; then she laid her hand on
+Michael's shoulder and said, "The wife of a poor smuggler fell ill here:
+the woman died, the child remained here. Now you know who the other two
+are."
+
+Timar rushed into the house: at the far end of the room stood a cradle
+woven of osiers, and near it, on one side, was Almira, on the other
+Noémi. Noémi rocked the cradle and waited till Timar came to her. In it
+lay a little baby, with chubby cheeks, which pressed the cherry lips
+into a soft pout; its eyes were only half shut, and the tiny fists lay
+over its face. Michael stood spell-bound before the cradle. He looked at
+Noémi as if to seek the answer to the riddle in her face, on which a
+sweet ray of heavenly light seemed to shine, in which modesty and love
+were combined. She smiled and cast her eyes down. Michael thought he
+would lose his senses.
+
+Therese laid her hand on his arm, "Then are you angry that we have
+adopted the orphan child of the poor smuggler's wife? God sent it to
+us."
+
+Angry? He had fallen on his knees, and held the cradle in his embrace,
+pressing it and its inhabitant to his breast; then he began to sob
+violently, like one who has kept a whole ocean of sorrow in his heart,
+which suddenly overflows its bounds.
+
+Timar kissed the little messenger from God wherever he could--its little
+hands and feet, the hem of its robe, its rosy cheeks. The baby made
+grimaces under the kisses, but did not wake. At last it opened its eyes,
+its great blue eyes, and looked at the strange man with astonishment, as
+if to say, "Does this man want anything of me?" and then it laughed, as
+if it thought, "I don't care what he wants," and after that it shut its
+eyes and slumbered on, still smiling and undisturbed by the flood of
+kisses.
+
+Therese said, smiling, "You poor orphan! you never dreamed of this, did
+you?" and turned away to hide her tears.
+
+"And am I to have no greeting?" said Noémi, with charming anger. Michael
+turned to her, still on his knees. He spoke not a word, only pressed her
+hand to his lips and hid his face silently in her lap. He was dumb as
+long as the child slept. When the little creature awoke, it began to
+talk in its own language--which we call crying. It is lucky there are
+those who understand it. The baby was hungry.
+
+Noémi said to Michael that he must now leave the room, for he was not to
+know what the poor little orphan was fed upon.
+
+Michael went outside; he was in a transport. It seemed as if he was on a
+new star, from which one could look down on the earth as on a foreign
+body. All he had called his own on the terrestrial ball was left behind,
+and he no longer felt its attraction drawing him thither. The circle in
+which he had spent his former life was trodden under foot, and he had
+attained a new center of gravity. A new object, a new life, stood before
+him; only one uncertainty remained---how could he contrive to vanish
+from the world? To pass into another sphere without leaving this mortal
+life behind; to live on two different planets at once, to mount from
+earth to heaven, to pass again from heaven to earth, there to entertain
+angels, and here to live for money--alas! this was no task for human
+nerves. He would lose his reason in the attempt.
+
+Not without reason are little children called angels, or "messengers:"
+children are indeed messengers from the other world, whose mysterious
+influence is visible in their eyes, to those who receive them as gifts
+of God. A wonderful look often meets us in the eye of an infant, which
+is lost when the lips learn speech. How often Michael gazed for hours at
+this blue ray from heaven in the baby's eyes, when it lay on a lambskin
+out on the grass, and he stretched himself beside it, and plucked the
+flowers it wanted--"There, then, here it is." He had his work cut out to
+get it away, for the little thing put everything in its mouth. He
+studied its first attempts at language, he let it drag at his beard, and
+sung lullabies to put it to sleep.
+
+His feeling for Noémi was quite different now; it was not desire, but
+bliss--the glow of passion had given place to a sweet contented calm,
+and he felt like one convalescent from a fever. Noémi, too, had altered
+since they last met; on her face lay an expression of submissive
+tenderness, and in all her conduct was a consistent gentleness, which
+could not have been assumed--a quiet dignity combined with chaste
+reserve, which surrounds a woman with a halo, compelling respect. Timar
+could not get used to his happiness: he required many days to be
+convinced that it was not a dream--that this little hut, half wood, half
+clay, and the smiling woman with the babbling babe at her breast, were
+reality and not a vision.
+
+And then he thought, what will become of them?
+
+He strode about the island and brooded on the future.
+
+"What can I give this child? Much money? They know nought of money here.
+Great estates? This island suffices. Shall I take him with me and make
+him into a great and wealthy man? But the women could not part with him.
+Shall I take them too? But even if they consented, I could not do it;
+they would learn what I am, and would despise me. They can only be happy
+here: only here can this child hold up its head, where none can ask its
+name."
+
+The women had called it Adeodatus (Gift of God). It had no other name.
+What other could it have?
+
+One day when he was wandering aimlessly, deep in thought, about the
+island, striding through the bushes and weeds, Timar came suddenly to a
+part where the dry twigs crackled under his feet. He looked round; he
+was in the melancholy little plantation of dead walnut-trees. The
+beautiful trees were all dried up: spring had not clothed them with
+fresh green foliage, and the dead leaves covered the ground.
+
+An idea struck Michael in this vegetable cemetery. He hastened back to
+the hut. "Therese, have you still the tools you used in building your
+house?"
+
+"There they are on the shelf."
+
+"Give them here. I have an idea; I will fell the dead walnuts and build
+of them a little house for Dodi."
+
+Therese clasped her hands in astonishment. But Noémi's answer was to
+kiss her little Dodi and say to him, "Dost thou hear?"
+
+Michael interpreted the wonder on Therese's face as incredulity. "Yes,
+yes," he persisted, "I will build the house myself without any help--a
+little house like a jewel-case, like those the Wallachians build, lined
+with beautiful oak; mine shall be of walnut, and fit for a prince. I
+will drive every nail myself, and it shall be Dodi's house when he gets
+bigger."
+
+Therese only smiled. "That will be fine, Michael. I too built my nest as
+the swallows do; I formed the walls of clay, and thatched my roof with
+rushes. But carpentry is not one man's work; the old saw has two
+handles, and one can not manage it alone."
+
+"But are we not two?" cried Noémi, eagerly. "Can't I help him? Do you
+fancy my arm is not strong enough?" and she turned her sleeve up to her
+shoulder to show off her arm. It was beautifully formed, yet muscular,
+fit for Diana. Michael covered it with kisses from the shoulder down to
+the finger-tips, and then said, "Be it so."
+
+"Oh, we will work together," cried Noémi, whose lively fancy had seized
+on Michael's suggestion with lightning speed. "We will both go out into
+the wood; we will make a hammock for Dodi and sling it from the
+branches. Mother shall bring us out our meals, and we will sit on the
+planks we have sawn, and take our dinner out of the same plate: how good
+it will taste!"
+
+And so it did. Michael took the ax and went out to the walnut-grove,
+where he set to work. Before he had felled and topped one tree his hands
+were blistered. Noémi told him women's hands never got sore. When three
+trees were cut down, so that one trunk could be laid across the other
+two, Michael wanted Noémi's help. She was quite in earnest, and attacked
+the task bravely. In her slender form lay stores of strength and
+endurance. She handled the great saw as cleverly as if she had been
+taught to do it.
+
+Michael gradually got used to the dressing of the walnut planks; the ax,
+too, did good service, and Noémi admired him greatly. "Tell me,
+Michael," she asked him one day, "have you never been a carpenter?"
+
+"Oh, yes," he answered, "a ship's carpenter."
+
+"And tell me, how did you become such a rich man that you can stay away
+a whole summer from your work, and spend your time elsewhere? You are
+your own master, I suppose? You take orders from no one?"
+
+"I must tell you all about it some day," said Michael; and yet he never
+told her how he became rich, so as to be able to spend weeks on the
+island sawing wood. He often related to Noémi stories of his adventurous
+journeys through all lands, but in his romantic tales he never said
+anything about himself. He escaped inquisitive pressure by working hard
+all day; and when he lay down at night, it was not the time to tease him
+with questions, though many wives take advantage of the opportunity.
+
+During the long time Timar spent in the ownerless island, he had
+gradually become convinced that it was by no means so concealed as to be
+unknown: its existence was known to a large class of visitors. But they
+never revealed it to the outer world. Smuggling, on the banks of this
+wooded river, was a regular profession, with its own constitution, its
+own schools, its secret laws, forming a state within a state. It often
+surprised Timar to find among the willow-copses of the island a canoe or
+a boat, watched by no one. If he came back a few hours later, it was no
+longer there. Another time he stumbled on great bales of goods, which
+also had disappeared when he returned. All the mysterious people who
+used the island as a resting-place seemed purposely to avoid the
+neighborhood of the hut; they went and came without leaving a footmark
+on the turf. There were cases, however, in which they visited the hut;
+and then it was always Therese who received their visit. When Almira
+gave the signal that strangers were coming, Timar left his work and
+retired into the inner room; he must not be seen by any stranger. It is
+true the beard he had grown had altered him considerably, but yet some
+one might come who had seen him elsewhere. The wild people always came
+to Therese if they had been hurt; they often frequented places where
+they were likely to be wounded. Sometimes they had deep, dangerous
+gunshot wounds, which they could not show to the regimental surgeon,
+for the result would be a court-martial; but the island lady knew of
+healing salves, could reduce fractures, bind up wounds, and prescribe
+medicines for fevers. She was sought by sick people who kept secret
+their abode, for they knew the physicians would never endure this
+quack-doctoring. She reconciled enemies who dared not go to law, and
+consoled criminals who repented of their sins, with the hope of God's
+mercy. Often some fugitive, tired and exhausted with hunger and thirst,
+came to her threshold. She asked not, "Whence do you come or whither do
+you go?" She took him in, and let him go when restored and refreshed,
+after filling his pouch with food.
+
+Many know her whose religion is silence, and there is no bond which
+binds master and disciple so closely as this. Every one knows that no
+money is to be found here; even avarice has no reason to wish her ill.
+
+Timar could be certain of having found a place over which centuries
+might pass before the history of its inhabitants should be drawn into
+that chaos we call the world. He could go on with his carpentry without
+fearing that the news would leak out that Michael Timar Levetinczy,
+privy councilor, landowner, banker, had turned into a woodcutter in an
+unknown island; and that, when he rested from his hard labor, he cut
+willow branches to shelter a poor orphan child which had neither parents
+nor a name of its own. What joys he knew here! how he listened for the
+first word the child could speak! The little man had such trouble to
+shape his unskillful lips to the words. "Papa," of course, was the
+first; what else could it be? The child learns also to understand the
+sorrowful side of life; when a new tooth comes, what pain and sleepless
+nights must be endured! Noémi remains at home with it, and Michael runs
+back from his work to see how little Dodi is. He takes the child from
+Noémi and carries him about, singing lullabies to him. If he succeeds in
+putting Dodi to sleep and soothing his pain, how triumphant he is! He
+sings--
+
+    "For all the gold the world could hold,
+    I would not give my Dodi's curl."
+
+One day Michael suddenly found that he had grubbed up and cut down all
+the timber. So far the work had prospered; but now he found he could not
+get on. House-carpentry is a trade like any other, and must be learned,
+and he had not spoken the truth when he said he understood it.
+
+Autumn drew near. Therese and Noémi were already used to think it quite
+natural for Timar to leave them at this season; he must of course earn
+his bread. His business is of a sort which gets on by itself in the
+summer, but in winter he must give himself up to it. They knew that from
+other tradespeople. But in another house the same idea reigned. Timéa
+believed Michael had business which obliged him to spend the summer away
+from home: at that season the management of his estates, of his building
+and export contracts, demanded all his attention.
+
+From autumn to spring he deceived Timéa, from spring to autumn he
+deceived Noémi. He could not be called inconsistent.
+
+This time he left the island earlier than in other years. He hastened
+back to Komorn, where all his affairs had progressed in his absence
+beyond his expectations. Even in the government lottery the first prize
+must needs fall to him; the long-forgotten ticket lay buried somewhere
+in a drawer under other papers, and not till three months after the
+drawing did he bring it out, and claim the unhoped-for hundred thousand
+gulden, like one who hardly cares for such a trifle. The world admired
+him all the more. He had so much money, people said, that he wished for
+no more.
+
+What could he do with it?
+
+He began by sending for celebrated cabinet-makers from Szekler and
+Zarand, who understand the building of those splendid wooden houses
+which last for centuries--real palaces of hard wood. The Roumanian
+nobility live in such houses as these, which are full of beautiful
+carving inside. The house and its furniture, tables, chairs, and
+wardrobes, are all the work of one hand. Everything in it is of
+wood--not a single bit of iron is used.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE WOOD-CARVER.
+
+
+On his return home, Michael found Timéa somewhat unwell. This induced
+him to call in two celebrated doctors from Vienna in order to consult
+them about his wife's health. They agreed that a change of climate was
+necessary, and advised a winter sojourn in Meran; so Michael accompanied
+thither his wife and Athalie. In the sheltered valley, he chose for
+Timéa a villa in whose garden stood a pavilion built like a Swiss
+_châlet_. He knew that Timéa would like it. In the course of the winter
+he often visited her, generally in the company of an elderly man, and
+found that, as he expected, the _châlet_ was her favorite resort.
+
+When he returned to Komorn he set to work to build just such another
+_châlet_ as the one at Meran. The cabinet-maker he had brought with him
+was a master of his art. He copied the _châlet_ and its furniture in the
+minutest detail; then he installed a large workshop in Timar's
+one-storied house in the Servian Street, and there set to work. No one
+was to know anything about it--it was to be a surprise. But the
+architect required an apprentice to help him, and it was difficult to
+find one who could hold his tongue. There was nothing for it but to turn
+Timar himself into an apprentice, and he now vied with his master from
+morning to night with chisel and gimlet, in carving, planing, polishing,
+and turning. But as to the cabinet-maker himself, if you had closed his
+mouth with Solomon's seal, you could not have made him discreet enough
+to refrain from letting out the secret to his Sunday evening boon
+companions, of the surprise Herr von Levetinczy was preparing for his
+wife. First they made the different parts and fitted them together: then
+the whole, as fast as it was ready, was set up in the beautiful park on
+the Monostor. He himself, a regular Crœsus, does not shrink from working
+all day like a laborer, and is as good at the tools as if he were a
+foreman. He does not trouble about his own affairs, he leaves them to
+his agents, and saws and carves the whole day long in the workshop. But
+they must not let it go further, for the gracious lady was to have a
+surprise when she came home. Naturally the whole town heard of it, and
+so did Frau Sophie, who wrote to Athalie, who told Timéa, so that Timéa
+knew beforehand that Michael, when she came home in the spring, would
+drive with her some fine day to the Monostor hill, where they had a
+large orchard: there, on the side overlooking the Danube, she would find
+her dear Meran pavilion exactly copied, her work-basket at the window,
+her favorite books on the birchwood shelves, her cane chair on the
+veranda. All this to surprise her; and she must smile as if much
+pleased, and when she praised the maker, she would hear from him, "You
+must not compliment me, gracious lady, but my apprentice." "Who executed
+the best carvings, who made the footstool, these elegant balustrades,
+these columns and capitals?" "My apprentice." "And who was he?" "The
+noble lord of Levetinczy himself. All this is his work, gracious lady."
+
+And then Timéa would smile and try to find words to express her thanks.
+Only words: for he may heap treasures on his wife, or give her black
+bread that he had earned by his labor; he can not purchase her
+affection.
+
+And so it was. In the spring Timéa came back. The Monostor surprise was
+skillfully planned, with a splendid banquet and a troop of guests. On
+Timéa's face hovered a melancholy smile; on Timar's, reserved kindness;
+and on those of the guests, envious congratulation. The ladies said no
+woman was worthy of such a husband as Timar, he was an ideal husband;
+but the men said it was not a good sign when a husband tried to win his
+wife's favor by presents and attentions.
+
+Only Athalie said nothing: she sought a clew to the mystery and found
+none. What had come to Timar? His countenance betrayed something like
+happiness; what was he concealing under his care for Timéa? In company
+he was bright and cheerful, unconstrained and at ease with Athalie,
+sometimes even taking her for a turn in the cotillon. Was he really
+happy, or was he indifferent? It was vain for him to try and win Timéa's
+heart; Athalie knew that by her own experience. She had found plenty of
+wooers, but refused them all--all men were alike to her; she had only
+loved one, whom now she hated. She alone understood Timéa.
+
+But Michael she could not fathom. He was a man of pure gold, without a
+speck of rust upon him.
+
+When spring came, Timar again called in the physicians to pronounce on
+Timéa's health. This time she was advised to try the sea-bathing at
+Biarritz. Michael took her there, arranged her apartments, took care
+that she should be able to compete in dress and equipages with English
+peeresses and Russian princesses, and left a heavy purse with her,
+begging her to bring it back empty. He was generous to Athalie, put her
+down as Timéa's cousin in the visitor's list, and she too was to change
+her dress five times a day, like Timéa. Could any one better fulfill the
+duties of the head of a family?
+
+Then he hurried away, not homeward, but to Vienna; there he bought the
+whole furniture of a workshop, and had it sent in chests to Pancsova.
+
+Here he had to invent some pretense to get the boxes over to the island.
+Caution was most necessary. The fishermen, who often saw him go round
+the Ostrova Island in a boat, and not return for months, had puzzled
+their heads as to who he was and what brought him here. When the cases
+arrived, he had them conveyed to the poplar-groves of the left bank of
+the Danube, and there unloaded. Then he called in the fishermen, and
+said they must get them over to the lonely island--they contained arms.
+
+That one word was enough to sink the secret to the bottom of the sea.
+Henceforward he could go backward and forward by day or night, no one
+would ever mention his name. They all knew now that he was an agent of
+the Servian and Montenegrin heroes of the insurrection, and the rack
+would not have extorted information from them. He became a sacred
+personage in their eyes. In this way, in order to hide himself in
+darkness, he deceived every one with whom he exchanged a word. The
+fishermen ferried over the cases at night, and Timar with them; they
+looked out for a place on the shore where the thickest bushes grew, and
+carried the boxes there, and when Michael would have paid them, they
+would not accept a groschen from him, only grasping his hand.
+
+He remained on the island, and the fishermen left him. It was a splendid
+moonlight night; the nightingale sung on its nest. Michael went along
+the bank till he came to the path, and passed the place where he had
+left off his work last year; the trunks were carefully covered with
+rushes to keep the wet off.
+
+He approached the little dwelling on tiptoe. It was a good sign that he
+heard no noise. Almira does not bark, because she is sleeping in the
+kitchen so as not to wake the child. All is well in the house.
+
+How should he announce himself, and surprise Noémi? He stood before the
+little window, half covered by climbing roses, and began to sing--
+
+    "For all the gold the world could hold,
+    I would not give my Dodi's curl."
+
+He was not disappointed; a moment later the window opened, and Noémi
+looked out with a face radiant with joy. "My Michael," whispered the
+poor child.
+
+"Yes, thy Michael," he murmured, clasping the dear head in both arms.
+"And Dodi?"
+
+"He is asleep; hush, we must not wake him." And still the lips murmured
+tenderly, "Come in."
+
+"He might wake and cry."
+
+"Oh, he is no longer a crying child. Just think, he is a year old."
+
+"What! a year already! He is quite a big fellow."
+
+"He can say your name already."
+
+"Does he really talk?"
+
+"And he is learning to walk."
+
+"Just fancy!"
+
+"He eats anything now."
+
+"Impossible; that is too soon."
+
+"What do you know about it? wait till you see him."
+
+"Push the curtain aside that I may see him by the moonlight."
+
+"No; that would not do. If the moon shines on a sleeping child it makes
+it ill."
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"There are all sorts of wonderful things about children, and one must
+have plenty of faith; that is why women have charge of children, because
+they believe everything. Come in and look at him."
+
+"I will not go in as long as he is asleep--I might wake him; you come
+out."
+
+"I can not do that; he would wake if I left him, and mother is asleep."
+
+"Well, then, you go back to him, and I will remain outside."
+
+"Won't you lie down?"
+
+"It is almost day-break. Go back to him, and leave the window open."
+
+And he remained standing by the window, looking into the little room, on
+whose floor the moon painted silver patterns, and trying to distinguish
+the tones which came from the quiet chamber--a little whimper of an
+awakened child, then a low song like a dreamy lullaby, "For all the gold
+. . ." Then the sound of a kiss, which a good baby gets as a reward for
+going to sleep. With his elbows on the window-sill, and listening to the
+breaths of the sleepers, Timar awaited the dawn, which filled the little
+house with light. The red sunrise awoke the child, and there was no more
+sleep for the others. The baby crowed and babbled; what it said only
+those two understood--itself and Noémi.
+
+When at last Michael got it into his arms he said, "I shall stay here,
+Dodi, till I have finished your house."
+
+The child said something which Noémi interpreted to mean, "That is just
+what I wish."
+
+These were the happiest days of Timar's dual life. Nothing troubled the
+serenity of his happiness, except the thought of that other life to
+which he must return. If he could find ways and means to sever himself
+from that, he might live on here in peace. Nothing would be easier; he
+simply had to stay here. He would be sought for during the first year,
+for two or three more he would be remembered from time to time; then the
+world would forget him and he it, and Noémi would remain to him. And
+what a jewel she was! Whatever was lovable in woman was combined in her,
+and every feminine defect was wanting. Her beauty was not of the kind
+which satiates by its monotony: with every change of expression arose a
+new charm. Tenderness, gentleness, and fire were united in her
+disposition. The virgin, the fairy, the woman were harmoniously blended
+in her. Her love was never selfish; her whole being went out to him whom
+she loved: his sorrows and joys were hers, she knew no others. At home
+she thought of every trivial detail which could conduce to his comfort;
+she helped him in his work with an untiring hand. Ever bright and fresh,
+if she felt unwell a kiss from him drove away the pain. She was
+submissive to him, who worshiped her. And when she took the child on her
+lap, it was a sight to drive the man mad who had made her his own--and
+yet not really his.
+
+But Timar had not yet made up his mind. He still played with Fate. The
+price was too high even for such a treasure as a lovely woman with a
+smiling child in her arms.
+
+The cost was--a whole world! a property amounting to millions; his
+position in society; his rank and noble friends; the enterprise of
+world-wide influence, on whose result hung the future of a great
+national branch of trade! and besides--Timéa. He might have reconciled
+himself to the idea of treading his riches under foot: they came from
+the submarine depths, and might return thither.
+
+But his vanity refused to contemplate the notion that that woman with
+the white face, which no glow from her husband could animate, might be
+happy in this life--with another man. Perhaps he hardly knew himself
+what a fiend was hidden in his breast. The woman who could not love him
+was fading away before his eyes, while he could live through happy days
+where he was well beloved. And during this time the house-building made
+rapid progress, and was already being put together by the workman's
+skillful hand; the roof was on, and covered with wide planks formed like
+fish-scales to overlap each other. The carpentry was done, and now came
+the cabinet-work. Michael completed it without any assistance, and might
+be seen from morn to eve in the workshop he had arranged in the new
+house, where he sung all day as he planed and sawed. Like the steadiest
+of day-laborers, he never left off his work before dark; then he
+returned to the hut where an appetizing supper awaited him. After the
+meal he sat down on the bench outside the house, and lighted his clay
+pipe. Noémi sat by him and took Dodi on her knees, who was now expected
+to exhibit what he had learned during the day. A new word! And is not
+this one word a greater acquirement than all the wisdom of the world?
+"What would you sell Dodi for?" Noémi asked him once in jest. "For the
+whole earth full of diamonds?"
+
+"Not for the whole heaven full of angels."
+
+Little Dodi happened that day to be full of spirits. In a mischievous
+mood he caught hold with his little hand of the pipe Michael had in his
+mouth, and pulled till he got it out of his hold, when he at once threw
+it on the ground; as it was made of clay, of course it was broken into
+atoms. Timar was rather hasty in his exercise of justice, and bestowed a
+little tap on the child's hand as a punishment for the damage done. The
+boy looked at him, then hid his head in his mother's breast, and began
+to cry.
+
+"See now," said Noémi, sadly, "you would give him away for a pipe, and
+this one was only of clay."
+
+Michael was very sorry to have slapped Dodi's hand. He tried to make it
+up by coaxing words, and kissed the little hand, but the child was shy
+of him, and crept under Noémi's shawl. All night he was restless,
+wakeful, and crying. Timar got angry, and said the child was of a
+willful nature, his obstinacy must be overcome. Noémi cast a gently
+reproachful glance on him.
+
+The next day Timar left his bed earlier than usual, and went to his
+work, but he was never heard to sing all day. He left off early in the
+afternoon, and when he came home he could see by Noémi's face that she
+was quite alarmed at his appearance. His complexion was quite altered.
+"I am not well," he said to Noémi, "my head is so heavy, my feet will
+hardly carry me, and I have pain in all my limbs. I must lie down."
+
+Noémi hastened to make up a bed for him in the inner room, and helped
+him to undress. With anxiety she noticed that Michael's hands were cold
+and his breath burning. Frau Therese felt his forehead, and advised him
+to cover himself well, for he was going to have ague. But Michael had
+the sensation that something worse was at hand. In this district typhus
+was raging, for the spring floods had swelled the Danube in an unusual
+degree, and left malaria behind them. When he laid his head on the
+pillow he was still sensible enough to think of what would happen if a
+serious illness attacked him; no doctor was near to help. He might die
+here, and no one would know what had become of him. What would become of
+Timéa, and above all, of Noémi? Who would care for the forsaken one, a
+widow without being a wife? Who would bring up Dodi, and what fate
+awaited him when he should be grown up, and Michael underground? Two
+women's lives would be wrecked by his death!
+
+And then he began to think of the revelations of his delirium before the
+two women who would be with him day and night--of his stewards, his
+palaces, and of his pale wife--of how he would see Timéa before him,
+call her by name, and speak of her as his wife--and Noémi knows that
+name.
+
+Besides his bodily pain, another thing tormented him--that he had struck
+Dodi yesterday. This trifle lay heavy as a crime on his soul. After he
+was in bed he wanted the child brought to him that he might kiss it, and
+whispered "Noémi," with hot breath.
+
+"What is it?" she answered.
+
+But already he know not what he had asked. Directly he was in bed the
+fever broke out with full force. He was a strong man, and such are the
+first to succumb to this "aid-de-camp" of death, and suffer the most
+from it. Thenceforward he wandered continually; and Noémi heard every
+word he spoke. The sick man knew no one, not even himself. He who spoke
+through his lips was a stranger--a man who had no secrets, and told all
+he knew. The visions are akin to the delusions of madness; they turn on
+one fixed idea, and however the detail may change, the central figure
+returns ever and again to the surface.
+
+In Timar's wandering there was one of these dominating figures--a woman.
+Not Timéa, but Noémi--of her he continually spoke. Timéa's name never
+passed his lips--she did not fill his soul.
+
+For Noémi it was horror and rapture combined to listen to this
+unconscious babble--horror, because it spoke of such strange things, and
+took her with him to such unknown regions, that she trembled at a fever
+which compelled him to look on at such marvels--and yet it was bliss to
+hear him, for he always talked of her, and her only.
+
+Once he was in a princely palace and talking with some great man. "To
+whom should his excellency give this decoration? I know a girl on the
+ownerless island--no one is more worthy of it than she. Give her the
+order. She is called Noémi; her other name? Do queens have another name?
+The first. Noémi the first, by the grace of God queen of the ownerless
+island and the rose-forest."
+
+He carried his idea further. "If I become king of the ownerless island,
+I shall form a ministry. Almira will be inspector of meat, and Narcissa
+will be appointed to the dairy department. I shall demand security from
+them, and name them as confidential advisers." Then he talked of his
+palaces. "How do you like these saloons, Noémi? Does the gilding of this
+ceiling please you? Those children dancing on the golden background are
+like Dodi--are they not like him? A pity they are so high up. Are you
+cold in these great halls? So am I--come, let us go away. It is better
+by the fire in our little hut. I do not love these high palaces; and
+this town is often visited by earthquakes--I fear the vault may fall in
+on us. There! behind that little door some one is spying on us--an
+envious woman. Do not look, Noémi! Her malicious glance might do you
+harm. This house once belonged to her, and now she wanders through it
+like a ghost. See, she has a dagger in her hand, and wants to murder
+you; let us run away!"
+
+But there was a hinderance in the way of escape--the frightful mass of
+gold. "I can not stand up, the gold drags me down. It is all on my
+breast; take it away! Oh, I am drowning in gold! The roof has fallen in,
+and gold is rolling down on me. I am suffocating. Noémi, give me your
+hand; pull me from under this horrible mountain of gold."
+
+His hand lay in Noémi's all the time, and she thought, trembling, what a
+fearful power it was which tortured a poor sailor with such dreams of
+money. Then he began again: "You don't care for diamonds, Noémi? You
+little fool! Do you think their fire burns? Don't be afraid. Ha! you are
+right, it does burn--I did not know that--it is hell-fire. Even the
+names are alike--Diamond, Demon. We will throw them into the
+water--throw them from you. I know where they came from, and I will
+throw them back into the water. Don't be afraid, I will not remain long
+under water. Hold your breath and pray. As long as you can stay without
+taking breath I shall be down below; I am only going to dive into the
+cabin of the sunken ship. Ah! who is lying on this bed?"
+
+Such a shudder seized him that he sprung from his couch and would have
+rushed away. Noémi was hardly able to get him back to bed. "Some one is
+lying there, but I must not say the name. See how the red moon shines in
+at the window. Shut the light out. I will not have it on my face. How
+near it is coming! Draw the curtain across!"
+
+But the curtains were drawn, and besides, it was pitch-dark outside.
+When the fever-fit passed, he murmured, "Oh, how lovely you are without
+diamonds, Noémi!"
+
+Then a fantasy seized him. "That man stands at our antipodes on the
+other side of the earth. If the earth were of glass he could look down
+upon us. But he can see me just as well as I see him. What is he doing?
+He is catching rattlesnakes, and when he comes back he will let them
+loose on the island. Don't let him land; don't let him come back!
+Almira! Almira! At him! tear him! Aha! now a giant snake has got him; it
+is strangling him. How frightful his face is! If only I need not see the
+snake swallow him! Will he look at me? Now there is only his head out,
+and he keeps looking at me. Oh, Noémi, cover my face that I may not see
+him!"
+
+Again the dream-scene changes. "A whole fleet floats on the sea. What
+are the ships laden with? With flour. Now comes a whirlwind, a tornado
+seizes the ships, carries them into the clouds and tears them into
+splinters. The flour is all spilled: the whole world is white with it,
+white is the sea, white the heavens, and white the air. The moon peeps
+from the clouds, and only look how the wind covers its face with flour!
+It looks like some red-nosed old toper who has powdered his face. Laugh
+then, Noémi!" But she wrung her hands and shuddered. The poor creature
+was by his bed day and night. By day she sat on a chair at his side; by
+night she pulled her bed close to his and slept beside him: careless of
+the infection, she laid her head on Michael's pillow, pressed his
+perspiring brow to her cheek, and kissed away the burning fever-breaths
+from his parched lips.
+
+Frau Therese tried by harmless remedies to reduce the fever, and took
+out the glass casements that the fresh air--the best medicine in fever
+cases--might freely penetrate the little room. She said to Noémi, that
+by her calculation the crisis would set in on the thirteenth day, when
+the illness would either take a turn for the better or terminate
+fatally.
+
+How long Noémi knelt during these days by the sick man's bed and prayed
+to God, who had tried her so heavily, to have mercy on her poor heart!
+If only He would give Michael back to life--and then if the grave must
+have a sacrifice, there was she ready to die in his stead.
+
+Providence delights in what one might call the irony of fate--Noémi
+offered to cruel death the whole world and her own self, in exchange for
+Michael's life. She fancied she had to do with a good fellow who might
+be bargained with. The destroying angel accepted her challenge.
+
+On the thirteenth day the fever and delirium ceased: the previous
+nervous excitement gave place to intense exhaustion, which is a symptom
+of improvement, and permits a hope that with the greatest care the
+patient may be given back to life, if his mind is kept calm and he is
+preserved from anxiety or emotion: sick people are so easily excited at
+this stage of convalescence. His recovery hung on perfect tranquillity;
+any violent excitement would kill him. Noémi stayed all night by Timar's
+sick-bed: she never even went out once to see little Dodi; he slept in
+the outer room with Frau Therese. On the morning of the fourteenth day,
+while Michael lay sound asleep, Therese whispered in Noémi's car,
+"Little Dodi is very ill." The child now! Poor Noémi! Her little Dodi
+had the croup, the most dangerous of all childish maladies, against
+which all the skill of the physician is often powerless.
+
+Mortally terrified, Noémi rushed to her child. The face of the innocent
+creature was quite changed. It was not crying--this disease has no
+characteristic cry, but so much the more dreadful is the suffering. How
+terrible, a child who can not complain, whom men can not help! Noémi
+looked blankly at her mother as if to ask, "And have you no cure for
+this?" Therese could hardly bear this look. "So many miserable sick and
+dying people have been helped by you, and for this one you know of no
+remedy!"
+
+"None!" Noémi knelt down beside the child's little bed, pressed her lips
+on his, and murmured softly, "What is it, my darling, my little one, my
+angel? Look at me with thy pretty eyes."
+
+But the little one would not lift up the pretty eyes, and when at last,
+after many kisses and entreaties, it opened the heavy lids, its
+expression was terrible--the look of a child which has already learned
+to fear death. "Oh, don't look so! not so!" The child never cried, but
+only gave utterance to a hoarse cough.
+
+If only the other invalid in there does not hear it! Noémi held her
+child trembling in her arms, and listened to hear if the sleeper close
+by was yet awake. When she heard his voice she left the child and went
+to Michael. He was suffering from great exhaustion, irritable and
+peevish.
+
+"Where had you gone?" he questioned Noémi. "The window is open; a rat
+might get in while I was asleep. Don't you see a rat about?" It is a
+constant delusion of typhus patients to see rats everywhere.
+
+"They can't get in, my darling; there is a grating over the window."
+
+"Ah! and where is the cold water?" Noémi gave him some to drink. But he
+was very angry with it. "That is not fresh cold water, it is quite warm.
+Do you want me to die of thirst?"
+
+Noémi bore his crossness patiently. And when Michael fell asleep again,
+she ran out to Dodi. The two women replaced each other, so that as long
+as Michael slept, Therese sat by him, and when he awoke she gave Noémi a
+sign to leave her sick child and take her place by Michael's bed. And
+this went on through the long night. Noémi passed constantly from one
+sick-bed to the other, and she had to keep excuses always ready for her
+husband if he should ask where she had been.
+
+The child grew worse. Therese could do nothing, and Noémi dared not weep
+for fear of Michael seeing her tearful eyes and asking the reason. The
+next morning Timar felt easier, and wished for some soup. Noémi hastened
+out to fetch it, as it was kept ready. The invalid swallowed it, and
+said he felt the better for it. Noémi seemed delighted at the good news.
+
+"Well, and what is Dodi doing?" asked Michael.
+
+Noémi trembled lest he should see the throbs of her heart at the
+question.
+
+"He is asleep," she replied, gently.
+
+"Asleep? But why asleep now? He is not ill?"
+
+"Oh, no; he is all right."
+
+"And why do you not bring him to me when he is awake?"
+
+"Because then you are asleep."
+
+"That is true; but when we are both awake together, you must bring him
+in and let me see him."
+
+"I will do so, Michael."
+
+The child sunk gradually. Noémi had to conceal from Timar that Dodi was
+ill, and constantly to invent stories about him, for his father
+constantly asked for him. "Does Dodi play with his little man?"
+
+"Oh, yes, he is always playing with him" ( . . . with that fearful
+skeleton!).
+
+"Does he talk of me?"
+
+"He loves to talk of you" ( . . . he will do so soon when he is with the
+good God).
+
+"Take him this kiss from me;" and Noémi bore to her child the parting
+kiss of his father.
+
+Another day dawned. The awakening invalid found himself alone in the
+room. Noémi had watched all night by her child: she had looked on his
+death-struggle, and pressed her tears back into her heart; why had it
+not burst? When she went in to Michael she smiled again.
+
+"Were you with Dodi?" asked the sick man.
+
+"Yes, I have been with him."
+
+"Is he asleep now?"
+
+"Yes, he is asleep."
+
+"Not really?"
+
+"Truly, he sleeps well."
+
+Noémi has just closed his eyes--for his last sleep. And she dared not
+betray her agony. She must show a smiling face. In the afternoon Michael
+was much excited again: as the day drew on, his nervous irritation
+increased. He called to Noémi, who was in the next room; she hastened in
+and looked lovingly at him. The invalid was peevish and suspicious. He
+noticed that a needle was sticking in Noémi's dress, with a thread of
+silk in it.
+
+"Ah, you are beginning to work again! Have you time for that? What
+finery are you making?"
+
+Noémi looked at him silently, and thought, "I am making Dodi's shroud;"
+and then aloud, "I am making myself a collar."
+
+"Vanity, thy name is woman!" sighed Michael.
+
+Noémi found a smile for him, and answered, "You are quite right."
+
+Again the morning broke. Michael now suffered from sleeplessness; he
+could not close his eyes. And the thought troubled him as to what Dodi
+was doing. He sent Noémi out often to see if he wanted anything. And
+whenever she did so she kissed the little dead child on the bier, and
+spoke caressing words for Michael to hear: "My little Dodi! my darling
+sweet, asleep again! Tell mother you love her;" and then she came back
+to say that Dodi wanted for nothing.
+
+"The boy sleeps too much," said Michael; "why don't you wake him?"
+
+"I must wake him soon," said Noémi, gently.
+
+Michael dozed a little, only a few minutes, and woke with a start. He
+did not know he had been asleep. "Noémi," he cried, "Dodi was singing; I
+heard him: how sweetly he sings!"
+
+Noémi pressed both her hands to her heart, and drove back the outward
+expression of her agony with superhuman courage. Yes, he is already
+singing in heaven, amidst the angelic choir--among the innumerable
+seraphim! that was the song he joined in.
+
+Toward evening Michael sent Noémi out. "Go and put Dodi to bed, and give
+him a kiss for me."
+
+She did so. "What did Dodi say?" he asked her. Noémi could not speak;
+she bent over Michael and pressed a kiss on his lips.
+
+"That was his message, the treasure!" cried Michael, and the kiss sent
+him to sleep. The child sent it to him from his own slumber.
+
+The next morning he asked again about the boy. "Take Dodi out into the
+air; it is bad for him to be in the house; carry him into the garden."
+
+They were about to do so. Therese had dug a grave during the night at
+the foot of a weeping-willow.
+
+"You go too; and stay out there with him. I shall doze, I think, I feel
+so much better," Michael told Noémi.
+
+Noémi left the sick-room and turned the key: then they carried God's
+recovered angel out, and committed him to the care of the universal
+mother--earth. Noémi would not have a mound raised over him; Michael
+would be so sad when he saw it, and it would retard his recovery. They
+made a flower-bed there, and planted in its midst a rose-tree--one of
+those Timar had grafted--with white flowers, whose purity was unstained.
+Then she went back to the sick man.
+
+His first words were, "Where have you left Dodi?"
+
+"Out in the garden."
+
+"What has he on?"
+
+"His white frock and blue ribbons."
+
+"That suits him so well. Is he well wrapped up?"
+
+"Oh, yes, very well" (with three feet of earth).
+
+"Bring him in when you go out again."
+
+At this Noémi could not stop in the room; she went out and threw herself
+on Therese's breast, but even then she could not shed a tear. She must
+not. Then she tottered on into the garden, went to the willow, broke off
+a bud from the rose-tree, and went back to Michael.
+
+"Well, where's Dodi?" he said, impatiently.
+
+But Noémi knelt down by his bed and held out to him--the white rose.
+Michael took it and smelled it. "How curious!" he said; "this flower has
+no scent--as if it had grown on a grave."
+
+She rose and went out. "What is the matter?" asked Timar, turning to
+Therese.
+
+"Don't be angry," said she in a gentle, soothing tone. "You were so
+dangerously ill. Thank Heaven, you are getting over it. But this illness
+is infectious, and particularly during convalescence. I told Noémi that
+until you were quite well she must not bring the child near you. Perhaps
+I was wrong, but I meant it for the best."
+
+Michael pressed her hand. "You did quite right. Stupid that I was, not
+to have thought of it myself. Perhaps he is not even in the next room?"
+
+"No. We have made him a little house out in the garden." Poor thing, she
+told the truth.
+
+"You are very good, Therese. Go to Dodi and send Noémi to me. I will not
+ask her again to bring him to me. Poor Noémi! But as soon as I can get
+up and go out, you will let me go to him, won't you?"
+
+"Yes, Michael." By this pious fraud it was possible to satisfy him till
+he was out of bed and on the road to recovery. He was still very weak,
+and could hardly walk. Noémi helped him to dress. Leaning on her
+shoulder, he left his room, and she led him to the little seat before
+the house, sat beside him, put her arm in his, and supported his head on
+her shoulder. It was a lovely warm summer afternoon. Michael felt as if
+the murmuring trees were whispering in his ears, as if the humming bees
+brought him a message, and the grass made music at his feet. His head
+swam.
+
+One thought grew on him. When he looked at Noémi, a painful suspicion
+awoke in his breast. There was something in her expression which he
+could not understand; he must know it. "Noémi."
+
+"What is it, my Michael?"
+
+"Darling Noémi, look at me." She raised her eyes to his. "Where is
+little Dodi?"
+
+The poor creature could no longer hide her grief. She raised her martyr
+face to heaven, stretched up both hands, and faltered, "There! . . .
+there!"
+
+"He is dead!" Michael could hardly utter the words. Noémi sunk on his
+breast. Her tears were no longer to be controlled; she sobbed violently.
+
+He put his arm round her and let her weep on. It would have been
+sacrilege not to let these tears have free course.
+
+He had no tears--no. He was all wonder; he was amazed at the greatness
+of soul which raised the poor despised creature so far above himself.
+That she should have been able to conceal her sorrow so long out of
+tender consideration for him whom she loved! How great that love must
+be! When the paroxysm was over she looked smiling at Timar, like the sun
+through the rainbow.
+
+"And you could keep this from me?"
+
+"I feared for your life."
+
+"You dared not weep lest I should see traces of tears."
+
+"I waited for the time when I might weep."
+
+"When you were not with me, you nursed the sick child, and I was angry
+with you."
+
+"You were never unkind, Michael."
+
+"When you took my kiss to him you knew it was a farewell; when I
+reproached you with your vanity you were sewing his shroud; when you
+showed me a cheerful face your heart was pierced with the seven wounds
+of the Blessed Virgin! Oh, Noémi, I worship you!"
+
+But the poor thing only asked him to love her. Michael drew her on to
+his knee. The leaves, the grass, the bees, whispered now so clearly that
+he began to understand the swimming in his head.
+
+After a long and gloomy silence he spoke again. "Where have you laid
+him? Take me to him, Noémi."
+
+"Not to-day," said Noémi. "It is too far for you--to-morrow."
+
+But neither to-morrow nor the next day would she take him there.
+
+"You would sit by the grave and make yourself ill again: that is why I
+have made no mound over him, nor raised a cross, that you may not go
+there and grieve."
+
+Timar, however, was sad at this. When he was strong enough to walk
+alone, he went about seeking for what they would not show him.
+
+One day he came back to the house with a cheerful face. In his hand he
+held a half-blown rosebud, one of those white ones which have no scent.
+"Is it this?" he asked Noémi.
+
+She nodded: it could no longer be concealed. The white rose had put him
+on the track, and he noticed that it had been newly transplanted. And
+then he was tranquil, like one who has done with all that had given an
+object to life. He sat all day on the little bench near the house, drew
+on the gravel with his stick, and muttered to himself, "You would not
+exchange him for the whole earth full of diamonds, nor the whole heaven
+full of angels; . . . but for a miserable pipe you could strike his
+hand."
+
+The beautiful walnut-wood house stood half finished, and the great
+convolvulus had crept over its four walls. Michael never set foot in it.
+
+The only thing that kept up his half-recovered strength and his broken
+spirit was Noémi's love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MELANCHOLY.
+
+
+One bud after another opened on the rose-tree. Timar did nothing but
+watch the development and blossoming of these rosebuds. When one of them
+opened he broke it off, put it in his pocket-book, and dried it there on
+his breast. This was a melancholy task. All the tenderness lavished on
+him by Noémi could not cure his sadness. The woman's sweet caresses were
+burdensome to him. And yet Noémi could have comforted him at the cost of
+a single word; but modest reserve kept back that word, and it never
+occurred to Michael to question her.
+
+It is characteristic of those whose mind is diseased to occupy
+themselves only with the past.
+
+At last Noémi said to Timar, "Michael, it would be good for you to go
+away from here--out into the world. Everything here arouses mournful
+memories in you; you must go away to get well. I have done your packing,
+and the fruit-dealers will fetch you away to-morrow."
+
+Michael did not answer, but expressed his assent by a nod. The dangerous
+illness he had passed through had affected his nerves; and the situation
+he had brought upon himself, the blow which had struck him, had worked
+on those nerves so painfully, that he was forced to acknowledge that a
+longer stay would lead to madness or suicide.
+
+Suicide? There is no easier road out of a difficult position: failure,
+despair, mental conflict, blasted hopes, heart-pangs, fantastic
+bugbears, the memory of losses, phantoms of the beloved dead--all these
+are parts of a bad dream. One touch on the trigger of the pistol, and
+one awakes. Those who remain behind can go on with the dream.
+
+On the last evening, Michael, Noémi, and Therese sat all three after
+supper on the little bench outside, and Michael remembered that they had
+once been four together there.
+
+"What can that moon really be?" asked Noémi.
+
+Michael's hand, which Noémi held in hers, was clinched with sudden
+violence.
+
+"My evil star," he thought to himself. "Oh, if I had never seen it, that
+red crescent!"
+
+Therese answered her daughter's question: "It is a burned-out and
+chilled world, on which neither trees, flowers, nor animals, no air or
+water, no sounds or colors exist. When I was a girl at school, we used
+often to look through a telescope at the moon; it is full of mountains,
+and we were told they were the craters of extinct volcanoes. No
+telescope is powerful enough to show people on it, but learned men know
+with certainty that neither air nor water exists there. Without air and
+water nothing can live that has a human body, so no mortal can possibly
+be there."
+
+"But what if something did really live in it?"
+
+"What could do so?"
+
+"I will tell you what I think. Often in the old times, when I was still
+alone, I could not rid myself of one engrossing thought--especially when
+I sat by myself on the beach, and looked into the water. I felt as if
+something were drawing me into it, and calling to me that it was good to
+be down below there, and that there all was peace. Then I said to
+myself--Good! the body would rest at the bottom of the Danube; but where
+would the soul go?--it must find a dwelling somewhere. Then the thought
+arose that the soul which wrenched itself so forcibly and by its own
+will from its mortal shell could only soar to the moon. I believe that
+now even more firmly. If neither trees nor flowers, neither water nor
+air, neither colors nor sounds, can there exist--well, it is all the
+better fitted for those who did not wish to be encumbered with a body:
+there they will find a world where there is nothing to trouble them, nor
+anything to give them pleasure."
+
+Therese and Michael both rose with a start from beside Noémi, who could
+not understand what had moved them. She did not know that her own father
+was a suicide, and that he whose hand she held was ready to become one.
+Michael said the night was cool, they had better go in. One more
+haunting thought was now linked with the sight of the moon. The first he
+inherited from Timéa, the other from Noémi. What a fearful penalty--that
+the man should continually see before him in the heavens that shining
+witness, eternally recalling him to his first sin, the first fateful
+error of his ruined life!
+
+The next day Michael left the island: he passed by the unfinished
+walnut-wood house without even glancing at it.
+
+"You will return with the spring flowers," whispered Noémi tenderly in
+his ear. The poor thing thought it quite natural that for half of the
+year Michael should not belong to her. "But to whom does he then
+belong?" That question never occurred to her.
+
+When Michael arrived at Komorn, the long journey had still more
+exhausted him. Timéa was frightened when she saw him, and could hardly
+recognize him; even Athalie was alarmed, and with good reason.
+
+"You have been ill?" said Timéa, leaning on her husband's breast.
+
+"Very ill, for many weeks."
+
+"On your journey?"
+
+"Yes," answered Timar, to whom this seemed like a cross-examination. He
+must be on his guard at every question.
+
+"Good God! and had you anyone to nurse you there among those strangers?"
+
+The words had almost escaped him, "Oh, yes, an angel!" but he caught
+himself up and answered, "You can get anything for money." Timéa did not
+know how to show her sympathy, and so Michael could detect no change in
+the always apathetic face. She was always the same, and the frigid kiss
+of welcome drew them no closer together.
+
+Athalie whispered in his ear, "For God's sake, sir, take care of your
+life!"
+
+Timar felt the poisoned sting hidden beneath this tender consideration.
+He must live that Timéa might suffer; for if she became a widow, nothing
+would stand in the way of her happiness. And that would be a hell to
+Athalie.
+
+It seemed to Timar as if the demon who hated both him and his wife was
+now praying for the prolongation of his detested life, so that their
+mutual suffering might last the longer. Every one remarked the great
+change which had taken place in him. In the spring he was a strong man
+in the prime of life; now he was like a feeble, voiceless shadow.
+
+He withdrew to his office as soon as he arrived, and spent the whole day
+there. His secretary found the ledger lying on the desk just as he had
+opened it; he had not even looked at it. His agents were informed of his
+return, and hastened to present yards of reports. He said to them all,
+"Very good," and signed what they required, sometimes in the wrong
+place, sometimes twice over. At last he shut himself up from every one
+in his room, under pretense of requiring sleep. But his servants heard
+him walking up and down for hours together.
+
+When he went to the ladies to dine in their company, he looked so gloomy
+and stern that no one had the courage to address him. He hardly touched
+food, and never tasted wine. But an hour after dinner he rang for the
+servant, and asked angrily whether they were ever going to get the meal
+ready--he had forgotten that it was over. In the evening he could not
+sit up, so tired was he; when he sat down he dozed off at once; as soon,
+however, as he was undressed and in bed, slumber fled suddenly from his
+eyes. "Oh, how cold this bed is--everything in the house is cold!" Every
+piece of furniture, the pictures on the walls, even the old frescoes on
+the ceiling, seemed to cry to him, "What have you come here for? This is
+not your home! You are a stranger here!" How cold is this bed!
+
+The man who came to call him to supper found him already in bed. On
+hearing this, Timéa came to him and asked whether he would have
+something.
+
+"Nothing--no, nothing at all," answered Timar. "I am only overtired by
+the journey."
+
+"Shall I send for the doctor?"
+
+"Pray don't. I am not ill."
+
+Timéa wished him good-night, and went away after again feeling his
+forehead with her hand. But Timar was not in a condition to sleep. He
+heard every noise in the house; he heard them whispering and creeping on
+tiptoe past his door, so as not to disturb him. He was thinking where a
+man could best flee from himself. Into the realm of dreams? That would
+be good, indeed, if only one could find the way there as easily as into
+the kingdom of death. But one can not force one's self to dream. Opium?
+That is one way--the suicide of sleep. Gradually he noticed that it was
+growing darker in the room: the shades of night veiled closely every
+object, the light grew dim. At last he was surrounded by a darkness like
+that of a thick, motionless mist, like subterranean gloom, or the night
+of the blind: such an obscurity one "sees" even in sleep. Michael knew
+he was asleep, and the blindness lying over his eyes was that of
+slumber. Yes, he now had full consciousness of his position. He was
+lying in his own bed in his Komorn house--a table beside him with an
+antique bronze lamp-stand, and a painted lamp-shade with Chinese figures
+on it; over his head hung a large clock with a chime; the silken
+curtains were let down. The curious old bed had a sort of drawer below
+it, which could be drawn out and used as a second bed. It was
+beautifully made--one of those beds only found in fine old houses, in
+which a whole family might find room to sleep. Timar knew that he had
+not bolted his door; any one could come in who chose. How if some one
+came to murder him? And what difference would there be between sleep and
+death? This puzzled him in his dreams.
+
+Once he dreamed that the door opened softly and some one entered: a
+woman's steps. The curtain rustled, and something leaned over him: a
+woman's face. "Is it you, Noémi?" Michael thought in his dream, and
+started. "How came you here? If some one saw you?" It was dark, he could
+see nothing; but he heard the person sit down by his bed and listen to
+his breathing. Thus had Noémi done many a night in the little hut. "Oh,
+Noémi, will you watch again all through the night? When will you sleep?"
+
+The female figure, as if in answer, knelt down and drew out the shelf
+below the bed. Michael felt a mixture of fear and rapture in his breast.
+"You will lie down beside me; oh, how I love you, but I tremble for
+you!" and then the figure prepared a bed on the shelf and lay down. The
+dreamer in the bed longed to bend over her, to embrace and kiss her, and
+would have called again to her, "Go, hasten away from here, you will be
+seen;" but he could move neither limbs nor tongue, they were heavy as
+lead; and then the woman slept too. Michael sunk deeper into dreamland.
+His fancy flew through past and future, soared into the region of the
+impossible, and returned to the sleeping woman. He dreamed that he was
+awake, and yet the phantom was beside him.
+
+At last it began to dawn, and the sun shone through the window with more
+wonderful radiance than ever before. "Awake, awake!" whispered Michael
+in his dream. "Go home--the daylight must not find you here. Leave me
+now!" He struggled with the dream. "But you are not really here--it is
+only a delusion!"
+
+He forced himself to sever the bonds in which sleep held him, and awoke
+completely. It was really morning, the sunlight streamed through the
+curtains, and on the shelf below the bed lay a sleeping woman with her
+head on her arm.
+
+"Noémi!" cried Michael. The slumbering form awoke at the call and looked
+up. It was Timéa--
+
+"Do you want anything?" asked the woman, rising hastily from her couch.
+She had heard the tone but not the name. Her husband was still under the
+influence of his dream. "Timéa!" he stammered sleepily, astonished at
+the metamorphosis of Noémi into Timéa.
+
+"Here I am," said she, laying her hand on the bed.
+
+"How is it possible?" cried he, drawing up the quilt to his chin as if
+afraid of the face leaning over him.
+
+"I was anxious about you, I was afraid you might have some attack in the
+night, and I wanted to be near you." In the tone of her voice, in her
+look, lay such sincere and natural tenderness as could not be assumed: a
+woman's instinct is fidelity.
+
+Michael collected himself. His first feeling was alarm, his second
+self-reproach. This poor woman lying by his bed was the widow of a
+living man. She had never known a joy in common with her husband; now
+when he was in pain, she came to share it with him; and then followed
+the eternal falsehood--he must not accept this tenderness, he must
+repulse it.
+
+Michael said with forced composure, "Timéa, I beg you not to do this
+again; do not come into my room. I have been suffering from an
+infectious illness; I caught the plague on my journey, and I tremble for
+your life if you approach me. Keep far from me, I adjure you; I wish to
+be alone, both by day and night. There is nothing the matter with me
+now, but I feel that I must, for prudence' sake, avoid all those
+belonging to me; so I beg you earnestly not to do this again, never
+again." Timéa sighed deeply, cast down her eyes, and left the room. She
+had not even undressed, but had only lain down in her clothes at her
+husband's feet.
+
+When she was gone, Michael got up and dressed; his mind was much
+disturbed. The longer he continued this dual life, the more he felt the
+conflict of the double duties he had taken on himself. He was
+responsible for the fate of two noble, self-sacrificing souls. He had
+made both miserable, and himself more unhappy than either.
+
+What outlet could he find? If only one or other were an every-day
+creature, so that he could hate and despise her or buy her off! But both
+were equally nobly gifted: the fate of both was so heavy a charge
+against the author of it, that no excuse existed. How could he tell
+Timéa who Noémi was, or Noémi about Timéa? Suppose he were to divide all
+his wealth between the two, or if he gave his money to one and his heart
+to the other? But either was alike impossible, for neither was faithless
+or gave him a right to reject them.
+
+Living at home made Michael yet more ill.
+
+He never left his room all day, spoke to no one, and sat till evening in
+one place, without doing anything. At last Timéa resorted to a
+physician. The result of the consultation was that Michael was ordered
+to the seaside, that the water might restore to him what the land had
+taken from him. To this advice he replied, "I will not go where there is
+company." Then they suggested that he should choose some place where the
+season was over and the visitors gone; there he would find solitude. The
+cold baths were the important point. He now remembered that in one of
+the valleys near the Platten See he had a summer villa, which he had
+bought years ago when he hired the fishing of the Balaton lake, and he
+had only been there two or three times since. There, said he, would he
+spend the end of the autumn.
+
+The doctors approved his choice. The districts of Zala and Vessprimer on
+the banks of the lake are like the Vale of Tempe. Fourteen miles of
+unbroken garden-land form a charming chain of landscapes, with
+country-seats strewn here and there. The splendid lake is a sea in
+miniature, full of loveliness and romance; here is soft Italian air, the
+people are kind and cordial, the mineral springs curative; nothing could
+be better for a depressed invalid than to spend the autumn here. So the
+doctors sent Michael to the Platten See. But they had forgotten that
+toward the end of the summer hail-storms had laid waste the whole
+district; and nothing is more depressing than a place ruined by hail.
+The vineyards, which usually resound during the vintage with joyous
+cries, now stand deserted: the leaves of the fruit-trees are
+coppery-green or rusty brown; they take their leave until the coming
+spring: all is silent and sad; even the roads are overgrown with moss,
+for no one uses them. In the cornfields, instead of the sheaves of
+grain, ineradicable weeds abound, and instead of the golden heads,
+thistles, burdock, and nightshade are rampant, for no one comes to cut
+them down.
+
+At such a season Michael arrived at his villa on the Balaton. It was an
+ancient pile. Some noble family had built it as a summer residence,
+because the view had pleased them and they had money enough to afford
+themselves this luxury. It had but one low story within massive walls, a
+veranda looking over the lake, and trellises with large fig-trees. The
+heirs of the first owners had got rid of the lonely château for a
+nominal price, as it had no value except to a person bitten with the
+misanthropic desire to live there in solitude.
+
+No human dwelling is to be found within two miles of it, and even beyond
+that distance most of the houses are uninhabited. The presses and
+cellars are not open on account of the failure of the vintage. At Fured
+all the blinds are down and the last invalid has left; even the steamers
+no longer ply; the pump-room at the baths stands empty, and on the
+promenade the fallen leaves rustle round the feet of the passer-by--no
+one thinks it worth while to sweep them away. Not a man nor even a stork
+is left in the place--only the majestic Balaton murmurs mysteriously as
+it tosses its waves, and no one knows why it is angry. In its midst
+rises a bare rock, on whose top stands a convent with two towers, in
+which live seven monks--a crypt full of princely bones from top to
+bottom.
+
+And here Timar came to seek for health.
+
+Michael only brought one servant with him, and after a few days sent him
+back under pretense that the people of the house sufficed for his
+service. But there was only one old man, and he quite deaf.
+
+Round the villa no human voice was heard, not even the sound of a bell,
+only the haunting murmur of the great lake.
+
+Timar sat all day on the shore, and listened to the voices of the water.
+Often, when there was not a breath of air stirring, the lake began to
+roar, then the color of its surface changed to an emerald green as far
+as the eye could see: over the dark mirror of the waves not one sail,
+not a single ship, barge, or boat was visible; it might have been the
+Dead Sea.
+
+This lake possesses the double quality of strengthening the body and
+depressing the mind. The chest expands, the appetite increases, but the
+mind is inclined to a melancholy and sentimental state which carries one
+back to fairyland.
+
+Timar floated for hours on the gently rocking waves; he wandered whole
+days on the shore, and could hardly tear himself away when night fell.
+He sought no distraction from shooting or fishing. Once he took out his
+gun, and forgot it somewhere by the trunk of a tree: another time he
+caught a pike, but let it get away with his fly. He could fix his
+attention on nothing.
+
+He had taken a powerful retracting telescope with him, through which he
+gazed at the starry heavens during the long nights; at the planets with
+their moons and rings, on which in winter white spots are visible, while
+in summer a red light surrounds them; and then at that great enigma of
+the firmament, the moon, which when looked at through the glass appears
+like a shining ball of lava, with its transparent ridges, its deep
+craters, bright plains and dark shadows. It is a world of emptiness.
+Nothing is there except the souls of those who violently separated
+themselves from their body to get rid of its load. There they are at
+peace; they feel nothing, do nothing, know neither sorrow nor joy, gain
+nor loss; there is neither air nor water, winds nor storms, no flowers
+or living creatures, no war, no kisses, no heart-throbs--neither birth
+nor death; only "nothing," and perhaps memory.
+
+That would be worse than hell, to live in the moon as a disembodied soul
+in the realm of nothingness, and to remember the earth, where are green
+grass and red blood, where the air echoes with the roll of the thunder
+and the kisses of lovers, where life and death exist. And yet something
+whispered to Michael that he must take refuge among the exiles to that
+region of annihilation. There was no other way of escape from his
+miserable existence.
+
+The nights of autumn grew longer and the days shorter, and with the
+waning daylight the water in the lake grew colder and colder. But Timar
+enjoyed bathing in it even more. His frame had regained its former
+elasticity, all traces of his illness had vanished, nerves and muscles
+were as steel; but his mental agony increased.
+
+The nights were always clear and the skies thickly sown with stars:
+Timar sat by his open window and studied the shining points in boundless
+space through his glass, but never until the moon had set. He detested
+the moon, as we grow to hate a place we know too well, and with whose
+inhabitants we have quarreled.
+
+During his observations of the starry heavens he had the exceptional
+good fortune to witness one of those celestial phenomena which are all
+but unique in the annals of astronomy. A comet returning after
+centuries of absence appeared in the sky. Timar said to himself, "This
+is my star; it is as lost as my soul; its coming and going are as
+aimless as mine, and its whole existence as empty and vain a show as is
+my life." Jupiter and his four moons were moving in the same direction
+as the comet; their orbits must cross. When the comet approached the
+great planet, its tail seemed to divide; the attraction of Jupiter began
+to take effect. The great star was trying to rob its lord, the sun, of
+this vaporous body. The next night the comet's tail was split in two.
+Then the largest and most distant of Jupiter's moons drew rapidly near.
+
+"What has become of my star?" asked Timar.
+
+The third night the nucleus of the comet had grown dull and began to
+disperse, and Jupiter's moon was close to it. The fourth night the comet
+had been divided into two parts; there were two heads and two tails, and
+both the starry phantoms began in separate parabolic curves their
+aimless flight through space. So "this" occurs in the heavens as well as
+on earth?
+
+Timar followed this marvelous phenomenon with his telescope till it was
+lost in impenetrable space. This sight made the deepest impression on
+his mind; now he had done with the world. There are hundreds of motives
+for suicide, but the most urgent are to be found among those who give
+themselves up to scientific research.
+
+Keep a watchful eye on those who seek to fathom the secrets of nature
+without a technical education. Hide away the knife and the pistol every
+night, and search their pockets lest they carry poison about them.
+
+Yes, Timar was determined to kill himself. This idea does not come to
+strong characters all at once, but it ripens in them by degrees. They
+grow used to it as the years go by, and carefully provide for its
+execution. The thought had now ripened in Timar, and he went
+systematically to work.
+
+When the severe weather set in, he left the Platten See and returned to
+Komorn. He made his will. His whole property he left to Timéa and the
+poor, and with such careful foresight that he provided a separate fund
+out of which Timéa, in case she married again, or her heirs if they
+stood in need of it, would receive a pension of a hundred thousand
+gulden.
+
+The following was his plan. As soon as the season permitted he would go
+away, ostensibly to Egypt, but really to the ownerless island. There he
+would die.
+
+If he could induce Noémi to die with him, then in death they would be
+united. Oh, Noémi would consent! What would she do in this world without
+Michael? What worth would the world have for such a one as she?
+
+Both there by Dodi's side.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Timar spent the winter partly in Komorn, partly in Raab and Vienna;
+everywhere his life was a burden to him. He thought he read in every
+face, "This man is melancholy mad." He noticed people whispering and
+making signs when he appeared--women were shy of him, and men tried to
+look unconscious; and he fancied that in his distraction he did and said
+things which gave evidence of his mental disease, and wondered people
+did not laugh. Perhaps they were afraid of laughing.
+
+But they had no reason to fear. He was not lively to throw pepper in the
+eyes of the people near him, though odd fancies did now and then occur
+to him; as, for instance, when Johann Fabula came to make him an oration
+as curator of the church, and stood as stiff before him as if he had
+swallowed the spit, an impulse seized Timar, almost irresistibly, to put
+both hands on the curator's shoulders and turn a somersault over his
+head.
+
+Something lay in Michael's expression which made the blood run cold.
+
+Athalie met this glance; often, as they sat at meals, Timar's eyes were
+fixed on her. She was a wonderfully beautiful woman; Michael's eyes
+rested on her lovely snowy neck, so that she felt uneasy at this silent
+homage to her charms.
+
+Michael was thinking--"If only I had you in my power for once, you
+lovely white throat, so as to crush the life out of you with my iron
+hand!" This was what he longed for when he admired the splendid
+Bacchante form of Athalie.
+
+Only Timéa was not afraid of him--she had nothing to fear. At last it
+seemed impossible to Timar to wait for the tardy spring. What does he
+want with the springing flowers who will soon be at rest under the turf?
+
+The day before his departure he gave a great banquet, and invited every
+one, including even slight acquaintances. The house was crowded with
+guests. Before sitting down he said to Fabula, "My brother, sit near me,
+and if I get drunk toward morning and lose my senses, see that I am
+carried into my traveling-chaise, and put me on the seat; then harness
+the horses and send me off." He wished to leave his house and home while
+unconscious.
+
+But when the guests toward morning had sunk one here and another there
+under the table, our Herr Johann Fabula was snoring comfortably in his
+arm-chair, and only Timar had kept his head. Mad people are like King
+Mithridates and the poison--wine does not affect them. So he had to get
+his carriage himself and start on his journey. In his head reality and
+dreams, imagination, memory, and hallucination were in a whirl. It
+seemed to him as if he had stood by the couch of a sleeping saint with a
+marble face, and as if he had kissed the lips of the white statue, and
+it had not awoke under his kiss. Perhaps it was only a vision. Then he
+thought he remembered that behind the door of a dark recess, as he
+passed, a lovely Mænad's head looked out, framed in rich tresses. She
+had sparkling eyes and red lips, between which shone two rows of pearls,
+as she held the candle and asked the sleep-walker, "Where are you going,
+sir?"
+
+And he had whispered in the witch's ear, "I am going to make Timéa
+happy."
+
+Then the ideal face had turned to a Medusa head, and the curls to
+snakes. Perhaps this was hallucination too.
+
+Timar awoke toward noon in his carriage, when the post-horses were
+changed. He was already far from Komorn, and his intention was
+unchanged. Late at night he arrived on the Danube shore, where the
+little boat he had ordered awaited him; he went over in the night to the
+island.
+
+A thought came into his head. "How if Noémi were dead already?" Why
+should not this be possible? What a burden it would free him from--that
+of persuading her to the dreadful step. He who has one fixed idea
+expects of fate that everything should happen as he has planned.
+
+Near the white rose-bush no doubt a second already stands, which will
+bloom red in spring--on Noémi's grave. Soon there will be a third with
+yellow blossoms, the flower of the man of gold.
+
+Occupied with these thoughts, he landed on the island shore. It was
+still night and the moon shone. The unfinished house stood like a tomb
+on the grass-grown field; the windows and door-ways were hung with
+matting to keep out snow and rain. Michael hastened to the old dwelling.
+Almira met him and licked his hand; she did not bark, but took a corner
+of his cloak in her teeth and drew him to the window. The moon shone
+through the lattice, and Michael looked into the little room, which was
+quite light.
+
+He could clearly perceive that only one bed was in the room, the other
+was gone. On this bed slept Therese; it was as he had thought--Noémi was
+already at rest under the rose-bush. It is well.
+
+He knocked at the window. "It is I, Therese." At this the woman came out
+on the veranda. "Are you sleeping alone, Therese?" said Timar.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Has Noémi gone up to Dodi?"
+
+"Not so. Dodi has come down to Noémi."
+
+Timar looked inquiringly in her face. Then the woman grasped his hand,
+and led him with a smile to the back of the house, where the window of
+the other little room looked out. This room was light, for a night-lamp
+was burning there. Timar looked in and saw Noémi on the white bed, with
+her arm round a golden-haired cherub which lay on her breast. "What is
+this?" Timar faltered out.
+
+Therese smiled gently. "Do you not see? Little Dodi longed to come back
+to us; it was better here, he thought, than up in heaven. He said to the
+dear Lord, 'Thou hast angels enough; let me return to those who had only
+me'--and the Lord allowed it."
+
+"How can it be?"
+
+"H'm! h'm! The old story. A poor woman again who died, and we have
+adopted the poor orphan. You are not angry?" Timar trembled in every
+limb as if with ague. "Pray do not wake the sleepers before morning,"
+said Therese, "It is bad for babies to be waked: children's lives are so
+precarious. You will be patient, won't you?"
+
+It never occurred to Timar to protest. He threw off his cap and cloak,
+drew off his coat, and turned up his shirt-sleeves. Therese thought he
+was mad. And why not? He ran out to the walnut-house, tore the mattings
+down, drew out his carpenter's bench, placed the unfinished door-panel
+on it, took his chisel and began to work.
+
+It was just growing light. Noémi dreamed that some one was at work in
+the new house; the plane grated over the hard wood, and the busy workman
+sung--
+
+    "For all the gold the world could hold,
+    I would not give my Dodi's curl."
+
+And when she opened her eyes she still heard the plane and the song.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THERESE.
+
+
+Timar had succeeded in robbing every one.
+
+From Timéa he stole first her father's million, then the manly ideal of
+her heart, and kept for himself her wifely troth. From Noémi he stole
+her loving heart, her womanly tenderness, her whole being. Therese he
+robbed of her trust, the last belief of her misanthropic mind in the
+possible goodness of a man; then he took the island, in order to restore
+it to her, and so to obtain her gratitude. Theodor Krisstyan he
+defrauded of half a world--for he exiled him to another hemisphere. From
+Athalie he took father, mother, home, and bridegroom, her whole present
+and future happiness. He robbed his friend Katschuka of the hope of a
+blissful life. The respect shown to him by the world, the tears of the
+poor, the thanks of the orphan, the decorations bestowed by his king,
+were they not all thefts? By deceit he obtained from the smugglers, the
+fidelity with which they guarded his secret--a thief who steals from
+other thieves! He even robbed the good God of a little angel. His soul
+was not his; he had pledged it to the moon, and had not kept his
+promise: he had not paid what he owed. The poison was ready which was to
+transport him to that distant star of night--the devils were already
+rejoicing and stretching out their claws to receive the poor soul. He
+took them in too; he did not kill himself, but defrauded even death. He
+laid hands on a paradise in the midst of the world, and took the
+forbidden fruit from the tree while the watching archangel turned his
+back, and in that hidden Eden he defied all human law: the clergy, the
+king, the judge, the general, the tax-collector, the police--all were
+deceived and defrauded by him.
+
+And everything succeeded with him. How long would he go unpunished?
+
+He could deceive every one but himself. He was always sad, even when he
+outwardly smiled. He knew what he ought to be called, and would gladly
+have shown himself in his true character.
+
+But that was impossible. The boundless, universal respect--the rapturous
+love--if only one of these were really due to his true self! Honor,
+humanity, self-sacrifice were the original principles of his character,
+the atmosphere of his being. Unheard-of temptations had drawn him in the
+opposite direction; and now he was a man whom every one loved, honored,
+and respected, and who was only hated and despised by himself. Fate had
+blessed him since his last illness with such iron strength that now
+nothing hurt him, and instead of aging he seemed to renew his youth.
+
+He was busy all through the summer with manual labor. The little house
+he had erected the year before he now had to finish, and to add the
+carver's and turner's work to it. He borrowed from the Muses their
+creative genius: a great artist was lost in Timar. Every pillar in the
+little house was of a different design: one was formed of two intwining
+snakes, whose heads made the capital; another, of a palm-tree with
+creepers climbing up it; the third showed a vine with squirrels and
+woodpeckers half hidden in its branches; and the fourth a clump of
+bulrushes rising from their leaves. The internal panels of the walls
+were a fanciful mosaic of carving; every table and chair was a work of
+art, and exquisitely inlaid with light-colored woods to make a pleasant
+contrast with the dark walnut. Each door and window betrayed some
+original invention; some disappeared in the wall, some slid up into the
+roof, and all were opened and shut by curious wooden bolts--for as Timar
+had declared that no nail should be put into the whole house which was
+not made by himself, not a morsel of iron was used in it.
+
+What delight when the house was ready and he conducted his dear ones
+into it, and could say, "See, all this is my handiwork! A king could not
+give his queen such a present."
+
+But it had taken years to complete it, and four winters had Timar spent
+in Komorn and four summers in the island, before Dodi the second had his
+house ready for him.
+
+Then Michael had another task before him; he must teach Dodi to read.
+Dodi was a lively, healthy, good-tempered boy, and Timar said he would
+teach him everything himself--reading, writing, swimming, also gardening
+and mason's and carpenter's work. He who knows these trades can always
+earn his bread. Timar fancied things would always go on thus, and he
+could live this life to the end of his days. But suddenly fate cried
+"Halt!"
+
+Or rather not fate, but Therese. Eight years had passed since Timar had
+found his way to the little island. Then Noémi and Timéa were both
+children: now Noémi was twenty-two, Timéa twenty-one, Athalie would soon
+be twenty-five; but Therese was over forty-five, Timar himself nearly
+forty, and little Dodi was in his fifth year.
+
+One of them must prepare to go hence, for her time was come, and her cup
+of suffering was full enough for a long life: that one was Therese.
+
+One summer afternoon when her daughter was out with the child, she said
+to Timar, "Michael, I have something to tell you--this autumn will be my
+last. I know that death is near. For twenty years I have suffered from
+the disease which will kill me; it is heart complaint. Do not look on
+this as a figure of speech; it is a fatal disease, but I have always
+concealed it, and never complained. I have kept it under by patience,
+and you have helped me by the love you showed and the joys you prepared
+for me. If you had not done so, I should long have lain beneath the sod.
+But I can bear it no longer. For a year past sleep has fled from my
+eyes, and I hear my heart beat all day. It throbs quickly three or four
+times, as if frightened, then comes a sort of half-beat; then it stops
+entirely for a few moments, till it begins pulsating again rapidly after
+one or two slow throbs, followed by short beats and long pauses. This
+must soon come to an end. I often turn faint, and only keep up by an
+effort of will; this will not last through the summer--and I am content
+it should be so. Noémi has now another object for her affection. I will
+not trouble you, Michael, with questions, nor require of you any
+promise; spoken words are vain and empty--only what we feel is true. You
+feel what you are to Noémi, and she to you. What is there to disquiet
+me? I can die without even troubling the merciful God with my feeble
+prayers. He has given me all I could have asked of Him. Is it not so,
+Michael?"
+
+Michael's head sunk. This had often of late destroyed his sleep. It had
+not escaped him that Therese's health was failing rapidly, and he had
+thought with trembling that she might be suddenly overtaken by death.
+What would then become of Noémi? How could he leave the delicate
+creature here alone the whole winter with her little child? Who would
+help and protect her? He had often put the question aside, but now it
+confronted him, and must be considered.
+
+Therese was right. The same afternoon a friendly fruit-woman came to the
+island, and while Therese was counting out her baskets of peaches, she
+suddenly fell down in a swoon. She recovered quickly, and three days
+later the woman came again, Therese was determined to serve her, and
+fainted once more. The fruit-dealer sighed heavily; the next time she
+came Noémi and Michael would not let her go in to Therese, but served
+her themselves. The woman remarked that the good lady would do well to
+see the priest, as she seemed so seriously ill.
+
+Noémi did not yet know that her mother was dangerously ill; her frequent
+fainting-fits were put down to the hot weather. Therese said that many
+women suffered in the same way as they grew older. Timar was very
+attentive to her; he would not let her be troubled with household work,
+took care that she should rest, and made the child be quiet if he was
+noisy, but Therese's sleeplessness could not be cured.
+
+One day all four sat together at dinner in the outer room, when Almira's
+barks announced the approach of strangers. Therese looked out, and said
+in great alarm, "Go inside quickly, that no one may see you."
+
+Timar looked out, and he too saw that it would not be advisable for him
+to meet the new-comer, for it was none other than his Reverence Herr
+Sandorovics, the dean who had received the order, who would not fail to
+recognize Herr von Levetinczy, and would have some pleasant things to
+say to him. "Push the table away and leave me alone," said Frau Therese,
+making Noémi and Dodi rise too. And as if all her strength had returned,
+she helped to carry the table into the next room, so that when his
+reverence knocked at the door she was alone, and had drawn her bedstead
+across the door-way so as to prevent access to the inner apartment.
+
+The dean's beard was longer and grayer since we last saw him; but his
+cheeks were rosy, and his figure that of a Samson. His deacon and
+acolyte, who had come with him, had remained in the veranda, and were
+trying to make friends with the great dog.
+
+The reverend gentleman came in alone, with his hand out as if to give
+any one a chance of kissing it. As Therese showed no inclination to
+avail herself of the opportunity, the visitor was at once in a bad
+temper. "Well, don't you know me again, you sinful woman?"
+
+"Oh, I know you well enough, sir, and I know I am a sinner--what brings
+you here?"
+
+"What brings me, you old gossip? You ask me that, you God-forsaken
+heathen! It is clear you don't know me."
+
+"I told you before that I knew you. You are the priest who would not
+bury my poor husband."
+
+"No--because he left the world in an unauthorized way, without
+confession or absolution. Therefore it befell him to be put under ground
+like a dog. If you don't wish to be buried like a dog too, look to it:
+repent and confess while there is yet time. Your last hour may come
+to-day or to-morrow. Pious women brought me the news of your being near
+death, and begged me to come here and give you absolution--you have to
+thank them for my presence."
+
+"Speak low, sir; my daughter is in the next room, and she would be
+alarmed."
+
+"Indeed! your daughter? and a man and a child too?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And the man is your daughter's husband?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who married them?"
+
+"He who married Adam and Eve--God."
+
+"Foolish woman! That was when there were no priests nor altars. But now
+things are not managed so easily, and there is a law to govern them."
+
+"I know it: the law drove me to this island; but that law has no
+jurisdiction here."
+
+"So you are an absolute heathen?"
+
+"I wish to live and die in peace."
+
+"And you have permitted your daughter to live in shame?"
+
+"What is shame?"
+
+"Shame? The contempt of all respectable people."
+
+"Does that make me warm or cold?"
+
+"Unfeeling clod! You only care for your bodily weal. You never think of
+the salvation of your soul. I come to show you the way to heaven, and
+you prefer the road to hell! Do you believe in the resurrection, or in
+eternal life?"
+
+"Hardly--at any rate, I am not longing for it. I do not want to awake to
+another life; I want to sleep peacefully under the trees. I shall fall
+into dust, and the roots will feed on it, and leaves will grow from it:
+and I want no other life. I shall live in the sap of the green trees I
+planted with my own hands. I do not believe in your cruel God who makes
+His wretched creatures live on to suffer beyond the grave. Mine is a
+merciful God, who gives rest to animals, trees, and men when they are
+dead."
+
+"Could there be a more obstinate sinner! You will go to hell-fire--to
+the tortures of the damned!"
+
+"Show me where the Bible says that God created hell, and I will believe
+you."
+
+"Oh, you pagan! You will be denying the existence of the devil next,"
+cried the priest in a rage.
+
+"I do deny that God ever created such a devil as you believe in: you
+invented one for yourselves, and did that badly, for your devil has
+horns and cloven feet, and such creatures as that eat grass and not
+men."
+
+"The earth will open and swallow you up like Dathan and Abiram. Do you
+bring up the little child in this belief?"
+
+"He is taught by the man who has adopted him."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"He whom the child calls father."
+
+"And what is his name?"
+
+"Michael."
+
+"What is his surname?"
+
+"I never asked him."
+
+"What! you never asked his name? What do you know of him?"
+
+"I know he is an honest man, and loves Noémi."
+
+"But what is he? A gentleman, a peasant, a workman, a sailor, or a
+smuggler?"
+
+"He is a poor man, suited to us."
+
+"And what else? I must know, for it is part of my duty. What faith does
+he confess? Is he Papist, Calvinist, Lutheran, Socinian, or perhaps a
+Jew?"
+
+"I have not troubled myself about it."
+
+"Do you keep the fasts of the Church?"
+
+"Once for two years I never touched meat--because I had none."
+
+"Who baptized the child?"
+
+"God--with a shower of rain, while He sat on high on His rainbow
+throne."
+
+"Oh, you heathen!"
+
+"Why heathen?" asked Therese, bitterly. "God's hand was heavy on me;
+from the height of bliss I fell into the deepest misery. One day made me
+a widow and a beggar. I did not deny God, nor cast His gift of life
+away. I came to this desert, sought God and found Him here. My God
+requires no sacrifice of song and bell, only a devout heart. I do my
+penance, not by telling my beads, but by work. Men left me nothing in
+the world, and I formed a blooming garden from a desert wilderness. All
+deceived, robbed, and scorned me; the tribunal condemned me, my friends
+defrauded me, the Church despised me, and yet I did not hate my kind. I
+am the refuge of the stranger and the destitute; I feed and heal those
+who come to me for aid, and sleep with open doors winter and summer; I
+fear no one. Oh, sir, I am no heathen!"
+
+"What sort of rubbish you talk, you chattering woman! I never asked you
+all that, but I ask you about the man who lives in this hut, whether he
+is a Christian or a heretic, and why the child is not baptized? It is
+impossible that you should not know his name."
+
+"Be it so; I will not tell a lie. I know his name, but nothing more. His
+life may have secrets in it, as mine had: he may have good reasons for
+hiding himself. But I know him only as a kind good man, and harbor no
+suspicions of him. Those were 'friends' who took my all from me,
+noblemen of high station, who left me nothing but my weeping child. I
+brought up the little child, and when she was my only treasure, my life,
+my all, I gave her to a man of whom I knew only that he loved her and
+she loved him. Is not that to have faith in God?"
+
+"Don't talk to me of faith. For such a belief as that, witches in the
+good old time were brought to the stake and burned, all over the
+Christian world."
+
+"It is lucky that I possess this island by right of a Turkish firman."
+
+"A Turkish firman!" cried the dean, in astonishment. "And who procured
+it for you?"
+
+"The man whose name you want to know."
+
+"And I will know it on the spot, and in a summary way. I shall call the
+sacristan and the acolyte in, make them push away the bed, and go in at
+that door, which I see has no lock."
+
+Timar heard every word in the next room. The blood rushed to his head at
+the thought that the ecclesiastical dignitary would walk in and exclaim,
+"Aha! it is you, Herr Privy Councilor Michael von Levetinczy!"
+
+The dean opened the outer door, and called in his two sturdy companions.
+Therese, in her extremity, drew the bright Turkish quilt over her up to
+the chin. "Sir," she said in an imploring tone to the dean, "listen to
+just one word which will convince you of the strength of my faith, and
+show you that I am no heathen. Look, this woolen quilt I have over me
+came from Broussa. A traveling peddler gave it to me. See now, so great
+is my trust in God that I cover myself with it every night; and yet it
+is well known that the oriental plague has been raging in Broussa this
+month past. Which of you has faith enough to dare to touch this bed?"
+
+When she looked round, no one was there to answer. At the discovery that
+this quilt came from the plague-infected districts round Broussa, all
+had rushed away, leaving the lonely island and its death-stricken
+inhabitants as a prey to all the devils of hell. The accursed island was
+now the richer by one more evil report, which would keep away people who
+valued their lives.
+
+Therese let out the refugees. Timar kissed her hand and called her
+"Mother!"
+
+"My son!" whispered Therese, and looked steadily into his eyes. With
+that look she said to him, "Remember what you have heard. And now it is
+time to get ready for the journey." Therese spoke of her approaching
+death as of a journey.
+
+Leaning on Timar and Noémi, she was led out to the green field, and
+chose the place for her grave.
+
+"Here in the middle," she said to Timar, taking his spade from his hand
+and marking out the oblong square. "You made a house for Dodi; make mine
+here. And build no mound over my grave, and plant no cross upon it;
+plant there neither tree nor shrub; cover it all with fresh turf, so
+that it may be like the rest. I wish it; so that no one, when in a
+cheerful mood, may stumble over my grave and be saddened by it."
+
+One evening she fell asleep, to awake no more. And they buried her as
+she desired. They wrapped her in fine linen, and spread for her a bed of
+aromatic walnut leaves. And then they made the grave look like the rest,
+and covered it with turf, so that it was the same as before. When on the
+next morning Timar and Noémi, leading little Dodi by the hand, went into
+the field, no sign could be seen on the smooth surface. The autumn
+spiders had covered it with a silvery pall, and on the glistening veil
+the dewdrops sparkled in the sun like myriads of diamonds.
+
+But yet they found the spot in this silver-broidered green plain. Almira
+went in front; at one place she lay down and put her head on the ground:
+that was the spot.
+
+
+
+
+
+_BOOK FIFTH.--ATHALIE._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BROKEN SWORD.
+
+
+Timar remained on the island till frost covered the green grass--till
+the leaves fell, and the nightingales and thrushes were silent. Then he
+made up his mind to return to the world, the world of reality; and he
+left Noémi behind, alone with her little child on the ownerless island.
+"But I shall come back this winter"--and with those words he left her.
+
+Noémi did not know what those words betokened at Michael's home. Round
+the island the Danube was never entirely frozen in the severest winter;
+the glass never fell much below freezing-point; ivy and laurels could
+stand the cold with ease. But Michael had severe weather for his
+journey. On the upper Danube snow had already fallen, and he took a
+whole week to reach Komorn. He had to wait a whole day before he could
+cross the river--there was so much ice that it was unsafe to launch a
+boat. Once he had ventured alone in a small boat across the river in
+flood; but then Noémi was waiting for him. Now he was going to Timéa--to
+get a divorce from her.
+
+His decision was taken--they must have a divorce. Noémi could not live
+alone on that desert island. The woman must have justice in return for
+her fidelity and love: accursed would he be who could find it in his
+heart to abandon her who had given herself to him body and soul. And
+then, too, Timéa would be happy.
+
+That thought gnawed him--that Timéa would be happy. If only he could
+hate her, if he had a single accusation to bring against her, so as to
+put her away as one he could despise and forget!
+
+He had to leave his carriage at Uj-Szöny, for wheels could not yet pass
+the ice, so he arrived on foot at home. When he went in, it seemed to
+him as if Timéa were afraid of him; as if the hand she gave him
+trembled, and her voice too, when she greeted him. This time she did not
+offer him her white cheek to be kissed.
+
+Timar hastened to his room, on pretense of laying aside his wraps. If
+only there was some reason for this embarrassment! And another sign had
+not escaped him--Athalie's expression. In her eyes shone the fire of a
+diabolical triumph, the light of a malicious joy. How if Athalie knew
+something?
+
+At table he met the two women again. They all three sat silently
+together, watching each other. Timéa only said to Michael, "This time
+you have stayed away very long."
+
+Timar would not say, "I shall soon leave you altogether," but he thought
+it. He had to consult his lawyer first as to a possible ground for a
+separation. It was impossible to think of one. Only "unconquerable
+mutual aversion" could be put forward.
+
+But would the wife consent? All depended on her. Timar pondered this
+question all the afternoon, and told the servants not to tell any one of
+his return, as he could not see visitors.
+
+Toward evening some one opened the door. Athalie stood before him, with
+the same spiteful satisfaction shining from her eyes, the same
+triumphant smile playing round her lips. Michael drew back before her
+repellent glance.
+
+"What brings you here, Athalie?" he asked, with confusion.
+
+"Well, Herr von Levetinczy, what do you think? Do you not want to know
+anything from me?"
+
+"What?" he whispered eagerly, shutting the door, and staring at Athalie
+with wide-opened eyes.
+
+"What do you want to know?" said the beautiful woman, still smiling.
+"Indeed that is hard to guess. I have been in your house these six
+years; every year I have seen you return home, and every year with a
+different expression on your face. At first tormenting jealousy, then
+easy good-humor, afterward assumed tranquillity, and absorption in
+business. I studied all these phases. Last year I thought the tragedy
+was over--you looked like a man who is ready for the grave. But you may
+be sure that on all this round world there is no one who prays for your
+life as I do."
+
+Michael frowned, and possibly Athalie understood him.
+
+"No, sir," she repeated, passionately; "for if there is anyone in the
+world who loves you, they can not possibly wish that you may live long
+as heartily as I do. Now I see the same look on your face as last
+year--that is the true one: you would like to hear about Timéa?"
+
+"Do you know anything?" asked Timar, eagerly, putting his back against
+the door as if to keep Athalie a prisoner.
+
+She laughed scornfully; not she but Michael was the prisoner.
+
+"I know much--all," she replied; "enough to bring us all to perdition.
+Myself and the other, and you too."
+
+Michael's blood froze in his veins. "Tell me all."
+
+"That is what I came for. But listen quietly to the end, that I may tell
+you things which lead to madness, if not death."
+
+"One word first, is Timéa unfaithful?"
+
+"She is, and you will be absolutely convinced of it."
+
+In Timar's heart a nobler feeling arose to protest against this
+suspicion. "Take care what you say!"
+
+"Your saintly picture, then, came down out of its altar-frame to listen
+to a report which said that the noble major had fought on her account
+with some strange officer, and wounded him so badly that his own sword
+broke in two over the head of his adversary. The picture heard this
+rumor. Frau Sophie told her, and the eyes of the saintly image shed
+tears. Perhaps you are a heretic, and do not believe in miraculous
+tears. But it is true; and Frau Sophie told the noble major next day.
+Frau Sophie loves to be a go-between; she loves flattery and intrigue.
+The reported tears had the result that Frau Sophie brought back a box
+and a letter from the major. In the box were the half-broken blade and
+the handle of the sword with which the major had fought. It was a
+souvenir."
+
+"Well, there is nothing wrong in that," said Michael, with affected
+calm.
+
+"Ah, yes, but the letter!"
+
+"Did you read it?"
+
+"No; but I know what it contained."
+
+"How can you know that?"
+
+"Because the saint replied, and Frau Sophie was the messenger."
+
+"Go on," said Timar.
+
+"Yes, for the story is not nearly finished. The letter was not a scented
+pink note; it was written on your own desk, sealed with your own seal,
+and its contents might have been to repulse the major's advances forever
+and ever. But that was not what it said."
+
+"Who knows?"
+
+"Frau Sophie and I, and you will be a third directly. How unexpectedly
+you returned to-day!--how can people come at such an inconvenient time?
+The Danube is full of ice, the ice-flakes lie in heaps, and no living
+creature can cross. One would think that on such a day the town would be
+so safely shut off that even a jealous husband, if he were outside,
+could not get in. How could you come to-day?"
+
+"Do not torture me, Athalie."
+
+"Did you not notice the confusion on your picture's face when surprised
+by your arrival? Did not her hand tremble in yours? You managed your
+arrival so badly; Frau Sophie had to go out again to the smart major
+with the short message--'It can not be to-day.'"
+
+Timar's face was disfigured with rage. Then he sunk back in his chair
+and said, "I don't believe you."
+
+"You need not do so," said Athalie, with a shrug. "I will only advise
+you to trust your own eyes. It can not be to-day, because you have come
+home; but it might be to-morrow. Suppose you went away? You often go in
+winter to the Platten See, when it is frozen and they begin to fish
+under the ice. It is capital sport. You might say to-morrow, 'While this
+cold lasts, I will be off to Fured to see how the _fogasch_ get on,' and
+then you might shut yourself up in your other house here, and wait till
+some one taps at your window and says 'Now.' Then you would come back
+here."
+
+"And I should do that?" exclaimed Timar, shuddering.
+
+Athalie looked him up and down contemptuously. "You are a coward!" and
+with that she turned to go.
+
+But Michael sprung after her and seized her by the arm.
+
+"Stop! I will take your advice and do what you tell me."
+
+"Then listen to me," said Athalie, and pressed so close to his face that
+he felt her burning breath.
+
+"When Herr Brazovics built this house, the room in which Timéa sleeps
+was the parlor. Who were his usual guests? Business people, boon
+companions, merchants, dealers. This room has a hiding-place in the wall
+above the staircase, where the steps turn, and the inner side makes an
+angle. Into this hole in the wall it is possible to gain access from
+outside. There is a closet where old rubbish is kept, which is seldom
+opened. But even if it stood open it would hardly occur to any one to
+try the screws of the ventilator one after another. The center screw on
+the right-hand side is movable. But even if any one drew it out it would
+tell nothing--it is only a simple peg. But whoever is in possession of a
+peculiar key, which can be inserted in place of the peg, only requires
+to press the top of the key, from which wards instantly appear, and by a
+single turn of the key the cupboard is noiselessly pushed aside. From
+thence one can enter the hiding-place, which receives light and air from
+a slit in the roof. This hollow in the wall goes as far as Timéa's
+bedroom, where in former times Herr Brazovics' guests used to pass the
+night. The concealed passage ends in a glass door which is hidden from
+the room by a picture. This picture is a mother-of-pearl mosaic
+representing St. George and the dragon, and appears to be a votive image
+built into the wall. It has often been proposed to take the picture
+away, but Timéa never would allow it. One of the pieces of mosaic can be
+slipped aside, and through the blank space everything that passes in the
+room can be seen and heard."
+
+"What did your father want with such a hiding-place?"
+
+"I think it had to do with his business. He had many affairs with
+contractors and officials. There was good living to be had at his house,
+and when he had got his visitors into a good temper, he left them to
+themselves, slipped into the secret room and listened from thence to
+their conversation. In this way he obtained much important business
+information, from which he derived considerable advantage. Once when he
+had himself taken rather too much at table, he sent me to listen in the
+passage, and in this way I learned the secret. The key is in my
+possession. When all Herr Brazovics' property was seized by judicial
+decree, I could, if I had chosen, have conveyed all his valuables out of
+the house by this means. But I was too proud to steal."
+
+"And can you get into the bedroom from this hiding-place?"
+
+"The picture of St. George is on hinges, and can be opened like a door."
+
+"So that you can at any time enter Timéa's room from that passage?"
+asked Michael, with an uncontrollable shudder.
+
+Athalie smiled proudly. "I never needed to creep in to her by secret
+routes. Timéa sleeps with open doors, and you know that I can always
+pass freely through her room. She sleeps so soundly too."
+
+"Give me the key."
+
+Athalie took the puzzle key from her pocket. The lower end was shaped
+like a screw, only on pressing the handle a key appeared. She showed
+Timar how to manage it. A voice in his heart--perhaps that of his
+guardian angel--whispered to Timar to throw this key into the deep well
+in the yard. But he took no heed of the voice; he only listened to
+Athalie's whisper in his ear.
+
+"If you leave home to-morrow and come back at the signal, go straight to
+the hiding-place, and you will learn all you want to know. Will you
+come?"
+
+"I shall be there."
+
+"Do you generally carry arms?--a pistol or a dagger?--one can never tell
+what may happen. The picture of St. George opens to the right when you
+press on a button-shaped handle, and when open it just covers Timéa's
+bed. Do you understand?"
+
+She pressed Michael's hand violently, looking with flaming eyes of rage
+into his, and added something, but not audibly. Only her lips moved, her
+teeth chattered, and her eyes rolled--they were soundless words. What
+could she have said? Timar stared in a dazed way like a sleep-walker,
+then suddenly raised his head to ask Athalie something. He was
+alone--only the key grasped in his hand showed that it was no dream.
+
+Never had Timar suffered such torture as in the long hours till the
+evening of the next day. He followed Athalie's advice, and remained at
+home till noon. After dinner he said he must go to the Platten See and
+look after the fishery he had hired.
+
+As he had crossed the ice-floes of the Danube on foot to get to Komorn,
+he could easily go over again without luggage in the same way. His
+carriage too was waiting on that side, for it had not yet been able to
+get across: a road would have to be prepared. Without any interview with
+his agents, without a glance at his books, he thrust a pile of
+bank-notes, uncounted, into his pocket, and left the house. At the
+threshold he met the postman, who brought a registered letter, and
+demanded a receipt. Michael was in too great haste to go back to his
+room; he carried pen and ink with him, and laying the receipt on the
+broad back of the postman, he signed his name to it. Then he looked at
+the letter. It was from his agent at Rio Janeiro; but without opening
+it, he put it in his pocket. What did he care for all the flour trade in
+the world? He kept one room in his house in the Servian Street always
+heated in winter. This room was entered by a separate staircase, which
+was kept locked, and was divided by several empty rooms from the
+offices. Timar reached it unobserved; there he sat down by the window
+and waited.
+
+The cold north wind outside drew lovely ice-flowers on the window-panes,
+so that no one could see in or out.
+
+Now he would get what he wanted--the proof of Timéa's infidelity. And
+yet--yet, the thought hurt him so deeply! While his fancy pictured this
+first private rendezvous between that woman and that man, every drop of
+blood seemed to rush to the surface and darken the light of his mind.
+
+Shame, jealousy, thirst for vengeance consumed him.
+
+It is hard to endure humiliation, even if some advantage is to be
+derived from it. He now began to feel what a treasure he possessed in
+Timéa. He had been ready enough to abandon this treasure, or even
+voluntarily to give it back, but to allow himself to be robbed of
+it!--the thought enraged him. He struggled with himself as to what he
+should do. If Athalie's instilled poison had reached his heart, he would
+have kept to the idea of a murderous rush with a dagger in his hand from
+behind the picture, so as to kill the faithless wife amidst the hottest
+caresses of her lover. Athalie panted for Timéa's blood; but a husband's
+revenge seeks a different object--he must have the man's life. Not like
+an assassin, but face to face--each with a sword in his hand, and then a
+struggle for life or death. Then, again, cold-blooded calculating reason
+comes uppermost, and says, "Why shed blood? you want scandal, not
+revenge; you should rush from your hiding-place, call in the servants,
+and drive the guilty woman and her seducer from your house. So a
+reasonable being would act. You are no soldier to seek satisfaction at
+the point of the sword. Here is the judge, and here the law."
+
+But still he could not forbear from keeping stiletto and pistol ready on
+the table as Athalie had advised. Who knows what may happen? The moment
+will decide which gets the upper hand--whether the vengeful assassin,
+the dishonored husband, or the prudent man of business who would reckon
+an open scandal to his credit side, as facilitating the desired divorce.
+
+Meanwhile evening had come. One lamp after another was lighted: Herr von
+Levetinczy paid for the lighting of this street out of his own pocket.
+The shadows of the passers-by flitted across the frozen panes.
+
+One such figure stopped before the window, and a low knock was heard. It
+seemed to Timar as if the ice-flowers detached from the glass by the tap
+were the rustling leaves of a fairy forest, which whispered to him, "Do
+not go." He hesitated. The tap was repeated.
+
+"I am coming!" he called in a low voice, took pistol and dagger, and
+crept out of the house.
+
+The whole way he never met a human creature; the streets were already
+deserted. He only saw a dark shadow flitting on before him, vanishing in
+the darkness now and then, and at last slipping round the corner. He
+followed, and found all the doors open; some helping hand had opened the
+wicket, the house-door, and even the closet in the wall. He could enter
+without any noise; at the point described he found the movable screw,
+and put the key in its place; the secret door flew open, and shut behind
+him.
+
+Timar found himself in the concealed passage--a spy in his own house.
+
+Yes! A spy too! What meanness was there he had not committed? and all
+this "because a poor fellow remains always only a clerk, and it is the
+rich for whom life is worth living." Now he has riches and splendor.
+
+Stumbling and feeling about, he groped along the wall, till he came to a
+part where a feeble light was perceptible. There was the picture of St.
+George: the light of the lamp shone through the crevices of the mosaic.
+He found the movable piece of mother-of-pearl, in whose place was a
+thick sheet of glass. He looked into the room; on the table stood a lamp
+with a ground glass shade. Timéa walked up and down.
+
+An embroidered white dress floated from her waist; her folded hands
+hung down. The door of the antechamber opened, and Frau Sophie came in;
+she said something low to Timéa, but Timar could hear every whisper.
+This hole in the wall was like the ear of Dionysius, it caught every
+sound. "Can he come?" asked Frau Sophie.
+
+"I am waiting for him," said Timéa.
+
+Then Frau Sophie went out again. Timéa drew from her wardrobe a drawer,
+and took out a box; she carried it to the table and stood opposite
+Timar, so that the lamp threw its whole light on her face; the listener
+could detect the slightest change of expression. Timéa opened the box.
+In it lay a sword-hilt and a broken blade. At first glance the woman
+started, and her contracted brows betokened horror. Then her face
+cleared, and took once more, with its meeting eyebrows, the look of a
+saint's picture, with a black halo round its brow. Tenderness dawned in
+her melancholy features; she lifted the box and held the sword so near
+her lips that Timar began to tremble lest she should kiss it. Even the
+sword was his rival.
+
+The longer Timéa looked at it, the brighter grew her eyes. At last she
+plucked up courage to grasp the hilt; she took it out and made passes in
+the air with it. . . . If she had known that there was some one near her
+to whom every stroke was torture--
+
+There was a tap at the door. Timéa put down the broken sword hastily,
+and stammered out a faint "Come in!" But first she pulled down the lace
+of her sleeves, which had fallen back from her wrist. The major entered.
+He was a fine man, with a handsome, soldierly face. Timéa did not go to
+meet him, but stood by the lamp; Timar's eyes never left her.
+Damnation!--what did he see? As the major entered Timéa blushed. Yes,
+the marble statue could glow with sunrise tints, the saint's image could
+move, and the virginal snow-white adorned itself with roses. The white
+face had found some one who could set it on fire. Was further proof,
+were words wanting?
+
+Timar was near bursting from the picture, and, like the dragon before
+St. George killed it, would have thrown himself between the two before
+Timéa's lips could speak what her face betrayed.
+
+But no. Perhaps he had only dreamed it--Timéa's face was colorless as
+ever. With calm dignity she signed to the major to take a chair; she sat
+down on a distant sofa, and her look was severe and cold. The major held
+his shako in one hand, and in the other his sword with its golden knot,
+and sat as stiff as if he had been in his general's presence. They
+looked at each other in silence--both struggling with painful thoughts.
+Timéa broke the silence. "Sir, you sent me a curious letter in company
+with a yet more singular present. It was a broken sword." She opened the
+box and took out a letter. "Your letter runs thus: 'Gracious lady, I
+have fought a duel to-day, and my adversary owes it only to the chance
+that my sword broke that he was not killed on the spot. This duel is
+intimately connected with most extraordinary circumstances, which
+concern you, and still more _your husband_. Allow me a few minutes'
+interview, that I may tell you what you ought to know.' In this letter
+the words 'your husband' are twice underlined, and this it was which
+decided me to give you the opportunity of speaking to me. Speak! In
+what does your duel concern the private affairs of Herr von Levetinczy?
+I will listen to you as long as what you have to say treats of him: if
+you enter on any other subject I will leave you."
+
+The major bowed with grateful fervor. "I will begin then, madame, by
+telling you that an unknown man has been about in the town, who wears
+the uniform of a naval officer, and therefore has an _entrée_ to
+military society. He seems to be a man of the world, and is an
+entertaining companion. Who he may be I know not, for it is not my way
+to be inquisitive. This man has spent some weeks among us, and seems to
+have plenty of money. He gave as a reason for being here that he was
+waiting for Herr von Levetinczy, with whom he had important private
+affairs to settle. At last he began to annoy us, and looked so
+mysterious as he asked every day about Herr von Levetinczy, that we
+fancied he must be an adventurer, and one day we drove him into a
+corner. We wished to know what manner of man he was, and I undertook the
+inquiry. When we asked why he did not go to your husband's agents, he
+said his business was of a very private and delicate nature, which could
+only be personally discussed. 'Listen,' I said. 'I do not believe that
+you have any delicate business with Herr von Levetinczy; who you are we
+do not know, but we do know that he is a man of honor and character,
+whose position and reputation are above suspicion. He is a man whose
+private life is blameless, and who can therefore have no reason for
+private interviews with people of your sort.'"
+
+While the major spoke, Timéa had risen slowly; she now stepped up to him
+and said, "I thank you."
+
+And again Timar saw on her white cheek that soft rosy glow, never seen
+by him before, but which now rested there. The woman had flushed at the
+thought that the man she loved could defend him who, as her husband,
+stood between their two hearts.
+
+The major continued his narrative, and in order not to confuse Timéa by
+looking at her, sought some other object in the room on which to fix his
+eye. He chose the dragon's head in the picture of St. George. But that
+was the exact spot through which Timar looked into the room, so that it
+seemed to him as if the major directed his words purposely to him,
+although it was much too dark where Timar stood for any one to see him.
+
+"On this the man's face changed suddenly; he leaped up like a sleeping
+dog when one treads on his tail. 'What!' he cried, so that every one
+could hear. 'You think Levetinczy is a rich man with a great name--a
+clever man, a happy family man, a faithful subject? I will prove to you
+that this man, if I can once meet him, will take flight from here next
+day--that he will leave his lovely wife and his house in the lurch, and
+fly from Hungary, from Europe, so that you will never hear of him
+again.'"
+
+Timéa's hand strayed involuntarily to the hilt of the broken sword.
+
+"Instead of answering the man, I struck him in the face."
+
+Timar drew back his head from the peep-hole, as if the blow might reach
+him.
+
+"I saw at once that the man regretted what he had said. He would gladly
+have escaped the consequences of the blow, but I would not let him off.
+I stood in his way and said, 'You are an officer and carry a sword--you
+know to what such an affair leads among men of honor. There is a
+ball-room upstairs at the hotel; we will have the candles lighted; then
+you shall choose two of us as seconds, I also will choose two, and we
+will fight it out.' We did not leave him time for reflection. The man
+fought like a pirate: twice he tried to seize my sword with his left
+hand; then I got angry and gave him such a cut over the head that he
+fell. Luckily for him, it was with the flat of the blade, which was the
+reason of my sword breaking. The next day the man, so our surgeon told
+me, had left the town--his wound can not have been a dangerous one."
+
+Timéa took out the Turkish sword and looked at the hilt; then she laid
+it on the table and stretched out her hand in silence to the major. He
+took it gently in both his own, and carried it to his lips; it could
+hardly be seen whether he kissed it. Timéa did not draw it away.
+
+"I thank you!" whispered the major, so low that Timar could not hear it
+in his hiding-place, but the eyes said it too. A long pause followed.
+Timéa sat down again on the sofa and supported her head on her hand.
+
+The major spoke at last. "I did not request an interview, gracious lady,
+to boast of a deed which in itself must be painful to you, and was
+really only the duty of a friend, nor to receive the thanks you so
+kindly offered me by a grasp of the hand. That was a more than
+sufficient reward. But not on that account did I request you to meet me,
+but to ask a very important question. Gracious lady, is it possible that
+there should be any truth in what this man said?"
+
+Timéa started as if struck by lightning. And the bolt struck Timar too;
+every nerve thrilled at the question.
+
+"What are you thinking of?" cried Timéa, passionately.
+
+"At last it is out," said the major, rising from his chair. "And now I
+will not go without an answer. I say openly, is it possible that there
+is truth in this accusation? I have not repeated all that this man said
+about Levetinczy: he accused him of everything that can be said against
+a man. Is it conceivable that Timar's life could take such a frightful
+course as that which the last owner of this unlucky house only escaped
+by death? For if that is possible, then no respect could restrain me
+from beseeching you in God's name, dear lady, to delay not a moment in
+fleeing from this doomed house. I can not leave you to ruin--I can not
+look on while another drags you into the abyss."
+
+The glowing words found a response in Timéa's bosom. Timar watched in
+trembling excitement his wife's mental conflict. Timéa remained
+victorious; she collected all her energy, and answered quietly, "Do not
+be alarmed, sir. I can assure you that that man, whoever he was, and
+wherever he came from, told a lie, and his accusations are groundless. I
+know intimately the position of Herr von Levetinczy; for during his
+absence I managed his affairs, and am thoroughly acquainted with every
+detail. His finances are in order, and even if all he has now at stake
+were lost by some unlucky chance, no pillar of his house would be
+shaken. I can also tell you with a clear conscience that of all his
+property there is not a thaler dishonestly come by. Levetinczy is a rich
+man, who need not blush for his wealth."
+
+Why did Timar's cheeks burn so there in the darkness?
+
+The major sighed. "You have convinced me, gracious lady; I never
+believed anything against his financial reputation. But this man had
+much to say about your husband in his character as head of a family.
+Allow me to ask you one thing: Are you happy?"
+
+Timéa looked at him with inexpressible pathos, and in her eyes lay the
+words, "You see me, and yet you ask?"
+
+"Riches and luxury surround you," continued the major, boldly; "but if
+that is true--which on my honor I never asked, and which, when told me,
+I answered with the lie direct, and a blow in the face--if it is true
+that you suffer and are unhappy, I should not be a man if I had not the
+courage to say to you, gracious lady, there is another who suffers like
+you. Throw far from you these unlucky riches; make an end of this
+suffering of two people, who in the next world can accuse a third person
+in the sight of God of being the cause of it: consent to a divorce!"
+
+Timéa pressed both hands to her breast, and looked up like a martyr on
+her road to the stake: all her anguish was aroused at this moment.
+
+When Timar saw her so, he struck his forehead with his fist, and turned
+his face from the Judas-hole through which he had been looking. For the
+next few moments he saw and heard no more. When torturing curiosity drew
+him again to the spot of light, and he cast a look into the room, he no
+longer saw a martyr before him. Timéa's face was calm.
+
+"Sir," she said gently to the major, "that I should have heard you to
+the end is a proof of my respect. Leave me this feeling, and never again
+ask me what you did to-day. I call the whole world to witness whether I
+have ever complained by word or tear. Of whom should I complain? Of my
+husband, who is the noblest and best man in the world? Of him who saved
+the strange child's life? who thrice defied death in the waters' depths
+for my sake? When I was a despised and derided creature he protected me;
+for my sake he visited the house of his deadly enemy, that he might
+watch over me. When I had become a homeless beggar he gave me--a
+servant--his hand, his riches, and made me mistress of his house. And
+when he offered me his hand he meant it; he was not deceiving me." As
+she spoke, Timéa went to a closet and opened the doors. "Look here,
+sir," she said, as she spread out before the major the train of a dress
+hanging within. "Do you recognize this dress? It is the one I worked.
+You saw it for weeks while I worked at it. Every stitch is a buried
+dream, a sad memory to me. They told me it was to be my wedding-gown;
+and when it was finished, they said, 'Take it off: it is for another
+bride.' Ah! sir, that was a mortal stab to my heart: I have been sore
+from that incurable wound all these years. And now should I separate
+myself from the good man who never courted me, as a child, with
+flatteries, to turn my head, but remained respectfully in the distance,
+and waited till others had trodden me under foot to raise me to
+himself, and has never ceased, with superhuman, angelic patience, his
+endeavors to cure my wound and to share my sorrow with me? I should
+separate from the man who has no one but me to love him, to whom I am a
+whole world, the only being that ties him to life, or at whose coming
+his gloomy face is cheered? I should leave a man whom every one honors
+and loves? Tell him that I hate him--I, who owe everything to him, and
+who brought him no dowry but a sick and loveless heart?"
+
+The major hid his face at these words of the passionate and excited
+woman. And that other man behind the picture of St. George--must he not
+feel like the dragon when the knight thrust his spear into him?
+
+"But, sir," continued Timéa, whose lovely face was illumined by the
+irresistible charm of womanly dignity, "even if Timar were the exact
+opposite of all that he is known to be--if he were a ruined man, a
+beggar--I would not leave him--then least of all. If disgrace covered
+his name, I would not discard that name; I would share his shame, as I
+have shared his success. If the whole world despised him, I should still
+owe him eternal gratitude; if he were exiled, I would follow him into
+banishment, and live with him in the woods if he were a robber. If he
+wished to take his life, I would die with him--"
+
+(What is that? Is it the dragon that weeps there in the picture?)
+
+"And, sir, if even the bitterest, cruelest insult of all to a woman were
+inflicted on me--if I learned that my husband was unfaithful, to
+me--that he loved another--I would say, 'God bless her who gave him the
+happiness of which I have robbed him;' and I would not even then divorce
+him--I would not do it if he wished it. I will never separate from him,
+for I know what is due to my oath and the salvation of my soul!"
+
+And the major too sobbed--he too.
+
+Timéa stopped to recover her composure. Then in a soft and gentle voice
+she continued: "And now leave me forever. The stab you gave my heart
+years ago is healed by this sword-stroke: I keep this broken blade as a
+remembrance. As often as my eye falls on it, I will think that you are a
+brave soul, and it will be balm to me. And because for years you have
+never spoken to me nor approached me, I will forgive your having come
+and spoken to me now." . . .
+
+When Timar burst through the closet out of the hiding-place, a dark
+figure stood in his way. Was it a shadow, a phantom, or a spirit? It was
+Athalie. Timar pushed, the dark figure away, and while he pressed her
+with one hand against the wall, he whispered in her ear, "I curse you!
+and accursed be this house and the ashes of him who built it!"
+
+Then he rushed like a madman down the stairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST LOSS.
+
+
+Escape! But where? That is the question.
+
+The church clocks in the town struck ten: the barriers were down by now
+across the wooden bridge over the narrow part of the river to the
+island, from which the ice formed the only road across the rest of the
+Danube. It was impossible to get past without alarming the sentries, who
+had orders from the commandant of the garrison to let no one go on the
+ice between eight in the evening and seven in the morning--not even the
+pope himself. It is true that a couple of bank-notes of Herr
+Levetinczy's might compass what a papal bull could not procure, but then
+it would be reported next day all over the town that the "man of gold"
+had fled in haste and alone, at dead of night, across the dangerous ice.
+That would be a good sequel to the gossip which had arisen from the
+duel. It would at once be said, "There, you see he is already thinking
+of escaping to America," and Timéa would hear it too.
+
+Timéa! oh, how hard it is to evade that name; it follows him everywhere.
+He can do nothing but return home and wait for daylight. As cautiously
+as a thief he opened his door. At this hour all the other inhabitants
+were asleep.
+
+When he got to his room, he lighted no lamp, and threw himself on the
+sofa. But the phantoms which pursued him found him quite as easily in
+the dark.
+
+How that marble face blushed!
+
+So there is life there under the ice, only the sun is wanting. Marriage
+is for her eternal winter--a polar winter. The wife is faithful; and the
+rival is a true friend. He breaks his sword over the skull of him who
+dared to slander the husband of the beloved woman. And Timéa loves the
+man, and is as unhappy as he. The misery of both comes from Timar's
+imputation as an honest man; those who love him idealize him; no one
+ventures to think of deceiving or robbing or disgracing him--of breaking
+a splinter from the diamond of his honor: they guard it like a jewel.
+
+Why do they all respect him? Because no one knows him.
+
+If Timéa knew, if she discovered what he really was, would she still
+say, "I would share the shame of his name, as I have shared its glory!"
+Yes; she would still say so. Timéa will never leave him: she would say,
+"You have made me unhappy; now suffer with me." It is an angel's
+cruelty, and that is Timéa's nature.
+
+But how about Noémi? What is she doing on the lonely island which she
+can never leave, thanks to Timéa's high principle? Alone during the
+gloomy monotony of winter, with a helpless child at her knee! What is
+she thinking of? No one can take her a word of consolation. She may be
+trembling in that desert for fear of bad men, ghosts, wild beasts! How
+her heart must sink when she thinks of her absent darling, and wonders
+where he may be! If she knew! If both those women knew what a thorough
+scoundrel was the man who had caused them so much sorrow--if any one was
+found to tell them!
+
+Who can the stranger be who has already said enough to deserve a blow in
+the face, and a cut of the major's sword? A naval officer. Who can this
+enemy be? It is impossible to discover; he has disappeared with his
+wound from the town. Something told Timar it would be wise to fly from
+this man. Fly! his whole mind was set upon it--there was nothing he
+dreaded so much as being obliged to remain in one spot. As soon as he
+left the ownerless island, no place was a home to him. When he stopped
+for dinner on a journey, he could not wait till the horses were fed, but
+walked on ahead. Something always drove him onward.
+
+And sleep had fled from his eyes. The clock struck twelve; seven more
+long hours till morning! He determined at last to kindle a light. For
+mental anxiety there is a remedy more effectual than opium or
+digitalis--prosaic work. Whoever has plenty to do, finds no time to
+dwell on love troubles. Merchants seldom commit suicide for love. Cares
+of business are a wholesome counter-irritant to draw the blood from the
+nobler parts.
+
+Michael opened and read his letters in turn: all contained good news. He
+remembered Polycrates, with whom everything succeeded, and who began at
+last to be afraid of his luck.
+
+And what was the foundation of this monstrous success? A secret unknown
+to all but himself. Who had seen Ali Tschorbadschi's treasure spread out
+in the cabin? Only himself--and the moon. But that is an accomplice, and
+has seen other things too. It is the "Hypomochlion" of creation, to
+prevent crimes from coming to light. Michael was too deeply sensitive by
+nature not to feel that such overwhelming good fortune, springing from
+so foul a root, must eventually fall into dust--for there is justice
+under the sun. He would joyfully have looked on at the loss of half his
+wealth, or even given up all, if so he could have hoped to close his
+account with Heaven. But he felt that his penance consisted in the fact
+that his riches, influence, the renown of his name, his supposed
+home-happiness, were only a cruel irony of fate. They buried him, and he
+could not extricate himself to live the only happy life, whose center
+was Noémi--and Dodi. When the first Dodi died, he learned what he had
+been to him. Now, with the second, he felt it still more; and yet he
+could not make them his own. He lay buried under a mountain of gold
+which he could not shake off. What he had seen in the delirium of fever,
+he now really felt. He lay buried alive in a grave full of gold. Above
+his head stood on the grave-stone a marble statue which never
+moved--Timéa. A beggar-woman with a little child came to gather thyme on
+his tomb--Noémi. And the man buried alive vainly strove to cry out,
+"Give me your hand, Noémi, and pull me out of this golden tomb!"
+
+Timar went on with his correspondence. One letter was from the Brazilian
+agents. His favorite scheme--the export of Hungarian flour--had been
+brilliantly successful. Timar had gained by it honor and wealth. As he
+ran through the letters, it occurred to him that when he left home in
+the morning he had received a registered letter with a foreign stamp. He
+found the letter in his coat pocket. It was from the same correspondent
+whose favorable report he had just read, and ran thus:
+
+     "SIR,--Since my last, a great misfortune has occurred.
+     Your _protégé_, Theodor Krisstyan, has cheated us
+     shamefully and brought disgrace on us. We are blameless
+     in the matter. This man has for years past seemed so
+     trustworthy and active, that we put the most perfect
+     confidence in him; his salary and commission were so
+     large that he could not only live comfortably, but
+     could save money, which he invested in our house.
+     While he left his avowable savings to grow to a small
+     capital in our hands, he robbed us
+     frightfully--intercepted money, forged bills, and made
+     false claims on the firm, which was easy, as he had
+     your power of attorney--so that our loss already
+     amounts to some ten million reis. But what makes it
+     more serious is the discovery that during the last few
+     years he has been mixing the imported flour with some
+     of inferior quality from Louisiana, and by this Yankee
+     trick has seriously impaired the credit of the
+     Hungarian article for years to come--even if we are
+     ever able to restore it."
+
+"This is the first blow," thought Timar; and on the most tender point
+for a great financier. It touched him in what he was most proud of, and
+what had obtained for him the rank of a privy councilor. And so falls
+the brilliant fabric erected by Timéa--Timéa again!
+
+Timar read on hurriedly--
+
+     "Bad company has led the young criminal astray: this is
+     a dangerous temptation in this climate. We had him
+     arrested at once, but none of the stolen money was
+     found in his possession. He had lost part at the
+     gambling-table, and got rid of the rest with the help
+     of the Creoles; but it is quite possible that the rogue
+     has managed to conceal considerable sums, in the hope
+     of being able to get at them when again at liberty.
+     However, he must wait some time, for the court here has
+     sentenced him to fifteen years at the galleys."
+
+Timar could read no further. He let the letter fall on the table; then
+he stood up and began to pace the room restlessly.
+
+Fifteen years at the galleys! Fifteen years chained to the bench, and
+nothing to look at all that time but sky and sea! Fifteen years to
+endure the sickening noonday heat, without hope or comfort--to endure
+life on the ever-restless sea, and curse unmerciful man! He will be an
+old man before he gets his freedom. And why? In order that Herr Michael
+Timar, Baron von Levetinczy, may live undisturbed in his forbidden joys
+on the ownerless island--that no one may betray Noémi to Timéa, nor
+Timéa to Noémi. You never thought of this when you sent Theodor to
+Brazil, and yet you did count on the chance of opportunity making him
+into a thief. You did not lay him dead on the spot with a bullet, as a
+man kills in a duel him who stands in the way of his love. You pretended
+to a paternal affection for him, and sent him on a three-thousand miles'
+voyage; and now you will look on at this slow decay through fifteen
+horrible years--for you will see him, though all the earth and all her
+oceans lie between!
+
+The stove had gone out. It was cold in the room, whose windows were
+covered with frost-flowers. And yet sweat dropped from Timar's brow, as
+he strode up and down the narrow space. So, then, every one is
+consecrated to misfortune to whom he gives his hand--on that hand is a
+curse.
+
+Oh, what an awful night this is! Will it never be day? He felt as if
+this room were a dungeon or a tomb.
+
+But the terrible letter had a postscript. Timar came back to the table
+to read it. The postscript was dated a day later, and ran thus: "I have
+just received a letter from Port-au-Prince, in which we are informed
+that three slaves have escaped from the galley on which our prisoner was
+placed. I fear our man is among them."
+
+After the perusal of these lines, Timar was a prey to indescribable
+anxiety. Though he had been perspiring before, he began to shiver now.
+Had the fever returned? He looked round fearfully. What was he afraid
+of? He was alone in the room, and as frightened as a child who has been
+hearing ghost stories. He could not endure the room any longer. He took
+out his pocket-pistol and looked to its priming; then he tried his
+dagger, whether it was loose in its sheath.
+
+Away! It was still night--not yet two o'clock; but he could not await
+the morning light here. And could he not get across to the Uj-Szöny side
+without a bridge? Above the island the ice would bear. It only required
+a man who was less afraid of darkness and danger than of the flickering
+candle and the outspread letter. He held that over the light and burned
+it; then he blew out the candle and crept out of the window.
+
+Only when he was in the street did he feel his heart lighter: here he
+was a man again. Meanwhile fresh snow had fallen, which he heard
+crackling under his feet while he hurried to the shore, along the whole
+Servian Street right up to the harbor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE ICE.
+
+
+The Danube was completely frozen over up to Prestburg, and could be
+crossed anywhere. Still, in order to cross from Komorn to Uj-Szöny, he
+had to go round a long way by the point of the island, for sand-banks
+exist there on which in summer the miners wash their gold, and on these
+mounds the ice often lies in great heaps, forming barricades difficult
+to surmount. Timar had a plan ready; as soon as he came in sight of the
+Monostor, where stood his villa, he would strike out in that direction.
+But something intervened to upset his calculations. He had expected a
+starry night, but when he reached the Danube a fog came on. At first
+only thin, transparent mist; but while Timar was seeking a path on the
+ice, the fog became so thick that you could not see three steps in front
+of you. If he had given ear to the voice of reason, he would have
+instantly turned round and tried to find his way back to the bank. But
+he was in a frame of mind in which a man is inaccessible to reason; by
+fair means or foul he meant to get across. Apart from the fog, it was a
+dark night; and above the island the Danube is at its widest, and the
+passage over the ice-floes the most difficult. Monstrous heaped-up
+masses of frozen snow form oblique stretches of barricade, and in many
+places the ice takes the shape of capriciously cleft ridges, from which
+rise six-foot pinnacles of frozen water instead of fingers of rock. In
+coasting round these, Timar suddenly found that he had lost himself. He
+had already been an hour on the river; his repeater struck a quarter to
+three; he ought long ago to have reached the other side; he must have
+lost his reckoning.
+
+He listened; no sound in the dark night. It was beyond question that he
+was not approaching the opposite village, but getting further away from
+it. Not even a dog could be heard to bark. He fancied that instead of
+crossing the river he must have been walking along it, and determined to
+change his course. The Danube was nowhere more than two hundred paces
+wide; he must reach the shore somewhere if he kept straight on. But in
+mist and darkness one does not know which way one goes; a barrier of ice
+which must be avoided takes one, in spite of every care, out of the
+right road--one walks in zigzags and comes back to the spot where one
+was before; even if you get into the right path, and would only have to
+walk on to reach the bank, you think of something else, deviate
+slightly, and get back into that confounded ice labyrinth again.
+
+Past five. Nearly four hours already had he wandered about. He felt
+exhausted. He had not slept all night, nor eaten all day, but had
+struggled with the most enervating mental emotions.
+
+His only hope was, that when day at last dawned he would be able to
+guess by the sun where the east lay, and then, as an old sailor, could
+ascertain his position. If he had come across a hole in the ice, the
+current of the water would have shown him in what direction to go; but
+the surface was entirely covered, and without an ax it was impossible to
+make a hole. At last it began to dawn, but the fog hid the sun. Nine
+o'clock, and he had not yet found the shore, though the fog seemed to
+grow less and the sun's disk was visible, like a pale, colorless ball, a
+mere shadow of its glorious self. The air was full of countless
+glittering particles of ice, which melted into a dazzling vapor. Now he
+will discover where he is.
+
+The sun was already too high to indicate the true east, but it showed
+something else. It seemed to Timar, as he peered through the brilliant
+mist, as if he could distinguish on his right the outline of the roof of
+a house.
+
+Where there is a house there must be land. He walked straight toward it,
+and was careful to keep in a direct line; soon he found himself close to
+it--but the house was a water-mill.
+
+The ice-floes had detached it from its winter refuge, or perhaps had
+found it belated, still chained to the shore, and carried it off. The
+shrouds were as neatly sawn asunder by the sharp ice-flakes as if a
+clever carpenter had done it: the wheels were shattered and the
+mill-house wedged into a mass of ice, forming a parapet round it.
+
+Timar stood before it in horror. His head swam as if he had seen a
+ghost. The sunken mill in the Perigrada whirlpool occurred to him. Is
+not this the ghost of that mill which comes to visit him at the end of
+his career, or perhaps to take possession of him? A ruined mill amidst
+the ice! A house so near its downfall! He went in; the door was open,
+probably from the shocks received amidst the blocks of ice. The
+machinery was all complete, so that Timar felt at any moment the white
+miller's ghost might enter and shake the meal into the sacks. On the
+roof, the beams, on every little ledge sat crows. A couple of them
+fluttered away when they saw him; the rest sat still and took no notice
+of him.
+
+Timar was dead beat. For eight hours continuously he had wandered on
+the ice; the hinderances he had met with had fatigued him yet more; his
+stomach was empty, his nerves overstrained, his limbs stiff with cold.
+He sat down exhausted on a post inside the mill.
+
+His eyes closed. And hardly had they done so before he saw himself
+standing at the bow of the "St. Barbara," with the hatchet in his hand,
+and near him the girl with the pale face.
+
+"Away from here!" he cried to her; the ship rushed down the cataract.
+The wave-curl came to meet them. "Into the cabin!" But the girl never
+stirred. Then the sea struck the ship. Timar fell from his seat: that
+woke him, and he realized his danger. If he fell asleep there, he would
+certainly freeze to death. No doubt that is the easiest way to take
+one's life; but he had work to do in the world--his hour had not struck.
+
+He went out of the mill--the fog was too thick to see anything; it was
+not day but night. The sighs which might go up to Heaven are swallowed
+in the dark clouds which will not let them pass. Was there nothing
+living near to help him in his extremity?
+
+When the mill was carried away by the ice there were mice in it: they
+waited till the ice had set; then they left the mill and found their way
+to the shore--on the thin snow-covering their tiny footsteps were
+visible. Timar followed them. The smallest of all the mammalia in this
+way conducted the wise and strong human being for a whole half hour till
+he reached the shore. Thence he easily found the road, and arrived at
+the inn where he had left the post-chaise. Mist was behind and before
+him, and no one saw whence he came. In the parlor he devoured salt
+calves'-feet which had been prepared for the wagoners, drank a glass of
+wine, had the horses put to, lay down in the carriage, and slept till
+evening. He dreamed constantly that he was on the ice; and when the
+carriage shook, he awoke under the impression that the ice had broken
+under him, and that he was sinking into fathomless depths.
+
+As he had started late from Szöny, he only reached his villa at Fured
+the next evening. The fog accompanied him the whole way, so thick that
+he could not see the Platten See. They were preparing for the first
+catch of the season next day; he gave orders to his steward to have
+ready plenty of wine and malt brandy.
+
+Galambos, the old fishing overseer, predicted a large haul. One good
+sign was that the lake had frozen so early. At this time, just before
+spawning, the fish come up the gulf in shoals. It was a still better
+omen that Herr von Levetinczy had come himself. He always had luck.
+
+"I--luck!" echoed Timar to himself, sighing heavily.
+
+"I would almost venture to bet that we shall catch the king of the
+fogasch himself."
+
+"How do you mean, the king?"
+
+"It is an old fogasch which every fisherman on the lake knows, for we
+have all had him in our nets in turn; but no one can land him, for when
+he finds he is caught he works a hole at the bottom with his snout, and
+manages to get out of the net. He is a regular rogue; we have put a
+price on his head, for he destroys as many young fry as three fishermen.
+He is a huge beast, and when he swims on the surface, one would think
+he was a whale; but we'll get him to-morrow."
+
+Timar did not contradict, but sent every one away and lay down. Now he
+first felt how tired he was; and he slept a long and healthy sleep,
+undisturbed by dream-faces. When he awoke he was perfectly fresh; even
+the anxieties which occupied his mind had faded into the background as
+if they were a year distant. The small span of time between to-day and
+yesterday seemed like an eternity. It was not yet daylight, but it
+surprised him that the moon was shining through the frost-covered panes.
+He got up quickly, bathed as usual in icy water, dressed, and hurried
+out to see the Balaton.
+
+This presents, when frozen--especially the few first days--a most
+enchanting sight. The huge lake does not freeze like rivers, on which
+the ice masses gradually collect: here in one moment of calm the whole
+surface is covered with a sheet of ice like crystal; and in the morning
+a smooth unruffled mirror is outspread. Under the moonlight it is a
+looking-glass in one piece without a flaw--only the tracks are visible
+upon it, by which the inhabitants of the contiguous villages communicate
+with each other. They traverse it like measuring-lines on some great
+glass table--you see the reflection of the mountains of Tihany, with the
+double tower of the church, as distinctly as if it were real, only the
+towers are upside down.
+
+Timar stood long absorbed in this fairy picture. The fishermen woke him
+from his dream; they arrived with nets, poles, and ice-axes, and said
+the work must begin before sunrise. When all had assembled, they formed
+a circle, and the old chief intoned a pious hymn, which all repeated
+after him. Timar walked away; he could not pray. How should he address a
+psalm to Him who is omniscient, and who can not be deceived by songs and
+hymns? The music could be heard two miles away over the level surface,
+and the echoes of the shore repeated the sound. Timar walked a long way
+over the lake. At last it began to dawn, the moon paled, and the eastern
+horizon was tinted with rosy red, which caused a wonderful
+transformation in the color of the giant ice mirror, dividing it into
+two sharply contrasted halves. One side assumed a coppery-violet hue,
+while the other looked azure blue against the pink sky.
+
+In proportion to the growing light, the splendor of the sight increased;
+the purple red, the gold of the sky, were repeated in the pure
+reflection, and when the glowing ball, radiant with fiery vapor, shot up
+from the violet mists of the horizon and shone down on the glittering
+surface, it was a spectacle such as neither sea nor land can show, as if
+two suns rose at once in two real skies. The moment the sun had passed
+through the earth-fogs, its glorious rays leaped forth.
+
+The fishing-captain Galambos cried from the distance to Timar, "Now you
+will hear something. Don't be afraid! Ho! ho!"
+
+"Afraid!" thought Timar, shrugging his shoulders, incredulously. What in
+the world could frighten him now? He would soon know.
+
+When the sun first shines on the frozen lake, a wonderful sound is heard
+from the ice, as if thousands of fairy harp-strings were struck. One is
+reminded of the tones from Memnon's statue, only that it does not last
+so long. The mysterious cling-clang grows louder, as if the nixies down
+below struck their harps with all their force: then follows a droning
+and cracking, almost as loud as a shot, and on every snap follows a
+glittering fissure in the ice, which till then was clear as glass. In
+every direction the gigantic mirror is flawed till it is like a huge
+mosaic, formed of millions of tiny dice, pentagons, and many-sided
+prisms, and whose surface is of glass. This is what causes the sound. He
+who hears it for the first time finds his heart beating faster; the
+whole surface hums, rings, and sings under his feet. Some cracks are
+like thunder, and are heard miles away. The fishermen, however, proceed
+quietly with the spreading of their nets on the top of the groaning ice,
+and in the distance may be seen hay wagons, drawn slowly by four oxen
+across the surface. Man and beast are used to the ice-voices, which last
+till sunset.
+
+This remarkable phenomenon made a curious impression on Michael's mind.
+He was very sensitive to the great life of nature. In his emotional
+temperament the thought was implanted that everything living has
+consciousness--wind, storm, and lightning, the earth itself, the moon
+and stars. But who could understand what the ice under his feet was
+saying?
+
+Then suddenly was heard a fearful detonation as if a hundred cannon had
+been fired at once, or a subterranean mine had been exploded--the whole
+surface trembled and shook. The effect of this thunderous convulsion was
+fearful--the ice opened in a cleft three thousand yards long, and
+between the edges of the floes yawned a six-foot chasm. "_A Rianás!
+a Rianás!_" (the ice-cleft), cried the fishermen, and ran to the place,
+abandoning their nets.
+
+Timar stood only two paces from it. He had seen it happen. His knees
+trembled with the frightful shock, which had driven the two ice masses
+apart; he was stunned with the effect of this natural phenomenon. The
+arrival of the fishermen roused him; they told him that among the
+natives this fissure was called _Rianás_, a word unknown elsewhere. It
+was a great danger for travelers across the lake, for it was not visible
+far off, and it never froze over, because the water was always moving in
+it. It was therefore the first care of these good people, wherever a
+footpath led to the crack, to plant at both edges a pole in the ice with
+a bundle of straw at the top, so that those who approach might have
+warning. "But what is even more dangerous," said the fisherman, "is
+when, under great pressure of wind, the separated floes again unite.
+Then there is such a grinding and crushing! Very often the power of the
+wind is sufficient to raise the edges of the two floes, so that there is
+an empty space between the water and the uplifted ice. God pity those
+who go over there without knowing it, for the ice which does not touch
+the water is certain to give way under them!"
+
+It was nearly noon before they could get to work. It is capital sport,
+this fishing under the ice. In the bay, where the fishermen's experience
+tells them the shoals of fish will lie, two large holes are made in the
+ice some fifty fathoms apart, and then a square of smaller holes is
+formed, so that the two large openings form the opposite angles. The
+pieces of ice hewn from the holes are piled round their edges, so that
+passengers may be warned of the danger of falling in. When the sun
+shines on these white heaps, they look like colossal diamonds. The
+fishermen sink the huge net sideways into the large hole, spread out its
+two ends, and fasten them on poles, each three and a half fathoms in
+length. One man pushes the pole with the net under the ice, while
+another waits at the next small hole, and when the pole appears there he
+pushes it on to the third hole, and so on, while the other side of the
+square is being treated in the same way with the second pole and the
+other end of the net. Both meet at the opposite large hole. The net,
+which is sunk to the bottom with lead weights, while its top edge is
+held up by ropes over the ice, forms an absolute prison for all the fish
+within the square, which usually swarm at this season. The fogasch and
+sheath fish leave their miry bed and come up to breathe at the
+ice-holes; they have their family festivals in the winter, when
+cold-blooded animals make love. The strong ice-roof protects them from
+the foreign element, but not from its inhabitants--men.
+
+The ice now only assists in their destruction. When they discover that
+the net is pressing on them, it is already too late to find an outlet.
+They can not leap out, because the ice shuts them in, and even the
+fogasch can not as usual burrow in the mud, to get under the net, for
+the weight of his splashing companions leaves him no space to work. The
+fishermen lay hold on the rope and draw steadily. The united exertion of
+twenty men shows how great is the strain on them; it must be several
+hundred-weight. The surface of the large hole begins to be alive with
+the crowd of fishes pressing to the only outlet, there to meet their
+death. Various forms of fish-mouths peep out of the water--transparent
+jelly-fish, red tails, blue, green, and silver scales press up, and
+between them comes up sometimes a great silurian, the shark of the
+Balaton, a Wels of a hundred pounds' weight, with wide jaws and
+horse-shoe mustache; but it disappears into the depths again, as if to
+find safety there.
+
+Three fishermen dip the living crowd out from the top with large
+landing-nets, and throw the fish on to the ice without more ado, where
+old and young leap about together: thence they can not escape, for the
+holes are all surrounded with heaps of ice. It is a regular witches'
+dance--wide-mouthed carp leaping high in air, the pike in its despair
+wriggling like a snake among the gasping heaps of perch and bass. One
+conger after another is hauled out with a hook and thrown on the frozen
+surface, where, laying down his ugly head, he flaps his fellow-prisoners
+into pieces with his heavy tail. The space around the hole is all
+covered with fishes. The carp jump like water-rats, but no one
+notices--they can not get away. The lazier fishes lie in heaps on both
+sides.
+
+"I said so," murmured old Galambos; "I knew we should have a good catch.
+Wherever our gracious master shows himself, luck comes with him. If only
+we could catch the fogasch-king."
+
+"If I am not mistaken, we've got him in there," said the man who was
+next him at the rope. "There's some great beast shooting about in the
+net; I feel it in both my arms."
+
+"Ha! there he is!" cried another, whose landing-net was full of fish,
+as an enormous head like that of a white crocodile appeared above the
+water. The whole head was white; in the open mouth were two rows of
+sharp teeth like those of an alligator, but with four fangs meeting like
+a tiger's--a formidable head indeed. They may well call him the king of
+the lake, for there is no other creature in it, even of his own race,
+able to vie with him.
+
+"There he is!" screamed three others at once, but the next instant the
+brute had sunk; and now began the struggle.
+
+As if the imprisoned brute had suddenly given the word to his body-guard
+for a last and decisive combat, a dangerous tumult began inside the net.
+The skirmishing corps of pike and carp ran their heads against the
+tightly drawn meshes; the men were obliged to beat down the marine
+giants with loaded staves. The fishes became furious; the cold-blooded
+creation showed itself capable of heroic devotion, and rose against the
+invaders in pitched battle. The struggle ended in the defeat of the
+fishes. The dog-fish were knocked on the head, the net shook out many
+beautiful white fogasch and schille; but the fogasch-king would not show
+himself.
+
+"He has got away again," grumbled the old chief.
+
+"No, no; he is in the net still!" said the hauling-men, clinching their
+teeth. "I feel by my arms how he is pushing and fighting; if only he
+does not break the net."
+
+The catch was enormous already; there was no room to stand without
+treading on fishes.
+
+"There goes the net! I heard it crack!" cried the first man. Half the
+net was still in the water.
+
+"Haul!" growled the old fisherman, and all the men put out their whole
+strength. With the net came the rest of the fishes, and the fogasch-king
+was among them--a splendid specimen indeed, more than forty pounds
+weight, such as is only seen once in twenty years. He had really torn
+the net with his great head; but he had caught his prickly fins in the
+meshes, and could not get free. When they got him out he gave one of the
+men a blow with his tail which knocked him backward on the ice. But that
+was his last effort; the next moment he was dead. No one has ever held a
+living fogasch in his hand. It is thought that his lungs burst as he is
+taken out of water, and he dies instantly.
+
+The delight of the fishermen at the capture of this one was greater than
+over the whole rich haul. They had been after him for years; and every
+one knew the cannibal, for he had the bad habit of eating his own kind.
+That was why he was king. When he was opened they found a large fogasch
+in his inside, quite recently swallowed; his flesh was overlaid with a
+thick layer of yellow fat, and white as linen.
+
+"Now, honored sir, we will send him to the gracious lady," said the old
+fisherman. "We will pack him in ice, and your honor will write a letter
+and say he is the king of the fogasch. Whoever eats him will eat a
+king's flesh."
+
+Michael approved the suggestion, and assured the men they should get a
+reward. When they had finished with the fogasch, the short winter's day
+had come to a close; but only in the sky, not on the ice--there it was
+lively enough. From every village came the people with baskets and
+hampers and wooden kegs; in the kegs was wine, in the hampers pork, but
+the baskets were meant for the fish. When it came to the division of the
+spoil, a complete fair formed round the fishermen. After sunset, torches
+were made of dry osier-twigs, fires were lighted on the ice, and then
+began the bargaining. Carp and pike, conger and bass, are good enough
+for poor people. Only the fogasch and schille are sent to Vienna and
+Pesth, where they fetch high prices; all the rest go for a song--and
+even so there is room for a large profit, for in one haul they had
+caught three hundredweight of fish. This Timar is indeed a favorite of
+fortune! The unsold fish are packed in baskets and put in the ice-house,
+whence they will be sent to the Vessprimer market.
+
+Timar wanted to give a feast to all the assembled crowd. He had a
+ten-gallon cask brought on to the ice and the top knocked out; then he
+begged the captain to prepare a fish-soup, such as he only could
+concoct. Certain selected fishes, neither rich nor bony, were cut in
+pieces into a great kettle; then some of the blood, and handfuls of
+maize and vegetables, were added. The whole art lies in the proper
+proportions of the mixture, which the uninitiated never understand. Of
+this delicious mess Herr Timar himself consumed an incredible quantity.
+Where good wine flows and fish-soup is brewed, be sure there will be
+gypsies to be found. Almost before they thought of it, a brown band of
+musicians appeared, who, as soon as the cymbal-player was seated on an
+upturned basket, began to play popular airs.
+
+Where gypsies and rosy wenches and fiery youths get together, dancing
+will soon begin. In a twinkling a rustic ball was improvised on the ice,
+and rose to a frolicsome height. Round the bonfires circled the active
+couples, shouting, as they leaped, like King David, and before he knew
+where he was, Timar too, whom a handsome girl had caught by the arm, was
+drawn into the whirl. Timar danced.
+
+In the clear winter darkness the cheery fires illuminated the ice for
+many a mile. The fun lasted till midnight. Meanwhile the fishermen had
+finished carrying the fish into the ice-house. The joyous crowd
+dispersed on their homeward way, not without cheers for the feast-giver,
+the generous Baron von Levetinczy.
+
+Timar stayed till Galambos had packed the fogasch-king in a box, between
+ice and hay, and nailed the lid down. It was put into the chaise which
+had brought Timar, and the driver was told to get ready to drive for his
+life to Komorn: there is no time to lose in dispatching fish. He wrote
+himself to Timéa. The letter was written in an affectionate and cheerful
+mood. He called her his dear wife, and described the picturesque scene
+on the frozen lake, and the terrible cleft in the ice. (That he had been
+so near the _Rianás_ he did not mention.) Then he gave a description of
+the fishing, with all its amusing details, and finished with an account
+of the night festival. He told her how much he had been entertained, and
+how he had quite lost his head, and even ventured on a dance with a
+pretty peasant girl on the ice.
+
+Some men write these amusing letters when they are contemplating
+suicide. When the letter was ready he took it to the driver. The old
+fisherman was there too. "Go home now, Galambos," Michael advised. "You
+must be tired."
+
+"I must go and make up the fire on the ice," said the old man, lighting
+his pipe, "for the smell of fish brings the foxes and even bears from
+all the forests round, to fish on their own account: they watch for the
+fishes, which put their heads out of the holes, and drag them out, and
+that frightens away the others."
+
+"No, no!" said Michael, "don't keep up the fire. I will keep guard--I
+often watch all night. I will go out now and then and fire my gun; that
+will send all the four-footed fishermen to the right-about." This
+satisfied Galambos, who invoked God's blessing on his master, and
+trotted away.
+
+The deaf vine-dresser, the only other inhabitant of Timar's house, had
+long been asleep. To add to his deafness, he had drunk so much good wine
+that one might be certain his night's rest would be unbroken. Timar too
+went to his room and stirred up his fire.
+
+He was not sleepy; his excited brain required no rest. But there is
+another form of repose; or is it not rest to sit near an open window and
+look out on dumb nature? The moon had not yet risen; only the stars of
+heaven shone down on the smooth ice. Their reflection was like rubies
+spread on a blight steel plate, or the lights which flicker over graves
+on Hallowe'en.
+
+He gazed before him, and did not even think. He sat without any
+sensation, either of cold or of his own pulses, neither of the outer nor
+inner world--he only wondered. This was rest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE PHANTOM.
+
+
+The stars glittered in heaven and sparkled from their frozen mirror: no
+breath disturbed the silence of the night. Then Michael heard behind him
+a voice which greeted him with "Good-evening, sir."
+
+At the door of the bedroom stood, between the two lights of the lamp and
+the fire, a figure, at sight of which Timar's blood ran cold. In the
+bitter midnight, through the dense fog, he had fled from this specter
+across the frozen Danube.
+
+The man's dress was that of a naval officer, whose uniform had, however,
+visibly suffered from storms and weather. The green cloth had altogether
+faded on the shoulders, and some buttons were gone. The shoes, too, were
+in sad condition. The soles had worn away at the tip so that the naked
+toes were visible; over one shoe a piece of carpet was tied. The wearer
+was suited to his ragged dress. A sunburned face with a neglected beard;
+in place of the shaven mustache, a few bristly hairs; across the
+forehead a black handkerchief covering one eye. This was the figure
+which had wished Timar a good-evening.
+
+"Krisstyan!" said Timar, very low.
+
+"Yes, to be sure; your dear Theodor--your dear adopted son, Theodor
+Krisstyan! How good of you to recognize me!"
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"First, I want to have that gun in my own hands, lest it should remind
+you of the words with which we parted last time--'If I ever appear
+before you again, shoot me down.' Since then I have changed my mind." So
+saying he seized Timar's gun, which leaned against the wall, threw
+himself into a chair by the fire, and laid the gun across his knee.
+"There, now we can talk quietly. I have come a long way, and I am
+dreadfully tired. My equipage left me in the lurch, and I had to travel
+part of the way on foot."
+
+"What do you want here?" said Timar.
+
+"First, a respectable suit, for what I am wearing bears signs of the
+severity of the weather." Timar went to the closet, took out his pelisse
+trimmed with astrakhan, and the rest of the suit, laid them on the
+ground between himself and Krisstyan, and pointed to them in silence.
+The vagrant held the gun in one hand, keeping his finger on the trigger,
+lifted the clothes one by one with the other, and looked them over with
+the air of a connoisseur.
+
+"Very good--but there is something wanting to this coat. What do you
+think it is? Why, of course, the purse."
+
+Timar took his pocket-book from a drawer, and threw it over. The
+vagabond caught it with one hand, opened it with the help of his teeth,
+and counted the notes inside.
+
+"We are getting on," he said, placing the pocket-book in the pocket of
+the pelisse. "Might I ask for some linen? I have worn mine for a week,
+and I fear it is hardly fit for company." Timar handed him a shirt out
+of the wardrobe. "Now, I have got far enough to proceed to the toilet.
+But first I have a few explanations to make in order to explain one or
+two things to his honor the privy councilor. But why the devil should we
+bother with titles! We are old friends, and can talk openly."
+
+Timar sat down speechless by the table.
+
+"So then, my dear fellow," said the fugitive, "you will remember that
+you sent me some years ago to Brazil. How affected I was! I adopted you
+as a father, and swore to be an honest man. But you did not send me over
+there to make an honest man of me, but in order that I might not stand
+in your way in this hemisphere. You calculated that a worthless youth,
+without a good fiber in him, is sure to come to grief in that part of
+the world. He either turns thief, or gets drowned, or somebody shoots
+him--anyway, he would be got rid of. But you intrusted me with a large
+sum of money. What was that to you? Only a stalking-horse. You reckoned
+on my robbing you, so that you might arrest and imprison me; and so it
+turned out. Once or twice I nearly did you the favor of dying of some
+native plague, but unluckily for you I pulled through. And then I
+devoted my whole energy to business; I robbed you of ten million reis.
+Ha! ha! Spanish thieves reckon in half-kreutzers, so that the sum may
+sound larger--it is not more than a hundred thousand gulden. If only you
+knew what lovely necks the women there have, you would not think it too
+much; and they will only wear real pearls. But your stupid agent, the
+Spaniard, looked at it from a different point of view; he had me
+arrested and tried, and the rascal of a judge sentenced me--just for a
+foolish boyish trick--only think, to fifteen years at the galleys! Now,
+just say, was it not barbarous?"
+
+Timar shuddered.
+
+"They took off my fine clothes, and in order that they might not lose
+me, they branded me on the arm with a hot iron." The felon threw off his
+uniform-coat as he spoke, drew his dirty shirt from his left shoulder,
+and showed Timar, with a bitter laugh, the mark still fiery red on his
+arm. "Look you, it was on your account that they branded me like a foal
+or a calf, lest I should go astray. Don't be afraid--I would not run
+away from you, even without that."
+
+With morbid curiosity Timar gazed at the burn on the miserable wretch,
+and could not turn his eyes away.
+
+"After that, they dragged me to the galleys, and riveted one of my feet
+to the bench with a ten-pound chain." With that he threw his torn shoe
+from his foot, and showed Timar a deep wound on his raw ankle. "That
+also I carry as a remembrance of you," sneered the escaped criminal.
+
+Timar's eyes rested as if fascinated on the disfigured foot.
+
+"But just think, comrade, how kind fate can be! The ways of Providence
+are wonderful by which an unhappy sufferer is led to the arms of his
+friends. On the same bench where they had been good enough to fasten me,
+sat a respectable old man with a bushy beard. He was to be my bed-fellow
+for fifteen years. It is natural to take a good look at a man who is
+wedded to you for so long a time. I stared at him awhile, and then said
+in Spanish, 'It seems to me, señor, as if I had met you before.' 'Your
+eyes do not deceive you--may you be struck blind!' replied the amiable
+individual. Then I addressed him in Turkish, 'Effendi, have you not been
+in Turkey?' 'I have been there; what's that to you?' Then I said in
+Hungarian, 'Were you not originally called Krisstyan?' The old fellow
+was much surprised, and said, 'Yes.' 'Then, I am your son Theodor, your
+dear Theodor, your only offspring!' Ha! ha! Thanks to you, friend, I
+found my father, my long lost father, over there in the New World on the
+galley-slave's bench. Providence in its wonderful way had united the
+long-divided father and son! But may I beg you to give me a flask of
+wine and something to eat, for I am thirsty and hungry, and have many
+interesting things to tell you, which will amuse you intensely."
+
+Timar did as he asked, and gave him bread and wine. The visitor sat at
+the table, took the gun between his knees, and began to eat. He devoured
+like a starved dog, and drank eagerly: at every draught he smacked his
+lips, like an epicure who has dined well. And then he went on, with his
+mouth full:
+
+"After we had got over the first joy of the unexpected meeting, my dear
+papa said, while he thumped me on the head, 'Now tell me, you
+gallows-bird, how you got here?' Naturally my filial respect had
+prevented me from addressing the like question to my parent. I told him
+that I had defrauded a Hungarian gentleman named Timar of ten million
+reis. 'And where did he steal all that?' was my old man's remark. I
+explained that he never stole--that he was a rich landowner, merchant,
+and trader. But that did not alter my father's opinion: 'All the same,
+whoever has money stole it. He who has much stole much, and he who has
+little stole little: if he did not steal it himself, his father or
+grandfather did so. There are a hundred and thirty-three ways of
+stealing, and only twenty-two of them lead to the galleys.' As I saw it
+was useless to try and change my old man's opinion, I no longer disputed
+the point. Then he asked me, 'How the devil did you come in contact with
+this Timar?'
+
+"I told him the circumstances. 'I knew this Timar when he was a poor
+skipper, and had to wash his own potatoes in the ship's galley. Once I
+was sent by the Turkish police to track an escaped pasha who had fled on
+one of Timar's ships to Hungary.' 'What was his name?' growled my
+father. 'Ali Tschorbadschi.' 'What!' he exclaimed, striking me on the
+knee. He leaped up so that I thought he would jump overboard. Ha! ha! he
+forgot the chain. . . . 'Did you know him too!' Then the old man shook
+his head and said, 'Go on; what became of Ali Tschorbadschi?' 'I
+detected him at Ogradina: I hurried on in front of the ship to Pancsova,
+where every preparation was made to arrest him. But the vessel arrived
+without the pasha. He had died on the way, and as he was not allowed
+burial on shore they had thrown the corpse overboard. All this Timar
+proved by documentary evidence.' 'And Timar was then quite poor?' 'No
+richer than myself.' 'But now he has millions?' 'Of which I was lucky
+enough to secure ten million reis.'
+
+"'Now, you fool, you see I was right--he stole his wealth. From whom? he
+killed the pasha and hid his money. I knew Ali Tschorbadschi--well. He
+was a thief too, like every other man, especially like every other rich
+man. He belonged to the 122d and 123d class of thieves. Under those
+numbers we reckon governors and treasurers. He was in charge of the
+treasures of another thief--the sultan himself, No. 133.
+
+"'Once I found out that thief No. 132, the grand vizier, wished to twist
+the treasurer's neck, to get back what he had stolen. I too was then in
+the Turkish secret police; only a sort of No. 10, simply a fraudulent
+bankrupt. I had a good idea: now if I could manage to push on into the
+ranks of the No. 50 thieves! I went to the pasha, and revealed the
+secret that he was on the list of rich men whom the minister meant to
+strangle as conspirators, in order to secure their property. What would
+he give me if I saved both him and his treasures? Ali Tschorbadschi
+promised me a quarter of his wealth when once we should both be in
+safety. "Yes," said I, "but I should like to know first how much the
+whole comes to, for I will do nothing with my eyes shut. I am a family
+man--I have a son whom I should like to settle in life."' Ha! ha! The
+old man said it so seriously that it makes me laugh now to think of it.
+'You have a son?' said the pasha to my father. 'That is well; if I
+escape I will give my only daughter to your son, and so the whole
+property will remain in the family: send me your son that I may know
+him.' By God! if I had only known then that the lovely lady with the
+white face and meeting brows was destined for me! Do you hear,
+comrade?--but I must have another drink, to drown my grief. . . . You
+will permit me to empty my glass to the health of your spouse, the
+loveliest of ladies?"
+
+The galley-slave rose with the courtesy of a prince and drank the toast.
+Then he threw himself back in his chair, and drew breath through his
+teeth like a man who has dined well. "My father agreed to the bargain.
+'We decided,' said he, 'that Ali Tschorbadschi should pack his jewels in
+a leather bag, which I was to take with me in an English ship, which
+would convey me as an unsuspected person, with all my luggage, to Malta.
+There I was to await Ali Tschorbadschi, who was to leave Stamboul as if
+on a pleasure trip, with his daughter, but without any luggage, make his
+way to the Piræus, and thence by a Greek trader to Malta. The pasha
+showed great confidence in me. He left me alone in the treasure-chamber,
+so that his own visits there should not be noticed, and commissioned me
+to select the most precious objects and pack them in the leather bag. I
+could describe now all the jewels I chose. The antique gems, the girdles
+of pearls, rings, agraffes, a casket full of diamonds--'
+
+"'Could you not hide a few away?' asked I.
+
+"'You ass's head!' he replied, 'why should I take a single diamond and
+become thief No. 18, when it was in my power to steal them all?'
+
+"Aha! my old father was a clever fellow! 'The devil I was! I was a
+moon-calf. I ought to have done as you say. I stuffed my bag full, and
+brought it to the pasha without arousing suspicion. He put a few
+rouleaux of louis d'or among the jewels in the bag, closed it with a
+puzzle-lock, and fastened lead seals to the four corners: then he sent
+me for a _caïque_, that I might get quietly away. I was back in a
+quarter of an hour. He handed me the bag with the English steel
+puzzle-lock and the four lead weights. I took it under my cloak and
+slipped through the garden door to the boat; on the way I handled the
+bag and felt the agraffes, the casket, and the rouleaux. In an hour I
+was on board an English ship, the anchor was weighed, and we left the
+Golden Horn.' 'And you never took me,' said I, with child-like reproach
+to my papa, 'who was to marry the pasha's lovely daughter?' 'You fool!'
+cried the old man, 'I didn't want you or your pasha or his lovely
+daughter; I never meant to wait for you at Malta: with the money given
+me for the journey I embarked direct for America, and the leather bag
+went with me. But, confound it! when I got to a safe place I took out my
+knife and slit the bag, and what do you think fell out of it?--copper
+buttons, rusty horse-shoes, and instead of the casket full of diamonds,
+a stone inkstand--in the rouleaux, instead of louis d'or were heavy
+paras, the sort the corporals use for paying the private soldiers. The
+rascally thief had robbed me! In all my 133 classes this had never
+occurred; there was no number for it. While I went for the boat, the
+thief had prepared another identical bag filled with all sorts of
+rubbish, and sent me with it across the ocean, while he fled in another
+direction with the real jewels. But look you, there is justice not only
+on land but by water, for the great thief ran into the net of a still
+greater, who robbed and murdered him.' And this tip-top thief, who
+deprived the other of his property and his life was--you--brother of my
+heart--Michael Timar Levetinczy, the man of gold!" said the fugitive, as
+he rose and bowed mockingly.
+
+Timar answered not a word.
+
+"And now we will talk in a different way," said Theodor Krisstyan, "but
+still at three paces' distance, and without forgetting that the gun is
+aimed at you."
+
+Timar looked indifferently down the muzzle of the gun. He had himself
+loaded it with ball.
+
+"This discovery considerably increased the sufferings of my slavery,"
+continued the adventurer. "Instead of living comfortably on Ali's
+treasure, I had to drag out a miserable existence on the hateful sea.
+And why? Because Michael Timar had smuggled the treasures which were
+intended for me from under my nose, and also the girl I should have
+married, the fair little savage who had grown up for me on the desolate
+island. Of her too Timar must needs defraud me, for he could not be
+happy with the wife whose father he had killed; he must needs have a
+mistress as well. Fy! Herr Timar. So it was for that you sent me to the
+galleys for fifteen years."
+
+Blow after blow fell on Timar's shame-stricken face. No doubt many of
+these accusations were false--they were not all true. He had not
+"killed" Timéa's father, had not "stolen" his treasures; he had not
+"defrauded" him of Noémi, nor "got rid of" Theodor, but on the whole he
+could not entirely deny the charges. He had played a false game, and
+thereby got mixed up in every sort of crime.
+
+The deserter continued: "When we were lying in the Gulf of Rio Grande do
+Sul, yellow fever broke out on board our ship. My father caught it, and
+lay in the death agony beside me on the bench--no one removed him. It is
+not the custom; a galley-slave must die where he is chained. This was a
+horrible situation for me. The old man shivered with ague the whole day,
+he swore and gnashed his teeth. He was unbearable with his continual
+curses on the Blessed Virgin, which he always uttered in Hungarian. Why
+did he not swear in Spanish? It sounds so fine, and then the rest would
+have understood; and why should he swear at the Madonna? I could not put
+up with it--there were plenty of other saints he could have maligned; it
+is not the thing for an educated man, a gentleman, to speak ill of the
+ladies. This caused a coolness between me and my old man. Not his deadly
+fever, which I might catch, merely his insufferable language. Strong as
+were the ties which united father and son, I decided to sever them, and
+succeeded in escaping in company with two others. We filed our chains at
+night, struck down the overseer, who had seen our proceedings, and threw
+him into the sea; then we launched the small boat and set off. It was
+very rough and our boat was swamped; one of my companions could not
+swim, and got drowned; the other could swim, but not so well as the
+shark which pursued him. I only knew by his shrieks that the sea-devil
+had caught him and bitten him in two. I swam ashore. How I obtained this
+naval uniform and the arms and money requisite for my passage, I will
+tell you some other day over a glass of wine, when we have plenty of
+time. But now let us conclude our business; for you know we have to
+settle our account together."
+
+The outcast put his hand up to the handkerchief over his eye. The slowly
+healing wound seemed to be an unpleasant reminder. The severe cold to
+which he had been exposed had not done it any good.
+
+"I tried to get to Komorn, where I knew you had your permanent home, and
+went to visit you. They said in your office that you had not yet come
+from abroad; what country you were in no one knew. Very well, thought I,
+then I will wait till he returns. To pass the time, I went to the cafés,
+and made acquaintance with officers to whom my uniform was an
+introduction, and then I visited the theaters. There I saw that
+exquisitely beautiful lady with the marble face and the melancholy
+eyes--you can guess whom I mean. With her was always another fair
+lady--oh! what murderous eyes that one has; she is a corsair in
+petticoats. I began to feel my way. Once I contrived to get a seat close
+by the wicked angel, and paid her attentions which she received
+graciously: when I asked leave to wait upon her, she referred to her
+mistress, on whom everything depended. I spoke admiringly of that
+awe-inspiring Madonna, and remarked that I had known her family in
+Turkey, and that she resembled her mother very strongly.
+
+"'What,' said the lovely lady, 'you knew her mother? she died very
+young.' 'I have only seen her portrait,' said I. 'It portrayed just such
+a pale, sad face, surrounded with a double row of diamonds of great
+value.' 'You too have seen the splendid ornament then?' said she. 'My
+mistress showed it me when Herr Timar von Levetinczy gave it to her.'"
+
+Timar clinched his fists in impotent rage.
+
+"Aha! now we know all about it," continued the adventurer, turning to
+the tortured man with a cruel smile. "You gave Ali Tschorbadschi's
+daughter the treasures you stole from her father. In that case the rest
+of the jewels must have fallen into your hands, for they were with the
+picture. You can no longer deny it. . . . And now we are on a level: we
+need not scruple to talk openly."
+
+Timar sat there paralyzed before the man into whose hands fate had
+delivered him. It was unnecessary to keep his gun from him: Timar had
+not strength to stand.
+
+"You kept me waiting a long time, my friend, and I began to get anxious
+about you; besides, my pocket-money was coming to an end. My rich aunt's
+remittances, the advices from my steward, my bankers, and the admiralty,
+for which I daily inquired at the post-office, failed to arrive--for
+excellent reasons. You were highly respected wherever I went: an upright
+merchant, a great genius, a benefactor to the poor. Your exemplary
+private life was described; you were the model husband; wives would burn
+your body when you died and dose their husbands with your ashes. Ha!
+ha!"
+
+Timar turned away his face.
+
+"But perhaps I weary you? Well, I am coming to business. One day I was
+in a bad temper, because you would not come home, and when some one
+mentioned you at the officers' café, I could not refrain from casting a
+doubt on the possibility of one man's uniting so many good qualities.
+Then a ruffian replied with a slap in the face: I confess I was not
+prepared for this; but my cheek deserved it--why had it not kept my
+tongue quiet? I was as sorry as a dog that I ventured to let fall a
+disrespectful word, and took the lesson to heart. I will never slander
+you again. If the box on the ear had been all, I should not so much
+have cared--I'm used to that; but the insolent fellow forced me to go
+out with him, because I had attacked your good name. As I soon learned,
+this madman was a lover of your Madonna when she was a girl, and now he
+was fighting for the honor of the Madonna's husband. That is a piece of
+good luck which could only happen to you, you man of gold. But I owe you
+no thanks for your good fortune; again it was I who had to pay for it: I
+got a cut over the head right down to the eyebrow. Look!"
+
+He thrust aside the silken bandage, under which was visible a long scar
+with a dirty plaster over it, the inflamed skin showing that the wound
+was not healed. Timar looked at it with a shudder.
+
+Krisstyan drew the bandage over it again, and said with cynical humor,
+"That is _souvenir_ number three which your friendship has bestowed on
+me. Well, there is all the more standing to my credit. I could not
+remain any longer in Komorn after this; but 'Stay,' said I--'I know
+where to have him; I know where the foreign country is whither he goes
+in the interest of his fatherland: it is not in any unknown land--it is
+none other than the ownerless island. I will follow him there.'"
+
+At this Timar cried furiously, "What! you went to the island?" He
+trembled with rage and fear.
+
+"Don't jump up, young friend!" said the felon, soothingly. "This gun is
+loaded; if you move it might go off, and I could not answer for the
+consequences. Besides, calm yourself. It did you no harm for me to go
+there, only myself; I always have to pay the piper when you go to the
+ball--it's as certain as if it were one of the ten commandments--you
+dance and I pay. You get into my bed, and it's me that they throw out of
+window. Why did I go to the ownerless island? only to look for you. But
+when I got there you had left, and I found no one but Noémi and a little
+brat . . . oh, fy, friend Michael! who would have thought it of you?
+. . . but hush! we mustn't tell anybody. . . . Dodi he's called, isn't
+he? A fine, forward boy; but how frightened he was of me, because I had
+my eye bound up! It is true that Noémi was startled too, for the two
+were quite alone on the island. It grieved me to hear that good Mamma
+Therese was dead; she was so kind, she would have received me
+differently. Just fancy--this Noémi would not even let me come in and
+sit down: she said she was afraid of me, and Dodi still more so, because
+they were alone. 'That's just why I have come, that you may have a man
+in the house to protect you.' By the bye, what potion have you given the
+girl that she has grown so pretty? Really she has become a splendid
+creature--it makes one's heart laugh to look at her; I never stopped
+telling her so. Then she tried to make ugly faces at me; I began to jest
+with her. 'Is it right,' said I, 'to make grimaces at your bridegroom?'
+That did not answer; she called me a vagrant, and turned me out. 'All
+right,' I said, 'I would go and take her with me,' and then I put my arm
+round her waist." Timar's eyes flashed fire. "Sit still, comrade; _you_
+need not jump up, but I had to, for the girl fetched me a box on the
+ear--just about twice as hard as the one I got from the major. To be
+accurate, I must acknowledge that she chose the other cheek, so as to
+make it equal."
+
+Timar's face brightened.
+
+"Then I did get angry. I am well known to be an admirer of the fair sex,
+but this insult demanded satisfaction. 'Well, I will just show you that
+you will come with me, if you don't allow me to stop here. You will
+follow me of your own accord'--and with that I took little Dodi's hand
+to lead him away.
+
+"Devil!" cried Timar.
+
+"Gently, gently, we can't both speak at once; your turn will come, and
+then you can talk as much as you like--but hear me out. I was not quite
+right when I said there were only two on the island--there were three;
+that confounded beast Almira was there. The dog had been lying under the
+bed, and seemed not to notice me, but when the child began to cry, the
+great brute flew out at me without being asked. I had my eye on her,
+drew out my pistol quickly, and shot her through the body."
+
+"Murderer!" groaned Timar.
+
+"Nonsense! If I had no more on my conscience than that dog's blood! and
+the beast was not even crippled by the ball; she made nothing of it. She
+only flew at me more furiously than ever, bit me in the arm, threw me
+down, and held me so that I could not move: in vain I tried to get at my
+second pistol--she held my arm in her teeth like a tiger. At last I
+entreated Noémi to set me free; she tried to get the beast away, but the
+raging fiend only sent her teeth deeper in. Then Noémi said, 'Ask the
+child--the dog will obey him.' I begged Dodi's help. The boy is
+kind-hearted; he had pity on me, and put his arms round Almira; then the
+dog let go, and the child kissed her." A tear ran down Timar's cheek.
+"So I was provided with another memento," said Theodor Krisstyan, as he
+pushed his dirty, blood-stained shirt-sleeve down from his shoulder.
+"Look at the mark of the dog's bite; all three fangs went to the bone:
+that is memorial number four, for which I have to thank you. I bear on
+my skin a whole album of wounds which I owe to you: the brand, the
+chain-sore, the sword-cut, and the dog's bite--all are remembrances of
+your friendship. And now say, what shall I do to you that our account
+may be balanced?"
+
+As the escaped prisoner said to Timar, "And now say what shall I do to
+you?" he stood entirely undressed before him, and Timar had to look at
+all the horrible wounds with which he was scarred from head to foot
+. . . and naked, too, the wretch's soul stood there, and it too was full
+of loathsome wounds inflicted by Timar's hand.
+
+The man knew that Timar had played a bold game with him; and now he was
+at his mercy: even physically he had not power to cope with him; his
+limbs were as feeble as those of a man overcome with sleep. The sight of
+the scarred form had the unnerving effect of an evil spell. The
+adventurer knew it, and no longer took precautions against him. Rising
+from his chair, he leaned the gun in the corner and spoke over his
+shoulder to Timar, "Now, then, for the toilet; while I dress you you can
+think over your answer to my question, what I shall do with you."
+
+With that he tossed his ragged clothes one after another into the fire,
+where they flared crackling up, so that the flame rushed up the chimney.
+Then he began to put on Timar's clothes in a leisurely way. On the
+mantel-piece he found Timar's watch: this he put in his
+waistcoat-pocket, and inserted Timar's studs in his shirt-front, finding
+time to arrange his hair in the glass. When he was quite ready, he threw
+up his head, and placed himself before the fire with outstretched legs
+and folded arms. "Well; now then, comrade."
+
+Timar began to speak. "What do you require of me?"
+
+"Aha! at last I have loosed your tongue! How if I were to say an eye for
+an eye, a tooth for a tooth? go and have a gallows-brand burned on you;
+wander by land and sea among sharks, Indians, jaguars, rattlesnakes, and
+secret police; be cut over the head by your wife's lover, be bitten by
+your mistress's dog--and then we shall begin to share alike. But you see
+I am not so hard on you; I won't talk about my wounds--a dog's bones
+soon mend--I will be kinder than you. I must disappear for a time; for I
+am wanted not only because of your money--my escape from the galleys,
+and the overseer I threw overboard, are not yet forgiven. Your money
+will do me no good till I get rid of the burn and the scar on the chin.
+I shall get rid of the one with vitriol, and for the other mineral baths
+will be of service. I am not afraid of your putting my pursuers on my
+track--you are too wise for that; but foresight is the mother of wisdom.
+In spite of our close friendship, it might happen that some one should
+give me a knock on the head in the dark, or some convenient brigands
+might shoot me, or a friendly glass of wine might send me the same road
+as Ali Tschorbadschi. No, my dear fellow, I would not even venture to
+ask you to fill me this wine-flask again, not even if you drank first. I
+shall always be on my guard."
+
+"What do you want then?"
+
+"How formally you talk! my company is too low for you. But first let us
+ask what the noble lord wants on his side. Probably that I should hold
+my tongue over all the secrets I have got hold of. The noble lord would
+perhaps not be disinclined to settle on me in return an income of a
+hundred thousand francs in government stock."
+
+Timar without hesitation replied, "Yes."
+
+The vagabond laughed. "I require no such heavy sacrifice, your honor. I
+told you money was no use to me at present. Such a gallows-bird, with so
+many bad habits, would be arrested anywhere, and then what good should I
+get of my income? What I want is, as I said, rest, and a place where I
+can remain hidden for a considerable time, and where I should meanwhile
+enjoy a comfortable, easy life; that is reasonable enough surely?"
+
+With that he took the gun up again, sat down on the chair, and held the
+gun before him in both hands, so as to be ready to fire at any moment.
+"I do not ask the hundred thousand francs at present; I only demand--the
+ownerless island."
+
+Timar felt as if struck by lightning; these words roused him from his
+stupor. "What do you want with it?"
+
+"Illustrissimo! See now. The air of the island is excellent, and most
+necessary to the re-establishment of my health, which suffered much in
+South America. I have heard from that dear departed saint, Frau Therese,
+that healing herbs grow there which are good for wounds; in botany
+books I have read that they will even make boiled flesh sound again.
+Then, too, I long for a quiet, contemplative life after all my trials;
+after the sybarite existence I have led, I long for the rustic joys of
+the golden age. Give me the ownerless island, excellency--serene
+highness."
+
+The fellow begged so mockingly with the gun in his hand.
+
+"You are a fool," said Timar, whom these jeers enraged, and then he
+turned his chair round and showed Theodor his back.
+
+"Oh, don't turn your back on me, noble sir--señor, eccelenza, my lord,
+durchlaucht, mynheer, pan volkompzsnye, monsieur, gospodin, effendi. In
+what language shall I address you, to persuade you to grant the poor
+fugitive's request?"
+
+This unseemly mockery did not do the assailant any good, but lessened
+the effect of the spell which lay on Timar, who began to recover from
+his stupefaction, and to recollect that he had to deal with a condemned
+man who was really in mortal danger. He spoke angrily. "Have done! Name
+any sum--you shall have it! if you want an island, go and buy one in the
+Greek Archipelago, or in China; if you are afraid of pursuit, go to
+Rome, Naples, or Switzerland: give yourself out as a marquis, get on
+terms with the Camorra, and no one will touch you; I will give you
+money--but you won't get the island."
+
+"Indeed? Your lordship is going to talk to me like that?" cried
+Krisstyan. "The drowning man has risen again, and is going to swim
+ashore--now just wait till I push you in again. You think to yourself,
+'Very well, booby, tell any one what you know; the first result will be
+that you will be arrested, clapped into jail, and forgotten there like a
+dog; you will soon be too dumb to tell anything more--or something else
+may happen.' I see what you think. But don't mistake the man you have to
+deal with. Now learn that you are tied hand and foot, and that you lie
+at my mercy like a miser gagged and bound by robbers, who must bear
+thorns thrust under his nails, his beard plucked out hair by hair, and
+boiling oil dropped on his skin, till he tells where his money is
+hidden. I shall do the same with you; and when you can bear no more,
+then cry 'enough.'"
+
+Timar listened with the deadly interest of a man on the rack to the
+words of the galley-slave. "Till now I have told not a soul what I know,
+on my honor. Except the few words which escaped me at Komorn, I have
+never spoken of you, and what I said then was neither fish nor flesh;
+but all I know of you is written down--I have it here in my pocket, and
+in four different documents, with different addresses. One is a
+denunciation to the Turkish Government, in which I reveal what Ali
+Tschorbadschi took from Stamboul, and what, as the confiscated property
+of a traitor, is due to the sultan. Even the jewels described to me by
+my father are enumerated there, piece by piece, with the account of
+their present possessors, and of how they came by them. In the second
+letter I inform the Viennese authorities of your murder of the pasha,
+and your theft of his property. My third letter is directed to Frau von
+Levetinczy at Komorn. I tell her what you did to her father, and how you
+came into possession of her mother's picture and the other treasures you
+presented to her. But I have told her something else besides--the place
+you go to when you are not at home--the secret joys of the ownerless
+island--the intrigue with another woman--the deceit you practice on her.
+I tell her about Noémi and little Dodi. Now shall I drive another thorn
+under your nails?"
+
+Timar's breast heaved with heavy panting sobs.
+
+"Well, as you say nothing, we will proceed," said the cruel torturer.
+"The fourth letter is to Noémi. I tell her in it all she does not yet
+know: that you have a lawful wife out in the world--that you are a
+gentleman who has dishonored her, and can never be her husband; who only
+sacrificed her to his base lusts, and who is a murderer besides. What!
+you don't ask for mercy yet? Do you see those two towers? That is
+Tihany; there live pious monks, for it is a monastery; there I shall
+deposit the four letters, and beg the prior, if I do not return within a
+week, to forward them to their addresses. It would be no use for you to
+put me out of the way, for the letters would still reach their
+destination, and then you could not stay any longer in this country. You
+can not go home; for even if your wife forgave you her father's death,
+she would never forgive you Noémi. Justice would make inquiries, and
+then you would have to let out how you came by your riches.
+
+"The Turkish Government would bring you to trial, and the Austrian too.
+The whole world would soon learn to know you, and those who looked on
+you as a man of gold, would see in you the very scum of humanity. You
+could not even take refuge in the ownerless island, for there Noémi
+would shut the door against you; she is a proud woman, and her love
+would turn to hatred. No, there is nothing left to you but to fly from
+the world, like me; change your name, like me; slink secretly from town
+to town, and tremble when steps approach your door, like me. Now, shall
+I go or stay?"
+
+"Stay!" groaned the sufferer.
+
+"Oho! you give in!" cried the rascal; "then let us sit down again.
+First, will you give me the ownerless island?"
+
+A feeble subterfuge occurred to Timar's heart, which he used to gain
+time. "But the island belongs to Noémi, not to me."
+
+"A very true observation; but my request is not altered by that fact.
+The island belongs to Noémi, but Noémi belongs to you."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Timar, wildly.
+
+"Now don't roll your eyes; don't you know you are fast bound? Let us
+take it all as it comes. The thing can be arranged. You write a letter
+to Noémi, which I will carry; meanwhile that fierce black brute will
+have died, and I can land safely. In the letter you will take leave of
+her; you will say that you cannot marry her, because unavoidable family
+complications stand in the way; that you have a wife, the beautiful
+Timéa, whom Noémi will remember: you will write that you have taken care
+to provide for her suitably; that you have recalled her former betrothed
+from the New World, who is a fine handsome fellow, and ready to marry
+her and shut his eyes to the past. You will promise to provide for them
+both handsomely in the future, and give them your blessing and good
+wishes for a happy life together!"
+
+"You want Noémi too?"
+
+"Why, what the devil! Do you think I want your stupid island in order
+to live there like Robinson Crusoe? I shall want something to sweeten my
+life in that desert. Over there I have reveled in a surfeit of embraces
+from black-eyed, sable-tressed women; now, after seeing Noémi's golden
+locks and blue eyes, I am quite mad about her. And then she struck me in
+the face, and drove me away; I must have payment for that. Is there a
+nobler revenge than to give a kiss for a blow? I will be the master of
+the refractory witch; that is my fancy. And by what right do you deny
+her to me? Am I not Noémi's betrothed, who would make her my legal wife
+and bring her to honor, while you can never marry her, and can only make
+her unhappy?"
+
+The man drops boiling oil on Timar's heart: he wrung his hands in agony.
+
+"Will you write to Noémi, or shall I take these four letters over to the
+cloister?"
+
+In Timar's torture the words escaped him, "Oh, my little Dodi!"
+
+The fugitive laughed with a knavish grin. "I'll be his father, a very
+good sort of father--"
+
+At that instant Michael sprung from his seat, threw himself with a leap
+like a jaguar's on the convict, seized him by both arms before he could
+use his weapon, dragged him forward, gave him a blow in the back and a
+shove which sent him flying through the open door on to the landing,
+tumbling over and over: there he got up with difficulty, still giddy
+with his fall, stumbled over the first step, and limped groaning and
+swearing down the stairs. All below was darkness and silence. The only
+man besides these two in this winter castle was deaf, and sleeping off a
+carouse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WHAT HAS THE MOON TO TELL?
+
+
+Timar could have killed the man--he had him in his power; and Timar felt
+a madman's strength in his muscles: yet he did not kill him. Timar said
+to himself, the man is right; destiny must be fulfilled. Michael was not
+a miscreant who conceals one crime by another, but of that nobler sort
+which is willing to atone for past sin. He stepped out on to the
+balcony, and looked on with folded arms while the man left the castle
+and limped away toward the gate of the court-yard. The moon rose
+meanwhile over the Somogy hills, and illuminated the front of the
+castle.
+
+The dark figure on the balcony would be a good mark for any one who
+wished to aim at it. Theodor Krisstyan walked underneath, and looked up:
+the half-closed wound on the brow had reopened in his fall, and was
+bleeding; the blood ran down over his face. Perhaps Timar had gone
+outside just because he expected the furious man would shoot him out of
+revenge. But he only stood still in front of him, and began to mutter
+words without sound--just like Athalie. How well those two would suit!
+Krisstyan only spoke by movements of the mouth. He limped, for he had
+hurt one foot in his fall. He struck his left hand on the gun, which he
+still held, then seemed to say "No," shook his fist at Timar, and
+threatened him by gestures. This pantomime meant, "Not thus will I
+destroy you; I have another fate designed for you; just wait!" Timar
+looked after him as he left the yard, following him with his eyes along
+the snowy path as far as the ice-covered lake. He gazed after him till
+he could only see a black speck moving in the direction of the double
+towers on the high peak.
+
+Storm-clouds were rising over the Zala range. Timar saw them not. Round
+the Platten See a hurricane often arises in calm weather without the
+slightest warning; the fishermen who hear from afar the rustling of the
+leaves have not time to get back to the shore: the bursting storm drives
+a snow-cloud before it, from which tiny crystals drift down, sharp as
+needle-points. The cloud only covered half of the great panorama,
+wrapping the Tihany side, the peninsula with its rocky ridge and its
+gloomy church, in darkness, while the eastern level lay bright in the
+moonlight. The storm roared howling through the tall forests of the
+Aracs valley; the vanes on the ancient castle groaned like the cries of
+accursed spirits; and as the furious wind swept across the ice, it drew
+from the frozen floes such an unearthly music that one could fancy one
+saw the spirits which uttered it chasing each other, and yelling in
+their flight.
+
+Amidst the ghostly music it seemed to Timar as if he heard through the
+howling of the tempest an awful scream in the distance, such as only
+human lips can utter--a cry of anguish, despair, blasphemy, which would
+rouse the Seven Sleepers and make the stars shudder. After a few seconds
+it came again, but shorter and more feeble, and then only the music of
+the storm was audible.
+
+That ceased too. The snow-shower swept across the landscape; the storm
+held only one snow-cloud; the trees were still; the tones of the wind
+moaning over the ice-flats faded away in the distance with dying chords;
+the sky cleared, and all was once more silence. Timar's heart too was at
+rest; he had finished his career. No road lay open to him. He could go
+neither forward nor back; he had fled as long as life was possible; and
+now the abyss yawned in front of him which had no other shore. His whole
+life passed before him like a dream, and he knew that at last he was
+about to awake from it. His first desire for the possession of the rich
+and lovely girl was the origin of all these events; his life hung on it
+like the enigma of the Sphinx. When the riddle was solved, the Sphinx
+would fall into the abyss.
+
+How could he live on, unmasked before the world, unmasked before Timéa,
+and before Noémi? Thrown down from the pedestal on which he had stood
+for years at home and abroad, under the halo of his sovereign's favor
+and his compatriots' veneration! How could he ever look again on the
+woman who had defended him in his rival's presence with such holy
+sorrow, when she learned that he was the very opposite of all she had
+admired in her husband, and that his whole life was a lie? And how could
+he meet Noémi when she knew he was Timéa's husband? or dare to take Dodi
+on his lap? Nowhere, nowhere in the wide world was there a place where
+he could hide. It was as that man had said: there was nothing for him
+but to turn his back on the civilized world--like him; to change his
+name--like him; to sneak like a thief from one town to another--like
+him; to wander homeless on the face of the earth. . . .
+
+But Timar knew of another place; there is the moon's icy
+countenance--what did Noémi say? There live those who cast their lives
+away because they have ceased to know desire; they go where nothing
+exists: if that man seeks out Noémi on the ownerless island and brings
+despair on the lonely creature by his news, she will follow him
+there--to the frozen star.
+
+Timar felt so tranquilized by this reflection that he had the
+self-control to direct his telescope on to the waning moon, on whose
+sphere shining spaces alternated with large, crescent-shaped shadows,
+and there came to choose a monstrous ravine, and say, "That shall be my
+dwelling; there will I wait for Noémi!"
+
+Then he went back to his room. The adventurer's burned clothes still
+glowed red on the hearth, the ashes showing the texture of the charred
+cloth. Timar laid fresh logs on, so that the fire might destroy every
+remnant. Then he threw on his cloak and left the house. He bent his
+steps toward the Platten See. The moon lighted the great ice-floes, an
+icy sun shining over a world of ice. . . . "I come, I come!" cried
+Timar; "I shall soon know what you have to tell me--if you have called
+me I shall be there." He went straight to the great chasm. The poles
+erected by the good fishermen, the sticks with straw bundles on the top,
+warned every wanderer from afar to keep away--Timar sought them out.
+When he reached one of these danger-signals he stopped, took off his
+hat, and looked up to heaven.
+
+Years had passed away since last he prayed. In this dark hour the Great
+Being came to his mind who teaches the stars their courses and rides on
+the storm, and who has created only one creature which defies its
+Maker--man. In this hour he was impelled to uplift his soul to Him.
+"Eternal Might, I fly from Thee, yet to Thee I come. I come not to ask
+for mercy: Thou didst lead me, but I fled from Thy ways; Thou didst warn
+me, yet I would not hear. Now, with blind obedience, I depart for the
+hereafter: my soul will rest there in cold annihilation. I must atone
+for making so many miserable who have been mine and have loved me; take
+them into Thy protection, Thou Eternal Justice! I have sinned, and I
+give myself up to death and damnation--they are not guilty--I alone.
+Thou Everlasting Justice, who hast brought me to this, be just also to
+them. Protect, console these feeble women, the helpless child, and give
+me alone over to Thine avenging angels--I am judged and I am silent."
+
+He knelt down. Between the edges of the fissure the waves of the Balaton
+plashed softly. The gloomy lake often moans even in a dead calm, and
+when its surface is ice-bound it swells up in the clefts and roars like
+the sea. Timar bent down to kiss the waves, as one kisses his mother
+before he starts for a long journey--as one kisses the pistol before
+blowing out one's brains with it.
+
+And as he bent down to the water, a human head rose from the depths in
+front of him. Over the forehead of the upturned face was a black band
+covering the right eye; the other eye, bloodshot, glassy, and cold as
+stone, glared at him; through the open mouth the water ran out and in
+. . . the phantom sunk again.
+
+Timar sprung, half crazed, from his kneeling position, and stared after
+the ghostly apparition: it was as if it called on him to follow. Between
+the frozen margins the living water splashed. And again in the distance
+resounded the organ-tones which are the precursors of the nocturnal
+storm: amidst the howling of the approaching gale were heard the shrieks
+and groans of the miserable spirits, and higher and higher swelled the
+ghostly song. Again the whole frozen mass gave out the unearthly music,
+like the strings of myriad harps, until the sound grew into a booming
+roar, as though the lightning lured an awful, deafening melody from the
+resounding waves. The voices of the storm bellowed below the surface.
+With a frightful crash the floes were set in motion, and the tremendous
+pressure of the atmosphere closed once more the chasm in the ice.
+
+Timar fell trembling on his face upon the still quivering glassy mirror.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+WHO COMES?
+
+
+The hoar-frost had turned the ownerless island into a silver wood;
+continuous mists had hung every twig with flowers of rime. Then came
+bright sunny days; they melted the rime into ice: every branch received
+a crystal cloak, as if the whole island were of glass. This glistening
+load bent down the boughs like those of a weeping-willow, and when the
+wind stirred the wood, the icicles struck together and rang like the
+silver bells in the fairy stories. Over the thickly frosted paths only
+one track led from the house, and that went to Therese's resting-place.
+This was Noémi's daily walk with little Dodi. Now there were only those
+two to go there; the third, Almira, lay at home at the last gasp: the
+ball had touched a vital part, and there was no hope of cure.
+
+It was evening. Noémi lighted her lamp, brought out her wheel, and began
+to spin. Little Dodi sat by her and played at water-mills, holding a
+straw against the revolving wheel.
+
+"Mother," said the boy suddenly, "bend down a little; I want to whisper
+that Almira may not hear."
+
+"Say it aloud; she won't understand, Dodi."
+
+"Oh, yes, she understands what we say--she knows everything. Tell me,
+will Almira die?"
+
+"Yes, my little one."
+
+"And who will take care of us when Almira is dead?"
+
+"God."
+
+"Is God strong?"
+
+"Stronger than all the world."
+
+"More than father?"
+
+"Your father gets his strength from God."
+
+"And the wicked man with his eye bandaged, why does God make him strong?
+I am so afraid of his coming again; he will take me away."
+
+"Don't be afraid; I won't let you go."
+
+"If he kills us both?"
+
+"Then we shall both go to heaven."
+
+"And Almira too?"
+
+"No; not Almira."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because she is an animal."
+
+"And my little bird?"
+
+"No; not Louise."
+
+"Oh, don't say that; she can fly up to heaven better than we can."
+
+"She can not fly as high as heaven."
+
+"Then there are no animals and no birds there? Well, then, I'd rather
+stop down here with papa and my little Louise."
+
+"Yes, stay, my sweetheart!"
+
+"If papa were here he would kill the wicked man?"
+
+"The bad man would run away from him."
+
+"But when is father coming back?"
+
+"This winter."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"He said so."
+
+"Is everything true that father says? Does he never tell a story?"
+
+"No, my boy; what he says is always true."
+
+"But it is winter now."
+
+"He will soon be here."
+
+"If only Almira does not die before he comes!"
+
+The boy got up from his stool and went to the groaning dog.
+
+"Dear Almira, do not die! Don't leave us alone here! See, now, you can't
+go with us to heaven; you can only be with us here. Do stay. I will
+build you a lovely house like the one father built for me, and give you
+half of all I have. Lay your head on my lap and look at me. Don't be
+frightened; I won't let the naughty man come and shoot you again. If I
+hear him coming, I will fasten the door-latch; and if he puts his hand
+in, I will cut it off with my ax. I will take care of you, Almira."
+
+The wise creature raised its beautiful eyes to the boy, and wagged its
+tail gently on the ground; then it sighed, as if understanding all that
+was said. Noémi stopped spinning, leaned her head on her hand, and
+looked into the flickering lamp.
+
+When that dreadful man went raging away, he had yelled in at the window,
+"I shall come back and tell you what the man is whom you love." That he
+should come again was threat enough, but what did he mean? Who can
+Michael be? Can he be other than he seems? What will that horrid phantom
+have to tell, which has turned up from the antipodes? Oh, why had
+Michael not done as Noémi said--if only three feet of earth lay between
+them!
+
+Noémi was no feeble woman; she had grown up in the desert and learned to
+trust in herself; the enervating influences of the outer world had never
+affected her mind. The wolf knows how to defend her lair against the
+dogs with claws and teeth. Since that fearful visit she always carried
+Michael's knife in her bosom, and--it is keen and sharp. At night she
+fastened a beam across the door.
+
+As fate wills. If one comes first, she will be a happy and blessed
+woman; if the other, she will be a murderess--a child of wrath.
+
+"Almira, what is the matter?"
+
+The poor beast, struggling with death, raised its head painfully from
+the child's lap, and began to sniff the air with outstretched neck. It
+whined and growled uneasily, but the sound was more like a hoarse
+rattle. Whether its tones were of pleasure or anger, it was hard to
+distinguish. The animal scented the approach of a visitor. Who is it? Is
+it the good or the bad man? the life-giver or the murderer? Out there in
+the silence of the night the sound of steps was heard on the frosty
+grass. Who comes?
+
+Almira gasped heavily, struggling to get up, but fell back. She tried to
+bark, but could not. Noémi sprung from her seat, felt with her right
+hand under her shawl, and seized the handle of the knife.
+
+All three listened silently--Noémi, Dodi, and the dog. The steps come
+quickly nearer. Ah, now all three recognize them!
+
+"Papa!" cried Dodi, laughing.
+
+Noémi hastened to cut the rope which fastened the door-bolt with her
+sharp knife, and Almira raised herself on her fore-feet and suddenly
+gave utterance to a bark.
+
+The next moment Michael had Noémi and Dodi in his arms. Almira crawled
+to her beloved master, raised her head to him once again, licked his
+hand, then fell back dead.
+
+"Will you never leave us again?" faltered Noémi.
+
+"Don't leave us alone any more," begged little Dodi.
+
+Michael pressed both to his breast, and his tears streamed over his dear
+ones. "Never--never--never!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE CORPSE.
+
+
+With the last days of March the hard winter of this year came to an end.
+Balmy south winds and rain softened the ice of the Platten See, which
+broke up during a strong north wind, and drove over to the Somogy shore.
+
+Among the floating ice the fishermen found a body. It was already in an
+advanced stage of decomposition, and the features were unrecognizable;
+but yet the identity of the individual could be ascertained with the
+greatest certainty. These were the mortal remains of Michael Timar
+Levetinczy, who disappeared so suddenly after the memorable capture of
+the fogasch-king, and for whose return those at home had waited so long.
+On the body could be recognized clothes belonging to that gentleman--his
+astrakhan pelisse, his studs, and his initials marked on the shirt. His
+repeater was in the waistcoat-pocket, with his full name enameled on the
+case. But the strongest proof was afforded by the pocket-book, which was
+crammed with bank-notes, whose number could still be deciphered, and on
+which Timéa's hand had embroidered "Faith, Hope, Charity;" while in the
+side-pocket were four other letters tied together, but the writing was
+completely obliterated, as they had been four months exposed to the
+action of water. About the same time, the fishermen at Fured found Herr
+von Levetinczy's gun entangled in a net. Now all was explained.
+
+Old Galambos remembered all about it. The gracious master had said to
+him that if foxes and wolves came down on to the lake in the night, he
+would go out with his gun and have a shot at them.
+
+Many others then remembered that on that night a snow-storm had passed
+across the lake, which only lasted a short time. No doubt, to this was
+due the accident to the noble lord. The snow blew in his face; he did
+not notice the ice-rift, fell in, and was sucked under.
+
+When Timéa received the first news of the event, she went at once to
+Siosok, and was present in person at the judicial inquiry. When she saw
+her husband's clothes she fainted away, and could only with difficulty
+he brought back to consciousness; but she held her ground, she was
+present when the disfigured remains were laid in the leaden coffin, and
+specially inquired for the ring of betrothal, which, however, was
+lost--the fingers were gone.
+
+Timéa had the dear relics brought to Komorn, and interred in the
+splendid family vault, with all the pomp which is permissible by the
+rites of the Protestant Church, to which the deceased had belonged. On
+the black velvet coffin, name and age were marked with silver nails.
+Senators and deputies carried him to the hearse. On the coffin lay his
+knightly sword, with a laurel crown, and the decorations of the
+Hungarian Order of St. Stephen, the Italian Order of San Maurizio, and
+the Brazilian Annunciata star.
+
+The pall-bearers were Hungarian counts, and on each side of the hearse
+walked the dignitaries of the city. Before it marched the
+school-children, the guilds with their banners, then the national guard
+in uniform and with muffled drums: behind came the ladies of the town
+all in black, and among them the mourning widow, with the white face and
+with weeping eyes. The celebrities of the country and the capital, the
+military authorities, even his majesty had sent a representative to the
+funeral of the venerated man. With them went a countless multitude of
+people, and amidst the tolling of all the bells the procession moved
+through the town. And every bell and every tongue proclaimed that a man
+was gone whose like would never be seen again: a benefactor of the
+people, a pillar of the nation, a faithful husband, and the founder of
+many a generous endowment.
+
+The "Man of Gold" was carried to his grave. Women, men, and children
+followed him through the whole town to the distant cemetery. Athalie too
+was in the procession. When they bore the coffin down to the open grave,
+the nearest friends, relations, and admirers of the deeply mourned
+followed him into the vault.
+
+Among them was Major Katschuka; in the crowd on the narrow steps he came
+in contact with Timéa and--with Athalie. When they came up again,
+Athalie threw herself on the bier and prayed to be buried too: luckily
+Herr Johann Fabula was there, and he raised the beautiful lady from the
+ground, bore her back in his arms to the daylight, and explained to the
+astonished crowd how much the young lady had loved the dear deceased,
+who had been a second father to her.
+
+After the lapse of a few months a splendid monument was erected on which
+might be read this inscription in letters of gold:--
+
+     HERE LIES THE HIGH AND NOBLE LORD, MICHAEL TIMAR
+     LEVETINCZY.
+
+     Privy Councilor, President of Committees, Knight of the
+     Orders of St. Stephen, St. Maurice, and the Annunciata.
+     The great Patriot, the True Christian, the Exemplary
+     Husband, the Father of the Poor, Guardian of the
+     Orphan, Supporter of Schools, a Pillar of the Church.
+
+     Regretted by all who knew him, eternally mourned by his
+
+     FAITHFUL WIFE TIMÉA.
+
+On the granite pedestal stands a marble statue of a woman bearing a
+funeral urn. Every one says this statue is a faithful likeness of Timéa.
+
+And Timéa goes every day to the burial-ground to deck the grass with
+fresh wreaths, and to water the flowers which smell so sweetly within
+the railings of the tomb: she waters them with showers of cold
+water--and burning tears.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Theodor Krisstyan could never have dreamed that he would be so highly
+honored after his death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+DODI'S LETTER.
+
+
+A year and a half passed away since Michael came home to the ownerless
+island. He had not left it for a single day.
+
+Great events had occurred during this interval. Dodi had learned to
+write. What joy when the little dunce made his first attempt with chalk
+on a board: the letters are dictated to him--"write _l_ and _ó_, and
+then pronounce them both together." He was surprised that that meant
+_ló_ (Hungarian for horse), and yet he had not drawn a horse. A year
+later he could address a birthday letter to his mother in beautiful
+copper-plate on white paper--it was a greater achievement than
+Cleopatra's Needle, covered with hieroglyphics.
+
+When Dodi's first letter was fluttering in Noémi's hand, she said, with
+a tear in her eye, to Michael, "He will write like you."
+
+"Where have you seen my handwriting?" asked Michael, in surprise.
+
+"In the copies you set Dodi, to begin with; and then too in the contract
+by which you gave us the island. Have you forgotten?"
+
+"Yes; it is so long ago."
+
+"And do you not write to any one now?"
+
+"No one."
+
+"You have not left the island for a year and a half; have you nothing to
+do now out in the world?"
+
+"No. And I shall never have anything to do there again."
+
+"What will become of your business then?"
+
+"Would you like to know?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. The thought troubles me that a clever man like you should
+be shut up here in the narrow bounds of this island, and only because
+you love us: if you have no other reason for staying here always except
+your great love for us, it pains me."
+
+"It is well, Noémi. I will tell you then who I was out there in the
+world, what I did there, and why I stay here. You shall know all: when
+you have put the boy to bed, come to me on the veranda and I will tell
+you everything. You will shudder and wonder over what you will hear; but
+in the end you will forgive me, as God forgave me when He sent me here."
+
+After supper Noémi put Dodi to bed, and then came out to Michael, sat
+beside him on the bench, and leaned on his breast. The full moon shone
+down on them between the leaves: it was now no longer the ghostly star,
+the ice-paradise of suicides, but a kind acquaintance and friend. And
+then Michael told Noémi all that had befallen him out in the world.
+
+The sudden death of the mysterious passenger, the sinking of the ship
+and the concealed treasures: how he had married Timéa. He described her
+sorrow and her suffering; he spoke of Timéa to Noémi as of a saint; and
+when he described faithfully the nocturnal scene when he had watched
+Timéa from his hiding-place, and how the woman had defended her husband
+against evil report, against her own beloved, and against her own heart,
+how Noémi sobbed and how her tears flowed for Timéa!
+
+And then Michael described to her what he had suffered in the fearful
+situation from which he could not free himself, having on one side the
+ties of his worldly position, his riches, and Timéa's fidelity; while
+his love, his happiness, and every aspiration of his soul drew him in
+another direction. How sweetly Noémi consoled him with her soft kisses!
+. . .
+
+When, finally, he told her of the awful night in which the adventurer
+appeared at his lonely castle, of how despair had led him to the brink
+of the grave, and how, as he looked down into the waves, instead of his
+own face mirrored in the water, the dead face of his enemy emerged from
+the depths, and God's hand suddenly closed before his eyes the opening
+of the icy tomb--oh! how passionately Noémi pressed him to her breast,
+as if to hold him back from falling into the grave.
+
+"Now you know what I have left behind in the world, and what I have
+found here. Can you forgive me for what you have suffered and for all my
+offenses against you?" Noémi's tears and kisses replied.
+
+The confession had lasted long: the short summer's night was over, and
+it was daylight when Michael concluded the story of his life.
+
+He was forgiven. "My guilt is obliterated," said Michael. "Timéa had
+recovered her freedom and her wealth. The vagabond had on my clothes and
+carried my pocket-book away with him: they will bury his body as if it
+were mine, and Timéa is a widow. I have given you my soul, and you have
+accepted it. Now all is equal."
+
+Noémi took Michael's arm and led him into the room where the boy was
+asleep. He awoke under their kisses, opened his eyes, and when he saw
+that it was morning, he knelt up in his little bed, and with folded
+hands offered his morning prayer: "Dear Lord, bless my good father and
+my dear mother!"
+
+"All is forgiven, Michael! . . . One angel prays for you beside your
+bed, the other at your grave, that you may be happy."
+
+Noémi dressed little Dodi, and then her eyes rested thoughtfully on
+Michael. She wanted time to realize all she had heard from him, but
+women have quick perceptions.
+
+Suddenly Noémi said to her husband, "Michael, you have still one duty to
+fulfill in the world."
+
+"What duty, and to whom?"
+
+"You owe Timéa the secret that other woman revealed to you."
+
+"What secret?"
+
+"About the door which leads into her room from the secret passage. You
+must tell her of it. Some one might get in to her when she is asleep and
+alone."
+
+"But no one knows of this secret passage except Athalie."
+
+"Is that not enough?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Michael, you little know us women. You don't know what Athalie is, but
+I can guess. My tears flowed for Timéa, because she is so wretched,
+because she does not love you, and you are mine; but if she felt for you
+what she feels for that other man, and if you spurned me for her sake,
+as that man did Athalie, then may God keep me from ever seeing her
+asleep and in my power!"
+
+"Noémi, you frighten me."
+
+"That is what women are. Did you never know it. Hasten to reveal this
+secret to Timéa. I want her to be happy."
+
+Michael kissed Noémi on the brow. "You darling child! I dare not write
+to Timéa, for she would recognize my writing; and then she could not be
+my widow, nor I your husband returned from the dead, and ascended into
+the paradise of your love."
+
+"Then I will write to her."
+
+"No, no, no! I won't allow it. I have heaped gold and diamonds upon her,
+but she shall not have a word from you; that is one of my own treasures.
+I brought Noémi nothing of Timéa's, and I will not give Timéa anything
+of Noémi's. You shall not write her a word."
+
+"Well, then," said Noémi, smiling, "I know another who can write to
+Timéa. Dodi shall write the letter."
+
+Timar burst out laughing. There was a world of humor, of child-like
+simplicity, happy pride, and deep emotion in the idea. Little Dodi will
+write to warn Timéa of her danger. Dodi to Timéa! . . . Timar smiled
+with tears in his eyes. But Noémi was in earnest; she wrote the copy,
+and Dodi wrote the important lines on ruled paper, without a mistake. Of
+course he had no idea what he was writing. Noémi gave him a lovely
+violet ink, a decoction of marsh-mallow, and sealed the letter with
+white wax; and as there was no seal in the house, nor even a coin which
+could serve for one, Dodi caught a pretty golden-green beetle, and
+stuck it on the wax, instead of a coat of arms. The letter was given to
+the fruit-dealer to take to the post.
+
+Little Dodi's letter went off to Timéa.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+"YOU STUPID CREATURE!"
+
+
+The lovely widow was in the deepest mourning. She went nowhere, and
+received no visitors.
+
+More than a year had passed since her husband's burial.
+
+Timéa had another name in the calendar--Susanna. Her first name came
+from her mother, who was a Greek; but the second she had received at her
+baptism. This she used when she had to sign documents, and St. Susanna's
+day was considered her _fête_.
+
+In provincial towns the _fête_-days are scrupulously kept. Relations and
+friends come without invitation, as a matter of course, to visit the
+person whose _fête_ it is, and meet with a hospitable reception. Some
+noble families, however, have adopted the custom of sending invitations
+to these family-parties, by which it is made evident that those who do
+not receive cards may keep their congratulations to themselves.
+
+There are two St. Susannas in the year. Timéa chose the one whose _fête_
+fell in winter, because then her husband used to be at home, and
+invitations were sent out a week beforehand. Of the other name no notice
+was taken. Timéa was not in the calendar of Komorn, nor even in the
+national Pesth calendar, and at that time there were no others in the
+province; so he who wanted to know Timéa's own _fête_-day must search
+far and wide.
+
+It fell in the merry month of May. At that season Herr Timar would have
+been long away on his journeys; nevertheless, Timéa received every May a
+lovely bouquet of white roses on the day of St. Timéa. Who sent it was
+not stated; it came by post, packed in a box.
+
+As long as Timar lived, Herr Katschuka had invariably received
+invitations to the Sunday receptions, which he as regularly answered by
+depositing his card at the door: he never came to the parties. This year
+the _fête_-day party had been omitted, as the faithful Susanna was in
+mourning. On the morning of the lovely May day on which Timéa's
+beautiful white-rose bouquet usually arrived, a servant in mourning
+livery brought a letter to Katschuka. On opening the envelope the major
+found a printed invitation-card inside, which bore the name, not of
+Susanna, but of Timéa Levetinczy, and had reference to that very day.
+Herr Katschuka was puzzled. What a curious notion of Timéa! To draw the
+attention of all Komorn to the fact that Susanna, a good Calvinist, was
+keeping the day of the Greek saint Timéa, and the more because she only
+sent out her invitations the same morning! It was an outrageous breach
+of etiquette. Herr Katschuka felt that this time he must accept. In the
+evening he took care not to be among the earliest arrivals. The time
+named was half past eight; he waited till half past nine, and then went.
+As he laid aside his cloak and sword in the anteroom, he asked the
+servant whether many visitors had arrived. The servant said no one had
+come yet. The major was startled. Probably the other guests had taken
+the shortness of the invitation badly, and decided not to appear; and he
+was confirmed in this idea when, on entering the saloon, he found the
+chandeliers lighted and all the rooms brilliantly illuminated--a sign
+that a large assembly was expected. The servant informed him that his
+mistress was in the inner room.
+
+"Who is with her?"
+
+"She is alone. Fraülein Athalie has gone with her mamma to Herr Fabula's
+house--there is a great fish-dinner there."
+
+Herr Katschuka did not know what to think: not only were there no other
+guests, but even the people of the house had left the mistress alone.
+Timéa awaited him in her own sitting-room.
+
+And for this grand party, amid all this splendor, Timéa was dressed
+entirely in black. She celebrated her _fête_-day in mourning: amid the
+radiance of the golden lusters and the silver candelabra a black
+mourning-dress, which, however, was not suited to the face of its
+wearer. On her lips hovered a charming smile, and a soft color lay on
+her cheeks. She received her single guest most cordially. "Oh, how late
+you are," she said, as she gave him her hand.
+
+The major pressed upon it a respectful kiss. "On the contrary, I fear I
+am the first."
+
+"Not at all. All I invited have already arrived."
+
+"Where?" asked the major, in astonishment.
+
+"In the dining-room--they are at table, and only waiting for you." With
+these words she took the arm of the wondering man, led him to the
+folding-doors, and threw them open; and then, indeed, the major knew not
+what to think. The dining-room was brilliantly lighted with wax candles;
+a long table was spread with places for eleven, and the same number of
+chairs were placed round it, but no one was there--not a single
+creature. But as the major threw a glance round he began to comprehend,
+and the clearer the riddle grew, the more his eyes were dimmed with
+tears. Before each of nine of the places stood a white-rose bouquet
+under a glass shade--the last of freshly gathered flowers; the roses of
+the others were dry, faded, and yellow.
+
+"Look, they are all there which greeted me on Timéa's _fête_-day year
+after year--these are my birthday guests. There are nine of them. Will
+you be the tenth? Then all whom I have invited will have assembled."
+
+The major, in speechless delight, pressed the lovely hand to his lips.
+"My poor roses--"
+
+Timéa did not refuse him that privilege--possibly she would have allowed
+even more; but the widow's cap stood in the way, and Timéa felt it.
+
+"Do you want me to exchange this cap for another?"
+
+"From that day I shall begin to live again."
+
+"Let us set apart for it my own _fête_-day, which every one knows."
+
+"Oh, but that is so far off."
+
+"Don't be alarmed, there is a St. Susanna in the summer; we will keep
+her day."
+
+"But that is distant too."
+
+"It is not an eternity to wait till then. Have you not learned patience?
+Remember, I want time to get used to happiness--it does not come all at
+once; and we can see each other every day till then--at first for a
+minute, and then for two, and then forever. Is it agreed?"
+
+The major could not refuse, she begged so sweetly.
+
+"And now the banquet is over," whispered Timéa; "the other guests are
+going to sleep, and you must go home too. But wait a moment--I will give
+you back a word from your last birthday congratulations." She took from
+the fresh rose-bouquet one bud, touched it hardly perceptibly with her
+lips, and placed it in the major's button-hole; but he pressed the rose,
+this "one word," to his lips and kissed it. . . .
+
+When the major had gone, and looked up from the street at the windows of
+the Levetinczy house, all was dark. He was the last to leave.
+
+Timéa learned gradually the art of growing used to hope and
+happiness--she had a good teacher. Thenceforward, Herr Katschuka came
+every day to the house; but the major did not keep to the prescribed
+arithmetical progression--first one minute, then two. The wedding was
+fixed for the day of St. Susanna, in August. Athalie too, it appeared,
+had resigned herself to her fate. Herr Fabula's wife was dead, and she
+accepted his hand; it is not unusual for a pretty girl to give herself
+to a rich widower--one knows how he treats his wife, and one runs less
+risk in taking him than some young dandy who has not yet sown his wild
+oats. Heaven bless their union!
+
+Timéa proposed to give Athalie, as a dowry, the sum which Michael had
+offered her, and which she had refused. Every one thought she was trying
+to become a suitable wife for Herr Fabula. But Katschuka was not
+deceived; he saw through her black heart. He knew what he had done to
+Athalie, and the reckoning she had against Timéa, and destiny never
+leaves such a score unsettled. Have you forgotten, you lovely white
+woman, that this other girl was mistress here when you came; that she
+was a rich and honored bride, wooed by men and envied by women? And from
+the moment when the water cast you on these shores, misfortune followed
+her--she was made a beggar, brought to shame, spurned by her betrothed.
+It was not your fault, but it was owing to you--you brought bad luck; it
+sat on your forehead, between your meeting eyebrows, and brought the
+ship to destruction, and the house in which you set foot; it ruins those
+who injure you, as well as those who set you free. And you are not
+afraid to sleep under the same roof with Athalie--this roof!
+
+Since Katschuka came to the house, Athalie had controlled herself, and
+treated even her mother kindly. She made tea for her which Frau Sophie
+liked, especially with plenty of rum in it--she made it herself; and was
+very good to the servants too, treating them also to tea, which, for the
+men-servants, almost might have been called punch; they could not say
+enough for her. Frau Sophie guessed the reason of all this
+kindness--those servile natures always look for a reason if they receive
+a favor, and repay it with suspicion.
+
+"My daughter is currying favor with me, that I may go with her when she
+marries; she knows nothing of housekeeping--she can't even make
+milk-soup. That's why I am 'Dear mamma' all over the place, and get tea
+every night; as if I did not know what is in my daughter Athalie's
+mind!" She will soon know even more.
+
+Athalie carried her submissiveness to servility, in the presence of
+Timéa and the major. Neither by look nor manner did she betray her
+former claims. When he came, she opened the door with a smile, showed
+him in to Timéa, politely took part in the conversation, and, when she
+left the room, she might be heard singing next door. She had adopted the
+manners of a maid-servant.
+
+Once Timéa asked her to play a duet, on which Athalie said, modestly,
+that she had forgotten her music--the only instrument she could play on
+now was the chopping-board. Since the great catastrophe, Athalie only
+played the piano when she knew no one could hear.
+
+Do not your nerves shudder when this woman looks you in the face? does
+not your blood run cold when she stoops to kiss your hand? when she
+laces your boots, is it not as if a snake wound round your foot? and
+when she fills your glass, does it not occur to you to look what may be
+in it? No, no. Timéa has no suspicions; she is so kind, she treats
+Athalie like a sister; she has prepared a dowry of a hundred thousand
+gulden, and told Athalie so. She wished to make her happy, and thought
+she could console her for the loss of her first betrothed. And why
+should she not think so? Athalie herself refused him. When Timar offered
+her the money she said, "I will never have anything to do with the man
+again, either in this world or the next." Timéa did not know of the
+visit Athalie had paid by night to her betrothed, when she was sent away
+by him alone and rejected; and Timéa did not know that a woman will give
+up the man she hates to another woman, even less willingly than the one
+she loves; that a woman's hate is only love turned to poison, but still
+remains love. Katschuka, however, well remembered that nocturnal
+meeting; and therefore he trembled for Timéa, but dared not tell her so.
+
+Only one day was wanting to the _fête_ of St. Susanna. Timéa had
+gradually laid aside her mourning, as if it was hard to separate from it
+entirely, and as if she wished to learn gladness slowly. First she
+allowed white lace at her neck; then she changed black for dark gray,
+and silk for wool; then white stripes appeared in the gray; and at last
+only the cap remained of the mourning for Michael Levetinczy. This also
+will disappear on the _fête_-day; the beautiful Valenciennes cap of the
+young wife is already made, and must be tried on.
+
+An unlucky fit of vanity induced Timéa to wait to do this till the major
+arrived. For a young widow the lace cap is what the orange-blossoms are
+to a girl. But the major was late because the white-rose bouquet was
+late in arriving from Vienna: this was the second _fête_-day bouquet in
+one year. A whole shoal of letters and notes of congratulation had
+arrived for Timéa, who had many acquaintances far and near. Timéa had
+not opened a single one; they lay in a heap in a silver basket on the
+table, many of them directed by children, for Timéa had a hundred and
+forty god-children in the town among the orphan boys and girls. She
+would have enjoyed these naïve letters, but her thoughts were otherwise
+occupied.
+
+"Look what a comical one this is!" said Athalie, taking up one of the
+letters; "instead of a seal, there is a beetle stuck on the wax."
+
+"And what curious ink it is!" remarked Timéa. "Put it with the
+others--we will read it to-morrow."
+
+Some secret voice whispered to Timéa that she had better read it to-day.
+It was Dodi's letter which was put aside.
+
+But see, here comes the major; then all the hundred and forty
+god-children and their letters were forgotten, and Timéa ran to meet
+him. Nine years ago the fortunate bridegroom had brought a splendid
+red-rose bouquet to another bride.
+
+And she too was present; and possibly the great mirror into which
+Athalie had cast her last glance on her bridal dress was the same which
+now stood there.
+
+Timéa took the lovely white bouquet from the major's hand, put it in a
+splendid Sèvres vase, and whispered to him, "Now I will give you
+something: it will never be yours, but always mine, and yet it is a
+present for you." The pretty enigma issued from its box--it was the lace
+cap.
+
+"Oh, how charming!" cried the major, taking it in his hand. "Shall I try
+it on you?" The major's words died on his lips--he looked at Athalie.
+
+Timéa stood before the glass with childish pleasure, and took off her
+widow's cap; then she grew grave, put it to her lips and kissed it,
+while she said low and brokenly, "Poor Michael!"--and so she laid aside
+the last token of her widowhood.
+
+Herr Katschuka was holding the white cap.
+
+"Give it me that I may try it on."
+
+"Can I help you?"
+
+The hair was then dressed very high, so that Timéa required assistance.
+
+"You don't know how; Athalie will be so good."
+
+Timéa spoke quite simply, but the major shuddered at the pallor which
+overflowed Athalie's face at the words: he remembered how Athalie had
+once said to Timéa, "Come and put on my bridal veil!" And perhaps even
+she had not then thought what venom lay in the words. Athalie came to
+Timéa to help her with the cap, which required to be fastened with pins
+on both sides. Athalie's hand trembled--and she pricked Timéa's head
+with one of the pins.
+
+"Oh, you stupid creature!" cried Timéa, jerking her head aside.
+
+The same words, before the same man!
+
+Timéa did not notice, but Herr Katschuka saw what a flash flew over
+Athalie's face--a volcanic outburst of diabolical rage, a glow of
+flaming spite, a dark cloud of purple shame; the muscles quivered as if
+the face was a nest of snakes stirred up by a rod. What murderous eyes!
+What compressed lips! What a bottomless depth of passion in that single
+look. Timéa regretted her hasty word almost before it had passed her
+lips, and hastened to atone for it. "Don't be angry, dear 'Thaly; I
+forgot myself," she said, turning to kiss her. "You'll forgive me--you
+are not angry?"
+
+The next moment Athalie was as humble as a maid who has done some
+damage, and began in a flattering tone, "Oh, my dear pretty Timéa, don't
+_you_ be angry; I would not hurt your dear little head for the world.
+How sweet you look in your cap, just like a fairy!" And she kissed
+Timéa's shoulder.
+
+A shudder ran through the major's nerves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ATHALIE.
+
+
+The eve of the _fête_-day was also the eve of the wedding--a night of
+excitement. The bride and bridegroom were sitting together in Timéa's
+room--they had so much to talk about.
+
+What do they say? Flowers only can understand flower-speech, the stars
+the language of the spheres, one pillar of Memnon answers another, the
+dead comprehend the Walkyrie, sleep-walkers the speech of the
+moon--lovers only the language of love. And he who has ever known this
+sacred emotion will not profane it, but guard it like a secret of the
+confessional. Neither the wise king in his marvelous song, nor Ovid in
+his love elegies, nor Hafiz in his ardent lays, nor Heine in his poems,
+nor Petöfi in his "Pearls of Love," can describe it--it remains one of
+the secrets of eternity.
+
+At the back of the house was a noisy company--all the household. This
+had been a busy day with preparations for the morrow's feast--a culinary
+campaign; the press of work had lasted till late at night: then, when
+all had been roasted and iced according to orders, Frau Sophie found
+time to show herself liberal. She called together her staff, and
+bestowed upon them all the good things which had suffered during the
+heat of the fray--for this was unavoidable: what ought to have risen had
+sunk into a pancake; what ought to have jellied had melted into soup;
+here a cake had stuck to the mold and would not turn out whole; there a
+scrap, a cutting, a ham-bone, a piece of hare, a drumstick of pheasant
+remained over. All which could not be sent up to table was left as a
+rare tidbit for the servants, and they could boast of having tasted
+everything before the gentry were served.
+
+But where was Athalie?
+
+The whispering lovers thought she was with her mother, amusing herself
+in the kitchen. There, they thought she was of course with the bridal
+pair, and enjoying the bliss of being a silent witness of their
+happiness--or perhaps no one thought of her at all. And yet it might
+have been well if some one had interrupted themselves to ask, "Where is
+Athalie?"
+
+She sat alone in the room where she had seen Timéa for the first time.
+The old furniture had long been replaced by new; only one embroidered
+stool remained as a remembrance. Athalie was sitting on it when Timar
+entered, in company with the pale maiden. There sat Katschuka, at work
+on Athalie's portrait, over which, while he gazed at Timéa, his pencil
+drew a long line. Athalie sat alone there now. The portrait had long ago
+gone to the lumber-room; but Athalie seems to see it still, and the
+young lieutenant who begged her with his flattering tongue to smile a
+little and not to look so haughty.
+
+The room was dark; only the moon shone in, but it would soon go down
+behind the gable of the tall church of St. Andrew.
+
+Athalie reviewed the horrid dream called life. There were wealth, pride,
+and happiness in it: flatterers had called her the prettiest girl in
+Komorn, the queen, and pretended to adore her; then came a child by
+chance into the house--a ridiculous creature, a lifeless shadow, a cold
+doll, made to be an object of ridicule, to pass the time away by pushing
+it about. And only two years later, this vagrant, this white phantom,
+this reptile, was mistress of the house, and conquered hearts, turning a
+shipping-clerk, by the magic of her marble face, into his master's
+powerful enemy, into a millionaire, and causing the betrothed bridegroom
+to be false to his troth.
+
+What a wedding-day was that! The bride, recovering from her swoon, found
+herself lying alone on the ground. And when splendor and homage were at
+an end, she longed still to be loved--loved in secret and in
+concealment. This too was denied her.
+
+What a memory was that!--the path she had trodden to the house of her
+former lover and back again, twice in the darkness! her vain expectation
+next day! how she had counted the strokes of the clock, amidst the noise
+of the auction! And he never came! Then long years of painful
+dissimulation, of disguised humiliation! There was only one person who
+understood her--who knew that the balm of her heart was to see her rival
+share her passion, and fade away under it.
+
+And the one man who knew to his cost what Athalie really was--the only
+hinderance to Timéa's happiness, the finder of the philosopher's stone
+which exercises everywhere a malevolent spell--that one man finds his
+death by a single false step on the ice!
+
+And then happiness comes back to the house, and no one is miserable but
+herself. In many a sleepless night the bitter cup had filled drop by
+drop up to the brim; only one was wanting to make it overflow; and that
+last drop was the insulting word, "You stupid creature!" To be scolded
+like a maid, humbled in his presence! Athalie's limbs shook with fever.
+What was now going on in the house? They were preparing for the morrow's
+wedding. In the boudoir whispered the betrothed couple; from the
+kitchen, even through all the doors, came the noise of the merry-making
+servants.
+
+But Athalie never heard the cheerful din: she heard only the whisper.
+. . . She had something to do during the night. . . . There was no light
+in the room; but the moon shone in, and gave light enough to open a box
+and read the names of the poisons inside it--the unfailing drugs of an
+Eastern poisoner. Athalie chose among them, and smiled to herself. What
+a good jest it would be if to-morrow, at the moment of drinking some
+toast, the words should die on the lips of the feasting guests! if each
+saw the face of his neighbor turn yellow and green; if they all sprung
+up crying for help, and began a demoniac dance, fit to make the devil
+laugh; if the bride's lovely face petrified into real marble, and the
+proud bridegroom made grimaces like a skull!
+
+Ping! . . . A string gone in the piano! Athalie started so that she
+dropped what she held, and her hands twitched convulsively. It was only
+a string, coward! Are you so weak? She put back the poisons in her box,
+leaving out only one, and that not a deadly poison, only a
+sleeping-draught. The first idea had not satisfied her; that triumph
+would not suffice: it would not be sufficient revenge for "You stupid
+creature!" The tiger cares not for a corpse, he must have warm blood.
+Some one will have to take poison, but that is only herself--a poison
+not to be bought at the chemist's: it lies in the eye of St. George's
+dragon. She slipped noiselessly out to go to the hiding-place whence a
+view of Timéa's room could be obtained. The sweet murmurs and the
+caressing looks of the lovers will be the poison she must absorb in
+order to be fully prepared.
+
+The major was about to take leave, and held Timéa's hand in his. Her
+cheeks were so rosy! Was any more deadly poison needed? They did not
+speak of love, and yet no third person had a right to listen. The
+bridegroom asked questions allowed to no one else. "Do you sleep alone
+here?" he asked, with tender curiosity, lifting the silken hangings of
+the bed.
+
+"Yes, since I became a widow."
+
+"(And before too," whispered Athalie, behind the dragon.)
+
+The bridegroom, availing himself of his privileges, pursued his
+researches in the bride's room.
+
+"Where does this door lead to?"
+
+"Into an anteroom where my lady visitors take off their cloaks; you came
+that way when you visited me the first time."
+
+"And the other little door?"
+
+"Oh, never mind that--it only leads to my dressing-room."
+
+"Has it no exit?"
+
+"None; the water comes by a pipe from the kitchen, and flows away by a
+tap to the basement."
+
+"And this third door?"
+
+"You know that is the corridor by which you reach the principal
+entrance."
+
+"And where are the servants at night?"
+
+"The females sleep near the kitchen, and the men in the basement. Over
+my bed hang two bell-ropes, of which one goes to the women's room and
+the other to the men's."
+
+"There is no one in the adjoining room?"
+
+"There Sister Athalie and Mamma Sophie sleep."
+
+"Frau Sophie too?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure. You want to know everything. To-morrow it will all be
+differently arranged."
+
+("To-morrow?")
+
+"And do you lock the door when you go to bed?"
+
+"Never. Why should I? All my servants love me, and are trustworthy; the
+front door is barred, and I am safe here."
+
+"Is there nowhere a secret entrance to this room?"
+
+"Ha! ha! You seem to take my house for a mysterious Venetian palace!"
+
+("Is it your house? Did you build it?")
+
+"Do, to please me, lock all your doors before you go to bed."
+
+("He seems to guess what we shall all be dreaming of to-night.")
+
+Timéa smiled, and smoothed away the frown from the bridegroom's grave
+face.
+
+"Well, then, for your sake I will lock all my doors to-night."
+
+("See that they are secure," whispered the dragon.)
+
+Then followed a tender embrace and a long, long kiss.
+
+"Do you pray, my beloved?"
+
+"No; for the good God in whom I believe watches ever."
+
+("How if He slept to-day?")
+
+"Forgive me, dearest Timéa; skepticism does not become a woman. Her
+adornment is piety; leave the rest to men. Pray to-night."
+
+"You know I was a Moslem, and was never taught to pray."
+
+"But now you are a Christian, and our prayers are beautiful. Take your
+prayer-book to-night."
+
+"Yes, for your sake I will learn to pray."
+
+The major found in the book of devotion Timar had once given his wife,
+the "prayer for brides."
+
+"I will learn it by heart to-night."
+
+"Yes, do so--do so!"
+
+Timéa read it aloud. Athalie felt a diabolical rage in her heart. The
+man will be discovering the secret in the wall; he will keep Timéa up
+praying all night. Curses, curses on the prayer-book!
+
+When the major left the anteroom, Athalie was already there. Timéa
+called from her room to light the major to the door, thinking there
+would be a servant there as usual; but to-day, as we know, they were
+engaged in anticipating the morrow's feast. Athalie took the candle
+which stood outside, and lighted the major along the dark passage. The
+happy bridegroom had no eyes for any other woman's face--he saw only
+Timéa, and thought it was the maid-servant who opened the door for him.
+He wished to be generous, and pressed a silver thaler into Athalie's
+hand; then he started as he recognized the voice.
+
+"I kiss your hand, kind sir."
+
+"Is it you, fraülein? A thousand pardons! I did not recognize you in the
+darkness."
+
+"No consequence, Herr Major."
+
+"Pardon my blindness, and give me back the insulting present, I beg."
+
+Athalie drew back with a mocking bow, hiding the hand which held the
+thaler behind her. "I will give it you back to-morrow--leave it with me
+till then; I have fairly earned it."
+
+Herr Katschuka swore at his stupidity. The inexplicable load he felt on
+his spirits seemed to have redoubled in weight. When he reached the
+street, he felt it impossible to go home, but went toward the main guard
+and said to the officer on duty, "My friend, I invite you to my wedding
+to-morrow; be so good as to let me share your watch to-night--let us go
+the rounds together."
+
+In the servants' hall there was great fun. As the major had rung for the
+porter when he left, the mistress was known to be alone, and her maid
+went up to ask for orders. Timéa thought she was the one who had shown
+the major out, and told her to go to bed--she would undress herself; so
+the maid went back to the others.
+
+"If only we had a drop of punch now," said the porter, thrusting the
+door-key into his pocket.
+
+As if by magic, the door opened, and in came Fraülein Athalie, bearing a
+tray of steaming glasses, which clinked cheerfully together. "Long live
+our dear young lady!" cried every one. Athalie set the tray on the table
+with a smile. Among the glasses stood a basin full of sugar well rubbed
+over with orange rind, which made it yellow and aromatic. Frau Sophie
+liked her tea made in that way, with plenty of rum and orange-sugar.
+"Are you not going to join us?" she asked her daughter.
+
+"Thanks; I had my tea with our gracious lady. My head aches, and I shall
+go to bed." She wished her mother good-night, and told the servants to
+go to bed in good time, as they must get up early next day. They fell
+eagerly on the punch, and found it perfectly delicious. Only Frau Sophie
+did not like it. When she had tasted the first spoonful, she turned up
+her nose. "This tastes just like the poppy-syrup that bad nurses give
+the wakeful babies at night." It was so unpleasant to her that she could
+not take any more, but gave it to the cook's boy, who had never tasted
+anything so good before. She said she was tired with her day's work, and
+conjured the household not to oversleep themselves, and to take care no
+cat got into the larder; then she said good-night, and followed Athalie.
+
+When she entered their bedroom, Athalie was already in bed. The curtains
+were drawn; she knew Athalie's way of turning her back to the room and
+putting her head under the clothes. She hastened to get into bed.
+
+But she could not get rid of the taste of that single spoonful of punch,
+which spoiled her enjoyment of the whole supper. After she had put out
+the light, she leaned on her elbow and looked toward the figure in the
+other bed. She looked, till at last her eyes closed and she fell asleep.
+Her dreams carried her back to the servants' hall. She seemed to see
+them all asleep there--the coachman stretched on the long bench, the
+footman with his head on the table, the groom on the ground, using an
+overturned chair as a pillow, the cook on the settle, the house-maid on
+the hearth, and the cook's boy under the table. Before each his empty
+glass; she alone had not drunk hers. She dreamed that Athalie, with bare
+feet and in her night-dress, crept up behind her and said in her ear,
+"Why don't you drink your punch, dear mamma? Do you want more sugar?"
+and filled the glass with sugar up to the brim. But she noticed the
+repulsive smell. "I don't want it!" she said in her dream. However,
+Athalie held the steaming glass to her mouth. She turned away, and
+pushed the glass from her, and with that movement she upset the bottle
+of water which stood on the table beside her, and all the water poured
+into the bed. That thoroughly awoke her.
+
+And still she seemed to see Athalie before her with threatening looks.
+"Are you awake, Athalie?" she asked, uneasily; no answer. She listened;
+the sleeper could not be heard to breathe. Sophie got up and went to
+Athalie's bed; it was empty. She could not trust her eyes in the dim
+twilight, and felt with her hands: no one there. "Athalie, where are
+you?" she murmured, anxiously. Receiving no answer, a nameless horror
+numbed her limbs. She felt blind and dumb; she could not even scream.
+She listened, and then fancied she was deaf: neither inside nor out was
+there the faintest sound. Where could Athalie be?
+
+Athalie was in the secret room--she had been there a long time.
+
+The patience of that woman, to be so long learning the prayer by heart!
+At last Timéa shut the book and sighed deeply. Then she took the candle
+and looked to see that all the doors were locked. She looked behind the
+curtains; her bridegroom's words had implanted fear in her breast, and
+she looked round carefully to see if any one could get in. Then she went
+to the dressing-table, took down her plaits, wound her thick hair round
+and round her head, and put a net over it. She was not free from vanity,
+this young creature: that her hands and arms might be white, she rubbed
+them with salve and put on long gloves. Then she undressed, but before
+she lay down she went behind the bed, opened a closet, and took out a
+sword-hilt with a broken blade; looking tenderly at it, she pressed it
+to her breast. Then she put it under her pillow; she always slept with
+it there. Athalie saw it all. Timéa extinguished the light, and Athalie
+saw no more; she only heard the clock tick, and had the patience to
+wait.
+
+She guesses when sleep will close Timéa's eyes--that is the time. A
+quarter of an hour seems like an eternity; at last the clock strikes
+one. The picture of St. George with his dragon (which is by no means
+dead) moves aside, and Athalie comes out, barefoot, so that no sound is
+heard. It is quite dark in the room--the shutters are shut and curtains
+drawn; her groping hand finds Timéa's pillow; she feels underneath, and
+a cold object meets her hand. It is the sword-hilt. What hell-fire runs
+through her veins from the cold steel! she too presses it to her heart.
+She draws the edge of the blade through her lips and feels how sharp it
+is. But it is too dark to see the sleeper--one can not even hear her
+gentle breathing; the blow must be well aimed, and Athalie bends her
+head to listen.
+
+The sleeper moves, and sighs aloud in her dream, "Oh, my God!" Then
+Athalie strikes in the direction of the sigh. But the blow was not
+mortal: Timéa had covered her head with her right arm, and the sword
+only hit that, though the sharp steel cut through the glove and wounded
+her hand. She started up and rose on her knees in the bed; then a second
+blow caught her head, but the thick hair blunted it, and the sword only
+cut the forehead down to the eyebrow.
+
+Now Timéa seized the blade with her left hand. "Murderer!" she screamed,
+sprung out of bed, and while the sharp edge cut the inside of her left
+hand, she caught the enemy with her wounded right hand by the hair. She
+felt it was a woman's, and now knew who was before her.
+
+There are critical moments in which the mind traverses a chain of
+thought with lightning speed: this is Athalie; her mother is next door;
+they want to murder her out of revenge and jealousy; it would be vain to
+call for help, it is a struggle for life. Timéa screamed no more, but
+collected all her strength in order, with her wounded hand, to draw down
+her enemy's head and get the murderous weapon from her.
+
+Timéa was strong, and a murderer never puts forth his full strength.
+They struggled silently in the darkness, the carpet deadening their
+footfalls. Suddenly a cry sounded from the next room. "Murder!" screamed
+the voice of Frau Sophie: at the sound Athalie's strength gave way.
+
+Her victim's blood streamed over her face. In the next room was heard
+the sound of falling glass; through the broken window Frau Sophie's
+screeching voice was heard resounding down the quiet street, "Murder,
+murder!"
+
+Athalie let go the sword in terror, and put up both hands to loosen
+Timéa's fingers from her hair: now she is the one attacked and she the
+one alarmed. When she got her hair free, she pushed Timéa away, flew to
+the opening of the hiding-place, and drew the picture gently over the
+entrance.
+
+Timéa tottered forward a few steps with the sword in her hand, and then
+fell swooning on the carpet.
+
+At Frau Sophie's cry, double-quick march was heard in the street--the
+patrol was coming--the major was the first to reach the house. Frau
+Sophie knew him and called out, "Quick, quick! they are killing Timéa!"
+The major tore at the bell, thundered at the door, but no one came; the
+soldiers tried to burst it in, but it was too strong and would not give
+way. "Wake the servants," shouted the major. Frau Sophie ran, with the
+courage born of great fear, through the dark rooms and passages,
+knocking up against doors and furniture, till she came to the servants'
+rooms. Her dream had come true. The whole household lay asleep: a
+burned-down candle flickered on the table, and threw uncanny shadows on
+the grotesque group.
+
+"There are murderers in the house!" screamed Frau Sophie, in a voice
+quivering with terror; the only answer was a heavy snore. She shook some
+of the sleepers, called them by name, but they only sunk back without
+waking up. Blows could be heard on the house door. The porter too was
+asleep, but the key was in his pocket; Frau Sophie got it out with great
+difficulty, and ran through the dark passages, down the dark stairs, and
+along the dark hall to open the door, while the fearful thought went
+with her--how if she were to meet the murderer? and an even more
+frightful doubt pursued her--suppose she should recognize that murderer?
+
+At last she got to the door, found the key-hole, and opened it. A bright
+light burst in--there was the military patrol and the town-watchmen with
+their lanterns. The captain of the guard had come, and the nearest
+army-surgeon, all only half dressed in the first clothes they could
+find, with a pistol or a naked sword in their hand.
+
+Herr Katschuka rushed up the steps straight to the door which led to
+Timéa's room--it was locked on the inside: he put his shoulder against
+it and burst the lock.
+
+Timéa lay before him on the ground, covered with blood, and unconscious.
+The major raised her and carried her to the bed. The surgeon examined
+the wounds, and said none of them was dangerous, the lady had only
+fainted. As soon as his anxiety for his beloved one was relieved, the
+thirst for vengeance awoke in the major--"Where is the murderer?"
+"Singular," said the officer; "all the doors were locked inside--how
+could any one get in, and how could he get out?" Nowhere was there a
+suspicious mark; even the instrument of murder, the broken sword, a
+treasure kept by Timéa herself, and generally put away in a velvet box,
+lay blood-stained on the ground. The official physician now arrived:
+"Let us examine the servants." They all lay sound asleep, and the doctor
+found that none of them was shamming: they were all drugged. Who could
+have done it?
+
+Her mother gazed at him in silence and could not answer. She did not
+know. The captain opened the door of Athalie's room, and they all went
+in, Frau Sophie following half fainting; she knew the bed must be empty.
+
+Athalie was in bed and asleep. Her white night-dress was buttoned up to
+her neck, her hair fastened into an embroidered cap, her lovely hands
+lay on the quilt. Face and hands were clean, and she slept.
+
+Frau Sophie leaned stupefied against the wall when she saw Athalie. "She
+too has been drugged," said the doctor.
+
+The army-surgeon came up and felt her pulse: it was calm. No muscle
+moved on her face, no quiver betrayed her consciousness.
+
+She could deceive every one by her marvelous self-control; all but
+one--the man whose beloved she had tried to murder.
+
+"Is she really asleep?" asked the major.
+
+"Feel her hand," said the doctor; "it is quite cool and calm."
+
+Athalie felt the major take hold of her hand. "But just look, doctor,"
+said he; "if you look closely you will see under the nails of this
+beautiful hand--fresh blood!"
+
+At these words Athalie's fingers suddenly clinched, and the major felt
+as if eagle's claws were running into his hand. She laughed aloud and
+threw off the bedclothes. Completely dressed, she sprung up, looked the
+astonished men proudly up and down, cast a triumphant glance at the
+major, and threw a contemptuous look at her mother.
+
+The poor woman could not bear it, and sunk fainting to the ground.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE LAST STAB.
+
+
+In the archives of the Komorn Court, one of the most interesting trials
+is that of Athalie Brazovics. The woman's defense was masterly; she
+denied everything, knew how to disprove everything, and when they
+thought they had caught her, she managed to throw such mystery over it
+all, that her judges knew not where to have her. Why should she murder
+Timéa? She was herself engaged, and had good prospects, while Timéa was
+her benefactress, and had promised her a rich dowry.
+
+Then, too, no traces of the murder could be found except in Timéa's
+room. Nowhere was a bloody rag or handkerchief to be found--not even the
+ashes of anything which could have been burned. Who had drugged the
+servants could not be ascertained. The household had supped together,
+and among the various sweets and foreign fruits there might have been
+something which stupefied them. Not a drop of the suspected punch was to
+be found; even the glasses which had held it were all washed out when
+the patrol entered.
+
+Athalie maintained that she also had taken something that evening which
+tasted peculiar, and that she had fallen so fast asleep that she neither
+heard her mother's cry nor the noises afterward, and only awoke when the
+major touched her hand. The one person who had found her bed empty half
+an hour before was her own mother, who could not give evidence against
+her. Her strongest point was that Timéa had locked all the doors, and
+was found insensible. How could a murderer get in and get out again? And
+if there had been an attempt to murder, why should she be suspected more
+than the rest?
+
+The major remained with Timéa till late at night; perhaps if he left,
+some one might creep into the room again. They did not even know whether
+the assassin was man or woman. The only one who knew, Timéa, did not
+betray it, but kept to her assertion that she could not remember
+anything about it; her alarm had been so great that everything had faded
+from her memory like a dream.
+
+She could not accuse Athalie, and was not even confronted with her.
+
+Timéa was still crippled by her wounds, which healed slowly; but the
+shock to her nerves was more serious than the bodily injury, and she
+trembled for Athalie. Since that dreadful night she was never left
+alone--a doctor and a nurse watched her by turns. By day the major
+hardly left her side, and the magistrate often visited her in order to
+cross-examine her; but as soon as Athalie was mentioned. Timéa was
+silent, and not another word could be extracted from her.
+
+The doctor advised at last that she should hear some amusing reading
+aloud. Timéa had left her bed, and sat up to receive visitors.
+
+Herr Katschuka proposed to open the birthday letters which had been put
+aside on that eventful day. That would be as good as anything--the naïve
+congratulations of the god-children to the miraculously saved lady,
+which no one had yet read. Timéa's hands were still bandaged. Herr
+Katschuka opened the letters and read them aloud. The magistrate, too,
+was present. The patient's face brightened during the reading, which
+seemed to do her good.
+
+"What a curious seal this is," said the major, as he took up a letter
+which had a golden beetle stuck on the wax.
+
+"Very odd," said Timéa; "I noticed it too."
+
+The major opened it. After he had read the first line--"Gracious lady,
+there is in your room a picture of St. George"--the words stuck in his
+throat, his eyes rolled wildly, and while he read on, his lips turned
+blue, and cold sweat stood on his brow: suddenly he threw the letter
+from him, and rushed like a madman to the picture, burst it in with his
+fist, and tore it and its heavy frame from the wall. There behind it
+yawned the dark depths of the secret chamber.
+
+The major dashed into the darkness, and returned in a moment with the
+evidence of the murder--Athalie's bloody night-dress--in his hand. Timéa
+hid her face in horror. The magistrate picked up the letter, put it in
+his pocket, and took possession of the proofs.
+
+Other things were found in this hiding-place: the box of poisons, and
+Athalie's diary, with the frightful confessions which threw light on her
+soul's dark abysses, as the phosphoric mollusks do in the coral forests
+of the sea. What monsters dwell there! Timéa forgets her wounds; with
+clasped hands she implores the gentlemen, the doctor, the magistrate,
+and her betrothed too, to tell no one, and keep the whole thing secret.
+But that would be impossible; the proofs are in the hands of justice,
+and there is no longer hope for Athalie except in God's mercy. And Timéa
+can no longer disregard the legal summons: as soon as she can leave her
+room, she must appear in court and be confronted with Athalie. This was
+a cruel task. Even now she would only say that she remembered nothing
+about the murderous attack.
+
+The marriage with the major had to be hurried on, for Timéa was to
+appear in court as Katschuka's wife. As soon as her health allowed, the
+wedding took place quite privately, without any festivity, without
+guests or banquet. Only the clergyman and the witnesses, the magistrate
+and the doctor, were present. No other visitors were admitted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Human justice would not spare her the painful scene: once again she had
+to be brought face to face with her murderess. Athalie had no dread of
+this meeting, but awaited with impatience the moment when her victim
+would appear. If with no other weapon, she wished by her eyes to inflict
+one more stab on Timéa's heart. But she started when the official
+said--"Call Emerich Katschuka's wife!"
+
+Katschuka's wife! Already married to him! But in spite of that she
+showed unconcealed satisfaction when Timéa entered, and Athalie saw the
+face paler than ever, the red line over the marble forehead, the scar
+from the murderous blow; this memento was from her. Her lovely bosom
+swelled with joy when Timéa was required to swear in the name of the
+living God that she would answer truly, and all she said was true, and
+when Timéa drew off her glove and raised her hand, so that the
+disfiguring scar of a frightful sword-cut was visible. That, too, was a
+wedding-present from Athalie. And Timéa swore with that maimed and
+trembling hand that she had forgotten everything, and could not even
+remember whether the murderer with whom she had struggled was a man or a
+woman.
+
+"Fool!" muttered Athalie between her teeth. (Did they not struggle hand
+to hand?) "What I dared to do, you dare not even accuse me of."
+
+"We are not asking that," said the president. "We only ask you, Did this
+letter, in a child's writing, and sealed with a beetle, really come to
+you by post, and on the very day of the attack? Was it then sealed, and
+did no one know its contents?"
+
+Timéa answered all these questions calmly with Yes or No.
+
+Then the president turned to Athalie--"Now listen, Athalie Brazovics, to
+the contents of this letter:--
+
+     "'GRACIOUS LADY,--There is in your room a picture of
+     St. George on the wall. This picture covers a
+     hiding-place, to which the entrance lies through the
+     lumber-room. Have this hole walled up, and watch over
+     your valuable life. Long and happy may it be.
+
+     DODI.'"
+
+And then the president raised a cloth from the table. Under it lay the
+accusers of Athalie--the bloody night-dress, the box of poisons, and the
+diary.
+
+Athalie uttered a scream like a mortally wounded animal, and covered her
+face with both hands, and when she took them away, that face was no
+longer pale, but fiery red. She had a narrow black ribbon round her
+neck; she tore it off now with her two hands, and threw it away, as if
+to bare the lovely neck for the headsman, or perhaps rather to utter
+more easily what now burst from her.
+
+"Yes, it is true I tried to kill you, and I am only sorry I did not
+succeed. You have been the curse of my life, you pale-faced ghost!
+Through you I have incurred eternal damnation. I tried to kill you--I
+owed it to myself. See now, there was enough poison to send a whole
+wedding company into eternity; but I longed for your blood. You are not
+dead, but my thirst is quenched, and I can die now. But before the
+executioner's ax severs my head from my body, I will give your heart one
+more stab, from which it will never be healed, and whose torture shall
+disturb your sweetest embraces. I swear! hear me, oh, God! hear me, ye
+saints and angels, and devils! all ye in heaven and earth!--be gracious
+to me only so far as I speak what is true." And the raving woman sunk on
+her knees, and threw up her hands, calling heaven and earth to witness.
+"I swear! I swear that this secret--the secret of the hidden door--was
+only known to one person besides myself, and that one was MICHAEL TIMAR
+LEVETINCZY. The day after he learned this secret from me he disappeared.
+If any one has told this, then MICHAEL TIMAR LEVETINCZY DID NOT DIE NEXT
+DAY! He lives still, and you can look for your first husband's return.
+So help me God, it is true that Timar lives! He whom we buried in his
+stead was a thief who had stolen his clothes. And now live on with this
+stab in your heart."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE PENITENT IN "MARIA-NOSTRA."
+
+
+The court sentenced Athalie to death for attempted murder. The king's
+mercy commuted this sentence into imprisonment for life in the
+penitentiary of "Maria-Nostra."
+
+Athalie still lives. Forty years have passed since then, and she must be
+nearly seventy years old, but her defiant spirit is unbroken; she is
+obstinate, silent, and unrepentant. When the other prisoners are taken
+to church on Sundays, she is locked into her cell, because it is feared
+that she might disturb the devotions of the rest. Once when she was
+forced to go there, she yelled out to the priest "Liar!" and spat on the
+altar.
+
+At various times during this period great acts of amnesty have been
+passed, and on national festivals hundreds of prisoners have been
+liberated, but this one woman was never recommended to mercy. Those who
+advised her to repent in order to secure a pardon received the reply,
+"As soon as I am free I will kill that woman!"
+
+She says it still; but she whom she hates has long fallen into dust,
+after suffering for many years from that last stab inflicted on her poor
+sick heart.
+
+After the words "Timar still lives," she never could be happy again:
+like a cold phantom it overshadowed her joy; her husband's kisses were
+forever poisoned to her. And when she felt the approach of death, she
+had herself taken to Levetinczy, that she might not be placed in the
+tomb where God knows who mouldered away under Timar's name. There she
+sought out a quiet willow grove on the Danube shore, in the part nearest
+to where her father, Ali Tschorbadschi, rested at the bottom of the
+river: as near to the ownerless island as if some secret instinct drew
+her there. From her grave the island rock was visible.
+
+No blessing rested on the wealth Timar left behind him.
+
+The only son Timéa bore to her second husband was a great spendthrift:
+in his hands the fabulous wealth vanished as quickly as it had grown,
+and Timéa's grandson lives on the pension he receives from the fund
+bequeathed by Timar for the benefit of poor nobles. This is all that is
+left of his gigantic property.
+
+On the site of his Komorn palace stands another building, and the
+Levetinczy tomb has been removed on account of the fortifications. Of
+all the former splendor and riches not a trace remains.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And what is passing meanwhile on the ownerless island?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+NOBODY.
+
+
+Since Timar's disappearance from Komorn forty years had passed. I was in
+the alphabet-class when we schoolboys went to the funeral of the rich
+lord, of whom people said afterward he was perhaps not dead, only
+disappeared. Among the people the belief was strong that Timar lived,
+and would some day reappear; possibly Athalie's words had set this idea
+afloat--at any rate, public opinion was strongly in favor of it.
+
+The features, too, of the lovely lady came before me, whom every Sunday
+I admired as she sat near the organ; her seat was the nearest in the pew
+to the chancel. She was so radiant with beauty and yet so gentle. I well
+remember the excitement when it was reported that a companion of this
+beautiful woman had tried to murder her in the night. I saw the
+condemned prisoner taken to the place of execution in the headsman's
+cart; it was said that she would be beheaded. She had on a gray gown
+with black ribbons, and sat with her back to the driver; before her was
+a priest holding a crucifix. The market-women overwhelmed her with
+abuse, and spat at her; but she gazed indifferently before her, and
+noticed nothing.
+
+The people thronged round the cart; curious boys hurried in troops to
+see the lovely head separated from the neck. I looked on fearfully from
+a closed window--oh, dear, if she had looked at me by chance! An hour
+later the crowd returned grumbling; they were disappointed that the
+beautiful criminal had been respited. She had only been taken up on to
+the scaffold, and there informed of the pardon.
+
+And then after that I saw that other lovely rich lady every Sunday in
+church; but now with a red mark across her forehead, and each year with
+a sadder and paler face. All sorts of stories were told of her; children
+heard them from their mothers, and repeated them in school.
+
+And, finally, time swept the whole story out of people's memory.
+
+Some years ago, an old friend of mine, a naturalist, who is celebrated
+as a collector of plants and insects throughout the world, described to
+me the singular district between Hungary and Turkey, which belongs to
+neither State, and is not any one's private property.
+
+On this account it offers a veritable California to the ardent
+naturalist, who finds there the rarest flora and fauna. My old friend
+used to visit this region every year, and stay there for weeks zealously
+collecting specimens: he invited me to share his autumn expedition. I am
+somewhat of a dilettante in this line, and as I had leisure, I
+accompanied my friend to the Lower Danube.
+
+He led me to the ownerless island. My learned friend had known it for
+five-and-twenty years past, when it was in great part a wilderness, and
+all the work in progress.
+
+Apart from the reed-beds, which still surround and conceal the island,
+it is now a complete model farm. Surrounded by a dike, it is protected
+from any floods, and is intersected by canals, provided with water by a
+horse-power pumping-engine.
+
+When an enthusiastic gardener gets here, he can hardly tear himself
+away; every inch of ground is utilized, or serves to beautify the place.
+The tobacco grown here has the most exquisite aroma, and, when properly
+treated, is a first-class product; the bee-hives look from a distance
+like a small town, with one-storied houses and many-shaped roofs. The
+rarest fowls are bred in one inclosure, and on the artificial lake swim
+curious foreign ducks and swans. In the rich meadows graze short-horned
+cows, angora goats, and llama sheep with long, soft, black hair.
+
+It is easy to see that the owner of the island understands luxury--and
+yet that owner never has a farthing to call his own; no money ever
+enters the island. Those, however, who need the exports, know also the
+requirements of the islanders--such as grain, clothes, tools, etc.--and
+bring them for barter.
+
+My learned friend used to bring garden seeds and eggs of rare poultry,
+and received in exchange curious insects and dried plants, which he sold
+to natural history collections and foreign museums, and made a good
+profit out of them, for science is not only a passion but a means of
+sustenance. But what surprised me most agreeably was to hear pure
+Hungarian spoken by the inhabitants, which is very rare in that
+neighborhood.
+
+The whole colony consisted of one family, and each was called only
+by his Christian name. The six sons of the first settler had married
+women of the district, and the numbers of grandchildren and
+great-grandchildren already exceeded forty, but the island maintained
+them all. Poverty was unknown; they lived in luxury: each knew some
+trade, and if they had been ten times as many, their labor would have
+supported them. The founders of the family still superintended the work.
+
+The male members of the family learn gardening, carpentry, coopering,
+preparation of tobacco, and the breeding of cattle; among them are
+cabinet-makers and millers; the women weave Turkish carpets, prepare
+honey, make cheese, and distill rose-water; and all these occupations go
+on so naturally that it is never necessary to give orders; each knows
+his duty, fulfills it untold, and takes pleasure in its completion. The
+dwellings of the ever-growing families already form a whole street; each
+little house is built by division of labor, and the elders help the
+newly married. Strangers who visit the island are received by the
+nominal head of the family, whom the others call father. Strangers know
+him under the name of Deodatus. He is a well-built man of over forty,
+with handsome features; he it is who arranges the terms of barter and
+shows visitors over the colony.
+
+When we arrived Deodatus received us with the kind cordiality one
+exhibits to old friends; the naturalist was a regular annual visitor.
+The subjects of our discourse were pomology, horticulture, botany,
+entomology, in all of which Deodatus seemed to be well versed; in
+everything pertaining to gardens and cattle-breeding he had reached a
+high standard. I could not conceal my surprise, and asked him where he
+had learned it.
+
+"From our father," answered Deodatus, with a sigh.
+
+"Who is that?"
+
+"You will see him when we assemble in the evening."
+
+It was the time of apples. All the young people and women were busy
+gathering the pretty golden-yellow, brown, and crimson fruit. It lay in
+pyramids on the green turf, like cannon-balls inside a fortress. Joyous
+cries resounded through the island; when the sun set, a bell gave the
+signal for the holiday feast. At this signal every one hastened to fill
+baskets with the remaining fruit, which was then carried into the
+apple-store.
+
+We also, with Deodatus, bent our steps to the place whence the sound
+came. The bell was on the top of a small wooden building, which, as well
+as its little tower, was overgrown with ivy; but one could guess by the
+fantastic forms of the columns under the veranda, that the architect had
+carved many a thoughtful dream and wish into his work.
+
+Before this house was a circular space with tables and chairs; there
+every one met when work was over.
+
+"Here dwell our old people," whispered Deodatus.
+
+They soon came out--a fine pair. The wife might be sixty, the man
+eighty. The great-grandfather's face had that characteristic look which
+makes you remember a good picture you have once seen, even if forty
+years ago. I was quite startled: his head was nearly bald, but the
+remaining hair and his beard were hardly gray, and on his firm, calm
+features age seemed to have no hold. A temperate and regular life and a
+cheerful disposition preserve the features unspoiled.
+
+The great-grandmother was still an attractive woman. Her once golden
+hair certainly was flecked with silver, but her eyes were still girlish,
+and her cheeks blushed like a bride's when her husband kissed her.
+
+The faces of both beamed with happiness when they saw their whole large
+family round them, and they called each to them by name and kissed them.
+This was their joy, their devotion, their song of praise.
+
+Deodatus, the eldest son, was the last to embrace his parents, and then
+our turn came. They shook hands with us too, and invited us to supper.
+The old lady still kept the care of the cooking department in her own
+hands, and she it was who provided for all the family, though each had
+full liberty to sit at a separate table with any others he cared for,
+and take his meal with them; but her husband sat down at a table with us
+and Deodatus. A tiny golden-haired angel of a child called Noémi climbed
+on his lap, and had permission to listen, wondering, to our wise talk.
+
+When my name was mentioned to the old man he looked long at me, and a
+visible color rose in his cheeks. My learned friend asked him whether he
+had ever heard my name before; the old man was silent. Deodatus hastened
+to say that his father had for forty years read nothing of what was
+passing in the world: his whole study was books of farming and
+gardening. I therefore undertook, as people do who have made a
+profession of imparting what they know, to bring my wares to market, and
+I told him what was going on in the world. I informed him that Hungary
+was now united to Austria by the word "and."
+
+He blew a cloud from his pipe: the smoke said, "My island has nothing to
+do with that."
+
+I told him of our heavy taxes: the smoke replied, "We have no taxes
+here."
+
+I described to him the fearful wars which had been waged in our kingdom
+and all over the world: the smoke answered, "We wage war here with no
+one."
+
+There was at that time a great panic on the exchanges, the oldest firms
+failed; and this too I explained to him. Only his pipe's steady puffs
+seemed to say, "Thank God, we have no money here."
+
+I described to him the bitter struggle of parties, the strife between
+religion, nationalities, and ambition. The old man shook the ashes out
+of his pipe--"We have neither bishops, electors, nor ministers here."
+
+And finally, I proved to him how great our country would be when
+everything we hoped for was fulfilled.
+
+Little Noémi meanwhile had fallen asleep on her great-grandfather's lap,
+and had to be carried to bed. This was more important than what I was
+talking of; the sleeping child passed into the great-grandmother's arms.
+When the old lady left us, the old man asked me, "Where were you born?"
+I told him.
+
+"What is your profession?"
+
+I told him I was a romance-writer.
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"One who can guess by the end of a story what the whole story was from
+the beginning."
+
+"Well, then, guess my story," said he, clasping my hand. "There was once
+a man who left a world in which he was admired, and created a second
+world in which he was loved."
+
+"May I venture to ask your name?"
+
+The old man seemed to grow a head taller; then raising his trembling
+hands, he laid them on my head. And at this moment it seemed to me as if
+once, long, long ago, that hand had rested on my head when childish
+curls covered it, and as if I had seen that noble face before.
+
+To my question he replied, "My name is NOBODY." With that he turned away
+and spoke no more, but went into his house, and did not appear again
+during our stay on the island.
+
+This is the present condition of the ownerless island. The privilege
+granted by two kingdoms, that this speck of ground should be excluded
+from any map, will last for fifty years more.
+
+Fifty years! Who knows what will have become of the world by then?
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+ASK FOR AMERICAN SERIES No. 335.
+
+A Really Great American Novel.
+
+A TALE OF THE TOWN:
+OR,
+PHILIP HENSON, M. D.
+
+BY GEORGE HASTINGS.
+
+PAPER, 25 CENTS.
+
+
+PRESS CRITICISMS:
+
+"We do not purpose to rob the story of the zest which remains for the
+reading by telling here all the ingenious but reasonable complications
+which beset this man, how love withers under the unseen blight, how rest
+forsakes him, how success becomes a satire, and how the impervious will
+sinks into impotency when beset by intangible and inscrutable forces. It
+is enough to point out that in this book the author has planted his
+characters upon an elemental truth, and something of the efficacy of
+that truth gives a strange fascination and power to the story."--_New
+York World._
+
+"It is a cleverly wrought and highly interesting novel, constructed upon
+somewhat unconventional lines. There is just enough medical science and
+metaphysics in it to give it spice; there are two murders, a trial and
+conviction of an innocent man on circumstantial evidence, a series of
+confidential domestic scenes, and a dash of hypnotism--surely enough to
+capture the fancy of the inveterate or occasional novel reader. . . . It
+is a curious but entrancing novel, and once caught in its seductive
+meshes the reader will find it hard to escape. Incidentally some of
+Inspector Byrnes' peculiar detective methods are severely
+satirized."--_The Brooklyn Standard-Union._
+
+"It is clever in its way, but trash."--_The Buffalo Courier._
+
+"It places the author in the foremost rank of American writers of
+fiction. . . . It will live--a surpassingly clever delineation of a
+strange phase of human character."--_The London Times._
+
+"Philip Henson, M. D., by George Hastings, is indifferent and
+mediocre."--_The New York Daily Continent._
+
+"Philip Henson, M. D., is more than clever--it is masterly. In exciting
+and absorbing interest this book excels the novels of Gaboriau and De
+Boisgobey, and the sketches and characters are capitally drawn. For
+example, Inspector Byrnes and his methods have never before been so
+accurately described."--_The Spirit of the Times._
+
+"A story quite out of the ordinary."--_The Kansas City Journal._
+
+"Very dramatically told, and a well-conceived and thrilling
+narrative."--_America._
+
+"The plot of Philip Henson, M. D., is remarkably strong and tragic. Mr.
+Hastings is a graphic writer."--_The Sacramento Record-Union._
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN SERIES.
+
+TITLES ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED
+
+TWENTY-FIVE CENT SERIES.
+
+
+Abbey Murder, The.                           Jos. Hatton.
+Alas!                                        Rhoda Broughton.
+Allan Quatermain.                            H. Rider Haggard.
+Allan's Wife.                                H. Rider Haggard.
+All Sorts and Conditions of Men.             Walter Besant and James
+                                             Rice.
+American Girl in London, An.                 Sara Jeannette Duncan.
+American Notes.                              Rudyard Kipling.
+Amethyst.                                    Christabel R. Coleridge.
+April's Lady.                                The Duchess.
+Aristocrat in America, An.
+Armorel of Lyonesse.                         Walter Besant.
+Artificial Fate, An.                         Clarence Boutelle.
+Artist and Model.                            Rene de Pont Jest.
+As In a Looking-glass.                       F. C. Phillips.
+Auld Licht Idylls.                           J. M. Barrie.
+Averil.                                      Rosa Nouchette Carey.
+Awakening of Mary Fenwick, The.              Beatrice Whitby.
+
+Bachelor's Blunder, A.                       W. E. Norris.
+Baffled Conspirators, The.                   W. E. Norris.
+Bag of Diamonds, The.                        G. Manville Fenn.
+Bank Tragedy, The.                           Mary R. P. Hatch.
+Baptized with a Curse.                       Edith Stewart Drewry.
+Beaton's Bargain.                            Mrs. Alexander.
+Beatrice.                                    H. Rider Haggard.
+Be Quick and Be Dead.                        Ophelia Hives.
+Birch Dene.                                  William Westall.
+Black Tulip, The.                            Alexandre Dumas.
+Blind Fate.                                  Mrs. Alexander.
+Blind Love.                                  Wilkie Collins.
+Born Coquette, A.                            The Duchess.
+Bound by a Spell.                            Hugh Conway.
+By Order of the Czar.                        Jos. Hatton.
+By Woman's Wit.                              Mrs. Alexander.
+
+Camille.                                     Alexandre Dumas.
+Cardinal Sin, A.                             Hugh Conway.
+Cast Up by the Sea.                          Sir Samuel W. Baker.
+Cleopatra.                                   H. Rider Haggard.
+Colonel Quaritch, V. C.                      H. Rider Haggard.
+Confessions of a Woman, The.                 Mabel Collins.
+Count of Monte-Cristo, The.                  Alexandre Dumas.
+Courting of Dinah Shadd, The.                Rudyard Kipling.
+Cradled in a Storm.                          Theodore A. Sharp.
+Crooked Path, A.                             Mrs. Alexander.
+
+Daughter of Heth, A.                         William Black.
+Daughter's Sacrifice, A.                     F. C. Phillips.
+Dawn.                                        H. Rider Haggard.
+Dean and His Daughter, The.                  F. C. Phillips.
+Dean's Daughter, The.                        Sophie F. Veitch.
+Deemster, The.                               Hall Caine.
+Demoniac, The.                               Walter Besant.
+Derrick Vaughn, Novelist.                    Edna Lyall.
+Diana Barrington.                            Mrs. John Croker.
+Diary of a Pilgrimage.                       Jerome K. Jerome.
+Dmitri.                                      F. W. Bain, M.A.
+Dodo and I.                                  Capt. A. Haggard.
+Donald Ross of Heimra.                       William Black.
+Donovan.                                     Edna Lyall.
+Dora Thorne.                                 Charlotte M. Braeme.
+Doris's Fortune.                             F. Warden.
+Dr. Cupid.                                   Rhoda Broughton.
+Dr. Glennie's Daughter.                      B. L. Farjeon.
+Duchess, The.                                The Duchess.
+Duchess of Powysland, The.                   Grant Allen.
+Duke's Secret, The.                          Charlotte M. Braeme.
+
+East Lynne.                                  Mrs. Henry Wood.
+Edmond Dantes.                               Alexandre Dumas.
+Eric Brighteyes.                             H. Rider Haggard.
+Evil Genius, The.                            Wilkie Collins.
+
+Fair Women.                                  Mrs. Forrester.
+Fallen Idol, A.                              F. Anstey.
+Fatal Dower, A.
+Felon's Bequest, The.                        F. Du Boisgobey.
+Fiery Ordeal, A.                             Bertha M. Clay.
+First Violin, The.                           Jessie Fothergill.
+Frontiersmen, The.                           Gustave Aimard.
+Frozen Hearts.                               G. Webb Appleton.
+Frozen Pirate, The.                          W. Clark Russell.
+
+Giraldi.                                     Ross G. Dering.
+Golden Hope, The.                            W. Clark Russell.
+Grave Between Them, The.                     Clarence Boutelle.
+Great Mill St. Mystery, The.                 Adeline Sargent.
+Guilderoy.                                   Ouida.
+
+Handy Andy.                                  Samuel Lover.
+Hardy Norseman, A.                           Edna Lyall.
+Haunted Chamber, The.                        The Duchess.
+Heriot's Choice.                             Rosa N. Carey.
+Her Last Throw.                              The Duchess.
+Herr Paulus.                                 Walter Besant.
+He Went for a Soldier.                       John Strange Winter.
+Hidden Away.                                 Etta W. Pierce.
+Hon. Mrs. Vereker, The.                      The Duchess.
+House Party, A.                              Ouida.
+Hunchback of Notre Dame, The.                Victor Hugo.
+
+Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, The.        Jerome K. Jerome.
+I Have Lived and Loved.                      Mrs. Forrester.
+In the Golden Days.                          Edna Lyall.
+In the Heart of the Storm.                   Maxwell Gray.
+Irma.                                        Lawrence Gordon.
+
+Jack and Three Jills, A.                     F. C. Phillips.
+Jane Eyre.                                   Charlotte Bronte.
+Jess.                                        H. Rider Haggard.
+Julius Courtney.                             J. McLaren Cobban.
+
+Keeper of the Keys, The.                     F. W. Robinson.
+Kidnapped.                                   R. L. Stevenson.
+"King" Arthur.                               Mrs. Mulock.
+King Solomon's Mines.                        H. Rider Haggard.
+Kit and Kitty.                               R. D. Blackmore.
+Kith and Kin.                                Jessie Fothergill.
+Knight-Errant.                               Edna Lyall.
+
+Lady Audley's Secret.                        Miss M. E. Braddon.
+Lady Beauty.                                 Alan Muir.
+Lady Walworth's Diamonds.                    The Duchess.
+Lamplighter, The.                            Maria S. Cummings.
+Last Love, A.                                Georges Ohnet.
+Life Interest, A.                            Mrs. Alexander.
+Life's Mistake, A.                           Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron.
+Life's Remorse, A.                           The Duchess.
+Light that Failed, The.                      Rudyard Kipling.
+Little Irish Girl, A.                        The Duchess.
+Little Mrs. Murray.                          F. C. Phillips.
+Little Primrose.                             Wenona Gilman.
+Little Rebel, A.                             The Duchess.
+Living or Dead.                              Hugh Conway.
+L'Ombra.                                     From the French of
+                                             Gennevraye.
+Lord Lisle's Daughter.                       Charlotte M. Braeme.
+Lost Wife, A.                                Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron.
+Louise de la Valliere.                       Alexandre Dumas.
+Lover or Friend.                             Rosa N. Carey.
+Lucky Young Woman, A.                        F. C. Phillips.
+
+Madame Midas.                                Fergus W. Hume.
+Maid, Wife, or Widow?                        Mrs. Alexander.
+Maiwa's Revenge.                             H. Rider Haggard.
+Man-Hunter, The.                             Dick Donovan.
+Man in the Iron Mask, The.                   Alexandre Dumas.
+Man Outside, The.                            Clarence Boutelle.
+March in the Ranks, A.                       Jessie Fothergill.
+Margaret Byng.                               F. C. Phillips.
+Mark of Cain, The.                           Andrew Lang.
+Marooned.                                    W. Clark Russell.
+Marriage at Sea, A.                          W. Clark Russell.
+Marvel.                                      The Duchess.
+Mary Jane's Memoirs.                         George R. Sims.
+Mary St. John.                               Rosa N. Carey.
+Master of Ballantrae, The.                   R. L. Stevenson.
+Master Rockafellar's Voyage.                 W. Clark Russell.
+Matter of Skill, A.                          Beatrice Whitby.
+Mayor of Casterbridge, The.                  Thos. Hardy.
+Mere Child, A.                               L. B. Walford.
+Merle's Crusade.                             Rosa N. Carey.
+Merry Men, and Other Tales and Fables, The.  R. L. Stevenson.
+Miracle Gold.                                Richard Dowling.
+Misadventures of John Nicholson.             R. L. Stevenson.
+Miss Bretherton.                             Mrs. Humphrey Ward.
+Mistress Beatrice Cope.                      M. E. Le Clerc.
+Modern Circe, A.                             The Duchess.
+Mohawks.                                     Miss M. E. Braddon.
+Molly Bawn.                                  The Duchess.
+Molly's Story.                               Frank Merryfield.
+Moment After, The.                           Robert Buchanan.
+Mona's Choice.                               Mrs. Alexander.
+Mr. Meeson's Will.                           H. Rider Haggard.
+Mrs. Fenton.                                 W. E. Norris.
+My Danish Sweetheart.                        W. Clark Russell.
+My Friend Jim.                               W. E. Norris.
+My Guardian.                                 Ada Cambridge.
+My Lady Nicotine.                            J. M. Barrie.
+Mystery of a Hansom Cab, The.                Fergus W. Hume.
+Mystery of St. James's Park, The.            J. B. Barton.
+My Wonderful Wife.                           Marie Corelli.
+
+Nameless Man, The.                           F. Du Boisgobey.
+Nellie's Memories.                           Rosa N. Carey.
+New Arabian Nights.                          R. L. Stevenson.
+Nine of Hearts, The.                         B. L. Farjeon.
+Noble Woman, A.                              Henry Gréville.
+Not Guilty.                                  Etta W. Pierce.
+Not Like Other Girls.                        Rosa N. Carey.
+Nun's Curse, The.                            Mrs. J. H. Riddell.
+
+Old Curiosity Shop, The.                     Charles Dickens.
+Once Again.                                  Mrs. Forrester.
+One Life, One Love.                          Miss M. E. Braddon.
+Only a Mill Girl.                            Eric St. C. Ross.
+Only the Governess.                          Rosa N. Carey.
+On the Stage--and Off.                       Jerome K. Jerome.
+Other Man's Wife, The.                       John Strange Winter.
+Our Bessie.                                  Rosa N. Carey.
+Outsider, The.                               Hawley Smart.
+
+Parisian Detective, The.                     F. Du Boisgobey.
+Part of the Property.                        Beatrice Whitby.
+Passion's Slave.                             Richard Ashe King.
+Paul Nugent, Materialist.                    Helen F. Hetherington
+                                             (Gullifer) and Rev.
+                                             H. Darwin Burton.
+Pennycomequicks, The.                        S. Baring Gould.
+Phantom Future, The.                         H. S. Merriman.
+Phantom Rickshaw, The.                       Rudyard Kipling.
+Picture of Dorian Gray, The.                 Oscar Wilde.
+Plain Tales from the Hills.                  Rudyard Kipling.
+Plunger, The.                                Hawley Smart.
+Pretty Miss Bellew.                          Theo. Gift.
+Prince Otto.                                 R. L. Stevenson.
+Prince Lucifer.                              Etta W. Pierce.
+
+Queenie's Whim.                              Rosa N. Carey.
+Queen Tempest.                               Jane G. Austin.
+
+Roland Oliver.                               Justin McCarthy.
+Romance of a Poor Young Man, The.            Octave Feuillet.
+Riversons, The.                              S. J. Bumstead.
+Ruffino.                                     Ouida.
+
+Saddle and Saber.                            Hawley Smart.
+Sabina Zembra.                               William Black.
+Scarlet Letter, The.                         Nathaniel Hawthorne.
+Scheherazade.                                F. Warden.
+Search for Basil Lyndhurst, The.             Rosa N. Carey.
+Secret of Her Life, The.                     Edward Jenkins.
+Shadow of a Sin, The.                        Charlotte M. Braeme.
+She.                                         H. Rider Haggard.
+She Trusted Him.                             Charles Garvice.
+Silence of Dean Maitland, The.               Maxwell Gray.
+Social Departure, A.                         Sara Jeannette Duncan.
+Social Vicissitudes.                         F. C. Phillips.
+Soldiers Three.                              Rudyard Kipling.
+Son of Porthos, The.                         Alexandre Dumas.
+Spurious.                                    J. Barney Low.
+Stage-Land.                                  Jerome K. Jerome.
+Stephen Ellicott's Daughter.                 Mrs. J. H. Needell.
+St. Katherine's by the Tower.                Walter Besant.
+Story of an African farm, The.               Olive Schreiner.
+Story of an Error, The.
+Story of Philip Methuen, The.                Mrs. J. H. Needell.
+Story of the Gadsbys, The.                   Rudyard Kipling.
+Strange Adventures of Lucy Smith, The.       F. C. Phillips.
+Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.     R. L. Stevenson.
+Sylvia Arden.                                Oswald Crawford.
+Syrlin. Ouida.
+
+Tale of Three Lions, A.                      H. Rider Haggard.
+Tangles Unraveled.                           Evelyn Kimball Johnson.
+Texar's Revenge.                             Jules Verne.
+This Wicked World.                           Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron.
+Three Guardsmen, The.                        Alexandre Dumas.
+Three Men in a Boat.                         Jerome K. Jerome.
+Three Miss Kings, The.                       Ada Cambridge.
+Troublesome Girl, A.                         The Duchess.
+Twenty Years After.                          Alexandre Dumas.
+Twin Hussars, The.                           F. W. Rollins.
+Two Masters.                                 B. M. Croker.
+
+Uncle Max.                                   Rosa N. Carey.
+Under-Currents.                              The Duchess.
+Under Two Flags.                             Ouida.
+
+Vendetta.                                    Marie Corelli.
+Vicomte de Bragelonne, The.                  Alexandre Dumas.
+
+Weaker than a Woman.                         Charlotte M. Braeme.
+Wedding Ring, The.                           Robert Buchanan.
+Wee Wifie.                                   Rosa N. Carey.
+We Two.                                      Edna Lyall.
+What Gold Can Not Buy.                       Mrs. Alexander.
+When a Man's Single.                         J. M. Barrie.
+White Company, The.                          A. Conan Doyle.
+Wicked Girl, A.                              Mary Cecil Hay.
+Widow Bedott Papers.                         F. M. Whitcher.
+Wife In Name Only.                           Charlotte M. Braeme.
+Will.                                        Georges Ohnet.
+Window in Thrums, A.                         J. M. Barrie.
+Witch's Head, The.                           H. Rider Haggard.
+Woman's Face, A.                             F. Warden.
+Woman's Heart, A.                            Mrs. Alexander.
+Woman's War, A.                              Charlotte M. Braeme.
+Won by Waiting.                              Edna Lyall.
+Wonderful Adventures of Phra the             Edwin Lester Arnold.
+   Phœnician, The.
+Wooed and Married.                           Rosa N. Carey.
+Wooing O't, The.                             Mrs. Alexander.
+World's Desire, The.                         H. Rider Haggard and Andrew
+                                             Lang.
+World, the Flesh, and the Devil, The.        Mrs. M. E. Braddon.
+Wormwood.                                    Marie Corelli.
+
+Young Mr. Ainslie's Courtship.               F. C. Phillips.
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY CENT ISSUES.
+
+Ardath.                                      Marie Corelli.
+Disputed Inheritance, A.                     Timayenis.
+Englishman in Paris, An.
+Robert Elsmere.                              Mrs. Humphrey Ward.
+Romance of Two Worlds, A.                    Marie Corelli.
+Spurgeon's Gold. Rev.                        E. H. Swem.
+Thelma.                                      Marie Corelli.
+
+
+
+
+Latest Issues American Series.
+
+25-Cent Edition.
+
+Andrée de Taverney.                         Alexander Dumas.
+Discarded Daughter, The.                    Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
+Countess de Charny, The.                    Alexander Dumas.
+Retribution.                                Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
+Six Years Later.                            Alexander Dumas.
+Queen's Necklace, The.                      Alexander Dumas.
+Fatal Marriage, The.                        Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
+Memoirs of a Physician.                     Alexander Dumas.
+Joseph Balsamo.                             Alexander Dumas.
+Self-Raised.                                Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
+Ishmael.                                    Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
+Russian Gypsy, The.                         Alexander Dumas.
+Old Mam'selle's Secret, The.                E. Marlitt.
+
+
+
+
+ALEXANDER DUMAS' WORKS
+CONTAINED IN
+"AMERICAN SERIES:"
+
+Camille.
+Edmond Dantes.
+Count of Monte-Cristo.
+The Three Guardsmen.
+Twenty Years After.
+Vicomte de Bragelonne.
+Louise de la Valliere.
+The Man in the Iron Mask.
+The Son of Porthos.
+The Black Tulip.
+The Russian Gypsy.
+Joseph Balsamo.
+Memoirs of a Physician.
+The Queen's Necklace.
+Six Years Later.
+Countess de Charny.
+Andrée de Taverney.
+The Chevalier de Maison Rouge.
+
+
+
+
+MAXWELL GRAY'S WORKS
+CONTAINED IN
+"AMERICAN SERIES."
+
+No. 239--In the Heart of the Storm.
+No. 261--Silence of Dean Maitland, The.
+
+
+
+
+MARIE CORELLI'S WORKS
+CONTAINED IN
+"AMERICAN SERIES."
+
+No. 6--Ardath--50c number.
+No. 73--Romance of Two Worlds, A--50c number.
+No. 4--Thelma--50c number.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 244--Hired Baby, The.
+No. 169--My Wonderful Wife.
+No. 99--Vendetta.
+No. 224--Wormwood.
+
+
+
+
+CUSHING'S MANUAL.
+
+CONTAINING
+RULES of PROCEEDING and DEBATE
+OF
+DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES.
+
+_A Complete Guide for Instruction and Reference in all Matters
+pertaining to the Management of Public Meetings according to
+Parliamentary Usages._
+
+       BY                             REVISED BY
+LUTHER S. CUSHING.               FRANCES P. SULLIVAN.
+
+The contents embrace the following subjects:
+
+Adding of Propositions.
+Adjournment.
+Amendment.
+Apology.
+Assembly, Deliberative.
+Assembling.
+Blanks, filling of.
+Chairman, preliminary election of.
+Committees.
+Committee of the Whole.
+Commitment.
+Communications.
+Consent of the assembly.
+Contested Elections.
+Credentials.
+Debate.
+Decorum, Breaches of.
+Disorderly Conduct.
+Disorderly Words.
+Division.
+Elections and Returns.
+Expulsion.
+Floor.
+Forms of Proceeding.
+Incidental Questions.
+Introduction of Business.
+Journal.
+Judgment of an aggregate body.
+Lie on the Table.
+List of members.
+Main Question.
+Majority.
+Members.
+Membership.
+Motion.
+Naming a member.
+Officers.
+Order of a deliberative assembly.
+Order of business.
+Order, rules of.
+Order, call to.
+Orders of the Day.
+Organization.
+Papers and Documents.
+Parliamentary Law.
+Parliamentary Rules.
+Petitions.
+Postponement.
+Power of assembly to eject strangers.
+Preamble.
+Precedence.
+President.
+Presiding Officer.
+Previous Question.
+Privileged Questions.
+Proceedings, how set in motion.
+Punishment.
+Quarrel between members.
+Question.
+Quorum.
+Reading of Papers.
+Reception.
+Recommitment.
+Reconsideration.
+Recording Officer.
+Recurrence of Business.
+Reports of Committees.
+Reprimand.
+Resolution.
+Returns.
+Roll.
+Rules.
+Secondary Questions.
+Seconding of motions.
+Secretary.
+Separation of propositions.
+Speaking.
+Speaking member.
+Speech, reading of, by member.
+Subsidiary Questions.
+Suspension of a rule.
+Transposition of proposition.
+Vice-President.
+Voting.
+Will of assembly.
+Withdrawal of motion.
+Yeas and Nays.
+
+In addition to the above this volume contains
+
+THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
+AND THE
+DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
+
+_208 Pages. Bound in paper, 25 cents; bound in cloth, gilt back, 50
+cents._
+
+Sent by mail receipt of price. One- and two-cent stamps taken.
+
+
+
+
+Standard Recitations by Best Authors
+
+A CHOICE COLLECTION OF BEAUTIFUL COMPOSITIONS,
+CAREFULLY COMPILED FOR
+School, Lyceum, Parlor, and other Entertainments,
+BY FRANCES P. SULLIVAN.
+
+
+CONTENTS OF NO. 22.
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+Shamus O'Brien, The Bold Boy of Glingall.   Samuel Lover.              3
+The Soldiers' Reward.                       J. W. Donovan.             7
+The Kitten of the Regiment.                                            9
+Perils of a Teacher.                        J. W. Donovan.            10
+A Climb at Rouen.                           M. Betham Edwards.        11
+Catching the Colt.                                                    12
+Something for Strikers.                                               13
+Harmony.                                                              13
+By the Wayside.                             E. Doherty.               14
+The Unwelcomed Baby.                                                  15
+Running Before It.                          William Constable.        16
+"Warned."                                   Crape Myrtle.             17
+The Old Wife's Kiss.                                                  17
+The Old Office-Desk.                        Henry J. Shellman.        19
+Chickens Come Home to Roost.                Earnest M'Gaffey.         19
+The Blacksmith of Ragenbach.                                          20
+The Old Mill.                               H. W. Field.              21
+One at a Time.                                                        22
+The Hot Axle.                               T. DeWitt Talmage.        22
+Ellsworth's Avengers.                       Tripp.                    23
+The Origin of Whiskey.                      H. Burgess.               24
+The Two Words.                              J. E. Dinkenga.           25
+Listeners.                                  M. K. D.                  25
+The Delinquent Subscriber.                  Margaret Andrews Oldham.  26
+"Peace, be Still."                          Violet.                   27
+A Short Debate on Rum.                      "Th' Poet o' Ante-Bar"    28
+The Participants in the Boston Massacre.    John Hancock.             28
+Dandie.                                     M. F. Bradley.            29
+The Nameless Guest.                         James Clarence Harvey.    30
+Slug Number Eleven.                                                   30
+A Famous Fight.                             David Graham Adee.        32
+More Cruel Than War.                                                  33
+The Fall of the Alamo.                      Mrs. Barr.                34
+A New Gospel.                               Carlotta Perry.           35
+Making the Round.                           Mrs. M. L. Rayne.         36
+The Beautiful.                                                        37
+Onatoga's Sacrifice.                        John Dimitry.             38
+Joe Sieg.                                   Alexander Anderson.       39
+Education.                                  C. Phillips.              41
+Ingratitude: Or Old Sport and His Master.   Fred Williams.            41
+Old Uncle Jake.                                                       43
+On the Rappahannock.                                                  44
+The Better Land.                                                      45
+Charity.                                                              45
+St. Michael the Weigher.                                              46
+The Orphan's New Year.                      O. H.                     46
+The Inch Cape Bell.                                                   47
+The Old Minstrel.                                                     47
+
+Price 12 Cents by Mail. 1 and 2 Cent Stamps Taken.
+
+Address M. J. IVERS & CO.,
+379 Pearl Street, N. Y. City.
+
+
+
+
+THE
+Standard Letter Writer
+FOR
+Ladies and Gentlemen.
+
+CONTAINING A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF BUSINESS LETTERS; LETTERS OF
+INTRODUCTION; LETTERS OF CREDIT; LETTERS OF APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT;
+LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION; SOCIAL LETTERS; CONGRATULATION AND
+CONDOLENCE; NOTES OF CEREMONY AND COMPLIMENT; RULES FOR CONDUCTING
+PUBLIC DEBATES AND MEETINGS.
+
+PRICE 25 CENTS.
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY M. J. IVERS & CO.
+
+NEW YORK:
+M. J. IVERS & CO., PUBLISHERS.
+879 PEARL STREET.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: The 1894 M. J. Ivers & Co. edition was the principal
+source for this electronic text. In addition, the 1894 D. Appleton and
+Company text was consulted to determine the preferred hyphenation and
+spelling of some words and to resolve suspected typographical errors. In
+addition to the corrections noted individually below, the following
+changes were made throughout the book: Timea was changed to Timéa, Noemi
+to Noémi, Uj-Szony to Uj-Szöny, Honigler to Hönigler, Szonyer to
+Szönyer, Fraulein to Fraülein, Grands Crus to Grands Crûs, senor to
+señor, and Petofi to Petöfi.
+
+In Book First, Chapter I, =These are the passengers of the 'St. Barbara."=
+was changed to =These are the passengers of the "St. Barbara."=.
+
+In Book First, Chapter II, "the later was suddenly caught" was changed to
+"the latter was suddenly caught".
+
+In Book First, Chapter III, "the poor beast" was changed to "the poor
+beasts", and "It was only that she ship" was changed to "It was only
+that the ship".
+
+In Book First, Chapter IV, "whose pure, azure seen" was changed to "whose
+pure azure, seen", "In Brazovic's café" was changed to "In Brazovics'
+café", and "before Brazovic's café" was changed to "before Brazovics'
+café".
+
+In Book First, Chapter VI, a missing quotation mark was added after "You
+can't joke with her", "white cat on her shouler" was changed to "white
+cat on her shoulder", and "nothing remakable in her rising suddenly" was
+changed to "nothing remarkable in her rising suddenly".
+
+In Book First, Chapter VII, "dear mother-in law!" was changed to "dear
+mother-in-law!", "future son-in law" was changed to "future son-in-law",
+and "Did your hear how" was changed to "Did you hear how".
+
+In Book First, Chapter VIII, "the prince settled in advance" was changed
+to "the price settled in advance".
+
+In Book First, Chapter X, ="Timea!' cried Timar, "your father is dead."=
+was changed to ="Timea!" cried Timar, "your father is dead."=
+
+In Book First, Chapter XIV, an extra quotation mark was deleted after "ten
+thousand measures of wheat.", and "at which Timea only eat fruit and
+bread" was changed to "at which Timea only ate fruit and bread".
+
+In Book Second, Chapter III, "felspar" was changed to "feldspar".
+
+In Book Second, Chapter IV, "When the saw that the doors" was changed to
+"When they saw that the doors".
+
+In Book Second, Chapter V, a missing quotation mark was added after
+"burned coffee-berries.", and "rich man wooes" was changed to "rich man
+woos".
+
+In Book Second, Chapter VII, "It was un heard of" was changed to "It was
+unheard of", "who eat the bread of charity" was changed to "who ate the
+bread of charity", and "eat not a morsel" was changed to "ate not a
+morsel".
+
+In Book Second, Chapter VIII, "Athalia put on her mourning-dress" was
+changed to "Athalie put on her mourning-dress", and "The kitchen clock
+was till going" was changed to "The kitchen clock was still going".
+
+In Book Third, Chapter II, a missing period was added after "wounded
+their hearts".
+
+In Book Third, Chapter III, missing periods were added after "embracing
+her mother with eager kisses" and "Very much", "Timar open the little
+gate" was changed to "Timar opened the little gate", and "the grass it
+wet" was changed to "the grass is wet".
+
+In Book Third, Chapter IV, "Michael disappeard" was changed to "Michael
+disappeared", "when he laughed" was changed to "when she laughed", and a
+missing quotation mark was added after "you will have to go off to
+Brazil."
+
+In Book Third, Chapter VI, a missing colon was added after "stretching
+both hands entreatingly to Michael", "his meeting with Thedor" was
+changed to "his meeting with Theodor", a missing parenthesis was added
+after "what depended on this business!", and "eat it with the bread" was
+changed to "ate it with the bread".
+
+In Book Fourth, Chapter I, "centturies might pass" was changed to
+"centuries might pass".
+
+In Book Fourth, Chapter III, "districts of Zala and Vesoprimer" was
+changed to "districts of Zala and Vessprimer", and "by its owe will" was
+changed to "by its own will".
+
+In Book Fifth, Chapter I, a missing quotation mark was added after "sick
+and loveless heart?", and "which he hear crackling" was changed to
+"which he heard crackling".
+
+In Book Fifth, Chapter III, "though Timar, shrugging his shoulders" was
+changed to "thought Timar, shrugging his shoulders", and "A Rianás!
+à Rianás!" was changed to "A Rianás! a Rianás!".
+
+In Book Fifth, Chapter IV, "revealed the secrt" was changed to "revealed
+the secret", "loathsome wrounds" was changed to "loathsome wounds",
+"Then man knew" was changed to "The man knew", "turn you back on me" was
+changed to "turn your back on me", and "sacrified her to his base lusts"
+was changed to "sacrificed her to his base lusts".
+
+In Book Fifth, Chapter VIII, "write _l_ and _o_" was changed to "write
+_l_ and _ó_", and "_lo_ (Hungarian for horse)" was changed to "_ló_
+(Hungarian for horse)".
+
+In Book Fifth, Chapter XII, "moldered-away" was changed to "mouldered
+away", and an extraneous quotation mark was removed following "on the
+ownerless island?".
+
+In the advertisements, "Evelyn Kymball Johnson" was changed to "Evelyn
+Kimball Johnson", and missing periods were added after "The Man in the
+Iron Mask" and "Memoirs of a Physician".
+
+Finally, the advertisement for Cushing's Manual was moved from the
+inside front cover to the back of the book.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Timar's Two Worlds, by Mór Jókai
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 31409-0.txt or 31409-0.zip *****
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Timar's Two Worlds, by Mór Jókai.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Timar's Two Worlds, by Mór Jókai
+
+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: Timar's Two Worlds
+
+Author: Mór Jókai
+
+Translator: Mrs. Hegan Kennard
+
+Release Date: February 26, 2010 [EBook #31409]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 372px;">
+<img src="images/timar-cover.png" width="372" height="560" alt="cover of Timar's Two Worlds" title="M. J. IVERS &amp; CO. PRICE 25 CENTS. AMERICAN SERIES No. 343. TIMAR&#39;S TWO WORLDS By MAURUS JOKAI. Entered at Post-Office, New York, as Second-Class Matter. Issued Monthly&mdash;November 17th, 1894&mdash;Subscription, $3.00 per Year." />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><i>AMERICAN SERIES.</i></p>
+
+<h1>TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS.<br />
+<span class="subhead2">BY</span><br />
+<span class="subhead">MAURUS JOKAI.</span></h1>
+
+<p class="center">NEW YORK:<br />
+M. J. IVERS &amp; CO., PUBLISHERS,<br />
+379 PEARL STREET.</p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr>
+<td colspan="3" class="bookhead">BOOK FIRST.&mdash;THE "ST. BARBARA."</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum"><span style="font-size: 75%;">CHAPTER.</span></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="chappage"><span style="font-size: 75%;">PAGE.</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">I.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE IRON GATE</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_I">5</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">II.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE WHITE CAT</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_II">14</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">III.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;A DANGEROUS LEAP WITH A MAMMOTH</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_III">17</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">IV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;A STRICT SEARCH</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_IV">22</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">V.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE OWNERLESS ISLAND</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_V">27</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;ALMIRA AND NARCISSA</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_VI">32</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_VII">40</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_VIII">45</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">IX.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;ALI TSCHORBADSCHI</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_IX">53</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">X.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE LIVING STATUE</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_X">56</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;A BURIAL AT SEA</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_XI">58</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;AN EXCELLENT JOKE</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_XII">61</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE FATE OF THE "ST. BARBARA"</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_XIII">63</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XIV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE GUARDIAN</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIRST_XIV">67</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="3" class="bookhead">BOOK SECOND.&mdash;TIM&Eacute;A.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">I.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;GOOD ADVICE</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_SECOND_I">75</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">II.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE RED CRESCENT</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_SECOND_II">78</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">III.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE GOLD MINE</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_SECOND_III">82</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">IV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;MICHAEL TIMAR, BARON VON LEVETINCZY</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_SECOND_IV">88</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">V.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;A GIRL'S HEART</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_SECOND_V">93</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;ANOTHER JEST</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_SECOND_VI">102</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE WEDDING-DRESS</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_SECOND_VII">105</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;TIM&Eacute;A</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_SECOND_VIII">114</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="3" class="bookhead">BOOK THIRD.&mdash;THE OWNERLESS ISLAND.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">I.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE MARRIAGE OF THE MARBLE STATUE</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_THIRD_I">123</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">II.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE GUARDIAN DEVIL</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_THIRD_II">127</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">III.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;SPRING MEADOWS</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_THIRD_III">134</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">IV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;A SPIDER AMONG THE ROSES</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_THIRD_IV">144</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">V.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;OUT OF THE WORLD</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_THIRD_V">153</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE TROPIC OF CAPRICORN</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_THIRD_VI">157</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;SWEET HOME</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_THIRD_VII">167</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="3" class="bookhead">BOOK FOURTH.&mdash;NO&Eacute;MI.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">I.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;A NEW GUEST</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FOURTH_I">176</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">II.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE WOOD-CARVER</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FOURTH_II">185</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">III.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;MELANCHOLY</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FOURTH_III">197</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">IV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THERESE</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FOURTH_IV">207</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="3" class="bookhead">BOOK FIFTH.&mdash;ATHALIE.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">I.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE BROKEN SWORD</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_I">213</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">II.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE FIRST LOSS</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_II">223</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">III.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE ICE</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_III">227</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">IV.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE PHANTOM</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_IV">235</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">V.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;WHAT HAS THE MOON TO TELL?</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_V">247</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;WHO COMES?</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_VI">250</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE CORPSE</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_VII">252</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">VIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;DODI'S LETTER</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_VIII">254</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">IX.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;"YOU STUPID CREATURE!"</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_IX">257</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">X.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;ATHALIE</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_X">262</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XI.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE LAST STAB</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_XI">269</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;THE PENITENT IN "MARIA-NOSTRA"</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_XII">273</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="chapnum">XIII.</td>
+<td class="chapname">&mdash;NOBODY</td>
+<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTH_XIII">273</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1><a name="TIMARS_TWO_WORLDS" id="TIMARS_TWO_WORLDS"></a>TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS</h1>
+
+<h2><a name="BOOK_FIRST" id="BOOK_FIRST"></a><i>BOOK FIRST.&mdash;THE "ST. BARBARA."</i></h2>
+
+<h3 class="firstchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_I" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE IRON GATE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>A mountain-chain, pierced through from base to summit&mdash;a gorge four
+miles in length, walled in by lofty precipices; between their dizzy
+heights the giant stream of the Old World, the Danube.</p>
+
+<p>Did the pressure of this mass of water force a passage for itself, or
+was the rock riven by subterranean fire? Did Neptune or Vulcan, or both
+together, execute this supernatural work, which the iron-clad hand of
+man scarce can emulate in these days of competition with divine
+achievements?</p>
+
+<p>Of the rule of the one deity traces are visible on the heights of Fruska
+Gora in the fossil sea-shells strewn around, and in Veterani's cave with
+its petrified relics of saurian monsters of the deep; of the other god,
+the basalt of Piatra Detonata bears witness. While the man of the iron
+hand is revealed by long galleries hewn in the rock, a vaulted road, the
+ruined piers of an immense bridge, the tablets sculptured in bas-relief
+on the face of the cliff, and by a channel two hundred feet wide,
+hollowed in the bed of the river, through which the largest ships may
+pass.</p>
+
+<p>The Iron Gate has a history of two thousand years. Four nations&mdash;Romans,
+Turks, Roumanians and Hungarians, have each in turn given it a different
+name.</p>
+
+<p>We seem to approach a temple built by giants, with rocky pillars,
+towering columns, and wonderful colossi on its lofty frieze, stretching
+out in a perspective of four miles, and, as it winds, discovering new
+domes with other groups of natural masonry, and other wondrous forms.
+One wall is smooth as polished granite, red and white veins zigzagging
+across it like mysterious characters in the handwriting of God. In
+another place the whole face is rusty brown, as if of solid iron. Here
+and there the oblique strata suggest the daring architecture of the
+Titans. At the next turn we are met by the portal of a Gothic cathedral,
+with its pointed gables, its clustered basaltic columns. Out of the
+dingy wall shines now and again a golden speck like a glimpse of the Ark
+of the Cove<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>nant&mdash;there sulphur blooms, the ore-flower. But living
+blossoms also deck the crags. From the crevices of the cornice hang
+green festoons. These are great foliage-trees and pines, whose dark
+masses are interspersed with frost-flecked garlands of red and gold.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then the mouth of some valley makes a break in the endless,
+dizzy precipice, and allows a peep into a hidden paradise untrodden by
+man.</p>
+
+<p>Here between two cliffs lies a deep shadow, and into this twilight
+shines like a fairy world the picture of a sunny vale, with a forest of
+wild vines, whose small red clusters lend color to the trees, and whose
+bright leaves weave a carpet below. No human dwelling is visible; a
+clear stream winds along, from which deer drink fearlessly; then the
+brook throws its silver ribbon over the edge of the cliff. Thousands
+pass by the valley, and each one asks himself who lives there.</p>
+
+<p>Then follows another temple more huge and awful than the first; the
+towering walls drawing closer by three hundred yards and soaring three
+thousand feet into the sky.</p>
+
+<p>That projecting needle at the top is the "Gropa lui Petro," the grave of
+St. Peter; the two gigantic forms on either side are his apostolic
+companions; yonder monster opposite is the "Babile," and the one which
+closes the vista is the "Golumbaczka Mali" or Dove-rock; while the gray
+pinnacle which towers above is the high Robbers' Peak, "Rasbojnik
+Beliki."</p>
+
+<p>Between these walls flows the Danube in its rocky bed. The mighty
+mother-stream, accustomed far above on the Hungarian plains to flow with
+majestic quiet in a bed three miles wide, to caress the overhanging
+willows, to look on blooming meadows and play with chattering mills, is
+here confined in a pass only a hundred and fifty fathoms in width.</p>
+
+<p>With what rage it rushes through! He who traveled with it before
+recognizes it no longer; the grisly giant is rejuvenated into heroic
+youth. Its waves leap along the stony bed, from which sometimes a great
+bowlder projects like a witch's altar, the huge "Babagay," the crowned
+"Kassan." On this it bursts with majestic fury, roaring round it with
+swirls which hollow deep abysses in the bottom; thence it rushes,
+hissing and seething, across the slabs of rock which stretch obliquely
+from side to side of the channel. In many places it has already mastered
+the obstacles which barred its way, and flows foaming through the open
+breach. There, it has burrowed beneath the wall of the ravine, and by
+its continuous current has washed out a channel below the overhanging
+rock. Here, it has carved islands out of the stubborn granite, new
+creations, to be found on no chart, overgrown with wild bushes. They
+belong to no state&mdash;neither Hungary, Turkey, nor Servia; they are
+ownerless, nameless, subject to no tribute, outside the world. And there
+again it has carried away an island, with all its shrubs, trees, huts,
+and wiped it from the map.</p>
+
+<p>The rock and islets divide the stream, which between Ogradina and
+Plesvissovicza has a speed of ten miles an hour, into many arms; and the
+sailor has need to study these intricate and narrow passages, for there
+is but one deep-water channel through the rocky bed&mdash;in-shore none but
+the smallest boats can float.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>Among the small islands between the lesser branches of the Danube,
+singular constructions of human hands are mingled with the grand works
+of nature; double rows of palisades made of strong trunks of trees,
+which, joined in the form of a V, present their open side down stream.
+These are the sturgeon-traps. The marine visitors swim up stream into
+the snare, and on and on into the ever-narrowing trap&mdash;for it is not
+their custom to turn back&mdash;until they find themselves in the
+death-chamber from which there is no release.</p>
+
+<p>The voices of this sublime region are superhuman. A perpetual universal
+tumult; so monotonous, so nearly akin to silence and yet so distinct&mdash;as
+if it uttered the name of God. How the great river dances over the
+granite shores, how it scourges the rocky walls, bounds against the
+island altars, dives rattling into the whirlpool, pervades the cataract
+with harmony!</p>
+
+<p>The echo from the mighty cliffs raises this eternal voice of the waters
+into an unearthly melody, like organ notes and thunder dying away. Man
+is silent, as if afraid to hear his own language amidst this song of the
+Titans: sailors communicate by signs, and the fishermen's superstition
+forbids talking here under a penalty. The consciousness of danger impels
+all to silent prayer.</p>
+
+<p>At any time the passage between these dark precipices, towering on
+either hand, might give the sensation of being ferried along under the
+walls of one's own tomb; but what must it be when that supreme terror of
+the sailor, the Bora, sweeps down! A continuous and ever-increasing
+gale, which at certain seasons makes the Iron Gate impassable.</p>
+
+<p>If there were only one cliff it would be a protection from the wind; but
+the draught of air confined between the two is as capricious as the wind
+in the streets of a town; at each corner it takes a new departure, now
+it stops suddenly, then bursts out of a corner as from an ambush, seizes
+the ship, carries away the steering-gear, throws the whole towing-beam
+into the water, then shifts again, and drives the wooden vessel before
+it as though it were going down-stream&mdash;the water throwing up clouds of
+spray as blinding and fine as the sand of the desert in a simoom.</p>
+
+<p>At such times the sighing church-music of the gale swells to the thunder
+of the Last Judgment, in which is mingled the death-cry of departing
+spirits.</p>
+
+<p>At the time to which this history refers there were no steamers on the
+Danube. Between Galatz and the junction with the Main, over nine
+thousand horses were employed in towing ships up-stream; on the Turkish
+Danube sails were also used, but not on the Hungarian branch. Besides
+these a whole fleet of smugglers' boats traded between the two
+countries, propelled only by strong arms. Salt-smuggling was in full
+swing. On the Turkish side the same salt was sold for five gulden, which
+cost six and a half on the Hungarian shore. It was brought by contraband
+back from Turkey to Hungary, and sold here for five and a half gulden.
+So every one profited by this comfortable arrangement.</p>
+
+<p>The only one not satisfied was the government, which for its own
+protection established custom-houses along the frontier, in which the
+male population of the neighboring villages had to keep guard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> armed
+with guns. Each village supplied watchmen, and each village had its own
+smugglers. While the young men of the place were on guard, the old ones
+carried the salt, and so both trades were kept in the family. But the
+government had another important object in its strict watch on the
+frontier&mdash;security from the plague.</p>
+
+<p>The terrible Eastern plague!</p>
+
+<p>In these days we know nothing of it, for it is a hundred and fifty years
+since a vain widow in Semlin brought an infected shawl, and fell dead as
+she went to church in it. But we have to thank the regulations which
+shut the door against it for this immunity. For each contact with a new
+people has endowed us with a new disease. From China we received scarlet
+fever, from the Saracens small-pox, from Russia influenza, from South
+America yellow fever, and from the Hindoos cholera. But the plague comes
+from Turkey.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, along the whole bank, the opposite neighbors can only
+communicate with each other on condition of observing strict preventive
+measures, which must add considerable interest to their daily life.</p>
+
+<p>If the plague breaks out in Brussa, everything living or dead is
+officially declared infected: whoever has been in contact with it comes
+under the same ban, and must be in quarantine for ten or twenty days. If
+the cable of a left-bank ship touches the cable of a right-bank vessel,
+the whole crew of the former is unclean, and she must lie for ten days
+in the middle of the stream; for the plague might pass along the ropes
+from one to the other, and be communicated to the whole crew.</p>
+
+<p>And all this is carefully watched. On each ship sits an official called
+a "purifier." A terrible person, whose duty it is to keep an eye on
+every one, what he handles, what touches him; and if a passenger has
+been in contact with any person, or any material of hair, wool, or hemp
+on the Turkish side (for these substances carry infection), even with
+the hem of his garment, the health-officer must declare him under
+suspicion, and on arrival at Orsova must drag him from the arms of his
+family and deliver him over to quarantine.</p>
+
+<p>Woe to the purifier if he should conceal a case! For the slightest
+neglect, fifteen years' imprisonment is the penalty.</p>
+
+<p>It would appear, however, that smugglers are not liable to the plague,
+for they have no purifier on board, and if the disease should break out
+a hundred times over in Brussa, they would still ply day and night
+between the two banks. We must remember, however, that St. Procopius is
+their patron. Only the Bora disturbs their retail trade; for the swift
+current through the Iron Gate drives the rowing-boats toward the
+southern shore. Of course smuggling is done by tow-boats too, but that
+belongs to wholesale traffic, costs more than friendly business, and so
+is not for poor people: in them not only salt, but also tobacco and
+coffee are smuggled across the frontier.</p>
+
+<p>The Bora has swept the Danube clear of vessels, and has thereby so
+raised public morality and obedience to law, that for the last few days
+there has been no occasion for forgiveness of sins. Every ves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>sel has
+hastened into harbor, or cast anchor in mid-stream, and the watchmen can
+sleep in peace as long as this wind makes the joints of their wooden
+huts creak. No ship can travel now, and yet the corporal of the Ogradina
+watch-house has a fancy that ever since day-break, amidst the blustering
+wind and roaring waters, he can detect the peculiar signal tones which
+the speaking-trumpet sends for many miles, and which are not drowned
+even by the voice of the thunder; the haunting, mournful blasts which
+issue from the long wooden tube.</p>
+
+<p>Is some vessel declaring its approach, so that no other ship may meet it
+in such weather in the narrow channel of the Iron Gate? Or is it in
+danger and calling for help?</p>
+
+<p>This ship approaches.</p>
+
+<p>It is an oaken vessel of ten to twelve thousand measures burden: deeply
+laden it would appear, for the waves wash over the bulwarks on each
+side.</p>
+
+<p>The massive hull is painted black, with a white bow, which ends in a
+long upstanding spiral beak plated with shining tin. The upper deck is
+shaped like a roof, with narrow steps up to it, and a flat bridge
+leading from one side to the other. The forward part of the raised deck
+ends in a double cabin, containing two rooms, with doors to right and
+left. The third wall of the cabin shows two small windows with green
+painted shutters, and in the space between them the maidenly form of the
+martyred St. Barbara is painted on a gold ground, with a pink dress,
+light-blue mantle, red head-dress, and a white lily in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>In the small space between the cabins and the thick coils of rope on the
+prow of the ship, stands a long green wooden trough filled with earth,
+in which lovely blooming carnations and stocks are planted. A three-foot
+iron railing shuts in the little garden, and on its spikes hang garlands
+of wild flowers. In the middle burns a lamp in a red glass globe, near
+to which is a bundle of dried rosemary and consecrated willow-catkins.</p>
+
+<p>On the forepart of the vessel stands the mast, to whose center rings the
+tow-rope is attached; a three-inch cable, by which thirty-two horses on
+the bank are trying to move the heavy ship up-stream. At other times
+sixteen horses would have sufficed here, and on the upper reaches twelve
+would be enough, but in this part and against such a wind even the
+thirty-two find it hard work. The horn signals are for the leader of the
+team-drivers; the human voice would be powerless here: even if the call
+reached the shore, no one could understand it amidst the confused
+echoes.</p>
+
+<p>But the language of the horn is intelligible even to horses; from its
+now drawling, now abrupt, warning, or encouraging tones, man and beast
+understand when to hasten or slacken their speed, or when to stop
+altogether.</p>
+
+<p>For in this narrow ravine the lot of the vessel is very uncertain; it
+has to struggle with gusts of furious wind, variable currents, its own
+weight, and the rocks and whirlpool which must be avoided. Its fate lies
+in the hands of two men. One is the pilot who steers; the other is the
+captain, who amidst the roar of the elements signals his orders to the
+towing-team by blasts on the horn. If the signal is misunderstood the
+ship either runs on to a rock, glides<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> into the rapids, goes to pieces
+on the southern shore, or strands on some newly formed sand-bank, and
+sinks with every soul on board.</p>
+
+<p>The steersman is a six-foot weather-beaten sailor with a very red face,
+whose color on both cheeks comes from a network of veins with which the
+white of the eye is also transfused. He is always hoarse, and his voice
+knows only two variations, either a loud bellow or a low growl. Probably
+this is what obliges him to take double care of his throat. Prevention
+by means of a red comforter tightly wound round his neck, and cure by
+means of a brandy-flask occupying a permanent position in his coat
+pocket.</p>
+
+<p>The captain is a man of about thirty, with fair hair, dreamy blue eyes,
+and a long mustache, the rest of his face clean shaven. He is of middle
+height, and gives an idea of delicacy; with this impression his voice
+accords, for when he speaks softly it is like a woman's.</p>
+
+<p>The steersman is called Johann Fabula; the name of the captain is
+Michael Timar.</p>
+
+<p>The official "purifier" sits on the edge of the rudder bench; he has
+drawn a hood over his head, so that only his nose and mustache appear:
+both are red. History has not recorded his name. At present he is
+chewing tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>One of the ship's boats, manned by six rowers, has taken out a line from
+the bow, and the united efforts of the oarsmen materially assist the
+towing of the vessel.</p>
+
+<p>At the door of the double cabin sits a man of fifty, smoking a Turkish
+chibouque. His features are Oriental, with more of the Turkish than the
+Greek type; his dress, with the striped kaftan and red fez, is like that
+of a Servian or Greek. It will not escape an attentive observer that the
+shaven part of his face is light in contrast to the rest, which is the
+case with a person who has lately removed a thick beard. This is
+Euthemio Trikaliss, under which name he appears in the way-book. He is
+the owner of the cargo, but the ship itself belongs to a merchant of
+Komorn called Athanasius Brazovics.</p>
+
+<p>Out of one of the cabin windows looks the face of a young girl, and so
+becomes a neighbor of St. Barbara. One might fancy it was another sacred
+picture. The face is not pale but white&mdash;the inherent whiteness of
+marble or natural crystal. As an Abyssinian is born black, and a Malay
+yellow, so is this girl born white. No other tint disturbs the delicate
+snow; on this face neither the breath of the wind nor the eye of man
+calls up a blush. She is certainly only a child, hardly more than
+thirteen; but her figure is tall and slender, her face calm as if hewn
+out of alabaster, with severely antique lines, as if her mother had
+looked always at the Venus of Milo. Her thick black hair has a metallic
+gleam like the plumage of the black swan; but her eyes are dark-blue.
+The long delicate eyebrows almost meet over the brow, which gives her
+face a curious charm; it is as if these arching brows formed a black
+aureole round the brow of a saint.</p>
+
+<p>The girl's name is Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>These are the passengers of the "St. Barbara."</p>
+
+<p>When the captain lays his speaking-trumpet aside, and has tried with the
+lead what water the ship has under her, he has time to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> chat with the
+girl as he leans against the iron railing round the picture.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a understands only modern Greek, which the captain can speak
+fluently. He points out to her the beauties of the scenery, its grim,
+cruel beauties: the white face, the dark-blue eyes, remain unchanged,
+and yet the girl listens with fixed attention.</p>
+
+<p>But it seems to the captain as if these eyes gave their thoughts not so
+much to him as to the stocks which grow at St. Barbara's feet. He breaks
+off one and gives it to the child, that she may listen to what the
+flowers tell.</p>
+
+<p>The steersman sees this, away there by the tiller, and it displeases
+him. "You would do better," he growls in a voice like the rasping of a
+file, "instead of plucking the saint's flowers for that child, to burn a
+holy willow-wand at the lamp, for if the Lord drives us on to these
+stone monsters, even His own Son won't save us. Help, Jesu!"</p>
+
+<p>This aspiration would have been uttered by Johann Fabula, even if he
+were alone; but as the purifier sat close by, there followed this
+dialogue:</p>
+
+<p>"Why must the gentry pass the Iron Gate in such a storm?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why?" answered Johann Fabula, who did not forget his laudable habit of
+aiding the collection of his thoughts by a gulp out of the wicker
+brandy-flask. "Why? For no other reason but being in a hurry. Ten
+thousand measures of wheat are in our hold. In the Banat the crops
+failed; in Wallachia there was a good harvest. This is Michaelmas; if we
+don't make haste, November will be upon us, and we shall be frozen in."</p>
+
+<p>"And why do you think the Danube will freeze in November?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think&mdash;I know. The Komorn calendar says so. Look in my berth,
+it hangs by my bed."</p>
+
+<p>The purifier buried his nose in his hood, and spat his tobacco juice
+into the Danube.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't spit into the water in such weather as this&mdash;the Danube won't
+bear it. But what the Komorn calendar says is as true as Gospel. Ten
+years ago it prophesied that frost would set in in November; so I
+started at once to get home with my ship&mdash;then too I was in the 'St.
+Barbara'&mdash;the others laughed at me. But on the 23d of November cold set
+in, and half the vessels were frozen in, some at Apathin, and others at
+Foldvar. Then it was my turn to laugh. Help, Jesu! Hard over,
+he&mdash;e&mdash;e&mdash;!!"</p>
+
+<p>The wind was now dead ahead. Thick drops of sweat ran down the
+steersman's cheeks while he struggled to get the tiller over, but he
+asked for no help. Then he rewarded himself with a pull at his bottle,
+after which his eyes looked redder than ever.</p>
+
+<p>"Now if the Lord will only help us to pass that stone pier," groaned he
+in the midst of his exertions. "Pull away, you fellows there! If only we
+can get by this point!"</p>
+
+<p>"There's another beyond."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and then a third, and a thirteenth, and we must keep our
+mass-money ready in our mouths, for we are walking over our open coffins
+all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"Hark ye, my good friend," said the purifier, taking his plug<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> out of
+his mouth, "I fancy your ship carries something besides wheat."</p>
+
+<p>Master Fabula looked askance at the purifier under his hood, and
+shrugged his shoulders. "What's that to me? If there's contraband on the
+ship, at any rate we sha'n't stop in quarantine, and we shall get on
+pretty quick."</p>
+
+<p>"How so?"</p>
+
+<p>The steersman made a circle with his thumb behind his back, on which the
+health-officer burst out laughing. Could he possibly have understood
+this pantomime?</p>
+
+<p>"Now, look you," said Johann Fabula, "since I was here last, the course
+of the river has altered; if I don't let her go a bit free we shall get
+into the new eddy which has formed under the 'Lovers' Rock.' Do you see
+that devilish monster which keeps swimming close to us? That's an old
+sturgeon&mdash;he must be at least five hundred-weight. If this beast keeps
+up with us, he'll bring us ill-luck. Help, Lord! If only he would come
+near enough for me to get the grappling-iron into him! The skipper is
+always sneaking up to the Greek girl instead of blowing his horn to the
+riders. She brings us misfortune&mdash;since she has been on board, we've had
+nothing but north wind; there's something wrong about her&mdash;she's as
+white as a ghost, and her eyebrows grow together like a witch's. Herr
+Timar, blow to the teamsmen, ho&mdash;ho&mdash;ho!"</p>
+
+<p>But Timar did not touch the horn, and went on telling legends of the
+rocks and water-falls to the white maiden.</p>
+
+<p>Beginning from the Iron Gate up to Clissera, each valley, each cave on
+both banks, every cliff, island, and every eddy in the stream has its
+history: a fairy tale, a legend, or an adventure with brigands, of which
+books, or sculptured inscriptions, or national songs, or fisherfolks'
+tradition tell the story. It is a library in stone, the names of the
+rocks are the lettered back of the volumes, and he who knows how to open
+them may read a romance therein.</p>
+
+<p>Michael Timar had long been at home in this library. With the vessel
+committed to his charge he had often made the passage of the Iron Gate,
+and every stone and island was familiar to him.</p>
+
+<p>Possibly he had another object with his legends and anecdotes besides
+the satisfaction of the girl's curiosity. When a highly strung creature
+has to pass through a great danger, which makes even a strong man's
+heart quake, then those who know the danger try to turn the attention of
+the ignorant person into the kingdom of marvels. Was it perhaps thus?</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a listened to the story of the hero Mirko with his beloved, the
+faithful Milieva; how they fled to the peaks of the Linbigaja Rock out
+in the Danube; how there he alone defended the precipitous approach to
+his refuge, against all the soldiers of his pursuer Hassan; how they
+lived on the kids brought by the eagles to their nest on the cliff,
+cared not for the roar of the breakers round the base of their island,
+and felt no fear of the white surges thrown up by the compressed force
+of the narrowed current. Mariners call these woolly wave-crests the
+"Lovers' Goats."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be better to look ahead than astern," growled the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> steersman,
+and then exerted his voice in a loud call, "Haha! ho! skipper, what's
+that coming down on us?"</p>
+
+<p>The captain looked round, and saw the object pointed out by the pilot.
+The ship was now entering the Tatalia Pass, where the Danube is only two
+hundred fathoms wide, and has a rapid incline. It looks like a mountain
+torrent, only that this torrent is the Danube. And besides, the stream
+is here divided in two by a mass of rock whose top is covered with
+bushes. The water forks in two arms on the western side, of which one
+shoots under the steep precipice of the Servian bank, while the other
+discharges through an artificial channel a hundred yards wide, by which
+the large vessels pass up and down. In this part it is far from
+desirable that two ships should meet, for there is barely room for them
+to pass in safety. To the northward lie hidden rocks where a ship might
+strike, and to the southward is the great whirlpool formed by the
+junction of the two branches; if this should seize a vessel, no human
+power could save her.</p>
+
+<p>So that the danger which the steersman had announced by his question was
+a very real one.</p>
+
+<p>Two ships meeting in the Tatalia Pass with the river so high and under
+such a pressure of wind!</p>
+
+<p>Michael Timar asked for his telescope, which he had lent to Tim&eacute;a to
+look at the place where Mirko had defended the beautiful Milieva.</p>
+
+<p>At the western curve of the river a dark mass was visible in the stream.</p>
+
+<p>Michael looked through his glass, and then called to the steersman, "A
+mill!"</p>
+
+<p>"Holy Father! then we are lost."</p>
+
+<p>A water-mill was driving down on them; probably the storm had loosened
+its chains from the bank. Obviously it was without pilot or oarsman, who
+must have fled to the shore; so it drifted blindly on, sweeping away the
+mills it met on its way, and sinking any cargo-boats which could not get
+out of its road.</p>
+
+<p>How could they escape between Scylla and Charybdis?</p>
+
+<p>Timar said not a word of this to Tim&eacute;a, but gave her back the glass, and
+told her where to look for the eagles' nest whose ancestors had fed the
+lovers. Then he threw off his coat hastily, sprung into the barge where
+the rowers were, and made five of them get into the small boat with him;
+they were to bring the light anchor and thin cable with them, and cast
+off.</p>
+
+<p>Trikaliss and Tim&eacute;a did not understand his orders, as he spoke
+Hungarian, which neither of them knew.</p>
+
+<p>The captain shouted to the steersman, "Keep her steady; go ahead!" In a
+few moments Trikaliss also could see what was the danger. The drifting
+mill came floating swiftly down the brawling stream, and one could see
+with the naked eye the clattering paddle-wheel, whose width occupied the
+whole fairway of the channel. If it touched the laden ship both must go
+down.</p>
+
+<p>The boat with the six men still struggled up against the current. Four
+of them rowed, one steered, and Timar stood in the bow with folded arms.</p>
+
+<p>What was their insane design? What could they do in a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> boat
+against a great mill? What are human mind and muscles against stream and
+storm?</p>
+
+<p>If each were a Samson, the laws of hydrostatics would set at naught
+their strength. The shock with which they touch the mill will recoil on
+the skiff; if they grapple it they will be dragged away by it. It is as
+if a spider would catch a cockchafer in its web.</p>
+
+<p>The boat, however, did not keep in the center, but tried to reach the
+southern point of the island.</p>
+
+<p>So high were the waves that the five men disappeared again and again in
+the hollows between, then the next moment they danced on the foamy
+crest, tossed hither and thither by the willful torrent, seething under
+them like boiling water.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_II" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<span class="extraspace"><br /></span>
+<span class="subhead">THE WHITE CAT.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The oarsmen consulted in the boat what was to be done.</p>
+
+<p>One advised cutting through the side of the mill below the water-line
+with an ax, so as to sink it: but that would do no good; the current
+would drive the wreck down on to the ship.</p>
+
+<p>A second thought they ought to grapple the mill with hooks, and give it
+a list away, so as to direct it toward the whirlpool: but this counsel
+was also rejected, for the eddies would drag the boat down too.</p>
+
+<p>Timar ordered the man at the tiller to keep straight for the point of
+the island where the Lovers' Rock lies.</p>
+
+<p>When they approached the rapids he lifted the heavy anchor and swung it
+into the water without shaking the boat, which showed what muscular
+strength the delicate frame contained. The anchor took out a long coil
+of rope with it, for the water is deep there. Then Timar made them row
+as quickly as possible toward the approaching mill. Now they guessed his
+design&mdash;he meant to anchor the mill. Bad idea, said the sailors; the
+great mass will lie across the fairway, and stop the ship; besides, the
+cable is so long and slight that the heavy fabric will part it easily.</p>
+
+<p>When Euthemio Trikaliss saw from the vessel Timar's intention, he
+dropped his chibouque in a panic, ran along the deck and cried to the
+steersman to cut the tow-rope, and let the ship drift down-stream.</p>
+
+<p>The pilot did not understand Greek, but guessed from the old man's
+gestures what he wanted.</p>
+
+<p>With perfect calmness he answered as he leaned against the rudder,
+"There's nothing to grumble at; Timar knows what to do." With the
+courage of despair Trikaliss drew his dagger out of his girdle in order
+to cut the rope himself; but the steersman pointed toward the stern, and
+what Trikaliss saw there altered his mind.</p>
+
+<p>From the Lower Danube came a vessel toward them: an accustomed eye can
+distinguish it from afar. It has a mast whose sails are furled, a high
+poop, and twenty-four rowers.</p>
+
+<p>It is a Turkish brigantine.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he caught sight of it, Trikaliss put his dagger back in his
+sash; if he had turned purple at what he saw ahead, now he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> was livid.
+He hastened to Tim&eacute;a, who was looking through the glass at the peaks of
+Perigrada. "Give me the telescope!" he exclaimed in a hoarse voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how pretty that is!" said Tim&eacute;a, as she gave up the glass.</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the cliffs there are little marmots playing together like monkeys."</p>
+
+<p>Euthemio directed the telescope toward the approaching vessel, and his
+brows contracted; his face was pale as death.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a took the glass from his hand and looked again for the marmots on
+the rocks. Euthemio kept his arm round her waist.</p>
+
+<p>"How they jump and dance and chase each other; how amusing!" and Tim&eacute;a
+little knew how near she was to being lifted by the arm that held her,
+and plunged over the bulwarks into the foaming flood.</p>
+
+<p>But what Euthemio saw on the other side brought back into his face the
+color it had lost.</p>
+
+<p>When Timar arrived within a cast of the mill, he took a coil of the
+anchor-rope in his right hand; a hook was fastened to its end. The
+rudderless mass came quickly nearer, like some drifting antediluvian
+monster&mdash;blind chance guided it; its paddle-wheel turned swiftly with
+the motion of the water, and under the empty out-shoot the mill-stone
+revolved over the flour-bin as if it was working hard.</p>
+
+<p>In this fabric devoted to certain destruction, there was no living thing
+except a white cat, which sat on the red-painted shingle roof and mewed
+piteously.</p>
+
+<p>When he got close to the mill, Timar swung the rope and hook suddenly
+round his head, and aimed it at the paddle-wheel.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the grappling-iron had caught one of the floats, the wheel,
+driven by water-power, began to wind up the rope gently, and so give the
+mill a gradual turn toward the Perigrada Island; completing by its own
+machinery the suicidal work of casting itself on the rocks.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I say Timar knew what he was about?" growled Johann Fabula;
+while Euthemio in joyful excitement exclaimed, "Bravo! my son," and
+pressed Tim&eacute;a's hand so hard that she was frightened and even forgot the
+marmots.</p>
+
+<p>"There, look!"</p>
+
+<p>And now Tim&eacute;a also noticed the mill. She required no telescope, for it
+and the ship were so near together that in the narrow channel they were
+only separated by about sixty feet.</p>
+
+<p>Just enough to let the diabolical machine get safely past.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a thought neither of the danger nor of the deliverance, only of the
+forsaken cat.</p>
+
+<p>When the poor animal saw the floating house and its inhabitants so near
+to it, it leaped up and began running up and down the roof-ridge, and to
+measure with its eye the distance between the mill and the ship, whether
+it dared jump.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the poor little cat!" cried Tim&eacute;a, anxiously, "if we could only get
+near enough for it to come over to us."</p>
+
+<p>But from this misfortune the ship was preserved by its patron saint, and
+by the anchor-rope, which, wound up by the paddle-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>wheel, got shorter
+and shorter, and drew the wreck nearer the island and further from the
+vessel.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the poor pretty white cat!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be afraid," Euthemio tried to console her; "when it passes the
+rock the cat will spring ashore, and be very happy living with the
+marmots."</p>
+
+<p>Only unluckily the cat, keeping on the hither side of the roof, could
+not see the island.</p>
+
+<p>When the "St. Barbara" had got safely past the enchanted mill, Tim&eacute;a
+waved her handkerchief to the cat, and called out first in Greek, and
+then in the universal cat's language, "Quick, look, jump off,
+puss-s-s-s;" but the animal, frantic with terror, paid no heed.</p>
+
+<p>At the very moment when the stern of the ship had passed the mill, the
+latter was suddenly caught by the current, swung round so that the
+grappled wheel broke, and the liberated mass shot like an arrow down the
+stream. The white cat sprung up to the ridge.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>But the mill rushed on its fate.</p>
+
+<p>Below the island is the great whirlpool.</p>
+
+<p>It is one of the most remarkable eddies ever formed by the river
+giants&mdash;on every map it is marked by two arrows meeting in a corner. Woe
+to the boat which is swept in the direction of either arrow! Round the
+great funnel the water boils and rages as in a seething caldron, and in
+the middle of the circle yawns the bare abyss below. This whirlpool has
+worn a hole in the rock a hundred and twenty feet deep, and what it
+takes with it into this tomb, no one ever sees again: if it should be a
+man, he had better look out for the resurrection. And into this place
+the current carried the mill. Before it reached there it sprung a leak
+and got a list over; the axle of the wheel stood straight on end; the
+white cat ran along to the highest point and stood there humping its
+back; the eddy caught the wooden fabric, carried it round in wide
+circles four or five times, turning on its own axis, creaking and
+groaning, and then it disappeared under the water. With it the white
+cat.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a shuddered and hid her face in her shawl.</p>
+
+<p>But the "St. Barbara" was saved.</p>
+
+<p>Euthemio pressed the hands of the returning oarsmen&mdash;Timar he embraced.
+Timar might have expected that Tim&eacute;a would say a friendly word; but she
+only asked, pointing to the gulf with a disturbed face, "What is become
+of the mill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Chips and splinters!"</p>
+
+<p>"And the poor cat?" The girl's lips trembled, and tears stood in her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"It's all up with her."</p>
+
+<p>"But the mill and the cat belonged to some poor man?" said Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but we had to save our ship and our lives, or else we should have
+been wrecked, and the whirlpool would have drawn us into the abyss, and
+only thrown up our bones on the shore."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a looked at the man who said this, through the prism of tear-filled
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange world into which she gazed through these tears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> That
+it should be permissible to destroy a poor man's mill in order to save
+one's own ship, that you should drown a cat so as not to get into the
+water yourself!&mdash;she could not understand it. From this moment she
+listened no more to his fairy stories, but avoided him as much as
+possible.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_III" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+<span class="subhead">A DANGEROUS LEAP WITH A MAMMOTH.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Indeed Timar had but little time for story-telling; for he had hardly
+got his breath after the exertions of his perilous achievement, before
+Euthemio gave him the glass and pointed where he was to look.</p>
+
+<p>"Gunboat&mdash;twenty-four oars&mdash;brigantine from Salonica."</p>
+
+<p>Timar did not put down the telescope till the other vessel was hidden
+from him behind the point of the Perigrada Island.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly he let it fall, and, putting the horn to his lips, blew
+first three, then six sharp blasts, at which the drivers whipped up
+their horses.</p>
+
+<p>The rocky island of Perigrada is surrounded by two branches of the
+Danube. The one on the Servian side is that by which cargo-ships pass
+up; it is safer and cheaper, for half the number of horses suffice. By
+the Roumanian shore there is also a narrow channel, with just room for
+one vessel, but here you must use oxen, of which often a hundred and
+twenty are harnessed. The other arm of the river is again narrowed by
+the little Reskival Island, lying across the stream. (Now this island
+has been blown up in part, but at the time of our story the whole still
+existed.) Through the narrows between the two islands the river shoots
+like an arrow; but above, it lies between its rocky walls like a great
+lake. Only this lake has no smooth surface, for it is always in motion,
+and never freezes in the very hardest winter. Its bottom is thickly sown
+with rocks; some are under water, while other uncouth monsters project
+many feet above it.</p>
+
+<p>This is the most dangerous part of the whole voyage. To this day,
+experienced seamen, English, Turks, Italians, at home on all seas,
+adventure themselves with much anxiety in this rock-strewn channel. Here
+the majority of shipwrecks occur. Here in the Crimean War the splendid
+Turkish man-of-war "Silistria" was lost. She had been ordered to
+Belgrade, and might have given a new turn to affairs if she had not
+received a thrust in the ribs from one of the Reskival rocks, so
+enthusiastic in their peace policy that they obliged her to stay where
+she was.</p>
+
+<p>Yet this lake, with its dangerous bottom, has a passage through it which
+but few ships know, and still fewer care to use.</p>
+
+<p>This short cut enables mariners to cross from the channel on the Servian
+side to the Roumanian shore. The latter channel is divided by a ledge of
+rock from the Upper Danube, and you can only enter it at Szvinicza, and
+come out at Szkela-Gladova.</p>
+
+<p>This is the dangerous leap with a floating mammoth.</p>
+
+<p>The captain blows first three, and then six blasts on his horn; the
+drivers know at once what it means, the leader of the team has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+dismounted&mdash;with good reason too&mdash;and they all begin with cries and
+blows to hurry on the horses. The vessel goes swiftly against the
+stream.</p>
+
+<p>The horn blows nine times.</p>
+
+<p>The drivers flog the horses furiously: the poor beasts understand the
+call and the blows, and tug till the rope is nearly strained to
+breaking. Five minutes of such effort are more exhausting than a whole
+day's labor.</p>
+
+<p>Now twelve blasts of the horn sound in rapid succession. Men and horses
+collect the last remnant of their strength. Every moment one fancies
+they must break down. The towing-rope, a three-inch cable, is as taut as
+a bow-string, and the iron bolt round which the rope is wound is burning
+hot with the friction. The captain stands by with a sharp ax in his
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>When the vessel gained its greatest impetus, with a single blow he
+severed the cable at the bow.</p>
+
+<p>The tense rope flew whistling like a giant fiddle-string into the air;
+the horses of the towing-team fell down in a heap, and the leader broke
+its neck&mdash;his rider had wisely dismounted. The ship, relieved of the
+strain, altered its course suddenly, and began, with its bow to the
+northern shore, to cut obliquely across the river.</p>
+
+<p>Sailors call this bold maneuver the "Cross-cut."</p>
+
+<p>The heavy bulk is now propelled neither by stream nor oars; even the
+current is against it. Merely the after effect of the shock it has
+received drives it over to the other bank.</p>
+
+<p>The calculation of this impulse, with the distance to be traversed and
+the resistance which lessens the speed, would be a credit to any
+practical engineer. Common sailors have learned it by rule of thumb.</p>
+
+<p>From the moment when Timar cut the tow-rope, the lives of all on board
+were in the hands of the steersman.</p>
+
+<p>Johann Fabula showed now what he could do. "Help, Lord Christ!" he
+muttered, but he did not keep his hands in his lap. Before him the ship
+rushed with winged speed into the lake formed by the Danube. Two men
+were now required at the tiller, and even these could hardly bridle the
+monster in its course.</p>
+
+<p>Timar stood on the prow and sounded with the lead, in one hand holding
+the line; the other he stretched up, and showed the pilot with his
+fingers what water they had.</p>
+
+<p>The steersman knew the rocks they were passing over just as well as he
+could have told exactly how much the river had risen in the last few
+weeks. In his hands the helm was safe; if he had made a single false
+movement, if only by an inch, the vessel would have received a shock
+which would stop her for a moment, and then she and all on board would
+have been driven head over heels into the Perigrada whirlpool, where the
+ship and the beautiful white girl would have joined the mill and the
+beautiful white cat.</p>
+
+<p>Safely past the shallows of the Reskival rapids! Yet this is a bad
+place. The speed is less, the effect of the motive power already
+paralyzed by the force of the stream, and the bottom sown with sharp
+rocks.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a leaned over the bulwarks and looked down into the water. Through
+the transparent waves, the bright-colored rocks, a huge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> mosaic of green
+and yellow and red, looked quite close. Between them shot silvery fishes
+with red fins. She was fascinated.</p>
+
+<p>Deep silence fell over the scene; each knew that he passed over his
+grave, and would owe it to God's mercy if he did not find his monument
+down below. Only the girl felt no emotion of fear.</p>
+
+<p>The vessel had arrived in a bay of rocks. Sailors have given them the
+name of "gun-stones"; perhaps because the sound of the breakers reminds
+one of the cracking of musketry fire.</p>
+
+<p>Here the principal branch of the Danube concentrates itself in a deep
+bed. The sunken rocks are too far under water to be dangerous. Below, in
+the dark-green depths, one may see the slow and indolent forms of the
+dwellers of the sea&mdash;the great sturgeon and the hundred-pound pike, at
+whose approach the bright shoals of small fish scatter in haste.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a gazed at the play of the aquatic population; it was like a
+bird's-eye view of an amphitheater.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly she felt her arm seized by Timar, who dragged her from the
+bulwarks, pushed her into the cabin, and shut the door violently.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out! Halloo!" shouted the crew as with one voice.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a could not imagine what was happening that she should be so roughly
+treated, and ran to look out of the cabin window.</p>
+
+<p>It was only that the ship had passed safely through the "gun-rocks," and
+was about to enter the Roumanian channel; but from the little bay the
+water rushes so furiously into the canal that a regular water-fall is
+formed, and this is the dangerous moment of the "Leap."</p>
+
+<p>When Tim&eacute;a looked out of the cabin window, she only saw that Timar stood
+at the bow with a grappler in his hand. Then suddenly a deafening noise
+arose, a huge foam-crowned mountain of water struck the fore part of the
+vessel, splashed its spray right against the window, and blinded Tim&eacute;a
+for a moment. When she looked out again, the captain was no longer to be
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>There were great cries outside. She rushed out of the door and met her
+father. "Are we sinking?" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a had seen that: the big wave had washed him away before her eyes.
+But her heart beat no faster when she heard it.</p>
+
+<p>Curious! When she saw the white cat drowned, she was in despair, and
+could not refrain from tears, and now when the water had swallowed up
+the captain, she did not even say "Poor fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>Yes, but the cat had cried so pitifully, and this man defies the whole
+world; the cat was a dear little animal, the captain only a great rough
+man. And then the cat could not help itself; but he is strong and
+clever, and can certainly save himself. That's the only good of a man.</p>
+
+<p>After the last leap the ship was safe, and swam in the smooth water of
+the canal. The sailors ran with grappling-irons to the boat to seek the
+captain. Euthemio held a purse up as a prize for the rescue of Timar. "A
+hundred ducats for him who rescues the captain!"</p>
+
+<p>"Keep your hundred ducats, good sir!" cried the voice of the man in
+question from the other end of the ship. "I'm coming."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>Then they saw him climbing up the stern by the rudder-chains. No fear of
+his being lost!</p>
+
+<p>As if nothing had happened, he began giving orders. "Let go!"</p>
+
+<p>The three hundred-weight anchor was thrown over, and the ship brought up
+in the middle of the channel, so as to be hidden by the cliffs from the
+upper reaches of the river.</p>
+
+<p>"And now ashore with the boat," Timar ordered three oarsmen.</p>
+
+<p>"Change your clothes," advised Euthemio.</p>
+
+<p>"Waste of time," answered Timar. "I shall soon be wet again; now I am
+thoroughly soaked. We have no time to spare."</p>
+
+<p>The last words he whispered into Euthemio's ear.</p>
+
+<p>The man's eyes glittered as he agreed. The captain sprung into the boat
+and rowed himself, so as to get quicker to the post-house on the bank,
+where towing-teams could be engaged. He collected hastily eighty oxen.
+Meanwhile, a new towing-rope was attached to the vessel, the oxen
+harnessed, and before half an hour had passed, the "St. Barbara" was on
+her way again through the Iron Gate, and on the opposite side of the
+stream.</p>
+
+<p>When Timar returned on board, his exertions had dried his clothes.</p>
+
+<p>The ship was saved, perhaps doubly saved, and with it the cargo,
+Euthemio, and Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>But what are they to him that he should work so hard? He is only the
+captain and supercargo, and receives a scanty salary as such. It can not
+matter to him whether the vessel's hold is full of wheat or contraband
+tobacco or real pearls; his wages remain the same.</p>
+
+<p>So also thought the "purifier," who, when they reached the Roumanian
+canal, resumed his interrupted conversation with the steersman.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll allow, neighbor, that we were never nearer all going to
+destruction together than we were to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"There's some truth in that," answered Fabula.</p>
+
+<p>"But why should we try the experiment whether we could get drowned on
+St. Michael's day?"</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" said Johann, and took a short pull at his brandy-flask. "What
+salary do you get, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty kreutzers a day," answered the purifier.</p>
+
+<p>"Why the devil do you come here to venture your life for twenty
+kreutzers a day? I didn't send for you. I get a gulden and my food; so I
+have forty kreutzers more reason to venture my life than you. What does
+it matter to you?"</p>
+
+<p>The health-officer shook his head, and threw back his hood, so as to be
+more easily heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Listen," he said; "it strikes me the brigantine is chasing you, and the
+'St. Barbara' is trying to escape."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" coughed the steersman, clearing his throat, and becoming suddenly
+too hoarse to make a sound.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it doesn't matter to me," said the purifier, with a shrug. "I'm
+Austrian born, and I don't like the Turks. But I know what I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, will the gentleman listen to what he doesn't know?" said
+Fabula, who had suddenly recovered his voice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> "Certainly the gunboat is
+chasing us, and that's why we are showing him our heels. For, look you,
+they wanted to take the white-faced maiden into the sultan's harem, but
+her father would not consent; he preferred to escape with her from
+Turkey, and now the object is to reach Hungarian territory as quickly as
+possible&mdash;there the sultan can't touch her. Now that's all about it, so
+no more questions, but go to St. Barbara's picture, and light the lamp
+again if the water has extinguished it; and don't forget to burn three
+consecrated willow-twigs, if you're a good Christian."</p>
+
+<p>The purifier drew himself up slowly, and looked for his tinderbox, and
+then he growled in his beard&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>If</i> I am an orthodox Catholic? But they say you are only a Papist on
+board, and a Calvinist directly you set foot on shore; that you pray in
+the ship, and can hardly wait for dry land before you begin cursing and
+swearing. And they say too that your name is Fabula, and that Fabula
+means just the same as a pocketful of lies. But of course I believe all
+you have told me, so you need not be angry."</p>
+
+<p>"You're quite right there; but now you be off, and don't you come back
+till I call you."</p>
+
+<p>The twenty-four rowers in the gunboat required three hours to get from
+the point where first the "St. Barbara" was seen to the Perigrada
+Island, where the Danube divides into two arms. The cliffs of the island
+masked the whole bend, and on board the brigantine nothing of what had
+passed behind them could be seen.</p>
+
+<p>Even below the island the gunboat had met with floating wreckage, which
+the eddy had thrown to the surface. This was part of the sunken mill,
+but could not be distinguished from the remains of a vessel. When the
+brigantine had passed the island a reach of a mile and a half lay open
+before her; neither in the stream nor by the bank was any large craft to
+be seen; near the shore were only barges and rowing-boats.</p>
+
+<p>The man-of-war went a little higher, cruised about in the river, and
+then returned to the shore. There the Turkish first-lieutenant inquired
+of the watchmen about a cargo-vessel passing by. They had seen nothing,
+for the ship had not got so far. Presently the brigantine overtook the
+"St. Barbara's" towing-team, and of them also questions were asked. They
+were all good Servians, and explained to the Turks where they could find
+the "St. Barbara."</p>
+
+<p>"She has gone down at the Perigrada Island with her cargo of fruit and
+all her crew; you can see here how the tow-rope parted."</p>
+
+<p>The Turkish brigantine left the Servian drivers, who were all lamenting
+because no one was left to pay their wages. (In Orsova they know full
+well they will come up with their ship and tow her on.) But the
+commander, being a Turk, of course turned about and went down-stream.</p>
+
+<p>When the brigantine got back to the island the sailors saw a board
+dancing on the water which did not float away. They fished it out: a
+rope was fastened to it by an iron hook, for the board was a float from
+the mill-wheel. Then they heaved up the rope, which had an anchor at its
+other end. This also was got in, and on its cross-piece, painted in
+great letters, there was the name "St. Barbara."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>Now the whole catastrophe was quite clear. Her towing-rope had broken,
+she cast her anchor, but it could not hold her, she drifted into the
+whirlpool, and now her timbers float on the surface, but her crew rests
+below in the deep pool.</p>
+
+<p>Mashallah! We can not follow her there.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_IV" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+<span class="subhead">A STRICT SEARCH.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The "St. Barbara" had escaped two dangers&mdash;the rocks of the Iron Gate
+and the Turkish brigantine; two remained, the Bora and the quarantine in
+Orsova.</p>
+
+<p>Above the bay of the Iron Gate, the powerful stream is confined by its
+steep banks in a chasm only a hundred fathoms wide, through which the
+pent-up current forces its way, in parts with a fall of twenty-eight
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>Up above the mountain peaks, three thousand feet in air, the eagles
+circle in majestic flight across the narrow strip of sky visible, whose
+pure azure, seen from the awful depths below, looks like a glass vault,
+and further yet rise more and higher peaks.</p>
+
+<p>It is a sight, I trow, to call up spirits from hell. The impotent
+vessel, which has neither hands nor feet, nor yet fins, which, like an
+overladen nutshell, floats upward in this narrow channel against wind
+and stream; and in it a handful of men, trusting in their intelligence
+and their strength. Here, too, even the Bora can not harm them, for the
+double range of cliffs keeps off the wind. The steersman and the
+towing-team have easier work now.</p>
+
+<p>But the Bora was not asleep. It was already afternoon. The chief
+steersman had given over the tiller to his deputy, and had gone to the
+galley, which was in the stern. There he was busy preparing a "thieves'
+roast," of which the recipe is to spit on a long skewer a piece of beef,
+a piece of ham, and a piece of pork alternately, and then turn the
+skewer above an open fire till the meat is cooked.</p>
+
+<p>All at once the narrow strip of sky visible between the almost touching
+cliffs grew dark. The Bora will not be defied.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly it drives down before it a storm which overcasts the blue sky,
+so that it is pitch dark in the valley. Up above masses of cloud; dark
+rocks on either hand. Now and then a dazzling flash darts through the
+heights, followed by a short abrupt thunderclap, as if the narrow gorge
+could only contain one chord of the awful concert; then again the
+lightning shoots into the Danube just in front of the ship, and by its
+fiery rays for an instant the whole rocky cathedral looks like the
+flaming gulf of hell, and the thunder rolls, with a crash as of a world
+destroyed, from one end of the resounding Titan's hall to the other.
+Rain falls in torrents, but the vessel must go on.</p>
+
+<p>It must get on, that it may have left Orsova before night.</p>
+
+<p>They can only see by the flicker of the lightning. Even with the horn
+they dare not signal, for it might be heard on the Roumanian side. But
+inventive man has found a way out of this difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>The captain goes into the bow, gets out his flint and steel, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> begins
+to strike out sparks. This fire can not be extinguished by rain; it can
+be seen by the drivers through the darkness, and as often as the steel
+strikes a spark they know at once what to do; they also make signals
+from the bank by sparks. This is the secret telegraph of sailors and
+smugglers at the Iron Gate. And this silent language has been brought to
+perfection by the shore population on each side of the river.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a liked the tempest. She had drawn her Turkish hood over her head,
+and looked out of the cabin window. "Are we in a cavern?" she asked the
+captain.</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered Timar, "but at the door of a tomb. That high peak, which
+glows in the lightning flashes like a mountain of fire, is the grave of
+St. Peter, the 'Gropa lui Petro.' And the two other monsters near it are
+the 'Two Old Women.'"</p>
+
+<p>"What old women?"</p>
+
+<p>"According to the legend, a Hungarian and a Wallachian woman quarreled
+as to which of their two countries could claim the tomb of St. Peter.
+The apostle could not sleep in his grave for their squabbling, and in
+his anger he turned them into stone."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a did not smile at the grotesque legend. She did not see anything
+ridiculous in it. "And how do they know that this is the grave of an
+apostle?" asked she.</p>
+
+<p>"Because here many healing herbs grow, which they collect to cure all
+sorts of diseases, and send them great distances."</p>
+
+<p>"So they call him an apostle, who even in his grave does good to
+others?" Tim&eacute;a questioned.</p>
+
+<p>"Tim&eacute;a!" sounded from the cabin the imperious call of Euthemio. The girl
+drew back her head from the window, and closed the circular shutter.
+When Timar looked round again, he saw only the saint's picture.</p>
+
+<p>The vessel continued her course in spite of the storm.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the dark ravine was left behind, and as the two rock walls
+trended further apart the gloomy vault overhead disappeared. Just as
+rapidly as the Bora had brought up the black thunderclouds, so quickly
+had it swept away the storm; and, all at once, the travelers saw
+stretched before them the lovely Cserna valley.</p>
+
+<p>The cliffs on both shores were covered to their summits with vineyards
+and fruit orchards; the landscape glittered in the glow of the evening
+sun; out of the green distance shone while houses, slender spires, and
+red roofs, and through the crystal rain-beads gleamed a gorgeous
+rainbow.</p>
+
+<p>The Danube had lost its uncanny aspect. In its wider bed it could spread
+itself out comfortably; and on the western reaches of its sea-green
+mirror the travelers saw the reflection of Orsova on its island&mdash;for
+them the fourth, and greatest, bugbear.</p>
+
+<p>The day had already sunk into twilight when the "St. Barbara" arrived at
+Orsova.</p>
+
+<p>"More wind to-morrow than even to-day," grumbled the steersman, looking
+at the red sky.</p>
+
+<p>There the evening clouds were piled like an avalanche, in all shades of
+fiery and blood red, and if the glowing mist-veil parted through the
+rent, the sky was not blue but emerald-green. Below, mountain and
+valley, forest and field, gleamed in the sunset reflex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> with radiance
+which hurt the eye, unable to find a shady point of rest. The Danube
+rushing on beneath, like a fiery Phlegethon, and in its midst an island
+with towers and massive buildings, all glowing as if part of a huge
+furnace, through which every creature, coming from the pestilential east
+to the frontier of the healthy west, must pass as through purgatory.</p>
+
+<p>But what most fixed the attention of the crew under this stormy sunset
+was a black-and-yellow striped boat, which was being rowed from the
+shore to the ship.</p>
+
+<p>The Szkela is the double gate through which the neighboring inhabitants
+of both sides of the Danube speak, bargain, and do business together.</p>
+
+<p>The "St. Barbara" had cast anchor before the island, and awaited the
+approaching boat, in which were three armed men&mdash;two with muskets and
+bayonets&mdash;besides two rowers and the steersman.</p>
+
+<p>Euthemio paced anxiously up and down the small space in front of the
+cabin. Timar approached him and whispered, "The searcher is coming."</p>
+
+<p>Trikaliss drew from his leathern pouch a silk purse, and took out two
+<i>rouleaux</i>, which he pressed into Timar's hand. In each were a hundred
+ducats.</p>
+
+<p>Before long the boat was alongside, and the three armed men came on
+board. One is the overseer of taxes, the inspector, whose office it is
+to search the cargo for anything contraband or a prohibited importation
+of arms; the other two are custom-house officials, who render armed
+assistance, and serve as a check on the inspector to see if he carries
+out the search properly.</p>
+
+<p>The purifier is the official spy, who reports whether the two officers
+have properly controlled the inspector. Then the latter three form a
+tribunal, which takes the evidence of the purifier as to whether he has
+detected the passengers in any infectious communication. This is all
+very systematically arranged, so that one organ should control the
+other, and each be mutually under inspection.</p>
+
+<p>As a legal fee for these functions the chief has to receive a hundred
+kreutzers, each of the customs officials fifty, and the purifier also
+fifty&mdash;which certainly is a moderate fee enough.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the inspector reaches the deck, the purifier comes toward
+him: the former scratches his ear and the latter his nose. No contact
+takes place.</p>
+
+<p>Then the inspector turns to the captain, and both the other officials
+ground their arms. Still three paces apart! One can't tell whether the
+man has not got the plague.</p>
+
+<p>The examination begins.</p>
+
+<p>"Where from?"</p>
+
+<p>"Galatz."</p>
+
+<p>"Name of ship's owner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Athan Brazovics."</p>
+
+<p>"Owner of cargo?"</p>
+
+<p>"Euthemio Trikaliss."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are the ship's papers?"</p>
+
+<p>The reception of these is carefully arranged. A pan of live coals is
+brought, and strewn with juniper-berries and wormwood: the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> aforesaid
+papers are held over it and well smoked, then taken by the inspector
+with a pair of tongs, read from as great a distance as possible, and
+afterward returned. Nothing wrong, apparently, with the ship's papers.</p>
+
+<p>The pan is carried away, and in its place a jug of water is brought. It
+is a capacious earthenware pot, with a mouth through which the largest
+fist can pass. It serves to facilitate the transmission of the tax. As
+the oriental plague is more easily communicated by coins than by
+anything else, the sailors coming from the Levant must throw the money
+into a jug of water, in order that the western health-officer may take
+it out cleansed: just as at the Szkela every one must fish the money he
+receives out of a basin.</p>
+
+<p>Timar thrust his clinched fist into the water, and brought it out open.</p>
+
+<p>Then the inspector puts his hand in, draws it out as a clinched fist,
+and transfers it to his pocket. He does not need to look at it by the
+sunset light to see what manner of money it is. He knows it by the size
+and weight. Even a blind man knows the feel of ducats. He does not
+change a muscle.</p>
+
+<p>After him come the custom-house officials. These also with serious faces
+fish up their fee from the bottom of the jug.</p>
+
+<p>Now for the turn of the purifier. His countenance is stern and
+forbidding. It hangs on a single word from his lips, whether the ship
+may have to lie ten or twenty days in quarantine with all her
+passengers. There are cold-blooded men like that who have only an eye to
+duty.</p>
+
+<p>The inspector demands, in a surly, dictatorial tone, that the entrance
+to the lower deck be opened. His desire is obeyed. They all three go
+down; but none of the crew may follow them. When they are alone, the
+three strict servants of the law grin at each other. The purifier
+remains on deck, and only laughs in his sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>They unfasten one of the many sacks, in which certainly there is only
+wheat. "Well, I hope it's moldy enough," remarks the inspector.
+"Probably there is only wheat in the other sacks, and very likely even
+more worm-eaten."</p>
+
+<p>A document is now drawn up describing the search: one of the armed
+officials has the writing materials, and the other the form to be filled
+in. All is accurately set down. Then the inspector writes something on a
+bit of paper, which he folds and seals with a wafer, on which he presses
+the official seal. He writes no address on the note.</p>
+
+<p>Then, after they have rummaged in every hole and corner where nothing
+suspicious is hidden, the three searchers rise to the light of day once
+more. At least to moonlight; for the sun has set, and through the
+hurrying clouds the moon ever and anon peeps down, and then vanishing,
+plays hide-and-seek with the world.</p>
+
+<p>The inspector calls for the captain and gives him to understand&mdash;still
+in a severe official manner&mdash;that nothing suspicious has been found on
+board: then he requires the purifier, in the same manner, to declare the
+condition of the ship's health.</p>
+
+<p>With an appeal to his oath of fidelity, the purifier bears witness that
+every person on board, as well as the cargo, is free from infection.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>A certificate that the papers are in order is prepared, and the receipts
+for the fees are handed over. A hundred kreutzers to the inspector, two
+fifties to the customs officers, and fifty to the health-officer. Not a
+kreutzer is wanting. These receipts are delivered to the owner of the
+cargo, who has never left his cabin the whole time&mdash;he is at supper. He
+also must countersign the receipts. From these signatures and
+indorsements, the shipowner and the honorable officials in question
+mutually learn that the captain gave away as many kreutzers as he
+received, and that not one remained sticking to his fingers.</p>
+
+<p>Kreutzers! Well, yes; but about the gold?</p>
+
+<p>The thought may well have passed through Timar's head, how would it be
+if of the fifty ducats which this dirty lot were to fish out of the jug
+he were only to put in forty (a fabulous sum to such fellows)? No
+creature would know that he had kept back ten. Indeed he might easily
+retain half of the whole sum, for who is there to control it? Those for
+whom the money is intended are quite enough rewarded with half.</p>
+
+<p>Another thought possibly answered thus. "What you are doing is without
+doubt bribery. You don't corrupt them with your own money, but Trikaliss
+gives it because his interests imperatively require it. You hand over
+the gold, and are as innocent of the bribery as the water-jug. Why he
+wants to bribe the inspector you do not know. Whether the ship carries
+contraband goods, whether he is a political refugee, or the persecuted
+hero of a romantic adventure, who in order to assist his escape strews
+gold in handfuls, what does it matter to you? But if one single gold
+piece sticks to your fingers, you become an accomplice in all which
+burdens another's conscience. Keep none of it."</p>
+
+<p>The inspector gave permission for the vessel to proceed, in token of
+which a red-and-white flag with a black eagle on it was hoisted to the
+masthead. Then, after thus officially certifying that the ship from the
+Levant was quite free of infection, the inspector, without any previous
+ordeal by water, pressed the captain's hand and said to him: "You come
+from Komorn? Then you know Herr Katschuka, chief of the commissariat
+department? Be good enough to give him this note when you get home.
+There is no address on it&mdash;not necessary, you won't forget his name; it
+sounds like a Spanish dance. Take him the letter as soon as ever you get
+there. You won't be sorry."</p>
+
+<p>Then he clapped the captain most graciously on the shoulder, as if to
+make him his debtor for life, and the whole four left the ship and
+returned to Szkela in their black-and-yellow boat.</p>
+
+<p>The "St. Barbara" could now continue her voyage, and if all her sacks
+from the keel to the deck had been filled with salt or Turkish tobacco,
+and all her passengers covered with small-pox or leprosy from top to
+toe, no one could stop her any more on the Danube.</p>
+
+<p>Now, however, there was on board neither contraband goods nor contagion,
+but&mdash;something else. Timar put the unaddressed note into his pocket-book
+and wondered what it contained.</p>
+
+<p>This was what was written<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Brother-in-law</span>,&mdash;I recommend to you the bearer of this
+letter. He is a man of sterling worth."</p></div>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_V" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE OWNERLESS ISLAND.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The towing-team left behind on the Servian bank crossed over the same
+night in ferry-boats to the Hungarian side with their severed hawser,
+spreading everywhere the news that the tow-rope had parted of itself at
+the dangerous Perigrada Island, and the ship had gone down with every
+soul on board. In the morning there was no longer a sign of the "St.
+Barbara" in the harbor of Orsova. If by chance the commandant of the
+Turkish brigantine had had an idea of rowing up the channel from the
+Iron Gate to Orsova, he would not have found what he sought; and above,
+as far as Belgrade, only half the Danube belonged to him: on the
+Hungarian side he had no jurisdiction, but the fortress at New Orsova
+belonged to him.</p>
+
+<p>At two o'clock in the morning the "St. Barbara" left Orsova. After
+midnight the north wind generally stops; the favorable time must be
+utilized, and the crew had received a double ration of brandy to keep
+them in a good humor.</p>
+
+<p>The departure was quite silent: from the walls of the New Orsova fort
+sounded the long call of the Turkish sentries. The horn gave no signal
+till the Allion point had disappeared behind the new mountain-chain.</p>
+
+<p>At the first blast Tim&eacute;a came from her cabin, where she had slept for a
+few hours, and went, wrapped in her white burnoose, to the bow to look
+for Euthemio, who had never lain down all night, nor entered his cabin,
+nor even&mdash;which was more remarkable&mdash;smoked at all. He was not allowed
+to light any fire on board the ship, so as to avoid attracting attention
+to the vessel at the Orsova fortress.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Tim&eacute;a felt that she had to make up for a fault, for she
+addressed Timar, and asked him about the wonders of both shores.</p>
+
+<p>The instinct of her childish heart whispered to her that she owed this
+man a debt of gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>Dawn found the ship near Ogradina. The captain drew Tim&eacute;a's attention to
+a monument eighteen hundred years old. This was "Trajan's Tablet," hewn
+in the precipitous cliff, held by two winged genii and surrounded by
+dolphins. On the tablet is the inscription which commemorates the
+achievements of the godlike emperor. If the peaks of the great
+"Sterberg" have vanished from the Servian shore, there follows a fresh
+rock corridor, which confines the Danube in a ravine five hundred
+fathoms wide. This mountain hall goes by the name of "Kassan." Cliffs of
+two to three thousand feet high rise right and left, their curves lost
+in opal-colored mist. From one precipice a stream falls a thousand feet
+out of a cave, like a delicate silver streak, dissolved in spray before
+it reaches the river. The two rock faces run on unbroken, only in one
+part the mountain is split, and through the rift laughs the blooming
+landscape of an alpine valley, with a white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> tower in the background. It
+is the tower of Dubova: there is Hungary.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a never turned her gaze from this spectacle until the ship had
+passed, and the mountains had closed over the exquisite scene, hiding
+the deep chasm in their shadows.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel," she said, "as if we were going through a long, long prison,
+into a land from which there is no return."</p>
+
+<p>The precipices grow higher, the surface of the Danube darker, and, to
+complete the wild and romantic panorama, there is visible on the
+northern face a cave whose mouth is surrounded by an earthquake with
+embrasures for cannon.</p>
+
+<p>"That is Veterani's Cavern," said the captain. "There, more than a
+century ago, three hundred men and five cannon held out for forty days
+against a whole Turkish army." Tim&eacute;a shook her head. But the skipper
+knew more still about the cavern.</p>
+
+<p>"Forty years ago our people defended that cave in a bloody struggle
+against the Turks; the Osmanli lost over two thousand men among the
+rocks."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a drew together her delicate eyebrows and threw the narrator an
+icy-cold glance, so that all his eloquence died in his throat. She hid
+her mouth with her burnoose, turned from Timar, went into the cabin, and
+did not reappear till evening. She only looked through the little window
+at the toppling crags on the bank, the massive watch-towers now
+deserted, the wooded cliffs of the Klissura valley, and the rock-colossi
+projecting from the stream, as they swept by her. She did not even ask
+for the history of the octagonal castle-donjon, with three small ones
+beside it inside a bastion. And yet she would have heard the fate of the
+lovely Cecilia Rozgonyi, the danger of King Sigismund, and the defeat of
+the Hungarians. This ruin is the Galamboczer Tower.</p>
+
+<p>From first to last this double shore is a petrified history of two
+nations, mutually shadowed by a mad vagary of fate with the lust of
+conquest, which makes them fly at each other's throats directly a war
+begins.</p>
+
+<p>It is a long crypt containing the bones of many a hundred thousand
+heroes.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a did not come out that day or the next. She sketched little views
+in her book, which she could hold quite steady on the smoothly gliding
+vessel.</p>
+
+<p>Three days passed before the "St. Barbara" arrived where the Morava
+falls into the Danube.</p>
+
+<p>At the junction lies Semendria. On the thirty-six towers of this
+fortress have waved the banners sometimes of the Blessed Virgin and anon
+of the Crescent, and their circular brown walls are sprinkled with the
+blood of many nations. On the other shore of the Morava stand only the
+bare walls of the forsaken "Veste Kulics," and beyond the Ostrovaer
+Island frown down from a peak the ruins of the castle of Rama, now only
+a monument.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not the moment to stand gazing at them&mdash;no one is inclined
+to indulge in melancholy reflections on the vanished greatness of fallen
+nations, for there is more pressing work on hand.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the Hungarian plains open out, the north wind storms down on
+the ship with such force that the towing-horses can not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> make head
+against it, and the wind drives the vessel toward the opposite shore.</p>
+
+<p>"We can get no further," is the general opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Trikaliss exchanges a few private words with Timar, who goes to the
+pilot. Master Fabula makes the tiller fast and leaves it. Then he calls
+the rowers on board, and signs to the shore to stop the team. Here
+neither oars nor towing are of use. The ship is above the Orsova Island,
+which stretches a long pointed tongue into the stream: its northern side
+is steep and rugged, overgrown with old willows.</p>
+
+<p>The task now is to get over to the south of the island, where the "St.
+Barbara" can lie in a harbor protected from the north wind, as well as
+from the curious eyes of men; for the wider stream which circles round
+the island toward Servia is not used by sailors, being full of
+sand-banks and fords.</p>
+
+<p>It is a work of skill to approach: cutting the cable is no use, for the
+ship could not carry any way against such a wind. The only solution is
+hauling to the anchor.</p>
+
+<p>The vessel casts anchor in mid-stream: the towing-rope is brought on
+board; to its end a second anchor is attached and placed in the boat.
+The rowers go toward the island till the whole length of the cable is
+out, then cast anchor and return to the ship. Now they weigh the first
+anchor, and four men haul on the cable made fast to the windlass. Heavy
+work!</p>
+
+<p>When the vessel is close up to the anchor, they put the other in the
+boat, row forward, cast anchor again, and haul up as before. So by the
+sweat of their brow they made their way up-stream step by step. It took
+them half a day of hard labor to work the heavy cargo-ship from the
+middle of the Danube to the point of the great island. A fatiguing day
+for those who had to work, and wearier still to look on at. The vessel
+had left the frequented branch, where, at any rate, one saw ruins from
+time to time, where one met other ships, or floated by long lines of
+clattering mills: it now passed through the unfrequented channel, where
+the view was hidden on the right by a long ugly island, on which only
+poplars and willows seemed to grow, nowhere a human habitation to be
+seen, and on the left the water was covered by a thick sea of reeds,
+among which the only sign of <i>terra firma</i> was a group of slender,
+silver-leaved poplars.</p>
+
+<p>In this quiet uninhabited spot the "St. Barbara" was brought up. And now
+appeared a new calamity&mdash;the food was exhausted. When leaving Galatz,
+they had reckoned on the usual halt at Orsova for the purpose of
+shipping provisions; but after starting so suddenly at night, they found
+there was nothing on board when they reached the island of Orsova but a
+little coffee and sugar, and in Tim&eacute;a's possession a box of Turkish
+sweets and preserved fruits, which, however, she would not open, because
+it was intended as a present.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind," said Timar; "somebody must live on one shore or the other.
+There are lambs and kids everywhere, and one can get anything for
+money."</p>
+
+<p>Another misfortune set in. The anchored ship was so rolled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> about by the
+wind-driven waves of the river, that Tim&eacute;a got seasick and frightened.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps there was some house where she and her father could spend the
+night.</p>
+
+<p>Timar's sharp eyes discovered that above the tops of the poplars rising
+from the reeds a faint smoke hovered in the air. "There must be a house
+there. I will go and see who lives in it."</p>
+
+<p>There was a small skiff on board, which the captain used on sporting
+expeditions, at times when the ship was delayed by foul winds, and he
+had leisure for wildfowl-shooting. He lowered it into the water, took
+his gun, his game-bag, and a landing-net&mdash;one never knows what may come
+in one's way, a bird or a fish&mdash;and went toward the bed of rushes,
+rowing and steering with one and the same oar. Being an experienced
+marsh-sportsman, he soon found the one opening in the reeds through
+which it was possible to penetrate, and recognized by the vegetation the
+depth of the channel.</p>
+
+<p>Where the great leaves and snowy cups of the water-lily float on the
+surface, there is deep water which scours the weeds and mud away; in
+other places duckweed forms a green carpet on the top, and on this
+floating velvet cowers the poisonous water-fungus in the form of a
+turnip-radish, blue and round, and swelled like a puff ball&mdash;deadly
+poison to every living thing. When Timar's oar struck one of these
+polyp-like fungi, the venomous dust shot out like a blue flame. The
+roots of this plant live in a fetid slime which would suffocate man or
+beast who should fall into it; nature has given this vegetable murderer
+a habitat where it is least accessible. But where the cardinal-flower
+spreads its clubbed suckers, and where the beautiful bells of the
+water-violet sway among the rushes, there is gravel, which is not always
+under water. And where the manna tendrils begin to form a thicket, in
+pressing through which the sailor finds the brim of his hat full of
+little seeds&mdash;the food of the poor, manna of the wilderness&mdash;there must
+be higher ground, so that only the root of the plant is submerged.</p>
+
+<p>The boatman who does not know these vegetable guides might lose himself
+in the reed-beds, and not get out all day.</p>
+
+<p>When Timar had worked his way through the brake, which formed a
+labyrinth of flesh-colored flower-clusters, he saw before him what he
+sought&mdash;an island.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt this was a new alluvial formation, of which no trace was to be
+found on the latest maps.</p>
+
+<p>In the bed of the right arm of the Danube lay long ago a great bowlder,
+at whose base the sluggish current had deposited a sand-bank.</p>
+
+<p>During some winter flood, the ice-floes tore from the Ostrova Island a
+spit of land bearing earth, stones, and a small wood. This mingled
+deluge of ice, gravel, and trees flung itself on the sand-bank near the
+bowlder. Repeated inundations spread over it year by year layers of mud,
+and enlarged its circumference by fresh deposits of pebbles: from the
+moldering tree-trunks sprung a luxuriant vegetation as quickly as the
+natural creations of the New World; and so arose a nameless island, of
+which no one had taken possession, over which was no landlord, no king,
+no authority, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> no church&mdash;which belonged to no country and no
+diocese. In Turco-Servian territory there are many such paradises,
+neither plowed nor sown, not even used for pasture. They are the home of
+wild flowers and wild beasts, and God knows what besides.</p>
+
+<p>The northern shore plainly proclaims its genesis. The gravel moraine is
+heaped there like a barricade, often in pieces larger than a man's head;
+between are tufts of rushes and rotten branches; the shallows are
+covered with green and brown river-shells; on the marshy parts round
+holes are washed out, in which, at the sound of approaching footsteps,
+hundreds of crabs rush to hide. The shore is covered along its whole
+length with prickly willow, which the ice-floes shave off every winter
+close to the root.</p>
+
+<p>Here Timar drew his boat ashore and tied it to a tree. Pressing forward,
+he had to push his way through a thicket of huge willows and
+poplars&mdash;overthrown in many places by repeated storms&mdash;and there the
+fruitful bramble forms a thorny undergrowth, and tall valerian, shooting
+upward from the weather-beaten soil, mixes its aromatic scent with the
+wholesome smell of the poplar.</p>
+
+<p>On a level depression where are neither trees nor bushes, luxuriant
+umbelliferous plants rise amid the grass over a swamp&mdash;hemlock and
+"Sison Amonum," smelling of cinnamon. In an isolated tuft like a
+vegetable aristocrat glitter the fiery blossoms of the veratrum; among
+the grass the forget-me-not spreads rankly, and the medicinal comfrey
+with red flowers full of honey. No wonder if in the hollows of the old
+trees there are so many wild bees' nests. And among the flowers rise
+curious green, brown and red capsules, the ripe seed-vessels of bulbous
+plants which bloom in spring.</p>
+
+<p>On this flowery region follows more forest; but here the willows and
+poplar are mixed with wild apple-trees, and white-thorn forms the
+underwood. The island is higher here.</p>
+
+<p>Timar stopped and listened. No sound. There can be no wild beasts on
+this island. The floods have exterminated them, and the place is only
+inhabited by birds.</p>
+
+<p>Even among birds the lark and the wood-pigeon do not come here: it is no
+dwelling for them. They seek places where men live and sow and cultivate
+grain. But two creatures live here which betray the presence of man&mdash;the
+wasp and the blackbird; both of which come after the ripe fruit which
+they passionately love. Where the great wasps' nests hang from the
+trees, and where the blackbird's alluring whistle sounds in the hedges,
+there must be fruit. Timar followed the blackbird. After he had pushed
+through the prickly whitethorn and the privet-bushes which tore his
+clothes, he stood transfixed with admiration.</p>
+
+<p>What he saw before him was a paradise.</p>
+
+<p>A cultivated garden of five or six acres, with fruit-trees, not planted
+in rows, but in picturesquely scattered groups, whose boughs were
+weighed down by their sweet burden. Apple and pear-trees covered with
+glittering red and yellow fruit, plums of all colors looking as if the
+shining crop were turned to roses and lilies, the fallen surplus lying
+unnoticed on the ground. Beneath, a regular plantation formed of
+raspberry, currant, and gooseberry bushes, with their red, yellow, and
+green berries; and the spaces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> between the large trees filled by the
+hanging branches of the Sidonian apple or quince.</p>
+
+<p>There was no path through this labyrinth of fruit-trees&mdash;the ground
+underneath was covered with grass.</p>
+
+<p>But where you can see through, a flower-garden beckons you on. It is
+also a collection of wonderful field blossoms not to be found in an
+ordinary garden: the roots of blue campanula, swallow-wort, with its
+fleecy seed-vessels from which a sort of silk is collected, the spotted
+turban-lily, alkermes, with its scarlet berries, the splendid butterfly
+orchis&mdash;all of these raised to the rank of garden-flowers, bear witness
+to the presence of man. And this is further betrayed by the dwelling
+from which the smoke comes.</p>
+
+<p>It also is a fantastic little refuge. Behind it stands a great rock, in
+which is an excavation, where the hearth must be, and another hole for
+the cellar. At the top is a chimney, from which a blue cloud arises. A
+building of stone and clay tiles is stuck on to the cliff; it has two
+rooms, each with a window. One window is smaller, and one room lower
+than the other; both are roofed with rushes; each has a wooden porch,
+forming a veranda, with fanciful ornaments made of little bits of wood.</p>
+
+<p>Neither stone, clay, nor wood-work can be distinguished, so thickly is
+it covered on the south side with vines, out of whose frost-bitten
+leaves thousands of red and gold bunches peep out. On the northern side
+it is overgrown with hops, whose ripe clusters hide even the pinnacle of
+the great rock with their greenish gold; and on its highest point tufts
+of house-leek are planted, so that no spot may remain which is not
+green.</p>
+
+<p>Here women live.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_VI" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+<span class="subhead">ALMIRA AND NARCISSA.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Timar turned his steps toward the creeper-covered cottage. Through the
+flower-garden a path led to the house, but so covered with grass that
+his steps were not heard, and he could thus get as far as the little
+veranda quite noiselessly. Neither far nor near was a human being
+visible.</p>
+
+<p>Before the veranda lay a large black dog&mdash;one of the noble race of
+Newfoundland, generally so sensible and dignified as to forbid undue
+familiarity on the part of strangers. The aforesaid quadruped was one of
+the finest of the race&mdash;a colossal beast, and occupied the whole width
+of the door-way.</p>
+
+<p>The sable guardian appeared to be asleep, and took no notice of the
+approaching stranger, nor of another creature which left no fool-hardy
+impertinence untried in order to tax the patience of the huge animal.
+This was a white cat, which was shameless enough to turn somersaults
+back and forward over the dog's recumbent form, to strike it on the nose
+with her paw, and at last to lay herself before it on her back, and take
+one of its webbed paws between her four soft feet and play with it like
+a kitten. When the great black porter found its foot tickled, it drew it
+back and gave the cat the other paw to play with.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>Timar did not think to himself&mdash;"Suppose this black colossus seizes me
+by the collar, it will go hard with me;" but he thought, "Oh! how
+delighted Tim&eacute;a will be when she sees this white cat."</p>
+
+<p>You could not pass the dog and get in&mdash;it barred the whole entrance.
+Timar coughed, to announce that some one was there. Then the great dog
+raised its head and looked at the new-comer with its wise nut-brown
+eyes, which, like the human eye, can weep and laugh, scold and flatter.
+Then it laid its head down again, as much as to say, "Only one man; it's
+not worth while to get up."</p>
+
+<p>But Timar decided that where a chimney smokes, there's a fire in the
+kitchen; so he began from outside to wish this invisible some one
+"Good-morning," alternately in three languages&mdash;Hungarian, Servian and
+Roumanian. Suddenly a female voice answered in Hungarian from within,
+"Good-day. Come in then. Who is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to come in, but the dog's in the way."</p>
+
+<p>"Step over it."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't it bite?"</p>
+
+<p>"She never hurts good people."</p>
+
+<p>Timar took courage and stepped across the powerful animal, which did not
+move, but raised its tail as if to wag him a welcome.</p>
+
+<p>Going into the veranda, Timar saw two doors before him: the first one
+led to the stone building, the other to the grotto hollowed in the rock.
+The latter was the kitchen. There he observed a woman busy at the
+hearth.</p>
+
+<p>Timar saw at a glance that she was not preparing a magic potion of
+witch's cookery, but simply roasting Indian-corn.</p>
+
+<p>The woman thus occupied was a thin but strong and sinewy figure, with a
+dark skin; in her compressed lips lay something severe, though her eye
+was soft and inspired confidence. Her sunburned face betokened her age
+as not much over thirty. She was not dressed like the peasants of the
+district; her clothes were not bright in color, but yet not suited to
+towns.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, come nearer and sit down," said the woman, in a singularly hard
+voice, which, however, was perfectly quiet; and then she shook the
+floury snow-white Indian-corn into a plaited rush-basket, and offered it
+to him. Afterward she fetched a jug which stood on the floor, and gave
+him elder-wine, this also just freshly made.</p>
+
+<p>Timar sat down on the stool offered him, which was skillfully woven of
+various osiers, and of a curious shape. Then the Newfoundland, rising,
+approached the guest and lay down in front of him.</p>
+
+<p>The woman threw the dog a handful of the white confectionery, which it
+at once began to crack in the proper way. The white cat attempted to do
+the same, but the first cracked kernel of the maize stuck in her teeth,
+and she did not try it again. She shook the paw with which she had
+touched it, and sprung up to the hearth, where she blinked with much
+interest at an unglazed pot which was simmering by the fire, and
+probably held something more to her taste.</p>
+
+<p>"A magnificent beast," said Timar, looking at the dog. "I wonder it is
+so gentle; it has not even growled at me."</p>
+
+<p>"She never hurts good people, sir. If a stranger comes who is honest,
+she knows it directly, and is as quiet as a lamb&mdash;doesn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> even bark;
+but if a thief tries to get in, she rages at him as soon as he sets foot
+on the island, and woe to him if she gets her teeth in. She is a
+formidable creature! Last winter a large wolf came over the ice after
+our goats&mdash;look, there is his skin on the floor of the room. In a moment
+the dog had throttled him. An honest man can sit on her back, she won't
+touch him."</p>
+
+<p>Timar was quite satisfied to have such excellent evidence of his
+honesty. Who knows, perhaps, if some of those ducats had lost their road
+in his pocket, he might have been differently received by the great dog?</p>
+
+<p>"Now, sir, where do you come from, and what do you want of me?"</p>
+
+<p>"First, I must beg you to excuse my having pushed through the thorns and
+bushes into your garden. The storm has driven my vessel over to this
+bank, so I was obliged to run for shelter under the Ostrova Island."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, yes; I can hear by the rustle of the branches that a strong
+wind is blowing."</p>
+
+<p>This place was so completely sheltered by the virgin forest, that one
+could feel no wind, and only knew by the sound when it blew.</p>
+
+<p>"We must wait for a change of wind before the storm blows over. But our
+provisions have run out, so I was forced to seek the nearest house from
+which I saw smoke rising, to ask the housewife whether for money and
+fair words we could get food for the crew."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you can have what you want, and I don't mind being paid for it,
+for that's what I live on. We can serve you with kids, maize-flour,
+cheese, and fruit; choose what you want. This is the trade which keeps
+us; the market-women round about fetch away our wares in boats: we are
+gardeners."</p>
+
+<p>Till now Timar had seen no human being except this woman; but as she
+spoke in the plural, there must be others besides herself.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you beforehand, and will take some of everything. I will send
+the steersman from the ship to fetch the things; but tell me, my good
+lady, what's to pay? I want food for my seven men for three days."</p>
+
+<p>"You need not fetch out your purse; I don't receive payment in money.
+What should I do with it, here on this lonely island? At best thieves
+would be sure to get in and kill me to get hold of it; but now every one
+knows there is no money on the island, and therefore we can sleep in
+peace. I only barter. I give fruit, wax, honey, and simples, and people
+bring me in exchange grain, salt, clothes, and hardware."</p>
+
+<p>"As they do on the Australian islands?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just the same."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, good lady; we have grain on board, and salt too. I will
+reckon up the value of your wares, and bring an equal value in exchange.
+Rely upon it, you sha'n't be the loser."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't doubt it, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have another favor to ask. On board my vessel there is a grand
+gentleman and his young daughter. The young lady is not accustomed to
+the motion, and feels unwell. Could you not give my passengers shelter
+till the storm is over?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that I can do too, sir. Look, here are two small bed-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>rooms. We
+will retire into one, and in the other any honest man who wants shelter
+can have it&mdash;rest, if not comfort. If you also would like to stay, you
+will have to be contented with the little garret, as both the rooms will
+have women in them. There is new hay there, and sailors are not
+particular."</p>
+
+<p>Timar puzzled his head as to the position of this woman, who chose her
+words so well and expressed herself so sensibly. He could not reconcile
+it with this hut, which was more like a cave, and with the residence on
+this lonely island in the midst of a wilderness. "Many thanks, good
+lady; I'll hurry back and bring up my passengers."</p>
+
+<p>"All right; only don't go back to your boat the same way you came. You
+can't bring a lady through those marshes and briers. There's a tolerable
+path all along the bank, rather overgrown with grass, it is true, for it
+is very little trodden, and turf grows quickly here; but you shall be
+conducted to where your boat lies; then when you come back in a larger
+one, you can land rather nearer. I will give you a guide now. Almira!"</p>
+
+<p>Timar looked round, to see from what corner of the house or from what
+bush this Almira would appear who was to show him the way. But the great
+black Newfoundland rose and began to wag her tail, whose strokes made a
+noise on the door-post as if an old drum was touched.</p>
+
+<p>"Off, Almira; take the gentleman to the shore," said the woman; on which
+the creature growled something to Timar in dog's language, and taking
+the edge of his cloak in her teeth, pulled at it, as if to say, Come
+along.</p>
+
+<p>"So this is Almira, who is to conduct me. I am much indebted to you,
+Miss Almira," Timar said smiling, and took his gun and hat; then saluted
+his hostess and followed the dog. Almira led the guest steadily in all
+friendship by the hem of his cloak. The way lay through the orchard,
+where one had to tread carefully so as not to crush the plums which
+covered the ground. The white cat, too, had not remained behind; she
+wanted to know where Almira was conducting the stranger, and leaped here
+and there in the soft grass.</p>
+
+<p>When they arrived at the edge of the orchard, somewhere above was heard
+the call of a musical voice, "Narcissa!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a girl's voice, in which some reproach, but much love and
+maidenly shyness, were blended&mdash;a sympathetic voice. Timar looked round:
+he wanted to know, first, where it came from, and then to whom it
+belonged.</p>
+
+<p>He soon discovered who was called, for at the sound the white cat sprung
+quickly to one side, and, curling her tail, climbed zigzag up a gnarled
+pear-tree, through whose thick foliage Timar saw something like a white
+dress glimmering. He had no time for further research, for Almira gave a
+few deep sounds which, in quadruped's language, probably meant, "What
+business have you to spy about?" and so he was obliged to follow his
+leader, if he did not desire to leave a piece of his cloak in her teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Almira led Timar by a soft turf path along the bank to the place where
+his boat was made fast. At this moment a couple of snipe rose with their
+shrill cry close to the island. Timar's first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> thought was of the savory
+dish they would make for Tim&eacute;a's supper. In an instant he had shouldered
+his gun, and with a well-aimed right and left brought down both snipe.</p>
+
+<p>But the next moment he was himself on the ground. As soon as he had
+fired, Almira seized him by the collar, and like lightning pulled him
+down. He tried to rise, but soon felt that he had to do with an
+overpowering adversary who was not to be trifled with. Not that Almira
+had hurt him, but she held him by the collar, and would not allow of his
+getting up.</p>
+
+<p>Timar tried every conceivable means to soften her, called her Miss
+Almira, his dear friend, and explained to her sport and its usages;
+where the devil had she heard of a dog that retrieves a sportsman? she
+should rather go after the snipe in the rushes: but he talked to deaf
+ears.</p>
+
+<p>He was at last relieved from this dangerous situation by the woman of
+the island, who had run up at the report of the gun, and called Almira
+by name from afar, on which the dog let go her hold.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my God!" she lamented, hastening over the stones to the point of
+danger. "I forgot to tell you not to shoot, because Almira was sure to
+attack you. She gets in a fury when a shot is fired. Well, I was stupid
+not to tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, good woman," said Timar, laughing. "Almira would really
+make a capital gamekeeper. But look, I have shot a couple of snipe; I
+thought they would be a help toward the supper that you will set before
+your guests."</p>
+
+<p>"I will fetch them; get into your boat, and when you come back, just
+leave your gun at home, for, believe me, if the dog sees you with a gun
+on your arm, she will take it away from you. You can't joke with her."</p>
+
+<p>"So I find. A powerful, grand animal that! Before I had time to defend
+myself, I was on the ground: I can only thank Heaven that she did not
+bite my head off."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she never bites any one; but if you defend yourself, she seizes
+your arm in her teeth, as if it were in irons, and then holds you fast
+till we come and call her off. <i>Auf Weidersehen!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>In less than an hour the larger boat had landed its passengers safely at
+the island. All the way from the vessel to the shore, Timar talked to
+Tim&eacute;a of Almira and Narcissa, to make the poor child forget her sickness
+and her fear of the water. As soon as she set foot on shore, her
+seasickness vanished.</p>
+
+<p>Timar went on in front to show the way; Tim&eacute;a followed, leaning on
+Euthemio's arm; and two sailors and the steersman carried behind them on
+a stretcher the equivalent of the barter in sacks. Almira's bark was
+heard a long way off. These were the sounds of welcome by which the dog
+acknowledged the approach of good friends. Almira came half-way, barked
+at the whole party, then had a little talk to the sailors, the
+steersman, and Timar; then trotting to Tim&eacute;a, tried to kiss her hand.
+But when the dog came to Euthemio, it was quiet, and began to sniff at
+him from the soles of his feet upward, never leaving his heels. It
+snuffed continually, and shook its head violently, rattling its ears
+till they cracked. It had its own opinion on this subject.</p>
+
+<p>The mistress of the island settlement awaited the strangers at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+door, and as soon as they appeared between the trees, called in a loud
+voice, "No&eacute;mi!"</p>
+
+<p>At this summons some one appeared from inside the garden. Between two
+tall thick raspberry hedges, which, like green walls, almost closed in
+an arch at the top, came a young girl. Face and form those of a child
+just beginning to develop, dressed in a white chemise and petticoat, and
+carrying in her upturned overskirt fruit freshly plucked.</p>
+
+<p>The figure coming out of the green grove is idyllic. The delicate tints
+of her face seem to have been borrowed from the complexion of the white
+rose when she is grave, and take that of the red rose when she blushes,
+and that up to the brow. The expression of the clear-arched brow is
+personified sweet temper, in complete accord with the innocent look of
+the expressive blue eyes; on the tender lips lies a mixture of devoted
+regard and modest shyness. The rich and luxuriant golden-brown hair
+seems to be curled by nature's hand; a lock thrust back gives a view of
+an exquisite little ear. Over the whole face gentle softness is spread.
+It is possible that a sculptor might not take each feature as a model,
+and perhaps if the face were hewn in marble one might not think it
+beautiful; but the head and the whole figure, just as they are, shine
+with a loveliness which charms at the first glance, and inthralls more
+every moment.</p>
+
+<p>From one shoulder the chemise has dropped, but, that it may not remain
+uncovered, there sits a white cat, rubbing her head against the girl's
+cheek. The delicate feet of the maiden are naked&mdash;why should she not go
+barefoot? She walks on a carpet of richest velvet. The spring turf is
+interspersed with blue veronica and red geranium.</p>
+
+<p>Euthemio, his daughter, and Timar, stopped at the entrance of the
+raspberry arcade to await the approaching figure.</p>
+
+<p>The child knew of no more friendly reception to give the guests than to
+offer them the fruit she had in her lap. They were beautiful
+red-streaked Bergamot pears. She turned first to Timar. He chose the
+best, and gave it to Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>Both girls shrugged their shoulders impatiently. Tim&eacute;a because she
+envied the other one the white cat on her shoulder, but No&eacute;mi because
+Timar had given the fruit to Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you rude thing!" cried the mistress to her from the cottage; "could
+you not put the fruit in a basket, instead of offering it in your apron?
+Is that the proper way?"</p>
+
+<p>The little thing grew red as fire, and ran to her mother; the latter
+whispered a few words into her ear, so that the others might not
+overhear, then kissed the child on the forehead, and said aloud, "Now go
+and take from the sailors what they have brought, carry it into the
+store-room, and fill the sacks with corn-flour, the pots with honey, and
+the baskets with ripe fruit: of the kids, you can choose two for them."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't choose any," whispered the girl; "they must do it themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"Foolish child!" said the woman with a kind reproof; "if it were left to
+you, you would keep all the kids and never let one be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> killed. Very
+well, let them choose for themselves, then no one can complain. I will
+look after the cooking."</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi called the sailors, and opened the food and fruit stores, which
+were each in a different cave and shut off by a door. The rock which
+formed the summit of the island was one of those wandering blocks,
+called "erratic" by geologists&mdash;an isolated bowlder, a monolith, which
+must once have been detached from a distant mountain, some limestone
+formation from the Dolomites, out of a moraine. It was full of large and
+small caves, which the first person who took possession of it had
+adapted to his own purposes: the largest with the natural chimney for
+the kitchen, the highest, as a dove-cote, the others for summer and
+winter storehouses. He had settled on the heaven-sent rock, and, like
+the wild birds, built his nest there.</p>
+
+<p>The child managed the barter with the crew well and honestly. Then she
+gave each his glass of elder-wine to wet the bargain, begged for their
+custom when they passed again, and went back to the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Here she did not wait to be told to lay the table. She spread a fine
+rush mat on the small table in the veranda, and placed on it four
+plates, with knives and forks and pewter spoons. And the fifth person?</p>
+
+<p>She will sit at the cat's table. Near the steps to the veranda stands a
+small wooden bench; in the center is placed an earthenware plate with a
+miniature knife and fork and spoon, and at each end a wooden platter,
+one for Almira, the other for Narcissa. They require no <i>couvert</i>. When
+the three guests and the mistress of the house have sat down and helped
+themselves from the dish, it goes to the cat's table, where No&eacute;mi serves
+her friends. She conducts the division with great fairness&mdash;the soft
+pieces to Narcissa, the bones to Almira&mdash;and helps herself last. They
+must not touch their food till she has cooled it for them, however much
+Almira may cock her ears, and the cat snuggle up to her mistress's
+shoulder. They must obey the girl.</p>
+
+<p>The island woman wished, according to the good or bad Hungarian custom,
+to show off before her guests, and especially to prove to Timar that her
+larder was independent of his game. She had cooked the two snipe with
+oatmeal, but whispered to Timar that that was only food for ladies; for
+the gentlemen she had some good fried pork. Timar attacked it bravely,
+but Euthemio touched none of it, saying he had no appetite, and Tim&eacute;a
+rose suddenly from the table. But that was natural: she had already cast
+many inquisitive glances toward the party at the other table; there was
+nothing remarkable in her rising suddenly and going over to sit by
+No&eacute;mi. Young girls soon make friends. Tim&eacute;a did not know Hungarian, nor
+No&eacute;mi Greek; but between them was Narcissa, to whom both languages were
+the same.</p>
+
+<p>The white cat seemed to understand perfectly when Tim&eacute;a said "Horaion
+galion" to it, and stroked its back with a soft white hand: then it
+crept from No&eacute;mi's lap to Tim&eacute;a's, raised its head to her face and
+gently rubbed its white head against her white cheeks, opened its red
+mouth, showed its sharp teeth, and blinked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> at her with cunning eyes;
+then sprung on her shoulder, crawled round her neck, and clambered to
+No&eacute;mi and back again.</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi was pleased that the strange young lady liked her favorite so
+much, but bitterness mingled with her pleasure when she saw how much the
+stranger had fallen in love with the cat, kept and kissed it; and still
+more painful was it to realize how easily Narcissa became untrue to her,
+how willingly it accepted and replied to the caresses of its new friend,
+and took no notice when No&eacute;mi called it by name to come back to her.
+"Horaion galion" (pretty pussy) pleased it better. No&eacute;mi grew angry with
+Narcissa, and seized her by the tail to draw her back. Narcissa took
+offense, turned her claws on her mistress, and scratched her hand.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a wore on her wrist a blue enameled bracelet in the form of a
+serpent. When Narcissa scratched her mistress, Tim&eacute;a drew off the
+elastic bracelet, and wanted to put it on No&eacute;mi's arm, obviously with
+the intention of comforting her in her pain; but No&eacute;mi misunderstood,
+and thought the stranger wanted to buy Narcissa with it. But she was not
+for sale.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want the bracelet! I won't sell Narcissa! Keep the bracelet!
+Narcissa is mine. Come here, Narcissa!" and as Narcissa would not come,
+No&eacute;mi gave her a little box on the ear, on which the frightened animal
+made a jump over the bench, puffing and spitting, climbed up a nut-tree,
+and looked angrily down from thence.</p>
+
+<p>As Tim&eacute;a and No&eacute;mi at this moment looked into each other's eyes, each
+read there a dreamy presentiment. They felt like a person who shuts his
+eyes for a moment, and in that short time dreams whole years away; yet,
+when he awakes, has forgotten it all, and only remembers that the dream
+was very long. The two girls felt in that meeting of looks that they
+would some day mutually encroach on each other's rights, that they would
+have something in common&mdash;a grief or a joy&mdash;and that, perhaps, like a
+forgotten dream, they would only know that each owed this grief or joy
+to the other.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a sprung up from beside No&eacute;mi and gave the bracelet to the
+housewife: then she sat down by Euthemio and leaned her head on his
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Timar interpreted the gift. "The young lady gives it to the little girl
+as a remembrance&mdash;it is gold."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he said that it was of gold, the woman threw it, frightened,
+from her hand, as if it were a real snake. She looked anxiously at
+No&eacute;mi, and was not even able to articulate "Thank you."</p>
+
+<p>Then Almira suddenly drew attention to herself. The dog had sprung
+quickly from its bed, had uttered a low howl with its head up, and now
+began to bark with deafening noise. In the sound lay something of the
+lion's roar; it was a vehement, defiant tone, as if calling to the
+attack, and the dog did not run forward, but remained by the porch,
+planted its paws on the ground, and then threw up the earth with its
+hind feet.</p>
+
+<p>The woman turned pale. A figure appeared between the trees on the
+footpath.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>"The dog only barks in that way at one man," she murmured. "There he
+comes. It is he!"</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_VII" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The new arrival is a man of youthful appearance; he wears a blouse and
+trousers, round his neck a red cotton handkerchief, and on his head a
+Turkish fez.</p>
+
+<p>He has a handsome face. If he sat quietly to an artist, every one would
+say of his portrait that it was the ideal of a hero; but when he is in
+motion, the first thought must be&mdash;that is a spy. His features are
+regular, the thick hair curly, the lips finely chiseled, the eyes deeply
+black; but the wrinkles round them and their restless fire, the upturned
+corners of the mouth, and the ever-twitching brows, betray the soul of a
+slave to his own appetites.</p>
+
+<p>Almira barked furiously at the new-comer, who came swinging along with
+defiant nonchalance, like one who knows that it is other people's duty
+to protect him. No&eacute;mi told the dog to lie down, but it gave no heed; she
+caught the creature's ears in both hands and drew it back: the dog
+whined and growled at the discomfort, but did not cease barking. At last
+No&eacute;mi put her foot on its head and pressed it to the ground. Then Almira
+gave in, lay down growling, and let the girl's foot lie on her great
+black head, as if that were a burden she could not shake off.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger came whistling and humming up to them. From afar he called
+out&mdash;"Ah! you have still got that confounded big brute; you haven't had
+her poisoned? I shall have to get rid of her in the end. The stupid
+beast!" When the young man got near No&eacute;mi, he stretched out his hand
+with a familiar smile toward the girl's face, as if he would have
+pinched her cheek; but she drew her face quickly away.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my dear little <i>fianc&eacute;e</i>, are you still so shy? How you have
+grown since I saw you!"</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi looked at the speaker with her head thrown back. She wrinkled her
+forehead, curled her lips, and threw a defiantly penetrating glance at
+him; even her complexion changed, the rose tint on her cheeks turned
+livid. Evidently she could look odious if she chose.</p>
+
+<p>The new-comer, however, quite unabashed, continued, "How pretty you have
+grown!"</p>
+
+<p>Instead of answering she said to the dog, "Down, Almira!"</p>
+
+<p>The stranger behaved as though he were quite at home under the veranda,
+where his first act was to kiss the hand of the woman of the house. He
+greeted Timar with friendly condescension, made a polite bow to Euthemio
+and Tim&eacute;a, and then opened the flood-gates of his eloquence.
+"Good-evening, dear mother-in-law! Your obedient servant, captain! Sir
+and mademoiselle, you are welcome. My name is Theodor Krisstyan; I am
+chevalier and captain, the future son-in-law of this worthy lady. Our
+fathers were bosom friends, and betrothed No&eacute;mi to me in their
+life-time, so I come every year to see my sweetheart in her summer
+abode, in order to judge how my bride is growing. Uncommonly delighted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+to find you here: you, sir&mdash;if I am not mistaken, your name is Timar&mdash;I
+have had the pleasure of meeting before? The other gentleman, I fancy&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Understands nothing but Greek," interrupted Timar, thrusting his hands
+well into his pockets, as if he wanted to make it impossible for the
+stranger to shake hands over the joy of meeting. He, who from his
+calling was always traveling, might very likely have met him before.</p>
+
+<p>Theodor Krisstyan did not feel inclined to occupy himself any more with
+Timar, but looked at life from the practical side. "It is just as if you
+had expected me; a beautiful supper, an unused place, pork, just my weak
+point. Thanks, dear mamma, thanks, gentlemen and young lady; I will pay
+my respects to the supper&mdash;so many thanks!"</p>
+
+<p>Not that a single person of those addressed had asked him to sit down
+and partake; but as though accepting their invitation, he seated himself
+in Tim&eacute;a's empty place and began to enjoy the pork; offering it
+repeatedly to Euthemio, and seeming much astonished that any Christian
+should neglect such a delicious dish.</p>
+
+<p>Timar rose from the table and said to the hostess, "The
+gentleman-passenger and the young lady are tired. They want rest more
+than food. Would you be so good as to show them their beds?"</p>
+
+<p>"That shall be done at once," said the woman. "No&eacute;mi, go and help the
+young lady to undress."</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi rose and followed her mother and the two guests into the
+back-room. Timar also left the table, at which the new-comer remained
+alone, and gobbled down with wolfish hunger every eatable left:
+meanwhile, he talked over his shoulder to Timar, and threw to Almira the
+bare bones with his fork.</p>
+
+<p>"You must have had a devilish bad journey, sir, with this wind. I can't
+think how you got through Denin Kafoin and the Tatalia Pass. Catch,
+Almira! and don't be cross with me any more, stupid brute! Do you
+remember, sir, how we once met in Galatz?&mdash;there, that's for you too,
+you black beast!"</p>
+
+<p>When he looked round, he found that neither Timar nor Almira was there.
+Timar had gone to the attic to sleep, where he soon made himself a couch
+of fragrant hay, while Almira had crept into some cranny in the great
+mass of rock.</p>
+
+<p>He turned his chair round, but not till he had drained the last drop
+from the wine-jug and the glasses of the other guests. Then he cut a
+splinter from the chair he was sitting on, and picked his teeth with it,
+like a person who has thoroughly deserved his supper.</p>
+
+<p>Night had set in; travelers weary of knocking about want no rocking.
+Timar had stretched himself on the soft sweet hay very comfortably, and
+thought that to-night he would sleep like a king. But he deceived
+himself. It is not easy to fall asleep after hard work, which has been
+mingled with varied emotions. Successive shapes besieged his bed like a
+chaotic panorama: a confusion of pursuing forms, threatening rocks,
+water-falls, ruined castles, strange women, black dogs, white cats; and
+amid it all a howling tempest, blasts of the horn, cracking of whips,
+showers of gold, laughing, whispering, and screaming human voices.</p>
+
+<p>And all at once people began to speak in the room below. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> recognized
+the voices, the hostess and the last comer talking together. The garret
+was separated from the other room only by a thin floor, and every word
+was audible, as if it had been whispered in the listener's ear. They
+spoke in suppressed tones, only now and then the man raised his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mother Therese, have you much money?" began the man.</p>
+
+<p>"You know very well that I have none. Don't you know that I only barter
+and never take money?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's very stupid. I don't like it. And what's more, I don't believe
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"It is as I say. Whoever comes to buy my fruit brings me something for
+my own use. What should I do here with money?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know what you could do, you could give it to me. You never think of
+me. When I marry No&eacute;mi you can't give her dried plums for a dowry; but
+you don't care about your daughter's happiness. You ought to help me,
+that I may get a good situation. I have just received my nomination as
+first dragoman at the embassy; but I have no money to get there, for my
+purse has been stolen, and now I shall lose my situation."</p>
+
+<p>The woman answered in a calm tone, "That any one has given you any place
+that you could lose I don't believe; but I do believe you have a place
+you can't lose. That you have no money, I believe that; but that it was
+stolen from you I don't believe."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, don't then. And I don't believe you have no money; you must have
+some. Smugglers land here sometimes, and they always pay well."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak loud, of course! Yes, it is true, smugglers often land on the
+island; but they don't come near my hut, or if they do, they buy fruit
+and give me salt in exchange. Will you have some salt?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are laughing at me. Well, and such visitors as you have to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know whether they are rich or not."</p>
+
+<p>"Ask them for money! Demand it! Don't make a solemn face! You must get
+money somehow; don't try to take me in with this ridiculous Australian
+barter. Get ducats if you want to keep the peace with me; you know if I
+say a single word at the right place it's all up with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Softly, you wretched man!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay! now you want me to whisper. Well, shut my mouth then, be kind to
+me, Therese&mdash;let me have a little money."</p>
+
+<p>"But I tell you there is none in the house! Don't worry me! I have not a
+farthing, and don't want any; there is a curse on anything which is
+gold. There, all my chests and boxes are here; look through them, and if
+you find anything, take it."</p>
+
+<p>It appeared that the man was not slow to take advantage of this
+permission, for soon he was heard to exclaim, "Ah! What is this? A gold
+bracelet."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; the strange lady gave it to No&eacute;mi. If you can make use of it, take
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"It's worth some ten ducats&mdash;well, that's better than nothing. Don't be
+angry, No&eacute;mi; when you are my wife I will buy you two bracelets, each
+thirty ducats in weight, and with a sapphire in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> middle&mdash;no, an
+emerald. Which do you prefer, a sapphire or an emerald?" He laughed at
+his sally, and as no one answered his question, he continued, "But now,
+Mother Therese, prepare a bed for your future son-in-law, your dear
+Theodor, so that he may dream sweetly of his beloved No&eacute;mi!"</p>
+
+<p>"I can not give you a bed. In the next room and in the garret are our
+guests; you can't sleep here in our room, that would not be
+proper&mdash;No&eacute;mi is no longer a child. Go out and lie down on the bench."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you hard-hearted, cruel Therese. You send me to the hard bench&mdash;me,
+your beloved future son-in-law!"</p>
+
+<p>"No&eacute;mi, give your pillow&mdash;there, take it! And here's my coverlet.
+Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if there were not that accursed great dog out there&mdash;the fierce
+brute will devour me."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be afraid, I will chain her up. Poor beast! she is never tied up
+except when you are on the island."</p>
+
+<p>Frau Therese had some trouble to entice Almira out of her hole; the poor
+dog knew well enough what awaited her in these circumstances, and that
+she would now be chained up, but she was used to obedience, and allowed
+her mistress to fasten the chain.</p>
+
+<p>But this made her all the more furious against him who was the cause of
+her confinement. As soon as Therese had gone back to her room, and
+Theodor remained alone outside, the dog began to bark madly, and danced
+about on the small space left free to her by the chain, now and then
+making a spring, to see whether she could succeed in breaking the collar
+or the chain, or rooting up the tree-trunk to which the chain was
+fastened.</p>
+
+<p>But Theodor teased her again. He thought it amusing to enrage an animal
+which could not reach him, and foamed with fury at its impotence. He
+went closer, leaving only a step between himself and the point the chain
+permitted the dog to reach; then he began to creep toward her on all
+fours and make faces at her. He brayed at her like a donkey, put his
+tongue out, spat in her face, and imitated the dog's bark. "Bow-wow! You
+would like to eat me, wouldn't you? Bow-wow! There's my nose; bite it
+off if you can. You're a lovely dog&mdash;you horrid beast! Bow-wow! Break
+your chain and come wrestle with me; snap at my finger, there it is
+before your nose; only don't you wish you may get it?"</p>
+
+<p>At the moment of her greatest fury, Almira suddenly stopped. She barked
+no more; she understood. It is the wise one that gives in, thought she.
+She stretched her head up as if to look down on that other four-legged
+beast in front of her, then turned and scratched as dogs do, backward,
+with her hind feet, whirling up dust and sand, so that the other brute
+got his eyes and mouth full of it, which made him beat a retreat,
+breaking out in the human bark&mdash;curses, to wit. But Almira retired with
+her chain into the hole near the elder-tree and came out no more; she
+ceased to bark, but a hot panting could be heard for a long time.</p>
+
+<p>Timar heard it too. He could not sleep; he had left the trap-door open
+to get some light. The moon shone, and when the dog was silenced, deep
+stillness lay over the scene; a wonderful calm, rendered more fantastic
+by the isolated voices of the night and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> solitude. The rattle of
+carriages, the clatter of mills, human voices&mdash;none of these struck the
+ear. This is the kingdom of swamps, islets, and shallows. From time to
+time a deep note sounds through the night&mdash;the boom of the bittern, that
+hermit of the marsh. Flights of night-birds strike long-drawn chords in
+the air, and the breathing wind stirs in the poplars, as it sighs
+through their quivering leaves. The seal cries in the reeds like the
+voice of a weeping child, and the cockchafer buzzes on the white wall of
+the hut. All around lies the dark brake, in which fairies seem to hold a
+torch-light dance; under the decayed trees will-o'-the-wisps wander,
+pursuing each other. But the flower-garden is flooded by the full
+radiance of the moon, and night-moths hover on silvery peacock wings
+round the tall mallows. How exquisite, how divine is this solitude! the
+whole soul is absorbed in its contemplation.</p>
+
+<p>If only no human tones were mingled with these voices of the night!</p>
+
+<p>But there below in the two little divisions of the hut lie other
+sleepless people, whom some evil spirit has robbed of their slumber, and
+who add their deep sighs to the other voices. From one room Timar heard
+the sigh, "Oh, thou dear Christ!" while from the other "Oh, Allah!"
+resounded.</p>
+
+<p>They can not sleep; what is there down below which keeps people awake?</p>
+
+<p>While Timar tried to collect his thoughts, an idea flashed through his
+mind which induced him to leave his couch, throw on the coat he had had
+over him, and descend the ladder to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment, some one in one of the rooms below had had the same
+thought. And when Timar, standing at the corner of the house, uttered
+the name of "Almira" under his breath, another voice from the door
+opening into the veranda called Almira's name too, as if one were the
+ghostly echo of the other.</p>
+
+<p>The speakers approached each other with surprise.</p>
+
+<p>The other person was Therese. "You have come down from your bed?" she
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I could not sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did you want with Almira?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you the truth. The thought struck me, whether that .&nbsp;.&nbsp;.
+man had poisoned the dog, because she became so suddenly silent."</p>
+
+<p>"Just my idea. Almira!" At the call the dog came out of the hole and
+wagged her tail.</p>
+
+<p>"No; it's all right," said Therese. "His bed on the veranda is
+undisturbed. Come, Almira, I will set you free."</p>
+
+<p>The great creature laid her head on her mistress's lap, and allowed her
+to take off the leather collar, sprung round her, licked her cheeks, and
+then turned to Timar, raised one of the shaggy paws, and placed it as a
+proof of doggish respect in his open hand. Then the dog shook herself,
+stretched herself out, and, after a roll on both sides, lay quiet on the
+soft grass. She barked no more; they could be thoroughly satisfied that
+that man no longer remained on the island.</p>
+
+<p>Therese came nearer to Timar. "Do you know this man?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>"I once met him in Galatz. He came on board and behaved so that I could
+not make up my mind whether he was a spy or a smuggler. At last I got
+rid of him, and that concluded our acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"And how came you by the notion that he might have poisoned Almira?"</p>
+
+<p>"To tell you the truth, every word spoken down below is audible in the
+garret, and as I had lain down I was forced to hear all the conversation
+between you."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you hear how he threatened me? If I could not satisfy him, it would
+only cost him a single word, and we should be ruined?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I heard that."</p>
+
+<p>"And what do you think about us? You believe that some great, nameless
+crime has banished us to this island outside the world? that we drive
+some dubious trade, of which one can not speak? or that we are the
+homeless heirs of some dishonored name, who must hide from the sight of
+the authorities? Say, what do you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, my dear lady; I don't trouble my head about it. You have given
+me hospitable shelter for a night, and I am grateful. The storm is over;
+to-morrow I shall go on my way, and think no more of what I saw and
+heard on this island."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not want you to leave us so. Without your desire you have heard
+things which must be explained to you. I do not know why, but from the
+first moment when I saw you, you inspired me with confidence, and the
+thought troubles me that you should leave us with suspicion and
+contempt: that suspicion would prevent both you and me from sleeping
+under this roof. The night is quiet, and suitable to the story of the
+secrets of a hard life. You shall form your own judgment about us; I
+will conceal nothing, and tell you the whole truth, and when you have
+heard the history of this lonely island and this clay hut, you won't
+say, 'To-morrow I go away and think no more of it,' but you will come
+back year by year, when your business brings you near us, and rest for a
+night under this peaceful roof. Sit down by me on the doorstep, and
+listen to the story of our house."</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_VIII" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>"Twelve years ago we lived in Pancsova, where my husband held a
+municipal office. His name was Bellovary; he was young, handsome, and
+honest, and we loved each other dearly. I was then two-and-twenty and he
+was thirty.</p>
+
+<p>"I bore him a daughter, whom we called No&eacute;mi. We were not rich, but well
+off; he had his post, a pretty house, and a splendid orchard and meadow.
+I was an orphan when we married, and brought him some money; we were
+able to live respectably.</p>
+
+<p>"My husband had a friend, Maxim Krisstyan, of whom he was very fond. The
+man who has just been here is his son, who was then thirteen, a dear,
+handsome, clever boy. When my little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> daughter was still a baby, the
+fathers already began to say they would make a pair, and I was glad when
+the boy took the little thing's hand and asked her, 'Will you be my
+wife?' at which the child laughed merrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Krisstyan was a grain dealer without having ever learned regular
+business, but was like the speculators in a small way, who catch hold of
+a rope behind the great wholesale dealers, and go blindly in their wake.
+If the speculation succeeds, well and good; if not, they are ruined. As
+he always won, he thought there was nothing easier than mercantile
+transactions. In the spring he went round to see the crops, and made
+contracts with the large dealers for the grain to be delivered to them
+after the harvest. He had a regular customer in the wholesale merchant
+of Komorn, Athanasius Brazovics, who made large advances to him every
+spring for grain which he was to deliver in autumn at the price settled
+in advance, on board ship. This was a lucrative affair for Krisstyan;
+but I have often thought since that it was not so much trade as a game
+of chance, when one sells what does not yet exist. Brazovics advanced
+large sums to Krisstyan, and as the latter had no real property,
+security was required of him. My husband went surety for him gladly&mdash;was
+he not a landowner and Krisstyan's friend? Krisstyan led an easy life;
+while my good man sat for hours bent over his desk, the other was at the
+caf&eacute;, smoking his pipe and chatting with tradespeople of his own sort.
+But at last God's scourge alighted on him. The year 1819 was a terrible
+year; in the spring the crops looked splendid over the whole country,
+and every one expected cheap prices. In the Banat a merchant was lucky
+if he could make a contract for delivery of grain at four gulden a
+measure. Then came a wet summer&mdash;for sixteen weeks it rained every day;
+the corn rotted on its stem. In places reputed as a second Canaan,
+famine set in, and in autumn the price of grain rose to twenty gulden a
+measure: and even so there was none to be had, for the landowners kept
+it for seed."</p>
+
+<p>"I remember it well," Timar interrupted. "I was then just beginning my
+career as a ship's captain."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in that year, it happened that Maxim could not fulfill the
+contract he had concluded with Athanasius Brazovics; the difference he
+had to cover made an enormous sum. What did he do then? He collected his
+outstanding debts, got loans from several credulous people, and
+disappeared in the night from Pancsova, taking his money with him, and
+leaving his son behind.</p>
+
+<p>"He could easily do it; his whole property consisted of money, and he
+left nothing for which he cared. But what is the good of all the money
+in the world if it can make a man so bad as to care for nothing else?
+His debts and liabilities rested on the shoulders of those who had been
+his good friends, and stood security for him, and among these was my
+husband.</p>
+
+<p>"Then came Athanas Brazovics, and required from the sureties the
+fulfillment of the contract. It was true that he had advanced money to
+the absconding debtor, and we offered to pay it back: we could have sold
+half our property, and so met the obligation. But he would not hear of
+it, and insisted on the fulfillment of the contract; it was not how much
+money he had lost, but what sums we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> were bound to pay him. Thus he made
+five-fold profits; his contract gave him the right to do so. We begged
+and entreated him to be content with smaller gain&mdash;for it was only a
+question of more or less gain, not of loss&mdash;but he was inflexible; he
+required from the sureties the satisfaction of his claims in full. What
+is the use, say I, of faith and religion, and all Christian and Jewish
+churches, if it is permitted to make such a demand?</p>
+
+<p>"The affair came before the court; the judge gave sentence that our
+house, our fields, our last farthing, should be distrained, sealed and
+put up to auction.</p>
+
+<p>"But what is the use of the law, a human institution, if it can be
+possible that people should be brought to beggary by a debt of which
+they have never had a groschen, and fall into misery for the benefit of
+a third, who rises laughing from the ground?</p>
+
+<p>"We tried everything to save ourselves from utter ruin. My husband went
+to Ofen and Vienna to beg an audience. We knew the artful deceiver who
+had escaped with his money was living in Turkey, and begged for his
+extradition, that he might be brought here to satisfy those who had
+presented claims against him; but we were told that there was no power
+to do so. Then what is the use of the emperor, the ministers, the
+authorities, if they are not in a position to extend protection to their
+subjects in distress? After this fearful blow, which brought us all to
+beggary, my poor husband one night sent a bullet through his head. He
+would not look on the misery of his family, the tears of his wife, the
+pale, starved face of his child, and fled from us into the grave.</p>
+
+<p>"But what is a husband good for, if, when he falls into misfortune, he
+knows no other outlet than to quit the world himself, and leave wife and
+child alone behind?</p>
+
+<p>"But the horrors were not yet at an end. I was a beggar and homeless;
+now they tried to make me an infidel. The wife of the suicide begged her
+pastors in vain to bury the unhappy man. The dean was a strict and holy
+man, for whom the laws of the Church were the first thought. He denied
+my husband a decent burial, and I had to look on while the dear form of
+my adored one was carried by the knacker's cart to be hastily buried in
+a corner of a church-yard. What are the clergy for, if they can not
+relieve us of such misery as that? What is the whole world about?</p>
+
+<p>"Only one thing was left; they drove me to kill myself and my child,
+both at once. I wrapped a shawl round the child at my breast, and went
+with it to the river bank.</p>
+
+<p>"I was alone. Three times I went up and down to see where the water was
+deepest. Then something plucked my dress and drew me back. I looked
+round. Who was it? The dog here&mdash;of all living beings the only friend
+left to me.</p>
+
+<p>"It was on the shore of the Ogradina Island that this happened. On this
+island we had a beautiful fruit-garden and a little summer-house; but
+there too the official seal had been affixed to every door, and I could
+only go through the kitchen and out under the trees. Then I sat down by
+the Danube and began to reflect. What, am I, I, a human being, a woman,
+to be worse than an animal! Did one ever see a dog drown its young and
+then kill itself? No, I will not kill either myself or my child; I will
+live and bring it up. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> how? Like the wolves or the gypsy woman, who
+have no home and no food. I will beg&mdash;beg of the ground, the waters, the
+wilderness of the forest; only not of men&mdash;never!</p>
+
+<p>"My poor husband had told me of a little island which had been formed
+some fifty years ago in the reed-beds near Ogradina; he often went
+shooting there in autumn, and spoke much of a hollow rock in which he
+had sought shelter from bad weather. He said, 'The island has no master;
+the Danube built it up for no one; the soil, the trees, the grass which
+grow on it belong to no one.' If it is ownerless, this island, why
+should not I take possession of it? I ask it of God, I ask it of the
+Danube. Why should they refuse it? I will raise fruit there. How? and
+what fruit? I do not know, but necessity will teach me.</p>
+
+<p>"A boat remained to me which the officer had not noticed, and which,
+therefore, had not been seized. No&eacute;mi, Almira and I got into it, and I
+rowed myself over to the ownerless island. I had never used an oar
+before, but necessity taught me.</p>
+
+<p>"When I touched this piece of ground, a wonderful feeling took
+possession of me: it was as if I had forgotten what had happened to me
+out in the world. I was surrounded by a pleasant silence and rest, which
+softened my heart.</p>
+
+<p>"After I had explored pasture, grove, and meadow, I knew what I should
+do here. In the field bees were humming, in the woods hazel-nuts were
+hanging, and on the surface of the river floated water-chestnuts. Crabs
+basked on the shore, edible snails crept up the trees, and in the marshy
+thickets manna was ripening. Kind Providence, Thou hast spread a table
+before me! The grove was full of wild fruit&mdash;seedlings; the blackbirds
+had brought seeds from the neighboring island, and already the wild
+apples grew rosy on the trees, and the raspberry bushes bore a few
+belated berries.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I knew what I would do on the island. I alone would make of it a
+Garden of Eden. The work to be done here could be managed by a single
+person, one woman, and then we should live here like the first man in
+Paradise.</p>
+
+<p>"I had found the rock with its natural grottoes, in the largest of which
+a layer of hay was spread, which must have served as a bed to my poor
+husband. I had a widow's right to it; it was my legacy. I hushed my
+child to sleep there, made it a couch in the hay, and covered it with my
+large shawl. Then I told Almira to stay there and watch over No&eacute;mi till
+I came back, and rowed across to the large island again. On the veranda
+of my old summer-house there was an awning spread out, which I took
+down; it would serve as a tent or roof, and perhaps later on be used for
+winter clothing. I packed in it what food and vegetables I could see,
+and made a bundle as large as I could carry on my back. I had come to
+the house in a four-horse wagon richly laden; with a bundle on my back I
+left it; and yet I had been neither wicked nor a spendthrift. But what
+if even that bundle were stolen goods? It is true that the contents were
+my own; but that I should carry them off, was it not theft? I hardly
+knew: notions of right and wrong, the legal or the illegal, were
+confused in my head. I fled with the bundle like a thief out of my own
+home. On my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> way through the garden I took a cutting of each of my
+beautiful fruit-trees, and shoots from the figs and bushes, picked up
+some seeds from the ground and put them in my apron; then I kissed the
+drooping branches of the weeping willow under which I had so often dozed
+and dreamed. Those happy dreams were gone forever. I never went back
+there. The boat took me safely along the Danube.</p>
+
+<p>"While I rowed back two things fretted me. One was that there were
+noxious inhabitants on the island&mdash;snakes; probably some in that grotto:
+the thought filled me with horror and alarm for No&eacute;mi. The other anxiety
+was this. I can live for years on wild honey, water-nuts, and manna
+fruit; my child lives on her mother's breast; but how shall I feed
+Almira? The faithful creature can not live on what nourishes me; and yet
+I must keep her, for without Almira as a protector I should die of
+fright in this solitude. When I had dragged my bundle to the grotto, I
+saw before me the still quivering tail of a large snake, and not far off
+lay its head, bitten off; Almira had eaten what lay between the head and
+tail. The clever beast lay before the child, wagging her tail and
+licking her lips, as if to say, I have made a good meal. Thenceforward
+she made war on snakes; they were her daily food. In the winter she
+scratched them out of their holes. My friend&mdash;for so I grew to call the
+dog&mdash;had found her own livelihood, and freed me from the objects of my
+dread.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir, it was an indescribable feeling, our first night alone
+here&mdash;no one near but my God, my child, and my dog. I can not call it
+painful&mdash;it was almost bliss. I spread the linen awning over us all
+three, and we were only awoke by the twitter of the birds. Now began my
+work&mdash;savages' work, for before sunrise I must collect manna, called by
+Hungarians 'Dew-millet.' Poor women go out into the swamp, where this
+bush with its sweet seeds luxuriates; they hold up their dress in both
+hands, shake the bush, and the ripe seeds fall into their lap. That is
+the bread from heaven for those whom no one feeds. Sir, I lived two
+whole years on that bread, and thanked daily on my knees Him who cares
+for the birds of the air. Wild fruit, honey, nuts, crabs, wild fowls'
+eggs, water-chestnuts preserved for winter use, land snails, dried
+mushrooms, formed my food. Praised be the Lord who so richly provides
+the table of His poor! And during the whole time I labored for the
+object I had set before me. I grafted the wild stocks with the cuttings
+I had brought, and planted in the cultivated soil fruit-trees, vines,
+and walnut-seeds. On the south side I sowed cotton-plant and silky
+swallow-wort, whose products I wove on a loom made of willow-wood, and
+made clothes for us. From rushes and reeds I made hives, in which I
+housed swarms of wild bees, and even in the first year I could begin a
+trade in wax and honey. Millers and smugglers often came here; they
+helped me with the hard labor, and never did me any harm. They paid me
+for provisions by their work; they knew already that I never took money.
+When the fruit-trees began to bear, then I lived in luxury, for in this
+alluvial soil all trees flourish, to that it is a pleasure to see them.
+I have pears which ripen their fruit twice in a year; all the young ones
+make fresh shoots at St. John's day, and the others<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> bear every year. I
+have learned their secrets, and know that in the hands of a good
+gardener there should be no failure nor over-crop. Animals understand
+the language of man, and I believe that trees too have ears and eyes for
+those who tend them kindly and listen to their private wishes; and they
+are proud to give them pleasure in return. Oh, trees are very sensible!
+a soul dwells in them. I consider that man a murderer who cuts down a
+noble tree.</p>
+
+<p>"These are my friends. I love them, and live in and by them. What they
+yield me year by year is fetched away by the people of the villages and
+mills round, who give me in exchange what I need for my housekeeping. I
+have no use for money, I have a horror of it&mdash;the accursed money, which
+drove me out of the world and my husband out of life: I don't want ever
+to see it again.</p>
+
+<p>"But I am not so foolish as to be unprepared for some years of failure,
+which make vain the work of man. There might be late frosts or
+hail-storms, which would destroy the blessings of the season; but I am
+prepared for such bad times. In the cellar of my rock and in its airy
+crevices I store away whatever durable wares I possess&mdash;wine in casks,
+honey in pots, wool and cotton in bales, in sufficient quantity to keep
+us from want for two years. You see I have some savings, though not in
+money; I may call myself rich, and yet for twelve years not a single
+coin has passed through my hands. For I have lived on this island twelve
+years, sir, with the other two, for I count Almira as a person. No&eacute;mi
+declares we are four; she counts Narcissa, too&mdash;silly child!</p>
+
+<p>"Many people know of our existence, but treachery is unknown here. The
+artificial barrier which exists between the frontiers of the two
+countries has made the people about here very reserved. No one meddles
+in a stranger's affairs, and every one instinctively keeps secret what
+he knows. No intelligence from here ever reaches Vienna, Ofen, or
+Stamboul. And why should they inform against me? I am in nobody's way,
+and do no harm; I grow fruit on my bit of desert land, which has no
+master. God the Lord and the royal Danube gave it to me, and I thank
+them for it daily. I thank Thee, my God! I thank Thee, my King!</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly know if I have any religion; it is twelve years since I saw a
+priest or a church. No&eacute;mi knows nothing about it. I have taught her to
+read and write: I tell her of God, and Jesus, and Moses, as I knew them.
+Of the good, all-merciful, omnipresent God&mdash;of Jesus, sublime in His
+sufferings, and divine in His humanity&mdash;and of Moses, that leader of a
+people to liberty, who preferred to wander hungry and thirsty in the
+wilderness rather than exchange freedom for the flesh-pots of
+slavery&mdash;Moses who preached goodness and brotherly love&mdash;of these as I
+picture them to myself. But of the relentless God of vengeance, the God
+of the chosen people&mdash;a God calling for sacrifices, and dwelling in
+temples&mdash;of that privileged Christ asking for blind faith, laying heavy
+burdens on our shoulders, followed by a crowd of worshipers&mdash;and of the
+avaricious, revengeful, selfish Moses of whom books and preachers
+tell&mdash;of these she knows nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you know who we are, and what we are doing here, you shall learn
+with what we are threatened by this man.</p>
+
+<p>"He is the son of the man for whom my husband stood surety,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> who drove
+him to suicide, on whose account we have fled from human society into
+the desert. He was a boy of thirteen when we lost our all, and the blow
+fell on him also, for his father had forsaken him.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, I do not wonder that the son has turned out such a wretch.
+Abandoned by his own father, thrust out like a beggar into the world,
+cast on the compassion of strangers, deceived and robbed by the one on
+whom his childish trust was placed, branded in his earliest youth as the
+son of a rogue, is it surprising if he was forced to become what he is?</p>
+
+<p>"And yet I hardly know what to think of him; but what I do know is
+enough. The people who come to the island can tell a great deal about
+him. Not long after his father had escaped, he also started from Turkey,
+saying he was going to look for his father. Some maintained that he had
+found him, others that he had never been able to trace him. According to
+one report he robbed his own father and squandered the money he stole,
+but no one knows for certain. From him nothing can be learned, for he
+tells nothing but lies. As to where he has been, and what he has done,
+he relates romances, in whose invention he is so well versed, and which
+he presents so skillfully, that he staggers even those who have actual
+knowledge of the facts, and makes them doubt the testimony of their own
+eyes. You see him here to-day and there to-morrow. In Turkey, Wallachia,
+Poland, and Hungary he has been met. In all these countries he is by way
+of knowing every person of distinction. Whomsoever he meets he takes in,
+and whoever has once been deceived by him may be sure it will happen
+again. He speaks ten languages, and whatever countryman he pretends to
+be, he is accepted as such. He appears now as a merchant, then a
+soldier, again as a seafaring man; to-day a Turk, to-morrow a Greek. He
+once came out as a Polish count, then as the betrothed of a Russian
+princess, and again as a quack doctor, who cured all maladies with his
+pills. What his real profession may be no one knows. But one thing is
+certain, he is a paid spy. Whether in the service of the Turks,
+Austrians, or Russians, who can tell? Perhaps he is in the pay of all
+three and more besides&mdash;he serves each, and betrays all. Every year he
+comes several times to this island. He comes in a boat from the Turkish
+shore, and goes in the same boat from here to the Hungarian bank. Of
+what he does there I have no idea; but I am inclined to believe that he
+inflicts the torture of his presence on me for his own amusement. I
+know, too, that he is an epicure and a sensualist: he finds good food
+here, and a blooming young girl whom he loves to tease by calling her
+his bride. No&eacute;mi hates him; she has no idea how well founded is her
+abhorrence.</p>
+
+<p>"Yet I do not think that Theodor Krisstyan visits this island only for
+these reasons; it must have other secrets unknown to me. He is a paid
+spy, and has a bad heart besides; he is rotten to the core, and ripe for
+any villainy. He knows that I and my daughter have only usurped the
+island, and that by law I have no claim to it, and by the possession of
+this secret he lays us under contribution, vexes and torments us both.</p>
+
+<p>"He threatens that if we do not give him what he wants, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> will inform
+against us both in Austria and Turkey, and as soon as these governments
+know that a new piece of land has been formed in the midst of the
+Danube, which is not included in any treaty, a dispute about its
+jurisdiction will commence between the countries, and until its
+conclusion all the inhabitants will be warned off, as happened in the
+case of Allion Castle and the Cserna River.</p>
+
+<p>"It would only cost this man a word to annihilate all that I have
+brought to perfection by my twelve years' labor; to turn this Eden,
+where we are so happy, back into a wilderness, and thrust us out anew,
+homeless, into the world. Yes, and more still. We have not only to fear
+discovery by the imperial officials, but discovery by the priest. If the
+archbishops, the patriarchs, archimandrite, and deans learned that a
+girl is growing up here who has never seen a church since she was
+baptized, they would take her away by force and put her in a convent.
+Now, sir, do you understand those sighs which kept you awake?"</p>
+
+<p>Timar gazed at the full disk of the moon, which was beginning to sink
+behind the poplars. "Why," thought he to himself, "am I not a man of
+influence?"</p>
+
+<p>"So this wretch," continued Therese, "can throw us into poverty any day.
+He need only give information in Vienna or Stamboul that here on the
+Danube a new territory exists, and we should be ruined. No one here
+would betray us&mdash;he alone is capable of it. But I am prepared for the
+worst. The whole foundation of this island is solely and entirely formed
+by the rock: it alone stems the force of the Danube current. In the year
+when Milos made war against the Serbs, some Servian smugglers hid three
+barrels of blasting powder in the bushes near here, and no one has ever
+fetched them away. Perhaps those who hid them were taken prisoners by
+the Turks, or killed. I found them, and have concealed them in the
+deepest cavity of this great rock. Sir, if they try to drive me from
+this island, now ownerless, I shall thrust a burning match into the
+powder, and the rock and all upon it will be blown into the air. In the
+next spring, after the ice has melted, no one would find a trace of the
+island. And now you know why you could not sleep well here."</p>
+
+<p>Timar leaned his head on his hand and looked away.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one more thing I ought to say," said Frau Therese, bending
+close to Timar, that he might hear her low whisper&mdash;"I fancy this man
+had another reason for coming here and vanishing again, besides his
+having gambled away his money in some low pot-house, and wanting to get
+more out of me. His visit was either on your account, or that of the
+other gentleman. Be on your guard, if either of you dreads the discovery
+of a secret."</p>
+
+<p>The moon disappeared behind the poplars, and it began to dawn in the
+east. Blackbirds commenced their song; it was morning. From the Morova
+Island long-drawn trumpet-calls sounded, to awake the seafaring folk.
+Steps were audible in the sand; a sailor came from the landing-place
+with the news that the vessel was ready for departure, the wind had gone
+down, and they could proceed. The guests came out of the little
+dwelling: Euthemio Trikaliss and his daughter, the beautiful Tim&eacute;a, with
+her dazzling pale face.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>No&eacute;mi also was up and boiling fresh goat's milk for breakfast, with
+roasted maize instead of coffee, and honey for sugar. Tim&eacute;a took none,
+but let Narcissa drink the milk instead, who did not despise the
+stranger's offer, to No&eacute;mi's great vexation.</p>
+
+<p>Trikaliss asked Timar where the stranger had gone who came last evening?
+Timar told him he had left in the night. At this intelligence his face
+fell.</p>
+
+<p>Then they all took leave of their hostess. Tim&eacute;a was out of sorts, and
+still complained of feeling unwell. Timar remained behind, and gave
+Therese a bright Turkish silk scarf as a present for No&eacute;mi; she thanked
+him, and said the child should wear it. Then they took the path leading
+to the boat, and Therese and Almira accompanied them to the shore. But
+No&eacute;mi went up to the top of the rock: there, sitting on soft moss and
+stonecrop, she watched the boat away.</p>
+
+<p>Narcissa crept after her, cowered in her lap, and crept with bending
+neck into her bosom. "Be off, faithless one! that is how you love me.
+You leave me in the lurch, and make up to the other girl, just because
+she is pretty and I am not. Go! I don't love you any longer!" and then
+she caught the coaxing cat with both hands to her breast, pressed her
+smooth chin on the white head of the little flatterer, and gazed after
+the boat. In her eye glittered a tear.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_IX" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br />
+<span class="subhead">ALI TSCHORBADSCHI.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The following day the "St. Barbara" continued her voyage with a fair
+wind up the Hungarian Danube. Until evening nothing remarkable occurred,
+and all went to bed early; they agreed that the previous night no one
+had been able to sleep. But this night also was to be a wakeful one for
+Timar. All was quiet on board the ship, which lay at anchor&mdash;only the
+monotonous splash of the wavelets against the vessel broke the
+stillness; but amidst the silence it seemed to him as if his neighbor
+was busy with important and mysterious affairs. From the neighboring
+cabin, which was only divided from his by a wooden partition, came all
+sorts of sounds; the clank of money, a noise as of drawing a cork and
+stirring with a spoon, as of one clasping his hands and performing his
+ablutions in the darkness, and then again those sighs, as in the
+previous night, "Oh, Allah!"</p>
+
+<p>At last there was a gentle knocking at the partition. Trikaliss
+called&mdash;"Come to me here, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Timar dressed quickly and hastened into the cabin. There were two beds,
+and between them a table. The curtains were closed in front of one, and
+on the other lay Euthemio. On the table stood a casket and two small
+glasses. "What are your orders, sir?" asked Timar.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no orders&mdash;I entreat."</p>
+
+<p>"You want something?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not want anything long. I am dying; I want to die&mdash;I have taken
+poison. Don't give the alarm&mdash;sit down and listen to what I have to tell
+you. Tim&eacute;a will not wake. I have given her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> opium to send her into a
+deep sleep, for she must not wake up now. Don't interrupt; what you
+would say is useless, but I have much to tell you, and only one short
+hour left, for the poison acts quickly. Make no vain attempts to save
+me. I hold the antidote in my hand&mdash;if I repented of my deed it rests
+with me to undo it. But I will not&mdash;and I am right&mdash;so sit down and
+listen.</p>
+
+<p>"My true name is not Euthemio Trikaliss but Ali Tschorbadschi. I was
+once governor of Candia, and then treasurer in Stamboul. You know what
+is passing in Turkey now. The Ulemas and governors are rising against
+the sultan, because he is making innovations. At such times men's lives
+are of little value. One party murders by thousands those who are not
+its allies, and the other party burns by thousands the houses of those
+in power. No one is high enough to be safe from his rulers or his
+slaves. The Kaimakan of Stamboul had at least six hundred respectable
+Turks strangled there, and then was stabbed by his own slave in the
+Mosque of St. Sophia. Every change cost human blood. When the sultan
+went to Edren, twenty-six important men were arrested, and twenty of
+them beheaded, while the other six were stretched on the rack. After
+they had made false accusations against the great men of the country in
+order to save themselves, they were strangled; then those were arrested
+against whom they had borne witness, and these suspected nobles
+disappeared without being heard of again. The sultan's secretary, Waffat
+Effendi, was sent to Syria, and murdered by the Druses. The Pasha Pertao
+was invited to dinner by the governor of Edren, Emin Pasha: when the
+meal was over, black coffee was brought, and he was told that the sultan
+commanded him to take poison in it. Pertao only asked that he might be
+allowed to mix the poison he had with him in the coffee, as it was more
+certain; then he blessed the sultan, performed his ablutions, prayed and
+died. Even in these days every Turkish noble carries poison in his
+signet-ring, to have it at hand when his turn comes.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew in good time when my turn was coming. Not that I was a
+conspirator, but for two reasons I was ripe for the sickle; these
+reasons were my money and my daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"The treasury wanted my treasures and the seraglio my daughter. Death is
+easy, and I am ready for it; but I will not let my daughter go into the
+harem, nor myself be made a beggar. I determined to upset the
+calculations of my enemies and fly with my daughter and my property; but
+I could not go by sea, for the new galleys would have overtaken me. I
+had kept a passport for Hungary in readiness for a long time; I
+disguised myself as a Greek merchant, shaved off my long beard, and
+reached Galatz by by-roads. From there I could go no further by land; I
+therefore hired a vessel and loaded it with grain which I bought: in
+this way I could best save my wealth. When you told me the name of the
+ship's owner I was very glad, for Athanas Brazovics is a connection of
+mine; Tim&eacute;a's mother was a Greek of his family. I have often shown
+kindness to this man, and he can return it now. Allah is great and
+wise&mdash;no man can escape his fate. You guessed I was a fugitive, even if
+you were not clear whether you had a criminal or a political refugee on
+board&mdash;still you thought it your duty as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> commander of the vessel to
+help the passenger intrusted to you in his speedy escape. By a miracle
+we traversed safely the rocks and whirlpools of the Iron Gate; by
+fool-hardy audacity we eluded the pursuit of the Turkish brigantine; by
+lucky chance we escaped quarantine and the search at the
+custom-house&mdash;and after we had left every bugbear behind, I stumbled
+over a straw under my feet into my grave.</p>
+
+<p>"That man who followed us last evening to the unknown island was a spy
+of the Turkish Government. I know him, and he certainly recognized me;
+no one could have traced me except himself. He has hurried on in front,
+and at Pancsova they are ready to receive me. Don't speak&mdash;I know what
+you mean; you think it is Hungarian territory, and that governments
+grant no extradition of political refugees.</p>
+
+<p>"But they would not pursue me as a political criminal, but as a
+thief&mdash;unjustly&mdash;for what I took was my own, and if the State has claims
+on me, there are my twenty-seven houses in Galatz, by which they can be
+satisfied; but in spite of that they will cry after me 'Catch thief!'</p>
+
+<p>"I pass for one who has robbed the treasury, and Austria gives up
+escaped thieves to Turkey if the Turkish spies succeed in tracing them.
+This man has recognized me and sealed my fate."</p>
+
+<p>Heavy drops of perspiration stood on the speaker's brow. His face had
+turned as yellow as wax.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me a drink of water that I may go on, for I have still much to
+tell you. I can not save myself, but by dying I can save my daughter and
+her property. Allah wills it, and who can flee from His presence? So
+swear to me by your faith and your honor that you will carry out my
+instructions. First, when I am dead, do not bury me on shore&mdash;a
+Mussulman does not require Christian burial, so bury me like a sailor;
+sew me up in a piece of sail-cloth, fasten at my head and feet a heavy
+stone, then sink me where the Danube is deepest. Do this, my son, and
+when it is done, steer steadily for Komorn, and take care of Tim&eacute;a!</p>
+
+<p>"Here in this casket is money&mdash;about a thousand ducats; the rest of my
+property is in the sacks packed as grain. I leave on my table a note
+which you must keep. I declare therein that I have contracted dysentery
+by immoderate enjoyment of melons, and am dying of it; further, that my
+whole possessions were only these thousand ducats. This will serve you
+as a security that no one may accuse you of having caused my death or
+embezzled my money. I give you nothing; what you do is of your own kind
+heart, and God will reward you: He is the best creditor you can have.
+And then take Tim&eacute;a to Athanas Brazovics and beg him to adopt my
+daughter. He has a daughter himself who may be a sister to her. Give him
+the money&mdash;he must spend it on the education of the child; and give over
+to him also the cargo, and beg him to be present himself when the sacks
+are emptied. There is good grain in them, and it might be changed. You
+understand?"</p>
+
+<p>The dying man looked in Timar's face, and struggled for breath. "For&mdash;"
+Again speech failed him. "Did I say anything? I had more to say&mdash;but my
+thoughts grow confused. How red the night is! How red the moon is in the
+sky! Yes; the Red Cres<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>cent&mdash;" A deep groan from Tim&eacute;a's bed attracted
+his attention and gave another turn to his thoughts. He raised himself
+anxiously in his bed, and sought with a trembling hand for something
+under his pillow, his eyes starting from their sockets. "Ah, I had
+almost forgotten&mdash;Tim&eacute;a! I gave her a sleeping-draught&mdash;if you do not
+wake her up in time she will sleep forever. Here in this bottle is an
+antidote. As soon as I am dead, take it and rub her brow, temples, and
+chest, until she awakes. Ah! how nearly I had taken her with me! but no,
+she must live. Must she not? You vow to me by all you hold sacred, that
+you will wake her, and bring her back to life&mdash;that you will not let her
+slumber on into eternity?"</p>
+
+<p>The dying man pressed Timar's hand convulsively to his breast: on his
+distorted features was already imprinted the last death-struggle. "What
+was I talking of? What had I to tell you? What was my last word? Yes;
+right&mdash;the Red Crescent!"</p>
+
+<p>Through the open window the half-circle of the waning moon shone
+blood-red, rising from the nocturnal mists. Was the dying man in his
+delirium thinking of this? Or did it remind him of something?</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;the Red Crescent," he stammered once more; then the death-throes
+closed his lips&mdash;one short struggle, and he was a corpse.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_X" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_X"></a>CHAPTER X.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE LIVING STATUE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Timar remained alone with the dead body, with a person sunk in a
+death-like stupor, and with a buried secret. The silent night covered
+them, and the shades whispered to him, "See! if you do not do what has
+been committed to you&mdash;if you throw the corpse into the Danube, and do
+not wake the slumberer, but let her sleep on quietly into the other
+world&mdash;what would happen then? The spy will have already given evidence
+in Pancsova against the fugitive Tschorbadschi; but if you anticipate
+him and the land at Belgrade instead, and lay information there, then,
+according to Turkish law, a third of the refugee's property would fall
+to you; otherwise it would belong to no one. The father is dead, the
+girl, if you do not rouse her, will never wake again; thus you would
+become at one stroke a rich man. Only rich people are worth anything in
+this world&mdash;poor devils are only fit for clerks."</p>
+
+<p>Timar answered the spirits of the night&mdash;"Well, then, I will always
+remain a clerk;" and, in order to silence these murmuring shadows, he
+closed the shutters. A secret anxiety beset him when he saw the red moon
+outside; it seemed as if all these bad suggestions came from it, as well
+as an explanation of the last words of the dying man about the Red
+Crescent.</p>
+
+<p>He drew back the curtain from Tim&eacute;a's berth.</p>
+
+<p>The girl lay like a living statue; her bosom rose and fell with her slow
+breathing&mdash;the lips were half open, the eyes shut; her face wore an
+expression of unearthly solemnity. One hand was raised to her loosened
+hair, the other held the folds of her white dress together on her
+breast.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>Timar approached her as if she were an enchanted fairy whose touch might
+cause deadly heart-sickness to a poor mortal. He began to rub the
+temples of the sleeper with the fluid from the bottle. In doing so, he
+looked continually in her face, and thought to himself, "What, should I
+let you die, you angelic creature? If the whole ship were filled with
+real pearls, which would be mine after your death, I could not let you
+sleep away your life. There is no diamond in the world, however
+precious, that I should prefer to your eyes when you open them."</p>
+
+<p>The lovely face remained unchanged, in spite of the friction on brow and
+temples; the delicate meeting eyebrows did not contract when touched by
+a strange man's hand. The directions were that also over the heart the
+antidote must be applied. Timar was obliged to take the girl's hand, in
+order to draw it away from her breast: the hand made no smallest
+resistance; it was stiff and cold, as cold as the whole form&mdash;beautiful
+and icy as marble.</p>
+
+<p>The shadows whispered&mdash;"Behold this exquisite form! a lovelier has never
+been touched by mortal lips; no one would know if you kissed her."</p>
+
+<p>But Timar answered himself in the darkness, "No&mdash;you have never stolen
+anything of another's in your life. This kiss would be a theft." And
+then he spread the Persian quilt, which the girl had thrown off in her
+sleep, over her whole person up to her neck, and rubbed above the heart
+of the sleeper with wetted fingers, while, in order to resist
+temptation, he kept his eyes fixed on the maiden's face. It was to him
+like an altar-picture&mdash;so cold, yet so serene.</p>
+
+<p>At last the lids unclosed, and he met the gaze of her dark but dull
+eyes. She breathed more easily, and Timar fell her heart beat stronger
+under his hand; he drew it away. Then he held the bottle with the strong
+essence for her to smell. Tim&eacute;a awoke, for she turned her head away from
+it, and drew her brows together. Timar called her gently by name.</p>
+
+<p>The girl started up, and with the cry "Father!" sat up on her bed,
+gazing out with staring eyes. The Persian quilt fell down from her lap,
+the night-dress slipped from her shoulders. She looked more like a Greek
+marble than a sentient being.</p>
+
+<p>"Tim&eacute;a!" and as he spoke he drew the fine linen over her bare shoulders.
+She did not answer. "Tim&eacute;a!" cried Timar, "your father is dead." But
+neither face nor form moved, nor did she notice that her night-dress had
+left her bosom uncovered. She seemed totally unconscious.</p>
+
+<p>Timar rushed into the other cabin, returned with a coffee-pot, and began
+in feverish haste, and not without burning his fingers, to heat some
+coffee. When it was ready, he went to Tim&eacute;a, took her head on his arm
+and pressed it to him, opened her mouth with his fingers, and poured
+some coffee in. Hitherto he had only had to contend with passive
+resistance; but as soon as Tim&eacute;a had swallowed the hot and bitter
+decoction of Mocha, she pushed Timar's hand with such strength that the
+cup fell; then she drew the quilt over her, and her teeth began to
+chatter.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God! she lives; for she is in a high fever," sighed Timar, "And
+now for a sailor's funeral."</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_XI" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br />
+<span class="subhead">A BURIAL AT SEA.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>On the ocean this is managed very easily: the body is sewed up in a
+piece of sail-cloth, and a cannon-ball is suspended to the feet, which
+sinks the corpse in the sea. Corals soon grow over the grave. But on a
+Danube craft, to throw a dead person into the river is a great
+responsibility. There are shores, and on the shores villages and towns,
+with church bells and priests, to give the corpse his funeral-toll and
+his rest in consecrated ground. It won't do to pitch him into the water,
+without a "By your leave," just because the dead man wished it.</p>
+
+<p>But Timar knew well enough that this must be done, and it caused him no
+anxiety. Before the vessel had weighed anchor, he said to his pilot that
+there was a corpse on board&mdash;Trikaliss was dead.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew for certain," said Johann Fabula, "that there was bad luck on
+the way when the sturgeon ran races with the ship&mdash;that always betokens
+a death."</p>
+
+<p>"We must moor over there by the village," answered Timar, "and seek out
+the minister to bury him. We can not carry the body on in the vessel&mdash;we
+should be under suspicion as infected with plague."</p>
+
+<p>Herr Fabula cleared his throat violently, and said, "We can but try."</p>
+
+<p>The village of Plesscovacz, which was nearest at hand, is a wealthy
+settlement; it has a dean, and a fine church with two towers. The dean
+was a tall, handsome man, with a long curling beard, eyebrows as broad
+as one's finger, and a fine sonorous voice. He happened to know Timar,
+who had often bought grain from him, as the dean had much produce to
+sell.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my son," cried the dean, as soon as he saw him in the court-yard,
+"you might have chosen your time better. The church harvest was bad, and
+I have sold my crops long ago." (And yet there was threshing going on in
+yard and barn.)</p>
+
+<p>"But this time it is I who bring a crop to market," Timar answered. "We
+have a dead man on board, and I have come to beg your reverence to go
+over there, and bury the corpse with the usual ceremonies."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but my son, that's not so easy. Did this Christian confess? Has he
+received the last sacraments? Are you certain that he was not a heretic?
+For if not, I can not consent to bury him."</p>
+
+<p>"I know nothing about it. We don't carry a father-confessor on board,
+and the poor soul left the world without any priestly assistance&mdash;that
+is the lot of sailors. But if your reverence can not grant him a
+consecrated grave, give me at any rate a written certificate that I may
+have some excuse to his friends why I was not in a position to show him
+the last honors; then we will bury him ourselves somewhere on the
+shore."</p>
+
+<p>The dean gave him a certificate of the refusal of burial; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> then the
+peasant threshers began to make a fuss. "What! bury a corpse within our
+boundaries which has not been blessed? Why, then, as certain as the Amen
+to the Pater Noster, the hail would destroy our crops. And you need not
+try to bestow him on any other village. Wherever he came from, nobody
+wants him, for he's sure to bring a hail-storm this season before the
+vintage is over&mdash;the farmer's last hope; and then next year a vampire
+will rise from a corpse so buried, which will suck up all the rain and
+the dew!"</p>
+
+<p>They threatened to kill Timar if he brought the body ashore. And in
+order that he might not bury it secretly on the bank, they chose four
+stout fellows, who were to go on board the ship and remain there till it
+had passed the village boundaries, and then he could do what he liked
+with the dead man.</p>
+
+<p>Timar pretended to be very angry, but allowed the four men to go on
+board. Meanwhile, the crew had made a coffin and laid the body in it:
+there was nothing more to do but to nail the lid down.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing that the captain did was to go and see how Tim&eacute;a was.
+The fever had reached its highest point; her forehead was burning, but
+her face still dazzling white. She was unconscious, and knew nothing of
+the preparations for the burial.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that will do," said Timar, and fetched a paint-pot and busied
+himself in marking Euthemio Trikaliss's name and date of death in
+beautiful Greek letters on the coffin-lid. The four Servian peasants
+stood behind and spelled out what he wrote.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, then, you paint a letter or two while I see to my work," said
+Timar to one of the gazers, and handed him the brush. The man took it
+and painted on the board an X, which the Servians use like S, to show
+his skill.</p>
+
+<p>"See what an artist you are!" Timar said, admiringly, and got him to
+draw another letter. "You are a clever fellow. What is your name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Joso Berkics."</p>
+
+<p>"And yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mirko Jakerics."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, God bless you! Let us drink a glass of Slivovitz." They had
+nothing against the proposition. "I am called Michael; my surname is
+Timar&mdash;a good name, and sounds just the same in Hungarian, Turkish, or
+Greek&mdash;call me Michael."</p>
+
+<p>"Egbogom Michael."</p>
+
+<p>Michael ran constantly into the cabin to see after Tim&eacute;a. She was still
+very feverish, and knew no one. But that did not discourage Timar: his
+idea was that whoever travels on the Danube has a whole chemist's shop
+at hand, for cold water cures all maladies. His whole system consisted
+in putting cold compresses on head and feet, and renewing them as soon
+as they got hot. Sailors had already learned this secret before
+Priessnitz the hydropath. The "St. Barbara" floated quietly all day
+up-stream along the Hungarian bank. The Servians soon made friends with
+the crew, helped them to row, and in return had a thieves' roast offered
+them from the galley.</p>
+
+<p>The dead man lay out on the upper deck; they had spread a white sheet
+over him&mdash;that was his shroud. Toward evening Mi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>chael told his men that
+he would go and lie down for a spell&mdash;he had had no sleep for two
+nights; but that the vessel might as well go on being towed till it was
+quite dark, and then they could anchor. He had no sleep that night
+either. Instead of going into his own cabin, he stole quietly into
+Tim&eacute;a's, placed the night-lamp in a box, that its light might not
+disturb her, and sat the whole time by the sick girl's bed listening to
+her delirious fancies and renewing her compresses. He never shut his
+eyes. He heard plainly when the anchor went down and the ship was
+brought up; and then how the waves began to plash against the sides! The
+sailors tramped about the deck for some time, then one by one they
+turned in. But at midnight he heard a dull knocking. That sounds,
+thought he, like hammering in nails whose heads have been covered with
+cloth to muffle the sound. Before long he heard a noise like the fall of
+some heavy object into the water, then all was still.</p>
+
+<p>Michael remained awake, and waited till it was light and the vessel had
+started again. When they had been an hour on their way, he came out of
+the cabin. The girl slept quietly, the fever had ceased.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the coffin?" was the first question.</p>
+
+<p>The Servians came up with a defiant air. "We loaded it with stones and
+threw it into the water, so that you might not bury it anywhere ashore
+and bring bad luck on us."</p>
+
+<p>"Rash men! what have you done? Do you know that I shall be arrested and
+have to render an account of my vanished passenger? They will accuse me
+of having put him out of the way. You must give me a certificate in
+which you acknowledge what you did. Which of you can write?"</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, not one of them knew how to write.</p>
+
+<p>"What! You, Berkics, and you, Jakerics, did you not help me to paint the
+letters on the coffin?"</p>
+
+<p>Then they came out with a confession that each only knew how to write
+the one letter which he had painted on the lid, and that, only with the
+brush and not with a pen.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; then I shall take you on to Pancsova. There you can give
+evidence verbally to the colonel in my favor; he will find your tongues
+for you."</p>
+
+<p>At this threat suddenly every one of them had learned to write; not only
+those two, but the others as well. They said they would rather give a
+certificate at once than be taken on to Pancsova. Michael fetched ink,
+pen, and paper, made one of these skillful scribes lie on his stomach on
+the deck, and dictated to him the deposition in which they all declared
+that, out of fear of hail-storms, they had thrown the body of Euthemio
+Trikaliss into the Danube while the crew slept, and without their
+knowledge or aid.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, sign your names to it, and where each of you lives, so that you
+may be easily found if a commission of inquiry is sent to make a
+report."</p>
+
+<p>One of the witnesses signed himself "Ira Karakassalovics," living at
+"Gunerovacz," and the other "Nyegro Stiriapicz," living at "Medvelincz."</p>
+
+<p>And now they took leave of each other with the most serious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> faces in
+the world, without either Michael or the four others allowing it to be
+seen what trouble it cost them not to laugh in each other's faces.</p>
+
+<p>Michael then put them all ashore.</p>
+
+<p>Ali Tschorbadschi lay at the bottom of the Danube, where he had wished
+to be.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_XII" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br />
+<span class="subhead">AN EXCELLENT JOKE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>In the morning when Tim&eacute;a awoke she felt no more of her illness; the
+strength of youth had won the victory. She dressed and came out of the
+cabin. When she saw Timar forward she went to him and asked, "Where is
+my father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fra&uuml;lein, your father is dead."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a gazed at him with her great melancholy eyes; her face could hardly
+become paler than it was already. "And where have they put him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fra&uuml;lein, your father rests at the bottom of the Danube."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a sat down by the bulwarks and looked silently into the water. She
+did not speak or weep; she only looked fixedly into the river.</p>
+
+<p>Timar thought it would lighten her heart if he spoke words of
+consolation to her. "Fra&uuml;lein, while you were ill and unconscious, God
+called your father suddenly to himself. I was beside him in his last
+hour. He spoke of you, and commissioned me to give you his last
+blessing. By his wish I am to take you to an old friend of his, with
+whom you are connected through your mother, who will adopt you and be a
+father to you. He has a pretty young daughter, a little older than you,
+who will be your sister. And all that is on board this vessel belongs to
+you by inheritance, left to you by your father. You will be rich; and
+think gratefully of the loving father who has cared for you so kindly."</p>
+
+<p>Timar's throat swelled as he thought, "And who died to secure your
+liberty, and killed himself in order to endow you with the joys of
+life."</p>
+
+<p>And then he looked with surprise into the girl's face. Tim&eacute;a had not
+changed a feature while he spoke, and no tear had fallen. Michael
+thought she was ashamed to cry before a stranger, and withdrew; but the
+maiden did not weep even when alone. Curious! when she saw the white cat
+drowned, how her tears flowed! and now, when told that her father lies
+below the water, not a drop falls.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps those who break out in tears at some small emotion brood
+silently over a deep grief?</p>
+
+<p>It may be so. Timar had other things to do than to puzzle his head over
+psychological problems. The towers of Pancsova began to rise in the
+north, and down the stream came an imperial barge, straight for the "St.
+Barbara," with eight armed Tschaikists, their captain, and a provost.
+When they arrived they made fast to the side without waiting for
+permission, and sprung on deck. The captain approached Timar, who was
+waiting for him at the door of the cabin. "Are you in command of this
+vessel?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>"At your service."</p>
+
+<p>"On board this ship, under the false name of Euthemio Trikaliss, there
+is a fugitive treasurer from Turkey&mdash;a pasha with stolen treasures."</p>
+
+<p>"On board this vessel travels a Greek corn-merchant, of the name of
+Euthemio Trikaliss, not with stolen treasures but with purchased grain.
+The vessel was searched at Orsova, and here are the certificates. This
+is the first; be so good as to read it, and see if all is not as I say.
+I know nothing of any Turkish pasha."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"If he was a Greek, with Abraham; if a Turk, with Mohammed."</p>
+
+<p>"What! is he dead, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly he is. Here is the second paper, containing his will. He died
+of dysentery."</p>
+
+<p>The officer read the document, and threw side glances at Tim&eacute;a, who
+still sat in the place where she had heard of her father's death. She
+understood nothing; the language was strange to her.</p>
+
+<p>"My six sailors and the steersman are witnesses of his death."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is unlucky for him, but not for us; if he is dead he must be
+buried. You will tell us where, and we shall have the body exhumed; we
+have a man who can recognize it, and prove the identity of Trikaliss
+with Ali Tschorbadschi, and then we can at any rate lay an embargo on
+the stolen property. Where is he buried?"</p>
+
+<p>"At the bottom of the Danube."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! this is too much. Why there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gently now. Here is the third paper, prepared by the Dean of
+Plesscovacz, in whose parish the decease of Trikaliss took place, and
+who not only refused him a consecrated burial, but forbid me to bring
+the body ashore; the people insisted on our throwing it overboard."</p>
+
+<p>The captain clinched his hand angrily on the hilt of his sword. "The
+devil! these confounded priests! Always the most trouble with them. But
+at any rate you can tell me where he was thrown into the river?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let me tell you everything in proper order, Herr Captain. The
+Plesscovaer sent four watchmen on board, who were to prevent our landing
+the corpse; in the night, when we were all asleep, they threw the
+coffin, which they had loaded with stones, into the Danube without the
+knowledge of the crew. Here is the certificate delivered to me by the
+culprits; take it, search them out, take their evidence, and then let
+each have his well-merited punishment."</p>
+
+<p>The captain stamped with his foot, and burst into angry laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that is a fine story. The discovered fugitive dies, and can not
+be made responsible; the priest won't bury him, the peasants shove him
+into the water, and hand in a certificate signed with two names which no
+man ever possessed, and two places which never existed in this world.
+The refugee disappears under the water of the Danube, and I can neither
+drag the whole Danube from Pancsova to Szendre, nor get hold of the two
+rogues, by name Karakassalovics and Stiriapicz. If the identity of the
+fugitive is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> not proved, I can not confiscate the cargo. You have done
+that very cleverly, skipper. Cleverly planned indeed! And everything in
+writing. One, two, three, four documents. I bet if I wanted the
+baptismal certificate of that lady there, you would produce it."</p>
+
+<p>"At your orders." That Timar certainly could not produce, but he could
+put on such an innocent, sheepish face, that the captain shook with
+laughter and clapped him on the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a splendid fellow, skipper. You have saved the young lady's
+property for her; for without her father I can do nothing to either her
+or her money. You can proceed, you clever fellow!"</p>
+
+<p>With that he turned on his heel, and the last Tschaikiss, who had not
+swung round quick enough, got such a box on the ear that the poor devil
+all but fell into the water; and then he gave the word for departure.</p>
+
+<p>When he was down below in the boat, he cast one searching look back; but
+the skipper was still looking after him with the same sheepish face.</p>
+
+<p>The cargo of the "St. Barbara" was saved.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_XIII" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE FATE OF THE "ST. BARBARA."</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The "St. Barbara" could now pursue her way unmolested; and Timar had no
+worse misfortunes than the daily disputes with the leader of the
+towing-team. On the great Hungarian plains the voyage up the Danube
+becomes extremely wearisome; there are no rocks, no water-falls or old
+ruins, nothing but willows and poplars, which border both sides of the
+river. Of these there is nothing interesting to relate.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a frequently did not come out of her cabin during a whole day, and
+not a word did her lips utter. She sat alone, and often the food they
+set before her was brought out again untouched. The days grew shorter,
+and the bright autumn weather turned to rain; Tim&eacute;a now shut herself
+entirely into her cabin, and Michael heard nothing of her except the
+deep sighs which at night penetrated to his ear through the thin
+partition. But she was never heard to weep; the heavy blow which had
+fallen on her had perhaps covered her heart with an impenetrable layer
+of ice. How glowing must that love be which could melt it!</p>
+
+<p>Ah, my poor friend, how came you by that thought? Why do you dream
+waking and sleeping of this pale face? Even if she were not so
+beautiful, she is so rich, and you are only a poor devil of a fellow.
+What is the good of a pauper like you filling all his thoughts with the
+image of such a rich girl? If only it were the other way, and you were
+the rich one and she poor! And how rich is Tim&eacute;a? Timar began to reckon,
+in order to drive himself to despair, and turn these idle dreams out of
+his head. Her father left her a thousand ducats in gold and the cargo,
+which, according to the present market prices, must be worth, say, ten
+thousand ducats&mdash;perhaps she has ornaments and jewels besides&mdash;and might
+be counted in Austrian paper-money of that date as worth a hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+thousand gulden; that in a Hungarian provincial town is a very rich
+heiress. And then Timar asked himself a riddle whose solution he could
+not guess.</p>
+
+<p>If Ali Tschorbadschi had a fortune of eleven thousand ducats, that would
+not weigh more than sixteen pounds; of all metals, gold has the smallest
+volume in proportion to its weight. Sixteen pounds of ducats could be
+packed in a knapsack, which a man could carry on his back a long way,
+even on foot. Why was the Turk obliged to change it into grain and load
+a cargo-ship with it, which would take a month and a half for its
+voyage, and have to struggle with storms, eddies, rocks, and
+shallows&mdash;which might be delayed by quarantine and custom-houses&mdash;when
+he could have carried his treasure with him in his knapsack, and by
+making his way cautiously on foot over mountain and river, could have
+reached Hungary safely in a couple of weeks?</p>
+
+<p>The key to this problem was not to be found.</p>
+
+<p>And another riddle was connected with this one. If Ali's treasure
+(whether honestly come by or not) only consists of eleven or twelve
+thousand ducats altogether, why does the Turkish Government institute a
+pursuit on such a large scale, sending a brigantine with four-and-twenty
+rowers, and spies and couriers after him? What would be a heap of money
+for a poor supercargo is for his highness the Padischa only a trifle;
+and even if it had been possible to lay an embargo on the whole cargo,
+representing a value of ten or twelve thousand ducats, by the time it
+had passed through the fingers of all the informers, tax-collectors, and
+other official cut-purses, there would be hardly enough left for the
+sultan to fill his pipe with.</p>
+
+<p>Was it not ridiculous to set such great machinery in motion in order to
+secure so small a prize?</p>
+
+<p>Or was it not so much the money as Tim&eacute;a that was the object? Timar had
+enough romance about him to find this a plausible assumption, however
+little it agreed with a supercargo's one-times-one multiplication table.</p>
+
+<p>One evening the wind dispersed the clouds, and when Timar looked out of
+his cabin window he saw on the western horizon the crescent moon.</p>
+
+<p>The "red moon!"</p>
+
+<p>The glowing sickle seemed to touch the glassy surface of the Danube. It
+looked to Timar as if it really had a human face, as it is depicted in
+the almanacs, and as if it said something to him with its crooked mouth.
+Only that he could not always understand&mdash;it is a strange language.</p>
+
+<p>Moonstruck people perhaps comprehend it, for they follow it; only they,
+as well as the sleep-walkers, remember nothing of what was said when
+they awake. It was as if the moon answered Timar's questions. Which?
+All. And the beating of his heart? or his calculations? All.</p>
+
+<p>Only that he could not put these answers into words.</p>
+
+<p>The red crescent dipped slowly toward the water, and sent its reflected
+rays along the waves as far as the ship's bows, as if to say, "Don't you
+understand now?" At last it drew its horns<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> gently below the surface,
+saying plainly, "I shall return to-morrow, and then you will know."</p>
+
+<p>The pilot was in favor of making the most of the light of the after-glow
+to go on further, until it grew dark. They were already above Almas, and
+not far from Komorn; in those parts he knew the channel so well that he
+could have steered the vessel safely with his eyes shut. As far up as
+the Raab Danube, there was no more danger to fear.</p>
+
+<p>And yet there was something! Off Fuzito a soft, dull thud was heard; but
+at this thud the steersman cried "Halt!" in a fright, to the
+towing-team.</p>
+
+<p>Timar also grew pale, and stood petrified for a moment. For the first
+time during the whole voyage dismay was depicted in his features. "We
+have struck a snag!" he cried to the steersman.</p>
+
+<p>And that great strong man entirely lost his head, left the rudder, and
+ran crying like a little child across the deck to the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>We have touched a snag! Yes, that was so. When the Danube is in flood it
+makes breaches in the bank, the uprooted trees fall into the current,
+and are carried to the bottom by the weight of the soil clinging to
+their roots; if a cargo-ship drawn by horses touches such a tree-trunk,
+it pierces the hull. From shallows and rocks the steersman can guard his
+vessel, but against a tree-trunk lying in ambush under water, neither
+knowledge, experience nor skill is of any avail. Most of the shipwrecks
+on the Danube are from this cause.</p>
+
+<p>"It is all up with us!" howled the pilot and the sailors. Every one left
+his post and ran for his bundle and his chest, to get them into the
+boat.</p>
+
+<p>The vessel swung across the stream, and the forepart began to sink. It
+was useless to think of saving it&mdash;absolutely impossible. The hold was
+filled with sacks of grain; before they could shift these in order to
+get at the leak and stop it, the vessel would long ago have gone down.</p>
+
+<p>Timar broke in the door of Tim&eacute;a's cabin.</p>
+
+<p>"Fra&uuml;lein, put on your cloak quickly, and take the casket which stands
+on the table; our ship is sinking, we must save ourselves." As he spoke
+he helped her into her warm kaftan, and gave her directions to get into
+the boat; the pilot would help her. He himself ran back into his cabin
+to get the box which held the ship's papers and cash. But Johann Fabula
+was not thinking of helping Tim&eacute;a; he flew into a rage when he saw the
+girl. "Didn't I say this milk-face, this witch with the meeting
+eyebrows, would bring us all to destruction? We ought to have thrown her
+overboard."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a did not understand what he said, but she shrunk from his bloodshot
+eyes, and preferred to go back to her cabin, where she lay down, and saw
+the water rush through the door and mount gradually to the level of the
+edge of her bed. She thought to herself that if the water washed her
+away, it would carry her down-stream, to where her father was lying at
+the bottom of the Danube, and then they would again be united.</p>
+
+<p>Timar was wading up to his knees in water before he had collected all he
+wanted from his cabin and packed them in a box, which he took on his
+shoulder and then hurried to the boat.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>"And where is Tim&eacute;a?" he cried, not seeing her there.</p>
+
+<p>"The devil knows!" growled the pilot. "I wish she had never been born."
+Timar flew back into Tim&eacute;a's cabin, now up to his waist in water, and
+took her in his arms. "Have you the casket?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," whispered the girl.</p>
+
+<p>He asked no more, but hurried with her on deck, and carried her in his
+arms into the boat, where he put her on the middle seat. The fate of the
+"St. Barbara" was being decided with awful rapidity. The ship was going
+down stern first, and in a few minutes only the upper deck and the mast,
+with the dangling tow-rope, were visible above water.</p>
+
+<p>"Shove off!" Timar said to the rowers, and the boat moved toward the
+shore.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the casket?" Timar asked the girl, when they had already gone
+some distance.</p>
+
+<p>"Here it is," answered Tim&eacute;a, showing him what she had brought away.</p>
+
+<p>"Miserable girl! that is the box of sweetmeats, not the casket." In
+fact, Tim&eacute;a had brought the box of Turkish sweets, meant as a present to
+her new sister, and had totally forgotten the casket which held her
+whole fortune. That was left behind in the submerged cabin. "Back to the
+ship!" Timar cried to the pilot.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely nobody has got such a mad notion as to look for anything in a
+sunken ship," grumbled Fabula.</p>
+
+<p>"Back!&mdash;no words&mdash;I insist!"</p>
+
+<p>The boat returned to the vessel. Timar asked no one's help, but sprung
+himself to the deck and down the steps to the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a looked after him with her great dark eyes as he vanished under the
+surface, as if to say&mdash;"And you too go before me into the watery grave."</p>
+
+<p>Timar reached the bulwarks, but had to be very careful, because the
+vessel had a list toward the side where Tim&eacute;a's cabin door was. He had
+to hold on by the timbers of the roof, so as not to slip altogether
+under water. He found the door, luckily, not shut by the waves; for it
+would have been a long job to get it open. It was quite dark inside, the
+water had filled it almost to the ceiling; he groped to the table, the
+casket was not there; perhaps she had left it on the bed. The water had
+floated the bed to the roof, and he had to draw it down; but the casket
+was not there either. Perhaps it had been knocked over by the rush of
+water. He felt about vainly with his hands, stooping under water. His
+feet were more fortunate, for he stumbled over the object sought for;
+the casket had fallen to the ground. He lifted it, and tried while
+holding it to climb up to the other side, where he need not hold on with
+both hands.</p>
+
+<p>The minute that Timar was under water seemed to Tim&eacute;a an eternity.</p>
+
+<p>He was a full minute under water. He had held his breath the whole time,
+as if to try an experiment how long a man could do without breathing.</p>
+
+<p>When Michael's head appeared above the water she heaved a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> deep sigh,
+and her face beamed when Timar gave her the rescued casket, but not on
+its account.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, captain!" exclaimed the steersman, as he helped Timar into the
+boat, "that's thrice you've got soaked for the love of these eyebrows.
+Thrice!"</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a asked Michael in a whisper, "What is the Greek for the word
+thrice?" Michael translated it. Then Tim&eacute;a looked at him long, and
+repeated to herself in a low voice "Thrice."</p>
+
+<p>The boat approached the shore in the direction of Almas.</p>
+
+<p>Against the steely mirror in the twilight a long line was visible, like
+a distressful note of exclamation or a pause in life. It was the topmast
+of the "St. Barbara."</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIRST_XIV" id="CHAPTER_FIRST_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE GUARDIAN.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>At six in the evening the ship's crew had left the sunken craft, and by
+half past seven Timar with Tim&eacute;a was in Komorn. The post-cart driver
+knew Brazovics' house very well, and galloped his four bell-decked
+horses with unmerciful cracks of the whip through the little streets up
+to the square, as he had been promised a good <i>trinkgeld</i> if he brought
+his passengers quickly to their destination.</p>
+
+<p>Michael lifted Tim&eacute;a from the country wagon and told her she was now at
+home. Then he took the casket under his cloak and led the girl up the
+steps.</p>
+
+<p>The house of Athanas Brazovics was of two stories&mdash;a rarity in Komorn;
+for in remembrance of the destructive earthquakes by which the town had
+been visited in the last century, people usually only built on the
+ground-floor. The lower story was occupied by a large caf&eacute;, which served
+the resident tradespeople as a casino; the whole upper floor was
+inhabited by the family of the merchant. It had two entrances from the
+street, and a third through the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>The owner was generally not at home at this hour, as Timar knew; he
+therefore led Tim&eacute;a straight to the door through which the women's rooms
+were reached. In these reigned fashionable luxury, and in the anteroom
+lounged a man-servant. Timar asked him to fetch his master from the
+caf&eacute;, and meanwhile led Tim&eacute;a to the ladies.</p>
+
+<p>He was certainly hardly got up for company, as may be imagined when one
+remembers what he had gone through, and the number of times he had been
+soaked; but he was one of those who belonged to the house, who could
+come in at any time and in any dress: they looked upon him as "one of
+our people." In such a case one gets over the strict rules of etiquette.</p>
+
+<p>The announcement revives the old habit of the mistress, as soon as the
+door of the anteroom is open, of putting her head through the parlor
+door to see who is coming. Frau Sophie has kept this habit ever since
+her maid-servant days. (Pardon, that slipped out by accident.) Well,
+yes, Herr Athanas raised her from a low station; it was a love-match, so
+no one has a right to reproach her.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>It is therefore not as idle gossip, but only as a characteristic touch,
+that I mention that Frau Sophie even as "gracious lady" could not get
+rid of her early habit. Her clothes always fitted her as if they had
+been given to her by her mistress. From her coiffure an obstinate lock
+of hair would always stick out either in the front or at the back; even
+her most gorgeous costumes always looked tumbled and creased; and if
+nothing else went wrong, there would be invariably a pair of
+trodden-down shoes with which she could indulge in her old propensity.
+Curiosity and tattle were the ingredients of her conversation, in which
+she generally introduced such extraordinary expressions that when she
+began to scatter them in a mixed party, the guests (that is, those who
+were seated) almost fell off their chairs with laughter. Then, too, she
+had the agreeable custom of never speaking low; her voice was a
+continuous scream, as if she were being stabbed and wished to call for
+assistance.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, good Lord, it's Michael!" she cried, as soon as she got her head
+through the door-way. "And where did you get the pretty fra&uuml;lein? What
+is the casket you have under your arm? Come into the parlor! Look, look,
+Athalie, what Timar has brought!"</p>
+
+<p>Michael let Tim&eacute;a pass, then he entered and politely wished the company
+good-evening. Tim&eacute;a looked round with the shyness of a first meeting.
+Besides the mistress of the house there were a girl and a man in the
+room. The girl was a fully developed and conscious beauty, who, in spite
+of her naturally small waist, did not disdain tight stays; her high
+heels and piles of hair made her appear taller than she was; she wore
+mittens, and her nails were long and pointed. Her expression was of
+artificial amiability; she had somewhat arrogant and pouting lips, a
+rosy complexion, and two rows of dazzling white teeth, which she did not
+mind showing; when she laughed, dimples formed on chin and cheek, dark
+brows arched over the bright black eyes, whose brilliancy was increased
+by their aggressive prominence. With her head up and bust thrown
+forward, the beautiful creature knew how to make an imposing appearance.
+This was Fra&uuml;lein Athalie.</p>
+
+<p>The man was a young officer, verging on thirty, with a cheerful open
+face and fiery black eyes. According to the military regulations of the
+period, he had a clean-shaven face, with the exception of a small
+crescent-shaped whisker. This warrior wore a violet tunic, with collar
+and cuffs of pink velvet, the uniform of the engineers. Timar knew him
+too. It was Herr Katschuka, first lieutenant at the fort, and also a
+commissariat officer&mdash;rather a hybrid position, but so it was.</p>
+
+<p>The lieutenant has the pleasure of taking a portrait of the young lady
+before him in chalks; he has already finished one by daylight, and is
+trying one by lamplight. The entrance of Tim&eacute;a disturbs him in this
+artistic occupation.</p>
+
+<p>The whole appearance of the slender delicate girl was something
+spiritual at this moment&mdash;it was as if a ghost, a phantom, had stepped
+out of the dusk.</p>
+
+<p>When Herr Katschuka looked up from his easel, his dark-red chalk drew
+such a streak across the portrait's brow, that it would be hard for
+bread-crumbs to get it out, and he rose involuntarily from his seat
+before Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>Every one rose at the sight of the girl, even Athalie. Who can she be?</p>
+
+<p>Timar whispered to Tim&eacute;a in Greek, on which she hastened to Frau Sophie
+and kissed her hand, while the girl herself received a kiss on her
+cheek.</p>
+
+<p>Again Timar whispered to her. The girl went with shy obedience to
+Athalie, and looked steadily in her face. Shall she kiss her, or fall on
+the neck of her new sister? Athalie seemed to raise her head higher
+still. Tim&eacute;a bent to her hand and kissed it&mdash;or rather not her hand, but
+the kid mitten. Athalie allowed it, her eyes cast a flaming glance on
+Tim&eacute;a's face, and another on the officer, and she curled her lips yet
+more.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Katschuka was completely lost in admiration of Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>But neither his nor Athalie's fiery looks called up any emotion on
+Tim&eacute;a's face, which remained as white as if she were a spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Timar himself was not a little confused. How was he to introduce the
+girl and relate how he had come by her, before this officer?</p>
+
+<p>Herr Brazovics helped him out of his difficulty. With a great bustle he
+burst in at the door. He had just now in the caf&eacute;&mdash;to the surprise of
+all the regular customers&mdash;read aloud from the Augsburg <i>Gazette</i> that
+the escaped pasha and treasurer, Ali Tschorbadschi and his daughter, had
+fled on board the "St. Barbara," evaded the watchfulness of the Turkish
+authorities, and reached Hungary in safety. The "St. Barbara" is his
+ship. Tschorbadschi is a good friend of his&mdash;even a connection by the
+mother's side. An extraordinary event! One can fancy how Herr Athanas
+threw his chair back when the servant brought him the news that Herr
+Timar had just arrived with a beautiful young lady, and under his arm a
+gilt casket.</p>
+
+<p>"So it is actually true!" cried Herr Athanas, and rushed up to his own
+apartments, not without upsetting a few of the card-players on his way.</p>
+
+<p>Brazovics was a man of enormous corpulence. His stomach was always half
+a step in front of him. His face was copper-colored at its palest, and
+violet when he ought to have been rosy: even when he shaved in the
+morning his chin was all bristles by the evening, his scrubby mustache
+perfumed with smoke, snuff, and various spirits; his eyebrows formed a
+bushy wall over his prominent and bloodshot eyes. (A fearful thought,
+that the eyes of the lovely Athalie, when she grows old, will resemble
+her father's!)</p>
+
+<p>When Herr Brazovics opens his mouth, one understands why Frau Sophie
+always screams; her husband, too, can only speak in shouts, but with the
+difference that he has a deep bass voice like a hippopotamus.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally Frau Sophie, when she wants to overpower his voice with her
+own, raises it to a yell. It was as if they had a wager which could
+bring on the other a lung disease or a stroke of apoplexy. It is
+doubtful who will win; but Brazovics always stops his ears with wool,
+and Frau Sophie invariably has a comforter round her throat.</p>
+
+<p>Athanas rushed, panting with haste, into the ladies' room, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> his
+voice of thunder had already preceded him. "Is Michael there with the
+young lady? Where is the fra&uuml;lein? Where is Michael?"</p>
+
+<p>Timar hastened to catch him at the door. He might have succeeded in
+keeping back the man himself, but the weight of his approaching paunch,
+when once set in motion, bore down all obstacles.</p>
+
+<p>Michael made a sign to him that a visitor was present. "Ah, that doesn't
+matter! You can speak openly before him. We are <i>en famille</i>; the Herr
+Lieutenant belongs to the family. Ha! ha! don't get cross, Athalie;
+every one knows it. You can speak freely, Michael; it is all in the
+papers."</p>
+
+<p>"What is in the papers?" exclaimed Athalie, angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, not you; but that my friend Ali Tschorbadschi, my own
+cousin, the treasurer, has fled to Hungary with his daughter and his
+property on board my ship the 'St. Barbara;' and this is the daughter,
+isn't she? The dear little thing!" And with that Herr Brazovics suddenly
+fell upon her, took her in his arms, and pressed two kisses on her pale
+face&mdash;two loud, wet, malodorous kisses, so that the girl was quite
+confused.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a good fellow, Michael, to have brought her here so quickly.
+Have you given him a glass of wine? Go, Sophie&mdash;quick! A glass of wine!"</p>
+
+<p>Frau Sophie pretended not to hear; but Herr Brazovics threw himself into
+an arm-chair, drew Tim&eacute;a between his knees, and stroked her hair with
+his fat palms. "And where is my worthy friend, the governor of the
+treasury? Where is he?"</p>
+
+<p>"He died on the journey," answered Timar in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"What a fatality!" said Brazovics, trying to give an angular form to his
+round face, and taking his hand from the girl's head. "But no accident
+happened to him?"</p>
+
+<p>A curious question. But Timar understood it.</p>
+
+<p>"He intrusted his property to my care, to deliver it over to you with
+his daughter. You were to be her adopted father and the guardian of her
+property."</p>
+
+<p>At these words Herr Brazovics grew sentimental again; he took Tim&eacute;a's
+head between his two hands, and pressed it to his breast.</p>
+
+<p>"As if she were my own child. I will regard her as my daughter;" and
+then again smack! smack! one kiss after another on brow and cheek of the
+poor victim. "And what is in this casket?"</p>
+
+<p>"The gold I was to deliver to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good, Michael. How much is there?"</p>
+
+<p>"A thousand ducats."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" cried Brazovics, and pushed Tim&eacute;a off his knee; "only a thousand
+ducats? Michael, you have stolen the rest!"</p>
+
+<p>Something stirred in Timar's face. "Here is the autograph will of the
+deceased. He declares therein that he has given over to me a thousand
+ducats in gold, and his remaining property is contained in the cargo,
+which consists of ten thousand measures of wheat."</p>
+
+<p>"That's something more like. Ten thousand measures of wheat, at twelve
+gulden fifty a measure in paper money, that makes a hundred and
+twenty-five thousand gulden, or fifty thousand gulden silver. Come here,
+little treasure, and sit on my knee; you're<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> tired, aren't you? And did
+my dear never-to-be-forgotten friend send me any other directions?"</p>
+
+<p>"He told me to tell you that you must be present in person when the
+sacks are emptied, lest they should exchange the grain, for he had
+bought a very good quality."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally I shall be there in person. How should I not be? And where is
+the ship with the grain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Below Almas, at the bottom of the Danube."</p>
+
+<p>But now Athanas thrust Tim&eacute;a right away, and sprung up in a rage. "What!
+my fine vessel gone down, as well as the ten thousand measures of wheat!
+Oh, you gallows-bird! you rascal! You were all drunk, for certain. I'll
+put you all in jail; the pilot shall be in irons; and I shall not pay
+one of you. You forfeit your ten thousand gulden caution-money: you
+shall never see that again. Go and sue me if you like!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your vessel was not worth more than six thousand gulden, and is insured
+for its full value at the Komorn Marine Insurance Office. You have come
+to no harm."</p>
+
+<p>"If that were true a hundred times over, I should still require
+compensation from you, on account of the <i>lucrum cessans</i>. Do you know
+what that means? If you do, you can understand that your ten thousand
+gulden will go to the last kreutzer."</p>
+
+<p>"So be it," answered Timar, quietly. "We will speak of that another
+time; there's time enough. But what we have to do now is to decide what
+is to happen to the sunken cargo, for the longer it remains under water,
+the more it will be spoiled."</p>
+
+<p>"What does it matter to me what happens to it?"</p>
+
+<p>"So you will not take it over? You will not be personally present at the
+discharge of cargo?"</p>
+
+<p>"The devil I will! What should I do with ten thousand measures of soaked
+grain? I am not going to make starch of ten thousand measures of corn;
+or shall I make paste of it? The devil may take it if he wants it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly; but the stuff must be sold. The millers, factors,
+cattle-dealers, will offer something for it, and the peasants too, who
+want seed-corn; and the vessel must be emptied. In that way some money
+may be got out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Money!" (This word could always penetrate into the cotton-stuffed ears
+of the merchant.) "Good. I will give you a permit to-morrow to empty the
+vessel and get rid of the cargo in bulk."</p>
+
+<p>"I want the permit to-day. Before morning everything will be ruined."</p>
+
+<p>"To-day! You know I never touch a pen at night; it is against my
+habits."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought of that beforehand, and brought the permit with me. You have
+only to sign your name to it. Here are pen and ink."</p>
+
+<p>But now Frau Sophie interrupted with a scream. "Here in my parlor I do
+not allow writing to be done! That's the only thing wanting&mdash;that my new
+carpet should be all spotted with ink. Go to your room if you want to
+write. And I won't have this squabbling with your people here in my
+rooms!"</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to know if it isn't my house," growled the great man.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>"And it's my sitting-room!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am master here!"</p>
+
+<p>"And I am mistress here!"</p>
+
+<p>The screeching and growling had the good result for Timar that Herr
+Brazovics flew into a rage, and in order to show that he was master in
+his own house, seized the pen and signed the power of attorney. But when
+he had given it, both fell on Timar, and overwhelmed him with such a
+flood of reproaches and invective, that he would willingly have taken
+yet another bath in the Danube to wash them away. Frau Sophie only
+scolded Timar indirectly, as she abused her husband for giving such a
+ragged, dirty fellow, such a tipsy, beggarly scoundrel, a warrant like
+that.</p>
+
+<p>Why had he not given it to any other supercargo than Timar, who would
+run away with the money, and drink and gamble till it was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Timar stood the whole time with the same immovable calm in the midst of
+this tumult as that with which he had defied storm and waves at the Iron
+Gate. At last he broke silence: "Will you take charge of the money which
+belongs to the orphan, or shall I give it over to the City Orphanage?"
+(At this last question Brazovics got a great fright.) "Now, then, if you
+please, come with me into the office and we will settle the affair at
+once, for I don't like servants' squabbles."</p>
+
+<p>With this hundred-pound insult he succeeded in suddenly silencing both
+master and mistress. Against such scolds and blusterers, a good round
+impertinence is the best remedy. Brazovics took the light and said, "All
+right; bring the money along." Frau Sophie appeared all at once to be in
+the best of tempers, and asked Timar if he would not have a glass of
+wine first.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a was quite stunned; of what passed in a foreign language she
+understood not a word, and the gestures and looks which accompanied it
+were not calculated to enlighten her. Why should her guardian now kiss
+and hug her, the orphan, and the next moment push her from him? Why did
+he again take her on his lap, only to thrust her away once more? Why did
+both of them scream at this man, who remained as calm as she had seen
+him in the tempest, until he spoke a few words, quietly, without anger
+or excitement, and thereby instantly silenced and overpowered the two
+who had been like mad people the minute before, so that they could
+prevail as little against him as the rocks and whirlpools and the armed
+men. Of all that went on around her, she had not understood one word;
+and now the man who had been hitherto her faithful companion, who had
+gone "thrice" into the water for her sake, with whom alone she could
+speak in Greek, was going away&mdash;forever, no doubt&mdash;and she would never
+hear his voice again.</p>
+
+<p>Yet no; once again it sounds in her ear. Before he stepped over the
+threshold Timar turned to her and said in Greek, "Fra&uuml;lein Tim&eacute;a, there
+is what you brought away with you."</p>
+
+<p>And with that he took the box of sweets from under his cloak. Tim&eacute;a ran
+to him, took the box, and hastened to Athalie, in order to present to
+her, with the sweetest smile, the gift she had brought from far away.
+Athalie opened the box.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>"<i>Fi donc!</i>" she exclaimed, "it smells of rose-water, just like the
+pocket-handkerchiefs the maid-servants take to church."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a did not understand the words, but from the pouting lips and
+turned-up nose she could easily guess their meaning, and that made her
+very sad.</p>
+
+<p>She made another attempt, and offered the Turkish sweetmeats to Frau
+Sophie, who declined with the remark that her teeth were bad, and she
+could not eat sweets. Quite cast down, she now offered them to the
+lieutenant. He found them excellent, and swallowed three lumps in three
+mouthfuls, for which Tim&eacute;a smiled at him gratefully.</p>
+
+<p>Timar stood at the door and saw Tim&eacute;a smile. Suddenly it occurred to her
+that she must offer him some of the Turkish delight. But it was already
+too late, for Timar no longer stood there. Soon after, the lieutenant
+took leave and departed. Being a man of breeding, he bowed to Tim&eacute;a
+also, which pleased her greatly.</p>
+
+<p>After a time Herr Brazovics returned to the room, and they were now just
+the four alone.</p>
+
+<p>Brazovics and Frau Sophie began to talk in a gibberish which was
+intended for Greek.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a understood a word here and there, but the sense seemed to her more
+strange than those languages which were altogether unknown to her.</p>
+
+<p>They were consulting what to do with this girl whom they had been
+saddled with. Her whole property consists of twelve thousand paper
+gulden. Even if it were likely that the soaked grain should bring in a
+little more, that would not suffice to educate her like a lady, like
+Athalie.</p>
+
+<p>Frau Sophie thought she must be treated as a servant, and get used to
+cook and sweep, to wash and iron&mdash;that would be some use. With so little
+money no one would marry her except some clerk or ship's captain, and
+then it would have been better for her to be brought up as a servant and
+not a lady.</p>
+
+<p>But Athanas would not hear of it; what would people say? At last they
+agree on a middle course; Tim&eacute;a is not to be treated like a regular
+servant, but take the position of an adopted child. She will take her
+meals with the family, but help to wait. She shall not stand at the
+wash-tub, but must get up her own and Athalie's fine things. She must
+sew what is wanted for the house, not in the maid's room but in the
+gentlefolks' apartments; of course she will help Athalie to dress, that
+will only be a pleasure to her, and she need not sleep with the maids
+but in the same room as Athalie; the latter wants some one to keep her
+company and be at her service. In return, Athalie can give her the old
+clothes she no longer requires.</p>
+
+<p>A girl who has only twelve thousand gulden can thank Heaven that such a
+fate should fall to her share.</p>
+
+<p>And Tim&eacute;a was satisfied with her lot. After the great and
+incomprehensible catastrophe which had thrown her on the world, the
+lonely creature clung to every being she came near. She was gentle and
+obliging. This is the way of Turkish girls. It pleased her to be allowed
+to sit by Athalie at supper, and it was not necessary to remind her: she
+rose of her own accord to change the plates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> and wash the spoons, and
+did it with cheerful looks and kind attention. She feared to annoy her
+guardians if she looked sad, and yet she had cause enough. Especially
+she busied herself in trying to help Athalie. Whenever she looked at
+her, her face showed the open admiration which young girls feel for a
+grown-up beauty; she forgot herself in gazing at the rosy cheeks and
+bright eyes of the other. Those innocent minds think any one so lovely
+must be very good.</p>
+
+<p>She did not understand what Athalie said, for she did not even speak bad
+Greek, like her parents; but she tried to guess by her eyes and hands
+what was wanted. After supper, at which Tim&eacute;a only ate fruit and bread,
+not being used to rich dishes, they went into the salon.</p>
+
+<p>There Athalie sat down to the piano. Tim&eacute;a crouched near her on the
+footstool and looked with admiration at her rapid execution. Then
+Athalie showed her the portrait which the lieutenant had executed, and
+Tim&eacute;a clasped her hands in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"You never saw anything like it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Where should she have seen such things?" answered the father. "If is
+forbidden to the Turks to take a likeness of any one. That is why there
+is a revolution just now&mdash;because the sultan has had his picture painted
+and hung up over the divan. Ali Tschorbadschi was mixed up in the
+movement, and was forced to fly. You poor old Tschorbadschi, to have
+been such a fool!"</p>
+
+<p>When Tim&eacute;a heard her father's name, she kissed the hand of Brazovics.
+She supposed he had sent some pious blessing after the dead man.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie went to bed, and Tim&eacute;a carried the light for her. Athalie seated
+herself at her dressing-table, looked in the glass, sighed deeply, and
+then sunk back in her chair tired and cross, with a gloomy countenance.
+Tim&eacute;a would have liked to know why this lovely face had suddenly grown
+so sad.</p>
+
+<p>She took the comb from Athalie's hair and loosened the plaits with a
+skillful hand, and then again dressed the richly flowing chestnut locks
+for the night in a simple coil.</p>
+
+<p>She took out the earrings, and her head came so near to Athalie's that
+the latter could not help seeing the two contrasting faces in the
+mirror.</p>
+
+<p>One so radiant, rosy, and fascinating, the other so pale and soft; and
+yet Athalie sprung up angrily and pushed away the glass. "Let us go to
+sleep." The white face had thrown hers into the shade. Tim&eacute;a collected
+the scattered clothes and folded them neatly together by instinct.</p>
+
+<p>Then she knelt before Athalie and took off her stockings. Athalie
+permitted it.</p>
+
+<p>And after Tim&eacute;a had drawn them off, and held the snow-white foot, more
+perfect than a sculptor's ideal, in her lap, she bent and pressed a kiss
+on it. Athalie permitted that too.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h2 class="newbook"><a name="BOOK_SECOND_TIMEA" id="BOOK_SECOND_TIMEA"></a><i>BOOK SECOND.&mdash;TIM&Eacute;A.</i></h2>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="firstchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_SECOND_I" id="CHAPTER_SECOND_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+<span class="subhead">GOOD ADVICE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Lieutenant Katschuka went through the caf&eacute; and found Timar there gulping
+down a cup of black coffee. "I am soaked and frozen, and have a great
+deal still to do to-day," he said to the officer, who hastened to press
+his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Come and have a glass of punch with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Many thanks, but I have no time now; I must go this instant to the
+insurance company, that they may help me with the salvage of the cargo;
+for the longer it remains under water the greater the damage. From there
+I must run to the magistrate, that he may be in time to send some one to
+Almas to receive the power of attorney; then I must go round to the
+cattle-dealers and carriers, to induce them to come to the auction; and
+later on I must go by the stage to Iotis to find out the starch
+manufacturers there: they can make the best use of the wet grain.
+Perhaps in this way some of the poor child's property may be saved. But
+I have a letter to deliver to you which was given me in Orsova."</p>
+
+<p>Katschuka read the letter, and then said to Timar, "Very good, my
+friend. Do your business in the town, but afterward come to me for half
+an hour; I live near the Anglia&mdash;over the door hangs a shield with a
+large double eagle. While the diligence baits we will drink a glass of
+punch and have a sensible talk; be sure you come."</p>
+
+<p>Timar consented, and went off to look after his business. It might be
+about eleven o'clock when he entered the door under the double eagle,
+which was near the promenade called in Komorn the Anglia. Katschuka's
+private servant waited for him there, and led him up to his master's
+room. "Well, I expected," began Timar, "you would have been already
+married to Athalie long before I came up from yonder."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, comrade, but the affair doesn't get on well; it is delayed by
+first one thing and then another. It seems to me as if one of us is not
+keen about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! you may be sure Athalie is keen enough."</p>
+
+<p>"In this world you can't be sure of anything, least of all a heart. I
+only say one thing, long engagements are bad. Instead of getting nearer
+to each other people only get further apart, and learn to know each
+other's failings and weaknesses. If this occurs after marriage one
+thinks, in God's name, we can not go back. Let me advise you, comrade,
+if you wish to marry and have fallen in love, don't wait long to think
+about it; for if you begin to calculate it will only end in a breach."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>"With you I should fancy there is no danger in calculations about a girl
+who is so rich."</p>
+
+<p>"Riches are relative, my friend. Believe me, every woman knows how to
+get rid of the interest of her dowry; and then no one exactly knows the
+financial position of Herr Brazovics. A heap of money goes through his
+hands, but he does not like striking a proper business-like balance, so
+as to show what he has gained or lost by his dealings."</p>
+
+<p>"For my part I think he is very well off. And Athalie is a very pretty
+and clever young lady."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes; but you need not praise Athalie to me like a horse you take
+to market. Let us rather talk of your affairs."</p>
+
+<p>If Katschuka had been able to look into Timar's heart he would have
+found that what they had been talking of <i>was</i> his friend's affair.
+Timar had turned the conversation to Athalie because&mdash;because he envied
+the officer the smile of Tim&eacute;a's face. It was as if he had said, "You
+have no right to Tim&eacute;a's smile&mdash;you are engaged; marry Athalie!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, let us talk of serious matters. My friend in Orsova writes me that
+I am to befriend you. Good; I will try. You are in a position anything
+but pleasant: the ship intrusted to you is wrecked. It is not your
+fault, but a great misfortune for you, for every one will now fear to
+intrust you with a vessel. Your principal seizes your caution-money, and
+who knows whether you can recover it by law. You would like to help the
+poor orphan&mdash;I see it in your eyes; that she should lose such a pretty
+fortune affects you more than any one else. How can we get out of this
+with one <i>coup</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know no way out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"But I do. Listen to me; next week the annual concentration of troops
+begins round Komorn. Twenty thousand of them will be maneuvering here
+for three weeks. A contract for the bread supply is on hand; large sums
+will be paid, and he who goes about it wisely will make a good haul. All
+the tenders go through my hands, and I can say beforehand who will get
+the contract, for it depends more on what is not contained in the offer
+than on what is. Till now Brazovics' tender is the lowest. He is
+prepared to undertake the contract at 140,000 gulden, and promises 'the
+officials concerned' 20,000 gulden."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?&mdash;the officials concerned?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be so stupid. It is the usual thing that whoever receives such a
+large contract should give a present to those who get it for him. It has
+always been so since the world began. What else do we live on? You know
+that well enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly; but I never tried it in my own person."</p>
+
+<p>"Very foolish of you. You burn your fingers for other people, while you
+might get the chestnuts out of the fire for yourself, if you knew how to
+do it. Send in a tender to undertake the contract at 130,000 gulden, and
+promise 30,000 commission."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not do that for several reasons. First, I have not got the
+deposit, which must accompany the tender; then I have not the capital
+requisite to buy such quantities of grain and flour; next, I greatly
+object to bribery; and lastly, I am not such a bad reck<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>oner as to
+persuade myself of the possibility of undertaking with only 130,000
+gulden to complete the contract as well as pay the friendly commission."</p>
+
+<p>Katschuka laughed at him. "Oh, my dear Michael, you will never be a man
+of business. In our line that is always the way. Only to make a groschen
+on a gulden is peddler's trade. The chief thing is to have interest, and
+you don't want for that; that's what I am good for. We have been good
+friends ever since our school days: rely on me. How do you mean you have
+no money to deposit? Hand over the receipt for your caution-money of
+10,000 gulden which you left with Brazovics&mdash;it will be regarded as a
+sufficient security&mdash;and then I will tell you what to do next; go
+quickly to Almas, and bid yourself for the sunken cargo. The grain,
+which represents a value of 100,000 gulden, will certainly be knocked
+down to you for 10,000. Then you will possess 10,000 measures of corn.
+You will promise all the millers in Almas, Fuzito, and Izsaer double pay
+if they will grind your corn at once. Meanwhile you build ovens, in
+which the corn is immediately baked into bread. Within three weeks it
+will all be consumed, and if a bad part slips in, it will be the
+business of your 'good friends' to hush it up. At the end of three weeks
+you will have a clear gain of at least 70,000 gulden. Believe me, if I
+were to take such an affair to your principal, he would seize it with
+both hands. I wonder at your slowness."</p>
+
+<p>Timar thought it over. It was indeed a tempting offer. To make in three
+weeks 60,000 or 70,000 gulden&mdash;and without much trouble, in complete
+security. The first week the ration-bread would be rather sweeter than
+usual, the second week rather bitterer, and the third week rather musty.
+But soldiers do not look narrowly at such things; they are used to it.</p>
+
+<p>But yet Timar turned with disgust from this bitter cup. "Oh, Emerich!"
+he said, laying his hand on his former schoolmate's shoulder, "where
+have you learned such things?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why," answered the other, with a gloomy face, "there where they are
+taught. When I entered on the military career, I was full of romantic
+illusions. They are all in ashes now. Then I thought this was the school
+of chivalry, the heroic career, and my heart beat high at the thought:
+now I know that all in this world is speculation, and that public
+concerns are governed by private interests. In the engineers I had
+completed my studies, with remarkable, I may say distinguished results.
+When I was sent to Komorn, the prospect filled me with pride, at the
+opportunity I should have for the development of my capacities in
+military engineering. The first plan for the fortifications submitted by
+me was declared to be a masterpiece by good judges; but do not imagine
+that it was accepted: on the contrary, I received orders to prepare
+another, which was more costly, and involved the expropriation of whole
+streets in the town. Well, I prepared that too. You will remember that
+part of the town which is now an open space&mdash;this change cost half a
+million. Your principal had some ruinous houses there which he sold at
+the price of palaces. And they call that fortification! And for that I
+had studied engineering. Well, a man falls by degrees and finds his
+level. Perhaps you have heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> the anecdote&mdash;it is in every mouth&mdash;how
+the Crown-Prince Ferdinand, when he visited us last year, said to the
+commandant of the fortress, 'I thought this fortress was black?' 'Why
+should it be black, your imperial highness?' 'Because in the
+fortification accounts there are every year 10,000 gulden put down for
+ink. I thought the walls must be dyed with ink.' Every one laughed, and
+that was the end of it. If nothing comes out, nothing is said; and if
+everything comes out, it only raises a laugh. You had better laugh too!
+Or will it please you better to be shoved out into the world from the
+threshold of the corn-dealer, and sell matches with two kreutzers profit
+a day? I have already come down from the ethereal regions. Off, my
+friend, to Almas, and buy the sunken wheat. Till ten to-morrow night you
+will have time to send in your tender. Listen, there is the
+diligence&mdash;be off, and see that you get back quickly."</p>
+
+<p>"I will think it over," said Timar, slowly.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember that you will do the poor orphan a good turn, if you give
+10,000 gulden for her lost property. Otherwise she won't have as many
+hundred when the salvage is paid."</p>
+
+<p>Those words rang in Timar's ears. An invisible hand drove him on. "<i>Fata
+nolentem trahunt!</i>" says St. Augustine. Soon after, Timar sat again in
+the diligence, which galloped away with its four Neudorf horses. In the
+town every one slept. Only at the station-house sounded the night
+watchman's call. No one has written on his brow what the next day will
+bring to him; but from the walls the sentries, wet through with the
+autumn rain, challenged in turn "Who goes there?"&mdash;"Patrol"&mdash;"Pass."</p>
+
+<p>What sort of bread have these fellows had?</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_SECOND_II" id="CHAPTER_SECOND_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE RED CRESCENT.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>On the following day, Timar did actually bid for the sunken grain in
+company with brokers and millers, who made trifling bids, a few groschen
+a measure. Timar got tired of this groschen business, and suddenly
+cried, "I will give ten thousand gulden for the whole cargo." When the
+bidders heard this they ran away, and it would have been in vain to run
+after them. The official auctioneer accepted Timar's offer, and gave
+over the whole cargo to him as his property. Every one thought him mad.
+What could he do with such a mass of soaked grain? What he did was this.</p>
+
+<p>He lashed two lighters together, fastened them with iron clamps to the
+deck of the sunken ship, and made arrangements to get up the cargo.
+There was a change since yesterday in the position of the vessel, for
+the stern had sunk so that now the forepart stood out of water, and one
+of the two cabins was quite dry. Timar installed himself here, and then
+began the hard work. He tore up the deck, and with the help of a crane
+drew up one sack after the other. They were first piled near the cabin,
+that the water might drain away; then they were transferred to a raft,
+and taken ashore: there straw mats were laid, on which the grain was
+shaken and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> spread out. Timar bargained meanwhile with the millers for
+immediate grinding of the corn. The weather was favorable, there was a
+strong wind, and the corn dried fast.</p>
+
+<p>If only the work would go on quickly!</p>
+
+<p>He began to calculate. The little ready money he had would all go to the
+payment of the work-people; if the undertaking failed he would be a
+beggar. Johann Fabula told him beforehand, that after this senseless
+purchase nothing would be left him but to hang the last sack round his
+neck, and throw himself into the Danube. A thousand disquieting thoughts
+passed through Timar's head, without beginning or end. He looked on till
+night-fall, while one sack after the other was propped against the cabin
+wall. The sacks all had the same mark&mdash;a five-spoked wheel printed in
+black on the sacking. In truth, that poor fugitive pasha had been wiser,
+if, instead of buying so much grain, he had just put his money in his
+knapsack. And to think of pursuing him so obstinately only for this
+stuff! Was it worth while to flee only for this, and then actually to
+poison himself? Till late evening the work continued, and still only
+about three thousand measures were spread out to dry. Timar promised the
+laborers double pay if they would work a few hours longer. The grain
+which lies a second night under water will hardly make bread. The
+sack-carriers worked on cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>The wind had dispersed the clouds, and the moon appeared again in the
+sunset sky. Heavens and moon were red.</p>
+
+<p>"How ghostly it looks!" said Timar, and turned his back on the moon, so
+as not to see it.</p>
+
+<p>But even as he stood there, and counted the sacks as they were drawn up,
+the red moon rose again before him. This time it was painted on a sack.
+In the place where the other sacks bore a wheel of five spokes, here
+above the trade-mark a crescent was painted in vermilion.</p>
+
+<p>A cold shiver ran through Timar. Here was the answer to the riddle! This
+was what the dying man meant by his last words. But either his
+confidence was not strong enough, or else time had failed him to finish
+his phrase. When the laborers turned away Timar took the sack and
+carried it into the cabin; no one noticed it, and then he locked the
+door behind him.</p>
+
+<p>The work-people went on for two hours more; but at last they were so
+tired, wet, and stiff with water and wind, that they were not in a
+condition to go on any longer: the rest of the cargo must wait till the
+morrow. The wearied folk hurried to the nearest alehouse to warm
+themselves with food and drink. Timar remained alone on board: he said
+he wished to count the unloaded sacks, and would row himself ashore in
+the little boat. The moon had reached the water with its lower horn, and
+seemed to look in at the cabin window. Timar's hand trembled as if with
+ague. When he opened the blade of his knife, he cut his hand, and the
+drops of blood painted stars on the sack by the side of the red
+crescent. He cut the rope with which the sack was tied, and put his hand
+in; what he brought out was beautiful white wheat. Then he cut the lower
+end of the sack; here too only grain came out. He now slit the whole
+sack up, and with the scattered corn, a long leathern bag fell at his
+feet. The bag had a lock. He broke it open.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>And then he shook the contents out on to the bed&mdash;the same bed where
+once the living marble statue had lain.</p>
+
+<p>What a sight was presented to him in the moonlight! Long rows of rings
+strung together&mdash;brilliant, sapphire, and emerald rings; armlets of
+opals and huge turquoises; pearl bracelets, each bead as large as a
+hazel-nut; a necklace of magnificent brilliants of the finest water; an
+agate box, from which when he opened it a whole heap of unset diamonds
+flashed upon him; at the bottom of the bag a number of agraffes and
+girdles, all set with rubies, and four rouleaux, each containing five
+hundred louis d'or. Here was an enormous treasure, at least a million
+gulden.</p>
+
+<p>Now one can understand the man fleeing even to the bottom of the Danube,
+that this treasure might not fall into the hands of his pursuers. For
+this, it was worth while to send a gunboat and spies after the fugitive.
+For this, it was worth while to cut the tow-rope in the midst of a storm
+at the Iron Gate.</p>
+
+<p>The "St. Barbara" had carried a million on board! that is no child's
+play, no dream&mdash;it is reality. Ali Tschorbadschi's treasures lie there
+on the wet quilt with which Tim&eacute;a had once covered herself. Whoever
+knows the value of pearls and precious stones, can understand that it
+was not for nothing that Ali Tschorbadschi had been Governor of Candia
+and guardian of the treasury.</p>
+
+<p>Timar sat in silent stupefaction on the edge of the bed, and held in his
+trembling hands the agate box, whose diamonds sparkled in the moonlight.
+He looked away through the window at the moon shining in. Again the moon
+seemed to have eyes and mouth, as it is depicted in the almanac, and to
+be entering into conversation with the poor mortal.</p>
+
+<p>"To whom do these treasures belong?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, whom should they belong to but you? You bought the sunken cargo,
+just as it is, with the sacks and the grain. You were liable to the
+danger that it might remain on your hands as spoiled waste, as stinking
+rubbish. Now it has turned into gold and jewels. It is true that the
+dying man said something about the Red Crescent, and you puzzled your
+head as to what he could have meant; you wondered how it was possible
+that the refugee should have no more property than was visible. Now you
+see clearly how it all hung together; but then, when you bought the
+cargo, you did not know&mdash;you bought this mass of wet grain for quite
+another purpose. You wanted to make sweet and bitter bread out of it for
+the poor soldiers. Fate willed otherwise. Do you not see that this is a
+sign from Heaven? It would not permit you to make a shameful profit at
+the expense of twenty thousand poor soldiers&mdash;it has provided for you
+otherwise. As Providence has prevented something wicked, that which
+happened by its direction must without doubt be good."</p>
+
+<p>"Besides, to whom should these treasures belong?"</p>
+
+<p>"The sultan must have stolen them in his victorious campaigns; the
+treasurer most probably stole them from the sultan. Both were robbed of
+them by the Danube: now they have no owner&mdash;they belong to you. You
+possess them at any rate with just as much right as the sultan, the
+treasurer, and the Danube."</p>
+
+<p>"And Tim&eacute;a?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>At this question a long narrow black cloud rose before the moon's face.</p>
+
+<p>Timar remained long in thought. The moon appeared again.</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better for you. You know best how the world treats a poor
+devil like you. They scold him when he has done his duty; they call him
+a knave when a misfortune overtakes him; they allow him to hang himself
+on the nearest tree when he has nothing more to live on; for his
+love-sorrows pretty girls have no balm. A poor man remains always only a
+clerk. Then see how the world honors the rich man&mdash;how people seek for
+his friendship, ask his advice, and trust him with the fate of the
+nation; and women, how they fall in love with him! Did you ever get even
+a friendly word of thanks from their lips? What would you get if you
+took the treasure you have found and laid it at her feet with the words,
+'There, take what is yours&mdash;I saved it for you from the depths?' In the
+first place, she would not know how to use it. She can hardly
+distinguish the value of a box of diamonds from that of a box of sweets;
+she is only a child; and then it would never reach her hands, for her
+adopted papa would absorb it and get rid of nine tenths of it. Who can
+prevent him from taking one gem at a time and turning it into money? But
+granted that Tim&eacute;a gets it, what would be the result? She would be a
+rich lady, who would not cast a look at you from her height; and you
+would remain a miserable supercargo, in whom it would be madness even to
+dream of her. Now, however, things are the other way&mdash;you will be a rich
+man and she a poor girl. Is not that exactly what you desired of fate?
+Well, that is what has happened. Did you put that log in the way of the
+ship which stove her in? Do you mean badly by Tim&eacute;a? No; you do not want
+to keep for yourself the treasures you have found; you will invest them
+profitably, increase them, and when you have earned with the first
+million a second and a third, then you will go to the poor girl and say,
+'There, take it&mdash;it is all yours; and take me too.' Do you wish to do
+anything wrong with it? You only wish to become rich in order to make
+her happy. You can sleep with a good conscience, having such designs."</p>
+
+<p>The moon was already half hidden in the Danube; only the tip of one horn
+rose from the water like a light-house; its reflection in the waves
+reached to the ship's bow; and every ray and every wave spoke to Timar.
+And they all said, "You have fortune in your hand; hold it fast&mdash;you
+risk nothing. The only one who knew of the treasure lies below the
+Danube."</p>
+
+<p>Timar heard what was whispered to him, and also the secret voice in his
+own breast, and cold drops stood on his brow. The moon's fiery tip
+vanished beneath the surface of the water, and cried to him with its
+last ray, "You are rich&mdash;you are a made man!"</p>
+
+<p>But when it was dark, the inward voice whispered in the silent night,
+"You are a thief!"</p>
+
+<p>An hour afterward a four-horse post-chaise was rushing along the Sz&ouml;nyer
+road at a gallop, and as the tower clock of St. Andrew's Church in
+Komorn struck eleven, the carriage stood at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> door in the Anglia
+under the double eagle. Timar sprung quickly out and hurried in. He was
+expected.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_SECOND_III" id="CHAPTER_SECOND_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE GOLD MINE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>After the concentration of troops in Komorn, Timar had suddenly become a
+wealthy man. He had bought a house in the Servian Street, the "City" of
+the Komorn merchants. No one was surprised. The phrase once uttered by
+the Emperor Francis I. to a contractor who had remained poor, was, "The
+ox stood at the manger, why did he not eat?" These golden words have, I
+fancy, been written by every contractor in his memorandum-book.</p>
+
+<p>How much Timar made by his bread contract it is impossible to say; but
+that he has suddenly become a great personage it is easy to see. He is
+always on the spot when there is a large undertaking on hand, and has
+money in abundance. This is not surprising to merchants or speculators;
+the first stage is the difficult one. If once the first hundred thousand
+gulden are made, the rest follows of itself&mdash;he has credit.</p>
+
+<p>On one point Herr Brazovics had no doubt whatever. He guessed rightly
+that Timar had offered the officials a larger commission than he himself
+usually did, and that he had thus obtained the profitable bread contract
+by which Brazovics usually enriched himself. But that he should have
+made so large a profit out of it&mdash;on that point he shook his head
+incredulously. Since Timar had risen in the world, and become his own
+master, Brazovics cultivated the friendship of his former supercargo,
+and invited him to his evening receptions, which Timar accepted
+willingly enough. He met Tim&eacute;a there very often, who had already learned
+a little colloquial Hungarian.</p>
+
+<p>Timar was now welcome even to Sophie, who once half whispered and half
+screamed to Athalie that it would do no harm if she was rather more
+friendly to him, for he was now a rich man, a far from despicable
+<i>parti</i>, worth more than three officers put together, who have nothing
+but their smart uniform and their debts. To which Fra&uuml;lein Athalie
+replied, "It does not follow that I should take my father's servant for
+a husband." Frau Sophie could finish the sentence for herself&mdash;"Because
+my papa married his maid-servant"&mdash;in which lay a well-earned reproach
+to Frau Sophie. How could she have dared to intrude herself in the
+capacity of mother upon such a grand young lady!</p>
+
+<p>Toward the end of supper one evening, as the two sat alone at table,
+Herr Brazovics began to incite Timar to drink, by repeatedly taking wine
+with him. His own head was pretty strong from constant practice, but
+this poor devil could never have been used to the bottle.</p>
+
+<p>When they were well on the road, he cunningly brought up the subject.
+"You, Michael, out with the truth now&mdash;how did you contrive to profit so
+much by the commissariat contract? I have tried it myself, and I know
+what can be got out of it. I also have mixed feldspar, bran, and
+millers' dust with the dough; I under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>stand how to get acorns ground
+instead of corn, and know the difference between rye and wheat flour;
+but to make such a <i>coup</i> as you have done has never happened to me.
+Confess now! What trick were you up to? You are already wealthy&mdash;you
+have found a gold mine."</p>
+
+<p>Timar put on the look of a tipsy man who required six horse-power to
+raise his eyelids, and began with drunken fluency and a stammering
+tongue to explain. "Well, you must know, sir&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No sir to me! How often have I told you! Call me by my name."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, you must know, Nazi, it was no trick. You remember that I
+bought in the soaked grain-cargo of the 'St. Barbara' at a nominal
+price, a gulden a measure. I did not get rid of it, as people fancied,
+to the millers and farmers, with a profit of a couple of groschen; but I
+had it baked into bread at once, which did not cost me half so much as
+if I had bought the very cheapest flour."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you prodigy! I ought to go to school to you in my old age. You
+arch-rascal! Was the ration-bread very bad, then?"</p>
+
+<p>Michael laughed so that the wine almost ran out of his mouth again. "I
+should just think it was bad&mdash;bad beyond words."</p>
+
+<p>"And were no complaints laid before the commissariat committee?"</p>
+
+<p>"What use would that have been, when I had the whole lot of them in my
+pocket?"</p>
+
+<p>"But the commandant of the fortress, the inspector of ordnance?"</p>
+
+<p>"I squared them too," cried Michael, proudly, striking his pocket, in
+which so many great men had found room. The eyes of Herr Brazovics shone
+in a curious way, as if they were even redder than usual. "And did you
+give the bread made of soaked wheat to the soldiers to eat?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why not? Bread once swallowed tells no tales."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite true, Michael, quite true; but you be careful not to tell any one
+yourself. You can tell me, of course&mdash;I am your true friend; but if one
+of your enemies got wind of it, it might go badly with you. Your house
+in the Servian Street might go too. Hold your tongue before other
+people."</p>
+
+<p>On this Timar began, like one who has suddenly come to his senses, to
+entreat Herr Brazovics not to betray his secret and make him miserable;
+he even kissed his hands. Brazovics pacified him, he need not be uneasy
+about him, he must not let out his secret to others. Then he called the
+servant and ordered him to take a lantern and go home with Herr Timar,
+and take good care of him that he should come to no harm, and if he were
+unable to walk, to take his arm. When the servant returned, he related
+what trouble it had cost him to get Timar home; he had not known his own
+door, and had begun to sing in the street. They had at last got him to
+bed, and there the good gentleman had instantly gone to sleep. But when
+Brazovics' servant had gone, Timar left his bed, and wrote letters until
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>He had not been in the least tipsy. Timar was as certain that his dear
+friend would at once give information of the whole affair as that Monday
+comes after Sunday; and he also knew to whom.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>It was therefore no surprise to him that, a few days later, after an
+evening spent with Brazovics, he was cited to appear at the fortress,
+where a gentleman entitled "Financial Privy Counselor" gave him to
+understand that he was to remain for the present under strict
+observation, and demanded his keys, in order to lay an embargo on his
+books and papers.</p>
+
+<p>This will be a big thing. Timar's secret had been denounced to the
+general chamber of finance, which was in rivalry with the leaders of the
+council of war. Here was an opportunity to reveal in the most
+conspicuous way the scandals which took place in the bosom of this
+community, and to remove from it the control of the commissariat. The
+accusation was supported by the three high courts&mdash;only the police
+department was on the side of the council of war. At last the chamber
+gave its decision, and a commission was appointed, with strict
+injunctions to spare no one, to suspend the whole department of supply,
+to request the commandant to arrest the contractor, commence a criminal
+suit, and discover everything. If one morsel of musty bread should
+appear against Timar, woe to him!</p>
+
+<p>But nothing of the sort was found. For eight days the commission worked
+day and night. They heard witnesses, took oaths, inquired, had the
+provost up&mdash;all in vain, no one could say anything against Timar. From
+the whole inquiry it was proved that he had divided the spoiled cargo
+among millers, country people, and manufacturers; that not one single
+handful had been mixed with the bread baked for the troops. They had
+even the soldiers up to give evidence. They said they had never eaten
+better bread than during the two weeks when it was provided by Timar. No
+complaint, no adverse witness appeared against him, much less could the
+officials be accused of corruption; they had given the contract to him
+who offered the best and lowest terms. At last they boiled over; they
+felt insulted by the inquiry, stormed and rattled their swords; the
+commission, driven into a corner, got alarmed, revoked, rehabilitated,
+and tried to get away from Komorn as quickly as possible. Timar was set
+free with many excuses, and with the assurance that he was a thoroughly
+honest man.</p>
+
+<p>At his acquittal Herr Katschuka was the first who hastened to
+congratulate him, and shook his hand demonstratively in public. "My
+friend, you must not put up with this quietly; you must have
+satisfaction for it. Just fancy, they suspected <i>me</i> of being bribed! Go
+to Vienna and demand reparation; the informer must have an exemplary
+punishment. And in future," he added aside, "you may be sure no one will
+ever get us out of the saddle. Strike while the iron is hot."</p>
+
+<p>Timar promised to do so, and mentioned his intention to Brazovics when
+he next met him. The latter seemed furious at the ill-treatment his
+friend Michael had received. Who could the scoundrel be who had so
+libeled him?</p>
+
+<p>"Whoever it may be," Timar declared, "shall rue it dearly; and if he has
+a house in Komorn, I'll lay my head that this joke will cost him his
+home. I am going to-morrow morning to Vienna, to demand satisfaction
+from the treasury."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>"Yes, do so, by all means," said Brazovics; and thought to himself,
+"Just as well that I know it; I shall be there too."</p>
+
+<p>And he happened to get there a day sooner than Timar. There, with the
+assistance of his old connections, he so prepared the way (which cost
+him a mint of money) that if once Timar set his foot in this labyrinth,
+he would never get out again. From the treasury he will be sent to the
+high court; there the affair will be given over to the judicial office,
+thence to the superintendent of police, and from there to the secret
+department of finance.</p>
+
+<p>The unfortunate plaintiff at last loses patience, gets angry, and says a
+few impudent words&mdash;even possibly gets them printed. Then the censor
+gets hold of him, and at last he begs to be let go, and swears never
+again to pull the bell at any public office. He will be a fool for his
+pains if he tries to get justice. But Timar was not a fool; he was far
+cleverer than either of his advisers&mdash;than both put together. He had
+grown cunning from the time when he let himself be persuaded to take the
+first wrong step: he knew already that you should never tell any one the
+real thing you are going to do. At Pancsova, when he snapped his fingers
+at the authorities, he had shown what talents lay undiscovered in him.
+Then he had done in another's interest what could be of no use to
+himself: he did what he was told to do, and humbugged the pursuers; now
+he was doing it in his own interest. Being in possession of the
+treasure-trove, he must find some excuse for appearing as a rich man
+before the public. He must pretend to be a speculator who had been lucky
+in his business. In his very first affair he must be reputed to have
+made large sums. If people imagined he had made his money by corrupt
+means, that was the lesser evil; and it could not be proved, for it was
+not true. He had been put to such great expense by the contract, that
+hardly any profit was left; but he was in a position to buy houses and
+ships, and pay in gold, and every one thought the money at his disposal
+came from his successful tender. He required a pretext, a title, a
+visible ground, in order to go quietly forward with the help of
+Tschorbadschi's wealth.</p>
+
+<p>What, then, did he do in Vienna?</p>
+
+<p>He must ask for compensation from the exchequer, and could reckon on the
+support of the war department. From his friends at Komorn he had
+received letters of recommendation to the most influential officials. He
+left all these letters at the bottom of his trunk, and went direct to
+the chancellor himself, of whom he requested an audience. The minister
+was pleased that this man did not try to get in by backstairs influence,
+but came direct by the front entrance. He admitted him. The minister was
+a tall man with a clean-shaven face, an imposing double chin, severe
+brows, and very bald. On his breast shone numerous orders. He had stuck
+both hands under his coat-tails when this poor individual with the big
+mustache was shown in. Timar wore a simple black Hungarian costume.</p>
+
+<p>The first question of his excellency to Timar was, "Why do you not wear
+a sword when you come to an audience?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not a noble, gracious sir."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>"Indeed! I suppose you have come to me to ask for compensation for your
+arrest and the injury which was inflicted on you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Far from it," answered Timar. "The government only did its duty in
+proceeding against greater men than I, as well as myself, on the ground
+of apparently well-founded information. As I am not of nobility, it is
+of no consequence to me to lay damages on account of my injured honor.
+Indeed, I owe gratitude to the informer as well as to the court, for
+having by their strict inquiry made it perfectly clear that my hands
+were clean all through my contract."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then, you have no intention of demanding satisfaction from the
+informer?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, I should think it unadvisable to do so, for many an
+honest man might be prevented from revealing real abuses. My honor is
+established: it is not my nature to revenge myself. Besides, I have
+neither time nor desire for it. Forgive and forget."</p>
+
+<p>While Timar spoke, his excellency had already taken one hand from under
+his coat-tails in order to clap Timar on the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a very practical way of looking at it. You can do better than
+losing time by running about after vengeance. A very sensible idea. What
+brings you, then, to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"A tender for which I need your excellency's protection."</p>
+
+<p>The excellency stuck his hand behind him again.</p>
+
+<p>"The crown has a property on the frontier, in Levetincz."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" grumbled the great man, and frowned. "What do you want with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"In my business as a wholesale dealer, I have often been there, and know
+the local circumstances. The crown lands extend to thirty thousand
+acres, and are let to Silbermann, the Vienna banker, at forty kreutzers
+an acre. The conclusion of this contract lies within the province of the
+treasury; but the disposal of the income belongs to the military
+department. This income amounts to a hundred thousand gulden. Silbermann
+divided the estate into three parts, and let to subtenants at a gulden
+an acre."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he wanted to make something out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally. The subtenants let the land in smaller parcels to the
+peasantry for a certain percentage of the crops. But now, after two bad
+harvests, the land in the Banat has not even grown enough for seed-corn.
+The peasants got nothing, and could not give any percentage to the
+subtenants, who paid nothing to the crown lessee; and he, in order to
+get rid of his contract, went bankrupt, and paid no rent to the
+government."</p>
+
+<p>Now both hands of the great official came out and began to gesticulate.
+"Yes; because he lived in princely luxury, the rascal! Just imagine, he
+kept horses which cost eight thousand gulden, and drove them about. Now
+they are up for sale. I am an 'excellency,' but I am not in a position
+to keep such costly horses as those."</p>
+
+<p>Timar took no notice, and continued his remarks: "The treasury now is
+defrauded of its rent, for there is nothing to seize. The tenant and the
+subtenants are married; their whole property belongs to their wives
+under the name of dowry. The hundred thou<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>sand gulden are lost to the
+military department, which, I have been told, will claim the sum from
+the exchequer."</p>
+
+<p>The chancellor opened his snuff-box, and while he put his two fingers in
+for a pinch, he threw an inquiring look on the speaker with one eye.</p>
+
+<p>"My humble offer therefore is," continued Timar, laying a folded paper
+on the table, "to rent the Levetincz estate for ten years at the price
+paid by the sub-lessees&mdash;namely, a gulden an acre."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good."</p>
+
+<p>"The new tenant will already have lost a year, for it is November, and
+all the fields are lying fallow. But in spite of that, I offer not only
+to include the past year in the term, but also to be responsible for the
+irrecoverable rent."</p>
+
+<p>His excellency tapped twice on the lid of his gold snuff-box, and pursed
+his lips together. Well, thought he, this is a man of gold. He is not
+such a fool as he looks. He guesses that the treasury would like to take
+the commissariat out of the hands of the war office, and that all this
+was mixed up with the inquiry at Komorn. Then, after that horrible
+fiasco, the clattering swords are at the top of the tree, and would be
+very glad to get the manipulation of the lands on the military frontier
+into their own hands. They think it would be a good milch-cow, and the
+deficit caused by the bankruptcy of the Levetincz tenant gives them a
+pretext. And now this fellow does not combine with the enemies of the
+treasury which persecuted him, but comes over to us, and will improve
+our position and help us out of our difficulty. A man of gold indeed,
+and to be properly appreciated! "Good!" said his excellency; "I see you
+are an honest man. You had some cause to complain of us, but abstained:
+you will see that this is the right way for a good citizen to act. Just
+to show you that the state knows how to reward patriotic subjects, I
+guarantee you the acceptance of your offer. Come to my office to-night.
+I pledge you my word as to the result."</p>
+
+<p>Timar presented his offer in writing, and took leave with low bows. His
+excellency was pleased with this man. In the first place, he is wise
+enough to look over the injustice done to him, which if he had followed
+it up would have brought unpleasant scandal on the department. Secondly,
+he offers the government an advantageous rent, fifty per cent higher
+than the last. Thirdly, he comes to the aid of the exchequer with a
+generous offer, and enables them victoriously to repel the attack of the
+war department. He is a threefold man of gold&mdash;no, fourfold&mdash;but of that
+his excellency knows nothing as yet. He was to learn it for the first
+time when he went home to dinner at his palace, and his stud-groom
+informed him that the gentleman from Hungary who had been commissioned
+by his excellency to bid for the eight thousand gulden horses had
+brought them home, and would personally report particulars of their
+price to his excellency.</p>
+
+<p>A four-fold treasure!</p>
+
+<p>When Timar visited the great man in his office that evening, he saw on
+every face a polite smile&mdash;the reflection of gold. His excellency met
+him at the door, and led him to the table. There lay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> the contract
+outspread; complete with all signatures, with the greater and lesser
+seals affixed. "Read&mdash;I hope you will be satisfied."</p>
+
+<p>The first thing which surprised Timar was that the lease ran for twenty
+years instead of ten.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, are you satisfied with the term."</p>
+
+<p>Was he satisfied! The second surprising thing was his own name, "Michael
+Timar, Baron von Levetinczy."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you like your title?"</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_SECOND_IV" id="CHAPTER_SECOND_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+<span class="subhead">MICHAEL TIMAR, BARON VON LEVETINCZY.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>"The diploma of nobility shall be sent to you," said the great man with
+a gracious smile.</p>
+
+<p>Timar signed his name, with the addition of his new title, to the
+contract.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not be in a hurry," said his excellency, "I have something more to
+say. It is a duty of the government to distinguish those who have
+deserved it by their services to the nation. Especially in regard to
+such as have won universal recognition in the regions of commerce and
+political economy. Could you name any one whom I could recommend in the
+highest quarters for the decoration of the Iron Crown?"</p>
+
+<p>His excellency was quite prepared to receive for answer&mdash;"Here is my own
+button-hole, sir; you can find no better place for your order of merit.
+If you only want an honest man, here am I." And the offer was made with
+this idea.</p>
+
+<p>So much the greater was the astonishment of the minister when Michael
+Timar-Levetinczy after a brief pause replied&mdash;"Yes, sir, I will make so
+free as to point out a person who has long enjoyed universal respect,
+who has secretly been the benefactor of the district where he lives; it
+is no other than the Dean of Plesscovacz, Cyril Sandorovics, who
+deserves this distinction in an imminent degree."</p>
+
+<p>The minister started back. An individual had never before come under his
+notice who, on being asked&mdash;"To whom shall I give this order," had not
+turned to the mirror, and pointing to himself, replied&mdash;"Give it to this
+worthy man!" but who instead of that had indicated with his finger the
+furthest limit of the national map, and there seeking out a country
+priest, not his brother-in-law or godfather, not even a priest of his
+own church, had said&mdash;"This is a better man than I." Indeed this is a
+man of pure gold. A gold worker would have to mix at least three carats
+of silver with him before he would be malleable. But as the question has
+been asked, it must be seriously considered. "Good, good," replied the
+great man, "but the bestowal of an order involves certain formalities.
+The sovereign can not contemplate the eventuality of a refusal: the
+person to whom such a distinction falls must go through the form of
+personally applying for it."</p>
+
+<p>"His reverence is a very modest man, and would only, if I know him,
+decide on such a step on receiving an invitation from high quarters."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>"Indeed? I understand. A line from my hand would suffice? Good. As it is
+recommended by you, it shall be done. Yes; the state must reward modest
+merit."</p>
+
+<p>And the great man wrote with his own hand a few lines to the Rev. Dean
+Cyril Sandorovics, with the assurance that, if he desired it, he should
+receive the decoration of the Iron Crown in return for services. Timar
+thanked his excellency warmly for this favor, and was assured of his
+high protection for all future time. And, further, Timar had the
+pleasure of finding that in the whole office, where one generally has to
+go through every kind of tiresome formality, here every one was at his
+service, so that he only required an hour to get through his business,
+while it would have taken any one else weeks before he could get out of
+this official labyrinth. The water-jug of the Orsova purifier was there
+in an invisible shape!</p>
+
+<p>It was night before he had packed all the documents relative to his
+completed contract in his portmanteau. And now for speed! He neither
+supped nor slept, but hastened to the Golden Lamb, where the mail-cart
+put up. In the bar he bought a roll and a smoked sausage, which he put
+in his pocket; he could eat them on the journey. Then he called to the
+driver, "We must be off at once&mdash;spare neither whip nor horses. I will
+give you a gulden an hour for yourself, and pay double price for my
+place." It was needless to say more.</p>
+
+<p>Two minutes later the mail-cart was dashing through the streets of
+Vienna with great cracking of whips, the police in vain calling out that
+it was forbidden in Vienna. The courier-posts, which at that time took
+the place of railways, formed one connected chain between Vienna and
+Semlin. The horses stood harnessed day and night, and as soon the crack
+of the whip at one end of the village announced the approach of the
+post, the postmaster brought out the new team from the stable, and in
+two minutes the cart with the fresh horses rolled away over hill and
+dale at a gallop. If two post-carts met on the road they changed horses
+and drivers, who then had only half the distance to go back. The speed
+of the journey was regulated by the amount of the pay.</p>
+
+<p>Timar sat in the cart two days and nights without getting down for a
+meal, let alone a night's rest. He was quite used to sleeping in the
+carriage, in spite of shaking and rolling and knocking about.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the second day he was in Semlin, whence he drove all
+night to the first village on the Levetinczy estate.</p>
+
+<p>It was fine mild weather for the first of December. He drove to the
+little town hall, and sent for the village judge; he told him he was the
+new tenant of the estate, and requested him to make known to the farmers
+that they could rent the land in shares as in former years. During the
+two last years the fields which bore no fruit had lain as good as
+fallow, so that there would be a prospect of a rich harvest for the next
+season. The weather was favorable, the autumn lasting long; by setting
+to work at once there was still time to plow and sow.</p>
+
+<p>That was all very well, they replied; plowing could be managed if the
+principal thing, seed-corn, were not wanting. It was not to be got for
+love or money. The landowners had only with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> greatest difficulty
+secured any for themselves; poor people would have to live on maize all
+the winter.</p>
+
+<p>Timar gave the consoling assurance that he would take care that they did
+not want for seed-corn, and so he went through the other villages whose
+inhabitants farmed as subtenants, and who, on his permission, got out
+their plows and went to turn over the fields which had been allowed to
+lie fallow a whole year. But where was the seed to come from? It was too
+late to get grain from Wallachia, and there was none in the
+neighborhood. But Timar knew where to get it. On the 2d December he
+reached Plesscovacz, whence a short time before he had almost been
+driven by force, and sought out his reverence, Cyril Sandorovics, who
+had then turned him out of his house.</p>
+
+<p>"Aha! my son, are you here again?" This was his reception by the
+venerable gentleman, that friend and benefactor of the people who ought
+long ago to have received the order of the Iron Crown if he had not been
+so retiring. "What do you want now? To buy grain? I told you two months
+ago I had none, and could not sell any. It is no use talking! You will
+lie in vain, for I don't believe a word you say. You have a Greek name
+and a long mustache. I don't trust your face."</p>
+
+<p>Timar smiled. "Well, this time nothing but truth shall pass my lips."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell that to the other people. You dealers from the upper country are
+always deceiving us. You pretend there was a poor harvest in your parts
+and drive our prices down. When you wanted to buy hay from us, you
+spread the report that the government was going to sell all its horses.
+You are a rascally lot."</p>
+
+<p>"But now I tell you the truth. I am here with a commission from the
+government to beg your reverence in their name to open your granaries.
+The government having heard that the people are in need of seed-corn,
+wishes to divide among them some supplies of grain. This is a sacred
+purpose, a great benefit to be conferred on the people, and whoever
+assists them in this renders them a great service. I am not to receive
+the grain, but it is to be delivered to the farmers, who will use it for
+seed-corn."</p>
+
+<p>"My son, that is all very true, and I am very sorry for the poor people,
+but I have no grain. Where should I get it? I had no harvest. There is
+my great stupid barn, but all three floors are empty."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not empty, reverend sir. I know very well that three years'
+harvest is stored away there: I could get at least ten thousand measures
+out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"You would get trash. Spare yourself the trouble. I would not sell for
+five gulden a measure; in the spring it will be seven gulden, and then I
+will sell. You lie in your throat when you say the government sends you;
+you only want to make your own profit, and not a grain will you get from
+me. Much the government knows about you and me; we might as well be in
+the moon for all it cares!"</p>
+
+<p>Till now the fortress had held out bravely against small arms. But Timar
+put his hand in his pocket and brought out a four-and-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>twenty pounder,
+the minister's letter. When the reverend gentleman had read it he could
+hardly believe his own eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The great seal on the envelope with the imperial double eagle, the stamp
+of the exchequer on the paper, left no room for doubt. It was no
+deception but the absolute truth.</p>
+
+<p>To wear that brilliant cross upon his breast had long been the <i>ne plus
+ultra</i> of his dreams. Timar knew of this weakness of the dean's, who
+often, as they sat over their wine, had bitterly complained of the
+injustice of the government in heaping decorations on the patriarch at
+Carlovitz. Why give all to one and send the other empty away? Now he had
+attained his greatest desire&mdash;how the peasants will gape at him when he
+has attached this order to his breast, and how the Tschaikiss captain
+will envy him, having none of his own! Even the patriarch will be a
+degree more condescending in future. Meanwhile, his own manner to Timar
+had suddenly undergone a great change.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, little brother!" (until now he had not even offered a
+seat)&mdash;"tell me, how did you get to know their excellencies? Why did
+they intrust the letter to you?"</p>
+
+<p>Timar told him some story or other, and lied like print. He had given up
+his post under Brazovics and taken service under government. He had
+great influence with the minister, and it was he who had recommended his
+reverence for this distinction, as a good old friend of his own.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew you were not such a fool as you look; that's why I have always
+liked you so much. Now, my son, because you have such a beautiful Greek
+name, and such an honest face, you shall have the grain. How much do you
+want? Ten, twelve thousand measures? I will sell you all I have. Not to
+please the minister, no, indeed! but for the sake of your own honest
+face, and to do good to the poor people. What price did I say? Five
+gulden? I will tell you what, I will give it to <i>you</i> for four gulden
+nineteen kreutzers. You pay cash down? Or shall I get the money in
+Vienna? I shall be going there, and can do it at the same time. I must
+thank his excellency in person for this honor. You will come and
+introduce me? Or if you want to have nothing to do with it, tell me at
+any rate what sort of a man he is. Is he big or little, friendly or
+haughty? Will he give me the cross himself? Does he like good Carlovitz
+and Vermuth? Now then, you shall taste some yourself."</p>
+
+<p>In vain Timar assured him he must go back that night to Levetinczy, to
+give orders to the steward to send the tenants for the seed-corn. The
+friendly host would not part with his guest, but placed the servant at
+his disposal, who could ride to Levetinczy and deliver the instructions.
+Michael must remain overnight with him. The reverend gentleman had
+glasses with rounded bottoms, which when they were filled could not be
+laid down till they were empty. He gave one to Timar, took another
+himself, and so they caroused till morning. And Timar showed no signs of
+drink; he had lived in that district and had got used to it. Early in
+the morning the farmers came with their wagons to the dean's court-yard.
+When they saw that the doors of the three-storied granary were really
+open, they said to Timar he was the right sort of saint and could work<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+miracles. In the barn were supplies for three years, more than was
+required for all their winter seed.</p>
+
+<p>Timar never left the estate he had rented until the winter frosts set
+in, which stopped field-work for the season. But it was enough for the
+present. The remaining acres would do for spring-sowing, or as fallows,
+or for pasture. On the whole estate of thirty thousand acres there were
+only a few hundred acres of meadow-land, all the rest was arable and of
+the first class. If the next year should be favorable, the harvest would
+be superabundant.</p>
+
+<p>It was sown at exactly the right time. October remained dry and windy to
+the end. Those who had sown before that might be sure of a bad crop, for
+the legions of marmots had scratched out the seed before it sprung up.
+Those who sowed during the wet November were no better off, for it had
+snowed early, and in the warm ground, under the snow-covering, the seed
+rotted; but when the snow had melted, a long mild spell set in which
+lasted till Christmas. Whoever had sown then could congratulate himself;
+the marmots were gone; frost now came before snow, and under the
+beautiful white covering the treasure intrusted to the soil lay safely
+hidden till spring. Farming is a game of chance. Six or nothing! Timar
+threw six.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed such a fruitful year that whoever had profited by the
+favorable season in Banat received twenty-fold in crops.</p>
+
+<p>In this year Timar brought thirty cargoes of the finest wheat to Komorn
+and Raab, and these thirty had cost him no more than three to another
+person. It depended on himself whether to make half a million of profit
+or a hundred thousand more or less&mdash;either to make poor people's bread
+cheaper, or to hold a knife to the throat of his competitors.</p>
+
+<p>It lay with him to drive prices down as low as he chose. In Brazovics'
+caf&eacute; there was angry talk every evening among the assembled
+corn-dealers. He scatters money like chaff, and squanders his goods as
+if they were stolen. If only he would come among them they would get him
+by the throat!</p>
+
+<p>But he does not come; he goes nowhere and seeks no acquaintances. He
+takes care to tell no one what he is going to do, and all he undertakes
+turns into gold. Many new industries are called into being by him, which
+might have occurred to anyone else: they lay, so to speak, in the
+street, and only wanted picking up; but they were only noticed by others
+when this man had already got hold of them. He is always in movement,
+traveling here and there, and people wonder why he goes on living in
+this town; why he does not move to Vienna; why he, who is so rich, has
+his headquarters in Komorn, though it was certainly then an important
+commercial center.</p>
+
+<p>Timar knows what keeps him there. He knows why he lives in a town where
+all his mercantile colleagues are his sworn enemies, where the people
+sitting before Brazovics' caf&eacute; send a curse after him every time he
+passes. That house too he means to get into his clutches, with all that
+therein is. This it was which kept him in Komorn, when already he was
+the owner of a million and a half; he remained where they still called
+him Timar, and had not got used to his noble title of Levetinczy.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>Yet he knew how to suit noble deeds to his noble name. He founded an
+hospital for the poor of the town, he endowed the Protestant schools;
+even the chalice turned to gold in his hands. Instead of the silver one
+he presented a golden one to the church. His door was always open to the
+poor, and every Friday a long line of beggars went through the streets
+to his house, where each received a piece of money, the largest copper
+coin in existence, the so-called "schuster-thaler." People said that
+when a sailor was drowned, Timar maintained his orphans and gave a
+pension to his widow. A heart of gold indeed! A man of gold!</p>
+
+<p>But in his heart a voice continually whispered, "It is not true! It is
+all false!"</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_SECOND_V" id="CHAPTER_SECOND_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+<span class="subhead">A GIRL'S HEART.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Herr Brazovics usually drank coffee after dinner, and had it served in
+the ladies' sitting-room, which he filled unmercifully with clouds of
+Latakia tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>Katschuka sat whispering with Athalie at a little table, at the corner
+of which Frau Sophie pretended to be busy sewing. (For years this table
+had been ostentatiously spread with needle-work and knitting, so that
+visitors might imagine they were occupied with the trousseau.)</p>
+
+<p>Herr Katschuka almost lived in the house; he came in the forenoon, was
+pressed to stay to dinner, and only found his way home late in the
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>It would appear that the fortifications of Komorn were complete, as the
+engineer officer had the whole day to spend with Fra&uuml;lein Athalie. But
+the fortifications of Herr Katschuka's own fortress could not hold out
+any longer&mdash;the time was come for his marriage. He resisted like a
+second Zriny. When driven from the outworks, he retreated to the
+citadel. He always had some plausible pretext for delaying the marriage.
+Now, however, the last mine had been exploded. His deposit was indorsed
+by the Brazovics firm, and the council of war had accepted their receipt
+instead of money down; a house had been found for the young couple, and
+besides all this Katschuka had received his promotion to the rank of
+captain. This removed his last excuse; the last cartridge of the
+besieged had been expended, and nothing remained but to capitulate, and
+take the rich and beautiful girl home.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Brazovics became more and more venomous every day when he drank his
+coffee with the ladies; and the man by whom his coffee was poisoned was
+always Timar.</p>
+
+<p>This was his daily <i>delenda est Carthago</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"What confounded tricks that fellow is up to! While other honest dealers
+are glad to rest in winter from their labors, he is busy with things
+that no cat would think of. He has hired the Platten-See now, and fishes
+under the ice: a little while ago his people caught three hundredweight
+of fish in one haul. It is a theft! Before the spring comes he will have
+cleared the Platten-See, so that not a single perch, not a shad nor a
+roach, not a gar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>fish, let alone a fogasch,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> will be left in it. And
+he sends them all to Vienna. As if that was what fogasch swam in the
+Balaton lake for&mdash;that those Germans might eat them! The damned
+scoundrel! The government ought to set a price on his head. Sooner or
+later I will get rid of him, that's certain. When he goes over the
+bridge I will get a couple of fishermen to throw him into the Danube; I
+will pay a sentry a couple of gulden to shoot him by accident when he
+passes in the dark; I'll turn a mad dog into his yard, that it may bite
+him when he comes out in the morning. They ought to hang the rascal!
+I'll set his house on fire, that he may burn with it! And they ennoble
+such a fellow! In the town council they make him assessor, and the
+good-for-nothing sits at the green table with me. I, whose grandfather
+was of ancient Hungarian nobility, must suffer him near me, this runaway
+rogue!</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Leucia perca.</p></div>
+
+<p>"But just let him attempt to come near this caf&eacute;. I'll set a band upon
+him who will throw him out of the window and break his neck! If ever I
+sat down to table with him I would season his soup so that he would soon
+be on his back like a dead fish! And this vagabond pays visits to
+ladies! This Timar, this former supercargo, who used to be a mud-lark!
+If he happened to be in the company of a brave officer who would call
+him out, and spit him like a frog&mdash;so!"</p>
+
+<p>Herr Brazovics threw a meaning glance on Herr Katschuka, who seemed as
+if he had heard nothing. He had heard well enough; but what had
+principally struck him in the monologue of his future father-in-law was
+that the new millionaire must have made a great breach in the riches of
+Herr Brazovics, and that this rage was caused by the threatened ruin of
+the firm. A thought not calculated to increase the officer's joy at the
+approaching wedding-day.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I will not wait for some one else to get rid of him!" said
+Brazovics at last, and stood up, laid aside his chibouque, and fetched
+his bamboo cane from its corner. "I have a dagger. I bought it since the
+fellow settled here, on purpose for him" (and that he might be believed
+he drew the sharp blade out of his sword-stick). "There it is! The first
+time we meet alone, I will stick it into him and nail him to the wall
+like a bat. And that I swear!"</p>
+
+<p>And he tried by rolling his bloodshot eyes to give emphasis to his
+threat. He drank the rest of his coffee standing, drew on his overcoat,
+and said he was going to business.</p>
+
+<p>He would come home early (that is, early in the morning). Every one was
+glad when he went.</p>
+
+<p>Just as Herr Brazovics went carefully down the steps to the street&mdash;for
+his corpulence prevented his running down-stairs&mdash;who should come to
+meet him but&mdash;Timar!</p>
+
+<p>Now is his chance; at striking distance, and in a dark place where no
+one can see them. We know by history that most murders are committed on
+the stairs. Timar had no weapon with him, not even a walking-stick; but
+Herr Athanas had a stiletto two feet long.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>When he saw Timar, he put his sword-stick under his arm, and cried aloud
+as he took off his hat, "Your obedient servant! good-day to you, Herr
+von Levetinczy!"</p>
+
+<p>Timar answered with a "Servant, Nazi&mdash;off to business again?"</p>
+
+<p>"He! he! he!" laughed Herr Brazovics jovially, like a boy who is caught
+in a bit of mischief. "Now then, Michael, won't you keep us company?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shouldn't think of it. If you want to win a couple of hundred gulden
+from me, I had better pay them now; but to sit the whole night gambling
+and drinking, no, thank you."</p>
+
+<p>"He! he! he! Well, go up to the ladies then; they are upstairs. A
+pleasant evening to you. I sha'n't see you again to-day."</p>
+
+<p>And they parted with a hearty shake of the hand, for Herr Athanas does
+not mean anything by his threats. No one is afraid of him, in spite of
+his frightful voice and imposing appearance, not even his
+wife&mdash;especially his wife. He knows well enough that Timar goes
+regularly to his house, and arranges to be away when he comes. Frau
+Sophie has not concealed her opinion that the visits are doubtless owing
+to the fine eyes of Athalie. Well, that is Katschuka's affair: if he
+does not spit his rival like a frog it is his own fault; he has been
+warned. But he does not seem inclined to do it, though Timar and Athalie
+are often together.</p>
+
+<p>And why the devil should the captain challenge Timar? They are as good
+friends as ever they were.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Brazovics guessed&mdash;indeed he had means of knowing&mdash;that it was no
+other than Captain Katschuka who had opened the door through which Timar
+had attained his riches. Why he had done so was easy to imagine. He
+wanted to get rid of Athalie, and it would suit him very well if
+Brazovics intervened and forbid him the house.</p>
+
+<p>But that was just what he did not do, but overflowed with tenderness for
+the captain&mdash;his son-in-law. There was no way out of it: he must marry
+Athalie. The captain has long been betrothed to Athalie, to whom a
+dangerous rival pays daily court&mdash;a rich man whom he ought to hate,
+because he left him in the lurch in the quarrel between the treasury and
+the war office, and yet the captain is so fond of his old friend that he
+is capable of forgiving him if he ran away with his bride.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie despises Timar, once her father's clerk, but treats him
+nevertheless in a friendly way. She is passionately in love with the
+captain, but pays attention to Timar in his presence to make him
+jealous.</p>
+
+<p>Sophie hates Timar, but receives him with honeyed words, as if it were
+her dearest wish to have him for her son-in-law, and live under the same
+roof with him.</p>
+
+<p>Timar, on the other hand, means to ruin the whole of them&mdash;the master,
+the mistress, the young lady, and the bridegroom; all of them he would
+like to turn into the street, and yet he visits at the house, kisses the
+ladies' hands, and endeavors to make himself agreeable.</p>
+
+<p>They are all civil to him. Athalie plays the piano to him. Frau Sophie
+keeps him to supper, and offers him coffee and preserved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> fruits. Timar
+drinks the coffee with the thought that perhaps there is rat-poison in
+it.</p>
+
+<p>When the supper-table is brought, Tim&eacute;a appears, and helps to lay it.
+Then Timar hears no more of Athalie's words or music; he has eyes only
+for Tim&eacute;a. It was a pleasure to see the pretty creature. She was fifteen
+and already almost a woman, but her expression and na&iuml;ve awkwardness
+were those of a child. She could speak Hungarian, though with a curious
+accent, and sometimes with a wrong word or phrase&mdash;ridiculous, of
+course, but not wholly unknown even in Parliament, and during the most
+serious debates.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie had made an acquisition in Tim&eacute;a: she had now some one to make
+fun of. The poor child served her as a toy. She gave her old clothes to
+wear which had been fashionable years ago. At one time people wore a
+high comb turned backward, over which the hair was drawn, and on the top
+rose a gigantic bow of colored ribbon. They wore crinoline round their
+shoulders instead of their waists, having huge sleeves stuffed and
+padded. This dress looked well when in fashion; but a few years after
+the vogue had passed, its revival suggested a masquerade.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie found it amusing to dress up Tim&eacute;a thus. In taste the poor
+child, never having seen European fashions, stood on a par with a wild
+Indian: the more remarkable the dress the better she liked it. She was
+charmed when Athalie dressed her in the queer old silk gowns, and struck
+the high comb and bright ribbon in her hair. She thought she looked
+lovely, and took the smiles of the people whom she met in the street for
+admiration, hastening on so as not to be stared at. In the town she was
+always called "the mad Turkish girl."</p>
+
+<p>And it was easy to make fun of her without her taking it ill. Athalie
+took special delight in making the poor child an object of ridicule
+before gentlemen. If young men were present, she encouraged them to pay
+court to Tim&eacute;a, and it amused her highly when she saw that Tim&eacute;a
+accepted these attentions seriously; how pleased she was to be treated
+like a grown-up lady, to be asked to dance at balls, or when some
+pretended admirer offered her a faded bouquet, and extracted some quaint
+expression of thanks in reply, which caused the company to burst into
+fits of laughter. How Athalie's laugh resounded on these occasions!</p>
+
+<p>Frau Sophie took a more serious view of Tim&eacute;a. She scolded her
+continually; all she did was wrong. Adopted children are often awkward,
+and the more Tim&eacute;a was scolded the more awkward she became. Then
+Fra&uuml;lein Athalie defended her. "But, mamma, don't be always scolding the
+girl! You treat her like a servant. Tim&eacute;a is not a servant, and I won't
+have you always going on at her!"</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a kissed Sophie's hand that she might cease to be angry, and
+Athalie's out of gratitude for taking her part, and then the hands of
+both that they might not quarrel. She was an humble, thankful creature.
+Frau Sophie only waited till she had left the room to say to her
+daughter what was on the tip of her tongue, in order that the other
+guests, Timar and Katschuka, might hear. "We ought to get her used to
+being a servant. You know her misfortune: the money which Timar&mdash;I mean
+Herr von Levetinczy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>&mdash;saved for her was invested in an insurance
+company. It has failed and the money is gone. She has nothing but what
+she stands up in."</p>
+
+<p>(So they have already brought her to beggary, thought Timar, and felt
+his heart lighter, like a student who is let off a year before his
+time.)</p>
+
+<p>"It annoys me," said Athalie, "that she is so unimpressionable. You may
+scold her or laugh at her, it is all the same. She never blushes."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a peculiarity of the Greek race," remarked Timar.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" said Athalie, contemptuously. "It is a sign of sickliness.
+That artificial white complexion could be attained by any school-girl
+who chose to eat chalk and burned coffee-berries."</p>
+
+<p>She spoke to Timar, but looked toward Herr Katschuka. He, however, was
+glancing at the large mirror in which one could see when Tim&eacute;a came
+back. Athalie saw it, and it did not escape Timar's notice.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a now came in, carrying a large tray of clinking glasses, her whole
+attention concentrated on preventing one from falling.</p>
+
+<p>When Frau Sophie shrieked at her, "Take care not to drop them!" she did
+let the whole tray fall. Fortunately the glasses fell on the soft
+carpet, and did not break, but rolled about.</p>
+
+<p>The mistress would have burst out in a storm, but Athalie silenced her
+with the words, "That was your fault; why did you scream at her? Remain
+here with me, Tim&eacute;a; the servant shall bring the coffee."</p>
+
+<p>That made Sophie angry, and she went out and brought it all in herself.
+But at the instant when Tim&eacute;a let the glasses fall, Katschuka, with
+military promptitude, sprung up, collected the glasses, and put them all
+on the tray, still held by Tim&eacute;a's trembling fingers. The girl cast a
+grateful look on him out of her large dark eyes, which was seen by both
+Athalie and Timar.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain Katschuka," whispered Athalie to her <i>fianc&eacute;</i>, "just for a joke
+make the little thing fall in love with you; pretend to pay court to
+her; it will be great fun. Tim&eacute;a, you sup with us to-night; come and sit
+down here by the captain."</p>
+
+<p>This might be a cruel joke, or perhaps scornful raillery; or was it an
+ironical outbreak of awakened jealousy, or was it pure wickedness? We
+shall see what comes of it.</p>
+
+<p>With feverish excitement and ill-concealed delight, the girl sat down
+opposite Athalie secure in conquering charms, who, while encouraging her
+<i>fianc&eacute;</i> to pay compliments to Tim&eacute;a, did it like a queen who throws a
+gold piece to a beggar. The child is made happy by the gift for a day,
+and she herself does not feel its loss.</p>
+
+<p>The captain offered the sugar-basin to Tim&eacute;a; she could not manage the
+tongs.</p>
+
+<p>"Take the sugar with your pretty little white hand," said he to the
+girl, who was so confused that she put the lump into the tumbler instead
+of the coffee cup. No one had ever told her that she had a pretty white
+hand. These words remained on her mind, and she looked often privately
+at her hands to see if they were really white and pretty. Athalie could
+hardly suppress a smile. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> found it amusing to carry on the
+jest&mdash;"Tim&eacute;a, offer the cakes to the captain."</p>
+
+<p>The girl lifted the glass dish from its silver stand, and handed it to
+Katschuka.</p>
+
+<p>"Now then, choose one for him."</p>
+
+<p>By accident she chose one in the shape of a heart. She certainly did not
+know that it represented a heart, nor what it meant.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is too much for me!" laughed the captain; "I can only take it,
+if pretty Miss Tim&eacute;a divides it with me." And with that he broke the
+heart in two and gave part to Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>The girl left it on her plate; she would not have eaten it for the
+world. Jealously guarding it with her eyes, she did not wait till Frau
+Sophie or the servant should change the plates, but hastened to remove
+the dish of cakes herself and to vanish with them from the room. No
+doubt she will keep this half-heart, and it will be found in her
+possession. That will be droll! There is nothing easier than to turn the
+head of a girl of fifteen, who takes everything in earnest and believes
+the first man who tells her that she has pretty hands.</p>
+
+<p>And Herr Katschuka was just the man not to forgive himself if he came
+near a pretty girl without paying her attention. He paid court even to
+older women; that he could do without scruple. But even to the
+house-maid, when she lighted him to the door, he could not resist paying
+compliments. His ambition was to make every girl's heart beat higher at
+the sight of his blue uniform.</p>
+
+<p>Still Athalie was certain that she was the ruling planet. But it was, of
+course, worth his while to take a little trouble for Tim&eacute;a. She was only
+a child; but one could see she would be a beauty. Then she was an
+orphan, and a Turkish girl, not baptized, and not quite right in her
+head&mdash;all reasons for flattering her without compunction. Herr Katschuka
+let no chance escape him, and thereby gave great amusement to his bride.</p>
+
+<p>One evening Athalie said to Tim&eacute;a, as she was going to bed, "I say,
+Tim&eacute;a, the captain has proposed for you. Will you accept him?"</p>
+
+<p>The child looked at Athalie quite frightened, ran to her couch, and drew
+the covering over her head, so that no one should see her.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie was highly entertained that the girl could not sleep on account
+of these words&mdash;that she should toss restlessly on her bed, and sigh
+wakefully all night. The delicate jest had succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Tim&eacute;a was unusually quiet. She laid aside her childish
+manner; thoughtful melancholy lay on her features; and she became
+monosyllabic. The philter had done its work.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie let the whole household into the secret. They were to treat
+Tim&eacute;a henceforward as a future bride&mdash;as the betrothed of Herr
+Katschuka. The servants, the mistress, all took part in the comedy.</p>
+
+<p>Let no one say this was a heathenish jest; on the contrary, it was a
+Christian one.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie said to Tim&eacute;a:</p>
+
+<p>"Here, see, the captain has sent you an engagement-ring; but you must
+not put it on your finger as long as you are a heretic. You must first
+become a Christian. Will you be baptized?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>Tim&eacute;a crossed her hands on her breast and bowed her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you shall be baptized first. That this may be done, you must learn
+the articles of faith, the catechism, the Bible history, psalms, and
+prayers; you must go to the priest and to the schoolmaster to be
+instructed. Will you do that?"</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a only nodded. And now she went every day to be taught, with her
+books under her arm like a little school-girl; and late at night, when
+the rest were in bed, she went to the empty sitting-room, and sat half
+the night learning by heart the ten plagues of Egypt, and the highly
+moral histories of Samson and Delilah, Joseph and Potiphar's wife.
+Learning was difficult to her, as she was not used to it. But what would
+she not have done to be baptized?</p>
+
+<p>"You see," said Athalie, often in Timar's presence, "without this hope
+in her mind we should never have induced her to be converted and to
+study in order to be baptized."</p>
+
+<p>So it was quite a pious work to turn the child's head, and make her
+fancy she was already betrothed. And Timar must look on at the cruel
+trick played on the girl without moving a finger to prevent it. What
+could he say? She would never understand. And his coming to the house
+made it worse, for it justified the fable in her eyes. She was often
+told that the rich Herr von Levetinczy visited them on Athalie's
+account, which seemed to her quite natural. The rich man woos a rich
+girl. They suit each other. Who should suit the poor Hungarian officer
+better than the poor daughter of a Turkish officer? Nothing more
+natural. She studied day and night, and when she had finished with the
+catechism and the psalter, they found a new trick to play upon her. They
+said the wedding-day was fixed, but there was still much to be done to
+the trousseau. On account of the dresses, linen, and other details, the
+day could not be a very early one. And then her wedding-dress! That the
+bride herself must embroider. This is also a Turkish custom and suited
+Tim&eacute;a, who knew how to work beautifully in gold and silver, for the
+harems are all instructed in that art.</p>
+
+<p>She was given Athalie's dress, in order to execute upon it the beautiful
+designs which had been taught her at home. Of course they told her it
+was her own. Tim&eacute;a drew lovely arabesques upon it, and began to
+embroider them. A perfect masterpiece grew under her fingers; she worked
+at it from early morning till late evening, and did not even lay it
+aside when visitors came, with whom she conversed without looking up,
+and that was fortunate, as then she could not see how they made fun of
+her. Timar, who had to look on at all this, often left the house with
+such bitterness in his heart that he struck the two marble pillars at
+the door with all his force. He would have liked to do as Samson did,
+and pull the house of the Philistines down on his head.</p>
+
+<p>How long will he allow it to stand?</p>
+
+<p>The day to which Tim&eacute;a looked forward with secret alarm was really fixed
+for Herr Katschuka's marriage&mdash;but with Fra&uuml;lein Athalie. Only that
+various hinderances stood in the way of its arrival. Not in the stars,
+nor in the hearts of the lovers, but in the financial position of Herr
+Brazovics.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>When the captain asked Athanas for his daughter's hand, he told him
+plainly that he could only marry if the wife's dowry was sufficient to
+keep house upon.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Brazovics made no objection. He was not going to be stingy about
+it: he meant to give his daughter a hundred thousand gulden on her
+wedding-day, and they could do as they liked with it. And at the time
+when he made this promise, he was in a position to carry it out. But
+since then Timar had put a spoke in his wheel. He had in many ways
+thrown Herr Brazovics' speculations into confusion, upset his safest
+combination, run him up in the corn-market, outbid him in contracts, and
+barred his road to influential quarters where before he had had
+interest, so that it was no longer possible to pay the dowry down. It
+was well known that his affairs were in confusion, and whoever had a
+claim to his money would be wise to ask for it to-day rather than
+to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>And Herr Katschuka was a wise man.</p>
+
+<p>His future father-in-law tried to persuade him that it would be much
+better to leave the money at interest with him; but the engineer would
+not allow his last redoubt to be taken. He charged the mines, and
+threatened to blow the whole marriage citadel into the air if he did not
+have the money down before the wedding-day.</p>
+
+<p>Then a brilliant idea shot into the head of Athanas. Why not marry
+Athalie to Timar? The exchange would not be a bad one. It is true that
+he hated him and would like to poison him in a spoonful of soup. But if
+he married Athalie his opposition would cease, he would be a member of
+the firm and have its interests at heart.</p>
+
+<p>Timar comes to the house regularly&mdash;if only he were not so modest! He
+must be helped.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon Herr Athanas poured a double dose of anisette into his
+black coffee (a capital way of encouraging one's self), and had it
+brought into his office, giving orders that if Timar came, the ladies
+were to send him into his room.</p>
+
+<p>There he lighted his chibouque, and surrounded himself with such an
+atmosphere of smoke, that as he walked up and down he appeared and
+disappeared alternately, with his great starting, bloodshot eyes, like a
+huge cuttle-fish lying in wait for its prey.</p>
+
+<p>The prey did not keep him waiting long.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Timar heard from Frau Sophie that Athanas wished to speak to
+him, he hastened to his room. The great cuttle-fish swam toward him
+through the smoke, with his horrible fishy eyes fixed upon him, and fell
+upon him just like the sea-monster, while he cried, "Listen to me, sir;
+what is the meaning of your visits to this house? What are your
+intentions with regard to my daughter?"</p>
+
+<p>That is the best way to bring these poltroons to their senses; they get
+startled, their head swims, and before they can turn round they fall
+into the net of holy matrimony. It is no joke to answer such a question
+as that.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing Timar remarked from the speech of Herr Athanas was that
+he had again taken too much anisette. Thence this courage.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," he replied, quietly, "I have no intentions whatever with regard
+to your daughter. So much the less because your daughter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> is engaged,
+and the bridegroom is a good old friend of mine. I will tell you why I
+come to your house. If you had not asked me, I should have kept silence
+longer, but as you inquire I will tell you. I visit your house because I
+swore to your dead friend and kinsman, who came to such a dreadful end,
+that I would look after his orphan child. I come here to see how the
+orphan committed to your care was treated. She is shamefully treated,
+Herr Brazovics, disgracefully! I say it to your face in your own house.
+You have made away with the whole of the girl's property&mdash;defrauded her;
+yes, that is the word. And your whole family carries on a shameful game
+with the poor child. Her mind is being poisoned for her whole life. May
+God's curse light on you for it! And now, Herr Brazovics, we two have
+met for the last time in your house, and you had better pray that you
+may never see the day when I come into it again."</p>
+
+<p>Timar turned on his heel and slammed the door behind him. The
+cuttle-fish drew back into the dusky depths of its smoky lair, poured
+down another glass of anisette, and considered that some answer ought to
+have been given. But what?</p>
+
+<p>For my own part I don't know what he could have said.</p>
+
+<p>Timar went back to the reception-room, not only to get his hat, which he
+had left there, but for something else.</p>
+
+<p>In the room there was no one but Tim&eacute;a; Athalie and her <i>fianc&eacute;</i> were in
+the next room.</p>
+
+<p>In Timar's face, flushed with anger, Tim&eacute;a saw a great change. His
+generally soft and gentle countenance looked proud, and was roused into
+emotion which made it beautiful. Many faces are beautified by passion's
+flame.</p>
+
+<p>He went straight to Tim&eacute;a, who was working golden roses and silver
+leaves on the bridal dress.</p>
+
+<p>"Fra&uuml;lein Tim&eacute;a," he said to her in deeply moved tones, "I come to take
+leave of you. Be happy, remain a child for a long time; but if ever an
+hour comes in which you are unhappy, do not forget that there is some
+one who would&mdash;for you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He could not speak, his voice failed, his heart contracted. Tim&eacute;a
+completed the interrupted phrase&mdash;"Thrice!"</p>
+
+<p>He pressed her hand and stammered brokenly, "Always."</p>
+
+<p>Then he bowed and went, without troubling those in the next room.</p>
+
+<p>No "God be with you!" came from his lips. At this moment he was only
+conscious of the wish that God would withdraw His hand from this house.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a let the work fall, and gazed before her, sighing again, "Thrice!"</p>
+
+<p>The gold thread slipped out of the needle's eye.</p>
+
+<p>As Timar went down the path, he came once more to the two marble pillars
+which supported the veranda. With what rage he struck them! Did those
+above feel the shock! Did not the tottering walls warn them to pray,
+because the roof was falling in on them?</p>
+
+<p>But they were laughing at the mystified child, who worked so diligently
+at her wedding-dress.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_SECOND_VI" id="CHAPTER_SECOND_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+<span class="subhead">ANOTHER JEST.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The newly ennobled Herr von Levetinczy was already, not only in Hungary
+but in Vienna, a famous person. He was said to be a "golden man."
+Everything he touched turned to gold, all he undertook became a gold
+mine; and this is the real gold mine.</p>
+
+<p>The science of the gold digger consists in finding out earlier than his
+rivals what large affairs are in contemplation by the government; and in
+this art Timar was a past master. If he took up any speculation, a whole
+swarm of speculators threw themselves upon it, for they knew money was
+to be had there for the picking up.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not only on that account that Timar was called a "golden
+man," but also for quite another reason.</p>
+
+<p>He never swindled or defrauded any one.</p>
+
+<p>He made large profits, for he undertook large concerns, but he was never
+tempted to steal or lie, for he never risked anything. He shared the
+profit with those on whom it depended whether he received a contract on
+reasonable terms, and in this way kept the source always open.</p>
+
+<p>Once he began to buy up vineyards on the Monostor, the highest point of
+Komorn. It is a sandhill lying above Uj-Sz&ouml;ny, and its wines are very
+poor. But notwithstanding this, Timar bought ten acres of vine-growing
+land there.</p>
+
+<p>This excited attention in the commercial world. What could he want with
+it? There must be some sort of gold mine there.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Brazovics thought he was on the right track, and attacked Katschuka
+on his own ground. "Now, my dear son, tell me the truth; I swear by my
+soul and my honor that I will not betray it to a creature. Confess now,
+the government is going to build fortifications on the Monostor? That
+fellow Timar is buying up all the land: don't let us leave him the whole
+mouthful. It is so, isn't it&mdash;they are going to build a fort there?"</p>
+
+<p>The captain allowed the acknowledgment to be got out of him that there
+might be something in it. The council of war had decided to extend the
+fortifications of Komorn in that direction. There could be no better
+news for Athanas. How many hundred thousand gulden had he made in
+similar circumstances by buying hovels before the expropriation, and
+selling them afterward to the government at the price of palaces? Only
+he would certainly like to have seen the plans, and begged his future
+son-in-law as prettily as possible to let him have just one peep at
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Katschuka did him that favor too, and thus Athanas learned what portion
+would be bought by government. And that wretch of a Timar had really
+pitched on the place where the fort was to be built.</p>
+
+<p>"And what are to be the terms of the expropriation?"</p>
+
+<p>That was the question, and that the captain could not reveal without
+committing a capital crime. But he did it. The terms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> were, that the
+government would pay double the last purchase money.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I know enough," cried Herr Athanas, embracing his son-in-law; "the
+rest is my affair. On your wedding-day the hundred thousand gulden will
+be on your table."</p>
+
+<p>But he was wrong in thinking that he knew enough. He would have done
+well to ask one more question. Herr Katschuka, after saying so much,
+would have told him that too. But Katschuka no longer cared much about
+the hundred thousand gulden, nor yet about what depended on them. It he
+gets them, all right; if not, his hair will not turn gray for lack of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Brazovics hurried off to Uj-Sz&ouml;ny, and went to all the vine-growers to
+ask who had a vineyard to sell. He paid whatever was asked, and if any
+one refused to sell, he offered treble the price. The more he paid the
+better for him. Naturally this attracted the attention of other
+speculators, who arrived in troops and ran up the prices, so that the
+poor "H&ouml;nigler" and "Schafschwanz" wines of Monostor could not
+understand why they had suddenly turned into "Grands Cr&ucirc;s," to be bought
+up even before the vintage.</p>
+
+<p>The price of vineyards ran so high, that the land for which the
+government would have had to pay, before the plans were betrayed, at
+most one hundred thousand gulden, now could not be bought under five
+hundred thousand.</p>
+
+<p>Brazovics had himself bought a fifth of them, though he had the greatest
+difficulty in getting the money together. He got rid of his stock of
+grain, sold his ships, borrowed from the usurers, and made use of
+trust-money committed to his care. This time he was safe! Timar was in
+the swim. He was the worst off, for he had bought cheap and would make a
+very small profit.</p>
+
+<p>But this, too, was perfidy on Timar's part. It was a <i>coup</i> aimed at the
+head of Herr Brazovics. He had learned from Katschuka the one thing
+Athanas had omitted to ask. It was true that the government would this
+year greatly enlarge the fortifications; but the question was, Where
+would they begin? For the work would extend over thirty years.</p>
+
+<p>Here again Timar had done his rivals a bad turn, which would bring their
+maledictions down on him. As a good business man, he took care, whenever
+he had undertaken anything which would bring him curses, to set
+something else to work for which many more would bless him. So that
+between blessing and cursing he might keep a good balance on the credit
+side.</p>
+
+<p>He sent for Johann Fabula and said to him, "Johann, you are getting old;
+many hardships have aged you. Would it not be better to look out for
+some employment which will allow you to rest?"</p>
+
+<p>Fabula was already hoarse, and when he spoke it sounded as if he was
+whispering to the actors from the prompter's box.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; I have often thought of leaving the sea and looking out for
+work on shore; my eyes are weak. I wish you would give me a stewardship
+on your land."</p>
+
+<p>"I know of something better than that. You would never get on with the
+Rascians; you are too much used to the white bread at Komorn. Much
+better turn farmer."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>"I should like it well enough; but there are two things wanting&mdash;the
+land and the stock."</p>
+
+<p>"Both will come in time. I have an idea: the old pastures by the river
+are for sale&mdash;go to the auction and buy them all."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Fabula, with a hoarse laugh, "I should be a fool indeed! It
+is a waste where nothing grows but camomile. Shall I sell it to the
+chemists? And it's a large piece of land; one would want several
+thousand gulden."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't argue, but do as I tell you. Just you go there. Here are the two
+thousand gulden for the deposit, which you must hand in at the auction.
+Then bid till it is knocked down to you, and take it all at the price
+agreed on. Share with no one, whoever offers to go into partnership with
+you. I will lend you the money to pay for it, and you shall repay me
+when you are able. I ask no interest, and you need not give me a
+receipt. The whole bargain shall be a verbal one. There now, shake hands
+on it!"</p>
+
+<p>Johann Fabula shook his head thoughtfully. "No interest, no writing, a
+lump of money, and bad waste land! The end of it will be, that I shall
+be arrested and stripped to my shirt."</p>
+
+<p>"No scruples, my friend; you have it for a year, and whatever you get
+off it meanwhile will be entirely yours."</p>
+
+<p>"But what shall I plow and sow with?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will neither plow nor sow. But go and do what I told you&mdash;the
+harvest will not be wanting; but do not tell any one."</p>
+
+<p>Fabula was in the habit of looking on all that Timar did or said as
+folly <i>&agrave; priori</i>; but nevertheless he acted with absolute obedience on
+his orders, for <i>&agrave; posteriori</i> he had been forced to acknowledge that
+these unheard-of follies had the same result as if they had been wisdom
+personified. So he did as Timar had advised.</p>
+
+<p>And now we will let the reader into the secret of these singular
+proceedings. The plan for the fortification did really exist. But it had
+been suggested to the council by some busybody that it was not necessary
+to execute all the sections at once, and that it would be sufficient for
+the present to expropriate the land lying between the two arms of the
+river, while the portion covered by the Monostor vineyards could wait
+twenty years. Now the speculators who got wind of the new plans had all
+thrown themselves on the sandhill, and no one thought of the shore
+between the two river branches. Herr Fabula got it for twenty thousand
+gulden. The land on the Monostor would not be wanted for twenty years to
+come, and during that time the money invested in the unproductive
+vineyards would all be eaten up by the interest. This was a trick played
+by Timar especially for the benefit of Herr Athanas Brazovics; and as
+soon as he had bought the Monostor vineyards, Timar set every lever in
+motion to prevent the council of war from beginning the fortifications
+on all points at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>Affairs were in this position three days before the time fixed for
+Athalie's wedding.</p>
+
+<p>Two days before it Johann Fabula came flying into Timar's house. Yes,
+flying&mdash;his floating cloak represented the wings.</p>
+
+<p>"Ten thousand! Twenty thousand! Forty thousand! Commission paid! The
+emperor! The king! Pasture! The crop!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> He gasped out disconnected
+words, which Timar at last put together.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Johann; I know what you mean. The commission has come to
+settle the value of the land wanted for the new works. Your fields,
+bought for twenty thousand, will be sold by you for forty thousand: the
+surplus is your profit; that is the crop&mdash;did not I tell you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir; and they were words like those of the golden-mouthed St.
+John. I see very clearly that you told me the truth, and I see that I
+get the twenty thousand gulden for nothing. Never in my life did I earn
+so much money by the hardest work. My senses are going. Do let me turn a
+somersault!"</p>
+
+<p>Timar had no objection. Johann Fabula turned not one but three
+somersaults all across the floor, and then three back again; and then
+stood straight on his legs again before Timar.</p>
+
+<p>"There! now I am all right again. All that money belongs to me."</p>
+
+<p>He came six times that day to pay a visit to Timar. First he brought his
+wife, then his younger daughter, then his married daughter, afterward
+his son who had left college, and the fifth time the little boy who was
+still at school. His wife brought Timar a splendid Komorn loaf of white
+bread with a brown glazed crust; the married daughter a dish of
+beautiful Indian-corn cakes; the unmarried one a plate of red eggs, gilt
+nuts, and honey-cakes decorated with colored paper like a wedding
+present; the big boy, who was a noted bird-catcher, brought a cage full
+of linnets and robins; and the school-boy declaimed a rhymed ode. The
+whole day they overwhelmed him with gratitude, and the sixth time they
+all came together late in the evening and sung in his honor a song of
+praise out of the hymn-book.</p>
+
+<p>But what will his competitors, and especially Herr Brazovics, bring and
+sing to him when they learn how he has entrapped them about the purchase
+of the Monostor?</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_SECOND_VII" id="CHAPTER_SECOND_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE WEDDING-DRESS.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The wedding was to be in three days' time.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday afternoon Athalie went to pay visits in turn to all her school
+friends. It is one of the bride's privileges to pay these visits without
+her mother; they have so much to say to each other the last time in all
+their girlhood.</p>
+
+<p>Frau Sophie was delighted to be allowed to stay at home one day in the
+year, and neither pay nor receive calls&mdash;not to act as chaperon to her
+daughter and listen to conversation in German, of which she did not
+understand a word. She could remain at home and think of her happy
+parlor-maid times&mdash;the days when on an idle Sunday like this she could
+fill her apron with ears of Indian corn, and sit down on the bench
+before the door picking out the grains one by one and cracking them,
+while she chatted and gossiped with her companions. To-day the leisure
+time and the boiled ears of maize were at hand, but the friends and the
+gossip on the bench were wanting. Frau Sophie had allowed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
+maid-servants and the cook to go out, that she might have the kitchen to
+herself; for you can not eat corn in the parlor on account of the husks
+which get strewn about. In the end she found suitable company. Tim&eacute;a
+came creeping up to her. She also had no work to do. The embroidery was
+finished, and the dress had gone to the needle-woman, who would send it
+home at the last moment. Tim&eacute;a was quite suited to the kitchen bench
+beside Frau Sophie. They were both only on sufferance in the house. The
+difference was that Tim&eacute;a felt herself a lady, though every one looked
+on her as a servant; while all the world knew that Frau Sophie was the
+mistress of the house, and yet she felt like a servant. So Tim&eacute;a perched
+herself on the little bench near Frau Sophie, as the nursery-maid and
+the cook do after quarreling all the week, when they make it up on
+Sunday and have a chat together.</p>
+
+<p>Only three days and then the marriage!</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a looked cautiously round to see if any listeners were near to
+overhear, and then in a low voice asked, "Mamma Sophie, do tell me what
+is a wedding like?"</p>
+
+<p>Frau Sophie drew her shoulders up and shook like a person who laughs
+internally, looking with half-shut eyes at the inquiring child. With the
+malicious delight old servants take in deceiving young ones, she
+encouraged the laughable simplicity of the girl. "Yes, Tim&eacute;a," in the
+important tone of a story-teller, "that is a wonderful sight. You will
+see it."</p>
+
+<p>"I tried once to listen at the church door," confessed Tim&eacute;a, frankly;
+"I had crept in when a wedding was going on, but all I could see was
+that the bride and bridegroom stood before a lovely golden shrine."</p>
+
+<p>"That was the altar."</p>
+
+<p>"Then a naughty boy saw me and drove me away, calling out, 'Be off, you
+Turkish brat!' Then I ran away."</p>
+
+<p>"You must know," began Sophie, while she took out a grain at a time and
+put them in her mouth, "that then comes the venerable pope, with a
+golden cap on his head, on his shoulders a robe of rustling silk worked
+with gold, and carrying a great book with clasps in his hand. He reads
+and sings most beautifully, and then the bridal pair kneel on the steps
+of the altar. The pope asks them both whether they love each other."</p>
+
+<p>"And are they obliged to answer?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, silly; and not only that, but the priest reads out of the
+big book an oath to the bridegroom and then afterward to the bride, that
+they will love and keep to each other till death divides them. They
+swear it by the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin and all the saints,
+forever and ever, Amen; and the whole choir repeats the Amen. Then the
+priest takes the two rings from a silver dish and puts one on each of
+their third fingers, makes them clasp hands and winds a golden girdle
+round them, while the precentor and the choir sing to the organ 'Gospodi
+Pomiluj.'"<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">2</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Lord have mercy on us.</p></div>
+
+<p>The melancholy sound of the words "Gospodi Pomiluj" pleased Tim&eacute;a. That
+must be some magic blessing.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>"Then they cover the bridegroom and also the bride with a flowered-silk
+veil from head to foot, and while the pope blesses them the two
+witnesses hold a silver crown over each."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>When Frau Sophie noticed the deep interest of the girl she got warmer
+and warmer, and tried to inflame her fancy with the splendors of the
+Greek ritual. "The choir goes on singing, and the pope takes one crown
+and makes the bridegroom kiss it, then places it on his head and says,
+'I crown thee as servant of God and husband of this handmaid of the
+Lord.' Then he takes the other crown, gives it to the bride to kiss, and
+says to her, 'I crown thee as handmaid of the Lord, and wife of this
+servant of God.' The deacon begins to pray for the young pair, and
+meanwhile the priest leads them three times round the altar, and the
+witnesses take off the veil which covered them. The church is full of
+people, who all look and whisper, 'That is a bride to be kissed. What a
+beautiful pair!'"</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a nodded her head with girlish delight, as if to say, "That is
+delightful; it must be lovely."</p>
+
+<p>"Then the pope brings out a golden cup of wine, and the bride and
+bridegroom drink from it."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there really wine in it?" asked Tim&eacute;a in alarm. Her fear of wine
+came partly from the recollection of the prohibition in the Koran.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course there is&mdash;real wine. Then the bride-maids and groomsmen throw
+maize baked in honey over them; that brings luck. It is lovely, I can
+tell you."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a's eyes shone with the prophetic fire of a magnetic dream. She
+pictured these mysterious proceedings to herself as partly a rite,
+partly an enigma of the heart, and trembled all over. Sophie laughed in
+her sleeve and found this most amusing; a pity she should be disturbed
+in it. Manly steps approached the kitchen door, and some one came in.</p>
+
+<p>What a surprise! it was Herr Katschuka.</p>
+
+<p>The mistress of the house was horrified, for she had only slippers on,
+and her apron full of maize. Which should she hide first? But Tim&eacute;a was
+more frightened, though she had nothing to hide.</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me," said Katschuka, with familiar ease; "I found the doors all
+shut on the other side, so I came round by the kitchen."</p>
+
+<p>"You see," screeched Frau Sophie, "my daughter has gone to visit her
+friends. I sent the maids to church, and we two are the only ones at
+home; so we just sat down in the kitchen. Pray excuse our <i>n&eacute;glig&eacute;e</i>,
+Herr Captain."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't disturb yourself, I will remain here with you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I could not allow it. Here in the kitchen! We have not even a
+chair for the captain."</p>
+
+<p>But Herr Katschuka knew what to do in any emergency. "Don't make a
+stranger of me, Mamma Sophie. Here, this can will do for a seat," and he
+sat down opposite Tim&eacute;a on a pail, and even set the hostess at ease with
+respect to the ears of maize. "That is excellent for dessert; give me a
+handful in my cap. I like it very much."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>Frau Sophie was on the broad grin when she saw that the captain did not
+disdain to take the vulgar sweets in his military cap, and eat a
+quantity without even shelling them. It made him very popular with his
+mother-in-law. "I was in the midst of an interesting conversation with
+Tim&eacute;a," began Sophie; "she was asking me about&mdash;a baptism."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a was on the point of rushing away, if Frau Sophie had told the
+truth; but she would not have been the mother of a marriageable daughter
+if she had not possessed the art of turning the conversation at the
+entrance of an unexpected visitor.</p>
+
+<p>"I was describing a baptism to her. She is quite frightened at it. Just
+look how she is trembling; for I was telling her that she would have to
+be wrapped up like a baby and carried in arms, and that she must cry
+like one. Don't be alarmed, you little fool. It is not true; I was only
+joking. Her greatest trouble is that her hair will be all spoiled."</p>
+
+<p>This requires explanation. Tim&eacute;a had splendid long, thick hair. Athalie
+amused herself by making the hairdresser execute on it the most
+surprising coiffures. Sometimes all the hair was combed up and built
+into a tower, again it was frizzed into wings on each side over the ear;
+in short, the girl had to appear in the most ridiculous head-dresses,
+such as no one had ever worn, and which required unsparing use of tongs,
+pincers, brushes, and pomade. Athalie pretended to do this out of
+affection for her cousin, and the poor child had no idea how she was
+disfigured by it.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Katschuka undeceived her. "Fra&uuml;lein Tim&eacute;a, you need not regret this
+coiffure. It would suit you much better if you wore your hair quite
+plain; you have such lovely hair, that it is a sin to burn it with irons
+and smear it with pomade. Do not allow it; it is a shame to lose any of
+your magnificent hair, and it is soon ruined by the ill-treatment which
+ladies call hairdressing&mdash;it loses its brilliancy, splits at the points,
+breaks easily, and falls early. You do not require all that artificial
+structure. Your hair is so beautiful that you need only plait it
+plainly, to possess the finest of all coiffures." It is possible that
+Herr Katschuka only said this out of a humane sympathy with the
+ill-treated head of hair, and meant merely to free it from the tortures
+inflicted on it. But his words had a deeper effect than he expected:
+From that moment Tim&eacute;a had a feeling as if the comb in her hair was
+splitting her head, and could hardly bear it till the captain had gone.
+He did not stay long, for he took pity on Frau Sophie, who was
+struggling continually to hide her feet in their torn and down-trodden
+slippers. Herr Katschuka promised to look in again in the evening, and
+took his leave. He kissed Frau Sophie's hand, but made a low bow to
+Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly was he out of the door before Tim&eacute;a snatched the large comb from
+her hair, tore down the heaped-up plaits, destroyed the whole edifice,
+then went to the basin and began to wash her hair and her whole head.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you doing there, girl?" said Frau Sophie, angrily. "Will you
+leave off this moment! Let your hair alone. Athalie will be fine and
+angry when she comes home and sees you."</p>
+
+<p>"Let her be angry, for all I care," replied the girl, defiantly; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+she wrung her locks out, sat down behind Frau Sophie, and began to put
+up her loosened hair into a simple threefold plait. Pride was awakened
+in her heart; she began to be less timid; the word of the captain
+infused courage into her&mdash;his wish, his taste, were laws to her. She
+coiled the plait simply into a knot, and wound it round her head as he
+had suggested. The mistress laughed to herself: this child has been made
+a fool of certainly!</p>
+
+<p>While Tim&eacute;a was plaiting her hair, Sophie came nearer and tried to
+wheedle her again.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me tell you more about the wedding. Where did that stupid Katschuka
+interrupt us? If he had only known what we were talking about! Yes, I
+stopped where the bride and bridegroom drink from the cup, the choir and
+the deacon sing 'Gospodi Pomiluj.' Then the pope reads the Gospel, and
+the witnesses hold the crowns over the heads of the couple. The pope
+receives them back, lays them on the silver dish, and says to the
+bridegroom, 'Be praised like Abraham, and blessed like Isaac, and
+increase like unto Jacob;' and to the bride, 'Be praised like Sara,
+happy like Rebecca, and increase like Rachel'&mdash;and after this blessing
+the bride and bridegroom kiss each other three times before the altar
+and before the wedding-guests."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a shut her eyes at the thought of the scene.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Athalie was not a little surprised when she came home and saw Tim&eacute;a with
+plaited hair.</p>
+
+<p>"Who allowed you to turn up your hair? Where is your giraffe comb and
+your bow? Put it on at once."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a pressed her lips together and shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you do what I tell you instantly?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>Athalie was staggered at this resistance. It was unheard of that any one
+should contradict her. And this from an adopted child, who ate the bread
+of charity, who had always been so submissive, and once even kissed her
+foot. "No!" said she, going toward Tim&eacute;a, and bringing her face, red
+with anger, as close to the other's alabaster cheek as if she would set
+it on fire.</p>
+
+<p>Frau Sophie looked on with malicious joy from her corner, and said,
+"Didn't I say you would catch it when Athalie returned?"</p>
+
+<p>But Tim&eacute;a looked straight into Athalie's flaming eyes, and repeated her
+"No!"</p>
+
+<p>"And why not?" screamed Athalie, whose voice was now like her mother's,
+while her eyes were exactly like her father's.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I am prettier thus," answered Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>"Who told you that?"</p>
+
+<p>"He."</p>
+
+<p>Athalie crooked her fingers like eagles' claws, and her teeth shone
+clinched between her red lips. It was as if she would tear the girl in
+pieces. Then her unbridled rage suddenly turned into scornful laughter.
+She left Tim&eacute;a and went to her room.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Katschuka paid another visit the same evening. At table Athalie
+overwhelmed Tim&eacute;a with unwonted kindness.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not think, Herr Captain, that Tim&eacute;a is much prettier with her
+hair dressed in this simple way?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>The captain assented. Athalie smiled. Now it was no longer a joke, but a
+punishment which was to be inflicted on the girl.</p>
+
+<p>Only two days to the marriage. During that time Athalie overflowed with
+attention and tenderness to Tim&eacute;a. She must not go out to the kitchen,
+and the servants were told to kiss her hand on entering the room. Frau
+Sophie often called her "little lady." The dress had come home finished,
+and what child-like delight it gave Tim&eacute;a! She danced round it and
+clapped her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"Come and try on your wedding costume," said Athalie, with a cruel
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a let them put on the splendid dress she had herself embroidered.
+She wore no stays, and was already well formed for her age, and the
+dress fitted her very fairly. With what shy pleasure she looked at
+herself in the great mirror! Ah! how lovely she will be in her wedding
+finery! Perhaps she thought, too, that she would inspire love! Perhaps
+she felt her heart beat; and possibly a flame was already alight there
+which would cause her grief and pain.</p>
+
+<p>But that was no matter to those who were carrying on the shameful jest.
+The maid who dressed her bit her lips so as not to laugh aloud. Athalie
+brought out the bridal wreath, and tried it on Tim&eacute;a's head. The myrtle
+and the white jasmine became her well.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how beautiful you will be to-morrow!"</p>
+
+<p>Then they took the dress off Tim&eacute;a; and Athalie said, "Now I will try it
+on; I should like to see how it would suit me."</p>
+
+<p>She required the help of the stays to squeeze her waist into the dress,
+which gave her splendid figure an even more magnificent "contour." She
+also put on the wreath and looked at herself in the glass. Tim&eacute;a sighed
+deeply, and whispered to Athalie, in tones of undisguised admiration,
+"How lovely, how lovely you are!"</p>
+
+<p>It might, perhaps, have been time now to make an end of this deception.
+But no&mdash;she must drain the cup. First, because she is so forward; and
+then, because she is so stupid. She must be punished. So the
+contemptuous farce was carried on the whole day by all the household.
+The poor child's head swam with all the congratulations. She listened
+for Herr Katschuka, and ran away when she saw him coming.</p>
+
+<p>Did he know what was going on? Quite possibly. Did it vex him? Perhaps
+it did not even vex him. Very likely he knew things of which the
+laughers did not dream, and awaited the important day with perfect
+indifference.</p>
+
+<p>On the last morning before the marriage, Athalie said to Tim&eacute;a, "To-day
+you must fast entirely. To-morrow is a very solemn day for you. You will
+be led to the altar, and there first baptized and then married; so you
+must fast the whole of the day before, in order to go purified to the
+altar."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a obeyed this direction, and ate not a morsel for the entire day.</p>
+
+<p>It is well known that all these adopted children have excellent
+appetites. Nature demands its rights; and the love of good things is the
+only desire which they have a chance of satisfying. But<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> Tim&eacute;a conquered
+that appetite. She sat at dinner and supper without touching anything,
+and yet they had purposely prepared her favorite dishes.</p>
+
+<p>In the anteroom the maids and the cook tried to persuade her to eat
+secretly the delicacies which they had put aside for her, telling her
+she might break her fast if no one knew it. She would not be persuaded,
+and controlled her hunger. She helped to prepare the tarts and jellies
+for the wedding feast; a mass of tempting and luscious cakes lay before
+her, but she never touched one. And yet Athalie's example, who also was
+busy with the preparations for the next day, showed her that it is quite
+permissible to take a taste when one has a chance. She must keep her
+fast. She went early to bed, saying she felt chilly. And so she was, and
+trembled with cold even under her quilt and could not sleep. Athalie
+heard her teeth chattering, and was cruel enough to whisper in her ear,
+"To-morrow at this time where will you be?"</p>
+
+<p>How should the poor child sleep, when all the slumbering feeling which
+at this age lie in the chrysalis stage were being prematurely scared
+into life?</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a lay till dawn in a fever, and slumber never closed her eyes.
+Toward day-break she slept heavily; a leaden hand lay on her limbs, and
+even the noise which went on around her in the morning did not rouse
+her.</p>
+
+<p>And this was the marriage-day!</p>
+
+<p>Athalie ordered the servants to let Tim&eacute;a sleep on; she herself let down
+the window curtains that the room might be dark: Tim&eacute;a was only to be
+awakened when Athalie was already dressed in all her bridal array. That
+required much time, for she wished to appear to-day in the whole panoply
+of her beauty. From far and near numerous relations and friends had
+arrived to assist at the marriage of the rich Brazovics' only daughter,
+the prettiest girl for seven parishes round.</p>
+
+<p>The guests were already beginning to assemble in the house of the bride.
+Her mother, Frau Sophie, had been squeezed into her new dress, and into
+her even more uncomfortable new shoes, by which her desire to get the
+day over was much increased.</p>
+
+<p>The bridegroom had also arrived, with a beaming countenance, and polite
+as usual; but this cheerful aspect did not mean much&mdash;it was only part
+of his gala uniform. He had brought the bouquet for the bride. At that
+time camellias were unknown; the bouquet was composed of various colored
+roses. Herr Katschuka said as he presented it that he offered roses to
+the rose. As a reward, he received a proud smile from the radiant face.</p>
+
+<p>Only two were wanting&mdash;Tim&eacute;a and Herr Brazovics.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a was not missed; no one asked after her. But every one waited most
+impatiently for Herr Brazovics. It was said that he had gone very early
+to the castle to see the governor, and his return was impatiently
+expected. Even the bride went several times to the window and looked out
+for papa's carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Only the bridegroom showed no anxiety. But where could Herr Brazovics
+be? Yesterday evening he had been in a very good temper. He had been
+amusing himself with his friends, and invited all his acquaintances to
+the wedding. Late in the night he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> had knocked at Herr Katschuka's
+window, and called to him, instead of "Good-night," "The hundred
+thousand gulden will be all ready to-morrow." And he had good reason to
+be in such a merry mood. The governor of the fortress had informed him
+that the plans had been accepted to their full extent by the war
+department: the expropriation was arranged. Even the money had been paid
+for that part which lay on the ground between the two river branches;
+and the others concerned had received notice that this very night they
+would obtain the signature of the minister. It was as good as having the
+money in one's pocket. The next morning, Herr Brazovics could hardly
+await the usual hour of reception, and arrived so early in the
+ante-chamber of the governor, that no one else was there. The governor
+did not keep him waiting, but called him in at once.</p>
+
+<p>"A little misfortune," said he.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if it is not a great one&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever heard of the privy council?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor I. For fifteen years I never heard it spoken of. But it does exist,
+and has just given a sign of life. As I told you, the minister had
+agreed to the execution of the fortifications and the necessary purchase
+of land. Then from some unknown source evidence was brought forward by
+which many disadvantageous circumstances were discovered. It would not
+do to compromise the minister, so they called the council together,
+which had not been heard of for fifteen years, except when its members
+drew their salary and had their band to play. The council, when this
+questionable affair was submitted to it, found a wise solution: it
+agreed to the decision in principle, but divided its execution into two
+parts. The fortifications on the river-side are to be provided for at
+once, but the Monostor section is only to be begun when the other is
+finished. So the owners of the Monostor land will have the pleasure of
+waiting eighteen or twenty years for their money. Good-morning, Herr
+Brazovics."</p>
+
+<p>Herr Athanas could not utter a syllable. There was no help for it. The
+profit so certainly counted on was gone&mdash;gone also those other hundred
+thousand gulden which were buried in vineyards of no value, which are
+now worthless. He saw all his castles in the air destroyed: his
+beautiful house, his cargo-ships on the Danube, the lighted church with
+the brilliant company, they were only a <i>fata morgana</i>, blown away with
+the mirage of the Monostor forts by the first puff of wind&mdash;melted into
+nothing, like the light cloud which obscures the sun.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Ah! here comes Tim&eacute;a!</p>
+
+<p>At last she had had her sleep out. In the twilight of the curtained room
+it had taken her long to rouse herself; she dressed like one in a
+feverish dream, and groped sleepily through the adjoining rooms, all
+empty, till she came to the one where Athalie had dressed. When she
+entered the bright room full of flowers and presents, she remembered for
+the first time that this was her wedding-day.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>When she saw Herr Katschuka with the bouquet in his hand, the thought
+shot across her that this was the bridegroom; and when she cast a glance
+on Athalie she thought, "That is my wedding-dress." As she stood there
+in her astonishment, with wide eyes and open mouth, she was a sight for
+laughing and weeping.</p>
+
+<p>The servants, the guests, Frau Sophie, could not contain their
+merriment.</p>
+
+<p>But Athalie stepped forward majestically, took hold of the little
+thing's delicate chin with her white-gloved hand, and said, smiling,
+"To-day, my little treasure, you must allow me to be the one to go to
+the altar. You, my child, must go to school and wait five years before
+you are married, if indeed any one proposes to you."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a stood as if petrified, and let her folded hands fall into her lap.
+She did not blush or become paler. There was no name for what she felt.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Athalie knew that this cruel jest was not calculated to enhance
+her charms, and tried to lessen its effect. "Come, Tim&eacute;a," she said; "I
+only waited for you. Come and put on my veil."</p>
+
+<p>The bridal veil!</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a took the veil with stiffened fingers, and went toward Athalie. It
+was to be fastened to her hair with a golden arrow.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a's hand trembled, and the arrow was heavy: it would not go through
+the thick hair. At an impatient movement of Athalie's its blunt point
+pricked the lovely bride's head slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are too stupid for anything!" cried Athalie, angrily, and struck
+Tim&eacute;a on the hand. Her eyebrows contracted. Scolded, struck, on such a
+day, and in the presence of that man! Two heavy drops formed in her eyes
+and rolled down her white cheek. I trow those two drops turned the scale
+held by the Great Judge's hand, from which happiness and misery are
+measured out to man.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie tried to excuse her hastiness by her feverish excitement. A
+bride may be pardoned if she is nervous and irritable at the last
+moment. The witnesses, the bride-maids, are ready, and the bride's
+father has not yet arrived.</p>
+
+<p>Every one was uneasy; only the bridegroom was quite composed.</p>
+
+<p>A message had come from the church that the pope was ready and waiting
+for the bridal pair. Already the bells are ringing, as is the custom at
+grand weddings. Athalie's heart beats high with vexation that her father
+does not come. One messenger after another is sent for him. At last his
+glass coach is seen approaching. Here he is at last!</p>
+
+<p>The bride steps up to the mirror once more, to see if her veil falls in
+the right folds. She puts her bracelets and necklace straight.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, a curious sound is heard below, as if many people were
+rushing upstairs together. Mysterious noises and smothered exclamations
+are heard in the next room; every one presses thither; the bride-maids
+and friends run out to see what it is; but it is remarkable that none of
+them return.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie hears her mother scream. Well, she generally screams even when
+she is talking quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Do see what has happened," says Athalie to her bridegroom.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>The captain goes out, and Athalie remains alone with Tim&eacute;a, the
+suppressed whispering grows louder. At last even Athalie becomes uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>The bridegroom returns. He remains standing at the open door, and says
+thence to his bride, "Herr Brazovics is dead."</p>
+
+<p>The bride throws her arms into the air and falls swooning backward. If
+Tim&eacute;a had not caught her in her arms, she would have struck her head on
+the marble table behind her. The lovely, haughty face of the bride is
+whiter even than Tim&eacute;a's; and Tim&eacute;a, while she holds Athalie's head on
+her breast, thinks, "See how the beautiful wedding-dress lies in the
+dust!"</p>
+
+<p>The bridegroom stands at the door and looks at Tim&eacute;a, then turning away
+suddenly, he leaves the house amid the universal confusion.</p>
+
+<p>He does not even take the trouble to lift his bride from the ground.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_SECOND_VIII" id="CHAPTER_SECOND_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+<span class="subhead">TIM&Eacute;A.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>"How the beautiful dress lies in the dust!"</p>
+
+<p>Instead of the wedding feast there followed the funeral banquet, and in
+the place of the embroidered robe came the mourning garments.</p>
+
+<p>Black! The color which makes rich and poor alike.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie and Tim&eacute;a were dressed alike in black. And if the mourning had
+consisted only in the wearing of its outward garb! But with the sudden
+death of Herr Athanas, all the birds of ill omen had collected, as the
+ravens come and sit in long lines on the roof before a great storm.</p>
+
+<p>The first croak was, that the bridegroom sent back his engagement-ring.
+He did not appear at the funeral to lend his bride a supporting arm as
+she followed the coffin half fainting; for in this little town it was
+the custom that the mourners, whether gentle or simple, should follow
+their dead on foot and with bare heads to the burial-ground.</p>
+
+<p>There were some who blamed this course of action in Katschuka, and did
+not consider it an excuse that, as Herr Brazovics had not kept to the
+condition of handing over the dowry beforehand, the bridegroom was
+justified in considering himself freed from his obligations. There are a
+few narrow-minded people who can find no excuse for such a withdrawal.
+Then came the ravens and sat on the roof. One creditor after another
+appeared and demanded his money. And then the whole house of cards
+collapsed.</p>
+
+<p>The first who spoke of a suit at law blew the concern into the air. When
+once the avalanche begins to roll, it never stops till it gets to the
+foot of the hill.</p>
+
+<p>It was soon ascertained that the fears of the bridegroom, who had got
+safely away, were only too well founded. In the affairs of Herr
+Brazovics there figured so many investments apparently sound but really
+unprofitable, such false calculations, unsecured debts, and imaginary
+securities, that when order was brought into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> this chaos, the whole
+property did not suffice to satisfy the creditors. Besides, it came to
+light that he had used moneys intrusted to his honor: orphans' capital,
+church endowments, hospital funds, the deposits of his ship captains.
+The floods rose over the roof of the house, and these floods brought
+mire and dirt with them; and what they left behind was&mdash;shame.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a too lost her whole property. The orphan's trust-money had never
+been invested at all.</p>
+
+<p>Every day lawyers, magistrates' clerks, bailiffs, came to the house.
+They sealed each box and closet; they did not ask the ladies for
+permission to visit them; unannounced they bounced in at any hour of the
+day, ransacked the rooms, and gave vent to reproaches and curses on the
+dead man, so loud that the mourning women could not but hear them. All
+they found in the house was taken out in turn and appraised, down to the
+pictures, with and without their frames; even the wedding-dress, without
+a bride, did not escape this fate. And then they decided on the date,
+and had it posted on the door, on which everything was to be sold by
+auction&mdash;everything, not excepting the embroidered dress. The last lot
+would be the house itself; and when it was sold the former owners could
+go their way wheresoever they chose, and the beautiful Athalie might
+look up to Heaven and ask where she was henceforth to lay her haughty
+head. Where indeed?&mdash;she, the orphaned daughter of a fraudulent
+bankrupt, to whom not even her good name was left, whom no one wanted,
+not even herself. Of all the treasures she possessed, only two valuable
+souvenirs remained which she had hidden from the bailiffs&mdash;an onyx box
+and the returned engagement-ring. The box she had concealed in her
+pocket; and when alone at night, she drew it out and looked at its
+precious contents. There were all sorts of poison in it. By some odd
+freak, Athalie had bought it in one of her Italian journeys, and while
+it was in her possession she thought she could defy the world. She
+imagined herself able to destroy her own life at any moment, and this
+idea made her feel as a despot to her parents and her lover. If they do
+not do all she wishes, the box is there; she need only choose the
+swiftest poison, and in the morning they would find her a corpse. Now a
+great temptation assailed her; life lay before her as a desolate waste;
+the father had made his child a beggar, and the bridegroom had forsaken
+his bride.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie rose from her bed: she looked into the open box, and sought
+among the various poisons.</p>
+
+<p>Then she suddenly discovered that she was afraid of death! She had not
+strength to cast life away; she gazed at herself in the glass&mdash;was all
+that beauty to be annihilated?</p>
+
+<p>She shut the box and put it away. Then she brought out the other jewel,
+the ring. There is a poison in that too, and of a yet more deadly sort,
+for it kills the soul. But she has the courage to swallow it&mdash;to
+intoxicate herself with it. She had loved the man who gave her this
+ring&mdash;not only so, but she was still madly in love with him. The
+poison-box gives bad advice&mdash;the ring even worse. Athalie begins to
+dress; there is no one to help her&mdash;the servants have all left the
+house, Frau Sophie and Tim&eacute;a are sleeping in the maids' room; the
+official seal has been attached to the doors of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> public apartments.
+Athalie does not wake the sleepers, but dresses alone. How far the night
+has passed she can not tell; no one winds up the splendid clocks, now
+that they are to pass under the hammer. One points to eight o'clock,
+another to three, but it does not matter. Athalie finds the key of the
+street-door, and creeps out, leaving all open behind her. Who is likely
+to be robbed? and besides, who would, like her, venture alone in the
+dark streets?</p>
+
+<p>At that time the streets of Komorn were decidedly dark at night. One
+lamp at the Trinity pillar, one at the town-hall, and a third at the
+main guard&mdash;no others anywhere. Athalie takes the road to the Promenade,
+the so-called Anglia. It is a region of evil reputation. A dark lane
+between the town and the fort, in which at night fallen women with
+painted faces and disheveled hair loiter, when they are driven from
+their haunts on the "little square." Athalie is sure to meet such
+creatures if she goes by the Anglia. But she is not afraid. The poison
+she sucked out of the golden ring has taken away from her fear of these
+impure forms. One only shrinks from the gutter as long as one has kept
+clear of it.</p>
+
+<p>At the corner stands a sentry: she must try to creep past him without
+being seen and challenged.</p>
+
+<p>The corner house has a colonnade leading to the square. Here in the
+day-time the bread-sellers have their stand. Athalie chooses her path
+through this arcade, as it hides her from the sentry's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>In walking quickly she stumbled over something. It was a ragged woman,
+quite drunk, lying across the threshold. The half-human creature whom
+her foot touched gave vent to filthy curses. Athalie took no notice, but
+stepped aside from the obstacle; she felt easier when she turned the
+corner toward the Promenade. The light of the main-guard lamp had now
+disappeared, and she found herself under the gloom of the trees. Through
+the juniper-bushes shone a ray from a lighted window. Athalie followed
+that guiding star. There lay the dwelling of the engineer officer. She
+seized the lion-headed knocker at the little door, over which was
+painted the double eagle; her hand trembled as she raised it in order to
+knock gently, and at the sound the soldier-servant came out and opened
+to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the captain in?" asked Athalie.</p>
+
+<p>The fellow nodded, grinning. Yes&mdash;he was at home. He had often seen
+Athalie, and many a pretty bright coin had rolled into his hand from her
+delicate fingers, when he carried the beautiful lady flowers or choice
+fruit from his master.</p>
+
+<p>The captain was up and at work; his room was simply furnished, without
+any luxury. On the walls hung maps and surveying instruments; the
+strictest military simplicity surprise the in-comer, as well as a
+penetrating smell of tobacco, which adhered to the books and furniture,
+and was perceptible even when no one was smoking. Athalie had never seen
+the captain's room. The house to which he was to have taken her on their
+marriage-day was very different, but it had been taken possession of by
+the creditors with all its contents on that very morning. She had only
+looked in at the window when she walked with her mother on the Promenade
+in the afternoon to hear the band play.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>Herr Katschuka started up in alarm. He was not prepared for a lady's
+visit; the three top buttons of his violet tunic were unbuttoned,
+contrary to regulations, and he had laid aside his horsehair cravat.
+Athalie remained standing at the door with hanging arms and her head
+down: the captain hastened to her.</p>
+
+<p>"In God's name, fra&uuml;lein, what are you doing here? What are you here
+for?" She could not speak&mdash;she sunk on his breast and sobbed wildly. He
+did not embrace her. "Sit down, fra&uuml;lein," said he, leading her to the
+plain leather sofa, and then his first care was to put on his cravat
+again. He drew a chair near the divan and sat down opposite Athalie.
+"What do you want, fra&uuml;lein?"</p>
+
+<p>She dried her tears and looked with her radiant eyes long at the
+captain, as if thus to tell him why she came. Will he not understand?</p>
+
+<p>No, he understood nothing. When she was obliged to break silence, she
+began to tremble as if with ague.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," she said, with a quivering voice, "as long as I was prosperous,
+you were very devoted to me. Is nothing left of that affection?"</p>
+
+<p>"Fra&uuml;lein," answered Katschuka, with cold politeness, "I shall always be
+your devoted friend. The blow which fell on you struck me too&mdash;we have
+both lost our all. I am in despair, for I see no means of resuscitating
+my hopes reduced to ashes. My profession imposes conditions on me which
+I can not fulfill: it is not allowed to those of us who have no private
+means to marry."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it," said Athalie, "and it was not that which I wished to
+suggest to you. We are now very poor, but there may be some favorable
+turn in our lot. My father has a rich uncle in Belgrade whose heirs we
+are; at his death we shall be rich again. I will wait for you&mdash;do you
+wait for me. Take back your ring&mdash;take me to your mother, and let me
+stay with her as your betrothed. I will wait for you till you fetch me
+away, and will be a good daughter to your mother."</p>
+
+<p>Herr Katschuka sighed so deeply that he nearly blew out the light which
+stood before him. "Alas, fra&uuml;lein," said he, taking up the golden circle
+from the table, "that is, unhappily, quite impossible. You little know
+my mother. She is an ambitious woman&mdash;an inaccessible nature. She lives
+on a small pension, and loves no one. You have no idea what struggles I
+have had with my mother about my <i>affaires du c&#339;ur</i>. She is a baroness
+by birth, and has never consented to this union. She would not come to
+our marriage. I could not take you to her, fra&uuml;lein&mdash;on your account I
+have quarreled with her."</p>
+
+<p>Athalie's breast heaved feverishly, her face glowed; she seized with
+both her hands that of her faithless bridegroom, on which the ring was
+wanting, and whispered, while tears ran down her cheeks, so low that
+even the deaf walls could not hear, "You&mdash;you have braved your mother
+for me: I will defy the whole world for you!"</p>
+
+<p>Katschuka dared not meet the speaking eyes of the lovely woman. He drew
+geometrical figures on the table with the golden circle he still held,
+as if he would decipher from their angles of incidence the difference
+between love and madness.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>The girl continued in a whisper, "I am already so deeply humiliated that
+no shame can bring me lower; I have no more to lose in this world. If
+you were not here, I should have already killed myself. I belong not to
+myself, but to you&mdash;say, what shall I be to you? I have lost my senses,
+and all is the same to me; kill me, if you choose&mdash;I will not stir."</p>
+
+<p>Herr Katschuka, during this passionate speech, had worked out the
+problem of what he was to answer. "Fra&uuml;lein Athalie, I will speak
+frankly&mdash;you know I am an honest man."</p>
+
+<p>Athalie had not asked him about that.</p>
+
+<p>"An honest and chivalrous man would be ashamed to take advantage of the
+misfortune of a woman for the satisfaction of his lowest passions. I
+will give you good advice as a well-meaning friend, as one who has a
+boundless respect for you. You tell me you have an uncle in Belgrade: go
+to him. He is your blood relation, and must receive you in a friendly
+way. I give you my word of honor that I will not marry, and if we meet
+again I shall always bring you the same feelings which for years I have
+experienced toward you."</p>
+
+<p>He told no lie when he gave this promise. But from what his face showed
+at this moment, Athalie could read what he did not say&mdash;that the captain
+neither now nor for years past had loved her, that he loved another, and
+if this other was poor and made a beggar, he had good reason to promise
+on his word of honor that he would not marry. This it was which Athalie
+read in the cool expressions of her faithless bridegroom. And then
+something flashed through her brain like lightning. Her eyes flashed
+too.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you come to-morrow," she asked him, "to escort me to my uncle in
+Belgrade?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will come," Katschuka hastened to reply. "But now go home. Did any
+one come with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I came quite alone."</p>
+
+<p>"What imprudence! Who is to take you back?"</p>
+
+<p>"You need not," she said, bitterly. "If at this hour any one saw us
+together, what a scandal it would be&mdash;for you. I can walk alone. I am
+not afraid. I have no longer anything worth stealing."</p>
+
+<p>"My servant shall follow you."</p>
+
+<p>"He shall do nothing of the sort. The patrol might arrest the poor
+devil. After the last post he must not be seen in the streets. I will
+find my way alone. So then&mdash;to-morrow&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I will be with you by eight o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>Athalie wrapped herself in her black cloak, and hurried away before
+Katschuka had time to open the door for her. It seemed to her as if the
+captain was putting on his sword almost before she had left his door. Is
+he perhaps going to follow her in the distance?</p>
+
+<p>She stopped at the corner of the Anglia, but no one was following. She
+ran home in the darkness, and as she hastened through the deep night she
+concocted a plan in her head. If only the captain once sits by her in
+the carriage, if he goes with her to Belgrade, he will see that no power
+on earth can deliver him from her. As she passed through the long
+market-hall, she stumbled again over the same female figure as it lay on
+the stones. This time it did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> awake nor curse her. What sound sleep
+these wretches enjoy! But when Athalie got to the door of her home, a
+thought sunk like lead into her mind. What if the captain was only so
+ready with his promise of escorting her to Belgrade in order to get rid
+of her? What if he does not come to-morrow, either at eight or later? A
+torturing jealousy excited her nerves. When she reached the anteroom,
+she felt about on the table for the candle and matches she had left
+there. Instead of these her hand touched a knife&mdash;a sharp cook's knife
+with a heavy handle. This also sheds light on darkness. She grasped the
+knife and walked up and down. Her teeth chattered: the thought was
+working in her, how if she were to drive this knife into the heart of
+that girl with the white face, who sleeps beside her? That would be an
+end of them both. They would convict her of the murder, and so she would
+get out of the world.</p>
+
+<p>But Tim&eacute;a is not sleeping there now.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie only remembered when she had gone to the bed in which Tim&eacute;a
+usually slept, that she was sleeping with Frau Sophie to-night. The
+knife fell from her hand, and then she was frightened. She began to feel
+how lonely she was, how dark was all around her, dark too in her own
+soul.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The roll of a drum awoke Athalie out of a distressing dream. She dreamed
+of a young lady who had murdered her rival, and was led to the place of
+execution. Already she knelt on the scaffold, the headsman with his
+naked sword stood behind her, the judge read the sentence and said,
+"With God there is pardon." The drum beat, then Athalie awoke.</p>
+
+<p>It was the auctioneer's drum. The bidding had begun; but that drum is
+even more dreadful than the one which gives the signal of death. To
+listen, when the voice which penetrates even to the street calls out the
+well-known old favorite things which only yesterday were our own! "Once,
+twice; any advance?" and then "thrice!" and the drum rolls and the
+hammer falls. Then it begins again, "Once, twice; any advance?"</p>
+
+<p>Athalie put on her mourning-dress, the only one left to her, and went to
+find some one. There were only her mother and Tim&eacute;a to look for. They
+would probably be in the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Both had long been up and dressed. Frau Sophie was as round as a tub.
+Knowing well enough that no one would search her, she had put on a dozen
+dresses one over the other, and hidden a few napkins and silver spoons
+in her pockets. She could hardly move. Tim&eacute;a was in her simple black
+every-day dress, and was preparing warm milk and coffee. At the sight of
+Athalie, Frau Sophie broke into loud sobs, and hung on her neck. "Oh, my
+dear, darling, pretty daughter! What have we come to, and what will
+become of us? Oh, that we had not lived to see this day! This dreadful
+drum woke you, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it not yet eight o'clock?" asked Athalie. The kitchen clock was
+still going.</p>
+
+<p>"Not eight? Why, the auction began at nine. Can you not hear it?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>"Has no one been to see us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Silly idea! Why, who should visit us at such a time?"</p>
+
+<p>Athalie said no more, but sat down on the bench&mdash;the same little seat on
+which Frau Sophie had described to Tim&eacute;a the splendid wedding ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a prepared the breakfast, toasted the bread, and laid the kitchen
+table for the two ladies. Athalie did not heed the invitation, however
+much pressed by Frau Sophie. "Drink, my dear, my own pretty! Who knows
+where we shall get coffee to-morrow? The whole world is against us, and
+every one abuses and curses us. What will become of us?" But that did
+not hinder her from gulping down her cup of coffee. Athalie was thinking
+of the journey to Belgrade, and of her expected traveling companion.</p>
+
+<p>Frau Sophie's mind was much occupied with original notions on easy modes
+of death. "If there were only a pin in the coffee that it might stick in
+my throat and choke me." Then the wish arose that the flat-iron would
+fall down from the shelf as she passed and crush her skull. She would be
+glad, too, if one of the earthquakes which occasionally occur in Komorn
+would happen now, and bury the house and all in it. As, however, none of
+these ways of dying came to pass, and Athalie would not speak, there was
+nothing left but to vent her wrath on Tim&eacute;a. "She takes it easily, the
+ungrateful creature! She is not even crying; indeed it is easy for her
+to laugh&mdash;she can go to service, or work with a milliner and keep
+herself; she will be glad to be quit of us, and live on her own hook.
+You just wait, you will soon have to remember us. You'll be
+sorry&mdash;before a year is over you'll repent fast enough." Tim&eacute;a had done
+nothing to repent of, but Frau Sophie saw it in the future, and her
+anger was only surpassed by the grief she felt about Athalie. "What will
+become of you, you sweet and only darling? Who will take care of you?
+What will become of your pretty white hands?"</p>
+
+<p>"There, go and leave me in peace," said Athalie, shaking her lamenting
+mother off her neck. "Go and look out of the window and see if any one
+is coming up to us."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody, nobody!&mdash;who should be coming?"</p>
+
+<p>Time went on; drum and bid succeeded each other; whenever the kitchen
+clock struck, Athalie started up, and then let her head fall into her
+hands again and stared before her. The roses on her cheeks took a violet
+shade, her lips were blue, an olive shadow darkened her exquisite face;
+her staring eyes, with deep marks below them, her swollen lips, her
+painfully contracted eyebrows, turned the ideal beauty into an image of
+horror. She sat like a fallen angel driven from heaven. It was already
+noon, and he for whom she waited never came. The noise of the sale came
+nearer and nearer. The auctioneer went from room to room; they had begun
+in the outer rooms, now they were coming to the reception-rooms, at
+whose far end was the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Frau Sophie, in spite of her despair, had her senses about her enough to
+notice that the bidding was very quick. Hardly was anything put up
+before the drum beat, and "any advance?" was cried. The buyers standing
+in groups complained, "No one has a chance&mdash;the man is mad. Who can this
+fool be?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>Now only the kitchen department is left, but no one enters it. Outside,
+the drum is heard, "No one will give more?" It has been bought as a
+whole, unseen&mdash;by some fool.</p>
+
+<p>It struck Frau Sophie, too, that people did not hasten to fetch the lots
+they bought out of the rooms, as usual at an auction; here nothing is
+touched. Now comes the principal lot, and every one goes down to the
+yard, for the house itself is being put up. The buyers press round the
+table of the official auctioneer; the upset price is named. Then some
+one makes an offer in a low voice. Among the crowd arises a confused
+noise, tones of astonishment, laughter, hissing; the people scatter, and
+again one hears, "He must be a fool." Grumbling and angry, all go away.
+"Once, twice, thrice!" the hammer falls. The house has found a
+purchaser.</p>
+
+<p>"Now it's time to go, my sweet darling daughter. We will look out for
+the last time. If only the tower of St. John's Church would fall and
+crush us all together!" But Athalie sat on the bench, waiting and
+waiting, and looking at the clock. It points to two. One little ray of
+hope still shone through the Egyptian darkness&mdash;perhaps it was the dread
+of pushing through the crowd of bidders which had kept the captain from
+coming; perhaps he will appear as soon as the yard is clear.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you hear some one coming?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my beauty, I hear nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mother, I hear some one creeping upstairs gently, on tiptoe."</p>
+
+<p>In truth soft steps approach. Some one knocks at the kitchen door, like
+a polite visitor who begs permission to enter, and waits till it is
+given him; and then the door opens gently, and in comes, with hat off,
+and courteous bow&mdash;Michael Timar Levetinczy. He remained standing near
+the door after saluting the ladies. Athalie rose with an expression of
+disappointment and hatred; Frau Sophie wrung her hands, and looked up
+with a mixture of hope and fear; Tim&eacute;a met his gaze with gentle
+calmness.</p>
+
+<p>"I," began Timar, sending his "I" in advance like a pope in his bull&mdash;"I
+have had this house and all its saleable contents knocked down to me at
+the auction. I did not buy it for myself, but for the one person in it
+who is not to be bought, and yet is the only treasure on earth in my
+sight. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Fra&uuml;lein Tim&eacute;a, from this day forward you are the mistress
+of this house. Everything in it belongs to you&mdash;the clothes, the jewels
+in the wardrobes, the horses in the stable, the securities in the
+safe&mdash;all is inscribed in your name, and the creditors are satisfied.
+You are the owner of the house&mdash;accept it from me; and if there is a
+corner in it where there is room for a quiet fellow who would only
+impose on you his respect and admiration, and if this corner could be
+given to me&mdash;if there was a little shelter for me in your heart, and you
+did not refuse my hand&mdash;then I should be only too happy, and would swear
+that the whole aim of my life would be to make you as happy as you made
+me."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a's face beamed at these words with maidenly pride. A mixture of
+inexpressible pain, noble gratitude, and holy sacrifice lighted up her
+countenance. "Thrice, thrice," her lips stammered,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> but without a sound,
+only her sympathetic nerves heard what she wanted to utter. This man had
+so often saved her; he was always so good to her; he had never made
+sport of her, nor flattered her, and now he gives her all her heart
+could desire. All? No, all but one thing, and that is gone; it belongs
+to another.</p>
+
+<p>Timar waited quietly for an answer. Tim&eacute;a remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not answer hastily, Fra&uuml;lein Tim&eacute;a," he said. "I will await your
+decision. I will come to-morrow, or in a week, or whenever you like to
+give me an answer. You are mistress of all I have handed over to you; I
+attach no conditions to it; it is all registered in your name. If you do
+not wish to see me here again, it only costs you one word; take a week
+or a month or a year to consider what you will answer."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a stepped forward with decision from behind the stove where the
+other two women had pushed her, and approached Michael.</p>
+
+<p>In her manner lay a precocious gravity, which lent to her face a womanly
+dignity. Since that eventful wedding-day she had ceased to be a child;
+she had become serious and silent. She looked calmly into Michael's
+face, and said, "I have already decided."</p>
+
+<p>Frau Sophie listened with envious malice for Tim&eacute;a's answer. If only she
+would say to Timar, "I don't want you&mdash;go away!" Anything is possible
+from such an idiot of a girl, who has had another man put in her head.
+And if Timar, just to revenge himself, were to say, "Well then, stay as
+you are; you shall have neither the house nor my hand, I will offer both
+to Fra&uuml;lein Athalie"&mdash;and if he were to marry Athalie! As if cases had
+not been heard of in which an honest lover was refused by some stuck-up
+girl, and then out of pique offered his hand to the governess, or
+proposed to the housemaid on the spot! This hope of Frau Sophie's,
+however, was not destined to be fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a gave her hand to Timar, and said in a low but firm voice, "I
+accept you as my husband."</p>
+
+<p>Michael grasped the offered hand&mdash;not with the fire of a passionate
+lover, but with the homage of a man, and looked long into the unearthly
+beauty of the girl's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>And the girl allowed him to read her soul. She repeated her words: "I
+accept you as my husband, and will be a faithful and obedient wife; I
+only ask one favor&mdash;you will not refuse me?"</p>
+
+<p>Happiness made Michael forget that a merchant should never sign his name
+to a blank sheet of paper. "Oh, speak! what you desire is already done."</p>
+
+<p>"My request is," said Tim&eacute;a, "if you take me to wife, and this house
+becomes yours again, and I the mistress in your house, that you should
+allow my adopted mother who received me, an orphan, and my adopted
+sister with whom I have grown up, to remain here with me. Regard them as
+my mother and sister, and treat them as kindly."</p>
+
+<p>An involuntary tear fell from Timar's eye. Tim&eacute;a noticed it, seized his
+right hand with hers, and made a new attack on his heart. "You will, I
+know you will do as I ask you; and you will give back to Athalie all
+that was hers?&mdash;her nice clothes and jewels; and she will stay with us,
+and you will be the same to her as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> if she were my own sister; and you
+will treat Mamma Sophie as I do, and call her mother?"</p>
+
+<p>Frau Sophie, hearing this, began to sob aloud. She sunk on her knees
+before Tim&eacute;a, and covered her hands, her dress, even her feet with
+unceasing kisses, while she murmured broken and inaudible words.</p>
+
+<p>In the next moment Timar was himself again, and the far-seeing vision
+came to his aid, which at any critical time raised him above his rivals.
+His quick invention whispered to him what must be done to provide
+against future complications. He took Tim&eacute;a's little hands in his. "You
+are a noble creature, Tim&eacute;a. You will permit me henceforward to call you
+by your name? and I will not disgrace your good heart. Stand up, Mamma
+Sophie; do not cry; tell Athalie she might come nearer to me. I will do
+more than Tim&eacute;a asked, for love of her, and for you two; I will provide
+for Athalie not only a place of refuge, but a happy home of her own; I
+will pay the deposit for her bridegroom, and give her the dowry which
+her father had promised to her. May they be happy together."</p>
+
+<p>Timar had foreseen things still below the horizon, and thought that no
+sacrifice would be too great to get the two women out of the house and
+away from Tim&eacute;a, and to manage that the handsome captain should be
+married to the lovely Athalie.</p>
+
+<p>But now it was his turn to be overwhelmed with kisses and gratitude by
+Frau Sophie. "Oh, Herr von Levetinczy! Oh, dear, generous Herr von
+Levetinczy! let me kiss your hand, your feet, your clever head." And she
+did as set forth in her programme, and kissed besides his shoulders,
+coat-collar, and his back, at last embracing both Timar and Tim&eacute;a in her
+arms, and bestowing her valuable blessing upon them. "Be happy
+together!"</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible to help laughing at the way the poor woman expressed
+her joy. But Athalie poisoned all their pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>Proud as a fallen angel who is asked to return, and who prefers
+damnation to humbling her pride, she turned away from Timar, and said in
+a voice choked with passion, "I thank you, sir. But I never wish to hear
+of Herr Katschuka again, either in this world or the next! I will never
+be his wife; I will remain here with Tim&eacute;a&mdash;as her servant."</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="newbook"><a name="BOOK_THIRD_THE_OWNERLESS_ISLAND" id="BOOK_THIRD_THE_OWNERLESS_ISLAND"></a><i>BOOK THIRD.&mdash;THE OWNERLESS ISLAND.</i></h2>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="firstchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_THIRD_I" id="CHAPTER_THIRD_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE MARRIAGE OF THE MARBLE STATUE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Timar was intensely happy at being engaged to Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>The unearthly beauty of the girl had captivated his heart at first
+sight. He admired her then, and afterward the sweet nature which he
+learned to appreciate won his respect. The shameful trick played on her
+in the house of Brazovics awoke in him a chivalrous sympathy. The airy
+courtship of the captain aroused his jealousy;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> all these were symptoms
+of love, and at last he had reached the goal of his wishes: the lovely
+maiden was his, and would be his wife.</p>
+
+<p>And a great burden was lifted from his soul&mdash;self-reproach; for from the
+day when Timar found the treasures of Ali Tschorbadschi in the sunken
+ship, his peace was gone. After each brilliant success of any of his
+undertakings, the voice of the accuser rose in his breast "This does not
+belong to you&mdash;it was the property of an orphan which you usurped. You a
+lucky man? You a man of gold? It is not true! Benefactor of the poor?
+Not true! Not true! You are a thief!"</p>
+
+<p>Now the suit is decided. The inward judge acquits him. The defrauded
+orphan receives back her property, and in double measure, for whatever
+belongs to her husband is hers too. She will never know that the
+foundation of this great fortune was once hers; she only knows it is
+hers now&mdash;thus fate is reconciled.</p>
+
+<p>But is it really reconciled? Timar forgot the sophism that he offered
+Tim&eacute;a something besides the treasures which were hers&mdash;himself&mdash;and in
+exchange demanded the girl's heart, and that this was a deception, and
+like taking her by force.</p>
+
+<p>He wished to hasten the wedding. There was no need of delay on account
+of the trousseau, for he had bought everything in Vienna. Tim&eacute;a's
+wedding-dress was made by the best Parisian house, and the bride was not
+obliged to work at it herself for six weeks, as at that other. That
+double unlucky dress was buried in a closet which no one ever opened; it
+would never be brought out again.</p>
+
+<p>But other hinderances of an ecclesiastical nature presented
+themselves&mdash;Tim&eacute;a was still unbaptized. It was only natural that Timar
+should wish Tim&eacute;a, when she left the Moslem faith for Christianity, to
+enter at once the Protestant Church to which he belonged, so that they
+might worship together after their marriage. But then the Protestant
+minister announced it as an indispensable condition of conversion that
+neophytes should be instructed in the creed of that church into which
+they were to be received. Here a great difficulty arose. The Mohammedan
+religion has nothing to say to women in its dogmas. To a Moslem a woman
+is no more than a flower which fades and falls, whose soul is its
+fragrance, which the wind carries away, and it is gone. Tim&eacute;a had no
+creed.</p>
+
+<p>The very reverend gentleman found his task by no means easy when he
+tried to convince Tim&eacute;a of the superiority of the Christian religion. He
+had converted Jews and Papists, but he had never tried it with a Turkish
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>On the first day, when the minister was explaining the splendors of the
+other world, and declaring that there all who in this world had loved
+each other would be reunited, the girl put this question to him&mdash;"Would
+those meet who had loved each other, or only those whom the minister had
+united?" This was a ticklish question; but the reverend gentleman
+answered, from his own puritanical point of view, that only those could
+possibly love each other who were united by the church, and that it was
+of course impossible for those who were thus united <i>not</i> to love each
+other. But he was careful not to repeat this question to Herr Timar.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>The next day Tim&eacute;a asked him whether her father, Ali Tschorbadschi,
+would also arrive in that world to which she was going?</p>
+
+<p>To this delicate question the minister was unable to give a satisfactory
+reply.</p>
+
+<p>"But is it not the case that I shall there still be the wife of Herr
+Levetinczy?" asked Tim&eacute;a, with lively curiosity. To this the Herr Pastor
+was glad to reply, with gracious readiness, that that would certainly be
+the case.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, I shall ask Herr Levetinczy, when we both go to heaven, to
+keep a little place for my father, that he may be with us; and surely he
+will not refuse me?"</p>
+
+<p>The reverend gentleman scratched his ear violently, and thought he had
+better lay this difficult point before the church synod.</p>
+
+<p>The third day he said to Timar that it would be best to baptize and
+marry the young lady at once: then her husband could give her
+instruction in the other dogmas.</p>
+
+<p>The next Sunday the sacred rite was celebrated. Tim&eacute;a then for the first
+time entered a Protestant church. The simple building, with its
+whitewashed walls and unornamented chancel, made a very different
+impression on her mind from that other church, out of which the naughty
+boys had chased her when she peeped in. There were golden altars, great
+wax tapers burning in silver candelabra, pictures, incense filling the
+air, mysterious chants, and people sinking on their knees at the sound
+of a bell. Here sat long rows of men and women apart, each with their
+book before them, and after the precentor had set the tune, all the
+congregation joined in unison. Then silence, and the minister mounted
+the high pulpit and began to preach without any ceremony. He did not
+sing, nor drink from the chalice, nor show any holy relics&mdash;only talk,
+talk on.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a sat in the first row with her sponsors, who led her to the font,
+where another long sermon was preached. At last it was over; the
+neophyte bowed her head over the basin, and the minister baptized her,
+in the name of the Trinity, "Susanna." She wondered why she should be
+called Susanna, as she was quite satisfied with her own name.</p>
+
+<p>Then they all sat down again and sung the eighty-third psalm, "Oh, God
+of Israel," which awoke in Tim&eacute;a a slight doubt as to whether she had
+not been turned into a Jewess.</p>
+
+<p>All her doubts vanished, however, when another minister arose, and read
+from the chancel a document which set forth that the noble Herr Michael
+Timar von Levetinczy, of the Swiss Protestant Church, had betrothed
+himself to Fra&uuml;lein Tim&eacute;a Susanna von Tschorbadschi, also of the Swiss
+Protestant religion.</p>
+
+<p>Two more weeks must pass before the marriage. Michael spent every day
+with Tim&eacute;a. The girl always received him with frank cordiality, and he
+was happy in his anticipations of the future. He generally found Athalie
+with his bride, but she made some pretext for leaving the room, and her
+mother look her place.</p>
+
+<p>Mamma Sophie entertained Michael with praises of his bride&mdash;what a dear
+girl she was, and how often she spoke of her kind, good Michael, who had
+taken such care of her on board the "St. Barbara." Sophie had heard
+every little detail, which only <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>Tim&eacute;a could have known, and Michael was
+delighted to find that she remembered so well.</p>
+
+<p>"If you only knew, dear Levetinczy, how fond the girl is of you!" And
+Tim&eacute;a was not confused when she heard Frau Sophie say this. She affected
+no modest contradiction, but did not strengthen the assurance by any shy
+blushes. She allowed Timar to hold her hand in his and look into her
+eyes, and when he came and went she smiled at him.</p>
+
+<p>At last the wedding-day arrived. Troops of guests streamed in from all
+parts, a long row of carriages stood in the street, as on that other
+ill-omened day; but this time no misfortune occurred.</p>
+
+<p>The bridegroom fetched the bride out of the house of Brazovics, which
+was now her own, and took her to the church, but the wedding banquet was
+in the bridegroom's house. Frau Sophie would not be denied the task of
+arranging everything. Athalie remained at home and looked from behind
+the curtain, through the same window at which she had awaited the
+arrival of her own bridegroom, while the long row of carriages was set
+in motion.</p>
+
+<p>And there she waited till they all went past again after the marriage,
+bride and bridegroom now in the same carriage, and looked after them.
+And if during this time the whole congregation had prayed for the young
+couple, we may be sure that she also sent a&mdash;prayer&mdash;after them.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a had not found the ceremony as impressive as Frau Sophie had
+described it to her. The clergyman did not wear a golden robe or miter
+himself, nor did he bring out any silver crowns to crown them as lord or
+lady to each other. The bridegroom wore a velvet coat, as nobles did
+then, with agraffes and fur on it. He looked a fine man, but he held his
+head down; he was not yet used to carry it proudly, as beseems the gala
+suit of a noble. There was no veil wound round the two, no drinking from
+the same cup, no procession round the altar and holy kiss, not even any
+altar at all; only a black-robed minister, who said wise things no
+doubt, but which had not the mysterious charm of the "Gospodi Pomiluj."
+The Protestant marriage, deprived of all ceremony, leaves the Oriental
+fancy, with its desire for excitement, quite cold. And Tim&eacute;a only
+understood the external ceremony as yet.</p>
+
+<p>The brilliant banquet came to an end; the guests went away, the bride
+remained in the bridegroom's house.</p>
+
+<p>When Timar was alone with Tim&eacute;a, when he sat by her side and took her
+hand, he felt his heart beat and its pulsation spread through his whole
+frame. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. The unspeakable treasure which was the goal of all his
+desires is in his possession. He has only to stretch out his arm and
+draw her to his breast. He dares not do it&mdash;he is as if bound by a
+spell. The wife, the baroness, does not shrink at his approach. She does
+not tremble or glow. If only she would cast her eyes down in alarm when
+Michael's hand touched her shoulder! If only the warm reflex of a shy
+blush passed over her pale face, the spell would be broken. But she
+remains as calm and cold and passionless as a somnambulist. Michael sees
+before him the same figure which he awoke from death on that eventful
+night&mdash;the same which lay on the bed before him like an altar-picture
+which radiates cold to the spectator, and whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> face never changed when
+her night-dress slipped from her shoulders, nor even when told that her
+father was dead&mdash;not even when Timar whispered into her ear, "Beloved!"</p>
+
+<p>She is a marble statue&mdash;a statue which bows, dresses itself, submits,
+but is not alive. She sees, but her glance neither encourages nor
+alarms. He can do what he likes with her. She allows him to let down her
+lovely bright hair, and spread the locks over her shoulders; she allows
+his lips to approach her white face, and his hot breath to touch her
+cheek: but it kindles no responsive warmth in her. Michael thinks if he
+were to press the icy form to his breast, the charm would be broken; but
+in the act of doing it, an even greater emotion overcomes him. He starts
+back as if he was about to commit a crime against which nature, his
+guardian angel, every sensitive nerve in him protested. "Tim&eacute;a," he
+whispered to her in caressing murmurs, "do you know that you are my
+wife?"</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a looked at him and answered, "Yes, I know it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you love me?"</p>
+
+<p>Then she opened wide her large dark eyes, and as he looked into them it
+seemed to him as if he were granted a glimpse into all the mysteries of
+the starry heavens. Then she veils them again with her silky lashes.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you feel no love for me?" entreats the husband with a yearning sigh.</p>
+
+<p>That look again, and the pale woman asks, "What is love?"</p>
+
+<p>What is love? All the wise men in the world could not explain it to one
+who does not feel it. But it requires no explanation for those who have
+it within them.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you child!" sighed Timar, and rose from his wife's side.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a rose also. "No, sir, I am no longer a child. I know what I
+am&mdash;your wife. I have sworn it to you, and God has heard my vow. I will
+be a faithful and obedient wife to you&mdash;it is appointed to me by fate.
+You have shown me so much kindness, that I owe you a lifelong gratitude.
+You are my lord and master, and I will always do what you wish and
+order."</p>
+
+<p>Michael turned away and covered his face. This look of self-sacrifice
+and abnegation froze all desire in his veins. Who would have the courage
+to press a martyr to his heart, the statue of a saint, with
+palm-branches and crown of thorns?</p>
+
+<p>"I will do what you command."</p>
+
+<p>Michael now first began to guess what a hollow victory he had won. He
+had married a marble statue.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_THIRD_II" id="CHAPTER_THIRD_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE GUARDIAN DEVIL.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>It has often happened that a man has found his wife's heart to be devoid
+of all inclination toward him.</p>
+
+<p>And no doubt many have looked for a cure in course of time. What can one
+do in winter, except look forward to spring? As the daughter of
+Mohammedan parents, Tim&eacute;a had been brought up not to see the face of the
+man who was to be her husband until the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> wedding-day. There no one asks,
+"Do you, or do you not, love him?" neither her parents, the priest, nor
+the man himself. The husband will be good to her, and if he should find
+her out in infidelity, he will kill her. The principal thing is that she
+should have a pretty face, bright eyes, fine hair, and a sweet
+breath&mdash;no one asks about her heart. But Tim&eacute;a had learned in a
+different school in the house of Brazovics. There she learned that among
+the Christians love was allowed, and every opportunity given for it; but
+that any one who did fall in love was not cured like a sick person, but
+punished like a criminal. She had expiated her crime.</p>
+
+<p>When Tim&eacute;a became Timar's wife, she had schooled herself strictly, and
+forbidden every drop of her blood to speak to her of anything except her
+duties as a wife; for if she had allowed them to talk of her secret
+fancies, then each drop of blood would have persuaded her to go the same
+road on which that other girl had twice, in the darkness of the night,
+stumbled over the body of the sleeping woman, and that stumble would
+have killed her soul. She crushed and buried the feeling, and gave her
+hand to a man whom she respected, to whom she owed gratitude, and whose
+life-companion she was to remain.</p>
+
+<p>This story is repeated every day. And those who meet with it console
+themselves with the idea that soon the spring will come and the ice will
+melt.</p>
+
+<p>Michael went with his young wife to travel, and visited Italy and
+Switzerland. They returned as they went. Neither the romantic Alpine
+valleys nor the fragrant orange-groves brought balm to his heart. He
+overwhelmed his wife with all that women like, dress and jewels; he
+introduced her to the gayeties of great cities. All in vain: moonlight
+gives no heat, even through a burning glass. His wife was gentle,
+attentive, grateful, obedient; but her heart was never open to him,
+neither at home nor abroad, neither in joy nor sorrow. Her heart was
+buried.</p>
+
+<p>Timar had married a corpse.</p>
+
+<p>With this knowledge he returned from his travels. At one time he thought
+of leaving Komorn and settling in Vienna. Perhaps a new life might begin
+there. But then he thought of another plan: he decided to remain in
+Komorn and move into the Brazovics' house. There he would live with his
+wife, and arrange his own house as an office, so that business people
+might have nothing to do with the house his wife lived in. In this way
+he could be absent from home all day, without its being noticed that he
+left his wife alone.</p>
+
+<p>In public they always appeared together. She went into society with him,
+reminded him when it was time to leave, and departed leaning on his arm.
+Every one envied his lot; a lucky man to have such a lovely and faithful
+wife! If she were not so true and good! If he could only hate her! But
+no scandal could touch her.</p>
+
+<p>This spring brings no melting of her ice-bound heart. The glaciers grow
+every day. Michael cursed his fate. With all his treasures he can not
+buy his wife's love. It is all the worse for him that he is rich;
+splendor and great wealth widen the rift between them. Poverty binds
+close within its four walls those who belong to each other; laborers and
+fishermen, who have only one room<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> and one bed, are more fortunate than
+he. The woodman, whose wife holds the other end of the saw when he is at
+work, is an enviable man: when they have finished they sit down on the
+ground, eat their bean-porridge out of one bowl, and kiss each other
+afterward.</p>
+
+<p>Let us become poor people!</p>
+
+<p>Timar began to hate his riches, and tried to get rid of them. If he was
+unfortunate and became poor, he would get nearer to his wife, he
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>He could not succeed in impoverishing himself. Fortune pursues those who
+despise it. Everything he touched, which with another would certainly
+have failed, became a brilliant success. In his hands the impossible
+turned to reality&mdash;the die always threw six; if he tried to lose his
+money by gambling, he broke the bank&mdash;gold streamed in upon him; if he
+ran away or hid, it rolled after him and found him out.</p>
+
+<p>And all this he would have joyfully given for a kiss from his wife's
+sweet lips.</p>
+
+<p>And yet they say money is almighty. Everything is to be had for money.
+Yes&mdash;false; lying love, bright smiles on the charming lips of such as
+feel it not&mdash;forbidden, sinful love, which must be concealed&mdash;but not
+the love of one who can love truly and faithfully.</p>
+
+<p>Timar almost wished he could hate his wife. He would have liked to
+believe that she loved another, that she was faithless and forgot her
+wifely duty; but he could not find any cause for hatred. No one saw his
+wife anywhere but on her husband's arm. In society she knew how to
+preserve a bearing which compelled respect, and kept bold advances at a
+distance. She did not dance at balls, and gave as a reason that when a
+girl she had not been taught to dance, and as a woman she no longer
+wished to learn. She sought the company of older women. If her husband
+went on a journey, she never left the house. But what did she at home?
+For reception-rooms in society are transparent, but not the walls of
+one's house. To this question Michael had a most convincing reply.</p>
+
+<p>In this house Athalie lived with Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie was&mdash;not the guardian angel but the guardian devil of Tim&eacute;a's
+honor. Every step, every word, every thought of his wife, every sigh she
+uttered, every tear she shed, even the unconscious mutterings of her
+dreams, were spied upon by another woman, who hated him as well as his
+wife, and certainly would hasten to make both miserable, if a shadow of
+guilt could be found on the walls of the house.</p>
+
+<p>If Tim&eacute;a, at the moment when she begged Michael to allow Athalie and
+Frau Sophie to continue living in the same house, had listened to
+anything but the voice of her kind and feeling heart, she could not have
+invented a better protection for herself than keeping with her the girl
+who had once been the bride of the man she ought never to meet again.</p>
+
+<p>These pitiless and malicious eyes follow her everywhere; as long as the
+guardian devil is silent, Tim&eacute;a is not condemned even by God. Athalie is
+silent.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>Athalie was a real dragon to Tim&eacute;a, in small things as well as great. No
+circumstance, ever so trifling, escaped her attention if it afforded her
+a chance of playing Tim&eacute;a a trick. She pretended that Tim&eacute;a wished to
+show her generosity by treating the quondam young lady of the house as a
+sister, or like a lady visitor, which was enough to make Athalie behave
+in company as if she were a servant. Every day Tim&eacute;a took the broom out
+of her hand by force when she came in to clean the room; she constantly
+caught her cleaning "her mistress's" clothes, and if visitors came to
+dinner, she could not be induced to leave the kitchen. Athalie had
+received back from Tim&eacute;a her whole arsenal of ornaments and toilet
+necessaries. She had wardrobes full of silk and merino dresses; but she
+chose to wear her shabbiest and dirtiest gowns, which formerly she had
+put on only when the hairdresser was busy with her coiffure; and she was
+glad if she could burn a hole in her dress in the kitchen, or drop oil
+on it when she trimmed the lamp. She knew how much this hurt Tim&eacute;a. All
+her jewels too, worth thousands, had been restored to her: she did not
+wear them, but bought herself a paste brooch for ten kreutzers, and put
+it on. Tim&eacute;a took the brooch away quietly, and had a real opal put into
+it; the faded old dresses she burned, and had others made for Athalie of
+the stuff she was herself wearing.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, yes, one could grieve Tim&eacute;a, but not make her angry.</p>
+
+<p>Even in her way of speaking, Athalie made a parade of an insufferable
+humility, although, or rather because, she knew it hurt Tim&eacute;a. If the
+latter asked for anything, Athalie rushed to fetch it with an alacrity
+like that of a black slave who fears the whip. She never spoke in a
+natural tone, but annoyed Tim&eacute;a by always lowering her voice to the thin
+whining sound which gives an impression of servility; she stammered with
+affected weakness, and could not pronounce the letter <i>s</i>.</p>
+
+<p>She never let herself be surprised into forgetfulness or familiarity;
+but her most refined cruelty consisted in her unseasonable praises of
+the husband and wife to each other.</p>
+
+<p>When she was alone with Tim&eacute;a she sighed, "Oh, how happy you are, Tim&eacute;a,
+in having such a good husband who loves you so much!" If Timar came
+home, she received him with na&iuml;ve reproaches. "Is it right to stay away
+so long? Tim&eacute;a is quite desperate, she awaits you with such longing; go
+in gently and surprise your wife. Hold your hands over her eyes, and
+make her guess who it is."</p>
+
+<p>Both had to bear the derision which, under the mask of a tender,
+flattering sympathy, wounded their hearts. Athalie knew only too well
+that neither of them was happy.</p>
+
+<p>But when she was alone, how completely she threw off the mask with which
+she tormented the others, and gave vent to her suppressed rage. If alone
+in her room she threw the broom Tim&eacute;a had tried to take away furiously
+on the ground; then again beat the chairs and sofas with the handle, in
+order, as she said, to shake the dust out, but really to work off her
+anger on them. If in going out or in her dress caught in the door, or
+the sleeve on the handle, she wrenched it away with her teeth clinched,
+so that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> either the dress was torn or the handle dragged off, and then
+she was satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>Broken crockery, chipped glasses, mutilated furniture, bore witness in
+quantities to the disastrous hours they passed in her company. Poor
+Mamma Sophie avoided her own daughter, and was afraid to be left alone
+with her. She was the only person in the house who ever heard Athalie's
+natural voice, and to whom she showed the bottomless depths of the gulf
+her hatred had dug. Frau Sophie was frightened of sleeping in the same
+room with her, and in a confidential moment showed her faithful cook the
+black bruises which her daughter's hand had left on her arms. When
+Athalie came into her mother's room in the evening, she would pinch her,
+and scream in her ear, "Why did you ever give me birth?"</p>
+
+<p>And when at last she went to bed, after finishing her day's work with
+pretended gentleness and hidden fury, she required no one to help her.
+She tore off her clothes, dragged the knotted strings asunder,
+ill-treated her hair with hands and comb as if it was some one's else;
+then stamped on her clothes, blew out the candle, leaving a long wick to
+smolder and fill the room with its evil odor, and threw herself on her
+bed; there she bit the pillow, and tore at it with her teeth while she
+brooded over the torture she had to endure. Sleep only came to her after
+she had heard a door shut&mdash;the door of the lonely chamber of the master;
+then she was glad&mdash;then she could sleep.</p>
+
+<p>It could be no secret to her that the young husband and wife were not
+happy. She waited with malicious joy to see what mischief could be
+developed from it.</p>
+
+<p>Neither of them seemed to notice it. No quarrel ever took place; no
+complaint, not even an involuntary sigh, ever escaped either of them.
+Tim&eacute;a remained unchanged, only the husband grew more gloomy every day.
+He sat for hours by his wife, often holding her hands in his, but he did
+not look into her eyes, and rose to go away without a word. Men can not
+keep a secret as women can. Timar got into the habit of going away and
+fixing the day of his return, and then returning sooner than he was
+expected. Another time he surprised his wife at a moment when he was not
+looked for; he pretended a chance had brought him home, and would not
+say what he wanted. But suspicion was written on his brow. Jealousy left
+him no peace.</p>
+
+<p>One day Michael said at home that he had to go to Levetinczy, and could
+hardly get back in less than a month. All his preparations were made for
+a long absence. When the married couple took leave of each other with a
+kiss&mdash;a cool, conventional kiss&mdash;Athalie was present.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie smiled. Another would hardly have noticed the smile, or at any
+rate would not, like Michael, have marked the derision which lay in
+it&mdash;the malicious mockery at one who little knows what goes on behind
+his back. It was as if she said, "When you are once gone, you fool&mdash;!"</p>
+
+<p>Michael took the sting of this spiteful smile with him on his journey.
+He carried it on his heart half-way to Levetinczy; then he made his
+carriage turn round, and by midnight he was back in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> Komorn. In his
+house there were two extra entrances to his room, whose keys he always
+carried about with him, so that he could get in without any one knowing
+of his return. From his room he could reach Tim&eacute;a's through the several
+anterooms. His wife was not in the habit of locking her bedroom door.
+She was accustomed to read in bed, and the maid generally had to come
+and see whether she had not fallen asleep without putting out the light.
+On the other side, the room in which Athalie and her mother slept
+adjoined his wife's bedroom. Michael approached the door noiselessly and
+opened it cautiously. All was still; every one slept. The room was dimly
+lighted by the shaded light of a night-lamp.</p>
+
+<p>Michael drew the curtain aside: the same statue of a sleeping saint lay
+before him which he had once aroused to life in the cabin of the "St.
+Barbara." She seemed to be fast asleep; she did not feel his
+neighborhood; she did not see him through her downcast lashes. But a
+slumbering woman can see the man she loves even in her sleep, and with
+closed eyes. Michael bent over her breast and counted her heart-beats.
+Her heart beat with its normal calm. No suspicious symptom to be
+found&mdash;nothing to feed the hungry monster which seeks a victim.</p>
+
+<p>He stood long and gazed on the slumbering form. Then suddenly he
+started. Athalie stood before him, dressed, and with a candle in her
+hand. Again that insulting smile of mockery lay on her lips. "Have you
+forgotten something?" she asked in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>Michael trembled like a thief caught in the act.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" said he, pointing to the sleeper, and hurried away from the bed.
+"I forgot my papers."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I wake Tim&eacute;a that she may get them out?"</p>
+
+<p>Timar was angry at being detected for the first time in his life in a
+direct lie.</p>
+
+<p>His papers were not kept by Tim&eacute;a, but in his own room.</p>
+
+<p>"No, do not wake my wife; the papers are in my room&mdash;I only wanted the
+key."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have already found it?" asked Athalie, seriously, who then
+lighted the candles and officiously conducted Michael to his room.</p>
+
+<p>Here she put down the candle and did not go away. Michael turned
+over his papers with confusion; he could not find what he
+sought&mdash;naturally&mdash;for he knew not what to look for. At last he shut
+his desk without taking anything out. Again he was met by the hateful
+smile which from time to time played round Athalie's lips. "Do you
+wish for anything?" said Athalie, in answer to his inquiring looks.</p>
+
+<p>Michael remained silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you wish me to speak?"</p>
+
+<p>Michael felt at these words as if the world was falling on him. He dared
+not answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I tell you of Tim&eacute;a?" whispered Athalie, bending nearer to him,
+and holding the stupefied man under the spell of her beautiful
+serpent-eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know?" asked Michael, hotly.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything&mdash;do you wish me to tell you?"</p>
+
+<p>Michael was undecided.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>"But I can tell you beforehand that you will be very unhappy when you
+learn what I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak!"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well&mdash;listen. I know as well as you do that Tim&eacute;a does not love
+you. But one thing I know which you do not&mdash;namely, that Tim&eacute;a is as
+true to you as an angel."</p>
+
+<p>Timar started violently.</p>
+
+<p>"You did not expect that from me? It would have been welcome news to
+hear from me that your wife deserved your contempt, so that you might be
+able to hate and reject her. No, sir; the marble statue you have taken
+to wife does not love you, but does not deceive you. This I only know,
+but with absolute certainty&mdash;oh, your honor is well guarded. If you had
+engaged the hundred-eyed Argus of the legend as a watchman, she could
+not be better guarded than by me. Nothing of what she does, says,
+thinks, escapes me: in the deepest recesses of her heart she can have no
+feeling hidden from me. You acted wisely in the interests of your honor
+when you took me into your house. You will not drive me out of it,
+though you hate me; for you know well that as long as I am here, the man
+whom you fear can never approach your sanctuary. I am the diamond lock
+of your house. You shall know all: when you leave town, your house is a
+cloister while you are absent; no visitors are received, neither man nor
+woman; the letters which come to your wife, you will find unopened on
+your writing-table; you can give them to her to read or throw them into
+the fire, just as you choose. Your wife never sets foot in the streets,
+she only drives out with me; her only walk is on the island, and I am
+always with her; I see her suffer, but I never hear her complain. How
+could she complain to me, who suffer the same torment, and on her
+account? For from the time when that ghostly face appeared in the house
+my misery began; till then I was happy and beloved. Do not be afraid of
+my bursting into tears; I love no longer&mdash;now I only hate, and with my
+whole soul. You can trust your house to me; you can ride through the
+world in peace; you leave me at home, and as long as you find your wife
+alive on your return you may be sure that she is faithful to you. For
+know, sir, that if she ever exchanges a friendly word with that man, or
+responds to his smile, or reads a letter from him, I would not wait for
+you, I would kill her myself, and you would only come home to her
+funeral. Now you know what you leave behind&mdash;the polished dagger which
+the madness of jealousy holds aimed at your wife's heart; and under the
+shadow of that dagger you will daily lay your head down to sleep, and
+although I inspire you with loathing, you will be forced to cling to me
+with desperation."</p>
+
+<p>Timar felt all his mental energy crippled under this outburst of
+demoniac passion.</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you all I know about Tim&eacute;a, about you and myself; I repeat
+once more, you have taken to wife a girl who loves another, and this
+other was once mine. It was you who took this house from me; under your
+hand my father and my property sunk into dust; and then you made Tim&eacute;a
+the mistress of this house. You see now what you did. Your wife is not a
+woman, but a mar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>tyr. It is not enough that you should suffer; you must
+also acquire the certainty that you have made her, for whose possession
+you strove, miserable, and that there can be no happiness for Tim&eacute;a as
+long as you live. With this sting in your breast you may leave your
+house, Herr Levetinczy, and you will nowhere find a balm for your
+smarting wound, and I rejoice at it with all my heart!"</p>
+
+<p>With glowing cheeks, gnashing teeth, and glaring eyes, Athalie bowed to
+Timar, who sunk exhausted into a chair. But the girl clinched her fist
+as if to thrust an invisible dagger into his heart.</p>
+
+<p>"And now&mdash;turn me out of your house if you dare!" All womanhood was
+quenched in the girl's face. Instead of a hypocritical submission, it
+was dominated by the fury of unbridled passion. "Drive me away from here
+if you dare!"</p>
+
+<p>And proud as a triumphant demon she left Michael's room. She had taken
+the lighted candle which was on the table away with her, and left the
+wretched husband in darkness. She had told him that she was not the
+humble servant, but the guardian devil of the house. As Timar saw the
+girl with the light in her hand go toward the door of Tim&eacute;a's bedroom,
+something whispered to him to spring up, seize Athalie's arm, and
+setting his foot before the threshold, to cry to her, "Remain then
+yourself in this accursed house, as I am bound by the promise I gave;
+but not with us!"</p>
+
+<p>And then to rush into Tim&eacute;a's room, as on the eventful night when the
+ship went down, to lift her in his arms from the bed, and with the cry,
+"This house is falling in, let us save ourselves!" to fly from it with
+her, and take her to some place where no one spies on her .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. this
+thought darted through his head .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. that was what he ought to have
+done.</p>
+
+<p>The door of the bedroom opened, and Athalie looked back once more; then
+she went in, the door shut, and Michael remained alone in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, in what darkness!</p>
+
+<p>Then he heard the key turn twice in the lock. His fate was sealed; he
+arose and felt round in the dark for his traveling-bag. He kindled no
+light, made no noise, so that no one should awake and report that he had
+been here. When he had collected all his things, he crept softly to the
+door, shut it gently behind him, and left his own house cautiously and
+noiselessly, like a thief, like a fugitive. That girl had driven him
+away from it.</p>
+
+<p>Out in the street he was met by a snow shower. That is good weather for
+one who does not wish to be seen. The wind whistled through the streets,
+and drove the snowflakes into his face; Michael Timar, however, went on
+his way in an open carriage, in weather in which one would not turn a
+dog into the street.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_THIRD_III" id="CHAPTER_THIRD_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+<span class="subhead">SPRING MEADOWS.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>As far as the Lower Danube, the traveler took with him rough and wintery
+skies; here and there fresh snow covered the fields, and the woods stood
+bare. The stormy cold suited the thoughts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> with which Timar was
+occupied. That cruel girl was right&mdash;not only the husband but the wife
+was wretched. The man doubly so; for he was the author of their mutual
+misery.</p>
+
+<p>These bitter, disconsolate thoughts followed Michael to Baja, where he
+had an office, and where, when he traveled into the flax districts of
+Hungary, he had his letters sent. A whole bundle awaited him; he opened
+one after another with indifference; what did he care whether the rape
+had been frost-bitten or not, that the duties in England were raised, or
+that exchange was higher? But among the letters he found two which were
+not uninteresting&mdash;one from his Viennese, the other from his Stamboul
+agent. The contents greatly rejoiced him. He put them both away, and
+from that moment the apathy began to disperse which had hitherto
+possessed him. He gave his orders to his agents with his usual quickness
+and energy, carefully noted their reports, and when he had finished with
+them, proceeded on his way in haste.</p>
+
+<p>Now his journey had an object&mdash;no great or important one, but still an
+object. It was to give a pleasure to two poor people&mdash;but a real joy.</p>
+
+<p>The weather had changed; the sky had cleared, and the sun shone warmly
+down below. In Hungary, where summer follows immediately on winter,
+these swift changes are common. Below Baja the face of the country, too,
+was changed. While Michael rushed southward with frequent changes of
+horses, it was as if nature had in one day advanced by many weeks. At
+Mohacs he was received by woods decked in new green; about Zambor the
+fields were spread with a verdant carpet; at Neusatz the meadows were
+already dressed with flowers; and in the plains of Pancsova golden
+stretches of rape smiled at him, and the hills looked as though covered
+with rosy snow&mdash;the almonds and cherry-trees were in blossom. The two
+days' journey was like a dream-picture. The day before yesterday
+snow-covered fields in Komorn, and to-day on the Lower Danube hedges in
+bloom!</p>
+
+<p>Michael alighted at the Levetinczy castle to spend the night. He gave
+his instructions to the bailiff on the day of his arrival; the next
+morning he got up early, entered the carriage, and drove to the Danube
+to inspect his cargo ships. Everything was in order. Our Herr Johann
+Fabula had been appointed overseer of the whole flotilla: there was
+nothing for him to do. "Our gracious master can go and shoot ducks."</p>
+
+<p>And Herr von Levetinczy followed this good advice of Herr Fabula. He had
+a boat brought, and ordered provisions for a week, his gun, and plenty
+of ammunition to be put in it. No one will be surprised if he does not
+return from the reed-bed, now full of prime water-fowl, before a week
+has elapsed. It storms with duck, snipe, and herons, the last only
+valued for their feathers; even pelicans are to be met with, and an
+Egyptian ibis has been shot there. It is said a flamingo was once seen.
+When an ardent sportsman once gets into those marshes, you may wait till
+he comes out! And Timar loved sport, like all sailors. This time Michael
+did not load his gun. He let his boat float down with the stream till he
+reached the point of the Ostrova Island&mdash;there he seized the sculls and
+crossed the Danube obliquely. When he got round the island he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> soon saw
+where he was. From the southern reed-beds rose the tops of the
+well-known poplars&mdash;thither he went. There was already a channel broken
+through the rushes, across and along as required, if you only understood
+it. Where Michael had once been, he could find his way in the dark. What
+would Almira and Narcissa be doing? What should they be doing in such
+lovely weather but gratifying their passion for sport? Only, however,
+within certain limits: the field-mouse must be pursued at night, and
+that is easy for Narcissa, but she is strictly forbidden to chase birds.
+To Almira the marmots which came across the ice and settled in the
+island are positively interdicted. Aquatic prey still remain, and that
+is good sport too. Almira wades into the pure, clear water among the
+heaps of great stones at the bottom, and cautiously puts her fore-paw
+into a hole, out of which something dark is peeping. Suddenly she makes
+a great jump, draws her foot back, limps whining out of the water on
+three legs, and on the fourth paw hangs a large black crab, which has
+caught hold with its claws. Almira hobbles along in despair till, on
+reaching the bank, she succeeds in shaking off the dangerous monster; it
+is then carefully inspected by both Almira and Narcissa, to see at what
+price it can be induced to allow its body to be deprived of the shell.
+The crab naturally does not quite see the fun of this, and retires with
+all speed backward to the water. The two sportsmen, however, shove the
+reactionary party forward with their paws, until at one shove it is
+turned on its back, and now all three are in doubt what to do
+next&mdash;Almira, Narcissa, and the crab.</p>
+
+<p>Almira's attention is suddenly attracted by another object. She hears a
+noise and scents something. A friend approaches by water; she does not
+bark at him, but utters a low growl. This is her way of laughing, like
+some cheery old gentleman. She recognizes the man in the boat. Michael
+springs out, fastens the boat to a willow stump, pats Almira's head, and
+asks her, "Well, then, how is it all? is it all well?" The dog replied
+many things, but in the Newfoundland-dog language. To judge by the tone,
+the answer is satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>Then all at once a pitiful cry disturbs the pleasant greeting. The
+catastrophe which might have been foreseen has occurred. Narcissa came
+near enough to the upset and sprawling crab for it to catch her ear with
+its nippers, and then to bury all its six claws in her fur. Timar rushed
+to the scene of misfortune, and with great presence of mind, seeing the
+magnitude of the danger, seized the mailed criminal in a place where its
+weapons could not reach him, pressed its head between his strong
+fingers, and obliged it to let go its prey; then he dashed it with such
+force on to a stone that it was shattered, and gave up its black ghost.
+Narcissa, to show her gratitude, sprung on to the shoulder of her
+chivalrous deliverer, and snorted from there at her dead enemy.</p>
+
+<p>After this introductory deed of heroism, Timar busied himself in
+disembarking what he had brought with him. All are packed into a
+knapsack, which he can easily throw over his shoulder. But the gun, the
+gun! Almira can not abide him with a gun in his hand, but he can not
+leave it here, for it might easily be stolen by some one. What to do?
+The idea struck Timar to give it into Almira's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> charge, who then, in her
+leonine jaws, carried the weapon proudly before him as a poodle bears
+its master's cane. Narcissa sat on his shoulder and purred in his ear.
+Michael allowed Almira to go on before and show him the way.</p>
+
+<p>Timar felt transformed when he trod the turfy paths of the island. Here
+was holy rest and deepest solitude. The fruit-trees of this paradise are
+in bloom; between their white and rosy flower-pyramids wild roses arch
+their sprays; the golden sunbeams coax the flowers' fragrance into the
+air; the breeze is laden with it&mdash;with every breath one inhales gold and
+love. The forest of blossom is full of the hum of the bees, and in that
+mysterious sound, from all these flower-eyes, God speaks, God looks: it
+is a temple of the Lord. And that church music may not be wanting, the
+nightingale flutes his psalm of lament, and the lark trills his song of
+praise&mdash;only better than King David. At a spot where the purple lilacs
+parted, and the little island-home was visible, Michael stood
+spell-bound. The little house seemed to swim in a flaming sea, but not
+of water, only of roses. It was covered with rose-wreaths climbing to
+the roof, and for five acres round it only roses were visible&mdash;thousands
+of bushes, and six-foot rose-trees, forming pyramids, hedges, and
+arcades. It was a rose-forest, a rose-mountain, a rose-labyrinth, whose
+splendor dazzled the eye and spread afar a scent which surrounded one
+like a supernatural atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had Michael entered on the winding path through this wilderness
+of roses, before a melodious cry of joy was heard. His name was called.
+"Ah, Herr Timar!"</p>
+
+<p>And she who had uttered his name came running toward him. Timar had
+already recognized her by her voice: it was No&eacute;mi&mdash;little No&eacute;mi, whom he
+had not seen for nearly three years. How she had grown since then&mdash;how
+changed, how developed she was! Her dress was no longer neglected, but
+neat, though simple. In her rich golden hair a rose-bud was fastened.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Herr Timar!" cried the girl, and stretched out her hand to him from
+afar, greeting him with frank delight, and a warm shake of the hand.</p>
+
+<p>Michael returned it, and remained lost in gazing at the girl. Here then,
+at last, is a face that beams with joy at the sight of him. "How long it
+is since we saw you!" said the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"And how pretty you have grown!" exclaimed he.</p>
+
+<p>Sympathy shone in every line of No&eacute;mi's face. "So you remember me
+still?" asked Timar, holding the little hand fast in his own.</p>
+
+<p>"We have often thought of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Madame Therese well?"</p>
+
+<p>"There she comes."</p>
+
+<p>When she saw Michael she hastened her steps; from a distance she had
+recognized the former ship's captain, who now again, in his gray coat
+and with his knapsack, approached her hut. "God greet you! you have kept
+us waiting a long time!" exclaimed the woman to her visitor. "So you
+have thought of us at last?" And she embraced Michael without ceremony;
+then his well-filled knapsack caught her eye. "Almira," she said to the
+dog, "take this bag and carry it in."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>"There are a brace of birds in it," said Michael.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! then take care, Almira, that Narcissa does not get at it."</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi was affronted. "Narcissa is not so badly educated as that."</p>
+
+<p>To make it up, Frau Therese kissed her daughter, and No&eacute;mi was
+reconciled.</p>
+
+<p>"Now let us go in," said Therese, taking Michael's arm familiarly.
+"Come, No&eacute;mi."</p>
+
+<p>A huge boat-shaped basket made of white osier-twigs stood in the way,
+and its heaped-up contents were covered with a cloth. No&eacute;mi began to
+lift it by both handles; Michael sprung to help her, and No&eacute;mi burst
+into a childish shriek of laughter, and drew off the cloth. The basket
+was heaped with rose-leaves. Michael took one handle, and so they
+carried it together with its sweet cargo along the lavender-bordered
+path.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you make rose-water?" asked Timar.</p>
+
+<p>Therese threw a glance at No&eacute;mi. "See how he finds out everything!"</p>
+
+<p>"With us in Komorn much rose-water is made. Many poor women live by it."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed? Then elsewhere also the rose is a blessing of the Lord&mdash;the
+exquisite flower which alone would make man love this world! And it not
+only rejoices his heart, but gives him bread. Look you&mdash;last year was a
+bad season; the late frost spoiled the fruit and the vintage; the wet,
+cold summer destroyed the bees, and the poultry died of disease: we
+should have had to fall back on our stores if it had not been for the
+roses, which helped us in our need. They bloom every year, and are
+always faithful to us. We made three hundred gallons of rose-water,
+which we sold in Servia, and got grain in exchange. Oh, you dear
+roses&mdash;you life-saving flowers!"</p>
+
+<p>The little settlement had been enlarged since Timar was last there.
+There was a kiln and a kitchen for the preparation of the rose-water.
+Here was an open fire with the copper retort, from which the first
+essence dropped slowly; near the hearth stood a great tub with the
+crushed rose leaves, and on a broad bench lay the fresh ones which
+required drying.</p>
+
+<p>Michael helped No&eacute;mi to empty the basket on to the bench; that was a
+scent, a perfume, in which one could revel and intoxicate one's self!</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi laid her little head on the soft hill of rose leaves, and said,
+"It would be delicious to sleep on such a bed of roses."</p>
+
+<p>"Foolish child," Therese chided her. "You would never awake from that
+slumber; the odor would kill you."</p>
+
+<p>"That would be a lovely death!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you want to die?" Frau Therese said, reproachfully; "you want to
+leave me here alone, you naughty child?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" cried No&eacute;mi, embracing her mother with eager kisses. "I leave
+you, my dear, darling, only little mother!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you make such silly jests then? Don't you think, Herr Timar, it
+is not right for a young girl to allow herself these jokes with her
+mother&mdash;for a little girl who was playing with a doll only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> yesterday?"
+Michael quite agreed with Frau Therese that it was inexcusable under any
+pretense for a young lady to tell her mother that she thought any kind
+of death would be delightful. "Now just stop here and see that the
+essence does not boil, while I go to the kitchen to get a good dinner
+ready for our guest. You'll stay all day, of course?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will stay to-day and to-morrow too, if you will give me something to
+do for you. As long as you find me work I will remain."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then, you can stop the whole week," No&eacute;mi interrupted, "for I can
+find you plenty to do."</p>
+
+<p>"What work would you give Herr Timar, you little simpleton?" laughed the
+mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, of course, to crush the rose leaves!"</p>
+
+<p>"But perhaps he does not know how."</p>
+
+<p>"How should I not know all about it?" said Timar. "I have often enough
+helped my mother with it at home."</p>
+
+<p>"Your mother was a very good woman, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Very good."</p>
+
+<p>"And you loved her very much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very much."</p>
+
+<p>"Is she still living?"</p>
+
+<p>"She has long been dead."</p>
+
+<p>"So now you have no one in the world belonging to you?"</p>
+
+<p>Timar thought a moment, and bowed his head sadly&mdash;"No one." .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. He had
+spoken the truth.</p>
+
+<p>Michael noticed that Therese still stood at the door, doubtful whether
+to go or not. "Do you know, good mother," said he, suddenly remembering,
+"you need not go to the kitchen to cook anything for me. I have all
+sorts of provisions with me; there is only the table to spread&mdash;we shall
+all have enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Then who has looked after you and provided you so well with traveling
+comforts?" asked No&eacute;mi.</p>
+
+<p>"Who but our Herr Johann Fabula?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the honest steersman!&mdash;is he here too?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is loading the ship on the other bank."</p>
+
+<p>Therese guessed Timar's thought, but she would not be behind him in
+delicate tact. She wished to show him that she had no scruple about
+leaving him alone with No&eacute;mi. "No, I have thought of something else; I
+will manage both here and in the kitchen. You, No&eacute;mi, can meanwhile take
+Herr Timar over the island and show him all the changes since he was
+here."</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi was an obedient daughter; she did without question what her mother
+told her. She tied her Turkish handkerchief round her head, which framed
+her face charmingly. Timar recognized the scarf he had left as a present
+to her.</p>
+
+<p>"Au revoir, darling!" "Au revoir," said the mother and daughter with a
+kiss. They seemed to take leave of each other every time they parted, as
+if going on a long journey; and when they met again in an hour, they
+embraced as if they had been separated for years: the poor things had
+only each other in this world.</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi threw one more inquiring look, and Therese answered with a nod
+which meant, "Yes, go!"</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi and Timar now wandered on through the whole island.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> The path was
+so narrow that they were forced to walk close together, but Almira had
+the sense to push her great head between them and form a natural
+barrier. In the last three years cultivation had made great strides on
+the little island. A practicable road had been cut through the bushes;
+the old poplars had been uprooted, the wild crabs grafted; a skillful
+hand had formed neat fences from the broken branches; and where the
+orchard ceased, hedges divided the island, and hemmed in fields which
+supplied pasture for lambs and goats. One little lamb had a red ribbon
+round its neck, and this was No&eacute;mi's pet. When the flock saw her they
+ran to her and bleated a greeting which she understood; then they
+followed her and Timar to the border of the field where the fence
+stopped them.</p>
+
+<p>Behind these was to be seen a plantation of fine walnuts, with
+widespread shady heads and thick trunks, whose bark was smooth as silk.
+"Look," said No&eacute;mi, "those are my mother's pride; they are fifteen years
+old&mdash;just a year younger than I am," she said quite simply.</p>
+
+<p>On the right was the marsh, as Timar well remembered when he first came
+to the island and made his way through it. Now it was covered with
+water-plants; yellow lilies and white bell flowers were spread over the
+surface of the morass, and in the midst stood quietly two storks.</p>
+
+<p>Timar opened the little gate; it was a pleasant reminder to see this
+wilderness once more, and yet it seemed to him as if his guide was
+afraid and uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you still all alone here?" asked Michael.</p>
+
+<p>"We are alone. At market-times people come to barter with us, and in
+winter wood-cutters come and help us to hew the trees and root them up:
+the wood serves to pay them. We do the rest ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"But fruit-gathering is very troublesome, especially on account of the
+wasps."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is not hard work; our friends singing there on the trees help
+us with the wasp-killing. Do you see all the nests? Our laborers live
+there; here no one troubles them, and they do us good service. Just
+listen!"</p>
+
+<p>The wilderness resounded indeed with a heavenly concert. In the evening
+every bird hastens home, and then they are at their best. The cuckoo,
+the clock of the woods, has enough to do in striking the hours, and the
+thrush whistles in Greek strophes.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly No&eacute;mi screamed aloud, grew pale, and started back with her
+trembling hand on her heart, so that Timar felt it his duty to seize her
+by the hand that she might not fall. "What is it?" No&eacute;mi held her hand
+before her eyes and said, half laughing and half crying, in a tone of
+mingled fear and disgust, "Look, look! there he comes."</p>
+
+<p>"Who?"</p>
+
+<p>"There, that one!"</p>
+
+<p>He saw a large, wrinkled, fat frog, which was creeping quietly in the
+grass, keeping an eye on the new-comers, and ready for a spring, in case
+of danger, into the nearest water-course.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>No&eacute;mi was so paralyzed with fright that she had not the strength to run
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you afraid of frogs?" asked Timar.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a horror of them; I should be frightened to death if it jumped
+on me."</p>
+
+<p>"How like a girl! They love cats because they coax and flatter, but they
+can not bear frogs because they are ugly; and yet, do you know, the
+frogs are just as good friends to us as the birds: this common, despised
+animal is the best assistant to the gardener. You know there are moths
+and beetles and grubs which only come out at night; birds are asleep
+then, but the detested frog comes out of his hole and attacks our
+enemies in the dark; he feeds on the night-moths and their grubs, the
+caterpillars and the slugs, and even the vipers. It is splendid the war
+he makes on noxious insects. Keep quiet, just look&mdash;the ugly, wrinkled
+frog is not creeping there to frighten you&mdash;he is not thinking about it.
+He is a gentle beast, conscious of no sin, and does not regard you as an
+enemy. Do you see a blue beetle fanning with his wings? That is one of
+the worst insects, a wood-borer, of which one grub suffices to spoil a
+whole young plantation; and our little friend has fixed on him as a
+prey. Don't disturb him; look, he is drawing himself up for a
+spring&mdash;wait. There! now he has made his leap, and darts out his long
+tongue like lightning: the beetle is swallowed. You see that our good
+frog is not such a disgusting creature, in spite of his shabby coat."</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi clasped her hands, quite pleased, and already felt less dislike to
+frogs. She let Michael lead her to a seat, and tell her what sensible
+creatures they are, what funny tricks they play, and what curious games
+exist among them. He told her of the sky-blue frog of Surinam, of which
+one specimen cost the King of Prussia four thousand five hundred
+thalers; then of the fire-frog, which sheds a clear light around in the
+darkness, creeps into houses, hides in the beams, and croaks
+unmercifully at night. In Brazil sometimes you can not hear the singers
+in the opera-house for the chorus set up by the frogs which live in the
+building. Now No&eacute;mi was laughing at this awful enemy, and the laugh is
+half-way from hatred to love.</p>
+
+<p>"If only they would not make such an ugly noise!"</p>
+
+<p>"But you see in these tones they express their tender affection for
+their little wives, for among frogs only the little husband has a
+voice&mdash;the lady is dumb. The frog exclaims all night to his wife, 'How
+lovely, how charming you are!' Can there be a more affectionate creature
+than a frog?"</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi was beginning to look at it from the sentimental side.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, too, the frog is a learned animal. You must know that the true
+frog is a weather-prophet: when it is going to rain he knows it, comes
+out of the water and croaks his prophecy; when dry weather is coming he
+goes back to the water."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" began No&eacute;mi, getting interested.</p>
+
+<p>"I will catch one," said Timar; "I hear one among the bushes."</p>
+
+<p>He soon came back with a tree-frog between his palms. No&eacute;mi trembled and
+got excited. She was red and pale by turns.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>"Now look," said Timar to her, opening his hands a little. "Is it not a
+pretty little thing? It is as lovely a green as the young grass, and its
+tiny foot is like a miniature human hand. How its little heart beats!
+How it looks at us with its beautiful wise black eyes with a golden ring
+round them! It is not afraid of us!"</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi, wavering between fear and curiosity, stretched out a timid hand,
+but drew it quickly back.</p>
+
+<p>"Take it, touch it&mdash;it is the most harmless creature on God's earth."
+She stretched out her hand again, frightened and yet laughing, but
+looked into Timar's eyes instead of at the frog, and started when the
+cold body came in contact with her reluctant nerves; but then suddenly
+she laughed with pleasure, like a child which would not go into the cold
+water, and then is glad to be there.</p>
+
+<p>"Now look, he does not move in your hand; he is quite comfortable. We
+will take him home and find a glass, put water in, and then place a
+small ladder in it which I can cut out of wood. The frog shall be
+imprisoned in it, and when he knows that rain is coming he will climb up
+the ladder. Give it to me; I will carry it."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; I will keep him, and carry him home myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must hold your hand shut, or he will jump out; but not too
+tight so as to press him. And now let us go, for the dew is falling, and
+the grass is wet."</p>
+
+<p>They turned homeward, and No&eacute;mi ran on, calling from afar to Therese,
+"Mother, mother, see what we have caught! a beautiful bird."</p>
+
+<p>Mamma Therese prepared to scold her daughter severely.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know that it is forbidden to catch birds?"</p>
+
+<p>"But such a bird! Herr Timar caught it, and gave it to me. Just peep
+into my hand."</p>
+
+<p>Frau Therese threw up her hands when she saw the green tree-frog there.</p>
+
+<p>"Look how it blinks at me with its beautiful eyes!" cried No&eacute;mi, beaming
+with delight. "We are going to put him in a glass, catch flies for him,
+and he will foretell the weather for us. Oh, the dear little thing!" And
+she held the frog caressingly to her cheek.</p>
+
+<p>Therese turned to Timar in astonishment. "Sir, you are a magician! Only
+yesterday you could have driven this girl out of her senses with such a
+creature as that."</p>
+
+<p>But No&eacute;mi was quite enthusiastic about the frog. While she laid the
+table on the veranda for supper, she delivered a complete batrachian
+lecture to her mother on what she had heard from Timar: how useful, as
+well as wise, amusing, and interesting frogs were. It was not true that
+they spat venom, as people said, that they crept into sleepers' mouths,
+sucked the milk of cows, nor that they burst with poison if you held a
+spider to them&mdash;all this was pure calumny and stupid superstition. They
+are our best friends, which guard us at night; those little soft
+foot-prints which are visible on the smooth sand round the house, are
+the consoling sign of their nightly patrol: it would be ungrateful to
+fear them. Timar had meanwhile prepared a small ladder of willow-twigs
+for the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> meteorologist. He put it in a wide-mouthed bottle, which
+he half filled with water, and covered with a pierced paper, through
+which the imprisoned prophet was to receive its provision of flies. It
+of course went down to the bottom, and declined either to eat or to
+talk. No&eacute;mi welcomed this as a sign that the weather would remain fine.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said Frau Therese, as she brought out the supper to the
+little table at which they all sat down; "you have not only worked a
+miracle on No&eacute;mi, but have really done her a great benefit. Our island
+would have been a paradise if No&eacute;mi had not been so afraid of frogs. As
+soon as ever she saw one she grew quite white and got a fit of
+shivering. No human power would have induced her to go across the fence
+to where the innumerable frogs croak in the marsh. You have made a new
+creature of her, and reconciled her with her home."</p>
+
+<p>"A sweet home!" sighed Timar. Therese sighed aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you sigh?" No&eacute;mi asked.</p>
+
+<p>"You know well enough."</p>
+
+<p>And Timar too knew to whom the sigh was due.</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi tried to give a cheerful turn to the conversation. "I took my
+aversion to frogs from the time when a naughty boy played me a trick,
+and threw a great big toad, as brown as a crust, at me. He said it was a
+bull-frog, and that if he struck it with a nettle it would roar like a
+bull. He did strike the poor thing, and then it began to moan piteously,
+so that I can never forget it, as if it would call for vengeance against
+our whole race; and its body was covered with white froth. The bad boy
+laughed when he heard the uncanny voice of the poor beast."</p>
+
+<p>"Who was that wicked boy?" asked Michael.</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi was silent, and only made an expressively contemptuous movement of
+the hand. Timar guessed the name; he looked at Frau Therese, and she
+nodded assent&mdash;already they can guess each other's thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"Has he never been here since?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; he comes every year, and never ceases tormenting us. He has
+found a new way of laying us under contribution. He brings a large boat
+with him, and as I can not give him any money, he loads it with honey,
+wax, and wool, which he sells. I give him what he wants, that he may
+leave us in peace."</p>
+
+<p>"He has not been here lately," said No&eacute;mi.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing has happened to him, I expect his arrival any day."</p>
+
+<p>"If only he would come now!" said the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you little goose?"</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi grew crimson. "Only because I should prefer it."</p>
+
+<p>Timar, however, thought to himself how happy he could make these two
+people with a single word. But he gloated over the thought, like a child
+which had some sweets given to it, and begins by eating the crumbs
+first. He felt an inward impulse to share the joys and sorrows of these
+islanders.</p>
+
+<p>Supper was over, the sun had set, and a splendid, still, warm night sunk
+on to the fields; the whole sky looked like a transparent silver
+veil&mdash;no leaf stirred on the trees. The two women went with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> their
+visitor to the top of the great bowlder; from there one had a wide view
+over the trees and the reed-beds far across the Danube. The island lay
+at their feet like an enchanted lake with variegated waves. The
+apple-trees swam in a rosy, and the pomegranates in a dark-red, sea of
+blossom; the poplars looked golden-yellow, and the pear-trees white with
+snowy bloom, and the waving tips of the plum-trees were radiant in
+brazen green. In the midst rose the rock like a lighted cupola, wreathed
+with fiery roses, on whose top old lavender bushes formed a thicket.</p>
+
+<p>"Superb!" cried Timar, enchanted with the landscape outspread before
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"You should see the rock in summer, when the yellow stonecrop is in
+bloom," exclaimed No&eacute;mi, eagerly; "it looks as if it had on a golden
+robe. The lavender blossom makes a great blue crown for its head."</p>
+
+<p>"I will come and see it," said Timar.</p>
+
+<p>"Really?" The girl stretched out her hand to him joyously, and Michael
+fell a warm pressure such as no woman's hand had ever given him in his
+life. And then No&eacute;mi leaned her head on Therese's shoulder, and threw
+her arm round her mother's neck. All nature was under the spell of deep
+repose undisturbed by any human sound. Only the monotonous chorus of the
+frogs enlivened the deep shadows of the night. The sky offered a curious
+spectacle; half was blue, and the other opal green. There are two sides
+even to happiness.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you hear what the frogs are saying?" whispered No&eacute;mi to her
+mother&mdash;"'Oh, how dear you are, how sweet!' They say that all night
+long&mdash;'Oh, you darling, you sweet!'" and she kissed Therese at every
+word.</p>
+
+<p>Michael, forgetful of himself and of the whole world, stood on the rock
+with folded arms. The young crescent glittered between the quivering
+foliage of the poplars, now shining like pure silver; a wonderful new
+feeling crept into the man's breast. Was it fear or longing?&mdash;memory
+aroused or dawning hope?&mdash;awakening joy or dying grief?&mdash;instinct or
+warning?&mdash;madness, or that breath of spring which seizes on tree and
+grass, and every cold or warm-blooded animal?</p>
+
+<p>Just so had he gazed at the waning moon, which threw its long reflection
+on the waves as far as the sinking ship. His involuntary thoughts talked
+with the ghostly magnetic rays, and they with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not understand? I will return to-morrow, and then you will
+know."</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_THIRD_IV" id="CHAPTER_THIRD_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+<span class="subhead">A SPIDER AMONG THE ROSES.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>People who live by their labor have no time to admire the moonlight from
+mountain-tops, or to waste in observation on the beauties of nature: the
+flocks of sheep and goats already waited to be relieved of their milky
+tribute by their mistress. Milking was the office of Frau Therese, and
+it was No&eacute;mi's duty to cut grass enough for the herd. Timar continued
+the conversation meanwhile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> with his back leaning against the
+stable-door, and lighting his pipe just as the countryman does when he
+is courting the peasant girl.</p>
+
+<p>The great boiler must be refilled with fresh rose-infusion, and then
+they can all go to bed. Timar begged for the bee-house to sleep in,
+where Frau Therese spread him a couch of fresh hay, and No&eacute;mi arranged
+his pillow. Very little was needed to woo him to slumber. Hardly had he
+lain down before sleep closed his eyes; he dreamed all night that he had
+become a gardener's boy, and was making endless rose-water.</p>
+
+<p>When he awoke the sun was already high in the heavens. The bees buzzed
+round him busily; he had overslept himself. That some one had already
+been here he guessed, because near his couch lay all the toilet
+necessaries he had brought in his knapsack. A poor traveler who is used
+to shaving every day feels very uncomfortable when unable to go through
+that operation; his mind is as much disturbed by that confounded stubble
+as if it were a prick of conscience. When he was ready, the women
+already awaited him at breakfast, which consisted of bread and milk, and
+then they went to the day's work of rose-gathering.</p>
+
+<p>Michael was, as he desired, set to rose-crushing. No&eacute;mi picked off the
+petals, and Frau Therese was busy with the boiler. Timar told No&eacute;mi all
+about roses. Not that they were like her cheeks, at which she would have
+burst out laughing, but he imparted to her what he had learned about
+them in his travels: learned things which No&eacute;mi listened to with
+attention, and which instilled into her a still greater respect for
+Timar. With young and innocent maidens a clever, intelligent man has a
+great advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"In Turkey they use rose-water in eating and drinking. There, too, whole
+groves of roses are planted; there beads are made of roses pressed into
+the form of balls and strung together: that is why they are called
+rosaries. In the East there is one lovely kind of rose from which attar
+is made; it is the balsam rose, and grows on trees of ten feet high,
+whose branches are bent to the ground by their snow-white burden. Their
+scent surpasses that of any other kind; if you throw the petals into
+water and set them in the sun, in a very short time the surface is
+rainbow-colored with the oil that the petals exude. It is the same with
+the evergreen rose, which does not shed its leaves in winter. The Ceylon
+and Rio roses dye the hair and beard light, and so fast that they do not
+lose their color for years; for this purpose alone there is a
+considerable trade in them. The leaves of the Moggor rose stupefy; you
+are intoxicated by their scent as if with beer. The Vilmorin rose has
+the property that, it if is bitten by a certain insect which is
+obnoxious to it, it throws out great tubers, which are said to send a
+crying child to sleep if put under its pillow."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been everywhere where roses grow?" asked No&eacute;mi.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I have been a good deal about in the world. I have been to
+Vienna, Paris, and Constantinople."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that far from here?"</p>
+
+<p>"If one traveled on foot one would get to Vienna in thirty days from
+here, and to Constantinople in forty days."</p>
+
+<p>"But you went in a ship."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>"That takes longer still; for I should have to take in cargo on the
+way."</p>
+
+<p>"For whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"For the owner I was traveling for."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Herr Brazovics still your principal?"</p>
+
+<p>"Who told you about him?"</p>
+
+<p>"The steersman who came with you."</p>
+
+<p>"No longer now&mdash;Herr Brazovics is dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Dead! so he is dead? And his wife and daughter?" interrupted Frau
+Therese, quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"They have lost everything by his death."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, just God! Thy avenging hand has reached them!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, good mother!" cried No&eacute;mi, with gentle entreaty.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, there is one more thing you ought to know. When that blow fell on
+us, when I had implored Brazovics on my knees not to drive us to
+beggary, it struck me that this man had a wife and child. I determined
+to find out his wife and tell her my misery&mdash;she would help me and take
+pity on us. I took my child in my arms and traveled in the hottest part
+of the summer to Komorn. I sought her out in her fine large house, and
+waited at the door, for they would not let me in. At last Frau Brazovics
+came out with her five-year-old daughter. I fell on my knees, and begged
+her for God's sake to take compassion on us, and be our mediator with
+her husband. The woman seized my arm and thrust me down the step; I
+tried, in falling, to protect my child with both arms, that it might not
+be hurt, and struck my head against one of the two pillars which support
+the balcony. Here is the scar still visible. The little girl laughed
+aloud when she saw me limping away and heard my baby cry. That is why I
+sing 'Hosanna,' and blessed be the hand which thrust her away from the
+steps down which she cast us."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother, don't talk so!"</p>
+
+<p>"So they have come to misery? Have they become beggars themselves&mdash;the
+haughty, purse-proud people? Do they wear rags, and beg in vain at the
+doors of their former friends?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, dear lady," said Michael; "some one has been found to take care of
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"Madman!" cried Therese, with passionate force. "Why should he put a
+spoke in fate's wheel? How can he dare to receive into his home the
+curse which will ruin him?"</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi ran to her mother and covered her mouth with both hands; then she
+fell on her neck and sealed her lips with kisses. "Dearest mother, do
+not say such things. Do not utter curses; I can not bear to hear
+them&mdash;take them back. Let me kiss away the dreadful words from your
+lips."</p>
+
+<p>Therese recovered herself under her daughter's caresses. "Do not be
+afraid, silly child," she said, shaking her head. "Curses fall idly on
+the air. They are only a bad, superstitious habit of us old women. God
+never thinks of noticing the curses of such worms as we are, and keeping
+them till the day of judgment. My curses will take effect on no one."</p>
+
+<p>"It is already fulfilled on me," thought Timar. "I am the madman who
+received them into his house."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>No&eacute;mi tried to bring the subject of roses back. "Tell me, Herr Timar,
+how could you get such a Moggor rose whose scent stupefies?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you wish, I will bring you one."</p>
+
+<p>"Where do they grow?"</p>
+
+<p>"In Brazil."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that far?"</p>
+
+<p>"The other side of the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Must you go by sea?"</p>
+
+<p>"Two months continuously at sea."</p>
+
+<p>"And why would you go?"</p>
+
+<p>"On business&mdash;and to fetch you a Moggor rose."</p>
+
+<p>"Then do not bring me any."</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi left the kitchen, and Michael noticed that tears were in her eyes.
+She only returned to the distillery when she had filled her basket with
+rose leaves, and shook them out on to the rush-matting, where they made
+a large hill.</p>
+
+<p>The boiling of yesterday's rose-essence lasted till midday, and after
+breakfast Frau Therese said to her guest that there was not much work
+for to-day, and that they could go for a walk in the island. One who was
+so great a traveler might be able to give good advice to the islanders,
+as to what vegetables they might usefully and profitably introduce into
+their little Eden. Frau Therese said to the dog, "Stop here and watch
+the house! Lie down in the veranda and don't stir!" Almira understood
+and obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>Michael disappeared with his companions among the plantations.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had they vanished into the wood before Almira began to prick her
+ears uneasily and to growl angrily. She scented something. She shook her
+head, rose from time to time, but lay down again. A man's voice became
+audible, which sung a German song, whose refrain was, "She wears, if I
+can trust my eyes, a jet-black camisole." The person coming from the
+shore sings, of course, on purpose to attract the attention of the
+inhabitants. He is afraid of the great dog&mdash;but it does not bark.</p>
+
+<p>The new arrival appears from among the shadows of the rose-arbor. It is
+Theodor Krisstyan.</p>
+
+<p>This time he is attired like a fashionable dandy, in a dark-blue tunic
+with golden buttons; and his overcoat hangs on his arm. Almira does not
+stir at his approach. She is a philosopher, and reasons, if I fly at
+this man, the end of it will be that I shall be tied up and not he. I
+shall do better to keep my opinion of him to myself, and to look on in
+armed neutrality at what he does. Theodor drew near confidently, and
+whistling to his huge black enemy. "Your servant, Almira. Come,
+Almirakin, you dear old dog&mdash;where are your ladies? Bark a bit to please
+me. Where is our dear Mamma Therese?" Almira could not be induced to
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, then, little doggie, what I have got for you&mdash;a piece of meat;
+there, eat it. What? Don't you want it? You fancy it's poisoned, you
+fool? Gobble it up, you beauty!" But Almira would not even sniff at the
+piece of meat, until Narcissa (it is well known that cats have no
+decision of character) crept up to it, which made Almira angry, and she
+began to scratch a large hole in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> the ground; there she buried the meat,
+like a careful dog which makes provision for a day of necessity.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what a distrustful beast it is," murmured Theodor to himself. "Am
+I to be allowed to go in?"</p>
+
+<p>But that was not allowed. Almira did not say so in words, but she curled
+her lip to let him see the beautiful white teeth underneath.</p>
+
+<p>"Stupid creature, you don't mean to bite me? Where can the women be?
+Perhaps in the distillery?"</p>
+
+<p>Theodor went in and looked round&mdash;he found no one. He washed his face
+and hands in the steaming rose-water, and it gave him especial pleasure
+to think that so he had spoiled the work of a whole day.</p>
+
+<p>When he wanted to come out of the distillery, he found the entrance
+barred by the dog. Almira had laid herself down across the threshold and
+showed him her white teeth. "Indeed, so now you won't let me come out,
+you churl? Very well, I can wait here till the women return. I can find
+a little place to rest on." And so saying he threw himself on the heap
+of rose leaves No&eacute;mi had turned out. "Ah, what a good bed&mdash;a Lucullan
+couch! Ha! ha!"</p>
+
+<p>The women came back with Michael from their walk through the island.
+Therese saw with uneasiness that Almira was not lying in the veranda,
+but was guarding the door of the distillery.</p>
+
+<p>When Theodor heard Therese's voice, he thought of a good trick to play.
+He buried himself in the rose leaves, so that nothing was to be seen of
+him; and when No&eacute;mi, with the words, "What have you here, Almira?"
+looked in at the door, he put his head out and grinned at her: "Your own
+beloved bridegroom is here, lovely No&eacute;mi!"</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi, starting back, screamed aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" asked the mother, hastening up.</p>
+
+<p>"There, among the roses .&nbsp;.&nbsp;." stammered the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what among the roses? A spider?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. a spider .&nbsp;.&nbsp;."</p>
+
+<p>Theodor sprung laughing from his bed of roses, and like one who has
+surprised his dear ones with a capital joke, rushed with shouts of
+laughter to Mamma Therese, embraced her, without noticing her angry
+looks or No&eacute;mi's disgusted face, and kissed her several times.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! Did I take you by surprise? You sweet dear mamma, be happy:
+your dear son-in-law is here; he has risen like a fairy from the roses.
+He! he!" Then he turned toward No&eacute;mi, but she slipped away from his
+embrace, and then first Theodor Krisstyan was aware of the presence of a
+third person&mdash;Michael Timar.</p>
+
+<p>This discovery damped his joviality, which indeed was only put on, and
+for this reason it was disagreeable to see some one with whom most
+unpleasant recollections were connected.</p>
+
+<p>"Your servant, Mr. Supercargo!" he addressed Timar. "We meet here again?
+You have not any more Turkish pashas in your ship? He! he! Don't be
+afraid, Mr. Supercargo."</p>
+
+<p>Timar shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. Then Theodor turned to
+No&eacute;mi, and put his arm caressingly round the girl's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> waist, who in
+answer to it pushed him away and turned her face from him.</p>
+
+<p>"Leave the girl alone!" said Therese shortly, in a severe tone. "What do
+you want now?"</p>
+
+<p>"There, there&mdash;don't turn me out of the house before I have got in. Is
+it not permissible to embrace my little bride? No&eacute;mi won't break if I
+look at her? What are you so afraid of me for?"</p>
+
+<p>"We have good reason," said Therese, sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be angry, little mother. This time I have not come to get
+anything from you: I bring you something&mdash;a great, great deal of money.
+Ho! ho! a heap of money! So much that you could buy back your fine house
+that you once had, and the fields and gardens on the Ostrova Island&mdash;in
+short, all that you have lost. You shall have it all again. I know that
+I, as a son, owe you the duty of making good all that you lost by my
+poor father's fault."</p>
+
+<p>By this time Theodor had become so sentimental that he was shedding
+tears, but it left the spectators unmoved: they believed as little in
+his tears as in his laughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go in, into the room," said he, "for what I have to say is not
+for every ear."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk such nonsense," Frau Therese said, angrily. "What do you
+mean by 'every ear' here on this lonely island? You can say anything
+before Timar: he is an old friend&mdash;but go on. I know you are hungry, and
+that's what it all means."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you dear good mother! how well you know your Theodor's little
+weakness of always having a splendid appetite. And you do so thoroughly
+understand the exquisite Greek <i>cuisine</i>, at sight of which one would
+wish to be all stomach. There is no such housekeeper in the world as you
+are. I have dined with the Sultan of Turkey, but he has no cook who can
+compare with you."</p>
+
+<p>Frau Therese had the weakness of being sensitive to praise of her
+housekeeping. She never grudged good things to any guest, and even her
+deadly enemy she could not send away empty.</p>
+
+<p>Theodor wore a so-called Figaro hat, which was then in fashion, and
+managed that the low door-way of the little cottage should knock it off
+his head, in order to be able to say, "Oh, these confounded new-fangled
+hats! but that's sure to happen when one is used to high door-ways. In
+my new house they are all folding-doors, and such a splendid view over
+the sea from my rooms."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you then really a home anywhere?" asked Therese as she laid the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so! At Trieste, and in the finest palace in the town. I
+am agent to the principal shipbuilder."</p>
+
+<p>"At Trieste?" interrupted Timar. "What's his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"He turns out sea-going vessels," said Theodor, casting a contemptuous
+look at Timar. "He is not merely a barge-builder&mdash;and for that matter
+his name is Signor Scaramelli."</p>
+
+<p>Timar was silent. He did not care to let out that he himself was having
+a large vessel built for the ocean trade by Scaramelli.</p>
+
+<p>"I am just rolling in money!" bragged Theodor. "Millions and millions
+pass through my hands. If I were not such an honest man, I could save
+thousands for myself. I have bought something for my dear little No&eacute;mi,
+which I once promised her. What<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> did I promise? A ring. What sort of a
+stone? A ruby, an emerald? Well, it is a brilliant, a four-carat
+brilliant: it shall be our betrothal ring. Here it is." Theodor felt in
+his breeches-pocket, fumbled a long time, made at last a terrible
+grimace, and stared on the ground. "It is lost!" groaned he, turning his
+pocket out, and showing the treacherous hole through which the valuable
+engagement-ring with the four-carat diamond had escaped. No&eacute;mi broke
+into a hearty laugh. She had such a lovely ringing voice when she
+laughed, and one seldom had a chance of hearing it.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is not lost!" cried Theodor; "you may spare your laughter, fair
+lady!" and he began to draw off his boot&mdash;and there really was the ring,
+which fell out of the turned-over top of the boot on to the tray.</p>
+
+<p>"There it is! A good horse does not run away. My little No&eacute;mi's
+engagement-ring has never left me. Look now, Mamma Therese&mdash;your future
+son-in-law has brought this for his bride; there, what do you say to
+that? And you, Mr. Underwriter, if you understand these things, what do
+you value this diamond at?"</p>
+
+<p>Timar looked at the stone and said, "Paste. In the trade it is worth
+about five groschen."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold your tongue, Supercargo! What do you know about it? You understand
+hay and maize, and perhaps never saw a diamond in your life."</p>
+
+<p>And so saying, he placed the despised ring, which No&eacute;mi would on no
+account wear, on his little finger, and was busy all through the meal in
+showing it off. The young gentleman had a fine appetite. During dinner
+he talked very big about what a gigantic establishment this
+shipbuilder's was, and how many million square feet of wood were
+required every year. There were hardly any trees left in the
+neighborhood fit for building ships. They had to be brought from
+America. There were only a few left in Sclavonia. Only after he had
+dined well, he came out with the principal affair.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, my dear lady, I will tell you what I have come about."</p>
+
+<p>Therese looked at him with anxious distrust.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I will make you all happy&mdash;you, as well as No&eacute;mi and myself. And
+besides, I can do Signor Scaramelli a good turn. That's enough for me.
+Says Scaramelli to me one day, 'Friend Krisstyan, I say, you will have
+to go off to Brazil.'"</p>
+
+<p>"If only you were there now!" sighed Therese.</p>
+
+<p>Theodor understood and smiled. "You must know that from there comes the
+best wood for shipbuilding. The makaya and the murmuru tree, used for
+the keel; the poripont and patanova, from which the ribs are made; the
+royoc and grasgal-trees, which do not decay in water; the
+'mort-aux-rats'-tree, the iron-wood for rudder shafts, and sour-gum-tree
+for paddle-floats; also the teak and mahogany for ship's fittings,
+and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pray, stop with your ridiculous Indian names," interrupted Therese;
+"you think you will turn my head by reeling out a whole botanical
+catalogue, so that I sha'n't see the wood for the trees. Tell me why&mdash;if
+there are such incomparable trees in Brazil&mdash;why you are not there
+already?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>"Yes, but that's just where my grand idea comes in. Why, said I to
+Signor Scaramelli, should I travel to Brazil when we have plenty of wood
+close by even better than that of Brazil? I know an island in the middle
+of the Danube which is provided with a virgin forest, and where grow
+splendid trees, which can compete with those of South America."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought so," murmured Therese to herself.</p>
+
+<p>"The poplars take the place of the patanovas; the nut-trees far surpass
+mahogany, and those we have in hundreds on our island."</p>
+
+<p>"My nut-trees!"</p>
+
+<p>"The wood of the apple-tree is much better than that of the
+jaskarilla-tree."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed; so you have already disposed of my apple-trees!"</p>
+
+<p>"Plum-tree wood need not fear comparison with the best teak."</p>
+
+<p>"And those too you would cut down and sell to Signor Scaramelli?" asked
+Frau Therese, quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall get a mint of money for them; at least ten gulden for each
+tree. Signor Scaramelli has given me <i>carte blanche</i>. He has left me
+free to make a contract with you. I have it in my pocket; you have only
+to sign and our fortune is made. And when once the useless trees here
+are cut down, we will not stay here, but go and live in Trieste. We will
+plant the whole island with 'Prunus mehaleb'&mdash;you know they make Turkish
+pipe-stems from it. This tree requires no care; we need only keep one
+man here; he would sell the yearly crop of tubular stems to the
+merchants, and we should receive five hundred ducats for every rood&mdash;for
+ten roods five thousand ducats."</p>
+
+<p>Timar could not suppress a smile. Speculations of such rashness had not
+occurred even to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is there to laugh at?" Theodor said, in a lordly manner. "I
+know all about these things."</p>
+
+<p>"And I understand, too," said Therese, "what you want. As often as my
+unlucky star brings you here, you appear like a bird of prey, and I may
+be sure you have some malicious scheme against me. You know that you
+will not find any money with me, but you help yourself. Once before you
+came with a boat and carried off what we had saved for our own use, and
+turned it into money. Now you are no longer satisfied with the fruit of
+which you took tithes more jealously than any usurious pasha. You want
+to sell the trees, too, over my head&mdash;those trees, my treasures, my only
+friends in the world, which I have planted and nurtured, which keep me,
+and under which I can rest. Fy! for shame! to tell me such stories of
+getting money for these trees, to build ships of them. For certain, you
+would only cut them down to sell them for a trifle to the nearest
+charcoal-burner&mdash;that is your splendid plan. Who are you going to take
+in? Not me, who know your cunning. I tell you, have done with your
+foolish tricks, or you may yet learn what is the use of Turkish
+pipe-stems!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, Mamma Therese, I am not thinking of joking; you may be sure I
+did not come here for nothing: remember what day it is. It is my
+<i>f&ecirc;te</i>-day, and the day of my little darling No&eacute;mi's birth. You know my
+poor father and hers betrothed us to each other when we were little;
+they settled that as soon as No&eacute;mi was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> seventeen we should be united. I
+should have come from the ends of the earth for such a day as this. Here
+I am, with all the warmth of my loving heart; but people can not live on
+love alone. It is true I get good pay from Signor Scaramelli, but that
+goes to the splendid furniture of my house in Trieste. You must give me
+something with No&eacute;mi, so that she may make an appearance consistent with
+her rank. The bride can not enter the bridegroom's house with empty
+hands; she is your only daughter, and has a right to require of you that
+you should provide for her handsomely."</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi had sat down sulkily in a corner of the room, and remained with
+her back to the company and her head against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," continued Theodor. "You must give No&eacute;mi a dowry. Do not be so
+selfish. Keep half your trees, for all I care, and leave the other half
+to me; where and how I sell them is my affair. Give No&eacute;mi the nut-trees
+for a dowry: for those I have, really, a certain purchaser."</p>
+
+<p>Therese had come to the end of her patience. "Listen, Theodor. I do not
+know whether to-day is your <i>f&ecirc;te</i> or not, but one thing I do know, that
+it is not No&eacute;mi's birthday. And yet more surely I know that No&eacute;mi will
+not marry you, if you were the only man on God's earth."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! leave that to me&mdash;I am not afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you like; but now, once for all, you shall never have my
+splendid nut-trees, if Noah's ark was to be built of them. One single
+tree I will give you, and that you can use for the end you will come to
+sooner or later. You say to-day is your <i>f&ecirc;te</i>-day, and that would be a
+good day to do it."</p>
+
+<p>At these words Theodor rose, but not to go on his way&mdash;only to turn the
+chair he had been sitting on, and place himself astride on it, with his
+elbows on its back, and looking into Therese's eyes he said with
+provoking coolness&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I must say you are very kind, Mamma Therese; you seem to have forgotten
+that if I say one word&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Say it then! You can speak freely before this gentleman: he knows
+everything."</p>
+
+<p>"And that this island does not belong to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And that it would only cost me one word, either at Vienna or
+Constantinople&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"To make us homeless and shelterless and beggars."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I can do that!" cried Theodor Krisstyan, who, now showing his true
+colors, looked with greedy eyes at Therese and drew a paper from his
+pocket, which he held toward her. "Here is the agreement, and here is
+the date. You know what I can do, and I will do it, if you do not sign
+this contract immediately." Therese trembled.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," said Timar, laying his hand gently on Theodor's shoulder.
+"You can not do that."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" asked he, throwing his head back defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Lay information anywhere of the existence of this island, and of its
+unauthorized occupation."</p>
+
+<p>"Why should I not do it?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>"Because another has already done it."</p>
+
+<p>"You!" cried Theodor, raising his fist to Michael.</p>
+
+<p>"You!" exclaimed Therese, pressing her hands to her brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I," said Timar, steadily and calmly. "I have given information
+both at Vienna and in Constantinople, that here close to the Ostrova
+Island a nameless and uninhabited islet has been formed in the course of
+the last fifty years. Then I begged of the Vienna Government as well as
+of the Sublime Porte to leave me the usufruct of the islet for ninety
+years: as an acknowledgement of ownership, the Hungarian Government is
+to receive every year a sack of nuts, and the Sublime Porte a box of
+dried fruit. The patent in question and the imperial firman are already
+in my hands." Timar drew the two deeds out of the envelope he had
+received at his Baja office, and which had, so much pleased him. When he
+became a great man, he had determined to procure comfort and peace for
+this poor storm-driven family. That sack of nuts and box of fruit had
+cost him large sums. "But," he concluded, "I hastened to transfer the
+rights thus obtained to the present inhabitants and colonists. Here is
+the official deed of settlement."</p>
+
+<p>Therese fell speechless at Michael's feet. She could only sob and kiss
+the hands of the man who had freed her from this incarnate curse, and
+driven away the phantom which oppressed her heart by day and night.</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi held her two hands on her heart, as if afraid that it would cry
+aloud, and betray what her lips suppressed.</p>
+
+<p>"You see then, Herr Theodor Krisstyan," said Michael, "that you have
+nothing to get on this island for the next ninety years."</p>
+
+<p>Pale with rage, Theodor screamed, foaming at the mouth, "And who are you
+who dare to meddle in the affairs of this family? What gives you a right
+to do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"My love!" cried No&eacute;mi suddenly, with all the strength of overpowering
+passion, while she fell on Michael's breast, and threw her arms round
+his neck.</p>
+
+<p>Theodor said not a word more. He shook his fist in silent rage at Timar,
+and rushed out of the room. In his look lay that hatred which does not
+hesitate to use a dagger or to mix poison. But even when he was gone,
+the girl still held Timar's neck in her embrace.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_THIRD_V" id="CHAPTER_THIRD_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+<span class="subhead">OUT OF THE WORLD.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>What induced No&eacute;mi to throw herself on Timar's breast and acknowledge
+openly that she loved him? Did she wish thus to banish forever the man
+whose presence was hateful to her, and make it impossible for him any
+longer to desire her as his wife? Had this child of solitude no idea of
+the etiquette which demands that such feelings should be concealed in a
+maiden's breast? Or did she confuse love with the gratitude she could
+not help feeling toward the man who had freed her and her mother from
+anxiety, and won for their lifelong enjoyment the possession of this
+little paradise? Perhaps she was alarmed when she saw her tor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>mentor
+feeling for a weapon, and had instinctively thrown herself on her
+benefactor's breast to protect him from attack. She might have thought
+that this poor ship's captain, whose mother was as poor as her mother,
+had said that he had "no one" in the world; why should she not be "some
+one" to him? Would he have returned here if something had not attracted
+him, and if he cared for her why should she not love him?</p>
+
+<p>No, no; no explanation, no reason, no excuse was needed; here was
+nothing but pure, unselfish love.</p>
+
+<p>She did not know why, she asked for no reason&mdash;she only loved. She loved
+without inquiring whether it was allowed by God and man, whether it
+would bring her joy or sorrow. She did not long to be happy or great,
+her lord's liege lady, crowned with the silver crown, and blessed by the
+Triune God&mdash;she only loved. She never thought of humiliation with bent
+head, she asked neither the protection of a husband nor the pity and
+forgiveness of God&mdash;she only loved. Such was No&eacute;mi.</p>
+
+<p>Poor No&eacute;mi! what you must suffer for this! .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Michael had for the
+first time in his life heard it said that some one loved him. From real
+inclination, as a poor ship's captain in another man's service, without
+selfish interest, for his own sake alone. A miraculous warmth overflowed
+his heart, the warmth which will awake the dead from their long sleep at
+the resurrection. He raised his hands timidly and trembling to the
+shoulders of the girl, and asked, with softly whispering voice, "And
+that is really true?"</p>
+
+<p>The maiden moved the head which lay on his heart and nodded to him.
+"Yes; it is true."</p>
+
+<p>Michael looked at Therese. She came toward them, and laid her hand on
+No&eacute;mi's head, as if to say, "Well, then, love him!" It was a solemn and
+silent scene, in which each could hear the heart-beats of the other.</p>
+
+<p>Therese broke the silence first. "If only you knew," she said to Timar,
+"how many tears the girl has shed for you. If you had seen her go daily
+up the rock, and look for hours over the quiet landscape, where you
+vanished from her sight. If you had heard her whisper your name in her
+dreams!"</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi made a deprecating gesture with her hand, as if to entreat her
+mother to betray no more. But Michael only noticed it by drawing her
+closer to himself. See, here at last is one being in the wide world who
+knows how to love him; who in the "Man of Gold" loves the man and not
+the gold. And it seemed to him as if he had been in banishment, as long
+as he had walked through the world, and only now had found a new earth
+and new heaven, and in them a new life. He bent to kiss the girl's brow,
+and felt her heart throb against his.</p>
+
+<p>And around him were only springing flowers, fragrant shrubs, humming
+bees, and singing birds, which all proclaimed "Thou shalt love!"
+Speechless bliss led them out into the air, and when they looked into
+each other's eyes, both thought, "How wonderful! thine eyes are the same
+color as mine." The brilliant sky and the fragrant earth had agreed to
+inthrall them&mdash;their own inclination completed the spell. When a child
+who has never loved, and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> man who has never been loved, meet each
+other, how is it likely to be with them?</p>
+
+<p>The day drew to a close, but they had not yet been satisfied with joy.
+The evening fell, the moon rose. No&eacute;mi led Michael to the top of the
+rock, whence she had once looked after the departing guest with tears.
+There Timar sat down among the sweet lavender; No&eacute;mi placed herself
+beside him, and leaned her curly golden head on the arm of the man,
+whose enraptured face was raised to the sky. Therese stood behind them
+and looked down smiling. The silver moon shone radiant from the
+golden-dusky vault, and the tempting phantom spoke, "Behold this
+treasure! it belongs to you. You found it; it gave itself to you and is
+yours. You had obtained all except love, only that was wanting, and now
+you have found that too. Take, enjoy to the dregs the cup which the
+Almighty has given you. You will become a new man! The man whom a woman
+loves becomes a demi-god. You are happy; you are beloved." .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Only
+the inner voice whispered, "You are a thief!"</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>With the first kiss a new world had arisen for Michael; a wonderful
+change had taken place in his soul. The first feeling which overpowered
+him was a secret dread, a fear of happiness; should he submit to it or
+fly from it? Does a blessing or a curse rest on it? does it bring life
+or death? what follows on it? What deity will answer these questions?
+The flower is answered when it unfolds its cup, the butterfly when it
+opens its wings, the bird when it builds its nest; but not the man when
+he asks, "Is it good or evil to follow the call of my heart?"</p>
+
+<p>And his heart said, "Look in her eyes!" It is not sinful to be
+transported by a glance of the eye, and this intoxication lasts. Michael
+forgot the whole world when he looked in her eyes; a new creation arose
+for him, full of bliss and joy and earthly happiness. The exquisite
+presentiment stupefied him.</p>
+
+<p>Since his youth no one had loved him. He had once hoped for affection,
+struggled for it with might and main, and when he thought he was at the
+goal, his joy was turned to ashes by crushing disappointment. And here
+to his face he is told that he is beloved. Everything tells him so; the
+animals which lick his hand, the lips which betray the heart's secret,
+the blush and the glance which tell more than the mouth. Even she who
+ought to guard the secret jealousy, the mother of the loving girl, even
+she betrays it&mdash;"She loves so passionately that it will be her death!"</p>
+
+<p>No; that it shall not be. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>Timar passed on the island one of those days which outweigh an eternity.
+A day full of endless feeling&mdash;a day of self-forgetfulness and waking
+dreams, when what a man has longed for in visions of the night actually
+stands before him.</p>
+
+<p>But when on the third night, after a season of ideally rapturous
+intercourse, he returned from the moonlit world of enchantment to his
+solitary dark bedroom, the inward accuser, who would not be silenced or
+lulled to sleep, called him to account.</p>
+
+<p>This voice would not let him sleep. He was restless all night, and dawn
+found him out under the trees; his decision was made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>&mdash;he would go away
+and not come back for a long time, till he was forgotten. Till he also
+had forgotten that he had lived three days in Elysium, that he had been
+permitted to know happiness.</p>
+
+<p>When the sun rose, he had been round the whole island, and when he got
+back he found Frau Therese and her daughter busy preparing breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go away to-day," said Michael to Therese.</p>
+
+<p>"So soon," whispered No&eacute;mi.</p>
+
+<p>"He has a great deal to do," said Therese to her daughter.</p>
+
+<p>This was only natural enough. A captain is only a servant who must look
+after his affairs, and not waste the time for which he must account to
+his employer.</p>
+
+<p>He was not pressed to stay&mdash;it was quite right that he should leave. He
+will come back, and they have plenty of time to wait for him&mdash;one year,
+two years, till the hour of death, till eternity. But No&eacute;mi did not
+touch her glass of new milk: she could not have swallowed a drop. He
+must not be detained; if he has business he must go and attend to it.
+Therese herself brought out his gun and knapsack, and said to No&eacute;mi,
+"You carry the gun, that Almira may not hurt it. Go with him to the
+boat."</p>
+
+<p>Timar walked silently beside No&eacute;mi; the girl's hand rested in his;
+suddenly she stood still. Michael did so too, and looked in her eyes.
+"You want to ask me something?" he said. The girl thought awhile, then
+she said, "No; nothing." Timar had learned to read her eyes; he guessed
+her thoughts. No&eacute;mi wanted to ask him, "Tell me, my beloved, my all;
+what has become of the white-faced girl who once came with you to the
+island, and was called Tim&eacute;a?"</p>
+
+<p>But she said nothing, only walked on silently with his hand in hers.</p>
+
+<p>Michael's heart was heavy when they said good-bye. When No&eacute;mi gave him
+his gun she whispered to him, "Take care of yourself, that no harm may
+come to you;" and when she pressed his hand, she looked at him once more
+with those heavenly blue and soulful eyes, and said, with a voice of
+entreaty, "You will return?"</p>
+
+<p>Michael was fascinated by the entreating voice. He pressed the child to
+him and murmured&mdash;"Why don't you say 'Wilt not <i>thou</i> return?' Why am I
+never to hear <i>thou</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl cast down her eyes and gently shook her head. "Do say 'thou,'"
+he begged once more. She hid her face on Michael's breast, but would not
+do his will.</p>
+
+<p>"So you can not, or will not, call me 'thou?'&mdash;one single word&mdash;are you
+afraid?" The maiden covered her face with both hands, and was silent.
+"No&eacute;mi, I beg of thee say that one little word and make me happy. Do not
+let me go without it."</p>
+
+<p>But she shook her head silently and could not utter it.</p>
+
+<p>"Then farewell to you, dear No&eacute;mi," faltered Michael, and sprung into
+his boat. The rushes of the marsh soon hid the island from his gaze. But
+as long as he could distinguish its woods, he still saw the girl leaning
+on an acacia-tree, sadly gazing out with her head on her hand; but she
+did not call after him the desired word.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_THIRD_VI" id="CHAPTER_THIRD_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE TROPIC OF CAPRICORN.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>After Michael had rowed across to the other side, he gave over the boat
+to a fisherman to keep till he came back. But would he ever come back?</p>
+
+<p>He wished to go on foot as far as the wharf, where Fabula was busy with
+the lading of his ships. It is hard work to row against the stream, and
+in Timar's present frame of mind he was in no mood for muscular
+exertion; there was in his heart a stronger current, to contend against
+which he needed all his strength.</p>
+
+<p>The district through which he had to pass was a widespread alluvial
+deposit of the Danube, like those found in the lower reaches of the
+river. The capricious stream has burst some dam, and altered its course.
+Every year it tears portions from one bank and carries them over to the
+other. On this deposit the trees uprooted with it form a new growth, and
+through this dark natural forest wind lonely paths&mdash;the roads of the
+osier-cutters and fisher-folk. Here and there you come to a forsaken hut
+with a shingle roof whose walls are covered with creepers. These
+sometimes shelter a snipe-shooter, conceal a robber, or form the lair of
+a wolf and her cubs.</p>
+
+<p>Michael, deep in thought, strode silently on through this desert: he had
+thrown his gun over his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"You can never return here," said Timar to himself. "If it is difficult
+to carry through one lie with consistency, how can you manage two?&mdash;two
+contradictory lies? If you accept No&eacute;mi's love, you will be inseparably
+bound to her, and must live henceforth two lives, both full of deceit.
+.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. You are no boy, to be passion's tool, and perhaps it is not
+passion which you feel, possibly merely a passing desire or only
+gratified vanity.</p>
+
+<p>"Then the rejected bridegroom&mdash;how is he to be got rid of? He would kill
+you, or you him&mdash;a delightful relationship indeed to end on the
+scaffold!"</p>
+
+<p>He took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his brow; it soothed his
+burning temples to let the breeze fan them.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I never to be happy?" he sighed. "All these years I have worked
+early and late for other people; why should I be so wretched? I adored
+my wife, and her coldness has brought me to despair; but No&eacute;mi loves me.
+That can no longer be altered, and in the island, outside the world, the
+laws of society and religion have no power. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. I could easily pay off
+that fellow who comes between us, and then I could live here in peace
+for half the year. Tim&eacute;a would only suppose that I was away on
+business."</p>
+
+<p>The wind of spring rustled through the young poplar stems. Here, where
+the path turned, stood a hut made of interwoven osier-twigs, whose
+entrance was concealed by brambles. Timar stood still and put on his
+hat. At that moment two shots rattled close to him, the two balls
+whistling over his head with that unpleasant sound which resembles the
+buzz of an approaching wasp or the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> clang of an &aelig;olian harp. Michael's
+hat, pierced by two balls, flew from his head into the bushes. Both
+shots came from the ruined hut. For the first instant the shock
+paralyzed his limbs; they came like two answers to his secret thoughts.
+A shudder ran through his whole body: the next moment rising fury took
+the place of fear; he lowered his gun, cocked both barrels, and rushed
+angrily toward the hut, from which the smoke of the discharged weapon
+poured through the crevices.</p>
+
+<p>Before the muzzle of his gun stood a trembling man&mdash;Theodor Krisstyan.
+His discharged pistol was still in his hand, he held it now as a
+protection to his head, and shook so that every limb quivered.</p>
+
+<p>"It is you&mdash;you!" cried Michael.</p>
+
+<p>"Mercy!" stammered the trembling wretch, throwing away his pistol, and
+stretching both hands entreatingly to Michael: his knees knocked
+together, and he could hardly keep his feet; his face was pale as death,
+his eyes dull, he was more dead than alive. Timar recovered his
+composure: fear and anger had left him&mdash;he lowered his gun. "Come
+nearer," he said to the assassin.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare not," faltered he, clinging to the wood-work. "You will kill
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be afraid; I don't want your life. There"&mdash;he discharged his gun
+in the air&mdash;"now I am unarmed, and you have no cause to fear." Theodor
+crept out. "You wanted to kill me," said Michael. "You wretched
+creature! I pity you!"</p>
+
+<p>The young rascal dared not look at him.</p>
+
+<p>"Theodor Krisstyan, so young, and already a murderer!&mdash;but you could not
+do it. Examine yourself; you are not naturally bad, but your soul has
+been envenomed: I know your history, and I make excuses. You have good
+capacities, and use them badly&mdash;you are a vagabond and a swindler; does
+such a life content you? Impossible!&mdash;begin afresh&mdash;shall I help you to
+a post in which you can, with your education, honestly support yourself?
+I have many connections: it is in my power: there is my hand on it."</p>
+
+<p>The murderer fell on his knees before the man he would have killed,
+seized the offered hand with both his own, and covered it, sobbing, with
+kisses.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir, you are the first man who has ever spoken thus to me; let me
+kneel at your feet! From boyhood I have been chased from every door like
+a dog without a master; I had to steal or beg every morsel I eat; no one
+gave me a hand but those who were worse than myself, and who led me
+further astray. I have led a shameful, miserable life, full of deceit
+and treachery, and I tremble before any one who knows me; and you hold
+out a hand to me&mdash;you, for whom I have been lying in wait like a
+brigand, you will save me from myself! Let me kneel before you, and thus
+receive your commands!"</p>
+
+<p>"Stand up! I am no friend to sentiment; tears make me suspicious."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right," said Theodor, "and especially with such a well-known
+actor as I am, who if you say to him 'Take that groschen and cry,' could
+at once break into floods of tears. Now people don't believe me if I
+really weep; I will suppress my tears."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>"All the more because I do not intend to address a moral lecture to you,
+but only to speak of very dry business matters. You spoke of your
+connection with Scaramelli, and a business journey to Brazil."</p>
+
+<p>"All lies, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"So I thought. You have no connection with Scaramelli?"</p>
+
+<p>"I had, but it was broken off."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you run away, or were you dismissed?"</p>
+
+<p>"The former."</p>
+
+<p>"With trust-money?"</p>
+
+<p>"With three or four hundred gulden."</p>
+
+<p>"Say five hundred. Would you not be glad to return them to the firm? I
+have relations with their house."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not want to remain there."</p>
+
+<p>"And what connection has this with the Brazilian journey?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is not a word of truth in it; no ship-wood comes from there."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even those you mentioned, among which were dye and chemical woods?"</p>
+
+<p>Theodor smiled. "The truth is that I wanted to sell the trees of the
+ownerless island to a charcoal-burner to get a little money; Therese
+guessed at once my real object."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you did not come to the island for No&eacute;mi's sake?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I have as many wives as the countries I have visited."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm&mdash;I know of a very good situation for you in Brazil, an agency for a
+lately commenced enterprise, where a knowledge of the Hungarian, German,
+Italian, English, and Spanish languages is necessary."</p>
+
+<p>"I speak and write all these languages."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it&mdash;and also Greek, Turkish, Polish, and Russian: you are a
+clever fellow. I will procure for you this situation, in which you can
+make use of your talents. The agency of which I speak carries with it a
+salary of three thousand dollars and a percentage of the profits, the
+amount of which will depend on yourself."</p>
+
+<p>Theodor could hardly believe his ears. But he was so accustomed to
+pretense that when he was overcome by real gratitude he had not the
+courage to give it expression, lest it should be taken for acting.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this your real meaning, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"What motive should I have at this moment for jesting with you? You
+attempted my life, and I must secure myself. I can not send you out of
+the world&mdash;my conscience forbids it&mdash;so I must try to make an honest man
+of you in the interest of my own safety. If you are in good
+circumstances, I shall have nothing to fear. Now you can understand my
+course of action. As a proof that my offer is in earnest, take my
+pocket-book. You will find in it the necessary journey expenses to
+Trieste, and probably as much as what you owe to Scaramelli. At Trieste
+you will find a letter which gives you further directions. And now we
+will part&mdash;one to the right, and the other to the left."</p>
+
+<p>Theodor's hand shook as he received the pocket-book. Michael lifted his
+pierced hat from the ground. "And you can look on these shots just as
+you like. If they were the attack of an assassin,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> you have every reason
+not to approach me in any region within reach of the law; but if they
+were the shots of an insulted gentleman, you know that at our next
+meeting it is my turn to shoot."</p>
+
+<p>Theodor Krisstyan bared his breast, and exclaimed passionately, "Shoot
+me if ever I come in sight of you again! Shoot me like a mad dog!" He
+raised the discharged pistol, and pressed it into Timar's hand. "Shoot
+me with my own pistol it you ever meet me in this world! Do not ask, say
+not a word, but kill me!"</p>
+
+<p>He insisted on Michael's taking the pistol, and putting it in his
+pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Farewell!" said Timar, and then he left him and went on his way.</p>
+
+<p>Theodor stood still looking after him. Then he ran, and caught him up.
+"Sir, one word&mdash;you have made a new man of me&mdash;allow me, if ever I write
+to you, to begin with the words, 'My Father.' In those words once lay
+for me shame and horror; let me find in them henceforth a fountain of
+trust and happiness&mdash;my father, my father!"</p>
+
+<p>He kissed Michael's hand with impassioned warmth, rushed away, threw
+himself down on the grass behind the first bush that hid him from
+Timar's eyes, and wept&mdash;real, true tears.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Poor little No&eacute;mi stood for an hour under the acacia-tree where she had
+taken leave of Michael. Therese, as she stayed out so long, had gone to
+seek her, and now sat beside her daughter on the grass. Not to be idle,
+she had brought out her knitting.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly No&eacute;mi exclaimed, "Mother, did you hear?&mdash;two shots on the other
+shore!"</p>
+
+<p>They listened. There was deep stillness in the drowsy air.</p>
+
+<p>"Two more shots! Mother, what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Therese tried to calm her. "They must be sportsmen, child, who are
+shooting there."</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi's cheeks lost their color, and she looked as pale as the acacia
+blossoms over her head. She pressed her hands vehemently to her breast
+and faltered, "Oh, no, no! he will never come back!"</p>
+
+<p>It grieved her to the heart that she had not said the little word "thou"
+to him when he begged so hard.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>"Master Fabula," said Timar to his faithful steward, "this year we will
+not send the crop either to Raab or Komorn."</p>
+
+<p>"What shall we do with it, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"We will grind it here. I have two windmills on my property, and we can
+hire thirty water-mills; those will suffice."</p>
+
+<p>"Then we must open a huge warehouse, where we can sell such a quantity."</p>
+
+<p>"That will not be wanting. We will load the flour into small ships,
+which can go up to Karlstadt; thence we will transfer it in barrels to
+Brazil."</p>
+
+<p>"To Brazil!" screamed Fabula, quite frightened. "I can't go there with
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"I was not thinking of sending you there, Master Fabula; your department
+is the grinding and the transport to Trieste. I will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> give the agents
+and millers their orders to-day, and you can scold and manage in my
+absence just as if I were there."</p>
+
+<p>"Many thanks," said Master Fabula, and shook his head violently as Herr
+von Levetinczy left the office. "That will be a gigantic folly," he
+grumbled to himself. "To begin with, the flour will be musty before it
+arrives; then no one will buy it; thirdly, nobody will ever see the
+color of money which has to come from Brazil. How could he claim it?
+there is no fiscal authority there, or even a vice-consul. In short, it
+is just another of those colossal, everlasting pieces of folly of our
+Herr Levetinczy, but it will turn out well, to every one's surprise, as
+every stupid thing does that our master undertakes. And I don't doubt
+that our flour-ships will come back laden with gold-dust from Brazil;
+but for all that it is a great folly."</p>
+
+<p>Our Herr Fabula was perfectly right. Timar was of the same opinion. He
+ran a risk in this speculation of losing at least a hundred thousand
+gulden. But this idea was not of to-day. It had long been in his mind
+whether a Hungarian merchant might not make better profits than in grain
+contracts and the chartering of cargo-ships. Would it not be possible
+for those goods which have to struggle with foreign competition to find
+their own place in the great bazaar of the world's market?</p>
+
+<p>The export trade in flour was an old plan of his. To prepare for its
+execution he had completed his mills, and built a large vessel at
+Trieste. But the reason of his hasty determination to begin work at once
+was only on No&eacute;mi's account; and his meeting with Theodor had brought
+this decision to a head.</p>
+
+<p>This business was only a pretext; the principal thing was to put a
+hemisphere between himself and that man. Those who saw in what ceaseless
+labor Timar spent the next weeks&mdash;how he hurried from one mill to
+another, and from there to his ships; how he dispatched them the moment
+they were laden, and personally superintended the transport&mdash;all said,
+"What a pattern of a merchant! He is tremendously rich; he has
+directors, agents, captains, stewards, overseers, foremen, and yet he
+sees to all himself like a common contractor. He understands business."
+(If only they had known what depended on this business!)</p>
+
+<p>Three weeks passed before the first ship laden with barrels of Hungarian
+flour lay ready to weigh anchor in the harbor of Trieste. The ship was
+called "Pannonia;" it was a beautiful three-masted galliot. Even Master
+Fabula was loud in its praise; for he was present at the loading of the
+flour. But Timar himself never saw it; he had not once come to Trieste
+to see it before it started. During those weeks he remained in
+Levetinczy or Pancsova. The whole enterprise was in Scaramelli's name;
+Timar had his reasons for keeping his own name out of it; and he only
+communicated in writing with the fully empowered firm of Scaramelli.</p>
+
+<p>One day he received a letter from Theodor Krisstyan. When he opened it
+he was surprised to find money in it&mdash;a hundred gulden note. The
+contents of the letter ran thus&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My Father</span>,&mdash;When you read these lines I shall be
+afloat on board the splendid ship 'Pannonia,' as
+Brazilian agent of the house of Scaramelli.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>"Accept my warmest thanks for your kind recommendation.
+The bank has advanced me two months' salary, of which I
+inclose a hundred gulden, with the request that you
+would be good enough to pay it over to the landlord of
+The White Ship at Pancsova. I am in debt to that amount
+to that poor man, and am thankful to be able to pay
+this sum. Heaven bless you for all your goodness to
+me!"</p></div>
+
+<p>Timar breathed freely. "The man has already improved; he remembers his
+old debts and pays them with his savings. What a sweet thought to have
+brought a lost sheep back to the fold&mdash;to be the savior of an enemy who
+attempted one's life&mdash;to give back to him life, the world, honor, and
+bring to light a pearl purified of the mire in which it lay! Is not this
+a truly Christian act? You have a generous soul. If only the inward
+accuser would not reply, 'You are a murderer!'</p>
+
+<p>"You do not rejoice to have saved a man, but rather at getting rid of
+him. If you received news that a tornado had caught your ship and sunk
+it with every soul on board, what joy it would give you! You are not
+thinking of the flour-trade with its profits and losses, but that every
+year in the swamps of La Plata and the river Amazon that fearful specter
+walks&mdash;the yellow fever&mdash;which, like the tiger, lies in ambush for the
+new-comer. Of every hundred, sixty fall victims to it. It is that of
+which the prospect gives you pleasure. You are a murderer!"</p>
+
+<p>Timar felt the satisfaction of a man who has succeeded in putting an
+enemy out of the way&mdash;a joy with which bitter self-condemnation and
+anxious forebodings were mingled.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>From henceforward Timar was transformed. He was hardly to be recognized.
+The usually cold-blooded man betrayed in everything a singular
+restlessness; he gave contradictory orders, and forgot an hour after
+what he had said. If he started on a journey, he turned back half-way;
+he began to avoid business, and seemed indifferent to the most important
+affairs; then again he grew so excitable that the smallest neglect
+enraged him. He might be seen wandering on the shore for half a day at a
+time, with his head down like one who is nearly mad, and begins by
+running away from home. Another time he shut himself into his room and
+would not let any one in; the letters which came to him from all parts
+lay unopened in a heap on his table. This shrewd, clever man could think
+of nothing but the golden-haired girl whom he had seen for the last time
+leaning on a tree by the island shore, with her head supported on her
+arm. One day he determined to return to her, and the next to drive the
+remembrance of her from his breast. He began to be superstitious; he
+waited for signs from Heaven, and visions to decide what he should do.
+Dreams always brought the same face, happy or sad, submissive or
+inconsolable, and he was more crazy than ever. But Heaven sent him no
+sign.</p>
+
+<p>One day he decided to be reasonable and attend to his business affairs;
+that might perhaps steady his brain. He sat down before the heap of
+letters and began to open them all in turn. All that came of it was that
+he had forgotten at the end of a letter what he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> had read at the
+beginning. He only cared to read what was written in those blue eyes.
+But his heart began to beat fast when a letter fell into his hands which
+was heavier than the rest; he knew the handwriting of the address; it
+was Tim&eacute;a's.</p>
+
+<p>His blood ran cold. This was the sign from Heaven, this will decide the
+conflict in his soul.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a writes to him&mdash;the angelic creature, the spotless wife. A single
+tender word from her will exercise an influence on her husband like a
+cry of "danger" to a drunken man. These well-known characters will call
+up the saintly face before his mind's eye, and lead him back to the
+right path.</p>
+
+<p>In the letter is a small object; it must be a loving surprise, a little
+souvenir. Yes! to-morrow is her husband's birthday. This will be a
+charming letter, a sweet remembrance. Michael opened the envelope very
+carefully, after cutting round the seal. The first thing that surprised
+him was a key which fell out&mdash;the key of his writing-table.</p>
+
+<p>But in the letter were these words: "<span class="smcap">My dear Sir</span>,&mdash;You left the key of
+your writing-table in the lock. That you may not be uneasy about it, I
+send it to you. God keep you!&mdash;<span class="smcap">Tim&eacute;a</span>."</p>
+
+<p>Nothing further. Timar had forgotten to take out the key that night when
+he came home secretly, when the conversation with Athalie had so
+disturbed his mind.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing but the key and a couple of frigid lines. Timar put down the
+letter in vexation.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a dreadful idea flashed through his mind. If Tim&eacute;a found this
+key in his writing-table lock, perhaps she looked through the desk.
+Women are curious, and do such things. But if she did search in it, she
+must have found something she would recognize. When Timar disposed of
+Ali Tchorbadschi's treasures, he had been careful not to part with some
+objects, which, if they came into the trade, might have led to
+discovery, but had, for the most part, only sold the separate diamonds.
+Among the precious objects was a medallion framed in brilliants, which
+contained a miniature portrait of a young lady, whose features bore a
+striking likeness to those of Tim&eacute;a. It must be the picture of her
+mother, who had been a Greek. If Tim&eacute;a found this medallion, she must
+know all; she would at once recognize her mother's portrait, and
+conclude that this jewel had belonged to her father. This would lead her
+to the further conclusion that her mother's valuables had fallen into
+Timar's hands, and thus she would arrive at the knowledge of how he had
+become rich, and that he had married her at the price of her own money.
+If Tim&eacute;a was curious, she now knows all, and then she must despise her
+husband.</p>
+
+<p>And do not the words of the letter betray this? Does not the wife wish
+her husband to understand, by the forwarding of the key, that she had
+discovered his secrets?</p>
+
+<p>This thought was decisive to Michael as to whether his path was to lead
+up or down! Down!</p>
+
+<p>"It is all one," thought he. "I am unmasked before the woman. I can no
+longer play the honest man, the true-hearted, generous benefactor. I am
+found out. I can only sink lower still!"</p>
+
+<p>He was determined to return to the island. But he would not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> retreat
+like a defeated foe. He wrote to Tim&eacute;a, and begged her to open all the
+letters which should come during his absence, to inform his agents of
+their contents, and, where a decision was necessary, to dispose, in the
+name of her husband, of all as she chose. At the same time he sent the
+key back, that it might be at hand if any documents were wanted.</p>
+
+<p>That was his trump card. With the feeling that his secret was near
+discovery he hastened to lead up to it, and possibly that very thing
+might prevent its revelation. He left orders to his agents that all
+letters concerning his affairs were to be directed to his wife. He was
+going away for a long time, but he did not say where to.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon he started in a hired carriage. He hoped his track
+would be lost, and did not take his own horses. A couple of days ago he
+had been superstitious, and awaited signs from Heaven, from the
+elements, to show him the way. Now he noticed them no longer. He was
+determined to return to the island. But the sky and the elements tried
+to frighten him by evil omens, and even to detain him by force. Toward
+evening, when the long lines of poplars on the Danube shore were already
+in sight, suddenly a reddish-brown cloud appeared in the sky,
+approaching with great rapidity. The peasant driver began to pray and
+sigh, but when the smoke-like cloud drew nigh, his prayers changed to
+curses. The Galambocz gnats are coming!</p>
+
+<p>They are creations of the Evil One, trillions in number, and living in
+the holes of the Galambocz rocks: suddenly they come out in swarms,
+forming a thick cloud, and if they descend into the plain, woe to the
+cattle they find in the open!</p>
+
+<p>The flight of gnats covered the plain through which Timar had to drive;
+the tiny stinging plague swarmed over the bodies of the horses, creeping
+into their eyes, ears, and nostrils. The terrified animals could no
+longer be controlled&mdash;they turned round suddenly with the carriage, and
+bolted in a north-westerly direction. Timar ventured on a jump from the
+carriage; he leaped cleverly and safely without injury; the horses flew
+off and away. If he had attended to omens, this might have been
+sufficient to turn him also aside. But he was now obstinate. He was
+going on a road where man no longer asks for help from God. He was going
+where No&eacute;mi drew him and Tim&eacute;a drove him. North pole and south pole,
+desire and his own will, pressed him on.</p>
+
+<p>When he jumped from the carriage, he continued his journey on foot,
+keeping along the wooded river-bank. His gun had remained in the
+carriage, he had come with empty hands: he cut himself a walking-stick,
+and that was his only weapon: provided with this, he tried to make his
+way through the thicket. There he lost himself; night surprised him, and
+the more he wandered the less he found an outlet. At last he came on a
+hut built of osier-twigs, and decided to spend the night there.</p>
+
+<p>He made a fire out of the dry branches lying near: fortunately he was
+carrying his game-bag when he jumped from the carriage, and in it were
+bread and ham; he broiled the ham over the fire and ate it with the
+bread.</p>
+
+<p>He found also something else in the bag, the pistol with which Theodor
+had attacked him from the hut; perhaps from this very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> hut&mdash;quite
+possible that it was the same. He could make no use of the pistol, for
+he had left his powder-horn in the carriage; but it did him a service by
+strengthening him in his fatalism: a man who had escaped so many dangers
+must still have some work to do in the world. And indeed he required
+some encouragement, for after nightfall it began to be uncanny here in
+the desert. Not far away wolves were howling, and through the bushes
+Timar saw the shining green eyes: one and another old Sir Isegrim came
+up to the back wall of the hut and executed a fearful howl. Timar dared
+not let the fire out all night, for it alone kept away the wild beasts.
+When he went inside, the uncomfortable hiss with which snakes receive
+human beings struck his ear, and a sluggish mass moved under his foot;
+perhaps he had trodden on a tortoise. Timar kept up the fire all night,
+and drew fantastic figures in the air with the glowing end of the
+fire-stick&mdash;perhaps the hieroglyphics of his own thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>What a miserable night! He who has a home provided with every luxury,
+and a comfortable bed; in whose house rules a lovely young woman whom he
+can call his wife&mdash;spends a lonely night in a damp, fungus-grown hut:
+wolves howl round him, and over his head adders creep slowly through the
+rush-woven roof. And to-day is his birthday; a happy family festival
+indeed&mdash;in such surroundings! But they suit him&mdash;he wants nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>Michael had a pious mind. From childhood he had been used night and
+morning to put up a silent prayer. He had never lost the habit, and in
+every danger or trouble of his eventful life, he had taken refuge in
+prayer. He believed in God; God was his deliverer, and whatever he
+undertook succeeded. But in this dreadful night he dared not pray; he
+would not speak with God.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not Thou look where I go." From this birthday he gave up prayer. He
+defied fate.</p>
+
+<p>When the day dawned, the nocturnal beasts of prey slunk back to their
+lairs. Timar left his inhospitable refuge, and soon found the path which
+led direct to the shore of the Danube: here a new horror awaited him.
+The Danube was enormously swollen, and had overflowed its banks. It was
+the season of the spring floods after the melting of the snow; the
+foaming yellow stream was filled with uprooted reeds and tree-trunks.
+The fisherman's hut which he sought, and which stood on the point of a
+hill, was in the water up to the threshold, and the boat he had left
+there was tied to a tree close by.</p>
+
+<p>He found not a creature there. It is impossible to fish in such a flood,
+and the people had removed all their nets. If he wanted a sign from
+heaven, a direction from God's finger&mdash;here he had it. The swollen river
+barred his way with its whole majestic strength; at such times no one
+ventures on the river; the warning was there, the elements commanded him
+to return.</p>
+
+<p>"Too late," said Timar. "I can not go back; I must go on."</p>
+
+<p>The door of the hut was locked, and he broke it open to get his oars, as
+he saw through a chink that they were kept there. Then he got into the
+boat, tied himself in, loosed the boat, and pushed off. The current
+seized him at once, and rushed on with him. The Danube was at that time
+a powerful master, and uprooted forests<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> in its rage; a mortal venturing
+on its surface was like a worm floating on a straw, and yet this worm
+defied it. He alone managed the two oars, which also served to steer
+with. On the rapid waves his skiff danced like a nutshell, but the wind
+was contrary, and tried to drive him back to the shore he came from. But
+Timar succumbed neither to wind nor water.</p>
+
+<p>He had thrown his hat to the bottom of the boat; his hair, wet with
+perspiration, fluttered in the wind, and the waves splashing over the
+side threw their icy spray in his face&mdash;but they did not cool him. The
+thought was hot within him that No&eacute;mi might be in danger on the island.
+But the idea did not paralyze his arms. The Danube and the wind are two
+mighty powers&mdash;but stronger still are the passions and the will of man.
+Timar felt this. What activity in his mind, what muscle in his arm! It
+was a superhuman task in which he succeeded, to cross the current at the
+head of the Ostrova Island. Here he rested awhile.</p>
+
+<p>The island of Ostrova was overflowed, the water was rushing among the
+trees. Here it was easier to get on by pushing his oars against the
+trunks; at the back of Ostrova he must let himself float down-stream to
+arrive at the ownerless island. When he had reached the right spot, and
+came out from among the trees, a new and surprising spectacle lay before
+him. The ownerless island was usually hidden behind a thick bed of
+osiers, over which only the tree-tops were visible; now none of the
+reeds was to be seen, and the island lay out in mid-stream. The flood
+had covered the reeds, the trees of the island stood in the water, and
+only at one place the rock raised its head above the surface.</p>
+
+<p>With feverish impatience he let his boat float down. Every stroke
+brought him nearer to the erratic bowlder, whose crown was blue with
+lavender flowers, while the sides were shining gold with climbing
+nasturtium which clung to the stone; and the nearer he came the greater
+was his impatience. He could already see the orchard, whose trees stood
+in the water half-way up their trunk; but the rose-garden was dry, and
+there the lambs and kids had taken refuge. Now Almira's joyful bark fell
+on his ear; the black creature came running to the shore, rushed back,
+came on again, leaped into the water, and swam toward the new arrival
+and back again.</p>
+
+<p>Does Michael see that rosy face there at the base of a blooming
+jasmine-bush, hurrying toward him to the very edge of the rushing water?
+One more stroke, and the boat has reached the shore. Michael springs out
+and the waves carry off the boat; he no longer wants it, and no one
+thinks of drawing it ashore.</p>
+
+<p>Each only saw the other. Around them the paradise of the first
+man!&mdash;fruit-laden trees, blossoming fields, tame animals, surrounded by
+a watery ring, and therein&mdash;Adam and Eve.</p>
+
+<p>The maiden stands pale and trembling before the new-comer, and as he
+rushes toward her, when she sees him before her, she throws herself with
+a burst of passion on his breast, and cries, in the self-forgetfulness
+of ecstasy, "Thou hast returned! Thou, thou!" and even when her lips are
+closed they still say, "Thou, thou!"</p>
+
+<p>Around them is Eden. The jasmine-bush sends down on them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> its silvery
+flower-crown, and the choir of nightingales and blackbirds sing "Gospodi
+pomiluj."</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_THIRD_VII" id="CHAPTER_THIRD_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+<span class="subhead">SWEET HOME.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The waves carried off Michael's boat. That of the islanders, which had
+brought them here, had long rotted away, and they had never had another.
+The new-comer could not leave the island before the first fruit-dealers
+arrived. Before that time weeks and months must elapse.</p>
+
+<p>Happy weeks, happy moons! Uncounted days of unbroken joy! The ownerless
+island was Timar's home. There he found work and rest. After the flood
+had passed away, the work of getting rid of the water left in the
+hollows gave him plenty to do. The whole day he was busy digging canals
+to carry it away; his hands looked like a laborer's from the blisters
+with which they were covered. When he threw spade and pick over his
+shoulder in the evening, and came back to the little cottage, he was met
+afar off, and lovingly welcomed. And when he had finished his canal and
+drawn off the marshy water, he looked upon his work as proudly as if it
+was the only one in all his life which could lay claim to be called a
+good action, and which he could confidently submit to his inward judge.
+The day of the opening of this canal was a festival on the little
+island. They had no church festivals and did not count Sundays: their
+saints' days were those on which God gave them some special joy.</p>
+
+<p>These islanders were sparing of words. What the holy David said in one
+hundred and fifty psalms, was by them expressed in a sign, and what the
+poets have sung of love in all their verses, one glance of the eye was
+sufficient to tell; they learned to read each other's thoughts on the
+brow, they learned to think together.</p>
+
+<p>Michael admired No&eacute;mi more every day. She was a faithful, grateful
+creature; she knew no care nor anxiety for the future; happy herself,
+she diffused happiness around. She never asked him, "What will become of
+me when you go? Will you leave me or take me? Is it good for me to love
+you? What church has given you its priestly blessing? Ought you to be
+mine? Has no other a right to you? What are you out there in the world?
+What sort of world do you live in?" Even in her face, her eyes, he never
+read a disquieting doubt&mdash;ever and only the one question "Lovest thou
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>Frau Therese reminded Michael one day that he was tarrying long here;
+but he assured her that Master Fabula was looking after everything, and
+when Therese looked at No&eacute;mi, whose soft blue eyes ever turned like the
+sunflowers to the sun of Michael's face, she could only sigh, "Oh, how
+she loves him!"</p>
+
+<p>Timar found it very necessary to dig all day, to drive piles, and bind
+fascines, in order by hard bodily labor to calm his even more heavily
+tasked mind. What is going on in the world? Thirty of his ships float on
+the Danube, and a fleet on the sea: his whole wealth, a property of more
+than a million, all lies in the hands of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> a woman. And if this woman in
+some giddy mood squanders the whole and scatters it to the winds,
+ruining her husband and his house, could he reproach any one? Was it not
+by his own will? He was happy here at home, and yet would have liked to
+know what was going on over there. His spirit lived in two places, was
+torn in two parts: there, his money, his honor, his position in the
+world; here, his love held him fast. In truth he could have got away.
+The Danube is not a sea; he was a good swimmer, and could at any time
+have reached the opposite shore; no one would have detained him. They
+knew he had work to do out in the world. But when he was with No&eacute;mi he
+forgot again everything outside her arms; he was sunk in love, bliss,
+and wonder.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do not love me so much!" whispered the girl to him.</p>
+
+<p>And so day after day passed by. The time of fruit-ripening drew near,
+and the branches were weighed down by their sweet burden. It was a
+pleasure to watch the daily progress of the fruit, how every day it
+developed more. Pears and apples began to put on their distinctive
+colors; the green is tanned to a leathery yellow, or receives gold and
+red streaks. The brown tone colors purple on the sunny side. In the
+golden tint mingle carmine splashes, and in the carmine greenish specks;
+the scented fruit smiles at one like a merry childish face. Timar helped
+the women to gather it. They filled great baskets with this blessing of
+heaven. He counted every apple he threw into the basket, how many
+hundreds, how many thousands. What a treasure! Real gold!</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon, when he was helping No&eacute;mi to carry a full basket to the
+apple-room, he saw strangers arrive at the cottage: the fruit-buyers had
+come, the first visitors for many months past, bringing tidings from the
+outer world.</p>
+
+<p>They negotiated about the fruit with Therese&mdash;the usual system of
+barter. Frau Therese wanted as usual to have grain in exchange, but the
+peddlers would not give her as much as before. They said wheat had
+become very dear. The corn-merchants of Komorn had made large purchases
+and driven up the prices; they ground it themselves, and sent it over
+the seas. Therese would not believe this&mdash;it was only gossip of the
+fruit-hawkers; but Timar paid great attention to it. That was his idea;
+what had come of it since then? Now he had no more rest for thinking of
+business and the cares of property. This news was to him what the bugle
+call is to an old soldier, who at the sound wishes himself back in the
+battle-field, even from the arms of his beloved.</p>
+
+<p>The islanders thought it quite natural that Michael should make
+preparations to leave them. His business called him; and then he would
+return the following spring. No&eacute;mi only begged him not to throw away the
+clothes she had spun and woven for him, and which he had worn while with
+her. He will preserve them like a jewel.</p>
+
+<p>And then he must often think of his poor No&eacute;mi. To that he could not
+answer in words.</p>
+
+<p>He bribed the fruit-women to stay a day longer. And all that day he did
+nothing but visit, arm in arm with No&eacute;mi, all the places which had been
+witnesses of his tranquil happiness; here he plucked from a tree, and
+there from a flowery cluster, some leaflet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> to keep as a memorial. On
+every leaf and petal whole romances were written which only two people
+could read.</p>
+
+<p>The last day passed so quickly! The boatmen wanted to leave in the
+evening, so as to row while it was cool. Michael must say farewell.
+No&eacute;mi was sensible, and did not cry; she knew he would return, and was
+more occupied in making provision to fill his knapsack.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be dark when you get to the other side," she said, with tender
+anxiety. "Have you any arms?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. No one will hurt me."</p>
+
+<p>"But yet&mdash;here is a pistol in your haversack," said No&eacute;mi, and drew it
+out; and then her check paled, for she recognized Theodor's pistol, with
+which he had often, when he came to the island, bragged and threatened
+that he would shoot Almira. "This is <i>his</i> weapon!" Timar was struck by
+the expression of her face.</p>
+
+<p>"When you left here," said the girl, who was all excitement, "he watched
+for you on the other side, and shot at you with this pistol."</p>
+
+<p>"What makes you think such a thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard two shots, and then yours. So it was this pistol that you took
+from him?" Timar was surprised that love can see what the eye can not
+reach. He could not tell a lie. "Did you kill him?" asked the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"What has become of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"You need fear him no longer. He is gone to Brazil; a hemisphere lies
+between us and him."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish there were only three feet of earth between us!" cried No&eacute;mi,
+impetuously, seizing Michael's hand.</p>
+
+<p>Michael looked in her face surprised. "You! you! with such murderous
+thoughts&mdash;you, who can not bear to see a chicken killed, who can not
+bring yourself to tread on a spider or to stick a butterfly on a pin!"</p>
+
+<p>"But any one who would tear you from me, I could kill, were he a man, a
+devil, or an angel&mdash;!"</p>
+
+<p>And she pressed the dearly beloved man to her breast in a passionate
+embrace. He trembled and glowed.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>On reaching the other side, Michael again visited the fisherman's hut.</p>
+
+<p>Two things occupied his mind: the slender figure among the evening mists
+on the flower-crowned rock, waving to him its tender farewells; and then
+that other figure conjured up by his imagination as it looks at home in
+Komorn. Well, he will have time to picture this image to himself on the
+long journey from the Lower Danube up to Komorn.</p>
+
+<p>When the old fisherman saw Michael, he began to sigh (fishing-folk do
+not swear). "Just think, my lord, some rascal of a thief has stolen your
+boat during the floods: he broke into the hut and carried off the oars.
+What thieves there are in the world, to be sure!"</p>
+
+<p>It did Timar good that at last some one should call him a thief to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> his
+face; that was what he was&mdash;and if he had stolen nothing more than a
+boat! "We must not condemn the man," said he to the fisherman. "Who
+knows what danger he was in, or how much he needed a boat. We will get
+another. But now, my friend, we will get into your boat and try to
+arrive at the ferry to-night."</p>
+
+<p>The fisherman was persuaded by a promise of liberal payment to undertake
+this, and by daylight they had reached the ferry where the ships
+generally took in their cargo. There were post-carriages at the inn on
+the bank, of which Timar engaged one to take him to Levetinczy. He
+thought he would there receive reports from the agent of what had passed
+during the last five months, so that when he got home to Komorn nothing
+new or surprising should greet him.</p>
+
+<p>There was a one-storied residence on the estate at Levetinczy. In one
+wing lived the steward and his wife, while the other was given up to
+Timar. A staircase from this wing led to the park, and by this means he
+could gain access to the room which he had chosen as an office. Michael
+must pay attention to the trivial details if he wished to carry out his
+wearisome deceit consistently. He has been absent for five months, and
+has, of course, been a long way; but that hardly agrees with his arrival
+without luggage. In his knapsack there is only the suit of striped linen
+made for him by No&eacute;mi, for the suit in which he had gone to the island
+was intended for the cold season, and that, by now, was torn and worn
+out; his boots were patched. It would be difficult to account for his
+appearance. If he could get through the garden and by the outside steps
+into his office, the key of which he carries with him, he could there
+change his clothes quickly, get out his trunk, and when to all
+appearances he looked as though just come from a long journey, he could
+call in the steward.</p>
+
+<p>All began well. Timar arrived without being seen, by the garden steps,
+at the door of his office.</p>
+
+<p>But when he was going to open it with his private key, he made the
+disquieting discovery that another key was already in the lock. Some one
+was in the room! But his papers and ledgers were all there, and no one
+had any business inside. Who could the intruder be? He pulled the door
+open angrily and went in, and now it was his turn to be startled.</p>
+
+<p>At his writing-table sat the last person he expected to find there. It
+was Tim&eacute;a. Before her lay the great ledger, in which she was at work.</p>
+
+<p>A storm of mingled feelings burst over Michael&mdash;alarm because the first
+person he met after his secret journey was his own wife, pleasure at
+finding her alone, and astonishment that this woman was at work here.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a raised her eyes in surprise when she saw Michael enter; then
+hastening toward him, she offered him her hand in silence. This white
+face was still an unsolved enigma to her husband. He could not read in
+it whether she knew all&mdash;whether she guessed something or not. What lay
+under this cold indifference? restrained contempt or concealed love? Or
+was the whole only the indolence of a lymphatic race? He had nothing to
+say to Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>His wife seemed not to remark that his clothes were torn&mdash;women<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> can see
+without looking. "I am glad you have come," said she gently. "I expected
+you any day. You will find your clothes in the next room; when you have
+dressed, will you please come back here? I shall have finished by that
+time." And then she put her pen in her mouth.</p>
+
+<p>Michael kissed Tim&eacute;a's hand. The pen between her teeth did not invite
+him to kiss her lips. He went into the adjoining room; there he found a
+basin of water, a clean shirt, and his clothes and house-shoes as at
+home. As Tim&eacute;a could not know the day of his arrival, he must take for
+granted that she had made ready for him every day&mdash;and who knows for how
+long? But how comes this woman here, and what is she doing? He dressed
+quickly, hiding his cast-off clothes in a corner of his wardrobe. Some
+one might ask him what caused these holes in the coat-sleeves, which are
+quite through at the elbows. And this linen suit with the colored
+embroidery, would not a woman's eye decipher something from it?&mdash;women
+understand the mysteries of needle-work. He must hide the clothes. He
+and the soap had hard work to wash his hands clean. Would he not be
+asked what he had done to make them so black and horny?</p>
+
+<p>When he was ready he went back to the office, where Tim&eacute;a was waiting
+for him at the door, and putting her hand on his arm, said, "Let us go
+to breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>From the office they passed through the dressing-room to get to the
+dining-room. Another surprise awaited Michael there; the round table was
+laid with three places&mdash;for whom were they intended? Tim&eacute;a made a
+signal, and through one door came the servant, through the other
+Athalie. The third place was for her.</p>
+
+<p>On Athalie's face an unconcealed anger shone when she saw Timar. "Ah,
+Herr von Levetinczy, you have come home at last! It was a kind thought
+of yours to write to your wife, 'Take my keys and books, and be so good,
+dear wife, as to do all my work for me,' and then to leave us five
+months without news of your whereabouts."</p>
+
+<p>"Athalie!" said Tim&eacute;a, sternly.</p>
+
+<p>Michael sat down in silence at his place, which he recognized by his own
+silver drinking-cup. He had been daily awaited here, and the table laid
+for him. Athalie said no more, but whenever she looked at Timar he could
+read her vexation in her eyes. This was a satisfactory sign.</p>
+
+<p>When they rose from table Tim&eacute;a asked her husband to go with her to the
+office. Michael began to think what he could invent when she should ask
+him about his journey. But she never referred to it even remotely. She
+placed two chairs at the desk, and laid her hand on the open day-book.
+"Here, sir, is the account of your business since the time when you gave
+over its direction to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you carried it on yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"I understood that you desired me to do so. I found by your papers that
+you had undertaken a new and wholesale enterprise&mdash;the export of
+Hungarian flour. I saw that here not only your money, but also your
+credit and your mercantile honor, were at stake, and that on the good
+result of this affair hung the founda<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>tion of an important branch of
+trade. I did not understand this business, but I thought that it
+depended more on conscientious and faithful stewardship than on
+knowledge of affairs. I trusted this to no third person. Directly I
+received your letter I started for Levetinczy, and took, as you desired,
+the conduct of business into my own hands. I studied book-keeping and
+learned to deal with figures. I think you will find everything in
+order&mdash;the books and the cash balance." Timar looked with admiration at
+this woman, who knew how to apply the millions passing through her hands
+with such calm good sense, to their right object, to receive and expend
+moneys, and with a skillful hand to withdraw endangered funds; and who
+knew even more than that. "Fortune has favored us this year," continued
+Tim&eacute;a, "and made up for my inexperience. The five months' income
+amounted to five hundred thousand gulden. This sum has not lain idle.
+Taking advantage of the powers intrusted to me, I have made
+investments."</p>
+
+<p>What sort of investments are they likely to be which occur to a woman?</p>
+
+<p>"Your first experiment with the export of flour succeeded entirely.
+Hungarian flour became at one stroke an article in request for the South
+American markets. So your agents write from Rio Janeiro, where all with
+one accord praise the ability and uprightness of your chief agent,
+Theodor Krisstyan." Timar thought to himself, "Even when I do evil good
+comes of it, and the greatest folly I commit turns into wisdom&mdash;when
+will this end?" "After receiving this intelligence I began to consider
+what you would have done. One must seize an opportunity and occupy with
+all speed the newly opened markets. I hired immediately many mills,
+chartered more ships, had them laden, and at this moment a new cargo is
+on its way to South America, which will defy competition."</p>
+
+<p>Michael was astonished. In this woman there was more courage than in any
+man. Another woman would have locked up the money that it might not run
+away, and this one ventures to carry on her husband's enterprise, only
+in tenfold measure. "I thought you would have acted thus," said Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed," muttered Timar.</p>
+
+<p>"My expectations, moreover, were justified by the fact that, as soon as
+we threw ourselves more openly into this undertaking, a whole herd of
+competitors appeared, who are grinding away for dear life, and packing
+off their good in barrels to America. But this need not cause you any
+anxiety&mdash;we shall beat them all. Not one of them knows the secret of the
+superiority of the Hungarian flour."</p>
+
+<p>"How is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"If one of them asked his wife, perhaps she would have known&mdash;that is
+how I discovered it. Among all the samples of American wheat, I can find
+none as heavy as ours. We must, therefore, make flour of our heaviest
+kinds, so as to carry off the prize from the Americans. I selected our
+heaviest grain; our rivals here use lighter corn, and they will find
+their mistake, while we shall maintain our position."</p>
+
+<p>Michael kissed Tim&eacute;a's hand with the sacred awe with which we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> kiss our
+beloved dead, who no longer belong to us, but to the ground, and who can
+not feel our caress. Whenever during his life of happy forgetfulness on
+the island he had thought of Tim&eacute;a at all, it was as amusing herself,
+traveling, going to watering-places, having plenty of money, and wasting
+it as she chose. Now he saw in what her amusement had consisted&mdash;keeping
+books, sitting at a desk, conducting a correspondence, and learning
+foreign idioms without the help of a master&mdash;and all this because her
+husband had desired it.</p>
+
+<p>His wife gave him a report of all branches of his extensive business. It
+was now all as familiar to her as if she had known it from childhood,
+and everything was in perfect order. While Timar ran over the accounts,
+he acquired the conviction that if he himself had had to do it all in
+those few months, he would have been hard at work all day. What labor
+this must have cost a young woman who had to learn everything by
+experience! Indeed she must have had but little time for sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"But, Tim&eacute;a, this is a tremendous task which you have accomplished in my
+stead!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is true, and at first I found it very difficult, but by degrees I
+got used to it, and then it was easy enough. Work is wholesome."</p>
+
+<p>What a sad reproach!&mdash;a young wife who finds consolation in work.
+Michael drew Tim&eacute;a's hand to him. Deep sadness clouded his brow, his
+heart was heavy. If only he knew what Tim&eacute;a was thinking.</p>
+
+<p>The key of the desk was constantly in Timar's mind. If Tim&eacute;a had
+discovered his secret, then her present conduct to her husband was only
+a fearful judgment held over him, to mark the difference between the
+accuser and the accused.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you never been in Komorn since?" he asked Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>"Only once, when I had to look in your desk for the contract with
+Scaramelli."</p>
+
+<p>Timar felt his blood run cold. Tim&eacute;a's face betrayed nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"But now we will go back to Komorn," said Timar; "the flour is in full
+swing; we must wait for news of the fate of the cargoes now at sea, and
+they will not arrive before the winter. Or would you rather make a tour
+in Switzerland and Italy? This is the best season for it."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Michael; we have been long enough apart, we will remain at home
+together."</p>
+
+<p>But no pressure of the hand explains why she would like to remain at
+home with him. Michael had not the courage to say a tender word to her.
+Should he lie to her? He would have to live a lie in her presence from
+morning to evening. His silence even was a falsehood.</p>
+
+<p>Looking through all the papers took the whole time until late dinner,
+and to this meal two guests were invited&mdash;the bailiff and the reverend
+dean. The latter had begged to be at once informed of Herr von
+Levetinczy's return, that he might call upon him immediately. As soon as
+he received the news he hastened to the castle, and of course put on his
+new decoration. The moment he entered he let off some oratorical
+fireworks, in which he lauded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> Timar as the benefactor of the place. He
+compared him to Noah who built the Ark, to Joseph who saved his people
+from famine, and to Moses who made manna fall from heaven. The flour
+trade which he had set on foot was pronounced the greatest enterprise
+Europe had ever seen. Long live the Columbus of flour export!</p>
+
+<p>Timar had to answer this address of welcome. He stammered and talked
+great nonsense. He had to control himself that he might not laugh aloud,
+and say to the worthy preacher, "Ha, ha! do not fancy that I had this
+idea in order to make your fortune; it was only to get a young rascal
+out of reach of a certain pretty girl, and if any good came of it, it is
+only by means of this woman here near me. Laugh then, good people!"</p>
+
+<p>At table good-humor reigned. The dean and the steward were neither of
+them despisers of the bottle. The wit and anecdotes of the two old men
+made Timar laugh too; but whenever he cast a glance on Tim&eacute;a's icy face,
+the laugh died on his lips. She had left her merriment elsewhere in
+pledge.</p>
+
+<p>It was evening before they rose. The two old gentlemen reminded each
+other jocosely that it was quite time to leave, for the husband had
+returned to his young wife after a long absence, and they would have
+much to say to each other.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed you will do wisely to go soon," whispered Athalie to Timar.
+"Tim&eacute;a has such dreadful headaches every evening, that she can not sleep
+before midnight. See how pale she is!"</p>
+
+<p>"Tim&eacute;a, you are unwell?" asked Timar, tenderly.</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing the matter with me," answered she.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't believe her; ever since we came to Levetinczy she has suffered
+from headache. It is neuralgia, which she contracted by overtaxing her
+brain, and by the bad air here. I found a white hair in her head the
+other day. But she conceals her suffering till she breaks down, and even
+then she never complains."</p>
+
+<p>Timar experienced in spirit the tortures of a criminal stretched on the
+rack. And he had not the courage to say to his wife, "If you are
+suffering, let me sleep in your room and take care of you." No; he was
+afraid of uttering No&eacute;mi's name in his sleep, and that his wife might
+hear it, as she was kept awake by pain half the night. He must shun his
+marriage-bed.</p>
+
+<p>The next day they started for Komorn, and traveled by post, Michael
+sitting opposite the two ladies. It was a tedious journey: in the whole
+Banat the harvest was over; only the maize was still standing, otherwise
+they saw nothing but monotonous fields of stubble. None of them spoke;
+all three found it hard to keep awake. In the afternoon Timar could no
+longer endure the silent looks, the enigmatical expression of his wife;
+under pretense of wanting to smoke he took a seat by the driver in the
+open <i>coup&eacute;</i>, and remained there. When they got out at a post-house,
+Athalie grumbled at the bad roads, the dreadful heat, the annoying
+flies, the stifling dust, and all the rest of a traveler's trials. The
+inns are dirty, the food disgusting, the beds hard, the wine sour, the
+water impure, and the countenances of all the people frightful. She
+feels so ill all through the journey, she is quite knocked up, she has
+fever, and her head will burst: what must Tim&eacute;a be suffering, who is so
+nervous?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>Timar had to listen to these lamentations all the way, but Tim&eacute;a never
+uttered a complaint.</p>
+
+<p>When they arrived at Komorn, Frau Sophie informed them that she had
+turned gray with loneliness. Gray indeed! She had been very happy&mdash;being
+able to go about all day from house to house to gossip to her heart's
+content. Timar felt a painful anxiety. Home is either a heaven or a
+hell. Now at last he would know what lay behind the marble coldness of
+this silent face.</p>
+
+<p>As he entered the room with his wife, she handed him the key of his
+desk. Michael knew she had opened it to get out the contract.</p>
+
+<p>This writing-desk was an old and elaborate piece of furniture, whose
+upper part was closed by a rolled falling cover, under which were
+drawers of various sizes. In the large drawer lay the contracts, in the
+small ones notes and valuables; the lock was a puzzle one, which you
+might vainly turn if you did not know its secret.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a was in the secret, and could have access to all the drawers. With
+an uneasily beating heart Timar drew out the drawer where those jewels
+were kept which it had been unadvisable to place on the market. These
+gems have their own experts, who recognize by certain marks where this
+stone or that gem came from; and then follows the question, how did he
+get it? Only the third generation from the finder can venture to show
+it, as to him it is all one in what way his grandfather came into its
+possession.</p>
+
+<p>If Tim&eacute;a had been inquisitive enough to open that drawer she must have
+seen these gems. And if so, one among them, the diamond locket with the
+portrait which is so like her, must have been recognized by her. It is
+her mother's picture, and then she must know all. She knows that Timar
+has received her father's treasures; it is hard to believe he came by
+them honestly. And by that dark, perhaps criminal road, they would lead
+to the fabulous riches which gained her hand for Timar, while he played
+the generous friend to her whom he had robbed. She may even think worse
+things of him than are true. Her father's mysterious death, his secret
+burial, might awake in her the suspicion that Timar had a hand in it.</p>
+
+<p>These doubts were unbearable. Timar must set them at rest, and call yet
+one more falsehood to his aid. He took out the medallion and went with
+it to Tim&eacute;a. "Dear Tim&eacute;a," he said, sitting down beside his wife, "I
+have been living a long time in Turkey. What I did there you will learn
+later on. When I was in Scutari an Armenian jeweler offered me a
+diamond-framed picture, which is very like you. I bought it, and have
+brought you the ornament."</p>
+
+<p>When Tim&eacute;a saw the portrait her face changed in an instant. An emotion
+which could neither be assumed nor concealed was visible in her
+sculptured features; she seized the picture with both hands and pressed
+it eagerly to her lips; her eyes filled with tears. This was true
+feeling; Tim&eacute;a's face began to live.</p>
+
+<p>Michael was saved. The girl, overpowered by her long-suppressed
+feelings, began to sob violently. Athalie heard and came in; she was
+surprised&mdash;she had never known Tim&eacute;a to sob. But when she saw Athalie
+she ran toward her like a child, and cried, in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> tone of mingled
+laughter and tears, "See, see! my mother! It is my mother's picture.
+.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. He has brought it to me!"</p>
+
+<p>And then she hastened back to Michael, put both her arms round his neck,
+and whispered in a broken voice, "Thanks, oh, a thousand thanks!"</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to Timar as if the time had come to kiss these grateful lips,
+and to kiss them on and on.</p>
+
+<p>But alas! his heart said, "Thou shalt not steal." Now a kiss on these
+lips would be a theft, after all that had passed on the ownerless
+island.</p>
+
+<p>Another thought struck him. He went back to his room, and fetched all
+the hidden jewels which remained in the drawer.</p>
+
+<p>A wonderful woman this, who, though she had the key in her hands, left
+the secret drawers untouched and only took out the one paper she
+required! Then he packed all the ornaments into the bag he had over his
+shoulder when he came home, and went back to his wife. "I have not told
+you all," he said to Tim&eacute;a. "Where I found the picture I discovered also
+these jewels, and bought them for you. Take them as a present from me."</p>
+
+<p>And then he laid the dazzling gems one after another in Tim&eacute;a's lap,
+until the sparkling heap quite covered her embroidered apron. It was
+like some magical gift from the thousand and one nights.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie stood there pale with envy, with angrily clinched teeth. Perhaps
+these might all have been hers! But Tim&eacute;a's face darkened and grew
+marble-like again. She looked with indifference at the heap of jewels in
+her lap. The fire of diamonds and rubies could not warm her.</p>
+
+
+
+<h2 class="newbook"><a name="BOOK_FOURTH_NOEMI" id="BOOK_FOURTH_NOEMI"></a><i>BOOK FOURTH.&mdash;NO&Eacute;MI.</i></h2>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="firstchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FOURTH_I" id="CHAPTER_FOURTH_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+<span class="subhead">A NEW GUEST.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>What rich bankers call business filled up the winter season, and
+Levetinczy began to enjoy his position. Riches bring pleasant dreams. He
+went often to Vienna and took part in the amusements of the commercial
+world, where many good examples were presented to him. A man who owns a
+million can allow himself the luxury, when he goes to the jeweler to buy
+New Year's gifts, of buying two of everything to please two hearts at
+once.</p>
+
+<p>One for his wife, who sits at home and receives guests or looks after
+the household&mdash;the other for another lady, who either dances or sings,
+but in any case requires an elegant hotel, jewels, and laces. Timar was
+so fortunate as to be invited to the parties given at home by his
+friends, where the lady of the house makes tea&mdash;as well as to those
+differently organized <i>soir&eacute;es</i>, where a very unceremonious set of
+ladies preferred champagne, and where Timar was constantly attacked by
+the question whether he had no little friend at the opera yet.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>"The pattern of a faithful husband," declared his admirers.</p>
+
+<p>"An unbearable prig," was the verdict of his critics.</p>
+
+<p>But he says nothing, and thinks of&mdash;No&eacute;mi. What an eternity to have been
+separated from her&mdash;six months; to think of her every day, and not dare
+to confide his thoughts to a single soul!</p>
+
+<p>He often caught himself on the point of betraying his thoughts; once as
+he sat at table the words all but escaped him, "Look! those are the same
+apples which grow on No&eacute;mi's island." "When No&eacute;mi had a headache, it
+went away if I laid my hand on her forehead." And if he looked at
+Tim&eacute;a's pet white cat, the exclamation hovered on his lips, "Narcissa,
+where did you leave your mistress, eh?"</p>
+
+<p>He had every reason to be on his guard, for there was a being in the
+house who watched him as well as Tim&eacute;a with Argus eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie could not but remark that since his return he was no longer so
+melancholy as before; every one noticed how well he looked; there must
+be some mystery in it. And Athalie could not bear any one in this house
+to be happy. Where did he steal his contentment? Why does he not suffer
+as he ought to do?</p>
+
+<p>Business prospered. In the first month of the new year news came from
+the other side of the sea. The flour exported had arrived safely, and
+its success was complete. Hungarian flour had won such renown in South
+America, that now people tried to sell the native product under that
+name. The Austrian consul in Brazil hastened to inform his government of
+this important result, by which the export trade was increased in a
+marked degree. The consequence was that Timar was made a privy
+councilor, and received the minor order of St. Stephen, as an
+acknowledgment of the services rendered by him to his native land in the
+fields of commerce and philanthropy.</p>
+
+<p>How the mocking demon in his breast laughed when they fastened the order
+on to his coat and called him "the right honorable!" "You have to thank
+two women for this&mdash;No&eacute;mi and Tim&eacute;a." Be it so. The discovery of the
+purple dye had its origin in the eating of a purple snail by the little
+dog of a shepherd's mistress; but yet purple has become a royal color.</p>
+
+<p>Herr von Levetinczy now first began to rise in the estimation of the
+people of Komorn. When a man is a privy councilor, one can not deny him
+a proper portion of respect. Every one hastened to congratulate him, and
+he received them all with a gracious condescension. Our Johann Fabula
+came too to wish him joy in the name of the fisher-folk. He was in the
+gala clothes of his class. On his short dolman of dark-blue cloth shone
+three rows of shell-shaped silver buttons, as large as nuts, and from
+one shoulder to the other hung a broad silver chain with a large
+medallion for a clasp, on which the Komorn silversmith had stamped the
+head of Julius C&aelig;sar. The other members of the deputation were equally
+splendid. Silver buttons and chains were at that time still worn by the
+mariners of Komorn. It was the custom to keep the visitors to dinner,
+and this honor fell to Fabula. He was a very frank person, who spoke
+with complete unreserve. When wine had loosened his tongue, he could not
+forbear to tell the gracious lady that when he first saw her as a girl
+he would never have thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> that she would have become such a good
+housewife and be the wife of Herr von Levetinczy. Yes, indeed; he was
+afraid of her then, and now see how wonderful are the ways of God's
+providence, and how short-sighted are men; how everything has been
+ordered for the best: what happiness reigns in this house! If only a
+kind Providence would hear the prayers of those who entreat that a new
+blessing may be sent down from heaven to the good lord of Levetinczy, in
+the shape of a little angel.</p>
+
+<p>Timar covered his glass with his hand; a thought started through his
+mind&mdash;"Such a wish might have an unlooked-for result."</p>
+
+<p>But Herr Fabula was not content with good wishes, he thought he must add
+some good advice. "But his honor rushes about too much. In good truth I
+would not leave such a sweet, pretty lady alone. But it can't be helped
+if the master must see to everything himself, for that's why it
+succeeds. Who would have thought of sending our flour across the sea? To
+tell the truth, when I heard it&mdash;excuse me for making so free&mdash;I thought
+to myself the master must have gone silly; before that flour gets there
+it will all be musty, while loaves grow out there on the trees and roll
+on the bushes. And now just see what credit we have all got by it. But
+it is the master's eye that feeds the horse&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>This was to Michael an unwelcome irony, which he could not leave without
+contradiction. "My good Johann, if that was the secret of our success,
+you must bestow all your praises on my wife, for it was she who looked
+after everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed; all honor to the merits of our noble lady!" said Fabula;
+"but, with his honor's permission, I know what I know. I know where his
+honor spent the whole summer."</p>
+
+<p>Michael felt as if his hair stood on end with horror. Could this man
+know where he had been? It would be awful if he did.</p>
+
+<p>Michael winked with one eye over his glass at his guest, but in vain.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, shall I tell our gracious lady where the master spent the summer?
+Shall I let it out?"</p>
+
+<p>Michael felt every limb paralyzed by terror. Athalie kept her eyes fixed
+on his face; he durst not betray by a gesture that the gossip of the
+tipsy chatterer confused him. "Well, tell us then, Johann, where I was,"
+he said, with enforced calmness.</p>
+
+<p>"I will complain of you to the gracious lady; I will tell her," cried
+Fabula, putting down his glass. "His honor ran away without saying a
+word to any one. He went quietly on board a ship and sailed away to
+Brazil; he was over there in America and settled everything himself, and
+that's why it all went so smoothly."</p>
+
+<p>Timar looked at the two women. On Tim&eacute;a's face was reflected pure
+surprise, Athalie was vexed. She believed as fully in the truth of
+Fabula's tale as he did himself, and he would have staked his head on
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Timar also smiled mysteriously at the story; now he was the one who
+lied, not Johann Fabula. The man of gold must go on lying.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The story was very useful to Timar. He had now a sufficient excuse for
+his mysterious disappearances, and it was possible for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> him to give such
+an air of probability to the story of his Brazilian voyage that even
+Athalie believed it. Indeed, she was the easiest to deceive. She knew
+what Tim&eacute;a was feeling, and that she was glad to distract herself by
+absence and work from the thought of him on whose account her heart
+ached. If a wife can do so, why not the husband? It was even simpler for
+him to fly from his sorrows to another hemisphere, and in the pursuit of
+wealth to forget what his heart coveted. How should Athalie have guessed
+that it was the husband who had already found a cure for his mortal
+sickness, and who was happy away from home? What would she have given to
+him who should have revealed the truth? But the rushes round the
+ownerless island did not chatter like the reeds to which King Midas's
+barber trusted his secret. Athalie was consumed with envy, while she
+vainly sought for a key to the riddle. At home and in public, Timar and
+Tim&eacute;a presented the exemplary picture of a happy marriage. He heaped on
+his wife expensive jewels, and Tim&eacute;a loaded herself with them when they
+went into society; she wished to shine by this means.</p>
+
+<p>What could better prove the affection of the husband than the diamonds
+of the wife? Could Timar and Tim&eacute;a really be a couple whose love
+consisted in giving and receiving diamonds, or are there people in this
+world who can be happy without love?</p>
+
+<p>Athalie still suspected Tim&eacute;a and not Timar. But Timar could hardly wait
+till the winter was over and spring had come: of course, because then
+the mills can begin to grind again&mdash;what else could a man of business
+have in his mind?</p>
+
+<p>This year Michael persuaded Tim&eacute;a not to try her health by the
+management of business; he would give it over to his agents, and she
+should go during the summer to some sea-bathing place, to get rid of her
+neuralgia.</p>
+
+<p>No one asked him where he was going. It was taken for granted that he
+would again travel to South America, and pretend he had been in Egypt or
+Italy.</p>
+
+<p>But he hurried away to the Lower Danube. When the poplars grew green, he
+could not stay at home: the alluring picture filled his dreams and took
+captive all his thoughts. He never stopped at Levetinczy, but only gave
+general instructions to his agent and his steward to do their best; then
+he went on to Golovacz, where he stayed a night with the dean; thence he
+had only a half-day's journey to get to No&eacute;mi. He had not seen her for
+six long months; his mind was filled with the picture of the meeting.
+Awake and asleep he was full of longing, and could hardly wait for dawn.
+Before sunrise he was up, put on his knapsack, threw his gun over his
+shoulder, and without waiting for the appearance of his host, he left
+the presbytery and hastened to the wooded river-bank.</p>
+
+<p>The Danube does a good work in widening the limits of the wood every
+year by retreating from its banks, for in this way the watch-houses
+built twenty-five years ago on the shore have now taken up a position
+much further inland. And he who wishes to cross the river without a
+passport finds in the young brushwood an entirely neutral territory.</p>
+
+<p>Timar had sent a new boat to the hut, where he went on foot; he found it
+ready, and started as usual alone on the way to the reed-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>beds. The
+skiff floated like a fish on the water, and that it traveled so swiftly
+was not owing to itself alone. The year had grown to April, it was
+spring, and the trees at Ostrova were already in blossom. So much the
+more astonished was he at the sight which met his eyes on the other
+side. The ownerless island did not look green; it seemed to have been
+burned. As he approached he saw the reason; all the trees on the
+northern side were quite brown. The boat traversed the rushes quickly;
+when it touched the bank, Michael saw plainly that a whole long row of
+trees, Frau Therese's favorite walnuts, were dead&mdash;every one of them.
+Michael felt quite downcast at the sight. At this season he was
+generally greeted by green branches and rosebuds. Now a dead forest
+welcomed him&mdash;a bad omen.</p>
+
+<p>He pressed forward and listened for the bark of greeting: not a sound to
+be heard. He walked on anxiously; the paths were neglected, covered by
+dry autumn leaves, and it seemed to him as if even the birds were
+silent. When he drew near the hut, a dreadful feeling overcame
+him&mdash;where were the inhabitants? They might be dead and not buried; he
+had been busied about other things for half a year&mdash;with affairs of
+state, with showing off his young wife, and making money. And meanwhile
+Heaven had watched over the islanders&mdash;if it chose.</p>
+
+<p>As he entered the veranda, a door opened and Therese came out. She
+looked serious, as if something had frightened her; and then a bitter
+smile appeared on her face. "Ah! you have come!" said she, and came to
+press his hand. And then it was she who asked him why he came looking so
+grave. "No misfortune has happened?" Timar asked, hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"Misfortune? No," said Therese, with a melancholy smile.</p>
+
+<p>"My heart was sore when I saw the dead trees," said Michael, to excuse
+his serious looks.</p>
+
+<p>"The flood last summer did that," answered Therese; "walnut-trees can
+not stand wet."</p>
+
+<p>"And how are you both?" asked Timar, uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>Therese answered gently, "We are pretty well, I and the other two."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean? the other two?"</p>
+
+<p>She smiled and sighed, and smiled again; then she laid her hand on
+Michael's shoulder and said, "The wife of a poor smuggler fell ill here:
+the woman died, the child remained here. Now you know who the other two
+are."</p>
+
+<p>Timar rushed into the house: at the far end of the room stood a cradle
+woven of osiers, and near it, on one side, was Almira, on the other
+No&eacute;mi. No&eacute;mi rocked the cradle and waited till Timar came to her. In it
+lay a little baby, with chubby cheeks, which pressed the cherry lips
+into a soft pout; its eyes were only half shut, and the tiny fists lay
+over its face. Michael stood spell-bound before the cradle. He looked at
+No&eacute;mi as if to seek the answer to the riddle in her face, on which a
+sweet ray of heavenly light seemed to shine, in which modesty and love
+were combined. She smiled and cast her eyes down. Michael thought he
+would lose his senses.</p>
+
+<p>Therese laid her hand on his arm, "Then are you angry that we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> have
+adopted the orphan child of the poor smuggler's wife? God sent it to
+us."</p>
+
+<p>Angry? He had fallen on his knees, and held the cradle in his embrace,
+pressing it and its inhabitant to his breast; then he began to sob
+violently, like one who has kept a whole ocean of sorrow in his heart,
+which suddenly overflows its bounds.</p>
+
+<p>Timar kissed the little messenger from God wherever he could&mdash;its little
+hands and feet, the hem of its robe, its rosy cheeks. The baby made
+grimaces under the kisses, but did not wake. At last it opened its eyes,
+its great blue eyes, and looked at the strange man with astonishment, as
+if to say, "Does this man want anything of me?" and then it laughed, as
+if it thought, "I don't care what he wants," and after that it shut its
+eyes and slumbered on, still smiling and undisturbed by the flood of
+kisses.</p>
+
+<p>Therese said, smiling, "You poor orphan! you never dreamed of this, did
+you?" and turned away to hide her tears.</p>
+
+<p>"And am I to have no greeting?" said No&eacute;mi, with charming anger. Michael
+turned to her, still on his knees. He spoke not a word, only pressed her
+hand to his lips and hid his face silently in her lap. He was dumb as
+long as the child slept. When the little creature awoke, it began to
+talk in its own language&mdash;which we call crying. It is lucky there are
+those who understand it. The baby was hungry.</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi said to Michael that he must now leave the room, for he was not to
+know what the poor little orphan was fed upon.</p>
+
+<p>Michael went outside; he was in a transport. It seemed as if he was on a
+new star, from which one could look down on the earth as on a foreign
+body. All he had called his own on the terrestrial ball was left behind,
+and he no longer felt its attraction drawing him thither. The circle in
+which he had spent his former life was trodden under foot, and he had
+attained a new center of gravity. A new object, a new life, stood before
+him; only one uncertainty remained&mdash;-how could he contrive to vanish
+from the world? To pass into another sphere without leaving this mortal
+life behind; to live on two different planets at once, to mount from
+earth to heaven, to pass again from heaven to earth, there to entertain
+angels, and here to live for money&mdash;alas! this was no task for human
+nerves. He would lose his reason in the attempt.</p>
+
+<p>Not without reason are little children called angels, or "messengers:"
+children are indeed messengers from the other world, whose mysterious
+influence is visible in their eyes, to those who receive them as gifts
+of God. A wonderful look often meets us in the eye of an infant, which
+is lost when the lips learn speech. How often Michael gazed for hours at
+this blue ray from heaven in the baby's eyes, when it lay on a lambskin
+out on the grass, and he stretched himself beside it, and plucked the
+flowers it wanted&mdash;"There, then, here it is." He had his work cut out to
+get it away, for the little thing put everything in its mouth. He
+studied its first attempts at language, he let it drag at his beard, and
+sung lullabies to put it to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>His feeling for No&eacute;mi was quite different now; it was not desire, but
+bliss&mdash;the glow of passion had given place to a sweet contented calm,
+and he felt like one convalescent from a fever. No&eacute;mi, too,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> had altered
+since they last met; on her face lay an expression of submissive
+tenderness, and in all her conduct was a consistent gentleness, which
+could not have been assumed&mdash;a quiet dignity combined with chaste
+reserve, which surrounds a woman with a halo, compelling respect. Timar
+could not get used to his happiness: he required many days to be
+convinced that it was not a dream&mdash;that this little hut, half wood, half
+clay, and the smiling woman with the babbling babe at her breast, were
+reality and not a vision.</p>
+
+<p>And then he thought, what will become of them?</p>
+
+<p>He strode about the island and brooded on the future.</p>
+
+<p>"What can I give this child? Much money? They know nought of money here.
+Great estates? This island suffices. Shall I take him with me and make
+him into a great and wealthy man? But the women could not part with him.
+Shall I take them too? But even if they consented, I could not do it;
+they would learn what I am, and would despise me. They can only be happy
+here: only here can this child hold up its head, where none can ask its
+name."</p>
+
+<p>The women had called it Adeodatus (Gift of God). It had no other name.
+What other could it have?</p>
+
+<p>One day when he was wandering aimlessly, deep in thought, about the
+island, striding through the bushes and weeds, Timar came suddenly to a
+part where the dry twigs crackled under his feet. He looked round; he
+was in the melancholy little plantation of dead walnut-trees. The
+beautiful trees were all dried up: spring had not clothed them with
+fresh green foliage, and the dead leaves covered the ground.</p>
+
+<p>An idea struck Michael in this vegetable cemetery. He hastened back to
+the hut. "Therese, have you still the tools you used in building your
+house?"</p>
+
+<p>"There they are on the shelf."</p>
+
+<p>"Give them here. I have an idea; I will fell the dead walnuts and build
+of them a little house for Dodi."</p>
+
+<p>Therese clasped her hands in astonishment. But No&eacute;mi's answer was to
+kiss her little Dodi and say to him, "Dost thou hear?"</p>
+
+<p>Michael interpreted the wonder on Therese's face as incredulity. "Yes,
+yes," he persisted, "I will build the house myself without any help&mdash;a
+little house like a jewel-case, like those the Wallachians build, lined
+with beautiful oak; mine shall be of walnut, and fit for a prince. I
+will drive every nail myself, and it shall be Dodi's house when he gets
+bigger."</p>
+
+<p>Therese only smiled. "That will be fine, Michael. I too built my nest as
+the swallows do; I formed the walls of clay, and thatched my roof with
+rushes. But carpentry is not one man's work; the old saw has two
+handles, and one can not manage it alone."</p>
+
+<p>"But are we not two?" cried No&eacute;mi, eagerly. "Can't I help him? Do you
+fancy my arm is not strong enough?" and she turned her sleeve up to her
+shoulder to show off her arm. It was beautifully formed, yet muscular,
+fit for Diana. Michael covered it with kisses from the shoulder down to
+the finger-tips, and then said, "Be it so."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we will work together," cried No&eacute;mi, whose lively fancy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> had seized
+on Michael's suggestion with lightning speed. "We will both go out into
+the wood; we will make a hammock for Dodi and sling it from the
+branches. Mother shall bring us out our meals, and we will sit on the
+planks we have sawn, and take our dinner out of the same plate: how good
+it will taste!"</p>
+
+<p>And so it did. Michael took the ax and went out to the walnut-grove,
+where he set to work. Before he had felled and topped one tree his hands
+were blistered. No&eacute;mi told him women's hands never got sore. When three
+trees were cut down, so that one trunk could be laid across the other
+two, Michael wanted No&eacute;mi's help. She was quite in earnest, and attacked
+the task bravely. In her slender form lay stores of strength and
+endurance. She handled the great saw as cleverly as if she had been
+taught to do it.</p>
+
+<p>Michael gradually got used to the dressing of the walnut planks; the ax,
+too, did good service, and No&eacute;mi admired him greatly. "Tell me,
+Michael," she asked him one day, "have you never been a carpenter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," he answered, "a ship's carpenter."</p>
+
+<p>"And tell me, how did you become such a rich man that you can stay away
+a whole summer from your work, and spend your time elsewhere? You are
+your own master, I suppose? You take orders from no one?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must tell you all about it some day," said Michael; and yet he never
+told her how he became rich, so as to be able to spend weeks on the
+island sawing wood. He often related to No&eacute;mi stories of his adventurous
+journeys through all lands, but in his romantic tales he never said
+anything about himself. He escaped inquisitive pressure by working hard
+all day; and when he lay down at night, it was not the time to tease him
+with questions, though many wives take advantage of the opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>During the long time Timar spent in the ownerless island, he had
+gradually become convinced that it was by no means so concealed as to be
+unknown: its existence was known to a large class of visitors. But they
+never revealed it to the outer world. Smuggling, on the banks of this
+wooded river, was a regular profession, with its own constitution, its
+own schools, its secret laws, forming a state within a state. It often
+surprised Timar to find among the willow-copses of the island a canoe or
+a boat, watched by no one. If he came back a few hours later, it was no
+longer there. Another time he stumbled on great bales of goods, which
+also had disappeared when he returned. All the mysterious people who
+used the island as a resting-place seemed purposely to avoid the
+neighborhood of the hut; they went and came without leaving a footmark
+on the turf. There were cases, however, in which they visited the hut;
+and then it was always Therese who received their visit. When Almira
+gave the signal that strangers were coming, Timar left his work and
+retired into the inner room; he must not be seen by any stranger. It is
+true the beard he had grown had altered him considerably, but yet some
+one might come who had seen him elsewhere. The wild people always came
+to Therese if they had been hurt; they often frequented places where
+they were likely to be wounded. Sometimes they had deep, dangerous
+gunshot wounds, which they could not show to the regimental surgeon,
+for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> the result would be a court-martial; but the island lady knew of
+healing salves, could reduce fractures, bind up wounds, and prescribe
+medicines for fevers. She was sought by sick people who kept secret
+their abode, for they knew the physicians would never endure this
+quack-doctoring. She reconciled enemies who dared not go to law, and
+consoled criminals who repented of their sins, with the hope of God's
+mercy. Often some fugitive, tired and exhausted with hunger and thirst,
+came to her threshold. She asked not, "Whence do you come or whither do
+you go?" She took him in, and let him go when restored and refreshed,
+after filling his pouch with food.</p>
+
+<p>Many know her whose religion is silence, and there is no bond which
+binds master and disciple so closely as this. Every one knows that no
+money is to be found here; even avarice has no reason to wish her ill.</p>
+
+<p>Timar could be certain of having found a place over which centuries
+might pass before the history of its inhabitants should be drawn into
+that chaos we call the world. He could go on with his carpentry without
+fearing that the news would leak out that Michael Timar Levetinczy,
+privy councilor, landowner, banker, had turned into a woodcutter in an
+unknown island; and that, when he rested from his hard labor, he cut
+willow branches to shelter a poor orphan child which had neither parents
+nor a name of its own. What joys he knew here! how he listened for the
+first word the child could speak! The little man had such trouble to
+shape his unskillful lips to the words. "Papa," of course, was the
+first; what else could it be? The child learns also to understand the
+sorrowful side of life; when a new tooth comes, what pain and sleepless
+nights must be endured! No&eacute;mi remains at home with it, and Michael runs
+back from his work to see how little Dodi is. He takes the child from
+No&eacute;mi and carries him about, singing lullabies to him. If he succeeds in
+putting Dodi to sleep and soothing his pain, how triumphant he is! He
+sings&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"For all the gold the world could hold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I would not give my Dodi's curl."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>One day Michael suddenly found that he had grubbed up and cut down all
+the timber. So far the work had prospered; but now he found he could not
+get on. House-carpentry is a trade like any other, and must be learned,
+and he had not spoken the truth when he said he understood it.</p>
+
+<p>Autumn drew near. Therese and No&eacute;mi were already used to think it quite
+natural for Timar to leave them at this season; he must of course earn
+his bread. His business is of a sort which gets on by itself in the
+summer, but in winter he must give himself up to it. They knew that from
+other tradespeople. But in another house the same idea reigned. Tim&eacute;a
+believed Michael had business which obliged him to spend the summer away
+from home: at that season the management of his estates, of his building
+and export contracts, demanded all his attention.</p>
+
+<p>From autumn to spring he deceived Tim&eacute;a, from spring to autumn he
+deceived No&eacute;mi. He could not be called inconsistent.</p>
+
+<p>This time he left the island earlier than in other years. He has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>tened
+back to Komorn, where all his affairs had progressed in his absence
+beyond his expectations. Even in the government lottery the first prize
+must needs fall to him; the long-forgotten ticket lay buried somewhere
+in a drawer under other papers, and not till three months after the
+drawing did he bring it out, and claim the unhoped-for hundred thousand
+gulden, like one who hardly cares for such a trifle. The world admired
+him all the more. He had so much money, people said, that he wished for
+no more.</p>
+
+<p>What could he do with it?</p>
+
+<p>He began by sending for celebrated cabinet-makers from Szekler and
+Zarand, who understand the building of those splendid wooden houses
+which last for centuries&mdash;real palaces of hard wood. The Roumanian
+nobility live in such houses as these, which are full of beautiful
+carving inside. The house and its furniture, tables, chairs, and
+wardrobes, are all the work of one hand. Everything in it is of
+wood&mdash;not a single bit of iron is used.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FOURTH_II" id="CHAPTER_FOURTH_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE WOOD-CARVER.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>On his return home, Michael found Tim&eacute;a somewhat unwell. This induced
+him to call in two celebrated doctors from Vienna in order to consult
+them about his wife's health. They agreed that a change of climate was
+necessary, and advised a winter sojourn in Meran; so Michael accompanied
+thither his wife and Athalie. In the sheltered valley, he chose for
+Tim&eacute;a a villa in whose garden stood a pavilion built like a Swiss
+<i>ch&acirc;let</i>. He knew that Tim&eacute;a would like it. In the course of the winter
+he often visited her, generally in the company of an elderly man, and
+found that, as he expected, the <i>ch&acirc;let</i> was her favorite resort.</p>
+
+<p>When he returned to Komorn he set to work to build just such another
+<i>ch&acirc;let</i> as the one at Meran. The cabinet-maker he had brought with him
+was a master of his art. He copied the <i>ch&acirc;let</i> and its furniture in the
+minutest detail; then he installed a large workshop in Timar's
+one-storied house in the Servian Street, and there set to work. No one
+was to know anything about it&mdash;it was to be a surprise. But the
+architect required an apprentice to help him, and it was difficult to
+find one who could hold his tongue. There was nothing for it but to turn
+Timar himself into an apprentice, and he now vied with his master from
+morning to night with chisel and gimlet, in carving, planing, polishing,
+and turning. But as to the cabinet-maker himself, if you had closed his
+mouth with Solomon's seal, you could not have made him discreet enough
+to refrain from letting out the secret to his Sunday evening boon
+companions, of the surprise Herr von Levetinczy was preparing for his
+wife. First they made the different parts and fitted them together: then
+the whole, as fast as it was ready, was set up in the beautiful park on
+the Monostor. He himself, a regular Cr&#339;sus, does not shrink from working
+all day like a laborer, and is as good at the tools as if he were a
+foreman. He does not trouble about his own affairs, he leaves them to
+his agents, and saws and carves the whole day long in the workshop. But
+they must not let it go fur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>ther, for the gracious lady was to have a
+surprise when she came home. Naturally the whole town heard of it, and
+so did Frau Sophie, who wrote to Athalie, who told Tim&eacute;a, so that Tim&eacute;a
+knew beforehand that Michael, when she came home in the spring, would
+drive with her some fine day to the Monostor hill, where they had a
+large orchard: there, on the side overlooking the Danube, she would find
+her dear Meran pavilion exactly copied, her work-basket at the window,
+her favorite books on the birchwood shelves, her cane chair on the
+veranda. All this to surprise her; and she must smile as if much
+pleased, and when she praised the maker, she would hear from him, "You
+must not compliment me, gracious lady, but my apprentice." "Who executed
+the best carvings, who made the footstool, these elegant balustrades,
+these columns and capitals?" "My apprentice." "And who was he?" "The
+noble lord of Levetinczy himself. All this is his work, gracious lady."</p>
+
+<p>And then Tim&eacute;a would smile and try to find words to express her thanks.
+Only words: for he may heap treasures on his wife, or give her black
+bread that he had earned by his labor; he can not purchase her
+affection.</p>
+
+<p>And so it was. In the spring Tim&eacute;a came back. The Monostor surprise was
+skillfully planned, with a splendid banquet and a troop of guests. On
+Tim&eacute;a's face hovered a melancholy smile; on Timar's, reserved kindness;
+and on those of the guests, envious congratulation. The ladies said no
+woman was worthy of such a husband as Timar, he was an ideal husband;
+but the men said it was not a good sign when a husband tried to win his
+wife's favor by presents and attentions.</p>
+
+<p>Only Athalie said nothing: she sought a clew to the mystery and found
+none. What had come to Timar? His countenance betrayed something like
+happiness; what was he concealing under his care for Tim&eacute;a? In company
+he was bright and cheerful, unconstrained and at ease with Athalie,
+sometimes even taking her for a turn in the cotillon. Was he really
+happy, or was he indifferent? It was vain for him to try and win Tim&eacute;a's
+heart; Athalie knew that by her own experience. She had found plenty of
+wooers, but refused them all&mdash;all men were alike to her; she had only
+loved one, whom now she hated. She alone understood Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>But Michael she could not fathom. He was a man of pure gold, without a
+speck of rust upon him.</p>
+
+<p>When spring came, Timar again called in the physicians to pronounce on
+Tim&eacute;a's health. This time she was advised to try the sea-bathing at
+Biarritz. Michael took her there, arranged her apartments, took care
+that she should be able to compete in dress and equipages with English
+peeresses and Russian princesses, and left a heavy purse with her,
+begging her to bring it back empty. He was generous to Athalie, put her
+down as Tim&eacute;a's cousin in the visitor's list, and she too was to change
+her dress five times a day, like Tim&eacute;a. Could any one better fulfill the
+duties of the head of a family?</p>
+
+<p>Then he hurried away, not homeward, but to Vienna; there he bought the
+whole furniture of a workshop, and had it sent in chests to Pancsova.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>Here he had to invent some pretense to get the boxes over to the island.
+Caution was most necessary. The fishermen, who often saw him go round
+the Ostrova Island in a boat, and not return for months, had puzzled
+their heads as to who he was and what brought him here. When the cases
+arrived, he had them conveyed to the poplar-groves of the left bank of
+the Danube, and there unloaded. Then he called in the fishermen, and
+said they must get them over to the lonely island&mdash;they contained arms.</p>
+
+<p>That one word was enough to sink the secret to the bottom of the sea.
+Henceforward he could go backward and forward by day or night, no one
+would ever mention his name. They all knew now that he was an agent of
+the Servian and Montenegrin heroes of the insurrection, and the rack
+would not have extorted information from them. He became a sacred
+personage in their eyes. In this way, in order to hide himself in
+darkness, he deceived every one with whom he exchanged a word. The
+fishermen ferried over the cases at night, and Timar with them; they
+looked out for a place on the shore where the thickest bushes grew, and
+carried the boxes there, and when Michael would have paid them, they
+would not accept a groschen from him, only grasping his hand.</p>
+
+<p>He remained on the island, and the fishermen left him. It was a splendid
+moonlight night; the nightingale sung on its nest. Michael went along
+the bank till he came to the path, and passed the place where he had
+left off his work last year; the trunks were carefully covered with
+rushes to keep the wet off.</p>
+
+<p>He approached the little dwelling on tiptoe. It was a good sign that he
+heard no noise. Almira does not bark, because she is sleeping in the
+kitchen so as not to wake the child. All is well in the house.</p>
+
+<p>How should he announce himself, and surprise No&eacute;mi? He stood before the
+little window, half covered by climbing roses, and began to sing&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"For all the gold the world could hold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I would not give my Dodi's curl."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>He was not disappointed; a moment later the window opened, and No&eacute;mi
+looked out with a face radiant with joy. "My Michael," whispered the
+poor child.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, thy Michael," he murmured, clasping the dear head in both arms.
+"And Dodi?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is asleep; hush, we must not wake him." And still the lips murmured
+tenderly, "Come in."</p>
+
+<p>"He might wake and cry."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he is no longer a crying child. Just think, he is a year old."</p>
+
+<p>"What! a year already! He is quite a big fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"He can say your name already."</p>
+
+<p>"Does he really talk?"</p>
+
+<p>"And he is learning to walk."</p>
+
+<p>"Just fancy!"</p>
+
+<p>"He eats anything now."</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible; that is too soon."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you know about it? wait till you see him."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>"Push the curtain aside that I may see him by the moonlight."</p>
+
+<p>"No; that would not do. If the moon shines on a sleeping child it makes
+it ill."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!"</p>
+
+<p>"There are all sorts of wonderful things about children, and one must
+have plenty of faith; that is why women have charge of children, because
+they believe everything. Come in and look at him."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not go in as long as he is asleep&mdash;I might wake him; you come
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"I can not do that; he would wake if I left him, and mother is asleep."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, you go back to him, and I will remain outside."</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you lie down?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is almost day-break. Go back to him, and leave the window open."</p>
+
+<p>And he remained standing by the window, looking into the little room, on
+whose floor the moon painted silver patterns, and trying to distinguish
+the tones which came from the quiet chamber&mdash;a little whimper of an
+awakened child, then a low song like a dreamy lullaby, "For all the gold
+.&nbsp;.&nbsp;." Then the sound of a kiss, which a good baby gets as a reward for
+going to sleep. With his elbows on the window-sill, and listening to the
+breaths of the sleepers, Timar awaited the dawn, which filled the little
+house with light. The red sunrise awoke the child, and there was no more
+sleep for the others. The baby crowed and babbled; what it said only
+those two understood&mdash;itself and No&eacute;mi.</p>
+
+<p>When at last Michael got it into his arms he said, "I shall stay here,
+Dodi, till I have finished your house."</p>
+
+<p>The child said something which No&eacute;mi interpreted to mean, "That is just
+what I wish."</p>
+
+<p>These were the happiest days of Timar's dual life. Nothing troubled the
+serenity of his happiness, except the thought of that other life to
+which he must return. If he could find ways and means to sever himself
+from that, he might live on here in peace. Nothing would be easier; he
+simply had to stay here. He would be sought for during the first year,
+for two or three more he would be remembered from time to time; then the
+world would forget him and he it, and No&eacute;mi would remain to him. And
+what a jewel she was! Whatever was lovable in woman was combined in her,
+and every feminine defect was wanting. Her beauty was not of the kind
+which satiates by its monotony: with every change of expression arose a
+new charm. Tenderness, gentleness, and fire were united in her
+disposition. The virgin, the fairy, the woman were harmoniously blended
+in her. Her love was never selfish; her whole being went out to him whom
+she loved: his sorrows and joys were hers, she knew no others. At home
+she thought of every trivial detail which could conduce to his comfort;
+she helped him in his work with an untiring hand. Ever bright and fresh,
+if she felt unwell a kiss from him drove away the pain. She was
+submissive to him, who worshiped her. And when she took the child on her
+lap, it was a sight to drive the man mad who had made her his own&mdash;and
+yet not really his.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>But Timar had not yet made up his mind. He still played with Fate. The
+price was too high even for such a treasure as a lovely woman with a
+smiling child in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>The cost was&mdash;a whole world! a property amounting to millions; his
+position in society; his rank and noble friends; the enterprise of
+world-wide influence, on whose result hung the future of a great
+national branch of trade! and besides&mdash;Tim&eacute;a. He might have reconciled
+himself to the idea of treading his riches under foot: they came from
+the submarine depths, and might return thither.</p>
+
+<p>But his vanity refused to contemplate the notion that that woman with
+the white face, which no glow from her husband could animate, might be
+happy in this life&mdash;with another man. Perhaps he hardly knew himself
+what a fiend was hidden in his breast. The woman who could not love him
+was fading away before his eyes, while he could live through happy days
+where he was well beloved. And during this time the house-building made
+rapid progress, and was already being put together by the workman's
+skillful hand; the roof was on, and covered with wide planks formed like
+fish-scales to overlap each other. The carpentry was done, and now came
+the cabinet-work. Michael completed it without any assistance, and might
+be seen from morn to eve in the workshop he had arranged in the new
+house, where he sung all day as he planed and sawed. Like the steadiest
+of day-laborers, he never left off his work before dark; then he
+returned to the hut where an appetizing supper awaited him. After the
+meal he sat down on the bench outside the house, and lighted his clay
+pipe. No&eacute;mi sat by him and took Dodi on her knees, who was now expected
+to exhibit what he had learned during the day. A new word! And is not
+this one word a greater acquirement than all the wisdom of the world?
+"What would you sell Dodi for?" No&eacute;mi asked him once in jest. "For the
+whole earth full of diamonds?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not for the whole heaven full of angels."</p>
+
+<p>Little Dodi happened that day to be full of spirits. In a mischievous
+mood he caught hold with his little hand of the pipe Michael had in his
+mouth, and pulled till he got it out of his hold, when he at once threw
+it on the ground; as it was made of clay, of course it was broken into
+atoms. Timar was rather hasty in his exercise of justice, and bestowed a
+little tap on the child's hand as a punishment for the damage done. The
+boy looked at him, then hid his head in his mother's breast, and began
+to cry.</p>
+
+<p>"See now," said No&eacute;mi, sadly, "you would give him away for a pipe, and
+this one was only of clay."</p>
+
+<p>Michael was very sorry to have slapped Dodi's hand. He tried to make it
+up by coaxing words, and kissed the little hand, but the child was shy
+of him, and crept under No&eacute;mi's shawl. All night he was restless,
+wakeful, and crying. Timar got angry, and said the child was of a
+willful nature, his obstinacy must be overcome. No&eacute;mi cast a gently
+reproachful glance on him.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Timar left his bed earlier than usual, and went to his
+work, but he was never heard to sing all day. He left off early in the
+afternoon, and when he came home he could see by No&eacute;mi's face that she
+was quite alarmed at his appearance. His complexion was quite altered.
+"I am not well," he said to No&eacute;mi, "my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> head is so heavy, my feet will
+hardly carry me, and I have pain in all my limbs. I must lie down."</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi hastened to make up a bed for him in the inner room, and helped
+him to undress. With anxiety she noticed that Michael's hands were cold
+and his breath burning. Frau Therese felt his forehead, and advised him
+to cover himself well, for he was going to have ague. But Michael had
+the sensation that something worse was at hand. In this district typhus
+was raging, for the spring floods had swelled the Danube in an unusual
+degree, and left malaria behind them. When he laid his head on the
+pillow he was still sensible enough to think of what would happen if a
+serious illness attacked him; no doctor was near to help. He might die
+here, and no one would know what had become of him. What would become of
+Tim&eacute;a, and above all, of No&eacute;mi? Who would care for the forsaken one, a
+widow without being a wife? Who would bring up Dodi, and what fate
+awaited him when he should be grown up, and Michael underground? Two
+women's lives would be wrecked by his death!</p>
+
+<p>And then he began to think of the revelations of his delirium before the
+two women who would be with him day and night&mdash;of his stewards, his
+palaces, and of his pale wife&mdash;of how he would see Tim&eacute;a before him,
+call her by name, and speak of her as his wife&mdash;and No&eacute;mi knows that
+name.</p>
+
+<p>Besides his bodily pain, another thing tormented him&mdash;that he had struck
+Dodi yesterday. This trifle lay heavy as a crime on his soul. After he
+was in bed he wanted the child brought to him that he might kiss it, and
+whispered "No&eacute;mi," with hot breath.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" she answered.</p>
+
+<p>But already he know not what he had asked. Directly he was in bed the
+fever broke out with full force. He was a strong man, and such are the
+first to succumb to this "aid-de-camp" of death, and suffer the most
+from it. Thenceforward he wandered continually; and No&eacute;mi heard every
+word he spoke. The sick man knew no one, not even himself. He who spoke
+through his lips was a stranger&mdash;a man who had no secrets, and told all
+he knew. The visions are akin to the delusions of madness; they turn on
+one fixed idea, and however the detail may change, the central figure
+returns ever and again to the surface.</p>
+
+<p>In Timar's wandering there was one of these dominating figures&mdash;a woman.
+Not Tim&eacute;a, but No&eacute;mi&mdash;of her he continually spoke. Tim&eacute;a's name never
+passed his lips&mdash;she did not fill his soul.</p>
+
+<p>For No&eacute;mi it was horror and rapture combined to listen to this
+unconscious babble&mdash;horror, because it spoke of such strange things, and
+took her with him to such unknown regions, that she trembled at a fever
+which compelled him to look on at such marvels&mdash;and yet it was bliss to
+hear him, for he always talked of her, and her only.</p>
+
+<p>Once he was in a princely palace and talking with some great man. "To
+whom should his excellency give this decoration? I know a girl on the
+ownerless island&mdash;no one is more worthy of it than she. Give her the
+order. She is called No&eacute;mi; her other name? Do queens have another name?
+The first. No&eacute;mi the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> first, by the grace of God queen of the ownerless
+island and the rose-forest."</p>
+
+<p>He carried his idea further. "If I become king of the ownerless island,
+I shall form a ministry. Almira will be inspector of meat, and Narcissa
+will be appointed to the dairy department. I shall demand security from
+them, and name them as confidential advisers." Then he talked of his
+palaces. "How do you like these saloons, No&eacute;mi? Does the gilding of this
+ceiling please you? Those children dancing on the golden background are
+like Dodi&mdash;are they not like him? A pity they are so high up. Are you
+cold in these great halls? So am I&mdash;come, let us go away. It is better
+by the fire in our little hut. I do not love these high palaces; and
+this town is often visited by earthquakes&mdash;I fear the vault may fall in
+on us. There! behind that little door some one is spying on us&mdash;an
+envious woman. Do not look, No&eacute;mi! Her malicious glance might do you
+harm. This house once belonged to her, and now she wanders through it
+like a ghost. See, she has a dagger in her hand, and wants to murder
+you; let us run away!"</p>
+
+<p>But there was a hinderance in the way of escape&mdash;the frightful mass of
+gold. "I can not stand up, the gold drags me down. It is all on my
+breast; take it away! Oh, I am drowning in gold! The roof has fallen in,
+and gold is rolling down on me. I am suffocating. No&eacute;mi, give me your
+hand; pull me from under this horrible mountain of gold."</p>
+
+<p>His hand lay in No&eacute;mi's all the time, and she thought, trembling, what a
+fearful power it was which tortured a poor sailor with such dreams of
+money. Then he began again: "You don't care for diamonds, No&eacute;mi? You
+little fool! Do you think their fire burns? Don't be afraid. Ha! you are
+right, it does burn&mdash;I did not know that&mdash;it is hell-fire. Even the
+names are alike&mdash;Diamond, Demon. We will throw them into the
+water&mdash;throw them from you. I know where they came from, and I will
+throw them back into the water. Don't be afraid, I will not remain long
+under water. Hold your breath and pray. As long as you can stay without
+taking breath I shall be down below; I am only going to dive into the
+cabin of the sunken ship. Ah! who is lying on this bed?"</p>
+
+<p>Such a shudder seized him that he sprung from his couch and would have
+rushed away. No&eacute;mi was hardly able to get him back to bed. "Some one is
+lying there, but I must not say the name. See how the red moon shines in
+at the window. Shut the light out. I will not have it on my face. How
+near it is coming! Draw the curtain across!"</p>
+
+<p>But the curtains were drawn, and besides, it was pitch-dark outside.
+When the fever-fit passed, he murmured, "Oh, how lovely you are without
+diamonds, No&eacute;mi!"</p>
+
+<p>Then a fantasy seized him. "That man stands at our antipodes on the
+other side of the earth. If the earth were of glass he could look down
+upon us. But he can see me just as well as I see him. What is he doing?
+He is catching rattlesnakes, and when he comes back he will let them
+loose on the island. Don't let him land; don't let him come back!
+Almira! Almira! At him! tear him! Aha! now a giant snake has got him; it
+is strangling him. How frightful his face is! If only I need not see the
+snake swallow him! Will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> he look at me? Now there is only his head out,
+and he keeps looking at me. Oh, No&eacute;mi, cover my face that I may not see
+him!"</p>
+
+<p>Again the dream-scene changes. "A whole fleet floats on the sea. What
+are the ships laden with? With flour. Now comes a whirlwind, a tornado
+seizes the ships, carries them into the clouds and tears them into
+splinters. The flour is all spilled: the whole world is white with it,
+white is the sea, white the heavens, and white the air. The moon peeps
+from the clouds, and only look how the wind covers its face with flour!
+It looks like some red-nosed old toper who has powdered his face. Laugh
+then, No&eacute;mi!" But she wrung her hands and shuddered. The poor creature
+was by his bed day and night. By day she sat on a chair at his side; by
+night she pulled her bed close to his and slept beside him: careless of
+the infection, she laid her head on Michael's pillow, pressed his
+perspiring brow to her cheek, and kissed away the burning fever-breaths
+from his parched lips.</p>
+
+<p>Frau Therese tried by harmless remedies to reduce the fever, and took
+out the glass casements that the fresh air&mdash;the best medicine in fever
+cases&mdash;might freely penetrate the little room. She said to No&eacute;mi, that
+by her calculation the crisis would set in on the thirteenth day, when
+the illness would either take a turn for the better or terminate
+fatally.</p>
+
+<p>How long No&eacute;mi knelt during these days by the sick man's bed and prayed
+to God, who had tried her so heavily, to have mercy on her poor heart!
+If only He would give Michael back to life&mdash;and then if the grave must
+have a sacrifice, there was she ready to die in his stead.</p>
+
+<p>Providence delights in what one might call the irony of fate&mdash;No&eacute;mi
+offered to cruel death the whole world and her own self, in exchange for
+Michael's life. She fancied she had to do with a good fellow who might
+be bargained with. The destroying angel accepted her challenge.</p>
+
+<p>On the thirteenth day the fever and delirium ceased: the previous
+nervous excitement gave place to intense exhaustion, which is a symptom
+of improvement, and permits a hope that with the greatest care the
+patient may be given back to life, if his mind is kept calm and he is
+preserved from anxiety or emotion: sick people are so easily excited at
+this stage of convalescence. His recovery hung on perfect tranquillity;
+any violent excitement would kill him. No&eacute;mi stayed all night by Timar's
+sick-bed: she never even went out once to see little Dodi; he slept in
+the outer room with Frau Therese. On the morning of the fourteenth day,
+while Michael lay sound asleep, Therese whispered in No&eacute;mi's car,
+"Little Dodi is very ill." The child now! Poor No&eacute;mi! Her little Dodi
+had the croup, the most dangerous of all childish maladies, against
+which all the skill of the physician is often powerless.</p>
+
+<p>Mortally terrified, No&eacute;mi rushed to her child. The face of the innocent
+creature was quite changed. It was not crying&mdash;this disease has no
+characteristic cry, but so much the more dreadful is the suffering. How
+terrible, a child who can not complain, whom men can not help! No&eacute;mi
+looked blankly at her mother as if to ask, "And have you no cure for
+this?" Therese could hardly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> bear this look. "So many miserable sick and
+dying people have been helped by you, and for this one you know of no
+remedy!"</p>
+
+<p>"None!" No&eacute;mi knelt down beside the child's little bed, pressed her lips
+on his, and murmured softly, "What is it, my darling, my little one, my
+angel? Look at me with thy pretty eyes."</p>
+
+<p>But the little one would not lift up the pretty eyes, and when at last,
+after many kisses and entreaties, it opened the heavy lids, its
+expression was terrible&mdash;the look of a child which has already learned
+to fear death. "Oh, don't look so! not so!" The child never cried, but
+only gave utterance to a hoarse cough.</p>
+
+<p>If only the other invalid in there does not hear it! No&eacute;mi held her
+child trembling in her arms, and listened to hear if the sleeper close
+by was yet awake. When she heard his voice she left the child and went
+to Michael. He was suffering from great exhaustion, irritable and
+peevish.</p>
+
+<p>"Where had you gone?" he questioned No&eacute;mi. "The window is open; a rat
+might get in while I was asleep. Don't you see a rat about?" It is a
+constant delusion of typhus patients to see rats everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>"They can't get in, my darling; there is a grating over the window."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! and where is the cold water?" No&eacute;mi gave him some to drink. But he
+was very angry with it. "That is not fresh cold water, it is quite warm.
+Do you want me to die of thirst?"</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi bore his crossness patiently. And when Michael fell asleep again,
+she ran out to Dodi. The two women replaced each other, so that as long
+as Michael slept, Therese sat by him, and when he awoke she gave No&eacute;mi a
+sign to leave her sick child and take her place by Michael's bed. And
+this went on through the long night. No&eacute;mi passed constantly from one
+sick-bed to the other, and she had to keep excuses always ready for her
+husband if he should ask where she had been.</p>
+
+<p>The child grew worse. Therese could do nothing, and No&eacute;mi dared not weep
+for fear of Michael seeing her tearful eyes and asking the reason. The
+next morning Timar felt easier, and wished for some soup. No&eacute;mi hastened
+out to fetch it, as it was kept ready. The invalid swallowed it, and
+said he felt the better for it. No&eacute;mi seemed delighted at the good news.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and what is Dodi doing?" asked Michael.</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi trembled lest he should see the throbs of her heart at the
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"He is asleep," she replied, gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Asleep? But why asleep now? He is not ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; he is all right."</p>
+
+<p>"And why do you not bring him to me when he is awake?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because then you are asleep."</p>
+
+<p>"That is true; but when we are both awake together, you must bring him
+in and let me see him."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do so, Michael."</p>
+
+<p>The child sunk gradually. No&eacute;mi had to conceal from Timar that Dodi was
+ill, and constantly to invent stories about him, for his father
+constantly asked for him. "Does Dodi play with his little man?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>"Oh, yes, he is always playing with him" (&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. with that fearful
+skeleton!).</p>
+
+<p>"Does he talk of me?"</p>
+
+<p>"He loves to talk of you" (&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. he will do so soon when he is with the
+good God).</p>
+
+<p>"Take him this kiss from me;" and No&eacute;mi bore to her child the parting
+kiss of his father.</p>
+
+<p>Another day dawned. The awakening invalid found himself alone in the
+room. No&eacute;mi had watched all night by her child: she had looked on his
+death-struggle, and pressed her tears back into her heart; why had it
+not burst? When she went in to Michael she smiled again.</p>
+
+<p>"Were you with Dodi?" asked the sick man.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have been with him."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he asleep now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he is asleep."</p>
+
+<p>"Not really?"</p>
+
+<p>"Truly, he sleeps well."</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi has just closed his eyes&mdash;for his last sleep. And she dared not
+betray her agony. She must show a smiling face. In the afternoon Michael
+was much excited again: as the day drew on, his nervous irritation
+increased. He called to No&eacute;mi, who was in the next room; she hastened in
+and looked lovingly at him. The invalid was peevish and suspicious. He
+noticed that a needle was sticking in No&eacute;mi's dress, with a thread of
+silk in it.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you are beginning to work again! Have you time for that? What
+finery are you making?"</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi looked at him silently, and thought, "I am making Dodi's shroud;"
+and then aloud, "I am making myself a collar."</p>
+
+<p>"Vanity, thy name is woman!" sighed Michael.</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi found a smile for him, and answered, "You are quite right."</p>
+
+<p>Again the morning broke. Michael now suffered from sleeplessness; he
+could not close his eyes. And the thought troubled him as to what Dodi
+was doing. He sent No&eacute;mi out often to see if he wanted anything. And
+whenever she did so she kissed the little dead child on the bier, and
+spoke caressing words for Michael to hear: "My little Dodi! my darling
+sweet, asleep again! Tell mother you love her;" and then she came back
+to say that Dodi wanted for nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"The boy sleeps too much," said Michael; "why don't you wake him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must wake him soon," said No&eacute;mi, gently.</p>
+
+<p>Michael dozed a little, only a few minutes, and woke with a start. He
+did not know he had been asleep. "No&eacute;mi," he cried, "Dodi was singing; I
+heard him: how sweetly he sings!"</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi pressed both her hands to her heart, and drove back the outward
+expression of her agony with superhuman courage. Yes, he is already
+singing in heaven, amidst the angelic choir&mdash;among the innumerable
+seraphim! that was the song he joined in.</p>
+
+<p>Toward evening Michael sent No&eacute;mi out. "Go and put Dodi to bed, and give
+him a kiss for me."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>She did so. "What did Dodi say?" he asked her. No&eacute;mi could not speak;
+she bent over Michael and pressed a kiss on his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"That was his message, the treasure!" cried Michael, and the kiss sent
+him to sleep. The child sent it to him from his own slumber.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning he asked again about the boy. "Take Dodi out into the
+air; it is bad for him to be in the house; carry him into the garden."</p>
+
+<p>They were about to do so. Therese had dug a grave during the night at
+the foot of a weeping-willow.</p>
+
+<p>"You go too; and stay out there with him. I shall doze, I think, I feel
+so much better," Michael told No&eacute;mi.</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi left the sick-room and turned the key: then they carried God's
+recovered angel out, and committed him to the care of the universal
+mother&mdash;earth. No&eacute;mi would not have a mound raised over him; Michael
+would be so sad when he saw it, and it would retard his recovery. They
+made a flower-bed there, and planted in its midst a rose-tree&mdash;one of
+those Timar had grafted&mdash;with white flowers, whose purity was unstained.
+Then she went back to the sick man.</p>
+
+<p>His first words were, "Where have you left Dodi?"</p>
+
+<p>"Out in the garden."</p>
+
+<p>"What has he on?"</p>
+
+<p>"His white frock and blue ribbons."</p>
+
+<p>"That suits him so well. Is he well wrapped up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, very well" (with three feet of earth).</p>
+
+<p>"Bring him in when you go out again."</p>
+
+<p>At this No&eacute;mi could not stop in the room; she went out and threw herself
+on Therese's breast, but even then she could not shed a tear. She must
+not. Then she tottered on into the garden, went to the willow, broke off
+a bud from the rose-tree, and went back to Michael.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, where's Dodi?" he said, impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>But No&eacute;mi knelt down by his bed and held out to him&mdash;the white rose.
+Michael took it and smelled it. "How curious!" he said; "this flower has
+no scent&mdash;as if it had grown on a grave."</p>
+
+<p>She rose and went out. "What is the matter?" asked Timar, turning to
+Therese.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be angry," said she in a gentle, soothing tone. "You were so
+dangerously ill. Thank Heaven, you are getting over it. But this illness
+is infectious, and particularly during convalescence. I told No&eacute;mi that
+until you were quite well she must not bring the child near you. Perhaps
+I was wrong, but I meant it for the best."</p>
+
+<p>Michael pressed her hand. "You did quite right. Stupid that I was, not
+to have thought of it myself. Perhaps he is not even in the next room?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. We have made him a little house out in the garden." Poor thing, she
+told the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very good, Therese. Go to Dodi and send No&eacute;mi to me. I will not
+ask her again to bring him to me. Poor No&eacute;mi! But as soon as I can get
+up and go out, you will let me go to him, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>"Yes, Michael." By this pious fraud it was possible to satisfy him till
+he was out of bed and on the road to recovery. He was still very weak,
+and could hardly walk. No&eacute;mi helped him to dress. Leaning on her
+shoulder, he left his room, and she led him to the little seat before
+the house, sat beside him, put her arm in his, and supported his head on
+her shoulder. It was a lovely warm summer afternoon. Michael felt as if
+the murmuring trees were whispering in his ears, as if the humming bees
+brought him a message, and the grass made music at his feet. His head
+swam.</p>
+
+<p>One thought grew on him. When he looked at No&eacute;mi, a painful suspicion
+awoke in his breast. There was something in her expression which he
+could not understand; he must know it. "No&eacute;mi."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, my Michael?"</p>
+
+<p>"Darling No&eacute;mi, look at me." She raised her eyes to his. "Where is
+little Dodi?"</p>
+
+<p>The poor creature could no longer hide her grief. She raised her martyr
+face to heaven, stretched up both hands, and faltered, "There! .&nbsp;.&nbsp;.
+there!"</p>
+
+<p>"He is dead!" Michael could hardly utter the words. No&eacute;mi sunk on his
+breast. Her tears were no longer to be controlled; she sobbed violently.</p>
+
+<p>He put his arm round her and let her weep on. It would have been
+sacrilege not to let these tears have free course.</p>
+
+<p>He had no tears&mdash;no. He was all wonder; he was amazed at the greatness
+of soul which raised the poor despised creature so far above himself.
+That she should have been able to conceal her sorrow so long out of
+tender consideration for him whom she loved! How great that love must
+be! When the paroxysm was over she looked smiling at Timar, like the sun
+through the rainbow.</p>
+
+<p>"And you could keep this from me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I feared for your life."</p>
+
+<p>"You dared not weep lest I should see traces of tears."</p>
+
+<p>"I waited for the time when I might weep."</p>
+
+<p>"When you were not with me, you nursed the sick child, and I was angry
+with you."</p>
+
+<p>"You were never unkind, Michael."</p>
+
+<p>"When you took my kiss to him you knew it was a farewell; when I
+reproached you with your vanity you were sewing his shroud; when you
+showed me a cheerful face your heart was pierced with the seven wounds
+of the Blessed Virgin! Oh, No&eacute;mi, I worship you!"</p>
+
+<p>But the poor thing only asked him to love her. Michael drew her on to
+his knee. The leaves, the grass, the bees, whispered now so clearly that
+he began to understand the swimming in his head.</p>
+
+<p>After a long and gloomy silence he spoke again. "Where have you laid
+him? Take me to him, No&eacute;mi."</p>
+
+<p>"Not to-day," said No&eacute;mi. "It is too far for you&mdash;to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>But neither to-morrow nor the next day would she take him there.</p>
+
+<p>"You would sit by the grave and make yourself ill again: that is why I
+have made no mound over him, nor raised a cross, that you may not go
+there and grieve."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>Timar, however, was sad at this. When he was strong enough to walk
+alone, he went about seeking for what they would not show him.</p>
+
+<p>One day he came back to the house with a cheerful face. In his hand he
+held a half-blown rosebud, one of those white ones which have no scent.
+"Is it this?" he asked No&eacute;mi.</p>
+
+<p>She nodded: it could no longer be concealed. The white rose had put him
+on the track, and he noticed that it had been newly transplanted. And
+then he was tranquil, like one who has done with all that had given an
+object to life. He sat all day on the little bench near the house, drew
+on the gravel with his stick, and muttered to himself, "You would not
+exchange him for the whole earth full of diamonds, nor the whole heaven
+full of angels; .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. but for a miserable pipe you could strike his
+hand."</p>
+
+<p>The beautiful walnut-wood house stood half finished, and the great
+convolvulus had crept over its four walls. Michael never set foot in it.</p>
+
+<p>The only thing that kept up his half-recovered strength and his broken
+spirit was No&eacute;mi's love.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FOURTH_III" id="CHAPTER_FOURTH_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+<span class="subhead">MELANCHOLY.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>One bud after another opened on the rose-tree. Timar did nothing but
+watch the development and blossoming of these rosebuds. When one of them
+opened he broke it off, put it in his pocket-book, and dried it there on
+his breast. This was a melancholy task. All the tenderness lavished on
+him by No&eacute;mi could not cure his sadness. The woman's sweet caresses were
+burdensome to him. And yet No&eacute;mi could have comforted him at the cost of
+a single word; but modest reserve kept back that word, and it never
+occurred to Michael to question her.</p>
+
+<p>It is characteristic of those whose mind is diseased to occupy
+themselves only with the past.</p>
+
+<p>At last No&eacute;mi said to Timar, "Michael, it would be good for you to go
+away from here&mdash;out into the world. Everything here arouses mournful
+memories in you; you must go away to get well. I have done your packing,
+and the fruit-dealers will fetch you away to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Michael did not answer, but expressed his assent by a nod. The dangerous
+illness he had passed through had affected his nerves; and the situation
+he had brought upon himself, the blow which had struck him, had worked
+on those nerves so painfully, that he was forced to acknowledge that a
+longer stay would lead to madness or suicide.</p>
+
+<p>Suicide? There is no easier road out of a difficult position: failure,
+despair, mental conflict, blasted hopes, heart-pangs, fantastic
+bugbears, the memory of losses, phantoms of the beloved dead&mdash;all these
+are parts of a bad dream. One touch on the trigger of the pistol, and
+one awakes. Those who remain behind can go on with the dream.</p>
+
+<p>On the last evening, Michael, No&eacute;mi, and Therese sat all three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> after
+supper on the little bench outside, and Michael remembered that they had
+once been four together there.</p>
+
+<p>"What can that moon really be?" asked No&eacute;mi.</p>
+
+<p>Michael's hand, which No&eacute;mi held in hers, was clinched with sudden
+violence.</p>
+
+<p>"My evil star," he thought to himself. "Oh, if I had never seen it, that
+red crescent!"</p>
+
+<p>Therese answered her daughter's question: "It is a burned-out and
+chilled world, on which neither trees, flowers, nor animals, no air or
+water, no sounds or colors exist. When I was a girl at school, we used
+often to look through a telescope at the moon; it is full of mountains,
+and we were told they were the craters of extinct volcanoes. No
+telescope is powerful enough to show people on it, but learned men know
+with certainty that neither air nor water exists there. Without air and
+water nothing can live that has a human body, so no mortal can possibly
+be there."</p>
+
+<p>"But what if something did really live in it?"</p>
+
+<p>"What could do so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you what I think. Often in the old times, when I was still
+alone, I could not rid myself of one engrossing thought&mdash;especially when
+I sat by myself on the beach, and looked into the water. I felt as if
+something were drawing me into it, and calling to me that it was good to
+be down below there, and that there all was peace. Then I said to
+myself&mdash;Good! the body would rest at the bottom of the Danube; but where
+would the soul go?&mdash;it must find a dwelling somewhere. Then the thought
+arose that the soul which wrenched itself so forcibly and by its own
+will from its mortal shell could only soar to the moon. I believe that
+now even more firmly. If neither trees nor flowers, neither water nor
+air, neither colors nor sounds, can there exist&mdash;well, it is all the
+better fitted for those who did not wish to be encumbered with a body:
+there they will find a world where there is nothing to trouble them, nor
+anything to give them pleasure."</p>
+
+<p>Therese and Michael both rose with a start from beside No&eacute;mi, who could
+not understand what had moved them. She did not know that her own father
+was a suicide, and that he whose hand she held was ready to become one.
+Michael said the night was cool, they had better go in. One more
+haunting thought was now linked with the sight of the moon. The first he
+inherited from Tim&eacute;a, the other from No&eacute;mi. What a fearful penalty&mdash;that
+the man should continually see before him in the heavens that shining
+witness, eternally recalling him to his first sin, the first fateful
+error of his ruined life!</p>
+
+<p>The next day Michael left the island: he passed by the unfinished
+walnut-wood house without even glancing at it.</p>
+
+<p>"You will return with the spring flowers," whispered No&eacute;mi tenderly in
+his ear. The poor thing thought it quite natural that for half of the
+year Michael should not belong to her. "But to whom does he then
+belong?" That question never occurred to her.</p>
+
+<p>When Michael arrived at Komorn, the long journey had still more
+exhausted him. Tim&eacute;a was frightened when she saw him, and could hardly
+recognize him; even Athalie was alarmed, and with good reason.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>"You have been ill?" said Tim&eacute;a, leaning on her husband's breast.</p>
+
+<p>"Very ill, for many weeks."</p>
+
+<p>"On your journey?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," answered Timar, to whom this seemed like a cross-examination. He
+must be on his guard at every question.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God! and had you anyone to nurse you there among those strangers?"</p>
+
+<p>The words had almost escaped him, "Oh, yes, an angel!" but he caught
+himself up and answered, "You can get anything for money." Tim&eacute;a did not
+know how to show her sympathy, and so Michael could detect no change in
+the always apathetic face. She was always the same, and the frigid kiss
+of welcome drew them no closer together.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie whispered in his ear, "For God's sake, sir, take care of your
+life!"</p>
+
+<p>Timar felt the poisoned sting hidden beneath this tender consideration.
+He must live that Tim&eacute;a might suffer; for if she became a widow, nothing
+would stand in the way of her happiness. And that would be a hell to
+Athalie.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to Timar as if the demon who hated both him and his wife was
+now praying for the prolongation of his detested life, so that their
+mutual suffering might last the longer. Every one remarked the great
+change which had taken place in him. In the spring he was a strong man
+in the prime of life; now he was like a feeble, voiceless shadow.</p>
+
+<p>He withdrew to his office as soon as he arrived, and spent the whole day
+there. His secretary found the ledger lying on the desk just as he had
+opened it; he had not even looked at it. His agents were informed of his
+return, and hastened to present yards of reports. He said to them all,
+"Very good," and signed what they required, sometimes in the wrong
+place, sometimes twice over. At last he shut himself up from every one
+in his room, under pretense of requiring sleep. But his servants heard
+him walking up and down for hours together.</p>
+
+<p>When he went to the ladies to dine in their company, he looked so gloomy
+and stern that no one had the courage to address him. He hardly touched
+food, and never tasted wine. But an hour after dinner he rang for the
+servant, and asked angrily whether they were ever going to get the meal
+ready&mdash;he had forgotten that it was over. In the evening he could not
+sit up, so tired was he; when he sat down he dozed off at once; as soon,
+however, as he was undressed and in bed, slumber fled suddenly from his
+eyes. "Oh, how cold this bed is&mdash;everything in the house is cold!" Every
+piece of furniture, the pictures on the walls, even the old frescoes on
+the ceiling, seemed to cry to him, "What have you come here for? This is
+not your home! You are a stranger here!" How cold is this bed!</p>
+
+<p>The man who came to call him to supper found him already in bed. On
+hearing this, Tim&eacute;a came to him and asked whether he would have
+something.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing&mdash;no, nothing at all," answered Timar. "I am only overtired by
+the journey."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>"Shall I send for the doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pray don't. I am not ill."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a wished him good-night, and went away after again feeling his
+forehead with her hand. But Timar was not in a condition to sleep. He
+heard every noise in the house; he heard them whispering and creeping on
+tiptoe past his door, so as not to disturb him. He was thinking where a
+man could best flee from himself. Into the realm of dreams? That would
+be good, indeed, if only one could find the way there as easily as into
+the kingdom of death. But one can not force one's self to dream. Opium?
+That is one way&mdash;the suicide of sleep. Gradually he noticed that it was
+growing darker in the room: the shades of night veiled closely every
+object, the light grew dim. At last he was surrounded by a darkness like
+that of a thick, motionless mist, like subterranean gloom, or the night
+of the blind: such an obscurity one "sees" even in sleep. Michael knew
+he was asleep, and the blindness lying over his eyes was that of
+slumber. Yes, he now had full consciousness of his position. He was
+lying in his own bed in his Komorn house&mdash;a table beside him with an
+antique bronze lamp-stand, and a painted lamp-shade with Chinese figures
+on it; over his head hung a large clock with a chime; the silken
+curtains were let down. The curious old bed had a sort of drawer below
+it, which could be drawn out and used as a second bed. It was
+beautifully made&mdash;one of those beds only found in fine old houses, in
+which a whole family might find room to sleep. Timar knew that he had
+not bolted his door; any one could come in who chose. How if some one
+came to murder him? And what difference would there be between sleep and
+death? This puzzled him in his dreams.</p>
+
+<p>Once he dreamed that the door opened softly and some one entered: a
+woman's steps. The curtain rustled, and something leaned over him: a
+woman's face. "Is it you, No&eacute;mi?" Michael thought in his dream, and
+started. "How came you here? If some one saw you?" It was dark, he could
+see nothing; but he heard the person sit down by his bed and listen to
+his breathing. Thus had No&eacute;mi done many a night in the little hut. "Oh,
+No&eacute;mi, will you watch again all through the night? When will you sleep?"</p>
+
+<p>The female figure, as if in answer, knelt down and drew out the shelf
+below the bed. Michael felt a mixture of fear and rapture in his breast.
+"You will lie down beside me; oh, how I love you, but I tremble for
+you!" and then the figure prepared a bed on the shelf and lay down. The
+dreamer in the bed longed to bend over her, to embrace and kiss her, and
+would have called again to her, "Go, hasten away from here, you will be
+seen;" but he could move neither limbs nor tongue, they were heavy as
+lead; and then the woman slept too. Michael sunk deeper into dreamland.
+His fancy flew through past and future, soared into the region of the
+impossible, and returned to the sleeping woman. He dreamed that he was
+awake, and yet the phantom was beside him.</p>
+
+<p>At last it began to dawn, and the sun shone through the window with more
+wonderful radiance than ever before. "Awake, awake!" whispered Michael
+in his dream. "Go home&mdash;the daylight must not find you here. Leave me
+now!" He struggled with the dream. "But you are not really here&mdash;it is
+only a delusion!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>He forced himself to sever the bonds in which sleep held him, and awoke
+completely. It was really morning, the sunlight streamed through the
+curtains, and on the shelf below the bed lay a sleeping woman with her
+head on her arm.</p>
+
+<p>"No&eacute;mi!" cried Michael. The slumbering form awoke at the call and looked
+up. It was Tim&eacute;a&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want anything?" asked the woman, rising hastily from her couch.
+She had heard the tone but not the name. Her husband was still under the
+influence of his dream. "Tim&eacute;a!" he stammered sleepily, astonished at
+the metamorphosis of No&eacute;mi into Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>"Here I am," said she, laying her hand on the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"How is it possible?" cried he, drawing up the quilt to his chin as if
+afraid of the face leaning over him.</p>
+
+<p>"I was anxious about you, I was afraid you might have some attack in the
+night, and I wanted to be near you." In the tone of her voice, in her
+look, lay such sincere and natural tenderness as could not be assumed: a
+woman's instinct is fidelity.</p>
+
+<p>Michael collected himself. His first feeling was alarm, his second
+self-reproach. This poor woman lying by his bed was the widow of a
+living man. She had never known a joy in common with her husband; now
+when he was in pain, she came to share it with him; and then followed
+the eternal falsehood&mdash;he must not accept this tenderness, he must
+repulse it.</p>
+
+<p>Michael said with forced composure, "Tim&eacute;a, I beg you not to do this
+again; do not come into my room. I have been suffering from an
+infectious illness; I caught the plague on my journey, and I tremble for
+your life if you approach me. Keep far from me, I adjure you; I wish to
+be alone, both by day and night. There is nothing the matter with me
+now, but I feel that I must, for prudence' sake, avoid all those
+belonging to me; so I beg you earnestly not to do this again, never
+again." Tim&eacute;a sighed deeply, cast down her eyes, and left the room. She
+had not even undressed, but had only lain down in her clothes at her
+husband's feet.</p>
+
+<p>When she was gone, Michael got up and dressed; his mind was much
+disturbed. The longer he continued this dual life, the more he felt the
+conflict of the double duties he had taken on himself. He was
+responsible for the fate of two noble, self-sacrificing souls. He had
+made both miserable, and himself more unhappy than either.</p>
+
+<p>What outlet could he find? If only one or other were an every-day
+creature, so that he could hate and despise her or buy her off! But both
+were equally nobly gifted: the fate of both was so heavy a charge
+against the author of it, that no excuse existed. How could he tell
+Tim&eacute;a who No&eacute;mi was, or No&eacute;mi about Tim&eacute;a? Suppose he were to divide all
+his wealth between the two, or if he gave his money to one and his heart
+to the other? But either was alike impossible, for neither was faithless
+or gave him a right to reject them.</p>
+
+<p>Living at home made Michael yet more ill.</p>
+
+<p>He never left his room all day, spoke to no one, and sat till evening in
+one place, without doing anything. At last Tim&eacute;a resorted to a
+physician. The result of the consultation was that Michael<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> was ordered
+to the seaside, that the water might restore to him what the land had
+taken from him. To this advice he replied, "I will not go where there is
+company." Then they suggested that he should choose some place where the
+season was over and the visitors gone; there he would find solitude. The
+cold baths were the important point. He now remembered that in one of
+the valleys near the Platten See he had a summer villa, which he had
+bought years ago when he hired the fishing of the Balaton lake, and he
+had only been there two or three times since. There, said he, would he
+spend the end of the autumn.</p>
+
+<p>The doctors approved his choice. The districts of Zala and Vessprimer on
+the banks of the lake are like the Vale of Tempe. Fourteen miles of
+unbroken garden-land form a charming chain of landscapes, with
+country-seats strewn here and there. The splendid lake is a sea in
+miniature, full of loveliness and romance; here is soft Italian air, the
+people are kind and cordial, the mineral springs curative; nothing could
+be better for a depressed invalid than to spend the autumn here. So the
+doctors sent Michael to the Platten See. But they had forgotten that
+toward the end of the summer hail-storms had laid waste the whole
+district; and nothing is more depressing than a place ruined by hail.
+The vineyards, which usually resound during the vintage with joyous
+cries, now stand deserted: the leaves of the fruit-trees are
+coppery-green or rusty brown; they take their leave until the coming
+spring: all is silent and sad; even the roads are overgrown with moss,
+for no one uses them. In the cornfields, instead of the sheaves of
+grain, ineradicable weeds abound, and instead of the golden heads,
+thistles, burdock, and nightshade are rampant, for no one comes to cut
+them down.</p>
+
+<p>At such a season Michael arrived at his villa on the Balaton. It was an
+ancient pile. Some noble family had built it as a summer residence,
+because the view had pleased them and they had money enough to afford
+themselves this luxury. It had but one low story within massive walls, a
+veranda looking over the lake, and trellises with large fig-trees. The
+heirs of the first owners had got rid of the lonely ch&acirc;teau for a
+nominal price, as it had no value except to a person bitten with the
+misanthropic desire to live there in solitude.</p>
+
+<p>No human dwelling is to be found within two miles of it, and even beyond
+that distance most of the houses are uninhabited. The presses and
+cellars are not open on account of the failure of the vintage. At Fured
+all the blinds are down and the last invalid has left; even the steamers
+no longer ply; the pump-room at the baths stands empty, and on the
+promenade the fallen leaves rustle round the feet of the passer-by&mdash;no
+one thinks it worth while to sweep them away. Not a man nor even a stork
+is left in the place&mdash;only the majestic Balaton murmurs mysteriously as
+it tosses its waves, and no one knows why it is angry. In its midst
+rises a bare rock, on whose top stands a convent with two towers, in
+which live seven monks&mdash;a crypt full of princely bones from top to
+bottom.</p>
+
+<p>And here Timar came to seek for health.</p>
+
+<p>Michael only brought one servant with him, and after a few days sent him
+back under pretense that the people of the house sufficed for his
+service. But there was only one old man, and he quite deaf.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>Round the villa no human voice was heard, not even the sound of a bell,
+only the haunting murmur of the great lake.</p>
+
+<p>Timar sat all day on the shore, and listened to the voices of the water.
+Often, when there was not a breath of air stirring, the lake began to
+roar, then the color of its surface changed to an emerald green as far
+as the eye could see: over the dark mirror of the waves not one sail,
+not a single ship, barge, or boat was visible; it might have been the
+Dead Sea.</p>
+
+<p>This lake possesses the double quality of strengthening the body and
+depressing the mind. The chest expands, the appetite increases, but the
+mind is inclined to a melancholy and sentimental state which carries one
+back to fairyland.</p>
+
+<p>Timar floated for hours on the gently rocking waves; he wandered whole
+days on the shore, and could hardly tear himself away when night fell.
+He sought no distraction from shooting or fishing. Once he took out his
+gun, and forgot it somewhere by the trunk of a tree: another time he
+caught a pike, but let it get away with his fly. He could fix his
+attention on nothing.</p>
+
+<p>He had taken a powerful retracting telescope with him, through which he
+gazed at the starry heavens during the long nights; at the planets with
+their moons and rings, on which in winter white spots are visible, while
+in summer a red light surrounds them; and then at that great enigma of
+the firmament, the moon, which when looked at through the glass appears
+like a shining ball of lava, with its transparent ridges, its deep
+craters, bright plains and dark shadows. It is a world of emptiness.
+Nothing is there except the souls of those who violently separated
+themselves from their body to get rid of its load. There they are at
+peace; they feel nothing, do nothing, know neither sorrow nor joy, gain
+nor loss; there is neither air nor water, winds nor storms, no flowers
+or living creatures, no war, no kisses, no heart-throbs&mdash;neither birth
+nor death; only "nothing," and perhaps memory.</p>
+
+<p>That would be worse than hell, to live in the moon as a disembodied soul
+in the realm of nothingness, and to remember the earth, where are green
+grass and red blood, where the air echoes with the roll of the thunder
+and the kisses of lovers, where life and death exist. And yet something
+whispered to Michael that he must take refuge among the exiles to that
+region of annihilation. There was no other way of escape from his
+miserable existence.</p>
+
+<p>The nights of autumn grew longer and the days shorter, and with the
+waning daylight the water in the lake grew colder and colder. But Timar
+enjoyed bathing in it even more. His frame had regained its former
+elasticity, all traces of his illness had vanished, nerves and muscles
+were as steel; but his mental agony increased.</p>
+
+<p>The nights were always clear and the skies thickly sown with stars:
+Timar sat by his open window and studied the shining points in boundless
+space through his glass, but never until the moon had set. He detested
+the moon, as we grow to hate a place we know too well, and with whose
+inhabitants we have quarreled.</p>
+
+<p>During his observations of the starry heavens he had the exceptional
+good fortune to witness one of those celestial phenomena which are all
+but unique in the annals of astronomy. A comet re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>turning after
+centuries of absence appeared in the sky. Timar said to himself, "This
+is my star; it is as lost as my soul; its coming and going are as
+aimless as mine, and its whole existence as empty and vain a show as is
+my life." Jupiter and his four moons were moving in the same direction
+as the comet; their orbits must cross. When the comet approached the
+great planet, its tail seemed to divide; the attraction of Jupiter began
+to take effect. The great star was trying to rob its lord, the sun, of
+this vaporous body. The next night the comet's tail was split in two.
+Then the largest and most distant of Jupiter's moons drew rapidly near.</p>
+
+<p>"What has become of my star?" asked Timar.</p>
+
+<p>The third night the nucleus of the comet had grown dull and began to
+disperse, and Jupiter's moon was close to it. The fourth night the comet
+had been divided into two parts; there were two heads and two tails, and
+both the starry phantoms began in separate parabolic curves their
+aimless flight through space. So "this" occurs in the heavens as well as
+on earth?</p>
+
+<p>Timar followed this marvelous phenomenon with his telescope till it was
+lost in impenetrable space. This sight made the deepest impression on
+his mind; now he had done with the world. There are hundreds of motives
+for suicide, but the most urgent are to be found among those who give
+themselves up to scientific research.</p>
+
+<p>Keep a watchful eye on those who seek to fathom the secrets of nature
+without a technical education. Hide away the knife and the pistol every
+night, and search their pockets lest they carry poison about them.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, Timar was determined to kill himself. This idea does not come to
+strong characters all at once, but it ripens in them by degrees. They
+grow used to it as the years go by, and carefully provide for its
+execution. The thought had now ripened in Timar, and he went
+systematically to work.</p>
+
+<p>When the severe weather set in, he left the Platten See and returned to
+Komorn. He made his will. His whole property he left to Tim&eacute;a and the
+poor, and with such careful foresight that he provided a separate fund
+out of which Tim&eacute;a, in case she married again, or her heirs if they
+stood in need of it, would receive a pension of a hundred thousand
+gulden.</p>
+
+<p>The following was his plan. As soon as the season permitted he would go
+away, ostensibly to Egypt, but really to the ownerless island. There he
+would die.</p>
+
+<p>If he could induce No&eacute;mi to die with him, then in death they would be
+united. Oh, No&eacute;mi would consent! What would she do in this world without
+Michael? What worth would the world have for such a one as she?</p>
+
+<p>Both there by Dodi's side.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Timar spent the winter partly in Komorn, partly in Raab and Vienna;
+everywhere his life was a burden to him. He thought he read in every
+face, "This man is melancholy mad." He noticed people whispering and
+making signs when he appeared&mdash;women were shy of him, and men tried to
+look unconscious; and he fancied that in his distraction he did and said
+things which gave evi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>dence of his mental disease, and wondered people
+did not laugh. Perhaps they were afraid of laughing.</p>
+
+<p>But they had no reason to fear. He was not lively to throw pepper in the
+eyes of the people near him, though odd fancies did now and then occur
+to him; as, for instance, when Johann Fabula came to make him an oration
+as curator of the church, and stood as stiff before him as if he had
+swallowed the spit, an impulse seized Timar, almost irresistibly, to put
+both hands on the curator's shoulders and turn a somersault over his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>Something lay in Michael's expression which made the blood run cold.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie met this glance; often, as they sat at meals, Timar's eyes were
+fixed on her. She was a wonderfully beautiful woman; Michael's eyes
+rested on her lovely snowy neck, so that she felt uneasy at this silent
+homage to her charms.</p>
+
+<p>Michael was thinking&mdash;"If only I had you in my power for once, you
+lovely white throat, so as to crush the life out of you with my iron
+hand!" This was what he longed for when he admired the splendid
+Bacchante form of Athalie.</p>
+
+<p>Only Tim&eacute;a was not afraid of him&mdash;she had nothing to fear. At last it
+seemed impossible to Timar to wait for the tardy spring. What does he
+want with the springing flowers who will soon be at rest under the turf?</p>
+
+<p>The day before his departure he gave a great banquet, and invited every
+one, including even slight acquaintances. The house was crowded with
+guests. Before sitting down he said to Fabula, "My brother, sit near me,
+and if I get drunk toward morning and lose my senses, see that I am
+carried into my traveling-chaise, and put me on the seat; then harness
+the horses and send me off." He wished to leave his house and home while
+unconscious.</p>
+
+<p>But when the guests toward morning had sunk one here and another there
+under the table, our Herr Johann Fabula was snoring comfortably in his
+arm-chair, and only Timar had kept his head. Mad people are like King
+Mithridates and the poison&mdash;wine does not affect them. So he had to get
+his carriage himself and start on his journey. In his head reality and
+dreams, imagination, memory, and hallucination were in a whirl. It
+seemed to him as if he had stood by the couch of a sleeping saint with a
+marble face, and as if he had kissed the lips of the white statue, and
+it had not awoke under his kiss. Perhaps it was only a vision. Then he
+thought he remembered that behind the door of a dark recess, as he
+passed, a lovely M&aelig;nad's head looked out, framed in rich tresses. She
+had sparkling eyes and red lips, between which shone two rows of pearls,
+as she held the candle and asked the sleep-walker, "Where are you going,
+sir?"</p>
+
+<p>And he had whispered in the witch's ear, "I am going to make Tim&eacute;a
+happy."</p>
+
+<p>Then the ideal face had turned to a Medusa head, and the curls to
+snakes. Perhaps this was hallucination too.</p>
+
+<p>Timar awoke toward noon in his carriage, when the post-horses were
+changed. He was already far from Komorn, and his intention was
+unchanged. Late at night he arrived on the Danube<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> shore, where the
+little boat he had ordered awaited him; he went over in the night to the
+island.</p>
+
+<p>A thought came into his head. "How if No&eacute;mi were dead already?" Why
+should not this be possible? What a burden it would free him from&mdash;that
+of persuading her to the dreadful step. He who has one fixed idea
+expects of fate that everything should happen as he has planned.</p>
+
+<p>Near the white rose-bush no doubt a second already stands, which will
+bloom red in spring&mdash;on No&eacute;mi's grave. Soon there will be a third with
+yellow blossoms, the flower of the man of gold.</p>
+
+<p>Occupied with these thoughts, he landed on the island shore. It was
+still night and the moon shone. The unfinished house stood like a tomb
+on the grass-grown field; the windows and door-ways were hung with
+matting to keep out snow and rain. Michael hastened to the old dwelling.
+Almira met him and licked his hand; she did not bark, but took a corner
+of his cloak in her teeth and drew him to the window. The moon shone
+through the lattice, and Michael looked into the little room, which was
+quite light.</p>
+
+<p>He could clearly perceive that only one bed was in the room, the other
+was gone. On this bed slept Therese; it was as he had thought&mdash;No&eacute;mi was
+already at rest under the rose-bush. It is well.</p>
+
+<p>He knocked at the window. "It is I, Therese." At this the woman came out
+on the veranda. "Are you sleeping alone, Therese?" said Timar.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Has No&eacute;mi gone up to Dodi?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not so. Dodi has come down to No&eacute;mi."</p>
+
+<p>Timar looked inquiringly in her face. Then the woman grasped his hand,
+and led him with a smile to the back of the house, where the window of
+the other little room looked out. This room was light, for a night-lamp
+was burning there. Timar looked in and saw No&eacute;mi on the white bed, with
+her arm round a golden-haired cherub which lay on her breast. "What is
+this?" Timar faltered out.</p>
+
+<p>Therese smiled gently. "Do you not see? Little Dodi longed to come back
+to us; it was better here, he thought, than up in heaven. He said to the
+dear Lord, 'Thou hast angels enough; let me return to those who had only
+me'&mdash;and the Lord allowed it."</p>
+
+<p>"How can it be?"</p>
+
+<p>"H'm! h'm! The old story. A poor woman again who died, and we have
+adopted the poor orphan. You are not angry?" Timar trembled in every
+limb as if with ague. "Pray do not wake the sleepers before morning,"
+said Therese, "It is bad for babies to be waked: children's lives are so
+precarious. You will be patient, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>It never occurred to Timar to protest. He threw off his cap and cloak,
+drew off his coat, and turned up his shirt-sleeves. Therese thought he
+was mad. And why not? He ran out to the walnut-house, tore the mattings
+down, drew out his carpenter's bench, placed the unfinished door-panel
+on it, took his chisel and began to work.</p>
+
+<p>It was just growing light. No&eacute;mi dreamed that some one was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> at work in
+the new house; the plane grated over the hard wood, and the busy workman
+sung&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"For all the gold the world could hold,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I would not give my Dodi's curl."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And when she opened her eyes she still heard the plane and the song.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FOURTH_IV" id="CHAPTER_FOURTH_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THERESE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Timar had succeeded in robbing every one.</p>
+
+<p>From Tim&eacute;a he stole first her father's million, then the manly ideal of
+her heart, and kept for himself her wifely troth. From No&eacute;mi he stole
+her loving heart, her womanly tenderness, her whole being. Therese he
+robbed of her trust, the last belief of her misanthropic mind in the
+possible goodness of a man; then he took the island, in order to restore
+it to her, and so to obtain her gratitude. Theodor Krisstyan he
+defrauded of half a world&mdash;for he exiled him to another hemisphere. From
+Athalie he took father, mother, home, and bridegroom, her whole present
+and future happiness. He robbed his friend Katschuka of the hope of a
+blissful life. The respect shown to him by the world, the tears of the
+poor, the thanks of the orphan, the decorations bestowed by his king,
+were they not all thefts? By deceit he obtained from the smugglers, the
+fidelity with which they guarded his secret&mdash;a thief who steals from
+other thieves! He even robbed the good God of a little angel. His soul
+was not his; he had pledged it to the moon, and had not kept his
+promise: he had not paid what he owed. The poison was ready which was to
+transport him to that distant star of night&mdash;the devils were already
+rejoicing and stretching out their claws to receive the poor soul. He
+took them in too; he did not kill himself, but defrauded even death. He
+laid hands on a paradise in the midst of the world, and took the
+forbidden fruit from the tree while the watching archangel turned his
+back, and in that hidden Eden he defied all human law: the clergy, the
+king, the judge, the general, the tax-collector, the police&mdash;all were
+deceived and defrauded by him.</p>
+
+<p>And everything succeeded with him. How long would he go unpunished?</p>
+
+<p>He could deceive every one but himself. He was always sad, even when he
+outwardly smiled. He knew what he ought to be called, and would gladly
+have shown himself in his true character.</p>
+
+<p>But that was impossible. The boundless, universal respect&mdash;the rapturous
+love&mdash;if only one of these were really due to his true self! Honor,
+humanity, self-sacrifice were the original principles of his character,
+the atmosphere of his being. Unheard-of temptations had drawn him in the
+opposite direction; and now he was a man whom every one loved, honored,
+and respected, and who was only hated and despised by himself. Fate had
+blessed him since his last illness with such iron strength that now
+nothing hurt him, and instead of aging he seemed to renew his youth.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>He was busy all through the summer with manual labor. The little house
+he had erected the year before he now had to finish, and to add the
+carver's and turner's work to it. He borrowed from the Muses their
+creative genius: a great artist was lost in Timar. Every pillar in the
+little house was of a different design: one was formed of two intwining
+snakes, whose heads made the capital; another, of a palm-tree with
+creepers climbing up it; the third showed a vine with squirrels and
+woodpeckers half hidden in its branches; and the fourth a clump of
+bulrushes rising from their leaves. The internal panels of the walls
+were a fanciful mosaic of carving; every table and chair was a work of
+art, and exquisitely inlaid with light-colored woods to make a pleasant
+contrast with the dark walnut. Each door and window betrayed some
+original invention; some disappeared in the wall, some slid up into the
+roof, and all were opened and shut by curious wooden bolts&mdash;for as Timar
+had declared that no nail should be put into the whole house which was
+not made by himself, not a morsel of iron was used in it.</p>
+
+<p>What delight when the house was ready and he conducted his dear ones
+into it, and could say, "See, all this is my handiwork! A king could not
+give his queen such a present."</p>
+
+<p>But it had taken years to complete it, and four winters had Timar spent
+in Komorn and four summers in the island, before Dodi the second had his
+house ready for him.</p>
+
+<p>Then Michael had another task before him; he must teach Dodi to read.
+Dodi was a lively, healthy, good-tempered boy, and Timar said he would
+teach him everything himself&mdash;reading, writing, swimming, also gardening
+and mason's and carpenter's work. He who knows these trades can always
+earn his bread. Timar fancied things would always go on thus, and he
+could live this life to the end of his days. But suddenly fate cried
+"Halt!"</p>
+
+<p>Or rather not fate, but Therese. Eight years had passed since Timar had
+found his way to the little island. Then No&eacute;mi and Tim&eacute;a were both
+children: now No&eacute;mi was twenty-two, Tim&eacute;a twenty-one, Athalie would soon
+be twenty-five; but Therese was over forty-five, Timar himself nearly
+forty, and little Dodi was in his fifth year.</p>
+
+<p>One of them must prepare to go hence, for her time was come, and her cup
+of suffering was full enough for a long life: that one was Therese.</p>
+
+<p>One summer afternoon when her daughter was out with the child, she said
+to Timar, "Michael, I have something to tell you&mdash;this autumn will be my
+last. I know that death is near. For twenty years I have suffered from
+the disease which will kill me; it is heart complaint. Do not look on
+this as a figure of speech; it is a fatal disease, but I have always
+concealed it, and never complained. I have kept it under by patience,
+and you have helped me by the love you showed and the joys you prepared
+for me. If you had not done so, I should long have lain beneath the sod.
+But I can bear it no longer. For a year past sleep has fled from my
+eyes, and I hear my heart beat all day. It throbs quickly three or four
+times, as if frightened, then comes a sort of half-beat; then it stops
+entirely for a few moments, till it begins pulsating again rapidly after
+one or two slow throbs, followed by short beats and long pauses.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> This
+must soon come to an end. I often turn faint, and only keep up by an
+effort of will; this will not last through the summer&mdash;and I am content
+it should be so. No&eacute;mi has now another object for her affection. I will
+not trouble you, Michael, with questions, nor require of you any
+promise; spoken words are vain and empty&mdash;only what we feel is true. You
+feel what you are to No&eacute;mi, and she to you. What is there to disquiet
+me? I can die without even troubling the merciful God with my feeble
+prayers. He has given me all I could have asked of Him. Is it not so,
+Michael?"</p>
+
+<p>Michael's head sunk. This had often of late destroyed his sleep. It had
+not escaped him that Therese's health was failing rapidly, and he had
+thought with trembling that she might be suddenly overtaken by death.
+What would then become of No&eacute;mi? How could he leave the delicate
+creature here alone the whole winter with her little child? Who would
+help and protect her? He had often put the question aside, but now it
+confronted him, and must be considered.</p>
+
+<p>Therese was right. The same afternoon a friendly fruit-woman came to the
+island, and while Therese was counting out her baskets of peaches, she
+suddenly fell down in a swoon. She recovered quickly, and three days
+later the woman came again, Therese was determined to serve her, and
+fainted once more. The fruit-dealer sighed heavily; the next time she
+came No&eacute;mi and Michael would not let her go in to Therese, but served
+her themselves. The woman remarked that the good lady would do well to
+see the priest, as she seemed so seriously ill.</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi did not yet know that her mother was dangerously ill; her frequent
+fainting-fits were put down to the hot weather. Therese said that many
+women suffered in the same way as they grew older. Timar was very
+attentive to her; he would not let her be troubled with household work,
+took care that she should rest, and made the child be quiet if he was
+noisy, but Therese's sleeplessness could not be cured.</p>
+
+<p>One day all four sat together at dinner in the outer room, when Almira's
+barks announced the approach of strangers. Therese looked out, and said
+in great alarm, "Go inside quickly, that no one may see you."</p>
+
+<p>Timar looked out, and he too saw that it would not be advisable for him
+to meet the new-comer, for it was none other than his Reverence Herr
+Sandorovics, the dean who had received the order, who would not fail to
+recognize Herr von Levetinczy, and would have some pleasant things to
+say to him. "Push the table away and leave me alone," said Frau Therese,
+making No&eacute;mi and Dodi rise too. And as if all her strength had returned,
+she helped to carry the table into the next room, so that when his
+reverence knocked at the door she was alone, and had drawn her bedstead
+across the door-way so as to prevent access to the inner apartment.</p>
+
+<p>The dean's beard was longer and grayer since we last saw him; but his
+cheeks were rosy, and his figure that of a Samson. His deacon and
+acolyte, who had come with him, had remained in the veranda, and were
+trying to make friends with the great dog.</p>
+
+<p>The reverend gentleman came in alone, with his hand out as if to give
+any one a chance of kissing it. As Therese showed no in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>clination to
+avail herself of the opportunity, the visitor was at once in a bad
+temper. "Well, don't you know me again, you sinful woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know you well enough, sir, and I know I am a sinner&mdash;what brings
+you here?"</p>
+
+<p>"What brings me, you old gossip? You ask me that, you God-forsaken
+heathen! It is clear you don't know me."</p>
+
+<p>"I told you before that I knew you. You are the priest who would not
+bury my poor husband."</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;because he left the world in an unauthorized way, without
+confession or absolution. Therefore it befell him to be put under ground
+like a dog. If you don't wish to be buried like a dog too, look to it:
+repent and confess while there is yet time. Your last hour may come
+to-day or to-morrow. Pious women brought me the news of your being near
+death, and begged me to come here and give you absolution&mdash;you have to
+thank them for my presence."</p>
+
+<p>"Speak low, sir; my daughter is in the next room, and she would be
+alarmed."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! your daughter? and a man and a child too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"And the man is your daughter's husband?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Who married them?"</p>
+
+<p>"He who married Adam and Eve&mdash;God."</p>
+
+<p>"Foolish woman! That was when there were no priests nor altars. But now
+things are not managed so easily, and there is a law to govern them."</p>
+
+<p>"I know it: the law drove me to this island; but that law has no
+jurisdiction here."</p>
+
+<p>"So you are an absolute heathen?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to live and die in peace."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have permitted your daughter to live in shame?"</p>
+
+<p>"What is shame?"</p>
+
+<p>"Shame? The contempt of all respectable people."</p>
+
+<p>"Does that make me warm or cold?"</p>
+
+<p>"Unfeeling clod! You only care for your bodily weal. You never think of
+the salvation of your soul. I come to show you the way to heaven, and
+you prefer the road to hell! Do you believe in the resurrection, or in
+eternal life?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly&mdash;at any rate, I am not longing for it. I do not want to awake to
+another life; I want to sleep peacefully under the trees. I shall fall
+into dust, and the roots will feed on it, and leaves will grow from it:
+and I want no other life. I shall live in the sap of the green trees I
+planted with my own hands. I do not believe in your cruel God who makes
+His wretched creatures live on to suffer beyond the grave. Mine is a
+merciful God, who gives rest to animals, trees, and men when they are
+dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Could there be a more obstinate sinner! You will go to hell-fire&mdash;to
+the tortures of the damned!"</p>
+
+<p>"Show me where the Bible says that God created hell, and I will believe
+you."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>"Oh, you pagan! You will be denying the existence of the devil next,"
+cried the priest in a rage.</p>
+
+<p>"I do deny that God ever created such a devil as you believe in: you
+invented one for yourselves, and did that badly, for your devil has
+horns and cloven feet, and such creatures as that eat grass and not
+men."</p>
+
+<p>"The earth will open and swallow you up like Dathan and Abiram. Do you
+bring up the little child in this belief?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is taught by the man who has adopted him."</p>
+
+<p>"Who?"</p>
+
+<p>"He whom the child calls father."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Michael."</p>
+
+<p>"What is his surname?"</p>
+
+<p>"I never asked him."</p>
+
+<p>"What! you never asked his name? What do you know of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know he is an honest man, and loves No&eacute;mi."</p>
+
+<p>"But what is he? A gentleman, a peasant, a workman, a sailor, or a
+smuggler?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is a poor man, suited to us."</p>
+
+<p>"And what else? I must know, for it is part of my duty. What faith does
+he confess? Is he Papist, Calvinist, Lutheran, Socinian, or perhaps a
+Jew?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have not troubled myself about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you keep the fasts of the Church?"</p>
+
+<p>"Once for two years I never touched meat&mdash;because I had none."</p>
+
+<p>"Who baptized the child?"</p>
+
+<p>"God&mdash;with a shower of rain, while He sat on high on His rainbow
+throne."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you heathen!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why heathen?" asked Therese, bitterly. "God's hand was heavy on me;
+from the height of bliss I fell into the deepest misery. One day made me
+a widow and a beggar. I did not deny God, nor cast His gift of life
+away. I came to this desert, sought God and found Him here. My God
+requires no sacrifice of song and bell, only a devout heart. I do my
+penance, not by telling my beads, but by work. Men left me nothing in
+the world, and I formed a blooming garden from a desert wilderness. All
+deceived, robbed, and scorned me; the tribunal condemned me, my friends
+defrauded me, the Church despised me, and yet I did not hate my kind. I
+am the refuge of the stranger and the destitute; I feed and heal those
+who come to me for aid, and sleep with open doors winter and summer; I
+fear no one. Oh, sir, I am no heathen!"</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of rubbish you talk, you chattering woman! I never asked you
+all that, but I ask you about the man who lives in this hut, whether he
+is a Christian or a heretic, and why the child is not baptized? It is
+impossible that you should not know his name."</p>
+
+<p>"Be it so; I will not tell a lie. I know his name, but nothing more. His
+life may have secrets in it, as mine had: he may have good reasons for
+hiding himself. But I know him only as a kind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> good man, and harbor no
+suspicions of him. Those were 'friends' who took my all from me,
+noblemen of high station, who left me nothing but my weeping child. I
+brought up the little child, and when she was my only treasure, my life,
+my all, I gave her to a man of whom I knew only that he loved her and
+she loved him. Is not that to have faith in God?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't talk to me of faith. For such a belief as that, witches in the
+good old time were brought to the stake and burned, all over the
+Christian world."</p>
+
+<p>"It is lucky that I possess this island by right of a Turkish firman."</p>
+
+<p>"A Turkish firman!" cried the dean, in astonishment. "And who procured
+it for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"The man whose name you want to know."</p>
+
+<p>"And I will know it on the spot, and in a summary way. I shall call the
+sacristan and the acolyte in, make them push away the bed, and go in at
+that door, which I see has no lock."</p>
+
+<p>Timar heard every word in the next room. The blood rushed to his head at
+the thought that the ecclesiastical dignitary would walk in and exclaim,
+"Aha! it is you, Herr Privy Councilor Michael von Levetinczy!"</p>
+
+<p>The dean opened the outer door, and called in his two sturdy companions.
+Therese, in her extremity, drew the bright Turkish quilt over her up to
+the chin. "Sir," she said in an imploring tone to the dean, "listen to
+just one word which will convince you of the strength of my faith, and
+show you that I am no heathen. Look, this woolen quilt I have over me
+came from Broussa. A traveling peddler gave it to me. See now, so great
+is my trust in God that I cover myself with it every night; and yet it
+is well known that the oriental plague has been raging in Broussa this
+month past. Which of you has faith enough to dare to touch this bed?"</p>
+
+<p>When she looked round, no one was there to answer. At the discovery that
+this quilt came from the plague-infected districts round Broussa, all
+had rushed away, leaving the lonely island and its death-stricken
+inhabitants as a prey to all the devils of hell. The accursed island was
+now the richer by one more evil report, which would keep away people who
+valued their lives.</p>
+
+<p>Therese let out the refugees. Timar kissed her hand and called her
+"Mother!"</p>
+
+<p>"My son!" whispered Therese, and looked steadily into his eyes. With
+that look she said to him, "Remember what you have heard. And now it is
+time to get ready for the journey." Therese spoke of her approaching
+death as of a journey.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning on Timar and No&eacute;mi, she was led out to the green field, and
+chose the place for her grave.</p>
+
+<p>"Here in the middle," she said to Timar, taking his spade from his hand
+and marking out the oblong square. "You made a house for Dodi; make mine
+here. And build no mound over my grave, and plant no cross upon it;
+plant there neither tree nor shrub; cover it all with fresh turf, so
+that it may be like the rest. I wish it; so that no one, when in a
+cheerful mood, may stumble over my grave and be saddened by it."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>One evening she fell asleep, to awake no more. And they buried her as
+she desired. They wrapped her in fine linen, and spread for her a bed of
+aromatic walnut leaves. And then they made the grave look like the rest,
+and covered it with turf, so that it was the same as before. When on the
+next morning Timar and No&eacute;mi, leading little Dodi by the hand, went into
+the field, no sign could be seen on the smooth surface. The autumn
+spiders had covered it with a silvery pall, and on the glistening veil
+the dewdrops sparkled in the sun like myriads of diamonds.</p>
+
+<p>But yet they found the spot in this silver-broidered green plain. Almira
+went in front; at one place she lay down and put her head on the ground:
+that was the spot.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2 class="newbook"><a name="BOOK_FIFTH_ATHALIE" id="BOOK_FIFTH_ATHALIE"></a><i>BOOK FIFTH.&mdash;ATHALIE.</i></h2>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="firstchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_I" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE BROKEN SWORD.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Timar remained on the island till frost covered the green grass&mdash;till
+the leaves fell, and the nightingales and thrushes were silent. Then he
+made up his mind to return to the world, the world of reality; and he
+left No&eacute;mi behind, alone with her little child on the ownerless island.
+"But I shall come back this winter"&mdash;and with those words he left her.</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi did not know what those words betokened at Michael's home. Round
+the island the Danube was never entirely frozen in the severest winter;
+the glass never fell much below freezing-point; ivy and laurels could
+stand the cold with ease. But Michael had severe weather for his
+journey. On the upper Danube snow had already fallen, and he took a
+whole week to reach Komorn. He had to wait a whole day before he could
+cross the river&mdash;there was so much ice that it was unsafe to launch a
+boat. Once he had ventured alone in a small boat across the river in
+flood; but then No&eacute;mi was waiting for him. Now he was going to Tim&eacute;a&mdash;to
+get a divorce from her.</p>
+
+<p>His decision was taken&mdash;they must have a divorce. No&eacute;mi could not live
+alone on that desert island. The woman must have justice in return for
+her fidelity and love: accursed would he be who could find it in his
+heart to abandon her who had given herself to him body and soul. And
+then, too, Tim&eacute;a would be happy.</p>
+
+<p>That thought gnawed him&mdash;that Tim&eacute;a would be happy. If only he could
+hate her, if he had a single accusation to bring against her, so as to
+put her away as one he could despise and forget!</p>
+
+<p>He had to leave his carriage at Uj-Sz&ouml;ny, for wheels could not yet pass
+the ice, so he arrived on foot at home. When he went in, it seemed to
+him as if Tim&eacute;a were afraid of him; as if the hand she gave him
+trembled, and her voice too, when she greeted him. This time she did not
+offer him her white cheek to be kissed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>Timar hastened to his room, on pretense of laying aside his wraps. If
+only there was some reason for this embarrassment! And another sign had
+not escaped him&mdash;Athalie's expression. In her eyes shone the fire of a
+diabolical triumph, the light of a malicious joy. How if Athalie knew
+something?</p>
+
+<p>At table he met the two women again. They all three sat silently
+together, watching each other. Tim&eacute;a only said to Michael, "This time
+you have stayed away very long."</p>
+
+<p>Timar would not say, "I shall soon leave you altogether," but he thought
+it. He had to consult his lawyer first as to a possible ground for a
+separation. It was impossible to think of one. Only "unconquerable
+mutual aversion" could be put forward.</p>
+
+<p>But would the wife consent? All depended on her. Timar pondered this
+question all the afternoon, and told the servants not to tell any one of
+his return, as he could not see visitors.</p>
+
+<p>Toward evening some one opened the door. Athalie stood before him, with
+the same spiteful satisfaction shining from her eyes, the same
+triumphant smile playing round her lips. Michael drew back before her
+repellent glance.</p>
+
+<p>"What brings you here, Athalie?" he asked, with confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Herr von Levetinczy, what do you think? Do you not want to know
+anything from me?"</p>
+
+<p>"What?" he whispered eagerly, shutting the door, and staring at Athalie
+with wide-opened eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want to know?" said the beautiful woman, still smiling.
+"Indeed that is hard to guess. I have been in your house these six
+years; every year I have seen you return home, and every year with a
+different expression on your face. At first tormenting jealousy, then
+easy good-humor, afterward assumed tranquillity, and absorption in
+business. I studied all these phases. Last year I thought the tragedy
+was over&mdash;you looked like a man who is ready for the grave. But you may
+be sure that on all this round world there is no one who prays for your
+life as I do."</p>
+
+<p>Michael frowned, and possibly Athalie understood him.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir," she repeated, passionately; "for if there is anyone in the
+world who loves you, they can not possibly wish that you may live long
+as heartily as I do. Now I see the same look on your face as last
+year&mdash;that is the true one: you would like to hear about Tim&eacute;a?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know anything?" asked Timar, eagerly, putting his back against
+the door as if to keep Athalie a prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed scornfully; not she but Michael was the prisoner.</p>
+
+<p>"I know much&mdash;all," she replied; "enough to bring us all to perdition.
+Myself and the other, and you too."</p>
+
+<p>Michael's blood froze in his veins. "Tell me all."</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I came for. But listen quietly to the end, that I may tell
+you things which lead to madness, if not death."</p>
+
+<p>"One word first, is Tim&eacute;a unfaithful?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is, and you will be absolutely convinced of it."</p>
+
+<p>In Timar's heart a nobler feeling arose to protest against this
+suspicion. "Take care what you say!"</p>
+
+<p>"Your saintly picture, then, came down out of its altar-frame to listen
+to a report which said that the noble major had fought on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> her account
+with some strange officer, and wounded him so badly that his own sword
+broke in two over the head of his adversary. The picture heard this
+rumor. Frau Sophie told her, and the eyes of the saintly image shed
+tears. Perhaps you are a heretic, and do not believe in miraculous
+tears. But it is true; and Frau Sophie told the noble major next day.
+Frau Sophie loves to be a go-between; she loves flattery and intrigue.
+The reported tears had the result that Frau Sophie brought back a box
+and a letter from the major. In the box were the half-broken blade and
+the handle of the sword with which the major had fought. It was a
+souvenir."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there is nothing wrong in that," said Michael, with affected
+calm.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes, but the letter!"</p>
+
+<p>"Did you read it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; but I know what it contained."</p>
+
+<p>"How can you know that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because the saint replied, and Frau Sophie was the messenger."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," said Timar.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for the story is not nearly finished. The letter was not a scented
+pink note; it was written on your own desk, sealed with your own seal,
+and its contents might have been to repulse the major's advances forever
+and ever. But that was not what it said."</p>
+
+<p>"Who knows?"</p>
+
+<p>"Frau Sophie and I, and you will be a third directly. How unexpectedly
+you returned to-day!&mdash;how can people come at such an inconvenient time?
+The Danube is full of ice, the ice-flakes lie in heaps, and no living
+creature can cross. One would think that on such a day the town would be
+so safely shut off that even a jealous husband, if he were outside,
+could not get in. How could you come to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not torture me, Athalie."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not notice the confusion on your picture's face when surprised
+by your arrival? Did not her hand tremble in yours? You managed your
+arrival so badly; Frau Sophie had to go out again to the smart major
+with the short message&mdash;'It can not be to-day.'"</p>
+
+<p>Timar's face was disfigured with rage. Then he sunk back in his chair
+and said, "I don't believe you."</p>
+
+<p>"You need not do so," said Athalie, with a shrug. "I will only advise
+you to trust your own eyes. It can not be to-day, because you have come
+home; but it might be to-morrow. Suppose you went away? You often go in
+winter to the Platten See, when it is frozen and they begin to fish
+under the ice. It is capital sport. You might say to-morrow, 'While this
+cold lasts, I will be off to Fured to see how the <i>fogasch</i> get on,' and
+then you might shut yourself up in your other house here, and wait till
+some one taps at your window and says 'Now.' Then you would come back
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"And I should do that?" exclaimed Timar, shuddering.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie looked him up and down contemptuously. "You are a coward!" and
+with that she turned to go.</p>
+
+<p>But Michael sprung after her and seized her by the arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop! I will take your advice and do what you tell me."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>"Then listen to me," said Athalie, and pressed so close to his face that
+he felt her burning breath.</p>
+
+<p>"When Herr Brazovics built this house, the room in which Tim&eacute;a sleeps
+was the parlor. Who were his usual guests? Business people, boon
+companions, merchants, dealers. This room has a hiding-place in the wall
+above the staircase, where the steps turn, and the inner side makes an
+angle. Into this hole in the wall it is possible to gain access from
+outside. There is a closet where old rubbish is kept, which is seldom
+opened. But even if it stood open it would hardly occur to any one to
+try the screws of the ventilator one after another. The center screw on
+the right-hand side is movable. But even if any one drew it out it would
+tell nothing&mdash;it is only a simple peg. But whoever is in possession of a
+peculiar key, which can be inserted in place of the peg, only requires
+to press the top of the key, from which wards instantly appear, and by a
+single turn of the key the cupboard is noiselessly pushed aside. From
+thence one can enter the hiding-place, which receives light and air from
+a slit in the roof. This hollow in the wall goes as far as Tim&eacute;a's
+bedroom, where in former times Herr Brazovics' guests used to pass the
+night. The concealed passage ends in a glass door which is hidden from
+the room by a picture. This picture is a mother-of-pearl mosaic
+representing St. George and the dragon, and appears to be a votive image
+built into the wall. It has often been proposed to take the picture
+away, but Tim&eacute;a never would allow it. One of the pieces of mosaic can be
+slipped aside, and through the blank space everything that passes in the
+room can be seen and heard."</p>
+
+<p>"What did your father want with such a hiding-place?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it had to do with his business. He had many affairs with
+contractors and officials. There was good living to be had at his house,
+and when he had got his visitors into a good temper, he left them to
+themselves, slipped into the secret room and listened from thence to
+their conversation. In this way he obtained much important business
+information, from which he derived considerable advantage. Once when he
+had himself taken rather too much at table, he sent me to listen in the
+passage, and in this way I learned the secret. The key is in my
+possession. When all Herr Brazovics' property was seized by judicial
+decree, I could, if I had chosen, have conveyed all his valuables out of
+the house by this means. But I was too proud to steal."</p>
+
+<p>"And can you get into the bedroom from this hiding-place?"</p>
+
+<p>"The picture of St. George is on hinges, and can be opened like a door."</p>
+
+<p>"So that you can at any time enter Tim&eacute;a's room from that passage?"
+asked Michael, with an uncontrollable shudder.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie smiled proudly. "I never needed to creep in to her by secret
+routes. Tim&eacute;a sleeps with open doors, and you know that I can always
+pass freely through her room. She sleeps so soundly too."</p>
+
+<p>"Give me the key."</p>
+
+<p>Athalie took the puzzle key from her pocket. The lower end was shaped
+like a screw, only on pressing the handle a key appeared. She showed
+Timar how to manage it. A voice in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> heart&mdash;perhaps that of his
+guardian angel&mdash;whispered to Timar to throw this key into the deep well
+in the yard. But he took no heed of the voice; he only listened to
+Athalie's whisper in his ear.</p>
+
+<p>"If you leave home to-morrow and come back at the signal, go straight to
+the hiding-place, and you will learn all you want to know. Will you
+come?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be there."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you generally carry arms?&mdash;a pistol or a dagger?&mdash;one can never tell
+what may happen. The picture of St. George opens to the right when you
+press on a button-shaped handle, and when open it just covers Tim&eacute;a's
+bed. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>She pressed Michael's hand violently, looking with flaming eyes of rage
+into his, and added something, but not audibly. Only her lips moved, her
+teeth chattered, and her eyes rolled&mdash;they were soundless words. What
+could she have said? Timar stared in a dazed way like a sleep-walker,
+then suddenly raised his head to ask Athalie something. He was
+alone&mdash;only the key grasped in his hand showed that it was no dream.</p>
+
+<p>Never had Timar suffered such torture as in the long hours till the
+evening of the next day. He followed Athalie's advice, and remained at
+home till noon. After dinner he said he must go to the Platten See and
+look after the fishery he had hired.</p>
+
+<p>As he had crossed the ice-floes of the Danube on foot to get to Komorn,
+he could easily go over again without luggage in the same way. His
+carriage too was waiting on that side, for it had not yet been able to
+get across: a road would have to be prepared. Without any interview with
+his agents, without a glance at his books, he thrust a pile of
+bank-notes, uncounted, into his pocket, and left the house. At the
+threshold he met the postman, who brought a registered letter, and
+demanded a receipt. Michael was in too great haste to go back to his
+room; he carried pen and ink with him, and laying the receipt on the
+broad back of the postman, he signed his name to it. Then he looked at
+the letter. It was from his agent at Rio Janeiro; but without opening
+it, he put it in his pocket. What did he care for all the flour trade in
+the world? He kept one room in his house in the Servian Street always
+heated in winter. This room was entered by a separate staircase, which
+was kept locked, and was divided by several empty rooms from the
+offices. Timar reached it unobserved; there he sat down by the window
+and waited.</p>
+
+<p>The cold north wind outside drew lovely ice-flowers on the window-panes,
+so that no one could see in or out.</p>
+
+<p>Now he would get what he wanted&mdash;the proof of Tim&eacute;a's infidelity. And
+yet&mdash;yet, the thought hurt him so deeply! While his fancy pictured this
+first private rendezvous between that woman and that man, every drop of
+blood seemed to rush to the surface and darken the light of his mind.</p>
+
+<p>Shame, jealousy, thirst for vengeance consumed him.</p>
+
+<p>It is hard to endure humiliation, even if some advantage is to be
+derived from it. He now began to feel what a treasure he possessed in
+Tim&eacute;a. He had been ready enough to abandon this treasure, or even
+voluntarily to give it back, but to allow himself to be robbed of
+it!&mdash;the thought enraged him. He struggled with himself as to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> what he
+should do. If Athalie's instilled poison had reached his heart, he would
+have kept to the idea of a murderous rush with a dagger in his hand from
+behind the picture, so as to kill the faithless wife amidst the hottest
+caresses of her lover. Athalie panted for Tim&eacute;a's blood; but a husband's
+revenge seeks a different object&mdash;he must have the man's life. Not like
+an assassin, but face to face&mdash;each with a sword in his hand, and then a
+struggle for life or death. Then, again, cold-blooded calculating reason
+comes uppermost, and says, "Why shed blood? you want scandal, not
+revenge; you should rush from your hiding-place, call in the servants,
+and drive the guilty woman and her seducer from your house. So a
+reasonable being would act. You are no soldier to seek satisfaction at
+the point of the sword. Here is the judge, and here the law."</p>
+
+<p>But still he could not forbear from keeping stiletto and pistol ready on
+the table as Athalie had advised. Who knows what may happen? The moment
+will decide which gets the upper hand&mdash;whether the vengeful assassin,
+the dishonored husband, or the prudent man of business who would reckon
+an open scandal to his credit side, as facilitating the desired divorce.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile evening had come. One lamp after another was lighted: Herr von
+Levetinczy paid for the lighting of this street out of his own pocket.
+The shadows of the passers-by flitted across the frozen panes.</p>
+
+<p>One such figure stopped before the window, and a low knock was heard. It
+seemed to Timar as if the ice-flowers detached from the glass by the tap
+were the rustling leaves of a fairy forest, which whispered to him, "Do
+not go." He hesitated. The tap was repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"I am coming!" he called in a low voice, took pistol and dagger, and
+crept out of the house.</p>
+
+<p>The whole way he never met a human creature; the streets were already
+deserted. He only saw a dark shadow flitting on before him, vanishing in
+the darkness now and then, and at last slipping round the corner. He
+followed, and found all the doors open; some helping hand had opened the
+wicket, the house-door, and even the closet in the wall. He could enter
+without any noise; at the point described he found the movable screw,
+and put the key in its place; the secret door flew open, and shut behind
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Timar found himself in the concealed passage&mdash;a spy in his own house.</p>
+
+<p>Yes! A spy too! What meanness was there he had not committed? and all
+this "because a poor fellow remains always only a clerk, and it is the
+rich for whom life is worth living." Now he has riches and splendor.</p>
+
+<p>Stumbling and feeling about, he groped along the wall, till he came to a
+part where a feeble light was perceptible. There was the picture of St.
+George: the light of the lamp shone through the crevices of the mosaic.
+He found the movable piece of mother-of-pearl, in whose place was a
+thick sheet of glass. He looked into the room; on the table stood a lamp
+with a ground glass shade. Tim&eacute;a walked up and down.</p>
+
+<p>An embroidered white dress floated from her waist; her folded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> hands
+hung down. The door of the antechamber opened, and Frau Sophie came in;
+she said something low to Tim&eacute;a, but Timar could hear every whisper.
+This hole in the wall was like the ear of Dionysius, it caught every
+sound. "Can he come?" asked Frau Sophie.</p>
+
+<p>"I am waiting for him," said Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>Then Frau Sophie went out again. Tim&eacute;a drew from her wardrobe a drawer,
+and took out a box; she carried it to the table and stood opposite
+Timar, so that the lamp threw its whole light on her face; the listener
+could detect the slightest change of expression. Tim&eacute;a opened the box.
+In it lay a sword-hilt and a broken blade. At first glance the woman
+started, and her contracted brows betokened horror. Then her face
+cleared, and took once more, with its meeting eyebrows, the look of a
+saint's picture, with a black halo round its brow. Tenderness dawned in
+her melancholy features; she lifted the box and held the sword so near
+her lips that Timar began to tremble lest she should kiss it. Even the
+sword was his rival.</p>
+
+<p>The longer Tim&eacute;a looked at it, the brighter grew her eyes. At last she
+plucked up courage to grasp the hilt; she took it out and made passes in
+the air with it. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. If she had known that there was some one near her
+to whom every stroke was torture&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>There was a tap at the door. Tim&eacute;a put down the broken sword hastily,
+and stammered out a faint "Come in!" But first she pulled down the lace
+of her sleeves, which had fallen back from her wrist. The major entered.
+He was a fine man, with a handsome, soldierly face. Tim&eacute;a did not go to
+meet him, but stood by the lamp; Timar's eyes never left her.
+Damnation!&mdash;what did he see? As the major entered Tim&eacute;a blushed. Yes,
+the marble statue could glow with sunrise tints, the saint's image could
+move, and the virginal snow-white adorned itself with roses. The white
+face had found some one who could set it on fire. Was further proof,
+were words wanting?</p>
+
+<p>Timar was near bursting from the picture, and, like the dragon before
+St. George killed it, would have thrown himself between the two before
+Tim&eacute;a's lips could speak what her face betrayed.</p>
+
+<p>But no. Perhaps he had only dreamed it&mdash;Tim&eacute;a's face was colorless as
+ever. With calm dignity she signed to the major to take a chair; she sat
+down on a distant sofa, and her look was severe and cold. The major held
+his shako in one hand, and in the other his sword with its golden knot,
+and sat as stiff as if he had been in his general's presence. They
+looked at each other in silence&mdash;both struggling with painful thoughts.
+Tim&eacute;a broke the silence. "Sir, you sent me a curious letter in company
+with a yet more singular present. It was a broken sword." She opened the
+box and took out a letter. "Your letter runs thus: 'Gracious lady, I
+have fought a duel to-day, and my adversary owes it only to the chance
+that my sword broke that he was not killed on the spot. This duel is
+intimately connected with most extraordinary circumstances, which
+concern you, and still more <i>your husband</i>. Allow me a few minutes'
+interview, that I may tell you what you ought to know.' In this letter
+the words 'your husband' are twice underlined, and this it was which
+decided me to give you the opportunity of speaking to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> me. Speak! In
+what does your duel concern the private affairs of Herr von Levetinczy?
+I will listen to you as long as what you have to say treats of him: if
+you enter on any other subject I will leave you."</p>
+
+<p>The major bowed with grateful fervor. "I will begin then, madame, by
+telling you that an unknown man has been about in the town, who wears
+the uniform of a naval officer, and therefore has an <i>entr&eacute;e</i> to
+military society. He seems to be a man of the world, and is an
+entertaining companion. Who he may be I know not, for it is not my way
+to be inquisitive. This man has spent some weeks among us, and seems to
+have plenty of money. He gave as a reason for being here that he was
+waiting for Herr von Levetinczy, with whom he had important private
+affairs to settle. At last he began to annoy us, and looked so
+mysterious as he asked every day about Herr von Levetinczy, that we
+fancied he must be an adventurer, and one day we drove him into a
+corner. We wished to know what manner of man he was, and I undertook the
+inquiry. When we asked why he did not go to your husband's agents, he
+said his business was of a very private and delicate nature, which could
+only be personally discussed. 'Listen,' I said. 'I do not believe that
+you have any delicate business with Herr von Levetinczy; who you are we
+do not know, but we do know that he is a man of honor and character,
+whose position and reputation are above suspicion. He is a man whose
+private life is blameless, and who can therefore have no reason for
+private interviews with people of your sort.'"</p>
+
+<p>While the major spoke, Tim&eacute;a had risen slowly; she now stepped up to him
+and said, "I thank you."</p>
+
+<p>And again Timar saw on her white cheek that soft rosy glow, never seen
+by him before, but which now rested there. The woman had flushed at the
+thought that the man she loved could defend him who, as her husband,
+stood between their two hearts.</p>
+
+<p>The major continued his narrative, and in order not to confuse Tim&eacute;a by
+looking at her, sought some other object in the room on which to fix his
+eye. He chose the dragon's head in the picture of St. George. But that
+was the exact spot through which Timar looked into the room, so that it
+seemed to him as if the major directed his words purposely to him,
+although it was much too dark where Timar stood for any one to see him.</p>
+
+<p>"On this the man's face changed suddenly; he leaped up like a sleeping
+dog when one treads on his tail. 'What!' he cried, so that every one
+could hear. 'You think Levetinczy is a rich man with a great name&mdash;a
+clever man, a happy family man, a faithful subject? I will prove to you
+that this man, if I can once meet him, will take flight from here next
+day&mdash;that he will leave his lovely wife and his house in the lurch, and
+fly from Hungary, from Europe, so that you will never hear of him
+again.'"</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a's hand strayed involuntarily to the hilt of the broken sword.</p>
+
+<p>"Instead of answering the man, I struck him in the face."</p>
+
+<p>Timar drew back his head from the peep-hole, as if the blow might reach
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw at once that the man regretted what he had said. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> would gladly
+have escaped the consequences of the blow, but I would not let him off.
+I stood in his way and said, 'You are an officer and carry a sword&mdash;you
+know to what such an affair leads among men of honor. There is a
+ball-room upstairs at the hotel; we will have the candles lighted; then
+you shall choose two of us as seconds, I also will choose two, and we
+will fight it out.' We did not leave him time for reflection. The man
+fought like a pirate: twice he tried to seize my sword with his left
+hand; then I got angry and gave him such a cut over the head that he
+fell. Luckily for him, it was with the flat of the blade, which was the
+reason of my sword breaking. The next day the man, so our surgeon told
+me, had left the town&mdash;his wound can not have been a dangerous one."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a took out the Turkish sword and looked at the hilt; then she laid
+it on the table and stretched out her hand in silence to the major. He
+took it gently in both his own, and carried it to his lips; it could
+hardly be seen whether he kissed it. Tim&eacute;a did not draw it away.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you!" whispered the major, so low that Timar could not hear it
+in his hiding-place, but the eyes said it too. A long pause followed.
+Tim&eacute;a sat down again on the sofa and supported her head on her hand.</p>
+
+<p>The major spoke at last. "I did not request an interview, gracious lady,
+to boast of a deed which in itself must be painful to you, and was
+really only the duty of a friend, nor to receive the thanks you so
+kindly offered me by a grasp of the hand. That was a more than
+sufficient reward. But not on that account did I request you to meet me,
+but to ask a very important question. Gracious lady, is it possible that
+there should be any truth in what this man said?"</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a started as if struck by lightning. And the bolt struck Timar too;
+every nerve thrilled at the question.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you thinking of?" cried Tim&eacute;a, passionately.</p>
+
+<p>"At last it is out," said the major, rising from his chair. "And now I
+will not go without an answer. I say openly, is it possible that there
+is truth in this accusation? I have not repeated all that this man said
+about Levetinczy: he accused him of everything that can be said against
+a man. Is it conceivable that Timar's life could take such a frightful
+course as that which the last owner of this unlucky house only escaped
+by death? For if that is possible, then no respect could restrain me
+from beseeching you in God's name, dear lady, to delay not a moment in
+fleeing from this doomed house. I can not leave you to ruin&mdash;I can not
+look on while another drags you into the abyss."</p>
+
+<p>The glowing words found a response in Tim&eacute;a's bosom. Timar watched in
+trembling excitement his wife's mental conflict. Tim&eacute;a remained
+victorious; she collected all her energy, and answered quietly, "Do not
+be alarmed, sir. I can assure you that that man, whoever he was, and
+wherever he came from, told a lie, and his accusations are groundless. I
+know intimately the position of Herr von Levetinczy; for during his
+absence I managed his affairs, and am thoroughly acquainted with every
+detail. His finances are in order, and even if all he has now at stake
+were lost by some un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>lucky chance, no pillar of his house would be
+shaken. I can also tell you with a clear conscience that of all his
+property there is not a thaler dishonestly come by. Levetinczy is a rich
+man, who need not blush for his wealth."</p>
+
+<p>Why did Timar's cheeks burn so there in the darkness?</p>
+
+<p>The major sighed. "You have convinced me, gracious lady; I never
+believed anything against his financial reputation. But this man had
+much to say about your husband in his character as head of a family.
+Allow me to ask you one thing: Are you happy?"</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a looked at him with inexpressible pathos, and in her eyes lay the
+words, "You see me, and yet you ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"Riches and luxury surround you," continued the major, boldly; "but if
+that is true&mdash;which on my honor I never asked, and which, when told me,
+I answered with the lie direct, and a blow in the face&mdash;if it is true
+that you suffer and are unhappy, I should not be a man if I had not the
+courage to say to you, gracious lady, there is another who suffers like
+you. Throw far from you these unlucky riches; make an end of this
+suffering of two people, who in the next world can accuse a third person
+in the sight of God of being the cause of it: consent to a divorce!"</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a pressed both hands to her breast, and looked up like a martyr on
+her road to the stake: all her anguish was aroused at this moment.</p>
+
+<p>When Timar saw her so, he struck his forehead with his fist, and turned
+his face from the Judas-hole through which he had been looking. For the
+next few moments he saw and heard no more. When torturing curiosity drew
+him again to the spot of light, and he cast a look into the room, he no
+longer saw a martyr before him. Tim&eacute;a's face was calm.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," she said gently to the major, "that I should have heard you to
+the end is a proof of my respect. Leave me this feeling, and never again
+ask me what you did to-day. I call the whole world to witness whether I
+have ever complained by word or tear. Of whom should I complain? Of my
+husband, who is the noblest and best man in the world? Of him who saved
+the strange child's life? who thrice defied death in the waters' depths
+for my sake? When I was a despised and derided creature he protected me;
+for my sake he visited the house of his deadly enemy, that he might
+watch over me. When I had become a homeless beggar he gave me&mdash;a
+servant&mdash;his hand, his riches, and made me mistress of his house. And
+when he offered me his hand he meant it; he was not deceiving me." As
+she spoke, Tim&eacute;a went to a closet and opened the doors. "Look here,
+sir," she said, as she spread out before the major the train of a dress
+hanging within. "Do you recognize this dress? It is the one I worked.
+You saw it for weeks while I worked at it. Every stitch is a buried
+dream, a sad memory to me. They told me it was to be my wedding-gown;
+and when it was finished, they said, 'Take it off: it is for another
+bride.' Ah! sir, that was a mortal stab to my heart: I have been sore
+from that incurable wound all these years. And now should I separate
+myself from the good man who never courted me, as a child, with
+flatteries, to turn my head, but remained respectfully in the distance,
+and waited till others had trodden me under foot to raise me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> to
+himself, and has never ceased, with superhuman, angelic patience, his
+endeavors to cure my wound and to share my sorrow with me? I should
+separate from the man who has no one but me to love him, to whom I am a
+whole world, the only being that ties him to life, or at whose coming
+his gloomy face is cheered? I should leave a man whom every one honors
+and loves? Tell him that I hate him&mdash;I, who owe everything to him, and
+who brought him no dowry but a sick and loveless heart?"</p>
+
+<p>The major hid his face at these words of the passionate and excited
+woman. And that other man behind the picture of St. George&mdash;must he not
+feel like the dragon when the knight thrust his spear into him?</p>
+
+<p>"But, sir," continued Tim&eacute;a, whose lovely face was illumined by the
+irresistible charm of womanly dignity, "even if Timar were the exact
+opposite of all that he is known to be&mdash;if he were a ruined man, a
+beggar&mdash;I would not leave him&mdash;then least of all. If disgrace covered
+his name, I would not discard that name; I would share his shame, as I
+have shared his success. If the whole world despised him, I should still
+owe him eternal gratitude; if he were exiled, I would follow him into
+banishment, and live with him in the woods if he were a robber. If he
+wished to take his life, I would die with him&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>(What is that? Is it the dragon that weeps there in the picture?)</p>
+
+<p>"And, sir, if even the bitterest, cruelest insult of all to a woman were
+inflicted on me&mdash;if I learned that my husband was unfaithful, to
+me&mdash;that he loved another&mdash;I would say, 'God bless her who gave him the
+happiness of which I have robbed him;' and I would not even then divorce
+him&mdash;I would not do it if he wished it. I will never separate from him,
+for I know what is due to my oath and the salvation of my soul!"</p>
+
+<p>And the major too sobbed&mdash;he too.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a stopped to recover her composure. Then in a soft and gentle voice
+she continued: "And now leave me forever. The stab you gave my heart
+years ago is healed by this sword-stroke: I keep this broken blade as a
+remembrance. As often as my eye falls on it, I will think that you are a
+brave soul, and it will be balm to me. And because for years you have
+never spoken to me nor approached me, I will forgive your having come
+and spoken to me now." .&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>When Timar burst through the closet out of the hiding-place, a dark
+figure stood in his way. Was it a shadow, a phantom, or a spirit? It was
+Athalie. Timar pushed, the dark figure away, and while he pressed her
+with one hand against the wall, he whispered in her ear, "I curse you!
+and accursed be this house and the ashes of him who built it!"</p>
+
+<p>Then he rushed like a madman down the stairs.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_II" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE FIRST LOSS.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Escape! But where? That is the question.</p>
+
+<p>The church clocks in the town struck ten: the barriers were down by now
+across the wooden bridge over the narrow part of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> the river to the
+island, from which the ice formed the only road across the rest of the
+Danube. It was impossible to get past without alarming the sentries, who
+had orders from the commandant of the garrison to let no one go on the
+ice between eight in the evening and seven in the morning&mdash;not even the
+pope himself. It is true that a couple of bank-notes of Herr
+Levetinczy's might compass what a papal bull could not procure, but then
+it would be reported next day all over the town that the "man of gold"
+had fled in haste and alone, at dead of night, across the dangerous ice.
+That would be a good sequel to the gossip which had arisen from the
+duel. It would at once be said, "There, you see he is already thinking
+of escaping to America," and Tim&eacute;a would hear it too.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a! oh, how hard it is to evade that name; it follows him everywhere.
+He can do nothing but return home and wait for daylight. As cautiously
+as a thief he opened his door. At this hour all the other inhabitants
+were asleep.</p>
+
+<p>When he got to his room, he lighted no lamp, and threw himself on the
+sofa. But the phantoms which pursued him found him quite as easily in
+the dark.</p>
+
+<p>How that marble face blushed!</p>
+
+<p>So there is life there under the ice, only the sun is wanting. Marriage
+is for her eternal winter&mdash;a polar winter. The wife is faithful; and the
+rival is a true friend. He breaks his sword over the skull of him who
+dared to slander the husband of the beloved woman. And Tim&eacute;a loves the
+man, and is as unhappy as he. The misery of both comes from Timar's
+imputation as an honest man; those who love him idealize him; no one
+ventures to think of deceiving or robbing or disgracing him&mdash;of breaking
+a splinter from the diamond of his honor: they guard it like a jewel.</p>
+
+<p>Why do they all respect him? Because no one knows him.</p>
+
+<p>If Tim&eacute;a knew, if she discovered what he really was, would she still
+say, "I would share the shame of his name, as I have shared its glory!"
+Yes; she would still say so. Tim&eacute;a will never leave him: she would say,
+"You have made me unhappy; now suffer with me." It is an angel's
+cruelty, and that is Tim&eacute;a's nature.</p>
+
+<p>But how about No&eacute;mi? What is she doing on the lonely island which she
+can never leave, thanks to Tim&eacute;a's high principle? Alone during the
+gloomy monotony of winter, with a helpless child at her knee! What is
+she thinking of? No one can take her a word of consolation. She may be
+trembling in that desert for fear of bad men, ghosts, wild beasts! How
+her heart must sink when she thinks of her absent darling, and wonders
+where he may be! If she knew! If both those women knew what a thorough
+scoundrel was the man who had caused them so much sorrow&mdash;if any one was
+found to tell them!</p>
+
+<p>Who can the stranger be who has already said enough to deserve a blow in
+the face, and a cut of the major's sword? A naval officer. Who can this
+enemy be? It is impossible to discover; he has disappeared with his
+wound from the town. Something told Timar it would be wise to fly from
+this man. Fly! his whole mind was set upon it&mdash;there was nothing he
+dreaded so much as being obliged to remain in one spot. As soon as he
+left the ownerless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> island, no place was a home to him. When he stopped
+for dinner on a journey, he could not wait till the horses were fed, but
+walked on ahead. Something always drove him onward.</p>
+
+<p>And sleep had fled from his eyes. The clock struck twelve; seven more
+long hours till morning! He determined at last to kindle a light. For
+mental anxiety there is a remedy more effectual than opium or
+digitalis&mdash;prosaic work. Whoever has plenty to do, finds no time to
+dwell on love troubles. Merchants seldom commit suicide for love. Cares
+of business are a wholesome counter-irritant to draw the blood from the
+nobler parts.</p>
+
+<p>Michael opened and read his letters in turn: all contained good news. He
+remembered Polycrates, with whom everything succeeded, and who began at
+last to be afraid of his luck.</p>
+
+<p>And what was the foundation of this monstrous success? A secret unknown
+to all but himself. Who had seen Ali Tschorbadschi's treasure spread out
+in the cabin? Only himself&mdash;and the moon. But that is an accomplice, and
+has seen other things too. It is the "Hypomochlion" of creation, to
+prevent crimes from coming to light. Michael was too deeply sensitive by
+nature not to feel that such overwhelming good fortune, springing from
+so foul a root, must eventually fall into dust&mdash;for there is justice
+under the sun. He would joyfully have looked on at the loss of half his
+wealth, or even given up all, if so he could have hoped to close his
+account with Heaven. But he felt that his penance consisted in the fact
+that his riches, influence, the renown of his name, his supposed
+home-happiness, were only a cruel irony of fate. They buried him, and he
+could not extricate himself to live the only happy life, whose center
+was No&eacute;mi&mdash;and Dodi. When the first Dodi died, he learned what he had
+been to him. Now, with the second, he felt it still more; and yet he
+could not make them his own. He lay buried under a mountain of gold
+which he could not shake off. What he had seen in the delirium of fever,
+he now really felt. He lay buried alive in a grave full of gold. Above
+his head stood on the grave-stone a marble statue which never
+moved&mdash;Tim&eacute;a. A beggar-woman with a little child came to gather thyme on
+his tomb&mdash;No&eacute;mi. And the man buried alive vainly strove to cry out,
+"Give me your hand, No&eacute;mi, and pull me out of this golden tomb!"</p>
+
+<p>Timar went on with his correspondence. One letter was from the Brazilian
+agents. His favorite scheme&mdash;the export of Hungarian flour&mdash;had been
+brilliantly successful. Timar had gained by it honor and wealth. As he
+ran through the letters, it occurred to him that when he left home in
+the morning he had received a registered letter with a foreign stamp. He
+found the letter in his coat pocket. It was from the same correspondent
+whose favorable report he had just read, and ran thus:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,&mdash;Since my last, a great misfortune has occurred.
+Your <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;</i>, Theodor Krisstyan, has cheated us
+shamefully and brought disgrace on us. We are blameless
+in the matter. This man has for years past seemed so
+trustworthy and active, that we put the most perfect
+confidence in him; his salary and commission were so
+large that he could not only live comfortably, but
+could save <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>money, which he invested in our house.
+While he left his avowable savings to grow to a small
+capital in our hands, he robbed us
+frightfully&mdash;intercepted money, forged bills, and made
+false claims on the firm, which was easy, as he had
+your power of attorney&mdash;so that our loss already
+amounts to some ten million reis. But what makes it
+more serious is the discovery that during the last few
+years he has been mixing the imported flour with some
+of inferior quality from Louisiana, and by this Yankee
+trick has seriously impaired the credit of the
+Hungarian article for years to come&mdash;even if we are
+ever able to restore it."</p></div>
+
+<p>"This is the first blow," thought Timar; and on the most tender point
+for a great financier. It touched him in what he was most proud of, and
+what had obtained for him the rank of a privy councilor. And so falls
+the brilliant fabric erected by Tim&eacute;a&mdash;Tim&eacute;a again!</p>
+
+<p>Timar read on hurriedly&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Bad company has led the young criminal astray: this is
+a dangerous temptation in this climate. We had him
+arrested at once, but none of the stolen money was
+found in his possession. He had lost part at the
+gambling-table, and got rid of the rest with the help
+of the Creoles; but it is quite possible that the rogue
+has managed to conceal considerable sums, in the hope
+of being able to get at them when again at liberty.
+However, he must wait some time, for the court here has
+sentenced him to fifteen years at the galleys."</p></div>
+
+<p>Timar could read no further. He let the letter fall on the table; then
+he stood up and began to pace the room restlessly.</p>
+
+<p>Fifteen years at the galleys! Fifteen years chained to the bench, and
+nothing to look at all that time but sky and sea! Fifteen years to
+endure the sickening noonday heat, without hope or comfort&mdash;to endure
+life on the ever-restless sea, and curse unmerciful man! He will be an
+old man before he gets his freedom. And why? In order that Herr Michael
+Timar, Baron von Levetinczy, may live undisturbed in his forbidden joys
+on the ownerless island&mdash;that no one may betray No&eacute;mi to Tim&eacute;a, nor
+Tim&eacute;a to No&eacute;mi. You never thought of this when you sent Theodor to
+Brazil, and yet you did count on the chance of opportunity making him
+into a thief. You did not lay him dead on the spot with a bullet, as a
+man kills in a duel him who stands in the way of his love. You pretended
+to a paternal affection for him, and sent him on a three-thousand miles'
+voyage; and now you will look on at this slow decay through fifteen
+horrible years&mdash;for you will see him, though all the earth and all her
+oceans lie between!</p>
+
+<p>The stove had gone out. It was cold in the room, whose windows were
+covered with frost-flowers. And yet sweat dropped from Timar's brow, as
+he strode up and down the narrow space. So, then, every one is
+consecrated to misfortune to whom he gives his hand&mdash;on that hand is a
+curse.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, what an awful night this is! Will it never be day? He felt as if
+this room were a dungeon or a tomb.</p>
+
+<p>But the terrible letter had a postscript. Timar came back to the table
+to read it. The postscript was dated a day later, and ran thus: "I have
+just received a letter from Port-au-Prince, in which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> we are informed
+that three slaves have escaped from the galley on which our prisoner was
+placed. I fear our man is among them."</p>
+
+<p>After the perusal of these lines, Timar was a prey to indescribable
+anxiety. Though he had been perspiring before, he began to shiver now.
+Had the fever returned? He looked round fearfully. What was he afraid
+of? He was alone in the room, and as frightened as a child who has been
+hearing ghost stories. He could not endure the room any longer. He took
+out his pocket-pistol and looked to its priming; then he tried his
+dagger, whether it was loose in its sheath.</p>
+
+<p>Away! It was still night&mdash;not yet two o'clock; but he could not await
+the morning light here. And could he not get across to the Uj-Sz&ouml;ny side
+without a bridge? Above the island the ice would bear. It only required
+a man who was less afraid of darkness and danger than of the flickering
+candle and the outspread letter. He held that over the light and burned
+it; then he blew out the candle and crept out of the window.</p>
+
+<p>Only when he was in the street did he feel his heart lighter: here he
+was a man again. Meanwhile fresh snow had fallen, which he heard
+crackling under his feet while he hurried to the shore, along the whole
+Servian Street right up to the harbor.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_III" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE ICE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The Danube was completely frozen over up to Prestburg, and could be
+crossed anywhere. Still, in order to cross from Komorn to Uj-Sz&ouml;ny, he
+had to go round a long way by the point of the island, for sand-banks
+exist there on which in summer the miners wash their gold, and on these
+mounds the ice often lies in great heaps, forming barricades difficult
+to surmount. Timar had a plan ready; as soon as he came in sight of the
+Monostor, where stood his villa, he would strike out in that direction.
+But something intervened to upset his calculations. He had expected a
+starry night, but when he reached the Danube a fog came on. At first
+only thin, transparent mist; but while Timar was seeking a path on the
+ice, the fog became so thick that you could not see three steps in front
+of you. If he had given ear to the voice of reason, he would have
+instantly turned round and tried to find his way back to the bank. But
+he was in a frame of mind in which a man is inaccessible to reason; by
+fair means or foul he meant to get across. Apart from the fog, it was a
+dark night; and above the island the Danube is at its widest, and the
+passage over the ice-floes the most difficult. Monstrous heaped-up
+masses of frozen snow form oblique stretches of barricade, and in many
+places the ice takes the shape of capriciously cleft ridges, from which
+rise six-foot pinnacles of frozen water instead of fingers of rock. In
+coasting round these, Timar suddenly found that he had lost himself. He
+had already been an hour on the river; his repeater struck a quarter to
+three; he ought long ago to have reached the other side; he must have
+lost his reckoning.</p>
+
+<p>He listened; no sound in the dark night. It was beyond question<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> that he
+was not approaching the opposite village, but getting further away from
+it. Not even a dog could be heard to bark. He fancied that instead of
+crossing the river he must have been walking along it, and determined to
+change his course. The Danube was nowhere more than two hundred paces
+wide; he must reach the shore somewhere if he kept straight on. But in
+mist and darkness one does not know which way one goes; a barrier of ice
+which must be avoided takes one, in spite of every care, out of the
+right road&mdash;one walks in zigzags and comes back to the spot where one
+was before; even if you get into the right path, and would only have to
+walk on to reach the bank, you think of something else, deviate
+slightly, and get back into that confounded ice labyrinth again.</p>
+
+<p>Past five. Nearly four hours already had he wandered about. He felt
+exhausted. He had not slept all night, nor eaten all day, but had
+struggled with the most enervating mental emotions.</p>
+
+<p>His only hope was, that when day at last dawned he would be able to
+guess by the sun where the east lay, and then, as an old sailor, could
+ascertain his position. If he had come across a hole in the ice, the
+current of the water would have shown him in what direction to go; but
+the surface was entirely covered, and without an ax it was impossible to
+make a hole. At last it began to dawn, but the fog hid the sun. Nine
+o'clock, and he had not yet found the shore, though the fog seemed to
+grow less and the sun's disk was visible, like a pale, colorless ball, a
+mere shadow of its glorious self. The air was full of countless
+glittering particles of ice, which melted into a dazzling vapor. Now he
+will discover where he is.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was already too high to indicate the true east, but it showed
+something else. It seemed to Timar, as he peered through the brilliant
+mist, as if he could distinguish on his right the outline of the roof of
+a house.</p>
+
+<p>Where there is a house there must be land. He walked straight toward it,
+and was careful to keep in a direct line; soon he found himself close to
+it&mdash;but the house was a water-mill.</p>
+
+<p>The ice-floes had detached it from its winter refuge, or perhaps had
+found it belated, still chained to the shore, and carried it off. The
+shrouds were as neatly sawn asunder by the sharp ice-flakes as if a
+clever carpenter had done it: the wheels were shattered and the
+mill-house wedged into a mass of ice, forming a parapet round it.</p>
+
+<p>Timar stood before it in horror. His head swam as if he had seen a
+ghost. The sunken mill in the Perigrada whirlpool occurred to him. Is
+not this the ghost of that mill which comes to visit him at the end of
+his career, or perhaps to take possession of him? A ruined mill amidst
+the ice! A house so near its downfall! He went in; the door was open,
+probably from the shocks received amidst the blocks of ice. The
+machinery was all complete, so that Timar felt at any moment the white
+miller's ghost might enter and shake the meal into the sacks. On the
+roof, the beams, on every little ledge sat crows. A couple of them
+fluttered away when they saw him; the rest sat still and took no notice
+of him.</p>
+
+<p>Timar was dead beat. For eight hours continuously he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> wandered on
+the ice; the hinderances he had met with had fatigued him yet more; his
+stomach was empty, his nerves overstrained, his limbs stiff with cold.
+He sat down exhausted on a post inside the mill.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes closed. And hardly had they done so before he saw himself
+standing at the bow of the "St. Barbara," with the hatchet in his hand,
+and near him the girl with the pale face.</p>
+
+<p>"Away from here!" he cried to her; the ship rushed down the cataract.
+The wave-curl came to meet them. "Into the cabin!" But the girl never
+stirred. Then the sea struck the ship. Timar fell from his seat: that
+woke him, and he realized his danger. If he fell asleep there, he would
+certainly freeze to death. No doubt that is the easiest way to take
+one's life; but he had work to do in the world&mdash;his hour had not struck.</p>
+
+<p>He went out of the mill&mdash;the fog was too thick to see anything; it was
+not day but night. The sighs which might go up to Heaven are swallowed
+in the dark clouds which will not let them pass. Was there nothing
+living near to help him in his extremity?</p>
+
+<p>When the mill was carried away by the ice there were mice in it: they
+waited till the ice had set; then they left the mill and found their way
+to the shore&mdash;on the thin snow-covering their tiny footsteps were
+visible. Timar followed them. The smallest of all the mammalia in this
+way conducted the wise and strong human being for a whole half hour till
+he reached the shore. Thence he easily found the road, and arrived at
+the inn where he had left the post-chaise. Mist was behind and before
+him, and no one saw whence he came. In the parlor he devoured salt
+calves'-feet which had been prepared for the wagoners, drank a glass of
+wine, had the horses put to, lay down in the carriage, and slept till
+evening. He dreamed constantly that he was on the ice; and when the
+carriage shook, he awoke under the impression that the ice had broken
+under him, and that he was sinking into fathomless depths.</p>
+
+<p>As he had started late from Sz&ouml;ny, he only reached his villa at Fured
+the next evening. The fog accompanied him the whole way, so thick that
+he could not see the Platten See. They were preparing for the first
+catch of the season next day; he gave orders to his steward to have
+ready plenty of wine and malt brandy.</p>
+
+<p>Galambos, the old fishing overseer, predicted a large haul. One good
+sign was that the lake had frozen so early. At this time, just before
+spawning, the fish come up the gulf in shoals. It was a still better
+omen that Herr von Levetinczy had come himself. He always had luck.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;luck!" echoed Timar to himself, sighing heavily.</p>
+
+<p>"I would almost venture to bet that we shall catch the king of the
+fogasch himself."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean, the king?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is an old fogasch which every fisherman on the lake knows, for we
+have all had him in our nets in turn; but no one can land him, for when
+he finds he is caught he works a hole at the bottom with his snout, and
+manages to get out of the net. He is a regular rogue; we have put a
+price on his head, for he destroys as many young fry as three fishermen.
+He is a huge beast, and when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> swims on the surface, one would think
+he was a whale; but we'll get him to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Timar did not contradict, but sent every one away and lay down. Now he
+first felt how tired he was; and he slept a long and healthy sleep,
+undisturbed by dream-faces. When he awoke he was perfectly fresh; even
+the anxieties which occupied his mind had faded into the background as
+if they were a year distant. The small span of time between to-day and
+yesterday seemed like an eternity. It was not yet daylight, but it
+surprised him that the moon was shining through the frost-covered panes.
+He got up quickly, bathed as usual in icy water, dressed, and hurried
+out to see the Balaton.</p>
+
+<p>This presents, when frozen&mdash;especially the few first days&mdash;a most
+enchanting sight. The huge lake does not freeze like rivers, on which
+the ice masses gradually collect: here in one moment of calm the whole
+surface is covered with a sheet of ice like crystal; and in the morning
+a smooth unruffled mirror is outspread. Under the moonlight it is a
+looking-glass in one piece without a flaw&mdash;only the tracks are visible
+upon it, by which the inhabitants of the contiguous villages communicate
+with each other. They traverse it like measuring-lines on some great
+glass table&mdash;you see the reflection of the mountains of Tihany, with the
+double tower of the church, as distinctly as if it were real, only the
+towers are upside down.</p>
+
+<p>Timar stood long absorbed in this fairy picture. The fishermen woke him
+from his dream; they arrived with nets, poles, and ice-axes, and said
+the work must begin before sunrise. When all had assembled, they formed
+a circle, and the old chief intoned a pious hymn, which all repeated
+after him. Timar walked away; he could not pray. How should he address a
+psalm to Him who is omniscient, and who can not be deceived by songs and
+hymns? The music could be heard two miles away over the level surface,
+and the echoes of the shore repeated the sound. Timar walked a long way
+over the lake. At last it began to dawn, the moon paled, and the eastern
+horizon was tinted with rosy red, which caused a wonderful
+transformation in the color of the giant ice mirror, dividing it into
+two sharply contrasted halves. One side assumed a coppery-violet hue,
+while the other looked azure blue against the pink sky.</p>
+
+<p>In proportion to the growing light, the splendor of the sight increased;
+the purple red, the gold of the sky, were repeated in the pure
+reflection, and when the glowing ball, radiant with fiery vapor, shot up
+from the violet mists of the horizon and shone down on the glittering
+surface, it was a spectacle such as neither sea nor land can show, as if
+two suns rose at once in two real skies. The moment the sun had passed
+through the earth-fogs, its glorious rays leaped forth.</p>
+
+<p>The fishing-captain Galambos cried from the distance to Timar, "Now you
+will hear something. Don't be afraid! Ho! ho!"</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid!" thought Timar, shrugging his shoulders, incredulously. What in
+the world could frighten him now? He would soon know.</p>
+
+<p>When the sun first shines on the frozen lake, a wonderful sound is heard
+from the ice, as if thousands of fairy harp-strings were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> struck. One is
+reminded of the tones from Memnon's statue, only that it does not last
+so long. The mysterious cling-clang grows louder, as if the nixies down
+below struck their harps with all their force: then follows a droning
+and cracking, almost as loud as a shot, and on every snap follows a
+glittering fissure in the ice, which till then was clear as glass. In
+every direction the gigantic mirror is flawed till it is like a huge
+mosaic, formed of millions of tiny dice, pentagons, and many-sided
+prisms, and whose surface is of glass. This is what causes the sound. He
+who hears it for the first time finds his heart beating faster; the
+whole surface hums, rings, and sings under his feet. Some cracks are
+like thunder, and are heard miles away. The fishermen, however, proceed
+quietly with the spreading of their nets on the top of the groaning ice,
+and in the distance may be seen hay wagons, drawn slowly by four oxen
+across the surface. Man and beast are used to the ice-voices, which last
+till sunset.</p>
+
+<p>This remarkable phenomenon made a curious impression on Michael's mind.
+He was very sensitive to the great life of nature. In his emotional
+temperament the thought was implanted that everything living has
+consciousness&mdash;wind, storm, and lightning, the earth itself, the moon
+and stars. But who could understand what the ice under his feet was
+saying?</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly was heard a fearful detonation as if a hundred cannon had
+been fired at once, or a subterranean mine had been exploded&mdash;the whole
+surface trembled and shook. The effect of this thunderous convulsion was
+fearful&mdash;the ice opened in a cleft three thousand yards long, and
+between the edges of the floes yawned a six-foot chasm. "<i>A Rian&aacute;s!
+a&nbsp;Rian&aacute;s!</i>" (the ice-cleft), cried the fishermen, and ran to the place,
+abandoning their nets.</p>
+
+<p>Timar stood only two paces from it. He had seen it happen. His knees
+trembled with the frightful shock, which had driven the two ice masses
+apart; he was stunned with the effect of this natural phenomenon. The
+arrival of the fishermen roused him; they told him that among the
+natives this fissure was called <i>Rian&aacute;s</i>, a word unknown elsewhere. It
+was a great danger for travelers across the lake, for it was not visible
+far off, and it never froze over, because the water was always moving in
+it. It was therefore the first care of these good people, wherever a
+footpath led to the crack, to plant at both edges a pole in the ice with
+a bundle of straw at the top, so that those who approach might have
+warning. "But what is even more dangerous," said the fisherman, "is
+when, under great pressure of wind, the separated floes again unite.
+Then there is such a grinding and crushing! Very often the power of the
+wind is sufficient to raise the edges of the two floes, so that there is
+an empty space between the water and the uplifted ice. God pity those
+who go over there without knowing it, for the ice which does not touch
+the water is certain to give way under them!"</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly noon before they could get to work. It is capital sport,
+this fishing under the ice. In the bay, where the fishermen's experience
+tells them the shoals of fish will lie, two large holes are made in the
+ice some fifty fathoms apart, and then a square of smaller holes is
+formed, so that the two large openings form the opposite angles. The
+pieces of ice hewn from the holes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> are piled round their edges, so that
+passengers may be warned of the danger of falling in. When the sun
+shines on these white heaps, they look like colossal diamonds. The
+fishermen sink the huge net sideways into the large hole, spread out its
+two ends, and fasten them on poles, each three and a half fathoms in
+length. One man pushes the pole with the net under the ice, while
+another waits at the next small hole, and when the pole appears there he
+pushes it on to the third hole, and so on, while the other side of the
+square is being treated in the same way with the second pole and the
+other end of the net. Both meet at the opposite large hole. The net,
+which is sunk to the bottom with lead weights, while its top edge is
+held up by ropes over the ice, forms an absolute prison for all the fish
+within the square, which usually swarm at this season. The fogasch and
+sheath fish leave their miry bed and come up to breathe at the
+ice-holes; they have their family festivals in the winter, when
+cold-blooded animals make love. The strong ice-roof protects them from
+the foreign element, but not from its inhabitants&mdash;men.</p>
+
+<p>The ice now only assists in their destruction. When they discover that
+the net is pressing on them, it is already too late to find an outlet.
+They can not leap out, because the ice shuts them in, and even the
+fogasch can not as usual burrow in the mud, to get under the net, for
+the weight of his splashing companions leaves him no space to work. The
+fishermen lay hold on the rope and draw steadily. The united exertion of
+twenty men shows how great is the strain on them; it must be several
+hundred-weight. The surface of the large hole begins to be alive with
+the crowd of fishes pressing to the only outlet, there to meet their
+death. Various forms of fish-mouths peep out of the water&mdash;transparent
+jelly-fish, red tails, blue, green, and silver scales press up, and
+between them comes up sometimes a great silurian, the shark of the
+Balaton, a Wels of a hundred pounds' weight, with wide jaws and
+horse-shoe mustache; but it disappears into the depths again, as if to
+find safety there.</p>
+
+<p>Three fishermen dip the living crowd out from the top with large
+landing-nets, and throw the fish on to the ice without more ado, where
+old and young leap about together: thence they can not escape, for the
+holes are all surrounded with heaps of ice. It is a regular witches'
+dance&mdash;wide-mouthed carp leaping high in air, the pike in its despair
+wriggling like a snake among the gasping heaps of perch and bass. One
+conger after another is hauled out with a hook and thrown on the frozen
+surface, where, laying down his ugly head, he flaps his fellow-prisoners
+into pieces with his heavy tail. The space around the hole is all
+covered with fishes. The carp jump like water-rats, but no one
+notices&mdash;they can not get away. The lazier fishes lie in heaps on both
+sides.</p>
+
+<p>"I said so," murmured old Galambos; "I knew we should have a good catch.
+Wherever our gracious master shows himself, luck comes with him. If only
+we could catch the fogasch-king."</p>
+
+<p>"If I am not mistaken, we've got him in there," said the man who was
+next him at the rope. "There's some great beast shooting about in the
+net; I feel it in both my arms."</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! there he is!" cried another, whose landing-net was full of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> fish,
+as an enormous head like that of a white crocodile appeared above the
+water. The whole head was white; in the open mouth were two rows of
+sharp teeth like those of an alligator, but with four fangs meeting like
+a tiger's&mdash;a formidable head indeed. They may well call him the king of
+the lake, for there is no other creature in it, even of his own race,
+able to vie with him.</p>
+
+<p>"There he is!" screamed three others at once, but the next instant the
+brute had sunk; and now began the struggle.</p>
+
+<p>As if the imprisoned brute had suddenly given the word to his body-guard
+for a last and decisive combat, a dangerous tumult began inside the net.
+The skirmishing corps of pike and carp ran their heads against the
+tightly drawn meshes; the men were obliged to beat down the marine
+giants with loaded staves. The fishes became furious; the cold-blooded
+creation showed itself capable of heroic devotion, and rose against the
+invaders in pitched battle. The struggle ended in the defeat of the
+fishes. The dog-fish were knocked on the head, the net shook out many
+beautiful white fogasch and schille; but the fogasch-king would not show
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"He has got away again," grumbled the old chief.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; he is in the net still!" said the hauling-men, clinching their
+teeth. "I feel by my arms how he is pushing and fighting; if only he
+does not break the net."</p>
+
+<p>The catch was enormous already; there was no room to stand without
+treading on fishes.</p>
+
+<p>"There goes the net! I heard it crack!" cried the first man. Half the
+net was still in the water.</p>
+
+<p>"Haul!" growled the old fisherman, and all the men put out their whole
+strength. With the net came the rest of the fishes, and the fogasch-king
+was among them&mdash;a splendid specimen indeed, more than forty pounds
+weight, such as is only seen once in twenty years. He had really torn
+the net with his great head; but he had caught his prickly fins in the
+meshes, and could not get free. When they got him out he gave one of the
+men a blow with his tail which knocked him backward on the ice. But that
+was his last effort; the next moment he was dead. No one has ever held a
+living fogasch in his hand. It is thought that his lungs burst as he is
+taken out of water, and he dies instantly.</p>
+
+<p>The delight of the fishermen at the capture of this one was greater than
+over the whole rich haul. They had been after him for years; and every
+one knew the cannibal, for he had the bad habit of eating his own kind.
+That was why he was king. When he was opened they found a large fogasch
+in his inside, quite recently swallowed; his flesh was overlaid with a
+thick layer of yellow fat, and white as linen.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, honored sir, we will send him to the gracious lady," said the old
+fisherman. "We will pack him in ice, and your honor will write a letter
+and say he is the king of the fogasch. Whoever eats him will eat a
+king's flesh."</p>
+
+<p>Michael approved the suggestion, and assured the men they should get a
+reward. When they had finished with the fogasch, the short winter's day
+had come to a close; but only in the sky, not on the ice&mdash;there it was
+lively enough. From every village came the people with baskets and
+hampers and wooden kegs; in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> the kegs was wine, in the hampers pork, but
+the baskets were meant for the fish. When it came to the division of the
+spoil, a complete fair formed round the fishermen. After sunset, torches
+were made of dry osier-twigs, fires were lighted on the ice, and then
+began the bargaining. Carp and pike, conger and bass, are good enough
+for poor people. Only the fogasch and schille are sent to Vienna and
+Pesth, where they fetch high prices; all the rest go for a song&mdash;and
+even so there is room for a large profit, for in one haul they had
+caught three hundredweight of fish. This Timar is indeed a favorite of
+fortune! The unsold fish are packed in baskets and put in the ice-house,
+whence they will be sent to the Vessprimer market.</p>
+
+<p>Timar wanted to give a feast to all the assembled crowd. He had a
+ten-gallon cask brought on to the ice and the top knocked out; then he
+begged the captain to prepare a fish-soup, such as he only could
+concoct. Certain selected fishes, neither rich nor bony, were cut in
+pieces into a great kettle; then some of the blood, and handfuls of
+maize and vegetables, were added. The whole art lies in the proper
+proportions of the mixture, which the uninitiated never understand. Of
+this delicious mess Herr Timar himself consumed an incredible quantity.
+Where good wine flows and fish-soup is brewed, be sure there will be
+gypsies to be found. Almost before they thought of it, a brown band of
+musicians appeared, who, as soon as the cymbal-player was seated on an
+upturned basket, began to play popular airs.</p>
+
+<p>Where gypsies and rosy wenches and fiery youths get together, dancing
+will soon begin. In a twinkling a rustic ball was improvised on the ice,
+and rose to a frolicsome height. Round the bonfires circled the active
+couples, shouting, as they leaped, like King David, and before he knew
+where he was, Timar too, whom a handsome girl had caught by the arm, was
+drawn into the whirl. Timar danced.</p>
+
+<p>In the clear winter darkness the cheery fires illuminated the ice for
+many a mile. The fun lasted till midnight. Meanwhile the fishermen had
+finished carrying the fish into the ice-house. The joyous crowd
+dispersed on their homeward way, not without cheers for the feast-giver,
+the generous Baron von Levetinczy.</p>
+
+<p>Timar stayed till Galambos had packed the fogasch-king in a box, between
+ice and hay, and nailed the lid down. It was put into the chaise which
+had brought Timar, and the driver was told to get ready to drive for his
+life to Komorn: there is no time to lose in dispatching fish. He wrote
+himself to Tim&eacute;a. The letter was written in an affectionate and cheerful
+mood. He called her his dear wife, and described the picturesque scene
+on the frozen lake, and the terrible cleft in the ice. (That he had been
+so near the <i>Rian&aacute;s</i> he did not mention.) Then he gave a description of
+the fishing, with all its amusing details, and finished with an account
+of the night festival. He told her how much he had been entertained, and
+how he had quite lost his head, and even ventured on a dance with a
+pretty peasant girl on the ice.</p>
+
+<p>Some men write these amusing letters when they are contemplating
+suicide. When the letter was ready he took it to the driver.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> The old
+fisherman was there too. "Go home now, Galambos," Michael advised. "You
+must be tired."</p>
+
+<p>"I must go and make up the fire on the ice," said the old man, lighting
+his pipe, "for the smell of fish brings the foxes and even bears from
+all the forests round, to fish on their own account: they watch for the
+fishes, which put their heads out of the holes, and drag them out, and
+that frightens away the others."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no!" said Michael, "don't keep up the fire. I will keep guard&mdash;I
+often watch all night. I will go out now and then and fire my gun; that
+will send all the four-footed fishermen to the right-about." This
+satisfied Galambos, who invoked God's blessing on his master, and
+trotted away.</p>
+
+<p>The deaf vine-dresser, the only other inhabitant of Timar's house, had
+long been asleep. To add to his deafness, he had drunk so much good wine
+that one might be certain his night's rest would be unbroken. Timar too
+went to his room and stirred up his fire.</p>
+
+<p>He was not sleepy; his excited brain required no rest. But there is
+another form of repose; or is it not rest to sit near an open window and
+look out on dumb nature? The moon had not yet risen; only the stars of
+heaven shone down on the smooth ice. Their reflection was like rubies
+spread on a blight steel plate, or the lights which flicker over graves
+on Hallowe'en.</p>
+
+<p>He gazed before him, and did not even think. He sat without any
+sensation, either of cold or of his own pulses, neither of the outer nor
+inner world&mdash;he only wondered. This was rest.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_IV" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE PHANTOM.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The stars glittered in heaven and sparkled from their frozen mirror: no
+breath disturbed the silence of the night. Then Michael heard behind him
+a voice which greeted him with "Good-evening, sir."</p>
+
+<p>At the door of the bedroom stood, between the two lights of the lamp and
+the fire, a figure, at sight of which Timar's blood ran cold. In the
+bitter midnight, through the dense fog, he had fled from this specter
+across the frozen Danube.</p>
+
+<p>The man's dress was that of a naval officer, whose uniform had, however,
+visibly suffered from storms and weather. The green cloth had altogether
+faded on the shoulders, and some buttons were gone. The shoes, too, were
+in sad condition. The soles had worn away at the tip so that the naked
+toes were visible; over one shoe a piece of carpet was tied. The wearer
+was suited to his ragged dress. A sunburned face with a neglected beard;
+in place of the shaven mustache, a few bristly hairs; across the
+forehead a black handkerchief covering one eye. This was the figure
+which had wished Timar a good-evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Krisstyan!" said Timar, very low.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, to be sure; your dear Theodor&mdash;your dear adopted son, Theodor
+Krisstyan! How good of you to recognize me!"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"First, I want to have that gun in my own hands, lest it should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> remind
+you of the words with which we parted last time&mdash;'If I ever appear
+before you again, shoot me down.' Since then I have changed my mind." So
+saying he seized Timar's gun, which leaned against the wall, threw
+himself into a chair by the fire, and laid the gun across his knee.
+"There, now we can talk quietly. I have come a long way, and I am
+dreadfully tired. My equipage left me in the lurch, and I had to travel
+part of the way on foot."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want here?" said Timar.</p>
+
+<p>"First, a respectable suit, for what I am wearing bears signs of the
+severity of the weather." Timar went to the closet, took out his pelisse
+trimmed with astrakhan, and the rest of the suit, laid them on the
+ground between himself and Krisstyan, and pointed to them in silence.
+The vagrant held the gun in one hand, keeping his finger on the trigger,
+lifted the clothes one by one with the other, and looked them over with
+the air of a connoisseur.</p>
+
+<p>"Very good&mdash;but there is something wanting to this coat. What do you
+think it is? Why, of course, the purse."</p>
+
+<p>Timar took his pocket-book from a drawer, and threw it over. The
+vagabond caught it with one hand, opened it with the help of his teeth,
+and counted the notes inside.</p>
+
+<p>"We are getting on," he said, placing the pocket-book in the pocket of
+the pelisse. "Might I ask for some linen? I have worn mine for a week,
+and I fear it is hardly fit for company." Timar handed him a shirt out
+of the wardrobe. "Now, I have got far enough to proceed to the toilet.
+But first I have a few explanations to make in order to explain one or
+two things to his honor the privy councilor. But why the devil should we
+bother with titles! We are old friends, and can talk openly."</p>
+
+<p>Timar sat down speechless by the table.</p>
+
+<p>"So then, my dear fellow," said the fugitive, "you will remember that
+you sent me some years ago to Brazil. How affected I was! I adopted you
+as a father, and swore to be an honest man. But you did not send me over
+there to make an honest man of me, but in order that I might not stand
+in your way in this hemisphere. You calculated that a worthless youth,
+without a good fiber in him, is sure to come to grief in that part of
+the world. He either turns thief, or gets drowned, or somebody shoots
+him&mdash;anyway, he would be got rid of. But you intrusted me with a large
+sum of money. What was that to you? Only a stalking-horse. You reckoned
+on my robbing you, so that you might arrest and imprison me; and so it
+turned out. Once or twice I nearly did you the favor of dying of some
+native plague, but unluckily for you I pulled through. And then I
+devoted my whole energy to business; I robbed you of ten million reis.
+Ha! ha! Spanish thieves reckon in half-kreutzers, so that the sum may
+sound larger&mdash;it is not more than a hundred thousand gulden. If only you
+knew what lovely necks the women there have, you would not think it too
+much; and they will only wear real pearls. But your stupid agent, the
+Spaniard, looked at it from a different point of view; he had me
+arrested and tried, and the rascal of a judge sentenced me&mdash;just for a
+foolish boyish trick&mdash;only think, to fifteen years at the galleys! Now,
+just say, was it not barbarous?"</p>
+
+<p>Timar shuddered.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>"They took off my fine clothes, and in order that they might not lose
+me, they branded me on the arm with a hot iron." The felon threw off his
+uniform-coat as he spoke, drew his dirty shirt from his left shoulder,
+and showed Timar, with a bitter laugh, the mark still fiery red on his
+arm. "Look you, it was on your account that they branded me like a foal
+or a calf, lest I should go astray. Don't be afraid&mdash;I would not run
+away from you, even without that."</p>
+
+<p>With morbid curiosity Timar gazed at the burn on the miserable wretch,
+and could not turn his eyes away.</p>
+
+<p>"After that, they dragged me to the galleys, and riveted one of my feet
+to the bench with a ten-pound chain." With that he threw his torn shoe
+from his foot, and showed Timar a deep wound on his raw ankle. "That
+also I carry as a remembrance of you," sneered the escaped criminal.</p>
+
+<p>Timar's eyes rested as if fascinated on the disfigured foot.</p>
+
+<p>"But just think, comrade, how kind fate can be! The ways of Providence
+are wonderful by which an unhappy sufferer is led to the arms of his
+friends. On the same bench where they had been good enough to fasten me,
+sat a respectable old man with a bushy beard. He was to be my bed-fellow
+for fifteen years. It is natural to take a good look at a man who is
+wedded to you for so long a time. I stared at him awhile, and then said
+in Spanish, 'It seems to me, se&ntilde;or, as if I had met you before.' 'Your
+eyes do not deceive you&mdash;may you be struck blind!' replied the amiable
+individual. Then I addressed him in Turkish, 'Effendi, have you not been
+in Turkey?' 'I have been there; what's that to you?' Then I said in
+Hungarian, 'Were you not originally called Krisstyan?' The old fellow
+was much surprised, and said, 'Yes.' 'Then, I am your son Theodor, your
+dear Theodor, your only offspring!' Ha! ha! Thanks to you, friend, I
+found my father, my long lost father, over there in the New World on the
+galley-slave's bench. Providence in its wonderful way had united the
+long-divided father and son! But may I beg you to give me a flask of
+wine and something to eat, for I am thirsty and hungry, and have many
+interesting things to tell you, which will amuse you intensely."</p>
+
+<p>Timar did as he asked, and gave him bread and wine. The visitor sat at
+the table, took the gun between his knees, and began to eat. He devoured
+like a starved dog, and drank eagerly: at every draught he smacked his
+lips, like an epicure who has dined well. And then he went on, with his
+mouth full:</p>
+
+<p>"After we had got over the first joy of the unexpected meeting, my dear
+papa said, while he thumped me on the head, 'Now tell me, you
+gallows-bird, how you got here?' Naturally my filial respect had
+prevented me from addressing the like question to my parent. I told him
+that I had defrauded a Hungarian gentleman named Timar of ten million
+reis. 'And where did he steal all that?' was my old man's remark. I
+explained that he never stole&mdash;that he was a rich landowner, merchant,
+and trader. But that did not alter my father's opinion: 'All the same,
+whoever has money stole it. He who has much stole much, and he who has
+little stole little: if he did not steal it himself, his father or
+grand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>father did so. There are a hundred and thirty-three ways of
+stealing, and only twenty-two of them lead to the galleys.' As I saw it
+was useless to try and change my old man's opinion, I no longer disputed
+the point. Then he asked me, 'How the devil did you come in contact with
+this Timar?'</p>
+
+<p>"I told him the circumstances. 'I knew this Timar when he was a poor
+skipper, and had to wash his own potatoes in the ship's galley. Once I
+was sent by the Turkish police to track an escaped pasha who had fled on
+one of Timar's ships to Hungary.' 'What was his name?' growled my
+father. 'Ali Tschorbadschi.' 'What!' he exclaimed, striking me on the
+knee. He leaped up so that I thought he would jump overboard. Ha! ha! he
+forgot the chain. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. 'Did you know him too!' Then the old man shook
+his head and said, 'Go on; what became of Ali Tschorbadschi?' 'I
+detected him at Ogradina: I hurried on in front of the ship to Pancsova,
+where every preparation was made to arrest him. But the vessel arrived
+without the pasha. He had died on the way, and as he was not allowed
+burial on shore they had thrown the corpse overboard. All this Timar
+proved by documentary evidence.' 'And Timar was then quite poor?' 'No
+richer than myself.' 'But now he has millions?' 'Of which I was lucky
+enough to secure ten million reis.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Now, you fool, you see I was right&mdash;he stole his wealth. From whom? he
+killed the pasha and hid his money. I knew Ali Tschorbadschi&mdash;well. He
+was a thief too, like every other man, especially like every other rich
+man. He belonged to the 122d and 123d class of thieves. Under those
+numbers we reckon governors and treasurers. He was in charge of the
+treasures of another thief&mdash;the sultan himself, No. 133.</p>
+
+<p>"'Once I found out that thief No. 132, the grand vizier, wished to twist
+the treasurer's neck, to get back what he had stolen. I too was then in
+the Turkish secret police; only a sort of No. 10, simply a fraudulent
+bankrupt. I had a good idea: now if I could manage to push on into the
+ranks of the No. 50 thieves! I went to the pasha, and revealed the
+secret that he was on the list of rich men whom the minister meant to
+strangle as conspirators, in order to secure their property. What would
+he give me if I saved both him and his treasures? Ali Tschorbadschi
+promised me a quarter of his wealth when once we should both be in
+safety. "Yes," said I, "but I should like to know first how much the
+whole comes to, for I will do nothing with my eyes shut. I am a family
+man&mdash;I have a son whom I should like to settle in life."' Ha! ha! The
+old man said it so seriously that it makes me laugh now to think of it.
+'You have a son?' said the pasha to my father. 'That is well; if I
+escape I will give my only daughter to your son, and so the whole
+property will remain in the family: send me your son that I may know
+him.' By God! if I had only known then that the lovely lady with the
+white face and meeting brows was destined for me! Do you hear,
+comrade?&mdash;but I must have another drink, to drown my grief. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. You
+will permit me to empty my glass to the health of your spouse, the
+loveliest of ladies?"</p>
+
+<p>The galley-slave rose with the courtesy of a prince and drank the toast.
+Then he threw himself back in his chair, and drew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> breath through his
+teeth like a man who has dined well. "My father agreed to the bargain.
+'We decided,' said he, 'that Ali Tschorbadschi should pack his jewels in
+a leather bag, which I was to take with me in an English ship, which
+would convey me as an unsuspected person, with all my luggage, to Malta.
+There I was to await Ali Tschorbadschi, who was to leave Stamboul as if
+on a pleasure trip, with his daughter, but without any luggage, make his
+way to the Pir&aelig;us, and thence by a Greek trader to Malta. The pasha
+showed great confidence in me. He left me alone in the treasure-chamber,
+so that his own visits there should not be noticed, and commissioned me
+to select the most precious objects and pack them in the leather bag. I
+could describe now all the jewels I chose. The antique gems, the girdles
+of pearls, rings, agraffes, a casket full of diamonds&mdash;'</p>
+
+<p>"'Could you not hide a few away?' asked I.</p>
+
+<p>"'You ass's head!' he replied, 'why should I take a single diamond and
+become thief No. 18, when it was in my power to steal them all?'</p>
+
+<p>"Aha! my old father was a clever fellow! 'The devil I was! I was a
+moon-calf. I ought to have done as you say. I stuffed my bag full, and
+brought it to the pasha without arousing suspicion. He put a few
+rouleaux of louis d'or among the jewels in the bag, closed it with a
+puzzle-lock, and fastened lead seals to the four corners: then he sent
+me for a <i>ca&iuml;que</i>, that I might get quietly away. I was back in a
+quarter of an hour. He handed me the bag with the English steel
+puzzle-lock and the four lead weights. I took it under my cloak and
+slipped through the garden door to the boat; on the way I handled the
+bag and felt the agraffes, the casket, and the rouleaux. In an hour I
+was on board an English ship, the anchor was weighed, and we left the
+Golden Horn.' 'And you never took me,' said I, with child-like reproach
+to my papa, 'who was to marry the pasha's lovely daughter?' 'You fool!'
+cried the old man, 'I didn't want you or your pasha or his lovely
+daughter; I never meant to wait for you at Malta: with the money given
+me for the journey I embarked direct for America, and the leather bag
+went with me. But, confound it! when I got to a safe place I took out my
+knife and slit the bag, and what do you think fell out of it?&mdash;copper
+buttons, rusty horse-shoes, and instead of the casket full of diamonds,
+a stone inkstand&mdash;in the rouleaux, instead of louis d'or were heavy
+paras, the sort the corporals use for paying the private soldiers. The
+rascally thief had robbed me! In all my 133 classes this had never
+occurred; there was no number for it. While I went for the boat, the
+thief had prepared another identical bag filled with all sorts of
+rubbish, and sent me with it across the ocean, while he fled in another
+direction with the real jewels. But look you, there is justice not only
+on land but by water, for the great thief ran into the net of a still
+greater, who robbed and murdered him.' And this tip-top thief, who
+deprived the other of his property and his life was&mdash;you&mdash;brother of my
+heart&mdash;Michael Timar Levetinczy, the man of gold!" said the fugitive, as
+he rose and bowed mockingly.</p>
+
+<p>Timar answered not a word.</p>
+
+<p>"And now we will talk in a different way," said Theodor Kriss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>tyan, "but
+still at three paces' distance, and without forgetting that the gun is
+aimed at you."</p>
+
+<p>Timar looked indifferently down the muzzle of the gun. He had himself
+loaded it with ball.</p>
+
+<p>"This discovery considerably increased the sufferings of my slavery,"
+continued the adventurer. "Instead of living comfortably on Ali's
+treasure, I had to drag out a miserable existence on the hateful sea.
+And why? Because Michael Timar had smuggled the treasures which were
+intended for me from under my nose, and also the girl I should have
+married, the fair little savage who had grown up for me on the desolate
+island. Of her too Timar must needs defraud me, for he could not be
+happy with the wife whose father he had killed; he must needs have a
+mistress as well. Fy! Herr Timar. So it was for that you sent me to the
+galleys for fifteen years."</p>
+
+<p>Blow after blow fell on Timar's shame-stricken face. No doubt many of
+these accusations were false&mdash;they were not all true. He had not
+"killed" Tim&eacute;a's father, had not "stolen" his treasures; he had not
+"defrauded" him of No&eacute;mi, nor "got rid of" Theodor, but on the whole he
+could not entirely deny the charges. He had played a false game, and
+thereby got mixed up in every sort of crime.</p>
+
+<p>The deserter continued: "When we were lying in the Gulf of Rio Grande do
+Sul, yellow fever broke out on board our ship. My father caught it, and
+lay in the death agony beside me on the bench&mdash;no one removed him. It is
+not the custom; a galley-slave must die where he is chained. This was a
+horrible situation for me. The old man shivered with ague the whole day,
+he swore and gnashed his teeth. He was unbearable with his continual
+curses on the Blessed Virgin, which he always uttered in Hungarian. Why
+did he not swear in Spanish? It sounds so fine, and then the rest would
+have understood; and why should he swear at the Madonna? I could not put
+up with it&mdash;there were plenty of other saints he could have maligned; it
+is not the thing for an educated man, a gentleman, to speak ill of the
+ladies. This caused a coolness between me and my old man. Not his deadly
+fever, which I might catch, merely his insufferable language. Strong as
+were the ties which united father and son, I decided to sever them, and
+succeeded in escaping in company with two others. We filed our chains at
+night, struck down the overseer, who had seen our proceedings, and threw
+him into the sea; then we launched the small boat and set off. It was
+very rough and our boat was swamped; one of my companions could not
+swim, and got drowned; the other could swim, but not so well as the
+shark which pursued him. I only knew by his shrieks that the sea-devil
+had caught him and bitten him in two. I swam ashore. How I obtained this
+naval uniform and the arms and money requisite for my passage, I will
+tell you some other day over a glass of wine, when we have plenty of
+time. But now let us conclude our business; for you know we have to
+settle our account together."</p>
+
+<p>The outcast put his hand up to the handkerchief over his eye. The slowly
+healing wound seemed to be an unpleasant reminder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> The severe cold to
+which he had been exposed had not done it any good.</p>
+
+<p>"I tried to get to Komorn, where I knew you had your permanent home, and
+went to visit you. They said in your office that you had not yet come
+from abroad; what country you were in no one knew. Very well, thought I,
+then I will wait till he returns. To pass the time, I went to the caf&eacute;s,
+and made acquaintance with officers to whom my uniform was an
+introduction, and then I visited the theaters. There I saw that
+exquisitely beautiful lady with the marble face and the melancholy
+eyes&mdash;you can guess whom I mean. With her was always another fair
+lady&mdash;oh! what murderous eyes that one has; she is a corsair in
+petticoats. I began to feel my way. Once I contrived to get a seat close
+by the wicked angel, and paid her attentions which she received
+graciously: when I asked leave to wait upon her, she referred to her
+mistress, on whom everything depended. I spoke admiringly of that
+awe-inspiring Madonna, and remarked that I had known her family in
+Turkey, and that she resembled her mother very strongly.</p>
+
+<p>"'What,' said the lovely lady, 'you knew her mother? she died very
+young.' 'I have only seen her portrait,' said I. 'It portrayed just such
+a pale, sad face, surrounded with a double row of diamonds of great
+value.' 'You too have seen the splendid ornament then?' said she. 'My
+mistress showed it me when Herr Timar von Levetinczy gave it to her.'"</p>
+
+<p>Timar clinched his fists in impotent rage.</p>
+
+<p>"Aha! now we know all about it," continued the adventurer, turning to
+the tortured man with a cruel smile. "You gave Ali Tschorbadschi's
+daughter the treasures you stole from her father. In that case the rest
+of the jewels must have fallen into your hands, for they were with the
+picture. You can no longer deny it. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. And now we are on a level: we
+need not scruple to talk openly."</p>
+
+<p>Timar sat there paralyzed before the man into whose hands fate had
+delivered him. It was unnecessary to keep his gun from him: Timar had
+not strength to stand.</p>
+
+<p>"You kept me waiting a long time, my friend, and I began to get anxious
+about you; besides, my pocket-money was coming to an end. My rich aunt's
+remittances, the advices from my steward, my bankers, and the admiralty,
+for which I daily inquired at the post-office, failed to arrive&mdash;for
+excellent reasons. You were highly respected wherever I went: an upright
+merchant, a great genius, a benefactor to the poor. Your exemplary
+private life was described; you were the model husband; wives would burn
+your body when you died and dose their husbands with your ashes. Ha!
+ha!"</p>
+
+<p>Timar turned away his face.</p>
+
+<p>"But perhaps I weary you? Well, I am coming to business. One day I was
+in a bad temper, because you would not come home, and when some one
+mentioned you at the officers' caf&eacute;, I could not refrain from casting a
+doubt on the possibility of one man's uniting so many good qualities.
+Then a ruffian replied with a slap in the face: I confess I was not
+prepared for this; but my cheek deserved it&mdash;why had it not kept my
+tongue quiet? I was as sorry as a dog that I ventured to let fall a
+disrespectful word, and took the lesson to heart. I will never slander
+you again. If the box on the ear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> had been all, I should not so much
+have cared&mdash;I'm used to that; but the insolent fellow forced me to go
+out with him, because I had attacked your good name. As I soon learned,
+this madman was a lover of your Madonna when she was a girl, and now he
+was fighting for the honor of the Madonna's husband. That is a piece of
+good luck which could only happen to you, you man of gold. But I owe you
+no thanks for your good fortune; again it was I who had to pay for it: I
+got a cut over the head right down to the eyebrow. Look!"</p>
+
+<p>He thrust aside the silken bandage, under which was visible a long scar
+with a dirty plaster over it, the inflamed skin showing that the wound
+was not healed. Timar looked at it with a shudder.</p>
+
+<p>Krisstyan drew the bandage over it again, and said with cynical humor,
+"That is <i>souvenir</i> number three which your friendship has bestowed on
+me. Well, there is all the more standing to my credit. I could not
+remain any longer in Komorn after this; but 'Stay,' said I&mdash;'I know
+where to have him; I know where the foreign country is whither he goes
+in the interest of his fatherland: it is not in any unknown land&mdash;it is
+none other than the ownerless island. I will follow him there.'"</p>
+
+<p>At this Timar cried furiously, "What! you went to the island?" He
+trembled with rage and fear.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't jump up, young friend!" said the felon, soothingly. "This gun is
+loaded; if you move it might go off, and I could not answer for the
+consequences. Besides, calm yourself. It did you no harm for me to go
+there, only myself; I always have to pay the piper when you go to the
+ball&mdash;it's as certain as if it were one of the ten commandments&mdash;you
+dance and I pay. You get into my bed, and it's me that they throw out of
+window. Why did I go to the ownerless island? only to look for you. But
+when I got there you had left, and I found no one but No&eacute;mi and a little
+brat .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. oh, fy, friend Michael! who would have thought it of you?
+.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. but hush! we mustn't tell anybody. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Dodi he's called, isn't
+he? A fine, forward boy; but how frightened he was of me, because I had
+my eye bound up! It is true that No&eacute;mi was startled too, for the two
+were quite alone on the island. It grieved me to hear that good Mamma
+Therese was dead; she was so kind, she would have received me
+differently. Just fancy&mdash;this No&eacute;mi would not even let me come in and
+sit down: she said she was afraid of me, and Dodi still more so, because
+they were alone. 'That's just why I have come, that you may have a man
+in the house to protect you.' By the bye, what potion have you given the
+girl that she has grown so pretty? Really she has become a splendid
+creature&mdash;it makes one's heart laugh to look at her; I never stopped
+telling her so. Then she tried to make ugly faces at me; I began to jest
+with her. 'Is it right,' said I, 'to make grimaces at your bridegroom?'
+That did not answer; she called me a vagrant, and turned me out. 'All
+right,' I said, 'I would go and take her with me,' and then I put my arm
+round her waist." Timar's eyes flashed fire. "Sit still, comrade; <i>you</i>
+need not jump up, but I had to, for the girl fetched me a box on the
+ear&mdash;just about twice as hard as the one I got from the major. To be
+accurate, I must acknowledge that she chose the other cheek, so as to
+make it equal."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>Timar's face brightened.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I did get angry. I am well known to be an admirer of the fair sex,
+but this insult demanded satisfaction. 'Well, I will just show you that
+you will come with me, if you don't allow me to stop here. You will
+follow me of your own accord'&mdash;and with that I took little Dodi's hand
+to lead him away.</p>
+
+<p>"Devil!" cried Timar.</p>
+
+<p>"Gently, gently, we can't both speak at once; your turn will come, and
+then you can talk as much as you like&mdash;but hear me out. I was not quite
+right when I said there were only two on the island&mdash;there were three;
+that confounded beast Almira was there. The dog had been lying under the
+bed, and seemed not to notice me, but when the child began to cry, the
+great brute flew out at me without being asked. I had my eye on her,
+drew out my pistol quickly, and shot her through the body."</p>
+
+<p>"Murderer!" groaned Timar.</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense! If I had no more on my conscience than that dog's blood! and
+the beast was not even crippled by the ball; she made nothing of it. She
+only flew at me more furiously than ever, bit me in the arm, threw me
+down, and held me so that I could not move: in vain I tried to get at my
+second pistol&mdash;she held my arm in her teeth like a tiger. At last I
+entreated No&eacute;mi to set me free; she tried to get the beast away, but the
+raging fiend only sent her teeth deeper in. Then No&eacute;mi said, 'Ask the
+child&mdash;the dog will obey him.' I begged Dodi's help. The boy is
+kind-hearted; he had pity on me, and put his arms round Almira; then the
+dog let go, and the child kissed her." A tear ran down Timar's cheek.
+"So I was provided with another memento," said Theodor Krisstyan, as he
+pushed his dirty, blood-stained shirt-sleeve down from his shoulder.
+"Look at the mark of the dog's bite; all three fangs went to the bone:
+that is memorial number four, for which I have to thank you. I bear on
+my skin a whole album of wounds which I owe to you: the brand, the
+chain-sore, the sword-cut, and the dog's bite&mdash;all are remembrances of
+your friendship. And now say, what shall I do to you that our account
+may be balanced?"</p>
+
+<p>As the escaped prisoner said to Timar, "And now say what shall I do to
+you?" he stood entirely undressed before him, and Timar had to look at
+all the horrible wounds with which he was scarred from head to foot
+.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. and naked, too, the wretch's soul stood there, and it too was full
+of loathsome wounds inflicted by Timar's hand.</p>
+
+<p>The man knew that Timar had played a bold game with him; and now he was
+at his mercy: even physically he had not power to cope with him; his
+limbs were as feeble as those of a man overcome with sleep. The sight of
+the scarred form had the unnerving effect of an evil spell. The
+adventurer knew it, and no longer took precautions against him. Rising
+from his chair, he leaned the gun in the corner and spoke over his
+shoulder to Timar, "Now, then, for the toilet; while I dress you you can
+think over your answer to my question, what I shall do with you."</p>
+
+<p>With that he tossed his ragged clothes one after another into the fire,
+where they flared crackling up, so that the flame rushed up the chimney.
+Then he began to put on Timar's clothes in a lei<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>surely way. On the
+mantel-piece he found Timar's watch: this he put in his
+waistcoat-pocket, and inserted Timar's studs in his shirt-front, finding
+time to arrange his hair in the glass. When he was quite ready, he threw
+up his head, and placed himself before the fire with outstretched legs
+and folded arms. "Well; now then, comrade."</p>
+
+<p>Timar began to speak. "What do you require of me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Aha! at last I have loosed your tongue! How if I were to say an eye for
+an eye, a tooth for a tooth? go and have a gallows-brand burned on you;
+wander by land and sea among sharks, Indians, jaguars, rattlesnakes, and
+secret police; be cut over the head by your wife's lover, be bitten by
+your mistress's dog&mdash;and then we shall begin to share alike. But you see
+I am not so hard on you; I won't talk about my wounds&mdash;a dog's bones
+soon mend&mdash;I will be kinder than you. I must disappear for a time; for I
+am wanted not only because of your money&mdash;my escape from the galleys,
+and the overseer I threw overboard, are not yet forgiven. Your money
+will do me no good till I get rid of the burn and the scar on the chin.
+I shall get rid of the one with vitriol, and for the other mineral baths
+will be of service. I am not afraid of your putting my pursuers on my
+track&mdash;you are too wise for that; but foresight is the mother of wisdom.
+In spite of our close friendship, it might happen that some one should
+give me a knock on the head in the dark, or some convenient brigands
+might shoot me, or a friendly glass of wine might send me the same road
+as Ali Tschorbadschi. No, my dear fellow, I would not even venture to
+ask you to fill me this wine-flask again, not even if you drank first. I
+shall always be on my guard."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want then?"</p>
+
+<p>"How formally you talk! my company is too low for you. But first let us
+ask what the noble lord wants on his side. Probably that I should hold
+my tongue over all the secrets I have got hold of. The noble lord would
+perhaps not be disinclined to settle on me in return an income of a
+hundred thousand francs in government stock."</p>
+
+<p>Timar without hesitation replied, "Yes."</p>
+
+<p>The vagabond laughed. "I require no such heavy sacrifice, your honor. I
+told you money was no use to me at present. Such a gallows-bird, with so
+many bad habits, would be arrested anywhere, and then what good should I
+get of my income? What I want is, as I said, rest, and a place where I
+can remain hidden for a considerable time, and where I should meanwhile
+enjoy a comfortable, easy life; that is reasonable enough surely?"</p>
+
+<p>With that he took the gun up again, sat down on the chair, and held the
+gun before him in both hands, so as to be ready to fire at any moment.
+"I do not ask the hundred thousand francs at present; I only demand&mdash;the
+ownerless island."</p>
+
+<p>Timar felt as if struck by lightning; these words roused him from his
+stupor. "What do you want with it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Illustrissimo! See now. The air of the island is excellent, and most
+necessary to the re-establishment of my health, which suffered much in
+South America. I have heard from that dear departed saint, Frau Therese,
+that healing herbs grow there which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> are good for wounds; in botany
+books I have read that they will even make boiled flesh sound again.
+Then, too, I long for a quiet, contemplative life after all my trials;
+after the sybarite existence I have led, I long for the rustic joys of
+the golden age. Give me the ownerless island, excellency&mdash;serene
+highness."</p>
+
+<p>The fellow begged so mockingly with the gun in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a fool," said Timar, whom these jeers enraged, and then he
+turned his chair round and showed Theodor his back.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't turn your back on me, noble sir&mdash;se&ntilde;or, eccelenza, my lord,
+durchlaucht, mynheer, pan volkompzsnye, monsieur, gospodin, effendi. In
+what language shall I address you, to persuade you to grant the poor
+fugitive's request?"</p>
+
+<p>This unseemly mockery did not do the assailant any good, but lessened
+the effect of the spell which lay on Timar, who began to recover from
+his stupefaction, and to recollect that he had to deal with a condemned
+man who was really in mortal danger. He spoke angrily. "Have done! Name
+any sum&mdash;you shall have it! if you want an island, go and buy one in the
+Greek Archipelago, or in China; if you are afraid of pursuit, go to
+Rome, Naples, or Switzerland: give yourself out as a marquis, get on
+terms with the Camorra, and no one will touch you; I will give you
+money&mdash;but you won't get the island."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed? Your lordship is going to talk to me like that?" cried
+Krisstyan. "The drowning man has risen again, and is going to swim
+ashore&mdash;now just wait till I push you in again. You think to yourself,
+'Very well, booby, tell any one what you know; the first result will be
+that you will be arrested, clapped into jail, and forgotten there like a
+dog; you will soon be too dumb to tell anything more&mdash;or something else
+may happen.' I see what you think. But don't mistake the man you have to
+deal with. Now learn that you are tied hand and foot, and that you lie
+at my mercy like a miser gagged and bound by robbers, who must bear
+thorns thrust under his nails, his beard plucked out hair by hair, and
+boiling oil dropped on his skin, till he tells where his money is
+hidden. I shall do the same with you; and when you can bear no more,
+then cry 'enough.'"</p>
+
+<p>Timar listened with the deadly interest of a man on the rack to the
+words of the galley-slave. "Till now I have told not a soul what I know,
+on my honor. Except the few words which escaped me at Komorn, I have
+never spoken of you, and what I said then was neither fish nor flesh;
+but all I know of you is written down&mdash;I have it here in my pocket, and
+in four different documents, with different addresses. One is a
+denunciation to the Turkish Government, in which I reveal what Ali
+Tschorbadschi took from Stamboul, and what, as the confiscated property
+of a traitor, is due to the sultan. Even the jewels described to me by
+my father are enumerated there, piece by piece, with the account of
+their present possessors, and of how they came by them. In the second
+letter I inform the Viennese authorities of your murder of the pasha,
+and your theft of his property. My third letter is directed to Frau von
+Levetinczy at Komorn. I tell her what you did to her father, and how you
+came into possession of her mother's picture and the other treasures you
+presented to her. But I have told her something else<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> besides&mdash;the place
+you go to when you are not at home&mdash;the secret joys of the ownerless
+island&mdash;the intrigue with another woman&mdash;the deceit you practice on her.
+I tell her about No&eacute;mi and little Dodi. Now shall I drive another thorn
+under your nails?"</p>
+
+<p>Timar's breast heaved with heavy panting sobs.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, as you say nothing, we will proceed," said the cruel torturer.
+"The fourth letter is to No&eacute;mi. I tell her in it all she does not yet
+know: that you have a lawful wife out in the world&mdash;that you are a
+gentleman who has dishonored her, and can never be her husband; who only
+sacrificed her to his base lusts, and who is a murderer besides. What!
+you don't ask for mercy yet? Do you see those two towers? That is
+Tihany; there live pious monks, for it is a monastery; there I shall
+deposit the four letters, and beg the prior, if I do not return within a
+week, to forward them to their addresses. It would be no use for you to
+put me out of the way, for the letters would still reach their
+destination, and then you could not stay any longer in this country. You
+can not go home; for even if your wife forgave you her father's death,
+she would never forgive you No&eacute;mi. Justice would make inquiries, and
+then you would have to let out how you came by your riches.</p>
+
+<p>"The Turkish Government would bring you to trial, and the Austrian too.
+The whole world would soon learn to know you, and those who looked on
+you as a man of gold, would see in you the very scum of humanity. You
+could not even take refuge in the ownerless island, for there No&eacute;mi
+would shut the door against you; she is a proud woman, and her love
+would turn to hatred. No, there is nothing left to you but to fly from
+the world, like me; change your name, like me; slink secretly from town
+to town, and tremble when steps approach your door, like me. Now, shall
+I go or stay?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stay!" groaned the sufferer.</p>
+
+<p>"Oho! you give in!" cried the rascal; "then let us sit down again.
+First, will you give me the ownerless island?"</p>
+
+<p>A feeble subterfuge occurred to Timar's heart, which he used to gain
+time. "But the island belongs to No&eacute;mi, not to me."</p>
+
+<p>"A very true observation; but my request is not altered by that fact.
+The island belongs to No&eacute;mi, but No&eacute;mi belongs to you."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" asked Timar, wildly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now don't roll your eyes; don't you know you are fast bound? Let us
+take it all as it comes. The thing can be arranged. You write a letter
+to No&eacute;mi, which I will carry; meanwhile that fierce black brute will
+have died, and I can land safely. In the letter you will take leave of
+her; you will say that you cannot marry her, because unavoidable family
+complications stand in the way; that you have a wife, the beautiful
+Tim&eacute;a, whom No&eacute;mi will remember: you will write that you have taken care
+to provide for her suitably; that you have recalled her former betrothed
+from the New World, who is a fine handsome fellow, and ready to marry
+her and shut his eyes to the past. You will promise to provide for them
+both handsomely in the future, and give them your blessing and good
+wishes for a happy life together!"</p>
+
+<p>"You want No&eacute;mi too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what the devil! Do you think I want your stupid island<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> in order
+to live there like Robinson Crusoe? I shall want something to sweeten my
+life in that desert. Over there I have reveled in a surfeit of embraces
+from black-eyed, sable-tressed women; now, after seeing No&eacute;mi's golden
+locks and blue eyes, I am quite mad about her. And then she struck me in
+the face, and drove me away; I must have payment for that. Is there a
+nobler revenge than to give a kiss for a blow? I will be the master of
+the refractory witch; that is my fancy. And by what right do you deny
+her to me? Am I not No&eacute;mi's betrothed, who would make her my legal wife
+and bring her to honor, while you can never marry her, and can only make
+her unhappy?"</p>
+
+<p>The man drops boiling oil on Timar's heart: he wrung his hands in agony.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you write to No&eacute;mi, or shall I take these four letters over to the
+cloister?"</p>
+
+<p>In Timar's torture the words escaped him, "Oh, my little Dodi!"</p>
+
+<p>The fugitive laughed with a knavish grin. "I'll be his father, a very
+good sort of father&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At that instant Michael sprung from his seat, threw himself with a leap
+like a jaguar's on the convict, seized him by both arms before he could
+use his weapon, dragged him forward, gave him a blow in the back and a
+shove which sent him flying through the open door on to the landing,
+tumbling over and over: there he got up with difficulty, still giddy
+with his fall, stumbled over the first step, and limped groaning and
+swearing down the stairs. All below was darkness and silence. The only
+man besides these two in this winter castle was deaf, and sleeping off a
+carouse.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_V" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+<span class="subhead">WHAT HAS THE MOON TO TELL?</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Timar could have killed the man&mdash;he had him in his power; and Timar felt
+a madman's strength in his muscles: yet he did not kill him. Timar said
+to himself, the man is right; destiny must be fulfilled. Michael was not
+a miscreant who conceals one crime by another, but of that nobler sort
+which is willing to atone for past sin. He stepped out on to the
+balcony, and looked on with folded arms while the man left the castle
+and limped away toward the gate of the court-yard. The moon rose
+meanwhile over the Somogy hills, and illuminated the front of the
+castle.</p>
+
+<p>The dark figure on the balcony would be a good mark for any one who
+wished to aim at it. Theodor Krisstyan walked underneath, and looked up:
+the half-closed wound on the brow had reopened in his fall, and was
+bleeding; the blood ran down over his face. Perhaps Timar had gone
+outside just because he expected the furious man would shoot him out of
+revenge. But he only stood still in front of him, and began to mutter
+words without sound&mdash;just like Athalie. How well those two would suit!
+Krisstyan only spoke by movements of the mouth. He limped, for he had
+hurt one foot in his fall. He struck his left hand on the gun, which he
+still held, then seemed to say "No," shook his fist at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> Timar, and
+threatened him by gestures. This pantomime meant, "Not thus will I
+destroy you; I have another fate designed for you; just wait!" Timar
+looked after him as he left the yard, following him with his eyes along
+the snowy path as far as the ice-covered lake. He gazed after him till
+he could only see a black speck moving in the direction of the double
+towers on the high peak.</p>
+
+<p>Storm-clouds were rising over the Zala range. Timar saw them not. Round
+the Platten See a hurricane often arises in calm weather without the
+slightest warning; the fishermen who hear from afar the rustling of the
+leaves have not time to get back to the shore: the bursting storm drives
+a snow-cloud before it, from which tiny crystals drift down, sharp as
+needle-points. The cloud only covered half of the great panorama,
+wrapping the Tihany side, the peninsula with its rocky ridge and its
+gloomy church, in darkness, while the eastern level lay bright in the
+moonlight. The storm roared howling through the tall forests of the
+Aracs valley; the vanes on the ancient castle groaned like the cries of
+accursed spirits; and as the furious wind swept across the ice, it drew
+from the frozen floes such an unearthly music that one could fancy one
+saw the spirits which uttered it chasing each other, and yelling in
+their flight.</p>
+
+<p>Amidst the ghostly music it seemed to Timar as if he heard through the
+howling of the tempest an awful scream in the distance, such as only
+human lips can utter&mdash;a cry of anguish, despair, blasphemy, which would
+rouse the Seven Sleepers and make the stars shudder. After a few seconds
+it came again, but shorter and more feeble, and then only the music of
+the storm was audible.</p>
+
+<p>That ceased too. The snow-shower swept across the landscape; the storm
+held only one snow-cloud; the trees were still; the tones of the wind
+moaning over the ice-flats faded away in the distance with dying chords;
+the sky cleared, and all was once more silence. Timar's heart too was at
+rest; he had finished his career. No road lay open to him. He could go
+neither forward nor back; he had fled as long as life was possible; and
+now the abyss yawned in front of him which had no other shore. His whole
+life passed before him like a dream, and he knew that at last he was
+about to awake from it. His first desire for the possession of the rich
+and lovely girl was the origin of all these events; his life hung on it
+like the enigma of the Sphinx. When the riddle was solved, the Sphinx
+would fall into the abyss.</p>
+
+<p>How could he live on, unmasked before the world, unmasked before Tim&eacute;a,
+and before No&eacute;mi? Thrown down from the pedestal on which he had stood
+for years at home and abroad, under the halo of his sovereign's favor
+and his compatriots' veneration! How could he ever look again on the
+woman who had defended him in his rival's presence with such holy
+sorrow, when she learned that he was the very opposite of all she had
+admired in her husband, and that his whole life was a lie? And how could
+he meet No&eacute;mi when she knew he was Tim&eacute;a's husband? or dare to take Dodi
+on his lap? Nowhere, nowhere in the wide world was there a place where
+he could hide. It was as that man had said: there was nothing for him
+but to turn his back on the civilized world&mdash;like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> him; to change his
+name&mdash;like him; to sneak like a thief from one town to another&mdash;like
+him; to wander homeless on the face of the earth. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>But Timar knew of another place; there is the moon's icy
+countenance&mdash;what did No&eacute;mi say? There live those who cast their lives
+away because they have ceased to know desire; they go where nothing
+exists: if that man seeks out No&eacute;mi on the ownerless island and brings
+despair on the lonely creature by his news, she will follow him
+there&mdash;to the frozen star.</p>
+
+<p>Timar felt so tranquilized by this reflection that he had the
+self-control to direct his telescope on to the waning moon, on whose
+sphere shining spaces alternated with large, crescent-shaped shadows,
+and there came to choose a monstrous ravine, and say, "That shall be my
+dwelling; there will I wait for No&eacute;mi!"</p>
+
+<p>Then he went back to his room. The adventurer's burned clothes still
+glowed red on the hearth, the ashes showing the texture of the charred
+cloth. Timar laid fresh logs on, so that the fire might destroy every
+remnant. Then he threw on his cloak and left the house. He bent his
+steps toward the Platten See. The moon lighted the great ice-floes, an
+icy sun shining over a world of ice. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. "I come, I come!" cried
+Timar; "I shall soon know what you have to tell me&mdash;if you have called
+me I shall be there." He went straight to the great chasm. The poles
+erected by the good fishermen, the sticks with straw bundles on the top,
+warned every wanderer from afar to keep away&mdash;Timar sought them out.
+When he reached one of these danger-signals he stopped, took off his
+hat, and looked up to heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Years had passed away since last he prayed. In this dark hour the Great
+Being came to his mind who teaches the stars their courses and rides on
+the storm, and who has created only one creature which defies its
+Maker&mdash;man. In this hour he was impelled to uplift his soul to Him.
+"Eternal Might, I fly from Thee, yet to Thee I come. I come not to ask
+for mercy: Thou didst lead me, but I fled from Thy ways; Thou didst warn
+me, yet I would not hear. Now, with blind obedience, I depart for the
+hereafter: my soul will rest there in cold annihilation. I must atone
+for making so many miserable who have been mine and have loved me; take
+them into Thy protection, Thou Eternal Justice! I have sinned, and I
+give myself up to death and damnation&mdash;they are not guilty&mdash;I alone.
+Thou Everlasting Justice, who hast brought me to this, be just also to
+them. Protect, console these feeble women, the helpless child, and give
+me alone over to Thine avenging angels&mdash;I am judged and I am silent."</p>
+
+<p>He knelt down. Between the edges of the fissure the waves of the Balaton
+plashed softly. The gloomy lake often moans even in a dead calm, and
+when its surface is ice-bound it swells up in the clefts and roars like
+the sea. Timar bent down to kiss the waves, as one kisses his mother
+before he starts for a long journey&mdash;as one kisses the pistol before
+blowing out one's brains with it.</p>
+
+<p>And as he bent down to the water, a human head rose from the depths in
+front of him. Over the forehead of the upturned face was a black band
+covering the right eye; the other eye, bloodshot,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> glassy, and cold as
+stone, glared at him; through the open mouth the water ran out and in
+.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. the phantom sunk again.</p>
+
+<p>Timar sprung, half crazed, from his kneeling position, and stared after
+the ghostly apparition: it was as if it called on him to follow. Between
+the frozen margins the living water splashed. And again in the distance
+resounded the organ-tones which are the precursors of the nocturnal
+storm: amidst the howling of the approaching gale were heard the shrieks
+and groans of the miserable spirits, and higher and higher swelled the
+ghostly song. Again the whole frozen mass gave out the unearthly music,
+like the strings of myriad harps, until the sound grew into a booming
+roar, as though the lightning lured an awful, deafening melody from the
+resounding waves. The voices of the storm bellowed below the surface.
+With a frightful crash the floes were set in motion, and the tremendous
+pressure of the atmosphere closed once more the chasm in the ice.</p>
+
+<p>Timar fell trembling on his face upon the still quivering glassy mirror.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_VI" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+<span class="subhead">WHO COMES?</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The hoar-frost had turned the ownerless island into a silver wood;
+continuous mists had hung every twig with flowers of rime. Then came
+bright sunny days; they melted the rime into ice: every branch received
+a crystal cloak, as if the whole island were of glass. This glistening
+load bent down the boughs like those of a weeping-willow, and when the
+wind stirred the wood, the icicles struck together and rang like the
+silver bells in the fairy stories. Over the thickly frosted paths only
+one track led from the house, and that went to Therese's resting-place.
+This was No&eacute;mi's daily walk with little Dodi. Now there were only those
+two to go there; the third, Almira, lay at home at the last gasp: the
+ball had touched a vital part, and there was no hope of cure.</p>
+
+<p>It was evening. No&eacute;mi lighted her lamp, brought out her wheel, and began
+to spin. Little Dodi sat by her and played at water-mills, holding a
+straw against the revolving wheel.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother," said the boy suddenly, "bend down a little; I want to whisper
+that Almira may not hear."</p>
+
+<p>"Say it aloud; she won't understand, Dodi."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, she understands what we say&mdash;she knows everything. Tell me,
+will Almira die?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my little one."</p>
+
+<p>"And who will take care of us when Almira is dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"God."</p>
+
+<p>"Is God strong?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stronger than all the world."</p>
+
+<p>"More than father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your father gets his strength from God."</p>
+
+<p>"And the wicked man with his eye bandaged, why does God make him strong?
+I am so afraid of his coming again; he will take me away."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>"Don't be afraid; I won't let you go."</p>
+
+<p>"If he kills us both?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then we shall both go to heaven."</p>
+
+<p>"And Almira too?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; not Almira."</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because she is an animal."</p>
+
+<p>"And my little bird?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; not Louise."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't say that; she can fly up to heaven better than we can."</p>
+
+<p>"She can not fly as high as heaven."</p>
+
+<p>"Then there are no animals and no birds there? Well, then, I'd rather
+stop down here with papa and my little Louise."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, stay, my sweetheart!"</p>
+
+<p>"If papa were here he would kill the wicked man?"</p>
+
+<p>"The bad man would run away from him."</p>
+
+<p>"But when is father coming back?"</p>
+
+<p>"This winter."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"He said so."</p>
+
+<p>"Is everything true that father says? Does he never tell a story?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my boy; what he says is always true."</p>
+
+<p>"But it is winter now."</p>
+
+<p>"He will soon be here."</p>
+
+<p>"If only Almira does not die before he comes!"</p>
+
+<p>The boy got up from his stool and went to the groaning dog.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Almira, do not die! Don't leave us alone here! See, now, you can't
+go with us to heaven; you can only be with us here. Do stay. I will
+build you a lovely house like the one father built for me, and give you
+half of all I have. Lay your head on my lap and look at me. Don't be
+frightened; I won't let the naughty man come and shoot you again. If I
+hear him coming, I will fasten the door-latch; and if he puts his hand
+in, I will cut it off with my ax. I will take care of you, Almira."</p>
+
+<p>The wise creature raised its beautiful eyes to the boy, and wagged its
+tail gently on the ground; then it sighed, as if understanding all that
+was said. No&eacute;mi stopped spinning, leaned her head on her hand, and
+looked into the flickering lamp.</p>
+
+<p>When that dreadful man went raging away, he had yelled in at the window,
+"I shall come back and tell you what the man is whom you love." That he
+should come again was threat enough, but what did he mean? Who can
+Michael be? Can he be other than he seems? What will that horrid phantom
+have to tell, which has turned up from the antipodes? Oh, why had
+Michael not done as No&eacute;mi said&mdash;if only three feet of earth lay between
+them!</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi was no feeble woman; she had grown up in the desert and learned to
+trust in herself; the enervating influences of the outer world had never
+affected her mind. The wolf knows how to defend her lair against the
+dogs with claws and teeth. Since that fearful visit she always carried
+Michael's knife in her bosom, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>&mdash;it is keen and sharp. At night she
+fastened a beam across the door.</p>
+
+<p>As fate wills. If one comes first, she will be a happy and blessed
+woman; if the other, she will be a murderess&mdash;a child of wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"Almira, what is the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>The poor beast, struggling with death, raised its head painfully from
+the child's lap, and began to sniff the air with outstretched neck. It
+whined and growled uneasily, but the sound was more like a hoarse
+rattle. Whether its tones were of pleasure or anger, it was hard to
+distinguish. The animal scented the approach of a visitor. Who is it? Is
+it the good or the bad man? the life-giver or the murderer? Out there in
+the silence of the night the sound of steps was heard on the frosty
+grass. Who comes?</p>
+
+<p>Almira gasped heavily, struggling to get up, but fell back. She tried to
+bark, but could not. No&eacute;mi sprung from her seat, felt with her right
+hand under her shawl, and seized the handle of the knife.</p>
+
+<p>All three listened silently&mdash;No&eacute;mi, Dodi, and the dog. The steps come
+quickly nearer. Ah, now all three recognize them!</p>
+
+<p>"Papa!" cried Dodi, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi hastened to cut the rope which fastened the door-bolt with her
+sharp knife, and Almira raised herself on her fore-feet and suddenly
+gave utterance to a bark.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment Michael had No&eacute;mi and Dodi in his arms. Almira crawled
+to her beloved master, raised her head to him once again, licked his
+hand, then fell back dead.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you never leave us again?" faltered No&eacute;mi.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't leave us alone any more," begged little Dodi.</p>
+
+<p>Michael pressed both to his breast, and his tears streamed over his dear
+ones. "Never&mdash;never&mdash;never!"</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_VII" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE CORPSE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>With the last days of March the hard winter of this year came to an end.
+Balmy south winds and rain softened the ice of the Platten See, which
+broke up during a strong north wind, and drove over to the Somogy shore.</p>
+
+<p>Among the floating ice the fishermen found a body. It was already in an
+advanced stage of decomposition, and the features were unrecognizable;
+but yet the identity of the individual could be ascertained with the
+greatest certainty. These were the mortal remains of Michael Timar
+Levetinczy, who disappeared so suddenly after the memorable capture of
+the fogasch-king, and for whose return those at home had waited so long.
+On the body could be recognized clothes belonging to that gentleman&mdash;his
+astrakhan pelisse, his studs, and his initials marked on the shirt. His
+repeater was in the waistcoat-pocket, with his full name enameled on the
+case. But the strongest proof was afforded by the pocket-book, which was
+crammed with bank-notes, whose number could still be deciphered, and on
+which Tim&eacute;a's hand had embroidered "Faith, Hope, Charity;" while in the
+side-pocket were four other letters tied together, but the writing was
+completely obliterated, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> they had been four months exposed to the
+action of water. About the same time, the fishermen at Fured found Herr
+von Levetinczy's gun entangled in a net. Now all was explained.</p>
+
+<p>Old Galambos remembered all about it. The gracious master had said to
+him that if foxes and wolves came down on to the lake in the night, he
+would go out with his gun and have a shot at them.</p>
+
+<p>Many others then remembered that on that night a snow-storm had passed
+across the lake, which only lasted a short time. No doubt, to this was
+due the accident to the noble lord. The snow blew in his face; he did
+not notice the ice-rift, fell in, and was sucked under.</p>
+
+<p>When Tim&eacute;a received the first news of the event, she went at once to
+Siosok, and was present in person at the judicial inquiry. When she saw
+her husband's clothes she fainted away, and could only with difficulty
+he brought back to consciousness; but she held her ground, she was
+present when the disfigured remains were laid in the leaden coffin, and
+specially inquired for the ring of betrothal, which, however, was
+lost&mdash;the fingers were gone.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a had the dear relics brought to Komorn, and interred in the
+splendid family vault, with all the pomp which is permissible by the
+rites of the Protestant Church, to which the deceased had belonged. On
+the black velvet coffin, name and age were marked with silver nails.
+Senators and deputies carried him to the hearse. On the coffin lay his
+knightly sword, with a laurel crown, and the decorations of the
+Hungarian Order of St. Stephen, the Italian Order of San Maurizio, and
+the Brazilian Annunciata star.</p>
+
+<p>The pall-bearers were Hungarian counts, and on each side of the hearse
+walked the dignitaries of the city. Before it marched the
+school-children, the guilds with their banners, then the national guard
+in uniform and with muffled drums: behind came the ladies of the town
+all in black, and among them the mourning widow, with the white face and
+with weeping eyes. The celebrities of the country and the capital, the
+military authorities, even his majesty had sent a representative to the
+funeral of the venerated man. With them went a countless multitude of
+people, and amidst the tolling of all the bells the procession moved
+through the town. And every bell and every tongue proclaimed that a man
+was gone whose like would never be seen again: a benefactor of the
+people, a pillar of the nation, a faithful husband, and the founder of
+many a generous endowment.</p>
+
+<p>The "Man of Gold" was carried to his grave. Women, men, and children
+followed him through the whole town to the distant cemetery. Athalie too
+was in the procession. When they bore the coffin down to the open grave,
+the nearest friends, relations, and admirers of the deeply mourned
+followed him into the vault.</p>
+
+<p>Among them was Major Katschuka; in the crowd on the narrow steps he came
+in contact with Tim&eacute;a and&mdash;with Athalie. When they came up again,
+Athalie threw herself on the bier and prayed to be buried too: luckily
+Herr Johann Fabula was there, and he raised the beautiful lady from the
+ground, bore her back in his arms to the daylight, and explained to the
+astonished crowd how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> much the young lady had loved the dear deceased,
+who had been a second father to her.</p>
+
+<p>After the lapse of a few months a splendid monument was erected on which
+might be read this inscription in letters of gold:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">HERE LIES THE HIGH AND NOBLE LORD,<br />
+<span class="bigtext">MICHAEL TIMAR LEVETINCZY.</span></p>
+
+<p>Privy Councilor, President of Committees, Knight of the
+Orders of St. Stephen, St. Maurice, and the Annunciata.
+The great Patriot, the True Christian, the Exemplary
+Husband, the Father of the Poor, Guardian of the
+Orphan, Supporter of Schools, a Pillar of the Church.</p>
+
+<p>Regretted by all who knew him, eternally mourned by his</p>
+
+<p class="center">FAITHFUL WIFE TIM&Eacute;A.</p></div>
+
+<p>On the granite pedestal stands a marble statue of a woman bearing a
+funeral urn. Every one says this statue is a faithful likeness of Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+<p>And Tim&eacute;a goes every day to the burial-ground to deck the grass with
+fresh wreaths, and to water the flowers which smell so sweetly within
+the railings of the tomb: she waters them with showers of cold
+water&mdash;and burning tears.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Theodor Krisstyan could never have dreamed that he would be so highly
+honored after his death.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_VIII" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+<span class="subhead">DODI'S LETTER.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>A year and a half passed away since Michael came home to the ownerless
+island. He had not left it for a single day.</p>
+
+<p>Great events had occurred during this interval. Dodi had learned to
+write. What joy when the little dunce made his first attempt with chalk
+on a board: the letters are dictated to him&mdash;"write <i>l</i> and <i>&oacute;</i>, and
+then pronounce them both together." He was surprised that that meant
+<i>l&oacute;</i> (Hungarian for horse), and yet he had not drawn a horse. A year
+later he could address a birthday letter to his mother in beautiful
+copper-plate on white paper&mdash;it was a greater achievement than
+Cleopatra's Needle, covered with hieroglyphics.</p>
+
+<p>When Dodi's first letter was fluttering in No&eacute;mi's hand, she said, with
+a tear in her eye, to Michael, "He will write like you."</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you seen my handwriting?" asked Michael, in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"In the copies you set Dodi, to begin with; and then too in the contract
+by which you gave us the island. Have you forgotten?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it is so long ago."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you not write to any one now?"</p>
+
+<p>"No one."</p>
+
+<p>"You have not left the island for a year and a half; have you nothing to
+do now out in the world?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>"No. And I shall never have anything to do there again."</p>
+
+<p>"What will become of your business then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like to know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed. The thought troubles me that a clever man like you should
+be shut up here in the narrow bounds of this island, and only because
+you love us: if you have no other reason for staying here always except
+your great love for us, it pains me."</p>
+
+<p>"It is well, No&eacute;mi. I will tell you then who I was out there in the
+world, what I did there, and why I stay here. You shall know all: when
+you have put the boy to bed, come to me on the veranda and I will tell
+you everything. You will shudder and wonder over what you will hear; but
+in the end you will forgive me, as God forgave me when He sent me here."</p>
+
+<p>After supper No&eacute;mi put Dodi to bed, and then came out to Michael, sat
+beside him on the bench, and leaned on his breast. The full moon shone
+down on them between the leaves: it was now no longer the ghostly star,
+the ice-paradise of suicides, but a kind acquaintance and friend. And
+then Michael told No&eacute;mi all that had befallen him out in the world.</p>
+
+<p>The sudden death of the mysterious passenger, the sinking of the ship
+and the concealed treasures: how he had married Tim&eacute;a. He described her
+sorrow and her suffering; he spoke of Tim&eacute;a to No&eacute;mi as of a saint; and
+when he described faithfully the nocturnal scene when he had watched
+Tim&eacute;a from his hiding-place, and how the woman had defended her husband
+against evil report, against her own beloved, and against her own heart,
+how No&eacute;mi sobbed and how her tears flowed for Tim&eacute;a!</p>
+
+<p>And then Michael described to her what he had suffered in the fearful
+situation from which he could not free himself, having on one side the
+ties of his worldly position, his riches, and Tim&eacute;a's fidelity; while
+his love, his happiness, and every aspiration of his soul drew him in
+another direction. How sweetly No&eacute;mi consoled him with her soft kisses!
+.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>When, finally, he told her of the awful night in which the adventurer
+appeared at his lonely castle, of how despair had led him to the brink
+of the grave, and how, as he looked down into the waves, instead of his
+own face mirrored in the water, the dead face of his enemy emerged from
+the depths, and God's hand suddenly closed before his eyes the opening
+of the icy tomb&mdash;oh! how passionately No&eacute;mi pressed him to her breast,
+as if to hold him back from falling into the grave.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you know what I have left behind in the world, and what I have
+found here. Can you forgive me for what you have suffered and for all my
+offenses against you?" No&eacute;mi's tears and kisses replied.</p>
+
+<p>The confession had lasted long: the short summer's night was over, and
+it was daylight when Michael concluded the story of his life.</p>
+
+<p>He was forgiven. "My guilt is obliterated," said Michael. "Tim&eacute;a had
+recovered her freedom and her wealth. The vagabond had on my clothes and
+carried my pocket-book away with him: they will bury his body as if it
+were mine, and Tim&eacute;a is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> widow. I have given you my soul, and you have
+accepted it. Now all is equal."</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi took Michael's arm and led him into the room where the boy was
+asleep. He awoke under their kisses, opened his eyes, and when he saw
+that it was morning, he knelt up in his little bed, and with folded
+hands offered his morning prayer: "Dear Lord, bless my good father and
+my dear mother!"</p>
+
+<p>"All is forgiven, Michael! .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. One angel prays for you beside your
+bed, the other at your grave, that you may be happy."</p>
+
+<p>No&eacute;mi dressed little Dodi, and then her eyes rested thoughtfully on
+Michael. She wanted time to realize all she had heard from him, but
+women have quick perceptions.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly No&eacute;mi said to her husband, "Michael, you have still one duty to
+fulfill in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"What duty, and to whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"You owe Tim&eacute;a the secret that other woman revealed to you."</p>
+
+<p>"What secret?"</p>
+
+<p>"About the door which leads into her room from the secret passage. You
+must tell her of it. Some one might get in to her when she is asleep and
+alone."</p>
+
+<p>"But no one knows of this secret passage except Athalie."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that not enough?"</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Michael, you little know us women. You don't know what Athalie is, but
+I can guess. My tears flowed for Tim&eacute;a, because she is so wretched,
+because she does not love you, and you are mine; but if she felt for you
+what she feels for that other man, and if you spurned me for her sake,
+as that man did Athalie, then may God keep me from ever seeing her
+asleep and in my power!"</p>
+
+<p>"No&eacute;mi, you frighten me."</p>
+
+<p>"That is what women are. Did you never know it. Hasten to reveal this
+secret to Tim&eacute;a. I want her to be happy."</p>
+
+<p>Michael kissed No&eacute;mi on the brow. "You darling child! I dare not write
+to Tim&eacute;a, for she would recognize my writing; and then she could not be
+my widow, nor I your husband returned from the dead, and ascended into
+the paradise of your love."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I will write to her."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, no! I won't allow it. I have heaped gold and diamonds upon her,
+but she shall not have a word from you; that is one of my own treasures.
+I brought No&eacute;mi nothing of Tim&eacute;a's, and I will not give Tim&eacute;a anything
+of No&eacute;mi's. You shall not write her a word."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," said No&eacute;mi, smiling, "I know another who can write to
+Tim&eacute;a. Dodi shall write the letter."</p>
+
+<p>Timar burst out laughing. There was a world of humor, of child-like
+simplicity, happy pride, and deep emotion in the idea. Little Dodi will
+write to warn Tim&eacute;a of her danger. Dodi to Tim&eacute;a! .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Timar smiled
+with tears in his eyes. But No&eacute;mi was in earnest; she wrote the copy,
+and Dodi wrote the important lines on ruled paper, without a mistake. Of
+course he had no idea what he was writing. No&eacute;mi gave him a lovely
+violet ink, a decoction of marsh-mallow, and sealed the letter with
+white wax; and as there was no seal in the house, nor even a coin which
+could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> serve for one, Dodi caught a pretty golden-green beetle, and
+stuck it on the wax, instead of a coat of arms. The letter was given to
+the fruit-dealer to take to the post.</p>
+
+<p>Little Dodi's letter went off to Tim&eacute;a.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_IX" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br />
+<span class="subhead">"YOU STUPID CREATURE!"</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The lovely widow was in the deepest mourning. She went nowhere, and
+received no visitors.</p>
+
+<p>More than a year had passed since her husband's burial.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a had another name in the calendar&mdash;Susanna. Her first name came
+from her mother, who was a Greek; but the second she had received at her
+baptism. This she used when she had to sign documents, and St. Susanna's
+day was considered her <i>f&ecirc;te</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In provincial towns the <i>f&ecirc;te</i>-days are scrupulously kept. Relations and
+friends come without invitation, as a matter of course, to visit the
+person whose <i>f&ecirc;te</i> it is, and meet with a hospitable reception. Some
+noble families, however, have adopted the custom of sending invitations
+to these family-parties, by which it is made evident that those who do
+not receive cards may keep their congratulations to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>There are two St. Susannas in the year. Tim&eacute;a chose the one whose <i>f&ecirc;te</i>
+fell in winter, because then her husband used to be at home, and
+invitations were sent out a week beforehand. Of the other name no notice
+was taken. Tim&eacute;a was not in the calendar of Komorn, nor even in the
+national Pesth calendar, and at that time there were no others in the
+province; so he who wanted to know Tim&eacute;a's own <i>f&ecirc;te</i>-day must search
+far and wide.</p>
+
+<p>It fell in the merry month of May. At that season Herr Timar would have
+been long away on his journeys; nevertheless, Tim&eacute;a received every May a
+lovely bouquet of white roses on the day of St. Tim&eacute;a. Who sent it was
+not stated; it came by post, packed in a box.</p>
+
+<p>As long as Timar lived, Herr Katschuka had invariably received
+invitations to the Sunday receptions, which he as regularly answered by
+depositing his card at the door: he never came to the parties. This year
+the <i>f&ecirc;te</i>-day party had been omitted, as the faithful Susanna was in
+mourning. On the morning of the lovely May day on which Tim&eacute;a's
+beautiful white-rose bouquet usually arrived, a servant in mourning
+livery brought a letter to Katschuka. On opening the envelope the major
+found a printed invitation-card inside, which bore the name, not of
+Susanna, but of Tim&eacute;a Levetinczy, and had reference to that very day.
+Herr Katschuka was puzzled. What a curious notion of Tim&eacute;a! To draw the
+attention of all Komorn to the fact that Susanna, a good Calvinist, was
+keeping the day of the Greek saint Tim&eacute;a, and the more because she only
+sent out her invitations the same morning! It was an outrageous breach
+of etiquette. Herr Katschuka felt that this time he must accept. In the
+evening he took care not to be among the earliest arrivals. The time
+named was half past eight; he waited till half past nine, and then went.
+As he laid aside his cloak and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> sword in the anteroom, he asked the
+servant whether many visitors had arrived. The servant said no one had
+come yet. The major was startled. Probably the other guests had taken
+the shortness of the invitation badly, and decided not to appear; and he
+was confirmed in this idea when, on entering the saloon, he found the
+chandeliers lighted and all the rooms brilliantly illuminated&mdash;a sign
+that a large assembly was expected. The servant informed him that his
+mistress was in the inner room.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is with her?"</p>
+
+<p>"She is alone. Fra&uuml;lein Athalie has gone with her mamma to Herr Fabula's
+house&mdash;there is a great fish-dinner there."</p>
+
+<p>Herr Katschuka did not know what to think: not only were there no other
+guests, but even the people of the house had left the mistress alone.
+Tim&eacute;a awaited him in her own sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>And for this grand party, amid all this splendor, Tim&eacute;a was dressed
+entirely in black. She celebrated her <i>f&ecirc;te</i>-day in mourning: amid the
+radiance of the golden lusters and the silver candelabra a black
+mourning-dress, which, however, was not suited to the face of its
+wearer. On her lips hovered a charming smile, and a soft color lay on
+her cheeks. She received her single guest most cordially. "Oh, how late
+you are," she said, as she gave him her hand.</p>
+
+<p>The major pressed upon it a respectful kiss. "On the contrary, I fear I
+am the first."</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all. All I invited have already arrived."</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" asked the major, in astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>"In the dining-room&mdash;they are at table, and only waiting for you." With
+these words she took the arm of the wondering man, led him to the
+folding-doors, and threw them open; and then, indeed, the major knew not
+what to think. The dining-room was brilliantly lighted with wax candles;
+a long table was spread with places for eleven, and the same number of
+chairs were placed round it, but no one was there&mdash;not a single
+creature. But as the major threw a glance round he began to comprehend,
+and the clearer the riddle grew, the more his eyes were dimmed with
+tears. Before each of nine of the places stood a white-rose bouquet
+under a glass shade&mdash;the last of freshly gathered flowers; the roses of
+the others were dry, faded, and yellow.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, they are all there which greeted me on Tim&eacute;a's <i>f&ecirc;te</i>-day year
+after year&mdash;these are my birthday guests. There are nine of them. Will
+you be the tenth? Then all whom I have invited will have assembled."</p>
+
+<p>The major, in speechless delight, pressed the lovely hand to his lips.
+"My poor roses&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a did not refuse him that privilege&mdash;possibly she would have allowed
+even more; but the widow's cap stood in the way, and Tim&eacute;a felt it.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want me to exchange this cap for another?"</p>
+
+<p>"From that day I shall begin to live again."</p>
+
+<p>"Let us set apart for it my own <i>f&ecirc;te</i>-day, which every one knows."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but that is so far off."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>"Don't be alarmed, there is a St. Susanna in the summer; we will keep
+her day."</p>
+
+<p>"But that is distant too."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not an eternity to wait till then. Have you not learned patience?
+Remember, I want time to get used to happiness&mdash;it does not come all at
+once; and we can see each other every day till then&mdash;at first for a
+minute, and then for two, and then forever. Is it agreed?"</p>
+
+<p>The major could not refuse, she begged so sweetly.</p>
+
+<p>"And now the banquet is over," whispered Tim&eacute;a; "the other guests are
+going to sleep, and you must go home too. But wait a moment&mdash;I will give
+you back a word from your last birthday congratulations." She took from
+the fresh rose-bouquet one bud, touched it hardly perceptibly with her
+lips, and placed it in the major's button-hole; but he pressed the rose,
+this "one word," to his lips and kissed it. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>When the major had gone, and looked up from the street at the windows of
+the Levetinczy house, all was dark. He was the last to leave.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a learned gradually the art of growing used to hope and
+happiness&mdash;she had a good teacher. Thenceforward, Herr Katschuka came
+every day to the house; but the major did not keep to the prescribed
+arithmetical progression&mdash;first one minute, then two. The wedding was
+fixed for the day of St. Susanna, in August. Athalie too, it appeared,
+had resigned herself to her fate. Herr Fabula's wife was dead, and she
+accepted his hand; it is not unusual for a pretty girl to give herself
+to a rich widower&mdash;one knows how he treats his wife, and one runs less
+risk in taking him than some young dandy who has not yet sown his wild
+oats. Heaven bless their union!</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a proposed to give Athalie, as a dowry, the sum which Michael had
+offered her, and which she had refused. Every one thought she was trying
+to become a suitable wife for Herr Fabula. But Katschuka was not
+deceived; he saw through her black heart. He knew what he had done to
+Athalie, and the reckoning she had against Tim&eacute;a, and destiny never
+leaves such a score unsettled. Have you forgotten, you lovely white
+woman, that this other girl was mistress here when you came; that she
+was a rich and honored bride, wooed by men and envied by women? And from
+the moment when the water cast you on these shores, misfortune followed
+her&mdash;she was made a beggar, brought to shame, spurned by her betrothed.
+It was not your fault, but it was owing to you&mdash;you brought bad luck; it
+sat on your forehead, between your meeting eyebrows, and brought the
+ship to destruction, and the house in which you set foot; it ruins those
+who injure you, as well as those who set you free. And you are not
+afraid to sleep under the same roof with Athalie&mdash;this roof!</p>
+
+<p>Since Katschuka came to the house, Athalie had controlled herself, and
+treated even her mother kindly. She made tea for her which Frau Sophie
+liked, especially with plenty of rum in it&mdash;she made it herself; and was
+very good to the servants too, treating them also to tea, which, for the
+men-servants, almost might have been called punch; they could not say
+enough for her. Frau Sophie<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> guessed the reason of all this
+kindness&mdash;those servile natures always look for a reason if they receive
+a favor, and repay it with suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>"My daughter is currying favor with me, that I may go with her when she
+marries; she knows nothing of housekeeping&mdash;she can't even make
+milk-soup. That's why I am 'Dear mamma' all over the place, and get tea
+every night; as if I did not know what is in my daughter Athalie's
+mind!" She will soon know even more.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie carried her submissiveness to servility, in the presence of
+Tim&eacute;a and the major. Neither by look nor manner did she betray her
+former claims. When he came, she opened the door with a smile, showed
+him in to Tim&eacute;a, politely took part in the conversation, and, when she
+left the room, she might be heard singing next door. She had adopted the
+manners of a maid-servant.</p>
+
+<p>Once Tim&eacute;a asked her to play a duet, on which Athalie said, modestly,
+that she had forgotten her music&mdash;the only instrument she could play on
+now was the chopping-board. Since the great catastrophe, Athalie only
+played the piano when she knew no one could hear.</p>
+
+<p>Do not your nerves shudder when this woman looks you in the face? does
+not your blood run cold when she stoops to kiss your hand? when she
+laces your boots, is it not as if a snake wound round your foot? and
+when she fills your glass, does it not occur to you to look what may be
+in it? No, no. Tim&eacute;a has no suspicions; she is so kind, she treats
+Athalie like a sister; she has prepared a dowry of a hundred thousand
+gulden, and told Athalie so. She wished to make her happy, and thought
+she could console her for the loss of her first betrothed. And why
+should she not think so? Athalie herself refused him. When Timar offered
+her the money she said, "I will never have anything to do with the man
+again, either in this world or the next." Tim&eacute;a did not know of the
+visit Athalie had paid by night to her betrothed, when she was sent away
+by him alone and rejected; and Tim&eacute;a did not know that a woman will give
+up the man she hates to another woman, even less willingly than the one
+she loves; that a woman's hate is only love turned to poison, but still
+remains love. Katschuka, however, well remembered that nocturnal
+meeting; and therefore he trembled for Tim&eacute;a, but dared not tell her so.</p>
+
+<p>Only one day was wanting to the <i>f&ecirc;te</i> of St. Susanna. Tim&eacute;a had
+gradually laid aside her mourning, as if it was hard to separate from it
+entirely, and as if she wished to learn gladness slowly. First she
+allowed white lace at her neck; then she changed black for dark gray,
+and silk for wool; then white stripes appeared in the gray; and at last
+only the cap remained of the mourning for Michael Levetinczy. This also
+will disappear on the <i>f&ecirc;te</i>-day; the beautiful Valenciennes cap of the
+young wife is already made, and must be tried on.</p>
+
+<p>An unlucky fit of vanity induced Tim&eacute;a to wait to do this till the major
+arrived. For a young widow the lace cap is what the orange-blossoms are
+to a girl. But the major was late because the white-rose bouquet was
+late in arriving from Vienna: this was the second <i>f&ecirc;te</i>-day bouquet in
+one year. A whole shoal of letters and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> notes of congratulation had
+arrived for Tim&eacute;a, who had many acquaintances far and near. Tim&eacute;a had
+not opened a single one; they lay in a heap in a silver basket on the
+table, many of them directed by children, for Tim&eacute;a had a hundred and
+forty god-children in the town among the orphan boys and girls. She
+would have enjoyed these na&iuml;ve letters, but her thoughts were otherwise
+occupied.</p>
+
+<p>"Look what a comical one this is!" said Athalie, taking up one of the
+letters; "instead of a seal, there is a beetle stuck on the wax."</p>
+
+<p>"And what curious ink it is!" remarked Tim&eacute;a. "Put it with the
+others&mdash;we will read it to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Some secret voice whispered to Tim&eacute;a that she had better read it to-day.
+It was Dodi's letter which was put aside.</p>
+
+<p>But see, here comes the major; then all the hundred and forty
+god-children and their letters were forgotten, and Tim&eacute;a ran to meet
+him. Nine years ago the fortunate bridegroom had brought a splendid
+red-rose bouquet to another bride.</p>
+
+<p>And she too was present; and possibly the great mirror into which
+Athalie had cast her last glance on her bridal dress was the same which
+now stood there.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a took the lovely white bouquet from the major's hand, put it in a
+splendid S&egrave;vres vase, and whispered to him, "Now I will give you
+something: it will never be yours, but always mine, and yet it is a
+present for you." The pretty enigma issued from its box&mdash;it was the lace
+cap.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how charming!" cried the major, taking it in his hand. "Shall I try
+it on you?" The major's words died on his lips&mdash;he looked at Athalie.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a stood before the glass with childish pleasure, and took off her
+widow's cap; then she grew grave, put it to her lips and kissed it,
+while she said low and brokenly, "Poor Michael!"&mdash;and so she laid aside
+the last token of her widowhood.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Katschuka was holding the white cap.</p>
+
+<p>"Give it me that I may try it on."</p>
+
+<p>"Can I help you?"</p>
+
+<p>The hair was then dressed very high, so that Tim&eacute;a required assistance.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know how; Athalie will be so good."</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a spoke quite simply, but the major shuddered at the pallor which
+overflowed Athalie's face at the words: he remembered how Athalie had
+once said to Tim&eacute;a, "Come and put on my bridal veil!" And perhaps even
+she had not then thought what venom lay in the words. Athalie came to
+Tim&eacute;a to help her with the cap, which required to be fastened with pins
+on both sides. Athalie's hand trembled&mdash;and she pricked Tim&eacute;a's head
+with one of the pins.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you stupid creature!" cried Tim&eacute;a, jerking her head aside.</p>
+
+<p>The same words, before the same man!</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a did not notice, but Herr Katschuka saw what a flash flew over
+Athalie's face&mdash;a volcanic outburst of diabolical rage, a glow of
+flaming spite, a dark cloud of purple shame; the muscles quiv<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>ered as if
+the face was a nest of snakes stirred up by a rod. What murderous eyes!
+What compressed lips! What a bottomless depth of passion in that single
+look. Tim&eacute;a regretted her hasty word almost before it had passed her
+lips, and hastened to atone for it. "Don't be angry, dear 'Thaly; I
+forgot myself," she said, turning to kiss her. "You'll forgive me&mdash;you
+are not angry?"</p>
+
+<p>The next moment Athalie was as humble as a maid who has done some
+damage, and began in a flattering tone, "Oh, my dear pretty Tim&eacute;a, don't
+<i>you</i> be angry; I would not hurt your dear little head for the world.
+How sweet you look in your cap, just like a fairy!" And she kissed
+Tim&eacute;a's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>A shudder ran through the major's nerves.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_X" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_X"></a>CHAPTER X.<br />
+<span class="subhead">ATHALIE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The eve of the <i>f&ecirc;te</i>-day was also the eve of the wedding&mdash;a night of
+excitement. The bride and bridegroom were sitting together in Tim&eacute;a's
+room&mdash;they had so much to talk about.</p>
+
+<p>What do they say? Flowers only can understand flower-speech, the stars
+the language of the spheres, one pillar of Memnon answers another, the
+dead comprehend the Walkyrie, sleep-walkers the speech of the
+moon&mdash;lovers only the language of love. And he who has ever known this
+sacred emotion will not profane it, but guard it like a secret of the
+confessional. Neither the wise king in his marvelous song, nor Ovid in
+his love elegies, nor Hafiz in his ardent lays, nor Heine in his poems,
+nor Pet&ouml;fi in his "Pearls of Love," can describe it&mdash;it remains one of
+the secrets of eternity.</p>
+
+<p>At the back of the house was a noisy company&mdash;all the household. This
+had been a busy day with preparations for the morrow's feast&mdash;a culinary
+campaign; the press of work had lasted till late at night: then, when
+all had been roasted and iced according to orders, Frau Sophie found
+time to show herself liberal. She called together her staff, and
+bestowed upon them all the good things which had suffered during the
+heat of the fray&mdash;for this was unavoidable: what ought to have risen had
+sunk into a pancake; what ought to have jellied had melted into soup;
+here a cake had stuck to the mold and would not turn out whole; there a
+scrap, a cutting, a ham-bone, a piece of hare, a drumstick of pheasant
+remained over. All which could not be sent up to table was left as a
+rare tidbit for the servants, and they could boast of having tasted
+everything before the gentry were served.</p>
+
+<p>But where was Athalie?</p>
+
+<p>The whispering lovers thought she was with her mother, amusing herself
+in the kitchen. There, they thought she was of course with the bridal
+pair, and enjoying the bliss of being a silent witness of their
+happiness&mdash;or perhaps no one thought of her at all. And yet it might
+have been well if some one had interrupted themselves to ask, "Where is
+Athalie?"</p>
+
+<p>She sat alone in the room where she had seen Tim&eacute;a for the first time.
+The old furniture had long been replaced by new; only one embroidered
+stool remained as a remembrance. Athalie was sitting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> on it when Timar
+entered, in company with the pale maiden. There sat Katschuka, at work
+on Athalie's portrait, over which, while he gazed at Tim&eacute;a, his pencil
+drew a long line. Athalie sat alone there now. The portrait had long ago
+gone to the lumber-room; but Athalie seems to see it still, and the
+young lieutenant who begged her with his flattering tongue to smile a
+little and not to look so haughty.</p>
+
+<p>The room was dark; only the moon shone in, but it would soon go down
+behind the gable of the tall church of St. Andrew.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie reviewed the horrid dream called life. There were wealth, pride,
+and happiness in it: flatterers had called her the prettiest girl in
+Komorn, the queen, and pretended to adore her; then came a child by
+chance into the house&mdash;a ridiculous creature, a lifeless shadow, a cold
+doll, made to be an object of ridicule, to pass the time away by pushing
+it about. And only two years later, this vagrant, this white phantom,
+this reptile, was mistress of the house, and conquered hearts, turning a
+shipping-clerk, by the magic of her marble face, into his master's
+powerful enemy, into a millionaire, and causing the betrothed bridegroom
+to be false to his troth.</p>
+
+<p>What a wedding-day was that! The bride, recovering from her swoon, found
+herself lying alone on the ground. And when splendor and homage were at
+an end, she longed still to be loved&mdash;loved in secret and in
+concealment. This too was denied her.</p>
+
+<p>What a memory was that!&mdash;the path she had trodden to the house of her
+former lover and back again, twice in the darkness! her vain expectation
+next day! how she had counted the strokes of the clock, amidst the noise
+of the auction! And he never came! Then long years of painful
+dissimulation, of disguised humiliation! There was only one person who
+understood her&mdash;who knew that the balm of her heart was to see her rival
+share her passion, and fade away under it.</p>
+
+<p>And the one man who knew to his cost what Athalie really was&mdash;the only
+hinderance to Tim&eacute;a's happiness, the finder of the philosopher's stone
+which exercises everywhere a malevolent spell&mdash;that one man finds his
+death by a single false step on the ice!</p>
+
+<p>And then happiness comes back to the house, and no one is miserable but
+herself. In many a sleepless night the bitter cup had filled drop by
+drop up to the brim; only one was wanting to make it overflow; and that
+last drop was the insulting word, "You stupid creature!" To be scolded
+like a maid, humbled in his presence! Athalie's limbs shook with fever.
+What was now going on in the house? They were preparing for the morrow's
+wedding. In the boudoir whispered the betrothed couple; from the
+kitchen, even through all the doors, came the noise of the merry-making
+servants.</p>
+
+<p>But Athalie never heard the cheerful din: she heard only the whisper.
+.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. She had something to do during the night. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. There was no light
+in the room; but the moon shone in, and gave light enough to open a box
+and read the names of the poisons inside it&mdash;the unfailing drugs of an
+Eastern poisoner. Athalie chose among them, and smiled to herself. What
+a good jest it would be if to-morrow, at the moment of drinking some
+toast, the words<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> should die on the lips of the feasting guests! if each
+saw the face of his neighbor turn yellow and green; if they all sprung
+up crying for help, and began a demoniac dance, fit to make the devil
+laugh; if the bride's lovely face petrified into real marble, and the
+proud bridegroom made grimaces like a skull!</p>
+
+<p>Ping! .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. A string gone in the piano! Athalie started so that she
+dropped what she held, and her hands twitched convulsively. It was only
+a string, coward! Are you so weak? She put back the poisons in her box,
+leaving out only one, and that not a deadly poison, only a
+sleeping-draught. The first idea had not satisfied her; that triumph
+would not suffice: it would not be sufficient revenge for "You stupid
+creature!" The tiger cares not for a corpse, he must have warm blood.
+Some one will have to take poison, but that is only herself&mdash;a poison
+not to be bought at the chemist's: it lies in the eye of St. George's
+dragon. She slipped noiselessly out to go to the hiding-place whence a
+view of Tim&eacute;a's room could be obtained. The sweet murmurs and the
+caressing looks of the lovers will be the poison she must absorb in
+order to be fully prepared.</p>
+
+<p>The major was about to take leave, and held Tim&eacute;a's hand in his. Her
+cheeks were so rosy! Was any more deadly poison needed? They did not
+speak of love, and yet no third person had a right to listen. The
+bridegroom asked questions allowed to no one else. "Do you sleep alone
+here?" he asked, with tender curiosity, lifting the silken hangings of
+the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, since I became a widow."</p>
+
+<p>"(And before too," whispered Athalie, behind the dragon.)</p>
+
+<p>The bridegroom, availing himself of his privileges, pursued his
+researches in the bride's room.</p>
+
+<p>"Where does this door lead to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Into an anteroom where my lady visitors take off their cloaks; you came
+that way when you visited me the first time."</p>
+
+<p>"And the other little door?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never mind that&mdash;it only leads to my dressing-room."</p>
+
+<p>"Has it no exit?"</p>
+
+<p>"None; the water comes by a pipe from the kitchen, and flows away by a
+tap to the basement."</p>
+
+<p>"And this third door?"</p>
+
+<p>"You know that is the corridor by which you reach the principal
+entrance."</p>
+
+<p>"And where are the servants at night?"</p>
+
+<p>"The females sleep near the kitchen, and the men in the basement. Over
+my bed hang two bell-ropes, of which one goes to the women's room and
+the other to the men's."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no one in the adjoining room?"</p>
+
+<p>"There Sister Athalie and Mamma Sophie sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"Frau Sophie too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, to be sure. You want to know everything. To-morrow it will all be
+differently arranged."</p>
+
+<p>("To-morrow?")</p>
+
+<p>"And do you lock the door when you go to bed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never. Why should I? All my servants love me, and are trustworthy; the
+front door is barred, and I am safe here."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>"Is there nowhere a secret entrance to this room?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ha! ha! You seem to take my house for a mysterious Venetian palace!"</p>
+
+<p>("Is it your house? Did you build it?")</p>
+
+<p>"Do, to please me, lock all your doors before you go to bed."</p>
+
+<p>("He seems to guess what we shall all be dreaming of to-night.")</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a smiled, and smoothed away the frown from the bridegroom's grave
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, for your sake I will lock all my doors to-night."</p>
+
+<p>("See that they are secure," whispered the dragon.)</p>
+
+<p>Then followed a tender embrace and a long, long kiss.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you pray, my beloved?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; for the good God in whom I believe watches ever."</p>
+
+<p>("How if He slept to-day?")</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me, dearest Tim&eacute;a; skepticism does not become a woman. Her
+adornment is piety; leave the rest to men. Pray to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"You know I was a Moslem, and was never taught to pray."</p>
+
+<p>"But now you are a Christian, and our prayers are beautiful. Take your
+prayer-book to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for your sake I will learn to pray."</p>
+
+<p>The major found in the book of devotion Timar had once given his wife,
+the "prayer for brides."</p>
+
+<p>"I will learn it by heart to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, do so&mdash;do so!"</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a read it aloud. Athalie felt a diabolical rage in her heart. The
+man will be discovering the secret in the wall; he will keep Tim&eacute;a up
+praying all night. Curses, curses on the prayer-book!</p>
+
+<p>When the major left the anteroom, Athalie was already there. Tim&eacute;a
+called from her room to light the major to the door, thinking there
+would be a servant there as usual; but to-day, as we know, they were
+engaged in anticipating the morrow's feast. Athalie took the candle
+which stood outside, and lighted the major along the dark passage. The
+happy bridegroom had no eyes for any other woman's face&mdash;he saw only
+Tim&eacute;a, and thought it was the maid-servant who opened the door for him.
+He wished to be generous, and pressed a silver thaler into Athalie's
+hand; then he started as he recognized the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I kiss your hand, kind sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it you, fra&uuml;lein? A thousand pardons! I did not recognize you in the
+darkness."</p>
+
+<p>"No consequence, Herr Major."</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon my blindness, and give me back the insulting present, I beg."</p>
+
+<p>Athalie drew back with a mocking bow, hiding the hand which held the
+thaler behind her. "I will give it you back to-morrow&mdash;leave it with me
+till then; I have fairly earned it."</p>
+
+<p>Herr Katschuka swore at his stupidity. The inexplicable load he felt on
+his spirits seemed to have redoubled in weight. When he reached the
+street, he felt it impossible to go home, but went toward the main guard
+and said to the officer on duty, "My friend, I invite you to my wedding
+to-morrow; be so good as to let me share your watch to-night&mdash;let us go
+the rounds together."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>In the servants' hall there was great fun. As the major had rung for the
+porter when he left, the mistress was known to be alone, and her maid
+went up to ask for orders. Tim&eacute;a thought she was the one who had shown
+the major out, and told her to go to bed&mdash;she would undress herself; so
+the maid went back to the others.</p>
+
+<p>"If only we had a drop of punch now," said the porter, thrusting the
+door-key into his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>As if by magic, the door opened, and in came Fra&uuml;lein Athalie, bearing a
+tray of steaming glasses, which clinked cheerfully together. "Long live
+our dear young lady!" cried every one. Athalie set the tray on the table
+with a smile. Among the glasses stood a basin full of sugar well rubbed
+over with orange rind, which made it yellow and aromatic. Frau Sophie
+liked her tea made in that way, with plenty of rum and orange-sugar.
+"Are you not going to join us?" she asked her daughter.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks; I had my tea with our gracious lady. My head aches, and I shall
+go to bed." She wished her mother good-night, and told the servants to
+go to bed in good time, as they must get up early next day. They fell
+eagerly on the punch, and found it perfectly delicious. Only Frau Sophie
+did not like it. When she had tasted the first spoonful, she turned up
+her nose. "This tastes just like the poppy-syrup that bad nurses give
+the wakeful babies at night." It was so unpleasant to her that she could
+not take any more, but gave it to the cook's boy, who had never tasted
+anything so good before. She said she was tired with her day's work, and
+conjured the household not to oversleep themselves, and to take care no
+cat got into the larder; then she said good-night, and followed Athalie.</p>
+
+<p>When she entered their bedroom, Athalie was already in bed. The curtains
+were drawn; she knew Athalie's way of turning her back to the room and
+putting her head under the clothes. She hastened to get into bed.</p>
+
+<p>But she could not get rid of the taste of that single spoonful of punch,
+which spoiled her enjoyment of the whole supper. After she had put out
+the light, she leaned on her elbow and looked toward the figure in the
+other bed. She looked, till at last her eyes closed and she fell asleep.
+Her dreams carried her back to the servants' hall. She seemed to see
+them all asleep there&mdash;the coachman stretched on the long bench, the
+footman with his head on the table, the groom on the ground, using an
+overturned chair as a pillow, the cook on the settle, the house-maid on
+the hearth, and the cook's boy under the table. Before each his empty
+glass; she alone had not drunk hers. She dreamed that Athalie, with bare
+feet and in her night-dress, crept up behind her and said in her ear,
+"Why don't you drink your punch, dear mamma? Do you want more sugar?"
+and filled the glass with sugar up to the brim. But she noticed the
+repulsive smell. "I don't want it!" she said in her dream. However,
+Athalie held the steaming glass to her mouth. She turned away, and
+pushed the glass from her, and with that movement she upset the bottle
+of water which stood on the table beside her, and all the water poured
+into the bed. That thoroughly awoke her.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>And still she seemed to see Athalie before her with threatening looks.
+"Are you awake, Athalie?" she asked, uneasily; no answer. She listened;
+the sleeper could not be heard to breathe. Sophie got up and went to
+Athalie's bed; it was empty. She could not trust her eyes in the dim
+twilight, and felt with her hands: no one there. "Athalie, where are
+you?" she murmured, anxiously. Receiving no answer, a nameless horror
+numbed her limbs. She felt blind and dumb; she could not even scream.
+She listened, and then fancied she was deaf: neither inside nor out was
+there the faintest sound. Where could Athalie be?</p>
+
+<p>Athalie was in the secret room&mdash;she had been there a long time.</p>
+
+<p>The patience of that woman, to be so long learning the prayer by heart!
+At last Tim&eacute;a shut the book and sighed deeply. Then she took the candle
+and looked to see that all the doors were locked. She looked behind the
+curtains; her bridegroom's words had implanted fear in her breast, and
+she looked round carefully to see if any one could get in. Then she went
+to the dressing-table, took down her plaits, wound her thick hair round
+and round her head, and put a net over it. She was not free from vanity,
+this young creature: that her hands and arms might be white, she rubbed
+them with salve and put on long gloves. Then she undressed, but before
+she lay down she went behind the bed, opened a closet, and took out a
+sword-hilt with a broken blade; looking tenderly at it, she pressed it
+to her breast. Then she put it under her pillow; she always slept with
+it there. Athalie saw it all. Tim&eacute;a extinguished the light, and Athalie
+saw no more; she only heard the clock tick, and had the patience to
+wait.</p>
+
+<p>She guesses when sleep will close Tim&eacute;a's eyes&mdash;that is the time. A
+quarter of an hour seems like an eternity; at last the clock strikes
+one. The picture of St. George with his dragon (which is by no means
+dead) moves aside, and Athalie comes out, barefoot, so that no sound is
+heard. It is quite dark in the room&mdash;the shutters are shut and curtains
+drawn; her groping hand finds Tim&eacute;a's pillow; she feels underneath, and
+a cold object meets her hand. It is the sword-hilt. What hell-fire runs
+through her veins from the cold steel! she too presses it to her heart.
+She draws the edge of the blade through her lips and feels how sharp it
+is. But it is too dark to see the sleeper&mdash;one can not even hear her
+gentle breathing; the blow must be well aimed, and Athalie bends her
+head to listen.</p>
+
+<p>The sleeper moves, and sighs aloud in her dream, "Oh, my God!" Then
+Athalie strikes in the direction of the sigh. But the blow was not
+mortal: Tim&eacute;a had covered her head with her right arm, and the sword
+only hit that, though the sharp steel cut through the glove and wounded
+her hand. She started up and rose on her knees in the bed; then a second
+blow caught her head, but the thick hair blunted it, and the sword only
+cut the forehead down to the eyebrow.</p>
+
+<p>Now Tim&eacute;a seized the blade with her left hand. "Murderer!" she screamed,
+sprung out of bed, and while the sharp edge cut the inside of her left
+hand, she caught the enemy with her wounded right hand by the hair. She
+felt it was a woman's, and now knew who was before her.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>There are critical moments in which the mind traverses a chain of
+thought with lightning speed: this is Athalie; her mother is next door;
+they want to murder her out of revenge and jealousy; it would be vain to
+call for help, it is a struggle for life. Tim&eacute;a screamed no more, but
+collected all her strength in order, with her wounded hand, to draw down
+her enemy's head and get the murderous weapon from her.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a was strong, and a murderer never puts forth his full strength.
+They struggled silently in the darkness, the carpet deadening their
+footfalls. Suddenly a cry sounded from the next room. "Murder!" screamed
+the voice of Frau Sophie: at the sound Athalie's strength gave way.</p>
+
+<p>Her victim's blood streamed over her face. In the next room was heard
+the sound of falling glass; through the broken window Frau Sophie's
+screeching voice was heard resounding down the quiet street, "Murder,
+murder!"</p>
+
+<p>Athalie let go the sword in terror, and put up both hands to loosen
+Tim&eacute;a's fingers from her hair: now she is the one attacked and she the
+one alarmed. When she got her hair free, she pushed Tim&eacute;a away, flew to
+the opening of the hiding-place, and drew the picture gently over the
+entrance.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a tottered forward a few steps with the sword in her hand, and then
+fell swooning on the carpet.</p>
+
+<p>At Frau Sophie's cry, double-quick march was heard in the street&mdash;the
+patrol was coming&mdash;the major was the first to reach the house. Frau
+Sophie knew him and called out, "Quick, quick! they are killing Tim&eacute;a!"
+The major tore at the bell, thundered at the door, but no one came; the
+soldiers tried to burst it in, but it was too strong and would not give
+way. "Wake the servants," shouted the major. Frau Sophie ran, with the
+courage born of great fear, through the dark rooms and passages,
+knocking up against doors and furniture, till she came to the servants'
+rooms. Her dream had come true. The whole household lay asleep: a
+burned-down candle flickered on the table, and threw uncanny shadows on
+the grotesque group.</p>
+
+<p>"There are murderers in the house!" screamed Frau Sophie, in a voice
+quivering with terror; the only answer was a heavy snore. She shook some
+of the sleepers, called them by name, but they only sunk back without
+waking up. Blows could be heard on the house door. The porter too was
+asleep, but the key was in his pocket; Frau Sophie got it out with great
+difficulty, and ran through the dark passages, down the dark stairs, and
+along the dark hall to open the door, while the fearful thought went
+with her&mdash;how if she were to meet the murderer? and an even more
+frightful doubt pursued her&mdash;suppose she should recognize that murderer?</p>
+
+<p>At last she got to the door, found the key-hole, and opened it. A bright
+light burst in&mdash;there was the military patrol and the town-watchmen with
+their lanterns. The captain of the guard had come, and the nearest
+army-surgeon, all only half dressed in the first clothes they could
+find, with a pistol or a naked sword in their hand.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Katschuka rushed up the steps straight to the door which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> led to
+Tim&eacute;a's room&mdash;it was locked on the inside: he put his shoulder against
+it and burst the lock.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a lay before him on the ground, covered with blood, and unconscious.
+The major raised her and carried her to the bed. The surgeon examined
+the wounds, and said none of them was dangerous, the lady had only
+fainted. As soon as his anxiety for his beloved one was relieved, the
+thirst for vengeance awoke in the major&mdash;"Where is the murderer?"
+"Singular," said the officer; "all the doors were locked inside&mdash;how
+could any one get in, and how could he get out?" Nowhere was there a
+suspicious mark; even the instrument of murder, the broken sword, a
+treasure kept by Tim&eacute;a herself, and generally put away in a velvet box,
+lay blood-stained on the ground. The official physician now arrived:
+"Let us examine the servants." They all lay sound asleep, and the doctor
+found that none of them was shamming: they were all drugged. Who could
+have done it?</p>
+
+<p>Her mother gazed at him in silence and could not answer. She did not
+know. The captain opened the door of Athalie's room, and they all went
+in, Frau Sophie following half fainting; she knew the bed must be empty.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie was in bed and asleep. Her white night-dress was buttoned up to
+her neck, her hair fastened into an embroidered cap, her lovely hands
+lay on the quilt. Face and hands were clean, and she slept.</p>
+
+<p>Frau Sophie leaned stupefied against the wall when she saw Athalie. "She
+too has been drugged," said the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>The army-surgeon came up and felt her pulse: it was calm. No muscle
+moved on her face, no quiver betrayed her consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>She could deceive every one by her marvelous self-control; all but
+one&mdash;the man whose beloved she had tried to murder.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she really asleep?" asked the major.</p>
+
+<p>"Feel her hand," said the doctor; "it is quite cool and calm."</p>
+
+<p>Athalie felt the major take hold of her hand. "But just look, doctor,"
+said he; "if you look closely you will see under the nails of this
+beautiful hand&mdash;fresh blood!"</p>
+
+<p>At these words Athalie's fingers suddenly clinched, and the major felt
+as if eagle's claws were running into his hand. She laughed aloud and
+threw off the bedclothes. Completely dressed, she sprung up, looked the
+astonished men proudly up and down, cast a triumphant glance at the
+major, and threw a contemptuous look at her mother.</p>
+
+<p>The poor woman could not bear it, and sunk fainting to the ground.</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_XI" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE LAST STAB.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>In the archives of the Komorn Court, one of the most interesting trials
+is that of Athalie Brazovics. The woman's defense was masterly; she
+denied everything, knew how to disprove everything, and when they
+thought they had caught her, she managed to throw such mystery over it
+all, that her judges knew not where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> to have her. Why should she murder
+Tim&eacute;a? She was herself engaged, and had good prospects, while Tim&eacute;a was
+her benefactress, and had promised her a rich dowry.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, no traces of the murder could be found except in Tim&eacute;a's
+room. Nowhere was a bloody rag or handkerchief to be found&mdash;not even the
+ashes of anything which could have been burned. Who had drugged the
+servants could not be ascertained. The household had supped together,
+and among the various sweets and foreign fruits there might have been
+something which stupefied them. Not a drop of the suspected punch was to
+be found; even the glasses which had held it were all washed out when
+the patrol entered.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie maintained that she also had taken something that evening which
+tasted peculiar, and that she had fallen so fast asleep that she neither
+heard her mother's cry nor the noises afterward, and only awoke when the
+major touched her hand. The one person who had found her bed empty half
+an hour before was her own mother, who could not give evidence against
+her. Her strongest point was that Tim&eacute;a had locked all the doors, and
+was found insensible. How could a murderer get in and get out again? And
+if there had been an attempt to murder, why should she be suspected more
+than the rest?</p>
+
+<p>The major remained with Tim&eacute;a till late at night; perhaps if he left,
+some one might creep into the room again. They did not even know whether
+the assassin was man or woman. The only one who knew, Tim&eacute;a, did not
+betray it, but kept to her assertion that she could not remember
+anything about it; her alarm had been so great that everything had faded
+from her memory like a dream.</p>
+
+<p>She could not accuse Athalie, and was not even confronted with her.</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a was still crippled by her wounds, which healed slowly; but the
+shock to her nerves was more serious than the bodily injury, and she
+trembled for Athalie. Since that dreadful night she was never left
+alone&mdash;a doctor and a nurse watched her by turns. By day the major
+hardly left her side, and the magistrate often visited her in order to
+cross-examine her; but as soon as Athalie was mentioned. Tim&eacute;a was
+silent, and not another word could be extracted from her.</p>
+
+<p>The doctor advised at last that she should hear some amusing reading
+aloud. Tim&eacute;a had left her bed, and sat up to receive visitors.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Katschuka proposed to open the birthday letters which had been put
+aside on that eventful day. That would be as good as anything&mdash;the na&iuml;ve
+congratulations of the god-children to the miraculously saved lady,
+which no one had yet read. Tim&eacute;a's hands were still bandaged. Herr
+Katschuka opened the letters and read them aloud. The magistrate, too,
+was present. The patient's face brightened during the reading, which
+seemed to do her good.</p>
+
+<p>"What a curious seal this is," said the major, as he took up a letter
+which had a golden beetle stuck on the wax.</p>
+
+<p>"Very odd," said Tim&eacute;a; "I noticed it too."</p>
+
+<p>The major opened it. After he had read the first line&mdash;"Gra<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>cious lady,
+there is in your room a picture of St. George"&mdash;the words stuck in his
+throat, his eyes rolled wildly, and while he read on, his lips turned
+blue, and cold sweat stood on his brow: suddenly he threw the letter
+from him, and rushed like a madman to the picture, burst it in with his
+fist, and tore it and its heavy frame from the wall. There behind it
+yawned the dark depths of the secret chamber.</p>
+
+<p>The major dashed into the darkness, and returned in a moment with the
+evidence of the murder&mdash;Athalie's bloody night-dress&mdash;in his hand. Tim&eacute;a
+hid her face in horror. The magistrate picked up the letter, put it in
+his pocket, and took possession of the proofs.</p>
+
+<p>Other things were found in this hiding-place: the box of poisons, and
+Athalie's diary, with the frightful confessions which threw light on her
+soul's dark abysses, as the phosphoric mollusks do in the coral forests
+of the sea. What monsters dwell there! Tim&eacute;a forgets her wounds; with
+clasped hands she implores the gentlemen, the doctor, the magistrate,
+and her betrothed too, to tell no one, and keep the whole thing secret.
+But that would be impossible; the proofs are in the hands of justice,
+and there is no longer hope for Athalie except in God's mercy. And Tim&eacute;a
+can no longer disregard the legal summons: as soon as she can leave her
+room, she must appear in court and be confronted with Athalie. This was
+a cruel task. Even now she would only say that she remembered nothing
+about the murderous attack.</p>
+
+<p>The marriage with the major had to be hurried on, for Tim&eacute;a was to
+appear in court as Katschuka's wife. As soon as her health allowed, the
+wedding took place quite privately, without any festivity, without
+guests or banquet. Only the clergyman and the witnesses, the magistrate
+and the doctor, were present. No other visitors were admitted.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Human justice would not spare her the painful scene: once again she had
+to be brought face to face with her murderess. Athalie had no dread of
+this meeting, but awaited with impatience the moment when her victim
+would appear. If with no other weapon, she wished by her eyes to inflict
+one more stab on Tim&eacute;a's heart. But she started when the official
+said&mdash;"Call Emerich Katschuka's wife!"</p>
+
+<p>Katschuka's wife! Already married to him! But in spite of that she
+showed unconcealed satisfaction when Tim&eacute;a entered, and Athalie saw the
+face paler than ever, the red line over the marble forehead, the scar
+from the murderous blow; this memento was from her. Her lovely bosom
+swelled with joy when Tim&eacute;a was required to swear in the name of the
+living God that she would answer truly, and all she said was true, and
+when Tim&eacute;a drew off her glove and raised her hand, so that the
+disfiguring scar of a frightful sword-cut was visible. That, too, was a
+wedding-present from Athalie. And Tim&eacute;a swore with that maimed and
+trembling hand that she had forgotten everything, and could not even
+remember whether the murderer with whom she had struggled was a man or a
+woman.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>"Fool!" muttered Athalie between her teeth. (Did they not struggle hand
+to hand?) "What I dared to do, you dare not even accuse me of."</p>
+
+<p>"We are not asking that," said the president. "We only ask you, Did this
+letter, in a child's writing, and sealed with a beetle, really come to
+you by post, and on the very day of the attack? Was it then sealed, and
+did no one know its contents?"</p>
+
+<p>Tim&eacute;a answered all these questions calmly with Yes or No.</p>
+
+<p>Then the president turned to Athalie&mdash;"Now listen, Athalie Brazovics, to
+the contents of this letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"'<span class="smcap">Gracious Lady</span>,&mdash;There is in your room a picture of
+St. George on the wall. This picture covers a
+hiding-place, to which the entrance lies through the
+lumber-room. Have this hole walled up, and watch over
+your valuable life. Long and happy may it be.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right;"><span class="smcap">Dodi</span>.'"</p></div>
+
+<p>And then the president raised a cloth from the table. Under it lay the
+accusers of Athalie&mdash;the bloody night-dress, the box of poisons, and the
+diary.</p>
+
+<p>Athalie uttered a scream like a mortally wounded animal, and covered her
+face with both hands, and when she took them away, that face was no
+longer pale, but fiery red. She had a narrow black ribbon round her
+neck; she tore it off now with her two hands, and threw it away, as if
+to bare the lovely neck for the headsman, or perhaps rather to utter
+more easily what now burst from her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is true I tried to kill you, and I am only sorry I did not
+succeed. You have been the curse of my life, you pale-faced ghost!
+Through you I have incurred eternal damnation. I tried to kill you&mdash;I
+owed it to myself. See now, there was enough poison to send a whole
+wedding company into eternity; but I longed for your blood. You are not
+dead, but my thirst is quenched, and I can die now. But before the
+executioner's ax severs my head from my body, I will give your heart one
+more stab, from which it will never be healed, and whose torture shall
+disturb your sweetest embraces. I swear! hear me, oh, God! hear me, ye
+saints and angels, and devils! all ye in heaven and earth!&mdash;be gracious
+to me only so far as I speak what is true." And the raving woman sunk on
+her knees, and threw up her hands, calling heaven and earth to witness.
+"I swear! I swear that this secret&mdash;the secret of the hidden door&mdash;was
+only known to one person besides myself, and that one was <span class="smcap">Michael Timar
+Levetinczy</span>. The day after he learned this secret from me he disappeared.
+If any one has told this, then <span class="smcap">Michael Timar Levetinczy did not die next
+day</span>! He lives still, and you can look for your first husband's return.
+So help me God, it is true that Timar lives! He whom we buried in his
+stead was a thief who had stolen his clothes. And now live on with this
+stab in your heart."</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_XII" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br />
+<span class="subhead">THE PENITENT IN "MARIA-NOSTRA."</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The court sentenced Athalie to death for attempted murder. The king's
+mercy commuted this sentence into imprisonment for life in the
+penitentiary of "Maria-Nostra."</p>
+
+<p>Athalie still lives. Forty years have passed since then, and she must be
+nearly seventy years old, but her defiant spirit is unbroken; she is
+obstinate, silent, and unrepentant. When the other prisoners are taken
+to church on Sundays, she is locked into her cell, because it is feared
+that she might disturb the devotions of the rest. Once when she was
+forced to go there, she yelled out to the priest "Liar!" and spat on the
+altar.</p>
+
+<p>At various times during this period great acts of amnesty have been
+passed, and on national festivals hundreds of prisoners have been
+liberated, but this one woman was never recommended to mercy. Those who
+advised her to repent in order to secure a pardon received the reply,
+"As soon as I am free I will kill that woman!"</p>
+
+<p>She says it still; but she whom she hates has long fallen into dust,
+after suffering for many years from that last stab inflicted on her poor
+sick heart.</p>
+
+<p>After the words "Timar still lives," she never could be happy again:
+like a cold phantom it overshadowed her joy; her husband's kisses were
+forever poisoned to her. And when she felt the approach of death, she
+had herself taken to Levetinczy, that she might not be placed in the
+tomb where God knows who mouldered away under Timar's name. There she
+sought out a quiet willow grove on the Danube shore, in the part nearest
+to where her father, Ali Tschorbadschi, rested at the bottom of the
+river: as near to the ownerless island as if some secret instinct drew
+her there. From her grave the island rock was visible.</p>
+
+<p>No blessing rested on the wealth Timar left behind him.</p>
+
+<p>The only son Tim&eacute;a bore to her second husband was a great spendthrift:
+in his hands the fabulous wealth vanished as quickly as it had grown,
+and Tim&eacute;a's grandson lives on the pension he receives from the fund
+bequeathed by Timar for the benefit of poor nobles. This is all that is
+left of his gigantic property.</p>
+
+<p>On the site of his Komorn palace stands another building, and the
+Levetinczy tomb has been removed on account of the fortifications. Of
+all the former splendor and riches not a trace remains.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>And what is passing meanwhile on the ownerless island?</p>
+
+
+
+<h3 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTH_XIII" id="CHAPTER_FIFTH_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
+<span class="subhead">NOBODY.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Since Timar's disappearance from Komorn forty years had passed. I was in
+the alphabet-class when we schoolboys went to the funeral of the rich
+lord, of whom people said afterward he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> perhaps not dead, only
+disappeared. Among the people the belief was strong that Timar lived,
+and would some day reappear; possibly Athalie's words had set this idea
+afloat&mdash;at any rate, public opinion was strongly in favor of it.</p>
+
+<p>The features, too, of the lovely lady came before me, whom every Sunday
+I admired as she sat near the organ; her seat was the nearest in the pew
+to the chancel. She was so radiant with beauty and yet so gentle. I well
+remember the excitement when it was reported that a companion of this
+beautiful woman had tried to murder her in the night. I saw the
+condemned prisoner taken to the place of execution in the headsman's
+cart; it was said that she would be beheaded. She had on a gray gown
+with black ribbons, and sat with her back to the driver; before her was
+a priest holding a crucifix. The market-women overwhelmed her with
+abuse, and spat at her; but she gazed indifferently before her, and
+noticed nothing.</p>
+
+<p>The people thronged round the cart; curious boys hurried in troops to
+see the lovely head separated from the neck. I looked on fearfully from
+a closed window&mdash;oh, dear, if she had looked at me by chance! An hour
+later the crowd returned grumbling; they were disappointed that the
+beautiful criminal had been respited. She had only been taken up on to
+the scaffold, and there informed of the pardon.</p>
+
+<p>And then after that I saw that other lovely rich lady every Sunday in
+church; but now with a red mark across her forehead, and each year with
+a sadder and paler face. All sorts of stories were told of her; children
+heard them from their mothers, and repeated them in school.</p>
+
+<p>And, finally, time swept the whole story out of people's memory.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago, an old friend of mine, a naturalist, who is celebrated
+as a collector of plants and insects throughout the world, described to
+me the singular district between Hungary and Turkey, which belongs to
+neither State, and is not any one's private property.</p>
+
+<p>On this account it offers a veritable California to the ardent
+naturalist, who finds there the rarest flora and fauna. My old friend
+used to visit this region every year, and stay there for weeks zealously
+collecting specimens: he invited me to share his autumn expedition. I am
+somewhat of a dilettante in this line, and as I had leisure, I
+accompanied my friend to the Lower Danube.</p>
+
+<p>He led me to the ownerless island. My learned friend had known it for
+five-and-twenty years past, when it was in great part a wilderness, and
+all the work in progress.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from the reed-beds, which still surround and conceal the island,
+it is now a complete model farm. Surrounded by a dike, it is protected
+from any floods, and is intersected by canals, provided with water by a
+horse-power pumping-engine.</p>
+
+<p>When an enthusiastic gardener gets here, he can hardly tear himself
+away; every inch of ground is utilized, or serves to beautify the place.
+The tobacco grown here has the most exquisite aroma, and, when properly
+treated, is a first-class product; the bee-hives look from a distance
+like a small town, with one-storied houses and many-shaped roofs. The
+rarest fowls are bred in one in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>closure, and on the artificial lake swim
+curious foreign ducks and swans. In the rich meadows graze short-horned
+cows, angora goats, and llama sheep with long, soft, black hair.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to see that the owner of the island understands luxury&mdash;and
+yet that owner never has a farthing to call his own; no money ever
+enters the island. Those, however, who need the exports, know also the
+requirements of the islanders&mdash;such as grain, clothes, tools, etc.&mdash;and
+bring them for barter.</p>
+
+<p>My learned friend used to bring garden seeds and eggs of rare poultry,
+and received in exchange curious insects and dried plants, which he sold
+to natural history collections and foreign museums, and made a good
+profit out of them, for science is not only a passion but a means of
+sustenance. But what surprised me most agreeably was to hear pure
+Hungarian spoken by the inhabitants, which is very rare in that
+neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>The whole colony consisted of one family, and each was called only
+by his Christian name. The six sons of the first settler had married
+women of the district, and the numbers of grandchildren and
+great-grandchildren already exceeded forty, but the island maintained
+them all. Poverty was unknown; they lived in luxury: each knew some
+trade, and if they had been ten times as many, their labor would have
+supported them. The founders of the family still superintended the work.</p>
+
+<p>The male members of the family learn gardening, carpentry, coopering,
+preparation of tobacco, and the breeding of cattle; among them are
+cabinet-makers and millers; the women weave Turkish carpets, prepare
+honey, make cheese, and distill rose-water; and all these occupations go
+on so naturally that it is never necessary to give orders; each knows
+his duty, fulfills it untold, and takes pleasure in its completion. The
+dwellings of the ever-growing families already form a whole street; each
+little house is built by division of labor, and the elders help the
+newly married. Strangers who visit the island are received by the
+nominal head of the family, whom the others call father. Strangers know
+him under the name of Deodatus. He is a well-built man of over forty,
+with handsome features; he it is who arranges the terms of barter and
+shows visitors over the colony.</p>
+
+<p>When we arrived Deodatus received us with the kind cordiality one
+exhibits to old friends; the naturalist was a regular annual visitor.
+The subjects of our discourse were pomology, horticulture, botany,
+entomology, in all of which Deodatus seemed to be well versed; in
+everything pertaining to gardens and cattle-breeding he had reached a
+high standard. I could not conceal my surprise, and asked him where he
+had learned it.</p>
+
+<p>"From our father," answered Deodatus, with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Who is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will see him when we assemble in the evening."</p>
+
+<p>It was the time of apples. All the young people and women were busy
+gathering the pretty golden-yellow, brown, and crimson fruit. It lay in
+pyramids on the green turf, like cannon-balls inside a fortress. Joyous
+cries resounded through the island; when the sun set, a bell gave the
+signal for the holiday feast. At this signal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> every one hastened to fill
+baskets with the remaining fruit, which was then carried into the
+apple-store.</p>
+
+<p>We also, with Deodatus, bent our steps to the place whence the sound
+came. The bell was on the top of a small wooden building, which, as well
+as its little tower, was overgrown with ivy; but one could guess by the
+fantastic forms of the columns under the veranda, that the architect had
+carved many a thoughtful dream and wish into his work.</p>
+
+<p>Before this house was a circular space with tables and chairs; there
+every one met when work was over.</p>
+
+<p>"Here dwell our old people," whispered Deodatus.</p>
+
+<p>They soon came out&mdash;a fine pair. The wife might be sixty, the man
+eighty. The great-grandfather's face had that characteristic look which
+makes you remember a good picture you have once seen, even if forty
+years ago. I was quite startled: his head was nearly bald, but the
+remaining hair and his beard were hardly gray, and on his firm, calm
+features age seemed to have no hold. A temperate and regular life and a
+cheerful disposition preserve the features unspoiled.</p>
+
+<p>The great-grandmother was still an attractive woman. Her once golden
+hair certainly was flecked with silver, but her eyes were still girlish,
+and her cheeks blushed like a bride's when her husband kissed her.</p>
+
+<p>The faces of both beamed with happiness when they saw their whole large
+family round them, and they called each to them by name and kissed them.
+This was their joy, their devotion, their song of praise.</p>
+
+<p>Deodatus, the eldest son, was the last to embrace his parents, and then
+our turn came. They shook hands with us too, and invited us to supper.
+The old lady still kept the care of the cooking department in her own
+hands, and she it was who provided for all the family, though each had
+full liberty to sit at a separate table with any others he cared for,
+and take his meal with them; but her husband sat down at a table with us
+and Deodatus. A tiny golden-haired angel of a child called No&eacute;mi climbed
+on his lap, and had permission to listen, wondering, to our wise talk.</p>
+
+<p>When my name was mentioned to the old man he looked long at me, and a
+visible color rose in his cheeks. My learned friend asked him whether he
+had ever heard my name before; the old man was silent. Deodatus hastened
+to say that his father had for forty years read nothing of what was
+passing in the world: his whole study was books of farming and
+gardening. I therefore undertook, as people do who have made a
+profession of imparting what they know, to bring my wares to market, and
+I told him what was going on in the world. I informed him that Hungary
+was now united to Austria by the word "and."</p>
+
+<p>He blew a cloud from his pipe: the smoke said, "My island has nothing to
+do with that."</p>
+
+<p>I told him of our heavy taxes: the smoke replied, "We have no taxes
+here."</p>
+
+<p>I described to him the fearful wars which had been waged in our kingdom
+and all over the world: the smoke answered, "We wage war here with no
+one."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>There was at that time a great panic on the exchanges, the oldest firms
+failed; and this too I explained to him. Only his pipe's steady puffs
+seemed to say, "Thank God, we have no money here."</p>
+
+<p>I described to him the bitter struggle of parties, the strife between
+religion, nationalities, and ambition. The old man shook the ashes out
+of his pipe&mdash;"We have neither bishops, electors, nor ministers here."</p>
+
+<p>And finally, I proved to him how great our country would be when
+everything we hoped for was fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>Little No&eacute;mi meanwhile had fallen asleep on her great-grandfather's lap,
+and had to be carried to bed. This was more important than what I was
+talking of; the sleeping child passed into the great-grandmother's arms.
+When the old lady left us, the old man asked me, "Where were you born?"
+I told him.</p>
+
+<p>"What is your profession?"</p>
+
+<p>I told him I was a romance-writer.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"One who can guess by the end of a story what the whole story was from
+the beginning."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, guess my story," said he, clasping my hand. "There was once
+a man who left a world in which he was admired, and created a second
+world in which he was loved."</p>
+
+<p>"May I venture to ask your name?"</p>
+
+<p>The old man seemed to grow a head taller; then raising his trembling
+hands, he laid them on my head. And at this moment it seemed to me as if
+once, long, long ago, that hand had rested on my head when childish
+curls covered it, and as if I had seen that noble face before.</p>
+
+<p>To my question he replied, "My name is <span class="smcap">Nobody</span>." With that he turned away
+and spoke no more, but went into his house, and did not appear again
+during our stay on the island.</p>
+
+<p>This is the present condition of the ownerless island. The privilege
+granted by two kingdoms, that this speck of ground should be excluded
+from any map, will last for fifty years more.</p>
+
+<p>Fifty years! Who knows what will have become of the world by then?</p>
+
+<p class="theend">THE END.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="advertboldheader">ASK FOR AMERICAN SERIES No. 335.</p>
+
+<p class="advertheader">A Really Great American Novel.</p>
+
+<h2>A TALE OF THE TOWN:<br />
+<span class="subhead2">OR,</span><br />
+<span class="subhead">PHILIP HENSON, M. D.</span></h2>
+
+<p class="advertheader">BY GEORGE HASTINGS.</p>
+
+<p class="boldcenter">PAPER, 25 CENTS.</p>
+
+
+<p class="bold">PRESS CRITICISMS:</p>
+
+<p>"We do not purpose to rob the story of the zest which remains for the
+reading by telling here all the ingenious but reasonable complications
+which beset this man, how love withers under the unseen blight, how rest
+forsakes him, how success becomes a satire, and how the impervious will
+sinks into impotency when beset by intangible and inscrutable forces. It
+is enough to point out that in this book the author has planted his
+characters upon an elemental truth, and something of the efficacy of
+that truth gives a strange fascination and power to the story."&mdash;<i>New
+York World.</i></p>
+
+<p>"It is a cleverly wrought and highly interesting novel, constructed upon
+somewhat unconventional lines. There is just enough medical science and
+metaphysics in it to give it spice; there are two murders, a trial and
+conviction of an innocent man on circumstantial evidence, a series of
+confidential domestic scenes, and a dash of hypnotism&mdash;surely enough to
+capture the fancy of the inveterate or occasional novel reader. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. It
+is a curious but entrancing novel, and once caught in its seductive
+meshes the reader will find it hard to escape. Incidentally some of
+Inspector Byrnes' peculiar detective methods are severely
+satirized."&mdash;<i>The Brooklyn Standard-Union.</i></p>
+
+<p>"It is clever in its way, but trash."&mdash;<i>The Buffalo Courier.</i></p>
+
+<p>"It places the author in the foremost rank of American writers of
+fiction. .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. It will live&mdash;a surpassingly clever delineation of a
+strange phase of human character."&mdash;<i>The London Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Philip Henson, M. D., by George Hastings, is indifferent and
+mediocre."&mdash;<i>The New York Daily Continent.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Philip Henson, M. D., is more than clever&mdash;it is masterly. In exciting
+and absorbing interest this book excels the novels of Gaboriau and De
+Boisgobey, and the sketches and characters are capitally drawn. For
+example, Inspector Byrnes and his methods have never before been so
+accurately described."&mdash;<i>The Spirit of the Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>"A story quite out of the ordinary."&mdash;<i>The Kansas City Journal.</i></p>
+
+<p>"Very dramatically told, and a well-conceived and thrilling
+narrative."&mdash;<i>America.</i></p>
+
+<p>"The plot of Philip Henson, M. D., is remarkably strong and tragic. Mr.
+Hastings is a graphic writer."&mdash;<i>The Sacramento Record-Union.</i></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p class="advertboldheader">AMERICAN SERIES.</p>
+
+<p class="advertheader">TITLES ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED</p>
+
+<p class="centerbold">TWENTY-FIVE CENT SERIES.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="American Series">
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Abbey Murder, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Jos. Hatton.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Alas!</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rhoda Broughton.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Allan Quatermain.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Allan's Wife.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">All Sorts and Conditions of Men.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Walter Besant and James Rice.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">American Girl in London, An.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Sara Jeannette Duncan.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">American Notes.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rudyard Kipling.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Amethyst.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Christabel R. Coleridge.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">April's Lady.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Aristocrat in America, An.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Armorel of Lyonesse.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Walter Besant.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Artificial Fate, An.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Clarence Boutelle.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Artist and Model.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rene de Pont Jest.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">As In a Looking-glass.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. C. Phillips.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Auld Licht Idylls.</td>
+<td class="advert4">J. M. Barrie.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Averil.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa Nouchette Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Awakening of Mary Fenwick, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Beatrice Whitby.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Bachelor's Blunder, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">W. E. Norris.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Baffled Conspirators, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">W. E. Norris.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Bag of Diamonds, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">G. Manville Fenn.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Bank Tragedy, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mary R. P. Hatch.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Baptized with a Curse.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Edith Stewart Drewry.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Beaton's Bargain.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Alexander.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Beatrice.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Be Quick and Be Dead.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Ophelia Hives.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Birch Dene.</td>
+<td class="advert4">William Westall.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Black Tulip, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexandre Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Blind Fate.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Alexander.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Blind Love.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Wilkie Collins.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Born Coquette, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Bound by a Spell.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Hugh Conway.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">By Order of the Czar.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Jos. Hatton.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">By Woman's Wit.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Alexander.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Camille.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexandre Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Cardinal Sin, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Hugh Conway.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Cast Up by the Sea.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Sir Samuel W. Baker.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Cleopatra.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Colonel Quaritch, V. C.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Confessions of a Woman, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mabel Collins.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Count of Monte-Cristo, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexandre Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Courting of Dinah Shadd, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rudyard Kipling.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Cradled in a Storm.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Theodore A. Sharp.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Crooked Path, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Alexander.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Daughter of Heth, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">William Black.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Daughter's Sacrifice, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. C. Phillips.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Dawn.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Dean and His Daughter, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. C. Phillips.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Dean's Daughter, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Sophie F. Veitch.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Deemster, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Hall Caine.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Demoniac, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Walter Besant.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Derrick Vaughn, Novelist.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Edna Lyall.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Diana Barrington.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. John Croker.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Diary of a Pilgrimage.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Jerome K. Jerome.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Dmitri.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. W. Bain, M.A.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Dodo and I.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Capt. A. Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Donald Ross of Heimra.</td>
+<td class="advert4">William Black.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Donovan.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Edna Lyall.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Dora Thorne.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Charlotte M. Braeme.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Doris's Fortune.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. Warden.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Dr. Cupid.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rhoda Broughton.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Dr. Glennie's Daughter.</td>
+<td class="advert4">B. L. Farjeon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Duchess, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Duchess of Powysland, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Grant Allen.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Duke's Secret, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Charlotte M. Braeme.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">East Lynne.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Henry Wood.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Edmond Dantes.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexandre Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Eric Brighteyes.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Evil Genius, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Wilkie Collins.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Fair Women.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Forrester.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Fallen Idol, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. Anstey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Fatal Dower, A.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Felon's Bequest, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. Du Boisgobey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Fiery Ordeal, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Bertha M. Clay.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">First Violin, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Jessie Fothergill.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Frontiersmen, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Gustave Aimard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Frozen Hearts.</td>
+<td class="advert4">G. Webb Appleton.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Frozen Pirate, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">W. Clark Russell.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Giraldi.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Ross G. Dering.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Golden Hope, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">W. Clark Russell.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Grave Between Them, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Clarence Boutelle.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Great Mill St. Mystery, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Adeline Sargent.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Guilderoy.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Ouida.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Handy Andy.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Samuel Lover.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Hardy Norseman, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Edna Lyall.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Haunted Chamber, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Heriot's Choice.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Her Last Throw.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Herr Paulus.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Walter Besant.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">He Went for a Soldier.</td>
+<td class="advert4">John Strange Winter.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Hidden Away.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Etta W. Pierce.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Hon. Mrs. Vereker, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">House Party, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Ouida.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Hunchback of Notre Dame, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Victor Hugo.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Jerome K. Jerome.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">I Have Lived and Loved.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Forrester.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">In the Golden Days.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Edna Lyall.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">In the Heart of the Storm.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Maxwell Gray.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Irma.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Lawrence Gordon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Jack and Three Jills, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. C. Phillips.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Jane Eyre.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Charlotte Bronte.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Jess.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Julius Courtney.</td>
+<td class="advert4">J. McLaren Cobban.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Keeper of the Keys, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. W. Robinson.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Kidnapped.</td>
+<td class="advert4">R. L. Stevenson.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">"King" Arthur.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Mulock.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">King Solomon's Mines.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Kit and Kitty.</td>
+<td class="advert4">R. D. Blackmore.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Kith and Kin.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Jessie Fothergill.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Knight-Errant.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Edna Lyall.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Lady Audley's Secret.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Miss M. E. Braddon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Lady Beauty.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alan Muir.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Lady Walworth's Diamonds.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Lamplighter, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Maria S. Cummings.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Last Love, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Georges Ohnet.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Life Interest, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Alexander.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Life's Mistake, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Life's Remorse, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Light that Failed, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rudyard Kipling.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Little Irish Girl, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Little Mrs. Murray.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. C. Phillips.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Little Primrose.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Wenona Gilman.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Little Rebel, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Living or Dead.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Hugh Conway.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">L'Ombra.</td>
+<td class="advert4">From the French of Gennevraye.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Lord Lisle's Daughter.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Charlotte M. Braeme.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Lost Wife, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Louise de la Valliere.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexandre Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Lover or Friend.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Lucky Young Woman, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. C. Phillips.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Madame Midas.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Fergus W. Hume.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Maid, Wife, or Widow?</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Alexander.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Maiwa's Revenge.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Man-Hunter, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Dick Donovan.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Man in the Iron Mask, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexandre Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Man Outside, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Clarence Boutelle.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">March in the Ranks, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Jessie Fothergill.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Margaret Byng.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. C. Phillips.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Mark of Cain, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Andrew Lang.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Marooned.</td>
+<td class="advert4">W. Clark Russell.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Marriage at Sea, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">W. Clark Russell.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Marvel.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Mary Jane's Memoirs.</td>
+<td class="advert4">George R. Sims.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Mary St. John.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Master of Ballantrae, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">R. L. Stevenson.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Master Rockafellar's Voyage.</td>
+<td class="advert4">W. Clark Russell.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Matter of Skill, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Beatrice Whitby.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Mayor of Casterbridge, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Thos. Hardy.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Mere Child, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">L. B. Walford.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Merle's Crusade.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Merry Men, and Other Tales and Fables, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">R. L. Stevenson.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Miracle Gold.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Richard Dowling.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Misadventures of John Nicholson.</td>
+<td class="advert4">R. L. Stevenson.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Miss Bretherton.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Humphrey Ward.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Mistress Beatrice Cope.</td>
+<td class="advert4">M. E. Le Clerc.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Modern Circe, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Mohawks.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Miss M. E. Braddon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Molly Bawn.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Molly's Story.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Frank Merryfield.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Moment After, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Robert Buchanan.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Mona's Choice.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Alexander.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Mr. Meeson's Will.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Mrs. Fenton.</td>
+<td class="advert4">W. E. Norris.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">My Danish Sweetheart.</td>
+<td class="advert4">W. Clark Russell.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">My Friend Jim.</td>
+<td class="advert4">W. E. Norris.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">My Guardian.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Ada Cambridge.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">My Lady Nicotine.</td>
+<td class="advert4">J. M. Barrie.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Mystery of a Hansom Cab, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Fergus W. Hume.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Mystery of St. James's Park, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">J. B. Barton.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">My Wonderful Wife.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Marie Corelli.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Nameless Man, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. Du Boisgobey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Nellie's Memories.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">New Arabian Nights.</td>
+<td class="advert4">R. L. Stevenson.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Nine of Hearts, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">B. L. Farjeon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Noble Woman, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Henry Gr&eacute;ville.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Not Guilty.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Etta W. Pierce.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Not Like Other Girls.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Nun's Curse, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. J. H. Riddell.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Old Curiosity Shop, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Charles Dickens.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Once Again.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Forrester.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">One Life, One Love.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Miss M. E. Braddon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Only a Mill Girl.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Eric St. C. Ross.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Only the Governess.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">On the Stage&mdash;and Off.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Jerome K. Jerome.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Other Man's Wife, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">John Strange Winter.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Our Bessie.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Outsider, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Hawley Smart.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Parisian Detective, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. Du Boisgobey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Part of the Property.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Beatrice Whitby.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Passion's Slave.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Richard Ashe King.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Paul Nugent, Materialist.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Helen F. Hetherington (Gullifer) and Rev. H. Darwin Burton.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Pennycomequicks, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">S. Baring Gould.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Phantom Future, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. S. Merriman.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Phantom Rickshaw, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rudyard Kipling.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Picture of Dorian Gray, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Oscar Wilde.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Plain Tales from the Hills.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rudyard Kipling.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Plunger, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Hawley Smart.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Pretty Miss Bellew.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Theo. Gift.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Prince Otto.</td>
+<td class="advert4">R. L. Stevenson.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Prince Lucifer.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Etta W. Pierce.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Queenie's Whim.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Queen Tempest.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Jane G. Austin.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Roland Oliver.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Justin McCarthy.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Romance of a Poor Young Man, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Octave Feuillet.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Riversons, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">S. J. Bumstead.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Ruffino.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Ouida.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Saddle and Saber.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Hawley Smart.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Sabina Zembra.</td>
+<td class="advert4">William Black.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Scarlet Letter, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Nathaniel Hawthorne.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Scheherazade.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. Warden.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Search for Basil Lyndhurst, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Secret of Her Life, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Edward Jenkins.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Shadow of a Sin, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Charlotte M. Braeme.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">She.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">She Trusted Him.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Charles Garvice.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Silence of Dean Maitland, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Maxwell Gray.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Social Departure, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Sara Jeannette Duncan.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Social Vicissitudes.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. C. Phillips.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Soldiers Three.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rudyard Kipling.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Son of Porthos, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexandre Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Spurious.</td>
+<td class="advert4">J. Barney Low.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Stage-Land.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Jerome K. Jerome.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Stephen Ellicott's Daughter.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. J. H. Needell.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">St. Katherine's by the Tower.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Walter Besant.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Story of an African farm, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Olive Schreiner.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Story of an Error, The.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Story of Philip Methuen, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. J. H. Needell.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Story of the Gadsbys, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rudyard Kipling.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Strange Adventures of Lucy Smith, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. C. Phillips.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.</td>
+<td class="advert4">R. L. Stevenson.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Sylvia Arden.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Oswald Crawford.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Syrlin. Ouida.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Tale of Three Lions, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Tangles Unraveled.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Evelyn Kimball Johnson.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Texar's Revenge.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Jules Verne.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">This Wicked World.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Three Guardsmen, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexandre Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Three Men in a Boat.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Jerome K. Jerome.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Three Miss Kings, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Ada Cambridge.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Troublesome Girl, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Twenty Years After.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexandre Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Twin Hussars, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. W. Rollins.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Two Masters.</td>
+<td class="advert4">B. M. Croker.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Uncle Max.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Under-Currents.</td>
+<td class="advert4">The Duchess.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Under Two Flags.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Ouida.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Vendetta.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Marie Corelli.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Vicomte de Bragelonne, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexandre Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Weaker than a Woman.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Charlotte M. Braeme.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Wedding Ring, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Robert Buchanan.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Wee Wifie.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">We Two.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Edna Lyall.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">What Gold Can Not Buy.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Alexander.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">When a Man's Single.</td>
+<td class="advert4">J. M. Barrie.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">White Company, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">A. Conan Doyle.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Wicked Girl, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mary Cecil Hay.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Widow Bedott Papers.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. M. Whitcher.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Wife In Name Only.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Charlotte M. Braeme.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Will.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Georges Ohnet.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Window in Thrums, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">J. M. Barrie.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Witch's Head, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Woman's Face, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. Warden.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Woman's Heart, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Alexander.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Woman's War, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Charlotte M. Braeme.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Won by Waiting.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Edna Lyall.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Ph&#339;nician, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Edwin Lester Arnold.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Wooed and Married.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Rosa N. Carey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Wooing O't, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Alexander.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">World's Desire, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">World, the Flesh, and the Devil, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. M. E. Braddon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert5">Wormwood.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Marie Corelli.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Young Mr. Ainslie's Courtship.</td>
+<td class="advert4">F. C. Phillips.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p class="advertboldheader">FIFTY CENT ISSUES.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Fifty Cent Issues">
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Ardath.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Marie Corelli.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Disputed Inheritance, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Timayenis.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Englishman in Paris, An.</td>
+<td class="advert4">&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Robert Elsmere.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. Humphrey Ward.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Romance of Two Worlds, A.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Marie Corelli.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Spurgeon's Gold. Rev.</td>
+<td class="advert4">E. H. Swem.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Thelma.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Marie Corelli.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p class="boldcenter">Latest Issues American Series.<br />
+25-Cent Edition.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="American Series">
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Andr&eacute;e de Taverney.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexander Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Discarded Daughter, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Countess de Charny, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexander Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Retribution.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Six Years Later.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexander Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Queen's Necklace, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexander Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Fatal Marriage, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Memoirs of a Physician.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexander Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Joseph Balsamo.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexander Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Self-Raised.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Ishmael.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Russian Gypsy, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">Alexander Dumas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Old Mam'selle's Secret, The.</td>
+<td class="advert4">E. Marlitt.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p class="advertheader"><span class="subhead">ALEXANDER DUMAS' WORKS</span><br />
+<span class="subhead2">CONTAINED IN</span><br />
+"AMERICAN SERIES:"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Alexander Dumas works">
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">Camille.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">Edmond Dantes.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">Count of Monte-Cristo.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">The Three Guardsmen.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">Twenty Years After.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">Vicomte de Bragelonne.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">Louise de la Valliere.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">The Man in the Iron Mask.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">The Son of Porthos.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">The Black Tulip.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">The Russian Gypsy.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">Joseph Balsamo.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">Memoirs of a Physician.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">The Queen's Necklace.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">Six Years Later.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">Countess de Charny.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">Andr&eacute;e de Taverney.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert4">The Chevalier de Maison Rouge.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p class="advertheader"><span class="subhead">MAXWELL GRAY'S WORKS</span><br />
+<span class="subhead2">CONTAINED IN</span><br />
+"AMERICAN SERIES."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Maxwell Gray works">
+<tr>
+<td class="advert3">No. 239</td>
+<td class="advert4">&mdash;In the Heart of the Storm.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert3">No. 261</td>
+<td class="advert4">&mdash;Silence of Dean Maitland, The.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p class="advertheader"><span class="subhead">MARIE CORELLI'S WORKS</span><br />
+<span class="subhead2">CONTAINED IN</span><br />
+"AMERICAN SERIES."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Marie Corelli works">
+<tr>
+<td class="advert3">No. 6</td>
+<td class="advert4">&mdash;Ardath&mdash;50c number.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert3">No. 73</td>
+<td class="advert4">&mdash;Romance of Two Worlds, A&mdash;50c number.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert3">No. 4</td>
+<td class="advert4">&mdash;Thelma&mdash;50c number.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Marie Corelli works">
+<tr>
+<td class="advert3">No. 244</td>
+<td class="advert4">&mdash;Hired Baby, The.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert3">No. 169</td>
+<td class="advert4">&mdash;My Wonderful Wife.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert3">No. 99</td>
+<td class="advert4">&mdash;Vendetta.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert3">No. 224</td>
+<td class="advert4">&mdash;Wormwood.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>CUSHING'S MANUAL.<br />
+<span class="subhead2">CONTAINING</span><br />
+<span class="subhead">RULES of PROCEEDING and DEBATE</span><br />
+<span class="subhead2">OF</span><br />
+<span class="subhead">DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES.</span></h2>
+
+<p class="center"><i>A Complete Guide for Instruction and Reference in all Matters
+pertaining to the Management of Public Meetings according to
+Parliamentary Usages.</i></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="authors of Cushing's Manual">
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: center; font-size: 80%;">BY</td>
+<td style="text-align: center; font-size: 80%;">REVISED BY</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td style="text-align: center; padding-right: 3em; padding-left: 3em;">LUTHER S. CUSHING.</td>
+<td style="text-align: center; padding-right: 3em; padding-left: 3em;">FRANCES P. SULLIVAN.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">The contents embrace the following subjects:</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="subjects from Cushing's Manual">
+<tr><td class="advert4">Adding of Propositions.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Adjournment.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Amendment.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Apology.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Assembly, Deliberative.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Assembling.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Blanks, filling of.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Chairman, preliminary election of.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Committees.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Committee of the Whole.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Commitment.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Communications.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Consent of the assembly.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Contested Elections.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Credentials.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Debate.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Decorum, Breaches of.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Disorderly Conduct.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Disorderly Words.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Division.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Elections and Returns.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Expulsion.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Floor.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Forms of Proceeding.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Incidental Questions.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Introduction of Business.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Journal.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Judgment of an aggregate body.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Lie on the Table.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">List of members.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Main Question.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Majority.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Members.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Membership.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Motion.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Naming a member.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Officers.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Order of a deliberative assembly.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Order of business.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Order, rules of.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Order, call to.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Orders of the Day.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Organization.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Papers and Documents.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Parliamentary Law.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Parliamentary Rules.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Petitions.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Postponement.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Power of assembly to eject strangers.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Preamble.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Precedence.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">President.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Presiding Officer.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Previous Question.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Privileged Questions.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Proceedings, how set in motion.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Punishment.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Quarrel between members.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Question.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Quorum.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Reading of Papers.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Reception.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Recommitment.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Reconsideration.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Recording Officer.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Recurrence of Business.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Reports of Committees.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Reprimand.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Resolution.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Returns.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Roll.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Rules.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Secondary Questions.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Seconding of motions.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Secretary.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Separation of propositions.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Speaking.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Speaking member.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Speech, reading of, by member.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Subsidiary Questions.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Suspension of a rule.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Transposition of proposition.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Vice-President.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Voting.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Will of assembly.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Withdrawal of motion.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="advert4">Yeas and Nays.</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">In addition to the above this volume contains<br />
+<span style="font-size: 110%; font-weight: bold;">THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES</span><br />
+AND THE<br />
+<span style="font-size: 110%; font-weight: bold;">DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>208 Pages. Bound in paper, 25 cents; bound in cloth, gilt back, 50
+cents.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">Sent by mail receipt of price. One- and two-cent stamps taken.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>Standard Recitations by Best Authors</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span style="font-size: 110%;">A CHOICE COLLECTION OF BEAUTIFUL COMPOSITIONS,</span><br />
+CAREFULLY COMPILED FOR<br />
+<span style="font-size: 120%; font-weight: bold;">School, Lyceum, Parlor, and other Entertainments,</span><br />
+BY FRANCES P. SULLIVAN.</p>
+
+<p class="center">CONTENTS OF NO. 22.</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="contents of Standard Recitations">
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3"><span style="font-size: 75%;">PAGE</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Shamus O'Brien, The Bold Boy of Glingall.</td>
+<td class="advert1">Samuel Lover.</td>
+<td class="advert3">3</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Soldiers' Reward.</td>
+<td class="advert1">J. W. Donovan.</td>
+<td class="advert3">7</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Kitten of the Regiment.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Perils of a Teacher.</td>
+<td class="advert1">J. W. Donovan.</td>
+<td class="advert3">10</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">A Climb at Rouen.</td>
+<td class="advert1">M. Betham Edwards.</td>
+<td class="advert3">11</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Catching the Colt.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">12</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Something for Strikers.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Harmony.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">By the Wayside.</td>
+<td class="advert1">E. Doherty.</td>
+<td class="advert3">14</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Unwelcomed Baby.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">15</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Running Before It.</td>
+<td class="advert1">William Constable.</td>
+<td class="advert3">16</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">"Warned."</td>
+<td class="advert1">Crape Myrtle.</td>
+<td class="advert3">17</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Old Wife's Kiss.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">17</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Old Office-Desk.</td>
+<td class="advert1">Henry J. Shellman.</td>
+<td class="advert3">19</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Chickens Come Home to Roost.</td>
+<td class="advert1">Earnest M'Gaffey.</td>
+<td class="advert3">19</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Blacksmith of Ragenbach.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">20</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Old Mill.</td>
+<td class="advert1">H. W. Field.</td>
+<td class="advert3">21</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">One at a Time.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">22</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Hot Axle.</td>
+<td class="advert1">T. DeWitt Talmage.</td>
+<td class="advert3">22</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Ellsworth's Avengers.</td>
+<td class="advert1">Tripp.</td>
+<td class="advert3">23</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Origin of Whiskey.</td>
+<td class="advert1">H. Burgess.</td>
+<td class="advert3">24</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Two Words.</td>
+<td class="advert1">J. E. Dinkenga.</td>
+<td class="advert3">25</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Listeners.</td>
+<td class="advert1">M. K. D.</td>
+<td class="advert3">25</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Delinquent Subscriber.</td>
+<td class="advert1">Margaret Andrews Oldham.</td>
+<td class="advert3">26</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">"Peace, be Still."</td>
+<td class="advert1">Violet.</td>
+<td class="advert3">27</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">A Short Debate on Rum.</td>
+<td class="advert1">"Th' Poet o' Ante-Bar"</td>
+<td class="advert3">28</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Participants in the Boston Massacre.</td>
+<td class="advert1">John Hancock.</td>
+<td class="advert3">28</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Dandie.</td>
+<td class="advert1">M. F. Bradley.</td>
+<td class="advert3">29</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Nameless Guest.</td>
+<td class="advert1">James Clarence Harvey.</td>
+<td class="advert3">30</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Slug Number Eleven.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">30</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">A Famous Fight.</td>
+<td class="advert1">David Graham Adee.</td>
+<td class="advert3">32</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">More Cruel Than War.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">33</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Fall of the Alamo.</td>
+<td class="advert1">Mrs. Barr.</td>
+<td class="advert3">34</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">A New Gospel.</td>
+<td class="advert1">Carlotta Perry.</td>
+<td class="advert3">35</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Making the Round.</td>
+<td class="advert1">Mrs. M. L. Rayne.</td>
+<td class="advert3">36</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Beautiful.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">37</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Onatoga's Sacrifice.</td>
+<td class="advert1">John Dimitry.</td>
+<td class="advert3">38</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Joe Sieg.</td>
+<td class="advert1">Alexander Anderson.</td>
+<td class="advert3">39</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Education.</td>
+<td class="advert1">C. Phillips.</td>
+<td class="advert3">41</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Ingratitude: Or Old Sport and His Master.</td>
+<td class="advert1">Fred Williams.</td>
+<td class="advert3">41</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Old Uncle Jake.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">43</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">On the Rappahannock.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">44</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Better Land.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">45</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">Charity.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">45</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">St. Michael the Weigher.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">46</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Orphan's New Year.</td>
+<td class="advert1">O. H.</td>
+<td class="advert3">46</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Inch Cape Bell.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">47</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="advert1">The Old Minstrel.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="advert3">47</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">Price 12 Cents by Mail. 1 and 2 Cent Stamps Taken.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Address M. J. IVERS &amp; CO.,<br />
+379 Pearl Street, N. Y. City.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2><span class="subhead2">THE</span><br />
+Standard Letter Writer<br />
+<span class="subhead2">FOR</span><br />
+<span class="subhead">Ladies and Gentlemen.</span></h2>
+
+<p class="center">CONTAINING A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF BUSINESS LETTERS; LETTERS OF
+INTRODUCTION; LETTERS OF CREDIT; LETTERS OF APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT;
+LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION; SOCIAL LETTERS; CONGRATULATION AND
+CONDOLENCE; NOTES OF CEREMONY AND COMPLIMENT; RULES FOR CONDUCTING
+PUBLIC DEBATES AND MEETINGS.</p>
+
+<p class="center">PRICE 25 CENTS.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1893, by M. J. Ivers &amp; Co.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">NEW YORK:<br />
+M. J. IVERS &amp; CO., PUBLISHERS.<br />
+879 PEARL STREET.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Transcriber's Note: The 1894 M. J. Ivers &amp; Co. edition was the principal
+source for this electronic text. In addition, the 1894 D. Appleton and
+Company text was consulted to determine the preferred hyphenation and
+spelling of some words and to resolve suspected typographical errors. In
+addition to the corrections noted individually below, the following
+changes were made throughout the book: Timea was changed to Tim&eacute;a, Noemi
+to No&eacute;mi, Uj-Szony to Uj-Sz&ouml;ny, Honigler to H&ouml;nigler, Szonyer to
+Sz&ouml;nyer, Fraulein to Fra&uuml;lein, Grands Crus to Grands Cr&ucirc;s, senor to
+se&ntilde;or, and Petofi to Pet&ouml;fi.</p>
+
+<p>In Book First, Chapter I, <b>"</b>These are the passengers of the 'St.
+Barbara."<b>"</b> was changed to <b>"</b>These are the passengers of the "St.
+Barbara."<b>"</b>.</p>
+
+<p>In Book First, Chapter II, "the later was suddenly caught" was changed
+to "the latter was suddenly caught".</p>
+
+<p>In Book First, Chapter III, "the poor beast" was changed to "the poor
+beasts", and "It was only that she ship" was changed to "It was only
+that the ship".</p>
+
+<p>In Book First, Chapter IV, "whose pure, azure seen" was changed to
+"whose pure azure, seen", "In Brazovic's caf&eacute;" was changed to "In
+Brazovics' caf&eacute;", and "before Brazovic's caf&eacute;" was changed to "before
+Brazovics' caf&eacute;".</p>
+
+<p>In Book First, Chapter VI, a missing quotation mark was added after "You
+can't joke with her", "white cat on her shouler" was changed to "white
+cat on her shoulder", and "nothing remakable in her rising suddenly" was
+changed to "nothing remarkable in her rising suddenly".</p>
+
+<p>In Book First, Chapter VII, "dear mother-in law!" was changed to "dear
+mother-in-law!", "future son-in law" was changed to "future son-in-law",
+and "Did your hear how" was changed to "Did you hear how".</p>
+
+<p>In Book First, Chapter VIII, "the prince settled in advance" was changed
+to "the price settled in advance".</p>
+
+<p>In Book First, Chapter X, <b>"</b>"Timea!' cried Timar, "your father is dead."<b>"</b>
+was changed to <b>"</b>"Timea!" cried Timar, "your father is dead."<b>"</b></p>
+
+<p>In Book First, Chapter XIV, an extra quotation mark was deleted after
+"ten thousand measures of wheat.", and "at which Timea only eat fruit
+and bread" was changed to "at which Timea only ate fruit and bread".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Second, Chapter III, "felspar" was changed to "feldspar".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Second, Chapter IV, "When the saw that the doors" was changed to
+"When they saw that the doors".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Second, Chapter V, a missing quotation mark was added after
+"burned coffee-berries.", and "rich man wooes" was changed to "rich man
+woos".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Second, Chapter VII, "It was un heard of" was changed to "It was
+unheard of", "who eat the bread of charity" was changed to "who ate the
+bread of charity", and "eat not a morsel" was changed to "ate not a
+morsel".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Second, Chapter VIII, "Athalia put on her mourning-dress" was
+changed to "Athalie put on her mourning-dress", and "The kitchen clock
+was till going" was changed to "The kitchen clock was still going".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Third, Chapter II, a missing period was added after "wounded
+their hearts".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Third, Chapter III, missing periods were added after "embracing
+her mother with eager kisses" and "Very much", "Timar open the little
+gate" was changed to "Timar opened the little gate", and "the grass it
+wet" was changed to "the grass is wet".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Third, Chapter IV, "Michael disappeard" was changed to "Michael
+disappeared", "when he laughed" was changed to "when she laughed", and a
+missing quotation mark was added after "you will have to go off to
+Brazil."</p>
+
+<p>In Book Third, Chapter VI, a missing colon was added after "stretching
+both hands entreatingly to Michael", "his meeting with Thedor" was
+changed to "his meeting with Theodor", a missing parenthesis was added
+after "what depended on this business!", and "eat it with the bread" was
+changed to "ate it with the bread".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Fourth, Chapter I, "centturies might pass" was changed to
+"centuries might pass".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Fourth, Chapter III, "districts of Zala and Vesoprimer" was
+changed to "districts of Zala and Vessprimer", and "by its owe will" was
+changed to "by its own will".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Fifth, Chapter I, a missing quotation mark was added after "sick
+and loveless heart?", and "which he hear crackling" was changed to
+"which he heard crackling".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Fifth, Chapter III, "though Timar, shrugging his shoulders" was
+changed to "thought Timar, shrugging his shoulders", and "A Rian&aacute;s!
+&agrave;&nbsp;Rian&aacute;s!" was changed to "A Rian&aacute;s! a&nbsp;Rian&aacute;s!".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Fifth, Chapter IV, "revealed the secrt" was changed to "revealed
+the secret", "loathsome wrounds" was changed to "loathsome wounds",
+"Then man knew" was changed to "The man knew", "turn you back on me" was
+changed to "turn your back on me", and "sacrified her to his base lusts"
+was changed to "sacrificed her to his base lusts".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Fifth, Chapter VIII, "write <i>l</i> and <i>o</i>" was changed to "write
+<i>l</i> and <i>&oacute;</i>", and "<i>lo</i> (Hungarian for horse)" was changed to "<i>l&oacute;</i>
+(Hungarian for horse)".</p>
+
+<p>In Book Fifth, Chapter XII, "moldered-away" was changed to "mouldered
+away", and an extraneous quotation mark was removed following "on the
+ownerless island?".</p>
+
+<p>In the advertisements, "Evelyn Kymball Johnson" was changed to "Evelyn
+Kimball Johnson", and missing periods were added after "The Man in the
+Iron Mask" and "Memoirs of a Physician".</p>
+
+<p>Finally, the advertisement for Cushing's Manual was moved from the inside
+front cover to the back of the book.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Timar's Two Worlds, by Mór Jókai
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,17549 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Timar's Two Worlds, by Mór Jókai
+
+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: Timar's Two Worlds
+
+Author: Mór Jókai
+
+Translator: Mrs. Hegan Kennard
+
+Release Date: February 26, 2010 [EBook #31409]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: M. J. IVERS & CO. PRICE 25 CENTS.
+
+AMERICAN SERIES No. 343.
+
+TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS By MAURUS JOKAI.
+
+Entered at Post-Office, New York, as Second-Class Matter. Issued
+Monthly--November 17th, 1894--Subscription, $3.00 per Year.]
+
+
+
+
+_AMERICAN SERIES._
+
+TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS.
+
+BY MAURUS JOKAI.
+
+
+NEW YORK:
+M. J. IVERS & CO., PUBLISHERS,
+379 PEARL STREET.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+_BOOK FIRST.--THE "ST. BARBARA."_
+
+I.--THE IRON GATE                                  5
+II.--THE WHITE CAT                                14
+III.--A DANGEROUS LEAP WITH A MAMMOTH             17
+IV.--A STRICT SEARCH                              22
+V.--THE OWNERLESS ISLAND                          27
+VI.--ALMIRA AND NARCISSA                          32
+VII.--THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT                     40
+VIII.--THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS               45
+IX.--ALI TSCHORBADSCHI                            53
+X.--THE LIVING STATUE                             56
+XI.--A BURIAL AT SEA                              58
+XII.--AN EXCELLENT JOKE                           61
+XIII.--THE FATE OF THE "ST. BARBARA"              63
+XIV.--THE GUARDIAN                                67
+
+
+_BOOK SECOND.--TIMEA._
+
+I.--GOOD ADVICE                                   75
+II.--THE RED CRESCENT                             78
+III.--THE GOLD MINE                               82
+IV.--MICHAEL TIMAR, BARON VON LEVETINCZY          88
+V.--A GIRL'S HEART                                93
+VI.--ANOTHER JEST                                102
+VII.--THE WEDDING-DRESS                          105
+VIII.--TIMEA                                     114
+
+
+_BOOK THIRD.--THE OWNERLESS ISLAND._
+
+I.--THE MARRIAGE OF THE MARBLE STATUE            123
+II.--THE GUARDIAN DEVIL                          127
+III.--SPRING MEADOWS                             134
+IV.--A SPIDER AMONG THE ROSES                    144
+V.--OUT OF THE WORLD                             153
+VI.--THE TROPIC OF CAPRICORN                     157
+VII.--SWEET HOME                                 167
+
+
+_BOOK FOURTH.--NOEMI._
+
+I.--A NEW GUEST                                  176
+II.--THE WOOD-CARVER                             185
+III.--MELANCHOLY                                 197
+IV.--THERESE                                     207
+
+
+_BOOK FIFTH.--ATHALIE._
+
+I.--THE BROKEN SWORD                             213
+II.--THE FIRST LOSS                              223
+III.--THE ICE                                    227
+IV.--THE PHANTOM                                 235
+V.--WHAT HAS THE MOON TO TELL?                   247
+VI.--WHO COMES?                                  250
+VII.--THE CORPSE                                 252
+VIII.--DODI'S LETTER                             254
+IX.--"YOU STUPID CREATURE!"                      257
+X.--ATHALIE                                      262
+XI.--THE LAST STAB                               269
+XII.--THE PENITENT IN "MARIA-NOSTRA"             273
+XIII.--NOBODY                                    273
+
+
+
+
+TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS
+
+
+
+
+_BOOK FIRST.--THE "ST. BARBARA."_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE IRON GATE.
+
+
+A mountain-chain, pierced through from base to summit--a gorge four
+miles in length, walled in by lofty precipices; between their dizzy
+heights the giant stream of the Old World, the Danube.
+
+Did the pressure of this mass of water force a passage for itself, or
+was the rock riven by subterranean fire? Did Neptune or Vulcan, or both
+together, execute this supernatural work, which the iron-clad hand of
+man scarce can emulate in these days of competition with divine
+achievements?
+
+Of the rule of the one deity traces are visible on the heights of Fruska
+Gora in the fossil sea-shells strewn around, and in Veterani's cave with
+its petrified relics of saurian monsters of the deep; of the other god,
+the basalt of Piatra Detonata bears witness. While the man of the iron
+hand is revealed by long galleries hewn in the rock, a vaulted road, the
+ruined piers of an immense bridge, the tablets sculptured in bas-relief
+on the face of the cliff, and by a channel two hundred feet wide,
+hollowed in the bed of the river, through which the largest ships may
+pass.
+
+The Iron Gate has a history of two thousand years. Four nations--Romans,
+Turks, Roumanians and Hungarians, have each in turn given it a different
+name.
+
+We seem to approach a temple built by giants, with rocky pillars,
+towering columns, and wonderful colossi on its lofty frieze, stretching
+out in a perspective of four miles, and, as it winds, discovering new
+domes with other groups of natural masonry, and other wondrous forms.
+One wall is smooth as polished granite, red and white veins zigzagging
+across it like mysterious characters in the handwriting of God. In
+another place the whole face is rusty brown, as if of solid iron. Here
+and there the oblique strata suggest the daring architecture of the
+Titans. At the next turn we are met by the portal of a Gothic cathedral,
+with its pointed gables, its clustered basaltic columns. Out of the
+dingy wall shines now and again a golden speck like a glimpse of the Ark
+of the Covenant--there sulphur blooms, the ore-flower. But living
+blossoms also deck the crags. From the crevices of the cornice hang
+green festoons. These are great foliage-trees and pines, whose dark
+masses are interspersed with frost-flecked garlands of red and gold.
+
+Now and then the mouth of some valley makes a break in the endless,
+dizzy precipice, and allows a peep into a hidden paradise untrodden by
+man.
+
+Here between two cliffs lies a deep shadow, and into this twilight
+shines like a fairy world the picture of a sunny vale, with a forest of
+wild vines, whose small red clusters lend color to the trees, and whose
+bright leaves weave a carpet below. No human dwelling is visible; a
+clear stream winds along, from which deer drink fearlessly; then the
+brook throws its silver ribbon over the edge of the cliff. Thousands
+pass by the valley, and each one asks himself who lives there.
+
+Then follows another temple more huge and awful than the first; the
+towering walls drawing closer by three hundred yards and soaring three
+thousand feet into the sky.
+
+That projecting needle at the top is the "Gropa lui Petro," the grave of
+St. Peter; the two gigantic forms on either side are his apostolic
+companions; yonder monster opposite is the "Babile," and the one which
+closes the vista is the "Golumbaczka Mali" or Dove-rock; while the gray
+pinnacle which towers above is the high Robbers' Peak, "Rasbojnik
+Beliki."
+
+Between these walls flows the Danube in its rocky bed. The mighty
+mother-stream, accustomed far above on the Hungarian plains to flow with
+majestic quiet in a bed three miles wide, to caress the overhanging
+willows, to look on blooming meadows and play with chattering mills, is
+here confined in a pass only a hundred and fifty fathoms in width.
+
+With what rage it rushes through! He who traveled with it before
+recognizes it no longer; the grisly giant is rejuvenated into heroic
+youth. Its waves leap along the stony bed, from which sometimes a great
+bowlder projects like a witch's altar, the huge "Babagay," the crowned
+"Kassan." On this it bursts with majestic fury, roaring round it with
+swirls which hollow deep abysses in the bottom; thence it rushes,
+hissing and seething, across the slabs of rock which stretch obliquely
+from side to side of the channel. In many places it has already mastered
+the obstacles which barred its way, and flows foaming through the open
+breach. There, it has burrowed beneath the wall of the ravine, and by
+its continuous current has washed out a channel below the overhanging
+rock. Here, it has carved islands out of the stubborn granite, new
+creations, to be found on no chart, overgrown with wild bushes. They
+belong to no state--neither Hungary, Turkey, nor Servia; they are
+ownerless, nameless, subject to no tribute, outside the world. And there
+again it has carried away an island, with all its shrubs, trees, huts,
+and wiped it from the map.
+
+The rock and islets divide the stream, which between Ogradina and
+Plesvissovicza has a speed of ten miles an hour, into many arms; and the
+sailor has need to study these intricate and narrow passages, for there
+is but one deep-water channel through the rocky bed--in-shore none but
+the smallest boats can float.
+
+Among the small islands between the lesser branches of the Danube,
+singular constructions of human hands are mingled with the grand works
+of nature; double rows of palisades made of strong trunks of trees,
+which, joined in the form of a V, present their open side down stream.
+These are the sturgeon-traps. The marine visitors swim up stream into
+the snare, and on and on into the ever-narrowing trap--for it is not
+their custom to turn back--until they find themselves in the
+death-chamber from which there is no release.
+
+The voices of this sublime region are superhuman. A perpetual universal
+tumult; so monotonous, so nearly akin to silence and yet so distinct--as
+if it uttered the name of God. How the great river dances over the
+granite shores, how it scourges the rocky walls, bounds against the
+island altars, dives rattling into the whirlpool, pervades the cataract
+with harmony!
+
+The echo from the mighty cliffs raises this eternal voice of the waters
+into an unearthly melody, like organ notes and thunder dying away. Man
+is silent, as if afraid to hear his own language amidst this song of the
+Titans: sailors communicate by signs, and the fishermen's superstition
+forbids talking here under a penalty. The consciousness of danger impels
+all to silent prayer.
+
+At any time the passage between these dark precipices, towering on
+either hand, might give the sensation of being ferried along under the
+walls of one's own tomb; but what must it be when that supreme terror of
+the sailor, the Bora, sweeps down! A continuous and ever-increasing
+gale, which at certain seasons makes the Iron Gate impassable.
+
+If there were only one cliff it would be a protection from the wind; but
+the draught of air confined between the two is as capricious as the wind
+in the streets of a town; at each corner it takes a new departure, now
+it stops suddenly, then bursts out of a corner as from an ambush, seizes
+the ship, carries away the steering-gear, throws the whole towing-beam
+into the water, then shifts again, and drives the wooden vessel before
+it as though it were going down-stream--the water throwing up clouds of
+spray as blinding and fine as the sand of the desert in a simoom.
+
+At such times the sighing church-music of the gale swells to the thunder
+of the Last Judgment, in which is mingled the death-cry of departing
+spirits.
+
+At the time to which this history refers there were no steamers on the
+Danube. Between Galatz and the junction with the Main, over nine
+thousand horses were employed in towing ships up-stream; on the Turkish
+Danube sails were also used, but not on the Hungarian branch. Besides
+these a whole fleet of smugglers' boats traded between the two
+countries, propelled only by strong arms. Salt-smuggling was in full
+swing. On the Turkish side the same salt was sold for five gulden, which
+cost six and a half on the Hungarian shore. It was brought by contraband
+back from Turkey to Hungary, and sold here for five and a half gulden.
+So every one profited by this comfortable arrangement.
+
+The only one not satisfied was the government, which for its own
+protection established custom-houses along the frontier, in which the
+male population of the neighboring villages had to keep guard armed
+with guns. Each village supplied watchmen, and each village had its own
+smugglers. While the young men of the place were on guard, the old ones
+carried the salt, and so both trades were kept in the family. But the
+government had another important object in its strict watch on the
+frontier--security from the plague.
+
+The terrible Eastern plague!
+
+In these days we know nothing of it, for it is a hundred and fifty years
+since a vain widow in Semlin brought an infected shawl, and fell dead as
+she went to church in it. But we have to thank the regulations which
+shut the door against it for this immunity. For each contact with a new
+people has endowed us with a new disease. From China we received scarlet
+fever, from the Saracens small-pox, from Russia influenza, from South
+America yellow fever, and from the Hindoos cholera. But the plague comes
+from Turkey.
+
+Therefore, along the whole bank, the opposite neighbors can only
+communicate with each other on condition of observing strict preventive
+measures, which must add considerable interest to their daily life.
+
+If the plague breaks out in Brussa, everything living or dead is
+officially declared infected: whoever has been in contact with it comes
+under the same ban, and must be in quarantine for ten or twenty days. If
+the cable of a left-bank ship touches the cable of a right-bank vessel,
+the whole crew of the former is unclean, and she must lie for ten days
+in the middle of the stream; for the plague might pass along the ropes
+from one to the other, and be communicated to the whole crew.
+
+And all this is carefully watched. On each ship sits an official called
+a "purifier." A terrible person, whose duty it is to keep an eye on
+every one, what he handles, what touches him; and if a passenger has
+been in contact with any person, or any material of hair, wool, or hemp
+on the Turkish side (for these substances carry infection), even with
+the hem of his garment, the health-officer must declare him under
+suspicion, and on arrival at Orsova must drag him from the arms of his
+family and deliver him over to quarantine.
+
+Woe to the purifier if he should conceal a case! For the slightest
+neglect, fifteen years' imprisonment is the penalty.
+
+It would appear, however, that smugglers are not liable to the plague,
+for they have no purifier on board, and if the disease should break out
+a hundred times over in Brussa, they would still ply day and night
+between the two banks. We must remember, however, that St. Procopius is
+their patron. Only the Bora disturbs their retail trade; for the swift
+current through the Iron Gate drives the rowing-boats toward the
+southern shore. Of course smuggling is done by tow-boats too, but that
+belongs to wholesale traffic, costs more than friendly business, and so
+is not for poor people: in them not only salt, but also tobacco and
+coffee are smuggled across the frontier.
+
+The Bora has swept the Danube clear of vessels, and has thereby so
+raised public morality and obedience to law, that for the last few days
+there has been no occasion for forgiveness of sins. Every vessel has
+hastened into harbor, or cast anchor in mid-stream, and the watchmen can
+sleep in peace as long as this wind makes the joints of their wooden
+huts creak. No ship can travel now, and yet the corporal of the Ogradina
+watch-house has a fancy that ever since day-break, amidst the blustering
+wind and roaring waters, he can detect the peculiar signal tones which
+the speaking-trumpet sends for many miles, and which are not drowned
+even by the voice of the thunder; the haunting, mournful blasts which
+issue from the long wooden tube.
+
+Is some vessel declaring its approach, so that no other ship may meet it
+in such weather in the narrow channel of the Iron Gate? Or is it in
+danger and calling for help?
+
+This ship approaches.
+
+It is an oaken vessel of ten to twelve thousand measures burden: deeply
+laden it would appear, for the waves wash over the bulwarks on each
+side.
+
+The massive hull is painted black, with a white bow, which ends in a
+long upstanding spiral beak plated with shining tin. The upper deck is
+shaped like a roof, with narrow steps up to it, and a flat bridge
+leading from one side to the other. The forward part of the raised deck
+ends in a double cabin, containing two rooms, with doors to right and
+left. The third wall of the cabin shows two small windows with green
+painted shutters, and in the space between them the maidenly form of the
+martyred St. Barbara is painted on a gold ground, with a pink dress,
+light-blue mantle, red head-dress, and a white lily in her hand.
+
+In the small space between the cabins and the thick coils of rope on the
+prow of the ship, stands a long green wooden trough filled with earth,
+in which lovely blooming carnations and stocks are planted. A three-foot
+iron railing shuts in the little garden, and on its spikes hang garlands
+of wild flowers. In the middle burns a lamp in a red glass globe, near
+to which is a bundle of dried rosemary and consecrated willow-catkins.
+
+On the forepart of the vessel stands the mast, to whose center rings the
+tow-rope is attached; a three-inch cable, by which thirty-two horses on
+the bank are trying to move the heavy ship up-stream. At other times
+sixteen horses would have sufficed here, and on the upper reaches twelve
+would be enough, but in this part and against such a wind even the
+thirty-two find it hard work. The horn signals are for the leader of the
+team-drivers; the human voice would be powerless here: even if the call
+reached the shore, no one could understand it amidst the confused
+echoes.
+
+But the language of the horn is intelligible even to horses; from its
+now drawling, now abrupt, warning, or encouraging tones, man and beast
+understand when to hasten or slacken their speed, or when to stop
+altogether.
+
+For in this narrow ravine the lot of the vessel is very uncertain; it
+has to struggle with gusts of furious wind, variable currents, its own
+weight, and the rocks and whirlpool which must be avoided. Its fate lies
+in the hands of two men. One is the pilot who steers; the other is the
+captain, who amidst the roar of the elements signals his orders to the
+towing-team by blasts on the horn. If the signal is misunderstood the
+ship either runs on to a rock, glides into the rapids, goes to pieces
+on the southern shore, or strands on some newly formed sand-bank, and
+sinks with every soul on board.
+
+The steersman is a six-foot weather-beaten sailor with a very red face,
+whose color on both cheeks comes from a network of veins with which the
+white of the eye is also transfused. He is always hoarse, and his voice
+knows only two variations, either a loud bellow or a low growl. Probably
+this is what obliges him to take double care of his throat. Prevention
+by means of a red comforter tightly wound round his neck, and cure by
+means of a brandy-flask occupying a permanent position in his coat
+pocket.
+
+The captain is a man of about thirty, with fair hair, dreamy blue eyes,
+and a long mustache, the rest of his face clean shaven. He is of middle
+height, and gives an idea of delicacy; with this impression his voice
+accords, for when he speaks softly it is like a woman's.
+
+The steersman is called Johann Fabula; the name of the captain is
+Michael Timar.
+
+The official "purifier" sits on the edge of the rudder bench; he has
+drawn a hood over his head, so that only his nose and mustache appear:
+both are red. History has not recorded his name. At present he is
+chewing tobacco.
+
+One of the ship's boats, manned by six rowers, has taken out a line from
+the bow, and the united efforts of the oarsmen materially assist the
+towing of the vessel.
+
+At the door of the double cabin sits a man of fifty, smoking a Turkish
+chibouque. His features are Oriental, with more of the Turkish than the
+Greek type; his dress, with the striped kaftan and red fez, is like that
+of a Servian or Greek. It will not escape an attentive observer that the
+shaven part of his face is light in contrast to the rest, which is the
+case with a person who has lately removed a thick beard. This is
+Euthemio Trikaliss, under which name he appears in the way-book. He is
+the owner of the cargo, but the ship itself belongs to a merchant of
+Komorn called Athanasius Brazovics.
+
+Out of one of the cabin windows looks the face of a young girl, and so
+becomes a neighbor of St. Barbara. One might fancy it was another sacred
+picture. The face is not pale but white--the inherent whiteness of
+marble or natural crystal. As an Abyssinian is born black, and a Malay
+yellow, so is this girl born white. No other tint disturbs the delicate
+snow; on this face neither the breath of the wind nor the eye of man
+calls up a blush. She is certainly only a child, hardly more than
+thirteen; but her figure is tall and slender, her face calm as if hewn
+out of alabaster, with severely antique lines, as if her mother had
+looked always at the Venus of Milo. Her thick black hair has a metallic
+gleam like the plumage of the black swan; but her eyes are dark-blue.
+The long delicate eyebrows almost meet over the brow, which gives her
+face a curious charm; it is as if these arching brows formed a black
+aureole round the brow of a saint.
+
+The girl's name is Timea.
+
+These are the passengers of the "St. Barbara."
+
+When the captain lays his speaking-trumpet aside, and has tried with the
+lead what water the ship has under her, he has time to chat with the
+girl as he leans against the iron railing round the picture.
+
+Timea understands only modern Greek, which the captain can speak
+fluently. He points out to her the beauties of the scenery, its grim,
+cruel beauties: the white face, the dark-blue eyes, remain unchanged,
+and yet the girl listens with fixed attention.
+
+But it seems to the captain as if these eyes gave their thoughts not so
+much to him as to the stocks which grow at St. Barbara's feet. He breaks
+off one and gives it to the child, that she may listen to what the
+flowers tell.
+
+The steersman sees this, away there by the tiller, and it displeases
+him. "You would do better," he growls in a voice like the rasping of a
+file, "instead of plucking the saint's flowers for that child, to burn a
+holy willow-wand at the lamp, for if the Lord drives us on to these
+stone monsters, even His own Son won't save us. Help, Jesu!"
+
+This aspiration would have been uttered by Johann Fabula, even if he
+were alone; but as the purifier sat close by, there followed this
+dialogue:
+
+"Why must the gentry pass the Iron Gate in such a storm?"
+
+"Why?" answered Johann Fabula, who did not forget his laudable habit of
+aiding the collection of his thoughts by a gulp out of the wicker
+brandy-flask. "Why? For no other reason but being in a hurry. Ten
+thousand measures of wheat are in our hold. In the Banat the crops
+failed; in Wallachia there was a good harvest. This is Michaelmas; if we
+don't make haste, November will be upon us, and we shall be frozen in."
+
+"And why do you think the Danube will freeze in November?"
+
+"I don't think--I know. The Komorn calendar says so. Look in my berth,
+it hangs by my bed."
+
+The purifier buried his nose in his hood, and spat his tobacco juice
+into the Danube.
+
+"Don't spit into the water in such weather as this--the Danube won't
+bear it. But what the Komorn calendar says is as true as Gospel. Ten
+years ago it prophesied that frost would set in in November; so I
+started at once to get home with my ship--then too I was in the 'St.
+Barbara'--the others laughed at me. But on the 23d of November cold set
+in, and half the vessels were frozen in, some at Apathin, and others at
+Foldvar. Then it was my turn to laugh. Help, Jesu! Hard over,
+he--e--e--!!"
+
+The wind was now dead ahead. Thick drops of sweat ran down the
+steersman's cheeks while he struggled to get the tiller over, but he
+asked for no help. Then he rewarded himself with a pull at his bottle,
+after which his eyes looked redder than ever.
+
+"Now if the Lord will only help us to pass that stone pier," groaned he
+in the midst of his exertions. "Pull away, you fellows there! If only we
+can get by this point!"
+
+"There's another beyond."
+
+"Yes, and then a third, and a thirteenth, and we must keep our
+mass-money ready in our mouths, for we are walking over our open coffins
+all the time."
+
+"Hark ye, my good friend," said the purifier, taking his plug out of
+his mouth, "I fancy your ship carries something besides wheat."
+
+Master Fabula looked askance at the purifier under his hood, and
+shrugged his shoulders. "What's that to me? If there's contraband on the
+ship, at any rate we sha'n't stop in quarantine, and we shall get on
+pretty quick."
+
+"How so?"
+
+The steersman made a circle with his thumb behind his back, on which the
+health-officer burst out laughing. Could he possibly have understood
+this pantomime?
+
+"Now, look you," said Johann Fabula, "since I was here last, the course
+of the river has altered; if I don't let her go a bit free we shall get
+into the new eddy which has formed under the 'Lovers' Rock.' Do you see
+that devilish monster which keeps swimming close to us? That's an old
+sturgeon--he must be at least five hundred-weight. If this beast keeps
+up with us, he'll bring us ill-luck. Help, Lord! If only he would come
+near enough for me to get the grappling-iron into him! The skipper is
+always sneaking up to the Greek girl instead of blowing his horn to the
+riders. She brings us misfortune--since she has been on board, we've had
+nothing but north wind; there's something wrong about her--she's as
+white as a ghost, and her eyebrows grow together like a witch's. Herr
+Timar, blow to the teamsmen, ho--ho--ho!"
+
+But Timar did not touch the horn, and went on telling legends of the
+rocks and water-falls to the white maiden.
+
+Beginning from the Iron Gate up to Clissera, each valley, each cave on
+both banks, every cliff, island, and every eddy in the stream has its
+history: a fairy tale, a legend, or an adventure with brigands, of which
+books, or sculptured inscriptions, or national songs, or fisherfolks'
+tradition tell the story. It is a library in stone, the names of the
+rocks are the lettered back of the volumes, and he who knows how to open
+them may read a romance therein.
+
+Michael Timar had long been at home in this library. With the vessel
+committed to his charge he had often made the passage of the Iron Gate,
+and every stone and island was familiar to him.
+
+Possibly he had another object with his legends and anecdotes besides
+the satisfaction of the girl's curiosity. When a highly strung creature
+has to pass through a great danger, which makes even a strong man's
+heart quake, then those who know the danger try to turn the attention of
+the ignorant person into the kingdom of marvels. Was it perhaps thus?
+
+Timea listened to the story of the hero Mirko with his beloved, the
+faithful Milieva; how they fled to the peaks of the Linbigaja Rock out
+in the Danube; how there he alone defended the precipitous approach to
+his refuge, against all the soldiers of his pursuer Hassan; how they
+lived on the kids brought by the eagles to their nest on the cliff,
+cared not for the roar of the breakers round the base of their island,
+and felt no fear of the white surges thrown up by the compressed force
+of the narrowed current. Mariners call these woolly wave-crests the
+"Lovers' Goats."
+
+"It would be better to look ahead than astern," growled the steersman,
+and then exerted his voice in a loud call, "Haha! ho! skipper, what's
+that coming down on us?"
+
+The captain looked round, and saw the object pointed out by the pilot.
+The ship was now entering the Tatalia Pass, where the Danube is only two
+hundred fathoms wide, and has a rapid incline. It looks like a mountain
+torrent, only that this torrent is the Danube. And besides, the stream
+is here divided in two by a mass of rock whose top is covered with
+bushes. The water forks in two arms on the western side, of which one
+shoots under the steep precipice of the Servian bank, while the other
+discharges through an artificial channel a hundred yards wide, by which
+the large vessels pass up and down. In this part it is far from
+desirable that two ships should meet, for there is barely room for them
+to pass in safety. To the northward lie hidden rocks where a ship might
+strike, and to the southward is the great whirlpool formed by the
+junction of the two branches; if this should seize a vessel, no human
+power could save her.
+
+So that the danger which the steersman had announced by his question was
+a very real one.
+
+Two ships meeting in the Tatalia Pass with the river so high and under
+such a pressure of wind!
+
+Michael Timar asked for his telescope, which he had lent to Timea to
+look at the place where Mirko had defended the beautiful Milieva.
+
+At the western curve of the river a dark mass was visible in the stream.
+
+Michael looked through his glass, and then called to the steersman, "A
+mill!"
+
+"Holy Father! then we are lost."
+
+A water-mill was driving down on them; probably the storm had loosened
+its chains from the bank. Obviously it was without pilot or oarsman, who
+must have fled to the shore; so it drifted blindly on, sweeping away the
+mills it met on its way, and sinking any cargo-boats which could not get
+out of its road.
+
+How could they escape between Scylla and Charybdis?
+
+Timar said not a word of this to Timea, but gave her back the glass, and
+told her where to look for the eagles' nest whose ancestors had fed the
+lovers. Then he threw off his coat hastily, sprung into the barge where
+the rowers were, and made five of them get into the small boat with him;
+they were to bring the light anchor and thin cable with them, and cast
+off.
+
+Trikaliss and Timea did not understand his orders, as he spoke
+Hungarian, which neither of them knew.
+
+The captain shouted to the steersman, "Keep her steady; go ahead!" In a
+few moments Trikaliss also could see what was the danger. The drifting
+mill came floating swiftly down the brawling stream, and one could see
+with the naked eye the clattering paddle-wheel, whose width occupied the
+whole fairway of the channel. If it touched the laden ship both must go
+down.
+
+The boat with the six men still struggled up against the current. Four
+of them rowed, one steered, and Timar stood in the bow with folded arms.
+
+What was their insane design? What could they do in a little boat
+against a great mill? What are human mind and muscles against stream and
+storm?
+
+If each were a Samson, the laws of hydrostatics would set at naught
+their strength. The shock with which they touch the mill will recoil on
+the skiff; if they grapple it they will be dragged away by it. It is as
+if a spider would catch a cockchafer in its web.
+
+The boat, however, did not keep in the center, but tried to reach the
+southern point of the island.
+
+So high were the waves that the five men disappeared again and again in
+the hollows between, then the next moment they danced on the foamy
+crest, tossed hither and thither by the willful torrent, seething under
+them like boiling water.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE WHITE CAT.
+
+
+The oarsmen consulted in the boat what was to be done.
+
+One advised cutting through the side of the mill below the water-line
+with an ax, so as to sink it: but that would do no good; the current
+would drive the wreck down on to the ship.
+
+A second thought they ought to grapple the mill with hooks, and give it
+a list away, so as to direct it toward the whirlpool: but this counsel
+was also rejected, for the eddies would drag the boat down too.
+
+Timar ordered the man at the tiller to keep straight for the point of
+the island where the Lovers' Rock lies.
+
+When they approached the rapids he lifted the heavy anchor and swung it
+into the water without shaking the boat, which showed what muscular
+strength the delicate frame contained. The anchor took out a long coil
+of rope with it, for the water is deep there. Then Timar made them row
+as quickly as possible toward the approaching mill. Now they guessed his
+design--he meant to anchor the mill. Bad idea, said the sailors; the
+great mass will lie across the fairway, and stop the ship; besides, the
+cable is so long and slight that the heavy fabric will part it easily.
+
+When Euthemio Trikaliss saw from the vessel Timar's intention, he
+dropped his chibouque in a panic, ran along the deck and cried to the
+steersman to cut the tow-rope, and let the ship drift down-stream.
+
+The pilot did not understand Greek, but guessed from the old man's
+gestures what he wanted.
+
+With perfect calmness he answered as he leaned against the rudder,
+"There's nothing to grumble at; Timar knows what to do." With the
+courage of despair Trikaliss drew his dagger out of his girdle in order
+to cut the rope himself; but the steersman pointed toward the stern, and
+what Trikaliss saw there altered his mind.
+
+From the Lower Danube came a vessel toward them: an accustomed eye can
+distinguish it from afar. It has a mast whose sails are furled, a high
+poop, and twenty-four rowers.
+
+It is a Turkish brigantine.
+
+As soon as he caught sight of it, Trikaliss put his dagger back in his
+sash; if he had turned purple at what he saw ahead, now he was livid.
+He hastened to Timea, who was looking through the glass at the peaks of
+Perigrada. "Give me the telescope!" he exclaimed in a hoarse voice.
+
+"Oh, how pretty that is!" said Timea, as she gave up the glass.
+
+"What?"
+
+"On the cliffs there are little marmots playing together like monkeys."
+
+Euthemio directed the telescope toward the approaching vessel, and his
+brows contracted; his face was pale as death.
+
+Timea took the glass from his hand and looked again for the marmots on
+the rocks. Euthemio kept his arm round her waist.
+
+"How they jump and dance and chase each other; how amusing!" and Timea
+little knew how near she was to being lifted by the arm that held her,
+and plunged over the bulwarks into the foaming flood.
+
+But what Euthemio saw on the other side brought back into his face the
+color it had lost.
+
+When Timar arrived within a cast of the mill, he took a coil of the
+anchor-rope in his right hand; a hook was fastened to its end. The
+rudderless mass came quickly nearer, like some drifting antediluvian
+monster--blind chance guided it; its paddle-wheel turned swiftly with
+the motion of the water, and under the empty out-shoot the mill-stone
+revolved over the flour-bin as if it was working hard.
+
+In this fabric devoted to certain destruction, there was no living thing
+except a white cat, which sat on the red-painted shingle roof and mewed
+piteously.
+
+When he got close to the mill, Timar swung the rope and hook suddenly
+round his head, and aimed it at the paddle-wheel.
+
+As soon as the grappling-iron had caught one of the floats, the wheel,
+driven by water-power, began to wind up the rope gently, and so give the
+mill a gradual turn toward the Perigrada Island; completing by its own
+machinery the suicidal work of casting itself on the rocks.
+
+"Didn't I say Timar knew what he was about?" growled Johann Fabula;
+while Euthemio in joyful excitement exclaimed, "Bravo! my son," and
+pressed Timea's hand so hard that she was frightened and even forgot the
+marmots.
+
+"There, look!"
+
+And now Timea also noticed the mill. She required no telescope, for it
+and the ship were so near together that in the narrow channel they were
+only separated by about sixty feet.
+
+Just enough to let the diabolical machine get safely past.
+
+Timea thought neither of the danger nor of the deliverance, only of the
+forsaken cat.
+
+When the poor animal saw the floating house and its inhabitants so near
+to it, it leaped up and began running up and down the roof-ridge, and to
+measure with its eye the distance between the mill and the ship, whether
+it dared jump.
+
+"Oh, the poor little cat!" cried Timea, anxiously, "if we could only get
+near enough for it to come over to us."
+
+But from this misfortune the ship was preserved by its patron saint, and
+by the anchor-rope, which, wound up by the paddle-wheel, got shorter
+and shorter, and drew the wreck nearer the island and further from the
+vessel.
+
+"Oh, the poor pretty white cat!"
+
+"Don't be afraid," Euthemio tried to console her; "when it passes the
+rock the cat will spring ashore, and be very happy living with the
+marmots."
+
+Only unluckily the cat, keeping on the hither side of the roof, could
+not see the island.
+
+When the "St. Barbara" had got safely past the enchanted mill, Timea
+waved her handkerchief to the cat, and called out first in Greek, and
+then in the universal cat's language, "Quick, look, jump off,
+puss-s-s-s;" but the animal, frantic with terror, paid no heed.
+
+At the very moment when the stern of the ship had passed the mill, the
+latter was suddenly caught by the current, swung round so that the
+grappled wheel broke, and the liberated mass shot like an arrow down the
+stream. The white cat sprung up to the ridge.
+
+"Ah!"
+
+But the mill rushed on its fate.
+
+Below the island is the great whirlpool.
+
+It is one of the most remarkable eddies ever formed by the river
+giants--on every map it is marked by two arrows meeting in a corner. Woe
+to the boat which is swept in the direction of either arrow! Round the
+great funnel the water boils and rages as in a seething caldron, and in
+the middle of the circle yawns the bare abyss below. This whirlpool has
+worn a hole in the rock a hundred and twenty feet deep, and what it
+takes with it into this tomb, no one ever sees again: if it should be a
+man, he had better look out for the resurrection. And into this place
+the current carried the mill. Before it reached there it sprung a leak
+and got a list over; the axle of the wheel stood straight on end; the
+white cat ran along to the highest point and stood there humping its
+back; the eddy caught the wooden fabric, carried it round in wide
+circles four or five times, turning on its own axis, creaking and
+groaning, and then it disappeared under the water. With it the white
+cat.
+
+Timea shuddered and hid her face in her shawl.
+
+But the "St. Barbara" was saved.
+
+Euthemio pressed the hands of the returning oarsmen--Timar he embraced.
+Timar might have expected that Timea would say a friendly word; but she
+only asked, pointing to the gulf with a disturbed face, "What is become
+of the mill?"
+
+"Chips and splinters!"
+
+"And the poor cat?" The girl's lips trembled, and tears stood in her
+eyes.
+
+"It's all up with her."
+
+"But the mill and the cat belonged to some poor man?" said Timea.
+
+"Yes; but we had to save our ship and our lives, or else we should have
+been wrecked, and the whirlpool would have drawn us into the abyss, and
+only thrown up our bones on the shore."
+
+Timea looked at the man who said this, through the prism of tear-filled
+eyes.
+
+It was a strange world into which she gazed through these tears. That
+it should be permissible to destroy a poor man's mill in order to save
+one's own ship, that you should drown a cat so as not to get into the
+water yourself!--she could not understand it. From this moment she
+listened no more to his fairy stories, but avoided him as much as
+possible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A DANGEROUS LEAP WITH A MAMMOTH.
+
+
+Indeed Timar had but little time for story-telling; for he had hardly
+got his breath after the exertions of his perilous achievement, before
+Euthemio gave him the glass and pointed where he was to look.
+
+"Gunboat--twenty-four oars--brigantine from Salonica."
+
+Timar did not put down the telescope till the other vessel was hidden
+from him behind the point of the Perigrada Island.
+
+Then suddenly he let it fall, and, putting the horn to his lips, blew
+first three, then six sharp blasts, at which the drivers whipped up
+their horses.
+
+The rocky island of Perigrada is surrounded by two branches of the
+Danube. The one on the Servian side is that by which cargo-ships pass
+up; it is safer and cheaper, for half the number of horses suffice. By
+the Roumanian shore there is also a narrow channel, with just room for
+one vessel, but here you must use oxen, of which often a hundred and
+twenty are harnessed. The other arm of the river is again narrowed by
+the little Reskival Island, lying across the stream. (Now this island
+has been blown up in part, but at the time of our story the whole still
+existed.) Through the narrows between the two islands the river shoots
+like an arrow; but above, it lies between its rocky walls like a great
+lake. Only this lake has no smooth surface, for it is always in motion,
+and never freezes in the very hardest winter. Its bottom is thickly sown
+with rocks; some are under water, while other uncouth monsters project
+many feet above it.
+
+This is the most dangerous part of the whole voyage. To this day,
+experienced seamen, English, Turks, Italians, at home on all seas,
+adventure themselves with much anxiety in this rock-strewn channel. Here
+the majority of shipwrecks occur. Here in the Crimean War the splendid
+Turkish man-of-war "Silistria" was lost. She had been ordered to
+Belgrade, and might have given a new turn to affairs if she had not
+received a thrust in the ribs from one of the Reskival rocks, so
+enthusiastic in their peace policy that they obliged her to stay where
+she was.
+
+Yet this lake, with its dangerous bottom, has a passage through it which
+but few ships know, and still fewer care to use.
+
+This short cut enables mariners to cross from the channel on the Servian
+side to the Roumanian shore. The latter channel is divided by a ledge of
+rock from the Upper Danube, and you can only enter it at Szvinicza, and
+come out at Szkela-Gladova.
+
+This is the dangerous leap with a floating mammoth.
+
+The captain blows first three, and then six blasts on his horn; the
+drivers know at once what it means, the leader of the team has
+dismounted--with good reason too--and they all begin with cries and
+blows to hurry on the horses. The vessel goes swiftly against the
+stream.
+
+The horn blows nine times.
+
+The drivers flog the horses furiously: the poor beasts understand the
+call and the blows, and tug till the rope is nearly strained to
+breaking. Five minutes of such effort are more exhausting than a whole
+day's labor.
+
+Now twelve blasts of the horn sound in rapid succession. Men and horses
+collect the last remnant of their strength. Every moment one fancies
+they must break down. The towing-rope, a three-inch cable, is as taut as
+a bow-string, and the iron bolt round which the rope is wound is burning
+hot with the friction. The captain stands by with a sharp ax in his
+hand.
+
+When the vessel gained its greatest impetus, with a single blow he
+severed the cable at the bow.
+
+The tense rope flew whistling like a giant fiddle-string into the air;
+the horses of the towing-team fell down in a heap, and the leader broke
+its neck--his rider had wisely dismounted. The ship, relieved of the
+strain, altered its course suddenly, and began, with its bow to the
+northern shore, to cut obliquely across the river.
+
+Sailors call this bold maneuver the "Cross-cut."
+
+The heavy bulk is now propelled neither by stream nor oars; even the
+current is against it. Merely the after effect of the shock it has
+received drives it over to the other bank.
+
+The calculation of this impulse, with the distance to be traversed and
+the resistance which lessens the speed, would be a credit to any
+practical engineer. Common sailors have learned it by rule of thumb.
+
+From the moment when Timar cut the tow-rope, the lives of all on board
+were in the hands of the steersman.
+
+Johann Fabula showed now what he could do. "Help, Lord Christ!" he
+muttered, but he did not keep his hands in his lap. Before him the ship
+rushed with winged speed into the lake formed by the Danube. Two men
+were now required at the tiller, and even these could hardly bridle the
+monster in its course.
+
+Timar stood on the prow and sounded with the lead, in one hand holding
+the line; the other he stretched up, and showed the pilot with his
+fingers what water they had.
+
+The steersman knew the rocks they were passing over just as well as he
+could have told exactly how much the river had risen in the last few
+weeks. In his hands the helm was safe; if he had made a single false
+movement, if only by an inch, the vessel would have received a shock
+which would stop her for a moment, and then she and all on board would
+have been driven head over heels into the Perigrada whirlpool, where the
+ship and the beautiful white girl would have joined the mill and the
+beautiful white cat.
+
+Safely past the shallows of the Reskival rapids! Yet this is a bad
+place. The speed is less, the effect of the motive power already
+paralyzed by the force of the stream, and the bottom sown with sharp
+rocks.
+
+Timea leaned over the bulwarks and looked down into the water. Through
+the transparent waves, the bright-colored rocks, a huge mosaic of green
+and yellow and red, looked quite close. Between them shot silvery fishes
+with red fins. She was fascinated.
+
+Deep silence fell over the scene; each knew that he passed over his
+grave, and would owe it to God's mercy if he did not find his monument
+down below. Only the girl felt no emotion of fear.
+
+The vessel had arrived in a bay of rocks. Sailors have given them the
+name of "gun-stones"; perhaps because the sound of the breakers reminds
+one of the cracking of musketry fire.
+
+Here the principal branch of the Danube concentrates itself in a deep
+bed. The sunken rocks are too far under water to be dangerous. Below, in
+the dark-green depths, one may see the slow and indolent forms of the
+dwellers of the sea--the great sturgeon and the hundred-pound pike, at
+whose approach the bright shoals of small fish scatter in haste.
+
+Timea gazed at the play of the aquatic population; it was like a
+bird's-eye view of an amphitheater.
+
+Suddenly she felt her arm seized by Timar, who dragged her from the
+bulwarks, pushed her into the cabin, and shut the door violently.
+
+"Look out! Halloo!" shouted the crew as with one voice.
+
+Timea could not imagine what was happening that she should be so roughly
+treated, and ran to look out of the cabin window.
+
+It was only that the ship had passed safely through the "gun-rocks," and
+was about to enter the Roumanian channel; but from the little bay the
+water rushes so furiously into the canal that a regular water-fall is
+formed, and this is the dangerous moment of the "Leap."
+
+When Timea looked out of the cabin window, she only saw that Timar stood
+at the bow with a grappler in his hand. Then suddenly a deafening noise
+arose, a huge foam-crowned mountain of water struck the fore part of the
+vessel, splashed its spray right against the window, and blinded Timea
+for a moment. When she looked out again, the captain was no longer to be
+seen.
+
+There were great cries outside. She rushed out of the door and met her
+father. "Are we sinking?" she cried.
+
+Timea had seen that: the big wave had washed him away before her eyes.
+But her heart beat no faster when she heard it.
+
+Curious! When she saw the white cat drowned, she was in despair, and
+could not refrain from tears, and now when the water had swallowed up
+the captain, she did not even say "Poor fellow!"
+
+Yes, but the cat had cried so pitifully, and this man defies the whole
+world; the cat was a dear little animal, the captain only a great rough
+man. And then the cat could not help itself; but he is strong and
+clever, and can certainly save himself. That's the only good of a man.
+
+After the last leap the ship was safe, and swam in the smooth water of
+the canal. The sailors ran with grappling-irons to the boat to seek the
+captain. Euthemio held a purse up as a prize for the rescue of Timar. "A
+hundred ducats for him who rescues the captain!"
+
+"Keep your hundred ducats, good sir!" cried the voice of the man in
+question from the other end of the ship. "I'm coming."
+
+Then they saw him climbing up the stern by the rudder-chains. No fear of
+his being lost!
+
+As if nothing had happened, he began giving orders. "Let go!"
+
+The three hundred-weight anchor was thrown over, and the ship brought up
+in the middle of the channel, so as to be hidden by the cliffs from the
+upper reaches of the river.
+
+"And now ashore with the boat," Timar ordered three oarsmen.
+
+"Change your clothes," advised Euthemio.
+
+"Waste of time," answered Timar. "I shall soon be wet again; now I am
+thoroughly soaked. We have no time to spare."
+
+The last words he whispered into Euthemio's ear.
+
+The man's eyes glittered as he agreed. The captain sprung into the boat
+and rowed himself, so as to get quicker to the post-house on the bank,
+where towing-teams could be engaged. He collected hastily eighty oxen.
+Meanwhile, a new towing-rope was attached to the vessel, the oxen
+harnessed, and before half an hour had passed, the "St. Barbara" was on
+her way again through the Iron Gate, and on the opposite side of the
+stream.
+
+When Timar returned on board, his exertions had dried his clothes.
+
+The ship was saved, perhaps doubly saved, and with it the cargo,
+Euthemio, and Timea.
+
+But what are they to him that he should work so hard? He is only the
+captain and supercargo, and receives a scanty salary as such. It can not
+matter to him whether the vessel's hold is full of wheat or contraband
+tobacco or real pearls; his wages remain the same.
+
+So also thought the "purifier," who, when they reached the Roumanian
+canal, resumed his interrupted conversation with the steersman.
+
+"You'll allow, neighbor, that we were never nearer all going to
+destruction together than we were to-day."
+
+"There's some truth in that," answered Fabula.
+
+"But why should we try the experiment whether we could get drowned on
+St. Michael's day?"
+
+"H'm!" said Johann, and took a short pull at his brandy-flask. "What
+salary do you get, sir?"
+
+"Twenty kreutzers a day," answered the purifier.
+
+"Why the devil do you come here to venture your life for twenty
+kreutzers a day? I didn't send for you. I get a gulden and my food; so I
+have forty kreutzers more reason to venture my life than you. What does
+it matter to you?"
+
+The health-officer shook his head, and threw back his hood, so as to be
+more easily heard.
+
+"Listen," he said; "it strikes me the brigantine is chasing you, and the
+'St. Barbara' is trying to escape."
+
+"H'm!" coughed the steersman, clearing his throat, and becoming suddenly
+too hoarse to make a sound.
+
+"Well, it doesn't matter to me," said the purifier, with a shrug. "I'm
+Austrian born, and I don't like the Turks. But I know what I know."
+
+"Well, then, will the gentleman listen to what he doesn't know?" said
+Fabula, who had suddenly recovered his voice. "Certainly the gunboat is
+chasing us, and that's why we are showing him our heels. For, look you,
+they wanted to take the white-faced maiden into the sultan's harem, but
+her father would not consent; he preferred to escape with her from
+Turkey, and now the object is to reach Hungarian territory as quickly as
+possible--there the sultan can't touch her. Now that's all about it, so
+no more questions, but go to St. Barbara's picture, and light the lamp
+again if the water has extinguished it; and don't forget to burn three
+consecrated willow-twigs, if you're a good Christian."
+
+The purifier drew himself up slowly, and looked for his tinderbox, and
+then he growled in his beard--
+
+"_If_ I am an orthodox Catholic? But they say you are only a Papist on
+board, and a Calvinist directly you set foot on shore; that you pray in
+the ship, and can hardly wait for dry land before you begin cursing and
+swearing. And they say too that your name is Fabula, and that Fabula
+means just the same as a pocketful of lies. But of course I believe all
+you have told me, so you need not be angry."
+
+"You're quite right there; but now you be off, and don't you come back
+till I call you."
+
+The twenty-four rowers in the gunboat required three hours to get from
+the point where first the "St. Barbara" was seen to the Perigrada
+Island, where the Danube divides into two arms. The cliffs of the island
+masked the whole bend, and on board the brigantine nothing of what had
+passed behind them could be seen.
+
+Even below the island the gunboat had met with floating wreckage, which
+the eddy had thrown to the surface. This was part of the sunken mill,
+but could not be distinguished from the remains of a vessel. When the
+brigantine had passed the island a reach of a mile and a half lay open
+before her; neither in the stream nor by the bank was any large craft to
+be seen; near the shore were only barges and rowing-boats.
+
+The man-of-war went a little higher, cruised about in the river, and
+then returned to the shore. There the Turkish first-lieutenant inquired
+of the watchmen about a cargo-vessel passing by. They had seen nothing,
+for the ship had not got so far. Presently the brigantine overtook the
+"St. Barbara's" towing-team, and of them also questions were asked. They
+were all good Servians, and explained to the Turks where they could find
+the "St. Barbara."
+
+"She has gone down at the Perigrada Island with her cargo of fruit and
+all her crew; you can see here how the tow-rope parted."
+
+The Turkish brigantine left the Servian drivers, who were all lamenting
+because no one was left to pay their wages. (In Orsova they know full
+well they will come up with their ship and tow her on.) But the
+commander, being a Turk, of course turned about and went down-stream.
+
+When the brigantine got back to the island the sailors saw a board
+dancing on the water which did not float away. They fished it out: a
+rope was fastened to it by an iron hook, for the board was a float from
+the mill-wheel. Then they heaved up the rope, which had an anchor at its
+other end. This also was got in, and on its cross-piece, painted in
+great letters, there was the name "St. Barbara."
+
+Now the whole catastrophe was quite clear. Her towing-rope had broken,
+she cast her anchor, but it could not hold her, she drifted into the
+whirlpool, and now her timbers float on the surface, but her crew rests
+below in the deep pool.
+
+Mashallah! We can not follow her there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A STRICT SEARCH.
+
+
+The "St. Barbara" had escaped two dangers--the rocks of the Iron Gate
+and the Turkish brigantine; two remained, the Bora and the quarantine in
+Orsova.
+
+Above the bay of the Iron Gate, the powerful stream is confined by its
+steep banks in a chasm only a hundred fathoms wide, through which the
+pent-up current forces its way, in parts with a fall of twenty-eight
+feet.
+
+Up above the mountain peaks, three thousand feet in air, the eagles
+circle in majestic flight across the narrow strip of sky visible, whose
+pure azure, seen from the awful depths below, looks like a glass vault,
+and further yet rise more and higher peaks.
+
+It is a sight, I trow, to call up spirits from hell. The impotent
+vessel, which has neither hands nor feet, nor yet fins, which, like an
+overladen nutshell, floats upward in this narrow channel against wind
+and stream; and in it a handful of men, trusting in their intelligence
+and their strength. Here, too, even the Bora can not harm them, for the
+double range of cliffs keeps off the wind. The steersman and the
+towing-team have easier work now.
+
+But the Bora was not asleep. It was already afternoon. The chief
+steersman had given over the tiller to his deputy, and had gone to the
+galley, which was in the stern. There he was busy preparing a "thieves'
+roast," of which the recipe is to spit on a long skewer a piece of beef,
+a piece of ham, and a piece of pork alternately, and then turn the
+skewer above an open fire till the meat is cooked.
+
+All at once the narrow strip of sky visible between the almost touching
+cliffs grew dark. The Bora will not be defied.
+
+Suddenly it drives down before it a storm which overcasts the blue sky,
+so that it is pitch dark in the valley. Up above masses of cloud; dark
+rocks on either hand. Now and then a dazzling flash darts through the
+heights, followed by a short abrupt thunderclap, as if the narrow gorge
+could only contain one chord of the awful concert; then again the
+lightning shoots into the Danube just in front of the ship, and by its
+fiery rays for an instant the whole rocky cathedral looks like the
+flaming gulf of hell, and the thunder rolls, with a crash as of a world
+destroyed, from one end of the resounding Titan's hall to the other.
+Rain falls in torrents, but the vessel must go on.
+
+It must get on, that it may have left Orsova before night.
+
+They can only see by the flicker of the lightning. Even with the horn
+they dare not signal, for it might be heard on the Roumanian side. But
+inventive man has found a way out of this difficulty.
+
+The captain goes into the bow, gets out his flint and steel, and begins
+to strike out sparks. This fire can not be extinguished by rain; it can
+be seen by the drivers through the darkness, and as often as the steel
+strikes a spark they know at once what to do; they also make signals
+from the bank by sparks. This is the secret telegraph of sailors and
+smugglers at the Iron Gate. And this silent language has been brought to
+perfection by the shore population on each side of the river.
+
+Timea liked the tempest. She had drawn her Turkish hood over her head,
+and looked out of the cabin window. "Are we in a cavern?" she asked the
+captain.
+
+"No," answered Timar, "but at the door of a tomb. That high peak, which
+glows in the lightning flashes like a mountain of fire, is the grave of
+St. Peter, the 'Gropa lui Petro.' And the two other monsters near it are
+the 'Two Old Women.'"
+
+"What old women?"
+
+"According to the legend, a Hungarian and a Wallachian woman quarreled
+as to which of their two countries could claim the tomb of St. Peter.
+The apostle could not sleep in his grave for their squabbling, and in
+his anger he turned them into stone."
+
+Timea did not smile at the grotesque legend. She did not see anything
+ridiculous in it. "And how do they know that this is the grave of an
+apostle?" asked she.
+
+"Because here many healing herbs grow, which they collect to cure all
+sorts of diseases, and send them great distances."
+
+"So they call him an apostle, who even in his grave does good to
+others?" Timea questioned.
+
+"Timea!" sounded from the cabin the imperious call of Euthemio. The girl
+drew back her head from the window, and closed the circular shutter.
+When Timar looked round again, he saw only the saint's picture.
+
+The vessel continued her course in spite of the storm.
+
+Suddenly the dark ravine was left behind, and as the two rock walls
+trended further apart the gloomy vault overhead disappeared. Just as
+rapidly as the Bora had brought up the black thunderclouds, so quickly
+had it swept away the storm; and, all at once, the travelers saw
+stretched before them the lovely Cserna valley.
+
+The cliffs on both shores were covered to their summits with vineyards
+and fruit orchards; the landscape glittered in the glow of the evening
+sun; out of the green distance shone while houses, slender spires, and
+red roofs, and through the crystal rain-beads gleamed a gorgeous
+rainbow.
+
+The Danube had lost its uncanny aspect. In its wider bed it could spread
+itself out comfortably; and on the western reaches of its sea-green
+mirror the travelers saw the reflection of Orsova on its island--for
+them the fourth, and greatest, bugbear.
+
+The day had already sunk into twilight when the "St. Barbara" arrived at
+Orsova.
+
+"More wind to-morrow than even to-day," grumbled the steersman, looking
+at the red sky.
+
+There the evening clouds were piled like an avalanche, in all shades of
+fiery and blood red, and if the glowing mist-veil parted through the
+rent, the sky was not blue but emerald-green. Below, mountain and
+valley, forest and field, gleamed in the sunset reflex with radiance
+which hurt the eye, unable to find a shady point of rest. The Danube
+rushing on beneath, like a fiery Phlegethon, and in its midst an island
+with towers and massive buildings, all glowing as if part of a huge
+furnace, through which every creature, coming from the pestilential east
+to the frontier of the healthy west, must pass as through purgatory.
+
+But what most fixed the attention of the crew under this stormy sunset
+was a black-and-yellow striped boat, which was being rowed from the
+shore to the ship.
+
+The Szkela is the double gate through which the neighboring inhabitants
+of both sides of the Danube speak, bargain, and do business together.
+
+The "St. Barbara" had cast anchor before the island, and awaited the
+approaching boat, in which were three armed men--two with muskets and
+bayonets--besides two rowers and the steersman.
+
+Euthemio paced anxiously up and down the small space in front of the
+cabin. Timar approached him and whispered, "The searcher is coming."
+
+Trikaliss drew from his leathern pouch a silk purse, and took out two
+_rouleaux_, which he pressed into Timar's hand. In each were a hundred
+ducats.
+
+Before long the boat was alongside, and the three armed men came on
+board. One is the overseer of taxes, the inspector, whose office it is
+to search the cargo for anything contraband or a prohibited importation
+of arms; the other two are custom-house officials, who render armed
+assistance, and serve as a check on the inspector to see if he carries
+out the search properly.
+
+The purifier is the official spy, who reports whether the two officers
+have properly controlled the inspector. Then the latter three form a
+tribunal, which takes the evidence of the purifier as to whether he has
+detected the passengers in any infectious communication. This is all
+very systematically arranged, so that one organ should control the
+other, and each be mutually under inspection.
+
+As a legal fee for these functions the chief has to receive a hundred
+kreutzers, each of the customs officials fifty, and the purifier also
+fifty--which certainly is a moderate fee enough.
+
+As soon as the inspector reaches the deck, the purifier comes toward
+him: the former scratches his ear and the latter his nose. No contact
+takes place.
+
+Then the inspector turns to the captain, and both the other officials
+ground their arms. Still three paces apart! One can't tell whether the
+man has not got the plague.
+
+The examination begins.
+
+"Where from?"
+
+"Galatz."
+
+"Name of ship's owner?"
+
+"Athan Brazovics."
+
+"Owner of cargo?"
+
+"Euthemio Trikaliss."
+
+"Where are the ship's papers?"
+
+The reception of these is carefully arranged. A pan of live coals is
+brought, and strewn with juniper-berries and wormwood: the aforesaid
+papers are held over it and well smoked, then taken by the inspector
+with a pair of tongs, read from as great a distance as possible, and
+afterward returned. Nothing wrong, apparently, with the ship's papers.
+
+The pan is carried away, and in its place a jug of water is brought. It
+is a capacious earthenware pot, with a mouth through which the largest
+fist can pass. It serves to facilitate the transmission of the tax. As
+the oriental plague is more easily communicated by coins than by
+anything else, the sailors coming from the Levant must throw the money
+into a jug of water, in order that the western health-officer may take
+it out cleansed: just as at the Szkela every one must fish the money he
+receives out of a basin.
+
+Timar thrust his clinched fist into the water, and brought it out open.
+
+Then the inspector puts his hand in, draws it out as a clinched fist,
+and transfers it to his pocket. He does not need to look at it by the
+sunset light to see what manner of money it is. He knows it by the size
+and weight. Even a blind man knows the feel of ducats. He does not
+change a muscle.
+
+After him come the custom-house officials. These also with serious faces
+fish up their fee from the bottom of the jug.
+
+Now for the turn of the purifier. His countenance is stern and
+forbidding. It hangs on a single word from his lips, whether the ship
+may have to lie ten or twenty days in quarantine with all her
+passengers. There are cold-blooded men like that who have only an eye to
+duty.
+
+The inspector demands, in a surly, dictatorial tone, that the entrance
+to the lower deck be opened. His desire is obeyed. They all three go
+down; but none of the crew may follow them. When they are alone, the
+three strict servants of the law grin at each other. The purifier
+remains on deck, and only laughs in his sleeve.
+
+They unfasten one of the many sacks, in which certainly there is only
+wheat. "Well, I hope it's moldy enough," remarks the inspector.
+"Probably there is only wheat in the other sacks, and very likely even
+more worm-eaten."
+
+A document is now drawn up describing the search: one of the armed
+officials has the writing materials, and the other the form to be filled
+in. All is accurately set down. Then the inspector writes something on a
+bit of paper, which he folds and seals with a wafer, on which he presses
+the official seal. He writes no address on the note.
+
+Then, after they have rummaged in every hole and corner where nothing
+suspicious is hidden, the three searchers rise to the light of day once
+more. At least to moonlight; for the sun has set, and through the
+hurrying clouds the moon ever and anon peeps down, and then vanishing,
+plays hide-and-seek with the world.
+
+The inspector calls for the captain and gives him to understand--still
+in a severe official manner--that nothing suspicious has been found on
+board: then he requires the purifier, in the same manner, to declare the
+condition of the ship's health.
+
+With an appeal to his oath of fidelity, the purifier bears witness that
+every person on board, as well as the cargo, is free from infection.
+
+A certificate that the papers are in order is prepared, and the receipts
+for the fees are handed over. A hundred kreutzers to the inspector, two
+fifties to the customs officers, and fifty to the health-officer. Not a
+kreutzer is wanting. These receipts are delivered to the owner of the
+cargo, who has never left his cabin the whole time--he is at supper. He
+also must countersign the receipts. From these signatures and
+indorsements, the shipowner and the honorable officials in question
+mutually learn that the captain gave away as many kreutzers as he
+received, and that not one remained sticking to his fingers.
+
+Kreutzers! Well, yes; but about the gold?
+
+The thought may well have passed through Timar's head, how would it be
+if of the fifty ducats which this dirty lot were to fish out of the jug
+he were only to put in forty (a fabulous sum to such fellows)? No
+creature would know that he had kept back ten. Indeed he might easily
+retain half of the whole sum, for who is there to control it? Those for
+whom the money is intended are quite enough rewarded with half.
+
+Another thought possibly answered thus. "What you are doing is without
+doubt bribery. You don't corrupt them with your own money, but Trikaliss
+gives it because his interests imperatively require it. You hand over
+the gold, and are as innocent of the bribery as the water-jug. Why he
+wants to bribe the inspector you do not know. Whether the ship carries
+contraband goods, whether he is a political refugee, or the persecuted
+hero of a romantic adventure, who in order to assist his escape strews
+gold in handfuls, what does it matter to you? But if one single gold
+piece sticks to your fingers, you become an accomplice in all which
+burdens another's conscience. Keep none of it."
+
+The inspector gave permission for the vessel to proceed, in token of
+which a red-and-white flag with a black eagle on it was hoisted to the
+masthead. Then, after thus officially certifying that the ship from the
+Levant was quite free of infection, the inspector, without any previous
+ordeal by water, pressed the captain's hand and said to him: "You come
+from Komorn? Then you know Herr Katschuka, chief of the commissariat
+department? Be good enough to give him this note when you get home.
+There is no address on it--not necessary, you won't forget his name; it
+sounds like a Spanish dance. Take him the letter as soon as ever you get
+there. You won't be sorry."
+
+Then he clapped the captain most graciously on the shoulder, as if to
+make him his debtor for life, and the whole four left the ship and
+returned to Szkela in their black-and-yellow boat.
+
+The "St. Barbara" could now continue her voyage, and if all her sacks
+from the keel to the deck had been filled with salt or Turkish tobacco,
+and all her passengers covered with small-pox or leprosy from top to
+toe, no one could stop her any more on the Danube.
+
+Now, however, there was on board neither contraband goods nor contagion,
+but--something else. Timar put the unaddressed note into his pocket-book
+and wondered what it contained.
+
+This was what was written--
+
+     "BROTHER-IN-LAW,--I recommend to you the bearer of this
+     letter. He is a man of sterling worth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE OWNERLESS ISLAND.
+
+
+The towing-team left behind on the Servian bank crossed over the same
+night in ferry-boats to the Hungarian side with their severed hawser,
+spreading everywhere the news that the tow-rope had parted of itself at
+the dangerous Perigrada Island, and the ship had gone down with every
+soul on board. In the morning there was no longer a sign of the "St.
+Barbara" in the harbor of Orsova. If by chance the commandant of the
+Turkish brigantine had had an idea of rowing up the channel from the
+Iron Gate to Orsova, he would not have found what he sought; and above,
+as far as Belgrade, only half the Danube belonged to him: on the
+Hungarian side he had no jurisdiction, but the fortress at New Orsova
+belonged to him.
+
+At two o'clock in the morning the "St. Barbara" left Orsova. After
+midnight the north wind generally stops; the favorable time must be
+utilized, and the crew had received a double ration of brandy to keep
+them in a good humor.
+
+The departure was quite silent: from the walls of the New Orsova fort
+sounded the long call of the Turkish sentries. The horn gave no signal
+till the Allion point had disappeared behind the new mountain-chain.
+
+At the first blast Timea came from her cabin, where she had slept for a
+few hours, and went, wrapped in her white burnoose, to the bow to look
+for Euthemio, who had never lain down all night, nor entered his cabin,
+nor even--which was more remarkable--smoked at all. He was not allowed
+to light any fire on board the ship, so as to avoid attracting attention
+to the vessel at the Orsova fortress.
+
+Perhaps Timea felt that she had to make up for a fault, for she
+addressed Timar, and asked him about the wonders of both shores.
+
+The instinct of her childish heart whispered to her that she owed this
+man a debt of gratitude.
+
+Dawn found the ship near Ogradina. The captain drew Timea's attention to
+a monument eighteen hundred years old. This was "Trajan's Tablet," hewn
+in the precipitous cliff, held by two winged genii and surrounded by
+dolphins. On the tablet is the inscription which commemorates the
+achievements of the godlike emperor. If the peaks of the great
+"Sterberg" have vanished from the Servian shore, there follows a fresh
+rock corridor, which confines the Danube in a ravine five hundred
+fathoms wide. This mountain hall goes by the name of "Kassan." Cliffs of
+two to three thousand feet high rise right and left, their curves lost
+in opal-colored mist. From one precipice a stream falls a thousand feet
+out of a cave, like a delicate silver streak, dissolved in spray before
+it reaches the river. The two rock faces run on unbroken, only in one
+part the mountain is split, and through the rift laughs the blooming
+landscape of an alpine valley, with a white tower in the background. It
+is the tower of Dubova: there is Hungary.
+
+Timea never turned her gaze from this spectacle until the ship had
+passed, and the mountains had closed over the exquisite scene, hiding
+the deep chasm in their shadows.
+
+"I feel," she said, "as if we were going through a long, long prison,
+into a land from which there is no return."
+
+The precipices grow higher, the surface of the Danube darker, and, to
+complete the wild and romantic panorama, there is visible on the
+northern face a cave whose mouth is surrounded by an earthquake with
+embrasures for cannon.
+
+"That is Veterani's Cavern," said the captain. "There, more than a
+century ago, three hundred men and five cannon held out for forty days
+against a whole Turkish army." Timea shook her head. But the skipper
+knew more still about the cavern.
+
+"Forty years ago our people defended that cave in a bloody struggle
+against the Turks; the Osmanli lost over two thousand men among the
+rocks."
+
+Timea drew together her delicate eyebrows and threw the narrator an
+icy-cold glance, so that all his eloquence died in his throat. She hid
+her mouth with her burnoose, turned from Timar, went into the cabin, and
+did not reappear till evening. She only looked through the little window
+at the toppling crags on the bank, the massive watch-towers now
+deserted, the wooded cliffs of the Klissura valley, and the rock-colossi
+projecting from the stream, as they swept by her. She did not even ask
+for the history of the octagonal castle-donjon, with three small ones
+beside it inside a bastion. And yet she would have heard the fate of the
+lovely Cecilia Rozgonyi, the danger of King Sigismund, and the defeat of
+the Hungarians. This ruin is the Galamboczer Tower.
+
+From first to last this double shore is a petrified history of two
+nations, mutually shadowed by a mad vagary of fate with the lust of
+conquest, which makes them fly at each other's throats directly a war
+begins.
+
+It is a long crypt containing the bones of many a hundred thousand
+heroes.
+
+Timea did not come out that day or the next. She sketched little views
+in her book, which she could hold quite steady on the smoothly gliding
+vessel.
+
+Three days passed before the "St. Barbara" arrived where the Morava
+falls into the Danube.
+
+At the junction lies Semendria. On the thirty-six towers of this
+fortress have waved the banners sometimes of the Blessed Virgin and anon
+of the Crescent, and their circular brown walls are sprinkled with the
+blood of many nations. On the other shore of the Morava stand only the
+bare walls of the forsaken "Veste Kulics," and beyond the Ostrovaer
+Island frown down from a peak the ruins of the castle of Rama, now only
+a monument.
+
+But this is not the moment to stand gazing at them--no one is inclined
+to indulge in melancholy reflections on the vanished greatness of fallen
+nations, for there is more pressing work on hand.
+
+As soon as the Hungarian plains open out, the north wind storms down on
+the ship with such force that the towing-horses can not make head
+against it, and the wind drives the vessel toward the opposite shore.
+
+"We can get no further," is the general opinion.
+
+Trikaliss exchanges a few private words with Timar, who goes to the
+pilot. Master Fabula makes the tiller fast and leaves it. Then he calls
+the rowers on board, and signs to the shore to stop the team. Here
+neither oars nor towing are of use. The ship is above the Orsova Island,
+which stretches a long pointed tongue into the stream: its northern side
+is steep and rugged, overgrown with old willows.
+
+The task now is to get over to the south of the island, where the "St.
+Barbara" can lie in a harbor protected from the north wind, as well as
+from the curious eyes of men; for the wider stream which circles round
+the island toward Servia is not used by sailors, being full of
+sand-banks and fords.
+
+It is a work of skill to approach: cutting the cable is no use, for the
+ship could not carry any way against such a wind. The only solution is
+hauling to the anchor.
+
+The vessel casts anchor in mid-stream: the towing-rope is brought on
+board; to its end a second anchor is attached and placed in the boat.
+The rowers go toward the island till the whole length of the cable is
+out, then cast anchor and return to the ship. Now they weigh the first
+anchor, and four men haul on the cable made fast to the windlass. Heavy
+work!
+
+When the vessel is close up to the anchor, they put the other in the
+boat, row forward, cast anchor again, and haul up as before. So by the
+sweat of their brow they made their way up-stream step by step. It took
+them half a day of hard labor to work the heavy cargo-ship from the
+middle of the Danube to the point of the great island. A fatiguing day
+for those who had to work, and wearier still to look on at. The vessel
+had left the frequented branch, where, at any rate, one saw ruins from
+time to time, where one met other ships, or floated by long lines of
+clattering mills: it now passed through the unfrequented channel, where
+the view was hidden on the right by a long ugly island, on which only
+poplars and willows seemed to grow, nowhere a human habitation to be
+seen, and on the left the water was covered by a thick sea of reeds,
+among which the only sign of _terra firma_ was a group of slender,
+silver-leaved poplars.
+
+In this quiet uninhabited spot the "St. Barbara" was brought up. And now
+appeared a new calamity--the food was exhausted. When leaving Galatz,
+they had reckoned on the usual halt at Orsova for the purpose of
+shipping provisions; but after starting so suddenly at night, they found
+there was nothing on board when they reached the island of Orsova but a
+little coffee and sugar, and in Timea's possession a box of Turkish
+sweets and preserved fruits, which, however, she would not open, because
+it was intended as a present.
+
+"Never mind," said Timar; "somebody must live on one shore or the other.
+There are lambs and kids everywhere, and one can get anything for
+money."
+
+Another misfortune set in. The anchored ship was so rolled about by the
+wind-driven waves of the river, that Timea got seasick and frightened.
+
+Perhaps there was some house where she and her father could spend the
+night.
+
+Timar's sharp eyes discovered that above the tops of the poplars rising
+from the reeds a faint smoke hovered in the air. "There must be a house
+there. I will go and see who lives in it."
+
+There was a small skiff on board, which the captain used on sporting
+expeditions, at times when the ship was delayed by foul winds, and he
+had leisure for wildfowl-shooting. He lowered it into the water, took
+his gun, his game-bag, and a landing-net--one never knows what may come
+in one's way, a bird or a fish--and went toward the bed of rushes,
+rowing and steering with one and the same oar. Being an experienced
+marsh-sportsman, he soon found the one opening in the reeds through
+which it was possible to penetrate, and recognized by the vegetation the
+depth of the channel.
+
+Where the great leaves and snowy cups of the water-lily float on the
+surface, there is deep water which scours the weeds and mud away; in
+other places duckweed forms a green carpet on the top, and on this
+floating velvet cowers the poisonous water-fungus in the form of a
+turnip-radish, blue and round, and swelled like a puff ball--deadly
+poison to every living thing. When Timar's oar struck one of these
+polyp-like fungi, the venomous dust shot out like a blue flame. The
+roots of this plant live in a fetid slime which would suffocate man or
+beast who should fall into it; nature has given this vegetable murderer
+a habitat where it is least accessible. But where the cardinal-flower
+spreads its clubbed suckers, and where the beautiful bells of the
+water-violet sway among the rushes, there is gravel, which is not always
+under water. And where the manna tendrils begin to form a thicket, in
+pressing through which the sailor finds the brim of his hat full of
+little seeds--the food of the poor, manna of the wilderness--there must
+be higher ground, so that only the root of the plant is submerged.
+
+The boatman who does not know these vegetable guides might lose himself
+in the reed-beds, and not get out all day.
+
+When Timar had worked his way through the brake, which formed a
+labyrinth of flesh-colored flower-clusters, he saw before him what he
+sought--an island.
+
+No doubt this was a new alluvial formation, of which no trace was to be
+found on the latest maps.
+
+In the bed of the right arm of the Danube lay long ago a great bowlder,
+at whose base the sluggish current had deposited a sand-bank.
+
+During some winter flood, the ice-floes tore from the Ostrova Island a
+spit of land bearing earth, stones, and a small wood. This mingled
+deluge of ice, gravel, and trees flung itself on the sand-bank near the
+bowlder. Repeated inundations spread over it year by year layers of mud,
+and enlarged its circumference by fresh deposits of pebbles: from the
+moldering tree-trunks sprung a luxuriant vegetation as quickly as the
+natural creations of the New World; and so arose a nameless island, of
+which no one had taken possession, over which was no landlord, no king,
+no authority, and no church--which belonged to no country and no
+diocese. In Turco-Servian territory there are many such paradises,
+neither plowed nor sown, not even used for pasture. They are the home of
+wild flowers and wild beasts, and God knows what besides.
+
+The northern shore plainly proclaims its genesis. The gravel moraine is
+heaped there like a barricade, often in pieces larger than a man's head;
+between are tufts of rushes and rotten branches; the shallows are
+covered with green and brown river-shells; on the marshy parts round
+holes are washed out, in which, at the sound of approaching footsteps,
+hundreds of crabs rush to hide. The shore is covered along its whole
+length with prickly willow, which the ice-floes shave off every winter
+close to the root.
+
+Here Timar drew his boat ashore and tied it to a tree. Pressing forward,
+he had to push his way through a thicket of huge willows and
+poplars--overthrown in many places by repeated storms--and there the
+fruitful bramble forms a thorny undergrowth, and tall valerian, shooting
+upward from the weather-beaten soil, mixes its aromatic scent with the
+wholesome smell of the poplar.
+
+On a level depression where are neither trees nor bushes, luxuriant
+umbelliferous plants rise amid the grass over a swamp--hemlock and
+"Sison Amonum," smelling of cinnamon. In an isolated tuft like a
+vegetable aristocrat glitter the fiery blossoms of the veratrum; among
+the grass the forget-me-not spreads rankly, and the medicinal comfrey
+with red flowers full of honey. No wonder if in the hollows of the old
+trees there are so many wild bees' nests. And among the flowers rise
+curious green, brown and red capsules, the ripe seed-vessels of bulbous
+plants which bloom in spring.
+
+On this flowery region follows more forest; but here the willows and
+poplar are mixed with wild apple-trees, and white-thorn forms the
+underwood. The island is higher here.
+
+Timar stopped and listened. No sound. There can be no wild beasts on
+this island. The floods have exterminated them, and the place is only
+inhabited by birds.
+
+Even among birds the lark and the wood-pigeon do not come here: it is no
+dwelling for them. They seek places where men live and sow and cultivate
+grain. But two creatures live here which betray the presence of man--the
+wasp and the blackbird; both of which come after the ripe fruit which
+they passionately love. Where the great wasps' nests hang from the
+trees, and where the blackbird's alluring whistle sounds in the hedges,
+there must be fruit. Timar followed the blackbird. After he had pushed
+through the prickly whitethorn and the privet-bushes which tore his
+clothes, he stood transfixed with admiration.
+
+What he saw before him was a paradise.
+
+A cultivated garden of five or six acres, with fruit-trees, not planted
+in rows, but in picturesquely scattered groups, whose boughs were
+weighed down by their sweet burden. Apple and pear-trees covered with
+glittering red and yellow fruit, plums of all colors looking as if the
+shining crop were turned to roses and lilies, the fallen surplus lying
+unnoticed on the ground. Beneath, a regular plantation formed of
+raspberry, currant, and gooseberry bushes, with their red, yellow, and
+green berries; and the spaces between the large trees filled by the
+hanging branches of the Sidonian apple or quince.
+
+There was no path through this labyrinth of fruit-trees--the ground
+underneath was covered with grass.
+
+But where you can see through, a flower-garden beckons you on. It is
+also a collection of wonderful field blossoms not to be found in an
+ordinary garden: the roots of blue campanula, swallow-wort, with its
+fleecy seed-vessels from which a sort of silk is collected, the spotted
+turban-lily, alkermes, with its scarlet berries, the splendid butterfly
+orchis--all of these raised to the rank of garden-flowers, bear witness
+to the presence of man. And this is further betrayed by the dwelling
+from which the smoke comes.
+
+It also is a fantastic little refuge. Behind it stands a great rock, in
+which is an excavation, where the hearth must be, and another hole for
+the cellar. At the top is a chimney, from which a blue cloud arises. A
+building of stone and clay tiles is stuck on to the cliff; it has two
+rooms, each with a window. One window is smaller, and one room lower
+than the other; both are roofed with rushes; each has a wooden porch,
+forming a veranda, with fanciful ornaments made of little bits of wood.
+
+Neither stone, clay, nor wood-work can be distinguished, so thickly is
+it covered on the south side with vines, out of whose frost-bitten
+leaves thousands of red and gold bunches peep out. On the northern side
+it is overgrown with hops, whose ripe clusters hide even the pinnacle of
+the great rock with their greenish gold; and on its highest point tufts
+of house-leek are planted, so that no spot may remain which is not
+green.
+
+Here women live.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ALMIRA AND NARCISSA.
+
+
+Timar turned his steps toward the creeper-covered cottage. Through the
+flower-garden a path led to the house, but so covered with grass that
+his steps were not heard, and he could thus get as far as the little
+veranda quite noiselessly. Neither far nor near was a human being
+visible.
+
+Before the veranda lay a large black dog--one of the noble race of
+Newfoundland, generally so sensible and dignified as to forbid undue
+familiarity on the part of strangers. The aforesaid quadruped was one of
+the finest of the race--a colossal beast, and occupied the whole width
+of the door-way.
+
+The sable guardian appeared to be asleep, and took no notice of the
+approaching stranger, nor of another creature which left no fool-hardy
+impertinence untried in order to tax the patience of the huge animal.
+This was a white cat, which was shameless enough to turn somersaults
+back and forward over the dog's recumbent form, to strike it on the nose
+with her paw, and at last to lay herself before it on her back, and take
+one of its webbed paws between her four soft feet and play with it like
+a kitten. When the great black porter found its foot tickled, it drew it
+back and gave the cat the other paw to play with.
+
+Timar did not think to himself--"Suppose this black colossus seizes me
+by the collar, it will go hard with me;" but he thought, "Oh! how
+delighted Timea will be when she sees this white cat."
+
+You could not pass the dog and get in--it barred the whole entrance.
+Timar coughed, to announce that some one was there. Then the great dog
+raised its head and looked at the new-comer with its wise nut-brown
+eyes, which, like the human eye, can weep and laugh, scold and flatter.
+Then it laid its head down again, as much as to say, "Only one man; it's
+not worth while to get up."
+
+But Timar decided that where a chimney smokes, there's a fire in the
+kitchen; so he began from outside to wish this invisible some one
+"Good-morning," alternately in three languages--Hungarian, Servian and
+Roumanian. Suddenly a female voice answered in Hungarian from within,
+"Good-day. Come in then. Who is it?"
+
+"I should like to come in, but the dog's in the way."
+
+"Step over it."
+
+"Won't it bite?"
+
+"She never hurts good people."
+
+Timar took courage and stepped across the powerful animal, which did not
+move, but raised its tail as if to wag him a welcome.
+
+Going into the veranda, Timar saw two doors before him: the first one
+led to the stone building, the other to the grotto hollowed in the rock.
+The latter was the kitchen. There he observed a woman busy at the
+hearth.
+
+Timar saw at a glance that she was not preparing a magic potion of
+witch's cookery, but simply roasting Indian-corn.
+
+The woman thus occupied was a thin but strong and sinewy figure, with a
+dark skin; in her compressed lips lay something severe, though her eye
+was soft and inspired confidence. Her sunburned face betokened her age
+as not much over thirty. She was not dressed like the peasants of the
+district; her clothes were not bright in color, but yet not suited to
+towns.
+
+"Now, come nearer and sit down," said the woman, in a singularly hard
+voice, which, however, was perfectly quiet; and then she shook the
+floury snow-white Indian-corn into a plaited rush-basket, and offered it
+to him. Afterward she fetched a jug which stood on the floor, and gave
+him elder-wine, this also just freshly made.
+
+Timar sat down on the stool offered him, which was skillfully woven of
+various osiers, and of a curious shape. Then the Newfoundland, rising,
+approached the guest and lay down in front of him.
+
+The woman threw the dog a handful of the white confectionery, which it
+at once began to crack in the proper way. The white cat attempted to do
+the same, but the first cracked kernel of the maize stuck in her teeth,
+and she did not try it again. She shook the paw with which she had
+touched it, and sprung up to the hearth, where she blinked with much
+interest at an unglazed pot which was simmering by the fire, and
+probably held something more to her taste.
+
+"A magnificent beast," said Timar, looking at the dog. "I wonder it is
+so gentle; it has not even growled at me."
+
+"She never hurts good people, sir. If a stranger comes who is honest,
+she knows it directly, and is as quiet as a lamb--doesn't even bark;
+but if a thief tries to get in, she rages at him as soon as he sets foot
+on the island, and woe to him if she gets her teeth in. She is a
+formidable creature! Last winter a large wolf came over the ice after
+our goats--look, there is his skin on the floor of the room. In a moment
+the dog had throttled him. An honest man can sit on her back, she won't
+touch him."
+
+Timar was quite satisfied to have such excellent evidence of his
+honesty. Who knows, perhaps, if some of those ducats had lost their road
+in his pocket, he might have been differently received by the great dog?
+
+"Now, sir, where do you come from, and what do you want of me?"
+
+"First, I must beg you to excuse my having pushed through the thorns and
+bushes into your garden. The storm has driven my vessel over to this
+bank, so I was obliged to run for shelter under the Ostrova Island."
+
+"Indeed, yes; I can hear by the rustle of the branches that a strong
+wind is blowing."
+
+This place was so completely sheltered by the virgin forest, that one
+could feel no wind, and only knew by the sound when it blew.
+
+"We must wait for a change of wind before the storm blows over. But our
+provisions have run out, so I was forced to seek the nearest house from
+which I saw smoke rising, to ask the housewife whether for money and
+fair words we could get food for the crew."
+
+"Yes, you can have what you want, and I don't mind being paid for it,
+for that's what I live on. We can serve you with kids, maize-flour,
+cheese, and fruit; choose what you want. This is the trade which keeps
+us; the market-women round about fetch away our wares in boats: we are
+gardeners."
+
+Till now Timar had seen no human being except this woman; but as she
+spoke in the plural, there must be others besides herself.
+
+"I thank you beforehand, and will take some of everything. I will send
+the steersman from the ship to fetch the things; but tell me, my good
+lady, what's to pay? I want food for my seven men for three days."
+
+"You need not fetch out your purse; I don't receive payment in money.
+What should I do with it, here on this lonely island? At best thieves
+would be sure to get in and kill me to get hold of it; but now every one
+knows there is no money on the island, and therefore we can sleep in
+peace. I only barter. I give fruit, wax, honey, and simples, and people
+bring me in exchange grain, salt, clothes, and hardware."
+
+"As they do on the Australian islands?"
+
+"Just the same."
+
+"All right, good lady; we have grain on board, and salt too. I will
+reckon up the value of your wares, and bring an equal value in exchange.
+Rely upon it, you sha'n't be the loser."
+
+"I don't doubt it, sir."
+
+"But I have another favor to ask. On board my vessel there is a grand
+gentleman and his young daughter. The young lady is not accustomed to
+the motion, and feels unwell. Could you not give my passengers shelter
+till the storm is over?"
+
+"Well, that I can do too, sir. Look, here are two small bed-rooms. We
+will retire into one, and in the other any honest man who wants shelter
+can have it--rest, if not comfort. If you also would like to stay, you
+will have to be contented with the little garret, as both the rooms will
+have women in them. There is new hay there, and sailors are not
+particular."
+
+Timar puzzled his head as to the position of this woman, who chose her
+words so well and expressed herself so sensibly. He could not reconcile
+it with this hut, which was more like a cave, and with the residence on
+this lonely island in the midst of a wilderness. "Many thanks, good
+lady; I'll hurry back and bring up my passengers."
+
+"All right; only don't go back to your boat the same way you came. You
+can't bring a lady through those marshes and briers. There's a tolerable
+path all along the bank, rather overgrown with grass, it is true, for it
+is very little trodden, and turf grows quickly here; but you shall be
+conducted to where your boat lies; then when you come back in a larger
+one, you can land rather nearer. I will give you a guide now. Almira!"
+
+Timar looked round, to see from what corner of the house or from what
+bush this Almira would appear who was to show him the way. But the great
+black Newfoundland rose and began to wag her tail, whose strokes made a
+noise on the door-post as if an old drum was touched.
+
+"Off, Almira; take the gentleman to the shore," said the woman; on which
+the creature growled something to Timar in dog's language, and taking
+the edge of his cloak in her teeth, pulled at it, as if to say, Come
+along.
+
+"So this is Almira, who is to conduct me. I am much indebted to you,
+Miss Almira," Timar said smiling, and took his gun and hat; then saluted
+his hostess and followed the dog. Almira led the guest steadily in all
+friendship by the hem of his cloak. The way lay through the orchard,
+where one had to tread carefully so as not to crush the plums which
+covered the ground. The white cat, too, had not remained behind; she
+wanted to know where Almira was conducting the stranger, and leaped here
+and there in the soft grass.
+
+When they arrived at the edge of the orchard, somewhere above was heard
+the call of a musical voice, "Narcissa!"
+
+It was a girl's voice, in which some reproach, but much love and
+maidenly shyness, were blended--a sympathetic voice. Timar looked round:
+he wanted to know, first, where it came from, and then to whom it
+belonged.
+
+He soon discovered who was called, for at the sound the white cat sprung
+quickly to one side, and, curling her tail, climbed zigzag up a gnarled
+pear-tree, through whose thick foliage Timar saw something like a white
+dress glimmering. He had no time for further research, for Almira gave a
+few deep sounds which, in quadruped's language, probably meant, "What
+business have you to spy about?" and so he was obliged to follow his
+leader, if he did not desire to leave a piece of his cloak in her teeth.
+
+Almira led Timar by a soft turf path along the bank to the place where
+his boat was made fast. At this moment a couple of snipe rose with their
+shrill cry close to the island. Timar's first thought was of the savory
+dish they would make for Timea's supper. In an instant he had shouldered
+his gun, and with a well-aimed right and left brought down both snipe.
+
+But the next moment he was himself on the ground. As soon as he had
+fired, Almira seized him by the collar, and like lightning pulled him
+down. He tried to rise, but soon felt that he had to do with an
+overpowering adversary who was not to be trifled with. Not that Almira
+had hurt him, but she held him by the collar, and would not allow of his
+getting up.
+
+Timar tried every conceivable means to soften her, called her Miss
+Almira, his dear friend, and explained to her sport and its usages;
+where the devil had she heard of a dog that retrieves a sportsman? she
+should rather go after the snipe in the rushes: but he talked to deaf
+ears.
+
+He was at last relieved from this dangerous situation by the woman of
+the island, who had run up at the report of the gun, and called Almira
+by name from afar, on which the dog let go her hold.
+
+"Oh, my God!" she lamented, hastening over the stones to the point of
+danger. "I forgot to tell you not to shoot, because Almira was sure to
+attack you. She gets in a fury when a shot is fired. Well, I was stupid
+not to tell you."
+
+"Never mind, good woman," said Timar, laughing. "Almira would really
+make a capital gamekeeper. But look, I have shot a couple of snipe; I
+thought they would be a help toward the supper that you will set before
+your guests."
+
+"I will fetch them; get into your boat, and when you come back, just
+leave your gun at home, for, believe me, if the dog sees you with a gun
+on your arm, she will take it away from you. You can't joke with her."
+
+"So I find. A powerful, grand animal that! Before I had time to defend
+myself, I was on the ground: I can only thank Heaven that she did not
+bite my head off."
+
+"Oh, she never bites any one; but if you defend yourself, she seizes
+your arm in her teeth, as if it were in irons, and then holds you fast
+till we come and call her off. _Auf Weidersehen!_"
+
+In less than an hour the larger boat had landed its passengers safely at
+the island. All the way from the vessel to the shore, Timar talked to
+Timea of Almira and Narcissa, to make the poor child forget her sickness
+and her fear of the water. As soon as she set foot on shore, her
+seasickness vanished.
+
+Timar went on in front to show the way; Timea followed, leaning on
+Euthemio's arm; and two sailors and the steersman carried behind them on
+a stretcher the equivalent of the barter in sacks. Almira's bark was
+heard a long way off. These were the sounds of welcome by which the dog
+acknowledged the approach of good friends. Almira came half-way, barked
+at the whole party, then had a little talk to the sailors, the
+steersman, and Timar; then trotting to Timea, tried to kiss her hand.
+But when the dog came to Euthemio, it was quiet, and began to sniff at
+him from the soles of his feet upward, never leaving his heels. It
+snuffed continually, and shook its head violently, rattling its ears
+till they cracked. It had its own opinion on this subject.
+
+The mistress of the island settlement awaited the strangers at the
+door, and as soon as they appeared between the trees, called in a loud
+voice, "Noemi!"
+
+At this summons some one appeared from inside the garden. Between two
+tall thick raspberry hedges, which, like green walls, almost closed in
+an arch at the top, came a young girl. Face and form those of a child
+just beginning to develop, dressed in a white chemise and petticoat, and
+carrying in her upturned overskirt fruit freshly plucked.
+
+The figure coming out of the green grove is idyllic. The delicate tints
+of her face seem to have been borrowed from the complexion of the white
+rose when she is grave, and take that of the red rose when she blushes,
+and that up to the brow. The expression of the clear-arched brow is
+personified sweet temper, in complete accord with the innocent look of
+the expressive blue eyes; on the tender lips lies a mixture of devoted
+regard and modest shyness. The rich and luxuriant golden-brown hair
+seems to be curled by nature's hand; a lock thrust back gives a view of
+an exquisite little ear. Over the whole face gentle softness is spread.
+It is possible that a sculptor might not take each feature as a model,
+and perhaps if the face were hewn in marble one might not think it
+beautiful; but the head and the whole figure, just as they are, shine
+with a loveliness which charms at the first glance, and inthralls more
+every moment.
+
+From one shoulder the chemise has dropped, but, that it may not remain
+uncovered, there sits a white cat, rubbing her head against the girl's
+cheek. The delicate feet of the maiden are naked--why should she not go
+barefoot? She walks on a carpet of richest velvet. The spring turf is
+interspersed with blue veronica and red geranium.
+
+Euthemio, his daughter, and Timar, stopped at the entrance of the
+raspberry arcade to await the approaching figure.
+
+The child knew of no more friendly reception to give the guests than to
+offer them the fruit she had in her lap. They were beautiful
+red-streaked Bergamot pears. She turned first to Timar. He chose the
+best, and gave it to Timea.
+
+Both girls shrugged their shoulders impatiently. Timea because she
+envied the other one the white cat on her shoulder, but Noemi because
+Timar had given the fruit to Timea.
+
+"Oh, you rude thing!" cried the mistress to her from the cottage; "could
+you not put the fruit in a basket, instead of offering it in your apron?
+Is that the proper way?"
+
+The little thing grew red as fire, and ran to her mother; the latter
+whispered a few words into her ear, so that the others might not
+overhear, then kissed the child on the forehead, and said aloud, "Now go
+and take from the sailors what they have brought, carry it into the
+store-room, and fill the sacks with corn-flour, the pots with honey, and
+the baskets with ripe fruit: of the kids, you can choose two for them."
+
+"I can't choose any," whispered the girl; "they must do it themselves."
+
+"Foolish child!" said the woman with a kind reproof; "if it were left to
+you, you would keep all the kids and never let one be killed. Very
+well, let them choose for themselves, then no one can complain. I will
+look after the cooking."
+
+Noemi called the sailors, and opened the food and fruit stores, which
+were each in a different cave and shut off by a door. The rock which
+formed the summit of the island was one of those wandering blocks,
+called "erratic" by geologists--an isolated bowlder, a monolith, which
+must once have been detached from a distant mountain, some limestone
+formation from the Dolomites, out of a moraine. It was full of large and
+small caves, which the first person who took possession of it had
+adapted to his own purposes: the largest with the natural chimney for
+the kitchen, the highest, as a dove-cote, the others for summer and
+winter storehouses. He had settled on the heaven-sent rock, and, like
+the wild birds, built his nest there.
+
+The child managed the barter with the crew well and honestly. Then she
+gave each his glass of elder-wine to wet the bargain, begged for their
+custom when they passed again, and went back to the kitchen.
+
+Here she did not wait to be told to lay the table. She spread a fine
+rush mat on the small table in the veranda, and placed on it four
+plates, with knives and forks and pewter spoons. And the fifth person?
+
+She will sit at the cat's table. Near the steps to the veranda stands a
+small wooden bench; in the center is placed an earthenware plate with a
+miniature knife and fork and spoon, and at each end a wooden platter,
+one for Almira, the other for Narcissa. They require no _couvert_. When
+the three guests and the mistress of the house have sat down and helped
+themselves from the dish, it goes to the cat's table, where Noemi serves
+her friends. She conducts the division with great fairness--the soft
+pieces to Narcissa, the bones to Almira--and helps herself last. They
+must not touch their food till she has cooled it for them, however much
+Almira may cock her ears, and the cat snuggle up to her mistress's
+shoulder. They must obey the girl.
+
+The island woman wished, according to the good or bad Hungarian custom,
+to show off before her guests, and especially to prove to Timar that her
+larder was independent of his game. She had cooked the two snipe with
+oatmeal, but whispered to Timar that that was only food for ladies; for
+the gentlemen she had some good fried pork. Timar attacked it bravely,
+but Euthemio touched none of it, saying he had no appetite, and Timea
+rose suddenly from the table. But that was natural: she had already cast
+many inquisitive glances toward the party at the other table; there was
+nothing remarkable in her rising suddenly and going over to sit by
+Noemi. Young girls soon make friends. Timea did not know Hungarian, nor
+Noemi Greek; but between them was Narcissa, to whom both languages were
+the same.
+
+The white cat seemed to understand perfectly when Timea said "Horaion
+galion" to it, and stroked its back with a soft white hand: then it
+crept from Noemi's lap to Timea's, raised its head to her face and
+gently rubbed its white head against her white cheeks, opened its red
+mouth, showed its sharp teeth, and blinked at her with cunning eyes;
+then sprung on her shoulder, crawled round her neck, and clambered to
+Noemi and back again.
+
+Noemi was pleased that the strange young lady liked her favorite so
+much, but bitterness mingled with her pleasure when she saw how much the
+stranger had fallen in love with the cat, kept and kissed it; and still
+more painful was it to realize how easily Narcissa became untrue to her,
+how willingly it accepted and replied to the caresses of its new friend,
+and took no notice when Noemi called it by name to come back to her.
+"Horaion galion" (pretty pussy) pleased it better. Noemi grew angry with
+Narcissa, and seized her by the tail to draw her back. Narcissa took
+offense, turned her claws on her mistress, and scratched her hand.
+
+Timea wore on her wrist a blue enameled bracelet in the form of a
+serpent. When Narcissa scratched her mistress, Timea drew off the
+elastic bracelet, and wanted to put it on Noemi's arm, obviously with
+the intention of comforting her in her pain; but Noemi misunderstood,
+and thought the stranger wanted to buy Narcissa with it. But she was not
+for sale.
+
+"I don't want the bracelet! I won't sell Narcissa! Keep the bracelet!
+Narcissa is mine. Come here, Narcissa!" and as Narcissa would not come,
+Noemi gave her a little box on the ear, on which the frightened animal
+made a jump over the bench, puffing and spitting, climbed up a nut-tree,
+and looked angrily down from thence.
+
+As Timea and Noemi at this moment looked into each other's eyes, each
+read there a dreamy presentiment. They felt like a person who shuts his
+eyes for a moment, and in that short time dreams whole years away; yet,
+when he awakes, has forgotten it all, and only remembers that the dream
+was very long. The two girls felt in that meeting of looks that they
+would some day mutually encroach on each other's rights, that they would
+have something in common--a grief or a joy--and that, perhaps, like a
+forgotten dream, they would only know that each owed this grief or joy
+to the other.
+
+Timea sprung up from beside Noemi and gave the bracelet to the
+housewife: then she sat down by Euthemio and leaned her head on his
+shoulder.
+
+Timar interpreted the gift. "The young lady gives it to the little girl
+as a remembrance--it is gold."
+
+As soon as he said that it was of gold, the woman threw it, frightened,
+from her hand, as if it were a real snake. She looked anxiously at
+Noemi, and was not even able to articulate "Thank you."
+
+Then Almira suddenly drew attention to herself. The dog had sprung
+quickly from its bed, had uttered a low howl with its head up, and now
+began to bark with deafening noise. In the sound lay something of the
+lion's roar; it was a vehement, defiant tone, as if calling to the
+attack, and the dog did not run forward, but remained by the porch,
+planted its paws on the ground, and then threw up the earth with its
+hind feet.
+
+The woman turned pale. A figure appeared between the trees on the
+footpath.
+
+"The dog only barks in that way at one man," she murmured. "There he
+comes. It is he!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE VOICES OF THE NIGHT.
+
+
+The new arrival is a man of youthful appearance; he wears a blouse and
+trousers, round his neck a red cotton handkerchief, and on his head a
+Turkish fez.
+
+He has a handsome face. If he sat quietly to an artist, every one would
+say of his portrait that it was the ideal of a hero; but when he is in
+motion, the first thought must be--that is a spy. His features are
+regular, the thick hair curly, the lips finely chiseled, the eyes deeply
+black; but the wrinkles round them and their restless fire, the upturned
+corners of the mouth, and the ever-twitching brows, betray the soul of a
+slave to his own appetites.
+
+Almira barked furiously at the new-comer, who came swinging along with
+defiant nonchalance, like one who knows that it is other people's duty
+to protect him. Noemi told the dog to lie down, but it gave no heed; she
+caught the creature's ears in both hands and drew it back: the dog
+whined and growled at the discomfort, but did not cease barking. At last
+Noemi put her foot on its head and pressed it to the ground. Then Almira
+gave in, lay down growling, and let the girl's foot lie on her great
+black head, as if that were a burden she could not shake off.
+
+The stranger came whistling and humming up to them. From afar he called
+out--"Ah! you have still got that confounded big brute; you haven't had
+her poisoned? I shall have to get rid of her in the end. The stupid
+beast!" When the young man got near Noemi, he stretched out his hand
+with a familiar smile toward the girl's face, as if he would have
+pinched her cheek; but she drew her face quickly away.
+
+"Well, my dear little _fiancee_, are you still so shy? How you have
+grown since I saw you!"
+
+Noemi looked at the speaker with her head thrown back. She wrinkled her
+forehead, curled her lips, and threw a defiantly penetrating glance at
+him; even her complexion changed, the rose tint on her cheeks turned
+livid. Evidently she could look odious if she chose.
+
+The new-comer, however, quite unabashed, continued, "How pretty you have
+grown!"
+
+Instead of answering she said to the dog, "Down, Almira!"
+
+The stranger behaved as though he were quite at home under the veranda,
+where his first act was to kiss the hand of the woman of the house. He
+greeted Timar with friendly condescension, made a polite bow to Euthemio
+and Timea, and then opened the flood-gates of his eloquence.
+"Good-evening, dear mother-in-law! Your obedient servant, captain! Sir
+and mademoiselle, you are welcome. My name is Theodor Krisstyan; I am
+chevalier and captain, the future son-in-law of this worthy lady. Our
+fathers were bosom friends, and betrothed Noemi to me in their
+life-time, so I come every year to see my sweetheart in her summer
+abode, in order to judge how my bride is growing. Uncommonly delighted
+to find you here: you, sir--if I am not mistaken, your name is Timar--I
+have had the pleasure of meeting before? The other gentleman, I fancy--"
+
+"Understands nothing but Greek," interrupted Timar, thrusting his hands
+well into his pockets, as if he wanted to make it impossible for the
+stranger to shake hands over the joy of meeting. He, who from his
+calling was always traveling, might very likely have met him before.
+
+Theodor Krisstyan did not feel inclined to occupy himself any more with
+Timar, but looked at life from the practical side. "It is just as if you
+had expected me; a beautiful supper, an unused place, pork, just my weak
+point. Thanks, dear mamma, thanks, gentlemen and young lady; I will pay
+my respects to the supper--so many thanks!"
+
+Not that a single person of those addressed had asked him to sit down
+and partake; but as though accepting their invitation, he seated himself
+in Timea's empty place and began to enjoy the pork; offering it
+repeatedly to Euthemio, and seeming much astonished that any Christian
+should neglect such a delicious dish.
+
+Timar rose from the table and said to the hostess, "The
+gentleman-passenger and the young lady are tired. They want rest more
+than food. Would you be so good as to show them their beds?"
+
+"That shall be done at once," said the woman. "Noemi, go and help the
+young lady to undress."
+
+Noemi rose and followed her mother and the two guests into the
+back-room. Timar also left the table, at which the new-comer remained
+alone, and gobbled down with wolfish hunger every eatable left:
+meanwhile, he talked over his shoulder to Timar, and threw to Almira the
+bare bones with his fork.
+
+"You must have had a devilish bad journey, sir, with this wind. I can't
+think how you got through Denin Kafoin and the Tatalia Pass. Catch,
+Almira! and don't be cross with me any more, stupid brute! Do you
+remember, sir, how we once met in Galatz?--there, that's for you too,
+you black beast!"
+
+When he looked round, he found that neither Timar nor Almira was there.
+Timar had gone to the attic to sleep, where he soon made himself a couch
+of fragrant hay, while Almira had crept into some cranny in the great
+mass of rock.
+
+He turned his chair round, but not till he had drained the last drop
+from the wine-jug and the glasses of the other guests. Then he cut a
+splinter from the chair he was sitting on, and picked his teeth with it,
+like a person who has thoroughly deserved his supper.
+
+Night had set in; travelers weary of knocking about want no rocking.
+Timar had stretched himself on the soft sweet hay very comfortably, and
+thought that to-night he would sleep like a king. But he deceived
+himself. It is not easy to fall asleep after hard work, which has been
+mingled with varied emotions. Successive shapes besieged his bed like a
+chaotic panorama: a confusion of pursuing forms, threatening rocks,
+water-falls, ruined castles, strange women, black dogs, white cats; and
+amid it all a howling tempest, blasts of the horn, cracking of whips,
+showers of gold, laughing, whispering, and screaming human voices.
+
+And all at once people began to speak in the room below. He recognized
+the voices, the hostess and the last comer talking together. The garret
+was separated from the other room only by a thin floor, and every word
+was audible, as if it had been whispered in the listener's ear. They
+spoke in suppressed tones, only now and then the man raised his voice.
+
+"Well, Mother Therese, have you much money?" began the man.
+
+"You know very well that I have none. Don't you know that I only barter
+and never take money?"
+
+"That's very stupid. I don't like it. And what's more, I don't believe
+it."
+
+"It is as I say. Whoever comes to buy my fruit brings me something for
+my own use. What should I do here with money?"
+
+"I know what you could do, you could give it to me. You never think of
+me. When I marry Noemi you can't give her dried plums for a dowry; but
+you don't care about your daughter's happiness. You ought to help me,
+that I may get a good situation. I have just received my nomination as
+first dragoman at the embassy; but I have no money to get there, for my
+purse has been stolen, and now I shall lose my situation."
+
+The woman answered in a calm tone, "That any one has given you any place
+that you could lose I don't believe; but I do believe you have a place
+you can't lose. That you have no money, I believe that; but that it was
+stolen from you I don't believe."
+
+"Well, don't then. And I don't believe you have no money; you must have
+some. Smugglers land here sometimes, and they always pay well."
+
+"Speak loud, of course! Yes, it is true, smugglers often land on the
+island; but they don't come near my hut, or if they do, they buy fruit
+and give me salt in exchange. Will you have some salt?"
+
+"You are laughing at me. Well, and such visitors as you have to-night?"
+
+"I don't know whether they are rich or not."
+
+"Ask them for money! Demand it! Don't make a solemn face! You must get
+money somehow; don't try to take me in with this ridiculous Australian
+barter. Get ducats if you want to keep the peace with me; you know if I
+say a single word at the right place it's all up with you."
+
+"Softly, you wretched man!"
+
+"Ay! now you want me to whisper. Well, shut my mouth then, be kind to
+me, Therese--let me have a little money."
+
+"But I tell you there is none in the house! Don't worry me! I have not a
+farthing, and don't want any; there is a curse on anything which is
+gold. There, all my chests and boxes are here; look through them, and if
+you find anything, take it."
+
+It appeared that the man was not slow to take advantage of this
+permission, for soon he was heard to exclaim, "Ah! What is this? A gold
+bracelet."
+
+"Yes; the strange lady gave it to Noemi. If you can make use of it, take
+it."
+
+"It's worth some ten ducats--well, that's better than nothing. Don't be
+angry, Noemi; when you are my wife I will buy you two bracelets, each
+thirty ducats in weight, and with a sapphire in the middle--no, an
+emerald. Which do you prefer, a sapphire or an emerald?" He laughed at
+his sally, and as no one answered his question, he continued, "But now,
+Mother Therese, prepare a bed for your future son-in-law, your dear
+Theodor, so that he may dream sweetly of his beloved Noemi!"
+
+"I can not give you a bed. In the next room and in the garret are our
+guests; you can't sleep here in our room, that would not be
+proper--Noemi is no longer a child. Go out and lie down on the bench."
+
+"Oh, you hard-hearted, cruel Therese. You send me to the hard bench--me,
+your beloved future son-in-law!"
+
+"Noemi, give your pillow--there, take it! And here's my coverlet.
+Good-night."
+
+"Yes, if there were not that accursed great dog out there--the fierce
+brute will devour me."
+
+"Don't be afraid, I will chain her up. Poor beast! she is never tied up
+except when you are on the island."
+
+Frau Therese had some trouble to entice Almira out of her hole; the poor
+dog knew well enough what awaited her in these circumstances, and that
+she would now be chained up, but she was used to obedience, and allowed
+her mistress to fasten the chain.
+
+But this made her all the more furious against him who was the cause of
+her confinement. As soon as Therese had gone back to her room, and
+Theodor remained alone outside, the dog began to bark madly, and danced
+about on the small space left free to her by the chain, now and then
+making a spring, to see whether she could succeed in breaking the collar
+or the chain, or rooting up the tree-trunk to which the chain was
+fastened.
+
+But Theodor teased her again. He thought it amusing to enrage an animal
+which could not reach him, and foamed with fury at its impotence. He
+went closer, leaving only a step between himself and the point the chain
+permitted the dog to reach; then he began to creep toward her on all
+fours and make faces at her. He brayed at her like a donkey, put his
+tongue out, spat in her face, and imitated the dog's bark. "Bow-wow! You
+would like to eat me, wouldn't you? Bow-wow! There's my nose; bite it
+off if you can. You're a lovely dog--you horrid beast! Bow-wow! Break
+your chain and come wrestle with me; snap at my finger, there it is
+before your nose; only don't you wish you may get it?"
+
+At the moment of her greatest fury, Almira suddenly stopped. She barked
+no more; she understood. It is the wise one that gives in, thought she.
+She stretched her head up as if to look down on that other four-legged
+beast in front of her, then turned and scratched as dogs do, backward,
+with her hind feet, whirling up dust and sand, so that the other brute
+got his eyes and mouth full of it, which made him beat a retreat,
+breaking out in the human bark--curses, to wit. But Almira retired with
+her chain into the hole near the elder-tree and came out no more; she
+ceased to bark, but a hot panting could be heard for a long time.
+
+Timar heard it too. He could not sleep; he had left the trap-door open
+to get some light. The moon shone, and when the dog was silenced, deep
+stillness lay over the scene; a wonderful calm, rendered more fantastic
+by the isolated voices of the night and the solitude. The rattle of
+carriages, the clatter of mills, human voices--none of these struck the
+ear. This is the kingdom of swamps, islets, and shallows. From time to
+time a deep note sounds through the night--the boom of the bittern, that
+hermit of the marsh. Flights of night-birds strike long-drawn chords in
+the air, and the breathing wind stirs in the poplars, as it sighs
+through their quivering leaves. The seal cries in the reeds like the
+voice of a weeping child, and the cockchafer buzzes on the white wall of
+the hut. All around lies the dark brake, in which fairies seem to hold a
+torch-light dance; under the decayed trees will-o'-the-wisps wander,
+pursuing each other. But the flower-garden is flooded by the full
+radiance of the moon, and night-moths hover on silvery peacock wings
+round the tall mallows. How exquisite, how divine is this solitude! the
+whole soul is absorbed in its contemplation.
+
+If only no human tones were mingled with these voices of the night!
+
+But there below in the two little divisions of the hut lie other
+sleepless people, whom some evil spirit has robbed of their slumber, and
+who add their deep sighs to the other voices. From one room Timar heard
+the sigh, "Oh, thou dear Christ!" while from the other "Oh, Allah!"
+resounded.
+
+They can not sleep; what is there down below which keeps people awake?
+
+While Timar tried to collect his thoughts, an idea flashed through his
+mind which induced him to leave his couch, throw on the coat he had had
+over him, and descend the ladder to the ground.
+
+At the same moment, some one in one of the rooms below had had the same
+thought. And when Timar, standing at the corner of the house, uttered
+the name of "Almira" under his breath, another voice from the door
+opening into the veranda called Almira's name too, as if one were the
+ghostly echo of the other.
+
+The speakers approached each other with surprise.
+
+The other person was Therese. "You have come down from your bed?" she
+asked.
+
+"Yes; I could not sleep."
+
+"And what did you want with Almira?"
+
+"I will tell you the truth. The thought struck me, whether that . . .
+man had poisoned the dog, because she became so suddenly silent."
+
+"Just my idea. Almira!" At the call the dog came out of the hole and
+wagged her tail.
+
+"No; it's all right," said Therese. "His bed on the veranda is
+undisturbed. Come, Almira, I will set you free."
+
+The great creature laid her head on her mistress's lap, and allowed her
+to take off the leather collar, sprung round her, licked her cheeks, and
+then turned to Timar, raised one of the shaggy paws, and placed it as a
+proof of doggish respect in his open hand. Then the dog shook herself,
+stretched herself out, and, after a roll on both sides, lay quiet on the
+soft grass. She barked no more; they could be thoroughly satisfied that
+that man no longer remained on the island.
+
+Therese came nearer to Timar. "Do you know this man?"
+
+"I once met him in Galatz. He came on board and behaved so that I could
+not make up my mind whether he was a spy or a smuggler. At last I got
+rid of him, and that concluded our acquaintance."
+
+"And how came you by the notion that he might have poisoned Almira?"
+
+"To tell you the truth, every word spoken down below is audible in the
+garret, and as I had lain down I was forced to hear all the conversation
+between you."
+
+"Did you hear how he threatened me? If I could not satisfy him, it would
+only cost him a single word, and we should be ruined?"
+
+"Yes; I heard that."
+
+"And what do you think about us? You believe that some great, nameless
+crime has banished us to this island outside the world? that we drive
+some dubious trade, of which one can not speak? or that we are the
+homeless heirs of some dishonored name, who must hide from the sight of
+the authorities? Say, what do you think?"
+
+"Nothing, my dear lady; I don't trouble my head about it. You have given
+me hospitable shelter for a night, and I am grateful. The storm is over;
+to-morrow I shall go on my way, and think no more of what I saw and
+heard on this island."
+
+"I do not want you to leave us so. Without your desire you have heard
+things which must be explained to you. I do not know why, but from the
+first moment when I saw you, you inspired me with confidence, and the
+thought troubles me that you should leave us with suspicion and
+contempt: that suspicion would prevent both you and me from sleeping
+under this roof. The night is quiet, and suitable to the story of the
+secrets of a hard life. You shall form your own judgment about us; I
+will conceal nothing, and tell you the whole truth, and when you have
+heard the history of this lonely island and this clay hut, you won't
+say, 'To-morrow I go away and think no more of it,' but you will come
+back year by year, when your business brings you near us, and rest for a
+night under this peaceful roof. Sit down by me on the doorstep, and
+listen to the story of our house."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDERS.
+
+
+"Twelve years ago we lived in Pancsova, where my husband held a
+municipal office. His name was Bellovary; he was young, handsome, and
+honest, and we loved each other dearly. I was then two-and-twenty and he
+was thirty.
+
+"I bore him a daughter, whom we called Noemi. We were not rich, but well
+off; he had his post, a pretty house, and a splendid orchard and meadow.
+I was an orphan when we married, and brought him some money; we were
+able to live respectably.
+
+"My husband had a friend, Maxim Krisstyan, of whom he was very fond. The
+man who has just been here is his son, who was then thirteen, a dear,
+handsome, clever boy. When my little daughter was still a baby, the
+fathers already began to say they would make a pair, and I was glad when
+the boy took the little thing's hand and asked her, 'Will you be my
+wife?' at which the child laughed merrily.
+
+"Krisstyan was a grain dealer without having ever learned regular
+business, but was like the speculators in a small way, who catch hold of
+a rope behind the great wholesale dealers, and go blindly in their wake.
+If the speculation succeeds, well and good; if not, they are ruined. As
+he always won, he thought there was nothing easier than mercantile
+transactions. In the spring he went round to see the crops, and made
+contracts with the large dealers for the grain to be delivered to them
+after the harvest. He had a regular customer in the wholesale merchant
+of Komorn, Athanasius Brazovics, who made large advances to him every
+spring for grain which he was to deliver in autumn at the price settled
+in advance, on board ship. This was a lucrative affair for Krisstyan;
+but I have often thought since that it was not so much trade as a game
+of chance, when one sells what does not yet exist. Brazovics advanced
+large sums to Krisstyan, and as the latter had no real property,
+security was required of him. My husband went surety for him gladly--was
+he not a landowner and Krisstyan's friend? Krisstyan led an easy life;
+while my good man sat for hours bent over his desk, the other was at the
+cafe, smoking his pipe and chatting with tradespeople of his own sort.
+But at last God's scourge alighted on him. The year 1819 was a terrible
+year; in the spring the crops looked splendid over the whole country,
+and every one expected cheap prices. In the Banat a merchant was lucky
+if he could make a contract for delivery of grain at four gulden a
+measure. Then came a wet summer--for sixteen weeks it rained every day;
+the corn rotted on its stem. In places reputed as a second Canaan,
+famine set in, and in autumn the price of grain rose to twenty gulden a
+measure: and even so there was none to be had, for the landowners kept
+it for seed."
+
+"I remember it well," Timar interrupted. "I was then just beginning my
+career as a ship's captain."
+
+"Well, in that year, it happened that Maxim could not fulfill the
+contract he had concluded with Athanasius Brazovics; the difference he
+had to cover made an enormous sum. What did he do then? He collected his
+outstanding debts, got loans from several credulous people, and
+disappeared in the night from Pancsova, taking his money with him, and
+leaving his son behind.
+
+"He could easily do it; his whole property consisted of money, and he
+left nothing for which he cared. But what is the good of all the money
+in the world if it can make a man so bad as to care for nothing else?
+His debts and liabilities rested on the shoulders of those who had been
+his good friends, and stood security for him, and among these was my
+husband.
+
+"Then came Athanas Brazovics, and required from the sureties the
+fulfillment of the contract. It was true that he had advanced money to
+the absconding debtor, and we offered to pay it back: we could have sold
+half our property, and so met the obligation. But he would not hear of
+it, and insisted on the fulfillment of the contract; it was not how much
+money he had lost, but what sums we were bound to pay him. Thus he made
+five-fold profits; his contract gave him the right to do so. We begged
+and entreated him to be content with smaller gain--for it was only a
+question of more or less gain, not of loss--but he was inflexible; he
+required from the sureties the satisfaction of his claims in full. What
+is the use, say I, of faith and religion, and all Christian and Jewish
+churches, if it is permitted to make such a demand?
+
+"The affair came before the court; the judge gave sentence that our
+house, our fields, our last farthing, should be distrained, sealed and
+put up to auction.
+
+"But what is the use of the law, a human institution, if it can be
+possible that people should be brought to beggary by a debt of which
+they have never had a groschen, and fall into misery for the benefit of
+a third, who rises laughing from the ground?
+
+"We tried everything to save ourselves from utter ruin. My husband went
+to Ofen and Vienna to beg an audience. We knew the artful deceiver who
+had escaped with his money was living in Turkey, and begged for his
+extradition, that he might be brought here to satisfy those who had
+presented claims against him; but we were told that there was no power
+to do so. Then what is the use of the emperor, the ministers, the
+authorities, if they are not in a position to extend protection to their
+subjects in distress? After this fearful blow, which brought us all to
+beggary, my poor husband one night sent a bullet through his head. He
+would not look on the misery of his family, the tears of his wife, the
+pale, starved face of his child, and fled from us into the grave.
+
+"But what is a husband good for, if, when he falls into misfortune, he
+knows no other outlet than to quit the world himself, and leave wife and
+child alone behind?
+
+"But the horrors were not yet at an end. I was a beggar and homeless;
+now they tried to make me an infidel. The wife of the suicide begged her
+pastors in vain to bury the unhappy man. The dean was a strict and holy
+man, for whom the laws of the Church were the first thought. He denied
+my husband a decent burial, and I had to look on while the dear form of
+my adored one was carried by the knacker's cart to be hastily buried in
+a corner of a church-yard. What are the clergy for, if they can not
+relieve us of such misery as that? What is the whole world about?
+
+"Only one thing was left; they drove me to kill myself and my child,
+both at once. I wrapped a shawl round the child at my breast, and went
+with it to the river bank.
+
+"I was alone. Three times I went up and down to see where the water was
+deepest. Then something plucked my dress and drew me back. I looked
+round. Who was it? The dog here--of all living beings the only friend
+left to me.
+
+"It was on the shore of the Ogradina Island that this happened. On this
+island we had a beautiful fruit-garden and a little summer-house; but
+there too the official seal had been affixed to every door, and I could
+only go through the kitchen and out under the trees. Then I sat down by
+the Danube and began to reflect. What, am I, I, a human being, a woman,
+to be worse than an animal! Did one ever see a dog drown its young and
+then kill itself? No, I will not kill either myself or my child; I will
+live and bring it up. But how? Like the wolves or the gypsy woman, who
+have no home and no food. I will beg--beg of the ground, the waters, the
+wilderness of the forest; only not of men--never!
+
+"My poor husband had told me of a little island which had been formed
+some fifty years ago in the reed-beds near Ogradina; he often went
+shooting there in autumn, and spoke much of a hollow rock in which he
+had sought shelter from bad weather. He said, 'The island has no master;
+the Danube built it up for no one; the soil, the trees, the grass which
+grow on it belong to no one.' If it is ownerless, this island, why
+should not I take possession of it? I ask it of God, I ask it of the
+Danube. Why should they refuse it? I will raise fruit there. How? and
+what fruit? I do not know, but necessity will teach me.
+
+"A boat remained to me which the officer had not noticed, and which,
+therefore, had not been seized. Noemi, Almira and I got into it, and I
+rowed myself over to the ownerless island. I had never used an oar
+before, but necessity taught me.
+
+"When I touched this piece of ground, a wonderful feeling took
+possession of me: it was as if I had forgotten what had happened to me
+out in the world. I was surrounded by a pleasant silence and rest, which
+softened my heart.
+
+"After I had explored pasture, grove, and meadow, I knew what I should
+do here. In the field bees were humming, in the woods hazel-nuts were
+hanging, and on the surface of the river floated water-chestnuts. Crabs
+basked on the shore, edible snails crept up the trees, and in the marshy
+thickets manna was ripening. Kind Providence, Thou hast spread a table
+before me! The grove was full of wild fruit--seedlings; the blackbirds
+had brought seeds from the neighboring island, and already the wild
+apples grew rosy on the trees, and the raspberry bushes bore a few
+belated berries.
+
+"Yes, I knew what I would do on the island. I alone would make of it a
+Garden of Eden. The work to be done here could be managed by a single
+person, one woman, and then we should live here like the first man in
+Paradise.
+
+"I had found the rock with its natural grottoes, in the largest of which
+a layer of hay was spread, which must have served as a bed to my poor
+husband. I had a widow's right to it; it was my legacy. I hushed my
+child to sleep there, made it a couch in the hay, and covered it with my
+large shawl. Then I told Almira to stay there and watch over Noemi till
+I came back, and rowed across to the large island again. On the veranda
+of my old summer-house there was an awning spread out, which I took
+down; it would serve as a tent or roof, and perhaps later on be used for
+winter clothing. I packed in it what food and vegetables I could see,
+and made a bundle as large as I could carry on my back. I had come to
+the house in a four-horse wagon richly laden; with a bundle on my back I
+left it; and yet I had been neither wicked nor a spendthrift. But what
+if even that bundle were stolen goods? It is true that the contents were
+my own; but that I should carry them off, was it not theft? I hardly
+knew: notions of right and wrong, the legal or the illegal, were
+confused in my head. I fled with the bundle like a thief out of my own
+home. On my way through the garden I took a cutting of each of my
+beautiful fruit-trees, and shoots from the figs and bushes, picked up
+some seeds from the ground and put them in my apron; then I kissed the
+drooping branches of the weeping willow under which I had so often dozed
+and dreamed. Those happy dreams were gone forever. I never went back
+there. The boat took me safely along the Danube.
+
+"While I rowed back two things fretted me. One was that there were
+noxious inhabitants on the island--snakes; probably some in that grotto:
+the thought filled me with horror and alarm for Noemi. The other anxiety
+was this. I can live for years on wild honey, water-nuts, and manna
+fruit; my child lives on her mother's breast; but how shall I feed
+Almira? The faithful creature can not live on what nourishes me; and yet
+I must keep her, for without Almira as a protector I should die of
+fright in this solitude. When I had dragged my bundle to the grotto, I
+saw before me the still quivering tail of a large snake, and not far off
+lay its head, bitten off; Almira had eaten what lay between the head and
+tail. The clever beast lay before the child, wagging her tail and
+licking her lips, as if to say, I have made a good meal. Thenceforward
+she made war on snakes; they were her daily food. In the winter she
+scratched them out of their holes. My friend--for so I grew to call the
+dog--had found her own livelihood, and freed me from the objects of my
+dread.
+
+"Oh, sir, it was an indescribable feeling, our first night alone
+here--no one near but my God, my child, and my dog. I can not call it
+painful--it was almost bliss. I spread the linen awning over us all
+three, and we were only awoke by the twitter of the birds. Now began my
+work--savages' work, for before sunrise I must collect manna, called by
+Hungarians 'Dew-millet.' Poor women go out into the swamp, where this
+bush with its sweet seeds luxuriates; they hold up their dress in both
+hands, shake the bush, and the ripe seeds fall into their lap. That is
+the bread from heaven for those whom no one feeds. Sir, I lived two
+whole years on that bread, and thanked daily on my knees Him who cares
+for the birds of the air. Wild fruit, honey, nuts, crabs, wild fowls'
+eggs, water-chestnuts preserved for winter use, land snails, dried
+mushrooms, formed my food. Praised be the Lord who so richly provides
+the table of His poor! And during the whole time I labored for the
+object I had set before me. I grafted the wild stocks with the cuttings
+I had brought, and planted in the cultivated soil fruit-trees, vines,
+and walnut-seeds. On the south side I sowed cotton-plant and silky
+swallow-wort, whose products I wove on a loom made of willow-wood, and
+made clothes for us. From rushes and reeds I made hives, in which I
+housed swarms of wild bees, and even in the first year I could begin a
+trade in wax and honey. Millers and smugglers often came here; they
+helped me with the hard labor, and never did me any harm. They paid me
+for provisions by their work; they knew already that I never took money.
+When the fruit-trees began to bear, then I lived in luxury, for in this
+alluvial soil all trees flourish, to that it is a pleasure to see them.
+I have pears which ripen their fruit twice in a year; all the young ones
+make fresh shoots at St. John's day, and the others bear every year. I
+have learned their secrets, and know that in the hands of a good
+gardener there should be no failure nor over-crop. Animals understand
+the language of man, and I believe that trees too have ears and eyes for
+those who tend them kindly and listen to their private wishes; and they
+are proud to give them pleasure in return. Oh, trees are very sensible!
+a soul dwells in them. I consider that man a murderer who cuts down a
+noble tree.
+
+"These are my friends. I love them, and live in and by them. What they
+yield me year by year is fetched away by the people of the villages and
+mills round, who give me in exchange what I need for my housekeeping. I
+have no use for money, I have a horror of it--the accursed money, which
+drove me out of the world and my husband out of life: I don't want ever
+to see it again.
+
+"But I am not so foolish as to be unprepared for some years of failure,
+which make vain the work of man. There might be late frosts or
+hail-storms, which would destroy the blessings of the season; but I am
+prepared for such bad times. In the cellar of my rock and in its airy
+crevices I store away whatever durable wares I possess--wine in casks,
+honey in pots, wool and cotton in bales, in sufficient quantity to keep
+us from want for two years. You see I have some savings, though not in
+money; I may call myself rich, and yet for twelve years not a single
+coin has passed through my hands. For I have lived on this island twelve
+years, sir, with the other two, for I count Almira as a person. Noemi
+declares we are four; she counts Narcissa, too--silly child!
+
+"Many people know of our existence, but treachery is unknown here. The
+artificial barrier which exists between the frontiers of the two
+countries has made the people about here very reserved. No one meddles
+in a stranger's affairs, and every one instinctively keeps secret what
+he knows. No intelligence from here ever reaches Vienna, Ofen, or
+Stamboul. And why should they inform against me? I am in nobody's way,
+and do no harm; I grow fruit on my bit of desert land, which has no
+master. God the Lord and the royal Danube gave it to me, and I thank
+them for it daily. I thank Thee, my God! I thank Thee, my King!
+
+"I hardly know if I have any religion; it is twelve years since I saw a
+priest or a church. Noemi knows nothing about it. I have taught her to
+read and write: I tell her of God, and Jesus, and Moses, as I knew them.
+Of the good, all-merciful, omnipresent God--of Jesus, sublime in His
+sufferings, and divine in His humanity--and of Moses, that leader of a
+people to liberty, who preferred to wander hungry and thirsty in the
+wilderness rather than exchange freedom for the flesh-pots of
+slavery--Moses who preached goodness and brotherly love--of these as I
+picture them to myself. But of the relentless God of vengeance, the God
+of the chosen people--a God calling for sacrifices, and dwelling in
+temples--of that privileged Christ asking for blind faith, laying heavy
+burdens on our shoulders, followed by a crowd of worshipers--and of the
+avaricious, revengeful, selfish Moses of whom books and preachers
+tell--of these she knows nothing.
+
+"Now you know who we are, and what we are doing here, you shall learn
+with what we are threatened by this man.
+
+"He is the son of the man for whom my husband stood surety, who drove
+him to suicide, on whose account we have fled from human society into
+the desert. He was a boy of thirteen when we lost our all, and the blow
+fell on him also, for his father had forsaken him.
+
+"Indeed, I do not wonder that the son has turned out such a wretch.
+Abandoned by his own father, thrust out like a beggar into the world,
+cast on the compassion of strangers, deceived and robbed by the one on
+whom his childish trust was placed, branded in his earliest youth as the
+son of a rogue, is it surprising if he was forced to become what he is?
+
+"And yet I hardly know what to think of him; but what I do know is
+enough. The people who come to the island can tell a great deal about
+him. Not long after his father had escaped, he also started from Turkey,
+saying he was going to look for his father. Some maintained that he had
+found him, others that he had never been able to trace him. According to
+one report he robbed his own father and squandered the money he stole,
+but no one knows for certain. From him nothing can be learned, for he
+tells nothing but lies. As to where he has been, and what he has done,
+he relates romances, in whose invention he is so well versed, and which
+he presents so skillfully, that he staggers even those who have actual
+knowledge of the facts, and makes them doubt the testimony of their own
+eyes. You see him here to-day and there to-morrow. In Turkey, Wallachia,
+Poland, and Hungary he has been met. In all these countries he is by way
+of knowing every person of distinction. Whomsoever he meets he takes in,
+and whoever has once been deceived by him may be sure it will happen
+again. He speaks ten languages, and whatever countryman he pretends to
+be, he is accepted as such. He appears now as a merchant, then a
+soldier, again as a seafaring man; to-day a Turk, to-morrow a Greek. He
+once came out as a Polish count, then as the betrothed of a Russian
+princess, and again as a quack doctor, who cured all maladies with his
+pills. What his real profession may be no one knows. But one thing is
+certain, he is a paid spy. Whether in the service of the Turks,
+Austrians, or Russians, who can tell? Perhaps he is in the pay of all
+three and more besides--he serves each, and betrays all. Every year he
+comes several times to this island. He comes in a boat from the Turkish
+shore, and goes in the same boat from here to the Hungarian bank. Of
+what he does there I have no idea; but I am inclined to believe that he
+inflicts the torture of his presence on me for his own amusement. I
+know, too, that he is an epicure and a sensualist: he finds good food
+here, and a blooming young girl whom he loves to tease by calling her
+his bride. Noemi hates him; she has no idea how well founded is her
+abhorrence.
+
+"Yet I do not think that Theodor Krisstyan visits this island only for
+these reasons; it must have other secrets unknown to me. He is a paid
+spy, and has a bad heart besides; he is rotten to the core, and ripe for
+any villainy. He knows that I and my daughter have only usurped the
+island, and that by law I have no claim to it, and by the possession of
+this secret he lays us under contribution, vexes and torments us both.
+
+"He threatens that if we do not give him what he wants, he will inform
+against us both in Austria and Turkey, and as soon as these governments
+know that a new piece of land has been formed in the midst of the
+Danube, which is not included in any treaty, a dispute about its
+jurisdiction will commence between the countries, and until its
+conclusion all the inhabitants will be warned off, as happened in the
+case of Allion Castle and the Cserna River.
+
+"It would only cost this man a word to annihilate all that I have
+brought to perfection by my twelve years' labor; to turn this Eden,
+where we are so happy, back into a wilderness, and thrust us out anew,
+homeless, into the world. Yes, and more still. We have not only to fear
+discovery by the imperial officials, but discovery by the priest. If the
+archbishops, the patriarchs, archimandrite, and deans learned that a
+girl is growing up here who has never seen a church since she was
+baptized, they would take her away by force and put her in a convent.
+Now, sir, do you understand those sighs which kept you awake?"
+
+Timar gazed at the full disk of the moon, which was beginning to sink
+behind the poplars. "Why," thought he to himself, "am I not a man of
+influence?"
+
+"So this wretch," continued Therese, "can throw us into poverty any day.
+He need only give information in Vienna or Stamboul that here on the
+Danube a new territory exists, and we should be ruined. No one here
+would betray us--he alone is capable of it. But I am prepared for the
+worst. The whole foundation of this island is solely and entirely formed
+by the rock: it alone stems the force of the Danube current. In the year
+when Milos made war against the Serbs, some Servian smugglers hid three
+barrels of blasting powder in the bushes near here, and no one has ever
+fetched them away. Perhaps those who hid them were taken prisoners by
+the Turks, or killed. I found them, and have concealed them in the
+deepest cavity of this great rock. Sir, if they try to drive me from
+this island, now ownerless, I shall thrust a burning match into the
+powder, and the rock and all upon it will be blown into the air. In the
+next spring, after the ice has melted, no one would find a trace of the
+island. And now you know why you could not sleep well here."
+
+Timar leaned his head on his hand and looked away.
+
+"There is one more thing I ought to say," said Frau Therese, bending
+close to Timar, that he might hear her low whisper--"I fancy this man
+had another reason for coming here and vanishing again, besides his
+having gambled away his money in some low pot-house, and wanting to get
+more out of me. His visit was either on your account, or that of the
+other gentleman. Be on your guard, if either of you dreads the discovery
+of a secret."
+
+The moon disappeared behind the poplars, and it began to dawn in the
+east. Blackbirds commenced their song; it was morning. From the Morova
+Island long-drawn trumpet-calls sounded, to awake the seafaring folk.
+Steps were audible in the sand; a sailor came from the landing-place
+with the news that the vessel was ready for departure, the wind had gone
+down, and they could proceed. The guests came out of the little
+dwelling: Euthemio Trikaliss and his daughter, the beautiful Timea, with
+her dazzling pale face.
+
+Noemi also was up and boiling fresh goat's milk for breakfast, with
+roasted maize instead of coffee, and honey for sugar. Timea took none,
+but let Narcissa drink the milk instead, who did not despise the
+stranger's offer, to Noemi's great vexation.
+
+Trikaliss asked Timar where the stranger had gone who came last evening?
+Timar told him he had left in the night. At this intelligence his face
+fell.
+
+Then they all took leave of their hostess. Timea was out of sorts, and
+still complained of feeling unwell. Timar remained behind, and gave
+Therese a bright Turkish silk scarf as a present for Noemi; she thanked
+him, and said the child should wear it. Then they took the path leading
+to the boat, and Therese and Almira accompanied them to the shore. But
+Noemi went up to the top of the rock: there, sitting on soft moss and
+stonecrop, she watched the boat away.
+
+Narcissa crept after her, cowered in her lap, and crept with bending
+neck into her bosom. "Be off, faithless one! that is how you love me.
+You leave me in the lurch, and make up to the other girl, just because
+she is pretty and I am not. Go! I don't love you any longer!" and then
+she caught the coaxing cat with both hands to her breast, pressed her
+smooth chin on the white head of the little flatterer, and gazed after
+the boat. In her eye glittered a tear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+ALI TSCHORBADSCHI.
+
+
+The following day the "St. Barbara" continued her voyage with a fair
+wind up the Hungarian Danube. Until evening nothing remarkable occurred,
+and all went to bed early; they agreed that the previous night no one
+had been able to sleep. But this night also was to be a wakeful one for
+Timar. All was quiet on board the ship, which lay at anchor--only the
+monotonous splash of the wavelets against the vessel broke the
+stillness; but amidst the silence it seemed to him as if his neighbor
+was busy with important and mysterious affairs. From the neighboring
+cabin, which was only divided from his by a wooden partition, came all
+sorts of sounds; the clank of money, a noise as of drawing a cork and
+stirring with a spoon, as of one clasping his hands and performing his
+ablutions in the darkness, and then again those sighs, as in the
+previous night, "Oh, Allah!"
+
+At last there was a gentle knocking at the partition. Trikaliss
+called--"Come to me here, sir."
+
+Timar dressed quickly and hastened into the cabin. There were two beds,
+and between them a table. The curtains were closed in front of one, and
+on the other lay Euthemio. On the table stood a casket and two small
+glasses. "What are your orders, sir?" asked Timar.
+
+"I have no orders--I entreat."
+
+"You want something?"
+
+"I shall not want anything long. I am dying; I want to die--I have taken
+poison. Don't give the alarm--sit down and listen to what I have to tell
+you. Timea will not wake. I have given her opium to send her into a
+deep sleep, for she must not wake up now. Don't interrupt; what you
+would say is useless, but I have much to tell you, and only one short
+hour left, for the poison acts quickly. Make no vain attempts to save
+me. I hold the antidote in my hand--if I repented of my deed it rests
+with me to undo it. But I will not--and I am right--so sit down and
+listen.
+
+"My true name is not Euthemio Trikaliss but Ali Tschorbadschi. I was
+once governor of Candia, and then treasurer in Stamboul. You know what
+is passing in Turkey now. The Ulemas and governors are rising against
+the sultan, because he is making innovations. At such times men's lives
+are of little value. One party murders by thousands those who are not
+its allies, and the other party burns by thousands the houses of those
+in power. No one is high enough to be safe from his rulers or his
+slaves. The Kaimakan of Stamboul had at least six hundred respectable
+Turks strangled there, and then was stabbed by his own slave in the
+Mosque of St. Sophia. Every change cost human blood. When the sultan
+went to Edren, twenty-six important men were arrested, and twenty of
+them beheaded, while the other six were stretched on the rack. After
+they had made false accusations against the great men of the country in
+order to save themselves, they were strangled; then those were arrested
+against whom they had borne witness, and these suspected nobles
+disappeared without being heard of again. The sultan's secretary, Waffat
+Effendi, was sent to Syria, and murdered by the Druses. The Pasha Pertao
+was invited to dinner by the governor of Edren, Emin Pasha: when the
+meal was over, black coffee was brought, and he was told that the sultan
+commanded him to take poison in it. Pertao only asked that he might be
+allowed to mix the poison he had with him in the coffee, as it was more
+certain; then he blessed the sultan, performed his ablutions, prayed and
+died. Even in these days every Turkish noble carries poison in his
+signet-ring, to have it at hand when his turn comes.
+
+"I knew in good time when my turn was coming. Not that I was a
+conspirator, but for two reasons I was ripe for the sickle; these
+reasons were my money and my daughter.
+
+"The treasury wanted my treasures and the seraglio my daughter. Death is
+easy, and I am ready for it; but I will not let my daughter go into the
+harem, nor myself be made a beggar. I determined to upset the
+calculations of my enemies and fly with my daughter and my property; but
+I could not go by sea, for the new galleys would have overtaken me. I
+had kept a passport for Hungary in readiness for a long time; I
+disguised myself as a Greek merchant, shaved off my long beard, and
+reached Galatz by by-roads. From there I could go no further by land; I
+therefore hired a vessel and loaded it with grain which I bought: in
+this way I could best save my wealth. When you told me the name of the
+ship's owner I was very glad, for Athanas Brazovics is a connection of
+mine; Timea's mother was a Greek of his family. I have often shown
+kindness to this man, and he can return it now. Allah is great and
+wise--no man can escape his fate. You guessed I was a fugitive, even if
+you were not clear whether you had a criminal or a political refugee on
+board--still you thought it your duty as commander of the vessel to
+help the passenger intrusted to you in his speedy escape. By a miracle
+we traversed safely the rocks and whirlpools of the Iron Gate; by
+fool-hardy audacity we eluded the pursuit of the Turkish brigantine; by
+lucky chance we escaped quarantine and the search at the
+custom-house--and after we had left every bugbear behind, I stumbled
+over a straw under my feet into my grave.
+
+"That man who followed us last evening to the unknown island was a spy
+of the Turkish Government. I know him, and he certainly recognized me;
+no one could have traced me except himself. He has hurried on in front,
+and at Pancsova they are ready to receive me. Don't speak--I know what
+you mean; you think it is Hungarian territory, and that governments
+grant no extradition of political refugees.
+
+"But they would not pursue me as a political criminal, but as a
+thief--unjustly--for what I took was my own, and if the State has claims
+on me, there are my twenty-seven houses in Galatz, by which they can be
+satisfied; but in spite of that they will cry after me 'Catch thief!'
+
+"I pass for one who has robbed the treasury, and Austria gives up
+escaped thieves to Turkey if the Turkish spies succeed in tracing them.
+This man has recognized me and sealed my fate."
+
+Heavy drops of perspiration stood on the speaker's brow. His face had
+turned as yellow as wax.
+
+"Give me a drink of water that I may go on, for I have still much to
+tell you. I can not save myself, but by dying I can save my daughter and
+her property. Allah wills it, and who can flee from His presence? So
+swear to me by your faith and your honor that you will carry out my
+instructions. First, when I am dead, do not bury me on shore--a
+Mussulman does not require Christian burial, so bury me like a sailor;
+sew me up in a piece of sail-cloth, fasten at my head and feet a heavy
+stone, then sink me where the Danube is deepest. Do this, my son, and
+when it is done, steer steadily for Komorn, and take care of Timea!
+
+"Here in this casket is money--about a thousand ducats; the rest of my
+property is in the sacks packed as grain. I leave on my table a note
+which you must keep. I declare therein that I have contracted dysentery
+by immoderate enjoyment of melons, and am dying of it; further, that my
+whole possessions were only these thousand ducats. This will serve you
+as a security that no one may accuse you of having caused my death or
+embezzled my money. I give you nothing; what you do is of your own kind
+heart, and God will reward you: He is the best creditor you can have.
+And then take Timea to Athanas Brazovics and beg him to adopt my
+daughter. He has a daughter himself who may be a sister to her. Give him
+the money--he must spend it on the education of the child; and give over
+to him also the cargo, and beg him to be present himself when the sacks
+are emptied. There is good grain in them, and it might be changed. You
+understand?"
+
+The dying man looked in Timar's face, and struggled for breath. "For--"
+Again speech failed him. "Did I say anything? I had more to say--but my
+thoughts grow confused. How red the night is! How red the moon is in the
+sky! Yes; the Red Crescent--" A deep groan from Timea's bed attracted
+his attention and gave another turn to his thoughts. He raised himself
+anxiously in his bed, and sought with a trembling hand for something
+under his pillow, his eyes starting from their sockets. "Ah, I had
+almost forgotten--Timea! I gave her a sleeping-draught--if you do not
+wake her up in time she will sleep forever. Here in this bottle is an
+antidote. As soon as I am dead, take it and rub her brow, temples, and
+chest, until she awakes. Ah! how nearly I had taken her with me! but no,
+she must live. Must she not? You vow to me by all you hold sacred, that
+you will wake her, and bring her back to life--that you will not let her
+slumber on into eternity?"
+
+The dying man pressed Timar's hand convulsively to his breast: on his
+distorted features was already imprinted the last death-struggle. "What
+was I talking of? What had I to tell you? What was my last word? Yes;
+right--the Red Crescent!"
+
+Through the open window the half-circle of the waning moon shone
+blood-red, rising from the nocturnal mists. Was the dying man in his
+delirium thinking of this? Or did it remind him of something?
+
+"Yes--the Red Crescent," he stammered once more; then the death-throes
+closed his lips--one short struggle, and he was a corpse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE LIVING STATUE.
+
+
+Timar remained alone with the dead body, with a person sunk in a
+death-like stupor, and with a buried secret. The silent night covered
+them, and the shades whispered to him, "See! if you do not do what has
+been committed to you--if you throw the corpse into the Danube, and do
+not wake the slumberer, but let her sleep on quietly into the other
+world--what would happen then? The spy will have already given evidence
+in Pancsova against the fugitive Tschorbadschi; but if you anticipate
+him and the land at Belgrade instead, and lay information there, then,
+according to Turkish law, a third of the refugee's property would fall
+to you; otherwise it would belong to no one. The father is dead, the
+girl, if you do not rouse her, will never wake again; thus you would
+become at one stroke a rich man. Only rich people are worth anything in
+this world--poor devils are only fit for clerks."
+
+Timar answered the spirits of the night--"Well, then, I will always
+remain a clerk;" and, in order to silence these murmuring shadows, he
+closed the shutters. A secret anxiety beset him when he saw the red moon
+outside; it seemed as if all these bad suggestions came from it, as well
+as an explanation of the last words of the dying man about the Red
+Crescent.
+
+He drew back the curtain from Timea's berth.
+
+The girl lay like a living statue; her bosom rose and fell with her slow
+breathing--the lips were half open, the eyes shut; her face wore an
+expression of unearthly solemnity. One hand was raised to her loosened
+hair, the other held the folds of her white dress together on her
+breast.
+
+Timar approached her as if she were an enchanted fairy whose touch might
+cause deadly heart-sickness to a poor mortal. He began to rub the
+temples of the sleeper with the fluid from the bottle. In doing so, he
+looked continually in her face, and thought to himself, "What, should I
+let you die, you angelic creature? If the whole ship were filled with
+real pearls, which would be mine after your death, I could not let you
+sleep away your life. There is no diamond in the world, however
+precious, that I should prefer to your eyes when you open them."
+
+The lovely face remained unchanged, in spite of the friction on brow and
+temples; the delicate meeting eyebrows did not contract when touched by
+a strange man's hand. The directions were that also over the heart the
+antidote must be applied. Timar was obliged to take the girl's hand, in
+order to draw it away from her breast: the hand made no smallest
+resistance; it was stiff and cold, as cold as the whole form--beautiful
+and icy as marble.
+
+The shadows whispered--"Behold this exquisite form! a lovelier has never
+been touched by mortal lips; no one would know if you kissed her."
+
+But Timar answered himself in the darkness, "No--you have never stolen
+anything of another's in your life. This kiss would be a theft." And
+then he spread the Persian quilt, which the girl had thrown off in her
+sleep, over her whole person up to her neck, and rubbed above the heart
+of the sleeper with wetted fingers, while, in order to resist
+temptation, he kept his eyes fixed on the maiden's face. It was to him
+like an altar-picture--so cold, yet so serene.
+
+At last the lids unclosed, and he met the gaze of her dark but dull
+eyes. She breathed more easily, and Timar fell her heart beat stronger
+under his hand; he drew it away. Then he held the bottle with the strong
+essence for her to smell. Timea awoke, for she turned her head away from
+it, and drew her brows together. Timar called her gently by name.
+
+The girl started up, and with the cry "Father!" sat up on her bed,
+gazing out with staring eyes. The Persian quilt fell down from her lap,
+the night-dress slipped from her shoulders. She looked more like a Greek
+marble than a sentient being.
+
+"Timea!" and as he spoke he drew the fine linen over her bare shoulders.
+She did not answer. "Timea!" cried Timar, "your father is dead." But
+neither face nor form moved, nor did she notice that her night-dress had
+left her bosom uncovered. She seemed totally unconscious.
+
+Timar rushed into the other cabin, returned with a coffee-pot, and began
+in feverish haste, and not without burning his fingers, to heat some
+coffee. When it was ready, he went to Timea, took her head on his arm
+and pressed it to him, opened her mouth with his fingers, and poured
+some coffee in. Hitherto he had only had to contend with passive
+resistance; but as soon as Timea had swallowed the hot and bitter
+decoction of Mocha, she pushed Timar's hand with such strength that the
+cup fell; then she drew the quilt over her, and her teeth began to
+chatter.
+
+"Thank God! she lives; for she is in a high fever," sighed Timar, "And
+now for a sailor's funeral."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A BURIAL AT SEA.
+
+
+On the ocean this is managed very easily: the body is sewed up in a
+piece of sail-cloth, and a cannon-ball is suspended to the feet, which
+sinks the corpse in the sea. Corals soon grow over the grave. But on a
+Danube craft, to throw a dead person into the river is a great
+responsibility. There are shores, and on the shores villages and towns,
+with church bells and priests, to give the corpse his funeral-toll and
+his rest in consecrated ground. It won't do to pitch him into the water,
+without a "By your leave," just because the dead man wished it.
+
+But Timar knew well enough that this must be done, and it caused him no
+anxiety. Before the vessel had weighed anchor, he said to his pilot that
+there was a corpse on board--Trikaliss was dead.
+
+"I knew for certain," said Johann Fabula, "that there was bad luck on
+the way when the sturgeon ran races with the ship--that always betokens
+a death."
+
+"We must moor over there by the village," answered Timar, "and seek out
+the minister to bury him. We can not carry the body on in the vessel--we
+should be under suspicion as infected with plague."
+
+Herr Fabula cleared his throat violently, and said, "We can but try."
+
+The village of Plesscovacz, which was nearest at hand, is a wealthy
+settlement; it has a dean, and a fine church with two towers. The dean
+was a tall, handsome man, with a long curling beard, eyebrows as broad
+as one's finger, and a fine sonorous voice. He happened to know Timar,
+who had often bought grain from him, as the dean had much produce to
+sell.
+
+"Well, my son," cried the dean, as soon as he saw him in the court-yard,
+"you might have chosen your time better. The church harvest was bad, and
+I have sold my crops long ago." (And yet there was threshing going on in
+yard and barn.)
+
+"But this time it is I who bring a crop to market," Timar answered. "We
+have a dead man on board, and I have come to beg your reverence to go
+over there, and bury the corpse with the usual ceremonies."
+
+"Oh, but my son, that's not so easy. Did this Christian confess? Has he
+received the last sacraments? Are you certain that he was not a heretic?
+For if not, I can not consent to bury him."
+
+"I know nothing about it. We don't carry a father-confessor on board,
+and the poor soul left the world without any priestly assistance--that
+is the lot of sailors. But if your reverence can not grant him a
+consecrated grave, give me at any rate a written certificate that I may
+have some excuse to his friends why I was not in a position to show him
+the last honors; then we will bury him ourselves somewhere on the
+shore."
+
+The dean gave him a certificate of the refusal of burial; but then the
+peasant threshers began to make a fuss. "What! bury a corpse within our
+boundaries which has not been blessed? Why, then, as certain as the Amen
+to the Pater Noster, the hail would destroy our crops. And you need not
+try to bestow him on any other village. Wherever he came from, nobody
+wants him, for he's sure to bring a hail-storm this season before the
+vintage is over--the farmer's last hope; and then next year a vampire
+will rise from a corpse so buried, which will suck up all the rain and
+the dew!"
+
+They threatened to kill Timar if he brought the body ashore. And in
+order that he might not bury it secretly on the bank, they chose four
+stout fellows, who were to go on board the ship and remain there till it
+had passed the village boundaries, and then he could do what he liked
+with the dead man.
+
+Timar pretended to be very angry, but allowed the four men to go on
+board. Meanwhile, the crew had made a coffin and laid the body in it:
+there was nothing more to do but to nail the lid down.
+
+The first thing that the captain did was to go and see how Timea was.
+The fever had reached its highest point; her forehead was burning, but
+her face still dazzling white. She was unconscious, and knew nothing of
+the preparations for the burial.
+
+"Yes, that will do," said Timar, and fetched a paint-pot and busied
+himself in marking Euthemio Trikaliss's name and date of death in
+beautiful Greek letters on the coffin-lid. The four Servian peasants
+stood behind and spelled out what he wrote.
+
+"Now, then, you paint a letter or two while I see to my work," said
+Timar to one of the gazers, and handed him the brush. The man took it
+and painted on the board an X, which the Servians use like S, to show
+his skill.
+
+"See what an artist you are!" Timar said, admiringly, and got him to
+draw another letter. "You are a clever fellow. What is your name?"
+
+"Joso Berkics."
+
+"And yours?"
+
+"Mirko Jakerics."
+
+"Well, God bless you! Let us drink a glass of Slivovitz." They had
+nothing against the proposition. "I am called Michael; my surname is
+Timar--a good name, and sounds just the same in Hungarian, Turkish, or
+Greek--call me Michael."
+
+"Egbogom Michael."
+
+Michael ran constantly into the cabin to see after Timea. She was still
+very feverish, and knew no one. But that did not discourage Timar: his
+idea was that whoever travels on the Danube has a whole chemist's shop
+at hand, for cold water cures all maladies. His whole system consisted
+in putting cold compresses on head and feet, and renewing them as soon
+as they got hot. Sailors had already learned this secret before
+Priessnitz the hydropath. The "St. Barbara" floated quietly all day
+up-stream along the Hungarian bank. The Servians soon made friends with
+the crew, helped them to row, and in return had a thieves' roast offered
+them from the galley.
+
+The dead man lay out on the upper deck; they had spread a white sheet
+over him--that was his shroud. Toward evening Michael told his men that
+he would go and lie down for a spell--he had had no sleep for two
+nights; but that the vessel might as well go on being towed till it was
+quite dark, and then they could anchor. He had no sleep that night
+either. Instead of going into his own cabin, he stole quietly into
+Timea's, placed the night-lamp in a box, that its light might not
+disturb her, and sat the whole time by the sick girl's bed listening to
+her delirious fancies and renewing her compresses. He never shut his
+eyes. He heard plainly when the anchor went down and the ship was
+brought up; and then how the waves began to plash against the sides! The
+sailors tramped about the deck for some time, then one by one they
+turned in. But at midnight he heard a dull knocking. That sounds,
+thought he, like hammering in nails whose heads have been covered with
+cloth to muffle the sound. Before long he heard a noise like the fall of
+some heavy object into the water, then all was still.
+
+Michael remained awake, and waited till it was light and the vessel had
+started again. When they had been an hour on their way, he came out of
+the cabin. The girl slept quietly, the fever had ceased.
+
+"Where is the coffin?" was the first question.
+
+The Servians came up with a defiant air. "We loaded it with stones and
+threw it into the water, so that you might not bury it anywhere ashore
+and bring bad luck on us."
+
+"Rash men! what have you done? Do you know that I shall be arrested and
+have to render an account of my vanished passenger? They will accuse me
+of having put him out of the way. You must give me a certificate in
+which you acknowledge what you did. Which of you can write?"
+
+Naturally, not one of them knew how to write.
+
+"What! You, Berkics, and you, Jakerics, did you not help me to paint the
+letters on the coffin?"
+
+Then they came out with a confession that each only knew how to write
+the one letter which he had painted on the lid, and that, only with the
+brush and not with a pen.
+
+"Very well; then I shall take you on to Pancsova. There you can give
+evidence verbally to the colonel in my favor; he will find your tongues
+for you."
+
+At this threat suddenly every one of them had learned to write; not only
+those two, but the others as well. They said they would rather give a
+certificate at once than be taken on to Pancsova. Michael fetched ink,
+pen, and paper, made one of these skillful scribes lie on his stomach on
+the deck, and dictated to him the deposition in which they all declared
+that, out of fear of hail-storms, they had thrown the body of Euthemio
+Trikaliss into the Danube while the crew slept, and without their
+knowledge or aid.
+
+"Now, sign your names to it, and where each of you lives, so that you
+may be easily found if a commission of inquiry is sent to make a
+report."
+
+One of the witnesses signed himself "Ira Karakassalovics," living at
+"Gunerovacz," and the other "Nyegro Stiriapicz," living at "Medvelincz."
+
+And now they took leave of each other with the most serious faces in
+the world, without either Michael or the four others allowing it to be
+seen what trouble it cost them not to laugh in each other's faces.
+
+Michael then put them all ashore.
+
+Ali Tschorbadschi lay at the bottom of the Danube, where he had wished
+to be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AN EXCELLENT JOKE.
+
+
+In the morning when Timea awoke she felt no more of her illness; the
+strength of youth had won the victory. She dressed and came out of the
+cabin. When she saw Timar forward she went to him and asked, "Where is
+my father?"
+
+"Fraulein, your father is dead."
+
+Timea gazed at him with her great melancholy eyes; her face could hardly
+become paler than it was already. "And where have they put him?"
+
+"Fraulein, your father rests at the bottom of the Danube."
+
+Timea sat down by the bulwarks and looked silently into the water. She
+did not speak or weep; she only looked fixedly into the river.
+
+Timar thought it would lighten her heart if he spoke words of
+consolation to her. "Fraulein, while you were ill and unconscious, God
+called your father suddenly to himself. I was beside him in his last
+hour. He spoke of you, and commissioned me to give you his last
+blessing. By his wish I am to take you to an old friend of his, with
+whom you are connected through your mother, who will adopt you and be a
+father to you. He has a pretty young daughter, a little older than you,
+who will be your sister. And all that is on board this vessel belongs to
+you by inheritance, left to you by your father. You will be rich; and
+think gratefully of the loving father who has cared for you so kindly."
+
+Timar's throat swelled as he thought, "And who died to secure your
+liberty, and killed himself in order to endow you with the joys of
+life."
+
+And then he looked with surprise into the girl's face. Timea had not
+changed a feature while he spoke, and no tear had fallen. Michael
+thought she was ashamed to cry before a stranger, and withdrew; but the
+maiden did not weep even when alone. Curious! when she saw the white cat
+drowned, how her tears flowed! and now, when told that her father lies
+below the water, not a drop falls.
+
+Perhaps those who break out in tears at some small emotion brood
+silently over a deep grief?
+
+It may be so. Timar had other things to do than to puzzle his head over
+psychological problems. The towers of Pancsova began to rise in the
+north, and down the stream came an imperial barge, straight for the "St.
+Barbara," with eight armed Tschaikists, their captain, and a provost.
+When they arrived they made fast to the side without waiting for
+permission, and sprung on deck. The captain approached Timar, who was
+waiting for him at the door of the cabin. "Are you in command of this
+vessel?"
+
+"At your service."
+
+"On board this ship, under the false name of Euthemio Trikaliss, there
+is a fugitive treasurer from Turkey--a pasha with stolen treasures."
+
+"On board this vessel travels a Greek corn-merchant, of the name of
+Euthemio Trikaliss, not with stolen treasures but with purchased grain.
+The vessel was searched at Orsova, and here are the certificates. This
+is the first; be so good as to read it, and see if all is not as I say.
+I know nothing of any Turkish pasha."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"If he was a Greek, with Abraham; if a Turk, with Mohammed."
+
+"What! is he dead, then?"
+
+"Certainly he is. Here is the second paper, containing his will. He died
+of dysentery."
+
+The officer read the document, and threw side glances at Timea, who
+still sat in the place where she had heard of her father's death. She
+understood nothing; the language was strange to her.
+
+"My six sailors and the steersman are witnesses of his death."
+
+"Well, that is unlucky for him, but not for us; if he is dead he must be
+buried. You will tell us where, and we shall have the body exhumed; we
+have a man who can recognize it, and prove the identity of Trikaliss
+with Ali Tschorbadschi, and then we can at any rate lay an embargo on
+the stolen property. Where is he buried?"
+
+"At the bottom of the Danube."
+
+"Oh! this is too much. Why there?"
+
+"Gently now. Here is the third paper, prepared by the Dean of
+Plesscovacz, in whose parish the decease of Trikaliss took place, and
+who not only refused him a consecrated burial, but forbid me to bring
+the body ashore; the people insisted on our throwing it overboard."
+
+The captain clinched his hand angrily on the hilt of his sword. "The
+devil! these confounded priests! Always the most trouble with them. But
+at any rate you can tell me where he was thrown into the river?"
+
+"Let me tell you everything in proper order, Herr Captain. The
+Plesscovaer sent four watchmen on board, who were to prevent our landing
+the corpse; in the night, when we were all asleep, they threw the
+coffin, which they had loaded with stones, into the Danube without the
+knowledge of the crew. Here is the certificate delivered to me by the
+culprits; take it, search them out, take their evidence, and then let
+each have his well-merited punishment."
+
+The captain stamped with his foot, and burst into angry laughter.
+
+"Well, that is a fine story. The discovered fugitive dies, and can not
+be made responsible; the priest won't bury him, the peasants shove him
+into the water, and hand in a certificate signed with two names which no
+man ever possessed, and two places which never existed in this world.
+The refugee disappears under the water of the Danube, and I can neither
+drag the whole Danube from Pancsova to Szendre, nor get hold of the two
+rogues, by name Karakassalovics and Stiriapicz. If the identity of the
+fugitive is not proved, I can not confiscate the cargo. You have done
+that very cleverly, skipper. Cleverly planned indeed! And everything in
+writing. One, two, three, four documents. I bet if I wanted the
+baptismal certificate of that lady there, you would produce it."
+
+"At your orders." That Timar certainly could not produce, but he could
+put on such an innocent, sheepish face, that the captain shook with
+laughter and clapped him on the shoulder.
+
+"You are a splendid fellow, skipper. You have saved the young lady's
+property for her; for without her father I can do nothing to either her
+or her money. You can proceed, you clever fellow!"
+
+With that he turned on his heel, and the last Tschaikiss, who had not
+swung round quick enough, got such a box on the ear that the poor devil
+all but fell into the water; and then he gave the word for departure.
+
+When he was down below in the boat, he cast one searching look back; but
+the skipper was still looking after him with the same sheepish face.
+
+The cargo of the "St. Barbara" was saved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE FATE OF THE "ST. BARBARA."
+
+
+The "St. Barbara" could now pursue her way unmolested; and Timar had no
+worse misfortunes than the daily disputes with the leader of the
+towing-team. On the great Hungarian plains the voyage up the Danube
+becomes extremely wearisome; there are no rocks, no water-falls or old
+ruins, nothing but willows and poplars, which border both sides of the
+river. Of these there is nothing interesting to relate.
+
+Timea frequently did not come out of her cabin during a whole day, and
+not a word did her lips utter. She sat alone, and often the food they
+set before her was brought out again untouched. The days grew shorter,
+and the bright autumn weather turned to rain; Timea now shut herself
+entirely into her cabin, and Michael heard nothing of her except the
+deep sighs which at night penetrated to his ear through the thin
+partition. But she was never heard to weep; the heavy blow which had
+fallen on her had perhaps covered her heart with an impenetrable layer
+of ice. How glowing must that love be which could melt it!
+
+Ah, my poor friend, how came you by that thought? Why do you dream
+waking and sleeping of this pale face? Even if she were not so
+beautiful, she is so rich, and you are only a poor devil of a fellow.
+What is the good of a pauper like you filling all his thoughts with the
+image of such a rich girl? If only it were the other way, and you were
+the rich one and she poor! And how rich is Timea? Timar began to reckon,
+in order to drive himself to despair, and turn these idle dreams out of
+his head. Her father left her a thousand ducats in gold and the cargo,
+which, according to the present market prices, must be worth, say, ten
+thousand ducats--perhaps she has ornaments and jewels besides--and might
+be counted in Austrian paper-money of that date as worth a hundred
+thousand gulden; that in a Hungarian provincial town is a very rich
+heiress. And then Timar asked himself a riddle whose solution he could
+not guess.
+
+If Ali Tschorbadschi had a fortune of eleven thousand ducats, that would
+not weigh more than sixteen pounds; of all metals, gold has the smallest
+volume in proportion to its weight. Sixteen pounds of ducats could be
+packed in a knapsack, which a man could carry on his back a long way,
+even on foot. Why was the Turk obliged to change it into grain and load
+a cargo-ship with it, which would take a month and a half for its
+voyage, and have to struggle with storms, eddies, rocks, and
+shallows--which might be delayed by quarantine and custom-houses--when
+he could have carried his treasure with him in his knapsack, and by
+making his way cautiously on foot over mountain and river, could have
+reached Hungary safely in a couple of weeks?
+
+The key to this problem was not to be found.
+
+And another riddle was connected with this one. If Ali's treasure
+(whether honestly come by or not) only consists of eleven or twelve
+thousand ducats altogether, why does the Turkish Government institute a
+pursuit on such a large scale, sending a brigantine with four-and-twenty
+rowers, and spies and couriers after him? What would be a heap of money
+for a poor supercargo is for his highness the Padischa only a trifle;
+and even if it had been possible to lay an embargo on the whole cargo,
+representing a value of ten or twelve thousand ducats, by the time it
+had passed through the fingers of all the informers, tax-collectors, and
+other official cut-purses, there would be hardly enough left for the
+sultan to fill his pipe with.
+
+Was it not ridiculous to set such great machinery in motion in order to
+secure so small a prize?
+
+Or was it not so much the money as Timea that was the object? Timar had
+enough romance about him to find this a plausible assumption, however
+little it agreed with a supercargo's one-times-one multiplication table.
+
+One evening the wind dispersed the clouds, and when Timar looked out of
+his cabin window he saw on the western horizon the crescent moon.
+
+The "red moon!"
+
+The glowing sickle seemed to touch the glassy surface of the Danube. It
+looked to Timar as if it really had a human face, as it is depicted in
+the almanacs, and as if it said something to him with its crooked mouth.
+Only that he could not always understand--it is a strange language.
+
+Moonstruck people perhaps comprehend it, for they follow it; only they,
+as well as the sleep-walkers, remember nothing of what was said when
+they awake. It was as if the moon answered Timar's questions. Which?
+All. And the beating of his heart? or his calculations? All.
+
+Only that he could not put these answers into words.
+
+The red crescent dipped slowly toward the water, and sent its reflected
+rays along the waves as far as the ship's bows, as if to say, "Don't you
+understand now?" At last it drew its horns gently below the surface,
+saying plainly, "I shall return to-morrow, and then you will know."
+
+The pilot was in favor of making the most of the light of the after-glow
+to go on further, until it grew dark. They were already above Almas, and
+not far from Komorn; in those parts he knew the channel so well that he
+could have steered the vessel safely with his eyes shut. As far up as
+the Raab Danube, there was no more danger to fear.
+
+And yet there was something! Off Fuzito a soft, dull thud was heard; but
+at this thud the steersman cried "Halt!" in a fright, to the
+towing-team.
+
+Timar also grew pale, and stood petrified for a moment. For the first
+time during the whole voyage dismay was depicted in his features. "We
+have struck a snag!" he cried to the steersman.
+
+And that great strong man entirely lost his head, left the rudder, and
+ran crying like a little child across the deck to the cabin.
+
+We have touched a snag! Yes, that was so. When the Danube is in flood it
+makes breaches in the bank, the uprooted trees fall into the current,
+and are carried to the bottom by the weight of the soil clinging to
+their roots; if a cargo-ship drawn by horses touches such a tree-trunk,
+it pierces the hull. From shallows and rocks the steersman can guard his
+vessel, but against a tree-trunk lying in ambush under water, neither
+knowledge, experience nor skill is of any avail. Most of the shipwrecks
+on the Danube are from this cause.
+
+"It is all up with us!" howled the pilot and the sailors. Every one left
+his post and ran for his bundle and his chest, to get them into the
+boat.
+
+The vessel swung across the stream, and the forepart began to sink. It
+was useless to think of saving it--absolutely impossible. The hold was
+filled with sacks of grain; before they could shift these in order to
+get at the leak and stop it, the vessel would long ago have gone down.
+
+Timar broke in the door of Timea's cabin.
+
+"Fraulein, put on your cloak quickly, and take the casket which stands
+on the table; our ship is sinking, we must save ourselves." As he spoke
+he helped her into her warm kaftan, and gave her directions to get into
+the boat; the pilot would help her. He himself ran back into his cabin
+to get the box which held the ship's papers and cash. But Johann Fabula
+was not thinking of helping Timea; he flew into a rage when he saw the
+girl. "Didn't I say this milk-face, this witch with the meeting
+eyebrows, would bring us all to destruction? We ought to have thrown her
+overboard."
+
+Timea did not understand what he said, but she shrunk from his bloodshot
+eyes, and preferred to go back to her cabin, where she lay down, and saw
+the water rush through the door and mount gradually to the level of the
+edge of her bed. She thought to herself that if the water washed her
+away, it would carry her down-stream, to where her father was lying at
+the bottom of the Danube, and then they would again be united.
+
+Timar was wading up to his knees in water before he had collected all he
+wanted from his cabin and packed them in a box, which he took on his
+shoulder and then hurried to the boat.
+
+"And where is Timea?" he cried, not seeing her there.
+
+"The devil knows!" growled the pilot. "I wish she had never been born."
+Timar flew back into Timea's cabin, now up to his waist in water, and
+took her in his arms. "Have you the casket?"
+
+"Yes," whispered the girl.
+
+He asked no more, but hurried with her on deck, and carried her in his
+arms into the boat, where he put her on the middle seat. The fate of the
+"St. Barbara" was being decided with awful rapidity. The ship was going
+down stern first, and in a few minutes only the upper deck and the mast,
+with the dangling tow-rope, were visible above water.
+
+"Shove off!" Timar said to the rowers, and the boat moved toward the
+shore.
+
+"Where is the casket?" Timar asked the girl, when they had already gone
+some distance.
+
+"Here it is," answered Timea, showing him what she had brought away.
+
+"Miserable girl! that is the box of sweetmeats, not the casket." In
+fact, Timea had brought the box of Turkish sweets, meant as a present to
+her new sister, and had totally forgotten the casket which held her
+whole fortune. That was left behind in the submerged cabin. "Back to the
+ship!" Timar cried to the pilot.
+
+"Surely nobody has got such a mad notion as to look for anything in a
+sunken ship," grumbled Fabula.
+
+"Back!--no words--I insist!"
+
+The boat returned to the vessel. Timar asked no one's help, but sprung
+himself to the deck and down the steps to the cabin.
+
+Timea looked after him with her great dark eyes as he vanished under the
+surface, as if to say--"And you too go before me into the watery grave."
+
+Timar reached the bulwarks, but had to be very careful, because the
+vessel had a list toward the side where Timea's cabin door was. He had
+to hold on by the timbers of the roof, so as not to slip altogether
+under water. He found the door, luckily, not shut by the waves; for it
+would have been a long job to get it open. It was quite dark inside, the
+water had filled it almost to the ceiling; he groped to the table, the
+casket was not there; perhaps she had left it on the bed. The water had
+floated the bed to the roof, and he had to draw it down; but the casket
+was not there either. Perhaps it had been knocked over by the rush of
+water. He felt about vainly with his hands, stooping under water. His
+feet were more fortunate, for he stumbled over the object sought for;
+the casket had fallen to the ground. He lifted it, and tried while
+holding it to climb up to the other side, where he need not hold on with
+both hands.
+
+The minute that Timar was under water seemed to Timea an eternity.
+
+He was a full minute under water. He had held his breath the whole time,
+as if to try an experiment how long a man could do without breathing.
+
+When Michael's head appeared above the water she heaved a deep sigh,
+and her face beamed when Timar gave her the rescued casket, but not on
+its account.
+
+"Well, captain!" exclaimed the steersman, as he helped Timar into the
+boat, "that's thrice you've got soaked for the love of these eyebrows.
+Thrice!"
+
+Timea asked Michael in a whisper, "What is the Greek for the word
+thrice?" Michael translated it. Then Timea looked at him long, and
+repeated to herself in a low voice "Thrice."
+
+The boat approached the shore in the direction of Almas.
+
+Against the steely mirror in the twilight a long line was visible, like
+a distressful note of exclamation or a pause in life. It was the topmast
+of the "St. Barbara."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE GUARDIAN.
+
+
+At six in the evening the ship's crew had left the sunken craft, and by
+half past seven Timar with Timea was in Komorn. The post-cart driver
+knew Brazovics' house very well, and galloped his four bell-decked
+horses with unmerciful cracks of the whip through the little streets up
+to the square, as he had been promised a good _trinkgeld_ if he brought
+his passengers quickly to their destination.
+
+Michael lifted Timea from the country wagon and told her she was now at
+home. Then he took the casket under his cloak and led the girl up the
+steps.
+
+The house of Athanas Brazovics was of two stories--a rarity in Komorn;
+for in remembrance of the destructive earthquakes by which the town had
+been visited in the last century, people usually only built on the
+ground-floor. The lower story was occupied by a large cafe, which served
+the resident tradespeople as a casino; the whole upper floor was
+inhabited by the family of the merchant. It had two entrances from the
+street, and a third through the kitchen.
+
+The owner was generally not at home at this hour, as Timar knew; he
+therefore led Timea straight to the door through which the women's rooms
+were reached. In these reigned fashionable luxury, and in the anteroom
+lounged a man-servant. Timar asked him to fetch his master from the
+cafe, and meanwhile led Timea to the ladies.
+
+He was certainly hardly got up for company, as may be imagined when one
+remembers what he had gone through, and the number of times he had been
+soaked; but he was one of those who belonged to the house, who could
+come in at any time and in any dress: they looked upon him as "one of
+our people." In such a case one gets over the strict rules of etiquette.
+
+The announcement revives the old habit of the mistress, as soon as the
+door of the anteroom is open, of putting her head through the parlor
+door to see who is coming. Frau Sophie has kept this habit ever since
+her maid-servant days. (Pardon, that slipped out by accident.) Well,
+yes, Herr Athanas raised her from a low station; it was a love-match, so
+no one has a right to reproach her.
+
+It is therefore not as idle gossip, but only as a characteristic touch,
+that I mention that Frau Sophie even as "gracious lady" could not get
+rid of her early habit. Her clothes always fitted her as if they had
+been given to her by her mistress. From her coiffure an obstinate lock
+of hair would always stick out either in the front or at the back; even
+her most gorgeous costumes always looked tumbled and creased; and if
+nothing else went wrong, there would be invariably a pair of
+trodden-down shoes with which she could indulge in her old propensity.
+Curiosity and tattle were the ingredients of her conversation, in which
+she generally introduced such extraordinary expressions that when she
+began to scatter them in a mixed party, the guests (that is, those who
+were seated) almost fell off their chairs with laughter. Then, too, she
+had the agreeable custom of never speaking low; her voice was a
+continuous scream, as if she were being stabbed and wished to call for
+assistance.
+
+"Oh, good Lord, it's Michael!" she cried, as soon as she got her head
+through the door-way. "And where did you get the pretty fraulein? What
+is the casket you have under your arm? Come into the parlor! Look, look,
+Athalie, what Timar has brought!"
+
+Michael let Timea pass, then he entered and politely wished the company
+good-evening. Timea looked round with the shyness of a first meeting.
+Besides the mistress of the house there were a girl and a man in the
+room. The girl was a fully developed and conscious beauty, who, in spite
+of her naturally small waist, did not disdain tight stays; her high
+heels and piles of hair made her appear taller than she was; she wore
+mittens, and her nails were long and pointed. Her expression was of
+artificial amiability; she had somewhat arrogant and pouting lips, a
+rosy complexion, and two rows of dazzling white teeth, which she did not
+mind showing; when she laughed, dimples formed on chin and cheek, dark
+brows arched over the bright black eyes, whose brilliancy was increased
+by their aggressive prominence. With her head up and bust thrown
+forward, the beautiful creature knew how to make an imposing appearance.
+This was Fraulein Athalie.
+
+The man was a young officer, verging on thirty, with a cheerful open
+face and fiery black eyes. According to the military regulations of the
+period, he had a clean-shaven face, with the exception of a small
+crescent-shaped whisker. This warrior wore a violet tunic, with collar
+and cuffs of pink velvet, the uniform of the engineers. Timar knew him
+too. It was Herr Katschuka, first lieutenant at the fort, and also a
+commissariat officer--rather a hybrid position, but so it was.
+
+The lieutenant has the pleasure of taking a portrait of the young lady
+before him in chalks; he has already finished one by daylight, and is
+trying one by lamplight. The entrance of Timea disturbs him in this
+artistic occupation.
+
+The whole appearance of the slender delicate girl was something
+spiritual at this moment--it was as if a ghost, a phantom, had stepped
+out of the dusk.
+
+When Herr Katschuka looked up from his easel, his dark-red chalk drew
+such a streak across the portrait's brow, that it would be hard for
+bread-crumbs to get it out, and he rose involuntarily from his seat
+before Timea.
+
+Every one rose at the sight of the girl, even Athalie. Who can she be?
+
+Timar whispered to Timea in Greek, on which she hastened to Frau Sophie
+and kissed her hand, while the girl herself received a kiss on her
+cheek.
+
+Again Timar whispered to her. The girl went with shy obedience to
+Athalie, and looked steadily in her face. Shall she kiss her, or fall on
+the neck of her new sister? Athalie seemed to raise her head higher
+still. Timea bent to her hand and kissed it--or rather not her hand, but
+the kid mitten. Athalie allowed it, her eyes cast a flaming glance on
+Timea's face, and another on the officer, and she curled her lips yet
+more.
+
+Herr Katschuka was completely lost in admiration of Timea.
+
+But neither his nor Athalie's fiery looks called up any emotion on
+Timea's face, which remained as white as if she were a spirit.
+
+Timar himself was not a little confused. How was he to introduce the
+girl and relate how he had come by her, before this officer?
+
+Herr Brazovics helped him out of his difficulty. With a great bustle he
+burst in at the door. He had just now in the cafe--to the surprise of
+all the regular customers--read aloud from the Augsburg _Gazette_ that
+the escaped pasha and treasurer, Ali Tschorbadschi and his daughter, had
+fled on board the "St. Barbara," evaded the watchfulness of the Turkish
+authorities, and reached Hungary in safety. The "St. Barbara" is his
+ship. Tschorbadschi is a good friend of his--even a connection by the
+mother's side. An extraordinary event! One can fancy how Herr Athanas
+threw his chair back when the servant brought him the news that Herr
+Timar had just arrived with a beautiful young lady, and under his arm a
+gilt casket.
+
+"So it is actually true!" cried Herr Athanas, and rushed up to his own
+apartments, not without upsetting a few of the card-players on his way.
+
+Brazovics was a man of enormous corpulence. His stomach was always half
+a step in front of him. His face was copper-colored at its palest, and
+violet when he ought to have been rosy: even when he shaved in the
+morning his chin was all bristles by the evening, his scrubby mustache
+perfumed with smoke, snuff, and various spirits; his eyebrows formed a
+bushy wall over his prominent and bloodshot eyes. (A fearful thought,
+that the eyes of the lovely Athalie, when she grows old, will resemble
+her father's!)
+
+When Herr Brazovics opens his mouth, one understands why Frau Sophie
+always screams; her husband, too, can only speak in shouts, but with the
+difference that he has a deep bass voice like a hippopotamus.
+
+Naturally Frau Sophie, when she wants to overpower his voice with her
+own, raises it to a yell. It was as if they had a wager which could
+bring on the other a lung disease or a stroke of apoplexy. It is
+doubtful who will win; but Brazovics always stops his ears with wool,
+and Frau Sophie invariably has a comforter round her throat.
+
+Athanas rushed, panting with haste, into the ladies' room, where his
+voice of thunder had already preceded him. "Is Michael there with the
+young lady? Where is the fraulein? Where is Michael?"
+
+Timar hastened to catch him at the door. He might have succeeded in
+keeping back the man himself, but the weight of his approaching paunch,
+when once set in motion, bore down all obstacles.
+
+Michael made a sign to him that a visitor was present. "Ah, that doesn't
+matter! You can speak openly before him. We are _en famille_; the Herr
+Lieutenant belongs to the family. Ha! ha! don't get cross, Athalie;
+every one knows it. You can speak freely, Michael; it is all in the
+papers."
+
+"What is in the papers?" exclaimed Athalie, angrily.
+
+"Well, well, not you; but that my friend Ali Tschorbadschi, my own
+cousin, the treasurer, has fled to Hungary with his daughter and his
+property on board my ship the 'St. Barbara;' and this is the daughter,
+isn't she? The dear little thing!" And with that Herr Brazovics suddenly
+fell upon her, took her in his arms, and pressed two kisses on her pale
+face--two loud, wet, malodorous kisses, so that the girl was quite
+confused.
+
+"You are a good fellow, Michael, to have brought her here so quickly.
+Have you given him a glass of wine? Go, Sophie--quick! A glass of wine!"
+
+Frau Sophie pretended not to hear; but Herr Brazovics threw himself into
+an arm-chair, drew Timea between his knees, and stroked her hair with
+his fat palms. "And where is my worthy friend, the governor of the
+treasury? Where is he?"
+
+"He died on the journey," answered Timar in a low voice.
+
+"What a fatality!" said Brazovics, trying to give an angular form to his
+round face, and taking his hand from the girl's head. "But no accident
+happened to him?"
+
+A curious question. But Timar understood it.
+
+"He intrusted his property to my care, to deliver it over to you with
+his daughter. You were to be her adopted father and the guardian of her
+property."
+
+At these words Herr Brazovics grew sentimental again; he took Timea's
+head between his two hands, and pressed it to his breast.
+
+"As if she were my own child. I will regard her as my daughter;" and
+then again smack! smack! one kiss after another on brow and cheek of the
+poor victim. "And what is in this casket?"
+
+"The gold I was to deliver to you."
+
+"Very good, Michael. How much is there?"
+
+"A thousand ducats."
+
+"What!" cried Brazovics, and pushed Timea off his knee; "only a thousand
+ducats? Michael, you have stolen the rest!"
+
+Something stirred in Timar's face. "Here is the autograph will of the
+deceased. He declares therein that he has given over to me a thousand
+ducats in gold, and his remaining property is contained in the cargo,
+which consists of ten thousand measures of wheat."
+
+"That's something more like. Ten thousand measures of wheat, at twelve
+gulden fifty a measure in paper money, that makes a hundred and
+twenty-five thousand gulden, or fifty thousand gulden silver. Come here,
+little treasure, and sit on my knee; you're tired, aren't you? And did
+my dear never-to-be-forgotten friend send me any other directions?"
+
+"He told me to tell you that you must be present in person when the
+sacks are emptied, lest they should exchange the grain, for he had
+bought a very good quality."
+
+"Naturally I shall be there in person. How should I not be? And where is
+the ship with the grain?"
+
+"Below Almas, at the bottom of the Danube."
+
+But now Athanas thrust Timea right away, and sprung up in a rage. "What!
+my fine vessel gone down, as well as the ten thousand measures of wheat!
+Oh, you gallows-bird! you rascal! You were all drunk, for certain. I'll
+put you all in jail; the pilot shall be in irons; and I shall not pay
+one of you. You forfeit your ten thousand gulden caution-money: you
+shall never see that again. Go and sue me if you like!"
+
+"Your vessel was not worth more than six thousand gulden, and is insured
+for its full value at the Komorn Marine Insurance Office. You have come
+to no harm."
+
+"If that were true a hundred times over, I should still require
+compensation from you, on account of the _lucrum cessans_. Do you know
+what that means? If you do, you can understand that your ten thousand
+gulden will go to the last kreutzer."
+
+"So be it," answered Timar, quietly. "We will speak of that another
+time; there's time enough. But what we have to do now is to decide what
+is to happen to the sunken cargo, for the longer it remains under water,
+the more it will be spoiled."
+
+"What does it matter to me what happens to it?"
+
+"So you will not take it over? You will not be personally present at the
+discharge of cargo?"
+
+"The devil I will! What should I do with ten thousand measures of soaked
+grain? I am not going to make starch of ten thousand measures of corn;
+or shall I make paste of it? The devil may take it if he wants it!"
+
+"Hardly; but the stuff must be sold. The millers, factors,
+cattle-dealers, will offer something for it, and the peasants too, who
+want seed-corn; and the vessel must be emptied. In that way some money
+may be got out of it."
+
+"Money!" (This word could always penetrate into the cotton-stuffed ears
+of the merchant.) "Good. I will give you a permit to-morrow to empty the
+vessel and get rid of the cargo in bulk."
+
+"I want the permit to-day. Before morning everything will be ruined."
+
+"To-day! You know I never touch a pen at night; it is against my
+habits."
+
+"I thought of that beforehand, and brought the permit with me. You have
+only to sign your name to it. Here are pen and ink."
+
+But now Frau Sophie interrupted with a scream. "Here in my parlor I do
+not allow writing to be done! That's the only thing wanting--that my new
+carpet should be all spotted with ink. Go to your room if you want to
+write. And I won't have this squabbling with your people here in my
+rooms!"
+
+"I should like to know if it isn't my house," growled the great man.
+
+"And it's my sitting-room!"
+
+"I am master here!"
+
+"And I am mistress here!"
+
+The screeching and growling had the good result for Timar that Herr
+Brazovics flew into a rage, and in order to show that he was master in
+his own house, seized the pen and signed the power of attorney. But when
+he had given it, both fell on Timar, and overwhelmed him with such a
+flood of reproaches and invective, that he would willingly have taken
+yet another bath in the Danube to wash them away. Frau Sophie only
+scolded Timar indirectly, as she abused her husband for giving such a
+ragged, dirty fellow, such a tipsy, beggarly scoundrel, a warrant like
+that.
+
+Why had he not given it to any other supercargo than Timar, who would
+run away with the money, and drink and gamble till it was gone.
+
+Timar stood the whole time with the same immovable calm in the midst of
+this tumult as that with which he had defied storm and waves at the Iron
+Gate. At last he broke silence: "Will you take charge of the money which
+belongs to the orphan, or shall I give it over to the City Orphanage?"
+(At this last question Brazovics got a great fright.) "Now, then, if you
+please, come with me into the office and we will settle the affair at
+once, for I don't like servants' squabbles."
+
+With this hundred-pound insult he succeeded in suddenly silencing both
+master and mistress. Against such scolds and blusterers, a good round
+impertinence is the best remedy. Brazovics took the light and said, "All
+right; bring the money along." Frau Sophie appeared all at once to be in
+the best of tempers, and asked Timar if he would not have a glass of
+wine first.
+
+Timea was quite stunned; of what passed in a foreign language she
+understood not a word, and the gestures and looks which accompanied it
+were not calculated to enlighten her. Why should her guardian now kiss
+and hug her, the orphan, and the next moment push her from him? Why did
+he again take her on his lap, only to thrust her away once more? Why did
+both of them scream at this man, who remained as calm as she had seen
+him in the tempest, until he spoke a few words, quietly, without anger
+or excitement, and thereby instantly silenced and overpowered the two
+who had been like mad people the minute before, so that they could
+prevail as little against him as the rocks and whirlpools and the armed
+men. Of all that went on around her, she had not understood one word;
+and now the man who had been hitherto her faithful companion, who had
+gone "thrice" into the water for her sake, with whom alone she could
+speak in Greek, was going away--forever, no doubt--and she would never
+hear his voice again.
+
+Yet no; once again it sounds in her ear. Before he stepped over the
+threshold Timar turned to her and said in Greek, "Fraulein Timea, there
+is what you brought away with you."
+
+And with that he took the box of sweets from under his cloak. Timea ran
+to him, took the box, and hastened to Athalie, in order to present to
+her, with the sweetest smile, the gift she had brought from far away.
+Athalie opened the box.
+
+"_Fi donc!_" she exclaimed, "it smells of rose-water, just like the
+pocket-handkerchiefs the maid-servants take to church."
+
+Timea did not understand the words, but from the pouting lips and
+turned-up nose she could easily guess their meaning, and that made her
+very sad.
+
+She made another attempt, and offered the Turkish sweetmeats to Frau
+Sophie, who declined with the remark that her teeth were bad, and she
+could not eat sweets. Quite cast down, she now offered them to the
+lieutenant. He found them excellent, and swallowed three lumps in three
+mouthfuls, for which Timea smiled at him gratefully.
+
+Timar stood at the door and saw Timea smile. Suddenly it occurred to her
+that she must offer him some of the Turkish delight. But it was already
+too late, for Timar no longer stood there. Soon after, the lieutenant
+took leave and departed. Being a man of breeding, he bowed to Timea
+also, which pleased her greatly.
+
+After a time Herr Brazovics returned to the room, and they were now just
+the four alone.
+
+Brazovics and Frau Sophie began to talk in a gibberish which was
+intended for Greek.
+
+Timea understood a word here and there, but the sense seemed to her more
+strange than those languages which were altogether unknown to her.
+
+They were consulting what to do with this girl whom they had been
+saddled with. Her whole property consists of twelve thousand paper
+gulden. Even if it were likely that the soaked grain should bring in a
+little more, that would not suffice to educate her like a lady, like
+Athalie.
+
+Frau Sophie thought she must be treated as a servant, and get used to
+cook and sweep, to wash and iron--that would be some use. With so little
+money no one would marry her except some clerk or ship's captain, and
+then it would have been better for her to be brought up as a servant and
+not a lady.
+
+But Athanas would not hear of it; what would people say? At last they
+agree on a middle course; Timea is not to be treated like a regular
+servant, but take the position of an adopted child. She will take her
+meals with the family, but help to wait. She shall not stand at the
+wash-tub, but must get up her own and Athalie's fine things. She must
+sew what is wanted for the house, not in the maid's room but in the
+gentlefolks' apartments; of course she will help Athalie to dress, that
+will only be a pleasure to her, and she need not sleep with the maids
+but in the same room as Athalie; the latter wants some one to keep her
+company and be at her service. In return, Athalie can give her the old
+clothes she no longer requires.
+
+A girl who has only twelve thousand gulden can thank Heaven that such a
+fate should fall to her share.
+
+And Timea was satisfied with her lot. After the great and
+incomprehensible catastrophe which had thrown her on the world, the
+lonely creature clung to every being she came near. She was gentle and
+obliging. This is the way of Turkish girls. It pleased her to be allowed
+to sit by Athalie at supper, and it was not necessary to remind her: she
+rose of her own accord to change the plates and wash the spoons, and
+did it with cheerful looks and kind attention. She feared to annoy her
+guardians if she looked sad, and yet she had cause enough. Especially
+she busied herself in trying to help Athalie. Whenever she looked at
+her, her face showed the open admiration which young girls feel for a
+grown-up beauty; she forgot herself in gazing at the rosy cheeks and
+bright eyes of the other. Those innocent minds think any one so lovely
+must be very good.
+
+She did not understand what Athalie said, for she did not even speak bad
+Greek, like her parents; but she tried to guess by her eyes and hands
+what was wanted. After supper, at which Timea only ate fruit and bread,
+not being used to rich dishes, they went into the salon.
+
+There Athalie sat down to the piano. Timea crouched near her on the
+footstool and looked with admiration at her rapid execution. Then
+Athalie showed her the portrait which the lieutenant had executed, and
+Timea clasped her hands in astonishment.
+
+"You never saw anything like it?"
+
+"Where should she have seen such things?" answered the father. "If is
+forbidden to the Turks to take a likeness of any one. That is why there
+is a revolution just now--because the sultan has had his picture painted
+and hung up over the divan. Ali Tschorbadschi was mixed up in the
+movement, and was forced to fly. You poor old Tschorbadschi, to have
+been such a fool!"
+
+When Timea heard her father's name, she kissed the hand of Brazovics.
+She supposed he had sent some pious blessing after the dead man.
+
+Athalie went to bed, and Timea carried the light for her. Athalie seated
+herself at her dressing-table, looked in the glass, sighed deeply, and
+then sunk back in her chair tired and cross, with a gloomy countenance.
+Timea would have liked to know why this lovely face had suddenly grown
+so sad.
+
+She took the comb from Athalie's hair and loosened the plaits with a
+skillful hand, and then again dressed the richly flowing chestnut locks
+for the night in a simple coil.
+
+She took out the earrings, and her head came so near to Athalie's that
+the latter could not help seeing the two contrasting faces in the
+mirror.
+
+One so radiant, rosy, and fascinating, the other so pale and soft; and
+yet Athalie sprung up angrily and pushed away the glass. "Let us go to
+sleep." The white face had thrown hers into the shade. Timea collected
+the scattered clothes and folded them neatly together by instinct.
+
+Then she knelt before Athalie and took off her stockings. Athalie
+permitted it.
+
+And after Timea had drawn them off, and held the snow-white foot, more
+perfect than a sculptor's ideal, in her lap, she bent and pressed a kiss
+on it. Athalie permitted that too.
+
+
+
+
+_BOOK SECOND.--TIMEA._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+GOOD ADVICE.
+
+
+Lieutenant Katschuka went through the cafe and found Timar there gulping
+down a cup of black coffee. "I am soaked and frozen, and have a great
+deal still to do to-day," he said to the officer, who hastened to press
+his hand.
+
+"Come and have a glass of punch with me."
+
+"Many thanks, but I have no time now; I must go this instant to the
+insurance company, that they may help me with the salvage of the cargo;
+for the longer it remains under water the greater the damage. From there
+I must run to the magistrate, that he may be in time to send some one to
+Almas to receive the power of attorney; then I must go round to the
+cattle-dealers and carriers, to induce them to come to the auction; and
+later on I must go by the stage to Iotis to find out the starch
+manufacturers there: they can make the best use of the wet grain.
+Perhaps in this way some of the poor child's property may be saved. But
+I have a letter to deliver to you which was given me in Orsova."
+
+Katschuka read the letter, and then said to Timar, "Very good, my
+friend. Do your business in the town, but afterward come to me for half
+an hour; I live near the Anglia--over the door hangs a shield with a
+large double eagle. While the diligence baits we will drink a glass of
+punch and have a sensible talk; be sure you come."
+
+Timar consented, and went off to look after his business. It might be
+about eleven o'clock when he entered the door under the double eagle,
+which was near the promenade called in Komorn the Anglia. Katschuka's
+private servant waited for him there, and led him up to his master's
+room. "Well, I expected," began Timar, "you would have been already
+married to Athalie long before I came up from yonder."
+
+"Yes, comrade, but the affair doesn't get on well; it is delayed by
+first one thing and then another. It seems to me as if one of us is not
+keen about it."
+
+"Oh! you may be sure Athalie is keen enough."
+
+"In this world you can't be sure of anything, least of all a heart. I
+only say one thing, long engagements are bad. Instead of getting nearer
+to each other people only get further apart, and learn to know each
+other's failings and weaknesses. If this occurs after marriage one
+thinks, in God's name, we can not go back. Let me advise you, comrade,
+if you wish to marry and have fallen in love, don't wait long to think
+about it; for if you begin to calculate it will only end in a breach."
+
+"With you I should fancy there is no danger in calculations about a girl
+who is so rich."
+
+"Riches are relative, my friend. Believe me, every woman knows how to
+get rid of the interest of her dowry; and then no one exactly knows the
+financial position of Herr Brazovics. A heap of money goes through his
+hands, but he does not like striking a proper business-like balance, so
+as to show what he has gained or lost by his dealings."
+
+"For my part I think he is very well off. And Athalie is a very pretty
+and clever young lady."
+
+"Yes, yes; but you need not praise Athalie to me like a horse you take
+to market. Let us rather talk of your affairs."
+
+If Katschuka had been able to look into Timar's heart he would have
+found that what they had been talking of _was_ his friend's affair.
+Timar had turned the conversation to Athalie because--because he envied
+the officer the smile of Timea's face. It was as if he had said, "You
+have no right to Timea's smile--you are engaged; marry Athalie!"
+
+"Now, let us talk of serious matters. My friend in Orsova writes me that
+I am to befriend you. Good; I will try. You are in a position anything
+but pleasant: the ship intrusted to you is wrecked. It is not your
+fault, but a great misfortune for you, for every one will now fear to
+intrust you with a vessel. Your principal seizes your caution-money, and
+who knows whether you can recover it by law. You would like to help the
+poor orphan--I see it in your eyes; that she should lose such a pretty
+fortune affects you more than any one else. How can we get out of this
+with one _coup_?"
+
+"I know no way out of it."
+
+"But I do. Listen to me; next week the annual concentration of troops
+begins round Komorn. Twenty thousand of them will be maneuvering here
+for three weeks. A contract for the bread supply is on hand; large sums
+will be paid, and he who goes about it wisely will make a good haul. All
+the tenders go through my hands, and I can say beforehand who will get
+the contract, for it depends more on what is not contained in the offer
+than on what is. Till now Brazovics' tender is the lowest. He is
+prepared to undertake the contract at 140,000 gulden, and promises 'the
+officials concerned' 20,000 gulden."
+
+"What do you mean?--the officials concerned?"
+
+"Don't be so stupid. It is the usual thing that whoever receives such a
+large contract should give a present to those who get it for him. It has
+always been so since the world began. What else do we live on? You know
+that well enough."
+
+"Certainly; but I never tried it in my own person."
+
+"Very foolish of you. You burn your fingers for other people, while you
+might get the chestnuts out of the fire for yourself, if you knew how to
+do it. Send in a tender to undertake the contract at 130,000 gulden, and
+promise 30,000 commission."
+
+"I can not do that for several reasons. First, I have not got the
+deposit, which must accompany the tender; then I have not the capital
+requisite to buy such quantities of grain and flour; next, I greatly
+object to bribery; and lastly, I am not such a bad reckoner as to
+persuade myself of the possibility of undertaking with only 130,000
+gulden to complete the contract as well as pay the friendly commission."
+
+Katschuka laughed at him. "Oh, my dear Michael, you will never be a man
+of business. In our line that is always the way. Only to make a groschen
+on a gulden is peddler's trade. The chief thing is to have interest, and
+you don't want for that; that's what I am good for. We have been good
+friends ever since our school days: rely on me. How do you mean you have
+no money to deposit? Hand over the receipt for your caution-money of
+10,000 gulden which you left with Brazovics--it will be regarded as a
+sufficient security--and then I will tell you what to do next; go
+quickly to Almas, and bid yourself for the sunken cargo. The grain,
+which represents a value of 100,000 gulden, will certainly be knocked
+down to you for 10,000. Then you will possess 10,000 measures of corn.
+You will promise all the millers in Almas, Fuzito, and Izsaer double pay
+if they will grind your corn at once. Meanwhile you build ovens, in
+which the corn is immediately baked into bread. Within three weeks it
+will all be consumed, and if a bad part slips in, it will be the
+business of your 'good friends' to hush it up. At the end of three weeks
+you will have a clear gain of at least 70,000 gulden. Believe me, if I
+were to take such an affair to your principal, he would seize it with
+both hands. I wonder at your slowness."
+
+Timar thought it over. It was indeed a tempting offer. To make in three
+weeks 60,000 or 70,000 gulden--and without much trouble, in complete
+security. The first week the ration-bread would be rather sweeter than
+usual, the second week rather bitterer, and the third week rather musty.
+But soldiers do not look narrowly at such things; they are used to it.
+
+But yet Timar turned with disgust from this bitter cup. "Oh, Emerich!"
+he said, laying his hand on his former schoolmate's shoulder, "where
+have you learned such things?"
+
+"Why," answered the other, with a gloomy face, "there where they are
+taught. When I entered on the military career, I was full of romantic
+illusions. They are all in ashes now. Then I thought this was the school
+of chivalry, the heroic career, and my heart beat high at the thought:
+now I know that all in this world is speculation, and that public
+concerns are governed by private interests. In the engineers I had
+completed my studies, with remarkable, I may say distinguished results.
+When I was sent to Komorn, the prospect filled me with pride, at the
+opportunity I should have for the development of my capacities in
+military engineering. The first plan for the fortifications submitted by
+me was declared to be a masterpiece by good judges; but do not imagine
+that it was accepted: on the contrary, I received orders to prepare
+another, which was more costly, and involved the expropriation of whole
+streets in the town. Well, I prepared that too. You will remember that
+part of the town which is now an open space--this change cost half a
+million. Your principal had some ruinous houses there which he sold at
+the price of palaces. And they call that fortification! And for that I
+had studied engineering. Well, a man falls by degrees and finds his
+level. Perhaps you have heard the anecdote--it is in every mouth--how
+the Crown-Prince Ferdinand, when he visited us last year, said to the
+commandant of the fortress, 'I thought this fortress was black?' 'Why
+should it be black, your imperial highness?' 'Because in the
+fortification accounts there are every year 10,000 gulden put down for
+ink. I thought the walls must be dyed with ink.' Every one laughed, and
+that was the end of it. If nothing comes out, nothing is said; and if
+everything comes out, it only raises a laugh. You had better laugh too!
+Or will it please you better to be shoved out into the world from the
+threshold of the corn-dealer, and sell matches with two kreutzers profit
+a day? I have already come down from the ethereal regions. Off, my
+friend, to Almas, and buy the sunken wheat. Till ten to-morrow night you
+will have time to send in your tender. Listen, there is the
+diligence--be off, and see that you get back quickly."
+
+"I will think it over," said Timar, slowly.
+
+"Remember that you will do the poor orphan a good turn, if you give
+10,000 gulden for her lost property. Otherwise she won't have as many
+hundred when the salvage is paid."
+
+Those words rang in Timar's ears. An invisible hand drove him on. "_Fata
+nolentem trahunt!_" says St. Augustine. Soon after, Timar sat again in
+the diligence, which galloped away with its four Neudorf horses. In the
+town every one slept. Only at the station-house sounded the night
+watchman's call. No one has written on his brow what the next day will
+bring to him; but from the walls the sentries, wet through with the
+autumn rain, challenged in turn "Who goes there?"--"Patrol"--"Pass."
+
+What sort of bread have these fellows had?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE RED CRESCENT.
+
+
+On the following day, Timar did actually bid for the sunken grain in
+company with brokers and millers, who made trifling bids, a few groschen
+a measure. Timar got tired of this groschen business, and suddenly
+cried, "I will give ten thousand gulden for the whole cargo." When the
+bidders heard this they ran away, and it would have been in vain to run
+after them. The official auctioneer accepted Timar's offer, and gave
+over the whole cargo to him as his property. Every one thought him mad.
+What could he do with such a mass of soaked grain? What he did was this.
+
+He lashed two lighters together, fastened them with iron clamps to the
+deck of the sunken ship, and made arrangements to get up the cargo.
+There was a change since yesterday in the position of the vessel, for
+the stern had sunk so that now the forepart stood out of water, and one
+of the two cabins was quite dry. Timar installed himself here, and then
+began the hard work. He tore up the deck, and with the help of a crane
+drew up one sack after the other. They were first piled near the cabin,
+that the water might drain away; then they were transferred to a raft,
+and taken ashore: there straw mats were laid, on which the grain was
+shaken and spread out. Timar bargained meanwhile with the millers for
+immediate grinding of the corn. The weather was favorable, there was a
+strong wind, and the corn dried fast.
+
+If only the work would go on quickly!
+
+He began to calculate. The little ready money he had would all go to the
+payment of the work-people; if the undertaking failed he would be a
+beggar. Johann Fabula told him beforehand, that after this senseless
+purchase nothing would be left him but to hang the last sack round his
+neck, and throw himself into the Danube. A thousand disquieting thoughts
+passed through Timar's head, without beginning or end. He looked on till
+night-fall, while one sack after the other was propped against the cabin
+wall. The sacks all had the same mark--a five-spoked wheel printed in
+black on the sacking. In truth, that poor fugitive pasha had been wiser,
+if, instead of buying so much grain, he had just put his money in his
+knapsack. And to think of pursuing him so obstinately only for this
+stuff! Was it worth while to flee only for this, and then actually to
+poison himself? Till late evening the work continued, and still only
+about three thousand measures were spread out to dry. Timar promised the
+laborers double pay if they would work a few hours longer. The grain
+which lies a second night under water will hardly make bread. The
+sack-carriers worked on cheerfully.
+
+The wind had dispersed the clouds, and the moon appeared again in the
+sunset sky. Heavens and moon were red.
+
+"How ghostly it looks!" said Timar, and turned his back on the moon, so
+as not to see it.
+
+But even as he stood there, and counted the sacks as they were drawn up,
+the red moon rose again before him. This time it was painted on a sack.
+In the place where the other sacks bore a wheel of five spokes, here
+above the trade-mark a crescent was painted in vermilion.
+
+A cold shiver ran through Timar. Here was the answer to the riddle! This
+was what the dying man meant by his last words. But either his
+confidence was not strong enough, or else time had failed him to finish
+his phrase. When the laborers turned away Timar took the sack and
+carried it into the cabin; no one noticed it, and then he locked the
+door behind him.
+
+The work-people went on for two hours more; but at last they were so
+tired, wet, and stiff with water and wind, that they were not in a
+condition to go on any longer: the rest of the cargo must wait till the
+morrow. The wearied folk hurried to the nearest alehouse to warm
+themselves with food and drink. Timar remained alone on board: he said
+he wished to count the unloaded sacks, and would row himself ashore in
+the little boat. The moon had reached the water with its lower horn, and
+seemed to look in at the cabin window. Timar's hand trembled as if with
+ague. When he opened the blade of his knife, he cut his hand, and the
+drops of blood painted stars on the sack by the side of the red
+crescent. He cut the rope with which the sack was tied, and put his hand
+in; what he brought out was beautiful white wheat. Then he cut the lower
+end of the sack; here too only grain came out. He now slit the whole
+sack up, and with the scattered corn, a long leathern bag fell at his
+feet. The bag had a lock. He broke it open.
+
+And then he shook the contents out on to the bed--the same bed where
+once the living marble statue had lain.
+
+What a sight was presented to him in the moonlight! Long rows of rings
+strung together--brilliant, sapphire, and emerald rings; armlets of
+opals and huge turquoises; pearl bracelets, each bead as large as a
+hazel-nut; a necklace of magnificent brilliants of the finest water; an
+agate box, from which when he opened it a whole heap of unset diamonds
+flashed upon him; at the bottom of the bag a number of agraffes and
+girdles, all set with rubies, and four rouleaux, each containing five
+hundred louis d'or. Here was an enormous treasure, at least a million
+gulden.
+
+Now one can understand the man fleeing even to the bottom of the Danube,
+that this treasure might not fall into the hands of his pursuers. For
+this, it was worth while to send a gunboat and spies after the fugitive.
+For this, it was worth while to cut the tow-rope in the midst of a storm
+at the Iron Gate.
+
+The "St. Barbara" had carried a million on board! that is no child's
+play, no dream--it is reality. Ali Tschorbadschi's treasures lie there
+on the wet quilt with which Timea had once covered herself. Whoever
+knows the value of pearls and precious stones, can understand that it
+was not for nothing that Ali Tschorbadschi had been Governor of Candia
+and guardian of the treasury.
+
+Timar sat in silent stupefaction on the edge of the bed, and held in his
+trembling hands the agate box, whose diamonds sparkled in the moonlight.
+He looked away through the window at the moon shining in. Again the moon
+seemed to have eyes and mouth, as it is depicted in the almanac, and to
+be entering into conversation with the poor mortal.
+
+"To whom do these treasures belong?"
+
+"Why, whom should they belong to but you? You bought the sunken cargo,
+just as it is, with the sacks and the grain. You were liable to the
+danger that it might remain on your hands as spoiled waste, as stinking
+rubbish. Now it has turned into gold and jewels. It is true that the
+dying man said something about the Red Crescent, and you puzzled your
+head as to what he could have meant; you wondered how it was possible
+that the refugee should have no more property than was visible. Now you
+see clearly how it all hung together; but then, when you bought the
+cargo, you did not know--you bought this mass of wet grain for quite
+another purpose. You wanted to make sweet and bitter bread out of it for
+the poor soldiers. Fate willed otherwise. Do you not see that this is a
+sign from Heaven? It would not permit you to make a shameful profit at
+the expense of twenty thousand poor soldiers--it has provided for you
+otherwise. As Providence has prevented something wicked, that which
+happened by its direction must without doubt be good."
+
+"Besides, to whom should these treasures belong?"
+
+"The sultan must have stolen them in his victorious campaigns; the
+treasurer most probably stole them from the sultan. Both were robbed of
+them by the Danube: now they have no owner--they belong to you. You
+possess them at any rate with just as much right as the sultan, the
+treasurer, and the Danube."
+
+"And Timea?"
+
+At this question a long narrow black cloud rose before the moon's face.
+
+Timar remained long in thought. The moon appeared again.
+
+"So much the better for you. You know best how the world treats a poor
+devil like you. They scold him when he has done his duty; they call him
+a knave when a misfortune overtakes him; they allow him to hang himself
+on the nearest tree when he has nothing more to live on; for his
+love-sorrows pretty girls have no balm. A poor man remains always only a
+clerk. Then see how the world honors the rich man--how people seek for
+his friendship, ask his advice, and trust him with the fate of the
+nation; and women, how they fall in love with him! Did you ever get even
+a friendly word of thanks from their lips? What would you get if you
+took the treasure you have found and laid it at her feet with the words,
+'There, take what is yours--I saved it for you from the depths?' In the
+first place, she would not know how to use it. She can hardly
+distinguish the value of a box of diamonds from that of a box of sweets;
+she is only a child; and then it would never reach her hands, for her
+adopted papa would absorb it and get rid of nine tenths of it. Who can
+prevent him from taking one gem at a time and turning it into money? But
+granted that Timea gets it, what would be the result? She would be a
+rich lady, who would not cast a look at you from her height; and you
+would remain a miserable supercargo, in whom it would be madness even to
+dream of her. Now, however, things are the other way--you will be a rich
+man and she a poor girl. Is not that exactly what you desired of fate?
+Well, that is what has happened. Did you put that log in the way of the
+ship which stove her in? Do you mean badly by Timea? No; you do not want
+to keep for yourself the treasures you have found; you will invest them
+profitably, increase them, and when you have earned with the first
+million a second and a third, then you will go to the poor girl and say,
+'There, take it--it is all yours; and take me too.' Do you wish to do
+anything wrong with it? You only wish to become rich in order to make
+her happy. You can sleep with a good conscience, having such designs."
+
+The moon was already half hidden in the Danube; only the tip of one horn
+rose from the water like a light-house; its reflection in the waves
+reached to the ship's bow; and every ray and every wave spoke to Timar.
+And they all said, "You have fortune in your hand; hold it fast--you
+risk nothing. The only one who knew of the treasure lies below the
+Danube."
+
+Timar heard what was whispered to him, and also the secret voice in his
+own breast, and cold drops stood on his brow. The moon's fiery tip
+vanished beneath the surface of the water, and cried to him with its
+last ray, "You are rich--you are a made man!"
+
+But when it was dark, the inward voice whispered in the silent night,
+"You are a thief!"
+
+An hour afterward a four-horse post-chaise was rushing along the Szonyer
+road at a gallop, and as the tower clock of St. Andrew's Church in
+Komorn struck eleven, the carriage stood at the door in the Anglia
+under the double eagle. Timar sprung quickly out and hurried in. He was
+expected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE GOLD MINE.
+
+
+After the concentration of troops in Komorn, Timar had suddenly become a
+wealthy man. He had bought a house in the Servian Street, the "City" of
+the Komorn merchants. No one was surprised. The phrase once uttered by
+the Emperor Francis I. to a contractor who had remained poor, was, "The
+ox stood at the manger, why did he not eat?" These golden words have, I
+fancy, been written by every contractor in his memorandum-book.
+
+How much Timar made by his bread contract it is impossible to say; but
+that he has suddenly become a great personage it is easy to see. He is
+always on the spot when there is a large undertaking on hand, and has
+money in abundance. This is not surprising to merchants or speculators;
+the first stage is the difficult one. If once the first hundred thousand
+gulden are made, the rest follows of itself--he has credit.
+
+On one point Herr Brazovics had no doubt whatever. He guessed rightly
+that Timar had offered the officials a larger commission than he himself
+usually did, and that he had thus obtained the profitable bread contract
+by which Brazovics usually enriched himself. But that he should have
+made so large a profit out of it--on that point he shook his head
+incredulously. Since Timar had risen in the world, and become his own
+master, Brazovics cultivated the friendship of his former supercargo,
+and invited him to his evening receptions, which Timar accepted
+willingly enough. He met Timea there very often, who had already learned
+a little colloquial Hungarian.
+
+Timar was now welcome even to Sophie, who once half whispered and half
+screamed to Athalie that it would do no harm if she was rather more
+friendly to him, for he was now a rich man, a far from despicable
+_parti_, worth more than three officers put together, who have nothing
+but their smart uniform and their debts. To which Fraulein Athalie
+replied, "It does not follow that I should take my father's servant for
+a husband." Frau Sophie could finish the sentence for herself--"Because
+my papa married his maid-servant"--in which lay a well-earned reproach
+to Frau Sophie. How could she have dared to intrude herself in the
+capacity of mother upon such a grand young lady!
+
+Toward the end of supper one evening, as the two sat alone at table,
+Herr Brazovics began to incite Timar to drink, by repeatedly taking wine
+with him. His own head was pretty strong from constant practice, but
+this poor devil could never have been used to the bottle.
+
+When they were well on the road, he cunningly brought up the subject.
+"You, Michael, out with the truth now--how did you contrive to profit so
+much by the commissariat contract? I have tried it myself, and I know
+what can be got out of it. I also have mixed feldspar, bran, and
+millers' dust with the dough; I understand how to get acorns ground
+instead of corn, and know the difference between rye and wheat flour;
+but to make such a _coup_ as you have done has never happened to me.
+Confess now! What trick were you up to? You are already wealthy--you
+have found a gold mine."
+
+Timar put on the look of a tipsy man who required six horse-power to
+raise his eyelids, and began with drunken fluency and a stammering
+tongue to explain. "Well, you must know, sir--"
+
+"No sir to me! How often have I told you! Call me by my name."
+
+"Well, then, you must know, Nazi, it was no trick. You remember that I
+bought in the soaked grain-cargo of the 'St. Barbara' at a nominal
+price, a gulden a measure. I did not get rid of it, as people fancied,
+to the millers and farmers, with a profit of a couple of groschen; but I
+had it baked into bread at once, which did not cost me half so much as
+if I had bought the very cheapest flour."
+
+"Oh, you prodigy! I ought to go to school to you in my old age. You
+arch-rascal! Was the ration-bread very bad, then?"
+
+Michael laughed so that the wine almost ran out of his mouth again. "I
+should just think it was bad--bad beyond words."
+
+"And were no complaints laid before the commissariat committee?"
+
+"What use would that have been, when I had the whole lot of them in my
+pocket?"
+
+"But the commandant of the fortress, the inspector of ordnance?"
+
+"I squared them too," cried Michael, proudly, striking his pocket, in
+which so many great men had found room. The eyes of Herr Brazovics shone
+in a curious way, as if they were even redder than usual. "And did you
+give the bread made of soaked wheat to the soldiers to eat?"
+
+"Why not? Bread once swallowed tells no tales."
+
+"Quite true, Michael, quite true; but you be careful not to tell any one
+yourself. You can tell me, of course--I am your true friend; but if one
+of your enemies got wind of it, it might go badly with you. Your house
+in the Servian Street might go too. Hold your tongue before other
+people."
+
+On this Timar began, like one who has suddenly come to his senses, to
+entreat Herr Brazovics not to betray his secret and make him miserable;
+he even kissed his hands. Brazovics pacified him, he need not be uneasy
+about him, he must not let out his secret to others. Then he called the
+servant and ordered him to take a lantern and go home with Herr Timar,
+and take good care of him that he should come to no harm, and if he were
+unable to walk, to take his arm. When the servant returned, he related
+what trouble it had cost him to get Timar home; he had not known his own
+door, and had begun to sing in the street. They had at last got him to
+bed, and there the good gentleman had instantly gone to sleep. But when
+Brazovics' servant had gone, Timar left his bed, and wrote letters until
+morning.
+
+He had not been in the least tipsy. Timar was as certain that his dear
+friend would at once give information of the whole affair as that Monday
+comes after Sunday; and he also knew to whom.
+
+It was therefore no surprise to him that, a few days later, after an
+evening spent with Brazovics, he was cited to appear at the fortress,
+where a gentleman entitled "Financial Privy Counselor" gave him to
+understand that he was to remain for the present under strict
+observation, and demanded his keys, in order to lay an embargo on his
+books and papers.
+
+This will be a big thing. Timar's secret had been denounced to the
+general chamber of finance, which was in rivalry with the leaders of the
+council of war. Here was an opportunity to reveal in the most
+conspicuous way the scandals which took place in the bosom of this
+community, and to remove from it the control of the commissariat. The
+accusation was supported by the three high courts--only the police
+department was on the side of the council of war. At last the chamber
+gave its decision, and a commission was appointed, with strict
+injunctions to spare no one, to suspend the whole department of supply,
+to request the commandant to arrest the contractor, commence a criminal
+suit, and discover everything. If one morsel of musty bread should
+appear against Timar, woe to him!
+
+But nothing of the sort was found. For eight days the commission worked
+day and night. They heard witnesses, took oaths, inquired, had the
+provost up--all in vain, no one could say anything against Timar. From
+the whole inquiry it was proved that he had divided the spoiled cargo
+among millers, country people, and manufacturers; that not one single
+handful had been mixed with the bread baked for the troops. They had
+even the soldiers up to give evidence. They said they had never eaten
+better bread than during the two weeks when it was provided by Timar. No
+complaint, no adverse witness appeared against him, much less could the
+officials be accused of corruption; they had given the contract to him
+who offered the best and lowest terms. At last they boiled over; they
+felt insulted by the inquiry, stormed and rattled their swords; the
+commission, driven into a corner, got alarmed, revoked, rehabilitated,
+and tried to get away from Komorn as quickly as possible. Timar was set
+free with many excuses, and with the assurance that he was a thoroughly
+honest man.
+
+At his acquittal Herr Katschuka was the first who hastened to
+congratulate him, and shook his hand demonstratively in public. "My
+friend, you must not put up with this quietly; you must have
+satisfaction for it. Just fancy, they suspected _me_ of being bribed! Go
+to Vienna and demand reparation; the informer must have an exemplary
+punishment. And in future," he added aside, "you may be sure no one will
+ever get us out of the saddle. Strike while the iron is hot."
+
+Timar promised to do so, and mentioned his intention to Brazovics when
+he next met him. The latter seemed furious at the ill-treatment his
+friend Michael had received. Who could the scoundrel be who had so
+libeled him?
+
+"Whoever it may be," Timar declared, "shall rue it dearly; and if he has
+a house in Komorn, I'll lay my head that this joke will cost him his
+home. I am going to-morrow morning to Vienna, to demand satisfaction
+from the treasury."
+
+"Yes, do so, by all means," said Brazovics; and thought to himself,
+"Just as well that I know it; I shall be there too."
+
+And he happened to get there a day sooner than Timar. There, with the
+assistance of his old connections, he so prepared the way (which cost
+him a mint of money) that if once Timar set his foot in this labyrinth,
+he would never get out again. From the treasury he will be sent to the
+high court; there the affair will be given over to the judicial office,
+thence to the superintendent of police, and from there to the secret
+department of finance.
+
+The unfortunate plaintiff at last loses patience, gets angry, and says a
+few impudent words--even possibly gets them printed. Then the censor
+gets hold of him, and at last he begs to be let go, and swears never
+again to pull the bell at any public office. He will be a fool for his
+pains if he tries to get justice. But Timar was not a fool; he was far
+cleverer than either of his advisers--than both put together. He had
+grown cunning from the time when he let himself be persuaded to take the
+first wrong step: he knew already that you should never tell any one the
+real thing you are going to do. At Pancsova, when he snapped his fingers
+at the authorities, he had shown what talents lay undiscovered in him.
+Then he had done in another's interest what could be of no use to
+himself: he did what he was told to do, and humbugged the pursuers; now
+he was doing it in his own interest. Being in possession of the
+treasure-trove, he must find some excuse for appearing as a rich man
+before the public. He must pretend to be a speculator who had been lucky
+in his business. In his very first affair he must be reputed to have
+made large sums. If people imagined he had made his money by corrupt
+means, that was the lesser evil; and it could not be proved, for it was
+not true. He had been put to such great expense by the contract, that
+hardly any profit was left; but he was in a position to buy houses and
+ships, and pay in gold, and every one thought the money at his disposal
+came from his successful tender. He required a pretext, a title, a
+visible ground, in order to go quietly forward with the help of
+Tschorbadschi's wealth.
+
+What, then, did he do in Vienna?
+
+He must ask for compensation from the exchequer, and could reckon on the
+support of the war department. From his friends at Komorn he had
+received letters of recommendation to the most influential officials. He
+left all these letters at the bottom of his trunk, and went direct to
+the chancellor himself, of whom he requested an audience. The minister
+was pleased that this man did not try to get in by backstairs influence,
+but came direct by the front entrance. He admitted him. The minister was
+a tall man with a clean-shaven face, an imposing double chin, severe
+brows, and very bald. On his breast shone numerous orders. He had stuck
+both hands under his coat-tails when this poor individual with the big
+mustache was shown in. Timar wore a simple black Hungarian costume.
+
+The first question of his excellency to Timar was, "Why do you not wear
+a sword when you come to an audience?"
+
+"I am not a noble, gracious sir."
+
+"Indeed! I suppose you have come to me to ask for compensation for your
+arrest and the injury which was inflicted on you?"
+
+"Far from it," answered Timar. "The government only did its duty in
+proceeding against greater men than I, as well as myself, on the ground
+of apparently well-founded information. As I am not of nobility, it is
+of no consequence to me to lay damages on account of my injured honor.
+Indeed, I owe gratitude to the informer as well as to the court, for
+having by their strict inquiry made it perfectly clear that my hands
+were clean all through my contract."
+
+"Oh, then, you have no intention of demanding satisfaction from the
+informer?"
+
+"On the contrary, I should think it unadvisable to do so, for many an
+honest man might be prevented from revealing real abuses. My honor is
+established: it is not my nature to revenge myself. Besides, I have
+neither time nor desire for it. Forgive and forget."
+
+While Timar spoke, his excellency had already taken one hand from under
+his coat-tails in order to clap Timar on the shoulder.
+
+"That is a very practical way of looking at it. You can do better than
+losing time by running about after vengeance. A very sensible idea. What
+brings you, then, to me?"
+
+"A tender for which I need your excellency's protection."
+
+The excellency stuck his hand behind him again.
+
+"The crown has a property on the frontier, in Levetincz."
+
+"H'm!" grumbled the great man, and frowned. "What do you want with it?"
+
+"In my business as a wholesale dealer, I have often been there, and know
+the local circumstances. The crown lands extend to thirty thousand
+acres, and are let to Silbermann, the Vienna banker, at forty kreutzers
+an acre. The conclusion of this contract lies within the province of the
+treasury; but the disposal of the income belongs to the military
+department. This income amounts to a hundred thousand gulden. Silbermann
+divided the estate into three parts, and let to subtenants at a gulden
+an acre."
+
+"Of course he wanted to make something out of it."
+
+"Naturally. The subtenants let the land in smaller parcels to the
+peasantry for a certain percentage of the crops. But now, after two bad
+harvests, the land in the Banat has not even grown enough for seed-corn.
+The peasants got nothing, and could not give any percentage to the
+subtenants, who paid nothing to the crown lessee; and he, in order to
+get rid of his contract, went bankrupt, and paid no rent to the
+government."
+
+Now both hands of the great official came out and began to gesticulate.
+"Yes; because he lived in princely luxury, the rascal! Just imagine, he
+kept horses which cost eight thousand gulden, and drove them about. Now
+they are up for sale. I am an 'excellency,' but I am not in a position
+to keep such costly horses as those."
+
+Timar took no notice, and continued his remarks: "The treasury now is
+defrauded of its rent, for there is nothing to seize. The tenant and the
+subtenants are married; their whole property belongs to their wives
+under the name of dowry. The hundred thousand gulden are lost to the
+military department, which, I have been told, will claim the sum from
+the exchequer."
+
+The chancellor opened his snuff-box, and while he put his two fingers in
+for a pinch, he threw an inquiring look on the speaker with one eye.
+
+"My humble offer therefore is," continued Timar, laying a folded paper
+on the table, "to rent the Levetincz estate for ten years at the price
+paid by the sub-lessees--namely, a gulden an acre."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"The new tenant will already have lost a year, for it is November, and
+all the fields are lying fallow. But in spite of that, I offer not only
+to include the past year in the term, but also to be responsible for the
+irrecoverable rent."
+
+His excellency tapped twice on the lid of his gold snuff-box, and pursed
+his lips together. Well, thought he, this is a man of gold. He is not
+such a fool as he looks. He guesses that the treasury would like to take
+the commissariat out of the hands of the war office, and that all this
+was mixed up with the inquiry at Komorn. Then, after that horrible
+fiasco, the clattering swords are at the top of the tree, and would be
+very glad to get the manipulation of the lands on the military frontier
+into their own hands. They think it would be a good milch-cow, and the
+deficit caused by the bankruptcy of the Levetincz tenant gives them a
+pretext. And now this fellow does not combine with the enemies of the
+treasury which persecuted him, but comes over to us, and will improve
+our position and help us out of our difficulty. A man of gold indeed,
+and to be properly appreciated! "Good!" said his excellency; "I see you
+are an honest man. You had some cause to complain of us, but abstained:
+you will see that this is the right way for a good citizen to act. Just
+to show you that the state knows how to reward patriotic subjects, I
+guarantee you the acceptance of your offer. Come to my office to-night.
+I pledge you my word as to the result."
+
+Timar presented his offer in writing, and took leave with low bows. His
+excellency was pleased with this man. In the first place, he is wise
+enough to look over the injustice done to him, which if he had followed
+it up would have brought unpleasant scandal on the department. Secondly,
+he offers the government an advantageous rent, fifty per cent higher
+than the last. Thirdly, he comes to the aid of the exchequer with a
+generous offer, and enables them victoriously to repel the attack of the
+war department. He is a threefold man of gold--no, fourfold--but of that
+his excellency knows nothing as yet. He was to learn it for the first
+time when he went home to dinner at his palace, and his stud-groom
+informed him that the gentleman from Hungary who had been commissioned
+by his excellency to bid for the eight thousand gulden horses had
+brought them home, and would personally report particulars of their
+price to his excellency.
+
+A four-fold treasure!
+
+When Timar visited the great man in his office that evening, he saw on
+every face a polite smile--the reflection of gold. His excellency met
+him at the door, and led him to the table. There lay the contract
+outspread; complete with all signatures, with the greater and lesser
+seals affixed. "Read--I hope you will be satisfied."
+
+The first thing which surprised Timar was that the lease ran for twenty
+years instead of ten.
+
+"Well, are you satisfied with the term."
+
+Was he satisfied! The second surprising thing was his own name, "Michael
+Timar, Baron von Levetinczy."
+
+"Do you like your title?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MICHAEL TIMAR, BARON VON LEVETINCZY.
+
+
+"The diploma of nobility shall be sent to you," said the great man with
+a gracious smile.
+
+Timar signed his name, with the addition of his new title, to the
+contract.
+
+"Do not be in a hurry," said his excellency, "I have something more to
+say. It is a duty of the government to distinguish those who have
+deserved it by their services to the nation. Especially in regard to
+such as have won universal recognition in the regions of commerce and
+political economy. Could you name any one whom I could recommend in the
+highest quarters for the decoration of the Iron Crown?"
+
+His excellency was quite prepared to receive for answer--"Here is my own
+button-hole, sir; you can find no better place for your order of merit.
+If you only want an honest man, here am I." And the offer was made with
+this idea.
+
+So much the greater was the astonishment of the minister when Michael
+Timar-Levetinczy after a brief pause replied--"Yes, sir, I will make so
+free as to point out a person who has long enjoyed universal respect,
+who has secretly been the benefactor of the district where he lives; it
+is no other than the Dean of Plesscovacz, Cyril Sandorovics, who
+deserves this distinction in an imminent degree."
+
+The minister started back. An individual had never before come under his
+notice who, on being asked--"To whom shall I give this order," had not
+turned to the mirror, and pointing to himself, replied--"Give it to this
+worthy man!" but who instead of that had indicated with his finger the
+furthest limit of the national map, and there seeking out a country
+priest, not his brother-in-law or godfather, not even a priest of his
+own church, had said--"This is a better man than I." Indeed this is a
+man of pure gold. A gold worker would have to mix at least three carats
+of silver with him before he would be malleable. But as the question has
+been asked, it must be seriously considered. "Good, good," replied the
+great man, "but the bestowal of an order involves certain formalities.
+The sovereign can not contemplate the eventuality of a refusal: the
+person to whom such a distinction falls must go through the form of
+personally applying for it."
+
+"His reverence is a very modest man, and would only, if I know him,
+decide on such a step on receiving an invitation from high quarters."
+
+"Indeed? I understand. A line from my hand would suffice? Good. As it is
+recommended by you, it shall be done. Yes; the state must reward modest
+merit."
+
+And the great man wrote with his own hand a few lines to the Rev. Dean
+Cyril Sandorovics, with the assurance that, if he desired it, he should
+receive the decoration of the Iron Crown in return for services. Timar
+thanked his excellency warmly for this favor, and was assured of his
+high protection for all future time. And, further, Timar had the
+pleasure of finding that in the whole office, where one generally has to
+go through every kind of tiresome formality, here every one was at his
+service, so that he only required an hour to get through his business,
+while it would have taken any one else weeks before he could get out of
+this official labyrinth. The water-jug of the Orsova purifier was there
+in an invisible shape!
+
+It was night before he had packed all the documents relative to his
+completed contract in his portmanteau. And now for speed! He neither
+supped nor slept, but hastened to the Golden Lamb, where the mail-cart
+put up. In the bar he bought a roll and a smoked sausage, which he put
+in his pocket; he could eat them on the journey. Then he called to the
+driver, "We must be off at once--spare neither whip nor horses. I will
+give you a gulden an hour for yourself, and pay double price for my
+place." It was needless to say more.
+
+Two minutes later the mail-cart was dashing through the streets of
+Vienna with great cracking of whips, the police in vain calling out that
+it was forbidden in Vienna. The courier-posts, which at that time took
+the place of railways, formed one connected chain between Vienna and
+Semlin. The horses stood harnessed day and night, and as soon the crack
+of the whip at one end of the village announced the approach of the
+post, the postmaster brought out the new team from the stable, and in
+two minutes the cart with the fresh horses rolled away over hill and
+dale at a gallop. If two post-carts met on the road they changed horses
+and drivers, who then had only half the distance to go back. The speed
+of the journey was regulated by the amount of the pay.
+
+Timar sat in the cart two days and nights without getting down for a
+meal, let alone a night's rest. He was quite used to sleeping in the
+carriage, in spite of shaking and rolling and knocking about.
+
+On the evening of the second day he was in Semlin, whence he drove all
+night to the first village on the Levetinczy estate.
+
+It was fine mild weather for the first of December. He drove to the
+little town hall, and sent for the village judge; he told him he was the
+new tenant of the estate, and requested him to make known to the farmers
+that they could rent the land in shares as in former years. During the
+two last years the fields which bore no fruit had lain as good as
+fallow, so that there would be a prospect of a rich harvest for the next
+season. The weather was favorable, the autumn lasting long; by setting
+to work at once there was still time to plow and sow.
+
+That was all very well, they replied; plowing could be managed if the
+principal thing, seed-corn, were not wanting. It was not to be got for
+love or money. The landowners had only with the greatest difficulty
+secured any for themselves; poor people would have to live on maize all
+the winter.
+
+Timar gave the consoling assurance that he would take care that they did
+not want for seed-corn, and so he went through the other villages whose
+inhabitants farmed as subtenants, and who, on his permission, got out
+their plows and went to turn over the fields which had been allowed to
+lie fallow a whole year. But where was the seed to come from? It was too
+late to get grain from Wallachia, and there was none in the
+neighborhood. But Timar knew where to get it. On the 2d December he
+reached Plesscovacz, whence a short time before he had almost been
+driven by force, and sought out his reverence, Cyril Sandorovics, who
+had then turned him out of his house.
+
+"Aha! my son, are you here again?" This was his reception by the
+venerable gentleman, that friend and benefactor of the people who ought
+long ago to have received the order of the Iron Crown if he had not been
+so retiring. "What do you want now? To buy grain? I told you two months
+ago I had none, and could not sell any. It is no use talking! You will
+lie in vain, for I don't believe a word you say. You have a Greek name
+and a long mustache. I don't trust your face."
+
+Timar smiled. "Well, this time nothing but truth shall pass my lips."
+
+"Tell that to the other people. You dealers from the upper country are
+always deceiving us. You pretend there was a poor harvest in your parts
+and drive our prices down. When you wanted to buy hay from us, you
+spread the report that the government was going to sell all its horses.
+You are a rascally lot."
+
+"But now I tell you the truth. I am here with a commission from the
+government to beg your reverence in their name to open your granaries.
+The government having heard that the people are in need of seed-corn,
+wishes to divide among them some supplies of grain. This is a sacred
+purpose, a great benefit to be conferred on the people, and whoever
+assists them in this renders them a great service. I am not to receive
+the grain, but it is to be delivered to the farmers, who will use it for
+seed-corn."
+
+"My son, that is all very true, and I am very sorry for the poor people,
+but I have no grain. Where should I get it? I had no harvest. There is
+my great stupid barn, but all three floors are empty."
+
+"It is not empty, reverend sir. I know very well that three years'
+harvest is stored away there: I could get at least ten thousand measures
+out of it."
+
+"You would get trash. Spare yourself the trouble. I would not sell for
+five gulden a measure; in the spring it will be seven gulden, and then I
+will sell. You lie in your throat when you say the government sends you;
+you only want to make your own profit, and not a grain will you get from
+me. Much the government knows about you and me; we might as well be in
+the moon for all it cares!"
+
+Till now the fortress had held out bravely against small arms. But Timar
+put his hand in his pocket and brought out a four-and-twenty pounder,
+the minister's letter. When the reverend gentleman had read it he could
+hardly believe his own eyes.
+
+The great seal on the envelope with the imperial double eagle, the stamp
+of the exchequer on the paper, left no room for doubt. It was no
+deception but the absolute truth.
+
+To wear that brilliant cross upon his breast had long been the _ne plus
+ultra_ of his dreams. Timar knew of this weakness of the dean's, who
+often, as they sat over their wine, had bitterly complained of the
+injustice of the government in heaping decorations on the patriarch at
+Carlovitz. Why give all to one and send the other empty away? Now he had
+attained his greatest desire--how the peasants will gape at him when he
+has attached this order to his breast, and how the Tschaikiss captain
+will envy him, having none of his own! Even the patriarch will be a
+degree more condescending in future. Meanwhile, his own manner to Timar
+had suddenly undergone a great change.
+
+"Sit down, little brother!" (until now he had not even offered a
+seat)--"tell me, how did you get to know their excellencies? Why did
+they intrust the letter to you?"
+
+Timar told him some story or other, and lied like print. He had given up
+his post under Brazovics and taken service under government. He had
+great influence with the minister, and it was he who had recommended his
+reverence for this distinction, as a good old friend of his own.
+
+"I knew you were not such a fool as you look; that's why I have always
+liked you so much. Now, my son, because you have such a beautiful Greek
+name, and such an honest face, you shall have the grain. How much do you
+want? Ten, twelve thousand measures? I will sell you all I have. Not to
+please the minister, no, indeed! but for the sake of your own honest
+face, and to do good to the poor people. What price did I say? Five
+gulden? I will tell you what, I will give it to _you_ for four gulden
+nineteen kreutzers. You pay cash down? Or shall I get the money in
+Vienna? I shall be going there, and can do it at the same time. I must
+thank his excellency in person for this honor. You will come and
+introduce me? Or if you want to have nothing to do with it, tell me at
+any rate what sort of a man he is. Is he big or little, friendly or
+haughty? Will he give me the cross himself? Does he like good Carlovitz
+and Vermuth? Now then, you shall taste some yourself."
+
+In vain Timar assured him he must go back that night to Levetinczy, to
+give orders to the steward to send the tenants for the seed-corn. The
+friendly host would not part with his guest, but placed the servant at
+his disposal, who could ride to Levetinczy and deliver the instructions.
+Michael must remain overnight with him. The reverend gentleman had
+glasses with rounded bottoms, which when they were filled could not be
+laid down till they were empty. He gave one to Timar, took another
+himself, and so they caroused till morning. And Timar showed no signs of
+drink; he had lived in that district and had got used to it. Early in
+the morning the farmers came with their wagons to the dean's court-yard.
+When they saw that the doors of the three-storied granary were really
+open, they said to Timar he was the right sort of saint and could work
+miracles. In the barn were supplies for three years, more than was
+required for all their winter seed.
+
+Timar never left the estate he had rented until the winter frosts set
+in, which stopped field-work for the season. But it was enough for the
+present. The remaining acres would do for spring-sowing, or as fallows,
+or for pasture. On the whole estate of thirty thousand acres there were
+only a few hundred acres of meadow-land, all the rest was arable and of
+the first class. If the next year should be favorable, the harvest would
+be superabundant.
+
+It was sown at exactly the right time. October remained dry and windy to
+the end. Those who had sown before that might be sure of a bad crop, for
+the legions of marmots had scratched out the seed before it sprung up.
+Those who sowed during the wet November were no better off, for it had
+snowed early, and in the warm ground, under the snow-covering, the seed
+rotted; but when the snow had melted, a long mild spell set in which
+lasted till Christmas. Whoever had sown then could congratulate himself;
+the marmots were gone; frost now came before snow, and under the
+beautiful white covering the treasure intrusted to the soil lay safely
+hidden till spring. Farming is a game of chance. Six or nothing! Timar
+threw six.
+
+Then followed such a fruitful year that whoever had profited by the
+favorable season in Banat received twenty-fold in crops.
+
+In this year Timar brought thirty cargoes of the finest wheat to Komorn
+and Raab, and these thirty had cost him no more than three to another
+person. It depended on himself whether to make half a million of profit
+or a hundred thousand more or less--either to make poor people's bread
+cheaper, or to hold a knife to the throat of his competitors.
+
+It lay with him to drive prices down as low as he chose. In Brazovics'
+cafe there was angry talk every evening among the assembled
+corn-dealers. He scatters money like chaff, and squanders his goods as
+if they were stolen. If only he would come among them they would get him
+by the throat!
+
+But he does not come; he goes nowhere and seeks no acquaintances. He
+takes care to tell no one what he is going to do, and all he undertakes
+turns into gold. Many new industries are called into being by him, which
+might have occurred to anyone else: they lay, so to speak, in the
+street, and only wanted picking up; but they were only noticed by others
+when this man had already got hold of them. He is always in movement,
+traveling here and there, and people wonder why he goes on living in
+this town; why he does not move to Vienna; why he, who is so rich, has
+his headquarters in Komorn, though it was certainly then an important
+commercial center.
+
+Timar knows what keeps him there. He knows why he lives in a town where
+all his mercantile colleagues are his sworn enemies, where the people
+sitting before Brazovics' cafe send a curse after him every time he
+passes. That house too he means to get into his clutches, with all that
+therein is. This it was which kept him in Komorn, when already he was
+the owner of a million and a half; he remained where they still called
+him Timar, and had not got used to his noble title of Levetinczy.
+
+Yet he knew how to suit noble deeds to his noble name. He founded an
+hospital for the poor of the town, he endowed the Protestant schools;
+even the chalice turned to gold in his hands. Instead of the silver one
+he presented a golden one to the church. His door was always open to the
+poor, and every Friday a long line of beggars went through the streets
+to his house, where each received a piece of money, the largest copper
+coin in existence, the so-called "schuster-thaler." People said that
+when a sailor was drowned, Timar maintained his orphans and gave a
+pension to his widow. A heart of gold indeed! A man of gold!
+
+But in his heart a voice continually whispered, "It is not true! It is
+all false!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A GIRL'S HEART.
+
+
+Herr Brazovics usually drank coffee after dinner, and had it served in
+the ladies' sitting-room, which he filled unmercifully with clouds of
+Latakia tobacco.
+
+Katschuka sat whispering with Athalie at a little table, at the corner
+of which Frau Sophie pretended to be busy sewing. (For years this table
+had been ostentatiously spread with needle-work and knitting, so that
+visitors might imagine they were occupied with the trousseau.)
+
+Herr Katschuka almost lived in the house; he came in the forenoon, was
+pressed to stay to dinner, and only found his way home late in the
+evening.
+
+It would appear that the fortifications of Komorn were complete, as the
+engineer officer had the whole day to spend with Fraulein Athalie. But
+the fortifications of Herr Katschuka's own fortress could not hold out
+any longer--the time was come for his marriage. He resisted like a
+second Zriny. When driven from the outworks, he retreated to the
+citadel. He always had some plausible pretext for delaying the marriage.
+Now, however, the last mine had been exploded. His deposit was indorsed
+by the Brazovics firm, and the council of war had accepted their receipt
+instead of money down; a house had been found for the young couple, and
+besides all this Katschuka had received his promotion to the rank of
+captain. This removed his last excuse; the last cartridge of the
+besieged had been expended, and nothing remained but to capitulate, and
+take the rich and beautiful girl home.
+
+Herr Brazovics became more and more venomous every day when he drank his
+coffee with the ladies; and the man by whom his coffee was poisoned was
+always Timar.
+
+This was his daily _delenda est Carthago_.
+
+"What confounded tricks that fellow is up to! While other honest dealers
+are glad to rest in winter from their labors, he is busy with things
+that no cat would think of. He has hired the Platten-See now, and fishes
+under the ice: a little while ago his people caught three hundredweight
+of fish in one haul. It is a theft! Before the spring comes he will have
+cleared the Platten-See, so that not a single perch, not a shad nor a
+roach, not a garfish, let alone a fogasch,[1] will be left in it. And
+he sends them all to Vienna. As if that was what fogasch swam in the
+Balaton lake for--that those Germans might eat them! The damned
+scoundrel! The government ought to set a price on his head. Sooner or
+later I will get rid of him, that's certain. When he goes over the
+bridge I will get a couple of fishermen to throw him into the Danube; I
+will pay a sentry a couple of gulden to shoot him by accident when he
+passes in the dark; I'll turn a mad dog into his yard, that it may bite
+him when he comes out in the morning. They ought to hang the rascal!
+I'll set his house on fire, that he may burn with it! And they ennoble
+such a fellow! In the town council they make him assessor, and the
+good-for-nothing sits at the green table with me. I, whose grandfather
+was of ancient Hungarian nobility, must suffer him near me, this runaway
+rogue!
+
+[Footnote 1: Leucia perca.]
+
+"But just let him attempt to come near this cafe. I'll set a band upon
+him who will throw him out of the window and break his neck! If ever I
+sat down to table with him I would season his soup so that he would soon
+be on his back like a dead fish! And this vagabond pays visits to
+ladies! This Timar, this former supercargo, who used to be a mud-lark!
+If he happened to be in the company of a brave officer who would call
+him out, and spit him like a frog--so!"
+
+Herr Brazovics threw a meaning glance on Herr Katschuka, who seemed as
+if he had heard nothing. He had heard well enough; but what had
+principally struck him in the monologue of his future father-in-law was
+that the new millionaire must have made a great breach in the riches of
+Herr Brazovics, and that this rage was caused by the threatened ruin of
+the firm. A thought not calculated to increase the officer's joy at the
+approaching wedding-day.
+
+"No; I will not wait for some one else to get rid of him!" said
+Brazovics at last, and stood up, laid aside his chibouque, and fetched
+his bamboo cane from its corner. "I have a dagger. I bought it since the
+fellow settled here, on purpose for him" (and that he might be believed
+he drew the sharp blade out of his sword-stick). "There it is! The first
+time we meet alone, I will stick it into him and nail him to the wall
+like a bat. And that I swear!"
+
+And he tried by rolling his bloodshot eyes to give emphasis to his
+threat. He drank the rest of his coffee standing, drew on his overcoat,
+and said he was going to business.
+
+He would come home early (that is, early in the morning). Every one was
+glad when he went.
+
+Just as Herr Brazovics went carefully down the steps to the street--for
+his corpulence prevented his running down-stairs--who should come to
+meet him but--Timar!
+
+Now is his chance; at striking distance, and in a dark place where no
+one can see them. We know by history that most murders are committed on
+the stairs. Timar had no weapon with him, not even a walking-stick; but
+Herr Athanas had a stiletto two feet long.
+
+When he saw Timar, he put his sword-stick under his arm, and cried aloud
+as he took off his hat, "Your obedient servant! good-day to you, Herr
+von Levetinczy!"
+
+Timar answered with a "Servant, Nazi--off to business again?"
+
+"He! he! he!" laughed Herr Brazovics jovially, like a boy who is caught
+in a bit of mischief. "Now then, Michael, won't you keep us company?"
+
+"Shouldn't think of it. If you want to win a couple of hundred gulden
+from me, I had better pay them now; but to sit the whole night gambling
+and drinking, no, thank you."
+
+"He! he! he! Well, go up to the ladies then; they are upstairs. A
+pleasant evening to you. I sha'n't see you again to-day."
+
+And they parted with a hearty shake of the hand, for Herr Athanas does
+not mean anything by his threats. No one is afraid of him, in spite of
+his frightful voice and imposing appearance, not even his
+wife--especially his wife. He knows well enough that Timar goes
+regularly to his house, and arranges to be away when he comes. Frau
+Sophie has not concealed her opinion that the visits are doubtless owing
+to the fine eyes of Athalie. Well, that is Katschuka's affair: if he
+does not spit his rival like a frog it is his own fault; he has been
+warned. But he does not seem inclined to do it, though Timar and Athalie
+are often together.
+
+And why the devil should the captain challenge Timar? They are as good
+friends as ever they were.
+
+Herr Brazovics guessed--indeed he had means of knowing--that it was no
+other than Captain Katschuka who had opened the door through which Timar
+had attained his riches. Why he had done so was easy to imagine. He
+wanted to get rid of Athalie, and it would suit him very well if
+Brazovics intervened and forbid him the house.
+
+But that was just what he did not do, but overflowed with tenderness for
+the captain--his son-in-law. There was no way out of it: he must marry
+Athalie. The captain has long been betrothed to Athalie, to whom a
+dangerous rival pays daily court--a rich man whom he ought to hate,
+because he left him in the lurch in the quarrel between the treasury and
+the war office, and yet the captain is so fond of his old friend that he
+is capable of forgiving him if he ran away with his bride.
+
+Athalie despises Timar, once her father's clerk, but treats him
+nevertheless in a friendly way. She is passionately in love with the
+captain, but pays attention to Timar in his presence to make him
+jealous.
+
+Sophie hates Timar, but receives him with honeyed words, as if it were
+her dearest wish to have him for her son-in-law, and live under the same
+roof with him.
+
+Timar, on the other hand, means to ruin the whole of them--the master,
+the mistress, the young lady, and the bridegroom; all of them he would
+like to turn into the street, and yet he visits at the house, kisses the
+ladies' hands, and endeavors to make himself agreeable.
+
+They are all civil to him. Athalie plays the piano to him. Frau Sophie
+keeps him to supper, and offers him coffee and preserved fruits. Timar
+drinks the coffee with the thought that perhaps there is rat-poison in
+it.
+
+When the supper-table is brought, Timea appears, and helps to lay it.
+Then Timar hears no more of Athalie's words or music; he has eyes only
+for Timea. It was a pleasure to see the pretty creature. She was fifteen
+and already almost a woman, but her expression and naive awkwardness
+were those of a child. She could speak Hungarian, though with a curious
+accent, and sometimes with a wrong word or phrase--ridiculous, of
+course, but not wholly unknown even in Parliament, and during the most
+serious debates.
+
+Athalie had made an acquisition in Timea: she had now some one to make
+fun of. The poor child served her as a toy. She gave her old clothes to
+wear which had been fashionable years ago. At one time people wore a
+high comb turned backward, over which the hair was drawn, and on the top
+rose a gigantic bow of colored ribbon. They wore crinoline round their
+shoulders instead of their waists, having huge sleeves stuffed and
+padded. This dress looked well when in fashion; but a few years after
+the vogue had passed, its revival suggested a masquerade.
+
+Athalie found it amusing to dress up Timea thus. In taste the poor
+child, never having seen European fashions, stood on a par with a wild
+Indian: the more remarkable the dress the better she liked it. She was
+charmed when Athalie dressed her in the queer old silk gowns, and struck
+the high comb and bright ribbon in her hair. She thought she looked
+lovely, and took the smiles of the people whom she met in the street for
+admiration, hastening on so as not to be stared at. In the town she was
+always called "the mad Turkish girl."
+
+And it was easy to make fun of her without her taking it ill. Athalie
+took special delight in making the poor child an object of ridicule
+before gentlemen. If young men were present, she encouraged them to pay
+court to Timea, and it amused her highly when she saw that Timea
+accepted these attentions seriously; how pleased she was to be treated
+like a grown-up lady, to be asked to dance at balls, or when some
+pretended admirer offered her a faded bouquet, and extracted some quaint
+expression of thanks in reply, which caused the company to burst into
+fits of laughter. How Athalie's laugh resounded on these occasions!
+
+Frau Sophie took a more serious view of Timea. She scolded her
+continually; all she did was wrong. Adopted children are often awkward,
+and the more Timea was scolded the more awkward she became. Then
+Fraulein Athalie defended her. "But, mamma, don't be always scolding the
+girl! You treat her like a servant. Timea is not a servant, and I won't
+have you always going on at her!"
+
+Timea kissed Sophie's hand that she might cease to be angry, and
+Athalie's out of gratitude for taking her part, and then the hands of
+both that they might not quarrel. She was an humble, thankful creature.
+Frau Sophie only waited till she had left the room to say to her
+daughter what was on the tip of her tongue, in order that the other
+guests, Timar and Katschuka, might hear. "We ought to get her used to
+being a servant. You know her misfortune: the money which Timar--I mean
+Herr von Levetinczy--saved for her was invested in an insurance
+company. It has failed and the money is gone. She has nothing but what
+she stands up in."
+
+(So they have already brought her to beggary, thought Timar, and felt
+his heart lighter, like a student who is let off a year before his
+time.)
+
+"It annoys me," said Athalie, "that she is so unimpressionable. You may
+scold her or laugh at her, it is all the same. She never blushes."
+
+"That is a peculiarity of the Greek race," remarked Timar.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Athalie, contemptuously. "It is a sign of sickliness.
+That artificial white complexion could be attained by any school-girl
+who chose to eat chalk and burned coffee-berries."
+
+She spoke to Timar, but looked toward Herr Katschuka. He, however, was
+glancing at the large mirror in which one could see when Timea came
+back. Athalie saw it, and it did not escape Timar's notice.
+
+Timea now came in, carrying a large tray of clinking glasses, her whole
+attention concentrated on preventing one from falling.
+
+When Frau Sophie shrieked at her, "Take care not to drop them!" she did
+let the whole tray fall. Fortunately the glasses fell on the soft
+carpet, and did not break, but rolled about.
+
+The mistress would have burst out in a storm, but Athalie silenced her
+with the words, "That was your fault; why did you scream at her? Remain
+here with me, Timea; the servant shall bring the coffee."
+
+That made Sophie angry, and she went out and brought it all in herself.
+But at the instant when Timea let the glasses fall, Katschuka, with
+military promptitude, sprung up, collected the glasses, and put them all
+on the tray, still held by Timea's trembling fingers. The girl cast a
+grateful look on him out of her large dark eyes, which was seen by both
+Athalie and Timar.
+
+"Captain Katschuka," whispered Athalie to her _fiance_, "just for a joke
+make the little thing fall in love with you; pretend to pay court to
+her; it will be great fun. Timea, you sup with us to-night; come and sit
+down here by the captain."
+
+This might be a cruel joke, or perhaps scornful raillery; or was it an
+ironical outbreak of awakened jealousy, or was it pure wickedness? We
+shall see what comes of it.
+
+With feverish excitement and ill-concealed delight, the girl sat down
+opposite Athalie secure in conquering charms, who, while encouraging her
+_fiance_ to pay compliments to Timea, did it like a queen who throws a
+gold piece to a beggar. The child is made happy by the gift for a day,
+and she herself does not feel its loss.
+
+The captain offered the sugar-basin to Timea; she could not manage the
+tongs.
+
+"Take the sugar with your pretty little white hand," said he to the
+girl, who was so confused that she put the lump into the tumbler instead
+of the coffee cup. No one had ever told her that she had a pretty white
+hand. These words remained on her mind, and she looked often privately
+at her hands to see if they were really white and pretty. Athalie could
+hardly suppress a smile. She found it amusing to carry on the
+jest--"Timea, offer the cakes to the captain."
+
+The girl lifted the glass dish from its silver stand, and handed it to
+Katschuka.
+
+"Now then, choose one for him."
+
+By accident she chose one in the shape of a heart. She certainly did not
+know that it represented a heart, nor what it meant.
+
+"Oh, that is too much for me!" laughed the captain; "I can only take it,
+if pretty Miss Timea divides it with me." And with that he broke the
+heart in two and gave part to Timea.
+
+The girl left it on her plate; she would not have eaten it for the
+world. Jealously guarding it with her eyes, she did not wait till Frau
+Sophie or the servant should change the plates, but hastened to remove
+the dish of cakes herself and to vanish with them from the room. No
+doubt she will keep this half-heart, and it will be found in her
+possession. That will be droll! There is nothing easier than to turn the
+head of a girl of fifteen, who takes everything in earnest and believes
+the first man who tells her that she has pretty hands.
+
+And Herr Katschuka was just the man not to forgive himself if he came
+near a pretty girl without paying her attention. He paid court even to
+older women; that he could do without scruple. But even to the
+house-maid, when she lighted him to the door, he could not resist paying
+compliments. His ambition was to make every girl's heart beat higher at
+the sight of his blue uniform.
+
+Still Athalie was certain that she was the ruling planet. But it was, of
+course, worth his while to take a little trouble for Timea. She was only
+a child; but one could see she would be a beauty. Then she was an
+orphan, and a Turkish girl, not baptized, and not quite right in her
+head--all reasons for flattering her without compunction. Herr Katschuka
+let no chance escape him, and thereby gave great amusement to his bride.
+
+One evening Athalie said to Timea, as she was going to bed, "I say,
+Timea, the captain has proposed for you. Will you accept him?"
+
+The child looked at Athalie quite frightened, ran to her couch, and drew
+the covering over her head, so that no one should see her.
+
+Athalie was highly entertained that the girl could not sleep on account
+of these words--that she should toss restlessly on her bed, and sigh
+wakefully all night. The delicate jest had succeeded.
+
+The next day Timea was unusually quiet. She laid aside her childish
+manner; thoughtful melancholy lay on her features; and she became
+monosyllabic. The philter had done its work.
+
+Athalie let the whole household into the secret. They were to treat
+Timea henceforward as a future bride--as the betrothed of Herr
+Katschuka. The servants, the mistress, all took part in the comedy.
+
+Let no one say this was a heathenish jest; on the contrary, it was a
+Christian one.
+
+Athalie said to Timea:
+
+"Here, see, the captain has sent you an engagement-ring; but you must
+not put it on your finger as long as you are a heretic. You must first
+become a Christian. Will you be baptized?"
+
+Timea crossed her hands on her breast and bowed her head.
+
+"Then you shall be baptized first. That this may be done, you must learn
+the articles of faith, the catechism, the Bible history, psalms, and
+prayers; you must go to the priest and to the schoolmaster to be
+instructed. Will you do that?"
+
+Timea only nodded. And now she went every day to be taught, with her
+books under her arm like a little school-girl; and late at night, when
+the rest were in bed, she went to the empty sitting-room, and sat half
+the night learning by heart the ten plagues of Egypt, and the highly
+moral histories of Samson and Delilah, Joseph and Potiphar's wife.
+Learning was difficult to her, as she was not used to it. But what would
+she not have done to be baptized?
+
+"You see," said Athalie, often in Timar's presence, "without this hope
+in her mind we should never have induced her to be converted and to
+study in order to be baptized."
+
+So it was quite a pious work to turn the child's head, and make her
+fancy she was already betrothed. And Timar must look on at the cruel
+trick played on the girl without moving a finger to prevent it. What
+could he say? She would never understand. And his coming to the house
+made it worse, for it justified the fable in her eyes. She was often
+told that the rich Herr von Levetinczy visited them on Athalie's
+account, which seemed to her quite natural. The rich man woos a rich
+girl. They suit each other. Who should suit the poor Hungarian officer
+better than the poor daughter of a Turkish officer? Nothing more
+natural. She studied day and night, and when she had finished with the
+catechism and the psalter, they found a new trick to play upon her. They
+said the wedding-day was fixed, but there was still much to be done to
+the trousseau. On account of the dresses, linen, and other details, the
+day could not be a very early one. And then her wedding-dress! That the
+bride herself must embroider. This is also a Turkish custom and suited
+Timea, who knew how to work beautifully in gold and silver, for the
+harems are all instructed in that art.
+
+She was given Athalie's dress, in order to execute upon it the beautiful
+designs which had been taught her at home. Of course they told her it
+was her own. Timea drew lovely arabesques upon it, and began to
+embroider them. A perfect masterpiece grew under her fingers; she worked
+at it from early morning till late evening, and did not even lay it
+aside when visitors came, with whom she conversed without looking up,
+and that was fortunate, as then she could not see how they made fun of
+her. Timar, who had to look on at all this, often left the house with
+such bitterness in his heart that he struck the two marble pillars at
+the door with all his force. He would have liked to do as Samson did,
+and pull the house of the Philistines down on his head.
+
+How long will he allow it to stand?
+
+The day to which Timea looked forward with secret alarm was really fixed
+for Herr Katschuka's marriage--but with Fraulein Athalie. Only that
+various hinderances stood in the way of its arrival. Not in the stars,
+nor in the hearts of the lovers, but in the financial position of Herr
+Brazovics.
+
+When the captain asked Athanas for his daughter's hand, he told him
+plainly that he could only marry if the wife's dowry was sufficient to
+keep house upon.
+
+Herr Brazovics made no objection. He was not going to be stingy about
+it: he meant to give his daughter a hundred thousand gulden on her
+wedding-day, and they could do as they liked with it. And at the time
+when he made this promise, he was in a position to carry it out. But
+since then Timar had put a spoke in his wheel. He had in many ways
+thrown Herr Brazovics' speculations into confusion, upset his safest
+combination, run him up in the corn-market, outbid him in contracts, and
+barred his road to influential quarters where before he had had
+interest, so that it was no longer possible to pay the dowry down. It
+was well known that his affairs were in confusion, and whoever had a
+claim to his money would be wise to ask for it to-day rather than
+to-morrow.
+
+And Herr Katschuka was a wise man.
+
+His future father-in-law tried to persuade him that it would be much
+better to leave the money at interest with him; but the engineer would
+not allow his last redoubt to be taken. He charged the mines, and
+threatened to blow the whole marriage citadel into the air if he did not
+have the money down before the wedding-day.
+
+Then a brilliant idea shot into the head of Athanas. Why not marry
+Athalie to Timar? The exchange would not be a bad one. It is true that
+he hated him and would like to poison him in a spoonful of soup. But if
+he married Athalie his opposition would cease, he would be a member of
+the firm and have its interests at heart.
+
+Timar comes to the house regularly--if only he were not so modest! He
+must be helped.
+
+One afternoon Herr Athanas poured a double dose of anisette into his
+black coffee (a capital way of encouraging one's self), and had it
+brought into his office, giving orders that if Timar came, the ladies
+were to send him into his room.
+
+There he lighted his chibouque, and surrounded himself with such an
+atmosphere of smoke, that as he walked up and down he appeared and
+disappeared alternately, with his great starting, bloodshot eyes, like a
+huge cuttle-fish lying in wait for its prey.
+
+The prey did not keep him waiting long.
+
+As soon as Timar heard from Frau Sophie that Athanas wished to speak to
+him, he hastened to his room. The great cuttle-fish swam toward him
+through the smoke, with his horrible fishy eyes fixed upon him, and fell
+upon him just like the sea-monster, while he cried, "Listen to me, sir;
+what is the meaning of your visits to this house? What are your
+intentions with regard to my daughter?"
+
+That is the best way to bring these poltroons to their senses; they get
+startled, their head swims, and before they can turn round they fall
+into the net of holy matrimony. It is no joke to answer such a question
+as that.
+
+The first thing Timar remarked from the speech of Herr Athanas was that
+he had again taken too much anisette. Thence this courage.
+
+"Sir," he replied, quietly, "I have no intentions whatever with regard
+to your daughter. So much the less because your daughter is engaged,
+and the bridegroom is a good old friend of mine. I will tell you why I
+come to your house. If you had not asked me, I should have kept silence
+longer, but as you inquire I will tell you. I visit your house because I
+swore to your dead friend and kinsman, who came to such a dreadful end,
+that I would look after his orphan child. I come here to see how the
+orphan committed to your care was treated. She is shamefully treated,
+Herr Brazovics, disgracefully! I say it to your face in your own house.
+You have made away with the whole of the girl's property--defrauded her;
+yes, that is the word. And your whole family carries on a shameful game
+with the poor child. Her mind is being poisoned for her whole life. May
+God's curse light on you for it! And now, Herr Brazovics, we two have
+met for the last time in your house, and you had better pray that you
+may never see the day when I come into it again."
+
+Timar turned on his heel and slammed the door behind him. The
+cuttle-fish drew back into the dusky depths of its smoky lair, poured
+down another glass of anisette, and considered that some answer ought to
+have been given. But what?
+
+For my own part I don't know what he could have said.
+
+Timar went back to the reception-room, not only to get his hat, which he
+had left there, but for something else.
+
+In the room there was no one but Timea; Athalie and her _fiance_ were in
+the next room.
+
+In Timar's face, flushed with anger, Timea saw a great change. His
+generally soft and gentle countenance looked proud, and was roused into
+emotion which made it beautiful. Many faces are beautified by passion's
+flame.
+
+He went straight to Timea, who was working golden roses and silver
+leaves on the bridal dress.
+
+"Fraulein Timea," he said to her in deeply moved tones, "I come to take
+leave of you. Be happy, remain a child for a long time; but if ever an
+hour comes in which you are unhappy, do not forget that there is some
+one who would--for you--"
+
+He could not speak, his voice failed, his heart contracted. Timea
+completed the interrupted phrase--"Thrice!"
+
+He pressed her hand and stammered brokenly, "Always."
+
+Then he bowed and went, without troubling those in the next room.
+
+No "God be with you!" came from his lips. At this moment he was only
+conscious of the wish that God would withdraw His hand from this house.
+
+Timea let the work fall, and gazed before her, sighing again, "Thrice!"
+
+The gold thread slipped out of the needle's eye.
+
+As Timar went down the path, he came once more to the two marble pillars
+which supported the veranda. With what rage he struck them! Did those
+above feel the shock! Did not the tottering walls warn them to pray,
+because the roof was falling in on them?
+
+But they were laughing at the mystified child, who worked so diligently
+at her wedding-dress.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ANOTHER JEST.
+
+
+The newly ennobled Herr von Levetinczy was already, not only in Hungary
+but in Vienna, a famous person. He was said to be a "golden man."
+Everything he touched turned to gold, all he undertook became a gold
+mine; and this is the real gold mine.
+
+The science of the gold digger consists in finding out earlier than his
+rivals what large affairs are in contemplation by the government; and in
+this art Timar was a past master. If he took up any speculation, a whole
+swarm of speculators threw themselves upon it, for they knew money was
+to be had there for the picking up.
+
+But it was not only on that account that Timar was called a "golden
+man," but also for quite another reason.
+
+He never swindled or defrauded any one.
+
+He made large profits, for he undertook large concerns, but he was never
+tempted to steal or lie, for he never risked anything. He shared the
+profit with those on whom it depended whether he received a contract on
+reasonable terms, and in this way kept the source always open.
+
+Once he began to buy up vineyards on the Monostor, the highest point of
+Komorn. It is a sandhill lying above Uj-Szony, and its wines are very
+poor. But notwithstanding this, Timar bought ten acres of vine-growing
+land there.
+
+This excited attention in the commercial world. What could he want with
+it? There must be some sort of gold mine there.
+
+Herr Brazovics thought he was on the right track, and attacked Katschuka
+on his own ground. "Now, my dear son, tell me the truth; I swear by my
+soul and my honor that I will not betray it to a creature. Confess now,
+the government is going to build fortifications on the Monostor? That
+fellow Timar is buying up all the land: don't let us leave him the whole
+mouthful. It is so, isn't it--they are going to build a fort there?"
+
+The captain allowed the acknowledgment to be got out of him that there
+might be something in it. The council of war had decided to extend the
+fortifications of Komorn in that direction. There could be no better
+news for Athanas. How many hundred thousand gulden had he made in
+similar circumstances by buying hovels before the expropriation, and
+selling them afterward to the government at the price of palaces? Only
+he would certainly like to have seen the plans, and begged his future
+son-in-law as prettily as possible to let him have just one peep at
+them.
+
+Katschuka did him that favor too, and thus Athanas learned what portion
+would be bought by government. And that wretch of a Timar had really
+pitched on the place where the fort was to be built.
+
+"And what are to be the terms of the expropriation?"
+
+That was the question, and that the captain could not reveal without
+committing a capital crime. But he did it. The terms were, that the
+government would pay double the last purchase money.
+
+"Now I know enough," cried Herr Athanas, embracing his son-in-law; "the
+rest is my affair. On your wedding-day the hundred thousand gulden will
+be on your table."
+
+But he was wrong in thinking that he knew enough. He would have done
+well to ask one more question. Herr Katschuka, after saying so much,
+would have told him that too. But Katschuka no longer cared much about
+the hundred thousand gulden, nor yet about what depended on them. It he
+gets them, all right; if not, his hair will not turn gray for lack of
+them.
+
+Brazovics hurried off to Uj-Szony, and went to all the vine-growers to
+ask who had a vineyard to sell. He paid whatever was asked, and if any
+one refused to sell, he offered treble the price. The more he paid the
+better for him. Naturally this attracted the attention of other
+speculators, who arrived in troops and ran up the prices, so that the
+poor "Honigler" and "Schafschwanz" wines of Monostor could not
+understand why they had suddenly turned into "Grands Crus," to be bought
+up even before the vintage.
+
+The price of vineyards ran so high, that the land for which the
+government would have had to pay, before the plans were betrayed, at
+most one hundred thousand gulden, now could not be bought under five
+hundred thousand.
+
+Brazovics had himself bought a fifth of them, though he had the greatest
+difficulty in getting the money together. He got rid of his stock of
+grain, sold his ships, borrowed from the usurers, and made use of
+trust-money committed to his care. This time he was safe! Timar was in
+the swim. He was the worst off, for he had bought cheap and would make a
+very small profit.
+
+But this, too, was perfidy on Timar's part. It was a _coup_ aimed at the
+head of Herr Brazovics. He had learned from Katschuka the one thing
+Athanas had omitted to ask. It was true that the government would this
+year greatly enlarge the fortifications; but the question was, Where
+would they begin? For the work would extend over thirty years.
+
+Here again Timar had done his rivals a bad turn, which would bring their
+maledictions down on him. As a good business man, he took care, whenever
+he had undertaken anything which would bring him curses, to set
+something else to work for which many more would bless him. So that
+between blessing and cursing he might keep a good balance on the credit
+side.
+
+He sent for Johann Fabula and said to him, "Johann, you are getting old;
+many hardships have aged you. Would it not be better to look out for
+some employment which will allow you to rest?"
+
+Fabula was already hoarse, and when he spoke it sounded as if he was
+whispering to the actors from the prompter's box.
+
+"Yes, sir; I have often thought of leaving the sea and looking out for
+work on shore; my eyes are weak. I wish you would give me a stewardship
+on your land."
+
+"I know of something better than that. You would never get on with the
+Rascians; you are too much used to the white bread at Komorn. Much
+better turn farmer."
+
+"I should like it well enough; but there are two things wanting--the
+land and the stock."
+
+"Both will come in time. I have an idea: the old pastures by the river
+are for sale--go to the auction and buy them all."
+
+"Oh," said Fabula, with a hoarse laugh, "I should be a fool indeed! It
+is a waste where nothing grows but camomile. Shall I sell it to the
+chemists? And it's a large piece of land; one would want several
+thousand gulden."
+
+"Don't argue, but do as I tell you. Just you go there. Here are the two
+thousand gulden for the deposit, which you must hand in at the auction.
+Then bid till it is knocked down to you, and take it all at the price
+agreed on. Share with no one, whoever offers to go into partnership with
+you. I will lend you the money to pay for it, and you shall repay me
+when you are able. I ask no interest, and you need not give me a
+receipt. The whole bargain shall be a verbal one. There now, shake hands
+on it!"
+
+Johann Fabula shook his head thoughtfully. "No interest, no writing, a
+lump of money, and bad waste land! The end of it will be, that I shall
+be arrested and stripped to my shirt."
+
+"No scruples, my friend; you have it for a year, and whatever you get
+off it meanwhile will be entirely yours."
+
+"But what shall I plow and sow with?"
+
+"You will neither plow nor sow. But go and do what I told you--the
+harvest will not be wanting; but do not tell any one."
+
+Fabula was in the habit of looking on all that Timar did or said as
+folly _a priori_; but nevertheless he acted with absolute obedience on
+his orders, for _a posteriori_ he had been forced to acknowledge that
+these unheard-of follies had the same result as if they had been wisdom
+personified. So he did as Timar had advised.
+
+And now we will let the reader into the secret of these singular
+proceedings. The plan for the fortification did really exist. But it had
+been suggested to the council by some busybody that it was not necessary
+to execute all the sections at once, and that it would be sufficient for
+the present to expropriate the land lying between the two arms of the
+river, while the portion covered by the Monostor vineyards could wait
+twenty years. Now the speculators who got wind of the new plans had all
+thrown themselves on the sandhill, and no one thought of the shore
+between the two river branches. Herr Fabula got it for twenty thousand
+gulden. The land on the Monostor would not be wanted for twenty years to
+come, and during that time the money invested in the unproductive
+vineyards would all be eaten up by the interest. This was a trick played
+by Timar especially for the benefit of Herr Athanas Brazovics; and as
+soon as he had bought the Monostor vineyards, Timar set every lever in
+motion to prevent the council of war from beginning the fortifications
+on all points at the same time.
+
+Affairs were in this position three days before the time fixed for
+Athalie's wedding.
+
+Two days before it Johann Fabula came flying into Timar's house. Yes,
+flying--his floating cloak represented the wings.
+
+"Ten thousand! Twenty thousand! Forty thousand! Commission paid! The
+emperor! The king! Pasture! The crop!" He gasped out disconnected
+words, which Timar at last put together.
+
+"All right, Johann; I know what you mean. The commission has come to
+settle the value of the land wanted for the new works. Your fields,
+bought for twenty thousand, will be sold by you for forty thousand: the
+surplus is your profit; that is the crop--did not I tell you?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and they were words like those of the golden-mouthed St.
+John. I see very clearly that you told me the truth, and I see that I
+get the twenty thousand gulden for nothing. Never in my life did I earn
+so much money by the hardest work. My senses are going. Do let me turn a
+somersault!"
+
+Timar had no objection. Johann Fabula turned not one but three
+somersaults all across the floor, and then three back again; and then
+stood straight on his legs again before Timar.
+
+"There! now I am all right again. All that money belongs to me."
+
+He came six times that day to pay a visit to Timar. First he brought his
+wife, then his younger daughter, then his married daughter, afterward
+his son who had left college, and the fifth time the little boy who was
+still at school. His wife brought Timar a splendid Komorn loaf of white
+bread with a brown glazed crust; the married daughter a dish of
+beautiful Indian-corn cakes; the unmarried one a plate of red eggs, gilt
+nuts, and honey-cakes decorated with colored paper like a wedding
+present; the big boy, who was a noted bird-catcher, brought a cage full
+of linnets and robins; and the school-boy declaimed a rhymed ode. The
+whole day they overwhelmed him with gratitude, and the sixth time they
+all came together late in the evening and sung in his honor a song of
+praise out of the hymn-book.
+
+But what will his competitors, and especially Herr Brazovics, bring and
+sing to him when they learn how he has entrapped them about the purchase
+of the Monostor?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE WEDDING-DRESS.
+
+
+The wedding was to be in three days' time.
+
+On Sunday afternoon Athalie went to pay visits in turn to all her school
+friends. It is one of the bride's privileges to pay these visits without
+her mother; they have so much to say to each other the last time in all
+their girlhood.
+
+Frau Sophie was delighted to be allowed to stay at home one day in the
+year, and neither pay nor receive calls--not to act as chaperon to her
+daughter and listen to conversation in German, of which she did not
+understand a word. She could remain at home and think of her happy
+parlor-maid times--the days when on an idle Sunday like this she could
+fill her apron with ears of Indian corn, and sit down on the bench
+before the door picking out the grains one by one and cracking them,
+while she chatted and gossiped with her companions. To-day the leisure
+time and the boiled ears of maize were at hand, but the friends and the
+gossip on the bench were wanting. Frau Sophie had allowed the
+maid-servants and the cook to go out, that she might have the kitchen to
+herself; for you can not eat corn in the parlor on account of the husks
+which get strewn about. In the end she found suitable company. Timea
+came creeping up to her. She also had no work to do. The embroidery was
+finished, and the dress had gone to the needle-woman, who would send it
+home at the last moment. Timea was quite suited to the kitchen bench
+beside Frau Sophie. They were both only on sufferance in the house. The
+difference was that Timea felt herself a lady, though every one looked
+on her as a servant; while all the world knew that Frau Sophie was the
+mistress of the house, and yet she felt like a servant. So Timea perched
+herself on the little bench near Frau Sophie, as the nursery-maid and
+the cook do after quarreling all the week, when they make it up on
+Sunday and have a chat together.
+
+Only three days and then the marriage!
+
+Timea looked cautiously round to see if any listeners were near to
+overhear, and then in a low voice asked, "Mamma Sophie, do tell me what
+is a wedding like?"
+
+Frau Sophie drew her shoulders up and shook like a person who laughs
+internally, looking with half-shut eyes at the inquiring child. With the
+malicious delight old servants take in deceiving young ones, she
+encouraged the laughable simplicity of the girl. "Yes, Timea," in the
+important tone of a story-teller, "that is a wonderful sight. You will
+see it."
+
+"I tried once to listen at the church door," confessed Timea, frankly;
+"I had crept in when a wedding was going on, but all I could see was
+that the bride and bridegroom stood before a lovely golden shrine."
+
+"That was the altar."
+
+"Then a naughty boy saw me and drove me away, calling out, 'Be off, you
+Turkish brat!' Then I ran away."
+
+"You must know," began Sophie, while she took out a grain at a time and
+put them in her mouth, "that then comes the venerable pope, with a
+golden cap on his head, on his shoulders a robe of rustling silk worked
+with gold, and carrying a great book with clasps in his hand. He reads
+and sings most beautifully, and then the bridal pair kneel on the steps
+of the altar. The pope asks them both whether they love each other."
+
+"And are they obliged to answer?"
+
+"Of course, silly; and not only that, but the priest reads out of the
+big book an oath to the bridegroom and then afterward to the bride, that
+they will love and keep to each other till death divides them. They
+swear it by the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin and all the saints,
+forever and ever, Amen; and the whole choir repeats the Amen. Then the
+priest takes the two rings from a silver dish and puts one on each of
+their third fingers, makes them clasp hands and winds a golden girdle
+round them, while the precentor and the choir sing to the organ 'Gospodi
+Pomiluj.'"[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: Lord have mercy on us.]
+
+The melancholy sound of the words "Gospodi Pomiluj" pleased Timea. That
+must be some magic blessing.
+
+"Then they cover the bridegroom and also the bride with a flowered-silk
+veil from head to foot, and while the pope blesses them the two
+witnesses hold a silver crown over each."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+When Frau Sophie noticed the deep interest of the girl she got warmer
+and warmer, and tried to inflame her fancy with the splendors of the
+Greek ritual. "The choir goes on singing, and the pope takes one crown
+and makes the bridegroom kiss it, then places it on his head and says,
+'I crown thee as servant of God and husband of this handmaid of the
+Lord.' Then he takes the other crown, gives it to the bride to kiss, and
+says to her, 'I crown thee as handmaid of the Lord, and wife of this
+servant of God.' The deacon begins to pray for the young pair, and
+meanwhile the priest leads them three times round the altar, and the
+witnesses take off the veil which covered them. The church is full of
+people, who all look and whisper, 'That is a bride to be kissed. What a
+beautiful pair!'"
+
+Timea nodded her head with girlish delight, as if to say, "That is
+delightful; it must be lovely."
+
+"Then the pope brings out a golden cup of wine, and the bride and
+bridegroom drink from it."
+
+"Is there really wine in it?" asked Timea in alarm. Her fear of wine
+came partly from the recollection of the prohibition in the Koran.
+
+"Of course there is--real wine. Then the bride-maids and groomsmen throw
+maize baked in honey over them; that brings luck. It is lovely, I can
+tell you."
+
+Timea's eyes shone with the prophetic fire of a magnetic dream. She
+pictured these mysterious proceedings to herself as partly a rite,
+partly an enigma of the heart, and trembled all over. Sophie laughed in
+her sleeve and found this most amusing; a pity she should be disturbed
+in it. Manly steps approached the kitchen door, and some one came in.
+
+What a surprise! it was Herr Katschuka.
+
+The mistress of the house was horrified, for she had only slippers on,
+and her apron full of maize. Which should she hide first? But Timea was
+more frightened, though she had nothing to hide.
+
+"Excuse me," said Katschuka, with familiar ease; "I found the doors all
+shut on the other side, so I came round by the kitchen."
+
+"You see," screeched Frau Sophie, "my daughter has gone to visit her
+friends. I sent the maids to church, and we two are the only ones at
+home; so we just sat down in the kitchen. Pray excuse our _negligee_,
+Herr Captain."
+
+"Don't disturb yourself, I will remain here with you."
+
+"Oh, no, I could not allow it. Here in the kitchen! We have not even a
+chair for the captain."
+
+But Herr Katschuka knew what to do in any emergency. "Don't make a
+stranger of me, Mamma Sophie. Here, this can will do for a seat," and he
+sat down opposite Timea on a pail, and even set the hostess at ease with
+respect to the ears of maize. "That is excellent for dessert; give me a
+handful in my cap. I like it very much."
+
+Frau Sophie was on the broad grin when she saw that the captain did not
+disdain to take the vulgar sweets in his military cap, and eat a
+quantity without even shelling them. It made him very popular with his
+mother-in-law. "I was in the midst of an interesting conversation with
+Timea," began Sophie; "she was asking me about--a baptism."
+
+Timea was on the point of rushing away, if Frau Sophie had told the
+truth; but she would not have been the mother of a marriageable daughter
+if she had not possessed the art of turning the conversation at the
+entrance of an unexpected visitor.
+
+"I was describing a baptism to her. She is quite frightened at it. Just
+look how she is trembling; for I was telling her that she would have to
+be wrapped up like a baby and carried in arms, and that she must cry
+like one. Don't be alarmed, you little fool. It is not true; I was only
+joking. Her greatest trouble is that her hair will be all spoiled."
+
+This requires explanation. Timea had splendid long, thick hair. Athalie
+amused herself by making the hairdresser execute on it the most
+surprising coiffures. Sometimes all the hair was combed up and built
+into a tower, again it was frizzed into wings on each side over the ear;
+in short, the girl had to appear in the most ridiculous head-dresses,
+such as no one had ever worn, and which required unsparing use of tongs,
+pincers, brushes, and pomade. Athalie pretended to do this out of
+affection for her cousin, and the poor child had no idea how she was
+disfigured by it.
+
+Herr Katschuka undeceived her. "Fraulein Timea, you need not regret this
+coiffure. It would suit you much better if you wore your hair quite
+plain; you have such lovely hair, that it is a sin to burn it with irons
+and smear it with pomade. Do not allow it; it is a shame to lose any of
+your magnificent hair, and it is soon ruined by the ill-treatment which
+ladies call hairdressing--it loses its brilliancy, splits at the points,
+breaks easily, and falls early. You do not require all that artificial
+structure. Your hair is so beautiful that you need only plait it
+plainly, to possess the finest of all coiffures." It is possible that
+Herr Katschuka only said this out of a humane sympathy with the
+ill-treated head of hair, and meant merely to free it from the tortures
+inflicted on it. But his words had a deeper effect than he expected:
+From that moment Timea had a feeling as if the comb in her hair was
+splitting her head, and could hardly bear it till the captain had gone.
+He did not stay long, for he took pity on Frau Sophie, who was
+struggling continually to hide her feet in their torn and down-trodden
+slippers. Herr Katschuka promised to look in again in the evening, and
+took his leave. He kissed Frau Sophie's hand, but made a low bow to
+Timea.
+
+Hardly was he out of the door before Timea snatched the large comb from
+her hair, tore down the heaped-up plaits, destroyed the whole edifice,
+then went to the basin and began to wash her hair and her whole head.
+
+"What are you doing there, girl?" said Frau Sophie, angrily. "Will you
+leave off this moment! Let your hair alone. Athalie will be fine and
+angry when she comes home and sees you."
+
+"Let her be angry, for all I care," replied the girl, defiantly; and
+she wrung her locks out, sat down behind Frau Sophie, and began to put
+up her loosened hair into a simple threefold plait. Pride was awakened
+in her heart; she began to be less timid; the word of the captain
+infused courage into her--his wish, his taste, were laws to her. She
+coiled the plait simply into a knot, and wound it round her head as he
+had suggested. The mistress laughed to herself: this child has been made
+a fool of certainly!
+
+While Timea was plaiting her hair, Sophie came nearer and tried to
+wheedle her again.
+
+"Let me tell you more about the wedding. Where did that stupid Katschuka
+interrupt us? If he had only known what we were talking about! Yes, I
+stopped where the bride and bridegroom drink from the cup, the choir and
+the deacon sing 'Gospodi Pomiluj.' Then the pope reads the Gospel, and
+the witnesses hold the crowns over the heads of the couple. The pope
+receives them back, lays them on the silver dish, and says to the
+bridegroom, 'Be praised like Abraham, and blessed like Isaac, and
+increase like unto Jacob;' and to the bride, 'Be praised like Sara,
+happy like Rebecca, and increase like Rachel'--and after this blessing
+the bride and bridegroom kiss each other three times before the altar
+and before the wedding-guests."
+
+Timea shut her eyes at the thought of the scene.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Athalie was not a little surprised when she came home and saw Timea with
+plaited hair.
+
+"Who allowed you to turn up your hair? Where is your giraffe comb and
+your bow? Put it on at once."
+
+Timea pressed her lips together and shook her head.
+
+"Will you do what I tell you instantly?"
+
+"No."
+
+Athalie was staggered at this resistance. It was unheard of that any one
+should contradict her. And this from an adopted child, who ate the bread
+of charity, who had always been so submissive, and once even kissed her
+foot. "No!" said she, going toward Timea, and bringing her face, red
+with anger, as close to the other's alabaster cheek as if she would set
+it on fire.
+
+Frau Sophie looked on with malicious joy from her corner, and said,
+"Didn't I say you would catch it when Athalie returned?"
+
+But Timea looked straight into Athalie's flaming eyes, and repeated her
+"No!"
+
+"And why not?" screamed Athalie, whose voice was now like her mother's,
+while her eyes were exactly like her father's.
+
+"Because I am prettier thus," answered Timea.
+
+"Who told you that?"
+
+"He."
+
+Athalie crooked her fingers like eagles' claws, and her teeth shone
+clinched between her red lips. It was as if she would tear the girl in
+pieces. Then her unbridled rage suddenly turned into scornful laughter.
+She left Timea and went to her room.
+
+Herr Katschuka paid another visit the same evening. At table Athalie
+overwhelmed Timea with unwonted kindness.
+
+"Do you not think, Herr Captain, that Timea is much prettier with her
+hair dressed in this simple way?"
+
+The captain assented. Athalie smiled. Now it was no longer a joke, but a
+punishment which was to be inflicted on the girl.
+
+Only two days to the marriage. During that time Athalie overflowed with
+attention and tenderness to Timea. She must not go out to the kitchen,
+and the servants were told to kiss her hand on entering the room. Frau
+Sophie often called her "little lady." The dress had come home finished,
+and what child-like delight it gave Timea! She danced round it and
+clapped her hands.
+
+"Come and try on your wedding costume," said Athalie, with a cruel
+smile.
+
+Timea let them put on the splendid dress she had herself embroidered.
+She wore no stays, and was already well formed for her age, and the
+dress fitted her very fairly. With what shy pleasure she looked at
+herself in the great mirror! Ah! how lovely she will be in her wedding
+finery! Perhaps she thought, too, that she would inspire love! Perhaps
+she felt her heart beat; and possibly a flame was already alight there
+which would cause her grief and pain.
+
+But that was no matter to those who were carrying on the shameful jest.
+The maid who dressed her bit her lips so as not to laugh aloud. Athalie
+brought out the bridal wreath, and tried it on Timea's head. The myrtle
+and the white jasmine became her well.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful you will be to-morrow!"
+
+Then they took the dress off Timea; and Athalie said, "Now I will try it
+on; I should like to see how it would suit me."
+
+She required the help of the stays to squeeze her waist into the dress,
+which gave her splendid figure an even more magnificent "contour." She
+also put on the wreath and looked at herself in the glass. Timea sighed
+deeply, and whispered to Athalie, in tones of undisguised admiration,
+"How lovely, how lovely you are!"
+
+It might, perhaps, have been time now to make an end of this deception.
+But no--she must drain the cup. First, because she is so forward; and
+then, because she is so stupid. She must be punished. So the
+contemptuous farce was carried on the whole day by all the household.
+The poor child's head swam with all the congratulations. She listened
+for Herr Katschuka, and ran away when she saw him coming.
+
+Did he know what was going on? Quite possibly. Did it vex him? Perhaps
+it did not even vex him. Very likely he knew things of which the
+laughers did not dream, and awaited the important day with perfect
+indifference.
+
+On the last morning before the marriage, Athalie said to Timea, "To-day
+you must fast entirely. To-morrow is a very solemn day for you. You will
+be led to the altar, and there first baptized and then married; so you
+must fast the whole of the day before, in order to go purified to the
+altar."
+
+Timea obeyed this direction, and ate not a morsel for the entire day.
+
+It is well known that all these adopted children have excellent
+appetites. Nature demands its rights; and the love of good things is the
+only desire which they have a chance of satisfying. But Timea conquered
+that appetite. She sat at dinner and supper without touching anything,
+and yet they had purposely prepared her favorite dishes.
+
+In the anteroom the maids and the cook tried to persuade her to eat
+secretly the delicacies which they had put aside for her, telling her
+she might break her fast if no one knew it. She would not be persuaded,
+and controlled her hunger. She helped to prepare the tarts and jellies
+for the wedding feast; a mass of tempting and luscious cakes lay before
+her, but she never touched one. And yet Athalie's example, who also was
+busy with the preparations for the next day, showed her that it is quite
+permissible to take a taste when one has a chance. She must keep her
+fast. She went early to bed, saying she felt chilly. And so she was, and
+trembled with cold even under her quilt and could not sleep. Athalie
+heard her teeth chattering, and was cruel enough to whisper in her ear,
+"To-morrow at this time where will you be?"
+
+How should the poor child sleep, when all the slumbering feeling which
+at this age lie in the chrysalis stage were being prematurely scared
+into life?
+
+Timea lay till dawn in a fever, and slumber never closed her eyes.
+Toward day-break she slept heavily; a leaden hand lay on her limbs, and
+even the noise which went on around her in the morning did not rouse
+her.
+
+And this was the marriage-day!
+
+Athalie ordered the servants to let Timea sleep on; she herself let down
+the window curtains that the room might be dark: Timea was only to be
+awakened when Athalie was already dressed in all her bridal array. That
+required much time, for she wished to appear to-day in the whole panoply
+of her beauty. From far and near numerous relations and friends had
+arrived to assist at the marriage of the rich Brazovics' only daughter,
+the prettiest girl for seven parishes round.
+
+The guests were already beginning to assemble in the house of the bride.
+Her mother, Frau Sophie, had been squeezed into her new dress, and into
+her even more uncomfortable new shoes, by which her desire to get the
+day over was much increased.
+
+The bridegroom had also arrived, with a beaming countenance, and polite
+as usual; but this cheerful aspect did not mean much--it was only part
+of his gala uniform. He had brought the bouquet for the bride. At that
+time camellias were unknown; the bouquet was composed of various colored
+roses. Herr Katschuka said as he presented it that he offered roses to
+the rose. As a reward, he received a proud smile from the radiant face.
+
+Only two were wanting--Timea and Herr Brazovics.
+
+Timea was not missed; no one asked after her. But every one waited most
+impatiently for Herr Brazovics. It was said that he had gone very early
+to the castle to see the governor, and his return was impatiently
+expected. Even the bride went several times to the window and looked out
+for papa's carriage.
+
+Only the bridegroom showed no anxiety. But where could Herr Brazovics
+be? Yesterday evening he had been in a very good temper. He had been
+amusing himself with his friends, and invited all his acquaintances to
+the wedding. Late in the night he had knocked at Herr Katschuka's
+window, and called to him, instead of "Good-night," "The hundred
+thousand gulden will be all ready to-morrow." And he had good reason to
+be in such a merry mood. The governor of the fortress had informed him
+that the plans had been accepted to their full extent by the war
+department: the expropriation was arranged. Even the money had been paid
+for that part which lay on the ground between the two river branches;
+and the others concerned had received notice that this very night they
+would obtain the signature of the minister. It was as good as having the
+money in one's pocket. The next morning, Herr Brazovics could hardly
+await the usual hour of reception, and arrived so early in the
+ante-chamber of the governor, that no one else was there. The governor
+did not keep him waiting, but called him in at once.
+
+"A little misfortune," said he.
+
+"Well, if it is not a great one--"
+
+"Have you ever heard of the privy council?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Nor I. For fifteen years I never heard it spoken of. But it does exist,
+and has just given a sign of life. As I told you, the minister had
+agreed to the execution of the fortifications and the necessary purchase
+of land. Then from some unknown source evidence was brought forward by
+which many disadvantageous circumstances were discovered. It would not
+do to compromise the minister, so they called the council together,
+which had not been heard of for fifteen years, except when its members
+drew their salary and had their band to play. The council, when this
+questionable affair was submitted to it, found a wise solution: it
+agreed to the decision in principle, but divided its execution into two
+parts. The fortifications on the river-side are to be provided for at
+once, but the Monostor section is only to be begun when the other is
+finished. So the owners of the Monostor land will have the pleasure of
+waiting eighteen or twenty years for their money. Good-morning, Herr
+Brazovics."
+
+Herr Athanas could not utter a syllable. There was no help for it. The
+profit so certainly counted on was gone--gone also those other hundred
+thousand gulden which were buried in vineyards of no value, which are
+now worthless. He saw all his castles in the air destroyed: his
+beautiful house, his cargo-ships on the Danube, the lighted church with
+the brilliant company, they were only a _fata morgana_, blown away with
+the mirage of the Monostor forts by the first puff of wind--melted into
+nothing, like the light cloud which obscures the sun.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ah! here comes Timea!
+
+At last she had had her sleep out. In the twilight of the curtained room
+it had taken her long to rouse herself; she dressed like one in a
+feverish dream, and groped sleepily through the adjoining rooms, all
+empty, till she came to the one where Athalie had dressed. When she
+entered the bright room full of flowers and presents, she remembered for
+the first time that this was her wedding-day.
+
+When she saw Herr Katschuka with the bouquet in his hand, the thought
+shot across her that this was the bridegroom; and when she cast a glance
+on Athalie she thought, "That is my wedding-dress." As she stood there
+in her astonishment, with wide eyes and open mouth, she was a sight for
+laughing and weeping.
+
+The servants, the guests, Frau Sophie, could not contain their
+merriment.
+
+But Athalie stepped forward majestically, took hold of the little
+thing's delicate chin with her white-gloved hand, and said, smiling,
+"To-day, my little treasure, you must allow me to be the one to go to
+the altar. You, my child, must go to school and wait five years before
+you are married, if indeed any one proposes to you."
+
+Timea stood as if petrified, and let her folded hands fall into her lap.
+She did not blush or become paler. There was no name for what she felt.
+
+Perhaps Athalie knew that this cruel jest was not calculated to enhance
+her charms, and tried to lessen its effect. "Come, Timea," she said; "I
+only waited for you. Come and put on my veil."
+
+The bridal veil!
+
+Timea took the veil with stiffened fingers, and went toward Athalie. It
+was to be fastened to her hair with a golden arrow.
+
+Timea's hand trembled, and the arrow was heavy: it would not go through
+the thick hair. At an impatient movement of Athalie's its blunt point
+pricked the lovely bride's head slightly.
+
+"You are too stupid for anything!" cried Athalie, angrily, and struck
+Timea on the hand. Her eyebrows contracted. Scolded, struck, on such a
+day, and in the presence of that man! Two heavy drops formed in her eyes
+and rolled down her white cheek. I trow those two drops turned the scale
+held by the Great Judge's hand, from which happiness and misery are
+measured out to man.
+
+Athalie tried to excuse her hastiness by her feverish excitement. A
+bride may be pardoned if she is nervous and irritable at the last
+moment. The witnesses, the bride-maids, are ready, and the bride's
+father has not yet arrived.
+
+Every one was uneasy; only the bridegroom was quite composed.
+
+A message had come from the church that the pope was ready and waiting
+for the bridal pair. Already the bells are ringing, as is the custom at
+grand weddings. Athalie's heart beats high with vexation that her father
+does not come. One messenger after another is sent for him. At last his
+glass coach is seen approaching. Here he is at last!
+
+The bride steps up to the mirror once more, to see if her veil falls in
+the right folds. She puts her bracelets and necklace straight.
+
+Meanwhile, a curious sound is heard below, as if many people were
+rushing upstairs together. Mysterious noises and smothered exclamations
+are heard in the next room; every one presses thither; the bride-maids
+and friends run out to see what it is; but it is remarkable that none of
+them return.
+
+Athalie hears her mother scream. Well, she generally screams even when
+she is talking quietly.
+
+"Do see what has happened," says Athalie to her bridegroom.
+
+The captain goes out, and Athalie remains alone with Timea, the
+suppressed whispering grows louder. At last even Athalie becomes uneasy.
+
+The bridegroom returns. He remains standing at the open door, and says
+thence to his bride, "Herr Brazovics is dead."
+
+The bride throws her arms into the air and falls swooning backward. If
+Timea had not caught her in her arms, she would have struck her head on
+the marble table behind her. The lovely, haughty face of the bride is
+whiter even than Timea's; and Timea, while she holds Athalie's head on
+her breast, thinks, "See how the beautiful wedding-dress lies in the
+dust!"
+
+The bridegroom stands at the door and looks at Timea, then turning away
+suddenly, he leaves the house amid the universal confusion.
+
+He does not even take the trouble to lift his bride from the ground.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+TIMEA.
+
+
+"How the beautiful dress lies in the dust!"
+
+Instead of the wedding feast there followed the funeral banquet, and in
+the place of the embroidered robe came the mourning garments.
+
+Black! The color which makes rich and poor alike.
+
+Athalie and Timea were dressed alike in black. And if the mourning had
+consisted only in the wearing of its outward garb! But with the sudden
+death of Herr Athanas, all the birds of ill omen had collected, as the
+ravens come and sit in long lines on the roof before a great storm.
+
+The first croak was, that the bridegroom sent back his engagement-ring.
+He did not appear at the funeral to lend his bride a supporting arm as
+she followed the coffin half fainting; for in this little town it was
+the custom that the mourners, whether gentle or simple, should follow
+their dead on foot and with bare heads to the burial-ground.
+
+There were some who blamed this course of action in Katschuka, and did
+not consider it an excuse that, as Herr Brazovics had not kept to the
+condition of handing over the dowry beforehand, the bridegroom was
+justified in considering himself freed from his obligations. There are a
+few narrow-minded people who can find no excuse for such a withdrawal.
+Then came the ravens and sat on the roof. One creditor after another
+appeared and demanded his money. And then the whole house of cards
+collapsed.
+
+The first who spoke of a suit at law blew the concern into the air. When
+once the avalanche begins to roll, it never stops till it gets to the
+foot of the hill.
+
+It was soon ascertained that the fears of the bridegroom, who had got
+safely away, were only too well founded. In the affairs of Herr
+Brazovics there figured so many investments apparently sound but really
+unprofitable, such false calculations, unsecured debts, and imaginary
+securities, that when order was brought into this chaos, the whole
+property did not suffice to satisfy the creditors. Besides, it came to
+light that he had used moneys intrusted to his honor: orphans' capital,
+church endowments, hospital funds, the deposits of his ship captains.
+The floods rose over the roof of the house, and these floods brought
+mire and dirt with them; and what they left behind was--shame.
+
+Timea too lost her whole property. The orphan's trust-money had never
+been invested at all.
+
+Every day lawyers, magistrates' clerks, bailiffs, came to the house.
+They sealed each box and closet; they did not ask the ladies for
+permission to visit them; unannounced they bounced in at any hour of the
+day, ransacked the rooms, and gave vent to reproaches and curses on the
+dead man, so loud that the mourning women could not but hear them. All
+they found in the house was taken out in turn and appraised, down to the
+pictures, with and without their frames; even the wedding-dress, without
+a bride, did not escape this fate. And then they decided on the date,
+and had it posted on the door, on which everything was to be sold by
+auction--everything, not excepting the embroidered dress. The last lot
+would be the house itself; and when it was sold the former owners could
+go their way wheresoever they chose, and the beautiful Athalie might
+look up to Heaven and ask where she was henceforth to lay her haughty
+head. Where indeed?--she, the orphaned daughter of a fraudulent
+bankrupt, to whom not even her good name was left, whom no one wanted,
+not even herself. Of all the treasures she possessed, only two valuable
+souvenirs remained which she had hidden from the bailiffs--an onyx box
+and the returned engagement-ring. The box she had concealed in her
+pocket; and when alone at night, she drew it out and looked at its
+precious contents. There were all sorts of poison in it. By some odd
+freak, Athalie had bought it in one of her Italian journeys, and while
+it was in her possession she thought she could defy the world. She
+imagined herself able to destroy her own life at any moment, and this
+idea made her feel as a despot to her parents and her lover. If they do
+not do all she wishes, the box is there; she need only choose the
+swiftest poison, and in the morning they would find her a corpse. Now a
+great temptation assailed her; life lay before her as a desolate waste;
+the father had made his child a beggar, and the bridegroom had forsaken
+his bride.
+
+Athalie rose from her bed: she looked into the open box, and sought
+among the various poisons.
+
+Then she suddenly discovered that she was afraid of death! She had not
+strength to cast life away; she gazed at herself in the glass--was all
+that beauty to be annihilated?
+
+She shut the box and put it away. Then she brought out the other jewel,
+the ring. There is a poison in that too, and of a yet more deadly sort,
+for it kills the soul. But she has the courage to swallow it--to
+intoxicate herself with it. She had loved the man who gave her this
+ring--not only so, but she was still madly in love with him. The
+poison-box gives bad advice--the ring even worse. Athalie begins to
+dress; there is no one to help her--the servants have all left the
+house, Frau Sophie and Timea are sleeping in the maids' room; the
+official seal has been attached to the doors of the public apartments.
+Athalie does not wake the sleepers, but dresses alone. How far the night
+has passed she can not tell; no one winds up the splendid clocks, now
+that they are to pass under the hammer. One points to eight o'clock,
+another to three, but it does not matter. Athalie finds the key of the
+street-door, and creeps out, leaving all open behind her. Who is likely
+to be robbed? and besides, who would, like her, venture alone in the
+dark streets?
+
+At that time the streets of Komorn were decidedly dark at night. One
+lamp at the Trinity pillar, one at the town-hall, and a third at the
+main guard--no others anywhere. Athalie takes the road to the Promenade,
+the so-called Anglia. It is a region of evil reputation. A dark lane
+between the town and the fort, in which at night fallen women with
+painted faces and disheveled hair loiter, when they are driven from
+their haunts on the "little square." Athalie is sure to meet such
+creatures if she goes by the Anglia. But she is not afraid. The poison
+she sucked out of the golden ring has taken away from her fear of these
+impure forms. One only shrinks from the gutter as long as one has kept
+clear of it.
+
+At the corner stands a sentry: she must try to creep past him without
+being seen and challenged.
+
+The corner house has a colonnade leading to the square. Here in the
+day-time the bread-sellers have their stand. Athalie chooses her path
+through this arcade, as it hides her from the sentry's eyes.
+
+In walking quickly she stumbled over something. It was a ragged woman,
+quite drunk, lying across the threshold. The half-human creature whom
+her foot touched gave vent to filthy curses. Athalie took no notice, but
+stepped aside from the obstacle; she felt easier when she turned the
+corner toward the Promenade. The light of the main-guard lamp had now
+disappeared, and she found herself under the gloom of the trees. Through
+the juniper-bushes shone a ray from a lighted window. Athalie followed
+that guiding star. There lay the dwelling of the engineer officer. She
+seized the lion-headed knocker at the little door, over which was
+painted the double eagle; her hand trembled as she raised it in order to
+knock gently, and at the sound the soldier-servant came out and opened
+to her.
+
+"Is the captain in?" asked Athalie.
+
+The fellow nodded, grinning. Yes--he was at home. He had often seen
+Athalie, and many a pretty bright coin had rolled into his hand from her
+delicate fingers, when he carried the beautiful lady flowers or choice
+fruit from his master.
+
+The captain was up and at work; his room was simply furnished, without
+any luxury. On the walls hung maps and surveying instruments; the
+strictest military simplicity surprise the in-comer, as well as a
+penetrating smell of tobacco, which adhered to the books and furniture,
+and was perceptible even when no one was smoking. Athalie had never seen
+the captain's room. The house to which he was to have taken her on their
+marriage-day was very different, but it had been taken possession of by
+the creditors with all its contents on that very morning. She had only
+looked in at the window when she walked with her mother on the Promenade
+in the afternoon to hear the band play.
+
+Herr Katschuka started up in alarm. He was not prepared for a lady's
+visit; the three top buttons of his violet tunic were unbuttoned,
+contrary to regulations, and he had laid aside his horsehair cravat.
+Athalie remained standing at the door with hanging arms and her head
+down: the captain hastened to her.
+
+"In God's name, fraulein, what are you doing here? What are you here
+for?" She could not speak--she sunk on his breast and sobbed wildly. He
+did not embrace her. "Sit down, fraulein," said he, leading her to the
+plain leather sofa, and then his first care was to put on his cravat
+again. He drew a chair near the divan and sat down opposite Athalie.
+"What do you want, fraulein?"
+
+She dried her tears and looked with her radiant eyes long at the
+captain, as if thus to tell him why she came. Will he not understand?
+
+No, he understood nothing. When she was obliged to break silence, she
+began to tremble as if with ague.
+
+"Sir," she said, with a quivering voice, "as long as I was prosperous,
+you were very devoted to me. Is nothing left of that affection?"
+
+"Fraulein," answered Katschuka, with cold politeness, "I shall always be
+your devoted friend. The blow which fell on you struck me too--we have
+both lost our all. I am in despair, for I see no means of resuscitating
+my hopes reduced to ashes. My profession imposes conditions on me which
+I can not fulfill: it is not allowed to those of us who have no private
+means to marry."
+
+"I know it," said Athalie, "and it was not that which I wished to
+suggest to you. We are now very poor, but there may be some favorable
+turn in our lot. My father has a rich uncle in Belgrade whose heirs we
+are; at his death we shall be rich again. I will wait for you--do you
+wait for me. Take back your ring--take me to your mother, and let me
+stay with her as your betrothed. I will wait for you till you fetch me
+away, and will be a good daughter to your mother."
+
+Herr Katschuka sighed so deeply that he nearly blew out the light which
+stood before him. "Alas, fraulein," said he, taking up the golden circle
+from the table, "that is, unhappily, quite impossible. You little know
+my mother. She is an ambitious woman--an inaccessible nature. She lives
+on a small pension, and loves no one. You have no idea what struggles I
+have had with my mother about my _affaires du coeur_. She is a baroness
+by birth, and has never consented to this union. She would not come to
+our marriage. I could not take you to her, fraulein--on your account I
+have quarreled with her."
+
+Athalie's breast heaved feverishly, her face glowed; she seized with
+both her hands that of her faithless bridegroom, on which the ring was
+wanting, and whispered, while tears ran down her cheeks, so low that
+even the deaf walls could not hear, "You--you have braved your mother
+for me: I will defy the whole world for you!"
+
+Katschuka dared not meet the speaking eyes of the lovely woman. He drew
+geometrical figures on the table with the golden circle he still held,
+as if he would decipher from their angles of incidence the difference
+between love and madness.
+
+The girl continued in a whisper, "I am already so deeply humiliated that
+no shame can bring me lower; I have no more to lose in this world. If
+you were not here, I should have already killed myself. I belong not to
+myself, but to you--say, what shall I be to you? I have lost my senses,
+and all is the same to me; kill me, if you choose--I will not stir."
+
+Herr Katschuka, during this passionate speech, had worked out the
+problem of what he was to answer. "Fraulein Athalie, I will speak
+frankly--you know I am an honest man."
+
+Athalie had not asked him about that.
+
+"An honest and chivalrous man would be ashamed to take advantage of the
+misfortune of a woman for the satisfaction of his lowest passions. I
+will give you good advice as a well-meaning friend, as one who has a
+boundless respect for you. You tell me you have an uncle in Belgrade: go
+to him. He is your blood relation, and must receive you in a friendly
+way. I give you my word of honor that I will not marry, and if we meet
+again I shall always bring you the same feelings which for years I have
+experienced toward you."
+
+He told no lie when he gave this promise. But from what his face showed
+at this moment, Athalie could read what he did not say--that the captain
+neither now nor for years past had loved her, that he loved another, and
+if this other was poor and made a beggar, he had good reason to promise
+on his word of honor that he would not marry. This it was which Athalie
+read in the cool expressions of her faithless bridegroom. And then
+something flashed through her brain like lightning. Her eyes flashed
+too.
+
+"Will you come to-morrow," she asked him, "to escort me to my uncle in
+Belgrade?"
+
+"I will come," Katschuka hastened to reply. "But now go home. Did any
+one come with you?"
+
+"I came quite alone."
+
+"What imprudence! Who is to take you back?"
+
+"You need not," she said, bitterly. "If at this hour any one saw us
+together, what a scandal it would be--for you. I can walk alone. I am
+not afraid. I have no longer anything worth stealing."
+
+"My servant shall follow you."
+
+"He shall do nothing of the sort. The patrol might arrest the poor
+devil. After the last post he must not be seen in the streets. I will
+find my way alone. So then--to-morrow--"
+
+"I will be with you by eight o'clock."
+
+Athalie wrapped herself in her black cloak, and hurried away before
+Katschuka had time to open the door for her. It seemed to her as if the
+captain was putting on his sword almost before she had left his door. Is
+he perhaps going to follow her in the distance?
+
+She stopped at the corner of the Anglia, but no one was following. She
+ran home in the darkness, and as she hastened through the deep night she
+concocted a plan in her head. If only the captain once sits by her in
+the carriage, if he goes with her to Belgrade, he will see that no power
+on earth can deliver him from her. As she passed through the long
+market-hall, she stumbled again over the same female figure as it lay on
+the stones. This time it did not awake nor curse her. What sound sleep
+these wretches enjoy! But when Athalie got to the door of her home, a
+thought sunk like lead into her mind. What if the captain was only so
+ready with his promise of escorting her to Belgrade in order to get rid
+of her? What if he does not come to-morrow, either at eight or later? A
+torturing jealousy excited her nerves. When she reached the anteroom,
+she felt about on the table for the candle and matches she had left
+there. Instead of these her hand touched a knife--a sharp cook's knife
+with a heavy handle. This also sheds light on darkness. She grasped the
+knife and walked up and down. Her teeth chattered: the thought was
+working in her, how if she were to drive this knife into the heart of
+that girl with the white face, who sleeps beside her? That would be an
+end of them both. They would convict her of the murder, and so she would
+get out of the world.
+
+But Timea is not sleeping there now.
+
+Athalie only remembered when she had gone to the bed in which Timea
+usually slept, that she was sleeping with Frau Sophie to-night. The
+knife fell from her hand, and then she was frightened. She began to feel
+how lonely she was, how dark was all around her, dark too in her own
+soul.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The roll of a drum awoke Athalie out of a distressing dream. She dreamed
+of a young lady who had murdered her rival, and was led to the place of
+execution. Already she knelt on the scaffold, the headsman with his
+naked sword stood behind her, the judge read the sentence and said,
+"With God there is pardon." The drum beat, then Athalie awoke.
+
+It was the auctioneer's drum. The bidding had begun; but that drum is
+even more dreadful than the one which gives the signal of death. To
+listen, when the voice which penetrates even to the street calls out the
+well-known old favorite things which only yesterday were our own! "Once,
+twice; any advance?" and then "thrice!" and the drum rolls and the
+hammer falls. Then it begins again, "Once, twice; any advance?"
+
+Athalie put on her mourning-dress, the only one left to her, and went to
+find some one. There were only her mother and Timea to look for. They
+would probably be in the kitchen.
+
+Both had long been up and dressed. Frau Sophie was as round as a tub.
+Knowing well enough that no one would search her, she had put on a dozen
+dresses one over the other, and hidden a few napkins and silver spoons
+in her pockets. She could hardly move. Timea was in her simple black
+every-day dress, and was preparing warm milk and coffee. At the sight of
+Athalie, Frau Sophie broke into loud sobs, and hung on her neck. "Oh, my
+dear, darling, pretty daughter! What have we come to, and what will
+become of us? Oh, that we had not lived to see this day! This dreadful
+drum woke you, I suppose?"
+
+"Is it not yet eight o'clock?" asked Athalie. The kitchen clock was
+still going.
+
+"Not eight? Why, the auction began at nine. Can you not hear it?"
+
+"Has no one been to see us?"
+
+"Silly idea! Why, who should visit us at such a time?"
+
+Athalie said no more, but sat down on the bench--the same little seat on
+which Frau Sophie had described to Timea the splendid wedding ceremony.
+
+Timea prepared the breakfast, toasted the bread, and laid the kitchen
+table for the two ladies. Athalie did not heed the invitation, however
+much pressed by Frau Sophie. "Drink, my dear, my own pretty! Who knows
+where we shall get coffee to-morrow? The whole world is against us, and
+every one abuses and curses us. What will become of us?" But that did
+not hinder her from gulping down her cup of coffee. Athalie was thinking
+of the journey to Belgrade, and of her expected traveling companion.
+
+Frau Sophie's mind was much occupied with original notions on easy modes
+of death. "If there were only a pin in the coffee that it might stick in
+my throat and choke me." Then the wish arose that the flat-iron would
+fall down from the shelf as she passed and crush her skull. She would be
+glad, too, if one of the earthquakes which occasionally occur in Komorn
+would happen now, and bury the house and all in it. As, however, none of
+these ways of dying came to pass, and Athalie would not speak, there was
+nothing left but to vent her wrath on Timea. "She takes it easily, the
+ungrateful creature! She is not even crying; indeed it is easy for her
+to laugh--she can go to service, or work with a milliner and keep
+herself; she will be glad to be quit of us, and live on her own hook.
+You just wait, you will soon have to remember us. You'll be
+sorry--before a year is over you'll repent fast enough." Timea had done
+nothing to repent of, but Frau Sophie saw it in the future, and her
+anger was only surpassed by the grief she felt about Athalie. "What will
+become of you, you sweet and only darling? Who will take care of you?
+What will become of your pretty white hands?"
+
+"There, go and leave me in peace," said Athalie, shaking her lamenting
+mother off her neck. "Go and look out of the window and see if any one
+is coming up to us."
+
+"Nobody, nobody!--who should be coming?"
+
+Time went on; drum and bid succeeded each other; whenever the kitchen
+clock struck, Athalie started up, and then let her head fall into her
+hands again and stared before her. The roses on her cheeks took a violet
+shade, her lips were blue, an olive shadow darkened her exquisite face;
+her staring eyes, with deep marks below them, her swollen lips, her
+painfully contracted eyebrows, turned the ideal beauty into an image of
+horror. She sat like a fallen angel driven from heaven. It was already
+noon, and he for whom she waited never came. The noise of the sale came
+nearer and nearer. The auctioneer went from room to room; they had begun
+in the outer rooms, now they were coming to the reception-rooms, at
+whose far end was the kitchen.
+
+Frau Sophie, in spite of her despair, had her senses about her enough to
+notice that the bidding was very quick. Hardly was anything put up
+before the drum beat, and "any advance?" was cried. The buyers standing
+in groups complained, "No one has a chance--the man is mad. Who can this
+fool be?"
+
+Now only the kitchen department is left, but no one enters it. Outside,
+the drum is heard, "No one will give more?" It has been bought as a
+whole, unseen--by some fool.
+
+It struck Frau Sophie, too, that people did not hasten to fetch the lots
+they bought out of the rooms, as usual at an auction; here nothing is
+touched. Now comes the principal lot, and every one goes down to the
+yard, for the house itself is being put up. The buyers press round the
+table of the official auctioneer; the upset price is named. Then some
+one makes an offer in a low voice. Among the crowd arises a confused
+noise, tones of astonishment, laughter, hissing; the people scatter, and
+again one hears, "He must be a fool." Grumbling and angry, all go away.
+"Once, twice, thrice!" the hammer falls. The house has found a
+purchaser.
+
+"Now it's time to go, my sweet darling daughter. We will look out for
+the last time. If only the tower of St. John's Church would fall and
+crush us all together!" But Athalie sat on the bench, waiting and
+waiting, and looking at the clock. It points to two. One little ray of
+hope still shone through the Egyptian darkness--perhaps it was the dread
+of pushing through the crowd of bidders which had kept the captain from
+coming; perhaps he will appear as soon as the yard is clear.
+
+"Don't you hear some one coming?"
+
+"No, my beauty, I hear nothing."
+
+"Yes, mother, I hear some one creeping upstairs gently, on tiptoe."
+
+In truth soft steps approach. Some one knocks at the kitchen door, like
+a polite visitor who begs permission to enter, and waits till it is
+given him; and then the door opens gently, and in comes, with hat off,
+and courteous bow--Michael Timar Levetinczy. He remained standing near
+the door after saluting the ladies. Athalie rose with an expression of
+disappointment and hatred; Frau Sophie wrung her hands, and looked up
+with a mixture of hope and fear; Timea met his gaze with gentle
+calmness.
+
+"I," began Timar, sending his "I" in advance like a pope in his bull--"I
+have had this house and all its saleable contents knocked down to me at
+the auction. I did not buy it for myself, but for the one person in it
+who is not to be bought, and yet is the only treasure on earth in my
+sight. . . . Fraulein Timea, from this day forward you are the mistress
+of this house. Everything in it belongs to you--the clothes, the jewels
+in the wardrobes, the horses in the stable, the securities in the
+safe--all is inscribed in your name, and the creditors are satisfied.
+You are the owner of the house--accept it from me; and if there is a
+corner in it where there is room for a quiet fellow who would only
+impose on you his respect and admiration, and if this corner could be
+given to me--if there was a little shelter for me in your heart, and you
+did not refuse my hand--then I should be only too happy, and would swear
+that the whole aim of my life would be to make you as happy as you made
+me."
+
+Timea's face beamed at these words with maidenly pride. A mixture of
+inexpressible pain, noble gratitude, and holy sacrifice lighted up her
+countenance. "Thrice, thrice," her lips stammered, but without a sound,
+only her sympathetic nerves heard what she wanted to utter. This man had
+so often saved her; he was always so good to her; he had never made
+sport of her, nor flattered her, and now he gives her all her heart
+could desire. All? No, all but one thing, and that is gone; it belongs
+to another.
+
+Timar waited quietly for an answer. Timea remained silent.
+
+"Do not answer hastily, Fraulein Timea," he said. "I will await your
+decision. I will come to-morrow, or in a week, or whenever you like to
+give me an answer. You are mistress of all I have handed over to you; I
+attach no conditions to it; it is all registered in your name. If you do
+not wish to see me here again, it only costs you one word; take a week
+or a month or a year to consider what you will answer."
+
+Timea stepped forward with decision from behind the stove where the
+other two women had pushed her, and approached Michael.
+
+In her manner lay a precocious gravity, which lent to her face a womanly
+dignity. Since that eventful wedding-day she had ceased to be a child;
+she had become serious and silent. She looked calmly into Michael's
+face, and said, "I have already decided."
+
+Frau Sophie listened with envious malice for Timea's answer. If only she
+would say to Timar, "I don't want you--go away!" Anything is possible
+from such an idiot of a girl, who has had another man put in her head.
+And if Timar, just to revenge himself, were to say, "Well then, stay as
+you are; you shall have neither the house nor my hand, I will offer both
+to Fraulein Athalie"--and if he were to marry Athalie! As if cases had
+not been heard of in which an honest lover was refused by some stuck-up
+girl, and then out of pique offered his hand to the governess, or
+proposed to the housemaid on the spot! This hope of Frau Sophie's,
+however, was not destined to be fulfilled.
+
+Timea gave her hand to Timar, and said in a low but firm voice, "I
+accept you as my husband."
+
+Michael grasped the offered hand--not with the fire of a passionate
+lover, but with the homage of a man, and looked long into the unearthly
+beauty of the girl's eyes.
+
+And the girl allowed him to read her soul. She repeated her words: "I
+accept you as my husband, and will be a faithful and obedient wife; I
+only ask one favor--you will not refuse me?"
+
+Happiness made Michael forget that a merchant should never sign his name
+to a blank sheet of paper. "Oh, speak! what you desire is already done."
+
+"My request is," said Timea, "if you take me to wife, and this house
+becomes yours again, and I the mistress in your house, that you should
+allow my adopted mother who received me, an orphan, and my adopted
+sister with whom I have grown up, to remain here with me. Regard them as
+my mother and sister, and treat them as kindly."
+
+An involuntary tear fell from Timar's eye. Timea noticed it, seized his
+right hand with hers, and made a new attack on his heart. "You will, I
+know you will do as I ask you; and you will give back to Athalie all
+that was hers?--her nice clothes and jewels; and she will stay with us,
+and you will be the same to her as if she were my own sister; and you
+will treat Mamma Sophie as I do, and call her mother?"
+
+Frau Sophie, hearing this, began to sob aloud. She sunk on her knees
+before Timea, and covered her hands, her dress, even her feet with
+unceasing kisses, while she murmured broken and inaudible words.
+
+In the next moment Timar was himself again, and the far-seeing vision
+came to his aid, which at any critical time raised him above his rivals.
+His quick invention whispered to him what must be done to provide
+against future complications. He took Timea's little hands in his. "You
+are a noble creature, Timea. You will permit me henceforward to call you
+by your name? and I will not disgrace your good heart. Stand up, Mamma
+Sophie; do not cry; tell Athalie she might come nearer to me. I will do
+more than Timea asked, for love of her, and for you two; I will provide
+for Athalie not only a place of refuge, but a happy home of her own; I
+will pay the deposit for her bridegroom, and give her the dowry which
+her father had promised to her. May they be happy together."
+
+Timar had foreseen things still below the horizon, and thought that no
+sacrifice would be too great to get the two women out of the house and
+away from Timea, and to manage that the handsome captain should be
+married to the lovely Athalie.
+
+But now it was his turn to be overwhelmed with kisses and gratitude by
+Frau Sophie. "Oh, Herr von Levetinczy! Oh, dear, generous Herr von
+Levetinczy! let me kiss your hand, your feet, your clever head." And she
+did as set forth in her programme, and kissed besides his shoulders,
+coat-collar, and his back, at last embracing both Timar and Timea in her
+arms, and bestowing her valuable blessing upon them. "Be happy
+together!"
+
+It was impossible to help laughing at the way the poor woman expressed
+her joy. But Athalie poisoned all their pleasure.
+
+Proud as a fallen angel who is asked to return, and who prefers
+damnation to humbling her pride, she turned away from Timar, and said in
+a voice choked with passion, "I thank you, sir. But I never wish to hear
+of Herr Katschuka again, either in this world or the next! I will never
+be his wife; I will remain here with Timea--as her servant."
+
+
+
+
+_BOOK THIRD.--THE OWNERLESS ISLAND._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE MARRIAGE OF THE MARBLE STATUE.
+
+
+Timar was intensely happy at being engaged to Timea.
+
+The unearthly beauty of the girl had captivated his heart at first
+sight. He admired her then, and afterward the sweet nature which he
+learned to appreciate won his respect. The shameful trick played on her
+in the house of Brazovics awoke in him a chivalrous sympathy. The airy
+courtship of the captain aroused his jealousy; all these were symptoms
+of love, and at last he had reached the goal of his wishes: the lovely
+maiden was his, and would be his wife.
+
+And a great burden was lifted from his soul--self-reproach; for from the
+day when Timar found the treasures of Ali Tschorbadschi in the sunken
+ship, his peace was gone. After each brilliant success of any of his
+undertakings, the voice of the accuser rose in his breast "This does not
+belong to you--it was the property of an orphan which you usurped. You a
+lucky man? You a man of gold? It is not true! Benefactor of the poor?
+Not true! Not true! You are a thief!"
+
+Now the suit is decided. The inward judge acquits him. The defrauded
+orphan receives back her property, and in double measure, for whatever
+belongs to her husband is hers too. She will never know that the
+foundation of this great fortune was once hers; she only knows it is
+hers now--thus fate is reconciled.
+
+But is it really reconciled? Timar forgot the sophism that he offered
+Timea something besides the treasures which were hers--himself--and in
+exchange demanded the girl's heart, and that this was a deception, and
+like taking her by force.
+
+He wished to hasten the wedding. There was no need of delay on account
+of the trousseau, for he had bought everything in Vienna. Timea's
+wedding-dress was made by the best Parisian house, and the bride was not
+obliged to work at it herself for six weeks, as at that other. That
+double unlucky dress was buried in a closet which no one ever opened; it
+would never be brought out again.
+
+But other hinderances of an ecclesiastical nature presented
+themselves--Timea was still unbaptized. It was only natural that Timar
+should wish Timea, when she left the Moslem faith for Christianity, to
+enter at once the Protestant Church to which he belonged, so that they
+might worship together after their marriage. But then the Protestant
+minister announced it as an indispensable condition of conversion that
+neophytes should be instructed in the creed of that church into which
+they were to be received. Here a great difficulty arose. The Mohammedan
+religion has nothing to say to women in its dogmas. To a Moslem a woman
+is no more than a flower which fades and falls, whose soul is its
+fragrance, which the wind carries away, and it is gone. Timea had no
+creed.
+
+The very reverend gentleman found his task by no means easy when he
+tried to convince Timea of the superiority of the Christian religion. He
+had converted Jews and Papists, but he had never tried it with a Turkish
+girl.
+
+On the first day, when the minister was explaining the splendors of the
+other world, and declaring that there all who in this world had loved
+each other would be reunited, the girl put this question to him--"Would
+those meet who had loved each other, or only those whom the minister had
+united?" This was a ticklish question; but the reverend gentleman
+answered, from his own puritanical point of view, that only those could
+possibly love each other who were united by the church, and that it was
+of course impossible for those who were thus united _not_ to love each
+other. But he was careful not to repeat this question to Herr Timar.
+
+The next day Timea asked him whether her father, Ali Tschorbadschi,
+would also arrive in that world to which she was going?
+
+To this delicate question the minister was unable to give a satisfactory
+reply.
+
+"But is it not the case that I shall there still be the wife of Herr
+Levetinczy?" asked Timea, with lively curiosity. To this the Herr Pastor
+was glad to reply, with gracious readiness, that that would certainly be
+the case.
+
+"Well, then, I shall ask Herr Levetinczy, when we both go to heaven, to
+keep a little place for my father, that he may be with us; and surely he
+will not refuse me?"
+
+The reverend gentleman scratched his ear violently, and thought he had
+better lay this difficult point before the church synod.
+
+The third day he said to Timar that it would be best to baptize and
+marry the young lady at once: then her husband could give her
+instruction in the other dogmas.
+
+The next Sunday the sacred rite was celebrated. Timea then for the first
+time entered a Protestant church. The simple building, with its
+whitewashed walls and unornamented chancel, made a very different
+impression on her mind from that other church, out of which the naughty
+boys had chased her when she peeped in. There were golden altars, great
+wax tapers burning in silver candelabra, pictures, incense filling the
+air, mysterious chants, and people sinking on their knees at the sound
+of a bell. Here sat long rows of men and women apart, each with their
+book before them, and after the precentor had set the tune, all the
+congregation joined in unison. Then silence, and the minister mounted
+the high pulpit and began to preach without any ceremony. He did not
+sing, nor drink from the chalice, nor show any holy relics--only talk,
+talk on.
+
+Timea sat in the first row with her sponsors, who led her to the font,
+where another long sermon was preached. At last it was over; the
+neophyte bowed her head over the basin, and the minister baptized her,
+in the name of the Trinity, "Susanna." She wondered why she should be
+called Susanna, as she was quite satisfied with her own name.
+
+Then they all sat down again and sung the eighty-third psalm, "Oh, God
+of Israel," which awoke in Timea a slight doubt as to whether she had
+not been turned into a Jewess.
+
+All her doubts vanished, however, when another minister arose, and read
+from the chancel a document which set forth that the noble Herr Michael
+Timar von Levetinczy, of the Swiss Protestant Church, had betrothed
+himself to Fraulein Timea Susanna von Tschorbadschi, also of the Swiss
+Protestant religion.
+
+Two more weeks must pass before the marriage. Michael spent every day
+with Timea. The girl always received him with frank cordiality, and he
+was happy in his anticipations of the future. He generally found Athalie
+with his bride, but she made some pretext for leaving the room, and her
+mother look her place.
+
+Mamma Sophie entertained Michael with praises of his bride--what a dear
+girl she was, and how often she spoke of her kind, good Michael, who had
+taken such care of her on board the "St. Barbara." Sophie had heard
+every little detail, which only Timea could have known, and Michael was
+delighted to find that she remembered so well.
+
+"If you only knew, dear Levetinczy, how fond the girl is of you!" And
+Timea was not confused when she heard Frau Sophie say this. She affected
+no modest contradiction, but did not strengthen the assurance by any shy
+blushes. She allowed Timar to hold her hand in his and look into her
+eyes, and when he came and went she smiled at him.
+
+At last the wedding-day arrived. Troops of guests streamed in from all
+parts, a long row of carriages stood in the street, as on that other
+ill-omened day; but this time no misfortune occurred.
+
+The bridegroom fetched the bride out of the house of Brazovics, which
+was now her own, and took her to the church, but the wedding banquet was
+in the bridegroom's house. Frau Sophie would not be denied the task of
+arranging everything. Athalie remained at home and looked from behind
+the curtain, through the same window at which she had awaited the
+arrival of her own bridegroom, while the long row of carriages was set
+in motion.
+
+And there she waited till they all went past again after the marriage,
+bride and bridegroom now in the same carriage, and looked after them.
+And if during this time the whole congregation had prayed for the young
+couple, we may be sure that she also sent a--prayer--after them.
+
+Timea had not found the ceremony as impressive as Frau Sophie had
+described it to her. The clergyman did not wear a golden robe or miter
+himself, nor did he bring out any silver crowns to crown them as lord or
+lady to each other. The bridegroom wore a velvet coat, as nobles did
+then, with agraffes and fur on it. He looked a fine man, but he held his
+head down; he was not yet used to carry it proudly, as beseems the gala
+suit of a noble. There was no veil wound round the two, no drinking from
+the same cup, no procession round the altar and holy kiss, not even any
+altar at all; only a black-robed minister, who said wise things no
+doubt, but which had not the mysterious charm of the "Gospodi Pomiluj."
+The Protestant marriage, deprived of all ceremony, leaves the Oriental
+fancy, with its desire for excitement, quite cold. And Timea only
+understood the external ceremony as yet.
+
+The brilliant banquet came to an end; the guests went away, the bride
+remained in the bridegroom's house.
+
+When Timar was alone with Timea, when he sat by her side and took her
+hand, he felt his heart beat and its pulsation spread through his whole
+frame. . . . The unspeakable treasure which was the goal of all his
+desires is in his possession. He has only to stretch out his arm and
+draw her to his breast. He dares not do it--he is as if bound by a
+spell. The wife, the baroness, does not shrink at his approach. She does
+not tremble or glow. If only she would cast her eyes down in alarm when
+Michael's hand touched her shoulder! If only the warm reflex of a shy
+blush passed over her pale face, the spell would be broken. But she
+remains as calm and cold and passionless as a somnambulist. Michael sees
+before him the same figure which he awoke from death on that eventful
+night--the same which lay on the bed before him like an altar-picture
+which radiates cold to the spectator, and whose face never changed when
+her night-dress slipped from her shoulders, nor even when told that her
+father was dead--not even when Timar whispered into her ear, "Beloved!"
+
+She is a marble statue--a statue which bows, dresses itself, submits,
+but is not alive. She sees, but her glance neither encourages nor
+alarms. He can do what he likes with her. She allows him to let down her
+lovely bright hair, and spread the locks over her shoulders; she allows
+his lips to approach her white face, and his hot breath to touch her
+cheek: but it kindles no responsive warmth in her. Michael thinks if he
+were to press the icy form to his breast, the charm would be broken; but
+in the act of doing it, an even greater emotion overcomes him. He starts
+back as if he was about to commit a crime against which nature, his
+guardian angel, every sensitive nerve in him protested. "Timea," he
+whispered to her in caressing murmurs, "do you know that you are my
+wife?"
+
+Timea looked at him and answered, "Yes, I know it."
+
+"Do you love me?"
+
+Then she opened wide her large dark eyes, and as he looked into them it
+seemed to him as if he were granted a glimpse into all the mysteries of
+the starry heavens. Then she veils them again with her silky lashes.
+
+"Do you feel no love for me?" entreats the husband with a yearning sigh.
+
+That look again, and the pale woman asks, "What is love?"
+
+What is love? All the wise men in the world could not explain it to one
+who does not feel it. But it requires no explanation for those who have
+it within them.
+
+"Oh, you child!" sighed Timar, and rose from his wife's side.
+
+Timea rose also. "No, sir, I am no longer a child. I know what I
+am--your wife. I have sworn it to you, and God has heard my vow. I will
+be a faithful and obedient wife to you--it is appointed to me by fate.
+You have shown me so much kindness, that I owe you a lifelong gratitude.
+You are my lord and master, and I will always do what you wish and
+order."
+
+Michael turned away and covered his face. This look of self-sacrifice
+and abnegation froze all desire in his veins. Who would have the courage
+to press a martyr to his heart, the statue of a saint, with
+palm-branches and crown of thorns?
+
+"I will do what you command."
+
+Michael now first began to guess what a hollow victory he had won. He
+had married a marble statue.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE GUARDIAN DEVIL.
+
+
+It has often happened that a man has found his wife's heart to be devoid
+of all inclination toward him.
+
+And no doubt many have looked for a cure in course of time. What can one
+do in winter, except look forward to spring? As the daughter of
+Mohammedan parents, Timea had been brought up not to see the face of the
+man who was to be her husband until the wedding-day. There no one asks,
+"Do you, or do you not, love him?" neither her parents, the priest, nor
+the man himself. The husband will be good to her, and if he should find
+her out in infidelity, he will kill her. The principal thing is that she
+should have a pretty face, bright eyes, fine hair, and a sweet
+breath--no one asks about her heart. But Timea had learned in a
+different school in the house of Brazovics. There she learned that among
+the Christians love was allowed, and every opportunity given for it; but
+that any one who did fall in love was not cured like a sick person, but
+punished like a criminal. She had expiated her crime.
+
+When Timea became Timar's wife, she had schooled herself strictly, and
+forbidden every drop of her blood to speak to her of anything except her
+duties as a wife; for if she had allowed them to talk of her secret
+fancies, then each drop of blood would have persuaded her to go the same
+road on which that other girl had twice, in the darkness of the night,
+stumbled over the body of the sleeping woman, and that stumble would
+have killed her soul. She crushed and buried the feeling, and gave her
+hand to a man whom she respected, to whom she owed gratitude, and whose
+life-companion she was to remain.
+
+This story is repeated every day. And those who meet with it console
+themselves with the idea that soon the spring will come and the ice will
+melt.
+
+Michael went with his young wife to travel, and visited Italy and
+Switzerland. They returned as they went. Neither the romantic Alpine
+valleys nor the fragrant orange-groves brought balm to his heart. He
+overwhelmed his wife with all that women like, dress and jewels; he
+introduced her to the gayeties of great cities. All in vain: moonlight
+gives no heat, even through a burning glass. His wife was gentle,
+attentive, grateful, obedient; but her heart was never open to him,
+neither at home nor abroad, neither in joy nor sorrow. Her heart was
+buried.
+
+Timar had married a corpse.
+
+With this knowledge he returned from his travels. At one time he thought
+of leaving Komorn and settling in Vienna. Perhaps a new life might begin
+there. But then he thought of another plan: he decided to remain in
+Komorn and move into the Brazovics' house. There he would live with his
+wife, and arrange his own house as an office, so that business people
+might have nothing to do with the house his wife lived in. In this way
+he could be absent from home all day, without its being noticed that he
+left his wife alone.
+
+In public they always appeared together. She went into society with him,
+reminded him when it was time to leave, and departed leaning on his arm.
+Every one envied his lot; a lucky man to have such a lovely and faithful
+wife! If she were not so true and good! If he could only hate her! But
+no scandal could touch her.
+
+This spring brings no melting of her ice-bound heart. The glaciers grow
+every day. Michael cursed his fate. With all his treasures he can not
+buy his wife's love. It is all the worse for him that he is rich;
+splendor and great wealth widen the rift between them. Poverty binds
+close within its four walls those who belong to each other; laborers and
+fishermen, who have only one room and one bed, are more fortunate than
+he. The woodman, whose wife holds the other end of the saw when he is at
+work, is an enviable man: when they have finished they sit down on the
+ground, eat their bean-porridge out of one bowl, and kiss each other
+afterward.
+
+Let us become poor people!
+
+Timar began to hate his riches, and tried to get rid of them. If he was
+unfortunate and became poor, he would get nearer to his wife, he
+thought.
+
+He could not succeed in impoverishing himself. Fortune pursues those who
+despise it. Everything he touched, which with another would certainly
+have failed, became a brilliant success. In his hands the impossible
+turned to reality--the die always threw six; if he tried to lose his
+money by gambling, he broke the bank--gold streamed in upon him; if he
+ran away or hid, it rolled after him and found him out.
+
+And all this he would have joyfully given for a kiss from his wife's
+sweet lips.
+
+And yet they say money is almighty. Everything is to be had for money.
+Yes--false; lying love, bright smiles on the charming lips of such as
+feel it not--forbidden, sinful love, which must be concealed--but not
+the love of one who can love truly and faithfully.
+
+Timar almost wished he could hate his wife. He would have liked to
+believe that she loved another, that she was faithless and forgot her
+wifely duty; but he could not find any cause for hatred. No one saw his
+wife anywhere but on her husband's arm. In society she knew how to
+preserve a bearing which compelled respect, and kept bold advances at a
+distance. She did not dance at balls, and gave as a reason that when a
+girl she had not been taught to dance, and as a woman she no longer
+wished to learn. She sought the company of older women. If her husband
+went on a journey, she never left the house. But what did she at home?
+For reception-rooms in society are transparent, but not the walls of
+one's house. To this question Michael had a most convincing reply.
+
+In this house Athalie lived with Timea.
+
+Athalie was--not the guardian angel but the guardian devil of Timea's
+honor. Every step, every word, every thought of his wife, every sigh she
+uttered, every tear she shed, even the unconscious mutterings of her
+dreams, were spied upon by another woman, who hated him as well as his
+wife, and certainly would hasten to make both miserable, if a shadow of
+guilt could be found on the walls of the house.
+
+If Timea, at the moment when she begged Michael to allow Athalie and
+Frau Sophie to continue living in the same house, had listened to
+anything but the voice of her kind and feeling heart, she could not have
+invented a better protection for herself than keeping with her the girl
+who had once been the bride of the man she ought never to meet again.
+
+These pitiless and malicious eyes follow her everywhere; as long as the
+guardian devil is silent, Timea is not condemned even by God. Athalie is
+silent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Athalie was a real dragon to Timea, in small things as well as great. No
+circumstance, ever so trifling, escaped her attention if it afforded her
+a chance of playing Timea a trick. She pretended that Timea wished to
+show her generosity by treating the quondam young lady of the house as a
+sister, or like a lady visitor, which was enough to make Athalie behave
+in company as if she were a servant. Every day Timea took the broom out
+of her hand by force when she came in to clean the room; she constantly
+caught her cleaning "her mistress's" clothes, and if visitors came to
+dinner, she could not be induced to leave the kitchen. Athalie had
+received back from Timea her whole arsenal of ornaments and toilet
+necessaries. She had wardrobes full of silk and merino dresses; but she
+chose to wear her shabbiest and dirtiest gowns, which formerly she had
+put on only when the hairdresser was busy with her coiffure; and she was
+glad if she could burn a hole in her dress in the kitchen, or drop oil
+on it when she trimmed the lamp. She knew how much this hurt Timea. All
+her jewels too, worth thousands, had been restored to her: she did not
+wear them, but bought herself a paste brooch for ten kreutzers, and put
+it on. Timea took the brooch away quietly, and had a real opal put into
+it; the faded old dresses she burned, and had others made for Athalie of
+the stuff she was herself wearing.
+
+Oh, yes, one could grieve Timea, but not make her angry.
+
+Even in her way of speaking, Athalie made a parade of an insufferable
+humility, although, or rather because, she knew it hurt Timea. If the
+latter asked for anything, Athalie rushed to fetch it with an alacrity
+like that of a black slave who fears the whip. She never spoke in a
+natural tone, but annoyed Timea by always lowering her voice to the thin
+whining sound which gives an impression of servility; she stammered with
+affected weakness, and could not pronounce the letter _s_.
+
+She never let herself be surprised into forgetfulness or familiarity;
+but her most refined cruelty consisted in her unseasonable praises of
+the husband and wife to each other.
+
+When she was alone with Timea she sighed, "Oh, how happy you are, Timea,
+in having such a good husband who loves you so much!" If Timar came
+home, she received him with naive reproaches. "Is it right to stay away
+so long? Timea is quite desperate, she awaits you with such longing; go
+in gently and surprise your wife. Hold your hands over her eyes, and
+make her guess who it is."
+
+Both had to bear the derision which, under the mask of a tender,
+flattering sympathy, wounded their hearts. Athalie knew only too well
+that neither of them was happy.
+
+But when she was alone, how completely she threw off the mask with which
+she tormented the others, and gave vent to her suppressed rage. If alone
+in her room she threw the broom Timea had tried to take away furiously
+on the ground; then again beat the chairs and sofas with the handle, in
+order, as she said, to shake the dust out, but really to work off her
+anger on them. If in going out or in her dress caught in the door, or
+the sleeve on the handle, she wrenched it away with her teeth clinched,
+so that either the dress was torn or the handle dragged off, and then
+she was satisfied.
+
+Broken crockery, chipped glasses, mutilated furniture, bore witness in
+quantities to the disastrous hours they passed in her company. Poor
+Mamma Sophie avoided her own daughter, and was afraid to be left alone
+with her. She was the only person in the house who ever heard Athalie's
+natural voice, and to whom she showed the bottomless depths of the gulf
+her hatred had dug. Frau Sophie was frightened of sleeping in the same
+room with her, and in a confidential moment showed her faithful cook the
+black bruises which her daughter's hand had left on her arms. When
+Athalie came into her mother's room in the evening, she would pinch her,
+and scream in her ear, "Why did you ever give me birth?"
+
+And when at last she went to bed, after finishing her day's work with
+pretended gentleness and hidden fury, she required no one to help her.
+She tore off her clothes, dragged the knotted strings asunder,
+ill-treated her hair with hands and comb as if it was some one's else;
+then stamped on her clothes, blew out the candle, leaving a long wick to
+smolder and fill the room with its evil odor, and threw herself on her
+bed; there she bit the pillow, and tore at it with her teeth while she
+brooded over the torture she had to endure. Sleep only came to her after
+she had heard a door shut--the door of the lonely chamber of the master;
+then she was glad--then she could sleep.
+
+It could be no secret to her that the young husband and wife were not
+happy. She waited with malicious joy to see what mischief could be
+developed from it.
+
+Neither of them seemed to notice it. No quarrel ever took place; no
+complaint, not even an involuntary sigh, ever escaped either of them.
+Timea remained unchanged, only the husband grew more gloomy every day.
+He sat for hours by his wife, often holding her hands in his, but he did
+not look into her eyes, and rose to go away without a word. Men can not
+keep a secret as women can. Timar got into the habit of going away and
+fixing the day of his return, and then returning sooner than he was
+expected. Another time he surprised his wife at a moment when he was not
+looked for; he pretended a chance had brought him home, and would not
+say what he wanted. But suspicion was written on his brow. Jealousy left
+him no peace.
+
+One day Michael said at home that he had to go to Levetinczy, and could
+hardly get back in less than a month. All his preparations were made for
+a long absence. When the married couple took leave of each other with a
+kiss--a cool, conventional kiss--Athalie was present.
+
+Athalie smiled. Another would hardly have noticed the smile, or at any
+rate would not, like Michael, have marked the derision which lay in
+it--the malicious mockery at one who little knows what goes on behind
+his back. It was as if she said, "When you are once gone, you fool--!"
+
+Michael took the sting of this spiteful smile with him on his journey.
+He carried it on his heart half-way to Levetinczy; then he made his
+carriage turn round, and by midnight he was back in Komorn. In his
+house there were two extra entrances to his room, whose keys he always
+carried about with him, so that he could get in without any one knowing
+of his return. From his room he could reach Timea's through the several
+anterooms. His wife was not in the habit of locking her bedroom door.
+She was accustomed to read in bed, and the maid generally had to come
+and see whether she had not fallen asleep without putting out the light.
+On the other side, the room in which Athalie and her mother slept
+adjoined his wife's bedroom. Michael approached the door noiselessly and
+opened it cautiously. All was still; every one slept. The room was dimly
+lighted by the shaded light of a night-lamp.
+
+Michael drew the curtain aside: the same statue of a sleeping saint lay
+before him which he had once aroused to life in the cabin of the "St.
+Barbara." She seemed to be fast asleep; she did not feel his
+neighborhood; she did not see him through her downcast lashes. But a
+slumbering woman can see the man she loves even in her sleep, and with
+closed eyes. Michael bent over her breast and counted her heart-beats.
+Her heart beat with its normal calm. No suspicious symptom to be
+found--nothing to feed the hungry monster which seeks a victim.
+
+He stood long and gazed on the slumbering form. Then suddenly he
+started. Athalie stood before him, dressed, and with a candle in her
+hand. Again that insulting smile of mockery lay on her lips. "Have you
+forgotten something?" she asked in a whisper.
+
+Michael trembled like a thief caught in the act.
+
+"Hush!" said he, pointing to the sleeper, and hurried away from the bed.
+"I forgot my papers."
+
+"Shall I wake Timea that she may get them out?"
+
+Timar was angry at being detected for the first time in his life in a
+direct lie.
+
+His papers were not kept by Timea, but in his own room.
+
+"No, do not wake my wife; the papers are in my room--I only wanted the
+key."
+
+"And you have already found it?" asked Athalie, seriously, who then
+lighted the candles and officiously conducted Michael to his room.
+
+Here she put down the candle and did not go away. Michael turned
+over his papers with confusion; he could not find what he
+sought--naturally--for he knew not what to look for. At last he shut
+his desk without taking anything out. Again he was met by the hateful
+smile which from time to time played round Athalie's lips. "Do you
+wish for anything?" said Athalie, in answer to his inquiring looks.
+
+Michael remained silent.
+
+"Do you wish me to speak?"
+
+Michael felt at these words as if the world was falling on him. He dared
+not answer.
+
+"Shall I tell you of Timea?" whispered Athalie, bending nearer to him,
+and holding the stupefied man under the spell of her beautiful
+serpent-eyes.
+
+"What do you know?" asked Michael, hotly.
+
+"Everything--do you wish me to tell you?"
+
+Michael was undecided.
+
+"But I can tell you beforehand that you will be very unhappy when you
+learn what I know."
+
+"Speak!"
+
+"Very well--listen. I know as well as you do that Timea does not love
+you. But one thing I know which you do not--namely, that Timea is as
+true to you as an angel."
+
+Timar started violently.
+
+"You did not expect that from me? It would have been welcome news to
+hear from me that your wife deserved your contempt, so that you might be
+able to hate and reject her. No, sir; the marble statue you have taken
+to wife does not love you, but does not deceive you. This I only know,
+but with absolute certainty--oh, your honor is well guarded. If you had
+engaged the hundred-eyed Argus of the legend as a watchman, she could
+not be better guarded than by me. Nothing of what she does, says,
+thinks, escapes me: in the deepest recesses of her heart she can have no
+feeling hidden from me. You acted wisely in the interests of your honor
+when you took me into your house. You will not drive me out of it,
+though you hate me; for you know well that as long as I am here, the man
+whom you fear can never approach your sanctuary. I am the diamond lock
+of your house. You shall know all: when you leave town, your house is a
+cloister while you are absent; no visitors are received, neither man nor
+woman; the letters which come to your wife, you will find unopened on
+your writing-table; you can give them to her to read or throw them into
+the fire, just as you choose. Your wife never sets foot in the streets,
+she only drives out with me; her only walk is on the island, and I am
+always with her; I see her suffer, but I never hear her complain. How
+could she complain to me, who suffer the same torment, and on her
+account? For from the time when that ghostly face appeared in the house
+my misery began; till then I was happy and beloved. Do not be afraid of
+my bursting into tears; I love no longer--now I only hate, and with my
+whole soul. You can trust your house to me; you can ride through the
+world in peace; you leave me at home, and as long as you find your wife
+alive on your return you may be sure that she is faithful to you. For
+know, sir, that if she ever exchanges a friendly word with that man, or
+responds to his smile, or reads a letter from him, I would not wait for
+you, I would kill her myself, and you would only come home to her
+funeral. Now you know what you leave behind--the polished dagger which
+the madness of jealousy holds aimed at your wife's heart; and under the
+shadow of that dagger you will daily lay your head down to sleep, and
+although I inspire you with loathing, you will be forced to cling to me
+with desperation."
+
+Timar felt all his mental energy crippled under this outburst of
+demoniac passion.
+
+"I have told you all I know about Timea, about you and myself; I repeat
+once more, you have taken to wife a girl who loves another, and this
+other was once mine. It was you who took this house from me; under your
+hand my father and my property sunk into dust; and then you made Timea
+the mistress of this house. You see now what you did. Your wife is not a
+woman, but a martyr. It is not enough that you should suffer; you must
+also acquire the certainty that you have made her, for whose possession
+you strove, miserable, and that there can be no happiness for Timea as
+long as you live. With this sting in your breast you may leave your
+house, Herr Levetinczy, and you will nowhere find a balm for your
+smarting wound, and I rejoice at it with all my heart!"
+
+With glowing cheeks, gnashing teeth, and glaring eyes, Athalie bowed to
+Timar, who sunk exhausted into a chair. But the girl clinched her fist
+as if to thrust an invisible dagger into his heart.
+
+"And now--turn me out of your house if you dare!" All womanhood was
+quenched in the girl's face. Instead of a hypocritical submission, it
+was dominated by the fury of unbridled passion. "Drive me away from here
+if you dare!"
+
+And proud as a triumphant demon she left Michael's room. She had taken
+the lighted candle which was on the table away with her, and left the
+wretched husband in darkness. She had told him that she was not the
+humble servant, but the guardian devil of the house. As Timar saw the
+girl with the light in her hand go toward the door of Timea's bedroom,
+something whispered to him to spring up, seize Athalie's arm, and
+setting his foot before the threshold, to cry to her, "Remain then
+yourself in this accursed house, as I am bound by the promise I gave;
+but not with us!"
+
+And then to rush into Timea's room, as on the eventful night when the
+ship went down, to lift her in his arms from the bed, and with the cry,
+"This house is falling in, let us save ourselves!" to fly from it with
+her, and take her to some place where no one spies on her . . . this
+thought darted through his head . . . that was what he ought to have
+done.
+
+The door of the bedroom opened, and Athalie looked back once more; then
+she went in, the door shut, and Michael remained alone in the darkness.
+
+Oh, in what darkness!
+
+Then he heard the key turn twice in the lock. His fate was sealed; he
+arose and felt round in the dark for his traveling-bag. He kindled no
+light, made no noise, so that no one should awake and report that he had
+been here. When he had collected all his things, he crept softly to the
+door, shut it gently behind him, and left his own house cautiously and
+noiselessly, like a thief, like a fugitive. That girl had driven him
+away from it.
+
+Out in the street he was met by a snow shower. That is good weather for
+one who does not wish to be seen. The wind whistled through the streets,
+and drove the snowflakes into his face; Michael Timar, however, went on
+his way in an open carriage, in weather in which one would not turn a
+dog into the street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SPRING MEADOWS.
+
+
+As far as the Lower Danube, the traveler took with him rough and wintery
+skies; here and there fresh snow covered the fields, and the woods stood
+bare. The stormy cold suited the thoughts with which Timar was
+occupied. That cruel girl was right--not only the husband but the wife
+was wretched. The man doubly so; for he was the author of their mutual
+misery.
+
+These bitter, disconsolate thoughts followed Michael to Baja, where he
+had an office, and where, when he traveled into the flax districts of
+Hungary, he had his letters sent. A whole bundle awaited him; he opened
+one after another with indifference; what did he care whether the rape
+had been frost-bitten or not, that the duties in England were raised, or
+that exchange was higher? But among the letters he found two which were
+not uninteresting--one from his Viennese, the other from his Stamboul
+agent. The contents greatly rejoiced him. He put them both away, and
+from that moment the apathy began to disperse which had hitherto
+possessed him. He gave his orders to his agents with his usual quickness
+and energy, carefully noted their reports, and when he had finished with
+them, proceeded on his way in haste.
+
+Now his journey had an object--no great or important one, but still an
+object. It was to give a pleasure to two poor people--but a real joy.
+
+The weather had changed; the sky had cleared, and the sun shone warmly
+down below. In Hungary, where summer follows immediately on winter,
+these swift changes are common. Below Baja the face of the country, too,
+was changed. While Michael rushed southward with frequent changes of
+horses, it was as if nature had in one day advanced by many weeks. At
+Mohacs he was received by woods decked in new green; about Zambor the
+fields were spread with a verdant carpet; at Neusatz the meadows were
+already dressed with flowers; and in the plains of Pancsova golden
+stretches of rape smiled at him, and the hills looked as though covered
+with rosy snow--the almonds and cherry-trees were in blossom. The two
+days' journey was like a dream-picture. The day before yesterday
+snow-covered fields in Komorn, and to-day on the Lower Danube hedges in
+bloom!
+
+Michael alighted at the Levetinczy castle to spend the night. He gave
+his instructions to the bailiff on the day of his arrival; the next
+morning he got up early, entered the carriage, and drove to the Danube
+to inspect his cargo ships. Everything was in order. Our Herr Johann
+Fabula had been appointed overseer of the whole flotilla: there was
+nothing for him to do. "Our gracious master can go and shoot ducks."
+
+And Herr von Levetinczy followed this good advice of Herr Fabula. He had
+a boat brought, and ordered provisions for a week, his gun, and plenty
+of ammunition to be put in it. No one will be surprised if he does not
+return from the reed-bed, now full of prime water-fowl, before a week
+has elapsed. It storms with duck, snipe, and herons, the last only
+valued for their feathers; even pelicans are to be met with, and an
+Egyptian ibis has been shot there. It is said a flamingo was once seen.
+When an ardent sportsman once gets into those marshes, you may wait till
+he comes out! And Timar loved sport, like all sailors. This time Michael
+did not load his gun. He let his boat float down with the stream till he
+reached the point of the Ostrova Island--there he seized the sculls and
+crossed the Danube obliquely. When he got round the island he soon saw
+where he was. From the southern reed-beds rose the tops of the
+well-known poplars--thither he went. There was already a channel broken
+through the rushes, across and along as required, if you only understood
+it. Where Michael had once been, he could find his way in the dark. What
+would Almira and Narcissa be doing? What should they be doing in such
+lovely weather but gratifying their passion for sport? Only, however,
+within certain limits: the field-mouse must be pursued at night, and
+that is easy for Narcissa, but she is strictly forbidden to chase birds.
+To Almira the marmots which came across the ice and settled in the
+island are positively interdicted. Aquatic prey still remain, and that
+is good sport too. Almira wades into the pure, clear water among the
+heaps of great stones at the bottom, and cautiously puts her fore-paw
+into a hole, out of which something dark is peeping. Suddenly she makes
+a great jump, draws her foot back, limps whining out of the water on
+three legs, and on the fourth paw hangs a large black crab, which has
+caught hold with its claws. Almira hobbles along in despair till, on
+reaching the bank, she succeeds in shaking off the dangerous monster; it
+is then carefully inspected by both Almira and Narcissa, to see at what
+price it can be induced to allow its body to be deprived of the shell.
+The crab naturally does not quite see the fun of this, and retires with
+all speed backward to the water. The two sportsmen, however, shove the
+reactionary party forward with their paws, until at one shove it is
+turned on its back, and now all three are in doubt what to do
+next--Almira, Narcissa, and the crab.
+
+Almira's attention is suddenly attracted by another object. She hears a
+noise and scents something. A friend approaches by water; she does not
+bark at him, but utters a low growl. This is her way of laughing, like
+some cheery old gentleman. She recognizes the man in the boat. Michael
+springs out, fastens the boat to a willow stump, pats Almira's head, and
+asks her, "Well, then, how is it all? is it all well?" The dog replied
+many things, but in the Newfoundland-dog language. To judge by the tone,
+the answer is satisfactory.
+
+Then all at once a pitiful cry disturbs the pleasant greeting. The
+catastrophe which might have been foreseen has occurred. Narcissa came
+near enough to the upset and sprawling crab for it to catch her ear with
+its nippers, and then to bury all its six claws in her fur. Timar rushed
+to the scene of misfortune, and with great presence of mind, seeing the
+magnitude of the danger, seized the mailed criminal in a place where its
+weapons could not reach him, pressed its head between his strong
+fingers, and obliged it to let go its prey; then he dashed it with such
+force on to a stone that it was shattered, and gave up its black ghost.
+Narcissa, to show her gratitude, sprung on to the shoulder of her
+chivalrous deliverer, and snorted from there at her dead enemy.
+
+After this introductory deed of heroism, Timar busied himself in
+disembarking what he had brought with him. All are packed into a
+knapsack, which he can easily throw over his shoulder. But the gun, the
+gun! Almira can not abide him with a gun in his hand, but he can not
+leave it here, for it might easily be stolen by some one. What to do?
+The idea struck Timar to give it into Almira's charge, who then, in her
+leonine jaws, carried the weapon proudly before him as a poodle bears
+its master's cane. Narcissa sat on his shoulder and purred in his ear.
+Michael allowed Almira to go on before and show him the way.
+
+Timar felt transformed when he trod the turfy paths of the island. Here
+was holy rest and deepest solitude. The fruit-trees of this paradise are
+in bloom; between their white and rosy flower-pyramids wild roses arch
+their sprays; the golden sunbeams coax the flowers' fragrance into the
+air; the breeze is laden with it--with every breath one inhales gold and
+love. The forest of blossom is full of the hum of the bees, and in that
+mysterious sound, from all these flower-eyes, God speaks, God looks: it
+is a temple of the Lord. And that church music may not be wanting, the
+nightingale flutes his psalm of lament, and the lark trills his song of
+praise--only better than King David. At a spot where the purple lilacs
+parted, and the little island-home was visible, Michael stood
+spell-bound. The little house seemed to swim in a flaming sea, but not
+of water, only of roses. It was covered with rose-wreaths climbing to
+the roof, and for five acres round it only roses were visible--thousands
+of bushes, and six-foot rose-trees, forming pyramids, hedges, and
+arcades. It was a rose-forest, a rose-mountain, a rose-labyrinth, whose
+splendor dazzled the eye and spread afar a scent which surrounded one
+like a supernatural atmosphere.
+
+Hardly had Michael entered on the winding path through this wilderness
+of roses, before a melodious cry of joy was heard. His name was called.
+"Ah, Herr Timar!"
+
+And she who had uttered his name came running toward him. Timar had
+already recognized her by her voice: it was Noemi--little Noemi, whom he
+had not seen for nearly three years. How she had grown since then--how
+changed, how developed she was! Her dress was no longer neglected, but
+neat, though simple. In her rich golden hair a rose-bud was fastened.
+
+"Ah, Herr Timar!" cried the girl, and stretched out her hand to him from
+afar, greeting him with frank delight, and a warm shake of the hand.
+
+Michael returned it, and remained lost in gazing at the girl. Here then,
+at last, is a face that beams with joy at the sight of him. "How long it
+is since we saw you!" said the girl.
+
+"And how pretty you have grown!" exclaimed he.
+
+Sympathy shone in every line of Noemi's face. "So you remember me
+still?" asked Timar, holding the little hand fast in his own.
+
+"We have often thought of you."
+
+"Is Madame Therese well?"
+
+"There she comes."
+
+When she saw Michael she hastened her steps; from a distance she had
+recognized the former ship's captain, who now again, in his gray coat
+and with his knapsack, approached her hut. "God greet you! you have kept
+us waiting a long time!" exclaimed the woman to her visitor. "So you
+have thought of us at last?" And she embraced Michael without ceremony;
+then his well-filled knapsack caught her eye. "Almira," she said to the
+dog, "take this bag and carry it in."
+
+"There are a brace of birds in it," said Michael.
+
+"Indeed! then take care, Almira, that Narcissa does not get at it."
+
+Noemi was affronted. "Narcissa is not so badly educated as that."
+
+To make it up, Frau Therese kissed her daughter, and Noemi was
+reconciled.
+
+"Now let us go in," said Therese, taking Michael's arm familiarly.
+"Come, Noemi."
+
+A huge boat-shaped basket made of white osier-twigs stood in the way,
+and its heaped-up contents were covered with a cloth. Noemi began to
+lift it by both handles; Michael sprung to help her, and Noemi burst
+into a childish shriek of laughter, and drew off the cloth. The basket
+was heaped with rose-leaves. Michael took one handle, and so they
+carried it together with its sweet cargo along the lavender-bordered
+path.
+
+"Do you make rose-water?" asked Timar.
+
+Therese threw a glance at Noemi. "See how he finds out everything!"
+
+"With us in Komorn much rose-water is made. Many poor women live by it."
+
+"Indeed? Then elsewhere also the rose is a blessing of the Lord--the
+exquisite flower which alone would make man love this world! And it not
+only rejoices his heart, but gives him bread. Look you--last year was a
+bad season; the late frost spoiled the fruit and the vintage; the wet,
+cold summer destroyed the bees, and the poultry died of disease: we
+should have had to fall back on our stores if it had not been for the
+roses, which helped us in our need. They bloom every year, and are
+always faithful to us. We made three hundred gallons of rose-water,
+which we sold in Servia, and got grain in exchange. Oh, you dear
+roses--you life-saving flowers!"
+
+The little settlement had been enlarged since Timar was last there.
+There was a kiln and a kitchen for the preparation of the rose-water.
+Here was an open fire with the copper retort, from which the first
+essence dropped slowly; near the hearth stood a great tub with the
+crushed rose leaves, and on a broad bench lay the fresh ones which
+required drying.
+
+Michael helped Noemi to empty the basket on to the bench; that was a
+scent, a perfume, in which one could revel and intoxicate one's self!
+
+Noemi laid her little head on the soft hill of rose leaves, and said,
+"It would be delicious to sleep on such a bed of roses."
+
+"Foolish child," Therese chided her. "You would never awake from that
+slumber; the odor would kill you."
+
+"That would be a lovely death!"
+
+"Then you want to die?" Frau Therese said, reproachfully; "you want to
+leave me here alone, you naughty child?"
+
+"No, no!" cried Noemi, embracing her mother with eager kisses. "I leave
+you, my dear, darling, only little mother!"
+
+"Why do you make such silly jests then? Don't you think, Herr Timar, it
+is not right for a young girl to allow herself these jokes with her
+mother--for a little girl who was playing with a doll only yesterday?"
+Michael quite agreed with Frau Therese that it was inexcusable under any
+pretense for a young lady to tell her mother that she thought any kind
+of death would be delightful. "Now just stop here and see that the
+essence does not boil, while I go to the kitchen to get a good dinner
+ready for our guest. You'll stay all day, of course?"
+
+"I will stay to-day and to-morrow too, if you will give me something to
+do for you. As long as you find me work I will remain."
+
+"Oh, then, you can stop the whole week," Noemi interrupted, "for I can
+find you plenty to do."
+
+"What work would you give Herr Timar, you little simpleton?" laughed the
+mother.
+
+"Why, of course, to crush the rose leaves!"
+
+"But perhaps he does not know how."
+
+"How should I not know all about it?" said Timar. "I have often enough
+helped my mother with it at home."
+
+"Your mother was a very good woman, I am sure."
+
+"Very good."
+
+"And you loved her very much?"
+
+"Very much."
+
+"Is she still living?"
+
+"She has long been dead."
+
+"So now you have no one in the world belonging to you?"
+
+Timar thought a moment, and bowed his head sadly--"No one." . . . He had
+spoken the truth.
+
+Michael noticed that Therese still stood at the door, doubtful whether
+to go or not. "Do you know, good mother," said he, suddenly remembering,
+"you need not go to the kitchen to cook anything for me. I have all
+sorts of provisions with me; there is only the table to spread--we shall
+all have enough."
+
+"Then who has looked after you and provided you so well with traveling
+comforts?" asked Noemi.
+
+"Who but our Herr Johann Fabula?"
+
+"Oh, the honest steersman!--is he here too?"
+
+"He is loading the ship on the other bank."
+
+Therese guessed Timar's thought, but she would not be behind him in
+delicate tact. She wished to show him that she had no scruple about
+leaving him alone with Noemi. "No, I have thought of something else; I
+will manage both here and in the kitchen. You, Noemi, can meanwhile take
+Herr Timar over the island and show him all the changes since he was
+here."
+
+Noemi was an obedient daughter; she did without question what her mother
+told her. She tied her Turkish handkerchief round her head, which framed
+her face charmingly. Timar recognized the scarf he had left as a present
+to her.
+
+"Au revoir, darling!" "Au revoir," said the mother and daughter with a
+kiss. They seemed to take leave of each other every time they parted, as
+if going on a long journey; and when they met again in an hour, they
+embraced as if they had been separated for years: the poor things had
+only each other in this world.
+
+Noemi threw one more inquiring look, and Therese answered with a nod
+which meant, "Yes, go!"
+
+Noemi and Timar now wandered on through the whole island. The path was
+so narrow that they were forced to walk close together, but Almira had
+the sense to push her great head between them and form a natural
+barrier. In the last three years cultivation had made great strides on
+the little island. A practicable road had been cut through the bushes;
+the old poplars had been uprooted, the wild crabs grafted; a skillful
+hand had formed neat fences from the broken branches; and where the
+orchard ceased, hedges divided the island, and hemmed in fields which
+supplied pasture for lambs and goats. One little lamb had a red ribbon
+round its neck, and this was Noemi's pet. When the flock saw her they
+ran to her and bleated a greeting which she understood; then they
+followed her and Timar to the border of the field where the fence
+stopped them.
+
+Behind these was to be seen a plantation of fine walnuts, with
+widespread shady heads and thick trunks, whose bark was smooth as silk.
+"Look," said Noemi, "those are my mother's pride; they are fifteen years
+old--just a year younger than I am," she said quite simply.
+
+On the right was the marsh, as Timar well remembered when he first came
+to the island and made his way through it. Now it was covered with
+water-plants; yellow lilies and white bell flowers were spread over the
+surface of the morass, and in the midst stood quietly two storks.
+
+Timar opened the little gate; it was a pleasant reminder to see this
+wilderness once more, and yet it seemed to him as if his guide was
+afraid and uncomfortable.
+
+"Are you still all alone here?" asked Michael.
+
+"We are alone. At market-times people come to barter with us, and in
+winter wood-cutters come and help us to hew the trees and root them up:
+the wood serves to pay them. We do the rest ourselves."
+
+"But fruit-gathering is very troublesome, especially on account of the
+wasps."
+
+"Oh, that is not hard work; our friends singing there on the trees help
+us with the wasp-killing. Do you see all the nests? Our laborers live
+there; here no one troubles them, and they do us good service. Just
+listen!"
+
+The wilderness resounded indeed with a heavenly concert. In the evening
+every bird hastens home, and then they are at their best. The cuckoo,
+the clock of the woods, has enough to do in striking the hours, and the
+thrush whistles in Greek strophes.
+
+Then suddenly Noemi screamed aloud, grew pale, and started back with her
+trembling hand on her heart, so that Timar felt it his duty to seize her
+by the hand that she might not fall. "What is it?" Noemi held her hand
+before her eyes and said, half laughing and half crying, in a tone of
+mingled fear and disgust, "Look, look! there he comes."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"There, that one!"
+
+He saw a large, wrinkled, fat frog, which was creeping quietly in the
+grass, keeping an eye on the new-comers, and ready for a spring, in case
+of danger, into the nearest water-course.
+
+Noemi was so paralyzed with fright that she had not the strength to run
+away.
+
+"Are you afraid of frogs?" asked Timar.
+
+"I have a horror of them; I should be frightened to death if it jumped
+on me."
+
+"How like a girl! They love cats because they coax and flatter, but they
+can not bear frogs because they are ugly; and yet, do you know, the
+frogs are just as good friends to us as the birds: this common, despised
+animal is the best assistant to the gardener. You know there are moths
+and beetles and grubs which only come out at night; birds are asleep
+then, but the detested frog comes out of his hole and attacks our
+enemies in the dark; he feeds on the night-moths and their grubs, the
+caterpillars and the slugs, and even the vipers. It is splendid the war
+he makes on noxious insects. Keep quiet, just look--the ugly, wrinkled
+frog is not creeping there to frighten you--he is not thinking about it.
+He is a gentle beast, conscious of no sin, and does not regard you as an
+enemy. Do you see a blue beetle fanning with his wings? That is one of
+the worst insects, a wood-borer, of which one grub suffices to spoil a
+whole young plantation; and our little friend has fixed on him as a
+prey. Don't disturb him; look, he is drawing himself up for a
+spring--wait. There! now he has made his leap, and darts out his long
+tongue like lightning: the beetle is swallowed. You see that our good
+frog is not such a disgusting creature, in spite of his shabby coat."
+
+Noemi clasped her hands, quite pleased, and already felt less dislike to
+frogs. She let Michael lead her to a seat, and tell her what sensible
+creatures they are, what funny tricks they play, and what curious games
+exist among them. He told her of the sky-blue frog of Surinam, of which
+one specimen cost the King of Prussia four thousand five hundred
+thalers; then of the fire-frog, which sheds a clear light around in the
+darkness, creeps into houses, hides in the beams, and croaks
+unmercifully at night. In Brazil sometimes you can not hear the singers
+in the opera-house for the chorus set up by the frogs which live in the
+building. Now Noemi was laughing at this awful enemy, and the laugh is
+half-way from hatred to love.
+
+"If only they would not make such an ugly noise!"
+
+"But you see in these tones they express their tender affection for
+their little wives, for among frogs only the little husband has a
+voice--the lady is dumb. The frog exclaims all night to his wife, 'How
+lovely, how charming you are!' Can there be a more affectionate creature
+than a frog?"
+
+Noemi was beginning to look at it from the sentimental side.
+
+"Then, too, the frog is a learned animal. You must know that the true
+frog is a weather-prophet: when it is going to rain he knows it, comes
+out of the water and croaks his prophecy; when dry weather is coming he
+goes back to the water."
+
+"Ah!" began Noemi, getting interested.
+
+"I will catch one," said Timar; "I hear one among the bushes."
+
+He soon came back with a tree-frog between his palms. Noemi trembled and
+got excited. She was red and pale by turns.
+
+"Now look," said Timar to her, opening his hands a little. "Is it not a
+pretty little thing? It is as lovely a green as the young grass, and its
+tiny foot is like a miniature human hand. How its little heart beats!
+How it looks at us with its beautiful wise black eyes with a golden ring
+round them! It is not afraid of us!"
+
+Noemi, wavering between fear and curiosity, stretched out a timid hand,
+but drew it quickly back.
+
+"Take it, touch it--it is the most harmless creature on God's earth."
+She stretched out her hand again, frightened and yet laughing, but
+looked into Timar's eyes instead of at the frog, and started when the
+cold body came in contact with her reluctant nerves; but then suddenly
+she laughed with pleasure, like a child which would not go into the cold
+water, and then is glad to be there.
+
+"Now look, he does not move in your hand; he is quite comfortable. We
+will take him home and find a glass, put water in, and then place a
+small ladder in it which I can cut out of wood. The frog shall be
+imprisoned in it, and when he knows that rain is coming he will climb up
+the ladder. Give it to me; I will carry it."
+
+"No, no; I will keep him, and carry him home myself."
+
+"Then you must hold your hand shut, or he will jump out; but not too
+tight so as to press him. And now let us go, for the dew is falling, and
+the grass is wet."
+
+They turned homeward, and Noemi ran on, calling from afar to Therese,
+"Mother, mother, see what we have caught! a beautiful bird."
+
+Mamma Therese prepared to scold her daughter severely.
+
+"Don't you know that it is forbidden to catch birds?"
+
+"But such a bird! Herr Timar caught it, and gave it to me. Just peep
+into my hand."
+
+Frau Therese threw up her hands when she saw the green tree-frog there.
+
+"Look how it blinks at me with its beautiful eyes!" cried Noemi, beaming
+with delight. "We are going to put him in a glass, catch flies for him,
+and he will foretell the weather for us. Oh, the dear little thing!" And
+she held the frog caressingly to her cheek.
+
+Therese turned to Timar in astonishment. "Sir, you are a magician! Only
+yesterday you could have driven this girl out of her senses with such a
+creature as that."
+
+But Noemi was quite enthusiastic about the frog. While she laid the
+table on the veranda for supper, she delivered a complete batrachian
+lecture to her mother on what she had heard from Timar: how useful, as
+well as wise, amusing, and interesting frogs were. It was not true that
+they spat venom, as people said, that they crept into sleepers' mouths,
+sucked the milk of cows, nor that they burst with poison if you held a
+spider to them--all this was pure calumny and stupid superstition. They
+are our best friends, which guard us at night; those little soft
+foot-prints which are visible on the smooth sand round the house, are
+the consoling sign of their nightly patrol: it would be ungrateful to
+fear them. Timar had meanwhile prepared a small ladder of willow-twigs
+for the little meteorologist. He put it in a wide-mouthed bottle, which
+he half filled with water, and covered with a pierced paper, through
+which the imprisoned prophet was to receive its provision of flies. It
+of course went down to the bottom, and declined either to eat or to
+talk. Noemi welcomed this as a sign that the weather would remain fine.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Frau Therese, as she brought out the supper to the
+little table at which they all sat down; "you have not only worked a
+miracle on Noemi, but have really done her a great benefit. Our island
+would have been a paradise if Noemi had not been so afraid of frogs. As
+soon as ever she saw one she grew quite white and got a fit of
+shivering. No human power would have induced her to go across the fence
+to where the innumerable frogs croak in the marsh. You have made a new
+creature of her, and reconciled her with her home."
+
+"A sweet home!" sighed Timar. Therese sighed aloud.
+
+"Why do you sigh?" Noemi asked.
+
+"You know well enough."
+
+And Timar too knew to whom the sigh was due.
+
+Noemi tried to give a cheerful turn to the conversation. "I took my
+aversion to frogs from the time when a naughty boy played me a trick,
+and threw a great big toad, as brown as a crust, at me. He said it was a
+bull-frog, and that if he struck it with a nettle it would roar like a
+bull. He did strike the poor thing, and then it began to moan piteously,
+so that I can never forget it, as if it would call for vengeance against
+our whole race; and its body was covered with white froth. The bad boy
+laughed when he heard the uncanny voice of the poor beast."
+
+"Who was that wicked boy?" asked Michael.
+
+Noemi was silent, and only made an expressively contemptuous movement of
+the hand. Timar guessed the name; he looked at Frau Therese, and she
+nodded assent--already they can guess each other's thoughts.
+
+"Has he never been here since?"
+
+"Oh, yes; he comes every year, and never ceases tormenting us. He has
+found a new way of laying us under contribution. He brings a large boat
+with him, and as I can not give him any money, he loads it with honey,
+wax, and wool, which he sells. I give him what he wants, that he may
+leave us in peace."
+
+"He has not been here lately," said Noemi.
+
+"Oh, nothing has happened to him, I expect his arrival any day."
+
+"If only he would come now!" said the girl.
+
+"Why, you little goose?"
+
+Noemi grew crimson. "Only because I should prefer it."
+
+Timar, however, thought to himself how happy he could make these two
+people with a single word. But he gloated over the thought, like a child
+which had some sweets given to it, and begins by eating the crumbs
+first. He felt an inward impulse to share the joys and sorrows of these
+islanders.
+
+Supper was over, the sun had set, and a splendid, still, warm night sunk
+on to the fields; the whole sky looked like a transparent silver
+veil--no leaf stirred on the trees. The two women went with their
+visitor to the top of the great bowlder; from there one had a wide view
+over the trees and the reed-beds far across the Danube. The island lay
+at their feet like an enchanted lake with variegated waves. The
+apple-trees swam in a rosy, and the pomegranates in a dark-red, sea of
+blossom; the poplars looked golden-yellow, and the pear-trees white with
+snowy bloom, and the waving tips of the plum-trees were radiant in
+brazen green. In the midst rose the rock like a lighted cupola, wreathed
+with fiery roses, on whose top old lavender bushes formed a thicket.
+
+"Superb!" cried Timar, enchanted with the landscape outspread before
+him.
+
+"You should see the rock in summer, when the yellow stonecrop is in
+bloom," exclaimed Noemi, eagerly; "it looks as if it had on a golden
+robe. The lavender blossom makes a great blue crown for its head."
+
+"I will come and see it," said Timar.
+
+"Really?" The girl stretched out her hand to him joyously, and Michael
+fell a warm pressure such as no woman's hand had ever given him in his
+life. And then Noemi leaned her head on Therese's shoulder, and threw
+her arm round her mother's neck. All nature was under the spell of deep
+repose undisturbed by any human sound. Only the monotonous chorus of the
+frogs enlivened the deep shadows of the night. The sky offered a curious
+spectacle; half was blue, and the other opal green. There are two sides
+even to happiness.
+
+"Do you hear what the frogs are saying?" whispered Noemi to her
+mother--"'Oh, how dear you are, how sweet!' They say that all night
+long--'Oh, you darling, you sweet!'" and she kissed Therese at every
+word.
+
+Michael, forgetful of himself and of the whole world, stood on the rock
+with folded arms. The young crescent glittered between the quivering
+foliage of the poplars, now shining like pure silver; a wonderful new
+feeling crept into the man's breast. Was it fear or longing?--memory
+aroused or dawning hope?--awakening joy or dying grief?--instinct or
+warning?--madness, or that breath of spring which seizes on tree and
+grass, and every cold or warm-blooded animal?
+
+Just so had he gazed at the waning moon, which threw its long reflection
+on the waves as far as the sinking ship. His involuntary thoughts talked
+with the ghostly magnetic rays, and they with him.
+
+"Do you not understand? I will return to-morrow, and then you will
+know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+A SPIDER AMONG THE ROSES.
+
+
+People who live by their labor have no time to admire the moonlight from
+mountain-tops, or to waste in observation on the beauties of nature: the
+flocks of sheep and goats already waited to be relieved of their milky
+tribute by their mistress. Milking was the office of Frau Therese, and
+it was Noemi's duty to cut grass enough for the herd. Timar continued
+the conversation meanwhile with his back leaning against the
+stable-door, and lighting his pipe just as the countryman does when he
+is courting the peasant girl.
+
+The great boiler must be refilled with fresh rose-infusion, and then
+they can all go to bed. Timar begged for the bee-house to sleep in,
+where Frau Therese spread him a couch of fresh hay, and Noemi arranged
+his pillow. Very little was needed to woo him to slumber. Hardly had he
+lain down before sleep closed his eyes; he dreamed all night that he had
+become a gardener's boy, and was making endless rose-water.
+
+When he awoke the sun was already high in the heavens. The bees buzzed
+round him busily; he had overslept himself. That some one had already
+been here he guessed, because near his couch lay all the toilet
+necessaries he had brought in his knapsack. A poor traveler who is used
+to shaving every day feels very uncomfortable when unable to go through
+that operation; his mind is as much disturbed by that confounded stubble
+as if it were a prick of conscience. When he was ready, the women
+already awaited him at breakfast, which consisted of bread and milk, and
+then they went to the day's work of rose-gathering.
+
+Michael was, as he desired, set to rose-crushing. Noemi picked off the
+petals, and Frau Therese was busy with the boiler. Timar told Noemi all
+about roses. Not that they were like her cheeks, at which she would have
+burst out laughing, but he imparted to her what he had learned about
+them in his travels: learned things which Noemi listened to with
+attention, and which instilled into her a still greater respect for
+Timar. With young and innocent maidens a clever, intelligent man has a
+great advantage.
+
+"In Turkey they use rose-water in eating and drinking. There, too, whole
+groves of roses are planted; there beads are made of roses pressed into
+the form of balls and strung together: that is why they are called
+rosaries. In the East there is one lovely kind of rose from which attar
+is made; it is the balsam rose, and grows on trees of ten feet high,
+whose branches are bent to the ground by their snow-white burden. Their
+scent surpasses that of any other kind; if you throw the petals into
+water and set them in the sun, in a very short time the surface is
+rainbow-colored with the oil that the petals exude. It is the same with
+the evergreen rose, which does not shed its leaves in winter. The Ceylon
+and Rio roses dye the hair and beard light, and so fast that they do not
+lose their color for years; for this purpose alone there is a
+considerable trade in them. The leaves of the Moggor rose stupefy; you
+are intoxicated by their scent as if with beer. The Vilmorin rose has
+the property that, it if is bitten by a certain insect which is
+obnoxious to it, it throws out great tubers, which are said to send a
+crying child to sleep if put under its pillow."
+
+"Have you been everywhere where roses grow?" asked Noemi.
+
+"Well, I have been a good deal about in the world. I have been to
+Vienna, Paris, and Constantinople."
+
+"Is that far from here?"
+
+"If one traveled on foot one would get to Vienna in thirty days from
+here, and to Constantinople in forty days."
+
+"But you went in a ship."
+
+"That takes longer still; for I should have to take in cargo on the
+way."
+
+"For whom?"
+
+"For the owner I was traveling for."
+
+"Is Herr Brazovics still your principal?"
+
+"Who told you about him?"
+
+"The steersman who came with you."
+
+"No longer now--Herr Brazovics is dead."
+
+"Dead! so he is dead? And his wife and daughter?" interrupted Frau
+Therese, quickly.
+
+"They have lost everything by his death."
+
+"Ah, just God! Thy avenging hand has reached them!"
+
+"Mother, good mother!" cried Noemi, with gentle entreaty.
+
+"Sir, there is one more thing you ought to know. When that blow fell on
+us, when I had implored Brazovics on my knees not to drive us to
+beggary, it struck me that this man had a wife and child. I determined
+to find out his wife and tell her my misery--she would help me and take
+pity on us. I took my child in my arms and traveled in the hottest part
+of the summer to Komorn. I sought her out in her fine large house, and
+waited at the door, for they would not let me in. At last Frau Brazovics
+came out with her five-year-old daughter. I fell on my knees, and begged
+her for God's sake to take compassion on us, and be our mediator with
+her husband. The woman seized my arm and thrust me down the step; I
+tried, in falling, to protect my child with both arms, that it might not
+be hurt, and struck my head against one of the two pillars which support
+the balcony. Here is the scar still visible. The little girl laughed
+aloud when she saw me limping away and heard my baby cry. That is why I
+sing 'Hosanna,' and blessed be the hand which thrust her away from the
+steps down which she cast us."
+
+"Oh, mother, don't talk so!"
+
+"So they have come to misery? Have they become beggars themselves--the
+haughty, purse-proud people? Do they wear rags, and beg in vain at the
+doors of their former friends?"
+
+"No, dear lady," said Michael; "some one has been found to take care of
+them."
+
+"Madman!" cried Therese, with passionate force. "Why should he put a
+spoke in fate's wheel? How can he dare to receive into his home the
+curse which will ruin him?"
+
+Noemi ran to her mother and covered her mouth with both hands; then she
+fell on her neck and sealed her lips with kisses. "Dearest mother, do
+not say such things. Do not utter curses; I can not bear to hear
+them--take them back. Let me kiss away the dreadful words from your
+lips."
+
+Therese recovered herself under her daughter's caresses. "Do not be
+afraid, silly child," she said, shaking her head. "Curses fall idly on
+the air. They are only a bad, superstitious habit of us old women. God
+never thinks of noticing the curses of such worms as we are, and keeping
+them till the day of judgment. My curses will take effect on no one."
+
+"It is already fulfilled on me," thought Timar. "I am the madman who
+received them into his house."
+
+Noemi tried to bring the subject of roses back. "Tell me, Herr Timar,
+how could you get such a Moggor rose whose scent stupefies?"
+
+"If you wish, I will bring you one."
+
+"Where do they grow?"
+
+"In Brazil."
+
+"Is that far?"
+
+"The other side of the world."
+
+"Must you go by sea?"
+
+"Two months continuously at sea."
+
+"And why would you go?"
+
+"On business--and to fetch you a Moggor rose."
+
+"Then do not bring me any."
+
+Noemi left the kitchen, and Michael noticed that tears were in her eyes.
+She only returned to the distillery when she had filled her basket with
+rose leaves, and shook them out on to the rush-matting, where they made
+a large hill.
+
+The boiling of yesterday's rose-essence lasted till midday, and after
+breakfast Frau Therese said to her guest that there was not much work
+for to-day, and that they could go for a walk in the island. One who was
+so great a traveler might be able to give good advice to the islanders,
+as to what vegetables they might usefully and profitably introduce into
+their little Eden. Frau Therese said to the dog, "Stop here and watch
+the house! Lie down in the veranda and don't stir!" Almira understood
+and obeyed.
+
+Michael disappeared with his companions among the plantations.
+
+Hardly had they vanished into the wood before Almira began to prick her
+ears uneasily and to growl angrily. She scented something. She shook her
+head, rose from time to time, but lay down again. A man's voice became
+audible, which sung a German song, whose refrain was, "She wears, if I
+can trust my eyes, a jet-black camisole." The person coming from the
+shore sings, of course, on purpose to attract the attention of the
+inhabitants. He is afraid of the great dog--but it does not bark.
+
+The new arrival appears from among the shadows of the rose-arbor. It is
+Theodor Krisstyan.
+
+This time he is attired like a fashionable dandy, in a dark-blue tunic
+with golden buttons; and his overcoat hangs on his arm. Almira does not
+stir at his approach. She is a philosopher, and reasons, if I fly at
+this man, the end of it will be that I shall be tied up and not he. I
+shall do better to keep my opinion of him to myself, and to look on in
+armed neutrality at what he does. Theodor drew near confidently, and
+whistling to his huge black enemy. "Your servant, Almira. Come,
+Almirakin, you dear old dog--where are your ladies? Bark a bit to please
+me. Where is our dear Mamma Therese?" Almira could not be induced to
+answer.
+
+"Look, then, little doggie, what I have got for you--a piece of meat;
+there, eat it. What? Don't you want it? You fancy it's poisoned, you
+fool? Gobble it up, you beauty!" But Almira would not even sniff at the
+piece of meat, until Narcissa (it is well known that cats have no
+decision of character) crept up to it, which made Almira angry, and she
+began to scratch a large hole in the ground; there she buried the meat,
+like a careful dog which makes provision for a day of necessity.
+
+"Well, what a distrustful beast it is," murmured Theodor to himself. "Am
+I to be allowed to go in?"
+
+But that was not allowed. Almira did not say so in words, but she curled
+her lip to let him see the beautiful white teeth underneath.
+
+"Stupid creature, you don't mean to bite me? Where can the women be?
+Perhaps in the distillery?"
+
+Theodor went in and looked round--he found no one. He washed his face
+and hands in the steaming rose-water, and it gave him especial pleasure
+to think that so he had spoiled the work of a whole day.
+
+When he wanted to come out of the distillery, he found the entrance
+barred by the dog. Almira had laid herself down across the threshold and
+showed him her white teeth. "Indeed, so now you won't let me come out,
+you churl? Very well, I can wait here till the women return. I can find
+a little place to rest on." And so saying he threw himself on the heap
+of rose leaves Noemi had turned out. "Ah, what a good bed--a Lucullan
+couch! Ha! ha!"
+
+The women came back with Michael from their walk through the island.
+Therese saw with uneasiness that Almira was not lying in the veranda,
+but was guarding the door of the distillery.
+
+When Theodor heard Therese's voice, he thought of a good trick to play.
+He buried himself in the rose leaves, so that nothing was to be seen of
+him; and when Noemi, with the words, "What have you here, Almira?"
+looked in at the door, he put his head out and grinned at her: "Your own
+beloved bridegroom is here, lovely Noemi!"
+
+Noemi, starting back, screamed aloud.
+
+"What is it?" asked the mother, hastening up.
+
+"There, among the roses . . ." stammered the girl.
+
+"Well, what among the roses? A spider?"
+
+"Yes . . . a spider . . ."
+
+Theodor sprung laughing from his bed of roses, and like one who has
+surprised his dear ones with a capital joke, rushed with shouts of
+laughter to Mamma Therese, embraced her, without noticing her angry
+looks or Noemi's disgusted face, and kissed her several times.
+
+"Ha! ha! Did I take you by surprise? You sweet dear mamma, be happy:
+your dear son-in-law is here; he has risen like a fairy from the roses.
+He! he!" Then he turned toward Noemi, but she slipped away from his
+embrace, and then first Theodor Krisstyan was aware of the presence of a
+third person--Michael Timar.
+
+This discovery damped his joviality, which indeed was only put on, and
+for this reason it was disagreeable to see some one with whom most
+unpleasant recollections were connected.
+
+"Your servant, Mr. Supercargo!" he addressed Timar. "We meet here again?
+You have not any more Turkish pashas in your ship? He! he! Don't be
+afraid, Mr. Supercargo."
+
+Timar shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. Then Theodor turned to
+Noemi, and put his arm caressingly round the girl's waist, who in
+answer to it pushed him away and turned her face from him.
+
+"Leave the girl alone!" said Therese shortly, in a severe tone. "What do
+you want now?"
+
+"There, there--don't turn me out of the house before I have got in. Is
+it not permissible to embrace my little bride? Noemi won't break if I
+look at her? What are you so afraid of me for?"
+
+"We have good reason," said Therese, sullenly.
+
+"Don't be angry, little mother. This time I have not come to get
+anything from you: I bring you something--a great, great deal of money.
+Ho! ho! a heap of money! So much that you could buy back your fine house
+that you once had, and the fields and gardens on the Ostrova Island--in
+short, all that you have lost. You shall have it all again. I know that
+I, as a son, owe you the duty of making good all that you lost by my
+poor father's fault."
+
+By this time Theodor had become so sentimental that he was shedding
+tears, but it left the spectators unmoved: they believed as little in
+his tears as in his laughter.
+
+"Let us go in, into the room," said he, "for what I have to say is not
+for every ear."
+
+"Don't talk such nonsense," Frau Therese said, angrily. "What do you
+mean by 'every ear' here on this lonely island? You can say anything
+before Timar: he is an old friend--but go on. I know you are hungry, and
+that's what it all means."
+
+"Ah, you dear good mother! how well you know your Theodor's little
+weakness of always having a splendid appetite. And you do so thoroughly
+understand the exquisite Greek _cuisine_, at sight of which one would
+wish to be all stomach. There is no such housekeeper in the world as you
+are. I have dined with the Sultan of Turkey, but he has no cook who can
+compare with you."
+
+Frau Therese had the weakness of being sensitive to praise of her
+housekeeping. She never grudged good things to any guest, and even her
+deadly enemy she could not send away empty.
+
+Theodor wore a so-called Figaro hat, which was then in fashion, and
+managed that the low door-way of the little cottage should knock it off
+his head, in order to be able to say, "Oh, these confounded new-fangled
+hats! but that's sure to happen when one is used to high door-ways. In
+my new house they are all folding-doors, and such a splendid view over
+the sea from my rooms."
+
+"Have you then really a home anywhere?" asked Therese as she laid the
+table.
+
+"I should think so! At Trieste, and in the finest palace in the town. I
+am agent to the principal shipbuilder."
+
+"At Trieste?" interrupted Timar. "What's his name?"
+
+"He turns out sea-going vessels," said Theodor, casting a contemptuous
+look at Timar. "He is not merely a barge-builder--and for that matter
+his name is Signor Scaramelli."
+
+Timar was silent. He did not care to let out that he himself was having
+a large vessel built for the ocean trade by Scaramelli.
+
+"I am just rolling in money!" bragged Theodor. "Millions and millions
+pass through my hands. If I were not such an honest man, I could save
+thousands for myself. I have bought something for my dear little Noemi,
+which I once promised her. What did I promise? A ring. What sort of a
+stone? A ruby, an emerald? Well, it is a brilliant, a four-carat
+brilliant: it shall be our betrothal ring. Here it is." Theodor felt in
+his breeches-pocket, fumbled a long time, made at last a terrible
+grimace, and stared on the ground. "It is lost!" groaned he, turning his
+pocket out, and showing the treacherous hole through which the valuable
+engagement-ring with the four-carat diamond had escaped. Noemi broke
+into a hearty laugh. She had such a lovely ringing voice when she
+laughed, and one seldom had a chance of hearing it.
+
+"But it is not lost!" cried Theodor; "you may spare your laughter, fair
+lady!" and he began to draw off his boot--and there really was the ring,
+which fell out of the turned-over top of the boot on to the tray.
+
+"There it is! A good horse does not run away. My little Noemi's
+engagement-ring has never left me. Look now, Mamma Therese--your future
+son-in-law has brought this for his bride; there, what do you say to
+that? And you, Mr. Underwriter, if you understand these things, what do
+you value this diamond at?"
+
+Timar looked at the stone and said, "Paste. In the trade it is worth
+about five groschen."
+
+"Hold your tongue, Supercargo! What do you know about it? You understand
+hay and maize, and perhaps never saw a diamond in your life."
+
+And so saying, he placed the despised ring, which Noemi would on no
+account wear, on his little finger, and was busy all through the meal in
+showing it off. The young gentleman had a fine appetite. During dinner
+he talked very big about what a gigantic establishment this
+shipbuilder's was, and how many million square feet of wood were
+required every year. There were hardly any trees left in the
+neighborhood fit for building ships. They had to be brought from
+America. There were only a few left in Sclavonia. Only after he had
+dined well, he came out with the principal affair.
+
+"And now, my dear lady, I will tell you what I have come about."
+
+Therese looked at him with anxious distrust.
+
+"Now I will make you all happy--you, as well as Noemi and myself. And
+besides, I can do Signor Scaramelli a good turn. That's enough for me.
+Says Scaramelli to me one day, 'Friend Krisstyan, I say, you will have
+to go off to Brazil.'"
+
+"If only you were there now!" sighed Therese.
+
+Theodor understood and smiled. "You must know that from there comes the
+best wood for shipbuilding. The makaya and the murmuru tree, used for
+the keel; the poripont and patanova, from which the ribs are made; the
+royoc and grasgal-trees, which do not decay in water; the
+'mort-aux-rats'-tree, the iron-wood for rudder shafts, and sour-gum-tree
+for paddle-floats; also the teak and mahogany for ship's fittings,
+and--"
+
+"Pray, stop with your ridiculous Indian names," interrupted Therese;
+"you think you will turn my head by reeling out a whole botanical
+catalogue, so that I sha'n't see the wood for the trees. Tell me why--if
+there are such incomparable trees in Brazil--why you are not there
+already?"
+
+"Yes, but that's just where my grand idea comes in. Why, said I to
+Signor Scaramelli, should I travel to Brazil when we have plenty of wood
+close by even better than that of Brazil? I know an island in the middle
+of the Danube which is provided with a virgin forest, and where grow
+splendid trees, which can compete with those of South America."
+
+"I thought so," murmured Therese to herself.
+
+"The poplars take the place of the patanovas; the nut-trees far surpass
+mahogany, and those we have in hundreds on our island."
+
+"My nut-trees!"
+
+"The wood of the apple-tree is much better than that of the
+jaskarilla-tree."
+
+"Indeed; so you have already disposed of my apple-trees!"
+
+"Plum-tree wood need not fear comparison with the best teak."
+
+"And those too you would cut down and sell to Signor Scaramelli?" asked
+Frau Therese, quietly.
+
+"We shall get a mint of money for them; at least ten gulden for each
+tree. Signor Scaramelli has given me _carte blanche_. He has left me
+free to make a contract with you. I have it in my pocket; you have only
+to sign and our fortune is made. And when once the useless trees here
+are cut down, we will not stay here, but go and live in Trieste. We will
+plant the whole island with 'Prunus mehaleb'--you know they make Turkish
+pipe-stems from it. This tree requires no care; we need only keep one
+man here; he would sell the yearly crop of tubular stems to the
+merchants, and we should receive five hundred ducats for every rood--for
+ten roods five thousand ducats."
+
+Timar could not suppress a smile. Speculations of such rashness had not
+occurred even to him.
+
+"Well, what is there to laugh at?" Theodor said, in a lordly manner. "I
+know all about these things."
+
+"And I understand, too," said Therese, "what you want. As often as my
+unlucky star brings you here, you appear like a bird of prey, and I may
+be sure you have some malicious scheme against me. You know that you
+will not find any money with me, but you help yourself. Once before you
+came with a boat and carried off what we had saved for our own use, and
+turned it into money. Now you are no longer satisfied with the fruit of
+which you took tithes more jealously than any usurious pasha. You want
+to sell the trees, too, over my head--those trees, my treasures, my only
+friends in the world, which I have planted and nurtured, which keep me,
+and under which I can rest. Fy! for shame! to tell me such stories of
+getting money for these trees, to build ships of them. For certain, you
+would only cut them down to sell them for a trifle to the nearest
+charcoal-burner--that is your splendid plan. Who are you going to take
+in? Not me, who know your cunning. I tell you, have done with your
+foolish tricks, or you may yet learn what is the use of Turkish
+pipe-stems!"
+
+"No, no, Mamma Therese, I am not thinking of joking; you may be sure I
+did not come here for nothing: remember what day it is. It is my
+_fete_-day, and the day of my little darling Noemi's birth. You know my
+poor father and hers betrothed us to each other when we were little;
+they settled that as soon as Noemi was seventeen we should be united. I
+should have come from the ends of the earth for such a day as this. Here
+I am, with all the warmth of my loving heart; but people can not live on
+love alone. It is true I get good pay from Signor Scaramelli, but that
+goes to the splendid furniture of my house in Trieste. You must give me
+something with Noemi, so that she may make an appearance consistent with
+her rank. The bride can not enter the bridegroom's house with empty
+hands; she is your only daughter, and has a right to require of you that
+you should provide for her handsomely."
+
+Noemi had sat down sulkily in a corner of the room, and remained with
+her back to the company and her head against the wall.
+
+"Yes," continued Theodor. "You must give Noemi a dowry. Do not be so
+selfish. Keep half your trees, for all I care, and leave the other half
+to me; where and how I sell them is my affair. Give Noemi the nut-trees
+for a dowry: for those I have, really, a certain purchaser."
+
+Therese had come to the end of her patience. "Listen, Theodor. I do not
+know whether to-day is your _fete_ or not, but one thing I do know, that
+it is not Noemi's birthday. And yet more surely I know that Noemi will
+not marry you, if you were the only man on God's earth."
+
+"Ha! ha! leave that to me--I am not afraid."
+
+"Just as you like; but now, once for all, you shall never have my
+splendid nut-trees, if Noah's ark was to be built of them. One single
+tree I will give you, and that you can use for the end you will come to
+sooner or later. You say to-day is your _fete_-day, and that would be a
+good day to do it."
+
+At these words Theodor rose, but not to go on his way--only to turn the
+chair he had been sitting on, and place himself astride on it, with his
+elbows on its back, and looking into Therese's eyes he said with
+provoking coolness--
+
+"I must say you are very kind, Mamma Therese; you seem to have forgotten
+that if I say one word--"
+
+"Say it then! You can speak freely before this gentleman: he knows
+everything."
+
+"And that this island does not belong to you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And that it would only cost me one word, either at Vienna or
+Constantinople--"
+
+"To make us homeless and shelterless and beggars."
+
+"Yes; I can do that!" cried Theodor Krisstyan, who, now showing his true
+colors, looked with greedy eyes at Therese and drew a paper from his
+pocket, which he held toward her. "Here is the agreement, and here is
+the date. You know what I can do, and I will do it, if you do not sign
+this contract immediately." Therese trembled.
+
+"No, sir," said Timar, laying his hand gently on Theodor's shoulder.
+"You can not do that."
+
+"What?" asked he, throwing his head back defiantly.
+
+"Lay information anywhere of the existence of this island, and of its
+unauthorized occupation."
+
+"Why should I not do it?"
+
+"Because another has already done it."
+
+"You!" cried Theodor, raising his fist to Michael.
+
+"You!" exclaimed Therese, pressing her hands to her brow.
+
+"Yes; I," said Timar, steadily and calmly. "I have given information
+both at Vienna and in Constantinople, that here close to the Ostrova
+Island a nameless and uninhabited islet has been formed in the course of
+the last fifty years. Then I begged of the Vienna Government as well as
+of the Sublime Porte to leave me the usufruct of the islet for ninety
+years: as an acknowledgement of ownership, the Hungarian Government is
+to receive every year a sack of nuts, and the Sublime Porte a box of
+dried fruit. The patent in question and the imperial firman are already
+in my hands." Timar drew the two deeds out of the envelope he had
+received at his Baja office, and which had, so much pleased him. When he
+became a great man, he had determined to procure comfort and peace for
+this poor storm-driven family. That sack of nuts and box of fruit had
+cost him large sums. "But," he concluded, "I hastened to transfer the
+rights thus obtained to the present inhabitants and colonists. Here is
+the official deed of settlement."
+
+Therese fell speechless at Michael's feet. She could only sob and kiss
+the hands of the man who had freed her from this incarnate curse, and
+driven away the phantom which oppressed her heart by day and night.
+
+Noemi held her two hands on her heart, as if afraid that it would cry
+aloud, and betray what her lips suppressed.
+
+"You see then, Herr Theodor Krisstyan," said Michael, "that you have
+nothing to get on this island for the next ninety years."
+
+Pale with rage, Theodor screamed, foaming at the mouth, "And who are you
+who dare to meddle in the affairs of this family? What gives you a right
+to do it?"
+
+"My love!" cried Noemi suddenly, with all the strength of overpowering
+passion, while she fell on Michael's breast, and threw her arms round
+his neck.
+
+Theodor said not a word more. He shook his fist in silent rage at Timar,
+and rushed out of the room. In his look lay that hatred which does not
+hesitate to use a dagger or to mix poison. But even when he was gone,
+the girl still held Timar's neck in her embrace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OUT OF THE WORLD.
+
+
+What induced Noemi to throw herself on Timar's breast and acknowledge
+openly that she loved him? Did she wish thus to banish forever the man
+whose presence was hateful to her, and make it impossible for him any
+longer to desire her as his wife? Had this child of solitude no idea of
+the etiquette which demands that such feelings should be concealed in a
+maiden's breast? Or did she confuse love with the gratitude she could
+not help feeling toward the man who had freed her and her mother from
+anxiety, and won for their lifelong enjoyment the possession of this
+little paradise? Perhaps she was alarmed when she saw her tormentor
+feeling for a weapon, and had instinctively thrown herself on her
+benefactor's breast to protect him from attack. She might have thought
+that this poor ship's captain, whose mother was as poor as her mother,
+had said that he had "no one" in the world; why should she not be "some
+one" to him? Would he have returned here if something had not attracted
+him, and if he cared for her why should she not love him?
+
+No, no; no explanation, no reason, no excuse was needed; here was
+nothing but pure, unselfish love.
+
+She did not know why, she asked for no reason--she only loved. She loved
+without inquiring whether it was allowed by God and man, whether it
+would bring her joy or sorrow. She did not long to be happy or great,
+her lord's liege lady, crowned with the silver crown, and blessed by the
+Triune God--she only loved. She never thought of humiliation with bent
+head, she asked neither the protection of a husband nor the pity and
+forgiveness of God--she only loved. Such was Noemi.
+
+Poor Noemi! what you must suffer for this! . . . Michael had for the
+first time in his life heard it said that some one loved him. From real
+inclination, as a poor ship's captain in another man's service, without
+selfish interest, for his own sake alone. A miraculous warmth overflowed
+his heart, the warmth which will awake the dead from their long sleep at
+the resurrection. He raised his hands timidly and trembling to the
+shoulders of the girl, and asked, with softly whispering voice, "And
+that is really true?"
+
+The maiden moved the head which lay on his heart and nodded to him.
+"Yes; it is true."
+
+Michael looked at Therese. She came toward them, and laid her hand on
+Noemi's head, as if to say, "Well, then, love him!" It was a solemn and
+silent scene, in which each could hear the heart-beats of the other.
+
+Therese broke the silence first. "If only you knew," she said to Timar,
+"how many tears the girl has shed for you. If you had seen her go daily
+up the rock, and look for hours over the quiet landscape, where you
+vanished from her sight. If you had heard her whisper your name in her
+dreams!"
+
+Noemi made a deprecating gesture with her hand, as if to entreat her
+mother to betray no more. But Michael only noticed it by drawing her
+closer to himself. See, here at last is one being in the wide world who
+knows how to love him; who in the "Man of Gold" loves the man and not
+the gold. And it seemed to him as if he had been in banishment, as long
+as he had walked through the world, and only now had found a new earth
+and new heaven, and in them a new life. He bent to kiss the girl's brow,
+and felt her heart throb against his.
+
+And around him were only springing flowers, fragrant shrubs, humming
+bees, and singing birds, which all proclaimed "Thou shalt love!"
+Speechless bliss led them out into the air, and when they looked into
+each other's eyes, both thought, "How wonderful! thine eyes are the same
+color as mine." The brilliant sky and the fragrant earth had agreed to
+inthrall them--their own inclination completed the spell. When a child
+who has never loved, and a man who has never been loved, meet each
+other, how is it likely to be with them?
+
+The day drew to a close, but they had not yet been satisfied with joy.
+The evening fell, the moon rose. Noemi led Michael to the top of the
+rock, whence she had once looked after the departing guest with tears.
+There Timar sat down among the sweet lavender; Noemi placed herself
+beside him, and leaned her curly golden head on the arm of the man,
+whose enraptured face was raised to the sky. Therese stood behind them
+and looked down smiling. The silver moon shone radiant from the
+golden-dusky vault, and the tempting phantom spoke, "Behold this
+treasure! it belongs to you. You found it; it gave itself to you and is
+yours. You had obtained all except love, only that was wanting, and now
+you have found that too. Take, enjoy to the dregs the cup which the
+Almighty has given you. You will become a new man! The man whom a woman
+loves becomes a demi-god. You are happy; you are beloved." . . . Only
+the inner voice whispered, "You are a thief!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With the first kiss a new world had arisen for Michael; a wonderful
+change had taken place in his soul. The first feeling which overpowered
+him was a secret dread, a fear of happiness; should he submit to it or
+fly from it? Does a blessing or a curse rest on it? does it bring life
+or death? what follows on it? What deity will answer these questions?
+The flower is answered when it unfolds its cup, the butterfly when it
+opens its wings, the bird when it builds its nest; but not the man when
+he asks, "Is it good or evil to follow the call of my heart?"
+
+And his heart said, "Look in her eyes!" It is not sinful to be
+transported by a glance of the eye, and this intoxication lasts. Michael
+forgot the whole world when he looked in her eyes; a new creation arose
+for him, full of bliss and joy and earthly happiness. The exquisite
+presentiment stupefied him.
+
+Since his youth no one had loved him. He had once hoped for affection,
+struggled for it with might and main, and when he thought he was at the
+goal, his joy was turned to ashes by crushing disappointment. And here
+to his face he is told that he is beloved. Everything tells him so; the
+animals which lick his hand, the lips which betray the heart's secret,
+the blush and the glance which tell more than the mouth. Even she who
+ought to guard the secret jealousy, the mother of the loving girl, even
+she betrays it--"She loves so passionately that it will be her death!"
+
+No; that it shall not be. . . .
+
+Timar passed on the island one of those days which outweigh an eternity.
+A day full of endless feeling--a day of self-forgetfulness and waking
+dreams, when what a man has longed for in visions of the night actually
+stands before him.
+
+But when on the third night, after a season of ideally rapturous
+intercourse, he returned from the moonlit world of enchantment to his
+solitary dark bedroom, the inward accuser, who would not be silenced or
+lulled to sleep, called him to account.
+
+This voice would not let him sleep. He was restless all night, and dawn
+found him out under the trees; his decision was made--he would go away
+and not come back for a long time, till he was forgotten. Till he also
+had forgotten that he had lived three days in Elysium, that he had been
+permitted to know happiness.
+
+When the sun rose, he had been round the whole island, and when he got
+back he found Frau Therese and her daughter busy preparing breakfast.
+
+"I must go away to-day," said Michael to Therese.
+
+"So soon," whispered Noemi.
+
+"He has a great deal to do," said Therese to her daughter.
+
+This was only natural enough. A captain is only a servant who must look
+after his affairs, and not waste the time for which he must account to
+his employer.
+
+He was not pressed to stay--it was quite right that he should leave. He
+will come back, and they have plenty of time to wait for him--one year,
+two years, till the hour of death, till eternity. But Noemi did not
+touch her glass of new milk: she could not have swallowed a drop. He
+must not be detained; if he has business he must go and attend to it.
+Therese herself brought out his gun and knapsack, and said to Noemi,
+"You carry the gun, that Almira may not hurt it. Go with him to the
+boat."
+
+Timar walked silently beside Noemi; the girl's hand rested in his;
+suddenly she stood still. Michael did so too, and looked in her eyes.
+"You want to ask me something?" he said. The girl thought awhile, then
+she said, "No; nothing." Timar had learned to read her eyes; he guessed
+her thoughts. Noemi wanted to ask him, "Tell me, my beloved, my all;
+what has become of the white-faced girl who once came with you to the
+island, and was called Timea?"
+
+But she said nothing, only walked on silently with his hand in hers.
+
+Michael's heart was heavy when they said good-bye. When Noemi gave him
+his gun she whispered to him, "Take care of yourself, that no harm may
+come to you;" and when she pressed his hand, she looked at him once more
+with those heavenly blue and soulful eyes, and said, with a voice of
+entreaty, "You will return?"
+
+Michael was fascinated by the entreating voice. He pressed the child to
+him and murmured--"Why don't you say 'Wilt not _thou_ return?' Why am I
+never to hear _thou_?"
+
+The girl cast down her eyes and gently shook her head. "Do say 'thou,'"
+he begged once more. She hid her face on Michael's breast, but would not
+do his will.
+
+"So you can not, or will not, call me 'thou?'--one single word--are you
+afraid?" The maiden covered her face with both hands, and was silent.
+"Noemi, I beg of thee say that one little word and make me happy. Do not
+let me go without it."
+
+But she shook her head silently and could not utter it.
+
+"Then farewell to you, dear Noemi," faltered Michael, and sprung into
+his boat. The rushes of the marsh soon hid the island from his gaze. But
+as long as he could distinguish its woods, he still saw the girl leaning
+on an acacia-tree, sadly gazing out with her head on her hand; but she
+did not call after him the desired word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE TROPIC OF CAPRICORN.
+
+
+After Michael had rowed across to the other side, he gave over the boat
+to a fisherman to keep till he came back. But would he ever come back?
+
+He wished to go on foot as far as the wharf, where Fabula was busy with
+the lading of his ships. It is hard work to row against the stream, and
+in Timar's present frame of mind he was in no mood for muscular
+exertion; there was in his heart a stronger current, to contend against
+which he needed all his strength.
+
+The district through which he had to pass was a widespread alluvial
+deposit of the Danube, like those found in the lower reaches of the
+river. The capricious stream has burst some dam, and altered its course.
+Every year it tears portions from one bank and carries them over to the
+other. On this deposit the trees uprooted with it form a new growth, and
+through this dark natural forest wind lonely paths--the roads of the
+osier-cutters and fisher-folk. Here and there you come to a forsaken hut
+with a shingle roof whose walls are covered with creepers. These
+sometimes shelter a snipe-shooter, conceal a robber, or form the lair of
+a wolf and her cubs.
+
+Michael, deep in thought, strode silently on through this desert: he had
+thrown his gun over his shoulder.
+
+"You can never return here," said Timar to himself. "If it is difficult
+to carry through one lie with consistency, how can you manage two?--two
+contradictory lies? If you accept Noemi's love, you will be inseparably
+bound to her, and must live henceforth two lives, both full of deceit.
+. . . You are no boy, to be passion's tool, and perhaps it is not
+passion which you feel, possibly merely a passing desire or only
+gratified vanity.
+
+"Then the rejected bridegroom--how is he to be got rid of? He would kill
+you, or you him--a delightful relationship indeed to end on the
+scaffold!"
+
+He took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his brow; it soothed his
+burning temples to let the breeze fan them.
+
+"Am I never to be happy?" he sighed. "All these years I have worked
+early and late for other people; why should I be so wretched? I adored
+my wife, and her coldness has brought me to despair; but Noemi loves me.
+That can no longer be altered, and in the island, outside the world, the
+laws of society and religion have no power. . . . I could easily pay off
+that fellow who comes between us, and then I could live here in peace
+for half the year. Timea would only suppose that I was away on
+business."
+
+The wind of spring rustled through the young poplar stems. Here, where
+the path turned, stood a hut made of interwoven osier-twigs, whose
+entrance was concealed by brambles. Timar stood still and put on his
+hat. At that moment two shots rattled close to him, the two balls
+whistling over his head with that unpleasant sound which resembles the
+buzz of an approaching wasp or the clang of an aeolian harp. Michael's
+hat, pierced by two balls, flew from his head into the bushes. Both
+shots came from the ruined hut. For the first instant the shock
+paralyzed his limbs; they came like two answers to his secret thoughts.
+A shudder ran through his whole body: the next moment rising fury took
+the place of fear; he lowered his gun, cocked both barrels, and rushed
+angrily toward the hut, from which the smoke of the discharged weapon
+poured through the crevices.
+
+Before the muzzle of his gun stood a trembling man--Theodor Krisstyan.
+His discharged pistol was still in his hand, he held it now as a
+protection to his head, and shook so that every limb quivered.
+
+"It is you--you!" cried Michael.
+
+"Mercy!" stammered the trembling wretch, throwing away his pistol, and
+stretching both hands entreatingly to Michael: his knees knocked
+together, and he could hardly keep his feet; his face was pale as death,
+his eyes dull, he was more dead than alive. Timar recovered his
+composure: fear and anger had left him--he lowered his gun. "Come
+nearer," he said to the assassin.
+
+"I dare not," faltered he, clinging to the wood-work. "You will kill
+me."
+
+"Don't be afraid; I don't want your life. There"--he discharged his gun
+in the air--"now I am unarmed, and you have no cause to fear." Theodor
+crept out. "You wanted to kill me," said Michael. "You wretched
+creature! I pity you!"
+
+The young rascal dared not look at him.
+
+"Theodor Krisstyan, so young, and already a murderer!--but you could not
+do it. Examine yourself; you are not naturally bad, but your soul has
+been envenomed: I know your history, and I make excuses. You have good
+capacities, and use them badly--you are a vagabond and a swindler; does
+such a life content you? Impossible!--begin afresh--shall I help you to
+a post in which you can, with your education, honestly support yourself?
+I have many connections: it is in my power: there is my hand on it."
+
+The murderer fell on his knees before the man he would have killed,
+seized the offered hand with both his own, and covered it, sobbing, with
+kisses.
+
+"Oh, sir, you are the first man who has ever spoken thus to me; let me
+kneel at your feet! From boyhood I have been chased from every door like
+a dog without a master; I had to steal or beg every morsel I eat; no one
+gave me a hand but those who were worse than myself, and who led me
+further astray. I have led a shameful, miserable life, full of deceit
+and treachery, and I tremble before any one who knows me; and you hold
+out a hand to me--you, for whom I have been lying in wait like a
+brigand, you will save me from myself! Let me kneel before you, and thus
+receive your commands!"
+
+"Stand up! I am no friend to sentiment; tears make me suspicious."
+
+"You are right," said Theodor, "and especially with such a well-known
+actor as I am, who if you say to him 'Take that groschen and cry,' could
+at once break into floods of tears. Now people don't believe me if I
+really weep; I will suppress my tears."
+
+"All the more because I do not intend to address a moral lecture to you,
+but only to speak of very dry business matters. You spoke of your
+connection with Scaramelli, and a business journey to Brazil."
+
+"All lies, sir."
+
+"So I thought. You have no connection with Scaramelli?"
+
+"I had, but it was broken off."
+
+"Did you run away, or were you dismissed?"
+
+"The former."
+
+"With trust-money?"
+
+"With three or four hundred gulden."
+
+"Say five hundred. Would you not be glad to return them to the firm? I
+have relations with their house."
+
+"I do not want to remain there."
+
+"And what connection has this with the Brazilian journey?"
+
+"There is not a word of truth in it; no ship-wood comes from there."
+
+"Not even those you mentioned, among which were dye and chemical woods?"
+
+Theodor smiled. "The truth is that I wanted to sell the trees of the
+ownerless island to a charcoal-burner to get a little money; Therese
+guessed at once my real object."
+
+"Then you did not come to the island for Noemi's sake?"
+
+"Oh, I have as many wives as the countries I have visited."
+
+"H'm--I know of a very good situation for you in Brazil, an agency for a
+lately commenced enterprise, where a knowledge of the Hungarian, German,
+Italian, English, and Spanish languages is necessary."
+
+"I speak and write all these languages."
+
+"I know it--and also Greek, Turkish, Polish, and Russian: you are a
+clever fellow. I will procure for you this situation, in which you can
+make use of your talents. The agency of which I speak carries with it a
+salary of three thousand dollars and a percentage of the profits, the
+amount of which will depend on yourself."
+
+Theodor could hardly believe his ears. But he was so accustomed to
+pretense that when he was overcome by real gratitude he had not the
+courage to give it expression, lest it should be taken for acting.
+
+"Is this your real meaning, sir?"
+
+"What motive should I have at this moment for jesting with you? You
+attempted my life, and I must secure myself. I can not send you out of
+the world--my conscience forbids it--so I must try to make an honest man
+of you in the interest of my own safety. If you are in good
+circumstances, I shall have nothing to fear. Now you can understand my
+course of action. As a proof that my offer is in earnest, take my
+pocket-book. You will find in it the necessary journey expenses to
+Trieste, and probably as much as what you owe to Scaramelli. At Trieste
+you will find a letter which gives you further directions. And now we
+will part--one to the right, and the other to the left."
+
+Theodor's hand shook as he received the pocket-book. Michael lifted his
+pierced hat from the ground. "And you can look on these shots just as
+you like. If they were the attack of an assassin, you have every reason
+not to approach me in any region within reach of the law; but if they
+were the shots of an insulted gentleman, you know that at our next
+meeting it is my turn to shoot."
+
+Theodor Krisstyan bared his breast, and exclaimed passionately, "Shoot
+me if ever I come in sight of you again! Shoot me like a mad dog!" He
+raised the discharged pistol, and pressed it into Timar's hand. "Shoot
+me with my own pistol it you ever meet me in this world! Do not ask, say
+not a word, but kill me!"
+
+He insisted on Michael's taking the pistol, and putting it in his
+pocket.
+
+"Farewell!" said Timar, and then he left him and went on his way.
+
+Theodor stood still looking after him. Then he ran, and caught him up.
+"Sir, one word--you have made a new man of me--allow me, if ever I write
+to you, to begin with the words, 'My Father.' In those words once lay
+for me shame and horror; let me find in them henceforth a fountain of
+trust and happiness--my father, my father!"
+
+He kissed Michael's hand with impassioned warmth, rushed away, threw
+himself down on the grass behind the first bush that hid him from
+Timar's eyes, and wept--real, true tears.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Poor little Noemi stood for an hour under the acacia-tree where she had
+taken leave of Michael. Therese, as she stayed out so long, had gone to
+seek her, and now sat beside her daughter on the grass. Not to be idle,
+she had brought out her knitting.
+
+Suddenly Noemi exclaimed, "Mother, did you hear?--two shots on the other
+shore!"
+
+They listened. There was deep stillness in the drowsy air.
+
+"Two more shots! Mother, what is it?"
+
+Therese tried to calm her. "They must be sportsmen, child, who are
+shooting there."
+
+Noemi's cheeks lost their color, and she looked as pale as the acacia
+blossoms over her head. She pressed her hands vehemently to her breast
+and faltered, "Oh, no, no! he will never come back!"
+
+It grieved her to the heart that she had not said the little word "thou"
+to him when he begged so hard.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Master Fabula," said Timar to his faithful steward, "this year we will
+not send the crop either to Raab or Komorn."
+
+"What shall we do with it, then?"
+
+"We will grind it here. I have two windmills on my property, and we can
+hire thirty water-mills; those will suffice."
+
+"Then we must open a huge warehouse, where we can sell such a quantity."
+
+"That will not be wanting. We will load the flour into small ships,
+which can go up to Karlstadt; thence we will transfer it in barrels to
+Brazil."
+
+"To Brazil!" screamed Fabula, quite frightened. "I can't go there with
+it."
+
+"I was not thinking of sending you there, Master Fabula; your department
+is the grinding and the transport to Trieste. I will give the agents
+and millers their orders to-day, and you can scold and manage in my
+absence just as if I were there."
+
+"Many thanks," said Master Fabula, and shook his head violently as Herr
+von Levetinczy left the office. "That will be a gigantic folly," he
+grumbled to himself. "To begin with, the flour will be musty before it
+arrives; then no one will buy it; thirdly, nobody will ever see the
+color of money which has to come from Brazil. How could he claim it?
+there is no fiscal authority there, or even a vice-consul. In short, it
+is just another of those colossal, everlasting pieces of folly of our
+Herr Levetinczy, but it will turn out well, to every one's surprise, as
+every stupid thing does that our master undertakes. And I don't doubt
+that our flour-ships will come back laden with gold-dust from Brazil;
+but for all that it is a great folly."
+
+Our Herr Fabula was perfectly right. Timar was of the same opinion. He
+ran a risk in this speculation of losing at least a hundred thousand
+gulden. But this idea was not of to-day. It had long been in his mind
+whether a Hungarian merchant might not make better profits than in grain
+contracts and the chartering of cargo-ships. Would it not be possible
+for those goods which have to struggle with foreign competition to find
+their own place in the great bazaar of the world's market?
+
+The export trade in flour was an old plan of his. To prepare for its
+execution he had completed his mills, and built a large vessel at
+Trieste. But the reason of his hasty determination to begin work at once
+was only on Noemi's account; and his meeting with Theodor had brought
+this decision to a head.
+
+This business was only a pretext; the principal thing was to put a
+hemisphere between himself and that man. Those who saw in what ceaseless
+labor Timar spent the next weeks--how he hurried from one mill to
+another, and from there to his ships; how he dispatched them the moment
+they were laden, and personally superintended the transport--all said,
+"What a pattern of a merchant! He is tremendously rich; he has
+directors, agents, captains, stewards, overseers, foremen, and yet he
+sees to all himself like a common contractor. He understands business."
+(If only they had known what depended on this business!)
+
+Three weeks passed before the first ship laden with barrels of Hungarian
+flour lay ready to weigh anchor in the harbor of Trieste. The ship was
+called "Pannonia;" it was a beautiful three-masted galliot. Even Master
+Fabula was loud in its praise; for he was present at the loading of the
+flour. But Timar himself never saw it; he had not once come to Trieste
+to see it before it started. During those weeks he remained in
+Levetinczy or Pancsova. The whole enterprise was in Scaramelli's name;
+Timar had his reasons for keeping his own name out of it; and he only
+communicated in writing with the fully empowered firm of Scaramelli.
+
+One day he received a letter from Theodor Krisstyan. When he opened it
+he was surprised to find money in it--a hundred gulden note. The
+contents of the letter ran thus--
+
+     "MY FATHER,--When you read these lines I shall be
+     afloat on board the splendid ship 'Pannonia,' as
+     Brazilian agent of the house of Scaramelli.
+
+     "Accept my warmest thanks for your kind recommendation.
+     The bank has advanced me two months' salary, of which I
+     inclose a hundred gulden, with the request that you
+     would be good enough to pay it over to the landlord of
+     The White Ship at Pancsova. I am in debt to that amount
+     to that poor man, and am thankful to be able to pay
+     this sum. Heaven bless you for all your goodness to
+     me!"
+
+Timar breathed freely. "The man has already improved; he remembers his
+old debts and pays them with his savings. What a sweet thought to have
+brought a lost sheep back to the fold--to be the savior of an enemy who
+attempted one's life--to give back to him life, the world, honor, and
+bring to light a pearl purified of the mire in which it lay! Is not this
+a truly Christian act? You have a generous soul. If only the inward
+accuser would not reply, 'You are a murderer!'
+
+"You do not rejoice to have saved a man, but rather at getting rid of
+him. If you received news that a tornado had caught your ship and sunk
+it with every soul on board, what joy it would give you! You are not
+thinking of the flour-trade with its profits and losses, but that every
+year in the swamps of La Plata and the river Amazon that fearful specter
+walks--the yellow fever--which, like the tiger, lies in ambush for the
+new-comer. Of every hundred, sixty fall victims to it. It is that of
+which the prospect gives you pleasure. You are a murderer!"
+
+Timar felt the satisfaction of a man who has succeeded in putting an
+enemy out of the way--a joy with which bitter self-condemnation and
+anxious forebodings were mingled.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From henceforward Timar was transformed. He was hardly to be recognized.
+The usually cold-blooded man betrayed in everything a singular
+restlessness; he gave contradictory orders, and forgot an hour after
+what he had said. If he started on a journey, he turned back half-way;
+he began to avoid business, and seemed indifferent to the most important
+affairs; then again he grew so excitable that the smallest neglect
+enraged him. He might be seen wandering on the shore for half a day at a
+time, with his head down like one who is nearly mad, and begins by
+running away from home. Another time he shut himself into his room and
+would not let any one in; the letters which came to him from all parts
+lay unopened in a heap on his table. This shrewd, clever man could think
+of nothing but the golden-haired girl whom he had seen for the last time
+leaning on a tree by the island shore, with her head supported on her
+arm. One day he determined to return to her, and the next to drive the
+remembrance of her from his breast. He began to be superstitious; he
+waited for signs from Heaven, and visions to decide what he should do.
+Dreams always brought the same face, happy or sad, submissive or
+inconsolable, and he was more crazy than ever. But Heaven sent him no
+sign.
+
+One day he decided to be reasonable and attend to his business affairs;
+that might perhaps steady his brain. He sat down before the heap of
+letters and began to open them all in turn. All that came of it was that
+he had forgotten at the end of a letter what he had read at the
+beginning. He only cared to read what was written in those blue eyes.
+But his heart began to beat fast when a letter fell into his hands which
+was heavier than the rest; he knew the handwriting of the address; it
+was Timea's.
+
+His blood ran cold. This was the sign from Heaven, this will decide the
+conflict in his soul.
+
+Timea writes to him--the angelic creature, the spotless wife. A single
+tender word from her will exercise an influence on her husband like a
+cry of "danger" to a drunken man. These well-known characters will call
+up the saintly face before his mind's eye, and lead him back to the
+right path.
+
+In the letter is a small object; it must be a loving surprise, a little
+souvenir. Yes! to-morrow is her husband's birthday. This will be a
+charming letter, a sweet remembrance. Michael opened the envelope very
+carefully, after cutting round the seal. The first thing that surprised
+him was a key which fell out--the key of his writing-table.
+
+But in the letter were these words: "MY DEAR SIR,--You left the key of
+your writing-table in the lock. That you may not be uneasy about it, I
+send it to you. God keep you!--TIMEA."
+
+Nothing further. Timar had forgotten to take out the key that night when
+he came home secretly, when the conversation with Athalie had so
+disturbed his mind.
+
+Nothing but the key and a couple of frigid lines. Timar put down the
+letter in vexation.
+
+Suddenly a dreadful idea flashed through his mind. If Timea found this
+key in his writing-table lock, perhaps she looked through the desk.
+Women are curious, and do such things. But if she did search in it, she
+must have found something she would recognize. When Timar disposed of
+Ali Tchorbadschi's treasures, he had been careful not to part with some
+objects, which, if they came into the trade, might have led to
+discovery, but had, for the most part, only sold the separate diamonds.
+Among the precious objects was a medallion framed in brilliants, which
+contained a miniature portrait of a young lady, whose features bore a
+striking likeness to those of Timea. It must be the picture of her
+mother, who had been a Greek. If Timea found this medallion, she must
+know all; she would at once recognize her mother's portrait, and
+conclude that this jewel had belonged to her father. This would lead her
+to the further conclusion that her mother's valuables had fallen into
+Timar's hands, and thus she would arrive at the knowledge of how he had
+become rich, and that he had married her at the price of her own money.
+If Timea was curious, she now knows all, and then she must despise her
+husband.
+
+And do not the words of the letter betray this? Does not the wife wish
+her husband to understand, by the forwarding of the key, that she had
+discovered his secrets?
+
+This thought was decisive to Michael as to whether his path was to lead
+up or down! Down!
+
+"It is all one," thought he. "I am unmasked before the woman. I can no
+longer play the honest man, the true-hearted, generous benefactor. I am
+found out. I can only sink lower still!"
+
+He was determined to return to the island. But he would not retreat
+like a defeated foe. He wrote to Timea, and begged her to open all the
+letters which should come during his absence, to inform his agents of
+their contents, and, where a decision was necessary, to dispose, in the
+name of her husband, of all as she chose. At the same time he sent the
+key back, that it might be at hand if any documents were wanted.
+
+That was his trump card. With the feeling that his secret was near
+discovery he hastened to lead up to it, and possibly that very thing
+might prevent its revelation. He left orders to his agents that all
+letters concerning his affairs were to be directed to his wife. He was
+going away for a long time, but he did not say where to.
+
+Late in the afternoon he started in a hired carriage. He hoped his track
+would be lost, and did not take his own horses. A couple of days ago he
+had been superstitious, and awaited signs from Heaven, from the
+elements, to show him the way. Now he noticed them no longer. He was
+determined to return to the island. But the sky and the elements tried
+to frighten him by evil omens, and even to detain him by force. Toward
+evening, when the long lines of poplars on the Danube shore were already
+in sight, suddenly a reddish-brown cloud appeared in the sky,
+approaching with great rapidity. The peasant driver began to pray and
+sigh, but when the smoke-like cloud drew nigh, his prayers changed to
+curses. The Galambocz gnats are coming!
+
+They are creations of the Evil One, trillions in number, and living in
+the holes of the Galambocz rocks: suddenly they come out in swarms,
+forming a thick cloud, and if they descend into the plain, woe to the
+cattle they find in the open!
+
+The flight of gnats covered the plain through which Timar had to drive;
+the tiny stinging plague swarmed over the bodies of the horses, creeping
+into their eyes, ears, and nostrils. The terrified animals could no
+longer be controlled--they turned round suddenly with the carriage, and
+bolted in a north-westerly direction. Timar ventured on a jump from the
+carriage; he leaped cleverly and safely without injury; the horses flew
+off and away. If he had attended to omens, this might have been
+sufficient to turn him also aside. But he was now obstinate. He was
+going on a road where man no longer asks for help from God. He was going
+where Noemi drew him and Timea drove him. North pole and south pole,
+desire and his own will, pressed him on.
+
+When he jumped from the carriage, he continued his journey on foot,
+keeping along the wooded river-bank. His gun had remained in the
+carriage, he had come with empty hands: he cut himself a walking-stick,
+and that was his only weapon: provided with this, he tried to make his
+way through the thicket. There he lost himself; night surprised him, and
+the more he wandered the less he found an outlet. At last he came on a
+hut built of osier-twigs, and decided to spend the night there.
+
+He made a fire out of the dry branches lying near: fortunately he was
+carrying his game-bag when he jumped from the carriage, and in it were
+bread and ham; he broiled the ham over the fire and ate it with the
+bread.
+
+He found also something else in the bag, the pistol with which Theodor
+had attacked him from the hut; perhaps from this very hut--quite
+possible that it was the same. He could make no use of the pistol, for
+he had left his powder-horn in the carriage; but it did him a service by
+strengthening him in his fatalism: a man who had escaped so many dangers
+must still have some work to do in the world. And indeed he required
+some encouragement, for after nightfall it began to be uncanny here in
+the desert. Not far away wolves were howling, and through the bushes
+Timar saw the shining green eyes: one and another old Sir Isegrim came
+up to the back wall of the hut and executed a fearful howl. Timar dared
+not let the fire out all night, for it alone kept away the wild beasts.
+When he went inside, the uncomfortable hiss with which snakes receive
+human beings struck his ear, and a sluggish mass moved under his foot;
+perhaps he had trodden on a tortoise. Timar kept up the fire all night,
+and drew fantastic figures in the air with the glowing end of the
+fire-stick--perhaps the hieroglyphics of his own thoughts.
+
+What a miserable night! He who has a home provided with every luxury,
+and a comfortable bed; in whose house rules a lovely young woman whom he
+can call his wife--spends a lonely night in a damp, fungus-grown hut:
+wolves howl round him, and over his head adders creep slowly through the
+rush-woven roof. And to-day is his birthday; a happy family festival
+indeed--in such surroundings! But they suit him--he wants nothing else.
+
+Michael had a pious mind. From childhood he had been used night and
+morning to put up a silent prayer. He had never lost the habit, and in
+every danger or trouble of his eventful life, he had taken refuge in
+prayer. He believed in God; God was his deliverer, and whatever he
+undertook succeeded. But in this dreadful night he dared not pray; he
+would not speak with God.
+
+"Do not Thou look where I go." From this birthday he gave up prayer. He
+defied fate.
+
+When the day dawned, the nocturnal beasts of prey slunk back to their
+lairs. Timar left his inhospitable refuge, and soon found the path which
+led direct to the shore of the Danube: here a new horror awaited him.
+The Danube was enormously swollen, and had overflowed its banks. It was
+the season of the spring floods after the melting of the snow; the
+foaming yellow stream was filled with uprooted reeds and tree-trunks.
+The fisherman's hut which he sought, and which stood on the point of a
+hill, was in the water up to the threshold, and the boat he had left
+there was tied to a tree close by.
+
+He found not a creature there. It is impossible to fish in such a flood,
+and the people had removed all their nets. If he wanted a sign from
+heaven, a direction from God's finger--here he had it. The swollen river
+barred his way with its whole majestic strength; at such times no one
+ventures on the river; the warning was there, the elements commanded him
+to return.
+
+"Too late," said Timar. "I can not go back; I must go on."
+
+The door of the hut was locked, and he broke it open to get his oars, as
+he saw through a chink that they were kept there. Then he got into the
+boat, tied himself in, loosed the boat, and pushed off. The current
+seized him at once, and rushed on with him. The Danube was at that time
+a powerful master, and uprooted forests in its rage; a mortal venturing
+on its surface was like a worm floating on a straw, and yet this worm
+defied it. He alone managed the two oars, which also served to steer
+with. On the rapid waves his skiff danced like a nutshell, but the wind
+was contrary, and tried to drive him back to the shore he came from. But
+Timar succumbed neither to wind nor water.
+
+He had thrown his hat to the bottom of the boat; his hair, wet with
+perspiration, fluttered in the wind, and the waves splashing over the
+side threw their icy spray in his face--but they did not cool him. The
+thought was hot within him that Noemi might be in danger on the island.
+But the idea did not paralyze his arms. The Danube and the wind are two
+mighty powers--but stronger still are the passions and the will of man.
+Timar felt this. What activity in his mind, what muscle in his arm! It
+was a superhuman task in which he succeeded, to cross the current at the
+head of the Ostrova Island. Here he rested awhile.
+
+The island of Ostrova was overflowed, the water was rushing among the
+trees. Here it was easier to get on by pushing his oars against the
+trunks; at the back of Ostrova he must let himself float down-stream to
+arrive at the ownerless island. When he had reached the right spot, and
+came out from among the trees, a new and surprising spectacle lay before
+him. The ownerless island was usually hidden behind a thick bed of
+osiers, over which only the tree-tops were visible; now none of the
+reeds was to be seen, and the island lay out in mid-stream. The flood
+had covered the reeds, the trees of the island stood in the water, and
+only at one place the rock raised its head above the surface.
+
+With feverish impatience he let his boat float down. Every stroke
+brought him nearer to the erratic bowlder, whose crown was blue with
+lavender flowers, while the sides were shining gold with climbing
+nasturtium which clung to the stone; and the nearer he came the greater
+was his impatience. He could already see the orchard, whose trees stood
+in the water half-way up their trunk; but the rose-garden was dry, and
+there the lambs and kids had taken refuge. Now Almira's joyful bark fell
+on his ear; the black creature came running to the shore, rushed back,
+came on again, leaped into the water, and swam toward the new arrival
+and back again.
+
+Does Michael see that rosy face there at the base of a blooming
+jasmine-bush, hurrying toward him to the very edge of the rushing water?
+One more stroke, and the boat has reached the shore. Michael springs out
+and the waves carry off the boat; he no longer wants it, and no one
+thinks of drawing it ashore.
+
+Each only saw the other. Around them the paradise of the first
+man!--fruit-laden trees, blossoming fields, tame animals, surrounded by
+a watery ring, and therein--Adam and Eve.
+
+The maiden stands pale and trembling before the new-comer, and as he
+rushes toward her, when she sees him before her, she throws herself with
+a burst of passion on his breast, and cries, in the self-forgetfulness
+of ecstasy, "Thou hast returned! Thou, thou!" and even when her lips are
+closed they still say, "Thou, thou!"
+
+Around them is Eden. The jasmine-bush sends down on them its silvery
+flower-crown, and the choir of nightingales and blackbirds sing "Gospodi
+pomiluj."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SWEET HOME.
+
+
+The waves carried off Michael's boat. That of the islanders, which had
+brought them here, had long rotted away, and they had never had another.
+The new-comer could not leave the island before the first fruit-dealers
+arrived. Before that time weeks and months must elapse.
+
+Happy weeks, happy moons! Uncounted days of unbroken joy! The ownerless
+island was Timar's home. There he found work and rest. After the flood
+had passed away, the work of getting rid of the water left in the
+hollows gave him plenty to do. The whole day he was busy digging canals
+to carry it away; his hands looked like a laborer's from the blisters
+with which they were covered. When he threw spade and pick over his
+shoulder in the evening, and came back to the little cottage, he was met
+afar off, and lovingly welcomed. And when he had finished his canal and
+drawn off the marshy water, he looked upon his work as proudly as if it
+was the only one in all his life which could lay claim to be called a
+good action, and which he could confidently submit to his inward judge.
+The day of the opening of this canal was a festival on the little
+island. They had no church festivals and did not count Sundays: their
+saints' days were those on which God gave them some special joy.
+
+These islanders were sparing of words. What the holy David said in one
+hundred and fifty psalms, was by them expressed in a sign, and what the
+poets have sung of love in all their verses, one glance of the eye was
+sufficient to tell; they learned to read each other's thoughts on the
+brow, they learned to think together.
+
+Michael admired Noemi more every day. She was a faithful, grateful
+creature; she knew no care nor anxiety for the future; happy herself,
+she diffused happiness around. She never asked him, "What will become of
+me when you go? Will you leave me or take me? Is it good for me to love
+you? What church has given you its priestly blessing? Ought you to be
+mine? Has no other a right to you? What are you out there in the world?
+What sort of world do you live in?" Even in her face, her eyes, he never
+read a disquieting doubt--ever and only the one question "Lovest thou
+me?"
+
+Frau Therese reminded Michael one day that he was tarrying long here;
+but he assured her that Master Fabula was looking after everything, and
+when Therese looked at Noemi, whose soft blue eyes ever turned like the
+sunflowers to the sun of Michael's face, she could only sigh, "Oh, how
+she loves him!"
+
+Timar found it very necessary to dig all day, to drive piles, and bind
+fascines, in order by hard bodily labor to calm his even more heavily
+tasked mind. What is going on in the world? Thirty of his ships float on
+the Danube, and a fleet on the sea: his whole wealth, a property of more
+than a million, all lies in the hands of a woman. And if this woman in
+some giddy mood squanders the whole and scatters it to the winds,
+ruining her husband and his house, could he reproach any one? Was it not
+by his own will? He was happy here at home, and yet would have liked to
+know what was going on over there. His spirit lived in two places, was
+torn in two parts: there, his money, his honor, his position in the
+world; here, his love held him fast. In truth he could have got away.
+The Danube is not a sea; he was a good swimmer, and could at any time
+have reached the opposite shore; no one would have detained him. They
+knew he had work to do out in the world. But when he was with Noemi he
+forgot again everything outside her arms; he was sunk in love, bliss,
+and wonder.
+
+"Oh, do not love me so much!" whispered the girl to him.
+
+And so day after day passed by. The time of fruit-ripening drew near,
+and the branches were weighed down by their sweet burden. It was a
+pleasure to watch the daily progress of the fruit, how every day it
+developed more. Pears and apples began to put on their distinctive
+colors; the green is tanned to a leathery yellow, or receives gold and
+red streaks. The brown tone colors purple on the sunny side. In the
+golden tint mingle carmine splashes, and in the carmine greenish specks;
+the scented fruit smiles at one like a merry childish face. Timar helped
+the women to gather it. They filled great baskets with this blessing of
+heaven. He counted every apple he threw into the basket, how many
+hundreds, how many thousands. What a treasure! Real gold!
+
+One afternoon, when he was helping Noemi to carry a full basket to the
+apple-room, he saw strangers arrive at the cottage: the fruit-buyers had
+come, the first visitors for many months past, bringing tidings from the
+outer world.
+
+They negotiated about the fruit with Therese--the usual system of
+barter. Frau Therese wanted as usual to have grain in exchange, but the
+peddlers would not give her as much as before. They said wheat had
+become very dear. The corn-merchants of Komorn had made large purchases
+and driven up the prices; they ground it themselves, and sent it over
+the seas. Therese would not believe this--it was only gossip of the
+fruit-hawkers; but Timar paid great attention to it. That was his idea;
+what had come of it since then? Now he had no more rest for thinking of
+business and the cares of property. This news was to him what the bugle
+call is to an old soldier, who at the sound wishes himself back in the
+battle-field, even from the arms of his beloved.
+
+The islanders thought it quite natural that Michael should make
+preparations to leave them. His business called him; and then he would
+return the following spring. Noemi only begged him not to throw away the
+clothes she had spun and woven for him, and which he had worn while with
+her. He will preserve them like a jewel.
+
+And then he must often think of his poor Noemi. To that he could not
+answer in words.
+
+He bribed the fruit-women to stay a day longer. And all that day he did
+nothing but visit, arm in arm with Noemi, all the places which had been
+witnesses of his tranquil happiness; here he plucked from a tree, and
+there from a flowery cluster, some leaflet to keep as a memorial. On
+every leaf and petal whole romances were written which only two people
+could read.
+
+The last day passed so quickly! The boatmen wanted to leave in the
+evening, so as to row while it was cool. Michael must say farewell.
+Noemi was sensible, and did not cry; she knew he would return, and was
+more occupied in making provision to fill his knapsack.
+
+"It will be dark when you get to the other side," she said, with tender
+anxiety. "Have you any arms?"
+
+"No. No one will hurt me."
+
+"But yet--here is a pistol in your haversack," said Noemi, and drew it
+out; and then her check paled, for she recognized Theodor's pistol, with
+which he had often, when he came to the island, bragged and threatened
+that he would shoot Almira. "This is _his_ weapon!" Timar was struck by
+the expression of her face.
+
+"When you left here," said the girl, who was all excitement, "he watched
+for you on the other side, and shot at you with this pistol."
+
+"What makes you think such a thing?"
+
+"I heard two shots, and then yours. So it was this pistol that you took
+from him?" Timar was surprised that love can see what the eye can not
+reach. He could not tell a lie. "Did you kill him?" asked the girl.
+
+"No."
+
+"What has become of him?"
+
+"You need fear him no longer. He is gone to Brazil; a hemisphere lies
+between us and him."
+
+"I wish there were only three feet of earth between us!" cried Noemi,
+impetuously, seizing Michael's hand.
+
+Michael looked in her face surprised. "You! you! with such murderous
+thoughts--you, who can not bear to see a chicken killed, who can not
+bring yourself to tread on a spider or to stick a butterfly on a pin!"
+
+"But any one who would tear you from me, I could kill, were he a man, a
+devil, or an angel--!"
+
+And she pressed the dearly beloved man to her breast in a passionate
+embrace. He trembled and glowed.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On reaching the other side, Michael again visited the fisherman's hut.
+
+Two things occupied his mind: the slender figure among the evening mists
+on the flower-crowned rock, waving to him its tender farewells; and then
+that other figure conjured up by his imagination as it looks at home in
+Komorn. Well, he will have time to picture this image to himself on the
+long journey from the Lower Danube up to Komorn.
+
+When the old fisherman saw Michael, he began to sigh (fishing-folk do
+not swear). "Just think, my lord, some rascal of a thief has stolen your
+boat during the floods: he broke into the hut and carried off the oars.
+What thieves there are in the world, to be sure!"
+
+It did Timar good that at last some one should call him a thief to his
+face; that was what he was--and if he had stolen nothing more than a
+boat! "We must not condemn the man," said he to the fisherman. "Who
+knows what danger he was in, or how much he needed a boat. We will get
+another. But now, my friend, we will get into your boat and try to
+arrive at the ferry to-night."
+
+The fisherman was persuaded by a promise of liberal payment to undertake
+this, and by daylight they had reached the ferry where the ships
+generally took in their cargo. There were post-carriages at the inn on
+the bank, of which Timar engaged one to take him to Levetinczy. He
+thought he would there receive reports from the agent of what had passed
+during the last five months, so that when he got home to Komorn nothing
+new or surprising should greet him.
+
+There was a one-storied residence on the estate at Levetinczy. In one
+wing lived the steward and his wife, while the other was given up to
+Timar. A staircase from this wing led to the park, and by this means he
+could gain access to the room which he had chosen as an office. Michael
+must pay attention to the trivial details if he wished to carry out his
+wearisome deceit consistently. He has been absent for five months, and
+has, of course, been a long way; but that hardly agrees with his arrival
+without luggage. In his knapsack there is only the suit of striped linen
+made for him by Noemi, for the suit in which he had gone to the island
+was intended for the cold season, and that, by now, was torn and worn
+out; his boots were patched. It would be difficult to account for his
+appearance. If he could get through the garden and by the outside steps
+into his office, the key of which he carries with him, he could there
+change his clothes quickly, get out his trunk, and when to all
+appearances he looked as though just come from a long journey, he could
+call in the steward.
+
+All began well. Timar arrived without being seen, by the garden steps,
+at the door of his office.
+
+But when he was going to open it with his private key, he made the
+disquieting discovery that another key was already in the lock. Some one
+was in the room! But his papers and ledgers were all there, and no one
+had any business inside. Who could the intruder be? He pulled the door
+open angrily and went in, and now it was his turn to be startled.
+
+At his writing-table sat the last person he expected to find there. It
+was Timea. Before her lay the great ledger, in which she was at work.
+
+A storm of mingled feelings burst over Michael--alarm because the first
+person he met after his secret journey was his own wife, pleasure at
+finding her alone, and astonishment that this woman was at work here.
+
+Timea raised her eyes in surprise when she saw Michael enter; then
+hastening toward him, she offered him her hand in silence. This white
+face was still an unsolved enigma to her husband. He could not read in
+it whether she knew all--whether she guessed something or not. What lay
+under this cold indifference? restrained contempt or concealed love? Or
+was the whole only the indolence of a lymphatic race? He had nothing to
+say to Timea.
+
+His wife seemed not to remark that his clothes were torn--women can see
+without looking. "I am glad you have come," said she gently. "I expected
+you any day. You will find your clothes in the next room; when you have
+dressed, will you please come back here? I shall have finished by that
+time." And then she put her pen in her mouth.
+
+Michael kissed Timea's hand. The pen between her teeth did not invite
+him to kiss her lips. He went into the adjoining room; there he found a
+basin of water, a clean shirt, and his clothes and house-shoes as at
+home. As Timea could not know the day of his arrival, he must take for
+granted that she had made ready for him every day--and who knows for how
+long? But how comes this woman here, and what is she doing? He dressed
+quickly, hiding his cast-off clothes in a corner of his wardrobe. Some
+one might ask him what caused these holes in the coat-sleeves, which are
+quite through at the elbows. And this linen suit with the colored
+embroidery, would not a woman's eye decipher something from it?--women
+understand the mysteries of needle-work. He must hide the clothes. He
+and the soap had hard work to wash his hands clean. Would he not be
+asked what he had done to make them so black and horny?
+
+When he was ready he went back to the office, where Timea was waiting
+for him at the door, and putting her hand on his arm, said, "Let us go
+to breakfast."
+
+From the office they passed through the dressing-room to get to the
+dining-room. Another surprise awaited Michael there; the round table was
+laid with three places--for whom were they intended? Timea made a
+signal, and through one door came the servant, through the other
+Athalie. The third place was for her.
+
+On Athalie's face an unconcealed anger shone when she saw Timar. "Ah,
+Herr von Levetinczy, you have come home at last! It was a kind thought
+of yours to write to your wife, 'Take my keys and books, and be so good,
+dear wife, as to do all my work for me,' and then to leave us five
+months without news of your whereabouts."
+
+"Athalie!" said Timea, sternly.
+
+Michael sat down in silence at his place, which he recognized by his own
+silver drinking-cup. He had been daily awaited here, and the table laid
+for him. Athalie said no more, but whenever she looked at Timar he could
+read her vexation in her eyes. This was a satisfactory sign.
+
+When they rose from table Timea asked her husband to go with her to the
+office. Michael began to think what he could invent when she should ask
+him about his journey. But she never referred to it even remotely. She
+placed two chairs at the desk, and laid her hand on the open day-book.
+"Here, sir, is the account of your business since the time when you gave
+over its direction to me."
+
+"Have you carried it on yourself?"
+
+"I understood that you desired me to do so. I found by your papers that
+you had undertaken a new and wholesale enterprise--the export of
+Hungarian flour. I saw that here not only your money, but also your
+credit and your mercantile honor, were at stake, and that on the good
+result of this affair hung the foundation of an important branch of
+trade. I did not understand this business, but I thought that it
+depended more on conscientious and faithful stewardship than on
+knowledge of affairs. I trusted this to no third person. Directly I
+received your letter I started for Levetinczy, and took, as you desired,
+the conduct of business into my own hands. I studied book-keeping and
+learned to deal with figures. I think you will find everything in
+order--the books and the cash balance." Timar looked with admiration at
+this woman, who knew how to apply the millions passing through her hands
+with such calm good sense, to their right object, to receive and expend
+moneys, and with a skillful hand to withdraw endangered funds; and who
+knew even more than that. "Fortune has favored us this year," continued
+Timea, "and made up for my inexperience. The five months' income
+amounted to five hundred thousand gulden. This sum has not lain idle.
+Taking advantage of the powers intrusted to me, I have made
+investments."
+
+What sort of investments are they likely to be which occur to a woman?
+
+"Your first experiment with the export of flour succeeded entirely.
+Hungarian flour became at one stroke an article in request for the South
+American markets. So your agents write from Rio Janeiro, where all with
+one accord praise the ability and uprightness of your chief agent,
+Theodor Krisstyan." Timar thought to himself, "Even when I do evil good
+comes of it, and the greatest folly I commit turns into wisdom--when
+will this end?" "After receiving this intelligence I began to consider
+what you would have done. One must seize an opportunity and occupy with
+all speed the newly opened markets. I hired immediately many mills,
+chartered more ships, had them laden, and at this moment a new cargo is
+on its way to South America, which will defy competition."
+
+Michael was astonished. In this woman there was more courage than in any
+man. Another woman would have locked up the money that it might not run
+away, and this one ventures to carry on her husband's enterprise, only
+in tenfold measure. "I thought you would have acted thus," said Timea.
+
+"Yes, indeed," muttered Timar.
+
+"My expectations, moreover, were justified by the fact that, as soon as
+we threw ourselves more openly into this undertaking, a whole herd of
+competitors appeared, who are grinding away for dear life, and packing
+off their good in barrels to America. But this need not cause you any
+anxiety--we shall beat them all. Not one of them knows the secret of the
+superiority of the Hungarian flour."
+
+"How is that?"
+
+"If one of them asked his wife, perhaps she would have known--that is
+how I discovered it. Among all the samples of American wheat, I can find
+none as heavy as ours. We must, therefore, make flour of our heaviest
+kinds, so as to carry off the prize from the Americans. I selected our
+heaviest grain; our rivals here use lighter corn, and they will find
+their mistake, while we shall maintain our position."
+
+Michael kissed Timea's hand with the sacred awe with which we kiss our
+beloved dead, who no longer belong to us, but to the ground, and who can
+not feel our caress. Whenever during his life of happy forgetfulness on
+the island he had thought of Timea at all, it was as amusing herself,
+traveling, going to watering-places, having plenty of money, and wasting
+it as she chose. Now he saw in what her amusement had consisted--keeping
+books, sitting at a desk, conducting a correspondence, and learning
+foreign idioms without the help of a master--and all this because her
+husband had desired it.
+
+His wife gave him a report of all branches of his extensive business. It
+was now all as familiar to her as if she had known it from childhood,
+and everything was in perfect order. While Timar ran over the accounts,
+he acquired the conviction that if he himself had had to do it all in
+those few months, he would have been hard at work all day. What labor
+this must have cost a young woman who had to learn everything by
+experience! Indeed she must have had but little time for sleep.
+
+"But, Timea, this is a tremendous task which you have accomplished in my
+stead!"
+
+"It is true, and at first I found it very difficult, but by degrees I
+got used to it, and then it was easy enough. Work is wholesome."
+
+What a sad reproach!--a young wife who finds consolation in work.
+Michael drew Timea's hand to him. Deep sadness clouded his brow, his
+heart was heavy. If only he knew what Timea was thinking.
+
+The key of the desk was constantly in Timar's mind. If Timea had
+discovered his secret, then her present conduct to her husband was only
+a fearful judgment held over him, to mark the difference between the
+accuser and the accused.
+
+"Have you never been in Komorn since?" he asked Timea.
+
+"Only once, when I had to look in your desk for the contract with
+Scaramelli."
+
+Timar felt his blood run cold. Timea's face betrayed nothing.
+
+"But now we will go back to Komorn," said Timar; "the flour is in full
+swing; we must wait for news of the fate of the cargoes now at sea, and
+they will not arrive before the winter. Or would you rather make a tour
+in Switzerland and Italy? This is the best season for it."
+
+"No, Michael; we have been long enough apart, we will remain at home
+together."
+
+But no pressure of the hand explains why she would like to remain at
+home with him. Michael had not the courage to say a tender word to her.
+Should he lie to her? He would have to live a lie in her presence from
+morning to evening. His silence even was a falsehood.
+
+Looking through all the papers took the whole time until late dinner,
+and to this meal two guests were invited--the bailiff and the reverend
+dean. The latter had begged to be at once informed of Herr von
+Levetinczy's return, that he might call upon him immediately. As soon as
+he received the news he hastened to the castle, and of course put on his
+new decoration. The moment he entered he let off some oratorical
+fireworks, in which he lauded Timar as the benefactor of the place. He
+compared him to Noah who built the Ark, to Joseph who saved his people
+from famine, and to Moses who made manna fall from heaven. The flour
+trade which he had set on foot was pronounced the greatest enterprise
+Europe had ever seen. Long live the Columbus of flour export!
+
+Timar had to answer this address of welcome. He stammered and talked
+great nonsense. He had to control himself that he might not laugh aloud,
+and say to the worthy preacher, "Ha, ha! do not fancy that I had this
+idea in order to make your fortune; it was only to get a young rascal
+out of reach of a certain pretty girl, and if any good came of it, it is
+only by means of this woman here near me. Laugh then, good people!"
+
+At table good-humor reigned. The dean and the steward were neither of
+them despisers of the bottle. The wit and anecdotes of the two old men
+made Timar laugh too; but whenever he cast a glance on Timea's icy face,
+the laugh died on his lips. She had left her merriment elsewhere in
+pledge.
+
+It was evening before they rose. The two old gentlemen reminded each
+other jocosely that it was quite time to leave, for the husband had
+returned to his young wife after a long absence, and they would have
+much to say to each other.
+
+"Indeed you will do wisely to go soon," whispered Athalie to Timar.
+"Timea has such dreadful headaches every evening, that she can not sleep
+before midnight. See how pale she is!"
+
+"Timea, you are unwell?" asked Timar, tenderly.
+
+"There is nothing the matter with me," answered she.
+
+"Don't believe her; ever since we came to Levetinczy she has suffered
+from headache. It is neuralgia, which she contracted by overtaxing her
+brain, and by the bad air here. I found a white hair in her head the
+other day. But she conceals her suffering till she breaks down, and even
+then she never complains."
+
+Timar experienced in spirit the tortures of a criminal stretched on the
+rack. And he had not the courage to say to his wife, "If you are
+suffering, let me sleep in your room and take care of you." No; he was
+afraid of uttering Noemi's name in his sleep, and that his wife might
+hear it, as she was kept awake by pain half the night. He must shun his
+marriage-bed.
+
+The next day they started for Komorn, and traveled by post, Michael
+sitting opposite the two ladies. It was a tedious journey: in the whole
+Banat the harvest was over; only the maize was still standing, otherwise
+they saw nothing but monotonous fields of stubble. None of them spoke;
+all three found it hard to keep awake. In the afternoon Timar could no
+longer endure the silent looks, the enigmatical expression of his wife;
+under pretense of wanting to smoke he took a seat by the driver in the
+open _coupe_, and remained there. When they got out at a post-house,
+Athalie grumbled at the bad roads, the dreadful heat, the annoying
+flies, the stifling dust, and all the rest of a traveler's trials. The
+inns are dirty, the food disgusting, the beds hard, the wine sour, the
+water impure, and the countenances of all the people frightful. She
+feels so ill all through the journey, she is quite knocked up, she has
+fever, and her head will burst: what must Timea be suffering, who is so
+nervous?
+
+Timar had to listen to these lamentations all the way, but Timea never
+uttered a complaint.
+
+When they arrived at Komorn, Frau Sophie informed them that she had
+turned gray with loneliness. Gray indeed! She had been very happy--being
+able to go about all day from house to house to gossip to her heart's
+content. Timar felt a painful anxiety. Home is either a heaven or a
+hell. Now at last he would know what lay behind the marble coldness of
+this silent face.
+
+As he entered the room with his wife, she handed him the key of his
+desk. Michael knew she had opened it to get out the contract.
+
+This writing-desk was an old and elaborate piece of furniture, whose
+upper part was closed by a rolled falling cover, under which were
+drawers of various sizes. In the large drawer lay the contracts, in the
+small ones notes and valuables; the lock was a puzzle one, which you
+might vainly turn if you did not know its secret.
+
+Timea was in the secret, and could have access to all the drawers. With
+an uneasily beating heart Timar drew out the drawer where those jewels
+were kept which it had been unadvisable to place on the market. These
+gems have their own experts, who recognize by certain marks where this
+stone or that gem came from; and then follows the question, how did he
+get it? Only the third generation from the finder can venture to show
+it, as to him it is all one in what way his grandfather came into its
+possession.
+
+If Timea had been inquisitive enough to open that drawer she must have
+seen these gems. And if so, one among them, the diamond locket with the
+portrait which is so like her, must have been recognized by her. It is
+her mother's picture, and then she must know all. She knows that Timar
+has received her father's treasures; it is hard to believe he came by
+them honestly. And by that dark, perhaps criminal road, they would lead
+to the fabulous riches which gained her hand for Timar, while he played
+the generous friend to her whom he had robbed. She may even think worse
+things of him than are true. Her father's mysterious death, his secret
+burial, might awake in her the suspicion that Timar had a hand in it.
+
+These doubts were unbearable. Timar must set them at rest, and call yet
+one more falsehood to his aid. He took out the medallion and went with
+it to Timea. "Dear Timea," he said, sitting down beside his wife, "I
+have been living a long time in Turkey. What I did there you will learn
+later on. When I was in Scutari an Armenian jeweler offered me a
+diamond-framed picture, which is very like you. I bought it, and have
+brought you the ornament."
+
+When Timea saw the portrait her face changed in an instant. An emotion
+which could neither be assumed nor concealed was visible in her
+sculptured features; she seized the picture with both hands and pressed
+it eagerly to her lips; her eyes filled with tears. This was true
+feeling; Timea's face began to live.
+
+Michael was saved. The girl, overpowered by her long-suppressed
+feelings, began to sob violently. Athalie heard and came in; she was
+surprised--she had never known Timea to sob. But when she saw Athalie
+she ran toward her like a child, and cried, in a tone of mingled
+laughter and tears, "See, see! my mother! It is my mother's picture.
+. . . He has brought it to me!"
+
+And then she hastened back to Michael, put both her arms round his neck,
+and whispered in a broken voice, "Thanks, oh, a thousand thanks!"
+
+It seemed to Timar as if the time had come to kiss these grateful lips,
+and to kiss them on and on.
+
+But alas! his heart said, "Thou shalt not steal." Now a kiss on these
+lips would be a theft, after all that had passed on the ownerless
+island.
+
+Another thought struck him. He went back to his room, and fetched all
+the hidden jewels which remained in the drawer.
+
+A wonderful woman this, who, though she had the key in her hands, left
+the secret drawers untouched and only took out the one paper she
+required! Then he packed all the ornaments into the bag he had over his
+shoulder when he came home, and went back to his wife. "I have not told
+you all," he said to Timea. "Where I found the picture I discovered also
+these jewels, and bought them for you. Take them as a present from me."
+
+And then he laid the dazzling gems one after another in Timea's lap,
+until the sparkling heap quite covered her embroidered apron. It was
+like some magical gift from the thousand and one nights.
+
+Athalie stood there pale with envy, with angrily clinched teeth. Perhaps
+these might all have been hers! But Timea's face darkened and grew
+marble-like again. She looked with indifference at the heap of jewels in
+her lap. The fire of diamonds and rubies could not warm her.
+
+
+
+
+_BOOK FOURTH.--NOEMI._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A NEW GUEST.
+
+
+What rich bankers call business filled up the winter season, and
+Levetinczy began to enjoy his position. Riches bring pleasant dreams. He
+went often to Vienna and took part in the amusements of the commercial
+world, where many good examples were presented to him. A man who owns a
+million can allow himself the luxury, when he goes to the jeweler to buy
+New Year's gifts, of buying two of everything to please two hearts at
+once.
+
+One for his wife, who sits at home and receives guests or looks after
+the household--the other for another lady, who either dances or sings,
+but in any case requires an elegant hotel, jewels, and laces. Timar was
+so fortunate as to be invited to the parties given at home by his
+friends, where the lady of the house makes tea--as well as to those
+differently organized _soirees_, where a very unceremonious set of
+ladies preferred champagne, and where Timar was constantly attacked by
+the question whether he had no little friend at the opera yet.
+
+"The pattern of a faithful husband," declared his admirers.
+
+"An unbearable prig," was the verdict of his critics.
+
+But he says nothing, and thinks of--Noemi. What an eternity to have been
+separated from her--six months; to think of her every day, and not dare
+to confide his thoughts to a single soul!
+
+He often caught himself on the point of betraying his thoughts; once as
+he sat at table the words all but escaped him, "Look! those are the same
+apples which grow on Noemi's island." "When Noemi had a headache, it
+went away if I laid my hand on her forehead." And if he looked at
+Timea's pet white cat, the exclamation hovered on his lips, "Narcissa,
+where did you leave your mistress, eh?"
+
+He had every reason to be on his guard, for there was a being in the
+house who watched him as well as Timea with Argus eyes.
+
+Athalie could not but remark that since his return he was no longer so
+melancholy as before; every one noticed how well he looked; there must
+be some mystery in it. And Athalie could not bear any one in this house
+to be happy. Where did he steal his contentment? Why does he not suffer
+as he ought to do?
+
+Business prospered. In the first month of the new year news came from
+the other side of the sea. The flour exported had arrived safely, and
+its success was complete. Hungarian flour had won such renown in South
+America, that now people tried to sell the native product under that
+name. The Austrian consul in Brazil hastened to inform his government of
+this important result, by which the export trade was increased in a
+marked degree. The consequence was that Timar was made a privy
+councilor, and received the minor order of St. Stephen, as an
+acknowledgment of the services rendered by him to his native land in the
+fields of commerce and philanthropy.
+
+How the mocking demon in his breast laughed when they fastened the order
+on to his coat and called him "the right honorable!" "You have to thank
+two women for this--Noemi and Timea." Be it so. The discovery of the
+purple dye had its origin in the eating of a purple snail by the little
+dog of a shepherd's mistress; but yet purple has become a royal color.
+
+Herr von Levetinczy now first began to rise in the estimation of the
+people of Komorn. When a man is a privy councilor, one can not deny him
+a proper portion of respect. Every one hastened to congratulate him, and
+he received them all with a gracious condescension. Our Johann Fabula
+came too to wish him joy in the name of the fisher-folk. He was in the
+gala clothes of his class. On his short dolman of dark-blue cloth shone
+three rows of shell-shaped silver buttons, as large as nuts, and from
+one shoulder to the other hung a broad silver chain with a large
+medallion for a clasp, on which the Komorn silversmith had stamped the
+head of Julius Caesar. The other members of the deputation were equally
+splendid. Silver buttons and chains were at that time still worn by the
+mariners of Komorn. It was the custom to keep the visitors to dinner,
+and this honor fell to Fabula. He was a very frank person, who spoke
+with complete unreserve. When wine had loosened his tongue, he could not
+forbear to tell the gracious lady that when he first saw her as a girl
+he would never have thought that she would have become such a good
+housewife and be the wife of Herr von Levetinczy. Yes, indeed; he was
+afraid of her then, and now see how wonderful are the ways of God's
+providence, and how short-sighted are men; how everything has been
+ordered for the best: what happiness reigns in this house! If only a
+kind Providence would hear the prayers of those who entreat that a new
+blessing may be sent down from heaven to the good lord of Levetinczy, in
+the shape of a little angel.
+
+Timar covered his glass with his hand; a thought started through his
+mind--"Such a wish might have an unlooked-for result."
+
+But Herr Fabula was not content with good wishes, he thought he must add
+some good advice. "But his honor rushes about too much. In good truth I
+would not leave such a sweet, pretty lady alone. But it can't be helped
+if the master must see to everything himself, for that's why it
+succeeds. Who would have thought of sending our flour across the sea? To
+tell the truth, when I heard it--excuse me for making so free--I thought
+to myself the master must have gone silly; before that flour gets there
+it will all be musty, while loaves grow out there on the trees and roll
+on the bushes. And now just see what credit we have all got by it. But
+it is the master's eye that feeds the horse--"
+
+This was to Michael an unwelcome irony, which he could not leave without
+contradiction. "My good Johann, if that was the secret of our success,
+you must bestow all your praises on my wife, for it was she who looked
+after everything."
+
+"Yes, indeed; all honor to the merits of our noble lady!" said Fabula;
+"but, with his honor's permission, I know what I know. I know where his
+honor spent the whole summer."
+
+Michael felt as if his hair stood on end with horror. Could this man
+know where he had been? It would be awful if he did.
+
+Michael winked with one eye over his glass at his guest, but in vain.
+
+"Well, shall I tell our gracious lady where the master spent the summer?
+Shall I let it out?"
+
+Michael felt every limb paralyzed by terror. Athalie kept her eyes fixed
+on his face; he durst not betray by a gesture that the gossip of the
+tipsy chatterer confused him. "Well, tell us then, Johann, where I was,"
+he said, with enforced calmness.
+
+"I will complain of you to the gracious lady; I will tell her," cried
+Fabula, putting down his glass. "His honor ran away without saying a
+word to any one. He went quietly on board a ship and sailed away to
+Brazil; he was over there in America and settled everything himself, and
+that's why it all went so smoothly."
+
+Timar looked at the two women. On Timea's face was reflected pure
+surprise, Athalie was vexed. She believed as fully in the truth of
+Fabula's tale as he did himself, and he would have staked his head on
+it.
+
+Timar also smiled mysteriously at the story; now he was the one who
+lied, not Johann Fabula. The man of gold must go on lying.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The story was very useful to Timar. He had now a sufficient excuse for
+his mysterious disappearances, and it was possible for him to give such
+an air of probability to the story of his Brazilian voyage that even
+Athalie believed it. Indeed, she was the easiest to deceive. She knew
+what Timea was feeling, and that she was glad to distract herself by
+absence and work from the thought of him on whose account her heart
+ached. If a wife can do so, why not the husband? It was even simpler for
+him to fly from his sorrows to another hemisphere, and in the pursuit of
+wealth to forget what his heart coveted. How should Athalie have guessed
+that it was the husband who had already found a cure for his mortal
+sickness, and who was happy away from home? What would she have given to
+him who should have revealed the truth? But the rushes round the
+ownerless island did not chatter like the reeds to which King Midas's
+barber trusted his secret. Athalie was consumed with envy, while she
+vainly sought for a key to the riddle. At home and in public, Timar and
+Timea presented the exemplary picture of a happy marriage. He heaped on
+his wife expensive jewels, and Timea loaded herself with them when they
+went into society; she wished to shine by this means.
+
+What could better prove the affection of the husband than the diamonds
+of the wife? Could Timar and Timea really be a couple whose love
+consisted in giving and receiving diamonds, or are there people in this
+world who can be happy without love?
+
+Athalie still suspected Timea and not Timar. But Timar could hardly wait
+till the winter was over and spring had come: of course, because then
+the mills can begin to grind again--what else could a man of business
+have in his mind?
+
+This year Michael persuaded Timea not to try her health by the
+management of business; he would give it over to his agents, and she
+should go during the summer to some sea-bathing place, to get rid of her
+neuralgia.
+
+No one asked him where he was going. It was taken for granted that he
+would again travel to South America, and pretend he had been in Egypt or
+Italy.
+
+But he hurried away to the Lower Danube. When the poplars grew green, he
+could not stay at home: the alluring picture filled his dreams and took
+captive all his thoughts. He never stopped at Levetinczy, but only gave
+general instructions to his agent and his steward to do their best; then
+he went on to Golovacz, where he stayed a night with the dean; thence he
+had only a half-day's journey to get to Noemi. He had not seen her for
+six long months; his mind was filled with the picture of the meeting.
+Awake and asleep he was full of longing, and could hardly wait for dawn.
+Before sunrise he was up, put on his knapsack, threw his gun over his
+shoulder, and without waiting for the appearance of his host, he left
+the presbytery and hastened to the wooded river-bank.
+
+The Danube does a good work in widening the limits of the wood every
+year by retreating from its banks, for in this way the watch-houses
+built twenty-five years ago on the shore have now taken up a position
+much further inland. And he who wishes to cross the river without a
+passport finds in the young brushwood an entirely neutral territory.
+
+Timar had sent a new boat to the hut, where he went on foot; he found it
+ready, and started as usual alone on the way to the reed-beds. The
+skiff floated like a fish on the water, and that it traveled so swiftly
+was not owing to itself alone. The year had grown to April, it was
+spring, and the trees at Ostrova were already in blossom. So much the
+more astonished was he at the sight which met his eyes on the other
+side. The ownerless island did not look green; it seemed to have been
+burned. As he approached he saw the reason; all the trees on the
+northern side were quite brown. The boat traversed the rushes quickly;
+when it touched the bank, Michael saw plainly that a whole long row of
+trees, Frau Therese's favorite walnuts, were dead--every one of them.
+Michael felt quite downcast at the sight. At this season he was
+generally greeted by green branches and rosebuds. Now a dead forest
+welcomed him--a bad omen.
+
+He pressed forward and listened for the bark of greeting: not a sound to
+be heard. He walked on anxiously; the paths were neglected, covered by
+dry autumn leaves, and it seemed to him as if even the birds were
+silent. When he drew near the hut, a dreadful feeling overcame
+him--where were the inhabitants? They might be dead and not buried; he
+had been busied about other things for half a year--with affairs of
+state, with showing off his young wife, and making money. And meanwhile
+Heaven had watched over the islanders--if it chose.
+
+As he entered the veranda, a door opened and Therese came out. She
+looked serious, as if something had frightened her; and then a bitter
+smile appeared on her face. "Ah! you have come!" said she, and came to
+press his hand. And then it was she who asked him why he came looking so
+grave. "No misfortune has happened?" Timar asked, hastily.
+
+"Misfortune? No," said Therese, with a melancholy smile.
+
+"My heart was sore when I saw the dead trees," said Michael, to excuse
+his serious looks.
+
+"The flood last summer did that," answered Therese; "walnut-trees can
+not stand wet."
+
+"And how are you both?" asked Timar, uneasily.
+
+Therese answered gently, "We are pretty well, I and the other two."
+
+"What do you mean? the other two?"
+
+She smiled and sighed, and smiled again; then she laid her hand on
+Michael's shoulder and said, "The wife of a poor smuggler fell ill here:
+the woman died, the child remained here. Now you know who the other two
+are."
+
+Timar rushed into the house: at the far end of the room stood a cradle
+woven of osiers, and near it, on one side, was Almira, on the other
+Noemi. Noemi rocked the cradle and waited till Timar came to her. In it
+lay a little baby, with chubby cheeks, which pressed the cherry lips
+into a soft pout; its eyes were only half shut, and the tiny fists lay
+over its face. Michael stood spell-bound before the cradle. He looked at
+Noemi as if to seek the answer to the riddle in her face, on which a
+sweet ray of heavenly light seemed to shine, in which modesty and love
+were combined. She smiled and cast her eyes down. Michael thought he
+would lose his senses.
+
+Therese laid her hand on his arm, "Then are you angry that we have
+adopted the orphan child of the poor smuggler's wife? God sent it to
+us."
+
+Angry? He had fallen on his knees, and held the cradle in his embrace,
+pressing it and its inhabitant to his breast; then he began to sob
+violently, like one who has kept a whole ocean of sorrow in his heart,
+which suddenly overflows its bounds.
+
+Timar kissed the little messenger from God wherever he could--its little
+hands and feet, the hem of its robe, its rosy cheeks. The baby made
+grimaces under the kisses, but did not wake. At last it opened its eyes,
+its great blue eyes, and looked at the strange man with astonishment, as
+if to say, "Does this man want anything of me?" and then it laughed, as
+if it thought, "I don't care what he wants," and after that it shut its
+eyes and slumbered on, still smiling and undisturbed by the flood of
+kisses.
+
+Therese said, smiling, "You poor orphan! you never dreamed of this, did
+you?" and turned away to hide her tears.
+
+"And am I to have no greeting?" said Noemi, with charming anger. Michael
+turned to her, still on his knees. He spoke not a word, only pressed her
+hand to his lips and hid his face silently in her lap. He was dumb as
+long as the child slept. When the little creature awoke, it began to
+talk in its own language--which we call crying. It is lucky there are
+those who understand it. The baby was hungry.
+
+Noemi said to Michael that he must now leave the room, for he was not to
+know what the poor little orphan was fed upon.
+
+Michael went outside; he was in a transport. It seemed as if he was on a
+new star, from which one could look down on the earth as on a foreign
+body. All he had called his own on the terrestrial ball was left behind,
+and he no longer felt its attraction drawing him thither. The circle in
+which he had spent his former life was trodden under foot, and he had
+attained a new center of gravity. A new object, a new life, stood before
+him; only one uncertainty remained---how could he contrive to vanish
+from the world? To pass into another sphere without leaving this mortal
+life behind; to live on two different planets at once, to mount from
+earth to heaven, to pass again from heaven to earth, there to entertain
+angels, and here to live for money--alas! this was no task for human
+nerves. He would lose his reason in the attempt.
+
+Not without reason are little children called angels, or "messengers:"
+children are indeed messengers from the other world, whose mysterious
+influence is visible in their eyes, to those who receive them as gifts
+of God. A wonderful look often meets us in the eye of an infant, which
+is lost when the lips learn speech. How often Michael gazed for hours at
+this blue ray from heaven in the baby's eyes, when it lay on a lambskin
+out on the grass, and he stretched himself beside it, and plucked the
+flowers it wanted--"There, then, here it is." He had his work cut out to
+get it away, for the little thing put everything in its mouth. He
+studied its first attempts at language, he let it drag at his beard, and
+sung lullabies to put it to sleep.
+
+His feeling for Noemi was quite different now; it was not desire, but
+bliss--the glow of passion had given place to a sweet contented calm,
+and he felt like one convalescent from a fever. Noemi, too, had altered
+since they last met; on her face lay an expression of submissive
+tenderness, and in all her conduct was a consistent gentleness, which
+could not have been assumed--a quiet dignity combined with chaste
+reserve, which surrounds a woman with a halo, compelling respect. Timar
+could not get used to his happiness: he required many days to be
+convinced that it was not a dream--that this little hut, half wood, half
+clay, and the smiling woman with the babbling babe at her breast, were
+reality and not a vision.
+
+And then he thought, what will become of them?
+
+He strode about the island and brooded on the future.
+
+"What can I give this child? Much money? They know nought of money here.
+Great estates? This island suffices. Shall I take him with me and make
+him into a great and wealthy man? But the women could not part with him.
+Shall I take them too? But even if they consented, I could not do it;
+they would learn what I am, and would despise me. They can only be happy
+here: only here can this child hold up its head, where none can ask its
+name."
+
+The women had called it Adeodatus (Gift of God). It had no other name.
+What other could it have?
+
+One day when he was wandering aimlessly, deep in thought, about the
+island, striding through the bushes and weeds, Timar came suddenly to a
+part where the dry twigs crackled under his feet. He looked round; he
+was in the melancholy little plantation of dead walnut-trees. The
+beautiful trees were all dried up: spring had not clothed them with
+fresh green foliage, and the dead leaves covered the ground.
+
+An idea struck Michael in this vegetable cemetery. He hastened back to
+the hut. "Therese, have you still the tools you used in building your
+house?"
+
+"There they are on the shelf."
+
+"Give them here. I have an idea; I will fell the dead walnuts and build
+of them a little house for Dodi."
+
+Therese clasped her hands in astonishment. But Noemi's answer was to
+kiss her little Dodi and say to him, "Dost thou hear?"
+
+Michael interpreted the wonder on Therese's face as incredulity. "Yes,
+yes," he persisted, "I will build the house myself without any help--a
+little house like a jewel-case, like those the Wallachians build, lined
+with beautiful oak; mine shall be of walnut, and fit for a prince. I
+will drive every nail myself, and it shall be Dodi's house when he gets
+bigger."
+
+Therese only smiled. "That will be fine, Michael. I too built my nest as
+the swallows do; I formed the walls of clay, and thatched my roof with
+rushes. But carpentry is not one man's work; the old saw has two
+handles, and one can not manage it alone."
+
+"But are we not two?" cried Noemi, eagerly. "Can't I help him? Do you
+fancy my arm is not strong enough?" and she turned her sleeve up to her
+shoulder to show off her arm. It was beautifully formed, yet muscular,
+fit for Diana. Michael covered it with kisses from the shoulder down to
+the finger-tips, and then said, "Be it so."
+
+"Oh, we will work together," cried Noemi, whose lively fancy had seized
+on Michael's suggestion with lightning speed. "We will both go out into
+the wood; we will make a hammock for Dodi and sling it from the
+branches. Mother shall bring us out our meals, and we will sit on the
+planks we have sawn, and take our dinner out of the same plate: how good
+it will taste!"
+
+And so it did. Michael took the ax and went out to the walnut-grove,
+where he set to work. Before he had felled and topped one tree his hands
+were blistered. Noemi told him women's hands never got sore. When three
+trees were cut down, so that one trunk could be laid across the other
+two, Michael wanted Noemi's help. She was quite in earnest, and attacked
+the task bravely. In her slender form lay stores of strength and
+endurance. She handled the great saw as cleverly as if she had been
+taught to do it.
+
+Michael gradually got used to the dressing of the walnut planks; the ax,
+too, did good service, and Noemi admired him greatly. "Tell me,
+Michael," she asked him one day, "have you never been a carpenter?"
+
+"Oh, yes," he answered, "a ship's carpenter."
+
+"And tell me, how did you become such a rich man that you can stay away
+a whole summer from your work, and spend your time elsewhere? You are
+your own master, I suppose? You take orders from no one?"
+
+"I must tell you all about it some day," said Michael; and yet he never
+told her how he became rich, so as to be able to spend weeks on the
+island sawing wood. He often related to Noemi stories of his adventurous
+journeys through all lands, but in his romantic tales he never said
+anything about himself. He escaped inquisitive pressure by working hard
+all day; and when he lay down at night, it was not the time to tease him
+with questions, though many wives take advantage of the opportunity.
+
+During the long time Timar spent in the ownerless island, he had
+gradually become convinced that it was by no means so concealed as to be
+unknown: its existence was known to a large class of visitors. But they
+never revealed it to the outer world. Smuggling, on the banks of this
+wooded river, was a regular profession, with its own constitution, its
+own schools, its secret laws, forming a state within a state. It often
+surprised Timar to find among the willow-copses of the island a canoe or
+a boat, watched by no one. If he came back a few hours later, it was no
+longer there. Another time he stumbled on great bales of goods, which
+also had disappeared when he returned. All the mysterious people who
+used the island as a resting-place seemed purposely to avoid the
+neighborhood of the hut; they went and came without leaving a footmark
+on the turf. There were cases, however, in which they visited the hut;
+and then it was always Therese who received their visit. When Almira
+gave the signal that strangers were coming, Timar left his work and
+retired into the inner room; he must not be seen by any stranger. It is
+true the beard he had grown had altered him considerably, but yet some
+one might come who had seen him elsewhere. The wild people always came
+to Therese if they had been hurt; they often frequented places where
+they were likely to be wounded. Sometimes they had deep, dangerous
+gunshot wounds, which they could not show to the regimental surgeon,
+for the result would be a court-martial; but the island lady knew of
+healing salves, could reduce fractures, bind up wounds, and prescribe
+medicines for fevers. She was sought by sick people who kept secret
+their abode, for they knew the physicians would never endure this
+quack-doctoring. She reconciled enemies who dared not go to law, and
+consoled criminals who repented of their sins, with the hope of God's
+mercy. Often some fugitive, tired and exhausted with hunger and thirst,
+came to her threshold. She asked not, "Whence do you come or whither do
+you go?" She took him in, and let him go when restored and refreshed,
+after filling his pouch with food.
+
+Many know her whose religion is silence, and there is no bond which
+binds master and disciple so closely as this. Every one knows that no
+money is to be found here; even avarice has no reason to wish her ill.
+
+Timar could be certain of having found a place over which centuries
+might pass before the history of its inhabitants should be drawn into
+that chaos we call the world. He could go on with his carpentry without
+fearing that the news would leak out that Michael Timar Levetinczy,
+privy councilor, landowner, banker, had turned into a woodcutter in an
+unknown island; and that, when he rested from his hard labor, he cut
+willow branches to shelter a poor orphan child which had neither parents
+nor a name of its own. What joys he knew here! how he listened for the
+first word the child could speak! The little man had such trouble to
+shape his unskillful lips to the words. "Papa," of course, was the
+first; what else could it be? The child learns also to understand the
+sorrowful side of life; when a new tooth comes, what pain and sleepless
+nights must be endured! Noemi remains at home with it, and Michael runs
+back from his work to see how little Dodi is. He takes the child from
+Noemi and carries him about, singing lullabies to him. If he succeeds in
+putting Dodi to sleep and soothing his pain, how triumphant he is! He
+sings--
+
+    "For all the gold the world could hold,
+    I would not give my Dodi's curl."
+
+One day Michael suddenly found that he had grubbed up and cut down all
+the timber. So far the work had prospered; but now he found he could not
+get on. House-carpentry is a trade like any other, and must be learned,
+and he had not spoken the truth when he said he understood it.
+
+Autumn drew near. Therese and Noemi were already used to think it quite
+natural for Timar to leave them at this season; he must of course earn
+his bread. His business is of a sort which gets on by itself in the
+summer, but in winter he must give himself up to it. They knew that from
+other tradespeople. But in another house the same idea reigned. Timea
+believed Michael had business which obliged him to spend the summer away
+from home: at that season the management of his estates, of his building
+and export contracts, demanded all his attention.
+
+From autumn to spring he deceived Timea, from spring to autumn he
+deceived Noemi. He could not be called inconsistent.
+
+This time he left the island earlier than in other years. He hastened
+back to Komorn, where all his affairs had progressed in his absence
+beyond his expectations. Even in the government lottery the first prize
+must needs fall to him; the long-forgotten ticket lay buried somewhere
+in a drawer under other papers, and not till three months after the
+drawing did he bring it out, and claim the unhoped-for hundred thousand
+gulden, like one who hardly cares for such a trifle. The world admired
+him all the more. He had so much money, people said, that he wished for
+no more.
+
+What could he do with it?
+
+He began by sending for celebrated cabinet-makers from Szekler and
+Zarand, who understand the building of those splendid wooden houses
+which last for centuries--real palaces of hard wood. The Roumanian
+nobility live in such houses as these, which are full of beautiful
+carving inside. The house and its furniture, tables, chairs, and
+wardrobes, are all the work of one hand. Everything in it is of
+wood--not a single bit of iron is used.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE WOOD-CARVER.
+
+
+On his return home, Michael found Timea somewhat unwell. This induced
+him to call in two celebrated doctors from Vienna in order to consult
+them about his wife's health. They agreed that a change of climate was
+necessary, and advised a winter sojourn in Meran; so Michael accompanied
+thither his wife and Athalie. In the sheltered valley, he chose for
+Timea a villa in whose garden stood a pavilion built like a Swiss
+_chalet_. He knew that Timea would like it. In the course of the winter
+he often visited her, generally in the company of an elderly man, and
+found that, as he expected, the _chalet_ was her favorite resort.
+
+When he returned to Komorn he set to work to build just such another
+_chalet_ as the one at Meran. The cabinet-maker he had brought with him
+was a master of his art. He copied the _chalet_ and its furniture in the
+minutest detail; then he installed a large workshop in Timar's
+one-storied house in the Servian Street, and there set to work. No one
+was to know anything about it--it was to be a surprise. But the
+architect required an apprentice to help him, and it was difficult to
+find one who could hold his tongue. There was nothing for it but to turn
+Timar himself into an apprentice, and he now vied with his master from
+morning to night with chisel and gimlet, in carving, planing, polishing,
+and turning. But as to the cabinet-maker himself, if you had closed his
+mouth with Solomon's seal, you could not have made him discreet enough
+to refrain from letting out the secret to his Sunday evening boon
+companions, of the surprise Herr von Levetinczy was preparing for his
+wife. First they made the different parts and fitted them together: then
+the whole, as fast as it was ready, was set up in the beautiful park on
+the Monostor. He himself, a regular Croesus, does not shrink from working
+all day like a laborer, and is as good at the tools as if he were a
+foreman. He does not trouble about his own affairs, he leaves them to
+his agents, and saws and carves the whole day long in the workshop. But
+they must not let it go further, for the gracious lady was to have a
+surprise when she came home. Naturally the whole town heard of it, and
+so did Frau Sophie, who wrote to Athalie, who told Timea, so that Timea
+knew beforehand that Michael, when she came home in the spring, would
+drive with her some fine day to the Monostor hill, where they had a
+large orchard: there, on the side overlooking the Danube, she would find
+her dear Meran pavilion exactly copied, her work-basket at the window,
+her favorite books on the birchwood shelves, her cane chair on the
+veranda. All this to surprise her; and she must smile as if much
+pleased, and when she praised the maker, she would hear from him, "You
+must not compliment me, gracious lady, but my apprentice." "Who executed
+the best carvings, who made the footstool, these elegant balustrades,
+these columns and capitals?" "My apprentice." "And who was he?" "The
+noble lord of Levetinczy himself. All this is his work, gracious lady."
+
+And then Timea would smile and try to find words to express her thanks.
+Only words: for he may heap treasures on his wife, or give her black
+bread that he had earned by his labor; he can not purchase her
+affection.
+
+And so it was. In the spring Timea came back. The Monostor surprise was
+skillfully planned, with a splendid banquet and a troop of guests. On
+Timea's face hovered a melancholy smile; on Timar's, reserved kindness;
+and on those of the guests, envious congratulation. The ladies said no
+woman was worthy of such a husband as Timar, he was an ideal husband;
+but the men said it was not a good sign when a husband tried to win his
+wife's favor by presents and attentions.
+
+Only Athalie said nothing: she sought a clew to the mystery and found
+none. What had come to Timar? His countenance betrayed something like
+happiness; what was he concealing under his care for Timea? In company
+he was bright and cheerful, unconstrained and at ease with Athalie,
+sometimes even taking her for a turn in the cotillon. Was he really
+happy, or was he indifferent? It was vain for him to try and win Timea's
+heart; Athalie knew that by her own experience. She had found plenty of
+wooers, but refused them all--all men were alike to her; she had only
+loved one, whom now she hated. She alone understood Timea.
+
+But Michael she could not fathom. He was a man of pure gold, without a
+speck of rust upon him.
+
+When spring came, Timar again called in the physicians to pronounce on
+Timea's health. This time she was advised to try the sea-bathing at
+Biarritz. Michael took her there, arranged her apartments, took care
+that she should be able to compete in dress and equipages with English
+peeresses and Russian princesses, and left a heavy purse with her,
+begging her to bring it back empty. He was generous to Athalie, put her
+down as Timea's cousin in the visitor's list, and she too was to change
+her dress five times a day, like Timea. Could any one better fulfill the
+duties of the head of a family?
+
+Then he hurried away, not homeward, but to Vienna; there he bought the
+whole furniture of a workshop, and had it sent in chests to Pancsova.
+
+Here he had to invent some pretense to get the boxes over to the island.
+Caution was most necessary. The fishermen, who often saw him go round
+the Ostrova Island in a boat, and not return for months, had puzzled
+their heads as to who he was and what brought him here. When the cases
+arrived, he had them conveyed to the poplar-groves of the left bank of
+the Danube, and there unloaded. Then he called in the fishermen, and
+said they must get them over to the lonely island--they contained arms.
+
+That one word was enough to sink the secret to the bottom of the sea.
+Henceforward he could go backward and forward by day or night, no one
+would ever mention his name. They all knew now that he was an agent of
+the Servian and Montenegrin heroes of the insurrection, and the rack
+would not have extorted information from them. He became a sacred
+personage in their eyes. In this way, in order to hide himself in
+darkness, he deceived every one with whom he exchanged a word. The
+fishermen ferried over the cases at night, and Timar with them; they
+looked out for a place on the shore where the thickest bushes grew, and
+carried the boxes there, and when Michael would have paid them, they
+would not accept a groschen from him, only grasping his hand.
+
+He remained on the island, and the fishermen left him. It was a splendid
+moonlight night; the nightingale sung on its nest. Michael went along
+the bank till he came to the path, and passed the place where he had
+left off his work last year; the trunks were carefully covered with
+rushes to keep the wet off.
+
+He approached the little dwelling on tiptoe. It was a good sign that he
+heard no noise. Almira does not bark, because she is sleeping in the
+kitchen so as not to wake the child. All is well in the house.
+
+How should he announce himself, and surprise Noemi? He stood before the
+little window, half covered by climbing roses, and began to sing--
+
+    "For all the gold the world could hold,
+    I would not give my Dodi's curl."
+
+He was not disappointed; a moment later the window opened, and Noemi
+looked out with a face radiant with joy. "My Michael," whispered the
+poor child.
+
+"Yes, thy Michael," he murmured, clasping the dear head in both arms.
+"And Dodi?"
+
+"He is asleep; hush, we must not wake him." And still the lips murmured
+tenderly, "Come in."
+
+"He might wake and cry."
+
+"Oh, he is no longer a crying child. Just think, he is a year old."
+
+"What! a year already! He is quite a big fellow."
+
+"He can say your name already."
+
+"Does he really talk?"
+
+"And he is learning to walk."
+
+"Just fancy!"
+
+"He eats anything now."
+
+"Impossible; that is too soon."
+
+"What do you know about it? wait till you see him."
+
+"Push the curtain aside that I may see him by the moonlight."
+
+"No; that would not do. If the moon shines on a sleeping child it makes
+it ill."
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"There are all sorts of wonderful things about children, and one must
+have plenty of faith; that is why women have charge of children, because
+they believe everything. Come in and look at him."
+
+"I will not go in as long as he is asleep--I might wake him; you come
+out."
+
+"I can not do that; he would wake if I left him, and mother is asleep."
+
+"Well, then, you go back to him, and I will remain outside."
+
+"Won't you lie down?"
+
+"It is almost day-break. Go back to him, and leave the window open."
+
+And he remained standing by the window, looking into the little room, on
+whose floor the moon painted silver patterns, and trying to distinguish
+the tones which came from the quiet chamber--a little whimper of an
+awakened child, then a low song like a dreamy lullaby, "For all the gold
+. . ." Then the sound of a kiss, which a good baby gets as a reward for
+going to sleep. With his elbows on the window-sill, and listening to the
+breaths of the sleepers, Timar awaited the dawn, which filled the little
+house with light. The red sunrise awoke the child, and there was no more
+sleep for the others. The baby crowed and babbled; what it said only
+those two understood--itself and Noemi.
+
+When at last Michael got it into his arms he said, "I shall stay here,
+Dodi, till I have finished your house."
+
+The child said something which Noemi interpreted to mean, "That is just
+what I wish."
+
+These were the happiest days of Timar's dual life. Nothing troubled the
+serenity of his happiness, except the thought of that other life to
+which he must return. If he could find ways and means to sever himself
+from that, he might live on here in peace. Nothing would be easier; he
+simply had to stay here. He would be sought for during the first year,
+for two or three more he would be remembered from time to time; then the
+world would forget him and he it, and Noemi would remain to him. And
+what a jewel she was! Whatever was lovable in woman was combined in her,
+and every feminine defect was wanting. Her beauty was not of the kind
+which satiates by its monotony: with every change of expression arose a
+new charm. Tenderness, gentleness, and fire were united in her
+disposition. The virgin, the fairy, the woman were harmoniously blended
+in her. Her love was never selfish; her whole being went out to him whom
+she loved: his sorrows and joys were hers, she knew no others. At home
+she thought of every trivial detail which could conduce to his comfort;
+she helped him in his work with an untiring hand. Ever bright and fresh,
+if she felt unwell a kiss from him drove away the pain. She was
+submissive to him, who worshiped her. And when she took the child on her
+lap, it was a sight to drive the man mad who had made her his own--and
+yet not really his.
+
+But Timar had not yet made up his mind. He still played with Fate. The
+price was too high even for such a treasure as a lovely woman with a
+smiling child in her arms.
+
+The cost was--a whole world! a property amounting to millions; his
+position in society; his rank and noble friends; the enterprise of
+world-wide influence, on whose result hung the future of a great
+national branch of trade! and besides--Timea. He might have reconciled
+himself to the idea of treading his riches under foot: they came from
+the submarine depths, and might return thither.
+
+But his vanity refused to contemplate the notion that that woman with
+the white face, which no glow from her husband could animate, might be
+happy in this life--with another man. Perhaps he hardly knew himself
+what a fiend was hidden in his breast. The woman who could not love him
+was fading away before his eyes, while he could live through happy days
+where he was well beloved. And during this time the house-building made
+rapid progress, and was already being put together by the workman's
+skillful hand; the roof was on, and covered with wide planks formed like
+fish-scales to overlap each other. The carpentry was done, and now came
+the cabinet-work. Michael completed it without any assistance, and might
+be seen from morn to eve in the workshop he had arranged in the new
+house, where he sung all day as he planed and sawed. Like the steadiest
+of day-laborers, he never left off his work before dark; then he
+returned to the hut where an appetizing supper awaited him. After the
+meal he sat down on the bench outside the house, and lighted his clay
+pipe. Noemi sat by him and took Dodi on her knees, who was now expected
+to exhibit what he had learned during the day. A new word! And is not
+this one word a greater acquirement than all the wisdom of the world?
+"What would you sell Dodi for?" Noemi asked him once in jest. "For the
+whole earth full of diamonds?"
+
+"Not for the whole heaven full of angels."
+
+Little Dodi happened that day to be full of spirits. In a mischievous
+mood he caught hold with his little hand of the pipe Michael had in his
+mouth, and pulled till he got it out of his hold, when he at once threw
+it on the ground; as it was made of clay, of course it was broken into
+atoms. Timar was rather hasty in his exercise of justice, and bestowed a
+little tap on the child's hand as a punishment for the damage done. The
+boy looked at him, then hid his head in his mother's breast, and began
+to cry.
+
+"See now," said Noemi, sadly, "you would give him away for a pipe, and
+this one was only of clay."
+
+Michael was very sorry to have slapped Dodi's hand. He tried to make it
+up by coaxing words, and kissed the little hand, but the child was shy
+of him, and crept under Noemi's shawl. All night he was restless,
+wakeful, and crying. Timar got angry, and said the child was of a
+willful nature, his obstinacy must be overcome. Noemi cast a gently
+reproachful glance on him.
+
+The next day Timar left his bed earlier than usual, and went to his
+work, but he was never heard to sing all day. He left off early in the
+afternoon, and when he came home he could see by Noemi's face that she
+was quite alarmed at his appearance. His complexion was quite altered.
+"I am not well," he said to Noemi, "my head is so heavy, my feet will
+hardly carry me, and I have pain in all my limbs. I must lie down."
+
+Noemi hastened to make up a bed for him in the inner room, and helped
+him to undress. With anxiety she noticed that Michael's hands were cold
+and his breath burning. Frau Therese felt his forehead, and advised him
+to cover himself well, for he was going to have ague. But Michael had
+the sensation that something worse was at hand. In this district typhus
+was raging, for the spring floods had swelled the Danube in an unusual
+degree, and left malaria behind them. When he laid his head on the
+pillow he was still sensible enough to think of what would happen if a
+serious illness attacked him; no doctor was near to help. He might die
+here, and no one would know what had become of him. What would become of
+Timea, and above all, of Noemi? Who would care for the forsaken one, a
+widow without being a wife? Who would bring up Dodi, and what fate
+awaited him when he should be grown up, and Michael underground? Two
+women's lives would be wrecked by his death!
+
+And then he began to think of the revelations of his delirium before the
+two women who would be with him day and night--of his stewards, his
+palaces, and of his pale wife--of how he would see Timea before him,
+call her by name, and speak of her as his wife--and Noemi knows that
+name.
+
+Besides his bodily pain, another thing tormented him--that he had struck
+Dodi yesterday. This trifle lay heavy as a crime on his soul. After he
+was in bed he wanted the child brought to him that he might kiss it, and
+whispered "Noemi," with hot breath.
+
+"What is it?" she answered.
+
+But already he know not what he had asked. Directly he was in bed the
+fever broke out with full force. He was a strong man, and such are the
+first to succumb to this "aid-de-camp" of death, and suffer the most
+from it. Thenceforward he wandered continually; and Noemi heard every
+word he spoke. The sick man knew no one, not even himself. He who spoke
+through his lips was a stranger--a man who had no secrets, and told all
+he knew. The visions are akin to the delusions of madness; they turn on
+one fixed idea, and however the detail may change, the central figure
+returns ever and again to the surface.
+
+In Timar's wandering there was one of these dominating figures--a woman.
+Not Timea, but Noemi--of her he continually spoke. Timea's name never
+passed his lips--she did not fill his soul.
+
+For Noemi it was horror and rapture combined to listen to this
+unconscious babble--horror, because it spoke of such strange things, and
+took her with him to such unknown regions, that she trembled at a fever
+which compelled him to look on at such marvels--and yet it was bliss to
+hear him, for he always talked of her, and her only.
+
+Once he was in a princely palace and talking with some great man. "To
+whom should his excellency give this decoration? I know a girl on the
+ownerless island--no one is more worthy of it than she. Give her the
+order. She is called Noemi; her other name? Do queens have another name?
+The first. Noemi the first, by the grace of God queen of the ownerless
+island and the rose-forest."
+
+He carried his idea further. "If I become king of the ownerless island,
+I shall form a ministry. Almira will be inspector of meat, and Narcissa
+will be appointed to the dairy department. I shall demand security from
+them, and name them as confidential advisers." Then he talked of his
+palaces. "How do you like these saloons, Noemi? Does the gilding of this
+ceiling please you? Those children dancing on the golden background are
+like Dodi--are they not like him? A pity they are so high up. Are you
+cold in these great halls? So am I--come, let us go away. It is better
+by the fire in our little hut. I do not love these high palaces; and
+this town is often visited by earthquakes--I fear the vault may fall in
+on us. There! behind that little door some one is spying on us--an
+envious woman. Do not look, Noemi! Her malicious glance might do you
+harm. This house once belonged to her, and now she wanders through it
+like a ghost. See, she has a dagger in her hand, and wants to murder
+you; let us run away!"
+
+But there was a hinderance in the way of escape--the frightful mass of
+gold. "I can not stand up, the gold drags me down. It is all on my
+breast; take it away! Oh, I am drowning in gold! The roof has fallen in,
+and gold is rolling down on me. I am suffocating. Noemi, give me your
+hand; pull me from under this horrible mountain of gold."
+
+His hand lay in Noemi's all the time, and she thought, trembling, what a
+fearful power it was which tortured a poor sailor with such dreams of
+money. Then he began again: "You don't care for diamonds, Noemi? You
+little fool! Do you think their fire burns? Don't be afraid. Ha! you are
+right, it does burn--I did not know that--it is hell-fire. Even the
+names are alike--Diamond, Demon. We will throw them into the
+water--throw them from you. I know where they came from, and I will
+throw them back into the water. Don't be afraid, I will not remain long
+under water. Hold your breath and pray. As long as you can stay without
+taking breath I shall be down below; I am only going to dive into the
+cabin of the sunken ship. Ah! who is lying on this bed?"
+
+Such a shudder seized him that he sprung from his couch and would have
+rushed away. Noemi was hardly able to get him back to bed. "Some one is
+lying there, but I must not say the name. See how the red moon shines in
+at the window. Shut the light out. I will not have it on my face. How
+near it is coming! Draw the curtain across!"
+
+But the curtains were drawn, and besides, it was pitch-dark outside.
+When the fever-fit passed, he murmured, "Oh, how lovely you are without
+diamonds, Noemi!"
+
+Then a fantasy seized him. "That man stands at our antipodes on the
+other side of the earth. If the earth were of glass he could look down
+upon us. But he can see me just as well as I see him. What is he doing?
+He is catching rattlesnakes, and when he comes back he will let them
+loose on the island. Don't let him land; don't let him come back!
+Almira! Almira! At him! tear him! Aha! now a giant snake has got him; it
+is strangling him. How frightful his face is! If only I need not see the
+snake swallow him! Will he look at me? Now there is only his head out,
+and he keeps looking at me. Oh, Noemi, cover my face that I may not see
+him!"
+
+Again the dream-scene changes. "A whole fleet floats on the sea. What
+are the ships laden with? With flour. Now comes a whirlwind, a tornado
+seizes the ships, carries them into the clouds and tears them into
+splinters. The flour is all spilled: the whole world is white with it,
+white is the sea, white the heavens, and white the air. The moon peeps
+from the clouds, and only look how the wind covers its face with flour!
+It looks like some red-nosed old toper who has powdered his face. Laugh
+then, Noemi!" But she wrung her hands and shuddered. The poor creature
+was by his bed day and night. By day she sat on a chair at his side; by
+night she pulled her bed close to his and slept beside him: careless of
+the infection, she laid her head on Michael's pillow, pressed his
+perspiring brow to her cheek, and kissed away the burning fever-breaths
+from his parched lips.
+
+Frau Therese tried by harmless remedies to reduce the fever, and took
+out the glass casements that the fresh air--the best medicine in fever
+cases--might freely penetrate the little room. She said to Noemi, that
+by her calculation the crisis would set in on the thirteenth day, when
+the illness would either take a turn for the better or terminate
+fatally.
+
+How long Noemi knelt during these days by the sick man's bed and prayed
+to God, who had tried her so heavily, to have mercy on her poor heart!
+If only He would give Michael back to life--and then if the grave must
+have a sacrifice, there was she ready to die in his stead.
+
+Providence delights in what one might call the irony of fate--Noemi
+offered to cruel death the whole world and her own self, in exchange for
+Michael's life. She fancied she had to do with a good fellow who might
+be bargained with. The destroying angel accepted her challenge.
+
+On the thirteenth day the fever and delirium ceased: the previous
+nervous excitement gave place to intense exhaustion, which is a symptom
+of improvement, and permits a hope that with the greatest care the
+patient may be given back to life, if his mind is kept calm and he is
+preserved from anxiety or emotion: sick people are so easily excited at
+this stage of convalescence. His recovery hung on perfect tranquillity;
+any violent excitement would kill him. Noemi stayed all night by Timar's
+sick-bed: she never even went out once to see little Dodi; he slept in
+the outer room with Frau Therese. On the morning of the fourteenth day,
+while Michael lay sound asleep, Therese whispered in Noemi's car,
+"Little Dodi is very ill." The child now! Poor Noemi! Her little Dodi
+had the croup, the most dangerous of all childish maladies, against
+which all the skill of the physician is often powerless.
+
+Mortally terrified, Noemi rushed to her child. The face of the innocent
+creature was quite changed. It was not crying--this disease has no
+characteristic cry, but so much the more dreadful is the suffering. How
+terrible, a child who can not complain, whom men can not help! Noemi
+looked blankly at her mother as if to ask, "And have you no cure for
+this?" Therese could hardly bear this look. "So many miserable sick and
+dying people have been helped by you, and for this one you know of no
+remedy!"
+
+"None!" Noemi knelt down beside the child's little bed, pressed her lips
+on his, and murmured softly, "What is it, my darling, my little one, my
+angel? Look at me with thy pretty eyes."
+
+But the little one would not lift up the pretty eyes, and when at last,
+after many kisses and entreaties, it opened the heavy lids, its
+expression was terrible--the look of a child which has already learned
+to fear death. "Oh, don't look so! not so!" The child never cried, but
+only gave utterance to a hoarse cough.
+
+If only the other invalid in there does not hear it! Noemi held her
+child trembling in her arms, and listened to hear if the sleeper close
+by was yet awake. When she heard his voice she left the child and went
+to Michael. He was suffering from great exhaustion, irritable and
+peevish.
+
+"Where had you gone?" he questioned Noemi. "The window is open; a rat
+might get in while I was asleep. Don't you see a rat about?" It is a
+constant delusion of typhus patients to see rats everywhere.
+
+"They can't get in, my darling; there is a grating over the window."
+
+"Ah! and where is the cold water?" Noemi gave him some to drink. But he
+was very angry with it. "That is not fresh cold water, it is quite warm.
+Do you want me to die of thirst?"
+
+Noemi bore his crossness patiently. And when Michael fell asleep again,
+she ran out to Dodi. The two women replaced each other, so that as long
+as Michael slept, Therese sat by him, and when he awoke she gave Noemi a
+sign to leave her sick child and take her place by Michael's bed. And
+this went on through the long night. Noemi passed constantly from one
+sick-bed to the other, and she had to keep excuses always ready for her
+husband if he should ask where she had been.
+
+The child grew worse. Therese could do nothing, and Noemi dared not weep
+for fear of Michael seeing her tearful eyes and asking the reason. The
+next morning Timar felt easier, and wished for some soup. Noemi hastened
+out to fetch it, as it was kept ready. The invalid swallowed it, and
+said he felt the better for it. Noemi seemed delighted at the good news.
+
+"Well, and what is Dodi doing?" asked Michael.
+
+Noemi trembled lest he should see the throbs of her heart at the
+question.
+
+"He is asleep," she replied, gently.
+
+"Asleep? But why asleep now? He is not ill?"
+
+"Oh, no; he is all right."
+
+"And why do you not bring him to me when he is awake?"
+
+"Because then you are asleep."
+
+"That is true; but when we are both awake together, you must bring him
+in and let me see him."
+
+"I will do so, Michael."
+
+The child sunk gradually. Noemi had to conceal from Timar that Dodi was
+ill, and constantly to invent stories about him, for his father
+constantly asked for him. "Does Dodi play with his little man?"
+
+"Oh, yes, he is always playing with him" ( . . . with that fearful
+skeleton!).
+
+"Does he talk of me?"
+
+"He loves to talk of you" ( . . . he will do so soon when he is with the
+good God).
+
+"Take him this kiss from me;" and Noemi bore to her child the parting
+kiss of his father.
+
+Another day dawned. The awakening invalid found himself alone in the
+room. Noemi had watched all night by her child: she had looked on his
+death-struggle, and pressed her tears back into her heart; why had it
+not burst? When she went in to Michael she smiled again.
+
+"Were you with Dodi?" asked the sick man.
+
+"Yes, I have been with him."
+
+"Is he asleep now?"
+
+"Yes, he is asleep."
+
+"Not really?"
+
+"Truly, he sleeps well."
+
+Noemi has just closed his eyes--for his last sleep. And she dared not
+betray her agony. She must show a smiling face. In the afternoon Michael
+was much excited again: as the day drew on, his nervous irritation
+increased. He called to Noemi, who was in the next room; she hastened in
+and looked lovingly at him. The invalid was peevish and suspicious. He
+noticed that a needle was sticking in Noemi's dress, with a thread of
+silk in it.
+
+"Ah, you are beginning to work again! Have you time for that? What
+finery are you making?"
+
+Noemi looked at him silently, and thought, "I am making Dodi's shroud;"
+and then aloud, "I am making myself a collar."
+
+"Vanity, thy name is woman!" sighed Michael.
+
+Noemi found a smile for him, and answered, "You are quite right."
+
+Again the morning broke. Michael now suffered from sleeplessness; he
+could not close his eyes. And the thought troubled him as to what Dodi
+was doing. He sent Noemi out often to see if he wanted anything. And
+whenever she did so she kissed the little dead child on the bier, and
+spoke caressing words for Michael to hear: "My little Dodi! my darling
+sweet, asleep again! Tell mother you love her;" and then she came back
+to say that Dodi wanted for nothing.
+
+"The boy sleeps too much," said Michael; "why don't you wake him?"
+
+"I must wake him soon," said Noemi, gently.
+
+Michael dozed a little, only a few minutes, and woke with a start. He
+did not know he had been asleep. "Noemi," he cried, "Dodi was singing; I
+heard him: how sweetly he sings!"
+
+Noemi pressed both her hands to her heart, and drove back the outward
+expression of her agony with superhuman courage. Yes, he is already
+singing in heaven, amidst the angelic choir--among the innumerable
+seraphim! that was the song he joined in.
+
+Toward evening Michael sent Noemi out. "Go and put Dodi to bed, and give
+him a kiss for me."
+
+She did so. "What did Dodi say?" he asked her. Noemi could not speak;
+she bent over Michael and pressed a kiss on his lips.
+
+"That was his message, the treasure!" cried Michael, and the kiss sent
+him to sleep. The child sent it to him from his own slumber.
+
+The next morning he asked again about the boy. "Take Dodi out into the
+air; it is bad for him to be in the house; carry him into the garden."
+
+They were about to do so. Therese had dug a grave during the night at
+the foot of a weeping-willow.
+
+"You go too; and stay out there with him. I shall doze, I think, I feel
+so much better," Michael told Noemi.
+
+Noemi left the sick-room and turned the key: then they carried God's
+recovered angel out, and committed him to the care of the universal
+mother--earth. Noemi would not have a mound raised over him; Michael
+would be so sad when he saw it, and it would retard his recovery. They
+made a flower-bed there, and planted in its midst a rose-tree--one of
+those Timar had grafted--with white flowers, whose purity was unstained.
+Then she went back to the sick man.
+
+His first words were, "Where have you left Dodi?"
+
+"Out in the garden."
+
+"What has he on?"
+
+"His white frock and blue ribbons."
+
+"That suits him so well. Is he well wrapped up?"
+
+"Oh, yes, very well" (with three feet of earth).
+
+"Bring him in when you go out again."
+
+At this Noemi could not stop in the room; she went out and threw herself
+on Therese's breast, but even then she could not shed a tear. She must
+not. Then she tottered on into the garden, went to the willow, broke off
+a bud from the rose-tree, and went back to Michael.
+
+"Well, where's Dodi?" he said, impatiently.
+
+But Noemi knelt down by his bed and held out to him--the white rose.
+Michael took it and smelled it. "How curious!" he said; "this flower has
+no scent--as if it had grown on a grave."
+
+She rose and went out. "What is the matter?" asked Timar, turning to
+Therese.
+
+"Don't be angry," said she in a gentle, soothing tone. "You were so
+dangerously ill. Thank Heaven, you are getting over it. But this illness
+is infectious, and particularly during convalescence. I told Noemi that
+until you were quite well she must not bring the child near you. Perhaps
+I was wrong, but I meant it for the best."
+
+Michael pressed her hand. "You did quite right. Stupid that I was, not
+to have thought of it myself. Perhaps he is not even in the next room?"
+
+"No. We have made him a little house out in the garden." Poor thing, she
+told the truth.
+
+"You are very good, Therese. Go to Dodi and send Noemi to me. I will not
+ask her again to bring him to me. Poor Noemi! But as soon as I can get
+up and go out, you will let me go to him, won't you?"
+
+"Yes, Michael." By this pious fraud it was possible to satisfy him till
+he was out of bed and on the road to recovery. He was still very weak,
+and could hardly walk. Noemi helped him to dress. Leaning on her
+shoulder, he left his room, and she led him to the little seat before
+the house, sat beside him, put her arm in his, and supported his head on
+her shoulder. It was a lovely warm summer afternoon. Michael felt as if
+the murmuring trees were whispering in his ears, as if the humming bees
+brought him a message, and the grass made music at his feet. His head
+swam.
+
+One thought grew on him. When he looked at Noemi, a painful suspicion
+awoke in his breast. There was something in her expression which he
+could not understand; he must know it. "Noemi."
+
+"What is it, my Michael?"
+
+"Darling Noemi, look at me." She raised her eyes to his. "Where is
+little Dodi?"
+
+The poor creature could no longer hide her grief. She raised her martyr
+face to heaven, stretched up both hands, and faltered, "There! . . .
+there!"
+
+"He is dead!" Michael could hardly utter the words. Noemi sunk on his
+breast. Her tears were no longer to be controlled; she sobbed violently.
+
+He put his arm round her and let her weep on. It would have been
+sacrilege not to let these tears have free course.
+
+He had no tears--no. He was all wonder; he was amazed at the greatness
+of soul which raised the poor despised creature so far above himself.
+That she should have been able to conceal her sorrow so long out of
+tender consideration for him whom she loved! How great that love must
+be! When the paroxysm was over she looked smiling at Timar, like the sun
+through the rainbow.
+
+"And you could keep this from me?"
+
+"I feared for your life."
+
+"You dared not weep lest I should see traces of tears."
+
+"I waited for the time when I might weep."
+
+"When you were not with me, you nursed the sick child, and I was angry
+with you."
+
+"You were never unkind, Michael."
+
+"When you took my kiss to him you knew it was a farewell; when I
+reproached you with your vanity you were sewing his shroud; when you
+showed me a cheerful face your heart was pierced with the seven wounds
+of the Blessed Virgin! Oh, Noemi, I worship you!"
+
+But the poor thing only asked him to love her. Michael drew her on to
+his knee. The leaves, the grass, the bees, whispered now so clearly that
+he began to understand the swimming in his head.
+
+After a long and gloomy silence he spoke again. "Where have you laid
+him? Take me to him, Noemi."
+
+"Not to-day," said Noemi. "It is too far for you--to-morrow."
+
+But neither to-morrow nor the next day would she take him there.
+
+"You would sit by the grave and make yourself ill again: that is why I
+have made no mound over him, nor raised a cross, that you may not go
+there and grieve."
+
+Timar, however, was sad at this. When he was strong enough to walk
+alone, he went about seeking for what they would not show him.
+
+One day he came back to the house with a cheerful face. In his hand he
+held a half-blown rosebud, one of those white ones which have no scent.
+"Is it this?" he asked Noemi.
+
+She nodded: it could no longer be concealed. The white rose had put him
+on the track, and he noticed that it had been newly transplanted. And
+then he was tranquil, like one who has done with all that had given an
+object to life. He sat all day on the little bench near the house, drew
+on the gravel with his stick, and muttered to himself, "You would not
+exchange him for the whole earth full of diamonds, nor the whole heaven
+full of angels; . . . but for a miserable pipe you could strike his
+hand."
+
+The beautiful walnut-wood house stood half finished, and the great
+convolvulus had crept over its four walls. Michael never set foot in it.
+
+The only thing that kept up his half-recovered strength and his broken
+spirit was Noemi's love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MELANCHOLY.
+
+
+One bud after another opened on the rose-tree. Timar did nothing but
+watch the development and blossoming of these rosebuds. When one of them
+opened he broke it off, put it in his pocket-book, and dried it there on
+his breast. This was a melancholy task. All the tenderness lavished on
+him by Noemi could not cure his sadness. The woman's sweet caresses were
+burdensome to him. And yet Noemi could have comforted him at the cost of
+a single word; but modest reserve kept back that word, and it never
+occurred to Michael to question her.
+
+It is characteristic of those whose mind is diseased to occupy
+themselves only with the past.
+
+At last Noemi said to Timar, "Michael, it would be good for you to go
+away from here--out into the world. Everything here arouses mournful
+memories in you; you must go away to get well. I have done your packing,
+and the fruit-dealers will fetch you away to-morrow."
+
+Michael did not answer, but expressed his assent by a nod. The dangerous
+illness he had passed through had affected his nerves; and the situation
+he had brought upon himself, the blow which had struck him, had worked
+on those nerves so painfully, that he was forced to acknowledge that a
+longer stay would lead to madness or suicide.
+
+Suicide? There is no easier road out of a difficult position: failure,
+despair, mental conflict, blasted hopes, heart-pangs, fantastic
+bugbears, the memory of losses, phantoms of the beloved dead--all these
+are parts of a bad dream. One touch on the trigger of the pistol, and
+one awakes. Those who remain behind can go on with the dream.
+
+On the last evening, Michael, Noemi, and Therese sat all three after
+supper on the little bench outside, and Michael remembered that they had
+once been four together there.
+
+"What can that moon really be?" asked Noemi.
+
+Michael's hand, which Noemi held in hers, was clinched with sudden
+violence.
+
+"My evil star," he thought to himself. "Oh, if I had never seen it, that
+red crescent!"
+
+Therese answered her daughter's question: "It is a burned-out and
+chilled world, on which neither trees, flowers, nor animals, no air or
+water, no sounds or colors exist. When I was a girl at school, we used
+often to look through a telescope at the moon; it is full of mountains,
+and we were told they were the craters of extinct volcanoes. No
+telescope is powerful enough to show people on it, but learned men know
+with certainty that neither air nor water exists there. Without air and
+water nothing can live that has a human body, so no mortal can possibly
+be there."
+
+"But what if something did really live in it?"
+
+"What could do so?"
+
+"I will tell you what I think. Often in the old times, when I was still
+alone, I could not rid myself of one engrossing thought--especially when
+I sat by myself on the beach, and looked into the water. I felt as if
+something were drawing me into it, and calling to me that it was good to
+be down below there, and that there all was peace. Then I said to
+myself--Good! the body would rest at the bottom of the Danube; but where
+would the soul go?--it must find a dwelling somewhere. Then the thought
+arose that the soul which wrenched itself so forcibly and by its own
+will from its mortal shell could only soar to the moon. I believe that
+now even more firmly. If neither trees nor flowers, neither water nor
+air, neither colors nor sounds, can there exist--well, it is all the
+better fitted for those who did not wish to be encumbered with a body:
+there they will find a world where there is nothing to trouble them, nor
+anything to give them pleasure."
+
+Therese and Michael both rose with a start from beside Noemi, who could
+not understand what had moved them. She did not know that her own father
+was a suicide, and that he whose hand she held was ready to become one.
+Michael said the night was cool, they had better go in. One more
+haunting thought was now linked with the sight of the moon. The first he
+inherited from Timea, the other from Noemi. What a fearful penalty--that
+the man should continually see before him in the heavens that shining
+witness, eternally recalling him to his first sin, the first fateful
+error of his ruined life!
+
+The next day Michael left the island: he passed by the unfinished
+walnut-wood house without even glancing at it.
+
+"You will return with the spring flowers," whispered Noemi tenderly in
+his ear. The poor thing thought it quite natural that for half of the
+year Michael should not belong to her. "But to whom does he then
+belong?" That question never occurred to her.
+
+When Michael arrived at Komorn, the long journey had still more
+exhausted him. Timea was frightened when she saw him, and could hardly
+recognize him; even Athalie was alarmed, and with good reason.
+
+"You have been ill?" said Timea, leaning on her husband's breast.
+
+"Very ill, for many weeks."
+
+"On your journey?"
+
+"Yes," answered Timar, to whom this seemed like a cross-examination. He
+must be on his guard at every question.
+
+"Good God! and had you anyone to nurse you there among those strangers?"
+
+The words had almost escaped him, "Oh, yes, an angel!" but he caught
+himself up and answered, "You can get anything for money." Timea did not
+know how to show her sympathy, and so Michael could detect no change in
+the always apathetic face. She was always the same, and the frigid kiss
+of welcome drew them no closer together.
+
+Athalie whispered in his ear, "For God's sake, sir, take care of your
+life!"
+
+Timar felt the poisoned sting hidden beneath this tender consideration.
+He must live that Timea might suffer; for if she became a widow, nothing
+would stand in the way of her happiness. And that would be a hell to
+Athalie.
+
+It seemed to Timar as if the demon who hated both him and his wife was
+now praying for the prolongation of his detested life, so that their
+mutual suffering might last the longer. Every one remarked the great
+change which had taken place in him. In the spring he was a strong man
+in the prime of life; now he was like a feeble, voiceless shadow.
+
+He withdrew to his office as soon as he arrived, and spent the whole day
+there. His secretary found the ledger lying on the desk just as he had
+opened it; he had not even looked at it. His agents were informed of his
+return, and hastened to present yards of reports. He said to them all,
+"Very good," and signed what they required, sometimes in the wrong
+place, sometimes twice over. At last he shut himself up from every one
+in his room, under pretense of requiring sleep. But his servants heard
+him walking up and down for hours together.
+
+When he went to the ladies to dine in their company, he looked so gloomy
+and stern that no one had the courage to address him. He hardly touched
+food, and never tasted wine. But an hour after dinner he rang for the
+servant, and asked angrily whether they were ever going to get the meal
+ready--he had forgotten that it was over. In the evening he could not
+sit up, so tired was he; when he sat down he dozed off at once; as soon,
+however, as he was undressed and in bed, slumber fled suddenly from his
+eyes. "Oh, how cold this bed is--everything in the house is cold!" Every
+piece of furniture, the pictures on the walls, even the old frescoes on
+the ceiling, seemed to cry to him, "What have you come here for? This is
+not your home! You are a stranger here!" How cold is this bed!
+
+The man who came to call him to supper found him already in bed. On
+hearing this, Timea came to him and asked whether he would have
+something.
+
+"Nothing--no, nothing at all," answered Timar. "I am only overtired by
+the journey."
+
+"Shall I send for the doctor?"
+
+"Pray don't. I am not ill."
+
+Timea wished him good-night, and went away after again feeling his
+forehead with her hand. But Timar was not in a condition to sleep. He
+heard every noise in the house; he heard them whispering and creeping on
+tiptoe past his door, so as not to disturb him. He was thinking where a
+man could best flee from himself. Into the realm of dreams? That would
+be good, indeed, if only one could find the way there as easily as into
+the kingdom of death. But one can not force one's self to dream. Opium?
+That is one way--the suicide of sleep. Gradually he noticed that it was
+growing darker in the room: the shades of night veiled closely every
+object, the light grew dim. At last he was surrounded by a darkness like
+that of a thick, motionless mist, like subterranean gloom, or the night
+of the blind: such an obscurity one "sees" even in sleep. Michael knew
+he was asleep, and the blindness lying over his eyes was that of
+slumber. Yes, he now had full consciousness of his position. He was
+lying in his own bed in his Komorn house--a table beside him with an
+antique bronze lamp-stand, and a painted lamp-shade with Chinese figures
+on it; over his head hung a large clock with a chime; the silken
+curtains were let down. The curious old bed had a sort of drawer below
+it, which could be drawn out and used as a second bed. It was
+beautifully made--one of those beds only found in fine old houses, in
+which a whole family might find room to sleep. Timar knew that he had
+not bolted his door; any one could come in who chose. How if some one
+came to murder him? And what difference would there be between sleep and
+death? This puzzled him in his dreams.
+
+Once he dreamed that the door opened softly and some one entered: a
+woman's steps. The curtain rustled, and something leaned over him: a
+woman's face. "Is it you, Noemi?" Michael thought in his dream, and
+started. "How came you here? If some one saw you?" It was dark, he could
+see nothing; but he heard the person sit down by his bed and listen to
+his breathing. Thus had Noemi done many a night in the little hut. "Oh,
+Noemi, will you watch again all through the night? When will you sleep?"
+
+The female figure, as if in answer, knelt down and drew out the shelf
+below the bed. Michael felt a mixture of fear and rapture in his breast.
+"You will lie down beside me; oh, how I love you, but I tremble for
+you!" and then the figure prepared a bed on the shelf and lay down. The
+dreamer in the bed longed to bend over her, to embrace and kiss her, and
+would have called again to her, "Go, hasten away from here, you will be
+seen;" but he could move neither limbs nor tongue, they were heavy as
+lead; and then the woman slept too. Michael sunk deeper into dreamland.
+His fancy flew through past and future, soared into the region of the
+impossible, and returned to the sleeping woman. He dreamed that he was
+awake, and yet the phantom was beside him.
+
+At last it began to dawn, and the sun shone through the window with more
+wonderful radiance than ever before. "Awake, awake!" whispered Michael
+in his dream. "Go home--the daylight must not find you here. Leave me
+now!" He struggled with the dream. "But you are not really here--it is
+only a delusion!"
+
+He forced himself to sever the bonds in which sleep held him, and awoke
+completely. It was really morning, the sunlight streamed through the
+curtains, and on the shelf below the bed lay a sleeping woman with her
+head on her arm.
+
+"Noemi!" cried Michael. The slumbering form awoke at the call and looked
+up. It was Timea--
+
+"Do you want anything?" asked the woman, rising hastily from her couch.
+She had heard the tone but not the name. Her husband was still under the
+influence of his dream. "Timea!" he stammered sleepily, astonished at
+the metamorphosis of Noemi into Timea.
+
+"Here I am," said she, laying her hand on the bed.
+
+"How is it possible?" cried he, drawing up the quilt to his chin as if
+afraid of the face leaning over him.
+
+"I was anxious about you, I was afraid you might have some attack in the
+night, and I wanted to be near you." In the tone of her voice, in her
+look, lay such sincere and natural tenderness as could not be assumed: a
+woman's instinct is fidelity.
+
+Michael collected himself. His first feeling was alarm, his second
+self-reproach. This poor woman lying by his bed was the widow of a
+living man. She had never known a joy in common with her husband; now
+when he was in pain, she came to share it with him; and then followed
+the eternal falsehood--he must not accept this tenderness, he must
+repulse it.
+
+Michael said with forced composure, "Timea, I beg you not to do this
+again; do not come into my room. I have been suffering from an
+infectious illness; I caught the plague on my journey, and I tremble for
+your life if you approach me. Keep far from me, I adjure you; I wish to
+be alone, both by day and night. There is nothing the matter with me
+now, but I feel that I must, for prudence' sake, avoid all those
+belonging to me; so I beg you earnestly not to do this again, never
+again." Timea sighed deeply, cast down her eyes, and left the room. She
+had not even undressed, but had only lain down in her clothes at her
+husband's feet.
+
+When she was gone, Michael got up and dressed; his mind was much
+disturbed. The longer he continued this dual life, the more he felt the
+conflict of the double duties he had taken on himself. He was
+responsible for the fate of two noble, self-sacrificing souls. He had
+made both miserable, and himself more unhappy than either.
+
+What outlet could he find? If only one or other were an every-day
+creature, so that he could hate and despise her or buy her off! But both
+were equally nobly gifted: the fate of both was so heavy a charge
+against the author of it, that no excuse existed. How could he tell
+Timea who Noemi was, or Noemi about Timea? Suppose he were to divide all
+his wealth between the two, or if he gave his money to one and his heart
+to the other? But either was alike impossible, for neither was faithless
+or gave him a right to reject them.
+
+Living at home made Michael yet more ill.
+
+He never left his room all day, spoke to no one, and sat till evening in
+one place, without doing anything. At last Timea resorted to a
+physician. The result of the consultation was that Michael was ordered
+to the seaside, that the water might restore to him what the land had
+taken from him. To this advice he replied, "I will not go where there is
+company." Then they suggested that he should choose some place where the
+season was over and the visitors gone; there he would find solitude. The
+cold baths were the important point. He now remembered that in one of
+the valleys near the Platten See he had a summer villa, which he had
+bought years ago when he hired the fishing of the Balaton lake, and he
+had only been there two or three times since. There, said he, would he
+spend the end of the autumn.
+
+The doctors approved his choice. The districts of Zala and Vessprimer on
+the banks of the lake are like the Vale of Tempe. Fourteen miles of
+unbroken garden-land form a charming chain of landscapes, with
+country-seats strewn here and there. The splendid lake is a sea in
+miniature, full of loveliness and romance; here is soft Italian air, the
+people are kind and cordial, the mineral springs curative; nothing could
+be better for a depressed invalid than to spend the autumn here. So the
+doctors sent Michael to the Platten See. But they had forgotten that
+toward the end of the summer hail-storms had laid waste the whole
+district; and nothing is more depressing than a place ruined by hail.
+The vineyards, which usually resound during the vintage with joyous
+cries, now stand deserted: the leaves of the fruit-trees are
+coppery-green or rusty brown; they take their leave until the coming
+spring: all is silent and sad; even the roads are overgrown with moss,
+for no one uses them. In the cornfields, instead of the sheaves of
+grain, ineradicable weeds abound, and instead of the golden heads,
+thistles, burdock, and nightshade are rampant, for no one comes to cut
+them down.
+
+At such a season Michael arrived at his villa on the Balaton. It was an
+ancient pile. Some noble family had built it as a summer residence,
+because the view had pleased them and they had money enough to afford
+themselves this luxury. It had but one low story within massive walls, a
+veranda looking over the lake, and trellises with large fig-trees. The
+heirs of the first owners had got rid of the lonely chateau for a
+nominal price, as it had no value except to a person bitten with the
+misanthropic desire to live there in solitude.
+
+No human dwelling is to be found within two miles of it, and even beyond
+that distance most of the houses are uninhabited. The presses and
+cellars are not open on account of the failure of the vintage. At Fured
+all the blinds are down and the last invalid has left; even the steamers
+no longer ply; the pump-room at the baths stands empty, and on the
+promenade the fallen leaves rustle round the feet of the passer-by--no
+one thinks it worth while to sweep them away. Not a man nor even a stork
+is left in the place--only the majestic Balaton murmurs mysteriously as
+it tosses its waves, and no one knows why it is angry. In its midst
+rises a bare rock, on whose top stands a convent with two towers, in
+which live seven monks--a crypt full of princely bones from top to
+bottom.
+
+And here Timar came to seek for health.
+
+Michael only brought one servant with him, and after a few days sent him
+back under pretense that the people of the house sufficed for his
+service. But there was only one old man, and he quite deaf.
+
+Round the villa no human voice was heard, not even the sound of a bell,
+only the haunting murmur of the great lake.
+
+Timar sat all day on the shore, and listened to the voices of the water.
+Often, when there was not a breath of air stirring, the lake began to
+roar, then the color of its surface changed to an emerald green as far
+as the eye could see: over the dark mirror of the waves not one sail,
+not a single ship, barge, or boat was visible; it might have been the
+Dead Sea.
+
+This lake possesses the double quality of strengthening the body and
+depressing the mind. The chest expands, the appetite increases, but the
+mind is inclined to a melancholy and sentimental state which carries one
+back to fairyland.
+
+Timar floated for hours on the gently rocking waves; he wandered whole
+days on the shore, and could hardly tear himself away when night fell.
+He sought no distraction from shooting or fishing. Once he took out his
+gun, and forgot it somewhere by the trunk of a tree: another time he
+caught a pike, but let it get away with his fly. He could fix his
+attention on nothing.
+
+He had taken a powerful retracting telescope with him, through which he
+gazed at the starry heavens during the long nights; at the planets with
+their moons and rings, on which in winter white spots are visible, while
+in summer a red light surrounds them; and then at that great enigma of
+the firmament, the moon, which when looked at through the glass appears
+like a shining ball of lava, with its transparent ridges, its deep
+craters, bright plains and dark shadows. It is a world of emptiness.
+Nothing is there except the souls of those who violently separated
+themselves from their body to get rid of its load. There they are at
+peace; they feel nothing, do nothing, know neither sorrow nor joy, gain
+nor loss; there is neither air nor water, winds nor storms, no flowers
+or living creatures, no war, no kisses, no heart-throbs--neither birth
+nor death; only "nothing," and perhaps memory.
+
+That would be worse than hell, to live in the moon as a disembodied soul
+in the realm of nothingness, and to remember the earth, where are green
+grass and red blood, where the air echoes with the roll of the thunder
+and the kisses of lovers, where life and death exist. And yet something
+whispered to Michael that he must take refuge among the exiles to that
+region of annihilation. There was no other way of escape from his
+miserable existence.
+
+The nights of autumn grew longer and the days shorter, and with the
+waning daylight the water in the lake grew colder and colder. But Timar
+enjoyed bathing in it even more. His frame had regained its former
+elasticity, all traces of his illness had vanished, nerves and muscles
+were as steel; but his mental agony increased.
+
+The nights were always clear and the skies thickly sown with stars:
+Timar sat by his open window and studied the shining points in boundless
+space through his glass, but never until the moon had set. He detested
+the moon, as we grow to hate a place we know too well, and with whose
+inhabitants we have quarreled.
+
+During his observations of the starry heavens he had the exceptional
+good fortune to witness one of those celestial phenomena which are all
+but unique in the annals of astronomy. A comet returning after
+centuries of absence appeared in the sky. Timar said to himself, "This
+is my star; it is as lost as my soul; its coming and going are as
+aimless as mine, and its whole existence as empty and vain a show as is
+my life." Jupiter and his four moons were moving in the same direction
+as the comet; their orbits must cross. When the comet approached the
+great planet, its tail seemed to divide; the attraction of Jupiter began
+to take effect. The great star was trying to rob its lord, the sun, of
+this vaporous body. The next night the comet's tail was split in two.
+Then the largest and most distant of Jupiter's moons drew rapidly near.
+
+"What has become of my star?" asked Timar.
+
+The third night the nucleus of the comet had grown dull and began to
+disperse, and Jupiter's moon was close to it. The fourth night the comet
+had been divided into two parts; there were two heads and two tails, and
+both the starry phantoms began in separate parabolic curves their
+aimless flight through space. So "this" occurs in the heavens as well as
+on earth?
+
+Timar followed this marvelous phenomenon with his telescope till it was
+lost in impenetrable space. This sight made the deepest impression on
+his mind; now he had done with the world. There are hundreds of motives
+for suicide, but the most urgent are to be found among those who give
+themselves up to scientific research.
+
+Keep a watchful eye on those who seek to fathom the secrets of nature
+without a technical education. Hide away the knife and the pistol every
+night, and search their pockets lest they carry poison about them.
+
+Yes, Timar was determined to kill himself. This idea does not come to
+strong characters all at once, but it ripens in them by degrees. They
+grow used to it as the years go by, and carefully provide for its
+execution. The thought had now ripened in Timar, and he went
+systematically to work.
+
+When the severe weather set in, he left the Platten See and returned to
+Komorn. He made his will. His whole property he left to Timea and the
+poor, and with such careful foresight that he provided a separate fund
+out of which Timea, in case she married again, or her heirs if they
+stood in need of it, would receive a pension of a hundred thousand
+gulden.
+
+The following was his plan. As soon as the season permitted he would go
+away, ostensibly to Egypt, but really to the ownerless island. There he
+would die.
+
+If he could induce Noemi to die with him, then in death they would be
+united. Oh, Noemi would consent! What would she do in this world without
+Michael? What worth would the world have for such a one as she?
+
+Both there by Dodi's side.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Timar spent the winter partly in Komorn, partly in Raab and Vienna;
+everywhere his life was a burden to him. He thought he read in every
+face, "This man is melancholy mad." He noticed people whispering and
+making signs when he appeared--women were shy of him, and men tried to
+look unconscious; and he fancied that in his distraction he did and said
+things which gave evidence of his mental disease, and wondered people
+did not laugh. Perhaps they were afraid of laughing.
+
+But they had no reason to fear. He was not lively to throw pepper in the
+eyes of the people near him, though odd fancies did now and then occur
+to him; as, for instance, when Johann Fabula came to make him an oration
+as curator of the church, and stood as stiff before him as if he had
+swallowed the spit, an impulse seized Timar, almost irresistibly, to put
+both hands on the curator's shoulders and turn a somersault over his
+head.
+
+Something lay in Michael's expression which made the blood run cold.
+
+Athalie met this glance; often, as they sat at meals, Timar's eyes were
+fixed on her. She was a wonderfully beautiful woman; Michael's eyes
+rested on her lovely snowy neck, so that she felt uneasy at this silent
+homage to her charms.
+
+Michael was thinking--"If only I had you in my power for once, you
+lovely white throat, so as to crush the life out of you with my iron
+hand!" This was what he longed for when he admired the splendid
+Bacchante form of Athalie.
+
+Only Timea was not afraid of him--she had nothing to fear. At last it
+seemed impossible to Timar to wait for the tardy spring. What does he
+want with the springing flowers who will soon be at rest under the turf?
+
+The day before his departure he gave a great banquet, and invited every
+one, including even slight acquaintances. The house was crowded with
+guests. Before sitting down he said to Fabula, "My brother, sit near me,
+and if I get drunk toward morning and lose my senses, see that I am
+carried into my traveling-chaise, and put me on the seat; then harness
+the horses and send me off." He wished to leave his house and home while
+unconscious.
+
+But when the guests toward morning had sunk one here and another there
+under the table, our Herr Johann Fabula was snoring comfortably in his
+arm-chair, and only Timar had kept his head. Mad people are like King
+Mithridates and the poison--wine does not affect them. So he had to get
+his carriage himself and start on his journey. In his head reality and
+dreams, imagination, memory, and hallucination were in a whirl. It
+seemed to him as if he had stood by the couch of a sleeping saint with a
+marble face, and as if he had kissed the lips of the white statue, and
+it had not awoke under his kiss. Perhaps it was only a vision. Then he
+thought he remembered that behind the door of a dark recess, as he
+passed, a lovely Maenad's head looked out, framed in rich tresses. She
+had sparkling eyes and red lips, between which shone two rows of pearls,
+as she held the candle and asked the sleep-walker, "Where are you going,
+sir?"
+
+And he had whispered in the witch's ear, "I am going to make Timea
+happy."
+
+Then the ideal face had turned to a Medusa head, and the curls to
+snakes. Perhaps this was hallucination too.
+
+Timar awoke toward noon in his carriage, when the post-horses were
+changed. He was already far from Komorn, and his intention was
+unchanged. Late at night he arrived on the Danube shore, where the
+little boat he had ordered awaited him; he went over in the night to the
+island.
+
+A thought came into his head. "How if Noemi were dead already?" Why
+should not this be possible? What a burden it would free him from--that
+of persuading her to the dreadful step. He who has one fixed idea
+expects of fate that everything should happen as he has planned.
+
+Near the white rose-bush no doubt a second already stands, which will
+bloom red in spring--on Noemi's grave. Soon there will be a third with
+yellow blossoms, the flower of the man of gold.
+
+Occupied with these thoughts, he landed on the island shore. It was
+still night and the moon shone. The unfinished house stood like a tomb
+on the grass-grown field; the windows and door-ways were hung with
+matting to keep out snow and rain. Michael hastened to the old dwelling.
+Almira met him and licked his hand; she did not bark, but took a corner
+of his cloak in her teeth and drew him to the window. The moon shone
+through the lattice, and Michael looked into the little room, which was
+quite light.
+
+He could clearly perceive that only one bed was in the room, the other
+was gone. On this bed slept Therese; it was as he had thought--Noemi was
+already at rest under the rose-bush. It is well.
+
+He knocked at the window. "It is I, Therese." At this the woman came out
+on the veranda. "Are you sleeping alone, Therese?" said Timar.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Has Noemi gone up to Dodi?"
+
+"Not so. Dodi has come down to Noemi."
+
+Timar looked inquiringly in her face. Then the woman grasped his hand,
+and led him with a smile to the back of the house, where the window of
+the other little room looked out. This room was light, for a night-lamp
+was burning there. Timar looked in and saw Noemi on the white bed, with
+her arm round a golden-haired cherub which lay on her breast. "What is
+this?" Timar faltered out.
+
+Therese smiled gently. "Do you not see? Little Dodi longed to come back
+to us; it was better here, he thought, than up in heaven. He said to the
+dear Lord, 'Thou hast angels enough; let me return to those who had only
+me'--and the Lord allowed it."
+
+"How can it be?"
+
+"H'm! h'm! The old story. A poor woman again who died, and we have
+adopted the poor orphan. You are not angry?" Timar trembled in every
+limb as if with ague. "Pray do not wake the sleepers before morning,"
+said Therese, "It is bad for babies to be waked: children's lives are so
+precarious. You will be patient, won't you?"
+
+It never occurred to Timar to protest. He threw off his cap and cloak,
+drew off his coat, and turned up his shirt-sleeves. Therese thought he
+was mad. And why not? He ran out to the walnut-house, tore the mattings
+down, drew out his carpenter's bench, placed the unfinished door-panel
+on it, took his chisel and began to work.
+
+It was just growing light. Noemi dreamed that some one was at work in
+the new house; the plane grated over the hard wood, and the busy workman
+sung--
+
+    "For all the gold the world could hold,
+    I would not give my Dodi's curl."
+
+And when she opened her eyes she still heard the plane and the song.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THERESE.
+
+
+Timar had succeeded in robbing every one.
+
+From Timea he stole first her father's million, then the manly ideal of
+her heart, and kept for himself her wifely troth. From Noemi he stole
+her loving heart, her womanly tenderness, her whole being. Therese he
+robbed of her trust, the last belief of her misanthropic mind in the
+possible goodness of a man; then he took the island, in order to restore
+it to her, and so to obtain her gratitude. Theodor Krisstyan he
+defrauded of half a world--for he exiled him to another hemisphere. From
+Athalie he took father, mother, home, and bridegroom, her whole present
+and future happiness. He robbed his friend Katschuka of the hope of a
+blissful life. The respect shown to him by the world, the tears of the
+poor, the thanks of the orphan, the decorations bestowed by his king,
+were they not all thefts? By deceit he obtained from the smugglers, the
+fidelity with which they guarded his secret--a thief who steals from
+other thieves! He even robbed the good God of a little angel. His soul
+was not his; he had pledged it to the moon, and had not kept his
+promise: he had not paid what he owed. The poison was ready which was to
+transport him to that distant star of night--the devils were already
+rejoicing and stretching out their claws to receive the poor soul. He
+took them in too; he did not kill himself, but defrauded even death. He
+laid hands on a paradise in the midst of the world, and took the
+forbidden fruit from the tree while the watching archangel turned his
+back, and in that hidden Eden he defied all human law: the clergy, the
+king, the judge, the general, the tax-collector, the police--all were
+deceived and defrauded by him.
+
+And everything succeeded with him. How long would he go unpunished?
+
+He could deceive every one but himself. He was always sad, even when he
+outwardly smiled. He knew what he ought to be called, and would gladly
+have shown himself in his true character.
+
+But that was impossible. The boundless, universal respect--the rapturous
+love--if only one of these were really due to his true self! Honor,
+humanity, self-sacrifice were the original principles of his character,
+the atmosphere of his being. Unheard-of temptations had drawn him in the
+opposite direction; and now he was a man whom every one loved, honored,
+and respected, and who was only hated and despised by himself. Fate had
+blessed him since his last illness with such iron strength that now
+nothing hurt him, and instead of aging he seemed to renew his youth.
+
+He was busy all through the summer with manual labor. The little house
+he had erected the year before he now had to finish, and to add the
+carver's and turner's work to it. He borrowed from the Muses their
+creative genius: a great artist was lost in Timar. Every pillar in the
+little house was of a different design: one was formed of two intwining
+snakes, whose heads made the capital; another, of a palm-tree with
+creepers climbing up it; the third showed a vine with squirrels and
+woodpeckers half hidden in its branches; and the fourth a clump of
+bulrushes rising from their leaves. The internal panels of the walls
+were a fanciful mosaic of carving; every table and chair was a work of
+art, and exquisitely inlaid with light-colored woods to make a pleasant
+contrast with the dark walnut. Each door and window betrayed some
+original invention; some disappeared in the wall, some slid up into the
+roof, and all were opened and shut by curious wooden bolts--for as Timar
+had declared that no nail should be put into the whole house which was
+not made by himself, not a morsel of iron was used in it.
+
+What delight when the house was ready and he conducted his dear ones
+into it, and could say, "See, all this is my handiwork! A king could not
+give his queen such a present."
+
+But it had taken years to complete it, and four winters had Timar spent
+in Komorn and four summers in the island, before Dodi the second had his
+house ready for him.
+
+Then Michael had another task before him; he must teach Dodi to read.
+Dodi was a lively, healthy, good-tempered boy, and Timar said he would
+teach him everything himself--reading, writing, swimming, also gardening
+and mason's and carpenter's work. He who knows these trades can always
+earn his bread. Timar fancied things would always go on thus, and he
+could live this life to the end of his days. But suddenly fate cried
+"Halt!"
+
+Or rather not fate, but Therese. Eight years had passed since Timar had
+found his way to the little island. Then Noemi and Timea were both
+children: now Noemi was twenty-two, Timea twenty-one, Athalie would soon
+be twenty-five; but Therese was over forty-five, Timar himself nearly
+forty, and little Dodi was in his fifth year.
+
+One of them must prepare to go hence, for her time was come, and her cup
+of suffering was full enough for a long life: that one was Therese.
+
+One summer afternoon when her daughter was out with the child, she said
+to Timar, "Michael, I have something to tell you--this autumn will be my
+last. I know that death is near. For twenty years I have suffered from
+the disease which will kill me; it is heart complaint. Do not look on
+this as a figure of speech; it is a fatal disease, but I have always
+concealed it, and never complained. I have kept it under by patience,
+and you have helped me by the love you showed and the joys you prepared
+for me. If you had not done so, I should long have lain beneath the sod.
+But I can bear it no longer. For a year past sleep has fled from my
+eyes, and I hear my heart beat all day. It throbs quickly three or four
+times, as if frightened, then comes a sort of half-beat; then it stops
+entirely for a few moments, till it begins pulsating again rapidly after
+one or two slow throbs, followed by short beats and long pauses. This
+must soon come to an end. I often turn faint, and only keep up by an
+effort of will; this will not last through the summer--and I am content
+it should be so. Noemi has now another object for her affection. I will
+not trouble you, Michael, with questions, nor require of you any
+promise; spoken words are vain and empty--only what we feel is true. You
+feel what you are to Noemi, and she to you. What is there to disquiet
+me? I can die without even troubling the merciful God with my feeble
+prayers. He has given me all I could have asked of Him. Is it not so,
+Michael?"
+
+Michael's head sunk. This had often of late destroyed his sleep. It had
+not escaped him that Therese's health was failing rapidly, and he had
+thought with trembling that she might be suddenly overtaken by death.
+What would then become of Noemi? How could he leave the delicate
+creature here alone the whole winter with her little child? Who would
+help and protect her? He had often put the question aside, but now it
+confronted him, and must be considered.
+
+Therese was right. The same afternoon a friendly fruit-woman came to the
+island, and while Therese was counting out her baskets of peaches, she
+suddenly fell down in a swoon. She recovered quickly, and three days
+later the woman came again, Therese was determined to serve her, and
+fainted once more. The fruit-dealer sighed heavily; the next time she
+came Noemi and Michael would not let her go in to Therese, but served
+her themselves. The woman remarked that the good lady would do well to
+see the priest, as she seemed so seriously ill.
+
+Noemi did not yet know that her mother was dangerously ill; her frequent
+fainting-fits were put down to the hot weather. Therese said that many
+women suffered in the same way as they grew older. Timar was very
+attentive to her; he would not let her be troubled with household work,
+took care that she should rest, and made the child be quiet if he was
+noisy, but Therese's sleeplessness could not be cured.
+
+One day all four sat together at dinner in the outer room, when Almira's
+barks announced the approach of strangers. Therese looked out, and said
+in great alarm, "Go inside quickly, that no one may see you."
+
+Timar looked out, and he too saw that it would not be advisable for him
+to meet the new-comer, for it was none other than his Reverence Herr
+Sandorovics, the dean who had received the order, who would not fail to
+recognize Herr von Levetinczy, and would have some pleasant things to
+say to him. "Push the table away and leave me alone," said Frau Therese,
+making Noemi and Dodi rise too. And as if all her strength had returned,
+she helped to carry the table into the next room, so that when his
+reverence knocked at the door she was alone, and had drawn her bedstead
+across the door-way so as to prevent access to the inner apartment.
+
+The dean's beard was longer and grayer since we last saw him; but his
+cheeks were rosy, and his figure that of a Samson. His deacon and
+acolyte, who had come with him, had remained in the veranda, and were
+trying to make friends with the great dog.
+
+The reverend gentleman came in alone, with his hand out as if to give
+any one a chance of kissing it. As Therese showed no inclination to
+avail herself of the opportunity, the visitor was at once in a bad
+temper. "Well, don't you know me again, you sinful woman?"
+
+"Oh, I know you well enough, sir, and I know I am a sinner--what brings
+you here?"
+
+"What brings me, you old gossip? You ask me that, you God-forsaken
+heathen! It is clear you don't know me."
+
+"I told you before that I knew you. You are the priest who would not
+bury my poor husband."
+
+"No--because he left the world in an unauthorized way, without
+confession or absolution. Therefore it befell him to be put under ground
+like a dog. If you don't wish to be buried like a dog too, look to it:
+repent and confess while there is yet time. Your last hour may come
+to-day or to-morrow. Pious women brought me the news of your being near
+death, and begged me to come here and give you absolution--you have to
+thank them for my presence."
+
+"Speak low, sir; my daughter is in the next room, and she would be
+alarmed."
+
+"Indeed! your daughter? and a man and a child too?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"And the man is your daughter's husband?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Who married them?"
+
+"He who married Adam and Eve--God."
+
+"Foolish woman! That was when there were no priests nor altars. But now
+things are not managed so easily, and there is a law to govern them."
+
+"I know it: the law drove me to this island; but that law has no
+jurisdiction here."
+
+"So you are an absolute heathen?"
+
+"I wish to live and die in peace."
+
+"And you have permitted your daughter to live in shame?"
+
+"What is shame?"
+
+"Shame? The contempt of all respectable people."
+
+"Does that make me warm or cold?"
+
+"Unfeeling clod! You only care for your bodily weal. You never think of
+the salvation of your soul. I come to show you the way to heaven, and
+you prefer the road to hell! Do you believe in the resurrection, or in
+eternal life?"
+
+"Hardly--at any rate, I am not longing for it. I do not want to awake to
+another life; I want to sleep peacefully under the trees. I shall fall
+into dust, and the roots will feed on it, and leaves will grow from it:
+and I want no other life. I shall live in the sap of the green trees I
+planted with my own hands. I do not believe in your cruel God who makes
+His wretched creatures live on to suffer beyond the grave. Mine is a
+merciful God, who gives rest to animals, trees, and men when they are
+dead."
+
+"Could there be a more obstinate sinner! You will go to hell-fire--to
+the tortures of the damned!"
+
+"Show me where the Bible says that God created hell, and I will believe
+you."
+
+"Oh, you pagan! You will be denying the existence of the devil next,"
+cried the priest in a rage.
+
+"I do deny that God ever created such a devil as you believe in: you
+invented one for yourselves, and did that badly, for your devil has
+horns and cloven feet, and such creatures as that eat grass and not
+men."
+
+"The earth will open and swallow you up like Dathan and Abiram. Do you
+bring up the little child in this belief?"
+
+"He is taught by the man who has adopted him."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"He whom the child calls father."
+
+"And what is his name?"
+
+"Michael."
+
+"What is his surname?"
+
+"I never asked him."
+
+"What! you never asked his name? What do you know of him?"
+
+"I know he is an honest man, and loves Noemi."
+
+"But what is he? A gentleman, a peasant, a workman, a sailor, or a
+smuggler?"
+
+"He is a poor man, suited to us."
+
+"And what else? I must know, for it is part of my duty. What faith does
+he confess? Is he Papist, Calvinist, Lutheran, Socinian, or perhaps a
+Jew?"
+
+"I have not troubled myself about it."
+
+"Do you keep the fasts of the Church?"
+
+"Once for two years I never touched meat--because I had none."
+
+"Who baptized the child?"
+
+"God--with a shower of rain, while He sat on high on His rainbow
+throne."
+
+"Oh, you heathen!"
+
+"Why heathen?" asked Therese, bitterly. "God's hand was heavy on me;
+from the height of bliss I fell into the deepest misery. One day made me
+a widow and a beggar. I did not deny God, nor cast His gift of life
+away. I came to this desert, sought God and found Him here. My God
+requires no sacrifice of song and bell, only a devout heart. I do my
+penance, not by telling my beads, but by work. Men left me nothing in
+the world, and I formed a blooming garden from a desert wilderness. All
+deceived, robbed, and scorned me; the tribunal condemned me, my friends
+defrauded me, the Church despised me, and yet I did not hate my kind. I
+am the refuge of the stranger and the destitute; I feed and heal those
+who come to me for aid, and sleep with open doors winter and summer; I
+fear no one. Oh, sir, I am no heathen!"
+
+"What sort of rubbish you talk, you chattering woman! I never asked you
+all that, but I ask you about the man who lives in this hut, whether he
+is a Christian or a heretic, and why the child is not baptized? It is
+impossible that you should not know his name."
+
+"Be it so; I will not tell a lie. I know his name, but nothing more. His
+life may have secrets in it, as mine had: he may have good reasons for
+hiding himself. But I know him only as a kind good man, and harbor no
+suspicions of him. Those were 'friends' who took my all from me,
+noblemen of high station, who left me nothing but my weeping child. I
+brought up the little child, and when she was my only treasure, my life,
+my all, I gave her to a man of whom I knew only that he loved her and
+she loved him. Is not that to have faith in God?"
+
+"Don't talk to me of faith. For such a belief as that, witches in the
+good old time were brought to the stake and burned, all over the
+Christian world."
+
+"It is lucky that I possess this island by right of a Turkish firman."
+
+"A Turkish firman!" cried the dean, in astonishment. "And who procured
+it for you?"
+
+"The man whose name you want to know."
+
+"And I will know it on the spot, and in a summary way. I shall call the
+sacristan and the acolyte in, make them push away the bed, and go in at
+that door, which I see has no lock."
+
+Timar heard every word in the next room. The blood rushed to his head at
+the thought that the ecclesiastical dignitary would walk in and exclaim,
+"Aha! it is you, Herr Privy Councilor Michael von Levetinczy!"
+
+The dean opened the outer door, and called in his two sturdy companions.
+Therese, in her extremity, drew the bright Turkish quilt over her up to
+the chin. "Sir," she said in an imploring tone to the dean, "listen to
+just one word which will convince you of the strength of my faith, and
+show you that I am no heathen. Look, this woolen quilt I have over me
+came from Broussa. A traveling peddler gave it to me. See now, so great
+is my trust in God that I cover myself with it every night; and yet it
+is well known that the oriental plague has been raging in Broussa this
+month past. Which of you has faith enough to dare to touch this bed?"
+
+When she looked round, no one was there to answer. At the discovery that
+this quilt came from the plague-infected districts round Broussa, all
+had rushed away, leaving the lonely island and its death-stricken
+inhabitants as a prey to all the devils of hell. The accursed island was
+now the richer by one more evil report, which would keep away people who
+valued their lives.
+
+Therese let out the refugees. Timar kissed her hand and called her
+"Mother!"
+
+"My son!" whispered Therese, and looked steadily into his eyes. With
+that look she said to him, "Remember what you have heard. And now it is
+time to get ready for the journey." Therese spoke of her approaching
+death as of a journey.
+
+Leaning on Timar and Noemi, she was led out to the green field, and
+chose the place for her grave.
+
+"Here in the middle," she said to Timar, taking his spade from his hand
+and marking out the oblong square. "You made a house for Dodi; make mine
+here. And build no mound over my grave, and plant no cross upon it;
+plant there neither tree nor shrub; cover it all with fresh turf, so
+that it may be like the rest. I wish it; so that no one, when in a
+cheerful mood, may stumble over my grave and be saddened by it."
+
+One evening she fell asleep, to awake no more. And they buried her as
+she desired. They wrapped her in fine linen, and spread for her a bed of
+aromatic walnut leaves. And then they made the grave look like the rest,
+and covered it with turf, so that it was the same as before. When on the
+next morning Timar and Noemi, leading little Dodi by the hand, went into
+the field, no sign could be seen on the smooth surface. The autumn
+spiders had covered it with a silvery pall, and on the glistening veil
+the dewdrops sparkled in the sun like myriads of diamonds.
+
+But yet they found the spot in this silver-broidered green plain. Almira
+went in front; at one place she lay down and put her head on the ground:
+that was the spot.
+
+
+
+
+
+_BOOK FIFTH.--ATHALIE._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE BROKEN SWORD.
+
+
+Timar remained on the island till frost covered the green grass--till
+the leaves fell, and the nightingales and thrushes were silent. Then he
+made up his mind to return to the world, the world of reality; and he
+left Noemi behind, alone with her little child on the ownerless island.
+"But I shall come back this winter"--and with those words he left her.
+
+Noemi did not know what those words betokened at Michael's home. Round
+the island the Danube was never entirely frozen in the severest winter;
+the glass never fell much below freezing-point; ivy and laurels could
+stand the cold with ease. But Michael had severe weather for his
+journey. On the upper Danube snow had already fallen, and he took a
+whole week to reach Komorn. He had to wait a whole day before he could
+cross the river--there was so much ice that it was unsafe to launch a
+boat. Once he had ventured alone in a small boat across the river in
+flood; but then Noemi was waiting for him. Now he was going to Timea--to
+get a divorce from her.
+
+His decision was taken--they must have a divorce. Noemi could not live
+alone on that desert island. The woman must have justice in return for
+her fidelity and love: accursed would he be who could find it in his
+heart to abandon her who had given herself to him body and soul. And
+then, too, Timea would be happy.
+
+That thought gnawed him--that Timea would be happy. If only he could
+hate her, if he had a single accusation to bring against her, so as to
+put her away as one he could despise and forget!
+
+He had to leave his carriage at Uj-Szony, for wheels could not yet pass
+the ice, so he arrived on foot at home. When he went in, it seemed to
+him as if Timea were afraid of him; as if the hand she gave him
+trembled, and her voice too, when she greeted him. This time she did not
+offer him her white cheek to be kissed.
+
+Timar hastened to his room, on pretense of laying aside his wraps. If
+only there was some reason for this embarrassment! And another sign had
+not escaped him--Athalie's expression. In her eyes shone the fire of a
+diabolical triumph, the light of a malicious joy. How if Athalie knew
+something?
+
+At table he met the two women again. They all three sat silently
+together, watching each other. Timea only said to Michael, "This time
+you have stayed away very long."
+
+Timar would not say, "I shall soon leave you altogether," but he thought
+it. He had to consult his lawyer first as to a possible ground for a
+separation. It was impossible to think of one. Only "unconquerable
+mutual aversion" could be put forward.
+
+But would the wife consent? All depended on her. Timar pondered this
+question all the afternoon, and told the servants not to tell any one of
+his return, as he could not see visitors.
+
+Toward evening some one opened the door. Athalie stood before him, with
+the same spiteful satisfaction shining from her eyes, the same
+triumphant smile playing round her lips. Michael drew back before her
+repellent glance.
+
+"What brings you here, Athalie?" he asked, with confusion.
+
+"Well, Herr von Levetinczy, what do you think? Do you not want to know
+anything from me?"
+
+"What?" he whispered eagerly, shutting the door, and staring at Athalie
+with wide-opened eyes.
+
+"What do you want to know?" said the beautiful woman, still smiling.
+"Indeed that is hard to guess. I have been in your house these six
+years; every year I have seen you return home, and every year with a
+different expression on your face. At first tormenting jealousy, then
+easy good-humor, afterward assumed tranquillity, and absorption in
+business. I studied all these phases. Last year I thought the tragedy
+was over--you looked like a man who is ready for the grave. But you may
+be sure that on all this round world there is no one who prays for your
+life as I do."
+
+Michael frowned, and possibly Athalie understood him.
+
+"No, sir," she repeated, passionately; "for if there is anyone in the
+world who loves you, they can not possibly wish that you may live long
+as heartily as I do. Now I see the same look on your face as last
+year--that is the true one: you would like to hear about Timea?"
+
+"Do you know anything?" asked Timar, eagerly, putting his back against
+the door as if to keep Athalie a prisoner.
+
+She laughed scornfully; not she but Michael was the prisoner.
+
+"I know much--all," she replied; "enough to bring us all to perdition.
+Myself and the other, and you too."
+
+Michael's blood froze in his veins. "Tell me all."
+
+"That is what I came for. But listen quietly to the end, that I may tell
+you things which lead to madness, if not death."
+
+"One word first, is Timea unfaithful?"
+
+"She is, and you will be absolutely convinced of it."
+
+In Timar's heart a nobler feeling arose to protest against this
+suspicion. "Take care what you say!"
+
+"Your saintly picture, then, came down out of its altar-frame to listen
+to a report which said that the noble major had fought on her account
+with some strange officer, and wounded him so badly that his own sword
+broke in two over the head of his adversary. The picture heard this
+rumor. Frau Sophie told her, and the eyes of the saintly image shed
+tears. Perhaps you are a heretic, and do not believe in miraculous
+tears. But it is true; and Frau Sophie told the noble major next day.
+Frau Sophie loves to be a go-between; she loves flattery and intrigue.
+The reported tears had the result that Frau Sophie brought back a box
+and a letter from the major. In the box were the half-broken blade and
+the handle of the sword with which the major had fought. It was a
+souvenir."
+
+"Well, there is nothing wrong in that," said Michael, with affected
+calm.
+
+"Ah, yes, but the letter!"
+
+"Did you read it?"
+
+"No; but I know what it contained."
+
+"How can you know that?"
+
+"Because the saint replied, and Frau Sophie was the messenger."
+
+"Go on," said Timar.
+
+"Yes, for the story is not nearly finished. The letter was not a scented
+pink note; it was written on your own desk, sealed with your own seal,
+and its contents might have been to repulse the major's advances forever
+and ever. But that was not what it said."
+
+"Who knows?"
+
+"Frau Sophie and I, and you will be a third directly. How unexpectedly
+you returned to-day!--how can people come at such an inconvenient time?
+The Danube is full of ice, the ice-flakes lie in heaps, and no living
+creature can cross. One would think that on such a day the town would be
+so safely shut off that even a jealous husband, if he were outside,
+could not get in. How could you come to-day?"
+
+"Do not torture me, Athalie."
+
+"Did you not notice the confusion on your picture's face when surprised
+by your arrival? Did not her hand tremble in yours? You managed your
+arrival so badly; Frau Sophie had to go out again to the smart major
+with the short message--'It can not be to-day.'"
+
+Timar's face was disfigured with rage. Then he sunk back in his chair
+and said, "I don't believe you."
+
+"You need not do so," said Athalie, with a shrug. "I will only advise
+you to trust your own eyes. It can not be to-day, because you have come
+home; but it might be to-morrow. Suppose you went away? You often go in
+winter to the Platten See, when it is frozen and they begin to fish
+under the ice. It is capital sport. You might say to-morrow, 'While this
+cold lasts, I will be off to Fured to see how the _fogasch_ get on,' and
+then you might shut yourself up in your other house here, and wait till
+some one taps at your window and says 'Now.' Then you would come back
+here."
+
+"And I should do that?" exclaimed Timar, shuddering.
+
+Athalie looked him up and down contemptuously. "You are a coward!" and
+with that she turned to go.
+
+But Michael sprung after her and seized her by the arm.
+
+"Stop! I will take your advice and do what you tell me."
+
+"Then listen to me," said Athalie, and pressed so close to his face that
+he felt her burning breath.
+
+"When Herr Brazovics built this house, the room in which Timea sleeps
+was the parlor. Who were his usual guests? Business people, boon
+companions, merchants, dealers. This room has a hiding-place in the wall
+above the staircase, where the steps turn, and the inner side makes an
+angle. Into this hole in the wall it is possible to gain access from
+outside. There is a closet where old rubbish is kept, which is seldom
+opened. But even if it stood open it would hardly occur to any one to
+try the screws of the ventilator one after another. The center screw on
+the right-hand side is movable. But even if any one drew it out it would
+tell nothing--it is only a simple peg. But whoever is in possession of a
+peculiar key, which can be inserted in place of the peg, only requires
+to press the top of the key, from which wards instantly appear, and by a
+single turn of the key the cupboard is noiselessly pushed aside. From
+thence one can enter the hiding-place, which receives light and air from
+a slit in the roof. This hollow in the wall goes as far as Timea's
+bedroom, where in former times Herr Brazovics' guests used to pass the
+night. The concealed passage ends in a glass door which is hidden from
+the room by a picture. This picture is a mother-of-pearl mosaic
+representing St. George and the dragon, and appears to be a votive image
+built into the wall. It has often been proposed to take the picture
+away, but Timea never would allow it. One of the pieces of mosaic can be
+slipped aside, and through the blank space everything that passes in the
+room can be seen and heard."
+
+"What did your father want with such a hiding-place?"
+
+"I think it had to do with his business. He had many affairs with
+contractors and officials. There was good living to be had at his house,
+and when he had got his visitors into a good temper, he left them to
+themselves, slipped into the secret room and listened from thence to
+their conversation. In this way he obtained much important business
+information, from which he derived considerable advantage. Once when he
+had himself taken rather too much at table, he sent me to listen in the
+passage, and in this way I learned the secret. The key is in my
+possession. When all Herr Brazovics' property was seized by judicial
+decree, I could, if I had chosen, have conveyed all his valuables out of
+the house by this means. But I was too proud to steal."
+
+"And can you get into the bedroom from this hiding-place?"
+
+"The picture of St. George is on hinges, and can be opened like a door."
+
+"So that you can at any time enter Timea's room from that passage?"
+asked Michael, with an uncontrollable shudder.
+
+Athalie smiled proudly. "I never needed to creep in to her by secret
+routes. Timea sleeps with open doors, and you know that I can always
+pass freely through her room. She sleeps so soundly too."
+
+"Give me the key."
+
+Athalie took the puzzle key from her pocket. The lower end was shaped
+like a screw, only on pressing the handle a key appeared. She showed
+Timar how to manage it. A voice in his heart--perhaps that of his
+guardian angel--whispered to Timar to throw this key into the deep well
+in the yard. But he took no heed of the voice; he only listened to
+Athalie's whisper in his ear.
+
+"If you leave home to-morrow and come back at the signal, go straight to
+the hiding-place, and you will learn all you want to know. Will you
+come?"
+
+"I shall be there."
+
+"Do you generally carry arms?--a pistol or a dagger?--one can never tell
+what may happen. The picture of St. George opens to the right when you
+press on a button-shaped handle, and when open it just covers Timea's
+bed. Do you understand?"
+
+She pressed Michael's hand violently, looking with flaming eyes of rage
+into his, and added something, but not audibly. Only her lips moved, her
+teeth chattered, and her eyes rolled--they were soundless words. What
+could she have said? Timar stared in a dazed way like a sleep-walker,
+then suddenly raised his head to ask Athalie something. He was
+alone--only the key grasped in his hand showed that it was no dream.
+
+Never had Timar suffered such torture as in the long hours till the
+evening of the next day. He followed Athalie's advice, and remained at
+home till noon. After dinner he said he must go to the Platten See and
+look after the fishery he had hired.
+
+As he had crossed the ice-floes of the Danube on foot to get to Komorn,
+he could easily go over again without luggage in the same way. His
+carriage too was waiting on that side, for it had not yet been able to
+get across: a road would have to be prepared. Without any interview with
+his agents, without a glance at his books, he thrust a pile of
+bank-notes, uncounted, into his pocket, and left the house. At the
+threshold he met the postman, who brought a registered letter, and
+demanded a receipt. Michael was in too great haste to go back to his
+room; he carried pen and ink with him, and laying the receipt on the
+broad back of the postman, he signed his name to it. Then he looked at
+the letter. It was from his agent at Rio Janeiro; but without opening
+it, he put it in his pocket. What did he care for all the flour trade in
+the world? He kept one room in his house in the Servian Street always
+heated in winter. This room was entered by a separate staircase, which
+was kept locked, and was divided by several empty rooms from the
+offices. Timar reached it unobserved; there he sat down by the window
+and waited.
+
+The cold north wind outside drew lovely ice-flowers on the window-panes,
+so that no one could see in or out.
+
+Now he would get what he wanted--the proof of Timea's infidelity. And
+yet--yet, the thought hurt him so deeply! While his fancy pictured this
+first private rendezvous between that woman and that man, every drop of
+blood seemed to rush to the surface and darken the light of his mind.
+
+Shame, jealousy, thirst for vengeance consumed him.
+
+It is hard to endure humiliation, even if some advantage is to be
+derived from it. He now began to feel what a treasure he possessed in
+Timea. He had been ready enough to abandon this treasure, or even
+voluntarily to give it back, but to allow himself to be robbed of
+it!--the thought enraged him. He struggled with himself as to what he
+should do. If Athalie's instilled poison had reached his heart, he would
+have kept to the idea of a murderous rush with a dagger in his hand from
+behind the picture, so as to kill the faithless wife amidst the hottest
+caresses of her lover. Athalie panted for Timea's blood; but a husband's
+revenge seeks a different object--he must have the man's life. Not like
+an assassin, but face to face--each with a sword in his hand, and then a
+struggle for life or death. Then, again, cold-blooded calculating reason
+comes uppermost, and says, "Why shed blood? you want scandal, not
+revenge; you should rush from your hiding-place, call in the servants,
+and drive the guilty woman and her seducer from your house. So a
+reasonable being would act. You are no soldier to seek satisfaction at
+the point of the sword. Here is the judge, and here the law."
+
+But still he could not forbear from keeping stiletto and pistol ready on
+the table as Athalie had advised. Who knows what may happen? The moment
+will decide which gets the upper hand--whether the vengeful assassin,
+the dishonored husband, or the prudent man of business who would reckon
+an open scandal to his credit side, as facilitating the desired divorce.
+
+Meanwhile evening had come. One lamp after another was lighted: Herr von
+Levetinczy paid for the lighting of this street out of his own pocket.
+The shadows of the passers-by flitted across the frozen panes.
+
+One such figure stopped before the window, and a low knock was heard. It
+seemed to Timar as if the ice-flowers detached from the glass by the tap
+were the rustling leaves of a fairy forest, which whispered to him, "Do
+not go." He hesitated. The tap was repeated.
+
+"I am coming!" he called in a low voice, took pistol and dagger, and
+crept out of the house.
+
+The whole way he never met a human creature; the streets were already
+deserted. He only saw a dark shadow flitting on before him, vanishing in
+the darkness now and then, and at last slipping round the corner. He
+followed, and found all the doors open; some helping hand had opened the
+wicket, the house-door, and even the closet in the wall. He could enter
+without any noise; at the point described he found the movable screw,
+and put the key in its place; the secret door flew open, and shut behind
+him.
+
+Timar found himself in the concealed passage--a spy in his own house.
+
+Yes! A spy too! What meanness was there he had not committed? and all
+this "because a poor fellow remains always only a clerk, and it is the
+rich for whom life is worth living." Now he has riches and splendor.
+
+Stumbling and feeling about, he groped along the wall, till he came to a
+part where a feeble light was perceptible. There was the picture of St.
+George: the light of the lamp shone through the crevices of the mosaic.
+He found the movable piece of mother-of-pearl, in whose place was a
+thick sheet of glass. He looked into the room; on the table stood a lamp
+with a ground glass shade. Timea walked up and down.
+
+An embroidered white dress floated from her waist; her folded hands
+hung down. The door of the antechamber opened, and Frau Sophie came in;
+she said something low to Timea, but Timar could hear every whisper.
+This hole in the wall was like the ear of Dionysius, it caught every
+sound. "Can he come?" asked Frau Sophie.
+
+"I am waiting for him," said Timea.
+
+Then Frau Sophie went out again. Timea drew from her wardrobe a drawer,
+and took out a box; she carried it to the table and stood opposite
+Timar, so that the lamp threw its whole light on her face; the listener
+could detect the slightest change of expression. Timea opened the box.
+In it lay a sword-hilt and a broken blade. At first glance the woman
+started, and her contracted brows betokened horror. Then her face
+cleared, and took once more, with its meeting eyebrows, the look of a
+saint's picture, with a black halo round its brow. Tenderness dawned in
+her melancholy features; she lifted the box and held the sword so near
+her lips that Timar began to tremble lest she should kiss it. Even the
+sword was his rival.
+
+The longer Timea looked at it, the brighter grew her eyes. At last she
+plucked up courage to grasp the hilt; she took it out and made passes in
+the air with it. . . . If she had known that there was some one near her
+to whom every stroke was torture--
+
+There was a tap at the door. Timea put down the broken sword hastily,
+and stammered out a faint "Come in!" But first she pulled down the lace
+of her sleeves, which had fallen back from her wrist. The major entered.
+He was a fine man, with a handsome, soldierly face. Timea did not go to
+meet him, but stood by the lamp; Timar's eyes never left her.
+Damnation!--what did he see? As the major entered Timea blushed. Yes,
+the marble statue could glow with sunrise tints, the saint's image could
+move, and the virginal snow-white adorned itself with roses. The white
+face had found some one who could set it on fire. Was further proof,
+were words wanting?
+
+Timar was near bursting from the picture, and, like the dragon before
+St. George killed it, would have thrown himself between the two before
+Timea's lips could speak what her face betrayed.
+
+But no. Perhaps he had only dreamed it--Timea's face was colorless as
+ever. With calm dignity she signed to the major to take a chair; she sat
+down on a distant sofa, and her look was severe and cold. The major held
+his shako in one hand, and in the other his sword with its golden knot,
+and sat as stiff as if he had been in his general's presence. They
+looked at each other in silence--both struggling with painful thoughts.
+Timea broke the silence. "Sir, you sent me a curious letter in company
+with a yet more singular present. It was a broken sword." She opened the
+box and took out a letter. "Your letter runs thus: 'Gracious lady, I
+have fought a duel to-day, and my adversary owes it only to the chance
+that my sword broke that he was not killed on the spot. This duel is
+intimately connected with most extraordinary circumstances, which
+concern you, and still more _your husband_. Allow me a few minutes'
+interview, that I may tell you what you ought to know.' In this letter
+the words 'your husband' are twice underlined, and this it was which
+decided me to give you the opportunity of speaking to me. Speak! In
+what does your duel concern the private affairs of Herr von Levetinczy?
+I will listen to you as long as what you have to say treats of him: if
+you enter on any other subject I will leave you."
+
+The major bowed with grateful fervor. "I will begin then, madame, by
+telling you that an unknown man has been about in the town, who wears
+the uniform of a naval officer, and therefore has an _entree_ to
+military society. He seems to be a man of the world, and is an
+entertaining companion. Who he may be I know not, for it is not my way
+to be inquisitive. This man has spent some weeks among us, and seems to
+have plenty of money. He gave as a reason for being here that he was
+waiting for Herr von Levetinczy, with whom he had important private
+affairs to settle. At last he began to annoy us, and looked so
+mysterious as he asked every day about Herr von Levetinczy, that we
+fancied he must be an adventurer, and one day we drove him into a
+corner. We wished to know what manner of man he was, and I undertook the
+inquiry. When we asked why he did not go to your husband's agents, he
+said his business was of a very private and delicate nature, which could
+only be personally discussed. 'Listen,' I said. 'I do not believe that
+you have any delicate business with Herr von Levetinczy; who you are we
+do not know, but we do know that he is a man of honor and character,
+whose position and reputation are above suspicion. He is a man whose
+private life is blameless, and who can therefore have no reason for
+private interviews with people of your sort.'"
+
+While the major spoke, Timea had risen slowly; she now stepped up to him
+and said, "I thank you."
+
+And again Timar saw on her white cheek that soft rosy glow, never seen
+by him before, but which now rested there. The woman had flushed at the
+thought that the man she loved could defend him who, as her husband,
+stood between their two hearts.
+
+The major continued his narrative, and in order not to confuse Timea by
+looking at her, sought some other object in the room on which to fix his
+eye. He chose the dragon's head in the picture of St. George. But that
+was the exact spot through which Timar looked into the room, so that it
+seemed to him as if the major directed his words purposely to him,
+although it was much too dark where Timar stood for any one to see him.
+
+"On this the man's face changed suddenly; he leaped up like a sleeping
+dog when one treads on his tail. 'What!' he cried, so that every one
+could hear. 'You think Levetinczy is a rich man with a great name--a
+clever man, a happy family man, a faithful subject? I will prove to you
+that this man, if I can once meet him, will take flight from here next
+day--that he will leave his lovely wife and his house in the lurch, and
+fly from Hungary, from Europe, so that you will never hear of him
+again.'"
+
+Timea's hand strayed involuntarily to the hilt of the broken sword.
+
+"Instead of answering the man, I struck him in the face."
+
+Timar drew back his head from the peep-hole, as if the blow might reach
+him.
+
+"I saw at once that the man regretted what he had said. He would gladly
+have escaped the consequences of the blow, but I would not let him off.
+I stood in his way and said, 'You are an officer and carry a sword--you
+know to what such an affair leads among men of honor. There is a
+ball-room upstairs at the hotel; we will have the candles lighted; then
+you shall choose two of us as seconds, I also will choose two, and we
+will fight it out.' We did not leave him time for reflection. The man
+fought like a pirate: twice he tried to seize my sword with his left
+hand; then I got angry and gave him such a cut over the head that he
+fell. Luckily for him, it was with the flat of the blade, which was the
+reason of my sword breaking. The next day the man, so our surgeon told
+me, had left the town--his wound can not have been a dangerous one."
+
+Timea took out the Turkish sword and looked at the hilt; then she laid
+it on the table and stretched out her hand in silence to the major. He
+took it gently in both his own, and carried it to his lips; it could
+hardly be seen whether he kissed it. Timea did not draw it away.
+
+"I thank you!" whispered the major, so low that Timar could not hear it
+in his hiding-place, but the eyes said it too. A long pause followed.
+Timea sat down again on the sofa and supported her head on her hand.
+
+The major spoke at last. "I did not request an interview, gracious lady,
+to boast of a deed which in itself must be painful to you, and was
+really only the duty of a friend, nor to receive the thanks you so
+kindly offered me by a grasp of the hand. That was a more than
+sufficient reward. But not on that account did I request you to meet me,
+but to ask a very important question. Gracious lady, is it possible that
+there should be any truth in what this man said?"
+
+Timea started as if struck by lightning. And the bolt struck Timar too;
+every nerve thrilled at the question.
+
+"What are you thinking of?" cried Timea, passionately.
+
+"At last it is out," said the major, rising from his chair. "And now I
+will not go without an answer. I say openly, is it possible that there
+is truth in this accusation? I have not repeated all that this man said
+about Levetinczy: he accused him of everything that can be said against
+a man. Is it conceivable that Timar's life could take such a frightful
+course as that which the last owner of this unlucky house only escaped
+by death? For if that is possible, then no respect could restrain me
+from beseeching you in God's name, dear lady, to delay not a moment in
+fleeing from this doomed house. I can not leave you to ruin--I can not
+look on while another drags you into the abyss."
+
+The glowing words found a response in Timea's bosom. Timar watched in
+trembling excitement his wife's mental conflict. Timea remained
+victorious; she collected all her energy, and answered quietly, "Do not
+be alarmed, sir. I can assure you that that man, whoever he was, and
+wherever he came from, told a lie, and his accusations are groundless. I
+know intimately the position of Herr von Levetinczy; for during his
+absence I managed his affairs, and am thoroughly acquainted with every
+detail. His finances are in order, and even if all he has now at stake
+were lost by some unlucky chance, no pillar of his house would be
+shaken. I can also tell you with a clear conscience that of all his
+property there is not a thaler dishonestly come by. Levetinczy is a rich
+man, who need not blush for his wealth."
+
+Why did Timar's cheeks burn so there in the darkness?
+
+The major sighed. "You have convinced me, gracious lady; I never
+believed anything against his financial reputation. But this man had
+much to say about your husband in his character as head of a family.
+Allow me to ask you one thing: Are you happy?"
+
+Timea looked at him with inexpressible pathos, and in her eyes lay the
+words, "You see me, and yet you ask?"
+
+"Riches and luxury surround you," continued the major, boldly; "but if
+that is true--which on my honor I never asked, and which, when told me,
+I answered with the lie direct, and a blow in the face--if it is true
+that you suffer and are unhappy, I should not be a man if I had not the
+courage to say to you, gracious lady, there is another who suffers like
+you. Throw far from you these unlucky riches; make an end of this
+suffering of two people, who in the next world can accuse a third person
+in the sight of God of being the cause of it: consent to a divorce!"
+
+Timea pressed both hands to her breast, and looked up like a martyr on
+her road to the stake: all her anguish was aroused at this moment.
+
+When Timar saw her so, he struck his forehead with his fist, and turned
+his face from the Judas-hole through which he had been looking. For the
+next few moments he saw and heard no more. When torturing curiosity drew
+him again to the spot of light, and he cast a look into the room, he no
+longer saw a martyr before him. Timea's face was calm.
+
+"Sir," she said gently to the major, "that I should have heard you to
+the end is a proof of my respect. Leave me this feeling, and never again
+ask me what you did to-day. I call the whole world to witness whether I
+have ever complained by word or tear. Of whom should I complain? Of my
+husband, who is the noblest and best man in the world? Of him who saved
+the strange child's life? who thrice defied death in the waters' depths
+for my sake? When I was a despised and derided creature he protected me;
+for my sake he visited the house of his deadly enemy, that he might
+watch over me. When I had become a homeless beggar he gave me--a
+servant--his hand, his riches, and made me mistress of his house. And
+when he offered me his hand he meant it; he was not deceiving me." As
+she spoke, Timea went to a closet and opened the doors. "Look here,
+sir," she said, as she spread out before the major the train of a dress
+hanging within. "Do you recognize this dress? It is the one I worked.
+You saw it for weeks while I worked at it. Every stitch is a buried
+dream, a sad memory to me. They told me it was to be my wedding-gown;
+and when it was finished, they said, 'Take it off: it is for another
+bride.' Ah! sir, that was a mortal stab to my heart: I have been sore
+from that incurable wound all these years. And now should I separate
+myself from the good man who never courted me, as a child, with
+flatteries, to turn my head, but remained respectfully in the distance,
+and waited till others had trodden me under foot to raise me to
+himself, and has never ceased, with superhuman, angelic patience, his
+endeavors to cure my wound and to share my sorrow with me? I should
+separate from the man who has no one but me to love him, to whom I am a
+whole world, the only being that ties him to life, or at whose coming
+his gloomy face is cheered? I should leave a man whom every one honors
+and loves? Tell him that I hate him--I, who owe everything to him, and
+who brought him no dowry but a sick and loveless heart?"
+
+The major hid his face at these words of the passionate and excited
+woman. And that other man behind the picture of St. George--must he not
+feel like the dragon when the knight thrust his spear into him?
+
+"But, sir," continued Timea, whose lovely face was illumined by the
+irresistible charm of womanly dignity, "even if Timar were the exact
+opposite of all that he is known to be--if he were a ruined man, a
+beggar--I would not leave him--then least of all. If disgrace covered
+his name, I would not discard that name; I would share his shame, as I
+have shared his success. If the whole world despised him, I should still
+owe him eternal gratitude; if he were exiled, I would follow him into
+banishment, and live with him in the woods if he were a robber. If he
+wished to take his life, I would die with him--"
+
+(What is that? Is it the dragon that weeps there in the picture?)
+
+"And, sir, if even the bitterest, cruelest insult of all to a woman were
+inflicted on me--if I learned that my husband was unfaithful, to
+me--that he loved another--I would say, 'God bless her who gave him the
+happiness of which I have robbed him;' and I would not even then divorce
+him--I would not do it if he wished it. I will never separate from him,
+for I know what is due to my oath and the salvation of my soul!"
+
+And the major too sobbed--he too.
+
+Timea stopped to recover her composure. Then in a soft and gentle voice
+she continued: "And now leave me forever. The stab you gave my heart
+years ago is healed by this sword-stroke: I keep this broken blade as a
+remembrance. As often as my eye falls on it, I will think that you are a
+brave soul, and it will be balm to me. And because for years you have
+never spoken to me nor approached me, I will forgive your having come
+and spoken to me now." . . .
+
+When Timar burst through the closet out of the hiding-place, a dark
+figure stood in his way. Was it a shadow, a phantom, or a spirit? It was
+Athalie. Timar pushed, the dark figure away, and while he pressed her
+with one hand against the wall, he whispered in her ear, "I curse you!
+and accursed be this house and the ashes of him who built it!"
+
+Then he rushed like a madman down the stairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE FIRST LOSS.
+
+
+Escape! But where? That is the question.
+
+The church clocks in the town struck ten: the barriers were down by now
+across the wooden bridge over the narrow part of the river to the
+island, from which the ice formed the only road across the rest of the
+Danube. It was impossible to get past without alarming the sentries, who
+had orders from the commandant of the garrison to let no one go on the
+ice between eight in the evening and seven in the morning--not even the
+pope himself. It is true that a couple of bank-notes of Herr
+Levetinczy's might compass what a papal bull could not procure, but then
+it would be reported next day all over the town that the "man of gold"
+had fled in haste and alone, at dead of night, across the dangerous ice.
+That would be a good sequel to the gossip which had arisen from the
+duel. It would at once be said, "There, you see he is already thinking
+of escaping to America," and Timea would hear it too.
+
+Timea! oh, how hard it is to evade that name; it follows him everywhere.
+He can do nothing but return home and wait for daylight. As cautiously
+as a thief he opened his door. At this hour all the other inhabitants
+were asleep.
+
+When he got to his room, he lighted no lamp, and threw himself on the
+sofa. But the phantoms which pursued him found him quite as easily in
+the dark.
+
+How that marble face blushed!
+
+So there is life there under the ice, only the sun is wanting. Marriage
+is for her eternal winter--a polar winter. The wife is faithful; and the
+rival is a true friend. He breaks his sword over the skull of him who
+dared to slander the husband of the beloved woman. And Timea loves the
+man, and is as unhappy as he. The misery of both comes from Timar's
+imputation as an honest man; those who love him idealize him; no one
+ventures to think of deceiving or robbing or disgracing him--of breaking
+a splinter from the diamond of his honor: they guard it like a jewel.
+
+Why do they all respect him? Because no one knows him.
+
+If Timea knew, if she discovered what he really was, would she still
+say, "I would share the shame of his name, as I have shared its glory!"
+Yes; she would still say so. Timea will never leave him: she would say,
+"You have made me unhappy; now suffer with me." It is an angel's
+cruelty, and that is Timea's nature.
+
+But how about Noemi? What is she doing on the lonely island which she
+can never leave, thanks to Timea's high principle? Alone during the
+gloomy monotony of winter, with a helpless child at her knee! What is
+she thinking of? No one can take her a word of consolation. She may be
+trembling in that desert for fear of bad men, ghosts, wild beasts! How
+her heart must sink when she thinks of her absent darling, and wonders
+where he may be! If she knew! If both those women knew what a thorough
+scoundrel was the man who had caused them so much sorrow--if any one was
+found to tell them!
+
+Who can the stranger be who has already said enough to deserve a blow in
+the face, and a cut of the major's sword? A naval officer. Who can this
+enemy be? It is impossible to discover; he has disappeared with his
+wound from the town. Something told Timar it would be wise to fly from
+this man. Fly! his whole mind was set upon it--there was nothing he
+dreaded so much as being obliged to remain in one spot. As soon as he
+left the ownerless island, no place was a home to him. When he stopped
+for dinner on a journey, he could not wait till the horses were fed, but
+walked on ahead. Something always drove him onward.
+
+And sleep had fled from his eyes. The clock struck twelve; seven more
+long hours till morning! He determined at last to kindle a light. For
+mental anxiety there is a remedy more effectual than opium or
+digitalis--prosaic work. Whoever has plenty to do, finds no time to
+dwell on love troubles. Merchants seldom commit suicide for love. Cares
+of business are a wholesome counter-irritant to draw the blood from the
+nobler parts.
+
+Michael opened and read his letters in turn: all contained good news. He
+remembered Polycrates, with whom everything succeeded, and who began at
+last to be afraid of his luck.
+
+And what was the foundation of this monstrous success? A secret unknown
+to all but himself. Who had seen Ali Tschorbadschi's treasure spread out
+in the cabin? Only himself--and the moon. But that is an accomplice, and
+has seen other things too. It is the "Hypomochlion" of creation, to
+prevent crimes from coming to light. Michael was too deeply sensitive by
+nature not to feel that such overwhelming good fortune, springing from
+so foul a root, must eventually fall into dust--for there is justice
+under the sun. He would joyfully have looked on at the loss of half his
+wealth, or even given up all, if so he could have hoped to close his
+account with Heaven. But he felt that his penance consisted in the fact
+that his riches, influence, the renown of his name, his supposed
+home-happiness, were only a cruel irony of fate. They buried him, and he
+could not extricate himself to live the only happy life, whose center
+was Noemi--and Dodi. When the first Dodi died, he learned what he had
+been to him. Now, with the second, he felt it still more; and yet he
+could not make them his own. He lay buried under a mountain of gold
+which he could not shake off. What he had seen in the delirium of fever,
+he now really felt. He lay buried alive in a grave full of gold. Above
+his head stood on the grave-stone a marble statue which never
+moved--Timea. A beggar-woman with a little child came to gather thyme on
+his tomb--Noemi. And the man buried alive vainly strove to cry out,
+"Give me your hand, Noemi, and pull me out of this golden tomb!"
+
+Timar went on with his correspondence. One letter was from the Brazilian
+agents. His favorite scheme--the export of Hungarian flour--had been
+brilliantly successful. Timar had gained by it honor and wealth. As he
+ran through the letters, it occurred to him that when he left home in
+the morning he had received a registered letter with a foreign stamp. He
+found the letter in his coat pocket. It was from the same correspondent
+whose favorable report he had just read, and ran thus:
+
+     "SIR,--Since my last, a great misfortune has occurred.
+     Your _protege_, Theodor Krisstyan, has cheated us
+     shamefully and brought disgrace on us. We are blameless
+     in the matter. This man has for years past seemed so
+     trustworthy and active, that we put the most perfect
+     confidence in him; his salary and commission were so
+     large that he could not only live comfortably, but
+     could save money, which he invested in our house.
+     While he left his avowable savings to grow to a small
+     capital in our hands, he robbed us
+     frightfully--intercepted money, forged bills, and made
+     false claims on the firm, which was easy, as he had
+     your power of attorney--so that our loss already
+     amounts to some ten million reis. But what makes it
+     more serious is the discovery that during the last few
+     years he has been mixing the imported flour with some
+     of inferior quality from Louisiana, and by this Yankee
+     trick has seriously impaired the credit of the
+     Hungarian article for years to come--even if we are
+     ever able to restore it."
+
+"This is the first blow," thought Timar; and on the most tender point
+for a great financier. It touched him in what he was most proud of, and
+what had obtained for him the rank of a privy councilor. And so falls
+the brilliant fabric erected by Timea--Timea again!
+
+Timar read on hurriedly--
+
+     "Bad company has led the young criminal astray: this is
+     a dangerous temptation in this climate. We had him
+     arrested at once, but none of the stolen money was
+     found in his possession. He had lost part at the
+     gambling-table, and got rid of the rest with the help
+     of the Creoles; but it is quite possible that the rogue
+     has managed to conceal considerable sums, in the hope
+     of being able to get at them when again at liberty.
+     However, he must wait some time, for the court here has
+     sentenced him to fifteen years at the galleys."
+
+Timar could read no further. He let the letter fall on the table; then
+he stood up and began to pace the room restlessly.
+
+Fifteen years at the galleys! Fifteen years chained to the bench, and
+nothing to look at all that time but sky and sea! Fifteen years to
+endure the sickening noonday heat, without hope or comfort--to endure
+life on the ever-restless sea, and curse unmerciful man! He will be an
+old man before he gets his freedom. And why? In order that Herr Michael
+Timar, Baron von Levetinczy, may live undisturbed in his forbidden joys
+on the ownerless island--that no one may betray Noemi to Timea, nor
+Timea to Noemi. You never thought of this when you sent Theodor to
+Brazil, and yet you did count on the chance of opportunity making him
+into a thief. You did not lay him dead on the spot with a bullet, as a
+man kills in a duel him who stands in the way of his love. You pretended
+to a paternal affection for him, and sent him on a three-thousand miles'
+voyage; and now you will look on at this slow decay through fifteen
+horrible years--for you will see him, though all the earth and all her
+oceans lie between!
+
+The stove had gone out. It was cold in the room, whose windows were
+covered with frost-flowers. And yet sweat dropped from Timar's brow, as
+he strode up and down the narrow space. So, then, every one is
+consecrated to misfortune to whom he gives his hand--on that hand is a
+curse.
+
+Oh, what an awful night this is! Will it never be day? He felt as if
+this room were a dungeon or a tomb.
+
+But the terrible letter had a postscript. Timar came back to the table
+to read it. The postscript was dated a day later, and ran thus: "I have
+just received a letter from Port-au-Prince, in which we are informed
+that three slaves have escaped from the galley on which our prisoner was
+placed. I fear our man is among them."
+
+After the perusal of these lines, Timar was a prey to indescribable
+anxiety. Though he had been perspiring before, he began to shiver now.
+Had the fever returned? He looked round fearfully. What was he afraid
+of? He was alone in the room, and as frightened as a child who has been
+hearing ghost stories. He could not endure the room any longer. He took
+out his pocket-pistol and looked to its priming; then he tried his
+dagger, whether it was loose in its sheath.
+
+Away! It was still night--not yet two o'clock; but he could not await
+the morning light here. And could he not get across to the Uj-Szony side
+without a bridge? Above the island the ice would bear. It only required
+a man who was less afraid of darkness and danger than of the flickering
+candle and the outspread letter. He held that over the light and burned
+it; then he blew out the candle and crept out of the window.
+
+Only when he was in the street did he feel his heart lighter: here he
+was a man again. Meanwhile fresh snow had fallen, which he heard
+crackling under his feet while he hurried to the shore, along the whole
+Servian Street right up to the harbor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE ICE.
+
+
+The Danube was completely frozen over up to Prestburg, and could be
+crossed anywhere. Still, in order to cross from Komorn to Uj-Szony, he
+had to go round a long way by the point of the island, for sand-banks
+exist there on which in summer the miners wash their gold, and on these
+mounds the ice often lies in great heaps, forming barricades difficult
+to surmount. Timar had a plan ready; as soon as he came in sight of the
+Monostor, where stood his villa, he would strike out in that direction.
+But something intervened to upset his calculations. He had expected a
+starry night, but when he reached the Danube a fog came on. At first
+only thin, transparent mist; but while Timar was seeking a path on the
+ice, the fog became so thick that you could not see three steps in front
+of you. If he had given ear to the voice of reason, he would have
+instantly turned round and tried to find his way back to the bank. But
+he was in a frame of mind in which a man is inaccessible to reason; by
+fair means or foul he meant to get across. Apart from the fog, it was a
+dark night; and above the island the Danube is at its widest, and the
+passage over the ice-floes the most difficult. Monstrous heaped-up
+masses of frozen snow form oblique stretches of barricade, and in many
+places the ice takes the shape of capriciously cleft ridges, from which
+rise six-foot pinnacles of frozen water instead of fingers of rock. In
+coasting round these, Timar suddenly found that he had lost himself. He
+had already been an hour on the river; his repeater struck a quarter to
+three; he ought long ago to have reached the other side; he must have
+lost his reckoning.
+
+He listened; no sound in the dark night. It was beyond question that he
+was not approaching the opposite village, but getting further away from
+it. Not even a dog could be heard to bark. He fancied that instead of
+crossing the river he must have been walking along it, and determined to
+change his course. The Danube was nowhere more than two hundred paces
+wide; he must reach the shore somewhere if he kept straight on. But in
+mist and darkness one does not know which way one goes; a barrier of ice
+which must be avoided takes one, in spite of every care, out of the
+right road--one walks in zigzags and comes back to the spot where one
+was before; even if you get into the right path, and would only have to
+walk on to reach the bank, you think of something else, deviate
+slightly, and get back into that confounded ice labyrinth again.
+
+Past five. Nearly four hours already had he wandered about. He felt
+exhausted. He had not slept all night, nor eaten all day, but had
+struggled with the most enervating mental emotions.
+
+His only hope was, that when day at last dawned he would be able to
+guess by the sun where the east lay, and then, as an old sailor, could
+ascertain his position. If he had come across a hole in the ice, the
+current of the water would have shown him in what direction to go; but
+the surface was entirely covered, and without an ax it was impossible to
+make a hole. At last it began to dawn, but the fog hid the sun. Nine
+o'clock, and he had not yet found the shore, though the fog seemed to
+grow less and the sun's disk was visible, like a pale, colorless ball, a
+mere shadow of its glorious self. The air was full of countless
+glittering particles of ice, which melted into a dazzling vapor. Now he
+will discover where he is.
+
+The sun was already too high to indicate the true east, but it showed
+something else. It seemed to Timar, as he peered through the brilliant
+mist, as if he could distinguish on his right the outline of the roof of
+a house.
+
+Where there is a house there must be land. He walked straight toward it,
+and was careful to keep in a direct line; soon he found himself close to
+it--but the house was a water-mill.
+
+The ice-floes had detached it from its winter refuge, or perhaps had
+found it belated, still chained to the shore, and carried it off. The
+shrouds were as neatly sawn asunder by the sharp ice-flakes as if a
+clever carpenter had done it: the wheels were shattered and the
+mill-house wedged into a mass of ice, forming a parapet round it.
+
+Timar stood before it in horror. His head swam as if he had seen a
+ghost. The sunken mill in the Perigrada whirlpool occurred to him. Is
+not this the ghost of that mill which comes to visit him at the end of
+his career, or perhaps to take possession of him? A ruined mill amidst
+the ice! A house so near its downfall! He went in; the door was open,
+probably from the shocks received amidst the blocks of ice. The
+machinery was all complete, so that Timar felt at any moment the white
+miller's ghost might enter and shake the meal into the sacks. On the
+roof, the beams, on every little ledge sat crows. A couple of them
+fluttered away when they saw him; the rest sat still and took no notice
+of him.
+
+Timar was dead beat. For eight hours continuously he had wandered on
+the ice; the hinderances he had met with had fatigued him yet more; his
+stomach was empty, his nerves overstrained, his limbs stiff with cold.
+He sat down exhausted on a post inside the mill.
+
+His eyes closed. And hardly had they done so before he saw himself
+standing at the bow of the "St. Barbara," with the hatchet in his hand,
+and near him the girl with the pale face.
+
+"Away from here!" he cried to her; the ship rushed down the cataract.
+The wave-curl came to meet them. "Into the cabin!" But the girl never
+stirred. Then the sea struck the ship. Timar fell from his seat: that
+woke him, and he realized his danger. If he fell asleep there, he would
+certainly freeze to death. No doubt that is the easiest way to take
+one's life; but he had work to do in the world--his hour had not struck.
+
+He went out of the mill--the fog was too thick to see anything; it was
+not day but night. The sighs which might go up to Heaven are swallowed
+in the dark clouds which will not let them pass. Was there nothing
+living near to help him in his extremity?
+
+When the mill was carried away by the ice there were mice in it: they
+waited till the ice had set; then they left the mill and found their way
+to the shore--on the thin snow-covering their tiny footsteps were
+visible. Timar followed them. The smallest of all the mammalia in this
+way conducted the wise and strong human being for a whole half hour till
+he reached the shore. Thence he easily found the road, and arrived at
+the inn where he had left the post-chaise. Mist was behind and before
+him, and no one saw whence he came. In the parlor he devoured salt
+calves'-feet which had been prepared for the wagoners, drank a glass of
+wine, had the horses put to, lay down in the carriage, and slept till
+evening. He dreamed constantly that he was on the ice; and when the
+carriage shook, he awoke under the impression that the ice had broken
+under him, and that he was sinking into fathomless depths.
+
+As he had started late from Szony, he only reached his villa at Fured
+the next evening. The fog accompanied him the whole way, so thick that
+he could not see the Platten See. They were preparing for the first
+catch of the season next day; he gave orders to his steward to have
+ready plenty of wine and malt brandy.
+
+Galambos, the old fishing overseer, predicted a large haul. One good
+sign was that the lake had frozen so early. At this time, just before
+spawning, the fish come up the gulf in shoals. It was a still better
+omen that Herr von Levetinczy had come himself. He always had luck.
+
+"I--luck!" echoed Timar to himself, sighing heavily.
+
+"I would almost venture to bet that we shall catch the king of the
+fogasch himself."
+
+"How do you mean, the king?"
+
+"It is an old fogasch which every fisherman on the lake knows, for we
+have all had him in our nets in turn; but no one can land him, for when
+he finds he is caught he works a hole at the bottom with his snout, and
+manages to get out of the net. He is a regular rogue; we have put a
+price on his head, for he destroys as many young fry as three fishermen.
+He is a huge beast, and when he swims on the surface, one would think
+he was a whale; but we'll get him to-morrow."
+
+Timar did not contradict, but sent every one away and lay down. Now he
+first felt how tired he was; and he slept a long and healthy sleep,
+undisturbed by dream-faces. When he awoke he was perfectly fresh; even
+the anxieties which occupied his mind had faded into the background as
+if they were a year distant. The small span of time between to-day and
+yesterday seemed like an eternity. It was not yet daylight, but it
+surprised him that the moon was shining through the frost-covered panes.
+He got up quickly, bathed as usual in icy water, dressed, and hurried
+out to see the Balaton.
+
+This presents, when frozen--especially the few first days--a most
+enchanting sight. The huge lake does not freeze like rivers, on which
+the ice masses gradually collect: here in one moment of calm the whole
+surface is covered with a sheet of ice like crystal; and in the morning
+a smooth unruffled mirror is outspread. Under the moonlight it is a
+looking-glass in one piece without a flaw--only the tracks are visible
+upon it, by which the inhabitants of the contiguous villages communicate
+with each other. They traverse it like measuring-lines on some great
+glass table--you see the reflection of the mountains of Tihany, with the
+double tower of the church, as distinctly as if it were real, only the
+towers are upside down.
+
+Timar stood long absorbed in this fairy picture. The fishermen woke him
+from his dream; they arrived with nets, poles, and ice-axes, and said
+the work must begin before sunrise. When all had assembled, they formed
+a circle, and the old chief intoned a pious hymn, which all repeated
+after him. Timar walked away; he could not pray. How should he address a
+psalm to Him who is omniscient, and who can not be deceived by songs and
+hymns? The music could be heard two miles away over the level surface,
+and the echoes of the shore repeated the sound. Timar walked a long way
+over the lake. At last it began to dawn, the moon paled, and the eastern
+horizon was tinted with rosy red, which caused a wonderful
+transformation in the color of the giant ice mirror, dividing it into
+two sharply contrasted halves. One side assumed a coppery-violet hue,
+while the other looked azure blue against the pink sky.
+
+In proportion to the growing light, the splendor of the sight increased;
+the purple red, the gold of the sky, were repeated in the pure
+reflection, and when the glowing ball, radiant with fiery vapor, shot up
+from the violet mists of the horizon and shone down on the glittering
+surface, it was a spectacle such as neither sea nor land can show, as if
+two suns rose at once in two real skies. The moment the sun had passed
+through the earth-fogs, its glorious rays leaped forth.
+
+The fishing-captain Galambos cried from the distance to Timar, "Now you
+will hear something. Don't be afraid! Ho! ho!"
+
+"Afraid!" thought Timar, shrugging his shoulders, incredulously. What in
+the world could frighten him now? He would soon know.
+
+When the sun first shines on the frozen lake, a wonderful sound is heard
+from the ice, as if thousands of fairy harp-strings were struck. One is
+reminded of the tones from Memnon's statue, only that it does not last
+so long. The mysterious cling-clang grows louder, as if the nixies down
+below struck their harps with all their force: then follows a droning
+and cracking, almost as loud as a shot, and on every snap follows a
+glittering fissure in the ice, which till then was clear as glass. In
+every direction the gigantic mirror is flawed till it is like a huge
+mosaic, formed of millions of tiny dice, pentagons, and many-sided
+prisms, and whose surface is of glass. This is what causes the sound. He
+who hears it for the first time finds his heart beating faster; the
+whole surface hums, rings, and sings under his feet. Some cracks are
+like thunder, and are heard miles away. The fishermen, however, proceed
+quietly with the spreading of their nets on the top of the groaning ice,
+and in the distance may be seen hay wagons, drawn slowly by four oxen
+across the surface. Man and beast are used to the ice-voices, which last
+till sunset.
+
+This remarkable phenomenon made a curious impression on Michael's mind.
+He was very sensitive to the great life of nature. In his emotional
+temperament the thought was implanted that everything living has
+consciousness--wind, storm, and lightning, the earth itself, the moon
+and stars. But who could understand what the ice under his feet was
+saying?
+
+Then suddenly was heard a fearful detonation as if a hundred cannon had
+been fired at once, or a subterranean mine had been exploded--the whole
+surface trembled and shook. The effect of this thunderous convulsion was
+fearful--the ice opened in a cleft three thousand yards long, and
+between the edges of the floes yawned a six-foot chasm. "_A Rianas!
+a Rianas!_" (the ice-cleft), cried the fishermen, and ran to the place,
+abandoning their nets.
+
+Timar stood only two paces from it. He had seen it happen. His knees
+trembled with the frightful shock, which had driven the two ice masses
+apart; he was stunned with the effect of this natural phenomenon. The
+arrival of the fishermen roused him; they told him that among the
+natives this fissure was called _Rianas_, a word unknown elsewhere. It
+was a great danger for travelers across the lake, for it was not visible
+far off, and it never froze over, because the water was always moving in
+it. It was therefore the first care of these good people, wherever a
+footpath led to the crack, to plant at both edges a pole in the ice with
+a bundle of straw at the top, so that those who approach might have
+warning. "But what is even more dangerous," said the fisherman, "is
+when, under great pressure of wind, the separated floes again unite.
+Then there is such a grinding and crushing! Very often the power of the
+wind is sufficient to raise the edges of the two floes, so that there is
+an empty space between the water and the uplifted ice. God pity those
+who go over there without knowing it, for the ice which does not touch
+the water is certain to give way under them!"
+
+It was nearly noon before they could get to work. It is capital sport,
+this fishing under the ice. In the bay, where the fishermen's experience
+tells them the shoals of fish will lie, two large holes are made in the
+ice some fifty fathoms apart, and then a square of smaller holes is
+formed, so that the two large openings form the opposite angles. The
+pieces of ice hewn from the holes are piled round their edges, so that
+passengers may be warned of the danger of falling in. When the sun
+shines on these white heaps, they look like colossal diamonds. The
+fishermen sink the huge net sideways into the large hole, spread out its
+two ends, and fasten them on poles, each three and a half fathoms in
+length. One man pushes the pole with the net under the ice, while
+another waits at the next small hole, and when the pole appears there he
+pushes it on to the third hole, and so on, while the other side of the
+square is being treated in the same way with the second pole and the
+other end of the net. Both meet at the opposite large hole. The net,
+which is sunk to the bottom with lead weights, while its top edge is
+held up by ropes over the ice, forms an absolute prison for all the fish
+within the square, which usually swarm at this season. The fogasch and
+sheath fish leave their miry bed and come up to breathe at the
+ice-holes; they have their family festivals in the winter, when
+cold-blooded animals make love. The strong ice-roof protects them from
+the foreign element, but not from its inhabitants--men.
+
+The ice now only assists in their destruction. When they discover that
+the net is pressing on them, it is already too late to find an outlet.
+They can not leap out, because the ice shuts them in, and even the
+fogasch can not as usual burrow in the mud, to get under the net, for
+the weight of his splashing companions leaves him no space to work. The
+fishermen lay hold on the rope and draw steadily. The united exertion of
+twenty men shows how great is the strain on them; it must be several
+hundred-weight. The surface of the large hole begins to be alive with
+the crowd of fishes pressing to the only outlet, there to meet their
+death. Various forms of fish-mouths peep out of the water--transparent
+jelly-fish, red tails, blue, green, and silver scales press up, and
+between them comes up sometimes a great silurian, the shark of the
+Balaton, a Wels of a hundred pounds' weight, with wide jaws and
+horse-shoe mustache; but it disappears into the depths again, as if to
+find safety there.
+
+Three fishermen dip the living crowd out from the top with large
+landing-nets, and throw the fish on to the ice without more ado, where
+old and young leap about together: thence they can not escape, for the
+holes are all surrounded with heaps of ice. It is a regular witches'
+dance--wide-mouthed carp leaping high in air, the pike in its despair
+wriggling like a snake among the gasping heaps of perch and bass. One
+conger after another is hauled out with a hook and thrown on the frozen
+surface, where, laying down his ugly head, he flaps his fellow-prisoners
+into pieces with his heavy tail. The space around the hole is all
+covered with fishes. The carp jump like water-rats, but no one
+notices--they can not get away. The lazier fishes lie in heaps on both
+sides.
+
+"I said so," murmured old Galambos; "I knew we should have a good catch.
+Wherever our gracious master shows himself, luck comes with him. If only
+we could catch the fogasch-king."
+
+"If I am not mistaken, we've got him in there," said the man who was
+next him at the rope. "There's some great beast shooting about in the
+net; I feel it in both my arms."
+
+"Ha! there he is!" cried another, whose landing-net was full of fish,
+as an enormous head like that of a white crocodile appeared above the
+water. The whole head was white; in the open mouth were two rows of
+sharp teeth like those of an alligator, but with four fangs meeting like
+a tiger's--a formidable head indeed. They may well call him the king of
+the lake, for there is no other creature in it, even of his own race,
+able to vie with him.
+
+"There he is!" screamed three others at once, but the next instant the
+brute had sunk; and now began the struggle.
+
+As if the imprisoned brute had suddenly given the word to his body-guard
+for a last and decisive combat, a dangerous tumult began inside the net.
+The skirmishing corps of pike and carp ran their heads against the
+tightly drawn meshes; the men were obliged to beat down the marine
+giants with loaded staves. The fishes became furious; the cold-blooded
+creation showed itself capable of heroic devotion, and rose against the
+invaders in pitched battle. The struggle ended in the defeat of the
+fishes. The dog-fish were knocked on the head, the net shook out many
+beautiful white fogasch and schille; but the fogasch-king would not show
+himself.
+
+"He has got away again," grumbled the old chief.
+
+"No, no; he is in the net still!" said the hauling-men, clinching their
+teeth. "I feel by my arms how he is pushing and fighting; if only he
+does not break the net."
+
+The catch was enormous already; there was no room to stand without
+treading on fishes.
+
+"There goes the net! I heard it crack!" cried the first man. Half the
+net was still in the water.
+
+"Haul!" growled the old fisherman, and all the men put out their whole
+strength. With the net came the rest of the fishes, and the fogasch-king
+was among them--a splendid specimen indeed, more than forty pounds
+weight, such as is only seen once in twenty years. He had really torn
+the net with his great head; but he had caught his prickly fins in the
+meshes, and could not get free. When they got him out he gave one of the
+men a blow with his tail which knocked him backward on the ice. But that
+was his last effort; the next moment he was dead. No one has ever held a
+living fogasch in his hand. It is thought that his lungs burst as he is
+taken out of water, and he dies instantly.
+
+The delight of the fishermen at the capture of this one was greater than
+over the whole rich haul. They had been after him for years; and every
+one knew the cannibal, for he had the bad habit of eating his own kind.
+That was why he was king. When he was opened they found a large fogasch
+in his inside, quite recently swallowed; his flesh was overlaid with a
+thick layer of yellow fat, and white as linen.
+
+"Now, honored sir, we will send him to the gracious lady," said the old
+fisherman. "We will pack him in ice, and your honor will write a letter
+and say he is the king of the fogasch. Whoever eats him will eat a
+king's flesh."
+
+Michael approved the suggestion, and assured the men they should get a
+reward. When they had finished with the fogasch, the short winter's day
+had come to a close; but only in the sky, not on the ice--there it was
+lively enough. From every village came the people with baskets and
+hampers and wooden kegs; in the kegs was wine, in the hampers pork, but
+the baskets were meant for the fish. When it came to the division of the
+spoil, a complete fair formed round the fishermen. After sunset, torches
+were made of dry osier-twigs, fires were lighted on the ice, and then
+began the bargaining. Carp and pike, conger and bass, are good enough
+for poor people. Only the fogasch and schille are sent to Vienna and
+Pesth, where they fetch high prices; all the rest go for a song--and
+even so there is room for a large profit, for in one haul they had
+caught three hundredweight of fish. This Timar is indeed a favorite of
+fortune! The unsold fish are packed in baskets and put in the ice-house,
+whence they will be sent to the Vessprimer market.
+
+Timar wanted to give a feast to all the assembled crowd. He had a
+ten-gallon cask brought on to the ice and the top knocked out; then he
+begged the captain to prepare a fish-soup, such as he only could
+concoct. Certain selected fishes, neither rich nor bony, were cut in
+pieces into a great kettle; then some of the blood, and handfuls of
+maize and vegetables, were added. The whole art lies in the proper
+proportions of the mixture, which the uninitiated never understand. Of
+this delicious mess Herr Timar himself consumed an incredible quantity.
+Where good wine flows and fish-soup is brewed, be sure there will be
+gypsies to be found. Almost before they thought of it, a brown band of
+musicians appeared, who, as soon as the cymbal-player was seated on an
+upturned basket, began to play popular airs.
+
+Where gypsies and rosy wenches and fiery youths get together, dancing
+will soon begin. In a twinkling a rustic ball was improvised on the ice,
+and rose to a frolicsome height. Round the bonfires circled the active
+couples, shouting, as they leaped, like King David, and before he knew
+where he was, Timar too, whom a handsome girl had caught by the arm, was
+drawn into the whirl. Timar danced.
+
+In the clear winter darkness the cheery fires illuminated the ice for
+many a mile. The fun lasted till midnight. Meanwhile the fishermen had
+finished carrying the fish into the ice-house. The joyous crowd
+dispersed on their homeward way, not without cheers for the feast-giver,
+the generous Baron von Levetinczy.
+
+Timar stayed till Galambos had packed the fogasch-king in a box, between
+ice and hay, and nailed the lid down. It was put into the chaise which
+had brought Timar, and the driver was told to get ready to drive for his
+life to Komorn: there is no time to lose in dispatching fish. He wrote
+himself to Timea. The letter was written in an affectionate and cheerful
+mood. He called her his dear wife, and described the picturesque scene
+on the frozen lake, and the terrible cleft in the ice. (That he had been
+so near the _Rianas_ he did not mention.) Then he gave a description of
+the fishing, with all its amusing details, and finished with an account
+of the night festival. He told her how much he had been entertained, and
+how he had quite lost his head, and even ventured on a dance with a
+pretty peasant girl on the ice.
+
+Some men write these amusing letters when they are contemplating
+suicide. When the letter was ready he took it to the driver. The old
+fisherman was there too. "Go home now, Galambos," Michael advised. "You
+must be tired."
+
+"I must go and make up the fire on the ice," said the old man, lighting
+his pipe, "for the smell of fish brings the foxes and even bears from
+all the forests round, to fish on their own account: they watch for the
+fishes, which put their heads out of the holes, and drag them out, and
+that frightens away the others."
+
+"No, no!" said Michael, "don't keep up the fire. I will keep guard--I
+often watch all night. I will go out now and then and fire my gun; that
+will send all the four-footed fishermen to the right-about." This
+satisfied Galambos, who invoked God's blessing on his master, and
+trotted away.
+
+The deaf vine-dresser, the only other inhabitant of Timar's house, had
+long been asleep. To add to his deafness, he had drunk so much good wine
+that one might be certain his night's rest would be unbroken. Timar too
+went to his room and stirred up his fire.
+
+He was not sleepy; his excited brain required no rest. But there is
+another form of repose; or is it not rest to sit near an open window and
+look out on dumb nature? The moon had not yet risen; only the stars of
+heaven shone down on the smooth ice. Their reflection was like rubies
+spread on a blight steel plate, or the lights which flicker over graves
+on Hallowe'en.
+
+He gazed before him, and did not even think. He sat without any
+sensation, either of cold or of his own pulses, neither of the outer nor
+inner world--he only wondered. This was rest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE PHANTOM.
+
+
+The stars glittered in heaven and sparkled from their frozen mirror: no
+breath disturbed the silence of the night. Then Michael heard behind him
+a voice which greeted him with "Good-evening, sir."
+
+At the door of the bedroom stood, between the two lights of the lamp and
+the fire, a figure, at sight of which Timar's blood ran cold. In the
+bitter midnight, through the dense fog, he had fled from this specter
+across the frozen Danube.
+
+The man's dress was that of a naval officer, whose uniform had, however,
+visibly suffered from storms and weather. The green cloth had altogether
+faded on the shoulders, and some buttons were gone. The shoes, too, were
+in sad condition. The soles had worn away at the tip so that the naked
+toes were visible; over one shoe a piece of carpet was tied. The wearer
+was suited to his ragged dress. A sunburned face with a neglected beard;
+in place of the shaven mustache, a few bristly hairs; across the
+forehead a black handkerchief covering one eye. This was the figure
+which had wished Timar a good-evening.
+
+"Krisstyan!" said Timar, very low.
+
+"Yes, to be sure; your dear Theodor--your dear adopted son, Theodor
+Krisstyan! How good of you to recognize me!"
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"First, I want to have that gun in my own hands, lest it should remind
+you of the words with which we parted last time--'If I ever appear
+before you again, shoot me down.' Since then I have changed my mind." So
+saying he seized Timar's gun, which leaned against the wall, threw
+himself into a chair by the fire, and laid the gun across his knee.
+"There, now we can talk quietly. I have come a long way, and I am
+dreadfully tired. My equipage left me in the lurch, and I had to travel
+part of the way on foot."
+
+"What do you want here?" said Timar.
+
+"First, a respectable suit, for what I am wearing bears signs of the
+severity of the weather." Timar went to the closet, took out his pelisse
+trimmed with astrakhan, and the rest of the suit, laid them on the
+ground between himself and Krisstyan, and pointed to them in silence.
+The vagrant held the gun in one hand, keeping his finger on the trigger,
+lifted the clothes one by one with the other, and looked them over with
+the air of a connoisseur.
+
+"Very good--but there is something wanting to this coat. What do you
+think it is? Why, of course, the purse."
+
+Timar took his pocket-book from a drawer, and threw it over. The
+vagabond caught it with one hand, opened it with the help of his teeth,
+and counted the notes inside.
+
+"We are getting on," he said, placing the pocket-book in the pocket of
+the pelisse. "Might I ask for some linen? I have worn mine for a week,
+and I fear it is hardly fit for company." Timar handed him a shirt out
+of the wardrobe. "Now, I have got far enough to proceed to the toilet.
+But first I have a few explanations to make in order to explain one or
+two things to his honor the privy councilor. But why the devil should we
+bother with titles! We are old friends, and can talk openly."
+
+Timar sat down speechless by the table.
+
+"So then, my dear fellow," said the fugitive, "you will remember that
+you sent me some years ago to Brazil. How affected I was! I adopted you
+as a father, and swore to be an honest man. But you did not send me over
+there to make an honest man of me, but in order that I might not stand
+in your way in this hemisphere. You calculated that a worthless youth,
+without a good fiber in him, is sure to come to grief in that part of
+the world. He either turns thief, or gets drowned, or somebody shoots
+him--anyway, he would be got rid of. But you intrusted me with a large
+sum of money. What was that to you? Only a stalking-horse. You reckoned
+on my robbing you, so that you might arrest and imprison me; and so it
+turned out. Once or twice I nearly did you the favor of dying of some
+native plague, but unluckily for you I pulled through. And then I
+devoted my whole energy to business; I robbed you of ten million reis.
+Ha! ha! Spanish thieves reckon in half-kreutzers, so that the sum may
+sound larger--it is not more than a hundred thousand gulden. If only you
+knew what lovely necks the women there have, you would not think it too
+much; and they will only wear real pearls. But your stupid agent, the
+Spaniard, looked at it from a different point of view; he had me
+arrested and tried, and the rascal of a judge sentenced me--just for a
+foolish boyish trick--only think, to fifteen years at the galleys! Now,
+just say, was it not barbarous?"
+
+Timar shuddered.
+
+"They took off my fine clothes, and in order that they might not lose
+me, they branded me on the arm with a hot iron." The felon threw off his
+uniform-coat as he spoke, drew his dirty shirt from his left shoulder,
+and showed Timar, with a bitter laugh, the mark still fiery red on his
+arm. "Look you, it was on your account that they branded me like a foal
+or a calf, lest I should go astray. Don't be afraid--I would not run
+away from you, even without that."
+
+With morbid curiosity Timar gazed at the burn on the miserable wretch,
+and could not turn his eyes away.
+
+"After that, they dragged me to the galleys, and riveted one of my feet
+to the bench with a ten-pound chain." With that he threw his torn shoe
+from his foot, and showed Timar a deep wound on his raw ankle. "That
+also I carry as a remembrance of you," sneered the escaped criminal.
+
+Timar's eyes rested as if fascinated on the disfigured foot.
+
+"But just think, comrade, how kind fate can be! The ways of Providence
+are wonderful by which an unhappy sufferer is led to the arms of his
+friends. On the same bench where they had been good enough to fasten me,
+sat a respectable old man with a bushy beard. He was to be my bed-fellow
+for fifteen years. It is natural to take a good look at a man who is
+wedded to you for so long a time. I stared at him awhile, and then said
+in Spanish, 'It seems to me, senor, as if I had met you before.' 'Your
+eyes do not deceive you--may you be struck blind!' replied the amiable
+individual. Then I addressed him in Turkish, 'Effendi, have you not been
+in Turkey?' 'I have been there; what's that to you?' Then I said in
+Hungarian, 'Were you not originally called Krisstyan?' The old fellow
+was much surprised, and said, 'Yes.' 'Then, I am your son Theodor, your
+dear Theodor, your only offspring!' Ha! ha! Thanks to you, friend, I
+found my father, my long lost father, over there in the New World on the
+galley-slave's bench. Providence in its wonderful way had united the
+long-divided father and son! But may I beg you to give me a flask of
+wine and something to eat, for I am thirsty and hungry, and have many
+interesting things to tell you, which will amuse you intensely."
+
+Timar did as he asked, and gave him bread and wine. The visitor sat at
+the table, took the gun between his knees, and began to eat. He devoured
+like a starved dog, and drank eagerly: at every draught he smacked his
+lips, like an epicure who has dined well. And then he went on, with his
+mouth full:
+
+"After we had got over the first joy of the unexpected meeting, my dear
+papa said, while he thumped me on the head, 'Now tell me, you
+gallows-bird, how you got here?' Naturally my filial respect had
+prevented me from addressing the like question to my parent. I told him
+that I had defrauded a Hungarian gentleman named Timar of ten million
+reis. 'And where did he steal all that?' was my old man's remark. I
+explained that he never stole--that he was a rich landowner, merchant,
+and trader. But that did not alter my father's opinion: 'All the same,
+whoever has money stole it. He who has much stole much, and he who has
+little stole little: if he did not steal it himself, his father or
+grandfather did so. There are a hundred and thirty-three ways of
+stealing, and only twenty-two of them lead to the galleys.' As I saw it
+was useless to try and change my old man's opinion, I no longer disputed
+the point. Then he asked me, 'How the devil did you come in contact with
+this Timar?'
+
+"I told him the circumstances. 'I knew this Timar when he was a poor
+skipper, and had to wash his own potatoes in the ship's galley. Once I
+was sent by the Turkish police to track an escaped pasha who had fled on
+one of Timar's ships to Hungary.' 'What was his name?' growled my
+father. 'Ali Tschorbadschi.' 'What!' he exclaimed, striking me on the
+knee. He leaped up so that I thought he would jump overboard. Ha! ha! he
+forgot the chain. . . . 'Did you know him too!' Then the old man shook
+his head and said, 'Go on; what became of Ali Tschorbadschi?' 'I
+detected him at Ogradina: I hurried on in front of the ship to Pancsova,
+where every preparation was made to arrest him. But the vessel arrived
+without the pasha. He had died on the way, and as he was not allowed
+burial on shore they had thrown the corpse overboard. All this Timar
+proved by documentary evidence.' 'And Timar was then quite poor?' 'No
+richer than myself.' 'But now he has millions?' 'Of which I was lucky
+enough to secure ten million reis.'
+
+"'Now, you fool, you see I was right--he stole his wealth. From whom? he
+killed the pasha and hid his money. I knew Ali Tschorbadschi--well. He
+was a thief too, like every other man, especially like every other rich
+man. He belonged to the 122d and 123d class of thieves. Under those
+numbers we reckon governors and treasurers. He was in charge of the
+treasures of another thief--the sultan himself, No. 133.
+
+"'Once I found out that thief No. 132, the grand vizier, wished to twist
+the treasurer's neck, to get back what he had stolen. I too was then in
+the Turkish secret police; only a sort of No. 10, simply a fraudulent
+bankrupt. I had a good idea: now if I could manage to push on into the
+ranks of the No. 50 thieves! I went to the pasha, and revealed the
+secret that he was on the list of rich men whom the minister meant to
+strangle as conspirators, in order to secure their property. What would
+he give me if I saved both him and his treasures? Ali Tschorbadschi
+promised me a quarter of his wealth when once we should both be in
+safety. "Yes," said I, "but I should like to know first how much the
+whole comes to, for I will do nothing with my eyes shut. I am a family
+man--I have a son whom I should like to settle in life."' Ha! ha! The
+old man said it so seriously that it makes me laugh now to think of it.
+'You have a son?' said the pasha to my father. 'That is well; if I
+escape I will give my only daughter to your son, and so the whole
+property will remain in the family: send me your son that I may know
+him.' By God! if I had only known then that the lovely lady with the
+white face and meeting brows was destined for me! Do you hear,
+comrade?--but I must have another drink, to drown my grief. . . . You
+will permit me to empty my glass to the health of your spouse, the
+loveliest of ladies?"
+
+The galley-slave rose with the courtesy of a prince and drank the toast.
+Then he threw himself back in his chair, and drew breath through his
+teeth like a man who has dined well. "My father agreed to the bargain.
+'We decided,' said he, 'that Ali Tschorbadschi should pack his jewels in
+a leather bag, which I was to take with me in an English ship, which
+would convey me as an unsuspected person, with all my luggage, to Malta.
+There I was to await Ali Tschorbadschi, who was to leave Stamboul as if
+on a pleasure trip, with his daughter, but without any luggage, make his
+way to the Piraeus, and thence by a Greek trader to Malta. The pasha
+showed great confidence in me. He left me alone in the treasure-chamber,
+so that his own visits there should not be noticed, and commissioned me
+to select the most precious objects and pack them in the leather bag. I
+could describe now all the jewels I chose. The antique gems, the girdles
+of pearls, rings, agraffes, a casket full of diamonds--'
+
+"'Could you not hide a few away?' asked I.
+
+"'You ass's head!' he replied, 'why should I take a single diamond and
+become thief No. 18, when it was in my power to steal them all?'
+
+"Aha! my old father was a clever fellow! 'The devil I was! I was a
+moon-calf. I ought to have done as you say. I stuffed my bag full, and
+brought it to the pasha without arousing suspicion. He put a few
+rouleaux of louis d'or among the jewels in the bag, closed it with a
+puzzle-lock, and fastened lead seals to the four corners: then he sent
+me for a _caique_, that I might get quietly away. I was back in a
+quarter of an hour. He handed me the bag with the English steel
+puzzle-lock and the four lead weights. I took it under my cloak and
+slipped through the garden door to the boat; on the way I handled the
+bag and felt the agraffes, the casket, and the rouleaux. In an hour I
+was on board an English ship, the anchor was weighed, and we left the
+Golden Horn.' 'And you never took me,' said I, with child-like reproach
+to my papa, 'who was to marry the pasha's lovely daughter?' 'You fool!'
+cried the old man, 'I didn't want you or your pasha or his lovely
+daughter; I never meant to wait for you at Malta: with the money given
+me for the journey I embarked direct for America, and the leather bag
+went with me. But, confound it! when I got to a safe place I took out my
+knife and slit the bag, and what do you think fell out of it?--copper
+buttons, rusty horse-shoes, and instead of the casket full of diamonds,
+a stone inkstand--in the rouleaux, instead of louis d'or were heavy
+paras, the sort the corporals use for paying the private soldiers. The
+rascally thief had robbed me! In all my 133 classes this had never
+occurred; there was no number for it. While I went for the boat, the
+thief had prepared another identical bag filled with all sorts of
+rubbish, and sent me with it across the ocean, while he fled in another
+direction with the real jewels. But look you, there is justice not only
+on land but by water, for the great thief ran into the net of a still
+greater, who robbed and murdered him.' And this tip-top thief, who
+deprived the other of his property and his life was--you--brother of my
+heart--Michael Timar Levetinczy, the man of gold!" said the fugitive, as
+he rose and bowed mockingly.
+
+Timar answered not a word.
+
+"And now we will talk in a different way," said Theodor Krisstyan, "but
+still at three paces' distance, and without forgetting that the gun is
+aimed at you."
+
+Timar looked indifferently down the muzzle of the gun. He had himself
+loaded it with ball.
+
+"This discovery considerably increased the sufferings of my slavery,"
+continued the adventurer. "Instead of living comfortably on Ali's
+treasure, I had to drag out a miserable existence on the hateful sea.
+And why? Because Michael Timar had smuggled the treasures which were
+intended for me from under my nose, and also the girl I should have
+married, the fair little savage who had grown up for me on the desolate
+island. Of her too Timar must needs defraud me, for he could not be
+happy with the wife whose father he had killed; he must needs have a
+mistress as well. Fy! Herr Timar. So it was for that you sent me to the
+galleys for fifteen years."
+
+Blow after blow fell on Timar's shame-stricken face. No doubt many of
+these accusations were false--they were not all true. He had not
+"killed" Timea's father, had not "stolen" his treasures; he had not
+"defrauded" him of Noemi, nor "got rid of" Theodor, but on the whole he
+could not entirely deny the charges. He had played a false game, and
+thereby got mixed up in every sort of crime.
+
+The deserter continued: "When we were lying in the Gulf of Rio Grande do
+Sul, yellow fever broke out on board our ship. My father caught it, and
+lay in the death agony beside me on the bench--no one removed him. It is
+not the custom; a galley-slave must die where he is chained. This was a
+horrible situation for me. The old man shivered with ague the whole day,
+he swore and gnashed his teeth. He was unbearable with his continual
+curses on the Blessed Virgin, which he always uttered in Hungarian. Why
+did he not swear in Spanish? It sounds so fine, and then the rest would
+have understood; and why should he swear at the Madonna? I could not put
+up with it--there were plenty of other saints he could have maligned; it
+is not the thing for an educated man, a gentleman, to speak ill of the
+ladies. This caused a coolness between me and my old man. Not his deadly
+fever, which I might catch, merely his insufferable language. Strong as
+were the ties which united father and son, I decided to sever them, and
+succeeded in escaping in company with two others. We filed our chains at
+night, struck down the overseer, who had seen our proceedings, and threw
+him into the sea; then we launched the small boat and set off. It was
+very rough and our boat was swamped; one of my companions could not
+swim, and got drowned; the other could swim, but not so well as the
+shark which pursued him. I only knew by his shrieks that the sea-devil
+had caught him and bitten him in two. I swam ashore. How I obtained this
+naval uniform and the arms and money requisite for my passage, I will
+tell you some other day over a glass of wine, when we have plenty of
+time. But now let us conclude our business; for you know we have to
+settle our account together."
+
+The outcast put his hand up to the handkerchief over his eye. The slowly
+healing wound seemed to be an unpleasant reminder. The severe cold to
+which he had been exposed had not done it any good.
+
+"I tried to get to Komorn, where I knew you had your permanent home, and
+went to visit you. They said in your office that you had not yet come
+from abroad; what country you were in no one knew. Very well, thought I,
+then I will wait till he returns. To pass the time, I went to the cafes,
+and made acquaintance with officers to whom my uniform was an
+introduction, and then I visited the theaters. There I saw that
+exquisitely beautiful lady with the marble face and the melancholy
+eyes--you can guess whom I mean. With her was always another fair
+lady--oh! what murderous eyes that one has; she is a corsair in
+petticoats. I began to feel my way. Once I contrived to get a seat close
+by the wicked angel, and paid her attentions which she received
+graciously: when I asked leave to wait upon her, she referred to her
+mistress, on whom everything depended. I spoke admiringly of that
+awe-inspiring Madonna, and remarked that I had known her family in
+Turkey, and that she resembled her mother very strongly.
+
+"'What,' said the lovely lady, 'you knew her mother? she died very
+young.' 'I have only seen her portrait,' said I. 'It portrayed just such
+a pale, sad face, surrounded with a double row of diamonds of great
+value.' 'You too have seen the splendid ornament then?' said she. 'My
+mistress showed it me when Herr Timar von Levetinczy gave it to her.'"
+
+Timar clinched his fists in impotent rage.
+
+"Aha! now we know all about it," continued the adventurer, turning to
+the tortured man with a cruel smile. "You gave Ali Tschorbadschi's
+daughter the treasures you stole from her father. In that case the rest
+of the jewels must have fallen into your hands, for they were with the
+picture. You can no longer deny it. . . . And now we are on a level: we
+need not scruple to talk openly."
+
+Timar sat there paralyzed before the man into whose hands fate had
+delivered him. It was unnecessary to keep his gun from him: Timar had
+not strength to stand.
+
+"You kept me waiting a long time, my friend, and I began to get anxious
+about you; besides, my pocket-money was coming to an end. My rich aunt's
+remittances, the advices from my steward, my bankers, and the admiralty,
+for which I daily inquired at the post-office, failed to arrive--for
+excellent reasons. You were highly respected wherever I went: an upright
+merchant, a great genius, a benefactor to the poor. Your exemplary
+private life was described; you were the model husband; wives would burn
+your body when you died and dose their husbands with your ashes. Ha!
+ha!"
+
+Timar turned away his face.
+
+"But perhaps I weary you? Well, I am coming to business. One day I was
+in a bad temper, because you would not come home, and when some one
+mentioned you at the officers' cafe, I could not refrain from casting a
+doubt on the possibility of one man's uniting so many good qualities.
+Then a ruffian replied with a slap in the face: I confess I was not
+prepared for this; but my cheek deserved it--why had it not kept my
+tongue quiet? I was as sorry as a dog that I ventured to let fall a
+disrespectful word, and took the lesson to heart. I will never slander
+you again. If the box on the ear had been all, I should not so much
+have cared--I'm used to that; but the insolent fellow forced me to go
+out with him, because I had attacked your good name. As I soon learned,
+this madman was a lover of your Madonna when she was a girl, and now he
+was fighting for the honor of the Madonna's husband. That is a piece of
+good luck which could only happen to you, you man of gold. But I owe you
+no thanks for your good fortune; again it was I who had to pay for it: I
+got a cut over the head right down to the eyebrow. Look!"
+
+He thrust aside the silken bandage, under which was visible a long scar
+with a dirty plaster over it, the inflamed skin showing that the wound
+was not healed. Timar looked at it with a shudder.
+
+Krisstyan drew the bandage over it again, and said with cynical humor,
+"That is _souvenir_ number three which your friendship has bestowed on
+me. Well, there is all the more standing to my credit. I could not
+remain any longer in Komorn after this; but 'Stay,' said I--'I know
+where to have him; I know where the foreign country is whither he goes
+in the interest of his fatherland: it is not in any unknown land--it is
+none other than the ownerless island. I will follow him there.'"
+
+At this Timar cried furiously, "What! you went to the island?" He
+trembled with rage and fear.
+
+"Don't jump up, young friend!" said the felon, soothingly. "This gun is
+loaded; if you move it might go off, and I could not answer for the
+consequences. Besides, calm yourself. It did you no harm for me to go
+there, only myself; I always have to pay the piper when you go to the
+ball--it's as certain as if it were one of the ten commandments--you
+dance and I pay. You get into my bed, and it's me that they throw out of
+window. Why did I go to the ownerless island? only to look for you. But
+when I got there you had left, and I found no one but Noemi and a little
+brat . . . oh, fy, friend Michael! who would have thought it of you?
+. . . but hush! we mustn't tell anybody. . . . Dodi he's called, isn't
+he? A fine, forward boy; but how frightened he was of me, because I had
+my eye bound up! It is true that Noemi was startled too, for the two
+were quite alone on the island. It grieved me to hear that good Mamma
+Therese was dead; she was so kind, she would have received me
+differently. Just fancy--this Noemi would not even let me come in and
+sit down: she said she was afraid of me, and Dodi still more so, because
+they were alone. 'That's just why I have come, that you may have a man
+in the house to protect you.' By the bye, what potion have you given the
+girl that she has grown so pretty? Really she has become a splendid
+creature--it makes one's heart laugh to look at her; I never stopped
+telling her so. Then she tried to make ugly faces at me; I began to jest
+with her. 'Is it right,' said I, 'to make grimaces at your bridegroom?'
+That did not answer; she called me a vagrant, and turned me out. 'All
+right,' I said, 'I would go and take her with me,' and then I put my arm
+round her waist." Timar's eyes flashed fire. "Sit still, comrade; _you_
+need not jump up, but I had to, for the girl fetched me a box on the
+ear--just about twice as hard as the one I got from the major. To be
+accurate, I must acknowledge that she chose the other cheek, so as to
+make it equal."
+
+Timar's face brightened.
+
+"Then I did get angry. I am well known to be an admirer of the fair sex,
+but this insult demanded satisfaction. 'Well, I will just show you that
+you will come with me, if you don't allow me to stop here. You will
+follow me of your own accord'--and with that I took little Dodi's hand
+to lead him away.
+
+"Devil!" cried Timar.
+
+"Gently, gently, we can't both speak at once; your turn will come, and
+then you can talk as much as you like--but hear me out. I was not quite
+right when I said there were only two on the island--there were three;
+that confounded beast Almira was there. The dog had been lying under the
+bed, and seemed not to notice me, but when the child began to cry, the
+great brute flew out at me without being asked. I had my eye on her,
+drew out my pistol quickly, and shot her through the body."
+
+"Murderer!" groaned Timar.
+
+"Nonsense! If I had no more on my conscience than that dog's blood! and
+the beast was not even crippled by the ball; she made nothing of it. She
+only flew at me more furiously than ever, bit me in the arm, threw me
+down, and held me so that I could not move: in vain I tried to get at my
+second pistol--she held my arm in her teeth like a tiger. At last I
+entreated Noemi to set me free; she tried to get the beast away, but the
+raging fiend only sent her teeth deeper in. Then Noemi said, 'Ask the
+child--the dog will obey him.' I begged Dodi's help. The boy is
+kind-hearted; he had pity on me, and put his arms round Almira; then the
+dog let go, and the child kissed her." A tear ran down Timar's cheek.
+"So I was provided with another memento," said Theodor Krisstyan, as he
+pushed his dirty, blood-stained shirt-sleeve down from his shoulder.
+"Look at the mark of the dog's bite; all three fangs went to the bone:
+that is memorial number four, for which I have to thank you. I bear on
+my skin a whole album of wounds which I owe to you: the brand, the
+chain-sore, the sword-cut, and the dog's bite--all are remembrances of
+your friendship. And now say, what shall I do to you that our account
+may be balanced?"
+
+As the escaped prisoner said to Timar, "And now say what shall I do to
+you?" he stood entirely undressed before him, and Timar had to look at
+all the horrible wounds with which he was scarred from head to foot
+. . . and naked, too, the wretch's soul stood there, and it too was full
+of loathsome wounds inflicted by Timar's hand.
+
+The man knew that Timar had played a bold game with him; and now he was
+at his mercy: even physically he had not power to cope with him; his
+limbs were as feeble as those of a man overcome with sleep. The sight of
+the scarred form had the unnerving effect of an evil spell. The
+adventurer knew it, and no longer took precautions against him. Rising
+from his chair, he leaned the gun in the corner and spoke over his
+shoulder to Timar, "Now, then, for the toilet; while I dress you you can
+think over your answer to my question, what I shall do with you."
+
+With that he tossed his ragged clothes one after another into the fire,
+where they flared crackling up, so that the flame rushed up the chimney.
+Then he began to put on Timar's clothes in a leisurely way. On the
+mantel-piece he found Timar's watch: this he put in his
+waistcoat-pocket, and inserted Timar's studs in his shirt-front, finding
+time to arrange his hair in the glass. When he was quite ready, he threw
+up his head, and placed himself before the fire with outstretched legs
+and folded arms. "Well; now then, comrade."
+
+Timar began to speak. "What do you require of me?"
+
+"Aha! at last I have loosed your tongue! How if I were to say an eye for
+an eye, a tooth for a tooth? go and have a gallows-brand burned on you;
+wander by land and sea among sharks, Indians, jaguars, rattlesnakes, and
+secret police; be cut over the head by your wife's lover, be bitten by
+your mistress's dog--and then we shall begin to share alike. But you see
+I am not so hard on you; I won't talk about my wounds--a dog's bones
+soon mend--I will be kinder than you. I must disappear for a time; for I
+am wanted not only because of your money--my escape from the galleys,
+and the overseer I threw overboard, are not yet forgiven. Your money
+will do me no good till I get rid of the burn and the scar on the chin.
+I shall get rid of the one with vitriol, and for the other mineral baths
+will be of service. I am not afraid of your putting my pursuers on my
+track--you are too wise for that; but foresight is the mother of wisdom.
+In spite of our close friendship, it might happen that some one should
+give me a knock on the head in the dark, or some convenient brigands
+might shoot me, or a friendly glass of wine might send me the same road
+as Ali Tschorbadschi. No, my dear fellow, I would not even venture to
+ask you to fill me this wine-flask again, not even if you drank first. I
+shall always be on my guard."
+
+"What do you want then?"
+
+"How formally you talk! my company is too low for you. But first let us
+ask what the noble lord wants on his side. Probably that I should hold
+my tongue over all the secrets I have got hold of. The noble lord would
+perhaps not be disinclined to settle on me in return an income of a
+hundred thousand francs in government stock."
+
+Timar without hesitation replied, "Yes."
+
+The vagabond laughed. "I require no such heavy sacrifice, your honor. I
+told you money was no use to me at present. Such a gallows-bird, with so
+many bad habits, would be arrested anywhere, and then what good should I
+get of my income? What I want is, as I said, rest, and a place where I
+can remain hidden for a considerable time, and where I should meanwhile
+enjoy a comfortable, easy life; that is reasonable enough surely?"
+
+With that he took the gun up again, sat down on the chair, and held the
+gun before him in both hands, so as to be ready to fire at any moment.
+"I do not ask the hundred thousand francs at present; I only demand--the
+ownerless island."
+
+Timar felt as if struck by lightning; these words roused him from his
+stupor. "What do you want with it?"
+
+"Illustrissimo! See now. The air of the island is excellent, and most
+necessary to the re-establishment of my health, which suffered much in
+South America. I have heard from that dear departed saint, Frau Therese,
+that healing herbs grow there which are good for wounds; in botany
+books I have read that they will even make boiled flesh sound again.
+Then, too, I long for a quiet, contemplative life after all my trials;
+after the sybarite existence I have led, I long for the rustic joys of
+the golden age. Give me the ownerless island, excellency--serene
+highness."
+
+The fellow begged so mockingly with the gun in his hand.
+
+"You are a fool," said Timar, whom these jeers enraged, and then he
+turned his chair round and showed Theodor his back.
+
+"Oh, don't turn your back on me, noble sir--senor, eccelenza, my lord,
+durchlaucht, mynheer, pan volkompzsnye, monsieur, gospodin, effendi. In
+what language shall I address you, to persuade you to grant the poor
+fugitive's request?"
+
+This unseemly mockery did not do the assailant any good, but lessened
+the effect of the spell which lay on Timar, who began to recover from
+his stupefaction, and to recollect that he had to deal with a condemned
+man who was really in mortal danger. He spoke angrily. "Have done! Name
+any sum--you shall have it! if you want an island, go and buy one in the
+Greek Archipelago, or in China; if you are afraid of pursuit, go to
+Rome, Naples, or Switzerland: give yourself out as a marquis, get on
+terms with the Camorra, and no one will touch you; I will give you
+money--but you won't get the island."
+
+"Indeed? Your lordship is going to talk to me like that?" cried
+Krisstyan. "The drowning man has risen again, and is going to swim
+ashore--now just wait till I push you in again. You think to yourself,
+'Very well, booby, tell any one what you know; the first result will be
+that you will be arrested, clapped into jail, and forgotten there like a
+dog; you will soon be too dumb to tell anything more--or something else
+may happen.' I see what you think. But don't mistake the man you have to
+deal with. Now learn that you are tied hand and foot, and that you lie
+at my mercy like a miser gagged and bound by robbers, who must bear
+thorns thrust under his nails, his beard plucked out hair by hair, and
+boiling oil dropped on his skin, till he tells where his money is
+hidden. I shall do the same with you; and when you can bear no more,
+then cry 'enough.'"
+
+Timar listened with the deadly interest of a man on the rack to the
+words of the galley-slave. "Till now I have told not a soul what I know,
+on my honor. Except the few words which escaped me at Komorn, I have
+never spoken of you, and what I said then was neither fish nor flesh;
+but all I know of you is written down--I have it here in my pocket, and
+in four different documents, with different addresses. One is a
+denunciation to the Turkish Government, in which I reveal what Ali
+Tschorbadschi took from Stamboul, and what, as the confiscated property
+of a traitor, is due to the sultan. Even the jewels described to me by
+my father are enumerated there, piece by piece, with the account of
+their present possessors, and of how they came by them. In the second
+letter I inform the Viennese authorities of your murder of the pasha,
+and your theft of his property. My third letter is directed to Frau von
+Levetinczy at Komorn. I tell her what you did to her father, and how you
+came into possession of her mother's picture and the other treasures you
+presented to her. But I have told her something else besides--the place
+you go to when you are not at home--the secret joys of the ownerless
+island--the intrigue with another woman--the deceit you practice on her.
+I tell her about Noemi and little Dodi. Now shall I drive another thorn
+under your nails?"
+
+Timar's breast heaved with heavy panting sobs.
+
+"Well, as you say nothing, we will proceed," said the cruel torturer.
+"The fourth letter is to Noemi. I tell her in it all she does not yet
+know: that you have a lawful wife out in the world--that you are a
+gentleman who has dishonored her, and can never be her husband; who only
+sacrificed her to his base lusts, and who is a murderer besides. What!
+you don't ask for mercy yet? Do you see those two towers? That is
+Tihany; there live pious monks, for it is a monastery; there I shall
+deposit the four letters, and beg the prior, if I do not return within a
+week, to forward them to their addresses. It would be no use for you to
+put me out of the way, for the letters would still reach their
+destination, and then you could not stay any longer in this country. You
+can not go home; for even if your wife forgave you her father's death,
+she would never forgive you Noemi. Justice would make inquiries, and
+then you would have to let out how you came by your riches.
+
+"The Turkish Government would bring you to trial, and the Austrian too.
+The whole world would soon learn to know you, and those who looked on
+you as a man of gold, would see in you the very scum of humanity. You
+could not even take refuge in the ownerless island, for there Noemi
+would shut the door against you; she is a proud woman, and her love
+would turn to hatred. No, there is nothing left to you but to fly from
+the world, like me; change your name, like me; slink secretly from town
+to town, and tremble when steps approach your door, like me. Now, shall
+I go or stay?"
+
+"Stay!" groaned the sufferer.
+
+"Oho! you give in!" cried the rascal; "then let us sit down again.
+First, will you give me the ownerless island?"
+
+A feeble subterfuge occurred to Timar's heart, which he used to gain
+time. "But the island belongs to Noemi, not to me."
+
+"A very true observation; but my request is not altered by that fact.
+The island belongs to Noemi, but Noemi belongs to you."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Timar, wildly.
+
+"Now don't roll your eyes; don't you know you are fast bound? Let us
+take it all as it comes. The thing can be arranged. You write a letter
+to Noemi, which I will carry; meanwhile that fierce black brute will
+have died, and I can land safely. In the letter you will take leave of
+her; you will say that you cannot marry her, because unavoidable family
+complications stand in the way; that you have a wife, the beautiful
+Timea, whom Noemi will remember: you will write that you have taken care
+to provide for her suitably; that you have recalled her former betrothed
+from the New World, who is a fine handsome fellow, and ready to marry
+her and shut his eyes to the past. You will promise to provide for them
+both handsomely in the future, and give them your blessing and good
+wishes for a happy life together!"
+
+"You want Noemi too?"
+
+"Why, what the devil! Do you think I want your stupid island in order
+to live there like Robinson Crusoe? I shall want something to sweeten my
+life in that desert. Over there I have reveled in a surfeit of embraces
+from black-eyed, sable-tressed women; now, after seeing Noemi's golden
+locks and blue eyes, I am quite mad about her. And then she struck me in
+the face, and drove me away; I must have payment for that. Is there a
+nobler revenge than to give a kiss for a blow? I will be the master of
+the refractory witch; that is my fancy. And by what right do you deny
+her to me? Am I not Noemi's betrothed, who would make her my legal wife
+and bring her to honor, while you can never marry her, and can only make
+her unhappy?"
+
+The man drops boiling oil on Timar's heart: he wrung his hands in agony.
+
+"Will you write to Noemi, or shall I take these four letters over to the
+cloister?"
+
+In Timar's torture the words escaped him, "Oh, my little Dodi!"
+
+The fugitive laughed with a knavish grin. "I'll be his father, a very
+good sort of father--"
+
+At that instant Michael sprung from his seat, threw himself with a leap
+like a jaguar's on the convict, seized him by both arms before he could
+use his weapon, dragged him forward, gave him a blow in the back and a
+shove which sent him flying through the open door on to the landing,
+tumbling over and over: there he got up with difficulty, still giddy
+with his fall, stumbled over the first step, and limped groaning and
+swearing down the stairs. All below was darkness and silence. The only
+man besides these two in this winter castle was deaf, and sleeping off a
+carouse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+WHAT HAS THE MOON TO TELL?
+
+
+Timar could have killed the man--he had him in his power; and Timar felt
+a madman's strength in his muscles: yet he did not kill him. Timar said
+to himself, the man is right; destiny must be fulfilled. Michael was not
+a miscreant who conceals one crime by another, but of that nobler sort
+which is willing to atone for past sin. He stepped out on to the
+balcony, and looked on with folded arms while the man left the castle
+and limped away toward the gate of the court-yard. The moon rose
+meanwhile over the Somogy hills, and illuminated the front of the
+castle.
+
+The dark figure on the balcony would be a good mark for any one who
+wished to aim at it. Theodor Krisstyan walked underneath, and looked up:
+the half-closed wound on the brow had reopened in his fall, and was
+bleeding; the blood ran down over his face. Perhaps Timar had gone
+outside just because he expected the furious man would shoot him out of
+revenge. But he only stood still in front of him, and began to mutter
+words without sound--just like Athalie. How well those two would suit!
+Krisstyan only spoke by movements of the mouth. He limped, for he had
+hurt one foot in his fall. He struck his left hand on the gun, which he
+still held, then seemed to say "No," shook his fist at Timar, and
+threatened him by gestures. This pantomime meant, "Not thus will I
+destroy you; I have another fate designed for you; just wait!" Timar
+looked after him as he left the yard, following him with his eyes along
+the snowy path as far as the ice-covered lake. He gazed after him till
+he could only see a black speck moving in the direction of the double
+towers on the high peak.
+
+Storm-clouds were rising over the Zala range. Timar saw them not. Round
+the Platten See a hurricane often arises in calm weather without the
+slightest warning; the fishermen who hear from afar the rustling of the
+leaves have not time to get back to the shore: the bursting storm drives
+a snow-cloud before it, from which tiny crystals drift down, sharp as
+needle-points. The cloud only covered half of the great panorama,
+wrapping the Tihany side, the peninsula with its rocky ridge and its
+gloomy church, in darkness, while the eastern level lay bright in the
+moonlight. The storm roared howling through the tall forests of the
+Aracs valley; the vanes on the ancient castle groaned like the cries of
+accursed spirits; and as the furious wind swept across the ice, it drew
+from the frozen floes such an unearthly music that one could fancy one
+saw the spirits which uttered it chasing each other, and yelling in
+their flight.
+
+Amidst the ghostly music it seemed to Timar as if he heard through the
+howling of the tempest an awful scream in the distance, such as only
+human lips can utter--a cry of anguish, despair, blasphemy, which would
+rouse the Seven Sleepers and make the stars shudder. After a few seconds
+it came again, but shorter and more feeble, and then only the music of
+the storm was audible.
+
+That ceased too. The snow-shower swept across the landscape; the storm
+held only one snow-cloud; the trees were still; the tones of the wind
+moaning over the ice-flats faded away in the distance with dying chords;
+the sky cleared, and all was once more silence. Timar's heart too was at
+rest; he had finished his career. No road lay open to him. He could go
+neither forward nor back; he had fled as long as life was possible; and
+now the abyss yawned in front of him which had no other shore. His whole
+life passed before him like a dream, and he knew that at last he was
+about to awake from it. His first desire for the possession of the rich
+and lovely girl was the origin of all these events; his life hung on it
+like the enigma of the Sphinx. When the riddle was solved, the Sphinx
+would fall into the abyss.
+
+How could he live on, unmasked before the world, unmasked before Timea,
+and before Noemi? Thrown down from the pedestal on which he had stood
+for years at home and abroad, under the halo of his sovereign's favor
+and his compatriots' veneration! How could he ever look again on the
+woman who had defended him in his rival's presence with such holy
+sorrow, when she learned that he was the very opposite of all she had
+admired in her husband, and that his whole life was a lie? And how could
+he meet Noemi when she knew he was Timea's husband? or dare to take Dodi
+on his lap? Nowhere, nowhere in the wide world was there a place where
+he could hide. It was as that man had said: there was nothing for him
+but to turn his back on the civilized world--like him; to change his
+name--like him; to sneak like a thief from one town to another--like
+him; to wander homeless on the face of the earth. . . .
+
+But Timar knew of another place; there is the moon's icy
+countenance--what did Noemi say? There live those who cast their lives
+away because they have ceased to know desire; they go where nothing
+exists: if that man seeks out Noemi on the ownerless island and brings
+despair on the lonely creature by his news, she will follow him
+there--to the frozen star.
+
+Timar felt so tranquilized by this reflection that he had the
+self-control to direct his telescope on to the waning moon, on whose
+sphere shining spaces alternated with large, crescent-shaped shadows,
+and there came to choose a monstrous ravine, and say, "That shall be my
+dwelling; there will I wait for Noemi!"
+
+Then he went back to his room. The adventurer's burned clothes still
+glowed red on the hearth, the ashes showing the texture of the charred
+cloth. Timar laid fresh logs on, so that the fire might destroy every
+remnant. Then he threw on his cloak and left the house. He bent his
+steps toward the Platten See. The moon lighted the great ice-floes, an
+icy sun shining over a world of ice. . . . "I come, I come!" cried
+Timar; "I shall soon know what you have to tell me--if you have called
+me I shall be there." He went straight to the great chasm. The poles
+erected by the good fishermen, the sticks with straw bundles on the top,
+warned every wanderer from afar to keep away--Timar sought them out.
+When he reached one of these danger-signals he stopped, took off his
+hat, and looked up to heaven.
+
+Years had passed away since last he prayed. In this dark hour the Great
+Being came to his mind who teaches the stars their courses and rides on
+the storm, and who has created only one creature which defies its
+Maker--man. In this hour he was impelled to uplift his soul to Him.
+"Eternal Might, I fly from Thee, yet to Thee I come. I come not to ask
+for mercy: Thou didst lead me, but I fled from Thy ways; Thou didst warn
+me, yet I would not hear. Now, with blind obedience, I depart for the
+hereafter: my soul will rest there in cold annihilation. I must atone
+for making so many miserable who have been mine and have loved me; take
+them into Thy protection, Thou Eternal Justice! I have sinned, and I
+give myself up to death and damnation--they are not guilty--I alone.
+Thou Everlasting Justice, who hast brought me to this, be just also to
+them. Protect, console these feeble women, the helpless child, and give
+me alone over to Thine avenging angels--I am judged and I am silent."
+
+He knelt down. Between the edges of the fissure the waves of the Balaton
+plashed softly. The gloomy lake often moans even in a dead calm, and
+when its surface is ice-bound it swells up in the clefts and roars like
+the sea. Timar bent down to kiss the waves, as one kisses his mother
+before he starts for a long journey--as one kisses the pistol before
+blowing out one's brains with it.
+
+And as he bent down to the water, a human head rose from the depths in
+front of him. Over the forehead of the upturned face was a black band
+covering the right eye; the other eye, bloodshot, glassy, and cold as
+stone, glared at him; through the open mouth the water ran out and in
+. . . the phantom sunk again.
+
+Timar sprung, half crazed, from his kneeling position, and stared after
+the ghostly apparition: it was as if it called on him to follow. Between
+the frozen margins the living water splashed. And again in the distance
+resounded the organ-tones which are the precursors of the nocturnal
+storm: amidst the howling of the approaching gale were heard the shrieks
+and groans of the miserable spirits, and higher and higher swelled the
+ghostly song. Again the whole frozen mass gave out the unearthly music,
+like the strings of myriad harps, until the sound grew into a booming
+roar, as though the lightning lured an awful, deafening melody from the
+resounding waves. The voices of the storm bellowed below the surface.
+With a frightful crash the floes were set in motion, and the tremendous
+pressure of the atmosphere closed once more the chasm in the ice.
+
+Timar fell trembling on his face upon the still quivering glassy mirror.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+WHO COMES?
+
+
+The hoar-frost had turned the ownerless island into a silver wood;
+continuous mists had hung every twig with flowers of rime. Then came
+bright sunny days; they melted the rime into ice: every branch received
+a crystal cloak, as if the whole island were of glass. This glistening
+load bent down the boughs like those of a weeping-willow, and when the
+wind stirred the wood, the icicles struck together and rang like the
+silver bells in the fairy stories. Over the thickly frosted paths only
+one track led from the house, and that went to Therese's resting-place.
+This was Noemi's daily walk with little Dodi. Now there were only those
+two to go there; the third, Almira, lay at home at the last gasp: the
+ball had touched a vital part, and there was no hope of cure.
+
+It was evening. Noemi lighted her lamp, brought out her wheel, and began
+to spin. Little Dodi sat by her and played at water-mills, holding a
+straw against the revolving wheel.
+
+"Mother," said the boy suddenly, "bend down a little; I want to whisper
+that Almira may not hear."
+
+"Say it aloud; she won't understand, Dodi."
+
+"Oh, yes, she understands what we say--she knows everything. Tell me,
+will Almira die?"
+
+"Yes, my little one."
+
+"And who will take care of us when Almira is dead?"
+
+"God."
+
+"Is God strong?"
+
+"Stronger than all the world."
+
+"More than father?"
+
+"Your father gets his strength from God."
+
+"And the wicked man with his eye bandaged, why does God make him strong?
+I am so afraid of his coming again; he will take me away."
+
+"Don't be afraid; I won't let you go."
+
+"If he kills us both?"
+
+"Then we shall both go to heaven."
+
+"And Almira too?"
+
+"No; not Almira."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because she is an animal."
+
+"And my little bird?"
+
+"No; not Louise."
+
+"Oh, don't say that; she can fly up to heaven better than we can."
+
+"She can not fly as high as heaven."
+
+"Then there are no animals and no birds there? Well, then, I'd rather
+stop down here with papa and my little Louise."
+
+"Yes, stay, my sweetheart!"
+
+"If papa were here he would kill the wicked man?"
+
+"The bad man would run away from him."
+
+"But when is father coming back?"
+
+"This winter."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"He said so."
+
+"Is everything true that father says? Does he never tell a story?"
+
+"No, my boy; what he says is always true."
+
+"But it is winter now."
+
+"He will soon be here."
+
+"If only Almira does not die before he comes!"
+
+The boy got up from his stool and went to the groaning dog.
+
+"Dear Almira, do not die! Don't leave us alone here! See, now, you can't
+go with us to heaven; you can only be with us here. Do stay. I will
+build you a lovely house like the one father built for me, and give you
+half of all I have. Lay your head on my lap and look at me. Don't be
+frightened; I won't let the naughty man come and shoot you again. If I
+hear him coming, I will fasten the door-latch; and if he puts his hand
+in, I will cut it off with my ax. I will take care of you, Almira."
+
+The wise creature raised its beautiful eyes to the boy, and wagged its
+tail gently on the ground; then it sighed, as if understanding all that
+was said. Noemi stopped spinning, leaned her head on her hand, and
+looked into the flickering lamp.
+
+When that dreadful man went raging away, he had yelled in at the window,
+"I shall come back and tell you what the man is whom you love." That he
+should come again was threat enough, but what did he mean? Who can
+Michael be? Can he be other than he seems? What will that horrid phantom
+have to tell, which has turned up from the antipodes? Oh, why had
+Michael not done as Noemi said--if only three feet of earth lay between
+them!
+
+Noemi was no feeble woman; she had grown up in the desert and learned to
+trust in herself; the enervating influences of the outer world had never
+affected her mind. The wolf knows how to defend her lair against the
+dogs with claws and teeth. Since that fearful visit she always carried
+Michael's knife in her bosom, and--it is keen and sharp. At night she
+fastened a beam across the door.
+
+As fate wills. If one comes first, she will be a happy and blessed
+woman; if the other, she will be a murderess--a child of wrath.
+
+"Almira, what is the matter?"
+
+The poor beast, struggling with death, raised its head painfully from
+the child's lap, and began to sniff the air with outstretched neck. It
+whined and growled uneasily, but the sound was more like a hoarse
+rattle. Whether its tones were of pleasure or anger, it was hard to
+distinguish. The animal scented the approach of a visitor. Who is it? Is
+it the good or the bad man? the life-giver or the murderer? Out there in
+the silence of the night the sound of steps was heard on the frosty
+grass. Who comes?
+
+Almira gasped heavily, struggling to get up, but fell back. She tried to
+bark, but could not. Noemi sprung from her seat, felt with her right
+hand under her shawl, and seized the handle of the knife.
+
+All three listened silently--Noemi, Dodi, and the dog. The steps come
+quickly nearer. Ah, now all three recognize them!
+
+"Papa!" cried Dodi, laughing.
+
+Noemi hastened to cut the rope which fastened the door-bolt with her
+sharp knife, and Almira raised herself on her fore-feet and suddenly
+gave utterance to a bark.
+
+The next moment Michael had Noemi and Dodi in his arms. Almira crawled
+to her beloved master, raised her head to him once again, licked his
+hand, then fell back dead.
+
+"Will you never leave us again?" faltered Noemi.
+
+"Don't leave us alone any more," begged little Dodi.
+
+Michael pressed both to his breast, and his tears streamed over his dear
+ones. "Never--never--never!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE CORPSE.
+
+
+With the last days of March the hard winter of this year came to an end.
+Balmy south winds and rain softened the ice of the Platten See, which
+broke up during a strong north wind, and drove over to the Somogy shore.
+
+Among the floating ice the fishermen found a body. It was already in an
+advanced stage of decomposition, and the features were unrecognizable;
+but yet the identity of the individual could be ascertained with the
+greatest certainty. These were the mortal remains of Michael Timar
+Levetinczy, who disappeared so suddenly after the memorable capture of
+the fogasch-king, and for whose return those at home had waited so long.
+On the body could be recognized clothes belonging to that gentleman--his
+astrakhan pelisse, his studs, and his initials marked on the shirt. His
+repeater was in the waistcoat-pocket, with his full name enameled on the
+case. But the strongest proof was afforded by the pocket-book, which was
+crammed with bank-notes, whose number could still be deciphered, and on
+which Timea's hand had embroidered "Faith, Hope, Charity;" while in the
+side-pocket were four other letters tied together, but the writing was
+completely obliterated, as they had been four months exposed to the
+action of water. About the same time, the fishermen at Fured found Herr
+von Levetinczy's gun entangled in a net. Now all was explained.
+
+Old Galambos remembered all about it. The gracious master had said to
+him that if foxes and wolves came down on to the lake in the night, he
+would go out with his gun and have a shot at them.
+
+Many others then remembered that on that night a snow-storm had passed
+across the lake, which only lasted a short time. No doubt, to this was
+due the accident to the noble lord. The snow blew in his face; he did
+not notice the ice-rift, fell in, and was sucked under.
+
+When Timea received the first news of the event, she went at once to
+Siosok, and was present in person at the judicial inquiry. When she saw
+her husband's clothes she fainted away, and could only with difficulty
+he brought back to consciousness; but she held her ground, she was
+present when the disfigured remains were laid in the leaden coffin, and
+specially inquired for the ring of betrothal, which, however, was
+lost--the fingers were gone.
+
+Timea had the dear relics brought to Komorn, and interred in the
+splendid family vault, with all the pomp which is permissible by the
+rites of the Protestant Church, to which the deceased had belonged. On
+the black velvet coffin, name and age were marked with silver nails.
+Senators and deputies carried him to the hearse. On the coffin lay his
+knightly sword, with a laurel crown, and the decorations of the
+Hungarian Order of St. Stephen, the Italian Order of San Maurizio, and
+the Brazilian Annunciata star.
+
+The pall-bearers were Hungarian counts, and on each side of the hearse
+walked the dignitaries of the city. Before it marched the
+school-children, the guilds with their banners, then the national guard
+in uniform and with muffled drums: behind came the ladies of the town
+all in black, and among them the mourning widow, with the white face and
+with weeping eyes. The celebrities of the country and the capital, the
+military authorities, even his majesty had sent a representative to the
+funeral of the venerated man. With them went a countless multitude of
+people, and amidst the tolling of all the bells the procession moved
+through the town. And every bell and every tongue proclaimed that a man
+was gone whose like would never be seen again: a benefactor of the
+people, a pillar of the nation, a faithful husband, and the founder of
+many a generous endowment.
+
+The "Man of Gold" was carried to his grave. Women, men, and children
+followed him through the whole town to the distant cemetery. Athalie too
+was in the procession. When they bore the coffin down to the open grave,
+the nearest friends, relations, and admirers of the deeply mourned
+followed him into the vault.
+
+Among them was Major Katschuka; in the crowd on the narrow steps he came
+in contact with Timea and--with Athalie. When they came up again,
+Athalie threw herself on the bier and prayed to be buried too: luckily
+Herr Johann Fabula was there, and he raised the beautiful lady from the
+ground, bore her back in his arms to the daylight, and explained to the
+astonished crowd how much the young lady had loved the dear deceased,
+who had been a second father to her.
+
+After the lapse of a few months a splendid monument was erected on which
+might be read this inscription in letters of gold:--
+
+     HERE LIES THE HIGH AND NOBLE LORD, MICHAEL TIMAR
+     LEVETINCZY.
+
+     Privy Councilor, President of Committees, Knight of the
+     Orders of St. Stephen, St. Maurice, and the Annunciata.
+     The great Patriot, the True Christian, the Exemplary
+     Husband, the Father of the Poor, Guardian of the
+     Orphan, Supporter of Schools, a Pillar of the Church.
+
+     Regretted by all who knew him, eternally mourned by his
+
+     FAITHFUL WIFE TIMEA.
+
+On the granite pedestal stands a marble statue of a woman bearing a
+funeral urn. Every one says this statue is a faithful likeness of Timea.
+
+And Timea goes every day to the burial-ground to deck the grass with
+fresh wreaths, and to water the flowers which smell so sweetly within
+the railings of the tomb: she waters them with showers of cold
+water--and burning tears.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Theodor Krisstyan could never have dreamed that he would be so highly
+honored after his death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+DODI'S LETTER.
+
+
+A year and a half passed away since Michael came home to the ownerless
+island. He had not left it for a single day.
+
+Great events had occurred during this interval. Dodi had learned to
+write. What joy when the little dunce made his first attempt with chalk
+on a board: the letters are dictated to him--"write _l_ and _o_, and
+then pronounce them both together." He was surprised that that meant
+_lo_ (Hungarian for horse), and yet he had not drawn a horse. A year
+later he could address a birthday letter to his mother in beautiful
+copper-plate on white paper--it was a greater achievement than
+Cleopatra's Needle, covered with hieroglyphics.
+
+When Dodi's first letter was fluttering in Noemi's hand, she said, with
+a tear in her eye, to Michael, "He will write like you."
+
+"Where have you seen my handwriting?" asked Michael, in surprise.
+
+"In the copies you set Dodi, to begin with; and then too in the contract
+by which you gave us the island. Have you forgotten?"
+
+"Yes; it is so long ago."
+
+"And do you not write to any one now?"
+
+"No one."
+
+"You have not left the island for a year and a half; have you nothing to
+do now out in the world?"
+
+"No. And I shall never have anything to do there again."
+
+"What will become of your business then?"
+
+"Would you like to know?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. The thought troubles me that a clever man like you should
+be shut up here in the narrow bounds of this island, and only because
+you love us: if you have no other reason for staying here always except
+your great love for us, it pains me."
+
+"It is well, Noemi. I will tell you then who I was out there in the
+world, what I did there, and why I stay here. You shall know all: when
+you have put the boy to bed, come to me on the veranda and I will tell
+you everything. You will shudder and wonder over what you will hear; but
+in the end you will forgive me, as God forgave me when He sent me here."
+
+After supper Noemi put Dodi to bed, and then came out to Michael, sat
+beside him on the bench, and leaned on his breast. The full moon shone
+down on them between the leaves: it was now no longer the ghostly star,
+the ice-paradise of suicides, but a kind acquaintance and friend. And
+then Michael told Noemi all that had befallen him out in the world.
+
+The sudden death of the mysterious passenger, the sinking of the ship
+and the concealed treasures: how he had married Timea. He described her
+sorrow and her suffering; he spoke of Timea to Noemi as of a saint; and
+when he described faithfully the nocturnal scene when he had watched
+Timea from his hiding-place, and how the woman had defended her husband
+against evil report, against her own beloved, and against her own heart,
+how Noemi sobbed and how her tears flowed for Timea!
+
+And then Michael described to her what he had suffered in the fearful
+situation from which he could not free himself, having on one side the
+ties of his worldly position, his riches, and Timea's fidelity; while
+his love, his happiness, and every aspiration of his soul drew him in
+another direction. How sweetly Noemi consoled him with her soft kisses!
+. . .
+
+When, finally, he told her of the awful night in which the adventurer
+appeared at his lonely castle, of how despair had led him to the brink
+of the grave, and how, as he looked down into the waves, instead of his
+own face mirrored in the water, the dead face of his enemy emerged from
+the depths, and God's hand suddenly closed before his eyes the opening
+of the icy tomb--oh! how passionately Noemi pressed him to her breast,
+as if to hold him back from falling into the grave.
+
+"Now you know what I have left behind in the world, and what I have
+found here. Can you forgive me for what you have suffered and for all my
+offenses against you?" Noemi's tears and kisses replied.
+
+The confession had lasted long: the short summer's night was over, and
+it was daylight when Michael concluded the story of his life.
+
+He was forgiven. "My guilt is obliterated," said Michael. "Timea had
+recovered her freedom and her wealth. The vagabond had on my clothes and
+carried my pocket-book away with him: they will bury his body as if it
+were mine, and Timea is a widow. I have given you my soul, and you have
+accepted it. Now all is equal."
+
+Noemi took Michael's arm and led him into the room where the boy was
+asleep. He awoke under their kisses, opened his eyes, and when he saw
+that it was morning, he knelt up in his little bed, and with folded
+hands offered his morning prayer: "Dear Lord, bless my good father and
+my dear mother!"
+
+"All is forgiven, Michael! . . . One angel prays for you beside your
+bed, the other at your grave, that you may be happy."
+
+Noemi dressed little Dodi, and then her eyes rested thoughtfully on
+Michael. She wanted time to realize all she had heard from him, but
+women have quick perceptions.
+
+Suddenly Noemi said to her husband, "Michael, you have still one duty to
+fulfill in the world."
+
+"What duty, and to whom?"
+
+"You owe Timea the secret that other woman revealed to you."
+
+"What secret?"
+
+"About the door which leads into her room from the secret passage. You
+must tell her of it. Some one might get in to her when she is asleep and
+alone."
+
+"But no one knows of this secret passage except Athalie."
+
+"Is that not enough?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Michael, you little know us women. You don't know what Athalie is, but
+I can guess. My tears flowed for Timea, because she is so wretched,
+because she does not love you, and you are mine; but if she felt for you
+what she feels for that other man, and if you spurned me for her sake,
+as that man did Athalie, then may God keep me from ever seeing her
+asleep and in my power!"
+
+"Noemi, you frighten me."
+
+"That is what women are. Did you never know it. Hasten to reveal this
+secret to Timea. I want her to be happy."
+
+Michael kissed Noemi on the brow. "You darling child! I dare not write
+to Timea, for she would recognize my writing; and then she could not be
+my widow, nor I your husband returned from the dead, and ascended into
+the paradise of your love."
+
+"Then I will write to her."
+
+"No, no, no! I won't allow it. I have heaped gold and diamonds upon her,
+but she shall not have a word from you; that is one of my own treasures.
+I brought Noemi nothing of Timea's, and I will not give Timea anything
+of Noemi's. You shall not write her a word."
+
+"Well, then," said Noemi, smiling, "I know another who can write to
+Timea. Dodi shall write the letter."
+
+Timar burst out laughing. There was a world of humor, of child-like
+simplicity, happy pride, and deep emotion in the idea. Little Dodi will
+write to warn Timea of her danger. Dodi to Timea! . . . Timar smiled
+with tears in his eyes. But Noemi was in earnest; she wrote the copy,
+and Dodi wrote the important lines on ruled paper, without a mistake. Of
+course he had no idea what he was writing. Noemi gave him a lovely
+violet ink, a decoction of marsh-mallow, and sealed the letter with
+white wax; and as there was no seal in the house, nor even a coin which
+could serve for one, Dodi caught a pretty golden-green beetle, and
+stuck it on the wax, instead of a coat of arms. The letter was given to
+the fruit-dealer to take to the post.
+
+Little Dodi's letter went off to Timea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+"YOU STUPID CREATURE!"
+
+
+The lovely widow was in the deepest mourning. She went nowhere, and
+received no visitors.
+
+More than a year had passed since her husband's burial.
+
+Timea had another name in the calendar--Susanna. Her first name came
+from her mother, who was a Greek; but the second she had received at her
+baptism. This she used when she had to sign documents, and St. Susanna's
+day was considered her _fete_.
+
+In provincial towns the _fete_-days are scrupulously kept. Relations and
+friends come without invitation, as a matter of course, to visit the
+person whose _fete_ it is, and meet with a hospitable reception. Some
+noble families, however, have adopted the custom of sending invitations
+to these family-parties, by which it is made evident that those who do
+not receive cards may keep their congratulations to themselves.
+
+There are two St. Susannas in the year. Timea chose the one whose _fete_
+fell in winter, because then her husband used to be at home, and
+invitations were sent out a week beforehand. Of the other name no notice
+was taken. Timea was not in the calendar of Komorn, nor even in the
+national Pesth calendar, and at that time there were no others in the
+province; so he who wanted to know Timea's own _fete_-day must search
+far and wide.
+
+It fell in the merry month of May. At that season Herr Timar would have
+been long away on his journeys; nevertheless, Timea received every May a
+lovely bouquet of white roses on the day of St. Timea. Who sent it was
+not stated; it came by post, packed in a box.
+
+As long as Timar lived, Herr Katschuka had invariably received
+invitations to the Sunday receptions, which he as regularly answered by
+depositing his card at the door: he never came to the parties. This year
+the _fete_-day party had been omitted, as the faithful Susanna was in
+mourning. On the morning of the lovely May day on which Timea's
+beautiful white-rose bouquet usually arrived, a servant in mourning
+livery brought a letter to Katschuka. On opening the envelope the major
+found a printed invitation-card inside, which bore the name, not of
+Susanna, but of Timea Levetinczy, and had reference to that very day.
+Herr Katschuka was puzzled. What a curious notion of Timea! To draw the
+attention of all Komorn to the fact that Susanna, a good Calvinist, was
+keeping the day of the Greek saint Timea, and the more because she only
+sent out her invitations the same morning! It was an outrageous breach
+of etiquette. Herr Katschuka felt that this time he must accept. In the
+evening he took care not to be among the earliest arrivals. The time
+named was half past eight; he waited till half past nine, and then went.
+As he laid aside his cloak and sword in the anteroom, he asked the
+servant whether many visitors had arrived. The servant said no one had
+come yet. The major was startled. Probably the other guests had taken
+the shortness of the invitation badly, and decided not to appear; and he
+was confirmed in this idea when, on entering the saloon, he found the
+chandeliers lighted and all the rooms brilliantly illuminated--a sign
+that a large assembly was expected. The servant informed him that his
+mistress was in the inner room.
+
+"Who is with her?"
+
+"She is alone. Fraulein Athalie has gone with her mamma to Herr Fabula's
+house--there is a great fish-dinner there."
+
+Herr Katschuka did not know what to think: not only were there no other
+guests, but even the people of the house had left the mistress alone.
+Timea awaited him in her own sitting-room.
+
+And for this grand party, amid all this splendor, Timea was dressed
+entirely in black. She celebrated her _fete_-day in mourning: amid the
+radiance of the golden lusters and the silver candelabra a black
+mourning-dress, which, however, was not suited to the face of its
+wearer. On her lips hovered a charming smile, and a soft color lay on
+her cheeks. She received her single guest most cordially. "Oh, how late
+you are," she said, as she gave him her hand.
+
+The major pressed upon it a respectful kiss. "On the contrary, I fear I
+am the first."
+
+"Not at all. All I invited have already arrived."
+
+"Where?" asked the major, in astonishment.
+
+"In the dining-room--they are at table, and only waiting for you." With
+these words she took the arm of the wondering man, led him to the
+folding-doors, and threw them open; and then, indeed, the major knew not
+what to think. The dining-room was brilliantly lighted with wax candles;
+a long table was spread with places for eleven, and the same number of
+chairs were placed round it, but no one was there--not a single
+creature. But as the major threw a glance round he began to comprehend,
+and the clearer the riddle grew, the more his eyes were dimmed with
+tears. Before each of nine of the places stood a white-rose bouquet
+under a glass shade--the last of freshly gathered flowers; the roses of
+the others were dry, faded, and yellow.
+
+"Look, they are all there which greeted me on Timea's _fete_-day year
+after year--these are my birthday guests. There are nine of them. Will
+you be the tenth? Then all whom I have invited will have assembled."
+
+The major, in speechless delight, pressed the lovely hand to his lips.
+"My poor roses--"
+
+Timea did not refuse him that privilege--possibly she would have allowed
+even more; but the widow's cap stood in the way, and Timea felt it.
+
+"Do you want me to exchange this cap for another?"
+
+"From that day I shall begin to live again."
+
+"Let us set apart for it my own _fete_-day, which every one knows."
+
+"Oh, but that is so far off."
+
+"Don't be alarmed, there is a St. Susanna in the summer; we will keep
+her day."
+
+"But that is distant too."
+
+"It is not an eternity to wait till then. Have you not learned patience?
+Remember, I want time to get used to happiness--it does not come all at
+once; and we can see each other every day till then--at first for a
+minute, and then for two, and then forever. Is it agreed?"
+
+The major could not refuse, she begged so sweetly.
+
+"And now the banquet is over," whispered Timea; "the other guests are
+going to sleep, and you must go home too. But wait a moment--I will give
+you back a word from your last birthday congratulations." She took from
+the fresh rose-bouquet one bud, touched it hardly perceptibly with her
+lips, and placed it in the major's button-hole; but he pressed the rose,
+this "one word," to his lips and kissed it. . . .
+
+When the major had gone, and looked up from the street at the windows of
+the Levetinczy house, all was dark. He was the last to leave.
+
+Timea learned gradually the art of growing used to hope and
+happiness--she had a good teacher. Thenceforward, Herr Katschuka came
+every day to the house; but the major did not keep to the prescribed
+arithmetical progression--first one minute, then two. The wedding was
+fixed for the day of St. Susanna, in August. Athalie too, it appeared,
+had resigned herself to her fate. Herr Fabula's wife was dead, and she
+accepted his hand; it is not unusual for a pretty girl to give herself
+to a rich widower--one knows how he treats his wife, and one runs less
+risk in taking him than some young dandy who has not yet sown his wild
+oats. Heaven bless their union!
+
+Timea proposed to give Athalie, as a dowry, the sum which Michael had
+offered her, and which she had refused. Every one thought she was trying
+to become a suitable wife for Herr Fabula. But Katschuka was not
+deceived; he saw through her black heart. He knew what he had done to
+Athalie, and the reckoning she had against Timea, and destiny never
+leaves such a score unsettled. Have you forgotten, you lovely white
+woman, that this other girl was mistress here when you came; that she
+was a rich and honored bride, wooed by men and envied by women? And from
+the moment when the water cast you on these shores, misfortune followed
+her--she was made a beggar, brought to shame, spurned by her betrothed.
+It was not your fault, but it was owing to you--you brought bad luck; it
+sat on your forehead, between your meeting eyebrows, and brought the
+ship to destruction, and the house in which you set foot; it ruins those
+who injure you, as well as those who set you free. And you are not
+afraid to sleep under the same roof with Athalie--this roof!
+
+Since Katschuka came to the house, Athalie had controlled herself, and
+treated even her mother kindly. She made tea for her which Frau Sophie
+liked, especially with plenty of rum in it--she made it herself; and was
+very good to the servants too, treating them also to tea, which, for the
+men-servants, almost might have been called punch; they could not say
+enough for her. Frau Sophie guessed the reason of all this
+kindness--those servile natures always look for a reason if they receive
+a favor, and repay it with suspicion.
+
+"My daughter is currying favor with me, that I may go with her when she
+marries; she knows nothing of housekeeping--she can't even make
+milk-soup. That's why I am 'Dear mamma' all over the place, and get tea
+every night; as if I did not know what is in my daughter Athalie's
+mind!" She will soon know even more.
+
+Athalie carried her submissiveness to servility, in the presence of
+Timea and the major. Neither by look nor manner did she betray her
+former claims. When he came, she opened the door with a smile, showed
+him in to Timea, politely took part in the conversation, and, when she
+left the room, she might be heard singing next door. She had adopted the
+manners of a maid-servant.
+
+Once Timea asked her to play a duet, on which Athalie said, modestly,
+that she had forgotten her music--the only instrument she could play on
+now was the chopping-board. Since the great catastrophe, Athalie only
+played the piano when she knew no one could hear.
+
+Do not your nerves shudder when this woman looks you in the face? does
+not your blood run cold when she stoops to kiss your hand? when she
+laces your boots, is it not as if a snake wound round your foot? and
+when she fills your glass, does it not occur to you to look what may be
+in it? No, no. Timea has no suspicions; she is so kind, she treats
+Athalie like a sister; she has prepared a dowry of a hundred thousand
+gulden, and told Athalie so. She wished to make her happy, and thought
+she could console her for the loss of her first betrothed. And why
+should she not think so? Athalie herself refused him. When Timar offered
+her the money she said, "I will never have anything to do with the man
+again, either in this world or the next." Timea did not know of the
+visit Athalie had paid by night to her betrothed, when she was sent away
+by him alone and rejected; and Timea did not know that a woman will give
+up the man she hates to another woman, even less willingly than the one
+she loves; that a woman's hate is only love turned to poison, but still
+remains love. Katschuka, however, well remembered that nocturnal
+meeting; and therefore he trembled for Timea, but dared not tell her so.
+
+Only one day was wanting to the _fete_ of St. Susanna. Timea had
+gradually laid aside her mourning, as if it was hard to separate from it
+entirely, and as if she wished to learn gladness slowly. First she
+allowed white lace at her neck; then she changed black for dark gray,
+and silk for wool; then white stripes appeared in the gray; and at last
+only the cap remained of the mourning for Michael Levetinczy. This also
+will disappear on the _fete_-day; the beautiful Valenciennes cap of the
+young wife is already made, and must be tried on.
+
+An unlucky fit of vanity induced Timea to wait to do this till the major
+arrived. For a young widow the lace cap is what the orange-blossoms are
+to a girl. But the major was late because the white-rose bouquet was
+late in arriving from Vienna: this was the second _fete_-day bouquet in
+one year. A whole shoal of letters and notes of congratulation had
+arrived for Timea, who had many acquaintances far and near. Timea had
+not opened a single one; they lay in a heap in a silver basket on the
+table, many of them directed by children, for Timea had a hundred and
+forty god-children in the town among the orphan boys and girls. She
+would have enjoyed these naive letters, but her thoughts were otherwise
+occupied.
+
+"Look what a comical one this is!" said Athalie, taking up one of the
+letters; "instead of a seal, there is a beetle stuck on the wax."
+
+"And what curious ink it is!" remarked Timea. "Put it with the
+others--we will read it to-morrow."
+
+Some secret voice whispered to Timea that she had better read it to-day.
+It was Dodi's letter which was put aside.
+
+But see, here comes the major; then all the hundred and forty
+god-children and their letters were forgotten, and Timea ran to meet
+him. Nine years ago the fortunate bridegroom had brought a splendid
+red-rose bouquet to another bride.
+
+And she too was present; and possibly the great mirror into which
+Athalie had cast her last glance on her bridal dress was the same which
+now stood there.
+
+Timea took the lovely white bouquet from the major's hand, put it in a
+splendid Sevres vase, and whispered to him, "Now I will give you
+something: it will never be yours, but always mine, and yet it is a
+present for you." The pretty enigma issued from its box--it was the lace
+cap.
+
+"Oh, how charming!" cried the major, taking it in his hand. "Shall I try
+it on you?" The major's words died on his lips--he looked at Athalie.
+
+Timea stood before the glass with childish pleasure, and took off her
+widow's cap; then she grew grave, put it to her lips and kissed it,
+while she said low and brokenly, "Poor Michael!"--and so she laid aside
+the last token of her widowhood.
+
+Herr Katschuka was holding the white cap.
+
+"Give it me that I may try it on."
+
+"Can I help you?"
+
+The hair was then dressed very high, so that Timea required assistance.
+
+"You don't know how; Athalie will be so good."
+
+Timea spoke quite simply, but the major shuddered at the pallor which
+overflowed Athalie's face at the words: he remembered how Athalie had
+once said to Timea, "Come and put on my bridal veil!" And perhaps even
+she had not then thought what venom lay in the words. Athalie came to
+Timea to help her with the cap, which required to be fastened with pins
+on both sides. Athalie's hand trembled--and she pricked Timea's head
+with one of the pins.
+
+"Oh, you stupid creature!" cried Timea, jerking her head aside.
+
+The same words, before the same man!
+
+Timea did not notice, but Herr Katschuka saw what a flash flew over
+Athalie's face--a volcanic outburst of diabolical rage, a glow of
+flaming spite, a dark cloud of purple shame; the muscles quivered as if
+the face was a nest of snakes stirred up by a rod. What murderous eyes!
+What compressed lips! What a bottomless depth of passion in that single
+look. Timea regretted her hasty word almost before it had passed her
+lips, and hastened to atone for it. "Don't be angry, dear 'Thaly; I
+forgot myself," she said, turning to kiss her. "You'll forgive me--you
+are not angry?"
+
+The next moment Athalie was as humble as a maid who has done some
+damage, and began in a flattering tone, "Oh, my dear pretty Timea, don't
+_you_ be angry; I would not hurt your dear little head for the world.
+How sweet you look in your cap, just like a fairy!" And she kissed
+Timea's shoulder.
+
+A shudder ran through the major's nerves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ATHALIE.
+
+
+The eve of the _fete_-day was also the eve of the wedding--a night of
+excitement. The bride and bridegroom were sitting together in Timea's
+room--they had so much to talk about.
+
+What do they say? Flowers only can understand flower-speech, the stars
+the language of the spheres, one pillar of Memnon answers another, the
+dead comprehend the Walkyrie, sleep-walkers the speech of the
+moon--lovers only the language of love. And he who has ever known this
+sacred emotion will not profane it, but guard it like a secret of the
+confessional. Neither the wise king in his marvelous song, nor Ovid in
+his love elegies, nor Hafiz in his ardent lays, nor Heine in his poems,
+nor Petofi in his "Pearls of Love," can describe it--it remains one of
+the secrets of eternity.
+
+At the back of the house was a noisy company--all the household. This
+had been a busy day with preparations for the morrow's feast--a culinary
+campaign; the press of work had lasted till late at night: then, when
+all had been roasted and iced according to orders, Frau Sophie found
+time to show herself liberal. She called together her staff, and
+bestowed upon them all the good things which had suffered during the
+heat of the fray--for this was unavoidable: what ought to have risen had
+sunk into a pancake; what ought to have jellied had melted into soup;
+here a cake had stuck to the mold and would not turn out whole; there a
+scrap, a cutting, a ham-bone, a piece of hare, a drumstick of pheasant
+remained over. All which could not be sent up to table was left as a
+rare tidbit for the servants, and they could boast of having tasted
+everything before the gentry were served.
+
+But where was Athalie?
+
+The whispering lovers thought she was with her mother, amusing herself
+in the kitchen. There, they thought she was of course with the bridal
+pair, and enjoying the bliss of being a silent witness of their
+happiness--or perhaps no one thought of her at all. And yet it might
+have been well if some one had interrupted themselves to ask, "Where is
+Athalie?"
+
+She sat alone in the room where she had seen Timea for the first time.
+The old furniture had long been replaced by new; only one embroidered
+stool remained as a remembrance. Athalie was sitting on it when Timar
+entered, in company with the pale maiden. There sat Katschuka, at work
+on Athalie's portrait, over which, while he gazed at Timea, his pencil
+drew a long line. Athalie sat alone there now. The portrait had long ago
+gone to the lumber-room; but Athalie seems to see it still, and the
+young lieutenant who begged her with his flattering tongue to smile a
+little and not to look so haughty.
+
+The room was dark; only the moon shone in, but it would soon go down
+behind the gable of the tall church of St. Andrew.
+
+Athalie reviewed the horrid dream called life. There were wealth, pride,
+and happiness in it: flatterers had called her the prettiest girl in
+Komorn, the queen, and pretended to adore her; then came a child by
+chance into the house--a ridiculous creature, a lifeless shadow, a cold
+doll, made to be an object of ridicule, to pass the time away by pushing
+it about. And only two years later, this vagrant, this white phantom,
+this reptile, was mistress of the house, and conquered hearts, turning a
+shipping-clerk, by the magic of her marble face, into his master's
+powerful enemy, into a millionaire, and causing the betrothed bridegroom
+to be false to his troth.
+
+What a wedding-day was that! The bride, recovering from her swoon, found
+herself lying alone on the ground. And when splendor and homage were at
+an end, she longed still to be loved--loved in secret and in
+concealment. This too was denied her.
+
+What a memory was that!--the path she had trodden to the house of her
+former lover and back again, twice in the darkness! her vain expectation
+next day! how she had counted the strokes of the clock, amidst the noise
+of the auction! And he never came! Then long years of painful
+dissimulation, of disguised humiliation! There was only one person who
+understood her--who knew that the balm of her heart was to see her rival
+share her passion, and fade away under it.
+
+And the one man who knew to his cost what Athalie really was--the only
+hinderance to Timea's happiness, the finder of the philosopher's stone
+which exercises everywhere a malevolent spell--that one man finds his
+death by a single false step on the ice!
+
+And then happiness comes back to the house, and no one is miserable but
+herself. In many a sleepless night the bitter cup had filled drop by
+drop up to the brim; only one was wanting to make it overflow; and that
+last drop was the insulting word, "You stupid creature!" To be scolded
+like a maid, humbled in his presence! Athalie's limbs shook with fever.
+What was now going on in the house? They were preparing for the morrow's
+wedding. In the boudoir whispered the betrothed couple; from the
+kitchen, even through all the doors, came the noise of the merry-making
+servants.
+
+But Athalie never heard the cheerful din: she heard only the whisper.
+. . . She had something to do during the night. . . . There was no light
+in the room; but the moon shone in, and gave light enough to open a box
+and read the names of the poisons inside it--the unfailing drugs of an
+Eastern poisoner. Athalie chose among them, and smiled to herself. What
+a good jest it would be if to-morrow, at the moment of drinking some
+toast, the words should die on the lips of the feasting guests! if each
+saw the face of his neighbor turn yellow and green; if they all sprung
+up crying for help, and began a demoniac dance, fit to make the devil
+laugh; if the bride's lovely face petrified into real marble, and the
+proud bridegroom made grimaces like a skull!
+
+Ping! . . . A string gone in the piano! Athalie started so that she
+dropped what she held, and her hands twitched convulsively. It was only
+a string, coward! Are you so weak? She put back the poisons in her box,
+leaving out only one, and that not a deadly poison, only a
+sleeping-draught. The first idea had not satisfied her; that triumph
+would not suffice: it would not be sufficient revenge for "You stupid
+creature!" The tiger cares not for a corpse, he must have warm blood.
+Some one will have to take poison, but that is only herself--a poison
+not to be bought at the chemist's: it lies in the eye of St. George's
+dragon. She slipped noiselessly out to go to the hiding-place whence a
+view of Timea's room could be obtained. The sweet murmurs and the
+caressing looks of the lovers will be the poison she must absorb in
+order to be fully prepared.
+
+The major was about to take leave, and held Timea's hand in his. Her
+cheeks were so rosy! Was any more deadly poison needed? They did not
+speak of love, and yet no third person had a right to listen. The
+bridegroom asked questions allowed to no one else. "Do you sleep alone
+here?" he asked, with tender curiosity, lifting the silken hangings of
+the bed.
+
+"Yes, since I became a widow."
+
+"(And before too," whispered Athalie, behind the dragon.)
+
+The bridegroom, availing himself of his privileges, pursued his
+researches in the bride's room.
+
+"Where does this door lead to?"
+
+"Into an anteroom where my lady visitors take off their cloaks; you came
+that way when you visited me the first time."
+
+"And the other little door?"
+
+"Oh, never mind that--it only leads to my dressing-room."
+
+"Has it no exit?"
+
+"None; the water comes by a pipe from the kitchen, and flows away by a
+tap to the basement."
+
+"And this third door?"
+
+"You know that is the corridor by which you reach the principal
+entrance."
+
+"And where are the servants at night?"
+
+"The females sleep near the kitchen, and the men in the basement. Over
+my bed hang two bell-ropes, of which one goes to the women's room and
+the other to the men's."
+
+"There is no one in the adjoining room?"
+
+"There Sister Athalie and Mamma Sophie sleep."
+
+"Frau Sophie too?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure. You want to know everything. To-morrow it will all be
+differently arranged."
+
+("To-morrow?")
+
+"And do you lock the door when you go to bed?"
+
+"Never. Why should I? All my servants love me, and are trustworthy; the
+front door is barred, and I am safe here."
+
+"Is there nowhere a secret entrance to this room?"
+
+"Ha! ha! You seem to take my house for a mysterious Venetian palace!"
+
+("Is it your house? Did you build it?")
+
+"Do, to please me, lock all your doors before you go to bed."
+
+("He seems to guess what we shall all be dreaming of to-night.")
+
+Timea smiled, and smoothed away the frown from the bridegroom's grave
+face.
+
+"Well, then, for your sake I will lock all my doors to-night."
+
+("See that they are secure," whispered the dragon.)
+
+Then followed a tender embrace and a long, long kiss.
+
+"Do you pray, my beloved?"
+
+"No; for the good God in whom I believe watches ever."
+
+("How if He slept to-day?")
+
+"Forgive me, dearest Timea; skepticism does not become a woman. Her
+adornment is piety; leave the rest to men. Pray to-night."
+
+"You know I was a Moslem, and was never taught to pray."
+
+"But now you are a Christian, and our prayers are beautiful. Take your
+prayer-book to-night."
+
+"Yes, for your sake I will learn to pray."
+
+The major found in the book of devotion Timar had once given his wife,
+the "prayer for brides."
+
+"I will learn it by heart to-night."
+
+"Yes, do so--do so!"
+
+Timea read it aloud. Athalie felt a diabolical rage in her heart. The
+man will be discovering the secret in the wall; he will keep Timea up
+praying all night. Curses, curses on the prayer-book!
+
+When the major left the anteroom, Athalie was already there. Timea
+called from her room to light the major to the door, thinking there
+would be a servant there as usual; but to-day, as we know, they were
+engaged in anticipating the morrow's feast. Athalie took the candle
+which stood outside, and lighted the major along the dark passage. The
+happy bridegroom had no eyes for any other woman's face--he saw only
+Timea, and thought it was the maid-servant who opened the door for him.
+He wished to be generous, and pressed a silver thaler into Athalie's
+hand; then he started as he recognized the voice.
+
+"I kiss your hand, kind sir."
+
+"Is it you, fraulein? A thousand pardons! I did not recognize you in the
+darkness."
+
+"No consequence, Herr Major."
+
+"Pardon my blindness, and give me back the insulting present, I beg."
+
+Athalie drew back with a mocking bow, hiding the hand which held the
+thaler behind her. "I will give it you back to-morrow--leave it with me
+till then; I have fairly earned it."
+
+Herr Katschuka swore at his stupidity. The inexplicable load he felt on
+his spirits seemed to have redoubled in weight. When he reached the
+street, he felt it impossible to go home, but went toward the main guard
+and said to the officer on duty, "My friend, I invite you to my wedding
+to-morrow; be so good as to let me share your watch to-night--let us go
+the rounds together."
+
+In the servants' hall there was great fun. As the major had rung for the
+porter when he left, the mistress was known to be alone, and her maid
+went up to ask for orders. Timea thought she was the one who had shown
+the major out, and told her to go to bed--she would undress herself; so
+the maid went back to the others.
+
+"If only we had a drop of punch now," said the porter, thrusting the
+door-key into his pocket.
+
+As if by magic, the door opened, and in came Fraulein Athalie, bearing a
+tray of steaming glasses, which clinked cheerfully together. "Long live
+our dear young lady!" cried every one. Athalie set the tray on the table
+with a smile. Among the glasses stood a basin full of sugar well rubbed
+over with orange rind, which made it yellow and aromatic. Frau Sophie
+liked her tea made in that way, with plenty of rum and orange-sugar.
+"Are you not going to join us?" she asked her daughter.
+
+"Thanks; I had my tea with our gracious lady. My head aches, and I shall
+go to bed." She wished her mother good-night, and told the servants to
+go to bed in good time, as they must get up early next day. They fell
+eagerly on the punch, and found it perfectly delicious. Only Frau Sophie
+did not like it. When she had tasted the first spoonful, she turned up
+her nose. "This tastes just like the poppy-syrup that bad nurses give
+the wakeful babies at night." It was so unpleasant to her that she could
+not take any more, but gave it to the cook's boy, who had never tasted
+anything so good before. She said she was tired with her day's work, and
+conjured the household not to oversleep themselves, and to take care no
+cat got into the larder; then she said good-night, and followed Athalie.
+
+When she entered their bedroom, Athalie was already in bed. The curtains
+were drawn; she knew Athalie's way of turning her back to the room and
+putting her head under the clothes. She hastened to get into bed.
+
+But she could not get rid of the taste of that single spoonful of punch,
+which spoiled her enjoyment of the whole supper. After she had put out
+the light, she leaned on her elbow and looked toward the figure in the
+other bed. She looked, till at last her eyes closed and she fell asleep.
+Her dreams carried her back to the servants' hall. She seemed to see
+them all asleep there--the coachman stretched on the long bench, the
+footman with his head on the table, the groom on the ground, using an
+overturned chair as a pillow, the cook on the settle, the house-maid on
+the hearth, and the cook's boy under the table. Before each his empty
+glass; she alone had not drunk hers. She dreamed that Athalie, with bare
+feet and in her night-dress, crept up behind her and said in her ear,
+"Why don't you drink your punch, dear mamma? Do you want more sugar?"
+and filled the glass with sugar up to the brim. But she noticed the
+repulsive smell. "I don't want it!" she said in her dream. However,
+Athalie held the steaming glass to her mouth. She turned away, and
+pushed the glass from her, and with that movement she upset the bottle
+of water which stood on the table beside her, and all the water poured
+into the bed. That thoroughly awoke her.
+
+And still she seemed to see Athalie before her with threatening looks.
+"Are you awake, Athalie?" she asked, uneasily; no answer. She listened;
+the sleeper could not be heard to breathe. Sophie got up and went to
+Athalie's bed; it was empty. She could not trust her eyes in the dim
+twilight, and felt with her hands: no one there. "Athalie, where are
+you?" she murmured, anxiously. Receiving no answer, a nameless horror
+numbed her limbs. She felt blind and dumb; she could not even scream.
+She listened, and then fancied she was deaf: neither inside nor out was
+there the faintest sound. Where could Athalie be?
+
+Athalie was in the secret room--she had been there a long time.
+
+The patience of that woman, to be so long learning the prayer by heart!
+At last Timea shut the book and sighed deeply. Then she took the candle
+and looked to see that all the doors were locked. She looked behind the
+curtains; her bridegroom's words had implanted fear in her breast, and
+she looked round carefully to see if any one could get in. Then she went
+to the dressing-table, took down her plaits, wound her thick hair round
+and round her head, and put a net over it. She was not free from vanity,
+this young creature: that her hands and arms might be white, she rubbed
+them with salve and put on long gloves. Then she undressed, but before
+she lay down she went behind the bed, opened a closet, and took out a
+sword-hilt with a broken blade; looking tenderly at it, she pressed it
+to her breast. Then she put it under her pillow; she always slept with
+it there. Athalie saw it all. Timea extinguished the light, and Athalie
+saw no more; she only heard the clock tick, and had the patience to
+wait.
+
+She guesses when sleep will close Timea's eyes--that is the time. A
+quarter of an hour seems like an eternity; at last the clock strikes
+one. The picture of St. George with his dragon (which is by no means
+dead) moves aside, and Athalie comes out, barefoot, so that no sound is
+heard. It is quite dark in the room--the shutters are shut and curtains
+drawn; her groping hand finds Timea's pillow; she feels underneath, and
+a cold object meets her hand. It is the sword-hilt. What hell-fire runs
+through her veins from the cold steel! she too presses it to her heart.
+She draws the edge of the blade through her lips and feels how sharp it
+is. But it is too dark to see the sleeper--one can not even hear her
+gentle breathing; the blow must be well aimed, and Athalie bends her
+head to listen.
+
+The sleeper moves, and sighs aloud in her dream, "Oh, my God!" Then
+Athalie strikes in the direction of the sigh. But the blow was not
+mortal: Timea had covered her head with her right arm, and the sword
+only hit that, though the sharp steel cut through the glove and wounded
+her hand. She started up and rose on her knees in the bed; then a second
+blow caught her head, but the thick hair blunted it, and the sword only
+cut the forehead down to the eyebrow.
+
+Now Timea seized the blade with her left hand. "Murderer!" she screamed,
+sprung out of bed, and while the sharp edge cut the inside of her left
+hand, she caught the enemy with her wounded right hand by the hair. She
+felt it was a woman's, and now knew who was before her.
+
+There are critical moments in which the mind traverses a chain of
+thought with lightning speed: this is Athalie; her mother is next door;
+they want to murder her out of revenge and jealousy; it would be vain to
+call for help, it is a struggle for life. Timea screamed no more, but
+collected all her strength in order, with her wounded hand, to draw down
+her enemy's head and get the murderous weapon from her.
+
+Timea was strong, and a murderer never puts forth his full strength.
+They struggled silently in the darkness, the carpet deadening their
+footfalls. Suddenly a cry sounded from the next room. "Murder!" screamed
+the voice of Frau Sophie: at the sound Athalie's strength gave way.
+
+Her victim's blood streamed over her face. In the next room was heard
+the sound of falling glass; through the broken window Frau Sophie's
+screeching voice was heard resounding down the quiet street, "Murder,
+murder!"
+
+Athalie let go the sword in terror, and put up both hands to loosen
+Timea's fingers from her hair: now she is the one attacked and she the
+one alarmed. When she got her hair free, she pushed Timea away, flew to
+the opening of the hiding-place, and drew the picture gently over the
+entrance.
+
+Timea tottered forward a few steps with the sword in her hand, and then
+fell swooning on the carpet.
+
+At Frau Sophie's cry, double-quick march was heard in the street--the
+patrol was coming--the major was the first to reach the house. Frau
+Sophie knew him and called out, "Quick, quick! they are killing Timea!"
+The major tore at the bell, thundered at the door, but no one came; the
+soldiers tried to burst it in, but it was too strong and would not give
+way. "Wake the servants," shouted the major. Frau Sophie ran, with the
+courage born of great fear, through the dark rooms and passages,
+knocking up against doors and furniture, till she came to the servants'
+rooms. Her dream had come true. The whole household lay asleep: a
+burned-down candle flickered on the table, and threw uncanny shadows on
+the grotesque group.
+
+"There are murderers in the house!" screamed Frau Sophie, in a voice
+quivering with terror; the only answer was a heavy snore. She shook some
+of the sleepers, called them by name, but they only sunk back without
+waking up. Blows could be heard on the house door. The porter too was
+asleep, but the key was in his pocket; Frau Sophie got it out with great
+difficulty, and ran through the dark passages, down the dark stairs, and
+along the dark hall to open the door, while the fearful thought went
+with her--how if she were to meet the murderer? and an even more
+frightful doubt pursued her--suppose she should recognize that murderer?
+
+At last she got to the door, found the key-hole, and opened it. A bright
+light burst in--there was the military patrol and the town-watchmen with
+their lanterns. The captain of the guard had come, and the nearest
+army-surgeon, all only half dressed in the first clothes they could
+find, with a pistol or a naked sword in their hand.
+
+Herr Katschuka rushed up the steps straight to the door which led to
+Timea's room--it was locked on the inside: he put his shoulder against
+it and burst the lock.
+
+Timea lay before him on the ground, covered with blood, and unconscious.
+The major raised her and carried her to the bed. The surgeon examined
+the wounds, and said none of them was dangerous, the lady had only
+fainted. As soon as his anxiety for his beloved one was relieved, the
+thirst for vengeance awoke in the major--"Where is the murderer?"
+"Singular," said the officer; "all the doors were locked inside--how
+could any one get in, and how could he get out?" Nowhere was there a
+suspicious mark; even the instrument of murder, the broken sword, a
+treasure kept by Timea herself, and generally put away in a velvet box,
+lay blood-stained on the ground. The official physician now arrived:
+"Let us examine the servants." They all lay sound asleep, and the doctor
+found that none of them was shamming: they were all drugged. Who could
+have done it?
+
+Her mother gazed at him in silence and could not answer. She did not
+know. The captain opened the door of Athalie's room, and they all went
+in, Frau Sophie following half fainting; she knew the bed must be empty.
+
+Athalie was in bed and asleep. Her white night-dress was buttoned up to
+her neck, her hair fastened into an embroidered cap, her lovely hands
+lay on the quilt. Face and hands were clean, and she slept.
+
+Frau Sophie leaned stupefied against the wall when she saw Athalie. "She
+too has been drugged," said the doctor.
+
+The army-surgeon came up and felt her pulse: it was calm. No muscle
+moved on her face, no quiver betrayed her consciousness.
+
+She could deceive every one by her marvelous self-control; all but
+one--the man whose beloved she had tried to murder.
+
+"Is she really asleep?" asked the major.
+
+"Feel her hand," said the doctor; "it is quite cool and calm."
+
+Athalie felt the major take hold of her hand. "But just look, doctor,"
+said he; "if you look closely you will see under the nails of this
+beautiful hand--fresh blood!"
+
+At these words Athalie's fingers suddenly clinched, and the major felt
+as if eagle's claws were running into his hand. She laughed aloud and
+threw off the bedclothes. Completely dressed, she sprung up, looked the
+astonished men proudly up and down, cast a triumphant glance at the
+major, and threw a contemptuous look at her mother.
+
+The poor woman could not bear it, and sunk fainting to the ground.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE LAST STAB.
+
+
+In the archives of the Komorn Court, one of the most interesting trials
+is that of Athalie Brazovics. The woman's defense was masterly; she
+denied everything, knew how to disprove everything, and when they
+thought they had caught her, she managed to throw such mystery over it
+all, that her judges knew not where to have her. Why should she murder
+Timea? She was herself engaged, and had good prospects, while Timea was
+her benefactress, and had promised her a rich dowry.
+
+Then, too, no traces of the murder could be found except in Timea's
+room. Nowhere was a bloody rag or handkerchief to be found--not even the
+ashes of anything which could have been burned. Who had drugged the
+servants could not be ascertained. The household had supped together,
+and among the various sweets and foreign fruits there might have been
+something which stupefied them. Not a drop of the suspected punch was to
+be found; even the glasses which had held it were all washed out when
+the patrol entered.
+
+Athalie maintained that she also had taken something that evening which
+tasted peculiar, and that she had fallen so fast asleep that she neither
+heard her mother's cry nor the noises afterward, and only awoke when the
+major touched her hand. The one person who had found her bed empty half
+an hour before was her own mother, who could not give evidence against
+her. Her strongest point was that Timea had locked all the doors, and
+was found insensible. How could a murderer get in and get out again? And
+if there had been an attempt to murder, why should she be suspected more
+than the rest?
+
+The major remained with Timea till late at night; perhaps if he left,
+some one might creep into the room again. They did not even know whether
+the assassin was man or woman. The only one who knew, Timea, did not
+betray it, but kept to her assertion that she could not remember
+anything about it; her alarm had been so great that everything had faded
+from her memory like a dream.
+
+She could not accuse Athalie, and was not even confronted with her.
+
+Timea was still crippled by her wounds, which healed slowly; but the
+shock to her nerves was more serious than the bodily injury, and she
+trembled for Athalie. Since that dreadful night she was never left
+alone--a doctor and a nurse watched her by turns. By day the major
+hardly left her side, and the magistrate often visited her in order to
+cross-examine her; but as soon as Athalie was mentioned. Timea was
+silent, and not another word could be extracted from her.
+
+The doctor advised at last that she should hear some amusing reading
+aloud. Timea had left her bed, and sat up to receive visitors.
+
+Herr Katschuka proposed to open the birthday letters which had been put
+aside on that eventful day. That would be as good as anything--the naive
+congratulations of the god-children to the miraculously saved lady,
+which no one had yet read. Timea's hands were still bandaged. Herr
+Katschuka opened the letters and read them aloud. The magistrate, too,
+was present. The patient's face brightened during the reading, which
+seemed to do her good.
+
+"What a curious seal this is," said the major, as he took up a letter
+which had a golden beetle stuck on the wax.
+
+"Very odd," said Timea; "I noticed it too."
+
+The major opened it. After he had read the first line--"Gracious lady,
+there is in your room a picture of St. George"--the words stuck in his
+throat, his eyes rolled wildly, and while he read on, his lips turned
+blue, and cold sweat stood on his brow: suddenly he threw the letter
+from him, and rushed like a madman to the picture, burst it in with his
+fist, and tore it and its heavy frame from the wall. There behind it
+yawned the dark depths of the secret chamber.
+
+The major dashed into the darkness, and returned in a moment with the
+evidence of the murder--Athalie's bloody night-dress--in his hand. Timea
+hid her face in horror. The magistrate picked up the letter, put it in
+his pocket, and took possession of the proofs.
+
+Other things were found in this hiding-place: the box of poisons, and
+Athalie's diary, with the frightful confessions which threw light on her
+soul's dark abysses, as the phosphoric mollusks do in the coral forests
+of the sea. What monsters dwell there! Timea forgets her wounds; with
+clasped hands she implores the gentlemen, the doctor, the magistrate,
+and her betrothed too, to tell no one, and keep the whole thing secret.
+But that would be impossible; the proofs are in the hands of justice,
+and there is no longer hope for Athalie except in God's mercy. And Timea
+can no longer disregard the legal summons: as soon as she can leave her
+room, she must appear in court and be confronted with Athalie. This was
+a cruel task. Even now she would only say that she remembered nothing
+about the murderous attack.
+
+The marriage with the major had to be hurried on, for Timea was to
+appear in court as Katschuka's wife. As soon as her health allowed, the
+wedding took place quite privately, without any festivity, without
+guests or banquet. Only the clergyman and the witnesses, the magistrate
+and the doctor, were present. No other visitors were admitted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Human justice would not spare her the painful scene: once again she had
+to be brought face to face with her murderess. Athalie had no dread of
+this meeting, but awaited with impatience the moment when her victim
+would appear. If with no other weapon, she wished by her eyes to inflict
+one more stab on Timea's heart. But she started when the official
+said--"Call Emerich Katschuka's wife!"
+
+Katschuka's wife! Already married to him! But in spite of that she
+showed unconcealed satisfaction when Timea entered, and Athalie saw the
+face paler than ever, the red line over the marble forehead, the scar
+from the murderous blow; this memento was from her. Her lovely bosom
+swelled with joy when Timea was required to swear in the name of the
+living God that she would answer truly, and all she said was true, and
+when Timea drew off her glove and raised her hand, so that the
+disfiguring scar of a frightful sword-cut was visible. That, too, was a
+wedding-present from Athalie. And Timea swore with that maimed and
+trembling hand that she had forgotten everything, and could not even
+remember whether the murderer with whom she had struggled was a man or a
+woman.
+
+"Fool!" muttered Athalie between her teeth. (Did they not struggle hand
+to hand?) "What I dared to do, you dare not even accuse me of."
+
+"We are not asking that," said the president. "We only ask you, Did this
+letter, in a child's writing, and sealed with a beetle, really come to
+you by post, and on the very day of the attack? Was it then sealed, and
+did no one know its contents?"
+
+Timea answered all these questions calmly with Yes or No.
+
+Then the president turned to Athalie--"Now listen, Athalie Brazovics, to
+the contents of this letter:--
+
+     "'GRACIOUS LADY,--There is in your room a picture of
+     St. George on the wall. This picture covers a
+     hiding-place, to which the entrance lies through the
+     lumber-room. Have this hole walled up, and watch over
+     your valuable life. Long and happy may it be.
+
+     DODI.'"
+
+And then the president raised a cloth from the table. Under it lay the
+accusers of Athalie--the bloody night-dress, the box of poisons, and the
+diary.
+
+Athalie uttered a scream like a mortally wounded animal, and covered her
+face with both hands, and when she took them away, that face was no
+longer pale, but fiery red. She had a narrow black ribbon round her
+neck; she tore it off now with her two hands, and threw it away, as if
+to bare the lovely neck for the headsman, or perhaps rather to utter
+more easily what now burst from her.
+
+"Yes, it is true I tried to kill you, and I am only sorry I did not
+succeed. You have been the curse of my life, you pale-faced ghost!
+Through you I have incurred eternal damnation. I tried to kill you--I
+owed it to myself. See now, there was enough poison to send a whole
+wedding company into eternity; but I longed for your blood. You are not
+dead, but my thirst is quenched, and I can die now. But before the
+executioner's ax severs my head from my body, I will give your heart one
+more stab, from which it will never be healed, and whose torture shall
+disturb your sweetest embraces. I swear! hear me, oh, God! hear me, ye
+saints and angels, and devils! all ye in heaven and earth!--be gracious
+to me only so far as I speak what is true." And the raving woman sunk on
+her knees, and threw up her hands, calling heaven and earth to witness.
+"I swear! I swear that this secret--the secret of the hidden door--was
+only known to one person besides myself, and that one was MICHAEL TIMAR
+LEVETINCZY. The day after he learned this secret from me he disappeared.
+If any one has told this, then MICHAEL TIMAR LEVETINCZY DID NOT DIE NEXT
+DAY! He lives still, and you can look for your first husband's return.
+So help me God, it is true that Timar lives! He whom we buried in his
+stead was a thief who had stolen his clothes. And now live on with this
+stab in your heart."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+THE PENITENT IN "MARIA-NOSTRA."
+
+
+The court sentenced Athalie to death for attempted murder. The king's
+mercy commuted this sentence into imprisonment for life in the
+penitentiary of "Maria-Nostra."
+
+Athalie still lives. Forty years have passed since then, and she must be
+nearly seventy years old, but her defiant spirit is unbroken; she is
+obstinate, silent, and unrepentant. When the other prisoners are taken
+to church on Sundays, she is locked into her cell, because it is feared
+that she might disturb the devotions of the rest. Once when she was
+forced to go there, she yelled out to the priest "Liar!" and spat on the
+altar.
+
+At various times during this period great acts of amnesty have been
+passed, and on national festivals hundreds of prisoners have been
+liberated, but this one woman was never recommended to mercy. Those who
+advised her to repent in order to secure a pardon received the reply,
+"As soon as I am free I will kill that woman!"
+
+She says it still; but she whom she hates has long fallen into dust,
+after suffering for many years from that last stab inflicted on her poor
+sick heart.
+
+After the words "Timar still lives," she never could be happy again:
+like a cold phantom it overshadowed her joy; her husband's kisses were
+forever poisoned to her. And when she felt the approach of death, she
+had herself taken to Levetinczy, that she might not be placed in the
+tomb where God knows who mouldered away under Timar's name. There she
+sought out a quiet willow grove on the Danube shore, in the part nearest
+to where her father, Ali Tschorbadschi, rested at the bottom of the
+river: as near to the ownerless island as if some secret instinct drew
+her there. From her grave the island rock was visible.
+
+No blessing rested on the wealth Timar left behind him.
+
+The only son Timea bore to her second husband was a great spendthrift:
+in his hands the fabulous wealth vanished as quickly as it had grown,
+and Timea's grandson lives on the pension he receives from the fund
+bequeathed by Timar for the benefit of poor nobles. This is all that is
+left of his gigantic property.
+
+On the site of his Komorn palace stands another building, and the
+Levetinczy tomb has been removed on account of the fortifications. Of
+all the former splendor and riches not a trace remains.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And what is passing meanwhile on the ownerless island?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+NOBODY.
+
+
+Since Timar's disappearance from Komorn forty years had passed. I was in
+the alphabet-class when we schoolboys went to the funeral of the rich
+lord, of whom people said afterward he was perhaps not dead, only
+disappeared. Among the people the belief was strong that Timar lived,
+and would some day reappear; possibly Athalie's words had set this idea
+afloat--at any rate, public opinion was strongly in favor of it.
+
+The features, too, of the lovely lady came before me, whom every Sunday
+I admired as she sat near the organ; her seat was the nearest in the pew
+to the chancel. She was so radiant with beauty and yet so gentle. I well
+remember the excitement when it was reported that a companion of this
+beautiful woman had tried to murder her in the night. I saw the
+condemned prisoner taken to the place of execution in the headsman's
+cart; it was said that she would be beheaded. She had on a gray gown
+with black ribbons, and sat with her back to the driver; before her was
+a priest holding a crucifix. The market-women overwhelmed her with
+abuse, and spat at her; but she gazed indifferently before her, and
+noticed nothing.
+
+The people thronged round the cart; curious boys hurried in troops to
+see the lovely head separated from the neck. I looked on fearfully from
+a closed window--oh, dear, if she had looked at me by chance! An hour
+later the crowd returned grumbling; they were disappointed that the
+beautiful criminal had been respited. She had only been taken up on to
+the scaffold, and there informed of the pardon.
+
+And then after that I saw that other lovely rich lady every Sunday in
+church; but now with a red mark across her forehead, and each year with
+a sadder and paler face. All sorts of stories were told of her; children
+heard them from their mothers, and repeated them in school.
+
+And, finally, time swept the whole story out of people's memory.
+
+Some years ago, an old friend of mine, a naturalist, who is celebrated
+as a collector of plants and insects throughout the world, described to
+me the singular district between Hungary and Turkey, which belongs to
+neither State, and is not any one's private property.
+
+On this account it offers a veritable California to the ardent
+naturalist, who finds there the rarest flora and fauna. My old friend
+used to visit this region every year, and stay there for weeks zealously
+collecting specimens: he invited me to share his autumn expedition. I am
+somewhat of a dilettante in this line, and as I had leisure, I
+accompanied my friend to the Lower Danube.
+
+He led me to the ownerless island. My learned friend had known it for
+five-and-twenty years past, when it was in great part a wilderness, and
+all the work in progress.
+
+Apart from the reed-beds, which still surround and conceal the island,
+it is now a complete model farm. Surrounded by a dike, it is protected
+from any floods, and is intersected by canals, provided with water by a
+horse-power pumping-engine.
+
+When an enthusiastic gardener gets here, he can hardly tear himself
+away; every inch of ground is utilized, or serves to beautify the place.
+The tobacco grown here has the most exquisite aroma, and, when properly
+treated, is a first-class product; the bee-hives look from a distance
+like a small town, with one-storied houses and many-shaped roofs. The
+rarest fowls are bred in one inclosure, and on the artificial lake swim
+curious foreign ducks and swans. In the rich meadows graze short-horned
+cows, angora goats, and llama sheep with long, soft, black hair.
+
+It is easy to see that the owner of the island understands luxury--and
+yet that owner never has a farthing to call his own; no money ever
+enters the island. Those, however, who need the exports, know also the
+requirements of the islanders--such as grain, clothes, tools, etc.--and
+bring them for barter.
+
+My learned friend used to bring garden seeds and eggs of rare poultry,
+and received in exchange curious insects and dried plants, which he sold
+to natural history collections and foreign museums, and made a good
+profit out of them, for science is not only a passion but a means of
+sustenance. But what surprised me most agreeably was to hear pure
+Hungarian spoken by the inhabitants, which is very rare in that
+neighborhood.
+
+The whole colony consisted of one family, and each was called only
+by his Christian name. The six sons of the first settler had married
+women of the district, and the numbers of grandchildren and
+great-grandchildren already exceeded forty, but the island maintained
+them all. Poverty was unknown; they lived in luxury: each knew some
+trade, and if they had been ten times as many, their labor would have
+supported them. The founders of the family still superintended the work.
+
+The male members of the family learn gardening, carpentry, coopering,
+preparation of tobacco, and the breeding of cattle; among them are
+cabinet-makers and millers; the women weave Turkish carpets, prepare
+honey, make cheese, and distill rose-water; and all these occupations go
+on so naturally that it is never necessary to give orders; each knows
+his duty, fulfills it untold, and takes pleasure in its completion. The
+dwellings of the ever-growing families already form a whole street; each
+little house is built by division of labor, and the elders help the
+newly married. Strangers who visit the island are received by the
+nominal head of the family, whom the others call father. Strangers know
+him under the name of Deodatus. He is a well-built man of over forty,
+with handsome features; he it is who arranges the terms of barter and
+shows visitors over the colony.
+
+When we arrived Deodatus received us with the kind cordiality one
+exhibits to old friends; the naturalist was a regular annual visitor.
+The subjects of our discourse were pomology, horticulture, botany,
+entomology, in all of which Deodatus seemed to be well versed; in
+everything pertaining to gardens and cattle-breeding he had reached a
+high standard. I could not conceal my surprise, and asked him where he
+had learned it.
+
+"From our father," answered Deodatus, with a sigh.
+
+"Who is that?"
+
+"You will see him when we assemble in the evening."
+
+It was the time of apples. All the young people and women were busy
+gathering the pretty golden-yellow, brown, and crimson fruit. It lay in
+pyramids on the green turf, like cannon-balls inside a fortress. Joyous
+cries resounded through the island; when the sun set, a bell gave the
+signal for the holiday feast. At this signal every one hastened to fill
+baskets with the remaining fruit, which was then carried into the
+apple-store.
+
+We also, with Deodatus, bent our steps to the place whence the sound
+came. The bell was on the top of a small wooden building, which, as well
+as its little tower, was overgrown with ivy; but one could guess by the
+fantastic forms of the columns under the veranda, that the architect had
+carved many a thoughtful dream and wish into his work.
+
+Before this house was a circular space with tables and chairs; there
+every one met when work was over.
+
+"Here dwell our old people," whispered Deodatus.
+
+They soon came out--a fine pair. The wife might be sixty, the man
+eighty. The great-grandfather's face had that characteristic look which
+makes you remember a good picture you have once seen, even if forty
+years ago. I was quite startled: his head was nearly bald, but the
+remaining hair and his beard were hardly gray, and on his firm, calm
+features age seemed to have no hold. A temperate and regular life and a
+cheerful disposition preserve the features unspoiled.
+
+The great-grandmother was still an attractive woman. Her once golden
+hair certainly was flecked with silver, but her eyes were still girlish,
+and her cheeks blushed like a bride's when her husband kissed her.
+
+The faces of both beamed with happiness when they saw their whole large
+family round them, and they called each to them by name and kissed them.
+This was their joy, their devotion, their song of praise.
+
+Deodatus, the eldest son, was the last to embrace his parents, and then
+our turn came. They shook hands with us too, and invited us to supper.
+The old lady still kept the care of the cooking department in her own
+hands, and she it was who provided for all the family, though each had
+full liberty to sit at a separate table with any others he cared for,
+and take his meal with them; but her husband sat down at a table with us
+and Deodatus. A tiny golden-haired angel of a child called Noemi climbed
+on his lap, and had permission to listen, wondering, to our wise talk.
+
+When my name was mentioned to the old man he looked long at me, and a
+visible color rose in his cheeks. My learned friend asked him whether he
+had ever heard my name before; the old man was silent. Deodatus hastened
+to say that his father had for forty years read nothing of what was
+passing in the world: his whole study was books of farming and
+gardening. I therefore undertook, as people do who have made a
+profession of imparting what they know, to bring my wares to market, and
+I told him what was going on in the world. I informed him that Hungary
+was now united to Austria by the word "and."
+
+He blew a cloud from his pipe: the smoke said, "My island has nothing to
+do with that."
+
+I told him of our heavy taxes: the smoke replied, "We have no taxes
+here."
+
+I described to him the fearful wars which had been waged in our kingdom
+and all over the world: the smoke answered, "We wage war here with no
+one."
+
+There was at that time a great panic on the exchanges, the oldest firms
+failed; and this too I explained to him. Only his pipe's steady puffs
+seemed to say, "Thank God, we have no money here."
+
+I described to him the bitter struggle of parties, the strife between
+religion, nationalities, and ambition. The old man shook the ashes out
+of his pipe--"We have neither bishops, electors, nor ministers here."
+
+And finally, I proved to him how great our country would be when
+everything we hoped for was fulfilled.
+
+Little Noemi meanwhile had fallen asleep on her great-grandfather's lap,
+and had to be carried to bed. This was more important than what I was
+talking of; the sleeping child passed into the great-grandmother's arms.
+When the old lady left us, the old man asked me, "Where were you born?"
+I told him.
+
+"What is your profession?"
+
+I told him I was a romance-writer.
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"One who can guess by the end of a story what the whole story was from
+the beginning."
+
+"Well, then, guess my story," said he, clasping my hand. "There was once
+a man who left a world in which he was admired, and created a second
+world in which he was loved."
+
+"May I venture to ask your name?"
+
+The old man seemed to grow a head taller; then raising his trembling
+hands, he laid them on my head. And at this moment it seemed to me as if
+once, long, long ago, that hand had rested on my head when childish
+curls covered it, and as if I had seen that noble face before.
+
+To my question he replied, "My name is NOBODY." With that he turned away
+and spoke no more, but went into his house, and did not appear again
+during our stay on the island.
+
+This is the present condition of the ownerless island. The privilege
+granted by two kingdoms, that this speck of ground should be excluded
+from any map, will last for fifty years more.
+
+Fifty years! Who knows what will have become of the world by then?
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+ASK FOR AMERICAN SERIES No. 335.
+
+A Really Great American Novel.
+
+A TALE OF THE TOWN:
+OR,
+PHILIP HENSON, M. D.
+
+BY GEORGE HASTINGS.
+
+PAPER, 25 CENTS.
+
+
+PRESS CRITICISMS:
+
+"We do not purpose to rob the story of the zest which remains for the
+reading by telling here all the ingenious but reasonable complications
+which beset this man, how love withers under the unseen blight, how rest
+forsakes him, how success becomes a satire, and how the impervious will
+sinks into impotency when beset by intangible and inscrutable forces. It
+is enough to point out that in this book the author has planted his
+characters upon an elemental truth, and something of the efficacy of
+that truth gives a strange fascination and power to the story."--_New
+York World._
+
+"It is a cleverly wrought and highly interesting novel, constructed upon
+somewhat unconventional lines. There is just enough medical science and
+metaphysics in it to give it spice; there are two murders, a trial and
+conviction of an innocent man on circumstantial evidence, a series of
+confidential domestic scenes, and a dash of hypnotism--surely enough to
+capture the fancy of the inveterate or occasional novel reader. . . . It
+is a curious but entrancing novel, and once caught in its seductive
+meshes the reader will find it hard to escape. Incidentally some of
+Inspector Byrnes' peculiar detective methods are severely
+satirized."--_The Brooklyn Standard-Union._
+
+"It is clever in its way, but trash."--_The Buffalo Courier._
+
+"It places the author in the foremost rank of American writers of
+fiction. . . . It will live--a surpassingly clever delineation of a
+strange phase of human character."--_The London Times._
+
+"Philip Henson, M. D., by George Hastings, is indifferent and
+mediocre."--_The New York Daily Continent._
+
+"Philip Henson, M. D., is more than clever--it is masterly. In exciting
+and absorbing interest this book excels the novels of Gaboriau and De
+Boisgobey, and the sketches and characters are capitally drawn. For
+example, Inspector Byrnes and his methods have never before been so
+accurately described."--_The Spirit of the Times._
+
+"A story quite out of the ordinary."--_The Kansas City Journal._
+
+"Very dramatically told, and a well-conceived and thrilling
+narrative."--_America._
+
+"The plot of Philip Henson, M. D., is remarkably strong and tragic. Mr.
+Hastings is a graphic writer."--_The Sacramento Record-Union._
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN SERIES.
+
+TITLES ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED
+
+TWENTY-FIVE CENT SERIES.
+
+
+Abbey Murder, The.                           Jos. Hatton.
+Alas!                                        Rhoda Broughton.
+Allan Quatermain.                            H. Rider Haggard.
+Allan's Wife.                                H. Rider Haggard.
+All Sorts and Conditions of Men.             Walter Besant and James
+                                             Rice.
+American Girl in London, An.                 Sara Jeannette Duncan.
+American Notes.                              Rudyard Kipling.
+Amethyst.                                    Christabel R. Coleridge.
+April's Lady.                                The Duchess.
+Aristocrat in America, An.
+Armorel of Lyonesse.                         Walter Besant.
+Artificial Fate, An.                         Clarence Boutelle.
+Artist and Model.                            Rene de Pont Jest.
+As In a Looking-glass.                       F. C. Phillips.
+Auld Licht Idylls.                           J. M. Barrie.
+Averil.                                      Rosa Nouchette Carey.
+Awakening of Mary Fenwick, The.              Beatrice Whitby.
+
+Bachelor's Blunder, A.                       W. E. Norris.
+Baffled Conspirators, The.                   W. E. Norris.
+Bag of Diamonds, The.                        G. Manville Fenn.
+Bank Tragedy, The.                           Mary R. P. Hatch.
+Baptized with a Curse.                       Edith Stewart Drewry.
+Beaton's Bargain.                            Mrs. Alexander.
+Beatrice.                                    H. Rider Haggard.
+Be Quick and Be Dead.                        Ophelia Hives.
+Birch Dene.                                  William Westall.
+Black Tulip, The.                            Alexandre Dumas.
+Blind Fate.                                  Mrs. Alexander.
+Blind Love.                                  Wilkie Collins.
+Born Coquette, A.                            The Duchess.
+Bound by a Spell.                            Hugh Conway.
+By Order of the Czar.                        Jos. Hatton.
+By Woman's Wit.                              Mrs. Alexander.
+
+Camille.                                     Alexandre Dumas.
+Cardinal Sin, A.                             Hugh Conway.
+Cast Up by the Sea.                          Sir Samuel W. Baker.
+Cleopatra.                                   H. Rider Haggard.
+Colonel Quaritch, V. C.                      H. Rider Haggard.
+Confessions of a Woman, The.                 Mabel Collins.
+Count of Monte-Cristo, The.                  Alexandre Dumas.
+Courting of Dinah Shadd, The.                Rudyard Kipling.
+Cradled in a Storm.                          Theodore A. Sharp.
+Crooked Path, A.                             Mrs. Alexander.
+
+Daughter of Heth, A.                         William Black.
+Daughter's Sacrifice, A.                     F. C. Phillips.
+Dawn.                                        H. Rider Haggard.
+Dean and His Daughter, The.                  F. C. Phillips.
+Dean's Daughter, The.                        Sophie F. Veitch.
+Deemster, The.                               Hall Caine.
+Demoniac, The.                               Walter Besant.
+Derrick Vaughn, Novelist.                    Edna Lyall.
+Diana Barrington.                            Mrs. John Croker.
+Diary of a Pilgrimage.                       Jerome K. Jerome.
+Dmitri.                                      F. W. Bain, M.A.
+Dodo and I.                                  Capt. A. Haggard.
+Donald Ross of Heimra.                       William Black.
+Donovan.                                     Edna Lyall.
+Dora Thorne.                                 Charlotte M. Braeme.
+Doris's Fortune.                             F. Warden.
+Dr. Cupid.                                   Rhoda Broughton.
+Dr. Glennie's Daughter.                      B. L. Farjeon.
+Duchess, The.                                The Duchess.
+Duchess of Powysland, The.                   Grant Allen.
+Duke's Secret, The.                          Charlotte M. Braeme.
+
+East Lynne.                                  Mrs. Henry Wood.
+Edmond Dantes.                               Alexandre Dumas.
+Eric Brighteyes.                             H. Rider Haggard.
+Evil Genius, The.                            Wilkie Collins.
+
+Fair Women.                                  Mrs. Forrester.
+Fallen Idol, A.                              F. Anstey.
+Fatal Dower, A.
+Felon's Bequest, The.                        F. Du Boisgobey.
+Fiery Ordeal, A.                             Bertha M. Clay.
+First Violin, The.                           Jessie Fothergill.
+Frontiersmen, The.                           Gustave Aimard.
+Frozen Hearts.                               G. Webb Appleton.
+Frozen Pirate, The.                          W. Clark Russell.
+
+Giraldi.                                     Ross G. Dering.
+Golden Hope, The.                            W. Clark Russell.
+Grave Between Them, The.                     Clarence Boutelle.
+Great Mill St. Mystery, The.                 Adeline Sargent.
+Guilderoy.                                   Ouida.
+
+Handy Andy.                                  Samuel Lover.
+Hardy Norseman, A.                           Edna Lyall.
+Haunted Chamber, The.                        The Duchess.
+Heriot's Choice.                             Rosa N. Carey.
+Her Last Throw.                              The Duchess.
+Herr Paulus.                                 Walter Besant.
+He Went for a Soldier.                       John Strange Winter.
+Hidden Away.                                 Etta W. Pierce.
+Hon. Mrs. Vereker, The.                      The Duchess.
+House Party, A.                              Ouida.
+Hunchback of Notre Dame, The.                Victor Hugo.
+
+Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, The.        Jerome K. Jerome.
+I Have Lived and Loved.                      Mrs. Forrester.
+In the Golden Days.                          Edna Lyall.
+In the Heart of the Storm.                   Maxwell Gray.
+Irma.                                        Lawrence Gordon.
+
+Jack and Three Jills, A.                     F. C. Phillips.
+Jane Eyre.                                   Charlotte Bronte.
+Jess.                                        H. Rider Haggard.
+Julius Courtney.                             J. McLaren Cobban.
+
+Keeper of the Keys, The.                     F. W. Robinson.
+Kidnapped.                                   R. L. Stevenson.
+"King" Arthur.                               Mrs. Mulock.
+King Solomon's Mines.                        H. Rider Haggard.
+Kit and Kitty.                               R. D. Blackmore.
+Kith and Kin.                                Jessie Fothergill.
+Knight-Errant.                               Edna Lyall.
+
+Lady Audley's Secret.                        Miss M. E. Braddon.
+Lady Beauty.                                 Alan Muir.
+Lady Walworth's Diamonds.                    The Duchess.
+Lamplighter, The.                            Maria S. Cummings.
+Last Love, A.                                Georges Ohnet.
+Life Interest, A.                            Mrs. Alexander.
+Life's Mistake, A.                           Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron.
+Life's Remorse, A.                           The Duchess.
+Light that Failed, The.                      Rudyard Kipling.
+Little Irish Girl, A.                        The Duchess.
+Little Mrs. Murray.                          F. C. Phillips.
+Little Primrose.                             Wenona Gilman.
+Little Rebel, A.                             The Duchess.
+Living or Dead.                              Hugh Conway.
+L'Ombra.                                     From the French of
+                                             Gennevraye.
+Lord Lisle's Daughter.                       Charlotte M. Braeme.
+Lost Wife, A.                                Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron.
+Louise de la Valliere.                       Alexandre Dumas.
+Lover or Friend.                             Rosa N. Carey.
+Lucky Young Woman, A.                        F. C. Phillips.
+
+Madame Midas.                                Fergus W. Hume.
+Maid, Wife, or Widow?                        Mrs. Alexander.
+Maiwa's Revenge.                             H. Rider Haggard.
+Man-Hunter, The.                             Dick Donovan.
+Man in the Iron Mask, The.                   Alexandre Dumas.
+Man Outside, The.                            Clarence Boutelle.
+March in the Ranks, A.                       Jessie Fothergill.
+Margaret Byng.                               F. C. Phillips.
+Mark of Cain, The.                           Andrew Lang.
+Marooned.                                    W. Clark Russell.
+Marriage at Sea, A.                          W. Clark Russell.
+Marvel.                                      The Duchess.
+Mary Jane's Memoirs.                         George R. Sims.
+Mary St. John.                               Rosa N. Carey.
+Master of Ballantrae, The.                   R. L. Stevenson.
+Master Rockafellar's Voyage.                 W. Clark Russell.
+Matter of Skill, A.                          Beatrice Whitby.
+Mayor of Casterbridge, The.                  Thos. Hardy.
+Mere Child, A.                               L. B. Walford.
+Merle's Crusade.                             Rosa N. Carey.
+Merry Men, and Other Tales and Fables, The.  R. L. Stevenson.
+Miracle Gold.                                Richard Dowling.
+Misadventures of John Nicholson.             R. L. Stevenson.
+Miss Bretherton.                             Mrs. Humphrey Ward.
+Mistress Beatrice Cope.                      M. E. Le Clerc.
+Modern Circe, A.                             The Duchess.
+Mohawks.                                     Miss M. E. Braddon.
+Molly Bawn.                                  The Duchess.
+Molly's Story.                               Frank Merryfield.
+Moment After, The.                           Robert Buchanan.
+Mona's Choice.                               Mrs. Alexander.
+Mr. Meeson's Will.                           H. Rider Haggard.
+Mrs. Fenton.                                 W. E. Norris.
+My Danish Sweetheart.                        W. Clark Russell.
+My Friend Jim.                               W. E. Norris.
+My Guardian.                                 Ada Cambridge.
+My Lady Nicotine.                            J. M. Barrie.
+Mystery of a Hansom Cab, The.                Fergus W. Hume.
+Mystery of St. James's Park, The.            J. B. Barton.
+My Wonderful Wife.                           Marie Corelli.
+
+Nameless Man, The.                           F. Du Boisgobey.
+Nellie's Memories.                           Rosa N. Carey.
+New Arabian Nights.                          R. L. Stevenson.
+Nine of Hearts, The.                         B. L. Farjeon.
+Noble Woman, A.                              Henry Greville.
+Not Guilty.                                  Etta W. Pierce.
+Not Like Other Girls.                        Rosa N. Carey.
+Nun's Curse, The.                            Mrs. J. H. Riddell.
+
+Old Curiosity Shop, The.                     Charles Dickens.
+Once Again.                                  Mrs. Forrester.
+One Life, One Love.                          Miss M. E. Braddon.
+Only a Mill Girl.                            Eric St. C. Ross.
+Only the Governess.                          Rosa N. Carey.
+On the Stage--and Off.                       Jerome K. Jerome.
+Other Man's Wife, The.                       John Strange Winter.
+Our Bessie.                                  Rosa N. Carey.
+Outsider, The.                               Hawley Smart.
+
+Parisian Detective, The.                     F. Du Boisgobey.
+Part of the Property.                        Beatrice Whitby.
+Passion's Slave.                             Richard Ashe King.
+Paul Nugent, Materialist.                    Helen F. Hetherington
+                                             (Gullifer) and Rev.
+                                             H. Darwin Burton.
+Pennycomequicks, The.                        S. Baring Gould.
+Phantom Future, The.                         H. S. Merriman.
+Phantom Rickshaw, The.                       Rudyard Kipling.
+Picture of Dorian Gray, The.                 Oscar Wilde.
+Plain Tales from the Hills.                  Rudyard Kipling.
+Plunger, The.                                Hawley Smart.
+Pretty Miss Bellew.                          Theo. Gift.
+Prince Otto.                                 R. L. Stevenson.
+Prince Lucifer.                              Etta W. Pierce.
+
+Queenie's Whim.                              Rosa N. Carey.
+Queen Tempest.                               Jane G. Austin.
+
+Roland Oliver.                               Justin McCarthy.
+Romance of a Poor Young Man, The.            Octave Feuillet.
+Riversons, The.                              S. J. Bumstead.
+Ruffino.                                     Ouida.
+
+Saddle and Saber.                            Hawley Smart.
+Sabina Zembra.                               William Black.
+Scarlet Letter, The.                         Nathaniel Hawthorne.
+Scheherazade.                                F. Warden.
+Search for Basil Lyndhurst, The.             Rosa N. Carey.
+Secret of Her Life, The.                     Edward Jenkins.
+Shadow of a Sin, The.                        Charlotte M. Braeme.
+She.                                         H. Rider Haggard.
+She Trusted Him.                             Charles Garvice.
+Silence of Dean Maitland, The.               Maxwell Gray.
+Social Departure, A.                         Sara Jeannette Duncan.
+Social Vicissitudes.                         F. C. Phillips.
+Soldiers Three.                              Rudyard Kipling.
+Son of Porthos, The.                         Alexandre Dumas.
+Spurious.                                    J. Barney Low.
+Stage-Land.                                  Jerome K. Jerome.
+Stephen Ellicott's Daughter.                 Mrs. J. H. Needell.
+St. Katherine's by the Tower.                Walter Besant.
+Story of an African farm, The.               Olive Schreiner.
+Story of an Error, The.
+Story of Philip Methuen, The.                Mrs. J. H. Needell.
+Story of the Gadsbys, The.                   Rudyard Kipling.
+Strange Adventures of Lucy Smith, The.       F. C. Phillips.
+Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.     R. L. Stevenson.
+Sylvia Arden.                                Oswald Crawford.
+Syrlin. Ouida.
+
+Tale of Three Lions, A.                      H. Rider Haggard.
+Tangles Unraveled.                           Evelyn Kimball Johnson.
+Texar's Revenge.                             Jules Verne.
+This Wicked World.                           Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron.
+Three Guardsmen, The.                        Alexandre Dumas.
+Three Men in a Boat.                         Jerome K. Jerome.
+Three Miss Kings, The.                       Ada Cambridge.
+Troublesome Girl, A.                         The Duchess.
+Twenty Years After.                          Alexandre Dumas.
+Twin Hussars, The.                           F. W. Rollins.
+Two Masters.                                 B. M. Croker.
+
+Uncle Max.                                   Rosa N. Carey.
+Under-Currents.                              The Duchess.
+Under Two Flags.                             Ouida.
+
+Vendetta.                                    Marie Corelli.
+Vicomte de Bragelonne, The.                  Alexandre Dumas.
+
+Weaker than a Woman.                         Charlotte M. Braeme.
+Wedding Ring, The.                           Robert Buchanan.
+Wee Wifie.                                   Rosa N. Carey.
+We Two.                                      Edna Lyall.
+What Gold Can Not Buy.                       Mrs. Alexander.
+When a Man's Single.                         J. M. Barrie.
+White Company, The.                          A. Conan Doyle.
+Wicked Girl, A.                              Mary Cecil Hay.
+Widow Bedott Papers.                         F. M. Whitcher.
+Wife In Name Only.                           Charlotte M. Braeme.
+Will.                                        Georges Ohnet.
+Window in Thrums, A.                         J. M. Barrie.
+Witch's Head, The.                           H. Rider Haggard.
+Woman's Face, A.                             F. Warden.
+Woman's Heart, A.                            Mrs. Alexander.
+Woman's War, A.                              Charlotte M. Braeme.
+Won by Waiting.                              Edna Lyall.
+Wonderful Adventures of Phra the             Edwin Lester Arnold.
+  Phoenician, The.
+Wooed and Married.                           Rosa N. Carey.
+Wooing O't, The.                             Mrs. Alexander.
+World's Desire, The.                         H. Rider Haggard and Andrew
+                                             Lang.
+World, the Flesh, and the Devil, The.        Mrs. M. E. Braddon.
+Wormwood.                                    Marie Corelli.
+
+Young Mr. Ainslie's Courtship.               F. C. Phillips.
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY CENT ISSUES.
+
+Ardath.                                      Marie Corelli.
+Disputed Inheritance, A.                     Timayenis.
+Englishman in Paris, An.
+Robert Elsmere.                              Mrs. Humphrey Ward.
+Romance of Two Worlds, A.                    Marie Corelli.
+Spurgeon's Gold. Rev.                        E. H. Swem.
+Thelma.                                      Marie Corelli.
+
+
+
+
+Latest Issues American Series.
+
+25-Cent Edition.
+
+Andree de Taverney.                         Alexander Dumas.
+Discarded Daughter, The.                    Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
+Countess de Charny, The.                    Alexander Dumas.
+Retribution.                                Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
+Six Years Later.                            Alexander Dumas.
+Queen's Necklace, The.                      Alexander Dumas.
+Fatal Marriage, The.                        Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
+Memoirs of a Physician.                     Alexander Dumas.
+Joseph Balsamo.                             Alexander Dumas.
+Self-Raised.                                Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
+Ishmael.                                    Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
+Russian Gypsy, The.                         Alexander Dumas.
+Old Mam'selle's Secret, The.                E. Marlitt.
+
+
+
+
+ALEXANDER DUMAS' WORKS
+CONTAINED IN
+"AMERICAN SERIES:"
+
+Camille.
+Edmond Dantes.
+Count of Monte-Cristo.
+The Three Guardsmen.
+Twenty Years After.
+Vicomte de Bragelonne.
+Louise de la Valliere.
+The Man in the Iron Mask.
+The Son of Porthos.
+The Black Tulip.
+The Russian Gypsy.
+Joseph Balsamo.
+Memoirs of a Physician.
+The Queen's Necklace.
+Six Years Later.
+Countess de Charny.
+Andree de Taverney.
+The Chevalier de Maison Rouge.
+
+
+
+
+MAXWELL GRAY'S WORKS
+CONTAINED IN
+"AMERICAN SERIES."
+
+No. 239--In the Heart of the Storm.
+No. 261--Silence of Dean Maitland, The.
+
+
+
+
+MARIE CORELLI'S WORKS
+CONTAINED IN
+"AMERICAN SERIES."
+
+No. 6--Ardath--50c number.
+No. 73--Romance of Two Worlds, A--50c number.
+No. 4--Thelma--50c number.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No. 244--Hired Baby, The.
+No. 169--My Wonderful Wife.
+No. 99--Vendetta.
+No. 224--Wormwood.
+
+
+
+
+CUSHING'S MANUAL.
+
+CONTAINING
+RULES of PROCEEDING and DEBATE
+OF
+DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLIES.
+
+_A Complete Guide for Instruction and Reference in all Matters
+pertaining to the Management of Public Meetings according to
+Parliamentary Usages._
+
+       BY                             REVISED BY
+LUTHER S. CUSHING.               FRANCES P. SULLIVAN.
+
+The contents embrace the following subjects:
+
+Adding of Propositions.
+Adjournment.
+Amendment.
+Apology.
+Assembly, Deliberative.
+Assembling.
+Blanks, filling of.
+Chairman, preliminary election of.
+Committees.
+Committee of the Whole.
+Commitment.
+Communications.
+Consent of the assembly.
+Contested Elections.
+Credentials.
+Debate.
+Decorum, Breaches of.
+Disorderly Conduct.
+Disorderly Words.
+Division.
+Elections and Returns.
+Expulsion.
+Floor.
+Forms of Proceeding.
+Incidental Questions.
+Introduction of Business.
+Journal.
+Judgment of an aggregate body.
+Lie on the Table.
+List of members.
+Main Question.
+Majority.
+Members.
+Membership.
+Motion.
+Naming a member.
+Officers.
+Order of a deliberative assembly.
+Order of business.
+Order, rules of.
+Order, call to.
+Orders of the Day.
+Organization.
+Papers and Documents.
+Parliamentary Law.
+Parliamentary Rules.
+Petitions.
+Postponement.
+Power of assembly to eject strangers.
+Preamble.
+Precedence.
+President.
+Presiding Officer.
+Previous Question.
+Privileged Questions.
+Proceedings, how set in motion.
+Punishment.
+Quarrel between members.
+Question.
+Quorum.
+Reading of Papers.
+Reception.
+Recommitment.
+Reconsideration.
+Recording Officer.
+Recurrence of Business.
+Reports of Committees.
+Reprimand.
+Resolution.
+Returns.
+Roll.
+Rules.
+Secondary Questions.
+Seconding of motions.
+Secretary.
+Separation of propositions.
+Speaking.
+Speaking member.
+Speech, reading of, by member.
+Subsidiary Questions.
+Suspension of a rule.
+Transposition of proposition.
+Vice-President.
+Voting.
+Will of assembly.
+Withdrawal of motion.
+Yeas and Nays.
+
+In addition to the above this volume contains
+
+THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
+AND THE
+DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
+
+_208 Pages. Bound in paper, 25 cents; bound in cloth, gilt back, 50
+cents._
+
+Sent by mail receipt of price. One- and two-cent stamps taken.
+
+
+
+
+Standard Recitations by Best Authors
+
+A CHOICE COLLECTION OF BEAUTIFUL COMPOSITIONS,
+CAREFULLY COMPILED FOR
+School, Lyceum, Parlor, and other Entertainments,
+BY FRANCES P. SULLIVAN.
+
+
+CONTENTS OF NO. 22.
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+Shamus O'Brien, The Bold Boy of Glingall.   Samuel Lover.              3
+The Soldiers' Reward.                       J. W. Donovan.             7
+The Kitten of the Regiment.                                            9
+Perils of a Teacher.                        J. W. Donovan.            10
+A Climb at Rouen.                           M. Betham Edwards.        11
+Catching the Colt.                                                    12
+Something for Strikers.                                               13
+Harmony.                                                              13
+By the Wayside.                             E. Doherty.               14
+The Unwelcomed Baby.                                                  15
+Running Before It.                          William Constable.        16
+"Warned."                                   Crape Myrtle.             17
+The Old Wife's Kiss.                                                  17
+The Old Office-Desk.                        Henry J. Shellman.        19
+Chickens Come Home to Roost.                Earnest M'Gaffey.         19
+The Blacksmith of Ragenbach.                                          20
+The Old Mill.                               H. W. Field.              21
+One at a Time.                                                        22
+The Hot Axle.                               T. DeWitt Talmage.        22
+Ellsworth's Avengers.                       Tripp.                    23
+The Origin of Whiskey.                      H. Burgess.               24
+The Two Words.                              J. E. Dinkenga.           25
+Listeners.                                  M. K. D.                  25
+The Delinquent Subscriber.                  Margaret Andrews Oldham.  26
+"Peace, be Still."                          Violet.                   27
+A Short Debate on Rum.                      "Th' Poet o' Ante-Bar"    28
+The Participants in the Boston Massacre.    John Hancock.             28
+Dandie.                                     M. F. Bradley.            29
+The Nameless Guest.                         James Clarence Harvey.    30
+Slug Number Eleven.                                                   30
+A Famous Fight.                             David Graham Adee.        32
+More Cruel Than War.                                                  33
+The Fall of the Alamo.                      Mrs. Barr.                34
+A New Gospel.                               Carlotta Perry.           35
+Making the Round.                           Mrs. M. L. Rayne.         36
+The Beautiful.                                                        37
+Onatoga's Sacrifice.                        John Dimitry.             38
+Joe Sieg.                                   Alexander Anderson.       39
+Education.                                  C. Phillips.              41
+Ingratitude: Or Old Sport and His Master.   Fred Williams.            41
+Old Uncle Jake.                                                       43
+On the Rappahannock.                                                  44
+The Better Land.                                                      45
+Charity.                                                              45
+St. Michael the Weigher.                                              46
+The Orphan's New Year.                      O. H.                     46
+The Inch Cape Bell.                                                   47
+The Old Minstrel.                                                     47
+
+Price 12 Cents by Mail. 1 and 2 Cent Stamps Taken.
+
+Address M. J. IVERS & CO.,
+379 Pearl Street, N. Y. City.
+
+
+
+
+THE
+Standard Letter Writer
+FOR
+Ladies and Gentlemen.
+
+CONTAINING A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF BUSINESS LETTERS; LETTERS OF
+INTRODUCTION; LETTERS OF CREDIT; LETTERS OF APPLICATION FOR EMPLOYMENT;
+LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION; SOCIAL LETTERS; CONGRATULATION AND
+CONDOLENCE; NOTES OF CEREMONY AND COMPLIMENT; RULES FOR CONDUCTING
+PUBLIC DEBATES AND MEETINGS.
+
+PRICE 25 CENTS.
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY M. J. IVERS & CO.
+
+NEW YORK:
+M. J. IVERS & CO., PUBLISHERS.
+879 PEARL STREET.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: The 1894 M. J. Ivers & Co. edition was the principal
+source for this electronic text. In addition, the 1894 D. Appleton and
+Company text was consulted to determine the preferred hyphenation and
+spelling of some words and to resolve suspected typographical errors.
+
+In Book First, Chapter I, =These are the passengers of the 'St. Barbara."=
+was changed to =These are the passengers of the "St. Barbara."=.
+
+In Book First, Chapter II, "the later was suddenly caught" was changed to
+"the latter was suddenly caught".
+
+In Book First, Chapter III, "the poor beast" was changed to "the poor
+beasts", and "It was only that she ship" was changed to "It was only
+that the ship".
+
+In Book First, Chapter IV, "whose pure, azure seen" was changed to "whose
+pure azure, seen", "In Brazovic's cafe" was changed to "In Brazovics'
+cafe", and "before Brazovic's cafe" was changed to "before Brazovics'
+cafe".
+
+In Book First, Chapter VI, a missing quotation mark was added after "You
+can't joke with her", "white cat on her shouler" was changed to "white
+cat on her shoulder", and "nothing remakable in her rising suddenly" was
+changed to "nothing remarkable in her rising suddenly".
+
+In Book First, Chapter VII, "dear mother-in law!" was changed to "dear
+mother-in-law!", "future son-in law" was changed to "future son-in-law",
+and "Did your hear how" was changed to "Did you hear how".
+
+In Book First, Chapter VIII, "the prince settled in advance" was changed
+to "the price settled in advance".
+
+In Book First, Chapter X, ="Timea!' cried Timar, "your father is dead."=
+was changed to ="Timea!" cried Timar, "your father is dead."=
+
+In Book First, Chapter XIV, an extra quotation mark was deleted after "ten
+thousand measures of wheat.", and "at which Timea only eat fruit and
+bread" was changed to "at which Timea only ate fruit and bread".
+
+In Book Second, Chapter III, "felspar" was changed to "feldspar".
+
+In Book Second, Chapter IV, "When the saw that the doors" was changed to
+"When they saw that the doors".
+
+In Book Second, Chapter V, a missing quotation mark was added after
+"burned coffee-berries.", and "rich man wooes" was changed to "rich man
+woos".
+
+In Book Second, Chapter VII, "It was un heard of" was changed to "It was
+unheard of", "who eat the bread of charity" was changed to "who ate the
+bread of charity", and "eat not a morsel" was changed to "ate not a
+morsel".
+
+In Book Second, Chapter VIII, "Athalia put on her mourning-dress" was
+changed to "Athalie put on her mourning-dress", and "The kitchen clock
+was till going" was changed to "The kitchen clock was still going".
+
+In Book Third, Chapter II, a missing period was added after "wounded
+their hearts".
+
+In Book Third, Chapter III, missing periods were added after "embracing
+her mother with eager kisses" and "Very much", "Timar open the little
+gate" was changed to "Timar opened the little gate", and "the grass it
+wet" was changed to "the grass is wet".
+
+In Book Third, Chapter IV, "Michael disappeard" was changed to "Michael
+disappeared", "when he laughed" was changed to "when she laughed", and a
+missing quotation mark was added after "you will have to go off to
+Brazil."
+
+In Book Third, Chapter VI, a missing colon was added after "stretching
+both hands entreatingly to Michael", "his meeting with Thedor" was
+changed to "his meeting with Theodor", a missing parenthesis was added
+after "what depended on this business!", and "eat it with the bread" was
+changed to "ate it with the bread".
+
+In Book Fourth, Chapter I, "centturies might pass" was changed to
+"centuries might pass".
+
+In Book Fourth, Chapter III, "districts of Zala and Vesoprimer" was
+changed to "districts of Zala and Vessprimer", and "by its owe will" was
+changed to "by its own will".
+
+In Book Fifth, Chapter I, a missing quotation mark was added after "sick
+and loveless heart?", and "which he hear crackling" was changed to
+"which he heard crackling".
+
+In Book Fifth, Chapter III, "though Timar, shrugging his shoulders" was
+changed to "thought Timar, shrugging his shoulders".
+
+In Book Fifth, Chapter IV, "revealed the secrt" was changed to "revealed
+the secret", "loathsome wrounds" was changed to "loathsome wounds",
+"Then man knew" was changed to "The man knew", "turn you back on me" was
+changed to "turn your back on me", and "sacrified her to his base lusts"
+was changed to "sacrificed her to his base lusts".
+
+In Book Fifth, Chapter XII, "moldered-away" was changed to "mouldered
+away", and an extraneous quotation mark was removed following "on the
+ownerless island?".
+
+In the advertisements, "Evelyn Kymball Johnson" was changed to "Evelyn
+Kimball Johnson", and missing periods were added after "The Man in the
+Iron Mask" and "Memoirs of a Physician".
+
+Finally, the advertisement for Cushing's Manual was moved from the
+inside front cover to the back of the book.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Timar's Two Worlds, by Mór Jókai
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIMAR'S TWO WORLDS ***
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